Day 339 - Gallery

Thought of the day: We took a hike in the forest today. It had been hard to predict the best days to visit Aspen in the fall. We had been here last year when the fall colors were in the prime. This year we picked the same weekend to visit but the reds were not quite here yet. We did get an abundance of yellow, green and many shades and colors in between. To our surprise, throughout the day, we didn't see any other hikers in the forest.  Indeed, other than the occasional booming sound made by all terrain vehicles nearby, the only sounds we could hear were the rustling of the leaves and the chirping of the birds. It was good to be here.

Photo of the day:

A couple having dinner in a restaurant in Aspen downtown near an art gallery.  There were some nice autumn paintings on display behind the windows.

Day 320 - Face Painting

Thought of the day: I have been trying to teach Jasmine some math over the weekend. I have never worked through lessons with her like this before so it was quite a learning experience for me. One big discovery was the importance of the fun factor (shocking, huh?). When she thought the material and learning were fun, she learned really fast. When she thought otherwise, alas, learning turned into a boring chore or even a struggle. I was taught in the traditional way when I grew up in China so I never gave much thought to the importance of material presentation. I used to think that the elementary school teachers here wasted too much time playing games with kids and spent too little time in actual teaching. Not any more. I still think there is something lacking in the elementary school curriculum but I have developed a new appreciation of their teaching methods and a new appreciation of the teachers as well. It takes a lot of energy and creativity to keep things fun for a classroom of thirty kids. And now, just imagine that you need to do that every day, five days a week. It take a special breed of people to do this willingly and do this well - and get paid very little on top of that. They surely deserve our wholehearted appreciation.

Photo of the day:

Lila getting a face paint on the last day of Boulder Hometown Fair.  The face paint artist was self-taught and painted happy dogs on both girls' faces.  It's easier to make it fun when you're learning art but not so when you're learning something abstract like math. Luckily, the math manipulatives come into rescue and good teachers make use of them to make learning visual, concrete and fun for kids.

Day 300 - Lila

Thought of the day: I watched a PBS interview with Norwegian foreign minister last night.  When the reporter asked the foreign minister what kind of impact the massacre on Utoeya island was having on the Norwegian youth, the minister replied that the activism and participation of the youth actually went way up instead of being diminished by the threat of violence. He finished by quoting the sentence of a Norwegian teenager: "If one man can hate that much, imagine what we can do together with our combined love." That's an inspiring message coming out of the unspeakable tragedy. The worst of human acts brought out the best of human spirits and give you hope for the future of democracy and humanity.

Photo of the day:

Lila painting in her new preschool's open house event.  This photo recalls in me words like "hope" and "innocence". One day, her generation will be shouldering the responsibility of the world.  Right now, her world consists of loving people, vibrant colors and funny toys.  I sure hope that there won't be events that would make her grow up too fast - the kind of impact that an event like the Norwegian tragedy is likely to have on a generation of Norwegian youth.

Day 283 - Window to the Soul

Thought of the day: We are getting ready for a train ride from Denver to Emeryville tomorrow.  It's going to be a 33 hour trip in a family room. We haven't ridden an Amtrak train before so we are all excited and looking forward to the upcoming adventure.

Photo of the day:

One of my favorite paintings in the house - Window to the Soul - glows with warmth at night.  I took a photo of it tonight so I could bring a part of the "home" along with me on the trip.

Day 222 - Airport

Thought of the day: It had been a long, drawn out day.  The excitement of going on vacation helped overcome the feeling of weariness that inevitably came with spending a long day in the airports and on the flights.  Luckily, out of pure co-incidence, a friend and neighbor of ours was traveling on the same flights with her family.  We were able to meet up and chat for a few times which helped bring some resemblance of normalcy back into this hectic experience. One of the risks of traveling was that one, or maybe several, of us may get sick upon arrival. We tried to be careful but it was not always preventable.  Of course, comparing with traveling in the old days before air travel was popular or even imaginable, we had it really easy.  And the prospect of spending a few exciting weeks in Europe was certainly making the hassle of this trip, or any trip, seem insignificant.

Photo of the day:

A painted wall inside the Frankfurt Airport where we made our stopover. This was one of the many little surprises and oddities we discovered on the trip that kept us entertained.