no pictures, no nothin, and i'm all shared out about 180, the vine, the plus group, everything. suffice to say that minds and hearts are being blown wide open, and with each passing week the God of the bible gets more and more real. what i really want to talk very briefly about are the small things about living in hong kong that bring a smile to my face and leave my heart beating a little faster than usual. alrite so first of all, and this is one of my favourite things, its my view when i emerge from the MTR after work and i arrive in mei foo. this particular exit (exit B) opens up into the heart of one of mei foo's public square areas, with fountains and palm trees, and apartment buildings framing the setting sun. very awesome. in truth, i have an email chain with another mei foo-er from the vine that is solely dedicated to talking about mei foo and fountains and palm trees and sunsets.
another thing, the street trams that run along the northside of the island. every time i go to the vine, i walk down des voeux road and watch the street trams rattle down through between the skyscrapers. hong kong tears down and builds up at a ridiculous pace, but the street trams have been transporting hk-ers around the island for over a hundred years. i love that futuristic city feel combined with a glimpse of the past. hong kong is all about that.
after the afternoon/evening service at the vine, i grab eats with my plus group and then we go some place to have the actual meeting. this past sunday, we split into two post-meal teams in preparation for someone's birthday, and i was on the cake team. we took a cab from wan chai to causeway bay to get a cake from sogo, and it was the most belly-aching cab ride. our brother andrew, this big white guy from chicago, he takes the passenger seat and starts chatting up the taxi driver. i wish i could recall all the funny bits, but those are lost to me now. all i have left is the memory of a big white guy making crazy hilarious small talk with a taxi driver, and four chinese kids stuffed in the backseat trying to hide our laughter, and failing miserably. but even so, i love this part: i was in a taxi from wan chai to causeway bay to buy a birthday cake. how awesomely normal.
on tuesday night i was in a taxi cab going up the peak with some friends to celebrate a birthday. see this: we were celebrating a birthday ON THE PEAK! who does that? hk-ers do, that's who. the ears were poppin, the evening heat of an asian summer pressing upon our bodies, the pacific breeze blowing across our faces, and we were, in the coolest way, on top of the world. good times with friends, no doubt always a great time. good times with friends in hong kong on the peak looking down into the heart of one of the most dynamic cities in the world? i'm still smiling about it! i was talking to a friend the next day who's been here for longer than i have, and i asked them if the feeling of "i can't believe i'm in hk!" ever wears off. it doesn't.
wednesday was hong kong day or something, i dunno. whatever the case, i hit the beaches with the hk friends. i was ON A BEACH IN THE PACIFIC in the middle of the week! i worked on tuesday, i went to the beach on wednesday, and i worked on thursday. because, you know, if you got the time to go to a beach in the tropics, why not? people take holidays to lounge on asian beaches. i go on a day off.
even doing things like helping friends move is awesome. i left the beach at the same time as some other friends of mine, they left to move out and into an apartment in causeway bay, i left to get some extra work done. i'm still the same ernie, so its no surprise that i ended up in causeway bay for the rest of the day, taking apart cabinets and shelves and eating vietnamese rolls on the floor and getting saucey sauces everywhere. we had van drivers pissed off, security guards pissed off, and fourteen people help move, probably half of them showing up after all the work was done. but that was great! just hanging out, moving bulky junk from one apartment in causeway bay to another in the sweltering asian heat, and cramming into this bizarre booth/cage made for six people, and by some awesome willpower, stuffing fourteen of us into its small and cramped confines. the restaurant staff, they were not so pleased.
i love the peak, i love the beaches, i love the futuristic skyline and the glimpses of old hong kong, but those moments of normalcy, just helping a few brothers haul their possessions around, goofing off in the streets and restaurants at night, they just hammer home a thought that is so crazy awesome. i'm not here on vacation anymore, i don't have to worry that i'll be leaving soon for the "real world" ... i live here now! this is my "real world"! people come here to visit, to rest, to go on holiday. i live here. people, just come.
i've been charged with the minor responsibility of finding some baskets to attach to the classroom tables in the IT training center, something i've put off for the last few days. i talked with one of the engineers that came in to the office this week, and he suggested starting with ikea, so i made my way down to the causeway bay store after lunch. i remembered to bring along my camera, but i didn't realize there was no juice until after i got to the store, so after a quick walk-around to identify some potential baskets, i went back to mei foo to grab a charged battery. while i was there i thought it'd be a good idea to walk around some of the stores that are at the bottom concourses of the mei foo housing estate, just in case they had something that i could use. i didn't find any baskets, but i did see a lot of neato stuff.
my exposure to mei foo is limited to the central public square area and everything to the north of it, where my apartment building is. the public square has the MTR stops, the chain restaurants, the supermarkets, the banks and the 7-11s, everything i need in that stretch of pavement, fountains and palm trees. the part of mei foo south of the square is a mystery to me, my exposure limited to the few times my aunt and uncle took me there to eat at specific restaurants. even after three months of living here, non-consecutively, i still had not familiarized myself with the southside.
this is the square, the view i get every day after work, as i walk up the steps and into fountains and palm trees, blue skies and late afternoon crowds. it's jam-packed on weekends and just crowded at other times, but what i love about it is how even in the early hours there are still people just hanging out. i'm not going to lie, in my pre-employment days, i had moments of weakness where i shuffled downstairs to the 24-hr mcd's at 3 in the morning to grab some greasemeat, and i found myself in a line. there'll be some young couples cuddling by the fountains, some old men hanging out at the tables and benches, every inch of surface area covered with empty beer bottles, and nannies helping kids with their mountains of homework. i have seen all of this at the craziest hours. but to the south, that is my aim.
beyond the familiar, brightly-lit mcdonald's and cafe de corals, there lies a bridge. it is this bridge that forms the barrier of knowledge in my experience at mei foo. beyond this point lies the unknown, and an aspect of hong kong that i feel is fast disappearing, or at least that is the impression that i get. i've been reading about the rapid pace of development in hong kong and its consequences on the things that hong kong-ers consider to be the "real hong kong", the old hong kong that was, and is behind and between and underneath the gleaming towers that dominate the current city skyline, and, to an extent, define the city to the outside world. i recently read some articles on a housing development plan in ngau tau gok, where an old housing estate is to be, or already has been, demolished to make way for something newer, bigger, better. the loss of this housing estate encompasses more than just brick and mortar, for the heart of the community was the makeshift markets that sprang up in its underbelly. butchers and fishmongers, fresh fruit and exotic flowers, the crazy-delicious food in the dirtiest corners, and the little niche stalls that offered every household service a hong kong family could ask for. this makeshift market is not the first to go under, and it won't be the last, but it seems to have been adopted by groups of concerned hong kong-ers that see in its destruction a sad harbinger of other things to come. and to be honest, as someone that has come to hong kong with a very particular set of views, partly shaped by an anthropological background, i am sympathetic to their views. i may not have much at stake here, but i can appreciate them in my own way, however insignificant my actual ties to these market communities are. so with that in mind, i was blown away by what had been laying at my doorstep all these months, an underground market of my own, tucked away underneath the highways, the bridges, the buildings. and the smell!
but my concern for these places is not completely honest. i see them as a charming, and definitely vibrant, legacy of old hong kong, or at least the hong kong my parents grew up in. but do i care about the people? if their way of life is threatened by economic progress and the insane pace of development in hong kong, would i merely shrug my shoulders and say, "...what a pity...", and then think no more of it? i think that is the case right now. this past week, my boss sent me to the famous computer center in sham shui po in the afternoon to do some field research on the electronics scene in hong kong, but he also told me to observe the lives that people lived there. sham shui po is on the poorer end of hong kong living standards, although its certainly matched by some other districts i've visited. i see the people and i don't, and definitely my field of vision has been narrowed by life's stresses and complications, but ultimately i have yet to see what i thought i had desired to see.
i read ezekiel 36 earlier this week, but its impact has remained and it seems to have become the dominant theme of my life in the last few days. the moment of truth is verses 22 - 38, after a series of verses in which God simultaneously blesses the land and smacks its inhabitants in their faces, right on the mouth. and God tells the israelites that they have absolutely nothing to do with God blessing the land, he is absolutely not doing it for their sake. rather, he must glorify himself, he must do it for the sake of his holy name. "I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes (v.23)".
so earlier this week, and the week before that, and even now, i've been slowly chewing through the meat of repentance, digesting it bit by bit, not because that is required, but because repentance has been so skewed in my heart and in my ways for so long, its difficult to separate what is true and what is my own invention. and these verses really hit me at the time. repentance is not about me needing to feel "guilty enough" in order to gain forgiveness and blessing from God, it is not about me needing to put in extra "spirituality" in order to make up for constant relapse and insincere apologies. God's forgiveness, the depth of his redemption is not something that is predicated on the state of our inner being. God does it because it is his character, it is solely his own unique power that he gifts to us, that is his portion that we receive. those words prophesied by ezekiel, spoken in anger by God, have spiritual resonance to me when spoken in love. God does not forgive because we have earned his favour, he saves because it is in his God character, and we are the recipients of that supernatural and immortal love. enoch had a line in a recent post on the small group forum back in toronto, "this will help us stand, not our will but his love."
and now, i see even a little bit more of what that ancient prophesy has left on my heart, illuminated by the grace of God. when i came to hong kong, i had the closest thing in my life i could even remotely refer to as a "passion", i desire to serve the people. but ever since arriving on these shores, i've been given the smack in the face, the very real reminder that i have been too arrogant, and too blind to my own weaknesses. or rather, i had decided that my weaknesses were my own to fix and to solve, and perhaps unworthy of any real concern. but with that in my heart, there is no way i can bless the land. in fact, on my own i can bless nothing. it is God who makes the land fruitful and prosperous, and i am the israelites, who needed to know that they were not the ones responsible for any good thing in the land. i needed to know that anything God does here in hong kong, and anywhere, is for one single purpose: to make his name known. verse 23 again, or at least the latter part of it: "then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes". all i can do, all i need to do and all i should do is to be the instrument, the tool through which God shows himself to be holy before their eyes.
"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. you will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God (vv. 25-28)."
i've accomplished none of the tasks i set out for myself today, failing to open up a bank account or make my way over to the electronics hubs at sham shui po and mongkok for work-related research. instead, i've been lazing about in the apartment, catching up on some reading materials and contemplating the conflicting themes in how i've constructed my faith in the last few weeks and months. but i won't say much about that just yet. instead, this: late last night, as i was getting ready to go to bed, i happened upon a television program discussing the events that led up to and following 6/4. they presented a montage of newsclips documenting those seven weeks in the summer of 1989, and one particular image remained with me long after i had turned the television set off.
among my co-workers in quarry bay and the affiliated businesses that all share the same office space, i get along best with two full-timers and a part-timer, all recent university graduates or on the cusp of graduation. we do lunch everyday, hang out together in the office, and talk about whatever comes to mind. and in recent days, 6/4 was on their minds. or at least the minds of the two full-timers. though young, they did what they could to inform those around them of the importance of remembering 6/4. they both went to the gathering at victoria park on the night of the 4th, a record crowd of between 150 000 to 200 000, depending on the source. this was the largest crowd since 1990, the year of the first anniversary of 6/4. the part-timer seemed less interested, or at least less informed, and we talked about their experiences going to these 6/4 events every year, and how they felt being at victoria park a few nights ago, in the middle of a gathering remembering an event that happened thousands of miles away, twenty years ago.
in the television montage, this scene flashed by and was gone in a matter of seconds. the angle on the shot was from much higher up, and the three men were tiny, set against the backdrop of the great hall of the people and the thousands of students gathered in the square, behind a human barricade of soldiers. and on those stairs, they kneeled for half an hour to forty-five minutes, holding high above their heads a banner with their seven petitions to the government. their efforts were fruitless, however, and the petitions were not received. but there is something powerful and symbolic in their gesture, perhaps a little bit unsettling in their postures of subservience to the government, but then again i have read that overthrowing the government was not their motivation. they practice a non-violent demonstration, respecting the authority of the government, but demanding change within it. but i don't want to talk too much about the real political and ideological currents of the time, the topic is too controversial and i am too uninformed to be saying this much already. i'm just struck by that moment captured in time of three men making themselves vulnerable, surrounded by unmoving infantry, kneeling on behalf of the people, isolating and exposing themselves on the wide steps of the great hall of the people before their leaders. the boldness and stark honesty of their actions moves me.
i had thoughts about heading down to victoria park that night, but becca and her sister had just come back from singapore for one night in hong kong before flying back to canada, and i did not want to dictate the terms of their last moments in asia. instead, we grabbed dinner together and met up with derek yau afterwards, which was definitely a great time, no doubt. but i looked at the pictures in the newspapers the next morning, and i talked with my two full-time co-workers throughout the next day, and i felt a little bit of regret. hong kong really is the epicentre of 6/4 remembrance, the one place in the world that keeps the memories and ideals of twenty years ago fresh and alive. i read an account of the early days of the demonstrations, in late april of 1989, when university students from the major schools in beijing first took to major street marches, but there was little coordination and people were riding bicycles back and forth from the different schools, updating students on the events of the day. first one university marched, then, as students from other universities saw the crowded streets from the rooftops, other universities joined in. other students, having heard of the march, sat by the street and waited for the masses to pass by before joining in, described by the author as streams collecting into a river. as the streams converged, students were overjoyed to see friends and acquaintances, this in the days before mobile phones and internet. i only bring up this story because when my co-workers were telling me about the night of the 4th, they explained how they didn't tell their friends they were going, but when they got to victoria park, they could look around and point out dozens of friends that had all decided to come out, unannounced. hong kong is many things, and i've heard warnings about its materialistic, demanding, and life-consuming side, four out of the first five television channels in the morning are dedicated to financial matters, but it is also the only city in china where free speech and the ideals of democracy are upheld and valued. that the younger generation is taking up the mantle of keeping the memories alive is no surprise, given the current political climate in hong kong and its always edgy relationship with the ruling heads in beijing. in any case, my co-workers told me they'd bring me next year, and that is alright by me.
but the speaker tonight at the young adults fellowship at the vine spoke of a totally different kind of revolutionary event. it seems the current theme of the fellowship is "repentance to revolution", but the speaker tonight argued that repentance IS revolution. that repentance is not something you do in order so that you may be able to bring about revolution in your life, your family, your country, but instead, that when you repent, it is the simultaneous action of revolution. he spoke about the ninevites in the book of jonah, when the prophet spoke to the people, and the wildfire of repentance swept the entire city, even into the halls of the king. an entire city repented, and revolution was the king in sack cloths, mourning in the dust. and then the speaker invoked the memory of 6/4, how the city was ultimately, and violently, brought back under control by the government, but that in the intervening twenty years, Christianity had gone forth in ways unimaginable. and then the challenge: to repent, to revolutionize, not just for yourselves, but for the people, for the city, for the nation. it all starts with repentance. in another time, another sort of bended knee, in front of the same great hall of the people.
when my dad decided to/was forced to go overseas for university, he took his medicine and accepted a decision that was not entirely his own. but he grabbed hold of what little he did have control over and did things his own way, even for a little while longer. instead of flying from hong kong to california, a trip that would be over within a day, he got on a boat in victoria harbour and took a leisurely cruise across the pacific, extending his pre-university days by a few weeks. and with that in my blood, i packed my bags for hong kong to leave on the 15th ... and arrived in calgary. what follows is a mostly true account of the events that took place between the time i got on the plane in toronto on the morning of the 15th, and the time i got off the plane in hong kong on the night of the 24th. and some sort of epilogue-y closure tacked on at the end.
the calgary leg of the trip was always on the agenda. i waffled back and forth between when i would go, how long i would stay there, who i would go with, etc. i had to coordinate those plans with the uncertainties of employment in hong kong and the logistics of moving a life halfway around the world, but i had my blinders on and i ploughed through the dredge with one thought in mind: that it would be nice to be present for elsie's wedding. of the five of us attending the wedding that knew elsie from her time at scac, i was the first to arrive in calgary. justin and karen arrived soon after, and we checked into our room downtown before heading out on a walking tour of what calgary had to offer. two hours later, we were finished. i am confident that we saw everything there is to see within the downtown core, and i have no regrets, except to say that staying in the hotel room all afternoon would have been an equally valid use of my time as well. derek and alex arrived at night, and we went out for a zombie'd, jet-lagged meal. finally, angie arrived in calgary in the early morning through an incredible circuitous route that took her from new york city to chicago to denver to calgary, or that is what i recall. throw in a few flight delays and a missed flight and it's safe to say she had a good day. all six of us stayed in a single room.
calgary: a sort-of desperate city.
the following day was wedding day, and after the initial chaos of four guys and two girls getting dressed and ready for a wedding in one hotel room, we hit the country roads of alberta to make our presence known. i won't say much about the ceremony or the reception, i have little sensitivity in the way of knowing what makes a wedding "good" or not. but i can say that it was nice and nothing seemed to go wrong and people around me seemed to be impressed that the groom recited his vows from memory, a little mental note to self. also, the bride had a bridesman, and the groom had a groomswoman. the wedding party danced to jai ho from slumdog, the slideshow/video presentation started off slow but in the end left me with a mostly positive impression that elsie and roy knew what they were doing, and roy's speech about his mom was awesome in its authenticity. the last thing i'll mention about the wedding is something that i will never forget, but had nothing to do with anything, except to demonstrate that no occasion is too highbrow for us toronto kids to get laughs. during elsie's speech, she started talking about her bridesman, how they met in high school and were great friends, and how his english was really bad and he'd always copy her homework and cheat off her tests. after elsie had uttered the line "he cheated off my tests", derek, who was in a semi-comatose state during this part of the speech, awoke with a start and whispered furiously to me, "did she just say, 'he peeked at my chest'!?" it was not a whisper, and i was not the only one who heard it. for the next five minutes, two tables of complete strangers struggled to hold in their laughter, and after all, isn't that what weddings are all about?
we woke up bright and early the next day to go see the only thing alberta seemed to offer: mountains! i had spent the last couple of weeks trying to coordinate something together with lillian and shirley, but i had no intention of forcing my travel companions to go out to parts unknown for my cause, especially since i was not the one driving. fortunately for me, calgary is a nice place to live in, and i can say no more than that. the lack of options resulted in a day trip up to canmore to hike among the mountains and, ultimately, to see good friend shirley ma. the road towards the rockies is largely flat, and the mountains could be seen in the faroff distance, even from the outskirts of calgary. i was so strangely pysched to see them, even to the point of taking a breather outside of the reception hall the previous night to go and just gaze at them in the distance. after stocking up on hiking snacks in canmore, we headed out to one of the few open spring trails. it took us a good couple hours to get through it, but the views were fantastic and the water was just as startingly blue as i remember it to be. and the mountains! i had made plans to meet up with shirley for dinner in banff, so we drove the extra twenty minutes into town and met up with shirley and her hiking friends at the elk and oarsman for bison burgers. it was so good to see her again after what seemed like ages, and somewhat fantastic to share friend moments in the middle of the rockies, so far from where we first met in small-town ontario. we parted ways after dinner, my first real good-bye of the trip, and the rest of us went back into calgary to spend the night. it was also our last day with angie, as she had to get on a plane the next morning to head back to the east coast.
it was friggin frigid days when we woke up the next morning. the plan was to go back into the rockies and see lake louise and moraine lake, grab dinner in banff and then relax in hot springs until home times. unfortunately moraine lake was closed and lake louise was a frozen wasteland. we walked around lake louise for a bit before calling it a day. i wasn't so enthusiastic about the mountains that day, probably because of my aversion to cold weather, so i didn't mind calling an audible and grabbing an early dinner in banff. we went to the grizzly house, a carnivore hut that had been mentioned in one of the speeches at the wedding. it was dark and smokey, kind of grimey in places, but being able to cook your own elk, wild boar, bison, beef, etc. was a unique experience. i was suffering a bit though, and all the meat and meat-related symptoms got to me. and our clothes stank of meat afterwards, pretty gross. so with that in our guts, we made a beeline for the hot springs and you'll never feel so good in your life. the food and the hot springs made for a drowsy drive home, and i was out before we had even emerged from the park. we got back to the hotel and i was ready to hit the sack, but newlywed elsie dropped by to see us before we headed further west. she took us out to eat some sorely-missed chinese food, and it was so delicious, although we were not in any state to to be objective eaters. and with the final farewells back at the hotel, the calgary leg of the trip came to an end.
the next morning we flew over the rockies to make the most of our time in vancouver. this time i was the last one to arrive, a good couple hours after everyone else, and i had some hassles with my luggage. the hassles being that one of them was left in calgary. the loosey-goosey manner in which i "plan" my travels was exposed by the woman working the luggage counter for air canada. what usually happens is that you leave the address of the place you're staying at with the counter, and they'll deliver your luggage when it arrives on the next plane. the conversation went as follows:
woman: "where are you staying in vancouver?" me: "with a friend." woman: "do you have the address?" me: "...no." woman: "do you have a phone number?" me: "...no." woman: "is he coming to pick you up?" me: "...no."
so after that fruitful discussion, i left the airport and joined the rest of them in downtown vancouver. and let me tell you, the drive down granville from the airport to downtown is the best advertisement for vancouver tourism, bar none. granted i had just come from the barreness of calgary and the prairies, but the lush, tree-lined streets of vancouver, the downtown buildings shining in the warm, late spring sun along the shoreline, and the coast mountains in the distance was a welcome site indeed after walking through mud and snow the day before. tracy met us where we were and took us into stanley park for a leisurely drive/walk along the shore. unfortunately, i had to skip out early to go pick up my now-arrived luggage, and derek gave me a lift to the airport. picking up the luggage was a breeze, but along the way we realized that derek's gps was not working as it should. as we were pulling out of the airport, it died on us, and now we were truly driving blind in the city. he managed to find his way to his uncle's house, and we pulled over to get a better look at it. the plug that goes into the car had broken into a few pieces, and we were dumbfounded. and then brilliance took over, and derek took apart an old pen of mine and jiggered some pieces into the plug. of course it worked, among us we have two master's degrees. derek might have been the one to think of the idea and then implement it, but without my old pen, we'd still be in vancouver right now. overjoyed, we made our way over to dan's place to drop off my luggage, and i stuck around until dinner time as the rest of them went to go settle into their own accomodations. i watched a bit of a chinese movie with dan and his sister, but it had the most utterly ridiculous subtitles, and i treasure them all. we went out to a sushi place in burnaby with tracy, it had the thickest sashimi pieces i've ever seen, and then a surprise guest dropped by, and i was so happy my hand was shaking, no joke. i would end up seeing a lot of that girl throughout the next few days. lucky me.
our second day in vancouver started off in granville island, and with eager anticipation we made our way over to go fish, for the much-talked-about scallop burgers. as it turned out, they were sold out of scallop burgers. i had some sort of fish burger instead, tuna or salmon, with mayo wasabi, and it was really good, but the scallop burger eluded me and i will always regret that. until the next time i'm back in vancouver. we walked around granville island for a bit, enjoying the sights and sounds and tastes, and then we made our way over to the kits beach area. and the girls made a bit of a fuss about how the guys always seemed to be sitting down, but vancouver's a place where you can just sit down and enjoy the view. and enjoy we did. we had dinner at guu, which was tasty, before tracy had to go to cell group, alex tagged along, and derek had a play date with his little cousin. which left me and the engaged couple, justin and karen. i have to be clear that i had made my own intentions of watching the sunset over the ocean known long before that evening, but in the end, it's hard to avoid the fact that i went to go watch the sunset with a couple. but the sunset was nice, and i had that going for me.
my camera batteries were on their last legs, so i didn't take many photos the next day. alex had a day full of family stuff, so the rest of us started the new day at the aquarium in stanley park. it really is a nice aquarium, but it is not very big at all. i'm sure i saw a lot of neat things there, but i don't have many pictures to help jog my memory. we did see beluga whales, and we spent a lot of time watching the otters play around. the whole area was covered with little kids too, i think it was a field trip day. in the end, i left the aquarium with a stack of paper made of elephant poo. derek had his own business to take care of after that, so again, i found myself traveling with justin and karen. we went out to grouse mountain, i wasn't expecting much out of it other than some good views of vancouver, but it turned out to be something more than what i had prepared myself for. you see, they had ziplining there. the first two or three lines were pretty basic stuff, gave us a feel for the ride and there was one really steep line that had a very hard and jarring landing. but then we traveled up a ski lift towards the summit of grouse, and the last two lines were out of this world. you zipline all the way across the valley, mountains on one side, the pacific on the other, and you're all alone, just flying across the expanse. i don't have any pictures, but justin and karen have some good ones. after grouse, i met up with old university housemate brian and surprise wonderful friend sonja for dinner, and alex tagged along after his early family dinner ended. we went out for southern style barbecue, and it was a whole mess of delicious meats and sauces. afterwards, we all met up again at a bubble tea place, a sending off of sorts as the rest of them were all flying back to toronto the next day, whereas i still had another full day on the west coast. i got a pretty swank memento, and i still take it out and read it every now and again.
i woke up bright and early the next morning, excitement in the air. sonja had some business back in langley, and she invited me to come with her and a friend to go see the other western, her home for the last two years. i love doing these little things, seeing the places friends call home, even if it's in small-town british columbia. but first we went back to sonja's house, and i played with a superdog. yes, that is correct, there is a superdog living at sonja's house. if you don't know what a superdog is, go and google it, because it is awesome. his name is twist, he's a big friendly, hairy sheepdog. there's a youtube video of him somewhere, and he is truly a superdog. i played frisbees with him in their small backyard, and he kept on crashing into plants and sheds. anyway, the drive into the interior took about forty minutes, and we walked around town for a bit before sonja's meeting on campus. she showed me the linguistics building, and the legendary computer lab, the very seat in which she had given and received in countless late-night, essay-proscrastinating conversations. and then she sent me off on a nearby trail, and friends, i am all about trails. and a beautiful trail it was, through dense forest and across creeks and streams, the whole atmosphere just alive with the goings-abouts of non-human life. and then i emerged from the trail and saw a big yellow sign, and i peed a little. after heading back into the city, sonja dropped me off at dan's place where the rest of the kids were meeting up before heading off to the airport. we said our final farewells, and then brian picked me up to go and see the lynn valley trails up in north vancouver. but first we had to go and drop by the ice cream parlour with over 200 flavours. in the end i settled for a coconut combination, i've had a thing for coconut in desserts ever since singapore it seems. he had fellowship to go to at night, so we grabbed a quick dinner after working up an appetite at lynn valley. we ate at the eatery, a restaurant that reminded me of shanghai cowgirl in toronto, except that the eatery does funky japanese food. i got dropped off at sonja's workplace where she teaches english 1 on 1 to kids with various sorts of learning disabilities, and i had the awesome privilege of listening in on one of sonja's lessons. she is so awesomely good at loving others, i learn so much. after she finished her lessons, we walked down the street and hung out on the sidewalk patio of a coffeeshop, enjoying the drinks, the weather, the evening and the company. when i got back to dan's place, we finally had a chance to chat and catch up and pray for each other. hearing about their church and their family here, dan, sonja and tracy all go to the same church, i get a little envious, but when i see their faces whenever they talk about it, it is contagious and i want to keep on growing as they do. and that is how i spent my last night in canada.
should i take the surest path, steady as the beating drum? should i marry ... kokoum? is all my dreaming at an end?
finally, my last day in canada. sonja picked up me and my luggage at dan's place, tracy dropped by to see me off as well, and then we were off. but not to the airport, not yet. dan and sonja have been taking mandarin lessons every saturday morning with church friends, and dan couldn't make it this time because of a wedding, so i tagged along instead. they meet in the living room of a friend's house, and they get really serious about it. they have homework and they have to translate stuff and watch videos, this is for real. but it's also fun, and something i would totally do. but i think for a while i've taken for granted how much chinese i can actually read and write, and being there at the mandarin class made me appreciate how much i've actually learned in less than a year, and motivates me to keep on going. i had to get to the airport right after class, no time for lunch, and there, at the drop off zone of departures, i said my final goodbye. could there be a more perfect friend to see you off at the airport, to be the last friendly face you see in canada than sonja? maybe, but i can't think of any right now.
and that is the story of how i got on the plane in toronto on may 15th and got off the plane in hong kong on may 24th. every story can be verified and accounted for, every moment of laughter, joy, wonder, contentment, excitement and everything else that i experienced that i can not express in writing. these are the friends i shared my last week in canada with, the places i saw, the things i did, the memories i made. and that is how the Author wrote the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another.
***
i landed in hong kong around 630 in the evening, not quite believing i was actually back. i still have moments where i realize how unreal and fantastic this all is. we had to fill out health forms before being allowed into customs, and i made the mistake of doing a little cough while i was waiting in line. this middle-aged chinese woman kept on looking back and staring at me. it was sort of annoying, but i understand the concern, no matter how irrational it may be. but i got through without any hassles, and with the HKID i was outside waiting for my ride within ten minutes. and then, familiar sights, familiar smells, back at the mei foo apartment after three months. but after a week of imposing myself upon friends in various canadian cities, it was finally my time to play the host, and becca and her sister jacqueline arrived at my door that very night. tired and hot and sweaty, i was more than happy to open up my place to friends. i joke about having a 3-bedroom apartment in hong kong, but i really do. and i'm happy to open up a spare room for a friend to crash in, but i realize that my relatives take good care of it, and the original intention of the apartment is to provide a place for overseas relatives to live in, so i tread carefully and make sure i get the all-clear. it's generally not a problem, i just need to make sure that no other relatives from overseas will be in town at the same time. and it just so happened that becca and her sister came at a time when the apartment was empty. we went downstairs to one of the little restaurants to grab some late night eats, tried to carry conversations entirely in cantonese, and then showered and hit the sack to get ready for what turned out to be three very busy days.
it was their first time in hong kong, so i wanted to make sure they did everything they wanted to do, and saw everything that people should see when in hong kong. it's weird for me to think that i'm an expert in hong kong now, but i'm not new to the city anymore, and you learn a lot about a place after spending three straight months there. i don't know where everything is, but i know the general area, and i have a few places of my own that i can take people. but if there's one place i know better than any other, its mei foo, and when the girls said they wanted to do dim sum in hong kong the next morning, i just took them down the street. and wow, the whole menu was in chinese, but i could actually read it and we ordered lots of yummy food. they wanted to see the flower/bird/pet markets around prince edward station, so we walked around for a bit, they bought some stuff for their birds back home. but the real money spent was at the ladies market in mongkok. it was madness. they commented on my empty backpack earlier in the day, by the end of the night, it was pretty clear why i brought it. it was filled with stuff. they bought everything from little knick knacks to dresses and paintings. and they picked up on bargaining like a fish in water. i bought a protector case for my ipod, and i literally did not say a word during the whole transaction. i picked it up, the seller listed the price, jackie countered with a lower one, the seller compromised, i gave them my money. we were there for a while, and during dinner the jetlag caught up with me and i crashed hard. i don't remember much more about that night, only that i woke up in bed in the same clothes i wore the day before. gross.
the girls had plans to go visit a cemetery in sai wan the morning, on the far west side of hong kong island, so i stayed and rested a bit longer in the apartment and had lunch with my aunt and uncle next door. when i called them after lunch to see where they were, they were still in tsim sha tsui. i don't know how they spent all those hours between the time they stepped out the door and the time i called them, but they had not even crossed the harbour yet. so i met up with them at the ferry pier, but not before stopping by a random UN booth in mong kok to talk to a guy about the work he's doing there, and in the end i had signed up to donate money. so that's one motivation to get things going here, i've committed myself to a monthly outlay to help refugees. we crossed the harbour on the star ferry, still a little thrill for me because i love the idea of the island, and then took a cab to the cemetery. it was my first time seeing a hong kong cemetery with my own eyes, and it is pretty impressive in its scale. we took the bus to causeway bay to do some more shopping, i picked up a book of chinese proverbs and a hiking guide to hong kong, before going back to central to see the mid-levels escalators and soho. after all of that, we cabbed it to the peak, where it began raining quite hard. they made the mistake of giving me the umbrella, and i was so obviously dry when we got inside. we took the requisite free views from the balcony outside the burger king before taking the peak tram back down to admiralty, and then from admiralty back to mei foo. in one day: mei foo -> tsim sha tsui -> sai wan -> causeway bay -> central -> the peak -> back to mei foo. in one day we took the mtr, the ferry, the taxi, the bus, the mid-levels escalators and the peak tram, not to mention a whole lot of walking. are you not entertained?!
we awoke to the promise of blue skies, the clearest morning we've had all week. the girls had ocean park in mind, so we met up with their friend sam and headed out to the island together to make a full day of it. there isn't much to say about ocean park, it is what it is. the multi-level aquarium captured our attention for a while, the dolphins and sea lions did some pretty neat acrobatics, the cable car ride was cramped and some poor guy going solo was stuck being our photographer, the pandas were a hit, and the goldfish actually exceeded our expectations. sam had to split for a dinner in china, and the girls headed back to mong kok to look at shoes and meet up with a couple friends for eats. i had thoughts about sticking around, i know one of their friends, but the toll of endless walking all around hong kong was too much, and my back was in need of a rest. they returned to mei foo at an ungodly hour, such is youth, and after i walked them through the process of taking the bus from mei foo to the airport, it was lights out for everyone. i had initially intended on walking them to the bus stop the next morning, at least, but i just slept like a baby.
i'll miss having friends from back home in the apartment. it helped bridge the transition from toronto life to hong kong life, whether they were aware of it or not. and living in a shared apartment is always more fun than doing it alone, at least until everyone gets sick of each other. but as for now, things are as they should be. thursday was a holiday in hong kong, 端午節, and one of my other cousins from overseas, back in hong kong briefly before heading out to beijing this summer to teach at a university, gave me the folklore behind it as we were making our way over to our uncle's place in kowloon tong for dinner. a long long time ago in ancient china, there was a famous minister or public official that was beloved by the people. when his king entered into an alliance with another kingdom, this public official saw the trouble it was worth and he was banished for disagreeing with the king. eventually, his foresight became reality and his homeland was conquered, and he committed suicide by throwing himself into the river. in order to distract the fish from eating his body, people threw sticky rice ( 糭子) into the water, and they got into boats and paddled along the river to reclaim his body. so that's why chinese people eat the sticky rice and have dragonboat races at this time of year. or that's one of the stories. i was sitting in the living room, the usual gathering spot at my uncle's place in kowloon tong, and my newlywed cousin dropped by with his wife and in-laws. the in-laws remembered who i was, and with my other cousin from california being back for the first time since the wedding as well, it was a bit of a happy family time. not that they were happy solely because we were back in hong kong, they hardly know me, but they really get along with my uncle and aunt, and i have a feeling they enjoy these big chan family dinners because most of their kin are back in shanghai, where they lived before moving to hong kong. and i drank it all in and had the thought that i wasn't just visiting, like last time, and all the other times. i'm here now! if not for the long-term, then definitely longer than any other previous stay in hong kong. and there's a different mentality to going about your business, conducting yourself, when you know you'll be a part of someone's life, and they'll be a part of yours, for longer than just the average holiday. and that's as good a sign as any that hong kong life has begun.
and just when i begin to get comfortable, my arrogance and pride bubble over and repentance dulls. i had breakfast with peggy and helen on saturday morning, two friends strangers to each other, but joined together through their shared friendship with me, and all the poor planning and procrastination that comes with it. but in fact, i find them similar, and i had to catch them before they left hong kong to go back to their respective cities. after breakfast, i headed over to north point to join caleb and his apartment-mate justin in helping cora move back to lam tin. it was unbelievable how much she had in her tiny apartment, i had spent the previous night helping her pack all the seemingly redundant items that she has never used in her life, but the move itself took less than an hour. i spent the rest of the afternoon with the chosen one, shopping for household items she will rarely use, and then heading home to mei foo for a quick nap before going to her fellowship at the vine. two things here: firstly, i dread meeting new people, or at least meeting new people with the intention of sustaining a friendship. the pressure of making a decent first impression, combined with my unsophisticated social skills, is disastrous to me. even with friends that are more aware of who i am, my lack of sensitivity can still surprise. and so i cover it up with an extremely judgmental self-defense mechanism. secondly, i sorely need to know repentance. that is what the pastor of the vine spoke about at fellowship, and it brought into question all the spiritual things that i assumed that i would encounter in moving to hong kong. maybe i never seriously considered the possibility that i would be challenged and convicted in this way, but i suspect that it is something God has been trying to sledgehammer through my wall of obstinacy and pride. and i sat there, not quite willing to go on my knees, and running an internal dialogue with myself and God, somehow going deeper into my laundry list of sins than i have in too long, connecting them to each other and to larger issues in my life, and then wanting to repent, or knowing that i needed to, but not knowing how to do it without lying to myself and to God. and then i got up and walked out the door. i had been thinking that it did not feel right for me to want to stick around after fellowship and meet new people, when what i really needed was a desire to meet God, but i can admit that i was secretly relieved that i would not be meeting any new people tonight. when i talked with dan in vancouver, one of the things he was being taught by God was how to live in community. i accepted it without seeing it in myself. this particular story does not have an ending, yet. no insightful passage of scripture that illuminated the issue(s), no sudden epiphanies, just me sitting in the apartment. recently, a long-sought-after reconciliation happened in my life, and i had thought to myself that it seemed an appropriate way to end this chapter of my life. so much of the time between graduating from western and where i am now has been defined by this relationship, or lack thereof, and with the rift mended, i felt whole and ready to move on. but another event, something i had forgotten, happened a few months before this particular relationship crumbled, a specific prayer answered that was both an answer and a challenge. and it is a challenge i have largely ignored for the last three years. and now it seems more appropriate to see the position i am in now, both geographically and spiritually, as the inevitable next step in a spiritual journey that has lingered too long in one place. as much as i was in a state of quiet devastation coming home from the fellowship, the vibrancy of the piercing blow signals an unanticipated but absolutely necessary spiritual urgency, so early in my time in hong kong. my intention was to bring this ridiculously long post about my transition from toronto to hong kong to an appropriate conclusion, but as with most things in life, there is just no room for a neat ending. as long as there is some work of perfection to be done, the story goes on. the desire to tell my own story has been superseded by the need to convey truth.
even if i caused you sorrow by my letter, i do not regret it. though i did regret it—i see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while — yet now i am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. for you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. see what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. at every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. so even though i wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. by all this we are encouraged. 2Cor7:8-13.
it started early on a saturday morning in hong kong. the three out-of-town cousins, one from california, one from singapore and myself from toronto, left our mei foo apartments and stumbled onto the mtr at 7 in the morning. i had been up late the night before catching up with my aunt and cousin from singapore, and it showed. our destination was our uncle's house in kowloon tong, to meet up with the rest of the groom's wedding party, and then off to north point, to pick up the bride. we were running late, but nobody seemed to mind. the consensus seemed to be that the more time we spent in kowloon tong, the less time there would be for fool's games at the hand of the bridal party, which was a good thing. there was a lot of unnecessary debate and time wasted over where to put the flowers and decorations on the vehicles, which, again, did not seem to be much of a concern. but we finally piled into two cars and a van to make the drive all the way over to the bride's apartment in north point, across the harbour.
and we just waited there. there was some miscommunication, the girls thought they had to wait for the guys to finish getting their pictures taken, the guys thought they were getting their pictures taken to kill time waiting for the girls. in the end, there seemed to be an invisible cue, and we all marched across the street and into her apartment building, about forty-five minutes later than scheduled. another fifteen minutes was used up at the door of her apartment, as the groom and his hing dai's negotiated with the dze mui's over the amount of lai see's needed to open the door. the hing dai's did their duty and subjected themselves to not-so-serious humiliation, there was some more confusion over which song the mother of the bride wanted to hing dai's to sing. i'm not sure which song it was supposed to be, but it ended up being a hebrew rendition of lion king's 'can you feel the love tonight'. so singing in english may not be so easy for hk-ers, but imagine a group of hk-ers trying to read out romanized hebrew subtitles while also attempting to carry a tune. it was amazing and an abomination unto the Lord. and then the bride appeared.
intense negotations through metal bars.
a whole village inside a three-bedroom apartment.
all the hard work pays off, another job well done by the hing dai's and dze mui's.
the cousins in conversation.
that's a happy kid.
i love this picture. the scene here could have taken place in 2009 or 1959. so classy, my cousin and the bride.
the bride cannot touch the ground, or allow the sun to shine on her face. i think.
arrival back at the house in kowloon tong, to pour tea for the groom's side of the family.
a few of the hing dai's, hanging out in the garden out front.
the two younger sisters of the groom, me, singapore cousin, california cousin. check out that tie though.
***
after lunch, we made our way over to a nearby private club to attend the actual wedding ceremony. my parents thought it was a bit strange when they found out they had hired a lawyer to officiate instead of a pastor, which is apparently the 'in' thing to do in hong kong these days. i knew my cousin attended church when he was a university student in the states, assumed that he probably was a Christian, but i knew nothing about the bride in this regard. it is safe to say that i did not expect it to be your typical Christian wedding, with scripture readings, worship sets, a message and prayers. but that is exactly what happened. i was so clueless about my cousin's spiritual life, and the whole thing was wonderful. i know my dad had talked to my cousin a few times about Christianity when i had visited hong kong as a kid, but i think even he was taken by surprise. the lovers had met at the university of wisconsin - he was a Christian, she was not. they started dating, nonetheless, and eventually his prayers were answered and she became a Christian as well. so it can work. and it does, some of the time. and this has totally changed the way i look at my cousins - the groom and his two younger sisters. they had always been my far-off cousins in hong kong, both geographically and spiritually. they had all attended the same university, and i was vaguely aware of their changing spiritual states, but it did not fully hit me that they were fellow Christians, brother and sisters in more than just blood, until this weekend. its kind of amazing, and i wish i had known earlier so i could have talked to them about it. guess i'll have to wait three months.
bride and father of the bride, enjoying a private moment before the walk down the aisle.
one of the praise songs was in chinese, and i didn't pay attention to the words until my cousin lifted up his arm.
***
the wedding banquet took place at the four seasons, super swank. thirty-five tables, give or take a few. my dad had trouble introducing me to some of the more distant relatives, as well as some of the closer ones. there were cousins he had played with when they were all kids, but he could only remember their nicknames, and he didn't know how to properly introduce them to the family. translated literally, i met tiger boy, fat boy and sweet-sweet. there was more worship and bible-reading during the banquet, despite the majority of the hall being non-Christian, including most of the family. the next day, at another family function, my parents took the couple aside to have a few words. they were a little bit apprehensive because my dad can be a bit abrupt in speech, but my parents just wanted to encourage them and let them know how encouraged they were by the couple and the statement they chose to make together on their wedding day.
traditional chinese wedding element, where the husband isn't allowed to see the bride's face or touch her. so she wears a veil, and he leads her in with a red ribbon. the bride was originally from shanghai so they did this for her mainland relatives, and i thought it was pretty neat.
***
i just helped my parents bring all their luggage onto the subway. their flight is 4.5 hours earlier than mine, but we'll arrive in toronto at about the same time because i have a direct flight. i'll be back in toronto at around 6 pm EST on monday. two things hit me this weekend. the first was while i was in a taxi on the way back to my uncle's place in kowloon tong from north point, after picking up the bride. it was just a regular saturday morning, in a taxi with my cousins from around the world, and it didn't feel like i was here on holiday. it felt normal to be in hong kong, to be in asia. the second came after the wedding banquet, riding the mtr back to the mei foo apartment from central, and it hit me that my three months in asia were coming to a close. i didn't feel sad about it, just a realization that time had gone by incredibly fast. it felt like yesterday that i had been in singapore, but my cousin who had been unemployed while i was there has now found a job, and he had to fly back to singapore last night for the start of the work week. taiwan feels like just last week, but yun ping has been in the army for over a month now, and his stories are harsh and incredible. chinese new year's, watching the fireworks with family visiting from canada, that felt like just a couple weeks ago, but it was the halfway point of my asia adventures. and now i'm at the end point, leaving for the airport in less than an hour. i don't feel too bad about it, perhaps the other shoe will drop when i'm sitting on my bed back in toronto. or perhaps its because i'll be back soon. in any case, there's lots in canada to look forward to between now and then, so ... it's good to be on the road back home again.
