December 31, 2004(Friday)

I went to work and find out that no one was there! I am grateful that I do have the key to open the door. Actually, I just need to print some stuff for the outreach tonight. The printer jams paper in the middle of it. This stupid Xerox printer was extremely user-hostile. I took about 15 mins to take the jam paper out using spoon or some sharp thing. I nearly destroyed the printer!
I went home afterward to prepare for tonight's program, including catching enough sleep. We went to church at 5:40. There were people there cooking since 10am! For some strange reason (again) the guitar contact to the amplifier does not work. Therefore, Carmen went home to take my electric guitar. And after she arrived, I find out that one of my violin strings was broken! I usually bring spare violin string but I thought that this is just a short night so I did not! Therefore we have to cancel the violin section.
There were about 80 people had dinner at church. The food is good but since I have to be responsible for the program, I did not have much food. The outreach started at 9:30, 30 mins ahead of our planned schedule. I led some songs and Carmen led some game. The night was relatively smooth, even though the fire crackers were making noise once in a while. Some of the elders (e.g. Che So, her husband, Mrs. Cheng, Mrs. Tse) even came out to sing some love song as the "dim chueng" section!
The program ended at 12:01. Some of the youth went out to celebrate Christmas but we just went home to have rest. The fire crackers were very noisy most of the night. The environment is warm and cozy.

December 30, 2004(Thursday)

There are very few people that went to work today. I did not do much. And then I went home during lunch time. After the afternoon nap, I went for a jog. There is a farewell dinner at church for Pastor Ricky Chan. He and his family went from Toronto to Venezuela for the Christmas season and they planned to be the church pastor in the next few months. He will leave tomorrow. We did not go because we want to prepare for the outreach tomorrow. However, Dr. Chu called and said that they want to come to our house to have dinner. When they returned from China last month, they did not bring YiSon back. Mrs. Chu and her younger son Paul will go back to China next months. Therefore, they wanted to come to have dinner and have good fellowship time. We chatted about the life in China, their two sons and the spiritual life. I wanted to treat them for dinner for a long time; I am glad that the chances finally come.

December 29, 2004(Wednesday)

I went to work in the morning. I made two phone calls regarding about the Virginia bootcamp in January 10. That was almost the most productive thing I did this week. I went home afterward. Kitty went to our home early because she got off work early. And Baptist Church Chinese youth committee went to my house for meeting tonight. Ten of us had dinner and that is the record in our house. We don't even have enough seats for them. We had committee meeting afterward. We set the direction for the upcoming year. It has been 11 months since the beginning of the fellowship. I am glad that we grew from 2 or 3 people to 10 stable people now.

December 28, 2004(Tuesday)

Another relax day. I went to Parque del Este to jog with Carmen in the morning. I went to work briefly in the afternoon. People were watching TV at work or chatting. I spent some time to read the PhD paper so that I can contact PhD prof again in order to gain some chance to get in. This is quite boring and I fell asleep in the middle of it.
At night, we went to church. I played ping pong for about 30 mins. The fellowship program is rehearsal for the Dec 31 outreach. We practiced some songs and the dance. I was totally off beat for the dance. We also had sharing about church. Two of the non-believers expressed that they are really interested in church activity because they can find the feeling of peace. If this is in Canada, many people will rush to them and share the gospel already. However, when Carmen asked me to do so, for some reason, I find that I am not that ready. I did not pray to share the gospel with non-believers for a while. This is my fault. On the other hand, there are several new believers that are very stable. We should have some kind of discipleship training as well. For the last two years in Venezuela, I am too focused on the administration and also organizing events. I lack the spiritual side. Hope that someone else can help me with the organization part so that I can spend more time on the spiritual part.

December 27, 2004(Monday)

I thought that there was an online training section today in the morning. However, I had the wrong memory. I only update the homepage and prepared for the PowerPoint slides for church. There is nothing else I that need to do. Other people were chatting or play "solitaire".
I went home at 1pm and had 1.5 hours afternoon nap. At night, Kitty and Ah Men came to our house to have dinner and practice music for Dec 31 and Jan 2 worship team. We had a good time tonight. In Vancouver, I always opened my house for people to practice music. We can finally do it again now.

December 26, 2004(Sunday)

We went to church in the morning. This is the Christmas worship and the Chinese youth sang songs "Listen Angels praise song" and "Feliz Navidad". Afterward, we had luncheon at church. We went home and then went to MB Church for worship again. I don't have to be the song leader. However, Carmen and I had a song performance. Carmen made a wonderful movie slide with the song "Lord left the palace" (Hymn), "you complete grace" (ACM's You are king). Semson also dressed like Jesus today and distributed gift. It was very funny. We also ate dinner at church.
At night, we had guitar class at my house. Christmas holiday is usually the busy season at church. And today is a busy day. However, we are happy that we are doing things that are good for the church. The next few nights will also be busy but we are glad about this.

December 25, 2004(Saturday)

Today is Christmas! The street is very quiet. It is because people played until very late last night. Even though it was 8:30, it felt like it is 6am! We went to Baptist Church at 9:30. At 10:20, we departed for the Christmas Hiking. We went to "Monte Avila" for hiking with 20 people. I used to go there almost weekly about a year ago. It is nice to visit this place again. As expected, I walked the fastest and is the most physically fit. Weekly running in Parque del Este slow down my body's deteriating rate. It was fun to go to picnic with a group of friends.
We went back to church for the BBQ. Afterward, there was a Christmas program. Originally, Paco was in charge of the Quiz section. However, he has to work today so I helped him to host. Carmen said that I did a great job as a host. I am really happy about her praise but I know that I deserve that ;) That's why I got such a high score as an instructor.
We went home for dinner. More than a week ago, I thought of preparing Carmen a Christmas Dinner as my first gift to her after our marriage. This is a very special gift because I am not a chef at all. I used what I learnt in the last two years in Venezuela to be my gift. I did the preparation (clean up, decoration, cooking, washing dishes in advanced) from 6:15 to 7:40. When I was preparing the food, it makes me more appreciate about how my dad cooked for me for the last x years and how Carmen will cook for me for the next x years. I bought some yogurt that she likes. The main dishes are chicken/steak/vegetable/rice. I also got her some Vanilla ice-cream. (Previously she always buys chocolate ice cream because I like Chocolate ice cream). I also pierced the skin of two oranges. I decorated the table as well. We read the vow to each other during the dinner and played a tape that I recorded to her in 1995. I did all the clean up as well. Carmen really appreciated about this romantic dinner. However, I still left a lot of room so that there is space for me to improve.

December 24, 2004(Friday)

In theory, I am supposed to go to work in the morning. However, there is really no one going and nothing to do. Therefore, I stayed home instead. I practiced some of the songs that we will sing in Dec 26 and Dec 31. And then we went out to buy street burger for lunch. I felt so great because the burger people say "Feliz Navidad" to me and said that he will make a bigger share because today is Christmas.
We went to Sambil in the afternoon to buy some Christmas gift for Che So. And then we went to Ho Kou for dinner with Che So and lots of people from the Ho Kou restaurant. We waited for a long time and the people are very typical China-type Chinese.
As it is Christmas time, the street is very noisy at night. People are playing firework all over the place. Even though it is illegal, the people still play it because this is the holiday season.

December 23, 2004(Thursday)

There is nothing to do at work. Therefore, I only go there from 10 to 12:30. Nothing happen and not many people were there. After going home early, I went to have a run at Parque del Este. And then we tried to shop for some gift for Che So because she treated us good and she invited us to her restaurant to have a Christmas dinner tomorrow. But we have no luck yet.
At night, Paco went to our house and had dinner. We discussed about the Dec 31 outreach.

December 22, 2004(Wednesday)

I studied intensively on the IPTX CUE (Cisco Unity Express) for about 3.5 hours straight, skipping lunch. Rather than going home for a long lunch, I went home really early, at 2:30 pm. There is not much going on in work. This year, Dec 25 and the coming New year Jan 1 fall on Saturday. Unlike the situation in Canada, We will not get any extra holiday.
Semson and Ana came to eat dinner at our house. Then the MB Church Chinese Youth fellowship had a committee meeting in my house. Previously I go to their fellowship to help out. However, they moved their fellowship date to Tuesday. Therefore, I no longer can attend their meeting. I still want to follow up as much as I can though. I am glad that I can see their growth. On the other hand, since I am there too much time, the Baptist Church Chinese fellowship do not get as much exposure to other thing and they do not have as much experience because I did too many thing.

December 21, 2004(Tuesday)

I love to do statistic. In Feb. 25, 04, I recorded all the flight info that I did in Caracas. This is now the time to update the list. This is the statistic since February: I took 30 flights, with a total of 7 round trips and 2 three-way trips. In total, since I have started work in Venezuela, I took 68 flights, with a total of 16 round trips, 1 one-way trip and 3 three-way trips. Quite a lot! Here it is:

May 18, 02	YVR - DFW - CCS	Bye Vancouver
Aug. 11, 02	CCS - DFW - San Jose	CCIE Training
Aug. 17, 02	San Jose - LAX - YVR	Vancouver Visit #1
Aug. 25, 02	YVR - DFW - CCS	Vancouver Visit #1
Nov. 01, 02	CCS - Amsterdam - Brussels	CCIE Exam
Nov. 05, 02	Brussels - Amsterdam - CCS	CCIE Exam
Dec. 22, 02	CCS - Houston - YVR	Vancouver Visit #2
Jan. 12, 03	YVR - Houston - CCS	Vancouver Visit #2
Apr. 10, 03	CCS - Curacao	Visa expired #1
Apr. 10, 03	Curacao - CCS	Visa expired #1
Jul. 08, 03	CCS - MIA - DFW - YVR	Vancouver Visit #3
Jul. 29, 03	YVR - DFW - MIA - CCS	Vancouver Visit #3
Aug. 10, 03	CCS - MIA - St. Louis - Indiana	MBA trip #1
Aug. 17, 03	Indiana - St. Louis - MIA - CCS	MBA trip #1
Sep. 02, 03	CCS - Bogot?	Work trip #1
Sep. 05, 03	Bogot?- CCS	Work trip #1
Nov. 28, 03	CCS - Curacao	Visa expired #2
Nov. 28, 03	Curacao - CCS	Visa expired #2
Dec. 28, 03	CCS - Margarita	Trip with Carmen
Dec. 30, 03	Margarita - CCS	Trip with Carmen
Jan. 18, 04	CCS - Bogot?	Work trip #2
Jan. 29, 04	Bogot?- CCS	Work trip #2
Mar. 31, 04	CCS - Panama	Work trip #3
Apr. 02, 04	Panama - CCS	Work trip #3
Apr. 08, 04	CCS - DFW - YVR	Vancouver Visit #4
Apr. 25, 04	YVR - DFW - CCS	Vancouver Visit #4
May 14, 04	CCS - MIA	CTT Training #1
May 23, 04	MIA - CCS	CTT Training #1
Aug. 08, 04	CCS - Atlanta - Indiana	MBA trip #2
Aug. 13, 04	Indiana - Atlanta - CCS	MBA trip #2
Sept. 11, 04	CCS - DFW - YVR	Vancouver Visit #5
Sept. 26/27, 04	YVR - LAX - DFW - MIA	Vancouver Visit #5
Oct. 02, 04	MIA - CCS	Vancouver Visit #5
Oct. 10, 04	CCS - Atlanta	CTT Training #2, 3
Oct. 17, 04	Atlanta - Boston	CTT Training #2, 3
Oct. 24, 04	Boston - Atlanta - CCS	CTT Training #2, 3
Nov. 09, 04	CCS - Bogota	Work Trip #4
Nov. 12, 04	Bogota - CCS	Work Trip #4
Nov. 22, 04	CCS - MIA	CTT Training
Nov. 23, 04	MIA - CCS	CTT Training
Dec. 05, 04	CCS - MIA - Raleigh	CTT Training #4
Dec. 14, 04	Raleigh - MIA - CCS	CTT Training #4

Work is quiet. I did some phone call for the pre-assessment for the course that I will teach in Virginia next January. And then I went to church for fellowship. It is appreciation night, for Che So and Mrs. Cheng. They have helped the fellowship (actually, they cooked food for us) every week so this time is dedicated for them. It went well. They said that they should have a night to appreciate me because I have done a lot for the fellowship too.

December 20, 2004(Monday)

I had an online CME tutoring section for the Raleigh group. Nothing interesting happened here. I finished it pretty quick. I went to have a hair cut during lunch time with Carmen. In the afternoon, I did some IPTX lab as well. I did a lot last Friday already. Therefore, there is nothing much left for me to test. I need to wait for the equipment to arrive from Miami in order to continue with the bulk part of my testing. I also made phone interview with the Virginia group that I will teach next January.
December is lovely because there is not much going on. My boss are on vacation; my client are not willing to do anything during Christmas time either. Therefore, work is very slow (but actually, it has been slow before). The only thing that I am working hard is the CTT's training. I left work early and studied the CTT IPTX course.

December 19, 2004(Sunday)

I led song today at Baptist Church. The song list is: "listen angels praise", "A Media Noche Reson?#034; (It came upon a midnight clear), "Al Mundo Paz, Naci?Jesús!" (Joy to the World), "Noche de Paz" (Silence night) and "Cuando Miro a Tu Santidad" (When I look into your holiness). Then I taught the Sunday school and ate lunch at church. Carmen was the song leader for the MB Church and she led the following song: "listen angels praise", "Feliz Navidad", "Emmanuel" and "Noche de Paz" (Silence night).
Rather than the usual sermon, MB Church had a movie instead. The movie is a Chinese movie that talks about the "black society" drug people struggle and then he got rid of the drug. This movie is not taped by the evangelical organization but by ordinary movie maker instead. There is some swear word there and it is the first time that I heard swear word in church. It was not the best movie but I find that this is meaningful, especially to some of the new Chinese youth. Carmen afterward gave me a lot of her view and critic about this movie. She is very pro in this.

December 18, 2004(Saturday)

I went to Parque del Este and had a jog with Carmen. And then, Yanting came to our house and I taught her math. She did badly in her exam so I taught her even though this is holiday for her. Afterward, we went to Baptist Church for music practice. Pastor Chan from Canada came with his family. He will probably come to Baptist Church to pastor this church sometimes next year. Therefore he came to visit us again. He had been here previously with his family earlier this year.
At night, four MB Church young people came to our house for the guitar class. They are new to guitar; yet they invested money to buy a new guitar! Of course, I tried very hard to teach them as well. Semson were here to use the internet. I taught him how to edit the MB Church webpage and I hope that from now on he will edit the MB Church homepage.

December 17, 2004(Friday)

I worked really hard today on the IPTX course lab. This is the new course that I need to incorporate into the bootcamp. So I need to know the material and also the lab. Originally I need to go to Miami next week to prepare for the lab material. However I don't want to travel again because I don't want to leave Carmen alone. Therefore, I asked for some similar equipment so that I can work partially on that in Caracas. In addition, I talked to the CTT people that I got a good evaluation last time in Raleigh BECAUSE Carmen can go with me. This is a win-win situation. Therefore, they are willing to let me bring Carmen again. Therefore, I really need to do a good job again next January in Virginia or else it would look bad on me.
I worked on the lab practice for 8 straight hours, voluntarily skipping my lunch break/afternoon nap. I think that this is the first time that I have done this in Caracas. However, I had good progress and I am happy about this.
At night, Carmen and I went to have dinner in some restaurant.

December 16, 2004(Thursday)

I was working hard today for the CTT CME training. Previously, I need to teach 2.5 days for CVoice, 2.5 days for QoS and one day for CME (Call manager express). Cisco has a new syllabus so the CME would be a full week course. Therefore, the bootcamp will have a new format. 2 days of CVoice, 2 days of QoS and 2 days of CME. It will be difficult to have everything cram to students' mind in 6 days but this is what I have to do. Also, I have very few knowledge about the CME concept. Therefore, I spent this morning to check the lab guide so that when I go to Miami next week, I would be fully prepared. In addition, I printed out the material in the afternoon (using color printer!) so that I can write some notes besides it and I would know what the next slide would be. Let's hope that the version of this PPT would be the same as the version that the students will get.
I had a follow up interview with the job that I applied to Vancouver at night. The interview this time is not as technical. They just asked me whether I know about this or that. Then I studied hard for the IPTX course for two full hours! Today is a really productive working day that I rarely experience.

December 15, 2004(Wednesday)

I did not sleep good last night. I had a coffee last night at about 7pm. In addition, I am checking with the company stuff. Therefore, I "lost sleep"! A rare event for me in a tiring day. I ended up sleeping at 3:30am.
I did not go to work this morning because of the late night sleep. On the other hand, I had phone interview regarding some possible job opportunity. One is in Vancouver. I talked to the technical guy for about 51 mins. The technical questions that he asked were hard. I was faking it and I don't think that I will make it. I have another one that will be in US. I had the interview at night. This one was not as technical (but still quite technical) and it was not as bad. I have a bit more confident on this one. Yet I will wait to see what their response will be. I plan to study PhD anyway so I am not sure how good it would be for me just to work for half a year.
I did a lot of administrative work today at the half day of work. I need to get an insurance that would make sure that I will be safe wherever I go. Previously, when I go to trip, I am without insurance. This time, company will have insurance for the employee so that they can go to wherever with insurance. I am the first to raise this concern. I also deposited a cheque to the bank and checked the emails and so on. Lots of thing to do. I also called Harvard and Yale PhD because they said that GMAT score and transcripts are missing for my application. Basically I have sent that to them over two months ago. It is just that their website is quite confusing and so I sent to the wrong place. I need to follow up such that they will end up in the right place. My big worry is regarding about the reference letter. I am still waiting on that.

December 14, 2004(Tuesday)

I requested to take a late flight back to Caracas today because I planned to have some time visiting Raleigh today as well. However, we have to check out by 11am. In addition, our flight will be 2:41pm so we have to be at the airport at 12. Therefore, we slept in today (woke up at 9am) and went straight to the airport. We were there 4 hours in advanced so we walked around the airport. Just like the city itself, the airport is small and there is nothing much interesting to see. Therefore, Carmen read the magazine while I work on the IP Expert IPv6 document.
We took a 2 hours flight to Miami, waited for another 2.5 hours and took another flight back to Caracas. By the time we were home, it is about 1am! I still did some email (for company) checking so that I would not get any surprise tomorrow.

December 13, 2004(Monday)

Finally I got a day to tour with Carmen. She has been to a lot of places in the last few days. However, as for me, I would love to go to the universities. Therefore, we went to Duke University and University of North Carolina. We went to Duke in the morning. This was a nice university, but everything is quite distant apart. We went to the chapel because Carmen says that this is a very famous place to be. In addition, we specifically went to the business building to check out. We are glad that the business building is always the nicest one in the campus.
Afterward, we took the bus to University of North Carolina. Hansel says that Michael Jordan used to be a student there so I checked out their basketball gym and took some picture of that. I only got the chance to take the group picture of them; I don't see any other display item that is specifically dedicated for him.
This is quite an experience today to visit the universities. I used to go to business trip and enjoy good life. However, going to university today reminds me that this will not be easy and I will not have a pay check because I am a student. I will definitely need some adjustment time in order to feel comfortable to be a student again.

December 12, 2004(Sunday)

This is the end of the business trip and is the beginning of the personal trip. Therefore, we need to pay for our expense from now on. We changed the hotel from Embassy Suite (a very high class and big hotel) to Homestead Studio Suite (this is not a bad place. However, it is more like a hotel. It has a stove and microwave though). However, the check in time is not until 4pm. Therefore, we went to the "Cary Towne Center" to spend some time. I read some Japanese Comic. We chose to go there because this is one of the places that Embassy Suite offer free shuttle bus service to. We find that it is extremely inconvenient without a car. Everything is so far apart and the public transport system is not available during the weekend. However, I did spend too much money on car in the Boston trip last time (US $850) so the company did not want to let me rent the car again.
After we checked in to the Homestead Inn, we went to a nearby "Food Lion" supermarket to buy some food for the next two days. I brought about US$400 for this trip. My company also gave me an addition of $500. However we were almost running out of money by now! The taxi alone cost $400! We need to be very cost conscious or else we would not have money to take to the airport.

December 11, 2004(Saturday)

This is the last day of class. I spent about 2.5 hours for the material plus the lecture. I can finally pack up and leave at noon. My students shook my hand and appreciated for the course. I am glad about this.
We do not have a car and there were almost no public transportation available during the weekend. Therefore, Carmen and I took a $20 taxi (but we will reimburse it from my company) and went to Crabtree Shopping Mall. This mall feels like metro town. We had lunch and dinner there. I spent almost 3.5 hours reading 5 Japanese comic books (Dragon Ball, One Piece) that is translated into English and was sold in English bookstore. At night, we watched the movie "Lord of the Ring" from TV.

December 10, 2004(Friday)

Everything was smooth and the class went really well. I ended the lecture at about 9:30am and let them do the lab. Most of them left by 2pm. The Cisco engineer also toured us to a Cisco store with lots of Cisco Souvenir. They also filled out the evaluation. My mark was great as usual. I had a 6.88 out of 7 overall rate (for the previous three trips, I had 6.7 or 6.8 out of 7). The great improvement was not for me but for the lab and equipment. Since we are using the physical lab for CVoice rather than using the online lab, the grade for this section went up a lot! (I guess that it went from 3 out of 7 to 5.5 out of 7). Since I am bringing Carmen this trip, I must guarantee a good performance or else CTT will blame on this. I am glad that the result is good. However, whether or not I can bring Carmen next time, it has to depend on the business and also the mercy of CTT too.
I went back to hotel at 3:10 and went out for a 90 mins run. This was one of the longest jogging times that I have ever had. I originally planned a 50 mins run but then the road is longer than I think.
For the last several days, I don't have any appetite for food. Probably because I was either inside the hotel or inside the training place. After the run today, I felt much better and I eat more and I can eventually feel hungry.

December 09, 2004(Thursday)

With the physical equipment, life is a charm (at least, so far). The course went really well. The physical equipment is working fine and amazingly, no problem has arisen yet! I am grateful about this! Previously, the students spent a lot of time in troubleshooting the online lab connection. Currently, everything is smooth and fast. People are happy and so do I! The class ended early today (4:30) so that I can go home early.
This morning there was a fire alarm so I spent an hour walking around and sneaked into another Cisco building. I was sitting in their room and read the IP Telephony Express course that I will teach next month!
RTP is also one of the CCIE testing centers. I got a chance to go to the CCIE testing room and talked to the Cisco proctor. This is an interesting experience to hear from the Proctor and I can have some idea about how a CCIE proctor behaves!
I am quite rich in the Venezuela standard. However, I am not even half of what I should be paid in the US standard for a CCIE. Therefore, most of the time, I am the lowest paid person in the class, even though I am an instructor. Some of my students know about this and they always recommend me to find another job. I had a telephone interview at night with one of the students' supervisor. Let see what will happen because my job-seeking-life is never been smooth.

December 08, 2004(Wednesday)

I went to have a full day of tiring training. I find out that I can make long distance phone call to ANYWHERE for free in Cisco! They probably enable it so that the employee can call their customer. And I call my parents and even Hansel in HK!
We finished the QoS course this morning. The class was smooth and they finished thing ahead of time. This afternoon, we move on to CVoice. The lab of CVoice is the origin of all source of stress! We started the lab this afternoon. I have complained a lot of time and this is the first time that we use the physical equipment, rather than the online lab. So far, it is running smooth and the students are happy about the lab equipment. I am grateful about this.
In summary, as of now, I feel that this is a pretty good group of students. They are quite responsive and laugh at my jokes. The environment is more lively than the Boston group. I do hope that I can have good evaluation, not only for myself, but also for the lab and also for the CTT organization. Then CTT would find that it worth to use the physical equipment and also may let me to bring Carmen to next training trip!

December 07, 2004(Tuesday)

I gave the students much more lab time today; so I am not as tired. I can have some time to relax and do other stuff. I received an email from the IP Expert saying that they want me to write a white-paper on IPv6. The deadline should be the end of this year. This is a short notice but I took the challenge anyway in order to receive some additional money.
Everything was smooth today and I went back to the hotel at 6:20pm. Basically the taxi had problem and the taxi ride was slow. However, I do not really care because I was resting and sleeping during that ride. I am glad that, at least, I made it back to the hotel. I will use his taxi tomorrow though. I had dinner with Carmen in the hotel.

December 06, 2004(Monday)

I woke up and had dinner with Carmen in the hotel. And then I went to the RTP Cisco classroom in the morning. The taxi ride was $26. I only had $100. The taxi driver accused me saying that I should tell him in advanced about this large bill. And then he tried to drive me to some store (that is located far away from this remote place) to get change and charge me for this! I was quite pissed off with that. I ended up borrow money from people in Cisco. The class started at about 9:20. It was pretty smooth and the people were relatively responsive. I hope that I will get a good evaluation. The only down side is that Cisco does not provide lunch for us. I don't like this. I also set up the equipment for the CVoice class. This is a relatively smooth day and people went home at about 6pm.
Carmen went to Raleigh downtown to walk around today. I went back to hotel at 6:30 and went with Carmen to Western Union to take money and also had dinner. It is great to spend some times with her after a hard day of work. Monday is usually tiring because I have not gotten used to this tense instructing environment.

December 05, 2004(Sunday)

I took an early flight with Carmen to Miami and then to Raleigh. This is the first time that I go to a business trip with Carmen (and this is her first business trip). We don't have to be so cost-cautious. We arrived to Raleigh at 2:30 local time and arrived to the hotel "Embassy Suite" at 3:30. This is a very nice hotel; the biggest room that I have ever been to. However, they don't have internet access included. In addition, the transportation is far. Taxi costs a lot! Anyway, she and I went to "Cary Towne Center" (Towne with an "e") to walk around. It felt so much better to be in North America. This mall is like the Richmond Center or Lansdowne center. I am thankful that I have much business trip experience so that I can know different places.

December 04, 2004(Saturday)

Carmen and I went for an early jog. And then Yanting and Kitty came to our house. I pre-study with Kitty; Yanting used our computer for her math. At night, we had dinner together. They also studied in our house. We always want our house to be the household of faith. We are glad that we can use our property to provide some convenient for the brothers and sisters at church.

December 03, 2004(Friday)

I had another online training this morning for the Miami (May 17-21), Atlanta (Oct. 11-16) and Boston (Oct 18-23) groups. The audio portion had problem in the beginning but then it was all fixed. In the afternoon, I worked on the IP Expert stuff again. It was very productive.
At night, I watched movie with Carmen. This is the first time that I watch movie in Venezuela. We watched the movie "The incredible". Sadly, the movie is in Spanish and without any English subtitle. Therefore we cannot fully understand everything. However, since it is true that 70% of the communication are using body language. Therefore, by watching the movie and looking at the action, we can pretty much able to guess what the movie is about. We went home and watched the trailer from this movie in order to "fill in the blank" for this movie.

December 02, 2004(Thursday)

I had the online training section for the Miami (May 17-21), Atlanta (Oct. 11-16) and Boston (Oct 18-23) this morning. Previously not many people joined the online section. Therefore, our company decided to combine three of those and had an online section for this elite group (i.e. not every student from the class). Our objective is to get them certified as soon as possible. The section went fast because they can answer the question fast.
There was nothing much happened in the afternoon so I worked on the IP Expert stuff. Other than that, this is a relatively quiet and relaxing day.

December 01, 2004(Wednesday)

Work is normal again. Good! Semson and Kitty went to our house for dinner. Carmen pre-study next Tuesday's Bible Study with Kitty while I taught Semson how to write webpage. Previously I have made the webpage for both MB Church and Baptist Church. No one really cares about the website of Baptist Church. However, Semson has constantly given me the weekly announcement so that I can put that on the website. Now he wants to learn how to put the announcement or sharing on the website as well. So I spent the night teaching him that.
Carmen cooked tonight. The food was good and I was hungry. Therefore, I accidentally bite my tongue. It kept on bleeding for the whole meal but I did not notice about that. When I finished my food, I found out that I am still bleeding. It does not hurt but still I need to stop the blood! Semson suggested that I should put some sugar on the tongue in order to stop the blood. It works, but it is a weird way.
I am going to Raleigh (North Carolina) next week for training. I am glad that Carmen can go with me this time. Here is the flight info:

Dec. 5 (Sun)	AA2134 Caracas - Miami 07:20 - 09:41 AA1012 Miami - Raleigh Durham 11:40 - 13:42
Dec. 14 (Tue)	AA2239 Raleigh Durham - Miami 14:40 - 16:45 AA2133 Miami - Caracas 19:30 - 23:38