Diary
My Life at June 2005
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June 30, 2005(Thursday)
There is interesting thing in Garmish but the rain makes the plan not working. We left this morning after eating breakfast. However, the hotel charges us for 12 addition euro because we ate two breakfasts, one for yesterday and one for today. We though that breakfast is included but it turned out that only one breakfast are included. We are in a very money-saving mode so this additional 12 euro (about 18 Canadian dollars) really annoys us. But there is nothing much that we can do.
We arrived to Mozart birth place and home, Salzburg located in Austria. We went to the youth hostel. We have to share it with other 4 people to make the stay cheap. We also walked around the old town area. We thought that there will be a lot of street musician but we only saw three or four groups. Quite disappointing. The standard of living in this place is even more expensive! Most internet cafe charged us 2 Euro for an hour in Munich but we found a place that only costs 0.9 Euro. In here, the internet cafe charges us 6 or even 10 Euro for an hour! But we managed to find a place that only charges us 2 Euro. The food is expensive too! 6 1.5 L bottle waters costs 2.1 Euro here but only costs about 1 Euro in Munich! Life is definitely expensive here!
June 29, 2005(Wednesday)
After breakfast, we took a train from 7:30 to 9 and arrived to Garmish Partenkarsch, a small town located in the boundary between Austria and Germany. This is a small tourist and skiing town like Whistler in Vancouver. The Winter Olympic 1936 was held there. We took a bus to the Olympic stadium and we have to walk for 20 mins to get to the cable car. Afterward, we took the cable car to the mountain to arrive to the hotel. I do not understand why they do not have a shuttle bus or anything similar for the resident. Even though we were just back packing, I still carry a luggage with wheels that I have to pull. The road is very bumpy and the luggage was flipping back and forth. This is extremely annoying. I almost broke the luggage because I am being very rough.
After eating breakfast in the hotel, we went out for hiking, which is the only reason why we were in this remote place. We went to Partnachklamn, a place that has the water fall or river besides it. It is quite cold in the cave located near this place. We hiked for about 2 hours and went back to the hotel for afternoon nap. I slept a lot during the trip so far, mainly because I can always sleep in the train and the trip is very relaxing. However the weather turned out bad and it rained and windy. Therefore we are stuck in the hotel for several hours. At night we went out to the town center and walk around. As I mentioned before, this is a tourist town. Nothing interesting is in this place.
Germany is a very efficient place. At least, the train system is very efficient. During the business hour, after one train left the platform, the second train arrived within 10 seconds. And even the line up process is efficient too; we don’t have to wait for long for someone to serve us. The logistic is way better than the one in Venezuela and even than the one in Canada and US! The best so far I have ever seen!
June 28, 2005(Tuesday)
We went to internet cafe in the morning so that Carmen can check the hotel for the next destination. Afterward, we purchased a transit day pass and went to different places. We walked along the Maximiliansbr to some tower to watch the city from a high ground. We also tried to visit some sport center, but turned out that we cannot find this place even though this is located in the map. We also went to the Nymphenburg castle. However, since we have been too different castles lately (actually only one yesterday), we have enough of this and did not spend too long there.
Afterward, we wanted to visit the Olympic place. We took train and bus there. However, since this is beyond the map, we don’t really know whether we are there or not. We went to the mall and I watched some comic (in German, but I just read the picture). We went back to internet cafe and continue to check email and update diary again at night.
June 27, 2005(Monday)
I woke up at 715 this morning. Afterward, we went to the downtown to walk around again. There is a lot of walking today again. Originally I purchased an electric converter to change the voltage from 110V to 220V for the camera battery. However, the plug in Germany is stuck inside. Therefore, with a normal electric converter, it would not work. I need something to extend from the inside of the plug so that I can plug the flat surfaced electric adaptor to the electric plug. Without that, my camera is low in battery. I finally purchased that and that greatly reduced my stress and worry about the camera.
We went to the Resident Museum for several hours. There is a lot of display from the 16 to 18 century. Originally I am excited to see this. However after looking at it for the 30 mins, I got bored easily. I am tired and bored but this place is so huge that we need to find a place out. We are like inside a maze but we are glad that we finally got through the museum.
We also walked around the old downtown area today. We have been there several times already and we are quite familiar with the place. We returned to the hotel at 7. Today is hot and also tiring.
June 26, 2005(Sunday)
After a full night of sleep, we were all recharged. However, I am still a bit under sleep and am sleepy throughout the day. Anyway, we went to the concentration camp located in Dachau today. There are lots of tourist going to this place today, mainly are from US. And there are some Chinese tourists too! The concentration camp is very large, but it is supposed to host 6000 people and it actually hosted more than 35000 people at the end of the Second World War! I saw the gas chamber that killed lots of people and places that they burnt the corpse. This is certainly not good. However, I think that Chinese are worse when it comes to torture criminals. (Actually, there are lots of non criminal people in the concentration camp too)
Afterward, we went to the Schleisshem Palace located in Oberscheischeim. This is a large palace with a very huge garden in the middle. It is very beautiful. However, today it is hot and dry, I am very tired from the walk. I cannot fully appreciate the nice view.
We returned to the downtown area Marienplaty for dinner and walked at night. We have been there yesterday already. There is some 5 people chamber playing music and I enjoyed that a lot. We also walked around these places and took lots of picture.
June 25, 2005(Saturday)
It is difficult to sleep in the airport. Even though we did not sleep much on the plane the previous night and we only went to bed at almost 2 last6 nights, we still managed to wake up at 4 this morning. Afterward, we took a 7 hours train from Berlin to Munich. Even though we were only sitting in second class, the train is new and large. The personal space is larger than the plane person plane. We were really impressed with that. The only problem with Germany so far is that there is no water fountain and the water is expensive. Therefore we have to drink water cautiously. Things are expensive everywhere. I got lots of snack from two weeks ago. Now we consumed a lot today. I asked the train restaurant (there is a cart in the train that is dedicated for restaurant) to give us some free hot water so that we can eat cup noodle!
We arrived to Munich at 4pm. And then we went to the bed and breakfast hotel at 5. In order to save money, we walked for 40 mins from the train station to the hotel, carrying our luggage and 6 1.5 liter water. That was quite a walk. However, with all the traveling that we had previously and the good physical shape, our appetite for walking and our standard is much higher for other tourist. After taking a shower, we went out for dinner. We were starving at that time. We were glad to find a Chinese or Vietnamese place to eat dinner. After eating junk food or cup noodle or air plane meal for the last 72 hours, I am very glad that we can eat rice and something that can stuff my stomach full. We also walked around the city center. This place feels like Belgium (of course, both are in Europe) and not like any of the US places that we have visited before. We also drank beer, something that is really famous in this area. It does not taste good and I do not understand why people like this
June 24, 2005(Friday)
Yesterday, I took an 8.5 hours flight from Venezuela to Paris. On the plane there was a Chinese dad about my age carrying his 3 years old son and a baby daughter sitting behind me. The little kid kept on kicking my chair. No matter how angry look I gave him or even I tried to touch his leg, he just ignored me. Therefore, I can only sleep when he slept. This is definitely not a pleasant flight and I cannot sleep a lot. I arrived to the Paris airport at 9 am. This is a huge airport! I spent about 4 hours there walking and also reading lots of magazine (in fact, I have been reading a lot of magazine during the trip). I was also too tired to walk so I just sat down and read magazine. However, I cannot go to sleep because otherwise I will definitely miss the next flight.
Afterward, I took a 1.5 hours flight to Berlin. I slept though the whole flight. I arrived there at 3.30 pm. Carmen’s flight supposed to arrive at 10pm. However, it was delayed an hour. During those 7 hours, I walked around the whole airport many times. This is a very small airport anyway. And then I read magazine and slept though a bit. When her flight arrived, I was so afraid that I cannot see here. However, I am glad that she arrived safely. This is such a wonderful experience to pick the love one from the airport! In order to save some hotel expense, we spent the night in the airport. There is a waiting area (some check in area) in another building. There are about 6 more people staying there the night as well. We slept on the floor or on the bench.
June 23, 2005(Thursday)
I don’t have to go to work today. After checking email, Che So and Mrs. Cheng came to pick me up. At that time it was raining. Therefore, the traffic is moving very slow. In addition, we have to go to Mrs. Cheng house to pick up Wilson and also go to school to pick up Cindy. Therefore, we were sitting on the car for about 2.5 hours. Lots of traffic. I will update my flight time on tomorrow’s diary.
June 22, 2005(Wednesday)
I did nothing at work again. I tried to talk to my supervisor Mario regarding about my contract but he is out-of-town in Mexico. I talked to Rhamer (another manager) briefly about this but he said that I should consult with Mario instead.
I pack up my stuff at night. I have gone to a lot of trips and I am good at packing. Therefore, this is very easy to me. But this is a very special trip. Since we are backpacking, we will not bring any useless stuff there; we will only bring one school bag plus a plastic bag. Therefore, I drafted out a list of what we need to bring, in order to make sure that we are dead on the target!
June 21, 2005(Tuesday)
I went for a run during lunch time. And then bad thing happened. After the run, there is no water in house! Actually since I returned from USA two days ago, the water supply is very unstable. There was no water from last night I went home until this morning so that I can not take a shower last night after teaching guitar. However, that is not the end of the world because I am "lucky" enough to have water this morning for shower. But after the run today, there is no water! For a person that love cleanness and always needs to shower IMMEDIATELY after exercise, this is the END of the world! I absolutely hated it! Since sweat is all over me, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I can do. I am glad that there is a big tank of water that I can use. Therefore, I used my wet clothes and wet it with water and wipe on my body. I got some sweat gone (but actually, this is a mix of water and sweet) but still I cannot do anything. I went to the building management and asked what the heck is going on. According to my "Spanish" and body language understanding, the tank of the building is running low so they shut the water supply until the tank is refilled. They should have water supply return in about half an hour. (Why on earth will this happen? Isn't the tank should always have water such that the people can always have water?).
There is nothing that I can do, so I went back for another "wet clothes wipe my body" cleansing. My body temperature cools down at that time and I can have the motivation to eat lunch. Afterward, there is nothing that I can do, and I went for a 1.5 hours afternoon nap. I dreamt about the water supply is back. And when I woke up, there is still no water. Anger has accumulated long enough inside me. When I asked the building management, they told me the same fxxking (sorry for the swearing, I hate to swear but I just can't stop this) thing that the water supply is low and they will have water back in 30 mins. My anger burns inside me again, and I just left without saying a word of "thank you" but only say to myself a word of "fxxk" loud enough that he can hear it. I seldom swear in the public but I just can't control myself. I want to show the world that I am angry enough. I always know that water is important to me. I always need to drink lots of water and I always need to have shower. Life is not acceptable without this basic need.
So let me explain what happened to the house in the last two days that makes me so angry right now. First, I need to state that, Paco and his wife is extremely good and let me to live in their house for free after Carmen leave. I deeply appreciate this. In addition, they just had the renovation to their apartment so everything in their house is new. However, my complaint is to the building itself.
There is a small box that I put the 10+ maps I purchased in USA, some magnet, my passport, some US$$ and so on. When I opened that, I saw a big cockroach. That scares the heck of me. This is not the ugly dark brown one, but a light brown (quite transparent in color) one. I tried to use the slipper to kick it outside the room. It flipped. I don't have newspaper or thick napkin nearby at that time. But I have a scissor. So I tried to use the scissor to hold its feet (because it is too scary to cut it in half). But then, it ran away again. I hope that it is outside the room.
I thought that this is bad. Paco told me that there is mouse in their house in the last few days. They discovered that there is a small hole that link to outside. My room is the "servant" room which locates right besides the kitchen. So I think that the mouse has visited my room already. I have my bed sheet nicely folded when I left Venezuela two weeks ago. When I returned last Sunday, I saw three or four little black thing on my sheet. Is that mouse shit? I don't care and I just throw them to the toilet.
Paco said that the hole that link to outside is sealed. But still, I hope that there is no mouse inside my room. In the last two nights, when I slept, I heard some mouse-yelling-noise. I don't know whether this is coming from outside or inside. But at least, I don’t see anything moving. Who knows what I will see in the next few days. And I hope that I did not bring any cockroach’s egg to USA later. All these thing in the last few days makes me hate the place that I stay very much. (But once again, the house itself is very new and Paco treated me very nice and I deeply appreciate about this)
I went to church at night for fellowship. I have not joined the fellowship for quite a while because I always go to travel. I took a shower at church too because I can't take shower after run yesterday. It felt great to have water supply! I went to Che So's house at night because I am not sure whether there will have water supply in my house.
June 20, 2005(Monday)
I did not go to work this morning. Instead, I slept until 10:30. I checked some emails and update the homepage at home, then I went to have a hair cut. In order to prepare the Europe trip, I almost shaved my head. In the next month in Europe, I plan not to have hair cut or shave. I will see what it goes.
I went to work in the afternoon, just to deposit cheque and put some stuff back to work. I went to Semson's house at night to have dinner. Afterward, I taught guitar at his house again. I don't want to do it in my house because there are little kids at home and I don't want to bother them. Besides, I need to give something to Semson that his daughter gave him in Miami.
June 19, 2005(Sunday)
I took a 2 hours flight to Dallas then another 5 hours flight to Caracas. When I arrived Caracas, the flight attendant said some other airport name. (CCS airport's name is Simeon Bolivar airport). Then when I exited the flight, the airport surely looks different. I thought that I am in the wrong place! I asked people and they told me that this is the new renovated airport and just started to use it 10 days ago! That is surely scary! I arrived home at 10:30.
June 18, 2005(Saturday)
Originally, the course lasts six days until today. However, since all the students have finished everything, none of them return today. Therefore, I took a bus to Denver downtown and revisit this place again, even though I was there last Saturday. I left home at about 11pm and arrived downtown at 12.
Since I have been to most of the downtown last Saturday, I am just taking thing slow today. I mainly walked on the 16th Street Mall again today. I am quite familiar with this place now. There is an Asian food festival today and tomorrow. I rarely see Asian in Denver or at least not in the area that I am in. This time, I saw quite a number of Asian, but mostly they are Japanese; and the second generation Japanese talks to each other in Japanese. I hardly see any Chinese, except a booth where a Chinese draw some Chinese tradition picture. In addition, I went to the Buddhist temple for a tour. There is some pamphlet that talks about Buddhism and Christianity. I am quite interested and I tried to read it. I am also very tired at that time, so as I was reading, I fell asleep (power nap). This brief sleeping moment is very powerful and I am not tired afterward. And regarding the Buddhism belief, they are much more passive and not able to explain the creation of the Earth, as compare to Christianity. However, the pamphlet explains thing quite clearly. I wonder whether I can talk to their "pastor".
I am a big time Japanese comic book worm. This is one of the few things that I am enthusiast. (The thing that I always do, such as running, playing piano/violin, studying is something that I know that is good for me, but I am not enthusiast about this at all)
Therefore, when I went to the Denver Public Library, I tried to search for the Japanese comic (in English). I spent about 40 mins reading "Dragon Ball" there. After walking around the street, I went to the Barnes and Nobles bookstore and read comic for 2 more hours until 8:30!
I went to The Keg for dinner. Hansel highly recommended about this restaurant. I tried the Keg size steak. It does not taste as good as I hope. And I can't even finish this! This is one of the very few times that I cannot force myself to finish steak!
I want to take bus/light-rail back to hotel. The bus comes once per hour. As I finished reading comic in Barnes and Nobles, I know that my time will not synchronize with the bus schedule after dinner. There will have 30 mins waiting time. Therefore, during that time, I took the free shuttle bus that runs between the 16th Street Mall. However, the shuttle bus ran slower than I thought. I need to catch the 10:33 light rail in order to transit to the last bus of the day. However, I was there at 10:35 and I missed that light rail. Therefore, there is no way that I can take a bus home. I have thought of taking light rail to a closer place and then take taxi. (However, I doubt that there is taxi in the station waiting for me, and I need to wait for 20 mins in the station for the taxi to arrive). I have also thought of taking a taxi to the bus station to catch the last bus. Anyway, my emotional determination is very weak and I am mentally vulnerable at that time. Therefore, I took the easy way: hopping to the taxi in downtown. The taxi costs $37, while it would only cost less than $10 if I choose the bus option. However, since I always asked my students to drive me back from class to hotel, CTT is cheap enough not to rent a car and CTT knows that the hotel is far away from other places, therefore, I removed all my guilt from taking the taxi. Actually, originally I planned to take a taxi to bus stop and take a bus to the airport tomorrow. However, because of missing the bus today, it affects my decision tomorrow and I will simply take a taxi to the airport (which will probably cost me more than $50). Obviously, if I have to pay the price myself, I will not do it definitely.
June 17, 2005(Friday)
The training supposed to last until Saturday. However, the students completed the lab early. Also, not many showed up. 12 people registered, 7 people showed up throughout most of the week but only 3 people were here this morning (the fourth joined but left in about an hour). I let them practiced on the lab throughout most of the week. I am not sure whether they like me or not. However, apparently that they like me because 5 of them gave me perfect evaluation. And the other two did not fill in the evaluation (because they were not here.) The only times that I get a perfect evaluation is for the CCIE class in Miami last several weeks and the IPCE training this week. For both time, I did not put a lot of effort and basically let them do the work. I wonder why.
After packing up, I went back to hotel at 2. After an afternoon nap, I went out for a jogging again. Afterward, instead of staying in the hotel for the whole night, I walked to another nearby mall (but still take me 25 mins walk). I walked the shortcut: walking across the parking lot, on grass to make sure that I am going through the fastest way.
For some reason, I really miss Chinese food. Therefore, I went to a Chinese restaurant in the mall. However, there is no Chinese in the restaurant. All the waiters and customers are Westerners. I ordered a Mongolian beef and Shanghai street dumpling. The Mongolian beef tasted ok, but the Shanghai Street Dumpling (I guess that it should be "small cage bread") tastes quite bad. The "skin" of the bread is thick, there is no "Water" inside and the "meat" inside tasted bad. This is something that is designed to "cheat westerner". I missed the dumpling that I ate in NY. On the other hand, the design of the restaurant is very nice and very westerners. They have a bar and they even serve wine and cheese cake. Therefore, other than the Chinese restaurant name and some Chinese food, this is just a westerner's restaurant.
Afterward, I walked around the mall. I found a Border bookstore, so I spent some times reading comic and magazine.
June 16, 2005(Thursday)
Today is a light easy day of work. I even went back to the hotel for an hour afternoon nap. Afterward, I went home at 5:30 and have another 50 mins of afternoon nap. I am getting 9.5 hours of sleep again today! I am so used to have afternoon nap (sometimes, even two afternoon naps!) and long sleeping hours (anywhere from 8.5 to 9.5 hours per day). I wonder whether I can maintain this sleeping pattern in the future.
I went out for a 62mins jog. I made sure that I read the map clearly so that I won't get lost this time. However, I almost thought that I get lost again. There are several reasons: I have bad memory (as people age, the memory would decrease), the road name is really confusing (the area that I ran has several street that starts with Inverness: Inverness Drive, Inverness Parkway, Inverness street and so on), and the block is really long. I am glad that I can return to the hotel without any problem.
June 15, 2005(Wednesday)
Today is another day easy of class. However, I have to prepare the equipment so that I can teach the second half of the course - IP Telephony Express (IPTX). I had some rough time configuring the equipment in the first half of the day, but everything was settled at the end.
I went to Sunset Learning to meet with the director for training during lunch. I have this contact through the North Carolina headhunter Tom Glover that I met through my student back in December 2004. Tom has introduced me to different working opportunity, but I was not too interested before I have the result from PhD. Now, I want to go to full speed for the potential teaching opportunity so that I can make some money part time. However, I still have to get over the visa (student visa vs. employment visa) issues.
After an afternoon nap, I walked to the main street (15 mins away) for dinner.
June 14, 2005(Tuesday)
Today the class is much smoother. I let them continue doing the labs and I only spent 1.5 hours on lecture. There is not as many unexpected thing today, so it is much easier for me.
I went back to the hotel at 5:30 and then went out for a run. This is a perfect day to get lost during running. When I go to a new place, I always like to go for a run to know the neighborhood. And sometimes I do get lost even though I have checked the map before because I cannot remember exactly what route I should take. Last time when I was lost big time in San Jose (Mar 3, 05), the weather is a bit cold and dark and raining. Carmen was worrying about me at that time. However, this time, the weather is very sunny and warm. In addition, I am very physically ready. Therefore, I do not mind that much to get lost. However, I do get lost BIG time! Originally I planned to run for 45 mins (I always plan to run for this duration and it ended up taking me 2.5 hours! I went to a far away place besides that is besides the small Centennial airport! At that time, I have already run for 1.25 hours. I know that I have no idea where I would end up if I continue to run. Therefore, I made the most terrible decision: run back the same way that how I get there! This is an endurance test (copy Hansel's word) for my will power. It is especially mentally exhausting. However, because of the perfect weather and good physical condition, it does not feel as bad as last time when I got lost in San Jose. The whole trip is 23km (the Vancouver Sun Run is 10km) and took me 2.5 hours (but I walked for about 15mins during the last half of the trip). After this physical and mental exercise, my appetite for running increase again.
I am too tired to go out for dinner at night. Therefore, I want the food to delivery to me. However, in my room I cannot find any pamphlet for food delivery. So I have to go to the receptionist to get it. And the receptionist told me that Applebee restaurant do the delivery. However, I can't find the phone number. I called her to ask for the phone numbers, but it took her a long time and she never returned the call. Instead, I searched the phone number from the internet. And when I called Applebee, they told me that they don't do delivery! What a crappy hotel with crappy service! (There is no laundry and no gym room in this hotel either). I ended up order some Chinese food from another restaurant.
June 13, 2005(Monday)
I woke up a bit early today to fill in the gas, had breakfast and return the rental car. And then I arrived to Cisco at 9:20 for the class that will start at 10. When I opened the equipment rack that CTT shipped to me, I was quite in shock. Previously, when the equipment rack is shipped, there is always loose cables and loose screw. However, the situation this time is much worse. Not only are the cables disconnected, the screws, even the equipments (routers, switches) are falling apart. It takes a long time to find the power cables, and two of the equipments even have the memory that is mounted inside the routers fell off. CTT originally asked me to assemble and configure the rack two weeks ago. However, since Carmen needs to take a flight back to Vancouver at that time, I passed this opportunity. Therefore, CTT hired a technician to do the work for them. That technician did a terrible job in mounting the equipment physically. I have to un-mount half of the equipment in order to get thing started. Not only that, the equipment is not configured right, without the right labels and without the right software. Therefore, I spent most of the days trying to get everything straight so that the students can get started for their lab. Whoever did this job should be fired immediately! He gave me lots of trouble for me to overcome.
Usually the first day of the class, the students and I needs to get acquaintance with each other. With all these trouble, in additional to the material that I need to teach, it is difficult. However, my experience in Virginia bootcamp in January 10 (I missed first half of the day because of connecting flight problem) is even worse. Therefore, I always shared this story with my students. I am glad that everything went well by the end of the day. However, the routers are all lying on the grounds, so I need to spend some time tomorrow to make sure everything is really working fine, and also the lab for the second half of the course is ready too.
The lecture itself is going fine. People enjoyed my energetic and humorous style. I ended the class at 5pm and let them work on the lab until 6:30. I returned home at 7. Since I have no car and the restaurant is about 20 mins walk away, I stayed at the hotel instead. Very boring.
June 12, 2005(Sunday)
There is a two hours difference between Miami and Denver. Therefore, I woke up automatically at 7:40 this morning (9:40 Miami time). I had jet lag! Usually I am proud of myself that I am not affected by jet lag. I can wake up anytime and sleep anytime. However, I do not want to go back to sleep at 7:40 because I don't want to sleep-in (originally I planned to wake up at 8).
Since I am ahead of the schedule, I went to buy lots of grocery (see my photo homepage for the items). Lots of those. And then, I went to the church called "Grace Church Aurora". Yesterday when I searched for the church, I wanted to search for a large church because I don't want to go to a small church like what I did last time in NY (May 27,05). However, there is no large church around this neighborhood, therefore, I drove about 15 mins to this church, hoping that this is not a too small church. It turned out that there are about 100 people attended the worship, which is three times larger than the "Church For All Nation" in NY. Anyway, the website said that there will have meeting at 9:30. Therefore, I rushed the grocery-purchasing process and arrived to church at 9:30. I always HATE to be late for Sunday Worship. However when I was there, there are only 10 cars there. It turned out that 9:30 is the meeting for Sunday School! As I was typing this online diary, I just found out that I went to another church, not the one that I research yesterday. Weird. I wonder where the church that I research yesterday went.
Anyway, the worship starts at 10:45, so I went to 7-11 to have hot dog and chocolate milk for breakfast. Today is VBS (Vacational Bible School) Sunday. Therefore, we watched the video for the VBS week. There was a bit singing and I felt good to sing some songs that I am familiar (He is my maker, Open the eyes of my heart). For some strange reason, there is communion today too. There was no sermon, but the pastor took a long long time to explain communion. It was so boring, and I was so tired, that I fall asleep. I tried to stay up but I am sleeping obviously. There are two or three people shake my hand, and that's about it. It is good for a church-goer like me to be a new comer, because I can experience what a new comer feels like: being ignored.
The church ended at 12:15 and I drove to Colorado Spring. This is about 1.5 hours drive. When I first arrived Denver yesterday, I have no idea what is a good place to see. Therefore I went to the information counter and they highly recommended me visiting the Garden of the gods (I do not use capital "g" for this "gods"). They said that this is a beautiful place so I drove a long way there. I tried to take some photo of the highway, but it is quite dangerous to do so. The highway is like #1 highway in BC after passing through Abbotsford. Actually, the scene is much better in BC!
I visited the US Air Force Academy that is on the way. The feeling I have is that they are cool and discipline. May be I should join the air force if I were young. I finally arrived to the "Garden of the gods" at 3:00pm. There are several big HUGE red stones like a mountain sticking out. The neighborhood area is pretty nice. However, being a citizen of the Beautiful British Columbia, it does not justify my time (4 hours return trip) and money (well, CTT will pay the gas) to come to this place. (The beautiful scenery is one of the few things that I will praise about Vancouver). I had a 40 mins afternoon nap in the parking lot, to signify that I am there.
The weather is mostly sunny today, except some thunderstorm during the Sunday Worship. However, as I drove back to Denver, it rained pretty badly for about 20 mins. The rain once got so worse that even I drove really cautiously! And in one occasion, the water all splash to my wind shield and I absolutely cannot see the front for about 2 seconds. At that time, I have to look at the left hand side to make sure that I am staying on track! Those 2 seconds seems like a long period! I have never seen that before! It does not really look like that a car drive over water pool and splash water to me. It must be some other unknown reason.
I only ate some fast food (three times Subway, once McDonald) in the last three days. Even I have enough of fast food or even western food! I am starving to death and hence I found a Chinese restaurant and ate the "HK style" NY Sirloin steak. I am very full after the dinner!
June 11, 2005(Saturday)
Carmen called me last night at 2am (11pm her time). We have not talked for ages (more than 1 day) and we missed each other. Sometimes, when I was awakening at night, I may have a hard time waking up in the morning. However, I am glad that I can wake up this morning at 5. And then, I took a 2 hours flight from Miami to Dallas and a 1.5 hours flight from Dallas to Denver. I arrived to Denver at noon local time (2pm Miami time).
Usually CTT does not permit their instructor to rent a car (I have no idea why). However, they gave me a permission to rent a car so that I don't have to hide inside the hotel room for the whole day tomorrow. Therefore, I rented a car today. Last time I rented a car in Boston (Oct 18 - 24, 2004) for about $795.94. That's why, they are only willing to pay for $75 this time. I rented the cheapest car for two days. Including all insurance, it costs $133.99. So I will pay the exceeded amount, but I will try to make this up from other places.
The Denver airport and highway is much simpler than Boston's airport and highway, but I still got a bit lost when I left the airport. After 30 mins drove, I parked the car and started my walking tour. My way of traveling is differ from Carmen's. I would only look at the big picture and would satisfy with just skimming through the area. However, Carmen is much more detail than me and she loves to check the places that she is interested. This pattern of traveling works well in the last few trips because I usually have one day to visit (because I have to work during the weekday) but Carmen got a full week to visit. Anyway, I tried to slow down myself somewhat during today's tour.
I walked along the 16th Street Mall. Similar to Miami Beach's Lincoln Street, there is lots of good shop on two sides of the road and people are walking and enjoying the sunshine. However, this place is not as crowded but the street is much longer (over 10 blocks). I went to some sport shops that Hansel wishes to visit, such as Nike Town and ESPN zone. I also went to the Pepsi Center and Coor Fields where NBA and MLB team plays here. I also checked some modern shop that Carmen would love to visit. I also walked by the Six Flags Elitch Garden with lots of exciting games inside (but I would not play it).
By the time I am about to return, it rained badly outside. But I am glad that I am just right by the "Barnes and Nobles
" Bookstores located at Pavilions so I went inside to read books for 20 mins until rain stopped. The tour today is a very relax one (I walked slow and ate lunch and dinner during the tour) and lasted from 1:30 to 7:20.
After driving additional 30 mins, I returned to the hotel "Best Western". I am very lucky this time to find the hotel without getting lost at all. The hotel room is relatively large but there is almost no facility. There is a swimming pool, but there is no gym room and there is no laundry service. It sucks.
At night, I updated my photo and on-line diary homepage and organized myself for almost 3 hours!
In general, I have a positive image about Denver. This is not a big city like New York or Chicago. However, it is slightly larger than Indianapolis (the capital city of Indiana State) and definitely more interesting than Bloomington (where I will stay for the next four years). Therefore, if I live here and people came to visit me, at least, I can show them where is Six Flags and where is Colorado Spring (I will go there tomorrow). The environment is new and clean, the people are nice, and the weather of today is good (sunny most of the time, except a bit rain). I have seen some Korean here opening gift shops but I have not yet seen any Chinese. (I do not mind about this as much as Carmen). In terms of the living condition, I would not mind to stay here for a longer term (such as several years). Let's see whether I will change my mind after more visit in the next few days.
June 10, 2005(Friday)
Today I gave the students some lab exercise to do to simulate the real CCIE lab. Therefore, I don't really have to interact with them today. I am so free today to do whatever I like! I went with them to go to lunch. They also gave me a perfect evaluation like last time, which I don't think I really deserve it because I did not do anything or spend any time with them. However, probably they have already treated me like good friends and I have known them for a long time (actually, only for a month, but it feels like ages), therefore, they gave me a perfect evaluation again. However, I can see that this time, none of them elaborate on anything, other than commenting that I am "excellent".
I also did something that I have never done before - resigning! I have worked on many different jobs, such as, tutoring, delivering flyers, teaching violin, TRIUMF, CTF System, Glenayre, TELUS and now DESCA. The real jobs are the last three. And I was laid off from Glenayre and TELUS. It certainly was shocked and not pleasant to receive the laid off letter. This time, finally, I resign! It felt so weird. Originally I wanted to talk to the owner of the company Jorge. However, he is not there, so I talked to the second-in-command Gerardo (the one that asked me to go to Mexico to work last year). I walked into his room at 5:40 (because he was meeting and busy before this time) and told him that, instead of having a one year contract, I would like to have a 3 months contract. I told him that I will go to IU to study PhD afterward. I also asked about the CCIE certificate situation. I hinted that if I cannot get my CCIE certification back (according to Cisco's rule, if I resign, my CCIE status has to be with the previous company for 12 months. So I am just asking for mercy here) then I would like to lease my CCIE status to Desca. He said that he has to discuss this with Jorge and Mario. He said that he prefer me not only lease my status to Desca but also worked several hours a week. He said that he needs to find someone to replace me. Actually, from a Desca's perspective, there is no need to replace me, because I practically did no engineering related thing for Desca in the last 10 months and I did not do a lot during my three years in Desca. Of course I did not tell him about this (and I hope that he is not reading my diary, which I think he should not be aware about this anyway).
And then, I talked to the CTT general manager Eliecer. I worked really hard (is it?) for CTT for the last 10 months and I achieved an excellent feedback every time. I told him about the end of my contract and my desire to study PhD. He invited me to teach for CTT one week per month. I told him that my priority at that time will be my PhD degree. Therefore, one week per two months is maximum, but I made it clear that I would love to do any online thing. At the end, he thanked for my hard work and emphasize that we are friends. I can truly feel that CTT are being good to me. Even though I had a lot of hard time with CTT's slowness during the first three courses last year, CTT really tried hard to please me. They allow me to bring Carmen with me and this is a big plus! In addition, I will go to Denver early tomorrow. They let me rent a car (which none of the other instructors get this privilege) for sight-seeing!
I spent time in the hotel doing exercise or going online in the last few nights. Therefore, I decided to go to the Dolphin Mall tonight. My student drove me to and from the Dolphin Mall. I recall the time that I spent with Carmen in this mall. I returned to the hotel at 10:10.
June 09, 2005(Thursday)
I let them worked on the lab completely today. And I did not do anything, other than reading "One Piece" from online comic for several hours. Life is surely easy so far.
I had lunch with Semson/Ana's daughter Jenny and her family today. Semson previously told me that I should take some photo of them, because whenever someone else took photo for them, their head either got chopped or their body is cut in half, i.e. no good photo. Therefore, my mission is to take several good photos for them.
At night, I am really bored, so I watched TV. I certainly turn on TV. However, lately, when I do exercise in the hotel gym room, I watched the NBA basketball. And tonight, I even watched the NBA basketball (San Antonio Spur vs. Detroit Piston for the NBA final) in my room! One of the very few times that I switched on TV.
June 08, 2005(Wednesday)
I had the online mentoring session for the Denver group. It only lasts for 20 mins and it was very light. I also went back to hotel to have afternoon nap, just like what I did in the last few days. I also discover some very valuable thing to me - free online comic! Therefore, during the afternoon, while my students were doing the lab, I read the "One Piece" comic!
At night, I went to Luisa home to meet her and her new born baby. I met Luisa in Venezuela's Baptist church, and she went to Miami 1.5 years ago.
June 07, 2005(Tuesday)
The work is quiet today. The students work on the lab quietly and I did not really spend time with them. During lunch time, I went to the post office to mail stuff to Indiana. Also, I ordered a lot of sushi and sashimi for dinner last night. Probably because it is too much, or not so clean, then my stomach is hurting a bit. It feels much better now, but I must control my "luxury" dinner and not over-eat it.
Today I also edited Carmen's diary. I saved her diary because I learnt the lesson from Hansel (his diary is deleted by Angeltown.com in May 8 without any notification). I have also saved mine too.
I continued to go to the gym and ran at night. I am making sure that I will be healthy.
June 06, 2005(Monday)
I went to CTT to teach the course today, the CCIE Week #3. It is the same three students who have given me two perfect evaluations before. I am friend with them now. For this week, I purchased Internetwork Expert workbook and rented online lab for them to use. Therefore, after getting over the first 30 mins of settling, I essentially let them worked on their own. Therefore, I have nothing much to do for the rest of the day. However, I must physically be here because I am an instructor. Or else, I would love to go to the Miami Beach again! This will pretty much be the pattern for the remaining of the week.
June 05, 2005(Sunday)
I went to church for Sunday Worship this morning. Church is usual, but it is not usual to me because Carmen is not here. Then they have the gift survey. There are about 100 questions. Pastor Chan has to explain each one carefully, with translation to Spanish too. The old people are misunderstanding and have no idea what is going on. For the first few questions, each question takes about 5 mins to explain. It is hopelessly slow, although it speeded up a bit after several questions. Due the flight, I left at 12:20, when he only revealed 12 questions.
Instead of taking taxi, Che So said that Eric (Che So daughter's boy friend) can use her car to drive me to the airport. Actually, I prefer to take the taxi because I can claim the expense in US dollar with the official exchange rate (for every 2150Bs I spend in Venezuela, I can receive one US dollar, which can buy 2800 Bs. So I make about 30% more!) However, since they really want to drive me, so I let them to drive me to the airport.
The line up in the AA counter is not long. However, my AA agent is a trainee. Therefore, he needs to check with his supervisor about my unusual status - I only have a temporarily working visa. Even though I have been traveled back and forth for so many times, they still need to check about my status. That delayed some times. This time, I am bringing a big computer box (with personal stuff, such as Hansel's CD player, rice cooker, computer hard drive, clothes to ship to Indiana) plus other luggage. Last time, they opened the boxes and luggage in the airport's cargo area. This time, they only check it in the AA counter. The checking is fine and the agent did a very un-thorough job. I don't think that she only check the top 1/3 of the box. I have no complaint though.
The flight going to Miami is fine. However, the flight is having some problem descending to Miami. It was very unstable at that time. As far as I can observe, it is neither thunder-storming nor raining badly. May be there is strong wind, but I cannot observe it. I am glad that we made the rough landing.
The normal 40-mins line up for the US custom is non-existence. However, the luggage claim is very slow. It takes them 40 mins (which even the time that I saved from the custom) to get the luggage out. After I took the black luggage, I can't find the big computer box. I walked around and it turned out that it is lying on the corridor. It is not opened though. I don't know who take it there, but I am glad that I find it, or else I will be waiting here forever for the box.
When I am leaving the airport, some taxi driver approaching me and asked me whether I need taxi. This is extremely unusual in US, and I think that this is illegal. This kind of soliciting happens all the time in Venezuela, but I have never encountered it in US. Anyway, I did not take taxi this morning, and Carmen is not going with me in this business trip so I don’t' need to be as cost-conscious. Therefore, I took taxi. He asked me the destination, I told him, and he said that the price should be $25. I bargained with $20 and he accepted it immediately. (Actually, I think that an $18 may do as well, given the travel now is very cleared). I hate the bargain process in Venezuelan airport because I have to do it in Spanish. I wish that I can engage more in this English bargaining process.
I returned to Hampton Inn at 8:30. I went out to find food immediately. However, the Japanese restaurant and the Deli that Carmen and I have been many times have closed. The only thing that remained opened is the Pizza hut and also gas station. Therefore, I only get myself some "mild" hot wings and instant cup noodle. I went back to the room but internet connection is not up. Therefore, I have to go to the cafeteria to use wireless connection to check email.
Before marriage, I used to go to several business trips and I am very independent. However, after marriage, Carmen has accompanied me to go to about seven business trip. Therefore, this time I am quite lonely. The AA check in process, time spent on the flight, hotel check in process and eating dinner reminds me about her. This makes me think more about her than last week when I was alone in Venezuela. I hope that CTT approves Carmen to go to Denver with me next week. Or else, it will be another lonely trip. But I will see Carmen in three weeks in Europe. So it will not be too bad.
June 04, 2005(Saturday)
Last time when we went to tennis in May 7, it rained really badly. Therefore, I don't want to use tennis as my sole exercise today. Therefore, I went to Parque del Este for a normal 48 mins jog. Afterward, Paco needs to go out. And Siu Ling needs to clean the house and also cook food. Therefore, I was assigned to take care of baby Leon. I have to do it immediately without practicing violin after shower. At that time, Jingxi also around bugging me. Therefore, I experienced how a father is with two kids. I have to hold Leon the whole time. When I put him on the bed, he cried. To make it worse, Jingxi was around me and always want to talk to me or bug me. When I asked him to do something, he just became impatient easily. It is quite similar to the time when my dad recorded the tape for me and Hansel when I was 6 years old at that time. I tried to use all sort of tricks that my dad and mom used when I was that age. When I was emailing Carmen, I have to hold Leon using my left hand. And Jingxi was standing on the chair that I was sitting and climbing on me. It is very hard to concentrate. I finally got a taste of a housewife.
Paco always limits the time that Jingxi uses to eat. Today, I use the same technique and asked Jingxi to finish his lunch by 1:20. I use an addition technique: for every minute that it takes for him to finish the lunch, he has to stand for one minute. It turns out that Jingxi finished the food by 1:27 so he has to stand until 1:40.
I went with the Baptist Church people to tennis at University of Simeon Bolivar in the afternoon from 3 to 6. There are quite a lot of people went there. Therefore, in the first 30 mins, I went to have another jog. And then, I played tennis the full force. I only lost one or two matches, but won almost 20 matches. Of course the opponents are not too good. But I did play very well today and ran around fast. They were amazed that I am very energetic.
At night, they went to my house for dinner and committee meeting. Paco and Siu Ling cooked for them.
June 03, 2005(Friday)
I getting myself familiar with the rental lab so that I can practice for next week's CCIE course. It takes a long time to understand how everything this rental lab supposed to work. However, I will not be able to use the same rental lab next week because of availability. So I need to learn the new method to access to the lab again. In addition, the network was down several times today. Being a Cisco consultant company, we have both the internet and the telephone hooked up to the router. Therefore, having a network down means that there is no way to communicate to other people, other than using cell phone. None of us is able to do anything. The power outage lasted for almost four hours so I took lunch in the middle of it.
CTT purchased the Internetwork Expert lab workbook. I asked the receptionist to photocopy the book yesterday. However, the photocopy company did not come yesterday so if we asked them to make the photocopy today, it will not be able to return by the end of today. Therefore, I asked not to photocopy the workbook. However, there is someone in the company saw this workbook lying on the receptionist's desk and asked the receptionist to make 6 copies for the Desca's class. He said that this is a company book. So the receptionist sent the book to the photocopy company without notified me. This book belongs to CTT and I need to bring it back next week for the CCIE course. It is ok if he is polite enough to ask me about this. However, without doing so, I felt offended and asked the reception to take this book back from the photocopying company. My face must be quite ugly and annoying when I am talking to that person.
I do not have the patient and the idea to work on the lab. Somehow something just does not work. Therefore, I will just look at the answer key next week and then try to elaborate on it in front of the students.
The first Friday of the month is the church prayer meeting night. So I went to church at night.
June 02, 2005(Thursday)
I went to Parque del Este for a run in the lunch time. Work is quite quiet because I have not yet received the rental time to practice on next week's lab. I have the questions and the answer key from the Internetwork Expert so this is not a big deal if I am not able to practice. However, I still wish that I can have some time practicing on the lab tomorrow. Let's see what will happen.
At night, I went home teaching Jingxi English and Math. I taught him how to count from 1 to 12, and how to say head, nose, ear, eye, mouth, hand. He has a good memory and he learnt fast. Also, it reminds me how my dad used to teach me English and math when I was his age (about 5 or 6 years old).
June 01, 2005(Wednesday)
I finally have a full day of work today. I had the Denver CVoice #2 online session in the morning. In addition, I received the Internetwork Expert CCIE lab workbook today. Rather than creating the lab myself for next week's CCIE course, I will use this workbook as the course material. That reduced my time of preparation. However, we will use online lab rental and so I need to make sure that the online lab renting is going fine. However, there is problem with the online lab rental, so I have to follow up and make sure that thing would work out next week. I spend the night reading some lab workbook so that my student would not think that I just ask them to do the lab while I have nothing else to do.
Before my marriage, I always stay late at work (until about 7pm) because I have nothing much to do at home. When Carmen arrived to Venezuela, I always went home early, such as 5:30 or 6 so that I can spend more time with her. However, today I was at work until 7:10 again because there is nothing much that I need to do at home. (Actually, I need to read the Internetwork Expert CCIE lab workbook).
I went home at night and has nothing much to do. I learnt the cuardo (the Venezuelan style four-string guitar) and also taught Jingxi (the proper way to write Paco's son KinHey in English) how to play cuardo. For a young kind like Jingxi, you either make him really interested in this musical instrument or make him feel not interested anymore, or else he will come and take this instrument periodically and make a mess of it.