i think it was the second term in freshmen year, i decided to take French again to add onto the little i learned in highschool. i remember the first day, confidently walking into the classroom because i had four years of french under my belt. i sat in the front row to be the eager-beaver student who buddies her teacher because she understands what she's talking about. my eyes were twinkling when the teacher walked in.

but then she opened her mouth, and out came something that threw me off track. either my brain completely erased any trace of french in me over six months, or she wasn't talking in french. and she really wasn't talking in french! it was RUSSIAN! oh how i vividly remember that wednesday afternoon, having to stand up in the middle of her sentence and walk out quietly until the teacher asks me something in russian. perhaps, she asked if i was going to the restroom. i replied in perfect english, "i'm in a wrong class."

i think it ranks #2 in my most embarrassing classroom episodes, following after my java class stories. oh and there's also the math class in middle school when i was taking a test after lunch time. i had had a large bowl of hot chilli with lots of beans.....


yeah, a random story i remembered. i have another one to add from this week. that's for another day.

just met with my advisor for the first time. one phrase to describe him: a jolly old man. we probably have nothing in common in terms of our personal lives, but he was such a nice (old) man who wanted to be of help. he laughs like Santa Claus too.

just a 20-min encounter with him made me very happy.

this morning, i checked the weather online, and glanced over the emails, and checked blog and said, "what in the world?!?"

amazing what little stress can do to this blog site. i read the previous post and say, "i sound like a crazeee person!" *sigh*

when i finished my exams, people asked if i wanted to come out at night. i said i wanted to stay home and read Dr. Seuss. no, i don't have a copy at home, but just the thought of reading something so comforting and easy sounded nice. well, i've been trying to enjoy this day but staying away from computers, and sticking to the tv=D i ate raw fish after the test, went to two malls that opened recently, went to walmart, went grocery shopping for the necessary ingredients in life, bought myself a ben&jerry's that contains gazillion calories and *whew* flipped through the channels with no purpose. feels so nice. =) oh i also cooked pork with honey, mustard, and lemon juice; it's my attempt at cooking more than what's minimal.

is it just me or is tv just so facinating? sometimes i watch commercials in awe.
perhaps, there'll be more posting to come later. perhaps.

If you're happy and you know it, email amy.
If you're happy and you know it, email amy.
If you're happy and you know it, then amy's inbox will surely show it,
if you're happy and you know it, email amy.

c'mon, share the joy ;) sing with me.
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it's just a random song :) i guess it's not fair when i owe people emails, huh? just wait until tomorrow.

i've been keeping my promise so far!! (john mayer's site doesn't count, does it? i mean, he's like famous..)

john, thanks for the song. i've heard it a few times before but never knew how much of life's tips its words contained! good song... albeit a country ;) actually i do own a country album! dena carter's "did i shave my leg for this?" it was the midwest influence on me. (jess?)

during the crucial days before exams, i must check out half of the asian population who have xanga accounts. (i have yet to run into a non-asian xanga - why is that?) and precious minutes that should be spent on memorizing metabolic pathways in human body fly by as i read up on an old friend's roommate's cousin's date with another asian. it's quite disheartening when i think about it. SO, this weekend as another exams are around the corner, i promise to refrain myself from hitting up people's sites. it's a promise between me and ... me. *sigh* man, i'm such a weakling that i have to literally tell myself and post it up on a blog. i talk to myself at coffee shops too, oblivious of the people around me - "i'll get a chai when i'm done reading this section."

much more to say... much wiser for me to share later. have a good weekend! .. and wish me luck please!

i just burned my tongue badly from having mom's homemade soup. it was soo good that after every spoonful of it (with rice =), i told myself, "ohhh, this is too good. i'm so lucky."

maybe i was being selfish. maybe i should have shared some with my neighbors or something. *shrug* my tongue hurts!!!

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a portion of my prayer every morning en route to class at 7:30:
- help me not to fall asleep during lecture
- help me to focus better in class
- please keep me from getting tired
- help me to have a productive day
- God, You can just give me stellar grades and not do all those above, you know?

Thanks to Isabel, i had to throw out FOOD from the fridge and freezer, including bulbogi and chicken and eggs and butter. i still get sad just thinking about it. oh food...

Thanks to Isabel, I had to withstand 9 hours of lecture back to back with an hour of lunch break today. i could only take in 7hrs and 30 min of blah blah blah. The rest... flew over my head and hit the guy behind me.

Thanks to Isabel, my future daughter that i'll have sometime in the next decade no longer has a middle name. Once upon a time, she could have been named "Something Isabelle Something". but as of today, it's become "Something Something Something."

I concur with Soo, how can something with such a pretty name bring such a havoc? (i'm just joking - i know i'm one of the fortunate ones.)
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i have an hour to either take a nap, play the guitar, do pilates, or chat. i can't make up my mind as it was lost three and half hours ago. Let me know if you know its whereabouts. gracias.

what life is about no.11 (listing as i go along the long way)

continual branching and pruning of the old, the unnecessary, and the unnaffordable.
seeing and nurturing the new grow and strengthen.
not because one is better than the other.
just the time asks for me to be.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven"
at different moments in life.

isabel isabel...

so hard to concentrate when you're expecting someone's visit. anytime today.
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Q of the day : where in the world is me? :D

i'm officially in the mid-twenty's club. =) happy birthday to me. spontaneous and unexpected.

i forget where it's from, whether it's a quote or a proverb or a line from a movie, but i once heard that having one true friend is a man's greatest gain. maybe i have not understood the full extent of what its meaning, but during my two and some hour drive home, i felt ... so rich for what i already have in life so far. all undeserving. and none of it, a product of my own work. i was overwhelmingly happy for just a handful of people i could think of in my head on the road. and i thought of more as the day progressed. and these thoughts alone made this day a great one. a happy one.

finding a parking spot near the lecture hall with an hour still left in its meter, being greeted by a vase of roses in my room also added to that happiness, too. sharing a nice meal with people i've only known for a few weeks, but who try to make me feel more at "home" also added to my thankful heart.

i see a good potential here -- let me hope that it'll be my second "home home."

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and thank you guys, you guys that i don't see or didn't get to see this time of the year. i didn't think you would remember! ;) i promise to respond in the next few days, even if it means getting less hours of sleep.

and for the cards and a package sent to me, thanks - your timing couldn't have been more perfect!

so it was, a happy birthday to me.

this is what i was hearing all night yesterday.

*boing boing boing*

no, it's not the old Nike ad. it's the sound of words and formulas and molecular pathways bouncing off my head as i tried to absord them with all my might. it was a terrible sound to hear the night before the exam.

*thunk*

this was what i heard during my test. it was my brain shutting down its system for safety measures. althought i did manage to turn on the emergency generator to finish bubbling in the answers, this, too, was a horrifying sound to hear.

now my head feels like a humongous ball of cotton drenched in water. no, make that drenched in oil. olive oil. mmm, black olives are so yummy. (i think i sound really weird right now. i do, huh?)

i'm very much looking forward to tomorrow for no other reason than that i'll be skipping school! yaaaayyy!!!! (who cares that i still have to be back in school for a mandatory meeting in the afternoon?) au revoir, mes amis.

thanks for taking the time out to talk to me, hon! i appreciate it more, now that i understand your schedule. thanks... much.
___________________________________
"An anxious heart weighs a man down,
but a kind word cheers him up."
Proverbs 12:25

*aahhhh!!!*

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In the Microscope

Here too are the dreaming landscapes,
lunar, derelict.
Here too are the masses,
tillers of the soil.
And cells, fighters
who lay down their lives for a song.

Here too are cemeteries,
fame and snow.
And I hear the murmuring,
the revolt of immense estates.

-- Miroslav Holub

so far, i have a study buddy that i can study fairly well with. we don't talk too much and both of us aren't too tense about work. i found a nice local coffee shop and a barnes and noble to study. (no Border's around here :T) AND i found a pho restaurant nearby that has better pho soup than the ones back home.

what more can a student ask for?
(currently i'm high on sugar, caffeine, and cilantro?)

happy friday everyone. i wish i can say it with the same anticipation i had a few months ago. all the excitement over having a free weekend. well, at least today hasn't been too bad; i'm off to see the matrix: reload. yup, i'm a little behind.

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btw, i linked up my new guest book. say hi... even if you've done so before. it would be good to know who visited:D

i got soaked!!
that was probably the worst walk in the rain in sandals...
will be back after barnes and nobles.

All that I am, all that I have
I lay them down before You, O Lord.
All my regrets, all my acclaim,
The joy and the pain, I'm making them Yours.

Lord I offer my life to you
Everything I've been through, use it for your glory.
Lord I offer my days to you, all of my praise to you
As a pleasing sacrifice..
Lord I offer you my life.

Things in the past, things yet unseen,
Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true.
All of my hopes, all of my plans,
My heart and my hands are lifted to You.
Claire Cloninger/Don Moen

let the praises from my heart never cease.

it's bad enough to want to eat at this hour. what's worse is that i have cravings for some spam and kimchi.

*shrug*
according to a very wise man, life is meaningless so he denied himself nothing he desired and he refused his heart no pleasure. how timely i remember this! (come to think of it, that's some power to get whatever he desires. )

don't worry. i don't think life is meaningless.

_____________________________

Dreams
by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

the night is still young, right?

although i had a pretty unproductive day, i'm still planning on ending it on a good note. let's see... what shall i write about. do you guy see the trend here? i'm writing more than i have in the past few months! woman needs to vent somehow =P (yes, i was home most of the day, except for my brief travel to target.)

i woke up this morning with a bite mark on my ankle. i suspect it was the centipede before its brutal assasination.

eh.. i was going to write a bit more in-depth than the usual posts, but i change my mind. i can't seem to organize my thoughts lately.

before i go, question for y'all : should i get my ears pierced? the pros equal out the cons, at this point and i would appreciate your suggestions. email me. fyi, i am working on a new guest book, now that my old one is inaccessible... i'll miss those 100+ entries by random visitors.

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“You have shown to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16.

i did it.
i spotted the multi-legged creature on my wall, got on my chair with a rolled-up student health packet and a plastic bag. after much hesitation, not on the value of its life but on how most effectively i can get this job done with the least amount of panic, i slammed it with my roll, it fell, i screamed.

wanna know something more gross? its legs fell out and each one started TWITCHING! .. oh the horror. i thought i was going to pass out wiping it off my desk with half a roll of toilet paper. i sanitized the area with lysol wipes. the body and its legs are now in the trash chute of this building.

i'm oddly proud of myself. i can sleep on my bed tonight.

lessons learned : 1. we have too many cleaning supplies. 2. we lack bug killers. 3. i need to befriend my next door neighbor.

so here i was, home and checking my mail, thinking that i had talking too much about nothing substantial with too many people i didn't really know that my voice has faded a bit, reading people's blogs and such, thinking how much i've changed over the years, laughing at jacob's changed view on this blog ;) (you cracked me up)
and slowly i feel something creeping up my ankle. . .

*must take another big breath*

i couldn't really tell what it was in that short second of time, but it had a LOT of legs and was light brown. guys, it crawled (fast) under my bed. and my roommate is out of town. it's past midnight and we don't have a bug spray in the house... help.

as i type this, i have a bottle of 409 (all purpose cleaner) next to me as a guard. if it has a grease fighting formula tough enough for most stains, won't it do something to that creature under my bed?
do i have to sleep outside? but i love my bed...

*sigh*

since someone questioned my use of digicam lately.. ;) (i actually don't have it with me here.)

some pics from last month.

college group at SH's wedding 08.16.03


the guys looked so good in their suits, i made them take a pic with me
what an honor.... for them;) muahaha

and some non-people visuals.. that dog was probably the cutest i've seen so far.


@ donna's near peabody 08.29.03

i always say i'll sleep before midnight. maybe i should start saying that i'll stay up all night; maybe that will do the trick and help me to sleep earlier. (it has worked before in college.)

i've been thirsting for poetry lately. so strange because i never got myself immersed in a good poem. i would dread school assignments on poem analysis (until i learned the trick to make up stuff that sounded profound. teachers really liked me for that). but recently, that has changed. maybe i want feed my soul with pretty words. or with insight of another soul. or just keep my mind off of the daily grind and let it breathe new air. maybe that explains why i also want to join a gym and exercise! *gasp*

come visit me here and i'll show you one charming movie theatre

g'night

______________________

POETRY
And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating planations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesmal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.
-Pablo Neruda

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i think my sister is hilarious. check out her old homepage that's been updated. [linked without permission... but who cares?:P]

hello.
how was your labor day weekend? mine was niiiice =) (i cried a lot in front of people though.. :P)

do you guys also have an urge to use your newly purchased items as soon as you come home from a store? like, the urge to brush your teeth with your new toothbrush even if you never brush your teeth in mid-day. well, i had a similar urge today when i came back from walmart tonight with my first ... *drum roll please* toilet bowl brush! :D yup, like you, i didn't know one could get so excited over a thing so closely related to toilets, which then is so closely related to people's butts.

mine's really cool though - complete with an extra bristle that reaches under the rim and extra long handle. plus, it comes with a hideaway caddy! now my toilet is not only radiant with sparkles but also, 99.9% bacteria-free thanks to clorox, my other purchase of the day.

i should get reward points or shopper's value points from wal-mart and target these days.
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special shout-outs to my students. i miss you guys already.