First Climbing Trip

It's a late posting, I know. I went to my first outdoor climbing trip on March 18th in Tennessee. It was my first time in Tennessee as well although I used to live near by W. Tennessee St. for 4 years in Tallahassee, FL.








It was a lot of fun to walk around narrow trail or create our own trail. We got lost for a while and passed all the bouldering areas. Good thing that we met some climbers before too late. I didn't get to climb very much at all and no regrets on that because I wasn't feeling comfortable climbing those rocks anyway. It definitely felt different from climbing in a gym for sure.


Look at my battle scar. I haven't had any cuts for a long time except paper cut once in a while. Therefore, it felt pretty bad although it looks like a little scratch. I guess I better get used to have scrapes on arms and legs if I'm going to climb outside.
Those rocks are really rough and hard. Who knew that? LOL.

When you think about the idea of climbing, it's pretty funny. I didn't pay attention whatever rocks I saw when I used to hike. Now, I'm surrounded with people who would say "Wow! That crack looks awesome to climb. Yeah! That angle must be tricky to do sit-start."
And, it's also amazing how people explore new areas and climb on different route and rate difficulties and stuff.


Although it was a bit chilly, it was gorgeous day.
I realized that I had potential to be an outdoor person from this trip.

Outdoor girl?

At the end, I wasn’t a very girly girl. Especially these days, I have been going outside more often for hiking, walking trails, climbing, and mountain biking. I went to my first rock climbing trip 10 days ago at Pot Point bouldering area in Tennessee. I also went to climb on last Sat for a very short time in Boat Rock, GA. For that short period of time, I managed to get a cut on my finger and some scrapes on my arms and legs. Yeah! The rocks are really rough.

I tried mountain biking for the first time last Sunday. I’ve enjoyed riding a bike and I considered myself as a good bike rider. However, riding a bike on a narrow mountain trail with a lot of rocks and tree roots was a totally different story. And what kind of person would bring a first time mountain biker to a trail like that? I guess it looked flat to him. I was glad I tried something new but I didn’t have very good experience. It would have been different if I tried in Florida trail.

Anyway, I’m glad I have chances to try new things. I noticed I like sports that I can be in control, though – I couldn’t control that well on mountain biking, so I don’t think I will enjoy. Ah well. What’s new? LOL.

Great Sleeper

If you hang out with me long enough, you might notice that I’m a great sleeper. Yes, I’m always sleepy and need to sleep about 8 hours everyday to function. I’m not a morning person and I don’t talk much – can you believe this? - before noon. I was the only one who would fall a sleep during the class in the middle school. Besides, I have short attention span. Therefore, if I work on a same document for more than 30 min, I get so sleepy. Even when I was working on my doctorate, I was not able to work on the same section of the dissertation for so long. I would watch a movie/TV or sleep after working on my dissertation for a couple of hours.

Now, it’s a different story. Thanks to my manager, I was able to go to work late and stay late, which doesn’t bother me. However, sitting in front of the desk for 8 hours a day is the hard thing to be adjusted. But do I have any option? No. I have to do what I have to do. As a result, I started drinking caffeinated drinks more than ever before. I can’t believe I started drinking Coke!

Mom

Mom's birthday is coming and I found a card exactly says what I want to say to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mother,
When it comes to knowing

how to give and how to love,
You’ve always been a true inspiration.
Your love and faith have been
At the heart of our family
Your unselfish acts have been a reflection
Of your kindness and caring.
The strength you give has been the bond that keeps us close

The little things you do
With all the love in your heart
Have made such a difference.

No matter what,
Your love is always there,
And on your birthday and always
May you know how much I love you.

From the workshop at D.C. 

Ultimate Eyecandy

Let’s be honest. Isn’t he gorgeous? I haven’t had a thing for blonde guy with blue eyes – maybe a little now because of Paul Walker. I know he’s trying to be a serious actor and did not want to take his shirt of as much as he used to. But even in this Disney movie, Eight Below, he had to take off his shirt for many girls, women, and some guys – Come on, he’s in North Pole in that movie but somehow they made him to show his bare chest. And I didn’t care about the plot of “Into the Blue” because I was busy looking at him (my guy friend was busy looking at Jessica Alba at the same time).

Paul Walker is 6’3’’ and has great physique if you haven’t noticed. Personally I cannot hang out with a dumb guy although he might have a Calvin Klein underwear model body. But, I think I can hang out with Paul Walker. LOL. I proudly admit that Paul Walker is my ultimate eye candy for these days.

Grateful

All throughout today, it felt like God wanted to talk to me about the issue I’ve been struggling with. After the consulting skills workshop, I wasn’t very happy for a couple of days due to my career path. It seemed so long and far away to be where I wanted to be and thought I started two ladders lower than where I wanted to be.

This morning, I got up with this radio show and they were talking about people’s jobs and how much they make. I realized that there are so many people out there who were seriously underpaid. Besides, on my way on the gym this evening, I was listening to NPR for the first time after a couple of weeks. From NPR, the news caster was talking about Chinese farmers who did not have health insurance. Right after that, she was talking about people who have jobs with very inflexible hours and how difficult it is to manage their lives, especially when they have little kids. Some people were fired since they were not able to come to work for a couple of days due to their children’s sickness.

All day long, I thought about how blessed I am to have this job. When I received the job offer last August, I was very excited and did not care much about the details of the offer. But before too long, I started comparing this and that with someone else’s. When I received this job offer, I knew that it would be my perfect first job since God guided me in this path. I felt so shamed that I have complained with small things for the last couple of days and forgot about the feelings I had last year.

It’s easy to take what you have for granted. I should be more grateful about what I have. I have so many good things that I cannot even start the list. I won’t be able to finish the list until tomorrow morning. On the other hand, what I want to have is handful and it might not be what I ‘need’ anyway.

I feel grateful again since God once again took some time with me and made me realize how much He loves me. Oh, God. When can I become more mature? Thank you for loving me in spite of my childish behavior time to time.

Jefferson Team - I realized that I tend to be in the middle of the picture for the most times. Ah well. What can I do? I'm the dominant one. ;) 

My team for the first 2 days - Joanne, Me, Darlina, and Tammy 

Team member Eric, and me at the Jefferson conference room where we spent too much time during the workshop 

Travel Buddies: ice tea, pink scarp, and my camera 

Clear sky, outside of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 

Use me 

Hiroshi Sugimoto Exhibition, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 

3rd Day at Workshop: Learned about myself

In this workshop, I have learned a lot about consulting skills. But most importantly, I had chances to learn about myself. Yeah. I confirmed my character - I’m dominant yet sociable. I already mentioned that this workshop reminds me of “Apprentice” in many ways. This morning, we had a surprise. We had worked on a project with team members for the last 2 days and were ready for our client presentation. However, the instructor called one person from each group (there are four groups in this classroom) and switched that person to another group. I was one of four people who were called. So, we had to prepare for last minute group dynamic changes in one hour before the client presentation, which we had worked for 8 hours.

Guess why I was selected? The people who were asked to switch their team were the dominant characters/leaders of the group. Since all of my other team members were quiet and did not want to step up to set the direction, I suggested outlines and where we should go. I guess it was obvious to instructors that I was leading the team.

Instructors were interested in seeing how students would react to the new situation: how students would react to losing their leader and how to adopt a new member. I was able to put my value to the team work right away and the new members were very nice to me. We finished our presentation successfully and the client positively commented on my performance. :D

This workshop was very valuable since it gave me confidence to lead and manage a team and validated that my leadership style works. Quite a few people were surprised to know that I have Ph.D and I’m an entry level consultant. I believe I can prove myself eventually and move up.

Another valuable lesson learned was it takes time to learn processes, skills, and culture. I will work hard on whatever project I will be on although it would be tedious and bored to death. That’s something you have to do along the way. You cannot be a manager right away. You have to build experiences from the lower ends if it’s your first job.

The workshop was also inspiring in many ways. I saw many talented people and wanted to keep up with my skills and knowledge. When I interacted with successful senior managers, I wanted to be like them down the road.

I feel so blessed to have this job, learning opportunities, and work with talented people. I will keep working on my weaknesses and increasing strengths. Sometimes I’m wondering what I’m going to be in 5 years. I didn’t know that I would do what I’m doing now when I came to the States in Fall 2001. It’ll be interesting to find out!

2nd Day at Consulting Skills Workshop

This 5 day workshop is more than I expected in terms of quality of instruction, intensity of work, and the quality of people. Instead of sitting in a class for 8 hours, we are actually doing a project for 5 days.
There are 12 work groups made of 6 people in each group. Each group has a client you have to deal with. I feel like I'm in the "Apprentice." I work with 5 other entry level consultants for this project and I'm the only Dominant one (I got the maximum score from the behavior style analysis).

I have learned many things while I'm engaging in this workshop/project. I also learned about my strengths and areas of improvement. At the end of the day, all I want is crawling into this giant comfy white bed. But I cannot live without having fun either. I gotta go out and meet my friends. ;)

Full Social Week

I just had a fullest social week ever since I moved to Atlanta.
I felt very grateful that I made some good friends.

Last Tuesday, I went out with co-workers and had a chance to get to know them. We went to this tapas and wine restaurant and then a lounge for a cocktail. Since we were drinking quite a bit that night, I had to meet a friend and talk for one hour before I was able to drive. No wonder all of them decided to work from home the next day.

Wednesday! Big basketball game night between FSU vs. Duke I watched a game with my friend from a rock gym at a little pub in downtown and was So glad we won!!

I had so much fun on Thursday at a night club. My friend organized a small gathering at this club where they had a free salsa lesson and a belly dance show. We were supposed to leave before midnight and that didn’t happen. Time flew when we had fun. I was happy that I was able to work from home on Fridays.

I went shopping with my friend on Friday and had some pizza and beer over girl talk.

On Saturday, I attended a leadership and communication workshop hosted by NAAAP and met many cool people and alredy organized a next novice climbing event for two other girls. (I think I should work for this rock gym since I brought so many new customer.)

Alright, it wasn't easy to attend social events 5 days in a row but I felt so grateful that I started expanding my social network. :)

I'll be in D.C. for the next week for a training and as soon as I get of the plane on Friday, I will attend a bowling social night.