Snow, Prospect Park Lake

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It was snowing yesterday. We went to Prospect Park to check snow view. Prospect Park is pretty famous in Brooklyn, designed by the same designer of Manhattan Central Park.

Last summer I came to Prospect Park once with Gregory, for a musical event in memorial of Michael Jackson. There was a huge grass field, loud music and dancing crowds.

This time is a totally different view. Xw and I entered from a small gate from west. Soon we hit a big lake with countless birds. There are wild geese, wild ducks, seagulls, a kind of small black bird, even some swans! Those birds are not afraid of people. When we walk close to the water, some birds swam to us too. Maybe they thought we were going to feed them. I felt sorry we didn’t bring any food. Most birds are comfortable for us to get as close as 1 meter. When we approached even closer, they walked away too. Seems 1 meter is their “safe distance”.

Lots of kids were playing on slopes in the park. Riding various “snow boards” to slide down, laughing and screaming. We saw some kids sit or laid in small “carts” and fathers were dragging them in the park, very cute.

New York Aquarium

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New York Aquarium is at the south end of Brooklyn, beside a nice beach. It is chilly today, but still fun to have a short walk by the sea. Some guys were feeding seagulls with bread. A few pigeons mingled there in a funny way.

The aquarium self is not big. Compared to Monterey Bay Aquarium, this one is tiny. However, popular animals are all here! Sea lion, sea otter, seal, shark, penguin, sea turtle, jellyfish… The most special animal here is seahorse! This is the first time I see live seahorse. Their “wings” on the back shake very fast, like bee or butterfly, to push them forward in the water. Their tails curl round sea weed or others’ tails, like snakes or eels. Seahorses have a very delicate and beautiful look, pretty amazing.

seahorse

This aquarium has small sea lion shows and some animal feeding today. We watched sea lion, sea otter and penguin feeding. Sea otter is always the cutest of the cutest, lol. Penguins look so dumb, 4 of them walk in a queue, one after another. And a big seagull waits beside them during feeding, hoping to get some leftover…

xw and Shark

Chicago the Musical

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Last Thursday was xw’s birthday. We watched her first broadway show – Chicago!

The dinner place was an old French restaurant in theatre district – Tout Va Bien. It’s very close to most famous big theaters. 6:30 to 7:30 is probably its most busy hours, because lots of customers come here to have dinner before shows at 8pm. This restaurant even has a “pre-theater” prix-fixe menu, for around 26$. We were quite satisfied with the food there. Space is a little tight though. Still a fair choice before a broadway show.

The “special” thing of this dinner, is a handsome gay couple sitting beside us. We were basically sharing a 4-ppl table, so xw kept overhearing them talking… They were both dance teachers, dressed nicely. It’s obvious this is a couple because they had a lip kiss over the table…

OK, back to musical. Chicago is a nice show. I would give it 8.5/10. If Mamma Mia is about sing and dance, Billy Elliot is about boy and ballet, the key word of this show is definitely SEXY. Long leg women and six-pack men, broadway level dancing and singing. Very enjoyable show!

I do like the main actress (Charlotte d’Amboise, starring Roxie) very much. She has attractive voice, brilliant dancing and cute acting style. Hard to believe she is already 47 years old!

Some Patterns in Dixit

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Dixit has been a really popular party game since we came to US. On New Years Eve I taught some American to play that. It was a bit tough to explain this game to them, especially about how to score. However, the interesting part is how they put together the “word”. One of them said an artist name, because the picture is related to the most famous art of this artist. This is a working way, as long as someone knows the artist, but not very fun. Because it turns the fun game to a knowledge contest.

So I started to think about a question: what common patterns do ppl use in Dixit? Here is my list.

  • Overall feeling. “Cold”, “Dark”, “Lonely”, etc. Novice choices. Not very interesting.
  • Trivial places. Small part in a messy picture, count of something, etc. Not very interesting either, usually used when can’t think of something better.
  • Background. Build a story around one picture, then say something about your story. Needs powerful imagination!
  • Twist. This is a really fun way. Basically it is your “very own, very special” understanding of a picture. For example a pink bell may make you think of a condom?
  • Connection. A unicorn can be connected to fairy tale? fairy tale connects to Denmark? Multiple levels of connection could lead to unexpected result..

What else pattern do you have?

Between 2011 and 2012

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I can still clearly remember that dinner with Diane and lxl during my first travel to NYC. It was a nice Japan restaurant, semi-basement, cozy and decent. We ordered fresh sea urchin, very delicious. Part of that table talk was about China and US, pros and cons, typical topic among Chinese ppl, too big that no one can convince others with different opinions. In the discussion I suddenly threw out a sentence: “Anyway, we should try hard to get the next generation born in US.” A short silence. It seems everyone agreed for a moment. No matter how much you love the country, how much you’re used to the food and the society, when decide for your own baby, it brings up an “objective” and “ultimate” choice.

The opportunity came fast in a very unexpected way. In Sep I got the news and the position. At the end of Sep I flied back to China, did the wedding ceremonies in my hometown and xw’s hometown, in a rush. Then flied back to Beijing. Got the visa. Sold everything, from game consoles to mattress, from tables to chairs. Finished not-so-pleasant bargaining with the subleaser b****. Sent bobo (my cat) to a friend of xw’s friend and hopefully I’ll bring her to US on my next travel. Lived in a friend’s place for the last 2 ways before flying to US. Looked for apartments in NYC remotely by riki’s help. Everything happened so fast and I had been excited and anxious until we finally got a place in Brooklyn and bought some furnitures in.

I can’t say this is all for my 2011. Xw and I had a great travel to Japan with xw. We held countless board game parties in our home, on the great big table :) And we went to IKEA so many times, and installed so many stuff in that place… However, moving oversea should be the second big item… second to getting married, lol!

For 2012, I resolve to do a good job and live a good life.

It is 2012 in China now and still 2011 in US. I’m going to push the “publish” button and play Skyrim for a while, will attend a cross-year party tonight. See you in 2012, if the world is still there!