Happy Chinese New Year!!!!

I missed the awesome Chinese food and my family where we get together for a yummy dinner!
I'll just have to go home and make it up over spring break =P

Month of February

It's alreay half way over and I have not attempt to update this because I just don't have the energy after 4-5 hr sleeping, 4- 8 hr classes & crazy speed in shoving study materials in my head for another 5-6 hrs. My brain is so full that it's mainly running on short term memory. I'm sorry for ignoring you lots, even my parents got ignored most of the week unless it's a stress day or a Saturday.

One of the few things keeping me sane is CMDA, Monday nite Bible study. It brings me back to the big picture of why I put myself through this crazy torture and that God is only giving what He knows that I can handle. It's also been a blessing for the girls in my accountability group. Even though it's only 1.5 hrs a week, it's a good breather to have a crash refresher course on one of God's attribute and remind myself how He had played a major role in the past week. I really don't know how other unbelievers keep themselves sane through these couple of weeks and the few more to come. I'm just thankful that God saved me and called me His child all by His grace and mercy, something I'm sure that I don't deserve.

I'm writing this early because I've up already for 1.5 hr studying and want to take a short break before keep plugging on and the fact that my brain is somewhat fried already. hehe. oh well.

Please, please pray for continue endurance for the next 3 weeks as I'm finishing up the remainder of unit tests and crazy finals.

I promise I'll give a more fun update in March ....

Preview to Crazy February ....

Time to get use to four hours of sleep and study like crazy for a marathon of Monday, Friday and sometimes Wednesday tests with some days doubled up!!! Time to get on the Caffeine, namely, my fav Mocha. =P School eased us into it starting from last week. It was so bad but starting this week, it's gonna get ugly. Please pray that I'll have the strength to last me till spring break in March and the dependency on God for all things to come, regardless how well I do on my tests.

My plan and hope for South Africa trip this summer has been cancelled because our school has a riduculous international policy. Ugh. Annoying. So summer is back to the drawing board. But I'm hoping and praying that God will open the doors for maybe next summer or my 3rd/4th year rotation through Institute of International Medical Missions. Please pray for that as well and my parents for being more receptive in my desire in serving overseas.

My accountability/small group is going really well. We are hitting the basis of who God is and it's wonderful to see how all of us get together despite being busy to help each other to know God even more. We are going through Attributes of God. Even though it's my 2nd time through, it's still a blessing because it became a reminder of what God had provided and prepared me at UCLA for the relatively unreceptive world of medicine. Now, I use the same book to help two of the girls to establish a firmer grasp on the foundations of who God really is without the man centered misconceptions. For that, I'm thankful.

I'm really trying to keep in touch with my gals from home. And I've better but not the best. Give me time. =P

It's short, but I really need to go to bed and start on my busy month of February.

A First

Today, our afternoon classes were cancelled because we've got a winter storm alert. Our school boast of only closing 2-3 school days ever. So what a privilege that today was another one. When they told us, we were surprise because the weather did not seem to bad at the time but now when I look out the window, it's all ice. This weekend is forecasted to be snowing and freezing rain. What a full blown winter.

This is good and bad. It's the 3day weekend and I was planning on going to the nearby city to take a breather, now, I can't go. boohoo. But then, now, I have more time to completely catch on the pile of lecture notes. yippee.

Oh boy, this will be a fun weekend.

Amazing....

On my way to the gym to play a raquetball game, I saw a fawn (young deer) on the side of the parking lot as I walk across the lot. I was at first startled but the more I looked at it, the more I thought how beautiful it is and how amazing God is, giving us the wonder of nature. :)

Just a quick thought. Time for me to go for a practical exam.

PS. I'm excited. We are supposed to be getting rain, ice then snow by the end of this weekend. Once more the white winter. hehe.

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!

My Life til now ...

WOW!!!! I didn't realized that it's been awhile since I've updated. Anyhoos, the last 2 wks before winter break was mostly studying and prepping for the 2 tests before the break. Nothing really special about those weeks.

I did start meeting with the girls in my accountability group. They are great and we are starting with The Attributes of God by Pink. I think it's a great book to start with for the girls and regardless where we are spiritually, it's a great reminder of who God is. Even though this is the second time for me going through this, I still find it fascinating because I pick up things that I didn't the first time around. Thanks Tiff Keng! We'll be going through the Predestination/Election/Free Will after break. Pray for that!

I did think about where I wanted to relocate to for my 3rd and 4th in med school, at least as of right now. It comes down to Newark, NJ, Detroit, MI or Cleavland, OH. I'll know for sure this time next year. I know, they are all the more farther away from Cali. I do promise that I'll eventually come back to home. But as of right now, I'm doing summer preceptorship in early July somewhere in MO. So I should be home in June. ::happy days::

Now, I've been home for about a week already and it's filled with chauffering my mom, get some studying in everyday, and eating all the yummy food. :P Best of all, catching up with college friends. I went out with Tiff Keng yesterday. It was awesome. I haven't seen or talk to her for months and just hanging for the 2 hours reminded me of the good ole times we had in college. Nonetheless, I'm glad that God gave me really good friends in college. I'm playing phone tag with Sandy. The funnest thing to do. :) I talked to Olivia a bit. It was really good to see another strong Christian running hard for God in med school. It was encouraging because I don't see much strong Christians where I am and I really appreciate Olivia. God knows exactly what I need at every moment. How wonderful! I even caught up with an old high school teacher, Mike Frei. I dunno what hit me, but just got the feeling that I should say hi and just check in. ::shrug::

The thought of the week is I'm growing up and I'm not ready and don't feel like I'm an adult yet. 2 weekends ago, APO in my school did Adopt-a-Child where we take underserved kids out for Christmas shopping. They told us that every kid needs 2 adults and that's when it hits me that Wow! I'm actually an adult and not a kid anymore. Amazing, huh. Then this week, went shopping with mom and realize I'm shopping more for work/business causal clothes and moaned about how expensive they were. ::sigh:: The price of getting old.

All these engagements are making me feel even older. I think I know of at least 5 couples and I'm sure there more that I've missed. Craziness. I'm here thinking, I'm still and a student and only 22 yet all these people of getting engaged and getting married. Where do I belong now?

Countdown: 2 days til Shanghai

9 days til classes once again

Once a Bruin Always a Bruin!!!

UCLA beat USC!!! WOOOHHH!!! It's been a long 7 years.

Go Bruins!!

::haha::smirk:: no national champ for SC!

New things for me!!!

This week has been full of new things for me to experience. The week started off relatively normal with really warm weather in the 60s. Then Wed nite was my first ice storm. According to the local, it's a small one. So on Thurs morn, walking to class was ok, nothing big deal but on my way back from class, I was buttoning my jacket and wasn't really paying attention to where I was walking. I slipped on a patched of ice and fell on my bottom and scraped my plam a little bit. Haven't had a fall like that since my 2nd year in college where I tripped over my foot and sidewalk and gave myself a swoollen knee. It'll be a fun winter in counting how many times I fall and be a major klutz. haha

Then the same nite, I had to go to my friend's place to go over some homework problems. I didn't realize how hard and how long it would take to defrost my car. I have an ice scraper in the trunk of my car. When I got to my car, all my doors were frozen shut and so was my trunk. I was like, "I have to get into my trunk! AHH!" Then I just started pulling on any door just to get into my car. Finally got one of the backseat door open, then I crawled around to the driver seat to start my car and start the thawing. Thankfully I remembered that my backseat bench folds down and I can get into my trunk. Yippee! Then I start scraping. It took about a good 30 min scraping and warming up my car. But I still couldn't get my trunk open. The whole time, I was just praying to God to just let me open one door. Crazy.

On my way home, I decided to get gas. Well guess what? The gas door is also frozen shut and I couldn't get it open. So that nite was just loads of fun. It was raining too my the time I got home. It's basically ice pellets raining down. It hurts.

That same nite was the snow storm. My first one. I went to bed excited. I woke up Friday morn with snow and it was just amazing. Everything was white and beautiful and pure. I was so excited that I took more pics out of my window than I planned on.

That same nite, we have our annual Prom. everyone get to dress up. I went to a 2nd year's apt downstairs and had wine and cheese. The cheese was good but I found out I only like dessert wine, the sweeter the better. We walked to the place for the formal. Normally it would be a short walk but with the 4inches of snow the nite before it was interesting. I had on a mid calf dress and strappy sandal, so the walk was freezing. Frozen toes and legs. No amt of jacket and scarf could make up for it. The price we pay for beauty. ::sigh::

The prom was fun. The food was cold and didn't taste the best. The songs for dancing sucks with occasional good songs. Most people were drunk by 10pm. There was a group going out afterward in dress clothes to bars. Crazy people. Overall it was fun just to see people getting all dressed and not seeing them in scrubs like in everyday.

Overall, this week has been good. God has been gracious to me, letting me to see and experience new things. Tomorrow morning will be interesting trying to get to church. hehe. Laters.