In A Self-Discovery Process

My 2011 List: Trips, Concerts & Shows, Books

2012-01-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

TRIPS
I'm quite happy with the trips I took last year. There were a few big trips, which broadened my view. I was gonna post some travel notes, but for some reasons (either busy or lazy), it didn't happen as often as I wanted. Well, I still have some blogging ideas in mind. It's just that the posts might come out short and unorganized. Of course, there are always more places to visit. Hope I can present an even more satisfying list at the end of this year. In fact, I've already started thinking about my next trip!

- Catskills, NY: 01/22. Snowshoeing for the first time!
- Maryland, Washington DC: 03/04-03/08. Cambridge, MD → Arlington, VA → DC. Great meeting up with old friends and getting to know new people.
- Delaware, Maryland, Virginia: 03/11-03/13. A trip into the nature. Camped near the seashore on Assateague Island National Park.
- Lancaster, PA: 05/13. Pennsylvania Railroad Museum (We didn’t go in the museum, but only looked at the trains outside.) → the Amish Village.
- Greece: 05/20-07/03. Worked on Crete and toured Athens.
- New Jersey: 10/08. Johnson's Corner Farm (apple and pumpkin picking)
- New Jersey: 11/12. WoodsEdge Wool Farm (alpacas and llama) → Grounds for Sculpture.
- Massachusettes + Rhode Island: 11/24-11/27. Gloucester, MA → Rockport, MA → Salem, MA → Boston, MA → Providence, RI.
- Montana: 12/20-12/31. Philipsburg, Missoula, Anaconda, Helena, Butte. Eye-opening.
- New York City: many times

CONCERTS & SHOWS
Looks like it was a Broadway year! Four Broadways shows, three orchestras, two operas, two bands, and a few student recitals. Not bad.

- Lion Versus @ Millcreek Tavern (02/18. My friend Alison played in it.)
- Old York Road Symphony (My sister, Angel, played as a soloist with an orchestra.)
- Tosca by Opera Company of Philadelphia (05/04. Finally watched Tosca in a Theater.)
- The Addams Family @ Broadway (05/15. Good but not great.)
- Miss Saigon @ Walnut Theater (07/06. My second time seeing it. I cried so many times. Definitely a classic!)
- Hair @ Broadway (08/10. BEST THEATER EXPERIENCE EVER! Leon and I got the center seats in the third row. Berger, a very sexy guy, climbed into the audience, played with my hair, and looked at me for a little bit while singing "Donna." At the last song "Let the Sun Shine," the audience was invited to go on stage and sing together. We, being so familiar with the musical, went on stage of course. IT WAS AWESOME!)
- September 11 Memorial Concert (09/10. Angel played as a soloist with an orchestra again.)
- Sloan @ North Star Bar (09/17. Stood at the very first row.)
- The Philadelphia Orchestra College Night Concert @ Kimmel Center (10/06. The Philadelphia Orchestra is really good.)
- Avenue Q @ Broadway (10/29. Very fun, very New York, very everyday life.)
- Die Zauberflöte @ Tomlinson Theater, Temple University (11/18. Nichi and Peggy participated in the opera.)
- Several student concerts at Mannes College

BOOK
Lame. That is my only comment. I really hope I can make better progress in this category this year.

- For One More Day by Mitch Albom (2006) As Albom's other books, this book is filled with a sense of nostalgia. It has a strong ending. His books always bring out my tears.（米契．艾爾邦的《再給我一天》跟他的其他書一樣，充滿了濃濃的懷想感。這本書有很強的結尾。他的書總是讓我流淚。）

My 2011 List: Exhibitions

2012-01-13T18:52:00.000-05:00

Let's talk about exhibitions in 2011! Among the 30+ exhibitions I saw last year, here are my picks. (It was a difficult process.)

PERSONAL FAVORITES
- Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (Roberto Capucci's design took my breath away. I viewed both Roberto Capucci and Alexander McQueen's exhibitions in the same week. Although McQueen seemed to be more prolific in his career and drew more attention from the public, Capucci's design brought me a feeling of happiness. Both of them are genius, but I like Capucci more. 延伸閱讀)
- Pompeii the Exhibit: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius @ Discovery Time Square, NYC (The exhibition was very informative and had a very nice layout, which created a storyline. The human and animal casts were especially impressive.)
- Maurizio Cattelan: All @ Guggenheim Museum, NYC (It had a very creative and unorthodox way of presenting a retrospective. The whole thing was a spectacular installation.)
- Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World @ Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (I didn't know the artist before going to the exhibition. His works impressed me.)
- Harry Potter: the Exhibition @ Discovery Time Square, NYC (It's Harry Potter. No explanation is needed.)

TOP PICKS AS AN ART JOURNALIST
- Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (A good and complete retrospective. 延伸閱讀)
- de Kooning: A Retrospective @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (Well curated. I got to know so much more about de Kooning than I previously did.)
- Maurizio Cattelan: All @ Guggenheim Museum, NYC (It had a very creative and unorthodox way of presenting a retrospective. The whole thing was a spectacular installation.)
- Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (Roberto Capucci's design took my breath away. I viewed both Roberto Capucci and Alexander McQueen's exhibitions in the same week. Although McQueen seemed to be more prolific in his career and drew more attention from the public, Capucci's design brought me a feeling of happiness. Both of them are genius, but I like Capucci more. 延伸閱讀)
- Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (延伸閱讀)

FULL LIST
Here are the exhibitions (and an art fair) I saw in 2011. I'm not including gallery shows and permanent exhibitions. Otherwise the list would go on forever.
- Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- King Tut NYC @ Discovery Times Square, NYC (Nice presentation. I was especially impressed by the video, where they explained how King Tut's genealogy was constructed according to the latest DNA studies.)
- Leonardo's Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenaway @ Park Avenue Armory, NYC (A very cool project. I'm glad I didn't miss it. 延伸閱讀)
- The Peacock Male: Exuberance and Extremes in Masculine Dress @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (延伸閱讀)
- Secrets of the Silk Road @ Penn Museum (Fascinating mummies. I also loved the interactive objects. 延伸閱讀)
- Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (I LOVE Chagall. He's probably my favorite artist. 延伸閱讀)
- Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals @ National Gallery of Art, DC
- Gauguin: Maker of Myth @ National Gallery of Art, DC
- The First Ladies at the Smithsonian @ National Museum of American History, DC (Love looking at their dresses.)
- Anthony Caro on the Roof @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- The AIPAD Photography Show @ Park Avenue Armory, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- Pompeii the Exhibit: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius @ Discovery Time Square, NYC (The exhibition was very informative and had a great layout, which created a storyline. The human and animal casts were especially impressive.)
- Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (Roberto Capucci's design took my breath away. I viewed both Roberto Capucci and Alexander McQueen's exhibitions in the same week. Although McQueen seemed to be more prolific in his career and drew more attention from the public, Capucci's design brought me a feeling of happiness. Both of them are genius, but I like Capucci more. 延伸閱讀)
- Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (A good and complete retrospective. 延伸閱讀)
- Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th-Century Europe @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (延伸閱讀)
- Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age: The Reproductions of E. Gilliéron & Son @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
- Mummies of the World: the Exhibition @ Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
- Harry Potter: the Exhibition @ Discovery Time Square, NYC (It's Harry Potter. No explanation is needed.)
- Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World @ Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (I didn't know the artist before going to the exhibition. His works impressed me.)
- Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (Cool exhibition, but too much technology for me to digest. It was creative and new in terms of both the objects and the way they were presented. 延伸閱讀)
- Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- September 11 @ MoMA PS1, NYC (I liked the idea that conceived the exhibition. The pieces fit in the concept very well. 延伸閱讀)
- Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (延伸閱讀)
- Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Carsten Höller: Experience @ New Museum, NYC (It was sort of cool, but I didn't really like it. 延伸閱讀)
- de Kooning: A Retrospective @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (Well curated. I got to know so much more about de Kooning than I previously did.)
- Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art @ Museum of Modern Art, NYC (It was cool to see the murals from all sides.)
- Maurizio Cattelan: All @ Guggenheim Museum, NYC (It had a very creative and unorthodox way of presenting a retrospective. The whole thing was a spectacular installation.)
- Ansel Adams: A Legacy @ Missoula Art Museum, MT (Loved the photos. How this small museum managed to put on an exhibition in such a scale really surprised me. --> I guess I'm an ignorant city person? Anyways, photographers from the east and the west are different. I only got to truly understand/ experience it after a trip to the wide west.)

Whew, that was a long post! Feel free to discuss with me!

Movies I Saw, 2011 (3)

2012-01-09T17:01:00.000-05:00

Wow, right? I guess I’ve been too busy with school and friends, which is never a bad thing, that I ended up with such a lame movie list. BUT there are a couple other exciting 2011 lists coming up soon. I promise.

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The Help／姊妹(2011) It portrayed a sad society with humor. Now I need to read the book.／以幽默的手法描述一個令人難過的社會。它讓我想去閱讀原著。

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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol／不可能的任務：鬼影行動(2011) Fast-paced and humorous. Loved the vivid characters of each role and the settings in different cities.／步調緊湊、帶有幽默。喜歡每個角色鮮明的個性，以及在不同城市的場面。

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Summer Lovers／夏日戀人(1982) Reminded me of my trip on Santorini.／不停讓我回想起在聖多里尼島上的旅遊。

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Quote:
Oysters are a vehicle for crackers and ketchup. -- Skeeter, The Help

Thanksgiving Post

2011-12-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

It's December! I just realized that I haven't posted in two months. It's been a busy but happy semester. With the things I accomplished, I feel like I'm a step further towards graduation. :) Life outside school is great as well. I've met up/talked with quite a number of old friends lately. Some of them I haven't seen in years. I've made new friends, who have enriched my life greatly. Not to mention those of you who have always been around. Writing has been going steady. To my surprise, I've gotten invitations to write for some other media. In short, life has been fruitful in every way.

This year's Thanksgiving involved a Thanksgiving dinner, some Black Friday shopping, and an awesome trip to New England. (More on the trip later!) Oh how I love taking trips with friends and family! It's simply enjoyable to explore and see new things together.

All I have to say is that I'm truly thankful for everything God has bestowed upon me. I'm happy with where I am right now while looking forward to what is to come. Everyone of you (and yes, that includes you) is a blessing to me. In return, I'm doing my best to make myself a better person each and every day. Now that the semester is nearly over, I'd like to devote some more time into connecting with loved ones. December should be the month of love. Don't you think so?

十二月了！我發現已經兩個月沒有在這裡貼東西了。這學期很忙碌也很愉快，在學校完成的進度，讓我覺得離畢業又近了一些。:) 學校之外的生活也很好。這陣子跟不少老朋友見面或聊天，有些人都已經好幾年不見了！也交了不少新朋友，大家都豐富了我的生活，更別提那些一直在身旁的朋友了。寫作生活也滿穩定的，令我驚訝的，是接到了愈來愈多邀稿信件。簡單來說，生活的每方面都很豐富。

今年的感恩節吃了感恩節晚餐、去黑色星期五採購，也到美國東北角的新英格蘭旅遊了一趟。（之後再寫旅遊文章！）我實在太愛跟家人朋友出去旅遊了，一起探索發現新東西真是很有趣。

只想說，對於上帝賜給我的一切及目前的生活，我都很感恩。你們每一位（對，這包括了你）都是一項祝福，我也希望讓自己每天更進步。現在學期快結束了，我想花多一點時間聯絡感情。十二月應該被稱為愛的月份，不是嗎？

Movies I Saw, 2011 (2)

2011-09-27T01:17:00.000-04:00

This is a long-procrastinated post. I’m blaming on the move and whole internet set-up issue. Now I'm back!

I call this season a season of Tim Burton and Pixar. Many thanks to JC that I’ve been making up for all the Pixar and Tim Burton movies that I missed. Pixar movies-- all done, except for Car 2 that was released late June this year. Tim Burton movies-- still a few more to go. Other than the two categories, it was pretty much a season of youth literature as well. Of course, Hollywood movies had to be present, which is not necessarily bad.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2／哈利波特：死神的聖物（下）(2011) It was so much better than part 1. Actually, it was probably one of the best of the Harry Potter series. I’m very glad that they ended with a good one. I was a little bit disappointed, though, that Neville, grown up and teaching Herbology at Hogwarts, wasn’t shown in the epilogue. (This was the first comment I made after seeing the movie.) Well, I guess you can never satisfy a book-fan.／比第一部分好太多了，事實上，這大概是七集裡最好的一部之一。以這樣好的片子做結真是太棒了。不過，在結尾時沒有拍出奈威回到霍格華茲教草藥學，倒是讓我小小失望了一下。（這是我看完電影後的第一句感想。）但我想要滿足一位書迷大概是永遠不可能的。
James and the Giant Peach／飛天巨桃歷險記(1996) OMG, there were so many things I loved about the movie: loved the songs; loved the use and contrasts of colors; loved the transformation between real people and animation, and the collage-like dream; etc., etc. Very Tim Burton-ish. (Is it just me, or the shipwreck captain DID look like Jack in “The Nightmare Before Christmas?”)／天哪，有太多我喜歡的元素了：喜歡裡面的歌曲、喜歡色彩的使用及對比、喜歡真人與動畫之間的轉換，以及拼貼般的夢境……等等等等。非常提姆．波頓。（是只有我這樣認為，還是那個沉船的船長真得長得很像「聖誕夜驚魂」裡的傑克？

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Pee-wee’s Big Adventure／人生冒險記(1985) Very interesting character and a cool adventure. Unique humor was presented in the entire movie. The setting seemed to cross over the line between fantasy and the real world.／非常有趣的角色及旅程。整部片瀰漫著獨特的幽默感，背景設定則好似跨越奇幻及真實世界的界線。
Toy Story 2／玩具總動員2(1999) I didn’t think the movie was that great until Jessie started to sing “When She Loved Me.” OMG! I cried from the first note to the last. Then the movie got better and better. The Star Wars spoof was funny but a little too much. This is my favorite out of the three.／一開始我並沒有覺得這部電影多厲害，直到Jessie唱「When She Loved Me」，天哪！我從頭哭到結束！接下來整體感覺就愈來愈好。電影裡對於「星際大戰」的模仿很好笑，不過有點太多了。這是三集裡我最喜歡的一集。
Toy Story 3／玩具總動員3(2010) The Spanish Buzz Lightyear was so funny! The last ten minutes was the best of the entire movie.／西班牙文版的巴斯光年真是太好笑了！電影的最後十分鐘最棒。
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory／歡樂糖果屋(1971) It’s been too long since I watched “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” so I can’t compare the two right now. I did like this 1971 one, though, especially the songs in the movie. The scene at Mr. Wonka’s office in the end was especially striking. Never thought that cutting everything into half would create such an uncanny feeling.／距離我看「巧克力冒險工廠」已經好一段時間了，所以我現在沒有辦法比較這兩者，不過，我倒是很喜歡這個1971年的版本，特別是歌曲的部分。電影最後在Mr. Wonka辦公室裡的那一景特別驚人，從來沒想過把所有的東西切成一半會造成如此怪異甚至令人毛骨悚然的效果。

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A Bug’s Life／蟲蟲危機(1998) I loved that they incorporated the Aesop’s Fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper (even though I didn’t realize it until half way through the movie when the grasshoppers were partying). It was fun to see the world from a totally different perspective. I also loved the “fake NG animation” appeared when the end credit was running. (It’s pretty much a 90’s thing, isn’t it?) There were many cute dialogs. (Eg. Slim the Stick Insect: I’m the only stick with eyeballs!) The major drawback, if you ask me, was that it tried to put in too much stuff and being somewhat melodramatic at a couple scenes.／以伊索預言的「螞蟻與蚱蜢」做為基礎概念的做法還挺高明的（雖然我一直到電影的一半當蚱蜢在唱歌跳舞的時候才突然領悟）。從完全不同的角度看世界也很有趣。我也很喜歡在跑片尾名單時出現的「假NG鏡頭」(非常地90年代)。電影裡有許多可愛的對話，例如竹節蟲說：「我是唯一有眼球的樹枝！」依我個人的意見，電影最主要的缺點是試著填入太多東西了，而且有幾個景有點過份煽情。
Sleepy Hollow／斷頭谷(1999) I didn’t really like the story, especially the ending. Johnny Depp, however, was awesome as usual.／其實並沒有非常喜歡這個故事，尤其是結尾。不過，強尼．戴普還是一樣棒！
The Fighter／燃燒鬥魂(2010) The cool, wealthy Batman has become a street drug addict. How awesome Christian Bale’s acting skill is!／帥氣蝙蝠俠竟然變成了鄉下混混！落差實在太大了，演技也實在太好了！
The Tourist／色遇(2010) I love Johnny Depp, which is the main reason I watched the movie. I don’t like Angelina Jolie, but I have to say that she was really beautiful in this movie.／我愛強尼．戴普，這也是我看這部片的原因。我不喜歡安潔莉娜．裘莉，不過我必須承認，她在這部片裡真得很美。
Toy Story／玩具總動員(1995) The movie didn’t start off impressively, but it got better and better. Sid’s toys were so creepy! I really liked the song “You’ve Got A Friend In Me.” The movie somehow reminded me of “Monster Inc.” They both happened in kids’ rooms. While one dealt with kid’s love and the other dealt with kid’s fear, the movies presented them from angles different from people’s usual perception.／電影的一開始並沒有特別吸引我，不過愈到後面愈好。席德的玩具太恐怖了！我很喜歡主題曲「You’ve Got A Friend In Me」。這部電影讓我想到「怪獸電力公司」，他們都發生在孩子的房間，一部討論孩子喜愛的東西，一部討論孩子的恐懼，不過它們都以與習慣上不同的角度呈現這些令人喜愛或害怕的東西。
Water for Elephants／大象的眼淚(2011) Be it the costumes, the props, or the circus life, the rendering of circus in the old days was great. (I’ve never experienced a circus life, but this movie did bring back my faint memory of going to circus with my parents. Yes, circuses back then still had wild animals.) The love story in the movies was ok, though.／對於早期馬戲團的呈現很棒，不管是服裝、道具，或是團員的生活。（雖然我是沒經歷過馬戲團的生活啦，不過這部電影確實勾起小時候爸媽帶我看馬戲團的微小回憶。沒錯，那時候的馬戲團還是有動物的！）愛情故事的部分倒是還好而已。

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Beetle Juice／陰間大法師(1988) ／I don’t know. I guess there’s finally a Tim Burton film that I didn’t like that much. I could see the creativity and the humor, but I somehow didn’t enjoy it as a whole. By the way, Alec Baldwin was so skinny 20+ years ago. I could barely recognize him, haha.／我不知道。我想我終於看到一部不怎麼喜歡的提姆．波頓的電影了。它有創意、有幽默，但我整體來說並不十分享受。另外，亞歷包德溫年輕的時候也太瘦了吧，我都認不出來了，哈哈。
Crazy, Stupid, Love／瘋了、傻了、愛了(2011) I was somewhat disappointed with the movie. Steve Carell was the main reason I watched it and I was ready for some good laugh in the theater, but he wasn’t really that funny here. The story was kind of cheesy.／有點失望。Steve Carell是我看這部片的主要原因，本來想說能在電影院裡好好地大笑，可是他在裡面並沒有非常好笑。劇情有點白爛。
The Green Hornet／青蜂俠(2011)

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Quotes:

You’re weird, but I like you. --Dot, A Bug’s Life

That place you’re dreaming of is not as far away as you think. And it will be that much closer once you take the first step. -- Old Man, James and the Giant Peach

Wouldn’t you give anything to have just one more day to be with Emily? -- Woody, Toy Story 2

Everyone I know is a big “but.” -- Pee-wee, Pee-wee's Big Adventure

If Only

2011-08-28T22:41:00.001-04:00

If only I'd been a little brighter
To understand the gesture better.
The moonlight flickered, the night stars sighed
At the sight of my foolish reply.

If only I've had the courage of telling
How much I delighted in your being.
Inside the wonder of your mere presence
Resides the core of my true existence.

If only I could turn back time
To the days our spirits rhymed.
Special or not, the moments we've shared,
Nothing else could have compared.

Heaven, grant me one more chance
That my soul may once more dance.

PS. Oh my, although this is not perfect, I can finally write again!

IT ALL ENDS. Or does it?

2011-08-04T22:53:00.002-04:00

1.
I finally saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with my all-time Harry-Potter partner, aka my sister Angel. (There's a story to tell of our movie experience that day.) It was a good movie. So much better than the last one.

我終於跟我忠實的哈利波特夥伴（也就是我小妹）看了電影「哈利波特：死神的聖物2」了！（看電影那天，發生了一則走錯戲院的小插曲。）這部電影很棒，比前一部好太多了。

2.
We went to Harry Potter The Exhibition the next day. The movie costumes and props were organized in five sections: The Gryffindor Dormitory, Hagrid's Hut, The Forbidden Forest, Quidditch, and Hogwarts Staff. There were some interactive exhibits. We pulled up young Mandrakes that cried the moment they left their pots. We also shot some Quaffles through the goal hoops. Walking through the exhibition was quite an amazing experience for Harry Potter fans like us. I'd say it was worth the price, but you probably wouldn't understand if you weren't Harry Potter nerds like us.

There was, of course, an exhibition shop. This guy, wearing a robe, was showing the wands, which were duplications of the ones used in the movies. He picked up the wands one by one, told people whose wand it was, and put it in someone's hand. I got Voldemort's wand. Afterwards, Angel and I had this following conversation.

Me: Whose wand would you pick if you were to buy one?
Angel: Hermione's. I like her the best.
Me: Do you know whose wand I'd pick?
Angel: Ummm... Luna's wand?
Me: Hey, that was a good guess. It wasn't what I had in mind, but it was a good choice. Her wand is pretty, and I like her.
Angel: I don't know then.
Me: Voldemort's! You know why?
Angel: Why?
Me: Because I held it! I felt like the moment I touched the wand, the connection was built. I had to pick it. So here's my theory. Mr. Ollivander (of the wand shop) was probably fooling with everyone. He didn't really know which wand belonged to whom. Instead, he just picked up a wand and put it in the buyer's hand, and the connection was built.
Angel: ......

Haha. Okay, I know. My theory was lame. I was just saying. But Voldemort's wand was truly very cool. I wouldn't mind having one.

隔天，我們去看哈利波特展。電影裡的服裝及道具分成五個展區：葛來分多宿舍、海格的小屋、禁忌森林、魁地奇，以及霍格華茲教職員。有些互動的展品，我們從花盆裡拔出毒蘋果（他們立刻開始哭），也投了魁地奇的快浮。對我們哈利波特迷來說，這個展覽真是很不錯，不過如果你不迷哈利波特，可能無法了解。

當然，也有紀念品商店。有位店員站在一堆魔杖前像大家介紹魔杖（這些是電影裡的複製品），他一一拿起魔杖，介紹是誰的，然後便遞給一個圍觀的人，我拿到了佛地魔的魔杖。之後，我跟我妹有這樣的一段對話：

我：如果要你選，你會選誰的魔杖？
妹：妙麗的，我最喜歡她。
我：你知道我會選誰的嗎？
妹：嗯……露娜的？
我：嘿，這是個好選擇，這不是我心裡想的，不過這是個好選擇。她的魔杖很漂亮，我也很喜歡她。
妹：我不知道。
我：佛地魔的！你知道為什麼嗎？
妹：為什麼？
我：因為我剛剛拿到它了，就有感情了！所以，我在想，奧立凡德（魔杖店老板）可能都是唬人的，他其實並不知道哪根魔杖適合誰，他就拿起一根魔杖，放在別人手裡，他們就有感情了。
妹：……

哈哈，好啦，我這個理論很虛，我只是隨便說說的。不過，佛地魔的魔杖真得很酷！

3.
Angel shared this website where you can find out what your Petronus is. You know what my Petronus is? Persian Cat!! Haha. I hope it's a white one. What's yours?

我妹分享了這個網站，可以看看自己的護法是什麼。你知道我的護法是什麼嗎？波斯貓！！哈哈，希望他是白色波斯貓！你的呢？

4.
This Harry-Potter joke I read this morning gave me a good start of the day. It is, however, in Chinese and can't really be translated. Sorry if you don't read Chinese.

今天早上看到這則笑話，讓我的一天有個歡樂的開始：
一個中年人問一個年輕人：「你有看過金庸的小說嗎？」

年輕人：「沒有，只有看過電視劇。」
中年人：「那你知道金庸寫的十四部小說的書名的第一個字，串起來會成為一首詩：『飛雪連天射白鹿，笑書神俠倚碧鴛』嗎？」
年輕人：「不知道耶，但是我有看羅琳（J.K. Rowling）的小說，她寫的七本小說的書名的第一個字串起來——『哈哈哈哈哈哈哈』！」

5.
This is an era. It was fifteen years ago when it all started. Oh, and it's not ended yet. I have yet to visit the Harry Potter Theme Park with my loyal partner!

這真是一個時代。十五年前開始的時代。喔，還沒結束喔，我還要跟我忠實的夥伴去哈利波特主題公園的！

Places I'd Like to Visit

2011-07-23T11:35:00.001-04:00

Last week when I was hanging out with friends, one of them said that he made a list of the places he wanted to visit and showed the list to his friends so if anyone happened to be interested in the same place, they might come up with a plan. I thought it was an excellent idea. So here I am, listing some places I would like to go one day. If any of you are interested in any of them, we might be able to work out something. :)

上星期，一個朋友說他把所有想去的地方列出來，給他的朋友們看，如果有人剛好也想去一樣的地方，就可以一起計畫。我覺得這真是個好主意！所以，我在此列了一些地點，看看有沒有人對這些地方有興趣囉。

- Xi-an, China, and the Silk Road／西安與絲路
Xi-an, being a capital of ancient China, was the starting point of the Silk Road. The more I learn about the Silk Road, the more I am interested in the cultural exchange happened there.
- Tibet／西藏
I'm sure everyone has seen amazing pictures of Tibet.
- Turkey／土耳其
The cross point of Asia and Europe, the ancient ruins, and the footsteps of Paul.
- Auschwitz, Poland／波蘭
I know. This is a sad place, but I just want to see it! Of course, if I do go to Poland, the Auschwitz wouldn't be the only place to visit. There are definitely other happy places to go on the same trip.
- Germany (especially Berlin)／德國（特別是柏林）
Ever since I took German classes, Berlin has always been on my list.
- Northern Europe／北歐
OK, this is very general. I don't know that much about Northern Europe, but there are the northern lights and the glaciers, and this is where many fairy tales start. Oh, and I learned from Wikipedia that Northern Europe includes the UK and Ireland (?).
- Egypt／埃及
The pyramids of course.
- Peru／祕魯
The glory of the Incas and the beauty of nature.
- Belize／貝里斯
To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what I get to see in Belize, but when I asked someone who's done a lot of traveling, he said that I might like Belize, where culture (the Mayas) and nature both exist.
- US and Canada／美國和加拿大
I wasn't sure if I should put them on the list because I am right here in the North America. The fact is that I'd love to travel all over the US and Canada. I'd go on any trips to as far as Alaska and as near as Pittsburgh. (Yeah, I'm planning on doing Pittsburgh soon.) I'm also hoping to visit some friends that I haven't seen in a while. This should be easier to accomplish.

The list above is not in any kind of order. They're simply places that popped up in my mind. I do have preference, though, taking time and money into consideration. Basically, I'd go anywhere that I've never been. There are even places that I've been but don't mind going for a second time. Anyways, let me know if we can become travel buddies! :D

上面的列表沒什麼順序，就只是腦子裡浮出的地點，不過如果考慮時間跟金錢的話，我是有些大略的先後次序。基本上，沒有去過的地方我都會想去，有些地方即使去過了，也不介意再去一次。所以啦，一起旅遊吧！

Waters of Crete

2011-07-11T01:14:00.000-04:00

Crete, although being the largest of the Greek islands, has an area of merely 3,219 square miles, which is slightly larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It is so small that the sea is always within a short distance. The cities are along the coast where port is a necessity.

克里特島雖然是希臘最大的島嶼，不過總面積只有八千三百多平方公里，也就是台灣的四分之一大。由於很小，所以海洋總是不遠，島上的大城也都沿著海岸，港口也就是不可或缺的了。

Heraklion is the capital of Crete. The building far out is a Venetian fort.
伊拉克里翁是克里特島的首府，照片遠方的建築是歷史上威尼斯共和國的堡壘。

Agios Nikolaos is a cute little touristy town. The first picture is taken near the port. The second picture is Lake Voulismeni.
聖尼可拉斯是一座可愛的觀光小城。第一張照片是在港口附近照的，第二張照片是城內的一座湖。

Siteia is close by the site we're excavating. I had a chance to take a 40-minute boat ride to a tiny island outside Siteia. The first picture is taken from the port, and the second from the boat.
錫蒂亞就在我們考古挖掘地點的旁邊。我這次有機會從這裡的港口坐船到四十分鐘外的一個小島。第一張照片是從港口照的，第二張照片是從船上照的。

Ierapetra is the southern most city of, not only Greece, but the entire Europe. It is the closest city to where our study center is. I don't have a good picture of Ierapetra from this year, so I'm recycling a picture from last year.
耶拉派特拉不僅是希臘最南邊的城市，也是全歐洲最南邊的城市。這是最靠近我們的研究中心的城市。今年我沒有在這裡照到好照片，所以將就一下重複使用去年的照片。

Now, I just need some good pictures from the west side of the island to complete this series. More posts on Greece to come! In the meantime, take a look at some pictures if you haven't!

好了，只差一些克里特島西邊城市的照片，這個系列就完整了。會慢慢貼出其他關於希臘的文章，於此之時，就欣賞一些照片吧！

The best laid schemes of mice and men.

2011-05-26T16:14:00.001-04:00

What does it mean that the whole world is a global village? It means that people get to travel to wherever they want without too much pain. It means that information spreads fast and people get to stay in touch easily. It also means that a volcanic eruption in Iceland could ruin a girl's weekend date in Greece.

Exactly. My much-anticipated weekend trip with Chia-chi is cancelled because her flight got cancelled due to the volcanic eruption. Never had I thought that we'd one day become victims of volcanic ash! Okay, the word "victim" is probably too strong, but I have to say that I do feel disappointed. First of all, we haven't seen each other in years; second, we were planning on going to the Samaria Gorge, the longest gorge in Europe. Bummer, bummer, BUMMER! Well, I hope God has a good reason for the volcano eruption. Now that this trip has gone with the wind, I'm looking forward to my Athens trip with Sunshine P. I'm sure it's gonna be awesome!

Life on Crete has been good so far. I had jetlag the first few days, but it's getting better. I'm sharing room with Lily again this year. I guess I've gotten so comfortable with her that Mandarin slipped out of my mouth the other day while I was half awake as if she should have understood. I felt so stupid after realizing it, haha. Anyways, gotta go to sleep. Our breakfast time is 6:30! Can you imagine me getting up everyday at 6:00???

世界就像地球村，這句話到底是什麼意思？是人們可以不用花費太大的精力就能到達世界各地，是資訊傳播快速並容易與朋友保持聯絡，也是一個冰島火山爆發就讓兩位女孩的希臘週末約會泡湯。

沒錯。我超級期待跟佳其的週末旅遊取消了，原因就是冰島火山爆發以至於她的飛機停飛。怎麼也沒想到我們也有成為火山灰受災戶的一天！好啦，說「受災戶」可能有點誇張，可是還真得有點失望，首先，我們已經好久沒見面了，其次，我們本來計畫去走薩馬利亞峽谷，這是全歐洲最長的峽谷。太掃興了、太掃興了！上帝啊祢是不是可以給我一個讓火山在此時爆發的好理由？既然這趟行程隨風而逝，我也只好開始期待跟Sunshine P在雅典的旅遊了，一定會很棒的！

目前在克里特島的生活都好。我前幾天有時差，不過已經漸漸調過來了。今年我還是跟Lily一起住，感覺上我已經很習慣她的存在了，以致於前幾天我在半夢半醒間，竟然跟她說中文！當我意識到以後，真是覺得自己很白痴，哈哈。好了，該睡了。我們的早餐時間是六點半！你可以想像我每天六點起床嗎？？？

Let's stay right where we are and dance.

2011-05-17T00:35:00.004-04:00

- The title of this post comes from the song "Live Before We Die" from the musical "The Addams Family." I went to the show this Sunday. It wasn't the best musical, but it was a fun show. I loved the stage design! There were some good songs from act two, including this one. So why don't you keep the youtube video running while reading the post? :)

- "When You're An Addams" is a great opening song. It must be so fun playing Morticia. (Here comes my Tim Burton side.)

- I can't emphasize enough how much I love to hang out at bookstores. I like to pick a pile of magazines and read at the bookstore cafe. I like to think and write at the cafe. I like to sit next to a window and people-watch.

- I've been setting up cute little plants in my room, thanks to Joanne and Sunshine Peter!

- The advantage of going to Trader Joe's late is that you can avoid the crowd and the long check-out line. The downside is that they may run out of the stuff you want.

- This guy, Steve, working at Trader Joe's, is so cute. If he's at one of the check-out counter, guess which line I'm getting in?

- I urge everyone to see the Roberto Capucci exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art if you haven't. He is amazing. The dress "Angel in Gold" took my breath away.

- An artwork is coming in my collection tomorrow! It's pretty meaningful to me. I love this photograph by Sijia.

- I was teaching Nikki some Chinese characters. While explaining, I rediscovered the beauty of the Chinese writing system. Who's interested in learning Chinese? :D

- I had my first avocado gelato at Capogiro. It was surprisingly good! Dear avocado, you have caught my heart!

- I'm looking forward to Greece this year, which will surely be more exciting than last year. Chia-Chi has booked tickets to Crete to spend a weekend with me! How exciting! :D

- Oh, I had this stupid dream the other night where I got in Greece and met up with the team but realized that I didn't bring any luggage. I didn't even packed!

- I'm gonna catch up with lots of movies this summer! Also, here are some summer releases on my to-see list: Harry Potter 7 pt. II (no need to explain), Empire of Silver (the protagonist is played by my childhood dream-lover, haha), and Anonymous (Shakespeare)

- There are also some Broadway shows on my to-see list: Avenue Q, Hair, and The Book of Mormon.

- A few things happened recently taught me to truly cherish family and friends. You never know if they'll still be around the next moment.

- I rarely mentioned you to people. Recently, however, I've started to talk and realized that there were even more fun/ funny conversations and moments than I previously felt. That makes me happy. Should have shared earlier.

- I'm not sure whether I'm feeling good or bad. All I know is that I'll surely be needing some long and quiet walks in Greece.

Movies I Saw, 2011 (1)

2011-05-13T23:38:00.008-04:00

As you will probably notice, the movies I saw in the past four months fall into two categories-- Oscar movies and zombie movies. Yes, zombie movies, however unlikely it may seem. My friend, Heather, started this "Zombie Night" thing where a group of people watch zombie movies together every week. I've been joining it since early April and have watched more zombie movies in one month than my entire life. My knowledge about zombies have grown tremendously. I have to admit that I'm still not into zombie movies, but I enjoy our movie nights together.

你可能會注意到，這四個月以來，我看的電影可以歸為兩大類——奧斯卡片及殭屍片。沒錯，殭屍片，雖然感覺上極不可能。我的一個朋友舉辦了這個「殭屍之夜」，邀請好些朋友每個星期到她家看殭屍片，我從四月初開始加入，這一個月之內，我看的殭屍片數目已經超過了過去這輩子所看的所有殭屍片了，對於殭屍的了解度也大大增加。我必須承認自己還是不怎麼喜歡殭屍片，不過我喜歡我們的電影之夜。

♥♥♥♥♥

The King's Speech／王者之聲(2010) Based on the true story of King George VI of England. Colin Firth did a great job on portraying the stammered king. I think this is the most impressive role he's ever played. Other actors and actresses also added to the awesomeness of the film. Lots of them actually looked a lot like the real people. There weren't many ups and downs in the story, but every small detail added to the end speech that brought out my tears. Oh, and the music (Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, Allegretto) went with the speech perfectly! In fact, I loved the soundtrack of the entire movie. Here is the actual speech the king made in 1939.／根據英國國王喬治六世的真實故事改編。柯林．弗斯演口吃的國王演得很出色，就我自己而言，這是他演過最棒的角色了。其他的演員也都很棒，其實很多角色的長相都很像實際的人呢！電影劇情沒有太大的高低起伏，不過每個小細節累積起來，最後的演講還是讓我哭了。還有，演講時的配樂（貝多芬第七號交響曲）真是配得太完美了！事實上，整齣電影的配樂都好棒。這裡有Youtube上找到的真的國王於1939年的演講喔。

♥♥♥♥

Black Swan／黑天鵝(2010) Natalie Portman was amazing. I liked the many metaphors and symbols in the film, especially the ones that showed her transformation into a swan.／娜塔莉．波曼演得真好。我很喜歡電影裡的許多比喻與象徵，尤其是那些暗示她轉變為天鵝的象徵手法。
The Social Network／社群網戰(2010) I liked the way it went back and forth between the two time periods. Very fast-paced, exactly like the internet world.／前後插敘的方式處理得很好，步調很快，就像網路世界一般。

♥♥♥

Blood Creek／鬼哭人嚎(2009) Zombie movie. The black-and-white scene in the beginning gave me a good first impression. I liked the historical allusions.／殭屍片。片名的中文翻譯實在有點無言。一開始的黑白拍攝手法給我好的第一印象，使用神祕典故的方式也很吸引我。
True Grit／真實的勇氣(2010) I have to admit that I had a hard time understanding the strong southern accent, which did distract me from the flow of the story. The music caught my attention at the very first moment though. It had a distinguishing feature but also fitted very well with the scenes. A very typical American western film. It somehow reminded me of "Cold Mountain."／我必須承認，片中極重的南方口音好難懂啊！由於我必須花頭腦了解他們在講什麼，因此整個過程也影響了我觀看電影的流暢度。配樂倒是一開始就引起我的注意，它非常獨特，卻又與畫面非常契合。典型的美國西部片，不知為何，一直讓我想起「冷山」。
Zombie／殭屍(1979) Regardless of the storyline, the film was actually shot in an artistic way. The use of light and shadow was impressive.／先不提劇情，這部片其實有點藝術片的拍攝手法，非常善用光影及色彩。

♥♥

Land of the Dead／活屍禁區(2005) It was my first zombie movie in a long time. If I remember correctly, the last one I saw was "I Am Legend," which was very different from this movie in both the shooting technique and the focus.／我好久以來看的第一部殭屍片，上一部應該是「我是傳奇」，不過兩者在呈現手法及焦點上有極大的不同。

♥

Dead Men Walking／（？）(2005) OMG, it was so bad. There was no storyline, but only scenes of zombies eating people (very gross) and turning the whole prison into a zombie nest.／真是有夠爛，沒在台灣上映也是應該。沒有劇情，只有一幕幕噁心的殭屍吃人鏡頭，最後整個監獄的人都變成殭屍。

If one and all be resolutely faithful today, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, with God's help we shall prevail. -- King George VI

Congratulations on my heritage. (Repost with an added scene.)

2011-04-20T23:47:00.001-04:00

1.
(At Nathan's in Coney Island. Sharing table with a woman, maybe in her fifties.)

Woman: So where are you guys from?
Me: I'm from Taiwan.
Woman: Taiwan?
Me: Do you know Taiwan? It's a small island close to China.
Woman: Ohhhhh, I know Taiwan! The food there is very good.
Me: (Surprised.) Yeah, the one thing that I miss the most is food. (Thinks.) She's been to Taiwan?
Woman: I have a friend in Taiwan. She's a missionary. She can't eat your food because it's too hot and spicy for her stomach, but she said it was very good. (Cell phone rings.) Excuse me. (Talks on the phone.)
Me: (Turns to JC. Whispers.) Hot and spicy food?
JC: She probably meant Thailand, not Taiwan.
Me: (Suddenly realizes.) Oh, you're right.

2.
BC: So, Florence, someone in the department told me you were from Vietnam.
Me: Me? From Vietnam?
BC: You're not?
Me: No, I'm from Taiwan.
BC: Well, they apparently told me the wrong country. I'm sorry.
Me: Haha... It's alright!

3.
(At a bar)

Guy: Are you Japanese?
Me: Nope. :)
Guy: Chinese?
Me: Uh huh, I'm from Taiwan.
Guy: Taiwan!
Me: Yup. Do you know Taiwan? It's a small island close to China.
Guy: Yeah, I know Taiwan. Taiwan is good! A lot of my electronic devices are made in Taiwan.
Me: Hehe, yeah, that's the Taiwan I'm from.
Guy: Congratulations... (Sticks out hand, wanting to shake hands.)
Me: ???
Guy: ... on your heritage. Taiwan is good!
Me: Oh, thank you! (Shakes the guy's hand. Thinks.) Congratulations on my heritage??? Quite amusing.

4.
DC: I don't know. You do look a bit Viet-Thai to me.
SC: You know why? Because you dress like Vietnamese.
Me: Do I?
RC: No, that's Taiwanese style! And a little bit French.
SC: Hey, Vietnam was ruled by France.
JH: She dresses in a unique personal style.
RC: Yeah, she has her own style.
DC: Like Asian-Bohemian?
Me: Ah, Asian-Bohemian! That's my favorite so far.

Congratulations on my heritage.

2011-04-19T23:38:00.004-04:00

1.
BC: So, Florence, someone in the department told me you were from Vietnam.
Me: Me? From Vietnam?
BC: You're not?
Me: No, I'm from Taiwan.
BC: Well, they apparently told me the wrong country. I'm sorry.
Me: Haha... It's alright!

2.
(At a bar)
Guy: Are you Japanese?
Me: Nope. :)
Guy: Chinese?
Me: Uh huh, I'm from Taiwan.
Guy: Taiwan!
Me: Yup. Do you know Taiwan? It's a small island close to China.
Guy: Yeah, I know Taiwan. Taiwan is good! A lot of my electronic devices are made in Taiwan.
Me: Hehe, yeah, that's the Taiwan I'm from.
Guy: Congratulations... (Sticks out hand, wanting to shake hands.)
Me: ???
Guy: ... on your heritage. Taiwan is good!
Me: Oh, thank you! (Shakes the guy's hand. Thinks.) Congratulations on my heritage??? Quite amusing.

3.
DC: I don't know. You do look a bit Viet-Thai to me.
SC: You know why? Because you dress like Vietnamese.
Me: Do I?
RC: No, that's Taiwanese style! And a little bit French.
SC: Hey, Vietnam was ruled by France.
JH: She dresses in a unique personal style.
RC: Yeah, she has her own style.
DC: Like Asian-Bohemian?
Me: Ah, Asian-Bohemian! That's my favorite so far.

You know what, I don't think "yo" is a good start.

2011-04-11T17:02:00.000-04:00

When: Saturday 6:30 PM
Where: Center City, Philadelphia, on my way to Tiffany's birthday dinner

Me: (Thinks.) Gonna be late. Better walk fast.
Guy: (Shouts from the back.) YO! (2-second pause.) YO! (2-seconds pause.) YO!
Me: (Keeps on walking. Thinks.) He's not talking to me, is he? Did I drop something? No, I didn't. Never mind.
Guy: (Comes up.) Hey, how are you?
Me: (Keeps on walking.) I'm good.
Guy: Where you heading to?
Me: To dinner.
Guy: Can I buy you dinner?
Me: It's ok. I'm meeting up with someone.
Guy: With girl friend?
Me: (Silent.)
Guy: Where are you going for dinner?
Me: (Silent.)
Guy: You're very beautiful.
Me: Thanks.
Guy: My name is Calvin. What is your name?
Me: (Silent.)
Guy: You're not talking to me?
Me: (Silent.)
Guy: (Speeds up and moves right in front of me.)
Me: (Stops.) Sir, I'm having dinner with my friends.
Guy: Alright, can I get you dinner sometime? (Moves to the side.)
Me: (Starts walking. Silent.)
Guy: I'm gonna turn at the corner. Can I give you my number and we can get dinner sometime?
Me: It's ok.
Guy: Maybe I'll see you around?
Me: Uh huh.
Guy: I'm turning here at the corner.We'll get dinner sometime later, ok? See you later, ok?
Me: (Crosses the street.)

(End of story.)

I wasn't too mean keeping silent, was I?

NYC Randomness

2011-04-05T18:05:00.003-04:00

- I know. Visiting NYC three weekends in a row is kind of crazy.

- I have very bad luck riding the Megabus recently. I was always surrounded by groups of people who talked all the way on the bus. I need to learn the secret of picking seats. Or maybe I should bring earplugs next time.

- First-time restaurants: Shilla Korean Restaurant (squid!), 3 Star Diner, Tracks Raw Bar & Grill (quesadilla with guacamole!), Nyonya, Nathan's (french fries with cheese and chili!), Jackson Hole, Hi-Life, Sarabeth's

- Milk Bar's Crack Pie was so good.

- Exhibitions saw: AIPAD (photo art fair) @ Park Avenue Armory, Pompeii the Exhibit @ Discovery Time Square, Rooms with a View @ the Met, After the Gold Rush @ the Met.

- Photo collage is certainly one of the coolest art forms.

- The Pompeii exhibition was awesome-- very informative, well-organized, and, most importantly, powerful.

- We worshiped with the song "Our God Is Greater" for two consecutive Sundays. The line "out of the ashes we rise" was given a new visual interpretation in my head after I saw the body casts at the Pompeii exhibition.

- Discovery Times Square has been putting up great shows. The Tutankhamun show and the Pompeii show were both good. Harry Potter and the Dead Sea Scrolls are coming up. I don't want to miss either of them.

- New York Aquarium wasn't big, but it brought surprises, as all aquariums do. Walruses are impressively huge.

- Finally walked the entire Brooklyn Bridge! Should do it again when it gets warmer.

- I still complain about the closing of the Barnes & Noble at 65th Street. The one at 83rd Street has become the substitute.

- Went to my first double bass recital. Cool instrument.

- Were there moments when you felt like you shouldn't have given up something? It happens to me sometimes when I'm in a concert. What if I didn't give up bassoon?

- "The Andy Monument" is standing at the northwest corner of Union Square for six months. I paid Mr. Andy a visit.

- There was a pillow fight at Union Square. Feathers were flying all over. Some of them even traveled by trains.

- Saw some pretty crocus flowers at the farmer's market. I would have gotten a pot if I didn't have to bring it back to Philly.

- It was simply nice hanging out with good friends.

Horses

2011-03-16T00:11:00.004-04:00

1.
One thing I learned from my wildlife getaway this weekend is that there are wild horses in this country. I also learned that horses slightly raise one of their hind legs while sleeping at a standing pose.

This is a picture I took on the Assateague Island in Maryland. I was less than 15 feet from this wild, untamed horse. She (?) was dozing by the roadside. Her fur was glittering under the orange, late-afternoon sun. Her ancestors have long developed short and strong legs to accommodate to their environment. She was gorgeous.

Sometimes you just need a impromptu getaway. From the city, from your laptop, and from the life you're so used to. I'm glad I did.

2.
Being a city girl from a developed and dense island, I have so much to learn.

When our Indiana girl, Nikki, mentioned "her horse," I was totally confused. "Huh?" was all I could utter for the first three seconds.

"Yeah, my horse. She's my pet. Like a dog." She said while patting the air.

I was even more confused. I know that people raise horses on the farms, but it never occurred to me that people owned them as pets. At least not in the real world. It only existed in movies.

"My other horse..." she kept on saying.

My confusion turned into amazement. "You own more than one horse?" I asked. "Where are they?"

"They're in Tennessee." She replied. Then she amazed me even more by telling me how different kinds of horses gallop differently. (She could even name the kinds, geez!) "Like the (such such) horse, they do this," moving her hands to imitate horse legs. "They walk as if they're dancing."

Oh Lord, I'm a PhD-to-be, yet so ignorant. And thanks to Nikki for being patient opening my eyes to the world of horse pets.

Run, Forrest, Run!

2011-02-23T17:42:00.000-05:00

Where: SEPTA City Hall Station, transferring to the orange line
Who: A black mom and her little boy, looking like three years old

(Mom holding hands with her kid. Walking. Me watching from their back.)
Mom: Run, Forrest, run! Run, Forrest, run!
Kid: (Tries to keep up with the pace of his mom.)
Mom: (Slows down.) Phew!
Kid: Phew!
Mom: I'm tired. Are you tired?
Kid: NO!

They made my day. :)

(Wish I had taken a picture of them!)

Golden Bowls of Incense

2011-01-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. (Revelation 5:8)

Revelation chapter 4 to 6 was what I read for my daily devotion yesterday. I was reading the passage out loud. To my own surprise, the moment I got to the above verse, I started crying. And I couldn't stop. Our prayers are so endearing to God that they're placed in golden bowls held by the elders in front of the glorious Lamb. He does not despise or ignore any of them.

This is the first time I've gotten so into Revelation. I think reading out loud helps. I used to think of Revelation as an old guy's mumble of his own vision, which no one understands. As I read the passages out loud and picture them inside my head, however, the book became alive. I realized all of a sudden that it was such a visual book. I still don't understand it, but I see and feel the glory of God. And the best of all is that this glorious God cares about even our tiniest prayers. For this, I thank you, Lord.

After reading the passage, the song Worthy Is the Lamb is now stuck in my head.

他既拿了書卷，四活物和二十四位長老，就俯伏在羔羊面前，各拿著琴，和盛滿了香的金爐，這香就是眾聖徒的祈禱。（啟示錄5:8）

昨天讀經讀到啟示錄四到六章。唸出聲音的讀。當我讀到上面這一節時，竟然開始哭，而且停不下來。我們的禱告在神的眼中是這麼寶貴，它們被放在金爐中，由長老拿著俯伏在榮耀的羔羊前。祂不輕看或忽視我們任何的禱告。

這是我第一次對啟示錄有感覺，我想，唸出聲音是有幫助的。以前，我總覺得啟示錄是一個老人在講述自己的異象，別人都無法了解，然而，當我唸出來，並在腦中想像他描述景象時，這本書就活了起來，我突然發現這實在是一本充滿圖象的書。我還是不了解，可是我看到也感覺到神的榮耀。最好的，是這位榮耀的神在乎我們最微小的禱告。感謝主。

讀完那一段之後，這首歌就一直縈繞在我腦中。

不想過冬，厭倦沉重，就飛去熱帶的島嶼游泳。

2011-01-18T23:29:00.006-05:00

Alright! I'm finally posting pictures from the cruise. It was an eight-day round-trip from New York City. We made three stops along the way-- Port Canaveral, Florida, Great Stirrup Cay, and Nassau, Bahamas. The weather wasn't as warm as I had expected, but we certainly escaped the blizzard that swept over the Northeast. The waves were pretty high and the ship was swaying hard on the second day though. We spent most of the time at sea, but it wasn't boring at all! I felt like I was always running from one place to another for shows or other events. Although we didn't spend that much time on land, it was simply nice to visit places I'd never been. If you ask me, I would say that the best part about cruises is that you have nothing to worry about. Everything is planned for you. All you have to do is to decide which ones to attend.

Before moving on to the pictures, here's a question. I'm wondering if anyone can tell the difference between sunrise and sunset from pictures. The following two pictures were taken at either of the two occasions. Want to take a guess? You'll find the answer here in the album.

其實這個標題不是完全符合，我不是用「飛」的，我沒有到「熱帶」，我也沒有「游泳」，不過沒關係，意境相合就好了，哈哈！我終於上傳去遊船的照片了。這是從紐約來回的八天旅遊，沿途停靠三個港口，一個在佛羅里達州，兩個在巴哈馬群島。天氣沒有我之前想像的溫暖，不過我們的確是逃過席捲美國東北的風暴。但是第二天的風浪其實滿大的，船晃得很厲害。我們大部分的時間都在船上，不過一點也不無聊！覺得自己總是從一個活動趕到另一個活動。雖然沒有花很多時間在陸地上，但只要是去沒去過的地方，都很棒！若你問我，我會說，遊船最棒的地方，就在於什麼事都不用想，所有的活動都已經安排好了，唯一要擔心的，就只是要參加哪些活動罷了。

看照片前，我有一個問題。我在想，有沒有人能夠光看照片，就知道是日出或日落？這兩張照片一張日出，一張日落，要猜猜看嗎？答案就在相簿中。

Sail into 2011

2011-01-07T23:32:00.004-05:00

I literally sailed into 2011. I was on a cruise on New Year's Eve. (More on the cruise later!) The trip was relaxing and also gave me some time to think about my new year resolution, which I would like to share a little bit. My new year resolution used to be kind of abstract, which made it difficult to examine whether they were achieved or not. This year, I decided to make my resolution more concrete by adding some numbers.

1.
Goal: Build up a better relationship with God
Practical Action: Read the Bible and do my daily devotion
I guess this has been my new year resolution each and every year. I wasn't very good at keeping my daily devotion last year, but the good thing is that I'm about to finish reading the whole Bible for, probably, the third time. It took me more than two years this time. This year, however unlikely it seems, I'll try to read the Bible everyday and I'll be reading it in a chronological order, hoping to get a better understand of the timeframe. By the way, I saw this Archaeological Study Bible at Barnes & Noble yesterday. I would really like to own a copy of it. I might get it next month since I'm not sure if I have enough money for it right now. Ahhhhh.

2.
Goal: Improve my literary writing
Practical Action: Read a piece of literature everyday, be it a poem, a prose, or a chapter from a novel
This idea came from the realization that I was gradually losing my ability and sensibility to writing literature. I've been reading and writing lots of theoretical articles and papers instead of literature in recently years. My writing skills did improve in terms of grammar and structure, but I just want to regain the creativity and imagination in me-- to make writing poems or telling stories, again, part of my life.

3.
Goal: Make good progress in school
Practical Action: Pass the exams in time
I don't think this requires any explanation. Who doesn't want to make good progress in school? In the meantime, however, I would also like to explore different possibilities for my future job. Hopefully I'll find the most suitable route for me.

4.
Goal: Explore Philadelphia
Practical Action: Go to some place new at least once a month
At least once a month? You might think that it's too easy to accomplish to make it a resolution. Wrong! It is just because I live in Philadelphia that I don't deliberately make time to explore new places. There are still lots of places in Philadelphia that I haven't been, so I think I should make the best use of the time I'm here.

There are some other minor stuff that I'm might share later. For now, I just hope that I can keep the ones I shared above. It's seven days into the new year, and it's going well. Happy New Year, everyone!

航向2011。說我航向2011一點也不假。跨年時，我正在遊船，（之後分享！）這趟旅程很放鬆，也給我一些時間思考新年目標，那我就在此分享個幾點。以往我的新年目標都滿抽象的，到了年底也無法檢視是否做到，因此今年，我在目標裡加了一些數字，讓它們更具體。

1.
目標：跟神建立更好的關係
實際做法：每天讀經靈修
這大概是每年都重新立志的目標。過去這一年來，我的靈修並不穩定，不過值得高興的，是我即將把整本聖經讀完（好像是）第三遍，這遍花了我兩年多的時間。今年，雖然似乎不太可能，我希望可以每天讀聖經，而且這次要以編年的方式來讀，希望可以對整個時間架構更加了解。另外，我昨天在書店看到這本考古研讀聖經，好想擁有一本！下個月吧，因為我這個月快沒錢了，啊。

2.
目標：加強文學寫作
實際做法：每天讀一段文學作品，不管是詩、散文、或是一章小說。
之所以定下這個目標，是因為發現自己漸漸失去文學寫作的能力及敏感度。過去這幾年來，寫了許多理論性及討論性的文章或報告，卻沒寫什麼文學性的東西。沒錯，我的文法及架構進步了不少，但我希望能把創造力及想像力重新找回來，希望寫詩或寫故事重新成為自己生活的一部分。

3.
目標：在學業上有好的進度
實際做法：盡快通過考試
這應該不用解釋了，誰不想在學業上有好進度呢？不過，同時我也希望可以更多發現我未來就業的可能性，找到最適合自己走的路。

4.
目標：探索費城
實際做法：至少一個月去一個新的地方
至少一個月？你可能覺得這太容易達到，而不應該是個目標。錯！正因為我住在費城，所以並沒有刻意花時間去發掘新的場所，費城還有很多地方我還沒去過，因此應該要好好利用住在這裡的時間。

其他還有一些零碎的，可能就之後再分享吧！現在呢，就希望能夠對於上述目標持之以恆，目前已經進入新年的第七天，到目前為止都很好。大家新年快樂！

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes, 2010

2011-01-03T23:19:00.086-05:00

Here's a list of what I saw or did last year.

First-times
(I didn't make this list along the year, so here's just what I can recall right now.)
- went to Greece
- went on an excavation
- went to a Phillies game
- yelled at cab drivers (and an innocent police officer)
- went on a cruise
- held a baby alligator
- went to the Bahamas

Trips
- The Historic Triangle, VA (12/29/2009-01/01/2010. Old post.)
- Atlantic City, NJ (03/06-03/07. Old post.)
- Gaithersburg, MD (5/1. Annie's wedding.)
- Crete, Greece (05/15-06/19. Excavation. A number of old posts can be found in May and June.)
- Athens, Greece (6/19-6/21. Some old posts can be found in July.)
- Paris, France (6/21-6/28. Some old posts can be found in July.)
- Port Canavaral, FL + Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau, the Bahamas (12/25/2010-01/01/2011. Cruise. I'm giving credit to my friend, Li-hsin. If not for her, I wouldn't be going on this fun cruise.)
- Many trips to New York City (I visit NYC so often that I don't even know if I should count them as trips. So a new goal has been made: if time allows, go to somewhere new every time I visit NYC.)

Books
- Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (2000) The pattern of this story is very similar to "The Da Vinci Code." Dan Brown is a great story teller, but reading the same pattern twice can be a little unexciting. I'm not sure which one I like better... probably "The Da Vinci Code" because it has less seemingly-divine intervention and it contains more cryptic-deciphering elements.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) His beautiful writing made me tremble.
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) I reread it for the movie.
- Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (1871) I reread it for the movie.
- Twilight in the Forbidden City by Reginald Johnston (1934) I haven't finished the book, but it's really thick and it's a heavy read that I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it.

Concerts and Shows
- The Mannes Opera @ The New School for Drama Theater, NYC (1/8. My sister played in the orchestra.)
- Stiffelio (Verdi)-- The Metropolitan Opera (1/30. I realized just half an hour before the show that it was conducted by Plácido Domingo! Although it would be ten thousand times better hearing him sing than conduct, it was my first time seeing him in person after all. The great stage design reminded me of 17th century Dutch paintings. I could hear people gasp every time the curtains opened. The orchestra was a little disappointing at the first act,-- my sister said it was because of the conductor. Oh well.-- but it got better towards the end.)
- Mary Poppins @ Broadway (1/31. So much better than I had expected!)
- Die Walküre (Wagner) @ Opéra Bastille, Paris (6/23. My first Wagner opera. The subtitle was French, so I couldn't understand every word they sang. Still, I think I like Italian and French operas better than German ones. Oh, except for Mozart's.)
- GéNIA, Joby Burgess & Gabriel Prokofiev @ Crane Arts (7/25. Contemporary. The combination of music with visual art was really cool.)
- First Love by Samuel Beckett, performed by Gare St Lazare Players Ireland @ Suzanne Roberts Theater, Philadelphia (9/4. Old Post.)
- The Sun Also Rises (The Select) by Ernest Hemingway, performed by Elevator Repair Service @ Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia (9/16. It was really long-- around three hours! I liked the stage design and the props. It was amazing how a single can represent so many places with the help of movement and imagination. The bull-fight scene was intense and definitely my favorite.)
- EELS @ World Cafe Live, Philadelphia (9/22. EELS rock!)
- Sheng-Ching Hsu's Graduation Recital @ Mannes College of Music Concert Hall (12/2. My sister's violin recital.)
- White Christmas @ Walnut Street Theatre (12/16. My favorite songs are "Let Me Sing And I'm Happy" and "Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep." They made my tear fall.)
- Messiah @ the Kimmel Center (12/20. The Philadelphia Orchestra. It was good in general. The size of the group didn't give me the impact I hoped for, but it could also be the fact that I was on the 3rd tier. I liked the soprano and the mezzo-soprano.)

Exhibitions (selected)
- Tim Burton @ MoMA, NYC (Fascinating!)
- Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity @ MoMA, NYC
- Gabriel Orozco @ MoMA, NYC
- Monet's Water Lilies @ MoMA, NYC
- Art Of The Samurai @ Metropolitan Museum, NYC
- Traveling the Silk Road @ American Museum of Natural History, NYC (very informative and well organized)
- Strictly Death @ Slought Foundation, Philadelphia
- Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Crime et châtiment @ Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Lucian Freud, L'atelier @ Centre Pompidou, Paris
- Dreamlands @ Centre Pompidou, Paris (Fascinating!)
- Edvard Munch ou l'Anti-Cri @ Pinacothèque de Paris (I love Munch!)
- Cleopatra @ The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
- Collecting Biennials: Works from the Whitney's Collection @ Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
- Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield @ Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
- Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 @ MoMA, NYC
- Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions, 1940s to Now @ MoMA, NYC
- Projects 93: Dinh Q. Lê @ MoMA, NYC
- Hanging Around: Modern and Contemporary Lighting from the Permanent Collection @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Late Renoir @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool @ Asia Society, NYC (Old post)
- Dumbo Arts Festival 2010 @ Brooklyn, NYC
- Abstract Expressionist New York @ MoMA, NYC
- 50 Years at Pace @ Pace Gallery, NYC
- Michelangelo Pistoletto: From One to Many @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand @ the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
- Dali @ Time Warner Center, NYC

Movies
- Movies I Saw, 2010 (1)
- Movies I Saw, 2010 (2)
- Movies I Saw, 2010 (3)

Barnes & Noble at 66th and Broadway

2011-01-02T23:39:00.007-05:00

"Good evening, Barnes & Noble customers. It is now 7 pm. In an hour, we will be closing our doors for the last time. Thanks for shopping with us and happy new year!"

The lady sounded cheerful, but the message was far from cheerful.

The Barnes & Noble at 66th Street and Broadway was definitely one of my favorite places in New York City. I always enjoyed grabbing a cup of coffee and a few magazines and sitting there before going to Sunday services. My heart sank the day I knew they were going to close down the branch.

Sales tags were all over the store. One-third of the shelves were empty and lonely. The magazines were all removed from their once-crowded place.

"Dear Barnes & Noble customers, it is 7:40 pm and we're closing in twenty minutes..."

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?" The music of Auld Lang Syne came just in time and seemed to bring the sadness to a deeper level.

"Hello, Barnes & Noble customers. It is 7:50 pm and the store is closing in ten minutes..."

Hundreds of people were still trying to find some good bargains, taking pictures of and with the bookstore, or simply lingering inside the space, despite the reminders from the bookstore every ten minutes.

"Attention, Barnes & Noble customers. It is 8 pm. This location of Barnes & Noble is now closed for good. We appreciate your support. Have a good night."

Movies I Saw, 2010 (3)

2011-01-01T23:42:00.062-05:00

As shown from the list, I've been seeing a couple new movies and some very old movies, among which the first three of the Indiana Jones series. I saw them twenty years ago but had forgotten most of them. (Right, mostly because I had my eyes covered half of the time.) I thought it would be nice to see them again. It's simply nice to see some old movies. Although I didn't see a lot of movies in the past four months, it was good that I liked most of the ones that I saw. No one-hearted or two-hearted movies!

從下面的片單就可以看出我最近看了幾部新片，也看了一些很老的片，包括前三集的印第安那瓊斯。廿年前看了這三集，可是幾乎全都忘了，（對，主要因為我有一半的時間都遮著眼睛，）所以我覺得可以來重看一遍。有時看看老片感覺也不錯。雖然過去的四個月沒有看很多片子，但很好的，是我喜歡其中大部分的片子，沒有一顆心或兩顆心的片子！

♥♥♥♥♥

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I／哈利波特：死神的聖物I (2010) Have I ever given any Harry Potter movie less than five hearts? No! But I must say that this one wasn't the best of the Harry Potter series. The part where the three kids were out in the wilderness was kind of a drag. Plus, the story was broken down in many pieces that people who never read the book would have filled their mind with question marks. (Of course, I understand it's not an easy job to convert the novel into an two-hour film.) Otherwise, it was good. I like how the story of the three brothers was presented. The most "surprising" scene for me was the one at Malfoy's mansion, especially at the cellar. The scene was so close to what I had imagined that I felt like I had seen the exact scene before and asked my sister if the scene appeared in other Harry Potter movies. (The answer, of course, was "no.") The scene where they buried Dobby wasn't exactly the same as I had imagined, but it was great and totally brought me back to the moment when I read the chapter and wept. The movie was dark from the beginning to the end, except for a few funny scenes.／我有給過任何「哈利波特」系列電影低於五顆心嗎？沒有！不過我必須要說，這不是最好的一部「哈利波特」，三個孩子在野外的場景感覺有點拖，而且有不少零碎的場景，沒看過書的人，應該滿頭問號吧。（當然，我知道要把這本厚厚的小說改編成兩小時的電影，實在不容易。）除此之外，都還不錯。很喜歡「三兄弟」的故事的表現方式。對我來說，最驚訝的場景應該是在馬份家了，特別是地窖的場景，那一景太接近我的想像，以致於我問我妹那個場景是否在以前的系列電影中出現。（答案當然是「沒有」。）埋葬多比的場景跟我想像的有點不一樣，可是拍得很棒，把我帶回看書時流淚的時刻。除了幾個好像的場景外，電影從頭到尾都十分黑暗。
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade／印第安納瓊斯：聖戰奇兵 (1989) Best of all four. Love Sean Connery's part!／四集裡最棒的一集，超愛史恩．康納萊在這裡的角色。
Team America: World Police／美國賤隊：世界警察 (2004) OMG, loved it! Surprises everywhere.／天哪，太棒了，處處是驚喜。
The Last Emperor／末代皇帝 (1987) Classic. (Here's an old post about the movie.)／經典。（之前貼的文章。）

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A Christmas Story／聖誕故事 (1983) Funny.／滿多好笑的點。主角是一個死小孩。
Brooklyn Bridge／布魯克林橋 (1981) A documentary of the history and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Cool to know all these facts.／關於布魯克林橋的歷史及建造的紀錄片，很多很棒的資訊。
Corpse Bride／地獄新娘 (2005) I like the music and the use of color.／喜歡音樂和用色方式。
Ghost World／幽靈世界（台灣好像沒上映） (2001) It seemed stupid at first. As the story developed, however, it revealed the subtle relationships between people.／一開始覺得這部片不怎麼樣，不過看到後面，發現它很細膩地呈現出人與人之間的關係。
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom／印第安納瓊斯：魔宮傳奇 (1984) This is the one I remembered the best among the first three films I saw twenty years ago. I've never forgotten the scene where the priest took out the heart of the guy who was to be sacrificed. I was horrified as a kid.／這是我小時候第一次看時，前三集裡印象最深刻的一級。我從來就沒忘記祭司從要被獻祭的人胸口取出心臟的那一幕，小時候簡直被嚇死了。
Lebanon, PA／（？） (2010) I saw it at the Philadelphia Film Festival. It was a good movie showing different values and concerns between people in the city (Philadelphia) and the countryside (Lebanon). The director has a connection with Lebanon, which is why he picked the place.／在費城電影節看的。表現出在都市及在鄉下的人的價值觀和想法的不同。導演對Lebanon有特殊感情及關係，因此選擇這個地點。
Super Size Me／麥胖報告 (2004) Loved the interviews with random people and kids. So hilarious!／超愛片子裡訪問路人和小孩的片段，太好笑了！

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy／銀幕大角頭 (2004)
Art School Confidential／校園祕密檔案（台灣好像沒上映） (2006) The friend who recommended the movie told me that it cracked him up, so I expected a total comedy. True, the movie was funny in the first half. It was a parody of art school and contemporary art tastes. The second half, however, turned dark. It wasn't bad, but I felt like the two parts didn't go along that well. The end of the movie presented a dilemma. Which decision would you make if you were the artist?／推薦的朋友說這部片讓他笑到翻，所以我以為這是一部喜劇。沒錯，電影的前半很好笑，它嘲諷了藝術學院和當代的藝術品味。不過，電影的後半就開始變得黑暗，也不是拍得不好，只是覺得前後兩部分並沒有銜接得很好。結局讓我有種不勝唏噓的感覺，若你是藝術家，你會做怎麼樣的選擇？
Bride War／新娘大作戰 (2009)
How to Train Your Dragon／馴龍高手 (2010) Typical story pattern but very nicely presented.／滿典型的故事架構，不過整體的感覺很棒。
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark／印第安納瓊斯：法櫃奇兵 (1981) Didn't remember a bit of what I saw twenty years ago.／廿年前第一次看，已經完全不記得了！現在看跟新的一樣。

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Let me close this post by sharing a little secret about myself. When I was young, I had this exact same nightmare for more than once: my whole family was enclosed in a small room where the walls started closing in all of a sudden. We tried to push the walls back but they didn't stop moving. The good thing was that I always woke up-- horrified-- before we got squashed by the walls. The dream left such an impression that I never forget it.

I think I've found out the source of the dream-- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Remember the scene where Indiana Jones and Shorty were in a tunnel before they saw the sacrificial ritual? There was a room where the walls with spikes closed in that they almost died! Ah, how movies affect the mind of a kid!

就以一則小祕密來結束這篇文章吧！小時候，這個惡夢出現過不只一次：我全家人被關在一間小房間裡，突然，四周的牆開始往內移動，我們試著把牆推回去，可是它們並沒有停止移動。慶幸的，是我總在牆把我們壓扁前就被嚇醒了。這個夢留下的印象太深了，我從沒忘記。

我好像找到這個夢的來源了——印第安納瓊斯：魔宮傳奇！記得印地安納瓊斯和那個小男孩在看到獻祭儀式前所在的隧道嗎？其中有一段就是四面的牆往內移動，牆上還有鐵條！啊，電影真能影響小孩的心靈啊！

Saffron-Gatherer

2010-12-23T03:07:00.001-05:00

It is generally agreed among my school fellows that I have the most Minoan-like size of us all, which is why everyone looked at me when Dr. Jones, who studies ancient costume, asked if anyone would come up and try on the costume she brought at her talk. It was fun. (Yeah, you guys know I love such stuff.) Here's a picture!

我的同學和老師都一致認為我有我們之中最接近邁諾安人的身材，因此，當研究古代服飾的學者Jones來班上演講，並問有沒有人要上前試穿她帶來的服裝時，大家都看我。試穿這些服裝真好玩！（就是愛演啦。）讓我來分享一張照片！


(Photo taken by Lily)

This is the wall painting of a saffron-gatherer from Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, Thera (Santorini). See, all I had to do then was to tie my hair up and dye some of it blue.

這是一幅在Thera（或稱Santorini）島上遺址發現的壁畫。看看，我只要綁起頭髮並把一部分成藍色就沒問題了！

The police is my good friend.

2010-12-14T18:56:00.002-05:00

This is a story of me being followed by a creepy guy.

When: Sunday, around 2 pm
Where: Walnut Street (on my way home from church)

(Walnut and 13th streets. From the opposite direction comes a southeastern-Asian-looking guy wearing a brown hoodie with the hood on.)
Guy: Babe.
Me: (Thinks.) Just another cat call. Never mind. He was pretty close though. (Keeps on walking.)

(Walnut and 15th streets. The same guy calls from the back.)
Guy: Hey! ...... (Mumbles.)
Me: (Thinks.) Am I being followed? (Keeps on walking.)
Guy: You're Thai? Siamese?
Me: (Thinks.) Siamese? Am I hearing correctly? (Keeps on walking.)
Guy: Hey! (Pats on my back.)
Me: (Stops. Turns around and gives the guy a stern look.)
Guy: (Smiles silently.)
Me: (Turns back and keeps on walking.)

(Walnut and 17th streets.)
Me: (Sees the guy out of the corner of my eye. Speeds up.)
Guy: Hey! You Thai?
Me: (Sees a police officer in his car on the side of the road. Slows down. Thinks.) OK, this is your last chance to get away.
Guy: Hey! ..... (Mumbles.)
Me: (Stops and turns around.) What do you want? Why are you following me?
(A black woman walks by and looks at him.)
Guy: I don't know. You can call the police.
Me: (Looks at him.)
Guy: Call the police.
Me: OK. (Walks to the police car.) Sir, this guy is following me.
Police: He's following you?
Me: Yeah, he's been following me for like five blocks.
Police: Do you know him?
Me: No, I don't know him. And he touched me.
Police: He touched you? (Puts down his stuff and gets out of the car.)
Me: Yeah. (Steps aside.)
Police: (To the guy.) Hey you, come here.
Me: Thank you, sir. (Walks away.)

(End of story)

Postscript
First. I've been called Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, and there's indeed nothing I can say about those. I've been asked if I was from the Philippines, but that was when I first got back from Greece with heavily tanned skin. Thai? That was creative.

Second. If you decide to follow someone, at least come up with something good when being asked of why. Don't say "I don't know. Call the police." You'll get what you want.

Third. It was cold, dude. I wasn't even wearing anything sexy.

Labyrinth

2010-12-07T01:07:00.001-05:00

1
One way Chinese parents express their love for their kids is to cook for them, which is what my dad did and which is why I brought a bag full of food from NYC back to Philly. He went all the way to Chinatown to get groceries all by himself (a big thing for someone who didn't even dare taking the subway himself) and cooked day and night (seriously). I think he wants to make sure that all our refrigerators are stuffed with food before he leaves the States. Thanks, dad.

2
I always got lost at Penn Station. Always. And I do not know why.

I've taken the Megabus countless times, but I somehow can't find the exact exit, where the bus parks, right after emerging from the subway every single time. To solve this problem, I got to the station earlier today and tried to figure out the easiest way to get to the exit. Despite the signs and my memories, I failed and ended up asking a police officer for directions. On my way, I realized what it was that confused me the most. THEY'VE GOT TIM HORTON'S AT ALMOST THE SAME SPOT ON BOTH FLOORS! I'm sure I've got Timbits from both shops, but I used to think that they were one shop! Hopefully I'll be able to find my way easily now that the mystery is solved.

A friend sent me this link telling me that I'm not alone.

3
I saw the first Philly snow on Thanksgiving Day and the first New York snow today. Even though they were so little that you would barely notice them, they were snow. It's getting so cold and windy these days. The hat and ear muffs I got from my Thanksgiving shopping have come in full use. Yay!

4
Not everyone gets it when I say I study the Minoans, which is totally fine. There's nothing to be ashamed of if you don't know who the Minoans are. Yet, if you're interested in knowing... here's an awesome video, which is hilarious but gives a basic idea (both mythological stories and archaeological facts) of who the Minoans are.

"The Minotaur~ needs a sacrifice~~" Haha.

Overflow with Thankfulness

2010-11-27T13:47:00.003-05:00

I can't be more thankful for the Thanksgiving gathering at An Yuan and Yina's home Thursday night. The food was absolutely amazing, but the sharing time was even better. There were very encouraging testimonies. I was reminded of the abundant love of God and that I haven't really been thankful for His grace from deep inside my heart for some time. I realized that I was so obsessively (and incomprehensibly) focused on something disappointing over the past year that it blinded me from all other blessings God has given me. As I turn my eyes upon Jesus, however, everything else fades. I feel like I'm getting myself back again. (Alert) The happy and cheerful Florence is back!

There are lots of things to be thankful for, among which a great family and friends who listen to and support me at difficult times. I promise I'm gonna focus more on God's grace rather than my own desire. Well, at least I'm gonna work on it.

Anyways. So I've started making plans for my winter break. There are a few ideas that I'm trying to make my mind upon. I might go to Las Vegas. I might go on a cruise. I might go back to Buffalo and cross over to Canada. I might take a road trip over New York State. I might make a trip to South America... There are just so many choices to choose from. Any suggestions? One thing is for sure. Whichever I do, it's gonna be great! Winter break can't come any sooner!

對於今年感恩節到安遠家的聚會，我實在太感恩了。滿桌的好吃食物就不用提了，更重要的，是分享的時間。聽到了幾個非常激勵人心的見證，提醒我上帝豐盛的慈愛，也發現自己有好一段時間沒有真正從內心感謝上帝了。過去一年，我無可理解地像著魔似地把心思放在一件很沮喪的事上，而我發現這讓我看不到上帝給的其他恩典。不過，當我把焦點轉向耶穌身上時，其他的事都沒那麼重要了。我覺得原本快樂的自己慢慢回來了！

有很多值得感恩的事，包括家人和朋友，特別是在難過時的支持。我要更去數算神的恩典。

無論如何，我開始做寒假計畫了。目前有好幾個選擇，可能去拉斯維加斯，可能去遊船，可能回水牛城順便到加拿大玩一圈，可能開車繞紐約州一圈，可能到南美洲……無法抉擇！有建議嗎？不過有一件事是確定的，不管去哪，都會很好玩！寒假快來吧！

Minoan Corpse Bride

2010-11-24T23:38:00.002-05:00

I came across these images of a clay head today. Its comic look made me laugh. It's a Late Minoan III (ca. 1400-1200 B.C.) clay head uncovered from a cave near Rethymnon, Crete. It has round eyes, elongated brows, a small mouth, and a crown of strips. There is no definite indication as to whether it's of a man or a woman. (I personally prefer to call it a woman, but I could be misled by my modern conception of how women are normally represented.)

我今天看到這個陶土頭像的圖片，它卡通般的樣子讓我笑了出來。這是從克里特島西北邊的一個山洞挖出的晚邁諾安第三期（約西元前1400年至1200年）的頭像，它有圓滾滾的眼睛、細長的眉毛、小巧的嘴，並帶著頭冠。沒有什麼特定特徵說明它是男的或女的。（我自己覺得是女的，不過這可能受到我對於一般描繪女性特徵的現代眼光影響。）

Now wait, why does it look so Tim Burton-ish to me? The round eyes with dots as pupils, the lashes that surround nearly three-quarters of the eyes, the elongated brows, the nose, the crown... Ah, the Corpse Bride! Hmm... I must email Tim Burton and ask him if he's been stealing ideas from the Minoans.

等一下，為什麼它看起來這麼提姆．波頓？圓圓的眼睛加上一個點狀眼珠、圍繞眼睛將近四分之三部分的睫毛、修長的眉毛、鼻子、頭冠……阿，地獄新娘！我應該要寄信問提姆，波頓，看他是不是從邁諾安人這裡偷取靈感。

Yeah, this is exactly what art historians / archaeologists do-- find parallels and compare.

沒錯，這就是藝術史學家／考古學家在做的事——找到相似處並比較。

Graduation Recital

2010-11-21T18:17:00.002-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, it's concert time again! My sister Angel is having her graduation recital in less than two weeks. Please come!

Thursday, December 2, 2010, 8 p.m.
Mannes College of Music
Concert Hall
150 W 85th St. New York, NY 10024

P.S.1. Let me proudly present to you the invitation card. I took the picture AND I made it. (All right, I'll have to give credit to Angel for coming up with a general idea of the pose.) The card might seem like a simple design, but it actually needed quite a few edits here and there. It's been getting some good feedbacks from her friends! Maybe I should start a second career as a recital invitation card designer, haha.

P.S.2. My sister is graduating from college and applying for graduate school. It just strikes me every time I think about it. The baby is applying for grad school! It feels so surreal. Don't you think so, all my friends who have known her since many years ago?

各位先生女士，我妹要開畢業演奏會囉！歡迎大家來！

註一：讓我小小驕傲一下——我照了照片、做了這張邀請卡！（好啦，是我妹先提出這個姿勢的大概構想。）這張邀請卡看起來好像很簡單，可是其實有好些地方是需要編輯的。聽說在她的同學間得到不少好評，看來，我可以開始一個設計演奏會邀請卡的副業，哈哈。

註二：我小妹要大學畢業，在申請研究所了。每次我想到都覺得怪。徐小妹要申請研究所了！這種感覺實在很超現實。很多年前就見過她的我的朋友們，你們不覺得嗎？

Twilight-- The Last Emperor

2010-11-15T23:28:00.003-05:00

The Last Emperor had been on my to-see list ever since middle school. The upcoming retrospective of its director, Bernardo Bertolucci, at MoMA reminded me of the film. It seemed to me that there was no reason to put it off any longer, so I finally watched this classic.

It was great. I mean, it was GREAT. The story began at the time when Pu-yi was put under Soviet custody as a war criminal in 1950. His early life was presented by chronological flashbacks. The past and the present were very well intertwined that the contrast between the different stages of his life was heightened. Directed by an Italian director, the film targeted at non-Chinese audience. Many of the ancient customs, so familiar to the Chinese audience and seldom explained in Chinese films, were presented in this film, and they were presented so subtly that you wouldn't feel you were being told. At first, I felt weird hearing all those people in Qing costumes speaking English, but, just as weird, I got used to it very soon. I believe it was the first Chinese ancient-costume film I've ever seen with English dialogues. It was fun listening to the English lines while trying to locate the Chinese originals.

No more than 10 minutes after the film started, I realized that it was the first film I saw that was set in the Forbidden City ever since my visit to Beijing. It made all the difference. Even though I've watched numerous dramas set in the Forbidden City, having been actually standing at the very spot and feeling the atmosphere and scale of it brought a surprisingly different watching experience. I placed myself back in the open court with all the imperial officers and maids and knew that I had a better understanding of the era than I used to. It was funny, though, thinking how visitors today look like mobs comparing to the strictly ordered officials in the past. (Let's just be anachronistic for a moment and put these two groups of people together in the open court.) I was among those who squeezed in to the front and took pictures of the throne hall, haha. The pictures were worth the effort though.

I also realized how little I knew and how unaware I was about the dramatic life of this last emperor of China. He is definitely one of the most interesting people to study. I did read some books about him, but there seems to always be more to explore. Since the film was largely based on the book "Twilight in the Forbidden City" written by Reginald F. Johnston, the Scottish tutor of Pu-yi, (what a precious experience he got!) I checked out the book immediately after watching the film. Oh I'm such a history nerd especially when it comes to the Qing dynasty. I don't think I've ever read anything about the Qing dynasty from a western point of view. I'm sure it would be very different and very interesting.

Watch the film if you haven't yet. The full movie runs about 220 minutes, but I saw some shorter versions, like 160 minutes, on the internet, so be sure to watch the full version. I watched it on Youtube, which was a little annoying because I had to click on the next video every 11 minutes, but at least it was complete.

All right. Now, here's something totally unrelated. This is an amusing article I saw the other day. The first part is the original Chinese article, the second part is how each word is pronounced, and the third part is the translation of the article. What else can I say except that Chinese is such an amazing language? Haha.

國中時代開始，我就一直想看「末代皇帝」。十二月中，紐約現代美術館將推出其導演柏納多．貝托魯奇的電影回顧展，讓我覺得不能再拖了，所以終於看了這部經典電影。

這部電影真是太棒了。電影從1950年溥儀以戰犯身分在蘇聯的改造營裡開場，他早期的生活以片段片段的回顧方式呈現，過去與現在的穿插串連，更加突顯了他的生命不同階段的差別。由於導演是義大利人，這部片子預設的觀眾是外國人，也因此，很多中國古裝片習以為常而不多做解釋的習俗，在這個片子裡會以很細膩的方式呈現。一開始，我覺得看著一群穿古裝的的人講英文真是太怪了，不過，同樣奇怪地，我很快就習慣了。這大概是我看過的第一部以英文對話的中國古裝片，聽著英文，想著中文的原文應該是什麼，（例如念慈禧懿旨時），實在很有趣。

電影開始不到十分鐘，我就發現這是我去北京玩過後，看的第一部場景設在紫禁城的片子。感覺真得完全不一樣。雖然我從小已看過不盡其數的清朝片，但是真得實際站在過那個地點、感受過它的氣氛與規模，就是帶來不一樣的觀看經驗。我把自己放回那個寬闊的廣場，想像所有的大臣及宮女就在眼前，覺得自己對於那個時代有了多一層的了解。不過，只要一想到今日的觀光客，放在當時的場景，與當時充滿秩序的大臣們比較，簡直就像暴民一樣，就覺得很好笑。（我們就來時代錯亂一下，把兩組人馬一起放在那個廣場。）我當時也是奮力擠到前方拍下皇位照片的觀光客之一，哈哈，不過很值得啦。

我也發現自己對於溥儀戲劇性的一生實在知道太少了。他絕對是最有趣的研究對象之一。我是讀過一些有關他的書，不過感覺總是有更多值得探索。由於「末代皇帝」這部電影大部分是根據溥儀的蘇格蘭籍老師莊士敦的書《紫禁城的黃昏》所改編的（他的經驗真是太寶貴了！），所以一看完電影，我馬上就去借了這本書。哎呀，一提到清史，我的每根興趣神經都醒了！我好像從來沒讀過從西方角度寫下的清史，一定很不同也很有趣。

如果沒看過這部片的，趕快去看吧。影片全長大約220分鐘，不過我在網路上有看到剪輯過的160分鐘版本，所以記得要看完整版的。我在Youtube上看的，雖然每隔11分鐘就要點下一個影片有點麻煩，但至少非常完整。

然後，這裡有一篇完全不相關的文章，我前一陣子看到的。第一部分是中文原文，第二部分是用英文拼的發音，第三部分是翻譯。我還能說什麼呢？中文真是太神奇了，哈哈！

I don't get you, cab drivers.

2010-11-06T02:37:00.010-04:00

This is a story of me yelling at cab drivers for the first time in my life.

(Running late, getting impatient waiting for the bus that seems will never come and waving for a cab.)
Me: Hi, Eastern State Penitentiary, please.
Driver 1: Huh?
Me: Eastern State Penitentiary.
Driver 1: Where?
Me: Fairmount and 21st.
Driver 1: Okay. (Sets the meter and drives.)
(30 seconds later. A workman jumps out in front of the car.)
Workman: Yo, this road is closed. Get the * off this road. Get off!
(A police car approaches from the back. The cop comes up.)
Cop 1: What are you doing? Didn't you see the sign? This road is closed.
Driver 1: Please forgive me. I didn't see the sign.
Cop 1: There's a sign over there. Where's your license?
Driver 1: Please forgive me. (x 5) Please don't give me a ticket.
(The cop takes the license and gets back to his car.)
Driver 1: (Sigh.) I got a ticket today already.
Me: Is he done? Is it gonna take long?
Driver 1: I don't know what he is doing.
Me: I'm sorry. I'm in a hurry. I need to get off.
Driver 1: Yeah, you can do whatever.
Me: Sorry. (Opens the door and steps out.)
Driver 1: Excuse me. (Points to the meter.) 4 dollars.
Me: (Seriously?) Hey, you cost my time! I'm not paying for this.

(Walking to the intersection to get another cab.)
Me: Eastern State Penitentiary, please.
Driver 2: Where?
Me: Fairmount and 21st. (I thought it was a famous spot?)
Driver 2: Okay. (Goes on the same direction as the first cab, and either decides to ignore OR has eyes too small to see the huge "Road Closed" sign with flashing lights all around.)
Me: (Seriously?) Wait. This road is closed.
Driver 2: Is it? (Keeps on driving.)
Me: Yeah, it's closed. There's a sign.
Driver 2: Umm. (Keeps on driving.)
Me: (Explodes and points to the front.) You see that cab over there? I was in that cab. The driver went on this road and was stopped by a cop. You see them?
Driver 2: Umm. (Slows down but keeps on driving.)
Me: Hey, I'm telling you. I was in that cab. He's getting a ticket right now. That's why I got into your car. And now you're here again.
Driver 2: Okay, okay. (Stops and tries to make a U-turn.)
(Another cop comes up.)
Cop 2: Didn't you see the sign? The road is closed.
Driver 2: Wh... what sign? I... I don't know.
Cop 2: The sign over there. (Waves to me.) Miss, please get off the car. Just get off. He can't charge you.

(Complaining loudly to the cop about the two drivers and walking to the intersection to get yet another cab.)
Me: Eastern State Penitentiary, please.
Driver 3: Okay. Are they open now?
Me: Yeah, it's the Halloween season. They set up this haunted house thing.
Driver 3: I see.
Me: So the road is closed over there on Arch street. I was in this cab...(telling him the whole story)... I don't know why they insisted on driving on the road even though there was a sign. You are the third cab I took in 10 minutes!
Driver 3: (Laughs.) Then I'll have to be very careful. You sound very upset.
Me: Of course, I don't want to be stopped by a cop again!
Driver 3: I bet.

(End of story)

----------

So the reason I was in such a hurry and got so impatient was because I was gonna meet with a group of friends for "Terror Behind the Walls" at Eastern State Penitentiary. It was fun. Even though I knew there was really nothing to be afraid of, I got scared all the way by people jumping out of the dark and ended up grasping Vincent's jacket so tight that I now hope his jacket is fine, haha. Oh, and even though they said the staff wouldn't touch visitors, I swear that I was touched by someone. Well, it was probably unintentional since it was hard to avoid when they got very close to people. Anyways, I'm definitely going to visit the penitentiary again in the daytime to see the architecture and the history of it.

我有史以來第一次對計程車司機大喊的全程經過。

Random but Related

2010-11-02T00:45:00.002-04:00

1.
I've been thinking for a while now about whether what I'm studying now has anything to do with the kingdom of God.

好一陣子了，我在想現在學的東西，在神的國度裡是否有用。

2.
Pastor Chia from my church told me that God is able to make use of it no matter what I learn or do. The point, therefore, is whether I'm interested.

教會的賈牧師告訴我，不管我學什麼、做什麼，上帝都有辦法使用。因此，重點是我有沒有興趣。

3.
The last time I was at Redeemer's service, Pastor Keller preached on the vision for culture-making. We get a new vision, guard rails, and power if Jesus is in our hearts. Whichever field we're in, we're essentially all doing gardening, just as what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. In other words, we make raw material into things with meaning.

上次去救贖主長老教會時，牧師的講台信息是塑造文化的異象。如果耶穌在我們心中，我們就會有新的異象、護欄，以及力量。不管我們在哪個領域，基本上都是在做園藝，像亞當在伊甸園做的。換句話說，我們賦予原料意義。

4.
"Get a PhD won't hurt," Dr. B said. "It's not just about what you learn. It's the process of learning. Plus, it's only gonna take you a couple more years."
(Me thinking: A couple more years. Do I have your words? :p)

「擁有博士學位沒有害處，」Dr. B說。「這不只是你學什麼，而是學習的過程。此外，不會再多花你多少年了。」
（我心想：沒多少年了。你說真的嗎？:p）

5.
Animal migration is a phenomenon far grander and more patterned than animal movement. It represents collective travel with long-deferred rewards. It suggests premeditation and epic willfulness, codified as inherited instinct. A biologist named Hugh Dingle, striving to understand the essence, has identified five characteristics that apply, in varying degrees and combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviors of preparation (such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy. And one more: Migrating animals maintain a fervid attentiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistracted by temptations and undeterred by challenges that would turn other animals aside... it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we humans find admirable: larger purpose.-- Great Migrations, National Geographic

動物遷徙是個比動物移動來得更壯觀、並且更有特定模式的現象，是一種長時延遲報酬的集體旅行。它意謂事先的策畫及磅礡的意識，被認定為遺傳而來的本能。努力了解其中精髓的生物學家休．丁哥，已找出五種可依不同程度及搭配組合，適用於所有動物遷徙的特性。遷徙是移動的延伸，將動物帶離熟悉的生存環境；它傾向於直線前進，而非彎曲移動；它牽涉到過食等等準備，以及抵達等特殊行為。此外，它更需要特殊的能量分配。還有，遷徙的動物對於這項偉大任務保持著熾烈的專注，不但不會受到誘惑分心，也無懼於那些絕對足以令其他動物轉向的挑戰。……牠們當下被一種連人類都覺得值得讚揚的本能感驅使著：更大的目的。——《國家地理雜誌》「大遷徙」

6.
So you want to get a PhD in the humanities?

7.
Please pray for me.

請為我禱告。

P.S. Before I put down the title of this post, two titles came to my mind-- "Random but Related" and "Random but Relevant." Then I realized that I can't always tell the difference between the words "related" and "relevant" mainly, I guess, because they're often translated the same in Chinese. I googled it and kind of got the sense of each of them, but still not so sure. I appreciate any comments, explanation, or examples.

PAAFF, 2010

2010-10-28T20:23:00.003-04:00

The 2010 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival was last weekend. I didn't have time to see all the films that I wanted to see and ended up picking one of the Shorts Programs. It was good because I got to see a number of short films by directors of different ethnicity within less than two hours. Plus, it was the only program shown in the guarded Comcast Center. They took a picture of me and handed me my pass that allowed me to swipe in and go up to the showing room on the 42nd floor. (Very blurred picture, I know.)

Anyways. The films.

Shorts Program 1: Blood Ties
Crocodile
Directed by Maura Milan (She grew up in Australia, but I don't know which Asian country her family was originally from.)
Very short film comparing the life of a young boy to that of a crocodile. Filmed at a crocodile farm in Australia.

Empire Corner
Directed by J.P. Chan (Chinese)
Sad but beautiful in an implicit way. Filmed in New York Chinatown. My third favorite.

Journey of a Paper Son
Directed by Ming Lai (Chinese)
Looked at the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 through the scope of a family. My second favorite.

Televisnu
Directed by Prithi Gowda (Indian)
Humorous and vivid. Very Indian (if I may say so). Falls into my impression of contemporary Indian art in general.

The Golden Pin
Directed by Cuong Ngo (Vietnamese)
The struggle of a young gay man. I liked the opening scene but not the emotional part in the middle.

Wu is Dead
Directed by Rich Wong (Chinese)
The follow-up film of "Empire Corner" but with a totally different feel. Kuso. Didn't really like this one.

Frog in the Well
Directed by Ken Ochiai (Japanese)
Awesome. Simple story line but great filming and editing. First-person narrative based on a true story of the director's dad. My personal favorite. Oh, and it won the Festival Award for Best Short Film.

The films turned out much better than I expected. I'm really glad I went.

上個週末有費城亞裔電影節，我看了一個短片系列，共有七部短片，覺得很棒。我最喜歡的，是一部日裔導演的短片，（其實我懷疑他可能不是日裔美國人，而根本就是日本人）。第二、第三喜歡的都是華裔導演的短片。還好去看了。

OHNY 2010

2010-10-16T14:03:00.002-04:00

Open House New York, 2010. Places visited-

The Islamic Cultural Center
My first time entering a mosque, and probably also the first time touching a Koran. We were asked to take off our shoes before entering the building. Being a woman, I had to cover my head. The carpet from Pakistan was soft and comfy. Men would be praying on the ground floor while women on a relatively small space above. "Sunday School" (or whatever it is called) was held downstairs. Men and women were separated by a curtain. A Sunday School teacher was speaking to some young boys. He sounded strict and angry.

Japan Society
Bamboos, wood, water-- very oriental inner design. The show on exhibit was The Sound of One Hand. I thought it was okay since I'm not a big fan of traditional ink paintings or calligraphy. Also, maybe the Japanese has a different kind of philosophy that their art reflects, but I do think that traditional Chinese paintings totally win.

Salmagundi Club

Originally a private mansion, the house now serves as the meeting place for an artists' club. Gorgeous house with an impressive library collection.

Eldridge Street Synagogue

It kind of makes me laugh when I think of the location of the synagogue. Standing in Chinatown, this Jewish building felt just so out of context. At the same time, however, it was so visually well hidden that I bet a lot of people wouldn't even notice it. In fact, we didn't see it until we were like three doors away. The inside was splendid. It blew my mind since I used to imagine synagogues to be plain or even dull. I was so wrong. It makes sense to me now that I think about it. Solomon's temple was splendid according to Biblical description. They were never intended to be boring spaces. The circular window at the front of the main sanctuary was designed by Kiki Smith. "Sunday School space" (or "Saturday School" maybe?) was down in the basement area.

Poets House

A brand new building in a newly planned area. The whole area actually didn't look like the New York City I knew at all. It was clean, modern, and devoid of historic context. (Didn't feel that friendly though.) Plenty of natural light got in the Poets House through its glass windows, which also provided a great view of the Hudson River. We saw some Chinese poetry books in their collection.

Teardrop Park
A brand new park right outside the Poets House and along the Hudson River. Still not sure why it is called "Teardrop" though. Lots of families were there enjoying the afternoon. There was an Irish Hunger Memorial next to the park. While the event it commemorated was a bit random, the memorial itself was greatly designed. It was a combination of old and new. Caught my eye right away.

Center for Architecture (OHNY Welcome Center)
OHNY after party. There were some nice exhibits of building technology and models.

First Baptist Church
After a day of touring around Manhattan, we went to Redeemer's Sunday service on the Upper West Side. The church building, the First Baptist Church, happened to be one of the OHNY places, so I'm counting it as the concluding building of the day.

Which one did I like the best of all these places? I would rank the Eldridge Street Synagogue the first and the Islamic Cultural Center the second. I've always enjoyed learning about religious or cult buildings. They tell you so much about the minds of certain groups of people.

I think that the idea of organizing such an event is simply great. More places next year. Yay!

Open House New York是紐約一年一度的建築與設計活動，許多建築在這個週末都可以免費參觀，有些地點則有導覽，我覺得這真是一個非常棒的活動。今年參觀的地點——

伊斯蘭文化中心
日本協會
Salmagundi Club（這是紐約的一個畫會聚集地）
亞治列街猶太會堂
詩人之屋
淚滴公園
建築中心（OHNY的籌備中心）
第一浸信會教堂（在這裡做禮拜，剛好這也是OHNY的景點之一。）

No Beginning or End

2010-10-13T01:59:00.003-04:00

There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.-- Jackson Pollock

曾經有一位評論家寫道我的作品沒有開始也沒有結束。他並不是要稱讚我的作品，但這實際上是一種稱讚。——傑克森．帕洛克

MoMA puts up a show Abstract Expressionist New York. Some 250 exhibited works are all drawn from the museum's collection. I was amazed by the scale of it and ended up spending more time at the press preview than I originally planned. It's a great show. I highly recommend it.

紐約現代美術館現正展出「紐約抽象表現藝術家」大展。展出的大約兩百五十件作品，全是美術館的館藏，這個展覽的規模令人驚訝的大，結果我花在記者會的時間比預期的久。展覽很棒，大力推薦！

I posted Jackson Pollock's Number 31, 1950 here a couple months ago. If you were, as I was, wondering how large exactly was the painting, here's a picture that shows the scale of it. This is simply an awesome piece.

幾個月前，我在這裡貼了帕洛克的〈1：31號，1950〉。若你跟我一樣，想著這件作品到底有多大，那麼可以從下面這張照片看出。這件作品真是沒話說。

Another large piece I liked a lot was Barnett Newman's Vir Heroicus Sublimis. It was deep. When standing less than 20 inches from the painting, I felt like I was drowning into it.

另一件我很喜歡的大型作品，是巴奈特．紐曼的〈人類，英雄與崇高〉。它很深。當站在距離作品不到50公分的地方時，我覺得自己完全被它籠罩了。

A room full of Rothko. What an enjoyment.

一間全是羅斯柯作品的展廳，多麼享受！

I don't think further explanation is needed as to why I was drawn to this painting.

我想不用多做解釋，你們應該可以了解為什麼我被這件作品吸引。

Nara Exhibition

2010-09-30T18:57:00.024-04:00

Yoshitomo Nara.
Oh! My God! I Miss You.
2001.
Synthetic polymer paint and pencil on printed paper.
20 x 14 1/4 in. (50.8 x 36.2 cm).
The Museum of Modern Art, NY. Purchase, 2004.

The Asia Society in New York City is having an exhibition Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool, the first solo exhibition of Nara in New York. I went with a couple friends last weekend. It was good. You'd get a good sense of Nara's art even if you weren't familiar with it. I was gonna cover it for the magazine. After finishing the first part of the article, however, I realized that someone else has already covered it. Oh well, so I figured I'd just post here what I've written so far. Sorry if you don't read Chinese, but you should check out the exhibition website and pay a visit if you're in the city.

位於紐約的亞洲協會目前正推出特展「奈良美智：不是傻子」，這是奈良美智在紐約的首度個展。我上個週末跟幾位朋友一起去看，覺得很不錯，即使是對於奈良美智不熟悉的觀眾，也可大略抓住他的創作風格。本來想要寫一篇雜誌報導，可是寫完第一部分後，發現已經有其他作者寫了這個展覽，所以，我想我就把已經寫好的部分貼在這裡吧！以下。

自9月初起，走在紐約市公園大道靠近亞洲協會及公園大道軍械庫的路段，很難不注意到兩座立於馬路分隔島上的大型雕塑作品——穿著簡單洋裝的女孩，擁有如同孩童與小狗結合的面孔，熟悉亞洲當代藝術的觀眾，絕對不會錯過這個屬於奈良美智的獨特語彙。〈白色幽靈〉是藝術作品基金會（Art Production Fund）與亞洲協會合作推出的計畫，純白的雕塑與周圍的街景形成色彩上的差異，而隔著三個街區面對面站著的擺設，則傳達出傳統神社門口守護神的意象。

同時，亞洲協會也推出特展「奈良美智：不是傻子」。雖然奈良美智的作品已被數個歐美美術館典藏，也常見於衣物等商業產品上，這卻是他於紐約的首度個展，也是亞洲協會首度以所有的展示空間展出單一當代藝術家的作品，因此頗具意義。展出的一百餘件作品涵蓋1980年代至今的繪畫、雕塑、裝置等，足以呈現其創作風格及精神。展覽名稱「不是傻子」是奈良美智本人命名的，靈感取自美國歌手丹．潘恩（Dan Penn）1973年的同名歌曲，向這位他所尊敬的歌手致敬。展覽分為三大主題——「孤立」、「叛逆」及「音樂」，以大略編年的方式回顧奈良美智的創作發展。此外，也有兩件大型裝置作品，由奈良美智與團隊YNG合作完成，皆強烈呈現他的個人風格。

Minoan Size

2010-09-16T18:18:00.004-04:00

1.
Who:
Tina (an anthropologist who studies prehistoric skeletal remains)
Prof. P (a well-known Bronze Age archaeologist )
me (a graduate student)
Where: Crete

Prologue
It has long been argued whether the Minoan rings were actually worn by people because of their small diameters.

Scene I
(At a dinner table at our hotel. The subject of Minoan rings is brought up. Someone mentions a gold ring with a diameter of 1.3 cm.)
Me: 1.3 cm isn't that small. I think my finger could fit in. (Showing my own finger to the table.)
Tina: Yeah, your fingers look small. We should measure your fingers.

Scene II
(Cataloging pottery at the Study Center. Tina comes up with calipers in her hand.)
Tina: Can I measure the size of your finger?
Me: Oh, sure! I thought you were just saying.
Tina: Let's see... yes, your fingers are small enough to fit in a Minoan ring!

Scene III
(Party at the Study Center. Tina gives me a print out version of an email.)

Epilogue
Don't I deserve the rings? You've all heard of the Cinderella story!

2.
Who: Dr. B, Nikki and Me
Where: Archaeology Lab

(Dr. B is checking our pottery drawings.)
Nikki: This might sound like a stupid question, but how tall were the Minoans?
Dr. B: Oh, they were short. They were like Florence.

1.
角色：
Tina（研究史前時期人類骨骼的人類學家）
P教授（知名的青銅時期考古學家）
我（研究生）
地點：克里特島

前言
由於邁諾安戒指的直徑很小，長期以來，一直有人討論它們是否真得是實際拿來戴在手指上的。

第一幕
（在我們旅館的晚餐桌上，邁諾安戒指的話題被提起，有人提道一只直徑1.3公分的金戒指。）
我：1.3公分沒有那麼小啊，我覺得我應該戴得上。（把自己的手筆劃給其他人看。）
Tina：嗯，你的手指看起來很細，我們應該量量你的手指。

第二幕
（在研究中心編目錄。Tina走過來，手裡拿著卡尺。）
Tina：我可以量量你的手指嗎？
我：喔，當然可以！我以為你只是說說。
Tina：看看……你的手指夠細，可以戴上邁諾安戒指！

第三幕
（在研究中心的party，Tina遞給我一張列印出來的email。那是她與P教授的通信，她告訴P教授她測量了一位美國研究生Florence的小指，直徑只有1.15公分，可以戴上邁諾安戒指，因此回答了他的疑問——邁諾安戒指是可以被成年女性配戴的。原信見上圖。）

後記
難道戒指不應該給我嗎？你們都聽過灰姑娘的故事吧！

2.
角色：Dr. B、Nikki、我
地點：學校考古研究室

（Dr. B在檢查我們的陶器繪圖。）
Nikki：這可能聽起來是個很笨的問題，不過，邁諾安人到底有多高？
Dr. B：喔，他們很矮，差不多跟Florence一樣。

But there it is, either you love or you don't.

2010-09-13T23:25:00.004-04:00

A lot of people, I think, try to understand Beckett's meaning. I think it's better to just read it or listen to it or watch it and let it wash over you. -- Conor Lovett, performer

I used to hate Samuel Beckett. I remember first learning about him in drama class in college. We were assigned to read his play "Waiting for Godot," one of the most prominent works of the Theater of the Absurd. It wasn't a difficult read, but I don't think I've ever finished it. It was so boring. The teacher played the film from 1961 in class, but it didn't help much. It was hypnotic. I was a pretty attentive student, but I SO remember falling asleep during that ninety-minute, black-and-white film. (I was sitting in the first row!) I tried to stay awake but failed. This was my first encounter with Beckett, and I never paid much attention to him.

This year at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Gare St Lazare Players Ireland is putting Beckett's short novel "First Love" on stage. I'm not sure why, but the moment I heard about it, I felt the need to see it. It turned out that I actually enjoyed it.

The tragicomedy "First Love" is a first-person narrative, which means it's basically a ninety-minute monologue when putting on stage. ("Waiting for Godot" has two characters, and it's already boring. "First Love" has only one character. How about that?) The character was played by Conor Lovett, an acclaimed performer of Beckett's works. He was wearing a suit. The hood around his neck showed that he had a sweatshirt under his suit. His pants weren't long enough to cover his black socks. Not to mention the bright brown shoes that stood out so vividly among the dark colors. There we are, our hero of the absurd.

I must admit that there were lines that I didn't fully understand. After all, Beckett was good at playing with words and delivering a sense of dark humor. I, a non-native English speaker, couldn't grasp the wording to its full extent. Even so, it wasn't boring because the acting was engaging. Since the original work was meant to be read, not played, there was much space for interpretation when putting on stage. I think the team did a good job.

I should probably read the novel while the acting is still vivid in my mind.

* The title of this post is the last sentence of "First Love."

我覺得很多人試著去了解貝克特作品的意義。我認為比較好的，是純粹地去讀它，或聽它，或看它，並讓它將你淹沒。——康諾．拉維特，演員

我以前非常討厭山繆．貝克特。記得第一次學到他，是在大學的戲劇課。老師要我們讀他的劇本「等待果陀」——荒謬劇場最重要的作品之一。那部劇本並不難讀，但我大概從來沒有讀完過，它實在太無聊了。課堂上，老師播放照這部劇本演出的1961年的電影，也沒好到哪裡，簡直太催眠了！我大學時算是滿認真的學生，但我記得非常清楚，自己在這部九十分鐘的黑白片中睡著。（我還坐第一排咧。）我有努力睜開眼睛，可是終告失敗。這就是我與貝克特的初次相遇，我也從未太注意他。

今年的費城生活藝術節，劇團Gare St Lazare Players Ireland演出貝克特的短篇小說「初戀」。不知道為什麼，當我聽到這場表演時，就覺得一定要看。結果我也的確很享受那場演出。

悲喜劇「初戀」是第一人稱的敘述，也就是說，放上舞台時，是一個九十分鐘的獨白。（「等待果陀」有兩個角色，就已經夠無聊了，「初戀」只有一個角色，是怎樣？）主角由康諾．拉維特這位頗具聲譽的貝克特作品的演員所演出。他穿著一套西裝，掛在背上的帽子顯示出西裝下的帽T，他的褲管並沒有長到足以遮住黑色的襪子，更別提在一片暗色系中突出的亮棕色鞋子。好一個荒謬劇場的主人翁。

我必須承認自己沒有完全了解那個角色所說的每一句話，畢竟貝克特很擅於應用文字表達黑色幽默，而我這個英語非母語的人，還是無法抓住所有的精髓。即使如此，吸引人的演出讓整場表演並不無聊。由於貝克特的原作是拿來讀的，不是拿來演的，因此放上舞台時，有很多自由詮釋之處，而我覺得這次的演出團隊有很好的表現。

或許在還沒有忘記舞台演出時，應該去把小說讀一遍。

＊這篇文章的標題是「初戀」的最後一個句子。

To wear or not to wear: that is BEYOND question.

2010-09-09T23:05:00.020-04:00

It's been a pretty Philadelphian week.

我在過去的這個星期，感覺非常「費城」。

I finally went to Philadelphia's First Friday, a monthly event when galleries in the Old City have their open houses. I've heard of First Friday ever since I moved here, but last Friday was the first time I went. It was fun. I got to know some gallery spaces and saw some interesting art works. (There were some "meh" ones as well.) Above all, it was just nice to walk, talk, and eat in the Old City district. There were even fireworks!

我終於去費城的First Friday了。這是每個月一次的活動，在第一個星期五傍晚，舊城區的畫廊都有開幕或展覽。從搬到費城以後，我就聽說這個活動了，不過上星期是我第一次去。滿好玩的。我參觀了一些畫廊，看到一些有趣的作品（也有不怎麼樣的）。其實，只是在舊城區走路、聊天、吃東西，也就滿愉快的了。晚上還有煙火呢！

The 2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is here. Lot's of performances are going on. I saw "First Love," a stage presentation of Samuel Beckett's novel of the same name. I enjoyed it. (More on this later.) I'm also planning to see "The Sun Also Rises," adapted from the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

這兩週是費城生活藝術節及藝穗節，到處都有表演。我看了山繆．貝克特的小說「初戀」的舞台版，覺得很棒（這我之後再分享）。我也想看由海明威的小說改編的「太陽照常升起」。

I visited the Philadelphia Zoo with Chen on Labor Day. It was a great zoo. I liked that there were so many trees and plants, which not only made the zoo feel more like a natural environment, but also provided shades under the hot summer sun. We had fun. Here's a silly picture.

勞動節當天，我跟陳晨去費城動物園。這真是一個不錯的動物園，園內有許多樹和其他植物，不僅讓園內感覺更像自然環境，也提供了遮陰。我們有很愉快的一天。放上一張很呆的照片。

Vicky got free tickets to yesterday's Phillies game, and I was lucky to be one of the invited. We had pretty good seats, which were at the third base side. The game was ok, but it was fun just to see the crowd and hang out with friends. We also tried the famous Bull's Pulled Pork sandwich and the Schmitter sandwich. I like the former better.

Vicky拿到免費的費城人比賽的票，我受邀一起去看球賽！我們的座位在三壘方向，離球場算近的了，算是好位置。那場球賽普普通通，不過在那裡看著人群、跟朋友聊天就很好玩了。我們還吃了有名的三明治！

The stadium was almost full, as you can see from the picture. People wearing red were streaming in and out. I was gonna wear something red to this first ever Phillies game of mine, only to realize that my one and only red summer outfit was this--

從照片就可以看出，觀眾席幾乎全滿，穿著紅色的人們來來去去，我本來也想湊個熱鬧，在我的第一場費城人球賽穿一件紅色衣服，可是發現我唯一的紅色夏天衣服是這件——

First Week

2010-09-03T00:14:00.006-04:00

It's nearly the end of the first week of this semester. It's been good so far, but I can already see the craziness that is to come. Besides taking courses and doing research, I'm also working in the archaeology lab three days a week. Our working schedule is pretty flexible, but people usually get in the lab before nine o'clock in the morning. Now, boys and girls, in case you didn't know, ten o'clock (and even later) was my average wake-up time over the past year. It was such a pain to get up in the morning, but it's getting better.

I finished season four of Lost today. As usual, while some of my questions are answered, more questions are posed, and I sometimes get confused. I kind of lost interests in the second half of season three, but season four raised my interests again. I can't wait to proceed to season five now.

Almost three weeks have passed, and I'm still in love with my new apartment. And tell you what, I'm so proud of the way I arranged my furniture and stuff. Nice room + bright ideas = perfect living space. Yay! :)

Here's a picture of one of my landlady's cats, who decided to take a walk and explore my room the other day. Sorry about his blurry face and tail. He was moving every second so I couldn't get a clear shot of him. But here's a bonus: you get a peep of a corner of my new room, haha!

這學期的第一週很快就要過去了，目前為止都好，可是我已經可以預見即將來到的瘋狂。除了修課和做研究之外，我這學期還在教授的研究室做事，一星期三天。我們的工作時間很彈性，可是大家一般都在早上九點以前到達研究室。好，各位同學，我過去一年的平均起床時間都是在早上十點之後，早起真是太痛苦了，不過這個星期以來，已經漸漸調好了。

今天看完影集「Lost」的第四季了，就像之前一樣，某些疑問獲得了解答，但也冒出更多的疑問，有時都覺得看得迷糊了。第三季的後半讓我有點失去興趣，可是第四季又變好看了，現在我迫不及待要進入第五季。

搬家快三個星期了，我仍跟我的新房間在熱戀期，而且我實在很滿意自己擺放家具的方式，哈哈。好房間＋好主意＝完美的居住空間。耶！

上面是房東太太的其中一隻貓的照片。他有一天突然決定到我房間探險。因為他一直都在動，所以我沒照到清楚的照片，頭和尾巴都糊掉了，真是不好意思。不過這張照片有個附帶大放送：你們可以看到我的房間的一個小角，哈哈。

Movies I Saw, 2010 (2)

2010-08-31T00:44:00.006-04:00

OK, I know this looks like a short list for a summer, but the thing is I've been watching "Lost" over the summer, and it's been taking most of my movie/ TV time. I'm half way through season four now. Not sure if it's worth it trading a bunch of movies for a TV series, but I can't just stop now with so many mysteries waiting to be unraveled.

好，我知道對於一個夏天來說，這個片單實在很短。問題就在於我整個夏天都在看影集「Lost」，它基本上就佔據了我大部分看電影或電視的時間。我現在看到第四季的一半了。不知道以一堆電影換一部影集值不值得，但現在有這麼多謎團等著解開，實在無法就此打住。

♥♥♥♥♥

Inception／全面啟動(2010) I saw it twice. My first time reaction was like-- What happened? What is real and what is a dream? Am I dreaming or what? There were lots of things that I finally understood after watching it for a second time. Also, it kept on reminding me of the "Butterfly Dream" story that the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi told more than two thousand years ago.／看了兩次。第一次的反應：發生什麼事了？什麼事真實什麼是夢？我在做夢嗎？有很多問題終於在看第二遍時稍微解答了。此外，我一直想到莊周夢蝶的故事。
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian／博物館驚魂夜2(2009) It was a silly movie, but I loved it! I had to keep myself from laughing out loud since I saw it on a flight.／很笨的電影，但我很愛！因為在飛機上看，所以非常努力讓自己不大聲笑出來。

♥♥♥♥

50 First Dates／我的失憶女友(2004) Very cute movie. Seriously, where in the world could you find a guy so sweet and patient?／很可愛的電影。說真的，這個世界上找得到這麼有耐心的男人嗎？
Despicable Me／神偷奶爸(2010) It was funny and cute. Much better than I thought. The unicorn story in the end brought out my tears.／又好笑又可愛，比我原本想像的好看太多了。最後獨角獸的故事讓我掉了兩滴眼淚。
Finding Nemo／海底總動員(2003) I know, not until recently did I see it all the way through the end. I like the colors and the characters.／好啦，我知道，我到現在才把這部電影從頭看到尾。我很喜歡那些繽紛的色彩和角色。

♥♥♥

The 40 Year Old Virgin／40處男(2005) Ending the movie with the songs "Aquarius" and "Let the Sun Shine" is totally classic.／以「Aquarius」和「Let the Sun Shine」這兩首歌結束這部電影，真是太經典了！
Did You Hear About the Morgans?／名牌冤家(2009)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs／冰原歷險記3：恐龍現身(2009)
The Karate Kid／（有中文嗎？）(2010)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest／神鬼奇航2：加勒比海盜(2006) Entertaining, but a little too long.／娛樂用，但有點太長了。

♥♥

Angels & Demons／天使與惡魔(2009) I didn't expect much, but it was still disappointing. They changed so much of the original story. I can't believe that the character Maximillian Kohler was totally taken out. Without him, not only did the story lose a dramatic character, but the structure also changed. On the other hand, I do understand that the novel cannot be easily compressed into a two-hour movie.／我並沒有太多期待，但看了以後還是滿失望的。原作被改編太多了，我無法相信Maximillian Kohler這個角色竟然完全被刪除，沒有他，不僅少了一個很有戲劇性的角色，而且故事的架構也改變很多。另一方面，我也了解這部小說實在不容易被濃縮為兩小時的電影。
Coraline／第十四道門(2009) Honestly, I don't like it. I was really excited when it first came out but was disappointed after watching it. The animation was good, but I didn't enjoy the movie at all. It wasn't the creepy atmosphere that annoyed me, seeing the fact that I love Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King and Tim Burton. It was just the overall thing. I'm still trying to figure out.／說真的，我不喜歡。這部片子剛出來時，我非常想看，可是現在看了以後，覺得很失望。動畫做得很好，但我卻沒有享受的感覺。讓我不喜歡的並不是令人微微毛骨悚然的氣氛，這由我喜歡愛倫波、史提芬．金，以及提姆．波頓就可以得知了。就只是一種整體的感覺。我還試著在理出。
Tooth Fairy／牙仙大帝(2010)

♥

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider／古墓奇兵(2001) Stupid movie.／難看。

They showed Alice in Wonderland on my flight from Athens to Paris, so I watched it again. I don't know why, but I really like what Alice said while fighting the Jabberwocky--

Six impossible things. Count them, Alice. One, there's a potion that can make you shrink. Two, a cake that can make you grow. Three, animals can talk. Four, cats can disappear. Five, there's a place called Wonderland. Six, I can slay the Jabberwocky.-- Alice

New Place!

2010-08-16T01:03:00.000-04:00

I'm delighted as I type up this post. Yup, this is my first night at my new apartment, and I love it!

The size of the room is pretty decent. It has plenty of natural light, which my previous apartment lacked. I also like its wooden floor and a huge mirror going all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Most important of all, the rent is much less than my previous apartment in the same neighborhood.

I'm sharing the kitchen and the bathroom with another girl. She hasn't moved in yet, but I met up with her last week and she looked nice. I hope we can become good friends. The landlady is easy to get along with. She lives upstairs with a dog and two cats. I'm not all that interested in the dog, but the cats are more than welcome to visit my room, haha.

Many thanks to those who helped me during the move, especially Pastor Chia. I've done most of the cleaning and organizing today. There's just a couple minor stuff left to be put in place.

Looking around the room, I feel blessed.

我現在正以愉悅的心情打這篇文章。沒錯，這是我搬到新家的第一晚，而我很喜歡這個地方！

這個房間還不小，有充足的自然光（這是我之前的家所缺少的），我也很喜歡它的木頭地板，以及從地板一路到天花板的大鏡子。最重要的，雖然這裡跟我之前的公寓在同一區，可是租金卻少很多。

我跟另一個女生共用廚房和浴室，她還沒搬進來，不過我上星期跟她見過一次面，她看起來還不錯，希望我們可以成為好朋友。房東太太很好相處，感覺也很好說話，她跟她的一隻狗及兩隻貓住在樓上，我對那隻狗沒什麼興趣，不過非常歡迎那兩隻貓來造訪我的房間，哈哈。

很謝謝在我搬家期間幫忙的人，特別是賈牧師。我今天已經打掃及整理得差不多了，只剩下一些衣服等著歸位。

環顧這個房間，我覺得很感恩。

Origami

2010-08-07T02:53:00.000-04:00

I like this origami analogy Vicky gave today.

If you fold something for a kid but not tell them what you're folding, they'd get excited. They'd probably keep on asking you questions while you're folding the paper. If you do it slow, they'd get impatient. They'd keep their eyes opened until you finally hand them what you promised.

We know we've got God's promise. We just don't know what the end result is like. We get impatient in the wait. Yet, God is working, and He'll eventually hand us the beautiful origami He makes just for us. What's better is that we can be sure God won't come up with a bunch of crap.

For all of you who wonder if God's been sleeping. :)

我很喜歡Vicky今天講的摺紙比喻。

如果你摺東西給一個孩子，可是不告訴他你在摺什麼，他會開始興奮和期待，他可能在你摺紙的時候不停問問題，如果你做得很慢，他會不耐煩，他會睜大眼睛直到你終於把你承諾的成品交在他手上。

我們知道我們已經得到上帝的應許，只是不知道結果長怎樣。我們在等待時會開始不耐煩。可是，上帝在工作，祂最終會把那專為我們摺的美麗成品交在我們手上。更好的，是我們可以確定上帝不會摺出一團爛東西。

給所有懷疑上帝在睡覺的人。:)

Stickers

2010-08-04T01:13:00.003-04:00

Can I just show off my laptop a little bit?

I was sitting at Cosi and typing up stuff when a group of teenagers came in. "I like the stickers on your Macintosh," one of the boys said to me.

Thank you, young man! You've got some good taste! I like them, too. And let me tell ya, it wasn't the first time I got such comment!

P.S. I got the pretty stickers in Taiwan. They're a mix of two different sets.

我能不能來秀一下我的電腦？

前幾天我坐在咖啡廳打文章時，一群青少年走進來，其中一位男孩對我說：「我喜歡你的麥金塔上的貼紙。」

很上道喔，年輕人！我也很喜歡這些貼紙。而且，告訴你，這不是我第一次得到這樣的評語了！

P.S. 貼紙是在台灣買的，是兩組不同的拼在一起的。

Jackson Pollock No. 31

2010-07-31T00:20:00.005-04:00

I've been feeling pretty Jackson Pollock for a while now. This is the first time I feel something out of a Pollock painting ever.

Good things and bad things happened, as well as those that are yet to be determined whether good or bad. In the midst of confusion though, I somehow feel that there is still a thread end. As long as I find it and hold onto it, everything will gradually be unwrapped, just as a silkworm cocoon being unwrapped into a beautiful thread of silk.

Lizards drop their tails to survive. New tails regenerate over a period of time, but they are unlikely to resemble the originals. Lizards don't feel pain in the process.

Or do they?

Among all the chaos, at least one thing is settled. I found a nice little apartment, where I'll be moving in in two weeks. I'm looking forward.

最近的心情非常帕洛克，這是我有史以來第一次對帕洛克的作品有感覺。

搬到費城快一年了。在大家看來，出國念書風風光光，申請到不錯的學校，跟到很有名的教授，夏天還可以到希臘考古，結束後順便旅遊。距離紐約近，又有妹妹住紐約，沒事就往那跑。看展覽、聽concert，一切似乎都很美好。

其實，過去一年我沒有真正快樂過。生性樂觀如我，說出這種話也算是值得驚訝了。有好事也有不好的事發生，還有一些不知道是好不好的事。有很多迷惘，但我隱約覺得還是有個線頭，只要找到並握緊它，就可以抽絲剝繭，慢慢理出一條美麗的絲。

蜥蜴斷尾求生。過一段時間，新的尾巴會長出來，但它看起來不太可能跟舊的尾巴一樣。蜥蜴在整個過程中並不會感覺疼痛。

還是會呢？

每個動作都是一個選擇。接與不接，也是一個選擇。在那一刻，一滴眼淚從右眼滾出，滑下臉頰，再墜落到看不見的黑暗中。但這是必要的，因為知道若非如此，隨著短暫的快樂而來的，是更巨大的空虛。

很神奇的，最近有幾位朋友不約而同鼓勵我要多禱告倚賴神，包括以前我想都沒想過會去教會的朋友。是該更認真了。

在所有的混亂之中，至少有一件事是確定的。我找到一間不錯的公寓，兩星期之後要搬進去，期待中。

Space Matters

2010-07-23T17:14:00.003-04:00

Charles E. Burchfield. Black Iron. 1935

I want to talk a little bit about the museums I went while I was in NYC last week.

I visited the MoMA of course. I love the MoMA! I always feel like my NYC trip isn't complete if I don't go. Their latest exhibition, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917, was pretty impressive, especially the bronze reliefs that displayed a tense muscle of human backs. Mind and Matters: Alternative Abstractions, 1940s to Now felt somewhat lighter than the Matisse exhibition (in a good way). It featured female artists, which was probably why I sensed more intimacy in it. Another exhibit I'd like to highlight is Projects 93: Dinh Q. Lê. The Farmers and the Helicopters (2006), a three-channel video installation, documented the impression and the recollection of the helicopters by Vietnamese farmers during and after the Vietnam War. It was plain but deep. The association of dragon flies with helicopters in the beginning was quite poetic.

Another museum I went to was the Whitney Museum of American Art-- my first time ever. I know- it sounded ridiculous that an art history major, who studied in New York State, had never been to the Whitney. Well, this was exactly why I decided that I should finally make a trip there. Collecting Biennials was a kind of historical survey of some important artists that has participated in the Whitney biennials. There wasn't really an organizing theme (except that they all were in one or more biennials), but there were a number of interesting works. Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield featured the works of the artist, who drew his inspiration mostly from the landscape around his home in Buffalo, NY. It's been getting some good reviews. My need for a Buffalo fix reached to an apex while I was in the gallery.

Angel asked me if I liked the Whitney Museum later that day. I stopped for a second and slowly shrugged my shoulders a little. "I-- don't know." I felt kind of sad while telling her that I would probably not visit again unless they have some exhibition that I really wanted to see. I was actually wondering why I didn't like it while I was inside the museum. I think, first of all, I didn't like its facade. The design of the architecture made the doorway feel like a shady tunnel. Secondly, the lighting wasn't great. The doorway was already shady, but walking in the main hall didn't make things better. Some of the galleries were also dimly lighted. Most important of all, I felt confined in the museum. I'm not an expert in architectural design, but I think the feeling might have been caused by the lack of windows, or the isolation between floors and floors. It's too bad that I can't help but imagine how much better the Burchfield exhibition would feel if it was at the MoMA. Attendance has long been a problem of the Whitney Museum. Maybe the space has something to do with it since the art is good and the tours are great. I also like their idea of providing stools for visitors to carry along in the galleries.

Now, I'm not criticizing the Whitney Museum. I do appreciate the effort of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney for devoting a museum for modern American art. I'm in no way looking down on the building itself, either. I do see that it was significant back in 1966 when it opened, but it's just too stiff and heavy for me in 2010. Anyways, the museum has launched a building project in downtown Manhattan. Hopefully, the new building, located in the Meatpacking District and near the High Line, will draw more visitors when it opens to the public in 2015. I believe Renzo Piano, the design architect, would a bring more dynamic feel to the architecture.

我想講講上個星期在紐約去的美術館。

想當然，我去了現代美術館。我愛紐約現代美術館！如果沒去，我總覺得自己的紐約行缺少了什麼。最新展覽「馬諦斯：徹底的發明，1913-1917」吸引了很多觀眾，特別令我印象深刻的是幾件展現了人體背部肌肉線條的銅雕。與馬諦斯展覽相比，「精神與物質：另一種抽象，1940年代至今」是一個較輕的展覽，或許因為展出女性藝術家的作品，所以讓我覺得細膩與私密。另一個我想特別一提的是「計畫93：Dinh Q. Lê」（我不會翻譯越南名字），三頻錄像裝置〈農民與直昇機〉（2006）記錄了越南農民們在越戰之時與之後對於直昇機的印象與回憶，雖然平鋪直敘，卻很深刻，開頭的蜻蜓與直昇機的連結很詩意。

另一個美術館，則是惠特尼美國藝術美術館。這是我第一次去。我知道——對於一個曾在紐約州讀藝術史的人來說，沒有去過惠特尼聽起來實在很荒謬，也正因為如此，我決定是該找時間去一次了。「雙年展收藏」算是一個對於參加過惠特尼雙年展的藝術家的歷史性精選回顧，除了這些藝術家都曾參與過雙年展以外，並沒有一個很一致的主題，不過，的確有不少有趣的作品。「沼澤內的熱流：查里斯．伯齊費爾德的繪畫」展出這位藝術家的作品，他的靈感來源大多是他在紐約水牛城的家附近的地景，這個展覽獲得不少正面的評論，參觀時，我對水牛城的想念到達了頂點。

那天晚上，我妹問我喜不喜歡惠特尼美術館，我停頓了一下，然後微微聳肩，「我—不知道。」我很不想這樣說，但是我告訴她，除非有我很想看的展覽，否則可能不會再去了。事實上，我在館內時，就在思考為什麼那裡沒有很吸引我。我想，第一，我不喜歡它的門面，那個建築的設計讓美術館的大門感覺像個陰暗的隧道。其次，燈光不是很好，大門就已經很陰暗了，可是進到大廳後並沒有比較好，很多展廳的燈光也都滿微弱的。最重要的，是我在館內感到很受限，我不是建築設計專家，不過我想這可能是沒有窗戶所導致，或是樓層與樓層間的彼此隔絕。很糟的是我無法不去想，若伯齊費爾德的展覽是在紐約現代美術館展出的話，會好多少。觀眾人數一直是惠特尼美術館的問題，既然展出作品和導覽都很好，或許整體空間是原因之一吧。另外，我覺得他們提供觀眾可隨身攜帶的摺椅的這個作法很棒。

我不是在批評惠特尼美術館，葛楚·范德伯爾特．惠特尼女士成立一間專為美國藝術的美術館，實在很重要。我也不是在輕看那座建築本身，可想而知，它在1966年開館時是非常具有標的性的建築，只不過對於2010年的我來說，它有點太僵又太重了。無論如何，惠特尼美術館已經開始了一個下城區建築計畫，希望這座位於包肉區、空中公園附近的新建築，在2015年開幕時，可以吸引更多觀眾。我相信建築師倫佐．皮亞諾可以帶來一座更有動感的建築。

Here Comes the Pictures!

2010-07-20T01:45:00.004-04:00

Is there a city that's both metropolitan and relaxing? Paris! I think it's the combining of these two features that makes Paris so lovely.

When I was in Paris, it dawned on me that the U.S. was not the only country in the world. I know it's weird for someone who grew up in Taiwan to say so, but I'm being honest, and it takes courage. I mean, I've always known, but I think it was the first time that I truly understood. I don't know how to explain it. You can only experience it yourself.

People asked me if I wanted to move to Paris. I don't know. I might want to if I spoke French. I had no problem getting around with English, but there's no way I can totally blend in if I don't speak their language. It's simply not enough by saying "bonjour," "bonsoir" or "merci," basically the only three French words I said in Paris. I wish I could communicate with people using the local language. I was never excited about learning French, but here's finally some good motivation. (I had a similar feeling when I was in Greece.)

There's something I don't understand though. Paris men pee in the streets, even if it's daytime and people are walking by. I just don't get it.

So I finally uploaded some pictures. This is Crete, where I took more than a thousand pictures. However, I don't want to bore you guys with Minoan buildings, which, according to my sisters, are all piles of stones, so this is just a tiny portion of my pictures. Here's Athens, and here's Paris. Similarly, I selected just a few of them. Enjoy!

有哪個城市既有大都會的規模，又有悠閒的氛圍？巴黎！我想，就是擁有這兩種特色的綜合，讓巴黎如此動人。

在巴黎時，我突然領悟到這個世界不是只有美國。我知道從一個在台灣長大的人的口中說這樣的領悟，實在很怪，但我只是很坦白地說出一種感覺，而這種坦白需要勇氣。我一直都知道這個世界不是只有美國，但這次是真得很深地體驗。我不知道如何解釋，如人飲水，冷暖自知。

有些人問我想不想搬到巴黎。我不知道，如果我會說法文，應該會想吧。我在那裡講英文都沒有問題，可是如果不會說他們的語言，我永遠都不能完全融入。總不能只靠著「bonjour」、「bonsoir」或「merci」——基本上就是我在巴黎時使用的所有法文——走遍天下，我希望能用當地的語言跟他們溝通。我以前從來沒有真得很想學法文，而現在有動力了！（我在希臘時，也有類似的感受。）

只是有一件事我實在想不通——巴黎男人當街撒尿，即使是大白天人來人往的時候。我不懂。

我終於上傳一些照片了。這是克里特，我照了上千張照片，但是我不想用米諾安建築遺跡來轟炸大家（根據我妹的說法，那些都是一堆一堆的石頭），所以我只選了非常小的一部分。這是雅典，這是巴黎，同樣地，這只是我照的一小部分而已。慢慢欣賞！

Paris Welcomed Me with Music

2010-07-17T02:01:00.003-04:00

The day I arrived in Paris happened to be the Annual Festival of Music. The evening streets were crowded with people who came out to enjoy free music. Bands and choirs, from classical to pop, were all over the place. My friend Jordan was in a Swedish choir that performed at Place des Vosges, so I joined the crowd and looked for his choir in this longest day of the year.

我到達巴黎的那天，剛好是一年一度的音樂節。傍晚的街頭遍滿了出來享受免費音樂的人們，從古典到流行的樂團及合唱團也各據一處。我的朋友Jordan參與的瑞典合唱團在孚日廣場演出，因此在這一年當中最長的白天，我加入群眾，在眾多團體之間尋找他的合唱團。

It was when I fell in love with Paris. I had never thought that I'd fall in love with a city within six hours after my arrival, but I did. I've heard people saying how much they loved Paris for my whole life, and people have been assuring me that I'd love the city. I wasn't sure about what they said, but then there I was, walking in the streets and falling in love with the place. I don't know exactly why, but it doesn't bother me at all!

也就是在那時，我愛上了巴黎。我從來沒想過自己會在到達一個城市的六小時之內就愛上它，但事實就是如此。我這輩子不知道聽了多少人說很愛巴黎，朋友們也在之前擔保我一定會愛上那裡。聽他們說的時候，我實在不確定，甚至天生反骨的性情讓我有點不以為然，但是結果我到了那裡，走在街上，並愛上了那個城市。我不知道為什麼，不過這一點也無所謂！

After the performance, I walked in the lively streets with Jordan and his friends. He told me that Paris wasn't like that every night, but I think it was just perfect for a first night there. Oh and speaking of Jordan, whose apartment I crashed, he was so thoughtful that my stay in Paris was absolutely wonderful. Did it contribute to my love for Paris? Probably!

演出結束後，我跟Jordan和他的朋友們走在熱鬧的街上，他說巴黎不是每個晚上都像這樣，不過，我覺得這真是完美的第一晚。喔，說到Jordan，我在巴黎時住在他家，他真是太細心了，讓我在那裡的住宿好得沒話說。這也對於我愛上巴黎有貢獻嗎？可能喔！

Crowded

2010-07-15T00:16:00.001-04:00

What are these people looking at?

這些人在看什麼？

Ah, the Mona Lisa of course!

啊，當然是蒙娜麗莎了！

It was the most crowded gallery in the Louvre.

那是羅浮宮裡最擠的展廳了。

Trip in Greece

2010-07-14T01:03:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple thoughts and notes from my trip in Greece.

- Taking trips is truly one of the best ways to learn. It's beyond words how much I've gotten from the trip.

- There are much more in common between Europe and Asia in terms of culture and technology than I previously thought. There were things that caught the eyes of my American colleagues that I, the first-time Greece goer, found pretty normal. I'd never really sensed or experienced it in the States.

- It was the first time in my life that, for more than a month, there was absolutely no one whom I could speak Chinese with. Well, except for the day I met up with Peter and Lisa in Athens, which was also my second last day in Greece.

- I never really felt like I was an "American" when I was in the States. When I was in Greece, however, I had this unexplainable feeling that I was an American. It was probably because 1) I was from an American institution; 2) I was always with the Americans; and 3) I was definitely not a Greek. It was a pretty special sensation. Is it human nature that people are always inclined to identify themselves with someone/ something in whichever setting?

- One of the greatest things in Greece was that I ate lots and lots of watermelons, my favorite fruit ever. And they were good watermelons! I even had watermelon juice!

這趟希臘行的一些想法及筆記。

- 百聞不如一見。我實在無法說明這趟旅行帶來的收穫有多大。

- 歐洲與亞洲在人文上的相似處比我之前想像的還多。有些讓我的美國朋友注意到或驚訝的事物，在我這個初次到希臘的人的眼中，其實再平常不過了。在美國的時候，從來沒有意識或經驗到這種現象。

- 這是我這輩子第一次一個多月完全沒有講中文的機會，除了我在雅典與Peter和Lisa見面的那天以外，那也是我在希臘的倒數第二天。

- 之前在美國時，我從來不覺得自己是「美國人」，但是當我在希臘時，我有這種難以解釋的「我是美國人」的感覺。有可能是因為：（一）我是跟著一個美國的學術機構（學校）去的；（二）我一直跟美國人在一起；（三）我很明顯不是希臘人。這是一種滿特殊的感覺。我在想，不管在哪種環境，尋找某種身分認同，是否是人性的傾向？

- 在希臘最棒的事之一，就是我吃了一大堆西瓜！這是我最喜歡的水果，簡直太棒了。我還喝了西瓜汁！

Rock of Ares

2010-07-08T16:14:00.005-04:00

The Areopagus, the Rock of Ares, is a hill north-west of the Acropolis. It was where the Areopagus Council met and presided over cases of serious crimes such as murder, sacrilege, or arson in the Classical times. It was also a place of religious worship. The legal institution continued to the Roman period when the hillside had already become a living quarter occupied by residential units. It was where the apostle Paul addressed his famous speech of "the unknown god" recorded in Acts, chapter 17. Among the converts was Dionysius the Areopagite, to whom a church was later built and dedicated on the northern slope.

亞略巴古（戰神之石）是衛城西北方的一個石丘。這是希臘古典時期亞略巴古會議聚集之處，他們在此審判犯下如謀殺、褻瀆、縱火等重案的罪犯，同時也是宗教崇拜聚集之處。這個法律會議一直延續到羅馬時期，而此時，這個石丘也早已成為一個居住社區。就是在此，使徒保羅傳講了記載在聖經使徒行傳十七章、著名的「未識之神」的信息。當時歸信基督者，包括一位亞略巴古的官——丟尼修，之後的信徒在石丘的北坡以他的名建了一座教堂。

Like all the other hilltops I've been in Greece (literally in Crete), it was pretty windy at the top of the Areopagus, which was great for a hot summer day. I sat there for roughly half an hour watching people and thinking about nothing. This is a view of the Acropolis from the Areopagus.

就好像我去過的其他希臘（或說，克里特）的山丘，亞略巴古丘頂的風也非常大，這對於炎炎夏日其實是很舒服的。我在丘頂坐了大約半小時，發呆、觀察其他的人。這是從亞略巴古遙望衛城的照片。

The light wasn't great when I was there, and I must admit that I didn't realize the significance of the hill until I left Athens. (Yes, I was walking on the hill where the apostle Paul once stood without realizing it because I didn't recall the name in the Bible!) As a result, I only took a few pictures of it and most of them were poorly taken. I'll surely be taking more pictures the next time I'm there. In the meantime, take a look at this picture in Wikipedia and you'll get an idea of the whole thing.

我到那裡時，光線並不是非常理想，而且我必須承認，直到離開雅典前，我都沒有意識到這個地點的重要性，（是的，我走在使徒保羅曾經站立的地方卻不知道，因為我不記得這個名稱有出現在聖經中！）因此並沒有照太多相片，而且少數的幾張相片也都不是照得很好。下次到這裡時，我一定會照更多好相片，在那之前，大家可看看這張維基百科的相片，可以看到全景。

Sacred to Athena

2010-07-06T15:59:00.009-04:00

My eyes were literally wet the moment I reached the Proplyaea, the ancient gateway to the Acropolis. It wasn't difficult to imagine the excitement and seriousness of the ancient Athenians, who dedicated newly woven peplos to Athena at the Panathenaic Festival held every four years. A 39-foot gold and ivory statue of Athena once stood on the hilltop overlooking the whole city. By receiving the dedication on the altar, the patron goddess of the city ensured its peace and prosperity.

到達雅典衛城城門的那一刻，淚水浸濕了我的眼眶。實在不難想像，當年雅典市民在每四年舉辦一次的泛雅典娜節慶中，將新織好的布匹供獻給雅典娜時，是多麼地興奮與慎重。將近12公尺高、以黃金與象牙雕刻而成的雅典娜雕像，曾站在丘頂俯瞰整個城市。接受祭壇上的供物的同時，這個城市的守護女神也確保此地的平安與繁榮。

Even though the Parthenon we see now is partially fake, I'm glad that I've seen it.

雖然現在看到的帕德嫩神殿有好大一部分是假的，它還是必看景點啊！

Looking down from the south side of the Acropolis. The Theater of Dionysus is at the bottom left of the picture. The gray building is the New Acropolis Museum.

從衛城的南邊向下望。酒神戴奧尼索斯劇場在照片的左下方，而那棟灰色的建築則是新衛城博物館。

Athens, so Taipei

2010-07-03T01:16:00.006-04:00

The poet Yu Kuang-chung once wrote, "The starry sky, so Greek." I, on the other hand, would like to say, "Athens, so Taipei."

This statement probably doesn't apply to the whole city of Athens, but at least it was my first impression of it.

I stayed in my friend Anna's cozy room in Athens. There was an open-air market in the neighborhood. I followed her through the market, climbed up the stairs ~~of despair~~, and got in her home close to an outdoor basketball court the first day I arrived. While walking in the narrow streets and looking at the surrounding buildings, I kept on shouting in my mind, "This is just so Taipei-like!"

詩人余光中曾寫道：「星空，非常希臘。」我則要說：「雅典，非常台北。」

以這個句子形容整個雅典，或許是太過分了，但是，至少這是我對這個城市的第一印象。

在雅典的三天，我住在朋友Anna家。那個社區內有一個露天市場，我到達的第一天，跟著她穿過市場、爬上~~令人絕望的~~階梯，進到了位於露天籃球場附近的家。走在狹窄的巷子內，環顧周圍的住家，我心裡只能不停地吶喊：「這一切實在太台北了！」

Jason told me that some of the pictures I took on Crete kind of reminded him of Taiwan. I've got to agree.

Jason說我在克里特照的照片有點讓他想到台灣。我不得不同意。

Back in Philly

2010-06-29T23:52:00.005-04:00

So I got back to Philly yesterday. The past six weeks went fast. Now that I'm back, I wish I had planned a longer trip.

My mailbox nearly exploded. Among bills and advertisements are postcards I sent to myself. I noticed something though. The first one I wrote, which I sent with the postcards for all other people, is missing from the mailbox. I'm thus assuming that the other ones haven't arrived their destination as well. I don't know what happened, but I just want to let you know that I did send you a postcard if you asked for one. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the postcards would finally arrive.

I've got thousands of pictures from the trip to organize now. Beside the ones I've already posted, there are a couple more that I'd like to share. Stay tuned!

昨天回到費城了，過去的六個星期過得很快，現在回到這裡，還真但願我當初計畫了更長的行程。

我家的信箱快爆炸了，除了帳單和廣告外，還收到了我寄給自己的明信片。不過，我倒注意到一件事，就是我寄出的第一張，也就是跟著寄給大家的明信片一起寄出的那一張，沒有在信箱裡，因此我猜測其他的明信片也還沒到達目的地。不知道發生了什麼事，但我只想說，如果你有說要明信片，我真得有寄出，讓我們祈禱明信片最終還是會寄到吧！

我現在有上千張這次旅行的照片要整理，除了我已經貼出的照片以外，還有一些想要分享的，敬請期待！

Hide-and-Seek

2010-06-16T15:40:00.002-04:00

I love going to aquariums. There is always something that amazes me at an aquarium.

我愛去水族館，在那裡總能看到令我吃驚的生物。

This freaking fish (or whatever creature) is the champion I saw at the Cret@quarium last Saturday. I was in such amazement that I still can't get over it. In fact, there were three of them in the tank.

這條怪魚（或生物）是上週六我在克里特水族館看到的冠軍，我實在太吃驚了，到現在心情還不能平復。事實上，水族箱裡共有三條。

(Okay, are we playing hide-and-seek or red light/ green light? Oh well, it doesn't really matter since you're gonna win in either game.)

There were no labels for this tank, so I really don't know what they are. If you happen to know them, please, please, please let me know!

（好，現在是玩捉迷藏還是一二三木頭人？其實都無所謂，因為不管玩什麼你都會贏。）

這個水族箱旁邊沒有標示，所以我不知道這是什麼鬼東西，如果你知道的話，拜託拜託告訴我！

Outstanding Flowers

2010-06-15T15:40:00.001-04:00

Crete is incredibly dry. I was so impressed that I asked Dr. B the other day if there was any time of the year when the grass was green. (Dr. B: Yes, in April. It's the raining season.) Nevertheless, you could see a flower standing amidst the yellowish grass every now and then. I love these "outstanding" flowers.

克里特真是不可思議地乾燥。這種氣候表現實在太顯著了，以至於某天我問Dr. B，在一年之中是否有任何時候草地是綠色的。（Dr. B：有，在四月，那是雨季。）不過，在枯黃的草叢之間，不時可看到立於其中的花朵。就這麼一朵，挺挺地站著。我愛這些孤挺的花朵。

By the way, the highest temperature today was 38°C, which was about 100°F. I'm melting.

順帶一提，今天的最高溫是攝氏38度，也就是華氏100度。我快融化了。

City or Country

2010-06-10T15:46:00.000-04:00

I came across this question a couple days ago--
Where do you see yourself living in 15 years?
a. in the country
b. in a small town
c. in the suburbs
d. in the city

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It's been more than three weeks since I'm in Crete. Things are going well, and I've learned a whole lot of stuff, from archaeology to making salads (oh well :p). What I've gained from the trip is much more than I expected.

Work is getting a bit tiring this week though. I'm not saying that I don't like doing it, but it's just that I'm loosing excitement. For most of the days, I arrive at the study center before 8:00, get my things ready, turn on my iPod, and start cataloguing. It's fun to look at the pottery in detail, but I guess it's the repetition and sitting at the same place for a long time that wear me out a bit.

Whenever I think of long working hours, I recall the days I worked as a magazine editor. The workload and hours were hardly imaginable for people outside the industry. The job was exciting and challenging though. I had the chance to meet people and go to exhibition openings and press previews. Plus, I lived in a big city so there's always something to do after work.

Back to the beginning question. I think my job has to be very exciting if I was to live in a small town or in the country. Otherwise, I'd probably die of boredom. On the contrary, if I live in a big city, I could probably handle a not-so-exciting job because there's always something exciting going on besides work. This is a new realization for me since this is the first time in my life that I live in a small town for more than a week.

Anyways, I finally mailed some postcards yesterday. Don't know how long it will take to get to their destinations, but just so you know that it's on the way if you asked for a postcard!

我前幾天看到這個問題——
你希望／覺得十五年後你住在哪裡？
a. 鄉下
b. 小鎮
c. 市郊
d. 城市

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到克里特已經三個多星期了，一切都好，我也學了很多，大至考古，小至做沙拉 :p，在這裡得到的真是比我預期的還要多很多。

不過，在工作上，我開始變得有點消沉。不是說我不喜歡做，只是不感到那麼興奮了。大部分的工作天，我在早上八點以前就到研究中心、把需要的工具準備好、打開我的iPod，然後開始登記目錄。能夠仔細觀察這些陶器確實很有趣，不過，我想是不停重複的動作和很長的工作時數讓我感到疲倦吧。

每當想到很長的工作時數，我就會回想起當雜誌編輯的日子。那個工作量及時數實在是圈外人很難想像的，不過，那份工作也很具挑戰性及刺激性，我有機會見到不同的人，以及出席展覽開幕或記者會等。再加上我當時住在大城市裡，所以下班後總有事情可以做。

回到開頭的問題，我覺得如果以後住在鄉下或小鎮裡，我的工作一定要能夠很令人興奮，否則我應該會無聊致死。相反地，如果我住在大城市裡，則我應該能接受一個不怎麼令人興奮的工作，因為除了工作以外，身邊還有很多有趣的事情在進行著。這對我來說該算是一個新的領悟，因為這是我第一次在小鎮裡住上超過一個星期。

無論如何，我昨天終於寄出一些明信片了，不知道要多久才會到達目的地，不過，有跟我提過想收到明信片的各位，它們已經上路了！

Flatbread with Basil

2010-06-04T15:08:00.001-04:00

Flat. This was the first word that popped up in my mind when Chryssi Island came into view. Barren was the second word.

I haven't seen that many islands horizontally from the sea. Still, Chryssi Island must be one of the flattest islands on earth. There are no hills. The ground is sparsely covered with yellowish grass and short bushes. It's like a total opposite of the island I call home.

Such barrenness, however, is only on one side of the island. The other side, where I didn't get a chance to go to, is famous for its beautiful beaches. If you do a Google image search, you'd get tons of pictures taken by tourists.

扁。這是克麗夕島進入視線後，我腦中冒出的第一個字。第二個字（詞）是「不毛」。

我沒有太多從海上平行看島嶼的經驗，不過，克麗夕島絕對是地球上最扁的島嶼之一了。島上沒有丘陵，枯黃的草及低矮的灌木零散地覆蓋著地面，這與我稱之為家鄉的島嶼簡直是天壤之別。

不過，如此的荒蕪僅是克麗夕島的一側，我尚無機會前往的島的另一側，則以美麗的海灘聞名，如果你在Google圖片搜尋，可以看到許多由觀光客照的照片。

The excavation of Chryssi Island started in 2008. It's a cool and promising site right by the coast. It's a shame that the project has to come to a halt because of the economical problems in Greece. What can be done now is to get the measurements and drawings of everything that's been excavated before it's all covered up with soil.

克麗夕島遺跡的挖掘始於2008年，這是一處緊鄰海洋的遺跡，非常具有「可挖性」。但是因為受到希臘經濟危機的牽連，這裡的挖掘工作必須暫停，實在非常可惜。現在我們可以做的，就是在以土壤覆蓋前，測量並畫下所有已挖出的區域。

They've got this kind of pretty rocks on Chryssi. They're natural. I brought a small one back.

克麗夕島有這種漂亮的石頭，這完全是天然的。我帶了一小塊回來。

It takes more than half an hour to get from Ierapetra, Crete to Chryssi Island. This is a picture taken at the harbor at Ierapetra before leaving.

從克里特島的伊拉佩特拉鎮坐船，大約半個多小時到達克麗夕島。這張照片是出航前在伊拉佩特拉的港口照的。

I'm convinced that I brought fleas back from Chryssi though. It's true that there might be many sources of bug bites in Crete, but I've been getting bites since the day I went to Chryssi. They're SO itchy, and I can't find anything that stops the itch. Ahh Chryssi, you beautifully named island with nasty bugs!

很慘的是我覺得我一定從克麗夕島帶回了跳蚤。雖然在克里特島被蟲咬的來源很多，但是從我去了克麗夕島那天開始，身上（尤其是手臂上）就開始出現許多跳蚤咬的包，超級癢的！更慘的，是我找不到任何藥膏來對付這些包。啊，克麗夕，你這個擁有美麗名字卻也擁有討厭的蟲的島嶼！

Up the Hill

2010-05-31T16:49:00.004-04:00

Lily and I went on our second adventure to Azoria last Sunday, and we made it!

Azoria is an Iron Age site (1200-600 B.C.) that lies on top of a hill near Kavousi. It took us a little more than an hour to get to the top. It was quite a hike. I got a couple scratches from the weeds and bushes along the path. The only thing that came to my mind the moment we finally reached the site was "why the heck would anyone decide to set up a settlement on the very top of a hill!" (The theory was for defensive purposes.) The breeze at the top felt nice though, not to mention the great view.

上個星期日，Lily 和我第二次動身前往阿左利亞，這次我們總算到達目的地了！

阿左利亞是一處位於卡沃西附近山丘上的鐵器時代的遺跡（西元前1200至600年）。我們花了一個多小時爬到山頂，那可真不是一段容易的健行，路上有雜草樹叢等，讓我多了幾條小傷口。當我們終於到達山頂時，我腦子裡唯一想的，就是「到底為什麼有人要定居在山頂！」（根據理論，是為了防禦目的。）不過，山上的微風很涼爽，景色更是優美。

This is a picture taken from the second floor of our hotel. Azoria is right at where the arrow points.

這是從我們的旅館二樓照的照片，阿左利亞就在箭頭指的地方。

On the very top was this building with a strange structure.

這座位於最高處的建築，擁有很奇怪的結構。

Here's a picture of looking down the town of Kavousi from Azoria. See how far up we went!

從阿左利亞往下遙望小鎮卡沃西。看看我們走了多遠！

Yeah I'm Exotic

2010-05-28T18:09:00.004-04:00

I walked around Kavousi last Saturday afternoon.

There are two major roads, aka asphalt roads with one lane in each direction, in this small town we're staying in. One leads to and out the town, and the other heads to the beach. The rest are narrow alleys lying among the buildings. It was quite relaxing exploring the alleys. Even though it was a Saturday afternoon, it was very quiet. There were a few people watering their flowers, a few people sitting in taverns, and a few people walking in the streets.

上個星期六下午，我在卡沃西散步。

我們住宿的這個小鎮，有兩條主要道路，所謂主要道路，指的是兩個方向各單線道的柏油路。其中一條主要道路，是進出小鎮的路；另一條，則通往海灘。其餘的，都是交錯在建築物之間的小巷。探索這些小巷十分愜意。雖然那是星期六下午，但鎮上相當安靜。有些人在澆花、有些人坐在小棧裡，也有些人走在路上。

I bet everyone knows everyone in this town. While I was walking in the town, there were old ladies and men staring at me. There was this old lady, who stood at her doorway staring at me for like a minute. I wondered if I was the only Asian-looking person here.

Another old lady, whom I met in the streets, smiled and waved at me. I smiled and waved back. She then walked towards me, patted me on my left shoulder, held my face in her two hands, kissed me on the cheek, and gave me a hug. She also said a few words in Greek, which I don't understand. (Okay, I know this is something I have to work on.) I do get her gesture of showing friendliness regardless. I took a picture of her from the back while she was walking away.

我相信這裡的每位鎮民都彼此認識。當我走在路上時，有幾位老人一直盯著我看，有一位老婆婆站在她的門口，盯著我看了大約一分鐘吧！我在想，我或許是這裡唯一的一位亞洲人。

另有一位與我迎面走來的老婆婆，對我微笑揮手，於是我也以微笑揮手回她，當我們走到彼此面前時，她在我的左肩輕拍兩下，然後用兩手捧著我的臉、親了我的臉頰，再給了我一個擁抱。她也以希臘文說了些簡單的句子，但我不懂。（好啦，我知道這是我得努力的。）不過，我確實接收到她對於「觀光客」表示的友善了。她走開時，我照下了她的背影。

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I feel like the picture is the best thing to end this post with, there is something else I want to add though. We had a dinner party at the INSTAP Study Center tonight. I was sitting at this table of six or seven people. Tom, the director of the INSTAP, was trying to talk me into having this "Chinese food dinner night." He said, "We want something exotic." I said, "So I'm exotic here," and the whole table went, "oh yeah."

雖然我感覺這張照片是這篇文章的最好結束點，但我還想再加一些東西。今天晚上，我們在研究中心有個party，我坐在大約有六、七人的桌子，研究中心的主任Tom試著說服我要來個「中國菜晚餐」，他說：「我們需要一些異國風情。」我說：「所以我在這裡非常異國風情。」結果全桌一起說：「喔，是的。」

Visiting Pseira

2010-05-25T15:35:00.008-04:00

Last Thursday, Dr. B took me and two other girls to Pseira, a tiny island right outside the northeast coast of Crete. There was a Minoan settlement with some sixty buildings, where Dr. B excavated from 1984 to 1992, on the southeast side of the island. Two reservoir dams were excavated outside the town. They are the earliest examples of this kind of water management in Greece. Earlier examples were found in Egypt whereas later examples were found in Mainland Greece. The dams at Pseira, therefore, are probably a bridge between the two. Surveying technology wasn't as good when the dams were first excavated, but now we have the technology, so one thing that's to be done this summer is mapping the dams with the EDM.

上個星期四，Dr. B 帶我和另外兩位同學去克里特東北岸邊的一個小小島普塞拉，這個島的東南部有一個由大約六十座建築組成的米諾安小鎮遺跡，Dr. B 於1984年至1992年在這裡進行挖掘，於小鎮外面挖出兩座水壩。這兩座水壩是在希臘發現的此種供水系統的最早例子，埃及有更早的例子，而希臘本土則有較晚的例子，因此，普塞拉的水壩有可能是這兩個地區的橋樑。挖掘水壩之初，科技還沒有這麼進步，不過現在有較新的測量科技，所以，這個暑假所要完成的一件事，就是用EDM繪製水壩圖。

The picture on the top is a view looking towards Pseira from Tholos Beach, Crete. It takes about five minutes to get to Pseira by boat.

最上面的那張照片是從克里特的索羅斯海灘遙望普塞拉，坐船大約五分鐘到達。

This is a view of one of the dams.

其中一個水壩一景。

Dr. B gave us a tour around the town, which was inhabited from the Final Neolithic to the Late Minoan period (4th millennium B.C. to 1450 B.C.) This was a cult building.

Dr. B 導覽這個大約西元前4000年至西元前1450年的小鎮遺跡。這是一座宗教建築。

Due to the fact that Pseira lies on the boundary of the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate, two very different kinds of rocks can be sighted on this tiny island. In this picture, my left foot is stepping on the Eurasian Plate while my right foot on the African Plate. Cool, isn't it? (Photo credit: Dr. B)

由於普塞拉位於歐亞大陸板塊及非洲大陸板塊的交界處，因此在這個小小島上可以看到兩種非常不同的岩石。這張照片中，我的左腳站在歐亞大陸板塊上，右腳站在非洲大陸板塊上，滿酷的吧！

Bags and Bags of Sherds

2010-05-22T18:22:00.002-04:00

I've been in Crete for a week now. Frankly speaking, I missed home the first two days, which was totally unexpected. I was being asked whether I was missing home in Philly or home in Taiwan. Well, I guess I was missing city convenience. Although I wouldn't call Kavousi a place "in the middle of no where," there's really not much here except for small houses, trees and rocks. However, I feel better as our work started this Monday because I enjoy what I do. Plus, I'm getting to know my fellow students better, which brings life more laughter.

So what do I do here? Well, as my title "Assistant Registrar" suggests, I assist the Registrar, Mary, aka. my professor's wife. What we've been doing is cataloguing the pottery excavated from Petras, a Minoan site in Eastern Crete. To be more specific, I measure the dimensions of every piece of pottery (it might be a whole pot or a sherd) and find out its color according to the Munsell Soil Color Chart. The information, along with the material, date, and context of the piece, is put down on a catalogue sheet. The pottery then goes to Mary for description.

A typical day starts with breakfast at 7:00. After breakfast, Mary drives me and two other girls to the INSTAP Study Center ten minutes away from our hotel. We usually have lunch at the Study Center and work until 4:30 P.M. (Saturdays til noon. Yes, we work Saturday mornings.) Then we go back to the hotel, get a little bit of rest, and have dinner together.

Here is a picture of the table I work at. You can see the various measuring instruments that I use, and, of course, pieces of pottery. There are hundreds, and even thousands, of them to be done. The ones we've been working on this week were excavated in 2005, and the site is still under excavation, which means new ones are still coming out. Just imagine how many sherds there are.

I do like editing and cataloguing.

我在克里特島一個星期了。說實在的，剛來的前兩天真得很想回家，這是之前完全沒有預料到的感覺。被問及我是想念費城的家還是台灣的家，我想，應該是想念城市的方便。這個地方雖不至於「雞不生蛋、鳥不拉屎」（這裡有雞也有鳥），但除了小房子、樹和石頭外，好像也沒什麼了。不過，星期一開始工作後，我覺得好多了，因為我喜歡我做的事情，而且，因為跟同學愈來愈熟，感覺也比較快樂。

所以我到底做些什麼呢？由我的職稱「登錄助理」就可以看出我協助「登錄者」，也就是我的教授的太太Mary。我們這個星期做的，是登記從佩特拉斯（克里特東部的一個遺址）挖掘出的陶器。更詳細地說，我測量每件陶器（可能是完整的容器，也可能是一塊碎片）的尺寸，並用孟塞爾色表找出它的顏色。這些資訊，以及陶器的材質、年代及挖出的地點，都要填在一張目錄表上，之後，就交給Mary寫陶器描述。

典型的一天，從7:00的早餐開始。之後，Mary就載我和其他兩位同學到距離旅館十分鐘車程的INSTAP研究中心。我們通常在研究中心吃午餐，工作到下午4:30。（星期六做到中午，沒錯，我們星期六早上也要工作。）然後回到旅館休息一下，晚上一起吃晚餐。

這是一張我做事的桌子的照片，你可以看到各種測量工具，以及幾片陶器。有上百片，甚至上千片陶器等著完成。我們這個星期做的都是2005年挖出來的，這個地點到現在還繼續在挖，也就是說，還有陶器不停地出現，想像一下有多少吧！

我真得喜歡編輯和做目錄。

Nice Meeting You, Crete

2010-05-16T15:04:00.006-04:00

I landed in Crete after more than 12 hours of flight and transferring. Unexpectedly, the island greeted me with a sandstorm as I stepped out of the Heraklion airport. The south wind brought a great amount of sand from the Sahara, which gave everything an amber look. The wind was so strong that I felt like almost being blown away.

It took us about two hours to get from the airport to Kavousi, the small town we're staying in. The bus ride was an interesting experience. There weren't any seats when we got on the bus, so we stood on the narrow aisle for the first half hour. A lady, whom you would definitely not call "thin," was squeezing among the standing people and taking charge of the bus fare. She also called out the name of each stop. We went through small towns after small towns before finally arriving in ours.

The sky turned to its usual blue today. I got up around 11:00 and went on a hike with a couple of others. We wanted to visit Azoria, an archaeological site, but were confused by the map and ended up visiting the 3000-year-old ancient olive tree, which was also worth the hike. We'll try to find Azoria some other time.

After the hike, we went sitting on a beach, where I wrote this post. What's my first impression of Crete? It's a quiet and slow place. Raise your eyes and all you'll see are small buildings and olive trees all over the hill. Life here must be very different. Work starts tomorrow, but I'm still trying to adjust to the time here.

經過了超過十二小時的旅程，我降落在克里特島。當我踏出伊拉克利翁機場時，這個島竟以一場沙塵暴歡迎我。南風從撒哈拉沙漠帶來了大量的沙，讓所有的東西看起來都像蒙上了一層琥珀色的紗，它強大到讓我覺得自己快被吹走了。

從機場到我們住宿的小鎮卡沃西，大約兩小時車程。這趟巴士行是個有趣的經驗。我們剛上車時沒有位置，所以前半小時左右是站在座位間窄窄的走道，一位你絕對不會稱她「很瘦」的車掌小姐在站著的乘客之間擠前擠後收錢，並在到站前喊著站名。經過了一個又一個小鎮，我們到達了卡沃西。

今天早上，天空恢復了應有的藍色。我大約十一點起床，跟三位同學一起去健行。我們原本的目的是要到一處考古遺址阿左利亞，但是因為路上的地圖和標示很怪，結果我們走到了另一個點——三千歲的橄欖樹神木，也算是值得了。我們打算改天再去找阿左利亞。

健行之後，我們到海邊坐著，這篇文章就是在那裡寫的。我對克里特島的第一印象是什麼？這是個安靜又緩慢的地方，放眼望去，看到的盡是小房子及遍佈山丘的橄欖樹。在這裡的生活一定很不一樣。明天要開始工作了，但我仍在調時差。

Off to Crete!

2010-05-14T13:40:00.003-04:00

Just wanna drop a short note before I leave for Crete. It's gonna be my first excavation. It's just amazing as I think about it because I think God has fulfilled this childhood dream of mine in a way that I had never expected. I'll share more about this later if there's time.

I was having lunch with Angel and her two friends the other day. When I mentioned I was going to Crete, one of them asked, "Don't they have weird creatures like the minotaur?" I said, "Yeah, they do." He said, "Cool!"

Let me know if you want a postcard. :)

只是想在前往克里特島之前，短短記下一筆。這是我第一次參與考古隊，當我一想，這真是很神奇，因為我覺得上帝以一種我想都沒想到的方式完成我小時候的夢想。之後若有時間，我會再多做分享。

之前有一天我跟我妹的兩位同學一起吃午餐，當我提道我要去克里特島時，其中一位同學說：「那裡不是有那種像牛頭人身怪一樣的奇怪生物嗎？」我回答：「對啊。」他說：「真酷！」

如果你想要明信片，跟我說一聲。:)

Awesome Sisters

2010-05-13T22:31:00.018-04:00

I've been thinking about my relationship with my sisters lately. As some of you have already known, I'm four years older than Crystal, who is five years older than Angel. We grew up together, but if you really think about it, we didn't really grow up together. When I graduated from high school, Crystal was in middle school and Angel was a third grader. Then I left home for college and had little time with them.

I believe people with siblings get such questions once in a while: How close are you with your brother/ sister? Do you guys fight with each other? I always had to think before answering them. Were we good sisters? Yes, we were. Were we good friends? I'm not sure. Probably because of our age differences, or probably because we didn't spend that much time together, we didn't share deep thoughts and feelings with one another that often. It wasn't that we never saw each other. My parents are great parents, who always try to create family time. We go on family trips as many as possible. However, there are simply things that you wouldn't talk about while your parents are around. I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though we had a fair amount of family time together, there was seldom time that just the three of us being together.

Things have changed since I moved to Philly last August. My sisters and I have become so close. I can share almost everything with them. If you ask me if we're good friends now, I'd say "definitely!" I really want to give thanks to the Lord for giving me such awesome sisters and giving us such opportunity to become so intimate with each other.

So here's something that proves what was being said--

最近常在想我和我妹的關係。你們有些人知道，我比小愛大四歲，她又比小柔大五歲。我們一起長大，可是如果你真得去想，我們沒有真得一起長大。我高中畢業時，小愛讀國中，小柔只是個小學三年級學生，之後，我就離家讀大學了，也沒有那麼多時間跟她們在一起。

我相信有兄弟姊妹的人，都被問過這樣的問題：你跟你的兄弟姊妹親嗎？你們打架嗎？我以前回答之前總是要想一下。我們是好姊妹嗎？是。我們是好朋友嗎？我不知道。可能因為年齡差距，或是因為沒有這麼多時間在一起，我們不太跟彼此分享很深入的想法或感覺。也不是說我們都沒見面，我爸媽是很棒的爸媽，他們總是製造全家在一起的時間，我們也盡可能多做全家旅遊，可是實在有些話題是爸媽在場不會聊的。我要說的，是雖然我們有很多全家在一起的時間，可是並沒有很多只有我們三姊妹在一起的時間。

自從我去年八月搬來費城後，情況有很大的改變。我跟妹妹們變得非常親，我覺得我現在幾乎什麼都可以跟她們說。若你現在問我們是不是好朋友，我會說「那當然！」真得很感謝上帝給我這麼棒的妹妹，也給我們這樣的機會可以建立親密的關係。

所以，證明我以上所說的——

What is a better way to show your trust for your sister than letting her, who had never given anyone a haircut, cut your hair and then walking in some of the busiest streets in Manhattan? And I was actually going to sit with the artist Marina Abramović, which then would have had my picture being taken by the MoMA. (I didn't end up sitting with her because there were too many people in line, but I think I was filmed while waiting in line.)

有什麼事情，比讓自己初次操刀的妹妹剪頭髮然後在曼哈頓繁忙的街上走，更能展現你對妹妹的信任？而且我本來想要去跟藝術家瑪莉娜．阿布拉莫維奇對坐，也就表示會被紐約現代美術館拍照。（不過我最後沒有如願，因為太多人排隊了，不過我覺得我在排隊時好像有被攝影下來。）

She's pretty good, isn't she? (My youngest sister said something like "Cleopatra" though, haha.) I ended up going to a hairstylist to trim my hair because the bottom of it kept on sticking out and we don't know what to do with it. But let me tell you something. I really don't know which haircut I like better, the one by my sister or the one by the hairstylist? You be the judge.

她很不錯吧！（雖然我的小妹說了「埃及豔后」之類的形容詞，哈哈。）結果我還是去理髮店修了頭髮，因為頭髮底部一直翹起來，我們也不知如何改進。但是，告訴你，我真得不知道我喜歡誰剪的。你們說呢？

Yay for Summer

2010-05-08T03:17:00.008-04:00

First year done! It was such a busy semester that I feel a little unreal when everything's done. I swear I'll never stuff myself with 12 credits again in the following semesters. Still, it's weird to think that a school year's over. It feels long, but it doesn't feel so long as well.

I went to Moses and Annie's wedding in Gaithersburg, MD last Saturday. The wedding was great. I had tears (again) while they were giving thanks to their parents. I do think that this is one of the climaxes of a wedding. Also, it was so great to see so many Buffalonians gathering from different parts of the country. Rachel made a comment that even though most of us have left Buffalo-- some got married, some got a job, some went back to Taiwan and came back again (that's me)--, but everyone was still the same. We still had so much to talk about when getting together. Ahh... it's always sweet to catch up with old friends. I'm so glad that Li-hsin and Jean could join my road trip to Gaithersburg. They made the three-hour drive enjoyable.

I saw this picture from a forwarded email. This picture of two puff adders mating is one of the many pictures taken by a South African photographer, Hannes Lochner, at the Kalahari Desert. I got goose bumps from it. It's one of the most sensual pictures I've seen in a long time.

There's an email about archaeological evidence of the Biblical giants circulating around recently. I've seen people post it on Facebook and others comment "praise the Lord" and the like. People! The pictures are totally fake. Someone photoshopped them! I can't stress more on the importance of verifying a piece of information in a forwarded email before you believe it. Being a Christian, I'm more than happy to learn about scientific proofs of the Bible (one of my childhood dreams was actually to find evidence of the Biblical stories), but I don't want to be a blind believer. I didn't care that much about this email at first, but then I saw more and more people posting it, so I can't help but mentioning it.

There was something that infuriated me a few days ago. I'm not gonna talk about the detail here. I'm just wondering why there are people who love to see themselves as "tragic heroes." They live inside their heads. They portrait themselves as victims, not realizing/ caring the rumors and false accusations they made up are so unfair to other people. Oh I feel like swearing.

Anyways, summer's here! I'm gonna catch up with some books and movies. Besides all the fun, there are also many things I want to accomplish this summer. Gotta make good use of time!

P.S. Some of you have told me that you can't comment on my posts. I think I've fixed it. Let me know if there's still a problem. I love getting your comments!

第一年結束了！上個學期真是太忙了，全部結束後反而覺得有點不真實，我決定再也不要一個學期修12學分了。想到一年已經結束了就覺得有點怪，感覺好像很久，又好像沒有那麼久。

上個星期六去馬里蘭州蓋城參加Moses和Annie的婚禮。婚禮很棒，我（又）在謝親恩時眼淚決堤了，我覺得這真是每個婚禮的高潮之一。更好的，是看到許多「水牛人」從各個地方來聚集在一起，Rachel說，雖然我們幾乎都離開水牛城進到人生不同的階段——有人結婚、有人工作、有人回台灣又來了（就是我）——，可是每個人都還是一樣。當我們聚在一起時，還是有說不完的話。跟老朋友見面真是一件愉快的事。很開心Jean和Li-hsin可以跟我一起開車到蓋城，她們讓三小時的車程變得很有趣。

這是我從一封轉寄信看到的照片，這張鼓腹毒蛇交配的照片，是一位南非攝影師Hannes Lochner在喀拉哈里沙漠拍攝的一系列的照片之一。我看到時，起了雞皮疙瘩，這大概是好一段時間以來，我所看到最煽情的照片之一吧。

最近有一封關於「考古發現聖經亞衲族巨人」的信件到處流傳，我看到有人貼在Facebook上，有人評論「感謝主」之類的。各位！這些照片全是假的，是有人編輯的！我實在不能不強調，在求證以前，別隨便相信所有轉寄信上的資訊。身為一位基督徒，我當然非常高興有科學證明聖經，（事實上，我小時候的夢想之一，就是能挖出聖經故事的證據，）但千萬別當一位盲目的信徒。我本來不太在意這封信，可是後來看到愈來愈多人貼出來，實在覺得不說不行了。

前幾天有件事讓我大怒，細節就不提了，我只是在想，為什麼有些人喜歡把自己看為悲劇英雄？他們活在自己的想像中，把自己描繪為受害者，卻不知道（或不管）他們編造的謠言及誣告事實上對其他人極度不公平。我快髒話出口了。

無論如何，夏天到了！我得趕緊補些閱讀及電影的進度了，除了這些好玩的事以外，我也有很多想趁暑假完成的事情，要好好利用時間！

P.S. 有些人告訴我無法留言，我已經試著解決了，如果還有問題的話，趕快讓我知道。我喜歡收到留言！

Movies I Saw, 2010 (1)

2010-04-30T02:03:00.004-04:00

Now, the number of movies on this list drops to a historic low. When was the last time I saw only five movies within four months? Can't remember. What a shame. I've gotta catch up with some new ones this summer. So the ones here are either new releases or very old ones, which I don't even want to admit that I didn't see them until now.

Also, I've decided to rate the movies with "♥" instead of "★" because the ratings are mostly based on my personal favor. They're a mix of objective opinions and subjective feelings. I was surprised to know that some friends read my lists to decide which movies to see. (Thanks, folks! That's encouraging!) Just thought that I should be more clear to avoid misguiding people. :)

好，這次的片單創了歷史新低，我上次在四個月內只看了五部電影是什麼時候？記不起來了。真糟，暑假要來補一補進度了。這幾部片，要不就很新，要不就非常老，老到我都不願承認現在才看。

另外，我決定用「♥」來取代「★」評分，因為這些評分都是我的個人喜好，主觀客觀感覺都有。聽到有些朋友說會看我的片單決定看什麼片，我還滿驚喜的。（謝了！很開心！）只是想，清楚一點才不會誤導大家。:)

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Alice in Wonderland／魔境夢遊(2010) I've been waiting for the movie to come out ever since knowing about it more than a year ago. The names of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are simply enough to drag me to the theater. Plus, Helena Bohem-Carter plays the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway the White Queen, and Alan Rickman voices Absolem the Caterpillar. What better casts can you ask for? Overall, the movie was good, but not as good as I had expected... but I don't really know what was missing. A friend told me that he expected it to be darker, (Tim Burton of course!) but I think it was not what I was looking for. I hope I have a chance to see it again and sort that out. By the way, I didn't know that it was adapted from both Alice books by Lewis Carroll. I've actually never read "Through the Looking Glass." I'm gonna read it some time.／一年多前知道這部片子後，就一直期待它上映。單單提姆．波頓和強尼．戴普這兩個名字，就足以把我拉到電影院了，再加上海倫娜．波漢—卡特飾演紅心女王、安．海瑟威飾演白髮女王，以及艾倫．瑞克曼幫毛毛蟲配音。你還能要求什麼更棒的卡司？整體而言，這部電影很棒，可是沒有我想像的棒，但我也不知道缺少了什麼。我有個朋友說不夠黑暗，（提姆．波頓嘛！）不過我覺得這不是我在找的。希望我有機會再看一次來研究研究。另外，我之前不知道它是把兩本路易斯．卡羅的書放在一起改編，事實上，我從來沒有讀過「愛麗絲鏡中奇遇」，得找時間來讀一下。
Avatar／阿凡達(2009) IMAX 3D. It was pretty cool. It totally reminded me of "Pocahontas."／我看IMAX 3D版的，還不錯看。整個讓我想到「風中奇緣」。
Edward Scissorhands／剪刀手愛德華(1990) I'm not sure how many hearts I should rate this. There were elements I really liked, which made it definitely worth seeing, but there were also elements I didn't like. Whatever the case, it's a classic.／我不知道要給這部片幾顆心，我非常喜歡其中的某些東西，光這些就值得看這部片了，但也有我不喜歡的。不過，無論喜不喜歡，這部片都是經典。
Philadelphia／費城(1993) I can see why this movie was controversial when it first came out. Funny that I was watching it with my youngest sister, who was nine years younger than me, and she was like..."do they really think that AIDS could be transmitted by handshakes?" sounding very surprised. I thought, "well, I thought so when I first heard about this disease in the 80s." So I, being amazed by her question, explained to her what people thought about AIDS back in those days. Here are the conclusions I got: 1) education is important, and it's good that things are improving; 2) we certainly belong to different generations, haha. Oh and it was fun to see all the familiar streets in the movie.／我可以了解為何這部電影剛出來時，引起了一些話題。很好玩的，是我跟小我九歲的妹妹一起看時，她很驚訝地問：「他們該不會以為愛滋病會藉由握手傳染吧？」我心想：「我在80年代剛聽到這種病時，也不確定啊。」所以，我一方面對於她的問題感到很有趣，一方面跟她解釋以前大家對於愛滋病的概念是怎樣的。結論：1)教育很重要，很好的是事情在進步；2)我們真得屬於不同的世代，哈哈。喔，還有，在電影中看到那些我常常經過的熟悉街道，是一種很有趣的感覺。

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl／神鬼奇航：鬼盜船魔咒(2003) Well, I did see parts of this movie before, but not from the beginning to the end. I think it's worth seeing because of Johnny Depp.／我以前就看過這部片的一些片段，但是沒有從頭到尾看過。強尼．戴普讓這部片值得一看。

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- Who are YOU?
- I-- I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.
- What do you mean by that? Explain yourself.
- I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir, because I’m not myself, you see.
- I don't see.

☕Carmine's☕

2010-04-24T00:53:00.006-04:00

Carmine's (Upper West Side, New York City)

This Italian restaurant is where my sisters and I had dinner for my birthday. My sister, Angel, suggested the place, and I was really happy with the food. It wasn't even 5:30 yet when we got there, but we waited for almost half an hour to get a table at the outside area. Even though they had a large space, all the tables inside were full. But since the weather was nice, we had a great time outside.

這間義大利餐廳是我們三姊妹幫我慶生的餐廳。徐小妹提議的地點，結果真是太令人滿意了。我們到的時候還不到五點半，可是等了半個小時才等到一個外面的位置，雖然餐廳很大，可是裡面都坐滿了，不過由於那天天氣很好，所以在外面也很棒。

This basket of bread was great. It had many different kinds of bread.

這籃麵包太棒了，份量多，種類也多。

Mixed Green Salad $23.00

這是混合各種蔬菜的沙拉。

Calamari with Penne $26.50
I love calamaries! I'd always love to have fried calamari as appetizer when going to an Italian restaurant. The calamaries here didn't come as what I had expected-- they weren't fried. They tasted great nevertheless! The seasoning was good, too. If there was anything I could pick on, I would say that the penne was a bit hard. It would be better if they had been cooked a little longer. Regardless of that, it was a great dish.

我超愛烏賊！去義大利餐廳時，我都會很想點炸烏賊。這道菜端上來時，烏賊跟我想像的不一樣——它們不是炸的。不過，還是很好吃！調味也很棒。如果有什麼可以挑的，大概就是麵條有點硬，若煮久一點應該會更好。不管怎樣，很好吃！

As shown in the pictures, their food portion was huge. We all got very full before we could finished everything, so we wrapped the rest. (We can eat a lot.) I think four or more is the best number of people to go there. If two people want to go, well, then at least one of you has to be able to eat a lot!

從照片就可以看出這裡的食物份量超多，我們都已經很飽了，盤子裡還剩下好些食物，所以後來就打包了。（我們的食量並不小。）我覺得至少四個人是最適合去那裡的人數，如果是兩個人想去的話，那至少你們其中一人要很能吃！

Woot for the Free VISA!

2010-04-17T17:44:00.005-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm going on a dig in Crete this summer. It's amazing to think that it's only less than a month away!

I went to the Consulate General of Greece in NYC to apply for a VISA. I actually went there three times, which was kind of frustrating. The first time was in March. I had all the required documents (according to their online information) prepared. When I got there, however, I found out that there were some other required documents that weren't posted onine, which led to my second trip.

I was in NYC over the Easter weekend, so I went to the Consulate General the following Monday. When I got there, however, the door was locked. A letter-size note posted on the door told me that it was closed because of Easter. Man, it was the day AFTER Easter! At least announce it on your website! I got really mad since getting the VISA application done was the only reason I stayed in NYC until Monday.

Seeing that I was getting busier and busier towards the end of the semester, I decided to go again as soon as possible, which was the following Wednesday, two days after my second trip. It was a one-morning trip. I took a 7:30 bus to NYC, went straight to the Consulate General, and jumped in the 11:45 bus with a slice of pizza in my hand for lunch back to Philly. (Hmm... NYC and Philly don't seem that far away indeed.) The process was quite smooth this time. The people were nice, and I was just glad that I got it done.

Two days ago, I got a phone call from the Consulate General. A nice guy greeted me and said he had a few questions concerning my VISA application.
CG: What is the purpose of your trip?
Me: (Puzzled.) I'm going on an archaeological expedition. (I thought I've been quite clear when I was at the Consulate General. Plus, you've got my documents.)
CG: Which part of Greece are you going?
Me: Crete. (I thought I've been quite clear when I was there.)
CG: Are you going with a school program?
Me: Yeah, I'm going with my professor. (I thought I've been quite clear when I was there.)
CG: How long are you going to stay there?
Me: I'm staying there for six weeks, and then I'm going to Athens for a couple days. Then I'm flying to Paris. (I thought I've been quite clear when I was there.)
(... There were a few more questions that I've already been asked when handing in my application...)
CG: OK, I'll mail your passport back to you along with your VISA and money order tomorrow.

What? My money order? So it turned out that there are certain kinds of trips to Greece that don't require a VISA application fee. In other words, I got the VISA for free! It was some 81.60 dollars!

So now I'm beaming at the VISA in my passport that I received this morning. I'm also forgetting all the complaints I had previously. Can't wait for the semester to end!

之前的一篇文章已經提過，我今年夏天要跟教授的考古隊去克里特島，很難想像就只剩不到一個月了！

到希臘需要簽證，所以我去紐約的希臘領事館申請。我前前後後去了三次，實在讓人很煩。第一次在三月，我準備了他們網站上貼的申請簽證的文件，可是到了那裡以後，發現還有一些其他的必備文件沒有貼在網站上，所以只好再去第二次。

我復活節的週末在紐約，所以就在接下來的星期一去領事館。可是到了那裡以後，發現門是鎖著的，門上貼的一張公告說那天休息因為是復活節。拜託，那是復活節的隔天！而且至少要在你們的網站上公布吧！我快氣炸了，因為我在紐約留到星期一就只是為了辦這個簽證。

接近期末會愈來愈忙，所以我決定盡早再去一次，也就是接下來的星期三——第二趟的兩天之後。我只花了一個早上的時間，早上7:30的公車到紐約，到了以後直接前往領事館，之後在Penn Station買了一片比薩，跳上中午11:45的公車回費城。（嗯，紐約和費城好像真得沒有那麼遠嘛。）這次還滿順利的，那裡的人都很好，我算是鬆了一口氣終於辦完一件事了。

兩天前，我接到希臘領事館來的電話，說跟我的簽證有關。一位很客氣的先生問候我之後，問了一些問題。
領：你這趟旅遊的目的是什麼？
我：考古考察。（我上次好像已經說過了，而且有文件證明。）
領：你要去希臘的哪裡？
我：克里特島。（我上次好像已經說過了。）
領：你是跟學校的團隊去嗎？
我：對，跟我的教授去。（我上次好像已經說過了。）
領：你要在那裡待多久？
我：六個星期，然後到雅典待幾天，再去巴黎。（我上次好像已經說過了。）
（……又問了一些我上次已經回答過的問題……）
領：好，我明天會把你的護照及簽證寄給你，以及你的匯票。

啥？我的匯票？原來，依照希臘政府的規定，有些種類的旅行是不用繳簽證費的，換句話說，我得到了免費簽證，那可是81.60大洋啊！

所以，現在我正看著今天早上收到的護照裡的簽證微笑，之前的抱怨也都忘得一乾二淨。等不及學期結束了！

You've Gotta Love Writing

2010-04-10T00:45:00.009-04:00

April has been hectic, and it's not going to get any better until early May. Just to keep this blog from being too dry, let me briefly update you with some stuff that I've been working on. Of course, I welcome any ideas and suggestions because I'm getting headaches from these stuff. :p

I did an hour presentation on each of these two friezes in my Minoan Wall Paintings class-

the Partridges and Hoopoes Frieze in the Caravanserai in Knossos (detail)
and

the Miniature Frieze (North and East Walls) in the West House in Akrotiri

Although I love the tiny figures in the North Wall Miniature Frieze, what I'm doing for my final paper is to compare the two landscape frescoes. I'm probably gonna focus on the rocks, which present different artistic styles of the two time periods.

My upcoming hour-presentation is on stamp seals from Crete. (I've done an presentation on sistrum and larnax earlier this semester for the class.) The significance of these seals is that they show a connection between Crete and the Near East in terms of both the design and the way they were being used. For this very same class, we were assigned just this morning to do another 5- to 10-minute presentation on a topic in the last class. (What?! More reports?!) I'm sticking to stamp seals. What I'm looking at are three stamp seals from the Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf, and Anatolia dated around early 18th century B.C. that appear to have some kind of connection. Here are the images of two of them.

As for the 1960s class, I'm going to present a Taiwanese artist, Huang Hua-Cheng. I haven't really started working on this presentation yet, but I hope I'll be able to show how interesting this guy was.

A couple weeks ago, my professor Dr. B told everyone in class that "if you want to become an archaeologist, or an art historian, or some sort of combination of these two, you've gotta love writing because you're gonna write for the rest of your life." Ha...I almost let out a lame smile. I mean, I enjoy writing, but not so much within a short period of time.

OK, let me leave you with something funny. My friend Cindy posted this Auntie Driver Parking Fail video on her Chat status. I thought it was too hilarious not to share. I wonder if the person who was holding the camera was the very same person who was speaking. (Voice-over: Filling your mind with such random thoughts is exactly why you can't get your work done earlier.)

四月快忙瘋了，而且到五月初以前都不會變好。為了讓這裡不要太乾，我來貼一些最近在研究的東西。當然，非常歡迎大家的想法和意見，因為這些東西真是讓我太頭大了。

我在「邁諾安壁畫」這堂課做過了兩個各一小時的報告，分別是在Knossos的鷓鴣和戴勝帶狀壁畫和在Akrotiri的迷你帶狀壁畫。雖然我很愛那些迷你人物，但我的期末報告要寫的，是比較兩幅地景壁畫，可能會聚焦在那些表現出兩個時期不同藝術風格的石頭。

我接下來的一小時報告，是要做克里特的封印，（我之前在這堂課已經做過埃及喪葬習俗的報告了，）這些封印的意義，在於它們的設計及用法呈現出克里特和中東之間的往來關係。今天早上上這堂課時，我們又被分派要在最後一堂課做五到十分鐘的報告，（什麼？！還有報告？！）我還是做封印，我要看的是三個年代大約是西元前1800至1750年的分別來自美索不達米亞、波斯灣及安那托利亞的封印，它們彼此之間顯然有關連。

至於1960年代這堂課，我要報告台灣藝術家黃華成，（感謝強者小班的指導，）其實我還沒有真正開始進行這份報告，不過我希望自己能好好介紹這位有趣的藝術家。

幾個星期前，我的教授在課堂上說：「如果你想當一位考古學家，或是藝術史學家，或是這兩種的結合，你一定得愛上寫作，因為你這輩子會不停地寫。」我在心裡苦笑了兩聲，我是很喜歡寫作，可是這麼短的時間寫這麼多東西，真是太折磨了。

最後，來看個好笑的。我的朋友Cindy貼了這個Auntie Driver Parking Fail影片，這真是好笑到不能不分享，我在想，拿攝影機的人就是講話的人嗎？（謎之聲：就是因為每天頭腦在想這些五四三的東西，所以報告寫不完！）

Hold on to the corners of today, and we'll fold them up to save until it's needed

2010-03-31T20:49:00.006-04:00

This is a belated birthday (thank-you) note.

I love March! It's my birthday month. Although birthdays come just one day a year, I'm counting every good thing that happen on me around this time of the year my birthday present. This year, I feel like I've been receiving birthday blessings/ presents/ surprises since early this month, for which I give thanks to the Lord.

I went to NYC two weekends in a row and met up with a few friends. The one with Jason sort of came as a last-minute surprise. I'm taking it as my first birthday present fallen from the sky this year. I went to the movie "Alice In Wonderland" with Eric, who was hoping to go to the Guggenheim but generously agreed to my movie proposal. Seeing Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's movie simply made me happy. Also, I had dinner with Jessie, whom I hadn't seen for five years. We had some nice chat and decided to hang out more.

I had a great birthday celebration with my sisters. Crystal and I went to the Met in the afternoon and saw the new King Tut exhibit and some other Egyptian things. It was nice that I could apply what I've learned in school and explain to my sister. (I guess I do like to teach. Well, I don't like to use the word "teach." Let's say, I do like to share with people what I've learned.) Then we met up with Angel and had dinner together at Carmine's. The food was so good that I think I'm gonna post another entry of its own. Angel made a cake for me. It was delicious. There were even passers-by stop and ask about the cake since we were sitting at the outside area.

I happened to get free Pinkberry mango yogurt and Rita's Italian ice (I chose mango flavor again) while in NYC. They were yummy!

I finally got my driver license renewal approved! When I said "finally," I did mean "finally."

On my birthday evening, a few friends and I went to Continental Mid-town and had some drinks. Thanks for showing up! You guys certainly make my Philly life more delightful.

Last Friday while Crystal and I walked by Barnes and Noble, a street singer was just starting to sing "Hey, Jude." I've been listening to this song a lot recently, so we stopped to listen. He was really good. I couldn't help but put a dollar in the basket and sang along-- Na- na na na na na na- na na na na- hey Jude!

Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday greetings! It simply felt great getting happy birthdays when walking into the classroom/ FWM. Same with all the emails and Facebook messages. Also, my sweet sisters have been telling their friends that my birthday was coming so it seemed that there were people saying "happy birthday" to me wherever I went. Thanks also to my parents, who sent me emails and insisted on giving me a birthday present.

Just as I was typing this post at Cosi, a guy came up to me and said, "'scuse me. Just wanna tell you you're really pretty. See you." Isn't it sweet!? Thank you, guy! You lit up my day!

Let's end this post with a song. I somehow feel like playing this song for my birthday even though it has nothing to do with birthdays. It's been ringing in my head a lot. It's probably my favorite Weakerthans song.

So, goodbye, twenties! Here I come, thirties! I know you'll treat me well!

這是一篇遲來的生日（感謝）文。

我愛三月！這是我的生日月份。雖然生日一年只有一天，但我把這陣子發生的好事都當成生日禮物，而今年，我覺得從月初就開始收到生日祝福／禮物／驚喜，讓我覺得好感謝神。

我連續兩個週末都去紐約，跟一些朋友見了面。跟Jason的見面算是突來的驚喜，我把這當成今年第一份從天上掉下來的生日禮物。跟（本來想去古根漢但接受我的提議的）Eric去看了電影「魔境夢遊」，看Tim Burton和Johnny Depp的作品就夠讓我開心了。另外，我也跟Jessie吃了晚餐，我們五年沒見面了，聊天聊得很愉快，也說好之後要多多一起出去。

我跟妹妹們有個很棒的慶生。小愛和我某個週末下午去大都會美術館，看了新的圖坦卡門的展覽及埃及展區的其他文物，我覺得很好的是我能應用我在學校學的，解釋給我妹聽，（我想，我真得喜歡教書吧。其實，不要用「教書」這個詞，應該說，我喜歡跟人分享我學到的知識。）之後，我們跟小柔見面，一起在Carmine's吃晚餐，那裡的食物真是太棒了，我想我應該會寫一篇專門講這家餐廳的文章。小柔做了一個蛋糕，很好吃，而且由於我們坐在室外，還有路人停下來說這個蛋糕很棒！

在紐約時，也吃到了免費的Pinkberry芒果優格和Rita's Italian Ice（我又選芒果），都很好吃！

我的駕照終於順利換新了，真得是「終於」！

生日當天晚上，一些朋友和我到Continental Mid-town喝酒。謝謝你們過來！你們這些朋友讓我的費城生活更愉快。

上星期五，小愛和我經過Barns and Noble時，有一位街頭藝人正開始唱「Hey, Jude」，我最近常常聽這首歌，因此我們停下來聽。他唱得真好！我忍不住放了一塊錢在籃子裡，並且跟著唱——Na- na na na na na na- na na na na- hey Jude!

謝謝所有的人給我的生日祝福！走進教室時收到很多「生日快樂」真是令人愉快，所有的emails和Facebook訊息也是。此外，我的妹妹跟她們的朋友提道我的生日到了，所以感覺不管走到哪裡，都有人跟我說「生日快樂」。也謝謝拔媽寄的emails，並且堅持要送我生日禮物。

就在我坐在Cosi打這篇文章時，有個人走過來跟我說：「不好意思，只是想告訴妳妳很漂亮。再見。」謝謝你，這位老兄！我受寵若驚！

用一首歌來結束這篇文章吧。不知怎的，我想在今年生日點這首歌，即使它跟生日一點關係也沒有。這首歌最近一直縈繞在我的腦子裡，它應該是我最喜歡的Weakerthans的歌吧！

所以，再見了，二字頭！我來了，三字頭！我知道你會對我很好！

Art History Comp Exam?

2010-03-18T22:01:00.008-04:00

"70 Million" by Hold Your Horses!

I've got to post this great video. How many artists/ paintings can you identify? (Mary's face at 1:48 totally cracked me up.)

這段影片太棒了，真是讓我不得不貼出來。你能辨認出多少藝術家／作品？（在1分48秒處，馬利亞的臉讓我爆笑出來。）

Weekend in Atlantic City

2010-03-11T17:06:00.011-05:00

From Atlantic City

It's spring break! Since my sisters and I didn't have our spring breaks all at the same week and this past weekend was the only overlapping days of our breaks, we decided to make use of the two days and go somewhere near. We ended up going to Atlantic City, which was one and a half hour away from Philly by train.

Atlantic City was... umm... I'm yet to think of a word to describe the trip. Since we don't gamble, it was obviously not the best place to go, but we still had fun enjoying ourselves.

The aquarium was our first stop. It was one of the main attractions in Atlantic City, so we were a little disappointed at the sight of the tiny three-story building. We even doubted whether it was the right place or not. We got in anyways and spent some three hours inside. It wasn't bad. One of the highlights was definitely the touch tank. We touched some baby rays! Rays are weird-looking animals. I can't help but mention this article from FU, Penguin that made me feel even more amused about seeing a ray. (Why are there so many funny marine animals?)

We wandered in the casinos a little bit, but where we spent the most of our time were the boardwalk and the beach. The weather was good, which allowed us to take some nice pictures.

There isn't much out there in Atlantic City except for the casinos and the boardwalk along the beach. If you walk a few streets away from the beach, what you'd see is a normal small town. For me, all places I've never been are worth visiting, but there are places you feel that one trip is totally enough. My sister Crystal kept on saying that it was the first time we were there, and probably also the last time. Well, I guess she was right. I'm glad that I went with my sisters. It would be pretty boring going by myself.

Here are some other pictures we took. Yes, we can always make fun out of not-so-exciting trips!

春假到了！由於我和妹妹們的春假不都在同一個星期，而只有上個週末是重疊的假期，因此我們計畫利用那兩天到比較近的地方玩。最後，我們決定去離費城坐火車一個半小時的大西洋城。

大西洋城很……呃……我還在試著找出形容這趟旅程的詞。由於我們不賭博，那裡自然不是最完美的旅遊地點，不過我們還是滿自得其樂的。

水族館是我們的第一站。由於那是大西洋城的主要景點之一，因此當我們看到小小的三層樓建築時，心裡有些失望，甚至還懷疑那棟建築是否就是水族館。無論如何，我們還是進去了，並花了三個小時在裡面。還不錯。其中的重點之一便是可以摸魚的池子了，我們摸了一些魟魚寶寶！魟魚真是一種長得很怪的生物，我實在忍不住要提道這篇以前在FU, Penguin讀到的文章，讓我更覺得看到魟魚很好笑。（為什麼有這麼多海洋生物都長得很好玩？）

我們在賭場裡走了一圈，不過花最多時間的，還是外面的木板道路和海灘。那兩天天氣很好，滿適合照相的。

除了賭場和海邊的木板道路以外，其實大西洋城沒有什麼，如果往裡走個幾條街，完全就是一個平凡的小鎮。對我來說，所有沒去過的地方都值得一遊，不過也有些地方是去一次就夠的。我妹一直說這是我們第一次到那裡，大概也是最後一次了，嗯，我想她說得沒錯。還好我是跟我妹一起去，不然自己去一定很無聊。

這裡有些照片。沒錯，我們在沒什麼特別的地方仍可以自得其樂！

Fake Ma-Po Tofu

2010-03-03T23:55:00.018-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post, I've been trying different foods in Reading Terminal Market since last December. It's been nice to get to know the Market little by little.

I was craving for some hot and spicy Chinese food during my lunch break today. Walking into the Market, I saw this Chinese restaurant "Golden Bowl" that served Ma-Po Tofu, so I decided to get it. The couple that ran the restaurant looked like Japanese to me at first, but I didn't think too much about it before ordering. While ordering, I heard that the lady had an accent, but definitely not a Chinese one. That was when I started to get worried. Then, I heard the couple speak Korean to each other. Bummer.

Ok, so if they were Koreans but cooked good Chinese food and opened a Chinese restaurant, I'd be fine with it. The fact, however, was that the food was bad. The Ma-Po Tofu I got hadn't got a single trace of chilly pepper in it. Did they even know what Ma-Po Tofu was supposed to be like? It was supposed to be hot and spicy, even to the extent of numbing your tongue! The one I got was totally fake. It was tofu mixed with some kind of unimpressive sauce. Even the tofu wasn't the right kind. Oh, and the spring roll that came with the meal had no flavor.

Ironically, the restaurant had this "SZECHWAN STYLE" on its signboard. WTF? Is there any famous Szechwan dish that's not spicy?

I went back to the museum after the lunch break and told people that I had fake Chinese food, so now people have been warned. I wonder why they opened a Chinese restaurant instead of a Korean one since there were two other Chinese restaurants but no Korean ones in the Market. I'd love to see one there.

Oh, did I mention that the Ma-Po Tofu cost me $8.35? Awesome.

PS.1. Another restaurant I'd never go again is the Japanese restaurant "Tokyo Sushi." The food doesn't match with the price. One thing good about them though, is that they've got Pepsi while most other restaurants serve Coca-Cola. This I approve.

PS.2. My friend Carlos told me that the Mexican restaurant "Cantina" was the worst. I've never tried anything there, but since Carlos is from Central America, I'm just gonna believe him.

在之前的一篇文章中，我已提到從去年十二月起，我便開始嘗試Reading Terminal Market裡的各種食物，一點一點慢慢認識這個地方真是不錯。

今天的午餐時間，我突然很想吃很辣的中國菜，於是進到市場，看到「金碗」這間中國餐廳有賣麻婆豆腐，所以決定點這個。經營餐廳的那對夫妻，一開始我覺得很像日本人，不過我在點菜前，並沒有想這麼多。而點菜時，我聽到老闆娘講英文有一種口音，但不是中國口音，我心裡便開始擔心。等菜的時候，我聽到這對夫妻彼此之間講韓文。完了。

好，如果他們是韓國人，但煮了一手好中國菜所以開中國餐廳，那我是沒什麼意見，但事實上，他們的食物並不好吃。我的那份麻婆豆腐看不到任何一絲辣椒，他們到底知不知道什麼是麻婆豆腐？麻婆豆腐應該要辣到麻舌！今天中午這道簡直就是冒牌貨，它只是豆腐跟某種不怎麼樣的醬料和在一起，連豆腐都不是正確的種類。喔，而且搭配的春捲一點味道也沒有。

諷刺的，是他們的招牌寫著「四川風味」。什麼鬼？有任何有名川菜不辣的嗎？

午餐之後，我回到美術館跟大家說我吃了冒牌中國菜，所以現在他們都收到我的警告了。很怪的，是既然市場裡有另外兩間中國餐廳但沒有韓國餐廳，他們為什麼不開一間韓國餐廳，反而開一間中國餐廳？我個人是非常樂見那裡有韓國餐廳的。

喔，我剛剛有沒有提到那道麻婆豆腐花了我$8.35？簡直太棒了。

PS.1.另一家我不會再去的是一間日本餐廳「Tokyo Sushi」，不划算。不過很好的，是他們賣百事可樂而非可口可樂，這點我十分認可。

PS.2.我的朋友Carlos告訴我市場裡的墨西哥餐廳「Cantina」是最差的。我是還沒嚐過，但既然Carlos是中美洲人，我決定相信他。

Half Past Three

2010-02-27T17:00:00.013-05:00

While the world was celebrating the Winter Olympics, I was drowning and struggling in the sea of sistra and larnakes, that is, Ancient Egyptian and Aegean funerary customs. They're interesting, especially the larnakes, (now can anyone please tell me if there is any kind of tomb or coffin that I didn't find interesting?) but preparing for the presentation was unexpectedly overwhelming. I've been lacking sleep for days and am in total need of some relaxation, so I've practically done nothing productive since yesterday after class. I took a nap, cooked, replied emails, and watched some news and Olympic videos online to catch up with what's been going on.

The Olympics is great. I watched a few hockey and figure skating videos. I've always enjoyed watching figure skating. It reminds me of my skating classes some fifteen to twenty years ago. I actually learned to do a few jumps and spins. Although I can't do any of them now, I've always appreciated my mom who registered the class for me and half-forced me to practice. I was so afraid of standing in my skating shoes at first, but it eventually became one of my favorite sports. Sometimes I wish I hadn't stopped practicing. As for hockey, I have to say that Ryan Miller is a wall!

The Così three blocks away from my apartment has become my new favorite "study center." I'm actually sitting here right now. The space is quite big, and they always have tables available. They have free WiFi and enough outlets. Plus, their Margherita flatbread pizza is impeccable. I love the crust and the rich fragrance of basil spread on the pizza. I could sit here all day long. Also, I appreciate their thoughtful act of notifying people who are reading, table by table, that they're gonna turn the lights dimmer for dinner services. There is, however, also a downside of coming here so often. Since I always get an iced coffee while studying here, I got addicted to coffee again. I didn't realize it until Tuesday when I didn't have my morning coffee and was like sleepwalking the whole day.

I'm going on a dig in Crete this summer! Well, I'm probably not doing the actual dig because I'm the assistant registrar. Still, I'm excited. It's like a childhood dream come true. My adviser, Dr. B, has talked to me about it since I got in the program. He handed me the official documents yesterday. Looks like there's a bunch of paperwork to get done beforehand, but oh it's gonna be great!

I went to see the Picasso exhibition recently opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It features not only Picasso, but also many other artists around the same period. I just wanna share a piece of work that I've always loved-- Half Past Three (The Poet) by Marc Chagall. There are several elements in the painting that get my attention, but I think the best part is the upside-down head of the poet, which perfectly depicts the situation when you have to write something but nothing comes up in your head! Since a huge part of my life is composed of writing, I can totally relate.

That's it for now. Should I get a Margherita flatbreat pizza for dinner?

當這個世界在歡慶冬季奧運時，我正在sistra（一種打擊樂器）和larnakes（一種棺材）的大海裡浮沉掙扎，也就是古埃及和愛琴海區域的喪葬習俗。它們很有趣，尤其是larnakes，（好，有沒有人能告訴我，是否有任何一種棺材或墓碑我覺得不有趣的？）可是準備這個報告真得令我吃不消，我已缺乏睡眠好幾天，且極需要放鬆，因此昨天下課後到現在，基本上沒做任何有生產性的事，就只是睡了個午覺、煮些東西、回一些信，也在網路上看了一些新聞和奧運的影片，免得跟周圍的世界脫節。

奧運很棒，我看了一些冰上曲棍球和花式溜冰的影片。我一直很喜歡看花式溜冰，那讓我回想起十五到二十年前學溜冰的日子，我當時已學了一些花式動作，雖然現在一項都做不來了，可是我一直很感謝我媽幫我報名且半強迫我學溜冰。我一開始超害怕摔倒，可是後來溜冰成了我最喜歡的運動之一。有時還挺希望自己當時繼續學下去的。至於冰上曲棍球，我只能說Ryan Miller根本就是一道牆！

離我家三分鐘遠的Così最近成了我的新歡，我常到這裡念書，事實上，我現在正坐在這裡。這裡總是有空的桌子，有無線網路及足夠的插座，更重要的，這裡的Margherita扁皮比薩簡直無懈可擊，我超愛它的餅皮及撒在上面香味滿滿的九層塔。我可以整天都坐在這裡。還有，服務生在晚餐時間要把燈光轉暗前，會一桌一桌地告訴正在閱讀的人，這樣的舉動真是貼心！不過，常常到這裡也有一個缺點，由於我總是會點一杯冰咖啡，以致於似乎又對咖啡上癮了，星期二我沒有喝咖啡，結果整天都像在夢遊。

我這個夏天要跟學校的考古隊到克里特島！我可能不會做實際的挖掘，因為我的工作是登記助理，也就是要整理挖出來的東西，不過我還是很興奮，這真是實現童年的夢想。上個學期入學後，我的指導教授Dr. B就提了這件事，他昨天給了我正式文件，看來有好些前置作業要處理，不過，一定會很棒，耶！

上個週末去看了費城美術館最近開幕的畢卡索大展，它不只展出畢卡索的作品，也展出許多同時期藝術家的作品。我想分享一件一直很愛的作品——夏卡爾的〈三點半（詩人）〉，這件作品有好些元素都讓我喜歡，但最棒的一點，是詩人上下顛倒的頭，這完美地描繪了必須寫東西卻沒有靈感的感覺！由於我的生活有大半時間都在寫作，我簡直太感同身受了。

先這樣吧，我要去點Margherita扁皮比薩當晚餐嗎？

Winter Snow

2010-02-15T01:38:00.011-05:00

From Winter 2009-2010

It's mid-February and I'm finally posting some winter pictures. The last two snowstorms brought us some real winter and two days off! The idea of having snow days off amazed me at first, but now I find myself secretly hoping for it (despite my complaints about Philly's bad plowing efficiency). It's like having days off when a typhoon comes in Taiwan! But they're also very different. Typhoon is loud. You hear the wind roaring, the rain pouring, and things flapping or falling. Even so, tough Taiwanese people don't seem to worry too much about typhoons in general. Is there a better time to hang out with friends than a typhoon day off? Movie theaters, restaurants and department stores would be crowded as usual. Snow, on the other hand, calms everything down. Plus, Philly people don't go out on snowy days. The city looks deserted, which is nice in a sense because it gives me a chance to take some nice pictures.

Thank God for giving me the snow days off right after I did my presentation so that I could take a real break. What was better was that Thursday actually had a pretty nice weather. I ended up studying and chatting with Alison in a cafe.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opened this weekend. I don't have a TV to watch everything live, but I did watch some videos on the internet. I'm glad that Taiwan has a team even though we only have one participating athlete this year. Watching Taiwanese delegates walk into the stadium always gives me a mixed feeling. On one hand, I'm glad we're participating in the games; on the other hand, it's sad that we're not allowed to show our national flag in these world events. For this reason, I really want to say, (beep) u, China.

A video I'd like to bring up is this interviewing video prior to the opening ceremony. My eyes widened when seeing this lady talk at 0:41-0:45. The background was a work by the Taiwanese artist, Michael Lin. It was simply impossible to miss his iconic floral patterns. It was beautiful.

k.d. lang performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on the opening ceremony. She did a great job, but I couldn't help but went on Youtube to watch this version by Jeff Buckley. Interestingly, the comments showed that I was not the only one who did. This is my favorite version so far. It has that desperately "cold and broken" feeling. I've been listening to it all weekend.

What a weekend! The Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and the opening of the Olympics all occurred at the same weekend. Whatever you're celebrating, happiness to you all!

二月中了，我也終於貼出一些冬天的照片了。之前的兩場大雪為我們帶來了真正的冬天及兩天的大雪假！因為下大雪而放假一開始讓我很驚訝，但我發現自己現在卻是偷偷地期待著大雪放假（雖然我對於費城的鏟雪效率抱怨連連）。這就好像在台灣放颱風假一樣，不過它們也很不同。颱風天很大聲，可以聽到風吹、雨打，以及東西拍打或掉落的聲音，即使如此，強壯的台灣人似乎也不太害怕，有什麼時候比颱風天更適合跟朋友出去吃飯、看電影或逛街的？而下雪則讓一切都安靜下來，再加上費城的人都不在下雪天出門，讓整個城市看起來像被荒廢了一般，一方面來說，這也很好，因為這讓我有機會照到一些不錯的相片。

感謝上帝讓我的大雪假是在做完口頭報告之後馬上放的，所以我可以真得喘一口氣，更好的，是星期四雖然放假，但其實天氣很好，後來我跟Alison約到咖啡廳裡念書聊天。

2010年溫哥華冬季奧運這個週末開幕了，我沒有電視，所以沒辦法看現場轉播，不過倒是在網路上看了一些影片。雖然今年台灣只有一位運動員，但我還是很開心我們有參與。其實每次看著台灣的代表隊走進會場，心情總是很複雜，一方面，我們參與了世界性的活動真是一件很值得高興的事，但另一方面，我們卻不能在這些場合展示自己的國旗，這讓我真想說：去死吧中國。

我想提一下這個開幕前的採訪影片。當我看到0:41至0:45秒的這位受訪者講話時，整個眼睛一亮，她後面的背景是台灣藝術家林明弘的作品，他標誌性的花朵圖騰實在讓人很難錯過。真美。

k.d. lang在開幕式上演唱Leonard Cohen的「Hallelujah」，她唱得很棒，可是聽完她唱後，我還是忍不住到Youtube去看這個Jeff Buckley的版本。很有趣的，是看了下面的評論，發現我不是唯一這樣做的人。這是我到目前為止最喜歡的版本，它有那種絕望的「冰冷及破碎」的感覺。我整個週末都在聽這首歌。

真是個熱鬧的週末，農曆新年、情人節，以及冬季奧運開幕都在這個週末。無論你在慶祝什麼，祝大家都快樂！

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

2010-02-10T01:28:00.015-05:00

My first presentation of this semester is done. Four more to go before summer comes. The presentation went well and was definitely better than the ones I did last semester. The professor seemed to have been pleased with it, too. I think after doing that one-hour presentation last semester, this kind of length doesn't seem like such a huge monster to me anymore. I'm not saying that I don't feel stressful, but I think I'm in better control of the preparation process and gradually improving my skills. Language remains to be the biggest thing that has to be conquered. I wish I could think and speak in English as well as in Mandarin, then I wouldn't feel anxious about giving presentations. Ok, I'm setting it up as a goal.

The semester has been good so far. Things are going in a fine pace. I hope it will keep on going this way although it's highly unlikely. My sister, Crystal, and I have been spending more time together in the past month or so, which I truly enjoy.

My last trip to NYC was so worth it. Of course, I've always enjoyed staying with my youngest sister, Angel, no matter we hang out or simply stay at home together. This time, she got free tickets to the Met Opera performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Stiffelio." It was my first time seeing a performance in Lincoln Center. More importantly, not until half an hour before the performance did I know that it was conducted by Plácido Domingo. PLÁCIDO DOMINGO! What a surprise! Although it would be ten thousand times better to hear him sing than see him conduct, it was the first time I saw him in person after all. The opera was good. I especially love the stage design. I went to a Broadway show, Mary Poppins, with KMK the next day. The experience could best, and only, be described with one word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! It was magical. Both of us were so happy after seeing the show. We were like beaming all the way as we walked out the theater.

My mom bought us these "magical scarves" at a night market in Tainan. Just look at this demonstration video. No wonder they're called "magical scarves." What a smart thing! Thanks, mom.

I slipped and fell on ice for the first time on my way to church this Sunday. It never happened before. I don't get why they don't plow the snow on weekends here in Philly. The good thing is that I didn't feel hurt or anything wrong after the fall.

Back to the language issue. My dad forwarded an email with this link: http://www.6park.com/enter9/messages/65372.html. I think this American guy speaks better Mandarin than I do. What a shame, haha.

我這學期的第一個口頭報告完成了，夏天來到之前，還有四個要努力。今天的報告進行得還順利，至少絕對比上學期的都好，教授似乎也很喜歡。我想，經過上學期的一小時報告之後，這般長度的報告對我來說，已不再像是一隻那麼大的怪獸了，這並不是說我沒感到壓力，只是覺得自己更能掌握整個準備過程，也漸漸改進自己的技巧。其實，語言還是最大的挑戰，真希望自己用英文思考和說話的程度能像中文一樣，如此我就不會對報告感到焦慮了。好，這是我要努力的目標。

這個學期到目前為止都好，事情的步調都還可以，希望到期末都這樣，不過應該是不可能。我跟我妹小愛在過去的一個多月中有許多相處的時間，我覺得很棒。

上一趟去紐約簡直太值得了。當然，我一直很喜歡到紐約跟小妹小柔出去晃，或只是一起窩在家裡。這次，她拿到大都會歌劇演出威爾第「Stiffelio」的免費票，這是我第一次在林肯中心看表演。更好的，是到演出之前的半個小時，我才知道是由多明哥指揮。多明哥！真是太驚喜了！雖然聽他唱歌會比看他指揮好上一萬倍，但畢竟這是我第一次親眼見到他。整個演出很不錯，我特別喜歡舞台設計。隔天，我跟來美國玩的金門王一起去看百老匯「Mary Poppins」，看完後，我只能用一個字形容：supercalifragilisticexpialidocious！真是太棒了，結束後，我們兩個仍沉浸在歡樂的氣氛中，邊笑邊走出劇院。

我媽幫我們買了魔術圍巾，看看這個示範影片就好了，難怪它叫「魔術圍巾」，太聰明的發明了。謝啦，媽。

這個星期天到教會的路上，我在冰上滑倒了，一屁股坐下去的那種。這是第一次。真搞不懂為什麼費城在週末都不鏟雪。不過，還好我滑倒後沒有感到很痛或是有什麼不對勁。

回到剛剛「語言」的話題。我爸轉寄了一封信，裡面有這個連結：http://www.6park.com/enter9/messages/65372.html，這個美國人的中文根本比我的還好，太慘了，哈哈。

☕Hummus Place☕

2010-02-01T00:40:00.017-05:00

I've wanted to post about this restaurant ever since I went there with my sister more than a month ago. It was where we had our Christmas dinner, simple but delightful.

一個多月以前，我和我妹在這裡吃過後，就一直想貼這篇文章。我們在這裡吃聖誕節晚餐，簡單但愉快。

Hummus Place (New York City)

They had several locations in Manhattan. The one we went was on Amsterdam Avenue (Upper West Side). The place was cozy and the food was good.

在曼哈頓有好幾間連鎖店，我們去的是上西區的其中一間，那裡很舒適，食物也很好吃。

Hummus Mushrooms $7.95
It looked cute! There were mushrooms and onions with goat cheese (I assume) around them. My sister liked this dish better.

看起來超可愛的！中間有菇和洋蔥，周圍是羊酪（我覺得啦）。我妹比較喜歡這一道。

Shakshuka $6.95
Stewed eggs with tomatoes, peppers and onions. I liked this dish better because it had a heavier flavor. While we were eating, there were two ladies coming in and sitting at the table next to us. They were speaking either Hebrew or Arabic (I can't tell the difference), so we peeped at their table to see what they ordered. This Shakshuka was one of them, which confirmed that we ordered the right thing. Haha.

燉的蛋、蕃茄、椒和洋蔥，我比較喜歡這道，因為味道比較重。我們吃到一半時，有兩位女性走進來坐在我們旁邊，由於她們講的是某種中東語言（我無法分辨希伯來文和阿拉伯文），所以我們就偷看她們點什麼，這道菜即是其中之一，讓我們覺得自己點對了，哈哈。

Each dish came with two pieces of pita bread. Additional pita cost $0.75 per piece. It was so good to have hot pita bread. We both had three pieces, which made us pretty full.

每道菜都附上兩片pita麵包，加點則一片$0.75。熱的pita麵包好好吃，我們各吃了三片，非常飽。

Baklawa $3.95
We decided to have some dessert after the meal, but the dessert menu was full of weird names that we didn't understand. The waitress must had seen the confusion in our eyes, so she came and explained everything to us. (She was a really good waitress. I liked her.) According to her, baklawa was a very traditional dessert in the Middle East, so we ordered it. It was pretty sweet, and actually a little similar to Cantonese dim sum. Nice!

我們吃完後想吃點心，但是點心menu上寫的都是我們看不懂的名字，服務生一定是看到我們一臉困惑，所以過來跟我們一項一項解釋，（這位服務生很棒，我很喜歡）。她說baklawa是很傳統的中東點心，因此我們決定點這個。它甜甜的，其實有點像港式點心，還不錯！

I miss the food there, which is proven by the fact that I still posted about it even it's been a month. I'd really like to go eat again. Maybe next time!

很想念那些食物，這由我在一個月之後仍想要貼這篇文章，就可以證明。真得很想再去一次。下次吧！

New Stuff

2010-01-24T00:10:00.018-05:00

A week has passed since the semester started. I thought this semester was going to be easier than the last one, but it actually isn't. I'm taking three classes and an internship. They're all exciting but pretty tense as well. The class "Middle Bronze Age Trade and Interconnections Between the Aegean and the East" is given by my adviser and a Penn professor at Penn. Each of us has to give two presentations, an hour for each, one on the West and one on the East. It's nice to have the opportunity to take classes at Penn and to meet people from different schools. The one complaint I have for this class is that we meet at 9:00 Friday morning. It's just too early for me, so I'm readjusting my sleeping time, which is not a bad thing. "Minoan Wall Paintings" is another Bronze-Age class. We're giving three presentations, each an hour long. I didn't expect it, but since this is the field I'm getting into, I can't complain. "Art of the 1960s" draws me back to the modern world. I've always been fascinated by the political, social, cultural and artistic upheaval of the 1960s. Needless to say, we have to do a lot of readings to grasp the spirit and ideology of the decade.

I so needed a bag for school ever since I was back in school last Fall. I didn't really have a proper one. Last weekend, I walked through a mall on my way home because it was too cold outside... and then I saw this-- (*ta-da*) an on-sale LeSportsac ERIKA AHOY. It has a black and white color base with shapes of various colors, which goes perfectly with whatever color one wears. Just as all LeSportsac bags, it's washable, light, and strong enough to hold tons of books. It's been getting good comments from my friends. That makes me happy.

I found a shoe repair shop at the block next to mine. It's always been there, but I didn't know it was a shoe repair shop. All I knew was that they made keys. I wanted to duplicate my keys, so I walked in the shop yesterday. It was owned by an Asian couple. I was pretty happy to find out that they repair shoes, but the happiness faded a minute later when a lady came in with two pairs of shoes. Her shoes looked fine. They just needed new soles, but they cost her 50 bucks. I don't know if I want to repair my shoes there or to just get a new pair of shoes.

SEPTA has something new! I noticed that they put up new and nice-looking signs in trolley stations. Although the stations are old and dirty as usual, the new signs do bring in some freshness.

Oh and I've started a new blog, where I'll be posting some of the articles I write for magazines that's been published. This blog here will not be affected since the two blogs are of different natures. I'll keep on updating and chattering about my life and thoughts here. So, stay tuned!

開學一個星期了，我本來以為這個學期會比較輕鬆，但其實並沒有。我修三門課及一個美術館實習，它們都很有趣，但也都很緊湊。「青銅時期中期愛琴海區域與美索不達米亞之間的交流」是我的教授跟賓州大學的一個教授合開的課，在賓州大學上課。每個人要做兩次報告，各一小時。能夠在賓州大學上課並認識一些其他學校的人是很棒的事，我對於這堂課的抱怨，就是它的時間在星期五早上九點，這對我來說真是太早了，所以我在調整作息時間，這其實也不是件壞事。「邁諾安壁畫」也是青銅時期的課，我們要做三次報告，也是各一小時，我沒料到會這麼多，但既然這是我要進入的領域，也沒什麼好抱怨的了。「1960年代藝術」把我帶回現代。我一直對於1960年代的政治、社會、文化及藝術劇變十分著迷，不用說，我們需要讀一大堆東西才能抓住這個時期的精神及想法。

從回來念書開始，我就迫切需要一個可以上學的袋子，上個學期我沒有真得適合的袋子。上個週末走回家的路上，因為太冷了，我就穿過購物中心回去，結果，看到了這個——（鏘鏘）打折的LeSportsac ERIKA AHOY。它有黑白的底色，以及各種形狀及顏色的花紋，因此不管穿什麼顏色的衣服都可以配，而且就好像所有LeSportsac的包包一樣，它可以洗，沒有重量，又堅固到可以裝著滿滿的書。我的很多朋友都說好看，讓我很開心。

我在我家附近發現了一間修鞋店，它一直都在，只是我不知道那是修鞋店，只知道它們複製鑰匙。昨天我要複製鑰匙，所以走了進去，那是一對亞洲夫婦開的。當我發現他們修鞋時，真是很高興，可是那高興卻維持得很短暫。在我後面有一位年輕媽媽走進來，帶了兩雙鞋，她的鞋看起來還好，只是需要換鞋底，但是花了她50元。我不知道是該拿鞋來修，還是該直接買雙新的。

費城的大眾運輸「SEPTA」有新的東西！我注意到車站裡放上新的且看起來很不錯的標示牌，雖然車站還是一樣老舊，但新的標示牌仍帶來一些新氣象。

喔，還有，我開了一個新部落格，會在那裡貼我寫的已刊載的雜誌文章。現在這個部落格不會受影響，因為這兩個性質完全不同，我還是會在這裡分享生活和想法，所以請繼續收看！

And As Life Goes On You Know You Don't Have To Hate All You Find

2010-01-13T01:58:00.010-05:00

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream," Jake Sully said, waking up from his Avatar status. This was kind of like what I felt while the bus arrived in Philadelphia.

I spent half of my break in New York City this winter. My love for the city grew stronger each time I went. Sitting in the bus this morning, I watched Philly skyline came into view. It was unreal at first sight. The bus suddenly felt like an Avatar transfer pod that transported me from one world to another. I guess when both worlds are real, you subconsciously choose to believe in the one you favor more.

I felt like knowing myself a little better in this last trip.

My youngest sister played in the orchestra for her school opera. She got me a ticket to the concert. They had excerpts from five operas: "Fanfare" from "La Peri" by Paul Dukas," Albert Herring" by Benjamin Britten, "The Rake's Progress" by Igor Stravinsky, "Little Woman" by Mark Adamo, and "Un Ballo in Maschera" by Giuseppe Verdi. All of them were 20th-century operas except for the Verdi one. It was my first time listening to 20th-century operas. I tried to appreciate them, but I didn't find them that enjoyable. I thought it was probably because I haven't been listening to that much opera lately that my ears needed a little adjustment, but when it came to the Verdi piece, I felt like drowning into orchestral music. Verdi always created great harmony. My sister said she could totally tell I preferred traditional operas by the way I clapped (which myself didn't notice the difference at all). Well, I believe people's tastes change. Maybe I'll have a different view towards 20th-century operas if I listen to them more in the future, but for now, I'm totally stick to 19th-century ones.

I had always thought that I liked the Met better than MoMA. It seems to be changing now. I went to both museums last week. I was really excited the night before going to MoMA. I just couldn't wait to see those special exhibitions, especially the Tim Burton one. (It indeed turned out fascinating!) On the contrary, nothing really caught my attention when I checked online for the special exhibitions currently on view in the Met. I'm not saying that the trip wasn't enjoyable, but I just didn't feel the same excitement, which, in fact, struck me like a thunder. This is not as easy as realizing that I like tradition operas better than 20th-century ones because it's somewhat related to my career. I can, of course, blame on the timing that MoMA happened to have the exhibitions I wanted to see and the Met didn't, but still, this whole thing deserves some thinking.

I went to my sister's church this Sunday. The sermon topic was "Return to the Garden 2010: Koinonia-Spiritual Fellowship," in which the pastor talked about friendship, love, and purpose of life. I didn't really like the past few sermons I heard from the pastor, but this time was different. He asked questions kind of like what I've been thinking recently. What is my mission? What is there to live for? How have I been experiencing God's grace? What group of people the living God has put in my heart? I think it's really embarrassing for a PhD student to admit that she's still in search of her life mission. Apparently, more conversation with God is in urgent need now.

I watched "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" on the bus back to Philadelphia. It was a high school movie, but it was actually not too bad. I think the music helped. It was fun to be able to locate the streets and places in the movie scenes. The most fun thing was that... there was a shot of New York City night view across the river when Nick was driving in the beginning... when the movie progressed to the scene, the bus I took was leaving the city, and as I lifted my head looking out the window, I saw the same view as the one shown on my screen, except that it was daytime. I smiled at the coincidence. The movie reminded me of something distressing though. I guess there are things I really need to figure out.

Ah, there is so much to think about. Can I go back to high school days?

「一切都反轉了，好像在那裡是真實世界，而這裡是夢境。」傑克從他的阿凡達狀態醒來時如此說。當巴士到達費城時，我的感覺就有點像這樣。

今年寒假，我有一半的時間都在紐約。每次去這個城市，我對它的喜愛就更深。今天早上坐在巴士上，我看著費城建築輪廓線進入視線，第一眼實在感覺不真實。那一刻，巴士好似阿凡達轉換艙，把我從一個世界帶到另一個世界。我想，當兩個世界都真實時，你潛意識會選擇相信你比較喜歡的那一個。

這趟紐約行，好像讓我更認識自己了一些。

徐小妹參與了學校的聲樂學生音樂會中的交響樂團，她幫我保留了一張票。這場音樂會節選了五部歌劇的片段：Paul Dukas的「La Peri」、Benjamin Britten的「Albert Herring」、Igor Stravinsky的「The Rake's Progress」、Mark Adamo的「Little Women」，以及Giuseppe Verdi的「Un Ballo in Maschera」，除了威爾第的作品外，其他都是20世紀的歌劇。這是我第一次聽20世紀的歌劇，我試著去欣賞它們，可是發現它們並沒有那麼好聽。我原本想，或許是我最近太少聽歌劇了，因此耳朵需要調適一下，可是當進行到威爾第的歌劇時，我整個精神來了，感覺沉浸在交響樂中。威爾第總是作出好棒的和聲。我妹說，她從我拍手的樣子，就完全看出我喜歡傳統的歌劇（我自己根本沒發現我拍手有不同）。我相信人的喜好會變，或許我多聽一些20世紀歌劇後，就會有不同的想法，不過目前我完全是偏向19世紀的歌劇。

我一直認為自己喜歡大都會美術館多於紐約現代美術館，可是事情好像有轉變。上個星期，這兩個美術館我都去了。去現代美術館的前一天，我處於非常興奮的狀態，簡直等不及要看那些特展，尤其是提姆．波頓的特展。（真得很讚！）相反地，當我上網查大都會美術館目前的特展時，並沒有哪一個特別吸引我。我並不是說大都會美術館不好玩，只是我沒有感覺到同樣的興奮感。事實上，這個發現讓我好似被雷劈了一般。這並不像說說自己喜歡傳統歌劇多於20世紀歌劇一樣簡單，因為這與我的生涯規畫是有某種連結的。當然，我可以歸咎於目前剛好現代美術館有我想要看的特展，而大都會美術館沒有，不過，這件事情還是值得好好思考。

星期天我去我妹的教會，信息主題是「回到花園2010」，牧師談道友誼、愛，以及生命的目的。我不是很喜歡這個牧師過去講的幾篇道，可是這次不一樣，他提及的問題，都與我最近在思考的一些事情有關：我的任務是什麼？有什麼是值得為它活的？我如何經驗上帝的恩典？永活的上帝將哪一個族群放在我的心裡？我覺得，承認一個博士班學生仍在尋找自己的人生任務，是一件很尷尬的事。顯然，跟上帝有更多對話是當務之急。

回費城的巴士上，我看了「Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist」，這是一部高中生的電影，不過並不難看，我想，是音樂讓它加分。能夠辨認出電影裡的街道及地點，是種很有趣的感覺。最有趣的，是電影的開始，當Nick在開車時，有一個鏡頭是從河的另一邊遙望紐約的建築輪廓線，當電影演到這一個鏡頭時，我坐的巴士正駛離紐約，我抬頭望向窗外，正好看到跟銀幕上完全一樣的景象，只差我是看到「日景」而非「夜景」。這個巧合令我微微一笑。不過，這部電影讓我想起一些煩惱的事，看來，有些事情我真得該好好想想。

啊，要思考的事情太多了。我可以回到高中嗎？