THURSDAY

I spent the whole day of Thursday with no one else but my family (and the people shopping in Woolworths, but they don't really count).  In the morning, I did some last minute shopping with my mum.  I had to buy a new pair of thongs and some more chocolate, as previously mentioned, and I also got a new student ID card from my university after losing my first one.  The university website said that I would have to pay for a new card, which I was ready to do, but then the guy who printed out my card shook his head and said "Don't worry about it", so I didn't!

After the shopping was done, my family and I drove up to Hahndorf, which is a quaint little German village where most of the stores sell, surprise surprise, German produce and other things.  There are also lots and lots of little cafes along the street and small entertainment attractions like a fairy garden and big, cardboard castle which we came across. 

For lunch, we ate at a restaurant called The German Arms.  We ordered three dishes to share since their dishes are huge and we didn't want to eat too much because my grandma was cooking dinner for us later on, and she always cooks more than enough.  We ordered the pork hock, lamb shanks and a trio of German sausages - bratwurst, brockwurst and something-other-wurst.  I liked the pork hock the best, mainly because it had crackling and I love fatty meat.  Heeheehee...

After lunch we just walked around and I took some random photos.  My dad kept saying "You have to take a photo of this? Why are you just taking random photos?" Because they're pretty.  And also because I've developed a slight interest in photography after seeing some really nice photos posted on some photo blogs that I read.  What's interesting about Hahndorf is that it's supposed to be the 'German' village, but we came across a Chinese restaurant, a cheese shop (are Germans famous for their cheese? I don't actually know) and an Australian souvenir shop among other non-German things.  Sometimes I wish places would just stick to being one thing, but I know it's to keep the tourist business alive and to cater to everyone's needs.  But overall, Hahndorf was lovely.  I hadn't been there in a long, long time but I don't think it ever really changes.

At night time, we went to my Grandma's house for dinner.  She had promised to cook quail and roast pork for the dinner, which is why we didn't eat too much at lunch.  In the end she also made sang choy bao (lettuce buns....), fried rice and a cleansing soup.  Like I said, she always cooks more than enough.  We couldn't finish all the food that she cooked, as usual, and we ended up taking some home.  Now that I think about it, Thursday was pretty much meat-day - lamb shanks, pork hock, sausages, roast pork, quail and the fried beef in the sang choy bao.  They say meat is expensive in Korea, right?  So I was only eating what I'll be missing out in the next few months.  I just ate it all in one day.  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday and Thursday were my 'farewell Adelaide friends and family' days.  I reserved today, the day before I left, for my family - just because we don't really do much together in general since we're all so busy with our own work, study, relationships and other random things.

Yesterday, two of my high school friends so nicely organised a farewell brunch for me at a restaurant called The Store.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we decided (well, I decided because they told me to) to eat at the The Lion which was just across the street.  It was really good seeing my little group again.  These girls were my, I suppose, 'clique' during high school.  Most of us did the IB (International Baccalaureate) program so we had three or four classes with each other every day, which meant we became really close.  Three years later, we're still good friends.

I had a dinner with my church friends at night time so I went to my favourite bookshop in the city and sat there reading for five hours.  The farewell dinner was at a little place called Pancake Kitchen, where it's pretty much pancakes for all meals.  We stayed there eating and talking for a few hours, and then decided to walk to the Torrens River nearby to continue our gathering.  It was so much fun.  We took a lot of photos using my friend's 'pro' camera (which I really want to get!!) and I took a few of my own.

After a while we were bored so we played the 'magnet' game.  It's one of our youth group's specialty games and I loved it.  Even though it was kind of hot that night, I don't think anyone really noticed because they were having too much fun.  During the night, a few of the boys kept telling me that I had to had to had to play Starcraft in Korea, otherwise no one would be my friend and I'd end up a loner.  These same boys told me that I had better come back knowing how to make kimchi and other Korean dishes otherwise they were going to kick me back to Korea and make me stay there until I learn how to do it - myself paying the airfare, of course.

That was what happened yesterday.  If I get time, I'll write about what happened today (Thursday) tomorrow when I'm waiting at the airport.  14 more hours from now and I'll be on route to Singapore!

LAZY UPDATE #2

Ready for another congested update of what's happened in my second-to-last week in Adelaide? Well, if you're not...I don't really know what to say to you.  I'll just keep doing my thing and you can do yours, okay?

1.  So I know who my buddy is now (I even have her facebook! How exciting!), but since last Thursday I haven't really contacted afterwards.  I honestly can't wait to meet her.  I like meeting new people.  Sometimes I find them easier to talk to than the people I've known for a long, long time.  Is that strange? I know it's much more comfortable with old-time friends but it's easier to keep a conversation going with people I don't know so well.

2.  The past weekend has been pretty busy for me.  On Saturday I attended the wedding of one of my family friend's son, who I've known for my whole life but never really talked to much because he was 11 years older than me.  It was a very pretty wedding, of which I unfortunately did not take any photos.  I took a photo of my outfit, just because I thought it reflected my personality and style pretty well at this current stage.

3.  I also went to a house-warming on Saturday night.  The people who attended were mostly high school friends who I haven't seen ever since high school finished (three years ago), which may not seem like a long time but it was certainly good to catch up with them.  I actually have quite interesting story about Saturday night.  You see, one of my friends lives in the city, and I was driving her and another friend back to town.  My sister was also in town that night attending a 21st, so after I took my friend home, I picked my sister up to take her and the other friend home.  We were driving along the road and came up to a traffic crossing, but the light was green so I didn't slow down at all.  There were cars parked on the left side of the road so I couldn't see anybody on the street waiting to cross.  When my car was about two seconds away from the pedestrian crossing, a whole group of people appear and start running across the road.  I had to literally slam on the brakes in order to avoid crashing into them.  This has never happened to me before so I was in total shock.  Luckily there was a police car nearby and they beeped their horn to call over the group of criminals (well, they are).  I have never been so nervous and scared while driving before, and even after passing them I was still kind of trembling.  Moral of the story: never speed, boys and girls, never speed.

4.  On Sunday I had a farewell lunch with my uni group from church.  After the lunch, we stayed in Rundle Mall and looked around.  I bought chocolates from Haighs as gifts for my buddy and room mate, although my mum told me that I bought too little, so I think I'll have to buy more.  When we were walking around, we saw this huge wine bottle made out of cork.  I initially thought it was actually completely made of wine corks, but then I saw the wire behind it and was very disappointed.

5.  Sunday night was the wedding reception dinner no. 2.  It was mainly for the couple's grandfather's friends, also the groom's acquaintances.  It was at a Chinese restaurant with lots of Chinese and Malaysian people, so it was pretty loud and Chinese-y.  Again, no photos because there wasn't much to take photos of.  There will be professional photos later on, but I have no idea when they come out.

6. Tonight I watched The King's Speech with my friend.  It was excellent.  I've never found a movie with Colin Firth in it which I didn't enjoy, mainly due to my love of British comedy and Colin Firth's impeccable timing and humour.  My Australian pride was also satisfied with Geoffrey Rush's great performance as well.  I'm really happy that I've liked the two movies which have been dominating in all the award ceremonies because sometimes the voters really have obscure choices in choosing their favourite movie.  But I'm glad that The King's Speech is up there, because I wouldn't mind watching it again.  It was incredibly funny at times (there was this scene where I could not stop laughing) but also really poignant and touching at other times.

ANOTHER STEP TAKEN

My exchange university sent me my buddy information today (finally...!) and now I'm super super excited!!  I kind of fretted over the buddy thing because I thought the information would be sent earlier, but then I saw the list of how many exchange students there would be and realised it's a huge job and it was pretty selfish of me to want things to happen faster.  I hate it when people rush me, so yeah.  No hard feelings to the exchange team at CAU! :)

What's kind of unsettling me now is that I think about the fact that I will actually, really, literally, irreversibly leaving next Friday afternoon and it makes me a little bit scared.  It doesn't actually feel like I'm leaving.  I don't even have the luggage bag suitcase in my room yet so it doesn't feel real.  Maybe once I start putting things into the suitcase I will have a feeling of "wow...I'm not going to be here for five months."

Speaking about packing....so packing in itself is not hard - in fact I've always had a very positive attitude towards packing.  I love packing for holidays.  I don't know why but I think it's exciting when I need to decide which pieces of clothing will be my wardrobe for the next few days or weeks, however long the holiday is.  It's even more exciting when the place I'm going to has no shopping facilities which means whatever I bring is what I'm stuck with - so I have to make a good choice.  That's the thrill of packing for me.

To be honest, I'm kind of not in the mood to pack at the moment.  I've written a list of what to bring, but my wardrobe is kind of messy at the moment so I don't particularly want to sift through it all.  Since I'm going at the end of winter until their mid-summer, I have a feeling I'm going to need to pack for all four seasons.  My mum advised me to just pack a few things for each season and continuously wear the same clothes over five months.  Umm...if I was a guy, yeah...maybe.  Too bad I'm not, which means I will want to wear something different almost everyday.  Or at least have enough options for different combinations to last me a few months.  I envy people who can wear the same pieces of clothing and make it look new because they're creative enough to make it work but the truth is, I'm not one of them.

There's also going to be a wedding, house-warming party, farewell lunch and wedding dinner to go to as well this weekend and I'm still trying to figure out my head around those.  Packing, although it should be, is not really high on the list.  And I don't know....maybe I've been using the word 'pack' too much, but now it sounds really weird to me. Pack...pack...packing....quack quack quacking...

P.S. sorry about lack of pictures. I'm not a huge fan of just text posts either, but I fully intend to take lots of pictures in Seoul so do not fear!

PREPARING TO GO

I bought my first app from the iTunes store last night and it is ....a Korean-English dictionary! I've been trying to find a Korean-English dictionary for ages, even before I found out that I would be going on exchange to Korea.  I took an eight-week Korean course at the WEA centre a few years ago when I first started becoming interested in k-dramas and kpop but it didn't really help me with too much since I had already learnt the Hangul alphabet by myself online beforehand.  So now I have a dictionary on my iPod to take with me wherever I go instead of carrying a book around.  It's good because I am guaranteed to take my iPod around everywhere I go since it's my source of entertainment, whereas it is pretty likely that I will forget a book.  

This is what the app looks like:

 

When I was playing around with it this morning, I realised that I had previously installed the Korean language writing ....thing (....) on my iPod and could actually type using Hangul letters.  Initially I was kind of worried about what I'd do if I encountered words in Korean and I didn't have a way of finding out what they meant, but problemo solvedo :)

I still haven't started packing yet, but I promised my friend that I would start this Wednesday and he told me was going to check up on me so I have to do it.  To be honest I don't really know how much and what I'm going to take.  My dad left for Hong Kong this evening and he had almost nothing to take with him despite going away for a week.  Five months and one week is a big difference, I know, but there isn't anything here that they don't have over there....I think.  아....몰라!

The university is supposed to set me up with a buddy who will pick me up from the airport and show me how to take care of things, but they haven't emailed me anything.  I sent them an email last night so I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if they reply.  

LAZY UPDATE #1

I admit.  I am a pretty lazy person. So when I've been too busy or too lazy to update a whole weeks worth of stuff, you will get a Lazy Update.

1.  Last Thursday (and Monday&Tuesday) - started my volunteer work at the Cancer Council! I'm doing some data entry for them because it seems like they've really fallen behind on their data updating.  The work itself isn't terribly exciting, but I've come across some pretty interesting last names (read: interesting = funny and one which I would not want to have).  It's also interesting to see what real office work is like.  It's exactly like the movies - gossip, work, lunch, work and gossip.

2.  Last Friday - my youth group celebrated Chinese New Year by having an Amazing Race activity where groups had to 'travel' around China.  It was so much fun.  We had seven different tasks - memorize a 10 second tai-chi sequence (it was originally 1 minute, but they took so long), use calligraphy to write out a four-word Chinese phrase, make dumplings, construct the Birds Nest out of straws, drink three cups of a mystery black liquid, do a lion dance and put the Chinese zodiac animals into order.  For the mystery black liquid activity, they had five bottles of similar coloured liquid in front of them.  They didn't know what was in each bottle and had to choose one bottle to drink from.  We had soy sauce, black vinegar, Coke, bitter tea and Lipton ice tea.  Some were diluted - soy sauce and vinegar - because it would have been reeeally awful to drink it straight.

3.  Last Sunday - our uni group celebrated CNY with a big dinner.  We each brought a dish to share.  It was funny how none of us remembered to bring rice, so one of the boys had to call home and ask his mum to cook some for us.  It was a pretty fun evening, and I went home feeling so full.

4.  This week so far - I've been tired from data entry.  Is that even possible?  Well, it seems so.  Staring at a computer screen all day drains my energy so when I come home all I want to do is sleep.  If this is what office life is going to be like, then I so do not want an office job.  I've gained weight from eating so much over the past week and not exercising.  I haven't been to the gym in weeks.  I really want to go but just can't find enough motivation to go.

P.S. I was going to save Lazy Updates for when I'm in Seoul (TWO WEEKS...*cough*) but yes...didn't really work out.

YAY RED PACKETS!

HAPPY CHINESE RABBIT NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

恭禧發財 & 새해복 많이 받으세요 !

To be honest, our family doesn't really do the whole Chinese festivity thing and going to visit our relatives business in Australia.  We normally just eat a big meal on either New Years Eve or New Years day and that will be it for our Chinese New Year.  I think it's because my parents have been in Australia for so long, and the lack of hype about it (whereas Asian countries start going on about it two months beforehand) doesn't really do much for it either.  We had our monthly prayer meeting last night, so we ate our big meal tonight instead.  My dear mum spent the whole day preparing the food - prawns, oysters, fresh salmon, chicken, vegetables, mushrooms and other (delicious) fungi plus a big pot of soup.  It was so yummy.  I tried to help out with cooking the vegetables, but it ended up being way, way, wayy too salty. I swear I'm a better cook than that.

Oh.  And during Chinese New Year, flowers are a big thing in Asia so mum normally buys red flowers to keep for a few days.  I remember when we were in Hong Kong one year during Chinese New Year, and we went to a flower market.  It was so packed with people.  Flowers from the flower markets are supposed to be a bit cheaper than the ones you buy in florists, but when we were talking to our grandma in Hong Kong tonight, she told us that the flowers from the markets cost exactly the same as the ones downstairs from her apartment, so she didn't bother buying them from the markets because she and my grandpa couldn't be bothered carrying them.  Just a little bit of trivia for you.

p.s. still figuring out how my blog layout is going to work.  I keep changing my miiiind.

I AM COOL LIKE THIS

So the number hasn't changed, but I FEEL like I've put on weight ever since I came back from Hong Kong.  It's such an inevitable thing when you live in Australia.  I remember most of my friends from high school saying they would always put on weight when they came back for school (they were international students), and I also remember envying them because they could go home and lose the weight.  Whereas I live here so I just keep gaining and never losing.   Maybe my metabolism is still working really fast because of all that exercise I did last year, and later on it will slow down.  Nooo.... Hopefully the heat will have some effect.

Which brings me to another complaint I have.  I know we haven't had a heatwave like previous years, so that's something to be really thankful for, but I dislike hot weather so much.  Yesterday the temperature reached almost 43 degrees Celsius and during that time I was running around the city trying to find my bus stop.  It was such a horrible experience, but one I am sure will repeat itself many, many times in the future.  Especially near future.  I get lost in Adelaide, the smallest city ever - how am I going to survive in Seoul!!??

Okay, enough complaining.  I got a phone call from the Cancer Council today and they told me they had openings for volunteer work! For three days a week! This is extremely good news because now I have something to do for the next few weeks before I leave.  Three days a week plus Saturday and Sunday means only having two days free for miscellaneous catching ups and gatherings, which is fine by me.  I know people complain about having work all the time but I am quite the opposite.  Having something to do is actually exciting for me, isn't that sad? I make myself sound like such an introvert (I am..) but it's mainly because I don't take the initiative to do anything, so I stay at home.  I am cool like that.

26 DAYS LEFT

Korean visa? CHECK! The last piece of my Korean exchange puzzle has fallen into place.  I am finally all ready to board that plane on the 25th of February and land in the delightful land of Seoul.  I'll be honest, I was really worried about my visa.  I've never done anything like that before, and I was so scared that they would reject it for some reason (....like, maybe I looked fat in my photo and they went "ew..not sending her to the land of thin and beautiful") but I prayed really hard and God answered!

It's kind of scary knowing that there's only three weeks left until I leave.  I'm not even sure if I'm ready to start packing yet, let alone leaving.  I've been checking the Korean online shopping sites to see what the weather is like and what I need to take over there.  Although, I'm thinking maybe I should pack lightly and just buy whatever I need when I get there.  I mean, it saves my luggage space which means I can take back more with me when I come home, right?  Yes of course.  No, it's not just an excuse to go shopping.  I am saving ...something.  I don't know yet.

I've done my initial course registration for university already, but their final course registration isn't until March 2nd, which confuses me a little bit because I thought classes started on March 2nd.  I guess we'll have to see how it goes.  I'm actually reeeeally excited to see their university.  I like looking at school buildings.  There's something really prestigious and classic about them, especially the old brick buildings.  Modern buildings are nice too, but I've always loved the English-style buildings.  It gives off a really historic touch.  I can't wait to see their library as well. I hope they have English books....

DEBRIEFING MY BIG WEEK OUT

Big Week Out is always an interesting journey for me.  I always seem to start off really tentative but then end up loving it so much and wishing it could go on for longer.  This year was no different.  Even though I've been to so many BWO's already, every first evening of the week feels like I'm going for the first time.  Gradually, as we go out serving with different people and forming friendships, I start realising that it's just this big gathering of Christians coming together with one purpose: to show God's love to people who don't know about it.  There is nothing scary about it.

I was involved with different activities every day this time - backyard blitz, renovations for an op-shop, visiting a nursing home and visiting a disability centre.  I think it was really lucky because a lot of people did the same type of activity e.g. backyard blitzing or visiting nursing homes twice.  The place where I had the most fun was the disability centre because we played UNO with the residents and joked around a lot with their carers.  But the place where I found it to be the most meaningful was the nursing home I visited on Thursday.  Another leader and I were taken to a room where a lot of the elderly were just sitting there, watching the tennis (by the way, I am so disappointed by this years Australian Open results) and just passing time.  We gave them hand massages, played skittles, threw a ball around with them and took them on walks outside in the garden.  It was a place where I felt so drawn to help out.  I think in previous years I pitied them, but this year I wanted them to just be comfortable and happy.  I think something's changed in me.  When I went to the disability centre today, I had the same kind of feeling.  I don't just want people to pity them and say "Oh it's so sad that they're there" and then just forget about it.  All the residents in nursing homes and disability centres are people too.  I want them to know God as well.

What I really liked about BWO as well this year were the people I got to know.  They were people I knew of, but never really talked to or had a chance to meet, so I felt kind of awkward.  I think I'm weird in that way.  I can open up my heart to a complete stranger but with people I've met once or twice, or know of but don't actually know  know, then I get kind of ....shy.  I also seem like a bit of a loner when I don't have people I know to hang out with so I think I need to change this habit.  Despite this, I'm really thankful that I got to know people better.  This way I won't try to avoid them or shy away from them as easily.

All in all, this was probably one of the better BWO's I've been to so far.  But it doesn't just stop after tonight. This year there was a really strong message and emphasis on keeping our servant heart attitude throughout this whole year and not just this week.  We were given 'homework', I guess, and I really hope that I can get an A-grade in it.

P.S.  When I first found out that the verse on our BWO t-shirts was the verse which I chose to put up beneath my header when I first started this blog last year, I was O_O

BLACK SWAN & OTHER RANDOM THINGS WHICH COME TO MIND

I watched Black Swan today.  It was amazing.  I now understand why Natalie Portman won her Golden Globe and really hopes she wins the Oscar as well.  She was incredible as Nina, the mentally tormented ballerina who only wants to be perfect as the new Swan Queen.  I've always liked Natalie Portman as an actress.  She seems to be someone who is dedicated to becoming an actress, and not a celebrity, which is sadly becoming more and more common these days.  I admire people who treat acting with respect and dignity, rather than people dabbling in a role because they 'felt like something new' or because their old career isn't flourishing and needs some spice.  Anyway, the movie itself was quite chilling.  When I walked out of the theatre at the end of the movie, I was stunned and my mind was completely blank.  I must admit that I'm not a fan of scary, thriller or horror movies, so this one was pushing it already.  Having said that, I'm glad I watched it.  The little bits of humour threaded throughout the movie were definitely appreciated, and I think Mila Kunis did quite a good job as the supporting actress, even though I thought she had a bigger role.

Onto the other random things, which is pretty much what I like in music at the moment.  Last night I listened to One Way's Rainy Days full album and almost fell completely in love with it.  The only complaint that I have is that they swear in their songs.  I have never understood WHY people feel the need to use that kind of language in their songs.  I think it's because I'm a Christian, so I'm particularly sensitive to these issues, but I don't find it 'cool' or 'gangsta'-ish at all.  It just sounds really uneducated and rude.  Anyway, besides that, I like their music.  It's relaxing to listen to and very different to the typical K-pop I normally listen to.  I'm also liking G.NA's Black and White album.  It's pop-py, which I am not ashamed to admit to liking, and it's upbeat.

Oh, and I cut my hair today.  It's short now.  :)

CONE-TASTIC

Last Friday, my friends and I decided to watch the Tour Down Under cyclists warm up near Penfold Winery.   After that, we walked down to the Parade for lunch.  On our way there we passed by this little shop called Conetopia where everything is "in a cone" - gelati, pizza, yiros, curries and even pasta.  One of my friends was so intrigued by this concept that we spent 10 minutes in there looking at their menus before finally deciding to come back for dessert after lunch.  The Parade was quiet for a Friday afternoon because all the roads had been blocked for the cyclists.  After lunch we did indeed go back to Conetopia, where the four of us ordered gelati.  As we were sitting outside, the friendly owner of the shop came out and started talking to us.  After a while, we had finished our gelatis and were talking about how we would definitely try the other flavours another time.  The owner then spontaneously offered to make us two umbrella dessert cones - flavoured waffle cones topped with chocolate and Nutella and five flavours of gelati - for free! We were all like "REALLY?" It was so nice of him.  We had a lot of fun choosing the ten flavours and even more fun eating the umbrella cone.  This is what they looked like:

I really want to go back now and eat their mango gelati.  It's one of the best mango ice-creams I've ever eaten.  It's so smooth and creamy and SO mango-y.  Mmm...

36 DAYS LEFT

Plane ticket? Check.  Arrival information sent to university? Check. Visa application sent? Check.  Now all I'm waiting (and hoping) for is that my visa will be approved so I can actually step onto Korean soil, or cement or whatever.  Oh, and I need to check if I have health insurance or not.  Hmm....how do I go about that? I keep reading through the Check List which my university gave me beforehand and ticking things off which I've done.  I'm generally not the type of person to care about such administrative details because my parents have always taken care of them.  It's very different this time.  I am by myself in a country I've never been to before, can't fluently speak the language (although the fluency of my Chinese can be debated also) and have never even entered their airport before so I'll have no idea where I'm going.  Other times when I've travelled sans parents have been to places which is I am semi-familiar with i.e. Thailand and Queensland.

I counted this morning and there are thirty six days until I leave.  Does it sound like a lot? 5 weeks and a bit.  I've been planning to write down a list of places I want to go to and things I want to do before I leave but keep forgetting.  So far on my list is:

1. Eat ice-cream at Glenelg
2. Visit Hahndorf for a day
3. Buy something which represents Australia and take it with me to show off my Australian pride (half-kidding. Not sure)

Yes, that's it so far.  Will probably be adding to it later on once I think about it more seriously.  The list is probably more of what I want to do 'during this holidays' rather than 'before I leave', since it's not like I'm never coming back and can't do these things again.

NOSTALGIA

There's something about Adelaide which is making me feel funny.  I am home, but why does it not feel like home? Hong Kong felt a lot more like home than Adelaide does.  Maybe I like living in confined spaces, and so now that I'm back in a 'house', it's a little too open and ....big.  Does this stem from the fact that I'm a private person and therefore I feel more comfortable in a smaller space?  Is there any scientific evidence to back that up?  Hmm, I don't know.

Maybe I'm just missing Hong Kong and the lifestyle which comes with it.  Even though it was compulsory to be up by 9 am (courtesy of my grandpa), the whole day still seemed to pass by a lot quicker than it does in Adelaide, despite waking up later.  There's just so much more to DO in Hong Kong - so much more to eat, shop, see, discover etc.  Speaking of which, I will now show you some of the delicious food which I ate! This was lunch with one of my parent's old friends.  We ate at this exclusive club where only members can pay, which means you have to be invited into the club by a member if you want to eat there. The inside design was really nice,  but I didn't feel comfortable taking a photo of it since there were a lot of business people there.

Lunch at The Bloomsbury Room

my buffet appetiser - eel sushi, seared tuna w/ mango, pumpkin & mushroom salad, chicken salad

mum's buffet appetiser - salmon & tuna sashimi, seared tuna w/ mango, some kind of jelly, chicken salad

main course - seafood rousset with saffron rice

my buffet dessert - trifle, lemon meringue, cheesecake w/ passionfruit dressing

mum's buffet dessert - sponge cake, cheesecake w/ passionfruit dressing, blueberry cup

Oh, and the toilets looked pretty as well.

HOME SWEET HOME...FOR A WHILE

I am home! I arrived back in Adelaide yesterday afternoon, but haven't really felt like blogging until this morning. I did try to start a post as soon as I got back, but didn't have much to say and wasn't really feeling coherent enough anyway.

So.

After three weeks abroad, I am finally back in my own house, reunited with my beloved computer and experiencing major winter withdrawals.  Not to worry though, because in a few more weeks I'll be flying to Seoul for my exchange, and it should still be really cold over there.  Yay.

Everything is pretty much unpacked and it it's rightful position now, save for the clutter on my desk.  I really should get to cleaning it.  To be honest, unpacking is so much harder than it is to pack.  Organizing and compartmentalizing has never been my forte.  On the other hand, pulling stuff out from the mess and making a new, neat pile is a lot more fun.  I guess living out of a suitcase suits me.  It forces me to be organized whereas having my own room and wardrobe lets me throw stuff wherever I want.

I never really updated my blog during my time in Hong Kong apart from my personal devotions, and that's because I was out pretty much every day.  And if I wasn't out, I was at home trying to get better from the horrible stomach bug I had.  I'll post up what I did in HK a bit later.  Right now it's church time aka see how everybody has changed over three weeks!