I don't know when I lost my passion for blogging. I think as I get older, I feel myself becoming a more private person. I go through my yearly purging of "friends" on facebook and still can't believe I have more than 800. However, I would like to document how richly God has blessed me this past year. 2012 was a year of hitting many milestones and life changes. Here is my year....!

1. Celebrated the New Year in Africa, probably one of the best trips I have ever taken.





2. Researched, laboriously wrote, and finished a Master's thesis!


3. Graduated from MIT and received a Master in City Planning. Whowouldathunk?



4. Moved back to the Bay Area and began my search for a full-time planning job as well as spent every day planning my wedding.



5. Turned the big 2-5. I am a quarter of a century old, folks. Celebrated by shucking fresh oysters at Tomales Bay.



 6. Was showered with love by my favorite girls and went to Santa Cruz to wish singleness goodbye.




7. Married my best friend, who I grow to know and love more and more each day, and had the best and most emotional day of my life.




8. Traveled to Bora Bora for our honeymoon, and again, it was another one of the best trips I have ever taken. Two best trips in one year!





9. Moved in with a boy and became the only lady in my household. Meaning... if I don't cook and clean, no one else will. Of course, Nate has his shining helper moments. :)




10. Started my first full-time job in city planning.


Praise God and His faithfulness and provision! Looking forward to 2013...

Me: Mama, when you become a grandma, will you be strict or will you spoil your grandchildren?
Mom: Mm.. I think I will spoil them when they are babies and then be strict when they're older.
...babies always are more prone to be spoiled because they're cute and chubby chubby.
...ke shi bu ke yi tai chubby, na wo jiu yao strict le...

Just wanted to remember this cuz it was hilarious.

Moments like these give me more relief and less stress about the prestige and intellectuality of MIT and its graduate students:

I was working on a partner project for one of my classes using GIS (a computer program). My partner started to read off the column names in a given table. One of the column names was labeled "PUBAD" standing for public administration. He accidentally pronounced it "pube-ad."

We cracked up for a good minute or so.

I've finally recovered from my first time having "pneumonia." That's what the doctor said, but she didn't give me a chest x-ray or anything. She took one listen at my lungs with her stethoscope and said, "I can't hear your left lung at all. You have pneumonia." Just like that. Well praise the Lord because she hooked me up with antibiotics and an inhaler and I felt so much better just the next day. I think that was one of the most miserable sicknesses I've ever had... drinking a combination of Nyquil and Robitussin daily, breathing with a humidifier in my face for hours, fever for days, and incessant coughing.

Some days I feel that because I'm a grad student, it is what I should do 24/7. Meaning that if I'm not doing something related to school, I feel guilty. Isn't that weird? But I think I've come to realize that I'm in BOSTON and I should really take opportunity to explore and realize that a part of this experience is being in a new environment. Today it snowed. By the way, I love snow and here's why:

1. There's a certain calm and quiet when outside.
2. The ground is full of "fresh powder" that makes a lovely crunch when stepped on with boots.
3. The trees look magical and straight out of Narnia.
4. I love being bundled up.

On to something random, but has been on my mind for quite a while. The dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT looks like Edna Mode from The Incredibles. The head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning looks like Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

These past few days have been a bit miserable because I've been under the weather. Why did I eat my expired bacon ice cream... why!? I feel like a pain to my classmates every time I have one of my coughing fits during class and the nights have not been easy because it takes me forever to fall asleep.

Winter break was long, surreal, and a joy. There's a certain comfort of just being home and having family around you. I'm also thankful for the friends and life that I have here in Boston. When I arrived at the airport, I was greeted and surprised by three of my friends who decided to embarrass me by singing a song (at the top of their lungs) at the airport.


[to the tune of "Part of Your World"--my all time favorite Disney song]
Wouldn't you think I'm a girl [this girl!]
[You want bruises from squash?] I've got twenty!
Very nice! [Very nice!]
I wanna be where the snow storms are
I wanna see, wanna see them raging.
Out of nowhere I hear [how do you say that again?]
Shoot.

Up where they read
Up where they study
Up where they stay all night in the library
Wandering free
Wish I could be
At MIT



I definitely felt loved and welcomed. :) Three more months and I'll be HALF-WAY done with grad school!

I know I said I would try to update every month, but life seriously took a hold of the reigns since I've gotten here.

Have I really only been here for a month and a half? It seems a lot longer. I've settled into a routine, made a few good friends, and have studied way too much.

Currently, I'm procrastinating from writing my--as the syllabus calls it--brief 15-20 page paper. I know, right? BRIEF!? Are you crazy? I'm used to writing 5 page papers. 10, at most. So as you can imagine, I'm at a deadlock with writing right now, so I'm going to make life easier on myself and have a super structured blog post. (edit--I'm now done. I started this post a few days ago)


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

How's school?

It's hard. Not necessarily in the difficulty of the material, but MIT really is drinking from a fire  hose. The readings are endless (I think I'm assigned around 300-400 pages a week). I would do ALL of the readings the first few weeks, and now I do probably half. I realized I could get by without doing all of them. I don't know how people who procrastinate do it! Sometimes I feel like a real planning newb because the people in my class are extremely smart and well-versed. They know a lot about politics and design, and love to discuss and debate in class. As for me, I contribute very little and like to blend into the background and hope that I don't get called on in class. Yay for me!


BUT! I've been doing well so far... what a relief! I thought I would fail out of this program, but so far my assignments have been graded fine, and I got above the mean on my first midterm! AND IT WAS ECON. How trippy is that? For now, I can say that I BELONG HERE!

Something that is often emphasized here is that getting a degree at MIT comes with a lot of expectations and that it is truly a privilege. For some reason, although I agree, this statement makes me feel really uncomfortable. A part of me doesn't want those expectations thrown at me. I don't want to be expected to be able to 'save the world,' or make amazing contributions to society... especially if this mindset will stray me off the path to glorifying God and losing sight of His Kingdom. I need to remind myself to stay grounded in truth, to be thankful to GOD and appreciate my education, and use it to ultimately make myself small and Christ big.

Are you making friends?

You know, I think God has really taken care of me in this aspect. I think I expected to come into MIT and not make very many friends (especially Christian ones). God provided me to meet a lot of Christians immediately, and not even through Christian-related events. We now hang out regularly, share our burdens with each other, and encourage one another in our spiritual walks. Overall, grad school can still be pretty lonely, but I'm pretty much okay with it. I spend most of my time by myself in my dorm room doing school work, but it's been amazingly peaceful.

Have you found a church?

It's been difficult finding a church here. Not to say that there are bad ones in Boston, but I struggled with finding and pointing out faults (or even things that I just wasn't used to) in different churches and comparing it to Evangel back home. It made me really miss my church family... but I needed to let go of such a critical and judgmental eye, and really focus on finding a church that I could grow in during my time here. I think I've found that church, but I'm still not 100% sure. So interesting that in college, I plugged into EBCB immediately and loved it, and now it's been not so quick and easy of a decision here.

How is long-distance?

Really, we're great. We Skype almost every day and long-distance has been smooth. Nate just returned back to California yesterday after a week long visit, and I enjoyed his company SO SO much. We had a lot of fun together and he really made my time at MIT a lot easier--he bought me groceries, cooked soup for me when I was feeling sick, helped me with my homework, etc. I am so thankful for him, and now I really feel the pains of missing him. Haha.... one more month until Thanksgiving!

Are you homesick?

To be honest, no, not really. I think things have been too busy here for me to really wallow in missing home. I am really looking forward to going home though. It'll be nice to actually have family/people in the house, TWINKLE!, Nate, friends, church friends...

When are you coming back?

Thanksgiving! But I will probably only see my family and Nate since I'll only be there from Tuesday night until Sunday early morning. I'll be back again long term mid-December all the way into the very end of January.


Closing random tidbits:

I walk SO much here and I love it. I have now mastered the art of power walking. I can't walk slowly anymore. Cassandra, let's race.

My acne is the worst it has ever been in my life. It was REALLY bad a few weeks into when I first got here. My entire face was red and swollen and it hurt to talk (that's how bad it was). I don't know what happened--weather? stress? a new life in general? Gah. Now it has subsided, but I have a lot of scars. :( BOO....

I'm excited for winter. Maybe I'll regret saying that, but I want to see some snow! ...And hibernate in my room with the heater on full blast and a mug of hot cocoa (with marshmallows!).

I'm ready to leave, and yet I'm not. I'm hoping I got all of my tears out of my system this past weekend... Nate asked me what I'm looking forward to at MIT and I replied, "Nothing" with an automatic burst of crying. Okay, but really, I am excited for a few things... I guess I was just in an emo rebellious mood.

Thinking I was only going to bring a max of three suitcases to Boston, I have now hit the three suitcases plus two duffel bags mark, and most likely going to add on another suitcase. I'm already getting jitters of how I'm going to bring all of this BACK plus more when I return permanently. Thankful I am flying Southwest and with my family--not only for their ability to help me bring more stuff, but for their company, of course!

Thankful that Nate is happy and excited for me (I think more than I am!).

My life is about to drastically change...

West Coast --> East Coast
Short-distance relationship --> Long-distance relationship
Funemployed --> Full-time graduate student
Car driver --> Subway rider
Living with parents --> Living alone
Twinkle 24/7 --> Twinkle 0/0
Sunny and breezy weather --> Humid and soon to be freezing weather
Church member --> Church hopper

That's all I can think of for now. Gah.

I was looking up photos of my dorm at MIT on Google, and randomly stumbled upon this girl's blog about her life at MIT as a graduate student. I got pretty hooked and stalked/read about her life for a year--about how she survived the cold and how she dealt with her long-distance relationship with her boyfriend who lived in Northern California (sound familiar?). These entries were all in 2002 and I noticed that she still updated her blog. I decided that I couldn't read another eight years of her life and clicked on "July 2010" in the archive links. Her most recent post was that she had recently celebrated her fourth wedding anniversary with her then-boyfriend and just had her first child.

I know this girl is only a stranger, but oh how it touched me and brought surreality to another level.

I'm going to try to blog at least once a week while I'm in Cambridge.

You know you're not that close of friends with someone if the only thing they ask you when they see you is, "So are you excited for grad school?" If they didn't even know I was going to grad school, then shame on them! Anyways, of course it's the normal question to ask, and without it there would be really awkward small talk. I think I've gotten that questions a bazillion times (which I guess means I'm not close with very many people), and I think I always answer it the same... with a shrug and a "meh."

Honestly, I am a bit terrified to move three thousand miles away. I have been obsessed with checking my academic calendar and seeing how many days out of the year I get to return to sunny familiar California. On the other hand, I feel so privileged to be able to have the opportunity to hopefully temporarily live in a cultured East Coast city and attend one of the best universities in the United States. I really don't deserve it, and it's still mind boggling to think that I (me!?) will be going to MIT.

You know me. I love my bubble--familiarity, close knit relationships that are just a car ride away, and feeling like I belong to something. For Berkeley, the transition was easy. 70 people from my high school migrated there as well, my family was only 40 minutes away, and oh how I love my Asians. When I think of MIT I think of... people who are way too smart and ambitious for their own good, WHITE (I know I sound racist... I'm really not. I love all colors.), and freezing weather (actually, I'm kinda excited about this. I'll probably think I'm crazy looking back).

So... am I excited? More no than yes. Being away from people I love? No. Going back to school? Yes. Studying? No. Taking microeconomics? No. Finding a church? Yes. Making new friends? Yes and no.

And finally.... living in a single? HECK YES!

That's what I'm MOST excited about. Living in a studio by myself on campus. Why by myself? Because I didn't have a great random roommate experience when I studied abroad and every day I envied those who had their own room. I've already started brain storming and planning my amateur interior decorating. I even got my hands on the floor plan and made myself a 3D computer model.




My ghetto inspiration board.




Layout of my studio.



The conclusion of my blog entry is this: come visit me in my future home at Cambridge, Massachusetts! One more month, and then I'm off!!!

I went to Kaiser today for my second HPV shot. The first one was actually not planned (I went in initially for a flu shot and they convinced me of an HPV shot) and bruised my arm for two months. I didn't want to go back. My dad recently forced me to because he said it could save my life. Ovarian cancer, shoo!

I got the stink eye and a bunch of sarcastic laughs from the nurse because my first shot was in 2008 (you're recommended to take the second shot two months later). I just kind of sat there not knowing how to respond at her being 'annoyed' at me.

Then another nurse told her it was fine as long as it didn't exceed three years. Boo yah.

Afterwards, I went to Radio Shack to return an iPod nano case that didn't even fit my iPod nano. I wanted to be an informative customer and help the Radio Shack business... and so came about the following conversation:

Me: Just letting you know, this case didn't even fit my iPod nano. It fits lengthwise but the placement of the scroll wheel is off.
White Assistant Manager/Cashier: Oh, well maybe your nano is a different generation.
Me: (pulls out iPod nano from purse) Here it is. I recently bought it.
Cashier: (looks and fiddles with it) Is this a Chinese iPod?
Me: Uh, what is that supposed to mean?
Cashier: Is it a real iPod?
Me: Yes, it's a real iPod. I bought it at the Apple Store.
Cashier: Oh, well the case is probably for the 4th generation iPod, not the 5th generation.
Me: But on the packaging, it says it's "For the newest iPod nano."
Cashier: I guess it's outdated.

HOW DARE HE! Such a racist comment....

So hard to not return attitude with attitude in these situations. Oh, my flesh!