September 30, 2004(Thursday)

We arrived at Key West (a very south city in Florida) today. Instead of joining tour that cost a lot of money, we walked by ourselves. I always like to walk around the city using just the map. Carmen shares the same passion so we enjoyed our time together without spending money on the tour. However, our walking focus is different. For me, I like to walk to as many places as possible and I would never stop by any shop. I want to get an overview of the city. Carmen, on the other hand, pays attention to the detail thing. She likes to walk inside the shop, check out different thing and take photo.
We packed up at night to get ready for the departure tomorrow. We have a lot of luggage, mainly because this trip is on the way to our final destination, Venezuela.

September 29, 2004(Wednesday)

Because of the hurricane, we did not arrive to any port today; instead, we stayed on the cruise. I went to the gym to run on the jogging machine for 37 mins. It felt much better to sweat after eating so many foods for the last few days. Actually, I am not a slave of food and I did not eat too many. I only ate a lot during dinner and I ate either breakfast or lunch each day. I also had afternoon sleep and I am working on the photo homepage too. I took a lot of photo since Sept 25 and it will be a long time in order to finish uploading all the pictures.

September 28, 2004(Tuesday)

The cruise arrived Bahamas today. This is a place like Curacao, which I have been there twice. We walked around for two hours and joined the activity snorkeling in the afternoon. This is quite expensive (USD $34/person) (in fact, all activities are expensive) for this one hour event but it was fun to look at fish swimming around me.
We attended a marriage game show and also a talk show at night. The performers are quite professional.

September 27, 2004(Monday)

We took 2.5 hours flight to LA. We evaluate about the wedding ceremony and slept a lot. Afterward, we took 2.5 hours flight to Dallas and then another 2.5 hours flight to Miami. We arrived Miami at 10:40am local time.
We went to the cruise immediately. There is a lot of waiting time. The check in process is long and unorganized. We are not satisfied with that. When we are lining up to go into the cruise, we have to stand outside under the sun (without shade) for almost an hour. It is very hot. We later heard that this is not the normal check in process because the hurricane caused all the cruise to park at the same time and they are running out of room.
We walked around the cruise at night. I felt a bit sick for several reasons. I did not have enough sleep for the last few days. My daily routine is interrupted (and that cause a rigid man like me to feel very uncomfortable). I ate too many things and did not do any exercise lately.

September 26, 2004(Sunday)

We returned to my home at 8:30. We organized the stuff and opened the rest of the gift. Originally I thought that the flight was at 4pm so we had to do thing quick. I remembered wrong! The flight should be 7:37pm! Therefore, we got more spare time. Hansel and Fiona came to help us organize the money gift. Carmen and my families went to have lunch together. Carmen and I went to our old homes (we started a new family so we will have a new home somewhere else) to pack up and arrived to the airport at 5. The check-in was really short. Everything was smooth.

September 25, 2004(Saturday)

After ten years and the day finally come. I woke up at 6:10 and had the usual daily routine (piano, sit up and devotion). And then together with parents, Hansel, Fiona and Andy, we went to the grave to visit grandparents. My grand father is always the member of our family. Therefore, since last year, I have decided to visit the grave yard the first thing of the day.
Shortly after we were back home at 7:50am, the brothers start to come. They are: Gary Lee, Terence Chow, Simpson Cheung, Chris Lee, Simon Lee, Ben Lee, Ricky Tsang, Derek Lee and Andy Poon. Hansel Pun is my best man even though he is married. I have made this decision (of asking Hansel to be my best man) since I have memory because dad asked Uncle 4 to be his best man too! They were all here at 8:30. We ate some food and mingling around. We also decorated the cars. We received the phone authorization call from our GM Karen at 9:40 and we arrived at Carmen's house at 9:50.
As expected, the sisters (Joyce Chow, Karen Lee, Serene Pang, Toto Mak, Eleanor Chow, Vera Ha, Fiona Pun, Carmen Mok and Linda Yuen) were expected us. They had several games. First, they asked four volunteers (ended up I asked five people) and drew on their faces. They are: Hansel Pun (he volunteered), Ricky Tsang, Ben Lee, Derek Lee, Simpson Cheung. And then all of us went to the big street (Boundary and 49th) and hold a sign and asked 9 people (ended up I asked for 10) to honk. The last games is to read out some personal "embarrass" thing (e.g. wash hand after going to washroom, don't make fun of her friend, have more furniture at home) in front of everyone and promised Carmen that I will do it. I made some tricks reading it, e.g. read out some key terms in slower / faster speed so that it does not sound like anything meaningful, or make up some other conditions. The sisters are too soft and they are not on guard. Some times, I can sneak in to Carmen's main door without any supervision. Finally we were in the house and they planned just to let me go to her room. That is too easy. Therefore, I requested that I should kneel all the way to her room and yell "I love you" for every step. Toto asked me to read out the personal embarrass thing each step but I ignored her because that would take too long. When we were in her room, someone was inside and I assumed that this is Carmen. But I purposely look for her at some where else. It turns out that the hidden person is Linda. Carmen is in another room.
We poured tea to her relative. It took about 45 mins and a bit overrun because they were struggling whether we should kneel or not. When they tried to put the golden decoration to Carmen, that takes a long time as well. I hurried back to church at 11:30 to pour tea for my relative. We scheduled 11:15 - 12:15 but the process was only 11:30 - 11:55. I went to greet different people. I met lots of people that I don't know their identity, but I tried to be as socialize as possible. The ceremony starts at 1:25 (25 mins late) when most people arrived.
I waved at different people during the entrance. I tried to smile big but Carmen and Hansel told me afterward that I look stupid. Hansel played violin for the mom's candle entrance and signing/lighting candle. He can only perform 75-80% of his normal skill.
At first, I was not nervous or moody at all. I have been through many different big events and wedding and I have used to this kind of atmosphere. However, the difference is that I let my emotion comes in. When I read the vow, I started to cry in the first paragraph saying that Carmen is my lover, friend and soulmate. I was especially moved at two spots: I promised to make you proud/happy, the road in front of us are not easy (because we are going to Venezuela and lots of unknown). I have to stop in the middle to regain my emotion control. Carmen was calmer when she read her vow. We had a bit trouble to light the candle because the candle is too thick. I also had a surprise song performance to Carmen. She composed this song several years ago but she only briefly writes it down (as she does not know music theory). I secretly wrote that down officially and composed the lyric this year. The lyric is funny but personal to both of us. I have experience in singing and playing piano in Venezuela so I was not too nervous. However, other people are quite surprise at my skill because they do not know what I did as a worship leader in Venezuela. This is quite a sweet experience to sing love song in front of everyone.
We returned to the sanctuary when people blowing soap-bubble at us. My left eye was blown with some soap and I felt a bit uncomfortable. The worship team had a surprise performance to us. They sang several old songs that we used to sing during the late 90's in Canaan. It does bring back a lot of memory to me, especially because I left my peer group to other places in the past few years. I missed fellowship! I really thank you to the helpers because I felt so helpless when Carmen was stressed out with the wedding preparation while I am in Venezuela and incapable of doing anything.
The family-appreciation section of the wedding usually is the moving section of the ceremony. Carmen's dad shared about how to be a good parent and then Carmen appreciates her family. I played piano "There You'll be" while Carmen sang this song to her parents with movie slide in the background. My parents shared afterward. They were funny and used a talk-show interview style. I shared about my family afterward. After thanking my parents I was unexpectedly moved (and cried) when I shared about my grand father. Of course, it was the high light when I shared about Hansel. Carmen made a movie show with my childhood family photo with the 1980 recorded tape and this definitely make people want to cry; at least this is what Hansel told me how he feels. I gave flowers and hugs to my parents and I gave two really strong hugs and kisses to Hansel. Other than issues related to my family, there is very few thing that can cause me cry.
The ceremony ended at 2:50, about 30 mins overrun. There are different emotions and feeling that this ceremony gave to every one. Laugh (when we had difficulty light the unity candle), sweet (when I sang the surprise song), sadness (when Carmen said that she has to leave everyone during the "thank helper" section), warm (when my 1980 tape was released), holy (when we sang songs to the Lord). Carmen did an unbelievable job in this planning and I am extremely impressed!
We had photo section from 3 to 4. This was a bit unorganized, especially because the guest is leaving before the photo section. We stayed around until 4:30 and went to Big Chris place so that his wife Joyee (also long time friends) helps Carmen for make up.
We arrived to the restaurant at 6:10. We greeted and socialized to different people. The banquet started at 7:30 when 95% people arrived (277 people in total). Karl and Jessica Chan are our MC. The microphone system had slight problem, may be because the battery is old. They asked us to kiss but we asked the Pastor Ivan Leung couple and the Counselor Shirley couple to demonstrate. The other game as to ask me to find the different part of plastic flowers under different chairs. I have to act out again how to propose to Carmen. I practiced first with Hansel and made lots of fun. In addition, they blinded our eyes; Carmen and I have to find someone that we trust and we have to walk past the obstacle. (turned out the obstacle are removed; they just want to test our trust to that person, my mom and Carol) These two are excellent game because it involved a lot of people. This is especially important because the restaurant is a big place and we may be distant to some of the tables. They also asked Carmen and I to stand on a table cloth, which would half the size each time. They also asked me to carry Carmen. At first, the shoes were too slippery and so does Carmen's cloth. Therefore, I dropped. However, everything works out fine at the end.
The climax of the banquet was Carmen's surprise song. She sang me a love song. Her voice, beautiful look and undivided attention absolutely exceed the limit of my expectation. She sang so well that everyone wants to encore. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful wife!
During the banquet, I ate little because I was not hungry (I ate a Big Mac and a hamburger at 5:30pm) and not in the mood to eat. I talked to a lot of people and thank for their coming. Many of them envied my luck (blessing from God) to have such a wonderful wife. They asked me to take a really good care of Carmen. Actually, she was very independent and I am the person that needs her to take care!
After the group photo time, it was 11:30. Very late! We had to end the night even we have not "throw flower ball". After different clean up and organizing, we left at 12:20. Dr. Alice Wong booked a honeymoon room at Four Point Sheraton hotel that night. Since we are leaving Vancouver the day after and I will not return in the short term, we had to open the gift as soon as possible. Therefore, we opened lots of nice gift!

September 24, 2004(Friday)

I went with Hansel to Richmond's Hung Niang to get the "kwa" (some red Chinese style cloth) for Carmen. And then we spent 1.5 hours to wash three cars: Lexus, Sienna and Maxima. We have not washed car together for a long time and this is the first time that we wash three cars at the same time. Andy visited us during dinner time. And then I went to church to help out (although I did not contribute much) to the decoration. There is some English speaking teenagers fellowship at that time. It reminds me about my wonderful time during FCGC carmel fellowship. Tonight is also the last time that I drove Carmen home and then drive home by myself.

September 23, 2004(Thursday)

I drove Carmen to travel clinic to take her second shot this morning and then drove her to do exercise. And then Hansel and I went to Carmen's house and picked up a lot of decoration stuff and then go to church for wedding practice. Lots of church helpers came to help us. The practice was relatively smooth and there is no disaster happened.
It is getting close to the wedding date. And when people ask me what I feel, I usually say that there is nothing. The only significant feeling now is that, I worry that I may forget something. Too many thing needs to take care of. I know that I will miss something.

September 22, 2004(Wednesday)

I am quite sick today. Therefore, I slept a lot. I slept 10 hours last night and two afternoon naps, one of them is 1 hour long and the other of them is 2.4 hours long. This is the most productive thing that I can do now. My parents and I went to have dinner with Carmen's whole family. There is lots of food and we cannot finish the whole thing.

September 21, 2004(Tuesday)

Today is a tiring and almost-sick day. I did some PhD application in the morning. And then I helped Carmen to pack up for the Venezuelan trip. We also did some movie editing for the wedding ceremony.
At night, we went to Stanley Park's Fishhouse for dinner. We originally thought that this is the restaurant that we did for the engagement, but it is not. But it is also a very romantic and quiet place, although I am a bit sick to enjoy any of it. I must sleep a bit earlier tonight.

September 20, 2004(Monday)

I picked up Auntie 6 (my mom's sister and nephew) and Tammy (her daughter) from airport today. They arrived from HK to attend my wedding ceremony. Most of the time, I have contact with relatives in my dad side. This is also very interesting to communicate with relatives in my mom's side.
We had lunch with them; they went to sight see while I went for the tradition 53mins jogging and scale-practice piano. Doing all these thing makes me feel like I am back to my daily routine. This helps me to get used to Vancouver too!
After dinner at home, I went to Richard Ng's house to ask him about the wedding video recording and editing thing. I had a longer-than-expected talk. Auntie 6 and Tammy tried to stay awake (because of jet-lag) because I told them that Carmen will visit them at night. Therefore, I drove Carmen home immediately. I also have an appointment with Wilson Ma. So I went to their house by myself. At night, Hansel helped me to finish with the banquet menu. I practiced piano with Carmen. I went to Carmen's house and talked briefly to her mama and families. Her uncle 2 gave us a new Sony Digital camera as our wedding present! I have used my old one since November 2001 and this is time to move on to the new one!

September 19, 2004(Sunday)

This is a solid communication day with Carmen. I am glad that we can share a lot. This is especially important to us in this stag. We have been separated physically for quite time and we need to exchange our expectation periodically.
I went to VCAC worship this morning. I miss the Venezuelan Chinese worship. (Strange!) I drove to Carmen's house to pick up their family. Then we went to the airport to pick up her mama and guo che, who are from HK. Then we went to have a really late lunch with them.
At night, I had dinner with my parents, Hansel and Fiona at home. I also did different clean up and wedding preparation thing. There is a lot to do. I thank God that He gave me a really capable girl to be my wife. Every day is a new day to us and I really appreciate what Carmen did to our relationship. That is absolutely a blessing!

September 18, 2004(Saturday)

Cousin Esther Tsang with her 2-years-old son Theodore visited us this morning. Since I have lots of experience with little kids in Venezuela, I am all equipped to play with little kids and I know how to carry a little kids. Apparently, Hansel lacks this skill and Theodore likes me to carry him more than Hansel.
Hansel and I worked on the wedding stuff today. And then at night we went to church at 6 for the audio team meeting. Then we joined the Elim fellowship at night. It was Bible study and it turned out not too bad. And then, we had a short meeting with MC for the wedding ceremony. I can sense that people are excited and well-prepared for our wedding. I am glad that our wedding is something that people look forward to.

September 17, 2004(Friday)

It is great to have a brother! Hansel took a day off and went to my home. He helped me to print the banquet menu. I also cooked lunch for him, using the leftover foods from this Wednesday. This is the first time I used some "yellow teeth white" and tomato to cook, with the "pig leg" and duck. I thought that it tastes pretty good although Hansel calls this the food of pig. We went to Richmond to get the honeymoon cruise ticket. Then we went to visit Uncle 1 with other Shing Kong Church elders. We also played basketball as usual. It was raining for the last few days, except Sunday and today, where I can play basketball with him. I felt great about it.
I went to church to have a short meeting with the two photographers of the wedding day and then I went to have Japanese all-you-can-eat with Hansel. I felt too full to do anything! Carmen has the girl's shower overnight party tonight while I have the bachelor overnight party with Hansel, doing the wedding stuff. He is now helping me with the wedding Q&A PowerPoint and I will do the slide shows tonight.

September 16, 2004(Thursday)

Today is another day of wedding preparation. Carmen and I met with Karen, our wedding GM. She is a great friend and a great helpers and our workload is greatly reduced because of her. Then I drove Carmen to travel clinic to take some shot because I don't want her to "go first". We went to MetroTown to shop some gift for the girls shower.
At night, I went to have dinner with parents and some elders from the Shing Kong Church. They knew my dad before he was born!

September 15, 2004(Wednesday)

I met with Dr. Auld during lunch time. He will be my reference for PhD application. He is quite optimistic, and I hope that he is right. I will feel really bad if I ended up in UBC or IU. My expectation grew a lot higher now. Previously, I would be really happy if UCLA accept me. Now, my level increased and I would only be happy if Stanford or MIT accept me.
Afterward, she and I walked around to shop gift for the girl shower (I don't think the boy has shower at all). As usually, I am really tired but Carmen was very understanding. Late evening, I went to try out for the tux and we got a nice white one.
At night, Carmen's family had dinner with our family. We had a good time eating and having a meeting. Hansel played violin for us and Carol sang for us. I packed up and organized my stuff a bit during night too because I want to make sure that if my parents are going to rent the house to anyone, my stuff would be organized.

September 14, 2004(Tuesday)

Today Carmen has to do some stuff as well. Therefore, I went to different places and did a lot of stuff. I purchased the marriage license, and renewed the driver license. I walked around metro town and checked different things (computer, digital camera, Chinese character writing pad for computer and so on). I also bought some books and gift from Christian bookstores.
I went to Carmen's house for dinner. We wanted to print the program, but she bought the wrong bubble-jet-ink. Therefore, we have to go back to future shop to buy the ink again and we wasted about $50 :(

September 13, 2004(Monday)

I went to check the rent-tux place and we are still looking at a nice tux for my wedding. And then Carmen and I visited Pastor Leung to discuss about the wedding program. I then went to have a haircut and we went to Future Shop to check for a good digital camera. The one that I am using now (Sony P30) is a really nice one. I got that for free Nov 2001 when I passed CCIE. I brought this camera to different places (e.g. Colombia, USA, Panama, and Belgium) and added a lot of picture on my website. However, this is an old camera with only 1.3M Pixel. It is time to have a new camera, at least, for the next few years. Carmen will use that digital camera to make nice animation or PowerPoint too.
We went to Hansel and Fiona's house for dinner. They cooked for us and I washed dishes for them. Hansel also played violin and we know how well he will play during our wedding ceremony.
At night, I taught my dad how to add contact to his yahoo address book. About three years ago, I applied yahoo email account for him. And for some strange reason, he lost his email password. He did not change it but probably someone else changed it. At that time, I did not put the real info (e.g. address, birthday) for his email account. Therefore, there is no way to recover his email address. I felt really bad for him because I can imagine how bad that would be if I lost my main email address. Anyway, he got a new email address and I helped him to add the contact. I also taught him how to use MSN so that in the future I would know when he will be online or not.

September 12, 2004(Sunday)

I went with Carmen to Willingdon Church. I had not enjoyed high-quality worship for a long time. The worship in Venezuela not that great (even I can be the worship leader!). And the last time I was in Vancouver, I went to VCAC for one week and then I went to Willingdon Church the other week. However, since that day was right after the Vancouver Sun Run, we were 1 hour late for worship and we fell asleep even in that should time!
Carmen and I made plan for the upcoming days for the wedding preparation. And then I went to play basketball with Hansel. He was a bit too aggressive in the basketball court when we played with other people while I was too quiet and too peaceful.
I ate dinner with Carmen and her parents at their home. Carmen and I had a brief wedding meeting. At night, I worked on the wedding guest list.

September 11, 2004(Saturday)

Originally Chi Kong would drive me to the airport this morning, but since his car has problem, I asked Semson to drive me instead. He is a good pastor that demonstrates to preach with his action. I arrived to the airport in 5am and then took 5.5 hours flight to Dallas. It took 30mins longer because the plane has to fly around the hurrance. And after 4 hours waiting time in Dallas (I am already very familiar with the Dallas airport), it took another 4 hours flight back to Vancouver. Today is Sept 11 and I thought that not many people will take a flight. And the flight is about half full so that I can lie down on the seat and claim three empty seats!
Everything was smooth and I met my family at 7pm Vancouver time. It is always confusing to me because I am already very adaptable and feel comfortable to the Venezuelan life. Now I am back to Vancouver, such a nice place. But anyway, I had dinner with my parents, Carmen, her parents and also Hansel&Fiona. And then at night I went home to unpack the stuff and also went to Carmen's house to check out the wedding stuff. Late at night, I did my usual internet routine. I uploaded the photo and also wrote the online diary.

September 10, 2004(Friday)

McDonald called in the morning saying that their network has problem. Actually, their network had problem since mid-summer. They can access to every but one of the website. Therefore, I went to their office to troubleshoot in the end of July. I have asked them to do some test, sent them dozen of emails but they never replied. I have asked for them and Omar whether I should close the case or not. And then this morning, out of the blue, they gave a call. I did not answer but I replied them with an email instead. I attached all the emails that I have sent and how they have never replied. They did not reply to this email and I assume that there is nothing else I can do. I have already opened up a Cisco TAC case just in case I need to take over the case.
I tried to deposit US money to the bank. I have done that several times but they changed their policy about a month ago. I asked Yanting for help to go to the bank but the bank has too many people. Probably I should deposit the money when I will be back to Vancouver tomorrow (wow, tomorrow. I can't believe time flies so fast!)
The MB Church people had a farewell dinner for me, as a single person. It will be my bachelor party (sob sob sob, only eating tonight). We farewell Mrs. Chu as well because she will go to China with YiSon and Paul for three months (so that my parents and Carmen won't be seeing them when we go to Venezuela). I am so glad that I won so many friendship and respect in Venezuela church. People absolutely loved, cared and respected me. This is something that a normal leader cannot get! The Baptist Church people are very good too and in fact many of them want to go to airport Oct 2 to welcome Carmen to Venezuela!
I went with Fernando and Menyee to hospital at night to visit Michelle. She just had a baby today at 10:40am. This is the first time (after I visit my mom when she gave birth to Hansel) that I visit a friend who had baby. Several good friends of mine in Vancouver just had baby but I was not in Vancouver at that time. The closest I can get is I visited Menyee Dec 21, 2002 when she had Cindy in Dec 16, 2002. I hold on to a 5 days old baby at that time and that was scary. Too bad that I cannot see Michelle's baby boy because that was night time and so he is sleeping in a separate room. She stayed in a private hospital and the whole process (with only one night stay in hospital) cost about Cdn $2000! Wow, that was expensive!

September 09, 2004(Thursday)

I have finished my HBO report for quite some time and I have submitted to Omar for his review. Originally we are supposed to go to customer site for a meeting about my report. However Omar is too busy and did not have time to review the report. Therefore, he will probably go to the customer site next week alone to present the report. And I have nothing to do this week and that is cool. I checked the U of Penn website again. I want to apply the OPIM (Operation and Information Management) department but this department requires GRE (I tried, but it does not work out well). Therefore, I want to apply to IRM (Insurance and Risk Management) department. I have emailed a few professors and they concern that the job market for IRM is not that big. And since IRM is part of Finance, I may apply for the Finance department instead. I never interested in Finance (even though I got A in the two finance courses); however, I guess that the PhD people are researching on the useless stuff. I never think that the PhD research is practical. I imagine that this will fill with math and calculus, just that it is being apply to Finance concept. All I need to learn is some finance principle. If that is the case, then it would match my personality (useless, not practical?)
There is a MBA world tour for different universities. And the two Jose in my company were graduate from the MBA program in U Penn and they told me that there is a reception tonight at the country club. Therefore, I went there at night. As expected, all the Venezuelan there are white, or nearly white. I am the only Chinese and only person (other than the admission representative from U Penn) that do not know Spanish. I did not get a lot from this because they are only focusing on MBA.
When I go to the country club, it was the rush hour. Therefore, I decided to walk there. The surrounding is quite dark and quite quiet and I almost get lost. And on the way back home, I wanted to get a taxi but it is too quiet and I cannot find a taxi. Therefore, I walk and wait for taxi at the same time. The place is quiet and dark. However, this is the highest class in Caracas; all the embassy and rich people are here. I assume that it must be safe. I was exploring the road and I am glad that I did not get lost. It takes me 30 mins to speed-walk home!
Lately, I am doing PhD application. Other than the Statement of Purpose, there are many short questions that I need to answer. Hansel is a great help and he proofread a lot of my answers. I do not want to bother Carmen because she is busy preparing for the wedding.

September 08, 2004(Wednesday)

I can't believe it. I am living on the fine line again. I took two MBA courses in the summer term. For some unknown reason, I don't think that I did well. I did not try as hard as before (or probably I tried too hard the term before). In addition, it is very difficult to get an A in IU because the cut off for A is 95% or the top 25% of the class. Therefore, I thought that I deserve to get two A- this term.
The Advanced Finance course was challenging because there is too little math involved. Too many case studies that asks for the underlying concept. Glad that I have good teammates and they helped a lot. I got an average of 94.4% for homework. As for the final exam, I have to do it by myself. Also, my mental state was not strong and focuses at that time. I thought that I did not do well on the final exam. Magically speaking, I got a 90% for my final exam! And that turns out to be 92.64% for the whole course! And for some really strange reason, the class did not do too good and the prof decided that the cut off for A is round-up-to-be-93%. Oh, I got an A!
Thing is even more strange for the "Business Planning and Project Management". There is a big simulation of how to run the business. Our team did pretty badly. We improved at the end but our profit and stock price was in the bottom half of the industry. This performance account for 50% of the grade. So basically I have written out this grade already. There are also several papers that I have to write. Since I was busy with the Advanced Finance final exam preparation and PhD application, I just wrote it quick. Carmen helped me to proofread one of the papers and I just hand in the second paper in raw by myself. I tried to have a high participation rate in the forums (10% of the course) but I just posted some garbage response without really reading what other people are saying. There is also a labor-management bargain exercise that we have to do; I barely participate and my side (labor) got a really poor negotiation result. I am in danger of getting a B+ for all these reason. I checked the website today and I got an "A". What? Not fair! What did I do? Let me check back tomorrow to make sure that I did not make a mistake.
Actually, I think that most of the other A's in my MBA are lucky A's. For example, the "Strategic Marketing Management" course I took winter this year consists of too many writing. I got nice team (I got an A every single time I am with this team!); Carmen and Hansel also helped me to proof read the marketing paper, which I basically faked the whole thing, skipping all the interviewing process that I am supposed to do. As for the "Financial Management" course I took spring this year, the prof warned me that I need to learn how to use Excel (what? I am a pro in excel!) And learn how to do my calculation. The "Operations Management" course I took last term consists of a lot of case study. I use the famous "word sea" strategy and be the first to post in the forum so that I don't have to waste time reading other people's post to make sure that my post is unique. Our team did badly for the simulation and problem set. But my paper, once again, was a simple but neat idea about "crossing three traffic light in the minimal time", got full mark. This helped me to barely escape the miserly of A-. The only course that I deserve to get an A is the "Quantitative and Decision Support Systems" last September. There is a lot of Excel and calculation involves and this particular course stimulates me to study PhD in business! Life is not fair but this time it is bias for me.
FYI: I remembered that I almost got an "A" in the Network Protocol class I took in SFU three years ago. I was quite pissed off at that time and I argue with that Prof but she is mean and did not raise half a mark so that I can get an A. But I had such a good relationship with her (even though she is mean and she did not give me little bit more mark to get an A) that she is my M.Eng project supervisor and also my important reference for PhD! I also asked the MBA finance prof that warned me to learn Excel to be my reference too, for important school such as "U Pennsylvania", Yale and UBC. I am weird/over-confident.
So far, I have six A's and 3 A-'s in my MBA (one of the A- is a 1.5 credit course from in-resident last year). The only outstanding grade that I need to know is the in-resident course (HR management) from this year. And I absolutely cannot get an A. I skipped a lot of class (the time that I skip class in that week is more than the time that I skipped for my whole MBA + M.Eng and probably + UBC!) because I need to talk to various prof about my PhD plan. I fall asleep when I as there. And I faked through the whole final exam. And as far as I can remember (yes, I don't remember anything from this course), there is no team. An A- would be excellent for me. I better mail my transcript to various PhD school before receiving grade for this course.
I had a really long and enjoyable lunch. Since I will be heading back to Vancouver for my marriage and Mrs. Chu and her two kids will go back to China for three months next week, I had lunch with Dr. Chu's family and Ah Chuen/Elisa. We ate at McDonald (so that YiSon and his brother can play) and the coffee shop near my office from 12:30 to 3. I worked on UBC PhD application today too.

September 07, 2004(Tuesday)

I worked on HBO report briefly and talked to Omar about this today. At night, I went to church for fellowship. This is the first time that the fellowship committee take over the program. I hope that thing will be smooth when I am not here.

September 06, 2004(Monday)

I have not enjoyed a quiet and nothing-to-do day of work for a long time. I spent some time check the PhD application. I also went to check the new house again, to make sure that everything will be alright. I will move there in Oct 24, because they are not ready before that time. So I have to think where Carmen, my parents and I will stay in the brief window of Oct 2 to Oct 10.

September 05, 2004(Sunday)

I taught Sunday School in IBCC this morning and then went to MB Church to lead songs: "Manos Maravillosas" (from ACM's You are king), "Stream of Praises" (from SoP), "Adora a Dios" (from ACM's come revive me), "Príncipe de Paz" (Prince of Peace, from ACM), "El Poder de tu Amor" (Power of your love), "Canta Al Señor" (Shout to the Lord). The MB Church gave me a beautiful crystal photo frame as the wedding gift, which is out of my expectation. Then I led fellowship at night about acting Bible story and I gave a conclusion and a lesson to the stories that we learnt. It went ok as well.

September 04, 2004(Saturday)

I will be moving to a new house with Carmen after my honeymoon. Therefore, I cleaned up my room and put thing into the box. I can't believe that in a week I will be on the plane back to Vancouver! I also went to the last run from this house, but it rains heavily so I was wet.
Since I will be gone for several weeks, someone has to fill my spot to lead the fellowship. Therefore I went to Katty house to have a pre-study with the Baptist church youth committee. And I went to MB Church at night; they told me that they are thinking of some games to play Carmen and I during our wedding banquet here.

September 03, 2004(Friday)

I went to HBO in the morning and then back to Desca in the afternoon. I got some PhD application done as well. I am facing a big problem though. My most important reference is Dr. Auld from UBC Engineering Physics. He was positive and will surely write good stuff for me. However, he has retired from UBC and I am having difficulties contacting him. I have emailed to him several times for the past two months but he did not reply. Hansel said that the UBC Physics office said that since he has retired, he rarely goes to UBC. Now I tried to go through the Yellow Pages to find his phone number! I have asked the UBC prof to call his home just to ask him to send me an email. I don't know what I should do if he is not available.
I had dinner with Che So, Mrs. Cheng and their kids at Shangri-La. This is a really nice Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant. Che So knows one of the owners so she suggested me to have my wedding banquet there. Their business was not good so the price that they will give to me is pretty reasonable. This will be a western style dinner, with a main dish of steak and chicken steak. My only concern is that some of the old people in the MB church may not like it. However, I can not please everyone. This is a nice opportunity (especially because I never like Chinese banquet) and I hope that I will not turn down this nice offer (i.e. not bow down to the peer pressure for those that prefer Chinese style)

September 02, 2004(Thursday)

I worked the whole day in HBO for the report. I made several Excel spreadsheets. I really love Excel! (Hansel will say that I am a Microsoft dog, but I do love to use spreadsheet with different formula and conditional-formatting!).
I went to Baptist Church for dinner at night and then had the first youth fellowship meeting. There is a committee in MB Church fellowship for almost two years, but this is the first time to have a committee in Baptist Church. Previously I basically responsible for everything in the fellowship and Mrs. Cheng helped me a lot. However, since I will not be in Venezuela for the next few weeks (about 2 3-week periods), I need to hand off everything. And it is a good time to start a committee. Ah Men will be the secretary/treasurer; Kitty will be the music coordinator; Yanting will be the devotional department. Mrs. Cheng will be like a counselor and oversee the whole thing. They start to feel what it is like to host a program! And many people are needed to fill in what I left out :)

September 01, 2004(Wednesday)

I went to Desca in the morning so that I can go home during lunch time for afternoon nap. I went to HBO in the afternoon to work on the traffic report. I also started the application for University of Pennsylvania (too hard to spell this name). This is September and I will get married this month. I have a bit of "pre-marriage" worries, just like normal girl would go through.