It seems that whenever my travel plans involve Frankfurt, something goes wrong. Granted, it must be a nice city, and in fact it may not be at fault for most of what goes wrong. But there is this looming curse about this city that strikes at the fear of a lonely traveller like me. So what happened today? It’s supposed to be a simple flight to Frankfurt connecting through Ottawa. Surely Toronto to Ottawa is just a short jump, right? Well, not if there’s no pilot… The plane was late to the gate to begin with, so after deplaning and boarding, it was already late. What’s more unnerving was when the announcement said “we have all boarded, all that we are missing is the pilot!” Turns out the pilot is on a flight delayed from the west, and we were stuck on the plane for more than an hour. You would think that they would have a pilot before letting us on the plane? Anyway, they risked fines and gave us the entertainment system, and I watched City Chase, which isn’t too bad. They were even aware of passengers connecting to Frankfurt or London (hey, that’s me!), and we were told that they will hold the planes for us. Merry Christmas!

Once in Ottawa, I ran to the gate where supposedly the plane is. I started to be suspicious when fewer and fewer people were ahead of me. Eventually decided that there was no plane at the gate, and I’ve been fooled. Ran into another passenger who couldn’t figure out what’s going on either. Ran into a security guide who basically told us that we missed the flight…booo. I cried. Such a grandly designed tight trip, spoiled by AC. They “kindly” rebooked my flight to the next day, meaning I had to take a flight back to Toronto before heading to Frankfurt, arriving a full 24 hours after the original plan, which is very bad, because I would never catch up to my sister. I was lost. I was defeated. I could blame a lot of circumstances and a lot of people, but ultimately, I felt I shouldn’t have been on this trip to begin with. I felt stupid.

Good thing AC gave vouchers for taxis and hotel, which isn’t too bad. Even the receptionist said “never take AC! they’re horrible!” Thanks! I wanted to call my dad and cry, but there were some troubles with that. I called the number that AC provided me with. Of course I would be put on hold. Too many delays and cancellations these days. It’s been a horrific Christmas travel season. I talked to my dad on msn, and he pulled some strings to get some agents in Vancouver to help me. So I have the hotel phone with AC on hold on my left hand, my cell on my right, my fingers typing. Meanwhile, I was tired and hungry, and ready to pass out. After 2 hours, it was finally done. I fly to Zurich instead of Frankfurt, and meet my sister at the hotel there. It’s the perfect alternative. And didn’t need to spend extra money on it. Now if only I can make the 65-minute connection this time around… You know the joy that comes when such a disaster was averted in such an elegant way…I can only praise God. Making my short trip shorter, however, that’s just AC.

One more story from my teaching… It happened the last day that I went to my office, with all the snow storm and stuff. When I got to my office, I found something sitting in front of my door. Was it a bomb? No…apparently an anonymous student put a box with two chocolates inside it. That was on one hand heart-warming, and on the other hand very bizarre, since I have no idea who did it. In an unrelated story, later that day, I sent the final exams to the math undergrad office (or the replacement office as it was closed due to snow). When I told the guy there that I wanted to send them in, he asked, “who’s the instructor?” Heh…I guess I’m too young to be one.

Christmas day! And I spent the day doing more research on the trip, and getting more and more frustrating with the train situation… We might have bought a train pass that’s not so useful and extremely expensive. Oh well…we just have to take as many trains as we can. I’m still sick to my stomach, from all the nervousness and stuff. Once I land in Frankfurt, it will be a fast-paced whirlwind tour of Europe. Before I know it, I’ll be back in Waterloo celebrating the new year. Tons and tons of experience to be had, that’s for sure. Wow…I still can’t believe this is happening…

I’m CRAZY!!!!!!!

Wow…more crazy weather going on… Suddenly the temperature jumped from -12 the night before to +7 this morning. Snow was melting, the rain was coming down hard, creating puddles everywhere, some are huge ones. And then the temperature plunged to -1, started to snow, and the road became icy. Glad to be home safely.

It was Christmas Eve, of course, and originally I was struggling quite hard. Nothing was going to go on for the night, and I needed to decide whether I will stay here or go to London to spend time with Gary. The weather report convinced me to stay here (and that was a wise decision), and soon after that got a call from Harry who wanted an expensive meal. Ok, apparently King’s Buffet was the choice, and we plus Clarence got a very full meal, at a very expensive holiday price… I didn’t even realize that we spent 2 hours eating…heh. Later took Francis to Li Zhen’s place, where Ed and Ingrid joined us. Played a grueling (though occasionally hysterical) 8-player RoboRally, where I was ahead, but everyone felt tired after playing for a while. Switched to Ticket to Ride, which ended up being pretty boring for me, I guess. So that’s about it for Christmas Eve. I was originally hoping that something would happen, and something did happen, except it all felt…flat… What’s the point of all this? I don’t know… (Caveat: I was trying to remember what I did for Christmas Eve last year…and it was a party at where I live right now…heh.)

About the trip…I’m feeling sick to my stomach about it. As much as the convenience of having my dad’s company do the booking, the cost of this is skyrocketing to something unbearable. It was supposed to be a short silly trip, and it sort of got out of control. Now there’s pressure to make this a great trip rather than just a relaxing stroll… Plus, I haven’t planned out every detail of the trip, relying a lot on the weather and perhaps some local info. This uncertainty is against my deterministic nature, I guess, so that’s another reason I feel sick about it. But really, it’s probably the cost that’s making me sick, even if I don’t have to pay for it (my parents do…heh). But all the anxiety goes against the exhilirating creation of God that I’m expected to discover, and I really need to relax… Pray.

My sister is on board with the trip! She’s staying in London longer to visit her friends. It’s a good thing she’s coming because now we can get dad’s company to do the booking of the hotels. Here is the almost-final itinerary:

Dec 25: Toronto –> Frankfurt, Germany
Dec 26: Frankfurt –> Lucerne, Switzerland
Dec 27: Lucerne –> Interlaken, Switzerland
Dec 28: Interlaken –> Geneva, Switzerland
Dec 29: Geneva –> Paris, France
Dec 30: Paris –> London, England
Dec 31: London –> Toronto, Canada

I moved out of my office today with the help of (active) Forest and (inactive) Francis. That took a lot of work… There are some things that I carried to school when I first arrived more than 6 years ago, and remained at school (in different offices) until now. It’s pretty sad, I think.

It is close to Christmas Eve and Christmas now. I don’t know, I still feel very sad about it. I don’t remember how I spent Christmas Eve last year… So far there are no plans for it this year…

Driving Roger to the airport and back during a snow storm early in the morning: horrifically exhilirating. Left at 3am, arrived while driving through heavy snowfall and unplowed snow on the 401 with average speed of 70km/h while big trucks and others dangerously passed us slowpokes. Arrived at 4:30, left at 5:30, and then another terrifying trip home. At one point, there was a truck in front of me, a truck to my right, and another truck to my left! And I wasn’t even sure that I was on the centre lane! Oh well…listening to the “You Shine” CD certainly helped greatly. Not doing this again, though…

Trip planning…I sent an email to Laci in Budapest, hoping to visit him. I got back from him saying I can do that, but there’s a caveat: the train station and the airport at Budapest are currently on strike, and there are disruptions to travelling in and out of the city. So…as quickly as I have entertained the thoughts of visiting Budapest and Laci, just as quickly I had to abandon the plan and feel very sad about it. Not good timing, that’s for sure.

My plan involves a choice between Belgium and Switzerland. Belgium is less expensive, but it’s more of a cultural visit. Switzerland is way more expensive, but it’s more of a natural wonders visit. So…I might end up choosing Switzerland… And there’s a twist! It seems that my sister might come to the trip as well! But she has a passport that expires in May, not quite the 6 months that conventional rules suggest…so who knows… This story is getting really wild now.

I have been tinkering for a few days on where I want to go for Christmas holidays. I was thinking that I really wanted to do this, and really take an adventurous risk. So I finally had this urge to book the Dec 25 Toronto –> Frankfurt, Dec 31 London –> Toronto flights. The price is an attractive $792. I even put it on my computer screen, and entered my credit card number. Then I decided to call Ed and Ingrid, who didn’t think it is a wise idea, and convinced me that we should discuss more before I buy the ticket, and I reluctantly agreed. Cue to about four hours later, when I was at their place. I called my parents, who supported my idea, even though they think that I should go longer than 5 days. I tried searching for other tickets, but all of them cost at least $300 extra. So when I went back to my original flight plans, the price shot up by $300. And I was dumbfounded… I had to scramble to find an alternate flight plan which involves a connection through Ottawa, costs only $40 more than the afternoon flights, and purchased the tickets.

Immediately after I pressed the “purchase” button, I felt ill. I got a bit anxious especially when the screen kept on saying that it’s still processing. But eventually it was a done deal. I think Ed and Ingrid were not exactly happy about it, but my parents approved of it, so I’m ok. So why did I feel ill? There may be several reasons. (1) This fantasy has become a reality. That’s a scary thought. Now I really need to put in some planning work, and by booking Frankfurt and London, I gave myself a challenge to move around rather than be in one place. But it’s the jump between imaginary to real that’s really the numbing part. (2) The prospect of travelling alone is definitely daunting. This will be a real challenge to pull off. I had to think about accomodation, meals, travels, keeping a budget, all on my own. I had nobody else to rely on. So that could potentially end in disaster.

But perhaps the most reasonable reason is this. (3) After thinking for a while, I figure that I did this out of spite. I figured there was nothing to do in Waterloo, and anything other than Waterloo would be better. All the people around me, they’re either away, or they have their own “family” to be with. Ed’s parents are with them, Roger is going to Taiwan, Gary will be in Toronto with his girlfriend, Li Zhen will constantly go to Toronto with Penny, Forest with Zhenhua, etc. Nobody could give me a good reason why staying in Waterloo would be a good idea. And actually, I felt kind of depressed about it, to a point of almost crying. People do their things with their friends and family, and I got…nothing. So, I’m going away. Nobody will notice anything different anyway. So that’s my story, and I’m probably wrong in making this trip, but it’s too late to turn back. I will go on a random European adventure Dec 25-31. Hope I can come back. May God help me.

On my final exam, I had one question with 15 true or false questions. I told them that I would give bonus marks if they got at least 12 right, and most of them decided that they will get 10 or 11 correct. Another interesting thing, all of them got at least 7 correct, except for one student who got 4. My reaction: even a monkey can do better than that.

Snow storm…yikes. The Friday snow storm was horrific. Started snowing at around 7am, and by the time I left home at 11, there was already around 15cm on my car. Had to brave the storm to clear it and drive very slowly to school. Today, even after the storm has passed for a while, the roads were still horrible to drive on.

Today was filled with mistakes. First, I decided to play a bit of poker. Bad decision, got drowned by the river once again in a brutal brutal beat. Then, I decided to go out with KCS for the dim sum meal that I promised. What’s wrong with that? Well, my car hit the curb when entering into the street that KCS lives on…not good. Third mistake, going to Cameron. It used to be so good and expensive, but now it’s just not so good and very expensive. So yeah, definitely not worth it. Next, decided to go to Fairview Mall. The Fairway off ramp was so congested…and just looking at the parking lot from the ramp, I saw the cars behind Wal-mart, I was like, “I never knew you can park there!” So yeah, had to turn around and send KCS home. Afterwards, went to Roger’s place, and Roger decided to go to Zeller’s to find a great deal on shavers. Let’s just say he didn’t find the ones he wanted. But the biggest mistake is yet to come…or perhaps not a mistake?

Pokerwise, it was horrible. Yesterday lost 3 sngs in a row, and realized that it was not a good idea to multitable. The WBCOOP O8 yesterday had a rough start, recovered, then tumbled in three straight hands. In these three hands, I was heads-up with the same guy, and for the first two hands, I lost while being ahead at the turn and lost on the river. In the third hand, he came out raising. I felt like he was stealing and re-raised him, and as as it happens I went all in with a far inferior hand. I have a tendency not to believe that a guy can have a good hand three hands in a row…so that’s my downfall.

In today’s WBCOOP NLHE, at about the 4th hand, somebody went in and took the blinds. In the very next hand, that guy went in again, and I had QQ. So after another guy called his all-in bet, I called as well, and was ahead of the AK and KQ. And I was ahead all the way until an ace floated down the river… gg me.

I played my first ever Razz sng, and I was doing well, making few mistakes, but (of course) was the short stack at the bubble. I knew what was coming… It involved this hand: the big stack raised with a 5, and I called with 674. Next card: me 674T, big stack 5Q. I was ahead, I bet, he called. Next card: me 674T2, big stack 5QA. I was still ahead, I bet, he called. Next card: me 674T2T, big stack 5QAA, which are blanks for both of us. So I was definitely ahead, I bet, he raised, I called and was all-in. He showed 385QAA compared to my 674T2T. I’m still ahead and ready to double up at the bubble until the nasty river card… Me: 674T2T8, big stack: 385QAA7. So my low was 24678, his low was A3578. So close! And I was the dejected bubble boy once again… I checked online to see the odds of being beat by the river, and it was about 31%. Since this is greater than 0%, of course I would lose. I should stop playing sngs altogether… As much as tournaments are hugely long, at least the blinds don’t go up that much.

Compiled the final exam marks, and then the course grades for the students today. Have to say, not exactly happy with the marks, which are kind of low, even lower than the midterms. There are certainly bright spots here and there, which is good, but the average and median were down. And it was a bit frustrating since the TA did a poor job of marking. Oh well, I don’t think I’ll adjust the marks much. A few people came in to see their marks: David (fun to talk to, really smart guy, likes to stalk the profs by reading their thesis), Jason, Daniel (who is surprised that I know his name), Kushal, Andrew (who didn’t say much), and Andy (interesting guy to talk to, mild mannered). Don’t know if I’ll ever see them again, but who knows… Anyway, Furino was marking next doors, and invited me to some leftover pizza, which was great since I didn’t have lunch today. We later “commiserate” together in being disappointed with the grades in our respective courses. He had approximately 1/3 failure rate for the final exam, and I had about 1/4. And these are supposedly pretty straightforward for the most part. I guess they don’t have many good students in UW these days…so much for the MacLean’s #1 ranking…

I’m trying to decide where to go for Christmas holidays. I was researching two crazy ideas today, both costing the same in terms of flights, and both had their pros and cons. First one: Toronto –> Las Vegas –> Saskatoon –> Toronto. Pro: a new city, visit Sinnie & Thian-Peng. Con: it would be boring to go to LV alone. Second one: Toronto –> Frankfurt –> London –> Toronto. Pro: very adventuresque, exciting prospects. Con: it would be boring to go to Europe alone. So there it is, I guess the cons cancel each other out, so just need to consider which pro I would like to go with.

Snow storm coming!

I have this idea…I’ve been in Waterloo for over 6 years, studying and working. Maybe I should take a sabbatical… I’m really tired of staying here for that long. And also, I’ve been wasting time these couple of days…not a good idea.

I’m back to this sedated mode again. Not feeling anything is worthwhile.

The WBCOOP isn’t going to well for me. Busted in the second hand in the omaha game, where the “villain” is unable to fold two pairs with lots of straight and flush possibilities on the board. Later I found out that he too was busted soon afterwards. In the NLHE game, I played pretty well, and I liked the slower blind structure. But, of course, everything has to end when my 9s in the small blind cannot hold up to the mighty A6 steal from the big blind (for what it’s worth, he hit two more 6s). So that was disappointing. 0 for 2 so far, 4 more to go.

Ah…the final exam. I actually enjoyed the experience. Talked to many students before and after the exam, and it was fun to crack jokes that they would actually laugh at. Like, before the exam, I mentioned that the way they were seated in the classroom formed the letter “F”… Or after the exam, when I asked about remedies for a paper cut, one of them took out a lighter mentioning some science term, and I go “you science people!” Later a few accompanied me partially after I asked for a way to MC, and Michael actually accompanied me all the way there. I really liked this group of students, it’s fun to talk to them, and it’s sad that I most likely won’t see them again… Oh well…

I was exhausted after this whole final exam thing. Not only from the walking around while proctoring, but also carrying the exam from RCH to MC through numerous stairs and stuff. When I went outside, I didn’t feel the -10 temperature at all!

Marking…now that’s going to be a different story… Apparently they didn’t do so well.

A quiet day on Wednesday, and then a flurry of activities for Thursday. Meaning, lots of people came in to my office. What were they here for? I don’t really know…heh. Oh, maybe it’s because of the exam happening today…that’s why. Having Zack here is always great. There were also others like Zhong, Gerry, Steven?, and some other tall guy whom I still couldn’t match a name to the face. I think I got tired of explaining questions from last year’s final exam, even though it really isn’t too similar to my exam… In any case, today’s the exam, and I think I’m going to miss some of these students once it’s all said and done.

There was also a C&O Christmas lunch thing yesterday, and I went. It was awkward, I felt, in the beginning. Then I started talking to Nathan about puzzles and that warmed things up a bit. I had lots of food, but I was still hungry! I must have gained tons of weight there.

I was (surprisingly or not surprisingly) feeling down yesterday. I had this “giving up” feeling for everything, and that’s not good.

Lots more people showed up at my office these two days. I think I got Eric, Sarah and Andrew yesterday, where Andrew stayed the longest clocking in at about 1.5 hours before Roger came to get me. Today, another Eric came, and Andrew and Aaron returned (with a brief visit by Gerry), where they clocked in at about 2 hours. It wasn’t all bad, though, because the presence of Aaron meant lots of comedy for Andrew and I. Aaron just had no idea what’s going on with the last parts of the course, and he’s especially sensitive with the word “basis.” So next time he comes, I might just say things like “cover your bases” or “bases loaded” or “you buy your groceries at food basics?” Fun times. Too bad it’s going to be over soon, and soon they will not remember my existence.

I started seriously on putting my boardgame ideas together. I had written down one a long time ago, but realized that it was simply infeasible to build and play. The two other games that I’ve been working on are simpler and more interesting. Now I just need to build a prototype for my friends to play with…but that’s the trouble. How can I even get cards? Hmm…I don’t know.

Furino’s recommendation letter was great, and almost drove me to tears. Too bad it’s a bit late, and I don’t know how much it will influence the jobs that I applied in BC… Oh well, I’m kind of “confidently hopeless” right now (as my msn subtitle says).

I got into Rick Mercer recently, and found it to be very entertaining. It’s too bad that I only discovered during the 6th season! (I never knew it was on for that long…then again, I didn’t have much access to television.) I didn’t think much of him when he was on 22 minutes, and 22 minutes got really bad the past few years (at least during the couple of times I got to watch). I went through this season’s archive videos, and find myself laughing over and over again. His political stuffs tend to be spot on (or at least sounds reasonable). His various visitations are always funny. Or maybe I’m crazy… Anyway, my favourite line from this season: “Well, tonight is election night in the United States, and FCC regulations prohibit American broadcasts to influence voters. We are not an american broadcast, so for anyone watching at a border state: Vote for Obama! Are you crazy? Don’t screw this up, people! Pull it together!”

I also got into Air Farce as well, and found it to be very entertaining recently. I remember about a decade ago, I would be following the show closely. But after moving to Waterloo, I didn’t have a chance to watch, and for the once or twice that I saw, it was terrible. So I didn’t watch again until recently, and now I find it to be excellent once again. Too bad this is already their last season… I wonder if they could make their “Friday Night News” segment a regular episode after the show finishes… Last Friday, they got me with this line: “12 weeks ago, Stephen Harper called an election 13 months early claiming parliament was dysfunctional. Congratulations Mr. Harper for a stunning turnaround!”

I guess these shows do their best when the politicians do their worst… What a mess Canadian politics have become! At least for once, Canadian politics got interesting…in a bad way. Looks like things are moving fast, the Liberals are changing quickly, and hopefully, the Conservatives are changing too. Well…one can always have some faint hope…

Of course I would start losing badly at poker after that big win…nothing surprising. At least now I don’t feel much about a loss…

Louis and Drew indeed returned to my office today. The bizarre thing was I accidentally discovered that Drew was missing a lot of assignment marks, and even after a frantic search, two assignments were still not accounted for…so that’s very strange. And I really should eat before people come in…

Somehow I started to feel the urgency of my age… I’m getting old. Really fast. And yet…I’m still wasting time. It’s getting a bit depressing.