058

About a week ago, I spent an afternoon at my friend's ranch. One of the many highlights of the day was jumping off some rocks into a cool pool of water that coursed its way through their family's land. The experience was something out of a book, like A Separate Peace, but without anyone dying. It was so surreal.

After returning to campus, even though I was physically at school, my mind was still back in Oakdale, where I had just spent a great day with my friends. My mind was replaying the day's events of walking through a herd of cows, jumping into freezing water, flying kites, and simply enjoying nature. It's sad for me to say that I once thought places like this did not exist anymore and I could only read about it in books. I don't mean to say that there is not enough nature around for me to enjoy. What I mean is that this day was a very intimate experience shared among a group of 18 friends and only us, no tourists, no outsiders, simply friends.

At times where I was walking by myself, I would think, "God, this place is beautiful. You made this. Thanks".

That day was the best way to start off my spring break. I don't know if I'll ever have the opportunity to go back but I sure would like to come back.

Credits to Yvonne Mai for the photograph. BOY'S CLUB! :o)

040

Just came back from China, where there is a 14 hour time difference and I am jet-lagged like woah.

Have you ever experienced two extremes? In Egypt, I faced over 100 degree weather everyday and probably sweat buckets by the end of the day. In Beijing, it was well below zero degrees (-15 C) at the Great Wall. Ice crystals would form on my peer's eyelashes because it was so cold.

To appreciate one thing, like heat, you need to experience cold, or the absence of heat. To experience true joy, you need to know what true sorrow is. Even a little bit of each is good. Like the saying goes, "what goes up must come down" and vice versa. I believe in constant growth. I see these hills, valleys, and plateaus and I want to overcome them.

That's me on the Great Wall of China in below zero weather, feeling quite joyful.

039

Here I go on another whirlwind adventure, this time to the Far East to explore complementary and alternative medicines. The year 2010 was a good year to travel for me and I am so incredibly blessed to have all these amazing opportunities. This trip is definitely something I was looking forward to during finals last week. The next ten days are going to be frikk'n awesome. China, here I come!

我很兴奋!!!

wo hun xin fun!!!

Thanks Joline.

018 an august adventure

This adventure involves Australians, a broken bone, and cardboard.

It's amazing how time flies by and in this case, it was 30 years for my dad to reunite with his best friends from high school after they escaped the Vietnam War. Within that time, my dad and his buddies were able to share stories and laughs over dinner at our house for the past few days. One of his friends, who managed to escape to Australia, Bac Hua has two daughter my age. So I had the wonderful opportunity to show these Aussie girls around NorCal and let them try wonderful things such as In'N'Out Burger, YogurtLand, and California Sourdough.

On their last evening in the area, we went to the Cheesecake Factory with my uni friends, Josh and Sam. I tried Sangria and Long Island Iced Tea for the first time! On top of a glass of white wine that I had earlier at the house, it was a very delightful evening with new and old friends.

Afterwards, Josh motioned for an adventure with not much detail. Putting faith in our friend, we decided to go along with it. It was 12:30AM and we ended up at an empty park with these massive stone slides embedded in a steep hill. If you have ever seen Avatar: The Last Air Bender, think of those mail chutes in King Bumi's earth kingdom - that's what those slides looked like. Since the slides were not made out of plastic, like normal playground slides, we had to use sheets of cardboard to slide down these slides to prevent burns. It was hectic fun. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my body as I would see my friends fly down. Eventually, it was time to wrap things up. Before heading back home, Sam decided to slide down one more time in super speed. We watch him slide down and literally fly off the end of the slide, his cardboard disappearing into some random direction. Sam didn't move so Josh and I ran down to check on our friend to see Sam swearing and holding onto his shoulder. He tells us that he landed on his shoulder and thinks his collar bone broke. OH SHOOT.

It's 1:30AM by now and the 5 of us head off to the nearest emergency room to treat Sam. I'm pretty sure the Aussies weren't expecting to be waiting in the ER on their last day in America. Sam is admitted and we wait, and wait and wait. Apparently, the doctors forgot about Sam for about an hour. Josh ended up driving the Aussies back to their motel so they can get ready for their drive down to LAX. Josh and I wait for Sam and when he came out, he told us that all they did was put his arm in a sling and gave him some ibuprofen...haha. There was a lot of back and forth driving since Sam was unable to drive his car, on account of his broken collar bone. Eventually, everything got taken care of and by the time I got back home, it was 4 AM.

Talk about one crazy night! Shut the gates!