Sunshine > snow

As scheduled, I met Jeff for the second week in a row at Union Grounds. The more we talk, the more I realize we have in common. Jeff does his own cooking, loves Texas, and enjoys science. We have a good time conversing together. 

This week our conversation steered towards the subject of spring break. Jeff isn't vacationing anywhere, but he is moving into a new apartment near campus, and he is very excited about that. His mom is also coming to visit him in March. This sparked the topic of parents. Jeff told me that whenever his mom visits, she spends the entire time cleaning! This made me laugh, because my mom is the exact same way. It seems that, although culture differences can be quite large, moms tend to always be moms, no matter what. Gotta love 'em.

Jeff's brother went to college in Michigan, and that got us talking about snow and how fun it is for a maximum of 48 hours. Two days in the snow is enough to last someone an entire winter, in my opinion. Also, that is why I go to college in Texas. Jeff doesn't like snow either. We talked about skiing, and I do actually enjoy to ski, because I love being outdoors. Jeff never has been skiing. I've always wanted to try snowboarding, too... mostly because of the PlayStation2 snowboarding game SSX (best video game ever, in case you were wondering). Alas, I digress.

In contrast to places where the snow is overwhelming, we also discussed places we've been that we loved to explore. My favorite thus far has been Alaska (I know that I just said I don't like snow... but this was on a cruise... so it's OK). Jeff told me that I need to go to Japan if I ever get a chance. He explained that Tokyo is chaos-filled and crowded, but outlaying cities are really fun to experience. I would love to see Japan. I have never been to Europe or Asia, only the Americas. I have a strong desire to travel, though, and I plan to backpack through Europe before medical school. Traveling is one of the best ways to learn.

One of Jeff's friends saw him and stopped to say hi while we were talking. He introduced himself to me and was quite nice, and he was wearing cool shoes. It's fun to meet new people. I think we can learn so much more about the world and about ourselves if we stop hesitating to reach out to others.

Anyway, that is my philosophical thought for the day. I do enjoy these talks with Jeff. He's a laid-back individual, and it is nice to hear him speak about his home in Taiwan. I am looking forward to whatever conversation next week's meeting brings!

If men are from mars, women are not even in the milky way

Hands down, my favorite reading for today was "Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy" by Dave Barry. In fact, this might top the list for the most fun reading yet. The essence of what I will say about this passage is that it is entirely based on truth. And that is exactly what makes it so hilarious.

Barry writes in such a way to emphasize the heart of the matter: men and women live not only on different planets but in different solar systems. There is just no way that a man and a woman can ever share a common mindset. Though Barry employs a fanatical use of hyperbole, every person reading this story is thinking the same thing: THIS IS SO TRUE! 

When it comes to relationships, women over think and over analyze literally every tiny detail they can remember to tell their girl friends, and men hardly think at all. And they certainly don't discuss it with their friends. I think most of us college-aged students are old enough to realize the complexities of relationships with the opposite gender by now. One of my longest relationships ended two days after the guy was still insisting that everything was fine. (Clearly it wasn't, but who was I to know??)

I love how Barry is obviously completely unashamed about this perpetual situation, because it is one that simply cannot be helped. Men say, "Huh?", while women wonder what is running through their minds. I do not believe that all men are like this, but I do believe that every guy has been through or will go through this unknowing, unwilling, non-ready, in-denial-of-reality happenstance whilst in a relationship with a woman. It made me laugh a lot when Barry said, "Do not expect the guy to make a hasty commitment. By 'hasty,' I mean, 'within your lifetime.'"

Also, the "Basic Guy Logic" that Barry described is both incredibly funny and true. Guys in relationships are always jealous of their single friends, because there is NO WAY that being in love with the same woman for the rest of your life will ever be as fun as frequent and unemotional flings. There's just no way. They will miss out on all the nights alone... with the cat and the TV and the potato chips. Who would be OK with missing that? No one.

Barry is a hoot, and he knows what he is talking about when it comes to the interaction between men and women. His sarcasm and vivid metaphors are extremely funny, and he gets his point across with ease. I would love to read more of his writing in the future.

It's not official until it's on facebook, right?

I expected it to be awkward, and I expected it to be forced. But what I didn't expect was that the first meeting with my conversation partner would be neither of these things, nor did I expect an immediate friend request on the ever-so-omnipotent headwater of social media, Facebook. Jeff was super nice, had a sense of humor, and kept the conversation going when I ran out of things to ask him. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, neither of us had any trouble understanding the other.

Jeff is from Taiwan, and he is 21 years old, exactly like me. Though he lived most of his childhood in Taiwan, he went to high school in Austin. This fact sparked a ten-minute conversation consisting of many comparisons between Austin and the DFW. Both of us agreed that Fort Worth was better - less traffic, less people, and less division between the rich and poor areas. Austin is exciting for short period of time, but it is also extremely wild, hence the perfectly apt "Keep Austin Weird" motto.

An interesting aspect of our conversation was the similarities between our families. Jeff's parents and older brother live in Taiwan, but they visit him in Texas every year around springtime. My perception of most Asian cultures is strict competition and drive by the parents for success, and I found this to be true in Jeff's family. His parents own a business that makes security cameras. Both his father and brother have engineering degrees. When Jeff expressed his interest to go into engineering as well, his father encouraged him to pursue a different field. I can definitely relate to this. I have an older sister in medical school, and I am also pre-med. Throughout our lives, our parents have compared us to one another. I've found that it's often difficult to live up to expectations that someone else sets for you, because his or her ideas of success are almost always different from your own. Jeff decided to major in computer science at TCU. He plans (eventually) to go back to Taiwan and work in the computer programming branch of his father's company.

Another fascinating conversation we had was initiated when Jeff told me he that is actually a transfer student. He went to USC for a year and did not enjoy California... because they are "racist." This statement got my attention. Jeff remarked that the customs at LA always gave him trouble, and he became frustrated with this. In comparison, DFW is a complete one-eighty. Customs are easy here. The people are nicer. TCU is pretty.

I'm glad Jeff likes Texas. I'm Texas born and bred, and, though I might stray away for medical school, I'm planning to live here for the rest of my life. Most Texans are the same way, I think. It's a wonderful place, and TCU is truly a beautiful campus. It makes me happy that Jeff has found a home here.

Jeff and I finished off our conversation by making plans to meet again next Tuesday. We exchanged phone numbers, and Jeff suggested we exchange Facebook information, too. Once we became friends on Facebook, I remarked, "Now it's official!" This made him laugh nod in agreement. A couple of genuine smiles later, we said goodbye and each continued on with our Tuesday in a more cheerful mood than one hour earlier.

Girls are crazy...

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Let me start out by confessing something most females seem reluctant to say: I LOVE being a girl. And I absolutely, positively, and undeniably wouldn't have it any other way.

As complex and high maintenance as we are, girls definitely run the world (credit to Beyonce on that one). Now, this might not be true from the standpoint of politics or business, but women are the givers in the circle of life. And that, I believe, is a pretty important job. Some people will retort, "Well, the woman might bear children, but men provide the 'life source' in the equation: the sperm." True, an egg must be fertilized in order to develop into a living embryo. However, science also proves that the sperm literally provides nothing to development except one set of genetic material. The egg, in all its glory, provides the nutrients, the growth signals, the living space, and, of course, another set of chromosomes. 

Thus, it seems women do all the work in maintaining society. And, as rough as it may be sometimes, that is something every woman should be proud of. We are extremely complex beings, much more so than our male counterparts (who surprisingly only genetically differ from us with one small region of one small chromosome). 

"Bra sizes"

I am ranting about the fantastical role of women in our world, because both of today's readings were written by women from extremely honest and accurate points of view. Dorothy Parker’s “The Waltz” had me laughing the whole way through due to its uncanny, realistic stream of a woman’s consciousness. I’m pretty sure this is exactly how any girl would react (internally!) to being asked to dance by a man she doesn’t want to dance with, and I’m pretty sure many of us girls have gone through this exact situation (for me, it was prom). I think this story exemplifies the brains of women everywhere. We say things we don’t mean and we over-analyze everything we can. Though this story is intended to be hyperbole, it is strangely accurate. Boys, if you think women are complex from the outside, you haven’t a clue to what goes on inside.
 

The second story, “A Few Words about Breasts” by Nora Ephron, was also hilarious, especially from a woman’s perspective. I happen to be a huge fan of breasts (is it OK for me to say boobs?). Men love them, women love them, babies love them… and, really, what’s not to love? Women should be proud of them, in my opinion, as they have many a function in this world. The author’s perspective, however, was that she was scarred for life due to the curse of having small breasts. To be quite honest, I can relate to this. My body shape isn’t one for big boobs, though both my mom and my sister have normal sized ones. Sometimes I lament not having at least a B cup. I mean, that’s Barely even a Boob (get it? B cup? B?). On the other hand, there are quite a few things large busted women have a harder time of doing than those with small chests, and the author mentions this at the end of her story. The author doesn’t like that argument, but I do, and I believe it to be extremely relevant to today’s society in which women are capable of doing anything.

Whatever the size of the breasts, they do matter, especially in the development of a girl’s self esteem. In modern times, though, girls are more confident and open about their womanly issues, leading to higher levels of self esteem. Though the author might not agree, I think boobs are awesome.

 
I also think being a woman is fantastic. Once we stop being so dramatic (alas, not every girl is capable of doing this), we can see the humor in our wildly complex lives. Both of these authors definitely nailed the whole “you’re acting like such a girl” stereotype. And what is the outcome? Hilarity.

If I were a rich man

My best friend, Haley, and I have known each other since we were three years old, and we have had the best of luck to not have been separated the past in 17 years. She attends college at Dallas Baptist University, so we are able to spend time together quite frequently, much to our pleasure. Not much longer than a day has gone by when Haley and I are not swapping stories or pictures or texts. One of the greater aspects of our relationship is that we share the same sense of humor. Almost everything that I find amusing also makes her laugh and vice versa. Though I am a biology major and she is majoring in songwriting, our similar sense of humor always brings us together. 

This past weekend I journeyed to Dallas to see DBU's rendition of Fiddler on the Roof with Haley. DBU has a fantastic music program, and I had never seen Fiddler, so I was excited. However, all I knew about the musical was that it centered around a village of traditional Jewish culture in Russia during the early 1900s. To me, it sounded like a drama. To me, it sounded serious. To me, it sounded, well, boring. I knew, obviously, that it was a highly acclaimed, long-running Broadway musical, but I did not know why. How entertaining can the story be? All I can say is that I'm glad I was wrong.

Fiddler made me laugh. A lot. A couple times I even had to suppress my ensuing giggle fits to retain my reputation as a courteous audience member. The humor we encountered was not usually physical and was not the main focus of the play, though. Most everything humorous that happened stemmed from the protagonist's character, who has the ability to make light of all kinds of serious, sad, and infuriating situations. The Jewish people pray often, and the protagonist would make us laugh during his conversation with God. His village was forced out of their homes by the Russian army, and he would give us a witty one-liner ("Maybe this is why we always wear our hats"). His wife would argue with him, and he would make us laugh at his exaggeration of her nagging.

I found it interesting how much the play made me laugh. I certainly didn't expect it at all, and maybe that was why it was so amusing. This ties into the Incongruity theory of humor that we have been discussing so much in class. Nothing goes in favor of the Jewish people in this story, so one does not expect any part of the situation to be funny. Then, when the mood is suddenly lifted, one laughs easily. There were many cognitive shifts to produce laughter in the play as well. One of my favorite was when a crowd is gathered around a newlywed couple exclaiming, "They have a new arrival!" When the crowd disperses, there is new sewing machine on the table. Thirty seconds later, someone asks offhandedly, "How's the baby?"

I think the humor used by the protagonist was his defense mechanism against the many troubles of his people. "Humor helps people with difficult situations..." wrote Morreall. (Ch. 3, page 66) His consistent ability to make the audience laugh provides a sharp contrast with the seriousness of the problems that come his way. He even has an entire song dedicated to fantasies of wealth and riches, all the while waving his arms in the air in a traditional Jewish dance. (Well, an incredibly silly version of it, in this case.)

Fiddler was awesome, entertaining, and quite funny. I highly recommend it for everyone.
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.