Primary Release

Today I was released as a primary teacher. I have mixed feelings about it- I absolutely LOVED the class that I taught during 2010. They were pretty much my dream class. All of the kids truly cared about learning the gospel- they participated in class and remembered the lessons that I talked about. I did a Jeopardy game for our last lesson of the year (at least with me) and they answered every single question that I asked. I even asked some more obscure ones (worth 500 pts). Even my sister Sarah was impressed when she taught them and how they already knew parts of the story of Jonah and the whale before she had taught them. I was especially sad to see these kids go but they have a great teacher now. One of the girls from my class- Kennan- is moving to Utah. They had a goodbye party for her tonight and it was so fun to be able to see her and talk with her one last time. It was also great to be able to talk with her mother and tell her what a wonderful and amazing daughter she has raised. Her mother told me that Kennan would sometimes offer to do the lessons from our class for family home evening- seriously, what an incredible girl. I feel that I could say the same for all of the kids in my class.

At the same time, I was actually quite relieved to get released because the class that I would have this year is quite difficult. I had them come to my class a couple of times and it was extremely tough- even when I had William with me. I couldn't imagine how I would handle them when it was just myself this year. Maren, give my regards to Ryan and let him know that he is my hero for having that class. It was nice to be able to go to Sunday School and Relief Society after not going for nearly 2 years, but I miss the kids already. At least I am able to still talk with them at church :-)

Books in 2010

Well, I did not come close to my record set last year of 87 books but I was impressed that I was able to come fairly close even with working 3 jobs. For 2010, I read 75 books. The vast majority of the books read towards the end of the year were "kid books" as I like to call them because they are literally found in the children's section of the library. Yet, many of them are so good and to me, of the calibur of Harry Potter. I am a particular fan of the Hunger Games series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and the 39 Clues. I also love the Greg Mortenson books- "3 Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools". I have several that I started in 2010 that are still not finished so I have carried them into 2011. Let me know of any "must reads" or if you have any questions about the following list. I echo the quote of Thomas Jefferson- "I cannot live without books", as is evidenced by their appearing in nearly every available space of our 500 square foot studio apartment.

• In Too Deep- Jude Watson
• The Black Circle- Patrick Carman
• Beyond the Grace- Jude Watson
• The Sword Thief- Peter Lerangis
• One False Note- Gordon Korman
• The Maze of Bones- Rick Riordan
• The Best Medicine- Mike Magee and Michael D'Angel
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth- Jeff Kinney
• The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa- Alexander McCall Smith
• The Battle of the Labyrinth- Rick Riordan
• The Man Who Lied to His Laptop- Clifford Nass
• Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellvue- Danielle Ofri
• The Double Comfort Safari Club- Alexander McCall Smith
• The Titan's Curse- Rick Riordan
• Kitchen Confidential- Anthony Bourdain
• Eat, Pray, Love- Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Age of Empathy- Frans de Waal
• It's Not the Media- Karen Sternheimer
• Gang Leader for a Day- Sudhir Venkatesh
• Spider Bones- Kathy Reichs
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary- Jeff Kinney
• 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life- Cami Walker
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase- Douglas Adams
• For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage- Tara Parker-Pope
• The Sea of Monsters- Rick Riordan
• The Lightning Thief- Rick Riordan
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days- Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw- Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules- Jeff Kinney
• The Lost World- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Who Moved My Cheese?-Spencer Johnson
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Jeff Kinney
• Stones into Schools- Greg Mortenson
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides
• A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
• The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us- Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
• Getting Things Done- David Allen
• A Train to Potevka- Mike Ramsdell
• The Turn of the Screw- Henry James
• The Woman in White- Wilkie Collins
• The Alchemist- Paulo Coehlo
• Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons- Matthew B. Brown
• The House of Mirth- Edith Wharton
• So Much For That- Lionel Shriver
• No Apology: The Case for American Greatness- Mitt Romney
• Robinson Crusoe- Daniel Defoe
• Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins
• Damned Lies and Statistics- Joel Best
• The Man From Beijing- Henning Mankell
• The Portrait of a Lady- Henry James
• On the Road- Jack Kerouac
• More Damned Lies and Statistics- Joel Best
• The Unbearable Lightness of Scones- Alexander McCall Smith
• The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
• In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
• The Eye of the Leopard- Henning Mankell
• The Happiness Project- Gretchen Rubin
• Italian Shoes- Henning Mankell
• How to Be Alone- Jonathon Franzen
• Kennedy's Brain- Henning Mankell
• Glass Ceilings and 100-Hour Couples- Karine Moe and Dianna Shandy
• The World According to Bertie- Alexander McCall Smith
• Death By Prescription- Ray D. Strand
• Love Over Scotland- Alexander McCall Smith
• Our Daily Meds- Melody Petersen
• The Therapeutic Nightmare- Morton Mintz
• Super Freakonomics- Steven D. Leavitt & Stephen J. Dubner
• Cry, the Beloved Country- Alan Paton
• Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs- Jerry Avorn
• Espresso Tales- Alexander McCall Smith
• What the Dog Saw- Malcolm Gladwell
• Three Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Have a Little Faith- Mitch Albom
• 360 Degrees Longitude- John Higham

"I'm a Back"

For those not familiar with Super Mario Brothers for Wii, this is what one of the characters says after they die and are allowed to re-enter the game- "I'm a Back". I thought that was the perfect title to begin the blog post after my long hiatus.

Firstly, let me just say that everything is GREAT! I truly do appreciate all of the emails, facebook messages, texts, and in-person requests making sure that everything was okay with us since I wasn't blogging. Let me explain what I have been up to for the past few months. In August, we went on a trip to Utah for the Kunz family reunion and celebrated my 30th birthday with my family. I went European and took a blogging break for that month and I very much intended to resume blogging in September.

However, with 10 days before the beginning of the quarter, Santa Clara University called me and asked if I would be willing to fill in last minute for one of the other full time professors who had an "emergency" (not sure what) but couldn't teach the class. The books had already been ordered (there were 5 and I was only familiar with 2 of them) but I was able to get a very rough syllabus together for teaching Social Problems in the U.S. I really LOVED this class- maybe even a little more than Intro- although I would definitely change some of the readings for next time. But, this class is the reason for my blogging hiatus. I was working 30 hours a week doing qualitative research in addition to teaching the class, which takes up an incredible amount of time to prepare and grade, so any free time I had was not spent on the computer, but squeezing in some cultural adventures- primarily with my husband- to keep my sanity :-) We also spent 2 weeks in Utah for the holidays, together with both our families so much time was spent having fun there. Thus, blogging suffered BUT I'm a back now since I only have ONE job for now- doing research at Palo Alto Medical Foundation- thus leaving me with more time to catalog many of the adventures that we have experienced and will experience.

While I am kind of sad to not be teaching again, since I really do enjoy it so much, I am very happy to have a "break" and reconnect with everyone. Thanks to everyone who has been patient awaiting, and expect much, much more to come for 2011 :-)

Hard Working Husband

I just have to write about how much I absolutely ADORE my hard working husband. He truly puts his heart and soul into his job, yet, he makes sure that he always has time for me. I know that I am his top priority and that means more than I can express.

A few weeks ago, he went on a business trip to Japan to help close a big deal. It was only for a week and I was so sad that I couldn't go with him due to my "real job" where I need to be in an office. I am truly so happy that it was not for longer- it had appeared earlier that it might be for nearly a month. I am so happy that it was not for that long. I historically have never been a needy person- I valued my alone time, but I then met William. I absolutely love being with him- it is when I truly feel complete. I am one of those nerdy wives who cannot WAIT for her husband to get home every day. So, a week was fairly tough. I at least was able to talk with him on video chat by Skype everyday (and sometimes multiple times a day :-) I tried to either keep myself super busy going to cultural events or else I didn't feel like doing anything- my productivity totally decreased with him gone. William worked INCREDIBLY long hours on this trip to help close the deal. I remember talking with him one night before I went to bed and he said that he was about ready to go to a meeting. When I woke up over 7 hours later, he had JUST GOTTEN OUT OF THE MEETING. And this was over a weekend while in Japan.

William's hard work previously has allowed him to work on this big, exciting project. You can read all about the project for which he is manager here in the New York Times (although he is not specifically mentioned). He has been working even longer hours with this project and I just want him to know how much I appreciate him. I feel so bad that I am such a complainer about my sitting at a desk job for at the most 8 hours a day with my 30 hour a week job while he generally averages at least twice that every week. Yet he continues to work late hours into the night to provide for us and our future. I am beyond proud of him and just want the world to know that everyday I consider myself to be the lucky one to have him come home to me. I love you William!!

A Few Cultural Events

My apologies for my sporadic blogging- having a 30 hour a week job in an office has required some adjustment :-) But, I still have been attending some cultural events over the past two months.

Chris Botti and the San Francisco Symphony: On Thursday, June 3rd I attended a San Francisco Symphony performance highlighting the AMAZING trumpet player Chris Botti. My friends Melba and Jacosa introduced me to him while living in Boston and so I have enjoyed listening to his music so I jumped at the chance to hear him live. And it was SO WORTH it. The man is truly a genius with the trumpet- and he actually shared some personal details about his life. He said that he was only a few weeks away from graduating from college when he received a call asking him to play with FRANK SINATRA. Talk about an opportunity of a lifetime and so he took it and his career has skyrocketed since then. I definitely want to see his concert that he recorded with the Boston Pops after he mentioned it several times.

In the Heights: This Tony award winning musical came to San Francisco at the beginning of June and I absolutely loved it. They showed a segment from the show on "So You Think You Can Dance" and that excerpt did not do the show justice. I think of it as kind of a modern day West Side Story with incredible hip hop dancing. The male lead also did some incredible rapping- so talented. I highly recommend this piece.

Adventures in Oz: One of the girls in my primary class, Karenna, invited me to see her in her elementary school production of an original play called "Adventures in Oz." This is an after-school club that each kid pays money to be a part of and I was entirely BLOWN AWAY by the quality of this production. Amazing costumes, great AV equipment including body mics for the kids, different sets, lighting, etc. They combined the best aspects and songs from the original Wizard of Oz, the Wiz, and Wicked into this unique creation that the kids really seemed to enjoy performing in. I was just impressed of this scale of production for an elementary school.

Shanghi Exhibit: I also attended the special exhibit on Shanghi at the Asian Museum of Art in San Francisco. I went on a Thursday night when the museum is open late and admission to the exhibit it only $10. The exhibit focused on art from the late 1800s until the present time. I greatly enjoyed how several artists were able to incorporate traditional Chinese painting techniques and blend them with a modern flair. They had several installations, one in the main atrium, showing how Shanghi art is coming into its own element. I also learned about how their art went through a censorship period where it utilized the Socialist propaganda during the reign of Mao. It was a fascinating exhibit that was made even more so by my being able to catch on to one of the guided tours. For the modern art pieces, you really need a guide- particularly this one who had actually met and talked with some of the artists about the motivations and inspirations behind their pieces. Now I want to go to Shanghai . . .

Young Frankenstein: I also went and saw the Mel Brook's musical "Young Frankenstein". I saw Producers when it was on Broadway and it is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes. I had those same expectations of this musical and they were not met. It was funny, but definitely not on the same level as the Producers. Seeing Frankenstein dance to "Putting on the Ritz" was a classic moment of the show. I did enjoy my amazing seats on row E for $50 plus fees (I am a huge fan of the last minute theater deals on Travelzoo).

Japanese Odon Festival: Ironically, while William was on business in Japan, I attended a small Odon festival that was being held at the Buddhist temple at the end of our street. I feel bad that I had never noticed the temple before the festival, mainly since it is set back away from the street. My favorite part of the festival was catching the live taiko drum performance. This group was amazing and they were predominately women-truly the highlight of the festival for me.

The festival also has a room of Ikebana, bonzai, doll making, and interesting rock formations. There were food booths with sushi but also Western food like polish sausages and fries. They also had a huge tent where there was some intense Bingo going on- some of the people had several cards all around them competing for some good prizes. They also had more of a carnival for the kids with games like dime toss, fishing for goldfish that you could take home, ring toss, and other games to win prizes. It was fun for me to walk around and get a taste for the culture that William was currently involved in.

I feel so lucky to so close to be able to experience such great cultural events and to not have to deal with the freezing temperatures of San Francisco on a daily basis :-)

Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site

I have only read one of Eugene O'Neill's plays- "A Long Days Journey into Night"- but I was still interested in viewing the home where he wrote this seminal work. It is free to view, but you generally have to have reservations except on Saturdays during the summer. I was glad that I had extensively checked the directions on the website because it is very different from most National Parks. You cannot just drive up to the house because the house is located along a small, private road with other houses in Danville, CA so you have to meet at the San Ramon Valley Museum where a shuttle will take you the site. On Saturdays during the Summer, the shuttle leaves at 10, 12, and 2. I went to the 2 pm group and I was one of only 3 people which was nice because we were able to ask the rangers stationed throughout the home about some specifics rather than just having the self-guided brochure tour. The park ranger driving the bus was this sweet old man who would provide narration about the history of the town as we drown to the site. He said that Danville is known for 3 things: Eugene O'Neill, the restaurant where the choking scene was filmed in Mrs. Doubtfire, and Captain Sully who landed the plane onto the Hudson River.

The O'Neill home sits on a hillside with a great view of the valley and Mount Tam.

This winding path to the house was purposefully constructed to emulate the Chinese proverb "Evil moves only in a straight line." It is only fitting that they called the house the "Tao House"

O'Neill LOVED the water and so he chose this particular location so that he could swim year round in this pool. Everyday he would go out for a swim at 1 pm after he had spent the morning writing.

There are still several barns- one in which they perform some of his plays every year. They have kept a more rustic feel to the grounds.

The O'Neill's had a dalmatian dog named "Silverdene Emblem" but they primarily called him "Blemie." As I know from experience, pets can literally become another member of the family. They buried their beloved Blemie out in the yard, under the shade of a large tree.

I love the epitaph of "Sleep in Peace, Faithful Friend"

Near the grave site, they had a panel touting the "Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill" (obviously written by O'Neill in the voice of Blemie). I was actually so touched by what was written here as I can relate with our beloved Spankie growing older as well.

I did not know very much about the life of O'Neill and so I was struck by just how much of his life was like the tragedies his works attempted to capture. His father was an actor and his mother was addicted to morphine so he had a very rough childhood. He tried to commit suicide while in his 20s and had several failed marriages (his 3rd time was the charm). He also had 3 kids- two boys and girl- and both boys ultimately committed suicide in their adulthood (his daughter married Charlie Chaplin and had like seven kids so she was ok). Long Day's Journey into Night is VERY autobiographical- he reportedly would just cry at his desk while he wrote it. He had said that it was not to be published until 25 years after his death but his wife released it after 3 (his 3rd wife Carlotta with whom he lived in the Tao House had her own way of running things as she had the bedroom with the best view even though she had bad eyesight, probably due to her having to interpret Eugene's handwriting. As he got older, his handwriting became smaller and shakier- they had a sample of it and I could not decipher most words, even with the help of a magnifying glass). Eugene was only able to write with a pen and paper according to his own literary process and so as his disease worsened, he ultimately was unable to write. O'Neill had his own library where he had 2 desks where he would work on two plays simultaneously, with one manuscript on each desk. I loved that he could just wheel back and forth between them. He owned an amazing 8,000 books which he kept in his home- a man after my own heart, though I am no where near that amount (but I have no idea just how many I do have between my apartment and even more at my parents house). Eugene won several Pulitzer Prizes and a Nobel Prize for Literature. At the house, they have a copy of his Nobel which was specially designed to capture his works. After going to the site, I definitely want to read some more of his works since I have an even better understanding about the man who created them.

Genghis Khan: The Exhibition

William and I went to Genghis Khan: The Exhibit at the Tech Museum of San Jose on Saturday. We were hoping that it would be as good as the Leonardo exhibit they had awhile ago and it was amazing and definitely worth the steep admission price ($25 which does get you also into the Tech's permanent exhibits but not IMAX). William and I learned SO much and are shocked that Genghis Khan was not more of a prominent figure of study at school. While Ghengis Khan was alive, he expanded his kingdom to be TWICE the size of the Roman Empire, even taking over Beijing. And under the reign of his grandson, Kublaihi Khan, the empire expanded to FOUR times the size of the Roman Empire. We both had NO idea that his empire had grown that large. And that he literally left his genetic mark upon the world as 1.5% of Westerners have his DNA. The exhibit was slightly on the more favorable portrayal of Genghis Khan but they did at least mention about many of his harsh tactics and punishments.

Chinngis, as he is referred to in Mongolia, was the son of a local tribe leader, although his mother was not the primary wife. His father was murdered when he was 9 years old and the tribe forced out his mother and her children. This affected Chinngis so that we he did begin his conquests, he initially based his appointments upon merit and achievement, not kinship (although he broke this later on in his life when he split his kingdom up between his sons). They mentioned that he killed his step-brother but never indicated why. He spent most of his life living in a yurt- or a ger as they termed it- continually moving around, fighting battles. He had no main capital during his lifetime. As he traveled, he carried these two banners of yak hair- one with white representing peace and the black other representing war.

The exhibit had quotes placed throughout the exhibition, some that were surprising to think that they came from Ghengis Khan and others, like the one below, captured my overall conception of him.

"I am the wrath of God . . . if you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."

YIKES is all that I have to say! And I would have been terrified to go into battle with these guys. They mastered warfare on horseback- being able to shoot behind them with their bow and arrows. Even while they and their horses were wearing armor.

They specially crafted their bows so that they would shoot 100 yards farther than the Europeans could at the time. We were able to see a bow- and try pulling it pull it back (we didn't try) and they didn't release it either :-)

The gentleman that you see in the photo actually created this beautiful red mask featured below

He also made 107 other masks, and he demonstrated his old man mask with a traditional dance. He is one of the organizers of the exhibit and he and his two children now live in Washington D.C. His son and daughter attend a Mongolian school on Saturdays where they learn traditional dances, language, and other aspects of their culture. They are here in the area for the summer where he and his children perform every hour from 1-6 pm at the exhibit to help bring the culture to life. And they definitely did that- the little girl was adorable in her fancy costumes and the elder brother that has some great dancing abilities.

Some of the other notable aspects of Chinngis was that he allowed for complete religious freedom throughout the empire and created golden passports. We are glad that we were able to learn more about this pivotal figure in history and glad that people are trying to bring knowledge and understanding about his empire.