Good news!! I will work for US Olympics Committee

May 1, 2008, I received the notice from USOC (United States Olympic Committee) about my new role this summer in Beijing Olympic Game. I am very happy to get this opportunity, to be one of 35 volunteers to server USOC.

"Greetings!

This email serves as your official invitation you to represent the USOC as a volunteer at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China this summer. Below are the steps you need to take to secure your space at the Games. Please review the attached documents for information on tourist visas, housing and dress code...
"

I vividly remember the interview, talking about my professional work, leadership skills, event-planning abilities, hobbies and other activities. When she found out that I have been working for BBBS(Big Brother, Big Sister) over 8 years, she reponsed "I am the Big too!" wow, immediately, we felt we were much closer and trust between us. Later I look back, when I volunteered for BBBS, it was purely from my heart and passion for Children's growth. Little did I know that it led me more opportunities in several events and expend network horizon. I wonder if BBBS has helped me more then I did.

I am going home to do something which I am longing for, being a bridge between two counties I truly love and appreciate. USOC requires me to be in Beijing from Aug.1 to Aug.24. I will spend the day of Aug. 18 in Beijing. That is a very special day, by Aug. 18, 2008 I come to U.S. totally ten years. I have tought about how special it will be and what I should do to make it very meaningful. see, I will make a circle, staying in China and helping Americans to know more about my country and help them to enjoy this special event in my motherland!

There were couple opportunities that I could work for two famous althetes as interpreter during the game. They will cover my flight, boarding expense and pay for my work. After thinking over, I decided to take this volunteer, long-length, paying all these expense from my own pocket job. I do not want to be in Olympics as audience, or just see the games, not only those, but being involve more in the structure set of organication settings. While many questions my decision, I encourage myself to follow my heart and do what I like to do.

Elissa told me that I will work at the Beijing Hilton -- USOC headquarter (3rd Ring Road) and USA House -- business and hospitality center (right beside Worker Stadium). They are about a 10 minute cab ride from one another and very close to my uncle's place. Ye, Beijing, I am back!

My crazy schedule continues, no complaints here, but more fun and I enjoy it absolutely, really! Yesterday strategic management class we discussed Disney case. Later I found out that I am one of two students never been to disneyland or disneyworld. me, and another american girl. Last year if I did not plan to pursue my plan travelling to east coast, I would have been to disneyland. Maybe I should consider this as my next vacation location. Strategic Management becomes one of my favoriate classes now, though there are tons of reading, referenced reading. I told myself that I will finish all the readings and fully prepared before the class. Though I could get by, I'd rather use my time wisely.

Couple weeks ago, the language agency asked me to help an american family in Children's clinic as interpreter since they just got back from China, adopting one boy(after they have adopted two girls in China.) I said yes. During the interpretering time, I got to know this lady Patty and kid Kai, a cutest nicest kid ever! She expressed the interst about getting Kai and her two girls' Chinese language education. After she found out that I have taught in Chinese school and wondered if I could do the job, I told her "Yes, I will". I know, how crazy my schedule is, but, I just could not say no to her, a nice American lady willing to take three kids to their lives and try her best to keep their heritage and language skills. Plus, I really like this little boy, goofy, funny and very adorable. This monday I spent 1.5 hours there working on their Chinese speaking. I have to admit, these three kids are very committed to learn. They even work on writing those Chinese Characters, cool!

Lately, I found some nice way to get those top rating good books through UW. I am very excited! so far, I still keep up with my new year resolution: one book per week. The Everlynnwood reading skills are helpful for me to read the big books fast without loosing to grasp the meaning of contents. Keep it up, Girl!

This week reading:
1. Developmental entrepreneurship : adversity, risk, and isolation
2. Growing Up With China -- interesting.

Here are the book review for "Growing Up With China" by Wall Street Jounal.

Socialism Is Great!
By Lijia Zhang
(Atlas Books, 320 pages, $24)

Bookshelves are replete with poignant memoirs set during China's Cultural Revolution – but few and far between are personal accounts of the 1980s. The decade that began with Deng Xiaoping opening China to the outside world and ended with the protests of Tiananmen Square in 1989 was transformative not just for China's economy, but also for the people living through it.

This is the backdrop of "Socialism is Great!" a memoir by journalist Zhang Lijia. The book chronicles 10 years in Ms. Zhang's life as a factory worker, during which she is transformed from a dutiful communist leading her school class to a nonconformist responsible for organizing the largest pro-democracy protest in Nanjing in 1989. Socialism is not "great," as the title ironically notes, but rather fosters an air of paranoia and repression so strong that Ms. Zhang is soon doing everything in her power to break out of the mold. Trapped in the stultifying environment typical of a state-owned enterprise characterized by "surplus labor flow and inefficiency" – often leaving workers with little to do other than gossip – Ms. Zhang describes herself as a "frog trapped in a well, unable to access the world beyond."

"Socialism is Great!" is a riveting tale, but it would have benefited from more historical context. The ups and downs of the '80s play a secondary role to Ms. Zhang's coming-of-age story. Now a world traveller and accomplished journalist, Ms. Zhang is full of political insights about the era of her youth. "The 1980s was a big missed opportunity," she notes in an interview. "Political reform is now off-limits. Though people enjoy far more personal freedom – it is freedom to make money, not political freedom. Politically, China is still a cage – but the cage is so big that people don't feel its limits." Perhaps that should be the subject of her next book.