A warm greeting and a chagrin-filled acknowledgement that it has been many weeks since I last posted on this blog. The only excuse that I can offer is that I have been busy researching and living in this beautiful city, Hong Kong. Before I update you on what has been going on in my life lately, I’d like to share my thoughts about several situations that I’ve encountered related to my disability recently. Three people have asked if they could pray for my healing. One stranger handed me money in the subway station. And, of course, the ubiquitous people who go [View Full Entry]

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Hello to my blog family! I’ve been meaning to update the blog with all of my recent goings-on, but life has become rather busy. So, without further ado, allow me to give you a glimpse of what I’ve been up to! Read on, for it’s all quite exciting! Well, I’ve prayed that God would facilitate me making more friends here, and She/He has answered my prayers abundantly! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all glorious days in their own ways. In order to adequately explain Friday night, I’ve got to introduce you to another of my friends. Hazel is a Cantonese woman [View Full Entry]

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Several events have occurred in the past week that I’d like to share with my blog readers. On the 24th of March I was asked to participate in the quarterly meeting of the Disability Action Committee of the University of Hong Kong. After the committee members learned a little about me as I introduced myself, I was appointed for the entirety of my stay in Hong Kong to the Committee. This appointment was a great encouragement to me, since I have served on many such committees and/or boards in the States. I have a sense of what is expected of a [View Full Entry]

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I hear that the early flowers in Illinois are blooming and that predictions of severe blizzards were thwarted by other nature. I do miss the heady joy that sweeps through me at the heralding of spring when I live in a climatological zone that has four distinct seasons. Having the opportunity to live in the tropics for almost a year fills me with wonder too. I’d like to describe it for you. The weather is so much more mild here. Hong Kongers cancel engagements because of a little rain or increased windiness. I want to tell them about wading through snowstorms, [View Full Entry]

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I’ve now had the opportunity to ride the bus three times in Hong Kong by myself. Although the first ride was quite traumatic, the second and third ones were without incident, I’m happy to say. In order to represent both sides of this issue, I’ll start with the positives I’ve discovered thus far. I have committed to volunteering to teach English at the Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired on Friday mornings. The School is located near Hong Kong U; the bus ride is only about ten minutes. Here is the route I take to find the bus stop. [View Full Entry]

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In late February the Fulbright grantees, including those just having completed bachelor degrees, doctoral students, and senior scholars, from the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong congregated at my host university - The University of Hong Kong - for a 3.5 day conference and an optional trip to Macao. The conference was a very emotional experience for me. As was my time in Germany nine years ago, my time in Hong Kong now is full of highs and lows. I am grateful to have ten months to escape the humdrum of comfortable life. Here are some of the reasons [View Full Entry]

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog. So many things have happened that I hardly know where to start. But, as this blog is particularly designed to reflect upon my disability in relation to my time in Hong Kong, I offer the following. Since my last blog, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several meetings - some sponsored by people from Hong Kong, others by officials from Macao, and one sponsored by Americans. When contemplating my trip abroad, I mentally prepared myself for the prospect of not being accommodated by officials in Asia, as disability issue [View Full Entry]

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Instead of being productive and transcribing audio files from data collected for my dissertation, I thought I’d write a little about the delicious tea and coffee drinks I’m enjoying in Hong Kong. And, if you like to listen to audio files, I’ve recorded an English version of the local weather forecast. For those in the U.S., you’ll have to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Firstly though, the tea description. I’ve previously explained that my meals are delivered from a local canteen called Asia Pacific. One of the women who delivers my meals is especially nice. [View Full Entry]

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I should be either transcribing audio files of interviews with students with disabilities into Word documents or writing up fieldnotes. But, I’m just missing my guide dog terribly right now. So, I thought I would write about it. As those of you who have been reading my posts since the beginning know, I decided to leave Jill, my Seeing Eye German Shepherd, at my dad’s house while I came to Hong Kong. I explained some of the reasons in my blog earlier. So, I’ll not recount them here. I anticipated that I would miss Jill a lot. I’m here with no [View Full Entry]

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Comfort foods On Tuesday Dr. Lian brought me McDonald’s for lunch at my office! I ate a Big Mac and some fries! It was so good to eat something completely familiar. The sandwich was smaller, and less fries were in the box. The food and lifestyle here are so much more healthy - a very good and needed change for me. Finding common ground That night, Dr. Lian, Kuo-Hsin, his daughter, and I took the MTR to his friends’ Karen and Terrance’s home. They live in the New Territories too. To get there, we had to take a KCR train as [View Full Entry]

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