Yet Another Canada Trip

I recently visited Calgary on my company paid trip for training for 5 days. There was about 14 people in our training group 4 from slc office and the remaining from texas, houston, toronto and miami. We had factory tour and ice training. It was nice to be able to put face on some of my workers there. There were various activities, cookbook company had a chef that taught us how to cook. I made some new friends from our company. Upon my arrival in slc, i was greeted by bunch of people at home for welcome home party. We stayed up until 3am playing various games and socializing etc. The next day ash and I went out to see captain america at dollar theater and cooked yumy pork sweet potato crock pot dinner. We are looking into our next travel plan to visit several countries in southeast asia.

Yaks, Reindeers, Eagles and Camels

Ok, got little bit time to write in here again. Well where was I? Somewhere in mongolia. Okay so Mongolia 3 weeks did go by really fast there. There was so much I wanted to do or I wanted to see, but was not able to them all in that time frame. We basically started out with Gandan Monastery which is in UB. It is a pretty cool monastery that survived many years of changes. My apartment was right across this Gandan temple. Because it is so close I use to go there quite often before joining the church. I remember when dalai lama visited there was so many people and I also went there before my big final test. We also went to Natural History Museum. I remember it being the coolest museum. But the museum still looks the same as 10 years ago. They quite a bit dinosaur exhibits there but the big T-rex was not there as it was traveling in Europe. We get to see smaller T-rex but it was still like 12 feet or something. Countryside was fun, we drove to Lake Hovsgol along with many other locations such as Amarsanaa temple, Taihar rock, Karakorum, etc. There are total of 21 states and we visited 8 of them on our trip. So we can say we almost visited 1/3 of the country. It was fun to ride on Land Cruiser 80. It was an suv made exactly for Mongolia or Australia. Our total gas price for 5 day trip was whopping $700. Gas price was little more in Mongolia and rough terrain also contributed in high gas usage. But the pics we took and experiences we had cannot be measured by money. Camel and Yak rides were fun. Eagle on your shoulder picture was cool. Volcanic crate and 2 million years old Lake hovsgol one of the cleanest lakes in the world. It was interesting to see Badarchin “Bums” in Mongolia walking around and seeking adventure. We picked up 2 swiss couple out nowhere walking and they did not speak Mongolian and sleeping in Nomadic’s yurts and helping herders. It was really green in the countryside and the livestock was everywhere. Hills and mountains all covered with animals and herders. It was interesting that although the land size was so big there still was so much livestock everywhere. Fresh Mare’s milk, Yak butter, Raindeer tea and butter were some interesting food we tried. For me of course they are normal but for Ash it was not. Well time is up I gotta write later.

Mongolia after 7 years or really in 10 years

So I flew to Mongolia the flight is really short and sweet. When I got there there was Mongolian citizen line and foreign visitors line at the immigration. I thought I will be done so quick since I am Mongolian national. I was wrong. They made me wait there for like 30 mins. Got questioned about how I left the country and new registration had been done on my passport etc. What happened was that they did not see departure stamp from Mongolia on my passport. Last time when they put the stamp on my passport the ink was really faint and they missed to see it. Anyways, I made it through and then got picked up by my family and was able to experience Mongolia. The road from airport to UB was pretty messed up. Just like when I left the country 7 years ago. I was shocked that after this many years why have not they fixed it. It was nice to see my family after many years. I had tsuivan as my first meal there. After I got there I found out the summer plumbing project has started in the city and each districts takes turn. This time the place I was staying had their turn and was told that hot water should had been back a month ago but it had not. Luckily Mongolian air so dry that I did not sweat a bit and my skin looked better than in 7 years just being there. I did not take a shower but no sweat and my skin was back to normal perfect look. Strange how my skin preferred Mongolian weather over any other place’s. I had about a week before Ash came to Mongolia. The air quality in the city was pretty bad due to too many suv’s and cars. It was nice to see green Bogd Khan Mountain right next to Ulaanbaatar. Although in Utah the mountains are right in Salt Lake it did not look the same as Mongolian mountains. The Bogd Khan Mountain looked more natural and beautiful than Utah mountains. Very green. I guess this summer it rained quite a bit. It was still little chilly but I liked that kinda weather. As far as food is concerned people are eating little too much mutton nowadays. Cuz they are costing half the price of beef. When I was in Mongolia it was mostly beef. Mutton did taste gross in steamed form but was really good when it was fried or boiled. I did not that much first few days. Took me 3-4 days to really get used to the food. I will write more later. This is getting really long post.

Summer Trip Korea Part1

We had a great long vacation this summer. I took a month off of work and Ash took 2 weeks off. We had different flights almost the whole trip except only one flight we were together. Last time I left the states was when I visited Korea and Mongolia for a short time like a week back in 2004. I mostly took flights inside the US since that time and noticed that significant change in Airline industry when it comes to internation flights. I took Korea air and Singapore air and both airlines Entertainment system changed completely since last time I flew internationally. Probably because of the recent advancement in computer and entertainment in general. I stayed at PJ and Lorri's for a week. I had no problem of finding their place. Since last time I was in Seoul, this city has once again transformed itself. Most of the subway’s are upgraded with glass protective doors like the ones at airport usually. People dress so much better now in Korea than they did 7 years ago. More advancement had been made in Korean Hyundai car industry. Yes they are nation that love their national products. I did travel countryside and to Busan of Korea by their new bullet train. I love the Korean countryside. Lush green pointy low hills and rice farming everywhere. The railroad from Seoul to Busan went through at least 100 mountain tunnels tells you how expensive the project was. I visited my brother who was working there by Busan. I took several buses to get there. Some of the mountains in Busan reminded me of Hawaii. Busan in general is not high techy city like Seoul but it has its own Pearl Harbour or Honolulu feel to it(not as exactly the same) The beach there was not as pretty as North shore or Hawaii’s but still got nice long sandy beach. People there for sure have different fashion style than Seoul. They do have many tourists visiting Busan. I did go out quite a bit in Busan with my brother. Busan did have subway but pretty small and have little older payment system like how seoul subway was 7 years ago. Seoul’s subway payment system got complete makeover now. There was not whole a lot to see in Busan compare to Seoul. But it did have quite a bit natural spots or temples to go by the shores. I spent in a motel in Busan with my brother, awkward experience since mostly couples go there. We found out it was a lot cheaper to spend night at JimJilBan Korean public bath place for like 7500 Won. Cheapest crappiest motel was like around $60,000 WON. On my birthday Ash I went to LotteWorld. It was pretty fun there. Almost 90% of the people there were couples who were on dates. In the States 90% of it would be families with their kids. That shows you how young Korea is. Seoul did become one of the most advanced tech cities due to its later development, almost everything was built with future technology in mind unlike old Europe and states they built their city anew. I will write later more about the trip.

Mongolia Trip Recap

Sain Baina yy,

I have made it to Mongolia! It is pretty unique and crazy! The apartment we are in is kinda nice. I have yet to have a warm shower. I guess there is maintenance going on so they turn the hot water off and on. The toilet is WEIRD... I am still trying to figure out how to flush it.... It is chilly and windy today.... Munk got some awesome stuff here shopping for dang good prices. I am excited to go shopping! Munk's mom said I have lost weight so she is trying to stuff me full of things, but my appetite is a little smaller here... maybe because it is mutton and I am just not used to that taste. I ate Tsuivan for breakfast and that was really yummy. They bought beef/steak for me hahaha. Munk and I have a nice room and a bed, but no pillows hahaha. All of our electronics work here so that is nice. We are at a crazy internet cafe right now. They are playing what sounds like Hindi music, but Mongolian language. The part of the city we are in is still developing, but nothing like Korea. We have two doors for the entrance with about 7 locks so I think we are safe. Anyways, I don't have much else to say except the airport was tiny. You practically walk off the plane and there is customs and then go down some stairs and there is the baggage claim. That is it~ anyways, I will update you more as I experience it. Munk has to get some registration paperwork here or he can't leave the country... so we are trying to do it. We leave for the country side tomorrow so we will not have any contact for about 5 days. We will travel 500km over about 2 days in a land cruiser to get up North. I am sure it will be even colder up there.

Country Side Adventure in Mongolia

Day 1

We left Ulaanbaatar early in the morning and on our way we visited some states that were already celebrating Naadam. They were horse racing, which was fun to see. We drove a lot all day. We were on paved road some of the time, but mostly dirt roads that have made me sore. We went to a Buddhist temple called Amarbayasgalan, what a mouth full. On our way there, we saw some Swiss hitch hikers that were stinky and we gave them a ride to the temple. I had to sit by them on this bumpy road... The temple was really cool. It is not like the temples you see in Korea or other parts of Asia. This temple is very old and there are munks still practicing in them. We got to go inside and listen to them read prayer roles. I saw two lil rebel munk boys that were playing on a smart phone... I dunno how they got it since they are in the middle of no where. At the temple there is a mini stupa that you crawl into, stand up in, look through a tiny whole, and make a wish. We did that and boy - it was a tight fit. After visiting the temple we drove on ward to lake hovsgol. We stayed in Moron, the city close to lake hovsgol. Munk and I stayed in a Motel called "Grand Motel". It was not grand by any means. There was no shower or hot water from the bathroom that was public. Our room was a closet and the bed was a slab of wood. This bed was also smaller than a twin size bed. So as you can imagine, it was somewhat of a sleepless night and having a couple of drunks yelling, fighting, and throwing things at each other outside our room didn't make matters any better; however, it did provide some entertainment.

Day 2

We woke up and headed from the lake. It took us about 3 more hours of bumpy driving to get there, but it was beautiful once we did. The first thing we did was visit the reindeer ppl. We went into their tepee and talked. They gave us boortsog, which is a hard bread thing and then they gave us a reindeer butter kind of thing to put on it.

Reindeer butter/cream doesn't taste very different from cow butter. We also were given reindeer milk tea. Not so yummy. Pretty bitter. In their tepee we sat on reindeer skins and played with the fuzzy antlers. It was interesting to talk with the reindeer shaman lady. She told me I should not wear gold and sliver together, but only wear one at a time or else Munk and I will get a divorce in 2 years and never progress. Mom (munk's mom) who is a shaman said she is full of it. After talking to them we checked out the reindeers. They were cool~ Yaks, horses, cows, and goats were everywhere just grazing around the lake. It was really cold there. We then ate lunch which was too salty, but okay. After the lake we headed onward to the volcano and found a yurt camp to sleep in for the night. Again, munk and I shared a tiny twin size bed. The yurt got very warm and was good at keeping the rain out.

Day 3

After waking up in the yurt I tried to take a shower, but the hot water lasted 2 minutes and they charge about 5 dollars for showers, but because mine was cold, we didn't have to pay. We had breakfast and checked out the lake we slept by and all the ovos (rock shrines). It was really cool. We then went on to the volcano and hiked up. It was really huge and cool to see. The view was amazing from up there. On the top were some Kazak Mongols that had an eagle. We took pics with the eagle and let the eagle perch on our arms for about .80 cents. Pretty cool. It was pretty heavy and had a deadly grip. After the volcano, we stopped by some random yurt in the country side and talked to the family. They let us in, fed us curd, which wasn't too bad, mares milk, and yak butter/cream. The Yak butter/cream was DELICIOUS! I didn't know at the time, but the mares milk we were given was fermented. I only took a sip and after tasting did not want anymore. It is like SOUR and bitter milk.Then we went down and headed for the famous rock in the country side. It is a huge rock that is located in the middle of a flat field of grass so it is random that it is there. Legend tells that a great Mongol wrestler put it there. Once we got there we found a guy with a Yak that was giving tourists rides. So, I rode a yak around the big rock. It was cool, but the Yak kept making noises as if he thought differently. After the big stone we went to Khara Koram, the old capital of the ancient Mongol empire. It was really cool. We saw a rock turtle from the 13th century. Then the drive took us up the mountain and we saw a "penis" stone that is popular in Mongolia and legend has it that if you ride it, you will become pregnant. I didn't ride it. Anyways, we then headed off to an area in Mongolia that the wind brings sand from the Gobi to. It is a thin strip in the middle of a grassy land that is dessert. We rode camels around in the sand and had a great time. Then we drive home.

The country is beautiful. Most beautiful I have seen. Green rolling hills, rocky mountains, a mixture of the two. Overall I was just amazed with how green it all is and all the life there is. Everywhere I looked, I saw goats, sheep, horses, yaks, and cows grazing where ever they pleased. The car ride was crazy, the driver was going 60 mph on dirt roads and I was being thrown around since there weren't any seat belts. His car broke down once and his lights went out, but we were able to fix it.

I hated the driver culture here though. You are expected to pay the drive a set fee and then all of his food, housing and whatever else he wants. I got frustrated when he bought more gas than he had money for and asked us to pay an extra $65 than we had already given him.

Anyways, I didn't like the driver much at all, but we got to see a lot. I also got sick while I was out there. I am recovering now. I have a sore throat, runny nose, and am fatigue. I have been resting a lot today.

:)

we survived the winter

It has been awhile since i have written in this blog. Winter is officially over and summer is at the door. I finished up 2 classes this semester and now have my C|EH class left to finish. It is hard to know what to write when you have not been writing regularly. We did couple adjustments to our apartment, Ash got ikea dresser and bed. We also got Cat Genie and cat tree. I reorganized my office room to suit my study. It has been better now for my study. Whit and Kade stayed with us for couple of weeks. We saw couple movies that came out recently thor and fast five etc. I got my new MK and played little since PSN network has been out for awhile. We are still enjoying Top Gear shows and watched some Top Gear USA episodes. We have been going to church still and doing our callings. We still like Tandoor indian place and Asia Pho places. We are both excited to goto Mongolia, now it is almost 2 weeks away we are getting more anxious than ever.

Love thy neighbor

We hung out with our Shri-Lankan neighbor last weekend. We ate at indian buffet and watched a movie and play date with our cats. They gave us indian food recipe book, we might cook some indian later. Koob broke 2 glasses in the kitchen. Oh, we bought him commando jacket, he is getting use to it now. We did Uncharted 2 treasure hunting again since we missed most of them last year. I created my vision statement on my google doc and started using google tasks to be more proactive. Almost 2 more months before we goto Mongolia. This weekend thinking about going out to hiking place in utah with our neighbors and maybe practice some landscape photoshooting with our 7D if the weather permits. Other than that circle of life is circling and rolling.

Welcoming Spring

We just had great conference last weekend. I was able to translate Pres Monson, Richard G Scott, Elder Grow and conducting by Eyring. Last couple of weeks we have been going to Gym consistantly on Mon and Wed's and Friday i go to gym at work. Ashley has been doing Zumba. We also attended our friend Aaron's birthday party in Provo and also went to Indian place the week before. We also greeted spring with Indian festival of color. It was a lot of fun. We have been watching Netflix streaming service movies "Top Gear seasons 8-14" and documentaries on
China, Australia, Brazil, Italy etc. It has been great learning experience. Also we have been busy with our callings, ash performed korean drum at the ward talent night. Koob broke his cat house, now in desparate need of another one. So ya, end of March was busy.

Life is Good

Greetings All,
Lately I have been busy with school. I am studying Supply Chain Management and I am loving it. I have also been very busy getting trophies by playing Assassin's Creed:Brotherhood. It is so awesome and I can't get enough of it. I am pretty good online. What can I say, I am a master assassin.
Anyway, things have been going well. We have really been into Indian food lately. Our Sri Lankan neighbors are great. They showed us an awesome Indian restaurant and then we all went to a n Indian market and bought spices. I have been crazy about eating spicy food! Here is a look at one of our meals! Yumm!




Last weekend Panda Express had a "Buy one get one free" events so we went out to eat. It was packed as you can see from the picture and we got free merchandise. Pretty cool!

How cute is Koob!!! haha Don't forget Dex!
How cute. Notice the "30 Jumbo Rolls". Dex is getting big, but not THAT big. hehe
Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Fake vs Real

March 1, my new WGU semester is starting today. I will be taking one Ethical Hacking certification class and 2 other cyber law and policy classes. Last semester went well, we will see how this one goes, specially i will be in Mongolia for a month. My thought for the day here... I was reading lately the differences between east and west. One of the major difference i found
from reading different people is that East coast people will tell the truth to outsiders and nice to their families whereas West coast people are nice to everyone but true to their family. Of course this is a stereotyping I am talking about here. There is always exception to rules. I think we can argue both ways. I can see from Western perspective that being nice to strangers and most people since you do not know who they are you do not want to be judgemental and want to be nice to them. For your family, west coast people are little harsh meaning telling them the truth. I can see how for your family you need to tell what they need to hear not what they wanna hear. So that is west coast, makes sense right? or maybe not for some. For East Coasters, they are nice to their families and harsh or true to other strangers. What do you think about this? Is this why East Coast people call west coast people mostly Fake and west coast people call east coast people angry? Which one do you think is right? Perhaps both are right depending on their lifestyle and where they live. East coast there is more work and busy and you do not have time to be nice to everyone being true and honest to people in public is more important than being fake. And people there perhaps do not take it serious. West coast because of more diversity and differences and laid back attitude it is better to be nice to everyone and laid back. I think we can find this comparison not just in the U.S. but in different cultures and countries. Think about in Asia for example people tell you are fat right away. I guess this whole treating strangers vs your family is yet another cultural difference we all face.

Valentino

Greetings all,

Hope you had a good Valentines Day. Munkhtur and I went to Chinese Gourmet and then the gym. It was great. Munkhtur got me new shoes for my V-day gift. Check them out! I love

them!

You get the idea. =)

Things are going well. I have been very busy with work. We had our Academic Meetings last week and I was leaving at 7:30am and getting home on average around 8pm. Pretty crazy, but it was good. I won a recognition for excellence award. So I was pretty happy and surprised. One of our learning resource vendors threw us a rock band party and as you can imagine...I rocked the house! It was a blast!!!

In case any of you sit and wonder what I get to look at everyday, here it is!

This is the window I face and sit by at work. It is nice to have something beautiful to look at.

And then sometimes I get really cool views like this one!

These are Canadian geese that come to visit me every year. :)

Guns Germs and Steel + Computers

This past week we signed up for Netflix trial for one free month. I enjoyed National Geographic documentaries such as "Guns Steel and Germ", which was really interesting. I heard about the book before, but 3 episode movie summed up the book. Basically it talks about how geographical location plays important role in our development. During the time of hunters and gatherers, Europeans or people in the middle east area had fertile area, which you can have 14 different domesticated animals and pleasent weather condition. This created a food surplus and the more food you have gives chance for creative development for people like artists and engineers, which in turn causes the invention of new technology such as steel. However, if you are in place where the weather and geography do not let you have domesticated animal and plantation of wheat etc., you are going to spend most of your time laboring for food and no time for research like steel so you will be basically behind the technology.

Another advantage of having domesticated animals is that humans become resistant to germs and bacteria. It is interesting to note here that the American continent is stretched north to south which covers more diverse weather change and the central American narrow passage and tropical jungle makes it impossible to travel and lack of domesticated animal caused America place that you cannot share information easily, no resistance to germs and no surplus of food which caused not much technological advancement. Later we learn the arrival of the Europeans to the new continent caused many natives to die due to no resistance to old world germs and gun and steel technology.

Euro-Asian continent was unique in many ways, it stretches West to East unlike the American continent, which allowed countries to share similar weather and easy have transportation and travel. Moreover, the Eurasia continent allowed the domestication of animals for easy travel. There is a reason why many countries ended up where they ended up.

The author used Papua New Guinea as an example by discussing how it was isolated and how they do not have any domesticated animals except pigs, which yield less meat than what it consumes. A plantation is developed through human labor so without, wheat and barley cannot grow there. Basically people there ended up spending all their time worrying about food and did not allow them to develop metal work.

Another thing I would like to add his book is that geography also plays role for how we look and our culture and history. Does this mean, where we live defines who we are? How does this change with internet(sharing of ideas), global trade, and aero-travel? I think yes, where we live does define who we are. However, with today's technology advancement of the internet and ease of travel, the barrier is diminishing. As you have probably noticed more and more countries are becoming independent since 1900, which is a time when there was big industrial revolution. When people have steel and guns to fight back the power difference is diminishing. Great Britain, Spain, and Russia lost most of their colonies due to the people they used to control now have same technology as them which made it easier for the colonies to become separate countries. Another revolution I believe just took place since year 2010 with exposure of youtube and social media more countries are now fighting back with their corrupt leaders and system. You can see a pattern here. Nation or people with their geographic location advantage come up with better technology and they overpower those who do not have that technology. Then the technology is shared with everyone and the balance comes back. Computers and networks are one of the most recent powerful technology breakthroughs, which is now also shifting power. I better stop now I can write more and more about it.

Worlds Coolest Nationality by CNN

Decide for yourself what nationality is the coolest on earth.
I did not make this up. CNN did.
Follow the link below and read about it:
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/12-coolest-nationalities-earth-050844?page=0,1
1. Brazilians
2. Singaporeans
3. Jamaicans
4. Mongolians

5. Americans
6. Spanish

I guess I rank #4 in the world what about you guys?

Здравствуйте!

Здравствуйте!

(Hello in Russian) This week I was able to hear Munkhtur speak Russian. We went to a Russian market here in Murray and it was a lot of fun. It was filled with a lot of goodies that Munkhtur grew up with. We bought a few things and were given a free sample of bread. The Russian lady was really sweet and took off in Russian when Munkhtur started speaking Russian. I am officially a fan of Russian chocolate. Here is a picture of the goodies we bought.

Whitney and Kade have been staying with us for a while and it has been a blast. We inflicted all sorts of headaches on our husbands. Koob and Dexy have grown very fond of them and will be sad when they leave.

Today I booked my flight to Korea! I am super excited and just can’t wait! It will be great to get back. We still have to purchase our tickets to Mongolia. What an adventure. I am not completely sure at this point what we will do, but I am set on discovering the location of Chinggis Khan’s burial site. I also told Munkhtur’s mom that I want to see a shaman when I go and she told me I can just look at her and her yurt full of shrines. I will make sure to take lots of pictures. I am hoping to ride a camel around as well as see the reindeer people and hawk/eagle people.

Munkhtur never fails to torture the doodles as shown in this picture. My poor little guy.

Birthday Blast

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Whitney!
Yesterday we celebrated Whitney's birthday. Sam and I made dinner. We had lazy dumplings and fried rice. Most delicious! Mom provided us with a YUMMY YUMMY Yum cake. Here are a few pictures from our fun night!


Yum Yum - So good. Too bad you all weren't there! Missed out.

I had a specific request to discuss my childhood with an American mother while growing up in Asia since Munkhtur discussed his upbringing.

I guess I would have to say that my mom is somewhere in the middle between the stereotyped "Chinese Mom" and the "Western Mom". I would say she enforced a Western perspective and principle with Chinese Mom enthusiasm minus the degrading commentary. I was held to high expectations and when I fell below I was not "patted on the back" for trying my best, but rather asked, "what happened and why I fell behind."

I have always been an "A" student due to the affective learning technique that my mother and father used. They tied emotion to my success in the sense that I sought out parental praise and feared to disappoint. Clever technique when you have children that care immensely about what their parents think of them and their performance. This took me to the next step necessary to develop an emotional response in myself. Getting a "B" was an event that would send me into tears by the time I was in high school and not because my mom would be disappointed, but mostly because I was disappointed in myself. I valued doing well because my parents had taught me to value success.

One specific instance I recall was in high school. I had always played sports and one season I was out because of a groin injury, but my mom knew that I was always more productive when I was busier so regardless of my injury she had me go out for Volleyball. No, I did not play if I was in pain, but she still wanted me to attend practice and watch. Of course I didn't want to got out for volleyball because I wanted some extra time to hang out with friends, but I did it because she made me. Throughout the season I really began to enjoy it as well as recover and it helped me prepare for basketball season, which I cared about more. She knew what was best for me and enforced it. It may not have been piano lessons, which Chinese moms prefer, but it was knowing what was best for me and enforcing it rather than letting me do what I thought would be best.

She allowed flexibility to trying new things - sports, music, and JROTC, but there was no way in heck she would watch idly by if her son or daughter didn't succeed in what they had chosen to do or give up. Many a time all of us kids wanted to give up on something, but learned to dedicate ourselves through her persistence.

No, my mom was not as "crazy" as my Korean friends' moms, but she definitely could get "crazy" if we failed to meet expectations. I am only who I am now because of my mother and father. My mom, through example, has taught me how to be a strong opinionated woman, which I am continuously striving for and my dad has taught me to work and find joy in it, although I am still looking for that joy when I do the dishes.

I am immensely blessed and grateful for them and all they have done for me. Now, here is a cat picture!!!!So cute.

Parenting Style and Balance

Today I found interesting article from WallStreet Journal titled: "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" First of all before reading my post here please read the "entire" article on wallstreet and come back here and read my opinon and review on it. Follow this link and comeback to this post after http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

I would like to share my own opinion on this article and as well as my experience growing up. I believe in balance rather than being extremest (black and white) since sometimes life offers many gray areas. Like Mr Myagi from Karate kid says "Whole life has a balance" If you look at Western and Chinese(loosely used term, not just Chinese) parenting both have pros and cons. If we can find perfect balance between the two you will have success. I think Neither Chinese nor Westerners are extremest but they both have their primary ways of teaching.
Kinda like Republicans and Democrats. Anyways, let me list out some pros and cons here.

Chinese Parenting
Pros:Makes a child more disciplined and high expectations
Cons:Makes child more robot like

Western Parenting
Pros: Gives child more freedom
Cons:Everyone is special and therefore not high bar

I think the child needs both discipline and high expectations and also freedom to make their own choice and destiny.

Let me explain the above example with few little examples from my life. When I started school my Mom took my Academic standing very serious, she was very involved with everything I was doing. I am not sure whether it was because she was a college drop-out and wanted me not to be like her or wanted her son to be smarter than her friends kids or perhaps out of love for my well-being and future. Anyways, I remember very clear when my Mom found out that my handwriting was really bad. Handwriting was very important in the first and second grade of school. I think I got C or something and she cried all day and was really disappointed with me. I was so scared that she was crying and that I did something horrible. So she dropped 2 pounds of rice mixed with millet(shar budaa) on the floor and asked me to pick them up and put rice into one bowl and millet into another bowl. She said I could not do anything else until I finished that task.

She was next to me the whole time watching me pick up rice and millet pieces one by one as I was sorting. It took me so much effort and time to do it. I did not understand why she made me to do it, but I was afraid and did it to make my Mom happy or not angry at me. However, later I learned that the exercise helped me with my hand coordination and my handwriting improved significantly. Everyday she made me write page after page until my handwriting was perfect. When I say perfect I mean PERFECT, the kind that looks better than books. After much hardwork with me, I not only got A's all the time, but also I became the student with best handwriting in the entire school. I received so many diplomas, certifications, and prizes from my handwriting. I learned that when I make effort and dedication and hardwork for something I can achieve anything.

After that achievement I felt so good about myself and how I can do everything. If my mom just simply told me I had naturally bad handwriting and gave up i would never learn that lesson of working hard for your dream pays off.

Another thing she taught me was "high expectation" or should I say perfect expectation?. When I get home she always asks what grade I got that day. If I tell her B or lower she go crazy and tells me I need to get A and how lazy I am etc. So I was always so afraid of her I worked so hard and always got A and when I do get B I studied harder and got A. But soon when I got older she stopped asking me my grade. After I finished 5th grade or something when I come home after test or exam she will say:"You got A right?" How can you say no to that question. Because of this high expectation I did expect more out of myself and I always made myself believe that I was A student. and yes I did get A and say Yes to her questions. When I started my college she stopped asking me questions although I was still getting A's; By then I did not need someone to expect me to get A, I already developed my own high expectation model for myself and understood that the grades I get for those exams are for me and my future and started to be grateful for my Mom for her hard-work and not giving up on me when I had bad handwriting and not motivated.

I guess in my opinion Chinese Mom does not necessary talking about physical abuse and torture because that would be for her benefit. It is more like disciplining your child by any means(of course not to hurt them) for their good. We are product of how we are raised. Most of the fundamental lessons we learn are from our parents not from school.

Some kindergarten teacher's comment in response to Professor Chua was that parents are like government to its people until they grow up. Anyways it is up to you to decide how you want to raise your children. But if you find balance between the 2 different styles and take their pros and neglect the cons you will be a winner.

Pearl Snatcher

Hello World, (that was the first program I wrote, hehe)
I am just now recovering from a killer cold. Not fun, but part of life. I am feeling much better now and luckily I don't think I have made anyone else sick. I am starting my MBA classes and am excited. It is great to be able to get my MBA while working full-time and with discounted tuition.

I just finished reading "Three Cups of Tea" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Read it, if you are looking for an inspirational humanitarian. My book club, which was originally my Foreign Service Officer Test study group, is now becoming a book/cultural food club. We have decided we will go out to eat at places that relate to the book we are reading. Sounds exciting. :) I really love my FSO/Book and Food Club girls. We should be starting another book soon, but in the mean time I am reading "Ten Day MBA" for school.

We are doing well with our jobs and enjoying living so close to work. It is still way too cold here in SLC. I can't wait till the weather warms up.

I want to share a video of Dexy that I quickly put together. It is cute, so enjoy...


He actually steals my pearls. I am looking for them currently because he has hid them from me. That silly doodle.

Well, I will leave you with this great picture of 2 of my boys.

Mind Over Body

Last week was very fun except Ash got sick. we enjoyed golds Gym Sauna and jacuzzi.
I had interesting experience at wal-mart. I saw this E3000 router for $79 but i saw that
router anywhere else for 140 or more priced. So I was confused why WallMart listed it like that
so i went there and when i bought it, the price was 149 and telling me that it was misplaced
and ended up talking to one of their worker and manager and after a long discussion they gave me the router for the listed price. I guess according to their policy customers have right to buy the item for advertised price excluding people misplacing their products. I struggled to install new flavor of Linux several times on my old college dell 9300 laptop. It was my ambition to use fedora and have java development sat up on there. We decided to give Prince of Persia a try since we started it out and left it there and never picked up. I picked it up and it is not one of the great Prince of Persia, but i will wait and find out. Cannot wait for the tax season since I am hoping to pay for my airfare to Mongolia with that. Also last year i skipped Gym for
3 months due to my Net+ certification. In my previous post I mentioned about how fast our bodies adapt. So if you have not gone to Gym for that long your body becomes efficient and stop producing more nitric oxide and creatine and other stuff. So pretty much you become weak. I wont blame our body for doing that. It is actually kinda smart system. If it was famine time or something if your body was keep spending its resources like no-famine time, you will die very soon. But since our body is efficient and adjusts according to what we take into our body and what we do to it, we can survive famine a lot longer. But since here in US we do not have famine, our body also adjusts to it little different way. I drive more now than i walk since I got a car.
So what does our body do to adjust to that? Well the energy has to go somewhere, so it stores it in our body as excess fat for famine time. But famine is never coming to U.S which means i better hitting gym asap. Just 3 months of absence from GYM can make your body weak.
But luckily I passed my certification test and have more time now to hit GYM. It is interesting to note here that last winter my bench max was 315lb but now it perhaps my max is 225lb. It takes only 3 months from 315 to 225 or less. That is proof right there without any scientific experiment. On the other hand our body also adjusts really quick. If i start hitting gym again i can catch upto 315lbs. But this time it will take longer than 3 months. I think it doubles, somewhere around there. It will be interesting study to do for any EXS majors out there to study the correlation between break time vs recovery time. But anyways, all I am saying here is our bodies are efficient and smart so knowing that make the most out of your body.
Our bodies are capable of doing great things, we just need to be smarter than our bodies like Arnold used to say "mind over body"

A Little Blast From the Past...

Season’s Greetings,

After much labor we have deleted our 5 different inactive blogs and consolidated them to this one. As Munkhtur previously mentioned, blogging is one of our goals this year. I am excited to start, mainly because facebook is becoming lame.

I figured we needed some pictures, because every good blog has some. Here are some from Koob’s adventure to Petco.

Here is our handsome Koob checking out the merchandise.

He has such great taste in scratching posts.

He had a great time. Loved watching the parakeets, hated the mice. He started growling at them. He also growled at the cats that were for sale.

Overall, he did very well even though there were dogs around. What can I say, he is a man that loves to shop and you don't find many of those these days!

While Grandma Grandy was at our place before heading to the Philippines, she made a very good friend, Dex! She continuously reminded him what a "Good sleeping partner" he was and called him "beautiful blue eyes". It was quite adorable.

Dex has a way with people.

Well, I think I will leave you with the newest member of the U.S. Embassy of Manila and a great shot of Dex.

Enjoy...