Goodbye Summer... Hello More Summer!

Forget injuries, never forget kindness.
-Confucius


I forgot that in Hong Kong there is no such thing as the end of summer... Today is September 24 and it is a scorching 91 degrees outside. The humidity is finally letting up, but there is still enough sun to get a tan! =) Amazing...

The last month has been very busy and full of fun and I've been really enjoying life as much as possible! I've made some really great friends through my volleyball group and they've really helped complete my transition into HK life! It all started with the Junk Boat Trip we had about a month ago....

This pretty much sums up the day!! It was a lot of fun and the boat was amazing! We even had waiters on the boat who brought us food on silver platters!! =) We drove all the way out to a beautiful secluded beach in Sai Kung and spent a few hours playing volleyball, jumping off the top of the boat, and just swimming around! Great time with great people!



After the junk boat trip, my life became a mess of social events!! I had my salsa classes, hiking trips, bowling nights, beach volleyball on Saturdays, movie/dinner nights throughout the week, theater outings, and our normal Sunday night volleyball! Not to mention, I was still working 6 days a week!! One of the highlights from the rest of the month was a karaoke night that I organized with my friends at a Karaoke club in Wan Chai! It was an evening to remember and we sang songs for nearly 8 hours!!!! It was incredible! I basically didn't have a voice the next day after all the screaming/singing we had done!

Again, great times with great people!

And that brings me to... now... As some of my family members have heard I had a very unfortunate accident this past weekend and I... duh duh duh... tore the ACL in my left knee. *sigh* We were playing our Sunday night vball and I was passing in the back row. I was sure the hit was going to come to my left so I planted my foot and started to turn, however the ball actually came to my right. My whole body twisted, but my foot did not. Next thing I knew, there was a very loud "POP" and I fell over in pain (AFTER I successfully dug the ball by the way). Then I crawled off the court and I started to feel a little better and thought I'd just twisted it. I even walked home (slowly). But when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't bend my knee at all and everything was painful. So this whole week I've been in and out of the doctors office and had an MRI to show that I have indeed, tore my ACL. Apparently, this means surgery if I want to continue my life playing competitive sports and being active without too much difficulty. It is a HUGE bummer, especially with my amazing sister/cousins/aunt coming in exactly 1 week!!! Grrrr! I have another doctors appointment tomorrow where we will nail down exactly what needs to be done and when. He seems to think that I can delay the surgery for a few weeks until my family is home so that I could do more things when they're here. Again, slowly, but better than if I went in for the surgery now. We'll see.

For those of you that know me, I'm deathly afraid of needles, blood, IVs, etc... and have never had a surgery before. The thought of it really rolls my stomach around. Luckily for me, I have wonderful friends here who have been extremely supportive and awesome in visiting me, writing me emails/notes to make me feel better, and taking me to my doctors appointments. But I'll still appreciate all of the happy thoughts/prayers/love that you guys have for me from across the ocean! Every little bit helps! But at least you can rest easy that I am in good hands with the people and doctors here.

So, that pretty much sums up my life for the past month!! The hotel is SUPER busy right now with all of the conventions and trade fairs which come in October/November. Of course, I choose now to get injured so that I can't help out. Whoops. I'll probably try to find a job working in the back office so I can at least contribute doing SOMETHING!

So I hope all is well for everyone back home and I miss you all like crazy! Especially with all this time on my hands! Write emails! =) I love them!!

Hugs and love,
Sonya Rae