Tata For Now

I've really enjoyed this blog, but I've decided to take a break for a little while.

So until next time, TTFN, tata for now.

A Belated Halloween Post

I usually have pretty lame Halloween costumes. Usually I dream up these awesome costume ideas but they never actually transfer into reality. Last year I was a gypsy. Passable, respectable, but definitely not groundbreaking.

I was determined that this year would be different. Fortunately, about a month before Halloween, I watched the movie The Eagle. You haven't heard of it? I found that most people haven't. I didn't think it was amazing, but it was interesting and pretty enjoyable. The best part about the whole movie was the Seal People. They were a tribe in ancient Britannia, or whatever you want to call Britain back in the day, that dressed in furs and painted themselves blue for battle. Now, the Seal People aren't really historically accurate, but they are awesome. And part of it is true. Ancient Britons did paint themselves blue and wear fur. So, I decided to be a Seal Person.

It took me awhile to get my costume materials together. I went to probably a million thrift stores trying to find fake fur coats and other stuff I could use. I stole a stick from a friend's yard and a plastic dragon from my roomies armor (I needed an eagle like the movie, but I used the dragon instead). I even sprung for blue and white body makeup and black hair dye.

The Sunday night before Halloween, one of my roomies and I stayed up all night watching movies (yeah for Devil Wears Prada and Lost Boys) and working on our costumes. I had to sew a tunic for myself using old curtain material, but I didn't have a needle or thread. I couldn't let that stop me, so I used scissors to make holes in the fabric and a pen to push yarn through the holes. I only cut myself once with the scissors. We didn't go to bed until after six, but it was all worth it.

Instead of regular trick-or-treating which I'm too old for (according to my mom, you're too old if you're over thirteen), we decided to go trick-or-canning for a local food bank. Basically, you knock on doors, yell trick-or-can, explain that you actually are looking for canned goods not candy, take the cans they offer (and candy, if it's offered), load up your car, and drop it off at the food bank later. It's basically the most awesome food drive ever.

I recruited my sister and two of my roommates to go with. Here are some pictures of us in our awesome costumes.

Xena.

A grandma.

A 20s/30s lady.

Me, a seal person.

We first walked down the street to the Cafe for a group shot.

We brought a lot of reusable bags and took a car to load cans and foodstuff into. People were really generous. I think since they're expecting strangers to be knocking on their doors and they're probably already in a good mood, it helps. Also, the people who don't want you knocking just leave their lights off, so it's easy to tell who'll be receptive. Altogether, we collected ninety-nine pounds of food!

We also had many interesting experiences, like a guy who had forgotten his pants (he at least had a long t-shirt on) and another man who asked us if beer counted as a canned good.

That's a very good question. I should have told him yes.

A Goodbye BBQ, HK Style

Right in front of my old HK apartment building.

My computer's been in the shop recently, but now I have it back all wonderful and shining. I should get back to posting now!

This particular event happened awhile ago but I never got around to putting it up. I might as well do it now!

There were two brothers who owned a drink stand on the corner of our block. I'd stop and talk to them as I walked by, usually when I was coming home from work. They'd teach me a lot of words in Cantonese! They also sold these delicious meat sticks that I loved to get.

They were friends with a lot of other guys in the neighborhood, so I met the others too. When I told them that I was leaving, they decided to have a farewell barbecue for me. I was definitely game. Here are some pictures from that deliciously wonderful event!

Some neighbors, cooking up a storm.

Me, pretending to roast a duck.

One of the brothers and the chairman of our building.

Eating a delicious piece of pork.

Some people kiss fish instead of frogs.

Yes, I tried a piece of each.

Me and the finished roasted duck. I didn't really help with it at all; I'm just pretending.

The pig! They roasted him so he's all crispy on the outside.

Knives. Hehehehe.

I got to make the first chop.

Readying the pig for consumption.

As you can see, it was a wonderful, carnivorous night. It was a great way to say goodbye to the neighborhood. I think I'll always miss the beautiful, fun, little Ap Lei Chau.

Hillbilly Flea Market

I have so much blog material at the moment, but not enough time to post it all! My computer, Yuri, is going to the doctor today. He's not really sick, but just needs some formatting help a.k.a. I'd like to be able to watch DVDs, and he's currently set to Asia so I can't. Well, that and some other stuff too. Anyway, I only have time for one post, and this one couldn't wait!

This weekend I went to the Hillbilly Flea Market with my roomie Katelyn! It's in West Siloam, the Oklahoma side, and I'd never been to it before. I was looking for a night stand but didn't have much success. I did end up buying a charm bracelet, though. I've never had one before, and this one had sweet charms like a ladder and a harmonica and a frying pan. Katelyn found a whole box of fabric that she's going to use in some art projects.

Katelyn. She's excited.

I am too. Like my new sunglasses?

Everyone was really friendly, and I struck up conversations with several of the vendors. Even though I didn't buy much, it was so much fun digging through the plethora of treasures lying around. If you're ever in Siloam on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you should go. Just do it.

Bargain hunters, shooting the breeze. I swear, I haven't ever heard such eloquent/involved conversations about the weather before.

I really love these fisherman mugs, but alas, we have no room in our cupboards.

Turkeys! They also had chickens and guineas.

Lots of random stuff.

A saddle.

It was a beautiful day.

Boots and lamps.

A pile of creepy dolls. And a troll! I love trolls.

The Night of Squid

It was a beautiful evening.

I realized that I have a bunch of pictures and stuff from Hong Kong that I never posted. Although I'm no longer there, I thought I'd share some nostalgia posts.

I taught some outside private lessons, and one of my students has an uncle who's a professional fisherman. She arranged a time for all of us to go on a squid fishing expedition! It was very kind of her to arrange it and for her uncle to take us out! I had a wonderful time.

You might remember another post I did about squid fishing. The first time I went, I was with a bunch of church friends on a large yacht. It was a very fun night: beautiful weather, fun people, lots of little kids running around. Unfortunately, the only thing I caught was a fish ball (it's a popular snack in Hong Kong). that had somehow fallen into the water. No one else had any luck either. Still, it was fun.

In case you don't remember, you go squid fishing at night. Squid are like the moths of the sea They're attracted to light, so you hang lights over the edge of the boats to draw the squid. You're holding a ball of fishing line in your hand that has a four-prong hook on the end. You basically just toss the hook over the side, raising lowering your hands so that the hook is bobbing up in down in the water. With luck, the squid will get caught on your hook while swimming toward the mesmerizing lights. Oh, you also wear dark clothing just in case you catch a face full of ink from a squid that isn't too thrilled at being caught.

The squid crew.

Erica and I! She was my first student ever.

The night I went with my students, I still wasn't having much luck, but at least I caught more than a fishball. I didn't get any squid, but I kept catching these annoying little puffer fish. They're not like the pointy octopus puffer fish, but they're smaller and smoother. I'm told that the Japanese are the only people who eat them, since they're poisonous and you have to be very careful about cutting them up. I must have caught (and thrown back) at least fifteen of the little suckers.

One of my snagged pufferfish.

I was pretending I caught that squid, but I didn't.

Even if I didn't have any luck in the squid department, others on the boat did. Before we headed for home, the uncle cooked up a pan of squid for us. Now that's fresh seafood. The squid was really delicious, but I wasn't a huge fan of the mouthful of ink I got in one bite. I'm told that squid ink is a delicacy, but it's one that I'm willing to pass up.

The squid bucket.

Enjoying a late dinner.

On the way back, the uncle floored it so we were speeding along. That was a great feeling, buzzing along with cool wind and a few drops of water blowing in my face. The boat was pretty small, so we were very close to the water. In the dark, it almost seemed like we were flying. I love boats.

Wisdom

I went to First Presbyterian today for church. The church is only three blocks away from our apartment, so my roommate and I walked together. It was slightly cool yet very sunny. I wore my orange and brown fire scarf.

I noticed in the bulletin that they have a Bible study on Sunday nights. I've been wanting to go to a Bible study for a long time, so I decided to go. I don't know if I'll be able to keep going since I might be working on Sunday nights (more on that later), but I was happy to finally get to one.

When I first got there, I almost thought that I had mistakenly crashed a seniors Bible study, since almost all of them were older, but there was one younger lady there as well. For the first few minutes, we discussed something of vital spiritual importance: (American) football. The leader is an avid Saints fan, and she was happy that they won. I'm not really into football, but of course I support the Broncos by default, through rain or shine. Apparently it was rain this weekend.

Finally, someone passed around some little maps of the Mediterranean, signaling the start of the study. They're going through Revelation and were starting chapter two. Chapter two is a bunch of letters to the seven churches written by John, and we focused on the letter to the Ephesians.

I really enjoyed the whole study, but what stuck out to me was the end. We talked about how churches and people always err on the side of too much truth or too much love. Both things are very important, but too much of each thing isn't good. If you care a lot about truth, that's great, but you need to be careful that you present it in a loving, tactful manner. If you err on the side of love, that's awesome, but be careful that you're not glossing over the truth just to avoid conflict.

Wisdom, is the marriage of truth and love. It's knowing what is right, when's the right time to bring it up, and what's the right way to say it. That's what I want. I'm sure it'll be a lifelong process, but becoming wise is definitely on my bucket-list.

NaNoWriMo Fun

I have some exciting news to share! I've just officially signed up to be a part of NaNoWriMo! Or in layman's terms, National Novel Writing Month!

Basically, during the month of November, I will be writing a 50,000 word, most likely crappy, novel. I won't be alone, since last year there were around 200,000 participants. Of course, not everyone actually made it to the 50,000 word mark, but 30,000 of them did. So I have a good chance.

The premise of NaNoWriMo is that most people are crippled by perfectionism. When they're writing, they feel like the dialogue is cheesy and the plot is unbelievable. So they work on little sections of their writing to try to make it perfect, but they never actually get anything done. They get through fifty pages and stop.

The cure for that is writing a massive amount in a short period of time. You'll have no time to be a perfectionist. Of course, you're not going to have a wonderful, publishable novel by churning it out in one month, but at least you'll have something to work with. You can later go back and edit and cut and fix to your heart's content. Or you can trash it. Or you can move to France, hang out in cafes and say you're a novelist. Either way, I think it'll be fun.

And through this blog I've already followed some of their advice: tell everyone about it. As they wrote, "the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

I think I like these people.

Anyone want to join me? Like they say on the NaNoWriMo website, "let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together."

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Movie-death Madness

Disclaimer: I've always said I'd like a funny or exciting death. Well, maybe quick and exciting is the best. Like getting hit by an anvil that has fallen out of an airplane. That's pretty funny. Anyway, this poem is about that.

Why wish to die in sleep,

slumbering slowly away into nothing?

I don't want to die

with a whimper and sigh,

just a bang, boom, explosion

an evil witch potion

A piano falling glory

A dairy truck, white and gory.

Laughter in life and death,

A smile on still, cold lips

wetted with milk and blood.

Blindside, Finally!

Now I'm pretty settled in Siloam and just started the job hunt! I'll give you an update on that soon, but now I have something way more important to report.

I went to a Blindside concert!

If you know me at all, you probably know that they're my favorite band in the whole world. I've wanted to see them live since I was a senior in high school, and I've tried and failed to go to six of their shows. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to go to their show.

The day was a bit of a mixed bag, really. I've had bad things happen at the last several concerts I went to (wrecked car, broken wrists, getting lost for four hours, pulled over, etc.), so I was hoping this one would be ok. It was, for the most part. Of course I didn't get away scot-free. I did forget my wallet and my friend Rosey only had three bucks and cards. That was unfortunate because we had to pay for parking and didn't have enough money.

We tried to use an ATM at the venue, but it was out of order. We wandered around mainstreet trying to find another and finally found one WAY inside the Peabody hotel. That one also wasn't working, so we went back to the car to try to find change. We still didn't have enough quarters so we asked random people on the street to give us quarters for dimes. None of them could help us, but we finally got a bartender to help us out.

We finally got to the show just as the opening band started playing. They were pretty decent. After them were Intohimo and Write This Down, which were both fun. I was SO ANNOYED with the crowd. There were these awesome bands putting on a great show, and everyone around us was just standing there. Lame. Rosey and I were dancing and headbanging and having a great time. It's like everyone else felt like they had to be serious and look pissy. Terrible. It's just funny to me that all the Tulsa concerts I've been to have had WAY better crowds. What's wrong with you, Little Rock?

When Blindside finally came on, it was a little better, but there was still only around fifteen people that were actually getting into it. At least the people moved up. Freaking Arkansas.

But on the other hand, Blindside was SO GOOD! They played a bunch of great songs and Christian did some of his trademark high kicks. Awesome stuff.

Me and Rosey, post-show. I missed the silly face memo. I didn't even get any bruises, so it obviously wasn't a great crowd.

I usually don't hang around after shows, but I did this time. I got them to sign some cd art and got a picture with all of them. Christian, the lead singer, was especially cool, and we talked for a little while. They didn't have any smalls, but we hung around until the merch guy dug a medium out of the truck.

Marcus, drums.

Simon, guitar. I caught his pick!

Tomas, bass.

Christian, vocals. We were making angry faces.

After that, we loaded up on water, gas, and coffee and headed back. We got back around four, but it was totally worth it. I can now die happy.

I'm Stateside!

I arrived safely in Arizona after a long day and a frustrating experience in the San Francisco airport. I'll give more details in a later post, but now I'll just say I was glad to arrive in Pheonix.

I've had a great, relaxing time with my family. I've taken a nap almost every day! I've also filled my time with playing cards, shopping, and talking. You can't beat that.

I'm off to Colorado tomorrow, and I probably won't be able to update for a little while. I'm going to fully enjoy seeing people and visiting my hometown. I could definitely use a rest after such a busy summer!

Until then, adieu.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll love ya tomorrow. It's only a day away.

Yep, yep, I'm leaving Hong Kong tomorrow! I still have so much to do, like going to the dentist, dropping by work, finding a bracelet I left at a restaurant (cross your fingers with me), meeting up with a few people, and laundry. Oh, and my bedroom looks like a tornado hit it. Really, it kind of does. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH

But I'm excited. I'm definitely a procrastinator, so of course I haven't started packing yet. I guess I thrive on the last minute. I may have to buy a backpack if all my stuff doesn't fit in my suitcases. We'll see.

So far I'm very excited! I can't wait to see family and friends, stop feeling tall, and understand everyone around me. At the same time, I'm going to miss those things too. I like listening to Cantonese and trying to pick out a few words that I know. I'm going to miss my work, my coworkers, and my students. I'm going to miss friends and my parents and my building's friendly security guard. So I guess I'll be happy and unhappy. Hoi sum and mm hoi sum.

I am excited about the new chapter. I have no clue what it will hold, but I can't wait to find out. I know that God is guiding me in this, so I don't have to worry about it. Hey, I'm open to anything he wants!

I just hope that the plane has some good movies.

Taiwanimania: Part 4

The next day, Paul's family took us around to see some nice views and eat delicious food!

Riding in the car

I managed to get a shot of their grave houses.

We first went to a beautiful river walk. Although it was pretty hot, the river was really pretty! It reminded me a little of Grape Creek, the creek my family used to sometimes go to to play and wade in. We took a lot of pictures, and even little Pearl acted as a photographer! We finally climbed down to the edge of the creek to dip our feet in the water. That felt pretty great in the heat.

This walkway reminded me of Swiss Family Robinson.

After that we ate lunch at a Hakka restaurant. Hakka people are a group of Chinese people who speak the Hakka language. I know a couple of Hakkas or part Hakkas, so it was cool to be able to eat some traditional food. The restaurant had a nice garden with fish pond so we also wandered around taking pictures.

Hakka Delicacy

Yum yum! The one on the right is pig intestine cooked in vinegar and ginger. The shrimp were good, but I kept stabbing my mouth with their pointing, fried legs and antennae.

Fish.

When we were nice and round from the food, we went to see a famous suspension bridge. I really enjoyed looking out the window while we drove because the scenery was so great! The bridge was really pretty, especially since it was slightly overcast and cloudy around us.

I've left my mark on Taiwan.

On the other side of the bridge there was a cool little town/village with a sweet market. We looked through some shops, and I accidentally tried to use some conditioner as lotion. Yeah, that doesn't work.

Going down to the market.

Shaved ice with mango and chocolate ice cream.

Whee!

We went by the post office.

After wandering around for awhile and eating some more delicious shaved ice, we headed back home. It was a tiring but awesome day.