Htam::Diary

This Tuesday, CCF events begin with morning prayer at 8 AM in the Chester Complex, where Sunny Chun and I live.  Po-Ling Loh and Akin Omigbodun came to join us.  I was assuming Scott Hsieh would join us, but he was sleeping in our room.  So we had the meeting outside.  It is nice to pray together in the morning.

My father departs via Super Shuttle in the morning to Seattle, where he will spend a few days before flying back to Taiwan.

In the evening, I played table tennis with Michael Woods and Ran Huo, and then went to Ten Sing, the second CCF event of the summer, where we sing on the Millikan Bridge at 10 PM.  It was quite late at night.

This Monday, I drove my dad to UCLA and we walked around the area.  Then we went directly to 99 Ranch and purchase some items.  My dad then cooked some of these items, teaching me how to do so, and also preparing food so I can eat them in the next few days.  At night, Scott Hsieh and Po-Ling Loh came over and the four of us went to Fu-Hsing for dinner.  This is the restaurant that was suggested yesterday for the lunch, and my dad really enjoyed it.  In the evening, I went and ran on the tracks by myself.  I ran a 9-minute mile, and then got extremely tired, so I stopped running.  I stopped my arithmetic progression of adding one lap each time.

This Sunday, after church, my dad took Hou-En and Dave's family out for lunch.  We went to Fu-Hsing, which was quite good.  In the afternoon, I went to table tennis club again.  Last week the gym was occupied.  It is nice to play here again.  This will be one of the last few times I get to do this here.  My dad walked here and took a look, and then walked back.  He was exercising by walking while I was playing table tennis.

This Saturday, after Bible study in the morning as usual at church, my dad treated whomever interested in going out for lunch.  We went to a restaurant just opposite of the OK Cafe, where we often go.  We had quite an enjoyable lunch.  At night, I went to the tracks by myself and ran 12 laps.  This is the final push in my arithmetic progression of adding one lap each time.  I have done it every other day, except the day before graduation, when I was really way too busy.

This Friday, I graduated.  Yay!  It was very hot during graduation, I turned off my brain and went to hibernate mode.  I actually got a fair number of awards and hence appeared on the commencement program many times, same as, I believe, Elette Boyle and Michael Grinolds; just once fewer than Csilla Felsen, who won the most number our year.  However, this number is only about half the times Po-Ru Loh's name appeared last year.  Anyways, after the Commencement Exercise, the four graduates of LCF—David Barmore, Scott Hsieh, John Shen, and myself—gathered together and took lots of pictures with all the families, LCF staff, friends, and each other, in many permutations and combinations.  Hopefully these photos will become available at some point.

In the afternoon, I tried to finish all the notes I am writing to people who are leaving very soon.  And I also spent quite a bit of time to say good-bye to them and delivering the notes, especially to Jiaqi Guo.  Then at night, I went out with the three aforementioned graduates, the families (except for Scott's), and friends (Jian Yu Fung, Brandon Hensley, Christina Lee, David Lee, John Liu, Po-Ling Loh, Akin Omigbodun, Cherrie Soetjipto, Debbie Tseng, and Ben Yang).  We had quite a enjoyable dinner, and an overall memorable day.

This Thursday, I am spending the last day before graduation grading Ma121 homework.  Originally I was expecting to have time until next week to grade, since grades are only due Wednesday.  But since the professor is going out of town, he asked me to finish everything by Friday—which of course means I need to finish them today; for I expect to be quite busy tomorrow.

This Wednesday, in the morning, Ruddock Small Group goes mini-golfing!  This is what Bing Huo arranged two years ago to celebrate his graduation.  I drove Jamie Jackson and Christina Lee, since it was Jamie's birthday and Christina already signed her card.  Scott Hsieh drove the other people, who need to sign Jamie's card: Abraham Buditama, David Romero, and Simpson Zhang.  We had fun at the mini-golf place.  Then we came back, dropped Romero off, and then went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch.  We also celebrated Jamie's birthday.  Yay!

I talked with David Barmore, Scott Hsieh, and John Shen for an hour or so about Friday dinner.  We are planning to have a graduation celebration, which takes a lot of planning.  We already had many (~20?) emails back and forth discussing for a few weeks now.  Today, we finally finalized all the details that need to be discussed.

My dad arrived from Taiwan in the evening.  I was waiting at the Super Shuttle stop next to Avery for an hour or so.  Finally he arrived, and we went to Avery for dinner.  Since other people are already eating and we were a bit late, we ate by ourselves.  Later, Scott Hsieh, David Lee, John Liu, and Po-Ling Loh stopped by our table after they were done with food and talked to my father in Chinese.

This Tuesday, in the morning, I went to the tracks and ran with Scott Hsieh.  I ran 11 consecutive laps!  One more than the last time I did it two days ago.  Since my birthday on 6/4, I have ran every other day, increasing one lap each time.

In the evening, we had our CCF seniors sendoff meeting.  Many of the underclassmen came, even those that I do not usually see at Large Group.  The seniors spoke according to not well-planned order with special meaning.  Since Nathan Lau was speaking about love (until it hurts), and since he was the last to get here, we made him go first.  Then John Shen talked about joy (on the Beatitudes).  Since John said the word "peace," I decided to count that in and have George Hines talk about patience (or persistence) next.  Then Scott Hsieh went, and I attributed all the remaining fruits of the spirit to him, so I get to talk about whatever I want.  All this time I was moderating between the seniors, now is my turn to talk.  I shared from Exodus and about the lattice-grid analogy of the tabernacle and our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters.  There were then much prayer, and many hugging goodbyes.

This Monday, since there is no more table tennis class, a bunch of us decided to go play table tennis in the afternoon.  Then we came over to my apartment and ordered food and had a celebration.  People who came are Jiaqi Guo, Ran Huo, Jon Krause, Sharon Kuo, Han Hsuan Lin, and Michael Woods.  We sang a lot of KR while waiting, during eating, and also after dinner.  Ran did not want to sing at all at first, but then got addicted and wanted to sing every single time.  It was quite funny.

This Sunday, in the afternoon we had a joint Council meeting with the current and the future Councils.  At night, the CCF seniors went out to eat.  A lot of people dropped last minute due to various reasons, so we only had six people: Jessica Arnold, George Hines, Scott Hsieh, Nathan Lau, and John Shen.  It was quite an enjoyable time.  At night, I went to the tracks and ran with Sunny Chun.  I ran 10 laps today continuously!

This Saturday, I went to Avery's end-of-term BBQ for the first time, and the last time.  I came back after Bible study in the morning, and went to get free food.  I am not sure why I skipped lunch with the church people and eat free food with Avery people.  Maybe it is the free part?  I am uncertain.  I did not end up getting to talk to Avery people too much.

At night, David Barmore stopped by and played the High School Musical: Sing It! game that I just bought today.  He also liked the movie.  So we sang it together.  We played the "Story Mode" where it goes through the first movie in sequence, as told in the perspective of Kelsi the pianist.  She tells a small story between each song, and then we sing it.  It was quite enjoyable.

This Friday, I took my last quiz at Caltech, the Kapitel 12 quiz for L130c, Elementary German.  I took Kapitel 11 quiz yesterday, thus catching up on half of the quarter of work (we have 4 quizzes each quarter).  I also attended tonight my last Avery Formal dinner.  I took pictures with also pretty much everyone I knew.  Then I went to LCF Bible study for the last time.

This Thursday, Tom Mannion, Assistant VP Student Affairs and Campus Life, held a free banquet for the seniors.  As most people think, Mannion food is very tasty.  I actually did not find the food that appealing, though I should not complain too much about free food.  I sat with Elah Bozorg-Grayeli, Scott Hsieh, Tim Kwa, Hyung Min Park, and Michael Woods.  We played a form of contact [DEPRECATED] where the target words are people.  It was quite enjoyable, especially during the long dinner.  Also, I got up and walked around between the five courses and took pictures with pretty much everyone I knew well enough to ask for a picture.

This Wednesday, I woke up slightly before 6:52 again.  Considering that compared to last year, I wake up early regularly more often now, it is not as surprising.  On the other hand, considering that yesterday I woke up very late, at 9 AM, it is quite surprising that I would wake up early this morning.  Since I was born in Boston at 9:52, I am precisely (down to the minute) 22 years old as I write this post.

Edit.

In the afternoon, I went to jog on the tracks.  In the past three times I jogged, I did 8 laps (2 miles), but I did them in segments.  I figured today I should push myself to do it in one try.  So I ran 8 laps straight.  It was quite difficult.

Then in the evening, my four ex-roommates, David Barmore, Matt Chan, Scott Hsieh, and John Shen, came over and we drove in one car to Grand View Palace, which is not in particular a good p(a)lace, but it evokes memories from freshman year.

After we got back, we talked for a while, and then a bunch of people from Avery came to my place and we had cake and sang KR.  It was a interesting day.

This Tuesday, I am pretty much using my finals week studying for German and catching up on my half a quarter worth of work and quizzes.  I also watch a German film that is for the class.  It is just German every day.

This Monday, I went to my last table tennis class here at Caltech, and possibly the last table tennis class ever.  It has been a good four years with our coach Wei Wang, former Olympic level player.  She has taught me a great deal during my 12 quarters of table tennis with her.  The people at class will also be greatly missed.  I got some of them, including Wei, to sign a table tennis ball.  Wei also gave me a super big table tennis ball.

This Sunday, a bunch of underclassmen in Avery decided to cook dinner for the seniors and the alums who stacked for them.  There was a secret ingredient, which was called "corn starch."  The meal was quite tasty.

This Saturday, in the evening, Jiaqi Guo and I decided to go to our coach Wei's table tennis club on the west side.  We have talked about going to this place for years now, and now I finally have a car, we can actually go.  Today, however, Diego did not know our level and put us in the bottom bracket for round robin, and it was quite boring.  I am not sure if we will go back again.

This Friday, it is the last day of classes for seniors.  Well, I do not have classes today.  So I am just enjoying my last day here.  I went to jog on the track with Jiaqi Guo today.  It is good to exercise.

I also went to my Ruddock Formal dinner.  Well, not quite.  I dressed up and took pictures with people I know in Ruddock, but I did not eat there.  This way, I need not pay a huge amount of money!  Yay.

This Thursday, I went to my last official class at Caltech.  For seniors, we end a week early.  Next week we can still go to class.  I plan to go to table tennis, but I will not go to German.  It is a strange feeling that I am done.  I think I will be doing a lot of "last" things in the coming week.