Life is like a box of . . . white elephants.

For Forest Gump, life was like a box of chocolates. For Xiaoyu and I, I think it is more like a white elephant gift. At least with a box of chocolates you know that you are going to be eating . . . well . . . chocolate. Our lives have gone far beyond the realm of milk, dark, or even flavored chocolates; far beyond mint, cherry, or even coconut fillings. Instead, whenever we are presented with the gift of change, upon opening the wrapping we could expect to find apple pie just as well as finding a pig’s foot, a pop can just as well as M.C. Hammer, or a washing machine just as well as a . . . white elephant. If you are familiar with our lives together, then you already know this. If you don’t, and if we actually keep up on this blog, hopefully you will come to understand what we mean.
Since being married in May 2006 up until moving back to the States in June 2007 we hadn’t lived in the same place for longer than around two months. Our year in America, however, was relatively calm. I was happy to be back “home,” and Xiaoyu was more than happy to be part of our “big” family. And just when we were getting used to things, our addiction to opening another white elephant package of action led us down another road back to China.
Enter graduate school stage right. Originally the plan was to drop out of school, I would open up my Hmong eggroll mobile, Xiaoyu would use her experience as a kungfu/ninja/samurai master to teach elementary P.E., and we would live out the rest of our days peacefully in a tent up in Rock Canyon. However, we decided that it would be too selfish to keep all of our many other talents (such as doing thumb pushups, getting A++ on Dance Dance Revolution, etc.) hidden from the rest of the world. So in order to make our mark on the world, and because we wanted to know what it feels like to be totally submerged in debt over our heads, we thought it wise for me to apply to a graduate school. Yes, just one graduate school: Johns Hopkins University. Luckily I was accepted (although had I not been, there was still eggrollin’ and P.E. teachin’). However, instead of studying in Boston, or even Washington D.C., I will be working on a M.A. in International Studies at Johns Hopkins Nanjing, China campus. That means that although we will still be up to it in D E to the B and the T, room and board is much cheaper (YEAH!!!); however, it also means that all but one class a semester will be totally in Chinese (EH?). I’m not worried though, because I have a secret weapon . . . Xiaoyu! So if I have a tough test or something, because we look so alike I can just have her go in and take it for me!
Before our two years in Nanjing though, we were able to end our time in the U.S. with a bang! Think of this: almost two weeks time, one Subaru Outback, five-tons of luggage, one case of CD’s, one Hunnington Beach, one Sea World, one Raging Waters, one crazy Belnap/Seminario BBQ, and about 2,032,238,685,331,048,349.9834 unforgettable memories. Nothing like good times to make you even sadder when they have to end for a while.
Only one thing was missing from the above equation, and one of the most important reasons for us to get up and out of town, was because little sis. Katie (aka The Life of the Party, aka Chobble Wop, aka Sherry Waters) was already in Chinaland with BYU’s Dance Study Abroad group. Yet when we found her the dance group had already gone, leaving KT along and helpless in a Beijing’s Jing Shan park to fend for herself. It took us three days before we convinced her that she wasn’t a 75 year old Chinese woman, and even up ‘til yesterday before we sent her back to Utah we found her fan-dancing, practicing tai chi, and (most disturbing) slapping her belly and yelling randomly into the air. We had a great time with her here, and we are realizing how much fun she added into our boring lives now that she has gone back. But as the ancient Chinese proverb states, “I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. Think about it every night and day. Spread my wings and fly away.” And so we had to let KT move on with her life, and away from our protective embrace. But we will forever keep with us the fond memories of our trip to Pingyao’s bodyguard training grounds, our hike up Shan Nan’s beautiful mountains, and our many walks down Stinky Stealth Street.



--As usually happens, upon trying to save the completed version of this entry, Word 2008 just shut down. Luckily whoever made this version of Word knew that there would be this problem, and updated the auto-recovery application. So not all is lost. What did you miss out on? A paragraph on what we are doing right now (I am doing consulting work for a hospital as well as some PR work for a steakhouse here in Shanghai). About a paragraph on how Xiaoyu and I miss everyone in the States, as well as our mother in back in Xi’an (who just texted Xiaoyu and told her to buy some new shoes that she saw on TV that look like sports shoes, but make you a couple inches taller and make your legs seem longer). And then one last paragraph that was my weak attempt at adding some meaning to this otherwise transient entry. But you didn’t really want to read all that anyway . . . so here are some pictures!