Boxed Up

Writing this blog from my parents' home... no need to rush our packing and no mess around me. This is our first night away from our JW home. All of our possessions have been boxed up into 20 carton boxes, to be stored away for a long time, and 3 HUGE luggages bound for the States. Yes, still 20, even though we have thrown and given away soooo many things!!!

Didn't think that boxing up all our things would be such an emotional experience. As I packed away my priced possession, gifts, albums, photo frames with our favourite photos, etc., it felt like a part of me is also being kept away. How nice if I can have all of them with me when we go! But of course, cerebrally, I know that I have to learn to let go.

Though stressful, there's a huge lesson learnt through the entire process. Material treasures, regardless of the sentimental value each holds, is not everlasting. Really, what matters is the relationships and love we share with family and friends as well as the treasures that we build up in heaven. A tough lesson but I thank God for it.

4 years!

On this day, 4 years ago, TK and I made our vows and exchanged rings before God. We made it through and moving on to our 5th year!

"I take thee to be be wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forth, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance." God help us to remember this vow for the many years to come...

temp housing in Pittsburgh

Since April, we have been searching for a temp housing in Pittsburgh. We just need a place for our first few days in Pittsburgh as we look for a more permanent apartment. We have been looking at craigslist and also put up our request through a church there. However, for the last 3 months, there wasn't much progress.

Just as I was about to email a friend to ask him for some recommendations of affordable motels (in case we need one), he offered his place as a "last-resort". Two hours later, he emailed us again, saying that there are now 3 offers (inclusive of his) to take us in from his church. It is so amazing - just yesterday, we have no place to stay during our first few days. Now we have 3 place (and maybe even more) to choose from. As my friend said in his email to us, and we testify, "God has been good". We truly thank our friends in church for praying with and for us regarding a temp housing for the last 2 months - and thank God for the positive answer.

So, where exactly are we going?

Based on what we have read and heard so far, these are what we know about Pittsburgh, the city that we are heading to:

1. It is in the state of Pennsylvania. On the map of USA, it is located towards the North-East.
2. It is a few hours drive to New York.
3. Winters could be quite harsh in Pittsburgh.
4. Main sports in Pittsburgh: Baseball (Pirates), ice hockey (Penguins), American football (Steelers). I think the nearest NBA team should be the Philadelphia 76ers.
5. No famous touristy attractions that we know, as of now.

More information can be found at this excellent resource.

If you like to have a sense of how Pittsburgh is like, you may want to check out those movies that were shot in this city, including Inspector Gadget (!), Groundhog Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and Robocop (!!!). Hmmm, we should have rented some DVDs...

Some stuffs about Carnegie Mellon University, the purpose of our going over.
1. Remember lycos search engine? It was started in CMU in 1994.
2. John Nash, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1994, received his bachelor and master degrees at Carnegie (then known as Carnegie Institute of Technology, before it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research) in the 1940s. He then went on to Princeton and MIT. If his name sounds familiar, you must have read his theory in an economics class or watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind", or both.