So I’m taking a class for one of my major credits.
Basically, we’re all assigned to a doctor (of a range of specialties), and we follow him/her around ~10 hours a week (at least we’re supposed to). We’re supposed to identify a problem that they encounter in their work and fix it with an engineer’s perspective.

After being switched around (because my other doctor was a bit busy and… yah haha I won’t say), I’ve been placed w/a REALLY awesome respectable doctor in the Hospital of Univ. of Pennsylvania’s Simulation lab. Med students and interns and even doctors go to the lab to practice procedures on mannequins before doing them on actual patients. I realized how important simulators are because it really gives them practice before going to real people and trying procedures that can be pretty hard to do.

Anywho, I was able to do a Lumbar puncture and thorocentesis on these mannequins. ‘Twas cool. I’m starting to love this major and what this school offers me . Yay for awesome classes. I love awesome classes. College needs awesome classes. I learn much more in this setting than in a library stall sitting around all day reading and studying and doing problem sets. W00t for preceptorships!

These are really cool photos of the two simulators we worked with this week. My camera broke so I had to use my cell phone camera. Anyway, go bioengineering w00t w00t (never thought you’d hear me say this huh)?

Ain’t this cool?!

This weekend, I realized how much I missed my Korean culture.
I guess that sometimes, when you’re constantly in an environment that’s different from what you grew up with, you start to miss it.

I had an amazing opportunity to listen to and meet a few speakers at KASCON (Korean American Student Conference).
It was held at Penn this year and I had the privilege to volunteer there as a slave . But even as a “slave,” I got to meet some amazing people.

The first people I met were Yuri Tag and Mike Song from Kaba Modern (dance crew from America’s Best Dance Crew). I had no idea who they were lol but they were cool .
I had to privilege to escort Paul “PK” Kim (Choco-ramen song or the oppah song), who started Kollaboration in 2000. His executive director (Will, who I really appreciate for having a very thankful heart for small little things).

They were the “cool” and the “in” celebrities, but there are two people that I have the utmost respect for and I’ll highlight them below.

Dr. Robert Seung-Bok “S.B.” Lee.
I had the privilege to introduce him as he began his seminar, not really knowing too much about his struggles in his life other than the fact that he was a quadriplegic physician at Johns Hopkins University, which is…already quite an accomplishment. He’s a Korean-American immigrant who was chosen to represent Korea in the 1984 Olympics for gymnastics. However, before he had the chance to compete, he landed wrong and over-extended his neck, crushing his spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the neck down. His determination was so strong, that he was able to go through college, get a masters in public health at Columbia, and even go to Med School at Dartmouth (holy smokes). He obviously didn’t breeze through this because it’s hard enough for people who have normal function to do all of this. But he pulled through, and guess what, he attributed all of that to God . In Christ, he found his strength.
Amazing man and I really respect him. Even more amazing God.

Washington Senator Paull Shin
My church teacher back at home made me listen to his testimony years ago on tape for over an hour. It was so amazing that I realized I didn’t forget any bit of it. His mother died at age 4 and his father abandoned him soon after. He lived from train station to station, street to street barely surviving and dreaming about food. He told us in the room, “I was afraid of you guys (Young adult Koreans), who would yell at me, kick me, and tell me to go away.”
When he was 16, a U.S. soldier found him, adopted him, and took him to America. Paull was uneducated all throughout his life, he had no school at all, but his new mom taught him English. Paull took his GED (because he was too old for high school), and went on to college and became a professor. All through his life, he struggled with hating his father for abandoning him. But his wife (who is white), encouraged him to forgive and to love, because one day, he might regret this. When he returned, he found his father with a new woman and 5 (or 4) children living in an apartment. He felt so betrayed he ran out and flew back to the US in tears. His wife encouraged him to love them more, and he brought each of his half brothers to the states one by one since they were living in poverty. Lastly, he had to face his father who abandoned him. He cried all night and spoke to his father and asked him why he left him. His father ran away as Paull was crying. When he came back a few hours later, he said, “How could I leave my own flesh? When I left you, I could not take care of you and I was being sold into servanthood. Son, can you forgive me?”
That was all it took.
Paull Shin went on to run for a Senate seat against a 4 term incumbent. Shin did not have the money that his opponent had, so he went door to door, 11 hours a day, knocking and asking people for his vote. This strong but unexperienced man went on to win the election with a super majority vote after spending only $21K compared to his incumbent’s $300K. The next day, instead of taking a vacation like most politicians, Senator Shin went out on the streets with a sign, “THANK YOU,” and he waved it for hours. He has been elected senator ever since .
He described America as a beautiful peace of tapestry, not a melting pot. Each thread is a culture of different colors. By itself, the thread is weak and easily broken, but when it’s interwoven, it’s beautiful and strong. That is America. Embrace your culture, because America is diversity .
But even better, he gave his Thanks to the Lord and everyday he says he counts his blessings.

This wasn’t a Christian conference, but I’m so glad that so many prominent figures are giving their thanks to the Lord . These amazing people are part of an amazing culture and made by an amazing God.

I’ve been blessed by this experience .

It’s been kind of scary the past few months.

I think I’ve overcommitted.
I can’t seem to figure out what I want to do with my life.
I can’t seem to find a job either.
Actually, I can’t seem to find the time to even apply for jobs.
But I also can’t find jobs that I want.
A lot of them are gone . Boo to the economy.
Where to go after college?
Learning to half sleep half write.
Sleep at any time of the day and work at odd hours.

It’s so weird thinking that we have to move on to the next stage of life soon. Adulthood?
I’m not even a senior yet, but this totally preprofessional environment makes me think that if I don’t have an internship, then I’ll never get hired at the best places.

That’s where my thinking goes wrong. Why the best places?
Why do we want to go to the best places? This place seems like… perfectionist’s paradise. They’re all over the place. At the same time, perfect can’t go against perfect. There’s no room for too many perfect people! Anyway, this place isn’t perfect either. Nothing’s perfect.

I don’t know because I’m too lazy to dig through my old entries (they embarass me), but I think that I probably felt the same way during high school when i was applying to colleges. Worrying for no reason. Here we are again, except this time, I’m in college and it kind of seems like this next step defines the next 10 years of my life. It’s true. Your first job matters.

Yet… God provides. He loves. He cares. He knows .
And just because of that, even with uncertainties in my mind and the exhaustion plaguing my body, I’m all of a sudden content.

Why worry about how much $ I’ll make and sleep I get?
He provides.

Why feel so alone and unwanted, especially by the workforce?
He loves.

Why think that the whole world is too busy and too selfish to care about others?
He cares.

Why worry about not knowing my future plans and my life?
He knows.

Wow .
Just like that.

I’m set for life.

The video’s half a year late but it’s a summary of my summer in Hong Kong and Shunde, China!

One of the most eye-opening experiences of my life

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/12/09/rowlands.f18.crash.cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/09/military.jet.crash/index.html

I wish I had the heart and faith that he has.

For some reason, this reminds me of the story of Job.
I found it crazy that during his poor press-release, two jets had to fly over him.

Pray for him!

It has been forever! But something cool happened tonight.

THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!

It sounds like this city is turning upside down outside, phew.

On another note, things are great. God is amazing, schoool is…school, and summer is lookin spiffy

Hong Kong here I come .

Away from the country . A “break” . Yippee.

 1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You
hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

    -Matthew 7:1-5

I hate finals. Especially the scheduling :-/.

But what I hate the most out of anything, is how everyone turns into a studying beast here.
For example, I can never find a stupid studying place in the normal library.
Everyone feels like they’re screwed, even if they studied from wake up to sleep and even in their dreams.

And look at what I found (this guy was nice – I’m not making fun of him, I’m making a point).

Those earpluggin’ earmuffs…don’t you wear those when you shoot guns?!

Talk about some serious studying.

There’s a thing called the Matlab effect that I made up a few months ago when I was on my study break. We couldn’t find/solve the stupid code for an assignment, so we basically… drew our faces as we worked on our assignment.

My first final is tomorrow. I think I”ll be at the 12am mark. But knowing what’s coming up, I’ll soon be at the 8AM mark. For a long time *tears* haha.

BUT. Put all hindrances aside, have faith, and find strength in God .
This seems to be a reoccurring theme, but pray for me .

Jesus Rules!

They’re filming Transformer’s 2 at Penn!

W00t. Too bad I’ll probably be home when they do it . STILL, I signed up to receive info about being an extra buahahhaa. It’ll be cool to see in the theatres. PLUS they’re probably filming the final fight scene in Vegas! That’s my college AND my hometown both in this movie! This is going to be awesome.

They’re going to have Bumblebee bust through the Quad gates (dorm), fly Sam and his girlfriend out of Hill field (another dorm) with a helicopter, and shoot a lot of scenes in a frat house (The Castle) in the middle of campus.

How tizzite will that be?

On another note, I watched Harold and Kumar 2. I love it because John Cho is in it and apparently I look like him. I can’t really tell, but a lot of random people think so lol. Otherwise, it wasn’t the best movie.
(So I went online and searched for his picture. This is the only one where I can see SOME resemblence other than “Korean.”

Young? John Cho? Hybrid?

ANYWAY, I liked number 1 better. ALSO, you youngin’s shouldn’t watch it . It has too much exposure! Way too much!

Good study break.
Finals…horrible schedule . Pray for me yes?
Still, JESUS RULES~!