查尔斯河畔

又来到查尔斯河畔。

虽然已经是四月末，午后斜阳照在身上带来的暖意，还是在瞬间被水面掠过的冷风吹散，敲打键盘的手指也感觉到了阵阵寒意。

每次将要离开一个熟悉的地方，我总会来到水边，静静地看着水波流动，回忆着逝去的又一段时光。四年前，是在未名湖边；而如今，是在查尔斯河畔。

曾经在岸边遥望过独立日夜空璀璨的焰火，心怀遗憾的却是在查尔斯河上泛舟的梦想。

有一年暑期，经常在图书馆做完兼职之后，都会顶着夏日午后的阳光，步行到河畔。找一张被树荫半遮半掩的木椅坐下，然后翻开一本书。斑驳的树影落在书页上，明暗相间像是镂刻的花纹。偶尔水面会传来嘈杂声或喧闹声。有时候那是白色的游艇，拖着长长的尾浪疾驰而过。平静的水面像是被从中间猛地劈下，余波分开散去，最终敲打着两边的堤岸。有时候则是色彩斑斓的小皮划艇，和着舵手的号子，艇桨有节奏地拍打着水面发出声响。

坐在河边很容易发呆出神，那年暑假的我更甚。常常觉得一晃之间已是日落西沉。

Lara

Almost three years ago, I met Lara during the orientation. By that time, my English was so crappy that I didn't even know what "crappy" means. :p But Lara was so patient in listening to me and tried to help me follow the conversations while I was the only international student sitting around the table.

Lara is tall and blond, with an amiable face and a charming laughter. I felt like I knew her already even though we just met for the first time.

That weekend right after the orientation, some guys lived in Rock went out to a bar and invited me to go with them. Lara was going too. When she saw me in the stairway, she said she has a tourist book about China in her room. Then I followed her upstairs to get the book. On our way to the bar, she told me that it was the book she took with her to China. That night the book helped me to have my first hard but enjoyable conversation in another language. Lara pointed the places she went to in China, and I told her where my hometown is, which I probably couldn't describe well without the map.

We didn't have many chances to talk after the new semester started. But everytime when we had a chance, either it was on our way to different classes or it was a bumping into in the library, we always had a good conversation.

Tonight when we were walking home together, we talked about my first experience in America. Our conversation ended with my first night and morning at HDS when we arrived her house. But my remembrance of knowing her as a friend had just begun. Suddenly I realized that, if there is anyone who can tell exactly how my spoken language has been improving for the last three years, it must be Lara.

iFeng's Radio

Listen to my radio! But sorry guys, I can't be online 24/7. :p

It would be broadcasted from NYC soon.

Something you don't wanna be late for

In our life, going to sleep at the right time is as important as getting to know someone at the right time. We don't want to be late for either of them. If you are, you lose both.

When you are late than the time you usually go to sleep, you will find yourself lying in the bed with your eyes wide open. You are so tired at midnight after a long day but you just couldn't sleep. You are late so you lose it.

Same thing happens when you meet someone you wish you had known so many years ago. As earlier as you can be conscious of the existence of both of you. Otherwise you just can't change something. You are late so you lose it.

There are pills said to possibly help you sleep, there are reasons said to probably make you not alone. You might have those pills and fall in sleep without feeling lonely, or you might have reasons not to stay too late without needing pills.

Anyway, if you lose both, and if you have no pills and no reasons, I feel sorry for you.

My Music Box

Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day
Lonely by Akon

全民皆球

有些日子没上iTune的网上商店逛悠了。当然，以前上也不是花钱买歌听，或者买TV Shows看。现在没那闲钱，以后估计没那时间。吸引我的是里面免费的Movie Trailers。不管是守法－上电影院，还是违法－BT下载，看电影之前我还是想先弄明白这个东东值不值得我花上好几个小时，尽管我这无业游民时间大把。
扯得远了。今天不讨论版权问题。而是聊聊“忽如一夜春风来”的足球电影。
《Goal》，中文译作《一球成名》，烂。看见goal这个单词，耳边就响起某个西班牙语台的足球评论员在比赛中某方进球之后那拖得像哈雷彗星尾巴那样的长音，goooooooooooooooooooal。不夸张，电视屏幕上跟着打出词儿的真这么长。家有宽屏电视的谁们估计比我看到的“o”还要多。电影号称巨制。估计是指着美钞和英镑说的，或者还有些比塞塔。像小贝、劳尔和齐秃这样的级别，光露露脸挣到的钱估计就够我爽上几年。看见小贝上前去恭维男主角，让我感觉荒谬无比。想想看，西甲、英超的球员一到周末累得要死。小贝难道吃饱了没事干去看英超的比赛，更别说看一场纽卡斯尔的联赛了。就算他跟欧文关系好，人那时侯还没被皇马赶跑啊。抛开这些，虽然拉明星凑数完全是为了票房，虽然听小贝恭维让我浑身狂掉鸡皮疙瘩，虽然只听见劳尔说了两句我一窍不通的西班牙文，虽然只能看看齐丹那明晃晃的脑袋却听不见他说句我能凑合的法文，我还是把这段整部影片中最不需要演技的画面来回倒去看了5遍。
《Goal》里面男主角的踢球动作让我想起了猩猩，真还不如《She's the Man》里面这位机灵可爱的小姑娘潇洒。可能是因为视觉误差，影片开头小姑娘在踢沙滩足球那一段让我觉得她的动作很职业。Anyway，大概也怪我没踢过沙滩足球吧。本片虽然看上去是在弘扬女权主义，在结尾部分安排一场比赛，并让女主角成为比赛的转折点。最后一记点球射倒对方门将，也是她的前男友，分手原因是因为对方嘲笑女生踢球（很像香港早期的功夫片，我指情节上）。问题在于，女主角始终还是靠伪装成男生才提高了球艺，最后又fall in love with a guy who plays soccer better than her.
男生，女生的足球奋斗史都有了。下面该谁出场了？Yes，讲述同性恋朋友们的故事《Guys and Balls》。电影还没上映，我只看了trailer。看过了trailer，我看见的不是《Brokeback Mountain》，我看见的是《少林足球》。

A simple page with some pictures I took last summer has just been done. Check it out! :)

Friends-to-be or Real Friends

Had a dicussion about "friends", here is what I said,

"Personally, I won't say anyone in the world "is" my friend. I will say anyone "could be" my friend. I had some chats with facility guys while I was doing orientation for my school; I smiled to people on my way back home; I said hello to someone I met at the door of grocery store. I wasn't doing that because I think they were my friends and I would feel insincere if I said so. I didn't actually know them. But I was showing my respect to them as good human beings. They could be my friends if we had time or had chance. But we didn't. So I can only say they were acquaintance, or "friends-to-be" for me.
I used "real friends" here because I felt like that is the kind of friendship being talked in the article. There are always some people I would think of frequently even though we don't have chance to meet with. Everytime I think of them, I would wish them happy and have a good life. And if I feel lonely, they are people I want to pick up the phone and talk to. These are my real friends, and they currently are."

In English there is a word "friendly", we are told to "be friendly" to other people. It doesn't seem to make sense to say "to be friendly to your friends", right?

小病

波士顿的冬天是漫长的。可能正因为它漫长，所以已经习惯地，或者说麻木地的忍受着屋里屋外的寒冷。在享受了意外温暖的一周之后，我的身体显然差生了错觉，以为春天已经来临。然而前夜骤然变冷的气温终于抓住了机会，像是蓄谋已久，突破了我的健康防线。虽然没有多严重，也足以让我头疼一整天，连冠军杯的比赛也没能好好享受。

今晨醒来，感觉已然无恙，这归功于昨夜裹得严实的被窝和暂时饶过我的不安梦境。拉开窗帘，看见的是雪花纷飞。不算是意外。飘落的雪就像是这个冬天缓缓落下的帷幕。

A Man's Legend

Playing Love

Google's another gift

Google pages, a personal homepage service, comes to us finally.

Ashlea's babies

I went to visit my friend Ashlea and her two newly born babies. I didn't expect to see big babies because I knew they were born a little earlier than they were supposed to. But I was still shocked when I saw them. They are so tiny. Tiny heads, tiny faces, tiny eyes, tiny hands, tiny feet... When I was watching them, I somehow feel like I can imagine how I looked like 28 years ago. I am the youngest child of my mother, and she told me I was tiny when I was born and I never knew how. But now I understand.

Life is really a miracle. When we are born, we are so weak and don't even seem to survive. But this tiny creature as we were finally becomes the species that can make so many things in dream come to true.

Ashlea's Blog