Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Road Trips Maps Collection

Map collection of recent road trips in chronological order

"Lessons from revenge travel" like the Scotland/Ireland Trip was posted separately.

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September 2023 Iceland Trip


March 2023 New Zealand Discovery Trip.
















June 20, 2022 Scotland and Ireland Trip (originally scheduled in 2020, but canceled due to Covid-19,  and further postponed in 2021 due to Covid-19) 




May 9, 2019 France Trip



















May 10, 2018 Greece

















May 4, 2017 Portugal and Spain



















May 5, 2016 Germany


















May 10, 2015 Central Europe - Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, Venice/Italy

First Gate1 Tour Group we attended.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Lessons from Revenge Travel - especially internationally

Positive antigen test example.








This trip of mine ended on July 5 in Dublin, Ireland.  


Covid impact on a 15-day Gate1 Scotland-Ireland road trip was startling, starting day 1 with 34 people and ending at day 15 down to 25. Note that the 9 dropouts included 5 tested positive after feeling ill, and 4 were their roommates or spouses.

These are the Gate1 tour bus protocols which I think are very responsible and pragmatical.  Face masking was required on the bus at all times. When someone was sick, negative antigen testing was required to continue the trip.  One can rejoin the group only when negative antigen testing was demonstrated after recovery.




With these pandemic omicron variants, buses and airplanes are super spreader mediums in my opinion.



To deal with unexpected negative test results for the trip, these are important and preferred skill sets to allow for speedy recovery.  Technical currency in using mobile phone apps - includes local taxi hailing apps like Uber and FreeNow (in Europe) and Google Maps for restaurants, transportation alternatives. With these apps and help from the hotel personnel, one can find the Randox Health Travel Center in the Ireland cities.






The DIY antigen test kits should be packed for travel like your other goody vitamins.

Watch for travel chaos and staff shortage near and around the airports.  Although face masking is not mandatory anymore on public transportation systems, I would argue strongly to wear masks in closed systems like subways, buses, and airplanes.

We are done with Covid mentally, but the Covid is not done with us yet.  Revenge travel is popular and irresistible, but it is not as safe as you may think.  You can run into serious headwinds. The Guardian news had it that New Zealand faced a new Covid wave as experts sat moving on from the pandemic was 'wishful thinking'. 

There is a new Omicron variant dominating the U.S. It may pose the biggest threat to immunity yet. My read is that immunity does not build after contracting Covid.  So no matter how many times you are infected the symptoms are not less.

References:

[1] Gate1 Travel https://www.gate1travel.com/

[2] Wishful Thinking https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/05/new-zealand-faces-new-covid-wave-as-experts-say-moving-on-from-pandemic-is-wishful-thinking

[3] BA.4 and Ba.5 from NBC News https://apple.news/AYU_xjWx_SOS4jBTq7nzFXg

Friday, May 27, 2022

Ode to Prague, May 24, 2022

This is based on my original 9-picture posting on WeChat. Arrival blog was posted a month ago.

Ode to Prague

1. Witch Burning Night

2. Žižkov Television Tower - crawling babies

3. Prague street in early evening

4. Crawling babies in Kampa Park

5. Charles Bridge from Kampa Island

6. John Lennon Wall

7. Petřín Hill, Lookout Tower - St. Vitus Cathedral

8. Petřín Hill, Lookout Tower

9. Take a guess, what is this in Prague?















































































Take off your shoes in the (Sports Center Olšanka) swimming pool’s locker room. More than that, I was told that guests are expected to take their shoes off when entering Czech home. Sounds familiar? I was surprised !



Sunday, April 24, 2022

TEFL Certification at Prague, Czech Republic

I am writing this blog in Prague, Czech Republic.









I got to know Prague through the infamous Soviet-led crackdown on the Prague Spring Movement in 1968. Now, fifty some years later, we are witnessing another similar invasion from Russia.  It is a deja vu to me.









Why TEFL?

I planned to spend some time in Europe, France and Spain especially, before the Covid-19 pandemic started at the beginning of 2020. To make the trips more varied and meaningful, I ran across work possibilities to teach English to supplement some income plus room and board for a few months at a time. Then, I realized that there are certification programs to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL). Many young people took this as a way to travel and see the world.

With Google search and Google reviews, I found that a few reputable programs do this. One of them is based in Prague and here I come in April 2022. I taught graduate courses in data structure and algorithm analysis at Santa Clara University computer engineering department in the 90s.  But, teaching English to a broader audience is quite different I imagine. I could benefit from a structured program to do this effectively and a certification can go a long way in getting good jobs. There is an ecosystem in this trade that and this certification can give me that exposure.  Besides, Prague is a world famous city to visit and spend a month in.

I arrived at Prague Thursday afternoon for some acclimation and jet lag adjustment. I don't know the language at all although many people speak English.  After all, it is a favorite city for tourists. I found some beginner Czech language books and some Youtube videos to get the basics

Czech language alphabet is based on Latin letters with diacritical marks. It has similar grammatical constructs similar to other Latin-based languages like French and Spanish. But the Czech nouns have 7 cases and three genders.  These are similar to the Latin language. And the declension (case system) makes it a whole lot more complicated to me.

I won't have much time to write blogs like this one for a while once my school starts Monday. I have to study and prepare lesson plans to teach guinea pigs students in the afternoon.

As a tourist in Prague.

On Friday, I visited Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. I also took the advantage of a good sunny day and bought a ticket for a guided tour in the Clock Tower. I bought a monthly pass for all Prague public transportations for 1000 crowns, which is close to $45 USD.  I enjoyed their buses and trams. So far, I don't even need the subway to get around. 

I like their honor system in that you just keep the pass/ticket in your wallet in case an inspector asks to see it.

You can see many images and photos of Prague city on the Internet . I only show a few of my own here.

This is next to the Charles Bridge looking at Prague Castle.










This one was at the foot of the Statue of John of Nepomuk.



Notice that I touched the two shiny spots so that I will go back to Prague in the future.  I needed to do this as my family had a Gate1 central Europe tour in September. One does not want to mess with the legends.



This one was at the St. Vitus Cathedral.









On Saturday, I visited  the Old Town Square. I took the advantage of a good sunny day and bought a ticket for a guided tour in the Clock Tower. The tour was interesting and worth it.  You got to see the town hall basement and their history when the city was first developed.



This was the astronomical clock that day.












It was a very elegant design of the clock tower elevator.












Looking down to see the old town square from the top of the clock tower.







I went to the nearby St. Wenceslas Church early on Sunday morning.


This was the Church Interior towards the altar.

I attended the 8:30am mass. It was indeed a Catholic and Universal church. The flow of the mass liturgy was clearly recognizable although I had no knowledge of the Czech language. Nevertheless, the words alleluia, Jerusalem and Thomas were heard. Today’s gospel reading has the doubting Thomas story…

It is a beautiful piece of architecture to me. I can barely believe that it is a Catholic Church.





We have a pre-class student gathering near the school site for Sunday lunch.  I like another honor system and tradition again. On the checkout time, everyone reports what he/she ordered and pays accordingly. I have a lot of respect for the Czech people.


Well, the humble Zeitraum Student Housing I am in.








References:

Friday, April 22, 2022

A Field Trip Day to San Francisco with Public Transportations

On Tuesday, April 19, 2022, I had a field trip to San Francisco with public transportations. Why? Continue reading this blog.

I started with my Senior Clipper VTA card with $10.00 in it.  

I had to start the day early to make sure that I would not be late for the passport application appointment in San Francisco.

San Francisco Passport Agency

450 Golden Gate Ave.

3rd Floor

Suite #3-2501

San Francisco, CA 94102


6:30am 

It took 15 minutes from Campbell home to Caltrain Lawrence station.  Jeanet took me there and this is the weakest link in the trip. Other segments are more or less reliable and there is no need for private cars.


7:09am - 8:07am 

Caltrain to Millbrae transfer to BART $1.85, face covering required.






















8:20am - 8:48am

Red BART from Millbrae to SF Civic Center $2.30





9:15am - 9:40am

Checked in at the SF passport agency - 9:40 done with my application review. I was asked to pick up at 3:30pm in the afternoon.


Now, I had this time to kill in the city.  There is a nearby Asian Art museum, which would be great to visit.  Unfortunately I was told at the door that the museum is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I had to come back next time.


I saw a double decker tour bus. I asked about its length, time 2 hours and 20 minutes if I don't get out of the bus and it would cost $59.


I decided to visit San Francisco City Hall instead.  It is a great place for the newlyweds to take photos there.  I saw 3 or 4 couples in that one hour.






















11:09am - 11:45am 

At Market & 8th street bus stop, I took street car F to Pier 39 ($1.25) for lunch and some crowd and sunshine.






















I had lunch at the original Boudin soup and sandwich restaurant for $15.98.



12:38pm - 1:13pm 

I took the street car F back from Stockton & Beach to Market & 8th ($0.00 may be I am still in that original fare's time window)

I hung out at the second floor cafeteria in that federal building until 3:15pm. It was a pleasant place to stay.


3:15pm - 3:35pm

There are five "will call" windows at the agency, and I guess that there are at least 100 pickups at the passport agency.


3:53pm - 4:59pm

I took Green BART from Civic Center to Milpitas for $2.95.


5:22pm - 5:37pm 

I transferred to the VTA light rail orange line (Mountain View bound) to Champion.






5:43pm - 6:32pm 

I transferred again to Green Line at Champion to Winchester for a total of $1.00. This is a long la la ride through San Jose downtown.


At Winchester light rail station, I was picked up by Jeanet to Campbell home.  This is about 3 miles and it is also a weak link in the whole trip.

I ended with my Senior Clipper VTA card with $0.65 left in it.  Maybe the regular fare will be twice that.

What a different and productive day!  Believe it or not, one day turnaround for your US passport.  It was possible for me.


[Brain Teaser Game]

These days we all need some puzzle of sorts for the readers.  Here is one for my readers who consider themselves familiar with Bay Area geography.  Please order the stations from Lawrence to Millbrae.  Leave the ones out you are not sure first, and then take a guess.  The answer can be found in the reference #2.  How did you do? Let me know.

Stations: Belmont, Burlingame, California Ave., Hayward Park, Hillsdale, Sunnyvale, Menlo ParkMountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Antonio, San Carlos, and San Mateo.

References:

  1. VTA https://www.vta.org/
  2. Caltrain system map https://www.caltrain.com/stations/systemmap.html
  3. BART system map https://www.bart.gov/system-map 
  4. VTA Light Rail System map https://www.vta.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/LR-Map-2020.pdf

Friday, February 4, 2022

I am a Human Petri Dish - Part 3/3

 It has been five years since my last posting in this forum.  I don't normally write and post anything that my friends can find in Google search and read about.  This trip is unique and this incarceration is voluntary in some way.  I am writing a short journal entry each day in isolation.  It is probably worth writing and sharing, and thus the restart of my blogpost.

I am in Taipei, Taiwan right now and I am in a quarantine hotel. The purpose of the quarantine is to isolate me and see if any Covid-19 viruses will manifest themselves in this period. I do feel like I am a human Petri Dish during this pandemic.

Click for Part 1/3 here. Click for Part 2/3 here.

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Day 10 - Monday, January 31, 2022

I did my third and last antigen self-test this morning.  It was negative. And this coming Friday I would have to do an actual PCR test at a mobile van outside of the quarantine hotel. That's one day before my departure on Saturday.

I finally finished my reading and study on "Le Petit Prince" today. I liked this book and its message. I added this book to the collection of my favorite books, including "Of Mice and Men" and "Animal Farm." There are many good quotes from the book. One of my favorites is below.  It resonates with me well. This is how I see relationships, including love, between friends and between family members. This voluntary taming act can create a lasting and wonderful relationship. But, if, for some reason, there is pain and burden in this, then I would say that is self-inflicted and we should also accept that voluntarily. 

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." -- Chapter XXI

It is interesting to find out that there is a wikiquote website in addition to my favorite wikipedia.  I should send in my support annually for this effort.

Day 11 - Tuesday, February 1, 2022


Today is the Chinese New Year of the Tiger.  I can relate quite nicely to this tiger caricature shown here. He is old, but calm, and is sipping some liquor appropriate to the holiday season. Normally, it is an occasion to be with family and friends.  Being locked up in a hotel room is definitely a first for me.

Only recently I noticed that the Chinese lunar New Year is celebrated in California only by Chinese and Vietnamese among Asian populations in California. For example, none of my Japanese colleagues ever got excited about the lunar New Year in my recollection. The following is the result of my research,

In 1893, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar and the first day of January became the official and cultural New Year's Day in Japan. Some of the remnant celebrations related to the lunar New Year existed here and there, but nothing official.  After more than one hundred years, the old tradition gradually faded away.

After Japan annexed Korea in the early part of the 20th century, the celebration of the lunar New Year was prohibited.  The Japanese rulers set the official Korean New Year to the first day of the Gregorian calendar, following the Japanese New Year convention.  Korea was liberated in 1945 and the celebrations of the lunar New Year were then possible.  It was not until in the 1980s that the old lunar New Year was designated as both the official Korean New Year and a national holiday.

New Year celebration is an important part of cultural manifestations. It is closely linked to ethnical, cultural, and even national identities.  Lunar calendars are used by many cultures throughout history with certain variations. Lunar calendars can vary on how the calendar is adjusted to align with seasonal patterns (that is solar based),  and most notably the geological meridian of the nation. This so-called New Year can change and can have different implications.  For example, celebrating the Chinese New Year carries a different implication from that of celebrating the lunar New Year.  

Day 12 - Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Pandemic brings many problems to modern society including burnout, lack of focus, exhaustion, irritability, and sometimes withdrawal. The unrest and protests around the world reflect this anxiety in our society. It calls for resourcefulness and resilience for every individual. If you have to go through quarantine, then that requirement of those qualities is even more pronounced.


I am thankful to the BBC World Service programming to accompany me in this locked-up state. The bento boxes everyday from the hotel are reasonable and filling. Though, I am grateful to my friends who send me fruit baskets shown here as they are life-savers in this environment. They allow you to remember the good taste and bites of the fruits that suddenly disappear from your daily intake.


In lieu of physical exercises, I resort to stretching daily, simulating my front crawl strokes.  Physical exercises are necessary to keep us sane. No wonder that there are basketball courts in prison settings.


Day 13 - Thursday, February 3, 2022

The end of quarantine is near now. I plan to pick a few things to wrap up.  I have the habit of creating Google documents for all my activities. The actual writing re-enforces my learning and enjoyment although there is a good possibility that I shall not read them ever again :-). It is good to reach clear-cut milestones between major switches of daily routines.

The two neural networks lectures in my machine learning thread were very informative.  It put the calculus, the gradient descent based optimization technique, and the statistical modeling all in one pot (architecture).  The neurons and how they relate to each other through layers and through the so-called parameters are somewhat fuzzy.  The key to driving its usefulness and success, I think, is the supervised learning model over lots of data. The availability of a large dataset can compensate for the hodgepodge set of parameters.

The next thing is to finish my "water" calligraphy practice on "The Heart Sutra." One should do the brush stroke firmly and slowly, remembering where and when to turn and twist while focusing on the down and up motions. I cannot do too much practice every day. One can only appreciate so much during each practice session as there is learning fatigue with diminishing returns.

Day 14 - Friday, February 4, 2022

A PCR test for this human petri dish was carried out this morning.  A negative test will be required to end the quarantine.  No news is good news, and I am prepared to leave this hotel tomorrow morning after breakfast.

In the last installment of this quarantine journal, I will reflect on the current trend of various social media platforms, in which one can express his/her own opinions and in most cases follow the opinions of the celebrities. People wish to express their thoughts and scream for others to hear them, but they are often unwilling and unable to listen to others. Most people just read the headlines and click-click-forward :-(. They barely read the content and ponder on the issues. They are excited to forward the pieces that agree with their point-of-views and feel disgusted with the pieces that are not in agreement with their own.

Personally, I definitely read original pieces or commentaries that are written by my acquaintances. I read articles from reputable sources. If someone won't jot down a reason or two on why they forward to me, I won't bother opening the message. I especially resent those habitual forwarders who never speak of their own mind. A robotic avatar can probably do that job better.

If this craze and attitude continues, the society will eventually spiral out of control and break down. Some form of autocracy might replace unrestrained democracy. Individual freedom will suffer, but some might be happy to see collective orderliness for a change. Unfortunately, autocracy has a natural tendency to perpetuate itself through other means at the expense of personal freedom. This might be a fact of like that things do swing between extremes.

In light of the recent political showdown between Russia and the West over Ukraine sovereignty, this is specially relevant to me. I am quite pessimistic that democracies might lose out, in some not-so-distant future, to autocracies if we don't have the sensibility to correct and behave ourselves.

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References:

  1. The Gay Genius - Biography of Su Tungpo 蘇東坡, by Lin Yutang 
  2. EYArt 意外艺术 on Youtube - about 蘇東坡
  3. Stanford CS229 Autumn 2018 by Andrew Ng [20 lectures] - college-level calculus and probability/statistics required
  4. Le Petit Prince -  French versionEnglish translation, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  5. The Heart Sutra 心經 - dated since 661 CE, the famous 色即是空,空即是色 This Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is This Body
  6. Thich Nhat Hanh's English translation of The Heart Sutra 
  7. Quotes from Le Petit Prince https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
  8. Japanese New Year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_New_Year
  9. Korean New Year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_New_Year 

Sunday, January 30, 2022

I am a Human Petri Dish - Part 2/3

It has been five years since my last posting in this forum.  I don't normally write and post anything that my friends can find in Google search and read about.  This trip is unique and this incarceration is voluntary in some way.  I am writing a short journal entry each day in isolation.  It is probably worth writing and sharing, and thus the restart of my blogpost.

I am in Taipei, Taiwan right now and I am in a quarantine hotel. The purpose of the quarantine is to isolate me and see if any Covid-19 viruses will manifest themselves in this period. I do feel like I am a human Petri Dish during this pandemic.

Click for Part 1/3 here.

=====

Day 5 - Wednesday, January 26, 2022

The international news was mostly on the imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and the volatile US stock markets in the last few days.  The brinkmanship between NATO and Russia is truly unnerving. I don't know whether the imminent, when escalated to that level, invasion of China to Taiwan will trigger similar responses around the world. The NASDAQ is already in the correction phase from its recent high.  The wide swing between the initial big sell-off and the last-hour recovery during the trading day is truly remarkable.  Certainly there are still people trying to get in to this already overvalued equity market.  There is probably too much cash floating that needs a place to invest.

I continued my French reading today, that is, the book "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was not an easy book to read at my level, but I was about 80 percent complete.  I had three chapters left in my first French book.  I liked this book very much as there was much to appreciate and ponder through the observations and conversations between this alien little prince and the aviator author whose plane crashed in the Sahara desert. Why French again after almost 20 years hiatus? It is my wishful thinking that Michael and I would visit and drive around France in July this summer.  Given the way the omicron variant virus ravages the world now, this planning is very shaky to the least. 

Day 6 - Thursday, January 27, 2022


Ah, what a surprise last night! I woke up to the sound of water dripping.  It was not a dream. The water dripped from the ceiling near the bathroom.  I called the front desktop and they delivered a couple of towers. I was told that help from the maintenance crew would be early in the morning.  I told them to inform my upstairs room people to make sure that the source could be stopped just in case.  I suspected that the accumulation of water and steam in the shower stall could be the culprit.  It gradually stopped and fortunately I was able to continue my sleep.

The maintenance crew came in the morning, but need to open up more places to find the problems as obvious places appear to be dry.  The management team agrees to move me to another room so that the maintenance crew can do their exploratory fix.  In the meantime, the bedding and sheets are all replaced.  Crossing my fingers that there would be no more leaks tonight.

Day 7 - Friday, January 28, 2022

I did my second antigen self-test today. It was great to be in the negative. I was also moved to room 1109, which was next door and that made my "moving" fairly straightforward. The room is not bad and certainly I don't want to witness water leakage again.



I did the usual routines: Pokémon game refresh, Chinese culture and economy update in Youtube channels, machine learning lecture, and something new today, the Chinese water calligraphy on reusable cloth worksheets.

Chinese calligraphy was sort of a requirement in my middle and high school education when I grew up.  But few people took it seriously as long as the assignments were turned in and counted.  When I visited a friend in Taipei a few years back, I was inspired by his calligraphy work and I decided then to pick up this pursuit. Chinese calligraphy helped me to concentrate and focus. I enjoyed my own progress as well as improved artistic appreciation. 

I had the habit of understanding what I was writing about from those few famous templates. That forced me to read historical backgrounds and some classical literature pursuits.  That was intellectually satisfying.

The pandemic changed things.  I learned to read more online in current events, history, culture, geography, and travel.  And I also started regular swimming almost on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I reached a serious plateau on calligraphy.  I found excellent Youtube channels on learning Chinese calligraphy.  Somehow I was convinced that I would not progress much further and I should spend more time on language and culture learning for my planned road trips in Europe and Japan with my son Michael. I stopped ink brush practices a year ago. I needed to have a realistic and fulfilling exit strategy for my remaining time on earth :-).



Water calligraphy was an inspiration to me when I saw it.  It uses water, no ink, on reusable worksheets and it is environment friendly.  Some worksheets come with preprinted traces and one can really practice. It is not as realistic as the real ink, but for my level and for my purpose, this is a good compromise. Here you can see my practice results while some parts are drying.

Day 8 - Saturday, January 29, 2022

Today is my halfway milestone.  I will be out of quarantine next week this time.  I look forward to taking a walk in the park and checking out my favorite breakfast place.

I continued on my machine learning and neural networks online lecture and he was a good teacher as he knew where to pause and drill down in details to build up a good intuitive framework.  I enjoyed this very much.  

I spent some time combing through Pokémon storage space and enhancing my battling portfolio. The Pokémon game and games in general can be useful to learn life skills.  This is a collector's game. In a simulated environment, you manage your resources and goals.  This requires cognitive skill, good planning, multi-attribute evaluation, tradeoff, and optimization.  There are some social aspects also, and you have other players as your friends whom you trade goodies with, battle together or battle against each other. Just like everything else, one should not be addicted to the game and forget to live a balanced life with all things considered.

Day 9 - Sunday, January 30, 2022



I bought the water calligraphy work booklet shown here around this time last year from a street vendor in Taipei. It was a welcome change to practice against this real calligraphy piece instead of practicing the basic strokes on a big worksheet.  That happened to be the famous "Heart Sutra" totaling 260 words in Chinese.

The Heart Sutra is one of the most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. I could not help but to learn and understand the essence and importance of the sutra and its history. It is definitely a Zen piece with its cryptic teachings full of apparent contradiction and mysticism.  There is an English translation by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The translation is beautiful, but radical. There is also an excellent exegesis for the sutra to rationalize his translation.  The links are shown in the reference section.

Incidentally, from the BBC World Service news, Thich Nhat Hanh passed away a week ago on January 22 at the age of 95 in Vietnam. That's my quarantine Day 1. 

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References:

  1. The Gay Genius - Biography of Su Tungpo 蘇東坡, by Lin Yutang 
  2. Le Petit Prince -  French version, English translation, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  3. The Heart Sutra 心經 - dated since 661 CE, the famous 色即是空,空即是色 This Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is This Body
  4. Thich Nhat Hanh's English translation of The Heart Sutra