My hand writing

I really don't like my hand writing. It's not ugly or unlegible but I really don't like it.

It's not pretty.

Even when I write really slow and pay a lot of attention, my hand writing is still only bearable. I hate that. When I look at it, I don't feel any prettiness to absort. I can do that with Noel's hand writing and with Anita's (my cousin). Noel's writing is very engineering -ish. That's how his father taught him. He doesn't think it looks nice but I think it's so beautiful..from it's uniformity and such. Anita's hand writing is also uniform in an artistic way that I keep every single mail (a thank you card and a 2005 holiday greeting card) she send as bookmark. I just love it so much.

I wish I can write like that. But I guess I already know that I can't be creative or artistic with my hands. They just can't create beautiful things that makes people stop their in track and take a minute to admire..

At least I pride myself in the ability to appreciate beauty when I encounter it.

Can't get over the attitude of Old Russian Women

I still can't put it out of my mind. I don't know why but I find yesterday's lunch experience very upsetting.

I went to the pantry to heat up my lunch. This russian woman that sits next to me (who is not very nice) got there just steps before me. Her russian friends where there already but still putting their lunches together. So they let her heat up her food first. They almost did not finish putting their lunch together toward the end her lunch heating up. Upon finishing, they block the whole microwave area and put all of their lunches in (total of three lunch boxes). Now I know it was obviously to them that I was waiting for the microwave because I made it very obvious for them. I was holding my small little lunch box and standing very close to the microwave. It would have been very nice of them to let me heat my food up first. It's a very small box and it would only take less then 2 minutes. That did not happen. But what bothers me is that they were not even courteous enough to let me know that it will take a long time to heat up their food. I guess that's what I would have done because that's being considerate. They put the maxinum time of 5 minutes. I couldn't believe they could be so inconsiderate to just do that without saying a word especially with me waiting obviously and patiently. Now some people I know stopped by the pantry to get water and I spoke with them a few words. They took this opportunity to increate the time another 5 minutes!!! Can you believe it? They did not feel bad at all to let me wait over 10 minutes without saying anything, showing any courtesy, nothing!! This just bothers me so much!

I do know some russian women that are very nice but very few. Overall I really have a very bad opinion of the older russian women. They seem all the same. They cannot extend their friendliness toward people other then their kind. This point bothers me a lot. I like to know why.

It's all relative...

Reading Shakespeare used to feel hard, but after trying to read Faust (still in the middle of it), reading Shakespeare is so easy now.

Reading Guns, Germs and Steels makes reading other non-text science books easier too..

Still took more then three weeks to read that special holiday edition of Economist. But I really enjoyed it. I'll get better some day..

Now just need to find something that makes reading Faust and Guns, Gems and Steels easier...

Kitchen Is Almost Done

It's almost done. I am so excited the fact that I have an oven again. I haven't been able to cook with the oven since Grenfell street apartment. I will cook all the yummy stuff I miss and some new stuff too.

Two additional thoughts came to mind as the kitchen comes to completion.

Be wary of contractors. All contractors. Julian is not a bad person. He runs a business and his business is to make money. I know he is charging us more than it really needs to cost. I was fine with it because I believe he will take care of the details and managing for us. But he did a poor job at it. I understand he has many jobs and some of them are very large scale that costs more and requires more of his attention, but I don'to think that justifies him not managing this job. If he couldn't spare attention else where, don't take this job. At some point he was having Noel do his jobs (contacting the cabinet maker, etc). The list goes on and on. I thought he had more integrity then that. I expected him to have the work ethic I and people I work with have. But I was wrong. He did not give me the feeling that he was looking out for my interest. I assume we would get that from the extra we gave him. That was a wrong assumption I will not make again. Lessons learned. Looking forward to not have to deal with him agian.

Second, I love the new kitchen. I am not crazy about the cabinet but I love the fact it's new. I can't wait to use it to the fullest. Which also creates another fear for me. I am afraid I will less likely want to move. Hating the kitchen makes moving more urgent. But now it's not the case. Still, I would like to move to park slope so the commute to the city is closer.

Battery Powered Life

I realized I have so many battery operated gadgets in my life. Cell phone, camera, Ipod and PDA. It's those regular recharging regiments made me realized it. Thinking of consolidate them so don't have to recharge so many things. But it's hard to combine. Each of them do one thing best but also a bit of the other functions. Sometimes I think it might not be a good idea to be so depended on electronics. What happen if there's a huge power outage? Plus last night I spent about 2+ hours trying to fix the synching problem for the pda. Does it really save me time? But this seem to be where everybody is moving toward. Maybe acceptance is the only thing to do. Maybe buying stock in battery manufacturing company is another thing to do...

Good Evening with Mom

I went to a chinese banquet holiday celebration with mom. It was a good event. It was celebration put up by a chinese chorus full of middle aged and elder chinese. These ladies first got together from their love of kareoke. Then they decided to be more serious about the singing and formed a chorus, hiring a singer teacher. Now they practice and each year you can see how the students improve. It's wonderful that these elders put their passion in to action. It's also great fun to see them enjoying themselves. Forgetting unimportant things like age, weight, look etc. They created a wonderful environment where all can express themselves and have fun.

Mom's new place

Went to visit mom's new place last night. She cooked some green beans and gave me some.

Her new house is coming along really well. I think she's had work done on every single room except for the kitchen. But it looks really nice. I am genuinely happy for her. I think it's a good start for her. Her whole attitude about life is very positive because of this new place. That in turn will help her live her life better. The fact almost everything is new motivates her clean and organize more. Which will create a more soothing living environment. She can actually pursue her interest and enjoy life a little. Maybe this marks a new beginning: A beginning where she can live a healthier live. Physically, mentally and spiritually.

Shoulda gone to work today

Should have gone to work today. Didn't really have any problem to solve but people tell me it's review time so it would look good to show more effort. But I just couldn't make it. I need time to myself. We'll see how the review comes out.

Petunia and Lily

Petunia and Lily are my favorite dogs right now. They are my friend Mark's dog and I love them.

Petunia is so trusting and loves you so much. When she sleeps, she likes to get under the blanket and pushes her body against you.

Lily is more cautious by nature because she is so tiny. She likes to lick your face a lot but she has bad breathe. She licks Petunia most and Petunia puts up with it most of the time but she gets tired sometimes.

They two adorable small package of love!

Guinness

I cannot mention love for any animal without mentioning Guinness. Guinness was my first pet. We had a cat once at my mom's house but didn't have it that long. Besides, I think I am just more of a dog person. We got Guinness from a shelter in Jersey. He was so adorable. He grabbed our attention the minute we went in and held it with him until we took him home with us. He's a beagle mix. Looks like a beagle but thinner. He did okay in the two apartments we had. He like to destroy thing so we learn to put our important stuff high up. We had to let him go when we moved to the house. The commute was much longer for us. The house had more people walking near then apartment and he would think we are coming home but get really frustrated that nobody is going to the house to play with him. He would then become more destructive then normal. It was to the point he would eat things to that hurts his digestive system. We had to give him up. We figure it was the right decision. Nothing would prepare how hard it was for us at the shelter. The minute they led Guinness away, I could not stop crying. I've never felt so bad in my life. I think if I could do it again, I would get rid of the house and find a living place closer to work to accomedate him. I miss him so much. I think I felt the first unconditional love from him.

I miss him so much...

Back Handed Compliment

It's thanksgiving holiday weekend. We went to see a movie with my mom. Noel went ahead to get the tickets and he got one for my mother too. I dont' like to have Noel pay for my mother but that's another story. Later on my mother thank Noel for getting her ticket and said that it was the first time Noel bought tickets for her. Noel says he doesn't think so. That's just so her specialty - back handed compliment. She's always doing that. The other day we went out to eat and afterwards she thanks me for not giving her grief all evening. My brother kinda told her off and ask her not to mention negative thing to ruining the evening. She tries to defend herself and saying she was just saying a nice thing. I don't know if she just can't help it herself or she just think that we are stupid and can't figure out that it's really not a compliment. I wish she would stop. That really bothers me.

Maybe she does that because she's got too much bitterness gathered up in her through out the years...

Thoughts on blog

Time has really changed. I used to write thoughts that no one would care but really important to me in my little journal. Now we have blog.

Peru Trip

I don't remember exactly when the trip was, but this is the experience I try to recount:


How was the trip? The trip to Peru was great. One of the best trips of my life.

We started our trip at Cusco. Landed on Thursday morning and gave ourselves two days before the Inca Trail (Camino Inca) to adjust to the altitude (Cusco is at about 12,000 ft). We did water rafting trip on the Urubamba River (the largest tribunary to the Amazon River) before the hike. The last time we went rafting was at the Delaware Water Gap. I was expecting the facility to be similar (a complex of changing room, equipment rental, etc). So I was a bit surprised when we pulled over to the side of the road by the River and they started to unload things from the van. They took out wet suits for us to change and we started changing on the side of the small highway. Good thing we had our swimming suits underneath already. The rafting was fun. Our guide was knowledgable and we went through Class II and class III rapids. Since it's dry season right now, the water was not very rough.

Noel and my altitude sickness was slightly different. I was feeling most ill on the first day. Constant headache and nassia. We passed by a store that sells Coco leaves/tea and products (that's suppose to help with the sickness). I did not like the smell of Coco leaves. I find that it made me feel worse. I started to feel better the following days. My apetite was still small and the constant headache was still there, but it was not as bad. Noel was fine the first day. By the time I started to feel a bit better the High Altitude sickness was hitting him hard. He took coco tea and it helped.

We started our 4 day-3 night Inca Trail with about 22 kg of stuff (each). The first day is the easiest. But since we were still adjusting to the high altitude, it was not that easy (especially with that weight). The group we did the Inca Trail with was very good. Provided tents and sleeping bags and prepared all the food. I can't imagine having to set up the tent and try to start the fire for food after a day of exhausting hike. We hired a porter on the second day of our trip. The second day was much longer and much harder. We reached the highest point of our trail (around 13,800 ft) at a passing called Dead Woman's Pass. The closer you get to the top the harder it seems to get. The third day is a lot of down hill hiking. We decsented about 3280 feet on that day. I got tendonitis on my left knee at the end of the third day. I took some anti-inflammatory medicine and bandaged up my knee to hike on the fourth day to get to Macchu Picchu. It was not a long hike and I was careful to put less effort on the bad knee. I think Macchu Picchu seemed to be more incredible and rewarding because we worked harder to get there. Overall the Inca Trail was just as amazing (if not more) than Macchu Picchu itself. The Andes is beautiful.

At Peru, you can live as expensive or as cheap as you want. A lot of backpacker hostals cost $10-13 per night for double. (which is where we stayed). They are mostly clean and simple. We took an 6 hour bus ride to Puna/Lake Titikaka that cost $10 each. It was one of the nicer bus with video and toilet on the bus. Took one day tour of the Lake Titikaka. I think it's the highest-largest navigatable lake in the world (the altitude was similar to Cusco). The view of the lake on one of the island visited looks like the Meditaranea Sea. It was blue and tranquile.

We took another 5 hour bus ride to get to Arequipa. At this point my knee got a bit better so we went to a two day hike at the Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The terrand was very different than the mountains. It's very dry and dusty and there were virtually no shades and the sun was very strong. Good thing we finished hiking before the sun came up on the second day. Our guide was pretty new and doesn't really know what he's doing so that made the whole experience even worse. But we were glad to get back to Arequipa and did some shopping and relaxing. We went to a really good restuarant to have Peruvian food and the experience was great. The food was wonderful and the day sunny and beautiful.

We flew to Lima and spent one day there. Did not do much sightseeing because we had enough at this point. We walked around and little and decided that Lima is too polluted. Went to a nice restaurant and had Cerviche (Peruvian specialty that's raw fish marinated in lime juice).
Our last stop was Iquitos. It's a large city in the Northern Amazon region of Peru. The place we stayed in did not have electricity but they did have solar panels that helps with cooking and other things. Lamps were lite at night all over the lodge. They had some "pets" that stays around the lodge willing: parrots, dogs, a funny looking bird that's 1 foot tall and a Capybara named Charly. Charly likes to be pet and makes this funny noise (suppose to be like when cats pur). I would say that's the most exotic pet I ever had. We also saw many different things in the jungle: beautiful color birds (macaws, hawkes), monkeys (one the size a young kitten) "walking palm tree", leave-cutter ants, etc.. We also went Paranha fishing (and ate it for dinner!), dorphine watching (there are pink ones and grey ones)

At this point it's been more than 2 weeks and we started to miss home very much.