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The XXIX Olympic Games

Have been going to bed late (around midnight) watching the exciting Olympic Games the past week.

The most exciting one was the first men's swimming relay.  The American team won over the French team by 1/100 second!  What a race! 

The Chinese gymnastic team need some kind of appearance/makeup consultant.  Poor girls they looked so "want-to-be-grown-up" like they sneaked into their mom's makeup bags and used the wrong color of eye shadows.  It is controversial that some of the girls are just 14 which is two years younger than the minimum competing age (16).  Anyway, they got the gold medals and their hardwork got paid off!

Looking forward to watching the track-and-field games coming up this week as well as the tennis games.  Actually, I watch whatever being broadcasted and whenever I have a chance to watch them. 

Janie is not enthusiastic about watching the Olympics.  Occasionally Will has to ask her to watch some of them.  I guess when the track-&-field games are on, she will be interested in watching them.

Besides watching the games, I also pay attention to other things such as how the team members interact with each other, how the coaches interact with the team, how they share the joy of winning and how they comfort each other when they lose, etc.  Most importantly, it is interesting to know the background of the competitors and their amazing stories.  Some of the stories are really touching.  You get inspired by their spirits, their determination, and their perseverance in order to fulfill their dreams.

More photos

Enjoying the sun, sand, and water ?? (too cold to swim)... at Malibu Beach, California.  (March, 2008)

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE ...

Will's most enjoyable fishing trip even though he didn't catch any. (July 2008)

Janie's first time sailing with daddy! (July, 2008)

I just randomly picked these photos to share with friends our recent trips to L.A. and San Diego.  Janie was the one who downloaded the photos from the new cameras to the computer and I finally tried to get some in my blog.  Anyway, as I am getting more efficient doing it, I will put out more photos in the future.

Photos

These two hippos seemed very relaxed resting under the water.  (taken in San Diego Zoo)

How lovely you are, panda bear!

What a gorgeous day for sailing!

Tom & Jang

How did we meet Tom Chen (a Chinese) & Jang Kong Yung (a Korean)?

Hana and I met Tom at Kelly's piano recital in May.  Kelly and Tom have the same piano teacher.  Tom was the last one who performed a great piece of music and we were thrilled by his talented performance.  Got his e-mail address from then on and we have been keeping in touch with him.  He is a 20-year-old student at a local community college.  He is originally from Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and has been in the States for two years.  Both of his parents are doctors.  Both Hana and I are happy to know him and find that he is a very smart, charming, mature, polite, and talented kid. 

Tom met Jang at the college.  Jang has just started classes two weeks ago and he is studying aviation machanics.  He is 25-year-old and is originally from Seoul, Korea. 

In early July Will and Janie met Tom the first time at a 4th of July celebration party hosted by Dale's parents.  Both Will's and Janie's impression on Tom was good.  (Janie didn't stay long because she had to go to her friend's home that evening.)

This Tuesday Hana and I treated Tom and Jang for a dinner in China House and surprisingly Janie was very conversational during the dinner.  We were laughing when Tom and Jang teased each other.  Janie laughed when Tom was telling jokes.  She even iniated telling some of things that she learned at the summer camp and other jokes too.  Even Hana noticed that she was unusually outspoken that evening.  Mmmm... Tom is definitely a very likable person, even Kelly was comfortable joining in the conversation later into the evening.  This morning when I told Will about that dinner, he was surprised to hear that Janie agreed to go to the dinner in the first place, not to say that she was not "shy" and "quiet" at the dinner.  Usually she doesn't join us for most of the social events.  Really... that's quite a CHANGE!  Hmmmmm... that got us thinking...

Anyway, we like to have Tom as a family friend.  Besides, there are not many Chinese/Asian in this community and we should cherish each other as friends. 

Where has July gone?

Time flies when you are having fun!

The complicated vacation to San Diego has come and gone.  My first time there and so was Janie's.  All I can say is I just love the weather there!  It's in the 70's degrees most of the time.  This trip also marked the first time that Janie flew a domestic flight on her own.  She made it without any problems and she even asked when she can do it again!

I have always been wanting to go to Mexico just to experience the festive and warm friendly culture. We took a bus trip there the first day of our vacation and had token amount of time walking along the streets, eating a lobster lunch, strolling on the beach, and souvenirs shopping. 

The San Diego Zoo was worth visiting and it lives up to the reputation of a world class zoo.  Just love those meerkats.  Janie took quite a few pictures of them especially the mommy and her three baby meerkats.  We went back there the last day of the vacation just before dropping off Janie at the airport.  We wanted to see the pandas and the hippos again!

We also enjoyed a day of sailing with a group of skillful crew and some other paricipants.  Since they only had nine of us as participants and that's not enough to have another sail boat going so that we could compete.  Will was a little disappointed about that but we all had a wonderful time.

The trip to the Del Mar horse racing was kind of an eye-opening experience for me.  It was a very hot day and we really didn't have a good spot to watch the races.  (The seats in the stands were all sold out since May!)  We just stayed in the shade sitting in our lawn chairs.  We walked out to watch the big screen whenever there was a race going on.  Ladies usually wear fancy hats and dresses and high heels to the famous horse racing events and we saw a lot of them that day.  We didn't win any money betting on a few horses. Oh well, it's interesting enough to see all the commotion. 

On our way back driving home, we stayed in the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas for two nights.  We didn't really gamble, just played a few dollars in the slot machines here and there.  We watched the music fountain in front of the Bellagio Hotel for a long time in the evening.  It was still breath-taking seeing the gigantic fountain when the water was shooting up in full blast!  Eating buffets there was another thing that we enjoyed despite the fact that we could easily put on a few pounds after that. 

Vacationing is always fun and we sure had a terrific time.  We are looking forward to our big trip to Hong Kong this December and I hope it's going to be another great vacation.