Law Pak Go Party

Seven lovely boys and girls come over for law pak go, which is made of:

- two strange looking law pak: a long & extra thin one from Meijer + a short & extra fat one from Amko
- a handful of dried shrimp and some extra fat "lap" meat from Far East
- several shitaki mushrooms and one "lap" sausage from "Parkn'Shop", Chicago
- several dried scallops from Mom's kitchen, Hong Kong


Well, after several practice trials (persistence, again!)... the final product is...



quite satisfactory :D


Some may even fight for it...









Um... YES, IT IS A LIE... They were actually fighting for "Margarita" from "Jupiter"...





delicious thin-crust pizza that could feed my boys & girls up




Finally, Jacky made us some Pineapple punch. And we finish up some HK styple sago dessert (yeung chi kam lo). This was another mission impossible from mom. Knowing that my friends will come over for law pak go, she requested me to make this special dessert from them.


Jacky & the pineapple punch were really "cute" and sweet.







Jessica seemed very delighted by the sago dessert!






Overall: The party was a wonderful end of my first Spring break here. It was really happy to have a bunch of great friends sharing food and just making some noise! After leaving G19 (my old office in CUHK), i seldom have chance to "entertain" a lovely crowd. The party was really enjoyable!

Spring Break @ Chicago

Thanks Jacky for making this trip possible.

9am. Raw egg. Mandarin speaking. Danger of pure water. China Town. Hong-Kong-style dim sum. BBM. Christian book store. Driving Rabbit. Oversized jacket. Navy Pier. Windy. Observation wheel. Navy hats. Beer mug and fridge magnets. Distortion and reflection. Glass museum. Really windy. 350D and light tower. Mary Kay. Two unfortunate pennies. Jazz. "My Sassy Girlfriend". High school kids who were very high. Indian. Jazz. Walgreens. Japanese cartoon. Faye Wong. 2:30am!

~Summary by Edwin!

snow spring day

Dim Sum~oh Dim Sum!

Isn't it romantic?

Birthday! Birthday!

What could be a happy birthday when you are 7000 miles away from home, living alone, working almost 20 hours a day?









The magical recipe:
a beautiful spring day
a lovely town
an accident (of an absent-minded researcher)
a couple of phone calls (or one quick email)
a great mentor
a cup of coffee
plenty joyful conversation

a big round table
a cheerful birthday song
a sweet little card
a homemade cheesecake (preferably w/greentea+strawberries)
a dozen of birthday cookies (preferably soft w/cranberries)
a bunch of wonderful friends

Meet the birthday girls:
Lydia's birthday is on March 18th

Birthday! Birthday!

To Mr. Wong

Dear Mr. Wong,

It's very great to hear from you. I hope everything is fine there with you and your family.

Although i've been here for only 6.5 months, it seems like forever. I thank the Lord for such opportunities to experience a new life, and to learn so many new things.

Study is tough. I am working as a research assistant to two professors, in addition to my own research and courseworks. The intellectual challenge probably is not the toughest, but the need to jiggle a lot of tasks and be wise in handling relationships. I feel that the US is a very competitive environment, everybody talks about tenure and achievement. Professors always talk about placement of PhD students--whether they can get a job in a top-tier university. This is not very compatible to my belief. My belief is doing good research is what a researcher means for. Those extrinsic rewards would mean nothing but distraction if a researcher does not put research quality before them.

Although study is tough and stressful, i think it is not comparable to the stress that you and my former teachers at SCC are now experiencing. I feel very disappointed when the society misunderstood our teachers. I think that you should be proud of what you've been doing. Hope that every teacher has the recognition that he/she definitely deserves.

Life is full of mercy though. I made genuine friends with classmates and from church. I joined a Chinese church, which is probably the only Chinese church in the Champaign area. I am singing in the church choir! My small group is composed of PhD students of various disciplines, all come from Hong Kong. I learn a lot from them. And probably because we are away from home, everyone of us has deep reflections of our lives. Our sharing is deep and supportive.

My plan to come back is around the end of July. I might have 3-4 weeks of rest. But it is not confirmed yet since i will have some Summer research assignment.

Talk to you later. Take care!

Shirley