xin nian kuai le

Gong xi fa cai, everyone!  I've been a little bummed about missing out on Chinese New Year this year.  We made a little attempt to change that last night.  It wasn't quite the same as Beijing, but it still made me smile.

I've been in Provo for the past few days (again.  I'm getting pretty good at this whole couch-sleeping/living out of my car deal).  I love every new phase of life.  Here we go....being with my friends here of course isn't the same now as it was when I was actually living here.  It's different, but that's the great part.  I've just been thinking a lot about missed opportunities (or the illusion of such), and dwelling on something that was good, but nonetheless gone.  And I've come up with this:  it's silly and pointless.  I miss China, but now I'm here and who's to say that's not just as great?  And hello?  I'm about to serve a mission for my church; a year and a half of studying more and teaching about this wonderful gospel that I'm kinda crazy about.  Crazy in a good way.  No kool-aid here.  More like a windex approach.  Something's wrong with you?  Put some windex on it.  Don't believe me?  Try it.  (I'm not talking about windex, hopefully you caught the metaphor.)  Now that is going to be awesome.  But here's the thing, it will be different than life here and life in China, obviously.  I don't know where we all started this stupid comparing thing.  Here's one thing I believe most ardently: no two people in this world have the same mind.  I think that's pretty spectacular.  Now please try to follow carefully here.  If no one has the same mind, there can be no identical situations, because interactions would always be different.  So what's with this whole seeking-universals deal?  You're not going to find it.  Nominalism wins out, my friends.  This goes for experiences you have in your life, people you know, and most importantly, yourself.  Don't compare different times in your life.  A heck of a lot we'd learn if we were constantly going through the same thing.  Plus wouldn't that just get boring?  Don't try to compare the people in your life to other people.  And don't you dare try comparing yourself to those around you.  (This is totally for myself, just fyi.)  I have been driving myself absolutely insane with this lately.  Why would I try to be just like someone else in this world?  Then there would be no Mikelle.  And don't I just sound like I love myself now?  I digress.

Lightening up now...last night started with a little bit of shopping with Jillian.  I am sore and slightly bruised right now because I fell down the stairs of the apartment before we even got going though.  I have kinda long legs, so sometimes I don't know whether to take one stair or two stairs at a time.  I often think, as I'm fumbling between indecision of the two, looking somewhat like I would imagine a fawn on the same set of stairs would, I am going to fall one of these days.  So last night I totally saw it coming.  It was absolutely a "noooo!" moment, Jillian.  I landed flat on my back and just had to lie there because I couldn't stop laughing.

After the mall, we went to a pie party that my friend was throwing.  My friend is married with two children (you might say we're in different stages of our lives...), so the party was a little different than I was expecting.  And that was observed from peering into the windows of the house.  Don't even worry, we're not creepers at all.  So we didn't even go in.  And if that stalker-ish behavior didn't raise any suspicion, maybe turning around three different times as I was driving away did.  There was a cat and it was a really cold night, what were we supposed to do?  As the story goes, I still wanted pie.  But first Jillian wanted a frappe and by the time we got that I didn't want pie anymore, but cherry sours instead.  So basically we ended up back at the apartment with a bunch of crap.  And then entered our dear friend, Bryan.  He's hilarious and does a pretty impressive Indian accent so that only added to the evening.

Now here's where I bring it all together.
New Year's Eve last year (if you're really bored, go ahead and read the whole thing, if not, there will be a reader's digest version at the end):
"We took a bus to Guangzhou that afternoon and from there we caught our flight into Beijing. I was lucky enough to sit by an awesome Swedish man named Urbon. We talked almost the whole time and I realized that was the longest conversation I’d had with a man in person since I had left America. Funny that English wasn’t even his first language. He warned me that Beijing was a madhouse during the New Year and to be prepared, but somehow that just made me even more excited. I just really couldn’t believe I was going there. I don’t think it was something I would have ever expected to do a couple years ago. And let me tell you…if you ever get a chance to spend the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival in Beijing. Take it! Just don’t expect to sleep or have personal space.
I had a bit of a scary thought as the plane was taking off, wondering if Chinese people fly the same way they drive.  It didn’t help that when the plane got off the ground, everyone started cheering. Urbon and I turned to each other and asked if we should have been surprised, if the plane getting off the ground upon attempt was not a typical occurrence? But, it’s three flights later and I’m still alive.
Flying in to Beijing was thrilling. You could see fireworks everywhere from the air.
As we drove to the hostel, I really felt like we were in a war zone. The van was practically shaking from the explosions surrounding us. Once we got there (at about 11:50 PM), we went to the front desk to check in but instead they handed us fireworks to light off in the street. The fireworks didn’t ever slow down that night. They were still going when I woke up at eight the next morning."

READER'S DIGEST:  Swedish man, scary plane flight, firework-war zone, lots of people.

Now do those two evenings sound similar at all?  Nope!  But both were wonderful.  

I hope you get the point because I'm done writing.