I just got my schedule to go, I’ll be taking mandarin classes and culture and folk art classes in the morning, doing activities during the afternoon, and ending teh day with performances and competitions of the sort. After about 2 weeks of that, I’ll be travelling around taiwan with the other students. It looks like everyday we’ll b going to at least 2 tourist spots, like the Eternal Spring Shrine in Chiuchutung, and Mochi Factory, longpan slumping cliffs, hot sprint spas, Eternal golden Castle in Tainan, watching the sunrise at Chushan, and Taiwan’s aboriginal culture village.. thats about 1/5 of the places!

It looks exhausting but will be very worth it in the end i hope.
all for 20,000 NT!! that’s less than 600$ USD – which includes room and board, food, traveling, tourist spots etc.

The study abroad will last a month, but i’ll stay longer! I’ll be staying at my uncle’s house in Taipei for 10 days, and then head to HK for another 10 days. I think I’ll make a trip to China since its just right there anyway.

I guess I need to start preparing – by learnign some mandarin at least!

VACATION OVER.

i’m really just procrastinating right now with the packing… thought i’d entertain myself with a blog post.

I’m really enjoying SF (I’ve been told that ‘San Fran’ and ‘Frisco’ is a very out of city term and the locals get annoyed by it haha).

I love how you can walk anywhere and everything’s close by.
I love the food.
I love the fact that the city recycles and composts.
I love the sound of the rain at night, tho on my side of the house, it sounds more like someone going pee…but still somewhat therapeutic.
I love the people I’ve met so far, and the families and friends that have welcomed me.
I love work when there’s work :p.
I love looking out the window on my way to work on the 280.

Yes everything is going really well here, and I’m very thankful that I’m being watched over.

In conclusion… San Francisco is beautiful! I want to find a job here!!!

On an outing with GRX's Here 2 Unwind group at Point Reyes.

The senior pastor at Bridges in Fremont gave a really good message about relationships. How are we treating others? What is God’s view on relationships? In Genesis 2:18, he says “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God created Eve to be a helpful suitor for Adam. From the very beginning, we were created with a need to connect with people. Life would suck if we were alone, and I’m not talking just about significant others, but friendships as well. But how are we treating others now?

Here’s five types of relationships we’ve probably approached at some point in our lives…

The JAILHOUSE approach: Being in a relationship where you feel burdened, and want to escape from it.

The CONVENIENCE STORE approach: Going to friends when it’s convenient and leave when satisfied.

The EMERGENCY ROOM approach: When times are tough or you’re in a bit of crisis do you go to a friend for help.

The NIGHT CLUB approach: To have as much fun as possible, getting the most satisfaction and pleasure out of the relationship.

The BEAUTY SALON approach: Being in a relationship that boosts your own esteem, and makes us look good.

All of these approaches are motivated by human needs. And all of these needs fall short of fulfilling our most deep and intimate needs.

I learned that we all long for relationships, for deep intimate connections, but it is impossible without forgiveness. Colossians 3:13 says “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” In the end, we’re going to get disappointed with each other because we’re not perfect…infact, we’re sinful!

This past year, I became frustrated with people a lot. I expected so many things, and didn’t understand why I never got the respect back. But I learned through Luke 10:27, to not seek love, but give love. Only through Christ, and those motivated by him, can I see this because Christ established a relationship with us out of true love.
yay!

another something to dwell on…

I’ll update with pictures soon, oddly I haven’t pulled out my camera ever since snowboarding, and even then, I took very few.

I’m so thankful for my relatives living here, they’ve all made my transition here smooth…this includes getting picked up from the airport, feeding me, breaking locks (i locked myself out of my room one day), among other things. My roommates are very kind; very san francisco like … they are artists, environment-conscience, holistic medicine studiers and people-loving people hehe.

I’m enjoying work too, nice people as well. I’m a bit shy but I’m working on that I feel like a different person when I’m at work, it’ll just take some time. Definitely joining the gym tho… definitely!

There is a bit of uneasiness that I’m feeling though. I’m not sure if its because I haven’t worked on my capstone yet, or that I’m still adjusting to the workplace, but something just bothers me. I can think about it and dwell on my issues, but I’m learning (and struggling) to have joy in the true life given to me by Christ. Paul the apostle had joy in prison, even when faced with death, he continued to share the gospel because of his love for christ and with others. I hope I can embrace God’s gift fully…

Since I’m graduating this year, I’m really praying for some kind of direction. I’ve been asked a lot of “what country do you like better, Canada or the States?” or “what are you gonna do after graduating?”… There are things that I want to do, like travel, but if I left for a long period of time, I’m afraid I’d lose my contacts for work. How important is networking? Can I just pump up my portfolio? Should I go back to school? Tough questions, but once again, I get trapped with these idle thoughts and worries and forget about the big picture in my life. Am I pursuing God? What is his plan for me? So I guess the question I should ask myself is, why should I even worry when God is with me?

some thoughts to dwell on.

Hopefully by writing things out I can get a clearer picture, and i’m welcome to any feedback or suggestions…

I decided to focus on childhood obesity in low income families. I found out that as parent awareness and education on the matter goes up, the lower the chances their child would be obese – and this applies to both low and high income families. Thus, my goal is to educate the parents (low income) on how to eat and live healthy lives.

I’ve researched ways to communicate this info and unfortunately, the best option i could think of was PSAs (public service announcement). That limits it to 30 seconds, so i’ll have to do at least 3 stories that focus on different issues. I was originally going to do 1-2 minute animations that would be shown in the doctors office or hospital waiting rooms, but I found out that a lot of low income families don’t have medical care so they would usually go to the ER instead. ER’s are a bit tough to deal with too because there’s a wide range of patients there – and there would probably be no sound coming from the screen anyway.

here’s a list of the factors:
Parents aren’t aware that their children are overweight or obese
Their environment is unsafe to play (exercise) in
There are no grocery stores in the vicinity
Fast food is cheaper, some minority families eat it because its the ‘american way’
Parents don’t know where to get information about losing weight and being active
Parents are too busy to make meals

things that could be addressed:
buying healthy foods on a budget
how to get their children to eat healthy
what exercises can be done in the house
what exercises can be done through the community
how to live actively throughout the day
etc…

right now it feels a bit overwhelming. I really wanted to do an animated story, and technically I can, but i’m only limited to 30 seconds. I think i’m just a bit bummed because I wanted my capstone to be something cooler than “how to” videos. But one of my professors told me that the capstone is just another project – if i treat it like something more, its gonna get to me…and i guess it already has.

i guess its back to the drawing board…

p.s. i really wonder why they don’t make these any more
Timer from the 80′s

Unfortunately I heard that Im limited to the number of discounts I can get so I’ll probably be putting family first before anyone else asks me to buy them iphones and macbooks hahaha…

I haven’t posted in a while, school has been busy but I hope to finish one of my drafts that talks about the AGI conference I went to in September. There were a lot of great speakers and i have some helpful notes for those interested in social design. So keep posted!

thanks for your prayers

After spending time with my family, I realized how much I’ve been keeping in. My ‘happy face’ was really a mask of my evil one. MUHAHAHAHA. just kidding. Well, I definitely became more of myself – and i saw some things that weren’t pretty. My patience waned with family and I became easily frustrated. I wonder if thats who I really am.

I realize now that without family, you forget to care. Being at university on my own meant minding my own business. It made me selfish and when I came home, I only cared about my own wellbeing. So helping my family made me frustrated because I never got anything out of it. But maybe thats not the point.

I guess I need a lot of work…

Also Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is having a design conference in Chicago. Our profs picked three people from the class and I happened to be one of them. haha. Its a conference for anyone interested but I guess they’re paying for the expenses. Sounds good to me! Though it seems unfair since theres a lot of talented people in the class. Registration ends on Sept 5 and the conference goes from Sept. 23-24th. Check out the website and go!! If you’re a girl, you can room with me otherwise they list hostels close to the conference on the website.

And two more weeks left before i go back to the states!!! wah wah.

oh and tropic thunder…is hilarious. it felt like a series of SNL skits but in a very good way. haha.