Much has happened in the past week and sorry for not blogging… but here goes part of it!

Rather than blog for the sake of chronological order, I’m just going to blog about the past two days because it’s relatively fresh in my memory; I’ll get to the rest eventually, I hope. =p

My siblings arrived in HK on the night of the 17th. The 18th was taken up by our cousin’s wedding. On the 19th, I went to service at the Evangelical Community Church (ECC), which included seeing Bonnie, Freddie, and Vonne:



Afterwards, I went immediately home to meet up with my family to go to the airport for our 5-day Fuk-kien province tour. So I’ll talk about the tour later… but we arrived back in Hong Kong late on the 23rd. The next morning, of course, was Christmas Eve.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…

The weather in Hong Kong has been about 18 to 25 degrees Celsius. =) So warm weather coupled with the fact that we all got off a flight late on the 23rd, Christmas Eve felt kind of weird and premature; it didn’t feel like Christmas Eve at all.

This is the first time my siblings have been in Hong Kong, and because of the tour, the only time that they actually had to walk around the city was before our cousin’s wedding banquet in Causeway Bay for a couple of hours. So we did a lot of shopping on Christmas Eve in the daytime, in time for a Choi-side family dinner that was planned in advance. My aunt arranged for us to attend a “snake” night [seah-yeen] that is organized every year by a union. So we had dinner in the union headquarters (there were about 13-14 tables there), and we occupied a full table.

It was great fun – the organizers had a lucky draw of which 4 members of our table won. The prizes were very normal everyday products (we won socks, tupperware, hand-cloth with other fish soup cooking bags, and a vacuum-seal bag) but I thought it was a great idea to create a fun atmosphere.

The “snake” night means that we ate snake… we started off with THREE bowls of snake soup. As usual with multi-course Chinese dinners, due to my relatively slower eating pace, it gets to be stressful, and this was no exception. The snake soup was great, nonetheless. =) And then a number of other dishes that had snake in it. One of the dishes, the snake was chopped up and fried (not the best pieces because the meat would have already gone into the soup). But in this dish, my cousin found a surprise… can you guess what it is?



She initially thought it was the tail of the snake. However, the conclusion was that the snake carried a fetus and it was an unborn snake – even worse. =p

Of course, the evening couldn’t end without a live snake for pictures, and also tasting of snake wine, plus a few individuals got to taste the gall bladder, arguably the most expensive part of any snake. Here’s my sister, who was quite squirmy even just to be the photographer, so it’s quite incredible that she held it. I chickened out in the end. =p



Christmas Eve in Chinese is called [ping on yeah / ping an yea] (Night of Peace). Ironically, it’s one of the rowdiest nights of the year – the MTR (subway) ran through the entire night.

My family was no exception – near the end of the evening, the idea of going to Shenzhen, China sprang up. The idea was fuelled by my aunt (from Toronto), who was due to fly home on the 28th so she wanted to make one last trip there before leaving. However, I (with my siblings) was also to meet up with the UW HK people at Tsim Sha Tsui that night (one of the most happening places in Hong Kong), so I planned to head to Shenzhen after meeting up with them. Mind you, it was around 10:45pm when I stepped out of the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.

It turns out that an estimated 500,000 were in Tsim Sha Tsui that night. Of course, my siblings and I joined the crowd for a bit, as I was to meet the bunch of UW HK people there. The Hong Kong young crowd just likes the crowds. People were just in Tsim Sha Tsui to be with the crowds… it wasn’t moving. So I didn’t end up meeting up with UW HK people, because I couldn’t find where they were, and we were just trying to *move*. Eventually, we found our way to transportation and got home at 12am. [Thank God – we caught the last train going north.] The last bus to my uncle’s in Tuen Mun (where the rest of my Choi extended family were gathering to go to Shenzhen) was 12:28. Still had enough time to pack and catch the bus.

My mom didn’t like the idea of rushing from the very start, and we had a Yam family dinner to catch the next day (Christmas), so we would only have a few hours to shop in Shenzhen. So despite the major rushing and still even being able to make it, I was a good girl and decided to stay home that night. Although, if we went, the story potential was great, illustrating extreme maximization of time, not to mention crazy spontaneous plans on Christmas Eve not just by me, but by my extended family!.

Staying home, however, I did end up getting some quiet time, which caught up with me when we were rushing home – there were carollers outside of the subway station on the way home, which was a very timely reminder. Christmas is HUGE in Hong Kong – Christmas music everywhere… Santa hats everywhere… life-size Santa mannequins that dance rock-and-roll everywhere [I actually find them quite freaky]… the true meaning of Christmas in the birth of Jesus Christ is lost. Increasingly in all places now, I guess.

So I am very thankful that I got to have that bit of quiet time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas Eve on this [ping on yeah]… definitely difficult to experience in this City of Life.

Now for Christmas Day… =) But later; you’ve read enough if you’ve read all of this!!

Merry Christmas!

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam. =)

Hey hey!

Quick message from the province of Fuk-kien in China -- we're on a "cultural" tour for a few days and will return to Hong Kong tomorrow. No, there's no fried rice here.. just... simple foods. =p

My cousin's wedding was great... great to see a lot of my family together. Holding a wedding in Hong Kong is somewhat more complicated because practically no one has a car -- so getting around in formal wear is arranged by the organizers and/or people aren't *that* dressed up.

Also, the fashions in this year are dresses that resemble drapery, with a lot of furs... fur collars, fur shawls... you name it. =p

Hong Kong - City of Life - Day 2

*Yes*! No jet lag!

No caffeine either -- so was tired here and there, but guess it's for the better that I get used to it...

However, there *are* 34 Starbucks locations in Hong Kong now! 4 years ago, there were only 5!

Hong Kong, City of Life – Day 1

Just got in not long ago! It's great to be back, although still kind of feels surreal that I'm here... The last time was about 4 years ago!

I left yesterday in a rush at 5:00am (didn't expect to leave that early =p) with no sleep... which I think is generally a good tactic to beat jetlag. However, the travel time was LONG. We stopped over in Chicago and in Tokyo, and although the layovers weren't too long (1.5 hours in Chicago and 2 hours in Tokyo – we were delayed), the wait times weren't too bad overall, considering the number of delays experienced lately...), the total travel time came to about 24 hours! Guess that's the price to pay in return for a cheaper ticket. So basically, for the past 24 hours, I have been sleeping, waking up to eat, and sleeping again! I feel fat!!! [Although I *did* end up studying for a little bit, while watching Catwoman...] I guess my point was, hopefully I get to sleep tonight after sleeping for the past day, in order for my efforts to beat jetlag to work. If travel time was 15 hours, I would be fine!

In Chicago, I enjoyed my last North American peppermint mocha from Starbucks for the year. [Apparently, they *are* available year-end, just promoted around Christmas time... but that's dangerous to know.] I need to see where the Starbucks are around HK... because I'll be dying! I can't stand the HK style coffees, and don't know if I can wean off of coffee in 3 weeks. At least, this will be good practice for lent, which I intend to do again for coffee. When I did work term here, I actually stopped drinking coffee except for social reasons!

Anyway, I'm off to bed -- and if I can't sleep, I'll work on the Pharma SRM! =P [I really did intend to work on it on the plane.]

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Rush... rush... rushing to the airport...

Will be blogging from Hong Kong -- assuming I can find a connection!

=)

Ok... I won't be able to practically hide this any longer:

I bought a new car.

Yes, it's exciting and all, but I'm still coming to terms with it... mainly because I still feel kind of guilty about such a frivolous purchase; perhaps I feel like I need to explain, for some reason...

Anyway, I'm not trying to rationalize or anything, but these are just my sentiments:

This car is definitely a gift from God; only by his grace and mercy. As with any gift, there is a corresponding responsibility, so I am reminded of the importance of stewardship, not only regarding financial matters but of all aspects of my life, including fellowship and my missions initiative. This made me think about second year when I was one of the few people fortunately to have a car at university, and how much I cared to use it for His service. In addition, I am reminded of being a witness -- like the words of Nichole Nordemann's "Legacy".

Haha, when I picked it up last week, I thought about the phrase of picking up "my new baby". Similarly though, I wanted to lay hands on it and dedicate it as any baby dedication we do at church. Even though I didn't do the "lay hands" part, it was my prayer that the car remain in God's protection (especially with my novice manual transmission driving skills!) and that it be dedicated for His service.

So all that being said, please do not dote on my car... as tempting it is to decorate the cute car... haha... but even though I bought it because I thought it looked nice, it's a conscious decision not to emphasize it more than my usual "everything's not a big deal". After all, it is only matter:

"It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon
enough destroy."
Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Can't wait to get back in Toronto...

Travelling is fun and all, but it can't beat spending time with family and friends... not that my coworkers aren't fun. =p

Going to sunny Irvine... haha...

after rainy Seattle!

I cleaned my room again! It feels great! I figured out the trick is to get as much stuff out of my room. =p I bought a CD rack from IKEA and was going to house my CD's, but it turned out that it didn't really fit (it was really tall) so I put it downstairs in the living room. Oh well, that's great! The less in my room the better!

I found my colour file folders that I bought last year to do our taxes!! I was really excited because I really needed them to do our taxes this year (which I ended up dragging out because I didn't have the right colours). But now, I am ready to do our taxes for 2004!

The file folders are hidden in my stack of CA (Chartered Accountant) magazines... which I have not sorted since 2000. So now, I have a full set of UFE (Uniform Final Exam -- the exam for the CA designation) syllabi since 2000, including the Guide to the new CA Accredidation process, so that you can compare the changes in the UFE over the past 4 years! Anyone? Anyone? This can be a collector's set! =p

Now that my stationery, files, and media are somewhat more organized... onto my clothes... which theoretically would entail the many hours required to iron my shirts... well, I'll do it *sometime*...

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

I'm back home! But need to go to bed to make our Financial Reporting Developments session early tomorrow morning in Mississauga...

But here is the count of my experience today in Chicago!

I am now in Chicago airport waiting to board my plane home. I was going to complain about my terrible service at dinner, but by God's grace, another story came up that completely trumps the horrible service:

Tonight, at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, they were playing Chinese opera over the public announcement system.

I, of course, thought this phenomenon was thoroughly entertaining not to mention ridiculously hilarious, and despite futile efforts, tried *very* hard not to burst out laughing out while walking around the terminal. At all other times I couldn't stop smiling hilariously. At least I (and all other Chinese people, somewhat embarrassedly =p) knew the truth behind the high, screeching, melismatic voice, complete with instrumental and cymbal clanging. While I was eating dinner, I'm sure people were wondering why I was smiling so much -- and no, The Epic of Gilgamesh is not a comedy.

Seeing a number of people imitate the high, melismatic screeching, including the security check people, made it even harder to smother my laugh.

I wondered if there was a live performance somewhere or another reason for the music, and walked around Gate B looking for the musicians, but without any luck. I guess the performance might have been at the international gate and not at the United domestic/Canada gate, or for whatever reason, the responsible person just thought that he/she would play such exotic culture, or perhaps got away with playing his or her favourite music.

Finally, I went and laughed out loud in the washroom.

Until next time, (in Toronto!) my name is Gladys Yam. Haha...

Okay! I'm back tonight...

Flight UA 1112 leaving ORD at 21.00 arriving YYZ at 23.37!

Looking forward to be back home!

As a "good Chinese tourist", of *course* I have to visit all universities. Jase is pursuing her doctorate at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal (about 45 minutes away from Urbana-Champaign). The campus is about the size of UW, *except* that there is abundant student housing:



This is Waterson Towers, a student residence with a capacity of 2000 students!

Jase took me around Peoria, another nearby city. Here's a picture by the riverfront.



Yes, quite a windy day!

I've arrived at my friend's house in Bloomington-Normal, about two hours outside of Chicago!

I met Jase (short for Jaselyn.. I really like her name) at Urbana, when we were put into the same small group. It was really cool... I guess we were "older" than the rest of the undergrads in the group and I guess we have similar personalities that we got along.

I'll be home on Sunday night though... =)

Oh... mourning the loss of my UW email and hosting account. =p Guess it was bound to happen!

Yam goes midwest...

In deciding what to do during our only weekend here, we thought we'd go to the mall, seeing that there isn't a whole lot to do here otherwise. Originally, we were going to go out at 11, but my coworker had to get some other work done, so we pushed it back to 2-3pm.

..which was great because I had 3 hours to "see the city" on my own. So I headed out to see "O"...not the Cirque de Soleil show, but "O" Street.

Downtown Lincoln consists of a square of area bounded by about 9th Ave to 14th Ave from the west to the east, and "K" Street to "Q" Street from south to the north. Our hotel is on "P" Street.

I feel like I'm in kindergarten. On one hand, the lack of imagination of this city's planners is somewhat mind-boggling, on the other, at least literacy must be at a decent level because everyone *must* know the alphabet, and probably don't need to sing through the "ABC" song to figure out whether they need to advance to the north or to the south -- especially if going backwards in the alphabet. Okay, I'm mean. =p

But seriously, quick, how many blocks and in which direction should you walk if you want to get from P Street to L Street? No singing! Haha... It's not that easy!

It was a beautiful sunny day today, a stark contrast to yesterday's incredibly windy yet warm and humid weather -- midwest twister weather? Perhaps.

So I headed out towards the University of Nebraska at Lincoln to the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery on campus. It was one of the few attractions that I cared to see in my thorough reading of the "Lincoln" tourist magazine, which we read in detail at the airport while waiting for our third team member's hour-delayed arrival on Monday.

The gallery has a number of outdoor installations and three indoor galleries. I liked the David Ireland special exhibit... otherwise, nothing else really caught my eye.

The installation on the steps to the entrance, however, will not be missed by *anyone's* eye:



It's called "Fallen Dreamer" by Tom Otterness.

During my visit, I talked to the reception guy, who looked bored out of his mind because who really goes to the art gallery on campus? I asked him about about other "attractions" in Lincoln; the other main thing I wanted to see was the Nebraska State Capitol. Apparently it was within walking distance so after completing the gallery, I took the 15 minute walk through the quiet Lincoln downtown.

Apparently, the Nebraska State Capitol is an "architectural masterpiece that embodies the union of art, architecture, and humanism." Too bad it wasn't open until 1pm -- I got there at 12.30pm. Instead of waiting around, I thought I'd head back to see more of the university. Besides, I'd took my pictures like a good Chinese tourist:



On the top of the tower is a "sower", illustrating the importance of the city/state's agricultural background. In fact, from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln's campus map, in the "East" campus, there is a "tractor testing track". You don't see those at all universities. =p

Speaking of architecture, from the little tidbits that I've learned from my friends' architecture classes from U of T, apparently, the "silo" is even an architectural marvel, combining the practical aspect of it (i.e., storage) into different designs. I thought of that because of this, integrating that design into a different (i.e., church) architectural design:



Another design at the university that I kind of enjoyed:



It reminded me of the Leaning Tower of Pisa mixed with Toronto City Hall mixed with the structure in Toronto-Dominion Centre.

On the walk back uptown, I saw "The Cornhusker Hotel":



Just one of the many "Cornhusker"-named entities in the city. =) Back at the art gallery, I took the elevator:



The elevator ride was very uncomfortable. I've seen these type of designs in spaces that attempt to reduce noise, but for people who have (really strong!) astigmatism like myself, it's really bad! Thank goodness it was only a one-floor ride -- I would have gone crazy.

After that, I went back to the hotel to meet up with my coworkers to go to the open-air mall -- kind of like how our outlet malls are, but with normal stores. There wasn't a whole lot there though, we all bought something from Banana Republic, but that's pretty much it.

For dinner we went to "Carlos O'Kelly's", a Mexican food place. We've had Mexican food *four* times this week -- I don't think I've had so much Mexican food in such a period of time. Not complaining though... it was pretty good.

In the evening, we watched "The Manchurian Candidate" at a nearby theatre -- $2!!! Even cheaper than Rainbow Theatres with the exchange! =) The movie was not bad... although I guess I wasn't ready to take in such intensive drama... it was kind of disturbing.

Tomorrow, I plan to go to service and then probably go do some more shopping. =p

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

I finally finished the deliverables due for a "night shift" client. So I figure that I can now get started on my real objective for these two weeks of reading through a good chunk of Isaiah.

So what better place to read and study than the local Starbucks. And so I headed out with my trusty Clie in hand (I have the Bible on it ; ) ). Not to mention the coffee shop atmosphere is great for (backlogged) blogging. I'm kind of proud of myself: I *never* go out alone [insecurity issues], but it's hard to otherwise when no one is here! Oh yes, Nebraska!

Can you believe there is only *one* studious student here? Actually, my team and I noticed -- this is a university town, but we don't see any students! We even drove through the campus... and it isn't as if we're in holidays now... unless everyone is studying at home?? Right... What a weird city/town. =p

Back to reading... Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Blog 10.17.2004

On the way to Lincoln, Nebraska, this time for 2 weeks. Fun, fun... My coworker and I were delayed in Chicago for 2 hours! So we are finally on our way at 10pm, Central Standard Time. Looking forward to getting some rest, although I have a feeling I will be quite sore tomorrow from carrying all my bags today.

I can't sleep for some reason, (might be the Starbucks,) so thought I'd blog on my resurrected first generation Sony Clie. At least the cover on this handheld is cooler than any others on the market, despite the handheld itself. =p Wow, I just realized I have on me all 3 Carey Wan items... This was the predominant method of creating my old Hong Kong blog (now offline!) during my work term there, *way* before Blogger even started. ; ) Hey, I've got to make normally non-value-added travelling time value-added somehow. Too bad no phone calls on the plane. =p

The snacks that we got on this flight are called "Plane Cheesy"... Cheese snacks shaped like... you got it, airplanes. Har har har... plane cheesy? Plane cheesy. =p

I don't have anything to study for this time in Lincoln... Hoping to try to cover a chunk of Isaiah since I've been trying to read it for a while. Hopefully I won't spend to many late nights working in my hotel room, typical of most local site audits. My client seems very capable though: He's young for a controller at 31. (We were all deducing the last time we were here, in case you were wondering!) It's hard to imagine he's been through a divorce. The other contact for the consolidated division has been through a divorce as well. What a culture...

Hopefully after 2 weeks I won't gain that much weight. Oh yeah, I think my weight increase after the cruise was 1 pound -- I've been within the same 5 pound range for the past 10 years. However, how it *feels* on me is a different issue, and I won't gross you out with that here. =p

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Thanksgiving dinner was great! No turkey.. just crab... and duck... and chicken... and fish... typical Chinese dinner!

And we did the typical extended family dinner: kids play mah-jongg, parents sing karaoke and/or practice ballroom dancing in the basement -- sometimes both at the same time. In order to do both at the same time, there are karaoke videos which even specify the type of dance of the song!

After some mah-jongg, we were too distracted by Bishi Bashi 2 -- an ultimate party videogame... oh, those crazy Japanese people... =)

Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, Janey's thorough discussion of the cruise can be found here. But beware, her views are biased!!!

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Back home...

It's always nice to land in YYZ. Toronto is great. Even though the character of this city pales in comparison to cities like New York or Shanghai, and even though the trip might have been great, it's an unbeatable feeling to come home.

Originally, I would still be in Miami now with the others, but decided to come back early because of some circumstances, and mainly because I wanted to have some family time this Thanksgiving weekend when my sister is back.

And I praise God for always "working things out"... last night, when I was boarding the plane in Miami, I realized that I'd have time to catch the tail-end of Wayne and Jess's banquet, so frantically called around to find out the location just as the plane was leaving. I ended up getting to their wedding by midnight (I landed at 10:30 or so). I've been kicking myself for missing the two of their jack and jill's this year because of circumstances, not to mention miss the wedding proper, but thank God for giving me the chance to meet up with them even as their night was ending. Congratulations!! =)

Family dim sum is quite the event. It's one of the main reasons why I came back early... my sister (she's at McGill) often comes back to make the Sunday morning dim sum. It's pretty hilarious:

1. Technically, it's a dim sum relay. My parents and my aunt and uncle go early at 9:30am because the prices are discounted (in order to retain the "elderly" dim sum going crowd). By 11am, the prices are back to normal for the "normal" Sunday dim sum crowd. But by then, our table is full with food for the entire morning.

My mom is a health care worker and organises her client time around dim sum, so usually she comes at 11am and leaves at 12 to 1 pm between clients.

I usually make it after church at 11am.

My brother Albert makes it after Kendo at 12pm.

My brother Edward makes it when I wake him up after church, if at all.

In between, my uncle sometimes picks up my cousin from home when she wakes up in the late morning.

So from 9:30 to 1pm, we occupy the table with people going in and out.

2. There's a normal dim sum routine:

First, we play the "who can spot the parents first" game in the restaurant. We win when we spot them before the entire table is waving their arms wildly in the restaurant.

Second, we eat the same thing every time including pigs' feet and egg in a ginger sauce, soya milk and fried dough fritter, [mah lai goh], literally translated as "horse-pulled cake", and [baak fan yu], literally translated as "white rice fish".

The trick for [mah lai goh] is that the best piece are the "high" "outer" pieces. And the cake has to be yellow/brown enough. We need to take a look at the quality of the cake first.

The [baak fan yu] is individually slightly fried in batter. The game that goes with this "don't move the fish". Basically, remember the game pick-up sticks? Well, especially if we don't use communal chopsticks, it would be discourteous to touch the rest of the fish with your chopsticks. But the fish are all fried and sometimes stuck together that it's difficult to pick up only one fish -- hence the game.

Third, the family time sometimes continues into the evening when everyone comes over for dinner, and then we have our dinner routine... =) Which I will explain later, haha.

-----

My sister brought her Quebecois boyfriend from Montreal, and I still laugh about her explanation of [tza leung]: "It's a... fried dough that's wrapped in... a different steamed dough. Really, it's just two types of dough."

Haha, still makes me laugh thinking about that. Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Vacation time on the big boat!

Gone cruising with Janey, Ina and some of Ina's friends (not to mention Janey's parents. =p)

And yes... I've got internet.. =p