Whatever

"Whateva" Baby

You have to check out this video. It is so funny. And Minori if you are reading this, this is you when you were young, isn't it?

Simple things

Tonight as I was writing some e-mails, I was listening to my music in I-tunes. I love that I can have all my music there and it will shuffle through all 5000 songs. So tonight I heard some songs that I haven't heard for a while. One song that jumped out at me was Simple Things by Jim Brickman. Even though it's a love song, (and I'm not in love) it's still a great reminder of looking at the beauty of life in such simple things as leaves falling off the trees.

Hey, Time won’t wait, Life goes by, Every day’s a brand new sky, Every tear, comes to dry. All that really matters, In this crazy world, Is you and I together, Baby just remember.

Chorus 1:
The first leaves off the tree, The way you look at me, A thousand chiming church bells ring, The simple things are free. The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, How I love the simple things, The simple things just are.

So here we go, Let’s just dance, Teach my soul to take this chance, Put my heart, in your hands. Out of all the moments that, We leave behind, Turn around and tell me, Baby we’ll remember.

Chorus 2:
The thunder and the rain, The way you say my name, After all the clouds go by, The simple things remain, The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, How I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are

Chorus 3:
The ocean and the sky, The way we feel tonight, I know that it's the love, That brings the simple things to life, The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are.

I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are.

Interesting Names

In Hong Kong, the HongKongese people are given a Chinese name at birth but when they get into school they go by English names and their surname. But the names that they come up with sometimes are (to be nice) Unique. I recently came across a list someone put together of names that they saw when out and about, like on the name tags of the workers at McDonald's.

Male
- Walkman - Credit - Gayford - Rock - Pillar - Dummy - Vegas -Freeze -Lego
-Burger -Paper -Kettle -Hercules -Virus -Bible -Candy -Susan(yes for a guy, this is actually one of my students) -Winky -Dolphin -Devil -Pacman -Genius -Joker
-Oxygen -Tornado -Energy -Happy -Goofy -Champion -Spaghetti -Timber -No
- Elf

Female
-Grape -Color -Eureka -Panda -Flower -Wave -Kinky -Piano -Fanny -Telephone
-Chilli -Cinderella -Mango -Fanta -Lotion -Wincy -Purple -Circle -Strawberry
-Seven -Fantasy -Cream -Icy -Dancy -Dior -Puppy -Aries -Lychee -Yo-yo
-Tomato -Ivory -Tissue -Tomorrow - Swanny -Glassbowl

UGH and YEAH and UGH all on the same day

So this morning, I'm walking to meet my friend Liz at the train to go to church. I'm late and I'm trying to walk as fast as my little feet will carry me. Well, Hong Kong is known for tearing up their sidewalks and not making them smooth when they repave. My sandal caught on the uneven pavement and I went down hard. Luckily, I had on a skirt, otherwise I would have ripped a hole in a nice pair of pants. Unluckily, I had on a skirt and my knees had to suffer. One knee really bad and the other leg is scraped down the whole side. I must have looked very funny. I called Liz on her cell phone and she met me at the steps of the train with band-aids from 7-11. Because of this we ended up being 25 minutes late for church. The singing is always my favorite part of the service and we missed it all.

After the service we met up with Harmony and Maria and headed for Subway Restaurant. I had no idea there was a Subway here in Hong Kong. Oh, my gosh I think this was the best sandwich I have had in forever. I got a turkey with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, black olives, green peppers and oil/vinegar. Oh so good. and then sour cream and onion chips. Thank God for Subway. I will be eating there frequently. I really should have gotten a foot long and brought the second half for my lunch tomorrow. Next week!!

So after an eventful start to my day, I got home, took my shoes off and put my feet up. That's when I realized my shoe looked funny. Yes, you guessed it. Another pair of shoes is going into the trash. The fall in the morning made them rip at the thong part. Basically they are being held together by two threads. The sad thing is that these are my really nice Chico's sandals. But I guess 2 and a half years is good use out of them.

Interesting Food

One thing about living in HK that's great is that I love sushi and it's cheap here. It's also a fun thing because you sit at a counter and there is a train of sushi that passes by. You just choose off of the line what you want and at the end they count up your plates. I went with a former student recently and took some pictures to share with you. This is the counter you sit at and the sushi just goes past on the little conveyor belt. If you want something you just take it off. The little faucet below the train is for hot water to make your tea.

Here are the plates that Giovanna and I ate when we got our sushi.

I also went out with a some friends after church one Sunday to a Chinese Tea House. One of the girls ordered a tea that was interesting as it brewed. I made a video of it as it was brewing.

Another pair bites the dust.

Okay, since moving to Hong Kong in August I have killed 3 pairs of shoes. Basically a pair a month. But actually they have all been in the last month and half.

The first pair to fully bite the dust: So Nikelle and I got out of her car at the shopping center in Admiralty. As I'm walking across the parking garage, I realize that I'm having difficulty keeping my shoe on. Well that would be because the side of the strap has started to come out. By the time I take a few more steps it's done. So here I am on the island with a broken shoe, but luckily we are at a mall, but I still have to get into the mall and find a new pair of shoes. So I walk up 2 flights of stairs(because apparently there is no such thing here as Americans with Disabilities Act and they don't have elevators everywhere) Where we walk into the mall is through the grocery store. So here I am sliding my foot along so that my shoe doesn't come off. One of the store's staff looks at me like I'm a major freak, so I pull up my pant leg to show her that my shoe is broken. She says that she can fix it with some string. So I tied my shoe to my foot with yellow plastic string. Quite humorous. Luckily my pants were long enough to hide the string. I ended up finding a pair of shoes to buy, but by the time I got home I had some of the worst blisters I have had in a long time. Needless to say, I won't wear them again. Luckily they were only $150 ($20 US) Still more than I would have liked to pay, but cheap considering most shoes here start at about $400 ($50US)

The second pair that bit the dust: This pair actually started down the bad road early in my time in Hong Kong. I don't know how, but somehow the sole of the right shoe just split in two crosswise. I could still use the shoe, but I had to make sure that I didn't do too much walking in it. Well two weekends ago, I played Tour guide here and my shoe didn't like that. Before the day was over, I was saying small prayers with every step I took that my shoe wouldn't go. Thank God, I was able to make it home in one piece. When I got home and took off my shoe, I realized that it was gone, there was really nothing holding it together anymore.

Third pair: This just happened yesterday. I was with two friends and we were walking down the street to run an errand. All of a sudden, I got that funny feeling in my foot again. I knew what was happening...I was having a shoe attack. Again my shoe's strap started to come out from where it was attached. I told my friends I had to go back. I couldn't continue on my errand. So we turned around and one of them said she knew where there was a shoe repair. So we went and he said that he could fix it for $20 ($3US) So I sat in at his booth for 5 minutes barefoot while he "fixed" my shoe. I put it back on and it seemed to be fixed. I decided not to try to do my errand again, so I just headed home. Good thing because about halfway to the train. It broke again. The glue didn't hold. I made it home ok, but had to throw out another pair of shoes. UGH!!!

Hopefully I can make the rest of my shoes last until I'm ready to part with them. Actually I have another pair that is starting to show a bit of stress. I hope that I don't have another "shoe attack"

Free Christian Music on Fridays

I recently heard about a site called "My Free Music Friday" Every Friday they offer free Christian music for you to download. So today, I decided to try it. I am so glad that I did. This week they were offering 3 free songs:

1. "Time has Come" by Mercy Me
2. "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band
3. "Live for you" by Connersvine

I hadn't heard of Connersvine so I went to their my space page to find out a bit more about them. They are from Indianapolis and Hunter Smith from the Indianapolis Colts is one of the duo. They have three songs from their cd to listen to on the page. I really like it.

So check out the free music friday and the new band Connersvine.

USS Essex

This weekend I got to tour the USS Essex when it was in Hong Kong.

This is the end of the ship where we entered from the ferry. The ship was anchored about a 40 minute ferry ride from the pier on Hong Kong Island. It was too big to come into the harbor.


Once inside the ship, we came to two large boats. These boats are released from the back end of the ship and will go closer to land to put vehicles and personnel on land. As you can see from this picture of me and the boat, it's pretty big and it is inside the Essex so obviously the Essex is huge.Another view of those boats.

I also got to see the morgue

There is a huge hangar for the helicopters and planes. The black part coming out the front of the helicopter is a machine gun.

Next we went up on the flight deck. It was about 7:30 pm so it was already dark and so I really couldn't get any pics. The 2 means that this was the second boat of this kind made.If you look really close in this picture you can see the outline of a helicopter in the middle.


Safety jackets that they sailors wear when they are on the flight deck.

I got this tour because I joined up with a program called "Meals in the home" to host sailors for dinner as they come through our port. I was supposed to host 3 but only hosted 2 for dinner. I did meet the other one though here are their pictures.Gary and Diane

Tom

Interesting Train ride part 2

Ok, So I have had requests to hear this story. So I recorded it. You can hear it here.

But there's more...this morning (Wednesday, Nov 7th) I got on the train in about car #8 and started walking back to car #11. (I like to sit there because: 1. I can get a seat and 2. it's right next to the exit closest to my school.) So as I enter car #11 whom do I see? Yes, none other than "talk to imaginary friends" boy. I almost lost it.

Interesting Train Ride

Every day I ride the train to and from work. It's nice early in the morning when there is hardly anyone on the train so I am always guaranteed a seat, but not so in the afternoons on the way home. Well the other morning, I saw a very funny situation. I got on the train, car #11 and sat down on my bench. On the bench across from me sat a guy about early to mid twenties. Each bench holds 4 people and he was sitting near the other end from me, but not right at the end (kind of in between seat one and two) I quickly realized that he was talking to his two imaginary friends. He had one sitting on either side of him. This wasn't just a person talking to themselves, this was him full-on having conversations. He would turn and look at the person and then turn and look at the other person. This went on until the next station, so about 3 minutes. Then at the next station I guess his invisible friend on the right side got off, because this guy moved completely into the first seat on the bench. Also at this stop an older gentleman got on and sat on the same bench but the other end. The guy continued to talk to the one friend and he also got a book out of his bookbag. In doing so, he dropped a paper on the floor, so the older gentleman tapped him and pointed out the paper. The young guy bent down and picked it up, and then proceeded to give the old man the finger. Well at least that is whom I thought he was giving the finger to until he then gave his imaginary friend an hard fast elbow in the stomach. I guess the paper on the floor was really the fault of the invisible friend.

But really folks, you know sometimes invisible friends make mistakes, but do they deserve to be elbowed in the stomach and given the finger? I think not! Treat all of your friends with respect, invisible or not.