7 Quick Takes Friday

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Happy Friday! Announcing the birth of little Benjamin, 10 pounds 9 ounces :)

Nope, that’s not my baby. This cute little gigantic baby (you should see him with other new borns in the nursery, all the nurse who saw him exclaimed "wow") is my boyfriend’s nephew, who arrived this morning at 10:22 a.m. There’s nothing more wonderful than awaiting the arrival of a newborn, what a great way to start Mother’s Day weekend ;) 

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Currently watching:    Food Inc.  

I would never consider myself to be particularly “food conscious”. And by that, I don’t mean simply being conscious of  our food’s nutrition value, but also where it came from, how was it being processed, etc. 

Growing up in Hong Kong, I went to the market with my mom all the time. We have vendors selling fresh vegetables, fresh fish that was caught or brought in from the fish farm that day, butcher selling fresh meat & live chicken; so really, what you see is what you eat. Fast food chains are, of course, everywhere. Yet, the interesting thing is, they are never considered to be cheap (we don’t have $1 meals in Hong Kong). At least for my family, fast food meals are for special occasions, like getting a 100 in a test, or a special treat.

When I first came to America, I was surprised by how “convenient” everything was. You can get everything - meat, veggies, fruits - all cleaned, boned, and packaged into a nice, clean, little container! Seeing all the live stocks at the market in Hong Kong, I certainly know that meat don’t just ended up nice & clean in a package on its own. Obviously, someone will have to process the produce in a factory somewhere. But what surprised me in Food Inc. was how inter-connected our food industry is to some of the problems in this country - health, disease, employment, even immigration. 

Food Inc. is a very well-made documentary. At the end of the film, the producers even provide you with a list of  practical things that you can do to help. As consumers, we pay for all the food that we put into our mouths every day, if you’re interested in learning more about the food that you eat, you should really watch the film. It’s pretty mind-opening.

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Currently reading:    A Thread of Grace by Maria Doria Russell

The truth is, once you’re out of college and get a real job, it just gets more and more difficult to find time to read. At least that’s the case for me - I used to read a ton over school breaks, but now it takes me FOREVER to finish a single book (except for Harry Potter, ha).

Anyway, I’ve been reading A Thread of Grace for a while now, and I only have a few more chapters to go! I’ll definitely share more once I’m done :)

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Remember the Royal Cupcakes from my last post? In case you wonder how did they turn out, here’re some pictures!

Filling the cupcakes with jelly is probably the most complicated step.
We used the old school ziplog bag method

The strawberry filling inside was definitely the best part! 

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And speaking of Royal Wedding... for those of you who’ve seen this picture a million times, sorry, I just have to post it in here. The newest member of the British Royal family is simply too stunning.

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There Be Dragons. Who’s excited about There Be Dragons opening today? I AM! Our FOCUS team is going to bring a group of students to watch it next Wednesday. I’ve heard nothing but good reviews about this movie so far.... soooooo excited!

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Last, but not least... check this video out.

7 Quick Takes Friday

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Special Photo Project!
Last Sunday was my good friend Natalie’s 22nd birthday :) To celebrate her big day (she’s all the way back in Hong Kong!), we all made signs saying “Happy Birthday” and take pictures, so that we can put all the photos together in a scrapbook for her. 

I asked my wonderfully talented friend, James Ramos, to help me out. So for an hour or so, I got a little taste of the life of a super model, hahahahaha. Here’re some of the shoots he took:

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I had my very first surfing lesson last weekend**  And it was sooooo much fun! I’ve always assumed that the most difficult part of surfing was the pop-up & positioning on the wave (aka. the actual getting onto the board & surfing part). But the hardest part is actually predicting the wave set and trying to determine where they will break (aka. drop in positioning to catch a wave), which requires a lot of experience. 

Being out in the water reminded me how much I love the ocean. It’s so calm, yet so powerful; looks so simple, yet so mysterious - there’re still a lot of marine species that are yet to be discovered. While I was thinking about the ocean and trying to relate it to the love and mercy of our God, I googled “God, ocean”, and this is what I found. LOL 

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Recently, I’m addicted to food blogs. They are all so well-written and fun to read, I just wanted to try cooking everything. Here’re two of my favorites:

Dinner: A Love Story - Jenny, food editor of Bon Appetit, Cookie, Real Simple, and a mother of two, her blog is super fun & easy to read. Recipes are always simple & easy to follow.

The Pioneer Woman - I have a very hard time believing that Ree (aka. the Pioneer Woman), started this website all by herself. It is so much more than just a food blog, she writes about homeschooling, gardening, created a place for others to share their recipes... all these she does from her country home with her 4 beautiful kids.

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Speaking of food blogs and such... I cook lunch for my Bible Study every Friday, and since we’re in the season of Lent, I need to be a little more creative because we can’t have meat. Thus, our menu of the day is Tomato Basil Soup + Twice Baked Potatoes. Yummmm! Check out the recipes, they’re super easy & quick to make!

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And speaking of my Bible Study... Here’s a picture of my wonderful girls:

They are all freshmen & sophomores. I have 2 new girls, Lori and Brittney, who joined a few weeks ago, so we now we have a wonderful Bible Study of 7! Right now, we’re studying Salvation History, please pray for us!

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There Be Dragons. We received a media packet for the movie There Be Dragons this morning! Both me and my roommate are super excited ;) If you haven’t heard of the movie yet, you need to check out the trailer.

The film explores the theme of betrayal, forgiveness, friendship, dealing with our own “dragons”, and finding meaning in every day life. I can’t wait to bring my students to watch it! 

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Prayer request: Please pray for Nathan and Ryanne, both of whom are former missionaries with FOCUS. They just learnt yesterday that their son’s heartbeat stopped - they were due to give birth on Easter Sunday. Please pray that our Lord can give them peace and hope in His will. They named their little boy Caleb Benedict.

7 Quick Takes Friday

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Interesting FACT #1: I’m actually writing this post back home in Hong Kong! Which means...

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My End-of-the-Semester Madness is officially over.  Well, kind of! I still need to send out newsletters to all of my mission partners who support my mission on campus generously on a monthly basis. But other than that, I’m pretty much done with all of my on-campus work :)

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Wednesday was actually a pretty crazy day for me. First of all, I missed my flight... I think it was totally God’s will, though the truth was I left my bag at home with my passport in it. Yup, pretty lame, I know. Luckily, my friend, Emilie (aka. the Rock Star), was with us, so she went home to pick up my bag for me while I helped my mom to check in with her flight. At the end, I missed my first connection flight to New York, but I was put on standby for the next one, and barely made it to my connection flight back to Hong Kong with my mom. My guardian angel must be helping me, cos it’s a pretty close one! Then of course, after all the rush, I got super sick on the plane, and needless to say, my 15-hour plane ride was no fun at all. The thought of getting on a plane again in 3 months makes me sick, could I take a cruise back to Texas instead??

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Now a little info about my hometown - Hong Kong. If you’ve never been to Hong Kong, you’re missing out!! Check out this YouTube link*

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On other news, my cousin just got confirmed yesterday! It is truly through the grace of God that he could received this Sacrament, since his parents were both fall-away Catholics. I am so glad that he continued to go to Sunday mass and attend Sunday School weekly in order to receive Confirmation. He has once told my mom that he’ll probably stop going to Church once he gets Confirmed -- little does he know that by the Sacrament of Confirmation, he is bounded to the Church more perfectly, and he will be forever sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit! Please pray for my cousin, Bernard, that after enriched by the special strengths of the Spirit, he will continue to grow in his faith.

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I mentioned from my last 7 Quick Takes that we had a Mustache Party for our students. Here’re the snapshots that I promised to post, they're pretty awesome!

And these two are the winners for the Best Real & Best Fake Mustache*

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Fun FACT #2: I kinda cheated for 7 Quick Takes this week, I am actually writing this on Saturday morning! BUT, it’s totally legit, since it’s still Friday night in America, ha ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday

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Where did April go? I just looked at my calendar to see that May starts TOMORROW. I am going to have to ask God for a month extension, or better yet, a day extension because 24 hours a day is simply not enough...

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Tomorrow will mark the beginning of our End-of-the-Semester-Madness.  May is always a busy month for missionaries - not only do we have to start wrapping up the school year (finish all of our paperworks, meet up with our bible studies & student disciples before everyone heads home), we also need to start planning for next year, figure out where we’ll be assigned to after the summer, and start packing either for staff training or our trip back home. Since I’m heading back to Hong Kong for summer, I have a lot of work to get done before I leave on the 19th!!

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Oh, and did I mention that my mom will be here in a week? Both of my parents will be in San Francisco next week for my dad’s 40th anniversary with his company. I’m going to join them for my dad’s reception and take a little tour of San Francisco for the weekend. After that, my mama is going to come and stay in Houston with me for a while before we both head back to Hong Kong! Of course, I’ll still have to work, but it’ll be awesome to have my mama around ;)

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I had the first crawfish of my life last week. The Black Student Association at UST was having a Crawfish Broil Party last Friday, and for the price of $5, you can get 2 big boxes (about 3 lbs) of crawfish with drinks! Kailey and I went together as our discipleship. Digging into the crawfish with your hands and peeling off their shells was kinda messy, I do love the crawfish with the yummy spices, but personally, that was a little too much work for me... I’m just too lazy!

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After the Crawfish Bowl, we went to watch Kick-Ass, and well, I have to admit that it was a darn good movie :P Now, I don’t want to give too much away, however, if comedy + action is your thing, and you don’t mind to see a little too much blood, I say GO FOR IT, you won’t regret it!!! I thought Kick-Ass was just another seemingly pointless comedy, yet I was pleasantly surprised. It will certainly go on my list of movies that’s worth re-watching on DVD.

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I just walked home from the gym, and I have to say it definitely felt like I was swimming in the open air. We have 87% humidity in Houston today. One word: GROSS!

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We’re having a Mustache Party for the students tonight - no mustache, no admission, no exception! The weather is still a little be yucky right now, but we’ll open up our patio, our little FOCUS house is simply too small to fit everybody! I still need to decorate the house and prepare some snacks, but hopefully everything will go well. I’ll be sure to include some pictures next week ;)

Have a great weekend!