this is just a rant, please don’t take offense.

I’m a Canadian who has lived in the United States for over 7 years. My father whose worked in the US for 8 years, holds a temporary work visa, no luck getting a green card. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati this year, I left in high hopes of a flourishing career in the US. Though with the economy in a slump, I’ve been finding it quite hard to land anything. I graduated with ample experience at some great companies in the states, but times are tough for everyone, especially foreigners living in the states. Despite knowing this, I still applied, I still had hope. American’s design presence is bigger than in Canada – there’s more opportunities, and I feel like designers are better respected and better paid. But through my experience job hunting, and listening in on the US news, the government is asking US companies to NOT hire foreigners. What a load of crap.

The United States is called a land of opportunity for a reason. It brought hope to a lot of families from distant places including some of my relatives and my family. It’s is a country that thrives in competition, and they love it. But once this recession came, people thought its somehow different. If Americans are complaining that foreigners are taking their jobs, do better at it first before accusing us. Stop complaining America, and become better. Don’t keep the rest of the competitors out of the race.

I’m not going to give up applying for the States. As much as I love being in Canada with family and friends, there are so many things I love about the States too. It became my home and it still feels like home. I’m leaving to return to Canada, but I’ll be back- hopefully soon!

It’s set! I’m going to Taiwan on July 8th – flying through Chicago, Tokyo, then Taipei! Then all aboard the taiwanese love boat tour. haha. Its embarassing calling it that, but its way easier calling it that then the Oversees Compatriots Affairs Commission. There is no boat, there probably won’t be that kind of love haha, but i’m sure it’ll be fun nonetheless.

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!

I’m amazed at how quickly time passes.
Being back in Perrysburg with my parents feels timeless, but no… tomorrow I’m leaving again to Cincinnati, and with a heavy heart I enter my reality.
Even San Francisco felt like one long vacation. Despite working, it certainly didn’t feel like it. Everything felt so comfortable. But reality isn’t suppose to be comfortable I suppose, at least not all the time.

VACATION OVER.

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

Sorry for the last vague posts. The first few weeks in SF were a bit rough (but not as rough as LA…no stomach flu this time, and i had a place to stay right away! hehe) and I wasn’t properly venting my frustrations. But alls good now I suppose.

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.

why do i even try.

YES, two posts in one day…probably within the hour! haha. Its a slightly divergent topic so I thought I’d separate it.

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…

Hello!
Sorry for the delayed update. I’ve been in SF for exactly a week now. So far its been pleasant. Lots of sunshine, warm weather, good people and good food.

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.

i’m stressing over the capstone project, and I have one week to figure things out before my review.

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

This has probably been the quickest I got a co-op yet. Unfortunately it is the last, but its best to go with a bang. I’ll be heading to Cupertino, Ca (about 40mi south of San Francisco) – working for APPLE! I’m pretty excited, and look forward to many things. Also really surprised, but I guess there was less competition this time around because people have stuck to their previous co-op placements. I dunno. Anyway, I’m really thankful i was guffawing for all of yesterday when i got the offer… hehe.

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

I spent the entire summer with my whole family. My brother came home from Alabama, my sister finished school and was working in Mississauga, my dad came home on weekends, and my mum was jumping back between US and Canada. But all in all, we were all back. It’s probably been about 8 years?

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…