New Quarter

 First bit of news: my dad replaced the glass on my camera's broken LCD window.. wooohooo!

Thanks Dad!

Sooo, Spring Quarter's started and I'm back in school. Its nice to see everyone again and I'm glad to see most of them havnt changed much over the week of spring break.

It seems a lot of people got their hair cut-- or hair changed would be a better description.

Gosh, Michelle is so cool. I'm serious.

I like Pirate Connie's new hair too:

Even though Spring Break was really only for a week, I've really missed the faces of IV.

Walking on bruin walk near the dorms, you might have seen the chalk drawings of the party cats on the wall saying "Slow Down, Appreciate the Beauty Around." Every time I walk by it, it makes me smile. I learned that it was my friends, Steven Chan and Jackie that did it, and I was inspired to find some chalk to add to the wall. 

I had the chalk with me late one night after open gym, and so MooRawr was given an animate form:

 Steven later added his own version of moorawr near the north campus elevators on Charles E Young:

Easter Sunday

This past weekend I went home for Easter at my church. This was the first year I wasn't in the choir to sing on Easter because I was studying for my MCATs. 

So this time I was privileged with just sitting and watching our youth group's performance.

Well, the performance was just like all the other Easter Sunday performances we have every year. The audience watched quietly as the small youth group (missing me and my brother this year) sang a few songs.

On the third song however, I felt the pew I was sitting on start swaying underneath me. I looked at my brother on my right and immediately whispered "earthquake" to him. A few moments later a murmur flows throughout the church as everyone has noticed that we were in the middle of an earthquake. The microphones on stage start sweeping back and forth. The blinds on the windows violently rattle. A few people leave their seats and sprint for the exits. But as all this is happening, I looked up at the choir, but they are still standing there singing. My cousin, Rachel, on the piano, has a look of full concentration on her face as she plays through the song.

then... my grandpa sitting in the front row starts to clap along with the song, and then one by one, each person in the church joins him in clapping. And by the end of the song, the entire church was smiling and clapping.

Whether you think it was a sign sent from God or just some random natural event that coincidentally occured during a song on Easter Sunday, all I can tell you is that something different was within my church that day. And not to abuse the theme of Easter, but it felt like my church was revived with energy and spirit after this incident. It made me feel really happy, like in the movies when the good guys rally together to overcome evil. When I think back on it, if the earthquake had happened at any other time during that day, there would have been no feeling of happiness. I mean, even if it was during the Pastor's sermon, the only thing people would have felt would have been fear. Instead, because it happened during the song and brought the church together as one. I can't think of any other time that I have seen that many people smiling, laughing and clapping during a natural disaster.

I have class now so I have to go, but here are some pictures from the party we had after chruch:

my little cousin. she won a chicken and edible grass. easter bunny! cute!

My mom, her mom, and her sister!