Spring Term begins

Today, Spring Term at Harvard started (strange that they call this Spring term since is it technically is still Winter!).

So it's back to school for most students, including Athol, to do another semester. Time is really just flying by, we have 20 weeks left here in Boston before we go back home to Johannesburg. We are still loving every minute of our adventure here. So Athol will be doing four courses this semester (even though he will only need three for credit), there are just so many interesting courses available at Harvard. Fortunately, his lectures start after 10am and finish no later than 4pm (by intentional design) so at least we can enjoy breakfasts and suppers together. Compared to J-Term this should be much easier since the course is spread out and you don't have to be there 8am-6pm every day. Plus the weather should be getting warmer, sunset is now at 4:45pm :) Despite the recent sub-zero temperatures (as low as -22C with wind chill) the sun at least shines so it isn't too deathly. Thank goodness for good internal heating! We can even walk around in t-shirts.

I will be auditing a Corporate Finance course at the Harvard School of Economics on Tuesdays and Thursdays - should be useful for my job back home.  I need to touch up on my stats and microeconomics as it's been a while :) I have my English tutoring on Wednesdays and I will resume my mandarin lessons soon.

So looking forward to another semester in this great city!

Watching the Boston Celtics play the New York Knicks

Last night we watched the Celtics play the Knicks at the TD Garden in Boston. What an incredible game! It was nail-biting till the last few seconds - the final score was 89-86 to the Knicks.

Back in the day, I used to play basketball for a Chinese club in JHB. I admit I was (and still am) a bit of a tom-boy - I love sports and adventure :) I started playing when I was about 10 years old (I can't really remember exactly when it all began!). My dad had bought my brother and I a basketball and I remember I used to practice passing the ball with my dad in the passage in our house.  Later my dad had built a basketball board and ring and had set it up in our yard where we used to spend many hours playing. My dad also used to take my brother and I to the basketball courts at Wits or my High School, Sir John Adamson so that we could play. I was a big NBA fan, I used to follow it on TV, I had posters and banners of Michael Jordan in my room, I had the playing cards which you could swap, had the t-shirts, etc. I initially played for the Chung Wah 'Mini's' basketball team (under 13 years old) then I had joined the 'Ladies' team. We practiced every week at the Braamfontein Recreation Centre. We played in the Portugese League, I remember playing at the Uniao Hall in Turfontein and also in Boksburg and Kibler Park. We also used to play against Tigers - another Chinese club. I could play any position - centre, wing or back. We weren't the best team and we used to lose terribly sometimes but it was all in the name of fun. I remember one Mini's game we lost about 100-6! One of our disadvantages... Chinese tend to be on the short side compared to others, I was always one of the tall players in our team!  There is an annual Chinese Sports Easter Tournament every year which is held in different city in SA - JHB, CT, PE, Pretoria. It is a lot of fun as Chinese from around SA (teams include Southern Gauteng (or Southern Transvaal as it was called back in the day), Northern Gauteng, Eastern Province, Western Province, Free State, and Zimbabwe) unite to play various sports such as basketball, softball, table tennis, badmington, tennis, soccer, etc. The tournament takes place on the long Easter weekend. I played in a few of these tournaments and it was such fun. Such good old days! Sadly I stopped playing when I was at university and haven't really been following the NBA since.

So having the opportunity to go to a live NBA game last night was one of my childhood dreams come true :)

Co-incidently, Athol was in Boston doing his MBA in the mid-90's and followed the NBA so we recently reminisced about the old days when Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Shaq, Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman (who always dyed his hair different colours), Karl 'The Mailman' Malone, Stockton, etc. were playing. We were surprised to see that Jason Kidd (Knicks), Kevin Garnett (Celtics) and Paul Pierce (Celtics) who played back in the day, still play today! Wow, can't believe that they have been playing for about 15-18 years! so it was so amazing to see them play. I can only imagine what it must have been like to watch  a legend like Michael Jordan play.

Entering TD Garden was amazing, the atmosphere at sporting events are incredible, we were fortunate to get good corner seats - we could clearly see the faces of the players and even see their names and number on their backs. There was a jumbotron in the centre and electronic advertisements all around the stadium. There was a small section in front of us where the journalists sat with their laptops, typing away and doing their twitter/facebook updates.

 

We watched the players warm up, then the national anthem was sung, then the players were all called on. Tip off was at 8pm. It was great to see these skilled players hit a three, 'swish' the ball and slam dunk with such speed and grace. The well-known 'D-fence' and 'Let's go Celtics' chants were played throughout the game. They even have a 'Noise monitor' which they show on the screens to show how loud the crowds are cheering. Was great seeing the foul shots.

During the quarters, the Celtics Girls (and guys!) did their dancing (they changed outfits every time they came on!) and they showed the audience on the jumbotron - this was very amusing seeing the crazy fans dancing (even doing the gangnam style!). There was a shooting contest where an audience member got to try shoot the balls into large drums of various distances, he managed to get three and won himself $500. At half time, the Celtics kids did some dancing, very cute.

Celtics led in the beginning but then the Knicks led till the end. It was very close. The Celtics missed a few baskets and made the occassional bad pass which the Knicks intercepted. In the end, the Knicks won by 3 points. What a fun evening! another great all-american experience with my wonderful husband :)

Inauguration of the 44th American President

Today I watched the inauguration of Barrack H. Obama, this is the 57th inauguration of America's 44th President.

Obama has won another 4 year term in the office with Joe Biden as his Vice President.

The inauguration co-incided with Martin Luther King Jnr Day (which is a public holiday here in the US).

Thousands of people travelled to Washington to watch the inauguration. There was performances by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Kelly Clarkson, Poet Robert Blanco, Beyonce (who sang the national anthem) amongst others. Watched the First Daughters then First Lady then the Vice President then the President walk in - all very dramatic and extravagant. The President and Vice President were sworn in, apparently this was the first time that a President has worn on two bibles as opposed to traditionally one. Listening to Obama's speech, he said all the right things that a President would be expected to say - stricter gun laws, gay rights, better immigration policies, better welfare for all, better education, a end to wars, etc.

Watching the ceremony and celebrations on screen, I couldn't help think what a waste of money this all was, surely this money could be better spent on feeding the poor, building houses or settling part of the country's $16 trillion debt. Sure it is nice to celebrate but is it really necessary to have such a grand event especially for a re-election?



God save these United States of America!

Taryn and the Chocolate Factory :)

Yesterday I went to the Taza Chocolate Factory in Sommerville. It was a tour arranged by the Harvard Spouses group. http://www.tazachocolate.com/

I had never heard of this chocolate brand before so it was interested to learn how their chocolate was made. The tour was 45 minutes long. We were given a private tour through the factory with a couple of tasting samples. We were also given stylish hair nets to wear in the factory :)

It was a small factory with a lovely shop where you could buy some of their delicious chocolate after the tour.

Photo courtesy of Helen C

We learnt how the cacao beans are farmed, roasted, winnowed, grinded, tempered and mixed. We watched how the workers hand packed the bars - the job must require a lot of willpower!

The process from bean to bar is 2 days! Their chocolate is organic, doesn't contain any dairy products (not even milk) and come in a variety of flavours (chilli, almond, cinnamon, etc.). They specialize in dark healthy chocolate. I do prefer sweeter chocolate (love white chocolate) but really enjoyed their chocolate, it has a gritty texture since it is stone ground, but is really nice. When they say 60% dark it means that the chocolate contains 60% cacao bean and 40% sugar hence the higher it is the less sweet it is but more healthier. They make chocholate bars in slabs and round shaped bars - these are used to make hot chocolate. They also sell chocolate nibs which are little pieces of the cacao bean covered in chocolate which can be eaten as a snack or sprinkled on desserts/cereals.

So a lovely trip to the chocolate factory.

The incredible age of technology

I can remember when cellphones first came out... Boy, I sound like an old person here, but this was merely 15 years ago!

In 1998, I was in matric and cellphones had just come out. At that time there was no such thing as smartphones, tablets, laptops, email, the internet, flat screen HD televisions, Macs, etc. I recall there were beepers (like we see the doctors been beeped on old school TV shows) and PDAs - remember those old TV's with the big box attached to the back, overhead projectors, cameras with film, large video cameras, Beta and VHS tapes, LP records, tape recorders, walkmans? Wow, what a different time it was. Children and even teenagers nowadays would laugh if they saw the things which we used back in the day :)

I remember the very first large Nokia cellphones which came out - it looked like a brick compared to the tiny slim cellphones on offer today :) Screens were only black and white, no colour screens like we have today and the keypad was limited to the numbers 0-9 where each number represented 3 letters so you had to press 1 once if you wanted to type an A, press twice if you wanted a B and press three times if you wanted a C, etc. They didn't have a camera or the ability to connect to the internet (since the internet was around yet) they had basic functions like making a call or sms with a couple of games. A year or two later, they came out with smaller cellphones, flip-phones were the in thing. Then they came out with colour screens, then later on with cameras, then later on with music, then later on with internet, then the slide-phones were in fashion... now the cellphones are getting bigger as they have more functionality (better graphics, more features, faster speed, better cameras, more storage space). Now touch screens are in fashion, some phones scan barcodes, you can bluetooth a picture to another phone/laptop, you can view a pdf document, you can BBM/Whatsapp your friends, you can instantly take a photo and upload it onto Twitter/Facebook (my, my, how did we live without social media before!), you can use GPS,  check the weather, book a hotel, do a money transaction... the list goes on! Cellphones have become mini computers.

Once upon a time, there were car phones but are non-existent now since everyone has a cellphone.

Computers - Back in the day, desktop computers were huge, the graphics weren't good and it was not very user friendly. Remember Netscape and that funny game where you draw vector diagrams using command statements? Remember floppy ad stiffy disks? Haha, the godd old days :) When I was at university, I was introduced to email and the internet, nowadays we can't imagine a world without it. Remember good old fashioned snail mail? when you had to actually hand write a letter and post it :) Remember when you had to go to the library to use the encyclopedias for class assignments? and then you had to photocopy the pages :) Gosh, nowadays you just google it on your phone or laptop and get an answer instantly! Now there are fancy laptops and tablets (which are really just small laptops since now they come with an attachable keyboard!).

Television - Remember Beta tapes? Then VHS followed, then DVDs. TV's initially were big boxes and only in black and white. TV's came out in SA in the early 80's I think. Nowadays, TVs come in either Plasma, LCD, LED or 3D and range from small thin screen monitors to about 52 inches. The clarity is amazing nowadays. A great invention has been PVR - pausing live TV, rewinding and recording... amazing (so useful especially nowadays since there are so many advertisements!)

Music - Back in the day, music was played on LP record players. Then tapes followed (with walkmans as the portable version), then CD's (with Discmans as the portable version) and DVD's. Now music comes in MP3 format and can be downloaded easily and play on laptops, cellphones, iPods, etc.

TV Games - I remember the days when I used to play games on our Commodore 64 where we had to load the game which was on a tape. I remember Atari with joysticks - with games like Pacman. I remember TV games with the console and the cartridges - with games like Super Mario Brothers! I remember the good old arcade games, my cousins and I used to play a lot at my grandparents shop in Port Elizabeth. I remember those little hand held games with games like King Kong. Gosh, those were the days :) Nowadays, there is xBox and Nintendo Wii (our personal favourite past-time) with life-like graphics and the ability to play others around the world. You can even use the internet through these game consoles so that you can get the latest news and weather and even watch videos on Youtube.

Cameras - Back in the day, we used those cameras with film and then you had to go develop the photos and keep the negatives in case you want reprints in future. Today, the entry level digital camera is 16MB with lots of storage so you can happily click and away, and whatever you don't like you can just delete with a click of a button.

Typewriters - Remember these? We had an old typewriter, I used to use this for my school assignments. It was so noisy when you typed and when you made a mistake you had to go back and go over it with a tipex strip. I remember that one could type in black or red. When you wanted to go onto the next line you had to pull the lever. Now typewriters are antiques :)

Overhead projectors - My teachers used to write on transparencies and then project them on the projectors. Nowadays, lessons are projected via laptops and presenters can change slides at a click of a button.

Technology has taken over the world! in just 15 years, the way people live has completely changed. Access to information has never been this quick and easy. The internet connects the world. Technology will only continue to improve and evolve. Even children are using iPads and cellphones. What next?  What will the future hold for us?

Along with the good there is also a lot of bad things that technology has brought about. People have become dependent on this technology (some addicted) and have the need for instant gratification. Information can be so easily accessed ideal for hackers, stalkers and fraudsters. Social Media is changing society and how people interact - adults and children are becoming more phyically anti-social as they friend people in chatrooms and on facebook.

To think about it... life was a lot simpler 15 years ago. We weren't distracted by all this new technology - you weren't physically attached to your cellphone and constantly checking for messages, tweets or facebook updates. Children could just be children and play outside. People could just live their life and appreciate the little simple things in life without distractions.

How Boston differs to South Africa... part 9

Domestic US flights

On our trip to the west coast, we flew using a couple of different airlines - Delta, United, American Airlines and Virgin America - so we got to compare them.

The best in my opinion was Virgin America, their planes were new and trendy with pink and purple (subtle!) lights and the service was excellent. There were individual monitors with movies, TV, games, etc. plus you could order and pay for your food and drinks for the flight online.

American Airlines was good. The best thing was that they had a Trivial Pursuit game on the individual monitors where you could play against others onboard. There are 20 general knowledge questions with 4 potential answers and you get points based on correctness and speed of answering. I got the highest score of the flight - the highest by far :) using an interesting strategy of not even reading the questions and just by selecting the nicest looking answer in a split second so if I got it right I got 500/550 points as supposed to others who were reading the question and answers carefully who then got only 100 or so. Good fun.

United Airlines was the worst in my opinion. They didn't offer/sell headphones for the monitors. The service was not good. They confiscated my bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney (a gift from my sister-in-law) at security - yes chutney is so dangerous, I might just injure someone onboard (#sarcasm). No individual monitors, they only have the occasional big screen in the aisle and didn't provide/sell headphones.

We flew with Jetblue to NYC last August, service was fairly good, they didn't charge for checked luggage and offered complimentary drinks and snacks onboard.

Similarities....

- All offered complimentary drinks with the option to pay for food/snacks
- Not sure about the other airlines but Delta offered onboard Internet (for a fee)
- All have self-service terminals for customers to check in and get their tickets


Differences to South Africa...

- One big difference compared to South African flights is the fact that here customers flying domestic American flights have to pay $25 per checked baggage. As a result many customers have a lot of hand luggage. The airlines don't seem to be very strict with hand luggage and some customers have 3 or 4 bags even though they have size and weight limits. This actually results in chaos on board as there is not enough space in the cabin for hand luggage and then customers with large carry-ons must hand their luggage in which is then added to the checked luggage (ironically for free). Being the analytical ex-consultants we are, Athol and I discussed some possible strategies for these airlines to solve this very problem :)

- Domestic flights in SA don't have individual monitors

- Most airlines in the US have kerb checked baggage drop-off. This is SO convenient, so that you can just check in your baggage as soon as you are dropped at at the terminal

- Most big hotels have a dedicated computer/s in the reception for customers to check in to their flights. There is also a printer to print your tickets. Such a great idea!

- Rental cars have shuttles which come around every few minutes to take customers to the rental car company which is a distance away from the airport. Again a very clever idea as this eliminates congestion by the airport

- There aren't vendors that cling wrap your bags like they do in South Africa since luggage isn't tampered with here in the US

- The baggage claim area is by the exit and the public are allowed in. Again, in South Africa this is not the case as luggage gets stolen

- Las Vegas International Airport is the only airport which I have seen so far with slot machines by arrivals/departures as well as by baggage claim

- By the security check points, you need to take your shoes, scarves and jackets off (besides your usual laptop and liquids). At Logan International (Boston) you had to walk through a fancy security machine where you had to hold up hands and the machine scanned you

- You have to rent a trolley for luggage though I think it is refundable

Half way mark

Can't believe that we have been here in Boston for over 6 months already.

Summer School and the first Semester have come and gone. J-Term has started which will be an intensive 2 weeks for Athol with classes 8am-6pm everyday. He is doing a class on Persuation so I will be cautious to see if he tries any of his new persuading techniques on me :) it has been quiet here since we've been back, most students are still away. Things will be back in full swing when Spring Term starts on 28 Jan.

So 5 more months until Athol's graduation. Based on how quickly these last 6 months have gone, graduation will be here in no time.

Athol has decided to be a vegetarian because he doesn't like the idea of eating animals. He went through a phase of not eating red meat for a few months a while back. So I have started experimenting making vegetarian dishes - vegetable curry and chunky vegetable soup (not bad if I might say so myself, made it from scratch and it tastes like Woolies chunky vegetable soup!). I will try vegetable lasagne and vegetable stir-frys and vegetable pies. I admit, over the last 6 months I was making a couple of unhealthy American foods like hamburgers, hotdogs, buffalo chicken tenders, steak tips subs, pizza, etc. and I was baking milk tarts and red velvet cupcakes (we never used to really eat sweet desserts back in SA). So for our remaining few months, we are going to eat healthy (even though I will still have the occassional meat as I don't want to lose weight - need it to keep warm in winter :) ).

We are in the heart of Winter. Fortunately we missed some really cold snowy weather here while we were away along the west coast, lows reached 0 degrees farenheit (which is -18 celcius!). When we arrived back here on 3 January 2013, there was thick snow on the ground but is was frozen solid. Fortunately they can handle the snow here and are well prepared, all the roads and walkways were cleared. So let's hope that it doesn't get too much colder. I had put a plastic bottle (half filled with water) onto our balcony and the one morning it was frozen solid! just shows how cold is was.

I resume my English tutoring tomorrow in Chinatown so will have to venture out in the cold.

So am looking forward to the next 5 months of our adventure here in Boston and will enjoy every moment of this experience :)

San Francisco... a city with so much character

We spent 3 nights in Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco, which is about a 30 min drive from the aiport.

San Francisco is a nice city with so much character.

They have rolling steep roads where cars park perdendicular so that the cars won't roll. Their famous cable cars are so pretty, there are 3 different routes and cost $6 per trip. You can hop off at various stops. There were long queues for the cable cars.

Ever seen the movie 'The Rock' with Sean Connery? Alcatraz or 'The Rock' can be seen from Fisherman's Wharf. Alcatraz was a federal prison from 1933 until 1963 and now tourists can go visit the island. Similar to Robben Island near Cape Town, tourists catch a ferry and can tour the island. This is a very popular attraction so you need to book at least a week in advance. The time I wanted to book it was sold out.

Fisherman's Wharf is a nice area. We arrived there on New Year's Eve so walked to the pier to watch the fireworks. Was a great fireworks display, there were even fireworks shaped as red hearts and colourful smiley faces :) There are many shops and restaurants. Pier 39 is very popular, there are nice views of Alcatraz. There are also sea lions to see.

Apparently, the Chinatown in San Francisco is the second largest one. The shops were huge and so colourful.

We were fortunate to get a tour from one of Athol's friends. He took us to Alamo Square which has a lovely view of the city. There are also the famous 7 'Pale sisters' which are seen on postcards.

There is also a pier with old boats (such as schooners) which you can tour.

We went to the Golden Gate Bridge, a really beautiful sight!

I really like San Fransisco, the only thing is the fear that an earthquake could happen at any time. They had a massive one in 1906 (8.1 on the richter scale!) and a smaller one in 1989 (6.9 on the richter scale!) which killed many.

Los Angeles... a large diverse city

We spent 5 nights in total in Los Angeles, this was the second leg of our holiday but was split into two parts as we went to Seattle for 2 nights to meet some Locks from Vancouver.

Athol had caught the flu on our trip from Las Vegas to LA so spent a lot of time in bed. We stayed at in Marina Del Rey which is a suburb close to LAX (about a 15 min drive) just South of Venice Beach, which is just South of Santa Monica. There is a beautiful marina.

Santa Monica was beautiful! The sunsets are spectacular. 3rd Street, which is the second road parallel to the beach road, is an awesome street. It has shops, cinemas, restaurants, musicians playing in the street, etc. just such a great vibe. Athol and I spent an afternoon with our niece and nephew, we took them to see Monsters Inc. 3D at the AMC cinemas in 3rd Street.

Hollywood was ok, it was not as glamorous as I thought that it would be. Hollywood Blvd has the stars on the pavements, shops, Graumans Chinese Theater (with the hand/foot prints of celebrities), restaurants, wax museum, etc. You can see the famous Holywood sign from the Highlands center. It is about a 30 min drive from Marina Del Rey.

Beverly Hills is very nice. Their streets are lined with large palm trees.

The famous Rodeo Drive is in Beverly Hills, this a where celebrities and very rich people shop. Ferrari's, Aston Martins, Bentleys, etc. are very common is this part of LA. We were on the look out for celebrities. Athol's brother saw Toby Macguire (spiderman) and Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) along Rodeo Drive.

LA is a large spread out city. A bit like Johannesburg in a sense. They don't have much public transport so is better to have a car. You can go to Malibu which is probably about an hours drive North West. Universal Studios is just North of Hollywood. There's Disneyland in Anaheim which is probaly about an hour or two South of LAX. Some parts like Venice Beach had very bad roads. So while some suburbs are great others are not so great. There is lots to do and see in LA but everything is far afar. I actually think Cape Town is more cosy and beautiful :)