Trip to Cape Cod...

So, my trip to Cape Cod started not-so-well. On Friday night, there was a thunderstorm going on, and at about 10.30pm, I heard a crashing noise, so, I went to the window of my room (on the second floor) to check out where did that noise come from. And to my surprise, I saw two kids with baseball bats beating the shit out of a truck. The wind-shield, the side-windows, the doors... It scared the crap out of me. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was charging my batteries for the trip, and also, I couldn't really take a picture of them without letting them know about it because it was dark and I definitely needed the flash to take that picture. So, I just watched from my room, hiding, while fearing that they were high on something, and will go to the next car (mine or someone else's) when they were done on the first one. But, fortunately, they targeted that truck and ran away after they were satisfied. I took a picture of the truck the next morning, at 7.05am, just before I hit the road for the Cape.

I started my journey at 7am because the traffic to the cape is normally really bad on weekends, unless you leave early. I had no problem following the driving directions I printed from Mapquest(R) and reached Provincetown, MA at 10.15am (~160 miles). I was way too early for my 12.45pm whale watching trip. At first, I wanted to try my luck, asking if I could join the 10.30am tour instead, but unfortunately, that trip got canceled. So, I walked around Provincetown downtown and had a decent lunch before the trip.

Provincetown, link, is known for its reputation as a gay resort. So, if you are not comfortable with gay couples, it might not be a good idea to visit here.

The whale watching trip was amazing, and I was burned by the sun, (I left my sunscreen in the car, so, didn't re-apply while I was baking under the hot sun for 3.5 hours). Other than the videos below, I took many pictures of whales of different behaviors. It was definitely a must-do activity. It's like watching national geographic/discovery channel's documentary live. Two out of the more than 200 photos I took on the whale-watching trip.
The humpback whale was lobtailing in this one.Flippering in this one (the whale was actually on its back, and was flapping both of its flipper. Imagine lying on your back, and raise your hands... that's the position the whale was in).
After that trip, the heat started to get to me. (I'm not good with too much sun, and that's why I only run indoors in the Summer, or else, I will spend the entire day 'in heat'... where I can feel my body 10 degrees warmer than it should be...) I decided to push my plan of visiting the Highland Light House to the next day. So, I drove to Truro, link, about 10 miles away from Provincetown, for the hostel to rest and called it a day. (yeah right, I went for a short trail after a quick frozen dinner, but missed the sunset). It was Hostelling International (HI) again, (the same hostel chain that I stayed in about 3 years ago when I first visited New York city during my 2004 Winter break trip).
A google-map, which I added the red line and the blue dot. The blue dot was the place where we spent the night. And that's the Atlantic Ocean...
View of HI-Truro from the beach with 1X magnification.
View of HI-Truro with 12X magnification.
HI-Truro is a mansion, 5-minute walk from a private beach, in the Cape Cod National Sea Shore Park... amazingly quiet and perfect for a great-escape vacation. Serene, tranquil...
After a short trail, up the hill, but missing the sunset. But, the view from above was really breathtaking.

One thing to expect if you are traveling alone and staying in a youth hostel is to meet people. (you gotta be alone, or maybe a couple, if you are in a group, it's hard for you to meet other people in the hostel). People from all over the world, well, at least from other parts of the country. And, I think all my staying in hostel experience had been great, and maybe I'm lucky thus far? Can't believe that I met a guy, an attorney, who went to University of Michigan, class of 86, and he was traveling with his son, and we struck up a conversation easily, and got well-acquainted. No way! And then, I met with other people, an air-stewardess/court-reporter, 2 ladies from Ireland, another from Germany and a guy from England. 7 of us spent the night at the beach, just chatting, and enjoying the sight, sound and the feel of the ocean. Also, the sky was clear, and I could see more than a thousand starts just with my naked eyes. Not to mention the milky way could be seen clearly too. And shooting stars(I did make a wish), and I got to see the moon-rise. And yes, it was amazing. But, all these amazing sights were not captured because I left my camera in the hostel. And another bad thing from the night was, I got bitten by bugs pretty badly, I counted more than 10 marks the next morning. Oh wait, did I mention the 7 of us finished 6 bottles of wine... It was a great night. It was just plain relaxing, and relaxing.

The next morning, damn body clock, I woke up at 6 again. But, I decided to go back to bed (just to wake up at 7 again, and gave up). Another thing to expect while staying in a youth-hostel is, not-youth-male (in the 60s) snoring!!! The most ironic thing was, the snorer (he was the only one that snored loudly) was wearing earplugs.

So, I had oatmeal (breakfast provided by the hostel), and after packing up and all, I went to the beach to get some color. :P. It's morning sun, and I can handle it better. I strolled down the long beach, and the weather was perfect.
Cooling sea breeze, with perfect morning sunshine. Couldn't get any better than that... and it's the Atlantic Ocean...

After that, I checked out from the hostel at about 9.45am, and drove to the Highland Lighthouse aka Cape Cod Light. This lighthouse was famous not only because it is one of the brightest, but because it was moved back 90ft from it's original position in 1996 because of the sliding cliff.
The lighthouse current position, and the previous position (marked by the rock).

The view from the lighthouse was wonderful, and the wind up there was really strong.
The wind carries dust/sand and was constantly blowing at me during my entire 1.5 hours there. (I was there for quite a long time because my next destination was the Truro Vineyard, but it only opened at 12 noon on Sunday.) I went to the Vineyard, couldn't participate in the wine-tasting because of pressing time, and I needed to drive for 3-hours back later. I just stopped by, took pictures of the vineyard, and bought 2 bottles of wine, 1 for my keeping, another as a gift (didn't take the picture of the bottle, but the vineyard is famous for its lighthouse-shaped bottle).

The scenic highway...just a quick pit-stop...

The drive back to Worcester, MA was pretty uneventful. Forgot to mention that on my way to Cape Cod, a tiny pebble stone chipped my wind-shield. And there's a tiny crack on my window now...The crack...

In all, the trip to Cape Cod was really an amazing one. Being able to appreciate nature, and also, to meet up with a fellow wolverine and meet people from other countries and all... not to mention the thoughts that went-through my mine from my conversations with the fellow Wolverine were well, left me with a lot more to think about.

Information Overload...

So, today was the first day of work. It was definitely a lot of learning, and not sure how much of retaining. But, I can really see myself learning a lot from this internship, not that I didn't learn a lot from my previous internship, but, this will be more appropriate, and more applicable.

But, enough of that, so, I can only use the internet for work purposes at the office, which I think is a good training for me, considering how much time I wasted while using the Internet without restrictions.

So, I have a huge paper to read and understand for work tomorrow.

So, I'm really getting my pined-for way of life. Wake up early in the morning, go to work, then to gym, then dinner, then internet/tv. pretty robotic, pretty boring? I like it.

Also, I learned about how far and how much time typical Americans travel to go to work. Unless you are staying in the city, typically, people drive more than an hour to go to work. And that's just moving traffic, translating to 40-50 miles (60-80 KM) one way!!! (they wake up really early to beat the traffic). No kidding!

Also, the house I'm living in now is really funky. The water heating system is solar-powered, and also, there's solar panel on the roof to charge up some batteries for some percentage of energy used in the house. I have a really large room to myself, but it's kinda an old house, but it's a nice house with 2 cats, and the house owner!

Also, I forgot to talk about my trip to Cedar Point last Friday. It was really fun! I enjoyed it a lot, until the last ride, Max Air, where I got a little nauseous after the ride. The most fun one was definitely the Top Thrill Dragster, where it sped from 0 to 120 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds, and it got above 400 feets off the ground, and the it was really thrilling. We did 8 rides in our 5 hours there, and I got sun-burned and was pretty red, like a cooked-crab. It was really a lot of fun, thanks Alex and Joe for making this trip possible! So, Cedar Point is at Sandusky, OH, which was actually on my way from Ann Arbor, MI to Worcester, MA. So, the very next day, I took the very same route for the first 2 hours of my driving.

So, that's about it... have fun!

All I Wanna Do...

"~All I wanna do is have some fun~" Sheryl Crow... I still remember this is one of the very first English 'Pop' songs that I listened to when I was really young, like when I was 9. I don't really think I knew what it really meant when I was 9, but hey, I was NINE. I did understand the chorus, more like that one line.

So, it's less than 2 weeks now until my internship starts, and I can't believe what I did after I accepted the job - I asked for reading materials to prepare me for my job. Well, I was really excited about what I'll be doing in the summer, hence the enthusiasm.

Anyway, so I found a sublet for the next 2 months in Worcester, MA, and I will be test driving car(s) really soon, and will buy a car soon. Also, paperworks for my internship and all.

So, other than hunting for cars to buy, and also, filling up forms, I did some running, a lot of TV (Rolland Garros - French Open, new summer reality show - America's Got Talent, Hell's Kitchen, and other crappy shows to fill in the after-dinner time, and since there's not much sports to catch since both Detroit Pistons, and Detroit Red Wings lost in their conference finals respectively).

So, I'm definitely enjoying myself by being these unproductive, just lazing around doing nothing much other than just waiting to get tired and go to bed, really. I think it's fair for me to be lazy say for like 2-3 weeks out of the 52 weeks every year. I mean, all work no play will make even a workaholic dull.

So, all I wanna do is have some fun, and then, have a lot of work. It's that simple. :)

Decisions...decisions...decisions

So, good news! FINALLY, I know what I'm gonna do for my summer. I just got an internship offer to work in a Property & Casualty insurance company. It's not beggar can't be chooser, instead, from the interviews I had, I got really interested about the opportunities and also the work that I'll be doing.

Last Monday, I got back from the Midwest Games early in the morning, I sorta stayed up whole night. So, I got some rest, and went to get some groceries with my roommates, and also, had kinda an amazing grilling-dinner (well it's Memorial Day).

I went to bed early on Monday night because I needed to wake up early on Tuesday to catch a flight to Boston, MA for an interview. I woke up at 5.15am to start getting ready as I had previously scheduled a shuttle to pick me up at 6.15am to the airport. Everything went rather smoothly, and I was picked up by a limousine to the office (about an hour away). After an interview, a lunch, and 3 more interviews, which was really informative. I was picked up by a town car again, and was sent to the airport.

So, I was there at the airport, reading, playing my NEW Nintendo DS Lite (just a nerdy game - brain age). My flight was delayed, and I was given a $5 meal voucher by the airline, which I used it for a green tea frap and a bottled water.

Anyway, I learned about the offer on Thursday, which I'm pretty sure that I'll accept. The only thing holding me back is I still need to figure out housing and also to buy a car for the summer. So, decisions... decisions... decisions... Where to stay, what car to buy... a lot to think about.

But, it's part and parcel of growing up... making decisions... :)

Dreaming...

So, opting to take both the MFE and MLC exams in one sitting was a really bad decision. Having made that decision resulted in me studying for more than 8 hours a day for 3 weeks.

So, other than studying at the Math Atrium or at the UGLi (Undergraduate Library), going back to my apartment to catch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, and then, occasionally the playoff games for PISTONS and RED WINGS, that's pretty much it.

I was spending so much time studying that I felt bad for people around me. I mean, my house mates and friends.

So, in order to wake up early this morning so that I won't be all groggy getting into the exam, I went to bed early yesterday night. Early as in 12 midnight. Normally, I don't get much dream in my sleep. Or, I just couldn't remember them. But, yesterday night was weird. Not only did I remember my dream, but the people in the dream were my high school friends and current friends preparing to take the actuarial exam in my high school. It was so weird.

Also, I was late to the exam, and that woke me up right away. And I woke up to only find that it was 3.50 am. So, I went back to bed and woke up at 6.30am again.

The exams were alright. One OK, and the other, borderline I would say. Hopefully, I will be able to pull both out.

But, now the exams are over. I need to worry about what to do for the actual beginning of my long summer. :)

Summer's here...

So, I've not been updating my blog for awhile now. Well, here I am again.

Last week had been really busy. Exams, packing, moving to my sublet, moving stuff into the storage, unpack my stuff at the sublet. This semester might probably be the worse, depends on what I get for my last result. Still waiting for the upper level writing course for my Econ, where I wrote a huge 20+ pages paper for.

Anyway, so far, I had been eating out every meal since last Thursday. I need to do some groceries pretty soon before I stop eating out.

Also, I started studying for the actuarial exam since Sunday. And, it had been going not bad. So far, the review of all the life contingencies are all good. Zooming through them since I still had most of the stuff fresh in my head.

So, Ann Arbor is pretty quiet now, with most students gone. I'm staying back for the sake of staying back. And, my plans for the Spring and Summer are:

Actuarial Exam on May 17th
Midwest Games on May 25-27th
Cedar Point with house mates sometime
Camp Davis from June 22nd - July 28th

So, I have a month after the actuarial exam and another month after the camp Davis. I'm really looking forward to the camp Davis, at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Also, hopefully, after the actuarial exam, and when the weather gets better, I'll start running more again. I'd been slacking off again since the moving out. One reason is, I need to pay to get into CCRB, unless I register for a class. But, maybe I should be running outdoor, since the weather allows (other than the isolated storms).

Also, I went to the graduation last Saturday, where President Bill Clinton gave the commencement speech. The speech was amazing. I'll get some pictures and even videos up here too.


President Clinton giving his speech.

It was rather cold earlier in the morning, but once the Sun came out, it was baking hot. The attendance was good. It was a huge event. Can't imagine that I'll be down there next year. Really. It's crazy to think that my parents and hopefully my brothers will be here next year, while I'm down there and all.