Rock Path, Anyone?

Happy Monday! So I got back to Michigan and my sweet husband last thursday. I think my sleep cycle is finally getting back to normal. Yay! Now that I am recuperated, I'll write some posts on my adventures in Hong Kong. You already saw some of the things I ate, so here are some of the things I did. 

One day, my father took me to his high school. From there we walked the route he would take to go home. Pretty nostalgic for him. I loved imagining the teenager version of my Dad as I walked the roads he walked so many years ago. This trip was all about reconnecting with family and also cherishing the memories of my grandparents. We reached the place where his old home used to be, we found a rock path. For those of you who are not familiar with rock paths, they are made with rounded rocks put sideways into cement and are meant to be used for exercise. However, don't let its pretty appearance fool you. You're supposed to walk on these paths without shoes and it hurts like nothing you've ever felt before. Your feet supposedly have many pressure points that are connected to other parts of your body and if you feel immense pain while walking on the path, your body is REALLY out of balance. I guess Dad and I have some work to do. The video is of my poor Dad. I have a video of myself, but I can't load it for some reason. Sorry the video is poor quality. In the video I say "rock garden," but I meant "rock path." I can't watch this video without laughing. 

My Dad in front of his high school

We also went to pay our respects to several of our deceased relatives. I took pictures so that I can keep a record of these places. So much of this family history is being forgotten. Since we live in the US and don't speak the language well, our ties to Hong Kong are becoming fainter. This trip made me realize I have some sort of duty to keep these ties alive, or at least record the family history somewhere for our future generations here in the US. 

A lot of cemeteries are set on a hill like this one.

This gravestone is for my great-grandfather on my Dad's side.

This is my grandmother. My father's mom. This plaque is inside a temple. She was cremated.

As you can see there are lots of plaques on the walls, and many people coming to pay their respects. It was crowded.

A lot of people go to shops like this one to buy paper goods to burn for their deceased. You can see there are paper clothes and purses. They have all kinds of things in there that are made from paper. I think I even saw a yacht. The big thing is paper money. I'm not sure if people actually believe that if they burn these items, their deceased will get them. My Dad says it's more like a tradition than a religious belief.  

Anyway, that is all I will share in this post. More to come!

Jessie

Happy Easter 2014

I am so grateful for this time where we can celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of Him, we can find true and everlasting happiness. Because of Him, we can return and live eternally with our Heavenly Father once again. I know that the resurrected Savior lives and loves every single one of us. You can read more about the true meaning of Easter here.  

Tonight we dyed eggs with our neighbors and we had a blast! I hadn't dyed eggs in a long time. It was nice to bring out those artistic skills. The eggs in the picture at the top are the ones we made. 

This was Caleb's intricately designed egg.

Mine, pretty simple.

I was going for Starry Night

My neighbor was playing the Wicked soundtrack, so I got the idea...

Hope you all have a great Easter!

hong kong variety

Hello Everyone! I've been in Hong Kong for seven days now and it's been great! We've been taking it easy, eating whatever we want and going wherever we want. One thing I absolutely LOVE about Hong Kong is the variety of foods you can get. And the key word here is variety. At the street markets, grocery stores, and malls, you will find varieties in cuisines, crackers, candy, fruits, vegetables, everything. Here are pictures of foods I've eaten. They may not all look as appetizing to you as they do for me, but believe me it was heaven. 

ja leung, deep fried bread wrapped in rice noodle. This was our very first meal in HK. It's one of our favorites.

The rest of the meal. Specialty rice congee with different meats in it, as well as a jung, which is the triangular-shaped sticky rice. It is filled with meats as well. 

dauh fu fa. basically really silky smooth tofu. the bag of orange stuff is cane sugar. This is one of my Dad's all-time favorites.  

ngauh leih sou. a sweet deep fried bread. My first mission companion in HK loved this with warm soymilk. 

Noodles with cow entrails. My dad ordered this one day. I'm not a huge fan, but I'm sure it was still pretty tasty. 

jin houh behng. pan-fried oyster pancake. oh my gosh this one was amazing. That was my first time having it.

Three egg spinach dish. The three eggs include regular chicken eggs, salty duck eggs, and thousand year old eggs. And of course the spinach was really good too. 

chinese vegetables, chinese mushroom, and deep fried tofu

garlic and black bean bitter melon with white fish fillet

typical noodle shop meal. I had beef and my dad had pork. The drink is Horlicks. 

My mom ordered this one. It was a Sichuan style noodle bowl with potato noodles, dumplings, and fishballs. 

Sigh....no words can express how much I love egg tarts. I ate this one for Caleb. 

Other bakery treats. One of them is a coconut tart. 

While on our way to a store, we had to find a place to eat for lunch, and found this little Shan Dong restaurant. Shan Dong is a province in China I believe. They had homemade dumplings. I wish I had taken a picture, but there were ladies making them right in front of us. Everything made from scratch. 

mushroom with waih saan, some sort of white crunchy vegetable, similar to daikon.

jellyfish salad. I'm going to try and make this when I get back. 

That's it for now! I'm coming back in a couple days so I'll post again after I get back.

Tootles,

Jessie 

a dear old place called hong kong

So Hong Kong has always had a special place in my heart even before I served a church mission there. ( a fun link: video of me opening my mission call) Both of my parents are Chinese, and specifically from Hong Kong. Growing up we rarely made a family trip there. Too expensive. My brothers and I grew up hearing stories of the motherland. Seeing the "quirks" of my Asian parents, because of the Chinese culture, as well as trying to understand the unique peculiarities of their personalities,  I couldn't help but wonder what kind of place influenced their childhood. Hong Kong, for a long time, was indeed a mysterious place. 

Fast forward many years, I've been lucky to travel to Hong Kong more than both of my brothers combined. I have been blessed tremendously to learn more about the culture, and in turn it has helped me to understand my parents even more. 

I will be leaving to go on another exciting trip to the motherland....TOMORROW! Sorry, don't mean to spring it on you guys. It's been in the works for a while. I will be going with my parents. Unfortunately, Caleb cannot come because of school. Just wanted to give my few readers a heads up that I may not be able to blog while I'm out there. I will be gone for almost two weeks. 

Caleb if you end up reading this, just want to say I love you!! Be good! And have FUN!

Yeh Yeh and Mah Mah (father's parents)

Gung Gung and Poh Poh (mother's parents)