"The Little Asian"

Valentine’s Day

2012-02-14T23:29:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentine’s Day! I could probably go on about how this day was a result of marketing tactics of businesses, but I also admit that love is truly in the air! Today wasn’t really anything more special than others, especially being out with nerdy engineering majors, but I tried to celebrate the best I could. I do enjoy this day because it is at least one day out of the year to show all my loved ones how I much I truly love and appreciate them. Granted, I’m not very good at expressing that either. I love you all!! <3

I dressed up my normal office attire but spent the extra time doing my hair, came to the office with a heart cookie on my desk (thanks boss!), sent cheesy love text messages to my men (Wonho, Daddy, and Z) and allowed time for my brother to realize that we sent each other the exact same card. Yes, I have evidence to prove it. When I received his card last night, it dawned on me that I had sent the same one but it didn’t arrive until today. Great minds think alike. Or it was the power of sibling connection. You decide which. I’m going with the latter.

In the end, though, I do miss having all my loved ones around. Sure, I have new loved ones here, but I’m sad not having an opportunity to share the love with everyone I really love in person. This country is simply too big to travel for a weekend!!! I’ve gotten quite accustomed to spending the day alone, but I’m hoping that next year I will have a Valentine’s Day evening to cook, watch a movie, laugh together, and share a bottle of wine with someone (*hint hint Z*).

Thank you for all the sweet messages, cards, and phone calls… or just a simple shout out “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Low Moments

2012-02-11T22:36:00.001-06:00

It seems like I am under the weather today. Perhaps it was the sudden cold weather or it was the bed time at 3:30am trying to finish reading Mockingjay. Whatever it was, I'm not feeling that great. It was somewhat of a productive day, however. I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with my college friend Dan, went for a little retail therapy where I got myself some new workout clothes and a cute dress, and I cleaned the apartment. It does feel like my body is resisting any kind if restaurant foods, which I've had a lot lately due to late hours and unwillingness to cook, and wanting more toned-down homemade cooking. I had salad for dinner, drank a honey tea, and took a hot bath. Also, talking to my mom always makes everything better.
This year I'm already experiencing frequent low moments of my health...l think I inhibitally taking in more stress than I need to. Oh the nature of natural worrier. It does feel great to be in bed whether relaxing or reading a book...

The Differences Among Us

2012-02-07T23:00:00.000-06:00

I attended the Equity and Diversity Conference at my school today. It's one of the conferences I truly enjoy attending because I learn so much about our society. I have always admired people who are not afraid to stand up for themselves, even if it's one against everyone else in this world. The theme of this year's conference was "The Power of Peace is the Harmony of Inclusion"...possibly much easier said than done.

Dan Savage was the opening keynote speaker, a person who created It Gets Better video project on YouTube. I haven't personally heard of him before, but his video project provides the vulnerable youth LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group with hope and vision of their future. I am always shocked by some of the extreme societal prejudices this group particularly goes through. Each time I listen to stories of childhood bullies, physical and mental abuse, and hostility, I consider myself so lucky to have a lifetime happiness surrounded by loved ones.

Through education sessions, I learned more about interacting with people with disabilities and creating an inclusive environment in the department.

However, the highlight of all this was seeing John Legend. Although he is a nine-time Grammy winner, I have personally become more interested in his philanthropic work. I admire his ability to recognize the potential for influence with his celebrity status, and thus pushing his agenda for improving quality of education and reducing poverty. In his speech, he eloquently articulated the need for advanced education and demanded that educated/inspired young adults to try making a difference in this world. He used Teach for America, where Z served for two years after college, as the biggest example of making a difference in education. I was pleased that John Legend acknowledged their mission. Later on he performed five of his best known songs, and I had never seen a singer with perfection in his live, and rather improvised, performance. It was 30 minutes of heaven for the 5,000 of us (the UNT students), all singing along to his melody. Only if could have recorded the whole thing. I had even more respect for him as an individual with intelligence, great talent, humbleness, and grace.

Perhaps my only disappointment with this lecture was the attitude of our college students. The inappropriate questions and low level of maturity were highly embarrassing, and my fear for our future generation had rather increased after this fortunate event. I hope that his message will eventually empower some of the students who were among the crowd to do big things with good intention in the future.

Curiosity of the Month

2012-01-31T00:10:00.002-06:00

For all women with family, or at least a husband, out there...Please attempt to enlighten my curiosity. How do you balance work and family and house chores??? I'm sure this is a question that remains unanswered for decades, especially in the world we now live in, but seriously...how do you do it?

I've been coming home past 7pm almost everyday since school has started. Part of it is that there are so many programming (welcoming students back to school and etc), it's natural for the first of month of school to be a little chaotic, but I really don't see rest of the semester getting any better. I realize that student affairs is not the only field that has late hours (with minimum pay...), but it baffles me that women can work a full-time, have children and a husband to look after, and sometimes take classes at the same time. When I asked some of my internship supervisors, they all laughed at me because either the answer was among 1) no sleep, 2) don't really know the answer to the question, or 3) they just do it. I'm not sure how you can just DO IT.

I come home exhausted - I want to just order food for delivery but I want to be frugal with my spending; I don't want to clean my house; I certainly don't want to do laundry...the list goes on. This sort of behaviors didn't really bother me (ok, sometimes it did) until I got engaged. I suddenly feel like I need to "train" myself to become more responsible and more adult-like. Perhaps it's the traditional side of me that still strongly feels that the wife should prepare meals (at least for dinner) and maintain the cleanliness of the house. While I do feel it's right to ask my future-husband to help with chores regularly, it's still the upbringing of me that makes feel more responsible on those daily tasks. Z sort of chuckles at the topic (he probably thinks I worry too much), but it's a serious conversation I occasionally have with my mom, as she went through a similar phase in life before.

Don't worry - it doesn't mean I'm going to drop everything to become a housewife. It's just a curiosity of the month.

My Little, Sweet Brother

2012-01-26T22:20:00.000-06:00

This is my little brother, who is not so little anymore. I always thought he was going to be my baby brother, but I realized he wasn't really a baby anymore. He's now a man who texts me every morning "Have a great day!" and is always checking up on me to see if I got home early, or ate dinner on time. He emails me every week asking when I'm coming home to him next time and will wait for me patiently until my next school break. When we do see each other, he always hands me a handwritten letter to tell me how much he loves me. He's a guy who begins to email me a week before my birthday to remind me that it's coming up soon.

I've grown to become a person I am now because of him. We are only 15 months apart in birth but has taught me so many things I need to know about life. He shows what a true, unconditional love is and never lets me forget that he is the biggest supporter for me.

Happy 24th birthday, my little brother. I'm glad that you are born today to become my brother and made me the luckiest sister in the world. Love you!

Remembering…

2012-01-26T22:00:00.001-06:00

I figured it would be appropriate to have a proper ending to the series of cruise posts. The day of our arrival, we were in middle of the ocean for several more hours before we finally disembarked due to heavy fog. I never seen such dense fog in the ocean before, and it was quite magical and yet creepy to be in it. We were somehow close enough to Galveston to receive cell phone signal, so Z and I spent a good amount of time calling and text the loved ones about our newly engaged status. Women were mainly screaming (it felt that way) with joy and men were pretty chill from what I’ve heard. The greatest moment was when I called my parents to let them know, and I felt the surrealism from them. I’m sure it was a long, anxious wait for my parents to finally receive the news (Z asked for my dad’s permission during our Galveston weekend).

It was simply an unforgettable week. I had no idea that this trip was going to change the course of my life, however, it was nice for us to completely soak up our new status without the world knowing about it. Of course I absolutely loved this trip in general. I think traveling on a cruise is a fantastic idea – you have food, hospitality, and entertainment all taken care of at a reasonable price. And how amazing is it to be at 3 different places in one week?! This is certainly something Z and I would love to do it again in a distant future. Next time, I would love for my parents and Wonho to join!

On The Way Back Home

2012-01-26T00:32:00.001-06:00

What can I say about that day? Well, it was the second sea day, heading our back to Galveston. I really loved that day because the weather was finally gorgeous – it was the typical warm, sunny, beautiful weather. We slept in and enjoyed delicious breakfast by the window watching the endless ocean passing us by. We spent the entire afternoon on the deck sun bathing and watching a ridiculous belly flop competition. The cruise staff continued to feed us throughout the day with abundance of BBQ outside with live entertainment. Surely I didn’t hesitate to eat more.

After taking a shower, we met up with Audrey & Nan at the helicopter landing area, which we finally found our way that day, to capture some “Titanic” moments. I found it a little embarrassing, but then I decided to embrace it. Whatever. We watched our final sunset from the ship…the finale didn’t disappoint us at all. It was simply gorgeous and mighty peaceful.

That night, the cruise put up a final parade for its passengers to enjoy. It was colorful, chaotic, and yet entertaining – highly entertaining. It was almost like Disney World parade on a cruise ship.

We said farewell to our head waiter and assistant waiter after the dinner and thanked them for their wonderful services. It began to hit me that I will be back in reality on the following day, but I was beginning to miss home greatly and couldn’t wait to tell the world that I got engaged to be the future Mrs. Beh. :)

Cozumel, The Amazing Place

2012-01-23T08:02:00.001-06:00

I’ve been terrible about promptly posting cruise trip – related pictures lately. So sorry! I had a great first week of class last week, but who knew my body wasn’t quite ready for all the intellectual work! I shamelessly admit that I still may or may not be in a cruise withdrawal. Z visited me over the weekend, and we pigged out on our date night. Yesterday we spent all day watching NFL conference championships with our college friends. A relaxing weekend I must say!

To get back to the point… On our 5th day of the cruise, we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico. Let me just start that this destination was my overall favorite. We had signed up for Amazing Race Cozumel, similar to the tv show, where we competed with other teams (I’d say about 20??) to search for clues. It required A LOT of running and fast-walking to the point I felt really bad about my current fitness. We were the first group to show up at the final destination even though we were eventually placed in 4th according to the time calculation (we were upset…haha).

After the race, we found a nice, secluded beach area recommended by locals. I snorkeled for the first time, though I was miserable at at the whole breathe-through-your-mouth-only part. In the water, I saw a sting ray, lots of fishes in which the names are unknown, and Flounders! It was quite a sight-seeing that I hoped to encounter again in the future.

That night was formal night #2. But since we had plenty of time left, so we enjoyed the hot tub for the first time on the ship. I dressed up in a blue dress that Z got me back in the day and headed to the theater to see a musical performance before the dinner. We then went participated in the Quest, a competition-type event, where we saw all sorts of craziness of people.

~ Amazing Race ~

~ Relaxing After the Race ~

~ Formal Night #2 ~

~ Nom Nom Nom ~

~ The Quest ~

Cave Tubing in Belize City

2012-01-16T22:46:00.001-06:00

Our 4th day was in Belize City. The ship arrived really early that morning, and we got off around 8:30am (I think). Wasn’t the best start for me considering how horrible I am waking up early, but Z was incredibly patient and took care of me well. Belize City didn’t have a dock so a smaller boat (100-200 people) picked us up and took us out to the town. I took a good nap on Z’s shoulder.

As an excursion, we signed up for cave tubing. I personally had no idea what to expect until I was given a full picture by our tour guide. It obviously involved being on a tube, which I have done before last summer on a San Antonio river, but pedaling to maneuver our way. Plus, in order to get to the river, we had to walk for 30 minutes in the “real” jungle. Of course being inside the cave was dark but was absolutely magical. Oh and the river was quite cold and my body easily shivered. We experienced occasional rapids in which I was parted from the group briefly. It was a little scary waiting to be rescued, but rest assured, I was safe.

It was an exhausting day for all of us. We were tired from all the physical activities, but most of all, very hungry. However, before the dinner, Z & I enjoyed a little date night to a bar called Ellington. We immersed ourselves to a live piano performance and enjoyed a fun, reminiscing conversation about our engagement and the future.

P.S. – I lost a shoe in the river…boo

~ Waiting for the Cave Tubing ~

~ Belize City ~

~ Cave Tubing ~

~ After Tubing ~

~ Date Night ~

~ Dinner ~

Costa Maya: Best Nap Place Ever

2012-01-14T23:49:00.001-06:00

On the third day we arrived in Costa Maya, Mexico. We disembarked around 9am and headed our way to a private beach that we reserved. The weather was slightly chilly and breezy, but we enjoyed lovely sceneries of the beach. It was a very peaceful place and a great way start our vacation out of the ship. Z and I enjoyed walking along the beach, kayaking (first time for me!), and eating DELICIOUS Mexican food (especially the fish taco). We were so incredibly stuffed after lunch so Z & I took the longest, and the best, nap while everyone else was snorkeling. And then before headed back to our ship, I enjoyed a 30-minute massage from heaven. It was a wonderful day.

~ At the Private Beach ~

~ Kayaking ~

~ Best Nap Ever ~

~ On Our Way Back to the Ship ~

~ Dining Hall Staff Performance ~

In the Middle of the Ocean

2012-01-13T23:25:00.001-06:00

Second day was spent all day in middle of the ocean en route to Costa Maya, Mexico. The crew did an amazing job keeping passengers busy – there so many things to do! We participated in a lot of activities, but we also didn’t hesitate enjoying outdoor and the ocean breeze. That night was also the first of two formal nights, which required everyone to dress up all fancy. We continued to enjoy the abundance of food and music. Our favorite thing of that night was the ice show, though. The skaters did an amazing job considering how rocky the ship was all day (oh yes, we all had motion sickness).

~ Napkin Folding Workshop (Candle) ~

(Rabbit)

~ Ice Show ~

~ Formal Night ~

(Christian & Allison)

(Me & Z)

(Audrey & Nan)

~ Me & Z at the theater ~

Dreamy Departure

2012-01-13T22:41:00.001-06:00

Since my life has been quite the ordinary since the memorable winter break, I decided that the several following posts will be about my cruise. I’m pretty sure everyone has been quite curious about the trip since I was first Oh family member to go on a cruise (and hopefully won’t be my last!). We took the Royal Caribbean International’s Mariner of the Seas on January 2nd and returned to Galveston on January 8th. It was me & Z, Nan & Audrey, and Christian & Allison (Nan & Audrey’s friends). Our stops were at Costa Maya, Belize City, and Cozumel. This ship carried about 3600 passengers and 1200 staff. These pictures came from 3 cameras – mine, Z’s, and Nan’s (Z’s oldest brother).

<First Day – Departure>

~ The Main Dining Hall ~

~ Mariner of the Seas ~

~ Theater ~

~ Inside the Ship ~

~ Departure ~

~ Opening Parade ~

That night, Z proposed to me. :)

I said YES!!!

2012-01-10T21:53:00.001-06:00

~ January 2, 2012 at 10:30pm Central Time~

On January 2nd, the first night of our first cruise, something very special happened in our lives. We were alone at the very top of an outdoor deck to watch the stars and the exceptionally bright moon. It was chilly, especially with strong winter ocean breeze, but it was quite magical to see so many stars that couldn’t be seen else where. Then at 10:30pm (yes, I had looked at the time right before it happened), Z kneeled down with a beautiful ring in his hand and asked me to be his wife.

I SAID YES!!!

Everything was perfect. I loved that we were able to share such an intimate moment just to ourselves. There was 15 minutes of crying, smiling, laughing, hugging…every emotions one could go through. It had became the happiest day of our lives.

Though I had been hinted days before the happening, the whole event was a complete surprise for me. Never in my mind had I thought that I would get engaged to this wonderful man in the beginning of a new year. He was great at hiding this massive secret and choosing the most beautiful ring a woman could ask for. He selected the ring all by himself without me ever knowing. Best lifetime surprise ever! :)

We enjoyed the newly-engaged status for the rest of cruise without telling the world about it. Those 6 days of secrecy was the best time we had in our 4 years and 2 months of our relationship. Thank you so much for all the congratulations. We are very, very happy and can’t wait to take on the journey together!

~ More ring pictures ~

Capturing Last Moments of 2011

2012-01-01T00:05:00.001-06:00

Since a few days leading up to New Years Eve, I was able to do a lot of things with my family. I took Wonho out for lunch, and we enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate together at the park on a beautiful day. Last night, we went to go watch Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and spent an evening at Corner Bakery with delicious soup and sandwiches. It’s not something we do often, going to a movie, so it was a lot of fun. Today, we celebrated the eve with Chinese food, walked around the park with a magnificent El Paso sunset in the background. It was one of a kind, but also a scene so often seen in this desert town. I never take that moment for granted since Dallas doesn’t produce same level of magnificence. And even though Wonho’s birthday is in late January, we followed his lunar birthday (which is on new year’s) and celebrated tonight. We wanted a celebration with the whole family, me included. I loved seeing his smile and excitement as he blew the candles and opened his presents.

Leaving home tomorrow, I’m certainly going to miss being here again. My family, the El Paso sunset, holiday lights that decorated our house, laughter, the sense of security you feel the moment you walk into the house…they’re all going to be missed wholeheartedly. But I feel incredibly lucky to get the most out of this week, despite the hurdles I may had to go through last week, to finally enjoy the normality in my life. It has been an incredible journey with perpetual support from family and friends. It feels great to end the year on a high and unforgettable note.

I’m ever more prepared and looking forward to the unexpected events of life ahead of me. Happy New Year to everyone around the globe. May it be another year of happiness and love!

A Reflection After My First Health Crisis

2011-12-27T17:14:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful time spent on Christmas day. This winter vacation for me was perhaps one of the most unforgettable/eventful/unexpected times, although it wasn't for a good reason.

The moment I arrived home on December 19, I began to suffer from what it's called Bartholin Cyst (let's not discuss this embarrassing subject, but you may research to learn about more). The first full week of my seemingly long vacation consisted of making several trips to our family doctor, and eventually to the ER. It finally came down to going under the knife for the first time in my life (and boy was that painful even with local anesthesia), impending medical bills, and two antibiotics. Oh, I also forgot about Vicodin that caused horrible side-effects, thus making the conclusion that narcotics are not for me.

I was horribly upset about this unexpected illness that ruined my whole vacation plans. You know, this was a big deal for me - the last winter vacation before I finish my graduate program and entering so called the 'real world', two precious weeks that I was allowed to take from my boss that will help devote all my time with my family and friends. None of that happened so far. Spending a whole week on home remedies, hospital/pharmacy trips, procedures/tests, and never-ending bed rest was not my idea of vacation. But it happened.

To give you a conclusion for this ridiculous journey is that I am better, in better spirits at least. Cyst is gone and I can function like a normal person. Pain is gone, and I no longer have to be in bed all day long and get backaches. There is that awkward walking of me which my dad constantly laughs, but I have no shame at this point. Not my fault that my body decided to do something crazy to me.

Overall, this was and still a learning lesson for me. As someone who has never been sick like this before (a week in bed, seriously?!), this was a test of patience. Allowing my body to process whatever it needs to process was an excruciating trial of my patience and endurance. I was completely useless, just a kid waiting for her mother to take care of her. My parents have been constantly reminding me how lucky I am to receive all the care I need right at home. Their reminder is completely and utterly true - I simply could not imagine dealing this by myself without anyone's help. To receive 24/7 care from my family and be able to rest in my own bed... it was literally the best scenario one could create, if this unfortunate situation was to happen anyway.

To this day, I feel terrible knowing that my family had to throw away all their winter plans and things they would want to do with their daughter/sister/grand-daughter just because this person, me, had this out-of-the-blue health crisis. Then, next week, I am going on my scheduled cruise to the Caribbean. How incredibly selfish is that? Shouldn't my family deserve the same kind of leisure after taking me care of me so much? In that context, I feel incredibly guilty going on this trip.

Nevertheless, we feel blessed that this illness has brought us together even stronger and was able to spend some serious quality time at home. I just wish it was for a better reason. Everybody realized that Wonjee (that'd be me) could get sick like this, too. Personally, it has reminded me how unexpected life can be, even till concluding moments of the year. I feel like I have become more adaptable and resilient. And yes, life sucks sometimes. Most of all, I realized to never take my health for granted, as it not only affects me but everyone around me. Plus, it just makes your life really, really miserable. I'm going to take a better care of myself and forever appreciate the unconditional support and love I got from my family, relatives, boyfriend, and friends. I'm a very, very blessed person.

Thank you Z for enduring my obnoxious medical questions and emotional roller-coaster!

Thank you mom & dad for taking care of me around the clock! xoxo

5-Way Chat

2011-12-19T20:16:00.001-06:00

Thanks to ooVoo and its free multi video-calling service, we were able to do a 5-way chat for more than an hour. (From left to right, top to bottom) – cousin So Eun (my mom’s sister’s daughter), grandpa & grandma (mom’s side), my aunt & cousin Ki Han (mom’s younger sister and her son), my mom, and I that were made up of three countries (South Korea, Singapore, and U.S.). Technology is awesome, enough said.

Morning in Galveston

2011-12-18T01:13:00.001-06:00

Ocean View

2011-12-18T01:04:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend, my family (except for grandma) paid a visit to Galveston since I was already there to get some things done before I officially embarked on winter break. This was their first time visiting the town; in fact, this was their first time in 10 years to see an ocean. Living in El Paso didn’t give them much of an opportunity to see the coast, so I was thrilled for them to experience something new even though it might be an 800-mile drive for them to get here.

The weather on Friday was quite miserable – it was rainy, windy, and just overall cold. But we all still walked around the harbor side area of Galveston and found ourselves witnessing Pelicans and huge container ships passing by, things that we absolutely wouldn’t see in El Paso…the desert place in West Texas. I was especially happy to see my mom amused and taking pictures of the scenes with her new smartphone; she was simply too cute to watch.

We had a really nice dinner at Olympia Grill, a Greek restaurant, where we shared some of me and Z’s favorite foods. They seemed to enjoy a lot.

We then spent the evening at Starbucks, warming ourselves up from the cold, damp evening. It was nice for us to relax and enjoy the peacefulness. We also watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie…it was a well done movie.

It's Over!!

2011-12-15T01:46:00.001-06:00

Yolanda and I have completed our 3rd semester of graduate school! That means we have just one last semester left, which also means the beginning of fun job searching, and hopefully followed by lots of interviews.

So excited and yet nervous that we are so close to an end! I'm looking forward to a restful winter break and spending time with my wonderful family in El Paso.

Birthday Mom

2011-12-12T02:12:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Mom! You are my bestest friend, who is always there to listen to me (good & bad) and let me be myself no matter what. Sometimes you’re a traditional mom, and then you can be my sister that I never had, and then you can be my girlfriend. How did I get so lucky to have you? I never want to take you for granted, especially as I’m growing up and having the luxury to experience everything that you never had at my age. I’m so appreciative of your unconditional support, your sacrifice, your kindness, your smile, and your purity.

I love you and I wish I was there to celebrate this special day with you! xoxo

Love, your daughter who is missing mommy’s food.

Studying for Statistics Final

2011-12-11T23:34:00.001-06:00

Feeling Festive

2011-12-10T23:44:00.001-06:00

I have been in a festive/holiday mood for quite some time now and wanted to do something with my favorite people before we all left for winter vacation. Even though I’ve attended several holiday parties/gatherings in the past, I personally had never hosted one. So why not this year?! Since my apartment doesn’t suit for a big party, I invited two wonderful ladies who have been my backbone this semester. We all know Yolanda because she makes a frequent appearance on this blog, but you probably don’t know Mary. Mary and I took couple of classes together last year, but we have become a lot closer this semester when I started my internship with the Learning Center. She’s one of the graduate assistants and has been a real supporter while I adjusted to the new environment. I promised her that I’d make dinner for her, so here she was!

I sent my cute little evite to these ladies for a formal invitation. We had a relaxing evening with food, wine, and lots of fun conversations! I made my own version of baked chicken, fried rice, and roasted green beans. I was really pleased to find out that everyone enjoyed their dinner. And Yolanda treated us with cupcakes for dessert…yum!

Yolanda also showed us a video project she has been working on, and it was truly touching. I was especially excited to learn about a new video-making software called Animoto, which turned out to be so much better than Windows Movie Maker. I’ll definitely be trying this out for my blog in the near future. :)

It was a great night with a couple of amazing ladies whom I call friends. I’m grateful to have this kind of friendship during my graduate program.

Keeping Warm

2011-12-05T21:55:00.001-06:00

I tend to have interesting choice of clothes when I’m home. Most times you will see me in PJ, no matter what time of the day, and then sometimes I throw on a beanie. It’s been a little cold here today. Even with the heater on, the air feels a little chilly in here and I couldn’t help but to find a way to keep my head warm. I’ve been miserably failing at keeping myself productive. With end of the semester so close, my thoughts are all on going home. Unfortunately, writing papers should be on my priority which I’m about to embark on. Exactly why do some people want to do doctoral work?

Arts and Friendship

2011-12-04T17:30:00.001-06:00

One of Yolanda’s biggest projects as a graduate assistant for the Orientation and Transition Office is taking in charge of the First Year Photo Project. It was done in many other universities, but she took the initiative and brought to our UNT students. Pretty much the idea is that a group of freshmen get to photo capture their first year of college experience throughout the year. Their work will be displayed at the Student Union Gallery over the summer. I think it’s a really neat idea, especially coming from a person who loves to take pictures.

Last night, Yo took her students to the backstage of the theater department, allowing students to take pictures and tour the center stage, costume room, makeup room, and etc. She then took them, and invited me, to watch the Choreographers Concert. We were mesmerized by the extreme talent and creativity of these young artists! After we sent the students away, the “adults” (me and Yo) went to Apple Bee’s for an adult beverage and late night snacks.

I’m happy to say that it was an enriching evening of arts and friendship.

My New Toy

2011-12-04T01:09:00.001-06:00

I’m not sure either having a geeky boyfriend or working with bunch of engineering students developed this side of me, but I think I have turned into a geek. Well, to a certain extent. I am certainly not as knowledgeable as some of the men around me, but overtime I have gained considerable amount of interest and the basic knowledge.

Even though I am not a big believer in Black Friday shopping (it’s a suicide, why would you commit yourself to such a thing?!), I do somewhat believe in Cyber Monday. One, I can do shopping at home without ever getting up. Two, I don’t have to deal with crowds and stay safe.

That day I got myself an early Christmas gift and splurged to buying a brand new tablet. That’s right – a tablet. I now have a desktop, a laptop, a smartphone, and a tablet. I think my brother is jealous. I’m all plugged in to the world. Granted my laptop is about 4-5 years old, and I wanted utilize the portability of a tablet for reading news, using for meetings and conferences. With free shipping and tax, I got a 10.1 inch display Acer Iconia tablet for slightly over $350. It’s not too bad considering all the specs it includes. I’m being a good graduate student by not doing my school work and spending the weekend playing around with this new toy. I love it. So should you, if you ever get one for yourself.

The same night I ordered mine, Z also got peer pressured (by me) to buying a tablet. But his is Samsung Galaxy 10.1. Mine is better (just kidding).

I also think this new side of me fits very well with my new look. My engineering students are incredibly excited about my hardcore geeky glasses, they think it’s great. Brownie points for me. Hopefully that means they will follow up my emails quicker.

My Little Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T17:55:00.001-06:00

Cake On Fire

2011-11-27T22:48:00.001-06:00

December marks the 50th birthday of the most awesome woman known to me, my mom. Realizing that I will not be able to partake in the celebration, we decided celebrate it a little early (according to the Lunar Calendar, her birthday is next Tuesday). Me, Wonho, and Z ventured out to choose the perfect cake; we wanted to make her happy so we also bought flowers too. Mom always love beautiful flowers in her kitchen.

When buying for candles, I became ambitious and suggested to actually install 50 candles if we could. My “men” didn’t disagree (does that mean they agreed?). It became clear pretty soon that 50 candles could become a bonfire instead, which it did exactly happen. I was extremely nervous for all the candles that were burning down before the birthday song, but we managed to survive without burning down the house. I figured that was a good laugh for my mom as she witnessed her cake on fire as it approached.

- the cake that was on fire -

All in all, it was a wonderful evening. Though not official yet, it was surreal in knowing that my parents have entered in their 50s. They’re the exact same looking couple as I remembered as a kid. I feel like they never age physically and are always the happy/smiley couple. I am incredibly lucky to have these amazing people in my life, but my biggest appreciation goes to my mom who is always taking care of us day and night. It’s as if she’s a female ninja that never goes to sleep. I hope one day she’ll get a break from taking care of all of us and get herself a vacation (aka I’ll send her to a vacation!).

Love you, mommy!!!

How To Throw The Ball

2011-11-26T22:26:00.001-06:00

I am thankful that over the weekend, Z took the time to teach Wonho how to throw the football. My brother hasn’t been very active in his entire life due to his health, and while it gives me chills seeing him run around and attempt to catch the ball (and he fell down couple times too), I know in the end it’s a good thing for him. I appreciated Z’s patience, knowing that my brother isn’t the quickest in learning, making sure that he felt comfortable throwing/catching the ball. After an hour or so, I saw a remarkable improvement in Wonho’s throwing and catching; I was highly impressed. I only wish that we were here long enough to get him more excited about his potential new activity. But at least it was a day when Wonho did something true to his age, and I’m glad he had the experience. And, he does own a football now.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-26T22:12:00.001-06:00

Thanks to so many things in life – love, family, friendship, abundance of food, a place to stay warm and safe, a moment to laugh, transportation to bring me back home to be with everyone, technology to capture precious moments… It really has been a day of true thanksgiving and a moment of counting blessings. I’ve been privileged to live a life with so much love, attention, and care from people. How lucky I am to spend everything Thanksgiving with my favorite people!

Spoiled Alert

2011-11-24T02:04:00.001-06:00

Among the many things my dad brought back from Korea, this one unexpectedly came along. It seems like I am now an owner of an authentic Chanel clutch!!! I have never owned a name-brand item nor even had a desire have one in my possession, so this was a HUGE surprise.

Much special thanks to the Koo family and their extreme generosity. I will certainly keep it “safe” and use it well for special occasions. Thank you, and the Oh family is missing your friendship and presence!

The Nerd Look

2011-11-24T01:53:00.001-06:00

I’m back in the arms of my loving family for Thanksgiving. It was a long journey up to this point and was all worth the wait. I’ve been exceptionally spoiled today by many people, but notably from my dad. My dad was in Korea for 3 weeks not a while ago for a business trip, and one of the things he always brought back in the past is my glasses. I’ve always gotten my glasses from Korea – they’re stylish, relatively inexpensive to the high quality frames/lenses, and I just like theirs better. My dad brought back two new pairs of glasses and sunglasses. If you notice, my new glasses look much nerdy looking than the past, and that was my request. I’m sure if I wore this back in high school, I would’ve been subjected to nasty stereotyping, but I’m way past to the point of worrying what others think now.

As a lifetime glasses-lover, I’m loving the new collection of glasses and sunglasses I’ll get to wear for the next several years. They’re just really comfortable on my skin, and honestly, I’m quite enjoying the new look. I think my dad was quite pleased with the result. Thank you, daddy!

Mother Nature

2011-11-21T18:35:00.001-06:00

This is what I’m dealing with tonight. Lots of rain and the sound of thunder. Exciting, yes, but could be a little scary at times for me. This kind of weather is perfect for cuddling with someone/something, watching movies, and drinking hot chocolate. Except none of that happened; I came back from work not a while ago and now thanking that I wasn’t stuck in that torrential rain.

Taking the Risk…on Beauty

2011-11-20T00:06:00.001-06:00

Unlike me, Yo is all about utilizing facial products/methods to keep her youthful look. And trust me, her effort does pay off. One of the things we did tonight was grooming eyebrow at the mall. My only grooming method has been plucking eyebrow, which at times can be painful, but it was the cheapest way to maintain. It mind boggles me how invested us women can be in looks; sometimes with every little details, when we choose to do so, can become of a high importance just as grooming our eyebrow.

This method, the name I can’t remember anymore (I think it’s called eyebrow threading), is sometimes seen in the mall kiosk involving a mere cotton threat. It’s similar to plucking, but less painful and give a more organized finished look. I recorded the process while Yo was getting hers done. It was rather amusing to see, especially watching the way the lady works with a cotton thread (it involves using her mouth too). Supposedly it’s widely used in India.

And then I caved in. I was curious, and maybe with a little bit of peer pressure involved, I dared to give it a try. As long as the lady didn’t ruin the overall look, I was going to take the risk. You be the judge, but I think it turned out pretty nice for a first try.

-Before and After of me and Yo-

Weekend So Far…

2011-11-19T22:51:00.001-06:00

It has been a great weekend so far, and a great week to be building up the hype for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I really feel this is when we appreciate the life we have. There is no obligation to exchange presents and everything is literally celebrated with food (conclusion: I like food a lot). It’s as if people are completely content to celebrate eating a giant bird (aka Turkey) with as many people as possible. I’m glad I’ve been able to spend the favorite holiday with the most important people in my life – my family.

Last night, me and friends in the Master’s program celebrated our version of Thanksgiving. We drank wine, enjoyed food that people brought, and played Catch Phrase. I’ll never become good at this game.

This morning, I treated myself to a 60 minute massage, first time I ever did in my life, and it was absolutely wonderful. My chronic tension on lower back and shoulders cleared away instantly, and I was a much happier person physically. In the afternoon, I joined a couple of friends in attending a craft show in downtown Dallas. There were more than 90 booths presenting jewelries, antiques, clothes, arts, photographs, and many other interesting things that aren’t really seen elsewhere in retail stores. What I love about the craft show is that they are all unique and creative; I enjoy seeing all the different inspirations put together for hours, days, and months by local artists. It’s really their moment to shine, and I always admire their passion.

Afterwards, we walked around the Dallas Farmer’s Market that were filled with fresh local produced-goods and flowers. It reminded me a lot back from Korea where I used to hold my grandma’s hand while running errands. She didn’t go to places like Wal-Mart or Kroger; it resembled so much of the farmer’s market. It brought back some good old memories, and it felt rather relaxing knowing that grocery shopping can be done in a non-stressful way. I could see why people would enjoy coming here. I hope to come back here with an actual purpose (we just roamed around today).

For dinner, I suggested my friends to go to a Korean bbq restaurant so they could experience an ethnic food. I showed them a Korean grocery store where they happened to host the Asian Food Festival. I bet my Caucasian friends have never seen so many Asians in one place – they admitted it was a good culture shock. Yolanda also joined us for dinner and we all enjoyed some of my favorite Korean dishes.

Again, I love the week leading to Thanksgiving. But I’m especially thankful that, even far away from home, I still have an opportunity to count my blessings.

We’re Famous!

2011-11-17T17:01:00.001-06:00

Ok, NOT really. But we, the graduate assistants that work for the Division of Student Affairs, are on the website. And I have pictures to prove it! These pictures were taken yesterday at the GA lunch, where we had an intense discussion over writing resumes (us 2nd years are stressing out about job searching…!) Our GA coordinator took these pictures of us and put them up on the website this morning. So yes, I consider this being as famous. :)

Source: http://studentaffairs.unt.edu/programs/graduate_assistant_program

Cozy

2011-11-16T22:59:00.001-06:00

Texas weather has been "a little weird" lately with relatively high temperatures for November. Let's say it has been in the high 80's. It didn't seem right at all - leaves were turning red/yellow and we were all wearing short sleeves. Thankfully it brought back the season it meant to be, so I cozied up in my sweater all day long.

Also, I have no shame for self-portrait. I think it's a great ego-booster. I get to practice my smiles.

Marathon Visits

2011-11-13T21:32:00.001-06:00

I’m sorry I don’t have much going on lately. My work week consists of working, going to class, doing homework, tutoring student athletes, and sleeping (repeat)… oh, and I’m counting down the days to Thanksgiving. You could probably tell that I miss home and my family.

Z continued his marathon of let’s-visit-Wonjee-again this weekend. Seeing him 3 weekends in a row is completely unheard of in our relationship, so while it felt weird to see him so often, it felt nice to have several weekends that involved him. I used my Olive Garden gift card (thanks mom & dad!) for our dinner on Thursday and made a trip to a frozen yogurt place that night. Have I told you it’s one of my favorite desserts?

“Lots of good food” pretty much sums up our weekend. We had the infamous Korean all-you-can bbq where I fell into food coma, but we also cooked several meals at home. I really enjoy cooking with Z because he’s extremely flexible with my demanding/picky nature of food and is good at playing both the executive and sous-chef in the kitchen, whichever role needed.

It seems like our marathon weekends will end here, though I am much tempted to visit him next weekend, because I need a weekend to focus on my school work. After all, I want a work-free Thanksgiving break, and I know I’ll be seeing him again in one and a half week. I appreciate November for giving us lots of opportunities to see each other. And thank you Z for making frequent trips. :)

My Grandma Across the Pacific

2011-11-07T19:13:00.001-06:00

I certainly know I was born in the right century when an amazing program called Skype was created and did amazing things to people’s lives. Today, my special thanks goes to Skype once again and to my far away cousin in Singapore, who made all of this moment possible (he bought the webcam).

In the midst of staying busy with house chores, I was stopped by an unexpected Skype call. It was my grandma (from my mom’s side) from Korea, who finally entered the world of international video chat. First of all, I’m so proud of her for showing all sorts of amazingness with technology at her age– she rocks!

It was our first face-to-face, though virtually, for the first time in 10 years. We last saw each other when my family permanently moved to the U.S. I was 15 years old.

Weekend Loving

2011-11-06T23:47:00.001-06:00

Weekend loving means

buying beautiful flowers on a gorgeously sunshining day,

making delicious dinner and eating with your loved one,

and feeling blessed to have all the wonderful things that exist around you.

It was a wonderful weekend of hanging out with Z, who came to spend quality time with me, seeing friends we haven’t seen in a long time, and having Candace over night for a visit. Looking forward to a happily energized week.

4 Years of Happiness

2011-11-02T00:48:00.001-05:00

Here goes my long overdue post…sorry, sorry, sorry!

I can’t believe the first day of November has already passed; life seems to go at a light speed, don’t you think? The last weekend of October 2011 was well spent, and particularly special, because it was me and Z’s 4 year anniversary. You’re probably thinking “4 years already?” Yes, it has been 4 years. We started dating during my sophomore year in college, right after the Halloween party. Who knew that a Halloween party hookup would lead to this?

I left Denton incredibly late on Thursday night, after my evening class which ended around 8:30pm, and spent the following 5 hours on the road. The weather was quite miserable and dark, but I safely managed to arrive around 2am on Friday. Talk about true love, right? Awaiting was the pretty Victoria’s Secret box that had been kept secret for weeks – it was a joint late birthday/anniversary gift. Then came out the really cute black dress I had once talked about during our conversation. You see, Z has this thing about remembering everything that I say, even as a little as “I wish I had something like…”, and would make it into reality. I guess at one point, I mentioned something about not having a ‘sexy’ black dress to wear for a fun occasion, such as New Year’s Eve, a cruise, or even a trip to a dance club. I’ve always known to own conservative dresses because I am paranoid about exposing my skin, and of course, Z had to take my closet to the next level. I’m glad, though, that he was tasteful in his selection and rather chose something that is both girly and fun (but not too crazy exposed, well, I think this whole one-shoulder-dress-thing makes me nervous). I’m not sure when/where/how I’d wear it, but until then, it’ll remain in my closet with other gazillion dresses. THANK YOU!!! :)

Side note: I only got him a card…hahaha!

The next day, Friday (aka our anniversary day: October 28), he took me out to a nice restaurant by the bay area of Galveston. It had a nice menu of seafood dishes. We had calamari for an appetizer, the main course, and crème bule (I demanded this one) for dessert. It was a delightful dinner filled with fun conversations. We tried not to make a whole deal out of the anniversary-related-ordeals; so it felt like another great day with him but with a fancier dinner. We stayed in that evening and watched “Crazy, Stupid Love” while enjoying a glass of wine. The movie was much funnier and cleverer than I expected, and thus to the great end of the day.

The next few days involved a lot of laziness, me sleeping in, and eating out (because none of us wanted to cook, HA!). However, some of the activities involved eating Korean BBQ followed by karaoking at a shady Korean place; needless to say, that day was incredibly fun. Karaoke is a HUGE thing for Asians. I don’t know of the origin or why it had a permanent place among Asian cultures, especially for Koreans, but it’s a big deal. Asians love it. And I’m not going to lie, I used to pay frequent visits to karaoke places when I was an innocent middle school girl. I spent all my allowances there, perfecting my vocal skills. Back then, all I sang was “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Oh love songs… Maybe that’s why I joined choir – who knows. Anyhow, it has been looooong~ time since I went to the karaoke, and I was truly skeptical of my decaying singing ability. My voice doesn’t accommodate very well with pop songs, by the way. That night, I braved my way and sung several songs, many of which consisted of old pop songs and Disney tunes. My English can’t follow the tempo of Beyonce’s music. Oh, and I think I have the perfect Ariel voice (from Little Mermaid). No, I have no recording of that.

So here you go – our anniversary weekend well spent. He has been a really great man to me all these years (4 years to be exact!), and I’m incredibly lucky to have him. We’re looking forward to many, many more years of togetherness and happiness!

Wonder Woman

2011-10-27T16:14:00.001-05:00

Last week was UNT’s Homecoming. Each year, we do Yell Like Hell – a tradition where Greek Life and Residence Halls put a show based on the year’s theme. This year’s theme was “The Incredibly Scrappy.” Yo participated in the event as part of the College Inn representatives, portraying as the Wonder Woman…her favorite character.

Me and a few friends of ours made the trip to the stadium to see Yo perform. Let’s just say that her diva character truly shined and stole the show. And who knew that a Wonder Woman snuggie existed. Well done, Yo. Well done.

The Making of A Nameless Pasta

2011-10-24T23:43:00.001-05:00

Foggy Morning

2011-10-24T20:54:00.001-05:00

Before & After 25

2011-10-21T08:54:00.001-05:00

Is it seriously October 20th already? I’m incredibly sorry for the unintended absence of blogging but my life has been a little crazy these days, and I’m now getting around to writing something.

A lot has happened since the last post… Most of the chaos was generated from trying to meet too many deadlines and then my adventure in Austin for 5 days, followed by a massive school’s homecoming picnic. It’s almost correct of me to say that I had been a walking zombie for a while, but I’m recovering to be a normal human again.

If you didn’t know already, I was in Austin for quite a while due to couple reasons. The original purpose of the trip was to attend a conference in which I was co-presenting, but it also happened to be on my birthday. So why not take advantage? Even though the conference started on Sunday afternoon, I drove down on Friday. There, I met up with Z and we celebrated my quarter life birthday all weekend (did I tell you I am now 25?). It was really sweet of him to do that, and though his friends tagged along the trip, we spent most of the weekend together. It was fantastic.

But before the awesome Austin trip, I had to endure the torturous packing in which lasted till 2am the day I left. I was struggling to choose outfits for social occasions and conference setting. Especially for professional wardrobe, I wanted to something I can handle for more than 8 hours a day without killing myself. I opted to wear dress.

The following collage sort of described my weekend before conference. It involved lots of delicious food from both food trucks and local restaurants, spending late nights on 6th street (that’s where all the bars and dance clubs are located), shopping, and snapping lots of cheesy pictures with Z. He was very compliant to my picture-taking.

{This is one of Austin’s famous graffiti on Congress Avenue}

<—Z also bought me earrings that I personally chose as my birthday gift. This time it was an Asian artist I supported, and we had a very insightful conversation about speaking in mother language even growing up in the U.S.

Z was with me until Monday morning, the day I turned 25, sang happy birthday to me, and headed down to Galveston for school. By then, my serious/professional mode was back on, and my mind was all about making sure no stupid mistakes were to made during the presentations. Yes, my presentation was on the day of my birthday. You tend to forget that you just got one year older when you got more important agenda going on.

With the support from my academic program advisor and Yolanda, who rushed in to the room to see me, my presentation went successfully. I felt pretty confident during my short presentation. As a grad student, it was certainly an experience I enjoyed from preparation to presentation. I learned a lot from attending education sessions, especially the keynote speakers, and gave me some critical perspective to consider as I develop in the profession.

{Yolanda was so nice to take a picture of me presenting!}

We enjoyed our lodging by Lake Austin during the conference. A nice presidential reception was held on the rooftop with live entertainment and drinks. Though the strong wind, the weather that weekend was absolutely perfect.

That night, I had a birthday dinner with my boss, colleagues, and friends at Austin’s famous Tex-Mex restaurant, Trudy’s. I enjoyed a plate called Stuffed Avocado. My mouth was in heaven. And my stomach, too. Before leaving Austin, Yolanda and I enjoyed a lunch bento box. Yum!

And then, there was today. By a complete surprise, I blew candles and a delicious birthday cake presented to me by my boss. Being the baker, and a firm believer of having a cake on one’s birthday, she made one for me. We had a belated celebration with our student assistants and other engineering students.

Life is almost back to normal now. Looking forward to a restful weekend and getting ready for another busy week followed by a special weekend for me and Z!

P.S. – No, I have not had a quarter-life crisis yet.

Dear Daddy Whose Birthday is Today

2011-10-11T22:10:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to one-of-a-kind dad,

who bites his daughter’s fingers whenever she arrives home as a sign of love

who used to drive every summer break, thanksgiving, winter break to bring his daughter back home from college

who made a one-day round trip to DFW airport just to make sure his daughter safely boarded for her first international trip

who declared that his daughter cannot get married in the year of 2012

who paid his daughter’s boyfriend’s hotel one year so his visit in El Paso was comfortable

who drove all the way to Lubbock overnight to bring his desktop because his daughter’s laptop broke

who claims he will permanently move to wherever his daughter settles

who pays almost all of his daughter’s flights to home because he doesn’t want his daughter to pay for it

who always washes his daughter’s car, fixes everything, and changes all the important parts in the apartment every time he visits his daughter

who always ends the conversation with “I hate you.”

who has a crazy daughter name Wonjee that shares the exact characteristics

You are pretty awesome, and I’m glad I have one-of-a-kind dad like you. :)

Love, your one-of-a-kind daughter (I hate you too)

P.S – He loves everyone in the family, but he probably loves me the most.

How a Haircut Can Make All The Difference In The World

2011-10-11T19:50:00.001-05:00

Things to notice:

1. My bed is not made. And the room is horribly messy.

2. This week is too crazy. Too many deadlines, too many projects to complete in the same week. Oh, and I’m presenting next week. I have no idea what to say, yet.

3. According to my mother, high stress = wanting to cut your hair. That would be me. And I did. I didn’t chop off my hair, but I did nicely “trim” it, thanks to my talented hair stylist.

This captures how my day was.

<Lack of sleep, uncontrollable hair that hasn’t been trimmed for 6 months, and another long day = picture below, taken this morning>

<Still lack of sleep but nicely trimmed hair = finally happy me, taken 5 minutes ago>

<Still lack of sleep, realizing my stomach is starving, but nicely trimmed hair = less perkier than the previous picture, taken 4 minutes ago>

I’m going to work on my project now.

A Mysterious Package

2011-10-08T20:14:00.001-05:00

My birthday presents arrived super duper early today. I guess mom was nervous that, with my erratic schedules and impending trip to Austin, I would never be able receive my presents on time. So sweet of her to be so considerate. The mysterious package contained two funny/ridiculously cute cards, two $50 giftcards to Olive Garden and Apples Bee’s (everyone knows I love food), and a pair of boots…so much stuff!!! And I was expecting more like a giftcard and birthday cards…clearly I still don’t know my parents well enough.

FACT: I am a spoiled daughter beyond your imagination.

Funny side story: my brother has been telling me for days (via Skype) to check my mailbox for my birthday card. He also kept telling me that my favorite shoes were on my way, too, but I had no idea what he was talking about. When I mentioned it to my mom, she claimed that a package was on its way, but wasn’t going to involve shoes. The naïve me believed my mom instead of my overly excited brother; I figured my brother assumed whatever new shoes were bought for me. Turns out, my brother was right the whole time. The sweet brother could never lie and didn’t know how to keep a secret. :) He also wrote the sweetest things on my card. I’m such a lucky sister!

Thanks Yo for capturing this special moment for me. And most of all, THANK YOU to my wonderful family for always making me so happy and thinking of me!

Balance

2011-10-06T22:48:00.001-05:00

I’m truly at my happiest when I could be home early enough to make my own dinner. It’s quite relaxing and I have full control of what I can eat. Lately, having a balanced nutrition is my priority, and cutting down some portion. I’m also trying to find time to workout, even for half hour. I’m learning to have a more balanced life and not letting the work or the school, or the unnecessary worries and stress get in the way of my life. It’s been good, and I’m looking forward to working harder on this.

October Craziness

2011-10-05T21:31:00.001-05:00

Lately I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. Perhaps, feeling burned out. Juggling between an internship, a full graduate course work, and a graduate assistantship with much more responsibilities is giving me no time for myself to do anything. It’s like, I’m stuck in the world of higher education, and that’s it.

I already knew October was going to be a huge month for me. I have several major higher ed finance projects due, a midterm to study for, and a conference to attend in which I’m co-presenting… am I whining? I might be. Compared to the full-time working mothers with a family to take care of, which is the norm in this field, my workload is nothing. However, in my capacity, so much is happening before I leave for the conference in Austin. I NEED MORE TIME! I’m trying to keep up my positive spirit and sleeping before midnight (when I can), and staying excited about things. Foremost, I am excited about going to Austin and having a chance to co-present for the first time. Z will also meet me there to spend the weekend with me, which I find to be pretty romantic (hahaha!). Oh, and my 25th birthday is during conference! Party time is on (not really).

I like that my workplace has a nice, peaceful courtyard area. Usually it’s filled with guys smoking, but I got lucked out when I came outside. I chilled for about half hour just looking at the garden, the sky and getting some fresh air. Evening air is becoming quite nice and cool, in fact. I felt much better afterwards. Occasional break to outside is definitely something I need to do more often, especially since Wednesdays are killer days for me. 8am-7pm workday, ohhhhh yeah. I know my dad will just say, “suck it up; you’re young.” I know, I know, dad. :)

My apologies for posting such a negative post after hibernation. I am feeling much better, though, after getting some late dinner and watching some TV shows. Now back to researching.

I Love Rain, Thunder, and Lightning

2011-09-29T22:14:00.001-05:00

Joy to the World (to Wonjee)!

2011-09-29T11:54:00.001-05:00

Ha! My new driver’s license arrived today. New look, new face, new everything! It’s possible I might be too joyful over a little identification card, but my temporary license has been a sheet of paper. Carrying a sheet of paper for a whole month! It was inconvenient. And, for some reason, people thought I was a criminal or something. Does carrying an identification on a sheet of paper instead of a card makes you a criminal? Weird, I know. I should’ve smiled for my license. Oh well.

Oh yes, also, please note the extremely messy background. Bed that’s not made and purses everywhere… I know I know. But this week is Geek Week! which is a week long of fun student activities celebrating the existence of Geeks! Haha. That’s why my life has been a mess, apartment wise, at least. Tonight is a big picnic with a live jazz band, free goodies (including this t-shirt!), and tons of other fun. After tonight and dealing with 60 high school students tomorrow, my life will be back to normal. Well, somewhat back to normal.

Time to eat some lunch and head back to work! And… Go Geek!!

Dallas Girls Night Out

2011-09-26T00:16:00.001-05:00

So who says grad students can’t have some fun? Well, we don’t have that many so called “fun days” as busy grad students, or more like busy grad assistants, but we do the best we can. My friend DaNeetra invited the girls to the Shecky’s Dallas Girls Night Out which is like an evening event for all women in Dallas. They apparently do this kind all across the nation, usually in the big cities, and give out free items that women like. Although it was a Wednesday night, me and 3 other girls carpooled to downtown Dallas.

It was surely interesting. There were lots and lots of women, plenty of complimentary drinks, a huge bag of free stuff of beauty products (well, we had to pay $10 for the gift bag but the total items were certainly worth more than that), and many local artists selling their clothes and jewelries. As an avid supporter for local artists, I did not hesitate to buy a handmade necklace, but I was a good girl and bought only one. We also made our own margarita. Boy, was that interesting.

I had fun that night. It was fun to dress up, put on some make-up, and act all girly. And there were no guys! It was a true girls night out in which I don’t do very often. Of course you can imagine the next day at work was quite a challenge for all of us because we stayed out till 10pm (including a dinner at a Mexican restaurant). I used to have no problem hanging out until 2 or 3am *nervous cough cough* in college, but I guess my body can no longer handle that kind of wild nights (haha, wasn’t really that wild).

Freaky Moments

2011-09-25T01:32:00.001-05:00

Remember about my blog being more honest and realistic? Well, here you go – I don’t think it could get any more honest than this, ladies and gentlemen – the freakiest moment you will ever see in a woman. Men, have you seen your girlfriend, wife, sister, mom, or a female friend do this? My dad and brother have been victims for many times when my mom and I used to do this together, and so is occasionally for Z. It will probably remain as the freakiest picture in the history of “The Little Asian”, but hey, why not? I’m trying to get back on a routinized facial care for myself because I want to look graciously old when I’m in my 40s, 50s, and 60s. I know people might laugh at that because I’m only 24, but you only live life once and I want to look nice on my own ability.

I have always been guilty of loving tanning and not frequently using sun screen on my face. After witnessing someone I know go through a mild cancer, I have become more cautious about my skin and how I treat it. Clearly putting mud pack on your face has nothing to do with preventing cancer, but at least it’s a soothing experience and my face feels cleaner afterwards. I almost want to try this on Z’s face because I think all men need some work to do. I really don’t think skin care is for women only thing. Anyways, my window is rolled up again so I’m hoping that no one accidentally witnesses me of this and calls the police or something.

16 Hours

2011-09-22T23:24:00.001-05:00

What do you do when you got million things to write about your week but your body has energy for only one post? Gotta listen to my body, I guess? I had to go through a long period of self-debate in deciding which story to post first, regardless of the order of events, so how about the most recent one? Let me tell you – this week has been epic. So much has happened that I forgot to realize that today was Thursday.

Yolanda and I spent about 16 hours together. I definitely wish it was for a better reason, but we got the most out of the situation. Yo has been ill for almost two weeks now and just recently found out about the pneumonia that has been haunting her body. And then, there was a suspicion by the ER doctor of a possible ulcer, or some kind of bleeding in the stomach, that led us to this place: the surgery center. Yo needed to get a procedure done, and I was asked to be her designated driver. Initially I freaked out because we needed to be there by 6:30am; we all know how I feel about early morning events. But this is a friend we are talking, and there is absolutely no way I will turn down a friend’s favor just because I can’t seem to get up early well. After all, I’m a responsible kid. And a good friend, right?

It was a nervous feeling to be her driver, her friend, her guardian (at least that’s what the hospital labeled me), and a responsible adult on behalf of her. I had to sign her discharge paper, test result, and talked to the doctor of her conditions. This was a very first time for me to stay seriously alerted for someone else.

After Yo’s successful procedure and the much less-alarming test results, I had to deal with her post-anesthesia moments which ended up becoming quite hilarious for both me and the nurses around. This, also, was my first encounter of someone going through any type of anesthesia, and it was quite enlightening to discover how one can be so clueless around his/her surroundings while the anesthesia completely disappeared in the system. By no means I’m trying to embarrass her, but it was quite an interesting moment.

When we got home, we were desperately hungry and I offered to make brunch. After going to my own doctor’s appointment, I ran some errands for her. Her fridge looked, what I can only describe as “pathetic”, because there were nothing nutritious left for her to eat as a sick person. At this time, I had decided that my body could no longer handle the internship workload for that same afternoon, so I took the day off. And plus, I would hate to be alone and attempt to cook when my body is miserably sick; I decided to stay with her for the remainder of the day to keep her lively. Again, I never took care of a sick person before, so I didn’t know what she would have preferred. I figured I would at least make dinner for her.

By the time I arrived with the errands, I felt like my body was about to collapse. I was SO tired. I took a really sweet nap for the next two hours until I felt ready to be back on my feet again. Yo was surprising well after the procedure, and she didn’t seem to mind me staying with her all day. We then spent the rest of the day talking (that’s not good for a pneumonia patient, eh?), watching a fantastically old movie and X-factor. I then made dinner for us.

I think my first caregiving for a sick friend turned out to be “successful.” Although there should have been a better reason for us to hang out for 16 hours, but regardless of what the reason was, it was a fun day. She was a wonderful patient and never gave me a hard time about anything, but personally, taking care of a sick friend was a lot more difficult that I thought. It’s a lot about thinking in another person’s perspective, especially because I couldn’t understand how she physically felt at the moment. Essentially, I didn’t want to make a person’s life even more miserable because I couldn’t find a pot or a pan, or the paper towel. I did my best, though, and I hope she enjoyed my presence. Once I got home, I popped in some vitamin C to make sure my immune system stays up; the smell of the hospital sometimes freak me out.

I opened up my windows for some fresh, cool air and feeling more comfortable knowing that she is somewhat taken care of, in terms of food and emotional support and stuff.

Today, I felt good to be a friend I’ve always wanted to become.

It Arrived!

2011-09-19T23:56:00.001-05:00

It finally arrived! The long awaited Design Sponge book came to me today. I have been a big fan of Design Sponge; it’s a website that provides abundance of Do-It-Yourself project ideas you can try at home (I haven’t tried one yet, though, hahaha). It’s also the source of my interior design inspirations for my future home. I’m pretty sure being a home owner is still far away in my agenda, but I’m being busy storing all the amazing ideas that are seen in the blog. When I found out it was being published as a book, I didn’t hesitate to pre-order. I’m so glad to be the proud owner of this book, and I can’t wait to spend some time looking through pictures and amazing interior designs!

Amazing Moments with the Nature

2011-09-19T02:01:00.001-05:00

{A wonderfully cool breeze that made the lunch experience at the Galveston harbor area so pleasant.}

{The storm system I unexpectedly experienced on my way back home from Galveston.}

{Visibility was terrible for a good 10 miles. It was an exciting weather experience, though.}

{The strangest cloud formation I’ve ever encountered thus far.}

Mother nature is quite the amazement.

A Learning Lesson

2011-09-19T01:53:00.001-05:00

I had an enjoyable and a much-needed weekend with the boyfriend. We mostly relaxed and stayed lazy at his place, watching some football and a couple of movies. On Saturday we went out to the mall to get Z a haircut and spent the rest of the day shopping, eating at a nice sushi restaurant with his friend, and watched a movie. Perhaps, the highlight of this post is Z’s new hairdo! Z’s hairstylist was supposedly all about the doing the “hot stuff” and came up with this do, which we consider a Korean-Pop-Star hairdo. Pretty much all Korean male stars have this cut these days, and I didn’t know how I felt about Z jumping into this trend, although he didn’t ask for it. Now that I keep looking at him, I think he looks really cute. He looks younger (not that he looked old) and more charming. I demanded that he continued this look for a while. Let’s see if he really does keep this look. :)

It was also a weekend where I discovered a lot about myself. I realized how selfish I can be, how overly upset I am on small matters, how I expect Z to be perfect in everything. Funny thing is, I sometimes wish he was a genius in reading my mind, when all I had to do is let him know how I feel. That telling-your-feeling-thing is really not my forte; I usually pretend everything is alright. Of course, Z knows me well enough just from a slight change in expression that I’m NOT ok… There are literally times when I want him all to myself and not share any part of the weekend with his friends. That sounds scary possessive and selfish, huh? Hanging out with his friends always end up being really fun, but it takes me a while to let him know that I want some quality time spent with him, and him only. That’s the reason I spend 5 hours on the road, at least once a month. Plus, it’s all relative, right? – his time spent with me is very minimal compared to time spent with friends during the month. This weekend was obviously one of those times where I failed to communicate my wants, and it created unnecessary tension between us. Well, all the awkward attitudes came from my part actually. But I’m glad to admit that it had happened because it just showed how patient and kind Z is. We eventually talked through our “little” moment, and life was good again. I do like occasional “date nights”, so let’s do that sometime, ok, Z? :)

So why bother writing this extremely cheesy and yet immature story of mine in this blog? (Z – I hope you didn’t mind me sharing this story with the whole world…). I think it’s important to admit that we’re not perfect, and that we often misunderstand each other and have different expectations set in place. We work it out and better understand each other, even after almost 4 years (and hoping for many more). This is what couples go through, right?

I think most of you could agree that my blog posts have been very positive and happy. But, for the integrity of this blog, you should know that things are not always picture perfect. You get frustrated with work, issues arise in a relationship, and life just happens. As I’m getting closer to my 500th post, I’m starting to envision my blog even more honest and realistic to you all. And I know this thought initially scared me because I know most of you are either my family members or friends, and honesty can raise concerns. It’s not that I want to open my entire life to everyone, but as an original intention to use this space as my reflection of life, I want to make this more real to everyone and to myself This post is that start.

This weekend was really wonderful. Despite that little upset I had, there is no doubt in my mind that I am blessed to be in the relationship with this guy I happened to stumble upon during college. I’ll be looking forward to many more 300+ mile driving in the near future!

Friday Afternoon

2011-09-16T13:08:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I drove my way down to Galveston after work. I'm never a big fan of driving at night, but considering how my attention to details severely lacks in the morning, I opted for an evening drive after work. I didn't get there until 10pm, but there was no traffic (even in Houston!), and thus I was a happy girl.

Now that Z just left his afternoon classes, I'm kind of at a lost with myself for the next 4 hours. I was being a good student and completed all my homework and readings for the entire week. It seems like work is quiet, too, because I'm getting no emails from my boss. I also woke up at a decent time (anytime before noon is a decent time) and made brunch for us. So what to do all by myself for 4 hours? I think Facebook version of Sims Social game is definitely in order. Or, I might get some leisure reading done. I've been wanting to read/finish this book called "Blink" by Malcolm Galdwell. I borrowed the book from Z a while back but never got the chance to read thoroughly.

Yeah, I'll do that. :) Yay for Friday and not being at work!

Happy Day, Today

2011-09-13T22:44:00.001-05:00

Today was a good day, despite hours of emailing and talking to students, and that my work keeps ending around 7pm. I only get paid for 20 hours of work. It’s the grad school life.

I had an early lunch, because class got out early, and I saw FreeBirds on my rearview mirror. I can always eat Mexican food, especially a burrito bowl, which is a food made from heaven. Instead of leaving the scent of the delicious food in the hallways as I usually do with my lunches, I just stayed in my car. I rolled down the windows, enjoyed some cool breeze until it decided to be come 107 degrees instantly, watched the birds searching for foods and the remaining flowers that were barely surviving. My lunch was incredibly delicious. The parking lot was quiet and peaceful, and it was just what I needed before I walked into the building with full of engineers (I spend a lot of energies trying to comprehend what they’re studying).

Along came The Impossible Cake. Tomorrow is Adrian’s birthday; he’s one of the many student assistants working in the office. In fact, it will be his 21st. We cannot even imagine the kind of evening he will spend tomorrow. My awesome boss, who happens to be an amazing baker, made a cake for Adrian. We call it “The Impossible Cake.” All I know that it’s one of traditional Mexican birthday cakes, and my boss attempted to make it. I heard that it’s hard to make, even the good baker boss lady was nervous about making one. It takes over two hours to bake it, but she stayed up till midnight to do it anyway. Hence, she’s amazing. We had an early birthday celebration for him, had a major sugar rush at 3pm, and tried to embarrass him with a crush he has on this mysterious girl (we are trying hunt this information down). This is what he gets for working with bunch of women.

I spent the evening talking to my tired dad, who decided to fall asleep unusually early (but totally understandable), and then moved on to talking with my mom. Talking to my mom makes the whole world better, by the way. I would spend hours talking, but I decided to cut it short so I can write this and start working on my homework. Maybe next time, mom!

Next two nights should be busy for me. I decided I’m heading down to Galveston Thursday night after work, so, much work needs to be done in the next two nights if I want some actual weekend. I figured I need to make an appearance to the boyfriend, assuming that he misses me. I told him I am requiring his full attention and an expectation to spoil me this weekend. We’ll see what happens.

So, I’m now going to resume my homework session and much more reading for a higher ed finance class. Have a great night, everyone!

Brew at the Zoo

2011-09-11T17:44:00.001-05:00

There was an interesting event at the Dallas Zoo last night. Upon my friend Dan’s invitation, we and his sister made an evening trip to the zoo for a local beer tasting. Wine tasting? Sure, I did that several times, but a beer-tasting festival was clearly new to us and sounded intriguing. I thought it was a genius idea that the event was held at the zoo because it seemed like a cool venue. I did feel bad for the animals that are probably used to spending their nights quietly.

“The Brew at the Zoo” was an organized chaos, with thousands of people present in hopes for trying out beers by local breweries. There were live music, foods and some animal-viewing (those animals probably hated us being so loud at night…). Everyone was really friendly and seemed like everyone was having a great time. I also never seen that many cops at one place, but I guess it made sense because everyone was drinking…haha.

It was exceptionally neat that me and my friends didn’t have to pay a dime – we had complimentary tickets (I have no idea how Dan’s parents were able to get them!) – so it was an evening of free beers in a great atmosphere. I was also very thankful that the weather had much cooled down by then. It was a pleasant evening!

My overall favorite, which had nothing to do with drinking, was riding the carousel! The staff let people ride in it as we exited the zoo. I was really happy, like a little kid, and reminded me of the fun times in North Tonawanda last summer. It was funny to watch other adults enjoying the ride as much as I do, and it especially made me laugh when an older couple span themselves crazy fast in the teacup.

Thanks Dallas Zoo for a great time!

Searching for Self-Peace

2011-09-10T01:04:00.001-05:00

This week has been a mix of frustration, stress, loneliness, busyness and everything else one could go through. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been the best week, despite the 4-day work week, but I think it mainly has to do with the fact that I’m juggling among two different work schedules (my GAship and internship), a full-time coursework and the overflowing question of “when are you going to start the job search?” Nothing is more stressful than every single person asking me about my intention with job search. Yes, it’s on my mind, but I haven’t had a chance to really figure out what I need to do yet.

It’s been one of those weeks that I disturbingly discovered students’ complete lack of courtesy or etiquette, and their unwillingness to engage in any educational activities. I don’t know where this trend began – or if we need more parents to actually educate their children – but sometimes those students make my job a lot harder. I shouldn’t feel so negative toward the variety of students I work with; however, I seriously believe that college is not for everyone.

I spent a whole hour just skimming through old pictures, something that would take me back to really happy times when life wasn’t as complicated as now, and then I found this one. It was taken on my first day in the countryside of England during a college choir tour. Life was a lot simpler back then; I wasn’t even old enough to think about the next step after college. Since Dallas had had no rain at all this summer, I miss the greenness. I definitely miss the autumn weather, which is not coming soon enough. Lastly, I miss being in a peaceful place. I love the big city and all, but sometimes its busyness, and the fact that I work for 36,000+ population of a state university, makes me go a little crazy at times. Overall, I regret not really having some time off this summer.

This is not to say that I had an absolutely horrible week – it was really ok, just not fantastic. Visiting home during Labor Day weekend didn’t help with my emotional independence; I really miss my family. And it’s been frustrating that Z and my schedules have been so off that we either phone tag or end up briefly catching up on each other’s day (Z just realized that a few days ago that I started school…haha). I’m certainly not blaming him for anything; it’s just we’ve just been way too crazy busy lately.

These long paragraphs of rambling pretty much resulted in my overjoy of welcoming this weekend. I’m glad I said “no” to some unnecessary commitments and concentrating on my own well-being. Hopefully I’ll get to find my inner peace and start the next week strong.

P.S- To my dear readers who tend overanalyze my blog posts, I am really ok. Please do not over-worry about me. :)

Knowing What’s Best

2011-09-07T00:06:00.001-05:00

I visited El Paso during the Labor Day weekend. Best decision ever. I normally don’t make the travel during that time, but lately I’ve been extremely homesick, and after a long summer of work (and work only), I needed time to recuperate with my family.

We ate lots of food, especially my favorites (thanks mom!), went shopping, talked immensely, laughed a ton, and cooked outside. I also had a chance to individually hang out with my mom and dad, and did things a normal mother&daughter / father & daughter would do. Every moment was like a chocolate dipped strawberry in heaven, it was that good. Although going home has always excited me, I’ve been even more anxious about seeing my family since I started living in Dallas. Perhaps, it’s the longer distance that makes the heart grow fonder. What I think, however, is that as I grow older and have become physically independent for over 5 years, the family love grew even stronger in me. It’s like the longer I am away from them, the more I want to be with them. Make sense?

There were lots of happy faces and moments that I couldn’t forget from this trip. Being loved by the family is the best thing a person could ever wish for; mine is completely flooded by it. When the moment to say “goodbye” hit us yet again, at the usual airport…the usual spot, it gave me a great sadness, even more sadness than ever before. It’s the thought of “Oh gosh, wait until the end of November?” and the realization that the next time I walk into the door, I’m all by myself again. Though, being alone is a fun challenge and an experience I’d never think to let go, it makes me realize what’s important to me in life. I’m glad I had an enlightening moment with hopes to see achieved, having family close to me…physically. :)

Oh El Paso, though you are a mighty desert, you are still greatly missed by me.

Persistence Pays Off

2011-09-01T01:26:00.001-05:00

Unintentionally, my past weekend was completely neglected for publishment. My apologies. Actually, last weekend was really fun, and busy. After much convincing and persistence, my friend Yolanda finally decided purchase a TV! On top of that, the continuance breakdown of her old laptop forced her get a new laptop for free (it got lemoned).

I was “hired”, or designated, as her IT tech crew for the weekend in helping her choose a new laptop, TV, and setup of them. I can’t quite brag that I am a techy genius (I’m really not), but over the years of dating Z and knowing/working with several engineers/future engineers planted some knowledge of modern technologies. I was rather happy to know that Z was waiting for my phone call as a backup plan, despite his need to study for a big exam.

We began the day with a trip to Pappadeux Seafood Kitchen; it was Yolanda’s treat to me for helping her move few weekends back. We both enjoyed the nice atmosphere, great service, and most of all, the Pasta Mardrigas. It was pure heaven of deliciousness. My stomach was content, but my brain was trying to declare a food coma on me.

After visiting several stores for researching, we settled with a 40inch LCD Hitachi brand at Sam’s Club. Yolanda wanted a smaller size, but my greediness worked as a charm on her. To this day I’m still not sure why I was so stubborn about the 40inch…subconsciously I wanted that size?! We moved on with buying HDMI cable to enable direct connection between her laptop and TV (learned from Z!) and desperately searching for the component cable. It took us going to Wal-Mart to realize that all the new students bought every possible TV components you could imagine (Welcome back to school!).

We spent rest of the evening, till 11pm, setting up TV, showing her how the HDMI connection worked and other various options. She was completely stoked about the sudden upgrade in her life through technologies, and I was happy to be part of it.

{The new TV and laptop}

What and exciting adventure it was! Recently heard was that she is completely fascinated with the whole HDMI/component cable connections and how it improved the quality of her TV viewing. I also hear that she will be catching up on her Project Runway (or was it America’s Next Top Model?), Big Brother and Bachelor Pad. Her and her obsession with reality TV shows… This also means she will be playing computer Mahjong for hours on her TV screen…using a wireless mouse, also learned from Z.

I think I am spoiling everyone.

Summer Morning

2011-08-30T17:30:00.001-05:00

As surreal as it is, I was welcomed this morning by gloomy clouds and rain! Rain has certainly become a stranger to people in this community; we are still in a marathon of three-digit temperature that is sucking out the lives of all the beautiful trees and grasses. Let’s just say this summer has been amazingly hot thus far. :)

It was exciting to use my blue umbrella, even if used for merely 10 minutes. By the time I arrived to school, the rain stopped. I wish there was more summer mornings like today.

Welcoming the New Students to the Community

2011-08-27T00:27:00.001-05:00

Thursday was Mean Green Fling! It’s the first large event that UNT Student Activities host before classes officially begin. It’s one of the biggest events for the school, and it’s mainly to get all incoming student excited about school. It involved tons of free food, live music, and all the departments and student organizations were out there to meet with the students. It was a scorching three-digit heat, and I literally felt my body was instantly melting. Several of my engineering students participated in the event, much more involvement than last year’s event, and were eager about recruiting for potential members to their organizations.

I was extremely proud of them because engineering student don’t normally participate much in this event. It must have overwhelmed them sometimes, but they did a great job keeping themselves energized during the three hour event. I always feel like I have done my job right when I see a group of students growing to be active members of their school. It was seriously crazy hot, but well worth the time with these wonderful people.

Nerds

2011-08-23T23:46:00.001-05:00

The last two days were spent at the Supplemental Instruction training. About 50 students were gathered to become trained peer instructor leaders to their peers. It’s amazing how nerdy they can be, and yet the devotion is to assisting their peers is quite inspiring. I have lots of respects to the students who sacrifice their time to make sure other students are successful, and it took me to realize just how much time and effort they need to put to see a positive result.

It was an inspiring, and yet very exhausting, two days of trainings. I’m glad it’s over, but I can’t wait to begin observing their sessions and providing feedback!

An Organized Chaos

2011-08-21T22:17:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since I last wrote, but I’m glad to be able to focus on the week without having to write something. Sometimes I get that subconscious pressure – finding a topic to write and what not.

This week has been absolutely crazy. School is about to start and that means organized chaos for the student affairs division. There were lots of hype about several things even before school started – the new football stadium, the biggest donation in history by a UNT alumni, and bringing a new group of students…most ever in history, as well. The division was invited to the stadium to view it for the first time and been treated with prime rib and all sorts of deliciousness. The dining department needed to test if they can handle feeding the massive crowd before the first game. I certainly didn’t mind being the guinea pig. :)

Friday night, I had a relaxing night with lovely Allie, who just moved into her new apartment a week ago, and spent a night of watching Big Bang Theory, Thai food and a glass of wine. It was a perfect night to stay in before all the chaos that was about to occur soon.

This weekend was an unusually active weekend for me. Besides my usual attendance at the transfer orientation on Friday, I had to help my friend Yolanda move starting 8am on Saturday followed by participating in Sunday Fun Day at UNT, which also started at 8am. My favorite sleep-in habit vanished over the weekend. Somewhere between all of that was the cohort party. We all went to one of our friend’s house and attempted to keep ourselves cool in the pool. The weather was still painstakingly hot, but it was good to see my friends again.

Sunday Fun Day is when all students move in to their residence halls and numerous student & staff volunteer to help them move in. In a 105 degree weather, the help is more than necessary, I imagine. Me, my boss, and couple engineering students were at the engineering living community to greet the incoming students and their families. We gave out water bottles, free t-shirt (of course), a bag of goodies and just keeping them company. And yes, we sometimes had to jump in to resolve some “technical” issues….aka bunk bed. It was very exciting to meet new students, mainly men as expected, and to see them looking forward to school. It just makes me realize how important it is to have students on campus…it makes a world of difference. I absolutely loved the newborn of energy and excitement among students.

I began to think and realize that me & my parents went through this exact step 5 years ago. Although 5 years feel like a really long time, I still remember the mixed emotions of excitement, nervousness and uncertainty that floated in my mind during that move. To now be in a position where I can comfort these students and make sure that they have the most pleasant college experience makes me feel good about what I do. I sure do love working on a college campus. The chaos has returned but so did the vibrancy of the campus.

Somebody to Love

2011-08-14T23:13:00.001-05:00

A lovely weekend was spent with my family. They drove 800 miles, departing at 9pm from El Paso and arriving at 10am. I still don’t know to this day how they can manage a 13 hour drive, and sometimes much longer, but I am ever grateful for their endless love & support. When they arrived, I was still at work, so they had a nice 3 hour break until I dragged them everywhere in Dallas on Friday.

We did our usual things this weekend but with a slight twist. If time permitted, I would love to show them so many different places in Dallas, but we still had a great time together. On Friday, we started out with a late lunch at a Korean restaurant. We loved it because there was hardly anyone there, and we felt like we had the entire space to ourselves.

And then, I took my parents to the Dallas Galleria Mall, which they never been. I just wanted to show them how massive the place is. I loved seeing their smiles, especially when they found out about the ice rink. Although we didn’t actually skate, we enjoyed observing kids while sipping our coffee. We walked around all floors of the mall and purchased a couple of items along the way. It was a happy walking day in a building with nice A/C. It was an excellent idea for a hangout on a volcano-like heat :)

We ended our Dallas exploration with a visit to SMU, where I recently finished my internship. I showed them all the different buildings, my favorite driveways, places I walked to everyday just because I wanted to, and the building I worked at. We talked about how happy I am about making this decision in my life, that I prefer to work in a university and helping students grow. I could tell they were extremely happy for me and where I am in life. It made me proud knowing that I could be a source of happiness to them. Summer school was over and it was in late afternoon, so there were no students or staff, and it was just so perfect to walk around the campus enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of this school.

We had a late start on Saturday, but we were perfectly content with the brunch my mom made, followed by a cup of coffee & coffee cake. We spent two hours in the living room talking, catching up and laughing about literally nothing. Apparently I’m a funny person. After completing some much needed grocery shopping, mainly to fill up my fridge so I can avoid buying food for next two weeks, we headed down to Korea Town to keep our tradition going. For those that don’t know, we always go to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place, called Omi, about 20 miles South from where I live. That also means food coma is inevitable.

Could you tell I have the awesomest family ever? Yes, I just made that word up. As I’m getting older and getting used to living on my own, I’ve come to realize more & more each day how important it is to have the family and loved ones around. Being with them really re-energizes me and washes away any kind of loneliness or negativity I might have had in life. Life can sometimes be a non-stop, 200 mile/hour car chase, but it’s enlightening to know that family can slow you down in a good way and put you everything back in perspective. I’m so appreciative of a family with so much to give…perpetually.

I absolutely love my family, love my life and love to know how lucky I am.

I hope you feel this way often, too. Life seems too short to not realize this enough.

The End to an Incredible Journey

2011-08-10T23:58:00.000-05:00

The incredibly journey has ended today. I could still remember back in March when I was convinced to experience something completely different this summer. I wanted to push my comfort zone. I wanted to know how I could fit in different environments even though it has become a norm in my life. The day I found out that there is a place for me to learn at SMU, I was elated. I wasn’t elated because it’s SMU - the seemingly snobby, rich, private school that everyone perceived – but I not once have stepped foot on a private university before…ever. I needed to know and feel the difference from rest of typical big, state universities I am so familiar with; I finally had that chance to experience something different.

Working at the Career Center was fairly challenging. It’s probably one of the most formal environments in the area of student affairs. There is a lot of pressure to place students in the workforce and dealing with companies, some easy and others very difficult. The staff size is much bigger than what I’m used to, and everyone is a veteran. I was literally the baby out of all. This summer was truly a moment to push myself and to prove others that I am more than capable of meeting professional expectations. A lot of projects enabled me to think out of the box and made me overcome fears that I haven’t been able to tackle the past 24 years.

Today, I walked out of there with the biggest smile on earth and with much more confidence than the first day I walked in. It was a fun summer - to work with people who really understood what it means to be hard workers, to see some great leadership, and understanding exactly what it takes to create a really productive work environment – which provided me some clear perspective and shaping my expectations of a future work place. There were all incredibly wonderful to me, which came with so much resources and attention. I loved being able to learn immensely, even if that meant spending 2-3 hours on the road and waking up really early.

I left the school with much satisfaction, gratitude and happiness. I feel like my summer has been well spent and reaching out to strangers definitely paid off. I’m going miss those people, my office, the parking garage and the swimming pool across, gorgeous SMU’s landscaping and architecture, and the path I always took every mornings and afternoons.

If there is an opportunity awaiting you, take it. I had regrets back in college in which I didn’t take full advantage of what was available to me, and I was determined to not repeat that same mistake when I started grad school.

Eye Poker

2011-08-09T15:31:00.001-05:00

Are you curious to see what happens when a regular wearer of glasses suddenly wears contacts 15 years later? You become like me, who pretends that glasses still exist, and become a habitual eye poker. Trust me, this wasn’t meant to be a pure entertainment for others. I’m not poking my eyes/nose because I want to.

Weekend in Review

2011-08-08T01:08:00.001-05:00

What another wonderful weekend it has been! This weekend…

Z spent the weekend with me and brought me flowers to work the day he arrived. I had to work all day, but he picked me up and took me out for lunch at FreeBirds. It was pleasantly surprising day, and I absolutely loved every moment of it. Such a sweetheart!
We always enjoy being lazy and was nice to see Z relaxed on my couch. We had Korean ramen for dinner – so simple & easy!
Love, love having flowers – it always brightens up the mood in my apartment.
Z left on Sunday, but my day is always a full of adventure till I go to bed. I rekindled my relationship with the gecko, who can’t seem to resist visiting my place. It obviously misses me very much. We had a wonderful time playing hide-and-seek for half hour until I decided our relationship couldn’t last longer (mainly because I wanted to go to sleep…). It is released to the nature (again).
On Saturday, we hung out with college friends and also reunited with the newlyweds, Christine & Grant. They hosted us at their new house with board games, New York cheesecake, and sparkling wine. Their kitchen and closet are amazing! (I can’t help being a woman).

New Stuff

2011-08-04T18:51:00.002-05:00

I am well adjusting to the life of contact lenses. It certainly is a different feeling, but I love that I am able to not look so needy all the time.... hahaha. It has been ridiculously hot and sunny down in Texas, so I couldn't help but to get a pair of regular sunglasses since all of mine is prescribed.

It's been fun choosing any design of sunglasses but I decided to settle down with a pair from Target until I find something I really like.

An Ingenious Product No More

2011-08-02T15:46:00.003-05:00

It has been a crazy day at the internship. Currently it's going under major construction to merge two difference offices into one, which brought challenge in terms of physical office space. Since most of the new office rooms are created now, the entire crew is spending a whole day purging items and old furniture that are not needed, and rearrange stuff. It was a fun day to watch everyone dressed up in t-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes instead of the typical business suits I've used to seeing every week. I helped some with throwing away stuff and organizing endless trail of files.

I couldn't help but to laugh when my boss' boss gave me a gift for helping them today... an old, old floppy disk. It's surprising how these can be still seen, even though unused, nowadays. I remember owning some back in middle school. I don't know if I'm supposed to feel old or just acknowledge that the speed of technology development is completely mind-blowing. Either way, here you go my dear readers, a floppy disk that was considered genius in old days.

P.S- Just so you know, it's a 1.44mb disk...so that would be like a size of 2 or 3 Word documents???

5 Things That Happened This Weekend

2011-08-01T00:24:00.001-05:00

[1] Contacts experience #2. Took a whole hour to put them on but my first full outdoor experience without glasses was truly awesome. Slight discomfort/hypersensitivity to dust & dryness is a little bit of challenge, but I can now consider wearing contacts as a life-changing decision. Still love my nerdy-looking glasses.

[2] Fulfilling my Asian food craving & witnessing Yolanda taste her true Korean food. So happy that she enjoyed Bibimbap.

[3] My first trip to Sam Moon. Supposedly a retail giant owned by a Korean; the store is completely filled with all kinds of accessories that women can ever imagine. An overwhelmingly busy place to shop but I appreciated the affordability of items. I bought a few things – a scarf, a FEDORA (Z will love me for this), earring holder, a purse hanger, and a clutch for fancy occasions.

[4] Enjoying alcoholic beverages at the Pour House, which quickly became our favorite place to drink this summer. Always love the atmosphere & the location of the place. Conversations with Yo during this time are the best. Love having her as one of the newest friends in my life.

[5] A relaxing movie viewing night of the “Perfect Stranger” with none other than Yo.

A World Through Lenses

2011-07-29T14:32:00.002-05:00

Today is quite a memorable day to remember. I have worn glasses for the past 15+ years, such a long ago to the point I don't remember the point of origin, but recently wanted to see some changes in me. I am one of those people who neglected their eyes and refused to go the eye doctor for some strange reason, but I braved my way to the College Optical Express located on my campus this morning. I think it's pretty cool that there is an optometrist on campus. Anyways, my eyes turned out be just fine with slight worsening of vision.

Somewhere in me wanted to try contact lenses for a while but never had the courage to do so. A bridesmaid with glasses on? Hmmm... I don't think it will look flattering. It didn't take much convincing from the amazing Dr. Tran to try on contact lenses. Of course I was terrified as hell because can you imagine putting objects in your eyes?!?!? I am a strong person, and I survived. :)

Coincidentally, Yolanda's appointment was just after mine and had the honor of capturing the first look of glass-less me. Thanks, Yo!

It feels absolutely strange walking around without glasses on. Looking in the mirror of myself, and just myself only but with very clear view of the world, is even more weird. I am constantly aware of the contact lenses in my eyes, and thus slightly uncomfortable; however, it a pleasant change for me and a new look that I am happy to embrace.

Friday Morning Coffee

2011-07-29T10:00:00.002-05:00

It is Friday morning and I'm happy. Happy that I'm feeling much better and that it's not too hot to unable to sit outside and enjoy my coffee. Today I have an eye exam, which I have neglected for years, to see if I can get contact lenses. Just attempting to try something new, you know.

It is a beautiful, and soon to get hotter, Friday morning by my school's fountain with a cup of coffee. Life is pretty good.

A Perfect Place to Live

2011-07-28T16:06:00.001-05:00

I'm not feeling too great today so work hasn't been as productive as I hoped to be. Instead, I've spent a lot of time catching up on blogs that I longed to read, especially interior design blogs. Don't worry, I still got tons of work done. One blog that I love to read is Apartment Therapy, which mainly targets audience living in apartments, particularly small apartments. Although I can't do much with my apartment (aka painting the walls, buying new furniture, etc), I always stay heavily interested to broaden my artistic vision for my future home.

Although my mind changes all the time, right now I am loving the idea of a small apartment. In fact, I was never a mansion-type girl, but I'm sure that could be just as wonderful as my love for small homes. There is something quite cozy & homey about decorating for a small home, and being creative in a small space sounds like a pleasant challenge. Today, I found several pictures that found to be so inspirational.

{from Apartment Therapy}

I absolutely adore all the color schemes and furniture selection shown in these pictures. My imagination is constantly expanding, and now I just need a perfect place to express!

Day Dreaming

2011-07-26T22:25:00.001-05:00

It was another exhausting day at work. Pleasant but exhausting. 5:30pm, I finally left the parking lot and decided to change up the route exiting the campus. I drove 80 miles per day, for two days of the week, for an entire summer. I couldn't help but to explore different scenes of SMU. The moment I drove through these arching trees, I was all smiles. Peaceful, so green & abundant. Despite heavy traffic back to home, I couldn't help but think of this path.

This is what I love about working at a college campus.

Snapshots On The Way To/From Galveston...

2011-07-25T18:26:00.001-05:00

#1 Rain in Houston. Momentarily washed away all the heat that has been grilling Texas thew whole summer. It was wonderfully refreshing.
#2 Clean Kitchen. Helped Z clean up the last bit of what's left in his old apartment.
#3 Grilled Chicken Pita. One of the best pitas I ever had. Was pleasantly surprised by this Greek restaurant in Galveston.
#4 Straw Hats. Kroger was selling them for $5. We almost thought about buying them. Notice Z's squinty eyes.
#5 Galveston Beach. Always appreciative of what's around us, doesn't have to be a Hawaiian beach to relax.
#6 Seagull. I wish I could fly...
#7 Sky. Sunlight is ever so powerful. Thanks for the sunburn.
#8 Us. Wishing it was a little cooler outside.
#9 Downtown Dallas. Heading back home. I am constantly inspired by what humans can create in this world when I watch those buildings.

Hello, My Name is…

2011-07-20T16:30:00.001-05:00

Have I ever mentioned that phone-calling strangers aren’t my forte? It’s very true, after 24 years, I still have fear of calling people whom I don’t know. Especially when you got to promote something. I do just fine when the moment actually occurs – I get my game face on – and I do what I’m supposed to. It’s the moment right before someone picks up that terrorizes me. Good thing I am born in the right century – the email, instant message, text message, and all that.

Today, I had to call about 65 companies to let them know about the upcoming career fair. I don’t know any of those people! Some was really easy: they said ‘ok’ and we moved on. Others, however, asked question after question, and I thought I was going to die. Ok, that was an exaggeration. Even though I only the littlest thing about how SMU career fair is run, I acted like I knew everything based on my pure observation from other universities and some help from the website. If I felt like I was in danger (mentally), I just referred them to my supervisor (haha!!)

It’s all good now, but I still got tons of companies to call. Actually, after my 10th call, I no longer feel the anxiety. I’m feeling somewhat comfortable now. Good thing I’m practicing now before this phone-calling business becomes the norm in near future.

Makeover

2011-07-17T23:42:00.001-05:00

While I have always enjoyed walking into the office, I am ever more excited nowadays with some drastic changes in “scenery”. My office is a small little space containing 2 separate rooms and a total of 3 desks. Even though it’s a great little space for staff and students to mingle, it never really provided a sense of warmth, thanks to the really boring white wall. It also doesn’t help that the building was previously used by Texas Instruments, giving a full-blown industrial look.

Over the summer, me & my boss were at hardest to revamp our look to provide warmth and professional look. We spent a lot of money on painting the walls, buying new frames for our posters, shelves for video games (for students to rent ^^), and developing 6 huge photos capturing some of student life at Discovery Park. I also worked on the white wall by the office to provide a little exposure of our student organizations.

Work is still in progress, but my excitement can contain no more so I’m going to reveal some of the new changes.

I’m getting pumped about the fall semester as I meet hundreds of new students during freshman/transfer orientations. Work without students is never really that exciting, I now realize why job has to revolve so much around students. It’s been an exciting summer to go through some major changes aesthetically, and I fee like my role has evolved to become more important in this office than before.

Now only if I can give my apartment a little bit of makeover before school starts…

Changing Perspective

2011-07-13T11:26:00.001-05:00

As part of the internship curriculum, I have to write daily journals of my internship experience at SMU to capture instant feelings and thoughts I process through new environment. Many would claim that blogging is similar to daily journals, but I would argue that they serve a different purpose. My perception towards daily journals is very skewed due to my experience in Korea. In middle school, many Korean assignments involved daily journals but there was a constant pressure to not record exactly how we feel. The more truthful a journal gets, no matter how negative the experience might have been, the more glares you get from teachers. What’s the point of writing a journal then? So yeah, my idea of daily journals was never positive.

However, I find this new, and yet nothing new, exercise to be quite enlightening. I no longer feel the pressure to generalize my experience because whatever I write is what the professor will get, and I know she will respect my thought process. Therefore it has become a more pleasant experience as I gradually notice a development of my learning experience. It’s Week 7 of my internship now – even though I spend only 2 days of the week out here – it has broaden my perspective of student services and fields of interests I might want to pursue.

The Spark In My Mind

2011-07-09T23:32:00.001-05:00

Here is my brag note for the weekend: I really have a wonderful life. Like seriously.

Sometimes in the midst of a chaotic life, you find yourself counting days for it to be weekend. And then, you occasionally realize that even weekends can’t seem to make an existing life that much better. Ever felt that way? I promise, this is not meant to be a depressing post. But I’m merely stating the fact of our lives – let’s face it – we have had to have one of those moments before.

Every now and then, which actually is becoming more of a frequent epiphany, I realize what a wonderful life I am part of. It may be just everyday phone calls with parents, or building a relationship with a significant other, or spending the weekend with friends, but I get this spark in my mind, and it’s an amazing feeling. Suddenly life is so much more interesting and, in fact, motivating. I have always been very lucky with meeting great people. A lot of times it didn’t seem to require much effort on my side to make that heart-warming relationships. Despite many others out there, I don’t have too many friends. But the friends I do have, they are extremely powerful and influential in my life, and I give so much credit for bringing such quality to my journey of life. I really felt that positive power again lately, and it’s an exciting feeling.

I guess I sort of wanted to publicize that rush of feeling because you all are very important to me. Please know that I am ever more grateful these days in understanding a true meaning of friendships & love. If you are reading this, you are an incredible individual and thanks for being part of my life.

Have a beautiful Sunday!

A Jungle In the City

2011-07-09T00:38:00.001-05:00

Today I went to the Dallas World Aquarium with Yolanda and her visiting family. None of us have been there before so we were extremely curious to see how it would be. When I went to the Houston aquarium a few years ago, I was fairly disappointed with its selections considering being so close to the ocean. I definitely had high hopes for this one.

We had a marvelous time during our 3 hours spent in the aquarium. We were highly impressed with the vast array of animals/fishes they had, as well with the facility that contained a massive jungle, essentially speaking. It really felt as if I was in a jungle exploring all of interesting-looking creatures. I am constantly impressed by the types of animals that are seen in my life, and I am ever grateful to live in a world amongst variety of living beings.

Originally I was going to make a video to show you all the cool pictures I was able to take, but my computer has been very mean to me and kept crashing. During uploading process on YouTube, my computer crashed, again, on me and thus lost my video file. I was completely stumped – I gave up for now in hopes to recreating a better video over the weekend.

Here are some of the pictures that I consider as best because of its quality, and they’re potentially humorous. My acting moments shined every now and then. It was another great day of exploring the city I live in, accompanied by truly wonderful people. Life is pretty good right now.

My Computer Bag

2011-07-07T17:58:00.000-05:00

My computer bag has been an essential item for me since the internship began. The work computer that was given to me was extremely slow and wasn't helping with the productivity I needed. So I've been carrying around my heavy laptop, along with many other things I need for internship.

Thankfully I have this buddy - my computer bag. Dad bought my first computer bag couple months ago that I could carry around everywhere and without this, my life would be quite different right now. With piles of documents piling up each day, this has been my life saver and thus my dad is a life saver, too.

I can't thank him enough every day for knowing exactly what I need in certain moments of my life, even I would be in complete denial. A computer bag is surely one of those moments but the list goes on.

America’s Birthday

2011-07-05T23:24:00.001-05:00

Happy Belated Independence Day! Sorry for a delayed post but I had a busy weekend, and was exhausted! As you know, this year is my first year to celebrate America’s birthday as an American, and let me tell you, I had a blast celebrating! I always love the patriotic mood that goes around this time – the American flag, blue, red, white seen everywhere. How was everyone’s 3 day weekend? Let me just begin by saying that I have a secret prayer for a permanently extended weekend. I know, it won’t happen anytime soon.

My college friend Linda, and a few of her friends, came into town for the weekend. We spent Sunday evening with a fancy sushi dinner, viewing of the famous Kaboom Town fireworks (from distant, though) and catching up at Dan’s house, who is another college friend of ours. Last I had seen her was a year ago, before I graduated, so it was nice to see her again.

Yesterday, me and Yo celebrated the birth of this country by gathering at On the Border for some delicious margaritas. We shared a very filling appetizer. We had originally debated about going to see the fireworks, but then we weren’t really up for dealing with crowds and heat. In the end, we took the quiet/comforting route and spent the evening at my apartment. A bottle of wine (courtesy of Yolanda) and beer brats took place as our dinner menu while we watched “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” directed by Clint Eastwood. It’s probably the first year that I had not watched the movie “Independence Day” (not sure if I had made my own tradition…), but what we did yesterday was certainly something different in a good way. It was nice to just stay in an air-conditioned unit with all the food available to me. Call me lazy, but I wasn’t about to deal with those mosquitoes out there.

I know I briefly mentioned about the Kaboom Town fireworks earlier so I wanted to share some of the fireworks experience I had with those who didn’t enjoy real fireworks. I hadn’t known about the popularity or the scale of Kaboom Town, but supposedly it’s one of the top 5 fireworks in the United States. Of course by the time we got there, all the roads were blocked, but we were able to enjoy last part of the fireworks from far distance. It was a delightful moment to watch colorful sparks in various shapes and forms. I was thankful to spend the special weekend with friends.

Spoiled Alert

2011-07-02T01:53:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful Friday it has been! First of all, I am completely stocked about the 3-day weekend, and honestly, I wish every weekend is a 3-day weekend. My internship site currently operates in a 4-day work week for the summer, and they are loving it!

Today has been exceptionally exciting because it was my paycheck day and that meant I had a little leverage to go shopping…or just to spoil myself – however you interpret it. It was the first weekend in a long time without the boyfriend, so I had the urge to do something that’s totally girly without the guilt of dragging him into it. I called up Yolanda to see what she was up to; she agreed to hang out with me. We had a long lunch and a catch-up session at Chipotle, enjoying some Mexican flavor. We then spend some time at the library; Yolanda got some much-needed work done…I spent a whole hour of Facebook and New York Times.

We then made a trip to TJ Maxx, where we had tons of fun looking around stuff. There, I learned a new thing about my friend Yolanda (aka Yo) – she is ADDICTED to facial products. I have never seen a woman in my life that spends more than an hour just around the facial products aisle. It was quite impressive. No wonder her face looks so well-maintained. Let the jealousy ensue. I also ended up buying couple hair products and two cute tops. Our shopping endeavor was very, very successful.

We came back to my place afterwards, and I cooked dinner for us while Yo enjoyed some facial treatment with New Age music. This girl really knows how to relax! I ended up cooking some steamed veggies and baked pasta. We were incredibly full in the end, and we continued with our ever-so-fun conversations. We had a great, much-needed girls time today.

After she left, I enjoyed a hot bath using Stress Therapy Bath that I purchased at TJ Maxx. Supposedly it relieves tension of your neck and back. I’m not sure how effective it would be, but my body does feel much better.

How are you spending your 4th of July weekend? I currently don’t have much planned, but I am at least happy that this is the first year for my family to celebrate Independence Day as American citizens. How neat is that? :) Enjoy the extended weekend, everyone. And my fellow Southerners – do try to survive the heat.

The Corgi Puppy

2011-06-30T23:29:00.001-05:00

Today I finally met the corgi puppy Emmy. Emmy is Suneera’s brand new puppy that finally came home to her mommy early this month. I have heard most adorable things about this puppy ever since Suneera decided to get one. I personally love, love puppies, so this was an exciting moment for me.

Floating the River

2011-06-27T23:34:00.001-05:00

Just this past weekend, I spent a marvelous time with a group of friends in San Antonio. It was the last weekend with Z, before he officially headed back to Galveston to start his 2nd year of med school (who seriously starts school in June?!?!). The San Antonio trip all began by Eric, Z’s former roommate now currently living in Minnesota, as a get-together. Around the same time last summer, some of Z and Eric’s friends went there to float on the Guadalupe River, so they wanted to have that similar experience again.

We left Denton on Friday morning and made our way down there all afternoon. We were grateful to stay at Ian’s house, Eric’s college friend, for the weekend. For dinner, we made burgers, corn on the cob, and watermelon salad, which all turned out to be so delicious. In order for that to happen, though, Ian became a compulsive buyer and bought the grill. Guys had a fun time assembling those pieces together.

Next day was the big day. After more than 2 hours of waiting in the heat, I finally experienced my first river floating on a giant tube. The tube was so huge, I literally thought I was going to drown every 10 minutes. Guadalupe was packed with people, so filled up that you could hardly see the river itself. But eight of us all managed to stay together in separate tubes despite several rapids (those were incredibly adrenaline-pumping!). We floated the river for nearly 3 hours – along the way, I enjoyed beautiful houses and took a nice nap. I loved feeling the sun through abundance of trees. It was just perfect. In the end, my body went from pale to glowing tan. It was definitely an experience, and I truly enjoyed every moment. I wish I was able to capture some of the moments, but I surely didn’t want to risk losing the camera (or the phone) when I am completely surrounded by water.

That night, we were extremely hungry so we created a huge dinner menu that consisted of 16 ounce steaks (for each of us…), baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, watermelon, and cheesecake. You may guess how we were after the dinner. But thanks to Z’s amazing cooking skills, our food comma was painful and yet very satisfying. Does that even make sense?

I dragged my tired, tanned body back to Denton Sunday afternoon. Here I am writing about my amazing weekend as I dread of commuting to SMU tomorrow. It was a true vacation with amazing old & new friends. I particularly loved that we were able to do typical summer activities like cooking out and having outdoor entertainment.

By the way, I had the honor of losing one of my flip-flops in the river. I took the risk of getting a pair of flip-flops for children at Target, thanks to Eric’s 15% discount as an employee. I am loving my new pair of shoes, isn’t it so adorable? It’s very sparkly during sunny days. Also, I managed to “steal” some essential items from Ian’s house, thanks to him being a Colgate employee. Let’s just say I had tons of gains during this trip. :)

Wild Things During a Peaceful Morning

2011-06-24T01:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I witness real Buffalos with my own eyes. It was pretty cool to watch them so up close. So why in the world would I be mingling around with Buffalos in Dallas/Fort Worth area? Well, honesty, I didn’t had a clue that Buffalos existed so close to where I work until yesterday morning! The Division of Student Affairs at my work hosted a day-long summer summit to understand UNT students’ perception of our university, institutional support, and compare with national level. Pretty much it’s to understand what we are doing wrong about promoting student engagement while there are here, and figure out practical solutions to improve our existing services and program. It’s actually quite boring w hen you hear about this issue every single day, but I did think we ended the day with some serious conversations and thoughts to carry on.

It was held at Buffalo Valley Center, which is literally a mile away from my work. I really enjoyed the rural surrounding and its gorgeous facility. Yolanda and I definitely were excited to witness living Buffalos on a gorgeous Thursday morning. I’m glad they had fence, though.

After the summit, me and Z arranged to meet with our friend Dan, for a nice Italian dinner and catching-up. Even though we hung out a few weeks ago at Christine and Grant’s wedding, we thought it would be nice opportunity to get together once again before Z officially takes off to Galveston this weekend.

This weekend, Z and I are heading down to San Antonio to float the river with several friends across the nation. It will be a great summer get-together with people we barely have a chance to hang. I’m really looking forward to experiencing my first tube ride (wish me luck!). I’ll be back on Sunday!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pleasant Surprise

2011-06-21T20:26:00.001-05:00

I woke up to a very gloomy weather this morning. It was absolutely perfect, after days of sunshine and extreme heat, there was finally some peace. Last night was a violent night, with thunders, lightening, and rain that kept everyone up, except for me. So waking up to this kind of weather was a pleasant surprise. I hope it stays gloomy like this all day - it sort of feels nice (minus the extreme humidity now). By the way, can you believe that today is the first day of summer? I feel like Texas has way surpassed that point already.

Unusual Things

2011-06-19T22:29:00.001-05:00

Today was an incredibly fun day - my long awaited musical, Monty Python’s Spamalot, finally happened. Ever since discovering that Z will be in the DFW area for the entire month of June, I had looked for something to do together that otherwise we normally wouldn’t do. I realized that watching a musical wasn’t something we do frequently, just because it costs a considerable amount out of our pockets, but we only wanted to see the good ones. Well, that good one had just arrived – Spamalot.

I was well aware of this musical because I had been part of several excerpts of this musical during the high school musical phase of my life. And who doesn’t like the good ole Monty Python movie? I watched movie several times, but not since high school. I knew just how hilarious this musical would be – something that we could laugh about while enjoying some good live performance.

We were all nicely dressed up (well, I wanted to dress up and sort of forced Z to do the same), and my bright pink dress was really complemented by a gorgeous sunny weather.

I knew the Galleria Dallas was very close to where the Music Hall is, so I bugged Z to take us there even though there was only an 1 1/2 hour window. At the mall, we splurged our precious money on Jamba Juice smoothies, jumbo hotdog pretzel at Auntie Annes, and a shopping spree at Gap. A two $10 Gap coupon came in really handy in the end. Even Z got a couple of polo shirts.

I have been to the Galleria Mall couple times during college choir trips, but ironically never made the trip since I moved here last summer. So revisiting this massive mall was quite refreshing and cool. Granted I only go to two stores no matter which mall I go to (Gap & Banana Republic), so size of the mall shouldn’t really matter.

Now it’s quite depressing to know that my sleep-ins and lazy days are over for another week.

To All Fathers

2011-06-19T02:47:00.001-05:00

Happy Father’s Day! Each day I am reminded how lucky I am to have a father like my dad (or “daddy” as I usually refer to). He has been there for me every step of the way in my life, from the day I was born to the day I became an adult. He has been such an influential figure to me, and his level of thoughtfulness, caring, and understanding have been beyond imaginable. I’d officially like to brag and say that my daddy is the best daddy ever! :)

But I owe that same gratitude to several men out there who have been like my dad. You all have shown just as much support and caring as my biological dad, and have left such great impact on me as I grew up.

So, thank you to all fathers out there – you have no idea how us daughters would survive without you all. And I’m not talking about providing our financial needs (or shopping needs at times…), but the strong support from every aspects of life that we undeniably needed. I know us girls can be pain in the butt at times (come on, just admit it now…!), but we truly love our daddies.

And to my own daddy – I know you will forever say, “I hate you” at the end of every phone conversation, but we all know that you have a hard time expressing your love to your daughter. I love you too, daddy. :)

Far Far Away

2011-06-19T02:26:00.001-05:00

I always find enjoyable watching Texas weather. It’s always cool to witness rain falling down somewhere close my where I am, and I could simply see that and think, “We might get some rain too.” I’ve patiently waited for hours to see if we could get some rain too, because the heat has been quite awful to us lately.

This picture was taken last night, after we finished watching Super 8 at the theater. Z and I have finally worked out at the gym, and we were good about not going to the frozen yogurt place we have been religiously attending to. It’s been a rather lazy, but pleasant weekend for me so far.

Reconnect

2011-06-18T13:59:00.002-05:00

Me and my brother finally got a chance to talk a little via Skype yesterday. Since I started my internship, in conjunction with my usual work, I haven't been able to talk to him at all.

I'm so glad we finally did it yesterday! I'm so thankful for the sophistication of our technology that allows us to talk and see each other freely from 800 miles apart.

P.S - I am attempting my first blog post from my new phone. Hope it works!!

In Search For Happiness

2011-06-15T22:55:00.001-05:00

Today was an exhausting day for both of us. I came home to witnessing Z taking a nap on my couch and then I headed for my own bed to take a nap…with my work clothes still on. I’m not sure if Wednesday is meant for pure tiredness/laziness because it’s halfway into the week, or if I’m simply exhausted from commuting between home and SMU two days in a row. I also find 4 hours (total) on the road to be boring as well.

By 8pm, we were hungry but none of us had the urge to cook. We have been good about cooking at home this month, except for the weekends when we eat with friends, but tonight was not the night of cooking.

After much persuasion, I dragged to Texas Roadhouse. Have I mentioned that Texas Roadhouse is literally in my backyard? I am lucky to be surrounded by countless numbers of restaurants. We walked, to save gas and to exercise…a little bit. We felt less guilty that way.

Ever since I purchased my first smartphone, I have divulged myself into learning all the functions and apps of this phone. Of course being the photographer-wannabe, I also spent quality time understanding what this camera phone could do for me. So far I am loving the quality of this phone – it contains flash, auto focus, and all sorts of abilities usually seen in digital cameras. That doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my digital camera – I still absolutely love it and most of the pictures will continue be taken by that. But I find camera phone to be useful when uploading on Facebook or sending it as a quick attachment to my parents.

These pictures were taken by my phone. Pretty amazing quality, don’t you agree?

For dinner, I fulfilled my craving for steak while Z managed to eat only half of the full rack of ribs. We really gave each other some guilt trips with controlling each other’s portion. Anyways, we are happily back at my apartment with Z playing some computer games and me doing some laundry, as usual.

Entering the 21st Century

2011-06-13T23:40:00.001-05:00

I have been sort of dying to announce this all night long…I got a smartphone!!!

I was able to get an early upgrade through AT&T (thanks mom!), so instead of waiting until next weekend (like I should have), I decided to make a trip to the store after work. Z, being the genius tech guy, was extremely helpful in helping me selecting my first smartphone.

I purchased Android-based, HTC Inspire! Yes, my first smart phone with a full touch screen. I am beyond thrilled and couldn’t seem to contain my excitement. Nevertheless, I have a long day of work/drive so I should force myself to get some sleep.

Again, big thanks to my boyfriend Z! :)

Weekend Review

2011-06-12T23:09:00.001-05:00

Z, me, and several friends of Z’s made a trip to Omi last night. Omi is an awesome place with an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. We happen to pig out there whenever we can. With five very hungry Asian people, meats were in high demand (another reason we love this place….).

Today, me and Z enjoyed a lazy morning/early afternoon followed by an extensive list of grocery shopping. I’m always baffled by the amount of food we consume in a week, but it has been helpful for my monthly budget to pack lunch everyday. But making that a habit hasn’t been as exciting as thought. We also enjoyed our first tanning-by-the-pool with my friend at her apartment. Let’s just say I am no longer looking too white.

And then ending on a good note, I am happy to celebrate Dallas Maverick’s first NBA championship tonight. If I was younger (or felt younger), I might attempt to drive downtown to celebrate with strangers. But I am a grownup, responsible individual who needs to work the next day. So I am in my pj and yawning furiously.

All in all, this weekend was very pleasant. I could only wish one day that regular weekends mean 3-day weekends (SMU currently has that as their summer policy!), but until then, I seem to have no choice but to expect another fun-filled week. By the way, I might have a very hyper, excited, don’t-know-how-to-contain-myself post coming up soon. Stay tuned!

Unreasonably Small

2011-06-11T00:52:00.001-05:00

It is very possible that I had done some unnecessary shoe shopping. I was passing by Payless Shoes at the mall today, which has been my first visit in years. I don’t ever recall buying shoes from Payless for some reason, but today I had an unnecessary urge to buy something. The curse of all women. Actually, the white flat shoes was something I sort of needed – I thought it would go well with my summer dresses. It certainly gives you the I-am-a-kid-ballerina vibe.

On the other hand, the black plaid shoes was completely want-based. Other than being really comfortable and somewhat replaceable for a couple of other childish-looking shoes I own, I probably shouldn’t have bought it. But a get-one-get-the-second one-half-off deal didn’t give me room for logical thinking.

Anyways, I am happy with my choice and hope to actually wear them often. At least they were cheap. In case if you haven’t known, both of these are girls size 2 1/2. You heard it right – size 2 1/2. I do have very small feet.

Finding Happiness

2011-06-09T23:23:00.001-05:00

Going to Southern Methodist Univ from where I live can be quite…frustrating. To give you some realistic sense, let’s just say it can take well up to 2 hours for a 37-mile drive [if I have mentioned that already in a previous post, I apologize…I just find this calculation extremely baffling]. I don’t consider living in Denton exactly a big-city environment because it does give you a real homey feeling, until you decide to hit I-35. SMU is right by downtown and traffic to there is never, never pretty. After starring at the map for an hour, after being late to my internship the first day, I planned out 3 different routes that I could possibly take depending on traffic situation. I also leave home at 6:30am instead of 7am. Work starts at 8:30am. I find this commute extremely mind-blowing.

After some trial and errors, I “think” [you never know with Dallas traffic] I have settled down with a certain route. It’s certainly not switching from one freeway to another because I found that to be really dumb. Now I take this beautiful street called Mockingbird Lane for a while until I hit the inevitable freeway. Yes, the speed limit is only 30, but it moves you forward at a constant speed rather than being stuck at same place for 30 minutes. Mockingbird Ln is extremely beautiful – I definitely enjoy the big and arching trees, beautiful homes and their well-maintained gardens, and Dallas Country Club. You can certainly tell that it’s a wealthy neighborhood, but I like that it contains some history. It’s possible that I also enjoy looking at all the BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus cars. I love people jogging in the early morning, all the beautiful flowers, but mostly all the unique-looking houses. Each house looks so different from one another - from structure, color, and materials – it makes my driving a very pleasant viewing. It also makes me dream of my own house, garden, and neighborhood. Although I would like somewhere with a little less traffic than this street.

I am happy to say that I am well adjusting to my two very different jobs this summer. Of course it’s challenging to have two opposite supervisors, two different work expectations, but I am fully content with this new development in my life. Sometimes you learn to deal with the situation, though it’s not always ideal [like the traffic]. I am somehow beginning to adapt to environments I can’t control, and I find that it’s okay to completely surrender to the inevitable. But if you learn how to view things a little more positively, I think a 2-hour traffic couldn’t be so bad. I did manage to cut down to a 1-hour commute each way.

On a random note, it’s nice to have Z already cooking for dinner when I get home.