Opening Ceremony

Wow! The Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was absolutely amazing. I can't help but feel a bit of the nationalistic fervor even as I watched here in NYC. They prepped 8 years for this, and it must have exceeded expectations still. Watch at:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/nbcencore/

While I am a little disappointed I didn't get tickets to the Opening (they were ridiculously expensive, thousands of US dollars), I'm really excited now about going to Beijing next week!

More Eating & Running in NY

So I got back in NY for another week, which meant more eating and running around:

Pictures from running on the Upper East Side:



Pizza at Luzzo's with Jhony:



Pizza at Lombardo's with Ziwen:

Luzzo's had a better crust, but Lombardi's came heavier on toppings.

Running with TJ in Corona Park / Flushing Meadows:




Ridiculously large serving of Shaved Ice at Queen's Crossing while meeting up with Hsuan Wen, Jason, and TJ:

Boston

So now I'm in Boston... hanging out with friends and family in the area. However, I couldn't resist going back to Shangri-la (twice), a small Chinese restaurant hidden in the suburbs of Belmont. Surprisingly, it is one of my favorite restaurants on the entire US East Coast. While they serve very authentic Taiwanese dim sum and a host of Sichuan dishes, its quiet, secret location gives it even more charm. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the chef there used to be the dim sum chef at one of Taipei's top hotel restaurants, the Ambassador Hotel (台北國賓飯店).


Every dish you order there is delicious, but the my personal favorite has always been one called "Ants Crawling up a Tree" (螞蟻上樹), a noodle dish with bits of shredded meat in a spicy sauce. The flavoring is amazing, and they make it more soupy than most places. However, what really separates it is the noodles - they don't use rice noodles (米粉) like other places, instead, it's a clear noodle that's very chewy and... "QQ" is the term in Taiwanese.

Ants Crawling up a Tree:

Salt and Pepper Shrimp (椒鹽蝦):

Roasted Duck with Pancakes (similar to Peking Duck):

Zhajiang Noodles (炸醬麵)

My aunt and uncle and I looking satisfied in front of Shangri-la:

Shangri-la (四川小館) is located at:
149 Belmont St
Belmont, MA 02478
(617) 489-1488

Columbia Heights to the White House

Perhaps it two things in the post's title seem strange: 1) Columbia Heights, and 2) White House. Columbia Heights, years before, was a pretty scary neighborhood in DC, where murders and riots were routine. In the last 9 years or so, the area has gentrified quite a bit, enough so that my Cleveland friend JK felt "relatively safe" coming in at about 2am. Now it's known as the place where my friend Jason rolls his oats and makes his own bread; the only inconvenience seems to be that garbage sprouts out of gardens like flowers, and cockroaches come out to the sidewalks to play at dusk.

As for the White House, it's usually not a destination I have in mind when I go running, but regardless, I decided to go for a jog today since I hadn't done so in more than a week. From Columbia Heights to the White House was about 6 miles roundtrip, which I did in a decent 52 minutes. Running through DC was relatively easy, though as you near downtown, they seemed to space out the traffic lights so that at running speed, every time you near the next block, you hit another red light (which I did not count as part of my time). Perhaps the sequencing is great for walkers or drivers, but extremely annoying for runners.

Anyhow, all that extra time waiting around caused me to be running late for my flight out of Dulles Airport, and so I ended up having to take a taxi from West Falls Church after missing the bus there - it was $38! And when I got there, the flight was delayed (even though it was fine when I checked on it before I got in the taxi). Ridiculous.

At least I got to see a crazy red sun.

DC

Since in all this time that I've been on the East Coast, I haven't been able to go to Washington DC (it's been about 8 years), I decided I should first take a short trip out there before I head out of the country. I had a friend from Cleveland that was nice enough to let me stay at his place, and the timing worked out well since it ended up that another old friend from Cleveland was going to be visiting there as well. So we hit up the local Mexican restaurant which was quite good and cheap. My friend Jason, the amateur food critic, wrote a review of the place at:



http://dc-restaurante-critic.blogspot.com/2008/08/taqueria-del-distrito-federal.html



Anyhow, it was awhile since I was back here, but I didn't realize that: 1) Washington DC had a Chinatown (I guess they must, right? It's a big city staple), and 2) DC's Chinatown lacks a Chinese community - in fact, most of the stores are Western chains.

Okay so the gate looks nice, but...

See!!!! They just have Chinese signs, but they are all Western stores! What a joke. I guess it's a strange zoning regulation that forces everyone to make up Chinese names for their establishments in the area...

Restaurant Week and more

I ended up not doing very much in New York except meeting up with friends and eating at various places:

Filip's Going Away Dinner (7/15):

WIB Opera Picnic in Battery Park (7/18):

Lunch/Dinner at Sakagura - I ended up going twice (7/20, 7/21):


Dinner at EN Japanese Brasserie (7/23):

Lunch at Cafe d'Alsace (7/25):

Dinner at Delmonico's:


There were a few other extracurriculars:

Taking a ferry to Manhattan - okay not that interesting, but the first time I've done it since I started living here (7/18):

Watching the Opera Volleyball post-championship friendly (7/23):

Watching people camp out for Hannah Montana (7/24):

Going to Naomi's play with Evan and Brianna (7/24):

Walking around Wall Street and watching people ride the bull (7/25):


Goodbye Party for Maya (7/25):

China Visa

So today I finally got my China visa, though people weren't kidding when they say it's quite a hassle. The first time I tried to drop off my passport and application was on Wednesday, after I had spent a good amount of time thoroughly reading through the Chinese Embassy's website. I studied the requirements, made sure I got every little piece, and even tried to visit at the recommended non-peak hours (of course I didn't get up early enough, but it didn't matter, when I got there, there was no line anyways).

The lady at the window looked through my paperwork. Passport? Check. Application? Of course. Passport-sized pictures? Yes. Plane ticket? Enclosed as well. She eyed me closely a few times. Then she pushed all of my documents back to me, and said that I still need to show documentation for a hotel reservation. I protested that I was not staying at a hotel; I was going to visit a friend. She responded that in that case, I would need an invitation letter from my friend.

So Wednesday night, I had my friend in Beijing write me a letter and email it to me. I printed it out, and on Thursday, I once again set off for the embassy to try my luck a second time...

Once again, everything went smoothly... until the invitation letter. This time, the woman at the window frowned. "This is a copy," she stated matter of factly, "and we do not accept copies."
"But my friend is currently in China! It would take some time to get the actual document!"
"We only take actuals or faxed copies," She added, tersely.
"Fax copies?" In my disbelief, I had to check twice. She nodded.

Defeated, I headed out of the embassy somewhat annoyed. They accept fax copies but not printed copies? What kind of logic is that? Don't they look exactly the same except fax copies are slightly less readable?

I was not immediately sure what my options were. I did not own a fax machine, and would have to designate one for my friend to send to. In addition, I don't think my friend has a fax machine either, and since Beijing and New York are 12 hours apart, that probably means one of us has to be up in the middle of the night trying to send/receive this fax. Clearly, this was not ideal.

However, another idea struck me. I took a bus back to the Times Square area, and asked around until I found a Staples. I checked with the store clerk, who said that they can accept faxes, and gave me the fax number. Next, I found a Fedex Kinko's around the corner, and set my brilliant plan into motion: I would fax my copy of the invitation from Fedex to next-door Staples!

The copy came out, the only difference major difference being that it was slightly harder to read, and there was also a line on top which said "FAX" and had a timestamp. With renewed energy, I marched back towards the embassy for a third time, and successfully submitted my paperwork without further incident. Indeed, perhaps even if they knew how I obtained my fax copy, it wouldn't have mattered. After all, I had provided what they had requested, they had abided by their strict but silly regulations, and no one was any worse for it. And it's not like I forged the invitation letter, right? Utterly ridiculous regulations should be handled via utterly ridiculous workarounds.

Back in NYC

Well, my short trip to Taiwan is over now, and I am back in New York City. First things first - I bought a new camera to replace the one that fell into the Pacific Ocean. I looked around some, but I enjoyed the low-light performance of the Fujifilm Finepix F-series so much that I ended up looking mostly there again. They no longer sell the old Fujifilm Finepix F20 which I lost (or the F30 or F31fd, which I wouldn't mind getting either), instead the latest in the F-series is the Finepix F100. The camera seemed to have received mixed reviews online, though the features sound nice: 28mm wide angle, 5x optical zoom, greater dynamic range, updated face detection, additional ISO sensitivity, etc. The F100fd is also compatible with SD cards (finally)!

However, I was still hesitant - the price point was much higher than where I usually bought at ($300+), and the battery life was shorter than the F20. Truth be told, I really just wanted another F20 - I had fond memories of that camera, its exceptional battery life, huge LCD screen, and excellent low-light capabilities (which should continue on in the F100).

And so when I actually bought the F100fd, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The improved dynamic range did not seem to make that big of a difference in high contrast shots, the battery life was noticeably shorter, and even the LCD screen seemed smaller (though I think it is actually bigger - the perception must be due to my romanticization of my lost F20). Plus, some of the photos seemed noisier than the F20 upon zoom - it was very apparent that there was no need for 12.0 MP, as the 6 MP or so from the F20 was just fine. The controls on the camera also seemed a bit weird - instead of using the traditional buttons to zoom in and out, there was a mechanical swivel that was very hard to control. In fact, when the swivel and the push button broke, I almost got a refund instead of a replacement. However, I kept with it, and the F100fd is slowly growing on me.

Farewell Dinner

And so dinner happened with some friends before leaving the City. On Saturday, 6/21, I had the chance to catch some folks from the Shanghai office.


Then on Sunday, a bunch of us got together at the Typhoon Lounge for Japanese food:

I'd like to thank all of you who were able to make it out to see me off. It was a privilege to work and get to know each of you. See you in July.

OMG Concert

Thank you all for attending Opera Music Group's first ever performance on Friday 6/20! I believe it went just about as well as one could possibly expect - it was our pleasure to perform and have people actually around to listen.

Currently I only have one picture (see below) from the performance - if you have any others, please email them to me. Thanks!




Program:

Kegelstatt Trio (K. 498), Mozart
Piano: Jerry Chiang
Violin: Theresa Zhou
Viola: Krista Sande-Kerback

Petite Suites I: En Bateau, Debussy
Piano: Jerry Chiang, Evan Samek

Karlibsetredna, Op.1, No.3
Composed and Performed by Jerry Chiang