happy birthdays go out to:

-my future (in five days) roommie and bestest kat eeek i'm the last one to turn eighteen now!!! booo ... ok so i'm always last but still! come home from florida safe babe

-ina, the CFO of the drama queen club! lol ok so i'm out of the loop in terms of 'clubness' and i had to go look up on google what exactly a CFO *was* but anyways happy bday :P :)

tomorrow is wonderland... but i'm not excited. boo. i feel really sluggish. and i hate that my summer's ending. i mean, sure it'll be a good time hanging out before school starts.. esp with some of the ppl who are going out of town [heartbreak] but i dont' know what's wrong with me.
okay i'm getting a little depressed right now. basically a lot of it is stemming from my nonexistant pathetic lovelife too .. i mean i can't help it. i just found out from dora that her and kat had this whole romantic time on the cruise and kissed by some gorgeous boys and from joanna that guys are offering to help her move and here i am sitting here ALONE.

and yay i just found out that dora made the whole thing up hahhahaa how completely dora.

and now i'm just sad that kreazeless is splitting in the fall. BOOOOO

taught sunday school today and jo and i showed veggie tales esther as a part of the lesson haha i think it's mostly becuase we wanted to watch it:P .. but actually one of the songs in it served as a good reminder for the coming week. .. term... year... it's the one esther says sings when she's afraid to go see the king and when she jsut doesn't want to be where she is, it's called "The battle is not ours":

Mordecai: You wanted to know why you became queen. I told you God must have a reason.Perhaps he put you here, for such a time as this.perhaps This is the reason.

Esther: Tell me why, I don't understand. Tell me why, or show me your hand. Tell me why because I can't see my way through ~What now...should I...do ~(music plays ) (drums play)

The battle is not ours
We look to God above
For he will guide us safely through
and guard us with his love
I will not be afraid
I will not run and hide
For there is noting I can't face
when God is at my side
No, there is nothing I can't face
when God is at my side

i thought it was cute.. :)

well... there are officially nine days left until i pick up and move into REV...i've been asked by a few people why i'm moving out when i live in waterloo anyways. i have a few reasons for this:

1. i'll meet more people.
2. i want to be more independant. my parents moved to england on their own when they were my age, and i'm fairly sure they want me to have at least a bit of that experience even though mine is on a *much* smaller scale.

other comments/questions i'd like to address:
1. no, i am not going to go home to do laundry
2. no, i am not going to go home for dinner every night
3. no, i'm not moving home even if i want to kill kat :P

with that out of the way haha... i've been trying to think a bit about what i need to do/get before i move in... i updated my wishlist to more university/residence friendly items... i'm trying to get pictures of friends blown up for my wall... goshhhhh... i'm so nervous. i am SO NERVOUS.

*sigh* this was such a pointless post. >.< trust trust trust!!!!!!

at frosh connexions on saturday, it started off with a bit of worship... actually i think it was a lot of worship but we were jsut late getting there. i didn't really know any of the songs but there was one song (which i can't find for the life of me), i dont' remember the title, all i remember is that it was really simple and one part just went
"i'll do my best, i'll do my best whoa, i'll do my best for You" overand over and over..
it kind of scared me becuase i tried to sing it but i couldn't. i could only stand there and sort of mouth the words. i guess becuase i just felt like a hypocryte.

this is not my best.

somewhere within me there is more. ... isn't there?

Ment--err no.

let me reitterate my sensitivity toward the word 'mentor'. i dont' care how long ago whoever said whatever, it still bugs me, and i never said i needed or wanted one. it really burns when you think someone is like this great friend and like you pour out your heart to them and turns out, they just think of you as some "mentoree" or something.. like gawd... i didn't sign up for that camp. sometimes i think i shoudl just stick to having friends my age or younger. of course then i'm reminded of older ppl who i've actually built true friendships with and have to retract that statement. but almost nothing stings more than actions or words that jsut speak to me once again: "i'm not your friend, i'm your mentor."

chinese soup bracelet

tiff and i went to the bead store yesterday and i couldn't think of what to make haha so i started looking at the beads and so many of them were like things that look like they shoudl go in chinese soup :P so i made a chinese soup bracelet :P... yes. i know i'm weird. haha.. ebri says it looks like it owuld dig into my wrist but it doesn't :) beads starting from the big circle thing with a hole in it and clockwise are as follows: round coinish thing with chinese characters (to make it chineseyish), 'lotus' bead, frog!, 'red bean', weird white thing, mushroom, weird orange thing, boh-boh stuff that goes in chinese soup :P, 'green bean', pig, 'dung gua', 'snake', weird white thing number two, and 'dried up prune/plum thing'... hahhahahaa ... aw man. the bead store is so *the* place to be. :P


going back to toronto tomorrow ... but only for a few hours for frosh connexions ... should be cool to meet other loo frosh :) ... gonna head to bed.

my version of shabba's "Diss of the Week"...
the Diss of the Summer

While in hong kong i attended a church that my family used to attend when i was a baby and when we went back for vacations... of course, i hadn't been back in nine years and my family had been going to church with my grandma... but for the sake of english worship, i decided to go back to my old church. The guy who was the chairman that day is a family friend of ours so he made especially sure that he talked about my dad and i.

"Joseph [my dad] has not been back from Canada for nine years. it's great to see him as he was a former member of this church."

then i thought he was gonna skip me, but i was so very very wrong.

"Jasmine is his daughter and well, we can really see big changes in magnitude and size."

cough 'nuff said. :P

was in toronto for the past few days... twas good-- very relaxing which was exactly what i wanted and needed.

spent saturday with dora, we went to her family friends' bbq which was good but i was so jetlagged and we didnt' really have mcuh to do so we both like fell asleep on their couch while watching diving/swimming :P anyways we went back to her place and were being our old crazy selves haha we wrote a "poem" lol about how there's all these girls in toronto who wear clubbing clothes all the time :P .. maybe we're hicks but it's still retarded, we also watched Van Wilder which was hilarious... twas good to just chillax... -- here is our composition hahaha:

Clubbing Girls In Toronto

Clubbing girls in Toronto
Always wear clubbing clothes.
On days when they're not clubbing,
They still wear clubbing clothes.

Clubbing girls in Toronto
Talk like brats wannabe fobs
Even though they were born in Canada
They still talk like brats wannabe fobs.

Clubbing girls in Toronto
Wear really high-heeled shoes.
When they go for long walks
They still wear high-heeled shoes.

Clubbing girls in Toronto
Wear fifty layers of make-up.
When it's time for them to sleep
They still wear fifty layers of make-up.

Clubbing girls in Toronto.
Clubbing girls in Toronto.

sunday i went to mcbc with patty and jeff whcih was nice to worship in english and stuff which i didn't get a lot of in hk :P afterwards we went to patty and gladys' softball game which was really cool cuz i've never watched softball before :P i was jsut like spinning my head around trying to figure out where the ball was half the time :P we saw a clubbing girl there and i was like OMG and jeff was like "shhHH!!" hahhaa after the game we went to ten ren's for bbt and then i went back to gladys' place and had some quality ME time. it was so nice seriously cuz i havne't acutally been ALONE for a month and just to sit there even, doing anything. like i washed dishes and i was so happy cuz i could jsut stand there in an empty house and talk to myself. haha it's hard to explain my glee at spending time with me. anyways gladys came back and we chatted and watched ally mcbeal which is really good and sad and funny! and then i had the best sleep i've had in over three weeks-- no need to freak out about not getting up in time, no frigid airconditioning, no hard ground... oh the sweetness of it.

today i decided to spend with me too hahaha it was so beautiful. i went to indigo and read for 3 hours and then went outside to a hot dog stand and bought a polish sausage, bought a smoothie, and walked down the street to that fountain place thingy where i shared my lunch wiht a pigeon. it was the perfect day. the perfect temperature. and then i headed to the bus terminal and hopped on a bus and came back to waterloo.

and now... i'm bored again.

hey so i'm back in loo town... and yeah. i miss hk a lot. too much.
a part of me just wants to hide out in my house and sleep. becuase i've beenback for so little time and already things are beginning to bug me.
but on the other hand, that would be stupid becuase i guess something i've learned is that God puts you where he wants you when he wants you there. there are good sides to every place, and somethign to take away from every situation.

anyways, i'm excited about helping out with the last day of vbs, seeing all the ppl i miss <3, and i absolutely adore the air here. :)

you know what's even worse? when you have to say goodbye on the phone. or when you don't get to say it at all. and you just leave.

and when people lie to you.

and goign back to a place ... i won't even say it it's a waste of time. i hate this.

going to eat my last meal of sew lung bao and sang jeen bao. goodbye to all my family and friends here. i'll miss you and i love you all.

I HATE GOODBYES.

hung out wiht my cousin fiona basically for the whole day today... went up to her place just to look around and say hi to her cutie son and then headed down to Festival walk for the day... shopped, ate... and then jo came down and we all kinda shopped together... buying disposable underwear for kat's family BAHAHA... such a joke we were freaking out at everything in watsons lol it's not our fault canada doesn't have cool candy or water :P

after that met up with my aunt and uncle and my cousin's sona nd husband for supper.. mm shanghainese... and then shopped again... bought esprit stuff and yeah...

ok so after that i said goodbye to all of them.

ugh it's not fair. three weeks is too short.

anways i just got home from eating thai food with my aunt (that wer'e living with)... sweet... mango shake mmmm... i can't do this. i can't say anymore goodbyes. the older you get the harder it gets. sucks.

monday august 9--12:25 am

random pics: 1) moi and my fob hair :6 2) napkin queen nikita :P haha





today (sunday): the service at emmanuel was pretty good... my friend ian was playing guitar for worship and the team was pretty good... there was this girl playing bass and it made me wanna learn how to play bass :P after church we had lunch with the ling's and the fung's so it was good to chill wth janet again and stuff

we (when i say we i mean my immediate family plus my goojeh and nikita) met up with my parent's friend frances who i knew when i was like three but i left pretty early on cuz i was so tired and went home to sleep for a bit... and then after we went out to this Hak Ka restaurant to eat *sweeetnesss* with my mahmah, yee poh, sumsum, ping guo suk suk, and wingwing... it was like inside some mall in tsuen wan so me and my sumsum went shopping after and i bought like four shirts and three bags meeheeheeheee...

oh yeah i'm never coming home.

Sunday august 8 --12:48 am

had lunch with my uncle's parents and brother's family today :) and then met up with bonnie in causeway bay... was nice to see bonnie again haha she's so glam all "hk'ed up" so yeah we ran around and shopped i got a purse and some make up and some other stuff :) and we had mcdonalds icecream. i think i've been to mcd's at least 6 or 7 times since i've been in hk hahaha it's SO much better than mcd's in canada!

went to stanley for dinner with my fam and janet's family... stanley is really really nice, i suck at barganing though, although i made an attempt at this one store. anyways the stores were basically closing by the teim we got htere... we ate dinner at this nice german restaurant with pillars overlooking the.... harbour? ocean?... yeah. and it was soooper nice to eat potatoes. which i love. which ihavne't had for 2.5 weeks ! lol ... i had a yummy pina colada and me being my loser self i would like to type that i sat sipping my pina colada, wearing a wide-brimmed white hat, watching the waves lap onto the rocks and smelling the sweet sea-salt air. of course it was totally so dark and i was sitting at a round table with like 10 other people haha.. but it was still good and also the apple strudel was lovely as well :)

hk mishaps

haha so a few things i forgot to mention:

on wednesday i got a haircut... i suppose it's not exactly a mishap... i mean, i intended to get a haircut... and it's not that the person did a bad job or whatever, but that (i think) i explained wrong of what i want and ended up with a really SHORT cut. it's *OKAY* ... okay not really. i dunno i just feel like it's really weird. it's short and really REALLY layered ... kinda fobby ... i suppose it would be cute if not for the fact that i think it makes the top half of my head look bigger. not like my head isn't alreayd big enough as it is :P also, (i think) when it's brushed back in a certain way it looks somewhat like a mullet which is the worst hairstyle of all time. but if i brush it in a certain way it looks okay .. anyways it takes too much maintenance so i hope that before university starts it grows out so that the shortest part is at least to my shoulders.

thursday i banged my leg on the rotating metal thing getting into the mtr i have the HUGEST bruise. it spans about two inches length and width-wise and is purple, pink, yellow, and blue.

tomorrow i'm heading out to my old church that i used to go to -- they have an english service and i know the guy who's playing guitar for the worship so it shoudl be good... much needed after a week of incomprehendable freaky lutheran service and a week of no church at all although i confess that lack of facilities shouldn't keep me from staying 'connected' with God. ---- ehhh on that note, i'm off to read another chapter of pdl :P tdl!

august 6, 12:22 pm

i've gotten used to hong kong again... i guess each environment has it's ups and it's downs. The obvious 'up' of hong kong of course being shopping :) ... been dooing a lot of that!

my aunt's resort last week was nice :) really relaxing.. i learned some sammi cheng kareoke songs :) got to spend a lot of time with my aunt who i haven't seen in nine years .. really good. reconnecting with family is just so nice. i wish my relatives lived closer to home ... or i could just never go back to canada... which is what i'm wanting right now.

the transportation here is the best thing. waterloo's public transit is the lowest of lows. but even toronto transportation isn't that good. now when i go back i'll have to go back to walking or begging for rides. it's so sad..

wed-- met up with enoch (my "arranged" husband hahaha so jokes), jeff lam, jo, and alex... hung out at times square and ate mcd's and sushi hehe and then went to this really nice coffee/icecream place near there in causeway bay... after that, slept over at jo's haha hogged all the blankets lol

thurs-- called dor, kat, and mo in the morninnggg :) made and ate jung haha well i only made one ... and then met up with my parents adn aunta nd them for lunch at this viet place... after that we went to all these wholesale stores-- bought beads and a maJILLION other things hahaa all in bulk hahaha... went with all our stuff to my uncle's place, he lives in this like restricted area where only these busses can get in and like htey have all these facilities it's so nice! anyways we bbqed and sorted our stuff :) i love bbq... missed out on two weeks of it this summer!

meeting up with janet and edward today .. and then dinner at janet's tonight gotta gooo seeyaz!

August 2nd--10:04 pm

i spent four days (monday tues wed thurs) in a farming village on mainland china, about five hours away from Shenzhen, called MmmWah (lol my own phoenetics). I expected it to be a place with no airconditioning and no internet, a place in the middle of nowhere where i would be basically cut off from the rest of the world, a place where i would spend many hours sitting around melting. It was all these things. But it was so much more than that. It was a place where the warmness of family i had never seen radiated, where i'd sit at the breakfast table and look out at rice fields and mountains, where i made friends with kids through the sharing of sketchbook paper and muji pens (which by the way are a big deal for these people), where everyone sits outside in the night air sipping tea, watching the motorcycle lights float by, and where the rain falls through a hole in the roof into a hole in the floor and you get up from your shotglasses of tea and wooden fans and kids run outside and yell "lok suay" in Hak Ka, a dialect i can't quite master the understanding of.

i miss it.

my pictures are really crappy (shaky for some reason) but i think even the best photographer couldn't do my feelings justice. in a way, it's really hard coming back to the busyness of hk even after four days at my aunt's resort in china... it's too cold...too hectic... to unappreciative. anywyas, check out the pics. haha a few things to note: the washroom was okay cuz my aunt had a normal bathroom installed for my grandma :P, they don't drink water they just drink this really good tea ALL the time, i will never eat bak cheet gie ever again, and i was never bored. you sat, but you were always busy. i dind't even have a chance to write postcards or read pdl.

view from the front door



rice farmers



our house