Me and a Truck  

In America, a car is not only the most important transportation device, but also a major form of personal expression. To some, it is a status symbol representing its owner's wealth; to others, it is an image of its owner's dashing personality and (in my personal opinion) testimony to his high testosterone level. To me, it is somewhat of a fashion statement. Yes, I drive a Beetle, a cute but not very powerful vehicle with pitiful trunk space. I am proud of its looks, of its comparative fuel efficiency, and the fact that when my parents visited I could actually fit both of them and their enormous suitcases (OK, only one of them was enormous) into its seemingly tiny space. Sometimes when I sat in traffic, with a line of huge SUVs completely obstructing my view, I would think to myself, "I am smaller and cuter. I can drive just as fast as you in this kind of traffic. I can carry all I need. AND I am not burning a zillion gallons of gas while condemning Bush's policy in the middleeast!" and feel very good about myself indeed.

Yesterday morning I dropped the car at the garage for a maintenance service and then took the Bart to the city. After doing some shopping, I called to inquire whether the service was done. "What's the last name?" "Davidchuk." I answered, waiting for the usual next question "the lastname is Chuck?". Matthew's lastname often illicit such confusion and he was often joked at as "the man with three first names". But this time the question didn't come. Instead I was told immediately that the car was ready to be picked up. So I went back and was surprised to found that not only was the car not ready, but also that it wouldn't be ready till the next day. The boss was angry that someone gave me the wrong information. After some investigation he uncovered the mystery -- it was a case of mistaken identity. There happened to be another customer that day with the name David Chorak (or something like that), whose car was ready to go. And naturally, "Davidchuk" was not interpretted as a last name. I should've explained.

They kindly offered to pay a rental car for me for the day. Soon I was picked up by a young and chatty "enterprise" rental guy in a huge truck. But upon arriving at enterprise, I was told that the only car they could offer me was the car that I came in -- the four door pick-up Dodge Ram, a truck so big that I had trouble climing into it. It is about twice the size of my beetle, and far bigger than anything I had ever driven in my life. I had trouble imagining myself sitting behind the steering wheel, much less having to park this monster eventually. But I had to go home somehow, so I accepted their only vehicle. Turned out that enterprise had set a record yesterday, with all vehicles rented in the area. They were going to have a celebration as soon as I drive off in this last truck.

So I climbed in, with some difficulty, and felt extremely small in its enormous space -- the front row was so wide that I was confident that it could easily fit at least 5 of me. I gingerly backed out of the parking lot and started driving home. At first I was afraid that the car was not going to fit within the lane! Then slowly I started to get used to driving such a big vehicle. I was so high above ground that I could see over all the other cars on the road. Ha, so this is what it is like to obstruct other people's view. And I was so big that I was sure that I could run all the other cars over, even the other pick-up trucks! Was I imagining this, or was everybody looking at me with apprehension? I was king of the road. Power sure felt good. Is this why everyone (including my own two sisters) is buying a humongous SUV these days?



Matthew laughted as I appeared in the humongous truck to pick him up from work. You look so small in it, he said. Small or not, I was quickly getting used to driving the truck. With some help, I successfully squeezed the truck into our little parking space, feeling very proud that it was the biggest thing in the whole parking lot. What did that say about my testosterone level?

I returned the truck today and got my beetle back, shiny from carwash. I am cute and small again. On the highway I was no longer looking down at other cars. No one is looking at me with apprehension. In fact, some big SUV even honked at me for being in his way. But on the street, some kids waved at me, and in the gas station, an older lady smiled at me and asked me how I liked my car. "I LIKE it!" I replied with a smile.

posted by gz 4:11 下午 留言/

Images from years ago  

I am trying to save some old photos. I scan them first then I use Photoshop to retouch them. I just start the project and I know it will take me some times to finish it. So I am just share few photos with you.

PS, Sorry no Gui in those photos.

posted by nairong 3:07 下午 留言/

咖啡的故事  

Matthew爱喝咖啡，每天至少两杯。 有一天他突然兴冲冲的告诉我，我们附近的Bean Street咖啡馆最近开始销售一种极特殊的咖啡，名叫Kopi Luwak。 此咖啡价格非凡，一磅要卖三百美元，比第二贵的牙买加蓝山咖啡几乎贵了十倍！

为什么Kopi Luwak如此与众不同呢？ 说来不免要倒有些人的味口： 它的秘密是一种印度尼西亚的山猫（Luwak）。这种山猫专爱吃最红，最熟的咖啡果，却不能消化咖啡豆。这些到印尼山猫肚子里走过一趟的咖啡豆，便因此得名Kopi Luwak。不知是哪位有胆有识的咖啡爱好者，怎么发现了经过山猫消化系统的咖啡豆，不但没有异味（谢天谢地！）反而比人工处理过的更别有风味 -- 据说它们有点巧克力的味道！

这种奇怪的咖啡，一年产量只不过五百磅而已，相当难得。所以一旦出现在某咖啡店竟成新闻。如此不同寻常的咖啡自然让Matthew跃跃欲试。 本想找个比我更识货的同去欣赏，便告诉了他的妹夫Andrew。Andrew平日对这等新鲜事物也大有兴趣，谁知他一听有类猫科的动物参与了咖啡的加工，立刻面露憎嫌之色。原来Andrew对猫极度过敏，类似我对蚊子的感觉。如果这咖啡是猴子处理过的，他肯定就和Matthew去了，猫类碰过的他可要敬而远之。Matthew也只好由我奉陪了。于是上周末我们专程光临Bean Street Coffee，破费十大美刀买了一杯Kopi Luwak。自开卖以来，Luwak相当畅销。我们临桌的一位中年男子告诉我们他便是一名常客。“Very smooth!" 他夸道, 又想了个主意:"什么时候应该要一杯Kopi Luwak, 再要一杯同样的咖啡,没经过Luwak"加工"的,一起比较比较...before and after..." 我尝了尝，还可以，有点苦苦的，是不是巧克力的味道？ ：)一杯咖啡喝完，Matthew宣布他还是最爱喝Kona（夏威夷）咖啡。我们用不着花三百块钱买咖啡了！

我对咖啡是外行，虽然经常每天早上一杯，也会时而坐坐咖啡馆，但我爱喝的咖啡，要加很多奶油，或是加了巧克力等等。与其说是喝咖啡，不如说是喝咖啡味道的奶油。直到两年前去了夏威夷的咖啡种植园，品尝了不同品种，才略微对咖啡本身有些体会。原来咖啡倒和葡萄酒有几分相似，不同品种的咖啡豆，甚至同一品种的咖啡种植在不同的地方，产出的咖啡豆味道颇不相同。但它们的区别又比葡萄酒更为微妙，对我这种外行，也只有逐一品味才能察觉。和葡萄酒一样，咖啡豆处理的方式也自然对味道有不同的影响。从那以后我也偶尔喝一杯“黑咖啡“， 感觉一下真正咖啡的滋味。。。

据说咖啡是全世界消费第二高的饮料(第一自然是水)。 这不免有些令人难以置信，但想到占据美洲每个街角的星巴克（Starbucks），不要说各地其他的连锁店（例如湾区的Peets Coffee, Tully's Coffee 等等）和独家经营的种种小咖啡馆，也觉得不足为奇了。星巴克和我同岁，现在全球有七千多家。

传说咖啡是牧羊人无意发现的:

The favorite bedtime story about the origin of coffee goes like this: Once upon a time in the land of Arabia Felix (or in Ethiopia, if an Ethiopian is telling the story), there lived a goatherd named Kaldi. Kaldi was a sober, responsible goatherd whose goats were also sober, if not responsible. One night, Kaldi's goats failed to come home, and in the morning he found them dancing with abandoned glee near a shiny, dark-leafed shrub with red berries. Kaldi soon determined that it was the red berries on the shiny, dark-leafed shrub that caused the goats' eccentric behavior, and soon he was dancing too.
Read more on the history, language, styles, and all sort of other things about Coffee....

看来, 咖啡和动物的关系从来非常密切, 不只限于印尼山猫一类.

posted by gz 6:27 下午 留言/

Hiking in the Bay Area  

The San Francisco Bay Area is many things: it is the home of the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and the most picturesque Chinatown on the whole continent (though the Chinese food here often leaves me longing for the much shabbier looking Chinatown of Toronto); it is the capital of the silicon world, where billboards along the highway speak technology and where most of the people you see on the streets work for (or used to work for) some software company; it is the liberal enclave where hippies used to hang out in the sixties (with a few left-overs), where gays come to get married, and medicinal marijuna is legalized; it is a place that attracted gold diggers in the past and now covered with cutesie little pastel colored houses literally worth their weight in gold... And last, but certainly not least, it is also a hiking heaven. It is perhaps surprising that such an intensely urnanized area has so much to offer in terms of the outdoors, but the Bay Area has it all. Just a short drive off the highway and one is surrounded by nature. A varied terrain including magnificent coastal redwood forests, windswept grassy hills, dramatic beaches, pristine waterfalls... caters to any taste and mood. The famous balmy weather and reliable sunshine is just an added bonus. When we moved here, one of the first things we did was buying ourselves a book named "101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area". Since then on many weekends, Matthew and I, usually as well as Jean, occassionally with an additional hiker/visitor, could often be spotted trotting on these hiking trails with our hiking bible in hand.

For various reasons we had been slacking off hiking trails for a while since last year. But this year we're picking up our pace again and we have since marked several new hikes off our book's index. Here are some pictures of some our hiking adventures earlier this year:



Our most recent hike was a particular success -- 8.4 miles of wind, sun, coastal hills covered with wild flowers, a series of little lakes and finally, a waterfall cascading down a sea cliff to the beach.... It has so many ingredidients of a Bay Area hike. We are especially proud that we pulled it off after months of inactivity, and even with a late start, we finished it just in time to make our reservation at a long-coveted French restaurant for a much deserved pig-out session.

I was going to write up all about it in Chinese, but Jean has already done a beautiful piece on her site, with cool pictures and all. So I'll save myself the struggle of the think-and-type-in-Chinese process this time and spare you, my readers, the awkward 小学作文 style of my Chinese writing (which I promise I'll improve with more practice, as one of the reasons that I started this blog is to practice my Chinese). Here are some more pictures of this hike.



p.s. I heard that some Zongs have gone camping this last weekend. Care to share your experience and pictures with the rest of us? :)

posted by gz 3:19 下午 留言/