weixunhe-blog

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Solo Travel Around Hokkaido in 7 Days

For each of the next 7 days, I will post a day's worth of photos documenting my trip, with some of the thoughts that were going through my mind at that moment in time.

*Each time I travel and spend an extensive amount of time at a place, I am still iterating for a good way to accurately document my experiences without feeling apathetic and just dumping photos online. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to recount my trip experience when I am uploading these pictures, so I will come back to this over time and elaborate on some parts. Feel free to message me and ask me questions :)

You can access my photos here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10215159346912493.1073741851.1097044788&type=1&l=53e952bf89

[weixunhe-blog]

I didn’t go to Japan to make friends… But during my 7 day solo trip around Hokkaido, I had the pleasure of meeting some quality people who opened up theirs arms to a complete stranger. However brief our time together was before nature pulled me away, these people made my individualistic journey more sociable and connected. Through the process, it helped a foreigner like me feel a whole lot more welcome in this wonderful country. So in chronological order...

The Friendly JR Gatekeepers When I made my first stop in Hokkaido, my mind was filled with uncertainty. What can I even do in Hokkaido (result of not doing much homework)? What are Hokkaidans like? Is that even what you call them? Is it going to be this cold the whole time (the chilly rain was drizzling so slowly that I first thought it was snow)?… As I was waiting for the hourly transfer train to Hakodate, I went to chat with the gatekeepers to kill time… cause why not. Luckily, they spoke the best English I had heard in these past two days and I was ecstatic! I took this rare opportunity to ask them some translation questions and together, we constructed a brief introduction I can use to introduce myself to others. It goes: “Watashi wa MIT de benkyou shiteiru daigakusei des. America kara kimashita. Watashi wa nijūni sai desu. Watashi wa Gijutsu-shxa desu”. Simple, but to the point; a short answer, but I was immensely grateful.

The Global German Engineer My airbnb in Hakodate was huge. It was a 4 story building with several rooms every floor, in addition to lounge areas and showers. But the weather there is still very cold and rainy, which is not inviting to most tourists (except for the careless ones who didn’t do sufficient prior research, like me). My host shared that his place was in fact very empty, but there is this German dude down the hall. I didn’t think much of it because I didn’t come here to make friends… But on my way out, I saw the German doing laundry, and I couldn’t help but flex my extremely limited German knowledge and say hi. This guy was chill. It turned out that he is a software engineer from Munster working remote. I suggested that if the stars align, we can grab dinner when he’s done with work at 7pm. After hiking Mount Hakodate and exploring the old warehouses and streets of Hakodate, it was exactly 7pm and I was hungry. Wow, the stars aligned… We met up at this local restaurant that our host recommended. It was an one woman show where the mom cooks traditional Japanese comfort food. I was so down! The food was amazing. Falk and I shared some stories, talked about working abroad, and pondered about life and how exciting it is. Then we grabbed a picture with the master chef before I went home to crash (camped out the previous night at Sendai and did not have any sleep at all).

MIT Students from the Other Side of the World For my second night camping, I decided to set up right next to the train tracks of the JR station in Noboribetsu. I figured that since my tent is green like the bushes and the JR stops running at midnight, I should be safe and people wouldn’t come wander here. I was right. But like the first night, it rained again and I woke up at 3:30am freezing and wet. What’s nice about waking up early in Japan is that the sun rises at 4am. So I decided to walk to the water area cause… water is nice. As I got closer to the beach, 3 guys walked out of a van. It’s freaking 4am, what are these guys up to? “Wassup guys, are you going to the beach too?” “Nah, we’re going bouldering!” We had a really funny conversation. I found out that they are college students studying STEM nearby (what a small world). And they are driving here early so they can have some fun with the rocks before classes begin. They’re from a place nearby called Muroran, and their tech school, appropriately, is called Muroran Institute of Technology… I was really confused at some point because I said I am from MIT and they said they are as well, correctly so, but I had never seen them on campus before. Anyways, I really enjoyed crazily camping next to the train tracks and waking up to bump into these other crazy people doing crazy things in the middle of nowhere crazy early.

The Hitchhiker-Friendly Family After visiting Farm Tomita, a lavender farm, and being overtly disappointed because most of the flowers has not bloomed yet and lavenders doesn’t even smell that good in person, I embarked on a 4 mile trek to the next train station (as opposed to walk backwards for a mile…). After walking what seemed like an endless road along never ending rice paddy fields, I decided to spice things up and try my luck getting a ride on the road. After 30 minutes of walking with my thumbs up, a tiny orange car (all Japanese cars are super small) stopped in front of me. Jean was on her way to Biei with her family, which is actually where I wanted to go as well! She shared with me her very interesting story of how she moved to Japan 9 years ago to raise her kids, learnt Japanese once she got here by watching TV shows (there is hope y’all), and how the working culture here sucks. I asked her about the weather and whether if it’s normally this cold at this time of the year, and she revealed that the weather this year has been very unusual. In fact, her farming friends are worried that their rice fields won’t yield because of the abnormal coldness at this time of the year. All in all, I really appreciated her ride and she was happy that I contributed to her annual statistic of picking up hitchhikers (I was her first one this year!!!).

The Drunkenly Generous Local This time, I was in a small fishing town with a population of perhaps 500, aka middle of nowhere. I took a 2 hour bus from Otaru, a famously romantic spot that tourists love, to visit Cape Kamui and Ōgon, and decided last minute to camp at Ōgon as opposed to return to the city. There’s a total of 4 restaurants here and I chose to go to Jun’s seafood restaurant cause it won my 4 sided coin toss. I sat at the bar table of this very local restaurant since I was alone, and here is where I met my favorite local of this entire trip. I put in an order for a seafood bento, basically exactly what the guy next to me was eating because DAMN that looked fine. Then I just kept to myself and started writing down some thoughts and feelings in my journal. As I was waiting for my food, the local next to me offered me a piece of his fried chicken. Oh how can I resist? I had heard great things about how the chicken here is fried in a unique way but I never ordered it because I didn’t want to eat the whole thing. I thanked him and we started chatting. He used to work for an American Film company in Taiwan, which explains how he knows English, but he has since forgotten most of it. This man was extremely ebullient and friendly. He tried to ask me a lot of questions and I tried my best to answer, and in the process, he offered me “Japanese vodka” (made in Korea lol) multiple times, freshly fried shrimp tempura (oishii), and at some point, he even offered me his entire bento! Even though I didn’t double my meal by taking his bento, my dinner turned into a feast of good food and social interaction. I wish that I spoke better Japanese so I can converse with him more and share more about myself. In any case, I bid him good bye after spending 3 hours with him at the restaurant and I went to camp a bit warmer than usual ;)

The Affectionate Bike Dad I arrived at Otaru at 7am on a Sunday. This was quite early for most shops because everything was still closed. As I walked around the area outside of the train station, I was intrigued by this sign advertising about a bike shop on the hill. So I followed the directions and found this cute little wooden shipping container on top of said hill with bikes all around it. I chatted with this man about the options and after some negotiation in broken Japanese and English, he offered to rent me an electric bike (WOOOO) for 2 hours, hold my bulky backpack, AND charge all of my electronics (all of which were dried); all for just 800 yen. On a high level, this was just a market transaction, but I was very internally thankful. My phone and camera batteries were dead from the night before and desperately needed charging; I was very tired of carrying my bag around because it is quite unwieldy; I MISS BIKING. So I took his awesome offer and biked around town for 2 hours and saw everything before the usual tourist invasion at 9am.

The Kindhearted Coffee Makers After my Hokkaido solo, I returned to Tokyo and promised to meet a friend for dinner at this restaurant. In retrospect, it turns out this restaurant has multiple stores and I would visit the wrong one. While I was waiting at the wrong store for my friend, most people around me were holding an umbrella and wearing layers because it was raining and a bit chilly. I stood in front of this cute little coffee shop that was like a hole in the wall. I first approached the owners and asked them if there were any places nearby where I can find WIFI so I can communicate with my friend, and they generously offered me their own. As I was standing there waiting, they offered me an umbrella, their bench to sit on, both of which I refused because I wanted to carry on the outlook of a New Yorker and someone who just finished a 7 day solo. Then they offered me a cup of their home-brew Sarutahiko "Japanese flavor” coffee, and I couldn’t help but accept it because I didn’t want to tell them to pour it away. If frozen rocks had hearts, they would melt like mine did when I took a sip of their coffee. Even though it wasn’t anything special, the location and context really warmed my soul. And deep down, I was very appreciative of their small act of kindness.

The Curious Policemen After I realized that I was waiting at the wrong restaurant, I navigated from Shinjuku to Shibuya to meet my friend. As I was traveling through the dense underground urban traffic at peak rush hour (a very long walk through a lot of busy office workers), I couldn’t help but attract the attention of the police. You see, after traveling solo in the rural countryside for 7 days, I look very funny in a big city. Aside from how terrible I must have smelled after not showering for 3 days, I was carrying this big wide green bag that could potentially fit a lot of dangerous weapons (or onigiris). So I got stopped by two policemen to do a full body check. Thankfully, they didn’t take my multitool blade too seriously and let me go after 5 minutes. But I thought it was funny how they explored my bag only to realize that the biggest pocket was used to hold my bed, leaving no space to store anything else.

[weixunhe-blog]

Haha, I thought TAing MEMSI would be a walk in the park, 

but heck was I wrong. Mad props to Kate, JebJeb, and Jake for being my awesome TAs and making my first MEMSI experience awesome. Writing this at 4am Friday (a day before showcase day), I don’t think I ever stayed up this late for work during my MEMSI (closest rival was when I went to get food at 4:30am after our last night out at LKF; shoutout to Matt, Kat, and JebJeb). 

When I was participating in MEMSI, I put everything out there, for my team and our product. Quite honestly, I didn’t have much energy left to care much about other teams, let alone help them. I also worked a lot harder for a longer period of time, so I played harder as well. If my short-term memory serves me correct, I went out six nights during the intensive two week bootcamp. In addition, I had very little personal time. Although I wanted to visit my aunt who lives in HK, I didn’t get to see her until the day after MEMSI, an hour before I left the country. 

The life of a TA is quite different. Now, the people that I am accountable to expanded to everyone involved with MEMSI. This includes all the TAs, staffs, and all 27 of the student participants. This redefined what success looked like for me. I can no longer be selfish and focus on just making my individual team successful, but every single person in MEMSI. To do this, the TAs self-organized to design several activities that brought the teams closer together, like building the tallest freestanding structure to support a baby Teletubby, pitch practice, morning SCRUM… But this was just the easy stuff. In order to really help teams progress, especially during the second week when everyone is aggregating their learnings from their PMR and narrowing their focus to work on a significant problem that matters to someone, I needed to better understand what they’re up to and get involved with each of them directly. 

As suggested by our fearless leader, Elaine Chen, we should be very mindful of when a team actually needs help and “how much” we are helping. There is great value in ownership of the project and learning from both success and failure. As a result, it is important that we just touch the teams “lightly”. I started checking in with the teams once in the morning, and at least once more later in the day, and whenever I get the chance, chat with individual team members about their project with a casual tone. I really enjoyed not having to actively participate in one of the projects, because it allowed me to allocate all of my energy to the five projects and just serve as a guide as they reach certain checkpoints. 

Some fun stuff. Before our day off, I had an awesome night of sleep prior because I stayed in like an old man while everyone else was out at LKF. Then during Sunday, I went to hike Dragons Back with Sal and Rahul, who were troopers because they went out the night before and came back super late. The hike was gorgeous and our team was a great crew. We saw really cool views in addition to seeing a man flying his RC plane at the peak (which we confused for a bird at first), a Pacific Ocean facing prison, and several good looking mansions with oversized pools. Additionally, the entirety of showcase day was eventful as usual: running A/V on showcase day was intense and fun, the spontaneous Karaoke party turned into a contagious forcefield that could not be stop, eating some of the best HK food with the locals at 品香楼, and ending with lit activities at LKF (quantified by 5 hours and 85HKD of cover fee).

All in all, I am really happy to have TA MEMSI this June (possibly the last june session) because I got to experience the TA side of the program and spend time with some very special people. The world really is as tiny as you want it to be and ain’t no mountain high enough.

……

Most recent update: On my last day in HK (today), 6/11/2018, I pulled an all nighter. Caught the 8:30a flight to leave HK 😞. Landed in Beijing 30 minutes late for my transfer to Tokyo. But since I slept like a pig on the flight (from moment I sat down), I actually didn’t know I was running late until this old lady ran into me and I was like “yo you okay?”. Then it was all rush hour after that… and I made it to the final boarding call luckily. Unfortunately, when I reached Haneda, I found out that my luggage wasn’t as quick as I was back in Beijing and got left behind as a result. I’m a bit bumped but my solo plans is still on schedule so all is well. 

Signing off now. Going to be off the grid for the next few days. Will Wei Xun survive his solo trip across Japan. Stay tune.

[weixunhe-blog]

Thoughts on a 15 Hour Flight

When it comes to getting stuck in a bus or an airplane, I much prefer the latter. While I absolutely hate literal physical confinement, I can’t stand getting stuck in traffic. Getting in traffic at the age of 22 is like watching myself dying a slow and painful death, it almost hurts to feel my time pass away helplessly as my youthful years run by (I can’t believe thousands put up with this daily… cough cough “rush” hour). Perhaps this is because I’m young. I want to go fast, and I want to go now. On an airplane, at least I am traveling at (let me check) 556mph and 36000ft above the ground. Am I pushing the boundaries? Not really. But am I pushing the max of my wallet and living at the current day technological extreme deemed safe for mankind? Absolutely.    

I decided to go abroad when the chance came up in April. And to be honest, I didn’t give it much thought before accepting. I genuinely enjoyed MEMSI, the hardware entrepreneurship bootcamp that I participated in this past January (see my previous blog post), when I did it, and I love traveling. No matter where in the world I go, I feel a lot more motivated to meet people and learn their ways of life because it’s different for a change. I get to finally leave the MIT and American bubble and keep it at a safe distance of 8000 miles, and be at a place where I am the new kid in town. Wherever I go, I need to make a name for myself, or not. Since I am new, I need to connect with the community and explain who I am. Or I can actively be passive and simply enjoy life and count down my days.

Before getting the offer to TA MEMSI, I originally was going to work on my language idea full time for six weeks. I even blocked out each week on my calendar for a specific relevant step from Bill Aulet’s 24 Steps. But when the chance came up, at first I saw it as a distraction, then I looked ahead to how the bulk of my intellectual freedom will be contractually bounded to a company for 6 months and how wrecked I was getting by my 8th semester at MIT… now this is a no brainer.

Oh and in case you are wondering why a senior like me is going to HK and missing commencement, it’s because I plan to stay at MIT for one more academic year to pursue entrepreneurship while taking some classes (shoutout to GMS). I am really thankful for the flexibility and freedom that my scholarships have been able to grant a kid like me. I have been able to do college just the way I wanted to.

Now if you read up to here, dang you must have been bored out of your mind. In all seriousness, I hope to connect with you some time. Until then, I hope you have an awesome start to your summer. And if you’re a senior, congrats on making it through 8 semester of blood sweat tears and pain. I know from first hand experience that college is no joke. I will travel for 6 weeks from HK to JPY to SF to BOS, and along the way, I will for sure write more and share my thoughts and experiences with you. Stay tune.

[weixunhe-blog]

I started the day with a traditional Nihongo breakfast. The key ingredient that makes this traditional is nattō! Nattō is this slimy bean mixture that a lot of Japanese love, but often rubs foreigners the wrong way. I wanted to be brave and adventurous, so I ordered it. Everything looked great, until I decided to mix everything together, literally. I cracked my raw egg on my rice, then poured all my nattō in there. After I mixed it, my creation became bubbly. I am never the one to waste food, but I was only able to down half of it, while frequently sipping my miso soup to mediate the taste...

After an interesting breakfast experience, Eric and I headed to ---tashando. This place is awesome because its street was filled with stands that made fresh mochi sweets, rice crackers, and ---stew---; a lot of culture from the Showa period. It was hard not to take out the wallet and eat everything. And that’s exactly what we did. 

In the middle of the street, we walked into a crowd made up of kids and elders, all intensely focussing on the middle. After 20 minutes of watching and translating, we found out that they are playing Beigoma, a traditional Japanese top game that was popular during the Showa period.

Happened on 6/6/2016 Posted on 4/30/2018. Never finished editing.

[weixunhe-blog]

MEMSI is a 2 week entrepreneurship bootcamp in Hong Kong. It is an opportunity designed to bring together 15 MIT and 15 HK students from various academic backgrounds and to make something awesome. Even though it sounds like a hackathon (since most of the teams built in the last 3 days), it’s so much more than that. Of the 2 weeks, we spent almost 10 days identifying an actual problem and talking with potential users to make sure we weren’t just making it up; during this process we pivoted several times as we hit dead ends. This in itself is such a valuable skills. Engineers like myself often build something because we think it’s cool, only to realize after building that it doesn’t have any potential beyond my personal gallery because it doesn’t provide value for anyone else. We also took a 2 day field trip to visit 4 factories in Shenzhen. The intense days-that-felt-like-months concluded with a showcase to a judge panel that consisted of 4 top VC and MIT alum who is politically renown in HK.

Coming into MEMSI, I knew a tiny bit about entrepreneurship. I was aware of the treacherous process, the luck that’s involved, and that it’s more about going into the world and doing rather than sitting in the classroom taking notes. Thankfully, MEMSI built on top of my existing knowledge and taught me a lot of valuable lessons. I will share my top 10 takeaways in concise bullet points.

Work hard, play harder… MIT taught me this, and MEMSI reaffirmed it outside of the bubble.

Hardware is a trojan horse for data… Think back to how the Greeks hid selective soldiers inside the horse back then to infiltrate and win the war. Now, designing an awesome piece of hardware allows a company to get into the lives of the users, and in order to avoid the trash can, it must collect data and create intelligence to provide additional value to the user.

Diversity is key to building a successful team… Team EverGreen had 3 male and 3 female; representation of backgrounds in business, engineering, and design; language fluency in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English; age ranged from 20 to 27. As a result, our team was able to support each other in many different ways as the journey got rough.

Embrace pivots… I am so thankful for my team. We assembled over a common interest in sustainability, but over 10 days, we pivoted from sustainable design to air pollution masks to moment capture.

Infuse common sense with creativity to output new ideas.

Get good at telling compelling stories.

Don’t ask if they love you, but why they can’t live without you… This simply should be the goal of any startup. It also applies to relationships.

Leverage existing infrastructure and underutilized resources

Aesthetics isn’t universal… This refers to culture. Don’t assume that just because you find something beautiful, that someone else from a different part of the world will as well.

Take care of the body. Always try to eat well, sleep and dress sufficiently, drink water, and get your vitamins… With 4 days left to the program, I screwed up and got very sick with a fever and a cold (weird symptoms). I presented while severely coughing and I do not wish this upon anyone. Take your health seriously.

P.S. If you would like me to expand on any of the points, feel free to message me. Until next time :)

[weixunhe-blog]

Before coming to Beijing, I used to always look forward to visiting Chinatowns in U.S. and getting a taste of home… But after spending these past 7 days in the capital of China, I have absolutely become spoiled. 

In the U.S., whether it was NYC, Boston, or some other city, I only expect to find good Chinese food inside of a Chinatown (a cultural enclave with an intense amount of Chinese influence); anything outside is just a tad random and strange. And since I never lived directly inside of one, my trips to Chinatown always ranged from 15 to 90 minutes. This changed in Beijing! Even though it sounds obvious, I was in disbelief when I actually got there and found Asian restaurants EVERYWHERE! When I first arrived in my unfamiliar neighborhood and searched for my Airbnb, the place quickly warmed up to me with its food offerings. I walked past small restaurants featuring several dozens of different Chinese cuisines, surrounded by street food vendors selling grilled sweet potatoes and other delicacies from the back of their tiny bikes. 

After getting the hang of things, I always started my day with breakfast at the 牛肉拉面 place right outside of my Airbnb. This place felt very homey to me because the store owners made buns and wonton noodles right out in the open air. I could see them running around making the food, cleaning up after the table, and collecting money. They were so down-to-earth and were just making a few bucks. I fell in love right away.   

The street food in Beijing is absolutely lit. The locals sell it from the tiny carts at very affordable prices, and there are so many variations. I filled my stomach one night with just street food! In total, I had 烤冷面, 冰糖葫芦，煎饼，牛肉串，luzi， 小笼包，酸奶，麻花，耳朵眼炸糕。。。 

下次我有机会，一定会留长一点！

[weixunhe-blog]

Last week in Madison

    This summer zoomed by in a flash, and my 10 weeks in Madison is over. Looking back, they were all fond memories.      I wasn’t planning on blogging at first, but after rereading my last blog post and some random notes that I made during the summer, it only seems natural to reflect on the goals I made back in week 1 and share some random and interesting experiences with you.       Let’s start with the weird stuff. On 06/24/17, I jogged through a hail storm in Madison at 6pm. Yea, a “H” “A” “I” “L” storm, in the middle of the summer… This was by far my craziest run ever. I was stuck in the middle of the bridge running against the wind with all my might, while being pounded on by popcorn-sized ice pellets. I haven’t run again since. On 07/09/17, I suddenly became very motivated after watching several Kobe highlight videos and decided to hit the court to hit 100 jump shots in one go… Needless to say, I was extremely proud in the end when the 100th shot finally fell through the nets, but this took me a total of 4 hours. Just by myself, at a park. I felt pretty badass afterwards. Throughout the summer, I biked to work everyday, and I quickly started appreciating seeing all kinds of different wild beasts, both dead and alive. The most notable living ones were a group of llama, donkeys, a turkey squad (I think that’s what they were), a wild deer, and a ground hog that religiously sat near a bush, in praying position, around 5:30pm everyday. The living animals always kept me on my toes, because I never knew where they would appear while coasting at 20mph. I now can relate to Ash. On the other hand, the dead ones were kind of gross, and I had to deal with its decomposition everyday… Let’s not go into it.      My main focus this summer was to contribute as much as I can at my internship so I can learn a lot. I had a few unsatisfying internships in the past, and I wanted to convert on all of the mistakes I have made. 10 weeks later, I am pretty happy to have helped with 4 projects (saw 1 from start to finish), went to lunch with most coworkers, and learnt a lot of skills. During my first week in Madison, I also made a goal to bike everyday to work (check last blog). And I am super happy to report that I have biked as many times as I can, with the exception of sad weather and offsite morning meetings, and totaled roughly 900 miles. I’m so glad that I never took the deridingly slow and budget-leeching public bus… So work was great, but what’s more is that I have redefined my personal definition of productivity, IN THE SUMMER. After work, I read books; wrote business plans; got better at pushups, juggling, and playing the harmonica; cooked everyday; found time to be pensive and reflect. I don’t think that I would have been able to do this in a different environment, so I am very thankful for Madison.      After this summer, I feel like I have new tools in my pocket to tackle the world and am very excited about that. I am personally very excited for the upcoming semester, because I get to take my capstone class, which helps students take ideas to market.      Thanks for everything Madison! I look forward to the future!  

[weixunhe-blog]

Iwwtit,t;tii. Mmw.

[weixunhe-blog]

I didn't want to go to Madison. 

In the middle of nowhere, Madison is the last place in the world I wanted to spend my summer. I didn't know anyone here(literally), or anything about the place other than the fact that it lacked the skyscrapers and urban sprawl that I was used to. But after wrapping up my first week here, I can't be more happy about my one way flight (still have not purchased return ticket, rip school). 

As an American teenager who has lived in NYC for 8 years and Cambridge for 3, the city of Madison offered me a peace of mind that I had never felt before in a city. In New York and Boston, life happened fast. The cars always zoomed by emotionlessly and people preferred to walk fast and avoid eye contact. But in Madison, it is different. After my first week here, I have smiled more than ever at absolute strangers, held the door, and woken up before 7am without an alarm. Positivity is contagious and I think I’m infected. Furthermore, people here are super health-conscious. In the city, I always find a few dozen bikers, runners, sometimes even roller bladers… in every street. As a summer goal, I’m inspired to bike 20 miles to and from work every day and run on the weekends; we’ll see how that turns out. 

Before arriving at my summer job, I was under the impression that the design firm that I would be working for was immensely boring because of the unexciting and un-descriptive projects that were featured online (http://www.design-concepts.com/). Then again, I have always been wrong with my first impression for internships; and that record lived on with this one. During my first week, I also learned about NDA and the reality that we can only publish the amazing work we have done for certain projects at the discretion of our client. So yup, I was wrong. More importantly, my coworkers open-handedly accepted me into their community. We went out to lunch, crawled through bars after work, challenged each other to Ping Pong matches… And since I live 11 miles away from work, some of them volunteered to drive me there (saved me from 2 hours of boredom each day on public bus), and one of my coworkers even lent me a beautiful piece of German engineering so I can bike around (I even got free dinner and met his sweet family)! I can’t be more appreciative of the people I work with because they are the source of my summer joy. 

In other news, NBA finals has kept me on the toes through the past week and I have been enjoying the festivity in nearby sport bars. I’m calling Cavs in 7; and we’re already 1/4 of the way there baby. 

If you made it here, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Weixun in the wild. I wish you a very fun, challenging, and invigorating summer!

[weixunhe-blog]

Last night in Playa del Carmen (you know what that means)

Today we went to Isla Cozumel, an island 20 minutes away by ferry, to snorkel. I haven’t snorkeled since the Island School so I was beyond excited.

...As I waited in line with thousands of tourists to board the ferry, I thought about how wrong it is for a country to sell tourism to outsiders while effectively hiding the truth about their country. Just a few blocks away from this dock, drug cartels are running wild, corruption, young people are working manual jobs to support the family as opposed to studying in school, and most of the locals are living in poverty. I think tourism is good because it brings jobs to a country and it educates the world about the country, but in addition to coming over and seeing the pretty, tourists also have a responsibility to help the country improve its bad. With that out of the way, I still think the first step lies within the host country itself to change systematically….

Snorkling was super fun. I got to physically reconnect with the ocean (after saying it thousands of times in my introduction). The water was really nice and the living things there were very excited to see us. I saw a lot of specimen of fish and some really healthy (but tiny) coral reefs. I free dived a few times without fins, which I was really proud of. But my lack of training became a problem when I couldn’t equalize after reaching 5m down. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t bother taking any photos.

Today is Steffy's last night before she returns to her 9to5, so like all college kids on spring break, we went out. We had some good drinks and conversation at a local German bar, then the night escalated when we stepped into a Karaoke bar. Karaoke is always a great outlet, and everyone just sang their hearts out. I got Hotline Bling and When You Look me  in the Eyes in there, and just admired everyone else absolutely killing the Spanish songs. After that, we brought some Tequila and Sprite back to our hostel with plans to turn it up to 4am, which is when Steffy had to leave. But due to miscommunications and a bit of fatigue, we all just waited for each other in our rooms and fell asleep.

And with that, we traveled to Cancun to spend our last two nights in Mexico. Cancun is such a contrast from rest of Mexico. After experiencing so much culture in the past few days and falling in love with them, nothing about Cancun excites me (no waves, cheap authentic food, or street festivals). So the plan is to just chill and drink and prepare myself for my reality back at Cambridge.

P.S. Thanks for following me this time around Mexico. Until next time. Nos vemos!

3/29/2017

[weixunhe-blog]

“... go down in my history as one of the most successful ever...”

Woke up at 6:15am today to head east.

At our first stop, Tulum, I had something with huego and lacuada y papaya for breakfast, which was really delicioso. Then we visited the ancient Mayan ruins nearby, which turned out to be a massive tourist trap. It was cool to see the architectural remains of the once glorious Tulum tribe, but it was hard to appreciate the historical significance of the location because the location was designed around the pretty waters and most people just went there for that. 

Next we took the Colectivo to go to Playa del Carmen. After learning about the service, I owe it so much respect. Colectivo is a form of transportation in Mexico that normally takes the shape of a minivan and goes around to “collect” people and drop them off at their desired destination. Just a few years back, pre-Uber time, the founders of Uber were abroad and they were inspired by similar services that went around to collect people based on need, and then the two ideas diverged in paths and the rest is history. 

That night, I shared a gigantic Enchiladas de Mole and Parrillada with Manny and Steffy. Then we (monetarily) convinced the squad to all get Pokemon tattoos! And finally, we capped it off with a stop at one of the many Häagen-Dazs. A common recurring theme of this trip is an extra meal in the form of ice cream. In these hot climates with delicious food, there is always room for more helado. It was a great day that will go down in my history as one of the most successful ever.

3/28

[weixunhe-blog]

“a quiet and peaceful town because the cartels signed a mutual agreement so their families can live”

Checked into the little Vallodalid last night and walked around a bit. Streets are pretty short (unlike NYC) so we were able to cover some ground easily. On our evening stroll, we befriended a scorpion, a dog, a cat, and a few more animals. Just like Merida, the architecture here is really beautiful as well. Walking along the streets makes me think that the people who designed these houses from way back when must have been very romantic. Internet at the hostel was really slow so I couldn't upload day 2's blog.

Today, we spent around 6 hours on the bus to get to places but I say they were all very worth it. First, we went to see a red lake, which is part of the nearby salt factory. Then we went to a smaller town to get on motorboats to see flamingos in their natural habitat. The boat ride was roughly 90 minutes long and I enjoyed every single one of it. It combined the perfect amount of sunshine, speed, water, and nature; all of are my favorite things in life squeezed together. On our way back, we walked past a burger stand and the smell immediately drew us. Even though I pledged to never voluntarily eat a burger during my time at MIT(because I eat it so much during rush), I saw this interesting hot dog wrapped in a fried taco, and I decided to make an exception to my pledge just this once. While we were enjoying the food, we realized how the meat for the hot dog and burger is probably from grass-fed cows since we're in Mexico; I savored every last bite of my sandwich.

When we got back to Vallodalid, we visited an authentic Mayan chocolate shop for its free samples, but I was overwhelmed by the experience. We walked in, and they immediately welcomed us with a free tour. Our English guide explained to us the history of Mayan chocolate and the process of making it, and how they not only use cacao (free of milk and sugar) just like the Mayans, but they also devoutly adhere to Mayan traditions like hiring Mayan women to make the chocolate. I also respect them for not commercializing the product but focussing on keeping it local to maintain quality and tradition (there are only so many Mayan woman that can work on this). As a side note, he explained to me that the town of Valladolid is nice because the drug cartels came together at some point to agree on a place where their families can be kept out of their conflicts and live peacefully, and they chose Valladolid. Knowing this, I can’t help but appreciate the serene peacefulness and sense of safety that exists in these streets as I strolled along.

3/27/2017

[weixunhe-blog]

"3 stops down, how many more do we have?" "I don't count the stops. I just live".

Today, we time traveled to some wonders from the past. On our way to our first destination, the tour guy taught us how to count in Mayan. I really appreciated that because it helped us establish a common ground by all learning a new language. Um is my number, meaning Uno, or one. I didn’t quite learn lot of Mayan today, but I solidified my counting skills. On command, I can uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, says, siete, ocho, neuve, dies.

We started with Kinich Kak Moo, which is a 40m pyramid built back in 600 A.D. to worship the kakmoo, a fire bird god of sorts which flew down to take its offerings; whatever satiated its appetite. Then we visited the Atrio del Convento, a nearby nunnery, also the second largest enclosed area in the world. Right outside lied a marketplace that rumored to sell deer tacos, so I couldn’t wait to try that. I walked around the neighborhood admiring its community, art and sunshine, and then tried a deer taco. I also walked into a supermarket and found many ponchos just hanging around, looking cute. After that, we went to Chichen Itza, which revealed one of the recent wonders of the world that also became a massive tourist trap. Throughout this trip, we visited 2 water spots. One was a natural underground cave with stalactite and the other was a Red Bull sponsored manmade 15m pond filled with black catfish and jumping 5m jumping spots. With our limited 30 minutes, I jumped 8 times and every jump brought back memories from my summer at the Island School in the Island of Eleuthera.

3/26/2017

[weixunhe-blog]

"3 stops down, how many more do we have?" "I don't count the stops. I just live".

Today, we time traveled to some wonders from the past. On our way to our first destination, the tour guy taught us how to count in Mayan. I really appreciated that because it helped us establish a common ground by all learning a new language. Um is my number, meaning Uno, or one. I didn't quite learn lot of Mayan today, but I solidified my counting skills. On command, I can uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, says, siete, ocho, neuve, dies. 

We started with Kinich Kak Moo, which is a 40m pyramid built back in 600 A.D. to worship the kakmoo, a fire bird god of sorts which flew down to take its offerings; whatever satiated its appetite. Then we visited the Atrio del Convento, a nearby nunnery, also the second largest enclosed area in the world. Right outside lied a marketplace that rumored to sell deer tacos, so I couldn’t wait to try that. I walked around the neighborhood admiring its community, art and sunshine, and then tried a deer taco. I also walked into a supermarket and found many ponchos just hanging around, looking cute. After that, we went to Chichen Itza, which revealed one of the recent wonders of the world that also became a massive tourist trap. Throughout this trip, we visited 2 water spots. One was a natural underground cave with stalactite and the other was a Red Bull sponsored manmade 15m pond filled with black catfish and jumping 5m jumping spots. With our limited 30 minutes, I jumped 8 times and every jump brought back memories from my summer at the Island School in the Island of Eleuthera. 

*photos will come once I gain access to “real” wifi

[weixunhe-blog]

Spring Break Senses 2017

After 10 hours at the airport, I landed in Merida, Mexico. This is my first time in a Spanish speaking country, and I am beyond excited. I was so excited that my friends soon got annoyed at my bazillion questions. We paid 70 pesos for a taxi to go to our hotel, which was 30 minutes away. To put that in perspective, each person paid 1usd for the trip, and there were 5 of us. 

By 11am, we wandered upon a breakfast place. At the airport, I was looking up food to try in Mexico. And out of all the variations of burrito, tacos, and enchiladas, I had never heard of the enchiladas, so when I saw it on the menu, I knew immediately what to get. It turned out to be a bowl of wrapped tacos filled with pollo and covered with some sort of like mixture. I had never tried anything like it and it tasted great. Imagine filling a swimming pool with a mixture of green lime, cinatra, and chiya seeds, and then diving in with a chicken taco in one hand completely submerging yourself... That's what my breakfast tasted like.

Architecture in Merida is vibrantly colored, short, and historical. It matches well with the general atmosphere here. The streets are bursting with life, and from my several conversations with locals, people are really nice. One interesting observation is that food stand workers would go out of their way to fight over customers. Whenever I walked by stands, multiple people would show me their menus and try to get me to follow them. It’s a crazy amount of attention, and I felt great about it. If the competition is so fierce, the food must be good, right? Manny and I went to confirm at night and we left with very happy stomachs, and wallets.  

Oh and I also practiced some conversation on my first day. Feel free to proofread me: "Hola, coming esta? Me llamo Wei Xun. Vengo de los estados unidos. Soy un estudiante... Es un placer conocerte!"

-3/25/2017

[weixunhe-blog]

The City of Reflection

I had studied world history in high school and learned about WW, and I thought I was ready to visit Berlin; but just like my first few days at a new job, I wasn't ready. As I stroll through the city, everything I saw engaged some neurons in my brain to ponder. Memorials, museums, half destroyed churches, informational signs, ordinary old-looking buildings, bakeries... the people. Unlike any of the other cities I have visited, there was something about Berlin that is especially mournful and serene. The city is very open and willing to talk about its horrific past. For me, it’s crazy to simply step on the same stone paths that were painted with blood just a few dozen years ago. Every corner I turned, I imagine how it might have looked with The Third Reich in power, and it is absolutely not a pretty image. All in all, exploring Berlin was a meaningful experience and it constantly made me think about my present and this quote. 

“ First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

On Saturday night, Princess Zanze invited us to join her for a dinner party at Harry's mansion. I had no idea what to expect for the night, but I came in really excited to see old friends and meet new ones. As the night proceeded, Brenda magically pumped out 8 amazing courses and spoiled us with her kindness and creativity. 4 hours of marathon-like eating later, we played Kings and Cheers to the Governor and the very fun night went on till the early morning. It felt like CPW, but everyone was more mature. Skip ahead a lot of sight seeing and fast forward to my last night in Berlin. We bumped into Joey that afternoon very coincidentally. Akshat and I navigated to the wrong address in search for an abandoned children’s hospital. We were becoming desperate and found an art museum nearby and went there to steal WIFI. Coincidentally, Joey was intentionally looking for this modern art museum and caught us at the door. Cupid isn’t always great at match making, but I’m glad he put us together. We did more exploring together and eventually found a really nice place for dinner. After that, we went with a group to bar crawl and had a lot of fun until 4am, when I remembered I had an international flight soon. I made some friends and drank a lot and also experienced the night life of Berlin. I’m very happy about the bad decisions. 1/27-2/1/17  p.s. this will be my last post in a while since I am officially back in MIT as of today and have to continue my day job as a student. But I look forward to my next opportunity to go somewhere new and to share with ya my experience.