OK.
So I guess you can say i've finally got just over a week left before I return! I'm soo happy.
Not only is that good news, I'm finally taking my official first day off tomorrow. And the best part is, I'm taking 2 days off. YAY!!!
I'm planning to hit the beach tomorrow but forecasts say that it'll be raining all day... Well, hopefully that wont happen cuz then I'll be wondering the streets on a day off doing nothing but shopping?? lol
I dont want to shop anymore. I will have like no room in my luggage. I wanna buy a new phone but its so expensive!!!! grrrrr but whatever. maybe it'll be better if I didn't buy a new phone. we'll see. I'll ahve to see if it's really worth the price and tax... hahaha
Anyways, beach and massage are my plans tomorrow. Doing my final recording of our song from Sichuan called "One Family" on friday. Hopefully I'll be able to concentrate on those Mandarin words hahaha I already forgot. I'm so excited for the recording I can't wait. Not only will i be able to do that, I get to meet Tiff for the 1st time in 4 years!!! AHAHAH SOOO LONG. WOOT. talk about reunion.
That's the plan, camp starts saturday so long stressful journey before I come home. Till tomorrow!
7.22.2009
7.19.2009
2 more WEEKS!!!!
Ok... The final stretch is on its way. 2 weeks and I'm FINALLY home!!! YAY
SOOOO Excited!!!!!
So here's my story this past week or whenever I stopped writing last... July 13?? ahaha
Ok. So rehearsals all last week went pretty well. Guess it was all the time I spent at the piano practicing diligently :D. Proud?? cuz I am. hehe I literally spent 4 hours every day practicing the songs I had to play and sing for the upcoming morning assembly with Rachel and next weeks LA Camp. Ok, I have to admit, the singing and playing part isn't quite down yet for some songs, but I'm 87% there. Close enough right?? It's passable for me.
Not only did rehearsals go great, everything else started to seem to slow down just a tad and things were starting to get checked off the checklist. The artwork, drawings, music were coming along relatively fast and I guess I can now kinda relax because I most certainly need it. The week did go by slightly slower than usual probably because I was also slowing down. Stress and work were starting to take its toll and I can see it in my body and my muscles are definitely not cooperating. A stiff bed doesn't really help a much needed good night sleep either.
Well I also certainly had a nice break yesterday. July 18 was a good day because I got to go to Ocean Park again, but this time I could actually relate and have a little more fun than the first time I went. I got to spend the day with another co-worker/volunteer and her co-workers which was absolutely hilarious. Even though I did get many calls from work saying that they've hoisted a level 1 Typhoon warning, I still ignored them and continued on to enjoy my day. It seriously was hot, stuffy and humid but that didn't stop us from doing our best to fit in the rides and the water exhibit they were having.
Since I went on the equivalent "Drop of Doom" last time, we hit up a different set of rides. The mine train and log ride were the first two along with lunch before they hoisted a level 3 typhoon warning around 2pm. They shut down all outside rides which means they basically shut down Ocean Park. It wasn't that bad I supposed. We still got to see the pandas and other animals in their exhibits inside which I loved to see yet again and they were actually active this time too lol. I missed out on the Drop of Doom and sky rollercoaster but that's quite alright.
We finished off the day with a very wet water park. It was crowded but a lot of people went home and we only really needed to wait in line to have some water fun for about 10 min. They had the most entertaining indoor/outdoor water park fun I've seen. I most definitely enjoyed it especially when an unexpected water balloon comes flying at you unexpectedly. lol Just because I look dry doesn't mean I'm wet... lol Well the best part about the water park was that the typhoon hit when we were playing. WICKED!!! so even if you didn't want to get wet, you still did. I think it was relative to about Typhoon 5. Winds were pretty bad and rain was literally spraying sideways. I enjoyed it hahaha as awkward as it is.
Anyways, we left around 630 since there was nothing else to do and that basically concludes the day.
Today, Sunday July 19, I woke up to a very very wet bedroom. Yes the typhoon carried its way all through the night and I was informed that it hit a level 9 typhoon. Perhaps that would explain the 5cm deep water layer across my floor. Luckily for me, it only reached the first couple feet of my room. Any further and I could be swimming :D. I guess I was so tired that I didn't realize that it was pounding outside and I had a harbour view.
I don't think they cleaned my room yet so I believe I'll be going back to a lovely wet room. I had a very relaxing day especially when basically 10 people came to help finish everything. Painting, sculptures, sheets, and fishes were finally done! You have NO IDEA how happy I am to see fishes done. 104 fishes were made. I made 60... hahaha WOOT. Anyways, that and music is now all sorted. All i need to do is focus on what I'm going to share on and I'll be finally done, until tomorrow I get more unexpected news.
I'm taking thursday off whether my employer likes it or not because I need a day to rest and get outside of the office area. Hopefully it'll be slightly relaxing and maybe some good weather so I could possibly hit the beach?? Well This week should be relatively less stressful and I hope it will be because next week I get to run with the camp. YAY!
Oh, I get a roommate starting tomorrow night! Guess I better clean the room and make sure that the water is gone. I think it might ruin the floor... Oh well.
Anyways, 2 weeks till I come home. This time I'll actually start to blog every day till I get home! YAY can't wait to be home.
I just saw recent pictures of Calgary from a friend who one the Nissan Cube. I might be a couple weeks late but I sure miss the slow rolling clouds, blue/orange/pink/red sky; Calgary traffic; the sounds; less people; waking up to a sunrise; sigh. So close and yet so far away. So much to do too when I get back AHHH
lol
Anyways, worry about this week before I get home. Perhaps I should also worry about my 2 medium sized luggage supporting all the stuff i have to horde back... I think 1 large and 1 medium is about the amount i have to bring back... hahaha We'll see when i start packing later next week.
SOOOO Excited!!!!!
So here's my story this past week or whenever I stopped writing last... July 13?? ahaha
Ok. So rehearsals all last week went pretty well. Guess it was all the time I spent at the piano practicing diligently :D. Proud?? cuz I am. hehe I literally spent 4 hours every day practicing the songs I had to play and sing for the upcoming morning assembly with Rachel and next weeks LA Camp. Ok, I have to admit, the singing and playing part isn't quite down yet for some songs, but I'm 87% there. Close enough right?? It's passable for me.
Not only did rehearsals go great, everything else started to seem to slow down just a tad and things were starting to get checked off the checklist. The artwork, drawings, music were coming along relatively fast and I guess I can now kinda relax because I most certainly need it. The week did go by slightly slower than usual probably because I was also slowing down. Stress and work were starting to take its toll and I can see it in my body and my muscles are definitely not cooperating. A stiff bed doesn't really help a much needed good night sleep either.
Well I also certainly had a nice break yesterday. July 18 was a good day because I got to go to Ocean Park again, but this time I could actually relate and have a little more fun than the first time I went. I got to spend the day with another co-worker/volunteer and her co-workers which was absolutely hilarious. Even though I did get many calls from work saying that they've hoisted a level 1 Typhoon warning, I still ignored them and continued on to enjoy my day. It seriously was hot, stuffy and humid but that didn't stop us from doing our best to fit in the rides and the water exhibit they were having.
Since I went on the equivalent "Drop of Doom" last time, we hit up a different set of rides. The mine train and log ride were the first two along with lunch before they hoisted a level 3 typhoon warning around 2pm. They shut down all outside rides which means they basically shut down Ocean Park. It wasn't that bad I supposed. We still got to see the pandas and other animals in their exhibits inside which I loved to see yet again and they were actually active this time too lol. I missed out on the Drop of Doom and sky rollercoaster but that's quite alright.
We finished off the day with a very wet water park. It was crowded but a lot of people went home and we only really needed to wait in line to have some water fun for about 10 min. They had the most entertaining indoor/outdoor water park fun I've seen. I most definitely enjoyed it especially when an unexpected water balloon comes flying at you unexpectedly. lol Just because I look dry doesn't mean I'm wet... lol Well the best part about the water park was that the typhoon hit when we were playing. WICKED!!! so even if you didn't want to get wet, you still did. I think it was relative to about Typhoon 5. Winds were pretty bad and rain was literally spraying sideways. I enjoyed it hahaha as awkward as it is.
Anyways, we left around 630 since there was nothing else to do and that basically concludes the day.
Today, Sunday July 19, I woke up to a very very wet bedroom. Yes the typhoon carried its way all through the night and I was informed that it hit a level 9 typhoon. Perhaps that would explain the 5cm deep water layer across my floor. Luckily for me, it only reached the first couple feet of my room. Any further and I could be swimming :D. I guess I was so tired that I didn't realize that it was pounding outside and I had a harbour view.
I don't think they cleaned my room yet so I believe I'll be going back to a lovely wet room. I had a very relaxing day especially when basically 10 people came to help finish everything. Painting, sculptures, sheets, and fishes were finally done! You have NO IDEA how happy I am to see fishes done. 104 fishes were made. I made 60... hahaha WOOT. Anyways, that and music is now all sorted. All i need to do is focus on what I'm going to share on and I'll be finally done, until tomorrow I get more unexpected news.
I'm taking thursday off whether my employer likes it or not because I need a day to rest and get outside of the office area. Hopefully it'll be slightly relaxing and maybe some good weather so I could possibly hit the beach?? Well This week should be relatively less stressful and I hope it will be because next week I get to run with the camp. YAY!
Oh, I get a roommate starting tomorrow night! Guess I better clean the room and make sure that the water is gone. I think it might ruin the floor... Oh well.
Anyways, 2 weeks till I come home. This time I'll actually start to blog every day till I get home! YAY can't wait to be home.
I just saw recent pictures of Calgary from a friend who one the Nissan Cube. I might be a couple weeks late but I sure miss the slow rolling clouds, blue/orange/pink/red sky; Calgary traffic; the sounds; less people; waking up to a sunrise; sigh. So close and yet so far away. So much to do too when I get back AHHH
lol
Anyways, worry about this week before I get home. Perhaps I should also worry about my 2 medium sized luggage supporting all the stuff i have to horde back... I think 1 large and 1 medium is about the amount i have to bring back... hahaha We'll see when i start packing later next week.
7.08.2009
Laziness is getting the better of me :D
Ok. I admit, I have been a little lazy for the past week or so. I haven't updated this for a while. My bad.
Well, to be honest, there really wasn't much I could update you on. I've been in this office for a week and seems like time passes very slowly. I really have nothing to do. Or that was the case last week.
Well I have a lot to update. Since the beginning of July, I've been swamped with many many duties. I never knew that being a summer intern here was so much work. Ok, so lets start from week one.
June 28-July 4
Ok, work really started to pick up considering that I was doing absolutely nothing the last week. I finally was able to get out of the office and do something productive. I went to go pick up about 30-40ft of white cloth to paint. This cloth is for the campers that are coming at the end of the month and they're supposed to be drawing a boat and themselves onto it. Well the funny part is, is that myself and another dude had to pain this 40ft piece of cloth blue. But it gets better. Since the cloth needed to be divided into 10 groups, we had to cut it. But the cloth wasn't the right length and width so we had to calculate and cut the sheets by hand. That literally took a day in a half to do. Funny thing is, we didn't have enough cloth and we were working with "professional" fabric people who could calculate... I think my calculations were spot on... but no, they don't trust the English speaking one.
Well the entire week I spent painting cloth and cutting cloth and doing random odd jobs like photocopying, again. Well no matter, at least it kept me busy after I finished painting the cloths. Little did I know that there was a slight problem with the paint. The paint bought by my lovely co-workers was industrial paint, meaning they got it extremely cheap; we're talking 10HKD for 500g of powered paint. I say, "What????". Yea, you wouldn't believe it, until you hear the catch. Apparently the paint is highly toxic to the human body. It contains lead. Yes, I said it, lead. Best part was that the co-worker who bought it knew about it.
Ok, Canadian brain working here says that even though Asians are cheap, that's just wrong. We're talking about spending more money for paint that is non-serious for health reasons over toxic, possibly deadly powdery stuff. So I just basically spent roughly 35 hours working with this potentially hazardous material and have it covered all over my cloths and hands. Good to know, after I painted it.
Well luckily for me, I'm still alive and it wasn't all that serious. Best part is, this paint is now covered on the table tops of the art room, splattered all over the floor and even dripping along the rails outside the art room. Woot, and the best part is, I get to go clean it up, because apparently it was my fault for using it. DUR... WHAT?? I was only told what to do with the paint. I wasn't in charge of the mess. Well, at least I get to wait till July 18 or later to clean it up :D
July 5-July 11
Ok, so last week. Definitely hating it here. Not only was the paint a problem, I had to fix it. Ok, fortunately my other counterpart and trouble-making accomplice had a few ideas and we worked them out. 3 choices, all worked but to save time, we chose the easiest. We just liquefied blue acrylic paint and washed the cloth over with it. Not only were we able to get rid of this toxic stuff so that the campers won't be inhaling and touching toxic paint, we made the cloth actually look like water. Ok, I don't understand WHY they never just bought blue cloth... smart eh? Well, that's what the people here do. Make use of the people here and waste there time. WOOT
Well life is about to get a little better here. NOT! So during the encounter of this problem, I was graciously approached by 3 other people. Ok, first of all, we all know I have a problem saying no to requests by people. Second of all, I'm only one man and can only do so much with a certain period of time. Thirdly, STOP ASKING ME!!!!
Anywho, I was asked to do some morning worship on the 21st. Ok, normally I wouldn't decline, but this had DECLINE written all over it.
1. I had to play the piano for them
2. I had to sing for them
3. Chinese songs have a problem sticking to me
4. They have no music
5. I have to play piano
Ok. that's what I said with a very very hesitant voice. So much uncertainty in it that I was for sure that they'd ask again if I would do it. NOPE. Just "Ok, i'll meet with you next week to find songs." I DON'T WORK LIKE THAT! I need NOW and NOW! No later. Well I received 3 songs and 2 are ones that I pick in English. WOOT English songs. Now all I need to do is find the mp3s, lyrics and score for it and I should be set.
Ok, so during that same day, I am asked yet again, oh wait, I was TOLD that I would be not only playing the piano for 4 songs during the camp, I also had to sing the songs. Oh and did I mention that I also have to dance?? Well yes, I have to sing, dance and play the piano for the camp, 4 outta the 7 days. Real nice I have to say. All songs in English, all songs have NO music (not surprised) and the song I have to dance to is the song I'm also playing the piano for. How exactly am I supposed to dance while playing the piano!?!?!? Do I look like I have a twin or a clone???
Ok so by this point I'm like 98% mad. Like the little animation pictures with a dude who gets really mad, his body starts to turn red from the feet up his head with steam comin' out. Well that's me by now. Only 98% because the later 2 is to come.
So I've got 9 songs at the moment to prepare. 2 of which I have piano scores for, the rest, not so much. I've been listening to the mp3s day and night doing what?, writing down music. Yes, I am now writing music. Who would've guessed?? I am writing music for all 7 songs that I do not have because I can't play the piano without something to look off of other than numbers and letters. No rhythm and no idea what the melody is, kinda hard for me to play the piano.
One more thing. On top of all this wonderful music composing, I have to cut, paint and paste 90 paper fishes on cardboard. Talk about a not very fun job. I've been spending day and night in the office working on those things for the past week. I'm totally drained and want to go home really badly. And I mean REALLY badly!!!
July 11, Yesterday
I was supposed to go to Ocean Park again yesterday but never did because of a typhoon warning. Heavy rain and winds that could literally send me flying. Not really wanting to leave my little crib here. So what did I do all day?? I listened to music and continued on my music writing spree, only to have found absolutely no encouragement nor enthusiasm to write so I stopped after my first note. I have to say, I was quite productive.
Oh did I mention that I have the hardest time finding a piano to practice on? Well, because there are many camps that run daily here, I have a hard time finding a room in which I can practice piano, so all the music that I'm writing could possibly be all wrong because I'm doing it all by ear. FANTASTIC! I don't even know if they're write and I have a rehearsal in 2 days. This just can't get any better.
Well since today was SOO productive, I had a meeting with the bosses of the camp later in the evening. And here comes the questioner #3. Ok, I have to admit, I was pretty mad, but the 2% comes from this because I was practically expecting it. I was asked to take 10 min on the 2nd day of camp to talk about my experience and emotions from the trip. And because the people here ALL know about my musicality, they want me to sing and play a song as well. Ok, yes I know I should be grateful for my gift and I should use it to glorify God, but seriously this is not the way I do it.
When you forcefully tell me to do it, my heart isn't in it so I can't say I'm doing this for God, i'm doing it out of my own good heart because I can't say no. Yes, I have now created MORE effort for me because they want me to tell them by the end of next week my sharing and song selection.
I have over 2k of songs on my Itunes. Half of which are potential songs that I would use for relation to my sharing. Well I better start listening and jotting down notes cuz it's gonna be a LONG night.
July 12
Well, a very LATE wake up made my morning very boring. Today, I find myself waking at 1015 because I spent the entire night listening or scanning through my 1k song selection of possible songs to play. Well luckily for me I narrowed it down to a WHOPPING 13 songs by the time I went to sleep. So proud! Well by the time I left the office today, somewhere around 2, I had narrowed it down to 5 songs. HALLELUJAH. I am so close to finishing.
Well I went to church at 4 and later found out that the sermon was the same as last weeks. DUR ok, I sat through half of it and had to leave cuz i was starting to fall asleep. Went back home and voila. Found myself now narrowing my selection of 5 songs to 2. It is now midnight of July 13 and I have chosen my 2 songs in which I will decide today which one I want to play. YAY, I finally did 1 job i'm proud of. Ok at this point, I could care less about the questioner and now I can focus on my goal in spreading the word through this experience. All I need to do is find a way to print out my lyrics and score because I dont have a printer here.. bahaha fantastic The program used here is also not a program I can transfer to a computer and print because its copyrighted... hahaha great..
Well my plan is to spend the entire day practicing piano because if I dont, i'm really screwed for tomorrow's rehearsal.
Oh. I also took a picture of my uninvited gecko that lives with me every night and loves to scare me to death and a picture of the notorious arachnid that bit me. :D
Well, to be honest, there really wasn't much I could update you on. I've been in this office for a week and seems like time passes very slowly. I really have nothing to do. Or that was the case last week.
Well I have a lot to update. Since the beginning of July, I've been swamped with many many duties. I never knew that being a summer intern here was so much work. Ok, so lets start from week one.
June 28-July 4
Ok, work really started to pick up considering that I was doing absolutely nothing the last week. I finally was able to get out of the office and do something productive. I went to go pick up about 30-40ft of white cloth to paint. This cloth is for the campers that are coming at the end of the month and they're supposed to be drawing a boat and themselves onto it. Well the funny part is, is that myself and another dude had to pain this 40ft piece of cloth blue. But it gets better. Since the cloth needed to be divided into 10 groups, we had to cut it. But the cloth wasn't the right length and width so we had to calculate and cut the sheets by hand. That literally took a day in a half to do. Funny thing is, we didn't have enough cloth and we were working with "professional" fabric people who could calculate... I think my calculations were spot on... but no, they don't trust the English speaking one.
Well the entire week I spent painting cloth and cutting cloth and doing random odd jobs like photocopying, again. Well no matter, at least it kept me busy after I finished painting the cloths. Little did I know that there was a slight problem with the paint. The paint bought by my lovely co-workers was industrial paint, meaning they got it extremely cheap; we're talking 10HKD for 500g of powered paint. I say, "What????". Yea, you wouldn't believe it, until you hear the catch. Apparently the paint is highly toxic to the human body. It contains lead. Yes, I said it, lead. Best part was that the co-worker who bought it knew about it.
Ok, Canadian brain working here says that even though Asians are cheap, that's just wrong. We're talking about spending more money for paint that is non-serious for health reasons over toxic, possibly deadly powdery stuff. So I just basically spent roughly 35 hours working with this potentially hazardous material and have it covered all over my cloths and hands. Good to know, after I painted it.
Well luckily for me, I'm still alive and it wasn't all that serious. Best part is, this paint is now covered on the table tops of the art room, splattered all over the floor and even dripping along the rails outside the art room. Woot, and the best part is, I get to go clean it up, because apparently it was my fault for using it. DUR... WHAT?? I was only told what to do with the paint. I wasn't in charge of the mess. Well, at least I get to wait till July 18 or later to clean it up :D
July 5-July 11
Ok, so last week. Definitely hating it here. Not only was the paint a problem, I had to fix it. Ok, fortunately my other counterpart and trouble-making accomplice had a few ideas and we worked them out. 3 choices, all worked but to save time, we chose the easiest. We just liquefied blue acrylic paint and washed the cloth over with it. Not only were we able to get rid of this toxic stuff so that the campers won't be inhaling and touching toxic paint, we made the cloth actually look like water. Ok, I don't understand WHY they never just bought blue cloth... smart eh? Well, that's what the people here do. Make use of the people here and waste there time. WOOT
Well life is about to get a little better here. NOT! So during the encounter of this problem, I was graciously approached by 3 other people. Ok, first of all, we all know I have a problem saying no to requests by people. Second of all, I'm only one man and can only do so much with a certain period of time. Thirdly, STOP ASKING ME!!!!
Anywho, I was asked to do some morning worship on the 21st. Ok, normally I wouldn't decline, but this had DECLINE written all over it.
1. I had to play the piano for them
2. I had to sing for them
3. Chinese songs have a problem sticking to me
4. They have no music
5. I have to play piano
Ok. that's what I said with a very very hesitant voice. So much uncertainty in it that I was for sure that they'd ask again if I would do it. NOPE. Just "Ok, i'll meet with you next week to find songs." I DON'T WORK LIKE THAT! I need NOW and NOW! No later. Well I received 3 songs and 2 are ones that I pick in English. WOOT English songs. Now all I need to do is find the mp3s, lyrics and score for it and I should be set.
Ok, so during that same day, I am asked yet again, oh wait, I was TOLD that I would be not only playing the piano for 4 songs during the camp, I also had to sing the songs. Oh and did I mention that I also have to dance?? Well yes, I have to sing, dance and play the piano for the camp, 4 outta the 7 days. Real nice I have to say. All songs in English, all songs have NO music (not surprised) and the song I have to dance to is the song I'm also playing the piano for. How exactly am I supposed to dance while playing the piano!?!?!? Do I look like I have a twin or a clone???
Ok so by this point I'm like 98% mad. Like the little animation pictures with a dude who gets really mad, his body starts to turn red from the feet up his head with steam comin' out. Well that's me by now. Only 98% because the later 2 is to come.
So I've got 9 songs at the moment to prepare. 2 of which I have piano scores for, the rest, not so much. I've been listening to the mp3s day and night doing what?, writing down music. Yes, I am now writing music. Who would've guessed?? I am writing music for all 7 songs that I do not have because I can't play the piano without something to look off of other than numbers and letters. No rhythm and no idea what the melody is, kinda hard for me to play the piano.
One more thing. On top of all this wonderful music composing, I have to cut, paint and paste 90 paper fishes on cardboard. Talk about a not very fun job. I've been spending day and night in the office working on those things for the past week. I'm totally drained and want to go home really badly. And I mean REALLY badly!!!
July 11, Yesterday
I was supposed to go to Ocean Park again yesterday but never did because of a typhoon warning. Heavy rain and winds that could literally send me flying. Not really wanting to leave my little crib here. So what did I do all day?? I listened to music and continued on my music writing spree, only to have found absolutely no encouragement nor enthusiasm to write so I stopped after my first note. I have to say, I was quite productive.
Oh did I mention that I have the hardest time finding a piano to practice on? Well, because there are many camps that run daily here, I have a hard time finding a room in which I can practice piano, so all the music that I'm writing could possibly be all wrong because I'm doing it all by ear. FANTASTIC! I don't even know if they're write and I have a rehearsal in 2 days. This just can't get any better.
Well since today was SOO productive, I had a meeting with the bosses of the camp later in the evening. And here comes the questioner #3. Ok, I have to admit, I was pretty mad, but the 2% comes from this because I was practically expecting it. I was asked to take 10 min on the 2nd day of camp to talk about my experience and emotions from the trip. And because the people here ALL know about my musicality, they want me to sing and play a song as well. Ok, yes I know I should be grateful for my gift and I should use it to glorify God, but seriously this is not the way I do it.
When you forcefully tell me to do it, my heart isn't in it so I can't say I'm doing this for God, i'm doing it out of my own good heart because I can't say no. Yes, I have now created MORE effort for me because they want me to tell them by the end of next week my sharing and song selection.
I have over 2k of songs on my Itunes. Half of which are potential songs that I would use for relation to my sharing. Well I better start listening and jotting down notes cuz it's gonna be a LONG night.
July 12
Well, a very LATE wake up made my morning very boring. Today, I find myself waking at 1015 because I spent the entire night listening or scanning through my 1k song selection of possible songs to play. Well luckily for me I narrowed it down to a WHOPPING 13 songs by the time I went to sleep. So proud! Well by the time I left the office today, somewhere around 2, I had narrowed it down to 5 songs. HALLELUJAH. I am so close to finishing.
Well I went to church at 4 and later found out that the sermon was the same as last weeks. DUR ok, I sat through half of it and had to leave cuz i was starting to fall asleep. Went back home and voila. Found myself now narrowing my selection of 5 songs to 2. It is now midnight of July 13 and I have chosen my 2 songs in which I will decide today which one I want to play. YAY, I finally did 1 job i'm proud of. Ok at this point, I could care less about the questioner and now I can focus on my goal in spreading the word through this experience. All I need to do is find a way to print out my lyrics and score because I dont have a printer here.. bahaha fantastic The program used here is also not a program I can transfer to a computer and print because its copyrighted... hahaha great..
Well my plan is to spend the entire day practicing piano because if I dont, i'm really screwed for tomorrow's rehearsal.
Oh. I also took a picture of my uninvited gecko that lives with me every night and loves to scare me to death and a picture of the notorious arachnid that bit me. :D
6.30.2009
Reunion Galore
Ok so yesterday was entertaining. I skipped an assembly to go by cloth in the morning. That was epic fun. Actually it was cloth and the miscellaneous arts and crafts stuff. Wandering streets in HK is fun, well as long as you have someone to wander with right? lol
Well did some of that and then headed back to work. Went out for lunch at a floating restaurant. Good thing they weren't serving. They would've seen food if that was the case. lol It was one of the "boss"'s last day with us so we went out to celebrate. Half way through I had a really upsetting phone call over from Toronto from Kitty. She mentioned to me that Sichuan had another earthquake. Though she didn't know any details, I basically lost my appetite after that call. I couldn't believe what I heard and I just hoped nothing went wrong for those kids we stayed with.
I had a reassured talk with the table that everything was ok. Uncle Victor was in Sichuan and just came back today. He was over there when the earthquake happened but they said that it wasn't bad. The houses that they were living in, like portables in Calgary, were collapsing because you could tell that they weren't built to sustain another disaster. The quake only measured 5.2 and yet still caused a lot of damage. It got me thinking again of how privileged I am to live in Canada. All I could do was pray for the safety of everyone over there.
Well, that was an entertaining lunch. Went back to work and spent the next 4 hours painting. It was a little fun but I had forgotten to go change my shirt and pants. Now my white shirt and white plaid shorts are stained with blue. GREAT. And the shorts were my FAVE!!!! sigh, oh well. My fault for forgetting.
Left work at 6 to go find ear buds. One of my buds popped out and I lost the cushion for it so I went out to search for replacements. Found some so I bought it and headed to Mong Kok to meet up with my friends back from 07. And BOY did they all change. Well all but B and Ellen haha. I saw them before so it was ok but everyone else changed. Could hardly recognize them.
Had a funky time wandering the streets for a place to eat and it was so cool just to catch up with everyone. Went to go take sticky pics lol. Best past time ever!!!
Went to go shoot some arcade hoops later. Ended up losing a ring that the Sichuan girls gave me but I ended up with a different ring on the same finger...weird. Anyways, it wasn't the ring I was wearing before and it was most definitely a size smaller. I had no idea how it ended up on my finger nor do I remember losing that other ring. Well, it doesn't matter now because I'm going to go search for it in the streets of Mong Kok and buy myself another one. Hopefully I can find a similar one cuz it really was a cool gift from the students.
Well did some of that and then headed back to work. Went out for lunch at a floating restaurant. Good thing they weren't serving. They would've seen food if that was the case. lol It was one of the "boss"'s last day with us so we went out to celebrate. Half way through I had a really upsetting phone call over from Toronto from Kitty. She mentioned to me that Sichuan had another earthquake. Though she didn't know any details, I basically lost my appetite after that call. I couldn't believe what I heard and I just hoped nothing went wrong for those kids we stayed with.
I had a reassured talk with the table that everything was ok. Uncle Victor was in Sichuan and just came back today. He was over there when the earthquake happened but they said that it wasn't bad. The houses that they were living in, like portables in Calgary, were collapsing because you could tell that they weren't built to sustain another disaster. The quake only measured 5.2 and yet still caused a lot of damage. It got me thinking again of how privileged I am to live in Canada. All I could do was pray for the safety of everyone over there.
Well, that was an entertaining lunch. Went back to work and spent the next 4 hours painting. It was a little fun but I had forgotten to go change my shirt and pants. Now my white shirt and white plaid shorts are stained with blue. GREAT. And the shorts were my FAVE!!!! sigh, oh well. My fault for forgetting.
Left work at 6 to go find ear buds. One of my buds popped out and I lost the cushion for it so I went out to search for replacements. Found some so I bought it and headed to Mong Kok to meet up with my friends back from 07. And BOY did they all change. Well all but B and Ellen haha. I saw them before so it was ok but everyone else changed. Could hardly recognize them.
Had a funky time wandering the streets for a place to eat and it was so cool just to catch up with everyone. Went to go take sticky pics lol. Best past time ever!!!
Went to go shoot some arcade hoops later. Ended up losing a ring that the Sichuan girls gave me but I ended up with a different ring on the same finger...weird. Anyways, it wasn't the ring I was wearing before and it was most definitely a size smaller. I had no idea how it ended up on my finger nor do I remember losing that other ring. Well, it doesn't matter now because I'm going to go search for it in the streets of Mong Kok and buy myself another one. Hopefully I can find a similar one cuz it really was a cool gift from the students.
Ocean Park Review
Ok, I have to admit I was most definitely looking forward to going to the everyday talk-about of Ocean Park. I was all psyched out for it. The drive there was a real good adventure. Getting lost twice but still ended up getting there in less than 40 min. Supposed to take us 29 min and considering that HK has no u-turns, we did pretty well. Well, after a few questions to laughing taxi-drivers and confused gas-station attendants, we arrived with joy and excitement.
It was PACKED! Ok, for a monday, its not supposed to be packed but apparently all the school kids had the day off and spent the day there... Fantastic. Me in a large park surrounded by lots of people and screaming kids. Can anyone see what's gonna happen next? Well, I'm claustrophobic and this was alright. Actually it was considered "few" apparently to everyone so I guess I can be happy for that.
We spent roughly 3 hours there looking animals, fish and taking a ride or two. 3 hours for those at home is very little to spend. Why so little? The Aunt that drove me and her kids basically went to drive us there. She was very considerate and wanted to see us have fun. I on the other hand felt really bad because she had to drive in HK (which I recommend you never do unless you know where you are going) and she didn't really participate. It was nice of her to join us though but she didn't go on rides or anything. So i kinda felt really bad.
So we probably spent 1.5 hours looking at Pandas, fish, jellyfish, turtles, red pandas and such.
Just over an hour waiting in line and 10 min eating lunch. lol That was my Ocean Park experience. Nonetheless, I can say that it was pretty cool. The park itself was initially designed for a visit once every 2 years and i think it was intended for kids up to age 16. It really wasn't my cup-o-tea but it was still fun since it was my first time.
Oh, and I literally saw the largest eel ever. This guy was sooo big it creeped me out. He was a good 30inch in diameter and was i think 30ft long. GROSS. I'm glad it wasn't moving but it was SOO big I couldn't believe me eyes. There was also another Huge manta ray, wing span of about 10ft and about 17 ft long. HUGE!!!!!!!
It was PACKED! Ok, for a monday, its not supposed to be packed but apparently all the school kids had the day off and spent the day there... Fantastic. Me in a large park surrounded by lots of people and screaming kids. Can anyone see what's gonna happen next? Well, I'm claustrophobic and this was alright. Actually it was considered "few" apparently to everyone so I guess I can be happy for that.
We spent roughly 3 hours there looking animals, fish and taking a ride or two. 3 hours for those at home is very little to spend. Why so little? The Aunt that drove me and her kids basically went to drive us there. She was very considerate and wanted to see us have fun. I on the other hand felt really bad because she had to drive in HK (which I recommend you never do unless you know where you are going) and she didn't really participate. It was nice of her to join us though but she didn't go on rides or anything. So i kinda felt really bad.
So we probably spent 1.5 hours looking at Pandas, fish, jellyfish, turtles, red pandas and such.
Just over an hour waiting in line and 10 min eating lunch. lol That was my Ocean Park experience. Nonetheless, I can say that it was pretty cool. The park itself was initially designed for a visit once every 2 years and i think it was intended for kids up to age 16. It really wasn't my cup-o-tea but it was still fun since it was my first time. Oh, and I literally saw the largest eel ever. This guy was sooo big it creeped me out. He was a good 30inch in diameter and was i think 30ft long. GROSS. I'm glad it wasn't moving but it was SOO big I couldn't believe me eyes. There was also another Huge manta ray, wing span of about 10ft and about 17 ft long. HUGE!!!!!!!
6.28.2009
Uber Fail!
Ok. Sunday morning was spectacular but there were early signs of problems.
I, being the meteorologist that I am, studied the cloud formations and the weather while in my office. I have to say, I was pretty accurate but I didn't believe myself so I didn't take the warning very seriously. I hypothesized that it would be around 27 degrees C with light wind and really bad rain.
Had I known that I would be 80% correct, I would've been prepared, but obviously I didn't. I set out to a district called "Yau Ma Day" which is about a 20min subway ride from where I live. In total, I arrived at that area around 1120. I had set out at 10:45. On my arrival and exit of the subway station, I was wondering why about 30 people were crammed at the bottom of the stairs. It was POURING rain, like i predicted. Poured so badly that the stairs were flooding down like crazy (quite a site really).
Ok, I knew that it was going to rain and I did bring an umbrella with me that I had bought earlier on in the month. I didn't however, bring my rain jacket. Let's just say, The jacket would have kept me drier than the umbrella because the umbrella did absolutely nothing, literally. It had the radius of about 1.5 feet. For those that know me, I'm a skinny guy, and 3 feet does not cover very much especially if you have a backpack on. So I'm walking around Yau Ma Day thinking that I can still shop or something, but I had totally forgot that this district, the cheap stuff is all in open markets. DUR.... Yeah, obviously they would be closed.
So I spent about 10 min walking in the rain with a tiny umbrella that covered absolutely nothing. Fantastic. I went back to the subway station 2lbs heavier. My jeans had literally soaked so much water that the bottom half of them were carrying about 2lbs of water. FANTASTIC. I was planning to not go home because it would be time consuming and a waste of money to go and change and come back out for church, so I decided to stay around the area.
I went out to the Tsim Sha Tsui district to seek better shelter and hopefully something for me to do and I was in some slight luck. I was looking for a music store so I could find some nifty chinese piano music and particularly 1 song. I spent the next 2 hours looking for it and I FINALLY found it, after searching through every single book and shelf since I can't read chinese and the people there weren't very helpful.
I went to BK for lunch around 130 and you seriously have NO IDEA what service is until you've been here. 20 employees outside the counter or behind excluding the chefs said, "hello, welcome to Burger King" in a lovely asian accent. hehe
3 greeters, 3 managers, 2 assistant managers, 3 cleaners, 9 counter people. How on earth do they fit 9 people behind a counter with only 3 tills??? That's SOO crowded. oh, the best part is, if your burger is not ready in 10 secs, they make u sit down and they bring you the burger. Its hilarious!!! AND you don't throw away your stuff. You just leave and they pick it up after you. Puts a whole new meaning to 'service with a smile', except they're all hiding behind a mask haha.
Well So I set off looking for dvds and spent 30 min looking and I headed out to Central cuz i got bored and my church was over there. Doors didn't open so I scoured the city and I noticed a lot of telephone stores. :D I chose to go take a look at the cells because I was thinking of buying a new one, but I'm undecided. Anyways, found the phone I wanted to get. LG Arena. COOL!!! but its SOO expensive. 3280HKD which is approximately ~500CDN. THATS GROSS! I wouldn't pay that much for a phone, but it is touch and very durable. It's like an Iphone but slimmer, lighter and it comes with apps lol. Well it's a decision that I still have a month to make and I may or may not buy it.
Anyways church was hilarious and went out to Tsim Sha Tsui after at 8 to watch the 'spectacular' light show. (Videos coming). It sucked compared to 2 years ago lol. Walked the Avenue of Stars and saw Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat and other people.
Pretty much sums up my day. EPIC!
I hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow. Excited to go to Ocean Park!! WEEE
I, being the meteorologist that I am, studied the cloud formations and the weather while in my office. I have to say, I was pretty accurate but I didn't believe myself so I didn't take the warning very seriously. I hypothesized that it would be around 27 degrees C with light wind and really bad rain.
Had I known that I would be 80% correct, I would've been prepared, but obviously I didn't. I set out to a district called "Yau Ma Day" which is about a 20min subway ride from where I live. In total, I arrived at that area around 1120. I had set out at 10:45. On my arrival and exit of the subway station, I was wondering why about 30 people were crammed at the bottom of the stairs. It was POURING rain, like i predicted. Poured so badly that the stairs were flooding down like crazy (quite a site really).
Ok, I knew that it was going to rain and I did bring an umbrella with me that I had bought earlier on in the month. I didn't however, bring my rain jacket. Let's just say, The jacket would have kept me drier than the umbrella because the umbrella did absolutely nothing, literally. It had the radius of about 1.5 feet. For those that know me, I'm a skinny guy, and 3 feet does not cover very much especially if you have a backpack on. So I'm walking around Yau Ma Day thinking that I can still shop or something, but I had totally forgot that this district, the cheap stuff is all in open markets. DUR.... Yeah, obviously they would be closed.
So I spent about 10 min walking in the rain with a tiny umbrella that covered absolutely nothing. Fantastic. I went back to the subway station 2lbs heavier. My jeans had literally soaked so much water that the bottom half of them were carrying about 2lbs of water. FANTASTIC. I was planning to not go home because it would be time consuming and a waste of money to go and change and come back out for church, so I decided to stay around the area.
I went out to the Tsim Sha Tsui district to seek better shelter and hopefully something for me to do and I was in some slight luck. I was looking for a music store so I could find some nifty chinese piano music and particularly 1 song. I spent the next 2 hours looking for it and I FINALLY found it, after searching through every single book and shelf since I can't read chinese and the people there weren't very helpful.
I went to BK for lunch around 130 and you seriously have NO IDEA what service is until you've been here. 20 employees outside the counter or behind excluding the chefs said, "hello, welcome to Burger King" in a lovely asian accent. hehe
3 greeters, 3 managers, 2 assistant managers, 3 cleaners, 9 counter people. How on earth do they fit 9 people behind a counter with only 3 tills??? That's SOO crowded. oh, the best part is, if your burger is not ready in 10 secs, they make u sit down and they bring you the burger. Its hilarious!!! AND you don't throw away your stuff. You just leave and they pick it up after you. Puts a whole new meaning to 'service with a smile', except they're all hiding behind a mask haha.
Well So I set off looking for dvds and spent 30 min looking and I headed out to Central cuz i got bored and my church was over there. Doors didn't open so I scoured the city and I noticed a lot of telephone stores. :D I chose to go take a look at the cells because I was thinking of buying a new one, but I'm undecided. Anyways, found the phone I wanted to get. LG Arena. COOL!!! but its SOO expensive. 3280HKD which is approximately ~500CDN. THATS GROSS! I wouldn't pay that much for a phone, but it is touch and very durable. It's like an Iphone but slimmer, lighter and it comes with apps lol. Well it's a decision that I still have a month to make and I may or may not buy it.
Anyways church was hilarious and went out to Tsim Sha Tsui after at 8 to watch the 'spectacular' light show. (Videos coming). It sucked compared to 2 years ago lol. Walked the Avenue of Stars and saw Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat and other people.
Pretty much sums up my day. EPIC!
I hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow. Excited to go to Ocean Park!! WEEE
6.26.2009
Life so far
Ok, its been 2 weeks since I've returned from the Sichuan trip and what am I doing now? NOTHING! ahaha
Ok so basically nothing has changed except for the fact that I am now actually working and not spending all my time on fb. I have to admit, I kinda liked it for a while. For the past week i went from being THE pro photocopier to the pro scanner to the pro letter opener and sorter to envelope stuffer to envelope labeler to article envelope stuffer to mailer to "baby"sitter to personal shopper to article designer to news columnist to professional singer and to fabric cutter all in one week. WOOT.
I feel so productive... hahha Well at least now I have nothing to complain about. I can actually come to work and actually, well, work. YAY. No more sitting around being bored. In fact, I still have a lot of time that I happened to deny a viewing of Transformers 2 thursday. WHAT? Yes, I denied a viewing of Transformers. A free ticket denied. My lame excuse: "I wan't to watch it when I get back to Canada. The subtitles in Chinese will ruin it for me." AHAHAHA LAME!!!!!!!
So lame that I was yet again asked to go to see it last night. Yes, the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie was playing yet again and I, again had the opportunity to go see it again, FREE!!! Ok, I know how to read the first sign of stupidity and denying the first chance to see it was stupid. So I reluctantly agreed to go see it last night. Unfortunately, we had a Level 8 Typhoon Warning. :D WOOHOO. TYPHOON SEASON in HK and I'm trapped in the middle of it. hahhah Talk about exciting!!!
Luckily it went down to level 3 and I have to say THE MOVIE WAS AWESOME!!!!!! Blow you're mind FANTASTIC!!! Even despite the fact that the Chinese subtitles were there, it wasn't an issue. OMG so GOOD!!! I wanna go see it again and again. May even buy the dvd hehe. It seriously was really good. Couldn't believe I denied it the first time. SOO good.
Anyways, yea. That was exciting. So yes, i'm in typhoon season now. Fun fun. That may probably be the reason why we're getting consist rain here over and over again and again. I'm not complaining so long as it doesn't rain all day monday or at all. I don't want it to ruin my day at Ocean Park :D.
I'm supposed to go meet up with Vivian today cuz she's going to take me to see the REALLY BIG Book store i was ranting about in Harbor City. Apparently that is really small compared to this one. So I'm excited!!! I think i'm also having dinner with the fam too, but i'm unsure. Perhaps i'll find out in the latter part of the day.
O I found out that I have approximately 32 bites on my both my achilles and ankles. That excludes all the bites on my arms and legs and body. I really have no idea what it's from but it's been there for a few days now. No amount of mosquito repellent or other mosquito stuff works so I'm thinking they're like bed bugs or something. I mean, just the ankles?? And they itch like crazy! So I'm really thinking they're some sort of bed bug or some insect that I have no idea about. Anyways, hopefully changing the sheets will prevent them from biting again. Or maybe they live IN the bed and it won't matter how many times you change the sheets. They'll keep coming... hhahaha ok not cool. but yes, I have found a lot of bites on my legs and I'm using every single bit of Chinese herbs to get rid of them cuz they're really causing me lots of grief.
Ok so basically nothing has changed except for the fact that I am now actually working and not spending all my time on fb. I have to admit, I kinda liked it for a while. For the past week i went from being THE pro photocopier to the pro scanner to the pro letter opener and sorter to envelope stuffer to envelope labeler to article envelope stuffer to mailer to "baby"sitter to personal shopper to article designer to news columnist to professional singer and to fabric cutter all in one week. WOOT.
I feel so productive... hahha Well at least now I have nothing to complain about. I can actually come to work and actually, well, work. YAY. No more sitting around being bored. In fact, I still have a lot of time that I happened to deny a viewing of Transformers 2 thursday. WHAT? Yes, I denied a viewing of Transformers. A free ticket denied. My lame excuse: "I wan't to watch it when I get back to Canada. The subtitles in Chinese will ruin it for me." AHAHAHA LAME!!!!!!!
So lame that I was yet again asked to go to see it last night. Yes, the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie was playing yet again and I, again had the opportunity to go see it again, FREE!!! Ok, I know how to read the first sign of stupidity and denying the first chance to see it was stupid. So I reluctantly agreed to go see it last night. Unfortunately, we had a Level 8 Typhoon Warning. :D WOOHOO. TYPHOON SEASON in HK and I'm trapped in the middle of it. hahhah Talk about exciting!!!
Luckily it went down to level 3 and I have to say THE MOVIE WAS AWESOME!!!!!! Blow you're mind FANTASTIC!!! Even despite the fact that the Chinese subtitles were there, it wasn't an issue. OMG so GOOD!!! I wanna go see it again and again. May even buy the dvd hehe. It seriously was really good. Couldn't believe I denied it the first time. SOO good.
Anyways, yea. That was exciting. So yes, i'm in typhoon season now. Fun fun. That may probably be the reason why we're getting consist rain here over and over again and again. I'm not complaining so long as it doesn't rain all day monday or at all. I don't want it to ruin my day at Ocean Park :D.
I'm supposed to go meet up with Vivian today cuz she's going to take me to see the REALLY BIG Book store i was ranting about in Harbor City. Apparently that is really small compared to this one. So I'm excited!!! I think i'm also having dinner with the fam too, but i'm unsure. Perhaps i'll find out in the latter part of the day.
O I found out that I have approximately 32 bites on my both my achilles and ankles. That excludes all the bites on my arms and legs and body. I really have no idea what it's from but it's been there for a few days now. No amount of mosquito repellent or other mosquito stuff works so I'm thinking they're like bed bugs or something. I mean, just the ankles?? And they itch like crazy! So I'm really thinking they're some sort of bed bug or some insect that I have no idea about. Anyways, hopefully changing the sheets will prevent them from biting again. Or maybe they live IN the bed and it won't matter how many times you change the sheets. They'll keep coming... hhahaha ok not cool. but yes, I have found a lot of bites on my legs and I'm using every single bit of Chinese herbs to get rid of them cuz they're really causing me lots of grief.
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