Janice’s Blog

Please feel sad for us.

There comes a day (or two... or 4+ years) in every college kid's life where they will spend a beautiful Saturday cooped up in the library, studying. Yes, I'm aware it will benefit us in the end, but that still doesn't make it any more enjoyable!

My friend, Rachel (pictured above left), and I first came into the library with good intentions. We had piles of work that needed to be done and not enough time in that one Saturday to do it all. Stacks of books surrounded us, on top of the papers and notes that littered our table; our laptops were plugged in and headphones were put on to block out any sound that could possibly distract us from our studies... we were determined. If I were a football player and my workload was the game, I'd win all by myself. HAHA I'm sorry, that was a really bad analogy... but in my head that's kind of how I see it. I have my helmet on (my "thinking cap") and the football in my hands is the work. A touchdown equals getting the work done. I know absolutely nothing about football, so it's really kind of amusing how I keep referring to my studying as playing football~

This is what determination looks like. Bleary-eyed and silly. But don't worry! These scary facial expressions only last for a couple hours... I was good to go in no time at all (but then I fell asleep).

Posted by Janice at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today at internship we were scheduled to meet with the resident play therapist, Audra! The only thing I had really known about play therapists was from what I saw on television shows (where they analyze how children play with their toys and whatnot), and even though that was a shallow pre-conception to have walked in with I was soon plunged headfirst into the interesting world of play therapy. Audra led us into a room that had shelves of figurines and told us to pick as many or as little as we wanted, and not to even think why we picked ones we did but that if it appealed to us, then to bring it along. After about ten minutes or so we reconvened in the play room and went around sharing why we picked the figurines that we did. Turns out play therapy is not quite what it is made out to be on television – it is nearly impossible and rather unfair (not to mention all sorts of wrong) to assume you can fully and thoroughly analyze a person simply through their actions. There are speculations that can be made, of course (these are called "themes"), but it is more of a continual process that must take place to even begin to understand the complexity of human mind and emotion.
Our time with her went by so fast and I seriously think we all walked out of there wanting to be play therapists that day... actually, it's all we talked about during the drive back to campus :P

Posted by Janice at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My three-month-old(ish) niece, Sophia, is a living, breathing Cabbage Patch doll. She is probably the most adorable child to have graced this earth so far, and no, I'm not biased ;)
But all cuteness aside, there is a special love in my heart for Sophia -- her arrival was the gateway for reconciliation to take place and allowed some deep wounds from the past to be healed. The way God works... I'll never quite fully understand. But it's nothing short of amazing or sweet (like Sophia!) and there isn't a day that goes by where I don't pray for her to live up to her name~^^

The comparison:

Posted by Janice at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The agency I am doing my field placement at sent some of its staff plus its student interns (read: me!) to the PCCYFS Children’s Services Policy Day convention! I was, am, and probably will still be for the next few weeks or so, thrilled to death~
So on Monday night I met up with Jen and Susan (the other two that intern with me) and we made the lovely 2 hour drive to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Though the three of us haven’t known one another very long (we really just met last year), they already know that I am a perpetually sleepy person and that I can sleep anywhere, any time and so they made a “no one sleeps on the drive over� rule… which I broke – both ways. Oops.

Anyway! We made it to the hotel in record time due to Jen’s fantastic New York driving, and it was like a whole ‘nother world from the moment we set foot in the lobby. The Sheraton is no joke! I mean, we only spent one night there but I have already decided this is where I want to stay during any and every opportunity that involves hotels. Our room was so nice, especially the beds. They were humongous and cushy and overall WONDERFUL, even the cot (none of us really wanted to share a bed) which was the size of a standard single bed and super comfortable to the point where it could have rivaled one of the actual beds.

On the super plushy bed, messing around with my webcam:

I slept like a rock that night, a rock that just so happened to be sleeping in the most magnificent bed ever. It is a shame that we couldn’t just lay there and be lazy that morning, but the excitement of attending this convention dismissed any sadness that may have lingered.

I wish I could sum up a 7+ hours conference in such a way that everyone would get the general idea without falling asleep on me. So, I won’t even try! But trust me when I say that it was awesome and though a lot of the information just grazed the top of my head, I feel at least ten times more knowledgeable and totally professional :P

Posted by Janice at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine this: a mere three months ago, you ruled at the top of the social hierarchy in Sunday School alongside others as big, bad 6th graders. But now, as a 7th grader, you’ve been demoted to the bottom of the feeding chain as the babies of the youth group. SIGH.
Aaaaaand… these are the kiddies that make up my Bible study class :)

I have served as a 7th grade Bible study teacher for the past two years at my church… a task that is daunting, but proves to be rewarding time and time again. Rather than moving up with one class, I am graciously given a new group to tame and teach each year… which is anything but easy, really, as I am faced with the same issues every September – these kids are in some serious emotional turmoil. They went from being kings of the free world to the gum on the bottom of the shoes of the upperclassmen that rank infinitely higher than them. If that isn’t painful enough then there’s me, who wants them to sit quietly for 30 minutes while I teach a fantastic lesson…
Well, I met my new class for our first “official� session today. It was just as rowdy and loud as I expected to be – which was a little frustrating (then again… it would be scary if it weren’t like this) but right off the bat I could tell who the major chitchatters were and who the be-real-loud-then-shush-everyone-else-to-win-brownie-points kids were. I love them already!

This is a good chunk of the youth group: can you find all 15 of my 7th graders? ;)

At the end of our time together, I asked them what topics they wanted to cover throughout the year. The thing they want to learn most about? The end of the world. Go figure.

Posted by Janice at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It truly is the small, simple things that make life so wonderful.
Even though we are only three weeks into the semester, so many of us are already slightly overwhelmed and weighed down with an enormous work load. My one roommate and I, although we live in the same apartment and sleep in the same bedroom, hardly ever see each other. On a good day we might be in the same room (while awake) for maybe half an hour or so. This is something new to us, as we were roommates last year as well and spent an awful lot of time hanging out together… but last night, we both came in early to clean for room check – only to be pleasantly surprised that room check was not taking place! The smart thing then would have been for me to go our separate ways again and do whatever needed to be done, but somehow we ended up sitting around and talking about our days. We ate Cheezits. We leaned out the windows that face the parking lot and people-watched. We sang Disney songs (to a non-existent audience). We gathered some of the rocks in the front of our building and tossed them onto the bush in front of our window to see how cushy it was, just in case we ever fell out the window and needed it to break our fall. The bush is super cushy, by the way. We attempted and failed miserably at making shadow puppets. We laughed a little louder and our grins grew wider with every silly antic we came up with.

Eventually we realized we had to playing otherwise nothing would get done that night, but this hour of non-stop random acts of amusement was just what the doctor prescribed to cure our blues!

The roommate + me

Posted by Janice at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ask any Asian out there and they’ll tell you that food = fellowship. As a matter of fact, I have become friends with some of the dearest people in life through the fellowship of food and full stomachs – this seriously never fails to bring people together. Tonight was no exception… where do I even begin to explain? Well, for starters, it was the birthday of a dear friend whom I have known since I was young. A handful of us were invited to a dinner extravaganza that night, one that promised to be amazing (her daddy is a professional chef) and leave us more satisfied than we could fathom in our hungry, pre-dinner state. Despite the fact that it was raining on our drive over and that Hurricane Hanna had promised to hit us later on that night, we were all over-the-top cheerful and made it to her house (with a portable karaoke machine in hand). We got there, stepped inside, took off our shoes, and the most glorious sight awaited us – a table entirely covered with savory Korean and Italian dishes. We all sort of gravitated towards the table, no one aware of what we were actually doing… long story short, as soon as we were given the okay to eat, our faces lit up and what took place from the time the food hit our plates to when we had finally eaten our fill is a massive blur of laughter and chopsticks. But the fun didn’t end here! Oh no, we then decided it was appropriate to bust out the karaoke machine and wow… you think you know a person and then WHAM! they surprise you by rocking out to a song that you never ever thought would be in their repertoire. Like Bohemian Rhapsody. Who would’ve thunk?!

(ignore the dates on the pictures. I still haven't figured out how to change that yet...)

Posted by Janice at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I MAY STILL BE REELING FROM SHOCK. SHAUN GROVES, YES, THE SHAUN GROVES CAME TO OUR UNIVERSITY!

I absolutely adore Shaun Groves. I can’t tell you how many times I listened to “When the Music Fades� when it first came out oh-so-many years ago. When I first read about his scheduled appearance in chapel and his concert that was to be held later that day, I had the goofiest grin on my face all day long and fangirled about it every given opportunity to my friends. They were looking forward to hearing him in chapel (and at his concert too) but no one had seemed to understand just how my heart was overflowing from sheer joy – that is, until they heard him speak. He spoke on behalf of Compassion, but the thing that really got my friends was how real and down-to-earth he was. He wasn’t some fancy shmancy preacher who talked loudly about helping the children or some well-recognized Christian artist that took upon advertising Compassion as a public gig of some sort, but came before the entire student body of PBU simply as a man following in the footsteps of Jesus and extending his hand out to the little children.

I love Shaun Groves. And I got to write him a note on behalf of the Admissions department. And I shook his hand. Oh my :D

Posted by Janice at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

THE day has come. The one that all Social Work majors patiently but rather anxiously await… dun dun dun~ field placement! I hadn’t been particularly nervous or anything until the night before I went into my first day of field – which was still a little strange considering how I had really wanted to be placed in this particular agency. I fell asleep wondering if they were just going to make me file for eight hours, and woke up slightly sad as I had dreamt about filing cabinets (of all things to dream about) all night long. If any of my roommates had been able to hear my thoughts that morning as I got ready, they would have thought I was nuts! I couldn’t stop thinking about how much fun filing wasn’t going to be, and how I really hate papercuts. I know, I know – I’m nuts.
Two other girls from school were actually also doing their placement at this particular agency, and so the three of us piled into one car and made the half hour drive into Philly. The fact that we were all in the same boat and none of us wanted to spend the entire day filing was oddly comforting, and left me in a rather mellow mood by the time we reached our destination. The next bit might sound crazy – but I assure you that it really did happen! Anyway, so we step into the front office and are greeted by some staff members, including the Deputy Director who makes it clear from the start, before we take another step into the agency, that no filing whatsoever will be expected to be done, and said that a good field experience is one that isn’t spent being a personal secretary to others.

I could have laughed right then and there (or maybe even cried) and the sense of relief that just swept over me was the most exhilarating feeling ever. I can’t help but sheepishly wonder just how amused God had been with my silly anti-filing antics :)

Posted by Janice at 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you wanted free chips with homemade salsa, there was only one place to go tonight – the fiesta at Heritage Hall! This event also doubled as an Open Dorm, which I have always taken as an opportunity to do some mental shopping while peeking into other people’s rooms :P
Armed with chips and salsa in one hand, a cup of lemonade in the other, and my trusty cellphone tucked safely away in my back pocket, my friends and I made our rounds. Within the first ten minutes I was so severely impressed by how some boys managed to fit an entire house’s worth of furniture into their somewhat-standard-but-definitely-not-big-enough-unless-it-defied-the-laws-of-physics rooms. However, there was an explanation! A rather good one at that:

“It’s like Tetris (referring to being able to fit everything into their rooms), you have to be good at Tetris�

Posted by Janice at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)