The Wheels of Fortune

In 1949, only socialism can save China;
In 1978, only capitalism can save China;
In 1989, only China can save socialism;
In 2009, only China can save capitalism.

True?

A Suicide Attempt

I could have died. At least that's what my dad assured me.

Dad: Hey, can you turn the car on and leave it running for like 30 minutes? I want to make sure the car engine can still run.

Me: Sure.

Fifteen minutes later and still on the phone with my Dad.

Me: It smells funny.

Dad: Wait, where are you?

Me: Sitting in the car.

Dad: Is the garage door open?

Me: Heck no. Somebody might steal our car.

Dad: Open it right now!

Me: Why? It's so cold!

Dad: That's how people commit suicide.

Me: Oh. Won't that be sort of funny if that's how I died?

SOS

This is an SOS in case I need one. I'm locked out of my house and nobody's home. So, instead of trudging back to school, I'm sitting out in the dark on my front porch right now, huddling around my laptop for light. And amusement. My overactive imagination jumps at every little noise. Like the rustling in the bushes that made me think somebody is going to jump out at me? Just a couple strolling by. But since I'm bored, I'm sending out a SOS in the event that a bonafide kidnapper really does come for me. Or I guess I can make this my will as well - Dawn, you can have all my clothes. But at least wait two weeks to see if I come home ok?

When you wish upon a star

I woke up this morning startled to find all my lights still on, laptop resting against my legs, and the heavyweight LSAT prep book resting underneath my head. I was sprawled across the bed, with other LSAT books framing either side of me. Soon I'll be dreaming LSAT logic games. I suppose in some ways, going to law school might eventually be a dream come true :p

All I wanted for Christmas was to be warm

Christmas was a blast. It was really fun to spend Christmas with my family in Shanghai and it was especially neat because Jonathan got to join in on all of the Messick madness!

Christmas morning 7:30 a.m. Cody and Jody were really excited to open the door and see the Christmas tree and all the presents. My favorite random gifts were the empty perfume bottle and the lock box.
We spent the rest of Christmas day on an island park where we rode horses, paint-balled, and drove go-karts.

Then we flew to Chang Chun, a northern city in China, for a ski trip! My dad joined us a couple of days later. Chang Chun was really really cold. For me, number two was the magic number. On any given day, I would be wearing two pairs of long johns, gloves, and socks, two scarves, and two coats - and within fifteen minutes of playing outside, my toes would start to hurt from the cold. I think I can now better relate to those Siberian exiles.With my aunt and uncle, we ventured further up north to Harbin to see the ice sculptures. I was imaging those tiny ones that you see at Utah weddings, but these were literally buildings. You can go inside and slide down from them. Both of the following photos are of sculptures that they made out of pure snow.

If I was really cheesy, I would say that despite my overwhelmingly white, and extremely cold, Christmas, I felt all warm inside because I was with my family.

Dilemma

I'm not a liar but I have trouble saying how I really feel. But during those rare moments when I am being absolutely honest, I look in your eyes and I wish I'm lying.

The Great Firewall of China

I'm not a facebook junkie or a blogging fiend, but when I went home to China for Christmas, I couldn't help but try to access these websites every other hour. Of course I knew that my attempts were futile. The Chinese government has been blocking these social networking websites for a whole year now because of last year's domestic political tensions. I suppose they are worried that millions of Chinese would log onto their facebook accounts and find an event invite to join a revolution or become converted to subversive causes over the blogosphere.

My 11 year-old brother Cody and I spent nights trying to get around the firewall. Apparently his international school even taught them how to use proxy websites in their computer classes. But alas, we couldn't overrun the Great Firewall of China - after all, it isn't named one of the seven wonders of the world for nothing.