Things I Never Thought I Would Say: Chinese Edition

At Hot Yoga

Kendra: I have never been this hot in my entire life.

Me: I have.

Kendra: What! Where?

Me: Hong Kong.

About my favorite food

Me: Who would have though my favorite food would be a tofu dish? I love tofu.

(Disclaimer: My favorite food is Ma Po Dau Fu, which has pork and tofu in it.)

Discussing dinner parties

Me: Who can we have over for hot pot?

Andrew: The Georges? McIntoshes? Martins?

Both together: Who is brave enough to eat our Chinese food?

Both together: The missionaries!

Concerning pregnancy cravings

Me: If I could only eat one food, it would be curry.

Post-Mother's Day meal

Me: Curry, I love you; curry I do. 

    Father in Heaven as sent you to meee! 

    When I am near you, I love to hear you 

    Singing so softly that you love me, too.

    Curry, I love you. I love you, I do.

On reasons why I love Andrew

Me: You introduced me to curry. And to Ma Po Dau Fu.

Texting Andrew

Me: The red bean paste is done! (homemade)

Andrew: How is it?

Me: Yummy. I would even put it in ice cream.

Emergency preparedness discussions

Andrew: We go through at least 75 pounds of rice per year.

Sarah: I think we should switch the recommendations of wheat and rice.

At our Chinese New Year feast with a Hong Konger

Me: I've  never cooked for a real Chinese person.

Alex: Well it's good! I haven't had anything this good in the US.

Conclusion

Something is wrong with me.

I'm obsessed with food.

I'm obsessed with curry.

If you are brave, come eat with us.

Hospital Time!

Not for me--for Andrew! Andrew thought I would like some delicious finger with my char siu (Chinese barbecue pork) on Saturday. Well, I didn't, but I did want to eat some food before we went to the ER for stitches and a tetnis shot, since I know how long it can take to go to the ER. Yes, I am a compassionate wife.


Andrew getting his temperature, pulse, and blood pressure taken. It is his first personal visit to the Emergency Room!


All checked in, complete with wristband.


Pouting cuz he has to wait so long. I told the staff that we could be at the bottom of the emergency priority list, since we were mainly there for the tetnis shot. At least we got to watch the Olympics.


The doctor gluing Andrew and his "left digit laceration" back together. That glue stuff is great! You can wash your hands and it doesn't go away. Super cool!


It was very traumatic for him.

As you can see, we had an exciting Saturday night. We hung out for about two hours before we went home.

It seems like we have gone to the hospital a lot lately. Probably cuz my doctor appointments are all there. I think we should see if there is a clinic closer to us that is open in the evenings on weekends, but it was still only 20 minutes away, so not bad. Andrew also teases me about how I always hurt myself. This is true. I am always stubbing my toe and slicing it open, but it is never bad enough to need stitches or a shot. Last time I went to the ER for my own injuries was in Hong Kong when I had a "corneal abrasion". Andrew went in December for his kidney ultrasound (but not to the ER). I think we can therefore conclude that Andrew goes to the hospital for treatment more than I do, since he's been twice in the last year. Now that I've said that, I will probably go to the hospital for treatment soon. Hopefully that will be in three months! (aka, when the baby is due)

Sad and Steamy

Yesterday after my swim, I decided to sit in the steam room for a few minutes. I walked in and it was all steamy. I was excited. I like to sit in saunas and steam rooms. I actually really like sweating. And I like breathing that air.

But I didn't sweat. I didn't even feel hot.

I was confused--isn't this place full of steam? Shouldn't it be hotter?

And then I realized something:

Hong Kong was hotter and more humid than that steam room.

And I was sad. Visible steam does not equal hot steam.

Next time I need to sweat and sweat and sweat by just sitting on a park bench, I will have to go back to Hong Kong and sit on a park bench, fan myself like crazy, and drink like five bottles of water in a day.

The condensation on the camera lens when I opened it up to take a picture. HUMID.

The hottest day of my entire life. This was before we discovered the power of fans.

The second hottest day of my entire life. Thank heaven for the amazing invention called fans.

Sweating it up on Lion's Rock. Oh yeah.

The coolest day temperature-wise we had in Hong Kong. Even though it was relatively "cool", we still NEEDED to keep cooler-ish by this point--enter the umbrellas and fans. Finally, I understood Chinese culture to a greater extent. Before they were beautiful and art pieces, they were practical so people wouldn't die.

So go to your local sauna/steam room and tell me what you think. Or even better, go to Hong Kong and take me and Andrew with you.

What I Learned In Hong Kong

I learned a lot on our international adventure to Hong Kong. Here are a few of them.

• Monkeys are not cute but are scary.
• Injured eyes hurt like heck, but they heal fairly quickly. (I forgot to include this in the hospital post, but they gave me some pain medication for whenever it hurt, some antibacterial eyedrops for every three hours, and some eye neosporin that I had to put on my cut four times a day.)
  
• It's hard when you don't speak the language BUT you begin to recognize some words AND you can sort of understand a conversation based on facial cues and body language.
• Interpretation is an amazing skill. So many people speak good English and helped me at Church or in other conversations.
  
• Normal Chinese food is not what people who love you want to feed you. You will eat a lot of meat and not lose weight.
• My feet hurt more than I ever thought possible by the end of the trip. Each day it seemed like it was earlier and earlier to when my feet would reach the peak of pain of the previous day, and then it would just get worse.
• I don't really like shopping. Probably cuz it made my feet hurt more than walking.
• Humidity makes things super hot.
• Humidity is nice cuz my hands didn't crack and my nose never bled. :)
• The Pacific Ocean is huge and that plane ride is insanely long. My feet swelled up and my knees ached. But I learned that an extra pillow on my low back helped my tailbone to not hurt on the ride--not once.
  
• There are so many beautiful things to see in the world and you just need to appreciate the things around you, wherever you are. Hong Kong is so beautiful, green, lush, and the mountains are stunning, but when we got back I had an appreciate for the diversity and natural beauty existing in the Great Basin. See? Find the beauty wherever you are.
• Chinese people are really nice and clean. I never felt uncomfortable on a really crowded MTR train like I have in the U.S.
• Many people think we are so wealthy and lucky to live in the U.S., which sometimes made me a little uncomfortable. Being in Hong Kong gave me an appreciation for being an American, especially where I study negative things in the U.S.'s past that make me critical of the nation. But I am healthy, I have more money than most of them, I can get a college education, I have many opportunities for work.
  
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true--and it is the same all over the world. Going to Church was really fun, and because it was all through an interpreter I had to pay more attention and I got a lot out of the meetings we went to.
• I am also really lucky to have a Temple near to me. There is one in Hong Kong, but LDS members from China, Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka have to travel to Hong Kong to receive the ordinances of the Temple. (see http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/hongkong/district/)
• You can come to love people very quickly.
• I love Andrew and I loved getting to know a place he loves so much.
• My trip to Hong Kong didn't go the way I imagined it would. I was more tired than I thought I would be. Weird situations came up that made parts of the trip downright unpleasant. It smelled funny a lot of the time. The buildings were tall and overwhelming. There were SO SO many people everywhere and a lot of noise. The weather was hot and sticky and humid and it made me cry. Andrew even said he didn't think I liked being at Hong Kong very much. Well let me tell the world: it was a lot to take in, and I was a little stunned, but I think I don't have a romanticized vision of Hong Kong. Because some bad things happened, I was able to see the good and bad parts of Hong Kong, just like any place.
• My favorite thing about Hong Kong was the people we met that meant to much to Andrew. Now they mean a lot to me. I love the Chan family, the Los, Angela, and his younger friends Calvin, Dick, Elma, and Chris.

Hong Kong is such a interesting place. I am really glad that we leaped on the opportunity to go. I hope we can go back so I can have another experience there, one that will hopefully go better with less mishaps. But despite the things that went wrong, a lot of stuff went right and it was great. Plus, I got to spend a lot of time with Andrew and see him be really really happy.

Hong Kong Day 8 (Saturday)

This was our last day in Hong Kong, and it sure started with a bang.

I got to go to the hospital! Yay!

Here I am, at 2-3 a.m., in pain. It was awesome. I had a corneal abrasion and it was awesome. Let me tell you, going to the hospital that early is so great cuz no one is there. Andrew thought I was a baby, but it really hurt.

In the train, we saw this awesome sign:

Makes you want to get a hair transplant, doesn't it?


These are the MTR trains. I really liked riding the train.

We rode out to Yuen Long. It is a "rural" part of Hong Kong and where Andrew spent a good deal of time.

We had breakfast with these great people. Andrew, me, Joyce, the Filipina helper's friend who kept saying I have an amazing life because I live in America, and Angela (in the wheelchair). Angela was so sweet and loves missionaries. She spoke really good English. She told us not to come back until we have a baby to show her.

And then we went to the end of the MTR line to Tuen Muen and walked around a bit. I think it was Andrew's first area.

This is the Church.

I told Andrew that if we lived in Hong Kong, I would want to live out here. I liked that it wasn't as busy and I thought the countryside was beautiful. He reminded me that even fewer people speak English here. I guess if we moved to Hong Kong I would have to learn Cantonese.

See--rural.


Those buildings in the distance are in mainland China.

That evening, the Bishop Lee of the Sha Tin ward invited us to a dinner party.
I can't name everyone, but I came to love them a lot. I would also live in Sha Tin.