didn't get to update my space for the entire semester,partially because i was lazy:-P and also it's hard to start with something specific, coz many things are going on at the same time...sorry about that!

since the new year has came, I feel the pressure of writing something down, so people know that i'm still enjoying my life out here！lol

 

ohh before i start, i do want to say thank you to many people, that are old, that are young, that are familar to me or not, and that of family and friends, and wherever you come from...thank you for making my life so fulfilling and beautiful, so that i had a wonderful 2006, and i will for 2007 also!!thank you very much!

and of course there's my special thanks to the special ones, you shud know who you are~ maybe i never got a chance to say it but here it is, with my best wishes and love~~ thank you!!   hope you would give it a smile when you see this:-)

 

And let's begin with this unique experience that i had in Chicago~

 

芝加哥过新年之unique experience

 

窗外依然是火车呼啸而过的声音。经过这几天hotstel的考验，已经不觉得吵。唯独适才骤然夹杂了警车凄厉的尖叫，就显得异常的刺耳。警车的声响一下子又把刚才那列车上的一幕拉回了眼前―刚才那一幕，真的是惊魂未定。

 

终于，我有生以来亲临现场，过了一个有声有色的新年。这次是和lu and hersey一起，到了芝加哥的navy pier park, 现场count down，录像照相，大家欢呼，放烟火，有动感的音乐，非常有气氛。人们借此机会发泄积存了一年的郁闷，都变得十分hiper，有节奏的呼喊，此起彼伏。街道上面都是人，我突然在想，如果说这里是东京，（ignore the English signs）一定有人信。喊叫声和气车的鸣镝声混在一起，非常刺耳（both the frequency and intensity）。但是整个街道和城市都被这种狂欢的气氛笼罩起来，倒也还算和谐。我拖着已经由于intensive shopping而异常疲惫的双腿，在街道上走啊走，身边还有lu and hersey一边一个搀着我，还是止不住要complain说太累了。但是还是这样坚持着走到了车站，结果发现排队得人群，由地下蔓延到了地上，然后呈半流体到固体状（meaning, the line wasn’t moving），听hersey说北京体铁虽然很拥挤，但还没有到这样的情况，说人都下不去，引来我们一阵惊叹。终于上了车，好景不长，我们看照片的欢乐时光被几个黑哥们儿的到来打断了。几个人一来就大声讲话，好在是说happy new year，然后还很友好的朝我们笑笑，以为他们就是比较豪爽的，就没有介意。不久，其中一个跑来announce说：“大家今天早点回家，然后都喝一杯，我不知道你们，反正我是要去喝一杯的！”这个时候就觉得有些郁闷了，这个。。。不用你管吧。然后哥儿几个就开始很大声得说话，后来几个人跑到过道里边抽烟弄得满车厢味道（hersey说他们在抽大麻，后来被我和lu认为是想的太多）；但是几个人确实都怪怪的。这个还可以忍。后来，听见里边开始吵架，气氛一下子紧张了。还没闹明白怎么回事，两个哥们儿就打起来了，一下子从过道移到车厢里。全车的人一下子就绷紧了神经。我们三个可怜的小女孩，只好蜷坐在座位上面挤成一团，祈祷说不要打到我们这里来，没有还手之力。突然坐在我们后面的那个南亚长相的人（后来我觉得是斯里兰卡人，因为他比较面善，又对那里得人有好感），马上把手伸出来保护我们，嘴里还说着， these ladies,什么的，似乎要我们不要害怕，然后对这那几个黑哥们说让他们watch out什么的， 唉，当时心里那个感动。。。结果非常不幸的那几个打架的人一下子就砸到了他的身上（后来听lu说的，我因为背对着他没有当场看到），然后hersey还说即使这样他还是没有忘记保护我们的安全，还用使劲伸着手臂护着我们这样。后来我们都没有机会和他道谢，真是很guilty。。。也许是因为他提醒那几个人，他们才手下留情没有砸过来。。。只好在心里好好的谢谢他了。更值得一提的是，当时这个车厢里的男人们都表现的非常gentlemen，还有两个白人人去拉打架的人，还有人去安慰另外两个遭到池鱼之殃的女孩子。。。男人们都和女人们换了座位，让她们坐里边，自己坐外面，还有真的用自己的身体或者行动来保护女人的。。。我记得很清楚的一个细节，就是他们打到中场休息的时候，几个男人都不约而同的作出让女人先走，自己“断后”的动作，很是感人。后来我们及时的换了车厢，终于算是有惊无险。

 

some remarkable things that I realized in Chicago,one of them is that I found chicago people are very very very nice, in general, compare with people from other places that i've been to anyways. I'm sure all of us, lu and hersey and me of course, would remember how we got people to help us whenever we needed it, not only the train incidence, but also people from the bus, people from the road...quite a nice thing for a big city to have isn't it? you should be really happy about it, hersey!~:-)

and also, the lake of michigan is just...unbelievably beautiful!! transparent and beautiful shiny blue, which remains nice and peaceful for most of the time, and giant like an ocean...i say it's heaven! when i looked at it i did think of angel's eyes, so deep and gentle...so everybody, if you ever come to chicago, or places near by, do come to see the lake because you will LOVE it!

whatelse...i realized on the train that almost everybody who travels with the train, was wearing nice and clean looking shoes!! because as you can imagine, some people, especially some of the african americans who rides the trains who aren't rich looking, but they keep their shoes neat!which i really appreciated because it shows that they do care about themselves and somewhat about their life quality and styles as well.It is the positive aspect of the city, and I really liked. I've never felt this anywhere else yet.

and the Jazz culture, the blues and musicals, arts, gives the city a unique style, that differentiates itself from other big cities like NY or Boston for example. It's somewhat quite casual, and relaxing but also caring kind of feeling, that made me feel quite good about being there. As what they said : we're glad that you're here! And I was glad I was there too.~

明天开学，我这心里还没着没落的。费尽千辛万苦，才把我那一大~~堆的破破烂烂都归了位，有照片为证啊各位。。。大概一共有13个箱子，然后每个都是满满的，我就这么一点可怜的地方，还麻烦偶舅舅帮我把一大堆东西搬来搬去的，最后还忘了带床上用品，结果第一天晚上没有枕头，到现在也没有mattress，只是在床垫上铺了一个床单而已。希望明天可以收到那个大包裹了:-)真是不收不知道，一收吓一跳，我所有的东东都是至少有一对儿，我甚至有三套洗头水。。。太spoiled了！！ 所以我一边收一边对自己发誓，今年一年都不再去shopping了，攒钱攒钱，呵呵，不是存起来，是要去旅游！嘿嘿~去哪里呢？恩，这个还真是个问题，能去Hawaii就好了，姐儿几个~~~

我的roomate是塞浦路斯人，很奇怪吧，还有更奇怪的，我住的这个house里面居然有3个塞浦路斯人！他们居然成了majority!!太不可思议了！我们学校现在可能有12-13个中国人吧，包括港台的，今年一下子来了5个，已经破天荒了。从我们学校毕业的中国人可能一共也没有超过10个呢。我们的实力真的太小了，要加加油了！！让印巴人做大哥的日子还真不那么舒服的呵呵。我们这一群还是以女生为主，今年好容易来了3个男生，还挺稀罕呵呵。这下有劳动力咯~恩，还有学弟学妹可以欺负拉~呵呵，忒坏了:-P

哦，对了，今年非常恐怖的来了粉多的Asians，这个在我们学校不是新鲜事，但是这次密度比较大，满眼看上去觉得乌泱乌泱的，还是挺吓人的。哦，明确一下，我指的Asians是指黄种人，就是东亚东南亚人，印巴他们已经被排除在Asian的范围之内了，呵呵，他们自己人说的，不怨我，嘿嘿~ 本来嘛，他们虽然很黑还算做白种人呢，不公平。。。所以说满眼看去都是长得和你差不多的，不知道是哪儿来的Asians，（我们学校有：中国，日本，韩国，泰国，新加坡，越南，也许有马来西亚，这些国家）感觉不是很爽。。。总觉的我们这个小小的liberal art college会一直粉“美国”的，归其。。。哎，all messed up! just kidding hehe不过大飞啊，这还是比Ann Arbor 好很多了，至少去Korger的时候会有很肥胖的美国人在晃来晃去，出了学校范围就都是美国人了呵呵。但是我很担心明天上课的时候，因为都是maths and science, 会有很多黄色的脸黑色的眼。。。恩恩，做好心理准备吧~

想想还有什么可说的。。。恩，我已经见到了不少Freshmen,感觉还挺不错，这届的素质感觉起来比我们那一届好，真的，哎，悲哀啊~有不少很开朗很友好的男生，女生好像没什么太特别的，可能是还没有接触到的缘故。感觉最奇怪的就是看见这些新面孔和旧面孔混在一起。看见新面孔的时候感觉很好，感到他们很年轻（只差一年也有区别阿，哎，老喽！）很有朝气；看见旧面孔的时候，尤其是看到那些说认识又不认识的人，或者是不大喜欢的人，现在都换了发型，换了装束，也没羞没臊地走在路上，心里很别扭。呵呵 没办法，大家都新学期有新气象了，但是这种新旧的交替还让人挺不习惯的，真的；看到他们，会想起以前的日子，但是他们又不再是以前的他们了，总觉得怪怪的。哎，也许是现在太闲了就来胡思乱想了吧...会习惯的:-)

惨了，半天还没有开始弄我的poster,真的要来不及了，那先这样吧，回来再继续阿~先88了~~

 

终于要开学了。。。一个3个月长的暑假，还是一转眼就过来了，time flies like crazy!!每个人都在问同样的一个问题，how was your summer?然后 what did you do? yeah what did i do? 我做了那个很血腥的summer research, 去了两趟上海，然后就是学了开车。有什么收获呢？

现在至少不会再晕血了，然后对于医生这个职业有了进一步的了解，觉得并没有想象中的那么恐怖呵呵，所以以后还是可以考虑上medical school的拉~然后大概得知道了一些比较专业的词汇，而不仅仅是“心律失常”，比如窦停，二连率什么的呵呵~然后稍微看的懂了心电图，稍微了解了心脏的庐山真面目，领教了它的惊人的自律能力。。。好像比我想象的要多阿，恩，不错不错;-)

和ABC们到江苏省玩了一圈，风景也看了，又交到几个朋友，真的物超所值~~作为中国人，咱还真的是值得骄傲的。记得在北京那个全体的夏令营，来自天南海北的ABC们一共5000多人，大家住在一起，吃在一起，穿着一样的T-shirt,那场面。。。大家和自己的团员说着自己所在国家的语言，但是却和其他团员热情的用汉语打招呼，只要一句“你好”说出口，我们就都是中国人了。那同为炎黄子弟的骄傲，悠然而生~记得我们当时住的楼层混杂着不少来自其他国家的团员，我们听他们说话，然后猜他们是从哪里来的，大家意见不统一的时候就去问问，当然了，用中文，然后大家就热热乎乎的寒暄一通，非常温馨~中国人，尽管是在国外生长的，讲起别国的语言还是会有很独特的中式口音，基因问题嘛，我们的口腔构造在一两代之间是不会改变的。我对于ABC们的英语不陌生，但是这次听到了他们讲法语，德语，还是第一次，我个人觉得，比纯正的白种人讲出来的要更好听，呵呵，同胞们自豪一下吧！~ 然后中国人的勤奋也充分体现在了他们的下一代身上，很多孩子都是佼佼者，什么Yale,Harvard, MIT, Stanford, 照单全收，而且个个多才多艺，然后都很独立、成熟，个人素质非常好。呵呵在这稍微揭一下内幕，那天我们聊起来的时候，这几个优秀的孩子也在用中文感慨：“都是逼出来的阿！” 呵呵，看来我们国内的同学们可以平衡一下了，然后有一个真理，天才真的没有天生的，大家都是奋斗出来的，所以嘛，人人平等，大家都有机会咯，也不是坏事:-) 关于风景嘛，我印象比较深的是南京的艺术博物馆，和苏州。那个博物馆很大，很新，南京在这里面透了不少金钱和精力，值得一去。总统府其实也很不错，我之前都不知道太平天国定都南京（天京）的时候，是把这里作为行宫的，而且总统府已经有很久的历史了，大概是明朝时就有了。呵呵如果可能的话我倒是真的不介意住在里面呢~苏州真的是很别致的一个城市，到处都古香古色，拙政园名不虚传，有机会的话大家一定要去看看。

再说说学车吧。在南开大学的驾校报的名，在大家都非常熟悉的前桑园连的车。我们的驾校非常负责，诺大的一个教练场，很多的驾校在一起，上午的时候车满为患，到了下午，就只剩我们一个驾校了，连卖矿泉水的大爷大妈都感叹，你们的驾校真的很负责阿，这么热的天还在练，看看人家别的驾校都回去了。。。我的教练，出了名的严，从来不笑，也不会表扬谁，顶多就是做得比较好的时候就不说什么了。他是个不苟言笑的人，不想别的教练和学员打成一片，但是人家的技术谁也说不出话来。练过车的人都知道倒杆，人家倒一个杆只用5秒钟，而且绝对标准。听说因为倒杆倒的好被人称为“李铁杆”~ 揶揄一下 呵呵 也是严师出高徒了，我的技术在众多学员当中还是不错的，至少当时学的时候是不错的;-)所以现在在美国重考驾照，也是很有信心了。学车其实很辛苦，我们用的是两厢的夏利，那个离合器，别提多难用了，非常容易熄火，然后油门一点就很足，总之不好控制，夏利阿，真的没什么前途了。哎哎~~ 时常急的人出汗。然后就是不会开空调，在太阳底下暴晒，导致这次被我的朋友说成是东南亚籍华裔。。。这也就没什么了，最恐怖的就是那里的厕所，老大阿~~~我现在想起来就。。。哎，大家要是也去前桑园的话可千万要做好准备阿，千万。。。

当然还稍微看了几本书啥的，就没什么好说的了，下次就该写回到米国的事了，嗯嗯，未完待续吧！~

it's def not the first time that i have to say goodbye to people, but still, whenever i realize that i only have one weekend left for the summer, i cant help but to feel the uneasiness inside.

 

distance does brings pain but also creats beauty.

having first experienced being away from home at the age of 16, i felt more of excitement. and surprisingly that such feeling was with me for almost 10 months, but is just started to change in the last month. i was excited because i was tired of what i've been doing and i wanted some fresh air, but after the salty and fishy sea-shore air filled my lungs, the spirit inside started to call for home, the one, the sweet one. first time ever in my life that i felt such strong emotion about home, about family, and that i was greatly shocked and touched. and such feeling went towards my own home in china and also my new home in the states. I suddenly realized the pain of saying goodbye, as soon as the AFS volunteer announced that it's time for host families to leave: we were still talking and laughing but all of a sudden, we had to hug each other goodbye, without knowing when will we see each other again. laughters switched into cries in just one minute. nobody, not anybody afforded to stay calm, all i can recall is hugging and kissing, tears and reddend eyes, and also camera flashes. but still, students were finally pulled away from their host familes and then "forced" into a room with a heavy door closed behind us. it was surprising to see how much one year does to people, how much it could change one person to someone else, and how much it creats emotional relationships with so many more people... as we got back home, parents were surprised to see how much weight we've all gained and how much we changed, but all we cared was to find our parents and hug them as hard as we could, we didn't care if they got freaked out or not, and then, we all cried hard.

 

the last time when i had to say goodbye to my family was when i left for college. i didnt feel as much when we were still at the airport, and we were still taking pictures and talking to each other like nothing is going to happen. but when i headed to the security check, when i turned around and started walking, tears just came out like crazy. i couldnt even turn back to see whether they were still there, coz i don't want them to see that i was crying, and it would be worse if they were, too. it took me 10 mintues to get over with the feeling and being able to smile again. and thanks to the MSN messenger, i could use webcam to see my family from time to time so that homesick didn't come back to me this year, and it wasn't that emotional to see my parents again when i got home.

 

but now, when i just have 2 days left in china, i started to feel the uneasiness. this never happened before, either. i know it's going to be the same as last year and actually, it will be easiler, a lot easiler coz i know about my college already. but it doesn't help. i actually felt sad after every reunion i had this summer, including the summer camp, and even after the driving lessons. this is not quite me, i mean, i'm not usually the emotional one, but this summer, the feeling just grew strong for no reasons. i'm wondering why, and i can think it could be the distance, that every departure brings more sadness for the next one. it must be it. it also makes me feel, that i should try not to come back too often, because such theory works on me like this . i had 3 months, but it seems it wasn't enough, not at all, to let me fulfill the homesick. i missed everybody, my family, my friends, my room... just everything. and the sadder part is that i know people will change, and so will the places. who i know now won't be who they will be in the future when i get back again. memories can only be memories, they stand for history, not present or future. and no one could foresee what is ahead of him, but to take the steps.

 

to appreciate wherever i've been, whoever i've met and whatever they've done for me, and to keep them in mind. saying goodbye to what it is up to now, and to keep the future in the sunlight, to look up and step up; in this way, i'll be able to smile when saying goodbye, and say to myself, sure, i'm okey:-)