A breakfast idea

My mind has been running a million miles a minute since breakfast.  It`s already on overload-mode from absorbing so much visual spelndor and how that will affect my work, thought, and actions as a landscape designer. 

This morning as I was eating breakfast and chatting about what-not with an OSU professor an idea came to me.  BYU needs to have an international program for the Landscape Management Program, of which I am an adjunct faculty member.  The reason why OSU comes to Kameoka each year is because Stillwater is a sister city with Kameoka - that is where their relationship started.

I needed a similar foundation as a springboard for initiating an international program for the BYU Landscape Management program.  Sister cities.....hmmmm - does Provo have a sister city?

Yes....

In 1999 officials from Nanning, China visited Utah to sign a sister-city agreement with Provo...  Mayor Guoqiang said that one of the reasons he wanted to become a sister city with Provo was because of it`s church heritage.  ‘Mormonism`, he said, `is quite close to the traditions of the Chinese.`

I couldn`t have been more thrilled when I found the above article.  The program could spend 1.5 weeks in China and then 1.5 weeks in Kyoto for a three week experience.  Students would have course requirements and would receive credit.  It`s just a birth of an idea at this point, but when I return I am going to present these thoughts to the department and see what I can do to get this program established.  The trip could occur every two years and would be for seniors and juniors.  Provo even has a `Friendship Garden` somewhere commemorating this relationship we have with China.  Awesome.

I have been noticing the similarities between Buddhism here in Japan and Mormonism...and have found many parallels and similarities.  I still have a lot to research about Buddhism...but some/many things are uncannily alike.  It will be interesting to study more about Chinese tradition and religion to find the common ground Mayor Guoquiang sees and feels.

Woohoo.