8:45 am: Becky Chan telephones my sister to say good-bye to her before she leaves for work. That is my wake-up call. 5 minutes later, my sister comes into my room to tell me to wake up and get ready to leave as my father had relayed the message to Sheila in the middle of Becky's call. That's what BC Tel's call waiting is for I guess.

I don't remember when we arrived at the airport but we got there safely. Pastor Joshua accompanied us as he was going to take our van back to our house for us. After we had checked-in with Air Canada, we had time for some lunch as we knew the plane food wasn't going to be that pleasant. My family had Burger King and some Fortune Wok (or some kind of Wok food) . . .I on the other hand couldn't eat anything but an apple because ever since Saturday, I had encountered a stomach virus (accompanied by a fever) and whenever I ate, the food didn't stay in my digestive tract for very long (not that you wanted to know). I shall spare you the details, but let's just say that I'm thankful that I didn't vomit because I hate vomiting.

The A343 plane lifted-off approximately at 1:00 p.m. I barely got a chance to sleep on the plane. I had prayed beforehand that my stomach would last until I got off the plane and God answered another prayer! When I was completely healed was another thing, another day. Perhaps that was why my appetite wasn't that big (it was God's doing)--I only had 8 slices (or pieces) of Premium Plus crackers and hot water as I couldn't eat any of the plane food (thank goodness, though the sushi sure looked good). I didn't even have enough appetite to eat the apple that we bought at the airport last minute that totaled to (all currency is in Canadian) $1.00.

13 hours and 22 minutes. What a long plane ride, but to pass much of the time, they showed some TV sitcoms: Seinfield, Spin City, some documentary on American lobsters, CBC News, some music videos, and 4 movies (Aerovision Movie Presentations): The Lucky Guy (some Chinese movie), Sliding Doors, Wag The Dog (I thought that Wag the Dog was about a dog, not politics!), and The Real Howard Spitz. They weren't supposed to show The Real Howard Spitz but I guess they had too much time on their hands. They had music to listen to as well, and my sister found a Christian Contemporary and Gospel music station with songs from Avalon, DC Talk, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Jars of Clay, and other artists I haven't heard of--they were the gospel songs.

The Hong Kong International airport was a big place! They had electronic/computerized trains that ran from one part of the airport to the other (probably because it would've taken too long to walk from one end to the other. However there were many things that were still in the process of repair/construction (e.g. a moving sidewalk). I also wanted to find the places where they had shiny marbled floor tiles that when one looked down, (s)he could see the reflection of people walking. If someone was wearing a skirt, one could've seen beneath it. I didn't come across one then, but on the way back I inspected it and I could see my reflection quite clearly. Thank goodness that I wasn't wearing a skirt, just jeans.

It took us 1.5 hours to get home in traffic. We could've taken a taxi that would've come to $60-$80 or an electric train and then transferred to the MTR (subway transit) but that was too inconvenient. The double decker bus fare for the family was $30.

After we arrived, our grandfather (you see only he was there because my aunt and her kids went to China and my grandmother and my uncles were in Guam) took us out to dinner but all I had was plain rice because I still couldn't eat properly (yum). By the time we got home, it was nearly 10 p.m. but even though it's not that late, we were all really tired so we went to bed really soon.

6:59 am: Pitter-patter . . .drip, drip, drip . . .the pouring rain woke me up so I got up to adjust the air-conditioner. My brother also woke up so we turned on the television to see if there were any Chinese cartoons on. However, the only program that kept coming on was the morning news, which kept rerunning even up to 8:30 am when we went to wash-up and have breakfast.

Because everyone woke up so early, we decided to go out and walk around to see if there were any shops nearby that were open. You wouldn't believe it if I told you that none of the shops open until 10:30 am at the earliest (but they close at 9:30 p.m. or later every night)! We had dim sum at 3 p.m. because we had to clean our apartment (it was just newly renovated). We then proceeded into probably one of the largest HMVs in Hong Kong (and perhaps the world). It had four stories with different types of music located on each floor. At the time, there was a "crazy sale" so we decided to look to see if there were any CDs that were by contemporary Christian artists. Since there was no alphabetical order of the artists names in the sale racks, we had to spend quite a bit of time flipping through each CD before coming across the Newsboys single, 'Take Me To Your Leader' and Steven Curtis Chapman's, 'Signs of Life' (I think my brother found both of them). My sister purchased the Newsboys CD that had 5 songs on it including the 'Shine' remix ($2) and I purchased the Steven Curtis Champman one ($10).

In the afternoon, we got a chance to watch a Chinese cartoon 'Ding Dong' or otherwise known as 'Doramoen' (spelling?). . . I think it was until our aunt invited us to dinner in Hong Kong Island (we live in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon). We took the Star Ferry across the ocean/sea (?) and had dinner (which I decided to take a chance and eat real food--big mistake). Their apartment is considered to be one of the "well-off" luxurious ones. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms including full bathtubs and showers with gas-heated hot water tanks, 1 big storage area/closet, a huge dining table, leather couches, cabled TV (my grandparents don't own these you see), and a DVD/karoake machine (and I forgot also a hired maid). They even are members of certain clubs (you know, places where you may use the facilities for approximately $1000 a year). That night, the three of us (kids) got a chance to stay overnight and I finally decided to suffer and take this disgusting bitter tasting Chinese medicine (which contains 50% alcohol, metholaumem, distilled water, cloves, nutmeg, and other ingredients) in hopes of ridding that awful reaction I got after eating (well, I think it must've worked because I was pretty much okay the following day).

Um, yeah so I was going on and on about what happened but my screen froze and I had to start all over again (from Day 3 to Day 4) and at the same time I am watching The Devil's Advocate so I am really distracted. Anyway, I seemed to have misplaced my notes until the end of summer and it was not until now (December 19, 1998) that I am finishing my journal. So that morning, I woke up at 10 am to the noise of the kids talking. I spent most of my time being bored that day because my cousins had a private tutor over. However, we got a chance to go to the stationary store nearby and I got a chance to buy some signo milky pens for a good price. That night, we went back across the harbour (via the Star Ferry) and went to a restaurant to eat dinner with my mother's relatives. My, were the dishes ever small!!!!! Never seen such like them!

After breakfast that morning, our family decided to go the science centre except it was closed. You see, we have a family membership at Science World and so there is free admission to other science centres around the world. Because the science centre was still closed, we walked around for awhile. My sister, being Sheila, who loves to shop (unlike myself), bought many clothes while I just bought a purse (a purse? I thought it was stickers!) Anyway, we went to the most non-Chinese place in the world for lunch: McDonald's. However, the iced lemon tea in the McDonald's are only found in Hong Kong (well not here anyway). A McCrunch was the latest trend (some pork burger) so that is what I had. We proceeded to go to Tom Lee and we ended up buying the latest hits music for the piano, flute, trumpet except the music were not all in the same key which I didn't know then ~ oh well. We finally went back to the science centre and quickly looked around-4 floors and I'm sure some of you know that already since I was there in 1993-and went home for the night.

The adults had a meeting so the kids were stuck downstairs in a room drawing and reading and stuff. Wasn't my idea of fun but for dim sum, we were able to pick what kind of food we wanted =) and so it was good for once! More shopping afterwards. Again. The dinner that night was great. Well, it was hilarious. We got stuck with some other kids that were staying with my father's relatives at our own table. They were so annoying at first and they wouldn't talk to us. Anyway, after one kid threw a napkin and hit a man in the face (sitting next to our table), he cried. I didn't feel sorry for him even though the man got so angry. I thought he deserved it. Apparently, my cousin did and she went and tried to cheer him up. Soon enough, he was laughing tears if you know what I mean. And once again, they didn't believe I was 18. Seriously, who does?! One of the girls on my floor when they saw me thought that I was 16-yeah a genius. I wish. After our very interesting evening, we went home and since it was my third uncle's birthday, we served him cake. That night I think I went to bed early because the next day we had Sunday service at 8:30 am at the Tsim Sha Tsui Baptist Church which I went to 5 years ago too.

English service with organ worship and hymns except for Majesty is very different. The chairperson doing the announcements was Caucasian but yet it was so impressive cuz he was translating from a Chinese printed bulletin! Mom, Sheila and I met up with my fourth aunt (the same one who has such a luxurious house) and went shopping some more. I finally had a chance to drink some bubble tea ~ mmmmmmm . . .it's so good! Is it only this good in Hong Kong?! Anyway, did I ever mention that Hong Kong has this really crazed fad with Hello Kitty? It was really annoying. And I tried some "stinky" tofu-it's not as great as what everyone says it is. It's kinda sour tasting. Oh, we also went to buy some shoes for me. The salespeople all thought that I was not more than 14. One of them didn't believe that even though my mother told him. Sheesh. So I ended up buying (or my mother ended up buying for me) shoes, jacket, and I bought a $5 nice T, some more pens. How come I don't remember eating at a Thai cuisine for dinner? Oh well, if my notes say so then I guess that is what we did. And we took the ever so expensive but-not-as-expensive-as-Vancouver-I-don't-think taxi home.

This Monday was a very special day for Hong Kong because it was supposedly the date that China chased Japan outta their country or something. Anyway, we woke up at 7:30 am because the family was going to meet my mother's friend for an early dim sum. Apparently, that friend and his wife were going to see a movie afterwards, but I forgot which one it was. So we left them alone and our aunt came and took us shopping to help my mother buy a dress for the banquet.

As the time neared 3:00 p.m. I think (you see both my watches were out-of-order so I really have no sense of time), we decided to go to my aunt's club for lunch. I thought since it was a club, the food would be pretty good so I decided to try a shepherd's pie. Bad mistake! The pie was quite unappealing because it had so much spaghetti-kind meat in it but the orange juice sure tasted yummy!

In the late afternoon, we went home and the 3 girls (Sheila, Iris, and I) spent the rest of the afternoon picking out jewelry from my grandmother as she was very generous in giving away the jewelry she still had from the jewelry store they own previously. Dinner rolled by again but this time, we had to take the MTR (subway) to Mong Kok (but they pronounce it Wong Kok so I still haveta figure that one out).

That evening, the cousins all decided to practice the El Shaddai piece without the cassette player for awhile and one of the younger cousins also decided to incorporate a VBS song as well. However, since the cassette player wasn't bought yet, he was going to teach it to us the following day.

At last!!! The hot water tank was finally working (the construction people were working at finishing the rest of the house during the day) so I was able to take a nice warm shower instead of in freezing (not quite but close to) water! =) And the ZZZZ!s came upon me.

Woke up. (duh). Sat around doing nothing after breakfast. Went to lunch with my "dai" aunt's mother and father. Our family then went to a Chinese Christian bookstore. I was going to buy some Chinese memory verse cards that were relatively easy to read/understand but they were sold out and thus, I didn't make a purchase at all. We went to a China store (i.e. a store with stuff from China not made out of China) and I think my mother bought a pair of shoes there. Formal family pictures were taken at a studio far away. I am not patient at those things, they are too picky and they take waay too many pictures. By the time we got there, I was all sticky even though I just took a shower before leaving the house. Dinner was at 9 p.m. (grrr so hungry by then). Dry thunderstorm afterwards . . .and that was the interesting evening.

Yawn!!!!!!! We woke up early -- but don't ask me why we did that because I had forgotten that the science museum didn't open until 1:00 p.m. and the art museum--who knows when that opened! Well, it's kinda neat though because on Wednesdays, both museums are free! It was our grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary so after breakfast, we practiced our performance songs: Oh God Loves You And Me and El Shaddai. Anyway that is to explain later. The art museum was very interesting and uninteresting at the same time. I don't understand why they charge people money though, it's not worth it and I wouldn't go if I had to pay. The funny thing is at the gift shop they sell CDs that are supposed to be therapeutical such as a constipation-reliever. That is true! I am not lying!

Went to the restaurant early to practice our songs. My sister sang like never before and of course I was nothing in comparison (we both had solos for El Shaddai). During the banquet, the kids had our own table and my grandfather gave such a long speech in Chinese that I think everyone eventually got bored. Because it was the last night before my cousins were to leave, they came over and had a sleepover.

At 9 am we had to get up and "send" our cousins and their parents off. We shopped and we went to a music studio cuz my father's uncle or something, wanted to give a violin to my brother because we were looking for one and he happened to overhear and so he offered one as a gift. Had dim sum with them and got to hear more interesting stories of his childhood. He is a very good storyteller. Shopped some more. Wow, so what else is new?