陌上花开，可缓缓归矣

意为：家乡田畔阡陌上的花已经开了吧，你可以慢慢赏，我很好，不必着急归来。。。

“吴越王简王妃每岁春必归临安，钱谬思之，王以书遗妃曰：‘陌上花开，可缓缓归矣。’吴人用其语为歌，含思婉转，听之恻然。”

欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游

南宋词人刘过的感怀之作《唐多令》：

芦叶满汀洲，寒沙带浅流。二十年重过南楼。柳下系船犹未稳，能几日，又中秋。
黄鹤断矶头，故人曾到否？旧江山浑是新愁。欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。

其中“欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。”一句是指二十年后旧地重游，像以前年少时一样买酒品桂，只是时移世易，再没有年少时的心情。

话说天下大势，分久必合，合久必分

《三国演义》第一回：“话说天下大势，分久必合，合久必分。周末七国分争，并入于秦。及秦灭之后，楚、汉分争，又并入于汉。汉朝自高祖斩白蛇而起义，一统天下，后来光武中兴，传至献帝，遂分为三国。

偶然在朋友的留言上看到这句出自《三国演义》的著名论断，联想到这些日子来的国际政坛，不得不感慨历史总是惊人的相似。今人效仿古人，且常以取其精华去其糟粕自居，殊不知许多年后，当今人成了古人，后人成为今人，历史又是一番轮回。

长木公园 Longwood Gardens

Playing with the Bamboos

In front of the orchid garden

Dave and his ice cream

新年快乐

Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you prosperity on the year of Monkey! 

祝大家新年快乐，猴年吉祥！

Dave and I had a nice dinner together. We made some pork dumplings (although Dave was the one who actually made them and I was in charge of everything else :) ) and my favorite scrambled eggs with tomatoes and green beans (西红柿豆角炒鸡蛋).

Philadelphia

My first encounter with Philadelphia was in 2013 while I was having an internship in New Jersey. A friend who lived nearby invited me to tour Philadelphia and to experience the history. Not surprisingly, we stopped at Chinatown for lunch. For a long time, I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant or the street on which the restaurant is, but I remembered the delicious Liang Pi from Xi'an from a photo taken by my friends. Only a few days ago, Dave and I found the place, Xi'an Sizzling Woks, and enjoyed Liang Pi again. We also stopped at Penn and were impressed with the beautiful campus as well as the renowned Wharton Business School.

It was a brief but quite enjoyable visit.

The signature gate in Chinatown

Inside a Chinese restaurant featuring Xi'An Cold Noodles

Elfreth's Alley, one of my favorite spot

Display in a museum next to Elfreth's Alley

The Wharton School at Penn

Back then, neither of us would expect my later working in Philadelphia or at Penn. But here I am, working at the prestigious Wharton School with a well-known statistician, and another famous biostatistician from the prestigious Perelman School of Medicine. The friend who took me here the first time still lives nearby. This is simply how amazing life can be. 

You know, there is always a different expectation when you are looking for a place to live for a few years versus a place to visit for a few days. We seem to expect more from a place if we are considering living there. So I was a little disappointed at the beginning of my apartment hunting journey because most of them look old and dodgy, a very different outlook compared to Ann Arbor. There are a few newly built high-rise apartment complexes, but the rent is so high that I decided to rent a one-bedroom apartment on Sansom Street crossing the 42nd Street, an area that is not too bad. Plus the five story building was advertised to be somewhat recent. Another friend who is based in Philadelphia helped me check out the apartment and informed me of its reliability. I agreed with its security and reliability, but it's only after living here for a while that I learned about the management. Still it is not comparable to what Ann Arbor offers.  

Overall, Philadelphia is a city and also has things that Ann Arbor doesn't offer, such as the many museums around the city, a much larger variety of food options, and the proximity to many other interesting places such as Princeton, New York City, Washington. DC, etc. Best of all, the weather here is much more mild compared to Michigan. So I'm enjoying my life here. I like that there is the Reading Terminal Market where you can get fresh seafood, exotic desserts, etc; I like that there are more clothing shops in Center City so I can try out clothes before buying them. Yes, there is also New Year's Eve fireworks celebration here.

Locust walk on Penn campus

A typical street view in Philly

City bikes

Penn is a private university. As someone on a paid vacation (I mean post-doc), I don't enjoy much of the flexibility of being a student. What I do enjoy is the opportunity to hang out with those smart students, post-docs and professors, which is the more important part of work. If you were to ask me about my first job after graduation a few years ago, I would have wished that I become a faculty member immediately. The truth is that things have changed so much in the statistics profession that even those top candidates on the job market would postpone their start date as an assistant professor and instead consider working as a post-doc for a year or so. We call this "paid vacation time", because really there is no one pushing you to do anything, no teaching and you get to manage all your time by yourself. You do get less pay compared to being an assistant professor, but not much. The only thing you need to remember is that you will have to leave in two (or three) years. And in order to make that separation less unpleasant, you might want to push yourself to find the next higher "paid vacation" in time.     

Happy New Year, 2016!

New Year is a good time to think about building up at least one new habit that will make the year more fulfilling. For example, I would like to get more focused on work when required and fully enjoy myself when it's time for a break. This way, I will achieve my goal at work and also get to have fun, which in turn makes working more fulfilling. 

Here are my new year's resolutions:

1. Goal in reading: 12 books 
2. Better time management
3. Fitness challenges: leaner, stronger
4. Eat clean, with more fruits and vegetables
5. Check out more national parks

What are your new year's resolutions?

The last trip in 2015

For the last few days of 2015, I spent some time with friends in New York. Yuchong works at Columbia University, so I stayed with her at her riverside apartment. It was an excellent two-day visit, with lots of holiday special treats and pleasant views. No wonder people like to come to the Big Apple, because this city has so much to offer to everyone!

With Lazhi and Yuchong at Bryan Park and the largest Christmas Tree

A misty view of how noodles are cooked in a compact Japanese restaurant Totto Ramen

Bosie Tea Parlor: a great spot for a sip of afternoon tea

Fresh lobsters at Chelsea Market

Beautiful window displays around the city

Ikebana vases from Japan

Riverside church

Reading inside the Butler Library

Chelsea Market: a wonderful place to enjoy some exotic foods

How parking can be done in the city