Hong Kong flags

Yep, that's the old Hong Kong flag. Though I don't feel much towards the British queen nor the flag, it brings back memory of what it was like before Hong Kong was turned back over to China in July 1, 1997. That was 11 months after I married Dan, the American. This is the place where I spent my first 33 years of my life, minus 5 years in Taipei, Taiwan when I attended university. I miss my hometown, I miss the food, the energy and most of all, my family and friends. I DON'T miss the crowd (which provides the energy, by the way), don't miss the heat, and surely not the pollution.
The new Hong Kong flag has the same colour scheme that the Chinese flag has, there is a story behind the colour and the flower. I have to admit that I like the old, more subdued blue old flag.

Work is work

I like my job at Trinity, THE Field Education Coordinator. Get to talk to students, find out what is going on in their lives, pray for them, grade their papers, great! Well, occasionally, have to put up with some wrath of unorganized students, but that's OK, those will pass. Though I like my job, it is not quite the kind of "job" that I would like to do for the rest of my life. I would trade that with having Bible studies with Chinese students like I did in U of Maryland in a heart beat. I could do Bible studies to share the gospel for the rest of my short life, it beats everything, except spending time with Kioni. The joy of seeing them taking one step closer each week, seeing how God is working in their soul, seeing how they finally surrender their lives to Jesus Christ and start living a life with Jesus as their center, those are priceless rewards. I long to do that again. That is when I am done with Trinity, I will do it again.

Snow is pretty, not unless you have a chauffeur...

I am so tired of this 20F (-6C or so) degree weather. It is going to snow some more tomorrow, ALL DAY!!! Adding another 6" to the 10" that is already on the ground. Why would people want to live in Chicago, Fargo, Buffulo or Alaska all their lives. Snow is pretty when you have a butler, a personal cook, a chauffeur and a four wheel drive, but not for common people like me, who is driving a 1990 Buick Century with a broken tail light, who has to spend half an hour in frigid cold digging the car out of the 2 foot snow that the snow plow piled up against your car, then drive one hour (which normally takes 20 minutes) on icy roads to go to work, and then do the same when you leave work. Well, there is a time in life for everything, right? I guess it is my sub-tropic self talking here.

Take a vote

When I look at Kioni today, I have already forgotten how she looked when she was three months old, she is a little girl now, not a baby anymore, though I still call her my baby, and she will stay like that for a long while. Where did the time go, it seems like it was yesterday when I had that wonderful Japanese seafood buffet at Todai before I went under the knife to have the C-section. That was almost two years ago. Wow! Today, Kioni is 23 months old, one more month and she will officially be two.
By the way, who do you think she looks like, Amy or Dan, leave a comment, take a vote.

It is COLD!

When I lived in Hong Kong, 10C (50F) is cold. Girls are allowed to wear pants instead of skirts for their school uniforms when it drops below that temperature. I remember wear long johns and two pairs of socks at the bottom just to keep warm. It was hard to sit in a class and concerntrate while you were shaking. It does feel cold even at that temperature because normally households in Hong Kong are not equipped with central heat. Well, why would anybody wants that when you are living in a subtropical region of the world? Where only a few days in a year will the temperature be that "low".
However, living in Chicago is a different story. Today, the high is -8.3C (17F) and the low is -14.4C (6F). Now, THAT is COLD! I was not aware of how cold it is when I walked out of the house with just a cotton turtle neck and a medium length wool coat, well I had a scarf, a hat and a pair of gloves on, but it is still cold.
I think you need to be young to like the real winter weather, it is not fun to feel the moisture from the inside of your nose turning into ice, at least it feels that way.