Updated on November 12, 2016
Weekend Trip to Washington DC, Day 2 on July 31st, 2016
Second day in DC.
Having checked in last night at our Airbnb apartment, I was planning to head out again for some night view shots. However, the rain didn’t seem to stop, we retired to bed early, which means we could have an early start today. Well, 8 o’clock is quite early by college student standards.
Updated on December 28, 2016
Weekend Trip to Washington DC, Day 1 on July 30th, 2016
The second weekend in US at my discretion, as I was planning somewhere different than New York to spend the weekend.
I was basically choosing between Boston and DC, as I lived in Ithaca and needed to travel to New York first to visit places. The result is that, prices of Greyhound helped me decide on DC.
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Updated on August 20, 2017
Day Trip to Niagara Falls on July 16th, 2016
For the four weeks of summer workshop here at Cornell University, the organizers arranged a day-trip to Niagara Falls on the first Saturday, hoping that we get to know each other. For them, booking the bus to/from Niagara Falls was all their job.
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Updated on August 17, 2017
Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 3627 from Chicago O’Hare to Syracuse on July 11th, 2016
This post continues on the last one on flight AA186.
After quite some waiting, we went through immigration, rechecked our bags, took the train to Terminal 3 and were ready for more waiting.
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Updated on November 16, 2016
Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 186 from Beijing Capital to Chicago O’Hare on July 11th, 2016
It was a school-sponsored month-long summer program at Cornell University.
Originally, given AsiaMiles’ double mileage promotion for students residing in China Mainland, I was more than eager to persuade the travel agency to book me on Cathay Pacific to New York or Chicago, and then on a separate ticket to Ithaca. However, school regulations demanded that I must went through extra bureaucratic procedures for them to pay for my separate tickets.
So that spelt the end of Cathay Pacific, leaving me only the choice of three major US carriers. Since AA’s itinerary has a longer layover at Chicago O’Hare, and it was a Boeing 787 which I haven’t flown on before, I picked American Airlines.
By the way, Ithaca airport was closed for runway maintenance, so we actually flown to Syracuse, where Cornell University arranged shuttle services for us.
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Updated on July 18, 2016
Downtown Beijing Day Trip, National Museum and Zhongshan Park
Updated on July 7, 2016
Assassination Classroom Season 1&2, a Japanese Animation Series that didn’t get enough to deliver
I came to known the Assassination Classroom series because my friends were watching it on a train ride. I decided to give it a try, which ended up as just another topic for our casual chats, no more.
Updated on November 11, 2016
London Has Fallen (2016), an overall good action movie with unrealistic settings
If I want to make a list of the most exciting movie trailers of the year, London has Fallen would definitely be one of them. In fact, it’s trailer is so breathtakingly action-packed that I decided to go for it immediately after it’s out, without consulting to IMDB or Rotten Tomato or Entertainment Weekly, which is quite rare for me.
The plot is straight-forwardly exciting: At state funeral for the British Prime Minister in London, leaders from other nations were murdered in various terror attacks while US president (Aaron Eckhart) narrowly escapes with his head of security Mike Banning (Gerard Butler)…
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Updated on June 27, 2016
Your Lie in April, a Japanese animation series bravely endeavored into the musical world, and then got lost
Its subtitle says it all, “I met the girl under full-bloomed cherry blossom, and my fate has begun to change.”
To be more explicit, the life of the piano prodigy and protagonist Kosei Arima turned for the better while the life of the girl he met, violinist Kaori Miyazono was taken by chronic disease.
Most Japanese animations with such a prominent pair of “he” and “she” easily reduce to mere lengthy chronicle of the chemical reaction in between, maybe a little bit more dramatic as this is a life-and-death plot. Yet the 22 episodes of Your Lie in April seemed much more peaceful as the plot would otherwise suggested, as that girl and violinist Kaori’s constant smiles and positive attitudes had been guiding our protagonist boy, who overcame the death of his mother and summoned strength to go back on stage, while leaving audiences half a year of colorful symphonies. When the series ended with Kaori looking back at all her memories with Kosei in a letter, many said they burst into tears.
I didn’t.
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Updated on June 27, 2016
Flight (2012), a movie with heoric scenes and prolonged bathroom breaks
The plot of Flight is easily summarizable: an alcoholic pilot went to work drunk, a heroic pilot saved his plane from mechanical failure.
After some tense scenes in the cockpit for the first half an hour of the movie which ended in a crash landing, the pilot, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), met Charlie Anderson as the pilot union representative and attorney Hugh Lang, who helped him deal away with detrimental evidence and guided him through NTSB investigation. He met and helped heroin addict Nicole Maggen along the way. Yet in the final NTSB hearing, where he no longer felt comfortable lying, admitted the truth that he’s drunk during the flight.
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