China Girl: Happy New Year

oh yeah baby.

One of my favorite new things to do is listening to podcasts. They are fantastic. Podcasts are these great little blurbs available online on just about anything. Lonely Planet publishes 30 minute segments on cities and must-dos for travelers, People.com sends out little blurbs on recent gossip, FOX sends me an audio file of the latest Prison Break episode and most importantly, I can catch up on football news.

I was listening to ESPNU, a new college football podcast with Ivan and Beano and chock full of college football news, polls analysis and greatest hits of the weekend. In their latest, Ivan says Happy New Year to everyone, because a new season of college football is upon us. And how relevant that is... Happy New Year to you all. I feel like this is a new year for me. I just got back from an amazing adventure in SouthEast Asia and am back in Yangzhong with a positive head and a happy heart- feeling very fulfilled and revived- ready to finish out my China experience with lots of fun memories, adventures and friends.

On a bit of a tangent, but back to some football.... This leads us to the most important part of my upcoming weekend. At 3:30 am, I will be waking up to listen to a college football classic, Penn State vs. Notre Dame in South Bend. I'm gonna pull an all nighter and listen to Ohio State vs. Texas at 8am. Gonna be a big one. Yeah, I have no TV here, let alone English TV, let alone American football. After much searching and fretting, I found a way to live up this fall. I subscribed to a PSU program where you can listen to all PSU games in realtime and get video clips and interviews as well. I am very excited and though I wish I could be partying in the streets with all of you Penn Stater's out there, I will be singing songs on my own... Listening to my favorite band on Saturday evening here, and then finishing out the morning with some games. And it makes me excited for when we play the Irish at home next year- I will be there with bells on.

But more important than the actual game (I know- there isn't much more important than this game, but still, bear with me- I am feeling some nostalgia here...) is the Penn State experience that I dearly miss. I just read Emily's blog and am totally feeling the missing football season in the Happiest Place on Earth. It's the fact that football Saturdays cause the entire town to get involved in some pride, the people wearing PSU earrings and polyester pants with big lion heads on them, tailgating (which we do best in Happy Valley), and all of my buddies that go back to get some Penn State love as often as possible. It's the little one minute PSU football commercials- The ones that say- "I have no name on the back of my jersey" and "I play for my fans" and all that jazz. The ones that make me and Jenn tear up. It's meeting friends (new and old) in parking lots and eating 3 full meals while doing so. It's standing in line at the Phryst after a win (or loss if you want to talk 2000-20004). It's singing fight songs and fixing up drunk people. It's reliving the Orange Bowl 2006 experience. It's knowing that we will be doing this for the next 50 years like my grandparents STILL do (isnt that exciting!!). I didn't do that good of a job explaining, but you know what I mean- it's that feeling in your stomach- where you are just saturated with a sense of belonging and pride and family and community. I sound like I should be running out of the tunnel, don't I?This might sound ridiculously chintzy and sappy, but it is very true. Those of you that have ever been there know the feeling.

SO here's to you, Penn State. Kick some Irish butt. Make us faraway folk proud. And to all my buddies watching at home- Cheer extra loud for me:)

and because i enjoy posting pictures... here's some of my favorite psu pics: