substitute teaching, marching in Chinese, eye exercises, NCR paper... and MORE! ^_^

today was quite interesting.... I was substituting for Rey as he's really sick, again. (he gets sick a lot. go figure.) yesterday Rosa was subbing for him and the kids weren't on their best behaviour. I was a little worried about that as jr. high IS the hardest age to teach and his class is 6th grade. I mean, I teach them often... but I didn't feel like dealing with problems today. well, on top of the fact that they're 6th grade monsters (haha j/k), 7th and 8th were on a field trip so there was no chance for me to have a break from them and try my hand out with 7th and 8th for their science/social studies classes. so I started the morning by praying on my way to class.

I honestly was expecting a struggle today. not quite sure why. probably has to do with the fact that the other jr. high classes were gone and I figured the students would get bored easily. the day started off pretty well. we got on task straight away and they were all following the rules I set down before we started any lesson (whispering only when not instructed to keep quiet, work hard, be respectful of whoever is talking). all went quite well. they like how I use the alarm on my phone to indicate the end of one subject and the moving on to the next. I mix up the alarms just to keep them attentive to what's going on around them. they were always so curious as to what was going to go off that they typically wouldn't talk louder than a whisper JUST so they'd be sure to hear it. :-)

towards recess time the mother of one of the students was bringing donuts for the whole class. I got them in perfect order and even though we were late to recess (because her mom came late), there were no complaints so I let them stay out extra long for recess. when we came back in we got straight back to work without any problems. seriously shocking for these rambunctious kids! as it was coming time for lunch they were getting rowdy... so I taught them how my kinder students in China go between classes. they MARCH and say, in Chinese "one two one, one two one" (as opposed to "left, left, left right left"). soooooo..... that's how they headed off to lunch! I couldn't stop giggling after they were out of my site. I mean, c'mon... a bunch of Mexicans walking to lunch marching & speaking in Chinese. CLASSIC! I went to the front office and said "I humor myself!" while still giggling. I told the receptionist what happened and she couldn't stop laughing. it was really cute.

because it was so hot out today and the kids were so excited to be out in the sun... they kinda wore themselves out. also, we had finished all the lessons that Rey planned for cuz he forgot that we wouldn't be switching with 7th and 8th today. so immediately after lunch I taught the kids eye exercises to calm them down and help them relax. a lot of them actually said "this feels so good!" and "I feel so relaxed now!" it was cute. :) of course, after that I still had 45 min's free time... fortunately I had quickly thought up a lesson during lunch and we did that. I taught them how to find the mean, mode and range of numbers.... by having them play rock, paper, scissors with partners and in groups and then we put the results up on the board from each group and found the mean, mode and range from them. they learned it real quick that way and had fun.

after we finished playing, the kids went outside for Jump for Heart. it was fun... but it was so hot out and there was some chaos as one teacher went MIA and I had to cover for her while also taking care of the class I was subbing for.

after school I went and helped a friend study Chinese and then we went out for Japanese food with her friend (who is our mutual friend's sister) that is visiting from Seattle. we also went to 21 Choices. yummmmm

ok, so yesterday I read Dani's journal and left a stupid comment on it wondering what NCR paper is. just after I left it, and while I was chatting with her, I decided to do a google search and see just what NCR paper is. I came up with this image (I did an image search cuz I was being too lazy to READ about it and figured an image would be easier for my mind to process):

I immediately had flash backs to when I worked in accounting and also did lots of filing... and thought I was gonna die from the smell of these things... these stupid papers smell AWFUL! and I'd be working with them all day so my hands would end up smelling like them. just thinking about them brings back the scent. it makes me want to cry.... I wish I could forget that scent but my olfactory senses won't permit it... or maybe it's so embedded in my brain that it's just that I THINK I smell it and I think it so intently that I DO smell it. seriously, I could do without that memory in my brain. I remember when I first noticed the smell and I was trying to find where it was coming from... little did I know, I was SURROUNDED by it! ARGH!

the worst was the temp job I had in which I was sent into a filing "room" (I swear it was more like a dungeon. dark, dank, cold, weird lighting, lonely, etc) by myself to file those papers all day! the smell alone is bad enough... add in the other assets and it makes it torturous! I did that for about a week straight. they finally let me out of the dungeon and had me do a desk job. that wasn't any better... the company made products for cats and dogs. products like shampoos and stuff. and for some reason, the office I worked in smelled like all the chemicals.... and I was also working with that stupid paper. I actually asked to be taken off that temp job at the temp office. partially cuz of the above listed reasons and partially because I had no clue why they had me there as long as they did because they had me just sitting in the office doing nothing.

being a receptionist is just as crappy.... I did that for several months on temp jobs, also. one place I worked had a huge warehouse and a pretty big office. mind you, I'm a temp and I barely know any of the people and I definitely have no idea about anything that's going on with the business and their customers... anyhow, I've decided that nobody should ever call an office during lunch time... and if you do, you should know in advance that you're going to be leaving a voicemail or a message with the receptionist. seriously, people get stupid at lunch time or something. they'd call and ask me to transfer them to so-and-so. I'd transfer them and the person would be away from their desk or on the phone so it'd go to voicemail. the person would press 0 to go back to the operator and ask AGAIN to be transfered. I didn't always know that it was a person coming back to me as it was a busy switchboard and if I was on another line there was no identification that it was a return. so I'd transfer them again and they'd come back to me again. then they'd complain that the person wasn't at their desk and asked me to PAGE them over the intercom. I'd do this once and then they'd come back to me (I have to go through this as I literally don't even know if the person is in the building... they were supposed to let me know when they left and came back in... but most of them didn't AND I was a temp so I didn't even know who everyone was!) complaining that the person never answered. at which point I'd politely suggest that they leave a voicemail or a message with me (actually, I suggested this at any point that they began complaining)... then they'd start complaining to me about whatever problem they were calling about and ask ME what they should do... ME?! heck, I don't even know who they are or who the person they're calling for is in charge of and they want me to tell them how to handle a problem?! I'd explain that I'm just the receptionist and it'd be best to leave a message... they'd get furious with me and start complaining about how the company has bad communication, blah blah blah... seriously, people are too high strung! haha

anyhow, Danielle's post from yesterday just made me remember all that and she suggested that I blog about it... so I did! :) I think it was a form of inner healing by letting it out... all the woundings from past jobs. lol seriously though, I never want to work with NCR paper again and I STILL don't like answering the phone 99% of the time. lol

hmmm... just had another memory about a different temp job. it was so stupid. small company that got maybe 5 calls a day and 4 of those were from there own tech people that worked in the office just asking me where someone was or whatever... well, everyone loved me. I worked hard, it was a pretty simple job and I was always kept busy... and suddenly one day the boss calls me in the office and said he didn't like the way I was saying the name of the company (Triton Communication... or something like that. something about phones. I forget). I was kinda swallowing the second t. so he told me to pronounce it with a hard second t. I started doing that.... and then a couple days later he complained that the hard second t sounded too cold and harsh and had me go back to the way I was originally saying it. then a few days later he randomly said that I wasn't needed there anymore because we weren't "compatible". (I say he's mafia... Italian guy. lol anyhow, that had nothing to do with anything about this story...) I was SO angry. he just dropped me during lunch randomly one day. I went back to the temp office and told them what happened. well, it turns out that the person who I replaced quit her new job and wanted her old job back.... so he decided to take her back and I ended up being dropped. well, anyhow, I was tired of working for the "mafia" anyhow. the rest of the guys were cool, but he was a jerk.

one other temp job I had was cool, despite the fact that I worked in accounting so was ALWAYS working with NCR paper (I think it's of the devil... why else would it smell like that?!?!?!). the president and co-president were brothers. in their late 30's/early 40's. the co-president was ALWAYS joking around. I was a bit intimidated by him for a while. but then I got comfortable there... and I don't remember what happened but he came to the front office (where the accounting was) and was giving people a hard time joking around... without thinking, I said something right back at him (don't remember what, but I remember being VERY sarcastic and keeping a straight face) and everyone was like "oooohhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he looked shocked and started laughing. he started to walk away and then thought of a come back and came back in and said it to me. it was so funny. we were laughing about it the whole day. then there was the time I almost fainted in the office.... that was kinda traumatic! haha it was the beginning of the day and I was getting my desk ready for it by straightening up any loose items. I put some stuff in the draw and went to close it. somehow, someway (unknown to me to this day) I slammed my thumb in the drawer pushing back the cuticle and just making it hurt REAL BAD! at that moment I felt like all the blood rushed out of my body. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even look at my finger. I swore it was bleeding like mad. I just held it tight and tried to calm myself down. yeah, it didn't work.... eventually I got up and went to the bathroom to wash it off... at which point I discovered that it wasn't even bleeding! LOL but I still felt faint and then suddenly I had a cold flash. I was going into shock or something... someone brought me a cup of milk to try to get something in my system. anyhow, during all that my face went real pale. after I was done going through all of that shock my pale face was compared to a post-it note. so, for the rest of the day there were jokes about post-its going on in the office. heck, even the guys out in the shop knew what happened and I didn't even know half those guys. HAHA

ok, finger slamming reminded me of another finger slamming incident on another job. last year (?) I was visiting insurance agents for my job and as I was walking in one place I was trying to keep the door from slamming, not realizing that there was a gap between the door and the doorway and I ended up slamming my thumb in the little gap. I immediately knew it was bad news but kept my cool while talking with the agent... I left the office and freaked out. I didn't want to look at my finger. when I finally did... I was DISGUSTED! I had split the fingernail up * down instead of left to right and there was blood and skin popping through the split, etc. it was just gross and crazy painful... I wrapped my finger up and drove around til I found a store where I rushed in and bought bandaids and antibiotic with pain relief. seriously, I was still using bandaids on that nasty split for like 3 or 4 weeks. it was bad.

I totally did not intend on talking about those injuries... hope I didn't gross you out. and if I didn't gross you out, I hope you found it in you to laugh hysterically at me! LOL :-)

life is like a box of chocolates...?

I understand the main point that Forrest Gump was getting at... "you never know what you're gonna get". but really, how is life like a box of chocolates? I mean, we all know that the next chocolate we're gonna take is CHOCOLATE and it'll be sweet. and if we've hand chosen our box, we definitely know what we're gonna get. (great... now I'm craving See's) but life is definitely not that predictable. I mean, even just knowing that the next thing you take from the box is more predictable than a lot of things that have happened to me in life... and I'm sure you guys have experienced situations in which you're like "where the heck did THAT come from?!?!" definitely not a box of chocolates... what is life like? it's more like a "fun house" at the fair. hahahaha what do you think life is like? hmmm....

well, even though life isn't as predictable as a box of chocolates, I still enjoy it. most of the time, that is. I wouldn't have it any other way.

ok, I know that the previous two paragraphs were way random... yeah, that's what I was thinking about at 6:00am while walking to the bus. I don't really know where the subject came from. I know I didn't sleep well the past two nights. but I don't really feel tired. I stayed awake the whole bus ride. that's like... the second time in how many months?! HAHA I spent the first 20 min's of the bus ride trying to place the Chinese accents of these two older Chinese men, on the bus that, were talking. I determined that one of them is definitely from Sichuan province. the other could likely be from either Dong Bei (north eastern China) or Shandong province (the province I lived in).

yeah, as you can tell... I am way into accents. I love listening to them, imitating them, placing them, etc. languages and accents... so much fun to me! weird, eh? ok, maybe not so weird if you know me at all. that's just me. it gets kinda "dangerous", though. sometimes, without thinking, I'll repeat something I've just heard in the same accent that I heard it in. I do it so that I can remember the particular sound that stuck out to me and to see if I can produce the same sound. because of that, I can still remember some of the things that were said on the bus, in China, to announce the coming stops and exactly how they were pronounced. sometimes I do it in regards to certain sentence structures or phrases as well. I did it a LOT in China but have tried to cut down on it since being back in the states.

that's not all I did in China... I would also just talk about people or things in English without really caring if people overheard because most people couldn't understand. I seriously could have gotten myself in trouble over that in the states! I forgot people here understand English (yes, I realize that I should have know that... but habits are hard to break) and once I saw a lady with a WEIRD hair style... yes, I commented about it out loud. and when I say "out loud", I mean Chinese style out loud... which is LOUD. hahahaha I felt stupid when I realized people could understand what I was saying. and then I tried to be all smart by using Chinese when I didn't want people to know what I was saying. yet again, feeling stupid cuz so many people in L.A. speak Chinese... *sigh* I don't know why it was so hard for me to figure all that out. haha

ok, yeah, this was a weird random blog... and I have to post it now as I just found out I probably won't have internet at home... for a while~ GRRRRRR!!!!!! I NEED INTERNET!!!! it's ok, I'll talk to my sis-in-law's mom and see if we can get something worked out...

babelfish

Babel Fish's translation of what I wrote in Chinese (MUCH more entertaining than the real translation):

Today I must use Chinese to write because recently my Chinese was bad very in a big way. Lost face. Before each week I should use Chinese. Speaks with the friends or the friend sends e-mail for China. . . Recently I did not have the opportunity. Some times with Coco, Wilson, Joan, Jonder and his parents chatted but too are few. Let me be uncomfortable. I really like with Chinese but not having the means. When may use? Does not have the opportunity. This weekend I rest very many. Good comfortable! But now my neck sorely died. Is that hurts from Sunday to the present. The feeling is in the dream question. Sunday very was early very early has had a dream. I was angry in the dream die. I very good friend lets me be angry. At that time I possibly very much tense lets my neck hurt. From at that time I does the neck how sorely let my headache. Too too bad! Takes the medicine little not to be useful. I looked at me to write that little. Embarrassed. Good long time useless Chinese. . . Really did not know I must write any. These days my young kitty (ha ha she is not that young. 7 years before easter has sold her. Definitely is 7 age more than 1.) Very happy I in home. Do not leave I. Continuously with me in same place. She is that lovable! I too was generally busy did not have the time to be allowed with her in the same place. I knew she too was happy. Is on February 19? ! Oh! Then is quick! This year passes too quickly. Does not like this. This year must meet my husband! Ha ha Oh. . . I do not have other matter. Must sleep. The neck too hurts. Needs to massage but me not to have the vehicle therefore cannot arrive the that side to go. Too troubled!

faithful Father

(Note: I don't know why, but for some reason in this post, the blog won't let me put spaces between my paragraphs... I just tried for the third time and achieved NOTHING. so please don't think I write paragraphs THAT long... well, sometimes I do. but I didn't this time. haha)

I meant to write this blog yesterday.... but I was too busy at a Third Day concert!!!! (geeper gee golly gosh... I LOVE them!) anyhow, as you can see by the date on the above picture, 2/21 is a pretty significant day for me. most people would rather not remember the day they were involved in an accident.... but that day was quite significant for me and I enjoy taking this day aside to thank God for His faithfulness and for the friends He's given me.

since I've got SOOO many new friends, I'm going to tell the story of what happened on that day. wait, hmmmm.... I think perhaps I'm going to see if I still have the original e-mail version of what happened that day and I'll copy and paste it (taking out the parts that have nothing to do with the accident at all. haha). that way you get the raw emotion of it all. (yes, lots of raw emotion... haha actually, I was quite calm and of sound mind, all things considered) and then after it, I'll add any little extra comments I have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

first I want to praise God for His protection and loving kindess. He is a truly loving God and had His arms around me this aftenoon.

now for an explanation of what happened. this afternoon I was on the 60W Fwy going between my jobs. I was in the number 4 lane when a semi in the number 3 lane that was traveling faster than me cut me off in the front. he clipped me as I was attempting to swerve out of his way. because of the impact and swerving, I spun out. behind me was a second semi that couldn't get out of the way in time. he did all he could to not kill me and he was successful BUT I was still hit by him as well. I finally ended up at rest on the side of the road. the Budweiser semi (second one to hit me) ended up jack-knifed across the FWY. the first guy got away. I had a few witnesses stop and help me out. they were amazing. helped me call the CHP, gave me water and took pix of the car using my digital camera while I processed everything that happened. the Fire Department and CHP got there within 15 minutes. they were amazing. I'm so thankful for them. CHP was so helpful and caring AND amazed to see me alive. I could just feel God's peace through everything. when I was initially cut off all I could say was "Jesus, help me!" and just kept repeating His name and asking for protection and wisdom as to what to do. praise God I came to a stop at the side of the road! praise God for all the help I got and how ready and willing the witnesses were to help me out in any way.

now I need to ask for a few prayer requests:

1) for my physical body. fortunately I was not seriously injured. but I AM in pain (increasingly within the past hour) and I don't have health insurance. right now I'm feeling the pain in my head, neck, shoulders, lower back (I think it just aggravated my injury from last summer), left elbow/wrist and right ankle (aggravation of an old injury, perhaps). I'm also feeling some discomfort in my right wrist and left hip. pray for quick healing of pain and for some way for me to get very, very cheap or free chiropractic or massage therapist care.

2) justice. the guy that caused the accident took off and none of the witnesses that stopped got any information on him. CHP is going to check their 911 call log to see if anyone called in with any information on the guy at fault.

3) peace. for me, my family and also for the driver of the Budweiser semi that hit me. he was worried about me and repeatedly asked CHP how I was doing.

I'm including a pic of my totalled car and the jack-knifed Budweiser semi. praise God that I always carry my camera with me and there was someone there with presence of mind to take pix of the accident!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so that's what I had to say the day of the accident. it appears I left out a small detail... when I went to the ER to make sure I was fine and dandy, the ER guy basically didn't give a care about me. he didn't have me get X-rays or anything. I told him exactly where my pains were and what had happened in the accident and his response was "it doesn't look like you broke anything. you'll be in a bit of pain but will be fine." and prescribed me some med's. also, the morning of the accident (and even just before it) I remember having such a peace. I was so happy and in God's presence the whole day. I was thanking Him for everything, specifically my friends. during the accident while I was saying His Name over and over again, my first thought was that I was going to die. it was odd because I had mixed emotions about it. I thought "I can't die! I can't leave my friends!" but then I thought "but I want to go to heaven!" as soon as I gave it all up to God, such peace came over me. I seriously thought I was going to die and was fully prepared for it. so when all the spinning and crashing was done on the freeway, I was honestly in shock that I was alive. I kept feeling my own body to make sure it was in tact and TRYING to find blood. (I didn't even notice til hours later, when I got home, that I did have some small scratches on my left arm... still not sure how that happened as there was no broken glass.)

ok, follow up from that original e-mail. a friend of a friend from church provided me with reasonably priced chiropractic care for several months afterwards. upon arrival there, 2 days after, I discovered that I had whiplash (DUH! of course I did... but did they check for it at the ER? no.....). also, I was informed that because of the 2 fractures in my lower back (from an accident the year before... it was a fall from about 7 ft, NOT a car accident) that I can never have my lower back adjusted. it sucks, especially when I'm in pain, but at least I'm alive. anyhow, that was such a great blessing! they never found the guy that originally caused the accident. and since neither I nor the driver of the Budweiser truck was at fault, our own insurance companies did whatever they stinkin' felt like doing. apparently I caused a bit of damage to that poor Budweiser truck. haha anyhow, we didn't get much from my parents' insurance company. they gave me $1,500 for medical. to put that in perspective; JUST the original trip to the ER, which basically achieved nothing, cost nearly $900. I had to pay about $500 of the chiropractic bills out of my own pocket (for the first month or so I was going 3 times a week and was paying extra to get some rehab and other stuff done since my back couldn't be adjusted normally), and I had to stop going because I didn't have enough money to keep it up. in regards to the car... all they did was pay of the payments for the totalled car. and they dropped me from my parents' coverage, so I can never drive one of their cars again even though in the report I wasn't at fault or anything. that was frustrating. on the medical side, I still have pain from the accident. mostly in my lower back/neck. but my knee, ankle and elbow like to act up every once in a while. usually they act up when the weather goes cold. BLECH! I had to wear an elbow brace and not use my arm (ok, so I didn't always follow that order... I'm really a bad patient. I like doing everything for myself! I had to ask a few guy friends of mine to watch out and make sure I didn't use my arm and if I did I gave them full permission to yell at me and take stuff away from me.) for a few weeks because my elbow wasn't healing. I still wear a knee brace when I do heavy hiking/walking. I also had to be very careful about how much I did cuz sometimes I forget about my back and I'll push myself too far in carrying stuff that's a bit heavy or whatever and the back pain would come back. fortunately, now I don't have to worry as much about using my elbow or back too much. they just act up whenever they darn well please. haha but when they're acting up, I've learned to baby them and I don't push myself as much as I would normally. (that was a HARD lesson to learn!)

but in all of it, I still see God's faithfulness and I use 2/21 to thank Him for His faithfulness, His hand of protection, His love and the friends He's given me. =0)

translation, please!

numerous people have brought up the subject of my last post and how it's not fair that it's in Chinese. it's also been brought to my attention that... when you use http://babelfish.altavista.com/ that it makes absolutely no sense. (haha I already knew that... just using it to see how they translate it is hysterical, though!)

sooooooooooooooooooo............. I'm here to give you MY translated version of it, which would be the proper and real translation as opposed to the version that includes this lovely sentence: "But now my neck sorely died." (c'mon, people... you didn't understand THAT?! hahaha ;P )

here goes:

today I have to use Chinese because lately my Chinese has gotten so bad. I've lost face (note: that's a Chinese phrase). before I used to use Chinese every week whether talking with friends or sending e-mails to Chinese friends.... I haven't had that opportunity lately. there are times when I talk with Coco, Wilson, Joan, Jonder and his parents, but it's not enough. it makes me sad. I really like Chinese but there's nothing I can do about it. when can I use it? there's really no opportunity.

I've rested a lot this week. so relaxing! but right now my neck is killing me. it's hurt this badly since Sunday. I think this problem came from a dream. really early on Sunday morning I had a dream. in my dream I was angry. my really good friend made me SO ANGRY! I was probably really tense at that time and it made my neck hurt. since then til now my neck has hurt so badly that it's given me a headache. (uhhh... I don't know how to translate this next sentence... so I'll give you the Babel Fish version: "Too too bad!") even taking medicine hasn't helped any.

I see I've hardly written anything. how embarrassing. I haven't used Chinese in so long.... I really don't know what to write.

these few days my little kitty (haha she isn't really little. I bought her 7 yrs ago on Easter day. she's probably just over 7 yrs old.) has been really happy that I've been home. she doesn't want to be apart from me. she's always with me. she's really cute! usually I'm too busy to be able to spend any time with her. I know she's extremely happy.

it's Feb. 19?! ACK! it came too fast! this years going by so fast. I don't like it. this year I need to meet my husband! HAHA

oh... I have nothing else to say. I really want to sleep. my neck hurts too much. I need a massage but I have no car so I have no way to get there. too troublesome!

中文

今天我要用中文写因为最近我的中文差得很大。丢脸了。以前每个周我应该用中文。跟朋友们说话或者给中国朋友发e-mail。。。最近我没有机会。有的时候跟Coco, Wilson, Joan, Jonder 和他父母聊天儿可是太少了。让我难受。我真喜欢用中文可是没办法。什么时候可以用？就没有机会。



这周末我休息很多。好舒服的！可是现在我的脖子疼死了。从星期天到现在是那么疼。感觉是梦里的问题。星期天很早很早作了一个梦。在梦里我生气死了。我很好的朋友让我生气。那个时候我可能很tense让我脖子疼。从那个时候我脖子怎么疼让我头疼。太糟糕了！吃药一点儿也没有用。



我看了我写得那么少。不好意思。好长时间没用中文。。。真不知道我要写什么的。



这几天我小猫咪（哈哈她没有那么小。7年以前耶稣复活节卖了她。肯定是7年岁多一点。）很高兴我在家里。不要离开我了。一直跟我在一起。她那么可爱！一般我太忙了没有时间可以跟她在一起。我知道她太高兴了。



是2月19日吗？！哎呀！那么快啊！这年过得太快。不喜欢这样。这年要见面我丈夫！哈哈



哦。。。我没有别的事。就要睡觉。脖子太疼。需要按摩可是我没有车所以不能到那边去。太麻烦了！

hot firemen

I admit I suffer from extreme lack of sleep... according to Wikipedia (note: I don't know why I'm using wikipedia... I've banned my students from using it cuz it's not always accurate. I guess I'll blame lack of sleep), there are many physiological effects that result from it. I'd say I suffer/have suffered from about 16 of those... weird, I had no clue that lack of sleep could cause colour blindness. and I don't intend on finding out for myself if it's true for me or not! ok, your task... determine which of those 16 things I suffer from when I don't get enough sleep. I'm sure you can figure most of them out. :)

not much going on with me. I finally got stuff figured out about my 2 courses that I never got information on. what else? ummm... I have Monday and Tuesday off from work!!! (which means I'll have time to focus on homework assignments and try to continue making up for lack of sleep, like I did today)

this past Thurs night (aka Valentine's Day), I went with several people from Remnant on an outreach. we were at a mall handing out red carnations to people and sharing God's love. little did we know that the mall was closing about 1/2 hr after we got there, so it was pretty empty. but whatever, that's not too important to my story. :) I was leading one of the small groups (we were in groups of 3) and the 2 guys with me were being quiet... so I was the one being bold and going out to talk to people, etc. at one point I saw 5 firemen and said, half jokingly, to the guys with me "go give them flowers!" they looked at me like I was insane and said they weren't about to. then they told me to. I said, "ok, I will!" I don't think they were expecting that reply. anyhow, I just walked straight up to these 5 buff firemen and say happy valentine's day and hand them flowers and start talking to them. the guys with me were behind me probably wondering how in the world I got the guts to do something like that. after I talked with them for a while, one of the guys with me FINALLY decided to join in on the conversation... "so, tell me... how many hours a day do you guys work out?" hahaha yes, he seriously said that. he talked with the other guys, while the asian kept talking with me. yeah, "the asian". something about me and asians... go figure! :-P I had fun that night. after we did our outreach, some of us went out to eat and then to a movie (Step Up 2). if you don't watch the movie for the acting, it's pretty good. there was one part in the movie that the acting was SO lame that everyone in the theater laughed out loud. it was pretty funny. on the way home, I was in the car with 2 of my friends... one of them asked us if we knew the song Baby Beluga, so I immediately started singing it. somehow that ended up in a remix version of it. too weird! then we got back to Jinder's place so everyone could get their cars and head home... but instead we got in weird conversations about us all being part of a dance crew and what our nicknames would be. they were lame names... I've forgotten them all.

so, it's already mid-Feb and I feel like I haven't achieved much other than work this year. I need a week off to catch up on life! or at least sleep...

today I was looking at pictures from a friend's b-day party back in Sept. I kinda forgot about one pic in the set... of me and a guy friend. I just don't know what to think about it. the way he's looking at me. was it just a coincidence that he was looking at me when the pic was taken OR was he looking at me like that on purpose and the camera happened to catch it? does that even make sense? whatever... I just wish I knew what he was thinking. been driving me crazy for a few months. I mean, I can handle it... but at the same time it's frustrating. last night I had a dream with him in it. in the dream I went to China with some friends and then came back to America. I got REALLY mad at him in the dream (I almost said "for a lame reason", but really, if you knew the whole reason why I was mad at him... it'd make sense). at one point I almost texted him (not quite sure if it was IN my dream or if it was during one of the moments I had woken up and was lying there annoyed at him still but being only half awake so I was still thinking the dream was real) to get mad at him. anyhow, later on in the dream I walked past him with a friend and I hadn't really noticed much other than the fact that he was there (I was still mad at him) when she mentioned that she noticed he was pretty much stuck on me. thing is, it's a new friend that said that and she knows nothing about anything. I was shocked. still am a bit shocked... I don't know why. I've had enough people in real life that know nothing about anything ask me questions about him, so why would I be shocked about a dream?! well, whatever... I can honestly say that I am happy being just friends with him... but having more would be a nice perk. :-D HAHAHA (I don't want to see you people leaving me comments trying to figure out who the guy is! I'm not gonna tell you! :-P )

ok, I'm going to bed now... because... well, I'm tired! it's a good enough reason for me. ah yes, and my back hurts. and when I sleep I don't feel back pain. so, sleep is my natural pain killer. (should've seen how much I slept after fracturing my back and being in the car accident... you wouldn't think it's possible to sleep 24 hrs straight and then go immediately back to sleep...)

I hope the weather is nice tomorrow. I've been enjoying sunlight! leaving the house before sunrise and getting off work around sunset really messes with your internal system.

foster care

yes... foster care. that is the subject of this blog. why, you ask? well... because I've been thinking about it for over a year now and I'd really like to do it. my goal is to start orphanages in China, but I've gotta start somewhere.

last year I got the "foster care bug" when I was at the Asian American Expo and there was a both for foster parenting Chinese speaking children. I was REALLY interested and they said they'd send me info... which never happened!!! :`( I guess it's a good thing nothing happened about it then as I'm still trying to get on my feet and that would've been too much for me to take on at the time.

but as I continue teaching and being there for my students, I remember WHY I wanted to foster/adopt kids so badly. I care about them so much and when I see them hurting but have only a window of an opportunity to help them during the week, it hurts me so much. I do as much as I can but then they have to return to the brokenness, hurt, loneliness and pain. I still miss my students in China and worry about some of them often. they touched a part of my heart that will never forget them. they were students to me and at the same time I was like a mother/older sister to many of them. it was so hard to leave them behind to return to America.

anyhow, yeah... so for some reason, tonight I was talking with my sis-in-law's mom and I randomly said that I had thought of doing foster parenting. I really don't remember what brought it up. we talked about it for a long while. she told me several of her stories of being a foster parent (she's had several of them and adopted one of them). it just ignited that desire in my heart.

I went online to try to find the program that places Chinese kids with Chinese speaking adults... but couldn't find it. :( that sucks! I really wanted to get more info about it. oh well, I'll do more of an in depth search when I'm not so tired. but I did find one link for Interning at an Orphanage in China . that's TOTALLY what I want to do... minus the being an "intern" instead of a paid employee. I just sent an e-mail inquiry about it. *praying* we'll see what God has in store for me. they require a B.A., so I wouldn't be able to start on it until at least Dec. '08 or Jan. '09 as that's when I'm supposed to (I say "supposed to" because I still haven't figured out what's going on about the 2 courses I'm registered for but have no info for) graduate... but that gives me a chance to work this out and see if it's what I'm supposed to do for my next step.

I know, I know... random. you totally wouldn't expect this from me, yet at the same time you TOTALLY know it's something I would do. not just the moving to China, but also the working at an orphanage and wanting to be a foster parent, etc. we'll see what happens... 'til then... I feel like putting up pix from a google search on orphanages in China. (forewarning... not all orphanages are what we, as Americans, expect orphanages to be like... they're over crowded and understaffed. thank God for the few orphanages that DO have good staff and group housing, like the SOS Village in Yantai . our students would go there sometimes to help out. also, as you'll notice, almost all the orphans are girls... that's due to the one child policy and the fact that boys are held in higher esteem... it's so sad!)

a diamond in the rough

so, last night I'm in the car with Gabe and he jokingly says that he feels prophetically that I'm "a diamond in the rough"... then after a few seconds he says "wow... I actually do feel that." that led to mass confusion in my head. how am I a "diamond in the rough"?!?! I always considered that to mean that the person/situation/etc is the good part of a lot of difficult/ugly/etc stuff. I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it...since I was thinking about it so much, I decided to see what the internet has to say about "a diamond in the rough".

according to The Phrase Finder, it means :Meaning Someone who is basically good hearted but lacking social graces and respect for the law. This term is often used to describe people on the edge of the criminal fraternity who, while they may not commit serious crimes themselves, probably know people who do. The English comic actor, the late Sid James, typified the type on and off stage and was typecast in such roles. For example, he played Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in the Ealing comedy Carry On Up The Khyber. That was quite appropriate for this phrase as it turns out - Sid James worked in a diamond mine in South Africa before becoming an actor. Origin The phrase is clearly a metaphor for the original unpolished state of diamond gemstones, especially those that have the potential to become high quality jewels. It is more commonly expressed in the form 'rough diamond'. The first recorded use in print is in John Fletcher's A Wife for a Month, 1624: "She is very honest, and will be as hard to cut as a rough diamond.""

then Bartleby.com expressed a similar meaning for it: "Someone or something with potential or talent but lacking training or polish: “Her singing voice is beautiful, but she needs help with her gestures; she’s a diamond in the rough.” This phrase refers to the fact that diamonds found in nature are rough and uneven. They must be cut and polished to bring out their true beauty."

I also found photos of "diamonds in the rough" by doing a google image search

I still don't see how a diamond in the rough has anything at all to do with me... or how this google image results relate to me.

I also found someone's blog called A Diamond In The Rough . I found it interesting. STILL, I don't get how any of it has to do with me...

I shall now do a dictionary.com look up for the meaning and see what kind of results I come up with. maybe that will provide more clues for me:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
dia·mond /ˈdaɪmənd, ˈdaɪə-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dahy-muhnd, dahy-uh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a pure or nearly pure, extremely hard form of carbon, naturally crystallized in the isometric system.
2. a piece of this stone.
3. a transparent, flawless or almost flawless piece of this stone, esp. when cut and polished, valued as a precious gem.
4. a ring or other piece of jewelry containing such a precious stone, esp. an engagement ring.
5. a piece of this stone used in a drill or cutting tool.
6. a tool provided with such an uncut stone, used for cutting glass.
7. crystallized carbon, or a piece of it, artificially produced.
8. an equilateral quadrilateral, esp. as placed with its diagonals vertical and horizontal; a lozenge or rhombus.
9. any rhombus-shaped figure or object oriented with its diagonals vertical and horizontal.
10. a red rhombus-shaped figure on a playing card.
11. a card of the suit bearing such figures.
12. diamonds, (used with a singular or plural verb) the suit so marked: Diamonds is trump. Diamonds are trump.
13. Baseball.
a. the space enclosed by home plate and the three bases; infield.
b. the entire playing field.
14. Printing. a 41/2 -point type of a size between brilliant and pearl. –adjective
15. made of or set with a diamond or diamonds.
16. having the shape of a diamond: a dress with a diamond print.
17. indicating the 75th, or sometimes the 60th, event of a series, as a wedding anniversary. –verb (used with object)
18. to adorn with or as if with diamonds. —Idiom
19. diamond in the rough, a person of fine character but lacking refined manners or graces.
[Origin: 1275–1325; ME diamant <> F aimant magnet, OPr aziman diamond, magnet), for L adamas adamant, diamond] —Related forms
dia·mond·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
rough /rʌf/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ruhf] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, -er, -est, noun, adverb, verb
–adjective
1. having a coarse or uneven surface, as from projections, irregularities, or breaks; not smooth: rough, red hands; a rough road.
2. shaggy or coarse: a dog with a rough coat.
3. (of an uninhabited region or large land area) steep or uneven and covered with high grass, brush, trees, stones, etc.: to hunt over rough country.
4. acting with or characterized by violence: Boxing is a rough sport.
5. characterized by unnecessary violence or infractions of the rules: It was a rough prize fight.
6. violently disturbed or agitated; turbulent, as water or the air: a rough sea.
7. having a violently irregular motion; uncomfortably or dangerously uneven: The plane had a rough flight in the storm.
8. stormy or tempestuous, as wind or weather.
9. sharp or harsh: a rough temper.
10. unmannerly or rude: his rough and churlish manner; They exchanged rough words.
11. disorderly or riotous: a rough mob.
12. difficult or unpleasant: to have a rough time of it.
13. harsh to the ear; grating or jarring, as sounds.
14. harsh to the taste; sharp or astringent: a rough wine.
15. coarse, as food.
16. lacking culture or refinement: a rough, countrified manner.
17. without refinements, luxuries, or ordinary comforts or conveniences: rough camping.
18. requiring exertion or strength rather than intelligence or skill: rough manual labor.
19. not elaborated, perfected, or corrected; unpolished, as language, verse, or style: a rough draft.
20. made or done without any attempt at exactness, completeness, or thoroughness; approximate or tentative: a rough guess.
21. crude, unwrought, nonprocessed, or unprepared: rough rice.
22. Phonetics. uttered with aspiration; having the sound of h; aspirated. –noun
23. something that is rough, esp. rough ground.
24. Golf. any part of the course bordering the fairway on which the grass, weeds, etc., are not trimmed.
25. the unpleasant or difficult part of anything.
26. anything in its crude or preliminary form, as a drawing.
27. Chiefly British. a rowdy; ruffian. –adverb
28. in a rough manner; roughly. –verb (used with object)
29. to make rough; roughen.
30. to give a beating to, manhandle, or subject to physical violence (often fol. by up): The mob roughed up the speaker.
31. to subject to some rough, preliminary process of working or preparation (often fol. by down, off, or out): to rough off boards.
32. to sketch roughly or in outline (often fol. by in or out): to rough out a diagram; to rough in the conversation of a novel.
33. Sports. to subject (a player on the opposing team) to unnecessary physical abuse, as in blocking or tackling: The team was penalized 15 yards for roughing the kicker. –verb (used without object)
34. to become rough, as a surface.
35. to behave roughly. —Idioms
36. in the rough, in a rough, crude, or unfinished state: The country has an exciting potential, but civilization there is still in the rough.
37. rough it, to live without the customary comforts or conveniences; endure rugged conditions: We really roughed it on our fishing trip.
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME (adj. and n.); OE rūh (adj.); c. D ruig, G rauh] —Related forms
roughly, adverb
roughness, noun
—Synonyms 1. irregular, jagged, bumpy, craggy. 2. hairy, bristly. 13. noisy, cacophonous, raucous. 16. impolite, uncivil, unpolished, rude.
—Antonyms 1. smooth, even, regular.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

ok, ok... I could go on like this for hours... I saw so many other things I wanted to look up just from look up the words diamond and rough... but I don't want to bore you to death so I'll stop now. perhaps you reading through all this stuff will make a light go off in your brain explaining how I could be "a diamond in the rough". in which case, PLEASE let me know!!! I'm so curious. haha

~workaholic~

my goodness, I'm such a workaholic! and also cuz I'm observant, I tend to anticipate needs before other people do and I start working on those before people even realize something needs to be done...

why did I start thinking about this? oh yeah... cuz I was just at a team meeting for the leaders in my cell group & when I left I thought I'd tell the big boss (lol... ok, not so much the big boss... but he's the head leader and I often times feel like his p.a.) that once I finally got enough sleep and am not sick/losing my voice, that I'd like to lead worship again... I almost started giggling at the thought, cuz I realize that that may NEVER happen. I mean, the sleep/not sick thing, not the leading worship thing. the only time I was caught up on sleep was the first year after coming back from China and even then I was just doing catch-up sleep for the 4 years of lack of sleep in China. the odd thing is that in China, even though I got home almost every night after 10:00 from tutoring/working/hanging out with friends & students, I never really got as tired as I do here. life there is somehow slower and less stressful... yet I was working in a high stress environment and never seemed to have a down time. how confusing. maybe I should have Jenn tell her p.o.v. on this... she said pretty much the same thing about this summer in China, and really we were ALWAYS doing something. it's an interesting phenomena. I remember full well being tired in China and not having enough time in the day to do all that was needed... but I don't ever remember being SO TIRED. and I also remember that teachers that came to the school after I left heard all about me... apparently they never did live up to my standard of how much should be done and the principal/leadership let them know that I always did more than what they were doing... (proof I'm a workaholic...) I feel bad for them as I know I tend to go above and beyond the call of duty and when I leave it's hard to fill my shoes. I've seen the same thing happen at church. I leave for a few weeks and when I come back I find that it took several people to fill my position, not everything was done properly, stuff got screwed up, people went crazy (lol), etc, etc, etc. I've tried training people, but nobody REALLY wants to commit to doing what I do. they want to have their hand in several different things and this job is pretty much an unnoticed one... so they might want to do it once a week or something, but they never really want to fully learn everything that needs to be done and know it like the back of their hand (definitely needed... ). also, flexibility is a must. if you're a person that HAS to go by a certain format or don't handle last minute changes well... yeah, this job is not for you. hahaha

so, how did I become such a workaholic? good question... I really don't know. I do know that I don't like being bored. I'd rather sleep than be bored. I started helping at a science summer school in jr. high. I helped every summer up until the year before I moved to China (oh my goodness, that was a LONG time!)... I also worked at a bowling alley while I was in jr. high... and in elementary school, my teacher asked me to tutor the new Chinese students in English. and when I first gave my life to God, I started helping in the nursery and Sunday school. once in those positions, I anticipated needs and moved up the ladder of command and somehow ended up in positions that I was NEEDED. in the science summer school, the teachers I assisted trusted me so much and knew I knew the lessons front and back (I helped them for the same 4 courses every year) that if they were running late they knew the lesson was safe with me cuz I could teach it. I had so much fun with those classes... :-) anyhow, uhhh.. what was my point? well, whatever... basically, I'm sometimes considered a necessity and have often be told I need to clone myself. honestly, I think that's a scary idea! more than one of me... frightening! :-P

I've actually made great strides in not being so much of a workaholic... if you didn't know me you wouldn't be able to see that, though. I think I mainly started being a workaholic because of (1) boredom, (2) it's easier to do something when I see the need than it is to try to find someone to help me with it and explain to them what needs to be done and how, (3) being observant and noticing needs before anyone else.

ok, that's my spiel on my workaholism... not sure what else I have to say right now.

you know... people are confusing! ok, not so much "people" (as I observe people a lot and have a pretty good understanding of people... I'm a closet sociologist. LOL ) as a "someone". anyhow... this person confuses me. so many people have similar ideas on what that person is thinking... but that person claims otherwise. but actions show differently. confusion in my head ensues. oh well. one day, hopefully soon (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), it'll all get figured out and I can go on my merry way without wondering what's going on.

I think that's all I really want to say for now. I'll save more thoughts for tomorrow. hopefully I'll be off work and home early enough to get stuff done... I need to work on that one Chinese assignment as well as prepare for cell group Wed night.

just cuz I can... I want to include this odd video that came with this worship program I use at church. it kinda makes me laugh~ there are a few other little clips with this chick... I think it's goofy/funny. yeah, that's all...

ponderings...

my Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was a hit! I had so much fun cooking all day... and it's a good thing that I'm a compulsive "over cooker" (I always make too much food) as 27 people came out for cell group as opposed to our normal average of 16-20! some people came just for the food, which I don't mind at all... some people came for the Chinese connection... and some people even ditched Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with THEIR OWN FAMILY to have it with us. that made me feel all warm inside... haha :-)

what else? hmmm... I brought Chinese food to work Thurs. it was interesting to hear Mexican's saying "happy new year" all day. that was fun! and I had a good time hanging out with some of the staff during lunch while they pigged out on the clams I made. I guess I need to make them more often... I hope I can remember how I made them! hahaha

yesterday was an interesting day. normal long day at the church office. I had lunch with Hanah at a Korean restaurant here in Pasadena. after work I went with Jonder to his house to have a meeting about our upcoming Remnant site with those that will be involved with getting it started and running. that went til about 9:30 (we were hoping to finish by 9:00...) and then we split up to go to 2 different birthday parties. I went with Jonder, Jinder, Yoori and Sarah to Ryder's b-day party at a bar in downtown. I'm not really a "bar person" but can handle being at them and never really get bored... I people watch and make the people watching into a sociological case study. (really, I have a lot I've observed at bars... I should make it into a case study...) I also like playing pool. it was Sarah's first time being at a bar and I was teaching her little things about bar life. she was really uncomfortable being there. eventually her and I played pool and she had fun with that. when we were done at the bar, we went back to Jonder's place to join the other group of people that had returned there to watch a movie. watched the end of the movie and then we all sat around laughing at stupid things... mainly Jinder, Gabe and Dave trying to jump over things. somehow that lasted until 3:30 am, at which time we decided just maybe we should all go home and sleep... haha good thing I didn't have anything uber important to do today!

today I slept real late... I was attempting to get in 9 hrs of sleep... I haven't done that in forever and know that I really need to do some sleep catch-up. only prob is, after 10am I kept waking up every 10 min.'s and couldn't get straight back to sleep. I did that straight through til around 12:30. cuz of lack of sleep, my brain wasn't really working properly so when I finally did get up I didn't feel like doing anything... but I needed to get out so I eventually left to go have lunch and then hang out at the "mafia Starbucks". I LOVE going to this one specific Starbucks as I can people watch... there are these older men that I joke are in the mafia... they're ALWAYS there and I love just observing them. they're quite intriguing. :)

ok, so on Wed. my friend brought this SLR digital Pentax camera I'm buying from him. right now I've just got the body of it and no lenses... doesn't mean I'm any less excited! it just means that right now I have a lens searching addiction, in which I look at lenses online for long periods of time. I just need to decide which one(s) I'm going to buy. I'm currently browsing KEH Camera . I've also found a lens adapter that I've been wanting for YEARS (especially while living in China). it's a 90 degree angle lens... basically, it looks like you're taking a picture directly in front of you, but actually you're taking a picture of something at a 90 degree right angle from it... that way you can take very candid pictures of people without them knowing. there were SO MANY times I wanted this while in China, but I didn't even have an SLR then, so what good would that have been?! HAHA anyhow, I'm definitely gonna buy one... just thinking of it makes me so giddy. gosh, I'm weird!

I have a small problem... well, actually not that small... I have 2 courses I've applied for at school and it says I'm registered for them, but I've never got any course info either by mail or online... I sent an inquiry asking why the info wasn't on the site and they told me to e-mail the professor to find out why... but I don't even know WHO the professor is as I never got the course info AT ALL! I mean, I don't have an outline, study notes or anything... so I'm trying to solve this problem... and I have assignments due in both of those classes within the next two weeks! ACK! well, it's a good thing they're Chinese courses. that really does make my life easier. I can get a Chinese assignment out in a good day's work, no matter how difficult, if I try hard enough. I just hope I get the info soon. I also have an assignment coming up soon in another Chinese course in the next week and a half. I really should get working on that! HAHA

I caught a cold this week and have been a bit out of it. on Thursday I could barely keep my eyes open all day. it was pretty bad. I haven't really felt that bad, but I've had an awful cough and my voice has decided it wants to go on holiday. it's not completely gone, thank God. but it's enough to be annoying. I think I caught the cold due to lack of sleep and the odd changes in the weather. seriously, it goes from being crazy cold and windy to being warm in a matter of a day or so and then back to being cold. I'm used to this happening in China... I called it "false spring". it always comes between Chinese New Year and early April. it gets "warm" out (warmer than freezing... so we can actually shed our coats and not lose body parts to the cold) for about a week, people start putting up their winter clothes and wearing less clothes (Chinese people are into layering... I think the most layers I've counted on a Chinese person is 7! yes, SEVEN!)... then suddenly winter weather returns until the end of April. finally, once May holiday comes it's no longer freezing out. too bad weather in L.A. isn't that predictable.

ok, that's enough of my random ponderings... I think I just need to go to sleep and start making up for lost sleep!

shocking!

ok, so today was "one of those days". I woke up sick and feeling under the weather. I got to school and the principal was mad cuz the filter still wasn't working properly and I got frustrated with the tech support guy cuz he couldn't figure out WHY it wasn't working properly and kept trying to make it sound like user error (when, in fact, I just think our computers are too stupid and old to handle it properly). after all the frustration, he told me to just change it from proxy mode to bridge mode... which means that I can no longer control whether certain sites are blocked or unblocked. DANG IT! I had purposely UNBLOCKED youtube because I want to use it in class for teaching purposes, but the stupid filter blocks it. so now I guess I can't use it until we get our new computers. I'm praying that happens soon. anyhow, I finish that and then the principal gets mad cuz I'm not in math class. I go up there and just sit... and sit... and sit... I got up for like 5 min's to help students, but the rest of the time was just sitting. I almost fell asleep. I really don't know why she has me up there. if there were groups for students who were behind in math and ahead it'd make more sense. but they're all learning the same lesson at the same time and I'm just sitting there til the lesson is over. BLECH! it's boring... oh well. so, it comes time for my 4th graders to come in to class. I'm ready for them. they're usually pretty good, considering the few trouble makers in the class. the class went real well. they were all on task and very curious about the subject (Chinese New Year), so they kept asking me questions WHILE they were doing the research... and also telling me everything they already knew about it. so cute! at this point I'm freaking out that the 7th grade teacher is gonna send me the whole class for their lesson cuz I only have enough computers for half of them. they're a, how can I say it, not so calm class. so they all get there and I'm kinda thinking "oh crap! I'm REALLY not up for this..." I tell them the assignment and have them get into pairs. I'm seriously worried at this time that they're gonna just start goofing off. SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS!!! they all get on task right away... and the ones that were working the hardest were our "troublemakers"! when I first realized they were all doing their work, I went to Rosa and we talked about it... cuz even though they were on task they were a bit noisy. and the principal has already told me that she's "old fashioned" and she thinks that the classroom should be quiet. we talked about that very fact and how she would be upset if she came into the class. well, I was so into helping the kids out and answering their questions that... I didn't notice the principal had come into class!!!!!! I saw her and thought "uh-oh... I'm dead" cuz the class had gotten considerably noisier than at the beginning of the lesson. but alas, she walked over to me and said that it was a good lesson and that she was glad I was working with the students and she was proud of the students staying on task. I even pointed out to her our "troublemaker" students and how they were the ones working the hardest, and she went and praised them. seriously, it made me feel good that they were working so hard. I showed Rey the hard work that was going on (he'd been working on something in my class the whole day, for the principal) and he jokingly said "give me back the old students! what have you done to these kids?!" I even wrote a note for the 7th grade class teacher telling her how the lesson went and suggesting that they be praised. I know that they don't get praise that much from her and I think it would mean a lot to them, even if they do feel like dorks for being praised in front of the class. haha :-) so yeah... that was my SHOCK of the day.
after work I stopped by Target to pick up a few things for transporting the food from my house to Jonder's for our Chinese New Year dinner/cell group tomorrow. I'm SO excited about it. seriously, I get way too excited about this. I'm already a compulsive over-cooker (that means I cook too much, not that I over cook the food. haha) and mixing that with the fact that it's a Chinese holiday means that I'm going all out for it. a few of our cell members are going to come over to help me cook, which will be fun. I like cooking with people and talking/singing/dancing (the key ingredient to good food... DANCING! no joke!). I hope I make WAY too much food... so that I can take it to work on Thurs. Rosa, Rey and Lily really want some and have been bugging me all week about it. actually, they've been bugging me since June about it. but Chinese New Year gave them a renewed reason to bug me about it. and since I'll already be cooking, why not give in! haha
I don't think I have anything else much to write about. I'm on Theraflu Severe Cold Warming Effect right now... I was gonna do a blog about what "warming effect" means, except I wasn't motivated enough to find out and the first page that came up on a google search didn't explain it to me. so I scrapped that idea! haha my brain's kinda fried... it's been all over the place since this morning and I didn't think the Therafly daytime helped any. I'm gonna take nighttime in about 20 min's and then try to get to sleep. tomorrow's gonna be a LONG day of cooking. I'm so excited! is it wrong that I've been looking forward to this dinner since last year immediately after Chinese New Year? I just LOVE doing this. partially because I love cooking for people, partially cuz it reminds me of China and it's kinda my "link" to China, and partially cuz I like to hang out with people in a relaxed setting that has a purpose, even if FOOD is the purpose... (as opposed to sitting around trying to think of something to do)
alrighty, I'll stop rambling now... and I'll let you see some of the pix of food from the past 2 yrs of making Chinese New Year dinner. *disclaimer* I'm not responsible for damage done to your computer due to drooling! =0)

odd things~

one could definitely say that my life consists of many odd things... not just the things that happen around me, but my dreams, my friends, my life, my thoughts, my conversations, etc, all of them are odd... typically odd in a good way. anyhow, I just think it's interesting how odd all the stuff in my life can be, including myself, yet I'm a very down to earth person. it intrigues me.

I really don't have much to say. I'm frustrated with my blog right now because I've been wanting to make a blog about something for a few days but have been too busy... and I needed to be on my laptop to do it because that's where there was a pic I needed to use. well, I just started on that blog and had to postpone it as the blog wasn't inserting my picture! >_< (that's an angry/frustrated face, for all of you that don't know)

I can reminisce about the day. I was sent on a donut run shortly after getting to the office. the weather was so nice today that I really enjoyed it. when I got back, somehow Jonder, Gwen and I ended up in a conversation about raising bilingual children. well, really, I still don't know how Jonder got on the topic of having children... he's the one that brought it up and was telling all about how he would do things raising his kids and from there we ended up on the bilingual subject. my expertise were called upon, but I kept trying to back out of the conversation cuz that's a subject that I can talk about for hours and Jonder needed to go to Rite Aid to get the pix for his visa to India.

I'm really exhausted. I can't believe I'm still awake. I'm definitely sleeping in tomorrow. if you wake me up... I will not be a happy camper! although, I have so much to do tomorrow that I might wake myself up. hahahaha I'm so weird. fortunately, my task of buying a certain birthday present has been made easier by the fact that my friend will be buying it for me since she works at the store I need to get the present from. that way I don't have to worry about finding a way to get out to REI. I mean, I still need to go shopping to get all the ingredients for the Chinese New Year shindig... and I don't even know what I'm gonna be making, yet! haha dumplings are a must. especially brocolli ones, they've been requested many times the past few months. might as well give the fans what they want. haha

ok, so the other week my dear friend brought up the subject of love languages. long story on how we got on the subject... not important to explain in this blog. I really didn't know what my love language is (for receiving, but I definitely know for giving)... tonight I asked another friend what she thought my love language is. she made a stab at it and then decided she'd look online for a quiz to determine it. (I had no clue such thing existed... I never read the book. it, along with all the broohaha about it, came out while I lived in China. I'm lame.) so we found the quiz and I did it. (the quiz can be found at http://www.greaterquest.com/LoveLanguages.asp ) here are the shocking results:

Love Language
3 Words of Affirmation
7 Quality Time
4 Receiving of Gifts
7 Acts of Service
9 Physical Touch

so yeah, apparently I really like the whole touch thing... (shut up, you! I know what you're thinking!!!! >_< those pictures prove nothing.... lol ok, maybe they do... but yeah....) I'd like to know what your results are. if you feel comfortable with it, go ahead and leave me a comment with your results.

ok, ok... it's 11:00. I really shouldn't be awake now. in fact, I should have been asleep hours ago. I need my beauty sleep! or just regular sleep. any sleep will do at this point. *yawn*

vole or muskrat?

so, the other day Jenn and I were thinking of the odd creature that we almost ate in Guilin, China... we almost ate it because it was there at the restaurant and we were up for adventure. but because we had no clue what it was in English, it made the task of me knowing what to call it in Chinese a bit more difficult (which doesn't even make sense to me right now as I actually do know how to say quite a few things in Chinese that I don't know in English... perhaps I was just too hot and couldn't think clearly). we ended up having Guilin noodles with horse in it. it wasn't awful... not great, either. but whatever. I've had lots weirder in China. haha

here's the mysterious creature that we spent MONTHS trying to figure out what it was.

Jenn decided to do a google search on rodents and we ended up finding the vole. we were CONVINCED that it was the vole because the picture looked so much like "the thing we almost ate"...



the only problem with that theory is that all the information we could find about voles showed them to be teeny tiny up to "not big enough to be the creature". so later on I decided I was going to do more research about voles... I had to PROVE the creature was a vole... well, I never succeeded in that, but I did succeed in finding another animal, the muskrat. they're related to voles in some way and so I decided to do an image search... coming up with THIS picture...



doing other image searches and stuff, we determined that "the creature we almost ate" was indeed a muskrat... I can't believe it took us over half a year to determine that! I think we've decided we'd never eat a muskrat, but I'm not sure why... I mean, we almost ate it that fateful day. what has changed in our minds since then? perhaps after all of that we just decided it deserved to live... HAHA or maybe I'm just over analyzing things. that's quite likely when it comes to me.

well, on another "eating weird things" note... I decided to put up a picture of one of the weirder things I've eaten.




any ideas on what it is? I actually DO know what it is... but I don't want to totally gross you out right now. so I'll leave the guessing to you. I've had it several times and I promise you it doesn't taste like anything... and I've been told it has the protein of like 8 eggs or something ridiculous like that. if you REALLY need to know what it is... well, you can figure it out by looking at the file name of the picture... at least I think you can. I can. haha