Diary
My Life at June 2007
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June 30, 2007(Saturday)
We went to Central Park to have a walk in the morning. The Central Park of New York is a very famous place for jogging. In an expensive city like New York, there is a large park. It shows that people really cares health and environmental. We walked for 40 mins and saw a lot of people running. If Carmen and I are living here, we definitely will go for a run! We love this place!
We had lunch with our Vancouver church friend Salvior at China town. We ate at a Shanghai place where the "small basket bread" is very famous. It tastes really good, and I ate about 6 or 7 of them. Probably staying in Venezuela or Bloomington for the last two years make me treasure any Chinese food place!
Afterward Hansel/Fi and Carmen/I went to different places. We walked around China Town, Soho, NYU and slowly walked back to Times Square. I took a lot of rest in the bookstore while Carmen continue to walk at different stores. We walked alot today. And at night we went to Japanese restaurant to have dinner. The food is much better than yesterday, and cheaper too! I very much regret to eat at that bad tasting place yesterday.
June 29, 2007(Friday)
We left the hotel at 9:30 and went to the World Trade Center Site. There is nothing, other than a construction site. However, there are lots of people checking it and taking picture. I think that this will be the only construction site that people will take picture. We also went to Wall Street. I had been there before and knew that there is nothing special on the street. So I am not too disappointed. However, there are almost 10 police carrying large rifle walking around, and they told us that this is very normal! I guess that from now on US will be a very secure place! We then took a ferry to the Liberty Statue. Once again, we need to pay for $11.50 per person, simply for the ride to the Liberty Island. And I have to pay for $7 more if I want to go up to the Statue. Another way to take our money! We only take the cheaper one. Moreover, the security for getting onto the ferry is like getting on a plane! We have to go through the metal detector and remove our belt and other belonging! US from now on will forever be a place like this!
We went back to the Times Square to buy the ticket for tonight's show. At that time, I came up with an interesting research question: the ticket starts to be on sale at 3. If I come here at 2, I have to wait for an hour, but then I don't have to wait any further time. If I come here at 3, then I don't have to wait for the start of the sales, but I probably need to wait for 1 hour before it is my turn to have the ticket. So when I should come to reduce the waiting time? This probably requires some complicated math which I don't know, but I don't plan to work on it anyway.
We then walked around the area of the famous 5th Ave., visiting places such as NBA Store, Trump Tower, Nike Town, H&W and Sony store. At night, we went to see the musical play "Chicago". The movie-version of this musical has won some Oscar award, and I also like this musical play as well. Even though the ticket is quite expensive ($60 per person, even this is already half price), but I really enjoy it.
After some bad-taste Chinese food, we return home. The food is even worse than the one in Bloomington! I can't believe that I am eating such bad tasting thing in NY!
June 28, 2007(Thursday)
We left home at 5:40 and arrived to the airport at 6:45. Our flight is at 7:45 and usually that is plenty of time because Indy airport is not busy at all. However today the line up is extremely long! With only an hour, I am afraid that I may miss the flight. During that time I absolutely cannot look at the watch because otherwise I would be very "mum. However, I am glad that after lining up they called people flying to NY because there is not much time left. And there are a bunch of people in the same situation as us and we are glad that we can arrive to NY without any problem!
In order to save some money, we took public transportation (bus/train) from airport to the hotel. Just like Tokyo, the train station is old and there isn't much good elevator. Therefore, I carried the two luggage and walked up the stair! (of course, I don't want Carmen to carry any heavy thing). And the weather is pretty hot too, and I am quite tired by the time I arrive to the hotel, which takes us 1.5 hours.
We arrived to the hotel at noon, and the check-in time is 3pm. Therefore, we walked around Times Square and ate lunch there. We returned to the hotel and waited for Hansel and Fiona to arrive. We waited starting 3:15 because their flight arrives at 2pm. However, they arrive at 5:30pm, so I was reading paper at that time. Compare to HK, the environment and especially the efficiency of the US airport is not good at all. In fact, everything in HK is fast, and I enjoy the speed!
At night, we went to Times Square again for dinner and walked around "Toys R Us" and other places too. Since our hotel is about 10 mins walk from the "main area" (we are located on 38th St and between 10 and 11 Ave, and I consider after 8th Ave as a good place). Therefore at first Hansel and Fiona thought that NY is a crappy place, but then they were impressed or satisfied when they see Times Square. Carmen and I showed them around. We were very happy to see them again! We were there from 6:30 and returned to the hotel at 10:30.
June 27, 2007(Wednesday)
I helped Chris to move house for 2 hours during noon today. Then we went to the hospital to check the baby. We "start to have" the baby May 20 Sunday night. And today is 7 weeks 4 days (they use the start of the last period for calculation). The due day will be Feb 9, 2008. We had the ultra-sound, and able to hear the heart beat of the baby. That is quite interesting!
At night, we went to Barick's house for dinner. Then we also went to bookstore to read comic. We also started to pack up for the trip. I decide that I will not bring violin this time. This is a very few time (such as, first land to Canada in 1990 and trip to HK in 1994, and for last year visiting HK/Canada I have piano) that I don't have either piano or violin for the long time trip. I don't want to carry too many things, especially when Carmen is pregnant!
I also found out that there is someone that did some paper that is quite similar to mine. I think that I need to find some differences between the two!
June 26, 2007(Tuesday)
We spent the day to prepare dinner for the deacon board family. Carmen did most of the work, while I am responsible for cooking. We shared great news to them as well. We had great sharing.
June 25, 2007(Monday)
I had meeting with professors, about my second year project, and also my dissertation. Now my life has moved on to the research stage. It needs lots of discipline! Let's see how well I will do one year from now!
June 24, 2007(Sunday)
After fellowship today, we went to movie theatre to watch two movies: The Pirates of the Caribbean - at the world's end, and The Shrek 3. We had tried to watch 4 movies in a day and that was very tiring. So we just watched two this time. It is much better. However, I am the kind of person that is easily get very excited when watching movie, and very involve in the character. Therefore, I am not able to jump up and down when watching at the movie theatre. And I am not able to recover myself from the character when finish watching one movie. Nevertheless, we enjoy these two movies.
June 23, 2007(Saturday)
Today is an easy and relaxing day. Our fellowship friend Chris returned from HK and got some nice ping-pong racket. Therefore, after working out and running for 45 mins, I played ping pong with him for 2 hours. My shape is pretty good and I am able to hit the ball quite hard. However, by the end of the exercise, I am very tired.
Carmen also helped me to have a hair cut. We also watched the "Monster Inc" DVD.
June 22, 2007(Friday)
I handed in my qualifying exam today, and I am completely free now! Except that I will have meeting with professors next Monday about my project. I played badminton in the afternoon. Then we went to a church friend Fan Hong's house for dinner. She treated all the deacon and their families for dinner. After witnessing Carmen preparing dinner, I start to appreciate when people cook a lot of food and treat people for dinner. I remember dad used to cook a lot of food and I understand more about the work that involved.
There are a lot of people from our Cantonese group that is out of town during summer. There are only 4 people in our group showed up today. Therefore, tonight we went to a group member Auau's house to cook dinner (we did not eat, the purpose is for Carmen to teach her how to cook "bake pork rice"). Since I am not a chef, I am quite bored.
June 21, 2007(Thursday)
The deadline for submitting the qualifying exam is tomorrow, but I have enough such that I submitted that today. I am happy to get over with the exam! Actually I have done most of the exam by last week already. However, I am focusing on a PhD seminar question (which is, asking me to think about a question). I spent a lot of time in this question because I want to develop this to the dissertation. However, I did not succeed. I have a good topic but not relate to the specific of that question. Therefore, I just wrote something for the sake of the qualifying exam, and then write separately a good topic that I had in mind. Nevertheless, I am happy to have this over! Now this is full force to do my dissertation! People say that the next two years will be my only time that is able to fully dedicate to research. For the past two years, I have to work on course work. After graduate, I have to teach since I will be a professor. So I should enjoy the next two years. Let's see how true their saying is!
June 20, 2007(Wednesday)
I washed car today. I used to wash car quite often (at least once a month, and two cars each time) before I left Vancouver during 2002. Then I only wash car whenever I return to Vancouver. I purchased the current Camry car last August and today is my first time washing this car! I was busy with other things and finally I got the time to wash car! The weather is hot, and it feels excellent to wash car under the heat. However, I am a bit tired afterward, so when I was working out afterward, I don't have much energy.
June 19, 2007(Tuesday)
We did some major clean up at our home today. We purchased the computer in Venezuela during 2004. There is a lot of dust and I purchased some kind of "blower" to blow all the dust away. I also started to have a complete back up for all the files. I always save my files many copies, because I have lots of miserable experience with laptop crashing. We also had a short pre-study with Jacky. He will go to Chicago to meet some of the people from our group that has moved there last year. He wants to have some fellowship time with them and I suggested him to share using the Bible. At night, I had the deacon board meeting.
June 18, 2007(Monday)
I am brainstorming the qualifying exam question for Prof Seb. His exam question is just asked me to think of some research question and develop a model. I am working hard on it, and hopefully that this question can be evolved to the dissertation question. If so, then today is a very fruitful and productive day!
June 17, 2007(Sunday)
Today is another relaxing day. I start to organize the notes and books. The qualifying exam is towards its end so I am much more relax now. But I still need to stay productive. Yet I am learning to slow down and enjoy life. We went to read some comic at night and also shopped at the grocery store. I am still finding idea for the dissertation.
June 16, 2007(Saturday)
Life is normal, some studying, some exercising.
June 15, 2007(Friday)
I only spent about 40 mins working on the qualifying exam today. I am still frustrated with the particular one class that I was yesterday. I also spent 2.5 hours playing badminton and table tennis with church friends. At night, fellowship and then we went out to have dinner together. A very relax and not productive day.
June 14, 2007(Thursday)
I need to take qualifying exam on eight core courses that I took in the last two years. Three of them are in-class and 7 of them are take-home. (Two of them have both in-class and take-home). For the take home exam, I have done questions from 6 out of 7 courses. However, I really have no idea how to do the last one. The bad thing is that, I need to have a pass for all those classes. I can't just say that, I got 6/7, which is 84%. That really make thing sucks because I am struggling now with the stupid last class, and I consider that class as a total waste of time throughout the time I am taking that class. I hate this.
I went to have meeting with professors this morning for the queueing project that I have worked on. I haven't met with them for 1.5 months. However, they told me that I should concentrate on my exam and did not discuss anything.
At night we went to prayer meeting and helped Melody to move house.
June 13, 2007(Wednesday)
As usual, I was working on the qualifying exam for another 5 hours today. At night, we invited people from our group to have dinner. We thought that there are 10 people coming so we cooked a lot of food. She spent the whole day cooking food and I spent at least 2 hours washing dishes. It reminds me about parents, where dad cooks and mom washes dishes. Only 7 people showed up so we have quite a bit of leftover. It makes me feel a bit sick about all these washing dishes, and it is time to take a break from washing.
June 12, 2007(Tuesday)
I was working on my qualifying exam for 7 or 8 hours today. I felt quite productive. I am mainly spending time to work on a class on probability (I took it Spring 2006). Some of the questions are related to the project that I am working on. Therefore, I do have an easy time working on the exam.
June 11, 2007(Monday)
I took the in-class portion of the qualifying exam today. It is from 8:30 to 5pm, but I just took up to 3pm. The exam is reasonable, not easy but not too hard either. I had a decent time working on the exam. In the middle of the exams, I also went out to the garden next to the business building to walk around so that I can have fresh idea and refresh myself.
I also got the take-home portion of the qualifying exam. That is the tougher and longer one. I went home and slept for a while and went out to have dinner with Carmen. Then I also went to Borders bookstore to watch comic for 1.5 hours before returning home to work on the exam. I just don't want to concentrate for too long so I am taking all these breaks.
June 10, 2007(Sunday)
I am the speaker of the Sunday Service today. Since we don't have a pastor, the deacons take turn to speak, and sometimes we asked someone to come to preach to us. The topic is a Chinese phase, "born in danger/difficulty but DO NOT die in peach/comfortable". I used the occupation "shepherd" to share the idea that we need to equip during peace time. Carmen helped me to research a lot of material and I pray that God uses this message to move people.
We went to gym to work out as usual. Since last summer after we returned from the HK/Beijing/Vancouver trip, my physical condition started to deteriorate. I can't run as far and as long as I used to be. In fact, after going to any trip, I always need some time to return back to shape. But very strange, after the 3 weeks trips, my physical condition actually improved. And today's condition is one of the best since last summer. I am happy about that. Carmen also felt much more comfortable after running, after returning from the trip too!
At night, I finally return to study for the qualifying exam. I spent quite a bit of time reading dissertation paper for the last few days and not able to pick up myself to study for the qualifying exam. I am grateful that I finally able to study tonight. This will be my last major exam, because afterward I will focus on writing paper and there is no need to take any exam. And after I got my PhD, I don't think there is much more major exam (unless I am taking some classes, but that exam would not be too "important").
I am now changed to the "taking exam" mode. I am always pretty good at taking exam, able to explode whatever that I have and have decent grade. Therefore, I hope that this talent can serve me one last time! Also, tomorrow's exam will be in-class, a portion of that will be closed book. I always think that open book or take home exam is harder because the professors know that you have all the material that you want to reference. And I haven't had a closed book exam for a long time. As far as I remember, the exams I took in MBA and PhD are mostly take home, if not, open book. A closed book in class exam may work for my advantage and I will see how I perform tomorrow.
June 09, 2007(Saturday)
We went to Best buy (similar to Future Shop in Canada) to check digital camera. We have been using Sony since 2001 when Cisco gave me one for free since I passed CCIE. We found that the photo quality for Canon is better so we will probably get a Canon camera later.
At night we went to Peter/Linda's house to farewell a church member called Sally. There are four couples plus Sally, so it is like a couple's fellowship. The husbands played Frisbee and football afterward while the wives watched the wedding DVD of Linda and played around with the 2-months-old little Joseph (Xiaohu/Xinlei's child). Then we also helped Chi fu and Simon to move thing because they are leaving tomorrow.
June 08, 2007(Friday)
I read paper for the dissertation again for several hours. For the qualifying exam next week, I figure that, either I will know it or I won't. Therefore, I did not spend a whole lot of time studying. Carmen and I also went out for jogging to enjoy the good (but hot and humid) weather. She is quite physically fit and can run fast.
At night, we went to fellowship. Our church friends Chi Fu and Simon will leave Bloomington for good this coming Sunday. So we had dinner with them and also helped them to move some furniture away afterward.
June 07, 2007(Thursday)
I am still not able to concentrate much on the studying today. Therefore, I decided to spend some time and start reading the dissertation paper. I really want to complete my exams so that I can focus on the paper again. At night, we went to prayer meeting as usual.
June 06, 2007(Wednesday)
I am still spending some time to study for the qualifying exam. However, it is such a boring thing. I got tired easily and always fall asleep. I also had afternoon nap too. I hope to get over this exam as soon as possible. We also went to play badminton and table tennis together, and it is good to have some exercise.
At night, we had dinner with Jacky so that we can talk about the Macedonia group.
June 05, 2007(Tuesday)
This morning started off in a very special and memorable way!!!
I broke a "leg" of the eye glasses that I bought in HK last year a week ago. Therefore we went to Wal-Mart’s Vision center trying to fix it. They said that I need to buy a new pair of glasses, so I just did the eye examination there. I did the preliminary testing by some technician. However, I have waited for 45 mins and the doctor is still busy. Therefore, I just walked away and felt very frustrated about the waiting time. (I did not book any appointment). Then we went to two other eye-glasses shop but none of them are able to fix it. However, they recommended me to go to the IU Optometry School and give a try.
We went to the lens shop of the Optometry School. To my surprise, the customer service is extremely good. They helped me to fix the eyeglasses for FREE! When they looked at the "nose" of my old spare eyeglasses, they asked me whether or not I want a new one, for free too! And they helped to tighten the screw of Carmen's eye glasses as well! Everything for free and they are so enthusiastic in helping us! We are very impressed.
For the last few months there are always articles on Business Weeks or other magazine saying that the customer service of Wal-Mart is bad, probably because it competes on prices. I do not fully believe in that previously, but now I agree! So rather than paying US$50 for eye examination and $150 for another pair of new glasses, I am able to use the existing one, only that the "leg" is replaced and there is a bit of asymmetry. I am satisfied and next time I will probably go back there to buy a new pair of glasses!
June 04, 2007(Monday)
We went to buy grocery and then went to work out together. We are more or less back to our normal routine. At night we also got our lost luggage back and we are very thankful for that. I also spent some time to prepare for the sermon for the coming Sunday. Carmen and I brainstormed for a lot of time already in the last few weeks and so the preparation does not take too long.
June 03, 2007(Sunday)
When I went to washroom during 4:50am, I got the check-out bill. That includes a US$46 phone bill! Throughout our last three weeks, we made a lot of local phone call, mainly to book activities. We did not really find out that whether or not it costs to make phone call, and it turns out that it costs $0.75 local currency (which is roughly less than US$1) to make a phone call! I am quite shock and surprise with that. Not only because of the sum of money, but also because this is so "not us". We are always trying to save money and we don't even want to make phone call that costs US$0.25. Anyway, I only plan to claim part of the expense for this phone call.
We left the hotel at 7:55 and went to the "First Church of the Open Bible". This is a Pentecostal evangelical church. The service is supposed to start at 8 but when we arrived there at 8:15 (we were late!), there is so few cars and it just getting ready to start. At first there were only 20 people but then people eventually come and ended up with about 100 people. They are meeting at the gym of an elementary school.
This is some kind of "spiritual" church ("ling yan" in Chinese), and all of them are black people. The first part of singspiration lasts for 70 mins! People were singing and waving the hand. In the middle, the song leader asked us to kneel down to pray and to sing. And at some point it even lies down on the stage and continues leading song! We sang about 10 songs and most of them are new to us, but the feeling is still pretty good. However, for some of the songs, the song leader repeated the chorus for over 10 times and it is really annoying!
After the singspiration, there is announcement and then we were expecting some sermon. But then the pastor came up and led for 20 mins more song (second part of the singspiration)! We just kept sing and sing and my throat is a bit soar! However, we do enjoy this experience because the Chinese Christian (especially myself) is too logical and stress too little on the feeling/worship side. The worship at our church is very dry too! Therefore, this is a good experience for us. By 10am, it looks like that the pastor finally is going to deliver the sermon, but we have to leave and go to the airport. I wonder how long their worship is! They also have communion too!
The church that Hansel and Fiona is going is some kind of "ling yan" too and this morning gave me some first hand experience about what this is.
We returned the rental car and arrived to the airport at 10:15. Then we took a flight from Cayman to Tampa, to Detroit and then eventually to Indianapolis. I slept during most of the flight. I am always good at sleeping. And the flight from Detroit to Indianapolis is postponed for an hour because of the thunderstorm. The Northwest airline lost one of our luggages. We wasted an extra hour before able to go home! Our home key is in that luggage, but I am glad that I gave one of our church friends the key of our home, so that we are able to retrieve the key from him. However we did that at almost 2am so we felt sorry for him and his family. Nevertheless it is sweet to be able to return home!
June 02, 2007(Saturday)
Today I am supposed to teach a class on the Cisco Catalyst Switch 6500. However, one of the four students is a very religious and needs to go to the Seventh-day Adventist Church today, so the class is canceled. I took the chance to tour with Carmen again. In the morning we went to the beach right across the street. She was reading magazine while I spent 20 minutes digging hole and took a picture of the hole. Then I studied my qualifying exam on the beach!
Originally we wanted to try either parasailing (parachute but pulled by a boat) or kayaking. However, the wind is blowing quite wild so these activities were canceled. We also wanted to visit the Turtle Farm, but the entrance is too expensive, at least US $30 per person. Therefore we visited the "butterfly farm", with entrance fee US$15. Originally I was not too interested in butterfly, but then the tour guide gave an explanation about how it came from a small egg to caterpillar and eventually becomes butterfly! Life is a miracle and God did a wonderful job to create different things!
Then we visited the Pirate's Cave. We were there two Saturdays ago, but we did not enter because of the thunderstorm. The weather is much better today (Sunny at first, but eventually with some rain) so we visited this place. There are some animals (e.g. pig, horse, donkey, and iguana, plenty of chicken and even snakes!). Then we went down to the cave, which is about 1500 square feets. Not large at all and not as impressive as the ones from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. But nevertheless we took some photo and enjoyed the scene.
We still had some time so we went to the other more upscale Marriott to enjoy the beach there. However, even though it looks good at the surface, the beach is not as nice as the one that we have, because there are so many rocks at the bottom of the sea.
At night we went to "Cooper Hill" restaurant to have dinner. For just US$25 per person, we have the steak, with Martini (or Rum, both are alcohol). The food tastes pretty good, however we waited for 1.2 hours from the time we were there to have food. That is too long and in the mean time I played around with the camera again. One of the great discoveries is that, with the "M" function of the camera, I am able to adjust the time that it captures the light, so I am able to take picture at night. Moreover, during the wait of the food (and probably that's why the wait is so long), some old man was chocked and needed emergency to come and doctor performed CPR. That was pretty scary. We prayed that he would be fine. After dinner, we walked around supermarket for a while so that the alcohol can disappear from us.
June 01, 2007(Friday)
I got the evaluation today. Since the lab write up is not that great, and they do complain about it, it hurts my evaluation. Also, usually the last day is the shortest, but today we went for the whole day, until 4:50, the longest day throughout my last three weeks.
Carmen waited for me to get off work, then we walked to the "Champion House" Restaurant to have dinner. We went there last Saturday night and want to enjoy turtle meat, but there wasn't. Today, we walked (about 40 mins) from my work place to the restaurant and finally we tried the "turtle steak" and "conch stew". The turtle steak is quite small (about 6oz) and costs about US$15. It tastes like pork. The conch stew tastes a bit like fish.
After dinner, we walked for 45 mins to the more upscale Marriott (which is not the one that we stayed) to rest a bit. Then we wanted to take a bus back home, but there isn't. Also, there is some rain. We were walking and waiting for bus at the same time. I sticked out my hand when I was walking and hoping to catch a bus. After walking for 3 more minutes, amazingly there is someone stopped the car and let us board his car. This is our first time "hitch hiking", but we saw the "Jesus" label and also a Christian fish sticked on the bumper, so we decided to take a chance. He is a Cuban and is not good at English. But he is very friendly and dropped us off at our hotel. It saves us 45 mins walk. It also changes our impression about hitch hiking!