sunday. march 18 2oo7

it has been quite the week. it started out with me pulling a muscle in my back. all my life i've been really careful about using my legs to lift things. the one time i decide to use my back, and bam! it got me. so i pretty much walked around every day this week like a stiff. the pain was definitely a hindurance, but i mainly wanted to heal quickly because there was fundraiser soccer game at the end of the week on saturday. i strained my lower back on monday. tuesday to thursday, i stayed at the kamalesons. it was nice having food taken care of, especially with the back problem. friday, i went to hanbeen's bday party. he turns 14 on monday (tomorrow). we played royale (a soccer game) and a volleyball game in the parking lot of his complex. afterwards, it was time for dinner. and man did his mom go all out!!! there was so much food that we didn't even come close to finishing it. i wish i could've taken it home. afterwards, we watched Dodgeball. it was really hot in his place, so i suggested going down to the pool. keep in mind that it was 10pm at the time. originally we intended on just sitting by the pool and enjoying the cool weather. next thing you know, sam asks the question, "how much would you pay me to jump in the pool?" things got really interesting after that. three of us offered to fork up 100/=. so he takes his shorts off and plunges in with a nice cannonball. then i figured, why not throw the birthday boy in too? we ended up chasing him around the pool a few times before he finally volunteered to jump in himself. shortly after, chang hwan and luis jump in. chang hwan took off his boxers before jumping in, and luis jumped in with jeans on! and to think, our original intent was to just sit by a pool. afterwards we went inside and played cards and halo. before completely crashing, we watched 2 fast 2 furious. i think austin and i fell asleep around 4am. that wasn't so bad, except for the fact that we had to wake up like 5hrs later. we were scheduled to play in a soccer game fundraiser. kayla had put together a soccer game between the undefeated boys soccer team vs a team we dubbed "The Others". it consisted of family, friends, and teachers. we're raising money to buy basketball uniforms for next year, so we don't have to be the Long Island Christians anymore. it'll nice to have the right colors and school name on jerseys. i wish i took pictures of the game, but i was busy playing. i haven't played soccer in a loooooooooooong time, so it was fun moving my feet like that again. good thing i had ian's cleats and hanbeen's brother's socks. now i need to get myself a ball, so i can practice. anyway, the game ended with "The Others" winning 6-5. knowing these boys, they'll be asking for a rematch from now till the end of the year. after a sleepover and a 70min soccer game, the weekend wasn't over. an end of the basketball season party combined with ian's bday party was celebrated with a bbq at the merediths. i show up, and the first thing the guys wanna do is play knockout...truly a bball team =] after playing knockout, we ate a meal gabe and i call lunner or linner or was it luinner? you get the idea. a nice cake was made with all of our names on it. i really wish hanbeen, daniel, and allan could've showed up. our team consisted of four 7th graders, four 8th graders, and four 9th graders. it was a great season, and i definitely learned new dimensions to coaching. here's sam with one of his fairy-like poses. like i've said with jason, i take no responsibility for this type of behavior. let's just accept the fact that they were born this way...hahaha here's the team minus hanbeen, daniel, and allan...plus graham (gabe's bro): (L-R back): josh, myoung chul, graham, shaq, austin, zam, ian (L-R front): gabe, sam, kwame ::: :::

monday. march 12 2oo7

on saturday, wns had its annual International Food Fair. it's awesome having such a diverse group of students at our school, especially for days like this =] families made food from a number of different cultures. there was food from each continent. i should've taken pictures, but i was too busy eating. after lunch, i left with joe and his family because he invited me to come watch him play at his tennis tournament. i missed his tournament last weekend because i was up at RVA. it was the first time he won 1st place, so i was bummed out for not making it. i definitely wanted to make it to this one. he may not display a great deal of focus in the classroom, but the boy can definitely play tennis. it reminds me alot of my cousin, alfred. he'll always be the tennis star in our family in my mind. anywayz, joe made it into the finals, which he ended up playing sunday morning. i still don't know the results, but i'm sure he did well. after tennis, we went and got ice cream at java house. it was a perfect sunny afternoon to eat ice cream. afterwards, i was dropped off at my place. before heading out again, i caught an episode of Scrubs. when i maximize it, put it on fullscreen on my laptop, and really get into the show, i forget where i am for a split second. i enjoy seeing the little nbc ads for will & grace and my name is earl in the bottom corners of the screen. thanks again jeremy! shortly after, i went out to eat at a cuban restaurant called havana. usually brad and i like to go there because you can get chips and quesadillas for real cheap. this time around we brought simon, kayla, daylan, jen, and alison. i figured they would enjoy some sizzling fajitas because daylan mentioned liking mexican food earlier that morning. after dinner, we went back to the girls' place and had some cheesecake pudding that jen made. we also discovered that simon does a great jack johnson. he can play a ton of JJ's songs. on top of that, he has a great voice for it. i'm jealous. oh btw, we met him at church. he occasionally plays bass on the worship team. my biggest connection with simon is actually talking about baseball players from the 80's. we both collected baseball cards back then, so we remember all the players and teams from back in the day...good stuff. this weekend was a nice relaxation to a long, tiring week. hopefully this upcoming week will offer more excitement. i already know it's gonna be alittle nuts. bball games on monday and tuesday. staying at kamalesons tues, wed, and thurs. hanbeen's bday on friday. soccer fundraiser game on saturday. end of the season bball party and ian's bday party on saturday. on top of that, it's st.patrick's day on saturday. come to think of it, the weekdays go by alittle faster when you have something fun to look forward to at the end of the week. i hope all of you are doing well back at home. spring break kiddos...be safe out there! non-spring break kiddos, stay away from spring break kiddos =] ::: :::

wednesday. march o7 2oo7

saturday was a pretty long day, but it was fun. we went out to RVA for boys bball and girls soccer tournaments. i only know the results of the boys bball A team because i was with them all day. there were 8 teams total and split into two pools of 4. we were put in a pool with RVA-A, Rosslyn-B, and ISK-B. our first game was against RVA-A. it ended up going into overtime with them winning 17-19. afterwards, we played against Rosslyn-B and ISK-B. we didn't have any problems winning those two games. our team and RVA-A moved on to semi-finals from our pool. we faced ISK-A in the semi's. we actually played this team for the first game of the season and lost. so we had some team goals on beating them this time around. it was a gauge of how far we've come since the beginning of the season. we stuck to our game plan and won, sending us to the finals vs RVA-A, which is what i expected. in the finals, the game was intense from beginning to end. we traded buckets down to the last seconds. we were up 32-31 with 30sec left. one of their guys hits a 3-pointer putting them ahead 34-32. the place went crazy when he hit that shot, being RVA's homecourt and all. in the end, we walked away with 2nd place in the tournament. i'm proud of how far the team has come compared to day one. we developed more cohesiveness throughout the tournament. we started out with 2-3 guys who got most of the touches. by the end of the day, everyone was involved in our offense. we still have 3 more games left, so i hope everyone continues distributing the ball. if all this writing seems boring and bland, it's because i'm really tired at the moment. after a long day at RVA, after an hour-long bus ride back, i ended up at myoung chul's house. he invited all the koreans and this chinese guy to come and celebrate his bday. i don't think my brain has heard that much korean in my entire life. they spoke absolutely no english while i was there. but it didn't bother me because i was really tired anywayz. the food was good. and spending time with these crazy kids was fun. happy bday myoung chul! (oh btw, he's the dude behind me) here's a random blurb. the writers of Family Guy just got my respect. from episode 5 of season 2 (Love Thy Trophy), the very last scene is taken from the movie Trainspotting. talk about pulling out some old skool material. ::: :::

friday. march o2 2oo7

yesterday was a fun day. i went with the 9th graders to tumaini centre to do some community service. we first removed an old, decayed wooden cover from a 30ft well. it was nasty. there were termites crawling all over it. the tricky part was separating the wooden boards from each other without falling into the filth-infested water. we'd either pull out rusty nails or break the boards in half. after that, we worked on building a new cover. it felt good completing something. here's the new cover with a small door for pumping out water. we also sanded and varnished parts of their playground equipment. it should add to the longevity of it. i've been getting packages lately, and it really keeps me going each week. every time i open them, it feels like i'm receiving a piece of home. thanks mom for buying me a maroon shirt and sending the truffles. thanks stanley for getting me the hat and sending the cd. thanks jeremy for burning me all those episodes. who needs television when you've got episodes of family guy, how i met your mother, the office, scrubs, heroes, and prison break. oh yea, one thing not pictured in here are the dvd's of the entire All-Star weekend. i've seen the rookie game and skills challenge. i can't wait to watch the actual all-star game. thanks mom for sending that! alright so here's the biggest surprise package since elena's. sam wong and family sends me the biggest asian invasion package. i think i was giggling like a little girl deep down inside when i opened the box. i definitely won't have to grocery shop for snacks for a loooooong time. thanks sam!!! i really like this. janice is an awesome artist. it's so creative. since i'm on the topic of packages, i should give thanks to amanda for sending me 6 movies, 2 albums, and a huge supply of Pop Rocks!!! thanks amanda!!! you rock...har har =P ::: :::