Wednesday, May 23, 2007

closer.

time flies when you least want it to. and it's slow and painful when you want it to go fast. i remember this concept etched in the farewell gift from sam.

it can't be any more true.

home is where my heart is. but i can't help but fall in love with life here. in this beautiful place. in this screwed-up but yet fascinating country. where there's an adventure that awaits everywhere. where i see God's amazing creation and His gift to us, day after day. He has been ever so faithful and He has graciously provided. He has been my pillar of strength when everything is not right. He comforts and He loves.

thoughts about leaving seattle really makes me sad. but thoughts of seeing everyone at home makes me smile. the family. sam. melody (when she returns that is). louisa. carlene. all my darling friends in school. in church. the pastors.

when i return, a good number of friends would have graduated and stepped into the world. where the REAL life starts. it's kinda strange. yet so exciting.

time is really a funny thing.

Labels: homecoming, seattle, thoughts, time

This girl posted at 2:43 PM

Thursday, April 26, 2007

a mother's courage.

a beautiful photo essay. a single mother and her dying son. her son was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. my dear bioscience friends you'd find this really familiar. remember our cancer lab?

anyway it nearly made me cry. it won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. i've meant to post this soon but it just slipped my mind. the photographer, Renée C. Byer, was a former Seattle Post-Intelligence (one of the 2 major newspapers in seattle; the other being the seattle times) photographer.

the link for the flash presentation is here. do watch the presentation with captions.
the link for the official site is here.

Labels: news, thoughts

This girl posted at 3:52 PM

Thursday, April 12, 2007

He gave His life for us.

As little children we would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toys we knew we’d find
But we never realized a baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

*We were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live

As the years went by we learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves and what that means
On a dark and cloudy day a man hung crying in the rain
All because of love
All because of love

I finally found the reason for living
It’s in giving every part of my heart to Him (every part to Him)
And all that I do every word that I say (you know I’ll be saying)
I’ll be giving my all just for Him, for Him (every thing for Him)

We are the reason that He gave His life
We are the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give (all that he could give all)
To show us the reason to live

#He is the reason to live
don’t you know do you know the reason
that He came, oh He came to save us
when he gave His life for us
He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave everything (everything that He had He gave)
To show us the reason to live

Don’t know how I could thank Jesus all that he had all..

-Avalon's We Are The Reason

easter came and went. i'm glad i went for maundy thursday, good friday and easter sunday services. the one that really spoke to my heart was the easter sunday one. and i was glad danny went with me. the pastor gave a good message about the meaning of Jesus's death on the Cross and His resurrection. what effect it had on His disciples, and what effect it had on us. it was a fresh new way of looking my risen God, and very insightful. i'm also glad i got to talk to t. chen kee and pastor mitch on msn, as well as looking at easter concert and easter lunch pictures on blogs. =)

now i'm looking forward to listening to pastor charlie's maundy thursday and easter messages on mp3. i'm looking at my faith and salvation in a greater light now. i feel blessed.

anyways school is overloading me with readings and more readings. all thanks to my electives. but i shall be strong in God's grace! looking forward to shopping at lynnwood, a neighbouring city outside seattle, rufus wainwright concert, damien rice concert and travelling around portland, my 2 sisters' arrival here in seattle (yayyy!!), kayaking and whale-watching at san juan islands and planning my summer holidays to los angeles, las vegas, grand canyon, hoover dam, yosemite national park, san francisco, and the caribbean. hope my budget works out. haaaa.

oh yes. there's always those midterms and quizzes and readings to dampen my mood. but i have joy in the Lord! =)

Labels: damien rice, easter, life in seattle, thoughts

This girl posted at 7:40 AM

Thursday, March 29, 2007

a moment of silence.

Labels: new york city, thoughts, travels

This girl posted at 10:35 AM

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

in transition.

there are tons of pictures to be showcased here. spring break was a great experience. coupled with tons of photos which i can't possibly upload everything here. so you'll only see a selected few photos, some of which have impacted me in a big way. some of which tell a beautiful story. that's the aspiring photojournalist in me. hurhur.

meanwhile, for some contemplative thoughts while i settle my subjects for spring quarter and stand in awe of spring's arrival.

while viewing the exhibits in the White House visitors' center in Washington DC, i saw something that literally made me stop in my tracks and ponder.

one of america's great presidents, John F. Kennedy said,


so this is america's stand. on the other end of the spectrum, is singapore. so maybe the government is really, indirectly, afraid of us.

Labels: spring, thoughts, travels

This girl posted at 3:11 PM

Saturday, March 10, 2007

hugging a box.

carlene!! i received your package this morning!! haha the delivery man woke us up and my roomie went to collect to open the door at 8am for the man. i didn't think much of it and went back to sleep. until i woke up, brushed teeth and washed face, and as i pass by the tv on the way to my table i saw it!!! ahhhhh. what a nice way to start my day. =) esp when it's the last day of winter quarter!

i immediately sat down and grabbed by scissors and opened it. super a lot of masking tape lah. heh. i saw hello pandas! and marinating sauces and tom yam paste!! ahhh i'm so super excited. i read 1/2 of the postcards before realising i'm gonna be late for class. as usual. reluctantly i put everything back and rushed to change and met my neighbours to walk to school.

then i came home and explored every inch of the box and read every card twice. haha. tears almost welled up in my eyes. i saw my beloved meiji sweets and maggi porridge and more hello pandas and more tom yam paste! ahhh the best laid at the bottom. strawberry fran. i don't even need to look, i couldn't recognise the box. =) =)

reading the cards made me miss my friends in SBS even more. because in UW i'm most of the time on my own in classes. no one to take sleeping pictures of during lectures, or frantically refer to lab reports before a deadline, no lunch khakis and meiji factory outings and yucky coffee from the vending machine and trips to cafe by the quad convenience store and chatting with the aunties about snowskin mooncakes. =) i look forward to being back in school with that bunch of friends. as in really really looking forward. thanks carlene, ed, champ, andrea, RC(where's your card?!?! i also noticed don't have lanpei, huimin also!), lanpei, huimin, yoke peng, stephy, jingyin, samuel, angie and jac! love you guys loads.

speaking of long distance packages. i've been meaning to send back stuff to you carlene, 'cos your birthday presents are sitting in my room! i bought them in vancouver and when i came back, i just realised, that i put all my gifts away 'cos of the limited space in my tiny room. okok. i better get to doing that when i come back from spring break.

anyway winter quarter ended today. i've been thinking about this quarter yesterday night, and as i prayed to the Lord i realised there's just so many things to thank God for. true, that many unpleasant things have happened and things aren't always going the way it's supposed to go or the way you want them to go. but in the midst of those things, i'm learning to look for things to be thankful for so i don't become some mean, snappy, grumpy, grouchy, annoying girl.

take for example 2 days ago. i was happily on my way to school. thinking about the afternoon of working on my assignment with shian chi at the hub (like NTU's SAC, but much nicer). and without warning, on a slightly uneven road surface, i twisted my ankle and fell. it didn't help that i was carrying my bag, a laptop bag and hugging 2 books. i fell in the middle of the road and had a hard time getting up. and my ankle was hurting like ****. i couldn't even walk or see straight. i sort of limped to the side and brushed off the muddy wet stains on my coat and jeans. it was drizzling you see. and i guess i had every reason to be grumpy that day. at first i was SO unhappy. my ankle hurt and i couldn't walk fast or properly. my coat and jeans were dirty. my hands were dirty and i was late for class. and i had so many things to carry.

i was resenting and blaming everything, until i thought: it's a good thing i didn't wear a skirt today, 'cos i initially wanted to as the weather was turning warmer and i was sick of jeans. but i woke up to a rainy day so decided to stick to jeans and boots. if i had worn a skirt, that would be really bad. cuts, bruises and stains on my very very nice skirt from mango. and it's also a good thing i wasn't eating breakfast. if not it'll be wasted and i would have fallen more badly. and i started to look at things in perspective and actually thanked God for this. besides that, my friends were really really nice and offered to carry my bags, walk with me to school and back, offering advice of sprained ankles and remedies. and i've learnt to appreciate my friends even more.

i think God is truly wonderful for His exceedingly abundant grace. all through this quarter. as i read 1 timothy this week i'm again so deeply encouraged by Paul.


we all know that Paul was a bad man before he came to know the Lord. he was so bad he even persecuted Christians, until the Lord spoke to him. after that he became a faithful servant of God and he writes about that exceedingly abundant grace that the Lord showed him and how He came to this world to save all the sinners.

i see that grace everyday. in everything. even that strawberry-filled hello panda biscuit.

Labels: grace, life in seattle, thoughts, UW

This girl posted at 6:00 AM

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

today.

is a good and bad day.

human anatomy lab exam was a disaster. got all the muscle names and their locations and actions mixed up like rojak. throw in the names of nerves, anatomy of eye and ear, and all you get is a mess of latin names.

gastrocnemius semitendinosis semimembranosis extensor digitorium longus extensor hallusius longus soleus peroneous longus peroneous brevis gluteus maximus gluteus medius gluteus minimus iliopsoas psoas latissimus dorsi deltoid rectus femoris tibialis anterior vastus lateralis vastus medialis vastus intermedius biceps femoris external obliques internal obliques transversus abdominus rectus abdominus serratus anterior subscapularis infraspinatus supraspinatus trapezius sternocleidomastoid

i'm positive i missed out some muscle names. (fyi i typed all that from memory!) but these are just the muscle names. not even the nerves and eye and ear and the actions and all.

but i'm glad that i went up to the cadaver lab yesterday for a last minute revision. not only did i refreshed my memory a little, i made several new friends who aren't in my lab session. and this mexican guy is just so funny and he talks a LOT of rubbish. haha.

came home to watch an episode of OC to reward myself.

followed by good things. skype session with parents. a phone call from sam for me to unload all my midterm troubles.

dinner was a boring affair comprising the simple rice, sardines, egg with ham. followed by a big bowl of grapes. msn session with an old friend. american idol auditions at texas that made me laugh so hard. a 5 min walk in the cold in slippers (laziness) to the bubble tea-cum-board games cafe to play monopoly and have yummy avocado greentea bubble tea. great time laughing and gossiping. and i won the game! =)

mid terms are driving me nuts. so far had 3 already. plus a mountain of assignments, all graded. one is due the day after tmr. one more midterm next week. one final exam take-home paper still untouched, due in 2 weeks.

glad for snowboarding trip at snoqualmie. it's fun admist all the falling. 2 huge blueblacks on my knees and muscle ache all over. it's all worth it! gerri and dan were nice enough to bring us there for a 2nd time.

looking forward to vancouver. more snowboarding. spring break. new york city, niagara falls, washington dc. spring. cherry blossoms. whale watching. trips to the national parks. tulip fields. alaska? factory outlets. tax-free shopping at portland. summer. LA, LV, grand canyon, san fransico.

missing the CNY festivities. the food. the company. the visiting. sam. friends. family. ang paos. will try to make it up by throwing a party at home. complete with chinese food and lots of talking.

miss you guys. save me some pineapple tarts and ang paos. =)

Labels: life in seattle, thoughts, UW

This girl posted at 3:51 PM

Saturday, January 27, 2007

remembering Him.

on a friday, it was a beautiful day.

the sky was cloudless and was as blue as it can be.

the sun was up and the temperature was comfortable.

walking home, i was reminded of God's own special plan and purpose for each one of us, His children.

and to think that He is the same God that made everything around me so beautiful.

and as i read 1 and 2 Corinthians and read about how Paul struggled with his ministry at Corinth and Asia minor and all the things he had to go through and suffer for Christ's sake, and how he became such a great servant of God and such a good testimony and how he defended his faith.

i began to put things into perspective and that my struggles here are part of His divine plan, and that from within i can emerge to be a stronger christian and that what i'm going through cannot be compared to what others had to go through.

'And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”'
- 2 Corinthians 12:9

remember Him. always.

Labels: thoughts

This girl posted at 10:01 AM