haha... so while I am in the process of being lazy and thinking about updating the rest of my taiwan trip, i'll just put a filler here for now with a quote:
"Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for as ... flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. With friends even poverty is pleasant....It would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without friends."
John Chrysostom
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Taiwan!
this is gonna take me a long time to draft out so please excuse the delay as i spend forever writing this
ill probably split it up by 'place i was at in
for the record i wrote a page in my journal for every day there
have more than a thousand pictures
and 50 videos.
Alright
I’ll try to make this as interesting as possible so as to not bore you readers to death
First a disclaimer: a lot of my pictures were deleted by someone using my computer =( so a lot of the beginning part of the trip will be pictureless darn.
Part 1:
First tip of the day when going through airport security is: do not overload your box with all your items, your shoe may fall out and be difficult to retrieve.
Second tip of the day: Never expect to sit next to any pretty ladies while on the plane I am 0/6 and this was to Japan/Taiwan. Instead expect to sit next to a fat guy 2/6…
The plane ride to
So in
Dinner was actually really lonely sitting at this huge table by myself and I had a fist sized cup of soup for dinner. I was so angry for paying 17 dollars for it I was about to leave when they came up with this huge plate of chicken and pasta and said this was my actual meal. Oh. So I sat back down xD
Fast forward to next day in
The other cool things were the toilets, I mean I’ve heard of the hi tech toilets that clean
So when I got to Taiwan I was gonna get picked up by the ppl from the I love Taiwan missions camp ppl, cept after I waited 10 mins they didn’t really show up… so I tried calling an admin person using a pay phone.. FAIL. Tried using my phone card to call home.. FAIL.. tried getting a cop to tell me how to use the phone.. he just looked at me funny FAIL.. tried to get on laptop to scream for help .. no wifi FAIL! After some frantic OHMYGOSHWATDOIDO, I got called on the intercom and picked up by 2 staff members. Yay
So finally the camp itself, it was really not what I expected. There were a lot of speakers and lectures that were really boring and everyone else thought so too. I thought we were gonna go pretty much to the local churches and start teaching some kids but apparently they felt it necessary to show us around Taiwan and stuff …so that’s cool too. There were ppl from
A few things about
a) Food is freaking cheap. U can get a full course meal with so much good stuff for 3 US dollars wow, and later on I got an all you can eat seafood, steak, sushi, everything, shaved ice, ice cream, omygoshwtf buffet for only 370NT – that’s about 12-13 dollars US.
b) It smells like crap especially the city. The sewage is enough to make u gag but add smog from the like 50 mopeds on the street at once and I almost puked first time in the city.
c) there are a lot of good looking girls in
I spent the last 2 days we were supposed to be at the University kinda listening to speakers, chilling with friends I made there and kinda having fun. It was really not what I expected and it was actually pretty nice too. I got to go to a night market where stuff is dirt cheap and yea anyways all the nice amenities were about to change.
Right before we left we had this really intense ceremony. They huge this huge cross from the ceiling and had a 3D model of
We lit candles too dang
And afterwards =O they had a feet washing ceremony to send us off. Talk about intense.
Anyways we left for the local churches soon after so I’ll do that in the next update
To be continued: Part 2:
Saturday, June 13, 2009
It's Not Over!
While symbolically, our lives as we have known it for the last 4 years will end tonight.
But realistically, the best is awaiting us soon.
The summer is short, but short and beautiful. Together, with each other, we can make all that we want of this summer and more. The past few weeks can attest to that: ARML, Prom, CTF, Cooking, more.
So in name, tonight we no longer remain high school seniors, but in heart that never truly dies.
May this blogger be a testament to the friendship we shared.
But realistically, the best is awaiting us soon.
The summer is short, but short and beautiful. Together, with each other, we can make all that we want of this summer and more. The past few weeks can attest to that: ARML, Prom, CTF, Cooking, more.
So in name, tonight we no longer remain high school seniors, but in heart that never truly dies.
May this blogger be a testament to the friendship we shared.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Once in a Lifetime
Prom is over.
I am undoubtedly sad because for something as amazing as two nights ago, I know it will never happen again.
Once in a lifetime. Maybe that once in a lifetime will make it all the more magical.
I'd still rather have prom again though.
It's over and while you may expect me to write details, I don't think I have the heart to, maybe later.
I'm just too sad thinking about the dam inevitable future.
Life moves too effing fast.
I am undoubtedly sad because for something as amazing as two nights ago, I know it will never happen again.
Once in a lifetime. Maybe that once in a lifetime will make it all the more magical.
I'd still rather have prom again though.
It's over and while you may expect me to write details, I don't think I have the heart to, maybe later.
I'm just too sad thinking about the dam inevitable future.
Life moves too effing fast.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The truth behind shopping
I've always always complained about people (especially my mom) who go shopping for 5-6-7-8-9 etc. hours shopping and coming home with a) nothing b)something absolutely useless c)something not originally intended to be bought. It all seemed so futile and a huge waste of time...until yesterday.
So I went shopping with a friend at Fair Oaks for some clothes essentially. All in all, we spent 7-8 scouring the mall for the things I needed and I think we must've gone through the mall in its entirety more than three times. I bought probably a total of 100 dollars in food/clothes, and only 1 of them I originally intended to buy.
But all in all it was fun, not really just shopping, but legit shopping with a friend - something I havn't really done before. It's really not all that bad.
So I finally understand all those girls who spend forever shopping and accomplishing nothing. You have my respect for being able to survive all those trips cause I'm actually really tired from yesterday xD
So I went shopping with a friend at Fair Oaks for some clothes essentially. All in all, we spent 7-8 scouring the mall for the things I needed and I think we must've gone through the mall in its entirety more than three times. I bought probably a total of 100 dollars in food/clothes, and only 1 of them I originally intended to buy.
But all in all it was fun, not really just shopping, but legit shopping with a friend - something I havn't really done before. It's really not all that bad.
So I finally understand all those girls who spend forever shopping and accomplishing nothing. You have my respect for being able to survive all those trips cause I'm actually really tired from yesterday xD
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A day of Life
Today was uh. good. It was like life. how reality really is, and not something sheltered and school driven, but something of being an adult
So I started by helping at my church's young group car wash. It went well and all, we washed cars for free and got to know our neighbors. It was fun. Something that struck me though was when one of the young adults helping us said, you know Tim, when you come back in 5 years and have a job and a car and everything, you'll be the one sitting back letting the kids wash your nice car. Something about that was profound; I don't know where but it felt weird, like life's passing too fast, and I'm growing up.
Anyways, afterwards something that usually doesn't happen happened. Me and a couple of church ppl wanted to go swimming since it was a nice day. and so we did. The spontaneity and feasibility of this plan made it great. No longer was I inhibited by transportation, or parents, or school. We just did it. (Granted not all of them were 2nd sem seniors but I rubbed off on them. hehe =] ).
We made things possible, we drove around getting things, we spent the day free and doing whatever we wanted, we drove around, went to houses, got lost, found our way, swam a lot, rode on water slides, went to eat, got stuffed, talked for a while and enjoyed it all.
This day would have ended great and all had it ended here, but what makes it memorable, and really lifelike is the reality of consequences.
I got so caught up in having fun, I forgot about a promise I made to my parents about being home for something. In addition, I had certain responsibilities I had not furfilled that I needed to do. Finally, the craziness of all things resulted in me going to the toll road without 50cents and running the toll without paying.
All these things have consequences and as someone who is about to enter into another stage of life, I need to take accept these consequences and take responsibility. For in life, there are few free passes.
Being in an affluent society, and being in school has sheltered me for thus far, but things are about to rapidly change and I need to be prepared.
So I started by helping at my church's young group car wash. It went well and all, we washed cars for free and got to know our neighbors. It was fun. Something that struck me though was when one of the young adults helping us said, you know Tim, when you come back in 5 years and have a job and a car and everything, you'll be the one sitting back letting the kids wash your nice car. Something about that was profound; I don't know where but it felt weird, like life's passing too fast, and I'm growing up.
Anyways, afterwards something that usually doesn't happen happened. Me and a couple of church ppl wanted to go swimming since it was a nice day. and so we did. The spontaneity and feasibility of this plan made it great. No longer was I inhibited by transportation, or parents, or school. We just did it. (Granted not all of them were 2nd sem seniors but I rubbed off on them. hehe =] ).
We made things possible, we drove around getting things, we spent the day free and doing whatever we wanted, we drove around, went to houses, got lost, found our way, swam a lot, rode on water slides, went to eat, got stuffed, talked for a while and enjoyed it all.
This day would have ended great and all had it ended here, but what makes it memorable, and really lifelike is the reality of consequences.
I got so caught up in having fun, I forgot about a promise I made to my parents about being home for something. In addition, I had certain responsibilities I had not furfilled that I needed to do. Finally, the craziness of all things resulted in me going to the toll road without 50cents and running the toll without paying.
All these things have consequences and as someone who is about to enter into another stage of life, I need to take accept these consequences and take responsibility. For in life, there are few free passes.
Being in an affluent society, and being in school has sheltered me for thus far, but things are about to rapidly change and I need to be prepared.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
FPS State Bowl
So I'll write something about State Bowl here. I didn't expect too much from it in terms of FPS wise but it was quite insightful in other aspects. Details later after I think about it more
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I expected nothing on this trip, other than a bit of fun. FPS consists of 4 person teams, so last year, vangie dragged me onto her fps team cause they needed a 4th. This year, that team made it to states, cept everyone else dropped out and natalie went with another team; So its just me left with a freshmen and 2 sophomores.
So naturally, I decide to get a ride with the seniors ... who happen to all be girls: ellen, so jung, natalie and pooja. The ride was uh interesting I suppose but not as interesting as what happened later. So we played uh texas holdem and yea we taught sojung how to play. at one point i managed to get to 52/60 total points but then i kept losing hand after hand after that and got down to 30 =(.
Anyways once we got there we uh ate ... at a chinese place... in southern VA. You can take a guess as to the quality of that chinese food. Soso we got to the hs where the competition was and I finally meet my team for the first time. They were uh pretty cool ppl: Kunyao, Jason Miller and Steve Qian.
FPS is actually somewhat interesting if it wasn't for the massive 2 hour writing session. Like thinking is fun, writing is not so much. Our topic this year was counterfeit economy. And the problem went something like this: A company in Australia makes these nanobots that let ppl go telepathic. A counterfeit company in Zimbabwe, a legit sub company of the main Australian company makes the same product, but crappier - this leads to mental problems and such. So how do we deal with it.
I wont type out the solution I came up with seeing as we didn't win. But more on that later. Also it might have been a combination of other factors such as bad challenges or solutions or whatnot so who knows.
Anyways, afterwards we had to do a skit: and this was much lols. So the skit doesnt really matter so I came up with the idea of being a chinese guy selling counterfeit stuff, and in the process told the Russel Peters joke of : $34.50. It was imo pretty legit but yea we didn't win anything seeing as we dindt talk much about the actaul solution.
So at night basically I just chilled with the ppl from the car ride down and we talked about various things including but not limited to:
- girls who act like guys have girl aspects
- hot guys + girls, cute guys
- get to the top vs. humanitarian
- being happy + family + chillax
- women have it better?
- dating
- white guys azn guys nerdy guys
- people changing from before
- piano/classical music
So that was a pretty random list in no particular order but I don't really remember much of the night since i was pretty sleepy and it lasted till 4am. But it was a good convo mainly with ellen albeit.
After I slept for like 2 hours - which I might add I woke up all by myself and before the girls. =D I had breakfast and we had to do judging for the middle and junior division kids and their skits. They were fairly interesting although I was pretty out of it so I don't really remember much but they wern't that bad.
Skipping to the awards ceremony: most of the tj kids had left already. All thats left were the sophomore/junior team - They won second. And sojung and pooja- who won 1st + also 3rd in skits. Aka they both go to internationals in Michigan this year if they choose to grats guys.
Me? Yea we sucked =P But thats ok i didn't expect anything and it was fun. Out of the 8 teams we got below 4th since they named an honorable mention too. Oh well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I expected nothing on this trip, other than a bit of fun. FPS consists of 4 person teams, so last year, vangie dragged me onto her fps team cause they needed a 4th. This year, that team made it to states, cept everyone else dropped out and natalie went with another team; So its just me left with a freshmen and 2 sophomores.
So naturally, I decide to get a ride with the seniors ... who happen to all be girls: ellen, so jung, natalie and pooja. The ride was uh interesting I suppose but not as interesting as what happened later. So we played uh texas holdem and yea we taught sojung how to play. at one point i managed to get to 52/60 total points but then i kept losing hand after hand after that and got down to 30 =(.
Anyways once we got there we uh ate ... at a chinese place... in southern VA. You can take a guess as to the quality of that chinese food. Soso we got to the hs where the competition was and I finally meet my team for the first time. They were uh pretty cool ppl: Kunyao, Jason Miller and Steve Qian.
FPS is actually somewhat interesting if it wasn't for the massive 2 hour writing session. Like thinking is fun, writing is not so much. Our topic this year was counterfeit economy. And the problem went something like this: A company in Australia makes these nanobots that let ppl go telepathic. A counterfeit company in Zimbabwe, a legit sub company of the main Australian company makes the same product, but crappier - this leads to mental problems and such. So how do we deal with it.
I wont type out the solution I came up with seeing as we didn't win. But more on that later. Also it might have been a combination of other factors such as bad challenges or solutions or whatnot so who knows.
Anyways, afterwards we had to do a skit: and this was much lols. So the skit doesnt really matter so I came up with the idea of being a chinese guy selling counterfeit stuff, and in the process told the Russel Peters joke of : $34.50. It was imo pretty legit but yea we didn't win anything seeing as we dindt talk much about the actaul solution.
So at night basically I just chilled with the ppl from the car ride down and we talked about various things including but not limited to:
- girls who act like guys have girl aspects
- hot guys + girls, cute guys
- get to the top vs. humanitarian
- being happy + family + chillax
- women have it better?
- dating
- white guys azn guys nerdy guys
- people changing from before
- piano/classical music
So that was a pretty random list in no particular order but I don't really remember much of the night since i was pretty sleepy and it lasted till 4am. But it was a good convo mainly with ellen albeit.
After I slept for like 2 hours - which I might add I woke up all by myself and before the girls. =D I had breakfast and we had to do judging for the middle and junior division kids and their skits. They were fairly interesting although I was pretty out of it so I don't really remember much but they wern't that bad.
Skipping to the awards ceremony: most of the tj kids had left already. All thats left were the sophomore/junior team - They won second. And sojung and pooja- who won 1st + also 3rd in skits. Aka they both go to internationals in Michigan this year if they choose to grats guys.
Me? Yea we sucked =P But thats ok i didn't expect anything and it was fun. Out of the 8 teams we got below 4th since they named an honorable mention too. Oh well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
