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| Man, it's been a while. This summer's been pretty full, at the same time, pretty empty and relaxing (if you count the number of hours I've spent watching TV online or just sitting on IM). Works for me! I can't believe it's almost over and school will be back in session in about a month or less than 20 days if I count to when I am back at school for NSOP. Man, NSOP. Because of circumstances, I've changed my role from orientation leader (OL) to crew chief (CC), so instead of leading and working with freshmen, I'm more in the background to run around and lead (sort of) a bunch of the OLs, while working with the other CC's. I don't know if this is for better or worse, b/c I'd signed up to be OL b/c I like being able to work with freshmen (more direct impact I suppose) and I heard it was more fun--it'd buy me 2 extra days at home, too--but at the same time, I know most of my crew from before, so it'll be fun. Also, CC's almost more suited to who I am, since I like doing a lot of background work to make sure things run smoothly, and now I'm kind of getting used to being on my own in the city and not so much always at home. Hmm...who knows which would've been the better choice, but I'm sure God'll let it work out.
But anyways, back to actually summing up the summer than trying to predict the future. Haha. I can't believe I only have one more day of actual work, and then I'm "done" for the summer. Wow. Lab. It's been about 2 years or so. Kind of crazy. Thank you. Good-bye.
Orgo Lab finished yesterday. It was fun :) fast b/c it's summer session schedule, but fun. As usual, I didn't feel the most ready, esp. since I wasn't the strongest in orgo when I first took it and haven't really used much of it since...but everything seemed to work out okay, and I liked having my weeks broken up b/t orgo lab and regular lab. The timing worked out well, too, where I could end regular lab early to match with the same week as orgo lab :) buys me a few days in the city to just relish the city as is, and finish up applications.
OMG applications. essays are the bane of my existence. It's so hard to write something not-so casually. And the fees add up so quickly. I can't believe I already memorized my credit card number in the process, like seriously...I've only had the card for a little over 2 months. Ridiculous. PURE madness. But I suppose in the end, it'll be worth it. As I've come to realize many times, it's easier for me to not worry about what happens and just leave it to God and the future to have everything play out. We'll see what happens!
So aside from all that, I guess in the end, my summer hasn't been entirely the way I pictured it to be. I'm not quite sure how I pictured summer after junior year, maybe except for applications and an internship, or like be abroad for the entire summer, but that didn't really pan out. I still wish I got to travel somewhere out of the US this summer, though. =/ Oh wells. But for a smaller example, I never thought I'd be painting while in NYC, but I have been the past couple days. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy it, but I certainly wouldn't have been prepared for this if I hadn't been assigned to a painting crew while on missions in Bridgeton, NJ with the DCAC/CBCGH kids. At that time, I had grumbled some because I really wanted to do construction (like to use a drill), but no, I was with a single crew to paint the outside of the house. By doing so, I learned to wash, scrape, prime, and paint...which I guess kind of corresponded to inside job of scraping, spackling, and painting. Haha. Funny how that worked out.
Speaking of missions, I've been debating on what to do already for next summer. It's going to be an odd place since it'll be post-graduation (who knows where I'll be), but I kind of want to do missions with RWC because its trips are longer and I think would stretch me in a way I haven't been stretched before (esp. with all the training and things involved prior, since I never did much prep work before), but after having the past two missions trips with DCAC & CBCGH, I find myself more attached to home because I know the kids and want to stick around to sort of give my all back to the church I grew up in while I can, and I want to see how God grows and transforms them (and in that process I am learning myself). I'm pretty thankful for these youth--they're well-behaved and cooperate well with me, so it's actually really easy to work with them. I really was able to see this during missions, where one other church had a cat fight among their girls, and within my own crew, I felt like I had to battle constantly with feelings of annoyance and irksomeness because a third of the crew wanted to rebel against the assigned "adult" of the crew that we all had assigned as "work director". I'm proud of DCAC, how they stepped up. It's always amazing to see how God matures them and breaks my perception of how I last remember them. After missions, I always feel like there is so much potential in them to really come together and solidify the youth group so that they can grow together in their faith. I really want to be able to do something more, but I know it's really not in my own power. Kind of strange but comforting. :) Though this trip wasn't as exciting as going to Mexico, and I felt like the trip was geared much more to middle schoolers and younger high schoolers, I think the youth still had a great time, and learned from the trip. Missions trips aren't supposed to be just fun anyways, since there are ways to serve God in all circumstances, be it what I expect and not. Pretty cool.
That's about it. I can't wait to go home and go to NECCC. :) 'twill be great! | | |
| in high school...i got the least avg num hours of sleep per night during my sophomore year, but gradually i upped it for junior & senior year. then coming to college, i upped it even more for freshman year, as i retrospectively look back at my "anti-typical" freshman year habits. picking up the habits from a few friends and the increase of the academic load, it's been just impossible to actually continue sleeping as much as i did. of course the fact that i've become a much lighter and pickier sleeper in the last two years hasn't helped either, so the sleeping schedule has become all the more irregular since sophomore and now junior year. funny thing is, the later into college i've gotten, the more i've realized that i need sleep for memory of academic material, yet all those late-night many-hour problem sets have prevented me from actually putting in the proper study and rest time. you'd think that with a lighter credit-load this semester, i'd have some more sleep, but it appears that is certainly not the case, at least not in the last 2 weeks for sure. 3 hour-"sleeps" and 2 hours "naps" to break up the otherwise "all-nighters" seem to have become commonplace. i know my productivity gets low, but i really can't speed up the pace i write papers, or code my coding assignments...needless to say, that also means putting off the actual problem-style problem sets and vocabulary memorization (which i see clearly suffering as i go to class each week). depressing. i don't skip class. that's just not my style. i get my friends to come to class with me even when they want to skip...even though we all doze during class or must fight the urge to nod off. i've a paper due in a couple hours (so i just napped poorly for two, to get rid of a headache...which has currently returned and my eyes are burning from the computer use from the few days before thanks to matlab and now Word)...and he suggested i skip the first class (since it's just a TA-subbing in) b/c he senses that i've been exhausted. i realize i complain much (or so i think), so i shouldn't since parts of the last-minute-ness is probably no one's fault but mine, but sometimes, my good intentions of not procrastinating are really truly thwarted by the length of time spent on just homework (i know by how much time i get to just bake vs. my desire to really veg out). one of my freshmen commented today on how my gchat statues have been just so depressing. i think the statuses are dramatisized sometimes, though sometimes i really do want to punch a wall (or the assignment if i could), and last week was arguably the most hectic of the semester (or that i can remember in recent memory since my memory's been a fail for longer thanks to lack of sleep), but that's only overspilled to this semester, and i only see continuing to at least the middle of next week if not longer. sometimes i just really want to drop work. drop everything. take a "me" day, a mental/physical sanity check day. i don't know how people do it...to just keep going, esp. since i'm quite sure i've friends who've got it worse than me. weak! and now back to the paper...God help me :/ | | |
| and a cake!
it actually does work. though i think i need to work on my mixing and measuring speed....to really achieve 5 minute status. haha
http://www.thehungrymouse.com/home/2008/10/28/investigating-the-myth-of-the-5-minute-chocolate-cake/
and
http://thefoodsite.net/2008/11/my-emergency-5-minute-chocolate-cake/
the 5 minute chocolate cake.
miracles of the microwave.
:)
i forgot to take a picture though :(
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| so I decided to take a 5 minute break from my streak of productivity and read all the statuses on GoogleTalk. My friend had a link to this website on NYC subways, so since I have to use subways every weekend, I decided to take a look...
http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/the-boys-and-the-subway/
Wow, man, these boys are hilarious, and the dad who blogged drew some pretty great pictures to go along with his blog. Hahaha. I love NYC. However gross it gets when it rains, however cold it gets with wind tunnels, or even the lack of green, there's always something so random going on, and I'd have to try really hard to be really bored. Columbia's special, having it's campus and all--it's like the best of two worlds--the city when I'm adventurous, the campus when I need a bubble from reality. I feel pretty lucky to be here.
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| *sigh*
in my free time, my goal is to make a quilt. but why in the world must all the backing and batting yardage be so expensive...gah. looks like i need to start saving before i can start buying so that i can make it.
my poor wallet. =_=
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