Boxing Day Shopping in Vancouver

I went to Vancouver BC for the boxing day shopping! It was fun.

Boxing day is the day after Christmas, and is one of the biggest shopping days in Canada. Retail stores usually will have big sales. My friend and I started shopping from 9am, and we finished it at 7pm. It was like a full-time job. I bought a lot of stuff. Yet, not enough to claim visitor tax refund. I didn't spend enough money!

Leavenworth, WA

Leavenworth, WA is a quaint little Bavarian Village nestled in the central Cascade Mountains of Washington State. I went there with two of my friends on Dec. 20 and 21st.

We drove about 3 hours from Seattle. The weather was very cold. The road was quite icy.


















Leavenworth is known as a German town in Washington State, and there are quite a lot of German restaurants and stores. Of course, we had beers and German food.

The second day, we went cross-country skiing in the morning. I enjoyed skiing. I started to like skiing. I hope I can do more in the future.

Oyster Harvesting

I did oyster harvesting first time in my life! It was fun. I had yummy oysters. The weather was very cold. You can find some pictures @ http://gis.washington.edu/phurvitz/photos/2005/11_nov/03_oystering/

I joined a group of my friends last night to Twanoh State Park, Belfair, WA, which is about 2 hours east of Seattle to harvest oysters. Twanoh State Park, a saltwater beach with camping facilities, is a well-known place for oyster harvesting.

The tide was forcasted to be low last night: wonderful time for picking oysters. Even though the temperature was quite low, the weather was cooperating: clear sky. At least, we didn't need to stay in rain or snow under such low temperature with our shoes wet.

We set off from Seattle about 8:40pm. After one hour ferry, we got to Bremerton. Around 10 o'clock we got to Twanoh State Park. I have to mention the vehicle we used: a school bus. Yes, we took the school bus. No, we didn’t steal the bus. Brendan, a professor at my department, bought the school bus. A nice idea, isn’t it?

After we got ready, we started harvesting oysters. Boy, there are lots of oysters lying on the beach! I haven’t seen sooooo many oysters in my life. It was an oyster field. It seemed like they were waiting for us to pick them up. Of course, oysters don’t move. They live on the rocks, on each other, and with other shell fish. Picked up an oyster, I followed Phil’s instruction (the expert at harvesting oyster in the group) starting harvesting. The shell is hard. An oyster knife is highly recommended for harvesting oysters. The exciting moment was I first time opened an oyster at the oyster harvest field!

Man, it was cold! I wore my wool pants underneath my ski pants. For the top, I had down jacket, in addition to wool sweater. I also wore hat and gloves. I could still feel the cold after half an hour of harvesting.

After midnight, we harvested quite an amount of oysters. We decided to go to the camp ground and started cooking the oysters. Phil, as the activity organizer, also prepared all the cooking tools, equipment, source, and ingredients. Phil was a cook. He is very good at cooking. I heard the rumor that some women proposed to him because he can cook very yummy food.^_^. I think the rumor is true. Oysters in peanut butter soup were delicious. Deep fried oysters with Phil’s home-made source were phenomenal. Everything was paid off after we had the yummy oysters, good drinks, and happy conservations.

Compared the yummy oysters, and the good time we had, sleeping in the tent under cold freezing weather was just nothing. We got back to Seattle this afternoon around 2pm.

More pictures on ski

Ski

I went skiing today. It was on the way to the ski resort on Mt. Baker, which is about 2 and half hours north east of Seattle.

First Two Months being a Doctoral Student

It has been almost two months since I started my doctoral study. For sure, being a PhD student has higher expectations than being a master student. Hopefully I can keep up with the expectations.

2005 ACSP

From Oct.27-30, I attended the annual ACSP (The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning) conference. This year it was in the Kansas City, Missouri.

2005 ACSP--Kansas City

Look, there is a prisoner wants to escape!

This is Phil, a colleague of mine who went to ACSP conference together.^_^.

2005 ACSP--Kansas City

A historic building in the east side of Kansas City

Nice looking, isn’t it?

It was a jail in early 20th century.

Trail Work

On Oct.23rd, I went to trail work with two of my friends.

Look at Amenda and Daichike (please forgive me if I spell your name wrong), how hard working they are!

Trail Work

During the break of the trail work, I was standing in front of a waterfall.

Live Octopus!!!

Live Octopus!!! Still moving.......
In Seoul, I tried live octopus.

Eating Live Octopus!

Eating live octopus!!!
Look at me, I was eating live octopus!
I was so proud of it, until I scared away my "potential boyfriend" one day by telling him I ate live octopus.^_^.

The good thing is that I'm still proud of it, and the scared away person is not my potential boyfriend.^_^.

My mother

My father proudly stood in the alley where he lived more than 32 years ago when he first met my mother.

Yak and me on the river.^_^.

Yaks

Fishing

Tea Tower

Inside Lijiang old town

Bird view of Lijiang. Lijiang is a town with 800 years history.

My mother was getting help from a Bai lady to try on Bai clothing. Can you recognize me in Bai clothing? .^_^.

This photo was taken at the gate of old town of Dali.

Lin has fully recovered

I have fully recovered from my sickness. Thanks for all of you concerns.

I just moved to the graduate student housing on campus a few days ago. My home is very close to my department. It is very convenient. I like it a lot.

I'll update my trips to China and Seoul in a couple weeks. Check back after October 10th. You'll find more stories.

Lin in China

From August 18th to September 13th, Lin went back to China to visit her family. She spent some time with her family. She saw some of her friends. She also had a chance to travel with her parents in China.

On August 31st, she and her parents went to Yunnan, where there are a lot of ethnic groups. They visited Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang.

On September 5th, she and her parents took the train from Kunming to Han Yuan, where Lin was born and is her mother's hometown.

On the way to Chengdu, Lin got a high fever. Her parents had to send her to a hosiptal in Ya'an City. Thanks to Lin's visiting hosiptal, her mother saw her college classmates 32 years ago again.
In the evening of September 11th, Lin and her parents came back to Zhongshan, where currently her parents reside. Lin had to be sent to a hosiptal again. The next day, after coming back from the hosiptal, Lin and her parents took the ferry to Hong Kong in the evening. Her parents sent Lin to the airport in the morning of September 13th. Lin took the plane back to Seattle.

Dali Ancient City

This city is located in Yunnan. It is one of the ancient cities in China. Majority of the residents in the city are Bai ethnic group, who is known for their in love of white color.

Yunnan snacks

Fish market 1

Fish market 3

Fish market 2

A street in Sicheon, Seoul 

Nice, aren't they? I saw them selling at a store in Meyong Gong. I think you'll enjoy the picture.^_^. 

Meyong Dong, a popular district with tons tons of fashion stores in Seoul 

Palace, visiting on August 16th, 2005 

San-Chae-Bibimbab (Mountain Vegetable) dinner on August 15th, 2005 

Pancake for lunch at Insadong on August 15th, 2005