4. Food: 说到吃, 来了德国想到的无非就是香肠和猪肘. 香肠德语叫würst, 最常见的就是Bratwürst, 就是猪肉的. 法兰克福有一种自己的特色肠, 叫Frankfurter, 比一半的细长. 巧的是, 我竟然在Boston的Shaw's也能买到. 味道嘛, 当然不能相提并论了. Frankfurter就跟慕尼黑的白香肠一样, weiss würst, 是可以和一个城市联系在一起的食物. 某人一直很喜欢currywürst, 每次来都吃. 可我还是最喜欢普通的Bratwürst, 加点ketchup就ok啦. 看来我对吃还真不那么讲究. 德国还有一样我很喜欢的食物, 就是pretzel. 土吧, 是啊, 没办法, 俺是农民, 连吃都很朴素. Pretzel是一种面包的名字, 外面烤得金黄金黄得, 上面撒些盐粒, 很有"嚼头". 我喜欢chewy的食物, 所以对美国的面包很不感冒, 因为太软了, 怀念欧洲硬硬的面包. 这边的sanwich大都是软面包, 没有嚼头, 不好吃

 

 

6. 世界杯: 是2006年德国的代名词, 而法兰克福也是赛场城市之一. 有幸身临其境, 不仅感受到了德国人对足球的狂热, 更重要的是, 俺终于会看球了!! 不是说看不懂足球, 以前还是会的, 只是现在突然间发掘到足球的精髓和魅力, 那不是用规则可以解释的. 这也许就只能求助于文化来解释了, 也就是所谓的"外行看热闹, 内行看门道". 俺也还是在门外看热闹罢了, 只是比以前懂得如何去看这个热闹, 哈哈哈

 

7. Heidelburg: 最后不得不提是海德堡, 德国为名遐迩的大学城, 欧洲医学的起源地 (怪不得我在法兰克福看的医生都医术高明得了得呀). 海德堡是二战后德国唯一保留完整得古城. 一个有趣的轶闻, 当年负责轰炸该城的美军飞行员曾经在海德堡大学学习过, 并且深爱这种城市, 所以最终没能狠心扔下炸弹. 类似的传说似乎各个国家都有. 在电影 before sunset 里面, Jesse在游船经过Notre Dame的时候说, 当年德军撤退的时候打算炸掉巴黎圣母院, 炸药都埋好了, 最后负责引爆的德国兵最终没能狠下心. 也许这就是文化的魅力. 个人在历史的辉煌面前总是脆弱和渺小的.

 

 

 

Time flies. It comes to the final exam week before I realize; Xmas is around the corner, before I can smell it; winter logistics are shouting at me before I could take care of them. Ironically the exam season is the most relaxing days for me: no need to feel guilty that I don't get time to read cases; always push myself go to bed before midnight; treat myself better by going off-campus for Japanese lunch; take long naps in the afternoon when there's no classes at all ;-) I don't know why there're still people care so much about exams. Maybe it's all about expectations. What we learn here is not only on paper; what I cherish most here is not in numbers ;-P Sometimes we cannot choose the outcomes in life; but always, we can choose the way to look at it. The latter is what we should focus on, isn't it?

其实就是一种洒脱

出世与入世

只可惜我们大部分的时候都不懂得如何取舍(trade-off是最近出现频率很高的一词)

 

Another Sunny Sunday in Boston

Entering the month of December, one still cannot feel the notorious winter of Boston

Grass is still green; trees are swinging gently; red-brick walls reflecting the dazzling sunshine

I wish I could be sitting in a glass-roof coffee house, reading any book but job bank or cases

In fact, poor me again has to spend the afternoon in Baker Library, shielded from the sun and fresh air, finishing the tedious cover letters

The cost of being lazy; or the price of coming happy holiday?

A sunny Sunday afternoon, skaters crowded on the Frog Pond in Boston Common. Joggers running by, bench-sitters sipping hot coffee, street artists performing, grandpa leading little girl to tennis court, foreigners gazing at squirrels hopping around, sunlight flooded on everyone's smiling faces. I simply like it, this sunny Sunday afternoon.

 

Btw, i did a challenging parellel parking right across the City Hall. The two policemen nearby expressed how impressive they were about my skillful parking. haha ;-) 自恋一把, 俺的平趴技术现在是日臻成熟, 看来天天在Western Ave.上平趴也不是白练的,呵呵.当然了,小虫虫身材苗条,也是功不可没, 哈哈.

 

p.s., forgot to bring my camera; has to copy a photo from online of the Frog Pond Skating. But there's another picture of the pond I took during summer.

 

 

It is AWESOME! First Thanksgiving on an American farm, with traditional American family gathering, and exciting adventures. Riding on a helicopter, shooting flying frisbee, climbing my four-wheel-motorcycle on a tree (lousy driver with valid Mass. licence, haha), watching deer butchering, golfing and eating...

 

Speaking of the deer butcher, it was something that aroused my mixed feeling. After came to the States, I found that the more I think, the more I become confused. That might be the beauty of the freedom of speech (encouraging all kinds of voices). On the one side, one can argue deer hunting is the effective way to control booming number of deers, which already pose a problem to farming. On the other side, it is just sth I feel brutal and inhuame. We are all part of the value chain in nature. Luckily, human beings are at the end the chain. If hunting deers is the "legitimate" way to control deer population, why it is "illegitimate" to use it to control human population? Are deer and human different? From biological perspective, both are creature/animals; from religious view, both are created by God. But we are different, coz human beings know how to use tools, and are able to stand at the top of value chain. Darwin's "natural selection" - survival of the fittest - works here. Ironically, people tend to apply the theory to justify their action on others, but not on themselves. If Darwin's theory is universal, then wars, massacres, even terrorism can be justified as well. If this is the rule governing the development of our society, then all a country needs to do is competing in millitary power. Sorry to expand the thinking to far. Back to the deer thing, it made me refuse to eat deer meat for the rest of the holiday. However, I am still not a vegetarian. There was one presentation from a section-mate, which blaming the butchering of all kinds of animals, and appealing for vegetarianism. I was arguing then, plants have life too, but they cannot cry, or we cannot hear they crying. Does that mean we should not eat vegetables? If vegetatrian kills living plants, why cannot "carnivore" kill animals? Life is unfair; it never is. Is God's love universal? Why He creates everything, but let the surval by sacrificing, living by killing? I don't have the answer, and I am tired of going through all these reasoning. Should I just feel lucky to be on the top of value pyramid.

 

There's an Isreali friend joining this wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. And the topic on Isreal and Palestine came in our 12-hr road drive naturally. He double confirmed that millitary is totally different from politics. In a fighting, all the solider thinks about is his brothers, his friends, and his combat partners. Nobody has time to think about the country, the justice of the war or whatever. All return to the basics, family and love. This I totally agree. Only politicians and historians have the time to iterate and reiterate on finding their reasons/execuses for wars. Jerusalem isn't the problem, which I heard couple of times; the problem is around the "right of return" for Palestinian. That is the new idea I first heard but not toally agree on. Isreal wants to veto the "right of return", on concer that each time Jews become a minority in one country, they are persecuted. They fear the history happen again, that in the Roman Empire, that in the World War II. Around us, Isreali are much more outspoken or visible in another sense. I was wondering what Palestian would say on this. Unfortunately no Palestinian students I meet so far. If they used to live in the area before Isreal was set up, why cannot they claim the right to return according to the agreement at that time? If Jews abandoned their own homeland thousands of years ago, why they have the right to return to their fatherland but Palestians cannot? Is it becoz of religion or nationalism? I have been asked many times, "Is Taiwan part of China?" My answer is always firmative "Yes". "Why?" "Because it is part of China, for thousands of years." Is it true? for thousands of years? "Taiwan became part of the China only since Zhengchenggong conquered it. What's the difference than Japanese conquering it during the war?" "If Taiwanese now do not regard themselve as part of China, why you choose for them?" Frankly speaking, I don't know how to answer these questions. And I agree they are valid questions and do make me challenge my own stance. However, I just cannot easily say Twain is not. It is, to me, like a conclusion ever since I was born. And it hurt my nationalistic feeling if someone says not. Should I embrace the different view and become so-called wide-minded? Or should I just stop thinking? Coz the more I think, the more I become confused.

 

Sorry to put these two serious topics here under Thanksgiving title. I should say thanks too. To Matt Payne, who invited us all; to his family, who are the most nice and friendly persons I met; to all the friends who made this trip memorable ;-)

 

 

It was more of a big party (tailgate) than of a game, to most of Americans. I guess I was one of the few who bought the ticket for the game, not for drinks, though I was also the few who did not understand the game. Ironic har? The game itself is said to be atypical football game, coz both teams sucks (or, Harvard football sucks more). Lousy tactics, nvr-catching-the-ball, 5-yard-kick etc. Besides the big party, the other exciting moment would be two streakings at the end of the game. Unfortunately, I missed that part ;-(