DUDE...my sister is so pimp. She's on some kind of escapade-date every night now! (But it's good for me because I'm going to take her left-overs to work tomorrow ) Watch out San Diego, and please please take good care of her!...sigh I'll miss that little booger so much after she leaves for college ...but that means NO more dumping junk in my room and I get to have most of my clothes back!...Remind me to check all her luggage before she leaves for school. Don't want to be sending essential elements of my wardrobe to the black hole of UCSD...so I must conduct a proper customs check prior to her departure...or some kind of loss prevention system!

 Today was the boss' (how do you possessive-ize "boss") birthday. Before he left yesterday, he declared that he was going to be 28 tomorrow (he's nearly 50ish I think)...so I got him a happy 30th birthday card since they don't make 28 year old cards and it's nice to round up anyway...the company signed another community card and each person wished him a happy birthday at all age ranges...from 21 to 38...I guess as you get older ambivalence/memory loss can kick in pretty hard.

Praise the Lord...Char and I may have found an apartment for the new year! Federal and Texas...hopefully I'll be able to find a bus stop near by, cuz parking is at the KILLER RATE of $8/day at UCLA...Living in LA county can really screw you up...granted our housing situation isn't as bad as New York, but at least New York's public transportation system is more convenient than LA's...you don't have to deal with traffic, gas, parking...sigh. We need to expand our lame little metro system!!!

I renewed my Disneyland passport on Sunday!!! So call me up if you want a Disneybuddy...the 50th anniversary celebration is pretty awesome. Fireworks especially, though its crowded up the butthole...and take heed of insta-giants...you know, those suddenly 7-foot figures that arise right before the show (aka parents with little children on their shoulders). There is nothing like home. So after helping host a congressional delegation visiting Hong Kong, I landed two tickets for Rehearsal Day at Hong Kong Disneyland. Granted the crowd was reduced, the size of the amusement park (or the lack of) was really brought to perspective..you can literally finish the park in 3.5 hours minus lunch! Only 3 lands: Adventureland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland which mainly features shows rather than rides. If you're looking for Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Log Ride or some other classic aside form Space Mountain or Dumbo, you're out of luck. Also, the characters are really weird looking. I'm guessing Mickey and friends might have been imported from Tokyo since they have a Japanese/Sanrio resemblance in their facial features. Check out this Best Friends' shirt...looking back at it I should have bought one for Char since it's so ugly...but for some reason I decided a picture would have been enough at the time. Char you can be the electrocuted duck and I'll be the bear-mouse okay?

Hong Kong/Asian Styled Mickey.......Classic Style Friends

Did you know that Lee Kum Kee, maker of oyster sauce "chan chan pue jee nay," makes ketchup packets? Ketchup wasn't too bad but someone needs to fly to Hong Kong Disneyland to school them on how to make burgers! The patties look like the ash gray McDonalds slabs that appear in Big Macs...

Some pluses about HK Disneyland: VERY VERY Clean, cute subways to take you to the miniature version of the happiest place on earth...hence no parking hassles!...and asianized souvenirs (like mickey mooncakes!)...I guess Disneyland Anywhere will always be a magical place. But nothing can beat home.

Happy Birthday, Kurato!!!

A Bientot, Hong Kong! Sigh...the memories, the laughs, the friendships and the peepeeshrimp! I'm going to miss it...now for some pictorial highlights..

Hong Kong's three headed monster: Me Maggie and Vedica...too bad we live worlds apart! And the master narratives for each: Me: the girl who always hung with the Americans, Maggie: the Shanghainese hottie who breaks hearts and has a very matured boyfriend, and Vedica: the teacher's pet, but only because she is really quite brilliant.

Okay let's start with Stanley Beach. Where the shopping is supposedly good but as Vedica would put it: "I vas a liddle bit disappointed.." but the beach and down time really made up for it...

The crew at Stanley Beach. We went a day after it rained so no swimming for the most of us. When Maggie and I waded in the water, the bottoms of our feet had traces of tar...gross huh?

The only person who decided to go for a swim was Yo. He ended up swimming toward this trampoline type platform which was only a few meters away...but since he didn't have his glasses and he is nearly -1,000 in visual acuity, we were screaming and waving him back to shore for nearly 2 hours! This is him finally at shore, we were all ready to leave him behind to chat with the middle eastern fellow (who swims with his turban on)...

See, the man who swims with his turban. It looks like a swim cap from afar...but don't be fooled. I wonder how he does it...Oh and the lifeguards...they're out on the water in this contraption that looks really fun. But they're so much more smarter than American lifeguards because then they don't have to bust the baywatch scene when they go out to save people...they can just dive right in.

Dinner time! Megan is giving Edward a lesson on how to do the classic Hong Kong pose.

Naturally, our Harvard graduate masters it with little difficulty.

Yum Yum! The pad thai has antennas! I thought it was cute. This restaurant was a very fancy (sheeshee/bougie) thai/vietnamese joint, but still I would argue that the best thai food is only a block away from Alice's house in Monterey Park.

That's all for the Stanley Beach. Tune in next time for clips from the rest of my trip! I'll break it down for those of us with ADD.