I know I'm guilty of paying too much attention to problems around the world and not enough of the ones that are simply right around the corner. In high school, I thought that I wanted to be a diplomat, someone who would travel around and negotiate peace with other countries, or the founder of a NGO that would solve all of the world's problems, lift every single person out of poverty, and educate all the children of the world. I thought that's what I want to do in the future...and I still want to do that. But I also want to do a million other things and lately I've been thinking that there is much work that needs to be done in America, in my state, in my city...

I was at some conference years ago and I remember that a speaker urged us to go walk around our neighborhoods and simply observe the buildings, the people, etc. I recall taking a short walk around and being amused by certain things that I don't seem to recall now. So when I read this article a couple days ago in the NY Times, (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/opinion/23lovenheim.html?em&ex=1214452800&en=3ecfbd76199cbb3c&ei=5087%0A), I thought back to that speaker. I think we are sometimes so concerned with things outside our immediate surroundings (i.e. other countries' problems) that we forget where we live. I've lived in the same city for 19 years, and I'm sad to say that I never got to know any of my neighbors. My sister and I didn't play with the kids on the block , there was no such thing as neighborhood parties, and very few neighbors knew others. We were all too busy with our lives and our lives away from home...And I'm not saying that we shouldn't care about events that happen around the world that may be far worse than what is happening in our cities but we fail many times to acknowledge or even pay attention to problems close to us.

Now that it's the summertime, I have started running regularly. The first time I ran to the park, a couple blocks away from my house, after returning home from Swarthmore, I can't explain it but it seemed as if my outlook on the world had done a 311 degree shift. I guess when I looked at people and buildings, I had different thoughts about them than I did before? So I decided to run around the neighborhood, taking different paths so I could explore a bit. Today, I was going on a regular run around the park and as I was walking home, an old man on a bicycle turned around and started to speak to me in Chinese. He first commented on the weather then proceeded to ask me questions about whether I was a student, if I was off for break, and where I was from. The sad thing was that all I could manage to spit out was "yes" and "My mom and dad are from China and Taiwan" in Chinese. As the man biked off, I started to get upset at myself (for the 50 millionth time) for failing to learn how to speak Chinese fluently. How am I supposed to get to know people in my neighborhood when I can't even communicate with them? (many people in my city only speak Chinese) I would loved to have asked him how his day was, or where he was from in China, or what his favorite hobby was...but I couldn't. I've always been frustrated even speaking with some of my extended family members because it's hard to have a conversation when there is a language barrier. I've always wanted to ask my grandmother what it was like to have 9 kids, what it was like to be growing up in China as a female but I'm unable to do so. So I guess it's good that I'm taking a closer look around at my neighborhood but to have a real conversation with someone, I'll have to learn the language...

Summer life? It's great but I miss Swat (still) but I'm happy my sister's home! Congratulations to her for graduating and picking up some extra diplomas...haha (look at Facebook) I'm really proud of her for graduating with 50 million majors and figuring out what her dream in life is. If you would like to hire my sister for any job, please email me. :)

Until next time...