wow it's been awhile.  many things have happened since, and i would like to go through them chronologically.... let's see how things go.

last friday marked the end of the first half of fall semester i.e. 6 weeks of sheer hard work.  princeton was oh-so-kind to give us a week off from sch (while giving us hw and tests to do over the break zzzz).  friday to sunday was manna's fall retreat, which was held at new jersey christian academy.  i have to say that this retreat was quite different compared to previous retreats for me, mostly because i'm on the praise team this year.  as a member of the band, most of my time was spent practising with the praise team while the rest of the pple were mingling abt.  i guess it was partly cos of that that i didn't get to talk to as many pple as i would have liked.  upon much reflection i feel like i need to have more talks with more pple, conversations that are deeper than the superficial recounting of everyday life.  there is much that can be learnt from many pple, and there is much that can be gained for both parties.

the retreat's theme was on calling.  rev charlie drew came to speak (i bought his book, halfway through it right now).  i think i knew most of the things that he was talking about already, but it was definitely a good refresher, making the concepts really clear.  through his messages i was forced to reevaluate my life here at princeton.  why do i do the things i do?  i feel that there are some changes in my life that i need to make.  academics cannot be the sole goal of my princeton life.  important as they are, they are not life.  neither are they just tickets to a luxurious life.  i cannot make academics/math my god.

monday to saturday was spent in orlando, florida!  jon's (the manna intern) parents had timeshare in orlando, so he graciously invited some of us to join him.  there were 9 of us altogether- jon, ellen, andrew, angela, yoonju, angela, karen, dan and me.  even though most of us had some form of work to do over the break, we all managed to chill a lot too.

monday night was spent at universal walk, just walking around, not much i guess.  on tuesday we went outlet shopping!  i bought quite a few things.... well i haven't bought any new clothing for quite some time, my wardrobe really needs some sprucing up.  i actually managed to survive shopping with the girls :)  dan and andrew couldn't stand it though they ended up playing games in a toy shop :)

wed was chill day in the hotel, thu was disneyland!  disneyland was really coooool.  the rides weren't thrilling like six-flags-thrilling, but i guess many of the rides reminded me of parts of my childhood.  winnie the pooh, it's a small world, mickey goofy donald duck.... good times, good times...

i think we spent lots of time chilling in the resort grounds.  we went to the swimming pool and the hot tub a couple of times (maybe too many times), sat on the dock, played bball, volleyball, lying on the grass, swings and playgrounds..... so fun! :D  watched movies too.  and a sad basketball game.  lots of good conversations, i feel like i got to know the rest of them better.

now that im back on campus, it's so easy to slip back into the depressive mood.  but i wont.  God don't let me slip back into that mode.  life is so much more :D

to post some pictures soon.