Moving back to school tomorrow! In the middle of packing as I try to compress everything into six boxes/suitcases so that I can fly everything down to San Diego.
I’ve started posting my photos on my picassa album which you can find at http://picasaweb.google.com/vivian.d.le But I’ll still be showcasing the highlights from each event here once I get back on track.
Time to finish up packing! I’m on a deadline!
Hail from the country of Vietnam, the land of my ancestors. It’s been a week so far, and I’ve done quite a bit of bowing among family affairs.
Good stuff: learned how to drive a motorcycle.
Bad stuff: sick.
So… I finished the ITF-USA site! woohoo! Just fix up touches now, and just in time for me to leave to Vietnam while feedback is collected and then I can “finish” it when I get back.
Taking a math class during the summer is a no-no, I have learned that it is a very quick and painful process. See, regular school is like taking off the bandage nice and slow, less pain but longer, while summer school is a quick and vicious removal of the bandage… ouch.
The internship in Dublin takes up way too much of my free time for fun and relaxation in the sun with friends. I kinda regret taking it now, as much good as it does for my resume. Oh well, we will see what happens when I get back.
I’ve been doing alot of thinking this summer as to my future and what I am doing with my life. Life changes, people change, goals change, and yet some things stay the same at the same time. It’s a whirlwind of mass chaos, with some things still standing strong in the middle of confusion. Hopefully, I will be able to find an anchor.
Happy note, my cousin got his black belt, and is finally joining his brothers on the next stage.
the brothers roughhousing
I found a white hair yesterday! A COMPLETELY white hair among the black and brown! AAAAAAHHH! I’m too young to be old! lol. must be the stress… darnit.
So this is what my daily schedule looks like:
Differential equations (math class) from 7:30 – 9:40 am
Commute to Dublin from 9:40 – 10:30 am
Internship stuff from 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Commute back to home 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Study at TKD 6:00 – 6:50 pm
TKD 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Dinner 8:45 – 9:10 pm
Study at home 9:30 – whenever I fall asleep.
It’s my first commute!!! and it’s 45 minutes long!!!! So that’s my typical day.. Tuesday is different in that I don’t work in Dublin, but at TKD, only a 5 minute drive away. And on Fridays, I don’t have class in the morning… yay! So Tuesday is my fun day, where hopefully I get to go out and eat lunch with some friends that I haven’t seen in a while.
Now for some fun. July 4th. Good ol’ family fun and a 5th birthday for little Cassey.
Birthday girl in the midst of Hello Kitty pinata bashing.
The aftermath.
A drunken antic of my brother.
Well, what can I say, school is finally over… for a little while.
I went rafting last weekend with some people from tkd, and it was quite fun, although we didn’t get to go on the trip originally planned because of a fire that started up, but hopefully we’ll get out there again soon since I really enjoyed the experience. Too bad I didn’t take any pictures, but hopefully others will soon process the film from the waterproof cameras that they brought!
Looking back on this first year of college, I can say that joining crew was a definite worthwhile experience that opened up new doors and insights for me. Having to work together with other people and depending on them to get you through was different and a worthwhile experience because in the future, that’s what the workplace is going to be like. At the end of the season, I was asked to put together a video that looked back at our year together. It was a lot of work that myself and Kav put into it. I did the “art”sy side, pictures and video sequence, while Kav incorporated the music to match the images. The end result, as 12 minute video that brought smiles, laughter, and a few tears.
I am not sure yet if I will continue to do crew next year as I still have my aspirations to continue on with my taekwon-do training and hopefully compete at the next level. I’ve gotten back into class and have learned that a few things have changed while I’ve been gone, but I still have the gist of things. I will possibly be redoing the ITF-USA website this summer if things turn out. And I may have an internship lined up in a bio tech company which uncle Greg is trying to get an interview for me. yay! All I have right now lined up for summer is my math class early in the morning, and then tkd. Still trying to make a schedule, but hopefully it won’t take much longer because my summer isn’t that long at all, including the fact that I will be gone in Vietnam for a period of two weeks celebrating my grandma’s 80th birthday.
Well, Independence day is coming up. And this house has to be all cleaned up for the party that’s happening here… I’m not quite really all unpacked and sorted yet… heh heh.
playing with glowsticks with my roomies the night before finals… instead of studying :]
I’m in Sacramento right now! Left this morning at 1 am for a ~10 hour bus ride… good thing i can sleep whenever, wherever. When we got to the race course it was a flurry of unloading the trailer, rigging up the boats, and then out onto the water to practice. I didn’t have to hop in a boat immediately, but our lightweight 4 was told to go take a swim. That water is COLD.
After practice, to the hotel, and then all the lightweights (<130 lbs) back to the course to weigh in. I tried out the scale earlier this morning with my track pants on, coming in at 124.5 lbs. In the afternoon, after practice and eating a quiznos sub and a handful of trail mix, I came in at 121.4 lbs. Woohoo! LOL. But then of course I did use the restroom…
I can’t believe that this past week has been a series of “lasts”. We had our last erg workout on Tuesday, our last afternoon workout on Thursday, and our last morning practice on Thursday as well. Weight training has ended as well, and we missed this whole week because traffic was horrible on Tuesday, and then we were stuck at the boathouse derigging and loading up the trailers on Thursday. We stopped off at Rimac to apologize to Mamz. At first we couldn’t find him so we started out a note, but then he found us and we finished scribbling out our note which says ”Dear Mamz, Sorry we are so lame. We love you. W. Novice Crew. *smiley face*”. He pinned it up on his board!!!
Now it’s time to relax before we go dig in for dinner!
Meet Mochi! The illegal fugitive who reduces my entire suite of girls (including me) to baby talk.
Shhhh.. be vewwwy quiet.
On the night of April 12, I went to enjoy a bit of the Relay for Life atmosphere. Luminaries lit up the track, and spelled out “HOPE” on the bleachers. The luminaries around the track were decorated by UCSD students congratulating, wishing luck, and remembering those who had survived, are currently battling, or were lost to cancer. It was an awesome sight, and I could feel a bit of what they were talking about, a feeling of hope. That while you may feel useless in helping those going through cancer, here is a way that you can provide hope and a means to find a cure.
people walking around the track with candles to light their luminaria.
Sadly, before I left, they started blowing out the luminaries because the wind had picked up and were causing some of the luminaries to tip and burn down. Still, an extraordinary event, and I heard some amazing stories of people who were just chugging it around the track to get as many laps in. People will take the late hour shifts so that there is always somebody walking the track to keep hope alive.
Earlier that day, we had the San Diego City Championships between UCSD, USD, and SDSU. Followed by senior appreciation where we honored those on the team who were in their last year here. Their last home race, and an end to their undergraduate college years.
Bowing in Mission Bay, our rowing home.
Time to get back to work.
I really am a simple being, much used to the comforts of home and a problem free philosophy. hakuna matata. I’m not used to the female drama and emotional crises, the complicated relationship schemes and I don’t know how you describe it. I’m used to it being me and the guys, there were no problems, and if there were, I never knew about it and was never bothered about it. The few times when I had a problem with something, there was always somebody to take care of it for me, the most recent being the creepy guy who called and tried to hang out with me all the time… my tkd instructor kept me away and had him gone once his trial period was over.
Joining women’s crew this year has really emphasized why I stayed away from all girl teams since back in elementary school. There’s so much… drama to say the least. While there are some aspects of being on this team that I like: the female camaraderie and bonding, the hard work and results… I grow increasingly tired of the continual talk about emotional and psychological abuse that certain people/person are going through. This is combination with the continual failure to win, is pulling me down in the dumps.
Sigh. Must find happiness.
One more month.
It’s high time for another update I think.
Just had an over the phone interview for an internship with Voyage Medical yesterday. It was, to say, awkward. Never really having a way with words, I stumbled through it, bluntly saying some stuff and spitting out information, while forgetting a few pointers I also wanted to put in. Woe me… my lack of tact. The position is apparently for somebody to help build plasts of hearts to test their stents in, which sounds pretty interesting to me! We’ll see if I get it, otherwise, I have other options playing out for the summer such as another summer as a recreation leader or teaching at my taekwon-do school. All good options that I will have fun doing, along with the summer class (math) that I will be taking.
Last week was spring break! But I didn’t go home for break, as I had spring ROW WEEK instead. A whole week of rowing and hanging out with the teammates to: row, eat, sleep, laugh, be on TV, watch Phantom of the Opera, catch phrase, roll in grass, race in shopping carts… It was an awesome time, which ended with the Berg Cup Invitational at Newport Harbor. There was alot of seat racing going on in the first half of the week, placing me in the 2nd novice 8 boat as bow. We had an awesome start, but UCI and USD pulled ahead at the 1000 meter mark. This weekend is the San Diego Crew Classic, same boating and we’re up against USD, SDSU, and UCSB. Let’s rock this one.
Now is the start of spring quarter. Only the first week, and I’m already piled down with homework. So now, back to work for me! Have to do it all now, since it’s all about racing this weekend.
