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3.9.2003 Okay....so, time to update a bit.

So, this weekend has been soo much fun! My friend Rose came to visit from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology, New York)!!! She stayed at my place Thursday & Friday nights and we got to hang out w/ Dustin & John Rhyu. On Friday, were planning on going to eat at the Japanese restaurant Godaiko, but it wasn't open for dinner (though we were going to eat for lunch at 3:45) until 5:30pm. Soo...we tried to figure out what to do instead. There was a Chuck-E-Cheese's in the same shopping center, so we decided to wait for Godaiko to open and play around there in the meantime! It was sooo funny, cuz the guy at the door was like, "Uhh...are you here with a party?" and we didn't know what to say! Then this older Asian lady came up behind us and the guy was like, "Is she your mother?" OMG!! Soo racist! Okay, not really. It was a lot of fun. John threw a basketball at the dude dressed up like the giant rat. Hehe. Got to be a kid again....though, whenever I got a lot of tickets or I found some tickets that someone who played the game before me left behind, I felt like I was robbing some little kid of their tickets! All the kids were looking at us like, "What the...?!" I could feel it!!! Afterwards we traded our tickets for some candy. We got some generic pop rocks and some (which we later discovered when we tried it at Godaiko) some DISUGUSTING goo candy!!! We did get some funny faces out of it, since even though John confirmed for us that it was gross, we all felt the need to try some. Hehe.

After dinner, we went to CCF and then to Dustin's place where he and Bea slaved in the kitchen making bubble tea and potstickers for a bunch of us!!! Those guys are awesome!!! After leaving at like 4, Rose & I hung out and talked until 6am. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 8am to get ready to go to Huaren body worship practice!! Then Rose wanted to leave at 1pm (it's 5-6 hours back to Rochester and she wanted to get back before nightfall), but after showing her around a bit and hitting Angelo's and Steve & Barry's, she didn't get to leave until 4!!! Craziness.

By then, I was sooo tired, so I thought I'd take a quick nap at around 5. Well...that "quick" nap lasted until about 1am, when I heard Cindy and Jen saying, "Jenn? Do you know what time it is? It's 1. Maybe you should just sleep until tomorrow morning." That's when I promptly rolled around and went back to sleep until 9am!!!! AAAHHH!!! About 15 hours? Yes. Just in time to go to church @ Harvest. The message was good. The first sermon in a series: discovering our purpose through the purpose of the church -- the first part being exaltation of God. Surrendering our lives to God. Exalting and worshipping God through our lives. This definitely hits me hard in the area of my studies. Even though I am studying and working, I'm not doing too much more than I need to...and I know that's not enough. Even my grades are reflecting that. I can't seem to give my life up to God. I know what I need to do, but why is it so hard for me to do it?! What the hell am I doing with my life anyways?!

I was watching Oprah last week (okay, I know, I'm a dork, but that's not the point!) and the show was on amazing kids. All these kids who started million-dollar businesses, a six year-old kid who plays piano with orchestras & doing charity concerts...all these amazing things. The first kid was this child prodigy who started college when he was 10 and who's now 13 and going to Africa and helping teaching and taking care of needy kids. He was even nominated for a Noble Peace Prize!!! I was like OMG!!! He's frikkin' 13 and nomiated for a Nobel Peace Prize?! Moreover, he knows what he wants to do with his life...attain 4 PhDs (Mathematics, Political Science, Aerospace Engineering, and something else)! But, I don't think that kid was what really touched me about that show...I was really amazed at just how God can create such extraordinary people. Even Oprah -- she came from such a common life (not even common to me...she had so much less before she was famous than I do even now) and made something incredible out of it! She's even made Forbe's list of billionaires! At the end of her show, she featured Josh Groban...and I LOVE Josh Groban!!! I've been listening to him (well the one song he sang) ever since I saw him on Ally McBeal (which was quite a long time ago). I've been listening to him a bit more recently now that Cindy (over winter break) got his CD and there are more of his songs that I can download. :) Anyways, what Oprah said about how he became famous....Josh kept saying that he was just so incredibly lucky, but Oprah says that luck is about being prepared when the right time comes, the question is: will you be prepared when the time comes? I thought, "Wow. I don't think I would be." I heard that before, but to be honest, I didn't really take it to heart. Not that I really know what kind of opportunities God has in store for me, but I'm really not living my life out to prepare myself for anything that God could possibly give me a chance at doing. Wow. So what am I living my life for? I know what I should be living my life out for (God), but am I really?
Well... I guess I'll take a first step at it...gotta go study!
[ jenn | signing off @ 3:35 PM | ]

1.22.2003 Wow. It has definitely been a while since I've blogged. However, I'm hideous at keeping up with blogging and updating my website...thus, no one comes to look at it...how sad! Oh well. This is good self-therapy...who else's opinion matters more to me than my own, anyways? Lately, I've just been thinking a lot about my future and what I want of myself...or more importantly, what God wants of me. What am I supposed to be accomplishing here on this campus anyways? I'm reaching the end of third year here at U of M and what impact have I made on the lives of those I've come in contact with? What will I be leaving here with other than a degree and some good (and bad) memories? Who will still be my friends and who will I lose contact with? Okay, this is getting kinda depressing. There is just sooo much I want to do when I get out of here...so much i want out of my life. Guess I'll just have to be patient and wait it out for God's big plans for me!

On a lighter note...I love "Chicago". AWESOME movie. I've been following the publicity and anticipating this movie since I first heard about it over the summer...I even bought the November 2002 Vanity Fair Issue featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger on the cover...just 'cause of this movie! Richard Gere & Renee Zellweger were surprisingly AMAZING performances. Catherine Zeta-Jones was great. I think if I could look like any woman in the world, I would want to look like her. She's gorgeous. Sassy. Love it. I LOVE musicals and dancing I wanna go out and watch more OR I wanna sing & dance...I wish I could sing & DANCE!!! I miss that stuff.
[ jenn | signing off @ 12:42 AM | ]

10.21.2002 PTL for an AWESOME weekend!!!! Here's the breakdown...
Friday: Lunch with Jen Lu & YT @ Ali Baba's. WOW in the evening (Women of Worship). Watched "My Sassy Girl" (this Korean movie that I saw clips of in China but didn't know what it was...turns out it's a fave of Jimmy's and he owns the DVD). Very long, but very cute movie!
Saturday: Apple picking with Ohana and other CCF small groups! Baked apple pie and apple cake with Cindy and Chris Li. Ate dinner with Clara and Phil. Oodles of fun!
Sunday: SKYDIVING!!!! I know you think I'm nuts. Hehe. So...why skydiving? Well...why not? It was a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity (we were required to raise a certain amount of money to go or else pay some of it) and life is all about experiencing new things ~ doing things that make you feel alive! There's a difference between being reckless and trying to enjoy life...I'm just trying to enjoy it! I figured that you can't go through life scared of everything or else you miss out on good stuff!

Skydiving was an absolutely amazing experience! It wasn't half as scary as I anticipated, especially since I had a tandum jumper with me (I'm not certified so I can't jump by myself), I felt totally safe. I wasn't so much scared as I was nervous about the whole situation. I am SOOOO glad I did it!!! You know the funny feeling you get in your stomach when you're going downhill on a roller coaster? Well...I didn't get it. I guess it was because I was just going straight down...no sensation of going up beforehand. It's a little disorienting at first. I barely had time to think, "I am about to jump out of this plane," before my tandum jumper threw me out the door! The wind was furiously blowing in my face & I couldn't hear anything other than the wind ~ it's like a surround sound seashell...hehe. We were falling through some clouds, so the view was a bit hazy. So, when the guy was signalling for me to put my legs back more (two fingers), I thought he was signalling for me to pull the cord (five fingers)! Thank God, my tandum jumper then grabbed my hands & repositioned them. But when it was time for me to pull the cord, I couldn't find it! Before I knew it, though, I heard the parachute opening, and then...dead silence. Apparently my tandum jumper (named Tim) pulled it for me...he hardly gave me a chance to look for it! But I'm thankful, nonetheless. The first thing I thought once the parachute opened was, "Thank you, God for sparing my life!" The silence after the parachute opens is sooo peaceful! Just floating around 5,000 feet above the ground and seeing the view is simply incredible...there's nothing like it! Really, if you get the courage to go skydiving, I'd definitely recommend it!
[ jenn | signing off @ 11:14 PM | ]

9.20.2002 WHOA!! It's been a while since I've written! Anyways...so far, life @ UMich is awesome. I like living in an apartment...makes things feel more home-y, and it's fun cooking and stuff with my apartment-mates! God is good! Thing are MUCH more settled now that I have all my furniture and we have cable & internet connection. Sad how I'm so dependent on those things.... I had lunch with Clara, from CLERC, and her boyfriend (a first-year grad student @ Mich) on Monday night @ Seva's (this vegetarian restaurant). That was fun! I think seeing friends out of the context that you're used to seeing them is always really fun! There's something exciting about it...y'know...the unexpected...okay, I'm a dork. Thankyouverymuch.
[ jenn | signing off @ 2:19 AM | ]

8.29.2002 Yay! An alternative to HTMLing! Life is good...today's my last day before heading back to Ann Arbor! I'm soo excited to go back to school! After going to China, I feels sooo inspired to make the most of what I have & make the most of myself (translation: I'm ready to kick some engineering ass & study mah butt off at school)!! It was one thing for me to know in my head that I am incredibly blessed, but for me to feel it in my heart (as cheesy as that sounds)...it really does make a difference. Funny what squatty toilets, springy toilet paper (or lack of), and a little dirt can do for you...
[ jenn | signing off @ 2:14 PM | ]

Okay...I'm testing out this baby...
[ jenn | signing off @ 2:48 AM | ]

6.25.2002 I feel a little silly by giving into blogging, but I think I've been doing something like this already in the "New" section of my webpage & it just feels much easier doing it using Blog.
[ jenn | signing off @ 1:26 PM | ]