Boxes from China

Today my mom emailed me and said she received the two boxes of gifts, souvenirs, and other junk that "Bill" Chen Xi and Pan Ke helped me ship back to the US on July 26. I'm glad it made it OK. I haven't seen the condition of the box yet (she said there was a small hole in it), but I am excited that the box is there. Actually, I forgot what I put inside those boxes. I guess I'll find out when I get home for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of shipping boxes to America...In late March, my mom mailed me a package with a gift for my friend Feng Fan, as she is now going to graduate school in Europe. However, I received confirmation that someone else "intercepted" this package and shipped it back to the USA on Monday, April 10. I took photos on my digital camera and the lady in the post office positively identified the culprit. See, too and friends. The gift has not been seen since. :( Sorry, Feng Fan. I admit I have made many mistakes in my life, but revenge belongs to God - not to us. Although I have forgiven the culprit, it was, unfortunately, a bad reflection on this person's character and a terrible witness to students. Just ask Bill what he thinks about it!

It's been 5 years!

Hard to believe that today is the five year anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11/2001. Time really flies. Unfortunately for Bush, he's still chasing Osama. The headlines here in New York are all about the fact that five years later the ground zero/former world trade center site is still barren and construction on the new Freedom Tower which is to replace the WTC has not begun.

The Onion wrote a parody about the 9/11 Memorial Hole here in New York. Speaking of The Onion, another funny story in the paper this week is about a Summer Intern Already Forgotten! By the way, until I get Internet access through Verizon DSL at my home, I am using it at NYU. I'm glad it is free but it is very inconvenient!

Phone Tease

Well, I flew back to New York on Tuesday. And I was able to get from LaGuardia to my apartment for $2. Not bad, huh? Especially when you consider that I had 4 extremely large and heavy bags, with a combined weight of about 170 lbs (77 kg)! It was exhausting. After leaving LaGuardia, I took the M60 bus to the Columbus Square subway stop. I was a little nervous that I would stay on the bus and miss the stop for the subway because I had not done this before. Well, after a while the bus stopped and I saw the subway so I got off the bus. After pulling all 77 kgs of bags off the bus and the doors shut, I realized I had gotten off two blocks too soon. Ordinarily that would not be a big deal, but it is difficult to pack your body weight in luggage down the street and up 2 flights of stairs to get onto the subway. Actually, after i got through the turnstyles for the subway, a woman helped carry one of my bags up a few stairs. I then took the N/W line to 57th Street in Manhattan where I caught a Q train to my apartment. The transfer at 57th is great! The soutbound N/W runds down one side of the platform and the southound Q runs down the other. That was convenient. At my stop 2 boys helped me carry 2 of the bags down the stairs to the street. I was really happy my apartment was as close to the subway stop as it is!

I ordered phone and Internet service from Verizon on August 26 and so I expected when I arrived in my apartment on 9/5 that there would be phone service. Ha ha! Today I still have no service. I spent the last three days trying to figure out how to get service turned on. Anyway, last night my mom sent me an email saying that she called my phone and it rang. However, this was just Verizon teasing me. I rushed home to find that the phone does not work. Since I will get DSL Internet service (which works over the phone line) from Verizon too, I am completely cut off in my little Brooklyn basement. No phone, no Internet, and no friends in New York. I am going to call Verizon today and see what's going on.

American Airports

Reed Jarrar, an architect of Iraqi descent, was forced to remove a T-shirt that bore the words "We will not be silent" before boarding a flight to California at New York's JFK airport on August 12. Mr Jarrar said he was shocked such an action could be taken in the US. US transport officials are conducting an inquiry after a complaint from the US Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

How much is too much? Should the government force someone to take off a T-shirt before the fly on a plane? Or is this action acceptable because it is makes other passengers at ease?

Back from the Big Apple

My parents and I flew back to Kentucky today. My mom has put some of her New York photos online. Here is a photo looking towards the Brooklyn Bridge (Statue of Liberty is in the far distance) and one of us at Yankee Stadium:

The Onion

I knew that The Onion is an online satirical newspaper that leans a little bit to the left politically. What I didn't know is that there are newspaper stands all over New York City distributing the paper for free. The current paper has a headline poking fun at President Bush. I generally find the paper funny, even if I don't always agree with the political points it makes.

Boot Camp at NYU

Classes don't start until next week. So why am I at NYU now? Well, I'm attending an optional, free, "math boot camp" to review calculus, differentiation, integration, linear algebra, etc. The boot camp is meets 5 hours per day for 3 days. The two teachers leading the boot camp will be the two teachers who teach the two different sections of "Math for Economists" this fall. I thought one of the professors did a better job at explaining and was more logical in thought. After attending class today, I came home and switched sections!

This is Warren Weaver Hall, where the math boot camp is being held. Once the semester begins, however, I will not have any classes in this building.

This is the giant arch in Washington Square Park on NYU's campus.

In a basement surrounded by Jews

After being back in the US for just six days, I found a new apartment. This is quite a feat, as I've been told it is really difficult to find descent safe apartments for an affordable price. For example, apartments in Manhattan cost $1500 for some studios and recently I saw an advertisement at NYU for a 3-bedroom apartment for $3500 per month! My new apartment (rented on August 25th for $720 per month) is located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Midwood, where most residents are orthodox Jew. My studio apartment is about 300 square feet in the basement of an office building. Above me is a psychologist's office called the "Phobia Life Line" and beside me in the basement is a podiatrist's office. It's really just one big room with a kitchen on one side and a couch and desk on the other. The couch is my bed!

Kentucky Birthday at the Otolaryngologist!

This is my first birthday in Murray since, well when? Here's where I celebrated my past birthdays: 2005 (Beijing, China), 2004 (Pasadena, CA), 2003 (Kihei, HI), 2002 (New Orleans, LA), 2001 (Detroit), 2000 (Champaign), 1999 (Champaign), 1998 (Murray). Wow, it's been 8 years! That was 5 college degrees ago.

Yes, today is my birthday! How did I celebrate? I went to visit my otolaryngologist! What's that? Well, it's a doctor who deals with nose, ears, and throat. So you know I must really be old - that's what old people do - go to the doctor on their birthdays! I have been having some trouble with my nose over the past two years, and so I went to get it checked out. This past summer I did visit the Tian He hospital in Tianjin regarding this, and they took a Catscan and had me come for treatment on three consecutive days. I took my catscan with me and the doctor told me I have a really bad sinus condition which will probably require SURGERY. Thanks, happy birthday to you too.

Tomorrow, my parents and I will fly up to New York. I need to find an apartment and get ready for life at NYU. I don't really have time for surgery!

Via Kyoto & Colorado Springs

Well, I'm back in America. After 55 hours of travel and 5 flights (Beijing-Osaka-Los Angeles-Colorado Springs-Denver-Nashville), I finally made it back to Kentucky!

I left Tianjin around 10am on Friday morning to go to the Beijing airport. Fortunately, I was accompanied by 4 wonderful friends of mine. After an emotional goodbye, I checked 2 very large bags each weighing exactly 30 kgs (66 lbs), and continue on with my 2 carryons (one of which weighed 35 kgs (77 lbs)! I then boarded a short international flight to Osaka, where Japan Airlines put me up in a hotel for free because there were no connecting flights leaving until the next day. This was no accident - I intentionally purchased my tickets in this manner to take advantage of a free hotel and a free trip to Japan. This was the first time in Japan, making it the 46th country I've been to. The closest I came before was when I changed planes in the Tokyo-Narita airport in 1998 after my first transoceanic flight. While in Japan, I only had time to see part of Osaka and Kyoto, of Kyoto Protocol fame. On Saturday evening, I continued on to Los Angeles, arriving on Saturday afternoon due to the Interntaional Date Line. This was only my 2nd time to fly across the Pacific in a eastward direction. (I've flown in a westward direction 4 times.)

At LAX, I had to grab my bags and go through customs and then recheck them. I then boarded my flight for Denver. The captain told us we would arrive in Denver early. Great! However, due to a serious thunderstorm in Denver, we just circled over central Colorado waiting for it to go away. After circling for some time, the pilot announced that we would run out of gas soon so we were forced to be diverted to Colorado Springs. Of course, by now I'd missed my connection in Denver to Nashville unless it was delayed because of the storm. Fortunately for me, the Nashville flight was delayed until after midnight, which mmade it about 4 hours late! I arrived in Nashville at 2am, where a different (and much older) set of 4 friends met me. We didn't get back to Murray until 4.

What travel! It hasn't sunk in yet, but my life is really going to be different now that I'm no longer living in China!