There is something beautiful about buying your bestfriend a cake to celebrate and show how proud you are of them for standing up for themselves.
“Sometimes the best gifts are when there are no special occasions” – Ted Wu
SpeedM flickr
Day 5 HK:
Grandmother’s 71st BIG birthday bash.
Didn’t get out of the house until around noon to go eat dim sum with some of the guests coming to the party. My brother didn’t join us because of class but my little cousin with my 3rd Uncle came with my grandparents and I.
A little background about my little cousin. She’s currently 4 and an half years old. Looks extremely similar to my 3rd Uncle. (Chinese people order all aunts, uncles, relatives, etc all my numbers) Cute at times but like all kids, can be very annoying. My grandmother says she is exactly like me when I was young, but I see huge differences though. One of them being, she talks SO MUCH. My 3rd Uncle was joking with me saying that if she doesn’t get to talk, she’ll die. No wonder HK people love to talk and love being LOUD.
Dim sum was followed by Mahjohng for the guests that wanted to play. I went and got some shoes with Sophia around the Miramar centre. For some reason I had a tough time accepting studs on my shoes. I had Sophia kept questioning why. Probably because I associate studs with people that are into the rocker style, which I didn’t think would suit me very well. In the end, I got Gladiator styled shoes with the studs that turned out well. Sophia always makes me take huge leaps in terms of my fashion sense.
Headed back to Miramar centre and went to a Makeup /Salon shop where my grandmother and aunt were already getting their makeup done by Chen Mun Fei. Those not aren’t familiar with him, he’s the best makeup artist in HK and is the son of who is deemed the “Father of Makeup”. I waited for my turn to get my makeup done by him and had my hair also done by one of his students. Originally was going to have my hair put into a French Crown but then I was rearranged to just have loose curls, which still turned out nice.
Night of my grandmother’s huge birthday bash was a success and everyone had tons of fun. We had about 25 tables so that’s about 250+ people. We had to have the whole restaurant booked. You’re 71 only once right? The show never stopped. Opening was Lion Dance by one of the clubs in HK followed by presents being given to my Grandmother on stage. Tons of family photos. The food was spectacular with Shark Fin soup, Abalone, and other various dishes. We were also happy to have Sit Ka Yin, Chow Yun Fat’s mother and others come join this joyous celebration. I finally got to dig my face into some really good butt buns (sao bao). I’ve been waiting 3 years for it and relished the moment! Lots of prizes were handed out. My grandma even purposely brought over tons of Ginseng from Canada as part of the prizes. (I had no idea Canada was known for that.) We had different people perform on the stage for us while my Uncle MC’ed the whole night. It was so nice to see so many of my grandparents friends come out to see them. My grandfather even had 4 tables worth of friends that he knew from back when he worked on a UMS ship. All the ship company’s exec’s came to wish my grandmother a happy birthday and gave them a beautiful ship made out of gold. My dad’s side of the family is pretty big and all of them came. I honestly have a tough time with my brother learning what to call them by. (Western people don’t differentiate family and relatives the way the Chinese do. )The party ended late and we were all exhausted. Without going into anymore detail, all in all, everyone had a good time.
Happy Birthday Grandma.
Filed under: Life, Summer, Travelling | Tags: Hong Kong, Summer, Travelling
I think I’m done packing. But that’s what we say every time and we always end up forgetting something. Might have the same familiar feeling in a few hours. Flight is at 10a.m. with a stop over at Chicago before landing into the HK sauna. Not excited yet because we all dread the long plane hours. Time to catch whatever sleep I can get and somehow adjust to that HK time schedule. (I really don’t have a master plan so jet lag is probably inevitable.)
“Hello Hong Kong.
Why must you be so hot? “
For once I’m ordering a drink from Starbucks that isn’t to keep me awake for the rest of the day. Less taxing on the body. I also haven’t had the greatest sleep in awhile with all that caffeine addiction I’m starting to have. But studying with a cup of London Fog makes studying so much more satisfying. You feel like you’re absorbing your material everything 50% better.
Summer life has been feeling like a massive routine. To celebrate the end of the last course, BIO241, that I’m taking, Shuai and I decided to roam around aimlessly around downtown. Although we’ve both in the same course for the past 3 months, we haven’t started talking until I bumped into her with another friend at a library. Quite sad actually now that I’m learning how much we have in common.
Suddenly I shouted,
“Let’s get ice cream at Yorkville!!”
“Okay…”
While roaming around and letting our stomachs do the leading, we came across Pusateri’s. In the spur of the moment, we went in. Our tastebuds finally got a good kick out of some utterly declicious cakes. It was quite pricey for two small little pieces of cakes but totally worth it. Hmm, lemon strawberry parfait cup and chocolate truffle. Fellas, if you’re looking a way into our hearts… We continued our sugar rush on top of my already immense caffeine load and went Summer Ice Cream on Yorkville. Came out with crunchy Pistachio ice cream. I have a real liking for it now. It’s really different from the other ice cream in terms of sweetness, flavour and texture. Inulgence & calories… Oh no… Guilty feeling coming. Without realizing, our workout came to us quite quickly as we also decided at the moment to go to the AGO all the way from Yorkville. Yes, the stairs killed.
One thing that makes me somewhat admire contemporary art is how I simply sometimes cannot interpret whatever the artist was trying to convey. But you can’t help it, you’re so science oriented. I remember having a late conversation with Ted expressing my frustration sometimes with art. (Please note that this was really late and I had already been studying 8 hours straight for my exam. Random rantings helps me relieve stress. Basically, I don’t hate art is what I’m trying to say.)
“You know what I hate also… Art”
“…”
“I hate when they always give me a blank canvas and expect me to find the answer
Damn art.”
One of my many rantings during that night which turn out to be a comedy show for Ted. But as you can tell now, I’m continuing to type for the sake of something to do. Studying does crazy things to you I tell ya.
Let’s all fly away.
Filed under: Christianity, Life, school | Tags: Christianity, Life, Rob Bell, school
After 5 days of freedom from my last exam in early may, I kicked myself straight back into school for the summer and some massive volunteering. I am thoroughly excited in taking bio during this summer as I am really developing an interest in the material that’s being taught. The more I dive into the sciences, the more I am struck with awe of the whole complexity. Volunteering has been a thrill learning all the techniques and especially the jargon. My summer has been busy and exciting in the educational aspect but I am pushing myself towards exhaustion.
Rushing from one place to another, I’ve began to plan things around myself, a lot. It’s easy to justify your faults especially arriving late with such a tight schedule that you have made the effort because you did indeed ‘rush’. But really, the highest priority on the list is none other than yourself. It’s not far from a person that is self-absorbed. It incredibly easy to get lost in your hectic schedule that you being to forget the meaning of all and your priorities. I think I almost lost sight of it until Ted pointed it out to me. Selfishness is one of the things that I struggle to admit because I am in a strong denial that I don’t care about others more than myself. Evolutionary speaking, it is inherent for us to be selfish for our own survival, the whole idea of ‘darwinian fitness’. That doesn’t cut it. Altruism does exist among those that may or may not be related with expected benefits for both parties. But I believe in selflessness that doesn’t involve calculating the costs and benefits and this is something that I’m trying to learn as a growing Christian. The more I analyze the little details of my life, I can see the little subtle things that I do and unknowingly do as a habit that really is selfish. As stubborn as I am sometimes to change when I am given the opportunities to learn selflessness, I am repenting and working on it.
I’m beginning to realize how important it is to take a day of Sabbath to really help recharge and put your life back into the right perspective. It’s a time to really let yourself tune out all of that noise in your life and really listen for His voice. As students, we’re so caught up and worried about our GPA and planning our future career that our achievements become our worth. We become defined by our marks, wealth, our prestigious professions and successes. What is left of you when all of that is stripped away? Naked in shame? I am learning to not let myself be defined by my successes because I am not only setting my expectations on a higher pedestal but I’m creating this ‘SuperYi-Min’ that I begin to live by. Failing to achieve it will make you depressed, frustrated, and perhaps more driven to get it. What’s even worse is when your parents create this superwhatever for you and set this as your own goal. dYou will become exhausted, burned out, fall hard on your failures all to attain such an unhealthy and superficial goal. It’s beyond discouraging. Your superwhatever will kill you. The meaning of my life is not defined by my SuperYi-Min. Should yours?
“And the only way to not be killed by it is to shoot it first. Yes, that is what I meant to write. You have to kill your superwhatever. And you have to do it right now. Because your superwhatever will rob you of today and tomorrow and the next day until you take it out back and end its life. Go do it.” – Rob Bell from Velvet Elvis
Goodbye SuperYi-Min.
At 2am in the morning,
- still suffering from my terrible sleeping schedule (sleeping at 2-4a.m. and waking up at 12-2pm)
- brooding over upcoming exams (I don’t end until May 6th, damn U of T)
- trying to be productive by cleaning up my desk
- being proud of my brother’s Grease performance tonight at VPCI as Vince Fontaine!
- craving for a fish fillet sandwich from Wendy’s but they don’t have it anymore !
- counting down the number of days until May 6th
- watching my dog sleep and snore, it can get amusing
- wanting to do more nifty & crafty projects
- becoming less and less coherent
- sleep is kicking in, but not after some “Eclipse” reading (and no I am not a hardcore fan)
Filed under: Life
For the past two days my knees have been experiencing those really crappy days where I can’t walk without a noticeable limp. Sitting on the subway yesterday to head to school, I began to brood over my knees and prospect of reinjuring it. A couple of stations later, a lady sat beside with something huge on her back. At first I though she was carrying some funky looking bag from the corner of my eye. Well, whatever I thought it was happened to be the mother carrying her baby on her back. Catching a few glimpses of the baby, I observed his mother looked white (no racial discrimination intended), but the little baby seemed to mixed with a hint of asian. Regardless, the baby had nice black hair and pink rosy cheeks from the cold. I decided to mind my own buisness until I felt something tugging on my arm. The baby boy stared at me with this adorable “curious” look of his. I smiled back. He giggled and hid his face in his mother’s chest. I gave him my finger to hold and he kept playing “shy” with me. I think my heart almost melted. His mother laughed and commented he just loves attention. Never really had an experience where I was ever overwhelmed by a baby’s cuteness. Definitelywarmed up my heart and almost forgot that I was brooding a few minutes ago. Did my little goodbye to the baby and walked out thinking, “I admit defeat to that baby’s cuteness”.
I didn’t realize just how much practicality there was in writing my extended essay on William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. It wasn’t until I encountered my own problems and using a more objective observation were all the parallels revealed to me. As a kid, we grow up in a sheltered world that our parents provide and try to live the life that they guide us through. Lyca, from The Little Girl Lost, wants to all asleep around a lion which, according to the parents, is malicious and will eat her alive. But Lyca shows how sometimes we should just rely on our instincts and trust what we believe and rather what our parents say. Her parents asks how she can even sleep if she is in danger. (more…)
