dedicated to my bao bei...long overdue.

8-2-07 was our 6 months together! and it's also the last time we would be able to celebrate our monthly anniversaries in a long time...=/...we will have to wait until january.

but remembering how we celebrated it is quite amusing. my bao bei came back from tennis camp on that very day august 2nd. but she came back too late and we weren't able to go out because her dad said no. i was sad because i had planned to take her to one of two places: brea mall's cheesecake factory where we held hands for the first time or to irvine spectrum where we spent our first valentines day together. but my bao bei promised to make it up to me the next day and that she would do the surprise planning so we both looked forward to it.

=) ahahaha and she definitely surprised me. we ended up going to where i wanted to go, brea mall's cheesecake factory. we had our fun and ate sooo much...and ended up ordering a cheesecake which we hardly ate at all and eventually melted in my car...lol. then afterwards, she surprised me the most by giving me directions to SPEEDZONE!!! ahahaha i've always wanted to go race there and my bao bei remembered! that place was pretty cool. i was freakin good at drifting that she couldn't keep up...=) jk she was probably letting me..... that was soo fun ahaha. we went on drag races and various racetracks woot! and in the parking lot afterwardssss....i gave her a 6 months anniversary ring =). hehehe she loves it! and yea, it was a special day for us. i love her so much <3

fast forward 3 weeks...and now i'm up here in berkeley. 400 miles away from her. it takes awhile to get used to the fact that i won't be able to see her everyday or even every week. no more days when i could walk up in back of her in those memorable whs halls and hug her from behind. no more walking past her classrooms when i'm ditching class...no more afterschool lunches together...there's so many things that won't happen again like they did in my senior year =/.

but...life goes on...time waits for no one...so i'll just have to adapt to my changes now. as of writing this sentence...i have 85 days 12 hours 2 minutes and 28 seconds before i can fly back home for thanksgiving and see my bao bei again. but i'll be constantly counting...and waiting...to hold her in my arms again.

=) my bao bei and i at cheesecake factory

 
she is trying to be artistic here with our cheesecake lol

lol...i'm about to eat it

 
yayyyy speedzoneeeeee!!!!

 
<3 i love her

 
lolllll....

 
=) my 6 months anniversary ring for her

~jonathan

JAWS

This entry is dedicated to the team that i have given my life to, Just Add Water (JAWS). the team was started 5 years ago by andrea tseng in her sophomore year, and later with eugene kim as co-captain. then the captainship was passed down to alan leung and kingston. afterwards, me, justin, and joe took up the helm. looking back, i remember those early sundays when andrea would call my house phone to wake me up for practice...oh man lol wat a long way things have come. it would be a lie to say that the years have been easy for the team, especially during the years under alan and me. nevertheless, we've been able to pull through.

these years i've been in jaws have all been for this tournament the past weekend: the 2007 viewsonic long beach dragonboat festival. having missed both last year's viewsonic race and this year's annual long beach high school race in april...i felt as if i haven't been able to live up to my own dedication to my team. last year's result for the viewsonic race were not the best and i felt partially responsible for that. i wanted this year, my last year, to be the best and for everyone to see just how damn good jaws is.

i got what i wished for:

1st place GOLD for Mixed Division IIIB A-group with a final heat time of 2:29:15

4th place BRONZE for High School Division A with a final heat KILL TIME of 2:24:73....LOL 10 seconds faster than...

i've had plenty of memories with this team. despite all the tardies, cancellations, and groggy-eyed mornings, i would never trade these memories for anything. even though our team members were often reluctant to wake up sunday mornings, they still ended up rowing and i thank each and every one of them for that. we've had quite a few firsts on the team. first time that anyone has fallen out of the boat in jaws history...and the first time we've had to swim to the boat to keep it from drifting farther away...

this team, which i gave my every ounce of dedication, rewarded me with the best that any captain could ever wish for. thank you jaws, i love you guys.

a shoutout to each one of you.

adrian- a good pacer. keep it up for the team.

andrea- drew, thank you for sticking with the team. ahaha, i enjoy seeing you groggy in the mornings...makes me feel better about myself lol

caroline- despite all ur busy hockey schedules, you stayed with JAWS. ahaha, us 07 seniors rock! thanks.

whitney- lol, i wonder how long i'll still get to see u on ur fobby scooter? good luck with vball but make sure to have time for jaws too.

jessica- thanks sis, make sure to keep me updated on the team

jennifer- keep up the su family dboat line
 
ryan- gotta make sure to replicate our amazing v-8 engine this year. i'm expecting the team to fly out of the water next year ahaha

mel- thank you for all ur work all these years.

joemari- ur 4 crazy cheers for the team, i think they'll continue to be used for many years ahahhaa.

frank c- thank you stowers buddy. holy crap may be disbanded as a team, but there's always room for you on JAWS

justin- thank you co-captain for all those trips we had to make for fundraising and wat not.

yi- u really need an alarm clock. but thanks for showing up and not boning out.

frank- i'm glad u or yi didn't leave on saturday or else things might not have turned out the way they did. good luck in ucla

josh- you and those in ur grade are the new blood. remember to recruit them. i will look forward to watching you at the head in a few years.

andrew- roo, ahaha u just make things funny even though u don't say much. stick with the team, and i'll be seeing u around.

ellen- awkward turtle...i definitely won't miss u driving around in justin's car in the parking lot, but i'll still miss ya ahaha. see u around

samee- man...i had to see that fat guy at ur community's gate everytime i dropped u off...that was lame...oh well ahaha. i thank you for ur dedication.

zach- good luck in junior olympics but make sure to leave some time for the team.

allan- keep ur head high even when others might pick on you. plus, they're just messing around. thank you for ur time and i'll do my best to see if they have another extra gold medal for the one u had to give up.

with the banquet this past friday, i finally passed down my captainship that i have carried for a year. i have to admit, sometimes it felt quite heavy because of all the problems and things i had to deal with. but now looking back, it was all worth it. i'm proud to have been the captain of jaws 06-07.

mel, ryan, and adrian: you 3 now carry the torch of the team. this torch has been burning for 5 years and hopefully it will continue to burn for many years to come. i know you 3 will accomplish even better things than my year and i wish you guys the best of luck. you have two years to rock the waters. ur now JAWS captains, be proud.

JAWS Dragonboat team
2004 Viewsonic LB Tournament HS Division A 4th Place
2005 High School/College Tournament 2nd Place
2006 Viewsonic LB Tournament HS Division B 1st Place
2007 High School/College Tournament 1st Place 500m & 250m
2007 Viewsonic LB Tournament HS Division A 4th Place

2006 500m time: 2:30:63
2007 500m time: 2:24:73

Pictures!

lol, ryan mel and justin doing their thing as our weekly practices...-_-

 
warming up

 
we used to never stretch lol

 
team circle

 
first heat with cynthia as caller

 
ready position

lol...ryan's drawings...

 
resting

 
team cheer!

out on the water again

 
COACH WILA! that definitely boosted team morale and spirit ahahaha

 
v8 engine room!

 
wet start!

 
JAWS getting ready for the upcoming heat and listening to the last minute pep talks

 
JAWS right after we rocked our final high school division heat with a 4th place bronze!

 
young ones resting up for the heats

 
me and my sisters (these pictures are all from my camera lol, nokia n95!!!!)

jaws with our ancient banner from when the team first started

ahaha...the guys playing risk again...so an et tu game

me and joe getting our 4th place high school trophy and medals woot!

 
the captains with our team's amazing results!

 
hell yea

 
picture of the team members who were able to stay until after the closing ceremony

jaws team banquet at red robins on august 3rd

 
look at those big bug eyes...

 
06-07 team captains

 
06-07 captains with the newly announced 07-09 captains!

past and present....4 generations of captains =)

 
thank you jaws 06-07. i love each and every one of you guys <3

loving lee hom's new 主打歌 改變自己!!! Gah i have to wait until my aunt comes in August for the special reserved edition copy of the album...but meanwhile...enjoy this new mv song from him. damn...he's talented. loving the new change woot