This morning I tagged along with my son to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco as he is applying for a tourist visa. We had a mother-and-son half-day trip: talking, eating, playing, completing a task, exploring, sightseeing, and having fun together. After coming home, I described our half day trip to my daughter. She commented: “In order to have a good time, where you go is really not as important as who you are with.” She also suggested that I write it down as it was memorable and unique.

Applying for a Visa

Because someone drove into the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco ten days ago (October 9), there were three police officers guarding the front door of the consulate today. A policewoman stood outside the door to check the appointment sheet and/or visa application forms, after passing her review, she let us enter the hall where two policemen performed the security check. One officer who sat behind the table against the wall asked us to place our bags and small metal objects on his table; another officer who was standing formed a passage, between him and the table, into the waiting area. He held a stick-like instrument in one hand to scan my whole body from head to toe, include the underarms. There was no waiting at this security check because there were not many people here today. After we passed the security check, the police officer who was sitting gave my son a piece of paper with a number on it and told us to go in and wait for our number to be called for an interview. There are two types of people in the waiting area: about a dozen people without reservations standing in line waiting for their interviews; those with reservations sitting randomly waiting for their numbers to be called and most of them were ABC (American Born Chinese) children: being held in their parents’ arms, sitting in strollers, sitting on chairs drawing, reading comics, and playing games… Judging by their faces, I saw very few non-Chinese there. A brown-haired lady was also going through the security check, she first put her small bag and cell phone on the table as instructed, then turned to face the officer who were about to scan her body using the stick. When she heard “airplane mode” command from the officer, she immediately turned around, grabbed her cell phone from the table and said in a surprised tune: “Oh? Cell phone too?” She probably thought that entering the waiting area was like taking a flight which requires one to put cell phone in airplane mode to avoid interference with the airplane. The two police officers and I were laughing at her action and her question. Before she turned on her phone, the officer said again: “Raise your arms.” Upon hearing this, the lady started to laugh too and quickly put her phone back on the table, turned around and raised her arms to let the officer scan her body.

My son’s application materials were incomplete and he had to fill out an additional form on the spot. After accepting all the application materials from my son, the visa officer gave him a receipt and told him to come pick his passport up next Tuesday. Today’s process of applying for a Chinese tourist visa went smoothly, we spent less than an hour from entering the waiting area to leaving the consulate office. While walking back to our car, we saw a tent on the sidewalk, someone was lying in the tent, and household items were scattered outside the tent, which made this place appear to be a home for someone for a while now. We bypassed this sidewalk and walked on the main road. After getting in the car, my son said to me: “Mommy, thank you for coming with me today, otherwise I would have difficulty understanding how to fill the supplementary materials.” Actually, I didn’t think of coming with my son for his visa application; it was my daughter who suggested last week that I come.

This Monday, Alex reserved nannies to take care of Meimei, my granddaughter who is more than three months old, at home, because I am going to San Francisco with my son on Thursday. Alex used one of his company’s benefits: one employee can hire an in-house nanny, with an hourly fee of five dollars, fifteen times a year; he got confirmation from in-house nannies on Wednesday and Thursday, but Wednesday’s nanny cancelled her service due to a family emergency on early Wednesday, which made us all afraid that Thursday’s nanny would cancel her service at the last minute. Originally, my son and I planned to set off right after he picked me up at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, now we planned to wait until Alex came back from sending Ben, my 20 month old grandson, to daycare, in case the nanny didn’t show up. On Thursday, the nanny did show up on time but we still waited for Alex to come back, so Alex was in a hurry to get home. While making a sharp turn on the way sending Ben to the daycare, Ben was scared and started to cry because the carseat tilted too suddenly. Alex had to stop the car to calm Ben down then sent him off to the daycare. It was really more haste and less speed. After Alex returned home, we left. As Highway 101 was very smooth, it only took us about 70 minutes to reach the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. My son parked his car on the roadside where a sign for free parking for two hours behind the consulate office street. We then made two left turns while walking to reach the consulate.

Eating

While waiting for the visa interview, my daughter suggested we go to the nearby Japantown for lunch and reminded me to treat her brother to a sweet drink.

My son drove from the consulate office to Japantown in a few minutes. He parked his car on a roadside with no signs nor parking meters, and he was worried about getting a ticket during lunch. After parking the car, he searched online and found a curry restaurant 30 minutes driving distance because he wanted to eat Japanese curry today. I told him that there were many Japanese restaurants in the shopping mall next to Webster Street, and they must have curry there. We crossed the street from where the car was parked and followed others into the shopping mall from a door on the roadside. When we passed the Matcha Cafe Maiko shop on the first floor, my son commented: “San Jose also has this shop.” Thinking of my daughter’s reminder, I said: “The restaurants are upstairs. We will buy drinks after lunch.”

There were not many tourists in the mall on Thursday. After 12 noon, we went upstairs to the dining area and saw the first shop with curry was On the Bridge, where the chairs inside were still upside down on the dining table. I saw a young guy was busy setting up advertisements outside. We said hello to him and he asked us to wait outside for a few minutes. I told my son: “There are many restaurants ahead. Let’s go check them out and come back if we don’t find any with curry.”

Looking left and right in the dining area, we saw many Sushi and Ramen restaurants. When we saw a restaurant that served curry with many empty tables, we went in. Our waitress was a girl with shoulder-length straight black hair, she led us to a table with window seats at the end of the restaurant. We bypassed tables on both sides, and the tables with window seats were all occupied, but the ones without window seats were all empty; it seemed the window seats were more popular. My son and I sat across from each other and we asked for free ice water, though he used to order a pink lemonade. He quickly chose the chicken curry rice. While looking at the photos of the lunch specials, the bentos, and the ramens on the menu, I had a good appetite for many and changed my mind a few times. Finally, out of curiosity, I ordered the Saba Bento (salt-grilled Mackerel bento) without a photo, because we don’t eat seafood often at home, plus I was satisfied with my son’s explanation: “Saba is a kind of fish, usually served grilled.”

Our order was served quickly and we enjoyed our food. The grilled Saba had a strong fish flavor and I experienced a new texture. While eating, we talked about his studies, his sister, and familiar things. I asked my son about his homework, and he said, “I’m very busy now because I will have exams next week and I need to set up the programming on a calculator in advance.” I asked if he liked the courses, and he said: “I like mathematics, and I also like solving math problems.” I laughed after hearing this and replied: “Your late grandpa also liked to do math exercises as a pastime.” I thought of my late father at our Fort Hill home doing Fan Yingchuan’s advanced mathematics exercises and how he tutored my brother who was going to participate in the middle school mathematics competition… I guess my father’s passion for mathematics was passed down. I told my son that his sister is very busy and tired; Ben, his twenty-month-old nephew, also begun to show his temper and sometimes knocked his head on the floor on purpose; but I emphasized: “Raising babies is tiring but rewarding.” I was very happy to hear him talking about his plans after getting his Chinese visa and I was excited for him too.

It is rare for me to eat with my son alone now. Today, while sitting in the restaurant eating and chatting, I suddenly recall something from more than thirty years ago. I asked a Taiwanese international student who was also part-time working at CUA nursing library: “Why do you often go to restaurants spending your half a day’s salary (in the 1990s, the part-time hourly wage for working in CUA’s library was five dollars)? She told me: “I like to be served in restaurants, as I don’t have to cook nor wash dishes, I just leave after eating.” Today I am satisfied in a youthful way with this petty bourgeoisie mood.

Two ladies who came to sit the table next to ours ordered bento boxes. After paying our bill, we got up and ready to leave, I saw their bill, just placed on their table, was similar to ours, less than $40. I couldn’t help but take a few more glances at them: with their bright colored clothes, slightly chubby figures, snow-white hair, fair skin, red lips, and amiable appearances, I guessed they were a pair of long-time girl friends having a good time together.

When we went downstairs and were passing the Matcha Cafe Maiko Shop, I reminded my son: “Go get a drink you like.” He said: “Thanks, I’m full.” I added: “Your sister wants me to treat you well, so go get a drink!” My son walked into the shop and looked up at the menu on the wall for a while before ordering a large drink. The cup handed over to my son by the waiter looked like the small size, so I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the large size?” The waiter nodded. After we walked out of the mall, I asked my son what kind of drink he ordered, and he asked me to try it; I tried the drink and said: “I fell some familiarity but can’t name the flavor.” My son told me: “This is a black sesame flavor drink.” I thought of the familiar black sesame paste flavor and wondered why my son was interested in such non-sweet taste, and he continued: “Zelene and I had black sesame ice cream in San Jose once and we liked the flavor.” Oh, that’s it.

Playing

After walking out of the shopping mall, I said to my son: “Could you take a look to see if Golden Gate Park is on the way home? If so, we can go and play there first.”

My son immediately said: “There are many Pokemon Gyms in Golden Gate Park.” He checked the map on his cell phone and said: “Golden Gate Park is very close to here, only two miles. Let’s go there, we may have a chance to catch a shiny Guzzlord there.” While talking and walking, I saw a Gym nearby spawned the Guzzlord raid, we stopped on the road to raid and defeated the Guzzlord in Japantown. This monster looks round, but it is difficult to hit its center with a thrown ball, so it is not easy to catch it, but we all caught it this time.

I guessed that we would enter the Gym remotely to raid Guzzlord later, so I bought three remote passes in a hurry then sighed: “Remote passes are so expensive now, costing me more than 500 coins. In the past, I can buy three for 300 coins.” After hearing me complain, my son said: “You didn’t buy the deal package? Three remote passes, a lucky egg, and a star only cost 495 coins.” I said, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier.” He said: “I just saw it too.” If you have three remote passes, you can no longer buy any remote passes and I just bought three, so my son reminded me: “After using some of the remote passes later, remember to buy the deal package.”

The GPS on the car led us to the entrance of the Golden Gate Park on Fulton Street, but the road inside the entrance was blocked; if we wanted to enter the park, we had to park the car there and walk. I prefer to park the car in the park, so I set the familiar Stow Lake as the destination on my phone and guided my son to drive to Golden Gate Park in a few minutes. There happened to be two Gyms in the park with Guzzlord raids and with not much time left, so my son parked the car on the side of the road and we sat in the car and used remote passes to enter the raids in the Gym. We won both battles, my son also figured out how to throw a excellent ball to hit the center of Guzzlord now (Of course, throwing an excellent ball does not guarantee catching the monster, it only increases the chance of catching it), but I still threw the balls without hitting its center. So I asked my son to help me catch the Guzzlord with a high score. We had a lot of fun in Golden Gate Park and I also remember some good times in the past: as a driver to Fort Mason to watch my kids playing Pokémon Go in a cold day in San Francisco, later as a player playing Pokemon Go with my kids in Boston.

After we caught two Guzzlords in Golden Gate Park, we didn’t see any more Guzzlord raids. As we were worried about traffic jams on the southbound highway during rush hours, we drove home on Highway 280 following the GPS without staying long in the Golden Gate Park. Not long after taking on highway 280 from San Francisco, there are rolling dense green mountains on the right side, my son and I both liked this scenery very much. I bought a deal package that has three remote passes as suggested by my son in the car and felt a little sleepy, as I fighting Pokemon raids was very exciting which made me exhausted afterwords. Knowing that my son is a very good driver, I quickly fell asleep in the car. After being woken up by a strange noise, I asked: “What was that?” My son said: “We are in a traffic jam now, I don’t want to push the pedal for stopping and going, so I switched to the auto-drive mode, that sound was from the switch.” I quickly took out my phone and took a few pictures of the traffic jam scene on the southbound 280 highway, because I rarely drive in the rush hour now, so a traffic jam on the highway is also a rare sight for me.

A very happy half-day trip for a mother and her adult son, with a mission and a lot of fun.

Little Episodes

The sight of a traffic jam on the highway 280

Our lunch: my son’s chicken curry and my Saba bento

Pokemon Go, three remote raid passes in the Boo Bundle cost 495 coins, just three remade raid passes cost 525 coins. The three star Guzzlord my son caught for me. I raided five Guzzlord, but only caught four of them.

Ben, my grandson, was the first reader and listener of this story. As I read this story to his parents, he came up to me and started reading it carefully.

01-24-2021, Sunday, Sunny and Super Cold

On Tuesday, Pokemon Go game released two popular and rare legendary Pokemon to raid battles: Groudon and Kyogre, and they will be staying for a week.

Yesterday was Saturday so we went to Boston to play Pokemon Go and catch Groudon and Kyogre for a few hours. Though I didn’t caught any shiny or hundred (perfect) legendaries, I was very happy, because while catching Pokemon, we heard some very good news.

Sunday morning, we went out to catch more legendary Pokemon to celebrate the good news we got yesterday.

I was overjoyed to catch a shundo (shiny and hundred) Kyogre on the first raid of Sunday morning.

In Pokemon Go game, the chance to catch a shundo legendary is roughly one in four thousands, therefore I felt like I won the lottery. I was super happy for a whole day.

The journey to catch legendary Pokemon:

Legendary Pokemon are usually hatched from eggs on top of Pokemon Gyms, instead of wandering in the wild. Each gym hatches one legendary at a time. After hatching, the legendary Pokemon will stay in the gym for 40 minutes in most cases, then it disappears.

If you can raid with a legendary in the gym in the 40 minutes time frame, you may have a chance to catch the legendary. However…

First, Pokemon Go players need to be nearby a gym to see what legendary Pokemon is currently in the gym. Pokemon gyms are usually scattered, so players sometimes have to travel many miles to find a gym that has their favorite legendary.

Second, legendary Pokemon are too strong to be beaten by a single player. Usually, a team of five to six players is required to fight together to win against a legendary. During COVID-19 quarantines, forming a team of five to six players is always remotely coordinated via discord.

So even though you traveled a long time to find a Gym with your favorite legendary, if you can’t remotely find enough players to join with you to do the raid within 40 minutes, you have no chance to catch your favorite legendary Pokemon.

After you and several other players win the raid together, you finally get a chance to catch the legendary Pokemon. Legendary Pokemon are not easy to catch, they have about a 2% catch rate. So even after all your hard work spent beating Groudon or Kyogre, you still might not catch it.

I like to play Pokemon Go now

Pokemon Go is a augmented reality mobile game which was released in 2016.

In 2016, as a chaperone, I often drove my children places to play Pokemon Go, such as Fort Mason in San Francisco.

In 2017, I expressed my opinion about the drawbacks of AR making Pokemon Go so popular .

Two years later, in 2019, I started to play Pokemon Go in Massachusetts and I quickly became a fan of this game.

I have a habit to walk outdoors daily. In sunny California, outdoor walking one to two miles is always a joyful task, which brings pleasure. However, during Massachusetts’ long cold winter, while walking outside for one to two miles, I often feel a chill in my bones, a very unpleasant feeling. In Massachusetts’ long cold time (late Autumn, Winter, and early Spring), walking outdoors is no longer a joyful task to me, though I still go out daily.

My son had tried to convince me to play Pokemon Go for a few years, as he often said to me: “Mommy, I saw many seniors playing Pokemon Go, why don’t you try it?”

Finally, in 2019, he download Pokemon Go to my phone and convinced me to play it.

In 2019, walking outdoor in cold East Coast became a joyful task again, because while outdoor walking and catching Pokemon, I indulge in a kind of self excitement, which really generates heat to warm up my body in my one to two miles outdoor journey. Therefore I start to enjoy playing Pokemon Go. Sometimes I walked more than 50 kilometers (more than 30 miles) in a week, in order to get walking rewards from the game, which made walking become an exercise filled with satisfaction for me.

A good teacher makes a good student. With my son’s guidance, I achieved the highest level in Pokemon Go, which is 40 at that time, within an year.

Little Episodes

This morning, I caught a shundo Kyogre.

On Sunday, on the Pokemon Go players discord, someone commented “Found out a friend in Arlington caught a shundo groudon.” and “Eventually I’ll get more because I’ll never stop playing. Even if I die I’ll come back as a zombie continue playing.”

In a few days, I caught 38 Kyogre and 50 Groudon.

I started to play Pokemon Go on September 27, 2019. Within a year, I reached level 40 on May 22nd, 2020. Level 40 was the highest level at that time.

December 2016, I walked in sunny Almaden Valley.

(12-30-2016, The light changed dramatically within an hour, from afternoon to sunset in Almaden Valley. I went out and saw clear skies, empty trails and yellow flowers filling the field. Back home, I saw a dark sky, an old tree and a beautiful sunset. )

November 2017, I walked in the beautiful Filoli:

(11-19-2017, California’s Autumn leaves, flowers, and fruits, along with reluctantly saying goodbye to spring scenery, presented a unique sight: a colorful forest and blooming hydrangea, white clouds in the blue sky and bright red pomegranates. A gorgeous maple leaf on green leaves and charming dragon chrysanthemums.

My daughter doesn’t like using gift cards as gifts. Her explanation is :”Using gift cards is too boring.”

However, before for Christmas in 2020, my daughter suddenly announced to me: “I am going to give Carey’s twins gift cards as Christmas gifts. I will put the code of the gift card into a logic puzzle and the code will be revealed only after solving the logic puzzle. Sounds interesting, right?”

And so my daughter manually made the logic puzzles by putting the code one by one into the puzzles, it was time consuming and hard. She made five logic puzzles (one of which was a demo) for the twins, and asked her brother and I to do quality assurance for the puzzles. One of the puzzles which I could not solve even after spending a long time on it was quickly solved by my son, thus returning the correct gift card code.

For Christmas in 2020, My daughter gave her classmate Carey’s 9-year-old twin daughter and son the gift cards for their favorite online game. The actual Christmas gifts were a few pages of logic puzzles which contained the code for the gift cards.

Rachel, Carey’s wife, helped the twins solve their puzzles.

A few pages of paper with logic puzzles printed on them as a gift, created unusual memories for the gift recipient and their family while they worked to resolve the puzzles, while also allowing the gift giver and their family to work together to QA the puzzles. The stories embedded in the puzzles, which were created to meet the interests of the gift recipient, created additional warm feelings.

It seems pages of paper with logic puzzles printed on them as a gift possessed the power to extend the joy of gift-giving, it is indeed a fun and unique gift format.

In January 2021, my daughter made another logic puzzle which contained the code for another gift card. Again, my son and I verified her puzzle. This puzzle is a birthday gift for Lou, her friend Grace’s husband. The puzzle was created using cats as the puzzle characters, because Lou loves pets.

The night before his birthday, Lou made a set of delicious dishes. The well-made dishes brought a much praise and laughters among friends, to which Lou joked: “Yes, I will make a restaurant start-up. The only thing missing is the delivery guy.”

When the news of Lou having successfully solved the puzzle came out, my daughter said someone else joked: “I am more confident about Lou’s startup now.”

The Origins of the Logic Puzzle Game

In Halloween 2020, my son told me he started to play a new game, called logic puzzle. He also showed me how he play it on Discard a few times. Afterwards I started to play it too.

My son played the advance puzzle and I played the beginner’s version. I never thought about competing with my son, because I knew he is much better than me when it comes to playing games .

In December 2020, I showed my daughter this game, and she liked it too. She also explained to me a few questions I had for the puzzle. From this incident, I felt on-line lessons are not as effective as face to face lessons, especially when learning brand new knowledge.

Because my daughter started playing the puzzle game later than me, I thought I might have the chance to beat her. One night, I played this puzzle game until 1:30AM, but I still could not beat my daughter.

Now, my son plays the advanced version of logic puzzle, my daughter plays the standard version, and I play easy version. We all enjoy the logic puzzle, just like we enjoy playing Pokemon Go

The logic puzzle game is a one person game and we enjoy sharing our personal high scores too. A few days ago, my daughter happily told me: “I reached the fast percentile for the first time.” I congratulated her. Last Tuesday, my son shared a screenshot where he reached fast again. My daughter and I congratulated him immediately. I like to share when I reached average, because average is a good score for me (I usually score slow) .

While playing the logic puzzle game, my daughter came up with a new application: using a specific logic puzzle to hide a code for a gift card.

My daughter found an interesting usage for logic puzzle game which made me think that learning languages seems to expand one’s mindset.

Little Episodes

Chef Lou’s delicious dishes

Lou’s birthday gift, the logic puzzle game created by my daughter.

My son shared the screenshot of his good score on logic puzzle game:

The look and feel of the advanced logic puzzle game my son plays:

The night I worked hard and tried to beat my daughter on logic puzzle game:

Overnight working: I have not worked overnight for many years. Last night I played a logic puzzle game until 1:30 AM. But even after a few dozen rounds of playing, my best score is still average. This morning, I went out to play Pokemon Go, Princess Kara was tired at home in my stead.

06-28-2016

Last Friday, my son bought a new board game, Dominion, and he really wanted someone to play with him, so I played with him.

The beginning of the game is simple: every player has the same things to start with: 7 copper coins and 3 victory points (each victory point costs 2 copper coins normally).

There are ten randomized cards you can buy from in the start game, as well as gold coins, silver coins or copper coins. Players can also can buy victory cards worth of 6, 3, or 1 victory point each.

I used to play poker “ZhengShangyou” in my school years, my experience from this game was that cards with stronger attacking power will increase the chance to win. So in the first game, under my budget, I always buy strong attacking cards, like ‘Militia’ which will earn 2 copper coins and will force the rest of the players to discard 2 cards in their hands, when it is placed out. My mind was set to attack, and I lost the first game: I got 13 points, far below my son’s 40 points.

Before we start the second game, I understood a bit about the game after chatting with my son. He explained: “Dominion is a strategy game, not a simple attacking game. Without a strategy, you will likely lose.”

During the second game, I started to think about strategy before I made purchases, although I did not have a clear mindset on what strategy I should use. After I made a few purchases without knowing why, I realized that I should had watched how my son bought things during the game, but it was too late, and I lost the second game.

At the beginning of third game, I watched my son’s buying patterns very closely and mimicked his buying order quickly, though I don’t know why, I won the third game.

On the fourth game, my son totally changed his strategy, before I figured out his buying patterns, he had already won the fourth game.

Playing the game is not a simple and easy task, it requires a lot of practice to know what to buy, this was why my son won so quickly.

My Thoughts after the Game

1. Generation Gap

Today’s board game seemed to encourage planning strategies on top of fair competition, unlike “ZhengShangYou”, which was more focused on using strong cards to beat up the other players to win.

The board games of today will train different thinking skills from the ones of my youth did. This difference probably will be one of the factors enlarging generation gap between me born in the ’60s and my son born in the ’90s.

2. Copy Cat

I was motivated to play, as books said, parents who could win the game their children like to play may earn surprise respects from their children.

I did well as a copy cat. Copying enables a player to utilize others’ well mastered knowledge in a quick productive fashion. I suddenly understood why IT companies spend lots of resources to protect themselves from being copied by competitors. Otherwise, IT companies could be defeated by copy cat more easily.