So I didn’t do so well in posting weekly, my only excuse is that two weekends ago I was in Berlin, Germany trying to see all I could, and last weekend I was London with two of my co-workers. It appeared for a bit that I was going to be able to come home a bit early, but I’m still going to stay out here till March 15th. Other than work, not much has been happening. I was able to see a bit of Europe while I’ve been here (much more interesting than the lonely conference rooms I’ve been sitting in by myself).

Here’s a few photos that I’ve taken…

Me standing on top of the Swiss Alps (looks kinda like the Rockies…but for some reason, much cooler):

Chapel Bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland (first built in the 14th century, it is Europe’s oldest wooden bridge…mostly burnt down in 1993 but rebuilt):

Scary looking carnival person who gave my co-worker Sean some nasty tasting alcohol:

The largest Church clock in the world in Zurich (larger than Big Ben’s clock face):

Cathedral Dom in Minden, Germany (don’t know much about it except it’s the main cathedral in Minden):

One of the largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall:

The Brandenburg Gate on the main street in Berlin:

London Tower (where the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom are on display):

View from on top of the Millenium Wheel aka The London Eye:

There are some more pictures in the rest of the gallery here…

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Yeah, with Eric gone, I do have lots of free time. Don’t know why! I think I like to laze around with him and not do work. So works gets dragged out and it seems forever before I get anything done! But with him gone, I get things done fast and have extra time on my hands! Like tonight, no grading, no writing tests, NOTHING! Amazing!! Well, I do have to prepare my Sunday School lesson, but I usually do that later in the week. 😛

So, here I am. With a congested nasal passage. Again! I’ve been sick so many times this year!! And the year’s barely started! It’s those kids passing on their germy germs to me!

I was just reading my friend’s blog. She posted some pictures of her and her friends celebrating Chinese New Year, the Singapore style, in Sydney. And the FOOD! Oh gosh! I miss Singapore food!! So sad that this really good Singapore restaurant here closed down. I know there are other places to go too, but this was my favourite one! Don’t know why they closed! They had such good business! Anyway, this place in Sydney my friend went to is called Ginger and Spice. So, Annette or mom and dad (in Sydney), if you’re reading this, you should try this place out and let me know how good it is!

Still almost 3 and 1/2 weeks before Eric gets back… 🙁

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Good day from Germany! So this weekend finds me in a smallish city called Minden. It’s about 45 minutes from Hannover in the northern part of Germany (The House of Hanover is from this area, with one of it’s most famouse decendants being Queen Elizabeth II). It’s seems like a very quiet kind of place, very peaceful and very green. So far, since arriving yesterday, I’ve walked over Old Town in the heart of the city and visited the Minden Museum, where it talks all about the history of Minden and even has a whole section devoted to coffee. The museum happens to all be in German, so I’m still not really sure what I saw or what I “read” about (like, I still don’t know why there’s a section all about coffee)…hahahaha…

So I’ve been to Church in German twice now. It’s just great how no matter where in the world you are, whether you understand the spoken language, or even look the same, the Church is always there. Both times I’ve been to Church, people have come up to greet me and even if we couldn’t always speak the same language (kinda like when I go to Church at home 🙂 ), I still felt extremely welcome and loved. No matter where you are in the world, come Sunday, you’ll always have a place to go. Last week in Zurich, there was such significant ex-pat presence that they actually have a sister who translates Sacrament meeting and there’s headphones for all those who need to hear English. The ward was also pretty big, not really sure how many people exactly but they filled up their chapel. This week, the ward was a lot smaller, about 40 people or so and definitely a lot older. This week, one of the members half-translated for me (with the use of a German-English dictionary that he borrowed from a missionary) which was really nice of him. There’s a member in the Minden Ward who’s 93 and still drives himself everywhere. Talk about crazy! They have a history board on the wall and it’s crazy to see the chapel being built in what looked like the middle of nowhere and now, there’s houses on either side of it.

In between checking out the city and church, I’ve been watching a lot of some kind of Winter World Cup finals (I can’t really tell cause it’s all in German, but they have all these winter sports including luge, skeleton, downhill super-G, biathalon, cross-country, etc.). It’s been really exciting cause the events are being held round the south-eastern tip of Germany and the German atheletes are doing really good. I have to say, I really don’t like watching ski-jumping. Not really sure why. I just don’t. My personal favorites are luge (singles and doubles even though doubles looks kinda weird with them lying on top of each other), bobsleigh (sorry, no Jamaican bobsled team this year – but the German women 2-person teams came 1, 2, 3 while the men came 1, 2, 4), and long-track speed skating. Luge, skeleton, and bobsleigh are kinda crazy if you think about it. They’re pretty much getting on a sled and sliding down an icy chute at over 60 miles (100 km) per hour. Bobsleigh, they’re at least kinda protected by the bobsled (but I did see one the American women teams completely flip over and go sliding for about half the track at 60 something miles per hour upside down…luckily they weren’t hurt). Luge, cause it’s feet first, I think you’d break a leg before anything else. But skeleton? That’s just totally nuts. Head first down an ice slide. To me, that just seems like a death trap waiting to happen.

Anyway, before I forget, here are some pictures of the food that I’ve eaten since coming to Europe…

A traditional meat/vegetable platter to start with in Zurich (Sanjay, who paid for the meal got to keep the genuine Swiss Army knife):

Calf liver wrapped in bacon (surprisingly good):

Cheese fondue (that’s my co-worker Elisa in the background and Sanjay’s arm next to her) at what people in Zurich say is the place to go for fondue, Le Dezaley.  We had their traditional family reciepe (definitely excellent):

Ice cream cake with three kinds of Toblerone (which is Swiss if you didn’t know) chocolate ice cream:

Rösti, Zurich style (the sliced veal with mushroom sauce is a Zurich speciality):

The rest of the photos are on my camera (which I’ll hopefully get off sometime this week), so I’m sure I’ll have other photos to post later 🙂

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So, our first Valentine’s Day apart! Sad! But it’s ok. I’m doing ok. 🙂

Well, at least my class had a blast of a Valentine’s party! At least, I hope so. I prepared crafts and games and even a little story telling time. We’re actually learning about Roman history now, so we talked a little coming of Valentine’s Day and its patron saint, St. Valentine. For crafts, we made little butterfly cards with hearts as wings. We also made “V-alien-tine’s” card. It’s a card where when it’s closed it looks like a head of an alien, but when it’s opened, it’s a heart. Then we also made a heart woven basket to contain our valentine’s. That was hard for some of the kids. Maybe next time I’ll cut out the shapes for them and let them weave it themselves. We also had crossword puzzles, and unscrambling word puzzles and the works. They were occupied. I think they had fun! I sure had a lot to clean up after!

Well, Eric sure surprised me too! He ordered a dozen long stem dark red roses online and got them sent to my school. I had a call from the office at around 2 in the afternoon saying  that I had a delivery. And I was like, Huh?? Well, I was kept in suspense for a while because school wasn’t done until 3. When I went to the office to pick up my delivery, boy was i surprised! And very pleased too! Good job, Eric!

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Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the rat! And here we go, another round around the Chinese Zodiac.

So, this is my first year in a long time celebrating Chinese New Year properly. Kinda, anyways. I spent Chinese New Year with Eric’s family. Too bad Eric missed all the good food! His aunt made “Buddha jump over the wall” – this awesome soup with real shark’s fin and abalone and other good stuff. 🙂 And there was donggu and faatchoy, and zhai, and fish, and all this other yummy stuff. There were a total of 8 dishes – for luck! And for dessert we had Eric’s grandma’s homemade niangao, and jiuchenggao, and wutaogo. Sorry, I don’t really know how to call these things in English! Anyway, everything was really good.

This year was also the first year that I gave out hong bao (red packets). Lucky there were only 4 kids to give to!

It’s also the first year Eric’s away! So sad! But I have to say, after hearing what Eric’s eating over in Switzerland, I’m afraid he won’t be able to come back because he can’t fit in the airplane seat! But let’s hope that doesn’t happen. 😛

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Good Day from Switzerland! In case you hadn’t heard yet, I’m out in Zurich, Switzerland for work this past week and the coming week. I have to say, I haven’t had much time to see anything yet (besides the conference room at work) but what I’ve seen has been amazing. The history is just so rich here, the people super polite and friendly (except for the teenagers…but that’s the same the world over 🙂 ), and the scenery is so picturesque! Yesterday, I had the chance to got to the Alps and be jealous of all of the skiers and snowboarders and really take in the view from up there. It’s kinda like being in Utah and the Rockies, except for the fact that everything in the valley’s are green (instead of brown and dead) and there’s just something majestic about the Alps vs. the Rockies.

About the only real thing I’ve done though besides the day trip yesterday and being at work is eat 🙂 Hahaha…funny how no matter where I am, my world revolves around food! So far, I’ve eaten all the adult ways of eating fondue here (Chocolate fondue is only for kids, so I’m told), the pot of melted cheese, the raclette (you cook the cheese with some vegetables, and then scrape it over potatoes), and bourguignonne (the meat fondue). I’ve also had the traditional Swiss Rösti (kinda like hash browns), Thai food (don’t ask why), Argentinian food (again, don’t ask), and calf liver at a Swiss restaurant.

I do have to say that their fresh chocolate truffles are super yummy too! The fresh ones are made with butter and cream and have to be eaten as soon as possible, so sadly I won’t be able to bring any back with me.

Well, that’s about all I can think of right now…getting kinda hungry talking about all this food and it’s lunch time 🙂

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The only prophet that I knew when I was growing up was President Hinckley. I remember having my second ear holes pierced and then when he came up with the only one set of earrings rule, I took off my second pair of earrings. I remember when he came to Singapore, and I got to shake his hand because my dad was on the High Council, and I got to tag along. I remember the 6 B’s and to this day, one of my email password is still one of the 6 B’s! I remember when I was at the Hong Kong temple dedication, and there he was in the same building as I am. And I remember the times we skipped out on class to wait in line outside the Marriott Center because he was coming to speak at BYU. I will certainly remember this wonderful man and I will be ever grateful to the positive influence he’s had in my life, especially during my youth.

When I first heard about his passing, it was from Eric. It was actually Eric’s birthday, but since it was a Sunday, we were at home. I was actually sleeping because I wasn’t feeling very well, down with the flu. Eric woke me up to tell me the news, and the my first inclination was that, “He can finally be with his wife again.” And I fell right back to sleep. This past Sunday, there was so much testimony bearing at church about how President Hinckley has touched each person’s life one way or another. I love President Hinckley, and I will miss him. This man was truly a prophet of God.

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Ok, so one of the biggest reasons for why we left Utah is because I can’t stand the snow and the cold! But I found out these past few days that San Jose is cold too! It’s about 40F (4C) and plus the wind chill factor, it goes down to about 30F (0C)! Gosh! I was actually going to get rid of some winter clothes because we were moving to a warmer climate. But luckily I decided to only vacuum pack all our winter clothes. Well, I wasn’t going to take our winter clothes out from the vacuum packs, but I had no choice because I was starting to freeze! We even have snow in the Santa Cruz mountains. They closed down I-5 because of the snow! Woah! Oh well, I guess at least I don’t have to drive in the snow…

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So, nothing much exciting since Eric last blog. Our lives are really mundane. Work and work. That’s about it. Oh, I got a new calling at church. Sunday School teacher! Huh!! Imagine me! Teaching in Chinese! I taught for the first time last Sunday. I was really nervous, but I guess it turned out ok.

Last Saturday was a rare Saturday where we didn’t have much going on. So we decided to go to the shopping outlets at Gilroy. Well, we had a dinner appointment at 5:30, so basically, our mission was to go to all the stores we wanted to by 4pm! With Eric rushing me the whole time, it felt I had to make a decision about what I wanted to buy fast! No hesitation! So, you can say that we kinda went on a shopping spree! We got some new pots and pans. Our old ones are breaking down. And we also got Eric some brand spanking new shoes from Kenneth Cole. Makes him look very sophisticated. 😛 And a few new outfits for Eric. And that was our afternoon!

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Happy New Year to everybody! Things are finally settling down after the Christmas break. We had a really great Christmas holiday with my mom visiting us. Basically, you can sum up what we did over the two week period in about 3 words: EAT, SLEEP, WII. We played the Wii with my mom, with our friends, with some kids from our Church, and by ourselves. Those three things were pretty much the only constants over our vacation 🙂

Last year, Sharn and I started our Christmas tradition of having Chinese Hot Pot for a Christmas Eve dinner and we were able to continue that tradition this year with my mom. The only hiccup this year was that our electric mini stove that we used to heat the pot comes from Singapore where they have a different voltage and our transformer died on us about 15 min into dinner 🙁 We were lucky though that Chinese grocery stores don’t believe in closing for Christmas and so I was able to run to the store to get a gas camping stove! I was worried we’d have to all crowd round the stove top in our kitchen to cook!

A first for this year was baking the Christmas turkey. So far, since we’ve been married, we’ve either cooked something else (like duck) or been fortunate enough to go to someone else’s house where they made the turkey. Unfortunately, this year, the turkey making duties for my extended family in the Bay Area fell to us. Good thing, my mom the Chef was around to help us with it! The turkey turned out wonderful and I’ll be sure to make an update later and add post some of the photos that we took.

For New Year’s, we went over to the house of some friends from Church for dinner (where we played the Wii) and then came home and played the Wii till 11:55pm when we switched to the TV to watch the ball drop. Not too sure why they always advertise it as “Live from Times Square in New York” when New York is like 3 hours ahead of us… I have to also say, it seems to get less and less dramatic each year. It kinda felt like a let-down after seeing what they showed on TV. Maybe we need to actually go out somewhere exciting to see it next year.

On a side note, yesterday we had dinner at this Bay Area gathering of Chinese saints and were able to see Sister Chong and Sister Soh. Both are doing well and it was really fun for Sharn to catch up with them. We were both surprised (kinda) to see Sister Soh still looks the same from when we were at BYU except instead of heels, she’s got sensible missionary shoes on 🙂

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