A Letter from Werner C. Penn (51)

與國中同學彭俊偉信件往來

9 Oct 2004

Hi Searn,
How are you doing? It's been one week in Boston. I am here receiving a technical training for detection of environmental contaminants, or chemical warfare agents with the portable GC/ MS (Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) and long-range FTIR (Infra-Red) detector. The technologies are nothing new really, however, with its high portability, on-the-field detection is possible, and could be used for emergency response or anti-terrorism. Well, what I am doing here, may be pure business, nevertheless, we always expect to provide better solutions and updated technologies to serve the society, and hope the sky could be "Bluer", earth "Greener"... (Well, both ecologically and politically....)

Over this week, there was a "Haunted Happenings Grand Opening Parade" in Salem, the witch Village, small fish harbor nearby Boston. There will be a big celebration over the whole month until the Halloween! I was there to experience the festival atmosphere after the works on Wednesday. The pictures were taken at the town hall and the opening parade. It was fun, however, it was not as kinky as I expected....

This weekend, I will look around town or go further north to New Hampshire, then I will be leaving for New York City and stay 2 days for visiting a biotechnological company, then fly home from there. It's definitely a fresh experience for us to communicate through Internet while we are oversea, while we are taking the conveniences of worldwide website, the world is really getting smaller. Nevertheless, sometime we may feel more distanced... Any, wish to see you soon, and definitely recruit our old friends for a gathering in the New Year.
Warm Regards
Werner

Hi, Werner,
How are you doing? I am glad to receive this e-mail, which you told many interesting stories about your trips. I think the trips is a special treat because you could get global view, local through, deep thought and so on. Even though one day (24 hours) is not enough to do everything on your plan.

My English is a little poor. So if your computer could display Mandarin, I will write a Chinese letter to you next time. By the way, if you want to know about me which this trips for public private partnership course in USA and Canada. The website about me http://searnlai.blogspot.com/

Take care.
Searn

Hi Searn,

5 Oct 2004

After 24 hours of flights and transfer, I finally get to Boston on Sunday. The time difference is exactly 12 hours behind Taiwan. I couldn't get to sleep on the plane, so I watched a couple of movies Spiderman II, Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban and The Terminal...etc. I was exhausted then, right now I'm stocked in the middle of nowhere, there's no pub, just fast foods, whole sales market, TV, my computer and a deserted ME...

Though bombarded by all new technologies and English, My first day was doing all right, apart from my eyes are dry, eyelids getting heavier. The weather is brilliant here, beautiful sunshine, of course, the air is fresh and cool, the maple leaves are gradually changing colors, they mix with a little bit of green, yellow and some of them are getting red. I finally got a rental car this afternoon, so if I get a chance in the weekend, I may head north to New Hampshire, where the woods will be beautifully decorated by then.

The Halloween is approaching, jack-o'-lanterns decorate round town, the shops and the offices are filled with laughter, and they are drop dead gorgeous. There is a small fish harbor near Boston named Salem, where is a famous witch village. If I could stay here longer, there will be a big celebration for Halloween at the end of October, and it is also famous for whale watching there. Further north, there is another small town Cape Ann, this is where "The perfect storm" filmed, well, don't know if I get enough time though?
Kind Regards
Werner C. Penn