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!