My Life at March 2007
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March 31, 2007(Saturday)
This morning I taught the last class of baptismal class. And then since we will have a new deacon board soon, we went to the bank to change signature. And then we had a budget meeting for the new term and we went to have dinner with church friends because some previous church people that went to Chicago to work return to Bloomington to have baptism tomorrow, so we had dinner together. This is a buffet dinner. I did not eat a lot because I ate too much last time when we went to Texas. So I must control myself when I eat buffet. Also, the food here is not as tasty as the one in Texas so there is not much urge for me to eat a lot.
March 30, 2007(Friday)
Today I worked on the PhD project, and also played badminton and ping pong for 3 hours. At night we had a visitation program and we had dinner with Ah Ku, who used to go to church but now too busy to go. It is good to have this kind of unstructured dinner chatting once in a while.
March 29, 2007(Thursday)
I had meeting with professors this morning again regarding about the PhD project on health care. And for the rest of the day, I was doing homework, busy as usual. I also went to prayer meeting. The prayer meeting most of the time has only three couples: us, Shangmin/Tanyue and Daniel/Yangching. We are all in around the same age and same stage in life and same spiritual condition. Either the husband or wife is the deacon or the other half is the group leader. So this is like a cell group for us, even though they all speak Mandarin. So I communicate with them in English. We hope that in the future there will have more couples to join the church so that they can help out on the church stuff too.
March 28, 2007(Wednesday)
I donated blood today. This is my fourth time to donate since I came to Bloomington. I think that I have donated about 7 times in Vancouver too. Other than that, today is a quiet day. No appointment and no church stuff. Very quiet and peaceful and relaxing. Carmen and I took this opportunity to walk around outside after dinner, especially the weather is so nice.
March 27, 2007(Tuesday)
I went to some help session offered by the International Service Center to help me to do the tax form. I did both mine and Carmen. Terribly, we have to pay $1000+ tax. I went through 2.5 hours of tedious hard work and the outcome is to pay more tax. So frustrating and depressing. We are low-income family already and still have to pay so much tax. But at least, not as bad as Canada.
March 26, 2007(Monday)
I went to gym (again) to do some light workout (since yesterday it was very relaxing). I also worked on the homework from the simulation class for 5 hours too. This is the second last homework, and this particular homework is not that bad because it does not require as much programming as previous homework does. Here is my iternary for traveling to Dallas for POMS conference:
May 04, 07 (Fri)
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AA 809 IND - DFW
07:15 - 08:25
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May 05, 07 (Sat)
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AA 508 DFW - IND
19:40 - 22:45
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March 25, 2007(Sunday)
Today is the last day of the "Answer" series for the Sunday School. I chose this video for the Sunday School because it addresses many interesting questions. For example, trinity, salvation is once-and-for-all, how Christian should view government/money/marriage, different religions or cults. Even though the video does not go into very deep for the questions, I still think that this is a good try. Nicky led the Sunday School for the last couple of months. He will stop teaching because he will move to Chicago to work.
The weather today is awesome. Sunny and warm. Therefore, I cannot resist but to go out to have a jog. For the last several months, I kept on running inside a gym on a treadmill. I ran three times each time I go to the gym: 14.5mins, 14.5mins and 8mins. I also do weight lifting as well. Running indoor is both physically and mentally demanding, because I have to keep the same pace all the time, and I just want to get over it. However, it is also very productive. Running outside, on the other hand, is much more relaxing. Not only that I can look at the scene, I can also run at a slower or faster pace if I feel like to. With much less restriction, it is not as productive, but still very relaxing. I felt very mentally relaxing (but still physically demanding) after the run. I love running besides a huge grass field. My mood felt very good after the run, because it is very relaxing and the weather is so nice.
At night, Carmen and I went out for dinner. However, it is time to turn away from the relax mode because there is homework again.
March 24, 2007(Saturday)
This morning I helped my professor Seb to proctor an exam from 8:45 to 11am. Then I went home to sleep because I am too tired. Then I taught the baptismal class and also attended the fellowship magazine meeting. At night, we invited the family of Barrick to our home to eat. Barrick helped us a lot when we first arrived to Bloomington. Now he is an instructor at Chinese University and so it is a good gesture to invite his family to have dinner with us. His two boys (age 5 and 6) are really energetic.
March 23, 2007(Friday)
This morning, I drove Carmen to work. And then I drove my school friend Wenbin to the driving center so that he can take the driving written test. And then we went back to department to have a meeting with the business PhD department head. He is actually the professor that I am working with now, but since that this year is his first time to be the PhD department head, he wants to meet PhD students of all departments. He is new to other students but he knows me already. Yet it is good to hear the perception of the PhD program from other students.
In the afternoon, we played badminton. And then we went to fellowship. One of our group member Andy's parents came over to visit Andy. I had dinner with them past Tuesday. Since the father is a professor at Chinese University's religious department, we invited him to give us a talk on the book of Acts, because we will study this book in the coming semester. And then at night Carmen and I had some sharing time with our group's Chi fu and Auau.
March 22, 2007(Thursday)
In the morning I phoned CTT about future possibility for teaching for them.
I have the game theory take home mid-term from today to next Monday. I worked on this today. However, I feel that my brain is not too prepared or warm up. If he asks the question a month ago, I feel much more prepared. Now I need to get myself ready again. At night we went to prayer meeting as usual.
March 21, 2007(Wednesday)
I had dinner with Howard Fang and had deacon board meeting at night. He is about 50+ years old and will be our church's vice president starting May 2007. I will be the church president. Since I don't know much, and he has been serving in different churches for a long time (he is not a pastor, but a long time experienced Christian, like Hubert-of-year-2030), I am treating him like my mentor. we had dinner together and get to know each other better. I also talked to him about some problems that our church is facing now. We have deacon board and church president, but we don't really have a leader or a spiritual leader. I am grateful that he can serve in the deacon board. Even though I am the president and he is the vice president, I would treat him as the advisor instead and ask for his advises from time to time. This is one of the very few instances in my serving life that I am able to have someone to learn from. Not that I am very pride, but I am living in an environment that I am usually the most mature person in the group. For example, in Canaan fellowship, or the teenager fellowship in FCGC, or serving in Venezuela (Semson and Ana are great mentor, but they are spiritual mentor, not "church management/serving" mentor).
I have been serving in many different positions, and I do have confident to do a good job in these positions. But this time, as a church president, I feel that I lack many thing and experience. People around me lack the experience too. I speak Cantonese while more than 60% of the people speak Mandarin in church. Also the congregations have strong opinion so I can't do whatever thing that I like. I am glad that I have this "lack of something" feeling. I hope to learn a lot and do a good job.
March 20, 2007(Tuesday)
After school and work out, at night I went to have dinner with a church friend Andy and his parents. The father is a professor at the Chinese University's Religious department. It is good to share with the spiritual elder about the need of the church.
March 19, 2007(Monday)
I have to go back to school after spring break. However, life is not that bad because I don't have the homework from the simulation class yet. I can still survive fine. After class, we went to a church friend "Auau" music clarinet recital. We also helped her to prepare some food. At night, we went back home and have hot pot. Enjoy a quiet night.
March 18, 2007(Sunday)
After trip, I just HAVE TO do something in order to calm down myself and call myself back home. These things include work out/running, update webpage, clean up / organize stuff. I am glad that I spent some times today and complete all these. I feel so much more relieve afterward.
March 17, 2007(Saturday)
We slept at 1:30 last night, and I woke up at 7:45. Then we departed Houston at 8:20. We drove 18 hours back to Bloomington. I drove 4.5 hours during the trip and others drove the rest. We estimated that, during the last 8 days, we spent 50 hours inside the car, for 3000 miles. This is a very long trip and we are glad that we arrived home in one piece. We returned home at 3:45 am.
March 16, 2007(Friday)
This morning we went to a Chinese Christian bookstore to buy lots of stuff. There is no Chinese Christian bookstore in Bloomington. We got lots of thing! Also, the bookstore gave us almost 10 free books, plus a 10% discount! Totally, we bought about US$520 after discount!
We had "sea south chicken rice" as lunch. Then after lunch, we went to the Toyota Center (Houston Rocket NBA team home count) and wanted to buy thing from the souvenir store. However, the souvenir store is closed. Hence we only took several photos outside. Then we went to Galleria shopping mall to walk around for 2 hours.
At night, we went to eat some seafood restaurant for dinner. Then we went to some Taiwanese "small eat" place to eat Mongo/Strawberry/watermelon ice/ice-cream. We ate too much lately and we are too full! Time to have more exercise!
March 15, 2007(Thursday)
This morning we went to eat HK style breakfast. And then we went to an amusement park at Keman. We played the pirate ship there. Last time I played was 1990 and I puked after playing last time. This time was even worse. Originally I don't really want to play, but I gave a try anyway. I thought that it won't be that bad. However, it was the worst experience I have! When I was playing, the centrifugal force made me really scary. Even worse, my hand and feet (in fact, most of my body) got numb. I just couldn't move an inch. Afterward, I had very serious motion sickness. I don't have any motion sickness when I took flight or boat. However, I am totally overwhelmed this time. I just couldn't stand up straight. Nor lie down straight. I have to bend my whole body. The last time I had this experience was 1992 before I removed my appendix. I am so grateful for Carmen to take care me the whole process. She helped me to sit down, walk or stand up. However, this tough experience lasted for 3 hours. I ate motion sickness pill 2 hours after the incident, but before boarding the car. During the car ride, I almost became unconscious. But I can think of Jesus at that time and asked Him to save me!
After three hours, I finally recovered. We went to a beach at Galveston and took many photos. At night, we went to eat dinner with Nicky's cousin. We are staying with them during the last few days.
March 14, 2007(Wednesday)
This morning we went to San Antonio's Alamo. This is a previous war site, about the independency of the Texas. We were there from 10 to 2. And then when we get back to the car, we found out that the car got break in. However, he only stole the radar detector. None of our other luggage, such as laptop, is stolen. The thief must be in a hurry. Nevertheless, we reported to the police and let him interviewed us.
Then we went to San Marcos outlet to do shopping. At that time, I was doing the PhD project and studying homework as well. At night, we drove for two more hours to Houston. We enjoyed a nice HK style dinner. However, I ordered an iron-plate steak, but there is no iron-plate. And then we went to Nicky's cousin’s house to stay over night.
March 13, 2007(Tuesday)
This morning we left Dallas at 9:20 and arrived Austin at almost 1pm. Our previous church friend Jo is now living in Austin so we went there to visit her. We had some Taiwanese lunch and bubble tea snack. Frank, one of our groups, has serious toothache lately, probably because he is growing wisdom teeth. So we are trying to help him to find dentist, but not able to find yet.
We also went to visit University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). This is a very good school, in the rank of IU's business school. If I can get a job there, I would make my whole department proud. We walked around the business school, and I can't spot anything exciting. I can feel that when I am touring others to walk my office, they would not feel anything exciting either.
We then went to visit the Capitol building of Texas. (Austin is the capital city of Texas). One of our members Joe was running and jumping off the stair and the police/security gave him a warning. Today is also a raining day too so we got ourselves wet. At night we had dinner with Jo's church friends and her family at a place called Rudy. There is a lot of BBQ meat, sausage, and cream corn. Very western style. Once again, we are all full. I am determined not to eat too much in the coming few days.
At night we drove for another hour to arrive to San Antonio. We checked in at a motel. After staying at other people's house for two nights, it is good to have our own privacy space again. I can understand when the stranger (Andy, Enoch, Ah Kin were all stranger to us before they stay at our house) came to live in our house for a few days.
March 12, 2007(Monday)
We had enough sleep today finally. We went to cowboy town today and went to different shops. This is quite a nice place. We also went to Dallas Theological Seminary too. This is a very famous seminary, but too bad I don't see any famous people. At night, we went to eat Japanese sushi buffet. Since there is no good Japanese restaurant in Bloomington, I ate too much. Really too much and all of us feel very full! And then we went to Wal-Mart to walk around, mostly to help digest the food.
March 11, 2007(Sunday)
Since last night 8pm, we drove for 14 hours to Texas Dallas. The four male in the car are responsible for driving. However, I only drove for less than 2 hours. Probably because I am not good at staying awake at night. We had some good sharing time and I slept for a long time.
We arrived there at 10am. And then we attended the Arlington Chinese Church for Chinese worship this morning. This is the church that Joyce and Nicky used to go to. And then we went to eat Vietnamese food. And it tastes pretty good. WE went back to the friend of Joyce to take a nap. We stayed there tonight and tomorrow night. And then we went to see "Cirque du Soleil" circus at night. We have seen this kind of circus August 2005. We went to see it again and it is quite amazing. Then we had some Taiwanese food and went back home to rest.
March 10, 2007(Saturday)
This morning I attended an info session about "Jesus in Bloomington" project. The idea is to let each of the international students (about 5000 of them) to have the "Jesus" video. I am representing my church to go. This sounds like a very interesting idea and I hope that this would really work out.
Then I helped to drive some church friends to airport. And went home to take a nap.
In the next 14 hours, Carmen and I will have a road trip with Nicky, Joyce, Frank, Joe and go to Texas. I hope that the trip will be safe.
March 09, 2007(Friday)
I played badminton and also went to fellowship at night. However, I am also busy working with the PhD paper. Probably because I will be out of town for the next few days so I need to work hard now. I do not really have the mood of holiday yet.
March 08, 2007(Thursday)
Since I have a meeting today with professor, I work hard afterward. Originally I have a holiday mood (since Spring break is coming up soon). However, after the meeting, I am very busy and need to work hard again.
March 07, 2007(Wednesday)
Even though I did not spend a lot of time study today, I am still quite productive. I wrote a document about what I did this year as a fellowship/education deacon. I also write an article for the fellowship magazine. I also work on my school work as well. And went to workout too.
At night, group people went to our home for dinner and then have a meeting about the future of our groups. I can sit back and relax. Give some opinion sometimes. Like an advisor.
March 06, 2007(Tuesday)
After twisting the ankle in Jan 2 when playing basketball, Hansel said that I should rest for 8 weeks before playing basketball again. It has been 2 months now, so I played for 1.5 hours basketball today again. However, between these two dates, I have been running/biking for 15.3 hours (total 22 times), badminton 5 or 6 times and ski/snowboard twice. So not much of a complete rest, but still it is a rest to the ankle.
March 05, 2007(Monday)
I ran several computer codes during the past few days (total over 40 hours computation time!) and showed the result to the professors. He says that we can change the base case to have nicer results. With the 30 mins conversation, I spent about 4 hours rewriting my code and I will run another 30 to 40 hours of computation time! This is all for the project! This is the nice thing about being the professor: to look at the big picture and give comment to PhD student, and the PhD student does all the work. I want to graduate soon.
March 04, 2007(Sunday)
After Sunday school and Sunday worship, we went back home for a rest. And then at night we went to Nicky and Joyce's house for hot pot with church's friend. This is a good gathering and we also have about 3 hours sharing as well. We have 14 people so the time (3 hours) is about right.
March 03, 2007(Saturday)
Today is a super relaxing day. I went to Border Bookstore to read comic "Tennis prince" for 4 hours! And finished 5.5 books! I think that the school works are slow after I have done most of the simulation homework. What a relaxing time. I felt a bit unproductive though. However, I am sure that I will get back to the busy mood really soon. We also went to play badminton/table tennis for 1.5 hours too.
March 02, 2007(Friday)
I played badminton this afternoon again. it is good to have fun exercise, because running all the time is really bored. I also used two computers from the computer labs to run and help out for my PhD project.
At night, I led the Bible study. The last section of the book of Ephesians. And then we went out to have dinner with church friends.
March 01, 2007(Thursday)
I am not able to get further for my simulation homework, so I get back to my project and the Game Theory class again. Once in a while I am glad that I am able to have time to do something that is more fun and more important to my future Academia life. I also got the good news that Hansel passed his Chinese test for police test. We are all proud of him, because we know that he spent a lot of time studying for the last two years for this test. Let's see what his next step will be. He also praises God for passing the test!