Ni Hao

Hi Sparkles~

I'm now on my second month in Hangzhou, China with the Amherst China Initiative (www.amherstchina.com if you're interested) and it's going swimmingly. There are 6 Amherst students here now, and I think 11 more are en-route and about to start the July session. Hangzhou is about a 3 hour bus ride from Shanghai, in Zhejiang province. It's rather hot and humid here-85 degrees F feels refreshing after days of intense heat.

This past month, I taught English at a private English school. My class had five kids who were about 10-12 years old. They were on the dinosaur/past tense unit, which they despised because they had to pronounce and spell difficult names like "Tyrannosaurus Rex". Playing games with them after the painful repetitions was the best part.

Since I was on a week-long break from work, I found an ultimate league here (of course) and played a bare-foot pick-up game with them, which was fun. It's mostly ex-pats and foreign students, but some Chinese joined as well, so stall counts were bi-lingual depending on the player-"yi, er, san...".

I know just enough Chinese to let people know I'm an American student, to direct a taxi driver, and to order eggplant, pork noodles, and fried pumpkin. I've discovered that eggplant is delicious, and my chopstick skills are horrible. Hopefully when I come back, I'll be able to pick up those pesky grains of rice like a master.

Hope your summers continue to be awesome!

Amherst and New Fairfield

So this week Jo Bob, Fred and Sam taught us this game called Bang which is like Mafia but wild-west themed and a card game. We went to Taste of Amherst Thursday night and had delicious $2 ice cream. Something about the ratio of tie-dye, dreadlocks and ultimate players makes me think that I could live here forever. Then we went to bowling and found out on the way that Sam knows all the words to a few Ke$ha songs, a skill I didn’t know he had. Bowling was a lot of fun and Rebecca and Nadia called in songs on the radio. One of course was dedicated to ‘Bad Chick’ Taylor.

My parents coerced me into going home this weekend, which at first I was bummed about because I had to miss the ABC party in honor of Biddy, but I do like being home. My mom and I went to see Bridesmaids. My dog tried to eat all the bees in our garden. (You would think that natural selection would take care of quirks like that.) We went to Fiesta Mexicana, one of my favorites because they play Mariachi at your table and when you order sorbet it comes inside the fruit it’s made of. We also went to a craft festival in New Milford. I think that this is a very Connecticut thing to do because there are so many here. And there are always cheesy paintings of boats and beaches that you feel should go on your grandmother’s walls. My brother wouldn’t pose for any pictures so I had to take them when he wasn’t paying attention. And then for father’s day we put a bunch of our home videos on DVD, so I spent a good part of Sunday watching our toddler selves get into punch-ups. This is way more entertaining than it sounds.

Love from,

Nicole

P.S. if you’re having trouble with the invitation. Tell me and I can send it again or send it to a different e-mail.

"Real-life"

Hey lovelies!
I'm at "work" but there are three people in the office right now so we're having an intra-cubicle discussion about how one of them had a psycho-LaDeeDa-induced aversion to food so for 3 years he could only stomach rice, eggplant and avocado. But through sheer force of will and the reading of many books, he overcame this. Now, he is in the process of consuming 2 whole chickens. I kid you not. There's been lots of "shooting the shit" these past two days. The people I work with are pretty hilarious. One dude is obsessed with literally all sports--he was watching a high school Lacrosse game yesterday (a thrilling regular season game between Lincoln High vs. I.S. 25) and he has season tickets to the WNBA. My cubie/cubicle mate asked me if I HAD to go on a date with Anthony Wiener (crotch shot disgraced NY Representative), Charlie Sheen or Mel Gibson, who would I choose? Then I countered him with, F***, Marry, Kill: those three men?

Thoughts?

I actually really like my job. We offer legal services to mentally ill, low-income New Yorkers. So, if you ever need help with eviction prevention/social security/public assistance benefits, I got your back!

Thea and I have started summer league. Our team is...interesting. The first game was a little off-putting. The yell-y players dominated and one guy was mad sexist ("Usually the cup is composed entirely of women because well, duh, it's not an important defensive position"). And I was an old-out-of-shape lady (soooo sore). And we lost. The second game was a little better. We played the same team and beat them. And while some bitches be loco but the captain's an awesome chick and there's a lovely old guy who's been playing ultimate forever and whom I would like to be my kinda-old dad or kinda young-grandpa. Rhino's on our team! He's as you expect. Skeist is on our arch-rival team with this one chick who I assume played at NYU because she has a Femme shirt. Unfortunately she has played into stereotypes and is a terrible-seeming person. I was over the first meeting gotta-make-a-nice-impression-thing and was just like "I run faster than her. I know you guys like to huck it so just huck.it." And he did. Granted he underthrew it because he was "afraid of overthrowing" me but still, baby steps!

miss you guys!! Come to NYC to visit!!!!

In Amherst!

Hello lovely sparkles!
I have settled back into Amherst, where I'll be working for Sarat for six weeks. So far, I have been laying in the sun and pretending to do work. I haven't been having much luck at my job (we are research botched executions, such a dismal subject). It is finally sunny here though! Tomorrow we get to meet Biddy, which will be fun (she seems really cool), and then we are going to Puffer's Pond. On saturday, we are hosting an anything but clothes party, titled Biddy's Buck-Wild Bash. I wish you were all here with me, I miss all the ygs that happens at ultimate parties! Otherwise, I haven't been up to anything that interesting. (I'm writing this instead of doing work). I miss you guys!

In other news, we have put Nicole in charge of signing us up for summer ultimate, since apparently we are signing up late and she has mucho connections with the organizer. She has decided it would be a great idea to sign me, Amina, Rebecca (and Sam and Fred) up for the advanced coed league. TERRIFYING. But Joe Bob says there will be middle schoolers there, so I'm hoping it isn't too intimidating. We'll see!
Love,
Aubrey

just had to tell you guys that I went to my first Kampala Ultimate Frisbee League practice yesterday! it was soooo much fun. I expected it to be mostly foreigners but it was actually all Ugandans and even some Ugandan women (women playing sports here is rare so I was quite surprised). I'm officially a newbie again because a lot of the people in the league have been playing 2 or 5 or even 10 years but whatever, I'm just happy to be playing! and I'll even get to play in a tourney where we play other African countries. sweet! also, they already taught me how to hammer - we played a passing game where every time someone dropped the disc you had to do pushups, this forced me to improve my hammer fast or make the entire group pay for it haha.

can't wait to hear about more of your adventures!

Hi from Uganda!

Heyyy lovelies!

I am wayyy excited about this blog and keeping in touch with you all because I am (somewhat) all alone in Kampala, Uganda. I put the somewhat in parenthesis because I'm actually surrounded by people (I'm living with a host family that has 8 people plus me - but only 5 beds in the house as far as I can tell. as long as I have one, I won't question it. and there are people swarming the streets. walking to work involves me dodging people and motorcycles and cars that don't follow any sorts of road rules...not to mention that there are only like 6 traffic lights in this huge city). So I'm not really alone but since I just got here on Saturday, I am still adjusting and missing all my Amherst friends (meaning you!) and family.

I've already had a few adventures - like arriving at the airport after 2 days of traveling to be told that I am being taken straight to their cousin's wedding. we arrive over an hour late and every single person is super dressed up in traditional ugandan clothing and I haven't showered for 2 days and am wearing jeans and a t-shirt. oops. also, I was the only white person there so I obviously stood out anyways.

Besides adjusting, I'm working at a hospital here in the burn unit to create social services, like support groups, for patients once they leave the hospital. I won't bore you with the details (I'm also blogging so if you're interested, check out www.cmorrison12.blogspot.com) but it's going really well so far.

It's a holiday here so I think I will try to leave work soon and head home. My host brother, Kabuki, promised he'd throw a frisbee with me sometime and I'm determined to teach him how to flick. I'm still trying to find the league that I keep hearing rumors about here. Misssss you guys lots! Can't wait to hear more about all your adventures.

Conny

despite the fact that i'm going to be a [insert sciency-sounding subject here], i recently discovered my incredible inept-ness (realize why i'm not an english major?) with technology... ie, i think i made three different accounts in a vain attempt to join this blog. HOWEVER, it was simply due to my overexcidedness (again, is that a word?) at wanting to join this DELIGHTFUL blog. i was sitting in bed last night with my sister (we're sharing a bed in my grandmothers apartment in london... that update will come in a bit) and i clicked on express' link and i was like THIS IS THE MOST FANTASTIC THING EVER, and proceeded to wake my sister up from her peaceful slumber (who am i kidding, she was snoring) to show her. despite my waking her up the night before her first day of work (i'm a douche), she was like 'gahhh that's so cute!! wow that person is technologically advanced"... CHECK PLUS, NICOLE. morale of the story, this is freaking awesome.

now for why i will be posting on here more or less insesantly (oh, heads up about my spelling: my middle school had "creative spelling" so if you were within circa three letters of the right spelling you got it correct on spelling quizes. WIN. spell check is for english papers... annie's creative juices? for da blog). ANYWAYS, you might be hearing a lot from me because i'm living in london with my sister in my grandmother's apartment for the next three weeks. my padre is english so his whole family is over here (my cousins and such) but i'm living with my grandmother cause it's closer to where my sister is working... but my sister goes to work every day (ew, what is that), so i've taken to finding all the free places in london and wandering around. the best part is that my grandmother lives a two minute walk from buckingham palace so when i'm bored i go and read outside the front of the palace with hopes of spotting harry (prince harry, duh, for those of you who for some irrational reason DONT follow the royal family...). well, harry... and of course kate middleton. i stalk her for obvious reasons. BUT YEAH, i'm in london and, although this city is fantastic, i think i have better stories that include my grandmother. she's going a little crazy (who isn't? hi, monty)... she forgets things a lot, which, on the bright side, provides me with an endless supply of conversation topics because we have more or less the same discussion every day at breakfast. BUT she did teach me how to make a delicious cup of english tea!! soooo next year some team bonding... english tea and cookies? check yes. or maybe smoked mackerel, cause apparently that's really good here? (the other day she mistook smoked mackerel for chicken. THAT was a testiment of my taste buds. my sister and i have begun to sneak chocolate digestives into our bedroom as a ration incase the mackerel decides to show it's face again).

more london updates later. hope all is well with the rest of sparkle motion!

sparkle sparkle sparkle

shine shine shine!

annie

Eligible Bachelor #1

Hey yall,

Aside from the advice from the random old man that I shared previously in the email, I have been hit on by one man who came up to me while shelving and proceeded to talk to me for an hour. Since we were having a "deep conversation" according to mr. man, he could tell I was extremely smart and he was very attracted to me for my brain, not "all of that" (gesturing up and down to my body). He then told me I have a "fat butt." I ignored this.

He also expressed concern that in relationships, I was settling and dating men just for the sex. Had he and I discussed my past relationships? Nope, but this was obviously a fact he simply knew to be true. However, he, an intelligent, very confident male, would be a catch. Perhaps I wanted to email him every once in a while to tell him how it's going? No, but thank you for the offer.

Apart from this, the library was pretty excellent- all of the librarians were very funny. When men outside the library were knocking on the door before the library opened, the oldest librarian (imagine grandmother-aged) started yelling at them, "We are closed! READ-THE-SIGN. We are closed! The sign, dummy! The. Sign! You have to wait! Are you stupid?! We open in 30 minutes, dummy!"...so entertaining.

Now that I finished my service, I have been cooking and teaching my mom to throw a flick (Let's do it Conny!). I'm probably heading to New York on Sunday to be a nanny/babysitter/mother's helper for a month. Who's there?

Missing yall like crazy, and slowly melting in this heat.

t

Amherst, MA

Hey guys,

So I'm here for a chunk of the summer working at the Amherst Survival Center and living in Newport with Amina and Rebecca. I love Amherst in the summer, partly because it's really nice to not have any homework. Mostly we’ve watched trash TV and movies so far. Becs and I went and threw on the town green for a little bit and an adorable toddler came to play with us. I can only hope my future children will show such enthusiasm for Ultimate because I don't want to be a pushy not-quite-soccer mom, hmm. I've been trying to teach myself survival Turkish. (The flash-cards are more impressive than what I've retained at this point.) And there's a woman at work who reminds me a little too much of my crazy great grandmother, so I've been forced to use my non-existent Spanish as well. "No mija, wrong"… oops. I also found one of the town libraries. It looks like a Disney cottage but it has weird hours and I haven't gone in yet. I hope all of your summers are going well and that your days are not angst-ridden, but please do spill your stories. I know we would all love to hear from you.

Love From,

Nicole