Camp Sweeney Orientation Day 1 May 30, 2013

Hello blog,

I haven’t visited you in quite some time and have neglected to update you in ages. But now I find myself yearning to write about my experiences I am to have this summer. I’ve finished my first year of medical school (SO CRAZY) and am now at Camp Sweeney, a summer camp for kids with Type 1 Diabetes. We have a week of training which started today and I’m finally getting excited about my summer. Perhaps it was the drudge of getting through our last class of the year (immunology) or perhaps it was the dread of not having enough time to relax/recoup/rejuvenate for the summer or perhaps some fears from my past regarding camp life/korean culture, etc. I’ve been feeling pretty ambivalent about my upcoming summer. I feel like some of those emotions are finally shifting towards excitement, which makes me thoroughly pleased. I was afraid those anxieties/complaints would continue to fog and sap my energy throughout the summer. But I think my feelings are heading towards optimism and excitement! yippee!

Anyways that was quite a large ramble about my feelings. I suppose I do that quite a bit. But it’s so refreshing! To just stream of consciousness write this shit. I miss this! I should do this more often, if only for myself! 

To recap- Ambivalence being slowly replaced by excitement and optimism for sweeney and korea travels! More to come! 

This is me in my bed 12:39 AM with my BFFFFFF POCAHONTAS (my neon pillow pet!)

A week in DC June 14, 2010

It’s been a week since I’ve been here. Time flies.

What I’ve been doing:

1. Working at Walter Reed and hanging out with Caitlin, who also works there. I met my boss, who is probably the nicest man in the world. My job is super chill and I really like the research that I’m helping with.

2. Exploring DC and using public transportation! I love how I can go wherever I want, whenever I want by just walking or using the metro. It’s the best. I love having this freedom! Also, the Targets here are two stories and there is a cart lifter to the second story. It’s CRAZY. CRAZY COOL.

3. Meeting up with people I didn’t know as well but am getting to know better! It’s great. My roommate is a friend from high school I haven’t seen or talked to in a very long time. But now we’re living together and we get along really well! Which makes me very happy. And which also makes me think about why I ended up here in DC with these people in the first place. I feel like my presence here was fated in a way. I didn’t know what I was doing for the summer for so long, then this opportunity just came to me. And now I feel like there must have been a reason for it all. Maybe I’m just being silly. But I don’t know! Something tells me that there really is some sort of greater purpose for my summer here. Maybe it’s some sort of personal growth that’s needed? Or maybe my relationships with the people here will grow? Or maybe I’ll find something I’m really excited about? Either way, I hope I find that purpose and make the most out of it. Although I feel like thinking about that too much could also be a problem. Finding purpose sometimes just comes with living life and discovering and chancing upon it rather than actively searching for it. It’s kind of difficult to find middle ground.

4. Experiencing lots of gay pride. I went to the gay pride parade yesterday and it was really quite a spectacle. I’ve never seen that many gay people gathered. ever. And today I went to the gay pride festival with Olivia. And saw the gay men’s chorus of washington DC. They were really good and really entertaining. They did an awesome rendition of single ladies. There were also a lot of families with gay parental units as well. It was really cute. I’ve never thought about what it would be like to have gay parents. How would my identity change with their influence? Would it change at all? I was talking to Sam, and he was saying that sexuality is more like a sliding scale rather than a rigid gay and straight. I wonder if I would lean more towards homosexuality if I had gay parents. I mean I know it doesn’t work like that..sexuality is a complex combination of genetics and environmental factors or something. but I feel like I would have probably explored that option as well. maybe. And I feel like I’m a pretty malleable person in general. It seems unlikely that I would be anything but heterosexual, but who knows.

5. arrested development- best show ever.

6. i love you man- one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. (after office space and zoolander of course)

7. chillin on the roof of my apartment.

the end. i need to sleep right now. I have an early day tomorrow.

After Turkey and now in DC! June 9, 2010

YSO Turkey tour was amazing. Not only were the sights incredible and beautiful and new, the experience itself is probably something that I won’t get to do ever again. Like Chris Chow on the trip said- it was like we were part of something greater. There were so many nice things that we were treated to like amazing food, free alcohol, and boat rides! It was awesome. And the concert halls were exquisite. They were the best concert halls I’ve ever played in. In Istanbul we played in Aya Irini, a historic church in the grounds of Topkapi Palace. That was SO cool. It’s like we were part of history or something. The other two halls were also so beautiful.

The sightseeing was really awesome too! I really really liked Istanbul and wished we had stayed there fore longer. The Blue Mosque was soo pretty. It looked a lot bigger from the outside compared to the inside of it. It was really cozy inside the mosque. We had to take our shoes off and cover our bodies. It must feel weird to pray at such a touristy mosque. I would never feel comfortable enough to do that.

Ankara was less exciting. But I had a lot of fun. One night, some friends and I went into the city and had waffles!! It was so delicious and had a great time bonding with some peeps. That same night there was also a musical cultural exchange! It was SO great. There were these two Turkish students in front of our dorm playing guitar and I asked if we could join them, and they said sure! Then we spent the next couple of hours drinking and exchanging popular American and Turkish songs. It was greaaaaaat!

Izmir was the resorty awesome that everyone loves. Beach was pretty and I always love watching large bodies of beautiful water just sort of chillin there. I love the reflection of the sun and the moon on the water too. And the ripples! They are so nice. I could just sit and watch water for HOURS.

Lots of drinking and fun with YSO people. I got to know a few kids I didn’t know before which was really great. All of it was so fun. Well, maybe not all of it- the bus rides were much too long. We spent like 2 full days on buses. At least the bus boys were fun. (sometimes annoying, but fun for the most part…)

There is definitely more that I omitted just for the sake of the reader. I’ll probably journal more on my own! I want to remember everything about the tour. The pictures tell a lot of the story, but I want to have a really vivid account of it all. I should probably hurry up and do that so that I don’t forget important details.

So that was tour.

And now i’m in DC!!

It’s been SO GREAT. I LOVE DC. A LOT. There’s SO MUCH to do! All the time!

Today was the first day of work. It was pretty chill and I’m excited about it. After work, I wandered around DC- I went to the Washington memorial, Lincoln memorial, sit by the Potomac, and then walked back home. It was gorgeous outside. like PERFECT. I met a very nice lady who told me about free concerts and things and I was so happy all day and now I’m tired.

I have also decided to purchase a journal like notebook thing without lines so I can sketch and write thoughts down as they come to me. That would be nice to look back on in the future and also nice for my mind now. I’m so content.

tired April 22, 2010

This week needs to be over soon. I just want to sleep. It’s not really that I’m sleep deprived, it’s just that I don’t want to do work and I do want to just sleep. for hours. and hours.

I have a lot of work. And it’s actually pretty manageable, except my motivation is shot.

Instead I’ve been singing songs and playing guitar with Alex Chern. It’s so fun in the moment. But afterwards I’m like aww Why did I waste so much time? I need to stop thinking things are a waste of time if they aren’t work. Because they really aren’t. Those small things I do during the day away from my work help me maintain my happiness actually. I should embrace them, instead labeling them a waste of time and feeling bad about it… I just need to remember not to go overboard with my chillness… That sometimes happens too and them I’m screwed with schoolwork.

BALANCE. that’s what I need in my life.

today April 20, 2010

I received a package from my love Alia Poonawala. It was wonderful and I was wonderfully happy.

Things in my package:

1. CANDY

2. a wonderful handwritten note. (those are my favorite)

3. A really fun diary called Keel’s Simple Diary. It’s has a really cute format where you fill in questions about what happened that day. For example today, the first question was “Your day was (choose one) 1. a party, 2. a U turn, 3. a smarty.” Then there are a couple of lines asking you to explain why. There are other little statements/snipets. Like today- there are a couple of lines about “feeling at home” and then there is a little quote in red- “If it’s not there, there is nothing to find out.” It’s so fun! Some of the questions are silly but some are also serious, making me think about my day in a meaningful way. It make me SO happy. I’ll have another outlet in addition to this one! how fun.

Overall, good day. I even exercised this morning GASP. Now off to listen to music for my listening quiz tomorrow! YAY.

Also. April 18, 2010

I adore my suitemates.

Thank you for a lovely birthday WEEK.

Bubbles are great too. Especially when you blow a bunch and are surrounded by them.

Maybe I’ll start writing again.

Today was Brunch of Destiny (which was amazingly delicious BTW), and I discovered the HappyHap journal of Happy Happenings! I read the entire thing and sort of had a realization that I’d really like to start writing about the happy things in my life/ do more writing in general. So I was looking for a medium to do it in. I love journaling, and I have this really pretty journal Joie gave me, but I only journal when I’m not too tired and have something really pressing on my mind. So normal everyday things don’t usually go in there. Then I thought about my blog from last summer, and said why not blog? And VOILA here I am. blogging.

Yesterday, I went to Alan’s baptism and it was wonderful. It was at Lighthouse point park and people from the ecv church gathered under a little pagoda by the water and sang songs together and the 3 people getting baptized shared their stories about their journey up to that point. It was really inspiring to see them talk so openly about their religion and their love for God. Especially since I’ve been struggling with my relationship with God and have been wanting to get closer to Him, but feeling like I’ve been unsuccessful… The ceremony was really beautiful and different than any other baptisms I’ve seen. Alan walked into the water (Must have been SUPER cold), with 3 or 4 other people who were blessing him. There was a prayer and then a gentle tip backwards, submerging him completely in the water. It was really amazing- it was like the baptismal ceremony was one with nature. The vast stretch of water to the horizon, the sharp wind swiftly blowing, the ominous clouds clearing up just for a moment and letting the sun shine through, as if its rays were warmly embracing us. I couldn’t help myself from feeling a sense of awe and humbleness at that moment. And I couldn’t help the tears. I’m not really sure why they came. Perhaps they were tears of joy that those being baptized had reached a pivotal point in their lives, which would change them and bring them closer to some sort of bliss. Perhaps I was feeling distant from the Lord and yearning to experience that closeness. Maybe I saw in other people a sort of center in life that I had been lacking. There were just so many thoughts. And I’m so incredibly thankful for that beautiful experience that made me think about a lot of things I had been blocking out of my mind.

So. Thank you Happyhap publication for getting me back into writing about the things in my life. And Thank you Alan for inviting me to your baptism. Maybe this whole blogging thing might actually happen. I think it would be good for me.

Misun

AHHHHHHH July 24, 2009

summer is over dudes

we are throwing all of our endos away tomorrow!!! AAAAAAAAAH WAAAAAAAAAAAAH POOR ENDOS I”M SAD I DO”NT WANT TO THROW THEM AWAY they are like my little CHILDREN! HOW CAN I??? I’m sorry endos! its not me. ITS LAB PEOPLE THEY WANT TO KILL YOU!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAH 

i must… o gosh. and then next week is CLEAN UP WEEK!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAH what the HECK

i can’t handle this. 

this is too much

hodgepodge of things July 21, 2009

so i gave my final presentation for lab today. it was sad! I only have TWO WEEKS LEFT OF SUMMER IN NEW HAVEN! i’m totally freaking out. Well Inorreally hate presenting, but it’s gotten better i think. maybe i’m the same at presenting but i feel a whole lot more comfortable doing it. which is such a good thing because i get SO nervous when i present. although perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten used to these presentations and the people who are watching me. BUT anyways, I don’t really think I’ve updated about my fungi this entire summer… and this blog is supposed to be dedicated to them. poor fungi. they must feel so neglected outside of lab… 

ok

so i’ll be continuing the research that i started next semester (hopefully!) if i can find room in my schedule. I’m really excited. I’ve gotten a lot of interesting endophytes and a lot of them have bacterial and fungal GIA hits which is super exciting! I think i’ll focus more on my three streptos who all look pretty cool. They have really great inhibition of fungal organisms and especially E5712B (his ID number) has really strong inhibition of staph!

here he is!

Other than those guys, I have this potentially novel one E5715B. he’s pretty cool and recently turned PINK! It was pretty sweet. But he doesn’t really have any substantial activity which is sad, but we’ll see.

 

My new guy!

 

And and and GET READY! Amanda and I have decided to work on a really cool biofilm assay for next semester! We were noticing a lot of staph inhibition in our class presentations and were thinking we should really do something with this. And we had been talking to Carol, one of the professors in our lab, and we decided to work on staph biofilm inhibition! We’ve been fiddling around with biofilms now and reading papers on procedures and things. It’s really cool to actually be doing our own assay and taking procedures from multiple papers and sort of combining things and thinking about how to perform an experiment. It’s really cool to really think about how to go about making an experiment efficient and effective. I’m super excited about all the research I’ve done this summer and will get to continue! It’ll be great hopefully.

And ok so last night I was putting my presentation together and I made this special thanks shout out to all the people in lab who have helped me over the summer and it felt really great to say thanks to those people who have helped me. I guess I kind of wanted to that here too because it’s so important to remember to be thankful. I feel like I forget to do that a lot. Sometimes I get caught up in the day to day things and get upset over little things that shouldn’t really be bothering me.

Thanks…

My mommy and daddy. You send me cute emails and make me happy.

To my suite. I feel weirdly connected to the world through you. I follow your adventures and you always seem to be interested in mine. I always feel at home with you guys.

To Alia. You always help me through my personal issues. Thanks for always being a phone call away.

Rainforest lab. You guys made my summer amazing.

To my beautiful friends who look past my flaws and listen to my silly rambling. Thanks for the conversation, thoughts, and goooooooood times.

OK.

AND OK UPDATES:

i saw harry potter opening night dudes. we were the SECOND group to be there. AND i had sour patch KIDS! it was awesome

the movie was funny and pretty epic although there was a lot that was missing from the book… which was sort of a bummer but it was ok because there was all this romantic stuff going on that was cute. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

DAVID COLOGNORI: Firkin genius cook ever. He made this amazing crumbcake that was the most delicious thing ever for lab today. He also makes this awesome fruit tart that is SO Delicious. Also during lab we were trying to figure out how to play the hand game miss mary mack. I couldn’t figure how the hand motions go it was really hard guys.

ZUMBA: I hadn’t been to zumba class in a WEEK! I went today since my week vacation from exercise and it was GREEEEEEEEAT! I felt so good about myself afterwards. Exercise is really awesome. I got out of the gym all giddy and practically skipping listening to my ipod.

FOOD SHOPPING: we had absolutely ZERO food left in our fridge. Things left in the fridge before food shpping: pepperoni, variety of dressings and sauces, jelly, hummus. That’s it. Yesterday for lunch/dinner we bought a baguette from atticus, ate hummus pepperoni bread, peanut butter with pretty much anything that was left: the baguette, the triscuits until we ran out, and then last resort: peanut butter with peanuts. YES. But it’s all good. We got MAD food. I’m so excited to eat cereal and milk for breakfast tomorrow morning! I LOVE CEREAL SO MUCH. Especially SMART START its SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD. OMYGOSH i’m so hungry right now. But Im going to wait.

IVY NOODLE: DINNER!!! YUMMMYYYY. Teriaki CHIKEN BOWL YUUUUUUUUUUM. And great company too J

I am hoping to do something every day of these last two weeks before I Leave. “do something” is probably pretty vague: basically anything so that I’m not bored or feeling that i’m not really enjoying every moment. I want to spend time with everyone before I leave and do a lot of fun stuff! More trips to east rock, more sake bombing, more skipping around, more laughing, more of LIFE DUDES. YEAH. (ok that was going to be my last comment but one more thing. I’m going to shop a philosophy class called life in the fall. It sounds awesome. I want to think about life more. So maybe I’ll take that class. Its with shelly kagan. Does anyone want to join? YES sounds fun right?)

Ok now I’m done.

!!!!!!

misun

ok fine some pics:

 

some awesome inhibition dues

 

ICE CREAM with labbies

MINI GOLF!!!!!!!!

 

BEACH and freaky popsicles'

 

roooooomies

 

 

my camera recently is refusing to charge. i’m SOSAD.

ohwell

a month July 10, 2009

hey look at that.

it’s been a month since i last posted. oh well. i’m officially a bad blogger. BUT. i’m going to redeem myself by updating you on every aspect of my life that you’ll forgive me for my lack of blogging skills. 

today was quite exciting. because you know whY? 

1. I got to talk to ABBY and you didn’t. maybe you did. but i just wanted to make you all jealous.

2. i took the day off. I totally just felt like it. and then i did. i was having a lot of trouble waking up this morning. and usually i’m pretty good about getting up. you see it was TOTALLY my body telling me that i needed to stay home and have a misun day. so i did.

3. I cooked food while i was home. I baked this banana chocolate cake from SCRATCH! It was kind of a spontaneous happening. so there were these bananas sort of rotting BUT NOT REALLY ROTTING FOR THOSE of you that ate it and i thought i should do something. i tried to eat them but they were too mushy. so i was like hm. i should bake some kind of banana bread cake thing! So i looked up this recipe online and it gave me the ingredients etc. etc. so i was putting everything together- but there were several problems. i didn’t have a measuring spoon, i didn’t have baking powder, i didn’t have plain yogurt, and i spilled milk on the floor. BUT these things all worked out. i guesstimated the measurements, i found substitute baking powder-which is apparently more baking soda plus more yogurt, i used special activia peach yogurt (all of you who ate it will have good poops,) and i cleaned the floor. everything worked out well so i was happy! and then i cooked dduk bok ee this korean dish with rice cakes and stir fry with soy sauce. YUM. i was pretty proud of myself. I can cook! I didn’t think i had it in me. 

4. For dinner I went to a wonderful potluck at Ariana and Melissa’s lovely place and it was awesome. I love seeing the energy and happiness the right groups bring. It was really fun. it was hot. but that’s ok. we sang some songs and a new person i met there had a guitar and we sang along! he was super good at guitar and i was like “someday i’ll be that good.” YEah. People left and then it was just amanda, deborah, melissa, ariana, and me. and then we had a dance party and practiced our mad moves. so you peeps better watch out. you won’t know what hit you at toads.

5. now i’m blogging.

 

Stuff that’s been on my mind recently:

1. Ernesto Che Guevara. I just watched the motorcycle diaries. and now i borrowed the book. i will read it. 

2. Gael Garcia. The actor. he’s so good. I also recently saw the Science of Sleep. he’s in it. it’s an awesome movie. if you watch it, invite me because i’ll watch it again. (it’s at the new haven public library if you wanted to watch it. i can borrow it for you if you want to watch it and you have no library card.)

3. Cellulitis. Jon Russell has been in the hospital for a while because of some mysterious bacteria in his leg. the doctors first said it was cellulitis, but now they dont really know. I hope he gets better soon. It must really suck to be in the hospital for that long.

4. How relationships happen/begin. I was just talking to abby about this. it’s kind of cool to think about how friendships really start. When does that kind of awkward stage end and then that intimacy begin? It’s so funny how it flows like that. one day it’s sort of awkward and you are striving to get to that familiar place with people you know well and then bam you think about it a couple of days/weeks/months later and it has happened. it’s amazing the way people interact. 

5. Boston. I’m going up this weekend to see lovely molly! it should be exciting. But it’s also the first time i’ll be riding the greyhound. i’ll be with wambura. but i’m still a little scared. but we are tough and buff. so that should be ok.

6. traveling. i’d like to do more.

7. love. it’s been on my mind a lot recently. and i’m so happy that my life is full of it. i’m really thankful for my family and friends. they keep me well and happy. but in terms of the future and falling in love and things. that sort of scares me. i don’t know if that will ever happen to me. i hope it does! because i really would like to love someone and have that person love me back too. but then i also think. if i had a family what would happen. dang that is scary. maybe i won’t think about that too much now.

 

Things that i’ve done the past month:

1. Molly comes to visit! It was a fun fun fun weekend with sake bombing and getting high for the first time. went shopping too. i like shopping. 

2. Mermaid parade with Phoebe in Coney Island. an interesting experience – there were so many types of people i have never really encountered before. it was quite fun.

3. New York roaming with some rainforest kids and wambura. 

4. A successful dinner for the rainforest class yesterday! My suite- Amanda, Susie, and I hosted our rainforest dinner and made indonesian ginger chicken (it was super good). I also made my egg soup i ALWAYS talk about. if you haven’t had it please ask me to make it for you. BECAUSE i love making it. and its yummy. plus it’s super easy to make and taakes like 3 seconds. and for dessert we had this pretty fancy oreo cake. (jk it wasn’t fancy. it was basically ice cream in a pan). it was fun and i’m happy that i’ve spent my summer with those kids.

5. I finished Middlesex. It was a great book.

6. ARIANA IS HERE. and i played YAHTZEE for the first time!

7. Jon Russell’s jeep is the shit. It’s so cool. I need to take a picture of it and post it to the world.

8. JULY 4th! I went to see fireworks at Long Wharf. it was really nice. and then we went on top of hendrie hall and set off sparklers! it was fun. 

9. listening to guster. all the time. it’s great. 

 

peace out yos

thanks for reading this far. hope it wasn’t too boring.

hope all is well with yous and call me so we can chat if i haven’t seen you in a while. i’d love to talk! 🙂

misun

some picS: