October 31, 2004(Sunday)

I was the song leader today (and Carmen was one of the worship team) and I led the following songs: "whole world praise" (from ACM's come revive me), "I love prayer", "love is not reserved", "El Poder de tu Amor" (Power of your love), "Dios Escucha Mi Oración". I led Sunday School about a book review of Ephesians.
Carmen and I had lunch with Kitty, Wilson and Victor. And then we waited for the key of the new house for about 30 mins. I was really stressed the last few days about the rent-house situation. I told the new landlord David that I need the house by Oct 24 (the day that Carmen and I returned to Venezuela). However, the house was not ready. They are still in renovation stage. I have notified David for 1.5 months and he did not have everything on time. Since I previously thought that I can move in to the new house Oct 24, I only rented the house until Oct 31. Therefore, I was running into a risk of having no place to stay if David cannot give me the house on time. I tried to call him many times but he seldom answered his cell phone (may be because he was busy with his work). Whenever I got the chance to talk to him, I pushed him very hard saying that I definitely need the house by Sunday. I was pissed off at him! Last night he told me that we can move in today between 2 to 3. So I went to pick up the key at 2:30. Finally he arrived at 3 to give me the key.
Kitty and Carmen was talking about the fellowship game night this Tuesday while Victor, Wilson and I started to move house. At around 5:30, Ah Men came to help out too. In the beginning, the people that helped me are either female or kids (Wilson and Victor are about 13 years old). Therefore, I did the solid work. At 6:30, I was very tired physically and hungry. We went to have dinner; many people from MB church came to help us move the double bed from Dr. Chu's house and also gave me the new computer. Hopefully by Wednesday, we can have the internet connection too! They helped me to move the only furniture that belongs to me, the closet. Other furniture (bed, chair, table) either belongs to church, Che So or Dr. Chu!
Carmen and I started to clean up and organize the house from 9 to 1:30. My conclusion after a hard day of labor is the same as Hansel's experience of moving house last week: "It was a lot of work", "but I was very glad it was OVER!!!!" How can a little room have so many things? There are about 20 box (some are big and some are small) of stuff. David said that several maids came to clean up the house but I find that there is still much dirt. I have to clean up the floor to "personalize" the house. I am also happy that after 3 years of wandering, I can finally have a house to live! (the last time that I felt "personalize" a house was before the big renovation of 5319 Norfolk St.) Carmen and I prayed for this house and dedicated to the Lord. We hope that not only Carmen and I are household of faith, but this house will be part of it too! However, I know that I will not be here for too long. Carmen will go back to Vancouver for her sister's convocation ceremony on May 28 and she will stay there for two months and meet me at my PhD place (temporarily plan) so I will rent this house for at most 7 months. We have to start all over again afterward! Life is certainly not easy and unstable for us!

October 30, 2004(Saturday)

Carmen and I went to the Chinese place to do some shopping for Chinese food-related grocery and ate lunch. I never to out to do shopping and eat lunch by myself. However, I am adjusting my family life now and spend much more time with Carmen. I used the resource (time, money) for my MBA for my family life now. It is an adjustment and I do not have the "productivity" that I usually have. However, this is a new domain of investment that would last forever. I am enjoying this life now! Afterward, Carmen and I went to Parque del Este for run. Finally Carmen gets to visit where I usually went for running!
We went to church for the Baptist Church youth fellowship meeting and also music practice. Since they were almost an hour late, we have to do all these within 2.5 hours! We reviewed the last two months program and planned the next two months programs. We also reviewed each position. I was extremely efficient, as a meeting leader.
Usually the MB fellowship was on Sunday night. However, there were a group of new Chinese from the Spanish class joined and they changed their time to Tuesday night. Therefore, I cannot join their fellowship. However, they invited Carmen and I to go to Fernando's house for hot pot dinner. We ate and we chat. We came up with an idea to have a combine fellowship Nov 30. I am really happy about this! One of my hopes in Venezuela is for two churches or at least the two Chinese fellowships to meet and know each other. Previously I can't do this because they are hosted in different time. However this finally works out right! I will try to take a good care about this program.

October 29, 2004(Friday)

Today is another relax day of work. I checked the Wharton (U of Pennsylvania) Finance and Stanford PhD application. In the middle of the day, Omar told me that I need to go to a customer called "Euro building" for the next two weeks. This customer is located far away. I have to take taxi there and also I cannot spend more time with Carmen. therefore, I felt sad about that. However, we are still waiting for the customer's confirmation so we are not sure yet. In addition, I need to get certified as an instructor. I need this to teach the Cisco courses. CTT Carlos told me yesterday that it is very urgent (I have reminded him about this for two months!) and I should get certified next Monday. He promised to send me the material from the Caracas office today. However, I received a call this afternoon saying that they can't give me the manual because it is raining outside. They asked me whether or not I can go. Of course, I said no. So I am not sure what I should do for the Monday instructor exam.
I went to have some grocery shopping with Carmen after work. We had dinner and then we go out for a walk. I am so blessed for everything that God has given me. Carmen and I are healthy; our families are healthy too! Unlike most of the Chinese here, we don't have to work on Friday night. We have a loving family, good church friends and a good health. It is possible that a fire disaster can cause a lot of damage but it has not yet arrived. There is no family incidents that we need to worry about. We have Jesus and we are at peace. Basically, we have the best of the world; not even King David or Solomon has what we have! I felt so great about this! Usually people would not realize what they have until they lose this. And I am grateful that I know how to count the blessing! It is true that there is many different things that are not going well; yet this is nothing compare to the blessing that we have. Thanks God!

October 28, 2004(Thursday)

University of Michigan requires people who are not a native English speaker to take the TOEFL exam. This is a really weird requirement because for all other universities that I applied to, once you have a degree from an English speaking university, then I will be fine. I originally want to change my "native" language to English to suit for the requirement (I have been to Canada for 14 years and I learnt English since kindergarten), however, I figure that this may not be a good opinion because one day this may come back to me. I thought of taking the TOEFL exam, but that cost too much (US$100+) which does not worth the effort. I will then have 13 instead of 14 universities that I will apply to.
Carmen and I went to Che so house to celebrate her birthday with other Baptist Church Chinese youth. We had dinner there and then went home at 10:30.

October 27, 2004(Wednesday)

There was an online Q&A section for the CVoice course for the Atlanta class that I taught two weeks ago. Out of 11 students, only 4 of them showed up. I am not disappointed at all because it makes my life easier. The process was relatively smooth and without any problem. We were using Live Meeting and there is some training coordinator from Desca to help with the administrative issue and check whether the students has problem with the Live meeting or not. this free up myself to concentrate on the class.
I spent time with Carmen today for lunch and also walked in the mall Sambil with her. Nothing is happening in work and most of the people were not here when I returned by lunch. I also completed the PhD application for UCLA and Northwestern University.
I had dinner with Carmen at a steak house place called "Lee Hamilton". In May 31, 2002, we went to eat at this place. Carmen left Venezuela June 1, 2002 so this was a really meaningful place for us. However, I am still very frustrated when the waiter cannot understand English. However, there is nothing much I can do other than waiting for Carmen to catch up on Spanish (it will take forever for me to catch up on Spanish!) We were full after the meal and we walked around the neighborhood at night.

October 26, 2004(Tuesday)

I need to go to the customer "Hospital Clincia Caracas" this morning. I am going with Juan again from Desca and I always work with him because he has some technical background and he can speak English fluently. I don't enjoy this visit though. The customer is really dumb. They don't know what they are asking for and it takes them a long time to explain the background story and so on to us. In addition, they always have more requirements after I finish the first one. Moreover, it takes a long time for them to test the deployment. They have to call some doctor and ask the doctor to do the test. The doctor got annoyed eventually so we stop testing. I don't mean to bug the doctor too much but since they gave us the requirement in different time, this is what I have to do. they don't have a network diagram either and I am not sure whether they are aware of anything called documentation.
I want to go home soon so that I can check how Carmen is doing (she does not have a cell phone yet). Originally, I thought that this will be an easy job because the requirement seems easy. However, the customer was slow and keeps on giving more and more requirement. Therefore, I was really "mum" and called Carmen several times to let her know that I am doing ok. To make thing worst, there is only one set of key in my current (old) house. Carmen currently has the key right now. Che So will pick up Carmen to go to buy a cell phone so if I do not go home by that time, I would not have the key! Finally, the whole thing was completed by 1pm so that I can arrive home at 1:30. I was just in time because once I got home, Che So called saying that she will go to pick up Carmen.
I cleaned up the fan; I purchased this last August and I have never removed the dust. The fan therefore did not blow a lot of wind. And since it has dust, it caused Carmen to feel uncomfortable. When I was removing the dust, it reminds me that dad did that when I was young.
Carmen purchased the cell phone today. This colorful 3G phone is not cheap (Cdn 230) but then compare to the convenient and the ability to communicate, it is a really good investment.
I went to church at night for dinner and fellowship. Currently MB Church also has the fellowship on Tuesday night because there is a lot of people came from the Spanish class. However, since it collides with the Baptist Church fellowship time, I cannot join the MB Church fellowship. Carmen taught them to sing three songs while I play guitar. Previously, I have to do both by myself. Now, I can relax and wait for Carmen to lead the song while I can concentrate on the musical instrument. I am sure that with Carmen's sweet voice, it sounds better too. Carmen and I taught them the "black magic" game and we had sharing about our best friend for the rest of the fellowship night. It was a pretty good program and it is especially meaningful to me because it symbolizes the beginning of serving with Carmen in church!

October 25, 2004(Monday)

This is the first full day that Carmen will settle down here. I tried to spend as many time with her as possible. I went with her to supermarket "Excelsior Gamma" to have lunch and bought some food there. She cooked dinner for me and we went out for a walk. We also practiced the music for the fellowship tomorrow night. So far, our first day of "regular" life is good and sweet. Let's hope that the next 50 years will be the same.

October 24, 2004(Sunday)

Last night when I was sleeping, I feel that something is biting me. My legs felt itchy. I wonder that whether there is some small "suck" were there in the bed! Therefore, I asked the front desk at 2am to bring a new bed sheet! I wore jeans and sweater, turned to the heat and slept on the new bed sheet that was placed on top of the blanket.
This morning, I had the last tour in Cambridge and Boston. I drove by most of the places that I visited in the last week (Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, and Boston). Although I still get lost, I am much more familiar with the roads.
I had a good breakfast and took a 2 hour flight from Boston to Atlanta. In the Boston airport, I was selected to have the "special screen" again. I took another 4.5 hours flight and arrived to Caracas at 8:30. Carmen's flight will be here at about 9:30 so I waited for her inside. I was trying to ask the people here whether they know where Continental airline is. I still felt extremely frustrated that not even the airline information people do not speak English!
I finally picked up Carmen from the airport and we finally got back home. The last two months was very unstable and lots of travel for me. I went to Bloomington for MBA in Aug 8-14. I also went back to Vancouver in Sept 11-26. Carmen and I went to Cruise, Bahamas and Miami in Sept 27 - Oct 3. I went to Atlanta and Boston for business trip in last two weeks! And I will move house in the next few days. I heard that there will be more business trip for me in the future. There is one scheduled in Dec 6 and another one in January. I am Road Warrior!
There is one big reason I hate this new Compaq laptop. I cannot disable the mouse pad just like how I did to the HP laptop. The mouse always went to different places and I sometimes delete something that I just typed!

October 23, 2004(Saturday)

Today is a long day. I arrived to Cisco in 8:10 and as expected we have to wait for about 10 mins for someone to open the door. The CME training lasts until 10:00am. Some people have some voice questions for me but that is beyond me because I am never good at voice. That person actually filled in the worst evaluation form. However, since he submitted the form last, CTT and tech-data people did not see that yesterday.
After the class, I did my adventure to Cambridge and Boston. I parked my car at the "T" station (Boston's version of metro station) and then took T (metro) to Cambridge. My first stop was Harvard University. It was located in the middle of the busy city Cambridge. It does not have the campus feeling if I look at it outside. However, when I went inside, this is "ideal place outside the world" (a four word Chinese phase). The campus looks pretty good and I can never be able to guess that if I did not enter the Harvard University. There are many tourists here taking picture too! Most of the building are built long time ago with lots of tradition! I felt great about being a part of the hub of academic in the world! There was a rowing boat competition on the Charles river and there are lots of people here. I also visited Harvard Business School. Business School (especially MBA program) is always the richest (most expensive) faculty and the building and classroom looks really nice! There were computers inside Harvard University. For some unknown reason, it does not require any log in. Therefore, I am free to go to internet! What about the security issue?
My next stop is MIT. When I first walk near MIT, it does not look like anything that I expect. It just looks like an industry area with lots of construction going on. I am really disappointed about this. However, later on, I finally found the classroom. However, unlike my expectation, the classroom and the building were relatively old but do not have the "traditional" feel of Harvard. I also walked by the MIT Sloan Management School. This was again the most beautiful building in MIT, yet not as high class as Harvard Business School. I visited the research building of System Dynamic group, my second PhD preference. The building was closed and the outside looks really old. I guess that if I am accepted, I am stuck in this old building (but of course, I would not decline just because of the fashion of the building!) The overall feeling about MIT is that the outside does not match my expectation.
After my "holy pilgrim" to the two top universities, I went to Boston (just across the river from Cambridge). I took some tour free map and used that as a guide for walking in Boston. I always like to "run horse see flower" (four word Chinese phase, meaning seeing a lot of stuff fast) I walked to a lot of places, like the downtown center, Chinatown, Public Library and some shopping mall. My last stop was the Fenway Park. Boston's Red Sox baseball team went from three down before I arrived to Boston to a historic come back this week. Therefore, the World Series Game 1 will be held in the Fenway Park tonight at 8. I was in that area between 6:20 to 7:00. There was a lot of people dressing the Red Sox shirt and holding Red Sox sign! The streets were filled with people. This is a very special scene. People were hyper about the Red Sox and I can feel the emotion on the street! In addition, the police are everywhere! I once saw a train of 28 motorcycle-cops!
After the 5.5 hours walk, I am really tired. I took some break in between and I went to the eat dinner. People here are watching the Red Sox game and cheered whenever Red Sox did something great! I ate at the same restaurant. Since my return to Vancouver in Sept 11, I almost always eat "street food". This is especially true for the honeymoon on the cruise and the business trip. My stomach needs some "fresh air".

October 22, 2004(Friday)

The day did not start great. CTT had a sales person here this morning. She is a "spy". I can't blame anything to other people or say anything wrong. Also, Carlos told me this morning that yesterday students left early because I told them that the class stop because the equipment was not working. I was quite pissed with that; I only said that the lecture will start tomorrow at 9:30 and between that time, they can schedule the time to do the lab or other things. The only problem that we had is with the CTT lab, which only affects three people. However, almost all of them left afterward. Probably they took it the wrong way. I hate to be accused falsely and I have to explain this. It is a pressure to have a "spy" in my class.
The CTT lab just did not work. Rather than beating a dead horse, I gave the three students two options. One is to join the other two pods and watched them program. The other is to give them a physical router (rather than having two routers to play with) to program. There is one that is for the Call Manager Express (CME) demo tomorrow. Apparently they chose option two and they were relatively pleased with the physical equipment performance.
The lecture was smooth and then it ended at about noon. The challenging time is the evaluation time. Consider that this is a dead and silence group, I do not expect much. However, out of my expectation, their feedback is pretty good! The instruction on me is pretty good (not as good as the Atlanta one but slightly better than the Miami training) and their overall feedback was pretty good! That greatly boosts up my confident when I talk to the CTT people or Tech-data people. I talked to Adriana from CTT afterward and she congratulated for my performance. I also talked to the Tech-data (They employed CTT for this training) people and they said that they are happy about my performances. Now this is time to play politic games and increase my price! I told the Tech-data people that I have just married and the two weeks separation is very difficult for my wife and me. I said that I am not really interested to teach again mainly because I don't want to separate from my wife. I hinted that CTT should pay the air ticket for my wife if they continue wants to work with me. As for Adriana, my words are even harsher. I said that I have no interest to work for CTT again. Carlos was just unreasonable and I am pissed with him. He asked me to stay here last night and I can't get any food or go to washroom from 5 to 9 (actually this is not quite true for the washroom part. I did open the door and sneak to washroom and managed to sneak back. But this is just because I am lucky enough so that no one close the Cisco door) I also said that show the evaluation to Carlos and ask him to "shut up" (well, I did not use this exact word, but something like that). My meaning is that, I did a good job and save the image of CTT. I also said that if CTT wants to work with me again, pay my wife's airplane ticket. (Or else, I will either quit or dump shit on them.) I am not sure whether this is called "revenge" or called "justice". With the good evaluation, I have some solid thing to put to the bargaining table.
The students want to do the CME training today so that they don't have to come back (and I can have a full day visiting Boston). However, Carlos told me that I have to do it now. OK, I don't care. So I told the class that some administration decision caused me not to honor their wish. I am just innocent of this guilt. I am sure that after all these thing the students would have a negative image about CTT.
The demo ended at about 4pm. I took the advantage to drive down to Boston again from 5 to 7:30 (include 40 mins sleep in the car). I drove by Harvard, MIT, Boston downtown, Cambridge, Summerville. Boston downtown is still very confusing to me and I got lost so easily.

October 21, 2004(Thursday)

This is the day of pain because we are doing the CVoice lab. As expected, there are problems with the remote equipment. I was trying to fix it and I complained to CTT's Carlos about the problem. He said that, if I am not willing to accommodate, I should take a plane back home now. He is quite extreme and mean to say that. Of course I said that our objective is the same: to make the students happy. I have no problem with him as a person. However, I totally disagree with how he handles things. He did thing last minute and makes the same mistakes twice. That is not acceptable!
We tried to fix the remote lab as much as we can. Basically at the end of the day, I ended the lecture at 4 and asked the students to stay here to do the lab. The students are not too impressed with the lab thing and most of them just left. So rude.
The Tech-data people came. They are the people that hired CTT and sponsored this course. They asked me about some of the feedback of the course, especially about the lab. This is some politicking time. I guess that whatever I said will hurt CTT for sure. However, I am just plain about the truth and I am not good at lying. Finally someone is serious about getting thing done. I also said that it would be nice to have a job in North America and I will see what they can do for me. I sent them my resume anyway.
I was staying behind to try to fix the remote lab. Actually, it is they who are fixing the lab. Therefore I was just sitting here not doing anything. They need me to stay here so that they can test here. So they are not letting me go. However, I did not take a lunch break and was working straight and I just want to leave and get some food. I have no interest to be part of this garbage. This would damage my lecture performance. They said that I just care about the lecture. Of course! I just have to leave and stay here forever to troubleshoot with them!
I am never irresponsible. Therefore, before I had enough and leave, I made a telephone call to Carlos. At first, I am so pissed at him and he is so pissed at me. I am saying thing that is a bit "sharp". And he technically yells at me! Basically, not even Carmen has yelled at me! Oh well, I just apologize 200 times. I apologize for being tired, apologize for being hungry, apologize for not mature and many things too. That threw him off and I bet that no one has apologized to him so many times in my life! He sort of back down too. But then he wanted to choose, whether three students will be left without the device probably test or serve my physical need (e.g. eat, rest, go to rest room). Of course, the choice is easy. Also, he emphasize that I have to take responsibility to my action. He said that there are three other people that have nothing to do with the class are helping too. Well, I said that I appreciate their effort and apologize that I just cannot stay here for any longer. Basically, our relationship broke up, and that's it. Probably they will say bad thing to Desca but I hope that the Desca people are understanding. Or else, it is time to find a new job. Originally, I was thinking that I may be able to earn some extra cash during studying PhD by helping CTT to teach some course. I guess that it is time to find Plan B

October 20, 2004(Wednesday)

Compare to the last two days, today is smooth. The lecture went relatively ok and the lab was ok. I basically told them that I disagree with the idea of remote lab; but this is the employer's choice so I am stuck with that. I told them that if they think the QoS lab is bad, then the CVoice will be hell. I know that I am not supposed to say this, but I just want to treat like as my friends and tell them the honest story. I have no intention to say bad word about anyone, I just want to be plain. We also got through the initial frustration about the CVoice lab. It is finally coming on line. And I will see what will happen tomorrow.
I also did the application for Harvard. They refused my credit card info! They need me to fill out my address and phone number and also the credit card info. Probably there is a mismatch between my address and also the credit card info. I have no idea what address did I use for the US credit card! And I tried to use the Canadian credit card and it does not work either! That is frustrating! I don't know how I can complete this application form without the payment! (Turns out that the credit card payment vendor has problem) They also require us to mail in the real signature of the application form. That is stupid! None of the other universities so far that I applied need this. I have to finish the signature form this week or else I cannot mail it from Venezuela. I am now so close to Harvard, yet I don't know how to do what I am supposed to do!

October 19, 2004(Tuesday)

The students are still dead today! They do not really react to anything. I will get a really poor evaluation this time. I don't know why these people are just unresponsive! Other than that, the training today was relatively smooth. I tried to set up the connection to the remote lab for the CVoice that will happen in the next few days but it just does not work. I told Carlos that using remote lab is not a good idea. Many people, like my students, Cisco employee and my experiences with the terrible labs tell me that remote lab to practice the VoIP would be bad. However, Carlos said that this is actually a perfectly fine idea and he basically said that everyone else was wrong. He said that if I have the wrong concept, I will convey the wrong message to the students. In fact, I have repeatedly told the students and other people that I strongly oppose the remote lab idea. The students have that in their evaluation feedback too! I will see how Carlos can change my mindset! I used remote lab to study for the CCIE but the remote lab experience I had so far with the CVoice is just terrible.
Previously CTT booked Hampton Inn that was about 20 mins drive from the hotel, and that's why I have to rent a car. The rent car issue is settled and they let me to continue use the car. However, they also changed the hotel. This one is Best Western Inn. It looks old. They do have wireless internet connection. However, it really sucks. The connection is extremely slow and in fact it just does not connect most of the time. Even worse, it crashes my PC over 10 times today! It drove me nuts!

October 18, 2004(Monday)

Today is terrible. Bad. Just suffering.
Since Charles, the Cisco representative, told me yesterday that the traffic would be bad, he suggested me to leave hotel at about 7:15 so that I can arrive to Cisco by 7:45. He said that he will be in Cisco office at 7:30 and do the set up or wait for me. I was there by 7:45 and no one (except one student) was here. No one open the door for us. The reception finally came at 8:05!
People finally arrived and by 8:30, the time that the class supposed to start, Charles was not yet here. So rather than waiting someone to officially introduce me, I started off the class anyway. However, after the self-introduction and when I want to go to the material, I find out that the remote control for the overhead projector is missing! I saw Charles had it yesterday but I can't find him! I asked around and it seems like that no one really know the answer. Therefore, I embarassly tell the students about this and we took a break. This overhead is mounted on the ceiling. Finally, one of the students just stands on the chair and turns that on. Believe it or not. When I saw Charles arrived at 10am to the office, he did not apologize at all. I asked him why he was late, he just said that he was up to something. I can't believe this! He is as irresponsible as Carlos from CTT.
This bootcamp originally started off with doing the CVoice and the QoS is the second half. However, because of the Cisco firewall set up, it cannot run the CVoice lab remotely. I got some complain from Charles yesterday and I echo his complain. Therefore we have to start off the class with CVoice. This already interrupted my routine. Also, this class is dead! People are quiet. I tried to use the best humor that I could and the most exaggerated body language; however, they are just dead and not responsive. Out of the 11 students, two or three would laugh at my joke sometimes but the rest of them are dead and unresponsive to any of my question. This will be an extremely challenging group to handle!
The only good thing today is that I went to my car for an afternoon nap!
I talked to a student today; he lived in the Boston area and went to school in U of Penn. So he knows the environment of MIT, Harvard and U of Penn really well. They are all schools that I want to go. He told me that, it is very expensive to rent a house. It can cost up to US$1500/month to rent a one-room apartment in Boston area! Where am I supposed to have this much money?
And then the pain came. Since Cisco blocked the VPN tunnel that we used to connect to the remote lab, Carlos suggested that we should tried GRE tunnel. It was about 5pm. The reception is going home! And Charles has gone for the day. That means, once we left the office, we cannot get back in. There is no washroom inside! Carlos was asking me to test some config and it does not work! I tried to troubleshoot it for a while and it does not work. I am too tired at that time and I want to go to washroom. But he wants to drag me for 30 more mins! His 30 mins is forever! And I can't handle even a literally 30 mins because I am too tired and I want to go to washroom. I had some kind of argument over the AOL. It seems like that every time when I taught this course, when it comes to the CVoice lab, there is always hatred and also anger, between me and Carlos, between students and the lab, between Carlos and the lab and between me and the lab. I just can't stand any longer and I just say bye and I went home.
Before I went home, I received the email from CTT saying that renting a car for US$780 per week is too much. Duh! I know that. However, since they rent a hotel so far from the Cisco office, I have to rent a car. And according to Hertz, that is the cheapest kind that they have. What can I do? They want me to return the car tomorrow and also they will relocate the hotel. I have to do the lab set up tomorrow night too! And the airport is extremely far from the Cisco office. So do they want to waste me more time? I was burning with anger and I want to kill someone. I swear that I will never ever again work for this junk company! If it is not because I love teaching, I would never do it!

October 17, 2004(Sunday)

I was using the same taxi driver since Monday, the day that he got a speeding ticket. I originally planned to leave the hotel at 6 to go to airport. However, in order to cope with his schedule, I left the hotel at 5:40am. I am very nice. Also, for a $55 taxi trip to the airport, I gave $60. My boss is paying for this anyway.
I was "selected" to go through the extensive security check in the airport. It took about 30 mins to pass the security point! The flight was delay from 8:13 to 10am because something wrong with the pilot seat that they need to fix. I was editing the wedding photo at that time. And during the flight, I slept most of the time.
I arrived Boston at noon. It took a long time to figure out what I should do to rent a car. It is because there is no rent car station. I can only call them to make sure there is rent-a-car thing. Also, I have to take their shuttle bus in order to reach the car rental place. I first tried Avis. However, when I went there, they said that they don't accept Check Card (my Visa Card is also Check card. I don't know why they don't accept it). Then I have to push all the luggage (one check-in luggage, my school bag, a violin and also a big box with two routers and many cables that I need to transport) to the next car rental place Hertz. Luckily I have a little cart that help me to transport the stuff. I rent for a week and I purchased all the necessary insurance. I cannot believe it. It costs about $800 US for a week! The insurance alone costs about $280. It is so expensive! I felt really bad about CTT because they have to pay for so much. I have to rent a car because the hotel that CTT booked is quite far away from Cisco. So they suggested me to rent a car.
My first impression about Boston is that, people drove very aggressive, not polite, the road signs are confusing and the traffic is a mess even though this is only Sunday afternoon. Compare to drivers in Atlanta or Vancouver, they are definitely aggressive; but of course they are not as bad as the Venezuelan driver. I drove quite "unstable" and slow because I am not familiar with the road so I need to look up the map and drive at the same time. I really wish that Carmen is here to help me to read the map! The road sign is very confusing. For example, when I am driving on the important road and try to read the road sign to make sure that I am on that road, the road sign only consist of the name of the "perpendicular" street. Therefore, it is possible that I am driving for a long time and not sure that whether I am on the right road or not. The road in Boston area has quite a lot of tunnel and bridge (at least, these are the road that I used) and I have no idea where I am! I am just using my luck.
Harvard and MIT are near by. Obviously, I have to "worship" this "holy" place! It took me a while to get there because it locates just besides the Boston downtown center. I finally got there and this is a very ugly, urban and small universities compare to UBC or SFU. It is similar to HKU in that it is located in the middle of some town area. Therefore, it lacks the quietness. Coming here giving me a solid feeling of how it is like to be a student here. I imagine that the housing will be expensive and small. Probably all the top universities that I want to go to (Stanford, MIT, Columbia, U of Penn, Chicago, Northwestern, and Harvard) are all like that. Unless none of them accept me and only IU or UBC accept me. This would be a disaster but on the other hand the place would be very nice and quiet.
I called the Cisco employee so that I can get to Cisco to set up the equipment in advanced. However, he was not with his cell phone. I left him a message and waited at Cisco for 30 mins. After that, I called again at his home and he told me that his cell phone has a bad reception and he does not know that I called him! Oh well, I went back to hotel for check in. It took me a while to find the hotel because of the poor road sign thing. I went back to Cisco at 6 to do the set up but found out that Cisco's network was not yet ready to do the set up. Therefore, it is possible that I may have to bring the whole class for a two days field trip at some kind of hotel to do the lab Tuesday and Wednesday. There was another instructor there setting up the equipment. He had the physical equipment with him. The three of us chatted that it is unreasonable and nonsense to use the remote lab. I totally agree and this remote lab gave me too many headaches. I hope that the voice is loud enough that CTT is willing to change to the real lab.
I went for dinner and then went back to hotel. I will finish the MIT application tonight!

October 16, 2004(Saturday)

I went to Cisco for the Cisco Call Manager Express training. Three days ago, I know nothing about this. And today, I am going to do training on this. There were about 14 people came today, 8 of them are the engineers that came during the last several days. This makes me a lot more confident because they knew me well and I have confident in front of them. I also emphasize that the material that I will cover today are all from the Cisco website; thus if they have any problem, they can go back to check with the exact material.
The morning portion is for sales and it went pretty good. In fact, it only took me 1.8 hours to complete the morning training. And then someone from Cisco presented the rest of the sales stuff. I can tell who the better speaker is. When I talked, people laughed, asked questions and paid attention. When that person talks, people were quiet and nearly fell asleep. I am grateful that I am not like other Chinese who presented in front of Caucasian: they are boring, dull and lack of confident. I am in the Ivy League. People knew that I will teach the same course again next week and they said that they can't do it if they were I. However, I have the passion and also the energy to teach! I will be ok. Check my evaluation from the diary of yesterday.
I have to take care of the logistic (transportation of the equipment) today. Everything seems to be smooth and I returned to the hotel at 4pm. I had a good afternoon nap and MSN with Carmen. I also upload some wedding photo too. If things are more or less the same, next week should be easy. However, I will not take this for granted. I am prepared to battle for another week of toughness!

October 15, 2004(Friday)

The class for today is extremely short. I just gave about 1.5 hours lecture. Before the lecture, I did some troubleshooting for the CME demo that I will do tomorrow. I still don't know why I can't get something to work as I want. But at least, I got something. The class ends around noon. After some clean up, I am ready to leave by 2pm. I also handed out the evaluation. As expected, people evaluated me highly; comments like "great instructor", "excellent instructor", and “knowledgeable" are everywhere! And people graded the lab poorly, as expected. I have the gift of teaching. I used that a lot in church and I hope that I can become a professor too!
The same class will go on next week in Lexington. My boss asked me to carry the equipment there! He must be kidding or extremely insensitive. I already have a check-in (lots of clothes that I took to the trip to get laundry), my school bag and also violin. Therefore, I am not sure whether I can have room for any extra thing! Also, the equipments are expensive, big and heavy. However, this is what they want. Originally CTT said that they are going to ship a set of equipment that I will use for Monday to Friday and I will courier the equipment that I need to use for Saturday later. Probably because CTT people did not ship the equipment in time and so they told Mario that they can't do it in time and that's why Mario asked me to do that. I am absolutely furious! Plus the fact that my pay is poor compare to other counterpart in USA! Therefore, forgive me if I happen to find a job and leave Venezuela this year! However, on the other hand, I always have nothing to do when I was working in Venezuela; I got to do my PhD application or update homepage or other stuff. Therefore, there is some incentive for me to stay in Venezuela! (This is from a pure work-issue perspective and I must consider other non-work issue when I make this decision, of course). Probably when I felt guilty of not doing any productive work in Venezuela, I should reflect how hard I am this week! (And vice versa, of course).
I still do not have full confident with the demo tomorrow. However, since the technical people that will attend the course tomorrow are from my course and they gave me excellent evaluation, I am not that worry! And two of the students, Dale and Aaron, invited me to go out with them. They brought me to a place that is very similar to Playdium in Vancouver. We played the indoor "go race cart" that Hansel once asked me to go when I was in Vancouver (we did not go). That was a 10 mins race (but cost US $25 including the "driver license") and that was a bit fun. However, only the three of us are playing at that time, so we don't get a lot of passing. I hurt my right arm slightly when I touched the heated engine when I board the car. IT was no big deal but I was surprised that such a heated thing was not protected from the driver! I thought that this is not a difficult game but I lost. Afterward, they played video games for about an hour. I played some games but I was not too interested and I lost almost all of the time so I just watched them play. They paid for everything today (they did not get a reimbursement from company because no company would cover entertainment like this!) and this is a good gesture (and tells me how much they appreciate me)
I went home and enjoyed Friday night by myself without much stress. I cleaned up lots of computer thing about wedding: I upload some photo and translated Hansel's toast speech.
Here is the Hansel speech during my toast:
Hi everyone. Everyone has their own principle, their own belief and own thinking. When you need to make a decision (e.g. How much tips to pay for the banquet tonight), the decision will be based on your principle, your life or your school. In this case, of course, it would base on your character!

So how is Hubert? All you need, is to talk with him for at most 3 mins and you would know that his principle and the reason of his choice are based on numbers!

Hubert likes three numbers: 3, 7, and 21. Why 7? Thanks God. Since we are born, our parents brought us to church. We learnt a lot of Bible stories from the Sunday School that relates with "7":
1. Seven churches in Revelation
2. Israelites marches around the city of Jericho for seven days
3. Joseph dreamed about 7 cows that represent 7 years of famine (Note: this dream belongs to Pharaoh, not Joseph. And the cows are the thin cow)


Why 3? When he was 3 yrs and 6 months old (Note: should be 3 yrs and 5 months old), my mom gave me to him so that he can "play me". And my birthday is March the sixth. Therefore, three-years-old was his turning point. From that time on, he has a close relationship with the number 3. (Note: Hubert loves 3 because Hansel says that he loves 3)

Why 21? It is because this is the product between 3 and 7.

Hubert is a person with principle. These three numbers, 3, 7, 21, become his principle in life. Let me share with you three examples.
1. Every morning, he used three minutes to take a shower (Note: Hubert did not really time this. But this sounds about right). And then he did 77 sit-ups (Note: only 70 sit up during this daily routine).
2. Afterward, (Note: the music routine comes before the sit up routine) he will play piano (Note: Most of the time, Hubert plays violin in the morning). He plays each scale 7 times (Note: 3 times only)
3. Afterward, he would have devotion. Since 1993, he has a habit of meditating, reading the Bible and praying in the morning. The duration is usually 21 +/- 7 mins (Note: most of the time, it is on the "less" side)


If it has not yet convinced you, let me give you three more examples
1. When we play one-on-one basketball, we usually play 7 points (Note: rarely, we went up to 9 points. And we always play duce, which would last for a lot of points)
2. When we play "penalty shoot" in basketball, we usually play up to 21 points (Note: because the game is called "21")
3. (Note: Hansel left this blank)


The wedding ceremony between Hubert and Carmen has a lot of 3, 7 and 21. Let me give you 7 examples:
1. They engaged after 7 years.
2. They got married after engaging for 3 years
3. The Q&A in the morning ceremony has total 21 questions
4. There are total 27 tables in the wedding banquet (Note: not too related to 7, but this is the 3^3)
5. The wedding banquet started at 7pm
6. The name of the restaurant has three characters
7. The street number for the church that hosted the wedding ceremony this morning is 3330.


Lastly, everyone would know that he will go to Bahamas tomorrow with Carmen for their honeymoon. Afterward, he will go to Venezuela to work. And the old friends 3, 7, 21 are with them, no matter they like it or not. They will take three luggage (Note: it is per person!) when taking flight. And there are totally three flights in order to arrive to Miami. And the flight number of their first flight is AA6937.

In this moment, why don't we all rise, wish them have a safe trip and say "cheers" three time!

October 14, 2004(Thursday)

The training for today is good and easy. Basically, this is a bootcamp that combines three courses into six days. The first half of the bootcamp covers the one week C-Voice (Cisco Voice) course. And then the second half of the bootcamp covers the QoS (Quality of Service) course. Saturday will be a CME (Call Manager Express) course. There is always problem with the CVoice lab and that's why Tuesday will be difficult. However, the QoS lab usually works really well and this is the case for this week as well. I have a really easy day.
However, I have to prepare for the CME course on Saturday. Last time in Miami, because of lack of the knowledge, someone else taught the CME course on behalf of me. My knowledge on CME did not increase at all during the last several months. Therefore, I really need to pick up my speed on the subject of CME. I have requested for the info quite a while ago but then CTT did not give me the info. Now they are saying that "I am surprise that you know nothing about this". Duh! Yes, I know nothing about it! That’s why I ask them for the info. I spent the evening in Cisco working with this equipment and hope to get something out of it.

October 13, 2004(Wednesday)

Today is a much smoother day for training. The lab went well because we spent yesterday the whole day to fix it. And I continue with the lecture. I am always good at teaching. I also can go back to hotel a bit early, at 5:15. I studied the material that I will teach this Saturday. Up until now, I have no idea about what I will teach. So let see how steep my learning curve is going to be. Today, mom also had the lasik eye surgery. I heard that the surgery went well, thanks God about that.

October 12, 2004(Tuesday)

Today is the day of disaster, in terms of the lab. I can predict about this long time ago. My lab experience last time in May was really bad. With no advanced preparation possible because of the lack of response from the training partner CTT, I know that this will be really bad. It turns out more or less what I expect!
We are using two remote lab vendors, CTT from Miami and softnet from Argentina. Yesterday, I got the Miami lab up and running. However there were still problem with the softnet lab. Therefore, even though I told the students that we will work on the lab this morning, I have to change the plan. I told the students honestly that the lab is not ready. I did not do any hiding or say any good thing on behave of CTT. I just said that, they are not ready and it is not my fault. Therefore, we began with lecture in the morning. The lab was finally ready at 10am and we went ahead with the lab.
However, life was never meant to be easy. We were using Microsoft's netmeeting. It caused a lot of problems last time. When the students tried to make telephone call between each laptop (this is a Voice over IP course), the netmeeting does not work. It turned out that it may be a hardware problem in the softnet side and it took them a long time to fix it and it was finally fixed by 5:30 pm! As for the Miami CTT lab, there is problem with one of the T1 controller card. They have to take down the router several times and it caused a lot of inconvenient for the students and it was not fixed by the end of the day!
In summary, the students were really angry about the lab! They said that if they need to pay for the course (since Cisco wants them to use more of their equipment, Cisco paid for their course) they would refund immediately and walked out from the room! I knew that we are doing a bad job in terms of their lab access. I said that they are free to make any complain in the evaluation. I am glad that they said that the lecture part was great! I asked them millions of time that is there anything else that I can do. They understand that these are not my problem. They said that they will comment positively for the instructor and will comment negatively for the lab access. Let see what the evaluation will turn out! I have also sent email to my boss in Desca and to CTT saying that the lab sucks! I hope that the same problem will not happen again. Apparently the CTT manager Carlos is a very last minute guy. When I asked for lab access well in advanced, he never replied. And then now he is pushing me and also said that it is no use to complain and I should go ahead to focus for the class tomorrow and the rest of the week! I will be really mad if the same thing happens again next week!
I went back to the hotel at 7pm and got some rest.

October 11, 2004(Monday)

I went to my first day of class in Atlanta. I did not really prepare for today's lecture. Most of the time, I have no idea what the next slide will be. Therefore, basically I know what the student knows, or even less, because they have the book in front of them so they can flip through the next page easily but I can't because I am looking at the PowerPoint. I had the print out (6 pages per page) from Miami class this May. However, the course version has changed so some of the slides are totally new to me. This is quite challenging. However, I think that I am still doing a good job. There are several reasons. First, I am a double CCIE. Just by this name as cause everyone in awe. Their attitude is like, whatever I say, it must be correct. They really enjoy my CCIE stories that I share with them. Second, and more importantly, I have the talent/gift at teaching/presenting. I always get a good grade whenever it comes to talk in front of the crowd. My sense of humor and also exaggerated body language (that I learnt from communicating in Venezuela) are the key of success. In fact, I really enjoy the attention of talking in front of the crowd. This is part of the reason why I want to be a professor! Third, I am smart and I am good at BS. I look at the slide at the same time the students do. However, I can think lot faster than they are (having teaching the course previously really help!) and I just repeat what the slide says. Whenever I can think of something else when I was speaking, I speak. At least for today, everything works well!
The challenge is the lab part. The lab should be set up previously! And if not, I should have the access to Cisco yesterday to set up the lab. However, none of that work. Therefore, I have to end the class early (4:30) and work on the lab connectivity. I try to work on it during lunch time and also from 4:30 to 8pm. However, it still does not work. There are two lab vendors that we are going to use and I can only make one of the vendor thing works. I don't know what I am supposed to do tomorrow. This will be difficult. I don't have the confident because I know that I don't really know the material. I will see how it goes tomorrow. Life is never meant to be easy!
This morning when I took the taxi, the taxi driver gave me a card so that I can call him when I left. I called him and he took me home. And he asked me what I am going to do for the rest of the week. And then he invited me to call him whenever I need taxi. I said "I will see how it goes" (to utilize the full power of a consumer). He may be too happy to hear this (rather than turning him down) on the way back home and drover a little bit too fast. Then when we arrived back to the hotel, he got caught by the police because of speeding. Poor taxi driver.

October 10, 2004(Sunday)

After two hours of sleep, I woke up at 4. Semson drove Carmen and I to airport while Che So drove parents to airport. My flight was 9:30 while their flight was 7:05. Therefore, I helped them to check in. I can understand how a North American who does not understand Spanish feels when he came to South America. The check-in procedure is slightly different and there were people asked you to go to their shop for plastic wrapping your luggage. I am glad that I am here to help them taking care of a lot of stuff. After making sure that they can pass the custom safely, I went to check-in myself. I guess that if my check-in procedure is 10 mins faster, then I can meet them again inside the security area. However, this does not work out this time. I was quite sad when I rush to their gate and found out that everyone has gone.
I took a 4.5 hours flight to Atlanta and arrived there at 3pm. I went to the hotel, settle down and went out for a short walk and dinner. Every time when I go for a business trip, I felt like king. Normally, I spent no extra money at all. However, I can eat luxury food now! But I will never buy or get anything that I don't need/want. I studied the training material that I will teach tomorrow briefly.

October 09, 2004(Saturday)

Parents visited us this morning. They visited our house. And then, Carmen and I brought them to have a short breakfast (we ate only because they had breakfast already) and walked to my work place. We then went to the "San Ignacio" Mall to walk around. Che So and Mrs. Cheng picked us up later and we went to Che So's house. We had lunch there and then Che So helped Carmen for make up. We left their house at about 5:30.
I treated two churches for a dinner at Shangri-La. There were several reasons for the banquet. First, this is our wedding banquet. In addition, this is our birthday dinner. In addition, my parents want to take this opportunity to meet and thank the brothers and sisters in church. Lastly, this is a gathering for the two churches and a testimony of how a good Christian couple (i.e. Carmen and I) should be.
Carmen was a bit shocked to see that not even the table and chairs are ready when we arrived at about 6:30. However, I told her that "welcome to Venezuela". I found that Venezuelan is very slow and last minute (but they drove very fast and dangerous). However, everything was ready by 7:45. The decoration group did a great job and Carmen loves their decoration. We shared about our wedding and honeymoon and also our 10 years history. They had a series of games for Carmen and I too! There were no X rated thing, but the events that they asked us to do (answering difficult household related questions, tie a tie for me while I put on the ear ring for her, sew while she paints my foot finger nail) are very difficult. So we lost most of the time. The night went relatively smooth; Carmen and I were delighted with the result.
We unpacked the gift and packed up luggage at night from 12 to 2am. Tomorrow will be tiring!

October 08, 2004(Friday)

I will be flying to Atlanta next week and then Boston the week after for teaching courses. Here is the iternary:

Oct. 10 (Sun)	DL912 Caracas - Atlanta 09:30 - 13:55
Oct. 17 (Sun)	DL350 Atlanta - Boston 08:13 - 10:40
Oct. 24 (Sun)	DL349 Boston - Atlanta 12:06 - 14:56 DL907 Atlanta - Caracas 16:22 - 20:41

Carmen and my parents went with Che So for some sightseeing. I went to work and did UBC and NYU's application. I also did some practice for the QoS lab that I will do next two weeks. However, the training coordinator in CTT is bad enough that they did not have the practice for the CVoice. Therefore, I will not have any practice at all!
At night, we had dinner with Semson and Ana. And then we visited their house.

October 07, 2004(Thursday)

I checked some with the Yale PhD application and also arranged schools to mail the transcripts to the PhD school. It is getting tedious because there is lots of thing to do. In addition, I went with Carmen to American Airline to check about air ticket. Since she does not have a Venezuelan visa, she has to leave every three months, just like what happened to me previously. It is simpler in my case because I can throw all the responsibility to my company. However, it is quite challenging now because we have to do all these ourselves. Desca is not covering anything for Carmen's stay in Venezuela. I am trying to get her a ticket by tomorrow so that when she returns from Vancouver to Venezuela in Oct 24, she can presents this ticket to the air line people to prove that she will not stay in Venezuela illegally for a long time. This is a joke because who from Canada wants to stay in Venezuela for a long time illegally!
I had dinner with Carmen and then we went to the airport to pick my parents up. They will attend our wedding/birthday banquet in Oct 9 night. The travel is very safe for them. They can finally see what places I am living and also who the friends that they have seen so long in my diary are. They brought many stuff for us, as if there is nothing available in Venezuela. I was as worry as them when I first came to Venezuela too. But now, I am very relaxed.

October 06, 2004(Wednesday)

I am still stressed about the training for the next two weeks. I have full confident for the lecture part. However, the lab part will be the problem. First, I am not good at that material. I can only talk but I can not do the lab. Second, we will use netmeeting. Last time, there was a lot of problem. It is because we will use the student's laptop. And each student may have some weird program/firewall installed in their laptop. Third, last time a Desca engineer Enzo helped us to troubleshoot. He has a lot of experience. However, this time, I am left alone. I can foresee disaster. I have reported to boss Omar that the lab will certainly have problem. However, there is nothing much that we can do because the training partner CTT is not willing to change the lab vendor.
I finished the PhD application for Duke, Indiana University and University of Chicago in the afternoon. Carmen also came here to check email. We went to visit the new house that we will rent in Venezuela. She was pleased with the house.

October 05, 2004(Tuesday)

I went to fellowship after work. Tonight I don't have to lead the program. Therefore I can sit back and relax. However, they did not do a good job in leading the night. I am glad that Carmen was here to experience the night so that I can share with her the experience. We will be leading the Praise and Worship on Oct 26. Therefore, we spent some time discussing about this program. Previously, I am in charge of all music things. Now Carmen can really help me for this sort of stuff. I cannot sit back and relax though. I will be the pianist and she will be the song leader.

October 04, 2004(Monday)

I finally went back to work today, after three weeks of vacation. Some of the co-workers ask me how I am and I am great that they still remember me. And today is a quiet day of work so that I can do a lot of other things, like finishing up with the webpage and also checking emails and so on. Carmen went out with Ah Chuen and Elisa today to site see places around our home. I also have my long-lost afternoon nap. I felt so great about that.
Carmen and I went to Shangri-La with Che So, Keiling, Kitty, Menyee, KumFung and Liliana. This is the place that we will have our wedding dinner at Oct 9. These people will help us extensively about the decoration and so on. I really appreciate their help! Carmen can now experience with me the hospitality and kindness of the Venezuelan church friends. This is a blessing to know so many good friends here, when we are far away from home!

October 03, 2004(Sunday)

Carmen joined my normal busy Sunday. And this is also the first day that we go back to a normal life. But the first thing is for me to re-emphasize my wedding vow to Carmen again. We went to Baptist church in the morning. I was told that I need to teach the Sunday School because I am back to Venezuela. This is not the first time that I have to take up last minute responsibility but I have no problem with that. This is also one of the few times that my class has Carmen.
We went to have lunch with Che So, Mrs. Cheng and other people. And then we went to MB Church for worship. This was tiring and Carmen is not used to that. But we still struggled to stay awake. And then we skipped Sunday School because we wanted to walk around and drink some coffee. At night, we had the fellowship. We then went to Dr. Chu's house for dinner and also check out the new double-size bed that he is going to give to us. This is a typical busy Sunday and it is usually mentally and emotionally exhausting when I returned home. However, today (and from now on), it will be different because Carmen will be supporting me!
Carmen's Vancouver flight schedule. This is electronic ticket with info of the following:
CUST:CA10504148
PNR:KNISII
TKT:0051694375578
ISSUED:28SEP04
PCC:GO39
IATA:95901562
Confirmation: V7QZ7Y


Oct. 24 (Sun)	CO1911 Vancouver - Houston 08:15 - ??? CO1928 Houston - Caracas 15:35 - 21:33
May 29, 2005 (Sun)	CO1929 Caracas - Houston 09:00 - 13:10 CO1904 Houston - Vancouver 20:45 - 23:21

October 02, 2004(Saturday)

After checking out from the hotel, we went to downtown Miami by taking bus. We walked around to places that I have been to last time and I am like a local tour guide. Carmen wants to go to the "coconut" place but since we are in a rush of time (2 hours left) and the bus schedule is very sparse (30 mins per bus), we did not go. Instead, we went back to Miami Beach Island and had a full lunch at the Lincoln Road.
We left the hotel (we put the check-in luggage there) at 4 and took a flight to Caracas for three hours and arrived Venezuela at 10:30pm. Che So went to the airport and picked us up. I really appreciate Carmen because she is willing to go to Venezuela with me. This is not easy but then she made that decision to leave the family. That is a great gift that I will cherish forever. We organized our little room at night.

October 01, 2004(Friday)

Finally the cruise came to an end. We left the cruise at 9:30 and then went to the "Hotel Astor" in Miami Beach at about 10am. There is internet there so I am really very busy checking email, updating homepage and so on. It is a really rare time that I did not check email for four business days. I have lots to catch up on, especially on the photo and diary homepage. I have already written the online diary and selected the good photo and all I need to do is just to cut and paste. But yet that still takes me a long time.
Carmen and I walked around the Miami Beach area today. I have been there before and so I can showed Carmen some place. Of course this time it is much more relax because I am not rush to anywhere. We went to have dinner at a nice sea food restaurant too. Both Carmen and I agreed that this is a really nice way to end the honeymoon.