I realize I haven’t blogged for a while now. I’ve been tweeting quite a bit, but there’s not really a good replacement for a blog post.
This is more of a post of me reviewing what I did and might not be a very interesting piece since I’m not filtering for the good parts. It’s just going to be a lot of stuff :D.
My Summer
In Hong Kong this summer, I did very little. I wasn’t motivated to do much. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn’t feel like spending any of my parents’ money. Initially I was going to find a job, but it turned out that I wasn’t going to get paid a lot anyways so I gave up since I wasn’t sure I could even go to work consistently with that attitude.
It was really hot in Hong Kong. I am not sure if it was weather effects or if I was just depressed from living with my aunt or just isolating myself from people in general. My aunt was really not making me feel at ease. I really felt like I was going insane a few times because I was so depressed most of the time when they were around. I felt great when I was with other relatives or when I was alone though. I would thank her for feeding me any stuff, but if I had money I would have really preferred to live alone or live with someone else. I really shouldn’t have stayed at her place for so long, but that’s a story for another day. Anyways I felt like I spent most of my time in the house not going anywhere nor doing anything significant.
But it wasn’t actually that bad for me. In fact I think it was the most relaxed I felt in a long time. There were times I felt really depressed (like I said above), but most of the other times it was really refreshing.
Spiritually I made no practical progress. I have essentially established that my faith is functionally broken. I found a church only to abandon it a few months in and not developing any relationships because I didn’t ask for any contacts and didn’t really hang out enough. But the glimpse of church I experienced there made me want to be grow up in Hong Kong. I was restricted to go by unrational feelings of being rejected by people since no one reached out to me even though I was someone new. That’s another lesson for the books. I was expecting people to reach out to me since I was a newcomer in a church, but other than initial recognition and formal greetings, it didn’t really get much further than that. I felt pretty isolated there actually – no different than what I felt at church in Canada, where I knew the faces of everyone and that’s pretty much it.
On the more positive side of things, I bought quite a bit of clothes in Hong Kong. Yes I have clothes that fit now and am no longer restricted to track-pants and huge t-shirts. I started caring about my looks a bit more. But I wouldn’t have shopped as much as I did if I didn’t spend my last month in the stock market and made myself enough money to cover my flight and all miscellaneous expenses. Not enough to cover tuition though, so I’ll be in debt a little.
I also had an awesome time meeting my cousins. I really missed them and treasured every moment I spent with them. I have a female cousin my age, but she is as lazy as I am in terms of socially so I didn’t get to talk to her as much as I would have liked. I still don’t know how to talk to her, but it’s the same situation with most of my friendships I guess.
To cap it off, a list of everything I can think of about my Hong Kong trip:
- first time back in 10 years
- seeing relatives
- visited my childhood home and first elementary school
- visited a Chinese church a few times and also their fellowship (though I gave up on during my last month. Otherwise a good experience)
- visited Macau
- visited Shenzhen a few times
- Bride’s falls visit and fishing
- Ocean park
- shopped for clothes ($4000 HKD worth)
- figured out how to swim breast stroke semi-properly (can swim continuously without rest), and front crawl needs work but is a lot better
- got more fit (mostly thanks to pull ups) and gained about 3 inches on my vertical
- visited anime and magna related good stores to walk around
- visited HK book fair
- first real experience in stock market trading
- played basketball and soccer with locals
Final Stretch of University
I’m in my last year of Mechanical Engineering coop program. It’s hard to imagine that I already went through 4 years of it and am really on my final stretch. While I would really like it to end, I am not exactly looking forward to full time work either. I am not feeling very motivated. Graduation is something way over my head right now. In a sense, I still feel like I’m seventeen. But I’m already 22 going onto 23. Some people my age get married, and have established their footholds in society with regards to their career, independence and social standing.
I hope I pass these two terms.
I also pray to be a better Christian. I’m starting with constant church attendance and don’t really want accountability, as contradictory as that sounds. The last time I had accountability was good for what it was, but I am not too upbeat about finding people who have my troubles. I have some pretty weird issues, so I would like to think.
Not looking forward to much socially. I will be too busy and I am not sure where to start. The only social commitment I am taking this term is church on Sundays. I am having second thoughts about the fellowship I usually go to because over the terms it really hasn’t done me that good, especially towards last school term.
Extra
For the sake of vanity, my Hong Kong trip has resulted in the following 5 pack (yes they are asymmetrical). They still need work and by the end of this term I might just lose it because I am too lazy to go to a pull-up bar. I'm trying to keep exercising:
