I haven't blogged for a long time. Reason being: sore stomach, headaches/sinus problems, running nose, bursting eyes. yeah, this past week was horrible. My body just broke down, and I couldn't fight it off. This past weekend I had to stay back at the apartment while the others went off to Nakura and had a blast. I stayed home, sick, using the bathrooom 10 plus times a day. I had to take the cyporil that the MIT Medical doctor prescribed for me for traveler's diaherreaha. didn't think i'd have to use it. thought i was a big boy now. damn wrong. i missed my mom so much this past week...cause i knew she would have taken care of me, and i would've have gotten better so much faster. but no, i was by myself, crying as i blew my nose into an infinite amount of tissue paper. i was probably high on meds.
anyhow, i'm alive now, again. today was actually really good. me and michelle gave our lecture on SQL and JavaDB. I spent a lot of time making those slides, and the students really enjoyed the presentation. I thought it was pretty funny in the way I presented, and glad the students liked it.
I think for my first J2ME application I'll make an expense app for our group, since we're always getting mixed up on who paid what. i need to figure out how the persistence storage workins for j2me...damn it, so many constraints for the little devices.
last week was also the start of sms. many of the students had the chance to come up with ideas, form groups, and present to the class. they got feedback from the instructors and their classmates, and now they are starting to implement some of their ideas for the project they will turn in next week. i'm really excited..some of the ideas could really be a huge success for the kenyan market.
i didn't realize how big of a name MIT was here in Kenya, and how much respect it has. last week one of the students asked me if the certificate they were getting towards the end of the course after successfully completing the project was issued by MIT or Strathmore University. I told him it was going to be from MIT AITI, and he was really happy. It would give him something extra, and shows he acquired a certain set of skills taught my MIT Instructors, and help him during his job search. i can't believe i only have three more years at MIT. There's still so much to learn, and not a lot of time.
oh well, i'm glad my health is good again. i don't want to be missing out on any more trips.
love,
julian
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
This week was the start of SMS applications. We had our lecture today on interfaces, and a gentle introduction to callbacks, and its relevance to sms applications, j2me, and android. I was having some trouble understanding SMS myself, and was unable to help out some of the students today during lab. I did not enjoy that feeling, the feeling of not having the knowledge within me to help others nor myself. As soon as we came home, I started looking through the lab more thorougly, and had Michael explain to me again how callbacks worked and the overall process of how SMS applications worked. I thought I met my match today, and was ready to throw in the towel, but that's not who I am -> that's not the AITI way. So get ready, cause I'm ready to take on the upcoming challenges that come my way!
on the bright side of things....I started working on the slides for our lecture on SQL and JAVA DB. it's amazing how you can learn so much from making lecture slides, trying to think of ways to teach the material so that your students can understand it without much confusion. hopefully when it's all done i can post a link to it for others to check out the lecture.
this is week is going to be tough, and i can't imagine how the weekend is going to be like. i'm learning a lot, so that's good. though from time to time i get moments where i miss people. i'm a strange person now that i think about it. oh well, i'm glad i met the students here. i got to eat lunch with edwin and rose, chatted with them about life in kenya, education, a little governement stuff. edwin made fun of me when he found out i was from hawaii, and the fact that i couldn't surf. he said i had no balance, which is probably true.
tomorrow there will be a lecture on exceptions, and then in the afternoon another lecture on SMS, probably go a little more in depth. i started the lab for SMS...still need a work out a few kinks, but for the most part I understand the overall foundation. can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow!
on the bright side of things....I started working on the slides for our lecture on SQL and JAVA DB. it's amazing how you can learn so much from making lecture slides, trying to think of ways to teach the material so that your students can understand it without much confusion. hopefully when it's all done i can post a link to it for others to check out the lecture.
this is week is going to be tough, and i can't imagine how the weekend is going to be like. i'm learning a lot, so that's good. though from time to time i get moments where i miss people. i'm a strange person now that i think about it. oh well, i'm glad i met the students here. i got to eat lunch with edwin and rose, chatted with them about life in kenya, education, a little governement stuff. edwin made fun of me when he found out i was from hawaii, and the fact that i couldn't surf. he said i had no balance, which is probably true.
tomorrow there will be a lecture on exceptions, and then in the afternoon another lecture on SMS, probably go a little more in depth. i started the lab for SMS...still need a work out a few kinks, but for the most part I understand the overall foundation. can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
a day of databases, and terrible chinese food
i got to see my parents today....online of course. thanks to skype, and my sis, i got to chat with my parents, and see them. i just realized i haven't had face to face contact with them for almost six months now. they looked healthy, and young, while i saw myself, old, tired, getting sick. i feel much better now. i was sneezing like a horse yesterday, snot going all over the place. hopefully tonight i'll get a good rest for tomorrow.
anyhow, spent the whole day learning JDBC, Derby, and SQL. good refresher for sql, and to be honest, i'd rather do php with sql, then java with sql, but oh wellz. i looked over so many tutorials i think my pimples started going crazy again. finally got Eclipse to work well with the database, and learned the java.sql package. really cool, and now i'm preparing my lecture slides to teach the students the exciting world of databases.
anyhow, we had dinner tonight around 8:30. we decided to go to the nearby chinese restuarant. it was probably the most worstest chinese food i've ever had in my life. michael was swearing and saying how terrible the food was. on top of that, there were chinese people singing chiense karaoke the entire time we were eating. it was bad, but funny. that's about it for today. short entry, need my rest. this week is going to be tough, yet i think ideas and businesses are goign to be born during this critical week for the students. i'm excited to see what's going to happen, and the ideas that these students have in their minds, ready to be turned into a reality.
anyhow, spent the whole day learning JDBC, Derby, and SQL. good refresher for sql, and to be honest, i'd rather do php with sql, then java with sql, but oh wellz. i looked over so many tutorials i think my pimples started going crazy again. finally got Eclipse to work well with the database, and learned the java.sql package. really cool, and now i'm preparing my lecture slides to teach the students the exciting world of databases.
anyhow, we had dinner tonight around 8:30. we decided to go to the nearby chinese restuarant. it was probably the most worstest chinese food i've ever had in my life. michael was swearing and saying how terrible the food was. on top of that, there were chinese people singing chiense karaoke the entire time we were eating. it was bad, but funny. that's about it for today. short entry, need my rest. this week is going to be tough, yet i think ideas and businesses are goign to be born during this critical week for the students. i'm excited to see what's going to happen, and the ideas that these students have in their minds, ready to be turned into a reality.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Google, Chinese Food, and Kenyan football
the second week has come and gone. can't believe how fast time is passing by here in kenya. i've been getting more opportunities to talk with the students, not just when helping them during lab hours, but during breaks, and after class. actually, i got to show off our 6.470 website to erik and mark yesterday. i told them how i was involved in a web programming class/competition during january and showed them the expresso music site. they were really impressed with the functionality, as well as the graphcis, design and layout. as much as i wanted to take credit for the designs, of course i told them out my good friend anton nguyen was the mastermind behind all the good looks. ( good job anton! )
eric actually showed me a site he developed that was completely done in php, javascript and css, all by himself. it was really good, although he told me he wished he had better to design skills to create a better user interface.
it's really interesting how the education system here works. many of the students in the class are actually a lot older than i am. that's because when the students here graduate from high school, they ususally wait about two years before entering college/university. some get a 'diploma' after high school graduation, but most of the time they sit around and do 'nothing'. something to do with the past, to do with history of how things ran years ago. i'll definitely have to learn and find out more about that.
i really like the students here; very smart, motivated, and nice individuals. i can already see how much they have changed. the first week, everyone was quiet, and just dead silent. this past week, we have students participating, asking questions, getting their hands dirty with coding, and just really have opened up to us. that was actually one thing we talked about yesterday when we went to visit the Google office here in Nairobi. we were chatting with some of the googlers about the aiti program, and how it was a great opportunity for students here to learn mobile programming and then go off to develop their own applications, and even possibly starting their own companies. we also noticed how many of the students don't really speak up, or have the confidence to express themselves, maybe afraid of being wrong, or just embarrassed. there seems to be many changed to need to be done...the students are obviously very smart, now it's just a matter of bringing out other sides of them to the table.
after the google meeting, we enjoyed a night of chiense food. it was hao chi, and brought me memories of back home in hawaii. it was kinda expensive, but well worth it. and tonight we had japanese food, which was oichii as well. we gotta stop eating out too much, or we'll go broke soon. oh, and today was my first ever football game in africa. kenya vs. mozambique, and kenya took home the win!!!! it was crazy. the journey to the game was crazy as well. we had trouble finding the stadium cause we had no idea what van to take, or how to get to somewhere. but when we just made it to the stadium, we got to witness kenya score their first goal, and then it was all uphill from there. it was exhiliriting, really excting. i was cheering and dancing with the kenyan fans. i must have been very entertaining for them, being the only chinese guy in the stadium, cheering for kenya.
anyhow, tonight was a great night. michael told us we HAVE TO WORK OUR BUTTS OFF TOMORROW!!! that means i need to master java DB, create a lecutre on sql, and start mastering SMS technologies. fun fun fun. anyhow, should get some sleep; too much excitement and crazyness for one day.
eric actually showed me a site he developed that was completely done in php, javascript and css, all by himself. it was really good, although he told me he wished he had better to design skills to create a better user interface.
it's really interesting how the education system here works. many of the students in the class are actually a lot older than i am. that's because when the students here graduate from high school, they ususally wait about two years before entering college/university. some get a 'diploma' after high school graduation, but most of the time they sit around and do 'nothing'. something to do with the past, to do with history of how things ran years ago. i'll definitely have to learn and find out more about that.
i really like the students here; very smart, motivated, and nice individuals. i can already see how much they have changed. the first week, everyone was quiet, and just dead silent. this past week, we have students participating, asking questions, getting their hands dirty with coding, and just really have opened up to us. that was actually one thing we talked about yesterday when we went to visit the Google office here in Nairobi. we were chatting with some of the googlers about the aiti program, and how it was a great opportunity for students here to learn mobile programming and then go off to develop their own applications, and even possibly starting their own companies. we also noticed how many of the students don't really speak up, or have the confidence to express themselves, maybe afraid of being wrong, or just embarrassed. there seems to be many changed to need to be done...the students are obviously very smart, now it's just a matter of bringing out other sides of them to the table.
after the google meeting, we enjoyed a night of chiense food. it was hao chi, and brought me memories of back home in hawaii. it was kinda expensive, but well worth it. and tonight we had japanese food, which was oichii as well. we gotta stop eating out too much, or we'll go broke soon. oh, and today was my first ever football game in africa. kenya vs. mozambique, and kenya took home the win!!!! it was crazy. the journey to the game was crazy as well. we had trouble finding the stadium cause we had no idea what van to take, or how to get to somewhere. but when we just made it to the stadium, we got to witness kenya score their first goal, and then it was all uphill from there. it was exhiliriting, really excting. i was cheering and dancing with the kenyan fans. i must have been very entertaining for them, being the only chinese guy in the stadium, cheering for kenya.
anyhow, tonight was a great night. michael told us we HAVE TO WORK OUR BUTTS OFF TOMORROW!!! that means i need to master java DB, create a lecutre on sql, and start mastering SMS technologies. fun fun fun. anyhow, should get some sleep; too much excitement and crazyness for one day.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Hello Android! ( vs. Hello World )
boy was i tired yesterday after coming back from school. It was a long day...many students were having some confusion with OOP, and i helped morgan and the other students out by going to the board and reviewing some of the concepts from lecture. i guess i take myself for granted sometimes when i doubt my capabilities. but i sure do remember those days when i had no idea what classes and objects were. maybe that's why i can relate to them so well.
some of the students are picking up these things really fast. samuel has already started the J2ME lab from last year, and some of the other students are already antsy to getting their hands on making some mobile applications. i myself just started looking through J2ME yesterday, figuring out how the environment works and all the jazz. i'm so thankful for compilers....i would hate to be the one designing those things to run other people's crap...i mean code.
google android is giving us a lot of trouble. i still haven't been able to access my phone, which is bad, because we have 20 phones just sitting there. i've been emailing the google engineers on helping us out, but they've been telling us we need to do this, when we can't even do anything with the phones. oh well, i downloaded the sdk, and just played around with it, virtually, on my computer. i made my first android 'hello world' application. kinda of funny how i'm all over the place. hopefully my java skills are decent so that i can at least understand the tutorials and lessons they have.
all.....and as if we can't get any more spoiled.....we hired a cook. that's right....from now on, mon-thurs. we have a cook making dinner for us so that we'll have more time to 'work'. last night was the first meal he cooked....it was delicious! kenyan chicken, rice, and spinach! desert....watermelon! reminded me of anton's mom, who always loved to make watermelon for us after dinner.
yeah..so now we have a maid who cleans, and a cook who cooks. my room has never been this organized. you know that feeling you get when you leave a mess behind, and then you come home, and 'magically' it's all clean? yeah, i get that feeling every day. i'm so used to it now....hope i can start being 'responsible' once school starts....nah.
i can always just stay in kenya, get a teaching job, and have people do stuff for me. hehehe...not a bad idea.
anyhow, today michael has a two hour lecture prepared on static fields and methods. it's gonna be good.
oh, one more thing..we had a guest speaker yesterday come to talk with the students. dr. yasai, who is the chairman of IEEE and the CEO of an ICT company. he spoke about how we developers have the potential to realize the opportunities available for users of all kinds of backgrounds. he talked about the impact technology has had in kenya in the past 20+ years, and where it's going in the next couple years. really got me thinking. i wondered how things will be like in the next couple years. oh well...like my friend benjie said from high school...." the best way to predict the future is to invent it"
that's it for now. i started to get homesick the other day...don't know why. i had a good man to man talk with michael on monday..while we were in the jacuzzi and steam room. talked about life, the future, love... i'm so amazed at how balanced he is. so smart, friendly, loving.
oh wellz, i should focus on improving myself during my time here.
and before i go...this saturday is kenya vs. mozambique in football ( soccer ) and yup, we're going! see you there!
some of the students are picking up these things really fast. samuel has already started the J2ME lab from last year, and some of the other students are already antsy to getting their hands on making some mobile applications. i myself just started looking through J2ME yesterday, figuring out how the environment works and all the jazz. i'm so thankful for compilers....i would hate to be the one designing those things to run other people's crap...i mean code.
google android is giving us a lot of trouble. i still haven't been able to access my phone, which is bad, because we have 20 phones just sitting there. i've been emailing the google engineers on helping us out, but they've been telling us we need to do this, when we can't even do anything with the phones. oh well, i downloaded the sdk, and just played around with it, virtually, on my computer. i made my first android 'hello world' application. kinda of funny how i'm all over the place. hopefully my java skills are decent so that i can at least understand the tutorials and lessons they have.
all.....and as if we can't get any more spoiled.....we hired a cook. that's right....from now on, mon-thurs. we have a cook making dinner for us so that we'll have more time to 'work'. last night was the first meal he cooked....it was delicious! kenyan chicken, rice, and spinach! desert....watermelon! reminded me of anton's mom, who always loved to make watermelon for us after dinner.
yeah..so now we have a maid who cleans, and a cook who cooks. my room has never been this organized. you know that feeling you get when you leave a mess behind, and then you come home, and 'magically' it's all clean? yeah, i get that feeling every day. i'm so used to it now....hope i can start being 'responsible' once school starts....nah.
i can always just stay in kenya, get a teaching job, and have people do stuff for me. hehehe...not a bad idea.
anyhow, today michael has a two hour lecture prepared on static fields and methods. it's gonna be good.
oh, one more thing..we had a guest speaker yesterday come to talk with the students. dr. yasai, who is the chairman of IEEE and the CEO of an ICT company. he spoke about how we developers have the potential to realize the opportunities available for users of all kinds of backgrounds. he talked about the impact technology has had in kenya in the past 20+ years, and where it's going in the next couple years. really got me thinking. i wondered how things will be like in the next couple years. oh well...like my friend benjie said from high school...." the best way to predict the future is to invent it"
that's it for now. i started to get homesick the other day...don't know why. i had a good man to man talk with michael on monday..while we were in the jacuzzi and steam room. talked about life, the future, love... i'm so amazed at how balanced he is. so smart, friendly, loving.
oh wellz, i should focus on improving myself during my time here.
and before i go...this saturday is kenya vs. mozambique in football ( soccer ) and yup, we're going! see you there!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
how precious, and short, life is
i guess you can say today was a day, one of those days where you realize how life short is, and not to take anything for granted. after working on creating labs, materials, and software for the class, we took a break today to go out and explore more of kenya. we went to paradise lost, a place where there were waterfalls, caves, and lots of green scenery. maybe not as exciting as last week's visit to Hell's Gate, but still a great way to relax and enjoy a Sunday morning.
Tess also came along, and we headed out by riding another matatu. if you haven't heard of what a matatu is, it's pretty much a transportation system where mini vans with like 9 seats come driving along roads to pick up people at designated location. and although there are nine seats, they want to make the most money, so they'll jam pack as much people inside a van as possible. so i was scqueshed up into one of these vans today, and the ride wasn't as pleasant as during the night, but nevertheless, i'm not complaining. it was cheap, and hey, there was rap music, so i was fine. after about an hour or so, we got to our destination. turned out we needed to walk about 2km before we reached the entrance, and paid our fee. it was a good walk, very relaxing, nothing but trees, more trees, and mini villages.
we hiked up to the top, where there was a nice little waterfall, as well as a cave that we crawled through. i was a little scared, cause it was completely dark, and i wasn't sure where the heck i was going. finally saw some light, and the inside of the cave. a man was preaching to everyone in the cave about peace, and then asked for donations. we left the cave, walked down of the hill, and saw a lake with people on mini boats paddling along the lake. zach wanted to swim real badly, and michael and tess also joined him. the rest of us weren't sure whether it was a good idea, one being that the water may be super dirty, and another, well not quite sure.
after five minutes of watching them three swim off to the other side of the river, i decided i needed to get into the water. i mean, i'm from hawaii, and when am i going to get the chance again to swim again. so i guess this is the part where i didn't use common sense. if i was smart, i would have known to not go into the water with no lifeguard, and the fact that everyone was already on the other side, so that if something were to happen to me as i was swimming across the river, and like all of a sudden maybe i got tired out or got a cramp, no one would come to get me. even if they did, i would have probably passed out, or worse. but you know me, i never think before i do, and so i just swam ahead.
things were going great. the hawaiian boy was swimming merrily across. i reached like maybe not even 1/4 of the way before i started getting tired for some reason. my arms felt like they wouldn't be able to handle the rest of the swim. i didn't panic or anything, but somehow got the feeling that maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to continue swimming on. it wasn't worth going to the other side, and i was already running out of breath. i was already in the deep zone, my legs trying to help my body stay afloat. i saw a group of school girls on a boat, and started chatting with them, asking if they could take me across to the other side of the river. i hung onto their boat for awhile, hoping to get in, but didn't have the strength to pull myself in, and i was afraid i might tip the boat over, causing a bigger mess for myself and others. i also saw an african man talking to them, or maybe me, and i figured he was saying something about me not suppose to be in the waters. screw it, i decided to just swim back to where i started. it wasn't worth trying to swim to the other side, especially since i was getting fatigue, and somehow my gut was telling me that somehow things could turn bad by the time i was halfway through, all tired out. damn, i'm still scared right now just thinking about it. i started swimming back, the whole time telling myself i wasn't going to die today, not here not now. by the time i almost reached back to the shore, i was tired. i thought i had reached the shallow area, and so i stopped swimming/treading, and put my feet down. crap, i felt no floor bottom, and sunk in for awhile. i pulled myself together, and just barely made it to the grass area. the african guy saw me, and i just reached out my hand to him, asking him to pull me up. i wouldn't say i almost drowned....i would say i was a stupid boy, not having common sense and not using my head. i'm lucky to have been able to swim back to shore. i don't really know what would have happened had i decided to try and swim to the other side. my god, the entire time after i was back on land, i was just staring out into the lake. somehow, things could have turned out badly. my body would have just sunk into the lake, and it would've just been over for me. the guy who pulled me back out told me that swimming was prohibited. a tourist died last year from swimming, cause somehow he was just tired out. he also told me that the lake sloped downwards, especially in the middle, and that if one was tired in the middle of the lake, they could get sucked in and not get back up. i don't know if he was saying this to scare me, but i for one knew that i probably wouldn't have been able to make it to the other side, nor be able to swim back to shore had i gone out further.
long story short....life is short, and can dissapear in an instant. in my case, a cramp, a panic, a breakdown, or anything simiar would have ended it for me.
i'm lucky to be able to blog about this at this very moment. i'm back at the apartment safe and sound. we went to a nice morracan restaurant for dinner, and i ordered the beef carai, which was pretty good and filling. we relaxed to the candle lights and fireplace, and quiet night right outside. it was great, and the entire time i was thinking, wow, i would not be here right now had my actions been different earlier on during the day.
it's so scary sometimes. people joke about death all the time, but holy shit, till you actually know you could have died had you done soemthing stupid, joking about death isn't funny anymore.
i learned my lesson ( hopefully ) and think twice before doing something that could put my life in danger. i don't want my parents to have to worry about me, and i will make sure to not do stupid things like this again. never swim alone, and never swim without making sure someone is there to save you in case somethign happens.
today was a lucky day for me. i will make sure to cherish every moment i have. life is just too short. we're all just a breath away from losing the things we love.
well, on a bright side, we have classes again tomorrow, and we'll start introducing OOP, as well as SMS technology this week. should be fun. i still need to finish up what i have to do for the phone emulator.
other than that, stay safe, and i will make sure to stick around to post more blogs on the upcoming days. aloha.
Tess also came along, and we headed out by riding another matatu. if you haven't heard of what a matatu is, it's pretty much a transportation system where mini vans with like 9 seats come driving along roads to pick up people at designated location. and although there are nine seats, they want to make the most money, so they'll jam pack as much people inside a van as possible. so i was scqueshed up into one of these vans today, and the ride wasn't as pleasant as during the night, but nevertheless, i'm not complaining. it was cheap, and hey, there was rap music, so i was fine. after about an hour or so, we got to our destination. turned out we needed to walk about 2km before we reached the entrance, and paid our fee. it was a good walk, very relaxing, nothing but trees, more trees, and mini villages.
we hiked up to the top, where there was a nice little waterfall, as well as a cave that we crawled through. i was a little scared, cause it was completely dark, and i wasn't sure where the heck i was going. finally saw some light, and the inside of the cave. a man was preaching to everyone in the cave about peace, and then asked for donations. we left the cave, walked down of the hill, and saw a lake with people on mini boats paddling along the lake. zach wanted to swim real badly, and michael and tess also joined him. the rest of us weren't sure whether it was a good idea, one being that the water may be super dirty, and another, well not quite sure.
after five minutes of watching them three swim off to the other side of the river, i decided i needed to get into the water. i mean, i'm from hawaii, and when am i going to get the chance again to swim again. so i guess this is the part where i didn't use common sense. if i was smart, i would have known to not go into the water with no lifeguard, and the fact that everyone was already on the other side, so that if something were to happen to me as i was swimming across the river, and like all of a sudden maybe i got tired out or got a cramp, no one would come to get me. even if they did, i would have probably passed out, or worse. but you know me, i never think before i do, and so i just swam ahead.
things were going great. the hawaiian boy was swimming merrily across. i reached like maybe not even 1/4 of the way before i started getting tired for some reason. my arms felt like they wouldn't be able to handle the rest of the swim. i didn't panic or anything, but somehow got the feeling that maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to continue swimming on. it wasn't worth going to the other side, and i was already running out of breath. i was already in the deep zone, my legs trying to help my body stay afloat. i saw a group of school girls on a boat, and started chatting with them, asking if they could take me across to the other side of the river. i hung onto their boat for awhile, hoping to get in, but didn't have the strength to pull myself in, and i was afraid i might tip the boat over, causing a bigger mess for myself and others. i also saw an african man talking to them, or maybe me, and i figured he was saying something about me not suppose to be in the waters. screw it, i decided to just swim back to where i started. it wasn't worth trying to swim to the other side, especially since i was getting fatigue, and somehow my gut was telling me that somehow things could turn bad by the time i was halfway through, all tired out. damn, i'm still scared right now just thinking about it. i started swimming back, the whole time telling myself i wasn't going to die today, not here not now. by the time i almost reached back to the shore, i was tired. i thought i had reached the shallow area, and so i stopped swimming/treading, and put my feet down. crap, i felt no floor bottom, and sunk in for awhile. i pulled myself together, and just barely made it to the grass area. the african guy saw me, and i just reached out my hand to him, asking him to pull me up. i wouldn't say i almost drowned....i would say i was a stupid boy, not having common sense and not using my head. i'm lucky to have been able to swim back to shore. i don't really know what would have happened had i decided to try and swim to the other side. my god, the entire time after i was back on land, i was just staring out into the lake. somehow, things could have turned out badly. my body would have just sunk into the lake, and it would've just been over for me. the guy who pulled me back out told me that swimming was prohibited. a tourist died last year from swimming, cause somehow he was just tired out. he also told me that the lake sloped downwards, especially in the middle, and that if one was tired in the middle of the lake, they could get sucked in and not get back up. i don't know if he was saying this to scare me, but i for one knew that i probably wouldn't have been able to make it to the other side, nor be able to swim back to shore had i gone out further.
long story short....life is short, and can dissapear in an instant. in my case, a cramp, a panic, a breakdown, or anything simiar would have ended it for me.
i'm lucky to be able to blog about this at this very moment. i'm back at the apartment safe and sound. we went to a nice morracan restaurant for dinner, and i ordered the beef carai, which was pretty good and filling. we relaxed to the candle lights and fireplace, and quiet night right outside. it was great, and the entire time i was thinking, wow, i would not be here right now had my actions been different earlier on during the day.
it's so scary sometimes. people joke about death all the time, but holy shit, till you actually know you could have died had you done soemthing stupid, joking about death isn't funny anymore.
i learned my lesson ( hopefully ) and think twice before doing something that could put my life in danger. i don't want my parents to have to worry about me, and i will make sure to not do stupid things like this again. never swim alone, and never swim without making sure someone is there to save you in case somethign happens.
today was a lucky day for me. i will make sure to cherish every moment i have. life is just too short. we're all just a breath away from losing the things we love.
well, on a bright side, we have classes again tomorrow, and we'll start introducing OOP, as well as SMS technology this week. should be fun. i still need to finish up what i have to do for the phone emulator.
other than that, stay safe, and i will make sure to stick around to post more blogs on the upcoming days. aloha.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
the end of the first school week
yesterday was officially the end of the first week of class. it was pretty good, got to know more of the students. john, david, mark, thomas, and samuel. these guys seem to be stuck in my head. maybe because i have seen how much they have opened up to me, and the fact that their java skills are getting better and better each day. i gave a mini-recitation with the other guys on some of the problems that the students had trouble with. one of them was the sorting problem of the elements of an array. for some reason, i was really nervous when teaching in front of the class. but i think the students saw that i was a nice relaxing guy, and really participated when i asked them questions. i even had john come up to the board to show the class his thought process of approaching the problem. it was all good, and i can't wait to do some more teaching next week.
we celebrated that night by going out to dinner. ( the previous night we pretty much cooked whatever food we had left in the kitchen...leftover rice, eggs, and corn ) it was really nice. we called up our friend we met at Hell's Gate, Tess, and she met up with us in our apartment. we took a matatu down to downtown nairobi, which i must say the experience was quite exhilirirating. i had no idea where we were going...not sure whether we'd make it back alive or whatnot. in the end, we had a good time. ate some chicken breast and a nice restaurant, hung out, chatted, and then, for like 3 straight hours started dancing at the dance floor. i haven't danced this much since....never. i really tried to break it down with some moves i learned from the mit breakdacning boys, but in the end, i just did my own thing, and it was pretty fun. my legs were hurting this morning like crazy.
the work is getting harder and a lot. we pretty much covered the basics of java, movign on to classes and objects. michael also wants to start introducing sms technologies to the students, and have them write a moeny transferring appliaction as one of their projects. me and michelle are responsible for creating a interface for the students to use to send and receive and text messages. i've been messing around with java swing for the past two days, and i think i grew extra pimples from all of the frustration and confusion. i finally got all the components in the right place, and it looks pretty nice. now i'm trying to get all the events working with one another. for some reason, buttons are so much easier to work with. i have a list of two options, inbox or compose a message. i can't seem to get the enter key to work with the options. and the listeners for the list are giving me a headache. anton or ray, if you guys know the answers, help a brother out. time is short right now, so i have to move quick.
anyhow, i signed off for a google android from michael today, so now i have access to one for the next 5 weeks. i decided i needed a phone in case i wanted to test out some applications, as well as if i need to call home. i tried calling again today with skype, but the internet was so bad, my mom could barely hear me. i just wanted to call and wish my sister, jeanette, happy birthday. she is turning 17, and i wish i was home to celebrate her birthday. the best i can do is shout it out to the world...so jeanette, this entry is dedicated for you!
HAPPY 17th Birthday!
we celebrated that night by going out to dinner. ( the previous night we pretty much cooked whatever food we had left in the kitchen...leftover rice, eggs, and corn ) it was really nice. we called up our friend we met at Hell's Gate, Tess, and she met up with us in our apartment. we took a matatu down to downtown nairobi, which i must say the experience was quite exhilirirating. i had no idea where we were going...not sure whether we'd make it back alive or whatnot. in the end, we had a good time. ate some chicken breast and a nice restaurant, hung out, chatted, and then, for like 3 straight hours started dancing at the dance floor. i haven't danced this much since....never. i really tried to break it down with some moves i learned from the mit breakdacning boys, but in the end, i just did my own thing, and it was pretty fun. my legs were hurting this morning like crazy.
the work is getting harder and a lot. we pretty much covered the basics of java, movign on to classes and objects. michael also wants to start introducing sms technologies to the students, and have them write a moeny transferring appliaction as one of their projects. me and michelle are responsible for creating a interface for the students to use to send and receive and text messages. i've been messing around with java swing for the past two days, and i think i grew extra pimples from all of the frustration and confusion. i finally got all the components in the right place, and it looks pretty nice. now i'm trying to get all the events working with one another. for some reason, buttons are so much easier to work with. i have a list of two options, inbox or compose a message. i can't seem to get the enter key to work with the options. and the listeners for the list are giving me a headache. anton or ray, if you guys know the answers, help a brother out. time is short right now, so i have to move quick.
anyhow, i signed off for a google android from michael today, so now i have access to one for the next 5 weeks. i decided i needed a phone in case i wanted to test out some applications, as well as if i need to call home. i tried calling again today with skype, but the internet was so bad, my mom could barely hear me. i just wanted to call and wish my sister, jeanette, happy birthday. she is turning 17, and i wish i was home to celebrate her birthday. the best i can do is shout it out to the world...so jeanette, this entry is dedicated for you!
HAPPY 17th Birthday!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
obtaining more knowledge
so there was this problem in this lab today, a sorting algorithm that got me interested in how algorithms work and the wonders behind this process. found a website where it got me started in realizing, i guess i knew this already, how little i knew, and how little time i have to learn so many things.
i'm starting to miss home. don't get me wrong, africa is great...it's just i wish my family and friends were here with me. well, maybe not my parents, cause i wouldn't want them to have to go out in the morning where the traffic is bad, and all the car emissions are polluting the air and my/their lungs.
today's class went well. three labs for the students to complete, and we got to take pictures of everyone to put on the forum.
looking forward to another day of technology!
i'm starting to miss home. don't get me wrong, africa is great...it's just i wish my family and friends were here with me. well, maybe not my parents, cause i wouldn't want them to have to go out in the morning where the traffic is bad, and all the car emissions are polluting the air and my/their lungs.
today's class went well. three labs for the students to complete, and we got to take pictures of everyone to put on the forum.
looking forward to another day of technology!
palindrome
it's exciting to see how the questions you make for others are being implemented by your students. i spent last night
making my own solution in solving the classic palindrome problem. it wasn't that bad actually.
what's even cooler is seeing the students try to think of their own ways in solving the problem.
one student thought he was able to do it right, but when i tested a word that looked like a palindrome, but i
purposely messed up the middle section, his program couldn't catch it. i explained to him how he could use a
for loop to test things, no matter how long the word was. tomorrow we'll be going over loops and control strucutres in
lecture, which should be interesting.
overall, i'm really impressed with these students. they pick up things really quickly, and it felt as if it
were an overnight success for these guys. there were still one or two students who i am worried about, but they
should be fine if they come to lectures and ask questions.
anyhow, the best part of the day....not school related, was when we came back to the apartment, and me, michael, and zach
decided to go workout. and in the process of working out, we found out about the spa room, where there was a
jacuzzi, steamroom, and sauna. it was awesome!!!! first time for me, and the jacuzzi and steam room was great. well
it was a little too hot, but hey, it was good. we joked we would come here every day after school. haha, life was
great for a few moments there. then we had dinner ( talipia and pasta ) and then finished up writing the lab
for class tomorrow. i need to brush up some more concepts. looks like i'm still a bit confused on a few parts of
java myself. anyhow, gotta go sleep. always getting tired for some reason. good night!
making my own solution in solving the classic palindrome problem. it wasn't that bad actually.
what's even cooler is seeing the students try to think of their own ways in solving the problem.
one student thought he was able to do it right, but when i tested a word that looked like a palindrome, but i
purposely messed up the middle section, his program couldn't catch it. i explained to him how he could use a
for loop to test things, no matter how long the word was. tomorrow we'll be going over loops and control strucutres in
lecture, which should be interesting.
overall, i'm really impressed with these students. they pick up things really quickly, and it felt as if it
were an overnight success for these guys. there were still one or two students who i am worried about, but they
should be fine if they come to lectures and ask questions.
anyhow, the best part of the day....not school related, was when we came back to the apartment, and me, michael, and zach
decided to go workout. and in the process of working out, we found out about the spa room, where there was a
jacuzzi, steamroom, and sauna. it was awesome!!!! first time for me, and the jacuzzi and steam room was great. well
it was a little too hot, but hey, it was good. we joked we would come here every day after school. haha, life was
great for a few moments there. then we had dinner ( talipia and pasta ) and then finished up writing the lab
for class tomorrow. i need to brush up some more concepts. looks like i'm still a bit confused on a few parts of
java myself. anyhow, gotta go sleep. always getting tired for some reason. good night!
Monday, June 8, 2009
first day of class
i think i may be coming down with the sniffles. hopefully after a night of rest i can get better. today was the first day of the program. i was feeling well actually...don't know why i'm so tired and sick now.
micheal started off the lecture with introductions, and what the course was about, and the motivation behind it. i took some notes, learned a few things myself. then we headed over to the lab, where i gave brief overview of Eclipse, and Zach followed up with some examples and finished up the lab.
we went off to lunch, and had my first african barbeque fish. their cafeteria food wasn't that bad. we headed back towards the lab, where we started the skills assesment lab, where we had the students do some java programming so we could see where everyone was and see where to start our java curriculum tomorrow. i did some reading myself, and tried out the lab. i walked around to see how everyone was doing, and it was pretty amazing see other people do their coding, trying to figure out their way of thinking through problems. after two hours, we went around doing mini-interviews with everyone, to see if they understood their code, and asked them how it worked. i got to explain some concepts to a few of the students, and it really made me understand more of java, as i was explaining to them how some of the code worked. overall, i would say a little more than half of the class is okay, a few great ones, and a few who don't have strong programming skills. during our group meeting we were discussing how after tomorrow's lab, we would have to cut those who don't have a good programmming background from the program. i was pretty upset to hear that, because i feel even though some students may not know programming, they should be given a chance to learn and do their best. hopefully they'll do well on the labs and lecture tomorrow. i could feel myself holding my tears back. imagine if my i were in their shoes, and not be able to participate in this program because of my skill level, which isn't my fault...i don't have the money to go to a great school when i was young to learn all his programming stuff. i can somehow relate to many of these individuals.
we came back to the apartment, got some pizza for dinner, and i worked on some problems for tomorrow's lab. i made a palindrome and factorial problem for the students to work on for tomorrow. it was pretty amazing browsing through the java api. can't wait to explore more of it. anyhow, gotta go to bed. don't want to be sick in class tomorrow. looking forward to more teaching and learning.
micheal started off the lecture with introductions, and what the course was about, and the motivation behind it. i took some notes, learned a few things myself. then we headed over to the lab, where i gave brief overview of Eclipse, and Zach followed up with some examples and finished up the lab.
we went off to lunch, and had my first african barbeque fish. their cafeteria food wasn't that bad. we headed back towards the lab, where we started the skills assesment lab, where we had the students do some java programming so we could see where everyone was and see where to start our java curriculum tomorrow. i did some reading myself, and tried out the lab. i walked around to see how everyone was doing, and it was pretty amazing see other people do their coding, trying to figure out their way of thinking through problems. after two hours, we went around doing mini-interviews with everyone, to see if they understood their code, and asked them how it worked. i got to explain some concepts to a few of the students, and it really made me understand more of java, as i was explaining to them how some of the code worked. overall, i would say a little more than half of the class is okay, a few great ones, and a few who don't have strong programming skills. during our group meeting we were discussing how after tomorrow's lab, we would have to cut those who don't have a good programmming background from the program. i was pretty upset to hear that, because i feel even though some students may not know programming, they should be given a chance to learn and do their best. hopefully they'll do well on the labs and lecture tomorrow. i could feel myself holding my tears back. imagine if my i were in their shoes, and not be able to participate in this program because of my skill level, which isn't my fault...i don't have the money to go to a great school when i was young to learn all his programming stuff. i can somehow relate to many of these individuals.
we came back to the apartment, got some pizza for dinner, and i worked on some problems for tomorrow's lab. i made a palindrome and factorial problem for the students to work on for tomorrow. it was pretty amazing browsing through the java api. can't wait to explore more of it. anyhow, gotta go to bed. don't want to be sick in class tomorrow. looking forward to more teaching and learning.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Back from Hell....Hell's Gate that Is.
i just got back from the airport. no, i'm not trying to escape if that's what you're thinking. we just picked up michelle from the airport, the final memeber of the team. she just graduated from MIT yesterday, and i'm excited to have her on board. when we got to the airport though, we found out the flight was delayed for two hours. we should have checked, but oh wellz. zach and michael got a taxi back, while me and Cory stayed back to wait. wasn't that bad. me and cory had a really good conversation, not related to Computer Science, but to real life. ( not that CS is not real life. ) he was a great listener, and it was nice to have someone talk to about my feelings and whatnot. he shared me his stories too, which were pretty interesting. overall, we had our moment, which was awesome.
Hell's Gate National Park. That's where we went today. Woke up around 6, and me and Cory made some PB&J for the group. I watched a little Barney, just to get me excited for the day i guess. we packed up our stuff, and headed off to our safari van. we went along the road, and it ended up to be a two hour drive i think. i saw cattles and donkeys along the way to the park. it was weird...there were old adults and little kids on the fields, directing the animals where to go. we stopped by a place where they were selling some african crafts. i ended up buying we finally got to the park, and paid for our admissions and bike fee. that's right, we were going to cycle around the park. and it was no regular cycling...i was so tired, and out of shape. michael and zach were always ahead of me, but it was all good. i would go on to describe the rest of the day, but i think i'll let the pictures do the talking. in general, biked around the park, ate lunch, went on tour underground, beneath the rocks, and..it was just undescribable. there were waterfalls, hotsprings, and the tour guide said the hotwater with natural soap was good for the pimples. i filled up my bottle with that water and brought it home with me. after surviving that, we took a trip down to the lake, where we saw a bunch of other wild animals. again, i'll let the picture do the talking.
on the ride back, as i was seeing the villagers live their daily lives, i couldn't help but think how lucky i was. i saw little kids, probably from ages 7-10, working the fields, with the animals by their sides. i saw adults lying there, doing the same thing over and over again. and here i am, a student at a great university, learning, making my life better for myself and my family. i don't know, i just had one of those self-reflection moments that told me i should be very very grateful for what i have.
anyhow, i'll think more about it later. for now, enjoy the pictures!
( i apologize, but due to the internet access here, i am not able to post the pictures i would like online. i will try to do so at a later time. sorry :(
Hell's Gate National Park. That's where we went today. Woke up around 6, and me and Cory made some PB&J for the group. I watched a little Barney, just to get me excited for the day i guess. we packed up our stuff, and headed off to our safari van. we went along the road, and it ended up to be a two hour drive i think. i saw cattles and donkeys along the way to the park. it was weird...there were old adults and little kids on the fields, directing the animals where to go. we stopped by a place where they were selling some african crafts. i ended up buying we finally got to the park, and paid for our admissions and bike fee. that's right, we were going to cycle around the park. and it was no regular cycling...i was so tired, and out of shape. michael and zach were always ahead of me, but it was all good. i would go on to describe the rest of the day, but i think i'll let the pictures do the talking. in general, biked around the park, ate lunch, went on tour underground, beneath the rocks, and..it was just undescribable. there were waterfalls, hotsprings, and the tour guide said the hotwater with natural soap was good for the pimples. i filled up my bottle with that water and brought it home with me. after surviving that, we took a trip down to the lake, where we saw a bunch of other wild animals. again, i'll let the picture do the talking.
on the ride back, as i was seeing the villagers live their daily lives, i couldn't help but think how lucky i was. i saw little kids, probably from ages 7-10, working the fields, with the animals by their sides. i saw adults lying there, doing the same thing over and over again. and here i am, a student at a great university, learning, making my life better for myself and my family. i don't know, i just had one of those self-reflection moments that told me i should be very very grateful for what i have.
anyhow, i'll think more about it later. for now, enjoy the pictures!
( i apologize, but due to the internet access here, i am not able to post the pictures i would like online. i will try to do so at a later time. sorry :(
Saturday, June 6, 2009
a day of walking, and meeting some chinese people
tomorrow we're going on an adventure to Hell's Gate National Park. should be fun, but i'm a bit nervous. apparently we'll be riding bikes across the bike, where we'll encounter animals and, i guess i'll make some new animal friends along the way.
so tired right now; had a swim at the pool after we came back from a day of walking and exploring downtown nairobi. we got to take out some money at the atm machine, and got about 6,000 shillings. hopefully it'll last me a while. we were able to get a deal with a travel agency for our tour tomorrow at a pretty good deal. we also went to the supermarket to stock on some food for tomorrow-i'm wakign up early to make a hella of a lot pb&j sandwiches.
at the supermarket i saw a chinese man walking around, who later came up to me and asked me in mandarin, 'are you chinese'. i responded yes, and after couple of seconds, got lost completely. that must how anton feels whenever i speak chinese around him. so i asked him if he spoke cantonese, which he did. i saw another man, probably his friend, and a woman with him. they were on a business trip from Dubai, seeing how the market in kenya was like for some sort of power generator i think? we chatted for awhile, and i told them about the AITI program, and MIT. one of the gentleman actually has a daughter interstted in architecture at MIT. after that, i gave him my contact card, and he gave me his business card. it was really cool to meet these guys, and to have a conversation with chinese people. i got a little homesick afterwards, missing my parents, and wishing they were here with me, exploring and seeing the things i was seeing.
we also had lunch at javahouse again, which was pretty good. i tried out their chicken curry, which i think the one in america is much better. oh, and i bargained with the taxi driver today to drive us back to the apartments. got him down from 500 to 300 shillings. hmm. maybe i should think about stuyding business instead...nah!
tonight we watched shanghai knights or whatever it was called with jackie chan and owen wilson. it was pretty good, watching an american movie in africa. i felt so tired tonight...must have been from the swim and walkign all around today. oh, we almost lost cory at the market, but he was just wandering around buying a cloth/painting from someone? i'm amazed how strangers just come right up to you, in your face telling you to buy stuff from them. i think after this trip i'll have mastering the art of ignoring others. just completely shut them out whenever i need to.
anyhow, finished creating the survey for the forum, fixed up some stuff for the slide on eclipse, did some reviewing on abstract classes, and, finished, or i should say, sped through the section of threads in my book.
i'm beginning to feel that i have right now is just basic java knowledge. i understand the what, but now i want to understand the how. how does this all fit into creating programs that i find intersting. how do i know what classes to make, or interfaces to create? i think i'll ask michale that tomorrow. i have some ideas for some applications for the phone, but just need a way to get started. other than that, michelle is coming tomorrow, and i wanted to congratulate the MIT Class of 2009! i wish i could have been there to see everything, especially to see my good friend, and older brother, Kevin Luu graduate. he's helped me so much, i don't even know where to begin to list the things he's done. can't wait to see him again and catch up on the good times.
well, off to bed. it's about 10:30p.m., and i plan to wake up around 6:30 to pack some sandwiches, and suit up, or armor up for Hell's gate. let's just hope it's anything but hell tomorrow. wish me luck!
so tired right now; had a swim at the pool after we came back from a day of walking and exploring downtown nairobi. we got to take out some money at the atm machine, and got about 6,000 shillings. hopefully it'll last me a while. we were able to get a deal with a travel agency for our tour tomorrow at a pretty good deal. we also went to the supermarket to stock on some food for tomorrow-i'm wakign up early to make a hella of a lot pb&j sandwiches.
at the supermarket i saw a chinese man walking around, who later came up to me and asked me in mandarin, 'are you chinese'. i responded yes, and after couple of seconds, got lost completely. that must how anton feels whenever i speak chinese around him. so i asked him if he spoke cantonese, which he did. i saw another man, probably his friend, and a woman with him. they were on a business trip from Dubai, seeing how the market in kenya was like for some sort of power generator i think? we chatted for awhile, and i told them about the AITI program, and MIT. one of the gentleman actually has a daughter interstted in architecture at MIT. after that, i gave him my contact card, and he gave me his business card. it was really cool to meet these guys, and to have a conversation with chinese people. i got a little homesick afterwards, missing my parents, and wishing they were here with me, exploring and seeing the things i was seeing.
we also had lunch at javahouse again, which was pretty good. i tried out their chicken curry, which i think the one in america is much better. oh, and i bargained with the taxi driver today to drive us back to the apartments. got him down from 500 to 300 shillings. hmm. maybe i should think about stuyding business instead...nah!
tonight we watched shanghai knights or whatever it was called with jackie chan and owen wilson. it was pretty good, watching an american movie in africa. i felt so tired tonight...must have been from the swim and walkign all around today. oh, we almost lost cory at the market, but he was just wandering around buying a cloth/painting from someone? i'm amazed how strangers just come right up to you, in your face telling you to buy stuff from them. i think after this trip i'll have mastering the art of ignoring others. just completely shut them out whenever i need to.
anyhow, finished creating the survey for the forum, fixed up some stuff for the slide on eclipse, did some reviewing on abstract classes, and, finished, or i should say, sped through the section of threads in my book.
i'm beginning to feel that i have right now is just basic java knowledge. i understand the what, but now i want to understand the how. how does this all fit into creating programs that i find intersting. how do i know what classes to make, or interfaces to create? i think i'll ask michale that tomorrow. i have some ideas for some applications for the phone, but just need a way to get started. other than that, michelle is coming tomorrow, and i wanted to congratulate the MIT Class of 2009! i wish i could have been there to see everything, especially to see my good friend, and older brother, Kevin Luu graduate. he's helped me so much, i don't even know where to begin to list the things he's done. can't wait to see him again and catch up on the good times.
well, off to bed. it's about 10:30p.m., and i plan to wake up around 6:30 to pack some sandwiches, and suit up, or armor up for Hell's gate. let's just hope it's anything but hell tomorrow. wish me luck!
Friday, June 5, 2009
eclipse, taxis, kenyan cops, & kenyan meat
what a crazy night. don't even know where to start. i think i'll just give a brief summary, and if i still have energy in the morning go into more detail.
started my readings on threads for java. still confused, but i think i might be going somewhere with this. i think once i master this i can do some powerful stuff. i mean, being able to run multiple things at the same time is pretty cool stuff. asked michael about threading and he gave me an example of a person sending a text message, while still accessing the user interface. i also found a bunch of new sites that had some great java tutorials on some advance concepts.
went to strathmore university in the afternoon. that's when the headaches began. somehow eclipse didn't install correctly, because some parts of it were missing, like trying to create a new project, but can't create classes, interfaces, etc. so we had to go through hours of figuring out what was wrong, trying out different things, pretty much trial and error. we had to reinstall the java sdk, reinstall and delete the old eclipse, and delete the old workspace before it finally worked. we still ran into issues of not being able to access eclipse, but i won't go into detail cause i'll just get more headaches and develop more pimples.
called a taxi to take us back home, but it didn't come for like a good hour, until we saw a random taxi drop someone else off, so we just hopped into that and got home. we decided we wanted to get chombo for dinner. chombo is suppose to be like exotic african meat, anywhere from chicken and beef, to goat, crocodile, and who knows what animals you and i can think of. apparently we must have pissed off many taxi drivers, or the network, cause the one we called for took forever to come. it never did come. we were going to give up, and not eat dinner at all. but i was frickin hungry, and wanted some meat, cause oh yeah we worked out at the gym today, and needed to feed my muscles.
so my chinese side came out, and told michael to call another taxi and that i would talk to him or her. apparently i had to magic hands today, cause most of the computers i was able to fix up with eclipse. called the first guy, and told him we needed a taxi from our apartment to the restaurant. he wanted 600 shillings, and i said too expensive, and wanted 400. argued for a while, and then he hung up. i thought i was being too rude and aggresive. called another taxi, and this time a lady picked up, so i decided to have a more nicer voice. got our 400 shillings, and off we went.
thought everything was going to go smoothly, until we got pulled over by the kenyan police. yeah, that's when i first got my taste of corruption. so they bullied us, and said how zach didn't have his seat belt on. i don't think kenya has a seatbelt law, but anyhow, they threatened to take us down to the police station. oh boy, i was scared, almost crapped in my pants. michael was real calm, and asked what was the fine. 5000 shillings!!!! wtf mate??!!! so in the end, we paid 3000 shillings and they let us go. see how bad that was, we had to bribe the cops, and they went along with it. they got money, and we were just students, teaching other students programming. it was so messed up. i'm telling you, i would've stood up to those guys, but when i saw them and their AK-47's, i was like, shit, i'm dead. but i'm safe, and during dinner michael was joking about how if the next time this bullsh*t happens again, we'll just go down to the police station, and hopefully the U.S. embassy will help us out.
dinner was great. had chicken and goat meat, along with African Tusker to gulp everything down. tasted delicious, and had a great time with the guys. our waitress seemed to be really interested in us, or me, but she asked us what we were doign in kenya, and other stuff like that.
so to summarize: headaches with installing eclipse, waiting for taxi that never came, harrassed by kenyan cops, lost 3000 shillings, and ate a hella of a dinner. yeah, i say we had an awesome night ;)
started my readings on threads for java. still confused, but i think i might be going somewhere with this. i think once i master this i can do some powerful stuff. i mean, being able to run multiple things at the same time is pretty cool stuff. asked michael about threading and he gave me an example of a person sending a text message, while still accessing the user interface. i also found a bunch of new sites that had some great java tutorials on some advance concepts.
went to strathmore university in the afternoon. that's when the headaches began. somehow eclipse didn't install correctly, because some parts of it were missing, like trying to create a new project, but can't create classes, interfaces, etc. so we had to go through hours of figuring out what was wrong, trying out different things, pretty much trial and error. we had to reinstall the java sdk, reinstall and delete the old eclipse, and delete the old workspace before it finally worked. we still ran into issues of not being able to access eclipse, but i won't go into detail cause i'll just get more headaches and develop more pimples.
called a taxi to take us back home, but it didn't come for like a good hour, until we saw a random taxi drop someone else off, so we just hopped into that and got home. we decided we wanted to get chombo for dinner. chombo is suppose to be like exotic african meat, anywhere from chicken and beef, to goat, crocodile, and who knows what animals you and i can think of. apparently we must have pissed off many taxi drivers, or the network, cause the one we called for took forever to come. it never did come. we were going to give up, and not eat dinner at all. but i was frickin hungry, and wanted some meat, cause oh yeah we worked out at the gym today, and needed to feed my muscles.
so my chinese side came out, and told michael to call another taxi and that i would talk to him or her. apparently i had to magic hands today, cause most of the computers i was able to fix up with eclipse. called the first guy, and told him we needed a taxi from our apartment to the restaurant. he wanted 600 shillings, and i said too expensive, and wanted 400. argued for a while, and then he hung up. i thought i was being too rude and aggresive. called another taxi, and this time a lady picked up, so i decided to have a more nicer voice. got our 400 shillings, and off we went.
thought everything was going to go smoothly, until we got pulled over by the kenyan police. yeah, that's when i first got my taste of corruption. so they bullied us, and said how zach didn't have his seat belt on. i don't think kenya has a seatbelt law, but anyhow, they threatened to take us down to the police station. oh boy, i was scared, almost crapped in my pants. michael was real calm, and asked what was the fine. 5000 shillings!!!! wtf mate??!!! so in the end, we paid 3000 shillings and they let us go. see how bad that was, we had to bribe the cops, and they went along with it. they got money, and we were just students, teaching other students programming. it was so messed up. i'm telling you, i would've stood up to those guys, but when i saw them and their AK-47's, i was like, shit, i'm dead. but i'm safe, and during dinner michael was joking about how if the next time this bullsh*t happens again, we'll just go down to the police station, and hopefully the U.S. embassy will help us out.
dinner was great. had chicken and goat meat, along with African Tusker to gulp everything down. tasted delicious, and had a great time with the guys. our waitress seemed to be really interested in us, or me, but she asked us what we were doign in kenya, and other stuff like that.
so to summarize: headaches with installing eclipse, waiting for taxi that never came, harrassed by kenyan cops, lost 3000 shillings, and ate a hella of a dinner. yeah, i say we had an awesome night ;)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
why i love skype, and visit to strathmore university
yesterday morning i woke up ridiculously early..somewhere around 6:30 in the morning. it's so wierd...my sleeping patterns have been so erratic it's crazy. usually at school i wake up the latest possible..hear, it's like waking up....on time. haha. oh, did mention...instead of waking up to my alarm, i wake up to wild birds making strange noises, and monkeys on roofs chasing each other. man, don't you love africa or what?
i made some cereal and PB&J for breakfast, and ate with the rest of the team. we chatted a little bit, and I got to know Micahel a little better, asked him how he got started in Computer Science, and amazed at how much he knows and has done. pretty amazing how he studied at rutgers university and went to MIT for grad school. he shared with us how his professor at rutgers invited him to do research with him because he did really well in a compilers class i think, and that's how he got invovled with this area at MIT. i also like how he's so adventurous, and has travled to so many countries around the world.
after breakfast, we got ready to go to the university, but turned out that John, Michael's friend, was going to pick us up around 2 in the afternoon, instead of 9. so we had some time to kill. i decided to start reading up on threads, and get prepared for that. i think i'm going to have some trouble with that (anton i need you!) but hopefully i can ask michael for some help.
then michael wanted to talk to me about the forums, and what i needed to do in terms of setting everything up and showing the students how to register and do things with the forum. pretty amazing how phpbb is set up so easily for people to use and develop with.
i decided i wanted to give my parents a call, let them know everything was okay. my sister didnt' email me back yet to let me know she informed my parents i was safe, ( jerk! ) so i wanted to call. problem was my phone didn't work, and so i figured maybe i could use skype to call home. it said i could get my first call for free, up to 10 minutes, but i guess it expired, so i had to pay skype credit. pretty awesome actually. it was so cheap. best part...is when i connected with my mom on the phone, and i heard her voice through my laptop. that was the greatest feeling ever. to be able to hear my parents voice, while 7000 or who knows how many miles i'm away. i felt so close to them, as if they were right next to me. we spoke for about 20 mintues, which cost me a total of 50 cents. forget phone cards, skype is the way to go! i asked michael what area of computer science was responsible for technologies like skype, and he explained to me areas like distributed system, voice technology, and some algorithms. pretty good stuff...i might actually look into those areas for myself.
so after that great moment, we went out to get some lunch. boy was that hard. a 30 minute walk to downtown nairobi, i must have inhaled so much car emssions, my life may have been shorten by 10 years. but it was really nice. the weather was like hawaii, the trees were blooming all around, and the scenery was just gorgeous. we got to javahouse, which is like a westerized restaurant, and yup, i ordered the double bacon cheeseburger. reminded me of the time i was at the place with dave and everyone else. the burger was good, and really filled me. we took a taxi back home, and got ready to meet john.
he was a nice guy, drove us to strathmore university. the campus is pretty nice, and there were a lot of students present. we went to check out the lab we would be in, and installed the Eclipse IDE onto the computers. we also set up the tripod and camera to test it out. we'll be recording all of our lectures starting on monday. we also got these i.d.'s which said 'intern'. it was pretty hilarious. michael said he worked all these years, and finally became an intern. hehehe.
we sat around for awhile, talked a little bit. i was so tired, started to pass out. john finally finished his meeting, and wanted to go to the cafeteria to get some food. i got sprite, sat around, chatted, and finally headed home. it was a bumpy ride-so many potholes on the streets, it was ridiculous.
as soon as we got home, i took a nap, and yup, turned out to be the longest nap i've ever had-12 hours. hopefully my body finally adjusted to this place. i feel wide awake right now...hopefully my sleep schdule will be back to normal.
other than that, do more java programming, and might start to check out the android platform, see how that goes.
i made some cereal and PB&J for breakfast, and ate with the rest of the team. we chatted a little bit, and I got to know Micahel a little better, asked him how he got started in Computer Science, and amazed at how much he knows and has done. pretty amazing how he studied at rutgers university and went to MIT for grad school. he shared with us how his professor at rutgers invited him to do research with him because he did really well in a compilers class i think, and that's how he got invovled with this area at MIT. i also like how he's so adventurous, and has travled to so many countries around the world.
after breakfast, we got ready to go to the university, but turned out that John, Michael's friend, was going to pick us up around 2 in the afternoon, instead of 9. so we had some time to kill. i decided to start reading up on threads, and get prepared for that. i think i'm going to have some trouble with that (anton i need you!) but hopefully i can ask michael for some help.
then michael wanted to talk to me about the forums, and what i needed to do in terms of setting everything up and showing the students how to register and do things with the forum. pretty amazing how phpbb is set up so easily for people to use and develop with.
i decided i wanted to give my parents a call, let them know everything was okay. my sister didnt' email me back yet to let me know she informed my parents i was safe, ( jerk! ) so i wanted to call. problem was my phone didn't work, and so i figured maybe i could use skype to call home. it said i could get my first call for free, up to 10 minutes, but i guess it expired, so i had to pay skype credit. pretty awesome actually. it was so cheap. best part...is when i connected with my mom on the phone, and i heard her voice through my laptop. that was the greatest feeling ever. to be able to hear my parents voice, while 7000 or who knows how many miles i'm away. i felt so close to them, as if they were right next to me. we spoke for about 20 mintues, which cost me a total of 50 cents. forget phone cards, skype is the way to go! i asked michael what area of computer science was responsible for technologies like skype, and he explained to me areas like distributed system, voice technology, and some algorithms. pretty good stuff...i might actually look into those areas for myself.
so after that great moment, we went out to get some lunch. boy was that hard. a 30 minute walk to downtown nairobi, i must have inhaled so much car emssions, my life may have been shorten by 10 years. but it was really nice. the weather was like hawaii, the trees were blooming all around, and the scenery was just gorgeous. we got to javahouse, which is like a westerized restaurant, and yup, i ordered the double bacon cheeseburger. reminded me of the time i was at the place with dave and everyone else. the burger was good, and really filled me. we took a taxi back home, and got ready to meet john.
he was a nice guy, drove us to strathmore university. the campus is pretty nice, and there were a lot of students present. we went to check out the lab we would be in, and installed the Eclipse IDE onto the computers. we also set up the tripod and camera to test it out. we'll be recording all of our lectures starting on monday. we also got these i.d.'s which said 'intern'. it was pretty hilarious. michael said he worked all these years, and finally became an intern. hehehe.
we sat around for awhile, talked a little bit. i was so tired, started to pass out. john finally finished his meeting, and wanted to go to the cafeteria to get some food. i got sprite, sat around, chatted, and finally headed home. it was a bumpy ride-so many potholes on the streets, it was ridiculous.
as soon as we got home, i took a nap, and yup, turned out to be the longest nap i've ever had-12 hours. hopefully my body finally adjusted to this place. i feel wide awake right now...hopefully my sleep schdule will be back to normal.
other than that, do more java programming, and might start to check out the android platform, see how that goes.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
shopping and napping
Even in Africa, when I say I would take a quick nap, it usually turns out to be a 5+ hour rest. i woke up around 12a.m., haven't eaten dinner or anything else since our PB&J lunch break. see, reason i was so tired wasn't because was lazy or didn't want to work. truth was, last night was probably one of the most horrible night of sleep i've ever had. probably not even good enough to call it 'sleep'.
here's the thing...mosquitoes. yup...i spent two straight hours last night battling with all the buzzez and bizzes that the mosquitoes were making. they were so annoying...more annoying than people. no matter how many times i kept slapping my face, they kept coming back. i couldn't take it anymore, and went over to the other room to sleep. i have bites the size of fat pimples...one on more harm, a few on my hands. i would post some pics...but you might not come back after seeing them.
good news...i got a mosquito net!
our maid...( yup, that's right...we have a maid. and while( i have maid()){
System.out.println("Julian doesn't have to clean"!);
} Haha, j/k. my mom would slap me if she knew i still can't clean up after myself after all these years.
anyhow, today we went shopping. but before that, we had a breakfast at the apartment resturant, which was okay. i ordered some toast, eggs, and a sausage. it tasted okay, but the sausage i must say was pretty interesting. it was dark red, more like pork, and sort of wrinkled up. but it tasted pretty good...wish i had taken a picture. i love african sausages!!!
the cook/waitress was so nice. i managed to remember how to say thank you in Swahili, Asante, and she was smiling at me. looks like language and lingustics is the way to go.
as we walked over to the grocery store, it felt more like a battle/heroundeous journey. the cars in the streets were driving like crazy. we have drivers driving on both lanes, same/opposite directions. the whole time i was trying to be careful of not getting hit by cars. i guess it sort of like new york, except every car was emitting its pollution crap that i must have inhaled nothing but car crap the entire time.
it was okay though. made it fine, bought a ton of food/toiletries. i got some coconut/yogurt flavor body wash, which was pretty awesome. anyhow, we spent over a total of 11,000 dollars in groceries. oops, i lied, 11,000 kenyan shillings (ksh) haha, dont' worry, i'm still chinese.
oh, and one more thing. apparently grocery stores in nairobi have different sizes of shopping carts:
we got a taxi to drive us back to our apartment. michael actually bargained with the taxi driver before we got in. looks like i have to learn some bargaining langugae in swahili. unpacked all our stuff, ate some food, then started working. me and zach were responsible for creating the lab for our introduction to Eclipse ( java IDE ), and i looked at some online material for sample code that we could use as an example. I created a rough draft powerpoint for our lesson, and zach did some code with errors to show how Eclipse is useful in catching java syntax errors.
i need to get my ass working. i asked michael if were going to go over threads and he said yes. i didn't read up on threads during my stay at Anton's so i have to do that. plus review some old stuff like interfaces and what not to make sure i know it really well as if i had to teach it....( well i am aren't i? )
so yeah, that's pretty much it. after that, you know the rest. took a nap, which knocked me out, and woke up to everyone sleeping. i did some java reading myself, and then took my shower, and ready to sleep. zach told me earlier that in the morning we will go the university with Michael's professor friend John and check things out. lots of preparation to do, so sleeping time will slowly start to decrease.
Asante!
note: i forgot to mention how beautiful today's weather was. the whole time during breakfast, we were all saying how this feels so much like a vacation....haha, we can't get too comfortable now. but seriously, it's 'winter' right now for kenya, and boy, i wish boston's winter was sexy like this. cool breezes, with sunny skies. not too hot, not too cold, between 70-80 degree fahrenheit year round. hey..sounds familiar huh? Hawaii!!!! decided to take a picture of the nice view and nice me ;)
here's the thing...mosquitoes. yup...i spent two straight hours last night battling with all the buzzez and bizzes that the mosquitoes were making. they were so annoying...more annoying than people. no matter how many times i kept slapping my face, they kept coming back. i couldn't take it anymore, and went over to the other room to sleep. i have bites the size of fat pimples...one on more harm, a few on my hands. i would post some pics...but you might not come back after seeing them.
good news...i got a mosquito net!
our maid...( yup, that's right...we have a maid. and while( i have maid()){
System.out.println("Julian doesn't have to clean"!);
} Haha, j/k. my mom would slap me if she knew i still can't clean up after myself after all these years.
anyhow, today we went shopping. but before that, we had a breakfast at the apartment resturant, which was okay. i ordered some toast, eggs, and a sausage. it tasted okay, but the sausage i must say was pretty interesting. it was dark red, more like pork, and sort of wrinkled up. but it tasted pretty good...wish i had taken a picture. i love african sausages!!!
the cook/waitress was so nice. i managed to remember how to say thank you in Swahili, Asante, and she was smiling at me. looks like language and lingustics is the way to go.
as we walked over to the grocery store, it felt more like a battle/heroundeous journey. the cars in the streets were driving like crazy. we have drivers driving on both lanes, same/opposite directions. the whole time i was trying to be careful of not getting hit by cars. i guess it sort of like new york, except every car was emitting its pollution crap that i must have inhaled nothing but car crap the entire time.
it was okay though. made it fine, bought a ton of food/toiletries. i got some coconut/yogurt flavor body wash, which was pretty awesome. anyhow, we spent over a total of 11,000 dollars in groceries. oops, i lied, 11,000 kenyan shillings (ksh) haha, dont' worry, i'm still chinese.
oh, and one more thing. apparently grocery stores in nairobi have different sizes of shopping carts:
we got a taxi to drive us back to our apartment. michael actually bargained with the taxi driver before we got in. looks like i have to learn some bargaining langugae in swahili. unpacked all our stuff, ate some food, then started working. me and zach were responsible for creating the lab for our introduction to Eclipse ( java IDE ), and i looked at some online material for sample code that we could use as an example. I created a rough draft powerpoint for our lesson, and zach did some code with errors to show how Eclipse is useful in catching java syntax errors.
i need to get my ass working. i asked michael if were going to go over threads and he said yes. i didn't read up on threads during my stay at Anton's so i have to do that. plus review some old stuff like interfaces and what not to make sure i know it really well as if i had to teach it....( well i am aren't i? )
so yeah, that's pretty much it. after that, you know the rest. took a nap, which knocked me out, and woke up to everyone sleeping. i did some java reading myself, and then took my shower, and ready to sleep. zach told me earlier that in the morning we will go the university with Michael's professor friend John and check things out. lots of preparation to do, so sleeping time will slowly start to decrease.
Asante!
note: i forgot to mention how beautiful today's weather was. the whole time during breakfast, we were all saying how this feels so much like a vacation....haha, we can't get too comfortable now. but seriously, it's 'winter' right now for kenya, and boy, i wish boston's winter was sexy like this. cool breezes, with sunny skies. not too hot, not too cold, between 70-80 degree fahrenheit year round. hey..sounds familiar huh? Hawaii!!!! decided to take a picture of the nice view and nice me ;)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The Chinese Boy Has Landed
Note: due to terrible internet access in Africa, I am blogging this on my desktop, and posting it the next morning
After 24 hours of airplane traveling, we finally made it from Boston, Massachusetts to Nairobi, Kenya. As I walked out of the airport, and got all of my bags, we were greeted by someone who would take us to our apartment. I looked up into the sky as we were walking towards the van, and couldn’t believe I was actually in Africa. The moon was shining brightly, and I thought to myself, ‘wow, even though I’m thousands of miles away from my home, friends, and family, I still somehow feel connected.’ We all share the same moon, and I could feel like the moon was smiling down upon me, letting me know everything was going to be okay.
I was like the wide eyed Chinese kid looking all over the place as we were driving to our apartment. Although it was nearly pitch back, I could see trees and grassfields out into the distance. I wondered if giraffes were going to pop out from nowhere, but unfortunately, I didn’t see any wild animals anywhere.
We got to our apartment, and I gotta say it’s pretty nice. Big living room, kitchen, and our own bedrooms. Unfortunately, I got stuck with the hard, little bed in the corner, but hey, a bed’s a bed right? Hopefully we can alternate rooms after two weeks.
Oh, and Michael asked who was good at picking up foreign languages, and I heard myself saying, ‘I am, sort of.’ Everyone else said nothing, so now I have to pick up some Swahili if we want to traverse around the area. Nah, I’m sure there are English speaking people here.
Overall, I’m pretty excited for what lies ahead. I have a crap load of work and preparation to do before the program at the university officially starts. We have about a week before we start teaching, and I have to make sure, in addition to mastering java, I need to know J2ME, and some database stuff as well. Should be fun though. I will make sure this summer I become technically savy, and hey, the best way to learn something is to teach right?
The team here is pretty cool as well. I spoke with Cory about MIT and choosing majors as we were waiting at Logan airport. He’s a pretty chill guy, and look forward to working more and interacting with him. Zach I can tell is a pretty adventurous guy, and hopefully after this trip I’ll be more bold and adventurous myself. And Michael is just down to earth. I hope to chat more with him throughout the journey.
That’s about it for now. We’ll probably do some shopping tomorrow, start planning out some stuff, and hopefully do some exploration. Until then, good night, cause I’m tired, and I gotta sleep. Aloha!
Monday, June 1, 2009
T - < 12 Hours
I'm back at MIT, and in less than 12 hours will be boarding the plane to Kenya, Africa. Taking care of some last minute things- laundry, bank, packing...haha. the past week has been great. i've been staying at my friend Anton's place, and it was such a great feeling being able to live with a chinese family and get to hang out with my bro Anton. Man, if I knew living with a brother was this great, I would have told my parents to make me a little bro instead. ( j/k sis :) The whole family was great....his parents took care of my really well, making great food, a great bed, ( heck, anton's airbed got flatted out that he had to sleep on the ground ;) His sister Alison is the best sister in the world. She is so independent, outgoing, and really smart. I can't think of a day where she didn't ask us what food we wanted, or if we wanted to get ice cream. She was really nice to me, and same to her brother. Anton is one lucky guy to have such a great family.
But it wasn't all play ( or was it? ) I managed to get some Java learning done, and had Anton help me out along the way. I've been also reading through the chapters of my Java book, and doing the exercises and trying to understand the concepts. It turned out to be okay, and yesterday when we had our final meeting for our Africa trip, I was able to understand some of J2ME material that Michelle was presenting to us. But I know I still have a lot more to learn and do, and that one week before the program starts, I'll be the Chinese Boy in Africa working his ass off.
I also got to hang out with some homies before they left. Jenny and Feng went shopping with us early in the week. I was hoping to buy my 'goods', but unfortunately the Burlington Mall we went to didn't have squat. So we weren't able to buy much, but we did happen to eat Chick Fe Le, the place William likes to eat at.
Bowling was on Friday night, and it was tons of fun. I haven't bowled in a while, but was able to do well enough to beat Will in the second round. Anton and Bohan weren't doing so hot, they kept getting gutter balls everywhere. but it's okay, they ain't from hawaii, so i forgive them.
and Sandra, oh sandra. I had a great walk with her as we were walking to the bowling alley cause there were no shuttles to take us there. she is one ambitious chinese girl, and really excited for her. can't believe she is so great at balancing school and a boyfriend. maybe i should have worked hard to get an impressive resume.
so after whooping these MIT kids in bowling, we headed back, and enjoyed the last couple nights of living with Anton. Oh, i forgot to mention i finally watched the movie 21. we borrowed it at the library as me and alyson jogged around malden, and stopped at the library to pick up anton and feng. oh, i remember now, that day was also alyson's birthday. we had pizza, and watched how MIT kids made thousands of dollars from using their smarts. i'm hoping 6.042 will teach me how to count cards as well ;)
that's pretty much it. last night was my last night at anton's. i gave him the book i got from him last week at the mit book sale "Historical Linguistics" he looked pretty excited, and can't wait to hear how it went . he's got a lot of stuff going from him, and lots of goals. i better see you all jacked after this summer bro!
as for me, i got a haircut that makes me look gangster, some new knowledge of java, oh, and developed an addiction for the t.v. show 'One Tree Hill'. other than that, i'm loaded with google phones, ready to make some great applications, and even more importantly, ready to teach and learn computer science and business. oh, did i mention-->I bought a $200 backpack. yup, not so chinese anymore with my money. i'm using it for the two weeks after the program to go exploring around africa. oh i have to survive on is the stuff in my bag...so, hopefully i'll have packed enough, and ready to go.
gonna go get some lunch right now, and then take care of business. leaving tonight for kenya. going to miss the U.S.A. and my family. but hopefully when i come back, i'll be a lot more wiser, mature, and appreciative. and i can't wait to share everything i've learned and seen with my family and friends. take care everyone, and ALOOOOOOHAAAAAAA!
But it wasn't all play ( or was it? ) I managed to get some Java learning done, and had Anton help me out along the way. I've been also reading through the chapters of my Java book, and doing the exercises and trying to understand the concepts. It turned out to be okay, and yesterday when we had our final meeting for our Africa trip, I was able to understand some of J2ME material that Michelle was presenting to us. But I know I still have a lot more to learn and do, and that one week before the program starts, I'll be the Chinese Boy in Africa working his ass off.
I also got to hang out with some homies before they left. Jenny and Feng went shopping with us early in the week. I was hoping to buy my 'goods', but unfortunately the Burlington Mall we went to didn't have squat. So we weren't able to buy much, but we did happen to eat Chick Fe Le, the place William likes to eat at.
Bowling was on Friday night, and it was tons of fun. I haven't bowled in a while, but was able to do well enough to beat Will in the second round. Anton and Bohan weren't doing so hot, they kept getting gutter balls everywhere. but it's okay, they ain't from hawaii, so i forgive them.
and Sandra, oh sandra. I had a great walk with her as we were walking to the bowling alley cause there were no shuttles to take us there. she is one ambitious chinese girl, and really excited for her. can't believe she is so great at balancing school and a boyfriend. maybe i should have worked hard to get an impressive resume.
so after whooping these MIT kids in bowling, we headed back, and enjoyed the last couple nights of living with Anton. Oh, i forgot to mention i finally watched the movie 21. we borrowed it at the library as me and alyson jogged around malden, and stopped at the library to pick up anton and feng. oh, i remember now, that day was also alyson's birthday. we had pizza, and watched how MIT kids made thousands of dollars from using their smarts. i'm hoping 6.042 will teach me how to count cards as well ;)
that's pretty much it. last night was my last night at anton's. i gave him the book i got from him last week at the mit book sale "Historical Linguistics" he looked pretty excited, and can't wait to hear how it went . he's got a lot of stuff going from him, and lots of goals. i better see you all jacked after this summer bro!
as for me, i got a haircut that makes me look gangster, some new knowledge of java, oh, and developed an addiction for the t.v. show 'One Tree Hill'. other than that, i'm loaded with google phones, ready to make some great applications, and even more importantly, ready to teach and learn computer science and business. oh, did i mention-->I bought a $200 backpack. yup, not so chinese anymore with my money. i'm using it for the two weeks after the program to go exploring around africa. oh i have to survive on is the stuff in my bag...so, hopefully i'll have packed enough, and ready to go.
gonna go get some lunch right now, and then take care of business. leaving tonight for kenya. going to miss the U.S.A. and my family. but hopefully when i come back, i'll be a lot more wiser, mature, and appreciative. and i can't wait to share everything i've learned and seen with my family and friends. take care everyone, and ALOOOOOOHAAAAAAA!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
