Thanksgiving Holiday
Interestingly, I spent my two consecutive (and the only two) Thanksgiving holidays in the US in Florida. I was working out there in Tampa last year; and enjoyed my first Thanksgiving meal with my roommate's family. This time, Cinde and I had a rewarding trip to three cities in FL - Tampa, Orlando and Miami.
As always, it was so nice to see our office campus (yes, it indeed deserves the name!) and the residence where I spent 5 months living on the water in Tampa Bay. We then departed Tampa and started our 840 miles of driving in Florida. Utilizing our two days of stay in Orlando, or rather like Disney parks...between smart usage of the fats passes and skipping proper meals, we cruised through the four main DisneyWorld resort parks there and got a brief taste of the theme parks. Surprisingly, that was actually my third Disney journey (second to this Orlando location, plus once in Hong Kong Disneyland). The fun part to me began on Saturday night when we drove across Florida - from the turnpike to I-95, it was nice and I guess I do miss driving. If there are a few things I would complain about living in New York City, it has to be the followings:
- Fewer Driving
- Far from the water, well, Ocean!
- So far from home (China & HK)
- Pricey fruits, esp those seedless grapes, a.k.a. CK snacks
Frankly, I enjoyed the vacation even though it was a little rush - we had early arrivals both ways given the peak season traffic. Now, a big problem and dilemma is: with only 3 days for Christmas and no vacation days left, plus the expenditures this month; how am I going to convince myself not to think of traveling again too soon...
Modernised Home
As my girlfriend termed it, our apartment is getting more modernized - we have our cable TV, high speed internet and even a digital phone service! Indeed, I was enjoying my first ever English Premier Leage live game (Manchester United vs Sheffield United) this morning on Fox Soccer Channel. It's awesome!! Don't even need to mention the cruising speed and Wi-Fi at home!
Hi-tech life, here we come...
Shifting to new Online Album
In order to make Google even a more successful enterprise, I recently shifted to support their new online photo management tool - Picasa; well, halvely kidding, though I do like this new online album. Check out some of my new pictures below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/calvinmcp
Living in Harlem, NY
After a month of temporary stay in Jersey City, I moved to Harlem in Manhattan finally. It has been a unique and special experience for me so far - being maybe the few Chinese living among African Americans. Frankly, I have to admit that there are still cultural and ethnic issues and things that I am still not sure and aware of. Hopefully with the tenure for my lease, I would be able to figure out more.
Running quite some errands between Ikea furniture, Target store and Chinatowns in Queens and Manhattan, our home/apartment does look warmer and warmer. It is also a great experience to build everything from scratch and witnessing different things being setup one by one. With a few more important items, including Cable TV, High Speed Internet and Sofa coming in about a week or so, I am hoping the home to be even more comfortable and delightful. Then possibly the next step will be reaching out to Central Park, which is just 2 blocks away. (Though, I still have not been to it yet ever since I came back to NYC)...I will need a bike, too!
