Thanksgiving in the Kong 2010: Things I am Thankful for

Thanksgiving day 10k run along the harbor with my nearly new kicks!  I'm thankful for the pleasant weather and the ability to play outside without nasty heat or rain.

I have so much to be thankful for. There is not enough room in all the interwebs to contain how much I'm grateful for.

Even though I'm away from my family, I have the great pleasure of spending my 3rd Thanksgiving in my current home of Hongkers. I am so lucky to have amazing friends here who I consider family so I'll start there.

Things I am Thankful for, 2010

People
How it's possible that I am friends and family with the greatest people on the planet, I'll never know. I don't know why I'm that lucky, but I never take you for granted, not for one second. Everything in my life is influenced and supported by my loved ones, so it's you I have to thank for this amazing life! I'm so thankful to have friends and family that understand me, love me, support me, and can hang with my weirdness, fickleness, mood swings, crazy decisions, and general inanity. No matter what I do or where I go, it's nice to come home to you... wherever my home may be.

I'm thankful that Conan O'Brien kept his head up. I love that guy.

I'm thankful for a smart work staff. The things we accomplish in our office are only because of their hard work. We've done so much this year and the future looks promising.

I'm thankful for my godsons Caleb. Yes, that is plural, yes they are both named Caleb, and yes they were both born this year one week apart. I miss them every day.

Places
I'm thankful for the ability to travel. Even though I don't have much $$ or vacation time, I manage to regularly exercise my passport. This is one of my favorite things in life.

I'm thankful for Coachella. My very first music festival of this scale, which I attended this year. The music was incredible, and it inspires me to be a better harmonica player, or something.

I'm thankful for the trips to Chengdu and Indonesia...  it didn't matter what we were doing, it was quality time with HK fam.

I'm thankful for Griffith Park, Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Downtown LA. The Hood that I really consider home, and the host of my very first half marathon. It was a joy to run through all the neighborhoods. The training was like a part time job, but I'm thankful that I'm able to still surprise myself with challenges like this.

Things
I'm thankful for dodgeball. I love being on a team with my HK family. We're so weird, and we belong together. Junk Shot!

I'm thankful for my harmonica. Because sometimes I need to play the blues.

I'm thankful for World Cup. It made summer that much more fun.

I'm thankful (I think) for another year, another decade, more adventures, more surprises.

This is just the beginning.

Oxfam Trailwalker 2010: Machines and Mechanics Edition

What I witnessed this weekend was absolutely humbling. Several of my friends participated in the local Oxfam Trailwalker race. That's 100 kilometers of hiking within one weekend for charity.

Since I am physically unprepared to handle such insanity, since training in Hong Kong during the summer would be a disaster for me, and since I don't have a whole lot of $$ to spare, I wanted to do some good, donate my time, and support my friends

more after the jump...

UCLA vs UA: Football 2010

I love football and I love tailgating and I love my wildcats and a handful of special frenemies... but officially these are the things I miss most being a world away.


I was lucky enough to be home for a UCLA vs Arizona game at the Rose Bowl, and super duper lucky because I had so many of my lovies with me. My homegirls from high school (even though our friendship has really taken off in adulthood, it's nice having friends you've known for half your life!), college friends, my sis, and even a visiting friend from HK!

Exceptionally special because it was my godson's first football game... and Halloween weekend! I couldn't have produced more magic than all this.


More pictures, love, rivalry and baby after the jump...

Semi-Annual Versailles Dinner

Since I moved to HK, it's been tradition that I get together with a few old workmates and dine at Versailles when I visit home. It's a casual restaurant with great Cuban food. It's also my favorite professor's favorite restaurant. And as far as I know the only cubano place in HK closed a while back. I'm constantly playing catchup with friends, but it's nice to have quality time with people I used to see every day. Thank you to C for organizing!

I'm always overwhelmed by the menu and this has been my default selection: lechon sammy. Delish!

Inaugural Rock N Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon

My 1st Half Marathon finished in 2:47:52!

E, Frosty, me, and Armie at the finish line!  Oh sweet victory!

More pictures, more love after the bump...
(it's a long one folks)

Mid-Autumn Festival: Fire Breathing Edition

One of my favorite Hong Kong holidays is Mid-Autumn Festival. I'm not really sure why it's called mid-autumn since it takes place early fall, but I'll take the day off! It's a time for family and celebrating the change in seasons and the moon. And mooncakes. All wonderful stuff.

Since it's a time for family, I spent this one with my HK family. Me, Hans, Mr P, Party Foul, and his GF kicked it off with a hot pot dinner. Hot pot is the ultimate in family dining. These are just a few things for a sauce mix.

When dinner was over, we headed to The Roof to enjoy the moon.  The rain and quit it just in time for us to sit around and cause trouble.  We stocked up on candles and glow in the dark goodies, and other ffffamily members met us there.  It sounds totally weird, but the glow in the dark nails rocked my world!

Then we were told of ol skool mid autumn traditions. Such as taking the mooncake box tin, filling it with wax, starting a fire, and spitting water at it to create a tower of flames. This practice was deemed illegal so you don't see it anymore. Except maybe on a city rooftop. It took a lot finessing but eventually we figured it out. Check out our video below!



I. LOVE. FALL!

Junk Shot: A Member of the Hong Kong Dodgeball Association

Yes, there really is a Hong Kong Dodgeball Association, and you can check out their website for schedules, scores, and video of games! They've been around for a couple of years, but this season they really exploded. Dodgeball, F yeah!

Months back, my big bro says to me he wants to start a dodgeball team. He always has nutty ideas, but they are usually right up my alley. Over the summer before the season started, the D'ball association set up free clinics where we could play and organize teams for the upcoming season. With a lot of people and a lot of balls flying around, it's pretty scary. But a good kind of fear!

This is not the d'ball we played in elementary school. The balls we use are light like a nerf ball. But believe me, when one comes flying at you at full speed and hits you in the face, it stings. And there are 6 balls to manage, not just one.

Fall came and our team solidified. Team Junk Shot. Named after the plan to seal the gulf oil spill with garbage. No joke. But also, sometimes people take shots to the junk.

I love my team. They are a significant portion of my HK fam. Last night was to be my last game of the regular season before I set off for some travels. But due to some unforeseen events the game will hopefully be rescheduled for after my return. More reflections on d'ball days to come!

xxx

Things To Do in Indonesia

I was sent to Jakarta for work, and it happened to fall on a long weekend so I planned an extended stay in Indonesia and invited friends to keep me company. I've been to Jakarta once before for a weekend trip. It's a big city. Spread out. Not walkable. Last time we spent a lot of time in taxis. I live in a big city. I come from a big city. Sometimes you wanna get away from it all.

After I was done with my work in Jakarta, we headed to Ciater at the base of a volcano for some fresh air and outdoor fun. So here's my list of things to do when in Indonesia:

Order everything on the menu.

Make your way through a giant market.  And get several pairs of cheapy sunglasses.

Ride a horse through a tea plantation.

Take Jesus to a mosque.

Swim in a hot spring waterfall.

Soak in a hot tub time machine.

Late night soak in the hot spring waterfall.

 Enjoy the wildlife.

Zip lining!

Dip your feet in a pool of flesh eating fish!

Get some Robin Hood action

Shoot some guns.

Eat a banana covered in chocolate and cheese.

Get rained out and watch TLC in the bungalow of terror.

More late night hot spring soaks.

Find pretty mosques.

Get a rootbeer float before flight.

And some Dunkin Donuts too!

Art Jamming

For her birthday, Yan received the very thoughtful gift of the Artjam... for four! So, on one beautiful Sunday afternoon, Yan, Ailin, Hoi Ying, and I headed to TST for a creative experience.

I didn't have much time beforehand to plan out my masterpiece. So I went with a replication of a picture I took in White Sands, New Mexico. I'm glad I had decided this ahead of time, because our time slot at the studio was only 2 hours and it can be pretty stressful!

To add to the stress, our time slot coincided with some children's group... and you know how I feel about those little demons. The space was small, the aprons were weird and kept sliding off, and we really didn't have any surface area to spread out our paints and brushes. Despite all these challenges, the jam of art was such a wonderful experience.

I'm amazed at how fabulous all the paintings turned out to be. It felt good to mix colors, play with texture, transform an empty canvas. But I'm afraid these two hours in the artjamming studio fed us a false sense of artistic ability. It won't stop me from coming back though!

While the experience would have been more pleasant for me without a million little kiddos running around, I'm glad these kids are lucky enough to get the chance to do something fun and creative. These kids grow up in tight quarters and do not have to space to house piles and piles of toys, crayons, and all the things that American kids can have. There's no room to finger paint or make a mess, there's no back yard to hose them down. There's no Michael's or Joann's or Target to purchase fun crafty stuff, and the few crafty things available here are not cheap.

I read an article a while back about how HK is really behind in the art scene, especially in comparison to other big cities. And while this may be due to a different set of priorities (make money not art) or a different way of thinking (in the box not creatively), maybe there's just no room to be creative here.

Hong Kong's 1st Redbull Flugtag

After just another week of being sick and tired (not just an expression), I slept the better part of Friday and Saturday and scraped up some strength for some Sunday action.

Redbull's Flugtag (German for Flying Day) events are held all around the world and finally on 10/10/10 it arrived in Hong Kong. While fun, outdoor, silly, and possibly dangerous evets are pretty non-existent here, I'm glad Redbull pulled this off pretty successfully. Lots of teams participated and it was a very healthy turnout and yet I didn't freak out from crowd claustrophobia.

None of the aircraft (is that plural?) took flight, and if they did, they would have crashed straight into the barge not far off the edge of the pier, collecting the remains of each teams' hard work. It was pretty hilarious seeing each project launch into the harbor.

While this sort of pointless fun is SO NOT Hong Kong, many of the aircraft beautifully represented the HK spirit: the ol skool aqua luna junk, a tram, dim sum cart, and of course Bruce Lee. Various holidays were represented as well. It was really nice to see all walks of life get into this event.