Internship Offers!!!

I got several offers for internships for the summer!!!!!!! Stay posted to see which one I will end up with! I have phone interviews this week. Pray that they go well!

We decided that the best date to leave for China would be between May 12 and May 15th. That way we have plenty of time to travel to Beijing and Hong Kong (hopefully!!) before the internships start.  As the months are quickly going by (I ALREADY have a midterm next week!!) my excitement is growing with each passing day and as the internship offers have arrived, it is all finally starting to seem real that I will be spending almost 3 months in China. After returning from Taiwan and being in the States after, I have a whole new outlook on traveling and experiencing all there is to see in a world that is so unfamiliar to me.  However, I am frequently reminded of how it feels to be in a country where you know only a few people.  My conversation partner, Christina, from Beijing, has to rely on other people to take her to the store or to get food since Starkville is a place where walking around the town is basically impossible since it is so spread out. I am reminded of the kindness that was shown to us while we stayed in Taiwan and will be forever grateful for the people who spent so much time with us to keep us company and show us the best places to see.

On another completely unrelated note, on Valentine's Day this year I will be participating in Mississippi State Speed Dating. Yes, speed dating. Let's get real for a second, since I don't have any other plans, or a boyfriend, I thought that this might be an experience that would be interesting to experience at least once in my life.  Several friends are doing it with me so it should be a good time... or well, entertaining to say the least.  I know you are all very jealous of my V-Day plans so I'm sure there will be stories to come soon.

C's Get Degrees... Right?

It is the end of the 4th week of school for the semester and I am already stressed out about projects, tests, and homework. Each one of my classes is overwhelming and time consuming, and let's just be honest, I'm not off to the best start. Hopefully it will all turn around soon... It seems like the only thing I have to look forward to is China and that's 4 months away!! This picture is the Shanghai skyline. Now can you see why I am so excited?! Oh... and my 21st birthday :) Until then, I will be working to pay for some of this study abroad as well as trying to find study abroad scholarships!

Today, I got paired with a conversation partner! Her English name is Christina. She is the cutest girl from Beijing, China who will only be here for 4 weeks. I am so excited to get to know her! We spent several hours together tonight along with her friend Peggy who is also from China. Maybe when I go to China this summer I will get to spend time with them! My life has been consumed by researching different places to visit in China and things to see while I'm over there!

Internship Update: All my information has been shipped to China and the process has officially started!! Hopefully within the next few weeks I will have an offer from a company to work for this summer!! The people at GlobaLinks have been so helpful and this process has been very quick and exciting. I recently re-found all my pictures I posted on Photobucket from Taiwan. You can click here to see them!! One last thing. God is so good to me. I have really great parents who love and support all of my unrealistic dreams and goals no matter how far fetched or changing they may be.

Status Update

If anyone is following along on my internship process, I have just been accepted to the program!! The next step is for my information to be sent to Shanghai where someone from AsiaLearn will go to different companies on my behalf. Hopefully, I will end up with a list of options and companies to choose from. I will most likely work for a marketing or public relations company. I have requested to work for a larger company in China so we will see where I end up this summer!! It could take up to 8 weeks to complete the process but maybe I will find out sooner than later! Also, my friend Daniel, who also went to Taiwan with me will be applying for the same internship as I am so we will be in China together. Since he is going with me, we will both leave a week or two early so that we can travel around Beijing and see different things before we start our internships. The people from AsiaLearn have been so helpful and really seem to go out of their way to accomodate our wants and needs for this internship. I am beyond excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to see what the future holds for me!

Other than being slammed with school work ALREADY, everything is great! I am looking to graduate a year early, so fingers crossed, I will be graduating in May 2013! A year and a half away!!

In other news, I want to go skydiving for my birthday. I am thinking it will make a good spring break trip!! Stay posted!!

We will also start the birthday countdown.... 90 days til I'm 21!! Feels like an eternity, but I know it will fly by.

*Early* New Years Resolutions

I never have New Years Resolution. I hate them. They are basically a list of things that I will most likely never accomplish.

But not this year.

Here are 8 things that I would LOVE to do in 2012:

1. Cook 50 new recipes and add them to my cookbook.
2. Learn to drive a stick shift.
3. Read 4 books on my shelf that I've never touched before.
4. Go skydiving. (21st birthday, maybe??)
5. Run a half-marathon.
6. Make a music video.
7. Make plans for flight school.
8. Read the entire bible.

A few of these are some of the same goals I had this year, but obviously I was too lazy and they didn't get accomplished. The thought of only a year and a half left of school has left me excited and hopeful for what my future holds but also makes me realize all of the things that I still want to do while in college. Thoughts of living in a big city are quickly becoming more of a reality than a dream. And my plans for China this summer are coming to life! This next year is sure to be a whirlwind. And I'm ready for the ride.

Look out China, here I come!

After my trip to Taiwan, I was genuinely glad to be back in America and thought I would be happy staying in the States for a very long time. But after thinking about the goals that I want to accomplish in the future, I decided that going abroad again would be the best decision. After spending many MANY hours researching and studying up on all of the many programs out there, I think I have found the one. Thank you to the MSU Study Abroad office for being so helpful and patient with all of my questions. I could not be more excited about this trip. Because I still need an internship to complete my degree, I have decided to try to get an internship in China! I have started the application process with a company called GlobaLinks that will hopefully find the perfect company for me to internship with. It can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to find a company that I will be a good fit. This time I will not let culture shock take a hold and deter me from experiencing everything that I can in China. I am looking forward to exploring on my own and seeing everything that China has to offer. I will be gone for 10 weeks this summer, interning and traveling around China.

I always said that if I ever got the opportunity to travel back to Asia, I would go to Hong Kong. So, we will see! Some things on my list of places to see include The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City in Beijing, the water town of Zhujiajiao, and ride the Shanghai Maglev, which is the fastest train in the world! I will be by myself in Shanghai and will not know anyone. Please start praying that I quickly make friends through my internship and through my living arrangements. May 28th is the day and is quickly approaching. More to come soon!

I have always heard...

everyone talk about how fast life goes the older you get.

I don't think i really believed that until this semester. I don't know if you all are keeping tracking of the timeline that is my life BUT I have almost finished my sophomore year of college. SOPHOMORE YEAR!!! This means that, Lord willing, I will have 2 more years of college to go (and I will even be graduating a year early for my major if all goes as planned!). What a scary thought. I will also be 20 years old in exactly 13 days which is exciting because it will mean that my mother will no longer have 4 kids in their teens which means that the days of her having moody children hopefully for her are quickly going.

Anyways, it is almost the end of the spring semester and entirely too much has happened. Where shall I begin...? Let's start with ROTC. I am 100% positive that ROTC is not the right life decision for me. I think that deciding to do ROTC was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Not only did I realize how different things really are in the Army, but it has helped shape my ambitions for the future. Even though ROTC is not for me, I have the utmost respect for the people who choose to go through the program. It has been challenging for me on so many levels. Although i could not be more happy to see the last days of 5am wake up calls from my ROTC comrade, Sarah, rapidly approaching, I am sad to see the early morning hours of bonding time with my fellow cadets quickly leaving. I will say that through ROTC I have experienced a bond between strangers like no other. I have one last PT test to take this Friday and a military ball to attend, then I will be done with ROTC forever.

Lets move on to International Business. I am now a MSU College of Business Ambassador. It is something I applied for on a whim and it has turned out to be one of the best things that I could have done. I have been able to meet influential MSU alumni and see how the behind the scenes of the College of Business works. I am also the intern for the youth group of the church that i have become an associate member of. I work with a guy who graduated from MSU last year. This youth group consists of about 6 boys about 8th grade and 1 girl in high school who I meet with one on one through out the weeks. VERY different from what I am used to at Southwood. But just as fun. We are going to paint our youth room and plan for fun events for this summer. I have loved every second of this and will hopefully be able to continue working with the youth until i graduate! This summer, I will remain in Starkville and I will be a server for a restaurant called the Veranda. I will continue to work there throughout the school year. I am very excited about this new job opportunity!

My grades are good and all is well with friends. I am involved in way too many things, I am entirely to busy all the time, and I am constantly tired, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Clean Apartment

It's been a while since I last updated, so I figured now was a good time to catch you* up on my life. Last semester ended in a whirlwind of emotions ranging from "am I going to pass my classes this semester" to "I just need to get home" to "am I ever going to be able to get this apartment clean?" to "WHEN IS 5:30AM PT GOING TO END". It's been a long, and hard semester full of many trials and really difficult things, but it has also been a wonderful semester full of good memories and time spent with great friends.

In the end, my grades turned out just how I needed them to. Maybe not the very best I could have done, but not terrible either. I had a lot on my plate last semester but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I would much rather experience college and do everything that I want to while I'm here than do nothing and make all A's. HOWEVER, this semester the goal is to have both- do everything that I want to do AND make all A's. That's the plan, I'll keep you posted on the progress. This semester is full of goals that I want to accomplish. This is the semester of learning Life Skills. Yes, Life Skills. The ones you need in order to be a good wife, like playing guitar, and cooking hahaha Since I can't cook or play guitar at all, this will be a challenge. But I'm up for it.

So, it's January 2, 2011. I am already back at my apartment eagerly awaiting the start of classes and the beginning of a new semester where I can meet new people and begin the quest of accomplishing all of my goals. My room and apartment is probably cleaner than it will ever be again but that's ok because I don't think I can live in a room thats spotless anyways. Well I'm off to sell books back and buy some new ones. Hopefully I'll update sooner rather than later next time.

*assuming that someone other than my mother** is actually going to read this **Mom, I've very glad that you read my blog