JDPFu.com 2025

Ok, so Tuesday began with a damn rooster crowing around 4am. Then a HUGE jet buzzed the town causing all the car alarms to sound. Not just with a simple woop, but with the woop, woop, e-ah-e-ah-e-ah sounds.

My host family learned that I avoid caffeine, so Claudia picked up some decaffeinated coffee yesterday. The entire family has been unbelievably kind and open. They have only a slightly simpler life that we in the USA. Their kitchen is basically the same as mine with the exact same equipment. I haven’t seen any boxed food, it is all fresh made by Claudia and tasty.

Class begins later today at 720am, beginning with a test (written and oral). The sun has been up for over 2 hours. Costa Rica is on Central time, but they don’t have Daylight Savings, so it is Mountain time now. The country’s longitude places it almost on Eastern time – so the sun comes up very early indeed. It takes some getting used to. Also, since I’m located in a valley surrounded by mountains, the sun has to get fairly high before you see it, but not before the light and clear blue sky is seen.

My classmate was sick today, I don’t know why, so I had 1 on 1 training. That is until 3 other much more advanced students were brought in. It must have been by mistake, since they had already had 4-6 years of Spanish training. It turned out that another person in that other class of high school students had gotten lost on the way to school and had gone home. A few of the teachers and her adult escort went searching until they found her. She was from the Bahamas – like most of the students here, perhaps 30 in total.

Anyway, after class was over, I took a dance class in meringue and salsa. I suck, as expected. The class consisted of me and 2 retired ladies – just a few years younger than my mother. We had fun and sweated a bunch. My pedometer showed over 5 miles after the 1 hour class.

I was given so much homework that I had a quick bite to eat at the diner across the street – just a pollo burro con no mucho case – a chicken burrito with just a little cheese. See photo.

Back at home the studying began. Describe about 20 photos as interactions between people AND be polite. The other part of the homework was to memorize about 100 regular verbs (-AR, -IR, -ER). I haven’t been a student in years, so I was only able to memorize about 30 of them before my brain said enough, but I did look up and understand the present tense conjugations for each of those types of verbs. Since I’m a visual learner, having my teacher tell me the words doesn’t help very much.

Dinner was spaghetti-like and tasty. I took photos.

Then back to memorization – that didn’t get anywhere, so I listened to a Pimsleur lesson that I’d already heard, but found too difficult. It was very easy this time.

The wind was really blowing here all day, but really picked up over night to where a corner of the roof became loose and banged around. Jorge was up at least 3 hours doing something to stop the noise. By that time, the 5am airplane and damn cock started. No car alarms this morning, so I guess the plane wasn’t really that close today.

The first day of school and my adopted madra takes her nino to school. Sorry, no pictures of breakfast today. It consisted of a scrambled egg, rice & beans, bananas, pinapple, papiya, and some other fruit with a small cup of orange juice. She made some coffee, so I had a taste. It was similar to the instant coffee in taste.

Class was brutal. My head is overflowing with Espanol. It is just me and a woman from south Florida in the class. We’re both struggling to understand since everything is spoken in Spanish – everything. That makes it hard to understrand when you don’t have any basis to begin. Present participles – huh? Imaging trying to explain THAT when the students don’t speak the language at all.

Ok, so school is out and I don’t have any formal homework – at least I don’t think I do. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether I really understand the statement/question or assignment.

At one point, my classmate walked out in frustation. She returned 5 minutes later. I think she was concerned that I picked up a new concept quickly. It wasn’t fair to her. My Spanish tapes covered it AND I understood it. I’d read where the first 3 days were the worst.
For me, the frustrating part is that I often answer in German in my head. I expect that reflex will be turned off in the next day or so. My German isn’t that good, but somehow it is still better than my Spanish.

I attempted to upload some photos, but the school connection is shared with 30 other students. Quite the bandwidth hog. After a few uploaded, the connection was stalled. I’ll try to find an easier way to upload.

Time for lunch and I need to figure out which activities I want to do most afternoons. The Heredia visit for today was canceled for some reason. A Soda (diner), then to the grocery store to get some more toothpaste. I didn’t refill from the last trip.

BTW, I’m loving this Nokia N800.

I’m fully covered with SPF-65 and ready to head out for the morning. This afternoon, I meet my first family. They have twin 20 yr olds – a boy and a girl. I can’t wait to meet the entire family!

Ok, today I slept in until 530a after all the sleep I had last night. It sounded like another guest was on a 7am flight since they made a bunch of noise leaving. The walls were just a little too thin, if you know what I mean.

Since I missed my opportunity to get some dinner, I was famished. Breakfast was a mix of banana, pineapple, and apple pastry. Yummy.

After breakfast I decided to see the town. There’s basically two main roads with a bunch of residential streets. I walked about 7 miles [pedometer est] over 3+ hours. Even though I’d gooped on the SFP-65 sunblock, my face was fried. I’m very happy I put on a hat at the half way point or my head would be destroyed. My hair is getting thinner.

A quick lunch at a local Soda – eh – sorry I forgot the photos. Then a short siesta as I waited for my ride to the homestay familia. While waiting, I attempted to skype a few people and finalize some arrangements for the next trip – Argentina.

Google Maps Link to their home

So my family is mucho grande than expected. The paperwork showed a mother, father, and 20 year old twins. Add two more girls to that list, a 2 year old and lots of extended family. Seems they don’t live under the same roof, so they don’t count. One of the daughters with child lives across the courtyard in the back.
After explaining to them that I knew nada Espanol and getting approval to speak Ingliss for today only, we attempted to exchange family information in mostly Spanish. It was almost impossible as I used a Spanish/English dictionary to locate key works. Only 1 daughter speaks fairly fluent English, so communication was difficult on both sides. The shock of not being able to communicate even the simplest of ideas really gets you thinking how to learn quicker.

Next we went to a church parade that the entire town of San Joaquin seemed to come to. It was a reenactment of the Roman solders after Jesus rose from the dead. Photos. During and after the parade, I met more extended family. The little one is a magnet.

Next, dinner. Fried chicken and bananas at a local eatery. I have a photo of the bananas in a sauce, but sadly, the fried chicken was eaten prior to the photo. You didn’t miss anything. It looked and tasted just like fried chicken. Yummy.

It became pitch black outside by 630p. The family was holding discussions for about another hour, before everyone headed to their rooms and everything quieted down.

They are wonderful and patient with my lack of Spanish.
No internet at home and I didn’t bring a router with me. I think they have a computer, their son, Jorge, is studying computer hw maintenance and support and hopes to get employed by HP here.

Things I’ve learned.

• TP doesn’t go in the bowl.
• Bring all your own bathroom items – towels, soap, shampoo, plus the normal stuff.
• Power is the same as the USA
• oh, and most importantly, my pedometer estimated that I walked over 12 miles today. That doesn’t seem correct, but I do believe the step count. It was definitely over 7 miles.
• Tomorrow the 100% Spanish only rule begins.

Summary:

1. Computer Keyboard problems
2. Flight
3. Fernando
4. Bed and Breakfast
5. Afternoon activities
6. Dinner? TBD

Ok, the computer I’m using is configured for English, but doesn’t have a US Keyboard. You’ll see that I use odd wording because some of the keys simply aren’t available. For example, the asterisk key is nowhere to be found (important for this blog), least not shift-8 or on the key that displays it. Ok, enough about that.

The flight – what can I say. I’ve never been on an airplane with more children in my life. Seems spring break and family vacations to Costa Rica are in. Most seemed spoiled too. The kids next to me lived in Raleigh, NC. When I asked about their Spanish – they’d lived in Venezuela for 3 years. The brother and sister were pleasant enough for teenagers. The last 5 minutes in was bumpy and the landing was a little rough.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention it – the airport. Warm with long lines for Immigration. I’d read in a guidebook that there would be lines. There definitely are, unless, you are a citizen of Costa Rica. No lines for them. We landed at 12:10p and I found Fernando a little before 2p. My luggage was waiting for me, already pulled from the luggage belt. They say if you are at the front of the plan – RUN for immigration to beat the lines. There was a line in the main hallway to enter the line. Turns out that line was to get to the end of the line to go into another, larger room, with an even longer line before getting to Immigration folks.

Fernando picked me up outside the airport entrance. He speaks ZERO (nada) English. That wasn’t important – he had the sign with my name on it so I got in the van with him for a 10 minute drive to the Bed and Breakfast, Santa Maria Inn. I’m only here 1 night. No crazy driving experienced or seen. Also, no charge for the drive – which was unexpected. I figure he’d waited at least 90 minutes on a holiday for me when he could have been with his family. I wish I’d snapped a photo of the madhouse at the exit with taxi drivers trying to get fairs. It was crazy and I was offered all kinds of unwanted help.

Santa Maria Inn – In Costa Rica addresses aren’t absolute. They are relative to some local landmark. The Inn is relative to the Pacific Coast Gas Station. Nice. The Inn seems nice. The razor wire all around it makes me feel secure. There is razor wire, seriously. I think this is a nice neighborhood. The home across the street has some nice trucks with alarms.

More after I get my bearings, grab some snacks and figure out what’s for dinner. There’s nothing within walking distance according to the manager. They offer a taxi service or he could order a pizza – that’s a quote.

I must have been tired. After going back to my room, I slept until 11pm. Woke up long enough to close the windows – a few mosquitoes were buzzing me. No bites. Then I watched a movie on HBO-S and went back to sleep for the night.

Today is the day before I leave for Costa Rica to learn Spanish in an intensive way. I’ll be living with 2 families, 1 each week I’m there. Neither them, nor I know anything about each other yet.

Overall plan goes like this.

Week 1

1. Arrive Saturday (Holy Saturday), transfer to a B&B outside San Jose
2. Sunday morning, get introduced to the first family I’ll be staying with outside San Jose
3. Monday morning, go to school, culture shock, figure out what the plans are for the rest of the week
4. Tuesday – go to school; afternoon, do a half day tour of something
5. Wednesday – go to school
6. Thursday – go to school; afternoon tour
7. Friday – go to school
8. Saturday – head out on a 2 day adventure

Week 2

1. Sunday – return and transfer to Monteverde family
2. Monday morning, go to school, culture shock, figure out what the plans are for the rest of the week
3. Tuesday – go to school; afternoon, do a half day tour of something
4. Wednesday – go to school
5. Thursday – go to school; afternoon tour
6. Friday – go to school; afternoon tour
7. Saturday – Transfer back to San Jose, then to the airport for a flight home.

Since this is more of a culture tour than see this tour, I don’t expect to have nearly as many photos as prior trips, nor do I expect to be able to upload that quantity with the internet connection available. I’m not taking a laptop, so my N800 will have to do.

We’ll see.

What Actually Happened

• Costa T+1 Easter
• Costa T+2 Monday
• Costa T+3 Tuesday
• Costa t 4 Wednesday
• Costa T+5 Thursday Heredia
• Costa T+6 Friday Summary
• Costa T+7 Saturday
• Costa T+8 Sunday Monteverde
• Costa T+9 Monday
• Costa T+10 Tuesday Hike
• Costa T+11 Wednesday
• Costa T+12 Thursday
• Costa T+13 Friday Bus to San Joaquin
• Costa T+14 Saturday HOME
• Costa Rica What I learned

This 21" carry on is fantastic!

I just spent 14 days overseas with this bag and a backpack. The corners are all reinforced so it should hold up over time. Another reviewer seems to confirm the durability with 2 years of use. While gone I moved hotels 3 times and checked this luggage for the longer flights. My sport coat and dress shirt remained unwrinkled (vacation trip, not business). I put my dirty underwear, socks and undershirts in the outside pocket for the return trip. Sadly, it wasn’t searched. My traveling buddy brought a HUGE bag, so placing gifts and souvenirs in his bag on the way home worked out for me, but that won’t always be the case.

If you’re traveling for 1-4 days and don’t expect to bring big gifts back, this size is a good choice. If going international, you might want a little larger version. I’ve gotten the 26" version of this same bag for future longer trips. How’s that for an endorsement?

The luggage has straps to hold clothes in place and the removable shirt area on the top should allow 3 folded dress shirts to remain unwrinkled. The extensible handle is nice, but the inside of the bag is impacted by it – heck it has to slide away somewhere.

Check that the extra external bag strap on works. In the store where I bought this, they only had 1 working strap for 3 of the bags. I wanted to latch my backpack to this roller when transporting them together. This 21" size is a little small for my huge backpack to work that way. I just set it on top and used the handle on both bags to keep them together for easy rolling.

The Delsey "Helium Breeze" line seems to be where the jump in quality happens for Delsey without the pricing of the "Pro" line.
Highly recommended.

I don’t really have jet lag when going to any destination since my schedule is usually set. I simply must do it. I haven’t tried this, but a few web sites have recommendations via a Jet Lag Calculator. Here’s what British Airways has.

Nokia USB Host Mode

Ok, here’s my issue

• Sony Camera using SONY Memory Stick Duo memory
• Nokia N800 that supports SD/Mini/MicroSD memory, not Memory Stick
  How do I transfer pictures from the camera to the N800 so I can upload/email them around the world? No solution as of March 2008.

SOLVED!
USB HostControl – hopefully, this will work for you too. It took more than a few times to get my N800 to see the SONY camera, but eventually, /media/usb/sda1 showed up and was available in File Manager. There was some lag in accessing the files and directories on the camera. I had to put the camera in Mass Storage mode and put the N800 in Host mode using the USB HostControl utility. Don’t worry about the USB device not Supported message once the sda1 shows up.

I’m thinking a shell script is needed to pull the photos ASAP off the camera. Then scp them to my server just like I do with a normal winxp Pc.
--

• To enable host mode you’ll need to become root, and then run

$ echo host> /sys/devices/platform/musb_hdrc/mode
*plug something in with fingers crossed.
*I got the ‘USB device not Supported’ message, but don’t worry. File Manager opened and off I went.
*To go back to normal operation:

$ echo otg > /sys/devices/platform/musb_hdrc/mode

USB Host Mode didn’t work for my 7-in-1 memory card reader. It didn’t initially work for a direct connection between the camera and N800, but eventually it did.

It would have been much easier to get a camera that natively supports SD/micro/miniSD cards instead. Then I could have simply swapped the SD card from the camera into the N800. Live and learn.

VoIP SIP

Original page

Special Exhibitions

Made in Hong Kong – Contemporary Art Exhibition
(21 Dec 2007 – 6 Apr 2008)

An Inheritance of Virtuosity :
Donated Chinese Paintings of Ho Chat-yuen
(28 Dec 2007 – 9 Mar 2008)
"Hong Kong Art: Open Dialogue" Exhibition Series
(2008 – 2009)

Permanent Exhibitions

New Literati Painting
(From 1 Mar 2008)

Early 20th Century Guangdong Painting
(Until 17 Feb 2008)

Collecting and Inheriting: A Selection of Paintings and Calligraphy of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Xubaizhai Collection

Chinese Jade and Gold

Gems of Chinese Ceramics from the Hong Kong Museum of Art

The Chater Legacy － A Selection of the Chater Collection

What I wish I knew before going to Hong Kong

1. The MTR Song
2. Get an MTR/Octopus Card at arrival using your Credit Card, add HK$50 of cash value to it so you can use it in 7-Eleven and Wellcome (sic) for water and snacks. HK$50 is about US$7. Mastercard, Visa are preferred over Amex at most places.
3. Grab a copy of all the station exit maps here. Keep them in your PDA so you know which of up to 15 exits to take out of the MTR headed in the direction you need to go. This is especially important for Tsim Sha Tsui station. It is HUGE and near many attractions.
4. You can get cash from almost any ATM at a reasonable conversion rate. You hardly ever need cash, but having HK$100-400 in your pocket for unexpected items is useful. MTR stations have well lit ATMs. Cash is provided by individual banks, not the government so each note may look a little different. Nobody seems to care which bank the note was issued by. I understand that the government is going to be issuing legal tender in the future.
5. Credit Cards are welcome almost everywhere – except 7-Eleven and Wellcome or for charges under HK$100.
6. If your hotel doesn’t include free internet service, get a PCCW wifi account, but don’t expect it to work in your hotel. I don’t know why wifi doesn’t work, just that it doesn’t. There are a few free internet sites that may work for some travelers. I’m a internet whore.
7. Currently, the Lonely Planet HK Guidebook seems to be the best for Hong Kong. Macau – basically, none of the guidebooks cover it that you can trust. There doesn’t seem to be an accurate map of Macau made by anyone.
8. TV sucks, but you won’t care. Don’t expect an alarm clock in your room
9. Hotel rooms will be 25-50% smaller than in the US for a similar cost – think New York City. The Eaton had tiny rooms.
10. Learn 20-40 Cantonese phrases, but almost everyone speaks English or Engrish. I wish I knew how to count in Cantonese, really.
11. Be prepared to walk a lot. You’ll be walking up and down stairs constantly. Yes, the MTR stations have escalators, but you’ll probably choose the wrong way or they won’t be on the exit/entrance you need. If you have a PDA, preload all the MTR exit information into it. Wikipedia MTR is a good ref, but so does the MTR website. Here’s the ideal map per station.
12. Learn the MTR and plan your day trips by the section of the island and island that you plan to be on. Try to avoid going back to your hotel until after dinner.
13. Expect to eat real Chinese food, which most westerners will have trouble eating. I’m over 40 and it appears that I’ve never been to a real Chinese restaurant in the USA before this trip. Well, once in San Francisco with Lui Wang – but he ordered all the food and I thought it was nasty. There’s something about a live eel writhing in pain on a hot plate while it cooks itself that just isn’t appetizing to me, even now.
14. I knew not to drink the water or have any ice. Good advice. Towards the end of the trip, I did have ice in my alcoholic drinks and didn’t get sick. The WHO (World health org) says HK water is safe to drink provided the entire piping system hasn’t been compromised. I have no way to determine that and many locals drink bottled water there too.
15. 7 days aren’t enough to do all that I wanted to do in Hong Kong, much less Macau or outer islands. 14 day’s was just about right. By the end, my feet and legs hurt, and I could sleep at any point in the day from exhaustion.
16. Bathrooms – nothing to worry about.
17. Candy – the 3/4" tube candy is good. It is sour covered with gummy inside. Perhaps I can find it here?
18. There are lots of pretty girls. There is also lots of acne.
19. Bring ear plugs for you and your traveling companion. You both snore. Get over it.
20. Places to eat that I can recommend
    1. Gunga din’s in Soho – Indian food, spicy, tasty, yummy. RECOMMENDED Next trip, I’ll be going back.
    2. Fat Angelo’s anywhere – Americanized Italian food. Only if I’m desperate for non-Chinese food. It wasn’t bad, but there are certainly better options around the corner. Avoid the pizza. Salads and bread are good.
    3. Any packed Chinese Restaurant that has good looking food.
    4. Bangkok Thai near Tin Hau – Fantastic! I’ll eat there again. RECOMMENDED
    5. Peninsula Hotel HK – we ate breakfast here. French toast and an Omelet for me. Bangers, eggs, potatoes , Grape Nuts and Fruit for Jim. It was over US$70 for both of us, but perhaps the best meal I had in Hong Kong. RECOMMENDED
    6. Biergarten in Soho – Their Schnitzel was good. Appetizer good. The Bier selections were better. Jim had Wurst and liked it. If you’re in the area, go. Not worth hunting down, IMHO.
    7. Etshu Sushi in Tin Hau – eh – the food was good, but very expensive. I’ll never go back.
    8. KFC outside the Tung Chung MTR station – it was filling and cheap. I don’t think there was a better choice available at the time.
    9. Bulldog’s in soho – eh, if you need English food, I guess it is ok. We went only because they had a Superbowl watching party at 7am on a Monday morning. I had the biggest breakfast they had and it was good, but I barely ate the day before.
    10. Bali Restaurant in Kowloon – RECOMMENDED; it looks like a dump 1/2 a block off Nathan’s Rd. We were the only diners at the time. I was tempted to eat there again when we moved to the Eaton since it is just a few blocks away towards the closest MTR station. We walked by it 2+ times a day the last 3 days.
    11. Ruby Tuesday in Tai Koo – Avoid Jim got sick. My fajitas were less than tasty. This was an expensive meal when compared to others we ate.
    12. Times Square Mall food court – Yes, we ate in the food court and it was tasty. RECOMMENDED Just learning the method to order, pay for and pick up your food was a learning experience. Be certain you know Cantonese enough to recognize your number. If you don’t, you may not eat.
    13. Ho Choi Seafood Restaurant in central (I think) – RECOMMENDED; we ate here on Chinese New Years Day and had Dim sum. The bill was less than KH$100 or US$13. I’ll go back next visit.
    14. Krispy Kreme in Soho – it was just what I needed after Jim tricked me into walking up all the mid-level steps a few blocks away from the escalators. It was there when I needed it, but I doubt I’ll return.
    15. McDonald’s Tin hau – We needed a quick dinner before heading out to the parade. It tastes like you expect, which is good.
    16. Jim’s Big Wieners Version 1, “Version 2”:
    17. This restaurant (don’t know the name) – RECOMMENDED Purely Chinese food. Most dishes were tasty seafood, bbq pork , soup, beans but I found the crab dish that I ordered too small and too much trouble to eat.
    18. Maxine’s in Hung Hom station – it was food and quick. Nothing to write about here.
    19. Oliver’s Super Sandwiches in Tai Wai – linguine eh. Jim’s sandwich reported as good.

In short, go to Hong Kong. You will be fine and have an eye opening experience.