It's been awhile since I've been to chinatown in SF with my family. As we were heading back to the garage from buying egg tarts from Golden Gate Bakery (the BEST!) this past weekend, we ran into two very *interesting* people. One was the "happy-happy-happy" Chinese man from Berkeley, standing again on a bucket with a his political viewpoints printed on pieces of cardboard. We had to stand next to him at a street corner as we were waiting for the traffic light. Then out of nowhere, he starts cursing the Taiwanese president in Mandarin and then in English, as if he knew of my dad's political viewpoints (no one else was around that street corner except us). That was funny and strange. The other weird encounter (3 minutes after the happy-happy-happy man) was seeing a middle-age Chinese man around my height dressed like a cowboy. He was wearing a hat with a gold cobra head sticking out in the front, with a gold star on his black shirt, matching black pants, and gold pointy boots. I don't know where he was going... but that was an interesting afternoon in chinatown.

In my attempt to play some worship songs on my old guitar at home, I found in my binder a lot of old worship songs from youth group and AACF (some of which I don't know anymore), a paper from IDS 130 that I had written my sophomore year in college, and a copy of this that somebody had forwarded to me years ago:

PERFECT LOVE

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone;
to have a deep soul relationship with another;
to be loved thoroughly and exclusively.

But God, to a Christian says:
No.
Not until you are satisfied, fulfilled, and content with living,
loved by me alone,
with giving yourself totally and unreservedly to Me alone.

I love you, my child
and until you discover that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found,
you will not be capable of the perfect human relationship
that I have planned for you.
You will never be united with another
until you are united with Me-
exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or longings.

I want you to stop planning, stop wishing
and allow Me to give you that most thrilling plan existing-
one that you cannot imagine.

I want you to have the best.
Please allow Me to bring it to you.

You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep that satisfaction knowing that I AM.
Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you, and you must wait.
Please don't be anxious and don't worry.
Don't look at the things others have or that I have given them.
Don't look at the things you think you want.
Just keep looking off and away up to Me, or you will miss what I have to show you.

And then, when you are ready,
I will surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any you would ever dream.
You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready--
I am working this minute to have both of you ready at the same time--
and until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I have prepared for you,
you will not be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me,
and this is
PERFECT LOVE.

And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love.
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me
and enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union
of beauty and perfection and love that I offer you with Myself.

Know that I love you utterly.
I am God Almighty;
Believe and be satisfied.

First snow of this winter...

I woke up to a lot of snow this morning. The roads are all covered, and so is my car. It's quite pretty. The grassy hills behind our apartment are all covered in snow. Some kids are outside sledding. Snow day. Schools are all canceled. I guess this is what we don't have in California.

But I can tell you that driving in the snow sucks. Exactly a year ago today we had our first snow of the year. How do I remember? It just so happened that on THAT day, I was scheduled to go into work (back then I was working as a staff nurse at a local hospital). While the entire city shut down due to the weather, I woke up early to dig my car out of the snow so I can get to work for my 7am shift on time. As I got onto the roads and freeway, my 4-year-old tires were not very helpful at all. I was basically sliding around on the highway into different lanes. There were a couple of times when my car spun and my car would end up being perpendicular to the traffic. Scary. The lane lines were not visible. You basically had to follow the tracks that other cars before you had made so you would slide around too much. As I was exiting off the highway, I got stuck on the incline of the exit. My car wouldn't go anywhere no matter how hard I pressed on the gas pedal or changed gears. Already late for my shift, I called up my friend Kristi who lived nearby to come and help get my car out of the middle of the exit ramp (in the meantime, all the other cars are passing by... so mean). She tried shoveling the snow around my tires, but it didn't really work. *Slightly* distressed while standing in the snow on the exit ramp in my scrubs and coat, this middle-aged Korean man, for some reason felt really sorry for me, stopped and helped me. He reversed my car down the exit ramp, back to the highway, and told us to take another exit where the ramp is flatter.

After I dropped Kristi off at her car, I continued on my little "adventure," sliding and spinning some more on the icy roads all the way to work. Meanwhile, my charge nurse at work kept calling to find out where I was and told me to get there "as soon as possible". No mercy, man... It took me nearly 2 hours to get to work that day when it normally took 20 minutes. I was way late to work, and thankfully, the nurse from the previous shift stayed late to cover me until I got there. Teamwork. That was great. I'm still very thankful. Driving home that night was less traumatic... I made it back in one piece (not a single scratch or a bump to my car or me from the whole experience... thank God!). I bought new tires a few days after that. They work pretty well when I have to drive in the snow.

So today, I enjoy the snow from the inside of my apartment... I am glad I don't have to be out there. Much respect to those who have to go into work in snowstorm. :)

My first Thanksgiving without my family...

I had my Thanksgiving meal #1 at my friend Jesse's place. He made the best roasted garlic mashed potatoes. It was a nice little Thanksgiving lunch party. He finished it off with pumpkin creme brulee. I'm impressed that he's even got the creme brulee torch. Thanksgiving meal #2 was at PR & Ann's house. They had opened up their home for people at church whose families live far away. Kristi made a turduckin. It's basically a chicken that's inside a duck, inside a turkey, with stuffings in between each bird. I helped her de-boned the chicken the night before. It took nearly 2 hours... but now I can say I've de-boned a chicken all by myself. Nevertheless, my Thanksgiving meals were great... I ate so much that I was woken up in the middle of the night with heartburn!

My friend Nora who recently moved to N.C. came back to town and celebrated Thanksgiving here. It was nice catching up and hanging out with an old friend. I look forward to the day that I can say "I miss Baltimore." According to her, it's quite possible. Just kidding. I hope I won't have to say that one day. Really. Haha! Anyway, the day after Thanksgiving, we (Nora, Olivia L., and I) spent an entire day together. We attempted to shop at the mall, but didn't really find any good sales. I think we went too late into the day. It was disturbing encountering hard-core-day-after-Thanksgiving-sale shoppers. Two ladies walking behind us said hurriedly, "Girls, can we get passed you?", complaining that we were walking too slow for them. Scary mall shoppers.

Thanksgiving reminded me of the times when my family would drive down to socal for the holiday... and my grandfather would lead us in a family worship session. We would have to go around and say one thing we're thankful for. I dreaded those cheesy family moments. But now I can see the value in that. It's so easy to get caught up with the things of these holidays, like cooking the best Thanksgiving meal and receiving gifts for Christmas. Once in awhile, we just need to come back and focus on the meaningful things in life, reminding ourselves that our treasures are not here. :)

My friend Agnes from school got married this past Saturday. It was a small wedding with around 150 guests. It's probably the smallest wedding I've ever been too. Aside from the usual, expected "awws" at a wedding, the bride and the groom danced to a song he had written and recorded for her after they got engaged as their first dance. While they were dancing, he was mouthing the words to the song he had written. That was really sweet. Guaranteed extra bonus points for all you guys if you do this.

I'm recovering from a bad cold. I've slept 10+ hours every night in the last couple of days, hitting a record of 17 hours last Friday. I'm not contagious anymore, just have a gross-sounding cough. Today was my first day back to clinic. As I was examining a baby for a check-up, I got a bad cough attack. You know, the ones that tickle your throat. I had to walk out in the middle of my exam twice to go cough in another room. It was quite embarrassing. I'm sure the new mom was probably horrified that some ill student is examing her baby... but I always wash my hands before and after going into every exam room. It's hard not to catch something bad when you're around sick kids all day long.

I saw two movies this past weekend. Love Actually was really cute. I give it two thumbs up. It's a movie with multiple love stories that lead up to Christmas. They're all so cute and funny (except for one- don't ask). It's one of those movies that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. It makes you want Christmas to come faster. :) The third Matrix was ok. I like the first one better. I won't ruin it for some of you who haven't seen it yet.

I went to two fun birthday parties this past weekend. Dave celebrated his birthday by renting an ice rink and invited a bunch of people for broomball. It brought back memories from AACF, which was the last time I remember broomballing and falling hard on ice. I tried really hard not to slip on ice this time or even getting any sort of injuries, but I eventually got smacked really hard in the shin by someone else's broom while playing offense and ended up with a big bruise. It was fun nevertheless. We played nonstop for 2 hours, then made smores by the fire afterwards.

Grace's birthday party was fun too. Her mom cooked up a storm... The food was so good! I ate so much that I could barely sit up straight because I was so full. It must be so nice to be able to celebrate your birthday with your mom cooking up a feast for you... I guess I'm too far for that now.

Another new discovery in the world of cable television shows... more opportunities to waste time...

Have you heard of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge? They air it on Spike TV. They claim to be the "first network for men". Right. Anyway, I discovered it last night after cell group, thanks to Matt. It's hilarious. It's a Japanese gameshow, where contestants do stupid things on an obstacle course. There's one where a constestant has to go upward on a foam incline wearing what looks like a thick blanket wrapped over his body from shoulder to below knees so that he can't really use his knees, while avoiding these huge foam giant nuts from rolling down on them. And the dubbing... it's pretty funny. It's worse than Iron Chef dubbing. At the end of the show, they show the top 10 "most painful extreme elimination," where they show the most painful events on the show that some of these contestants experienced for that episode.

I must say that this show has more substance than MTV's show Jackass, not that I would watch any of these shows regularly or anything. At least on this gameshow, there IS a goal, which is to win the first place. Jackass, on the other hand, has no goal. The pupose of the show is just to do stupid things and get hurt. There's not even a prize or anything. They're just doing it for the heck of it. Go figure.

But I'd still say that nothing beats The Bachelor and Friends... :)

I spent this past weekend in Boston. Eric had an interview there. I went a day early and met up with some old friends, since I had a free weekend and a free ticket thanks to mileage plus. I spent my Saturday afternoon with my friend Ely, who is somehow connected to the entire Asian Christian circle across the entire United States and knows everybody. He brought me to get some Taiwanese food at Chinatown. I miss stinky tofu! We walked around Harvard, and laughed about Asian parents taking parents of their kids in front of random Harvard buildings (like dorms) and telling them that they should go there when they're older. Sound familiar? I got to catch up with a high school friend also, and met some very smart people at her dinner party. Eric says Boston has the highest concentration of "brains" around... it's probably true. You walk around assuming everyone is smart, and they probably are. I hung out with Alvin, a friend from Cal AACF, and met his wife Christina for the first time on Sunday. They showed me their place and I got to look at their wedding photos. It was nice catching up with him and hearing about his life in Boston. We also got some jamba juice (another thing Baltimore doesn't have). The last time I met up with Alvin in Boston, which was three years ago, he was still single and said that he wasn't going to stay in Boston for very long. Three years later, he's married and still living there... I guess a lot can happen in 3 years. :) On Sunday night, Eric and I had dinner with Ely, Alvin & Christina, and some of Eric's Atlanta friends in Boston at Penang. Dinner was SO yummy! I really wish Baltimore had restaurants like that. Afterwards, we hung out at one of his friends' house. It was entertaining and funny hearing guys talk about poker. Is poker really THAT fun? California people are everywhere! I met so many people this past weekend and played so many name games. The sad thing is, I forgot all of their names. I met people who went to Cal, Monta Vista, EFC Berkeley, Cal IVCF, Sunset in SF... and the list goes on. Go California! We're everywhere!

With *strong* recommendations from Bob and Karen, out of my boredom on a fine Tuesday night (also procrastinating from my school work), I have created my first ever blog site and entry. Bob and Karen (mostly Karen) really want to hear stories about O and Jono, since I am physically the closest in distance to access that information here in Baltimore (Olivia is going to KILL me when she reads this). Let's just say that I had a good time this past weekend at dinner with Olivia's parents, Olivia, Jono, and Eric. :) We went out for Korean BBQ.

Hopefully this blog thing will also help update those of you who are far away in what I am up to, since many of you are in California. I miss you all!

A few answers to some FAQ's:
When are you done with school?
I'm almost done with school... 6 more weeks to go... and no more school for me forever! Woohoo!

What are you studying again? How long is the program?
I'm studying to be a pediatric nurse practitioner. No, it's not the same as a RN. The program is 1.5 years after you get your license as a RN.

Why didn't you just go to med school?
Because I didn't want to.

Are you going to move back to California after you're done with school?
I'm not sure. I just got a part-time job to work as a school nurse at a Baltimore public high school until the end of their school year in June of next year.

Stay tuned for more entries from me!