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Some Updates – Finally
By Leighton | September 5, 2008
Well, it has been a long time since I have written (3 weeks) and so I am way overdue. I have done so many things that it seems like there is just too much to write about, and I don’t really know where to start. Sharon is hounding me to write, and I know that I have promised a lot of people that I would, so here goes:
First, let me start with a brief summary of the past 3 weeks:
The Arrival
After the flight from LA to Taipei, I ended up in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol city of Malaysia. It was a sight for sore eyes, since it had been a couple of years since I had been there, and it really felt so good to be back. I love KL! The airport is really nice, but I didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy it because I had a flight to catch, so i quickly went to my connecting flight to Miri, Malaysia.
During the flight from West Malaysia to East Malaysia, I couldn’t help smiling to myself the entire way. The people around me probably thought I was either crazy or had attained the Buddhist goal of Nirvana, but in truth I was just thinking of how happy I was to be able to see my sweetheart Sharon again. I envisioned it in my mind at least a dozen times. I was so excited! When the plane landed, it was even better than I had imagined! Sharon was waiting for me at the terminal, and boy did she look gorgeous. She came up and hugged me big and I was the happiest man in Malaysia. She took me outside to her mom’s car, and I got to meet (for the first time) her wonderful mom. Judy Hii Ai Huong is one of the nicest women I have ever met, which is a big relief considering that I had been really scared of meeting her. She drove me to her house and showed me my new (and Ivy’s old) room. I settled in and fell asleep (the first I’d gotten for a long time).
The next couple of days were spent preparing things for the reception and running errands. One memorable and notable thing we did was have a photo-shoot. It was a lot of fun, but somewhat grueling (it lasted all day). Sharon had I think 7 dresses, so we took a lot of photos. I think that she has posted many of the pics, and she even has lots of them in a slide-show on her blog, here is the link: Slideshow
Anyways, the next big thing we did was drive down to Sibu for a reception with her family there.
Sibu Reception
Sharon has many relatives in Sibu, because that is where both her Mom and Dad are from, and it is where she grew up as a kid. Later she moved to Kota Kinabalu, then to Miri, but that is another story. There were so many relatives of hers there that I met. Her Dad’s Mom is there and she is a kind old lady, still healthy and strong despite her old age. She came from China a long time ago to Malaysia, so that is Sharon’s heritage. All of her Aunts and Uncles and Cousins were there, and so it was quite confusing at times since everyone spoke Chinese (and not even Mandarin, but FuChao, so I didn’t have much chance at comprehension). Speaking of Chinese, I am getting better slowly at Mandarin, and I can understand the gist of most sentences, so that is good. Anyways, in Sibu I was able to meet Sharon’s Dad for the first time. Jackson Ting is bluff-faced and seems kind of stern when you first meet him, but he is a really kind and nice guy, and the important thing is that I can tell he loves Sharon so much. She is his oldest daughter, and he wants to make sure she is taken care of. I love Sharon very much as well, and when he could see this, he liked me as well. I must admit that I was very scared to meet him the first time. Haha. Anyways, her family is all very nice and very Chinese, so it was a lot of fun. We had the reception at a Hotel there in Sibu, and it was very nice with lots of people. They had an MC who was very outspoken, and basically I made a fool of myself many times trying to get their customs right. Of note among the customs were the Yam Seng, where everyone stands toasts the bride and groom. I had a hard time of opening the ‘Champagne’ (sparkling cider, I’m Mormon, remember?) bottle, since it was my first time opening one. The idea is to shake it up and then pop the cork and spray it, then fill up a pyramid of glasses with it. I didn’t know there were three toasts, so after the first yam seng I totally drained the cup, and had to borrow some from Sharon for the other two, haha. Another custom is the giving of ‘ang pao’ or gift money to the bride and groom. We went around collecting little red envelopes with money inside, so that was a lot of fun. After we got home, Sharon immediately began counting the ang pao (she is very chinese, haha). Anyways, it was so much fun and I really wish my friends and family could have been there as well to enjoy it, but I guess all of you who weren’t able to come to this one still have a chance to redeem yourselves and come to my ‘real’ reception after we are married in the temple in Utah. Haha.
Whew, this is really starting to be a long post, and I still have so much more to write about. Okay, I am going to have to do this in installments. Be sure to check back for my future posts about our adventures in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, Thailand, and our reception in Miri!
In the mean time, here are some pics from the Sibu Reception:
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