November 30, 2007(Friday)

I played badminton today again and this is one of the activities that I use to relax. At night Carmen led Bible Study and I think that she did a great job in preparation and lead Bible study. It is not boring at all and there is lots of good insight.

November 29, 2007(Thursday)

I had meeting and work on homework today. However, I am trying not to rush myself too much, because I am quite ahead of the game in terms of the school work. I took the advantage to have more afternoon nap and read comic.
We did not go to prayer meeting at night.

November 28, 2007(Wednesday)

There is no school today. We went to see the doctor for pregnancy routine checkup. I also went to have a work out and hair cut. We also watched the "Transformer" DVD. I watched this cartoon when I was young and this is certainly a pleasant memory and excitement.

November 27, 2007(Tuesday)

Today is back-to-normal day. I have classes and meeting with professors, therefore most of today I am working hard. Also I went to do the normal routine workout. I feel quite good after the workout because I am not as bad as I thought after the trip.

November 26, 2007(Monday)

We walked around the Cincinnati Mills mall this morning, since this is so close to our hotel. This is a large mall, about the size of Metrotown. However this is higher class than Metrotown and there are very few people this morning, probably because today is Monday morning, plus the thanksgiving holiday just passed. Nevertheless, we walked around "Babies R Us" and a Christian store in this place for about 1.5 hours and we left Cincinnati at about 11:30.
After 2.3 hours drive, we finally go back home! This is so good to be back home! We miss home so much, especially because during the last 5 days we change hotel every night! Overall, for the 14 days, we spent about $250 on gasoline and about $280 for the five nights in hotel (if we consider the hotel in Erie is free [see diary a few days back] and the $30 deduction for Motel 8 in Wooster, we only paid for less than $200 for hotel!). We also spent roughly $240 on food (lots of people treated us for food!) and purchased $450 stuff (the computer screen and shoes we purchased costs more than half!).
Carmen purchased grocery and organized stuff while I did some homework and organize other stuff. I am glad that I upload most of the photo during the trip already, so there isn't much for me to do.

November 25, 2007(Sunday)

We went to the Columbus Chinese Christian Church this morning. This is a church with about 600 members, but the Cantonese service today only has about 50 members, most of them are quite old. The worship is a bit boring but the people are quite friendly.
Afterward we originally wanted to go to eat Chinese style dumpling, but that restaurant turned out to be more Korean style and the food is expensive. Therefore we returned to the Japanese lunch place that we visited yesterday. We were there 11:20 but the shop opens at noon, so we went to Border bookstore nearby to read comic.
After lunch we went to Cincinnati. We were there this August to visit Timothy and his family. At that time we thought that this is an interesting place. However when we were there today, we find that this city is quite boring, probably because today is Sunday and we have visited some interesting places during this trip. Nevertheless we took a free horse-cart riding and walked near the Ohio river. We also visited Newport (Which is just on the other side of the river) as well.

November 24, 2007(Saturday)

We left Wooster at 11am and arrived to Columbus at 12:30. We went to "Easton Towne Market" shopping center. This is a large shopping center, as large as Metrotown, but more high-class, mostly outdoor and not as many people and no Asian store. We walked around this place for about 2 hours.
Then we went to some kind of Japanese shopping center to eat Japanese food. We haven't eaten Japanese food for more than a year, especially because Carmen is pregnant and we don't want her to risk to eat raw food, and I accompany her and not eat any Japanese food, even though we both love Japanese food. Nevertheless, we ate Udon and sushi today. We felt good. (Carmen ate cooked sushi so she is fine). There are also some Japanese bookstore and Japanese market nearby. It makes me feel like I am in Japan.
We also walked around downtown for 1.5 hours. There is a hockey game going on between Columbus and Detroit. We walked near the stadium too. At night we went to do exercise at the Courtyard Marriott. There is some nice facility so I am able to sweat!
In general we saved a lot of money this trip. First, there are a lot of people treating us for lunch/dinner. We probably got about 10 free meals in the last weeks or so. Moreover, we got a refund for the Quality Inn Erie, because according to Hotwire (the place that Carmen booked the hotel), this place decrease from a two-star to one-star so they refunded us the money. We also joined some club (which we will withdraw next week) so that we get $30 off the Super 8 Motel Wooster. Moreover, since Carmen rented the hotel through hotwire, we got nice deal in hotel, so that we only paid for $50 or $60 for each hotel, including the Hilton Cleveland and Courtyard Marriott Columbus.

November 23, 2007(Friday)

We woke up at 6am this morning and went to the thanksgiving shopping (similar to the Boxing Day shopping in Canada). This is not my character at all, but I took this as an experience. We need to buy a new computer LCD monitor for Carmen. For some reason the sales item are not available online. Therefore, we have to go early in the morning. The shop opens at 5 and there are people lining up at 4am already! However we don’t want to wake up so early, so we left hotel at 7 and arrived there at 7:30. However when we were at Bestbuy, the LCD monitor that we want are all out. We were disappointed, but not surprised. We went to Staple and we found what we want! Just about $20 more expensive (Original price is $190, Bestbuy sells for $100 and Staple sells for $120). We were ok anyway. Then we walked around Staple, Target and went back to hotel for an hour afternoon nap.
Next, we went to the Tower City, which is a mall, and walked around. My "leather shoes" is old and not shiny. My runner (the one that I purchased this summer in Vancouver) is broken (it costs $80 in Vancouver but it lasts for so short. I am very disappointed). We purchased three pairs of shoes, two for me and one for Carmen! We spent a lot of money today!
We drove an hour and arrived to a rural area called Berlin (not the one in Germany, but the one in Ohio). There are lots of Amish people living there. These are dedicated Christian decided to live a simple life by not using car (use horse-car instead) and minimize the consumption of electricity. We walked around the town for a while. This is quite cold at that time. There is supposed to be a parade at 6, but there is not much going on. We had a better dinner instead. We arrived to a motel in Wooster after another hour drive. Since both Berlin and Wooster are not major city, we don't have a detail map. We found the motel by luck!

November 22, 2007(Thursday)

We left Erie at 11am, and arrived to Cleveland. We went to a church (composed mostly of black people) to have a free thanksgiving lunch. We found out this opportunity from website, so this is a very interesting opportunity to have free food from other churches. They are very friendly too!
Then we went to the Cleveland Metropark Zoo for about two hours. Usually the admission is about US$10 per person, but today being the Thanksgiving Day, the admission is free! Therefore we enjoyed the visit, even though the weather is a bit cold, plus there is snow, plus not much animal (but we still saw lion, tiger, hawks, snake, bear, etc).
We also walked around the Cleveland downtown. The downtown is almost empty and traffic is non-existence. Probably because today is a holiday so everyone stayed home. Therefore, there is not much to be seen. We also did some exercise at night. Almost the same level of difficulties that I used to do, and that makes me feel so much better because I have been eating too much lately.

November 21, 2007(Wednesday)

We slept a bit late last night at 1am because we were washing and drying clothes. Therefore we woke up at 8:30 today. Then we left grand auntie 7's house at 10am and went to eat our last Chinese breakfast in this trip. We started our drive at 10:40. After 1.5 hours we arrived Niagara Fall. The weather is rainy so there are not many tourists. Nevertheless we walked around for 2.5 hours. We first went to a Casino nearby. This is targeted towards HK people at around 50's or 60's, because there is a lot of traditional Chinese writing (e.g. the name of that particular gambling at each gambling table) and invited some HK pop stars in the 80's. I feel bad for these HK people because they are pouring money and by the law of probability they will most likely be the loser.
We walked around the Niagara Fall and amazed again at the greatness! I am especially amazed at the top of the reservoir, place where the Fall nearly occurs. It is flat at that place, but then the Fall is so near! Anyway we walked around the tourist area as well, which really looks like Las Vegas (with museum and casino). We left Niagara Fall at 4pm. We crossed the border at Niagara Fall and there is no delay and it is extremely smooth! I should have brought much more thing across the border if I know this in advanced.
We drove for almost an hour to Buffalo, but there is not much thing to be seen. We can't even find a restaurant around the downtown area (probably we did not find hard enough). We drove for almost 2 more hours to Erie (a city in Pennsylvania) and settled down at 8pm. We did some light exercise at night and this is very refreshing to exercise after eating so many things for the last few days.

November 20, 2007(Tuesday)

We had lunch with Carmen's cousin Cecilia and her sister, who went from HK to Toronto to visit relatives and coincidently we are here. We went with them to downtown Toronto. We first visited "St. Lawrence Market", which is someplace like Granville Island in Vancouver. Then we visited the campus of University of Toronto and took photo at the Royal Ontario Museum. Lastly we visited China town and walked around some Chinese bookstore. At night we had dinner with Carmen's relative and it is good to get to know them after hearing Carmen mentioned about them for a long time.

November 19, 2007(Monday)

I got to talk a lot with grand auntie 7, and I learnt a lot about her second child's decision of becoming a priest, and know some more family history on my grand mother's side. That is very interesting and I greatly enjoy it!
Grand auntie 7 treated us to have lunch at the CN tower. There is really great view. Then we went to the observatory dock. There is a glass floor. I remember that I wasn't really height-phobia until stepping onto the floor about 10 years ago when I last visited this place. I came back again and I am still extremely afraid of height! On the other hand, Carmen has no problem walking on top of it! I don't think that I can do this at all! We spent about 3 hours at downtown!
Then we had dinner with Carmen's cousins. Cousin Cecilia came from HK to Toronto and we also had dinner with Jenny/Raymond and Cathy. I talked a lot with Raymond during dinner time.

November 18, 2007(Sunday)

We went to Sunday Worship at Richmond Hill Chinese Church ("Wai Kei" in Chinese). This is a large church with about 3000+ people going to this church per Sunday. The singspiration and the other program were good, but the sermon was quite boring.
We also walked around Markham, to places such as the Pacific Center, T&T etc for the whole afternoon.
At night we had dinner with grand auntie 7, Auntie Sonja (only 9 months older than I am) and also her boyfriend. We returned home at around 10pm.

November 17, 2007(Saturday)

We had brunch with the Pang's family and this is a great time to be with them. They have very hospitality and we shared lots of childhood memory. Their three daughters are cute too!
We left Windsor at 1 and then arrived to Toronto at 5. We had dinner with Joshua and Jolie. We haven't seen them for a long time. I still remember when we moved to Canada 1990, we lived at their basement for 1.5 months! It is good to have some time catching up with cousin! Then we arrived to grand auntie 7's house at 9:30. I talked to her for more than an hour and learnt more about her life and how God works in her life too!

November 16, 2007(Friday)

We left home at around noon today and drove to the tip (South side) of Canada. That is a national park and with some beach. However the weather is quite cold and the wind-chill effect makes it terrible. Nevertheless, we were here!
We also had a car tour around Windsor and then we had dinner together. We went back home at around 7:30 pm.

November 15, 2007(Thursday)

Today we went to the Frankenmuth (a small town in Michigan) this afternoon. There is a "Christmas town", because there is a store that sells Christmas stuff all year round. The building nearby also feature Christmas stuff too. Then we went to an outlet mall in another town called "Birch Run"; we purchased some baby stuff too!
The drive from home to the destination today is about 1.5 hours drive. During the ride the baby and kid take turns to cry. That is quite noisy in a closed space; I am learning to be more patient. With three daughters in the house, they are doing a great job to be patient and they shared some experience about teaching kids to us too! I also got some time to catch up some good-old-days with Timothy (we grew up together).

November 14, 2007(Wednesday)

We had lunch with the family of our host George. Then we drove for another 3.5 hours from Fort Wayne to Detroit then to Windsor. In order to make sure myself awake for the trip, I drank a cup of coffee. Unusually I don't drink coffee, but once I drink it I am very energetic. Therefore I am very awake the whole way.
We arrived to Windsor at around 4:30 and we walked around the mall for awhile, then we arrived to Tim's house at 6pm. They got a nice and big house that they renovated themselves. I also played around with their three daughters and this is a great fun for us!

November 13, 2007(Tuesday)

I went to some tax session this morning to make sure that the university has my most current tax document. Then we left Bloomington at 6pm. It is because I have to attend that Academic writing class, or else I may have skipped too many classes and fails that course. We drove for 3 hours, which is 180 miles and reached Fort Wayne. We stopped twice. We stayed at our previous church friend George's house.

November 12, 2007(Monday)

Today is a busy day and got several house-keeping things done. We had lunch with my classmate Valya. She is very interested to organize a baby shower for us. Therefore, we treated her for lunch; Carmen was talking to her while I played around with her 3 years old boy.
Afterward we went to AAA to get map (we joined the membership because we will go to a road trip) and also to the baby crisis center to get some free stuff for baby. This organization encourages parents to keep on upgrading themselves, therefore as long as we show them proof that we are going to school, or doing something for university, we get some points, which can be used to get some free stuff. In fact, our baby crib is from them.
Then we went to doctor to have a regular check for Carmen and the baby. Then we went to check whether we have the screw and cross dowel for the baby bed (but we can't find it). Then we went to workout (because we won't be exercising for the next two weeks). At night I have to do some International tax stuff as well.
What a long and busy day.

November 11, 2007(Sunday)

Today I went for a fitness test, which cost $30. First, the trainer measured the weight, height, and checks the body fat ratio. Then he asked me to walk on the treadmill with various inclinations and checked my heart rate and blood pressure. He also asked me to do sit up, push up and flexibility test too. In the end, it turned out that my body fat ratio, cardio and also push up is excellent. However, the other three are only average or above average. Overall, my fitness level is 71%, I think that I should be better because my resting heartbeat should be lower and I can do more sit up. Nevertheless, that was the high light of the day because I have been looking forward to test my fitness for a long time. Now it confirms that I am in a great shape.

November 10, 2007(Saturday)

I am trying to work with the math modeling problem that professor asked me to do yesterday. Indeed this is not an easy tasks, as he still has problem figuring out this himself. I spent 2.5 hours solving but still not able to solve this. In the middle, Carmen and I went out to have a walk and enjoy the nice weather for 1.4 hours. This is a good way to refresh myself.
At night I went with classmates Wenbin, Zhihao to John's house for dinner. They talked in Mandarin, Carmen talked to John's wife (in Cantonese) about baking bread. I was watching TV or reading magazine. Even though this is not productive time, this is still good to socialize with them.

November 09, 2007(Friday)

I have meeting with professor today, and as usual, I am in the intense study/working mood afterward, to make all the changes that he has. He also assigned a math modeling problem to me; he is working on this problem but need some help to figure out some doubt and since I am his Research Assistant this semester, he asked me to help out. That adds to the amount of work that I need to do.
At night for fellowship the Macedonia group has a dance/song during Singspiration. That turned out pretty decent. Then rather than joining the Cantonese Macedonia group, we went to Mandarin graduate group. It is because most of the Cantonese people are under grad. Since we will have our baby soon and we are too old/mature for this group, we decided to visit the Mandarin graduate group. I have some difficulty to communicate with them because they are speaking Mandarin. However, I can understand what they say, but I tried to talk to them, sometimes in broken Mandarin and sometimes in English.

November 08, 2007(Thursday)

My flu is much better today, thanks to the Vitamin C that I took and also some flu medicine. I also am working on project for several hours today. Lastly we received the baby stroller that we ordered online. This is the second piece of big furniture for our daughter. Eventually our house will be full of her stuff!

November 07, 2007(Wednesday)

I am working on the paper that I will coauthor with my classmate Greg for 5 hours today. He is an American and has lots of working experience. He will be excellent in writing, while I will do the model and the math. I hope that we can get something productive.
The home heater was not working for a few days. Starting Sunday it suddenly blows hot air. Even though we tried to lower the temperature, it is not working. We asked someone to fix it, and yesterday they changed the thermostat; then the home temperature is too cold now. In addition, the outside temperature is too cold as well (around 0 degree). I think that I catch a flu. I haven't had a flu for more than a year, probably because I exercise regularly. I will know for sure tomorrow morning whether I really catch a flu, and if so, I will try my best not to pass it to Carmen.

November 06, 2007(Tuesday)

I usually woke up early on Tuesday and Thursday because I have morning class at 9:30. So I woke up at 6:30 to be at the same time with Carmen because she needs to go to work at 8am. However, afterward I am quite sleepy. I slept four times afterward: before morning class, during morning class before afternoon class and during afternoon class. I am not good at battling fatigue and make sure myself staying awake.
My HK friend Big Head went to Chicago for a business trip and I originally scheduled to visit him tomorrow at Chicago. However he will have business dinner tomorrow so this plan is canceled. Hopefully I can see him soon.

November 05, 2007(Monday)

I got so annoyed with hotmail lately that I switched over to gmail. I had my hotmail account since 1998 April. I always want to change this, but the desire is not that strong. However since a few days ago hotmail forced us to the new interface of MSN Lives. Actually the messenger MSN Lives is not as good as MSN version 7.5 too. I got annoyed enough that I decided to move over to new email address. There is a lot of thing that I need to change, but I still have to do it because I got annoyed enough. I hope that I can stay with gmail for a longer time.

November 04, 2007(Sunday)

During Sunday School today, we talked about whether male and female are equal (e.g. if a church has no good brother, yet there are plenty of very spiritual sister, should we let these sisters to take up the leadership position), and also Christian school education (e.g. should a Christian school only hire teachers that are Christians?). This is some very interesting concept and discussions.
I delivered the sermon today. The topic is on "How to have devotion". I shared about this Jan 15, 2001 in the Franklin Chinese Gospel Chapel. I am using mostly the same material and tried to give out some theory and practical suggestion on having devotion. I am always suggesting people to have devotion, and I have read the Bible daily since 1990s. Some track record that I am really proud of myself.
Carmen and I went to gym to work out. At night, I invited a classmate to have a chat. He is not happy about being in IU and would like to apply to other top universities, such as Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford. I gave him some perspective (I don't want to say that I give him advices because I can't make these school so I don't have the qualification to give advices) and wish him the best.
Today is also the start of winter time. This is a very confusing situation in Indiana. Some counties within Indiana changed time last week, and now some other also changes the time this week. And now 80% of the places in Indiana are using Eastern Time (including Bloomington) while there are another 20% that is using the Central time. That is so confusing!

November 03, 2007(Saturday)

We went to Indianapolis today to start a registry at the Babies R Us store. We were there for about two hours and checked a lot of stuff. We estimated that at least we need $1000 as the set up cost for the baby (excluding ongoing cost such as diaper). We also went to a Chinese buffet place near by the Babies R Us to have great (in Bloomington standard, it is great) lunch too.
We also went to do grocery shopping. Carmen is so great because she drove the car sometimes, and let me go to Borders bookstore to read comic too! A great and considerate wife!

November 02, 2007(Friday)

I do not have much motivation today for homework or study. So I played some piano today, which is quite rare for me. Also, I went to do some work out and play badminton. Seems like that I have a lot of time in my hand and able to do some more exercise.
At night, we went to fellowship and that was praise and worship. Then we went back home early at night. A quiet day.

November 01, 2007(Thursday)

I continue to work on my paper today. The Academic Writing class keeps on being useless, because the professor showed us some paper (from the field of education) about the tense, the introduction of the paper. I think that this is a completely waste of time because I know all these already. I should take a class in grammar instead, too bad there isn't one like this.