New York JFK Airport

JFK is probably the largest and busiest airport in US. It’s the first airport that I have landed in US. It was 14 years ago. For the three of us who went on the trip to learn high throughput DNA sequencing, two now are resides in US and one is behind tall walls in China. The New York sky is still grey but the airport seems much colorful. In my memory its interior was brownish and people were dressed like in the 80s. We were very much exhausted after the 15 hours long flight from Beijing and walked like new coming refugees to go through passport control. Now the airport is very vivid. Of course now people walk and talk on their cell phones. And there are a lot of young people floating around in the airport.

Santa Barbara – America Riviera

Santa Barbara in California has the Mediterranean climate and many buildings in the city are Spain Colonial style. So the city has been praised as the American Riviera like the regions in France and Italy. The city is built on a slope and Santa Ynez Mountains rise vertically behind the city. The art museum is surprisingly good and has many masters’ pieces like Monet’s. One of Monet’s paintings is called Villas at Bordighera which is the scene in Italian Riviera. The landscape and plants are just like the mountains and plants in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is a very nice city, small and clean. But many homeless people on the street are very unusual in a city like it. I wonder if this is because the residents are very tolerated for homeless.

Spanish missions in California

Spanish friars established 21 missions to convert local Native Americans into Christians along California coast in late 18th and early 19th centuries. The mission chain is about 600 miles long, which starts from San Diego and ends in Sonoma (north of San Francisco). A footpath called El Camino Real ("The King's Highway") linked the 21 missions together. Two centuries later the dirt road became Highway 101. Quite a few cities in California were named from the names of the missions there like San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco, etc.

The first mission I have visited is Mission San Diego de Alcalá that was the first mission established in California. Now on this trip I am going to visit more.

I lit a candle and said a prayer for my love one to have more wisdom and focus on meaningful things in Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside.

I prayed for peace and health at Father Serra Chapel and wrote a prayer for the patients who are still suffering from cancer at St. Peregrine Chapel in Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Le Bambou

I read food critics (movie critics and art critics too). I have been looking for good restaurants near where I live since I moved to San Diego almost one year ago. Le Bambou (French word for bamboo) was rated as the No. 1 Vietnamese restaurant in San Diego in 2008 and it’s a perfect one – small, simply decorated, reasonably priced, good food and not fancy. It’s in a neighborhood shopping mall and very easy to overlook. When we were there in a Friday evening, the place was busy. There were almost no Asians (except the owner and waiters/waitresses) and seemed no one was under 40s. Don’t know why Asians don't go there. But again good food. Anything with tamarind sauce is probably a good choice.

Charlie Wilson

Congressman Charlie Wilson died yesterday. If you don’t live in Taxes, you would have no idea who this guy is. In fact he is the main character in the movie Charlie Wilson's War, portrayed by Tom Hanks. I enjoyed watching the story which tells what he and CIA did in Afghanistan in the 80”s. How “he” interacted with Joanne Herring (portrayed by Julia Roberts) in the movie is amusing too. The link below can give you a glimpse of the movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War

HeLa cells

HeLa is the first cell line, the first human cells able to reproduce on their own in the lab, and still the most widely used immortal cell line in scientific research. It was derived from a cervical cancer patient whose name was Henrietta Lacks in John Hopkins University almost 60 years ago. Nowadays it’s impossible to name a cell line after a patient’s name. Patient privacy has become a very sensitive topic. Rebecca Skloot, a science journalist, has just written a book about HeLa story - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/).

The Ruins of Athens

You may never have heard of the name of the music composed by Beethoven but you must be familiar with Turkish March that is the 5th movement in the set. Please listen to the Overture. You will enjoy the classical Beethoven romance and power there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkqY7lye7Nc).