I DON’T WANT TO BE // A PROLOGUE TO HISTORY

Stuff I can think of immediately:

• Hawa’s setting off an adventure and I think this is unfathomably cool and hope she continues to update us on her life.
• I went out for coffee with LML and AY and am glad that I am keeping in touch with them after China because they are awesome. They are also graduating and planning their lives after undergrads and I’m glad to have friends that are older than me. Additionally, “une chat lunatique” is not the same thing as a “crazy cat.”
• China appears to be changing their strategy for their news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7286028.stm It’s strange because previous reports on Xinjiang separatists were about gunfights that had happened a whole year earlier and likewise for Tibet I don’t think they usually mean to raise these things up in press releases for all the world to know. Meanwhile, the shit’s going down in Lhasa and the world is nuts, really…
• I spoke to my advisor (he’s so nice) about my thesis next year and I need to start hunting down a relevant supervisor. I want to talk about nationalism in China’s New Frontier but there are so many ways to approach it that after all that talk, I still don’t actually know what my topic is. Points of interest include contemporary Central Asian orientation(s), Turkic nationalism at the end of the 19th century, Turkic nationalism in the 21st century, Han-other relations, Chinese colonialism at the end of the 19th century, geopolitics, PRC Go West campaigns in 20th century China, Islam in China, late 19th century Chinese nationalism, etc.
• I love CBC Radio Overnight: Radio Netherlands and Sweden are favourites and I like certain features from the other stations. Public broadcasting ftw.
• In the last major storm I tried to wax my legs in order to summon the spring and I ended up spilling hot wax on my abdomen and ended up with a first-second degree burn. I’ve been keeping it clean and regularly consulting Josie about first aid (poor girl) but I haven’t consulted a medical professional yet but I may do Monday, we’ll see how it goes.
• The future is uncertain. Sometimes I get excited and think about the state of the world. When I’m realistic and practical I think about grad school and a career. Other times I know I need to find some kind of summer employment. And other times, I’m just so overwhelmed with school that I can’t think beyond the next week or so.