SIP - I wrote what I considered to be an absolutely massive paper on the state education of ethnic minorities in China. This involved reading many (many) books and articles, and I distinctly recall feeling that I was probably one of the people in Michigan who knew the most about China's ethnic minorities. After all, such a narrow field doesn't have many scholars. Reading the field work and accounts of various scholars made me get interested in ethnology, and in anthropology more broadly. It made me think more critically about governments' decisions to make these labels, and how they were used as well. I have taken these ideas, and now apply them beyond China so that any time nationality or ethnicity comes up I look at it with a much different view than I did a few years ago. I also remember wishing that I had more time to do more extensive research, but the institution of the SIP didn't allow it. I recall this project taking up a great deal of my thoughts and time during the early months of 2010.
Graduation - It seems like such a small thing in retrospect, but I have to admit that graduating from college is a big step. It signifies leaving youth and entering adulthood (not that I feel clearly like one or the other), the looming debt payments, and a bunch of goodbyes to college friends that I will not see as commonly and acquaintances that I will most likely never see again. The ceremony of it seemed a little pointless and silly to me, but it is nice to be able to claim that qualification. My strongest memory concerning graduation is how unconnected I felt to the majority of the people around me then. Sure, there were a few dozen people who I knew, and a dozen or so people who I valued highly. The majority of the faces that I saw at the special 'Senior events' and at graduation were complete strangers to me, though. Not just people I didn't know very well, but people that I swear I had never seen before in my life. Probably because of my extended study abroad and my hermit-like habits. If you didn't study in China, do circus or take Poli-Sci classes, there are pretty good changes that I didn't meet you.
Relationship with Sara - Since this is fairly personal I am not going to go into too much detail. I will just say that I had a relationship with Sara while I was at Kalamazoo, and it was a very major part of my life for the first half of 2010. We didn't have any fights or arguments, so we had a very laid-back and fun relationship right up until my graduation, when we ended it.
Improv - Since arriving in Beijing, I have gone to the Wednesday evening improv workshop almost every week. It has been great fun to do theater activities again, and the people that I have met there have turned out to be some major figures in my social circle in Beijing. Improv has become, in addition to the juggling club, one of my main social activities in Beijing. I haven't done this kind of thing since high school, but apparently I still have theater in me, because I seem to do it well enough. Even good enough that I was asked to perform for a corporate event once! It is also a good reason for me to be more social, as I would otherwise just hang out at home reading articles, writing more blog posts and watching movies.
Conversational Spanish - Although I started studying Spanish in 2009, it was in 2010 that I gained a new level of use with the language: I could have conversations. Realizing that I could already use the language to communicate was a thrill, and I remember using it to communicate with my suitemates and friends at times when English would have done just as well. I have no doubt that a great reason for this was the Spanish music that I got into, the BBC Mundo news that I listened to daily, and the fact that I had a great desire to use the language. These things all supported what I learned in class quite well. I was thrilled about this new ability that I had discovered. Since I didn't use it at all, my Spanish regressed a LOT during June, July, August and September, but in October I started up my weekly Spanish conversation night, and since then I have kept at a steady level and improves slightly.
iPod - Strange that a piece of technology should be on here, but getting an iPod really allowed me to do a lot of new things, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it helped me learn language, study, know what was going on in the world, and generally get more information more conveniently. Indeed, having an iPod touch really increased the rate at which I could learn and consume information, and increased my general quality of life an amazing amount. This is mainly by turning dead time into useful time. Walking to class for 10 minutes, waiting for a friend to meet me for 5 minutes, riding the bus for 20 minutes, or taking the subway for 40 minutes... these were little bits of time that I could now use productively, and they added up over the course of a day. Podcasts are the way that I put it to the best use, although having music to listen to is nice as well. Flashcard applications helped me study language vocabulary on the go, turning a bus ride or any other waiting time into useful studying time. I can also use it to send text messages and make phone calls via Skype and similar apps. Buying an iPod touch was by far one of the best purchases that I have ever made.
RSS feeds and reading blogs -Another high tech thing, I started reading blogs in 2010. I immediately focused on China Watcher blogs, and this gave me a new level of awareness and a new breadth of knowledge concerning current China issues. My discovery of Google Reader made it even easier, and I soon made a daily habit of checking the feed. I quickly realized that I could go beyond China-focused blogs, though, and I began to follow other areas that I was interested in. Following a classmate's lead, I started to read some Foreign Policy Magazine blogs, and I have recently started to follow some Latin America and Brazil focused blogs as well. I especially enjoy that it allows me to easily enter a new field of knowledge. If I want to learn about X, I just need to start following and reading some blogs about X.
As an ending, I am gonna go ahead and make some general predictions for my life for the upcoming year. This should be constant regardless of if I stay in Beijing or if I move to Spain (or even if I move back to the U.S., which is not a likely prospect). So here is what will happen for me in 2011:
Continued interest in Latin America & Brazil - Since I am basically adding a new track to my knowledge here, and since it works well with my desire to learn languages, I am pretty sure that I will continue to be interested in Latin America in general and Brazil in specific. My knowledge of these areas will increase, and I may even get more solid plans to travel there by the end of 2011.
Increase in juggling and dancing skills -This is an easy one to predict, as it is just a continuation of a natural progression that has been happening over the past few years. As long as I practice juggling once a week, I have little doubt that my skill will continue to increase at a slow and steady pace. Dancing is something that is a newer focus, but wherever I am I plan to learn salsa, hip-hop and break dance, or modern/contemporary.
Spanish skills will increase - Again, this is easy. I love the Spanish language, and I want to live in countries where it is spoken. I have managed to find a way to practice it in Beijing so far, and I have full confidence that through music, movies, self-study, reading Spanish language newspapers online and conversation my language skill will continue to improve. Especially since I am gonna live in Spain and in various Latin American countries in the future, my Spanish will definitely reach a new high in 2011. Even if I stay in Beijing I plan to take another course at the Cervantes Institute.
I will continue to move closer to vegetarianism - In great part due to an excellent debate on intelligence squared concerning eating animals, I have made a conscious step toward consuming less meat. I am not a vegetarian, nor to I have immediate plans to become one. I can best describe my current dietary identity as a flexitarian, meaning that I try to avoid meat when possible. For me and for my life I think that this is a realistic compromise between the extremity of veganism and the convenience of eating whatever is most easily available. I predict that this trend will continue and perhaps even become stronger throughout 2011.
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