Relax, it's Only a Hurricane

Hi Readers,

Every year I take 2 weeks off from work to go back and visit my parents and my sister, who all live in Taiwan right now. I am currently in day 2 of my annual family vacation. We choose someplace different to go together every year, and this year it's the island of Hokkaido, in Japan. This is supposed to be a wondrous place, full of wildlife, nature, scenery, and good food. The only catch? We happened to book our flight for one of the weeks when there was a typhoon (Asian hurricane) hanging out over the entire Hokkaido area. It has rained nonstop for the entire time that we've been here, which is a good (opposite?) change from the eternal sunshine that we get in California.

I guess that we are lucky in the sense that the typhoons typically don't pack much punch in terms of wind. Generally speaking, the rain causes all the damages. Because of that, our tour group is continuing the tour through Hokkaido, through all the torrential rain. I told the tour guide that this is a refreshing change from the nonstop sunshine that we get in SF, but I kinda lied... It's only the second day, and I'm already tired of it. Despite so many people trying to convince me that I would tire of the eternal sunshine in California, it's already been 2 years and I'm not even close to being tired of it yet.

The island of Hokkaido is not at all what one would imagine when thinking about Japan. It's probably what the main island of Japan would have looked like 100 years ago. There's so much wilderness here, it could easily pass for rural Colorado or something, except cars drive on the left side of the road. But because it is so wild, there's a lot of down time everyday on the bus as we drive all around the island. Right now, all the people on the entire bus (as far as I can see) are passed out. I'm taking advantage of this time to write this quick blog post. This reminds me of the long bus rides that we took in Africa, when I would also blog the entire ride too. Traveling can be such a cathartic experience (is that the right word?)

So far, I am having lots of fun with the family. It's been so long since I've seen them, and everything is going well so far. I'm hoping the rest of the trip will be the same way. Though, maybe a little less rain.

Cheers,
FCDH

Journeying through Time

Hi Readers,

As one of my friends had his wedding this week in Chicago (congrats to SF and RZ!), I decided to take the entire week off to catch up with friends in the Chicago area. I flew into Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to meet up with one of my best friends, SB. We planned on taking a roadtrip through South Dakota and western Nebraska, before driving back to Chicago for the wedding. We saw a bunch of national parks and monuments and did cool things, including the minuteman missile silos, Mt. Rushmore, caving in the Black Hills, driving through herds of buffalo in Custer state park, and hiking at Scottsbluff. After I returned to Chicago, I attended the wedding with another one of my best friends, LB. We proceeded to hang out for the rest of the weekend. I am writing this post from the flight back to SF right now.

Hanging out with these friends, it is hard to believe that 2 years have already passed since I graduated from undergrad. It seems almost as if nothing has changed, and that I am in undergrad again. Time seems to be accelerating. Already, half of my twenties are gone. SB is moving to Canada, and LB may soon become engaged. As much as I would like to think that time is static and that I can continue doing what I've been doing, the reality is that I'm getting old and cannot keep doing this for much longer.

With every year that passes, time becomes more and more valuable. People say that the twenties are the golden years, a time to take risks, have fun, and be reckless. The twenties are the time when people are the most flexible with their life options. That should make it the golden time to try new things. Some people think the only thing worth trying out in the twenties are different people, but that is only one aspect of life. But it is easy to get stuck in a groove of doing the same things day in and day out. And then, before you know it, the thirties arrive, along with a whole new wave of expectations.

My biggest fear is to live life with regrets. When I reach thirty, I want to be able to look back and see that I lived it to the fullest. To do this, I must continue to learn how to use my biggest fear to overcome my other fears. Please, let me have the strength and foresight to do so.

FCDH

Mombasa and the Hobbit

Hi Readers,

I have spent the past 4 days here in Mombasa. It was certainly the laziest and most relaxing 4 days that I've spent here in Africa. There's not much to do in Mombasa other than just to chill on the beach, so that's what I did. And then when the vendors got annoying, I chilled at the pool instead.

We did go snorkeling one of the days, and it was really fun! It was my first time, so it was slightly challenging to adapt to the air tube and the fact that you can't breathe from your nose. We saw lots of starfish, sea urchins, fish, and coral.

We also took a tuk-tuk, which is the name of the motorbike taxi ubiquitous to Mombasa, to the movie theater to watch The Hobbit in 3D. The movie was pretty good, but I did remark to GS that the entire Hobbit storyline is a parody of the quintessential modern startup dream; the only difference is that it's set in Middle Earth.

You are approached by a group of strangers, who pitch a fantastic-sounding  proposal fraught with risks and dangers. They promise you a cut of the payout at the end of the journey, if you will only drop whatever you are doing and join them. In the group, there's a genius whiz, and a guy who always believe you aren't pulling your weight. Some people are in for the riches, and others are in for the idea itself. You quickly rid yourself of unnecessary luxuries (such as free time), and along the way you prove yourself to the team.

After watching a movie, usually I think, "gee I wish I was that movie character." Funnily enough, in the case of the Hobbit, it's actually possible!

Off to safari!

Cheers,
FCDH

Mombasa and the Hobbit

Hi Readers,

I have spent the past 4 days here in Mombasa. It was certainly the laziest and most relaxing 4 days that I've spent here in Africa. There's not much to do in Mombasa other than just to chill on the beach, so that's what I did. And then when the vendors got annoying, I chilled at the pool instead.

We did go snorkeling one of the days, and it was really fun! It was my first time, so it was slightly challenging to adapt to the air tube and the fact that you can't breathe from your nose. We saw lots of starfish, sea urchins, fish, and coral.

We also took a tuk-tuk, which is the name of the motorbike taxi ubiquitous to Mombasa, to the movie theater to watch The Hobbit in 3D. The movie was pretty good, but I did remark to GS that the entire Hobbit storyline is a parody of the quintessential modern startup dream; the only difference is that it's set in Middle Earth.

You are approached by a group of strangers, who pitch a fantastic-sounding  proposal fraught with risks and dangers. They promise you a cut of the payout at the end of the journey, if you will only drop whatever you are doing and join them. In the group, there's a genius whiz, and a guy who always believe you aren't pulling your weight. Some people are in for the riches, and others are in for the idea itself. You quickly rid yourself of unnecessary luxuries (such as free time), and along the way you prove yourself to the team.

After watching a movie, usually I think, "gee I wish I was that movie character." Funnily enough, in the case of the Hobbit, it's actually possible!

Off to safari!

Cheers,
FCDH

Walking the Knife Edge

Hi Readers,

Today I read a BBC news story. Just 2 weeks after we came back safely from Kilimanjaro, an Irish climber was killed by lightning on the exact same path that we took. This is an experienced climber who has done Mt. Everest before, yet his experience couldn't protect him from an unpredictable danger. It is an ever present reminder of the fragility of life, especially balanced on the knife edge between excitement and prudence.

I consider myself supremely lucky to have survived all that I have tried in life without any serious physical injuries. I have learned to silence that nagging voice in the back of my head when I'm planning something, because I know that if I really think it over, I will most likely not follow through with the plan. However, oftentimes, I fully realize the dangerous situation that I put myself into when I'm actually there and doing it. Kilimanjaro was an example, but perhaps the worst example in recent memory is actually Pico de Orizaba, in Mexico. We had no guide there, no support, and little experience. Something really bad could've happened to us there.

I have felt uncomfortable with traveling with GS sometimes, because we tend to be over confident in our abilities, and underestimate the dangers that may be present. In order to 'live the life', I've often had to silence my common sense and instinctive reaction to a suggestion. I am normally a very pragmatic person, prone to overthinking things (my parents says it is a family trait). This new way of approaching opportunities had led me to explore spontaneity, and opened more of the world to me than I ever thought I would see. But I must always remember to keep a reserve force of caution in order to truly evaluate the choices that are in front of me.

When I tell people this, they often resort to the "well people can die from anything at anytime" argument. While true, the situational risk is not an insignificant part of it. Though one could probably be struck my lightning at anytime anywhere, walking through thick rain clouds on Kilimanjaro probably increases the risk by quite a bit. My parents have always been worriers, so slowly I've had to start hiding the full story from them. But I can definitely feel myself growing reckless in the past year. Booking spontaneous trips to foreign countries, attempting to summit mountains without proper knowledge of the routes or obstacles which might lie ahead for us, are both not smart decisions.

I need to be more careful of what I take on. I can't let my parent's contributions and sacrifices for me go to waste. I can't lose my future just for some adrenaline rush. 

Off to the safari tomorrow! Can't believe I'm returning to the states in a week. Freaking unbelievable.

Cheers,
FCDH

Emotional Souvenirs

Hi Readers,

I will start off by saying that I love to travel. Whenever I am trapped in an environment for a long time, I just want to leave and find a new place to be, people to meet, and things to discover. But I often find this a dangerous game to play for one's long term mental well being. Let me explain.

People always think other people live better lives than they themselves do. I do all the time as well. Usually when I feel this, it is a feeling which quickly passes, because everyone around me had the same value system as I do. When that is the case, it is easy to reason out why I am living life the way I do.

But when you are traveling, this assumption of equal value system gets thrown out the door. You meet people who have been traveling for years non-stop; people who have given up on jobs, families, or even the idea of a home; people who I would normally call 'directionless in life'. But these people are happy, and they are really living the life. Especially as a person who espouses the desire to experience new experiences, I can't really fault their point of view. In fact, it is during times like this that I begin to wonder if maybe one day I will end up like them.

I met a person the other day in Nairobi called WH. He had quit his job a year ago and traveled around the world non stop for a year and a half now. He let me read some of his journals, and I was shocked and fascinated to find that we both believe in pretty much the same beliefs when it comes to experiences. He believed that, when it comes down to it, we must take action of our own life instead of just talking about it, which I wholeheartedly agree with. To hear about his experiences around the world was amazing. He even spent time in Taiwan!

After he and his friend left to go climb the 3 big mountains of East Africa, I sat there at the hostel in a semi stupor, just thinking about my own life and where it is heading. Nobody has definitive answers to these types of questions, but traveling tends to clear up my mind as well as confuse me even more at the same time. It is quite a paradox. As he said to me, when you are traveling,  you tend to hit bigger highs, but you also crash into deeper lows too. Along with the physical souvenirs that you buy, you also collect emotional souvenirs as you go.

If life is a roller coaster, then traveling is like an amusement park full of roller coasters (maybe Cedar Point or Six Flags?). During this journey, I have often felt like I am living someone else's life. It really makes you question all that you have taken for granted or dismissed about life. But that is perhaps the most significant and lasting impact that can result from travels. Which is why I will continue to travel for the rest of my life.

Cheers,
FCDH

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Hi Readers,

Today (December 27, 2012) marks the successful ascent of Uhuru peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro by my friend GS and I. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, at around 5950m, and located in northern Tanzania.

We first took a bus from Nairobi to Moshi, where many trips to Kilimanjaro depart. On the way, I saw a wild giraffe munching on a tree! GS didn't believe me, but I think he's just jealous. The land border crossing between Kenya and Tanzania was very interesting. The bus first stopped on the Kenyan side, where you lined up to get your passport stamped by Kenya. Then you walk across the border to the Tanzanian side, where you line up to get your passport stamped again, before getting back on the bus. The border looked so porous that I think you could've just walked across without a passport if you wanted. Certainly nothing like the land border between Canada and the US that I had seen before.

Kilimanjaro requires that you hire a guide and maybe porters as well. These aren't cheap; any type of trip up Kilimanjaro is at least a thousand dollars per person. We booked our trip quite cheaply, with a company called Mar tours. The team turned out to be a guide, an assistant guide, a cook, and 6 porters...just to serve the two of us. If there was ever a thing called luxurious mountain climbing, Kilimanjaro would be where you would find it.

As there are many number of routes that climbers can take to ascend Kilimanjaro, we decided to take one of the longest routes, called the Lemosho route, over 7 days. As the longest route had the most amount of time for acclimatization to the tremendous altitude, we figured this would give the highest possibility of a successful summit. As a challenging addition, we decided to take the most difficult and dangerous route for summit day, called the Western Breach route. This route is infamous for a rockfall that killed three American climbers in 2006.

Long story short, the first five days were not very eventful. It involved us traveling from camp to camp, all the while moving higher and higher in elevation. Each day we were served three meals in a mess tent, and an afternoon tea as well. The meals were the best things about the trip. I definitely didn't get tired of the food this time, unlike Pico de Orizaba, when I was ready to throw up the protein bars after 2 days.

By the end of the fifth day, we were at a campsite called Arrow Glacier campsite, at around 4600m. It was directly next to the steep slope that made up the Western Breach, and during that day we had the pleasure/horror of hearing endless rockfalls echoing across the slope. I thought for sure that we were going to die from one of these when it was our turn to go on the slope.

For the final summit climb today, we woke up at 1am and were ready to go by 2am. As we began going up the slope, GS and I both agreed that this is probably the most dangerous climb that we've ever done. The slope was very steep and covered in snow, and everybody lacked crampons (since somehow every guidebook says Kili does not need them). Worse, one of the guides even lacked a hiking pole, so eventually when the going got tough enough, I had to lend him one of mine. The guides also lost the trail numerous times, so we had to scramble over ice-covered boulders right next to hundred-foot cliffs to get back on trail. I was surprisingly calm, despite the fact that a small slip anywhere in the first 2 hours would mean serious injury at the minimum.

I was undeniably relieved when we finally crested the crater rim. Another exhausting zigzag up the crater walls and soon we were taking the obligatory summit pictures (along with hordes of tourists that had come up the easier way). I had brought along 3 flags to pose with: Canada, Taiwan, and the LGBT rainbow flag. I heard audible gasps from the assembled crowd when I pulled out the rainbow flag and posed with it, although I'm not sure of the reason why.

We were supposed to spend an additional day on the mountain after attaining summit. However, because we made such good time down the mountain, and also because the weather was crap (it had rained every single day we we on the mountain), the guides encouraged us to make it all the way to the park gates so we can spend the night in real beds. What followed was a 6 hour non-stop sprint down the mountain from the peak.My legs are currently hurting more than they did after the marathon. But it's all over and we survived!

Tomorrow we are returning to Nairobi. So ends our brief mountainous tryst in Tanzania!

-FCDH

First Impressions of Africa

Hi Readers,

It is currently 3:30 am local time, and I just settled down into my hotel bed in Nairobi, Kenya. The past 40 something hours have been a whirlwind of flights, and airport terminals.  I started the journey in San Jose, and passed through LA, Frankfurt, and Addis Ababa (AA) before finally arriving in Kenya. The most interesting part of the trip so far must be the 17 hr layover that we had in Ethiopia.

We arrived to the AA airport at 6am, and since our next flight wasn't until 11pm, we decided to go out into the city to explore. Ethiopian Airlines graciously provided us with a transit stay at their hotel in downtown AA. We pretty much hit 4 birds with one stone: all 3 meals for the day were free, we didn't have to pay for the transit visa, we got a free bus ride to and from the airport, and we got a free hotel room where we napped off some jet lag.

After some napping, we went out to the Merkato marketplace in AA, which is the largest open air market in Africa. We were accosted by a guide masquerading as a friendly student eager to practice his English, who took us to the market and showed us around.

My impression of my first afternoon in Africa was mixed.  On the one hand, the smells everywhere in the city were quite horrible. Vehicles spewed jet black smoke, and the smell hanging in the air was always a mix of smoke and garbage. The people looked at me weirdly, and I heard a lot of "China!" and "ni hao ma" everywhere I went. Some kids even broke into Gangnam style as I passed them. On the bright side, the city felt very organically vibrant. The market sold a wide variety of things. People were selling animals like donkeys and chickens, furniture, construction materials like steel rods, and more traditional stuff like food and clothing.

The stay in Ethiopia was interesting but quite exhausting. By the time we finally arrived at the Nairobi airport, I was ready to drop and sleep anywhere I could. Surprisingly, the process of obtaining a Kenyan visa upon arrival was very easy and quite straightforward. We also managed to find our luggage successfully (a miracle in my mind, given that we had 3 layovers over 40 hours and that our bag had somehow arrived to Kenya on an earlier flight than us).

I can't help but be thankful that everything had worked out so well!

Cheers,
FCDH

Pico de Orizaba

Hi Readers,

During Thanksgiving break, I went on a trip to Mexico with my friend GS, with the primary focus being a summit of Pico de Orizaba (5,636 m / 18,491 ft), a volcanic mountain which is the 3rd tallest mountain in North America (after Denali / Mt. McKinley in Alaska, and Mt. Logan in Canada). Here is the full story of the journey to and from the mountain, in case it is helpful for those who will go.

From Mexico City, we first took the metro to the San Lazaro station, and walked to the TAPO bus station right next door. From there, we took the Estrella Roja bus to Puebla city's CAPU bus station, before transferring to a Valles bus to Tlachichuca.

Once in Tlachichuca, it took us awhile to find Senor Reyes place because we took the wrong exit out of the bus station and apparently nobody in town knew where the PEMEX gas station was. Make sure to exit the bus station by going through the building it is stopped at (and not out the road it drove in on), turn left out the front door, make a left at the first street you come to, and make a right at the first street after that. Senor Reyes place will be on the left hand of this street. We found Senor Reyes place too cold at night, so be sure you wear layers or just sleep in a sleeping bag.

The next morning we woke up early to prepare for the trip. You can put your valuables that you don't want to take in a plastic bag and give it to Senor Reyes for safekeeping ; non-valuables can be put in the luggage storage area. The ride up the mountain is done in an enclosed flatbed truck, which leaves at around 11am. It is easy to get carsick in this truck, so make sure you prep for that if that is a problem. Halfway up the mountain the truck will stop for pictures and bathroom break. Around 1pm the truck will arrive at Piedra Grande.

We felt good enough to hike up to the lower alpine camp right away and set up a camp there. Many people just stay at Piedra until summit day, but just a word of warning: the scree trail up from Piedra can be confusing even during the day. Constantly look for small flags and/or cairns (small rock piles) to guide you up the correct way. The lower alpine camp is around an hour and a half from Piedra, and the upper alpine is located a further 45 mins further, at the base of the labyrinth. We weren't really able to sleep either of the nights that we stayed at the mountain, and we didn't have Diamox so we don't know if it helps at all. Upon returning, I amused my friends with stories of hallucinations during these 2 nights without sleep.

We spent the second day around the labyrinth area to acclimatize, and the morning of the third day (2am) we did the alpine start. This was much earlier than we needed to leave at, but we wanted a relaxing climb. We wasted a lot of time at the labyrinth trying to find the correct path that required as little rock scrambling as possible after putting on crampons. In the dark it was quite hard, and by the time we reached the glacier it was about 5:30.

As naive as we are, we thought that we would be able to reach the top by sunrise. Once you start climbing, it doesn't take long to realize how long the actual climb will be. The glacier seems quite endless and the lack of oxygen becomes quite apparent very quickly. We spent close to 4 hours on the glacier before we reached the summit. On this part, you should stick to the path shown by the flags and not try to head towards the summit that you see, because this is a false summit (and there are two more false summits if you head this way).

Reaching the summit was a great feeling. We had missed the sunrise and there were a lot of clouds, but the view was still amazing. It was a cool thought, that we were probably the tallest people anywhere on the North American continent at that moment (because it is not a typical time to climb Denali or Logan). We took the descent very slowly because there was another group behind us who were supposed to return on the same ride back down. Therefore by the time we got down to Piedra it was 3 already (the other group finally arrived at 6pm). One of the guys from the other group had peed his pants on the glacier because he was so tired.

After getting back to Mexico city, we spent another 4 days there, and saw places like Teotihuacan, Coyoacan, and the Museo Anthropologia. It was quite an amazing trip overall, even though the entire sleepless time on the mountain, I was cursing myself for coming. Chalk up another awesome life experience!

-FCDH

Summer: Part 1

Hi Readers,

I'm sorry that I have neglected this blog for so long. This summer was quite busy, and I simply forgot about it until now. So here is a little post about what I've been doing all this time.

This summer, I worked at an internship at a company called Maxim Integrated. No, it's not the magazine (though it would've been cool to be a photographer for the Maxim magazine). It's actually a company that makes integrated on-chip solutions. My project at Maxim involved doing some work with video processing using the iPad video encoding format, as well as some work involving Maxim's gate drivers and various LCD panels. The work was fun and very interesting, and I learned a lot about LCD technology. I also re-learned a lot of digital design in my quest to coerce the FPGA into processing video data for me. Unfortunately my quest was not completed before I had to leave by the end of the summer, but I hope that all my work wasn't in vain.

I had an eventful summer, with all of my friends nearby, and being in California as well. I climbed the fabled Half Dome at Yosemite with one of my best friends SB, which was super fun. We started the climb at 2am, and reached the top around 9am. I was fully expecting us to have to turn around halfway up, because SB was slightly out-of-shape, sick, and hanging on to his inhaler the entire way up (asthma?). However, he pushed on relentlessly, and I was super proud of him for accomplishing the entire climb. Pictures below!

A week after climbing Half Dome, me and a few friends decided to go summit Mt. Shasta, and take a glacier training class through Shasta Mountain Guides. It was a great experience, and it was the first "real" mountain climb that I did. I did do Mt. Fuji a few years before, but that was more of just walking up a trail, while Mt. Shasta involved a lot of use of crampons and an ice axe. We drove up on a Thursday night, climbed to the base camp on Friday, did glacier and snow training on Saturday, summited to the top on Sunday (leaving base camp at 3am!), and returned from base camp home on Monday. It was extremely tiring, but so rewarding. There were some low points, of course. I experienced pretty bad altitude sickness the first day, so I was glad that we had an extra day to acclimatize to the altitude before summiting. We also ran out of water on the way down the mountain, leaving us all very dehydrated. There were very steep parts on the glacier, on which I thought that I would slip and drag us all to a lot of broken bones. However, the good parts way outweighed the bad parts. We (butt-)glissaded in all sorts of poses (head-first, foot-first, on the back, on the stomach, etc) and learned how to stop ourselves, which was super fun. I also did some boot-glissading on the way down the mountain, more because of sheer exhaustion, but also because our guide Polly encouraged me to give it a shot.

While I was climbing the mountain, I remember looking up at the summit and thinking, "omg that is so tall and so far away...how in the world are we supposed to make it to the top?" Even as we got closer and closer, the same question still lingered in my mind. It wasn't until we made it to the summit and looked about, that I realized how far up we had actually walked. It was such an uplifting moment, to realize that we had successfully summited one of the most technically difficult mountains to summit in California.

That's all for now. More to come later.

FCDH

The Cables at the top of Half Dome

Me and SB at the top of Half Dome!

Me at the top of Mt. Shasta

Epic Roadtrip: Arizona + Utah

Hi Readers,

I have not written a blog post in a long time, because...I forgot. So here's a short post about my President's Day Weekend, when I embarked on what was probably the best trip that I've had in America. This happened almost 2 months ago (and I started a blog post about it 2 months ago..) but I'm just getting around to it now.

Starting a year ago, after seeing a New York Times travel article about it, I began planning for a trip to The Wave in Arizona. To go to the Wave, one must obtain a permit, which are given out in a monthly online lottery process. 10 permits are granted per day, and in the lottery process you can choose 3 days in a month to try your luck. For an entire year, I tried my luck every month, and failed every single month. In October, I received the prized email that I had been waiting for, which gave me 4 permits for the day of February 17th, 2012. I had applied for the date blindly, and by sheer luck it turned out to be the President Day's long weekend. So excitedly, I gathered 3 other people (GA, NO, and AZ), and began planning an epic trip. And an epic trip it was.

Because my hiking permits were for Friday the 17th, that meant that we had to arrive in the area by Thursday night. Therefore, we planned on flying to Las Vegas on Thursday night, renting a car and driving to Kanab, UT, and staying the night there. Potential problems began emerging very early on. We almost missed out flight to Las Vegas, we were delayed an hour in getting our rental car, and by the time we had arrived to Kanab it was 5am. I was worried a lot that first night. Worried that the others wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning in time for us to drive an hour to the Wave and to do the 6-mile roundtrip hike, or just worried in general that something would go wrong and we wouldn't be able to go to the Wave.

But, it turned out to be amazing! We woke up around 9am, and got to the Waves around noon (after an intense 8-mile bumpy dirt road). We hiked for 3 miles to get to the Wave, and it was very worth it! The weather was fantastic this time of year, around 80 degrees and sun-drenched. The Waves themselves were smaller than I had imagined, but it was just so awesome to see what I had dreamed about for so long. We took loads of pictures there and then headed back, in the midst of the tall shadows cast from the sun's rays on all the weird rock formations.

The next day we hit up Bryce Canyon. Bryce is quite indescribable, almost like a fairyland. There are loads of rock formations called Hoodoos, and the sheer extent of them are quite incredible. We spent the majority of the day driving around to all of the viewpoints and taking pictures. We did manage to get in a hike around the rim of the Bryce Amphitheater, and we saw the sunset. The scenery was really beautiful. If it weren't so cold and covered in snow and ice there, we might have been able to do more hiking. Oh well, save it for the next time!

The day after, we hit up both Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and Zion National Park. The sand dunes were not bad to look at, but the snow covering them definitely made it a lot less exciting. They essentially just looked like giant snowdrifts. However, we spent 2-3 hours there just having fun in the snow. We rolled down the sand dunes, had snowball fights, and built a snowman. It was a really fun time! By the time we left the dunes, there was not much time to fully enjoy Zion (not that we could have done much with only a day there anyways), but we still got to see the amazing scenery there. It reminds me of Yosemite quite a bit. As we left Zion all exhausted, we stopped by an awesome burger place, courtesy of Yelp, before continuing our way to Las Vegas for the night. We had intended to celebrate GA's birthday that night in LV, but we were all so tired that we crashed soon after reaching LV.

On the last day of the trip, we took a detour from the "boring" way back to SF, and decided to take the highway through Death Valley National Park. It turned out to be a very nice and meandering route through the desolate wilderness, one where GA suffered from car sickness (there were a lot of windy turns) and we almost didn't make it back to SF in time to return our car.

The trip was tremendously fun! Here are some pictures. Cheers!

At the Wave!

Bryce Amphitheater in Bryce Canyon

Our awesome snowman!

Overlooking Zion Valley

Me and NO

-FCDH

Viva Las Vegas!

Hi Readers,

So some of you may know that I went to Las Vegas for the first time this past week. It was a 4 day trip and I went with my labmate and some of his friends. This blog post will talk about some of my observations about the trip and Las Vegas.

Observation 1: California's Central Valley is boring as hell.
We decided to rent a car and to drive to Vegas. (Sub-observation here is that it is very affordable to rent a car through Enterprise at Stanford. It's only $58 a day and we don't get charged the over-25 surcharge or insurance because we are students!) Anyways, because I was the only one who had a valid American license out of the 4 of us, it was up to me to drive us all to and from Vegas. Oh boy, Interstate 5 through the Central Valley was as boring to drive through as most of the Illinois highways. It was pretty much all flat and everything was a brownish yellow color. Even with enough sleep, I had trouble staying alert on the road. Thanks Starbucks, for making Frappucinos. On a side note, 10 hours of driving after 4 hours of sleep is not a good idea, especially during the stretch from Bakersfield to Barstow where all you get on the radio are country music and people reading the Bible.

Observation 2: California drivers suck at basic driving etiquette.
Illinois and the Midwest has really spoiled my expectations of highway driving. In Illinois, if you are driving on highways, you mostly stay in the right lane and only move to the left in order to pass a slow vehicle in the right lane. In California this isn't true. People love staying in the left lane. It's fine if they are fast drivers, but when someone is driving below the flow-of-traffic speed and insists on staying in the left lane...let's just say I don't usually get mad, but this is one of the things that get me worked up. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I will talk about GPS systems in a later blog (one of my pet peeves).

Observation 3: Las Vegas feels like Disneyland.
That is, if Disneyland replaced Mickey Mouse with people soliciting sex and offering you free limo rides to strip clubs. Other than that, this description is pretty accurate. The architecture is so blatantly extravagant it's mind-boggling. Walking down the Strip, you are greeted by pyramids, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, a giant bronze lion, canals with gondolas, and pirate ships. You see people in costumes walking down the street and kids in strollers everywhere. There are a surprising number of kids in Vegas. A number of casinos have amusement parks with roller coaster rides. There are buffets literally everywhere you go. The entire place feels completely artificial. In a good way or bad way? That's debatable.

Observation 4: The recession hit Vegas hard.
We managed to get hotel rooms for $14 per room per night. This wasn't somewhere far away from the main area; it was at a casino on the strip, right next to Caesar's Palace and Bellagio and all the other casinos. Vegas has a huge oversupply of hotel rooms and the prices definitely show it. Every single thing costs money at the casinos. Internet's $5 an hour, there are no complimentary toiletries, and no free meals. It was even sort of hard to find cheap buffets, until we discovered the far-flung casinos that cater to the locals. Hello, $7 buffets!

Observation 5: Great architects. Horrible interior designers.
Every single casino we saw was an architectural masterpiece. Most casinos we went into felt like a crypt. Why would they make the casino floor so dark and gloomy? It was depressing just to walk through most casino floors. Why use carpeting when you KNOW everyone is smoking (so your carpet eternally smells like smoke)? Why put so many redundant steps? I saw so many people trip over little half-steps in front of the bathroom or bar or something similar.

Observation 6: Slot machines are a joke.
I initially wanted to try slot machines because I believe they were of the kind that you yank and the physical force you use would determine how much they spin. But I found out very quickly that everything was computer-determined. You press a button that said "Spin!" and the computer determined how much it spins and when it stops. What's the point of the spinning then?? The computer might as well just flash "Win!" or "Lose!" as soon as you press the button. We were baffled by the number of people we saw who were hooked on slot machines. For me the slot machine lost its appeal as soon as it went from being stochastic to deterministic.

Observation 7: Engineering guys and Vegas don't really mix well socially.
We went to Vegas as a group of 4 guys. 4 international citizens, 3 grad students in engineering, 2 Indians, and 1 gay guy = not a very good group for clubbing for either gay or straight clubs. I didn't press the gay clubs because I didn't think they would have fun there, and they didn't really want to go to the straight clubs because then we'd be either the 4 creepy dudes not dancing, or the 4 creepy dudes who are dancing with each other. It was nice to wake up early and without hangovers though!

That's really all the major observations. Overall Vegas was a fun experience! I lost a net total of $2 at the slot machines before I grew bored with them. Perhaps when I'm rich, I'll try my hand at some of the card games. For now I need to save the money for grad school first!

-FCDH

Perfect and Amazing Stanford

Hi Readers,

So I have been slightly lagging in Stanford updates because things have been so busy here! The last few posts have been kinda depressing, but don't let that fool you. Things have been going splendidly here, and I will proceed to tell you about all the great things of Stanford.

I will start by saying that I was actually very worried about Stanford when I first came in here. Before I came here, some people were very negative about Stanford. Combine that with the horrible EE grad school visit, and I really had low expectations for Stanford. But I couldn't have been more wrong about Stanford.

I am living in a quad room, in a graduate dorm. This is one of the best decisions that I made with regards to Stanford. I knew that I would be lonely and bored all by myself if I was just in a single/studio, so I aimed for max impact when I applied for housing, and just aimed for all the high-occupancy rooms (quads, triples, etc). My roommates here are awesome! There's JN who is also gay and lives a fabulous non-stop life; RK who is chill and always down for whatever is happening; and AG who is well-read and claims he never wants to leave grad school. Out of all of them, I bond the most with JN because we have similar backgrounds. He's also extremely hot. Kudos to housing committee on roommate selection.

In only a month here, I have done more outdoor activities than in all 4 years at Illinois. Already, I've visited both Yosemite, the Ventana Wilderness, and I'm planning on hitting Lake Tahoe next weekend. This is all thanks to Stanford's hiking club, called the Redwood Club. The weekend trips that RC plans are really amazing and cheap! The Yosemite trip was a little bit of a letdown, because a week of snow closed down Half Dome, which meant we were not able to summit it (although we still saw Vernal and Nevada falls and hiked both the Mist and John Muir trails).

This week has been a completely whirlwind of amazement. On Wednesday, I headed up to San Francisco with some friends, to an LGBT mixer for students and alumni from Ivy League schools / Stanford. There, I met a Stanford professor who had an extra ticket for a German film festival on Friday, and who invited me along. I accepted, and so on Friday the four of us went to see a German film at the Castro theater (Joschka und Herr Fischer). After the movie was finished, the reception was held at the German Consulate in San Francisco. So we tagged along and got to visit the magnificent consulate, eat amazing German food, and drink German wine and champagne. I met a bunch of entrepreneurs, the film director, and even the German Consul himself. I got home at 1:30am and packed hurriedly, and tried to get some sleep before the trip tomorrow (I got 2.5 hours).

This past weekend's trip to Sykes Hot Springs could probably count as the best outdoor backpacking/camping experience I've ever had. The 12 of us woke up at 5am on Saturday morning, piled into cars, and drove south along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway 1 down from Stanford to Big Sur. We then hiked 10 miles (mostly uphill) to the hot springs itself. The weather throughout was amazing, with nary a single cloud in sight. We arrived at the hot springs at around 5pm, and set up camp very close by to the hot springs. "Setting up camp" entailed laying down two large tarps and putting our sleeping bags and mats on it, because there was no forecast for rain at all. We then went for a long dip in the springs, cooked dinner, and went for a late night dip again.

For the late night dip, the others didn't want to wait for people to vacate the hotter spring, so they traipsed off to a cooler spring. VM and I waited for about 15 minutes until the people left, and we jumped in the hotter springs by ourselves. It was well worth the wait, and nobody else came by for the rest of the night. The entire soak, we just looked at the clear starry sky and talked about life. Despite only having met her 15 hours ago, we talked and confided in each other as if we were best friends. We left the springs after everyone had already gone back and went to bed. The sleep I got that night was the best night's sleep I've ever gotten outdoors. My new sleeping mat felt as good as a mattress, the temperature was perfect (60), and there were no bugs whatsoever. In the morning we woke up early, cooked breakfast, and then took a soak again. Afterward we hiked back down the mountain and returned to civilization.

Right now, I am considering signing a ski lodge lease for the winter/spring ski season at Lake Tahoe. If this happens, which I am 80% sure it will, I will very probably be heading up to snowboard at least twice a month. I am very excited and hope that everything will turn out perfectly.

My jubilation and infatuation with California has been akin to an exponential increase. The events that happened in the past week seem unreal to me. California is abound with opportunities that Illinois can only dream about. I am in love with Stanford and California. I can't believe I ever considered staying at Illinois for graduate school. I am seizing life right now as if there is no tomorrow.

Life is amazing.

-FCDH

Sky Mall Amusement

Hi Readers,

In the past week, I've taken three flights. Even though many people dislike flying, I love the entire process. It is incredible to think about the vast amounts of people and resources that move through our airports, and the entire TSA security apparatus system that is set up to (try and) ensure the safety of the passengers. When I was young, the airport system used to boggle my mind. I didn't understand how this "passport" could get you past these people with these machines, and why you needed it to go to this lobby where people wait around and look bored, before going through some more halls and boarding planes. Airports seemed massive and daunting when I was young; as I grew older, they began to shrank, and now going through an airport is almost second nature. One thing that has changed is the enjoyment of the actual flight itself. On a future post I'll talk about my fear of airplanes when I was young.

Anyways, on every recent flight I've been on, there is always a predictable source of laughter: the Sky Mall magazine. Though I'm pretty sure that most people know what these are, these are basically magazines from which you can buy items while you are on a plane. What makes these funny is the stuff that they sell. There are always predictable items, and the logic behind the items is quite clear.

For example, there are always "spy" items. These always include hidden cameras that you can put around your house (who's coming to your house while you're not there?), hidden microphones which are sound-activated (what are people saying behind your back?), mobile and easy-to-mount GPS tracking systems (where's your spouse's car going while you're not there?), to name a few. These obviously draw on the fear of infidelity on the parts of spouses or friends, from the point of view of a frequent traveler who may not see his/her significant other for long periods of time.

Then there are the "outdoor furniture" items. These are the garden gnomes (...to spice up your garden?), the fake rocks that you can cover other stuff with, fountains, patio furniture, etc. These are funny because they are probably the definition of impulse buys. I wonder how many people actually go on a plane with the intention of buying a set of garden gnomes while they are on the plane.

The "pet" items really rounds out the list of the three most common items that you can find in the Sky Mall magazines. This is stuff like indoor pet fences, pet potty-training material, and various pet furniture. These are probably aimed at the people who have no significant others but have pets instead. So instead of worrying about their spouse cheating on them, they are worried about their pet's comfort while at home all alone.

The interesting thing about the Sky Mall magazine is that a lot of the items in there seemed to be playing from the idea of guilt and mistrust. It does not really seem like a good reason to purchase stuff, but I guess Sky Mall is in it to make money. Besides, there's really nothing that can assuage businessmen who are away from home that they can somehow replace their presence at home with the merchandise. I guess if I ever have to do a lot of traveling during work, my home may pile up with these junk items as well.

-FCDH

A Primer on Austin

Hi Readers,

After spending an entire summer in Austin, I thought I would write a blog post all about the awesome city that is Austin. So here goes.

The first thing you need to do is to decouple the words "Austin" from the "TX" that follows it on the address labels. Apart from the constant "y'all"s that are heard around town, I have heard from many Texans that Austin is very different from the rest of Texas. Politically, it is known as the blue dot in a sea of red that is the rest of Texas, and this is very visible all over Austin. The city has adopted the unofficial slogan, "Keep Austin Weird," a prominent sign of its progressive nature. The city is extremely liberal, from the environmental viewpoint with recycling, to its stance on gay couples (i have seen many gay couples holding hands and walking around town.) Unfortunately the Texas Legislature is trying its best to disenfranchise the Austin voters by dividing up the liberal Travis county's political influence among its conservative neighboring counties. However, it does not diminish Austin's star power by much.

In terms of entertainment and recreation, Austin is unparalled in the breadth of activities that it offers. Among all the cities in the world that I have visited, I would rank Austin in the top 3. Tourists can stroll around the beautiful Texas State Capitol building, and watch the daily flying of the bats, as the millions of bats emerge from underneath the Congress Ave bridge and fly off into the night. The awesome Barton Springs allows people to jump in a cool natural spring just minutes away from downtown Austin. The Lady Bird Lake is right smack in the middle of downtown Austin, and it is a great place to go kayaking or boating. All along the lakeside and Zilker Park lies beautiful nature and miles of trails that run all along the lake. You can even stop by the Center for Performing Arts, where they will usually be having an outdoor concert on the vast lawn.

For a great shopping and dining experience, all that one has to do is to walk south along Congress Avenue. The South Congress area features many eclectic shops and boutique stands, as well as food stands and trucks that remind me a lot of the fun chaotic shopping experience that one can find in Asia. The food trucks are my favorite part of South Congress, as it feels like an outdoor food court, surrounded by market stands and serenading musicians. On weekends, downtown 6th street has the most amazing display of nightlife that I've ever seen. The entire road, which is surrounded by bars on either side, is closed down to vehicle traffic, and bar-goers crowd the entire road while searching for their perfect bar. Speaking of bars, Austin's live music scene really is amazing, as pretty much every single bar in downtown Austin will have a different live band playing at any time of night. It is always fun to just walk down the street and hear all the different bands playing, ranging from country music to jazz. Food-wise, there are a lot of great things to eat in the Austin area. My personal favorite is the Texas BBQ, probably one of the best foods that I've had in the US. My two favorites are Rudy's and Salt Lick, and every time I go to these places I always get at least 1 lb of meat to eat. It is somewhat excessive but I just love it so much.

But the most incredible thing about Austin is its surroundings. Drive half an hour north-west of Austin and you'll reach Lake Travis, from where you can watch one of the ten best sunsets in the US at the Oasis, or do watersports, or go to the water park at Volente beach. There are loads of swimming holes around the Austin area, which are all amazing places to chill for an afternoon when it is over 100 degrees outside. Just 2 hours west of Austin lies Enchanted Rock, a giant rock formation that juts out of the ground and makes for a great hike and viewpoint. Austin lies in the hill country region of Texas, and there are plenty of places to go rock climbing or to go tubing down a river.

Austin is such a great mix of activities that it is hard to imagine anybody running out of activities to do here, or being bored here. It should be a crime to waste your weekends on TV or computers here. I have done many things here, including bungee jumping, outdoor rock climbing, swimming, and of course partying. It is somewhat hard to see how Stanford and the Bay Area could be better than this summer in Austin. But I am hoping that California will be a lot better.

-FCDH

Mammoth Caves

Hi Readers,

Last weekend I went with SB, one of my friends, to Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky. We had planned on going somewhere after graduation for 3-4 days, partially because it was summer and we both wanted to relax, and partially because I will be leaving for Stanford soon and we won't have another chance to hang out like this for awhile. We originally thought about going to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but since SB left the planning of the trip up to me and I didn't know anything about the UP, I looked up the National Parks list and chose Mammoth Caves.

Mammoth Caves are the longest caves in the world, at 392 miles in length. Many geologists think that MC may contain a system of more than 600 miles in length. Most of these miles are not open to the public, for fear of contamination and of disruption of the fragile ecosystem. But there are ~12 miles of the caves that are open to the public for tours, since these are parts of the caves that have been open for centuries for tourists since the time when the caves were private. SB and I went on many of these cave tours, including

1) Historic Tour: this tour was very history-intensive, including talks about the saltpetre mining operation that took place at the caves, the slave tour guides that first explored the caves, as well as some geology. This mammoth dome was brilliant, as were the tour guides.

2) New Entrance Tour: this tour gave us a tour of the Frozen Niagara section, which was stalactites and stalagmites galore. Was great, but if we had known we would have gone through the same parts during tours 3 and 4 we probably wouldn't have done it.

3) Introduction to Caving: Easily my favorite tour of the bunch. We went caving and spelunking through tiny passages, armed with only headlamps, helmets, and kneepads. I wish I could do it again.

4) Grand Avenue Tour: Some of the rooms we passed through were humongous! We climbed 3 underground mountains that were 200 ft high each. It was awesome.

SB and I at Frozen Niagara section

Going through the caves were so fun and cool (literally, it was 56 degrees inside the caves year-round). Everytime I saw some kind of passageway leading off to the side, I had to suppress my urge to go down it and explore. If I had done that I might not have been able to get out after the tour guide leaves. I also found Kentucky to be awesome, and I especially love the sexy accent lol. It was too bad that SB and I weren't able to find a spot on the Wild Caving tour, which would have been beyond awesome. Oh well.

I also found Kentuckians to be really friendly, much more so than I imagined. SB and I went on mini-roadtrips around the Mammoth Caves area, and for dinner we stopped at a steakhouse. Needless to say we were the only Asians in the place. We were just chatting about life problems and stuff during dinner, and as the neighbouring table was leaving, the old lady stopped at our table and offered us advice on our problems. It was the first time that something like that has ever happened to me, so I was somewhat taken aback by their frankness and openness. It was quite refreshing. Also, when SB and I went hiking in the park, everyone we passed by on the trail said "hi" to us, always with a smile. One even stopped and talked to me about sushi (he was wearing a shirt with different kinds of sushi on it and I chuckled as he walked past me).

On the way back, SB and I decided to ditch the interstate and to drive back the entire way on county roads. I had a map of Kentucky so I was able to navigate through KY on county roads with no problem. When we hit Indiana we started navigating blindly, since neither of us had maps. It was quite an adventure, especially after sundown when there was no more sun to tell us which way was north. Eventually we found I-74 near Danville and made our way home. But it was so relaxing, passing through all of these small small small small small rural towns in Kentucky and Indiana.

Next week I'm (probably) going with another friend to the Cedar Points amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. I'm sure it'll be a blast!

-FCDH

Graduation!

Hi Everyone,

This past weekend, I finally graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Right now it feels so weird, to know that I'll probably never be back here in the capacity as a student in the future ever again, and to know that 4 years have passed already since I came in as a freshman.

On Thursday, my sister and my parents came over from Taiwan. Their plan was to spend 5 days in the US, including 3 days in Chicago and 2 days in Champaign. It didn't go off to a good start - I went up on Wednesday night, intending to just sleep overnight at O'Hare and meet them when they arrived on the early morning flight on Thursday. At O'Hare I found out that: the airport terminal closes from midnight until 5am, and that their flight was delayed from Wednesday night until Thursday afternoon because of the bad weather that was plaguing Chicago (I was really hoping for a tornado, as a parting souvenir gift from the American Midwest, but it never manifested itself. Boo). Thanks to the quick response of EE at midnight (Thank god she responded to my text message), I was able to crash at her place for the night.

The whirlwind tour of Chicago started on Thursday and went until Saturday. In the middle, we saw Grant Park, Millenium Park, an architectural boat cruise, and the Field Museum. I planned on doing more with my parents, but due to jet lag they were not up for doing all that was possible. Overall it was good. I took them to Giordanos, where they finally tried Chicago's stuffed crust pizzas (and loved it).

Hanging out with my parents definitely stressed me out, however. They are somewhat racist and conservative (my dad more so than my mom), which made it uncomfortable to have quality conversations with them. I swear, my dad is like the Taiwanese version of a Republican. I even had to convince my dad that Obama isn't a Muslim. Ugh. Sometimes I can't believe that I am actually their son.

On the first day they arrived, I was so happy at first to see them. Things started to go downhill as soon as my mom asked me if I had a girlfriend yet. I basically told her to stop living under the delusion that it was going to happen. And then she started to beg me to get a girlfriend. I almost lost it right there. It was hard to restrain myself, to keep myself from being disrespectful to my parents. If not for the fact that they were on their vacation, and the fact that I was trying my best to give back to them as a show of my thanks, I would have flipped out right there. She dropped it and it was never brought back up again for the rest of the trip, of which I am thankful.

I found graduation (both the campus and engineering ones) to be somewhat dull. I was yawning throughout and found my eyes wandering the crowd. In my opinion Bill Daley was a much better commencement speaker than the guy they had for the engineering commencement. I also had a lot of fun listening to the catcalls and whistles and other cheers that the audience had for different people....I'm pretty sure I heard a vuvuzuela at more than one point as well. I cheered for my friends when their names were called. It felt so weird walking across that stage, to shake both professors' hands, and to know that now it's officially over.

The last day in Chicago that I spent with my family was the best time I had with them. The weather was great, I took them to Sears Tower, and we ate Giordanos. It was a great way to cap off their trip. I tried my best to show them a great time here, so I am hoping that they had a great time here.

I took a couple of days break in the middle of writing this blog entry and my mood now is a lot better than when I had to say goodbye to all my friends. I know it will be hard to rebuild friendships and connections, but it is simply a process of life.

Next post about the trip to Mammoth Caves that I took.

-FCDH

An Uber Long Spring Break Recap

Hi Readers,

Ok, I've been putting this off for awhile. The past two weeks have been very hectic for me, mostly because I spent an awesome spring break actually doing fun stuff, and not just cooped up at home! =). Unfortunately this means I do have a backlog of stuff that I was catching up on. I also have a backlog of things I want to blog about, which I will start doing now because I kinda drank a lot of caffeine today and it has not been good because right now I am super alert and hyper and probably will not be able to fall asleep until 5am.

So this spring break was probably the best spring break I've ever had, hands down. For the past couple of spring breaks I have been stuck on campus, working at the study abroad office. Last spring break was very enjoyable too, going to the EWB conference in Denver and hanging out with Lauren. But this spring break added a whole professional dimension to it. Here was what went down.

So on the Friday that spring break started, I unfortunately did not get any sleep at all because I was up all night doing laundry and packing my things. At around 1pm, KL and I hopping into his car, and KL drove me to Indianapolis Airport, where I was supposed to catch a flight to Los Angeles. Here was the first excitement. Because of some storms in the south, American had delayed my flight by 2 hours. Well, this would have meant that I would miss the last bus of the night that I was supposed to take from LA to Santa Barbara. So...I pleaded and pleaded with the Asian lady behind the counter to do something, anything, to right this wrong. She put me on an alternative flight through Chicago, which was supposed to arrive 15 minutes AFTER my bus was supposed to leave. Slightly hopeful, I called the bus company and pleaded for them to hold the bus an extra 15 minutes until I arrived. They acquiesced.

Well, thanks to headwinds, I made it into LA 15 minutes later than I should have. It is now 10:30pm and the bus was supposed to leave at 10. I'm thinking, there's no way the bus is still here. Damn it. But, I managed to call the bus company (cellphone records show I called them 10+ times that day), and they said that the bus was still there! Albeit it was at the last pickup stop before it left the airport, and this stop was very convenient located - at the farthest terminal from my location. So I ran for it. I sprinted the entire way. And made it as the bus was getting ready to pull out. Success! I made it onto the bus 50 minutes after it was supposed to have left. My friend JJ later told me that he had never heard of anyone making the bus so late. I made it to Santa Barbara at around 1am, and my friend JJ picked me up from the bus stop and took me back to his place. Along the way, he gets stopped by a cop (2nd time that night) because his friend's car (which he was borrowing) had no headlights. None. The cop laughed at his story and let him go with a warning.

JJ lives in a dorm on the UCSB campus. It's a nice place! On Saturday morning, we wake up early-ish, and walk down to the beach. We arrived at low tide. It's nice! Exactly as I imagined, except for a little cloudier and colder, but that's fine! We walked along the beach for about half an hour, just talking about life in general, before we head back to his place. We pack some food, and go hiking in the hills surrounding Santa Barbara. It was really beautiful, and we managed to snap some photos, climb some rocks, before the rain started. Those were the highlights of SB. For the rest of my stay, it didn't stop raining, and we mostly just hung around at home and watched TV. We did go to a ECE pulled-pork party though, where there was good food, beer, and Wii. It was fun times. At the party I met this guy who was heading up to Stanford the next day (Monday), so I readily ditch my Greyhound ticket (9.5 hour ride) for a ride with him (4.5 hours) in order to get to San Francisco earlier.

Monday morning comes. I wake JJ up (6:30am), say bye, and hop in car with random dude from party. He's a cool guy, a physics grad student at Stanford. He tells me many great things about Stanford, which is somewhat of a relief for me. At around 11:30, we arrive in Palo Alto. I say thanks, part with $10 for his drive, and hop on the CalTrain to go into San Francisco city. I switch to the BART and head to Berkeley, where I meet up with SL for lunch. Haven't seen her in a year, so it's exciting! After lunch (pizza), we get ice cream, and she shows me around Berkeley. It's an awesome campus, and would definitely in serious running with Stanford had I gotten in. We part ways after 3 hours (she has to go to a lab meeting) and I go shopping in Berkeley. I then meet up with TS for dinner, and we talk about his dislike for grad school and life in general. I then bid TS goodbye and head to the CalTrain station, where I miss the train by 10 minutes and must wait 50 minutes for the next train to San Jose. Arrive in San Jose at 11:30pm, walk 15 minutes from train station to hotel, checking behind me the whole time to ensure I won't get mugged, check in, iron shirt and pants, and crash on bed.

Next day I meet up with ECE crew (SH, BP, and MG). We eat breakfast with an ECE alum who works at Intel, and then drive up to San Francisco to meet with a venture capitalist. We spend the rest of the afternoon doing touristy stuff in SF, before heading to Google's headquarters in Mountain View for the ECE alumni event. At the event, I meet a whole bunch of alumni. It was an awesome experience. Plus, open bar and free food! Could that night get any better?

Wednesday, we wake up early, and take the flight to Seattle. We don't have anything planned for that day, so we go do some more touristy stuff! We visit the fish market in downtown Seattle, where we ate awesome clam chowder. It was so good. I'm hungry. Back on topic. After that, we visit Boeing's plant in Everett, and get a tour of their production facility. It was AMAZING! If I wasn't already an electrical engineer, just visiting that plant would make me want to go into aerospace engineering. It was so cool! Seeing and hearing about the production process for all of the Boeing planes, especially the 787, was awesome. At least for me and MG, since we are both engineers. SH and BP looked slightly bored this entire time, lol. That night we ate at this seafood restaurant. It was awesome! The table was covered with a clean cloth, they brought a bucket of seafood, and dumped it right on the table. We tore into it with our hands. It was the best dinner I had in a long time. Hungry again.

Thursday, we wake up early, and tour the Microsoft offices in Redmond. Now I have to say, I did not have a good impression of Microsoft before my visit there. But MS's campus is absolutely amazing. It is so huge, with so many amenities and facilities, that it is mind boggling. The tour guides (all ECE alum) told us that there are more than 80 restaurants there! During the afternoon, we meet with different MS employees, and we talked about how the team structure of MS is setup. That night, we host another alumni event, this time at MS. There were significantly less people at this one than the Google one, but it was still fun. I especially liked talking with a Bing developer and learning the search algorithm that is implemented by Bing. After the event was over, the ECE crew drove me to Seattle's airport, and I flew out on the last flight out of Seattle to Louisville.

Louisville was where EWB's international conference was being held this year. Having left Seattle at 11pm, I arrived in Louisville at 11am, very deprived of sleep. The rest of the time spent at the conference in Louisville was uneventful, apart from us all driving to an awesome ice cream place to eat some ice cream. Along the way we listened to some radio-soap-opera thingy, which I had no idea about. It was a hilarious contemporary rendition of Madame Butterfly, and KA and I laughed the entire way to the ice cream store. On Sunday, we drove back to school.

This was truly the best spring break I'd ever have. It was so much traveling, for both business and pleasure, and I got to visit the West Coast again. After getting a more extensive California experience this time (compared with my short 2-day trip to Stanford the week before), I am completely sure I love California. I am so excited to be going there next year!

Anyways, that's a long enough post. Till next post!

-FCDH

Reflections on Stanford Visit

Hi Readers,

I am currently at the airport in Dallas, waiting for my connecting flight back to CU. Literally just 5 seconds ago, I ran into AX here, which was a nice surprise. AX flew out of Champaign on the same flight as me on Wednesday, except he was going to Intel for an interview and I was going to Stanford for my visit. What a coincidence that we ended up on the same flight again on the way back!

Anyways, back on topic. I visited Stanford on the DiscoverEE visitation trip for Electrical Engineers these past 2 days, and it was very, very eye-opening. Now I understand why people are encouraged to visit a campus before making their decision. My experience was a very mixed pot, and I am now feeling slightly stressed out about going to grad school (already).

Because Stanford couldn’t find a student host for me, I ended up finding one for myself. I crashed at my friend NJ’s place, where he had graciously taken me in and set up an air mattress for me. It was comfortable and he had a really nice studio (certainly much nicer than the studio that I used to live in). It ended up being really nice, because I could see the living conditions of the grad students, and NJ also took me around and told me a lot about things that I should expect and look for when I do come here.

Since I visited Stanford with JC and we had mutual friends there (including NJ), we ended up going out to dinner afterward at a place called the Straits. It was actually very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here’s a short summary of the positives and negatives I felt about Stanford.

Positives – Research

-I am really excited about the research opportunities that will be available at Stanford. There are so many professors there, and Stanford is really unique in that they encourage multidisciplinary and cross-discipline research. So I could literally go in and join a professor in the school of business, or agriculture, or physics, or any other major, as long as it is even tangentially related to Electrical Engineering.

-Stanford professors really encourage students to “hop” between different research groups in their first year, until they find a group that suits them. They even go as far as to say, “No I will not take you into my group immediately upon your entrance to grad school. But you can join my group temporarily to try it out first, and if it is a good match then I will take you.” This was really a big relief to me, because one of the things that I worried about was choosing a group that you are not compatible in, and then being miserable for the rest of your years while you try to battle out your research project and graduate. I always thought that it was a huge risk that I would have to take, but Stanford really minimizes this, which makes me feel better.

Negatives – Living

-Stanford’s campus seems somewhat boring. When I arrived at midnight on Wednesday, I did not see a single other person on the street apart from NJ, or cars as well. Though others told me that parties did happen in the dorms, it is still a big change from Illinois.

-Where are the restaurants and bars? After the student union closes at 10, the closest places to eat/drink are like 15-20 minutes away. No more Green St. and its bars and restaurants that are readily accessible and stay open till like 2am.

-HOUSING PRICES?!?! It seems universally agreed that at Stanford $600 is the lowest you can get, while on average it is around $1000 and can go up to $1600. And here I'm paying $320 a month. Ahhh that monthly rent payment will be so painful now!

I'm still pretty sure that I'll end up going to Stanford (since UC Santa Barbara seems to have rejected me, from its lack of response), despite JJ's attempts to convince me to go to UCSB. I'm just hoping that I won't regret it, since I turned down a full-time job at National Instruments to go to graduate school. It seems like the research is positive while the living is negative, which should balance out to neutral. I hope it'll all be great in the end.

Toodles for now! Next post on Japan earthquake.

-FCDH

Notes from Mother Nature

Hi Readers,

I recently just returned from a 3-day trip to the Ozark Mountains. Me and BR backpacked through the Bell Mountain Wilderness area, and the Ozark Trail. We traveled 42 miles in 3 days, which is a pretty nice pace for us. We camped for two nights...both nights were windy, but it rained very hard on the second night. Overall, the trip was characterized by fatigue and the difference in time perception. We had expected to run into some other people while hiking the trail...but we were wrong. The only people we met were 2 people who looked like they were living off the land illegally (hunting, etc.). Aside from that, we saw no other human beings for the entire duration of our hike. And if my cellphone had not turned on by itself in my pocket, I would not have had any other communications other than with BR. As it is, I got a lovely text from JM about joining for a movie night with chocolate popcorns, and immediately felt hungry.

In the beginning of the hike, BR and I talked a lot on the trail. As time grew on, our pace grew faster, our physical separation began growing apart ; we began getting more and more out of breath, and we began talking less and less, until we probably spoke an average of 10 words to each other every half an hour. Under such conditions, I began humming music to myself to entertain myself on the trail. With this method, I discovered a surprising thing on the second day of my trekking: for me, classical music dulls pain.

At the end of our second day, we had to hurry back from Council Bluffs to Big River in order to reach a suitable campsite (that was not in a flash flooding zone). I was leading, so it was up to me to set a fast pace in order to make at least 2 miles in an hour. It seems like a distance that you can scoff at, but once you're out there trudging through the leaves and rocks, you'll realize how difficult it is. Especially with a 40-50 lb bag on your back. Anyways, my shoulders and feet were aching really badly at the time.

And then I put on Beethoven's Spring Sonata in my head.

It wasn't instantaneous, but within 5 minutes I had gotten really into the music, and the pain had all but disappeared. I could feel a blister on my feet, a persistent force on my shoulder, but none of it hurt anymore. Because of this, I was able to set a pace that took us 2 miles in 50 minutes, giving us enough time to refill our water at Big River and set up camp before it got too dark. This was really weird for me, so I decided to test it out more the next day.

So the next day along the trail, I hummed music in my head the whole way. Had some Nelly Furtado, Coldplay, Radiohead, Rihanna, even Katy Perry. For the first hour, that was all I really hummed. And my feet and shoulders were killing me by the time we took our first break, an hour into the hike. For the second hour, BR (who was leading) set a daunting pace through a part of the trail where it must have ascended 150-200 feet without stop. I put on Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto and blazed through that section, and by the time we reached Ottery Creek, everything had stopped hurting and I felt even better than before we had started walking.

I used Rachmaninoff's 2nd and Prokofiev's 1st Concertos to crank out a 3 mile/hr pace on the uphill section from Ottery Creek to Bell Mountain. Still didn't feel any pain. But my ultimate proof of the power of classical music came in the last mile of hiking. It was entirely in darkness, and since I have a fear of the dark and BR is apparently afraid of raptors coming out of the dark a la Jurassic Park 2, both of us were on edge. And since BR and I were talking to ward off our fears of the forest at night, my shoulders and feet were beginning to kill me again. At the point when I couldn't stand it anymore, I put on Rachmaninoff's 2nd concerto again.

The pain disappeared.

The case is closed. Classical music is apparently my panacea. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the brain cannot focus on so many things at a time. I'm not complaining...I'd rather enjoy a grand concert in my head than the pain from my body. Though I tend to get so engrossed in the music that I start waving my arms around as if I'm conducting the music ("like a maniac", according to BR)...but I'll accept the weird WTF thoughts going through BR's head rather than the pain as well.

-FCDH