Condo Owner

So I have been a condo owner for 6 months now.  I am loving having my own place....my own little spot that is mine....and every month I am not paying someone else rent, I am paying myself rent.  Last year was a big boom in the housing market.  It was a great market to buy.  I had been looking for about 6 months and had a horrible realastate agent who never even showed me one house.  I was beginning to wonder if I should really buy my own place or not.  Was I really going to stay in America or move back overseas and teach somewhere?  These were my internal thoughts...should I stay, should I pack up and leave.  Well my church was doing a 40 days of prayer and fasting leading up to the election in November.  I joined them in this to pray about the election, to have peace about who God wanted me to vote for, and I decided to bring my wonderings about buying a place or not.  Within those 40 days God brought me a new realistate agent, one who turns out went to the very same elementary school back in the day, the perfect condo and a smooth purchasing process.  When I saw this place for the first time, I felt like God was holding out his hands saying, "This place is for you.  This is my gift to you."  God is so amazing!

This is my view!  It is in a location that has so many precious childhood memories with my grandparents.  I am 1 and 1/2 miles from the beach.  I can watch the sunsets over the Salish Sea and the Olympic Mountains.  It is only 10 minutes commute to my work.  God has once again blown me away with His goodness and provision.

I got the keys right before Thanksgiving.  So the first thing I put in my place was a Christmas Tree, a real one.  It smelled so good and piney.

Over the winter it snowed quite a bit.  The view was so lovely even in the snow.  

The sunsets are truly spectacular.

Very grateful!  Owning has saved me money, too, because rent in the area was going up $200-$400 dollars a month.  So God answered my questions and provided.  So for now I am staying in America.  It has taken close to 2 years for me to re-enter and re-adjust to the American West lifestyle and culture.  I will always have a little Asian in me and will forever be grateful for the 7 years in China. <3 p="">

Whale Songs in Kindergarten

This year I am teaching 8 lessons of Kindergarten writing a week to 4 Kindergarten classes.  I was a little nervous when I found out my time with Kindergarten doubled.  On the first day of Kindergarten I brought my Ukulele, who I call Sunshine, to all the classes.  I though we would sing the A, B,C song together.

One little guy bursts out, "Can we sing the whale song?"

I was like, "Ok what is the whale song."

And he sticks his mouth up into the air and sings, "OOOOOooooooOOOOEEEEE(whale like sounds)."

I decided to go with him and started strumming my ukulele and then the other kids started singing, "OOOOOooooooeeeEEEEE."  Oh my what a year it will be in Kindergarten.

The Russian Dog Man

So I live in an apartment complex.  I am very grateful to be back in this neck of the woods.  So much more diversity.  When I first came back to the USA, I was living in 'whiteville.'  I kept looking for the people of color.  There is something in me that needs to be surrounded by other cultures and other languages.  Where I am living now I see many African Americans, true Africans, Samoans, Asians, Hispanics, and Russians.  It is truly beautiful to see.

One unusual character I have run across is the Russian dog man.  His name is Vladimir.  He is quite an interesting person.  I see him walking all over the complex with his tiny dog doing strange acrobatic things.  He uses the concrete curb to do handstands and other stable physical objects.  I found his dog running free one time and so grabbed the leash and looked for the owner.  He was laying down by the pool smoking a cigarette.  I said, "Here is your dog."  He said, "Don't come any closer...the baby...the baby can't be around smoke.  Leave the leash over there."  That was funny. His dog is his baby.

Just had a conversation with him and he told me about how some people get scared of him and call the cops on him.  He has had the cops called twice this year and did spend some time in jail.  He told me that one time he spent jail in Wyoming and they let him go.  It was freezing cold outside and the jail was 10 miles from the city.  So he found some garbage bags and stayed warm in the garbage bags till he could get to the city.

My New Car

Living in the USA you need a car to get around.  Transportation is not as efficient and awesome as it was in Hong Kong.  In Hong Kong I could jump on a double decker bus or a mini bus or the MTR(which is a subway) or take a taxi.  Everything was on time and came within 5 minutes.  Unlike America public busses, which you will have to wait around for an hour sometimes to catch it.  So I have bought myself a 2013 Subaru Outback for my preferred method of transportation in the US.  It is so sweet.

I had been searching for 5 months for a car and finally found one.  My dad came with me the day I bought it.  He test drove it and said, "If you don't buy this car, then I am going to."  That let me know he thought it was a good car.  It has cream leather interior on the inside and a shiny black exterior.  I feel like a boss driving it around.

Recently, I took my first major road trip across the state of Washington.  It was so much fun to drive the car.  I had prepped all my favorite cd's for the trip.  When I went to put my first CD in, I discovered that there was already a CD in the player.  The previous owners had left a CD.  Guess what CD it was???  A Cher CD.  Man was I surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to it.  "Woman's World" and "I Walk Alone," are super cool.  I think I may have become a Cher fan from that road trip.

Home Alone

So I find myself Home Alone on the eve of my birthday....I usually come over to my parents home on Wednesday after I have picked up my organic vegetables from the farm and spend the night.  It is a nice weekly routine to get out into the rural farm lands of America.  

The drive itself is quite beautiful on a sunny blue-sky day.  The majestic mountain looms ahead on top of yellow fields with cows grazing and red barns.  Two lane roads with few people on them makes for a pleasant drive as well.

Anyways, tonight I am alone on my parents' 12 acre farm.  Sounds spooky doesn't it?  IT is fine....but I must say I do miss the bright sparkly lights of the city and the beep, beep of cars.  

Tomorrow is my birthday...seems strange in someway.  No party planned, no big hurrah.  In Hong Kong I would always try to gather my friends for a big bash.  

Here in WA I am still trying to find the friends and connections for future gatherings.  I find that life in America is much slower than Hong Kong and people are less adventurous and willing to get off their sofas and Netflix.  Why are American's so boring in their own country?  There is so much to do, but they seem so complacent and blaise.  It is rather disappointing.  I am searching for some adventurous Americans...those people who don't want to sit on their couches, but sit face to face and discuss life and enjoy a glass of Malbec wine from  Argentina and laugh and listen to music and hug and kiss.  I think I am not so much of an American after my 7 years in Asia....so Happy Birthday to me Home Alone in America!

Deep Sadness

I have a deep sadness....it is the kind that just makes you feel so prickly and achey....all I want to do is cry, but I can not.  There are moments in your life when you feel as though your life is over and you don't know how you can go on...I am in one of those moments.

I am no longer in HK....I am no longer at a job I love...I am no longer in a place that stimulates me and fills me with excitement....I am back in a place where I came from...the very roots of my childhood and the sadness from my childhood has been brought to the surface and I must face where I have come from.

And I am wondering who I am now...and what I am to do now...I feel more alone than ever...all my international friends are gone in other lands...I want to connect with people, but I feel like I can't, they don't want to listen to me or get to know me...they are consumed with their own little castles and families and technology...

I keep hoping to find a connection...hoping for love, but I am lost, unappreciated, alone, rejected, undervalued and invisible to these people...

Walking in Sheung Wan

Met up with an old Dragon Boat friend for brunch at Oolaa in Sheung Wan.  What a nice place for brunch.  It was open to the street and several people we knew walked by us and stopped for a chit chat.  Nice place I will go back again.  Then we walked through some streets in Sheung Wan.  I was interested in all the graffiti.  Usually you don't see graffiti in Hong Kong, but in Sheung Wan there were lots of artistic paintings on walls and doors.  At the end we stopped for a refreshing drink and made our own artistic creation.