Got my new camera!

I finally got my new camera. It's a DSLR Canon 450D. That allows me to capture lots of important moment and scene that I will be encountering. From now on, I'm going to take lots of pictures!

Life in Boston...

Wow! It has already been two months since I've last updated my blog. So many things have happened recently and there were three important changes in my life. Tho' it may be hard, I am going to write about each of them.

The first important change was the change of my marital status. On July 23, Sandra and I did our marriage registration in L.A. and got married. On Sunday July 27th, we had our testimony in front of brothers and sisters to testify God's blessing to our marriage. Thanks Kite Ma and Kite Yea for organizing all these for us. So now, I have officially switched from 'single' to 'married'. That said, I have stepped into a new stage of life. For this, I am so thankful to God. It's really the happiest thing in my life that I could be united with Sandra and to live with her for the rest of my life. Of course, we are also facing lots of challenges to build up a new family. But I am sure that with God's grace and mercy, we can deal with all the challenges. We are not walking alone!

On July 27th evening, Sandra and I took the red eye flight to Boston. That's my second new change -- change of residence. I am not a Californian anymore! I miss L.A. a lot. I miss my church, my brothers and sisters, my friends... But I know going to Boston is what God has prepared for me. I am eager to go and walk with Him. Of course, settling down in a new environment takes time. We rented a car from Budget at the airport. We drove to our new home, got the keys and unloaded our lugguages early in the morning. We then had to drove around to buy the furnitures and neccessities. It was a tiring day for both of us!

On July 29th, I met Prof. Yau to discuss our research topic. We had lunch together. Switching from a student to a postdoc is the third important change. The very first thing to do was to look for suitable research projects. Thanks God. We have finally decided on several research projects to work on in collaboration with Tony. Everything went through quite smoothly. I can see how the Lord has helped me.

Finding a new church is another big challenge for me. We went to few churches and finally we found a church to settle down. Thanks the Lord for preparing us with brothers and sisters. I can see that I am really not walking alone in Boston. He is with me always.

Everything is going fine. I got more and more used to the new environment. I met many new friends here. I hope I will like Boston more and more...

My update...

I haven't updated my blogger for quite a while. I have been quite busy last month and didn't have time to do so. It's time to write something again to update a little bit about how I am going on.

After months of hard work, I have already finished my dissertation and passed my PhD's final defense exam. I officially received my Ph.D on June 12. Calvin, Eva, Tsang Uncle and Tsang Auntie came to my hooding ceremony. I am so happy they came to share my happiness, especially for Calvin and Eva who flew a long way to L.A. from Hong Kong.

Photos of my hooding ceremony are uploaded here at: http://picasaweb.google.com/malmlui/UCLADoctoralHooding/

So, while Calvin and Eva were around in L.A., I was traveling with them. We went to many different places, including SF, Yosemitie, Grand Canyon and Vegas. Since the traveling schedule was so tight, Calvin got sick at the end. Luckily, he is okay now.

After the U.S. trip, I went to church retreat. The topic of this year's church retreat is "Walk with the Lord". I really got some new understanding of God's word. Praise the Lord.
(to be continue...)

Scary Scary...

I was almost signing the contract for the 1B1B apartment. So, I randomly googled to search for more information about the neighborhood. I type the address of the apartment for google search. A scary news popped up: Dead body found at the same address of that apartment I was going to rent. It's just so scary and I didn't feel comfortable to rent it at all. I am concerned about the safety of the neighborhood, although several people told me the neighborhood of winter hill is safe.

Thanks God. Very quickly, we have found another apartment which is on Highland Ave. It is only 0.6 miles away from where I am going to work. It'd be about <10 minutes walking distance. The apartment looks good. To check for the safety around the neighborhood, I've called different places on that street to inquire, such as a Thai restaurant, community organization, YMCA and even a high school on that street. They all gave positive comments. So, we decided to take this one. Today, I've sent every documents, had my credit checked by the broker, signed the lease and also mailed the rent. The housing issue in Boston is settled..Yeah!! We have a place to stay in Boston now!

Got a good deal for a 1B1B apartment in Boston..

The broker has contacted me this morning and showed me some pictures of the apartment. It looks awesome and clean. The price is good with heat and hot water included. Though it's not very big, I believe it's more than enough for 2 people to build up a cozy family there. If everything is okay, I think we are going to take it. Praise the Lord for preparing everything for us.

http://www.lokminglui.com/bostonapt.html

Working hard for my dissertation

I haven't blogged for a while simply because I have no time. These days, I have been busy working on my PhD dissertation. The defense exam is coming up on May 28th. I am still editing my dissertation. There are always something to modify every time I review it. It seems like an endless process. I guess I'll just do my best to make it as good as possible.

I am looking forwards to the vacation with Calvin and Eva in June. I haven't visited SF for several years. It should be fun visiting there again.

77 days left before Sandra comes to U.S.. I am so excited about it. We have already booked the tickets from L.A. to Boston. We will leave on July 27th by the red eye flight. It's so much fun to plan everything together, little by little. Now we are looking for housing in Boston. We have contacted several brokers. Hopefully, we can get an apartment as soon as possible.

Keep our eyes upon our Lord.

Things happening in life are always unpredictable. I have mentioned earlier that my visa problem was fixed because of the new OPT policy. It has seemed to me that everything would be alright and I have been quite happy about it. But last week I found that both of my employers are not participating in the E-Verify. It is the necessary requirement for the extension application. It means I am not able to benefit from the new policy. I did feel disappointed at the beginning. But later on I realized that it is the lesson of faith God wants me to learn. I've recalled how God has saved me and led me through in the past. Things might not have happened as what I have expected. But every way that God's led me through has always been the best. Although I am still uncertain about what to do for my visa, I know everything would be alright because I have Him as my savior.
"All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide?"

Praise the Lord.

What a good news I heard this morning! My good friend (plus secondary school schoolmates) has accepted Christ as his savior. I remembered he hasn't yet received the salvation last year when we talked about Christianity. And now he has become a Christian. Thanks God. His work is wonderful.

God's Grace...

For some reason, the H1B working visa application is very complicated for my case. This issue has been bothering me for a while. I've been talking with people, researching on it from the internet, consulting lawyers to seek for a good solution. It turned out I couldn't come up with a good answer.

Thanks God. Today the headline of the newspaper brought me a really good news. The duration of the OPT will be extended from 12 months to 29 months. It is about 2 and a half years. And mathematics is one of the few categories that qualify for the extension. Everything will be fixed. This is such an amazing grace. To me, the visa application seems to be a difficult problem. But for Him, nothing is difficult. By simply changing the OPT policy, He fixes everything. I've learned a lesson AGAIN that as a Christian, we really do not need to worry too much. As long as we put our eyes upon Him, He will take care of everything in a timely manner. Sometimes His work may not be immediate, but we should still keep our trust on Him. He CAN and He is WILLING to take care of us on EVERYTHING.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will (K)guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)

Work..Work..

There are many works to do these days. Writing up the thesis, working on Yau's project, finishing up the research paper..Feel a little bit stressful..
Tho' there're many works to do, I couldn't quite concentrate and haven't done much today. I really work hard tomorrow.

鄧淑儀不平凡的生命見證

10 days vacation with Sandra

Let me start by writing about my 10 days US trip with Sandra during the spring break.

Sandra's come to to US on 3/19 and stay here in L.A. for 10 days. We've had a really wonderful time together.

3/19: (Day 1) A boring day
It was a boring day for her. My students had their final examination today. She arrived at about 11am at LAX. We spent most of the day on proctoring and grading. But amazingly, I finished grading ~100 exams in one day. After that, we went to a Japanese buffet near Santa Monica Beach. It's quite good if we considered the price.
3/20: (Day 2) Big Day -- her Birthday!
It's her birthday today. We went to Universal Studio. And we went to a steak house for dinner. She couldn't finish her plate and I helped her to finish it. Hehe..So I actually had 1.5 pieces of steak..Yummy Yummy. Oh. I bought an M&M ice-cream birthday cake for her too.

3/21: (Day 3) Shopping day

We went to Ontario Mill outlet shopping mall today. We bought quite a lot of clothes. We went to friday night fellowship together in the evening. It's so good to go to fellowship together. We've also had prayer with bro/sis together at the end of the meeting. Nice~~

(Our first rental car. Looks good. But the air-conditioning didn't work!)(My second rental car. Now the air-conditioning works.)

3/22: (Day 4) Santa Barbara Trip & Whale watching
We went to Santa Barbara today and went to watch whale. We saw lots of whale, dolphin and sea lion. It was a wonderful trip. We went to Tsang auntie house to have dinner at night.

3/23: (Day 5) Church
We went to church together today and have some gathering with bro/sis in the afternoon at Dorcas's house. We went to Korean BBQ for dinner. Yummy Yummy!

3/24: (Day 6) Grand Canyon
We woke up at 6am this morning. We drove 10 hours to Grand Canyon. It's tiring. But Grand Canyon is soooooooooo beautiful. We watched the sunset together in Grand Canyon.
3/25: (Day 7) Grand Canyon+Las Vegas
We visited Grand Canyon again in the morning. We had to drive an hour from the hotel to the national park. Hehe. When we arrived at the park, Sandra found out she left the engagement ring in the hotel. So, we had to go back to the hotel. Thanks God that we got it back from the cleaning lady. We drove back to the park at about 1pm and we stayed there for another 2 hours.
After that, we started driving to Las Vegas at around 3pm. We arrived there at 7pm. We had our dinner at Planet Hollywood Hotel. The buffet was sooooo delicious.
3/26: (Day 8) Hoover Dam
We visited Hoover Dam and Lake Mead today. It's pretty.

Coming back to Blogger again!

It's interesting to read my previous posts on blogger. I've decided to keep blogging again (hopefully everyday).

1/2: We took the wedding photo at Sun Tin Dai today. It's so professional! We took lots of good pictures.

1/3: I went to choose my wedding clothes at Sun Tin Dai. I chose a very good one.

1/4: My brother helped us to take another set of wedding photo. We spent the whole day taking photos. It's tiring but fun. Today is my dad's birthday. We have had a nice birthday dinner.

1/5: Dinner with dad and mum. So many good food. So full!

1/6: Dad and Mum went to cheung chau to visit sandra's parents.

1/7: Leaving for LA tomorrow. Packing..and I bought the HTC pda phone. I like it so much!!

12/25: Sze was sick today. We didn't go anywhere but stayed at home to take some rest.

12/26: Sze got sick and she was taken to the hospital by an ambulance. It's a scary day and it's my first time sitting on the ambulance.

12/27: Family day. Dinner at home with dad and mum.

12/28: Dinner with friends at Mongkok.

12/29: Shenzhen trip.

12/30: Spent a day at Cheung Chau.

12/31: Count down at HK Disneyland. So much fun!

1/1: Another Shenzhen trip