2011

It has been the end of 2011, is it the time to retrospect this year? What I should do but did not do this year? What I should modify next year?

2011 is a little different from past years because I leave family and live alone in another country which is far from my home country. Because of this, I realize I am a home sick person, but I gain lots of things as well.

Living alone let me learn lots of things, such as cook, clean, etc. When I was at home in Shanghai, China, I did not need to do anything, everything was done by my mother, but now, I should do everything by myself.

I think I become more independence in the past year because I have to make decisions and solve problems by myself, especially when I stand in the intersection.

Most things for me are not that important, so most time I will follow others, but in 2011, I learn how to say “No”.  To be honest, I still do not like saying this word because it sounds too strong and not friendly, but I know I must say no sometimes to express my opinion and steadiness.

2011 is too relaxed for me because I spend too much time to play and it is the most relax year in my life.

Rainy Day

Drizzle from leaden sky, falling down drop after drop, cars coming and going breaks its consistency.

Rain hitting ground composes its beautiful music, along with the sound from wind blowing trees.

Fresh fragrant derives from washed plants and the unique wet in this kind of weather.

What to do in the rainy day:

Stay in the room alone, listen the music with a little bit melancholy, enjoy the gray view out of window, and taste inner peace.

Occasionally, walk in the rain that wakens brain and wash out exhaustion and worldly thoughts.

Or read a tragic novel. Maybe the novel was created in the rainy day. Reading it with a melancholy mood is probably closer to the author’s mood at that time.

Rainy day fits reminiscence. Reminisce those lost family members and friends and those days we went through together, which all become vivid images curving into brain.

Rainy day fits commemoration. Commemorate our lost youth. As time slipped between fingers, we have not been teenager any more. Looking my face reflects from the window, I doubted that did I still keep the original dream and have enough courage to try unknown things.

Drizzle and dim sky blurs the view in front of me. I cannot see it clearly. However, what I am sure is rainbow always appears after rain.

My Long Birthday

After a long, exciting, and tired birthday, I decide to write sth to share with someone who likes my blog. But right now I don’t know where to start. I think I should thank for those who remember my birthday.

from Fangzi,  I dont want share the thing in it with you guys.

one of my roommates, Fangzi. She is the first person who celebrated my birthday this year and gave me a gift that was really out of my expectation.

 And she invited me to her light show in her studio.

the light made by egg crates is her work





from Jenny



My cousin, Jenny Wang. Even though she works busy and lives in Columbus, OH, she still remembers my birthday and gave me a big surprise on Friday morning.

My teacher, Ruth. She gave me an very unique gift, especially, I am so moved that Ruth, Tony, Yuchieh, Clara and Ruth’s friends sang birthday song for me at the Fernbank Museum, which let me almost cry. In addition, congratulate for her successful exhibition.

from Ruth

one of my friends, Ying Song. She invited me to the dinner and a concert, and prepared cake for me.

from Ying

Chinese orchestra performs in GSU

The other one of my roommate, Season. Her birthday is 2 days earlier than me, so we celebrated together on Sunday night. We blew candle and cut cake together.

Season and me

Originally, I wanted to skip my birthday silently this year cuz it reminds me I become older again, so I did not plan anything. However, you guys did lots of things for me. It has been more than I can handle and much more than I deserve.

Thank you so much!!!

Swim meet in UGA

Today I participated in a swim meet with our swim club in UGA which is located in Athens. There are so many college swim club join the meet, such as GT, GSU, KSU, UF…

The meet started at noon, and before that, we had 1 hour to warm up. I registered 4 events: 25 yard fly, 50 yard breast stroke, 100 free relay, 200 free relay.

Except me, all members in swim club are Americans, which let me really feel I have left language school and go to a real US university. But my English sometime still makes trouble to me.

The gym in UGA is really huge and amazing, but except its gym and the peace in that small town, I still like GT more.

I have not formal training and race for such a long time. Even though this competition is just for fun and communicate with each other, I feel getting back to 10 years ago when I represented my county to participate swim competition in Shanghai, China.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

           Today, I went to GTLI and had a nice talk with Ruth who was my teacher in creative writing class. In our conversation, Ruth told me sometimes she did not understand me because I told her I took many classes, but when she asked me whether I was busy, my answer was no. At that time, I did not feel something wrong, but when I went home and thought of it, I felt it could be an interesting thing. I don’t think we have problem in expression and understanding, but we have different way of speaking and thinking because we have different culture. For example, few Chinese will say something is so easy even though they think it is. It is not because they don’t want to tell the truth, but it is because if they don’t do it well next time, they would be so humiliated. Therefore, Chinese is likely to express their humble in front of others. However, Americans will speak what they think directly. It lets me remember the time I just studied in GTLI. At that time, I was not used to be the way Americans speak. For instance, when two persons meet, one of them always asks the other  “ how are you doing?” The other answers “Good” every time. As I heard that, I was so confused because every day is similar, NOT GOOD, NOT BAD, JUST IS (from Ruth). Life is so wateriness. So at first I answered “SO SO.” But then I figured out it was just a way for Americans to speak. You don’t need spend long time to think your life is good or not. “Good” is just a fixed answer for this question. Maybe it contains good expectation, similar to “Have a good day.”

            I think GTLI is a really good place because there are so many students from different counties. The students have different cultures, backgrounds, religions, thoughts and personalities, but they could study together, make friends, share food, chat and understanding. How amazing! When different cultures, backgrounds, religions, thoughts and personalities crash each other, how powerful! Maybe that’s why the answer is “GOOD”.

Mid - Autumn Festival

September 12^th is a traditional Chinese festival ---- mid-Autumn Festival which originally derived from Zhou Dynasty. In Chinese Lunar Calendar, the festival is on August 15^th every year. At night of the day, the moon becomes fullest and roundest that means harvest and gathers. Therefore, famers celebrate their plenteous harvest and people will gather with their families at home in this day.

legend

A beautiful but sad legend is about mid – autumn festival.  An immortal couple, Houyi and Chang’e, forced to separate by Jade emperor. Houyi lives in the sun, but Chang’e lives in the moon. They are far from each other and cannot meet each other except August 15^th in Chinese lunar calendar. Only in this day, Jade emperor permits Houyi to visit Chang’e. Therefore, the moon becomes most beautiful and lightest in August 15^th.

Food

it is my favorite taste

Mooncake is one of most typical food in mid – autumn festival. It is like the moon and means union. Now we have different sorts and shapes of mooncakes, such as round, square, sweet, salty, etc. Moreover, we put different stuffing into mooncake, such as meat, egg, sweetened bean paste, ice cream and so on.

Taro boiling green soy bean is another typical food we eat in mid – autumn festival.

Duck is also typical food in mid – autumn festival. Duck soap or roast duck is a good choice for this festival. But be attention, it has to be whole duck. 

Activity

Praying , having dinner with family, watch moon at night….. all of them are traditional activities we could do.

In this special day, I miss my family more than any other time. Luckily, we still live under the same sky, watch the same moon and breathe the same air, and we are always together.

Hope everyone have a wonderful mid-autumn festival!!!

My new roommates

Last week I moved in my new apartment which has 3 bedrooms, so now I have 2 new roommates. They are completely different kind of persons. One is a young girl who is from Beijing, China and she can speak very standard mandarin. I like her optimistic personality so much because she is happy every day. It let me remember a sentence in the poem, which is, teenager doesn’t understand the feeling of sorrow. In addition, her behavior is similar to her personality. She decorated her bedroom so colorful, such as yellow pillow, red chair and desk, black wardrobe, pink sofa… The other is a faithful Christian. She goes to church and participants in related lecture every week. She has been in ATL for 5 years. During this period, she experienced so many difficulties. Luckily, she overcame them. Now when she meets problems, she would say it is a test from god.

It is so interesting for me to look for two strangers to be my roommates because 1 year ago I thought it was impossible for me to live with the person who I didn’t know.

Every day, we meet so many people. Someone brushed past us in the street, someone only say hello to us, someone could be our friend, and someone could be so close to us. Is it difficult to look for the “Someone” in millions of people? Not easy, but also not hard.

17 years

17 years ago, we entered into primary school, sitting in the same classroom, studying same knowledge and playing together. Looked around every naïve face around us, we became friends from stranger. At that time, we were all children who had plenty of remote dreams and longed to grow up. We’d like to suppose different possibilities of our future without worrying whether they will be come true. Sometimes, we bickered for niggling details, but we would become good only for a while. We were happy for achievement through our efforts and sad for the misfortune of one of our classmate whose apartment ruined by a great fire.

17 years later, we have grown up and never young any more. Most of us change a lot, but when we met, we still know who you were without more words. Nowadays, we have had different lives, someone becomes teacher, someone becomes doctor, and someone becomes financial analyst…, but we still remember our dreams in childhood. We chatted impressive events we went through together in the past, laughed the stupid things we did, and tried to look for someone who lost connection.

We knew each other 17 years ago, studied together for 5 years, and lose connection for 12 years. However, when we met again, we are still friends and close. 17 years, how many 17 years in our lives? How many people can meet their friends after 17 years? How precious!

A Simple Day

Bell rings. A new day is coming!

Open eyes. Prepare to face new challenges.

There is an old saying:"the most important time of a day is morning." Similarly , the most crucial meal of a day is breakfast.   Mantou and Coffeee are my breakfast today. Interestingly, Mantou(steamed bread) is traditional Chinese food and Coffee is typical western drink. It is an union between Eastern and Western culture. 

White T- shirt is my favorite cloth because it is simple and comfortable.  Moreover, white can combine any other colors.

The sport I like to do is walking these days. Walking along the street, reviewing the city I am familiar with.

 Undoubtedly, Bund is my favorite place. In 19th Century, Bund was called "Oriental Wall Street". 

Laptop is a good tool to record what I saw, heard, smelt, thought and  felt.

Sleeping is I spent most time with everyday. I don't think sleeping wastes time.  It  prepares for the better condition  of tomorrow. Have a good dream!

SEE YOU

Looking at these packed luggage, time seems to go back the first day I came to the United States. I still remembered that day so clearly because I experienced many “first time” in that day. It was the first time I left home to a remote country that is in the other side of the earth. It was the first time I came to such a strange environment. It was also the first time I became a foreigner. However, time passed away so fast, just like a moment of blinking eyes, even though I have stayed in the United States for almost 8 months. Now, I will leave the United States. At this moment, there are many images in my brain. The happy time study in GTLI, wonderful Halloween Party, and everyone I have met at here……….

To Ruth: You are the only person told me I was CREATIVE. I have never known that before. Even though I still don’t think so now, I was so happy when I heard that. You completely change the teachers’ image in my brain because I thought teachers are serious, but your laugh yoga really let me shocked. I am not sure I will do that because I am not an out- going person, but I will always remember it is a good way to release pressure. And I really like your drawing and the card you gave me. Wonderful!!!

To Lauren: I took your class three times. You are one of my most familiar teachers in LI. One time you let us give score to ourselves in the middle of session. My answer was I didn’t know because I did not analysis the article by myself, but now, I can tell you:”I know how to fish”.

To Murad: I am so curious about most articles you chose is about China. And every time you talked about China, you would look at me even I am not the only Chinese student in the class. The reason I don’t answer your question is not because I am shame to talk China, is because I am not care politics and I don’t think China plays an important role in the global issue, so I have nothing to say.

To YuChieh: I hope you can get a good score in your GRE test and enter the school you want. I still feel wired about the way you describe long lash person as camel’s lash. Hearing it, I feel so luck I don’t have long lash.

To Jenny: I spent good time in your apartment and ate hot pot together. It is like I am still in China.

To peter: Congratulations on your getting drive license and new car.

            I want to say more to my friends and now I have many words in my brain, but I know if I finish all words that I want to say, maybe one week is not enough. Thank you for all of you giving me amazing memories. I have hated to say goodbye, which let me feel sad. So now I will say: SEE YOU. SEE YOU USA! SEE YOU ATL! SEE YOU EVERYON I HAVE MET AT HERE!

Star's Conversation

Starry Night Over the Rhone (September 1888)
------------ by Vincent Van Gogh

After sunset, stars jump out. Yes. Night is coming.

A river lies under the sky.  The light from the star refracts into the river and forms an inverted image that is called reflection. The river, like a mirror and intermediary, provides chance to star meeting its reflection. They talk every night. Similar to any else peaceful night, the conversation is going on between the star and the reflection.

Reflection: star, do you feel lonely living in the vast sky.

Star: No. Night and other stars are my friends. They accompany with me. I am in a huge group that is full of the whole sky.

Reflection: Other stars are far from you.

Star: Yes. But we have same dreams and goals. When we feel tired and meet bottleneck, we encourage each other. It makes us close and related to each other.

Reflection: why do you come out every night without rest?

Star: Because I believe I can bring bright to who needs at the night. My light is different from the daylight. It is another kind of light, which can lightens the road for people who go back late, the direction for the captain to navigate the right way, and the hope for the lost people to persist their dreams.

Reflection: Do you have phobias?

Star: Of course. I am worried about light pollution. If the light pollution becomes more and more serious, I will disappear. At that time, I cannot talk to you anymore.

            Reflection: That’s terrible. I am sorry to hear that.

            Star: And I hope the night becomes longer. For me, it is too short to complete what I want to do. When the sun rises, I have to hide behind the cloud because the sunlight is significantly glary.

Reflection: We talk with each other every night. Can you share some secrets with me?

Star: Sure. Whatever day or night, I always stand at there and watch what I concern. I have never left this position.

Reflection: do you have some faults?

The star looks at the reflection and keeps silent. His fault is he creates the reflection but he cannot let reflection choose its life by himself. The reflection only can live in the water and appear at the night.

Reflection: hey, star. Can you hear me?

Star: Yes. My fault is I hide the beauty in the mirror although I look for excuses and lies to myself that’s the only way to keep the beauty and far from the ugly.

Reflection: what is the beauty?

Star: One day, you will know what I said.

Reflection: Star, why don’t you come out in the day time?

Star: Because the day does not understand the beauty of the dark night. It is time for you to go to bed.

Reflection: OK. Nice to talk to you, star.

The sun comes out and the star hides behind the cloud again.

Life in Shell

Laurie Lipton,"Facing up to Reality"

The woman is involving in a fantastic world she creates, where is full of happiness and grace. She images she is a princess living in the castle. Standing in the balcony in the afternoon, looking outside, and enjoying sunshine, she expects her life is simple and happy without any annoying things. In the last two years, she spent almost all time sitting in front of the painting and imaging she was the main character of the tale. It is the way for her to escape from pain and reality.

The painting is like a wall, which separates the woman from the real world, but it just is an illusion. The painting is like a door, which resists all problems, but it doesn’t mean those problems don’t exist. The painting is like a shell where she thought it was her belonging, but unfortunately she is not a pearl. She is used to living in this world, which makes her feel safe, but if she addicts on it, it will become a jail, she will probably never go out.

It is the time for her to pick up courage, leave the chair, get up, and look around even though the world in painting is better than that in reality. When she leaves the chair, she will realize the difference between imagine and reality, taste pain and bitter again, and miss the life in shell. However, it is the real world, including sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and pain. If she has courage to taste it, she is able to understand what is sweet after experiencing bitter.

Haiku City

Familiar city

meanwhile strange city too

cradle of growth

street in European style

compare to chaos city

tranquil and peaceful

beautiful sunshine

make shadow by myself

vague, who I am

lush tree standing

supporting humans' life

bring oxygen

the Huangpu River 

merge into endless sea

flow continually

street, sun, tree, water

represent city partially

witness its change

LUCK

What is luck? Win lottery? Your father is a president? You did not mistake ginger for mushroom? You become NO.1 because the NO.1 student was absent in the test? You took the last flight leaving before earthquake?

Yes. Definitely it is luck, but not everybody can confront in their whole lives. However, there is a kind of luck that everybody can get. That is content what you own. When understand how happy the present life is, it is luck. Everyone has their own life. Others’ life is probably not fit you. If the totally expense for a person is 1 million dollars in his/her life, and the person has 1 million dollars. Is that meaningful to this person to get more money? Get privilege because of rich when meet god? When your life is not private anymore because you have relationship with a celebrity, whether it is luck? Make mistake ginger for mushroom. So what? It is not bad to tasting different “Mushroom”.  What’s the matter to be a NO.2? NO.2 still means excellent and is worthy to respectable. The higher you climb, the more painful you fall down. It is so lucky to take the last flight before nature disaster, but at the same time, the person loses a chance to become a hero. Lucky person or a hero, which one do you prefer?

Luck is not hard to get. It is always around everyone. The point is how to recognize and get it. Everyone owns lucky stars in their hands even though they define LUCK in different way.

Colour

Black & Yellow

Green

Blue 

Orange - sun set

red - heart

Water's Dream

There was an old tree standing beside a brook. In one morning, like any else common morning, a drop of dew formed on a piece of leaf. Unlike other dews, she was reluctant to evaporate immediately. Being curious about this world, she wanted to know more about this unknown world. Therefore, she dripped from the leaf, involves into the brook and started her magical journey.

Becoming one of brook, she appreciated the beautiful landscape along the brook. She passed mountains, rainforest, farm, etc., which she had never seen before. In the daytime, she enjoyed the sunshine and breeze, played with fishes and other species, and enjoyed her simple life. At night, she regarded sky as her blanket and treated twitter as lullaby.

            After several days, the dew saw the lake, which was bigger than brook. She had more space to do what she wanted. The landscape in the lake was different from the brook. It was the first time for her to see a boat that made her feel fresh. In addition, the lake was so long that she could not see the end.

            A month later, the dew swam at the end of the lake and went into the sea. Facing the endless sea, she could not use language to express how happy she was. However, several days later, when she confronted the first storm, she knew how dangerous the sea was.  In the sea, the dew fought with bad weather more than hundreds of times, but she could not stop because she believed she would arrive the shore soon.

            Through this journey, the dew increases her courage, enriches her experiences, and enlarges her sight, but at the same time, she understands how precious the simple life is.

The Process of A Girl Who Jumped to the Ground

I am jumping from the 11^th floor. What I see is as follows:

A new couple who lives on the 10^th floor is fighting….

Sturdy Nana, who lives on the 9^th floor, is crying secretly….

Yamei, who lives on the 8^th floor, is finding her fiancé sleeping with her best friend…

Xiaodan, who lives on the 7^th floor, is taking an anti-depression pill….

Unemployed Adan, who lives on the 6^th floor, is still hunting for a job in the newspaper….

Respectable professor Wang, who lives on the 5^th floor, is wearing her wife’s bra secretly….

Long, who lives on the 4^th floor, is breaking up with his boyfriend….

The old man who lives on the 3^rd floor expects someone to visit him everyday….

Lily, who lives on the 2^nd floor, is still looking at the picture of her husband who disappeared after they were married for only half a year….

I felt I was the unhappiest person in the world before I jumped….

But now, I know everyone has some hard situations that other people don’t know about….

I really feel my life is not that bad after I’ve seen their lives….

All the people I just saw are looking at me now….

I think they will feel their lives are fine after they have seen me.

                                                                                           -------  Deyong Zhu