You say goodbye and I say hello...hello, hello

Today I packed up about half of my things. My darling brother is coming to visit next weekend and will hopefully assist me by taking one of my bags back with him. Hooray for not having to lug everything all over Hong Kong! One lesson I've learned here is how little stuff that we actually need to survive or even thrive. So often we get bogged down or worried about the affordability or loss of material things, but the reality is we don't need much of what we have or want. When you need to store something, it's probably a sign it's not much of a need...

While packing up, I found my first mold covered COVERED clothing. Fortunately it was a pair of leggings--which I washed--but which can be thrown out if the nastiness is not gone once they dry. And just when I thought the moldy season was over.

Cora took me to Thai for lunch today as a thank you for her winning an award for the paper I helped her edit. We had a good time chatting, though it did seem at first her English was struggling after us not meeting for a few weeks--she said so herself. I gave her parting gifts and she gave me a bracelet made of a stone that's supposed to make all my wishes come true. I will miss her bright smile and curiosity about the world, and I hope in some way I've imparted some knowledge, wisdom, or meaning into her life through our interaction this year.

Lauren and I had Indian for dinner--that was her solution to something 'not too oily that had meat and vegetables and was healthy.' I honestly couldn't come up with a better solution. I had the same chickpea dish I've gotten the last couple of times that I don't know the name of, but we ended up sharing. (Win! Hers was a tasty mixed veggie dish).

After dinner, we went to go watch our former Cantonese classmate play football (soccer), only he told me the wrong time and we ended up watching the game before his which was Benfica--the team I've been following anyway. What a coincidence.

It was 85 degrees at 9am this morning, but weather.com claims it felt like 95. I'm not arguing...and for that matter neither are my stinky clothes ;) Yay for sunshine, summer, and helping pay for the laundry detergent company owners' kids' braces! Haha, I'm actually loving it.

And now that it's the end of the day and I'm looking back, I remember that I did not take a picture with Cora....what a shame.