the one with my favourite peom

A chinese poem by Su Shi

但願人長久
明月幾時有，把酒問青天
不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年
我欲乘風歸去
唯恐琼樓玉宇，高處不勝寒
起舞弄清影，何似在人間
轉朱閣，低綺戶，照無眠
不應有恨，何事偏向別時圓
人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺
此事古難全，但願人長久，千里共嬋娟

Literal Translation I
When will the moon be clear and bright?
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the blue sky.
I don't know what season it would be in the heavens on this night.
I'd like to ride the wind to fly home.
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions are much too high and cold for me. Dancing with my moon-lit shadow.
It does not seem like the human world.
The moon rounds the red mansion
Stoops to silk-pad doors Shines upon the sleepless.
Bearing no grudge
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart
The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane
This has been going on since the beginning of time
May we all be blessed with longevity
Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.

Literal Translation II
When do the moon grow bright; raise a toast to heaven
Which calender of gods is this; what year is tonight
I wish to hitch the wind and return
only fearing palaces, high places aren't warm
dancing to my shadow, what a life it is
Passed the door, under the window, shined on my sleeplessness
resentment grows from no answer, what are better than not known
There are joy and there are gloom, there are phases even for the moon
This no perfection any can reach, may people live long and prosper, as birds fly a thousand miles.

Liberal Translation
When do good times come? I raise my drink to the moon
What year is today? What's up with the gods?
I would hitch the wind to return
though high places are cold.
I play with my shadow, a pleasure it is.
The door, the window sill, reflected my sleeplessenss.
The resentments, the separation, the bearings...
For joy and for gloom, even the moon faces change
This is with us; may people prosper, as ducks in pairs

the one with news in HK

I was randomly searching news online. These days front pages are covered by news of death of Yeltsin. But there's only one piece abt this in HK websites I could hardly find. And this part quite amused me. (and its from Ming Pao eh eh)

中國對葉利欽的評價表裏不一。表面上，官方將葉利欽視為中國的老朋友，稱讚他擔任俄羅斯總統期間，中俄建立了戰略協作伙伴關係，解決了歷史遺留的邊界問題。但是，對於葉利欽在推動俄羅斯民主政治發展和經濟改革方面的作為，尤其是葉利欽所竭力推動的 「震盪療法」經濟改革，中共領導層從來不以為然，指驟然的巨變帶來經濟嚴重惡化，貪污腐敗橫行。中國奉行的漸進式經濟改革，成效確比「震盪療法」好，可惜，貪污腐敗的問題同樣嚴重，這是中國必須從嚴從速處理的燙手山芋，因為中國面臨的社會不公和貧富差距加劇等矛盾，與上世紀90年代葉利欽領導下的俄羅斯極其相似。中國經濟改革較俄羅斯成功，一個重要因素是，中國擁有香港這樣一個資本主義的城市作典範，並且為內地的經濟改革源源不斷地提供國際資金；香港以外，還有數千萬希望中國強大的海外華人，盡自己所能向故土投資。對於香港和海外華人在中國的崛起進程中所扮演的重要角色，中共領導層同樣應當高度珍惜。即使中國如今已經成為經濟大國，但是中國的現代化進程仍然任重道遠，仍須團結海內外華人繼續作出貢獻。

Its not the first time I was disappointed by media in HK. Remember a celebrity once commented on HK as in an international delimma. It is extremely international in terms of all the resources and functional roles. Same time it is extremely local. And newspaper is one important indication. When one day you found local news (such as suicide of 2nd wife in mainland) is no longer prominent in papers, then HK is truely internationalised.

be yourself. but how.

This one is written for myself and the one who asked me to write it down when I made the similar speech. It is very very simple opinion but I guess I just need to be reminded occassionaly.

I was back from 360 assessment (whatever ppl call it) of group meeting today. Basically it is about each member make both positive and negative comments about others. One thing I found interesting is (well it sounds simple but)... actually you're not exactly what you turn to be in front of people... at least compared to what you think.

One core concept about individualism is "be yourself but not anyone else". People have different interpretations. Mostly what we get to know is being yourself = being an impressive yourself. It is boring to be like others. It is boring to follow what others think. Well... but how to be yourself.

Being center of attention to impress people is what we learned most as being in this generation. I remember when I was a teenager I sang a song in front of big audience during a performance show. I was very impressive and everybody thought I sang so well... I was really proud myself too. But it turned out later that actually they forgot to switch off the original voice of the song and the one who was singing was not me but the singer in the tape. Well it pretty explained why I always didnt like to sing aloud afterwards because I have been afraid to know how bad I actually sing... and that probably is the real me.
It is always not wrong to impress people and sometimes we get lot of satisfaction by our performance thinking we did impress others -- well we were right most of the times. But what actually was happening is, people might be impressed by sth you're not aware of that you've been doing and what you've been so conscious about like how to perform what to present in just effort goes in vain.
Back to the question, then, how to be yourself. If presentation is no good, how to just be me.

You are the only thing in this world that can be control by yourself. You are the one who is seeking for excellence lifelong. If you want to be great person. Start to think like great person. I sometimes admire how smart great persons could be. Because they know the importance of persuing those values that is stable and forever. Good values and great goals are not like people, including people's attention, praise, approval which are not stable. Of course they can be reviewed constantly for your own refernce but once they become the origin of your sense of achievment, then your whole world would be gone once those are gone. Simple example is relationship, lets say a guy is so in love with the girl and she to him is everything he can think of and do things for in this world. Once the love of the girl is not there anymore, this boy could be devastated. Well its a simple case but it is so true that I guess most of the people experience similar thing.
We are young and motivated. What is pushing us going from one adventure to next one is very powerful and crucial. Let it be sth that you can look up to and really really do it with appreciation. Think big and think true. Once you know what is good for you and picture it long term you might find yourself clearer.

Be yourself. Yes other people are watching. But the only way to enjoy it meanwhile do it good is be yourself for nobody but yourself.

the one with Holland rocks I

Heeeey guys now Im sitting in my youth hostel in Utrecht, the last day Im staying here in this amazing country trying to write down things I see and thing I feel.
To be honest, although I have been so excited to come here, I was still having doubts if 2 weeks in this tiny little west european country would be more than enough. However, I had a great great time enjoying nature seeing people embracing this small but proud country.

Just being lazy so I'll just try writing whats happening day by day. =)
(oh I might have lots of mistakes when trying to spell those dutch words... but guess most of you wouldnt mind!)

March 26th
My footprints on Holland finally extended to area outside schiphol airport. People speak amazingly good english and very very friendly and joke a lot.

March 27th
Klaas Jan toured me around Eindhoven. Dont even need to talk to people you can see that Philips totally rule this city by its name appearing everywhere. Anyways, it is so not as ugly as those what we called "industrialized" cities in China, I was impressed --- small, but full of energy of being young and creative. Although it doesnt not have any cutural archetecture thats really stands out to symbolize the town, you'll understand tolerance once you get invovled.
PS Klaas Jan gradually exposed his "asshole" side... awwwww

March 28th
People dont believe this but I did go to Keukenholf in Lisse. Well I would try to explain what it is here since I loved it so much. Keuken means Kitchen in dutch and holf just means herbs. Well in acient times there is this person grow herbs in the garden (his name is in the info package) so they took it as a name but basically it is a flower exhibition mainly you can see tulips everywhere. Well yea today I saw the garden of most tulips I have ever seen, 300 kinds of them and almost seven million of flowers in the large garden divided into different areas and cubics. Though you cannot call this totally nature cause people spend lots of money and effort in making flowers look beautiful and decorate the whole park. But trust me when you see this amount of tulips gathering around and with beautiful weather ahead, the whole scene is just so damn beautiful! The theme for this year is to memorize a swedish biologist specialized in flowers who happened to celebrate his 300th birthday this year, so there is also IKEA commercial quite a lot poping up.
People it is a very dutch thing to do to visit Keukenholf --- it is only once in a year around april since tulips dont last long. But I guess it is only popular among tourists and dutch elderly. Well it is a pity but I think I'll try to visit more bontanic gardens and stuffs whenever I can cause it is really not as boring as I expected!

Well today is also the first I had chance sitting in the car and appreciate ducth field scenery under good weather (hmmm the last time is like 7 years ago but that doesnt count). I was feeling relaxed and being so happy instead of exciting anymore when seeing windmills and cows and goats everywhere. You can see people are biking, fishing, playing golf, lying in the sun... I was told before I come there always been raining and bad weather so now when the sun comes out people pour out as well. Western people really knows how to enjoy life and nature, I think. And they are aware of protecting them. I was also feeling very good, just really appreciating what life has brought to us. But somehow I come to think asians. Well if you only talking about chinese people, we work very very hard to earn a living (ok most of us! which is well represented by the workaholic honkees). Our parents try to save every penny in order to let us have a better life. It is culture. But for me as one of millions students who are being abroad look at how western people live. Then we go back to where we're from start to work our asses off... and in these years you work hard either to be very rich in order to live like prince in shanghai or to immigrant abroad and live like westerners. Is it the cycle us, this educated part of chinese population are following? In the short term yes, because we're developing country with special political background. So smart people just try to leave the cuontry as soon as possible.
OK this is my holiday... and that probably should be what I think right now.

hmm... thats the first two days, I'll continue when got back =(
would be in Oslo for the weekend and hopefully have lots of fun learning and partying!!

See you guys soon!!!