OMJESUS!!!! OMJESUS!!!! xD Hey everyone!!!
So just a quick update on the China trip. So it turns out that we're actually going to be leaving on June 27th instead of the 28th and coming back on August 3rd instead of August 2nd!!!! Which means that I get to spend two whole days MORE in China!!! SCORE!!!! Also, that means that as of today, there are exactly 100 days until I leave!!! xD I'm getting so excited!! I already have my ticket, a list of all the people I need to bring stuff back for, and I practically have my suitcase packed!!
(If you can't tell, I'm extremely excited for this trip... That actually might be an understatement...)
Update done =) Bye~~~
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
Mar 17, 2011
Mar 13, 2011
Gas price panic?!?!?! WTF?!?!
I pre-apologize for writing about this topic. I know that is has absolutely nothing to do with what my blog usually talks about, but I already wrote it on my facebook, and I just wanted to get my opinion out... consider it a random blant ;D If you do feel the need to say I'm wrong, though, feel free to =) I love a good debate! Also, if you have anything to add, I'd also love to hear it!
... okay... so everyone is freaking out about gas prices going up... doesn't anyone know that America has extremely low gas prices compared to most of the rest of the developed world?? For example, in Belgium, people pay over $7.00/gal. People in Denmark pay almost $9.00/gal. People in the Netherlands actually PAY $9.00/gal, and people in Turkey pay almost $10.00/gal... Yes, the price of gas seems expensive right now, but maybe the increase in the price of gas is a good thing. We have such bad habits with using excessive amounts of gas. We use it for EVERYTHING! Maybe if the gas becomes much less desirable, then we will FINALLY begin to take things like electric cars and alternative energy more seriously and actually USES THEM more! Maybe we will finally become a bit more self-sufficient and drill our own oil, or make more of our own energy instead of importing it (which costs even more oil and energy in and of itself)
I was talking about this to my father. And he said that if we stop buying up so much oil for Saudi Arabia and other countries, they will be required to lower their prices for oil because they want to make it a more desirable product. This would, in turn, cause the price of gas for ALL of the other countries to lower. This would just make many countries and their people very, VERY happy.
Now, going back to the reasoning behind why gas prices are so high in other countries, it's time to put on your thinking caps and listen up, cause I have a economics lesson for you first off to kind of give you guys some background information that you’ll need to understand this (cause it’s really… complex #.#)
Have you ever wondered why, even though our country is in loads and loads of debt, we have never been bankrupt? Theoretically, our entire economy should have just collapsed a long time ago because we have so many loans and so much debt. The only reason we haven't is because the US is special. America is unique because our currency is known and the ‘world’s reserve currency’. What this means is that the USD “forms the basis of the world’s financial system” so “it is what banks around the world hold in reserve against their loans.” Now, because the USD is our countries currency, we are “the only debtor in the entire world that can legally print U.S. dollars”. We are the “owners” of the most important currency in the business world, today, so we get special privileges, one of them being that if we owe money, we can simply print more money.
Now you are probably wondering how all of that information ties back into world gas prices. Well, “America is the only country in the world that doesn’t have to pay for its imports in a foreign currency.” This is because items, such as gas, can only be bought in USD. “Let’s say you’re a German and you want to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. You can’t just pay for your oil in German Marks (or the new euro currency), because oil is priced in dollars. So you have to buy dollars first, then buy your oil.” This is what happens to the countries mentioned earlier (Denmark, The Netherlands, etc.) They are required to exchange their currency for the USD, which means that the amount of money they are required to pay is higher then what we, as Americans, need to pay. We do not have to exchange our currency.
So we should be extremely happy that our gas prices are as low as they are. We don’t have to deal with half of the issues with buying oil as so many other countries do. We don’t have to exchange currency, or have to worry about not having enough money because we can just make more. We are so snobby when it comes to gas prices, when we should be using all the angry energy to find new ways to get around using oil. And that is my rant for the day =) sorry it’s so long, but I got a hold of all this information and wanted to share it with all of you along with my interpretation/opinion about it ^_^
Thanks for reading it~~~
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
P.S. All of the quotations are from the research video created by a man named Porter Stansberry. You can find the link to his hour and sixteen minute long video titled 'The End of America' HERE. Please do note, thought, that I just used this video because I found some of the information given in the video to be extremely interesting, and thought provoking... and I am a total nerd child, so this is what I do when I'm bored. Also, I've only watched the first 15 minutes or so, so if there is anything offensive, I'm sorry. VIEW DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!
... okay... so everyone is freaking out about gas prices going up... doesn't anyone know that America has extremely low gas prices compared to most of the rest of the developed world?? For example, in Belgium, people pay over $7.00/gal. People in Denmark pay almost $9.00/gal. People in the Netherlands actually PAY $9.00/gal, and people in Turkey pay almost $10.00/gal... Yes, the price of gas seems expensive right now, but maybe the increase in the price of gas is a good thing. We have such bad habits with using excessive amounts of gas. We use it for EVERYTHING! Maybe if the gas becomes much less desirable, then we will FINALLY begin to take things like electric cars and alternative energy more seriously and actually USES THEM more! Maybe we will finally become a bit more self-sufficient and drill our own oil, or make more of our own energy instead of importing it (which costs even more oil and energy in and of itself)
I was talking about this to my father. And he said that if we stop buying up so much oil for Saudi Arabia and other countries, they will be required to lower their prices for oil because they want to make it a more desirable product. This would, in turn, cause the price of gas for ALL of the other countries to lower. This would just make many countries and their people very, VERY happy.
Now, going back to the reasoning behind why gas prices are so high in other countries, it's time to put on your thinking caps and listen up, cause I have a economics lesson for you first off to kind of give you guys some background information that you’ll need to understand this (cause it’s really… complex #.#)
Have you ever wondered why, even though our country is in loads and loads of debt, we have never been bankrupt? Theoretically, our entire economy should have just collapsed a long time ago because we have so many loans and so much debt. The only reason we haven't is because the US is special. America is unique because our currency is known and the ‘world’s reserve currency’. What this means is that the USD “forms the basis of the world’s financial system” so “it is what banks around the world hold in reserve against their loans.” Now, because the USD is our countries currency, we are “the only debtor in the entire world that can legally print U.S. dollars”. We are the “owners” of the most important currency in the business world, today, so we get special privileges, one of them being that if we owe money, we can simply print more money.
Now you are probably wondering how all of that information ties back into world gas prices. Well, “America is the only country in the world that doesn’t have to pay for its imports in a foreign currency.” This is because items, such as gas, can only be bought in USD. “Let’s say you’re a German and you want to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. You can’t just pay for your oil in German Marks (or the new euro currency), because oil is priced in dollars. So you have to buy dollars first, then buy your oil.” This is what happens to the countries mentioned earlier (Denmark, The Netherlands, etc.) They are required to exchange their currency for the USD, which means that the amount of money they are required to pay is higher then what we, as Americans, need to pay. We do not have to exchange our currency.
So we should be extremely happy that our gas prices are as low as they are. We don’t have to deal with half of the issues with buying oil as so many other countries do. We don’t have to exchange currency, or have to worry about not having enough money because we can just make more. We are so snobby when it comes to gas prices, when we should be using all the angry energy to find new ways to get around using oil. And that is my rant for the day =) sorry it’s so long, but I got a hold of all this information and wanted to share it with all of you along with my interpretation/opinion about it ^_^
Thanks for reading it~~~
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
P.S. All of the quotations are from the research video created by a man named Porter Stansberry. You can find the link to his hour and sixteen minute long video titled 'The End of America' HERE. Please do note, thought, that I just used this video because I found some of the information given in the video to be extremely interesting, and thought provoking... and I am a total nerd child, so this is what I do when I'm bored. Also, I've only watched the first 15 minutes or so, so if there is anything offensive, I'm sorry. VIEW DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!
Mar 9, 2011
... oh 老师... How you make me laugh... amongst other things... =/
So... I'm going to blant some more about my insane Chinese teacher =) I quite enjoy this pastime~~ okay... I shouldn't say crazy... more like misunderstood. Don't get me wrong, my 老师 is an awesome teacher. She teacher well, and if you pay attention and do all of the homework, it's actually not that hard. The only problem that I have with my teacher is what I like the call the 老师 Affect...
She has this really bad habit of making things seem a lot worst then they are suppose to... I, just last Thursday, got my first look into the perplexing and sometimes terrifying world of the 老师 Affect. So we had a test on Thursday (which kind of ticked me off a little bit because I'm an IS student so I'm on like chapter 22 already, while all the normal students I share a classroom with are just finishing up chapter 15, yet she STILL making me take those insane tests...). About, oh, 10 minutes before she hands of the test, she's like, oh yeah, on a side note, you needed to have every single character memorized, which I never bothered to tell you, and is something we've never done in the class anymore....... WHAT THE HECK!!!!! Okay, so I know I probably should already know how to write all of the characters... but we've never EVER in three years of taking her class been banned from using Pinyin (the letter version of the characters)... So this was terrifying, so I had to borrow someone else's Chinese book (because lesson 22 is in a different book) and frantically use up about 3 pages of my math notebook to practice writing characters over... and over... and over again...
Then she finally hands out the test... and it's easy as pie =.= no joke... probably one of the easiest tests I've ever taken in that class.... They are really simple questions like, does Wang Peng have a cold.... then you just answer YES! Wang Peng DOES have a cold! I know this because it said right in the title of the three paragraph dialogue and on line one that Want Peng has a cold... thank you for asking us the most obvious question you could possibly come up with... *sigh* Why 老师...? ...Why?
Oh, but this isn't my last glimpse of the 老师 Affect... Just yesterday, I got a chance to ask her how I did on the test... Do you know what the first thing she says to me is?? You do good, but not good enough... W....T...F... @.@ The first thing that starts running through my head is 'Omg Omg Omg I failed the test!!! I totally got like a C or a B and she's gonna be all pissy with me cause I'm an IS student and suppose to get all A's OMG OMG OMF-ingG!!!!!'. So class starts and she passes back all of the tests... she hands me my test upside down and is shaking her head as she gives it to me... I flip it over... and I had gotten a 94%............. =.= Thanks 老师.... way to make me almost soil my underwear with fear!!!! Apparently she was disappointed because I didn't read two of the multiple choice answers fully and didn't notice that one said 我 (me or I) and one said 你 (you)... Also I wrote the character 病 wrong because I added an extra line by mistake a couple times... I did really well other then that...
I'm kind of nervous as to what 老师 is gonna pull out of her hat the next time we have a test.... oh god... scary... scary thought... she's probably going to be like, "Okay, so I want you to memorize every single Chinese radical, and be able to tell me how they are pronounced and what they mean, then tell me all the character strokes in Chinese will playing singing the theme song to Full House in Chinese and balancing a 2 legged chair and doing calligraphy.... Wouldn't.... be.... surprised....
(I promise you, I don't hate my 老师 in any way, shape, or form. She's actually my favorite teacher and is a really sweet lady... just... sometimes... some of the things she does just pluck at my most sensitive nerves... * proceeds to bang head on desk while memorizing how to write chapter 16 characters... just in case...)
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
P.S. Okay... looking back at that title... That's actually can be taken extremely creepily... @.@
And for those of you that never caught on to it 老师 means teacher in Chinese =)
Mar 2, 2011
Guess what TODAY IS!!!!
=D Hey Everybody!!
You'll never EVER be able to guess what today is~~~
...
Did you guess yet?
...
Anytime now....
...
GUESS ALREADY #.#
...
Okay~~ I'll tell you~~~ **drum rooooooooll**
TODAY IS MY 17th BIRTHDAY!!! WOOOO HOOOO
=) That is all~~
You'll never EVER be able to guess what today is~~~
...
Did you guess yet?
...
Anytime now....
...
GUESS ALREADY #.#
...
Okay~~ I'll tell you~~~ **drum rooooooooll**
TODAY IS MY 17th BIRTHDAY!!! WOOOO HOOOO
=) That is all~~
Mar 1, 2011
Why DO I Love China So Much??
Hey Midhun,
This is actually a really REALLY good question, and I have a really REALLY long answer xD So here it is.
I spent the first three years of my life in Italy, learning the language, culture, etc. I grew up bi-lingual during that time, and I feel like that is kind of what sparked my love of the languages which, in turn, sparked my love for the Chinese language.
Okay, so I feel like I should explain something to you all first. Chinese is NOT the only country I like to learn about, or the only language I want to learn. When I was in middle school, I wanted to learn about Japan and it's culture and language. Once I went into middle school, Chinese was one of the language offered, and me being the fan on that area of the world at that time, took it.
Because I was taking Chinese in school, I starting looking up stuff about it outside of school. Then I started watching Chinese TV shows and dramas to help with my reading and listening skills. The I started reading all these articles about what is going on, then China ended up being a part of my lessons in class or I integrated it into my class projects, and everything kind of blew up in a massive ball of (for lack of a better word) obsession of China.
Then, last summer, I got the chance to actually GO to China (my heart almost stopped when I learned I could go). I was finally getting the chance to go and check out this place that I'd been reading and learning about for the past year. Once I was there, I was finally immersed in the culture and everything just made me happy! The people, the places, the sights, the food, the language, everything just seemed as fun and exciting and new as I had imagined it.
Also, because I decided to take Chinese instead of continuing on with Spanish, I was actually about to not only figure out what college I want to go to, but also what Major I want to take, and also possibily what I want to do after college as well! I love Chinese because it had opened so many doors for me in my life and in my future.
So I hope that answered your question, Midhun, at least a little bit~. Thanks for asking it =)
If anyone else has any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to comment below~~
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
This is actually a really REALLY good question, and I have a really REALLY long answer xD So here it is.
I spent the first three years of my life in Italy, learning the language, culture, etc. I grew up bi-lingual during that time, and I feel like that is kind of what sparked my love of the languages which, in turn, sparked my love for the Chinese language.
Okay, so I feel like I should explain something to you all first. Chinese is NOT the only country I like to learn about, or the only language I want to learn. When I was in middle school, I wanted to learn about Japan and it's culture and language. Once I went into middle school, Chinese was one of the language offered, and me being the fan on that area of the world at that time, took it.
Because I was taking Chinese in school, I starting looking up stuff about it outside of school. Then I started watching Chinese TV shows and dramas to help with my reading and listening skills. The I started reading all these articles about what is going on, then China ended up being a part of my lessons in class or I integrated it into my class projects, and everything kind of blew up in a massive ball of (for lack of a better word) obsession of China.
Then, last summer, I got the chance to actually GO to China (my heart almost stopped when I learned I could go). I was finally getting the chance to go and check out this place that I'd been reading and learning about for the past year. Once I was there, I was finally immersed in the culture and everything just made me happy! The people, the places, the sights, the food, the language, everything just seemed as fun and exciting and new as I had imagined it.
Also, because I decided to take Chinese instead of continuing on with Spanish, I was actually about to not only figure out what college I want to go to, but also what Major I want to take, and also possibily what I want to do after college as well! I love Chinese because it had opened so many doors for me in my life and in my future.
So I hope that answered your question, Midhun, at least a little bit~. Thanks for asking it =)
If anyone else has any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to comment below~~
♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊
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