Birthday photos!

Today I turned 20 years old!! Yes it doesn't feel any different from being 19 but it's strange to think that I'm not a teenager anymore. I had a great time being with friends... now that I think about it, it seems likes all I did today was eat! :P

My day started late in the morning because I slept in. At around 11:30am, the four of us left home to go to Todai, a Japanese buffet-style restaurant which we hadn't been to in about one year. Mmm the food was delicious! There was everything from sushi to tempura to fried rice!

Yum!!







To name a few of the wonderful gifts I received, I got two adorable little mascots of Gigi (from Kiki's Delivery Service) that connect together to make the number "20", a beautiful silver necklace from Naomi and Erin, a Benetton shirt from Rie, and a bouquet of flowers from Tiffany. Oh, and I can't forget the nice pair of sunglasses I received from my 3 roommates as an early birthday gift!

After eating and eating until we were too full to move around much, we went home and had a few relaxing hours at home.

For dinner, we went out to eat again! But this time not just for my birthday, but for Christi who had her birthday last week. It was great that we got to celebrate for her. There were 14 of us, all of them friends from Kaimuki church, who met up at Macaroni Grill (Italian) at Ala Moana. I got to see Ericson and Yoko for the first time since coming back to Hawaii, and that was nice. We had a great time together! Since there were two birthday girls (Christi and me), we got two free pieces of chocolate cake!

We didn't go home after leaving Macaroni Grill, but met up again at Coffee Beans, a cafe. There we relaxed, talked, and had fun until it was nearly 11:00pm... then we finally parted to go back home. Oof... that was a lot of eating in one day!!


I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this day a very special one for me. I'm really looking forward to what the Lord has for me in the 20th year of my life! :D

Egg container result!

In our last three sessions during sculpture class, we had been making an egg container made of toothpicks that would encase and protect an egg even when dropped from the 2nd floor to the first. We stuck the toothpicks together using glue gun, but it was up to us to make the design from scratch and consider how it can protect the egg from breaking.

As you can see from this picture, each container looks very different. (the closest one on lower left is mine)






So, today most of the students including myself finished their artwork, and one by one dropped them from the second floor of our Koa building. This is the view from the 2nd floor:








I got a good pic of mine just before dropping it. I designed it to look like a ball so that it will be strong whatever side it lands on. I also made it to be as big as possible using the minimum number of toothpicks necessary to make it strong enough. It was also designed to be a little bouncy.



And the result of the drop was... a SUCCESS!!
Mine rebounded the most upon impact, and the egg remained unbroken. Most people's containers did pretty well today, all except for three.


I feel sorry for the poor souls whose containers didn't make it, after all the hard work they put into it. I would have felt terrible if this had happened to mine.


container w/ egg: SPLAT!!!

students: "eewwwwww..."






Now my container is hanging in my room as an ornament, though I've already taken the egg out (I don't want it going bad!). Yay for this fun project!

Already starting 4th week??

Time flies too fast! It's hard to believe we've been through 3 weeks of classes already. This past week has been pretty interesting. Did I mention that with my improved eyesight, it's so much more fun just being outdoors? It's amazing all the little details one can see! That's a good thing as I walk a lot between home and campus, up to 3 times a day.

During sculpture class I'm still making that toothpick egg container... it's nowhere near finished. I think I'm doing much better than some of the others students though. According to the instructor, girls tend to do better than boys at this exercise! lol I'll be sure to take a piccie when I'm done (before I drop it from the 2nd floor on Wednesday to test it). ;)

Today we had our own Sunday service at home led by Erin, then went to the New Hope Diamond Head church from 10:00am. After lunch at Kimuraya, we went to Punchbowl Cemetery to visit Priscilla and Naomi's grandfather's grave, since today was his anniversary. It was nice that we got to visit.. the cemetery was beautiful as always. :)


School starts again tomorrow! Priscilla and I are going to go to the chapel (which serves as a kind of gym on campus) during ESS class, where our instructor is going to teach us how to practice relaxation techniques, including meditation! lol Wonder what that will be like.

That's about it for now. Good night!

Ouch.. sunburn!

Well, our long Labor Day weekend is now over, and school has started again. It was a great weekend: the three of us got to go to Lanikai beach and relax there for a few hours. The weather was perfect, and though the place was slightly crowded it was still great! Here are some pictures of it:


Priscilla and me, on the way to the beach. (

thanks for taking this beautiful pic Erin!)

A similar scenery to the picture above but without us in it.

Lanikai Beach. So beeaauutiful!!

Well, school started from today again. And the truth is, I don't mind that at all because I like my classes! During my design class we did a critique of our first project... the teacher seemed to like most of my designs, but I'm still waiting for her to finish grading it. :P I hope I do ok!

Let's see what else is going on... well, Priscilla and I are starting to have more homework to do, now that we're in the third week of class. But so far it's not too hard to keep track of them, so all the classes are going well. :)

Sorry for the short post.. I'd better go off to bed now as I have sculpture class from 8:00am. as usual.

Random post...

Now I finally know what planet I came from! :D

You Are From Pluto

You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe.You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart.You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance.You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness.Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you.

href="What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatplanetareyoufromquiz/">What Planet Are You From?

Random post...

Now I finally know what planet I came from! :D

You Are From Pluto

You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe.You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart.You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance.You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness.Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you.

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatplanetareyoufromquiz/">What Planet Are You From?

2nd week of school finished!

Apologies for not posting for a few days. I don't know why but I find it hard to find the will to keep updating it daily this semester. Maybe I need to make this more interesting.. but anyway, this post is for the 2nd week of classes.

School is getting more fun, as we are getting into the actual course materials more and I am getting to know more classmates. They come from all over the world, including Vietnam, South Africa, and Germany. It's nice to get to know more people! On the other hand, Priscilla and I are starting to have more homework to do at home. At the moment it's not that bad, but I certainly hope there won't be too much workload in the future!

Naomi left for Japan on Thursday, so now there are only the three of us at home. Since it's the weekend already (a long weekend, since Monday is a holiday), we'll hopefully get to do some things together. Priscilla and I went to the Kaimuki Church tonight while Erin went to the New Hope church's prayer meeting. It's nice to have no classes to go to on Fridays!

That's about all I have to report for now. :) Good luck with the new schoolyear, kids of KCIS!