The Ark

Today was the 2nd practice for dragon boat. SO AWESOME! It's so different from what I had in mind. It's not at all about brute strength and having biceps the size of footballs. It's actually all about teamwork and staying in sync. It's incredible that we're all different shapes and sizes, with different histories of experience, yet can still come together united to form one mean rowing machine. Near the end of the practice session, we had a race back to shore against 6 other boats. As usual, I was just focussed on the person in front of me, trying to match his pace and not punch him in the back with my paddle. So I didn't really have a chance to check out how the competition were doing. By the time I finally lifted my head at the end of the race, we had come in FIRST!! I was so amazed, we were all so pumped up! But win or lose, doesn't matter, as long as we have fun as a team. Who knew getting sea water splashed in your face could be so fun?

Lovin' Lamma

Here are some photos from our daytrip to Lamma Island. I can't believe it was my FIRST time. It's gorgeous there. And the trail is pretty easy to walk. Beautiful beach, awesome seafood. What can beat that? Some highlights:






Lots of seaweed, edible? Hmm...














Quiet little beach, got to return when its warmer and go for a swim.












3 cool trees















The biggest fish balls I've ever had. Yummy too!

















Follow the greyish brick road...















After 3 hours of trekking, we deserve some good food:)












And even Elvis made an appearance;)








Getting to spend the day with my parents was a treat. Although I live at home now, we all work and don't get to spend alot of time together. So the Lamma trip was really awesome, with all 3 of us there. Hopefully soon, we'll get to do something together as a family of 4. My brother just got back yesterday:) Awesome to have the family all under the same roof again. Can't wait to have my OWN family one day! And its going to be a BIG one;) Start my own soccer team. Ok, maybe not a soccer team exactly...

Hai Tan = Beach

New layout. I liked Mike, but not so much the no comments. I couldn't figure out how to get the comments back in soooo, new layout it is.

So, a quick recap on the holidays. Went to Yalong Bay, Hainan with Coco (my traveling buddy;). Totally exceeded my expectations. We were staying at a 3 star hotel, and 3 stars in China doesn't mean much. Although the room was simple, it was CLEAN. Whew! And it had a great pool, the hugest one I've ever swam in. Although it was curiously shallow. It only came up to the top of my stomach. Maybe it was designed for short Asians exclusively. 10 minute walk to the beach. Beautiful, gorgeous, quiet beach. White sand and blue waters. And again, CLEAN.

I guess we were an odd couple, 2 girls traveling alone. They're mainly groups of people or couples. A van full of men tried to pick us up. Don't worry, I've heard enough horror stories to be smart enough to say thanks, but NO. Thankfully, they left us alone. Sometimes, I wish I was a guy so I wouldn't have to worry about this stuff. But being a girl also has its advantages. Bargaining with taxi drivers. Just smile a lot and keep saying, come on, cheaper! Usually does the trick. Actually, its quite fun, bantering back and forth. And I feel such a sense of accomplishment when we finally settle the price. And trust me, you gotta bargain for EVERYTHING.

But the best part of the trip was just getting to lying on the beach, falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing. Sounds cheesy, but it was awesome. The water was nice and cool, and I managed to swim all the way out to the edge of the shark net. Just floating and bobbing with the waves looking into the blue skies really made me realize how small I really am, just a speck of dust in the vast ocean. Yet I know God still SEES me. Looking down on me and hopefully smiling. His creations are truly breathtaking. There were too many pictures to upload them all. So here are a few for you to enjoy.

Like Mike?

Yay! New template. Just seeing Mike makes me laugh.

I'm officially starting my Easter break today!! The last day of work yesterday was fun, we had a trip with the kiddies and parents to a Sai Kung campsite. One of the activities we had for the kiddies was to catch bugs and examine them with a magnifying glass. Gloves were distributed and the kiddies wholeheartedly got on their way to become bug catchers. Fortunately, I didn't have to participate in catching bugs. Unfortunately I became one of the designated plastic container holders, where the kiddies would dump their prized bugs into.

I'm actually quite proud that I survived the whole ordeal, thinking back. Me and creepy crawlies just do NOT mix. I became quite adept at opening the lid, dumping the bug, and closing the lid at lightning speed. The kiddies mainly caught a lot of ants, some spiders, beetles, and caterpillars. Someone even caught a cockroach! You just knew the kiddies were getting pro when some of them started catching flies, then moved on to toads (they bagged quite a few). The most awesome/scary catch of the day was a huge salamander/lizard (one of the daddies caught it). Don't worry, we freed all the little critters in the end.

The campsite had tons of facilities from badminton to karaoke. I managed to squeeze in a few rounds of arrows in the archery range. No bullseye, but didn't spear anyone with an arrow either;). Wanted to rock climb, was all strapped in already, but after I let all the kiddies go first, by the time it was my turn, it was time to go. Boooooooo, haven't rock climbed since middle school. Oh well, another time.

Other news, my brother is coming back in just over a week's time!! That was quick, year two done already. Is it just me? Or is time going by faster and faster. The church I used to go to in Canada (I started going ever since it began) is celebrating its 10th anniversary! Was it really 10 years ago? Yes, time is flying by. This holiday will fly by as well. So I must start cleaning up the room for my brother's return. It's filled with junk right now. Hopefully I won't bump into any creepy crawlies. I've had enough to last me a long, long while.

Healthy Weekend

It's been a very healthy weekend. Jazz dance class started finally, woohoo! The teacher and most of the students are sooooo pro. I could barely keep up. Not exactly the most coordinated person. But it was fun and a good workout. To be honest, I've been skimping on the exercise lately. When I was training for the marathon, I ran regularly. But I've maybe ran only 3 or 4 times since. My exercise lately has mainly constisted of walking up and down the escalator and stairs during my commute to work and back home. The jazz teacher actually incorporated a lot of yoga-ish stretching into the lesson. Very relaxing and nice to feel the strains on my shrinking muscles. The dance moves are pretty complicated, lots of spinning and intricate hands and feet movement. I've already forgotten most of the moves by now. But still have 9 more classes to go, there's still hope!

Today was our first land-training session for dragonboating. It's with a bunch of church people. We've named ourselves "The Ark":) We were joking we should dress up as pairs of animals in the boat. We'd be the cutest team at the race! It was nice to have the opportunity to get to know more people from church. ECC is a pretty big church, so its nice to be able to get into smaller groups for activities like this. A bunch of us had lunch together before heading over to Happy Valley Sports Ground. I discovered one of the girls taught at my old highschool CAIS, just after I graduated from there, small world! Surprisingly my legs were still functioning after dance class from the night before. Worked up quite a sweat. Our coach led us through a bunch of drills like the frog jump, situps, pushups, etc. I'm quite eager to get to the sea-training part next next week. Can't wait!

And Easter holidays is comng up!! YAY! Only 2 more days of work! Will be going to Hainan Island with Coco:) Can't wait to be lying on that beach with a good read.

Feeling healthy, happy, and thankful.

Falling Up

Fell up the escalators today while I was rushing to work. Good thing I wasn't going down. It was a combination of little things that made me trip. Reading while walking, wearing sandals, other hand holding carton of milk, late for work, and general klutziness. I've trip over my own two feet on a perfectly flat surface. Unfortunately, being in HK, surrounded by HKers, nobody bothered to help me up when I plastered myself across several steps of the escalator. It was rush hour so you can imagine how many people were around to witness this oh-so-embarassing moment. Several people took a sharp intake of breath in surprise, while someone else said "waaaah!". Well there is an upside to this incident, I managed to prevent my face from contact with the spikey metal steps by breaking my fall with my arms (my hands were full at the moment, refusing to let go of the magazine and milk). My sandals didn't fall off, that would have been much more embarassing, having to go after my sandals. I escaped with only a few bruises and a scratch. No bleeding. And I made it to work on time!

Who can help the cat?

Produced and directed my first play ever. This play premiered last night to an audience of 200 parents;) Ok, ok, so it was more like a 5 minute skit. And the actors were my kiddies. But I still had a blast from writing the script to making the props to training my kiddies. They are so, so, so talented! The best part was when the "fireman" was rescuing the cat with the Mission Impossible theme music playing. He was so cute, bobbing his head in and out from behind the tree to the beat of the music. Until he accidently knocked the cat off the tree and a kid from the audience yelled "say jor la!" (it died!). Well at least the parents got a good laugh out of that one. It's such a rush too, even though I was backstage, it was all very exciting. Maybe I should swith to showbiz;)

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a timeto die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted...
A time to weep, And a time to laugh...
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain form embracing...
A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate;
A time of war, And a time of peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Fool to miss April Fool's

Fool..............such a funny word really. Just the way it's spelt and the way it sounds when you say it. Today's April 1st aka April Fool's, but I had no idea today was April 1st, so I missed it. Not that I had any amazing pranks planned, but it would've been nice if I could have said "happy april fool's day" to someone. Although I don't know if HK people what it is.

Flip flop weather has come upon us! YAY! I finally get to seriously break in my Myanmar leather flip flops. Sturdy, nonslip rubber sole. Leather inlay. Velvet straps. Although the leather and/or rubber makes it stink to high heaven. Nonetheless, simple yet beautiful (yes, I'm still talking about my flip flops).

FINALLY visited the Shenzhen orphanage today!!:) A group from my church who goes every Saturday. As we sat in our rented van in the traffic, I was nervous about meeting the kiddies. I've never been to an orphanage before and I wasn't sure what to expect. It was overwhelming at first when all the kiddies rush at you wanting you to touch and hold them. Just wish I had a few extra arms. The kiddies are sooooo adorable. We taught the older ones songs and drew pictures with them. Some of them are really smart. Fed and held the wee little babies. I was so happy to see the kiddies happy. But at the same time, my heart was breaking knowing that they had been abandoned by their parents. All the little things we take for granted, they cherished deeply. A simple hug, stickers, a few snacks, words of praise, a smile. Yet they are also blessed to be at the orphanage instead of on the streets. I hope I'll have the opportunity to go back again.