How long does it take you to adapt to new cultures, ideologies, philosophies – way of life? How lon does it take to truly understand one’s culture, ideology, philosophy – their way of living life?
Some people say they fell in love with a lifestyle, a belief or a place/culture immediately.  But is that truly adapting?  We all say that after we visit a place and have a truly wonderful experience that we  love this place or those people or that belief.  However when we have one bad experience with these we immediately and vehemently oppose it without even giving it a chance.  We don’t take the time to understand it fully.
In my experience, I’ve never really had the chance to understand what truly adapting was all about until I moved out to the UK.  I’ve travelled quite a bit internationally for work and for leisure and have ‘loved’ a few places.  But what I was missing was the actual day to day experiences of living and breathing the life of the people that were brought up in this way. 
I mentioned ideologies and philosophies in the same way as cultures because these too are things people are brought up with and don’t really see what the other side is like.  Take for example Catholics.  If your born and raised a Catholic and never experienced for more than a few years another denomination of Christianity do you truly know what it means to be a Catholic in the eyes of others?  Or vice versa do you know what it’s like to be a Protestant or a Baptist.
Similarly, I’m in Hong Kong at the moment and people say they love Hong Kong.  But what is it that they like about it or love about it? Depending on the angle you take there will be slight differences in experiences.  To truly grasp the Hong Kong way of life. The true way of life – and I’m not talking about the ex pat highly paid nice corporate housing western eating restaurant type of life.  I’m talking about the true essence of Hong Kong – you really need to embrace the language and the true way of living here.  
It’s like America.  Does living in Chinatown in one of the big major cities in the US mean you are living the American way of life? I would argue that it is not the American way of life.  But they do it anyways and would consider they are Americans and love it.  But equally, by living elsewhere and not adapting to the true way of life, in my opinion is living a fallacy.  Meaning you don’t know what it means to truly be that culture, that ideology or that philosophy.
What am I trying to say here? You gotta love it, breathe it and embrace it as it is.  Don’t try to change things or force your ways upon them.  Learn, adapt and integrate.  Don’t be an outsider.

Arrived in Hong Kong Thursday afternoon and saw Georgine for the first time in person since 6 weeks ago.  It was like the first time we saw each other and it was really good to see her.  She looked absolutely as beautiful as she always has and when the first time I saw her more than 6 years ago.  We had a juice at the airport beforesetting off to pick up JJ.  I was getting really excited to see my little JJ.
JJ was at her afternoon art class and Kids101 nearby Por Por flat just down the road on Bonham.  We had arrived there a few minutes before class finished to surprise her.  As the kids were coming up to greet their helpers, JJ appeared and went straight to Georgine.  But then she saw me and had to stop and look twice. It must have been my glasses

But then she shyly came over and gave me the most sweetest and biggest hug a dad could have ever wanted! I picked her up and squeezed her back and her cute beautiful genuine smile lit me up and I was so happy to be back together with the family.  Togetherness.  This is what family is about.  Appreciate the time together cause we may not always be together all the time.  That’s just life.  But when it most counts is when your children are little and growing up so fast.

The first night we had dinner with the family and so I was blessed to see my mom who had stayed a few more days in HK to overlap to see me and JJ.  My mom had been travelling Asia with a few friends and then went to HK to stay with my Uncle David and Auntie Amelia.  Auntie Mary arrived a week before and she and my mom went to Southern China for a few days.  It’s always good to see my mom and spend time with her abroad.  It definitely broadens our relationship as well as our experiences together.  It’s also good to see the extended family get together and spend time to learn more about each other.