home.

home is where the heart is.

after 4 months at the ranch, today i get to go home!!!

the Ranch

it is hard to believe that as we approach july 4th, i've been out at the ranch for almost 6 weeks. it feels as if my sister's graduation, saying good-bye to my good friends and coworkers at northrop grumman and driving up the 5 was but yesterday.

since then, the Lord has brought me to the ranch, safely, took me through river guide training, admist 40 degree weather, meeting 100+ summer staffers, and a whole lot more! since it has been 6 weeks, i'll list the highlights.

- river guide training -- 9.0

when jonathan leduc, the one in charge of hiring the men summer staff, asked me if i wanted to get river guide training, i was hesitant. did i really want to take off from work 1 wk early and lose an additional $1k from work? after some prayer and consideration, i'm glad i made the decision to come out early.

river guide training was so memorable in itself that it was worth it! when do you ever get an opportunity to learn how to guide a raft down white water? we had 2 days of indoor instructions, then it was off to the river. by mid second day, they asked us to jump into a roaring rapid. roar!!! basically to learn and experience floating down a rapid, the to dos and not to dos. and learn how to save guests out of the rapid. keep in mind, the weather that day was raining at roughly 40+ degrees and the river was flowing! and it was cold, even with 2 wet suites on. i must say it was an experiece of a life time. we had to cut river guide training short, due to the weather conditions. last day of training, we took out at 39 degree weather with rain. we got back to the ranch for dinner and it started snowing. praise the Lord, none of us got sick and i had a blast as i was warm. i don't think everyone enjoyed it as much as i did.

also, river guiding has been so much fun! praise the Lord, that no accidents have yet to occur, however, that doesn't say much, as i've only guided 3 guest rafting trips so far, summer staff and second wind (2 days). this week will be my first week out on the river. please pray for our safey and strong girls to paddle or i'll be calling rock side a whole lot.

- low ropes -- 9.0

i've always wanted to be a low ropes facilitator. low ropes is my favorite, and as my mentor/teacher, maury carlisle, says it best, it reveals the things of the Lord. and you can facilitate low ropes in so many ways, whether it be team building, team dynamics, leadership development or spiritual, i like maury's approach and focus primarily on spiritual matters. it has been such a blessing to be used by the Lord and reaching and teaching spiritual matters to the guests.

circumstances don't make us or break us, they reveal us. please pray for me, as i get the opportunity to facilitate low ropes. there have been a few busts and its not easy to take away eye sight or the ability to talk or limbs from dad's who paid thousands of dollars for a week long camp. its even harder to ask piercing, convicting questions to dad's who's lives have been focusing on careers for the past 20 years and not on the things unseen. 2 Cor 4:18.

- ranch summer staff -- 6.5

it has been really interesting meeting the 100+ summer staff. i must say, i am out of my comfort zone for a few reasons and hence the low rating. personally, it has been one of the harder challenges this summer as i battle with loneliness and insecurity off and on.

1. i am definitely not one of the popular cats around here. that has actually been pretty revealing of my character and my sinful heart.

2. there is definitely a generation gap or a culture gap or probably a bit of both. as the summer staff range between 17 - 29 (i'm not the only 29 year old!), the mean would roughly be around 21, that's a junior in college. the youngest just graduated high school, while 85% are still in college. i don't even know what's cool for that generation... second, almost all these guys are from the south. just in terms of culture, its drastically different. i've never gone hunting before, some of these guys can name of ducks and deer like its nobody's business. what are southern girls intersted in? beats me! which leads me to my next point...

3. i definitely do not know how to conversate with girls, or at least girls in this crowd. my girlfriend in high school used to say i flirt a lot, and i'd come back with i'm just being friendly. since college, i stopped flirting or "being friendly" with girls. now i just don't know how to relate with them. fortunately, i have a God that cares for me, and will eventually provide the right girl.

none the less, i have become good friends with a few guys. pray for me, as the relationships grow deeper, that they will be long lasting and encouraging to spur each other on toward glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ. please also pray that i continue to grow in being "me".

- programs -- 8.0

i've been trained and have been working at the rodeo, high ropes course, alpine tower, odyssey course, and the lake activities. this has definitely been fun, learning how to tree lizard, belay people and communicating to guests instructions clearly.

- riding an atv -- 8.5

sick!

- serving the Lord -- 10.0

day in and day out, the work i do, directly benefits the kingdom of God. check out Heb 11:10. i am participating in kingdom work, being used by our Master, the architect and builder of the city to come.

more to come with pictures!

Day Eight - FRIDAY!

i heart fridays.

we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, compared to last nights snow storm! well, it was so nice, that tre recommended a delicious bakery in town. so we started our trek via bike ride. he rides soo fast, i keep falling behind.

tre = master biker in the snow.
me = n00b.

regardless, with my slow bike riding skills, we eventually got there safely.

post brunch, we walked around a bit and stumbled upon a local shrine/temple. like a secret garden, except open to the public. not too secretive after all. :P

it was such a gorgeous day that shades were essential.

prayer requests. seems like, people always needs prayer.

on our way home, again, trevor riding a mile ahead of me, i was able to get his attention and we stumble upon this beetle shop.
the owner and his wife were so nice and just chatted with us. actually, only trevor. he even gave us beetle souvenirs and a mixed tape of battle of the beetles!

these are supposed to be cockroaches!
if they were cooked, would you try it? i think i'd give it a shot. :P

hercules beetle!

we got back to tre's and we just hung out. eventually trevor fell asleep and i got really really hungry around 4:30pm. so i stole his bike and decided to get lost and look for some grub! this was after him telling me, we need to be at church at 6 and dinner will be at 6:30. i ate two meals in the span of 2 hours... i nearly died.

that fish... was amazing.

noodles were made at church by ms. yuyu. sorry no picture of her. i think it was the first time ever, that i couldn't finish my ramen...

post dinner was fellowship time. i had such a good time. we worshiped and read the word and went around sharing what we got out of the passage. it was amazing and so refreshing to hear a familiar worship song, but sung in a completely different language. i wanted to just sit there and listen to them worship my God.

psalm 150:6 - let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

chillin afterwards.

these boys were making such a ruckus... haha. unfortunately i could not upload the video!!! :( what's wrong with blogspot.

the girls are just as silly!

they are such clowns and so much fun. crazy japanese kids, put such a smile on my face. :D

and cause i was still hungry (not!), the boys decided to go grab some mcdonalds.

and again, this is what we came out to...

Day Seven - Thursday

i woke up to trevor moving in a new bed!

new mattress!

new frame. luxurious for a missionary! jk.

then we got ready to attend a japanese graduation.

looking fly!

inside the classroom - graduation.
the girls are wearing kimonos. pretty neat.

outside the classroom - gloomy.
all grey... like i mentioned before, this is probably the worst time to visit sapporo.

in the afternoon, omf had a prayer meeting and eventually, potluck.
what a blessed time that was. it was good to pray with fellow believers, to hear these missionaries' prayer requests and ultimately to pray with each other. what an honor! but also, through Christ's blood, we get to enjoy such an awesome and amazing community. this community is world wide, amongst different nations, different cultures, different tongues and different peoples! we can all come together to worship, to pray, to fellowship and to glorify God... together. john 17:23 - "may they (us believers) be brought to complete unity..." it is true that Christians don't always get along, as we have our sins and issues, our egos and pride. but, i love meeting another believer, even more so in an unfamiliar place, because instantly, that person goes from awkward stranger to fellow brother or sister. sweet~~

post potluck, trevor was able to persuade john, a missionary from ireland & a man with a car, to go to an onsen. (maybe i should say, to take us to the onsen.)

post onsen chilling.

2 missionaries giving me the english birdie... i guess they were tired of all the pictures.

and to finish off the day, this is what we walked out to:

Day Six - wednesday march 24, 2010

so i guess our pillow talk lasted a little longer than we both expected. we could not wake up the next morning. after getting packed, we hit the buffet breakfast line and then the onsens again before we had to leave. so enjoyable, but unfortunately very rushed. we had to catch our bus back to town!

there were a bunch of onsens in this area.

back in sapporo, trevor took me to this pink parlor that sold amazing caramel products. the caramel ice cream was sooo good! since farming is huge in hokkaido, their dairy products are extremely fresh. besides being in japan, and having everything taste amazing, i'm assuming this also contributes to why their caramel was delightful.

trevor seducing you to eat the caramel treat.
the pink decoration makes it difficult to not fall into his seductive ways.

this place reminded me of maid cafes...

we headed back to trevor's place. nothing much planned for the rest of the day, except for dinner. i met mitsuhashi sensei (trevor's pastor), we cleaned up some and just rested.

mitsuhashi sensei.
he was a missionary to hawaii, so he speaks perfect english and he looks suave.

since i'd be here for the next 5 nights, the burden of sleeping in a different bed disappeared. as a traveler, its nice to know that you're not going to do much bed swapping. you get better rest, and i no longer need to worry about my huge backpack getting in the way, for at least a few days.

its heavier and bigger than this picture makes it out to be. i swear!

dinner time - okonomiyaki!!!

Day Five part 2

when the plane flew below the clouds, i looked out the window, and this is what i saw:

me (out loud to myself): oh my GOD!
me (5 sec later, in utter disbelief): why is it soo white...
me: !@#$%!

it was soo good to see trevor beyond the window walls of the luggage pickup area.

there were two purposes to this trip. one, was to see my japanese friends. two, was to see trevor, encourage him and just kick it with him. see how he's doing and to see the work that he is doing. i got more than i bargained for! i was totally looking forward to spending time with my brother. how awesome it is that we in Christ are one family. i love it.

after the airport, we went straight to the hot spring hotel. while taking the bus to the hotel in the mountains, it was snowing pretty hard. mentally, i was not prepared. clothing wise, fortunately this time i was some what prepared...

back in 2005, when i worked in shenzhen, china, jasen and kelvin li visited shanghai in march. i took the opportunity to visit them. i asked coworkers to check the temperature and they told me it was 20+ celsius. so i brought one fleece. on the flight, upon arrival, they announced that the weather was a 20+ celsius as well. i thought, i'm good! i got out of the airport, and hopped onto a cab. once i got in the cab, i thought to myself, this 20+ is pretty chilly, i hope its cause its at night. the cab pulled away from the airport and headed to the city, and then it happens. it starts snowing ... hard!
cab driver: "wow, this is amazing, it never snows in march. hehe." (all excited and giddy.)
me: ...
it was freezing the entire weekend.

back to day five part 2:

our love nest.

ready for our buffet dinner! i could not wait. stupid me, i ate wayyy too much.

trevor mentioned this and i totally agree...
sleeping on these mattresses over tatami is soo comfortable.

pirates ready to hit the onsen.

the onsen was really nice. they had an outdoor one, but it was not completely open. i'm sure, they didn't want ppl peeking at two strikingly handsome studs with amazing bodies! that'd just be stumbling. chatting and catching up with trevor was sweet. there was a lot to catch up on, tre's been abroad for about one year now (with a brief visit back in august). my goodness how time flies!

while drying ourselves after the onsen, i see that trevor's towel is longer than mine.
me: why is yours so long?!
tre: cause i'm white.
me: ...
(i just traveled thousands of miles to an asian country, and then i get insulted by a white man, cause i'm asian... there is something wrong with this picture!) :P

post onsen, even though i ate wayy to much at dinner, we had a midnight snack.

that piece of yellow on the right corner of the bowl was butter. this was "butter corn ramen". when i ordered, i was a little confused about the name of the ramen, was the corn a special corn that tasted more buttery?! nope, its just corn & butter, the name said it all. yum!

we chatted some more and had some pillow talk and then it was sweet dreams!

it was a good day. Praise the Lord.

Day Five part 1

today is the first day of my trip where i got to wander and just get lost. since i had a flight to catch, i was on a half day adventure.

omicho market -

i'm a big market person. whenever i go travel, i enjoy walking around markets. the more traditional the better. market places, traditionally are the center of the society. you get a quick glimpse of the locals, what they eat (whether its bizarre or not) and you can see how they interact with each other.

unfortunately, i went to omicho at a poor time, there weren't too many people. but i did notice, like many markets in japan, they sure sell a lot of fish & seafood!

this crab is going for $150...

this inari sushi was the size of my fist. no joke.

i wish i bought one. :(

kanazawa castle -
i was way too lazy to learn what this castle stood for. so, sorry, no exciting stories. instead i just walked around, took pictures and just soaked in the beauty and the delicacy of this castle.

the first thing i couldn't get my head around, was that this castle is white! wat the white castle?! very pretty though, reminds me of some disney fairy tale.

samurai village -

i mentioned before, kanazawa housed and trained samurais. this is the original village of where the samurais lived and trained. something i noticed... the walls on both sides weren't very tall!

it was a cute little section of town with old winding streets that weaved into a maze. it was hard to imagine that they were training ruthless killers!

samurai house -
this samurai house had a gorgeous garden. it was amazing!!!

these pictures just don't do it justice.

see the tree manipulation. :P

proof that i was there!

kanazawa was such a cute little city, not highly populated and close to the mountains. there's a ruralness to this city, which allows you to walk and live life at your own pace. it contrasted the huge, populated, bustling tokyo, where the busy streets predetermine the tempo of your steps. i've come to realize that i can live and enjoy both the big city and the suburbs.

i like the quietness of a suburban town, but i also like the fast paced, bright lights of the city. (i'd get all caught up in it. :P ) growing up in taipei, it certainly was not the suburbs and i enjoyed it. things were convenient, you were in the middle of things and the world revolved around your city. it was exciting, it was fun!
at the same time, i wouldn't mind living in the suburbs, or as this summer will prove, i'll be moving to a ranch! the quietness, the tranquility, nature. these are things i love as well.

so, does it have to be one or the other? for me, i think i'd be content in either, and be able to enjoy both life styles. so my traveling motto intersects with real life: when in big city/suburbs, do like the big citianites/suburbanites do. :P

anyways, back to my blog...
so i made it to the airport in time for my flight.

sapporo, here i come!