Adventures in South East Asia...

I recently took a trip to "South East Asia" doing health care. This was an incredible opportunity to help those in need and have a lot of fun doing it. Last night, I got my pictures back. This picture made me laugh a lot and I remembered a funny story. Maybe I thought it was funny and you may think it was stupid but what ever.

First of all, I love how white I am.... go pasty northerners everywhere. I was really excited about this trip because there were not a lot of guys going on it. It was going to be this amazing opportunity to forget all of the seemingly worthless boys who wouldn't know how to be men if their lives depended on it (sorry all you good guys, little bits of bitterness here).

However, I was delighted to find out that one of our security guards was incredibly attractive. Game over. I think I sometimes think I exaggerate the foreign aspect of some males. Well ladies... I guess you can tell me for yourselves. This is shameless, I know. The ridiculousness of it all makes me happy inside.

So for days, I simply smiled at this guy. I then told the leader we were living with that I just thought he was so attractive. She laughed and said he got that all the time. One evening I came back for a long day of clinics and one of the translators had put a bedi on my forehead. The security guard's eyes grew twice as big as he smiled from ear to ear. I soon found out that he was Hindu. I also soon found out that he knew I thought he was cute. At that point, I decided that I was going to talk to him. I said, "Hi my name is MJ." To which he responded, "Hi my name is (fill in name)" This is when I started to tell him it was a cool name and asked what it meant in Hinde. To which he responded, "My name is (fill in name)." He did not know much English. I was so mortified that I total clammed up and said, "Well have a good night (fill in name)" I basically ran away and he even told the leader that it was awkward. If you are awkward with male interaction, it doesn't matter if you go to the other side of the world. You are still awkward.

Oh well, at least I got a picture. Maybe in the next life.... if he doesn't reincarnate into a cow...

-MJ

The Last Lab Report... WHOOT

I am working on my last lab report of my undergraduate degree. For all of my biological friends and foes out there.... we are all celebrating now! No one quite understand the amount of time, work, and frustration goes into a science degree. My very good friend has been through all of my daunting biology and Chemistry classes. After we experience a day that is beyond ourselves, much like today, she laughs this completely distinctive laugh that echos the offices of the SCI-TECH department so much so that I know anyone reading this from my department knows. I love it in these moments because the absurdity of the expectations and the seemingly insurmountable odds of me making it to friday leave me somewhere between screaming and sobbing. Then that awkward silence is instantly filled with laughter of a friend. That is a true blessing in this world. You know I can't hold back my laughter either. Well, I never really know when to hold back my laughter....

I apologize for not blogging sooner. If you saw my planner, you would wonder why I am now. This is preventative care for future brain explosions. I find myself in a familiar boat with far too many friends who do not wish to be here. I am about to graduate looking for a job. How do you show an employer how hard you work and the motivations of your heart on first glance? Most first impressions are fallacies that should be forgotten. Filling out the application shows how much we have done but nothing about our bull-doggedness or our unwillingness to give up. Sometimes those qualities are more important. Many people have far more obstacles making their life looks like a twisted jungle gym. Others simply walk through their boring life and collect their achievements. How do you tell an employer that you are not boring? Better than that how do you draw a jungle gym on a list of achievements? People are far more beautiful than titles and honors. Even those that have the best grades and accomplishments always have more to them than meets the eye.

Just a thought... I definitely skipped sushi eating to write my lab report so I must continue and regret that decision.

God Bless,

MJ

Dear Calvin Castaways

I have successful vacated my panicky pre-med world if only for a couple of days. Yes, I am a pre-med major and not one of those fake ones either, those that are pre-med for say a month or a semester. This May I will graduate with one of those intimidating -ology degrees, well Biological Chemistry to be exact.

I have a weird obsession with Chemistry. Maybe its the way the pages of my text smell after hours and hours of study. Maybe I like to have holes in my clothes from residual HCL on the lab counters (should have wore a lab coat). Who really knows (mystery of the universe)? Anyways, I usually spend my moments shoving information into my head much like the last pair of shoes you can't really fit into your suitcase. Just pack'em in and hope you don't break the zipper.

How did I escape the world of molecular absorption spectrums and meticulous details of ribosomal subunits and steps of translation? I attended Calvin College's festival of faith and literature. They told me to start this blog, so if you have a problem, I will outsource to Calvin College. They will eventual say that you really were pre-destined to dislike my words, only the few are chosen. Sorry as Stephen King would say, "Everything's eventual". Some of us were lucy enough to catch some life impacting quotes and I would love to share some here, giving of rights of the ideology to Snowl who did it first.

Quotes that may or may not change your life....PAY ATTENTION!!!

"It's not enough to say prayer, one must become prayer."

"God is like your mother... you clean your room to shut her up" -Sharon Flake

"If God put you somewhere, Don't leave." -Sharon Flake

"Name whatever's wrong" -Paul Willis

"We are entrusted with a with experience, a story is the burden of our witnessing."

"We must steward the afflictions God has given us."

"Write fiercely... a cloak to the shivering."

"We have just enough religion too hate.... and not to love"

"When you pick up a novel, you are entering a long term commitment" -Brady Udall

"Man plans, God laughs" -Yiddish saying

"You are designing a slaughter house" -Brady Udall Building a Novel

"If you are compelled by it, do it" -Brady Udall

"I just had a moment with a squirrel" - Bookseller in Grand Rapids

"No writing is wasted" - Stephanie Kallos

"To write social justice, you have to live it yourself." - Lisa Samson

"Sharing food is a subtle way of saying I think your life should go on. " - Lisa Samaon

"Transgression is more interesting." -Peter Manseau

"Transgression, the accidental sacrament of my childhood." -Peter Manseau

"To tell a story is to own a story." -Peter Manseau

"This is my bro....," points to shirt "That is were I live too man!"- Drunk man by the pool pointing to Martin's shirt which says "S1N"

This is a small portion of the life changing experience I have had. But seriously, I have forgotten how beautiful words can be... I have been too busy looking up the medical terms....

My pilot episode: the shortened version

Today I have become a self important person. Ride along my coat tails as I blog about the mundane events of my life.

Today I attended the first writing conference I have ever been to and they told me to start a blog. The very idea seemed counterproductive to me at first. So many people whine about there lives to the internet as of it had feelings. If it could really respond, I would think it would say shut up to most of us. There are earthquakes, starvation, and exploitation that haunts every corner of the world with just the fringes of it creeping in websites and advertising. If the internet had a soul, it would scream "World look at what you are!!! You are typing your worries into a screen with no heart and none of the afflicted have voices." So why in the world would a person like me blog?

I am glad I could ask myself that question. I am a pre-med student about to graduate from undergrad who loves to write. Much of my academic life is a fight between the love of facts and the longing of adventure. There is only so much adventure found with in the human body. The disruptions of homeostasis are fascinating. However, to express the passions of one's heart could very well be dangerous if say you wrote with a scalpel. For lack of a desire to be put in a straight jacket, I choose to be dichotomous. I am doing this to discover voice so maybe I can be words for someone else. I believe good writing should allow the reader to escape their aituation and put on someone else's skin for a while. It was the only way I survived the angst-filled years of hormone therapy known as middle school. Some of us never got over those days, even at almost 22, I am still a boy-crazy idiot. It is just a new field, with new equipment.

Anyways, the whole point of this exercise is to develop voice in the void where nothing is said and to create a place where people can step outside of themselves into my world of awkward interactions (I experience many) and misplaced moments in time.

Today I spent the majority of my time learning about writing about tragic moments and adding to the pages of book we are writing. Many of the seminars really inspired me to live outside of spending hours and hours memorizing body parts and chemical mechanisms. After the sessions I decided to get sushi at the restaurant conveniently placed across the street of my hotel with three friends. This place looked like a take-out box with the word "sushi" written on the outside, so I thought of all the nasty microorganisms that may take residence in cheap asian cuisine. However to relieve much of my worries, the inside was an incredible oasis of ritzy pseudo-Korean American paradise. It was a wonderful time with friends filled with sarcasm as all worthwhile moments tend to be. We began to walk back to our hotel and my eyes fell to the most incredible calves in the world. I only began to look at peoples calves because someone once told me that I have ninja turtle calves. Anyways, without thinking I told this male-friend, "You have incredible calves."

To this, He became sheepish and began to run away. He even giggled. Somethings sound better in between our ears.