Hong Kong and Fishes

Hi! My intention is to spend less time writing and more time putting up pictures and videos in this particular post. So there.

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My trip to Hong Kong last week was good, exhausting, and successful.

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My apartment (sometimes) smells like a cabin without the fireplace + fire. Good cabin.

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You all know that I don't not like China. It's an incredible place, and I live here voluntarily, one might say. That being said, I write the following:

The subways, ferry waiting areas, streets, restaurants, and everywhere in Hong Kong had news of the Japanese earthquake broadcast 24/7. And everywhere, everyone who was able to view aforementioned Japanese earthquake news... viewed it. As in, everyone in viewing range would take off their headphones/ear buds, turn away from their newspapers, books, etc. to watch and listen to the news. They visibly cared.

As I traveled from the Hong Kong subway line to the HK/China mainland border, we (train passengers) watched the earthquake news on the TVs in the subway train.

After crossing the border, I boarded the subway train in Shenzhen, in the mainland. The TVs were showing sports bloopers. Sports bloopers and movie trailers.

There are myriad aspects to the number of topics that this experience brings to mind, but I simply aim to summarize my feelings in as concise a manner as is possible, and I shall do so as follows:

It breaks the heart.

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Most westerners hate "squatty potties".

A. I don't hate "squatty potties". Just look up how ergonomically unhealthy the use of "normal" toilets is compared to the use of "squatty potties".

B. If all squatty potties were like the ones in Hong Kong, I propose that 90% of westerners wouldn't hate them so much. I visited (is visited a good word for this?) a squatty potty bathroom in a Hong Kong public transit station, a locale which, in America, would scream warnings for most Americans. Anyway, this place was pristine. It smelled good. It looked good. I half expected there to be one of those bathroom towel-dudes by the sinks. And it was open to the public.

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Lastly...

A couple of days ago, I was teaching a class (ages 5-6, this class happened to be all girls) "uncle", "aunt", "grandfather", and "grandmother". We were playing a game which involves two students facing off, trying to say the name of whatever card I showed them as fast as possible. The cards have pictures on them which are associated with recently learned vocabulary words.

Background: The curriculum we utilize uses a central cartoon character dude named "Chevady" as a sort of reference point... weird name, but it works. Anyway, the "uncle" "aunt", etc. were all related to this Chevady kid cartoon character thing.

Anyway, I showed them the picture for "uncle", after which they both shouted "Uncle!" I then asked them in Chinese "How is Chevady related to his Uncle?" I was looking for "Uncle is Chevady's Daddy's brother" or something like that. Instead, they both just looked at me for a couple of seconds, looked out the corners of their eyes, and then one of them gets that smart look in her eyes and says (in Chinese), "They're in the same family!!", which the other girl proudly repeated.

I cracked up.

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"As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory."

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Is it a travesty if I don't post the Bible address (e.g. 2 Corinthians X:XX-XX) of the above passage? I mean, you can look it up if you want to know where it is. Use Google. I feel like I look at a passage from the Bible with fresh eyes if I can't see it's address written below it.

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The long-awaited night-time panorama from my balcony. (Click to enlarge!) It doesn't look that great, but it's kinda cool

Hong Kong Metro underground walkway, 5:55am

If only it'd stay like that, right? Plane from Shenzhen to Chengdu... before the second bus load of passengers arrived. One thing I can say: it's very rare to hear stories about being in China and having to sit next to that "humongous, obese Chinese man/lady". Not to say that the claws of obesity are not slowly gripping this country or anything... they most definitely have and are.

Chinese co-worker's boyfriend's birthday (with fish carcass in foreground :)

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That's a negative on the video uploads... I'll have to try again when my internet is faster.

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Say hi to me!