With the tsunami that affected South East Asia, it’s crazy to hear of the insane numbers of people dead. Hundreds of thousands. Try to comprehend that a minute. Try counting from 1 to 1,000 out loud and fathom how long it took you, and how long it would take you to do that 300 times again. That’s a lot of people dead.

What really shook me is what email I got the same day I got back from Mike Regina’s funeral and received this email regarding a friend from college:

From: “Dean Thomas F. Cooley”
Subject: Memorial for Stern Alumna, Hannah Shi
Dear Alumnus/a:

The recent devastation caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunamis in South Asia and East Africa and the people it has affected have been in the hearts and minds of all of us here at Stern. Sadly, this tragedy has touched the Stern community with the loss of Hannah Shi, an alumna of the Stern Undergraduate class of 2001. Hannah, an investment banker with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, was vacationing in Thailand at the time. A memorial service for Hannah will be held this Friday, January 14 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan (Park Avenue at 51st Street).

We are still working to confirm the safety of our many international alumni and students and ask that you share any news regarding fellow Stern alumni with the School’s Office of Alumni Affairs via email at alumni@stern.nyu.edu or by phone at 212-998-4040.

This unprecedented tragedy reminds us all of the interconnectedness of the Stern community with the global community. We are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend and alumna Hannah Shi and offer our sincere condolences to all of you whose lives she touched.

Sincerely,
Thomas F. Cooley, Dean
Sally Blount-Lyon, Vice Dean and Dean, Undergraduate College

Then the news flooded in, and then I saw the cover of the NY Post in the pic above. Absolute shock.

News links of what happened (or press more at the end of this post to view my archive of it):
News from her Church | Newsday Article | Gothamist

I always remembered her as one the friendliest people at NYU. We had a quite of few classes together including a public speaking class that had a lot of improv, where I got to see a lot of her playful humor. Her classic greeting was a long “hiiiieeee~” or “byyyeeee~.” There’s pictures of her in the gallery in the NYU graduation section here:

Be sure to check the pic called “Peeping Hannah”. Here’s just an example of how playful her personality is. You can see that she’s sitting behind us, peering between Mike and I with a laughing smile (that’s Nancy next to her). (click the pic for full size)

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Yesterday I said goodbye to Chai, and delievered him to his new home at Andrew Doe’s apartment. I’ll miss Chai a bit but I know he’ll be well taken care of. I think Dot is happy that she’s the only hamster again though. She was probably saying, “Good riddance!” to Chai on his way out.

Quote Dot: “Good riddance!”

Caroline and I had an interesting experience in Harlem, where we were dropping Chai off to his new home. While we were parking, this black Lexus pulls up next to us and rolls down their window. Thinking that they were going to ask for directions, I roll down my window too.

Them: Hey man, do you want some weed?
Eddie: No thanks.
Them: Yo, we got the E too! We got guns, we got everything!!
Eddie: No thanks, I’m good man.
Them: Aww man, come on….

They then drive off. Now, having gone to NYU and all I’ve been offered weed and ecstasy while walking around the park, so that’s not so shocking. But GUNS?!?! That’s a whole new level!!! And these guys were definitely not undercover cops or anything. I waited in the car while Caroline dropped Chai off, during which these guys came back to bother me again. Yeah I know I’m like the only asian in the neighborhood, but comon man, I don’t need guns!

Michael A. Regina is a co-worker of mine who passed away shortly after the new year. Even on New Years he sent me a text message to my cell phone wishing me a happy new year, and hopes that my future proposal to my girlfriend would go well. For the last year, he’s been telling me the “proper” American formalities with proposals for marriage, since I’m the first born Korean-American in my family. Basically, I wanted to do everything right, and in this way, he was not only a friend and a co-worker, but was much like an older brother, or even like a 2nd father in some sense. We even talked about going on fishing trips on his boat sometime in the coming summer. He will be greatly missed. This one’s for you Mike. I’ll never forget you bro!