Ali’s Life

As I was cleaning out my messy messy work computer, I came across 3 sets of videos that I had been meaning to post on the site for a long time. The videos are pretty cool. One is the video that was made of my Tianjin Seminar trip out to Datong and Inner Mongolia. It is really neat, although quite long for an internet video. I’m in the process of uploading it to YouTube (in 3 separate parts) as well. Another video is from the first GTS paintball outing. It was super fun, and the video is neat because it shows Ethan, the sole survivor on his team, getting taken out by somebody who Dave seems convinced is me. I don’t think it is, but whatever. The third thing is actually two short videos from my J-term Chinese course. I invited my college professor, Qiguang Zhao, to come talk to the class and teach them a little taijiquan. The videos are of the taijiquan. I also uploaded a windows media file version of my wedding video, since I know some people have been unable to watch the quicktime versions.

Whew, that was a lot of uploading. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them. There are more updates I would like to make to the page soon, but it’s time for me to head out for the day. Also, there are some things in the works in my life, that I would love to share, but have to wait a while yet. ^_^ Anyway, have a good day!

A lot has happened since I last posted, almost 2 moths ago. I don’t even know where to begin! The Chinese class I was teaching went very well and I was quite pleased at the progress the students were able to make in such a short time. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to travel to China next year with the Gustavus Orchestra. The details are still sketchy, but I believe we will be spending most of the time in Beijing, with a short trip to Guilin. It will be cold (we’re going in January!), but I love China and it will be so much fun to help introduce a large group of students to China and Chinese culture. (I am specifically excited about explaining squat-toilets. hehe) There are a few students who I have worked with who might be going, and they are both awesome, so that will be nice too. Also, hopefully Ethan will be able to come. Last time I went to China Ethan stayed home and was jealous of all the good food I was eating. So this time he really wants to tag along.

Also, since I last posted the regular hockey season has come to an end. We ended in 4th place (out of 12) with a record of 14-4-4. (good thing I’m not a superstitious Chinese person, or that would look really bad…) The state tournament starts in a week. We will play three games, against Synergy, Mystics and Blast, and our record in those 3 games will determine if we make it to the championship or consolation games. I hope we do well, although I’m nervous that we have forgotten how to play with 10 skaters and will get tripped up by that. We have a practice this weekend, hopefully we’ll get some good practicing done, practices are a bit hot-or-miss with us…

Other things that have happened since January… well, we had a great Lunar New Year celebration at my parent’s house, with lots of fun decorations and good food. I tried making steamed dumplings for the first time from scratch, and although I learned some lessons about not over-rising or over-steaming them, they were tasty. We also had Ethan’s home-made jiaozi (pork dumplings), mapo dofu, Chinese broccoli with garlic and oyster sauce, rice, and egg tomato soup. I will post pictures in the picture section soon!

Also, Ethan and I went to MarsCon last weekend. It was fun. The media guest of honor was Don S. Davis who played General Hammond on Stargate SG-1. It was cool to meet him (I spoke to him while waiting for an elevator) but he was a little weird. The story of how he just sort of fell into acting was pretty funny. Basically he got his first part because he was the only guy strong enough to lift the female lead (she was very tall), and he hadn’t wanted to be in a play at all, he just worked on the set. Anyway, it was interesting to hear him talk. And it was fun to see friends and meet new people at the con parties (we hosted a MiniCon party room, which was a nice laid-back party). I was really tired though, so it wasn’t the most exciting con ever.

The spring term is in full swing, both at Gustavus where I work, and at The U of MN, where I take an evening Chinese course. At work I’ve been helping/co-teaching/guest-lecturing in Mark’s Intro to East Asian history course. It has been fun, even if the class isn’t organized the way I would have chosen. Today we had a fun activity where the students debated the importance of the influence of China, Korean and indigenous culture on Early Japan. I think the Korean group won the debate, but they did have a debater on the team after all. In the class that I am taking at the U, we just had our mid-term on Wednesday, which was half oral (a 2-3 min presentation) and half written (listening, writing, and reading comprehension). It was not too bad, I am hoping for a good solid A. ^_^

Now I should get back to work. Hopefully I will get back into the habit of updating this website. I will be adding New Years pictures soon, and look for a new section coming towards the end of April.

This weekend I had two nice dinners with my parents, brother, husband, cousin and cousin’s fiance. The first was yummy Jewish food, for which I made pinapple kugel. The whole thing was wonderful, and I really want to try making latkes now (my mom made them this time, and they were really good). For the other dinner Ethan and I made some simple Chinese food, including garlic Chinese broccoli (芥蓝/芥兰). Yummy. I am really excited about the Chinese broccoli because I had never made it before and it was both easy and yummy. It would be even better with a little oyster sauce though. Mmmmm…

I also had 2 hockey games this weekend. The first was on Friday against Synergy. We tied 1-1, it was a really close game, and although I felt a little all over the place, it was a fun one. I look forward to a re-match! The second game was against the Rebels, and we won 3-2. I got to play center, which was fun, but also a bit strange feeling since I haven’t played center for like 3 years. I got an assist that game on Steph’s second goal, and ended the game +1 overall. That was agreat victory, because the Rebels had been undefeated this season so far. Woo! Go Arrows!

Only one more day of finals for Gustavus students. I am looking forward to the later half of the week, when the campus is quiet and I can spend all day prepping for J-term without interruption. I am also looking forward to getting my Chinese final over with tonight. I think I have the vocab down pretty good, now as long as I don’t trip over grammar I should be ok. Wish me luck!

I came down with a cold at the end of last week, but I can’t let that slow me down! This time of year is just too busy for that! Because I work at a college, finals time is a busy time for me too. There are a bunch of Spanish classes doing projects that use the programs in my lab, so my days can get crazy when a bunch of them all decide they need help at the same time.

I also have my own Chinese finals to worry about. I had the oral final last week, which went well, I think. I have a written final on Monday too. Wish me luck! Right now I’m getting something like a B, but I would really like an A in this class. We’ll see how it goes. I’m definately gonna get an A next semester though, if I keep working as hard as I am now.

This weekend I had 2 hockey games. The first one was tense, but good. We beat MCM 1 - 0, which was a great victory for us, as we have lost to them in past seasons. On sunday we were 2 players short and tired as hell, and subsequently lost to the Mystics 2 - 4. No goals for me this weekend, but I did have a positive plus/minus in both games, which is always a good sign. Next weekend we play Synergy and the Rebels. Synergy is new, and we get to play them at Ridder, so I’m excited about that game. The Rebels *should* be a clean “W” for us, but let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.

Other events on the horizon include my cousin visiting from out of state, the Hopkins Girls alumni hockey game, and, of course, the holidays. I’m tired just thinking about it! ^_^ It should be a good December, and an AMAZING January. Definately no time to let a little head cold get me down!