Eureka! --Letters from Los Angeles

"Eureka!" is the motto of California and "Find Yourself Here" is the slogan. These two phases exactly describes my feeling during the past month at USC and Los Angeles. "Eureka!" represents the delight of discovery. "Find Yourself Here" means the progress of adjusting to the new life here.

Excited and curiously, I have been exploring this new world. The buildings in campus are mostly grand structures. They are built of red-orange ( people here calls it cardinal) ) bricks. Under the strong sunshine here, they are so vivid that you may wonder whether they are real. I was again impressed when I walked into one reading room in Doheny Library. It is about one hundred meters long, twenty meters high and more than ten meters high. With tall bookshelves lining near the wall and large dark-red tables standing in the middle, it makes me hold my breath for a while. Though I didn't shout it shout, the word "Eureka" really came into my mind at that time.

As of Los Angeles, I like the shiny sun, the blue sky, the beautiful buildings, gardens and tall palm trees here and there. The houses off campus are two or three storied, most with a delicate garden. My apartment is about ten minutes walk from campus. ( My Apt. -Birthplace of Adlai Stevenson III). When I am free in the afternoon, I sit by the window, looking at the skyline of downtown. It feels great.

However my exploration of Los Angeles is limited to the district close to campus. Los Angeles is so big that one cannot really explore it without a car. Additionally, the warning against criminal activities discourages our ambition to go far by bus. I hope I will have more chances to cry out "Eureka" in the future.

Now I will tell how I find myself here. First, I can proudly declare that I has successfully lived on my own for nearly two weeks. After one week's free meal and another few days' meal in my classmates' home, I began to cook myself. I can't boast the deliciousness of my food, but at least in my opinion it tastes fine:-).

This semester began from last week. I take four courses this semester: two biological courses, one math course and one computer course. I have studied these materials more or less in China. So the main difficulty is language. The instructors of biology and math speaks a little blurred ( one of them from Russia:-) ). I need to try me best to follow. The instructors of algorithm speaks very clear English. Her course really restores my somewhat dwelled confidence in English because I can understand every word:-). In the coming year, besides the four courses, I need to work hard to improve my English, both written and spoken.

Again I can proudly declare that I received my first stipend yesterday. It is about two thousand dollars. Really wonderful:-). I begin to plan to buy a computer, learn to drive, etc and I even think of a trip to Canada in the winter, hehe.

My Apt. -Birthplace of Adlai Stevenson III

This is my apartment at Los Angeles. It is the birthplace of Adlai Stevenson III. When i introduced this house to my friend:"A famous American was born here", he commented, "In some years people will say 'A famous Chinese worked here '.". I lives in the upstairs room in the middle. My room is a half studio, i.e. I have my own bedroom and kitchen but share bath rooms with some tenants. They are two Indians, one Taiwanese and one Philippinos.

The above photo is taken by Floyd B. Bariscale. And please see his blog for more about this house. http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-35-birthplace-of-adlai-e-stevenson.html

Application for Gradute School

Today I updated my personal homepage. Since I have finished applying for graduate school, I removed those contents and links in support of my application. However, some may be useful to other applicants in the future. I feel it is appropriate to log them here.

Statement of Purpose
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/statementofpurpose

Letter of Recommendation
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/recommendations3

Curriculum Vitae
http://chiangsong.googlepages.com/application

I Choose What I Love vs. I Love What I Choose

Finally I decided to go to USC. During the last few days before April 15, I contacted several faculties at the Joint CMU-Pitt Program in Computational Biology. The responses were rather disencouraging: three of them had no funds and two did not responded at all. When Prof. Sun, the chair of USC Computational Biology Program, called me on Apr. 14th evening, saying I should not play game, I realized I cannot wait any more. I sent the acceptance letter on Apr. 15 morning, Prof. Sun replied soon and asked me why I insisted on waiting for CMU's offers. I told him my idea frankly.

I have been fascinated with supercomputing since I got in touch with computer in high school. CMU's reputation in computer architecture and high performance computation has been haunting in my mind since then. Especially, Prof. Joel R. Stiles at CMU are heading the Center for Quantitative Biological Simulation in Pittsburg Supercomputing Center. It is a long-lasting idea in my mind to model live organisms in computer and study their behavior. I should honestly admit that my understanding of biological simulation is limited, but the love for it is something that cannot be explained with logic

I should be happy that the time-consuming and tedious application is over, but I felt hurt and disappointed. I used to believe that I am among the few potentially being able to do something really wonderful in biological simulation. And all faculties I contacted consider me competitive. Finally I could not choose what I love.

Sentimentality makes no use. I pretended to be as determinant as possible, sending back paper files, asking classmates at USC to arrange room, planning for my study at USC and telling my family the news. I would like to thank uncle, sister and mama for their encouraging congratulations. If nothing else had not happened, I would have gradually recovered from the heartbroken feeling of missing CMU opportunity and leisurely enjoy Hefei's spring.

Ironically, I received three mails in a line yesterday, one from McGill and two from CMU/Pitt program, asking whether I am still interested in their program. Just imagine that: when you are pursuing a pretty proud girl, she rejects you; you first feel heart-broken and then try to forget her and gradually you decide to love another girl; but now the previous girl comes back and ask whether you still love her, and she is so lovely. That is my feeling now.

If I choose what I love, I hurt USC's heart and I will feel guilt forever; If I love what I choose, I will definitely regret to miss such a pretty CMU. I hate such choices!

Bryan Adams: The Best of Me

The best of me
Can't stop this thing we started nothing can stop true love
Summer of '69 memory of early career life in muisc
Let's make a night to remember
Cloud #9 attractive voices
(Everything I do) I do it for you

My Google Maps

Some Days ago Google announced My Maps, "a new feature that makes it quick and easy to create your own custom Google Maps just by pointing and clicking" as described at Official Google Blog post Map-making: So easy a caveman could do it.

Here is my maps of some important places in my life.
Luanxian County in Tangshan in North China. I was born in the countryside and lived16 years there.
Tangshan City. I studied in Tangshan No.1 Middle School from Sept. 2000 to July 2003. It is a place I will remember for ever.
Hefei City. My university, University of Science and Technology of China is located in this city

Keeping Culture in the Warfire: Diary of Saad Eskander

I come to know Saad Eskander via the post Culture Under Siege: A Diary of Iraq's National Library by Max Magee. Saad Eskander, the director of the Iraq National Library and Archives, are rebuilding in very hard conditions the collection of the library, which has been looted during the early days of American invasion. Just image the endless violent events in Iraq, the perilous condition, the limited help of the authority and the difficulty in interacting various forces etc, the story of Saad and colleagues' sustaining the culture in the warfire is actually a heroic episode of intellectuals. If fortunately peace returns to Iraq someday in the future, we should thank them for keeping the culture from entirely disappearing.

It reminds my some Chinese heroes in Anti-Japan War and in the Culture Revolution. It is a tradition of Chinese intellectuals to protecting the Chinese culture most of because of an instinct. That is why China can have an continues of civilization history of over five thousand years.

And now I see the same instinct in Saad and his colleagues. I hope the Iraq war can damage the regime but not the culture, because the regime is of the politicians but the culture is the treasure of all Iraq people, or the human being as a whole.

Related Links:
1. Culture Under Siege: A Diary of Iraq's National Library
2. Online Diary of Saad Eskander at the British Library