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September 04 Happy today I am happy today. Because I can understand the lecture better than I did last week. This really cheers. Thus, after the biostatistics class, I went to the Hanptom House to attend a seminar regarding community-based research. I was nervous about that because this kind of class may not show numbers and charts, which means listening ability would be very important. Today, the speaker talked introduced the getting hot method: Community-Based Participatory Research. At last, it turned out that I can understand the contents the lecturer gave. I found this class is worth of one credit by just participating the twice a month seminars. How can I not to take this class? After all, I want to learn more about this since I was in Taiwan.
Today, it is also my first time to speak English in public since I arrive this country. Actually, not "speak", "ask" would be more specific. I asked the TA of biostatistics class about one question in homework. Even though I make grammar error in the few sentences, I felt I already break some line that limit my courage.
I need to prepare my lunch from now on. Foods sold in the cafeteria and cafe are really unhealthy, rich in carbohydrate and fat. In addition, they are not cheap. I need to bring food myself for the reasons of health and finance. I made more rice this dinner and used half of them to make sushi roll. I don't know how many people can find out what is stuffed in the sushi roll!
Interesting topics on NPR I found several interesting discussion and reports on the radio NPR. Because I cannot finish them at this time, I jot them down here and hope listen to them sometime.
September 02 Charles St. It is said the oldest street in Baltimore. As urban renewal, the environment here is also much 'better' than the other districts in this city. I forgot to bring that Jane Jocob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities to the United States. I don't know the critics on the renewal progress. But when I arrived this city, I read a report on the local paper Baltimore Sun that homeless people claimed the urban cleaning campaign on the weekend evicted them from places and took their belongings away. In that story, a homeless man was interviewed, who had lost his job of bus driver because of an accidental injury. I thought of those who drive the shuttle buses of the Johns Hopkins. Do they have good enough welfare to protect them from the insecurity caused by occupation accidents?
All the beautiful sences are hiding some ugly truth. Can we say that because the inevitable ugliness, we need the beauty to make life easier? Like the movie Matrix triology, it is a good idea to use some virtual bubble-like happiness to veil the the real cruel truth? This reminds me the conversation with a cute Asian-Indian-American guy on the orientation day about the illusionary Beijin on the Olympic promotional scenes.
Here are some pictures in the bubbles of Baltimore, "The greatest city in America"!
Getting old Yesterday, I was convinced to go to a party. Actually, I should go to because I had said yes weeks ago. But the several parties in the first couple of weeks makes me tired of meeting new people, I turned down the invitation and planned to stay at dorm for studying. Whatever, I am thankful that I was convinced because I would be a retracting guy is I didn't go.
The Taiwanese Student Welcoming Party was held on a hall in the gound floor of Charles Tower. That is luxury place, very suitable for a private party. There was a karaoke. I have not sung in KTV for more than two years, except for that Improv song party in this August. I found the songs so new that I even don't know half of them. I am getting old.
As leaving near midnight, we saw that the supermarket SuperFresh closed but leaving all the lights on. It's so wasting of resources. As the greenhouse gas emission is one of the most imperative problems we human are confronting, how dare these Americans do this kind of thing? I really can't get it. Recently I start to understand that even in this "advanced" country, people not necessarily do as what they say, including those higher social status people... Disappointing. September 01 Say Hi and This is a country where you should promote yourself to be recognized or remembered. Thus, social life seems to be an important part. Two days ago, I went to the Greeting Reception held by the School. I am somewhat sociophobic. I don't like to stand in such a social venue. Being put in this kind of occasion, I feel awkward because I don't know what to talk with. Especially, now I am in an environment of different language. But the philosophy I learnt from Improv "So what" let me decide to go to the Reception.
As I arrived the venue, there was a long line of students waiting to get into the hall. I alone stood with an African American woman. In this country, it seemed to be rude that you don't chat with someone standing by you. So I turned my head to see her with smile, and she saw back, of course, with smile, and say 'Hi." Then, we introduced ourselves and talked something like where we are from and so on. She is from Florida, and her parents moved to the US from Nigeria. The background info are fresh, but I forgot her name and her face several minutes later.
Social is important and the memory is, too. Since I come into this country, I have introduced myself to dozens of people and at the meantime I heard dozens of new people. However, most of them are forgotten, except those who study in the same department. Recently, I run into several people on the road and felt familiar, but I cannot link them to names. No good... The Washington Monument Near the Peabody Institute is the Washington Monument on the Mount Vernon. There are four sculptures called "force", "order", "war" and "peace" around the monument. Although it is sunny, but the trees have had colors of autumn.
August 28 Orientation or Disorientation It was the day for orientation yesterday. Lots of information in English! It really kinda difficult. One thing interesting I found is that, those Chairs of departments spoke much slowlier and clearer than the staffs and students. I would say their easiness to present in front of the mass makes them to use time prudently. They take their time to say what is important and say in the way that most of the audience understands. Instead, staff and students may feel more pressure as getting the spotlight of people and then speak faster and faster, forgetting the audience's need. Giving speech is really needs training and experience.
One thing I learnt yesterday was that, there are more than one hundred faculty members in our department. And in the department of epidemiology, there are also several dozens of full-time faculty members. This is really amazing that here the faculty in one department is almost as many as the number of faculty members in many colleges or schools in Taiwan.
Fortunately, I can speak Mandarin with my advisor when I can not express well. Of course I have to push myself to improve my English listening and speaking level.
August 25 A long walk and the Walters Art Museum I walked about eight kilometers this afternoon. It's a sunny day and the forcast says the following days would have rain, so I decide to walk to some other neighborhoods in B-more.
FEELS POINT & The Neighborhoods
Fells Point is mentioned in many city guide, and it's not far from the JH Hospital. I walked along the Broadway St southbound and the Fells Point is about 20 minutes away. I found the neighborhood at the southern of the JH Hospital is a Hipanic district. Just several blocks from the medical campus, the Catholic and Latin atmosphere emerges. You can see on the street the people speaking Español. Even the music come out from the cars driving by was Latin pop music, instead of Hip-Hop. The face profile and body shape and skin color of people here are all show here is Hispanic. Sometimes white people showed up, and I can imagined they don't live here because they are obviously looking for some restaurant. Rare people can resist the spacy flavor in Hispanic food.
I went directly down to the piers. That's someting like Tamsui (淡水) in Taipei. There streets are stood with many little stores and a nice place to walk, shop and eat. Here are also water taxi. I think it would be a nice place to spend an afternoon. The only problem is that there is no convenient public transportation getting there. Therefore the sides of streets are parked with many cars.
THE WAY TO CREATIVE ALLIANCE
After I hanging around the Fells Point, I went east to the Creative Alliance. CA is not an attraction for tourists. It's like a theater. I went back to the Broadway St. @ Eastern Ave. and turned east. That was a long journey. One side of the Eastern Ave is the Patterson Park, and the other side is house just two or three stories high. The temperature today is hot and humid and the sun very bright, so I sweat a lot. As I passed the large park, two blocks away is the Creative Alliance. The only Improvise Group in B-more that has regular public performance has shows here. I can't imagine how can I get back to the dorm after an evening show from CA.
I almost forget to record the neighborhood between Broadway St. and the Highlanders. Going west from Broadway St., along with the Eastern Ave, I guess I am in an Native American district. I'm not very sure; men here are shorter, but their facial profiles look like Hispanic. I would said like Peruvian.
CANTON
Next district may be the Little Greece that noted on the city guide. Although the district setting off Near Oriental culture is only several blocks, the beautiful Catholic church denotes that this is a neighborhood different from others. Going on walking east, the Patterson Park. It is a vast park that located in the southeast of the city. Vast meadow and not many trees. Walking thru the park in a hot temperature is tough.
The Creative Alliance has a sign reading "PATTERSON". But it seems closed. There seems to be no show today. Then I went further several blocks. The flags here say "Highlander". This is another hill in this city. San Francisco has many hills, and here, in B-more, are also many hills. Hills that I have visited are Mount Vernon (where the Peabody Institute locates), Washington Hill (where the JH medical institutes locate), and the Highlander. Highlander is rather like an area blend with Hispanic and Native American.
GO BACK TO LITTLE ITALY AND INNER HARBOR
Then I turned back. Walking back thru the park, I really wanted to get on a bus even though I didn't know where it goes to. But 1.6 USD per trip of fare made me stick on walking back to the Broadway St. On the way back, I went by a window that stuck a poster saying "RECOGNIZING TAIWAN" with a figure of dark green Taiwan.
As arriving the Broadway St., I walked further to the west of it. I tried to combined my knowlege about the east and the west districts. Not very far, compared to the park, I arrived the Little Italy. Here lives Italian immigrants and the Italian national flag can be seen every where. Just going thru the Little Italy, it is the Inner Harbor, the downtown place. I stopped by the WholeFood supermarket to grab a bagel and a soy milk, for the long walk made me hungry, thirsty, and tired.
THE WALTERS MUSEUM
In order to catch up the school shuttle, I left the supermarket and walked to the bus stop. However, when I arrive the Washington Monument it's about 10 minutes later then the sceduled time. So I just turned to the Walters Art Museum to hang around. I didn't expect much on this museum free to everyone. The result turned out that I was totally wrong. There are so many marbel sculptures of Greek gods in the main hall. In one room, the collections were hanged and some are hanged at a very high place. Like a prodigal men who has lot of art works and tries to show all of them in a one-room gallery. Even if they are not master pieces, the effect is still marvelous. In one gallery, I saw a portait of a medieval woman, who looked at the portraiter and expressed contentment. I teared as looking at her. Was I so tired that to be more sentimental? Maybe her contentment is the key that I was touched.
I didn't have much time to spend in the museum, because it was going to close in a half hour when I arrived. I plan to go there tomorrow.
August 24 Crab leg feast I just come back from a crab leg feast. The feast was proposed by several international MPH students and I was invited. In this afternoon, Ying-sheng, Claire and I went to the Superfresh supermarket to buy king crab legs. I bought some yam. I planned to make a pot of sweet yam soup. I put yam cubes, ginger, sugar and water together and boiled for more than a half hour. The strange thing is, the yam here tastes like pumkin, not like the yam I eat in Taiwan. Maybe it's due to my cooking skill so that it taste watery-soft but not dry-soft. In addition, yam here has apparent fiber. The texture of South American yam is very different from that of Asian yam.
In the crab leg feast, everyone brought some food, like a potluck party. Salads, cinammon rolls, sodas, pizzas, yam soup, corns, and definitely crab legs. The steamed crab legs were so delicious. The fresh and salty taste from ocean allure me to eat one after one. At last, everyone just need to pay 5 dollars for the materials of this feast. Wonderful but cheap. Ying-sheng said he once went to Inner Harbor to eat one and a half crab legs, which cost him 30 USD! The raw crab legs in supermarket just cost 8~9 USD per pound.
So, if anyone want to eat lots of crab legs, just come and I will make you full of crab meat without spend much! (But should care about gout...) The only thing to remenber: summer is the right season to enjoy crab legs. Peabody This is one of the several "must see"s in Baltimore: The Peabosy Institute. More than a conservatory and a preservatory, it has a famous library. This year 2007 is the 150th anniversary of this prestigious institute.
In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan passed thru the upper floor of the delicate Peabody Library. As I opened the ordinary wood door, I never expected the interior would be so astonishing. Although it's in a building, I seemed to be standing in a patio of a castle. Nevertheless, visitors can only enter the first floor. The upper stories are staff only. All the books are old. I can imagine each of them has been seen by so many people, living or deceased. A feel of Too Loud a Solitude.
August 23 Mindless eating I just found one interesitng book "Mindless Eating" by Brain Wansink. To my knowledge, its Chinese version is in press. Dr Wansink is a professor in applied economics and management in Cornell Univ. He did some behavior experiments to evaluate the tendancy of we modern human to eat more than we think/need. In his blog on May 25 2007, he challenged the readers to be willing to eat one more snack as long as he puts a label of "LOW FAT" on it. Does this strategy work? You bet! Recently I have a crush on bread with peanut butter. I know this is very caloric dense, so I'd add salads in the sandwich. However, the total calories that I consume does not change. The beautifully green leaves make suggestion like: "Eat me. Eat me. I am healthy food. Eat more, gain healthier more." Creepy!
This means I should be more aware of what I eat and prevent self-suggesting!
August 22 Dinner testing I cooked a bean noodle (冬粉) soup containing hot dog, carrots, and vegetables. Hondashi and white papper powder were added to seasoning. No need to add salt because hot dog is salty enough.
What astonished me is steamed potato. I cut the potato into cubes and used the electric pot to steam the potato. About a half hour later, the well cooked potato gave off an incredible flavor. Smelled like a warm and cozy place. I took two pieces to taste. The texture and the flavor in the mouth could confort any people. I realize now why potato can be an important staple food in many cultures. But due to the plenty carbohydrate in it, I should save the un-eaten pieces in the refregerator.
August 21 Sandwich and anxiety This morning, I made a sandwich, combining vegetable, ham, and scrumbled egg. Eating it with a cup of hot coffee was nice! After breakfast, I ate a banana. Before living here, I don't like fruit. But in these days of living alone, I found banana is a good fruit, satiating and nutrition rich. Then I used Google to expolre the nutrition fact of banana. Then I browsed a website called "NutritionData", it provides information for many kinds of food. Moreover, it provide three different charts to demonstrate the nutritional value of every food item. Very interesting.
In the afternoon, I thoroughly read the instruction for PhD requirement for international health. Although it was for 2006 student, I felt a lot of tough work will need to be done. Very scary.
August 20 Homewood Campus One more cloudy day. I plan to walk around in the Homewood campus, which is said much enjoyable place than JHMI (Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes) campus.
As I leaving the dorm, I felt the autumn is here. The temperature is much lower than a week ago. It was about 70 degree Fahrenheit (~21 degree Celsius). I walked to the School of Public Health to take the school bus. The bus would go to the northern Homewood campus through downtwon (Peabody Institute). On the bus, I felt more nervous than before. The seats in the bus were almost all occupied, and the students talked and laughed, but I can't even understand 10% of the contents! This made me anxious about the my own upcoming school life...
The 'beach' (actually, a large lawn in front of the library of the University) welcomed all the people's first visit, which is a conspicuous mark of JHU. The University is a gathering of many red-brick buildings, and some of them have tower. Surrounding the buildings are woods and lawns. A very welcoming environment. Maybe its the summer off, there were not many students and some of the structures were under maintenance. As I walked by some buildings, I saw through some window and found that a researcher's office. The researcher sit in a room that can watch the campus thru glass window, a good place for study. Although JHU Homewood comapus is not bigCompared to the UC Berkeley, which I had visited 7 years before, it is much more beautiful than the medical campus.
Out of the Homewood campus, there are several blocks of serene neighborhood. Dozen of restaurants were opened to serve the Homewood students. There are also many big buildings, many of them are apartment for rent. Marylander is one of them, and to my knowledge, several Taiwanese student stay here. I walked southbound as I left the campus, southern of the 27th St., the atmosphere is very different from the neighborhood near the campus. I went to the Safeway grocery store at the 25th St., and then went back to the 27th to wait the school suttle bus.
When I stting on the bench, an African American women approached. She dragged a package and took several plastic bags. Our eyes touched and said hello. For a while, she asked me for changes. She wore a glasses and spoke politely and mildly. I think, why not? I just put some dimes into the donation can in the check-out counter in the Safeway. I put my hand into the pocket and took out five nickels, and gave them to her. She further say do you have one dollar, a bill... I thought, not good, and answered, 'I don't think so. Sorry.' She did not respond strange and just talked to me, which seems to be explanation of why she ask for money from strangers. She blame someone. I don't really understand what she said. Thank to my poor listening ability, or maybe I would took more changes to her if understand her situation.
I don't think I am "TOO KIND". I can imagine it is a problem for many people that every trip of bus need 1.6 US dollar. In Taiwan, it is 15 NT dollar. Big difference. In addition, I just read Lawrence Bullock's 'All the flowers are dying'. In this novel, the writer shaped a role that lost everything since the 9/11 event. He can not find a stable job supporting him a place, so he stayed in his car and a gym: sleeping in car, taking shower in a gym, working on a laptop in cafe with wireless Internet access, recieving checks using a rental mailbox. He is a decent man, working as hard as possible to support himself; but technically: HOMELESS. So I do not want to use the word 'homeless' to describe that lady. Everyone living in this little world has his/her own reason. Life is hard.
I remember this afternoon I saw two children cheerfully going into a public library. I love that moment. I prayed, from my heart, the God blesses the children grow up happily and be who they want to be. August 19 Exploring Baltimore It's a nice day. Er... not really. It rained, and I, by the window, heard a gunshot that followed by lots of sirens. (I don't think the sound was from firework.) In spite of these, I explored the city and now I am confident to welcome anyone who want to visit me from the world.
This afternoon, I waited until the rain stopped and then went out to try how to get to the Hippodrome Theatre. This is a theatre sitting on the west side of the town. I found that there would be several interesting musicals here, like Wedding Singer, Hairspray, Avenue Q, etc. Thus, I need to know how to get there by public transportation and how the neighborhoods are.
I went to the Metro station located in front of the JH Hospital and took subway to the downtown. The Day Pass is charged 3.5 USD, and i bought one for the travels today. As two station passed, I stepped out the Center St./Market Place Station to a small mall to buy an umbrella. A BIG unbrella cost me 13 USD! THIS IS REALLY DOWNTOWN... Then, I directly went to the Hippodrome Theater, which is near the Fayette St./Greene St.. Unfortunately, the environment is not like the Mount Vernon or the Inner Harbor. It is more similar to the west side busy district of Taipei (西門町.) Not neat. Young black guys gathered on the road and spoke aloud or so.
As I knew this place a little more, I found I was near the Light Rial station. I decided to try to take the Light Rail so that I can have idea how to ENTERTAIN friends who visit me from the Airport. I got on the Light Rail on the Lexington Station and went southbound. I stood in the station for a long while and surrounding me were all African American. But at this time, I was getting to used to it. Black people are not all bad guys, most of them are normal and ordinary and even decent. Therefore, even though only I was a non-black in the station, I felt ok.
On the way to the BWI airport, I found the Oriole's base and their Stadium are just on the route of the Light Rail. In addition, the views are not bad. So I'm sure that I can go to the airport to pick friends without driving a car. Taking Light Rail from City to BWI would spend about 40 minutes. Kinda slow. But it's not a bad choice for getting aquainted to Baltimore, I think. After all, I am being more confident with this city since I took this train this afternoon.
The direct experience of the public transportation makes me empowered on my mobility in this city without having a car. Moreover, finding that there are many stores, like Rite Aid, 7-11, Subway, McDonalds, and KFC, are also usual in this city also makes me have confident on this city's economy. Yesterday, I thought this city's purpose is only to support the JH University. It seems not so. It has many its own business that it needs for surviving. My misconception is just because I live in an area where is not the downtown.
a note to myself
Even though one meaning of the word 'accommodation' is 接待, the verb is not good to use 'accommodate', and 'entertain' would be better. August 18 Morning shots Because of jetlag (again!), I got up early this morning. Seeing thru the window, I found the city in the dim light of dawn so beautiful. I just went out to take some shots around the medical campus. I found some free publications on the corner of public health shcool, and pick up the Urbanite and two GLBT papers. One photo called "A City Secret" published on the Urbanite, photographed by Dave Fink, is so astonising as you can see in the pictures here. A steamed egg This is my first breakfast that eat a hot food.
I brought some cooking appliances and utensils yesterday so that I can use the stove to cook. This morning, I still got up early probably due to jetlag. Hunger emerged. I then poured some milk into a pot and heated it. Last morning, the cereal with cool milk really disgusted me. The cereal with cinnomon flavor and cool milk, yew... I am not used to it. So, today I heated the milk first and mixed the cereal with warm milk. The overall feeling of eating this is much better, but the taste was still not good. Maybe I used low fat milk so that the real milk flavor was not rich enough to form a nice cereal.
Fortunately, before heating the milk, I had put an egg in the elecrtic pot and steamed it. This is the first time. The recipe says putting a water-soaked paper on the bottom of electric pot, and then putting the egg on the paper. Turn on the pot and wait until the pot turn off itself. And after remaining the egg in the pot for about 10 minutes, it will be a fully water-cooked egg. Amazing! I just added some salt and pepper and then enjoy a simple but nice hot food.
August 16 The 2nd day w/ JHU I was totally exhausted yesterday. Alan, the president of Taiwanese Student Association, took me to do many important things: checking in the dorm, applying the JHU badge, opening a bank account, driving me and two new students to IKEA to shop the linen and things for bedding. I can blame my fatigue feeling on the jetlag, but Alan kept energetic after helping us so many things. Many thank to him.
I can say in these two days, I interacted so many 'black' folks that many more than I have ever spoken to. What impressed me is that whatever skin color, poeple have different temperaments. I met black people radiating warmth and those being too cool.
Today, I went to the ID badge office again to find my srudent ID, which is important for applying for the Internet. In the evening, I went to the supermarket "Superway" to stock some foods.
In the afternoon, I walked beyong the Washington St., ouside of the JH medical institutes campus. Just several blocks away from the street, I hear some young black men shouting and arguing. The stores alongside with the street are very hip-hop, very 'black'. It's daunting, and I went back to the dorm, until the time that night shuttle departing.
Most important thing is, actually, I finally got on line and see 小羊 via webcam. This is nice and soothing my nervous feeling.
Whatever, The first day in Reed Hall I live in the dorm of the Johns Hopkins University - the Reed Hall. It's just located before the famous JH Hospital, so I can see the dome tower as long as I step out the front door of the dorm.
As I checked in the dorm, the utilities and appliances are much more than that I expected. Bed, closet, desk are for personal use, but that there is even an oven and a refrigerator makes me so impressed! 450 USD/month is not expensive, even though more than 10000 NTD/month is unbelievable for renting a room. And the greatest thing is that my room has a nice view from the window.
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