I’ve got so much to share: the food, the sights, the food, the friends, the food, the outings, did I mention the food? Instead of trying to cram everything into one humongous post, I’ll share bits and pieces over multiple posts over the next week or so. Today, I’ll just share some highlights and give you a preview of posts to come.

I’ll start off with exactly why I decided to take my trip in the first place. I got offered a job at Toronto Hydro about a month ago (more on that in a future post) and the “plan” in the back my mind ever since graduating was to find a job, hope that there would be enough time between getting the job and starting the job to travel, and travel, ideally to the motherland: Hong Kong. And praise God, that’s exactly what I was able to do! So I booked a ticket and a week later, off I went!

The actual flights there and back were quite good. Long flights have the potential to be a pretty bad experience, but I was lucky enough to immensely enjoy both trips. On the way to HK, I sat beside the cutest five year old from Chicago. Her older cousin was taking her and  her sister to HK for the first time. She was absolutely crazy! Just completely off the wall, driving her cousin a little mad I think. She just wouldn’t sit still and kept squirming and doing crazy things like ripping of the head rest or throwing her sweater over the seat behind her. So much fun to share the journey with her and play with her a little. Children are great! The flight back was also great cause I decided to treat myself a little and upgrade to business class. Wow, so cool for such a long flight over. A seat that reclines completely into bed, really really good food (filet mignon, wines, hot roasted peanuts, the list goes on), great service, and a first class lounge to wait in. Totally worth it.

One of the highlights of the trip is definitely the food. So much food and such good food at that! It was one of the things I was most looking forward to before the trip and HK did not disappoint! One side note though. With so many people telling me how great the food there is, I was under the impression that HK’s food would be far superior than Toronto’s. And while the food there is quite amazing, I’ve come to realize how amazing Toronto’s food is as well. With the dishes I tried in HK that I could also get in Toronto, Toronto’s quality was mostly just as good. Toronto is definitely a dining mecca. Anyway, back to HK’s food.

So many different styles of food to try: from cheap to pricey, from Chinese to Thai to western to Japanese to countless others, from fancy dine-in places to dirty little local places, it was food heaven! One highlight I need to mention is my first encounter with foie gras. Oh my goodness, that stuff is so heavenly. If you’ve never tried it and get a chance to try it, make sure you savour that first bite as much as you can, you’ll never get a feeling like that in your mouth ever again! Other highlights include the best “po-tarts” ever, fresh seafood, amazing fruit desserts, Portuguese-Macanese food, and the best hot-pot I’ve ever had. Stay tuned on posts specifically for food.

The other major highlight of the trip was visiting friends and family and HK. This was my first vacation that I’ve taken on my own, but it didn’t really feel that way at all. With so many people to meet up and catch up with, it felt like I was taking a vacation with all of them. I am so blessed to know so many people there. It made the trip so much more enjoyable. Thanks to everyone who came out and hung with me, showed me around, and let me crash at the places, you’re the reason my trip was so epic. Seeing all these people would have been great in itself, but getting to experience HK with them was even better. Outings like the “junk” (boat) trip for May’s birthday, the trip to Ocean Park with new friends Benita & Felix, hiking up to Lion’s Rock with Dan, many meals shared with friends & family, all made 100 times better because of the great company I shared them with. Again, stay tuned for more details on these outings in future posts.

I’ll leave you with my thought of the day, mastercard style: Having time off, good. Taking a vacation in your time off: great. Sharing your vacation with friends and family, priceless.

PS For a less detailed event by event hits of my trip, check out my twitter page.

“Good friends can motivate you to do good like when you should be working on a project but would rather play, he can remind you to work.”

“Friends can inspire you to show the fruits of the spirit such as love, kindness, patience…”

“Pray for the bully as well because he may not have any friends…as it says in Matthew 5:44, ‘But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’”

Wow. I don’t think I even knew what the fruits of the spirit were when I was nine.

Though it was only about 2 minutes in length, it was so inspiring and a great reminder of how important friends are.

Children will never cease to amaze me.

So I’m in St. Louis now for the tri-annual Urbana conference. Except I’m not quite there yet. As told in the title, I’m in the lobby of my hotel, leeching off the free wireless right now. My hotel room isn’t quite ready yet, so I’ve got some time to kill. So what am I going to do? Boast.

I’ve got the best friends world. I don’t know if I say this enough, but I am so blessed to have the friends that I do. For example, take 12 days ago. Just another average middle of exam period day. Trying to study during the day, had a meal together with the housemates, and had a great worship team practice at church that evening. But unbeknown to me, there was going to be more in store that night. Even though they were apparently so loud, I didn’t notice 15 or so friends congregating on the floor below me while I studied. Sometime that night (not really sure, I think it was around 10, but who knows), Tianne comes up and lures me away from studying with a cheese break. Who can say no to cheese? So I go downstairs and I’m greeted with a “cheesecake”, wine, fruit, chocolate fondue, and some of the greatest people in the world for a surprise birthday party. Absolutely floored. I wasn’t expecting it but it was awesome. Really made my day. Like I said, I’ve got the best friends in the world. Thanks guys, you have no idea how much you all mean to me!

getting mail, real mail, not credit card bills or junk mail, like a letter or postcard from a friend, or like a signed John Mayer photo (that I got yesterday)

What gives you the warm fuzzies?

Killers this past Friday at Kool Haus. Simply amazing. The sure know how to put on a show. Both musically and visually amazing! Loved how they ended the show too, couldn’t be more perfect:

We hope you enjoy your stay
It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day

We hope you enjoy your stay
Outside the sun is shining, it seems like heaven ain’t far away

It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day

Good times with Andrea, Han-Min & Gizelle. Too bad the camera ran out of batteries before the show started! Ah well, at least it ended off well with midnight breakfast at Fran’s. Who’d have thunk that feta cheese would taste so good in an omlette?

135 days till Phantom, the countdown begins…