Where to start? Some milestone dates...
Recital - September 10
Departure - October 1
Now - October 7

The recital was great, beyond my expectation [true, I generally have no expectations for many things]. Despite my terrible piano playing, it was just fun to share about me, to just be myself! It was great to have so much support and helpers... it was great to have everyone work together [thanks for dealing with my last minute stressing, my general last-minute everything, and non-detail-orientedness! ;)] in order to make everything run as smooth as it did. Hopefully, people enjoyed themselves too! Overall, I hope it was clear that this move to Hong Kong was a long time in coming, and to me, God had paved the way to make things happen with a great job opportunity, a good time in my life and in my career, all motivated by various things including the objective to improve my Chinese, catch a glimpse of the booming Asian economy, and to participate in other professional services trips into China. I'm also affirmed by other things such as starting work with Ray, who will also be based out of Hong Kong for now and having another co-worker from Toronto join the same group as me. It has been amazing how things have panned out over the past couple of years, including having waited until now.

Further, I am simply reminded of the nature of the community of believers... thankful that through different social circles, there still exists a spiritual and eternal bond between us. I am so thankful for being blessed by so many people who have played a part in my life, in building up who I am.

Then, after the recital, it was a mission to clear out my room and get rid of any nonessentials! The beneficiary [if you can call it that ;)] of my old CA magazines was Agincourt Collegiate Institute! It was funny to visit and see a couple of old teachers who were still there (although, retiring by end of this year). I saw my old calculus and algebra teacher, Mrs. Chow, who was known to be the hardest [and of course, because I had her for both subjects, I was called "double Chow girl" as an affectionate pitying name. haha...] It was just funny to hear her teach her current class with the same tone and same lines as before ["I want you to reduce the radicals to the *general* form! *General* form!"] Too bad my old accounting teacher wasn't in!

I was able to adequately clean out my room (and pack) in good time... my old clothes will go to the Salvation Army, and all that's left in my room are mainly books, my old notes, and various stuffed animals! I also successfully re-archived my old greeting cards, which was a painful exercise of anal attentiveness. The exercise was also nostalgic as I read over various cards from different points of time in my life... one distinct phrase was for my baptism in 2000, "...if we've had an effect on your life, it's because you let us." That is how I feel in response to the many encouragements that I have received for my going away...

Then, leading up to October 1, it was a rush to finish off as much work as I could while meeting up with people, including good times of prayer. I took various days and timeslots off, but ended up going into the office on Friday, September 29, which probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. =p Oh well, I did as much as I could...! [And fortunately (or unfortunately), I care soo much about work. =p]

Now, it has been a nice time of doing nothing at all in Hong Kong! Nothing really tourist-y, good family time with my parents... funny to meet up with my mom's old friends (they left 30 years ago and have only been back 2 or 3 times) and be a good daughter, haha. No shopping yet either!

Today is the mid-autumn festival celebration and had a family dinner with my aunt and her sons.. and their kids. Came back up to the apartment after dinner for some taro (a traditional thing??), mooncake and fruit. She has a nice view to a park on her balcony... take a look at all the kids playing with electronic lights instead of lanterns [this was taken at 11pm so it was cleared out already]! Because of the danger of kids playing with fire, wax burning is now prohibited everywhere. [Now, it is 12:45am, and I *still* hear kids running around outside... ah... Chinese families, haha!]



Waking up early for another day with the Yam (or, Yan) extended family...

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.