Ryan....

The best part about my job is when I go into my office and I see a bunch of 3 year olds and ms. Lorna playing Barney games on my computer. They all giggle and Ms. Lorna laughs and says,"oh no we got caught!" Then all the little ones start saying hi to me as if they think they've done something wrong and think they can weasle their way outta this one (playing on my computer) using their cuteness...of course it works. It's incredible how beautiful God made children. Just take when they sing the Barney theme song for example. All of these 3 year olds gathered around Ms. Lorna in a small hugging circle on that "and a great big hug" part and then all 7 of them face each other ready to give another kid a huge, juicy smacker on the lips at the "and a kiss from me to you" part. If Ms. Lorna had not stopped them, much germs would have been sloshed that day.
I think one of the greatest lessons I have yet to learn is having child-like faith. A child with the holy spirit seems so certain of what they request of God and so certain that He has heard. Although their hearts are small, the God living in it is as big as the One living in you and I.
I'm really glad the gym is finally finished. It was getting rather quiet and lonely in phase one with just mr. Frank, the TOL staff, and I. Now that the children are back, I receive many heart-warming waves and enthusiastic smiles. Those would be just a few reasons why I love serving the Lord through loving His children.
There is so much to learn from a child...despite the simple lives they lead.


"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 18:4

I'd rather not say.....

Today was the second day of my internship. Although there's lots to do in the days to come, I've already learned a lot about children's ministry that I've never thought about in the past. I'm realy excited to see what God's leading in this area of ministry will be, as well as what He'll reveal and teach me. I'm also looking foward to going to Orange this year. I remember I wanted to go but somehow wasn't totally lead to sign up, but the Lord had other plans.

I've been asked many times about what I did on my trip. I'll be putting up some videos of this really awesome chinese circus thing I saw in Shanghai as well as the 300 pictures I'm sure you're all very interested to see. Oh...and I'll eventually get to putting prom/graduation/prograd pictures up. All in a days work. Seeing that I have not fully recovered from jetlag (despite the fact that I get plenty of rest) I'm tired. This calls for a nap.

she speaks......

so before I left for Shanghai I had updated but unfortunately computers universally dislike me, therefore my entry was wiped from the existance of this earth. Well, my leg-crossing entry has been up long enough...everyone and their dog should get the idea by now.

One phrase can pretty much sum up my vacation in Hong Kong: It's good to be home. Not to say I didn't thoroughly enjoy my trip; to say the least it was wonderful. It's probably been the best time I've ever had overseas. I've also never done so much shopping in my entire life...and never will...but in all honesty I didn't buy that much. I'm not sure how many of you would actually believe me...but for the considerable amount of shopping I did, I didn't really buy that much. I brought back a lot less stuff than I have in the past.
Anyhow, the first thing I realized when I got back was how thankful I am for drinking fountains. I also noticed that the bathroom stall gaps are a lot bigger in the US. Gaps are almost nonexistant in Hong Kong, and the doors are higher, which is a plus.
This post has taken significantly longer than expected. It is time for me to retire. God bless and rest to all.

Here's some advice for the women in our audience. You are being asked
to
break the fashionable habit of crossing your legs. According to Dr.
Luis
Navarro, a surgeon who runs the Vein Treatment Center at Beth Israel
Medical Center in Manhattan, "Crossing the legs is like second nature
for most women and some men, too. It's a bad habit and one of the first
things you should learn to undo if you suffer from varicose veins.

Crossing your legs slows proper blood flow and elevates pressure inside
the veins. And, according to Navarro, It doesn't matter if you cross at
the knee or the ankles. Both are bad - with knee-crossing the greatest
culprit.

What do experts advise for keeping your leg veins healthy? Among other
things, (1) don't sit for long periods of time, (2) walk at least 30
minutes a day, and (3) flex your toes or rotate your ankles while
sitting.

- Neil Eskelin

washing the clouds away...

Oddly enough, I managed to pack everything but a belt into my suitcase. So the first thing I did when I went shopping with my dad today was to buy a belt. It's exciting to be able to buy something you need and not worry about the cost. Afterall the belt I bought today was only $1.25 US dollars. Ohh..and another thing that got me really excited was bargaining and buying 3 shirts for $3.75...not each, but for three shirts. I also managed to snag a nice $3 case for my digital camera. Anyhow..enough of my happy shopping stories.

Last night I went to eat dinner with my aunt and uncle and they took me to this Japanese place called Osaka. I must say I haven't felt that full since the last time I went to a buffet back in middle school. My aunt is this extremely thin lady who can eat an entire elephant every meal and still have room for dessert, so she took me to this really good steamed egg place after we ate a heafty japanes food meal.
Although I've realized it before, I eat a lot of really weird food. It doesn't really bother me to eat cow stomach or pig ears or whatever weird food comes my way. (i must say that I would never eat a domestic pet... dog or cat ...something like that) And my family really likes to eat really weird food. It gets to the point where I dont really ask what I'm eating. I'm happy as long as the food won't kill me and it tastes good. That sorta reminds me of a week ago when i was signing up for camp, I needed my dad's signature on the camp form. Before my dad signed the form, he looked at me sternly and told me that he would sign my camp form if and only if I promised not to eat anything gross and weird at camp because he heard about John and Niki eating grasshoppers last year at camp. Being a biology major, my dad is naturally sensitive to eating weird organisms and acquiring strange sicknesses. So for those of you going to camp...if you see that I'm tempted to eat weird bugs and whatnot, stop me so I dont have to disobey my father.

well my mom's calling me to go shopping with her... yay for good walking shoes. gosh I'm extremely craving some jogging...maybe I"ll go run on this track they have near where I'm staying at tomorrow =) man i love places that are quite humid but dont believe in air conditioning.

dead beat.....

So it's 5:35pm here in HK, so that means it's 4:35am back home. Whenever I pull all-nighters, I start getting extremely hungry around 4am and all the muscles in my body begin to shut down. Although it is still light out, my biological clock is telling my body that I am very tired...but the jetlag shall be fought!

Yesterday, I went to chill with my grandparents and I got to play with my little cousin Ivan. I must say that he is the most intellegent, flattering, polite, and talkative little 3 yr old I know. To say the least, he's really cute and I can see him growing up to be quite a lady's man. Playing with little kids can definitely be very physically draining. I slept quite well last night. In fact, I don't even remember falling asleep.

The weather here is really nice today. I can feel a nice breeze coming through the window. It's shady outside and hardly humid. In the course of 2 days I've seen pretty much my entire family. Everytime I come back, we have these huge family reunions, it's very crazy. It never ceases to amaze me at how blunt my relatives, as well as many chinese people (women especially), are.

One thing I've noticed about people here is that everyone carries a bag; whether they're a guy or a girl. I think it makes perfect sense for a guy to carry a bag all the time, cuz it seems like most of the time guys tend to be the ones that lose their wallet or keys the most, while girls are usually the ones who are able to find everything.

anyhoo that's enough for today, i'm terribly tired and I think I'm ready to fall asleep! Ooohh yay another uncle just walked through the door! pray for my sister, she's had a fever for a few days now and she has jetlag pretty bad. I miss you all back at home and hopefully when I return I'll still be able to speak english! =P

cloudy in the west looks like rain.....

So lately I've been feeling rather blessed..with everything in particular. Graduation is still quite surreal for me. Anyhoo...just a random thought of the moment. So yes, I'm in Hong Kong right now, sitting at a dining table in the middle of the afternoon updating my blog. So let me tell you a little about my flying overseas experience.

The night before I was suppose to wake up to fly to Hong Kong,I accidentally fell asleep without finish packing. Lucky for my biological clock, I was able to wake up at around 3am to finish packing. (most unfortunately, I forgot some very trivial items) My first connection flight was in San Francisco and I must say the airplane ride in coach was very uncomfortable but that was okay. So when we were waiting for our flight from San Fran to HK we found out that the flight was overbooked and they needed volunteers to go on a later flight. Althought the flight would arrive in HK 3 hours later than the original, you'd get upgraded to business class. So my family thought, what the hay..nothing to lose right? Obviously, many people volunteered cuz gosh... riding business class overseas, stopping in Japan, then connecting to HK. Lucky for my family, we made the 8 person cut for volunteers. I must say that I have never in my life slept so well on a plane. And the food was pretty darn good. There was a choice between filet mignon, chicken, and this japanese box thingy. When i asked for the Japanese box thing, they had just run out, so that was sad. But then this guy happened to find an extra box and offered to me...so yippee. While the flight was great and the movies were cool, my family and i arrived and our luggage had been placed on the wrong flight for the following day. Thank goodness we packed our tooth brushes and whatnots in our backpack. However, no of us had clean clothes. So after more than 24hrs on a plane...we had to end up wearing our stinky clothes. Not only am I currently stuck with my dirty clothes, but better yet, I decided to dress scrubby and comfortable on the plane. This morning, we went to ride the bus to my relatives place...and I looked like I had just walked out of a hospital. Lemme tell ya...fleece pants are hot in extremely humid weather. Right now, I can't say I'm thinking straight because of the jetlag and humid weather and how gross I feel. On the other hand it's nice seeing relatives despite some odd comments. The best part about hk is that you dont really have to drive anywhere... you can ride the bus, subway, you pick..OH and it's kool to get to walk places. Walking rocks. I'm I making any sense? okay...i better go get some water...maybe I'm overheating with dehydration....

It's a party....

My frequent computer deaths have left me unable to update more regularly of the events that are currently occurring in my life. One word to describe my recent situation: graduate. Yes, graduation was this past Saturday and it's hard to believe that it's over. I can hardly remember sitting for two hours watching my classmates walk across the podium and waiting 650 odd people before my parents experienced the pride and joy of their first baby venturing across the podium. It will definitely take a while for me to forget the excitement and the squishing with 600 other classmates through the Bell street entrance door, as well as soaking up the heat to take pictures with family and friends. I’ll load those pictures up before I leave for HK.
Lunch time after graduation was pretty funny. My family and I ran into Jerms and his family, which wasn’t as shocking as seeing all the Clements principals and faculty at another table! It was quite nice to walk around at the galleria after lunch, but then my feet were completely destroyed afterwards. So after passing up many sales, the gang rounded up and headed back to the Toyota Center for the Dulles Graduation! A sea of red is always pretty cool. Once again, there was much picture taking and hugging. There’s something about seeing your friends graduate that really takes your mind off the heat that one has been submerged in.
When all the graduations had been said and done, it was time to go back to Clements one last time as a student. ProGrad! Prograd was a lot of fun. Besides that fact that the day after prograd, my neck was dying and I had this splitting headache. My favorite thing by far had to be the big tricycle things that we got to ride around the history hallways. Those made me feel like a kid again. Playing blackjack was interesting (it was the only gambling I did). There’s something about sitting at a table in a girls gym that just really doesn’t appeal to me, so I used my money for tickets instead. I must have really been lucky that night (although I can’t say I believe in luck). Not only did I walk away from the blackjack table with more than I began with, but I also managed to snag myself a grand prize. I must say it was quite a nice finish to the night because after the hypnosis show, I was seriously ready to pass out.
In the days following graduation, there was much partying at MashPash’s house. Not to mention I’m completely drained of all cash, but every cent was well spent (on food). I would go into detail about this past weekend where I experience the greatest milestone of my life thus far, but I’m leaving for the overseas in a few minutes and I figured I should have a graduation post before I leave, just in case I forget something (not that I ever will unless I get Alzheimer’s). Anyhow, take care and I shall update soon!.