Sunday, July 27, 2008

coffee in concert?

I just spent the past half hour talking to Suhong, a 43-year-old woman living in Chengdu, China. She's lived there her whole life and wants to travel the world, and she's trying to learn English. She doesn't know much—and I can barely speak Chinese at all—but I was able to help her pronounce some of the lessons from LiveMocha.com, which is how this all started. There's a 12-hour difference between here and there, but she labeled herself a 'night people' early on in our conversation.

It's 2008. Even the idea of the Internet is barely 30 years old, and today I can log into a website and connect to random people 24 hours a day. I can be sitting comfortably in a chair at my desk, in my room, having a snack and relaxing in my PJ's, and at the same time be talking to anyone practically anywhere on Earth, without a phone and despite a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles. I can actually use the 'net to find people learning English—people who speak languages I'm trying to learn—and exchange 'knowledge' with them.

I think it's pretty easy to forget how mind-boggling the convenience of the Internet really is, considering how important of a role computers play in our lives. How often do we check our e-mail or text message on a daily basis? (Needless to say, I do that a lot, but that's because my iPhone makes it even easier than getting up and checking anything on a computer.) Our society is constantly wired to the WWW. Pun intended.

It's almost scary.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

sábado

Today has been productive. I went to the beach with Ashleigh, ran some errands, and now I'm home sending e-mails and cleaning my room. Tonight might be the first Saturday I stay home in a while. Not sure what else to say; everything continues to be going well! I had to cut my Chinese classes down to once a week because twice a week started getting too expensive, but I'm still practicing and studying daily. (Sort of.) That's pretty much the worst thing that's happened all summer.

I had a really minor accident at the hospital last Monday. Thankfully it was at the hospital and not anywhere else. As I explained it to a couple of friends, I went to war with a patient's medical charts. I won, but the charts put up a fight. You know those rings inside three-ring binders? Never leave them open unattended. Ever. My hand is still recovering.

Classes begin in a little over a month. I really can't believe it's almost August. I've been having a great summer without any academics involved, but part of me wants to go back to school already. Lots of stuff to be done before then, though!

Also, everyone who stumbles upon my blog needs to watch this: