Spring in Valencia & A Memorial to My Grandmother

It has been almost 6 months since I moved down to the Los Angeles area. It's crazy to think that I have almost been down here for half a year already. So much has happened...is happening...and continuing to change that it is really hard to keep pace with it all.

Valencia, California:
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I live at almost the northern most extent of Los Angeles county next to Magic Mountain (Six Flags) and the Grapevine (what the Californians affectionately have termed the mountains dividing southern California from northern California - or at least that is how the people from SoCal see it. I am probably about 1 hour from the heart of Los Angeles city, 2 hours from San Diego, and probably about 1 hour away from the beach and mountain. To be honest though, I rarely leave Valencia due to the cost of gas and the seemingly amazing distance that most of my friends (Corona, Oceanside, Irvine, San Diego, etc...) live away from me. Los Angeles county is one of the most ridiculously sprawled counties that I have ever encountered and traveling by car will invariably take you an hour no matter where you are going.

Upon entry into Valencia I was shocked the desert landscape and overall lack of GREEN, but then again I came here right after summer and into what someone might call 'Fall' and 'Winter'. Regardless of what the locals tell you, none of their weather really qualifies for either of these two seasons, except perhaps the later and even then it might be January before you really feel like 'Fall' has even started. That being said, this is SoCal and we have to play by their rules, and I am learning to have a greater understanding and appreciation for the culture down here.

Quick Sidenote: I apologize for my never-ending obsession with climate and environment. I am a Northwesterner learning to live in a desert. It is a process and taking a whole lot more time than I would like to admit....

While, perhaps, the concepts of Fall and Winter might be misunderstood between people from the Pacific Northwest and those from SoCal, Spring isn't and I am very thankful for its existence here. It might seem funny, but I have decided that God just hasn't wired me like most people (not that we aren't all unique). While I appreciate the sun and the happiness it gives to everyone else, it just doesn't meet my needs which I have decided to list out into 6 categories.

(1) Green
(2) Trees
(3) Rivers
(4) Rain
(5) Seasons
(6) Mountains

I never really thought about these being issues until these last few months when I realized:

(1) SoCal isn't green;
(2) Most of its trees would qualify for bushes in the Northwest or at least 'small' trees;
(3) There are NO rivers;
(4) Ask any local, rain for 5 days in a row is like what some might call a 'storm';
(5) Summer and Spring don't count if you don't have Winter and Fall (50 degrees no matter how you spin it isn't justification for calling it winter, neither is 40); and
(6) They have actually have mountains, but the problem is they exemplify what the natural environment is - a desert (brown, dead, and dying).

Back to Valencia:

Valencia isn't too much different city-wise from its structure and development than that of Vancouver. It is kind of spread-out and there you can definitely tell the differences between new and old, poor and rich, and so on. Of all random things, I have managed to end up in what I could consider the 'rich' part of town. At first, I was kind of uncomfortable about this since this is clearly a break from my normal social habitat. Then I realized it was okay since it provided me a nice and convenient living space close to both my work and girlfriend. It is still kind of strange to be driving around my Subaru station wagon passing my neighbors who are driving Mercedes, Lexus, and various other luxury cars. The only thing I have that expensive, or at least ownership of, is my student loans, and well...they just don't function the same way a Lexus or a Mercedes might.

Thinking about it some more, here are some of my favorite places in Valencia (Granted you could probably find them all over California)

(1) BJ's Restaurant & Brewery
(2) In & Out
(3) California Pizza Kitchen


Azusa Pacific University
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For those of you that don't know (there might be many of you...) I ended up going back to school....again. I decided that working at Starbucks for the rest of my life wasn't really a good career move or something that would really challenge and grow me.

I realized that despite the challenges and great difficulties that teaching presents, it is both the only thing I really enjoy no matter how much time and energy I have to pour into it. Furthermore, it allows me to be constantly growing and learning new things, which is something very important to me (I get bored too easily). After surveying the colleges and universities surrounding me, I decided to apply to Azusa Pacific because of (1) cost (2) Education department (3) and length of its program (adjustable). Additionally, Azusa offered a greater breadth of programs, which, I felt, allowed me to stay as close to my ultimate goal* as possible.

My ultimate goal is to return to China and teach and study there; however, it might be awhile before I can. The degree I chose (M.A. in Digital Teaching and Learning) allows me to keep apace with education as it is here in the States, but also gives me room to study on my own: TESOL, ESL, Language and other things I have the discipline to do on my own. I am also hoping to clep out of some classes and in turn substitute them for courses on TESOL.

I was accepted the first week of February, right before classes begun and have been working at a very fast pace since then. I really haven't had much time for anything besides going to work (I work about 30-35 hours a week), school (including driving time on top of class it comes to nearly 20 hours a week sometime), homework, and observations of high school class that is required for my coursework. I actually love all of it, but it is definitely a learning curve on time management and study ethics after being gone from school for nearly 2 years.

Elaine Jahnke
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My grandmother passed away last week. It is so strange to think that she is gone; she has been there my whole life. My grandfather (who passed away in 2000) and grandmother practically helped raise me when I was kid by tutoring, taking me to swimming lessons, taking and picking me up from school. If it wasn't for my grandmother I wouldn't have been able to attend most of college, especially going to Simpson, Xiamen, and Washington State University. She practically funded my first trip to Guangxi, China and was incredibly helpful in supporting me during my time in Nanchang. There is so much that I could say about my grandmother, but it will suffice to say that I loved her a lot and will miss her....

On Saturday, March 13th my sister and I will fly up to Washington to attend my grandmother's funeral. I am stoked that my family is flying me up and it will be nice to be 'home' since I haven't seen it in almost 6 months...