July 21, 2007
Dear Bloggy,
Marshall and I went to visit "Yuan Hua Gon" with Bin, who is another Googler working at the DSO team. The place is quite nice, the typical Chinese style buildings. What is most impressive is that there is a Budda stature in there which is almost 3 stories tall, and it is crafted out from one huge tree. It reminds me of all the "Big robots fighting alien monsters" Japanese cartoon I saw when I was a kid. The Budda really looks like one of those big robots.
We went to eat "Huan Gwo" afterwards. You select veges, meats and other stuff. They then cook everything together in a bowl with lots of pepper. A new way to handle food.
July 23, 2007
I spend the whole day in my apartment reading. :D It is so relaxing! I have always want to spend some long period of quality time with good books but have done so until that day. :p
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Week July 15 - July 21
Dear Bloggy,
July 15, 2007
Karen, Morden and I decided to go to visit the Great Wall, "13 graves", and some well which I don't remember its name. We hired a taxi for the whole day, negotiated a price of $400 and he was supposed to bring us to those places. We started off at 8am in front of Google and off we go. But then somehow being a taxi driver the guy have no idea how to get to those places, which was surprising to me! Given the fact that we have told him where we want to go upfront, and being a professional taxi driver, shouldn't it be his responsibility to check out the map and at least form a general impression on how to get there? Anyhow, that's fine. I called up Jay and have him to tell the driver how to get there. Knowing now where he was supposed to go, all of a sudden he demanded an increase in price to $500. We told him to go home.
I am not saying that the driver is a dishonest person. In fact I think it is true that he may not make much out of this $400 business. (As Jay told me that $400 is too good a deal) The issue is professionalism. I don't think you will find a HK taxi driver who has no idea where he is going. :p
We ended up going to "Wong Fu Cheng", "Tin Tang" and a restaurant famous for its Beijing BBQ duck. yummy.. :D "Wong Fu Cheng" is a shopping area which is very much like Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. There is a shop that specialize in making hats and has been making them for the Chinese government official since many years ago. I need to get one before leaving BJ. ;)
July 20, 2007
Google treats us intern students for a fencing activity. Here is the photo from Shen Kai. ;)
http://picasaweb.google.com/claymore213/Fencing
July 15, 2007
Karen, Morden and I decided to go to visit the Great Wall, "13 graves", and some well which I don't remember its name. We hired a taxi for the whole day, negotiated a price of $400 and he was supposed to bring us to those places. We started off at 8am in front of Google and off we go. But then somehow being a taxi driver the guy have no idea how to get to those places, which was surprising to me! Given the fact that we have told him where we want to go upfront, and being a professional taxi driver, shouldn't it be his responsibility to check out the map and at least form a general impression on how to get there? Anyhow, that's fine. I called up Jay and have him to tell the driver how to get there. Knowing now where he was supposed to go, all of a sudden he demanded an increase in price to $500. We told him to go home.
I am not saying that the driver is a dishonest person. In fact I think it is true that he may not make much out of this $400 business. (As Jay told me that $400 is too good a deal) The issue is professionalism. I don't think you will find a HK taxi driver who has no idea where he is going. :p
We ended up going to "Wong Fu Cheng", "Tin Tang" and a restaurant famous for its Beijing BBQ duck. yummy.. :D "Wong Fu Cheng" is a shopping area which is very much like Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. There is a shop that specialize in making hats and has been making them for the Chinese government official since many years ago. I need to get one before leaving BJ. ;)
July 20, 2007
Google treats us intern students for a fencing activity. Here is the photo from Shen Kai. ;)
http://picasaweb.google.com/claymore213/Fencing
Friday, July 13, 2007
Oh shoot again
July 13, 2007
Dear Bloggy,
Oh no I haven't update Bloggy for so long... But then I blame the Chinese firewall which prohibit me from accessing my blog at home. So, I am not to be blamed, I am not to be blamed, I am not to be blamed. (don't remember who told me that if you repeat something 3 times in a row then it becomes a truth. Not sure if this is true :p)
Let's start with what I can remember..
July 8, 2007 (Sunday)
I went to the bookstore area which Sophie brought me to last week. It was good walking in those bookstores as you can never have such big ones in HK. All of them consist of like 3~5 floors. However, 99% of the book are Chinese. Not that I don't like to read Chinese but I am looking for books that discuss data analysis, and I wouldn't be able to crack subject like this in Chinese. So I ended up not getting anything on that.
Fortunately, I have decided to improve my Mandarin and I am starting from the fundamental. So went into the "school kid" section and bought 3 books which are designed for primary 1 students to learn PinYin. Not bad. :p
At night I saw Jay and Ying again. :D They are one of my best friends when I was working in Nortel Networks at Ottawa as an intern student. The gathering reminds me of so much priceless memory. I still remember my lovely apartment there, in which I could oversee the Ottawa river. I got my first job, bought my first car, learned driving manual, broke up with girl friend, started Tae Kwon Do, founded Nortel Squash Club with Martin ;) , learned skiing (I think it was in Ottawa?), first time skated on real ice, met Bing, Karen and An and so much more. It was really nice getting to see Jay and Ying in Beijing again after so many years. They treated me "Lamb hotpot" which I have always wanted to try. So tasty.. :D
July 9~12, 2007
Nothing much happening. There is not much progress in my project so I am starting to think of things from different directions. I went to a bar called D22 with Marshall and some other Googlers from US for their ambassador programs. It was funny that they show a movie in the bar. (Lolita) Good movie but my first time watching a movie in a bar. :p
Oh I also tried out the massage in Google :p It was pretty good consider that you can just take 30 mins off from work and relax a bit. ;)
July 13, 2007
Google rented out a cinema for the Googlers to see the moive "Transformer" It was OK but not as good as I expected. I think the computer animation is quite impressive; however, I could only see bunch of robots fighting one another and I couldn't really tell who are the bad guys and who are the good ones. However, there are quite a few good jokes in the movie. So, 7 out of 10 la.
Dear Bloggy,
Oh no I haven't update Bloggy for so long... But then I blame the Chinese firewall which prohibit me from accessing my blog at home. So, I am not to be blamed, I am not to be blamed, I am not to be blamed. (don't remember who told me that if you repeat something 3 times in a row then it becomes a truth. Not sure if this is true :p)
Let's start with what I can remember..
July 8, 2007 (Sunday)
I went to the bookstore area which Sophie brought me to last week. It was good walking in those bookstores as you can never have such big ones in HK. All of them consist of like 3~5 floors. However, 99% of the book are Chinese. Not that I don't like to read Chinese but I am looking for books that discuss data analysis, and I wouldn't be able to crack subject like this in Chinese. So I ended up not getting anything on that.
Fortunately, I have decided to improve my Mandarin and I am starting from the fundamental. So went into the "school kid" section and bought 3 books which are designed for primary 1 students to learn PinYin. Not bad. :p
At night I saw Jay and Ying again. :D They are one of my best friends when I was working in Nortel Networks at Ottawa as an intern student. The gathering reminds me of so much priceless memory. I still remember my lovely apartment there, in which I could oversee the Ottawa river. I got my first job, bought my first car, learned driving manual, broke up with girl friend, started Tae Kwon Do, founded Nortel Squash Club with Martin ;) , learned skiing (I think it was in Ottawa?), first time skated on real ice, met Bing, Karen and An and so much more. It was really nice getting to see Jay and Ying in Beijing again after so many years. They treated me "Lamb hotpot" which I have always wanted to try. So tasty.. :D
July 9~12, 2007
Nothing much happening. There is not much progress in my project so I am starting to think of things from different directions. I went to a bar called D22 with Marshall and some other Googlers from US for their ambassador programs. It was funny that they show a movie in the bar. (Lolita) Good movie but my first time watching a movie in a bar. :p
Oh I also tried out the massage in Google :p It was pretty good consider that you can just take 30 mins off from work and relax a bit. ;)
July 13, 2007
Google rented out a cinema for the Googlers to see the moive "Transformer" It was OK but not as good as I expected. I think the computer animation is quite impressive; however, I could only see bunch of robots fighting one another and I couldn't really tell who are the bad guys and who are the good ones. However, there are quite a few good jokes in the movie. So, 7 out of 10 la.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Latino Club
July 03 - 06, 2007
Dear Bloggy,
Nothing much to update. Work is going OK but there is not too much progress these days. July 4 is the US national day which makes it hard to get hold of people to get data and to request for information.
Went to 拉提诺拉丁风情酒吧 yesterday for a night of Salsa dancing. It is at 东城区东四十条 and I believe it is sort of like the Central of Beijing. There are quite a few skyscrapers there which remind of Central. The club is better than "Club 42" which we went last time and I think the people dancing there are also better. I really need to learn a few more moves as it is getting boring for just doing the same 6~7 moves over and over again. :p Too bad 鸵鸟老师 is not teaching new moves so I guess we really need to push a bit. We left at around 11pm but the subway line has already closed, so we had to take a taxi to go uptown.
Oh and finally I have my internet connection up and running at my apartment. =D I can not access my blog there though as Blogger is blocked in China. But MSN works.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Keep eating
July 02, 2007
Dear Bloggy,
I did a status update to my manager on my project. He is happy with the progress and likes what he see. :D Hope I can keep it up and that he will be happy with my work till the end of my internship. ;)
I also tried out a 湘 (湖南) cuisine restaurant close to the office and it tastes sooooo good! :D Now I have set myself another goal that I have to try out all the "big 8" Chinese cuisines while in Beijing. :D
Dear Bloggy,
I did a status update to my manager on my project. He is happy with the progress and likes what he see. :D Hope I can keep it up and that he will be happy with my work till the end of my internship. ;)
I also tried out a 湘 (湖南) cuisine restaurant close to the office and it tastes sooooo good! :D Now I have set myself another goal that I have to try out all the "big 8" Chinese cuisines while in Beijing. :D
Monday, July 2, 2007
回歸祖國十周年 : 香港同胞游香山
July 01, 2007
Dear Bloggy,
It is a beautiful day! :D (except it is a bit too hot..) Sophie, Marshall, Antony and I went to 香山 park which is about 30 mins drive from the Google office. It is famous for its autumn leaves when they turn red in fall and also for its historical heritage (it has been developed as early as 1186 although later has been burned down by the British/French army and rebuild since 1956) It only took us a little more than 1 hr to get to the top but it wasn't an easy climb at all. The last few hundreds meters were all steep steps and we had to take a few breaks before getting to the top. But all are worth it as there is great scenery up there. :) There are also a little "tea restaurant" where we had a nice water melon (taste especially sweet after the climb!). I also tried to ask for a discount as today is 香港回歸祖國十周年 and being a 香港同胞 I was hoping that I have some kind of privilege. I got a stern look from the lady there and a resounding NO. :p
After visiting the 香山 park we headed to 颐和園. We went to a restaurant famous for its North-Western style food (and according to its brochure every year they spend 2% of its revenue on R&D. That's less than IBM but apparently more than many Fortune 500s) To my pleasant surprise now I could eat lamb and actually enjoy it! But that only limits to the "northern" lamb as they don't have that kind of "So" taste as there is on the southern side. Food is real good there :).... 颐和園 is a huge place and there is a lake just beside it. We rent a boat for water paddling and went under the "17 holes bridge" It is a nice place so I guess being a Chinese emperor isn't too bad afterall, except that your life is under constant threat.
Sophie also brought us to a huge bookstore. I dare not call myself a book-lover but I do like reading a lot. I bought a Mandarin pin-yin book there (5 bucks. I am practical enough to get a free membership card which entitles me to a 20% discount, so it cost only 4 bucks. Who says life isn't great!?) and hopefully with the help of Sophie and HaiLei I could really improve my Mandarin pronunciation. :D We had Japanese noodle for dinner but we didn't get to spend too much time in that area. But I like that area a lot so next week I'll go there again and spend some more time exploring the bookstores. ;)
Time flies! I came to visit Beijing and other China cities exactly 10 years ago. Today is the 10th years anniversary and things have changed so much. Sooner or later we will be no more, but the cities shall remain. And with God's Grace people living in those cities shall have even more joy, love and blessings than we have today. Most important of all let the people be thankful!
"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad"
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