August 14, 2005, 11:34pm

Amah... American version of Chinese.

After the church meetings this morning, Shirley and I went to my apartment to do the washing and cleaning.

Now, my obsessive compulsive traits have developed to an advance stage, I think. I need absoulate cleanliness. Spotless. Odorless.

Ever since Sars, I have associated the smell of bleach with disinfection. I just feel a sense of security with the smell of bleach in the kitchen and the bathroom. So, my sense of security is relatively cheap to get. Just several caps of bleach down the drain. Then I feel it's clean.

Shirley got a doll in the yard sales yesterday and I realized that it's Amah, the domestic helpers in colonial Hong Kong. Shirley said, it's the American version of Chinese. Hm, the Chinese version of Americans got to be Mr. McDonald or the Cola Bear.

Good enough. The Amah wears shoes, not with her feet binded.

This evening, we went to the Lake Forest Baptist Church for a gathering to gather up several churches in the east of Gainesville.

Great music! Not the kind of hymns in St. Paul's or Westminster. It's sxophone, black music and guitar. Fun.

I begin to feel like, churches here have so many interactions between the people on the stage and those on the floor. At least, apparently there're the responses from the crowd. Whereas in the UK, people teach a lesson or the choir sings. Black children in the choir would sing traditional hymns in St. Paul's. But here, black choirs would praise God in their ways and in their preferred kind of music.

It's like, the splendid architectures and divine music in the UK churches made me feel a greatness beyond me. But here, I think it's the people involved who matter more.

Tomorrow 9am will have to be in the orientation for graduate students. Got to do my physiotherapy exercises and have good sleep.