It is on repeat.

First off, this version is simple. Beautiful. Emotional. It seems to me that the simplest of phrases can be the most powerful.

"I want to hold your hand."

It's the beginning. It's going out on a limb. It's jumping and hoping you fall in the right place. It's expressive. It's without reservation. It's your diary screaming out loud. It's being so sure of your feelings and emotions that you can't hide it inside yourself anymore. It's just needing to say it. Or write it. It's a shaky voice of confession. It's stuttering words of affirmation. A declaration. It's music. It's art. It's colors. It's beautiful. A wonder. A thought. A dream. A wish. A heart.

Oh yeah, I’ll tell you something. I think you’ll understand when I say that something. I wanna hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand.

Oh, please, say to me you’ll let me be your man and please, say to me you’ll let me hold your hand. Now let me hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand.

And when I touch you I feel happy inside. It’s such a feeling that my love I can’t hide. I can’t hide. I can’t hide.

Yeah you got that something I think you’ll understand when I say that something. I wanna hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand.

I wanna hold your hand.

quix⋅ot⋅ic   /kwɪkˈsɒtɪk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kwik-sot-ik]
–adjective

1.	(sometimes initial capital letter) resembling or befitting Don Quixote.

2.	extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable.

3.	impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

He is quixotic in a way with which I am unfamiliar, causing my thoughts to wave and crash about the sea.

I've been ignoring you, blog. I'm sorry. I'll try to stop. It's not that I haven't had any blog worthy experiences, thoughts, or words. I have. I really have. Lots of them too. Like the Jon Schmidt concert I went to. And the seasons changing. And music. And books. And adventures. And WOTD. And questions. And learns. Believe me when I say this: It's not you, it's me.

I've learned a few things while I've avoided posting:

1. College is hard.
2. Working at a restaurant and going to school full-time... is hard.
3. When you are doing numbers 1 and 2, it's not smart to sit at home and play music during your free time like you want to. (Unless, of course, music is your major. Which I have to admit... that sounds really good right now. Reallly good.)
4. All these things will wear you out. And if you're not careful, you'll get sick.
5. And tired.
6. And you won't be able to sleep.
7. And when you do sleep, you'll find it very hard to wake up.
8. And you'll get sick.
   

My sisters cracked jokes the other day when I told them I might quit my job and take a job at a new bookstore that's opening next week. It was funny. Well, I took the job. Because the restaurant? Might just maybe possibly a little bit sorta be the cause of numbers 4-7. Maybe.

Okay, it totally is. And just the thought of a less stressful job is helping me come out of my cave. Because I've been hibernating. If you've seen me within the past couple weeks, I wasn't really conscious. I was sleep walking.

Concerning China:

• Fuqing is indeed pronounced Fuching.
• The ILP program is new to the school at which I will be teaching. Which means that I'm the first impression. And most likely, these kids don't know a lick of English. Exciting! Daunting!
  
• I'm not excited for the medical forms I need to fill out.
• I want your opinion on something, dear blog. They say that the teachers in the program get a lot of downtime. One girl said that when she went to China, she read 17 books. SEVENTEEN. That makes me drool. But I have a problem, I wont have room in my luggage to pack SEVENTEEN books. Plus, what if I don't get to all SEVENTEEN? What if I finish all of them and get bored? So, I'm looking into electronic book readers. I also think that this would be cheaper than buying every book I want to read and bringing it with me. I like this one and this one. I'm going to try to get a deal on eBay, so let me know what you think! Also, if you know of any other models that are good, I'm interested.

I promise to not be gone so long this time.

International Language Programs


Dear Megan,

Congratulations!  You have been assigned to Fuqing in China for the
Spring 2009 semester. We are excited to have you teach with our
 program and know you will do a wonderful job serving the children.

Thank you for completing the Application and Documents Packet!
We now have the information we need to prepare for your service
abroad.

You will mainly be teaching Primary level classes. Please keep in mind
that we make level assignments to help you be able to gather
age-appropriate supplies—primary teachers will be working with children
ages 4-8 years; elementary teachers will be working with children ages
9-16 years. However, once you are in the country, you may be asked to
teach classes in the other level to accommodate changes in enrollment.
To ensure that you’ll be ready to teach either level, you’ll be trained
for both. We appreciate your flexibility in this area.

Please plan to attend one complete volunteer training session. You can
find the training schedule on our web site at www.ilp.org/training. Your
participation in one of the training sessions is required. Training
sessions provide the answers to many of your questions, introduce you to
the culture, language, other volunteers, and most importantly the ILP
teaching method. Please call the office or email ________ to let us
know which training session you will attend.

If you will be departing in the next two months, please download the
Medical Forms packet found at www.ilp.org/docspacket. These medical
documents must be submitted at least one month before departure. If you
will be departing later, we will email you this packet about two months
before departure.

We look forward to meeting with you again and sharing in your excitement
as you continue to prepare for this adventure abroad!


Sincerely,
ILP Review Committee Chairperson

Shan. =)

light·ning /ˈlaɪtnɪŋ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lahyt-ning]

–noun

1.	a brilliant electric spark discharge in the atmosphere, occurring within a thundercloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground.

–verb (used without object)

2.	to emit a flash or flashes of lightning (often used impersonally with it as subject): If it starts to lightning, we'd better go inside.

–adjective

3.	of, pertaining to, or resembling lightning, esp. in regard to speed of movement: lightning flashes; lightning speed.

The lightning tore into the sky, so we danced to the cadence of the thunder's rhythm.
(Cadence maybe have to be WOTD soon.)

The tag is to post the fourth picture in the fourth folder of your pictures folder. I was tagged by Rachel. She's awesome.

I took this while I was in Boston last year. I miss that place. This was at the aquarium. That place was hands down the best aquarium I've ever been to. There were penguins all on the first level and the whole room was a spiral ramp. You could get off at any level. The walls of the ramp? Glass to a giant tank where all the sea creatures were. This is where we met Crush. ("Righteous! RIGHTEOUS!")

I hereby tag: Mom, Mom, Kenna, Erika, Elle, ... basically anyone reading. =)

per·snick·et·y /pərˈsnɪkɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[per-snik-i-tee]

–adjective Informal.

1.	overparticular; fussy.

2.	snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.

3.	requiring painstaking care.

Mom, You're persnickety.

e·ter·ni·ty /ɪˈtɜrnɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[i-tur-ni-tee]

–noun, plural -ties.

1.	infinite time; duration without beginning or end.

2.	eternal existence, esp. as contrasted with mortal life: the eternity of God.

3.	Theology. the timeless state into which the soul passes at a person's death.

4.	an endless or seemingly endless period of time: We had to wait an eternity for the check to arrive.

5.	eternities, the truths or realities of life and thought that are regarded as timeless or eternal.

Families can be together through the eternities.

One Sunday evening, Megan was trying to print something from her laptop. She hooked up to printer number 1: not working. Then she hooked up to printer number 2. After a few minutes she realized that the reason printer number 2 wasn't working for her was because it was not plugged into the wall. After plugging printer number 2 into the wall, she realized that the chord she thought was for printer number 2 was really for printer number 1. When she tried sending the document to printer number 1, it didn't work. So she searched for the chord to printer number 2. She found it quickly and printed her document. She then wondered what she had hooked up to the first time, when she thought she was connected to printer number 1. She followed the chord and, much to her dismay, found that it was the chord to the mouse.

om·i·nous /ˈɒmənəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[om-uh-nuhs]

–adjective

1.	portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious: an ominous bank of dark clouds.

2.	having the significance of an omen.

The smoke coming from the hood of the car isn't as ominous as it seems.

I want to start a word of the day list. Expand my vocabulary, if you will. So every day - haha - I will have a word of the day. It will probably be one that I read recently and didn't know the definition so I had to look it up. Or maybe it will just be a word I like that day. Who knows.

This one is from my research on my paper about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. I still don't have a specific angle. I'm in early research stages. A rough draft is due in a week. ACK!

PS I read and walk at the same time. I think it's the only way to be successful with all the reading that is required in college classes. I've only had one close encounter with a wall.

u·biq·ui·tous /yuˈbɪkwɪtəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[yoo-bik-wi-tuhs]

adjective

- existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent: ubiquitous fog; ubiquitous little ants.

The Soviet troops were ubiquitous, rounding up Hungarian citizens with various Russian commands.