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Saturday, November 23, 2002
I'm sick For real. Sucks to be me right now. Pretty much spent the entire day sleeping, either at the restaurant during yum cha (dim sum), or in the car, or in my bed. Woke up at 10:30pm to call and figure out plans for tomorrow, ate some congee, on Internet now, soon back to sleep =) No, didn't get it from Chrissy. I think the last couple of days in HK did me in. It got colder, but since HK homes don't have heating, it was quite cold at night and in the mornings. I think I got sick from that. I better get well soon though, cause tomorrow I want to hang out with Erin, Alexis, and Brian. Plus I called work today... and my schedule's packed from Tuesday till well into January. At least I got Monday to settle in =) And weekends will be a welcome break, trip(s?) to Waterloo and also up to Ottawa =) Need sleep now... need to get better...uggggh... Saturday November 23 2am // Saturday November 23 5am Friday, November 22, 2002
Oh, Vancouver! The land of the blinking green pedestrian-controlled lights, and drivers who are.. well, idiots. Alexis agrees. We were stopped at a traffic light today because although the light was green, the lady in front of us decided she didn't want to move. After several honking attempts, she finally proceeded forward, and chose to turn right... from the middle lane. Ai... Though I must say, it's still beautiful out here =) 
Why I wish Ga was here Went to dinner tonight with Rev. Poon and his wife, Auntie Peggy (of whom we're living with), and two other aunties, one who lives in BC, and the other is from Toronto who's also visiting Vancouver. All of them grew up together at church when they were kids, and Rev. Poon was their minister. 
Dad, Mom, Auntie living in BC, Mrs. Poon, Rev Poon, Auntie visiting from TO, Auntie Peggy Rev. Poon has two sons. In the middle of dinner, mom says to me (thank goodness quietly), "We should introduce you to Rev. Poon's eldest son!!" Their younger son already has a girlfriend, so mom was being... well, annoying. Guess how old this guy is... THIRTY-ONE!!!!!!! That's SEVEN years older than me!!!! Mom's crazy. See, Ga, If you were here, she'd match YOU up with him and leave me alone, since you two are only four years apart. Ai... Thank goodness he wasn't around and didn't have to meet him at all... CCFers =) Met up with Christina, Erin, and Alexis today for a very late lunch. Got to the restaurant at 3pm, the three of us were starving, Erin had already eatten. We ate at a Chinese Restaurant in Kerrisdale. Amusing thing, I ended up having dinner at the chinese restaurant right on top of our lunch place =) 
It was so much fun hanging out with them, because I haven't seen them in awhile (about a month!), because they spoke English, and because they were MY friends, not my parents' =) Mom and dad went out on their own, Alexis was nice enough to pick me up, and drop me off afterwards as well. Erin had to go really soon, so I didn't get a chance to take pics of her. But the three of us goofed off with the digital... here are some of the results.. =) 
Chrissy, being her usual nutty self 
Alexis & I, cause Chrissy made us be nutty too =) During lunch, I was trying to figure out where I'm living. Seems like I got the road wrong last night, I'm actually at No. 1 and Steveson... and after further discussion, we figured out I'm about a 10 min walk from Alexis' place =) As we were leaving the restaurant, Chrissy exclaims, "Alexis, I want to go shopping here!!" Alexis replies, "Here? This is the liquor store!" =) Alexis and I were laughing about that for a long time =) Chrissy intended "here" to mean Kerrisdale, but we just so happened to be walking past the liquor store =) It was so funny, she kept punching Alexis and I for laughing at her =) Friday November 22 2:45am // Friday November 22 5:45am Thursday, November 21, 2002
Home sweet home! Where the people speak English, the air is not grimey, and the cars travel on the right side of the road. HK was great, but Canada is home =) HK is full of funny wannabe English phrases... this sweatshirt pretty much sums up what I mean: 
I like the HK airport. So big, clean, and convenient. Plus they have McDonald's, AND a Hui Lau San =) 
Goodbyes are always hard. I didn't think I'd have a hard time, but when it finally came down to saying bye to my aunt and uncle (my dad's sibings), it was harder than I thought. I stuck out my hand to shake Ding Sok's hand, but he shook it and then kissed me on the forehead. Goo Jeh gave me a big hug and when we pulled away I saw her eyes were moist, though not actually crying. I know dad was having a hard time, cause he quickly turned around and walked towards the entrance. I kept turning around to wave, but Dad just waved, he couldn't turn around. It must be hard for Dad, having to say bye to siblings he hasn't seen in such a long time. Hopefully they will all come visit us this summer. If not, I MIGHT actually consider enduring another cross-Pacific flight to see them... but we'll see... 
Goo Jeh, Ding Suk, Dad When we got off the plane at Vancouver, guess who we found out was on the same flight as us (in First Class, of course): 
Mom, Mel Lastman, Dad FYI, Mel Lastman is the Mayor of Toronto. Travelling Three movies again, MIB II, some Chinese (mandarin) movie, and the same movie that I watched on the way over to HK. I made myself stay awake for MIB II cause I wanted to watch it, though I was really tired, but then my eyes were too tired to read the subtitles for the mandarin movie, and I didn't care to see that movie (can't remember the name, too lazy to check the blog) again. Food was three meals. Dinner was choice of Beef & Rice, or Chicken & Noodles. Obviously I went for the chicken (I don't like eatting rice, much prefer noodles). Then was midnight snack (siew yeh) of instant noodles in a cup =) Yummy MSG! Breakfast was by far the MOST impressive. Choice of scrambled eggs or chicken congee!! And surprisingly the congee was good, esp considering this was airplane food!! Life on a plane: eat, sleep, eat, sleep, repeat as necessary, depending on duration of flight, substitute sleep for TV when appropriate. Landed, took FOREVER to get through the customs line. Luckily, we didn't get probed, but we did get taxed. Dad brought out his VISA... for a bill of a whopping $7.93!! We were confused for a sec, figured we've be paying much more than that, then had to scramble to find enough Canadian change to pay the bill =) Not bad, since we brought back 6 checked baggages, plus 4 carry-ons. The cashier asked me how much I'm bringing back from HK, (reported at just over $800 Cdn) and said, "Majority was clothing, I assume?" =) heheh! Vancouver Cell works again =) Confirmed that as I madly txt msged as soon as I got off the plane, and then called people both at home and in BC. Hoping to get together with those in BC tomorrow for lunch, but we'll see what happens... Living in Richmond, near No.1 and Westminister, really close to the Richmond Chinese Alliance Church, for those of you who care. Have no clue what we're going to be doing here, other than eatting with more of my parents' friends, but I've already told them that I REFUSE to go to the Capilano Bridge. Maybe I can find someone to do the Grouse Grind me with. I really want to climb the mountain... Time Change Weird, I used to be 13 hours AHEAD of Ontario, now I'm 3 hours BEHIND. Nevermind that the plane took off on Wed night at 8pm from HK, but we landed Wed afternoon at 4pm in Vancouver. That's more than enough to mess up anyone. If only I could get rid of this jet lag... Thursday November 21 12:30am // Thursday November 21 3:30am Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Random thoughts... This is prolly the last blog from HK. We're flying to Vancouver tomorrow (Wed) night, 8pm HK time, arriving 4pm Vancouver time (it'll still be Wed Nov 20 when we land, cause of the time change. Neat!). After this, it'll be blogging from Canadian soil, finally. HK has been fun, but I miss home. Though I still dread the (approx) 12 hour flight to Vancouver... At least this time it's not immediately switch planes to fly to TO, that flight is Sunday night. HK has been interesting. Certainly an eyeopener. Hehe, I get 12 hours on the plane to think about it and blog about what I learnt =) Though vacation with mom and dad isn't actually over yet, not till we're back in TO on Sunday. But at least it'll be easier for me to call people from Vancouver, and my cell and text messaging will work again (hint hint!) =) Movies Watched parts of Monsters Inc today. We were in a mall, and it was playing, so I stood there and watched it. Monsters Inc is prolly one of my fav movies. I watched and watched and watched. And then it dawned on me. The entire movie was in CHINESE!!! I was watching Sully and Mike and Boo speak Cantonese!!! I thought it was so amusing, I went to tell my mom, and she laughed at me =) That was my first experience of watching an English movie dubbed over into Cantonese. Yesterday watching A Beautiful Mind was rather interesting as well. The movie was in English, not Cantonese, but the subtitles were in Chinese! I've watched so many Chinese movies that I've mastered the art of listening and watching the movie, while keeping an eye on the English subtitles (and laughing at how inaccurate they are). While watching A Beautiful Mind, however, my eyes naturally drifted towards the subtitles, and was surprised again and again that I coudldn't read it, cause it was in Chinese! Funny part was that Jackie was reading more than listening, and she would often laugh before I did, cause the Chinese showed up on the screen before the actors spoke the words. TV Only in HK will they have a commercial in the middle of the night, sponsored by the TV company, telling you that your kids are prolly sleeping, please turn down the volume of your TV so that you don't wake them up. Effective, but amusing to see, nonetheless. Camera I'm SOOO stupid. It wasn't till TONIGHT that I remembered that Tim's digital camera has a night setting. DOH!!! Atleast I got a good pic of the place we were at tonight. It's literally called the Big Piece of Land (Dai Dat Day), but it's English name is Gathering Point (at least that's what the unofficial sign with the arrows said). Grrr, too bad I didn't remember about the night setting when I was up on the Peak on Friday night... 
Without night setting 
With night setting Ownership of Relatives When Ryan, Adrian, and I were on vacation, we stayed with Ryan's Aunt Mary and Uncle Rob in Calgary. The McGauley Family Discussions inevitibly ended up mentioning how no one wants to take ownership of each other. For example, Ryan's father when speaking to his sister Mary about their mother would refer to her as "your mother", even though she is Mike's father as well. Ryan often heard the phrase "your grandmother" instead of " my mother". Seems like my family's the same =) My mom refers to dad as "your big brother" (dai loh) when speaking to my aunt or my uncle. No one takes ownership of the Goo Mahs, they are always referred to as "your big sister", even when it's dad and his little brother and sister talking. And it's always "your grandpa" or "your father" =) Amusing =) HK, the Backwards Land I've already mentioned that the cars drive on the left side of the street, hence I fear getting hit by a car because I look to the wrong side when crossing the street. But there are other things that are opposite to home here in HK. In Canada, light switches and other on-off buttons place the on, or 1, on the top, and the off, or 0, on the bottom. In HK, everything is backwards. To turn a light on, you flip the switch down. To turn it off, you press it up. The worst is running across a panel having four switches, of which 2 are up, 2 are down, wanting to turn one off (or one more on), but not knowing that the switches are all backwards. The other thing that's backwards is the sockets. Our three-prong plugs have two on the top, and one on the bottom, so it looks like a triangle standing on it's tip. HK is backwards. The tip is pointing up, with the two acting as a base. All is well until it's the middle of the night, my parents are already sleeping, and I'm trying to plug in the adaptor in the dark. Amazing how many times one can get it wrong when one is trying to make the least possible noise. Time for bed =) Wednesday November 20 2:40 am // Tuesday Novemeber 19 1:40 pm Monday, November 18, 2002
HKUST It's SOOOO nice there!!!!!!! I went to HKUST today, and Eric Chan and his wife Dana were kind enough to take me and my parents on a tour of their campus. Eric is a '93 UW Civil Eng PhD grad now a civil prof, specializing in high rise buildings. They both know Pastor Tim from KWCAC, and Dana knew Pastor Tim from Montreal as well. 
HKUST is Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It's out in the eastern part of the New Territories, close to Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay. The student population is approx 7000, and their facilities include an Olympic sized indoor pool, and outdoor pool, an Olympic sized track, with a full sized soccer field inside, tennis courts, and basketball courts, as well as an indoor gym. Unfortunately the facilities are never used because the students are always studying. Our first stop was the Library. Check out the view from the study areas: 
Nice place to gaze out the window!!! And the carrels and study areas are so new and so clean! 
They have so many up-to-date books that people borrow, that they had to use shelves that move inorder to store everything. But when you open each part of the shelf, there is a light for each row, which has a motion detector so it only turns on when someone is in the row. Nice technology, eh? 
Of course, there are always faults, even in the most modern, most clean and beautiful facility: 
=) So I guess Gladys you'd never study in their library if you were a student here! This is student housing: 
and more student housing: 
teachers' residences: 
and the covered walkway to student res from the main campus building, with the track and soccer field behind the construction of more student housing: 
View looking towards campus in the walkway, with mom, Dana, me, and Eric Some res rooms have air conditioning, others don't. Funny thing is, it's cheaper to have a room WITH AC than not! That's cause if you DON'T have AC, you're in a room that faces the ocean, therefore you don't need AC. Nice to have a choice over whether you want a room with a view... The view was beautiful. Lots of water and mountains, a rocky "beach", and BBQ areas near sandy beaches, though you don't want to go swimming cause there are sharks in the water. 
Eric and Dana were really great, they took us out for lunch as well, at the restaurant on campus... very nice, MUCH nicer than Ground Zero... I guess it`s more like the University Club, next to PAC... 
Eric took us to see some of the lecture halls, and the student areas. Then we went to see the enclosed windtunnel (enclosed as in it`s not one tube, it's actually circular, goes all the way around and back) and the centrifuge as well. Sticker & Card Pictures Met Jackie at Central and we went to meet Shirley at Mong Kok (which, BTW, is actually pronounced in Cantonese as Wong Gok... I've been calling it Mong Gok for a long time now...). Being in HK, it`s almost required that I take sticker/card pics before leaving! Prices: card pics $30 for two (= $6 for two) sticker pics $50 (= $10) laminating $1 each (= $0.20 each) So we got to be silly for a bit =) Though cause none of us understand Japanese, we royally messed up the sticker pics.. oh well =) Vacation Shirley had to go home to do homework, so we wandered the mall for a little bit, then headed home. I went to Jackie's to eat and veg infront of the TV. We had dumplings and watched A Beautiful Mind. Her and I are alike, we were both so tired, we plopped on the couch and was almost too lazy to get up and cook the dumplings! What a vacation =) Tuesday November 19 1:20 am // Monday November 18 12:30 pm I have never seen so many men in Speedos before! I'll tell you more about that later. Didn't blog last night, so here's a recap of yesterday, followed by today's adventure. Saturday Morning was Dim Sum with the Goo Mahs (dad's older sisters). All four of them. Enough said. 
Mom, 7 Goo Mah's son, 7 Goo Mah, 1 Goo Mah, 3 Goo Mah, 6 Goo Mah, Dad Apparently 1 Goo Mah has a grandson who's 28 who was recently married. Thus I have a 28 year old nephew who is likely to have a kid in the next couple of years. If he does, the kid would call me something along the lines of Goo Poh. I'd be some Great Aunt/Grandma generation. Weird... In the afternoon, dad had to meet someone, so mom and I played on a really long escalator. I took a pic of mom and part of the escalator, but it essentially goes up the mountain in parts. When a steep incline, it looks like a normal escalator, with steps, but when the incline wasn't so steep, it was flat, similar to the airport moving sidewalks. It was LONG!!! Kept going and going and going. Kinda neat to have escalators outdoors to go up a mountain. Though we had to walk all the way back down afterwards, since there's only one escalator, and it was heading up at that moment. 
Mom and one small part of the escalator Then we went shopping...and I FINALLY got new shoes! Dinner was at 9 Goo Jeh's, home cooked meal, so yummy =) I also ended up going "shopping" in Jackie's closet...heheh =) 
9 Goo Jeh, 9 Goo Jerng, Dad, Mom, Bobby the dog, Jackie, Me Bobby's a fun dog. He likes to play soccer, but he cheats cause he bites the ball, and doesn't let go, so you have to try to kick it away from him while he's biting it. He got tired after playing, this was him resting just outside the kitchen. 
Bobby Sunday Church was in Wan Chai, at Chinese Methodist Church, Hong Kong. This is technically the church my parents got married at, but the original church building was demolished and reconstructed in 1997. 
Parents with old friends, and the minister who married them, in front of the new church entrance After Dim Sum, Dad's old co-worker & his wife picked us up and drove us around. Not sure what the weather is like at home now, but we went to a beach =) We went to Repulse Bay, which is where I saw all the Speedos! Montbatten Life Guards was having their certification examination today, so there were tons of guys in speedos running in and out of the water, "saving" people and performing CPR. 
Speedos @ Repulse Bay HK is an island, so obviously there's tons of different creatures in the sea. One of these many creatures are sharks. Because of the sharks, they installed a net that runs from the surface of the water all the way down to the bottom. Swimming is allowed within the net only. 
Shark nets @ Repulse Bay Repulse Bay was really pretty. Definately not repulsive. Aside from the millions of people who descended on the beach today, it could be a very peaceful and serene place. Plus the view was great. 
Repulse Bay After that was Stanley. Wandered around and saw Murray House, the haunted house. This building used to be in Central, but the entire building was moved to Stanley because the government wanted to build on the land it was on. During the war, when the Japanese took over HK, many Chinese were tortured and killed in Murray House. As well, there was a mysterious incident involving a huge typewriter, so people believed the house was haunted. 
Murray House Dinner was at Gum Long Shun, which literally is the Golden Dragon Boat. Have no clue what their official English name is. Dinner was 14 of us: Us (3), Ding Sook (3), Goo Jeh (3), Mei Yoke (3), and Mei Yeen (2). Mei Yoke and Mei Yeen are my dad's older brother's daughters. Mei Yoke has two daughters (only know their Chinese names), ages 10 and 16. 
Dinner, from the back, left to right - Goo Jeh, Ding Sum, Ding Sook - Eddie (Mei Yeen's husband), Mei Yeen, Mei Yoke's older daughter, Dad, Goo Jerng, Mom - Me, Mei Yoke's younger daughter, Mei Yoke, Jackie, Shirley If you remember, me and Jackie bought matching tops last Tuesday. 
The shirts Anyhow, I'm REALLY tired. Night! Monday November 18 2:50am // Sunday Novemeber 17 1:50pm |
