Quickie Weekend Update

1. Had a Christmas Dinner with my small group from church the Chinese way. Managed to fit 16 people around a 10 person table. No turkey. But I'll take hot & sour soup any day over turkey! We had the gathering at Wu Kong Shanghai Restaurant. Yummy. Had a gift exchange at the end. We put all the presents on the lazy susan (turntable...the one that all chinese restaurants use). Just give it a spin and pick a present;). I got a table runner which I have now transformed into a carpet at the edge of my bed. No more cold hardwood floor for me!

2. Lived through the school's Christmas luncheon/performance. It was actually pretty enjoyable. I had fun eating all the food that the parents brought, dressing and undressing the kiddies in their costumes in record time, and dancing with the kiddies in a mini-parade. Tiring, but fun. And got my first Christmas cards from students. Really felt like a teacher for the first time when I saw "Miss Ruth" on that envelope. I still remember when I wrote Christmas cards for my teachers!

3. FINALLY watched the 4th installment of the Harry Potter series!! Goblet of Fire is amazing, the best one yet so far. This one's definitely more grown up and darker and more serious. They did a great job on condensing the material from the book. They kept real close to the book. And it was a bonus that I got to watch it 5 days before citywide release:) UA rocks! I'll probably see it a second time with my mum. She's a big fan too.

4. Jen's in HK!! Woohoo! Got a call from her last night. Can't wait to meet up with her. It was so surreal talking to her on the phone and realizing that I could actually SEE her now. No longer separated by vast amounts of ocean water. Can't wait to go EAT with her.

5. Didn't go to church in Wanchai this week. So no idea what happened with WTO and road closures. Went to my parent's church for the commissioning of the mission trip to Myanmar. Hope people got to church alright. From the news, seems everything was under control on this last day.

Mission Myanmar

I've been meaning to post this, but I keep forgetting. For those who know me well, you know things tend to slip my mind. I'm going on a mission trip this Christmas!! To Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). I'm both excited and nervous. Excited because this is something I've always wanted to do. Nervous because I don't feel very prepared. My mum is going to so she's kind of my safety net. We were actually last minute additions to the team. They had 2 people drop out and asked if we could do it. And it worked out with me and my mum's schedule. Once again, I can see God's hand at work, his PERFECT TIMING (much better than mine). He's just provided everything for this trip. At first, we weren't sure if we would make it, because we were stuck on the waiting list for a flight there. Despite the Christmas season, we made it onto a flight for Thailand. And when we were stressing about funds for the trip ($6000 HK each), a family friend offered to fully sponsor us!! So now we're all set to go. I'll be in Myanmar from Dec. 24th to Jan. 1st. Much planning still to do. Me and mum will be in charge of teaching English to the kiddies. Please pray for me!

A Normal Sunday Afternoon: WTO and High Tea

CNN International:

Worried about a repeat of the violence which marred previous trade meetings in Cancun and Seattle, police stepped up patrols on Sunday near the Hong Kong Convention Center, the venue of the meeting on the city's famous harbor front.

Work crews have glued down loose pavement stones in the area and welded shut sewer grates to prevent protesters from using them as projectiles. Pedestrian overpasses have been shrouded in mesh so nothing can be thrown onto the streets below.

Just realized the police mean serious business. My church meets usually at either the Convention Centre or China Resources Building (near the CC). I kind of forgot about WTO until today when I saw police crawling all over the place. I reckon I even saw an undercover cop, or maybe I'm just being paranoid. But there were tons of dudes in uniform, mainly in groups of 4 or 5. And they have this "don't mess with me" look all going on. After church, on a "pedestrian overpass shrouded in mesh", I got "bear'd" by a lady cop. Hello! Do I look like a protester? I was wearing PINK! Underground in the MTR, lots of cops in glasses, nerdy looking cops. They had guns and a blue suitcase. Wonder what's in the cases.... Anyhoo, don't really know what to expect this upcoming week, just hope everything remains peaceful and orderly. Hope I'll be able to get through the throngs of protesters to church next week.

After meeting lots of angry faced cops, me and Coco went to the Peninsula for high tea. It was an experience I won't forget soon. High tea in the lobby is awesome especially with all their christmas decorations up. The food was yummy, and everything was just so perfect. The waiters are super polite and everything is just so fancy schmancy. Loved it. Felt so English. It all came at a high price, but it was well worth the splurge.

Lobby at the Pen

Me and Co

Scones, sandwiches, desserts, oh my!

Movie Rant

I finally will have the pleasure of seeing Harry Potter on the 17th!! And the added bonus is that its a lot sooner than I expected. Because I thought the release date was on the 22nd. But apparently it starts playing on the 16th at UA:). Me and another teacher from work have it all planned out already. Christmas concert at school on 17th, Harry Potter afterwards. Sounds good to me!

I was checking out Ada's xanga, and all the movies she wants to see are the same ones on my movie list (and yes, I actually do have a movie list). King Kong looks incredible, they already released a dvd here about the making of the film. Tempted to watch it, but I'm afraid it'll have spoilers. Narnia, all the featurettes done on it look awesome. It looks like WETA's done another great job. And despite the bad reviews for Geisha, I still really want to see it. Supposedly a big controversy in China regarding the whole Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh are CHINESE playing JAPANESE thing. They might possibly cut the sex scene between Ziyi and Ken Watanabe's character. Hence, release date might be even later;( Fingers crossed.

Counting down the days till Harry Potter...

X-3

The X-Men 3 announcement trailer is up!! It looks awesome, can't wait. Loved the first 2 films, and this one looks even better. They've added another blue dude to the cast -Beast! And you'll never guess who it is. Have a lookie................................................... Give up? It's FRASIER!!! And yea, I prefer him in blue over the suit;)

From Chinese Opera to Batman

Finally visited the Heritage Museum in Shatin!! Considering it's a 20 minute walk from my flat, its about time. There's tons to see from live Chinese opera performances to ancient art to fancy dishes from way back dynasties and even a kid's gallery filled with ancient to semi-modern toys and collectibles. I'll definitely go back and revisit, som much more I want to check out there. Anyhoo, here are some of the shots from my visit:) Enjoy!

Gorgeous flowers and sunshine on the way there

Storks?!...in the sewage/river?

Pretty lady

Pretty lady II

More shots to come, computer's slow, must go to bed. TO be continued...

Bus Caroling

Went bus caroling for the very first time with my church. IIt's a tradition for them every year. At first I wasn't really sure what they meant by "bus caroling". I was imagining people sticking their heads out the window and singing at the top of their lungs;). It turned out to be a neat event. I love Christmas songs, so it was just that much more fun for me! The church rented 2 open-roofed double decker buses. Alot of the people on the streets were amused seeing a bunch of people singing at the top of our lungs, but I think they enjoyed it too. Put a smile on my face as well as theirs. I'll definitely do this again next year! Instead of me telling you all about it, I'll let the photos sum up the night.

Me and Coco with our cool fobby classes;)

Drive by shot of a humongus Christmas tree

Getting ready to SING!

Aahh...the wind in my hair

First time being in cross harbour tunnel in an open-roofed bus....lovely fumes

Diligently singing and waving to passerbys

Going thru the tunnel a SECOND time...this time we're smart, cover our faces with the carols!

The city that just doesn't sleep

I sleep a LOT in a city where people never seem to sleep. How do people manage to survive hitting the sack at 3am then waking up at 6am for work, and do it all over again the next day?! I have no clue. My nightly average is 8-9 hours!! I know, that's alot, but I can't function without AT LEAST that amount of sleep. And since I'm cutting back on coffee, that's the least I can do.

This photo is the view from my room. No matter how dark the sky gets, the lights of the city act as a giant nightlight to guide my feet during a middle of the night pottybreak.

Breaking news of the day: My boss made me fill in for another teacher who wasn't feeling well. I don't mind helping out. BUT teaching the kiddies how to WRITE CHINESE isn't really my forte. The boss just said to match their writing to the teacher's example. Okay....... So now I know how to write 'I see a lion' in chinese. Maybe the boss will have me teaching mandarin next.