hello :]

hello from shanghai!!

first off, i've been sucking at accountability so far this summer and i'm not proud of myself about that. i talked about accountability in sg and now i'm not even doing it! buuut, from now on, i'm going to be here writing and trying to chase y'all down online whenever time zones permit.

let's seee, the beginning of summer has been pretty uneventful. the 3 weeks i was home, i was pretty much on house arrest just cause (no real reason) and i spent much of my time doing things around the house that my parents wanted me to do. my dad was constantly over my shoulder and to be honest, i wasn't much of a happy camper. spiritually, i wasn't able to spend quality time with God and though i should have been trying to find ways to get closer, i found myself distancing myself more and more as the times got worse. thankfully, i'm not in that rut anymore.

i got into shanghai safely after a 1 day unplanned layover in tokyo because of some "unscheduled maintenance" (aka mechanical issues with the plane). i've been with my dad for the past weeks and it has been some really good time with him. he and i have very similar personalities and i'm less likely to lose my patience with him. we go into work each week day (and sometimes weekends!) and work some pretty long hours. I've gotten to do some cool labwork and it's neat to see where my dad has been spending his time this past year. the coworkers are cool and theres an intern there as well i've been able to spend time with. my dad goes to bed early each night so that leaves time for me to have some good quiet times (since this is just a catchup thing, i'll share more in my next entry).

prayer requests though:
- safety for my mom as she'll be flying to hong kong tomorrow
- continued patience with my parents
- continual dependence on God
- opportunities to share

i really miss being at ucla back with goc kids and especially all of you guys. shanghai is lonely sometimes so if you ever see me online, talk to me! i might have left my computer while i'm at work to do lab work, but i'll respond asap :) the internet connection sucks here too sometimes so i might not get stuff either :(. to the best of my knowledge, i haven't had any issues with the internet since i try to connect thru ucla vpn.. but without vpn, i can't get on facebook or blogger soooooooo if i disappear, sorrryy!!

hope you guys are all doing well!!

i forgot to add that my surgery date has been scheduled and all the pre-op and post-op dates have as well. i'll be going in on 9/4 to have surgery (time TBD) but due to post-op appts, i won't be back at school until the day before classes start :(.