I Ta Chi, Yeah!

Our first set of exchange students are gone :( In the beginning, I wasn't too fond of the idea of having students live with us but through time, i actually began to really enjoy their company. It was pretty sad when they left, I could tell they were sad too because they weren't talking much and they wrote such sweet letters for our family. When i got home from work the day they left, I found a hand painted wooden frame in my room! It said... 
"Kym, we will miss you. Bye!" 
It was so sweet! I had a good laugh though because there were random words and drawings on the frame.
"I Ta Chi" "FLY" "Wang""YEAH!" 
I wasn't too sure what "I Ta Chi" meant... any ideas anyone? haha! 
Our 2nd set of students arrived last Wednesday and it was a rough first night! These 3 new students are the complete opposite of the first two! They are younger, more talkative, and more hyper! Our first night was rough because they were jet-lagged so at 4:45AM, I could already hear them chattering away, laughing, jumping, singing. O.o I'm sure through time i'll start enjoying their company too. 
It's just hard when you start caring for someone and then before you know it, they're gone! :( 

What's Your Fortune?

My fortune cookie told me:




Well, clearly my friends have no money cus i ain't wealthy yet! hahaha! :D 

It does, doesn't it Nikolett? :D
I was hoping for a funny fortune, maybe with an engrish phrase...boooo! what's the best "fortune" you've gotten? 

23 on the 23rd

Last Friday, I was blessed with another year of life! It was my 23rd birthday on the 23rd and I have to say, it was probably my best birthday celebration thus far! The night before my bday, bf brought me to watch Cirque du Soleil's KOOZA on opening night. It was the first time i've ever seen CdS and OH. MY. GOODNESS - amazing! mind blllasting! I was at the edge of my seat the whole time, it was definitely worth the $! Have you ever seen a Cirque show?


The day of my birthday... MISSION: Eat and drink as much as possible for $0 by taking advantage of the free birthday meals in town.  I did my research in advance and was able to fit in 1 free breakfast, 1 free lunch, and 4 free drinks! I wish I could've gone to more places but it was out of the way and I probably would've collapsed from eating too much. haha! 




For my birthday celebration, all I wanted was to have a small intimate bbq at home with my family. I wanted tacos, bbq meat & veggies, and an ice cream cake. It doesn't take much to make me happy. haha! Yes... those are toy animal candles on my cake. (courtesy of my mom, :D)



Thank you God for blessing me with another year! Thank you everyone for your sweet greetings, you have all made my birthday that much more special. THANK YOU!
Does your city offer free birthday meals and beverages? 
p.s - have you checked out my recently released official website yet? ;D 

Official Web Launch

Ahhh, i've missed you guys! For the last week, Nikolett and I have been slaving away trying to get my official website up and running. After many sleepless nights, hair-pulling moments, and playing the waiting game - the website is finally up!

www.herrohachi.com


Do you see your picture there? I spy Maitai as July's Featured Customer! Anyway, have a look around, you may even find some discount codes to use towards your next purchase! ;)

Nikolett - I admire your patience and diligence with all those crazy HTML codes. I seriously look at them and go dizzy. I don't know how you do it. If anyone needs a blog makeover, she's your girl!

Alrighty, off I go to catch up on all your blogs! :D

Rich Men's Decisions

Today's post is inspired by our local radio stations lack of a good playlist. I got inspired to draw after I heard the "I wanna be a billionaire, so freakin' bad" song 2 times in a row on two different radio stations. It got me thinking... what would i do with a billion dollars?




1) FAMILY HOUSE + LOT: Most people want to live as far away from their parents/families as possible but I'd like the complete opposite! With a billion dollars, i'd first buy a big lot and have 3 custom houses built: 1 for me & my <3, one for my parents, and one for my brother and his wife. 
2) MED CRUISE: Take the whole family on a mediterranean cruise and just travel all of Europe, Asia, and heck.. might as well travel the whole world! :D 
3) EPIC BLOGGER MEET-UP: I'd fly all of you, my fave bloggers, to one central place so we can finally meet and have a grand time. Any suggestions for location? I hear Bora Bora is real nice :P 
... and all the little things like paying off all bills, getting a new laptop/desktop (my MacBook is operating at snail speed, kinda hard to run a business with that. haha!), and a new paint job for my car (i'd probably get a different color than the black it is now.. black just screams "key me!") 
What would you do with a billion dollars? 

Desserts for Girls, Under Developed Duck Embryo for Boys

Yesterday, we surprised our engaged friends with a Bridal Shower and a Stag at the same time. For the stag, the theme was UFC and the groom had to dress up like a UFC fighter with make-up on and super short shorts and paraded downtown having to do different tasks. Since he is part Filipino and his bride-to-be is Korean, the boys made him choose between Filipino or Korean in different categories and each decision had a consequence. For example, one of the categories was food and he chose "Filipino" - the consequence? Having to eat an under developed duck embryo (balut)!!!! *cringe* You can still see the head and the beak! =/ I actually used to eat this when I was little...but that was before I knew what it really was. While the boys had to do this, the girls feasted on yummy sandwiches and desserts, hehe :) 
What's your best stag/stagette story? 

Hannah Montana - Bridging Cultural Gaps

Thank you everyone for your suggestions on what to do with our exchange students! After 3 days living with us, I finally figured out what they really enjoy. While we were watching TV, I asked them if they wanted to watch the Disney Channel, they nodded excitedly, their eyes lit up, and one of them asked in her cute chinese accent "Hannah Montana?"

It's amazing how little English they know but they know all the words to Hannah Montana's theme song and all High School Musical song. When Zac Efron came on during a movie preview, they said something in chinese to each other, giggled, and said to me "handsome". Hahaha! They are slowly opening up and learning more and more. It's exciting for me to see them get excited each time they understand a question that I ask them! ;D

Speaking of cultures, what comes to mind when you think of the word "multicultural" ? Think of words, images, phrases, etc. :)

Cultural Experience

Yesterday, we had two exchange students from Shanghai arrive. They are here to learn English and will be staying with us for the next 3 ish weeks. Thankfully, we got really nice and respectful 13 yr old girls but the hard thing is that i'm running out of ideas on how to entertain them! Today, we brought them to the mall but evidently at 13, they are not quite into fashion yet so that was boring to them. I did figure out that they really like sports, video games, and tv so we took them to a video game store and thats what excited them. 
The picture above was the little gift they got for me from Shanghai, it's one of the mascots for the Expo going on back home. It's quite hard communicating as you can imagine b/c their vocabulary is limited and it takes them a few seconds to process what you've asked before they can respond with a yes or a no. Hopefully they'll learn more and more the longer they are here. My strategy is to try to learn their language so that at the same time, it makes them think of the phrase in English and connect it to what it is in their language. 
Random note: Their first day here, I was so amused/excited because one of them was wearing a shirt that said "HAPPY WANT TO HAVE" hehehe.
What else can i do with the students? Any ideas?

Men in Uniform

First of all, HAPPY CANADA DAY! Every year, our church hosts a block party for our community with free food, music, games, prizes, and more. This year was especially exciting because we had special guests - our local fire department! Of course, we had to take a picture with the youngest fireman we could find (haha). This fireman was like a celebrity! Women of ALL ages, single and married, were lining up to take a photo with him, it was pretty funny to watch. 
So what is it about men in uniform? ;P