I can't believe it's already halfway through the quarter. I honestly didn't think it would go by this fast. It's been a little difficult to adjust to LLU standards, but I think I'm coming along OK. This week was not too shabby. My patient this week was just so awesome! I really wish I didn't have to have a different patient every week. My first care plan was due this week. It wasn't so bad, but the Plan of Care part was a bitch!

The fires around the Inland Empire have caused our air to be dry and smoky. On Tuesday, we were coming out from clinicals and ash was falling from the sky. It kind of looked like a scene from "Silent Hill," except the ashes weren't so big. The air is just so dry! I've been drinking bottles and bottles of water each day because I feel so thirsty all the time. Ontario is the worst! Their sky is completely brown. Last Sunday I was driving back to Loma Linda and was passing through Ontario. Out of nowhere it became extremely windy, 40 mph. I could feel the car shifting towards the right. And all these pieces of rocks were flying at my window from the wind. After I passed Ontario, it died down. That was not very fun. Luckily the air quality in LA is a little better, but you can see the smoke starting to cover the city.
They evacuated the Wild Animal Park this past weekend, and they put them in a mall. How weird is that! They have evacuated so many people this past week. One of my classmates was almost evacuated from her home so she had to rush out of class one day. That's scary.

Post-its are awesome! They help me plan my week. I've just never had to use so many for a span of four days. =/

Today I reached my breaking point. Everything that has been going on around me just got to me. This came a little later for me than most people. People in my class had their's about two weeks ago. There is just so much to do for school and on top of that there are other stressors outside of school. (Ooh, stressors... a fundamentals word. Haha!) It all just broke me today, which is strange because I had a really good day. I just need this week to be over. Once 5 o'clock comes around on Thursday, it'll be OK.

My Loma Linda responsibilities have prevented me from blogging as frequent as I used to, but I'm back to it. This past week was the first week of clinicals. I must admit that I was really scared to do anything except sit there and do paperwork. I managed to take vitals and change linens. I didn't have much time to do anything because of certain events. The second day was much more productive and efficient. I also got to know my patient better. We talked about various topics, from chemistry to apple picking. But I had a little incident with my shoes on Wednesday. I bought some new shoes for clinicals and am still trying to break them in. On Tuesday they kind of irritated my ankles. But on Wednesday, they broke the skin and blood exploded onto my WHITE scrub pants. The stain was only about an inch and a half in diameter, but it was very noticeable. I really hate white pants. The bottom of mine are already black.

It really sucks to have Fundamentals of Nursing right after I have clinicals. I am tired from clinicals and have food coma from lunch that I can barely stay awake for such a boring class. Tuesdays are the worst. I got from 6:30 AM until 6:40 PM. When I get to my dorm all I can do is eat, shower, and sleep.

I am so thankful for the weekends, especially Sabbaths. From sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday, I just relax and don't think about school. But when that sun goes down, it's back to the books. I've been kind of a hermit over the past couple weeks, but I finally got to go out today and just hang out. Kevin, Khaing, Kristina, Marvin and I went to Twin Palms today for brunch. Then Kristina and I went shopping at Old Town Pasadena. Now I'm back at LLU studying.

And the vicious cycle continues...

Tonight was fight night at my house. My dad ordered the fight between Pacquiao vs. Barrera on Pay Per View. A bunch of people came over to watch the fight. The fight wasn't that exciting due to the fact that there were no knock outs. But Pacquiao won so it's all good. So much for studying tonight.

I have survived the first two weeks of nursing school, and I am so relieved. It was not as bad as I expected, but it was hectic. I think now that my mind knows that it's done, my body is finally getting a chance to feel exhausted. I slept for 10 hours last night, took a nap this afternoon, and now I'm really sleepy again. I won't have too much time to catch up on my sleep because this weekend is all about studying. I understand how people can disappear once they get into LLU. It's only the second week of school, and I haven't really talked to anyone outside of Loma Linda. Disappearing seems to be inevitable.

Ugh. Tomorrow is going to be a busy one.
I'll be gone from 7:30 AM until 7 PM. This week is just getting ridiculous.
8 AM - 12 PM: Skills Lab
12 PM - 1 PM: Lunch/Study for medical terminology test
1 PM - 3 PM: Fundamentals of Nursing
3 PM - 4 PM: LAP (I have no idea what that stands for. All I know is that we sit in a room for an hour while Dr. Condon talks to us about how to study and our classes.)
4 PM - 5 PM: Run errands
5 PM - 7 PM: Developmental psychology
Then I have to eat dinner and study some more for the medical terminology test which I should have studied for a long time ago but procrastinated for. Damn it.

I was talking to some of the nursing students in my class, and I realized that a big chunk of the people in my class are married or have kids. Some of the people don't look old enough to be married. I guess I just assumed everyone, or at least almost everyone, would be single and closer to my age. I feel so young in class. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the youngest ones there. It's just a little strange for me to be in college and be the minority even though I'm right on schedule.
Tomorrow we are doing bed baths in skills lab. We have to wear a bathing suit or shorts and a tank top to class so we can practice giving bed baths to each other. That should be interesting. Haha! I read the skills lab that I have to do for Thursday, and it reads "Please wear slacks and bring a change of clothes (in case of getting wet during skills practice)" Aah, I love practicing to be a nurse. =D

Today I went to the Grand Avenue Festival with Kristina and her family. It's 2 minutes away from my house and I never knew they had it. We got to see the LA Philharmonic perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall FOR FREE! How awesome is that? They sounded amazing! They Performed Northern Lights: The Music of Sibelius. The different colored lights really brought a whole new element into their performance.
There were also a bunch of other things at the festival. There was a lot of food, and nothing was over $6. There was a mural that you could put your hand print on. It will be going around to different LA locations.
My hand print kind of came out retarded looking.
Kristina and I were going to go to the MOCA as well because it was for free. But we were really tired and didn't have much time. It's OK though since the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) only costs $5 for students on regular days.
We were going to watch Avenue Q again for $20 but didn't have time. That's such a good deal! Oh well.
Los Angeles is actually a really nice city, as long as there is no traffic. Sundays are a good day to walk around and take pictures. And there are actually a lot of things to do around there. You should have to know where to look.
I thought this was funny:
Then Kristina and I went to Japanese Village to get some salmon skin roll and Pinkberry. Aah, twas an excellent day. Can't wait for next year, haha!

Aah, I have never been more happy to be at home. It's been a long week. I've been trying to adjust to my classes, and it's not exactly easy. This week I was in class for 30 hours. 30 HOURS!! I do realize that while in elementary and high school we were in school for about 35 hours a week. But college hours are a lot different. Next week I'll be in class for 29 hours. Ooh, one hour less... score! I'm just glad I'm half way through the toughest two weeks.
Monday was just orientation all day long. Sitting in one seat for hours and hours really makes you exhausted. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't so bad because my classes were more spread apart, but they were also they two days where I was most confused. Thursday was the longest day. I had class from 7:30 AM to 6:40 PM. It was crazy! But today was the most fun day. I got to take vital signs! I need to practice taking blood pressure. Anyone want to be my practice dummy?
I sleep a lot better at LLU than I ever did at LSU, even though the mattresses at LLU suck so much. They aren't even mattresses. I think they are foam with a plastic cover on it. I think I sleep better because I'm alone. I have a roommate, but she lives in Loma Linda. She goes home every night and uses the dorm as her break room. I'm not sure why she dorms. Something about getting discounts because her mom is a teacher. So I'm alone most of the time, except during lunch when she comes and eats at the dorm.
I did manage to get some relief from class by going to Target. In the past week I've gone there 5 times! The thing that I like about Loma Linda is that there are a lot of stores really close to each other so you don't have to drive a lot. And yesterday I got to go to Kristina's house and watch the season four premier of Grey's Anatomy. I'm not too sure if I will like this next season. All the characters seem to annoy me. Haha!

It has been a very very long day. Everyone I talked to about nursing school says that the first two weeks are hell. It's only the first day, and I'm already in total agreement. My day was spent in one room for seven hours straight for orientation then to the church for a school wide orientation. That gives me a grand total of nine hours of orientation. I've never been in school for that long! My brain hurts. All my classes are going to be jumbled up for the next two weeks so I'm pretty confused about when my classes are. After orientation, we had a welcome back bash where I got a bunch of free stuff. I've gotten so much free stuff in the past two days. I won a medical dictionary so that saves me a lot of money. Then I got this stuff.
It's not everything, but that's most of it. They have really cool pens and retractable ID clips. I'm most excited about getting a free scrub top because that saves me a lot of money on scrubs. Hooray! Now I have to go figure out my schedule so I'm not late tomorrow.

On a funnier note, I was looking through some whitening products my dad brought back from the Philippines for my family, and the grammar is hilarious!
"One minutes dispel horniness." What more could you want?

Outlet shopping at Camarillo plus watching Avenue Q equals one hell of a day. But it's also the first day that I realized I had to move in to Loma Linda. I am so unprepared for the next week. I just feel horrible.

Hooray for the month of September! So far this month has been fun. I got to hang out with the guys and go around Hollywood. We also went Ikea to eat dinner. Their hot dogs are so delicious! I know they are made of disgusting leftovers, but they are just so darn good.
My dad came back from the Philippines. I asked for one thing : Pillows by Oishi. My dad came through and brought be back a box full of them.
It's the third month of my summer, and it's just last Wednesday that I got to go to a California beach and have a beach day. Seal Beach is actually a really nice beach. It's clean, and the waves are pretty good.
On Thursday I went to San Diego with Dino, Kristina and Kris. We went to the usual places, Horton Plaza, Sushi Deli, and Extraordinary Desserts. But we also got to go to lots of new places like Ocean Beach, Mission Bay, and Point Loma. The next time I go to SD, I want to go on a paddle boat. That would be so much fun!
Today Gian, Kevin, Kristina and I went to Twin Palms for their brunch buffet. Let's go there again! When I got home from brunch, my parents and I went to look around for a car. We were just going to browse around. But at the end of the day, we ended up buying a 2007 Honda Accord. How funny.
The next two weeks should be fun.
- LA County Fair
- Six Flag
- girls night out
- San Francisco
- Avenue Q
- moving in to LLU
Then school starts. Boo.

It is 3:59 in the morning, and I am wide awake. I really shouldn't have drank that Monster tonight, but I was really thirsty.

La la la la la...

So I went to a Mae concert today with Bryan, Kharifa, Lisa, and Phil. It wasn't quite as energized as the last concert I went to, but it was still pretty fun. We ate at Denny's before the concert to kill time. Phil saw a guy who might be a part of Mae but wasn't sure if he was really the guy. I was going to go over to him to ask, but Phil didn't want me to because he wasn't sure. And what do you know! It was the guy after all! Oh well, maybe next time.

At the concert tonight a lot of the band members looked like someone on TV. From As Tall As Lions, the lead singer reminded me of Peter Brady from the Brady Bunch. But he looked more like the older one from the Christmas movie they did when they were all grown up. And the base guitarist looked like Bob Saget from Full House. The lead singer from Mae looks like Jake, Elliot's ex boyfriend on Scrubs.

I had an interesting run in with As Tall As Lions' base guitarist. I went to a quiet place where I could make a phone call, which happened to be where the restrooms are. In the middle of my call, the lead guitarist steps out of the restroom in nothing but a towel around his waist. I wondered if he was taking a shower in there or something. Then I wanted to tell him that they did a great job performing tonight, but decided not to because I felt awkward talking to a complete stranger while he was just in a towel.

After the concert I could barely hear. Everything sounded muffled, and there was ringing in my head. Somehow my lack of hearing resulted in my voice sounding like I inhaled helium. All of us were pretty much deaf for the rest of the ride back. I can still hear the ringing!!

Damn it. I want to sleep, but I can't. Maybe I'll see what's on TV. Stupid Monster.

Last week was a fun filled week. It started off with going to San Diego with Megan and Bryan. We watched Superbad, and I was caught off guard by how dirty the movie was. But it was a hilarious movie! Certain quotes from that movie will never be forgotten. After the movie, we went to Extraordinary Desserts. I love that place! Their desserts are delicious.
We took our desserts over to La Jolla Cove. I much prefer the cove over the beach because there are less people, and it's prettier.
I've never seen someone write this before. Haha!
Apparently, San Diego is a big hot air ballooning spot. I've always wanted to go, but I think that once I got up there I would be too scared to enjoy it.

On Tuesday I went to Montclair to get my First Aid Certificate. I'm not really sure what the difference between CPR and First Aid is, but I'm certified for both.
Montclair Plaza was right next door to the First Aid place so I got to do some shopping. =D

I had some holds on my registration so I had to go to LLU on Wednesday. It is so hot there! Walking from my car to a building required so much energy. Other than the heat, it was actually a good trip. I saw a lot of people that I got to catch up with.
When I got back to LA, I went to eat Salvadorian food with Jenelyn. I love pupusas! I'm really going to miss Briggitte's grandmother's cooking. She always had something while at the dorm. On our way back home, Jen and I got a little lost. But good came out of it because we got to explore LA. We went to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the LA Music Center.
I never knew LA had these beautiful fountains. There were 10 fountains all in a one block range of each other.
The next day we had out last dinner together since Jen was leaving for Texas the next day. We ate at There's No Place Like Home in Silverlake. Jen and I decided to take them to LA after so we could take pictures by the fountains and Downtown LA. A lot of the pictures are blurry because we didn't use flash. The flash made the pictures come out oddly colored.
I like this picture because we are arranged by height, and we didn't even mean to do it.
Khaing was on a rampage trying to attack Kevin. Aah, good times.
The girls...
The boys...
And all of us hanging out by the fountain

On Friday I went to the market, and I went fruit crazy. I bought a bunch of different fruits, from blueberries to nectarines. Yum!
I went to Cingular to upgrade my plan. I'm in desperate need for a new cell phone. My current phone turns off randomly. I'm thinking about getting a Blackberry because it would be convenient for some things at LLU. But I'm trying to get one cheaper than $300. So if anyone knows of somewhere I can get it for a cheaper price, please let me know.

One more month of summer... I hope it's a good one.

Party like a rock star. Yesterday we celebrated Blossom and Khaing's 21st birthday. We ate at TGIF and went karaoke at K-town.

Here are the birthday girls with their birthday tiaras from Jei.

Khaing taking a sip of her first Appletini. Blossom also tried it but she said it tastes like cough syrup.

Erin is definitely entertaining when she has alcohol in her system.

Karaoke at K-town is so much fun every time I go. I love it!

And our photographer of the evening...
Thanks Jen!

Good times. We didn't get back to Khaing's house until 2:30 am. And now I'm exhausted from lack of sleep. Good night.

My biggest pet peeve at the moment are loan consolidators that constantly call. But I do like the fact that when I tell them I still have two more years left, they hang up right away. I just wish that they would tell all of their loan consolidator friends that so they would leave me alone. And for some reason they always call me Friday nights around dinner time.

By the way, if you're ever in Vancouver, go to this place called La Casa Gelato. It has 218 flavors of gelato. I love it! Their Death By Mango flavor is really delicious, especially if you like something a little tart.

I'm back! Well I've been back for three days but have yet to blog about it. I took the Greyhound up to Stockton to my cousin's house. My two year old niece was feeling a little sick which led to her throwing up on my bag. It's OK because she said "I'm sooo sorry, Auntie Jenny." How could I not forgive that? The next day we went to Sacramento to pick up my Aunt and began our 18 hour road trip. It took us 24 hours to get there because we stopped over someone's house in Washington for six hours. The first few days we were there it was raining, and I was a little sick. That was very unpleasant. Then we went to Victoria Island and spent most of our time near the beach. We went back to Vancouver and went to all the sightseeing places. Then we went to Blaine, Washington because one of our family friends has a vacation house up there. It was very beautiful. We got to go to the outlets in Washington. I appreciated being in Washington because I got to use my phone without roaming. After Washington, we went for a day trip to Whistler. I would really love to go there one winter and stay at their resort. During our last week in Canada, we spent most of our time going around Vancouver. I got to meet up with Kathryn and watch Transformers. That movie is BOMB! Optimus Prime kicks metal butt! My last day was spent shopping in order for me to get rid of all of the Canadian money I had. Everyone I went to Canada with eventually getting sick. I got sick at the beginning of the trip, but everyone else got sick at the end. But they got sick a lot more than I did. And now I am back from my three week vacation. I bought lots of stuff, but I wish I could have bought real Canadian maple syrup and a Mountie hat. Next time I'll definitely buy those. Here are some pictures of the trip.

In Canada... where the moose are.

Riding carousels make me feel like a kid again. =D

SNOW?!?! In July?!?! Only in Whistler...

Hello! I'm Mrs. Humpty Dumpty.

Washington has pretty sunsets.


Ain't she just adorable?

Pretty pretty little lilies..


We stopped by the Weed Rest Area. Surprisingly, I saw no one toking up. Hmm.

My niece being gangsta...

Today is an awful day. But yesterday was much better. Khaing got us a free two hours of bowling at Lucky Strikes in Torrance. It was a lot of fun. We played girls vs. boys, but the girls' lane kept getting messed up.


After bowling, we went to Guppys Teahouse.

Monica and I shared their Coconut Butter Toast. It's so good, but you can only eat a couple bites of it since it's so rich.


Aahh, free bowling, friends and Asian-ish food makes for a fun day.

Juror number 5289? Here.
For the past two days I have been serving my civic duty. The first day wasn't too bad. It went by quicker than I expected. I made friends with a few women sitting next to me. It was a little weird at first because most of them were old enough to be my mom. But somehow I got along with them well. We went to lunch at Japanese Village. While walking there, I talked to another potential juror who was trying to find a place to eat. I got along better with her because she was only a couple years older than me. After lunch, I got called into a case and stayed in the courtroom for the rest of the day. I had to come back the next day. I was so mad, but I wasn't too mad because overall it was a good day.
After getting home, I went to hang out with Megan and Bryan at the Grove. We ate, watched the water fountain show, and took "Who's Your TV Alter Ego" quizzes at Barnes & Noble.


Bryan knocked the whipped cream off my fork... and then I ATE IT! Just kidding.


This picture is just really funny to me. Aah, those fountains.


It was a long yet eventful day, and I knocked out when I got home.
I went back to jury duty today. And as my luck would have it, I got picked to serve on the jury. I got sworn in and everything. We took our lunch break, and I sat in the cafeteria, thinking about having to serve on a jury. I was a little mad, but the more I thought about it, it wasn't that bad. The trial was only for a couple days. I would only be in court for four hours, and I got a two hour lunch break. I was going to use that two hours to gallivant around and explore the city. I thought about the places I wanted to visit, like the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the MOCA, and the cathedral. I started getting really excited about it. When I got back to the courtroom, one of the jurors was missing. The judge sent us outside the courtroom to wait for him. He came 45 minutes late. When we got back inside, the judge said that she had to call for a mistrial, and all of the jurors were excused. I was a little sad that I wouldn't get to explore LA, but I was happy that I didn't have to serve anymore.
I wasn't sure what a mistrial was so I looked it up.
According to Wikipedia:

"A judge may cancel a trial prior to the return of a verdict; legal parlance designates this as a mistrial.

A judge may declare a mistrial due to:

• The court determining that it lacks jurisdiction over a case,
• Evidence being admitted improperly,
• Misconduct by a party, juror, or an outside actor, if it prevents due process,
• A hung jury, which cannot reach a verdict with the required degree of unanimity
• Disqualification of a juror after the jury is impaneled, if no alternate juror is available and the litigants do not agree to proceed with the remaining jurors.

A declaration of a mistrial generally means that the court must hold a retrial on the same subject."

We were dismissed because of reason number 3. And so ends my service, at least for one year.