Tom's Journey

晚上去王府井了，路过了一个大教堂，人头攒动，以照片为证。

另外东方广场里的店里，也是圣诞气氛极浓。连“一品小笼”的员工都是带着这样的帽子在包包子。

几星期前就在车上看到了这则广告，惊诧于那个左下角的签名，苦于无相机，一直没法与大家分享，现在终于拍到了。

唉，挺漂亮的姑娘，怎么起了这么个名字呢，起了这名字也就算了，怎么写这么一首字儿呢？写这笔字儿也就算了，怎么还到处鲜卑呢？鲜卑也就算了，怎么还收钱呢？

Just days before flying to China for my long-waited China job, I found myself in a familiar and yet strange place, "GRR - Grand Rapids Gerald Ford Airport".

Due to the strong thunderstorm condition in Chicago, my 6:26pm UA flight to Chicago last night was delayed by 1 hour at the time I decided to resurrect my trip home. After rebooking to a Northwest flight at 7:54pm. Around 6:50pm, lightning started to strike Grand Rapids, along with strong storms, all the flights were put on hold again, the Northwest flight coming in from Chicago was stuck at Saginaw, which is 138 miles from GRR, for refueling, which basically means it's not going to make it. Not only that, there wouldn't be any flight from any company could fly out of Grand Rapids that night.

Now, after staying at Crowne Plaza for a pleasant night, I am praying at Grand Rapids airport again, hoping there is a way to get me back to San Francisco home today. So far... it doesn't look so bright, my 9:05am flight has been rescheduled to 11am, the reason? the pilot needs more sleep (over this 50-minute flight), according to Government rule.

So, at 8:45am, I am still hoping the 'forecasted' 'scattered strong storm' could come in later, after our 11am flight could take off successfully. I guess the only thing that's comforting is I can have wireless access to the internet, and still be able to finish this blog.

I was sitting in my Grand Rapids hotel, surfing the new Beijing E-Government website, and then jumped to my friend Jeff's company "That's Beijing" magazine, and out of curiousity, checking some of the Chinese tutoring job postings, and all of sudden, I noticed that there are some Google Ads on the side. Normally, it would not even catch my eyes, I have almost trained myself not to click, not to even look at online ads, but this time, what I saw was: "Grand Rapids Tutoring", showing up tutoring ads is not fancy at all, Google is well known for providing 'relevant' ads, but this is the first time I have seen ads based on geographical location of the computer.

Kudos, Google!

一个晚上恶心得要吐，几乎一夜没睡，就像我也怀孕了一样。

上了一天班，该计划这一天里最令人兴奋的时间了，看样子'大快'市里除了'正宗地道'的美式烧烤，就是到处都能吃到的美式快餐了，跟同事打听了一下晚上可以去那里吃饭，Dustin问了问我不吃什么，然后建议了一家叫San Chez的Tapas，说我应该会喜欢。

打了地图，充满期望的过去了，进去之后，不知道是整个城市都不怎么去餐馆儿，还是因为一点儿雨把大家的兴致打没了，San Chez里并没有很多人，我一个人臊么沓地往那儿一站，也没什么人搭理我，大概是看我一个人，以为我在等人呢吧，最后终于有个Waitress领我坐到了吧台上，和小伙子打了个招呼，就坐了下来。知道他叫Thuong，越南人。

由于我也不知道Tapas是什么，祷告以后就把当晚的菜全权交给了Thuong，没想到他点的两个都非常好吃，一个是Alcachofasa la San Chez, | Sautéed marinated artichokes, garlic, green onion, Madeira & habañero tomato sauce, 另一个是Gambas al Ajillo | Sautéed shrimp, extra
virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, spicy red pepper flakes and parsley，吃得我很高兴，就有点了一个，Thuong居然说要给我一个惊喜，我居然说'好'，结果上了一个Atún en Escabeche | Herbed seared raw tuna*, marinated carrot & leek ribbons, spicy mango purée & scallion oil.

35分钟的飞程竟然让我们等了快一个小时，理由是一些从多伦多来的行李没有来，想必他们也知道这个点儿上没有什么人有要紧的公务吧，再说了，谁能去'大快'有什么要紧的公务呢？

坐在飞机上显得无聊，把这个小得够呛的飞机研究了一下，原来是叫个什么Canadian Regional Jet, 简称CRJ 700，等到了旅馆才知道，和当天在肯塔基坠机的那是一个牌子的，想想，咱命还是够大的！

从明天开始，我要在Grand Rapids做几个星期的咨询工作，从来没有来过密西根州，更甭说这个Grand Rapids了。到底这个'大快'市是个什么样的地方呢？

从SFO到Chicago的航班就有点儿奇怪，10：45的飞机，居然没有午餐，上了飞机照例塞上耳塞，没想到，一个盹儿打下来，醒来的时候已经进12点了，没看见空服员收餐盒儿，想必还没送饭，可直等到1点半，终于忍不住了，等空姐儿送水的时候，故作没事儿似地问道："这班飞机没有午餐吗?",小姐(其实是老姐)笑着说:没有午餐，可以订餐盒，可是时间已经过了"，这是我在美国国内第一次这么长的班机没有送饭的，难道这么多人都知道吗？都饿着？不可思议。

拿了个第8排的座位，Seating 1! 开始还以为怎么的呢？等登机的时候，看着外面的小飞机，真的有点儿不可思议到底有多小。

一会儿，地服员开始郑重其事地广播了："本次班机将正点于5：50分起飞，7：52分到达，我们今天的飞机将是满员，请Standby的旅客谅解。"，我正算着，128英里的距离，不可能飞两个小时，难道是这就跨了一个时区了？

转眼间，地服员继续广播着："头等舱的旅客现在请登机"，啊？头等舱？别逗我了吧？大家也一定和我有同样的感想，我看大家都在左顾右盼，大概都想看看谁这么有钱没处花，这么短一段还要做头等。这时一位中年男子慢慢悠悠地起身，面无表情地走了过去，脸上写着"我知道你们怎么想的！"，地服员检完了他，马上接着广播："现在请Seating 1的旅客登机"，好么，就一位头等舱！就轮到我了，我也故作与头等那位一样表情地走了过去，地服员几乎看也没看我，估计时间太多了，还没等我把登机牌而从机器里取出来，就接着播到"现在请Seating 2的旅客登机"，原来如此呀！恒不能这飞机就一个人做头等，一个人Seating 1吧？

第一次有这样的经历，前面没人挡着呀，几步就到了飞机门口，几乎吓了我一跳，刚走到机舱门口，只见前面没两步的地方，飞机的那一面的门也开着，让你觉得不小心就会一步迈出去了。再扭头看了看飞机里面，也就座个三五十人吧？就要坐这班飞机去'大快'了！

I was sitting in my office, and the house shook for about 1/2 a second, I ran downstairs, XY says she noticed that too. It's always like that, when you realized what has happened, it's usually too late.

This reminds of a statement one made when comparing California Real Estate to that of Florida: "Yeah, there are earthquakes in California, but we don't have earthquake season".

PS. through this, I found that you can do these two things:

1. Find out more information about this earthquake at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40187964.htm
2. report 'what you feel' to U.S. Geological Survey http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/STORE/X40187964/ciim_display.html

上周末，和两家朋友说好一起去Folsom Lake去游泳，我极力推荐他们把自行车带上，到那儿去骑车，大家都很兴奋，一下子借了3辆大人的自行车，2辆小孩儿的自行车。

可接下来问题来了，怎么把5个大人，5个小孩儿，5辆自行车挤进两辆厢型车呢？

我们在第一辆车上安排了H一家两个大人和两个小孩儿，最后一排座椅翻起来，放自行车和其他露营的东西，想折叠椅，风筝，食物等等。

好在两辆大人的车有Quick Release，按车的大小排序， 把两辆大人的车的前轮摘掉，一次放进2、3号大人车，和小孩的车。刚好，还能放不少物件。

我的自行车最大，后面一排不够宽，怎么办？哈哈，同样的道理，卸下前轮以后，居然刚好可以挤进第二排，小朋友们的脚也刚好有地方放。