My Life at April 2005
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April 30, 2005(Saturday)
Carmen and I went to Parque del Este to run. Lately, we like to run together. She ran quite fast and can catch up with my speed. Therefore, it makes my run much more interesting. In the afternoon, we watched the downloaded movie "grow up early" by Jacky Chan's son. And then at night, we went to MB Church to practice music for tomorrow's Sunday Service. There are other people practicing the dance, drama and decoration too. It really feels like one big family. All of us are doing our part so that tomorrow's service (the church's 14th anniversary) would be working well. We really enjoy this one-big-family feeling. This is something that a large church lacks.
April 29, 2005(Friday)
During break today at work, I walked to the near by mall and found out that they have a lot of display for different type of motorcycle. They have vendors like BMW, Yamaha, Nissan and so on. Lots of motorcycle and it looks very cool.
In addition, company gave me another cell phone. My first cell phone had problem about half a year ago and then company gave me a blue cell phone. For some strange reason, after using it for 2 months, the company suddenly said that the cell phone has problem (I don't know what problem it has) and replaced me with a black cell phone. This black cell phone is almost broken. It finally broke down last month. I have reported this to my company but they have not yet replaced a new cell phone. I have been waiting on hold for a long time. They are very inefficient. Both the black and blue cell phones are second hand that people stopped using. Today my company gave me another used cell phone. When I open the package, it smelled really bad. In fact, it smelt so bad that I have to wash my hand after opening the package. I have no idea who used it before and whether he/she dropped it to the toilet or put sweat all over it. And the cell phone is not yet associated with the telephone number, so I still cannot make any telephone call.
At night, Carmen and I watched the movie "Howl's Moving Castle". Hansel watched this movie April 3 and he said that he did not understand the movie. And I have absolutely no clue what this movie tried to say. The "Laputa" movie is much simpler and better! Also, Carmen downloaded this movie from BT several days ago, and this site is removed yesterday because of the movie copy right thing.
April 28, 2005(Thursday)
I need to go to Miami the week of May 9 for teaching CCIE Fast Track program session #1 (three days only). There will have several sessions and I may need to go to Miami several more times. This is actually good for me, because I can bring my luggage to USA and then mail it to Indiana University one by one. Anyway, I will be teaching the BGP classes for these three days so I need to prepare it in the next few days. I have just received the book today. I am still waiting for them to set up the lab so that I can practice the gear remotely.
I went to run during lunch time. In addition, I also search some housing option in Bloomington (the city that I will stay when I study in IU). I emailed different real estate agent and I will see whether I can have a good deal for buying/renting a house/apartment.
At night, Dr. Chu and Kitty came to our house for dinner. We were discussing the combined church program on May 17. This will be a game/sharing night to help each other to build the bonding. I am trying my best to build the bonding between the two churches' fellowship. However, I have a feeling that after I leave Venezuela, the two fellowships would not be as close to each other as now.
April 27, 2005(Wednesday)
I am checking with the IU website today. Since I will be studying soon in IU, I am trying my best to get myself familiar with this university. It is true that I have been doing my MBA in this school for the last two years. However, I am only an online student. In addition, I am trying to browse around their computer and network department. I want to see future employment possibilities, such as helping them to maintain their network or be an instructor for their Cisco course.
At night, we had guitar class again. Carmen also showed her movie critique after watching different movies. She is really good in that and I totally lack this side. When I watch a movie, I just watch it and enjoy it. Even when I try to analyze it, I can't.
April 26, 2005(Tuesday)
This is a relaxing day that I spent with Carmen. In the lunch time, I went to the metrotown-style mall Sambil with her. We are not there to shop but there to enjoy time and walking in the mall. I also took off a bit earlier so that I can go to the Parque del Este to run with her. It is not easy for her to leave Vancouver and come to Venezuela with me. Lately, our focus is always related to church work. Therefore, I need to spend more time with her to do some thing that we can relax and enjoy.
At night, the fellowship program is Bible study. Carmen and I are the leader. It went relatively smooth. We also practice on the skit that we will perform for Mother's Day. I will be the "mother" in the drama.
April 25, 2005(Monday)
Without a solid working life, I find that my life is quite unproductive lately. I tried to study for CCIE and also for PhD, but then I do not have the urge to do so, so I do it very slowly. Today, I finally started to pick up my speed. At least, I started to email out to find some online consulting experience. I am trying as many ways as I can imagine so that I can earn more money while I am studying. I have also confirmed the air ticket for Carmen's return flight to Vancouver, and talked to IU again about my PhD admission process. I also sent out an email to reject the offer from UBC. It was one of the very few times that I reject other people (I have been laid off twice and rejected by over 12 schools during PhD application! Countless reject when I was searching job.)
I went home and prepare for the Sunday School. Lately, there are tones of thing that Carmen and I need to help out in church. Probably they figure that we will not be here for too much long time so they will use us as much as possible. So both Carmen and I sat around the table and prepare our own Bible Study (or other church thing).
April 24, 2005(Sunday)
I led Sunday School this morning. And this is one of the few Sundays that I don't have to lead music in church. I don't have to go to MB Church in the afternoon. Carmen wants to eat some Cantonese bread. Therefore, I asked church people to go to "drink tea". We were really full. At night, we went to Che So's house for dinner and also had the Chinese youth fellowship committee meeting.
April 23, 2005(Saturday)
We went to Parque del Este to run in the morning. We also started packing up stuff. At night, I went to MB Church to practice music for singspiration in May 1 (the 14th anniversary) and then went to Dr. Chu's house at night for committee meeting.
April 22, 2005(Friday)
Work is very easy again. I tried to do something to the Call Manager, but I don't know why the password does not work. I have no idea what is going on. did someone else change the password for me? I guess that I may have to reinstall the Call Manager (which is not the end of the world) if this is the case.
At night, Carmen and I watched the "New Police Story" movie by Jacky Chan. After exploring in Hollywood for the last few years, he finally returned to HK. I think that this movie is better than the Hollywood movie that he made in the last few years.
April 21, 2005(Thursday)
I used to have very short hair since 2000. However, because of my wedding, I started to have longer hair since summer last year. I had a short hair cut today again and I am back to my short hair style. At night, Ah Men and Ah Yin came to our house to have dinner. They were supposed to be here yesterday but they were busy with work. They need Carmen to help them to translate some contract in English so they came here for dinner. We also shared different things about fellowship and lives. Afterward, I taught the guitar class. They need to practice in order to perform May 1, the church 14th anniversary. At night, Paco came to our house from 10 to 11:30, to talk about the church problems.
April 20, 2005(Wednesday)
Nothing interesting happened at work. I upload photos and updated diary during the day. There is supposed to have online section for NY IPTX group. However, only one person showed up so the section ended relatively quickly. I also organized and cleaned up my desk. I want to make sure that I only bring whatever that is necessary back to North America. I threw away a lot of thing. There is no recycle box in Venezuela so I have to throw a lot of paper away. This is not my style.
At night, we have asked Ah Men, Kitty and Ah Yin came to our house for dinner. However, because of work, Ah Men and Ah Yin can not come (and they told us that in the last minute). Kitty was late and arrived at 8:30. Kitty is a travel agent working in the airport. Therefore, she asked Carmen some simple English that may become handy later.
April 19, 2005(Tuesday)
Today is the holiday (some kind of independent day) in Venezuela. I went with the MB Church to go to beach. We arrived to church at 6am. Then we took 2 hours bus and then 20 mins boat to the beach.
The beach is like an African style place. The neighborhood is not located near the city so the entire area feels like some village. We swam and walked by the area. We also had the seafood (fried fish) for lunch too. We were there from 9:30 to 1:30. Afterward, in order to beat the traffic flow, we left at 2 and returned home at 5.
After shower and cleaning up the stuff, we went to MB Church's Uncle Man house for dinner. Today is his daughter's birthday and he invited about 7 of us to his home for hot pot. We were there Feb 13 to eat hot pot already. I ate a lot and it was very fulfilling. We really enjoy that. The MB Church people treated us good and respected us!
April 18, 2005(Monday)
Desca is always expanding and hiring new people. They hired a new project management people and he will take my seat. This will be my seat #4 in Desca. My last three seats are at the same area on the eighth floor. Now I will move to the seventh floor and I will sit with some system engineer (which is one level lower than my existing position as a consultant engineer). I don't call it a "demotion" because none of my status is changed. It may be that I always travel to different places so they don't want to waste my seat. Obviously, having a seat nowadays in my company is a privilege and I miss that privilege. However, since I won't work here for a longer time so it is not that bad.
I also worked on the CIPT lab for a while and take the day easy.
April 17, 2005(Sunday)
I led Sunday School this morning. Then we went to MB Church and I led songs: "Te Amo Rey" (I love you Lord), "El Mundo Entero es del Padre" (This is my father's world), "Promise under the rainbow" (from SoP), "There is a God" (from SoP), "Emmanuel" (from ACM). I taught some of the MB Church youth some songs because they will sing during the church celebration at May 1. We also played ping pong. At night, I gave a phone call to Mrs. Cheng and talked a lot about church's stuff.
April 16, 2005(Saturday)
We slept for about 4.5 hours to try to recover from the overnight fellowship. Then Kum Fung came to our house to practice music in the afternoon. At night, we went to Semson's house for dinner. It is actually a gathering for MB church's deacon. However, Semson invited us to join. We are very close to the MB Church deacon. We had good sharing time. Pastor Ricky Chan accidentally sent an email to the church email group that got him into trouble. Carmen and I discussed and analyzed about the church politics.
April 15, 2005(Friday)
I talked to the CTT owner briefly today. He visited Venezuela from Miami and he dropped by Desca and I talked to him. He is pleased with my service and plans to continue hire me from Desca to teach other courses. He planned to let me teach more Voice courses in the future. Then I may be able to get to my Voice CCIE! Obviously, I did not tell him that I will study PhD in the future. And I did not mention that whether I can continue to service in the future if I am not working for Desca. However, at least, it is good to know that he is pleased with my service (my previous evaluations are really good).
At night, we went to church for stay over with the Chinese youth fellowship people. We played some ping pong ball. In addition, we shared about the thing that we want to appreciate to each other. Many people are sad to know that Carmen and I will leave Venezuela soon. I hope this is one of the team-building exercises that would cause the fellowship stronger. The sharing lasts for 3 hours. And then, we ate hot pot 3am in the morning! This is certainly the earliest/latest time that most of us have ever eaten. However, people are tired by that time. We then made some bread for each other and stuck a paper inside to share some messages. We also played games (treasure hunt and killer (using playing card)) for an hour afterward until 6am. Pastor Chan led us devotion in the morning. This is the time that we got very tired. After devotion, we went out for early breakfast. I returned home at 8:40 and slept.
April 14, 2005(Thursday)
I am trying to work on the Call Manager today. Desca has a large flat screen PC/TV for me to use. However, during most of the time today, the network admin uses that for the video conferencing set up. Actually, even though this is Venezuela, we have some really cool and high tech toys. For example, we used to have IP/TV. The thing that the network admin works on today is the video conferencing using internet. We can video conference with up to three different destinations.
At night, we invited Dr. Chu to have dinner at our house. He went to Brazil two weeks ago for some "Chinese Christian mission conference for South America Chinese". In addition, I invited Alberto to our home to have dinner. He is one of the guitar class members. Even though he has just learnt guitar for two months, he wants to play a song for the MB Church anniversary in May 1. Therefore, we made some decision of the songs that he will play. We also have some time chatting with each other too, about different topics like evolution, church fellowship, visiting other places, going to different countries, taking a flight and so on.
April 13, 2005(Wednesday)
I am supposed to have two online sections today. One in the morning for the NY IPTX group. The other in the afternoon, for both the Chicago and San Francisco group. However, no one showed up for the morning section. And only three people showed up for the afternoon one. We had a small chat.
Finally, I have made the decision and accepted the offer from Indiana University today. After several months of hard work, struggling and up-and-down, this is my decision (actually, this is only a decision between UBC and IU). U of Mich has turned me down and it seems that my chance in UCLA would be small too. I need to get used to this. It is not a top university (the MBA program rank 18 according to Business Week and rank 27 according to US News). And it is certainly not my top choice (my choice #13 out of 14 schools that I applied, with UBC is choice #14).
During the last two months of turmoil, I really appreciate the support from my dearest wife Carmen. She listened to a lot of my complains and walked with me during my emotional time. This is certainly a great practice for any future trials that we will face. In addition, my parents and Hansel gave me a lot of advices and support too. What I learnt in this process is that, I verified that I have strong family as my back up. I can continue to go forward without worrying about my back.
I spent times reading the comic "Detective Dan School" at night. I am always addicted to comic.
April 12, 2005(Tuesday)
I was working on the Call Manager lab today. There is nothing interesting with any of these. At night, we went to church for fellowship. We shared about our purpose in life. There is sharp contrast between before-Christian and after-Christian. Some of them also shared that life in China and how they illegally migrated to Venezuela. This is something that I don't have to go through.
April 11, 2005(Monday)
I was working on the Call Manager lab again. Finally, I can reformat a Call Manager server. For some reason, when I first reformat it, it failed. However, after three tries, it works. I do not know why it works. Microsoft technology is terrible. I am still in the middle of understanding this Call Manager technology. Without anyone teaching me, it would not be easy.
At night, I spent a lot of time reading Japanese comic "Detective Dan" that we purchased in San Francisco and New York.
April 10, 2005(Sunday)
Carmen and I led song today at both churches. The song list is: "high sing to cloud", "beautiful new life" (from ACM's "Come revive me"), Hevenu Shalom (from ACM's "Come revive me"), "Give me freedom" (SoP), "Canta Al Señor" (Shout to the Lord) and "Brilla Jesús" (Shine Jesus Shine). I led the Sunday School for Baptist Church and had lunch in church. In the afternoon, we went to MB Church to lead song. In addition, Carmen and I sang a duet song called "Forgiveness" (Chinese Christian song). We had guitar class at night.
April 09, 2005(Saturday)
Since we will be leaving Venezuela in less than two months, we started to pack up. Actually, we have not yet really settled down here yet. Even though we have been here for 5 months, we flied frequently and so we did not enjoy the house that we rented. There were lots of dust and we do not have a vacuum cleaner. Therefore, it is not easy to remove the dust.
After we jogged at the park, Che So invited us to go to her house for BBQ. Today is the birthday of Vicky, who rents a room from Che So. She originally invited many people but most of them did not come. Therefore, we went there to help eating the food.
At night, we went to MB church for music practice. Currently, whenever I see anyone in church, I will just let them know that we will be leaving soon.
April 08, 2005(Friday)
I was working on the Call Manager lab today. I was trying to install a new Call Manager to a server. However, for some reason, the installation was not successful. It takes three or four hours for an installation. The bad thing is that, I have to attend the whole time. All I have to do is just to input the password or swap the CD. What a waste of time!
Since Paco knew that we will leave soon, he invited us to his house for lunch. We talked a bit about church stuff. At night, we invited Qiao/Elaine to our house for dinner. Qiao and I were talking about some computer and Voice over IP stuff, while Carmen and Elaine were talking about we are leaving Venezuela soon.
April 07, 2005(Thursday)
As I have written previously, I will be teaching the Call Manager bootcamp next month. I was given three call managers for testing. Therefore, I am pounding my head to learn how to use this beast. Actually, I have seen this kind of thing many times. I remember in Sept 2002, I always went to CanTV to help troubleshooting this kind of device. However, at that time, I was only contacting the Cisco TAC engineer and I never did anything myself. Now this is time for my brain cell to exercise. The beginning is always difficult and it takes a lot of effort to start using this.
April 06, 2005(Wednesday)
I am supposed to have the online session for the New York QoS group. However, only one person shows up and he does not need to have this online session. For some reason, in the last few times, the online session always is canceled. I did different administrative thing (e.g. organize my desk, my files)
At night, Carmen and I went to "Lee Hamilton" for dinner. She helped out some Chinese to translate between Chinese and English yesterday in the US embassy (ended up she did not need to say anything because the embassy people understand Spanish) and she earned (the first time in Venezuela) 100,000Bs (about Cdn $50). This is a celebration! Afterward, we went back home to prepare some Bible study. She will lead Bible study for the female fellowship tomorrow and I will lead Sunday School this coming Sunday.
April 05, 2005(Tuesday)
I had the online session for Chicago QoS group. There were only two people showed up and they decided that it does not worth to attend so they left. Therefore, the morning is quiet.
I took the IP Telephony Troubleshooting exam in the afternoon. Since the exam is identical to the study guide, it took me 10 mins to complete 54 questions. Obviously, I just look at the questions and know the answer immediately.
I went to have a run in the afternoon. I have not run outdoor in the park for a long time. And then we went to church for fellowship. Pastor Ricky Chan talked about the Chinese festival for visiting previous dead people (don't know what it calls in English). We have not heard workshop style by pastor for quite a long time. It is great to hear about this again.
April 04, 2005(Monday)
Yeah! Hansel got a job! I have PhD program to go to too! So we both got somewhere to land. Although neither of us get to our top choice, but that is better than nothing.
Work is usually quiet. I did some cleaning to my table and doing some administration stuff. Other than that, there is nothing much that is happening.
There may be a two-week bootcamp in Jamaica in May. The first week will be the usual bootcamp that I have trained. The second week will be a new bootcamp. I will teach how to use the full blown Cisco Call Manager. (Previously I was just teaching how to use the small scale Cisco Call Manager Express). Therefore, I need to study and prepare myself on how to use it in the next few weeks.
Semson came to our home at night to pick up the camera that we bought for someone in MB church in NY. We talked about church. I gave him some of my suggestion, as a person who has been to MB church for about 3 years. I hope that my suggestions to him (e.g. delegate some easy thing to other people, have more quiet time and spend time with family) would be helpful later.
April 03, 2005(Sunday)
We had breakfast in McDonald. Then we took 3 hours flight to Miami and another 3 hours flight to Caracas. We have taken so many flights that we do not have the excitement of going to or leaving the airport. However, I am glad that all the flight we took so far is safe. We spent about 2 hours to clean up at night.
April 02, 2005(Saturday)
The class has completed yesterday. However, I HAVE to come today to the class or else my employer would be mad at me. There is only one student there, and his purpose of showing up today is just to bill his company because he is spending time for training. I was there from 9 to 10:30, checking email, packing up and talked to that student. We both were there just to fulfill the work we are supposed to do.
We got the whole day to visit different places. However, it is raining and the wind is blowing hard today. Therefore, it is a pain to walk outside. We got two new small extendable umbrellas but because of the wind, it is bent and broken. We are wet too! Today, we helped friends in Venezuela to buy a digital camera and some other stuff. We also met with Salvior, our friends from Hebron fellowship in Vancouver for lunch.
We returned to hotel at 5. We then went out for dinner and walked around the Toys R Us.
April 01, 2005(Friday)
Today is another very short lecture day. I let them do the lab for most of the day. In the mean time, I called IU and UBC and asked them about their opinion on their program. Obvious that they are bias on their program. When I finished talking with IU, I want to join IU. When I finished talking to UBC, I want to join UBC. I am still flip-flopping between the two universities.
Carmen went to line up to be a live audience for the "Conan O'Brien Show". She lined up from 5:45am to 9am for a ticket! Therefore, she checked out the show late at night to see whether she is seen in TV. However, she sat in the second last seat in the last row. Other than seeing a black dot, we can't see anything.
The Catholic's pope is going to die soon. We watched some news about this to witness this historic moment.