Thursday, October 26, 2006

I've Crossed the Line

<----This is me in "ponderation"

So tonight I realized that I've crossed a line. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, or really how. And I don't know what exactly this line would be called, if it had a name. So let me explain, and maybe we'll both come up with a name by the end of this post!
Art and Lori are on a holiday right now, so they are gone for 5 days over the long weekend. I am going to be at the Love Actually conference Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday. So I really am only here to help out tonight, half of Sunday, and Monday. So tonight, Brett had 3 kids over to work on a bio project. So when I got home from work, I immediately made pizza (really nothing fancy, it was actually microwaveable, I just added more meat and cheese), threw some carrots in a bowl, and had Caleb set the table. So not a big deal, right? Then I just made sure it was clean and helped Caleb with his homework and such. (Yes, I do have more respect for moms now) So yeah, but the funny thing was when the other kids would come downstairs and ask me if they could get a drink, etc...and at the end of the night, they all thanked me, like I was the mom or the hostess or something. It was all so surreal. Not that those instances were really a big deal, but it did seem to signify that I've crossed some invisible line. I am no longer just a kid, or even a kid that's a leader, I don't know what exactly the kids here see me as, but it's a bit more, and I've crossed some weird line, and there is no going back. Ahhh, when I realized that, I just wanted to scream, on one hand, it means I'm getting older, and it's cool that the kids see me as "that", but on the other hand, I've lost (or just moved on) from a place I will never be in again. It's funny how you never see the pages of your life turning.

Monday, October 23, 2006

I'm having a moment...

The strange man and the coveted spot

Me in the coveted spot, if you look closely, this blog is on my computer screen

Ok, yes, this is a little bit ridiculous how I've been bloggin incessantly lately. I go through phases, this is definitely one of them. Ok, I want to paint a picture for you:
I'm sitting in PCC. I need to write my lesson that I am teaching at this Sanctuary conference, so I'm planting myself here. It closes at 10, so I will be out by then, and hopefully have completed writing the session. Yes. I have 8.5 hours until PCC closes. So much time, and I know I can waste it, which I won't, so immediately following this blog, and probably a few e-mails, I will get right to work! Hahahha. Ok, so I really like sitting in the huge crimson plush red chairs that PCC has, unfortunately, they are all taken, or the occupants of the chair next to it are very strange. Which is why I am not sitting in a really comfortable chair that I'm looking at right now. The occupant of the chair next to it is a strange middle aged man, who obviously thinks that he owns it the way he is draping himself across it. He is constantly sniffing and is quite strange acting. This PCC isn't exactly the quiet hideaway I was hoping for, it is in the middle of one of the biggest malls around. I have a sneaky feeling it might be the biggest on the Kowloon side. Maybe, maybe not. Ok, I love camera phones, I just took a picture which I will certainly post to here this evening. So yes, I am drinking the new Maple Latte that PCC is so big on right now. It's not exactly the "sweet celebration of the tast of autumn" I was longing for, these people really need to get into Pumpkin Pie. Ok, the strange man has moved, so I'm going to move also. Man, this place is great for people watching...I hope I can get work done. In other news, I think I'm going to buy a plane ticket to Bangkok tonight. It's only like $120 USD and ends up being like $170 in the end. How great is that!? The ICS trip from Northwestern is going to be on their internship traveling around Asia for a few months. In November they will be in Bangkok, Thailand for a few weeks. I get to spend American Thanksgiving with them and stay for 5 days. How cool is that! I'm very excited...as you can tell. Well, I have now moved to the comfy chair, the strange man is gone, thankfully, my maple latte is getting cold, unfortunately, that stupid B-a-n-a-n-a-s song is on (madonna?) can't remember,whoever sings it, she should stop, and not sell her music in Asia, no one likes it in the states either, so she should just stop. Well, I'm going to get work done now...ready, set, GO!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

This Day

SNAPSHOTS OF OCTOBER!!!

Me getting my ear pierced

Melissa getting her ear pierced

The Ferry
Sunset from the roof


This is two Fridays ago at (R)evolve, group games
They are actually sitting on bean bags in the elevator. Angela, Vania, Nancy, Kay, Izzy
This picture is worth a thousand words
Speed dating, we play this every week at (R)evolve
My new favorite snack, Cashew Crispies
The closest I've been to the border... ...aside from maybe that time I got lost for two hours
Me, Angela, and Vania
Everyone loves our new bean bags, especially Daniel, Ben, and Aries (top to bottom)
My Sunday School Girls at the Bowling alley: Sarah, Nathania, Michelle



Aloha! Ok, today, I'm in kind of a random mood. I'm in Subdued Hyperness mode. Not sure why. It is now Sunday afternoon. I am quite pleased to find out that the Enns' living room has Sunday afternoon sunshine that is comparable to my living room at home. So nice. Today is a very special day. It is my TWO MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!! Wahoo. I think this also means this is the longest I've been away from home. I think I was like 2 or 3 days short when I went to Guatemala. This is so exciting. Although, to be honest, I really have mixed emotions. On the one hand, being gone on my own, no team members, no family, for two months in a different country, is quite a feat. On the other hand, it is starting to become just everyday life. It's kind of sad that the time is passing by so quickly. I have been waiting to be in Hong Kong for so many months. And now I am here, and it is going by so quickly. I want to make the most out of the time here, but it is also nice being able to finally settle into "daily life" here. I mean, who does this, what I'm doing? Not too many people. It is totally planned out by God, because never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined this year. And I know that I will never have a year quite like this...I want to revel in it, but it's moving so quickly, and the newness is wearing off. So what is a person supposed to do??? Just live, where you are, when you are. (Ok, I'm not saying live for your own pleasure or whatever..that would be hedonistic, and dumb.) Hey Today, bring it on...

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Jasmine, Jazz, and Things of the Like

Ok, just a few random thoughts. These are some of my favorite times:
When I come home late and I have to walk through part of the village alone, there are two spots when I can smell nothing but jasmine. This is one of my favorite smells on earth. (This is saying something, because I like to smell a lot of things...yeah, mom, you know what I'm talking about!) So I start walking by three large houses, then I smell jasmine, and almost always stop just to stand there...then I walk through a narrow alley, and late at night, some one plays music through an upstairs window. The first time it was classical I think, then it was jazz, tonight it was traditional Chinese music. It always just makes me want to stop and drink in the moment. Then I keep walking... across a play ground, and down the road...then suddenly smell dog poo, and then 5 steps later...jasmine again. So nice. It's moments like these, that make you go...

Friday, October 20, 2006

Yet Again

Ok, I'm not gonna lie...this blog is kind of a guilt trip...I realized that if Melissa can update her blog...I probably have time to also! This will just be a (hopefully) brief highlight reel of what's been happening since I wrote last:

Lately, my friendships with the students have seem to skyrocketed. And it is so amazing! Last Friday, a few of the girls ended up coming early to church, and we all went to dinner before hand. It was some girls that normally wouldn't hang out together...and they all seemed to talk. It was great.

Then on Sunday, I asked a few girls to hang out with me, and in the end, I went to lunch with 2 girls and one of the girls' mom. Then me and the 2 girls went to get Krispy Kremes and yeah, we just hung out all afternoon...and they want to do it next week! It was so cool.

Monday was a good day. I didn't do a darn thing. It was wonderful. I putsed around, cleaned my room, read a book, slept in! Ahhh...heaven.

Then Tuesday night, I wasn't feeling well, so I got into bed at 8:45, and was asleep by 9:30!!!! AMAZING, EH? I even got a picture of it. I'm not going to take it off my phone now, but check back, and I will repost it with a picture! (Ok, I did)

Wednesday was an interesting day. I really wasn't in the office much. Me and PM ran a few errands in TST, and then went to CPK (I guess I'm not allowed to call it California Pizza Kitchen). It was the first time I had been there....so delicious. And it had a beautiful view of the harbour and the island. Then we were craving donuts, so me and Mel jaunted up to SoHo to get Krispy Kremes to bring back to the office. So good. Then me and Melissa saw a movie at the cinema in Whampoa. That place is so ghetto. First of all, we went to see a canto movie, which is an adventure all by itself. It was the strangest movie ever. And for some reason, the two chinese guys in front of us found it hilarious. The humour was lost in translation. So then in the middle of the movie, Melissa leans over to me and says, "Hannah, there is a mouse eating my nachos!" (Which happened to be on the arm rest next to her.) I seriously thought she was joking. But she wasn't. It brushed up against her feet and then she saw it, and it was eating her food! So she moved to the other side of me and we both kept our feet up. Then a few minutes later, I could HEAR it! Ahhhh, it was so horrible.

In other news: MY MOM IS COMING TO HONG KONG! I am so incredibly excited! She emailed me on Tuesday morning and told me to call her ASAP. So I was all worried, even though she said it was good. Then she's like, guess who's coming to HK? I am! We had talked about it before I left, and realized it wasn't possible. Then I guess my uncle was in MN visiting and he asked her what dates I would visit if I could...so she told him, and the next day, my aunt called and told her she bought her the ticket! My aunt is from Japan, so she has frequent flyer miles and happened to want to surprise my mom! So yeah, it is such an amazing gift from God. So great! So yeah, a few days after Christmas, she will fly out to NJ, where they live and visit them for a day or so, and then fly directly here to stay for like 10 days or something! I am soooooooooo excited! Anywhoo. That's all the news. I have to go to bed.

Quick prayer request: The next 4 weeks will be indredibly busy and stressful. We have 2 conferences coming up. The second one, Mike will be in the states during that time. And I volunteered to teach a session. So it's kinda hanging over my head right now. And just also for that week that Mike will be gone...I'm a bit worried. It will be OK though...I know I can't help but be stressed.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!!


Ok, just a warning...this blog will be really random and maybe slightly confusing...I have so many things to blog about and always forget right after they happen...so I play catch up...and you, my readers, get confused. So sorry in advance! This will be in the form of 3 different blogs...

1. It says a lot about a person when...

They can laugh hysterically at themselves, without anyone to laugh with them. This is something that I did yesterday...I had an interesting afternoon. I was at CAIS in the morning, helping with Spiritual Emphasis week, then I walked to another school to have lunch with one of my girls. Well, I ended up being one street over, and was "lost" so I only was able to be with her for like 12 min. Then on the way back to where I knew I could catch the right bus. I decided to take a different bus, that I thought was going to a place where I could easily get back to the office. When I first arrived here, I was warned about the minibuses. Green minibus means good, red means bad. You know you're on the wront bus when: a. there is not an octopus reader b. the bus driver doesn't know how to shift smoothly c. you almost fall out of your seat at every turn d. you do not recognize anything that you are passing e. when you arrive at the end of the bus line, and realize that you are no where near where the sign on the bus said it was going
So I ended up somewhere totally different than I thought. As I got off the bus, I couldn't help but laughing at myself. And I wasn't just laughing inside...I was laughing audibly outside. I couldn't help but have this huge smile on my face. And I also realized that there is something wrong with the world today. I felt kind of dumb that I had this huge smile on my face just walking down the street, so I tried to stop smiling, but couldn't. Then I thought, "Why should I hide my smile? That is the dumbest thing ever!" So then I openly smiled and laughed to my heart's content. It felt good, very good. So I finally got back to the office without major difficulty, but it just took a long time.

2. You know you're doing a good job of blending in when...
You get asked if you speak chinese. Yes, this did happen to me! Aren't you so amazed?!!! I sure am. I was in the market the other night with Kristin, and we were at this store...there were these 2 indian women in there and they were trying to pick out one item of clothing in two different colors and the lady that worked there was trying to find it for them in the right size. So she said (in chinglish...that is my new word for both english and chinese) "Do you want white also?" And yes, she had an accent and half of her words were chinese, but she was pointing to the white one. So they said I don't understand you, and so she repeated herself again, and after failing to communicate, she started to turn away...so I said to the women, "She asked if you wanted the white one also" and they looked at me so impressed and asked if I spoke Chinese!!! I said no, and they were like, are you learning? And I was like no, I just picked that up... It made me laugh so hard. And I was pretty pleased with myself! I didn't think I would ever get that reaction here!

3. You know you're in a different place when you see buddhists in robes and you are choking on incense....
This was my experience last night. Last night was the funeral of the father of a man from our church. Pastor Ed was doing the service and asked me to play piano for it. I was sooooo incredibly nervous to play. First, hymns are NOT my forte, and I didn't have a lot of opportunity to practice because pianos aren't very available to me. So yeah. Me and PM went to this HUGE funeral home, and there are about 20 funerals going on at the same time. Each one has there own great room for the service. Most of the funerals that were going on were Buddhist. There was a lot of incense, and on the way out, we saw several men in robes singing and chanting and half dancing with incense. I love just being slapped in the face with the reality that I'm in a different place. But we were in a different room and instead of smelling incense, we smelled hundreds and hundreds of lilies...which by the way, are my new favorite flower. So back to the funeral. When we walked in, we were ushered down a middle aisle, before a huge "altar" of flowers and a picture of the deceased. We were then supposed to bow toward it, and then bow toward the family, who were seated on the side and stood to bow to us. PM, Pastor Ed, and me actually did it a bit wrong, but thankfully we were ushered to our seats pretty quickly! Hahahaha. So yes. I played the piano. It didn't go as bad as I thought, but not as good as I would've liked. But I made it through it. There was also a pretty famous person there, who was sitting 5 chairs from me. Unfortunately, I didn't meet this individual, because I wanted to respect the fact that we were at a funeral. Oh, something else that they do at chinese funerals is they give you a small packet with the program. In it is a tissue, to dry your eyes, a coin to symbolize paying for the trip home, and a piece of candy, and I forgot what that was for.

Finale:
So that is what has been happening lately. Kind of a lot. But I love it here...still! Last night I slept over at PM and Melissa's and watched a movie with them. And today I am working from home. I bought lillies for my room and now it smells like heaven. I cleaned up my room, swept and shook out my rugs, doing my laundry, and called a dear friend. A pretty productive day, and peaceful too. Although, right now I am craving a milk bun. MMMmmmmm...milk bun.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

My Beautiful Day

This picture is of a display in Kowloon Park...the past few weeks have been getting ready for the Festival of the Lanterns, so most parks had some kind of decoration....
Today is a BEAUTIFUL day. It's funny that I know that...being that I haven't really been outside, and it's 1 in the afternoon! Today is my day off, and I am OFF! I have been trying to catch up on all my e-mailing, reports, sleep, blogging, etc...I don't plan on doing much...maybe exploring the village (we have million dollar bathrooms here...supposedly the best in HK besides the golden toilet in Hung Hom), gonna go see a movie later with Kristin...it's a great day. Tomorrow I'm going to be playing piano for a funeral. That should be interesting...I've never played piano like that. So we shall see. These past few weeks have been pretty interesting. A lot of stretching and growing. I've been learning a lot about selfishness, sufficiency, and surrender. Good lessons to learn...don't think I'll ever be done learning. Actually, I know I won't. I've also been learning a lot about leadership. Not sure if can put it in a concrete thought or sentence though. I've been having opportunities to stretch myself, and I've been making myself take them. It's so good to be here, I am loving this journey that God is leading me on. I'm listening to Rascal Flatts (yes, thanks Bre) and God is certainly blessing the broken road that is leading me to Him. I feel like I have been connecting with the kids a lot more lately, and I am certainly loving it. Well, I knew that I didn't have much to say, but thought I would say it anyways.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

My Black, Black Lungs


So yesterday was a good day. It was a holiday, so I went and explored Discovery Bay. Able to go bowling again, I'm still horrible, hiked a wee bit and saw an amazing view of Hong Kong. The funniest thing to me about DB is that everyone drives golf carts! It was so funny! I felt like I was in a retirement community or something...but the whole Island of Lantau is like that. So today was also a very good day! Another day off, which was amazing. I met Mike and Melissa at thier flat and then went to Stanley. Stanley is mostly a market, but there is also an old fort and prison from WWII. We just went shopping, got some Christmas presents for some people, got a pair of jeans and a few t shirts. I am having incredible luck with jeans lately...it usually takes me 3 hours to find a good pair! Wahoo! So yeah. I met the Enns' on the road and then went to dinner at the club with them. The weird thing here is that every place has a club. Every houseing complex and village. And it usually ahs apool, gym and restaurant. So yeah. I got home last night and the Enns' trampoline arrived! A real 14 footer. So I jumped a little bit. It was great. I guess I don't have as much to say as I thought...ooops.
PS: I took this picture the other night from my camera phone
PSS: I forgot to say...the pollution has been really bad the past few days so I feel like I'm getting only like 75% of the oxygen that I would get normally in MN. GROSS...I've got the black lung, *cough, cough*

Sunday, October 01, 2006

The Ultimate Post

Ok, so this is the ultimate post because it is complete with stories from the last week, and yes, PICTURES!

This picture is of me reclining on the roof, my favorite spot.

Ok, so just to let you know...if you read this, you are dedicated to reading the whole thing, and you're in for the long haul. And believe me, this is a LONG HAUL! Well, I realized that I haven't really written in over a week...YIKES.
So let's see. Last Monday I did kinda a lot. I had to find my way to a school I had never been to before alone to pick up tickets to a choir concert later that night over on the island. So I raced over and then went with Melissa to TST to do some random shopping. We went to the Esprit outlet...I could spend way too much $ there. I'm not a big shopper in the states, but here, it is way too easy. Thankfully, Melissa takes as long as I do to decide! Gotta love another person who will spend hours looking to just get a shirt...my kind of shopper. So yeah. Then I went back to Mike and Melissa's flat to get changed into dressy clothes for the concert...then got over to the island and went to the concert. It was pretty good, unfortunately...I didn't get to say Hi to my girls before I left. But I think they still appreciated it. SO yeah. Then Tuesday through Friday was working, made a video, etc, etc. Got lost once. Frustrating. But, I am getting better.


This is me and Brett posing with the giant donut

Ok, well, I do have quite a good story to tell that was mid week! Ok, so on Thursday morning at 7 am, the 2nd Krispy Kreme store in HK opened up. An intern from the island was the first customer at the first store and won free donuts for a year. He has a golden card that he carries around...it's really like willy wonka...crazy, eh? So yeah...so the deal is that the first customer at the store gets free donuts for a year, the 2nd and 3rd get free donuts for a month, and the first 50 get a t shirt. So yeah. Me and Brett Enns (part of the fam I live with) decided that we should try to be the first customer there. So we decided to get there around 8 pm the night before. We thought we were probably going to be the first ones there. So we went to SoHo...it's on the island and by the longest escalators in the world. Ok, when I read my travel book, I thought it would be more exciting...nope. Not at all, very unimpressive. So yeah, we found it and we also found 1 other boy waiting before us. It sucked. But he had been there since 4 that afternoon. So yeah. HE and his friends were taking turns in line, and they were gonna share the card. It was dumb b/c the one boy was a jerk to his friend and would make him hold his spot in line for a few hours and come back, and he expected to get the credit in the newspaper. So not. So yeah. We made a table out of a cardboard box and played cards and stuff. It was fun. We also got free pizza b/c the owner of KK also owned a pizza place down the road. Then periodically they would bring out donuts. It was great. Liam showed up and hung out with us for a few hours, introduced us to the manager, who now loves us. And Kristin Enns and her friend also came for a few hours to hang out too. I slept on a pizza box for part of the night on the sidewalk. I laugh now to think I slept on a sidewalk in HK. So gross. But then I slept in the entryway to the store which was up a few steps so it was cleaner and off the ground. Much better. I think I got like 3 hrs off and on of sleep. Then around 5 things started hopping, and then at 7 we walked in the store and got our golden ticket. It was sweet! Soo sweet. Yeah, and the manager didn't stamp our cards (which means more donuts for us) and he also gave us assorted donuts, not just original...it rocked. So that was Wednesday and Thursday morning! I was so dead and smelly that morning! But I went back to Mike and Mel's and took a shower and went to work. Not sure how productive I was! And I got lost in TST too. Which always frustrates me so badly. I mean, understand how...the city has 7 mil people...but still, I've been here for a while. Oh well. I found my way back from TST all by myself last night, and boy was I proud of myself...still am!


/> These are the kids playing a game at (R)evolve

So Friday...Friday was a good day. It was like the first Friday that I wasn't stressed out of my mind! Hahahaa. So yep. It was good. Worship team practice was probably the highlight of that day. The kids are very talented, but don't like to experiment. So yeah. I started by having them play that game from Who's Line where they make up a song. That was Mike's sweet idea. But then we decided to do the game with worship songs. So we had one person pick the chords for the verse and the chorus, then we had a person pick a "worship phrase" for the verse and the chorus. Usually, whoever picked the chords would start the song and then everyone else would join in. And the singer would sing the first phrase, and then whatever came out of her heart. It was so sweet. I think it was the coolest time I've ever had doing worship through music, b/c I stopped to think what I was singing, and it was exactly what was in my heart, and it wasn't words that some one had written for me. It was great. And the kids had fun too. It stretched them, but that was OK. So yeah. Then we had (R)evolve, which went good. Then we stayed around to watch our usual episode of HOUSE. So good. Yeah, and I went w/ the girls to a new restaurant which has bubble tea, for way cheaper than St. Alps! Wooohooo!
This is Liam, he is actually holding onto two of the hand poles and lifting himself up...he wanted me to explain it so that he doesn't look like a monkey...

So yeah. Then yesterday I went to the island with Liam to play a random game. It was so fun. We got on the MTR (the train) and went to every stop. Just to let you know, the MTR runs all over HK island and part of Kowloon. It was crazy. There were like 5 lines. It took us four hours. The rules were that at every stop we had to touch both feet to the ground in the station, then get back in. At the beginning, we got out and ran two doors down. And then we tried to sit in every seat in one of the cars at the end of one of the lines, but the train driver got mad. Then we also took pictures reclining across a whole bench of seats...hardly no one was in the train so it was great! We also tried to run from one end of the train to the other. We didn't think we could make it between two stops, but Liam was just a few feet from making it. It was amazing. And at the beginning and end of every line we got a picture with the station sign. I felt so accomplished when we got out to the last station and I could say I went to every MTR stop in HK in one day. Who does that? We do. We plan on doing it with the KCR too (the KCR is the other train system in HK, it runs only in Kowloon and the New Territories). After we were done we were just walking around, (it is the Festival of the Lanterns this week, and there are some random and cool displays around HK) and we saw a crowd in the park and walked up to it, and there were people breakdancing. It was so funny, and they were good too. Great entertainment.

Today was church, which went really good. We tried a new thing with communion Sunday where we had stations around the sanctuary...Prayer, repentance, communion, offering (of talents, not just $). It was really cool to see the church try it, and actually get into it. After Sunday School, the youth group went bowling. We had like 20 kids and they were a variety of groups, so it was cool. Ok, so I am horrible at bowling. So bad. That college class didn't help me a bit...except for scoring. Ahhhh. Then after bowling, Brett, Joey, PM, and I went to SoHo and got Krispy Kremes...it was sweet b/c they didn't mark our card AND gave us assorted. Theoretically, we could get unlimited free donuts if they don't mark our card. Amazing. We also went to the Flying Pan, which is a 24 hr western breakfast place. I had a bite of PM's french toast...it was good. Then I went home and Art (Mr. Enns) had BBQ'd burgers. And now I'm relaxing! Yes!