qui tacet consentire videtur

Thank you for taking the time to interview recently with a FACES executive. Your written application and experiences and opinions expressed in your interview impressed us greatly. However, we had many extremely qualified interview candidates, and had to make some very difficult decisions. We regret that we are unable to offer you a spot in the 2008 FACES conference.

Thank you again for your time and interest in FACES, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

This is the second time already. I really have no idea what these Stanford people are looking for… I guess I won’t get to visit Chris anytime soon, which is a pity since I would really like to see more of the United States than the borough of Manhattan and the ten block radius around Columbia I hardly leave. So far I’ve been around the DC area and down to Indiana, but that’s it.

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Tell me, tell me, t-t-t-t-t-t-tell me/ 나를 사랑한다고 날 기다려왔다고

I got addicted to the Wonder Girls after hearing ‘tell me’ on Lobbyist. I wish I could afford the $150 tickets to see the Wonder Girls on Friday. I can’t remember the last time I paid so much for entertainment, but I think it would be worth the money to see all the people in the audience who memorized the dance steps. Admittedly I memorized them too (it works for the boy version), though I’m nowhere as good as these guys rofl or even these guys (or these guys that James told me about). I wish my army days had been like that.

Everything is going wrong these days.

So what did I get on my birthday?

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In retrospect it was probably a bad idea to leave interview preparation for ViD and FACES to the last minute. After pouring out my heart and soul to the University of St. Gallen and the GSGLP selection committee, I’m just too drained to reflect on such philosophical questions as “tell me about yourself”, “what would you say is your greatest weakness”, “what is something special about you that isn’t in your application”, and “how many piano tuners are there in New York City”. That and the fact that my heart was beating like a jackhammer may have contributed to a less than positive interview experience.

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Now that the class registration period has ended, my tentative courseload has been finalized. I’m taking five classes this semester, which is slightly lighter than previous semesters, which should boost my GPA back to the upper part of my target range. I’m on track for graduating by 2010 since I have no longer any intention of completing the BA in 3 years and submatriculating into a masters program, which would destroy my Beida study abroad and ‘take non-major non-core classes’ plan.

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So the HPAIR Harvard Conference decisions are out, and now I have a few weeks to decide if I actually want to go or not. This will be my second HPAIR (I went to Shanghai 2004), and the last one wasn’t really all that. It would be nice to visit Cambridge, MA for the first time, but I’m not sure if the hefty conference price tag is worth it - it doesn’t even include accommodation, though I could just crash in someone’s dorm room round the quad. During the last HPAIR, I stayed with Geoffrey in a double room that had six guys in it. Decisions, decisions…

This week I saw the Chinese National Opera production of Farewell my Concubine (霸王别姬) and Met Opera’s new Hansel and Gretel at Lincoln Center.

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