March 31, 2005(Thursday)

I handed out the evaluation today. This is the best evaluation I had! Usually, I got about 6.5 or 6.6 out of 7. I have received 6.81 and 6.83 out of 7 too. This time, I had 6.85! Ten out of twelve students gave me a perfect evaluation! I don't think I did a better job than I usually did. (I think that it is hard to do a better job). It is just that they are nice to me!
Regarding about the U of Mich. I did not have an offer. I am on their wait list. However, I received an email saying that I am accepted by Indiana University, my MBA university. This is not my top choices, but still, it is not a bad university. Their business school ranks 18 out of the thousands of business school in USA. There is some important decision that I have to make. I need to decide whether I want to accept the offer from IU by April 15. However, I will only know my chances from UCLA and U Mich AFTER April 15, the date that their accepted-students to reply. This will be a difficult decision to make. I am also waiting for the decision from UBC and I guess that I would have chances too.
I need to make this big decision. I called my parents and Carmen's parents to ask for their consultation. They gave me good support on whatever decision that I will make. I am grateful that Carmen and I have fabulous families to support us! We have nothing to worry about.
Carmen and I went to Shanghai place to have dinner at night. We also discussed about our future plan.

March 30, 2005(Wednesday)

There was some problem with the QoS lab. However, we moved on anyway. Therefore, I skipped lunch to work on this problem. It is not that stressful because I know my students already.
Carmen went to line up for cheap ticket for a musical play called "The Producer". She was there from 7:45 lining up for the booth that will open at 10am. She is the first to line up! There are lots of people after her! At night, we went to another Japanese place to eat dinner. This is an authenticated Japanese place because the menu is in Japanese and there are a lot of Japanese in that place.

March 29, 2005(Tuesday)

Today the class is smooth as usual. In fact, I have time to go back to the hotel for afternoon nap. At the end of the day, we have to move room again. Originally I planned to move room at about 4:30 and let the students continue to work on the lab afterward. However, afterward, most of the students just left. Therefore, I stayed until 5:30 and left.
My visit to a destination is not completed if I have not run. Therefore, I ran for about 53 mins in the NY city. Not many people ran in the NY city because it is a very busy place with lots of traffic. However, when I ran to the seaside, there are more people jogging like me. Now, I have visited to most of the places in the Lower Manhattan. I split the cities (places below the Central Park) to three sections. From my hotel (34th St) to Central Park, there are places like Times Square, Rockefeller Place. Between my hotel and First Street (the places that I jogged), there are Madison Square Garden and NY University. From First Street to the end, there are Little Italy, China Town, Wall Street, World Trade Center site, and the Statue of Liberty. I am glad that I have been to all of these places.
At night, Carmen and I went to some Japanese places near the Times Square to eat dinner. The food is relatively cheap (US$5 for a bowl of Udon and US$7 for one-person-sushi) but it does not taste good at all.

March 28, 2005(Monday)

I got the flu yesterday. And then, it is not easy to talk and teach for the whole day; however, I still managed to complete all these. I started the bootcamp today and everything was moving fine. In addition, my hotel is so close to the hotel that I can go back to the hotel during lunch time to have a short break.
There is some bad thing for the Cisco training this week. We have to move to different rooms for the first three days. Therefore, I have to organize people to help me to move the equipment towards the end of the day. However, it takes about 35 mins to turn on the traffic generator for the lab. Therefore, we are wasting times for the students.

March 27, 2005(Sunday)

We left the hotel at 9:30 for our full day tour. We went by the famous "Fifth Avenue" because there is some parade going on. The Parade supposed to start at 10. When we were there at 10:20, there are only a few people on the street. There are some people dressed with interesting custom. However, overall, it is nothing like the Vancouver Sun Run. Also, we saw the Trump Tower, a place which is famous because of the TV "The Apprentice".
Afterward, we went to the "Church For All Nation". The name suggested that this is a huge church. However, it turned out to be quite small. The church sanctuary can have 200 people, but there were only 30+ showed up today, 10 of which are visitor. This is a Lutheran Church. The Sunday Service is like Catholic Mass, or Anglican Church. We have to read some passages from the bulletin. In addition, we have to go to the front to take the Holy Communion. This is the first time that I experience something like this.
Simpson is our Vancouver church friend. He is now working as an air attendant for Cathy Pacific. He serves the Vancouver-HK and Vancouver-NY line. He happened to be here today so we met him and his co-worker Ivy. We had lunch at China Town. The China Town (and NY as a whole) is relatively dirty and old. Rather than putting the garbage in the back alley, People put the garbage in front of the street. We concluded that the Vancouver China Town is comparatively much cleaner.
Carmen and I walked to the World Trade Center site afterward. It is very noticeable that there is a big construction hole surrounded by many high rises and nice building. The terrorist surely did great impact! I imagine that the WTC should be as nice as the World Financial Center nearby.
Next, we went to the Wall Street. This is such a famous street that I had a high expectation to this street. However, it turned out that this two-block area is old and it is like some unnoticeable back alley of some downtown street. I can't imagine this is the most important street in the world.
Since I have memory (about age of 3), whenever I think about USA, the object that I will associate with is the Statue of Liberty. Without a visit to the Statue of Liberty would not make my US visit complete. Therefore, we took a free ferry to Staten Island, which sail by the Statue of Liberty. (I guess that there is a ferry that goes directly to the Statue of Liberty, but we just took the wrong ferry)
We had dinner at China Town again at night (because there is so few high quality Chinese food in Venezuela) and I did exercise at the hotel. Today is a traveling day and I am very satisfied with my visit to New York.

March 26, 2005(Saturday)

Today is the Easter holiday in Venezuela. Carmen and I went to run in the morning. The Short Term Missionary in the church has a workshop about how to lead Sunday School. I am not really interested so I did not go in the morning. However, people phoned and asked me where I am and asked me to go. Therefore I went. However, during that period of time, rather than sitting down and listen, I looked after little kids instead. There is some pride in my heart that I must deal with.
We went to Semson's house for dinner. Afterward, we had guitar class at night. I also had a detail talk with Carmen and she shared and analyzed about what I am going through lately in terms of the spiritual life and emotional life. In this special time, she is my best adviser because she really understands me.

March 25, 2005(Friday)

Today is the revival conference at church. Carmen is the song leader and I played piano, guitar and violin (sang some times). The speaker is Pastor Wang from CCM San Francisco. The talk is ok but it is a bit too long. We had a three hours conference in the morning (one hour song and two hours talk) and a three hours conference in the afternoon (one hour song, 1.5 hours talk and communion). Afterward, we had Chinese youth fellowship meeting at church. Pastor Ricky Chan came to Venezuela Baptist Church to serve and we gladly introduce the fellowship to him.
At night we went to Che So's house for dinner with the youth committee. Elaine and Ah Men shared about their experience as starting computer business in Venezuela and they tried to introduce this concept to me.

March 24, 2005(Thursday)

Today is the Easter holiday in Venezuela. Carmen and I went to run in the morning. The Short Term Missionary in the church has a workshop about how to lead Sunday School. I am not really interested so I did not go in the morning. However, people phoned and asked me where I am and asked me to go. Therefore I went. However, during that period of time, rather than sitting down and listen, I looked after little kids instead. There is some pride in my heart that I must deal with.
We went to Semson's house for dinner. Afterward, we had guitar class at night. I also had a detail talk with Carmen and she shared and analyzed about what I am going through lately in terms of the spiritual life and emotional life. In this special time, she is my best adviser because she really understands me.

March 23, 2005(Wednesday)

I did the New York online training section and San Francisc training section today. Other than that, I did not do anything at work. Carmen and I went to Che So's houes for dinner. Afterward, we went to church to practise for the singspiration this Friday. Tomorrow and Friday are holiday in Venezuela so people are in a holiday mood.

March 22, 2005(Tuesday)

I hosted the online tutoring session for Chicago's QoS class. In the afternoon, I took the Cisco Gateway/Gatekeeper test. There is some questions that requires me to enter the command. However, this is a Venezuelan country, and I am taking an English exam. The key stroke is all messed up. At that time, this is not a English keyboard but this is not a Spanish keyboard either. I searched through the whole keyboard (with all the "shift" key as well) to try to find the "?" sign. However, I cannot. I asked the administrator for help and neither can he find the "?" sign. After about 10 mins of searching, I finally gave up. I lost quite a number of points in the command line questions! I passed the exam but in the future I must find a way to enter "?" if I am going to take any exam in that testing site.
It was outreach at night. Pastor Wang and some other Short term missionaries from San Francisco arrived last night. They are the speakers for the outreach tonight and the topic is Tsunami. Since Carmen and I just returned from USA and we will help out in the music leading this Friday, we don't have to lead music tonight. Therefore, we can sit back and relax for the whole night (except that Paco suddenly pulled Carmen out to help him to host the opening section). There were about 120 people (excluding children) came and about 8 of them accepted Christ.

March 21, 2005(Monday)

After a week of hard work, working in Venezuela is always easy. In addition, I have to catch some sleep that I missed last week. In addition, I am traveling (Third time this month) to New York this Saturday. I am arriving there at the JFK airport but leaving there at the LGA airport. So I get to visit two different airport in NY!


Mar. 26 (Sat)	AA976 CCS - NY JFK 10:25 - 14:11
Apr. 3 (Sun)	AA1567 NY LGA - MIA 14:22 - 17:26 AA2133 MIA - CCS 19:26 - 22:38

Dad emailed me about my rejection letter from UCLA. It was so depressing because a week ago he told me that I am on the waiting list. But then I compared the date of the letter and find out that the waiting list letter is more recent than the reject letter. That means, I should be on the bottom of the waiting list, which is, better than nothing. However, I don't want to hold too much hope because I have been discouraged many times.
I went to church at night to pracitse music for the revival meeting this Friday. Pastor Ricky Chan and family just arrived to Venezuela to be the pastor of the church. His wife Christina plays good piano so from now on I don't have to play piano anymore. However, since they just arrived to Venezuela to serve, they need some times to get use to the culture in the Venezuelan church, just like how I did in the first few months.

March 20, 2005(Sunday)

We took a flight from Chicago to Dallas for almost 3 hours, and then another flight from Dallas back to Caracas. We have been taking a lot of flight lately. I am confused about the timezone because I thought that Dallas was one hour ahead of Chicago (i.e. the Eastern Time zone) but actually it is the same time zone as Chicago. Therefore, I thought that we will nearly miss the flight but turned out that it is ok.
We arrived home at 11pm and organized thing. We have been traveling so much that we are really good at packing and unpacking.

March 19, 2005(Saturday)

Originally I have to go to teach course today. However, I finished the teaching yesterday. In addition, CTT made a mistake and did not book the room for Saturday. Therefore, we spent a day of visiting! In the morning, we went to a zoo located near Chicago downtown. This is a free admission place. Afterward we went to China town and enjoyed Chinese food. (of course, we did not drink tea because we don't enjoy drink tea). We also visited the Chinese Christian bookstore and bought some stuff. We were not able to visit this place since we left Vancouver. Therefore we got something for ourselves and for the church.

March 18, 2005(Friday)

Today is an extremely light day. We only had 40 mins lecture. I let them to do the lab for the rest of the time. I got evaluation. It is an "ok" grade evaluation. I also played ping pong with them. They are good at smashing the balls but I am good at spinning the ball. Therefore, I won the game. They all left by 3pm and I can leave by 4pm.
Hansel always says in his diary that he is not good at running and he cannot think while he was running. I ran today for 61 mins again. Actually I have been running for 6 years already, since I was working in Glenayre. It is good for my heart. Afterward, we went to have dinner.

March 17, 2005(Thursday)

The course is smooth as usual, except problem with the CUE (Cisco Unity Express). Therefore, the students have a lot of time to work on the lab and I am very easy.
In addition, I am finally on the waiting list of some university, namely UCLA. This is not my top choice, but then it is better than nothing. I was rejected by a lot of universities and at least, I got an interview from University of Michigan last Friday and I am on the waiting list of UCLA. However, I have already prepared for the worst, which is, no university accept me. In this very difficult moment, my parents, Hansel and Carmen did a good job comforting me!
I went back to hotel, did some exercises and had dinner with Carmen.

March 16, 2005(Wednesday)

We are ahead of the schedule again. We completed the QoS portion of the class and moving on to the IPTX in the afternoon. I need to spend some times to change the lab set up from the QoS to the IPTX. I am good at multi-tasking and it looks ok.
I had a nice 61 mins run (longer than usual run) in the gym in my hotel. I don't say that I love running. Instead, I need running. It is not only for physical fit, but I need the running time to sort out a lot of important thing in my life. Some people cannot think when they are running. However, running is my prime time to be quiet and make important decision.

March 15, 2005(Tuesday)

The lecture is light and people worked on the lab. I went with some students to eat lunch. And at the end of the day, when some people are still working on the lab, I played ping pong with one of the students.
Carmen got me some Japanese sushi for dinner at night. She had to carry that all the way from downtown and she needs to change three different transportation to get home while carrying the food!

March 14, 2005(Monday)

I had the first day of the bootcamp today. Since this bootcamp will use the same equipment as last time in San Francisco, I am quite confident that everything will work out fine. Other than some small problem (e.g. don't know how to start the projector or bad cable) everything is good and smooth. I have been teaching this for 6 times and I feel very comfortable already. I completed the lecture at 5. But then the people stayed late so I can't go home early until some of them finished the lab at about 7pm.
Usually I am really tired Monday because I have not yet get used to the class and there is a lot of teaching for Monday. Therefore, after eating dinner, I went to sleep immediately.

March 13, 2005(Sunday)

After breakfast at McDonald, we went to Chicago downtown today by taking train. This city feels like Boston. We cannot fully enjoy the walk today because of the cold weather. We have already dressed a lot. However, we have accustomed to Venezuela's warm weather already. Therefore, it takes a while to get used to the cold weather (about 0 degree) again. In the first hour, we need to walk to some mall to get ourselves warm!
In the beginning, Carmen wanted to go to the House of Blues for the Gospel Brunch. However, there was no seat available. Therefore, we walked to the Navy Pier. This is a nice Pier and it should be extremely nice when this is summer. Currently, it is a bit cold. Afterward, we went to a supermarket that feels like the Urban Fare in Vancouver for lunch. Then we walked through some nice outdoor stadium and ice rink. Eventually, we arrived to the Sears Tower. It cost US $10 to visit the top, but when I am in the 103rd floor, it surely has great view! I also imagine that what would happen if a plane hit this tower, like the 911 incident! I took some photo too. However, I forgot to bring the cable that connects between the camera to the laptop. Therefore, I cannot upload the photo until I return to Venezuela next week.
We went back to hotel at 7 and I did some exercise. I always eat a lot (because I can claim the expense) during business trip. Therefore, I need more exercise!

March 12, 2005(Saturday)

This is one of the first times that we had an afternoon flight. In the morning, Carmen and I went to Parque del Este for running. And then we arrived to the airport at 2 and took 3.2 hours flight to Miami. The transit time for this connecting flight is only 1.5 hours. The immigration custom line up at Miami is very long. (At that time, I wish to be a US citizen because they got special treatment and avoid the 3 mins per person check for non-US citizen) After we picked up the luggage and ready for re-check-in, the airport people told us that it is too late. Therefore, with the experience of Jan 9 (I missed the flight in Miami that day), we immediately headed to the correct AA counter. However, the AA people told me that we still got a chance. Therefore, we gave them the check-in luggage and then we immediately raced to the gate. We just made the flight!
We arrived Chicago at 11pm local time after another 3.2 hours flight. The weather is really cold! We went to McDonald for dinner and then return to the hotel to take some rest.

March 11, 2005(Friday)

I am a person that cannot stop. I need to chase for something. (Chasing for something can either be good or bad, depends how I use this). I am rocking bottom in the last weeks because I am statically waiting for the PhD decision. That really hurts. Therefore, in order to move on, I have decided to pursue the Voice CCIE exam. That makes me more focused. I did some research about the study guide today.
At night, Dr. Chu came to our house for dinner. In the middle of the sharing, parents called and told me that University of Michigan wants to interview me. Actually, when I see the phone number, I know that it is from parents and I know that it will be something about my university application. I thought that I am accepted, but then, I actually got an interview. For the interview, I thought that it is just a normal company interview, asking me how I am doing and whether I am really interested for this program or not. However, to my surprise, this is an extremely technical interview. The first question that he asked me is how I should prove there are infinite numbers of prime number. OK.... Also, he asked me how to simulate Poisson process if I am given a uniform distribution between zero and one. My goodness! How am I supposed to know this? Even during my peak (several years ago when I was still studying in UBC), I would have a difficult time to answer this. This time, I am totally speechless. The mindset after going out to work and the mindset during academic are really different. I honestly told him that I do not know how to answer and asked him for hints. After being asked for three technical questions, I took the lead for this interview. I shared about my math background. I told him that, I got really good marks in university and it is not by luck. I am just not used the math yet. Then I went on the explain how I ended up in Venezuela and what I learnt in Venezuela. I also emphasize repeat and repeat that U of Mich is one of the top of my list and my goal is to be a full time researcher. At the end, I asked him about his feedback. He told me that, I am a mature person. However, my math has problem. I told him that I am in the process of reading different books to get myself up to speed. Then he asked me what book I read and what theorem I read. And asked me any intuition about it. Oh my goodness! Anyway, he told me that someone *may* contact me later and if that is the case, I should further study my math. I told him that how am I supposed to improve my math in one or two weeks. He said that it may indicate that I am not yet ready for PhD this year. The interview went on for 48 mins.
Oh well, at least, I have an interview. That means that I am not THAT bad. However, this is a blow to myself because I did a bad job in answering the math questions (which I cannot help).
Afterward, I shared with Dr. Chu about a lot of intense Christian problems. For example, how to seek the will of God, or how to lead a fellowship or church and how do I know my prayer is ok. The interview turned my brain up to speed, but that came a bit too late. So when I was talking to Dr. Chu, I am actually using my full speed to talk to him.
At night, I did some pack up to get ready for the trip tomorrow.

March 10, 2005(Thursday)

I worked for half a day this morning. In the afternoon, I took the CCIE Voice written exam. Basically, I am already a double CCIE, certified for Routing/Switching and also Security. However, I need to recertify every two years and I will be expired by November this year. Therefore, I take this written exam to recertify myself. Should I take the Voice CCIE lab exam to be a triple CCIE? It depends on whether I am accepted by PhD program or not. If I am not accepted, then taking Voice CCIE would be my back up plan. Actually, for the written exam, I did not know too much. I just relied on the study guide (past exam). I am glad that the study guide and the exam correlate perfectly so I wasted no effort in completing this exam.
Mimia, Mrs. Cheng and her son Wilson came to our house for dinner at night. We also practiced music for Mar. 25 Easter revival conference.

March 09, 2005(Wednesday)

I had two online session today. The NY CVoice #1 in the morning and San Francisco QoS in the afternoon. Only two people showed up for these two sessions so these two sessions went by quickly. Other than the online session, I have nothing much to do. I spent some time to study for the CCIE Voice written exam tomorrow. Also, I went out to have a long walk (40 mins) during my break. I walked by the first company apartment that I stayed when I first arrived to Venezuela. There is a lot of memory. Afterward, I also checked my online diary of May 2002. It is always interesting to read the old diary. Lots of memory came back to me. The first two weeks in Venezuela is a very special time for me. However, I am sure that as I look back several years from now, my post-marriage life in Venezuela is very special too! And in fact, if I look back several weeks from now about my PhD application, it will be special. It will fill with laughter (if I am accepted) or tears (if I am not accepted).
I gave a phone call to Hansel this morning to say hi to him. I have not called him for a while. I gave him encouragement because he is finding job and he gave me encouragement because I am waiting to be accepted.
At night, I had a phone call with the head hunter that I met last December in North Carolina and discussed with him about my training business plan. In addition, we had guitar class.

March 08, 2005(Tuesday)

I hosted the online tutoring section for the Chicago CVoice#2 group in the morning.
The memory verse for fellowship today is "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (Jn 15:16). I dreamt about the PhD application again and had a semi-nightmare about this. Even though I said that I want to release the burden, it is still difficult to practice it in the daily life. Therefore, after memorizing this verse, I tried to pray to God with a physical appearance like when Jesus prayed to God in the first scene of the movie "the passion of the Christ" (life up my head and slightly lift up my hand) and asked Him for help.
When I was walking back home during lunch, there was an old lady (about 70+ years old) asking me for money. Initially I have no idea what she said (because she talked in Spanish). But I can catch some key phase and know what she needs. I rarely give money to beggar on the street. And my heart does not have the special feeling either. In addition, I only have two dollar bills in my pocket: one 20,000Bs (Cdn $10) and another 50,000Bs (Cdn $25). To a person who felt guilty even spending Cdn $1 for ice-cream, I really struggle. The old lady does not look too poor or too desperate. She just asked whenever she can see people. However, I gave her my precious 20,000Bs anyway. I have never given beggar more than Cdn $2. I figure that, if she lies to me, I would lose 20,000Bs. On the other hand, if she really needs that money, I would lose a chance to save a person! Another question rise to my mind. There are so many beggars on the street and I rarely give to anyone. Why I should give that to her? I recall the story of "saving star fish" that I read from the internet. "When someone walks on the beach, he saw a lot of starfish lying on the sand. (Starfish needs to be inside water to survive). Therefore, he threw some starfish, one by one, back to the ocean. When his friend sees what he is doing, his friend said that there are so many star fish and he can not really make a difference. He replied that he cannot make a difference to all these starfish, but at least, he can make a huge difference to this (the one that he is saving now) particular starfish". I am not especially emotionally during the entire process. Am I doing the right thing? At least, I am sure that I am not doing the wrong thing.
The fellowship at night is debate. The topic is "Can female be the church leader". Rather than asking me to debate, I am the host of the night. The team is between male and female, with male supporting female can be leader but female oppose. I did a good job to control the crowd. Also, I think that debate is an intellectual type of program. It may be that the people do not have the required education so this is a good challenge to their mind. Needless to say, I always think that I am good at talking.
There is a hot topic in the business school application. About a week ago someone release some info in order to know their application status early. All they have to do is to cut-and-paste their student ID to the weblink and they can check the application for schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Duke early. This works for both the PhD and MBA. I was tempting to check that myself but I was busy at that time so I did not check. Today, when I check the news, the news says that Harvard will reject all people who "hack" to their system, while other schools (e.g. Stanford, MIT) say that they will discuss with the applicant and make the decision accordingly. (i.e. they will still reject them but they just do not say it out loud). This is a really grey area to discuss. The fault is because their system is not properly protected. All the applicant did was just cut and paste their student ID and click on a link. However, from the perspective of business school, the students hacked their system. This is an unethical act and they deserved to be rejected. This is a very debatable punishment! I am glad that I did not click on the link. However as far as I know, most of these rejected people are from MBA so I cannot benefit from that.

March 07, 2005(Monday)

Carmen and I will fly to Chicago this Saturday for another training. The return flight also passes through Dallas airport. Therefore, my iternary of that flight is the same.

Mar. 12 (Sat)	AA936 CCS - MIA 16:25 - 18:52 AA1139 MIA - Chicago ORD 20:30 - 22:49
Mar. 20 (Sun)	AA2321 Chicago ORD - Dallas DFW 11:30 - 13:58 AA2155 DFW - CCS 15:06 - 22:18

Work is nothing in Caracas. However, I will be taking the CCIE Voice written exam this Thursday. Therefore, I was preparing hard for this exam. I purchased some study guide and I hope that this will be good. Also, this is my "only hope" that I can control during this PhD-application-waiting-period. I hope to pass it.
At night Carmen and I had our first business meeting about the training project that I plan to enroll. I took MBA but I guess that I need more real life experience.

March 06, 2005(Sunday)

We took the 8:09am flight to Dallas for 4 hours and then another 6 hours flight back to Caracas. I have developed a strategy in order to combat this long flight. I tried to sleep as late as I could yesterday so that I am sleeping like a pig on the flight. I slept about 8+ hours today on the flight. In addition, I spent about 1.5 hours reading comic "Detective School" (same author as the detective story "Gold Field 1") that Carmen purchased in San Francisco.
After going home, we spent about an hour organizing our luggage.

March 05, 2005(Saturday)

I have completed all lectures yesterday and today is just an open lab for the students. Only two of them showed up and they both completed by 10:30. After packing up, I went back to hotel at 11:00. I went to the gym to do some exercise. Hansel always does the muscle-related exercise. I tried to do it too today.
Carmen and I went to San Francisco this afternoon. We took settle bus to bus station and then took bus to "BART" train station. Last Sunday when I visited San Francisco, the weather was bad. This time the weather is really nice. We walked to the China town and to the Fisherman Wharf. Since Carmen had visited San Francisco several times in the past few days, she was my tour guide. At night, we went to Shanghai place to eat late dinner.

March 04, 2005(Friday)

The training is smooth and I gave them lots of lab time as usual. During lunch time, I went with three other students to NSAS research center near San Jose. That was a large tent with some museum inside. It was a pretty nice place to visit. But there is nothing much shown inside other than some booth showing whether there is life in Mars or some TV to show the development of flight. However, I got myself some ice cream and ice cream sandwiches from NASA. It is just a tin foil bag that is not cold at all. It felt so weird. The training ends at 5. As usual, I got good evaulation.
After a late-evening-nap, we went to have dinner with Ricky Fong and his wife. We ate dinner at some Italian restaurant. Then, because I miss Canton food a lot, I requested them to bring me to eat Winton place in some HK Style tea house. We had a good time sharing. I shared about my life in Venezuela.

March 03, 2005(Thursday)

The training today is very easy. I basically let the students to do the lab most of the time. I went home at 5:30pm. I went out for a run. Originally I planned to run for about 40 mins. However, I am lost on the way back. I thought that I got the right exit. But then I made two mistakes. This causes me a huge delay and I ended up running for 2 hours! The longest I have ever tried. Carmen worries a lot and I am great that I am ok.
With the help of my parents, Hansel, Carmen and her family, I finally start to settle down with studying PhD in Indiana University. I studied MBA in this university. This is not a top one but nevertheless it ranked 18 in USA for their MBA program. They have not given me an offer but I have confident in that. If even this one rejects me, I will be very worry. Anyway, after my struggle in the last several days, I started to have some back up plan. That makes me feel better. And then during the run today, this finally started to sink in. I tried to wrestle with God and I am trying to settle with what I have. I remembered those three years ago, going to Venezuela is a curse. However, it turned out to be a blessing. I guess that I will go to another Venezuela (Indiana is a place that has very few Chinese and the university is not the best). Let's see what will happen.
At night, Carmen and I went to the Border bookstore neighboring to our hotel. I spent about two hours reading Japanese comic (but in English).

March 02, 2005(Wednesday)

The class is much more relaxed today. I let them to work on the lab and I can relax. I returned to the hotel at 5:30. I went out to run for about 45 mins, running along the famous Tasman Drive, where Cisco has over 20 building along this street.
I always like to plan and brainstorm when I am running. Since I was rejected by different universities yesterday, I need to draft a back up plan. This is what I come out with. My strength is that I am a double CCIE, I can learn fast and I have training experience. Therefore one of the niche markets that I can explore is to develop and teach a training course for some big learning partner. The training market itself is saturated. However, for some technology, it is not. For example, I have been teaching Cisco Call Manager Express (CME) for the last several months. The CME is a new technology that Cisco wants to sell. As far as I know, I am one of the first teachers to teach this kind of bootcamp. I already have some good contact with my previous students. Therefore, this is something that I can explore. In addition, it would be really useful if I have my third CCIE - Voice CCIE. There is only 120 Voice CCIE in the world since the introduction of this certificate about a year ago. Not a lot of the training partner have Voice CCIE syllabus. Therefore, this will be another niche market. If I am rejected by all those universities, this will be my back up plan. More importantly, Carmen is excellent in making contact with customer. Therefore, she will play a big role in this business plan. The commitment and investment I have to make is minimal. All I need to do is to write some proposal and present to the customer. This is only a tentative plan but I will see how far
Carmen and I went to some HK style place to eat dinner. This place is like Richmond Parker Place with lots of new-style restaurant and bubble tea house. We have not seen this kind of thing since we left Vancouver.

March 01, 2005(Tuesday)

The class was much smoother today. Basically the lab situation is within my control. Therefore, I felt much more confident. I left class at 5:50.
I felt really bad about my PhD application. REALLY BAD. I got rejected by four schools already. Stanford is my top choice but I am rejected. The first rejection is always sad. U of Chicago is a good school but I did not pay attention to the application so much. U of Penn is a great school but I am rejected too. It is sad. The worst one is Duke. I thought that I have a really good chance. But I am rejected. I feel REALLY BAD. I basically lost all my confident regarding about my PhD application. I would be lucky if I am accepted by any school, even the "crap" school like Indiana University or UBC would make me feel better. God definitely did a great job in completely destroying my pride.