I've been seriously neglectful the past... month. But in my defense, reading about the mundane daily activities of someone living around the world from you is about 1000 times more interesting than reading about someone living 15 minutes away. And lately our activities have been pretty mundane. But I do have a few nuggets of exciting news to impart, plus a call for your help:
Super Husband was accepted into a "continuing education" certification program for English-Spanish translation and interpretation at the University of Houston, which he takes on Saturdays. He also received his acceptance for readmission to the university for the Spring 2014 semester, so he's back on track. Woohoo. Did I already talk about his bike? Super Husband is the next Lance Armstrong. Without the dopping... or the tour du France... Okay, so really, Super Husband loves his new bike, and has decided that EVERYONE and their mothers should get a bike because biking is the most awesome time. I'll be getting one soon. Super Husband is also the proud new owner of the Limited Edition Zelda WiiU, and Zelda Windwaker. But not even Zelda could break up his love affair with DCUO (DC Universe Online, an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game)). DCUniverse takes up a lot of our down time, and is causing us to miss out on our favorite shows. But that's okay. Some evenings I actually prefer to watch CougarRed Arrow (his character) or Sage (mine) run and fly around a digitized Gotham, Metropolis, and The Watchtower, and beat up the bad guys. And right now it's The Witching Hour, which means that everything is all decorated for Halloween. A game after my own heart. Oh, speaking of Halloween, we carved pumpkins last week, but they're already rotting into indistinguishable lumps of orange. I guess we'll wait to replace our orange blobs until a little closer to the big day. No use buying three sets of pumpkins, even if the spiced, toasted seeds I baked were delicious.
So, that's Super Husband's new news.
And in the Wonder Wife camp, it's pretty exciting, too. But there's a tiny backstory, so bear with me.
A couple weeks ago was Family Weekend at my little sister's university, up in Arkansas. Dallas is a little more than halfway to her university, so I drove up to Dallas to hang out with my dad and go see a movie, and a Leon Redbone show that Thursday evening. The movie turned out to be Girl Rising, an absolutely amazing documentary about the struggles of girls around the world, and the overwhelming desire, and need, for girls' educations. The film was aired by The Gendercide Awareness Project, and I was so moved by the film that the next morning I browsed their website, and others about gendercide. I'd never really heard of gendercide before, and definitely didn't realize that it effected the entire globe. So I sat down and wrote an email, explaining that while I would love to be able to support the cause with a financial donation, my strength lies in my ability to donate my time. (I've sent more than one of these e-mails to different charitable and NGO organizations since I was in my late teens, and GendAP is the FIRST organization to get back to me with anything other than a pre-fab, "thanks, but we need money" e-mail.) After meeting with the founder and president of the organization we hit upon a plan to bring the message, outreach, and fundraising to the Houston Area. So, starting later this year I'll be organizing screenings of Girl Rising, talks to schools, churches, and anyone who is interested, and raising awareness of an issue that effects our entire planet. (If you would like to learn more about gendercide, and the work that GendAP does, please please please feel free to e-mail me.)
So there's that exciting, amazing, wonderful news. And then there's also the fact that I got a job. I'm nannying for a really, really nice family in West U. They have two kids (4.5 and 2.5), and a beagle, and they enjoy collecting twigs, doing crafts (but not with the twigs we collected, because that would be unreasonable, apparently), and asking for something to eat and then telling me they don't like that particular thing that is exactly what they asked for. Yay.
I'm pretty sure that's all the interesting stuff that's happening here... So now the call for help:
In addition to neglecting the blog as a whole, I've neglected to do some of the things I promised for it. Specifically, a helpful guide for moving to and living in Beijing.
I can only think of so many things. Okay, so I can think of a lot of things... Buuuut I bet you can think of some super helpful things, too!
I NEED your questions, your advice, your qualms, and your queries.
Please please please!
I have a pretty decent sized list already, but I need more, I tell you. More! Hopefully by the end of next week I will have enough stuff to make a Moving to China tab on the blog.
And with that, it's time to savor my coffee, and continue reading Unnatural Selection.
