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| It's been 6 years since my Sophomore year at UT in Austin.
It's been 6 years since my shoulder dislocated and thus changed my whole world.
I used to be the most super competitive, hardcore, and prideful person when it came to basketball. I have been playing basketball since I was in 5th Grade, and have played in leagues and competition growing up. It was definitely one of those sports I felt I had an edge over people and I could dominate. I disregarded my body and took as many hits, falls, and tumbles as long as the ball went in. Whenever tall players looked down on me, I took my game and shoved it down their throat. ( most of the time : P ) I loved playing other sports as well: that included football, soccer, softball, volleyball.
However, it all came to an end when I dislocated my shoulder. They say that when you pop it out once, it becomes more loose and its more capable to pop out again. Yes there have been times I tried to rehab myself and make a comeback. I tried it just playing with my good DCFC buddies, I tried playing intramurals at UTA, and I even tried playing asian olympics one year. However, I either had my shoulder pop out or I couldn't get rid of the fear of my shoulder poping out and thus not playing to the peak form I would imagine.
It definitely was a pain, a huge bummer, or just downright unfair in my mind. I spent many countless nights questioning why God would do this to me. Why would he take something I loved so dearly to my heart away in the blink of the eye. I couldn't compete anymore, play bball with my friends, and I never went to some of my good friends games or intramural games because it was just too painful to watch. I couldn't bear the fact that I could only watch and not participate. Was it selfish of me? probably so. My time I spent at UTA, there was 3 things people did there in the asian community that was there. Sports, Clubbing/Partying, and Gambling. Since I did neither of the latter 2 there was only Sports. I could watch sports with people but could never join in that friendly spirit of competition at the gym or in any sport. It was really hard to hang out with people since I couldn't relate. I tried the latter 2 of that list I mentioned but it just wasn't me, and it just wasn't who I was.
I tried making friends in the Christian communitiy but there just wasn't a lot of people I could relate to or hang out with. I missed my old brothers from DCFC cause they are probably the few people that understood me and had the same interests and likes.
But as life went on, I found myself understanding why God may have done this to me. Sometimes at first, you may not fully recognize or understand God's will or why he did it the way he did. In my mind, I like to think that perhaps I wasn't as mature as I could have been. Like it was a wake up call to focus on my future and take a grasp of it. To grab hold of reality and balance out work and fun. I like the saying that goes, "you work hard, you play hard." Perhaps when I went to UT, I didn't have a level of maturity to grasp where I was in life and I got gobbled up by all the clubs, organizations, sporting events, university events and didn't balance out my time wisely.
I ended transfering out of UT for several reasons. 1-to kind of start over in a major where I know it would play to my strengths 2-to focus on school and have less distractions. Of course there were major hurdles I had to get through at that time. The girlfriend at the time wanted to break up with me because she didn't want a long distance relationship. This was one of those tough things for myself because I consider myself somewhat a romanticist and couldn't let go. Probably cause this was my first "official" gf as well that it was hard to let go. Another hurdle was missing all my friends and leaving them. The fact that I wouldn't be able to see some of these people everyday anymore just stunk. Talking to them on the phone and online just wasn't the same. And lastly was just losing face somewhat. To trasnfer from UT to UTA...it's not that appealing in the Asian community. But in the end I was able to overcome it and move on in life.
It is now in my life, I think I understood all the reasons, to a certain degree, of why God may have want to have that incident happen to me. I now finish my undergrad with a degree that i am interested in and have a passion for: architecture. I am back in dallas and hanging out with my close friends. I have the best and most loving Girlfriend that I could ever have! I feel like I am becoming a stronger Christian and also have a great Christian GF as my best friend and accountability partner. I am losing weight and working out on a consistent basis! I am getting my relationship with my parents back to a great one! I'm in the process of going back to grad school and getting my masters! Life couldn't be better! Of course not all of these are in peak condition but I am happy for what I have in life.
Lastly, I had surgery on my shoulder finally, after six years. It wasn't that I put it off, but it was because no doctors or nurses ever advised me medically. And by the Time I went to UTA, I was so busy with school, I didn't have time to have surgery. I couldn't afford the time off and I need both my arms for modeling and computer graphics. It is 7 months post-op and I am still rehabbing like a fiend, but my shoulder is tighter and more sturdy than it ever was. It was my first major surgery and I will admit, I was somewhat scared. I'm not saying it will be back to the condition it was, however It is a lot stronger and more tighter and I am thankful for just that! I don't think the fear of injuring my arm will ever go away, however I can play at a higher level and not have to worry that my arm will fall off every time I jump. I still have a little bit of competition in me, however I am no where to where I use to be. I see basketball as a social thing, exercise and a fun activity these days. Don't get me wrong, I'm still competitive and want to win, but I think I'm past that point when I use to be very prideful, and perhaps may even lose my temper.
I played basketball yesterday for the first REAL time in six years. I'm not counting those times I tried to come back, because I really didn't play for real if you can imagine what I am trying to say. It felt awkward, but I had flashes of my old self. If I had to describe myself, I use to be reckless and drive to the hoop like J.J Barea, but I'm pretty careful with my shot selection now a days. I had the opportunity to play with some of my close church brothers and it was really fun!! My conditioning was not quite there but I managed to play 4 games and win 3!
I feel like this was a long and arduous journey for myself. I am not saying the solution is complete and my problems are over, but I am making progress in the right direction. It felt like a battle that I would never be able to recover from, but I feel like I am making great progress. Thank the Lord, for he is Great and Good! I hope that he will continue to watch over me and lead me in the right direction with this one aspect of my life. It goes to show, that sometimes, God's plan may just take a while, but he has the best intentions for you. You just may not see it at first, but it will be there someday. For me and this issue, it took approximately 6-7 years. So don't lose hope!! God is awesome!!!
-Jimmy 2/25/2009
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| Day 5,6 - So after a crazy ride in Spain, we headed our ways towards France! it was a long drive, probably one of the longest we had to go maybe 8 hours or so. Anyhow we head over and stop in Paris first, it was kinda sprinkling on the day we got there but still none the less beautiful!! Ironic thing was when we got there we parked next to a sushi bar! man, it was like someone was taunting me! oh well, anyhow we walked around and saw a sign for a building built by Le Corbusier, it wasn't on our to do list but we went to go check it out and it was really neat. We visited the La Roche building. Anyhow after sketching and taking photos of it we visited our main destinations. We started of going to the Eiffel Tower, took some funny photos and then headed over to our other spots. We saw the triumphal arch, Pompideau Center, Notre Dame, the Lourve, and the pyramid next to it by IM PEI! it was awesome. The only unfortunate thing was that it was raining a little bit but nothing unbearable. During our stay in Paris we also went to two nice little cafes during our meal times and had traditional French food like Bagettes (I think thats how you spell it) and pastries! and yummm it was REALLY good! haha anyhow after being in Paris for a day we called it a night and drove towards or next destination.
We visited the Villa Savoye First in Poissy which is this famous piece of architecture by Le Corbusier! it was gorgeous and we saw the basic principles of architecture at its best!
After spending a while there we headed towards Joigny where it was one of the middle stages of the Tour de France. My two friends Keith and Scott decided to climb a tree to get a really good view and take videos and pictures. I was on the sideline taking pictures and watching. It was crazy awesome and when the riders came they went fast! it ended in like 4 minutes, they zoomed by cause we were over by the finish line! it was really cool! team discovery won but a Spanish Rider was the winner breaking the American Streak for those who liked to know.
After seeing a stage of the Tour de France we started driving towards Munich in Germany. However as we were leaving we stopped at two random places along the way that weren't on our to do list but were MAJOR pieces of architecture. One being the gardens of Versaille which is this HUGE French Garden and an amazing and huge piece of landscape and architecture. And the other being the Ronchamp Chapel aka Notre Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier which was really awesome as well! It is known for its amazing light construction.
After spending time there were hurried over to Germany! (to be continued!!...)
Us Standing in front of the Eiffel!
Pyramid next to the Lourve
Pompideau Center
Triumphal Arch
Notre Dame, Beautiful!
French Bakery! oh yea baby!
In a museum in Paris and this was a monet painting! wow...my mom loves impressionalism
Scenic Street shot
Famous Building ( can't remember name! )
Us sitting down at a cafe and eating pastries and baggettes! delicious!
Street side shot in Paris
Another Street side shot!
Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier! beautiful!
Angle Shot!
Me posing inside the Villa Savoye!
Entry Ramp going upstairs the Villa Savoye!
Tree shot of the riders zooming by at the Tour de France!
People piling up to go see the award ceremony for this stage of the Tour
Us posing somewhat close to the stage!
Versaille Gardens, the size of this place is enormous!
One of the fountains at Versaille
Inside the Ronchamp Chapel By Le Corbusier! wow!?!!!!!
Ronchamp Chapel by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp, France! Sexy eh?
ps- I MISS HOME A LOT, I MISS MY PARENTS, CAR, COMPUTER, FRIENDS, and most of all MY GIRLFRIEND! sorry, that was kinda feminine but its true!
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| Day 4,5 - So we get to the Stockholm Airport in the wee hours of the morning and we fly five hours-ish to Barcelona. We rented our car and we were off towards downtown. The city was beautiful and we started our little excursion in the Northern part where it was uphill at Park Guell. We walked hardcore and it was beautiful! It was hot too, it's been pretty cold in Finland so this was a change. I got to see beautiful pieces of art/architecture that Gaudi had done and i have to admit, I've become more of a fan of his work now. We then got out or map of the city and mapped out things we wanted to see. We hit up Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Olympic Stadium, Olympic Tower, Barcelona Pavillion, Museum Park, and walked all over the town. Other ideaology is that if you drive through a city or on a bus you don't really experience the city as it is so, we always find somewhere to park and freaking speed walk through the city. My friends are both like six feet tall so every stride they take is like a little bigger than mine so i have to do like double or triple the work and its freaking exhausting. By the end of the trip i was like aughhhhh! haha but in all seriousness it wasn't that big of a deal and i toughed it out. We got to see other pieces of archtiecture i dont know the name for, walked to the port and saw several markets! anyhow overall it was fun and we got to see all the pieces of architecture we were aiming for! At night after the fountain show, we packed our stuff up, got back to the car and drove off towards our next stop.
So we drove through the night and didn't sleep and arrived at Pamplona, Spain which is infamous for the event of Running with the Bulls. My friends Scott and Keith were planning on running so i was the video/picture man and got set up in a nice spot and had to camp out cause it got packed. It was so crazy and intense and i've never experienced anything like it before but overall no one got hurt. Like keith told me how when you run you're looking back to see if the bulls are coming and you can't see anything cause its so packed and then all of a sudden every bursts to the sides as they come charging through the middle. My vision or analogy of how they explained it was like how Moses split the water, lol kinda like that, but just 100 times faster haha. Anyhow at the end of the run all the bulls run into the arena and all the runners follow after them and they gather them up in the cage area. Then they let one bull out at a time and all the people play around with them and taunt them. You go up to it and jump on its horns or slap it or just taunt it, some cultural thing but none the less fun to watch. At night time they have the official bull fight and thats when the bullfighter kills the bull and its the sacrifice for the day. But we didn't stay for that and left after the Bull Run/Arena.
After that we drove off to San Sebastion for a few hours, got on the beach which was the nicest beach i ever been on. The beach had nothing in the sand, no rocks, no trash or litter, it was the smoothest and nicest thing i ever walked on. After we jumped in the waves for like half an hour we took a shower in the public showers and it was really embaressing. It was my first experience. The beach was dying down so there weren't really people laying out, most people were hanging out, so there were people like kinda watching us but we really needed a shower because for those that dont know we weren't staying in hotels but rather we're taking turns driving and living in the car. Anyhow that was one of my two showers over ten days haha! anyhow after the shower we went to the car and headed out for Bilbao, Spain.
At Bilbao we were there primarily to see one piece of architecture, the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and the artwork inside is freaking awesome. More famous artists and more space to display. The DMA and Kimbell doesn't even compare if one were to compare the galleries. We saw a famous suspension bridge and i can't remember the name of the archtiect but i'll find out soon. After taking a bunch of photos and walking through the museum, we caught a little bit of subway sandwiches and headed out towards our next country! (To be continued...)
Embarking on our journey with our Rented Renault, she was a beaut!
The lizard at Park Guell, by Gaudi (Barcelona, Spain)
A shot from the top of the stairs of Park Guell (Barcelona)
Another scenic shot from the top of Park Guell (Barcelona)
1 of the market places on Park Guell
Hypostyle Hall in Park Guell
Shot of Casa Batllo by Gaudi (Barcleona)
Another shot of casa Batllo (Barcelona) Check out the mosaics, freaking beautiful
Casa Mila by Gaudi (Barcelona)
Olympic Stadium (Barcelona) Games were in '92
Olympic Tower (Barcelona)
Me at the Barcelona Pavillion - Famous piece of architecture by Mies van der Rohe
Another shot of Barcelona Pavillion
Interior Shot of Barcelona Pavillion
Another Exterior Shot of the pavillion
Interior of Sagrada Familia by Gaudi - My favorite Gaudi work (Barcelona)
Outside Facade of Sagrada (Barcelona) Building is still under construction
Detail Shot of Interior
Some of the Stained Glass of the Sagrada (Barcelona)
A shot from uptop of the Museum Plaza
Sky lift that takes you around Barcelona
A beautiful arch near the zoo (Barcelona)
A plaza in Barcelona
Fountain Show in Barcelona
Interior of Guggenheim by Frank Gehry in Bilbao, Spain
Suspension Bridge in Bilbao, Spain
Street level of the Running of the bulls in Pamplon, Spain
Scott and Keith planning out their tactic of escape
1 stage of audience for the running of the bulls
Arena Where all the runners and bulls feed into to comment taunting with the bulls
Random person getting hurt and goured by a bull
Me next to the ring
Beaches of San Sebastion
Another shot of the beaches of San Sebastion
Beautiful Sand!!
 
Artwork in the plaza next to the beach we walked through and took a glance at
Me and Scott taking a public shower! quite embaressing!
(To be continued...)
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| wooooohooo!! i'm back! haha, i just went on an INCREDIBLE 13 day free travel! for those that don't know we had a two week free traveling period between our summer 1 and 2 sessions, so me and two of my friends Keith and Scott rented a car and mapped out a road trip over Europe! it was insane. to save money we had one person drive through the night usually and the other two people sleep. we didn't stay at any hotels or hostels, we pretty much lived out of our car so you can imagine how it smelled towards the end of the trip! haha anyhow, we started out as our class and three professors sight seeing in a bus in Finland towards the harbor, then we got on a cruise ferry sailed across towards Stockholm, Sweden and spent the night in a hostel. In the day time we went sight seeing and saw some important Swedish Architecture. Then at night, that was the end of our class field trip, we spent the night at the hostel, parted ways in the morning from the other students and professors and started our free travel period. In a nutshell we started out in Spain visiting the cities of Barcelona, Pamplona, San Sebastion, and Bilbao, then we drove towards France and visited the cities of Paris, Versailles, Journy, Poissy and Ronchamp, then we drove through Germany and stopped in Munich for a little bit, then we drove nonstop through Swiss territory and the Alps to get to the beautiful Mediterranian city of Croatia. Keith had some extended family there so we got to spend some nice time there. Then after a good nights rest in a nice bed instead of the car we traveled towards Italy and went to Venice, Rome and Pisa, and then finally back to Barcelona for a day and flew out in the wee hours of the morning.
anyhow i'm going to start out updating a few days at a time cause i took a BUTT LOAD of pictures!
Day 1, 2, and 3 - This is when our free travel vacation Period started. This part of the free travel we were still required to travel as a group with a teacher and just some visiting teachers as well, but they were really cool and they took us on a mini tour of Finland to see major pieces of Finnish architecture and Swedish Architecture. We traveled through Finland and saw some beautiful churches, cemeteries and a major piece of architecture by Alvar Aalto. We then proceeded to sleep in the Finnish city of Turku for the night in a hostel they rented for us and so we had a night to just walk around and check out the city. I pretty much walked around the town with Vince and Matt, took some photos, went home and hit the hay at 9pm! we were so tired after the Finnish Tour the teacher gave us. After that we went to the harbor in the morning and got on a 9 hour cruise ferry towards Stockholm in Sweden. It was absolutely gorgeous! we played games on the boat and there was so much to do, there were casino slot machines everywhere, bars and dance floors everywhere, gaming stations, restaurants etc etc! it was a blast. We got there late in the afternoon and we had time to hang out that night in Stockholm, so me Keith, Scott and Aaron walked around the town, while the other guys went out to drink and hang out at the bar! After that we split ways went me and Aaron found the Absolut Vodka Ice Bar, for those that dont know it is a bar made of nothing but ice! you had to wear these like artic circle ponchos to keep warm! it was freaking awesome! we went in and didn't have to pay so that was cool too! i dont know why we just never were forced to pay for entry so oh well we got lucky. After the ice bar and taking a few photos we went home and passed out and prepared for our adventurous road trip! (to be continued... )
A famous Finnish building (Tuberculosis Sanatorium) by Alvar Aalto
Famous Finnish Church (forgot name-will get later)
3 of my buds Billy, Matt and Vince passed out on top of the Cruise Ferry we took to Sweden
A shot of our Cruise Ferry
Me enjoying the front of the boat
A Shot of the Scenery we were enjoying
World Trade Center in downtown Stockholm, Sweden
Main Plaza of Downtown
Exterior of the ice bar we were going into!!
Posing in front of the bar in the absolut vodka icebar
A shot from the side
Me and my friend Aaron enjoying our time - brrr it was cold! i would have froze without my poncho!!
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