Decision

I finally made the decision....

A new beginning, a fresh start...

I know I can do it!!!! YOSH!!!! ^_^

Post-Olympic Syndrome

Because of the "coincendental" timing due to my job situation, I actually got to watch a lot of Olympic this year. I don't think I have ever "participated" so much in any previous Olympics =) My favorites are (as always) badminton, ping pong, diving and swimming.

And lucky for me, since I am in HK this time, so I got to watch tons of badminton and ping pong that I normally would not be able to watch in the States! (yea, you know how NBC ONLY broadcasts the games that the US teams can win!)

Pre-Olympic Fever @ TST

I had some free time these few days (surprise surprise!!) and found some pictures that were taken the night before the Olympic opening. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui to feel the Pre-Olympic celebratory spirit among the HK crowd.

The Victoria Harbor is always our favorite night picture spot!

That night we arrived the harbor late so we missed the electronic light show by 5 minutes; however, our goal was actually something else - they have put up some large size decoration and models for the Beijing Olympic near the Clock Tower - and that's what we were really after!

But first - of course we won't miss the chance to appreciate our pretty Victoria Harbor @ night!

See the Beijing Olympic logo on the building?!

And for those who are as geeky as I am: That's right - Mike's shirt does say "Don't make me replace you with a very small script!" =D

IFC is still the tallest, most recognizable structure across the waterfront. (Yea, for those who have seen the latest Batman movie - that WAS the building where Batman flew down from its roof top!)

Olympic Celebratory Spirit

Hey look!! It's "Mike and the Fuwa"!

Finally we saw the "Water Cube" (水立方) decorational structure that they put in the Culture Center Plaza in celebration for the Beijing Olympic.

They have gigantic flat screen TVs inside where Olympic games would be shown the whole time during its opening hours.

At that time I thought this model was very pretty (with the lights and stuff), but what I didn't know was that the real Water Cube is actually 10x more spectacular!! Next time when I visit Beijing, entering the Water Cube and swimming there would definitely be one of my must-do agenda!! =)

We couldn't go into the structure that night because they were doing the last-minute preparation work for the Olympic opening the next night (yea, we went there on August 7th). But it's still cool to look from a distance though.

And of course - can't miss the Clock Tower - as classy as it always is.

I think I am suffering from the post-Olympic syndrome!! I already missed all the exciting and touching moments from the games!!

Guess I'll just have to wait another 4 years.....

Published via Photo Goodness

Primary School Gathering

It all started with a primary school graduation photo uploaded to Facebook...

Rex uploaded our 6th grade graduation photo; people started tagging each other; more and more familiar faces showed up; buddies from old days found each other again through FB, etc.

(I know not everyone is as geeky as I am, but sometimes you do have to appreciate the beauty of technology and how it really does "tie" people who have lost touch back together!) ^_^

Anyways, we were extremely lucky that we were able to reunite with many old classmates. And even more lucky that many of us made it to our first gathering!! (Thanks AuYeung for organizing it!!)

Amazing, isn't it?!

There were so many of us that we needed to sit in two different tables at the restaurant. This picture was taken from one table of the other table. (And don't ask me why Bread was making that face. I bet he must be talking about one of the "horror" stories about how he got "tortured" by one of the teachers back then!)

I was really happy to see Ida and Hazel. (Love Ida's hair!!!!) ^_^

We even got one of our old teachers, Miss Hui (bottom right), to come! She brought her son (bottom left) as well. It's was fun to have 3 "generations" of people together! =)

We went to grab drinks afterwards at a bar nearby.

Boys, don't be so shy and dodge from the camera!! ;)

Katherine came back from Sydney as well. I haven't seen her in ages!

Thanks Kent for being the "appointed photographer" for the night! I borrowed his DSLR and took a couple quick shots of him, so his face would "show up" on film as well. haha... (Though Rex on the other hand was totally trying to hide from or ignore the camera!)

We gathered everybody's emails and cells, establishing our SJS 6A Alumni network!! Yay!!

It's truly amazing to see how much we did NOT change from old times (^_~)v

And I am totally looking forward for the next gathering with all our "old buddies"!!

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Ginger Milk!!!

Long Break...

Long break since my last post. So many things have happened: the biggest event being traveling to Vancouver, Toronto, visiting family at SF and Mike's family at St Louis... Such a refreshing and awesome trip! Will post pictures of the trip later.

But First...

Topic of this post though is not about the trip (which can wait). What can't wait is my excitment from my "virgin" attempt at making Ginger Milk (姜汁撞奶) !! Everybody knows how much I love dessert. ^_^ Especially steamed milk, steamed egg, and sweet tofu type of Chinese desserts.

There is a really yummy traditional Chinese dessert place near my apartment. I visit them regularly each week to satisfy my sweet tooth. One of my favorite from that place is their hot ginger milk dessert. I accidentally found a recipe, and it looks simple enough with just 3 straight-forward ingredients: ginger, milk and sugar. Surprisingly, it tastes as good as the dessert house!! ^__________^ hohohohoho~

It tastes as smooth and yummy as it looks ;) And the best thing is - it's cheap and easy to make!!!

Looks like I am going to stock up on some milk in my fridge from now on!! hahaha~ ;)

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Candlelight Vigil - 19th Anniversary of June 4th 1989

It's painful to recall, but it's never to be forgotten.....

Mike and I went to the Candlelight Vigil for the 19th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989.

This is held annually in Victoria Park to commemorate the thousands of Chinese students who were killed in the June 4th Massacre in China in 1989, and express our eagerness for democracy, freedom, human rights and rule of law.

The June Fourth Incident

It all started with a number of peaceful protests led by Chinese students in April of 1989. They wanted the Chinese government to reform, to clean up the corrupt bureaucracy, calling for democracy & human rights. The Chinese government ignored the protesters.

The protest gained momentum in a short period of time. More and more students and other activists joined, but the protesters remained non-violent. They gathered in Tienanmen Square in Beijing. 3000+ students started to starve themselves to try to call for the government attention. As the starved students grew weaker and weaker due to the lack of food and water intake, the Chinese government continued to ignore their request. This provoked even more people to join the students.

In late May, workers, farmers, police, teachers, parents, and intellectuals all sided with the students. The Chinese government was forced to talk to the student representatives; however, nothing resolved after their meeting. Large scale protests were happening in 20+ provinces throughout China, in addition to the main one in Beijing.

On June 4h, the government took a desperate action to "quiet down" the much-overheat protesting voice - a total military crackdown - Solders, with tanks, guns and other weapons, were ordered to "disperse" the protesters from Tienanmen Square. The military crackdown left thousands of students dead and even more injured.

After the massacre, the government also conducted widespread arrests for surviving protesters and their supporters, killed all remaining protesting voice in China, banned all foreign press from entering and erased all national coverage of the massacre. Many of the protesters caught from the protest back then were still in prison today.

When it happened that year.....

I was just a very little girl when it all happened in 1989. I was too little to understand what democracy means, or what freedom stands for. But I definitely remembered how the whole city was in extreme grief during that time.

People watched news everyday and night to find out what was going on in Tienanmen Square. Countless tears were shed watching how students were killed by the tanks, the army, the government....

In my little mind, I didn't totally understand what was going on at that time, but I would never forget that year, that day, that massacre...

Natural Disasters v.s. Human-caused Disasters

The vigil this year was also about the victims from the earthquake on May 12th.

Yes, the earthquake was sad and caused way too many innocent lives. But at least it was natural disaster after all.

But what about disasters caused by people? Or even by the government?

Yes, since the earthquake happened, the Chinese central government has been doing everything they can to rescue and help the earthquake victims.

But....

If the 7000+ schools and hospitals were built properly by the local government or the responsible organizations in the first place, would so many innocent children and people die as a result of improper construction??! As a result of the so-called "tofu-residue" construction!!!

What about the students protesters back then? Was it really so wrong to protest peacefully to voice out their concern? Was democracy and freedom really so expensive in our country that our students had to pay the high price of LIFE for it???!!!

During the Candlelight Vigil

It rained during part of the candlelight vigil.

Instead of leaving, we took out their umbrella to block the rain from putting out the candle fire, which represents our respect and remembrance of the students who shed their blood in exchange for a call for democracy, for freedom, 19 years ago.

We raised our candlelight up high and waved, while singing the June Fourth memorial song, Blood (血染的風采),

I cried.

I hope generations and generations of our people will not forget the June Fourth historical event. It's only through learning what really did happen in our history that we can become better and stronger, as an individual, as a nation.

And I'd like to pay my sincere regards to the students, for their self-less act 19 years ago. I hope that all of them, their families and loved ones will find comfort and continue to live bravely.

It's painful to recall, but it's never to be forgotten.....

Din Tai Fung @ Tsim Sha Tsui

After being trapped at home for almost 2 whole weeks, my hand's burned injury is finally approaching a "stable recovery" state. The outer burned skin (now blacken) was slowly peeling off, while the new inner skin (very red and sensitive) is glowing, slowly and "itchily".

Though still far from 100% healed, I couldn't wait to break out from my recovery "cage" and went to a restaurant that Mike and I have meant to try for a long time, the recently-opened Din Tai Fung at Tsim Sha Tsui.

New Restaurant, Yay!!

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) is a must-visit restaurant in Taipei, famous for its "little dragon buns" (Shanghai style steamed buns with meat fillings). They have chains in lots of countries and cities (unfortunately not in SF). They just recently opened their first one in Hong Kong.

Mike LOVES the Taipei main branch of this restaurant. We visited twice in our last very short three-days Taipei trip. He was willing to give up an opportunity to try other yummy restaurants just for this, so you know....

Not to mention that he alone ate 15+ steamed buns in our second visit....

Other Yummy Food

Besides steamed buns, we also tried a bunch of things that we didn't try last time when were in its Taipei branch.

Such as this tofu veggie vermicelli soup.

"Dan Dan Noodles" with peanut sauce.

It always made me soooooo happy to see all the yummy-looking, freshly made food steaming all at once in front of me on the table !!

The Hungry Couple

"Itatakimasu!!!"

Yup... and that would be my "bundled-up" injured hand that you saw from the picture.

Luckily my recovery was finally at a state where I could hold my own chopsticks, otherwise I'd need to use my "un-chopstick-trained" left hand and I'm sure there would be lots of food dropping and sauce splashing, or Mike would have to feed me very "lovingly".... haha... ^_~

See how relieved (or .... cynical?) he was knowing that he didn't need to hand-feed me!!

The steamed buns were juicy and fresh, but just.... hmm.... didn't seem to be as yummy as the ones in Taipei.

Also, they cut the number of buns served in each order. In Taipei, you get 10 for each order, but it's only 6 here. The missing 4 made this dish look less "fulfilling"....

Regardless of the slight decrease in quality, I was just too happy to be out and enjoying delicious food, after almost two weeks of "cage-life"!!! =D (I know I know... it's for the sake of my own hand's recovery, but still...... I was almost bored out of my mind starring at my poor blistered hand with pain for soooooooo long!!)

More, please!!

Apparently we still had room for more after what we ordered. I told Mike to "go totally out" and ordered whatever he wanted! And guess what....

Yup, he has been having the Japanese-style fried pork cutlet craving for awhile now, and here we are! Taiwanese fried rice with pork cutlet it was!!

Close up!

And it was absolutely delightful! Easiest the most delicious dish of the night!

I would totally come back to this restaurant just for this dish! haha....

Even for Mike, who is a pseudo-vegetarian (i.e., he likes to pretend to be a vegetarian most of the time, except when he goes eat burgers and sushi), helped me clean the entire plate (not including the 3 dishes that we finished prior to this one).

By the time we left, there were already giant queues outside. We were glad that we got in early to avoid the busy dinner crowd on a Saturday night!! =D