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bird watching
Black-footed albatross visiting from Midway atoll to the foggy Farallon marine sanctuary, endangered Black-faced spoonbills flocking at the wetland of Qigu, Taiwan anually in winter, Scandinavian hooded resembling ordinary crows that wearing vests, laughing gulls ostentatiously mating at the white sand beach of Tampa, Florida, and blue-footed Boobies plunging into the surrounding ocean of Galapagos like kamikazes to seek for food — bird watching has been my favorite outdoor activity since 1996. My most recent bird-watching trip was in Central Nebraska prairie land to watch migratory sandhill cranes. Nebraska hosts the world's largest flock of sandhill cranes every year from February to April.
western classical music
Having played the piano for more than 25 years with a western classical repertoire, Below are Chinese articles I wrote about my favorite piano works —
traveling
I like to experience different cultures, to understand local history, and to see how people interact with environments. Read the list below to see what I observed and felt when away from home,
- 06/98 — Lanyu (Orchid Island), Taiwan: Poeple there are predominantly aboriginal and speak a language only shared by certain ethnic groups in northern Phillipines. Lanyu is an treasured evidence of Taiwan, ROC's multi-ethnicity.
- 09/98 — Boston: Realizing that bagels are not donuts: priceless.
- 06/99 — Belgium and Netherlands: Playing soccer with a stranger in downtown Amsterdam: priceless.
- 03/00 — Mt. St. Helens, Washington: to escape safely when it erupted in 1980: priceless.
- 06/00 — New Orleans: Preservation hall concert: $5. Old men playing dazzling jazz: priceless.
- 03/01 — New York: Broadway show: $90. Subway ride: $1.50. Pictures with friends on top of the World Trade Center: priceless.
- 09/01 — Intercourse Amish country, Pennsylvania: to live peacefully without being invaded by the US: priceless.
- 03/02 — Chicago: Architectural city-walk tour: $12. World
series berth: ~$100,000,000.
- 06/02 — Finland, Norway, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Sauna by the Baltic beach: $20. Three-day Norwegian fjord tour: $400. Being able to appreciate Russian 20th century music: priceless.
- 12/02 — Las Vegas: Lunch buffet at Bellagio hotel: $22. Magic show: $65. To refrain from gambling: priceless.
- 07/03 — Ecuador and Galapagos islands: Swimming with sea lions: priceless. Seeing what Charles Darwin saw with a different perspective: priceless.
- 11/03 — Yosemite National Park: Tent cabin: $42/night. Fleece sleeping bag: $16. Ascending 2500 feet to be quenched at the source of Yosemite Falls: priceless.
- 01/04 — Yellowstone National Park:
Guided snowmobile day tour for two persons: $210. Snow boots:
$100. Not knocked down when passing a pack of bison: priceless.
- 04/04 — Tokyo and Nara, Japan:
to stay at a family-owned
ryokan: 5400 Yen/night; Yu-tofu combo at Kyoto's oldest such restaurant:
3100 Yen. Super-sized Aomori apple: 1000 Yen. Honoring old fashions
in novel ways: priceless.
- 05/04 — Montreal and Toronto,
Canada: a functioning one-nation-two-system policy: priceless.
- 05/05 — Vancouver, Canada: Now I realize this country has more than two systems.
- 08/06 — Minneapolis: Matcha smoothie at Jamba Juice: $3.75. Cafe Latte at Au Bon Pain: $2.50. Best shops from both coasts co-existing in the maze of "skywalk": priceless.