Here is a comprehensive list of every singe blog post I’ve ever written. Happy Reading!
Le Wagon Week 3: Stay Humble, Stay True
In grad school, I once had a professor said that in economics, we have complicated terms to describe everyday phenomenon. The ability to speak this language earns us the big bucks. But if I no longer want my life goal to be about making the big bucks, what do I do with this language? Only three weeks into my coding education, and I am feeling similarly about programming.
Le Wagon Week 4: Get Serious & Guard Your Time
Nearly half way through the 9-week camp! We’ve completed the back-end portion of the course (human speak: the brain of an app), and have moved onto the front-end (human speak: the pretty web pages & app interface). Having worked on blogs off and on over the last 10 years, it’s been amazing to finally understand HTML & CSS codes.
Le Wagon Week 5: It’s a Marathon
Saturday morning. I’m stealing some precious alone time at my favourite bakery before heading to Le Wagon for a full-day workshop on building WeChat Mini Programs. Since this is not standard part of Le Wagon curriculum, we are sacrificing two beautiful spring Saturdays. The things I do for this newfound “hobby”.
Le Wagon Week 6: Epiphany in Coding
This past week was both extremely frustrating, yet exhilaratingly rewarding. I took a temporary break out of the coding camp bubble, and made incredible stride. For the first time, all the puzzle pieces emerged and I built a very simple, but fully functioning web app. This is the beginning of the rest of my life as a coder.
Le Wagon Week 7: Just Get It Done!
Final third of the coding camp! After some much needed solitude last week, I dove right into the project trial week, where we make an AirBnB/Mobike-esque app in 5 days. This practice project gave us a chance to work with our assigned group, to work out any kinks, and to trial run through the entire process beginning from idea on Monday to presenting a working demo by Friday at 6pm.
Le Wagon Week 8 & 9: Final Sprint
Demo Day @ 3pm: We are 4 hours away from final demo day. Phew! My team pushed our final sets of Mini-Program codes to WeChat last night at midnight for approval, and have rehearsed our pitch a dozen times over the last two days. Final version approved this morning, and we are ready to go.
10 Years Since the Peace Corps
Last week marked 10 years since I left the comforts of American suburbia for a different life. It was 2008. I packed up two massive bags and flew to Philadelphia to meet a bunch of strangers, some would later become lifelong friends. From there, we got vaccinated and were inundated…
Minimalism Journey
8 months ago, Xav and I got serious about becoming more minimalistic in our lives. We were very far from it. Every drawer and shelf of our 110 squared-foot apartment was filled with stuff. We were organized hoarders. As such, discipline was necessary. I had read the Marie Kondo book…
Shanghai Farewell
Today, a friend asked me to sum up my 6 years in Shanghai in a word. I haven’t had much time to reflect since time has been occupied by the massive task of minimizing all of our belongings down to two suitcases and two backpacks. I gave it a quick…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 1: Shanghai to Beijing
The day has finally come to begin our grand goodbye tour! The first leg from Shanghai to Beijing was fairly ordinary. We took the high speed rail from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing South station. I’ve taken this journey several times throughout my time in China, but this time would be…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 2: Beijing to Ulaanbaatar
Goodbye China The overnight leg of our Trans-Siberian railway journey was a 31-hour ride from Beijing, China to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We arrived at the Beijing Railway Station a whole 90 minutes before departure. The night prior, we had seen long lines at the square, where people were getting into the…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 3: 24 hours in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
As soon as we got off the train, we felt the breeze of that fresh Mongolian air with a shining sun. We saw a guy holding a sign of our hostel (Zaya Hostel), and walked towards him. But first, cash. With 3 ATMs in the train station, only one worked…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 4: Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk
Our train departing from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia was already at the station when we arrived, but boarding didn’t begin until around 30 minutes before departure. When booking this trip, I booked second class for journeys that are around 24 hours or less, so for this 23-hour leg, we were in second…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 5 – 4 days in Irkutsk & Lake Baikal
Day 1 – Irkutsk Wandering We checked into our hostel at Katyusha Travel Centre, a no-frills hostel that is clean, spacious with a large common space. I didn’t realise that bathroom wasn’t en-suite for a double room, but hey, a little hostel living is good for the soul. First order…
Trans-Siberian Railway Part 6 – Irkutsk to Yekaterinburg
This was the longest leg of our entire train journey, lasting over 48 hours. I splurged on first class for this leg, in order to have the comfort of privacy. We took train #1, the Rossijia. When I was booking tickets, not all the trains had first class. We stayed…
