PCS? I don't know what to title this.

Hey guys!

I'm at home (in Mountain View..) right now. I'm (re)taking ochem and doing 'research' at Stanford for most of the summer. The ochem class is really tiny and half overachieving high schoolers, and the prof from UCSF teaches high school style which I'm really happy with. If you guys know James Xie (Twain), he's taking 33 too. Brian Khong is taking 35/36.

I'm working in a bio lab that's supposed to be doing some mammal surveys in Jasper Ridge (the bio preserve), but all I do is go on gchat and aim. So if you see me on, talk to me!! haha I'm supposed to be tagging pictures (not on facebook) of the mammal species and such, but its really boring and Karis can tell you I get off early everyday. hahaa

Catalina was really awesome as Jeanette said. Me, Jeanette, and Iheoma were in Mark II and studied the second half of Mark for 8+ hours a day! It was crazy. By Thursday I was getting pretty antsy, but it was sooo good. I learned so much from everyone there and Mark of course. I think I got the most out of retreat from being disconnected from everything/everyone (no internet or cell phone reception) for the entire week and just hanging out on the island with friends and having the space to reflect and talk to God. Hopefully I don't get PCS (post catalina syndrome [my home church used to call the Jesus high after retreats PMS--post mountain syndrome]) and fall back into routine and where I was with God before.

Okay that's it for now. Post up guys!

Claudia

Pancho

Thanks so much to those who have posted! I´m currently posting from an internet cafe in Nicaragua, and it´s so wonderful to here about what others are doing, especially since I feel a bit disconnected from home here. I don´t have much time to go into details about my experience here thus far (which has been filled with God challening me through exposing me to the dire needs of this country), but I wanted to share a quick and humorous story with you all. I hope you´ll get a good laugh out of this one.

My Spanish name, ever since I started learning Spanish in 9th grade, has been ¨Pancho¨. My favorite Spanish teacher gave me the name, and I was proud to use it to identify myself in any Spanish-speaking setting. Naturally, after arriving in Nicaragua, I was inclined to continue introducing myself as Pancho. Little did I realize that ¨Pancho¨, a nickname for ¨Francisco¨, had an alternate meaning in Nicaragua.

So, during the first few days in Nicaragua, I began to realize that the natives here, especially the men, let out an snicker of unbelief, and sometimes even a disrespecful laugh, upon hearing me say ¨Me llamo Pancho¨. At first, I thought their strange response to my introduction was caused by the humorous sight of an Asian boy - who couldn´t speak Spanish too well - saying that his name was Pancho. Today, I was exposed to an inconvenient and embarrassing truth. Pancho, in Nicaragua - let me emphasize, ONLY in Nicaragua of all the counties in Latin America, means...vagina. So for seven days, I´ve been saying, ¨Hello, my name is Vagina.¨Americans and Nicaraguans alike around me had a good laugh today. This makes me wonder if my favorite Spanish teacher had given me the name with a...certain purpose.

I hope the story brought laughs to some of you as well. Please continue to post about your summer, and also about how God has been working in your lives. I´ll do so whenever I get the chance here in Nicaragua.

God bless,
Pancho

A shout out from Asia =)

Hey guys,

Freshman from Stern-Twain Bible Study Mark here! Sounds like people had a blast in Catalina and hope everyone is doing well! As for me, I was in Hong Kong for five days shadowing my godfather in his hedge fund. I was really blessed with the opportunity to understand the intricacies of the financial world, the motivations of people who are involved in it and the many temptations and tests one must face. It was a time of a lot of soul-searching and I am very thankful for my trip to HK. I am currently in the Philippines for a couple of days to spend time with family and friends, but I will be leaving for Japan on Wednesday to work there for the rest of the summer. Please pray for the many typhoon victims in the Philippines who are struggling with their losses. Hope everything is well and if you want anything from Asia, you know who to ask :) 

Peace be with you,

Mark

elk grove!

Hi friends,

So I guess I'm the first one who went to Catalina to post here. Catalina was amazing, Mark II was amazing, and well, it was really good to be able to spend 8.5 to 9 hours a day in God's Word. I kind of got sunburned there, but it's chill. Our car got back to San Jose at around 10ish on Saturday, and then I left San Jose early Sunday morning to go to back home. I barely made it to church to share my testimony for baptism since I was kind of late, but that's okay because they scheduled me towards the end. I'm getting baptized this summer at my home church in Elk Grove (Sacramento area) so if anyone wants to come, everyone's invited =] sweet. I started taking physics at summer school today, and I have a lot to catch up on since I missed two out of six weeks of summer school between finals week at Stanford and Catalina. I'll be off to catch up on my work now. Take care everyone, and happy summer!

Jeanette

Oh sweet

Okay I will post later

Um

Hm I wonder if this is how you post....

Karis' First Post!

Hiya Friends!

I couldn't think of a better title for this post, so I'm sorry if you think it's boring. Hopefully the content of the post isn't as boring to you.
So I just sent out an e-mail to the c/o 2011 e-mail list. I hope you all got it. Please let me know if you're not on the list (or know someone who's not on the list) and I'll get on it asap.
This post is somewhat similar to what I wrote in the e-mail. Basically, I'm on campus most of the summer (all but 2 weeks in August) doing research in a bio lab. I work at the med school, so if you're over this way, let me know and we can get together for lunch sometime! I wasn't able to go home between the end of school and the beginning of work, but I'll be going home to LA in August. I'm living in Lantana for Summer Research College (SRC) and I have a bunch of snacks so please come visit! If you need some extra incentive (which you shouldn't, but in that rare case that you do), A'Lester lives next door and Mike Wei lives just around the corner on the same floor. Three oh-leveners on the same floor?? What more could you ask for? (I didn't even mean for it to rhyme that time =P)
I'm looking forward to hanging out with those of you who are on campus for the summer. Now that those of you who went to Catalina are back, I can't wait to hear how the week went. I want to experience Catalina vicariously (vi-Karis-ly?? sorry if you've heard that one before!) through you. Let's get more bloggers on this site and start posting, so I can hear all about your exciting summers!

Karis =D

No Catalina...but Nicaragua!

Hey all! This is Steve, of West Campus bible study (haha...I didn't know how else to introduce myself). I lived in FroSoCo this year, and will be living in FroSoCo again next year. Yeah...FSC is a hawt place to live. I really wish I were at Catalina with all the rest of the IV troopers, but I couldn't go because I'll be leaving the U.S. this Wed. I'm going to Nicaragua for three weeks! I'll be doing some community health/ service related things there. I'm actually pretty psyched. The last few days have been really chill - just a lot of sleeping and...well, unfortunately not enough eating. A couple of friends off-campus have been generous enough to allow me to crash at their place until Wednesday. But I feel a little bad eating their food all the time, so I try to take care of my meals. I'm not very good at doing that. In fact, my stomach's growling like a demented pit bull as I write this. Haha, oh well, I hope everyone has a wonderful summer break! Please post if you can (shout out to those who went to Catalina); I'd love to know what everyone is up to this break. I'll update you on my trip to Latin America in a couple of weeks!! Stay well in Christ ;)

Steve
...of West Campus