May 18th, 2009 (Late Post)

yeah, i really wanted to post about this date because i have a hard time explaining to people how real God is in my life.  I never had a turning point in life where i've ran away from God and returned after something amazing happened.  So basically, let's begin this true story.

Still packing in the AM hours of the night in Champaign, IL on campus, talking about life and stuff with my Colombian lover Juan Velandia aka El Padrino at my to-be apartment that he's watching over by himself until Saturday so please visit him and have fun with him while he's all lonely until Saturday because i don't want him to be lonely.  Juan offered to make me breakfast in the morning before i left for my 10:15AM bus ride.  and i also asked him to come to morning prayer which starts at 6:30AM, and he said he would if could wake up. after some more talking etc, it's time to sreep.

i woke up to my alarm at 6AM debating whether to go to morning prayer or not. i had finished my spring semester committment of going every (week)day of which 9 days were failures.  and i had no modes of transportation for this morning except my roller blades... and i decided to just sleep in. but BAM! *vibrate* my phone is ringing from a phone call, and who is it but a faithful friend who also tries to go to morning prayer everyday, Candis Kim.  so she came to give me a ride to morning prayer !!!! awesome. and i let Juan sleep-in because he was going to make breakfast anyway.

so after morning prayer (7:30AM), i went back to sleep until 9AM when Juan was done making breakfast.  and after i finished, we parted ways and i went to my bus stop at the Folletts bookstore.  The LEX bus actually broke down on the way to our stop and so the LEX had to send a van to accomodate the passengers. the accomodation was about 30 minutes late, but we arrived at our destination (OHare airport in Chicago) 15 minutes early or so.  It was around 2PM and my plane was to depart at 4:04PM. 

So my plane was US Airways, so i thought i was supposed to check it at the US Airways section of the terminal, but my ticket apparently said i need to check it in with the "operating carrier" which was designated as United Airlines.  and at Ohare, there's 5 terminals depending on what you're flying on.. but luckily, US Airways was on Terminal 2 and United was on Terminal 1 which was walking distance.  so i was able to get to the United Airlines place with no problem.  So now it was checking in the bags... i didn't know that everything changed to a self-check-in booth.  haha... i was so lost... but yeah anyways. i had some problems with checking in because about something with my flight being delayed/cancelled and they were rebooking my flight.

My original flight was: 4:04PM-7:30somethingPM from ORD(OHare Illinois) to LGA(La Guardia New York) and from 8:00somethingPM-9:34PM from LGA to IAD(Dulles Virginia). But they rebooked my flight to a 4:02PM-6:54PM from ORD to IAD. (Note: there is an hour time difference from central to eastern time).  But yeah, it went from a 1-stop, arduous flight to a non-stop breath-easy flight.  God is GOOD!  So I got there much earlier than expected and once I got to Virginia, we drove a 3-4hour drive to my brother’s apartment in Blacksburg, VA near Virginia Tech.

So if you didn’t get it… though my ride to OHare airport was late and had problems, I still arrived early enough to be able to check in my bags and stuff; plus, the terminal issue was resolved easily.  And in the end, I got a much better flight for free when normally it would cost me more. And we had a safe drive even though it was late. Yes. I hope this story didn’t disappoint… because I am a horrible story writer.

Move-Out Day

Yeah.. so today was the final move-out day.  I had to move out by 12:00pm or face a late-checkout fee charged to my university account.  But God is so good; He works in amazing ways.  So i was supposed to have a friend with a van come in the morning to help me move. i woke up around 8:30am to finish packing/cleaning.  Luckily, Leandro Lee, the Brazilian member of my small group, came to help me out.  Another awesome person, whose name shall not be named due to specific reasons, lent a car to Leandro to help me move.

Unfortunately, moving took forever! much longer than i thought.  part of it is because Daniel Shim asked me to store some of his stuff... in the beginning, he said his stuff was only going to be a little, but it grew to a large amount... it took three round trips to complete moving out.  Luckily, i met Mark Chen on one of my runs, and he was helping people move out.  Mark, Elizabeth Ohr, and Esther Kim came to help out and carried my stuff from the 4th floor to the lobby on the first floor.  If it weren't for them i don't think i would have been able to move out on time.

We actually did sooo much today.  but after we finished. we helped many other people move and stuff.  then we all went to eat Pho at Saigon.  Saigon's service was REALLY bad for some reason today... but yeah. after lunch, i went to help Jinwoo, my roommate to be for the summer, move some of his heavy stuff over to Leandro's apartment. For those who don't know, I'm living at Leandro's apartment over the summer with Jinwoo and Taewoo, and possibly Erik Zuma as well.  But yeah, after moving Jinwoo's stuff, we went to Elana's apartment to help her pack her stuff into her car.  Joanna Ng and Tom Chang were there for that, but Leandro had to go back to clean up the apartment so that Taewoo's family could stay in his room for Taewoo's graduation tomorrow. 

After helping Elana move and stuff, we chilled for a bit until we decided to go eat dinner at McD's.  Got a BigMac Meal, McChicken sandwich, and 4pc Chicken Nuggets.  twas so good to eat fast food.... but that meal in itself was about 1500 calories.... gross... but after dinner, we went to Mark's apartment to watch House of Flying Daggers and My Sassy Girl. twas a fun day. so long.... i'm getting really tired writing this... sorry if it's boring... but i think it's better than nothing :) i hope everyone has a wonderful summer!!