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| i think taiwan may be the only place in the world that makes me feel curvy....or slightly fat
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| one word: taiwan
p#: 0918717822
call me up if you're here too :D
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| i think i got a hint of what this summer is going to be like today: 88 degrees, thunderstormy, crazy humid. i guess i better get used to it, because i'll be leaving soon for nice tropic-degree places!
my schedule for the summer:
may25: BBQ at my house! it may be a sharpie party, or a pink party, i don't know yet. but if you know me, you're welcome to come :) there will be good food all around (burgers, hotdogs, brats, chicken, ribs, potato salad, etc!), lots of drinks, and hopefully volleyball! we're probably going to head over to the movie theatre afterwards and watch pirates of the caribbean 3, and then to ashley's for a midnight bonfire. come!
a couple pictures of the party last year :)
june1-july1: TAIWAN! ill be in taipei for the first week and the last week of this trip, and in taichung and kaohsiung also. let me know if you're going to be in town. we can hang out :D
july1-july8: L.A.! i'm so excited to see rachael and lizzo and possibly haoming hahah :D there will be plenty of beaching and shopping and fooding to go around, all those things are what i love the best about californ-i-a
july8-august22: classes at OCC in auburn hills. i have to take some basic drawing class before i can officially be in the architecture program, so i'm going to take drawing100, black and white sketching. as easy as the class is going to be, i'm not stoked about buying extra supplies and having to spend an extra 200$ to take a subject that i clearly already know how to do. but then again, i've never taken a real drawing/art class, so maybe it won't be too bad.
august3-5 (tentative): chicago- if i'm successful with my architecture pathway (see entry below), i will most likely end up in the windy city; it is the midwest's most prominent architectural capital, so most people hired for their three year stint move to chicago. i think it would be wonderful to live in a city for a couple years and then go back to school to finish my masters. it feels like that three years would be a really good time for exploring the city and just basically playing for a little bit before i have to head off to the master's degree/licensing test/real world thing that follows. so, i just want to visit chicago for a weekend or so to get acquainted and to see if i really will like the city or not (i probably will). plus, lollapalooza is that weekend, and you can't beat chicago's awesome hot dogs, pizza, and just good food in general. (note-to-self: must...save...money... must...not...buy...stuff...)
sometime in july or august: camping at pinery park! my family has gone to this wonderful canadian park for the past nine or ten years for our camping adventures. its a beautiful place. the campsites are perfectly situated so that you don't feel like you're stuck in the middle of a huge forest- yet, you have enough trees, bushes and greenery so the site feels private. what is great about the 'dunes' camping ground (where we alway stay at) is that it is situated very close to the beaches- only a mass of sand dunes separates the grounds the the water. you can find a pathway through the dunes so you can walk to lake huron within a couple minutes. gorgeous. and then you factor in the ausable river that runs through it (canoeing and kayaking, anyone?) and the hiking/biking trails... everything about that park is perfect. its also one of the most popular parks in canada, so its super hard to get a reservation for the place. you have to reserve 6 months in advance, usually, and at six in the morning. we looked at ten in the morning the same day, and within four hours all the dunes campsites were gone. hopefully, somebody will cancel and we can go.
alvin's model beach picture :D
me and kootay's infamous model picture
banks of the ausable river :D
canoe dock!
kayak race!
(photos by alvyn)
so yes,
this is my summer- call me up if you want to do something!
<3emily | | |
| i'm done with sophomore year- half of my undergraduate education...
its a weird thought.
i still haven't gotten over the fact that i made it through high school, even though things are so different than they were back then.
but college is awesome, if not nerve-wracking. (brain: hey emily, you have to get a real JOB after this! me: wha? oh. crap. CRAP!)
so, a story:
if you guys know me, you know how indecisive i am. i can't pick what to get at restaurants (because everything sounds good), i usually end up returning half the stuff i buy at the mall, etc. i've debated for over the past eight months about what my major will be. per recommendation of my dad, i applied to engineering school fresh out of high school and have thus far stayed in there for two years; i actually just declared materials engineering 3 weeks ago. being in engineering college made me appreciate classes that only involved papers and reading, and caused me to actually LIKE calculus...
but,
it sucked.
a LOT.
(for the record, math and physics were the subjects that i hated the most in high school
i know, you're thinking: wtf? what is wrong with you? WHY are you an engineer?!?!)
i jumped blind into college. i really should've done some career searching/testing. i really hadn't thought of any other options than engineering until lately. my favorite classes in high school were art, bio and chem and seriously, i really don't think materials engineering heavily involves ANY of those.
i then thought about everybody else was enjoying what they were doing, and how i hated engineering. and then i got kind of sad...
then, inspiration...(!)
i was looking at our online course guide to choose classes and stumbled
upon something that looked SO interesting/exciting/fun: architecture + urban
planning.
you may ask: "emily, why didn't you look over your career options and stumble upon this sooner?"
i don't know. i've always wanted to become an art major of some type, but asian parent logic and regular logic told me that i would have to be amazing at it to get a good job. the design industry is so subjective, and i honestly didn't think that i was that amazing at art; that one was ruled out. so i tried out engineering instead. and then i found this perfect major that was almost like art + engineering! genius! but would they take me?
admissions involved all the original high school things, an essay, filling in all that info, and a portfolio. i hadn't made ANY art since high school, so i piled my portfolio high with drawings from art AP and stuff i did on my own in photoshop senior year.
it took me 13 hours in front of a groundworks station and about $50 to make that little book.
and that fifty bucks was put to good use.
i got accepted two weeks ago, but have had a HUGE problem in deciding. to make it easier for you, i've made a list of pros and cons:
architecture:
pros:
-i will probably, 80% sure, enjoy this major throughly. even though this is only one pro, this is an important one.
-it seems so FUN!
-it incorporates my love of art and design with something that is more practical in the real world.
-the people in my classes are awesome. i'd like to spend the next 2 years in the same classes as them.
-my gpa resets (YES!)
cons:
- i might not actually enjoy this major! that would be bad...it would come back to haunt me.
- you have to go through so much school and crap: two years to get your b.arch, which isn't even a professional degree (its only a pre-prof bachelors), three years of work/gaining experience, and then 2 more years for your master's in architecture. and THEN after that, you have to take a licensing test in every state that you decide to move to/practice in. then you are a real architect. sigh.
- our architecture program probably isn't that great (a lot of people say its very design oriented, instead of considering all aspects, like construction, and engineering principles). safe to say, the program may put out a lot of people that design stuff that can't be built.
- its a small department (about 110 ppl a year). i wonder how many companies actually go to the career fair and hire people from our school.
- i heard its like hell. i already got a taste of what its like from my arch202 class. its called, NO SLEEP and consecutive all nighters...
- money. i wonder how much will i get paid. as my arch prof said, "when considering architecture and engineering, do NOT look at the salaries. haha..."
materials engineering:
pros:
-job security. have you seen the career fairs? i swear that almost every single company comes to our biannual career fairs. even companies like national bank and goldmeyer, that you wouldn't expect to need engineers...
- money. a starting materials engineer makes around $45,000 a year, and it is expected to increase to an average of $91,000 in 4-6 years. wow.
- prestige. michigan engineering is one of the best in the nation, and known globally. serious stuff to feed future employers.
- making my dad happy well, that WAS on the list until yesterday.
- i know i have a more open personality (as opposed to many of my nerdy classmates, hahaha) and would do well in interviews and probably get promoted to manager someday. and managing has almost zero engineering that you actually have to do.
cons:
- i HATE it. and all there is to it, including horrible professors, horrible classes, and just stupid things in general that they make you do that you'll never use in real life. (this is a HUGE con, by the way)
- i HATE it
- i HATE it
- its hard. my gpa sucks.
- the people...are not as exciting. mostly crazy over-achievers/nerds. (note: "mostly")
- materials science is a really small department. almost too small (35 people tops in my graduating year). i feel like it doesn't get enough attention.
you know, as i look down at this list, i think engineering is such a better idea. but i'm going to trust my gut;
i just mailed in my acceptance to admission today.
i'm still hesitant, still doubtful, but i remember praying to god (and i don't very often -_-) and saying, "what do you want me to do? i have no idea. maybe i'm on the wrong track already, but i have two choices in front of me. if i get into architecture, i'm going to accept it as a sign that i should follow that road." [uhh i got in, sign #1 much?]. and then, all the people that are important to me (my mom, friends, brian) all said "wow, thats a really good major, i think it suits you so much better!" [sign #2, and yes, i think it does suit me better]. my dad miraculously told me that he wanted me to be happy and do whatever i wanted [sign #3!]. he was the one person holding me back other than myself. i've always wanted to make him happy and proud and get through an engineering degree, but there he was, telling me that i should be happy with what i'm going to do with the rest of my life. then, i was poking around xanga one day, and decided to riffle through liz lin's blog because her site is so insightful and chock full of goodness (not to mention awesome pictures :D) and i came upon this entry:
"if you could do undergrad over again, what would you study?
(and she goes on to list things she would've done differently) then,
things i wouldn't change for anything:
- going home on weekends to serve at oasis
- joining ccf
- living with patty and janice
- living in newberry sophomore year
- taking comm 492 (gender and the media, arguably the best class i took at michigan)
- staying in ann arbor both weekends that the logs sang there
- genapa 2001
- rockband
- majoring in psych -- something i absolutely love -- and not engineering. not doing premed falls under here too." i think what really hit me was that this amazing, intelligent, arguably one of the most wonderful people in the world (i know so many of you guys would agree) decided to do something that was unconventional to me. she didn't major in something that was "acceptable" and "secure": premed, engineering, law, or business. she did something she loved, and she trusted God with her future. sure, a psych major didn't sound like something that was (in her words) "respectable" or well-paying to most people, but she went ahead and put her full trust into god. that was sign #4. i realized that as unfaithful as i have been in the past 2 years with nurturing my spiritual life, god has always been and will always be there for me. it was a really amazing revelation. finally, sign #5 pushed me over the edge. diana chen had just posted on my facebook a day ago, just to say hi, and i happened to click on her page. her favorite quotes section had this verse:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11
i really think its been the biggest decision in my life. it feels good to have my future in someone else's hands, to trust and to know what wherever i'm going to end up, it's where god means me to be and what will make me the happiest. besides, who would know better than him?
<3emily
exciting photos of what my future may involve:
frank gehry's walt disney concert hall
fallingwater house by frank lloyd wright
previous picture up there was the chapel at ronchamp, designed by modernist architect le corbusier. i studied it and had to reproduce it in arch202. its amazing.
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