stuff GCC loves (09/10)

It's that time of year again...

So, I have compiled a list of things that I believe have been quite present in GCC undergraduate culture during this past academic year. There were many things to choose from, so you are free to dispute any of my choices and suggest more fitting ones if you feel like I selected the "wrong" ones.

I recommend that as you read through this list, you listen to any of the following songs (Everlasting God, Wonder of Your Love, How He Loves, Party in the USA, Hey Soul Sister) to get the soundtrack of this year along with your list of:

STUFF GCC LOVES (09/10 version)

edit: after clarification/protest by several people LOL:

1. The book of Mark

So, okay, I will say that it's common to stick to only one book for Bible study (Genesis was the book of choice for a while), because it's Bible study, not a Bible buffet. But Mark was definitely the head honcho Gospel this year, and basically the default book for almost all our sermons (which was intended by P. Young, as many of y'all pointed out, my B).

oh hai Genesis

2. Boston

GCC LOVES Boston. We love Boston so much that we are planting a church there this summer! And if you didn't know this, you have probably been living underneath a rock all year, falling asleep in service, or not attending service all year. But yup, we love Boston. And you should tell all your Bostonian friends about Symphony Church of Boston so they can meet some of GCC's finest :)

3. The Chinese accent

Thanks to a 2012er named Michael Hsu, you can't walk through the crowd of Friday night or Sunday afternoon fellowship without hearing at least one, "Oh ssanks!" or "That's the good deal" as your meander your way around. Though I would say that the Asian population at our church is pretty evenly divided between Chinese and Korean peoples, the "Chinese accent" has infiltrated the vocabulary of many, many people regardless of their ethnicity. Of course, we don't know for sure if these phrases sound like what a fobby Chinese person would sound like speaking Engrish, but hey, if it makes us smile, then why not?

om nom nom nom nom

(This is the first picture that showed up in Google Images when I typed in "Chinese boy")

4. Class phrases

It seems that the younger generations at GCC have class-specific phrases that have caught on like wildfire. Three that come to mind are: 1) "gewgoe" (2011), more popular last summer/early fall, 2) "purple" (2012), and 3) "g-word" (2013). And it seems that the youngest are the sneakiest, because gewgoe and purple are relatively straightforward (in fact, "gewgoe" has its own urbandictionary.com entry), but no one outside of the class of 2013 knows what the "g-word" actually is, since the penalty of its leakage is excommunication.

Purple: Red (girls) + Blue (boys)...speaking of which....

5. The dating boom

If you divided the number of new couples by the number of weeks last semester, you probably had one new couple arise every other week. Okay, perhaps that is an exaggeration, but GCC has probably never seen this much purple all at once in years. Or ever. This dating boom, kind of like the baby boom sans babies, was quite a hot topic, particularly in the months of March&April...just in time for Spring Fever.

6. Causing chaos on the Internet

They say keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. But you're going to have to reassess who's a friend and who's an enemy, because if you leave your computer open with Gchat/Facebook/etc. while you take a bathroom break or you visit a friend in a different room in Meyerson, there will be chaos. From absurd status changes to even a Wikipedia page created in honor of your bffl (shown below), GCCers have had quite a lot of fun messing with each other. Let's just keep it PG, k?

Did you know that J.Paik is a famous singer?

7. Fad websites

It all started with OMGPOP last spring (which regrettably did not make it onto the list last year, so we are redeeming it this year). That evolved into MyBrute.com to Facebook Mafia Wars to most recently, formspring.me. These websites become super popular for a brief period of time - formspring.me lasted about 2 weeks - and by the time everybody else catches on, the early adopters have already left, making these websites just a little less fun.

8. Settlers of Catan

"I'll trade you one wood for two sheep." "No man, forget that. I need my wood." One boardgame has never been so beloved in our community until Settlers exploded onto the GCC scene during second semester. Of course, the game has been around for years, but somehow, this little red box has suddenly come to represent all the important things in life: territory, alliances, length.

9. Titanic

The hit movie (particularly its ending scene) made a comeback at both Praise Night and Grad Night 2010. With some good voice-acting ("J-j-j-j-ack...I'm so c-c-c-c-cold") and funky suspenders, the reenactments gave us good (albeit awkward) laughs as we celebrated both Jesus and our grads.

And finally...

There were 3 finalists when it came to the non-thing person that will annually sit at #10 on this list (edit: although last year, IYP was at #9, whoops). Unfortunately, only one could make it as #10.

Runner-Up #1: Greg Fu

This guy has influenced the way we speak and what we find funny. A beloved family group leader and classmate, he definitely was at the center of GCC attentions this year.

Runner-Up #2: Pastor Andy

One of the many pastors that will be leaving us this year, Pastor Andy is probably singlehandedly responsible for triggering the Dating Boom (see #5) that came about this semester. (JK) But in all seriousness, he has been a wonderful pastor, mentor, friend, sports-watching buddy, and sometimes even a chauffeur to many.

G. Fu (2nd from left) and Pastor A. Park (3rd from left)

But despite these very good reasons to select them as this year's #10, these two actually don't like having a lot of attention directed towards them, so I present to you our favorite GCCelebrity:

10. Jason Y. Lee

I think I recognized that Jason was still making a huge impact on GCCers worldwide when I heard a friend squeal one day at Overflow rehearsal, "I MET JASON LEE!" with the same amount of passion that she would had she met, say, Brad Pitt (or insert famous young male actor here). With his new initiative, The Jubilee Project, he is not only reaching out to help "GREAT" causes, but also to those who know and love him already, AND generations that will have never met him (read: 2013). Now, that's the mark of a true celebrity.

But didn't this guy graduate last year? O.o

So, to help out our #10, you have 4 more days left to help him out at the Pepsi Refresh Project, where he is in the running to receive $5k towards boosting his project. Don't let the current rank fool you, every vote can make a difference! And even after May 31st, stay updated at www.jubileeproject.org to see what Mr. GCCelebrity and his gang are up to!

------------

So, that's all for now, folks.

Hope those of you on summer vacation are enjoying your time off! For those of you still in school, you can do it! :)

This was Sarah Ryu, reporting live from Washington D.C. (LOL jk)

my friend nate archibald

N: it's like
i'm tom and the suns were summer
had me all excited
and everything is going well
and then BAM
game over boy.
i think i'm going to go smash some plates

This is why we're friends!

:)

welcome to the capital

So...you guys are probably wondering (or maybe you're not) - where the heck has Sarah been?

Well, I will tell you...I am in Washington, D.C.!

I arrived here this past Sunday morning, moved into a George Washington University dorm with Lily (shown below), and have been touring the city bit by bit since then.

My internship with the National Endowment for the Humanities (housed in the Old Post Office below) begins next Tuesday, June 1st, but until then, I have this whole week free to go museum-hopping and finding places to eat. (But if you're familiar with the area, feel free to suggest places! :D)

It feels really awesome to be here, and I am SO thankful to God for this opportunity...to not only explore a new city or get to know a sister better, but also to get to know myself better and really be in the center of all the ENERGY of this country. (okay, this is not coming out as coherently as I thought it would haha)

But basically, I feel like I am going to absorb a lot and experience a lot and learn a lot, so I'm excited to start fresh! I'm ambitious and collected, and I feel like the trials and slumps of sophomore year are almost completely behind me now. That's the amazing thing about life - it moves on. And that's also the amazing thing about God - He helps you to move on at exactly the right time. He knows what's best for you, and His timing is perfect. So...keeping that in mind, I'm excited for the summer ahead, and the plans that I will forge :)

Yay! (Come visit!!!)

music makes me feel alive

It's been about two years since I played in my last orchestra concert, and I relived the experience yesterday (Saturday), when I went to my brother's orchestra concert.

It wasn't that they played any of the same pieces or that the stage was the same or even that the age group was the same, but for the first time since graduating high school, I genuinely missed playing with ASYO (Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra). I hadn't really before because it has persistently been a bittersweet memory from high school, a time that I can easily recall when I have to think of instances when politics overshadowed beauty, and acknowledgement and relationships were built on a rather hierarchical system (that is, people who sat in the front hardly ever knew the names or the faces of those who sat in the back).

But as I watched my brother arrange his music on the stand and chat amiably with the people around him, as the lights started to dim and the room grew silent, and as the concertmaster came out and signaled for tuning to begin, I felt the same mix of emotions I did 27 times before - the mix of excitement and preparedness and a hint of nerves - and old routines just lit up inside my mind - tapping my feet on stage as a form of applause for the conductor or soloist, flipping pages frantically, crashing through crazy 16th notes (faking through most of them my first year in), breathing in sharply and cueing with nods and soaring on melodic phrases...but what I remembered most and missed the most was the feeling of being so small and so big all at once - hearing the brass blare out notes and the timpani rumble the floor as the strings (of which I was a part) scrubbed away at ridiculous runs and emerged victoriously with a triumphant chord.

That is, it's not just being part of a large group of musicians, but more being part of a work of art. Something that has lasted through centuries, tested in front of audiences all around the world - something that makes you feel so alive when you're playing the piece. The adrenaline that rushes through you when you hear colors (kind of how Ratatouille tastes colors? LOL) and see sounds and feel in your gut this overwhelming feeling of satisfaction - that as some of your audience members might feel like it's dragging on for them, the little black notes are just flying past your eyes and fingertips as you jump from letter B to letter X and shift from a sweet andante in the second movement to a heart-pounding allegro vivace...

So, maybe you skipped all of what I just wrote in the paragraphs above (especially if you don't care for classical music), but the bottom line is: playing crazy masterpieces in a (good) large symphonic orchestra is, for me, one thing that makes me feel intensely alive.

The one piece I remember distinctly feeling a crazy turmoil of overwhelming emotions (in an awesome way, not a self-destructive way lol) is "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky/Ravel - the last "movement" (are they called movements?) was just so mindblowingly crazy, filled with nostalgia and hope for the future (as many of the seniors I was close with were graduating after this concert) and an intensity that I think I will remember forever, as cheesy as that sounds. Apart from Dvorak's Symphony VIII (which also will always hold a special place in my heart), this piece is one of the few over the years that really rocked my world.

You can say so many things with music, that I'm actually doing an injustice to the piece and to the overall entity we call "music" to try to wrap it all up in a blogpost.

Of course, a lot of the "normal" music we listen to does have words in the songs, but with those, when you find just the right songs, they can make you feel like they say so much more within their AABB rhyming patterns and overused chord progressions.

And I did find quite a few songs (or at least revisited them, not discovered them for the first time haha) in the past two days that have made me feel so connected with the music and understand where the singer is coming from - it's been rather intoxicating. The same songs I heard a few months, a few years before, all of a sudden make so much more sense in light of the experiences and lessons I've amassed in whatever time since I last heard those songs...and when songs make sense to you, or evoke certain emotions and thoughts in you, it's pretty crazy how alive you feel...to know that someone else feels or felt the same exact way that you feel or have felt before. As they used to say: a psychedelic connection.

And then, let's not even get into praise/worship songs, because to fully explain why those are such an integral part of my (and many others') experience in church and walk with God...that would take way too long. And I'm not even sure what words I would use.

So yeah. That was a very sporadic, all-over-the-place rant on how much music makes me feel like I'm living a meaningful and colorful life, especially when I'm caught at the right time by the right music. I know a certain blogger also always talks about how much he loves music and its influence on his thoughts, attitudes, emotions... (cough) but yeah, I totally agree. Music means so much to me, and it's funny to find that I had loosened my hold on it for quite some time now. It almost makes me want to practice violin tomorrow. (Key word: "almost").

i've never been so mia

Lo siento, to those who still keep up with this:

Will update soon, but basically, a lot of life decisions to make in the next week&ahalf...so we'll see :)

But for now, DONE with sophomore year (hands down the hardest year of my life so far - I used to think junior year of high school was my hardest year thus far) as of 4:55 PM, May 7, 2010. Yay!

last stretch!

Oh my goodness.

This paper is absolutely ridiculous. There's no way this is a Communication class LOL.

I still have another paper and a final I have to basically ace.

3 more days. 72 hours. 4320 minutes.

GOGOGOGOGO.

dear friend,

This post is for you.

Looking back on this sophomore year, I've come to realize that I have had a major identity crisis. I purposely became fixated on my "own stuff" (i.e. academics, career path, personal spiritual walk, etc.) in the beginning of last semester in order to step back from my crazy in-people's-faces freshman self, and yet, as I find many of those stuffs sitting in rubble, I realize two very important things: 1) I have neglected you so much in my selfishness, aimlessness, and laziness, and 2) I didn't even focus on the things that I gave you up for anyway.

I know you might think that you're the only person that has been forgotten, and that you might be severely disappointed in me. After all, I seemed to try so hard last year/during the summer to keep reaching out. Trust me, it's not that I have forgotten you, or even that I have neglected you alone — but rather, I have neglected many others with you, and even so, you have all been in my thoughts. People might keep saying that I am just too busy, that I have too much on my plate, that I seem to be all over the place, but the truth of the matter is, I've just been locking myself away in my own room, thinking and reflecting too much on myself.

Even to you who has spent time with me, I haven't been able to love you fully. I've taken your presence for granted, dumping my despair and angry&bitter words on you, thinking that you would still stick by me anyway. I have failed to see your exhaustion and your own sadness and discouragement because I was too busy trying to get others to see mine.

And of course, to you from my past — I know I have cut you off, thinking (or perhaps, knowing?) that things would not be the same because I have changed so much. That the ideas, beliefs, and values that I hold and the way that I speak and carry myself might be alarmingly different from the person you knew way back when.

So, I'm sorry.

But...I don't want to sound too emo, so I also want to thank you.

I know that I have been crazy blessed with the amount of love and care that you have shown me, that you kept reaching out when I needed someone to talk to, that you kept pushing me forward even when I wanted to give up. I am so thankful for older sisters and brothers who pray for me and show me what it means to serve, for younger sisters and brothers whose cuteness is refreshing, haha, and perseverance is inspiring.

And I am especially thankful for my class, whose growth and energy has been so encouraging and blessing. I feel absolutely terrible that I have not been able to be there for you through your own struggles and moments of joy — I hardly know of any of your new convictions or new temptations that I should be praying for. But even so, I am so glad to be a part of this body, and I hope I don't waste any more time stuck in the psychoanalysis of my own identity.

I have come to know I'm not defined by the people around me or what they think or say about me, but one thing is for sure: caring for you makes me stop thinking about what I lack and how "miserable" I am.

So, thank you for being in my life. I'm not perfect, so I can't guarantee that I will instantly become a better friend, but just know that I will at least try from now on.

Love,

Sarah

a healthy diet

Lots of sandwiches, chips, honey&oats granola bars, Twizzlers and gummy bears/fish, Hershey's kisses, Earl grey tea lattes, Dunkin Donuts coffee, yellow Gatorade, and water in the past few days...

...and in the ones to come.

I can feel my bones&teeth getting more brittle by the minute...haha

I think I need fruits and veggies?

the remaining blossom

My, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one's late. But I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all. [Mulan's Dad]

Ever since I watched the movie "Mulan" for the first time when I was 8 years old, this one statement by Mulan's dad always resonated with me because I firmly believed that I was that late blossom. And I think also because my own dad/mom said something along those lines too (or even referenced the movie haha). So I've always loved this quote from the movie because it gives me hope that God is steadily working in me until I finally "blossom." Unless...I have already blossomed without my consent or knowledge...then I would be very sad. LOL

But anyway, what does being a late bloomer mean? Back in elementary school, I only really heard "late bloomer" in reference to the stages of puberty - some girls became more voluptuous immediately (circa age 11) and other girls (the late bloomers) wouldn't until they were 16 or something. Or maybe even in terms of social awkwardness - some girls would not be all that popular and kind of awkward all throughout middle school but then blossom into kind spirits and sweet demeanors later on in life and be beloved by many.

As I get older, I realize that being a late bloomer for me means that I am a little bit slow in figuring myself out and feeling comfortable in my own skin again — whether it be in terms of being honest about my character and my sins, determining what I will be and do in life, or finding peace that God has set apart someone very special for me (He just hasn't revealed him to me yet). I even have a fortune cookie that attests to this: "You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily." Though I don't really like that it uses the word "settle" (with the connotation of settling for less), it does make sense - I am waiting to settle into a joyful tranquility where I am confident of who I am and where I'm headed.

Of course, I'm definitely not trying to say by being a self-proclaimed last blossom that I will be "the most beautiful of all", but I am indeed hoping that when my time (aka God's spot-on timing) comes along, things will fall into place so clearly and wonderfully that I will feel like it's perfect and the most beautiful thing I could have ever asked for.

I'm looking forward to it!

P.S. I am sorry for neglecting BTAS in favor of my easier-to-update but harder-to-write-good-stuff 468poetry haha :)

i'm but one person

But God envelops this world.

So I believe.

I feel like it's difficult for me to be a "normal" person again - that is, the sociable, politically-correct person I was in high school. Granted, that's when I basically lived without God as the center of my life (He was a supporting role, I guess) - but the only aspect of me that I would want back from that time is the ability to relate to a variety of people, regardless of their religious background.

But now that I've rooted myself in my faith, it's hard for me to interact with people who aren't Christian without thinking things like - Oh, it's SO clear that God would move in this situation, or Gee, I wish they knew how much God loved them because they seem so hopeless and lonely. And yeah, I guess the best thing to do in that situation is to just pray for them privately...but weren't we called to minister to them (i.e. by talking) as well?

But I know that I shouldn't force religion down their throats or overwhelm them with loveydovey stories of how awesome God is because I know how offensive/burdensome that can be - I knew it so well in high school that that's probably why I kept my faith on the DL, so that I wouldn't be roped in with the fanatic hyper-Christianified crazies who didn't understand that "real life" wasn't all rainbows and sunshine.

How can I share what I want SO MUCH to share, if people on the receiving end don't want it? How many more weeks, months, years will it take for God to soften their hearts? For my words to not be cliched and dry?

Only God determines who will be used, how they will be used, when they will be used to bring someone to Christ.

And in the meantime, I guess all I can do is just pray like crazy.