1、Figure 1: David and IDear friends,I hope this letter finds you warm and healthy. I figure itsabout time I sit down and punch out a letter for you. While ex-citing plans to write this years news in sonnet form1 fell through,here goes my annual letter.On the right is a photo of yours truly with author
2、 DavidSedaris, “one of the best writers of our time.”2 Davidswritten such fine works such as “Me Talk Pretty One Day,”“Naked,” and, most recently, “Dress Your Family In Corduroyand Denim.” While hilariously funny, what makes Davids piecesso incredible, and takes him beyond the realm of humor, is his
3、stark observations of humanity. I recommend you get yourself acopy as a new years gift. Its bound to be much appreciated.3I started the year off with five courses. I apparently de-cided Honors Analysis with Paul Sally, Jr., third-year Chinese at9:30AM five days a week, Philosophical Perspectives and
4、 Seman-tics wasnt enough, and decided to add the one Intro Linguisticscourse needed for my concentration. When three or four courses constitutes a full load, five is rather rare, but this actuallyturned out to be my best quarter academically last year. Maybe it was that I loved everything I was taki
5、ng. Maybe itsthat the Regenstein library shines like a fortress, glistening in the sunbeams reflected off all the white and protecting yousimultaneously from the distractions of dorm life and the frigid Chicago winter.Its definitely not that there wasnt anything better to do than study. In January,
6、my Japanese Club hosted Iron ChefChicago as part of the International Food Festival. A team of chefs from the Vegan Society and Culinary Club had 45 minutesto prepare a meal featuring potatoes for a panel of eclectic judges. I burned my coat slightly on a halogen light, but thathasnt stopped me from
7、 strutting the flannel. I also organized the Math Clubs pi-day study break on March 14th. We droveout to Bakers Square, bought $350 worth of pie, and served it up. Wondered what that student activity fee did? It feedsthose in the know.Spring quarter rolled in with the warmer weather, and I decided t
8、o switch things up a bit. I decided against taking thethird quarter of Philosophical Perspectives, and instead added French. Not having taken any French in two years, it found itquite refreshing. For linguistics I took Lexical Functional Grammar, the formalism developed by Joan Bresnan of Stanford.A
9、fter taking a number of classes in a Chomskian framework, it was neat seeing a different approach. In Chinese we focusedon scholarly and philosophical works of the last century by the likes of Hu Shi, on topics such as patriotism and writingreform. I completed my year of math with Sally, relatively
10、unscathed. One of the best moments of the class was at thebeginning of the quarter, when someone sent out an email to the class from as an April Fools joke.We told Sally about it the next day, and his comment was “Hot mail? Thats me, baby!” This coming from a 71 year oldman with a fake leg and an e
11、ye patch. I participated in Scav Hunt this quarter, a great Chicago tradition, completing oneof the larger items: compiling “Brain Farts: The Complete Works of the University of Chicago Bathroom Graffiti.” I didntget much sleep that weekend, even in all those bathrooms.The highlight of my year must
12、have been my summer. I worked at the Mori4 for my fourth summer. I feel personally likethis may have been my toughest year yet. Jumping out of boxes, making it look like its raining with hoses and writing songsabout meat has started to become normal in my book. I felt like I had become more observan
13、t of different camp issues, andthus gave myself more to deal with. Still, at the end of the day, you see the kids faces as they walk back home with theirfriends, and they wouldnt change it for anywhere else they could be. Neither would I.After the Mori, I went straight to Chicago to catch the tail e
14、nd of the Math Departments Research Experiences forUndergrads program. I spent two weeks living with Greg and Evan in an apartment in Hyde Park, watching math (anddoing some), hanging out, cooking with Greg, checking out a jazz club, learning about Mormonism and acting as Evansnutritionist. It was a
15、lso just nice and incredibly relaxing to be in the city but without the stress of school, to experienceChicago in a different light. After that, I spent a week in Paris. Ive been to Paris before, ten years ago, but I didnt speakany French then. Now I do, and I hadnt been back, so I was itching to go
16、, and then I found it. A geeky excuse to go toParis: Apple Expo 2003. I went alone, stayed in a hostel, meeting people from all over the world (maybe even finding a newhire for the Mori next summer), bought CDs and walked the streets of Paris. It was incredibly relaxing, and so much fun.1in the gran
17、d tradition of Edmund Burke2my friend Steve3For those of you disappointed by the lack of shocking photos of me in this years letter, I direct you to my profile photo. Imsure most of you have access to a college student who could sneak you a peek.4Mori no Ike, Concordia Language Villages Japanese vi
18、llage. http:/www.concordialanguagevillages.org. Cultural and language immersionsummer camps for kids ages 718. 13 village languages. Work for us. Spread the word.1In the few weeks I spent at home, I met up with friends, played Risk, and contra danced. Its neat to see that you can sitdown with a bunc
19、h of good friends whom you havent seen in months, and its almost like youve never left. Weve all changedin different ways, but the dynamic hasnt really changed. I guess that could be good or bad, but in a way its comforting.This quarter at school I took the first quarter of Honors Algebra, Honors Ph
20、ysics, and a sequence simply titled Mind, andPhonetics. Mind is a mix of psychology, evolutionary biology, human development, etc.great stuff. In Phonetics I learnedthat you can produce an alveolar click and a g simultaneouslyask me to demonstrate sometime. Physics has been a bitbrutal, to say the l
21、east, but at least Im in the company of great Hendus suffering with me through the wee hours of thenight. It might help to go to class more often. Ill try that strategy next quarter, I swear.Speaking of Hendu5, I was elected House President this year, overseeing official house business and running t
22、he weeklyhouse meetings. We recently raised over $300 in a bun sale, much to the dismay of the Chinese. Im still involved with theJ-Club and Math Club, and continue to give weekly tours for the Admissions office, which I began doing in the spring. I alsostarted working as a Peer Educator with Resour
23、ces for Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP). We do a variety of awarenesswork throughout the year, as well as run peer-led acquaintance rape prevention workshops for houses and student groups.To add to the excitement this quarter was my bike accident in October. I had some things off of my handlebars
24、which gotcaught in the wheel, flinging me face first towards the paved ground, though I dont remember a bit of it. The best part mayhave been when the nurse asked my resident head Hyeyoung, married with a three year old child, if she was my wife. If ithad been just a week later, I wouldve been set f
25、or Halloween, but I shouldnt push my luck. I was very lucky with no severedamage, and have made a very fast near-complete recovery.Ive been blessed with some great jobs at the University. In February I joined a team of linguists and programmers indeveloping Kanji alive,6 a free online program for le
26、arning kanji, Japanese Chinese characters. My latest gig has been infont design for an ancient script called Demotic, most easily explained as the second script on the Rosetta stone. But whatprobably takes most of my time is being a TA for a Calc sequence, the 150s. I spend hours upon hours grading
27、problem setsevery week, but standing at the board during problem session, explaining things, and working with the students during officehours makes it worth it. I spend my spare time watching movies (Garden State and Before Sunset were good this year),cooking, reading books (most recently Naked Econ
28、omics and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), playing guitar,listening to music and working on websites, including gasp! my own. Check out the brand new .Change has been a slight theme this year. For example, I eat bread now. Dont worry, its not a regular thing. And I stilldont really like i
29、t. On a more serious note, for example, it dawned on me a few months ago that I was much surer of myfuture career plans before I entered college than today. Its not that I dont see the University setting me up for a career.7Its that Ive found myself fascinated by most everything, even things I once
30、dismissed as not my bag, such as Biology andMortuary Science. I also have realized I want to work with people more, especially after my work at the Mori and with RSVP,and work such as marriage counseling interests me greatly. Somehow over the past year, Ive become a person that peoplecome to more fo
31、r relationship advice than for fixing their computer, and while I dont quite understand the transformation,I welcome it. Frankly, I dont think Ive actually changed that much inside, but I feel my image somehow has.Some things dont change, though. I stare down at the bathroom floor in an Airbus A330
32、and come up with a beautifultiling problem and procede to prove results on napkins. I wonder what comparing linguistic mistakes infants make in differentcultures would tell you about our faculty of language. And Mandarin verb copying still bothers me. Im just not sure if Illkeep doing math or lingui
33、stics five or ten years from now. But for now, my hearts still set on my Math and Linguisticsdouble major, and Ill probably even do the Masters in Linguistics. Itll go a long way towards that career in marriagecounseling, Im sure.I leave you with a note on my family, who is alive and well. My sister
34、, who worked her first summer at the Mori thisyear, is applying to colleges with good music programs, and got her driving license this yearon her third try. To put thisin perspective, it only took me one try, even driving for five seconds on the wrong side of the street. The local Japanesecommunity
35、seems to have discovered Flash animation e-cards, and my moms computers been making cute noises ever since.Shes still teaching Japanese at Lutheran High School and teaches second grade at the Japanese school on weekends. Mydads still in Memphis, coming up on weekends, working hard to keep rice on th
36、e table.I hope your 2004 was as exciting as mine. I look forward to a healthy and productive new year for all. Take care andkeep in touch.Always,mitcho5Henderson House, my “house” in the dorm system: http:/henderson-house.uchicago.edu6http:/kanjialive.lib.uchicago.edu. Check it out.7In fact, the Universitys been preparing me with important life skills: as of late, my parallel parking has gotten really, really good.2
