On Tuesday night, my first grade buddy chatted with me on WeChat that he would like me to meet his daughter whom was visiting her boyfriend in Seattle and give her some advices. This led me to drive to University Village yesterday evening because the girl's boyfriend is a student at UW and lives in that area. I saw the girl only once in Beijing when she was probably 11 years old. At that time, I went back there to visit my parents and son, getting a chance to go to my buddy's home. However, I definitely hadn't known how she looked like. Before coming to the Village, I did check on its website to locate a restaurant and preferred one named Eureka. After parking my car, I walked around to look for it but approached a sports bar named Ram next to Apple Store, so decided to buy them dinner there. Waiting at the front door, I saw them coming my way eventually. My buddy ever mentioned me once that his daughter's boyfriend was very tall, what he said was in Chinese "1米9“， which is equivalent to almost 6'3", maybe 6'2 1/2". In my mind, his height was probably similar to my son's. Wow, he was such a tall guy, obviously taller than my son. After sitting down at the table, I asked him in Chinese: "Are you 1.9 meters tall?" His answer proved my estimate: "1.97", which is almost 6'5". Wow, this reminded me what I glanced at one page of my son's Macroeconomic textbook: "As China Illustrates, there is a positive relationship between a country's rate of long-run economic growth and its average population height." Of course, the boy's parents might be tall, but I bet significant improvement of living standards in China must be a major contributor as well. My son came to live with me at age of 12, so, in his case, he has benefited from American lifestyle,
The girl is in her senior year at Depauw as I shared. She had cumulated very good working experiences through an internship at a firm in Philadelphia. After almost 4 years on her own in US, she seemed very mature. I gave her some advices based on my experience and promised to look for opportunities for her in Seattle. Her boyfriend is a Computer Science major at UW and most likely will locate a job here. They both love Seattle and in Chinese tradition, as her "Uncle", I would like to help her settle here. Her major is Communication but taking Statistics and Calculus classes as well. I told her that with quantitative skills, it would help her more competitively. For example, she could design a questionnaire for survey by utilizing her statistics knowledge. The challenge for these kids is that they are international students, however, you never know what kind of opportunities would come up. They were both born and raised by quality families in Beijing, but it's always great if they can get a chance to reside in our wonderful city.
Checking my online banking accounts, I was so happy to see the rent for my rental property deposited on Wednesday. Combining with part of my paycheck directly deposited this morning, I paid the property tax for my primary residence. I am on track to pay off my credit card balance for last cycle on 11/15 without touching savings.
While paying the property tax, I noticed the photos of both of my properties posted on Snohomish County Treasurer's website. Though they are very common average properties in US, only rich families could own this type of houses in China. However, I should appreciate Chinese economic growth as well because majority of the investments in these two properties I put into came from sales proceeds of two apartments in Beijing when my parents moved to US and shared compensations with her siblings on my mom family's owned property 60 years ago in a very hot spot in downtown Beijing. Though my parents sold the apartments at very low prices back in mid-2000s, it was still a bless. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to buy these two in US.
Presidential Campaign had a piece of news that VP Biden wouldn't pursue Democratic Nomination. This might make their case clearer.
I just read a piece of sad news on CNN that a man killed two people and wounded two others at a school in Trollhattan, a town near Goteborg. This is a very rare case in Sweden. The masked man used a knife, possible a sword.
Ok, let me pause my campaign but resume tonight because I need to leave home soon.
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