Xuan 'Silvia'님의 프로필璇玑之瞬사진블로그리스트기타  |  도구 도움말 |
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2008-07-07 After July 4th 7月4号，美国的独立日。没去看烟花，没有车的日子在加州还是很难过的。晚上听到窗外有烟花升空的响动，四处找找，可惜在眼前的天空上看不见一点流光的痕迹，想来也就作罢了。 放假第二天，BZ叔叔一家带我去兜风。加州的天气还是一如既往的好，灿烂的阳光瀑布般得一泻而下，让人一点脾气也没有。本来想到laguna beach，人太多了，或者说车太多了（中国人在美国基本不会发出人多这样的感叹），开车溜着海滩边转了一圈都没有看到停车的位置，只好做罢。车头一转到了Dana Point，这是另一处海边，相比可能海景稍微差了点吧，不过也不错啦。吃了经典的Fish&Chips，就是炸鱼和薯片（搞不懂为什么那么有名，其实味道挺一般的）。尽管食物有些差强人意，不过我们利用了午餐的机会评点了一番美国人吃垃圾食品的悠久历史，餐厅周围的食客和他们点的高卡路里高胆固醇的午餐就是最为充分有利的证据。如先知般撂下几句对几位点了两份以上薯片的年逾50的白人男子的寿命预测之后，我们一行三人兴致勃勃的出了餐馆沿着海边溜达消食。 这一路算不上看海景的好地方，但正好是用来停放私家游艇的码头，所以也别有一番风味。一排排在阳光下亮白的耀眼的游艇齐刷刷的停着，看的人很是羡慕。一开始我们还没有大声交流，不过看得出都在心里默默盘算一年要挣多少钱才能养得起一艘游艇；走了一阵，上帝看我们计算的也差不多了，索性把正确答案放在我们面前了——海边长廊的橱窗里贴了几张出售游艇的广告。我们兴致勃勃的看完了以后表示如果不买房子的话，应该可以负担的起一艘，嗯。 显然海边长廊并不是一个看景的好地方，不过我倒觉得是个很好的立志教育基地，年轻的情侣可以多去逛逛以增强努力工作奋发图强的动力。不过海边山坡上的观景台就大不一样了，这里地势高，视野及其开阔，一望之下海滩海岸尽收眼底：蓝的海，蓝的天，白的帆，白的船，还有黄的橙的皮划艇，五颜六色的泳衣，海边城市的颜色好像总是特别鲜艳饱和。在高台上望远，心境跟在海边长廊漫步历数游艇时又大不一样了：远离尘嚣，身居高处，一览众生，想得是有杯好茶在手，有本好书在椅边，海风静静的吹着，看累了，喝口茶，放眼远眺海天之间，在这样的高度上，游艇乘风在浪尖风驰的动感看起来跟旁边的单桨小舟上的信手划曳也没什么差别，闲庭野鹤的生活早已超脱了世间的荣华。 结论就是：观景台上豁达超然的觉悟正好抵消了先前在海边长廊游艇展上鼓起的雄心斗志，我们又回到各自平常的心态中做普通人就是了。后独立日就这样过去了。 2007-07-28 Who can tell me what this is called?There are so many around the house. I have every reason to believe these are the animals which ate all our sweet beans. But still I don't know the name for them. Can anybody help me? 2007-06-30 Wild Life in IthacaJust something to show. Hope it pays to carry a charged camera around when I am going to school everyday.
My rabbit friends on the way home. 2007-06-09 So long, So long--Part I 掐指一算，距上次更新的时间好像又超过了手指脚趾可以数过来的天数，my bad, my bad... 忙这一个字是很难给大家交待的，所以我也就不找这个借口了。
当初选Cornell这个学校的一大理由就是纬度比较高，指望这里的夏天能够温和一点，结果……完全不是这么回事啊。艳阳高照的日子是常事，幸好家里和办公室都有强劲的空调。为了避免漫步在暴晒的正午阳光下，我特地把作息提早了一个半小时（呵呵，猜出来我平时到学校的时间了吧），总算稍稍缓过来了。
回答一个频率很高的问题——嗯，我们现在放暑假了，不过仍然处在老板的严密监视之下老老实实的给她干活呢。其实倒不是她催得紧（当然我也不会否认经常被催着干活），主要是自己尸位素餐得太久了，良心很是过意不去觉得有必要稍微给自己些交待。
看样子刚刚过去的春天确实是个高产的季节，班版上的8g主角不重样的轮番换，真是让人应接不暇；相比之下Ithaca乡间的趣闻就没有那么丰富了，还是以她和缓的步调不紧不慢的进行着。有的时候难免拿现在的生活跟在清华的日子比较，有的时候难免幻想自己如果选择了不同的道路会是怎样，也许就跟很多熟悉的朋友们整天混在一起了，也许就可以经常回家看看父母，也许还可以在清华的食堂里继续吃麻辣烫，也许可以尽情地去享受一个自己非常了解的环境，也许已经可以有一个让人羡慕的完美且完整的“生活”，但是我没有选择这些……我选择来到一个陌生的国度，选择了重新去认识朋友，不同背景，不同语言，不同肤色，不同见识，不同观点的朋友，选择了一个需要我非常努力的去了解才能够慢慢融入的地方，选择了一个很符合我的个性的选择……
真的是非常有趣的问题，从很早的时候开始，我要的答案就不是最简单的那个；相反的，往往是最复杂最抽象难懂最不可捉摸的那个。高中的时候，每次逛书店，我会去买很多关于黑洞、引力、大统一理论、超弦理论、时间箭头、量子理论的科普读物，而且一定是最最晦涩的那种（一般都是中国人写的，外国人的科普著作一般比较考虑到读者的神经），不是因为我看得懂或者喜欢折磨自己的大脑神经或是喜欢写书的人写作风格，而恰恰相反，我买书的一大原因就是因为我看不懂它们，所以这些书在我眼中才尤显尊贵。（呵呵，我知道自己很bt）然后我会花很多时间试图去破解所有的难题，不是因为感兴趣而更多的是为了享受那种独揽众山小的感觉而已。又想起那个著名的“为什么要攀登？因为山在那里”的故事，可是天下有那么多的山存在，如果人的一生只允许你攀登一座的话，你会选择哪座呢？曾经被问过这样的问题，而我的回答以前是，现在还是“最高最难爬的那座”。
现在，人是长大了，也知道自己的愚蠢和固执。想起当年宿舍夜谈时自己曾经斩钉截铁的说并没有把幸福作为最高的追求（好傻又好天真的），估计这个回答当时还是颇让同屋的姐妹们惊讶了一番的。很高兴她们没有我那么傻，知道要追求幸福，而且也都找到了自己很好的路。不管怎样，都祝福她们。而我呢，也还是要沿着自己选择的路继续走下去，不过多了几分现实，少了几分执著，也不知道是好还是坏。
So long, so long, to the old self... 2007-02-17 The first Chinese new year away from HOMENever before have I spent a Chinese new year away from home, without my family, so you can imagine my psychologic shock when I learnt from some friend who have been in the U.S. for long, that she hadn't celebrated a Chinese new year for at least 8 years.
Do I really miss the traditional new year dinner and fireworks? Maybe not so much. After calling home and taking turns to speak to each and every relatives in the same "Happy new year" tone, I still felt as if it was just another loosely passed Saturday weekend. It was so hard to be "in the moment" when you were occeans apart from home, without the familiar faces of family and the routinely performed "good wishes" toast, without the hysteric before- and after-new-year shopping in search for bargin, without wittnessing parents fretting over the year-end budget and how big should the "red envelop" be, without a bunch of people gathering in front of TV and complaining how awful the CCTV show have deteriorated over the years for hours, ... without the memory that has been accumulating through your life... Now I really miss my Chinese new year.
It is not the exact date that matters, instead what distinguishes the Chinese new year from the rest of the calendar is its significance as an "official" time to show love and care and family integrity in a relatively conservative Chinese culture.
That being said, I don't feel like to sound like a sociology professor (no offense-_-!), just want to wish every friends of mine--
Happy Chinese New Year!!
2007-02-10 How to show grieve?Thanks to Teagle's gym magzines, now I am regularly exposed to some of the interesting articles that deals with different aspects of life, a greater part of which, of course, is political life that can easily make me quite confused. That's why I'd rather treat the experience as my English reading hours than to admit that I am indeed attracted by the content. But there are exceptions.
One of them is an essay discussing the right to grieve, or, to be more pertinent, not to grieve. Quite understandablely, people are more generous to the deceased than to their living counterpart. That explains why most of the world's best compliments are devoted exclusively to funeral speeches. It still seems almost impossible for one to get out without guilt if he expresses relieve instead of sorrow for death of " the beloved one". The exact dilema occured to the essay author when she was just freed from a long-time troubled marriage years ago, and after that, in her career as a psychological consultant, she has been witnessing the same problem made a lot of people its victims just because they were unable or didn't feel like to show their grieve when they are supposed to.
Personally, I don't have any experience that can be categorized as this case, but I do realize over and over again that oftimes people tend to make their judgements solely from their own standing point with no regard for what the person in question might go through. In memory of her mother who had just departed because of cancer, one daughter put it like this--"She has been gone through hell, and she had brought us with her". So, who is to blame? No one but the implacable disease!
I don't mean to advocate a campaign to place harsh judgements for those lost souls, but if we can be so forgiving to the dead, why not spare some mercy to the living?
2006-08-29 Step by Step-Where I liveFinally got a chance to enrich my space a bit.
The place I am living is called Maplewood Park, which has a beautiful Chinese name--“枫林”. It is a good place to living for a new engineering graduate students, at least by my standard, and I had my reasons to support this comment:
1. It is close to the engineering quad where my office is and all my class and will be held;
2. It is not far from Collegetown and the Commons, which is the downtown;
3. It gives you an easy access to other new grads, mostly international;
4. Since it is managed by the university, you can expect quite a few activities for new tennants to get familiar with the environment and their neighbors;
5. It is well supported and maintained by university staff, and you don't have to argue with bad landlord;
6. The view is just gorgeous;
...
Well, it might be a long list, boz I am expecting to discover new reasons, so let's save it.
As I said, maplewood is near Cornell campus. Usually it's a 15min walk, which can sometimes be quite enjoyable or painstaking, depending on how do you like exercise! Exactly, we have to go downhill and then uphill to reach the campus. I don't like climbng long wooden stairs, but the accompany of the sound of running water on one side and green woods on the other seems alleviate some of the fatigue.
====For those who's tired of reading English====
据说枫林小区的户外经常会有小动物出没，很可惜我没有见到传说中的小鹿、负鼠和獾，但是肥肥的松鼠倒是随处可见——有几天上学的路上看到路边躺了只不明身份的动物，就是那个讲动物们偷人类垃圾食品的动画片里经常装死的那只（谁告诉一下我那个片名叫什么？）。路边种了某种结浆果的树，正值丰收时节，掉了一地的红色浆果，不过我没敢尝。 照片里的那个garden是枫林里让住户自己种菜的地方，也许以后我会试试。
香蕉ms超级便宜，40美分一公斤，相比2$的西瓜而言。鸡腿好像是鸡身上最便宜的部分，所以我吃的也很多。Cornell的饮食很不错，如果你吃惯西方食品的话（这里的甜食实在太好了，真是罪恶啊！）而且这里三天两头就有free meal，往往是一些集会，所以经常可以厚着脸皮蹭吃蹭喝。Hehe，中国人对free的东西都挺乐此不疲的，所以也是一个结交家乡人的好机会。
Anyway, let stop here and DO remember to check out later. and the next episode is -- Where I study (just give me some more time to take pictures. 2006-08-22 Step by Step--About the FlightThere are so many things to say!! So let go step by step:
The trip to Cornell is enjoyable. It is the second time I've taken a plane, but it was a smooth journey. Although when we were about to land in Chicago, the captain annouced that we might be running out of gas, and have to land at an airport nearby to fill in, it turned out to be all right afterwards. Dad's friend picked me up at Newark Airport, and drove me all the way to Cornell, I own my thousands thanks to him and his family.
I am very grateful to have Holly as my company. It is so nice to have someone to tackle problems together with.
I will catch up later on my trip and live at Cornell, but I have to go now.
Coming Soon!!
BTW: Cornell is REALLY very BEAUTIFUL!! |
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