On a random note, take a look at the date today, 09/09/09, special eh? Today is also special by the fact that it's the first day back to school for me, and I'm in Grade 12 now. It was not too bad and not that great, was just okay. It felt a bit weird to be back in school actually, especially with the issues I've mentioned in the blog entry that I posted right after school ended. But like I said, after all this time, I'm not gonna let all of my problems get the best of me this year since it's my second year in this school as well as my last, and last in high school overall. I'm trying to keep having faith that this year's gonna be a good year. :-) Anyways, for the first semester I have, Math - Data Management (i might drop out or switch out of it since me and math don't go well, especially if it's first period...), Writer's Craft (a special english class that focuses on writing skills, something that I want so to sharpen my writing skills; the teacher seem really stern though and i don't like that), Philosophy, and Biology. Let's hope everything goes well with school.

An undate on my 5-week journey to Hong Kong from July 17 to August 24, visiting friends and family, and I have quite a lot to show and talk about now that I'm back. If I were to describe my feelings for everything about my stay in HK, it would be the word, "change". Because while I was there, I saw that a lot of things have changed and I knew it the moment I saw my siblings again. Oh, how they've grown! They're taller, bigger, and just simply...different. For example, their hands have grown larger than the last time I held them. Ever since I've moved out and my family has moved to a new, better and safer apartment, they've grown a lot more independent and they know how to take care of themselves now. Heh, children are always the easiest way to measure the changes in life. Speaking of the new apartment my family has moved to, my family seems to be doing a lot better over the past year. Family has been gaining some extra money from stocks my stepdad had invested. They've moved to a much better apartment (bear in mind that about 90% of residence in HK are apartments, space cost a lot there). My stepdad's company provide a car for him since they promised a raise a long time ago and now they're giving him a car instead of a raise to make up for it, and it's even a Mercedez-Benz E-class. So everything's been going very well with my family and I'm very happy about that. It's amazing how so much change can happen in one year.

It was nice to see my family and how well they're doing, as well as the friends that I've made there and have loved  all along (they have different backgrounds, some were raised in HK, some weren't, but most of them weren't raised in the local Chinese culture because of their foreign backgrounds; so if only they were here instead of over there), and had a great time with them. You know, about two years ago, I once said and considered that if the happy things would stay the way they are, then I would give up my dream of "coming home" and stay there with the happiness I've found (in terms of friendship; the only problem I had with my life at that point besides the fact that I was away from "home" was my stepdad, but that's another long story for another day). But I never gave up on my dream of "coming home" because I thought that all of us were leave some day anyways, knowing that we're only there for indefinite periods of time (like i said, most of my friends were from other countries, who were just staying in HK for a indefinite period of time). So my stay there made me wonder about that thought I had two years ago now that I saw that things haven't changed and most probably won't change much any more now that the period of uncertainty while we were "graduating" is over... But in the end, I knew HK would never be my home because there are too many differences there for me to bear compared to what I perceive as my home. I wouldn't mind living over there for a period of time, but certainly not staying there. I'd say that I'm happy with the way things are right now in my life, to live my life at "home" in Canada and visit HK every so often (more like every year) to see my friends and family, so I won't be missing them TOO much. And that's the way it is, and I guess that's what's best, considering and knowing that one cannot have things both ways and in all the ways they want it to be.

Now before I go, a few of the best pics I took while I was in HK. You know where to find the rest of my album ("Revisiting HK 2009") for this trip: right here or on my facebook.

The Jumbo Floating Boat Restaurant
And while we were inside, having dinner, there was this throne thing and we took a bunch of pics there (actually, mom made us take a lot more since she liked the background, you should see the full album and you'll know what i mean). Here's one of them, a family photo:

Stanley district and the "Murray House" (a historical building) there
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me and my friends up on Victoria Hill, aka The Peak




and the view up there:

Victoria Harbour at night:

EDIT: whoops, turns out i posted this a little bit too late to be 09/09/09 any more... :-(