Sending books from China

I was once told by an employee of the Chinese postal service that one should never send books book-rate to the United States. He chuckled as he told me they would never get there. I had asked Gina to get two books for me last time she went to China, but had forgotten to tell her about the no-book-rate rule. So she sent the two books book-rate at a cost of 85 RMB (US $10) on November 20, 2005. Today (June 28, 2006) the package arrived:



Notice how the package is open and I didn't even have to open it. Another interesting thing about the package is that I didn't have to empty it either. It was already empty (as noted in red by the US postal service: "Received without content"):



If you think about it, it's a win-win situation: the Chinese postal system gets to make money selling the contents of my package and I am freed of the burden of opening and emptying the package myself. The one suggestion I would make to the Chinese postal system is that they consider saving themselves a little bit of time and effort by simply throwing out the package after it has been opened rather than take the trouble to pass it on to the U.S. postal system.

Dimsum & steak

To wrap up the NY trip:

Yesterday we began with a short run in Central Park. Isaac went on to do his 12 mile run, but Gina & I got tired and went back early. We went to Jinfeng's for dimsum and then picked up four Portuguese tarts before going to meet Anne-Catherine (my cousin) in the Village. Our plan was to see some of the Chelsea galleries, but we couldn't remember exactly where they were so we walked around quite a bit. Like a few miles. Meanwhile, I was developing a caffeine-withdrawal headache, so I eventually needed to stop for coffee. Which made the rest of the walk much more enjoyable. June 30 is apparently the end of the art season, so many of the galleries had already shut down until July, but we did see a few interesting things along 21st and 22nd streets. Then we headed down to the meat-packing district, an area I didn't know all that well. At this point, Anne-Catherine had to head home (after we snacked on the custard tarts).

In the evening, we went to GSE (Grand Sichuan Eastern), the best Sichuanese restaurant outside of China. (I cannot fail to mention this event which was certainly the highlight of the whole trip for Gina.)

The highlight of the trip for me, on the other hand, was this afternoon's lunch at Peter Luger. Peter Luger is one of the most popular restaurants in NY, so it was not easy to get a reservation when we called on Wednesday. They had only one time available the whole weekend: 2:45 p.m. on Sunday. It is well-known that what one orders there is the porterhouse for two:



The meat there is always dry aged on site ("dry aged" meaning that the salt and flavors do not leach out with the fluids that accumulate during standard aging). Very good meat. We were all happy:





Dessert consisted of pecan pie for me and cheesecake for everybody else. Having consumed too much, Gina & I decided to walk home across the Williamsburg Bridge, from where there are charming views of Brooklyn & Manhattan:







We stopped at a Chinese market on Clinton and then saw the tower in the 6th & Ave. B Community Garden:



before walking back towards the subway on St. Mark's Pl.

Trip to NY

June 17 we went to NY for me to defend my dissertation. For the first few days, I was largely occupied preparing, though I did take a little bit of time off to accompany Gina. Here we are atop the Belvedere Castle:



And here I am smelling flowers by Shakespeare's Garden:



I spent that day at the Columbia library, but came back in time to meet Gina at the Natural History museum. Here's Gina with a couple of dinosaurs:



The day after I (successfully) defended, we went back to the Columbia area to see classmates (Alex and Karl). Gina wanted to do something touristy, so we tried to go up the Riverside Church tower. But it was closed. We hung out for an hour or so at Max's Cafe instead:



Tiffany had very kindly invited us to a dinner party for the evening. Excellent food. Here is the menu:

shrimp with fresh peas salad
herb gnocchi with summer vegies

...and a photo of Tiffany photographing me:

Gina's last day of school

Thursday ten days ago was Gina's last day of school. Here is her account of the day:

June 15 (Thursday) was the last day of spring quarter for ESL students at UCI. It was an easy day because all exams were finished except the "mock trial" that afternoon. In the morning idioms class, the teacher brought the game Scrabble and cookies. The reading and writing teacher was busy calculating our grades. As for the students, we talked about our upcoming plans. Some are going back to their countries; others are going to different places to continue their studies. It was a happy and sad moment for all of us: happy because this quarter was over; sad because many friends were going away. Then, we took pictures with our teacher in front of our classroom as a souvenir:







After the mock trial was successfully finished, we rested for a couple hours in preparation for the graduation ceremony. Last quarter (winter quarter) I did not go to the ceremony because I was working at Cha (the tea place). So I was determined to make it this time. It was fun, even though poignant. Usually it takes place in the Bren Events Center. However, this time it took place at the University Club because the Bren Events Center was fully reserved by UCI spring graduation ceremonies. I found it was a charming place. There were many people: students, teachers, and their kids. The ceremony itself was a litle bit boring. They gave awards to the students who had gotten straight A's and who had perfect attendance. Afterwards, I took many pictures with all my clsasmates from different classes. People were smiling all the time and took advantage of opportunities to take photos with everyone whom he or she knew because they might not see each other again. Here are some pictures that I took:





When the time came to the food, things got a little out of hands. At the beginning, they did not allow us to eat until after the ceremony had concluded. After I lingered taking pictures and talking with classmates, there was no more food left. That was what they called light refreshments. Anyway, I felt happy and lucky that I participatd in the ESL program, and I've made many friends who come from different countries. I took them for granted until the day when I realized that maybe I won't see them again.

Cats & party

Volodya and Katya went back to the Ukraine and nobody is there to look after their Russian blue. So we've been going by daily to feed him and hang out a little with him. This is what he looks like:



He's a very sweet cat, always happy to see us. And, like our cat Maomao, he is a recent immigrant.

Last night we had a party. Mainly Gina's ESL classmates, but also a few of my friends. Lots of people ended up coming, probably around 25. Gina made a ton of food and we also bbq'd kebabs. Frank and My brought a large amount of excellent beef jerky (they own a beef jerky factory). It was really, really good stuff. I forgot to take pictures of the party until the very end when a lot of people had already left. Here's a group of ESL students interrupting their game of taboo to pose: