Yesterday's Greek dinner at Kanella with wine was perfect.

I felt as if I were living in a different world altogether for one night :)

Today, my colleague just volunteered me to make holes and be creative for the annual mini-golf tournament that is to be held on August 19th, my second last day of work.

When I asked Boss if I can change the date of my last day of work to August 18th, he refused.

That, is the story of my intern life -_-

I will rock the era with epic-ness!

I have never been inclined to write about my faith, but whatever that transpired over the past weekend changed my life, and I wanna keep this memory alive. 

About 1.5 years ago, my sister introduced me to a Buddhist organization - Soka Gakkai. With much reluctance, I went for my first meeting and was instantly overwhelmed by the hospitality shown by the members. I went back for my second, then third, then millionth meeting ever since. I believe in controlling my own faith, and SGI allows me to do so without compromising my belief in the mystic aspect of Taoism. Call me a hypocrite, but I still believe in both.

On Sunday, more than 10,000 youths from the East Coast Territory of SGI-USA converged at Temple University in Philadelphia for the Rock the Era Youth Festival. I was involved in this massive movement as a behind-the-scene crew member. Being part of the airport movement group meant that sleep was scarce. We hardly rested on both nights, taking turns to be on duty at the airport to welcome guests, participants and performers. On the day of the festival itself, it stormed. That made everything even more chaotic. Mobilising 10,000 people in the rain is no joke, but for once, I wasn't concern about my self-image and stood guard in the rain till I was drenched. For the first time in my life, I wasn't in a hurry to leave for my friends who share the same faith as me were challenging themselves as well :) 

I made great friends, and I hope these friends are here to stay for life. 

Oh and guess what, who knew Orlando Bloom, Tina Turner and Vinessa Shaw are members of the Soka Gakkai too!

I've got Senioritis

Today I went back to SJU to help out with Orientation. Those sweet, innocent looking faces reminded me of my first year here at the US. Three years, and I've grown so much, intellectually, spiritually and physically (Hey, I'd like to think that I have grown a few inches even though you and I know that's a questionable fact. Hehe). I can't believe it's my last year here at SJU, and I don't want to graduate so soon!!!

Excuse me future employer, can u pretty please give me summer and winter breaks as well? I blame this laziness and  lack of motivation of mine on senioritis.

Wii

Whoever who invented wii needs to realize that there is a serious flaw to this "exercising" game, since only the upper part of the body, more specifically the hands and arms, are utilized during the games. They need to come out with a game that involves the limbs/legs as well to make it a holistic game. Don't you agree with me?

Mid Week Rants

Can you believe it, it's actually my 7th week at work already! Work has been great so far, and it's been picking up. Makes me feel important and busy at work. haha. Like today, I hardly got the chance to even check the clock. Granted, I did look at the digital one on my computer when it was almost 530pm (that means going home time!), but I swear I didn't even take a peek at it the whole day. I arrived at work, sat down, didn't even pour myself my 2 cups of water, dived straight into work and people kept coming to me for help, just when I thought I could take a breather and check my emails. Boss taught me how to use a super cool program today that calculates the Effective Interest Rate. There, I've said it. Effective Interest Rate. Now I really sound like a real professional! I wish everyday were like that for the rest of my life. I want to love my job so that I don't even feel like it's work at all to me :)

I do not like wasting time, which explains my latest newfound hobby. Closest friends would know that I hate to read in moving vehicles or boats or whatsoever, but I've recently taken a liking to reading on buses! I would deliberately take the longer route now coz I want to be able to sit down, well at least long enough for me to read a decent amount of pages before I am forced to pry myself away from my book. I am currently reading Love, Rosie by Cecilia Ahern, the very same person who wrote PS I Love You. It's such an entertaining yet sad story. Two childhood friends/lovebirds were separated when the boy was forced to move from Dublin to Boston, yet they kept in touch by writing to each other. I wish that is the kind of story that I can tell my future kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids, but whenever I write to my friends, I feel as if half of them disappeared from the face of earth. Well there, thank you friends for giving me the silent treatment =p But it's alright, coz I know at least 99.9999% of them read my emails :) Well, at least I try to convince myself that they do. 

If any of you are reading this, write back to me so I know you are alive! 

The gang reunites!

Introducing the bday girl... Jo!! 

Jo turned 21 on Thursday, and I woke up at 2am in the morning to decorate the apartment to give her a surprise bday morning. She loved it! You got it - she is the luckiest person on earth to have me as her roomamate :)

The gang (well, only part of the gang) travelled far from New Jersey to Philadelphia for the weekend to celebrate Jo's bday. Given her extremely bossy personality (well, I've learnt to live with it), Jo made her own bday cake and threw her own bday bonanza, which consisted of a mandatory Indian dinner in the city, drinks at our place afterwards and fun times with the LIFE game. We played in couples and we only had one legit couple - 

The Carltons! They adopted Alex's last name. haha.

Ladies and gents, the Menez-Rousseaus held hands whenever they spun the wheel.

Migs proposed.. 

and it was followed by a compulsory hug. 

They had 3 kids!! 

They were very much in love. Finances were, however, handled solely by Mary. 

And the last couple in the house - the Hopezes! 

Casualties... There was no mercy shown in the game. 

Boy this weekend has been hectic for me, with sleepover at our place. That kept me busy for a while, but it was worthy of my time! 

Then Hong Mun decided to have his bday dinner on Saturday as well, so I had to rush down to the city and we had Hibachi for the first time in Philadelphia. A little pricey, but it was worth the setting and experience. 

The chef lied. He said it was his first day of work. We didn't believe him. He was so skillful with his stunts! 

And this would be the night scenery outside the Hibachi place. There was fireworks for no reason which made the skyline pretty :)

Sunday - SGI rehearsals was greattttttttttt. I made so many new friends!  

The weather's been so weird lately.

Two weeks ago, there was a storm in Philly that resulted in the suspension of train lines in the city.

Today, the temperature shot up to the 100s (by that I mean fahrenheit, but still it translates to about 39 celsius), and the train lines are down because of the heat. Honestly, I don't know how to respond to that. Baaaaaaaaah, I feel so lazy to go out and do my grocery shopping, so I shall survive on maggi mee for now. That is, btw, the best invention ever. Jo overheard on the radio that Philadelphia is having a drought soon, and the mayor's urging us to conserve water!

Work-wise, boss came back from his week-long vacation. That means I'm back in motion once again. Boss is my new idol. Hehe. He's too smart! He works so fast (even faster than me), and I'm starting to feel the pressure.   Buddha, please give me strength to live up to his expectations :)

Three-Daycation with sistaaa

Happy Birthday America!

And thanks for the holiday. I needed this 3-day weekend so desperately to unwind and chill. Living on ice-cream and yummylicious food the entire weekend was pure bliss.

July 3rd - I decided to sleep in but too much sleep gave me a headache! Ugghhh. We went to the beach in the evening with one of her friends, Zsusannah, who is psychic btw. Love the evening ocean breeze, and the little kids running around with no sense of direction. Whatever they did, it sure as hell didn't make any sense to me, but that's the beauty of being a kid, isn't it? 

Soon, at about 850pm, people started to gather around the beach to watch the fireworks display that went on for about an hour. It's amazing how every city has their own fireworks display and we were at a vantage point , at least good enough to see various displays go off at the same time! 

The following day, we went for a picnic at one of the lawns at Yale. We read our books while I occasionally sat up and flicked away the giant ants that crawled onto our sheet. 

And then on July 4th itself, we went hiking at Sleeping Giant. I drove us there :) For the first time in 6 months, I'm in touch with my driver's instincts again and I love it!

July 5th, my sister and I decided that we want to hike up the mountain again, but we did it in the morning instead. We woke up at 530am, packed our breakfast and reached the park at 6am, way before the park was due to open at 8am, but we didn't care anyway and went on to take the toughest trail up to the peak. We stopped for fruits since I didn't have breakfast and recharged on my glucose level before going up. And then we finally reached the peak and sat there for a good hour appreciating the beautiful scenery while munching on our croissant breakfast. Ahhhhhh, how I love life! We took naps at the mountain top as well, until some other hiker came up at 8am and disturbed the morning tranquility. And so we made our way back down and went home 

Even though I feel like pulling out all her hair at times, but this is what I call sister's love :)