Impressionist Hawaii - Day Two

This is our biggest day on the Big Island. We got up early in the morning (yes we were still in California time) and headed for Volcanoes National Park. It's about 100 miles away from Kona, but mountain roads made the driving longer than it sounds. We brought apples (the fruit) and sandwiches with us, and stopped at the South Point after driving along the sea for one and a half hours. It is the south end of the US, pointing at Antarctica 7,500 miles away.

Though the wind was blowing hard, the sea was peace and waves were calm. Gang happily found wind turbines along the route. I almost couldn't hold my hat but I couldn't stay away from the beauty in front of me. People were fishing around us, with professional equipment and entertainment facilities. Gang and I sat by them, eating the two apples we brought. We both found it very pleasant to eat apples by the sea, which soon became a must in the rest of our journey: we look for beaches all around only to eat apples.

About two hours later, we left the South Point before the sun got too strong. It was still hot, but the sea wind cooled us down. The Volcanoes Park was well preserved: there was only a small visitor center with a big parking lot, no commercial facilities to ruin the park. Rangers there explained to us how the Big Island was created by volcanoes, and some big eruptions in history. He mentioned that in 1970s, a volcanic eruption was predicted and lava was believed to head for Hilo, a small city in east Big Island. But residents in Hilo was told by the government that the lava wouldn't reach the city, therefore they shouldn't worry about it. That night, people in Hilo anxiously looked at the volcano. They got panic when they saw flames lighting up the sky and red lava moving slowly but steadily towards them, some even started packing. Luckily the lava stopped four miles away from Hilo, and no one was hurt. In spite of this, some people still lost their properties in the eruption. He mentioned a guy who opened a B&B by the volcano. This hotel keeper escaped in his helicopter, but his house was melted in lava forever. At the end of his introduction, he asked: "So be honest, how many of you will go back and tell your friends and relatives that you actually saw red lava here?" Audience laughed and some did raise their hands. The ranger smiled and took out a small card with "LAVA" printed in red on it, "Now you all see red lava!"

There are several trails by the visitor center, but we decided to skip them because of my poor eyesight. Gang drove to the museum directly, by which there is a big smoggy crater, one of the culprits for the expanding island. We couldn't get closer to the crater for safety concerns, but it was astonishing enough to see such big flows of steams and smoke rising to the sky. Later we saw similar but much smaller natural hot wells in the park. I stood by one of them for a while, and OMG it was hot.

This is absolutely the most impressive crater "lake" I've ever seen. The crater lake in Oregon is splendid for sure, but what makes this one different is that it's filled with lava, not water. Red lava filled the crater but failed to find an outlet. It finally cooled down and became a rocky lake. Some brave travelers took the trail across the lake (the white lane in the middle of the lake), and I'm sure it will be a really impressive experience to walk on the black but still burning lava for hours.

Gang's favorite place is this lava tube, which transmits red lava like a pipeline after eruption. The tube is dark and wet, whose entrance is covered by many tropical plants. I walked very carefully in the tube. The wall is so cold and hard that it's hard to imagine that red lava has been running in it.

The Big Island is young and active. When human beings try to build their cities on this island, the nature always finds its own way of reshaping it. During our trip in the Volcanoes Park, we found several signs along the road indicating in which years the lava was formed, just like an alumni reunion with each camp hosting students from a certain year. The end of road was stopped by the latest eruption, whose lava covered the pavement and stopped our car from going any farther. It is amazing to think of the fact that the land that I was currently standing on was still alive, laughing at people's futile efforts to change the nature, actively creating new lands and expanding to the sea.  We didn't stay in the Park for too long as most visitors who stay late to see red lava at night. But everything I saw here is unprecedented.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day One

You may call this trip miserable, but I'd rather give it a more favorable title - impressionism. After I lost my -8.5 distance glasses three hours after arriving in Big Island, I was doomed to get extremely fuzzy impression of everything I saw there; or to put it politely, whatever I saw, I felt like admiring some masterpieces drawn by French impressionists - I knew what I was looking at, but I wasn't certain about how they looked like. When Gang exclaimed at the sea, waves, lava, etc, I marveled at their colors. Anyway, things were not bad as I had expected; and now when I look back, they are actually pretty interesting.

When the plane approached the Big Island, the first land we saw on the Pacific after 5-hour flight, I could see volcano and black lava running miles from craters to the sea. Then I knew the volcano park would be one of our destinations: it's just too unique to be skipped. I regretted wearing my jeans soon after landing. Hawaii is unbelievably hot! But I also must admit that I was actually very happy to find out that I could wear the shorts and dresses that are too cold for the bay area. After a quick lunch at the airport, which by the way has only ONE restaurant, we took the shuttle to car rental places, and had one of our best experiences of renting cars. I used a self-service machine to check-in, and drove a white Dodge right away. The hotel is located by the beach, and we could see a palm standing by the sea and cruises far away from our balcony.

Our first stop after check-in was to Kahaluu Beach Park, which is said to be the best place for snorkeling on the Big Island. Now I believe people who said that must be making a joke. It's not even average. The beach is small, rough and weirdly crowded. Gang and I had our first snorkeling experience there, which is not comparable to the Hanauma Bay in Honolulu. Anyway we spent about two hours on the beach, getting ourselves used to snorkeling devices and busying applying sun creams. On our way back, we decided that we deserved better beaches than this, and therefore we headed for the White Sand Beach with beautiful and soft white sand and waves, where I was accidently caught in the big wave and lost my glasses. In the end, Gang and I sat on the beach in swimming suits, burying ourselves in the sand when Gang tried to explain to me why my glasses could not wash ashore and how dangerous it would be to salvage them. I didn't understand what he was talking about, but he seemed enjoying explaining his major to layman. In spite of what happened, I'd still recommend this beach, but remember to fasten your glasses before staying too close to the sea.

Hawaii became blurry for me ever since. Gang held my hands and led me to the car, and showed me around the Kailua-Kona downtown at night. We had seafood at an American restaurant which had singers and dancers performing local music during dinner. Of course I didn't see anything, but I was impressed by the joyful mood around me. I guess most people came here for vacations, therefore they were more likely to laugh and relax.

Iphone

I went to Berkeley Eye Center for my first eye exam in the US. It took me two and a half hours to finish and eye exam, chose frame and lenses for my new glasses. I must admit I didn't expect it would take so long before I went there, otherwise I would have eaten some snacks before going. Later the doctor dripped a few eye-drops which helped her better check my eyes, but made myself unable to see things clearly for hours. After a two-year graduation school, my eyes are getting weaker, and my glasses are getting stronger. I finally  ordered a new pair of glasses in an optical store nearby, which is expected to be ready in two weeks. The new glasses are still expensive after insurance, but I guess it's probably the cheapest I can get in the US.

OK, that's just a few nagging. What I really want to say is: "Apple Map, you suck!" I totally lost my way to the eye center following the ios6 map on my iphone: it simply gave me a wrong location! Then I needed to open Google Map through Chrome and located the eye center there. This time, it was right. But I didn't know how to find "route" on Chrome, so I had to memorize the location on Google Map and dropped a pin at a similar location on Apple Map so that I could find the "route from my current location to destination". I finally made my way to the eye center, after walking under the hot Californian sunshine for an hour. Oh iphone, you're embarrassing yourself. I wouldn't even update my ios had I knew how terrible the Apple Map is. Now I only wish Google Map can be found in App Store soon.

When I went back, my flatmate happily showed me his newly arrived iphone5. And he's been talking to siri all night, looking for nearby restaurants and UPS. His friend, who ordered iphone on the same day with him and waited at home for its delivery for the whole day, unfortunately missed the delivery because the mailman knocked at the wrong door. She didn't wait for a second delivery, but rented a car to fetch iphone5 from UPS. Later tonight my flatmate shared some tricks on playing ipad, such as flipping apps with four fingers and closing apps with five. I again found Apple a great company and iphone/ipad epoch-making products. In contrast, its outrageous replacement of Google Map is not that intolerable as well.

Lotus Girl

The only news that can distract furious Chinese protesters from their violent anti-Japanese demonstration is the unconfirmed rumor of the death of Lotus Girl (芙蓉姐姐), an internet celebrity who shot to fame with her bold remarks and strange dance in 2005. The rumor says she committed suicide at home, which chimes with her yesterday's world-weary posting on Weibo, Chinese Twitter. Later her agent responded on Weibo, saying "farewell" to her, which seems to reaffirm her death.

The Lotus Girl became famous in summer 2005 (ironically when the last major anti-Japanese demonstration took place in China). She rented an apt near Tsinghua University, and was applying for graduate schools in Beijing. During her leisure time, she took photos around campus with her chubby body twisted in awkward S-shapes. Later she posted her photos on internet with narcissistic descriptions, which was in sharp contrast to traditional values such as modesty, gentleness and obedience. She was rebellious, boastful, and never hesitant to show off - even though her dancing wasn't even average, she seemed to be very proud of it. People were amused at the photos, and this maverick was soon known as "Lotus Girl", as she compared herself to lotus in one of her blogs. Lotus is an emblem for purity and loftiness in Chinese traditional culture, and people gave her this nickname as a sarcasm for her "unlotus" behaviors.

She seemed to become popular overnight in an unprecedented way, demonstrating how powerful internet could be in creating stars. She was invited to many TV/internet shows, talking about her lives and interests; and posted more S-shape photos with better clothes and makeups. Her photos have hardly any artistic values, but always went viral as people re-posted them just to make fun of her. Anyway, these few photos and blogs changed her life: she became an internet celebrity; she didn't need to go to graduate schools, although her name - Lotus Girl became byword for shameless and over-confident in China.

Things changed a little bit in 2010, when a new series of her "S-shape" photos was released. People were surprised to find now she was much thinner, and more beautiful. Another "Lotus Girl Rush" started, and this time people viewed her more as an inspiring example, who did not stop her quest for beauty in spite of all the difficulties. The shock came partly from the great change in her appearance, but also partly from the fact that many people found a girl that they used to despise achieved something that they could not. Later the name of "Lotus Girl" was found in entertainment shows in which she shared her experiences of losing weight. Some companies even offered her roles in stage plays and soap operas. I saw a cosmetic adverts made by her, saying the cosmetics were so magic that even Lotus Girl could look beautiful.

I think that was the last time that I saw her news on internet, and I had no idea what happened in the last two years: it looks like she was approaching her golden days as she started to rid her awkward impression and begin a real career. I used to be one of those who laughed at her, but now I better understand how weak an individual is when confronting internet and all the powerful interest groups, and I wonder if she has ever regretted posting those photos and blogs on internet seven years ago. If the rumor is true, I want to thank her for all the joy that she's brought to us, and wish her rest in peace; if not, I wish her a better life in the future.

Self-selection

Complaints seem to be working: after I finished my blog on broken mailbox, it got fixed an hour later with all the magazines and letters delivered as well. So I spent almost the entire day reading latest Economist episodes, trying to catch up with what's going on in the world. Since I've missed a few periodicals I decided not to read from cover to cover but to select a few articles that best interested me from each issue.

Hours have passed since I started, and I decided to review what I've read so far. Surprisingly, I found myself read most articles in the sections of US, Asia, China and International, a few from Europe, Africa, Business and Economics, but skipped most debates on America, Middle East and Science. (Actually given what's happening in Libya right now, I shouldn't spend more time on the Middle East part.) I read the Economist to broad my understanding of the world, but it looks like I automatically skip the "less interesting" ones and focus on what I'm already familiar with.

We discussed "self-selection" in the class. We self-select ourselves to the group consisting of people similar to us; and make friends with those sharing similar ideas and interests. Though I understand the importance of hearing different ideas and discussing different topics, but it's so hard to continue a conversation when you find it's impossible to get excited at some chemical solvents or biological evolution. Besides making friends, we also select to read what we agree with and get reaffirmed by reading them. I'm not a leftist, so I always make fun of the Global Times, a radical Chinese newspaper on international relations; I'm sympathetic with Democrats, so I find the Fox News a big liar although it probably doesn't lie all the time. It's true that the same issue can be explained in different ways, but once you take a position, it's really hard to accept counter arguments.

Self-selection can induce biases. People working on randomized control trials will give you a very detailed explanation on this. But to put it simple, self-selection makes these groups different from each other. This is probably why Democrats and Republicans both find their rivalries idiots and liars. Even if you take no position at the beginning, I'm sure you will hate one of them if you stay with members of the other party for too long. Mutual understanding is much easier said than done. When a compromising solution looks unfeasible (e.g. we can't have both Romney and Obama as the next US presidents), things will get even messier. Since there is no common base for both parties to discuss their policies but endless and somehow meaningless attacks and insults, let's just wait and see how much money they can squander and how many media men will become millionaires after November.

I always keep telling myself that I must make my own judgement, and do not follow the mass. But once I feel determined about something, I can't help doubt if I've missed some clues during the decision making. It's funny that once we've developed some ideas through independent thinking, we are about to lose that independent mind by self-selection to people of our own kind.

Broken Mailbox

The mailbox in my apartment has been broken for more than a week. I can't get my journals, cards or letters, and feel cut off from the world somehow. It again proves that even in the internet age, we still can't live without postal service.

An old poem says, "A letter from home is worth ten thousand pieces of gold." (家书抵万金) In old days, mails were delivered by mailmen on horseback. Therefore during wartime, it was extremely difficult to keep the postal service running. When family members were separated by war, the only way to find their whereabouts was to sending letters to hometown in hope of receiving responses. Thousands of years have passed, letters still remained the most important way of long-distance communication until telephone was invented. Telephone makes communication easier and faster, but fail to keep records of messages, and therefore unable to convey important messages. For example, you may write a love letter to woo the girl you've crush on, but you won't call her and say "please be my girlfriend". Telephone is not a good substitute for letters, but internet is much more similar. Emails, as we can tell by the name, are a new form of mails, but faster and cheaper. The rise of internet gives postal service the last fatal strike. Nowadays, most of what we can get from mailbox are commercial ads, government notices and bills. Personal letters largely go by emails.

Now we won't pay gold to receive a mail, and a shabby mailing system won't really undermine information communication any more, but a broken mailbox more or less prevents me from receiving important stuff. Of course I can write another blog about how terrible it is to have the mailing market twisted by the government, and make the postal service one of my worst experiences in the US (better than medical system though). But now I just want to say, I want to read my periodicals!

They Changed the Coding

After a three-week fight against the hospital and my insurance company, they finally agreed to change the code, which hopefully will reduce my $700 medical bill mentioned in older blogs. I think I gained some experiences on getting things done in the United States.

On receiving the bill, mad as I was, I remained polite and patient when explaining why I didn't agree with the bill to my insurance company. The lady seemed to understand and agree with what I said, and promised to review it. I waited for about two weeks but nothing happened - no call, no email, even no new notice. So I called back, and was told that they couldn't do anything about it unless I called the hospital and changed the coding. OK, then I called the hospital. The hospital has several offices - dispute office, billing office, coding office and the doctor's office, but it looks like none of them takes responsibilities of serving customers. What's worse, they don't talk to each other! Anyway, I called the billing office, and was transferred to another, and transferred back again, explaining my case to every office. Finally someone seemed to be able to talk to her colleagues and told me she would file a claim for re-coding.

Another week passed, and I received a phone call from the hospital, saying sorry we can't do anything about the coding. Then I asked her about the feedback from the billing office - why my claim was disproved? The young lady sounded very confused and asked me "what claim"? So again, I repeated everything. A few days later, she called me back, saying they couldn't change the coding; but again she couldn't explain why my claim was disproved. That was when I reached my limit. A month has passed, but these people were not even looking into the case! So I told her that the whole issue is a big disappointment, and I'd prefer to speak to her manager. I hang up the phone without saying goodbye. Today I heard from her again that they changed the coding and sent the new code to my insurance company.

I was taught to be nice as I grew up. Be friendly with other people and they will treat you in the same way. But it is not the case in this society. When I patiently explained to one after the other about my case for hours, no one took it seriously. The insurance company was not interested in reviewing the claim, and the coding office was reluctant to communicate with the doctor office to check the record, both of them simply told me "it's not working" without any explanation. But when I was rude, impolitely shouting at the poor operator, problems got solved very quickly. We shouldn't blame Wall Street for what they did to the country, as it looks like the society applauds bullies but can't stand good men.