Reading Time: < 1 minute There are many good summer day camps in St. Louis area. STLToday recently has a good piece on this topic. Personally my old daughter has been to the JCC Day Camp, and Andrews Academy. We like both, with a bit preference over Andrews: for its after care, and overall quality. Note cost-wise, Andrews is a
Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update 28-Feb-2017) Just got back from the book fair in Spoede school, camp read a lot. It’s a lot of efforts from the volunteers and the teachers. At the same time a lot fun for the little kids and the families. Part of the profit goes to the SSA (the parent association of the school).
Reading Time: 2 minutes Those schools are considered speciality schools, because they have their own philosophy, which is NOT exactly the same as other private schools (both sectarian and non-sectarian). Pre-school Schools that care and educate the younger ones, some even have infant class. A growing place: it’s located at Forsyth and Big Bend road, next to Washington U.
Reading Time: < 1 minute Serenity started 1st grade this fall. Same school. I have some ideas on first grade, mostly around the homework, “more serious school” vs. the kindergarten which has more play time. I learned from fellow parents last year when they talked about it after MFS (I volunteered there). Seeing is believing. Serenity now has been in
Reading Time: 2 minutes I decided to switch my wireless carrier again, from H2O wireless to Ting. I stayed with H2O for over a year, mostly satisfied, except recently I started using its per minute data, which seems burn my money quickly. I heard about Ting from friend before, but I forgot to do the referral. 🙁 Anyway I
Reading Time: 2 minutes Talking about tests exams and realized I made a big mistake, this happens quite often when I was in middle school. My solution to that was not talk about or think about it after a test. But that did not work for Gaokao. As we had to estimate how we did after the test, then
Reading Time: 2 minutes 十几年前我回国在上海一般就住一个如家或锦江之星，挑一个离地铁比较近的酒店，这样上班办事都比较方便。那时候没有小孩，旅馆主要就是睡个觉，干净清爽就可以了。快进几年，有了两个小孩，住的酒店要求也稍有提高。托酒店信用卡促销的福，攒了些点数或是free nights, 我也升级了住的旅馆。在上海常住的旅馆有，徐家汇的万丽酒店（courtyard Shanghai xujiahui), 她家所在的楼叫西藏大厦，出租车司机如不清楚可提这个名字。另一家是浦东的喜来登福朋酒店（four points by Sheraton, Shanghai pudong, 又叫由由酒店，楼的名字），注意她家旁边有喜来登酒店（Sheraton Shanghai pudong, 5 star vs four points 4 star), 不要搞错。这两家的房间起价大概是800人民币左右。 最近一次有幸住了回陆家嘴的柏悦酒店（park hyatt），这个标价是大概300多美金，我用的是hyatt卡的开卡free nights. 看了下用chase ultimate rewards points 的话是2万点一晚。小孩很喜欢，因为有一些没见过的features. 我的头被淋浴喷头砸了一下。Uncle Major 进大观园。:-) 在美国最近住Hampton inn 比较多。还是觉得Hampton inn 接地气一些。这家Hilton 系列的中档酒店设计简单，实用，且包早餐。一般我这样小兵级别的人出差就住它家。对有小孩的家庭包早餐是一个挺有用的feature. Other hotels have similar feature include Hilton garden inn, holiday inn express and clarion. Last but
Reading Time: < 1 minute 上面这个照片是我在最近一次的去中国的航班上照的。来美国有快二十年，坐过很多次飞跃太平洋的航班，坐的最多可能是美联航的航班。从芝加哥到上海的直航也就13，14个小时，加上从圣村到芝城的一个小时再加上几个小时的lay over, 总共的旅行时间比我当年从宁波到武汉上学的时间（大概是37，38小时，包括两次中转的时间）还短些。当然还比当年的火车舒服些。飞机坐多了，难免会有这样那样的事。最吓人的一回是2004年夏天从旧金山走，说是飞机起飞时发现翅膀发动机有火花。飞机在海上把满箱的油放掉后返航。当时乘务员给大家出了一个题，多少油，多少钱一加仑航空油。我算了一下大概是30多万美元。随着航空公司这两年越来越追求利润，不知道现在还会不会这样做？ 还有一次是冬天，圣村到凤城的航班因雪晚点。等我赶到去上海的登机口，飞机已起飞。求工作人员能否让我standby 还没走的北京航班。也许是被我的诚意打动，工作人员给我改签了到北京的standby。飞北京的航班也已快结束登机，这一次还有一个空位。工作人员把已关闭的登机口再打开（我是第一回碰到这种情况），登机不久，飞机就离开登机口了。 这几年回国免不了坐动车高铁，速度快，不拥挤。还有味道不错的快餐。 我在大学时的火车可没这么好：慢，在春运时非常拥挤。第一年春节回校，在杭州转车。记得那天天气很好，中午到杭州后晚上再坐车，就跑到西湖边来晃晃。印象中杭州的女孩身材不错，穿着也比内地女孩稍时髦些，很有特点（妩媚又很得体）。有一次在南昌转车，好像是南昌到北京的车（经过武汉）。不光没位置，而且连站的地方都没有。火车还在株洲还是武昌附近弄了很长时间的临时停车。记得当时一个武大还是华工科英的88级的女生给削了一个苹果，印象很深。在火车上基本上不想吃东西，也不怎么喝水。当时火车挤到什么程度？不知道80后，90后的同学有否体会？一个厕所里站了7个人，有个女孩想用洗手间，叫里面的男生出来一下，女生背对。结果没人响应，只能再挤一节车厢。另一次我记得我的一个宁波老乡在火车上说到家洗个热水澡，再抽根烟那是最美的事了。还有一个老乡，他家的条件好一些，就坐飞机去武汉，是运七飞机，螺旋桨的。我相信这些都是过去式了。 还有一些旅行的轶事和碰到的好心人，下回再说吧
Reading Time: 1 minute Courtyard in Xujiahui (formerly Tibet hotel, as you can see the rooftop design, tripAdvisor, marriott website). Good location and friendly people. I recall the first time I visited (2011), I used my Marriott rewards and silver status, the front desk especially got the leader over and greet. I suspect at that time, perhaps there were
Reading Time: < 1 minute I know I know, I must live in stone age by using Yahoo mail. I do have gmail, but since I had Yahoo mail earlier than gmail (1998 vs. 2004, I think), I still rely on yahoo mail for some online accounts. This is even after some horrible incidents happened, in which someone stole my
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