Tibetan Protests Attack Olympic Torch Holder, Who is a disabled female in wheelchair

As a Chinese, I personally wish the Olympic torch relay will unite people of different belief. I hope it leads to a "journey to harmony" . However, you have the freedom of speech and the right of demonstration. I respect that; indeed your voices are heard. But, take care: don't turn a legal demonstration into a violent turmoil; don't do anything as shown in the following video again (if you choose not to watch this, I call tell you, in this video, Tibetan protestants attacked the Olympic torch holder, who is a disabled female in wheelchair). don't add to our hatred. What happened yesterday makes me worried 'cause you know hatred makes peaceful resolutions more hopeless.

And follow Dalai Lama's teaching (cited from Statement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to All Tibetans)

8. The hosting of the Olympic games this year is a matter of great pride to the 1.2 billion Chinese people. I have from the very beginning supported the holding of these Games in Beijing. My position on this remains unchanged. I feel the Tibetans should not cause any hindrance to the Games. It is the legitimate right of every Tibetan to struggle for their freedoms and rights. On the other hand, it will be futile and not helpful to anyone if we do something that will create hatred in the minds of the Chinese people. On the contrary, we need to foster trust and respect in our hearts in order to create a harmonious society, as this cannot be built on the basis of force and intimidation.

Homecoming

First I announce I will go back to China this summer. I will stay there for nearly one month: from May 9th to June 6th. I am happy for I will see my family soon and can enjoy the leisurely life at home.

When counting down the days before leaving, I clearly realized that I have been in America for nearly one year. One question came to my mind:"how do you sum up the past year?" In the first glance, the year 2007 was unusual . I graduated from USTC in July and then came to United States, a country many people dreamed of coming to. I started a new life here and of course there were inevitably excitement and challenges though some challenge may seem a small piece of cake. I became acquainted with many people. While studying at USC computational molecular biology program, I allowed myself considerable freedom to enjoy America. Santa Monica, Laguna Beach, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Yosemite: I went to some many places (I myself can't believe it!)

However, I feel that I don't have a clear memory of the past year. It seems strange but that's my true feeling. I know I was really excited or disappointed when somethings was happening. For example, the joyful feeling was really from the bottom of my heart when I first saw the beauty of San Diego bay; but that feeling became so distant now that I hardly recall. Maybe my limited memory can't hold so many things. Or it is still too early to give a summary of the past year: the meaning of many things will become clear when we look backward from a longer time scale.

Anyway, I am planning to go back home now. Yesterday a very old song suddenly came into my mind. The last time I listened to this Song dates back to about eight years ago when we still used cassette tape player. That song is Sailing by Rod Stewart.



And the lyrics

SAILING
I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.

I am flying, I am flying,
Like a bird cross the sky.
I am flying, passing high clouds,
To be with you, to be free.

Can you hear me, can you hear me
Thro the dark night, far away,
I am dying, forever trying,
To be with you, who can say.

Can you hear me, can you hear me,
Thro the dark night far away.
I am dying, forever trying,
To be with you, who can say.

We are sailing, we are sailing,
Home again cross the sea.
We are sailing stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.

Oh lord, to be near you, to be free.
Oh lord, to be near you, to be free,
Oh lord.

Happy New Year of the Rat

Thank you, uncle!

Wish You Were Here

Even if you are a man, it may make you in tears when you listen to Wish You Were Here alone in deep night. For the first time I felt alone in this strange place. I miss badly family, friends and an uncertain "she". I followed Pink Floyd and sang "wish you were here" again and again.

Wish you were here Lyrics
Pink Floyd

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
Have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

And do you know I was singing to you? I guess we are two souls hoping to approach each other, at least I hope so. But I don't know you enough. You made me sometimes happy and some times nervous. I want to take care of you with my whole heart, but real life is full of cheating and betray. How I wish you could show a signal to get me out of all worries; however you face the "same old fears".

Mom, you know I was also singing to you. You made me assured. You loved me without reservation. It is some kind of happiness. I wish you were here. It will come true soon, I promise, mom.

Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach 2007

MCB program at USC holds an annual retreat at Laguna Beach. This year we stayed in Laguna Beach from Friday evening to Sunday morning. Most time was used for presentations and poster exhibition. Only Saturday afternoon was free time.

We went to the beach first. You can see smooth sandy beach as well as rocky shore here. People surf or take a sunbath on the sandy beach. I cannot swim or surf, so I only walk on bare foot, feeling the sand moving under my skin. Looking west, the immerse pacific ocean shined under the afternoon sunshine. Lots of seagulls were flying above the sea and sometimes they landed on the beach. They were not afraid of people, leisurely walking near you.

There was more fun in the rocky shore. The waves constantly licked the rock. Many shells attached to the rock. We found a piece of rock, which is completely covered by shells. In some place, sea anemones quietly rest in small pools of water. If you touch them with your figure, they will quickly crouching their body.

Later we drove along Pacific Coast Highway to the downtown of Laguna. I bet Pacific Coast Highway is one of most beautiful roads in the world. With blue sea on one side and elegant Spanish-style cabins on the other side, no wonder our driver said:'it feel like playing Need for Speed"。 There are many galleries in downtown of Laguna Beach. I really like Laguna's artistic style.

Halloween@Hollywood

Halloween@West Hollywood 2007

Halloween was a great festival. Hundreds of thousand of people from all around poured into West Hollywood, making Los Angeles' traffic more jammed. We talked about pumpkins, costumes and candies in the car, but my heart had flied to Hollywood.

We exited the freeway. As we got nearer, we began to see people dressing up in the street. We cannot help shouting out: "Look! Ghost" or "lovely rabbit!" or "hot girls!". Actually, everything was striking in the eyes of a new-comer to Halloween.

Especially when you walked in a miles-long boulevard , which was filled with 30,000+ persons dressing up.

(for more pictures, go to my album http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/Halloween2007 )

Among such a bravo crowd, I regret I myself didn't dress up. Besides eyes, your ears were struck with high-volume music. You had a impulse to sing and dance. We all some times wish to forget work and study. Halloween is such a fun that you can behave innocently like an child, and you can fulfill the dream of being a star-in Hollywood.

References
my album http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/Halloween2007
Jing's blog post http://witchejing123.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9735172B2B16AA57!371.entry
Jing's album http://witchejing123.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!9735172B2B16AA57!333/
Pei's album http://picasaweb.google.com/zhangpei511/2007_10_31HollywoodHalloween
Halloween in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

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.