Working on Presentation and Yiyi Actually Understands Me

2254 5-19-10

For the most part I worked on the Company Introduction Presentation for the whole day.  So far it's going pretty well, though it's kind of hard for a one man shop to come up with this great professional presentation, when comparing it to other larger company presentations.  Doing the best I can though. 

I also didn't have anything for breakfast or lunch except for some bread, peanut butter, and bananas.  It was delicious.

I met Yiyi for dinner, after fighting through one hell of a backed subway system.  This Expo has really brought some extra traffic to the area, and I had to meet Yiyi at the peak of traffic.  Needless to say I was packed in like sardines for most of my trip.

Spent some time explaining to Yiyi why I decided to try and date Han Lin.  She actually understood why Jing might have been angry but thought her response to my apology was rude and that her anger was misdirected, she was not happy that Han Lin lied.  Yiyi also understood why I would not want to deal with this crap when I only have a few months to be here.

She corrected a misconception I had about Chinese universities.  I had assumed that they super specialize within their majors but as it turns out they actual run a pretty wide gambit of classes outside of their major, much like we would in high school.  Though she did say that the role of clubs within the universities were really lacking, they exist but not nearly in the same form as they do in the US.  According to her they do much less and students there for don't really care about them very much. 

It makes me wonder if I knew Chinese if I could set up a club here.  Either it would immediately die because of the established status quo of club's role within the University, or it could possibly flourish with great success due to lack of competition.  In the US the HCC (Hendrix Culinary Club, an organization I founded) has to compete with about 20-30 other clubs for the students attention and time.  With the right message and direction a club could completely dominate a campus.

Anyways there's some shit going on in the world right now that I want to reference for personal historical reference:

1. Thailand is in a semi-state of rebellion between the Thai Government and the Red Shirt protestors.  Currently Bangkok is burning and any company that can pull out of Thailand have.  Some companies with major billion dollar investments in heavy industry are forced to stay in, woe to be them.

2. Arizona has passed an extremely controversial law that allows police to check your immigration papers at any time at the risk of being deported.  As a current "immigrant" of sorts I have to say if I was living here for a long time, having to carry around my passport everywhere would really suck, along with being rather risky incase it got stolen.  Obama is currently meeting with the Mexican President in order to discuss the issue.  Personally I feel this law is the wrong direction to go in and gives police the excuse to start racially profiling people, a step backwards in my book.  Obviously this whole thing has been a major complicated problem for a long time but the attitude of "just round them up and send them back" is an ignorant one and a stance that lacks any sort of longevity as the problem would not actually be solved but only increases the hatred and resentment towards the US government.  I get the fact that they're breaking our countries laws, but at the same time all laws are made by man, and man should always take his own creations with a grain of salt.  These are human beings and should be treated as such, not as cattle that have merely wondered onto the wrong ranch.  I hope if I ever had to flee a country because my family's living conditions were so terrible I literally couldn't leave them there any longer that the country I'm fleeing to would have a little mercy.  Not saying every situation is like that but I hope you get the point. (currently waging an online debate about this which is why I have so much to say)

3. Giant ash clouds have been hanging over Europe for the better part of a month now, due to a giant volcano in Iceland.  Flights have been canceled off and on, and are really causing some problems.

4. Greece just got their desperately needed bail out after nearly going bankrupt.  It has really dragged down the Euro.  Unless countries start jumping ship, I think this'll actually end up strengthening the power of the EU so that they have the power to prevent this from happening again.

Anyways kids, I'm out.  Going to try and watch an episode of Doctor Who before I go to bed though.