January 26, 2005
Riding the Deathstar and What's in a Name
We arrived in the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong after a long ride and some luggage difficulties from Australia. As if it wasn’t hard enough to reduce our worldly possesion to two suitcases each, we had the unfortunte discovery of learning that the 20 kilo (42 lbs) limit per person for luggage was going to be enforced by our airline carrier. One can take two pieces of luggage of 60lbs each out of
America, but you can only take 42 lbs per person total out of Australia on an international flight. So how does one get the other 42 lbs out of the country? Well at $5 per every 2.2lbs just to get our stuff to Syndey, we were in a big jam. Lukily our lifesaving friend Ruth was availible to take 50 lbs of lugage back to her home to be shiped sea mail at a later date. It still cost us $80AU to get our slightly over weight remaining lugage to Syndey. Thanks alot Jetstar.! :(
We met up with family in Hong Kong. It was really great to see my parents again. An important part of life in Hong Kong is one’s name engraved in a seal. It is actually more powerful than one’s signature and used for all types of official and unofficial buisness. Its so powerful, that people keep their seals locked in their home safe. We decided to make a seal for Erica. Of course, this required us to make a new Chinese name for Erica. So in the market, the elders from our family created a new name for Erica.
The name had to be just right. It had to sound phonetically similar to Erica but also had to have the right meaning for the Chinese syllables. The name that pheonetically sounded right, tranlated to love, nun, and praise. Nun! That just woudn’t work for Erica. So after much debate, the elders created another name that translated better and still worked phonetically similar. So Erica is now Love, Pear, Praise Lam. Pear meaning the flower just before the pear is developed. So welcome to the Lam family with your new official name Lam Love Pear Praise.
Posted by at 10:14 am
I…am…SO jealous!
timsamoff () (URL) - January 27, 2005 at 09:25 am
I’m jealous, too. And I love it! Love Pear Praise—PERFECT! (Though the nun one would have been funny…)Mary () (URL) - January 27, 2005 at 1:05 pm
That… is… so… COOL!!!Rachel () - January 27, 2005 at 4:35 pm
that is really, really cool. what an awesome cultural tradition!!what would i be? hehe.
Jason () (URL) - January 28, 2005 at 01:16 am
love the new name! how can I get one????sach - February 08, 2005 at 7:57 pm
Very cool. Where’s the picture of the seal? Or cannot it not be released for fear of reproduction?
Kimberly () - February 09, 2005 at 7:50 pm
