hk #12

ahh thank God for brothers and sisters in Christ! =) today i woke up preeetty early to get to church since jenny and i were going to go to ubc together (referred to by joses) so we decided to meet at 845am but instead we were both late haha but it's okay! jenny was smart and set an early time knowing we'd both be late XD

anyways we had quite an exercise-ful morning trying to find ubc. we asked so many security guards where the church was but they led us to anotehr english speaking one which was not ubc so we walked around the wrong part of campus for quite awhile and we got quite sweaty haha in the end someone drew us a map to where ubc really is but we were so late after getting lost so we went to kibc's english service instead. after that finished we decided to finish our mission in finding ubc and we MADE IT after asking another security guard XD we felt like detectives collecting clues...

we were early at ubc for their canto-mando service so we sat around. the lady who welcomed us was so nice and talked to us a bit =) and we sat in the second row so we could read the powerpoint lyrics cause i have bad eyes >_< but it was gooood cause God prepared a meeting between us and the pastor who was so friendly to us too! and he had english and was very helpful linguistically and just being welcomingggg. i think that was one of the most heartwarming things about this church.. that so many people came to shake our hands and say hi after the service when we had to announce our names to the whole church =P

anyway what i reaaally liked about the service/church as well was how the pastor's message was really oriented towards like... hong kong people. like he was talking about how hkers tend to think about themselves and just care about getting rich and stuff and i thought that was really important to kinda.. acknowledge that especially in hk where that is so apparent. and he had a story about a fox (i think it was a fox) who was passing by a grape? yard and he saw them and they looked super good so he wanted some. but to pass into the grapeyard you had to be able to fit through a fence which had very narrow gaps. so what he did was he starved himself for awhile til he was skinny enough and he entered and ate to his heart's content. when he was finally done with the eating he tried to leave and found that he couldn't cause he was too fat! so in order to get out he had to starve himself again until he got skinny enough to leave. the pastor then related it to US! we're like the fox and the grapeyard is like the world. we go into this world with nothing and we take in all the "good" things this world has to offer but in the end, we will leave this world as we came in, with nothing. i thought this was completely.. wowing. the story really gave a really good illustration. the things of this world.. are... well, worldy! they don't last but God is eternal =) gotta set that straight in my life! he had a lot of stories but it was all good. i really liked his sermon!

then after we discovered that joses was at church! we all walked back to the subway and sent jenny home and joses and i grabbed lunch and i myself headed home to take a nap. i wanted to help my cousin move! but i couldn't contact my other cousin in time so i just went homeee. i finally got to offer my seat to a old person today. i esp like to offer it to old people cause thye are so cute! lol i am always scared to offer it to people who seem lk they are getting old but not really old yet becuase they will be offended that i think they are old XD and at night went out to dinner with irene, wendy, janita and ariel! ariel brought us to such a nice place! it was so goood and classy =) and had a fun fun time with them ^^

anyways~ what a blessed day! i had a really good morning with jenny haha we laughed so much at a lot of random stuff like how we couldn't read chinese words and our epic fail of finding ubc haha and took irene on the tram for her first time! thanks joses for going to lunch with me since i dind't have anyone to eat with =P anyways what i'm saaaying is God has blessed me with a lot of brothers and sisters in hk and i've had a really really great time getting to know them better :) leaving in two days for china and i won't be able to go to church there =( so gotta be diligent wiht my devos!

hk #11

oh gee i had such an exciting and accomplishing day today! so crazy that i can hardly type =P i started off the day by going to the central piers and taking a wonderful morning trip on the star ferry to tst and seeing polly before she leaves! hope she is having a safe flight now =) and thanks so much for her coupons and simcard!

then i headed off to meet sam and richard to get to saikung piers to go yachting. there were a lot of new people but i guess i was more focused on the water sports! so exciting ^^ we did banana boating and the two boys one girl combo lasted pretty good since sam and ray did most of the work XD and i learnt to climb back on the banana pretty well! soo exciting! and then there was also wakeboarding =O i was sooo scared but in the end it was totally worth it ^^ i only got up and was like really wakeboarding two times but it was a good run =D but after i was done i could hardly move my hands cause my forearms were soo tense. the speedboat also got checked by the police XD but it was okay!

also met some dude named edwin who just graduated from waterloo for planning. i tried to talk to him more about random stuffs and planning but i dont think he really liked me LOL so sad.. and jasmine who planned the trip also came from loo! but they both study in hk now. and there were some more people but i didn't get to talk to them really =S i guess it's lk intimidated and age difference. although apparently everyone thinks i'm their age >_< but i feel lk at this age everoyne looks about the saaaame =P anyways it was a goood day. good thing God kept us safe =D even though we got some battle scars from the banana boat. thanks sam/ray for the invite! totally worth the experience.

on the way back it rained too so the ocean and the mountains looked SUPER epic. and i love feeling the rain hitting me and the wind and stuff. SO GOOD. isn't God cool =P sometimes i look at storms and it's lk WOW God is so powerful that it's BEAUTIFUL.

hk #10!!!

oh myyyy i am so burnt! yesterday we spent a big long day at the beach with more ccf peeps ^^ it was a super long day but very fun =D we started out at the beach where we played some beach volleyball! i was terribly noob... but i think i did get a biiiit better! but i think it totally fried me and my feet cause my feet could not walk on the sand after that without much pain >_< but we headed to the water so it felt a looot better and we rented a blow-up boat thing so we could paddle out to the platform for noobs lk meee =) and all this time i'm getting owned by the sun T_T BUT it was fun swimming around and making jokes with people and what not. we also played vball with two random guys and sam brought his friend too so met some peoples today ^^

we then went to stanley to eat and the place we went to had super little food.. so we went to mcdonalds after. i should've gotten a sundaeeeee but oh well. and we went off to wanchai piers! ANYWAY dang i'm so tired and sunburnt =( shoulders hurt to move! but going out again today to go yachting! super duper excited ^^

hk #9

today was pretty fun =) I TOOK THE SIU BA and i was so scared cause it was my first time taking that route on my own and it keeps turning and stuff and i have NOOO idea where i am but someone told me where it was and then i told the bus driver =D and even though i'm so proud of myself for being able to take the bus and to announce to everyone i want to get off at ___ stop i'm sure i looked like a huge noob!

anyways walked around with some ccfers including MICHAEL. first time seeing him in hk =) and looked at shoes/watches. found some really cheap watch place O_o i hope it's not fake... yuup then we all went home and i waited so long for the bus. longest time i've ever waited! and went home and my biew gor made some congee and fried noodles stuff. quite yummy! and i went ball with tom near my place! it was pretty awesomes!!! i feel like i haven't done much exercise in awhile so it felt GREAT and the people were pretty nice there although at first it was suuuper scary to even step on the court. and there's soooo many doggies that meet there with their owners. SO CUTE!

i also saw a rat for the first time O_o it was kinda startling at first but i'm not really scared of rats so it was okay.. and i wanted to eat mcdonalds after but i realized i just did exercise and eating mcds might defeat that purpose. haha

i'm getting excited to go to china! sounds like a big adventure though a bit scary =) and sad i'm leaving hk! but i'll see everyone again so it'll be goooood!

hk #8

i'm really picking up the blogging pace! i feel like i'm beginning to count down the days.. i only have 6 more days technically in hong kong until i head off to china so i hope i get to chill with people. it's really different not having parents here because i don't have any plans during the day unless i plan things with friends so when i don't have plans with friends i have nothing to do whereas with parents here i'd just accompany them places haha i doo miss my parents! i hope i don't have any trouble finding them at beijing airport. God please keep me safe on my little adventure!

tonight my heart feels so heavy... i had dinner with wendy, irene, and gladys and we had some VERY good talking time. i really appreciate your sharings and just saying the things that were said out of love =) i really missed you guys while i was in loo! but the things we talked about really made me think about a lot of other things... this really is all very difficult!! there's so many things to consider and like i've been trying hard too and IDUNNOO.. kept thinking about it during the entire bus ride home and even went straight to the harbour to have some quiet thinking time and i just feel frustrated and upset. i know i used "things" quite often and that it's suuuuper vague >_< but i cant lk saaay it. anyway .. i feel so uneasy right now. it's like i don't know where to go from here O_o i don't want to do anything sinful or cause others pain or to sin but like what is the proper way to love them then. it's like either way is a loss or something... i guess it really doesn't help that i can't talk to anyone here in hong kong and in a sense i do feel very lonely in hong kong... i don't have anyone to go to exactly cause people have other plans as well... and because msn is ... not good enough to talk about these things and to tell people how i feel or whatever. i wish i could call someone up and invite them out right but i guess right now in hk i don't have anyone to call >_<

buuuut i guess that's because i'm a noob and forgetting that God is here to talk things through with me too. actually i was at the harbour the other day thinking about/doing devos and i read 2corinthians 1:9 which says that "this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead". i need to praaay more and seek his guidance =( i honestly feel so lost sorta...

ALSO i know i sound really emo but i'm just confused and frustrated and feeling very... not "awn lok" :S yeahhh need more sea-side sitting and thinking! except now i'm scared by that indian dude! and thank you girls for talking to me about it. i need to face this!

hk #7

well today is one of those slower days and i get a lot more time to think about things. but i really like these days and i feel so at home sometimes on these slower days =) it's awesome to have times like yesterday where you have so much fun that you're super tired but at the same time it's great to have these days where i can slow down and take things in easily without the rush of everything going on.

i think i'm going to go near the water again today =) central piers? i actually really just want to go bus to the beach again but that's prob...not the best idea right now. i absolutely love the sea-side feeling!! it's strange =D i hope people don't think i'm emo or something. but i feel lk there's so much stuff in my heart now that i need to ... let it out =) in a good way tho! give things up to God and work on those devos!!

i am really happy today. someone i haven't talked to for a veeery long time because i'm scared he's upset at me because he's bad at replying on msn and playing games (lol) messaged me and said that we should catch up and i'm so happy to hear that from him because i very much missed him and hope he is doing well! and i'm talking more to another friend of mine more who i also didn't talk to for a very long time. i think it's because he was also upset at me O_o wow ... gg i suck lol but yesss thank goodness because through God's love these bad feelings can be overcome! ugh i think back on so many of these friends that i used to have and i'm so upset at myself for how things turned out. it's not that it was always my fault per say but i am disappointed that i could not reconcile these broken relationships and i had to lose such good people... but i know God is still watching over them! so =) hope they are doing well...

well that was kinda.. not what i intended to blog about but i guess it came out haha now you know a bit more about my deepest darkest secrets... dumdumdum

hk #6

todaaay i met up with wendy, irene and joses to go to "sum sui wan" to go to the beach! they are all very fun people to be around so today was AWESOME times haha i wish i was a better swimmer now with better endurance so i can swim to those platforms that float on the water but i was too scared of drowning and being embarassed =( so stayed on the shallow end, took some funny pictures, helped irene look for seashells ^_^ and i don't think i got burnt. HOORAY! then we bussed back to causeway bay but missed our stop >_< lol so we went to fortress hill area and just ate. joses had to go to an apple party O_o lol so the GIRLS went to causeway bay and took sticky pics!! and shopped a bit. went to zara!!! and saw some cute clothes but didnt' fit me =( and then we all went home. seeing them again on wednesday =) i missed chilling with them while i was in waterloo!! thank God for such wonderful people in my life =D

anyways i want to put more time and thought into governing for softball! i want to do a good job for God and serve Him to my fullest ability by putting time and effort to do GOOD WORK! thinking how to prepare devos and to show love to other teams =)

hk #5

just blogging a bit before i head off to church this morning. i got to hang out with gladys, irene, and wendy yesterday =D we walked around a lot haha and poor wendy's shoes were rubbing against the back of her heel T_T but then we just went to a little cafe and ordered some drinks and had jokes talking time ^^ it was very refreshing to hang out with a bunch of girls !! and tommyk has also arrived in hk just yesterday night and he lives near sheung wan so he's pretty close to me so i think we plan to eat mcdonalds at night and stuff =D yayyy finally someone will hang out with me in the evening lol so i'm excited for these new friends who have just come to hk and i look forward to hanging with them in my last bit here before china!

as well yesterday i went for a walk around my neighbourhood to try to go to the harbour area since i live pretty close. after getting a bit confused and jaywalking =S i finally found it! except it was weird becuase i was there on my own lol but it was AWESOME. even though the view was not as nice as from the tst side it's maybe that feeling of being by the sea... it's so refreshing and calming! and the breeze is wonderful =P yah then i went home after awhile... yet again could not capture how great it was...

hk #4

wow i am blogging a LOT recently haha anyways after that trip the harbour recently i discovered just how peaceful it is there! those feelings that i felt when i went 2 years ago are back! it's just sooo nice to like ... look at the night scenery and stuff and it's so like calming and just listening to music there would be sooo calming so i want to go again =D and yesss even by myself even though that's kind of lonely and stuff but i mean it's always good to have quiet time! i just dont' want to stay out too late because if i come back late the stairs up to my place will be infest with cockroaches =( i feel lk tonight would have been a good night to go but i did nooot... anyways wanna make the most of hk this last 1.5 weeks while everyone is still here!

hk#3 !

wow blogging so soon after my previous one! well anyways it'll prob be a quick one but i just showered so i can't go to sleep cause my hair is wet...
but today i had a wonderful day with ccfers at ocean park/dinner/arcade. it was really interesting day and full of many laughs and feeling a little sick after a ride =\ but YAH i'm so glad esther and michelle came to ocean park. i have so many random laughs with them about like... random stuff. two wonderful people !! and the guys were mainly the upper years but it was fun because i don't really know them as well and it gave me an opportunity to talk to them more and get to know them since i didn't get to during the school year =S we met up pretty early (for me) to bus to ocean park and we went to watch the dolphin show. OMG I WANT TO SWIM WITH DOLPHINS.. they are so cute ^^ and we were super close the sea lions <3 mm we went on roller coasters and rides and stuff and we went on this swing then and i got so dizzy and felt a bit sick and then everyone was lk ARE YOU OKAY cuase apparnetly i got super pale? >_< I"M A NOOOB NOW. then we went back to admiralty and met up with sanders to eat dinner and had a nice anime chat at dinner ahah
then some of us went to the arcade and joses beat me in everything T_T how sad. though the racing was CLOSE. and played taiko drum master and they had the OP or CLOSING for CODE GEASS as one of the songs XD it was a major highlight. i was well pleased ^__^ and after went to the harbour and it's BEAOOOOTIFUL. so.. peaceful. i just wanna like sit there for awhile and think about EVERYTHING. also saw lk.. some naked person? O_o it was weird .. i didn't see anything reaaally but it was still lk WAT IS GOING ONN!?!?1 lol kinda wierd but had icecream too ^_^ overall it was a very fun day but now i'm soo tired. i'm kinda sad it's lk already the 21st of may which means i have around 10 more days in my month in hk. i do come back in july but some of that time will hopefully be in singapore!! :D so exciting. but i will definitely miss this place. i feel lk i should've done more but i think i did end up doing quite a lot. i think it doesn't feel lk it because of lack of pictures but it has been an AMAZING trip thus far. and i have GOD to thank for blessing me with parents who let me go and paaaay for everything, friends to hang out with =D, and SAFETYYY being all by myself and all :) thank you thank you thank YOUUU!

hk #2

finally second post. i'm always too lazy or tired to write about everything cause usually a lot goes on but i'm too tired to talk about what i did day by day.

anyways if anyone cares for an update =P i've just been going out with mostly ccf people and on the days that i don't have plans i do a solo shopping day and buy stuff =) slowly checking off my list but no hitops still! =(

so far i've gone to church twice (i.e. on sundays) here in hong kong and both times i've been to the vine. i guess it's easy to get caught up in a vacation to forget about devos or find time to slow down especially in such a fast-paced city like hong kong so sundays really kinda brought me "back down to earth" in a sense. the first sunday really brought me to tears even before the service began >_< they played a video about the need for God in hk and a lot of it showed the poverty and the hard work of the people idunno made me so sad =( and i really do pray that God will work miracles here! the vine is actually expanding and they are even moving to a new location becuase their current one is too small :D so yaaay growing numbers. the second week i went with michelle =D and this time it made me cry because the speaker was talking a lot about fatherly love. and he gave an illustration with his daughter.. saying that although she may wrong him or disobey him or even yell to him taht she doens't love her but regardless of that he will always still love her. that he would never turn her back on her because she did to him. and that's just humanly fatherly love ... we cannot even fathom a GODLY fatherly love and how ..GREAT how WIDE it is haha i can't even find words to describe that it is really indescribable! but yah it really made me think about friends and just personal relations with other people that i get really discouraged when i feel like they don't "love" me or they dont' care about me.. but i shouldn't just be like okay you don't like me so i give up .. NEVAR that's not really love..la~ (hk haha)so yaaay

also had good dinner with kristina and michelle! talked about family and hong kong stuff .. interesting sharings =D aaah i love hong kong i'm going to miss it a looot. it's prob my favourite city. today it rained quite hard at one point and then when i got home and looked out the window it still looks BEAUUUTIFUL. esp the sea+boats and i love the warmth =D but i dooo miss toronto.. more for the people though. got a lot on my mind though, so i hope i can lift those things into God's hands and have faith that He can take care of it :D

hk#1

WELL i guess i'm finally getting around to posting about hk adventure. first of all though. i must give some props to pilots (i was thinking about josh and his aviation friends!) because it seems really scary to fly a plane. especially one with a lot of people on board. the pressure alone would kill me! the flight was so turbulent at some points and the girl behind me was so scared =( buuut as you now see we have landed and the landing was so smooth!

um so far i haven't been doing much. i came two years ago so i hardly feel excited and also i haven't been taking many pictures surprisingly! pretty much only 1 since landing... but i guess cause i've seen a lot of the things before and i want to kind of take in the beauty and not be caught up in capturing it because there's.. really no way to capture it except for just being in the moment? :P but yeah i've gone shopping a bit (with manika and amy!) and had frosh chillage already. and seen esther and judith as well =D so it's okaay i guess i'm feeling more like a regular hong kong person this time rather than a tourist lol but i still have really bad chinese...

anyways i'm glad in hk there's no shame of eating by yourself.. so i ate by myself XD at dai ga lok and it was very yummy. it gave me a really good time to reflect on my time so far. there were these old ladies there that just walked around waiting to collect your tray and your bowl and everything and ... i felt SO BAD.. cause they're old right so it must be extra tiring to be walking around the whole place waiting for people to finish and it must be realllly tiring and i wanted to express how thankful i was that they were doing what they were doing but all i could say was "mm goy sai" >__< which totally doesn't convey how thankful i am and i want them to feel appreciated!! anyways that's what got me thinking about hk.. i found out today that people get paid really little here (like i mean menial jobs not those business people) and so i think christine was saying how like all the clothes seem super cheap for us because we're pretty well off and stuff but for them those cheap shirts are actually kinda normal? idunnooo i know i don't know the whole picture... but it's so sad >_< like someone else was saying how all hong kong people care about are getting rich but i mean that's because in toronto .. being well off is kind of standard for MOST people. like most poeple are okay and can splurge every now and then like your middle class family? so we don't really think bout money so much.. but i think in hong kong it's very different.. not saying everyone is poor but many people who are deemed middle class might be on the lower end of our middle class standard? I'M NOT REALLY SURE. but i know my heart really broke when i saw a popo selling something on the side of the street (some food i have nooo idea) and like we all just walk past her and she's just like yelling out asking if anyone wants to buy some... it's so sad i suppose because she's so old and she's prob been doing stuff like this her entire life just trying to make a living and still when she's old. so i really hope that she has good business >_< and we went to "ladies street" today and like how some people are trying so hard to get people to buy things... idunno how poor these people are but like they seem to have lost all shame of holding on to people and offering lower prices and trying to convince them to buy it... and like i don't even want to bargain any more >_< because what is a few dollars more for me would be a lot for them >_< and it's already cheaper than what i would normally get anyway. and so often we look down on these people because it's so shameful or they are so annoying or something but i mean the culture is very different but we shouldn't look down on them because their work is so difficult too. and like AHHH they hold money sooo highly. and sometimes it's hard to blame them because i see people work on the street right.. like so much menial work.. mostly moving/lugging heavy things .. these people work SO HARD for their money and so many people don't get to..retire... they need to do it. and sometimes i see old people doing it and i wish i could help them carry things but i suck and i don't know how to approach them. i wish they could see that money isn't everything but that's really hard to show to someone who sees that money will bring an end to this hard life? idunno maybe i see this esp because i live with my guma who isn't very well off and i recently found out my dad has been trying to lend her money but she said she doesn't want to take it.

i hope God is able to work through me while i'm here in hong kong during may to serve these people, to lessen their burdens, to just show some more love in a city which feels like everyone seems so untrustful of others and so ... pessismistic? living for themselves? i'm not sure how to describe in one word the way people seem to view others here... or what i've sseen so far anyway

yah anyway that's what i've been thinking about recently :) kinda a long and messy blurb but i felt very convicted today and reminded to be humble and not look down on these people but to try to understand them and the culture and also to love!

touch down

had a really long flight.. stuck in the window seat. only left seat once. verrry tired now. i was thinking a lot of things but now i've forgotten them all >_< i guess this means i'm sleeping early today haha

home is where the heart is...

in about 2/3 hours i'm going to be heading to the airport off to wonderful wonderful hong kong. and i looove to travel and i think hongkong is a pretty darn awesome place to visit and i'm SOO excited. but maybe the one biggest irony to my love of travelling/exploring is that when i'm about to leave i get so nostalgic and sad..
this is my longest vacation so far. spanning 2 months and 10 days it's quite a long time away from my little "abode" in toronto. while i absolutely love hong kong.. i feel like i will def miss this house, the streets here, the plazas haha but most of all definitely it's the people... i'll be away from my parents for a month before meeting them in beijing and then apart again for another couple weeks before i come back. and while i'll be able to see many of my friends in hong kong because many are going (yay!) i'll definitely miss people in toronto as well.
this very much reminds me of the time when i was in grade 8/9 and our school holds a camp thing specifically for my grade and stuff. and then my dad drove me and my mom down early in the morning cause the bus left at like 8am and we dropped my mom off at work and i started crying in the back of the car XD i find that pretty funny cause i'm such a crybaby ahah in grade NINE. how sad ahah but .. i guess this part of me hasn't changed much 5 years later!