Brazil! 8-31-13

Hey guys! Psych! I'm not going to Brazil but my lovely friend Dexter is! He has reached the age that Mormons go out on their 2 year missions and he gets to go to Brazil! Talk about far from home! While I might not totally understand/ agree with missions I am so happy for him! :) I'm going to have to figure out what the going rate for international postage for him and Gwen (also from Conserve) who is spending 4 weeks and what she hopes to be the next four years of her life in Athens, Greece at the American College of Greece! Not to mention my dearest roommate Maia has moved into her UW Milwaukee dorm and my orphanage sister Elanna has moved to back to Pennsylvania to go to a new school! Kateri, Madeleine, and Marjorie are have moved to University of Georgia, Kennesaw State University, and Parsons the New School for Design in NYC respectively. And of course the what seems plethora of Ga Tech students who are back at classes. It seems like everyone is spreading their wings and flying to the far flung corners of the earth (or to the local college).  I am so ready to go on adventures of my own!

The Dreaded Common App 8-21-13

The days have come of trying to get into college. I totally accept that many people don't want/need to go to college. They are perfectly fine and happy people with beautiful lives, but I am honestly dying to go to college. I want the adventure, the new experiences, the people, the teachers, the place, the risks. I want that so  so badly. After living in one place (that you are becoming increasingly frustrated with) I am ready to fly off to my new destination for the next 4 years. Just today my good friends for many years Courtney moved to NC where she will be studying equine therapy. I say the pictures of her dorm and I couldn't decide whether I should be feeling incredibly happy for her or very jealous or just wanting her to come back home! Either way, despite the incredibly stress that will no doubt ensue when the time for the college apps comes around, I am excited to be visiting the schools. Speaking of which.... I got into the Presidential Scholars Fall Fly-In program for College of the Atlantic which makes me verrrrrrrryyyyyyyy happy! Not only does it mean 4 days of Maine in October but it also makes me eligible for the Presidential Scholarship which is $15,000 a year and lets face it, I need it, BAD. Anyways, along with all of the excitement comes the personal essay for the common app. One of the prompts basically asks what do you consider a very integral part of yourself. here's my very rough draft. Check it out and tell me what you think!

“Hi! I’m Mei-Jing.”

“I’m sorry can you say that again?”

“It’s like Beijing, where the ’08 Olympics were, with an M”

“Oh cool! I’ll never forget it now that you say it like that.”

This is the beginning of a series of conversation that I’ve had with people over the years. From the surface, I look like your average Chinese girl who is good at math and science with Chinese parents who demand only A+’s. You also might think that I speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, eat weird Asian meats at every meal, that I’m a bad driver, and yet good at everything intellectual. Oh, and let’s not forget that I am short and have almost shaped eyed that crinkle up when I smile. Well guess what, I am that girl that fits a lot of you stereotypes ad yet, I am the exact opposite of some of the others.

Many of us make assumptions about the people that we meet, but beware the person who tries to guess anything about me! You see I am that Chinese girl who is a nerd that build robots ad gets good grades. On the flip side, I have two Caucasian moms, an adopted Chinese sister who is not blood related to me, lack the ability to speak Chinese, am homeschooled, am a vegetarian who eats both American and Chinese food, and is perhaps a better driver than the stereotypes give me credit for. But go back again to the Asian stereotype and see that my name translates as “beautiful essence” and that I am a member of the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company. As you can see I am like a ball of clay that is made up of a bunch of other colors, and when blended together becomes a whole new color.

For years people have asked, “So who are your real parents?” “Do you ever miss home?” Sometimes I feel offended that they would ask a question like this, but more often than not I have to realize that they don’t know me. They don’t realize that to me, my family is the one who adopted me and has loved me through every mistake. They also don’t realize that home is people who you love dearly and not the place that you came out of the womb. In addition, I have even been told what race I was and mind you, they were off by an entire continent.

I sometimes wonder why it means so much for people to know what race I am. Isn’t what I am like as a person what matters? Shouldn’t it be the fact that I can argue about the type of wheels are best for which robot, complain about the many times that I’ve hit myself in the head with poi, sympathize with people who have had to go through backpacking trips with leaky hiking boots, get excited about the cool things that I have seen while SCUBA diving, and  understand how much your calves burn after 2 hours of Chinese dance?

There are many ways that people define themselves: their families, the way that they look, the place that they grew up, and what other people might say about you. You know the famous line from The Breakfast Club: “But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain... ...and an athlete... ...and a basket case... ...a princess... ...and a criminal.”? The kids are telling their teacher that they don’t need to write essays about themselves because the brain, athlete, basket case, princess and criminal are the personalities the teacher has already assumed they are, but the students know that below these false assumptions is really quite a complex character. Meet me: Mei-Jing Bernard the exception to the rule.

Keeping your balance 8-21-13

And there you have it my friends. A little bit of Buddha for your day. Every year at Chinese New Year there are Buddhist monks at the celebration giving out literature. This phrase is from one of the books:

Most of the time
We cannot control our circumstances,
but
every moment of time 
we can control how we react
to these circumstances.

Sometimes I think that people are often unaware that their little quirks and habits that they go through life not really noticing are really reactions to the happiness or the stress of their lives. For instance. School started for me on Monday. Three days in and I have complete 2 AP Calculus BC classes and one AP Physics C class. Talk about a good way to "jump right in"! Anyways, as I was saying life has been a bit chaotic trying to get used to the new rhythm of things and I have discovered a wonderful way to center myself. Geometric patterns with extreme symmetry. We're talking Celtic knots, yin tang, infinity triangles, twisted pyramids, and MC Escher's impossible cube.

There's something about the concentration that it takes to make sure you get just the right precision to create the satisfying balance that comes from finishing one of these projects. But then again, it could be the fact that they are so organized and the rest of my life seems like it's getting a little ahead of itself. Who knows...

Wait.... hold up! 8-14-13

"Excuse me what?" Yep! Those were the profound and gut wrenching words that popped out of my mouth when, being the weirdo that I am, googled and successfully found my name on a page that I did not recognize. Turns out someone, probably Stefan, found one of my pictures while I was at Conserve and it is now the picture that depicts the beauty of Lowenwood. Color me impressed! Not to mention wowed and proud :)

Scallion Pancakes 8-14-13

So yesterday after poking around the house and not doing much of anything I decided I better do something productive with my time that involved eating because, gosh darn it it was 3:00 pm and I had yet to eat anything that motivated me to eat more. So off to the piles pf cookbooks that my family, mainly Mama, has collected over the years in search of a quick, tasty something that might involve soy sauce. Low and behold I struck gold when I opened up the increasingly favored "Dim Sum" book. There in front of me were scallion pancakes. To those of you who don't know, this is not your flap jack type of food. Yes it's round and it's cooked in a frying pan. That's where the similarities end. For one if you put syrup on these you would be committing the major crime of ruining the beautiful flavor.These bad boys are a) NOT sweet b) probably greasier than your buttermilk disks c) in certain ways more delicious (when craved of course) d) need to be tried by every human being (I don't care if you re "allergic" to greens! You have a duty to your taste buds!). They are really a savory fried pancake with scallions in them that can then be dipped in soy sauce and ingested. This you will have happy taste buds and you stomach is full. Anyways they are super easy to make unlike other foods/snacks and the motivation to have more tasty food after the day and not have it disappear the second I turn my back resulted in a doubled recipe and frozen pancakes hidden in the freezer! Woot woot! I recommend trying them if you ever have the chance!

Did you hear toast? 8-8-13

Yes that's right my lovely marshmallows! I am both ripping off the actress, Kristen Bell's greeting by calling you good people marshmallows and I am talking about America's favorite breakfast food! Well perhaps cereal and maybe eggs might run up next to toast...... Anyways, back on topic. Toast. As you might now I am a robotics nerd which means robots robots robots with some very loud dubstep mixed in there somewhere. FIRST robotics competition seasons are short and sweet and filled with lots of blood, sweat, tears, and no sleep. As a good friend said, "there are thousands of similarly masochistic people across the world doing it at the same time!" And yet I can't get enough. When  and some members from my old team (that went to World Championships in St. Louis, MO in April decided to start a team of our own we faced a serious problem. Drum roll please!

A good team name! Lord we went through everything: krankshaft kangaroos, the motor mongeese, toaster tech, motor mice, and so many others. We finally settled on Toaster Tech. The thing is.... in the world of FRC (FIRST robotics competitions) a toaster means a robot that can't do ANYTHING! They just kind of scoot around on the field and sometimes get in people's way. Why did we name ourselves Toaster Tech? That's a good question...... because we are now the self proclaimed "we-can't-do-nothing" team. Well... hopefully it will become an ironic name and we will be dominating the fields this coming year. The name also may have stemmed from and idea our mentors from the Ga Tech Robojackets came up with. A lot of inspiration was drawn from the following video which was discovered after looking at our scouting sheet and desperately trying to fin a team to pick for our alliance that could score over 10 points in a match. 

While in the LONG quest to find a suitable name (and when I say long, I mean 3 months long), my good friend and fellow member of the new team, Myles said, "Well I mean our slogan could be: Spreading technology like butter on toast....." and thus the picture below was born. Funny thing is that he always says that he is bad with words.... 

Please do "like" my team on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Toaster-Tech/1374908602736950

Ocean for Life 8-8-13

Here is the article that I wrote about Ocean for Life. I hope it gives just a little snippet of what I did! :)

PRESS RELEASE

Local Student Participates in NOAA Summer Ocean Program: Ocean for Life

Mei-Jing Bernard, a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and a home schooled student, was one of 15 North American students selected from over 400 applicants to participate in the 2013 Ocean for Life program at the National Oceanic &Atmospheric Administration's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in June and early July. In addition, 15 other students were chosen by the GLOBE program in the Greater Middle East from Qatar, Lebanon, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Oman. 

Ocean for Life is a unique program that brings together Middle Eastern and North American high school students of diverse cultures and backgrounds to study marine science, and in the course of that, break down stereotypes and strengthen global relationships.  The premise is simple but powerful: we are all connected by the ocean, and by studying the ocean, we can learn about improving stewardship of the planet and ourselves: one world, one ocean. The following report was submitted by Mei-Jing upon her recent return.

On my plane ride to California I was incredibly excited to meet all of the new students both from the US and from the Middle East but I was slightly nervous about the large cultural differences that I would encounter, not to mention that there might be a language barrier. However, after bonding with Ayyad from Lebanon with a conversation about his 34 hour flight to the US and sitting in a circle after dinner playing ice breaker games, it felt like we were already old friends. Over the course of the program we taught each other new words and songs from our languages. Lana and Haneen, both from Qatar, taught a bunch of the girls how to belly dance during our stay on Santa Cruz island. Later on in the week I spent a lot of time talking about religion with Ghazi from Saudi Arabia and Fiona from Chicago. Two weeks may not seem like a very long time to get to know 29 other people, but by the end of the program I felt like I was part of a giant, loud, laughing family. Nakoa from Hawai'i taught us that "ohana" translates as "family," which means that no one gets left behind. We are now the OFL 2013 Ohana. 

The 2013 field study was hosted by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute.  We were able to participate in a large variety of activities throughout the two-week field study, including snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, water quality monitoring and oceanography. We also learned about a range of environmental topics, such as climate change, ocean acidification, kelp forest ecosystems, and the marine life of the Santa Barbara Channel as well as the different cultures and backgrounds of our fellow campers.

The activities we participated in focused on ocean science and exploration, stewardship activities, cultural exchanges and youth media projects. Our media projects were mentored by staff from Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society Media Camp and American University’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking. My media camp mentor was Tony Azios and the other adult chaperone for my group was Corinne Jabbour from Lebanon. During media camp we were broken into 4 groups and each group had one of the four topics: Sense Of Place, Ocean Conservation, Cultural Understanding, and Interconnectedness. My group's topic was the final one. Throughout the week we used the cameras that we had been given to document our field experiences through both still photography and video. I had so much fun working on the project, and now my group's video, which was posted on Youtube, has over 1,000 views!

When I first applied to the OFL program I had to fill out a survey which featured a question with two circles. One circle was labeled "you" and the other was labeled "ocean," and you had to pick the picture that showed how connected you felt with the ocean. I picked the overlapping circles that shared a bit more than half of their surfaces. I would now choose the circles that almost line up, one on top of the other, so that virtually everything is shared. Originally, I thought that my geographic distance from the coast made me less connected to the ocean. Yes, I knew the point about how every one of your actions can affect someone else, but I don't think it really clicked until I got to Ocean for Life. We learned about how all of the bodies of water that we name separately are really just part of one giant ocean. We are inextricably linked whether we want to be or not. We must take responsibility for the mistakes we have made, and take action right them, so that we can all have the ocean to enjoy for centuries to come.

While at Ocean for Life I got to do some things that I never would have been able to do in Atlanta, things like snorkeling in a kelp forest, picking up starfish from the bottom of the ocean that were larger than a dinner plate, kayaking in the ocean, and making 15 new friends from the Middle East. I am so grateful to Ocean for Life and people such as Claire Fackler, our fearless program leader,  all of the media camp mentors, the additional adult chaperones and, of course, our sponsors who made the program possible. Ocean for Life will stay with me for a lifetime.

For information, http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ofl/ or http://oceanforlife.org.

To view the 2013 Youth Media Projects created by the students, visit http://oceanforlife.org/page/ofl-projects.

Dirt Scent Perfume

So this guy is pretty cool... Eric Larsen. He is a modern polar explorer that I got to meet at Conserve School. This product won third place at a "craziest gear" competition. Looks like smelling good is not the be all end all. Perhaps dirt is the new smell and not the nasty Axe? God I hope so. Maybe they will even come out with a "Georgia-red-clay-after-it-has-rained" smell! :D But it could also be used to offend someone you really don't like, ruin a party, and of course the "I smell so bad I'd have to take a shower and then we'd be late and it wouldn't be worth it" excuse to get out of going some place you don't want to.

Dragon Ball Z anyone?

Oh hey there! Dragon Ball Z fans? Yes? No? Okay well this was taken by my long time swim friend Naomy in the East Atlanta Village and edited by Keller.

Catching Up.... again.... 8-5-2013

It seems like I never write on my blog until I get prompted to by my lovely friends. Why is that? Perhaps I find myself getting swept up by everything else that's been going on? Goodness gracious! It's almost the beginning of my Senior year! That's right folks.... last year of homeschooling for me.But now the beast has arisen from it's lair and ACT testing is coming up along with all the essays for college. Thank god for the common app. I mean really..... who ever came up with it.. I love you! Well I haven't really used the program and ti seems like it shouldn't be too bad, but I keep hearing horror stories and I a already exhausted. Wanna see what I've been doing?

Elanna my orphanage sister watching the waves come in.

Sunset on Edisto Beach

I found almost 100 sharks teeth in a week!

Yi-Shan hanging out on the jetties despitt he signs that say "DO NOT CLIMB ON JETTIES"

Oh, did I forget to mention that I use Instagram now?

The road to my second home... Edisto Beach

Elanna, Yi-Shan, and me

So that was the Edisto trip that I went on this past month. It was great since we hadn't been in quite a few years. Elanna is my orphanage sister and we have been going to the beach with her and Ruth (her mom) since we came home from China. That's a long time! I already miss it. When I am  at the beach I feel like there' nothing to worry about. Most people think that the beach is for drinking and partying and partying up. I like my vacations a bit more relaxed. Envision lazy morning with coffee, greasing up with sun tan lotion to go to the beach for several hours, coming back to eat food when we are hungry, a good dinner, card and board games, music, dancing, walking on the beach in the evening to see the sunset or the stars (or both), and then back to the house for more lounging and sleep. Then do it all over again. It might seen monotonous to you but I can't ever get enough. It's the only place where I can consistently say that the moment I get home I am ready to go back. Do you know what I mean? Even though you miss some of your vacation spots or in my case Conserve spots when you get home there's a sigh of relief that you are home.... well it aint there because Edisto is just that great!

So what else have I been up to? A ton of things? In July I was luckily chosen to participate in a field research program called Ocean for Life sponsored by NOAA and Jean Michel's Ocean Future's Society. 15 students came from the United States and 15 from the middle East! Our catch phrase became a quote from Lilo and Stitch: "Ohana means family, family means that no one gets left behind." Check it out!

Taylor from Oregon and Justin from Atlanta

The Orcas on the Channel Islands

Dua from Pakistan (my room mate) and me

Corrine from Lebanon one of the Orcas adult leaders

Lana from Qatar goofing off at a media camp meeting!

Ayyad from Lebanon

Courtney from Mississippi and me

Peter from Brooklyn

The 30 of us were broken into 4 groups: the sea stars, blue whales, narwhals, and my group, THE ORCAS!!! More pictures to come later! I'll also be adding an article that was published in the East Atlanta Patch online newsletter. 

Even earlier int he summer I went up to the Yates' with the lovely Maeve!

Mattie

Moi

Maeve

Maeve and me chilling in the evening 

Matt again

Ruth 

As you can tell the trip to Columbus, NC was full of forest wanderings and lots of intense badminton and pingpong games! All the photos were taken by the always awesome Keller :D

Well this post might be getting a wee bit long so.... thanks again for tuning into Conserve My Brain! I wanted to say a special thanks to Dexter and Zeki. I was talking to Dexter today and blogs came up and he told me that I should write more on mine because he though Zeki might be missing it. So here you go you two. Stay cool my nerfighters! DFTBA (Don't forget to be awesome to you all you non john green fans).