Stanford University and Carmel-by-the-sea

On Friday (Aug 24th) I met up with a Co-op Japan friend who happens to be in Bay Area for work training. We took a drive to Stanford University to visit the so called best school in the West. The one that invested and started the Silicon Valley. The Stanford campus does look pretty nice, and it’s pretty huge too. I bet it costs a fortune to maintain the campus each year. Not a wonder that their tuition is so high. I’d for sure have trouble affording it if I got accepted into Stanford.

Later we ate dinner in Mountain View, where Google Inc.’s headquarters is located at. Too bad it was getting late so we didn’t have the chance to swing by to take a look at Google.

I didn’t bring my camera that day, so I’ll have to acquire the pictures from my friend. I’ll try and post some later.

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Ended up going to Carmel-by-the-sea during the weekend (Aug 25-26). The original plan was to stay over night at Lake Tahoe, but that got pushed back for the upcoming Labor day weekend.

Anyways, Carmel-by-the-sea is a nice little city about 2 to 2.5 hours drive south of San Francisco. And of course, it’s by the sea, hence its name. The area is built for tourist I think. All the shops there feel like the ones in Granville Island in Vancouver, except better. And like many other areas in the bay area, the house price there is astronomical, averaging around 2.5mil. I guess it’s the spectacular view of the ocean from each house caused it to sky rise.

Another feature of Carmel-by-the-sea that increased its profile is the Pebble Beach Golf Course, one of the most famous golf course in the West coast. It costs around $700 to play there, since it’s mandatory to stay one night in the golf resort. However, you might run into Tiger Woods though.

Oh yeah, and the former mayor and still current resident of Carmel-by-the-sea happens to be Clint Eastwood. I will post up some pictures I took later on.

I mean pictures of Carmel-by-the-sea, not pictures of Mr. Eastwood.

Arrived in Bay Area – California Baby!

Saturday morning (8/18), woke up at 4:30am to catch my 7:30am flight. After 3 hours of flying, with additional 1 hour and half of waiting for my connection flight in Portland, I have arrived in San Jose.

It’s only my 2nd night here right now, but already encountered many interesting incidents. Especially on Saturday night when I went to watch a football pre-season game at San Francisco. I have to say, football games are definitely not for Asians. At least not watching them live. Walking around half the stadium, I saw less than 5 Asians. It was all white, black, and brown.

Unlike normal football games, this pre-season game featured the SF 49ers vs. the Oakland Raiders. Since both teams are from the Bay Area, with only one bridge separating them, fans from both teams showed up for the game. Of course, matters evidently get ugly with a mix of rivalry fans in the same place. Saw couple fights broke out that made me feared for my life since I’m a major minority in the stadium. I doubt people would notice or cared if I got stabbed there and then.

On the way out it was even more stressful. Imagining more than 45,000+ people trying to leave one parking lot at the same time. It took us nearly 1 hour to move about 10 meters. We saw people taking out their portable BBQ and setting up a grill while waiting to exit. No wonder so many people drove their RVs to the football game. It’s actually convenient and smart. In the end, it took us nearly 3 hours to get home for a drive that is only 35min according to google map.

That will be my last time watching a football game live. Unless it’s in the box seats and have helicopters picking me up.

 

My cousin’s house. Houses are so clean because it doesn’t rain much here.

 

The backyard, with a swing and a fish pond (on the right.)

 

The neighborhood.

 

Some other interesting things I’ve learned about San Jose and the Bay Area these two days are:

- The water here tastes weird. Vancouver truly has the best tasting tap water.

- Highway is the way. Everywhere you go, it will involve a rather long drive on the highway.

- The highways have ridiculously short merges for on-ramps. You’re expected to merge into the highway at 65+mi/hr within 5 meters. Without crashing!

- Driving fast is a must. You’ll get yourself killed if you drive at or below speed limit.

- Public transportation means carpooling with your co-worker or neighbors. Bus is just a myth.

- Bridges are not free.

- In an Asian supermarkets, all customers are Asians. All workers are Mexicans. And the white guy you see is just lost and trying to ask for directions.

- A 600,000 USD house is considered cheap and bad. A 1.2mil USD house is only average.

- Crossing the bridge from San Francisco to the other side feels like entering a different world.

- The only weather forecast at San Jose is sunshine or slight cloudy. A few drops of rain is a storm.

- In areas with larger population of Chinese, U-turning on streets is allowed.

 

Dubai – a Real Estate Marvel

There is something about Dubai that just attracts me. Every new project it plans, as magnificent as it is, always out does its previous. The coast line of Dubai has been very busy for the past few years having two major projects going on:

The Palms, three artificial islands constructed in the shaped of palm trees along the coast line of Dubai.

It’s simply astonishing. Something I would never thought of.

The World, consists of 300 man-made archipelago shaped as the world map being built off the coast of Dubai, where each island is off for bidding and purchasing. Each island can range from 14-45 million USD. When I first heard about this project I thought it was just a rumor. Now several years after, it’s near completion. (Reported 90% complete as of March 2007.)

I’m sure I’m not the only one thought that The World is a crazy idea when it was first proposed. But now we’ll see who will have the last laugh as those ultra rich people purchase the planet’s most unique real estate. More information can be found here: http://www.gizmag.com/go/3310/

Other than creating islands off the coast and stretching into the sea, Dubai is also expanding into the sky. The Burj Dubai building, which will become the world’s tallest building upon completion.

Actually, as of August 2007, the Burj Dubai has a reported height of 521.7m with 143 floors, which already surpasses the world’s current tallest building – Taipei 101 (509.2m.) The Burj Dubai is going be a mixture of hotels and residential apartments, which were completely sold out after 8 hours of announcing.

The Burj Dubai tower will become the centerpiece of an entirely new Dubai downtown, which is currently being built from scratch. That’s right, as of right now, it’s nothing but garbage and sand in that area. But will become as shown in the following image by late 2009.

Surrounding the Burj Dubai in the new downtown will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels such as the Burj Dubai Lake Hotel & Serviced Apartment, a huge park, at least 19 residential towers, a 0.12km sq. man-made Burj Dubai Lake, and a world largest Dubai Mall. (As in following image.)

Oh yeah, did I mention all these projects in downtown are constructed by one company – Emaar. Also, the whole Dubai will be connected through monorail. I wouldn’t be surprised though if they decided to use maglev trains instead. And let’s not forget about the Dubai Sports City that is being constructed outside the new downtown.

With that, and the wealth of Dubai, who can compete with them for the bidding of 2016 Summer Olympics game? Of course, all those above mentioned are still under construction.

Finally, there is the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. The one thing that’s actually finished already.

One of the things that I want to do in my lifetime is to visit Dubai with my family and friends and STAY at this 6-star hotel. To me, this is much more than a simple staying overnight in a hotel. I can do that anytime I want at a Holiday Inn. This Burj Al Arab is different!

I’ve already put a picture of the hotel as my desktop, since every time I see it, it motivates me.

You can click them for larger view. Just how can you not be moved by seeing these pictures. And that’s only the exterior. The interior images almost made me tear:

One day, you will find me vacationing in Dubai. I’ll be staying at the Burj Al Arab, so come look for me. I’ll be at the spa getting my massage.

台灣的新聞實在精采

台灣的亂象不是一天兩天了, 這是眾所皆知. 理論上看多了這種五花八門的新聞, 知覺應該也早麻痺了. 但是還是有些新聞會讓我啞口無言. 這是這幾天摘錄的幾篇.

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新聞1: 滿遭開單 嗆「靠山很硬」 蠻悍女大生 比中指扯破警衣

[摘錄]

淡江大學4年級嚴姓女學生由男友搭載，因交通違規遭士林警分局文林派出所洪姓員警攔檢開單，她離開時竟對洪員「比中指」又被攔下，她竟氣憤拉破員警制服，被銬派出所內仍大呼小叫，十分囂張。

…

嚴女家屬則請民意代表向警方施壓，要求警方不要為難嚴女，但警方秉公辦案，雖然未追究其男友侮辱公署的刑責，但仍將嚴女依妨害公務罪移送士林地檢署。

[/摘錄]

雖然保護子女是人性. 但是自己子女違反交通規則在先. 接著藐視公權, 妨礙公務, 襲警, 結果你身為父母竟然不是教訓女兒反而是找民意代表對警方施壓. 嚴女家屬阿, 跟你們講, 嚴女今天會這樣根本上就是你們身為父母輩的問題.

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新聞2: 先嫁姪後愛叔 生下兄妹成姑姪

看了這個新聞我也不知道說什麼了. 整個有點傻住.

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新聞3: 丟錢要她墮胎 資優女告性侵

現在在台灣交男女朋友要很小心. 尤其是男生, 一不小心你惹火了女友, 她就會告你性侵害. 很危險! 而且也不用管說判決如何. 在台灣這種社會跟媒體, 你被告, 上新聞就等於被判有罪. 根本就不會有人做事後追蹤.

還有, 為什麼在台灣這麼容易就可以上網認識男女. 然後約出去見面嘿咻？ 新聞應該報導一下說他們是經由哪個聊天室認識.  我在溫哥華這裡只有 Facebook 可以用. 跟台灣比起來太遜了. 我也想見識那些聊天室…

Bring back the touch-tone systems

Where are the good old touch tone services? Seems like many companies and government agencies have adapted to using voice message systems. You know, those ones where it feels like you’re talking to a real person but actually it’s just a recorded message with speech detection. (I bet some of them are actually real person pretending to be a machine.) Nonetheless, those systems are awful! At least a lot of them. This is what happened between Cindy, a name I made up for the voice message system girl for Health Insurance BC, and I.

Cindy: “Hello! Thank you for calling Health Insurance BC help line. You can start by saying any key words that you would like more information on. Else, if you hear the topic you want to learn more about in the following list, simply repeat it.”

Me: “Premium assistance.”

Cindy: “I’m sorry, I do not understand. Please repeat again.”

Me: “Premium assistance.”

Cindy: “You’ve said pre-authorized payment. Is that correct?”

Me: “NO!”

Cindy: “Oh. I’m sorry. Please repeat again.”

Me: “Premium Assistance!”

Cindy: “I’m sorry. I can’t hear you. Please try again.”

Me: “PREEE-MIII-UMM ASSISTANCEEE”

Cindy: “I’m sorry. I can’t hear you. Please call again. Goodbye!”

It was one of the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever had over the phone. It’s like talking with a 5-year old who simply doesn’t try to listen whatever you say. And it’s not like I speak unclear English with a fobbish accent. I’m sure the problem is not me. They really should just switch back to the touch-tone system.