Home for the holiday/wedding

I finally got to go home to Cali and it has been over a year.  The last time was right after graduation.  The vacation started off with going to my cousin's wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding, fairly extravagant with all the work and pomp, but at the same time very homey cuz they had people from church help them.  The reception was very elaborate as well.

Rhys & Flora Wedding

Had a good time. But for my own wedding, I'm more for something smaller and simpler.  This is just too much work, even for me attending it. But nonetheless, it was beautiful and elegant.

The rest of my time was spent at home, just enjoying my parents and my goofy brother.

Taiwan / Chinese New Year

Yippee.... My first real vacation since starting residency.

Chinese New Year's Album

Of course, leaving Cleveland about 2-3 days after another snowstorm, hoping to go to DC for my connecting flight.  That did not happened.  Snowstorm is a common occurrence and I know that unless the temp freeze, airports usually keep going.  I got delayed by flight maintenence and have to switch my flight to Chicago then to Tokyo. I don't have a problem with that since international flights usually have more priority in take-offs.  Chicago airport was nice, they even have a sushi bar in the middle of the airport with floor to ceiling windows on one side.  Totally could see the area being gorgeous on good days. Met up with my brother in Tokyo for the final stretch to Taipei.  No delays at all. But it was too long of a flight.  I think the grand total flying to Taipei, it took me 22hrs to land in Taipei and another 1hr to go through customs and get my bags.  We were schedule to arrive at 10:30pm and we didn't come out until 11:30pm.  My poor aunt who was picking us up thought she missed us.  haha.  Originally, my parents would have to wait for us but they ended up being delayed so they didn't wait as long as they thought they would. :)

We got to the condo around 1am then just hang out a bit before getting ready to sleep.  The funny thing was I was exhausted, delirious but still had the energy to play to my 2nd cousin (baby of my cousin).  I even slept through most of my flight.  That shows how exhausted I was on CORS.  Baby Colin was too cute and adorable.  We definitely got lots of pics of him.

Day 1 - had our first of many family meals with my aunts and uncle and cousins and cousin-in-laws. We went to Thai/Vietnamnese buffet. It was yummy.  Totally forgot how much walking there is in Taiwan or the use of subway.  Love it better than US transport.  As you can tell, I don't like driving. Ha.  Then we met up with my mom and brother's friend, Jessica.  They met her at the last year's cultural camp back home.  I got my haircut and they went for coffee.  I just had them trim my hair and pretty much just re-shape it.  SalonBlu totally butchered it a while back.  They are not my fav but much better and cheaped that SalonBlu.  Then we all went to dinner at a Shanghai restaurant.  It was more of my mom and brother chatting with them and my dad and I were just along for the ride.  Good times.

Day 2 - It was a slow day.  We went to Taiwan style dim sum then my parents had to do their official paperwork and whatnot.  Then we went out with Kai's friend to XimenTing and other night market area.  This was the night where my parents and my aunt babysat Colin.  We were joking to see who was more tired, the adults or Colin.  The minute we opened the door, Colin crawled up to Ka-Man and started blubbering, basically complaining to us how awful the adults were to him.  It was hilarious, too bad we weren't able to capture it on camera.  At this point, I was still tired and still could sleep, but there's really not enough time to sleep.

Day 3 - New Year's Eve
We decided to go to the International Flora Expo but first I was determined that I would at least get my Taiwanese breakfast.  We went to the famous area for the soy milk, which happed to be where my mom grew up.  Yummy, definitely better than any in US and much fresher.  Even the fried stick was lighter and crisper.  Then we took the subway to the expo. As from the pics, there were many flowers.  I think I have fallen in love with the Calla lillies, Tulips and Angel in Water (Chinese narcissus or Shui Xian Hua).  The rest of the visit were just some goofy times for us.  Then we went to my oldest uncle's place for the New Year's Eve dinner.  Of course, we've got the adult and kids table, but the food was good too. The shrimps, oh my. And the homemade dumplings, handmade wraps and fillings. The best.  That's always the best of New Year for me, the dumplings.  When we were younger, my grandma would put money inside the dumplings then my mom would put peanuts and dates that would represent certain amount. Oh the fun times.

Day 4 - New Years
We went to MaoKong Gondola, which is a trail up the mountain and able to look at the Taipei from up high.  We chose the car with the clear floor so we can look down but the wait is a bit longer, so we just walked around a bit. There were some cute shops around and lots to play around.  Great for kids, but it definitely made feel stupid. Oh well.  My mom is scared of heights so part of the trip up was interesting with my mom making funny faces once whe realized that there was small window that opens up. Haha.  I think my brother broke every single rule that was posted on the ride, no standing, distribute weight evenly.  After that we went to Taipei 101.  It just basically a mall with increasing expensive shops as you move up the floors.  So went to the basement and got food to eat.  It was yummy.  That night we went to ShiLin night market.  I went before but it was not as packed as that night.  We were all literally front to back tight and just couldn't move.  It was incredible.  We pretty much ate as we walked.  My fav was the stinky tofu. But there were so many different food that we would never have been able to finish if there weren't six of us to share and try.  There was a stand that sold different flavors of squid. Everything was mouthwatering.  I ended up buying earrings, they are cute.

Day 5 - We went to visit my mom's best friend in Touyuan.  Very nice house and they also have an outdoor tub for bath. Interesting.  Overall, it was just a chill time of hanging out and meeting my mom's best friends.

Day 6 - Last Day
We went to Din Tai Fung in Sogo dept store for lunch.  It was yummy, better than the one in LA.  Colin was cracking us up.  He's just always searching for food.  His mouth would open and follow either the chopsticks or the spoon for food.  If you don't feed him fast enough, he would whine.  Too funny.  Always our source of entertainment.  We went shoe shopping in Sogo, I bought a cute sparkly pair of heels, not very high, just very casual.  Then we all just sat around waiting for dinnertime and playing with Colin.  Finally we went for our last family dinner.  Just all having a good time.  So sad to be leaving the next morning and hating packing.  The hi-light of packing was my aunt putting Colin into one of our luggage and him climbing out and trying to climb back in.  HAHAHAHA.  Classic pic.

Day 7- leaving - Chicago fiasco
Got to airport and our flight to Tokyo was delay so I missed my DC flight and have to get on the flight to Chicago.  At that point I knew there was going to be a problem coming back on time.  So no problem until I got to Chicago.  Arrived in Chicago around 2:30pm then found out flight to Cleveland was delayed until 7:30pm.  I was like ok, just going to be about 3 hrs later than expected, so I just took a nap at the airport.  Then we were told, flight is delayed until 8pm because of plane maintenence.  So I just started to watch the Super Bowl with the people on our flight.  It was entertaining cuz the personnel and half of the flight were rooting for the Steelers and the other half of flight was rooting for the Packers.  Of course, our flight was just kept being delayed with excuses of missing crew members, waiting for passengers, waiting for plane from the hangar.  So finally we boarded after the the game around 10pm, then were told that one of the pilot has only 30min left on his duty hours and if we don't take off by then, we would have to de-plane.  Well, guess what, even though we are priority for de-icing and take-off, we turned around and had to de-plane which took another hour since we were not expected to come back.  Then waited for another hour for our voucher for hotel and ticket to get on the next flight back to Cleveland.  By the time got to the room and ready to sleep it was 1am.  I had just enough battery on my phone to text my brother, send email to Debi at work and copy a friend's number to let people know at work.  That'll teach me to pack my charger in my checked bags.  So finally got back to Cleveland around 10am then had to wait to see if my bags came on the first United flight.  If not, then they would have to deliver my bags cuz it would be on the second flight, which they were.  By the time I got home, it was noon.  Time to take a nap and get ready for work the next day.  The total for the return trip was about 32hrs of flying and waiting at the airport.  Really irritated at United for the Chicago fiasco. They had more than enough time to sort it out but this had to happen.  I do believe that this might be my last trip with United if I could help it.

Winter Break

Finally got home after 2 more interviews during the week. I think in the last 4 weeks, I've had 9 interviews. It's really exhausting and all of those beside the 2 this past week, were within driving distance for me. The interviews themselves are not exhausting, it's more of the traveling that is making me tired. So I'm definitely glad I'll have 2 weeks of doing nothing to just rest before coming back to Jersey for a couple more interviews and rest of med school rotations. I spent most of my time with my parents, going out to eat and shop, while being my brother short term tutor for his boards whenever he has a question. He's taking his boards right before New Years.

The highlights of my break was going to SF for New Years then going to LA day after New Years of Disney on Ice. My brother got a new digital SLR camera and spent ton of time experimenting with the camera. It's been a long time for me for photography. Once I have some time and some cash flow, I'll definitely get back into it.

With my parents doing hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Just being goofy at my brother's apartment while he's experimenting with his camera.

For New Year's Eve, we went to SF to spend some time at my brother's place. In SF, it's the one night where the cable car is free and tons of family out past 10pm. We took the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf and watched fireworks. It was cold though while waiting for the fireworks, but pretty.
This was taken at the Bread Company right by Fisherman Wharf. This Bread Company was also featured on Food Network too. It was too cute to pass up.

It was fun again, being touristy, seeing SF again as an adult. I've seen it as a kid during day. I really liked SF and totally don't mind living there if I could.

Then we drove down to LA to see Disney on Ice the Princess. It was definitely more for younger kids but it was fun for us too because we have never seen one and it was a family thing for us. The show was amazing on its own, the costume and choreography. Very nicely done.

Disney's version of popcorn.

Disney on Ice: Cars

After Boards Vacay

After all the boards, I flew home to enjoy some family time and SF before going off for my away rotations for the next 4 months. I spent a couple of days at my brother's place in SF and we went to a couple of good Chinese restaurants that my mom found and want to go as family.

We went to this awesome and expensive dim sum place in Daly City. They also sold Dragon's Beard. It's a candy but made it like tons of white threads woven together. Yummy

This was my makeup birthday cake. My brother bought this from a place that he deemed really good. It was yummy too.

In the end, I had plenty of yummy food for a couple of days. I also met my brother's girlfriend and we had lunch with her family after her white coat ceremony. She's nice but I personally don't think they'll last long. She just doesn't really fit with my brother.

Break time

I was only able to spend 6 full days at home over the holiday. It was short but was definitely fun. Just going home and sleeping in my own bed with no real schedule to follow and things to do was awesome. I did eat lots of yummy food, basically caught up on all the food the food that I didn't eat for the last couple of months. I don't like eating out in restaurant by myself, particularly for dinner. Lunch is fine but I'm usually at the hospital during the day and going out to lunch is a luxury. I always make my rounds on a few good local Chinese restaurants, sushi buffet, northern Chinese restaurant.

I kind of like the fact that we didn't go anywhere this holiday, with the exception of the family holiday dinner. Every year that dinner is always a bore and I could never wait for it to be over. I don't really talk to any of the cousins despite the fact that we all lived nearby all our lives. But there was a surprise, my cousin, Bruce, was actually fairly talkative and I found out that he recently became a Christian. I could definitely see a change in him that was very unexpected. God really did something that I would not expect. He and his family are very into Buddhism and all the superstitious beliefs. Aside from the pleasant surprise, it's the same old things, like boyfriends, work, what field I'm going into, how long I'm in town and why so short stay.

I think they really do play a part in my wanting to not go back home yet. They really do make me feel uncomfortable because to them, I'm somebody that they can make use of and get some good advantages. It's almost like I'm a family obligation and they don't even want to try to get to know who I am and why I'm doing the things I'm doing. I don't know. I think until I don't feel that way about them, I won't have the strong desire to really go and stay.

First week in New Jersey

The drive to Jersey from Missouri took forever. With all the breaks, it took me 15 hrs or so to get to Harrisburg then another 2.5 hrs to my apartment. It just felt like forever. I don't think I would ever want to do it again. It was cramp driving and not much leg room. Ugh.

Then we sort of unpack a bit then me and my parents took a tour of East Coast for 5 days. It is my second time but their first. It was still fun but my favorite this time is Niagara Falls and the Bostonian atmosphere. Perhaps I might spend some time in my fourth year there. Who knows.


The Brooklyn Bridge

Fake or Real? Wax Museum, NYC


Capitol Hill, White House, Washington D.C.


Hershey's Chocolate World


Niagara Falls


Bostonian Lobster (yummy)


Boston Harbor Boat Ride

Will be going to Florida to enjoy the sun next week. Be a fun boring bum.

Crazy Week ....

This started with me agreeing to come back home to volunteer as the Arts & Crafts translator for Sacramento's Chinese Culture Camp. I was scheduled to fly back on Tues and land at 11am and immediately get myself to the camp and start my work. My flight leaves from Kansas City at 7:30am and it's a 3 hr drive from Kirksville. So I left my apt at 2:30am and got to the airport around 6:30am with a 1/2 hr nap and 15 min detour on the airport exit. At the same time, I got a cold which started 2 days before. My nose was so stuffed that I couldn't sleep before my drive. All in all, I was up for 36hrs when I got back from the first day of "work".

Work was fun. Translating what the teacher from Taiwan was teaching and at the same time teaching the kids the Chinese Arts & Crafts. After the day is done, my mom and a couple of her friends were in charge taking the 3 Taiwan teachers out to dinner and sometimes after dinner program. This was from Tues to Fri.

For the after dinner programs, we have gone to Tapioca Express for Shaved Ice. We walked around Old Sac and the Delta Boat and the walkway along the Sacramento River. After that we went to Leatherby's Creamery for their gigantic banana split and sundae. The next night we took a walk along another small river in a residential neighborhood. The highlight of all those were the conversations. The conversations were non stop and full of laughter.

Then on Sat, my family and I drove to SF for my brother's white coat ceremony at his dental school. They don't have a different white coat for students. Their coats are the same length as the fully licensed docs, unlike mine. Then we spent the weekend hanging out with my brother at his apartment and had some yummy food. We spent some time playing card games and did some grocery shopping in Chinatown. We at Thai food, Taiwanese food and Korean food. All in all, it was great to be able to hang out together as a family. It's been a while since we were able to do that.

CA Update

Back in CA for the week. The weather has been great, in the high 60s. I only need to wear a light shirt with jeans and FLIP FLOPS, my fav. They are so convenient, get in and out of the house fast and my feet getting some sun. What a concept.

All week so far, I've been stuffing my face with yummy Chinese food. My stable food group, can never live without them. And the shopping, what deals that I've found on some really good name brand. I've got a Coach winter knee length peacoat for dirt cheap. I normally don't like shopping, but being cooped up in MO has definitely brought out the shopaholic in me. My BABY brother got himself into a few mess, like he always does whenever I'm home. That's soooo normal of him ;)

But I was a good girl, I did do some Boards studying, just not as much as I've planned. I've got anatomy done and didn't get to pharm like I've planned. Oh, well. Last fun break before major studying. It'll do.

Anyways, I'm turning 24 tomorrow. Then I'm leaving to go back to Misery.

First week back....

First week back to school and I feel like I've been through a whirlwind already. Jetlagged from my trip and having to studying like crazy for a unit test in Anatomy and then feeling overwhelmed with the amount of study materials that I have to get through already. I'm just thankful that I'll have a 3 day weekend this week to recuperate and spending Monday in a nearby city shopping and catching up with the real world.

I just feel like this quarter will be rough especially being winter and having a whole new class to play a game with. But I'm sure God will show me something good. I'm just thankful that it's not so crazy that I can't breathe. The schedule in Feb is already scaring me please pray for my physical endurance to get through the crazy month.

The accountability group I'm in is going well and I really enjoyed it. My group is going through the Attributes of God and we just talked about evangelism and how to tell unbelievers that the only to heaven is through Jesus. We really talked about how to differentiate a man centered God and God Himself. I have always thought thought that I was not ready to be leading a accountability group but God doesn't forsake. He really helped me through this meeting because I was able to tell the girls the difference. :)

I'm excited for Thurs. Our school is having a general meeting regarding a possible South Africa medical mission trip. Perhaps I'll be able to go.

Anyways back to more studying .... and the lovely EKGs....

Shanghai .... :P

Wow! Shanghai was great. Loads and loads of shopping and history lessons. Those lessons were very brief but nonetheless very informative. I enjoyed it a lot.



This was my brother, Warren, trying to be cool at the airport before the trip.

A family pic at one of the more scenic places.

A Romantic scenery and it's my brother with me ... ::sigh:: hehe :)




A beautiful scenery with just me and look at me all bundled up. It was 4 C. brrrr. really cold.

One of the meals had fish head soup and look at the size of the bowl!!

Shanghai's famous small steamed buns with soup inside at the original restaurant. Yummy!!!

A large version of the famous Shanghai small steamed bun. Literally a straw is needed for the soup inside. Delicious!!

A shot of Shanghai's night scene. Really spectacular. The govt spends about 1 mill RMB per night for the lights.

A copycat of our New York love.

On our way home on the airplane ....

It's the summary of my trip!

Thanksgiving Break!!

It's been a week since my short week break. The break from school was wonderful but too short for my liking. I had a busy but mindless week. It was mostly dring my brother to and back from UOP until he got out on Tues. Then busy trying to find my parents a decent priced brand new car to buy. That took about three days to do. In between all the gatherings, squeezed in some TV catch up time. Sleep did not get caught up but got the daily 8hrs a nite. Not enough.

This is the first time that I realize that going home and back to school is an all day ordeal. It takes 3hrs from the airport to my apt and then another 3-4 hrs of flight and the time change. craziness. On my way back to school, I had to take a freeway that only had about 2sec for me to enter from the airport exit and of course, I missed that. Then I took a freeway that is a longer route. Another girl in my car had to call someone and asked for directions to get back on the shorter route. What a detour! But I did get to see the Kansas City Stadium. Hehe. I'm so not going to drive for Christmas. It'll be too much for me. Ugh!

Anyway, going home made me realize how much I do miss a strong church even though my home church is not as strong as GCC but it's much better than the one I go to out here. I really miss the fellowship. People actually talked and hangout and are not busy rushing around doing things. Here at school, I never really get a chance to stay and hang around cuz I'm always trying to get back and get studying going so I can get as much studying in as I can possibly squeezed in 24hrs.

But God still bless me with my family and friends I've made at UCLA. Being able to catch up with them and their flexibilty with my lack of time to talk during the quarter have been a wonderful gift for me during the quarter. Thank and praise God for carrying me through this past quarter. He has answered my prayer at the end where I was on the borderline of failing 2 classes but He is gracious and gave me something beyond what I was expecting. I'm enjoying the challenge and the gift that God has bestowed on me and just pray that I'll learn even more from Him the upcoming months and years.

In short version, this was my week at home!! more to come about my first week at school with our Prom tonite.

A Whirlwind of Weeks ....

Hi Hi
It's been a looonnng time but the past three weeks have been wonderful yet stressful. The one fun thing was seeing Dr. Patch Adam (the real one and not the movie) giving his schpeal. It was great and funny until his opening for Q&A, then it went downhill to disappointment. He was all for compassion and giving and just trying to brighten up kids' day by being clowns. He also showed a couple of video clips but they were quite disturbing. At least that's what I thought of them. The Q&A was a disaster because he did not answer the questions being asked and his answers were the same one for everything questions, just worded differently. It was here that I saw his hipocricy on his philosophy. He's all about compassion and kindness but he's absolutely violent about government. Also he talked about religions and how he "pretends" to believe the religion of the kids that he clowning and that's done because he's just turn it to himself. So man centered. That was just a sad and disappointing nite for me.

Then the weeks of the last batch of test and finals hit. Boy! was that crazy. The last batch of tests were ok and relatively normal. But the finals, talk about stress and craziness and about not sleeping. I don't think I've slept more than 4 hrs a nite and caffeine kept me going for the last three days of tests. It was a week of keep going and nervousness and praying that I'll pass the tests and the classes. By the end of the week, my apartment looked like I had a tornado tore through it multiple times and plates stacked up the highest it has ever been. I was on salad and pizzas and sandwiches all b/c they take the least amount of time to make and eat. By the end of the week, it was huge breath letting go and physically drained. Nothing was ever like that before. Then I wanted to take a nap before cleaning my apartment but I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. It was weird!

Side note: A funny story happened during that week. I drove to the state school to use their library to study. Their library atmosphere was very much like the Anderson library at UCLA so I fell in love with it. I was there until 9pm and forgot that it's been at freezing temps after dark. So I got to my car and saw that it was covered in ice. So me, being a Cali girl, I just started my car and sat inside for good 10 mins to thaw out my car even though I only live like 5 mins away. ::sigh:: I didn't have an ice scrapper to scrap off the ice so I can drive. silly me. Then the walk from my car in the lot to my apartment has completely freeze me so I had to take a really hot shower to thaw. How sad!!!!

And now I'm HOME!!!!! The trip home was long. It was an all day event with driving 3hrs to airport and flying for 4 hrs with 2hrs of layover at Dallas. I was a complete zombie by the time I got home. I went out to dinner last nite and the food was awesome! That's what I was missing, the good Chinese food from Cali. (Today I had some rice and veggies for lunch and I told my bro that rice was good too :) since I don't have good Chinese rice at school) I had persimmons today and boy were they great. hehe. I just realize that right now, any Chinese food or fruit would great since I've been Chinese deprived for the last 3-4months.

These past couple of weeks have definitely been draining physically and spiritually as well. It was a lot of trusting the Lord and having the strong faith that He knows what He's doing with me in med school and crazy tests that I was taking. Half of the time, I felt like I don't even have the physical strength to get up every morning at 4:30 and go to bed around midnite and spend all the rest of the day studying. He definitely showed me how faithful He's been and how His promises are just that, His. It's been wonderful to see how my finals week have been done throught God's grace especially in some of the classes that I've been struggling.

I'm excited too because I have started an accountability group through the Bible study there and I'm sort of a leader of the group. The girls I've got are great and I'm excited to see how this would work in my life this year at school. I don't know what I'm going to do with them especially since we only meet one hour once a week because of our crazy schedule. But it's exciting nonetheless.

Anyways, I think this is the Cliff note version of my lovely crazy weeks. Laters.

Last 2 weeks .... ugh

The last 2 weeks was a torture, not only do I feel like I've ran a marathon of testing but I feel physically drained. I started thinking why in the world that I'm here in this med school. But then I thought of how God has opened the doors to let me in here. I have to keep that in mind or else I will go crazy with the load of work and not doing well. I have 2 classes where I'm barely passing with a 70. How sad! But nonetheless, God has reminded me that He put me here for a reason and that He'll see me through this crazy quarter. I can't really complain about the hole that I have let myself in with all the testing and the depression that came with it last week because I did learn something and that God has reminded me once again to have faith and believe in Him. I have to keep reminding myself to "have faith in God's faithfulness to us" as someone in my Bible Study have said.

This weekend is for me to refocus myself again and rejuvenate in learning the wonderful things of our bodies and of the reason that I choose to be in the medical profession. Please keep this in prayer for me and that I won't get sick unti Thanksgiving when I'm home as the weather turn chilly and rainy and windy. The winter of LA already and am not used to real winter yet since I've been away from NorCal for 4 years.

Once last thing, I have Shanghai to forward to over Christmas Break. My parents booked a trip for a week right before classes start again for me. I'm so excited!!!! :P (I've test to come back to and jet lag to deal with for classes the day after I come back, but it'll be one of those few trips with my entire family. Can't complain about that.)

alrity .... toodles til next time.