travel – Page 5 – ray+ashley+emery

October 18, 2008November 10, 2008

Boston

In Mid October, Ash and I went back home to visit my parents in Newton, this time we went together and stayed there for a week!Â Since we were there for a week, we had the opportunity to do a lot more things than usual, spending a whole day in downtown Boston enjoying the city.Â With the Big Dig done, what was once construction and yellow tape turned to gardens and plazas.Â The city has really changed giving it the beauty of old American charm with a modern design.Â Here’s some snaps:

My dad and I walking through downtown Boston.

Dad had a ping pong tournament that week.
Here’s him using his tricky back handed slice serve

My mom and I watching Dad play.

Bean eating the famous Hay Market Pizza.Â Best pizza in Boston, at least we think so…

Out in South Boston with some of the bros, Jimmy, Simon and Brian (from left).

@BU Hockey, Terriers vs. Merrimac, (From Right) Shirin, Arang, Steve, Amanda, Danny, Ween, Stein

October is also the brother brithday month, a great excuse to have two birthday cakes in a row!

What’s Bean wishing for?Â Driving Permit, iPod Touch, or Susan Lucci to win Dancing with the Stars?

Of course dad is ever enhancing the house with basic upgrades like an outdoor kitcken.Â Here we are taking a picture of the recent achievements. 🙂

No trip home would not have been complete with some great cooking from Mom.

Steamed Fish with ginger and scallion

Dry Marinated Beef

My favorite, a dish only my Mom and Grandma makes, Fried Casserole.

Speaking of Mom, she has been continuing on her quest to become the next Michelle Quan.Â Mom skates 3 or more times a week at 2 to 3 hours each session sometime longer.Â She started from ground zero literally shuffling across the ice clutching the sideboards.Â This time we went, Mom was skating backwards, do spins and looking very comfortable!Â Ash brought her skates this time too and here’s her and mom fooling around at Walter Brown Arena.

October 6, 2008October 7, 2008

Been a long time…

It’s been awhile since I last posted. Â Things got pretty busy after Ashley’s birthday. Â Here’s some updates:

iPHONE

Most importantly, I made the best purchase of 2008, the iPhone 3G!!!! Â This thing rocks. Â It’s like a mini computer. Â I use for work email, music, calendar, GPS, facebook and games. Â Like the ad says, this has changed everything. Â I am also happy to announce that my old Motorola flip phone that was worse than the first cell phone I ever got is sitting quietly in some dark drawer gathering dust…

Ok with that major event out of the way…

Ashley’s Hawaii and Cali Trip

In August Ash went to Hawaii and California to visit family. Â It was her PoPo’s 90th birthday on August 27th!! Â She still looks quite good for her age and still enjoys fried food, especially fried shrimp and roast duck on a regular basis. Â Now that is a women with a good digestive system!

Ash also took lots of great photos of plants and flowers in Hawaii to use as materials for her painting. This one is my favorite and she should definitely paint this one.

California is also where Ziggy lives (LA). Â Ash spent lots of time with Megan and Dylan going to Disney Land and Sea World. I grew up on sesame street but these Cali kids grew up on Disney!

Ray in India

Around the same time in August, I went to India again to kick off another project with the Spark City team there. Â It started out great and I was having a great time working with everyone until I got sort of viral fever that was quite common in August after the monsoon. Â Unfortunately the fever knocked me out for the last week of the 2 weeks I was there. Â I still had a great time and we achieved all that I had hoped but I really wish I had the energy to spend more time with the team that last week.

Apple Picking

September was for the most part a heads down week for work though the weekends were pretty busy as well. Â Ash and I went with the Lo’s to enjoy some Georgia apple picking which also included farm favorite attractions like cow milking, pig races and the plenty of fried food southern style. Â Below is a photo of Ash and I poking our faces through these cheesey cut-outs. Â We love these things and take a photo like this everywhere we find one. Â How do I look with the curls?

Ian’s visit to the US

Ian also came and visited in September. Â It was his first time in the US and Ash and I drove down to Savanah where he was attending a conference. Â It has been alittle over 10 Years since we last saw each other in Beijing and Harbin. Â He was just 15 then and now he’s married! Â We had a great time catching up and I was sorry to see him go. Â In my generation in China, most people don’t have siblings so cousins are like brothers and sisters. Â I wish him and his wife the best!

Hollywod’s Bachelor Party

It was also Hollhywood’s bachlor party in September as well and I had a great time acting like the college days with the bros. Â We went skeet shooting, had lots of good food, and plenty of drinks. Â Here’s a cool photo of me shooting down a wild boar! Â Just kidding, it was a clay disc…

May 12, 2008June 1, 2008

Boston for Mother’s Day

This past weekend, I went home to Boston to spend some time with Mom. It’s always so nice to go back, my parents treat me like a king and feel like I am in college again. Taking the train from the airport back to Newton reminded me of how different Atlanta is from Boston. The “T’ is a way of life in Boston, where MARTA in Atlanta often gets forgotten. Also I really miss Boston’s ethnic diversity.

A few great things about being home: Hanging with my parents, seeing Bean, eating my mom’s cooking, lounging around a real house, going out with old friends from college and high school. If Boston wasn’t so cold, I might be tempted talk to Ash about seriously moving back!

Here’s some pics of the weekend.

My favorite picture of Mom and Dad.Â This was taken on the porch steps in our back yard.

Mom looks so young in this picture.Â She has so much energy these days.

Steps towards our front door.Â Taken from our driveway.

Our house is so nice now.Â Since Dad did allÂ the work, it’s almost unrecognizable from what it was when we first bought it.Â It’s so comfortable staying home.Â Â Dad did such a great job, I hope I can take some really great set of photos one day to capture his handy work.

Ah, the food.Â This is batter fried carrots and onions.Â It’s awesome, sort of like tempura sweet fries.

My mom’s cooking is so good.Â See how happy Dad is 🙂

This is what I miss living away from the hometown.Â Â We hung out at Our House, Arang (left), Wan (Center), Simon (not in picture) and Marilon (not in picture) drinking and catching up.Â Proud to say I was the Connect Four champion that night.

March 19, 2008June 1, 2008

Yippieeee!!! Home to Hawaii Again…

I have absolutely nothing to complain about being a student again. I never thought I’d have another Spring Break again after undergrad. But thank goodness… my dream came true… Spring Break 2008!! 🙂 Going back to Hawaii to see my grandma, parents and friends was such a treat. It was a lot of fun and I loaded up on papaya and pok’e. That was pretty much my staple throughout the stay. Everytime I go home, I try to take my grandma somewhere she hasn’t been to before to try new food. This time, it was Kakaako Kitchen, near Ward Center and Ala Moana. I think she liked it since it was her type of food, fried, fried, and more fried. 🙂 It’s amazing that she’s in good health after all the fried food she’s digested over the years. I’m thankful for that. Aside from her foot problem, she’s in great shape, especially for a lady who is going to turn 90 this year! 🙂 I also spent some time with my parents which was cool and of course, hung out with Cathy. She is my going-out-partying buddy everytime I go home. I also saw some friends who I’ve lost touch with over the years and hung out with them too. It was really nice. It’s always good to be home. I really do miss Hawaii and hope to go back there and live there someday.

On my way back to Atlanta, I stopped by L.A. for a day and a half and stayed with my sister’s family. We took my niece Meagan and nephew, Dylan to Disneyland!!!! My niece, of course, loveeeddd it. She was smiles ear to ear all day there and was filled with energy.

It’s tough keeping up with her! I had a great time there and was so happy to see them. We rode most of the rides at Disneyland and the lines weren’t so bad. Too bad the ride “Small World” was closed due to renovation until later this year. That’s my favorite ride since childhood. Meagan loved all the rides and Dylan was busy looking at girls. Haha, just kidding. He does like to charm the ladies, though. 🙂 He’s a great baby. He’s not fussy or hard to deal with at all. He’s usually a pretty happy baby overall. I can’t wait to see them again!

March 15, 2008

Spark City India Team

I had a great time work with the Spark City team.Â Everyone is very enthusiastic about the project and working with the technology.Â We have a good mix of both young and veteran team members and it’s really nice to see everyone pitching in to do their share.Â It has been a great learning experience for me as well.Â I was able to accomplish so many things during just two weeks, that the same would have taken me twice to three times as long if I were in the US.

We spent a lot of time going through the logic of each development function.Â We printed out the screen design, wireframesÂ to plan out work activities and wrote test cases.Â We also spent some significant amount of time on overall project context, giving the team an idea of the business reason, the coca-cola culture and our clients.Â We also had a discussions about quality and how we all can improve the user experience.

Here’s a picture of the full team.

Every morning, we have a LLP (low level plan) meeting where each person goes through what they did yesterday and their plan for the day.Â It’s also the opportunity to identify or escalate any issues or risks.Â In typical Sapient style, the LLP is on a huge whiteboard.Â Every team has one and at the end of each LLP meeting there is a team cheer.Â So in the morning with five or six other teams in the same floor, you hear everyone’s team cheer.Â Our’s is Spark City Halla Bol.Â (I forget what it means, and I think I also spelled it wrong -will correct later)