MiSURA

today is one of the coldest days i have ever experienced.
walking out of my 930 class to my room takes about 20 minutes. but today it took me almost half an hour b/c i think my brain froze on the way and the signals going down to my legs to make it keep walking were retarded.

but on a different note, just today i discovered that a billion of my friends (yes, a billion) are abroad in random countries, Great Britain, France, soon Greece, Australia, and Germany. Poo, I should've gone study abroad ! ................ No, Cleveland's broad enough for me. Having to walk 20 minutes to my first class? Sounds pretty abroad. It's culturally dense. who can complain? I've got the Cleveland Orchestra down the street from me.

but this summer will be awesome.
probably gonna go to korea (FINALLY ~) for two weeks? and then off to cali for training for teach overseas and then off to russia. =)

right now.. i'm sitting at work and no families are coming in to the office so i don't have much work to do. so i get to work on homework !

i don't have much to say these days. just busy beyond measure. not even in pictures is there anything interesting lately. i took my camera to the lagoon two days ago b/c there was a lot of snow and it was very picturesque. but i forgot my memory card and the batteries were low. so i stood out there in the cold looking pretty stupid.

I really like illustrator ! i just downloaded it last night and started to mess around with it. i could've taken a nap b/c my lecture was cancelled @ 1:15pm... but o well. =) this was wayyy more fun. i guess i wanna prove to myself that i really am an artist? i dunno. i may not be abstract and highly innovative and creative.. but i don't think i'm artistically challenged either. i'm too embarrassed to post what i've done so far. once i learn some more things and get the hang of it, i guess i can share.

i'm off to work soon so have a great day.

I'm going to rant about how absurdly expensive textbooks are.
Actually, the "textbook" I'm supposed to buy for one of my classes is just a bunch of photocopies from miscellaneous books. We have this wonderful website called Blackboard where profs can upload the pages on adobe so we don't have to waste paper. But nooooooo he's making us buy them?! And for HOOWWW much?! $122.30 !!!!!!!! I canNOT believe that.

So I cannot believe how much I'm spending on textbooks or a random compilation of readings instead of using it for more important things. AGH. Good thing I love this class. Ssoooo everything's okay.

Blah. I'm at work.. so I must go back. =)

Teach Overseas has accepted me !!!
I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to go... but it's either Russia or Kazakhstan. How exciting !
I'll be sending out support letters in the months to come so please keep me in your prayers.

I'm just ssooo excited today !
Tomorrow's another day. Yay !

I dunno why I numbered the slap but I'm sure there will be more to follow.
Slap #1 is for my lack in prayer. i know that prayer works. i've seen it proved over and over again. i know that prayer is a means of communication with our awesome God. i know that prayer disciplines us and sets our eyes on GOD and not on ourselves. i know... these things. i thought i prayed a lot. i was purrrty sure i did. but it's never enough. we must "pray continually". always be in a mindset of prayer. and that's what i've been lacking.

but today, as i prayed with a suitemate of mine.. i was quite humbled by my lack in prayer and upset at the lack in prayer generally. that slap across the face made me realize that without prayer... the retreat for koinonia will not be as glorifying to God because we did not prepare ourselves spiritually; we will be blind to the workings of the Spirit; we will grow to rely on our puny selves than God's infinite self; ... it just sucks without prayer.

there should be... less talking, more prayer. haha. just kidding. actually not kidding. more time spent with God will lead to more productive time with people. constantly ask for humility and love because it doesn't come naturally. fervently ask for a repentant heart because we are sinners at the core and need to remind ourselves of the cross. wholeheartedly ask for discipline and perseverance because we need them to live this life. and courageously ask for confidence and wisdom so that we can go out into the world and proclaim the amazing truth that we all hold so dear in our hearts. See? and all of that will lead to amazing connections and relationships with people: humility and love will put others first. repentant heart will prevent us from seeing everyone as sinners and ourselves as "righteous". discipline and perseverance will encourage others to keep on fighting this fight. confidence and wisdom will be able to plant seeds, nurture souls, and win souls for God's kingdom ! How awesommmme is that.

so pray. it's as simple as that. all you gotta do is talk to God. you don't need fancy words. you don't need to wail and beat yourself up. if in your heart you truly desire to glorify Him... then your prayers are sincere.

try praying just five minutes.

holdup now...... that seems like FOREVERRR. well, yknow what? in five minutes, you can brush your teeth and wash your face and take out your contacts. that doesn't seem like forever. in five minutes, your computer will be turned on and you'll already have checked your first email. does that seem like forever? in five minutes you can make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and put it in a ziploc bag. surely, that doesn't take all eternity. so ... five minutes is not forever.

i feel so refreshed. even when i walk into a prayer meeting dead tired.. i walk out energized and ready to conquer the world. almost true on the latter part. =) but what did happen is that the Spirit has renewed in me strength to go on. and that's the best feeling after prayer.

Classes start tomorrow !
I'm jealous of the schools that start on Wed. b/c they have two more days to get used to the idea that they're back at school, buy textbooks, get settled, etc. But maybe it's just better to start and get it over with. I guess it doesn't reeeally matter which day you start on.. just depends on whether you're ready or not. and I AM READY !

.....

as soon as I go to sleep b/c I need to wake up around 8am tomorrow !!!

song playing: Evanescence - Bring Me to Life




I think I've said this many times--I really like cleaning. I'm neither a neat freak nor a germaphobe. But I like cleaning... when I need to. =) I like washing the dishes, doing my laundry, organizing my closet and room...and now my car, too. No doubt it'll get dirty in just a matter of days, but after I'm done cleaning, I feel oddly refreshed.

This is also my first time washing my car since I first got it. Is that a bad thing? It's rained a lot but I had to wash it since the snow made my car awfully dirty.

I put the Evanescence song up because I lovvvvvvvvvvve listening and singing that song. Just like I feel refreshed after cleaning... after I'm done singing that song, I just feel like I've purged all this.. gunk out of me. Driving and blasting this song is the best.

Just two more days till I'm back at Case. Gonna buy my computer either later today or tomorrow. We shall seeee.

Song Playing: Shane & Shane - The Answer (non-acoustic version)

I thought I'd put up some long-term prayer requests for this year as a reminder to me and a call for more prayers from dear friends. =)

1. My classes. I'll put up my schedule one more time because it's really going to be tough this semester. I believe I am going to thoroughly enjoy every one of my classes, minus chem305. That's going to kick me in the butt and leave an everlasting bruise. But let's hope that I will kick the class's butt anyhow. =) I need to pull up my GPA and continue getting good grades. I'm scared that I'm gonna do horribly in chem305 but God always pulls me out of the hole so I'll fervently pray this semester.

Song Playing: Lyricks - Deliver Me


i had a good talk with a good friend today.

it's one of those talks where you walk away and you know that you learned something. it's a good feeling and it makes me glad that we both made time to talk.

he reminded me that i absolutely have to read the news. this world doesn't revolve around me. my life isn't the only one that matters. my life is not my own. God made billions of people. so today, i came back from church and read up on different countries on bbc.com and this is what caught my attention the most.

"Q&A: Kenya Poll Violence"
"Violence Scars Kenyan Town"
"Kenya Health Crisis Within Days"
"Kenyans Try to Pick up the Pieces"

There are many more related articles.

I checked out bbc.com on Fri. and Sat. but didn't think twice to read anything else but the u.s. elections and look at the pictures at the "in pictures" page. I don't know the whole history about Kenya, but reading the articles from Friday to today's was troubling. I can't believe how absorbed I am in my own life. I'm talking about seeing the eternal and wanting heaven on earth.... and can't see the unrest that's happening on this very earth. Maybe it's not about not seeing but just being ignorant. I need to stop watching reality tv shows and start reading up on the news b/c that's reality. Why do I care so much about their lives when I can't even seem to get mine straightened out? Start caring and praying a LOT more about what God cares about.. His passions.

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Random Note: my little player that I have for songs obviously isn't working. ssoooo the song is just going to load onto the page when you come here. so sorry if your volume's way up high and you didn't expect it. and obviously the song's going to change with every new post. and I may not post up the download link for every song b/c I'm trying not to download songs and it would be hypocritcal to put up a link for you all to download. ssoooo too bad if you wanted the song. =)

song playing: Desperation Band - Ready Now


I stumbled across a curious website this past week called Teach Overseas. and I found it through facebook. I knew about it before because a friend of mine is currently working through this program. But that was a long time ago and I didn't even give a second glance to the fact that I could be a part of this.

I've never been on a mission trip before. Many of the youth group members went to Mexico in high school; I have friends that have been to China and the North Korean border. The youth group also goes on mission trips still and every other summer they attend a work camp. So it's not like I haven't had opportunities. In high school, my parents always said that we'd be going to Korea that summer... so I couldn't make any other plans. We never ended up going. And the summer after senior year was the first summer that my parents didn't say anything about Korea and the youth group also decided to do missions every other summer, skipping that summer. Perhaps God knew that I wasn't prepared and blocked every road in my direction. Even in college, I could've gone on the Xining Global Project with InterVarsity. But something always came up.

This is the first summer where I don't have to take classes. I'm not scheduled to go to Europe or Korea for a vacation. At first, I knew that an internship would greatly help my education and experience and resume. And so I began a mad search around mid-Nov for all the greatest art museums in the U.S. and maybe even study abroad options in Italy and Paris. And as great as an internship would be... I wanted to do something different.