A Weekend (And A Few Weekdays) Away

This week is the WIN conference! But before we get to that, still gotta recap the days that led up to it haha. On Sunday, I played pickleball in the morning, then went to a food tasting for my graduation party lunch boxes. In the afternoon, I worked on homework for my DNP and FNP class. I had a cover letter and CV due and it was kind of fun putting that together haha. On Monday, I had clinicals and I did homework + baked cookie butter monkey bread after I got back. Kuya VP stopped by to drop off the “Happy Looks Good On You” tote bag hehe and then I went for a walk at the gym with Brooklynne before going to life groups. On Tuesday, Abby and I went to California Adventure and Disneyland for a half day… just because (we have magic keys hehe). We rope dropped at DCA and rode 6 rides in the first hour. Then we had lunch in San Fransokyo/Food + Wine Festival, went to Turtle Talk with Crush before crossing over to Disneyland. We visited the Tarzan/Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (it was really cool!!) and rode the Indiana Jones ride. Then we got ube beignets before driving back to Loma Linda. I did laundry, packed and prepped for the WIN conference and then went to Drayson to play pickleball with the pickleball life groups. 

On Wednesday, I woke up early to exercise and finish packing. I had a life coaching session with Ranela and then Heather picked me up and dropped me off at the airport for my flight to Utah. Lisa and I were on the same flight; we were just a few rows away from each other. We got to Utah around 3 pm-ish. We meant to meet up again for dinner around 6 pm, but we were hungry already so after we got checked in to our respective hotel/Air BnB’s, we met up at a Thai place for dinner. We walked to a boba place afterwards, and it was a really nice walk, especially since the weather was so nice! After boba, we walked back to the hotel and I got my badge for the WIN conference. We stopped by the welcome reception, but didn’t stay long because it was just flatbreads + appetizers + drinks and we had already eaten. I went back to my Air BnB afterwards and settled in some more before going to sleep early-ish.

Thursday was the first full day of the WIN conference. I went to the hotel early because there was a welcome breakfast for students. I met Tram in the lobby and we waited for Lisa in the dining area. The food they had was pretty good! Not just the usual continental breakfast. They had scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, pastries, cereal, coffee, tea, and fruits. After breakfast, we went to the keynote address in the main ballroom. The title of the keynote speech was “Everything Everywhere All At Once” ahahaha but it really did make sense. She talked about all the different factors that are contributing to our health like racism, climate change, loneliness, etc. I really learned a lot from her speech and it’s definitely something that’s going to stick with me. After the keynote address, we had a huddle with the other students/faculty from LLUSN. We took a picture with the WIN conference sign. Then we went to the poster session. I really enjoyed going around the room and looking at all the posters and talking to the presenters. It was so fascinating to see all the different things that everyone is doing! I got to meet Dr. Tolentino, whose work is focused on Filipino-Americans and we had a really good conversation. He told me that he was doing a study on diabetes and Filipino-Americans and he said that if I knew anyone who fit that criteria, to encourage them to join. So we exchanged information. After the poster session, we went to one of the breakout sessions. And after that, it was lunch time. Lisa, Tram and I went to an Italian place; it was close to the hotel so we just walked there. We went to a bakery afterwards to get dessert before heading back to the hotel. We attended the state of science address then had another huddle with the LLUSN students/faculty before the afternoon’s poster session again. Tram was presenting this afternoon so we supported her hehe. After the poster session, we attended another breakout session and then that was the end of day 1. Tram and her husband dropped me off at my Air BnB (so I could save on lyft fees huhu) and I rested for a bit. There was a shopping center and a bookstore that I wanted to visit close to my air bnb, so I walked there after resting. When I got back to the air bnb, I did some prep for my poster session on Friday. 

Friday was day 2 of the WIN conference. I opted to eat breakfast in the air bnb (I bought oatmeal packets haha) instead of going to the hotel/conference sponsored breakfast. Lisa ended up going to that one and she said it wasn’t as good as the day before haha. Since our poster session was in the morning, we had to have our posters up by 8 am. Dr. Mamier helped me hang my poster and I helped Lisa hang hers when she got there. Then we took pictures with our posters and I got to meet the other PhD/DNP students who were also presenting their posters. We attended the morning State of the Science Address and then went back to the poster room to stand by our posters for the next hour. There were a few people who stopped by my poster and I had really good conversations with them. Dr. Tolentino also stopped by my poster and mentioned that another PhD student from LLU was planning to do her dissertation to focus on Filipinos too. He said that we should get together and start something, since we’re all trying to do work to focus on Filipinos. The 3 of us took a picture together after the poster session and I got really excited about the prospect of collaborating with them! After the poster session, we attended another breakout session and then went to lunch. Lisa and I were just going to have lunch by ourselves (with her husband) but we ended up going with the other LLUSN DNP/PhD students and faculty. And during lunch, we got to know each other better, and talk about our projects/posters a bit more, which was really nice hehe. There was another State of Science Address in the afternoon that we attended. Then we visited the afternoon poster session, had another huddle, and then that was the end of day 2! Tram, Lisa and I got boba afterwards to celebrate disseminating our projects! After boba, Tram and her husband dropped me off at my air bnb again hehe. I was so tired afterwards that I kind of just laid down on the couch and watched a movie. I was too tired to go out and get food so I ended up ordering hawaiian food on uber eats. I took a quick nap and then went to the airport to meet Princess. She flew to SLC from DC (she had in-person meetings with ADRA) to join me for the weekend. After she got her luggage, we picked up the rental car and drove back to the air bnb. 

On Sabbath morning, we slept in-ish. I cooked pancit canton for breakfast and then we drove to Heber Valley to ride the train. Ate Wea and I had ridden the same train when we went to Utah a few years ago but everything was brown because we went in the summer. But since we were here in the spring time, the view was a lot better–the mountains were snow capped and the lake was a beautiful color of blue hehe. It was a really enjoyable two hour ride. We got food from a hawaiian/korean food truck close to the train station and then drove back to SLC to visit the capitol building. We took pictures outside and got to visit the inside also (ate Wea and I didn’t get to see the inside last time because it was closed for the day na). Then we went back to the air bnb to change and stopped by the shopping center/bookstore I visited on Thursday. We drove to the Bonneville Salt Flats afterwards just in time for golden hour and took photos. Then we drove back to SLC, got microwavable food from WalMart for dinner and watched a half of Argylle before going to bed.

It was a very jam-packed week filled with lots of activities but it was also a really exciting and fun past few days hehe. So grateful for the opportunity to attend the WIN conference and participate in the poster session. I really enjoyed getting to meet new people and learn so many new things. And I have just continued to be inspired to keep learning and doing what I can to improve the health of my community. 

Spring in Utah // April 18, 2024

This Barbie is a STEM girlie 🌸💗🎀🌷

WIN Conference // April 19, 2024

New Routines + Spontaneous Adventures

Had a full week of clinicals this week–went in every day Monday - Friday. And overall it wasn’t too bad. On Monday, we only saw 3 patients, on Tuesday we saw 1 patient, on Wednesday we saw 7 patients, on Thursday we saw 12 patients (I was in urology on that day) and on Friday, we saw only 4 patients. It’s only my second clinical day at urology but it’s been really fun so far hahaha. My preceptor showed me some of the devices they use for ED and we also talked about different medications and their side effects, etc. After clinic, I would do my Medatrax charting and worked on my CV and cover letter. I still haven’t been able to make a schedule of how to study for the boards/our exit exam, so hopefully I get to work on that next week heh. 

I also tried something new this week–waking up early (well, earlier than usual hahaha). I’ve been trying to figure out how to hit my soft habits (30 minute walk, 30 minute workout, 30 minutes of reading) while keeping up with clinicals, homework, general life lol. And there’s just not enough time to workout after clinicals. So this week I tried waking up early enough that I could get a 30 minute walk before breakfast + going to clinicals. So that when I get home after clinicals, I’ll only have to do another 30 minute walk instead of having to walk for a full hour. And so far, it’s been going well! I like waking up earlier and kind of having a slow-ish morning + not rushing to eat breakfast and get ready for clinicals. And since I’m waking up earlier (around 6:10-6:30ish), I’ve been sleeping earlier, too. When the year started, my goal was to be asleep by 11:30 pm. This week, I’ve been asleep by 10:45-11 pm. So that’s also really good hehe. 

Good things that happened this week: played pickleball with Princess, Marci and Reubn on Sunday and then ran errands/did groceries with Princess afterwards. I attempted to make soondubu jiggae again and this attempt turned out pretty good! It’s probably the closest I’ve gotten to how soondubu jiggae tastes so I’m pretty happy hehe. Went to life groups on Monday night and to the pickleball one on Tuesday night. Played pickleball again on Wednesday with Marci, Elmar, Reuben, and Princess. And then on Thursday after clinicals, I met up with the ChicKens at Disneyland for Mary’s birthday! They had gone to Sugar Fish for lunch and then went to Disneyland to spend the rest of the day. Mary knew I was coming and she hid it from them, well most of them (she ended up telling Klydel a few hours before I came lol). After I met up with them, we took pictures by the castle, then got dinner. We went on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, got cream cheese pretzels and stopped by the shops before we left. I ended up upgrading to a Magic Key while we were there hahaha. On Sabbath, I went to Crosswalk by myself and then went hiking at Hulda Crooks with Corn that afternoon. It was a really nice way to spend the Sabbath–the hills were so green and it felt like we were somewhere in the UK, especially since it was a gloomy afternoon, too. We stopped at one of the peaks and listened to music; I listened to the orchestra’s “Higher Ground” piece and huhu it was the perfect song to listen to while looking at the rolling green hills and the grass swaying in the wind. It was exactly how I needed to spend a Sabbath afternoon and I’m so thankful. Our hike ended up being longer than we thought it would be because we got lost LOL. We ended up hiking for 5 miles and just barely made it back to the car before it started sprinkling haha. We got dinner at BBQ Chicken and then went to World Market and Home Goods before heading home. Overall it was a pretty good week + I’m so glad I got the mental, emotional, physical + spiritual rest I needed on Sabbath.

The Real First Week of Spring Quarter

Even though this is technically the second week of the quarter, it felt more like the first becuase I had a full week of clinicals (and also I was still mostly gallivanting last week hahahaha). Anyways, this quarter I’ll be needing 210 hours that will be split between primary care and a specialty. I’m with the same preceptor/medical group this quarter as I was last quarter, which is really nice because I already know how she works. Also even though she rotates between several of the clinic locations, the drive isn’t too bad and I also already know the flow. She also works every day and I get to make my own schedule which is also really nice, especially since I have the WIN conference and the APEA review coming up and I won’t be able to have clinicals on those days. I did most of my specialty hours when I was at the transplant clinic last spring so I only have 30 hours of specialty left. This quarter, I’ll be spending the 30 hours in urology. When my professor had asked if there was a certain specialty I wanted to rotate in, I initially said nephrology, because I had liked managing the kidney transplant patients. They don’t have a nephrology site but they do have a urology, so I said I’m down haha. Ren actually got hired in urology and she said she really liked her rotation there so I was excited. I had my first day this week and I enjoyed it! There’s definitely a learning curve, especially since I don’t know that much about the patients they see. But so far I really like it hehe and I look forward to learning more. 

Since we’re in our practicum, we don’t really have weekly assignments, quizzes or lectures which is really nice. I feel like after clinicals, I come home and exercise, do my charting for Medatrax, eat dinner, do chores and then it’s time to get ready for bed because I have another full day the following day. We do still have other assignments, like SOAP notes, but those are pretty spread out. And I’m in an IP course for the DNP project because I’m pretty much done with my project, just need to make the follow up calls, and then I just need to finish my final paper this quarter. Also, I need to start studying for the boards din. We have an APEA post-test at the end of this quarter and I would like to get a passing percentage haha. But since every day seems so full, I’m still trying to figure out how to fit studying for the boards + working on my paper. It kinda feels like I’ll have to do all that on the weekends, which sucks huhu.

Good things that happened this week: jiu jitsu on Sunday. There weren’t as many people so the coaches were able to really walk around + check on each pair and watch us do the moves and make suggestions. I’m still really enjoying it and it’s a lot of fun haha. But I don’t know if it’s something I want to do regularly yet (I’m still in love with pickelball ahahaha). I baked brownies for life groups and put marshmallow flowers on top. Even though the brownies were from a box, the marshmallow flowers made it look like I put more effort than I did hahahaha and everyone also really liked the brownies! I also made diy beef pepper lunch for the first time with the leftover beef rib eye I had bought when I made soon tofu soup over the weekend. And it turned out really good hehe; this is going to be something I’m going to add to my food menu rotation hehe. Played pickelball twice this week—on Tuesday with life groups and then Wednesday with Marci, Owen, Elmer and Reuben. Reuben taught me how to play skinny singles and that was a really good way to challenge myself to be really intentional about where to put the ball ahaha. I also got my business cards that I made for WIN and they look really nice hehe. I’m excited to hand them out. On Sabbath, I went to the 9 am Crosswalk with Abby + Princess. Then we drove to Irvine to have lunch + hang out. After we got home, I painted, which was a nice way to end the Sabbath hehe. 

Brittania Tea Room // March 26, 2024

Spring Break + Beginnings

Wow it’s been a really busy past two weeks so this entry will recap both heh. So the first week was spring break, which kind of felt non existent because I felt like I did so much school stuff during that week huhu. I was working on my poster for WIN, summarizing the preliminary results I got from Dr. Dehom, making a clinical schedule for my primary care and specialty rotation + emailing/coordinating with my preceptors, making my clinical objectives for the new quarter, registering for a live board exam review + making necessary arrangements, and finalizing my abstract + poster for the LLU EBP conference. There was probably only one day that I didn’t do any homework during my “official” spring break (not counting the weekend lol) because all the other dates I was doing at least one school related thing for a portion of the day. But thankfully I was able to get most of the things done during the week and I kind of felt better about the upcoming quarter. I’m also really thankful that I get to make my schedule for my primary care rotation, especially since I have the WIN conference and the APEA review session (and literally 3 concerts during spring quarter LOLOL). So it’s really nice that I have “control” to work around those trips haha. 

Good things that happened over spring break: had a very active Sunday! Since I woke up early-ish, I went to the Thai church to play pickelball with Ren and their friends hehe. I got Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake, then went to JJ4J (jiu jitsu 4 Jesus life groups hehe) with Princess, then played pickelball again haha. On Tuesday, I did a mosaic lamp making workshop with Mitch and then we got dinner at a Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion place and hung out at a dessert shop catching up afterwards. On Wednesday, I got to have a catch up call with bes and watched the first two episodes of the Philippine adaptation of What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim kdrama. It’s actually really cute ahahaha. Kim Chui is “Secretary Kim” and her full name is Kimberly Liwanag HAHAHAHA. What are the odds truly hahaha. On Thursday, Sen and I had a coffee date at Superbloom, an outdoor cafe on Mission Bay. It’s really nice and the drink prices aren’t bad! Would definitely come back here again hehe. On Friday, Andrea and I had brunch at ASA Bakery and then I went for a walk around Coronado + listened to Cody Fry’s newest album. On Sabbath, it was communion and I got to eat potluck with uncle Rodel, auntie Prospil, ate Jam, the boys, and ate Gladdy because they were all here for kuya Jay-Jay’s wedding. I went to the beach again on Saturday afternoon to read + watch the sunset before going home to eat dinner and watch a movie. 

The second week (aka this past week) was the first week of spring quarter. But it honestly felt more of a spring break week compared to my actual spring break hahaha. Sunday was probably my “busiest” school day. Dr. Huerta had sent over some corrections early Sunday morning so I spent the rest of the morning + early afternoon making the adjustments and transferring all the information from my old poster template to the one she wanted me to use. I also worked on the pdf (that I was going to link to a QR code on my poster) that would have more charts + demographic data and some pictures from the event as well as my contact info. It was exhausting but at least it’s finally done! I had a meeting with Dr. Dehom on Wednesday afternoon to make new graphs/tables from the data that we had already run and then I updated my poster, poster PDF, and abstract before submitting for printing and for the LLU EBP conference. Then on Thursday, I had orientation for FNP and we also had our APEA pre-test. I was not feeling the greatest that day; I literally felt like I was having chills while I was taking the test heh. But I managed to finish and while my score was still low, it was definitely a lot higher compared to when I did the Barkley pre-test lol. So crazy lang to think that this is my last ever quarter of grad school huhu. When I started the program, clinical rotations + graduation seemed sooo far away. And now… we’re 11 weeks from graduation. Time flew by so fast huhu. I am both nervous and excited. Excited to be done with school but nervous to be switching from a nurse to a provider role. But one day and one step at a time hehe. 

Good things that happened over the first week of spring quarter: Got to see the petal pop up at the fountain in Little Italy and had dinner with mommy, daddy, and Andrea at Harumama. I’ve lowkey been craving the buns so I’m really glad we got to go hehe. On Monday, I met Mary for coffee so that we could fulfill our monthly meetup ahaha. We were supposed to go to California Adventure for the Food & Wine Festival but she wasn’t feeling the greatest. But thankfully Heather was free and down to go since she has an annual pass hehe. We ate sooo much good food at the Food & Wine festival and got a decent amount of rides in even though we got to the park mga past 1 pm na hehe. On Tuesday, I met Mitch, Justin and Megan for a tea party at The Brittania. This tea place used to be a small shop near Old Town San Diego but I guess they’ve been getting a lot of clients + have been pretty busy so they opened up a full tea room close to Liberty Station. The tea and the appetizer, sandwiches, and desserts were so good and we laughed so much at all the tea-puns we kept making hahaha. Even though we were all still full after the tea party, we still went to Liberty Public Market to get some more food ahaha. On Wednesday, Andrea and I went to convoy to get onigiri’s at Mitsuwa Market. Then we stopped by Flour Atelier, a bakery with a lot of filipino-inspired goods (aka bibinka donut, halo-halo cupcake and a calamansi cheesecake) before going to MNGO for mango sticky rice hehe. On Thursday after my orientation + pre-test, Princess and I drove to Burbank to attend a thriller movie screening. We got a late lunch/early dinner at a KBBQ place close to the AMC and I really liked that they had a lunch special! The lunch special I got included banchan, one round of brisket and steamed rice. Then I added a baked salmon roll just because and honestly it was the perfect combination. I was full and satisfied but not bloated hahaha. I went to the Crosswalk vespers on Friday night; we had communion for Good Friday. Then on Sabbath, I attended the early Crosswalk Easter Sabbath service with Corn. I had lunch at the apartment and took a nap + did some journaling in the afternoon. Then Princess and I got groceries and Uncle Tetsu’s (again hehe) and had a Korean night at the apartment. I made soon tofu soup (take 2 and still not yet there hahahaha) and Princess put together the ready-made tofu skin and ttekboki mix. We listened to the CLOY OST while we ate. Then we planned our Utah weekend and played “We’re Not Really Strangers.” 

Overall, not a bad past two weeks hehe. Even though I didn’t get to have a full week of doing nothing, this is still not a bad way to have spent it hehe. I feel like I was still able to chill more than I did work so I’m happy hehe. Got to see + spend time with family and friends, have new experiences and eat a lot of good food! 

California Adventure // March 25, 2024

Ending the Quarter

This will be the first 2 for 1 entry of the year ahahaha because I’ve just been so caught up in all the things these past 2 weeks! Last week was my last week of clinicals + major assignments so most of it was spent worrying about all of that haha. I had clinicals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We were at San Bernardino on Tuesday and we were able to get a good number of patients. On Wednesday we only saw one patient so I was able to help finish charting patients we had seen the day before. On Thursday morning, we had our synchronous discussion board on Zoom which also doubled as kind of a board review. And then from 1-7 pm (almost 8 huhu), I was in clinic at the Redlands location. One of my professors came that afternoon for my clinical site evaluation. So I was kind of nervous + stressing about that. But he was super nice and the two patients he saw me with were also pretty nice and easy-ish. The first one was coming in to follow up after a car accident and the other one was coming in to follow up regarding her diabetes. After we finished wrapping up those patients, he told me that I did a great job hehe and that I asked the right questions and he commented that I had good rapport with the patient and made sure that I gave them the time to answer my questions and didn’t rush them. 

This week we had our final exam, which was the Barkley post-test. We had taken the same test at the beginning of the quarter, but our scores for that test didn’t count. But our scores for this one would. So I’ve also been spending the past two weeks studying + prepping for it. I definitely made an improvement compared to my pre-test score haha and in the end, they curved our grades so I got a pretty decent score for the exam and my class overall! This week I also met with Dr. Dehom to run the data for my project. I kind of wish I knew early on that he would want to run the data together; I kind of assumed that I would send him the data, he would run it, and then we would talk about the results together. But it did make sense to run the data together so he can ask me clarifications in real time and then we can look at the results together and theorize why they turned out that way. Now I just have to work on my poster for WIN and the abstract for the LLU EBP conference. But at this point, I think I’m probably just going to submit the same abstract to the LLU EBP conference that I submitted to WIN since I’ll be able to use the same poster (that I will be adding data to) as WIN. So yeah I am otherwise on spring break; a very short one week break huhu but still nice to be able to get a break before the very last quarter of grad school huhu. So crazy talaga to think that this journey is really almost over!!! 

Good things that happened in the past two weeks hehe: I was awarded the Merit Scholarship by the LLUSN Alumni Association at the Homecoming Brunch at Mission Inn. I was able to bring my parents, which was really nice hehe so that they could be there and enjoy the brunch with me. Attended life groups + the pickelball life groups and I also made new pickelball friends! This week I really wanted to play pickelball on Wednesday but didn’t have anyone to play with because Princess was out of town. I ended up going to the court by myself and these 2 friends (Mona and Bao) were kind enough to let me play with them; we played a doubles game but with 3 people haha. We were eventually able to find a 4th to play 2 games with us so that was fun. At the end, Mona and I exchanged numbers and she told me to let her know when I was going to play so that we could play together again! So yay hehe. Last week on Thursday, after my last clinicals, Abby and I watched Lisa Frankenstein (to support the queen Liza Soberano haha). Then the next day, I hung out with Corn at a cafe; it was the first time we actually hung out in a long time! Looking forward to seeing him more often hehe. Then that night, Abby, Princess and I attended a worship night at LSU. Cam, the worship leader from the YA Wonder Worship Night, invited us to stop by since he was helping with the praise team. And it really was such a nice way to welcome the Sabbath hehe. 

On Saturday, Princess and I went to Praxis Sabbath school together and then had lunch at a Thai place. We had both attended an earlier second service (she went to LLUC and I went to the 0900 service at Crosswalk) so we were “done” with church early haha. That night, I drove back to San Diego and did groceries at Zion (and bought a lot of stuff so that I can make soon tofu, including the earthenware pot! I’m really excited hahaha). On Sunday, my parents and I went to Ethan’s first birthday party and I got to catch up with Heather and Sen. After my final exam on Thursday, Heather and I had lunch at Ever After in Irvine, then walked around Irvine Spectrum before getting in line for the Two Hot Takes live tour huhu. We got to meet Jerry in line; he was literally just standing and chilling there. I got to take a photo with him and his hugs are the best huhu so healing. Then we got to meet Morgan, Justin and Lauren also; we had gotten VIP tickets and we were first in line haha. I gave them a gift; a “what’s in the box!?” box filled with Filipino snacks. And of course I had to include a coconut snack (pastillas de buko panda hehe). Their show was sooo much fun and I wish I could go to all of them!! Haha. On Friday, I slept in and Princess and I played pickelball in the afternoon. She came over later to have dinner before we went to vespers at Praxis. Then on Sabbath, we had a girl dinner at Haven City Market with Princess, Abby and Emma. Emma will be leaving to go to Redding for clinicals for the next 3 months so this was also our last dinner/goodbye dinner for Emma huhu. 

So many things happened in these past week! And it has been pretty busy + stressful + anxiety producing haha. So I am so thankful for it to finally be over but I am also thankful for all the good things hehe. 

Leap Year

Last week of my birth month hehe and it was filled with a lot of good things! But first, all the not so fun stuff haha. I had clinicals 3 days this week— on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Monday, we were at Redlands and it was somewhat busy. Not as busy as her Thursday schedule, thankfully haha. On Wednesday, we were at Moreno Valley and we only saw 3 patients, so that was a nice break hehe. On Thursday, it was also pretty steady; we had a good number of patients, but it didn’t feel crazy hectic. I also left early on Thursday, which was nice hehe. I tried to do as much homework in between my clinical days; I went over my weekly lectures on Tuesday and tried to finish my Medatrax charting after every shift (with the exception of Thursday haha).

Good things that happened this week: we met Happy Slip (aka Christine Gambito!) So crazy to think that I used to watch her videos on YouTube and now I’m getting to see her in person + even getting to meet her huhu. Her show felt like a big family reunion, which was really nice hehe. This week the new season of life groups also started. I joined 3 hehe: Jiu-Jitsu for Jesus (JJ4J) on Sundays, Practical Christianity on Mondays, and Pickleball on Tuesdays. JJ4J didn’t start this week yet and they also said that it won’t be every Sunday. But we started Practical Christianity and the Pickelball life groups. The Practical Christianity had a good number of people there and a few familiar faces from the last life groups that Alvin led, which was nice. The Pickleball life groups was also fun; got to play a game of doubles with new friends hehe. You really learn so much by playing with people who are better than you ahahaha. On Thursday, I left clinicals an hour early so that Mitch and I could go to the Creative Cafe hehe. I first saw this on instagram and I really wanted to go during my birth month and it took a while for me and Mitch’s schedules to align but thankfully we were able to go! On literally the last day of February hehe. And so cool that I get to spend the extra day this year with her. We stayed up a bit afterwards talking. On Friday morning, she bought hot milk tea and pineapple buns while I attempted to get better seats for the Laufey concert. By the time I got in, the only seats available were in the sections behind the original seats I got during presale so we’re going to keep our original tickets haha. Even though we had the bread + milk tea, we still went out to have a Hong Kong style breakfast. We got congee, pan-fried chicken steak and peanut butter stuffed toast. I got a passion fruit lemonade iced tea and Mitch got a hot Ovaltine and both drinks were good. I drove back to Loma Linda after brunch. 

On Saturday, I wanted to sleep in, but I was awake by 8 am so I met Abby at Crosswalk for the 9 am service. After Crosswalk, I went to LLUC to watch the Parade of Colors—Princess held the Philippines flag. After the parade, I met Princess to the fellowship hall, where the choir + orchestra were eating breakfast, just to catch up haha. I stayed for part of the fourth service, just to watch the choir + orchestra performance then I went back to the apartment for lunch + a nap. Then I drove to Anaheim to pick up Hannah so that we could go to DTLA for a SoFar Sounds gig. We stopped by Little Tokyo Plaza; we were initially just planning to park there and go on a photo walk but we ended up going around the plaza instead + even shopping (for home goods + cardigans hahaha). We ate dinner at a Korean place in the plaza before driving to the SoFar Sounds venue. It was in a museum and it was really nice! There were two artists that played that night; both were good but I liked the second artist better haha. He was a drummer who had a supporting band with him (eg keys, bass, 2 electric guitars + a surprise trumpet!). It was giving very Lawrence vibes, especially whenever the trumpet would have a solo hehe. Also, the main guitarist was really cute HAHAHAHA. After the show, I dropped Hannah back in Anaheim before driving back to Loma Linda. It was a very full week of activities and honestly I was very exhausted but everything was worth it naman hehe. Looking forward to a more low-key week (hopefully hahaha) next week!