As you can tell I have added a few features to the site this week. I didn't have too much reading for class, so I spent some time on the internet. There is a new feature where you can add your email address and every time I update the site you get an email alerting you. I also included a visitor counter. It is the blue box with the JV on it or something. Since I am a fan of statistics, the feature breaks down the number of visitors the site has and does some type of pie graph report. It's quite interesting. But, let me move on before I sound incredibly nerdy.

The last two weeks do not have conclusions or winners, so here they are...
From my Feb. 19 entry (when I get a rind stuck on my finger at Nordstrom) the winner is BRIAN BIGGS, who wrote "I would have immediately cut the ring off, and make a personal vow to punish myself physically whenever the mind clouds itself with unholy wedding fantasies. The fingers swelling up? That's God telling you that you aren't ready to think such things yet!" Thanks for keeping it real, bro. Your gift is being sent via UPS to the Mario's Warehouse.

THE CONCLUSION for the Ring Story...I ended up prying the ring off about 30 mins later while walking around Brass Plum. My "think thin" mantra really worked that time and looking at the tight fitting clothes also helped.
Visit www.preciousplatnium.com to see my ultimate wedding band.

For the entry from Feb. 22 (when I was about to get my backside "treatment" from Gillian) the winner is...ABRA COOPER who wrote "as much as i love gillian, i would take her advice, but have the actual action performed by some hot guy i met at a bar. asking him to fix my rear would be the coolest pick up line ever!"
Classy Coop, classy! Your gift is arriving in the form of Me and it will be on an Air Nippon flight.

THE CONCLUSION, I let Gillian punch my butt! Perhaps it was a temporary solution to a long term problem, but it stopped the pain. Gillian has HEALING HANDS! In a related story, my friend Allee and I are going to start training for a half marathon. I will have Gillian driving next to me in a white van at all times, ready to punch!
For more info on becoming a proctologists visit... http://www.aoa-net.org/Certification/proctology.htm

Now for my new entry...

This international travel thing is new to me. Since I was so busy transferring schools in the states during my undergraduate career I never really had the time or the money to go aboard. Instead I got to change schools every year and make new friends and enemies. However, I am planning a big trip to Japan in March to visit Abra. Then from there we are also going to a Rugby tournament Hong Kong. So I am very excited to be heading to the motherland of my people (for those of you who don’t know this—I am Chinese), as well as looking forward to spending some quality time with my best friend.

For some reason I thought that it would be easy to contact my friends who live in different countries. I was always able to email Judi in France or Courtney in Brazil. But for some reason I had the most difficult time trying to call Abra in Japan with my calling card the other day. I thought that perhaps I could just pick up the phone, say “Hi Japan…this is Jolina…is Abra there?” Instead there were a lot of numbers and, like, strange dial tones. Then I had to input a country and a city code to dial out of the US—madness I tell you. It was all very frustrating for a first time international caller. I ended up panicking and calling Zandra for advice. After all she was a world traveler and I assume she knows how to use the phone.

What made my dumb dialing problem more difficult was the fact that I was very embarrassed. Why was it so hard to make a phone call—was I really that dumb? Was it that incredibly hard to call someone long distance? Do other people have problems with country codes and dialing instructions? Well…I ended up actually reaching Abra’s answering machine in Japan, but the little recorded Japanese voice on the other end didn’t tell me when she was getting home. I was very sad that I had wasted an hour of tears and frustration just to reach a machine.

The next day, the Director of the department asked me to contact a faculty member in Vietnam. I was rather hesitant to complete the task since I had such a hard time calling Japan the other evening. The Director said that it was urgent and that I needed to call immediately. It was probably around 6 am Vietnam time when I dialed the numbers I that were written down on a post-it note. Instead of hearing a greeting from the Embassy Hotel in Vietnam I heard a very upset, tired man answer in Vietnamese. “Hi Vietnam…this is Jolina…is Prof Ingle there?” I wanted to ask…but instead I panicked—I had messed up an international call AGAIN!

“Oh no!” I thought…I just pranked a Vietnamese man…WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Try to say “Sorry Wrong Number” in broken Vietnamese in a phrase book you found off the internet, or Ask if Mike Rotch is there?