well, here i am, sitting home alone on a friday night...with nothing better to do than to update my xanga page.  how sad.  i just finished a two hour visit to homestarrunner.com...bad...i was downloading my friend's notes from class on our class website, and she said something about homestarrunner and before you know it, i'm watching the cheat use pencil shavings to pay for a somethingorotherinabox.  anyhoo...i thought i should update you all on my missions trip to baja mexico that i went on last weekend.  i should have updated xanga as soon as i got back, you know when you go on missions you come back and you have to spill all your guts to someone about what happened?  i called my sister after i got back and talked to her for an hour or so about it, she just sat and listened to me ramble.  i am also trying to work on my listening skills after she told me that i was not a very good listener.  i did a lot of listening on my trip...but that's an entirely different story that you'll have to ask me about later when everything i say will not be typed out on some publicly accessible website.  i think i should email strong man.  how much would you pay me if he used my email as a spoof on the site?  that would be awesome.  weird.  awesome.  and weird again.

my trip was also awesome, i got to meet lots of cool people, yes, even those from the university of second choice (USC).  there were only three of us bruins, but we were undoubtedly the coolest on the trip.  haha, j/k.  what was great for me was getting to meet and talk to many mature christians, people that have been walking with the Lord for a long time, and getting to ask them my stupid nieve questions and such.  seeing how people live their lives for God is very encouraging.  ack, there goes my manager's scary dog again, barking like crazy.  i gotta move out of this place...anyway, it is easy for me to get distracted, but not by thnniinggma man or anything.  we left last friday, and met the whole team in san diego, there were about 40 people that came on the trip, doctors, dentists, med students, dental students, d.o. students, pharmacy student, a nursing student, wives of ppl on the trip, an electrician...a whole bunch of us.  what i thought was neat was that God is able to use each of us together on a team, even though we have totally different abilities and skills.  i suppose that's what the body of Christ is all about.  so i guess if i was to be a body part on this trip, i would be the tongue, cuz i got to practice plenty of my medical spanish.  and God really helped me there, sometimes i didn't even know where the words were coming from.  of course, i'm not fluent yet, but i was definitely able to get the point across.  so i have a big desire to go back and stay for longer to force myself to learn spanish, i think i could do it if given enough time, so maybe this summer...but i'm not sure what God wants me to do with my last summer off, so if you could pray for that...

anyway, back to the trip.  on friday we just got down there and set everything up for saturday.  we got to play with the kids at the el sauszal orphanage, that's where we set up our clinic.  we had a medical clinic and two dental clinics.  the kids are great, they just pull you around and play with you.  the girls know how to dance like thalia and sing american pop songs.  geez...i asked them where they learned that!  the kids have really amazing stories.  most of them are not really orphans, but their parents took them to the orphanage b/c they were too poor to take care of them themselves.  so they actually have a better life at the orphanage, they get food, schooling, other kids to play with, and people like our team visiting.  we stayed at this christian campsite type deal...and i'm not really good at narrating stories on xanga.  anyway, saturday we worked at the clinic, there were a lot more patients for the dental clinic, but we at the medical clinic tried to do as much as we could.  i was doubtful of my spanish skills, but i was generally okay.  sometimes i made funny mistakes, like when i told the woman with tendonitis in her elbow to put her arm in the sky "pone su abrazo en cielo" instead of put her arm on ice, which is "pone su abrazo en hielo."  very similar words...veeerrry different meanings, obviously.  i got to help diagnose gastroesophageal reflux...yay.  one thing i wished i would have done is to pray in spanish for my patients, i was hesitant because i wasn't confident in my speaking ability, but i should have just done it, God doesn't care about our grammar, or whether i say that he is reigning in the sky or in the ice.  (cielo is used to mean heaven in spanish).  so yea, but we had a jesus film playing on the tv, and christian songs, and a pastor from the community to talk to the people.  we also gave out spanish bibles, and i got an extra, because i thought what better way to learn spanish than to read the bible?  (cory, maybe we can quiz each other on memorizing passages or something. hehe)  so saturday we worked the clinic all day, and had a fiesta at night.  i scared one of my new found friends by picking up a frog and shoving it in his face...heehee.  thereafter i was known as "froglady."  how wonderful.  it was great, we heard a message, and then worshipped into the late night, singing some of my favorite worship songs.  i guess those songs just go around and everyone seems to know them. 

the next day, we went to a small church service out in the countryside.  it was so beautiful to hear people singing praise songs in spanish and i was happy that i understood the message that the pastor gave in spanish.  it gave me a little glimpse of heaven, where we will all be praising God in thousands of different languages, and i bet we'll even get to pick which one we praise Him with...of course, my top picks would be spanish and then cantonese...and then i'd dabble in some french, italian, and swahili...definitely japanese too.  as i'm typing this i have to force myself to go back and make paragraphs, otherwise i would just ramblytype and this would all be one chunk of text, and you'd get lost reading it.  yup.  so sunday after church most people left...but i stayed behind along with only 2 other students and the dentists...because i knew that i would get to pull a tooth!!!  yup, that's what i did on sunday.  i pulled a tooth from this poor unsuspecting abuelita.  but the dentist started it off for me, so i just finished it.  that might be the first and last tooth i ever pull.  hehe.  unless i go on another trip like this...only in mexico does a first year med student get to pull teeth, eh?  so we stayed and worked at the clinic on sunday, and then headed back up on monday.  the couple who drove me home on monday were great to talk to, they and the other guy in the car all run a christian nonprofit humanitarian org called children's network international...they showed me their whole operation on the way back, we went to the wherehouse, where they store the 46 million bucks worth of donated goods that they distribute all over the world to the needy.  it's impressive.  they have a refrigerator for food that is as big as a house!!!  it is so encouraging to know that people are out there not just doing good, but doing good in the name of God!  you can go to their website at www.childrensnetworkinternational.org to check them out.  they do a lot of these medical missions trips to mexico and all over the place.  i would totally go on more trips if i could miss school...but i can't, they already gave me a hard time for missing monday!  and also i don't have the money, my parents have been getting on my case about that.  but, God always provides.

so yea, that's my story of my trip.  not too exciting, there are probably lots of things i'm leaving out...i'm just too tired of typing to write much more.  there was one thing that we were challenged with on the trip, by the chairman of the christian medical and dental assoc (CMDA), he asked us during his message, "what are you going to do to walk more closely with God next year?"  and he emphasized that we can't just assume that we are going to be more close to God just because one year will pass and we will be one year older, but that we need to have a concrete plan on how that's going to happen.  y aprendi mucho mas en este viaje, pero necesitas preguntarme mas tarde sobre eso.  adios amigos!

does anyone know how to change the font on the title of their xanga page?  i can't figure it out...like i said, i'm not as xanga savvy as you all are.

this week we had an ENTIRE lecture just on diarrhea!!!  i was not aware of all the different types...there is even a type where you have lots of fat in it, aka "fatty diarrhea" or "steatorrhea."  hehe.

in anatomy this week we were told NOT to puncture the colon (large intestine) b/c it still has fecal matter inside, and it would stink to high heaven.  ewww.  what was really gross is that i got cadaver fat all over my scrubs from all the dissecting, so i stunk like formaldehyde when i came home, and had to wash them right away.  (aud, all these juicy details are just for you! heehee.)btw, did you know that mel gibson has a horseshoe shaped kidney?  he does!

the magic castle was amazing, very good magic shows.  and my instructor showed us some of her magic tricks, i was impressed.  she told me she would give me a special invitation card so i could bring people there with me.  so if you want to go, let me know!  but you gotta come visit me in LA first.  :)

today i went hiking at temescal canyon in malibu with 15 of my classmates.  very nice, beautiful green hills, blue skies, ocean view.  my butt is so sore though.  and i ate ravenously after i got back...that's why i don't think i'll ever lose weight working out, i just eat more to negate the calorie expenditure.

i enjoyed reading all of your "eprops"...thanks for taking the time out to read my puny site.  i must go and read about gastrointestinal physiology now...yay.

p.s.  the UC's have a 40% increase for law school and med school tuition!!!  so now i will be paying $21,000 a year instead of $14,000.  what's up with that?  it's all arnold's fault...he better be careful who he chooses to be his doctor later on...hehe.

missing the bay area...

ok all, this is going to be short and sweet.  kinda sad when you realize you haven't updated your xanga site in almost half a year.  and then you realize that you haven't had a chance to read anyone else's either.  so basically i'm sad thinking all my friends do not know what is going on with me, and i feel like i'm missing out on what's going on with them!  but here's my chance to say that i would much rather talk to my friends in person, albeit more infrequently, than via xanga.  but this said, i realize i need to post something, or people will assume either that i'm dead, antisocial, or have fallen off the face of the earth into the abyss of medical school.

so "me" in a nutshell..."help, i'm in a nutshell! how did i get into this nutshell, it has to be a pretty large nutshell to have me inside of it!"  but no seriously, me in a nutshell...being back in LA is good and bad.  the weather is lovely, i walked around in a tshirt and jeans today, soaking up some sun at the farmer's market.  but i miss the company.  i miss all my friends in the bay area, and my family.  i'm sad that i did not have time or a chance to meet up with all of you during the break, but i'm happy that i got a few chances to see you all.  jeff, thanks for having your party, even though i look stupid in all your pictures.  haha.  so i miss all you guys, don't ever doubt it, even when i don't post xanga for 6 months or don't talk to you on the phone or email you.  i hope you all understand that i'm not as xanga savvy as some of you...i have no idea how you guys are able to post all the time AND read everyone else's posts!

so this semester is beginning to be what i envisioned med school to be.  starting off from monday, my first day back this week, i was feeling overwhelmed and tired.  but then i love the stuff i'm learning, and i realize i get to do all sorts of cool stuff, like dissect a brand new cadaver and look at all the organs inside.  i know most people don't get excited by that, but i do, so i guess that's why i'm here.  but i have to say i got a little nauseous from the smell of the chemicals used to embalm, so after four hours i was ready to go home.  i have way more class this semester than before, but the lecturers are really interesting and even entertaining.  i wish i could remember some jokes form class right now, but even if i did, i'm sure some of you would groan and then never read my xanga site again.  (now i'm wondering if people will even find this, i'm sure all of you have given up on me and have stopped checking for updates.  well, for those lucky people that do read this, you will get a special prize!  to be determined at a later time...)

i just decided last minute to go to our medical school formal.  it's on a boat, that whole deal.  i figured, why not, when's the next time i'm going to get to dress up and dance on a boat with my classmates?  hopefully it will be better than Cal's senior boat dance, if anyone went to that fiasco, you would know what i mean.

wah.  wow, this is super boring, i'm not as good at being entertaining as you all are.

oh yea, i cut my hair today, it's all short and layered...i would post a picture but 1) i'm too embarrassed and 2) i'm not that digital camera savvy yet.  the guy at the salon said "you really need a haircut" and i sheepishly admitted i hadn't cut it in over half a year.  and then he told me to get highlights, but i know that's one of their gimmicks to get you to come in all the time and pay more money when your roots start to show up.  it was my first time today getting my haircut by a guy, and the first time i had them wash my hair.  he insisted, i didn't, because sometimes i'm deathly afraid of other people's germs, and my hair was so long that it draped into that nasty sink where billions of other heads had been washed.  yuck.  but the guy did a pretty good job, it's a bit short for my taste, but it has a whole half a year to grow out again.

tonight i went to the christian medical and dental assoc. meeting.  it was good.  there are some great brothers and sisters in my class, and we realized today that we all hang out in different social circles, but it's cool to come together and worship together.  this sunday i'm going to check out grace community church, which is supposed to have phenomenal biblical teaching.  so that should be cool.  i'm glad to have support around me, from my family and friends, and also people who are going thru the same things as me.  i don't ever wanna take that for granted.

ok, i gotta go and study some more...but feel free to drop me an email or whatever sometime, i think you all have my address...i do get back to emails, even if it takes me awhile.  and with letters i'm bad, but i'm trying to improve...i love you and miss you all.  good night.

p.s.  "silverfish"...why does such a horrible, disgusting creature have such a pretty name?  a huge fugly one snuck up on me today as i was putting on my socks, those are nasty, fast little buggers!!!  i squished him with a tissue...and i just realized i don't know how to spell "squished" off of the top of my head.

p.p.s.  if you like green tea, talk to me, i have found the greatest green tea in the world, it's a brand called "MAE-DEN" and they sell it at 99 ranch, i love tea, and it is green tea heaven...hege, you know what i'm talking about, your 25 boxes will be coming in the mail soon...  :)

p.p.p.s.  ppl in LA notice what you wear...they notice your new shoes right when you walk in the room...scary!!!

p.p.p.p.s.  how unfair is this?   my little sister gets to go to vegas this weekend to see CARLOS SANTANA in concert FOR FREE.  and she has a four day weekend every week.  life can't get much better than that, eh?

p.p.p.p.p.s.  remind me to tell you all about the MAGIC CASTLE, i'm going this saturday night, it's an exclusive club for magicians in LA, and one of my instructors for my doctoring group is a magician, so we are all getting in as guests!!!  they have a "palace of prestidigitation"!!!  need i say more?

ok, now i see why this xanga thing is so addictive.  i can just keep putting random things on here and hopefully people can read it and laugh!  or at least smile...ahhh, i'm turning into a pumpkin, it's midnight...gotta go study!  this is goodbye for reals.  :)

livin in westwood...

wow, i'm so not xanga savvy.  it took me forever to figure out how to make a new entry.  sadness.  anyway...i found a place to live in westwood!  it's that place i talked about, a five minute walk from the med school where all my classes will be.  the girl i'm living with is working in this area.  i like the apt a lot b/c it is a really small complex that almost looks like a big house, with a nice garden outside and a huge balcony that wraps around it.  so now i just need to wait til next week to move my stuff in. 

right now i'm at my friend julie's apt, watching random TV shows.  this week we have some intro classes, but i don't feel the need to study just yet...part of me just isn't ready to start yet, it's going to fly by so fast.

i saw bad boys 2 last night.  that movie definitely was BAD.  horrible plot, over-the-top, outlandish.  and wow, i haven't seen a movie with that much foul language in a long time!

so yea, this week is called prologue, where we take a few classes and get familiar with the school.  i have a new ucla email address now, you can email me for it if you want it.

LA is definitely different, i have to say i think i like the bay area more right now.  the people here are so consumed by the way they look, it seems so fake to me.  i went to my first hollywood club, ivar, and it was so different from any club in SF.  i just didn't like it that much.  people here are always so dressed up or wearing lots of makeup, things like that.  not everyone, but some people.  it's a bit of culture shock for me, i guess.

but my classmates are really cool, i met some of the ucla main program students today, they are very nice.  only one person i met is from berkeley so far, a bunch are from stanfurd.  there's this really cute married couple from stanfurd, i kept thinking today about how lucky they are that they get to be together and support one another thru med school.  sigh.  a lot of people in our class are married and even have kids.

anyway, i'm missing everyone incredibly, i hope i meet some good friends here, but the whole atmosphere is just different.  and boy is it HOT down here!  i've become a wimp to the heat after living in the sunset district.

ok, i guess i should go do something productive...i'll see you all next week!

the madness begins...

so, i'm officially starting med school now.  we're doing an orientation for my program.  it's been really fun, the people in my class are really cool.  we're a really diverse class, very ethnically diverse.  we're taking some pre-classes right now to introduce us to some of the material we'll be seeing during the semester.  it's pretty crazy, there is so much to know, i feel overwhelmed.  but my education at berkeley is definitely helping, some of the stuff is familiar, i just have to refresh on the details.

so the main worry i have now is finding housing.  most of my classmates already have housing, so i pretty much have been searching on my own.  i found a place yesterday and i find out today if i get it.  it's really nice, so you all are welcome to visit me!  it's only a five minute walk from the med school, it's right near the ucla campus in westwood.  it's pretty pricey, but i think the short commute is worth it.

this weekend is my white coat ceremony for the drew program, and there's another one for ucla on aug. 8th.  so we get two of everything!  i hear the ucla students get jealous.  :)  we haven't met many of the ucla students yet, but next week at ucla's orientation we'll meet more.

we're doing a brand new curriculum this year, so we are the guinea pigs.  the second year students have been trying to answer our questions, but since they haven't been thru it themselves they aren't sure what we'll get.  sorry, this is pretty boring stuff huh?

but yea, we've been doing a lot of social activities, like biking on the beach, mini golf, movies, dinners, etc.  i feel like i have to get my fun in now before real class starts!

so yea, if anyone has leads on housing at ucla, then let me know.  hopefully i'll get my place and be all set.

i miss berkeley bowl!  groceries are sooo expensive here!

and i have gotten a taste of LA traffic the past couple of days, not fun!

i feel like i have to force myself to be independent now, since my parents are not around, i gotta take care of myself.  pretty scary, but i think it'll make me grow.

i still need to find a church down here, my friends here that go to harvest south bay want me to go with them, but i also want to find an on campus fellowship for grad students or something.  if anyone knows of anything, let me know!

ok, lunch is almost here, they've been feeding us pretty well here.  so more later...