<$i heart new york$>

guessing game

believe it or not, i get questioned about my ethnicity even here in Hong Kong, in my own ancestors' country! i've encountered locals who'd start to talk to me in English as though they don't think i'm Chinese or can understand Chinese. just the other day, i hopped into a taxi and had the following conversation (in Cantonese, mind you) with the driver, who's also Chinese:

me (getting into taxi): to Wan Chai Road, please.
driver: sure... (5 seconds later) are you Thai?
me: who me? no.
driver: Filipina?
me: noooo...
driver: you're not? has anyone ever told you that you look Thai or Filipina?
me: oh yeah, i've heard that many times before... (pause) i'm Chinese.
driver: YOU ARE?! REALLY?!
me: yeah. my parents used to live in Hong Kong too.
driver: no kidding!

do i really NOT look Chinese? ever since high school, many people have told me that i look like other ethnicities. i got mostly Filipina and recently Thai, a bit of Vietnamese or Hawaiian, and Cambodian once. some kind of Southeast Asian, basically. a few people have guessed Eurasian before, and even Mexican once (huh?)! i really don't mind people guessing at my ethnicity. i think it's pretty cool to look multi-ethnic (and, as someone just told me last week, "exotic"), and i'm always amused at what ethnicity people will guess.
but you'd think that my own people would be able to tell that i'm Chinese, right?

home sweet home

we FINALLY moved into our new apartment in HK last week! we'd been living in a temporary apartment in Central for the past 4 months. living in Central was great- we were surrounded by restaurants and shops and within walking distance to Lan Kwai Fong, where tons of international restaurants and bars/clubs are crammed into a few blocks (very popular with the expat community). too bad we couldn't stay in Central because housing is just ridiculously expensive there.

instead we found a nice, new apartment on the east side of HK island in a district called Sai Wan Ho. the place is currently bare and unfurnished-- no bed, closets or desk (to be delivered next week), no dining table or microwave (tomorrow), nor do we have our phone line set up yet. but we DO have a sofabed and broadband! something to sleep on and internet connection... we sure know where our priorities are! the best thing about our new place is that it sits right next to the water, so we have a beautiful view of the harbour... and fresh air!

sure, our place may be empty right now and we're still living out of our suitcases, but it's a place we can actually call home... exciting!

yay, visitors!

I love it when friends and family from back home come to visit. (I guess I'm a bit homesick... really missing my friends and family in CA and NY.) My college and clubbing buddy, Sangita, came to HK to visit a few weeks ago. We went partying (of course, that's a given), ate lots, celebrated her birthday, went to the Repulse Bay beach, and spent an interesting day in Macau (see picture on the left).

Larry's aunt's family from Connecticut was in town that same week. It was their first time in HK, so we gave them a whirlwind tour-- we shopped along Ladies Market in Mongkok, visited Wong Tai Sin Temple, walked along Avenue of the Stars on the Tsim Tsa Tsui waterfront, went to the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monestary, visited the old fishing village of Tai O, went up to Victoria Peak at night, and even went to Shenzhen in southern China for the *ultimate* shopping experience!
*whew!* So much to see and do here in HK! :)

i miss my niece...

my niece, Celine, is 3 and a half years old. she's the most adorable little girl (i'm biased, of course). she's always smiling and laughing, and she loves to sing and be silly. she's a bundle of energy and will always bring a smile to your face.

yesterday, i talked to her on the phone. it was the first time i had talked to her in 5 months (since i moved to HK). when my sister put her on the phone, the first thing she said was, "Hello... I miss you! When are you coming over?" :)

as much as i loved living in NY (and currently HK), i don't like being so far away from my young niece and nephew and not getting to see them often. i also worry that since i'm never around, someday they might not remember me, their Auntie. at one point last year, after not having seen Celine for a year, i got the feeling that she was starting to forget me, which made me really sad.

last November before flying to HK, i was in CA for 2 weeks. i stayed at my sister's house for a week, where i got to spend lots of quality time with Celine everyday and helped to take care of my newborn nephew, Christopher. one evening while we were putting together a jigsaw puzzle, out of the blue, Celine looked up at me and said to me, "Celine didn't forget Auntie." I was speechless with joy.

here's one of my favorite pictures of Celine and I, taken on the last day of my stay at their house. this picture makes me super happy, so I'm going to put it here. :)

photos from the Sydney trip

unfortunately, we lost about 200 of our pictures taken in Sydney (due to some technical problems when we were transferring the pictures from our memory card) and not sure if we'll be able to restore them... dammit!
here are some of my favorite pictures out of those remaining...