一月的最后一天

终于又爬上网来

信箱里堆满了email

处理了一部分

过来跟大家问声好

 

度过了一段“鸵鸟”时期

不看不听不说不想不解释

当心灵和理智不合拍的时候

我选择安静

 

今天来家里拜年的人很多

包括一个叫点点的可爱的小丫头

她说：你的书我读过五遍，里面的句子还会背

是哪一句？我问她

 

Life is a one way journey-you cannot experience it twice

她昂着头背诵着这样的句子

 

十来岁的她正是无忧的年纪

朗朗的童音里，我知道她并不能参透这句话真正的含义

 

明了，不是一个瞬间能够完成的

需要的是岁月

有些代价是我们不能不付的

如此而已

 

 

12月24日，莱福士广场，人山人海。

我和朋友在附近觅食，发现几乎所有的餐馆都是满位。

这是平安夜，无数的年轻人在庆祝圣诞。

 

朋友感叹：前两天是冬至，传统里最重要的节日之一，可是很多人对此并无知觉。

什么时候，他们的圣诞节，成了我们的节日？

 

 

 

这个周末忙碌而充实：

 

阅读-这是周末最大的享受，案头的红酒和书本是我不离不弃的爱人。这两天在读的是New York Times的专栏作家Thomas Friedman新出的一本The World is Flat，书评过几日奉上。

 

讲座-离开讲台已经快三年了，周日受新东方之邀去南昌路科学会堂做了一场有关留学英伦的讲座，带了几本书作为lucky draw的礼物。分享是一件愉悦的事情，无论是知识还是经历。讲座后收到鲜花一束，有些手足无措-对于花儿我只喜欢一种：在原野里自由自在生长着的。

 

新blog-网络阅读成为每日生活的一部分，于是新建了一个知识分享型的blog-make a dent in the universe，把读到的好文章放在上面。

 

年底了-感觉日子是以加速度前进的，还好心态并不慌张，且行且珍惜。 

 

一直想养一条狗：要么很大，要么很小，最好丑丑的，但要有性格。

 

Marcia对我说：养条狗对你的身心健康或许有好处，但对于宠物的身心健康一定大大不利——你天天加班，狗狗可能饿死；你常常出差，狗狗可能郁闷死；据说宠物太孤独了也会得忧郁症的。

 

Marcia养了相对而言不容易得忧郁症的宠物：三只乌龟，一窝耗子。

今日与好友相聚，饮黄酒数杯，微醺，谈笑风生，摇摇晃晃，高歌而归。

正是：冬日有酒不觉寒，人生得友方有味。

 

能给另一个人幸福是一件美好的事情；但学会给自己幸福同样有无与伦比的快乐。

 

开始相信，自己是深受命运眷顾的女子...

 

 

 

 

 

 

平日忙碌，也就周末有点时间是自己的。喜欢在报刊亭捧上一大叠报纸，靠在沙发上慢慢读，常买的报纸有《经济观察报》、《南方周末》和《周末画报》。偶尔也买《上海一周》，爱看上面的馆子介绍，未必去吃，看看图也是蛮好的。

 

近来有了剪报的习惯，好的文字是值得一读再读。只是我这个人粗枝大叶，剪了一堆，却不去整理，散落在抽屉里。

 

这一期的《南方周末》上有冯象的一篇文章《见不到起舞的苏格拉底》谈到现代大学的教育理想，里面的观点令人颇有共鸣，网上也有：

Three Phases in Cambridge

 

It is so hard for me to describe my feelings towards Cambridge. In fact I have experienced several phases here in just a few months.

 

I fell in love with this small town almost at the first sight. It is so different from the city I used to live. Comparing with Shanghai, a large modern but noisy metropolis, Cambridge is just a tiny place that it only takes me half an hour to walk across the whole city. I spent the first few days just walking on the narrow pebble-path and appreciating the beauty of the ancient architecture which boast of thousands years of history. I could smell the scent of romance in every corner and felt myself in a fairy tale-my description may sound a little bit childish, well, I did feel that I was like a happy child in an amusement park when I first came here-a lot of fun, no worries at all. That's the first phase.

 

In a famous American movie it is said that life is just like a box of chocolates-you won't know what you are going to get. The first chocolate I picked from the box was sweet and delicious, however, the second one turned out to be bitter. My nightmare began with the prelude of the first class, a class taught by a very respectable Indian professor from the department of economics. I was so sorry that I failed to appreciate his smart brain fraught with profound knowledge. The reason is simple-the English he spoke sounded to me like a language from the other planet. Actually it took me forty minutes to make sure that the language he spoke was ENGLISH. When I finally confirmed that it was, the bell rang and class was over. "Do the English speak English?"-the title of a text in my high-school English book kept on looming in my mind like a ghost.

 

The class was composed of 50 students representing more than 30 countries. Every one had a splendid background: some were graduated from Ivy-leagues such as Princeton and Harvard; some had already got a master or even a PhD; some had been working in the world-famous companies such as McKinsey or GE for more than ten years; some were high-level officials in the government. I should admit that I was the most noticeable one among them; however I could not feel proud of that. I became the most noticeable one simply because I had the most unnoticeable background:  the youngest one, major in Humanities, with flaky academic preparation for economics, number-blind, always follow the voice from the heart instead of weighing the 'opportunity cost' whenever make a decision. Being with all those economists who are number-crunchers, I sometimes asked myself : why did Cambridge accept me and provide me with a full scholarship? The answer was clear-politely speaking, for the reason of diversity; frankly speaking, for the reason of decoration-no contrast, no distinction-linaism. Nevertheless, I did get some comfort a month later when chatting with a native British student. After listening to my complaints about the language barrier, she thought for a while and then said,' yes, I do understand every word coming out of the professor's mouth, but the combination of these words means nothing but confusion to me.' Wow-I heard a 'little mean lady' cheering deep in her heart-Fortunately I am not the only one!

 

Most of my second-phase frustrations came not from the classroom but from the dining-hall. I hate to complain anything about UK, however I have enough Chinese in my blood to value good food. Food here, it seems, is usually cooked in only two ways: Way number one: dump everything in the hot water, and then pull them out; Way number two: dump everything in the hot oil, and then pull them out. Though I tried very hard not to complain, my stomach seldom agreed with me. In order to placate her, I began to cook for myself. Once I thought, after spending a year here, I might end up being a cook instead of an economist.

 

I sound very cynical about my second phase here, that's only because it belongs to the past. After tasting both the sweet and the bitter chocolates, I came to realize that no matter what I get from that box-sweet or bitter-they are chocolates, they are the gifts given by life that should be cherished. I am here because I want to learn and grow. Starting from scratch gives me more space to grow. After struggling with the heavy workload, I found myself making progress everyday and my cooking skills has also  improved a lot.

 

Tomorrow is another day-this is one of my classmates' tag; Mine is-enjoy life from today!