more travel, more excitement!

Alright, I must confess that I'm very excited about leaving tomorrow for my trip, mostly because I will be in two countries I've never been in, and I will be going back to one of my favorite cities--Paris! I'll be seeing a lot of old friends at the conference in Paris, and we have many food outings all planned out. I won't have time to do much sight-seeing this time. I'm a little worried about security in Moscow, especially because I have to take a cab from the airport to my hotel in the middle of the night. I'll be spending a lot of time in the air too but I suppose that's par for the course. I predict I'll be very glad to be back in HK after my trip!!

rainbow

This is the first and only rainbow I've seen in HK. I also happened to catch sight of it when I was grumbling to God about how his daughters have such a hard time in this world.

brief, random conversation

I talked briefly with a good friend here about a strange relationship she currently has with an older guy. Basically, she wants a relationship but he just wants sex, and to me that's strange. Like in the movies. Then we talked a bit about marriage, and she said that people only marry if they want kids, and 8 out of 10 spouses cheat on each other. And she thinks that's a conservative estimate. Couples stay together for their kids, and if you don't want kids, then why marry?

That's a sad view of the world, but I didn't say anything. It did however, remind me of a very recent story I heard about an acquaintance, who is a friend of a friend from church. The woman is gorgeous, the husband is handsome, and they are both so in love even after two kids. The husband becomes involved with a woman at work whom he drops the minute the wife finds out about the affair because he doesn't love this other woman. But it's too late because the wife is so hurt she decides she can't trust him after all. Yes, this is a Christian couple. Why would the husband risk his family--whom he clearly loves and still loves very much--for this dalliance? And the poor, poor wife. She's intelligent, nice, sweet, and beautiful. What did she do wrong? Moral of the story? Don't marry an attractive man even if he is Christian. Hahaha....

The world is a crazy, complicated, very scary place.

tony blair

Went to a lecture and Q+A session with Tony Blair yesterday. Disagree with him and Bush about the war, but it was interesting to listen to Blair speak. My boss was responsible for bringing Blair's faith foundation to HKU (they signed the MoU yesterday). Boss probably made himself incredibly unpopular with the rest of the Faculty of Arts.

half the battle won

Figured out that my new shoes were the problem. I started wearing them the same day I played my first badminton game and I finally figured out a week later that the shoes were responsible for the pain I was feeling in my ankles, knees, and iliotibial band. I don't have arch support in my left shoe and I make sure I have plenty of arch support in my right shoe. My ankle is still tight now but otherwise, my right leg feels pretty great. Played badminton yesterday and I did better than I could imagine. There is no pain anywhere this morning too!

My only trouble now is with my shoulder. My friend says I'm tensing up too much and too early when I lift my arm. I didn't even tell him my shoulder was hurting, but when he hit with me, he noticed the problem with my form. It will be extremely difficult to change this habit though because I have a complex about how hard I can hit. I really hope I make a breakthrough though because now my legs are doing great on court!

busy again

Someone I know from UCLA is in town this week, so I'm hanging out with her and her husband as this is their first time in HK. Next week, another friend-teacher from Cornell will be in town, so I'll be hanging out with her next week. Originally the second friend was supposed to come the week after, and had to change her travel dates at the last minute, so I ended up canceling a dinner with one of my friends here last Sunday, and another dinner with friend N this week (both sets of US friends changed plans around at the last minute, not my fault!). Friend N wrote in her email, "if you're my boyfriend, i think i'd break up with you." I wrote back, "yeah, i'm glad i'm no one's boyfriend!"

breaking news

Before my knee injury, I never would have imagined quitting badminton. When I started my treatment, not being able to play was depressing and I did not know what to do with myself. Now, I am even thinking of quitting altogether. Why put my body through that kind of pain again? Why go through the slow rehabilitation when I don't even know how well I can eventually play? To what end?

Yes, I can't believe these thoughts are even running through my head.

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Update


But I'm going to try again anyway. Badminton this Sunday evening.