Joy to the world, the Lord has come! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful break at home, with friends and family. Christmas this year has definitely bee different for me. I think for once in my life, I don't get all childish and giddy when it comes to Christmas day....I used to set my alarm clock for 8 am, so I'm the first one to tear thru the presents. That's actually not what Christmas is about, I understand that. I'm still happy and excited about this time of celebration, but I feel much more demure and calm about it. Things certainly change when one grows up.
I'm also trying to prepare myself for Urbana tomorrow, kinda unsure of what else I'm supposed to do spiritually...I guess I'm just ready to hear and receive.

Home sweet home. It's so nice to be back and not worry about school at all! Yay! I did all my Christmas shopping today, quite proud of myself for accomplishing this feat in 2.5 hrs.....heheh....
I'm just done cleaning my house, preparing for the sleepover tomorrow with my fav. gals. Haven't seen us all together since Sept. Can't wait. We'll be getting our ears pierced (some for the first time), renting Pirates of the Carribean, coming back and making pita pizzas (yum). Gonna be a fun night!
Finally saw Matrix Revolutions at Western film on Friday night. Aaaahhhhhhhh!!! It's such a good movie! Totally blew me away.....very apocalyptic theme, but I'm happy with the ending. Some parts were pretty scary too. Lil and I were quite scared and jumpy (hehe), maybe cuz we expected the worst to happen at every scene. It was almost as good as the first one.

Yay! Finals are over for me! Let the Christmas break begin!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy, relieved, and excited about this holiday season.
So many things planned, so many ppl I want to see, so many things to see and do, the 'to-do' list is just endless! I want to get my ears pierced again, I need a haircut, I want to spend time w/ my fav girls, my family, enjoy all the down-time with so many important ppl in my life. I'm sure that's what everyone living away from home wants to do when they get back. hehe. And I'm excited of the things the Lord will show me at Urbana.
Hurray to everyone that's done too! And good luck to everyone still trudging along. Hang in there!

just trying to see if my newly aquired 'html' skills work on blogger....heheh, I'm actually practicing for my comp sci exam. I can't believe they made it 50% written this year! I was hoping it'd be all MC.



Oops...doesn't work. hmmm

I'm beginning to understand myself more and more. Yes, I do know myself, in terms of who I am, why I am here, and what I am living for. But sometimes, I don't know why I react the way I do. It was made clear to me not long ago, but until then, I just kept getting upset at myself for feeling a certain way or reacting negatively when something (I didn't expect) happens. I'm not being too specific, but it relates to situations between me, my family and my friends.
I realize that words don't mean that much to me, I usually take in the language ppl use at face value, and analyze it with the actions/body language. A friend posted up something from a book called "The 5 Love Languages". That has helped me understand my own love language. No no, this isn't the sappy stuff, but how we express our love to our family and friends.

5 love languages are:
1. words of affirmation (praise, encouragement etc.)
2. acts of service (doing something for someone, not egocentric, but ecocentric)
3. physical touch
4. receiving gifts
5. quality time (catching up, keeping in touch)

My love lanquage is acts of service. I guess I was brought up on that. My traditional chinese parents don't express their love with words, physical touch, or receiving gifts. But they show it through their actions. I don't buy into words of affirmation very much, as if someone were to say they loved me (lol), I would have trouble believing that statement if there was no action to back that up. I think ppl can tell physical touch isn't my love language, as I don't like to have my comfort zone invaded. Receving gifts is cool, it shows that someone was thoughtful to give you a present, but that doesn't constitute love in my mind. Quality time is very important, and I do try to express that as an action (calling a friend up, visiting, catching up over lunch etc.). But for me, actions (without words) is the strongest element of love expression. I remember I broke down one time and cried when I got a big cooler of food from home unexpectedly thru a friend. I realized then that my parents loved me so much more than I thought they had (misconception that I was the forgotten middle child). If you talk to my sister, you'd find out that we say a lot of mean things to each other, half-jokingly bashing each other. But there's no harm done, b/c that's not our love language so neither of us are hurt by it. But if I asked my sister to do something for me, and she forgets to, I feel hurt and sometimes insulted, b/c I interpreted that as her lack of concern for me (even though that's not true). My friends take many actions to show they care (visiting me, cooking 4 me, calling me, driving me, picking up after me etc.), it warms my heart, cuz I know I'm loved and cared for. Even right down to the little details of life can stirke a chord in my heart that I won't easily forget. But to express your love and concern for other ppl, you must use the language that they associate love to, in order for them to understand. That may not the same as your own love langauge, and that takes lots of practice to get it right. This may also explain why we have best friends (the ones that fully understand your language and expresses it), to close friends (learning more about each other's love language), to friends (perhaps different love languages), to aquaintances. I guess this is what makes human relationships so unique and wonderful, but sometimes confusing, misleading, and even tricky.

It's been a nice, relaxing weekend in London. : D I feel at ease, and I'm not so sure why since I have 4 finals in the next 5 days. But still, a sense of peace nonetheless. Jesse was right when he said that the exam period is the best time out of the school year. This excludes exams/tests during the regular class schedule of course. There's no more classes now, we only have to focus on completing one task: study. That's not as painful as it seems, cause you get to take breaks whenever you want, and you get to enjoy a lot of alone time (and devo time), which can be sorely missed when you've got to go to school, and attend to so many other activities that run your life. It is pretty special, plus you get to spend more real time with your roommates and friends. I'm really starting to see it in a different light now.

Went to a delicious birthday dinner yesterday (for Becky). Happy 20th sweetie! And thank you so much for organizing and cooking for us Cho! You're a wonderful host. :D

At church today, we had a really compelling guest speaker who is a doctor (trained at UWO) in mainland China. Personally, I felt a confirmation that going to China (or anywhere in Asia) for a short-term missions trip is something the Lord wants me to do (in the near future). I'm hearing about all these missions trips happening this summer, and I want to be part of that. So I'm really excited about Urbana, to see all the wonderful opportunities out there.

Aww pooey! That's what I have to say to Cranberry Resort for not welcoming students as their customers.....grrr...fine, we'll take our parents' money elsewhere! hmph. Can you sense a hint of resentment? hehhe. Well, I had this whole skiing trip planned for my friends and I, but this Blue Mountain resort don't want us there, cause we can't buy timesharing from them for their townhouses or something. We're just not their target market (hhaha, biz lingo). They want families and couples to promote to while they're on their ski trip. Now that I'm an adult, there's still unequality.....I can't rent a car or go on a cruise by myself until I'm 25! Society still looks down on us cuz of our spending, or lack of spending power.
I guess we'll have to settle for a day trip instead.

What a productive Friday. I stayed home today....indoors the whole time. Which was nice, cuz it looks cold outside. I got so lazy that I didn't even bother changing, and just stayed in my PJs. Got some studying done, not as much as I hoped. But I've learned not to be so hard on myself. It's hard, even for us, to meet our own expectations. A lovely spider (and I mean that in a sarcastic tone) crawled up to my textbook and greeted me. I killed it. Half of me wanted it dead, half of me pitied it, for showing itself in my line of vision. If there's a bug in my room, and I don't see it, then everything's cool. It gets to live. But once it starts showing up in front of me, I don't really have a choice but to dispose it. It's second nature for me to kill any creepy crawlers. But I feel that they are innocent, only trying to live its life. Can I justify for squishing them up and flushing these innocent creatures, when all they've done is cross my path? Hmmm.....I should definitely ponder about this. Or maybe I've pondered too much about it, as I am easily distracted by anything remotely more interesting than my textbook. :P Either way, gotta keep studying, and stop talking to spiders. Or maybe they should stop talking to me......lol. So are we the only ones who think I'm crazy?

School is finally over. *whew* There's something nostalgic and sad about that, and at the same time exciting! Just a couple more days, and Christmas break will be here. : D ~Jesus is the reason for the season~
Can't believe I'm halfway through second year. How wack is that? I'm told by some froshies that I act very mature, so they thought I was in fourth year. That's crazy! I don't feel older than they are, and feel just as new and incompetent as I did in my frosh year. Hehhe......is that a good thing? *shrug*

Snow is here! I get all giddy everytime I see fresh snow. And it's especially great when you wake up to it. It's become a winter wonderland. Reminds me of my childhood days of spending hours outdoors, building snow forts, a snowman, having snowfights, lying in the snow, and trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue etc. There's endless things you could do with snow, sledding, toboganning, skiing, skating, boarding. Wow, hope I get to do all of the above this winter!

The Hotmail template has changed yet again. It's become more MSN Messenger like, and less what Hotmail used to be. This takes getting used to, but all those picture icons are cute. Why am I talking about an email template on my blog? Yes, I am THAT bored. Needed a break from the marketing report.
I forgot my student card and bus pass at home again...so I paid the bus fare to school, and decided to save $2 and walk home instead. It was so windy and chilly! brrrrrr...... I guess this is one of the consequences when my mind is somewhere else.