Extreme Blog Makeover

Hey y'all!

It has been forever since I have posted on here but I am back!
.....or at least I am going to try to be.

My blog has gone through many different stages. It started as a place to talk about my trips to China and advocate for kids. Then after being home for awhile, it started to transition into being a place to talk about my life and how I was adjusting to college. I've also thrown in a few inspirational posts every now and then. BUT....the last time I posted was in October of 2016......

I think it's fair to say that just a little bit of time has passed since then.

So where am I at now and what am I doing back on the blog?

Well for starters, That Boy and I are getting married this summer. We just celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday. So that's all pretty exciting!
But don't worry!
Just because I'm getting married and changing my name doesn't mean I'll stop being Mew. It just means Mew will no longer be my initials and will just be a fun nickname instead.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before or not but I am getting my major in Social Work and a minor in Chinese. I will be graduating spring of next year.

Oh yeah, and last year in April I signed up with SeneGence International as a distributor!

Alright, I can hear some of you on the other side of the screen asking senewhat?
SeneGence is skincare and cosmetics company. You may have heard some buzz going around about one of their WOW products called LipSense. It has been almost a year since I became a distributor and I am getting ready to head to my first Seminar in a few weeks!!!!!!😁

I might just be a tad excited.


So that's where I'm at now but I'm sure you are still wondering......what about the blog?
Right now my plan is to use the blog for a few things. I still will post occasional life updates, kinda like this post. But I will also post a few things about my business on here. A few upcoming posts may include things like how and why I joined, personal product testimonies, some of the science behind the products, what Seminar is like, and whatever else I think of later.

I plan to have my posts labeled so you can easily see what each post is about. Also on the side somewhere (I'm not sure where I will move it permanently), there are tabs to my YouTube, Facebook, etc.

But I think that's the gist of it. Thanks for joining me on my journey!

See ya next time!

Clarifying 福爱婷

Hello peoples!

I guess I didn't make myself very clear yesterday so I just wanted to quickly clear up some confusion. When I introduced myself in Chinese I didn't use a random name. 福爱婷 is my Chinese name.
In my Chinese class our first "homework" assignment was to find a Chinese name to use, and 老师 (teacher) said it may help to ask someone Chinese for help.

I already knew that I wanted 福 (fu) to be my surname. Both of my sisters have the surname 福 even though they come from different orphanages and different cities. So in honor of them I wanted to choose to have the same name. 福 means good fortune; blessings; happiness. After deciding that I hopped on WeChat (social media site used in China) and messaged the guide I had had this past summer while I was in China. I explained my situation and asked her if she could help me come up with the rest of my name. She was very excited to help and came up with 爱婷 (ai ting). She told me it was a beautiful name and that 婷 was something many girls in China liked. 爱 means love and 婷 is one of the radicals in the character 婷婷 (ting ting) which means graceful. So my full name 福爱婷 (fu ai ting) means blessings, love, and graceful. I am very honored that my guide helped me pick such a beautiful name and that she believes it represents me well. Even though I only need to use it for this class, I plan to continue to use it as my official Chinese name!

I hope that helped clear things up and explain why the name is so special to me.

That's my view!

你好！

你们好！
(Hello peoples!)

我叫福爱婷。
(My name is Fu Aiting.)

This semester I am taking Chinese 101, so far it has been really cool. I am loving learning the individual parts of the words, pronunciations, and how to write the characters. As you can tell I even downloaded a pinyin keyboard for my laptop. I may put a bit of Chinese in my blog every now and then just for fun.

That's really all I wanted to say. I will try to post again soon. Hopefully I'll have a post up tomorrow but no promises.

再见！
(Goodbye!)

That's my view!

*Note: I did not word for word translate all my phrase. 你好 means hello. 你们 means you plural.
你们好 means hello to you plural. 我叫 means I am called. 福爱婷 is my Chinese name.

Campus Biking

Hello peoples!

So quick post that's been on my mind for the past few days...okay since the beginning of freshmen year. There are plenty of college campuses out there but not all relate to this problem. On my campus we have sidewalks and bike paths, pedestrians and cyclists. As a freshman I was thrilled to discover that my campus had bike paths. Surely this meant I could safely ride my bike on campus and not have to worry about being in the way of pedestrians or of them being in my way. I was so naive to think that everything would be fine. It took one day for me to discover that there is no respect for the bike paths on my campus at that most people saw it as an extended sidewalk. It was so frustrating for me, I tried so hard to try and follow every rule and look out for pedestrians as rode through campus, but other people walking around simply didn't care to pay attention. People would walk wherever they wanted so that it was convenient for them. Even though on my campus the bike paths are clearly marked with little bike symbols, outlined in brick, and tinted red, they are still ignored.

I do recognize that some bikers don't follow the rules of the bike path either, it is a problem on both sides. However, these paths were built for the safety of everyone on campus. I did my best to stay as strictly to the bike path as I could but even then I've had numerous near collisions and a couple full-on.

Last year I was heading to my evening class and it just so happened to be the last day of rush on campus. All the ladies who had finally been welcomed into their sororities were now running to their houses—conveniently located behind my dorm. Nothing wrong with that, the ladies who rush work very hard, they deserve to be excited. The problem? They were running on the bike path. I tired to slow down and stay to the side but with the approaching mob I had nowhere to go. I was at a near stop when when a girl ran straight into me. But it wasn't her who fell, she stumbled a bit and kept on running. I was the one who toppled to the ground with my bike on top of me. I think one person glanced back and asked if I was alright, but they didn't stop running to help me up. I waited for the group to clear and kept on going, only to be greeted by the next group of joyful girls. While this time I didn't fall, a girl nearly flipped over my handlebars because she wasn't watching where she was going. It was scary and I got scraped up. It was not a good first impression of sororities on campus for me. It wasn't till later that I had friends in sororities that I was able to respect them for the good that they can bring.

After that I invested in a bike horn, not a bell, a horn! Even that doesn't always help, but I feel better having it. I have multiple occasions of having to slam on my breaks—nearly toppling over in the process—in the hopes to avoid hitting someone. Then my favorite, when someone is walking with a group of people on the bike path and I can't get around them, thus making me have to bike at a snails pace that doesn't give me the momentum I need to stay balanced. That's normally when the horn comes out.

I try very hard to be respectful and understanding, but when I'm driven of the path into a bush it becomes a bit harder to feel like being nice. The whole point of the bike paths is to keep everyone on campus safe! If you are on a campus that has bike, paths please don't walk on them, for your own safety and for the bikers. Bikers, stay on the bike paths, I understand they aren't always the fastest route to get around campus but it isn't safe for anyone if you bike on the sidewalk.

I'm hoping to bring awareness about this issue on my campus in the near future but until I can do that I wanted to share my thoughts here.

That's my view!

College Move-in Success!

Hello peoples!

I made it! I am moved in to college and have been experiencing  my first day on my own. Ok, it's a little scary.

Yesterday dad and big bro helped me move in and get settled. Though I guess it was more "help" and "settle". When they left I still had two totes to unpack and my room was a mess because nothing was where it needed to be! But I managed to get everything settled this morning, mostly. And, as annoying as they can be at times, I'm very grateful to dad and big bro for helping me move in. I don't know if I could have done it on my own.

Today has been pretty chill, all the big activities will be tomorrow or Sunday. I had time to do register my bike and just relax. I have a feeling I won't have much time for that for awhile.

Well that's about all I've got for now, time to find the bike paths on campus.

That's my view!