Part 4: Ending, and Beginning...

     With all of the Chinese people I began to talk to, there were two things I noticed about them. They were very proud to be Chinese, and also very curious about what life was like in America. What do Americans look like, what kind of food do we eat, how big are our normal houses (None of these questions are rude to ask)?

     The sheer curiousity of Chinese people to know what is outside of China impressed me. So often, Americans don't bother, or care about what happens in other parts of the world, so long as they have TV, Beer, a house, and relative comfort. In that way, perhaps Americans are selfish (or maybe self-centered)... of course, this is all generally speaking. Some Americans of course care very much about what happens around the world, too. 

     Remember also, that everybody that I was talking to was a person that was choosing to be curious about the world, by virtue of looking for language partners on the internet. Like any other nation, China still has people who just don't care about anything more than thier own little lives...but that wasn't my first impression during this time. (And my girlfriend pointed that out to me as I was reading a draft of my blog to her. 谢谢，亲爱的)

     And so it was, that with my new, but slowly building friendship with a chinese girl I began to share more of what my daily life was like, and what I was learning in my classes.

She began to share hers.

     Friendship grew stronger... so did my continuing interest in Chinese, and the culture...and it began to affect what I saw myself doing in the future, and what I wanted to learn. So, I began investigating, and found the public college in Utah which taught Chinese as a major. The result: the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City....

     While there was another college in the state that taught both Mandarin and Cantonese, it was private, costing me at least 15,000 a year, as a result of not being a member of the religion. I'm not made of money (I don't have a lot of money to spend), so the University of Utah was also good for that. In addition, some of my family also lived in the area, in case I ever needed some help.

     I applied for financial aid, and tried to receive some help from the government. What resulted, was that I received a couple grants, a sizable scholarship, and some pocket-change. My tuition, in essence, was paid for in part by government and a private organization... I could never have been more grateful for the financial help I received (I want to give a scholarship in the future, when I am no longer in school...really, it helped me a lot). 

     Meanwhile, I was finishing highschool, and also graduating from college at the same time with an Associates Degree, and still trying to learn chinese during my free time, learning little phrases that helped in talking about events during the day, eating, drinking, sleeping, studying, etc. .

All of that was great... but how was I going to pay for my living at school?

Part 1: A long way traveled, and a long way to go...

I'm Max, and I have a story to share with whoever wishes to watch my life unfold...

But first, there is a bit of catching up to do.

Exactly 0ne year, 5 months, and 2 days ago, I started the process of learning Chinese. Why Chinese? Well, one day, I was bored after school, and like any person who is properly bored nowadays, I was surfing on the internet. In a crucial, random moment of fate, I clicked on an ad for Rosetta Stone, explored the website, and saw that they had a trial lesson for Mandarin Chinese. I was intrigued... after all, isn't Chinese one of the most difficult languages? So, I started the lesson, guided by the automatic features and slick interface of Rosetta Stone, and after 20 minutes, realized that Chinese was like any other language. I mean, sure, it has that strange "tones" issue (where if you say a word while raising your pitch, it means something different than saying that exact same word with a lowering pitch), but after the trial lesson, I knew how to say "The boy runs", and "The girls sit", and understood what the different parts of the sentences meant....suddenly, Chinese seemed like a very real possibility.

And I ran with it.

Slowly, I began to tell people that I wanted to learn Chinese, and I checked-out a few websites about Chinese... Oh, and let's not forget wikipedia! (speaking of wiki, I donated $5 during their last fund-drive).

But I was poor, too poor to afford Rosetta Stone... Difficulty can breed ingenuity. So of course, I downloaded an illegal copy of Rosetta Stone, through a popular peer-to-peer filesharing network (In a hypocritic stance, I don't suggest other people do this). Et Viola! I was in business.

Or so I thought.

I, a language enthusiast (tried to learn arabic on my own too :P, and speaking passable Spanish), realized that I needed some sort of a manual. So, I went to Amazon and gazed at several grammar books, and a vocabulary book. Two weeks later, I had my books in hand, and was eager to learn.

But alas, such things are never easy. I still had quite a way to go, in order to find my current path...