birthday weekend

all-danced out from the hoedown at the retreat. i actually did some square dancing. and it was actually fun! :) playing spoons in the dark

our asian version of the nativity story. ian (the guy in the middle) was baby Jesus. haha

roasting hotdogs around the campfire. love fires.

worship team on sunday morning. we were all pretty much dead from no sleep last night

pretending to be drunk. haha

hanging out with random guy at random bridge.

hoodies

around the campfire

in the car on the way to get yellow n pink hairdye at walmart (can't wait to streak my hair!!) and see 'Eagle Eye' in theatres!!! it just came out today! and it was awesome. everyone shld go see it. sooo intense.

cartoon's camera aiming skills are poor, as u can see.

andrew's imitation of my evil rocker face

GANGSTA friday!!!

mark n me. singaporeans!

sad faces

awesome jump shot. cartoon, sam, me

gangster faces

ooh i love kimbab!

tryna look cool outside the souphouse

love cartoon's gangster outfit :)

happy gangsters

susan chasing us out of the kitchen cuz we were useless. haha

bored waiting for kimbab to be ready

this weekend was really fun. hanging out on friday..retreat from saturday till today...even though i'm not a fan of camping, it was fun roasting hotdogs n marshmallows by the fire, worshipping arnd the fire, going for walks in the woods, sleeping in the bus, climbing trees, square dancing at the hoedown, hanging out with awesome people :)

i'm 21! one life, live it :)

Another sleepless week

these are my friends. ahaha. on emo friday. they're pretty awesome emos.

me and dan. he doesn't normally look like this. he should though. haha.

they made me wear a pink tiara n earrings for my party.

ooh yummy birthday cheesecake at the souphouse. oh the guy on the right is from SGP too!!! but he lives in HK now

sean, me, alana. random photo from asian dinner. love my ex roomie's face :)

seriously! even on my birthday week..so much stuff to do! but it's been cool :)
ISS (international students) GOT INTO AIRBAND!!!!!! aaahhh!!! Airband's this totally hyped up awesome campus wide dancing/lip syncing performance competition. if that makes sense. haha. it's my first time in it!!! past 2 years gerig didn't get in, then my wing didn't get in. i'm SO EXCITEDDD!!! airband's in 2 weeks. we must practice hard!!! even if i'm kinda sick of listening to our circle of life/be prepared/just can't wait to be king medley and running through the dance moves in my head. me, capri, dorothy and dallace waited till like 2am on tue night for the results..and we heard screaming all over olson, so we checked email, and WE GOT IN!!! omg can't wait. will take pics next time. our face paint was rockin'. i love being a zebra! get to be all black/white :)

also stayed up most nights trying to finish my audio broadcast project for scriptwriting. not too happy with the end result, but it's over. my midterm in specialized reporting is over today too!! it's the WEEKEND!! party time.

someone interviewed me for her intercultural class this week..was kinda weird to be interviewed for a change, instead of interviewing people. haha. didn't really get a chance to workout :( cuz been so busy. although we got stuff done FAST ystdy at our Echo newspaper meeting! hannah and i got done with editing stories and layout by 9pm!!! (cuz she wanted to rush to watch the office) it's a new record. and the newspaper looked pretty cool today! we got color pictures..cuz it's our Green issue.
all in all, today's a very happy day. and it's GANGSTA FRIDAYYY. :)))

happy pics

MY NEW PURPLE PHONE!!! :)

lovin it

pretending to talk on my awesome phone. i've been addicted to it

presents frm friends! mooncake.. and a box of games/cards from the dawgz back home!

and of course..my very awesome and very black wallet n watch frm very awesome pple at home :) i've been using them and they're still in good condition!

:)))

today my friends threw me a surprise birthday party :)

i was pretty surprised. don't know why but i'm just not good at figuring out surprises. haha. but i was so touched..so sweet of them to do this!!! so i got up early today to paint the set for Airband..we're doing a medley of songs from The Lion King, so we painted the bongo drums and xylophone that we made outta cardboard, painted our sunset backdrop and made our rock for simba to stand on. everything looks pretty good, if i do say so myself. haha. watched like 10 mins of the football game (which we of course lost) while eating lunch.

then andrew drove me n cartoon to go get me a CELL PHONE!! yes i have a phone after 2 years! i'm now contactable!!! :) so excited. it's all nice and purple too! motorola verizon. it flips open too! SO HAPPY! i finally get a new phone after like 5 years of the same lao pok phone. haha. too bad can't use this at home though. they don't use sim cards here apparently.

so we went to the souphouse, where everyone like jumped out at me and yelled 'surprise' when i walked in!! i was like, OMG what is this. can't believe they did it for me!! pple cooked asian food (stir fry, jap soup, chicken rice, satay) oh made my day. and susan gave me a mooncake. haha. they made me wear a pink tiara and pink diamond clip on earrings too. but awww..i'm so touched so many pple turned up!! :) yummy choc cheesecake too.

on a side note, Brother Yun, who wrote the book Heavenly Man, came to speak to my sch. it was pretty cool. he's been thru so much! he got sent to prison in china, where the guards crushed his legs, but one day God just told him to walk out of prison, and that's exactly what he did. no one stopped him. isn't that incredible??? his testmony is just so awesome.
also, this weekend's parents weekend. so tons of old pple around. good side - free food all around ystdy. cotton candy, popcorn, some greasy calorie-infested pancake called lion's ears, all that yummy stuff.
we had Orphan's Night again. haha. for all those whose parents didn't come. games, food, fun. oh how i love it here :)

MY FIRST PUBLISHED WORK!!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

ok guess what???????

so i'm taking this class, Freelance Writing, at school, and the professor is super intimidating but extremely experience and well-connected. so he had us write 3 devotionals for class, and apparently he liked mine so much that he showed them all to an EDITOR of an online newspaper called The Aboite Independent!! and the editor thought they were (quote) 'marvelous' (aaahh!!)
so he wants to PUBLISH them during the next few weeks!!! isn't that INSANE?? so unexpected too!! not one, not two, but all three!! my prof just did that without telling me!!!!!!! :)
and i dun get paid for it, but hey. awesome exposure!!!! soooooo psyched! can't believe it!!!! :))))))

GOD IS SO GOOD.

on a side note, i realized i like having stuff/work to do. keeps me alive n alert n feeling useful. i should do something this summer instead of slacking around.

orientation/retreat

erika, me, elise. waiting around for the freshmen to arrive at orientation

wing retreat! all of us in a dogpile

juniors!!

all the wing girls with dark hair

we tried to do a pyramid. i was one of those at the bottom. painful

freshmen arriving at orientation n signing in!

holding welcoming signs at the roadside

at the cookout

games at the ksac during orientation. the girl in red, holding the ball is juoae! the cutest little korean girl.

we had a world map displaying where we all came from :)

every week is busier than the last

this week i was so swamped, people complained they never got to see me :( but at least the weekend is here!!

worked on 3 articles simultaneously plus a broadcast project for class. so i spent most of my time tracking people down and interviewing them. i think i've interviewed like almost every important person on campus. from the president to the provost to all kinds of professors and deans. and they're all really nice! even though they're impossible to track down since they're so busy. worked for a long time on thursday night for the newspaper. till i got a splitting headache. if i ever say i wanna be a journalist again, please remind me how tough it is.

so i've been working on a story about the 50th anniversary of our student union (front page of the newspaper!!), a story on students here who don't have English as their first language, chapel auditions and a faculty instrumental recital. exciting stuff huh. i guess i do feel a sense of pride when i see my work in the newspaper :)
this week was Spiritual Renewal Week, so we had a speaker come - Colin Smith. he was really good. spoke about romans 8 and how come we can be confident of God's blessings for us.

my roomie and i finally went to walmart and got a couch! but it's the kind that we must fix ourselves. so technically we have a box in our room. not a couch. need to fix it soon.
worship night/bonfire on thursday!
i love fridays. i have only one class + it means the weekend's here.
interviewed 2 music professors for my broadcast scriptwriting project. went for their faculty recital. almost fell asleep. but it's over and done with!
then went to watch 'Traitor' in the cinema with a bunch of pple to reward myself for working so hard this week! :) it was a pretty good, intense movie. went on forever till like midnight.

today was our second Taylor football game! we lost this time :( oh well. we were winning at halftime, but...yeah.
had a surprise bdae party for ian. only it didn't really work cuz he turned up early. so only a few of us were there. but at least he was surprised! we took turns hitting a pinata and got tons of candy. yum.

gonna go practice playing guitar/djembe (drums) later! for our ministry of the arts audition tomorrow. hope we get in.
quite excited for church tmr. i really like IWU church!

weekend daze

the weekend's almost over. sad. wing retreat was FUN! went to indianapolis and stayed in a girl's home. it was like a mansion. huge. with a huge backyard where we had our bonfire and had s'mores. shared embarrassing stories..testimonies..had worship.. all that nice bonding stuff. stayed up pretty late playing games and talking. and eating. omg. everyone always eats so much during retreats. it's cuz the food's RIGHT THERE. and u just have this compulsive urge to stuff your face.
went shopping at a new outlet mall on sat..found this awesome eatery called Noodle Company!! wonderful asian noodles. made me very happy :) glad i got to know the girls on my wing better.

super tired. but drove to the TAYLOR VS ANDERSON U first football game of the season!!!!! it was freaking long. but exciting. 3 hours we stood there and cheered. but it was oh-so-worth it. cuz WE WON!! for the first time in SIX whole years!! so proud of the guys :) and i'm starting to understand it better too! we got 4 touchdowns!!! woot woot.

also celebrated 4 pples bdaes today! sam, andrew, sarah and dallace! had a partyy at the souphouse. with kimbab and cake and all. and practiced our first airband dance! we're doing a lion king medley. dancing to 'circle of life', 'be prepared' and 'just can't wait to be king'. exciteddd.

anyway. today i had a revelation. or rather, last night. so i was contemplating not going to church today since i spent the whole weekend not doing homework and not getting much sleep. but then..i pondered over it..and i realized.

how can church be optional?

it has never been optional for me at home. the thought of skipping church to stay home and catch up on my rest would NEVER even cross my mind at home. so how come it's different here? i've been going to church whenever i like for the past 2 years here. if i'm tired or i've been out all sat, i'll skip church. if there's tons of hw waiting for me and i just don't feel like getting up early, i'll skip church. i've used sundays to sleep in countless times. but that is going to change!! I am going to church regularly from now on!! I'm not optional to God, why should He be optional to me? it doesn't help that lots of pple at Taylor skip church whenever they feel like it. and it's not for me to judge. but all i'm saying is.. i will make an effort to go every week. doesn't matter if i feel like it or not. God's faithfulness has never failed me.
today's sermon was really good too. i was completely captivated. learning point: I want to renew my first love. AND I want to take all these little gods in my life (things that i treasure) and use them to serve THE God above.

EXCITED

i don't know why but i'm incredibly excited. for everything! :)
finished editing and doing the layout for the newspaper tonight. such hard work! especially when our staff writers dont really know what they're doing! but i'm beginning to get the hang of it. and i just found out i get paid US$200 for my newspaper job and $250 for my coordinator of ethnic scholars job for this semester! not alot of cash, but i wasn't doing it for the money anyway. its just a nice bonus :)

we had a cookout at Taylor lake for ethnic students yesterday..was pretty fun!! got to meet new freshmen. sooo many asian americans this year. like tons! someone told me there lives a HUGE species of fish in the lake. Taylor's very own loch ness monster. disgusting. i'm never going swimming there. fo shizzle!! haha. and then i watched the 2 hour premiere of ANTM with a bunch of girls on my wing!!! ohhh so many shows to watch! i love being in america!

so..today was a good day. one cancelled class, one prof sick..so i virtually had no class. and i have only one class tmr! and then my wing is going on a retreat!! to miriam's house in indianapolis (THE CITY!!). can't wait! we're gonna roam the city n go shopping! and have bonfires and eat s'mores! and of course, girl talk. and then Taylor's infamous football game against Anderson U on sat!! like i said, exciteddd :)

Makes me happy

so glad today's over. was the longest day ever. but wow. i'm learning SO MUCH from my freelance writing class! am totally in awe of my prof. he's like, the coolest person. ever.
here's a list of his credentials:
-he's written and published 51 books
-he's got more than 1000 devotions published! (who does that!!)
-he WROTE THE SCRIPT for the movies armageddon and mask of zorro!!!!! omg. i'm so glad i get to learn from him!!!!!

and he was so encouraging today too. cuz we had to read our devotionals aloud in class. and he gave feedback. can't wait to send mine in and hopefully get published!! if there's any prof i wanna have a 3 1/2 hour class with, it's definitely him. i've never known anyone who has sooo many stories to tell. he's been through so much. he was in world war 2, where his army mate stepped on a grenade and blew half his face up. omg. the experiences he tells us...i'm like wow. and he recites all these books, poems and stories from memory and acts them out dramatically. really interesting guy. feel like i learn more from 3 1/2 hours with him than the whole of last semester!

i got to have thai food on sat! faith cooked and invited us over to her apartment :) and ooh. my first drive-in movie experience on sun. was a brother-sister wing event, so i got to know some of the guys on our bro wing. was pretty fun! although superrr freezing cuz it was at night and the movie was outdoors. watched 'drillbit taylor'..kinda stupid but kinda funny too.

currently obsessed with marie digby's acoustic version of 'umbrella'.
ecstatic that prison break premiered on mon!! (awesome 2 hour premiere. SARA'S ALIVE!!!) plus gossip girl. plus one tree hill. and america's next top model's coming today. aaaahhhh. so many shows, so little time. getting hooked on the office too!!

first wk of classes

man, it's only the first week and already i feel like school's been going on FOREVER.
so..tuesday was seriously the most stressful day of life. and thurs. and they're gonna be like that EVERY WEEK. i just hope i survive this semester. really. cuz tues and thurs my day goes all the way from 1.30 till 11pm++. classes all the way..insane huh. but i'm excited to learn alot in my classes..taking Scriptwriting, Freelance Writing, Specialized Reporting, Arts and Ideas and Adobe Dreamweaver.

the prof for freelance writing (which i take at fort wayne, 1hr away from upland) is definitely the most INTIMIDATING guy i've ever met. EVER. he's like sooo experienced..he told us he only expects greatness from us, nothing less. and every single student he's had has had stuff published!! and our first assignment is to write 3 devotionals and read them aloud in class to be criticized and bashed by him and the class. oh joy. but i'm actually looking forward to it. cuz i think i'll learn SO MUCH from him..he seems so know everything!!! plus i can earn extra $$ by sending in my stuff to publications!! so that's tues.

thurs..classes all the way..the The Echo (sch newspaper) staff meeting. oh gosh. sooo intimidated. me and my co-news editor, hannah, who's also my roomie, are like the least experienced pple on staff! and we have the most stressful job!! reporting the news!! while others get to report on sports, entertainment, opinions, etc. sighhh. was pretty awkward the first meeting..but hopefully we'll improve and learn as we go along this semester. i already learned so much about how to edit pple's articles, how to layout and design the newspaper page, etc.. it'll be a good experience too. although there's these few guys on staff who are SO intimidating. it's like they know it all, and they know that they know it all. haha. but me and hannah laughed non-stop after the meeting about how awkward it was. good times. although i am realizing i don't really wanna work in a newspaper. it's a super high-stress, fast-paced job where the burn-out rate is over the roof.

am feeling pretty stressed now..about classes and responsibilities and jobs and everything, but..that's normal for me. i always stress out at the beginning of the semester, but after a while i'm fine. so..pray that God will be my guide and my strength and will help me through all this!!

oh. and my friend offered to teach me driving!! haha. cuz i told him everyone's nagging at me to learn. so yayyy. i just gotta go pass the written test first and learn quickly before winter comes and roads get icy.

sch starts..

can't believe classes start tmr!!! kinda excited, but kinda sian too. homework again. haven't bought my books yet! so darn expensive!! plus tmr i'll have to drive 45mins to another taylor campus to take a class - freelance writing - cuz they don't have it here at upland. and the class is freaking 3 1/2 hours long!!! ugh. oh well heard it's a good class though.

so anyway this weekend was so fun!! hung out with the freshmen till like 2am everyday..haha. have fun while we can. fri went to this place with hannah,andrew n kevin - buffalo wild wings - which i wrote an article about for the paper but never got to visit. its a pretty cool restaurant.. with tv screens everywhere and sports stuff. and they had really spicy wings..which were yummy!

then tried to get me a cell phone..the guys were really helpful with information n stuff..but i was too indecisive. heh. couldn't decide whether i wanted pay-per-use or get a 2 year plan..but think i'll go with the 2year plan..cuz i'll prob be here next summer workin on my internship.. can't wait to get a new phone!! watched 'The Rocker' at the theatre..kinda tired but it was pretty funny as far as stupid movies go. haha. starred the guy from the office.

totally slept in on sat till like 3pm..dinner was my first meal. haha. this year's welcome weekend hoedown was outside..so wasn't that hot. they really went all out to decorate the place! all that cowboy stuff..a band playin country music..even brought in a real cow! don't know what for. haha. u totally know you're in indiana when u see all that. it was fun though. hanging out and watching pple square dance. went to see the new apartments off campus!!! they're SO NICE! i so have to live there next year. it's like a hotel!! air conditioning..a living room, kitchen..everything to yourself and 3 other roommates!!! sooo nice. watched the olympics at some guy's apartment. didn't really know them but just went along with friends. they were really funny though. and we got kinda busted for being too loud and supposedly having alcohol.. after that i hung out with my little asian freshmen!! they're so cute. can't believe they're like 3 years younger than me!

sun was move-in day. got all my stuff from storage!! so now my room's totally full of junk. it's like 9/10 of the room is my stuff, 1/10 is my roomie's. haha. the closets are wayyy too small to fit all my clothes. no space for winter stuff even. omg and there's like flies everywhere. they're huge too. and indiana weather is insane. ystdy it was scorching hot. today it was freezing cold. and it's still summer!! so anyway..really glad to see all my friends again!! and to make new ones. it's been really fun catching up.

ooh and i'm soooo excited for my wing this year. think we have an AWESOME group of girls!! the freshmen are so crazy and bubbly!! i'm psyched. we did something crazy today. dressed up in 'camp outfits' (red/white shirts and shorts, high socks, bandanas, caps, schoolbags) went to the DC where everyone was eating dinner and did random cheers. hahaha. first we did a cheer for the salad bar..then we did a prayer for the food cheer at the table, then another one, then individual cheers..and i was picked to do it..so i had to like yell 'i, i get hyped for jesus! do u get hyped for jesus?' and dance around our table in front of everyone in the DC. u would think i'd be embarrassed, but it was so fun. haha. and then we went around and cheered for every table. ohh man. can't wait for other stuff for our wing this yr!! :)

welcome weekend

tons more freshmen are coming today!!!! excitedddd.
anw international orientation went super awesome! so sad its ended. I LOVE MEETING ALL THE NEW FRESHMEN!!! they're so fun to be with!! miss living in our 'co-ed' dorm for the last few days. still love my small group!! they're so awesome. they're so ready to share about everything! really thank God for them. thank God for guiding me and using me to speak to them too :)

we had combined small group the last day with dan's group..so it wasn't homogenous..we went to a random place..this dock in the middle of the lake, which was SO ulu. we had to go behind the environmental science building, trek through some jungle, walk across a rickety bridge to finally get to the dock. what an experience. and it was SO dark cuz it was like 9++pm. i was freakin out! some other girls were too. haha. it was TOTALLY the setting for a horror flick! a bunch of college kids to go some ulu place in the jungle, sit in the middle of the lake, get eaten by some gigantic croc or monster or something.. heh. but after a while it was ok. the stars were nice..

anw i was really surprised at how open they all were with each other! like, dan and i just told them we were gonna hang out..no bible lessons or anything..but this guy, sam, just took the initiative and started reading verses and leading the group in discussions! and from there they all started sharing about themselves, their struggles, their fears about college.. i was like, wow. this group is really cool! so open and vulnerable with each other! and it was all unplanned! and they only met like a few days ago! God is really SO good. can tell that alot of them are pretty nervous about college..so was trying to encourage them and all.

ystdy i went to work on the newspaper with my co-news editor, hannah, who's also my roommate :) and today the first issue of THe Echo comes out! specially for the freshmen :) had an awesome international dinner..alot of pple cooked stuff from their own countries, so we had like ethiopian, kenyan, hungarian, chinese, italian..all kinds of food. yummy. we got to hang out afterwards..watched some random movie..started a massage chain. there was like a guy massaging my back, and two others massaging my hands. ahahaha. they were really good too. so yeah. hope i still get to see them around campus after classes start.

so been running around between the newspaper, orientation and meetings for my other job this week. getting a little more stressed each day about all this stuff i'm supposed to do this sem!!! 16 credits, news editor of the sch newspaper, coordinator for american ethnic scholars... omg. i didn't realize how much i'd have to do as coordinator of ethnic scholars..but oh well. it'll be fun. :)

i finally moved into my new room!!! set up our stackable furniture and stuff. will take pics soon!! getting my stuff from storage on sun. i think i have wayyy too much stuff to squeeze into our room with its new furniture n everything. plus my roommate has like 10 times less stuff than me! feel so bad. haha.

international orientation '08

OMG i just have to rave about the awesome new freshmen that we have!! because they really are quite...awesome!! haha. and this year there are TONS of asians!! as compared to previous years. so that's pretty exciting!!! mostly guys too! haha. 2 girls from korea..tons of guys from hongkong, (singapore. kind of), korea, japan. yayy!! and yes, other freshmen from other parts of the world too. it's been pretty fun..welcoming them yesterday..having the banquet..playing crazy games right after while we were still all dressed up..having small group. which was kinda intimidating cuz i'm a small group leader!!

but THANK GOD for my wonderful small group whom i love very much!! even though 2 of them are older than me (23 yrs old cuz they're transfers frm another school. one from HK, one from china), it went really well, and they're pretty talkative, which was so great for me. haha. one girl from korea but she lives in russia..she is like seriously, the CUTEST LITTLE THING!! hahaha. she like, bounced up to me and asked hopefully, 'are u korean??' and wasn't really that sad when i said no. another girl in my small group, from russia, kept calling me some korean name cuz she thought i looked like her korean friend. seriously! why does everyone think i'm korean?? but u know what, my new 'dream' is not to be american anymore..i wanna be korean!! ahahaha. i think they're SO cute. i mean the girls. cute little things! plus koreans are everywhere. and everyone loves koreans. so anyway yah. i really like my small group! all 5 of them!

summer pics

family at jere's BMT graduation! so patriotic :)

at soup restautant..celebrating my early bdae. :)

sentosa!

SINGFEST 08!!! best concert EVER!!! rawk on

joce bdae at Shokudo

clar's bdae at the ice skating rink. haha

dawgz last outing

me n joce :)

on the lu-ge! :)

jedi's 14th bdae. brothers grow up so fast!

back again!

it's been...3 months? heh. summer was..AWESOME! hanging out, watching every single movie there is (except the horror flicks), going gym with joce (new body!), family gatherings, SINGFEST!!, celebrating my bdae numerous times.. can't believe time flew by so fast!!

and now i'm back. in good old upland. arrived safely and happily. the flight back was..AWESOME!! they gave me premier tickets? dont know what those are but i like em! cuz United Air usually doesn't have TVs for economy class, so i came prepared with my ds, mags, books, laptop, etc. but to my utmost surprise, there were tvs on the back of the seat!!! so excited i called my parents to share my joy. haha. and the plane was like half empty! so there was no one around me!! so i could put up my legs, put down my chair, not be disturbed by anyone!!! it was total happiness. and from japan to chicago, they put me on BUSINESS CLASS!! without even telling me!! it was SUCH a nice shock. loved it!! huge reclining chair, soooo much space to fit 2 of me, nice meals..although the food was kinda wasted on me..prawns..seafood stuff..ugh. so i got more sleep than usual. it was one of the best travelling experiences. :) THANK GOD! cuz normally when i travel i either get cramps, flu, or painful ear popping experiences. but God is good!! and all my luggage arrived safely too!!!

kinda weird being back and seeing everyone again. but it's nice :) can't wait to see the freshmen though!! yayyy!!! going back to eating wraps and burgers and salads is kinda weird too. there's like tons of chips, sweets, snacks, cookies, etc..laying around at the daudts' (where i'm staying with 15 other girls)..but i'm determined to be healthy and avoid those like mad!! ooh must remember to take my medicine. :)

going home...

so...i'm leaving tomorrow morning..or rather, in 8 hours. can't say that i'm very excited to go home. dont know why. but at the same time glad to leave. feeling a little sick now. sore throat, cough, and some weird pressure on my ears. like the kind u get when the plane takes off, only i'm not on the plane. yet. ugh. hate travelling when i'm not in the healthiest state of mind. pray that God will heal me and give me strength to make it back home.

2 years have really flown by. half my college career is over! can't believe it. seems like it was just yesterday that i was a lowly freshman who was 'fresh off the boat' to the States. but wow. so much has changed. it's been a crazy experience.. wouldn't change anything for the world. really appreciate all these friendships i've made here. and i'm gonna miss my roomie! who's leaving for hongkong in the fall..so i wont see her till feb of next year. :( but hopefully parents will let me go to korea n visit her n other friends :) i love having friends from all over the world. u get to stay with them for free n visit their countries n have them show u around!

so..finished all my finals. all two of them. haha. one was hard cuz i was too lazy to study for it, one was easy cuz i actually studied. omg didn't do anything over the weekend. sunday night esp! sooo distracted by my neighbors. went to macdonalds at like midnight..hung around..then went to play guitar hero at the souphouse..got back at like 3am and had to finish my part for the group paper due the next day. heh. hardly any sleep this week. stupid presentation was during dinner time so the whole class had to miss dinner. what kind of scheduling is this??? anw went shopping today! yay. didn't really get anything cuz my suitcases are already pretty full. so...yeah! i'll be back in 2 days!!! :)

Last week of classes!!

summer is so close yet so far!!! totally no mood to study :(
this week was a week of 'lasts'..last cookout (with wengatz)..last manager meeting for TCA..last small group..last day of classes..
awww!
kinda glad to be handing off Taylor Christian Artists to other people..after being in it for a year, and being in charge of it for a year, i'm ready to move on to another ministry. loved being in it though. was a great experience. we interviewed 4 people and picked 2 to be next year's co-directors..i'm excited for that. they're gonna take TCA to new heights! :)

so next sem i'm gonna be super insanely sick of writing. THREE writing classes - scriptwriting (hopefully i get into it. they're setting up a new one since the other one was full and 20 more people need to take it), freelance writing and specialized reporting. PLUS i'm gonna be Co-NEWS EDITOR for the Echo!! our school newspaper!! exciting. yet scary. never been any sort of editor for any newspaper before!! but i'll be doing it with my next yr roomie, hannah, so we'll learn together. haha.

we moved out on sat!! packed everything i own here in 10 boxes plus a couch, a table and another chair..and 2 carpets.. now my room's soo....empty. feels like i'm on holiday, weirdly enough. haha. watched iron man last night! loved it. love superhero movies..they're just so awesome :) the car ride there n back was funny. party in the back! haha.

Hear You Me

international guys posing. hahaha. act cool.

international girls. love em! :)

girls from my wing..celebrating cassie's bdae at olive garden :)

me n capri in the car..on the way to flattop for senior night!

the girls again

norah, me n capri :)


whoa. realized i haven't posted in a longgg time! time has been flying by i guess. haha. so anyway..two weekends ago was Heritage Weekend at Taylor. grandparents came and flooded our sidewalks..we had a ceremony for our brand new memorial prayer chapel in honor of those who died in the accident last last year..
i helped out on WTUR..our sch radio! broadcasting a concert by some guys on campus. was pretty boring work. haha.
celebrated a friend's bdae at this restaurant, olive garden. super awesome italian food. super expensive too. but fun :)

watched Taylathon..our school's tradition - a bicycle race around the sidewalks of campus..8 pple in one team..one team from each class..each person passes off the bike to the other teammate without stopping. so they leap off the bike going at full speed and the other person runs and jumps on the bike. pretty crazy stuff. tons of crazy accidents. bikes going haywire into the crowd..bikers flying off the bikes and head first onto the concrete..tons of scratches and bruises to go around. makes u wonder why pple sign up for this kinda stuff. but entertaining to watch. haha.

had our annual Taylor Christian Artists spring worship night. stressed me out! i did all the details and organizing and everything..cuz adam was doing other stuff.. we were gonna hold it outside..but the forecast said it might rain..so last minute we held it in the student union..still got a pretty good turnout..went pretty well too. i'll miss being TCA co-director next yr..kinda. haha. it was fun while it lasted.

last wk..had Wok Night! Vietnamese food. yummy rice and pork and veggies. was really good. so fun to stir fry in our little pans in front of pple and pretend we know what we're doing too. haha. went for Sophomore Mugging..to get free mugs and get together with the rest of the sophomore class and have fun. and then rushed like mad for my final project for Digital Audio Production the rest of the week. the prof stressed me out cuz he said it usually takes like 25-30 hours to produce a 5 min audio clip. but i finished in 15hours. thank God. booked the audio suites and recorded my voice talents (luke, andrew and john, who were absolutely awesome voice actors!!!) and finally finished editing my proj on sunday. it was due mon. haha. and my prof laughed so hard at it. YAY! means i'll get a good grade. was trying to be funny..didn't know if it would work..but i guess it did! yay. my prof was like, benita, i didn't know u could be so funny!! haha. he's such a cool prof.

sat was ISS Senior Night!!! went to Flattop grille in fort wayne for dinner! yummy yummy stir fry. u get to pick what stuff u want in ur stir fry..rice..noodles..tons of different sauces..meats..other stuffs..and then they mix it n cook it together for u..and they have roti prata!!! which they call flat bread. sooooo happy. sooo full. but i exercised on mon so that made it ok. haha. so...we appreciated our 4 seniors who came..christine..doris..francisco..tryphena. gonna miss them next yr!!! such a happy/sad cycle. yay new freshmen every yr, but sad dont get to see the seniors anymore. oh well.
anw we sang them a song dorothy and i made up to the tune of 'time of your life' by greenday. haha. sung ah and capri made signs to go along with the words. they recorded us. heh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPHodEmxqQU

sun went to watch the play 'The Odd Couple'..was pretty funny n entertaining. kinda long though. went out for dinner afterwards. i love not eating at the DC on weekends..the food gets even worse then. although i have to say the food this yr has been pretty good. i discovered wraps. then i discovered TOASTED wraps. and omg. they are the best things EVER. i can eat wraps for lunch and dinner everyday.

can't believe i'm going home in NINE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!