During the first two weeks of year of 2013, I went on the epic West Coast Trip with other 80 students from ETC. We've spent one week each in Los Angeles and San Francisco, visiting game studios, film companies, theme parks and having dinner with ETC alums. 
 
I have visited 12 companies and 2 theme parks, including: RGH Themed Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, Red 5 Studios, the Walt Disney Company, Zynga, EA, Google, Silver Tree Media, IMVU, Universal Studios, etc. It was great to know what do they focus, how do they layout their office and what their company cultures are. 

We get to talked to a lot of industry professionals, engineers and artists during these two weeks. Especially, on alumni dinner, alumnus introduced their job on a daily basis, others answered questions about how they got their job. It was a great place to network with people and having a lot of fun. 

SIGGRAPH took place in Los Angeles, California this week. Thanks for my department's sponsorship and the luckily winning GSA/Provost Conference Funds,  I could attend my first SIGGRAPH.
During the five days, I have taken courses on OpenGL proramming, which highlighted the features of the new released 4.3 version. I have also taken a workshop on VFX for games, gives me hands-on experience on how to implement a prebaked destruction animation in CryEngine. The computer animation festival on tuesday night was also a feast for eyes. 

On the exhibition, companies showed all kinds of new technologies including 3D printers/scaners, mo-cap systems, HMDs, and new tools for VFX. Most of them also provide onsite traning and demostration of their new products. 

By the end of last mounth, I took the chance to see the 10th china digital entertainment expo, aka ChinaJoy, in Shanghai. This 4-day event has drawn great attention among players in China and globe. 

After the exhibition, I also joined the networking party held at Shanghai art museum by IGDA local chaper. On the party, I associated with developers from various countries in asia. 

During the Memorial Day weekend， I took a short trip to Washington, D.C. The city impressed me with her peace and beauty. Neat streets and grand buildings there are just wonderful. Museums with rich history are also a great feast.

In Smithsonian American Art Museum,  exhibition “The Art of Video Games” explores the evolution of video games in the last 40 years. Sitting on the bench in hall, I felt like I have witnessed every milestone of video games.

On the wall, there's Jesse's words： Technology is a way to make new things possible.