Finally, I met up with my cousin and her family

So, after about 3 years here in the States, I finally met up with my cousin and her family last weekend. So, as planned, I started driving after going to gym early in the morning on Saturday. Not planned: I tried out the sauna, and I found it quite fun. And, spent 2 10-minute sessions in there. Hence, I actually set off from my office at 10.15am. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny, spotless blue sky. After about 10 minutes of driving, I was at the toll-booth entering the Mass-Pike. There was slight congestion, guess many people were traveling on weekend.

So, after about 3 hours of driving, I was approaching New York City, and the traffic was bad. It took me quite awhile to get onto the Geo Washington Bridge, and then, was stuck near the Bronx area, and that slowed me down quite a bit. Then, I wasn't paying enough attention, and I went to the wrong lane at the toll and was forced to go to 'No Ticket' lane. Well, I was kinda confused by the signs, because I was thinking, :"I don't have a ticket, hence I should go to 'No Ticket'." But then, I was also thinking, maybe, it meant that there's no ticket at that line, if you need a ticket, you have to go to the line which says 'Ticket'. My second reasoning was right, but it was too late. I was forced to pay like 2 dollars more than what it would have been(lost-ticket maximum toll).

So, after another 3 more hours, I was about an hour away from Jessica's(my cousin) home in Hockessin (near Wilmington, Delaware). I got until Wilmington, and got lost while looking for the New Gap Pike (i was expecting it to be a big road, but it was actually a small road, and hence I missed it. I went to a gas station and asked for directions, but that person at the register was clueless. I went to a wise-old-man and asked for directions, and he actually pointed me to the right directions, towards Hockessin, but because I didn't want to risk it anymore, I saw a huge shopping center (Pike Creek shopping center), and decided to give my cousin a call to get directions instead.

So, her family came and that was when I met my cousin and her family(her husband, Tomas and their daughter, Amanda) for the first time in the States after my 3 years here. (Bad me...) But, it's hard when I don't have a car, and Michigan has really short and sucky break during the academic year. We went for some berries hunting (blueberries, cranberries, blackberries) for a fruit salad later that night. So, after shopping, my cousin drove Amanda, while Tomas came with me to lead me to their place. I would never find the place without Tomas' directions.

The house was OMG beautiful. No wonder my cousin felt sad for having to sell it and move to Richmond, VA in a month's time. I would be too. It's about an acre of compound, nice yard, and the house was really nicely decorated. 4-bedroom (including master), 3-bathroom, 2 dining-room, 2-living room, 3rd-floor attic, a huge-S basement, study room, .... damn, since when am I a real-estate agent? So, Amanda showed me my room, the bed was fantastic! But too bad, my body-clock won the battle again. I woke up after 6 hours of sleep, but my mind did fought back, and I got an extra hour of sleep. But, that's the sleep at night. So, after that, I played with Amanda, we built a 'house' with something like legos, but it's sticks and stuff. After that, it was time for dinner, we went to this Italian place, and the food was great. The white pasta with seafood, the seafood pizza, the appetizer(mozzarella, red pepper + prosciutto) which came late (after the entrees were served).

So, after dinner, we went home, where we had the fruit salad. Those berries were great. After dinner, at about 9ish, Amanda went to bed, and the three of us chatted while watching the TV. Comedy Central, where that Tosh guy was cracking a decent joke with every 2 bad jokes. Also, my aunt (Jessica's mom) called, and we had a long marathon of conversations, with me speaking to my aunt and uncle, and Jessica and Tomas speaking to their parents. Then, later at night, I called up my dad, and we did more talking, Jessica and I with our aunts and all. Phewww... I called it a night at about 1.30am.

Woke up at about 8ish the next morning, and Tomas was doing some gardening, prepping up for the open house later in the day. We had breakfast, and then some conversations and 2 cups of tea later, Jessica and Amanda woke up. Later in the afternoon, we went to Philadelphia Chinatown for lunch, where we had dim sum. And after that, we parted ways. I had to hit the road to go back to Worcester, MA. It was such a great weekend, but it was way too short. Thanks Jessica and Tomas for having me over for the weekend. And thanks for filling me up (my car too), and thanks for the atlas. :P Not to mention the fruit bowl, clementines, and cherries.
I'll try to pay you another visit at Richmond, VA. Hopefully, I can make a trip down to Richmond, VA, spend a night or two there. Then, from Richmond, drive back to Ann Arbor.

Worcester, MA to Richmond, VA (about 9 hours if traffic is good).
Richmond, VA to Ann Arbor, MI (10 hours, not gonna have much traffic)

Sounds like a plan, most likely to do this on the 18th of Aug - 21st of Aug...

So, yar, it was a great weekend... minus the driving back part, where I got stuck on near NYC for again. It was eve worse this time. I moved about 10 miles in like 2 hours, and I paid $6 of toll for that. GEO WASHINGTON BRIDGE! I can run faster than that. Yar, so, I only reached my sublet in Worcester at 11.45pm yesterday. My back was sore, and I needed bengay patch for it this morning.

So, more traveling to come... will be going to Boston this weekend. Fun fun fun!!!

one week of great learning experience

So, prior to this, I had not much knowledge about what actuaries really do in the real world. I did learn something about life insurance, annuities and perpetuities, and other stuff. But, I had not much knowledge on the property and casualty (P&C) work that actuaries do. Even that is an overstatement, I was so 'ignorance' that I didn't even know what are included under property and casualty.

Having said that, I learned a great deal in my first week of internship here. Not only did I learn about what they are doing now, my manager is having me working on some rather cutting edge ideas of his, and it'll be what P&C actuaries will be doing in the very near future. Cool huh? And that + being the workaholic that I am, every morning after waking up, I feel good and is actually happy to go to work. Yes, I'm for real. I mean, not many people can actually say that they are happy to go to work. I'm really fortunate to be able to say that loudly and proudly.

My colleagues are great too. Too bad most of them are staying at quite a distance from me, or else, I'm pretty sure we will be hanging out more. But, they are moving to Worcester or the neighboring neighborhood, Shrewsbury really soon though. So, that's a plus, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, I'll embark on another long journey, to visit my cousin at Delaware. It's gonna be a 5.5 hours drive, and even though this is dwarfed by the 13 hours drive I took last week, and actually, I'm loving driving now (not the having to pump gas part), I'll be driving quite some distance this weekend, because I'll be driving back on Sunday. So, it's gonna be 11 hours of driving over the weekend. So, that's quite a lot of driving too.

Last but not least, I've been having great success in my running. I ran 3 miles on Monday, 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wednesday, 4.5 miles on Thursday, and 5 miles today. And I'm going to the gym tomorrow morning for another run before hitting the road for Delaware at about 10am. So, I think this will be my very first 20+ miles of run week for me. Also, the on-site gym (which cost on $20/month), has personal trainer service for free, and one of them is actually making a work out plan for me to help me achieve my ultimate goal, to run a marathon. I think, at the rate I'm going, and if I stay persistent, I'll be ready for a marathon by the end of the year, or end of the academic year. (Chicago Marathon?)

Also, another last but not least. I went to this supermarket, Price Chopper yesterday. And, I found seafood!!! So, I was looking and the cod fillet jumped to me, and they offer free frying service. So, I bought about 1 lb of cod fish (for 6.99/lb), I didn't know 1lb of cod fish was soooooo much, and I could only managed 1/3 of it. The fish was really fresh, and all I needed to go with it was some soy sauce and black pepper over it. I had it with rice and some mixed vegetables, and it was quite a meal. The fish was really good.

And another proud thing to say is that, I had only eat-out once (today's lunch), and that's also, to eat out with my colleagues (I actually brought lunch, but I didn't eat it, had it for dinner instead). So, I had been cooking and I had been pretty successful. And surprisingly, the rice that I cooked with a pot turns out to be OK. (even though I messed up the first time by having a little bit too much water).

So, it had been a great week. Really good week, looking forward to the weekend, and to Monday, to work, where we will have a meeting, and I'm actually gonna tell the team what I had been doing for my first week, and what I'm working on currently. (the cutting edge stuff is too cutting edge to be shared here, who knows who's reading my blog?)

Take care and have fun!