everybody loves an ETCBCer...hehehe

who are all those cool people? :)

yay ETCBC.

oh, thanks james. i kinda just stole this off your site. muahhaha

from top left clockwise: me, ed, alli, velsie, uge, justin, adrienne, steph and james, who's SMACK DAB in the middle.

we are so cool. hahaha :)

all my bags are packed, i'm ready to go...

and thus ends my year as a froshie. as i look back upon my first year of university, i smile. sure, at times things have been really tough, but in the end those times have made me stronger. my education has *supposedly* made me smarter *haha. rite. :P* and hopefully my experiences have made me wiser. i look around my room and i've packed up everything. i've cleaned the floor. the only thing left is my computer. so i blogged. one last time, in my dorm here at Waterloo College Hall. oh room 329. you'll always be mine.

that sounded like cheese. ahahhaha.

future froshies - you'll have a good time. :)

so empty...

wow. as i come back to waterloo college hall to prepare for my final exam i look around and it's pretty empty. VERY empty. it's sad. i walked down the hall today to see who was left. there are like..5 people on my floor now. just 5. and they're pretty much all leaving before me tomorrow too. *except for maybe one of them* boooooooooo.

i kinda wished that all my exams were done before, so i wouldn't have to see res so empty. i totally get what you're saying erica. it's sad. very sad. i even wish that the roach guy upstairs with the loud music was here. and that music is annoying.

well. one more exam to go.

24.5hrs left and counting...

*achooooooo*

hmmm. i seem to have been sneezing all day. but it only gets really bad when i'm studying for my music history exam. hmmmmm...

my conclusion: i must be allergic to music history.

(...or the dustballs in my room. hehehehe) :P

ok. back to studying i go. bye. :)

"...that they may be one, just as You and I are one..." - Jesus

i read john 17 yesterday before i went to sleep (it being the night before good friday at all). as i reflected on the passage that i wrote and the events of good friday, i tried to imagine all the different emotions and thoughts that must have been racing through Jesus' head. even though he was fully God, he was still fully human as well. fear? hurt? anxiety? anxiousness? probably. but the thing that really hit home was the fact that he must have felt so alone. completely and utterly alone.

as he spread himself out in the garden of Gethsemane and cried out to God, he must have felt alone.
as he spread himself out on the Cross of Calvary, he was alone.

His last prayer (as recorded in john 17) was for us - "all believers". we were on his mind, even when he knew the events that he was just about to encounter. He prayed that we would be one, just as he and his father were one. many people probably think that Jesus prayed that all Christians would be united with each other as one, but i think that this "oneness" can be taken one step further. you see, i think that Jesus may have been talking about us (the believers) obtaining a oneness with God, much like the one that Jesus had with His father. God was on Jesus' mind 24/7. Jesus talked to God constantly, and came to Him for anything and everything. and it is only through Jesus Christ that a relationship/ a oneness like this can happen.

Jesus went to the cross and died alone, so we - as believers - could experience and live a life where we would never be alone.

oh, how i love you Jesus.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

some things just...change.

funny how people come in and out of your life. where there used to be many deep conversations, there are now uncomfortable silences. all over the course of 8 months....

things just aren't the same.

psych exam...done.

well...today was my psych exam. i woke up at around 5:30am in order to continue studying - since i was too tired to the night before. i think that the exam went okay. i know most of them...but there some that i wasn't sure of at all. but generally it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. anyway, after my exam in the morning things were GREAT. :) sooooo relaxed. (maybe a little too relaxed - considering my theory exam in on thurs). hehehe. oops. but anyhow, i napped for a good 4 hours and yah, i basically just did nothing the rest of the afternoon. ahhaha. then we went to the library to - initially - study, but me and justin got there a little later than expected and ended up arriving on the 7th floor as kary and amy were leaving. hhahaha. whoops again. so we headed over to kary's place to wrap up erica's birthday present, and then we hurried over to anita's place for erica's surprise party. *yummmmmmmmy sushi platters* :) yah...that was really nice. we played *the infamous* mafia, and charades, ahha. it's been a loong time since i've played that. it was basically a good time just to spend with friends. :) it was also probably one of the last time i'd see anita for a long time. :( *if you're reading this anita* i'm gonna miss you TONS. honestly. thanks for e v e r y t h i n g. you're the SUPEREST. well...that's pretty much the day that i had...it was fun. *excluding the exam in the morning*. but meh! after this, i only have two more to go! :)

p.s. oh. and for some reason, my template is back. james, did you do something? well whatever happened...it's back. and this is a good thing.

p.p.s.

happy t w e n t i e t h erica!!!! :)

btw. what the heck happened to my template thing? i dunno if this has happened to any of u guys...but all of a sudden....my old old template is back. and this template (the one that you're looking at)..is gone. mama nooooo. i don't wanna do all this stuff over again for this template. oh my goodness. what the crap happened? anybody know?

piano jury....done.

yay! my piano jury is done! thanks to rani and james for their prayers - and anyone else who prayed too...it's very much appreciated! :) i had some slips during my pieces but i managed to get through without stopping. my teacher was smiling at me - so i took it as a good sign. :P they also asked if i wanted to be considered for the piano performance program at laurier. (this basically means that instead of a 60min lesson, i'll be getting a 90min lesson). i decided to keep my options open and opt for that choice. they said that i would be able to withdraw from it at anytime and go back to my regular 60min lesson if my workload got too much - which it might, because the workload for potential music therapy students in second year is a lot!!! ahhh. (i'm scared elaine!) :) oh well. i'm confident that God will show me the path He has for me...i just gotta trust. and listen. :)

anyway. i have a psych exam tomorrow, a theory exam on thurs and a music history exam on the 29th. so...i'd better get back to studying. :) that's the update so far. once again...thanks for all your prayers...it means a lot. :) good luck on all your exams too! bye!

.

i couldn't think of a title. :P hehehehe

oh gosh. it's exam time. and for the past two days, i've studied psych for a whole total of like..10 mins. ahhaha. i'm so dead. yes. better study tomorrow. as well as practice piano. ahhhhhh. i'm starting to get scared for my piano jury (which is on monday). and to top it all off, i'm all sore from playing hockey. *ouchiwawa* yesterday i swear my fingers were swollen. swollen and blue (from the hockey stick. not the cold.) hahaha. it was strange. for a while i had chunky man hands. wierdness. but then again it was pretty late, so it might have just been me. :P

i've realized that i have an attention span that spontaneously changes on me. some days i'll be able to study hours on end, but other days it's just such a struggle. *sigh* same with other things. some days i can sit at the piano and practice diligently, but other days when i sit there, i can't even play my pieces. this kinda thing better not happen at my piano jury. they'd be like..."okay, next piece please", and i'd be like. "i'm borrrrrrred." and then just walk out. u see how this may be a little problematic? :P bad news.

anyway, it's getting a little late and i have church tomorrow....so now it's time to say goodbye. to all thy company (--> that would be you. and yes. i used to watch the Mickey Mouse Club. so what? :P) okay...so good night! :)

take that spider solitaire.

so guess what everyone! :) you know that impossible level on spider solitaire? the one with the 4 suites that is like..impossible to pass? today....i passed it! hahaha....what a great feeling. i didn't think it was possible...but it is...and i did it! :) even ask justin. i have a witness. i was gonna put up a picture of the screen when i won but i thought that would be a litle excessive. *actually, the file was too big and it woulda taken forever to load*. yessss! call me a geek....i couldn't care less. because the fact of the matter is....i finished spider solitaire.

i own you spider solitaire. i OWN you.

okay, have a great day. :)

blood is thicker than water.

tuesday nights are the nights when i talk to me sister on the telephone, and yesterday was no exception. i think we must have talked for almost 3 hours...don't wanna see the long distance bill. :P but anyway, we talked about a lot of stuff and somehow the topic of our family came up. i didn't really realize it when i was younger, but as i've grown up (and matured - hopefully :P haha) i've come to really appreciate my family and everything that they've done for me in the past. and especially now that i'm away from home at university...i appreciate them all the more. so...that's why i've decided to dedicate this blog entry to a certain group of people in my life who have made lasting impacts on me and have helped shape me to be the person i am today - my family. :)

i can sit here and list all the things that each one of you have done for me - but then the list go on forever. but i can honestly say that i feel so blessed to be a part of this family. even after you've seen all the different sides of me, you've all continued to love me anyway - encouraging me to do the best that i can do, and to be the best that i can be. i have a connection with each one of you, that is so special and important to me. something that can never be broken. what can i say? you guys are blood. *no, not literally. eww.* :P

i've realized through the years that families are special. not only in the fact that you're stuck with one another for life, but the fact that friends will always come in and out of one's life (that's just the way it works.) - but families will always be there. so to daddy, mommy and liz - i love you guys.

love the baby of the family, me. :)

gloria.

i originally had a picture here of jin, gloria and myself (the original slacker crew. hahaha), but for some reason it wouldn't work.
gloria is someone that i've grown up with. she's honestly one of the most hilarious and intellectual people i know. when she was in toronto she always managed to make me smile and laugh - no matter how cruddy of a mood i was in. during sunday school, she never really said much, but when she did it was always something really thoughful and something worth listening to. we've had many great funny memories over the years... :) such fun times...but like everyone else, gloria has a serious side as well.

since we grew up together, we've seen each other in pretty much all emotional states. we've seen each other happy, sad, angry, hurt, silly, serious and scared. we've laughed together and we've cried together...and even though there's a big physical distance between us (she's studies in vancouver, bc while i'm here in waterloo) we still manage to keep in touch and share our experiences with one another. and i guess that's where i'm going with this blog. i'm asking you to please pray for gloria.

for almost a year, gloria has been struggling with vasculitis. it's basically a disease where the blood vessels in her legs have become inflammed and have left red marks on her legs. it started as a small red spot on one leg and has slowly spread to the rest of her lower leg, portions of her upper leg and her other leg, as well as parts of her hand. as a result she's had to go to many doctors and ever since they have been able to diagnose her disease after many tests (the disease being vasculitis) she has been on medication to help stop the disease from spreading to the rest of her body. this medication has had some serious side effects on her physically as well as emotionally. also, this past weekend she was admitted into the ER at a hospital there because she was feeling pain in her chest and couldn't breath too well. this turned out to be a viral infection in her lungs, which was caused by one of the side effects of her medication - the suppression of her immune system.

so once again, i'm asking you to please pray for gloria. she needs it. i'm so proud of her for making it this far, and having such a firm grasp on her faith in all of this - even though at times things seem really rough. i'm really proud of her for being so strong and independent (she's an independent wuh-man...like jin says...hehehe) through everything - and never ceasing to turn to God and relying on Him to be her ultimate source of strength. i ask that you'll pray for her as she continues to cope with this disease. she told me that she doesn't think that it will ever go away, so please pray that she'll be able to adjust her lifestyle. pray that she'll remain strong spiritually. pray that physically she will be protected - especially since her immune system is down as a side effect of her medication making her succeptible to all the germs that are out there. pray that she'll know that she's never alone no matter where she is. pray that she'll be able to feel God's arms enveloping her, and His love all around her. pray that she would see the big picture - even when everything seems so hard and confusing at times.

simply pray for God's will to be done through this. pray that God will reveal His plan in His time.

i pray that God will continue to bless you in the way that He has, and will continue to strengthen you and mold you to be the woman of God He planned you to be. one day you'll be able to look back on this, and things will make more sense then they do now. thanks for sharing everything with me. take care. i love you gloria. :)

back to reality.

this weekend has been quite the great one. :) it all started off with a snow day on friday...i haven't had a snow day where school was closed in a loooooong time. so it was really fun. classes were cancelled, and everyone was just really relaxed, and having a good time - which was good....considering exams are right around the corner. anyway, so justin, amy and i went to clinton's house and we watched "spaceballs". it was really funny. ahhaha. dark helmet. good ol 80s movies. hahha. it was some funny stuff. btw, thanks clinton for letting us come over...it was really fun. and i had a really great time. anyway, then it was off to the pita shack for dinner, then to rani's place. that was really good. basically almost everyone from lccf was at rani's house and it was great! we played guesstures and mafia - and although we never played "the game of life" (don't worry kary, next time....next time....hehe) it was really fun. then we watched evie's grease lightening video from a talent show she was in for her high school and yah! we ended up leaving rani's really late, but i had such a great time. yay bonding times! we should definitely do stuff like this more often. :) saturday was the day of the WLU choir concert. we sang two songs in total - one song by stravinsky and another by carl orff. the stravinsky song sounded pretty....wierd. but that's stravinsky's fault. ahhaha. what a crazy head composer. his stuff is a little too modern and harsh sounding for me. way to dissonant. but the second song by carl orff (Carmina Burana) was really good in my opinion and the audience seemed to like it a lot. haha. i guess loud loud music is the way to go. :P Amy played it really really well. :) *sigh* it's nice to be done with choir though. very nice. :) then we went to timeless for dinner and that was nice too...just chillin with some people, having good times. then came sunday (today) and that went really well too. the sermon talked about loving like Jesus and how it's essential in our lives to love, for without it, anything we do is nothing. it was pretty good. :) then we went out for lunch (it was jon, alli, justin, me - the original circle. hahaha. it's been a while. :) along with evie and alex.) it was a good time of just talking and laughing and stuff. :) then i came home and took a long awaited nap. oh my. so nice. then we had dinner (gotta love pizza) and then it was off to the library to study - where we met up with alex and evie again. then we came back to WCH where we met up with amy and watched movies. hahaha. we started watching Battle Royale. but it was too gory for our liking, so we watched rat race instead. and that brings me to...now. hahaha

that was my update. *phew* so now the weekend is over and tomorrow is monday. back to reality. i need to study so much stuff before my exams and i need to practice piano for my jury. ahhhhhhh. so much stuff to do!!! :( but at least i had fun before the madness really begins...hope everyone had a great snow day, weekend and day today. hehe. good luck in all your exams. g'nite! :)

it's snowing...?

wow. i look outside and waterloo is once again covered with a layer of snow and ice. it's pretty bad outside. in fact, school is closed.

can u believe that? a snow day. in april. and it's supposed to be spring...

hehhe. God's funny. :)

sept-april

to you: happy seventh - thanks for holding my hand for so long. :)

laurier chinese christian fellowship.

just a side note:
<-- why is there a big gap here? how do i get rid of it? and who does it think it is?!?!?! :P

so tonight was the last night of LCCF for this school year. i didn't really have a chance to go last term (night classes on wednesdays) but i'm really glad that my schedule worked out this term so i could attend. :) it was a really great experience - it was a good time of fellowship. we had a sharing night....and it was great! it lasted really long...i think we ended sharing at like...11:30 or something like that. it was awesome. even people who came for the first time to LCCF shared. it was amazing. :) really good. it felt like we bonded more tonight. too bad it was the last one of the year. although i'm really looking forward to next year. feels like God's has great things in store for lccf. :) but although we have next year to look forward to, i'm still gonna miss the grads next year... :(

here's to: anita, elaine, grace and ken. you guys will be missed. thanks for everything. :)

oh and congratulations elaine and ken on their engagement! :)