November 30, 2002 (Saturday)

Today is the moving house day. I had "Che So" helped me to drive the luggage and two Chinese youth, Paco and Luisa helped me to move the stuff. The smell of the paint was still there but that is ok. It was more tiring than I thought. And I am always thankful that, even I don't have my family here, the church people take a good care for me. I have never in this kind of situation (I am always the person to help others because I had my family with me and Vancouver is a familiar place to me) and I am glad that when I need help the most, there are Christians helping me.
The new room has no furniture. I borrow a lot of furniture from church - bed, mattress, table for piano, chair. Che So also lend me a computer table for me so that I can have devotion on that table. The only thing that I need to buy is a closet, which cost about $200 Cdn.
We had choir practice at night and then I went home organizing my house. I also talked to two of my house-mate. They were (I forgot their name) boy/girl friend coming from China (in fact, all people from my house are from China). They knew that I was coming from Canada (in order not to be too special, whenever there is a Chinese asking me where I am from, or know that I am from Canada, I always stress that I am from HK and had been to Canada too. It is not that I am not proud about the fact that I am from Canada. It is exactly the opposite. They will really envy me or think that I am really rich and specially if they know where and what I am REALLY coming from). We talked about the life in China (or HK, in my case) and compared to life in Venezuela. They were all regretted about the decision of coming to Venezuela. I told them that, it will be exactly the same feeling if you were able to smuggle to US or Canada too. The best place to be is China, where people speak your language and have your culture.
This is also the first time that I live with non Christian (besides 9 years ago, when Hansel was still too young to accept Christ) or a smoker. They worship "grandfather Kwan". I told them that I don't believe in this thing because this is too fake and I can't see the result. I was not trying to sell Christianity at that time but trying to defeat "grandfather Kwan" instead. My prayer is that I want to "sanctify" this house. Moreover, since they all knew Che So, much of the topic that we discussed were focus around her. I am very happy and proud to have Che So to be a rich nice Christian. This is really a good testimony that I can use to promote Christianity. I also told them that even I knew no one in Venezuela where I landed, the church people really helped me in almost everything I do. And I build nice friendship with them too. I tried to present a message that going to church would make their life happier and more meaningful than their current situation. This is my case definitely.

November 29, 2002 (Friday)

I took the afternoon off to paint my new house. "Che So" helped me buying the paint and her two nephew and niece (Victor is 12 and Meagon is 16 years old) helped me to paint the house. Originally the wall was white in color. This was a new house and the room that I will live used to be the balcony. There was a window in the "inside" wall and was fixed with cement. Therefore the white color does not look smooth. I do not have a great preference and they suggested me to paint it in light blue. We painted for about 2 hours. This was the two little kids’ first time experience in painting the house. Therefore, I am a "pro" in this case, considered that I have painted my Norfolk St house before.
Meagon and Victor live with Che So family now because her mom (her dad passed away long time ago) works in a little town in Venezuela and they can not receive good education there. By looking at Victor, it reminds me about some of my cousins. Victor is young and not lives with his parents. And "Che So" and her husband are in a difficult situation in terms of teaching this pre-teen kid. If he does not accept Christ or walk in the right path, he will be the kind of person that turns out to be quite bad or has suicidal tendency.

November 28, 2002 (Thursday)

I went to customer "NetUno" after lunch. I chatted with the customer a bit about the network and then he drove me to the network operation center for the network upgrade at night. It looks a bit stupid that I do not have the laptop with me, but nevertheless the customer let me use a desktop so I can check email or browse the website. In addition, I am acting as smart as I can in front of the customer, even though I know nothing about that particular technology (named MPLS). My boss may want me to go for the third CCIE, which either will focus on MPLS or Voice (the one that I failed twice). I will see.
The upgrade was quite smooth. In fact, I have no idea why I was there. Basically I just act as a liaison between the Cisco TAC engineer and also the customer. The customer, who does not speak English, talked to his boss. Then his boss talked to me and I in turn talked to the Cisco engineer through telephone. That is quite funny.

November 27, 2002 (Wednesday)

There is nothing much happening today. I had my Spanish Class at night. I skipped it for about a month because of the CCIE studying. Now I really want to focus on this and be able to communicate in Spanish. I am not a person gifted in language so this will be a challenge for me. And how can an IT company have no spare laptop for me to use?

November 26, 2002 (Tuesday)

Originally I was told that I am going to Netuno today, the customer that we were late to visit yesterday. I asked the company driver to pick me up from my home. It ended up that the meeting today was rescheduled to next week. The driver tried (?) to tell me this but I have no idea what he was trying to say. He just came to pick me up and drove me to work. I have a Shaffer again!
I talked to the other CCIE who failed the Security Lab yesterday. Since he and I are not from Venezuela, we have the most similar background. He expressed concern that since he is not able to pass the exam, he was frustrated. (Actually, people expect us to pass it second time. But since I passed it first time, people made the similar expectation too). He also expressed concern about the instability of the country. Sounds like to me that he was thinking to leave the company. I also had some times in borrowing people's computer today.
There was the second Tuesday night outreach. It was in a radio station format, and I was the DJ. It went pretty good, as I expected. Hey, I should be a DJ or something related to speaking (sales? teacher?) They all like the program. I tried to avoid talking to people because I know that they will praise me. (I am actually not a "hu" person). The only thing that I do not like is the advertisement (yes, this is a radio station. and there is advertisement of course!) and also the singspiration. However, I am not in charge of that. I can not expect too much from others. Set a high standard for myself but I should be more relax and set an "ok" requirement on others.

November 25, 2002 (Monday)

I talked to the other CCIE and knew that he failed. It makes me even more valuable, to be the only person managed to pass the CCIE lab in one time.
After failing three times, I finally passed the CVoice exams. I failed the first time two years ago, when I took the Beta exam and that was free. And I failed it twice two weeks ago. That really hurts, and greatly diminished my celebration time for Cisco CCIE. I passed it today; I did not have an extra joy feeling. But I know that, if I fail again, I would be dead! I wrote all the questions during the exam, so even if I failed it, I would know what to expect next.
I originally planned to go to new customer Netuno this afternoon. The driver of Desca drove me there. On the way, I received a call that I do not need to go there. Therefore, we went back. However, due to miscommunication (or I should say, I have no idea what they are talking about), he drove me home instead. Therefore, I was home at 6pm. Very early. I played around with YiSon and practiced piano too. Hey, I have done my CCIE lab and also passed the painful CVoice exam. I deserve a short break!

November 24, 2002 (Sunday)

I taught Sunday School ( = host fellowship). Church had luncheon afterward. Actually, we ate lunch at church almost every week. But the "luncheon" is more formal and has more food.
We practiced for the Nov 26 outreach program afterward. I tried to delicate jobs to other people. However, I found that most (not all) Chinese young people are not as responsible as I like. And it really irritates me. I asked them to help out in Dec 31 program and I really have to push hard for them.
It was a bit late and I did not go to MB Church afterward. They were actually having a election for the deacons of next year. "The righteous is revealed and the non-responsible people are out". Well, actually, "they" volunteered to be out. I am sure that MB Church will have a nice future and things will be smoother. I look forward for that too.
I practiced piano for 1.3 hours.

November 23, 2002 (Saturday)

I went with Baptist Church's "Che So", her cousin and Mrs. Cheng to buy furniture for my new house. The new room basically is empty. I will get the bed from church, a small desk from "Che So". However I still need to buy a cabinet for putting clothes inside. I am very saved and try to save every little bit of money. The company gave me some money for relocation but I don't plan to use it this way. I am always trained to be a saving person.
Choir practice at night and I taught them some basic music theory. They were having a hard time learning music beat. (They can understand it but they can not "clap" the beat)
I ate dinner with "Che So" and other friends at night.

November 22, 2002 (Friday)

I started to get use to life without laptop. And the two persons that lent me laptop used to that too. And I made some brainstorm about the CCIE course I am going to teach in Desca. I found that this is a passion for me to teach. Probably after 12 years of tutoring and numerous teaching opportunity in fellowship, I like teaching. (Actually my dream career is a professor who TEACH, not research. And I don't want to be a high school or elementary nor a kindergarten teacher though). I hope that I can be a good teacher and people here would appreciate my effort too.
I also talked to my "small boss" that complained to my "big" boss about I am not willing to do support (see my diary on Wednesday). He told me that he did not say this and has no idea what that is. He has clarified that with my big boss already. Umm, it seems like that someone is trying to do something harmful to me and makes me look bad in front of my big boss.

November 21, 2002 (Thursday)

I already had my CVoice exam (the one that I failed twice) scheduled for today. However the company policy just changed that for every time we book the test, we have to go through the company administrator (who speaks Spanish and drove me nuts in June this year when I was trying to go through her to book exam). To make it worse, the new policy saying that the company would only pay for the first two times and I have to pay for the third time. What! I pass it almost every time previously. And this is the first time in my life to fail twice. And it happens to be the same day that policy been change. What is that? The exam cost US $150. And what about those that took the CCIE for 10 times, where each time cost US $2000?
One of the sales went for a customer meeting. He let me use his laptop in the mean time. I felt so good because I am connected again (except I don't have ICQ, MSN nor AOL in this computer).

November 20, 2002 (Wednesday)

As usual, it is hard to pass time without my laptop. I went to the bank in the morning for deposit checks and to apply for some new check. There is a nice manager helps me to translate from Spanish to English (and in the mean time she can practice her English too)
I talked to my "big" boss Jorge in the afternoon. He just came back from a trip and I have not talked to him for about 1.5 months. He told me that I told a "small" boss that I am not willing to give support to the customer because I am in the Consultant team, not the support team. I was quite surprise about that and he told me that it is probably a misunderstanding. I worked VERY HARD on the human relationship and he told me that the people still not appreciating. I am very disappointing about that. One of the main reason, I can't deny that, is the language barrier. The other reason is the difference in culture or living habit. Yes, sometimes I have habit that seems weird to them and since I am the "unique" one here, they would not appreciate about that. I still need to work harder on personal relationship, even though I did my best already. And probably because of the misunderstanding that they thought that I don't want to do work. THAT IS NOT TRUE! We will clarify with the "small" boss later.
On the bright side, he is impress that I can pass the CCIE in one time (and I have double check until today that I really did pass my test. This is not a hoax!) And I have offered to teach a CCIE boot camp. For another boss, he took the test for about 10 times (previously I thought that only 7 times) and still not able to pass the test. So they want to know what my "magic" is. And Jorge also has confident about my brightness and said that I am a nice guy to work with too. This is not bad at all. And of course, in the middle of the conversation, I would not forget to "brush" his shoes and praise that I am brave enough to come to Venezuela because of the potential of Desca. And I said that I am very interested to his story so if he writes a book, like Bill Gates, then I am going to be the first one to read his book.
I went to Pastor Loh house for dinner at night and we talked about the Tuesday night outreach program and some Christian Ethic in this grey society of Venezuela. He also gave me two bags of stuff from my parents and Carmen. I spent the whole night enjoying the new CDs, books that they gave me. I felt so nice because I felt that I have support from my family and Carmen. I felt like a soldier fighting in the front line and received a package of goodies from my family. (which is more or less true)

November 19, 2002 (Tuesday)

I was feeling tired the whole day. May be I am sick. The weather here is getting cooler (but still warm compare to the Vancouver). I have nothing to do at work again. I tried to look for a computer available for me to use to check email. There are two or three people that I used to ask and they are a bit friend to me. However they are busy with their work. So I was left in the dark. I found that I am too addicted to internet and may be this is a good time to get away from this thing.
Today is also an "against government demonstration" day. I thought that it will be very violent but it is quite peaceful. At least compare to the tear gas and the military with guns, it is nothing. The police went to strike today but I don't see too much crime.
I went to Magnabyte in the afternoon to help fixing some problems. I went to this company about 3 months ago. They wanted me to help configuring a PIX firewall. It was very easy, compare to the CCIE lab exam that I took. However, I know that life would never be smooth! I did some change and it turned out that the people here are not happy because this is still the business hour. Therefore I have to get it back. It took me a long time and still I cannot get the "Network Address Translation" to work. We ended up erase the entire configuration and retype the whole thing. It was because there was a secondary IP address which I forgot to program. I spent some time afterward to check email, update my diary.

November 18, 2002 (Monday)

It is not easy for me to update my diary for the time that I do not have internet access. Therefore, I may miss some detail. And it is not easy for me to pass through the time without internet either. I have nothing to do at work. Basically I just read some books and prepare for the CVoice exam that I am going to take this Thursday (which I have already failed twice)
Internet Explorer and Outlook are not working in my computer. I can not even open a folder. However, interesting enough, I can use ICQ! I spent quite awhile to ICQ Carmen in the afternoon and that really lighten up my day. Every time when I communicate with my friends, family and Carmen in Vancouver, I really appreciate the Network Engineer (like myself) to make long distance close!
The political situation here is not safe. The opposite and the military have some conflicts and there is even tear gas too! I was home at that time but it is still scary, or interesting, to see these thing happening in my neighborhood.

November 17, 2002 (Sunday)

I shared to the Baptist Church congregation about spiritual books. May be I should change career and be a sales instead. Afterward we had youth fellowship (formally known as Sunday School!). We had a rehearsal for Nov 26 outreach night too. I went to MB Church afterward. They talked about the procedures of electing deacons and there were split of opinion (the split between the "usual" group) We had fellowship at night and talked about the organization of the future youth fellowship (seems like the today is a MB organization day)
The traffic on the way back home is quite bad. It is because several people (not a lot, just several!) blocking the road. This is their way of democracy. They are not happy about the government (or they are not happy about the opposition of the government) and several of them went to block the road. Wow, just several of these people and made like the whole traffic stuck for several hours! I thanked God that I can go home in time because they blocked the other direction!
I called Semson at night and talked about my status at church. He also expressed the difficulties in leading a church too.

November 16, 2002 (Saturday)

Today is my resting day. I spent lots of time to sleep and rest in order to save energy for tomorrow. I find that if I do not have anything big to do, then I would be quite bored.
We had choir practice at night, taught them music theory and explained to them about the "life game" that we are going to play on Dec 31.

November 15, 2002 (Friday)

It is a bad day for me. I took my CVoice exam today and I failed again. I failed it before in this Tuesday. Also, in 2000, I took the beta exam and failed it (but at that time I was just playing around). I am angry, I am furious! I WILL PASS THIS EXAM! This is related to my dignity and my pride! (But to be fair, this test is very small compare to the big CCIE lab test that I took. I would rather fail this exam twice than fail the expensive and stressful CCIE lab exam twice!)
To add oil to my temper, my computer died the third time, and second time this week! I can't believe that! I did not do anything. I just left it screen save; came back after the test and it does not work! Is that a virus or is someone trying to hack to my computer?
I asked my boss to purchase some practice exam (the one that I had is useless). He doubted me that I did not study and go to take the test. That is really bad on me because my passing rate is pretty high (pass first time for every test except two!). And I passed my CCIE once! (He is going to take his sixth or seventh attempt of that CCIE lab exam!) I don't think that anyone here should doubt my capability of studying, learning and passing exam!
I went to Ricky's house for dinner. One big thing that I learnt here is to control my emotion. I was angry but when I saw them, I became very nice. This may be called "false" but is essential for me to survive here. No one really knows what has happened to me and I don't plan to tell anyone about that.
Carmen called during the prayer meeting. That was very nice and happy to hear her voice, especially in the midst of a bad day.

November 14, 2002 (Thursday)

I went with Mrs. Loh and "Che So" to look for a room-for-rent. The landlord is a Chinese male that has worked in "Che So"'s restaurant as a chef for 8 years. Currently, there are two pairs of couples and a "c 9" living there. It is in the top floor and the room is slightly smaller than the one I am living now. Things were acceptable exact the washroom is a bit small and the kitchen is a bit dirty. However, out of all the places that I have visited, this is the best. Afterward, I had lunch with Mrs. Loh and "Che So" just to chat about the church stuff.
My computer was fixed in the afternoon, even though all the data were lost; it does not matter because I have saved most of the data already.
I cooked "fry" chicken at night. For some reasons, I always make them "black" ("lone" in Chinese). I must learn how to control the fire.

November 13, 2002 (Wednesday)

I am a "laptop-killer". My laptop died when I was downloading Cisco IP Softphone and practicing the Cisco test at the same time. However, I had a feeling that it will die soon so I have already saved my data to the yahoo briefcase. Compare to the death of my laptop in Sept 19, the damage is very minimal this time.
As an IT person, life without laptop is not the same. I can not check email and I can do surf the web. Luckily that there was a server available for me to use. However, I still prefer to use my own laptop.
I went home for dinner (last time it was 6 days ago). I used my own way to mix all the food that people gave me here and then and came up with something weird, but not too bad taste.

November 12, 2002 (Tuesday)

Originally, I thought that I have the CVoice exam tomorrow; but I found out at lunch time that I had it scheduled in this afternoon. Compare to the Security CCIE lab test, this is just a very small potato. I studied but not a lot for this test. It turns out that my luck has run out and I failed the test. I deserve this failing result because I always thought that I have the luck and the talent of writing exam. I did not really prepare psychologically for the test; I was very tired at that time. I am glad that I fail this one, instead of the Security CCIE lab exam. (To comfort myself, I told myself that I can experience the feeling of failing once again!)
It does not feel good to fail, no matter how small the test it may be. I have a bit depressed, but the "joy" of the passing of Security CCIE lab exam still last, so I am ok. However, I really need to study because I do not want to fail it again. Actually, I failed this exam in Feb 2000, at that time it was a free beta exam and I did not even know the most basic thing.
I arrived Baptist church early and we discussed the outreach for Nov 26 and Dec 31. I am heavily involved in these two programs; I want to demonstrate to them how to do it and I want to fade out next year. Let me describe a bit about these two programs. The Nov 26 outreach will be having the format of a radio show. I will be the DJ (if Carmen is here, she is more appropriate that I am) and the topic will be about money. Pastor Loh will be the guest to answer the questions. Instead of sharing the gospel directly, we will share the Christian principle of using money. I will be in charge of the game and the music too, since there is no one else that can do it. (Basically, I am responsible for the entire program). The Dec 31 outreach will be a big one. It will last from 7pm - 12:30am the following day (year!). There will be a singing time, either a karaoke competition (of course, we will sing Christian music) or performance. Delicious dinner will be provided, and we will play the life game too. I taught the FCGC (From Vancouver) Carmel fellowship about life game in their Mar 15, 2002 outreach. I will redo the whole thing again, but in Chinese. I am the organizer of the entire program. There will be people responsible for food and decoration. There will also be someone in charge of the music program, but required close supervision. Carmen will be here at that time and I am glad that she can help out something (singing? host/MC? life game?)

November 11, 2002 (Monday)

I read from the Cisco study group that there was a person who told the Security CCIE lab several weeks ago in Brussels received a "congratulation, you pass" email but turned out to be a fraud. I worried because I am in the identical situation. And I really think that I am a bit lucky to pass. I sent an email to Cisco and waiting for the confirmation. I went to the website and double checked again today. But who knows what! It would be a really disappointing experience if it ends up that I fail the exam!
I troubleshooted something for DirecTV. The customer withheld some information and that's why some networks do not work. This company is a "control freak". They feared to give out the info and changed the password for security reason. That is too much, in my opinion.
I went to Pastor Semson's house for dinner and discussed about the youth fellowship. I do not want to have a formal title because I may leave anytime (not too likely, but just in case) and I am busy with the work at Baptist Church too.
I can not resist the temptation and watched movie with Mr. and Mrs. Chu at night. It was just a HK style laughing movie, but I watched for about 50 mins, instead of studying for my exam.

November 10, 2002 (Sunday)

Sunday is not my Sabbath day but my church day instead. I hosted the youth fellowship at Baptist Church. Since the worship ended late, we did not have much time to do anything else. We sang some songs and had story time. After lunch, I, an expert on washing dishes, spent an hour in washing all the dishes while they were attending a short workshop on visiting. (My intention of writing here is not to show off but just a recording). Afterward, we had a meeting on the Dec 31 night programs. During that time, I am so glad that I can ask Carmen to help me because she will be here. Finally there is someone that I can count on will be on my team :)
I went to MB Church for the singspiration practice (for Mar 2003 Compartmental {Spanish of retreat}) I set a really high standard for them, and certainly hope that thing would be turn out right. I can only be effective on the two songs, "Stream of Praise" (my favorite song!) and "Shout to the Lord" (Spanish version). For the other five Spanish songs, I would have a hard time to coach them.
I had dinner with Ricky Lam (we see and had dinner with each other several times a week!) and had some discussion on the church ministries.

November 09, 2002 (Saturday)

Today is my "house wife" day. I woke up and then fell asleep again. I went to (first time!) supermarket to buy food. This is a challenge to me, but I am glad that I do not have to consider the money issue (not that I am very rich, but I do not want to add up the complexity). Whatever that looks good to my eye and I felt like, I bought it. I do not really know what exactly I bought (but "roughly" speaking, I knew that they are chicken, tomato, some kind of vegetable called "salt west" {is it "eatable"?}, sausage and egg). I went for a hair cut afterward. (When I told Mr. Chu that I go for hair cut, he questioned that my short hair does not need hair cut. However, I used to cut hair once a month. Last time it was Oct 5, hence it is time again).
Late afternoon to night time is "church" time. I had meeting about the Tuesday night (the closest one being Nov 26) meeting. And we had our first music (choir) practice. I was the leader of course. Music, especially singing, is not my biggest gift (compare to "fellowship" gift). I did not commit to choir when I was in Vancouver (but I had 10 years of choir experience from 6-15 when I was in HK). Now I have to use some kind of method to lead them. For now, I make it more like a praise and worship practice, which I have plenty of experience. They do not have any music background, not even know how to read music score. Therefore, it is good enough for them already.

November 08, 2002 (Friday)

I went to the Canadian Embassy to renew for my passport. They require guarantors that have known me for more than two years. That is not possible because I am only here for several months. However, according to the Residency sticker on my passport, I was here since 1995. After checking with the Venezuelan government, that is not a mistake. Of course, that is a mistake. It is very probably that the process that my company applies for my residency is somewhat illegal. I have to talk to my boss about this later.
What should I do? This is a culture thing and everyone do this. The thinking here is very different from Canada. For example, I did not have a working visa in the first few months but yet I worked here. Not only I, but also the missionaries, are doing this. Moreover, when someone get caught by the police, everyone give them money (a Western term is "bribe") and they are released. This corruption is not acceptable in Western city, but is not as black-and-white here. What happen if my boss ask me to contact someone and tell me that I have known this person for more than two years, which in reality I have only known that person for several hours? This is a "custom" but should I follow this?
I went to Ricky Lam's place to dinner at night again. It seems like a habit to me to bother him. He said that he does not mind. Well, I will take the face value of his reply. I asked him quite a lot of questions about studying MBA and involve in management. I have done quite a lot of certificate exams in the last two years. They are good, but only good for several years. However, a master degree, especially a MBA degree does last for a longer time. I hope that my next big objective would be completing MBA. (However, probably the company wants me to get another CCIE instead because they do not see the immediate value of a MBA).
I went to the Baptist Church prayer meeting at night. (I have stopped the family singspiration for more than a months. I don't plan to start again) We discussed about cults and Catholic. I also talked to Mr. and Mrs. Chu about my passport thing. I also told them that on Nov 5 when I came back from Amsterdam, there were a lot of Chinese on the flight. When I left the flight, all the Chinese (include myself) were detained to check the passport. I was ok, of course, but many others were not. They are the illegal immigrant. I also asked them the procedure and the experience of being an illegal immigrant.
It was 12:30 now and there were loud music outside. Every Friday night, the disco closed by would be open and have very loud music till very late. People are selfish and the way how Venezuelan is selfish is very obvious. For example, the taxi driver would not care whether there is any car behind and they would stop anywhere where there is passengers. (The passenger would not jump to the taxi immediately. They will first tell them the destination and then asked for a quote price. If that is too high, they will return for a lower quote and so on. The whole process may take 10-20 sec. It does not sounds too long, but it is definitely too long if they are in the middle of a major street where there is many many cars behind them honking at them {of course they don't care about the millions honking}). When there is elevator and they are waiting for their family member to get ready, they will hold on to the elevator to as long as they like, may be 5 mins! People always say that the North Americans are very self-centered. Actually, the South Americans, according to my experience, are very self-centered and ignore other people's feeling too. (this actually apply to the entire man kind).

November 07, 2002 (Thursday)

I spent quite some times talking to people in walk today. Just trying to be a bit socialized. There is nothing much happening at work because I can not contact the person that works with me for the DirecTV project and company has not assigned me a new task yet.
When I was studying for my Routing and Switching CCIE in 2001, I used a practice lab called ccbootcamp. Now I have two CCIEs on hand and I emailed them about being the author for some of those practice lab. It sounds exciting to me because I always enjoy the process of training, no matter train others (e.g. tutoring) or being trained. It pays ok to have a training lab done, but for me the prestige and the satisfaction is more than the money itself.

November 06, 2002 (Wednesday)

I gave myself a break in the morning and did not go to work. Instead, I went with Pastor and Pastora (Spanish of Pastor's wife) Loh to look for rented room. We visited three of those but none was appealing. I also phoned people in church to talk about the plans.
My co-workers asked me whether I pass my exam or not. I told them lightly that I pass (i.e. I did not tell them the rollercoaster ride that went through my mind). They congratulate me of course. One of my bosses was impressing too. I also shared with another CCIE candidate about the overview of my exam. I told them that, this is doable. It is a game of mind - if you walk in the exam thinking that you may fail, then you will fail. If you walk in to the lab thinking that you will pass, then you may pass. There are two main reasons that I go for this CCIE lab test: this is my ambition and I need acknowledgement from my co-workers.
I went home early (7:00pm) because there is no more reason that I need to stay late. My parents also called me saying that they liked my diary. It is good that my computer did not crash or my photos and diary did not lose. Or else, I will be mad.
Now I have to focus on the church work (and learning Spanish, and finding a new house too). I have quite a lot of things that I need to do in the two churches. (I really think that the prayers of the brothers and sisters caused me to pass the exam! They want me to focus on church work)

November 05, 2002 (Tuesday)

The 15 mins telephone call I made yesterday costed me more than 60 Cdn!
I arrived at the airport at 6:30 and took a 30mins flight to Amsterdam. Due to technical difficulty, the flight was delayed from 9:30 to 12:30. I went to some nearby bookstore and coffee shops to rest. I always went to a casino and saw people play the "Seven" game (don't know the real name) and black Jack. Wow, the dealer surely has a good hand and won most money in these little 5 mins that I stayed. Why people are stupid enough to gamble?
I regretted that I did not bring my VoIP Cisco exam book to read in the flight. Now I am sure that I fail the exam, I need something to boost up my moral. I want to pass an easy exam quick! I ended up watching "Stuart Little 2" and "Show Time" in the flight, plus lots of sleeping.
I arrived at Caracas at 6:00. It was 2.5 hours later than the scheduled time. Mimia from church supposed to pick me up but she left because she was busy with something else. I turned on my cell phone and wanted to confirm. Carmen left me a message and told me that I passed my CCIE test. I returned her call, but can not reach her. I phoned my parents and mom told me that this is true. I can not believe that. That is not fair and this does not make sense. The more I thought about the test, the more I think that I should fail. I have to call mom twice and Carmen to verify. It surely sounds like to them that I do not trust them, but they will understand once they read my diary of yesterday and know what went through my mind. This is a roller coaster experience. Before I took the test, I have confident that I will pass unless I am really unlucky to get the 1 out of 10 difficult exams. After I took the test, I have confident that I will fail unless I am really lucky that all the doubts I had along the way were actually correct. Now I pass! I was at the airport at that time and the people surround me saw how I react to the phone. I asked them to take a picture of me. I learnt Spiritual and personal lessons that I learnt for failing exam, yet I actually did pass my exam. God let me learnt the lesson of failure without actually failing me.
I took the taxi home and was stuck in the traffic when Carmen returned my "returned" call. I was so happy at that time that I made a lot of weird facial expression. After she hanged up, I also talked to myself (quietly, of course) and made some victory sign to myself. The taxi driver must be thinking that I am crazy. However, I need some place to express my joy and inside the small taxi is not an appropriate place.
I ate dinner with Ricky Lam and went to his home to check my "congratulation" email. I went home at 11. I typed my diary for 1.5 hours and I will be really mad if these data were lost.

November 04, 2002 (Monday)

As of the two previous experiences in taking the CCIE lab test, I would only have 3.5 hours of sleep. I started to get nervous when I had my final review last night. Tetris is a game essential for my survival. I also read Bibles and Christian books which talks about accepting failure. (Is God trying to say something to me?) My heartbeat rate was 84 from last night till the end of the CCIE test, compare to my usual rate of 64. I had a comparatively long night sleep of 6 hours even though I woke up three times because of too hot (I did not have this problem the first night I was here. Probably my fast heartbeat rate increased my metabolism rate and therefore I am hot!)
I took the taxi to the testing site. The taxi driver asked me whether I know some other language other than English. I proudly told him that I know a little bit of Spanish. Then for most part of the car ride he kept on talking to me in Spanish. I have no idea what he is talking. I need some quietness for my "last minute mental preparation"!
I arrived at Cisco at 8:30. There were 14 of us in the waiting room. We were so DEAD! Everyone one of us looks so serious and said very few things. There is free food and pop but no one wants to enjoy. I really want to laugh at this situation at that time. Except me, they were all taking the Routing and Switching exam, which I passed last year. I guess that they must think that I am awesome since I am already a CCIE!
I spent about an hour drawing diagram and reading the lab twice. The test did not run as smooth as I wish. (BTW, sorry if I get too technical below. It is for my own reference). The computer keyboard is in English, and some of the sign keys, e.g. "?", "_" are in different place than my Spanish keyboard. That is not nice. I got quite stuck in Cat5500 Port security. I found out later that to specify MAC address, I need to use "-" instead of ":". i.e. "00-12-43-24-32-34" rather than "00:12:43:24:32:34". I did not know that before. RIP with PIX also screw me too. For my own practice, I always believe that IOS v5.2 has a bug and RIP routes do not show up on PIX. However, the proctor said otherwise. I am in a BIG trouble because this is a very basic thing and I am supposed to know inside out. OSPF route filtering also got me. Not even now I know how to filter OSPF routes yet involving it in the "network area" command. ISDN is my huge enemies. This was the only reason I failed CCIE the first time in San Jose last June. It behaves ok, but I can not get the call back to work. Out of the three CCIE lab taking experience, I had the least confident of passing during lunch time. One interesting thing is that, PIX was load up with some config. I later questioned the proctor about that and I was told that it should not be the case. Hey, there is some PIX config that the previous candidate did and I can look at that! Cool! (I did referenced it several times later on)
During the lunch time, I was reflecting that I am too slow (even though I always proud about the speed of my thinking). I am not taking a holiday now. I am taking an exam! And I can see that, since CCIE lab exam changed from two days to one day last October, the exam actually got harder. No matter I pass or I fail, I would be proud to be a CCIE! I do not have much confident of passing though, given that I had a rough time in the morning and I am not doing as fast as I expected. This is such a stressing experience that I never ever want to come back. (But I know that I need to, if I fail it)
My lab taking philosophy changed after lunch. Rather than doing thing step by step and carefully, I have to be fast and get as many point as I can. I do not want to fail too ugly! Most of the thing I did after lunch was related to security. AAA was ok, even though I had quite some times to trouble shoot PIX that blocks my reverse route. IDS was ok; basically I have no idea whether it works or not. I just memorized the required commands and type them here. Same with the advanced PIX filtering command. There were also some misoaneous commands that the test writers wants us to research on the documentation CD but since I have done the practice lab I know the answer already. It gave me several easy points. I saved IPSec for last because this is my biggest worry. When I was practicing, it always gave me the most headaches. Now I am in a hurry and I don't want to see IPSec screwed again. This is the FIRST TIME, and the BEST time that it behaves nicely! I was so happy. After settling with all these, I have to get back to some basic, yet essential thing - ISDN. I had the basic requirement up and running. However, no matter how hard I tried, I can not get RADIUS server to authenticate the PPP session. And I can not get call back to work. In addition, the routing table was very weird on one of the ISDN router. Why OSPF behaves like this? I have never seen that before. Never. After about 30 mins of struggling, I put the "ip ospf demand-circuit" command from one router to the other and it works. I still have no idea why it works.
The time finally arrived. I still have several outstanding basic issues. First, PIX does not accept any PIX routes. This should be "PIX 101" and yet I have no idea how to solve it. Also, I do not know how to filter OSPF routes from the Frame Relay cloud. Moreover, I did not test whether ISDN callback works or not. I did try it when I was doing the practice lab but I can not get that to work at that time. I was typing the "answer key" yet it was not working. This time I am typing the answer key too and I hope that miracles happens. I could not get the ISDN PPP authentication using RADIUS to work anyway. I spent my final hour in troubleshooting but found no luck. I used local database instead. The ISDN "backup interface" requirement was also not satisfying.
Enough of the technical talk. In layman terms, here is my feeling when I walk out the lab. I have several elementary issues that I can not resolve. This will affect the structure of the whole lab. I did not have the mood nor the time to double check the lab in detail; I was just relying on how careful I used to be. There were also several commands that I issued purely by memorizing the practice lab without really understand what it means. Last, and the great, is that the exam marking scheme is in such a way that there is no "part mark" for each of the session. Either you get it all right or get it all wrong for that session. This makes the exam hard. I know that, individually speaking, I got about 80% of the requirement up and running. However that would still gave me a zero if the 20% are scattered in all sessions (e.g. each sessions I get 99% right and 1 % wrong and I still got a zero in that session). I guess that I should be able to get 60% (passing mark is 80%). I really need a lot of luck, and in fact a miracle, to pass!
I went to the hotel next door (the one that I should stay) to write down the entire exams. I wanted to document it neatly so that I know what to experience next time. And then I treated myself a 28 Euro (40 Cdn) nice dinner (of course I will ask the company to reimburse for this) as a "defeated" dinner (instead of a celebrating dinner). Taking the train home was my saddest time. It was one of the most homesick time, if not the most, in the last five months. I did not want to go back to Brussels nor Venezuela but to Vancouver to meet my family and Carmen! I really need their support! I went to a Internet Cafe to check email. I knew that I will fail but I am not satisfied until the death sentence had been proclaimed! They said that they will email the result by 9:30pm but I was there from 9-10 and there were no email. I told dad, Hansel and Carmen to check the result for me instead. It took me a long time to type the email because the keyboard was in French (or German?). Several of the keys, e.g. "a", "w", "q", "z", "m" have different places. And I had a very hard time to find the "_" key too. I need that to log on to my hotmail accounts.
I called Carmen and my mom and asked them whether the result is up yet. I had a struggle to make this call because I knew the result already and why bother? There were two lessons that I learnt from this failure experience. "Server, be prepared in season and out of season" (In 2Ti 4:2a, it says "Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season". I had many things that I need to do when I returned. Learning Spanish, finding a new house, DirecTV project, VoIP Cisco exams (yes, another Cisco exams! But compare to this lab exam, that is only a joke), Baptist Church Sunday School proposal, Choir, MB church fellowship and compamental singspiration practice. I wanted to get over this huge monster (the CCIE lab test) so that I can focus on these, particularly the serving part. I know that many brothers and sisters in Venezuela pray that I will pass the exam so that I can concentrate more on the church stuff. I reply to them that may God will be done on me. In my heart, I do not want to disappoint them and leave a backdoor to myself. The failing experience I had last June also told me that I must continue to do whatever I am doing even I fail the exam. And the second lesson I learnt is that, God is breaking my last dignity in work. Since I can not communicate with my co-worker, I felt inferior already. I did not have much productivity and was just a scholar in their eyes. (for detail, reference to my previous diary). They all look up to this CCIE certification; one of the them took five times to pass, and the other person has not pass it yet (his 7th attempt is coming soon). Therefore, I can walk with my head up if I can pass this exam. I do not expect them to treat me like a "god" or very superior. I just want to let them know that this "chino" worth the money. Also, by passing this exam, I can request for more project and be more productive. I guess that I must go for my "unknown" Plan B. It does not make me feel good, but as I have read in that Christian book, the great people are great not because they always success but they handle failure with grace. My philosophy is that, I always wants to prevent failure. Why I can only learn that fire can burn my finger by burning my finger but not listening to my parents’ advice? Great people handles failure but very great people prevent failure!

November 03, 2002 (Sunday)

This morning is the "energy saving" morning. I slept 9pm last night, and woke up at 11am this morning. I had to do it because I know that I can not sleep well tonight. However, I woke up 1-3am and just did some reading. I am not able to sleep for this long since I am in Venezuela.
After the long night of sleep, I went for some sightseeing. I remembered that when I took the CCIE test last time in Halifax, I spent 6.5 hrs walking the day before to kill some energy so that I may have a good night of sleep. It failed last time. But I found that this is a good time to visit this place. Besides that, I am on a mission to take a lot of pictures so that my family can see what Belgium is like. I took an adventure by taking the train from Brussels to my testing site at Diegem. Hansel and I had a dream of traveling in Europe with just a back pack and today I saw people who are fulfilling my dream! Their backpacks are huge though. These train can take me all the way to Madrid, if I really get lost.
Diegem has nice hotels and are very close to Cisco. Probably these are the ones that Cisco recommends us to stay. And Diegem is close to the airport too. I can save (to be specific, it is my company can save) the 50 Euro taxi ride one way. The parts that Cisco is in is very new. It is like, using a Vancouver analogy, the high tech area near the Willingdon McDonald. And the other part is a bit old, but still newer than Brussels. After about 1.5 hours walk, I took the train and returned to Brussels. I had another 2.5 hours walk. I saw the route of the tour bus and I am covering about 60% of these sightseeing place! I am good, consider that I only have a map and a "#11 bus"! I can spend as many or as less time that I like in these places.
I went back to my hotel to update my diary. To my surprise, this expensive Holiday Inn does not only lack Internet access but also a power plug! My laptop is 110V and uses two "straight" hole power plug. However, my room has only one or two 220V round plug that the Europeans use. I went to the front desk and they said that they lent out their only "round hole to straight hole" adaptor. My washroom had a "115 & 220 V three round and straight holes (not the ground hole)" power plug. I tried to plug my laptop there. However, my laptop does not like this power source. Rather than risking to burn my electric adaptor (I will know when I get back to Venezuela), I, as a Network Engineer and a "IT" person, have to stop using the computer for the next little while. If I have to take this test again, I must go back to San Jose. They have a power plug that works for my laptop and also free high speed Internet Access! (I don't think that this surprise anyone, consider that that is San Jose).
One of the strange thing that I found when I am walking is that, there is no McDonald, or any America food (e.g. KFC, Burger King, Wendy...). Finally, after the six hours walk I had in the last two days in the heart of the down town area, I managed to find two McDonalds and one Pizza Hut. I walked all the way (about 10 mins) from my hotel to eat the European version of McDonald. I ended up dining in its' neighbor, Pizza Hut, but I also bought a McDonald Salad for tomorrow's breakfast.

November 02, 2002 (Saturday)

I arrived Amsterdam airport at 7am local time. After a transfer flight, I arrived Brussels at 9:30am local time. I took taxi to the hotel and it was very expensive - 50 Euro, which was about 50 USD! (After I double check with the hotel Cisco recommended, I strongly suspect that they book the hotel in the wrong city!) When I checked in to the hotel, they required me a 100 Euro deposit. I was running out of money because I only carried $350 US with me. 100 Euro to and from the airport and possibly another 100 Euro to and from the Cisco testing site (I thought that the testing site was walking distance from here but the police told me that it is quite far away and requires 1 hour bus or 25 mins taxi!). Also I need 100 Euro for hotel deposit (need this money for my way back to airport and any potential airport fee or last minute expense). I have very few money for food and absolutely no money for gift. :(
I slept for two hours in the hotel, and then I went out for a two-hour walk. I had a thought about wondering and traveling in Europe for a month 1.5 years ago. Now I am doing it, but just a two-day version. This is a much nicer place than Venezuela. The street are clean and the drivers respect the pedestrian when they want to cross the road. Most of the buildings were old. It is like Old Quebec City. There are many new building too, but is nothing compare to North America. There are also many tourists (is it because this is the weekend?) and many people, even some of the citizens and polices, can speak English. (I still have no idea what the normal people are speaking here. It sounds strange. I heard from the taxi driver that it may be German, French or Dutch) This is a nice place to live, if the living standard is not as high. (Especially I am coming from a oil rich country, where the oil price is "100". The gas price here is "1200", compare to the gas price in Vancouver is "699").

November 01, 2002 (Friday)

I came to work at 8am in the morning. I rented the practice lab from 8-12. However, I did not know what to study. I have 90% chances to pass, 8 times out of 10. (This is a statistical concept. It means that, if there is no accident [not a physical accident, of course!]occur, I would have 90% chance to pass. And the probability that there will not be accident occurring is 80%)
I have nothing left to study, and in order to prevent myself breakdown, I left at 11:30am. Mimia from Baptist Church (She is a travel agency) drove me to the airport. The security was more tight than I thought. They dissembled my hand-carry and examine everything. One of the passengers was mad because the staff prohibited her to bring her hair spray and perfume to the flight.
I left Caracas at 5:30pm. The flight was about a third full. I sat at the window seat and the two seats besides me were empty. Therefore, I can enjoy something that even the first class can not - lie down and sleep across the three seats. Some of the passengers had all four seats in the middle rows and that were even more comfortable because three seats were not long enough for my height.
I studied, enjoyed gameboy (addicted to Tetris!) and slept for several hours.