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2008-9-8
星期一(Monday)
晴
Didn't get time to leave anything here. It's uneasy to login in too. Tianya sucks!
I've ordered a lenovo computer X61. It's a student and alumni offer, standard X61 costs $872.09. I upgraded some items. So it cost me $1096.52 finally. I used an e-coupon and the price was $986.87. I also ordered an optical mouse which cost $12.75 and a Cannon iP2600 printer which cost $46.40. But I needed to pay state tax, which was about $91.53 with 8.75% tax rate of Oklahoma. I can get a $50 rebate for these orders. 1 7675CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM $986.87 42V8012 VBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC 42X0367 SBB MSWINVISHOMB32 US ENGLISH 41W2064 VBB 2GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 1DIMM 42X0133 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH 42X1458 SBB TRACK POINT 42X5945 SBB 250GB HDD5400RPMSRATA 2.5" 42V8193 SBB INTEL TURBO MEMORY 1GB 41W1685 SBB 11ABGWIFI WL LAN USEULAANZ 41W1832 SBB 8CELL LI-ION BATTERY 2.6AH 41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA 42X0202 SBB LANG.PACK_US ENGLISH 1 06P4069 IBM USB OPTICAL WHEEL MOUSE $12.75 1 2435B002 PIXMA IP2600 INKJET PHOTO PRNT 55 SEC 4800X1200DPI 8X10 $46.40 Shipping & Handling$0.00 Tax$91.53 Total$1,137.55 Oh, Yeah! The computer is coming! 2008-8-23
星期六(Saturday)
晴
FINALLY, I met the chairwoman of Chinese Friendship Association (CFA), who's a girl in our college. I met her in the college welcome back picnic, as well as two other Chinese girls in our college. After the picnic, we went to Walmart for shopping and to buy things for the welcome BBQ for new Chinese students. I met the secratory of CFA too. All of them are really interesting people here, which made me excited. Wow, surprise! I got to know more and more people around here. Friends would make my life much easier psychological. Wow, bright future, uh?
2008-8-22
星期五(Friday)
晴
Until now I have been in the US for about two weeks. I went to the first week classes. In one of my two prerequiste classes, all students are Americans but me. In the other, another man and I are two males among 15 in total. I think Mid-western people do have accents while speaking English. I feel very hard to follow them and I think my listening become poorer. It's even hard to follow what my advisor says. Wow, shocked!
Being with the American MS level students, most of which are females, is really not that cool. The most funny thing is today's Doctoral seminar. The five students of us are from five different countries, Georgia (the Country in war with Russia), India (whose English is really hard to understand), Uganda (who is pregnant and in Chicago, our instructor put her on the phone during class and she will be with us on the phone for the whole semester, COOL), *** (an African country I never heard about or didn't get his English) and CHINA (the big me). It's much harder to understand international students' English, especially people from India and Africa. But the class is kind of interesting. I got to know quite funny things from the world. I feel like a baby when I order those American food or Mexican food, or other food here. I know nothing they said to me. I simply pointed to the things I MAY want. They offered choices but all the choices mean nothing to me. I always asked them to explain the differences. But the solution always is, anything is ok. About food, if I don't get some time or don't catch the bus to go to Walmart to buy cooking ingredients, I will simply suffer from starvation. I decide to buy some deserts and put in my bag to conquer hungry. The life is simple and studying the only thing I can do. Days without a personal computer are more miserable. The urgent thing to do: improve English!!! 2008-8-18
星期一(Monday)
晴
Kind of boring, no computer, no qq, no internet surfing, no games, no go-out. BORING weekend! Fall classes start tomorrow (here is Sunday now, 17 Aug.) Wait to go to Tulsa, a city nearby. Would like to see what kind a city it is. From tomorrow on, I need to go to Tulsa twice a week. Being teaching assistant for two undergradute classes. Nobody has the same assistantship with me needs to do two jobs at the same time. HDFS is going to make full use of me. So, good good study, get my degree. Cons, China, got so many gold medals! I've talked with a beautiful Iraq little boy who lives downstaires. See you guys next time.
2008-8-15
星期五(Friday)
晴
I can't say I have already settled down. But actually I should have. I am feeling really tired and sleepy sometime in the evening in my apartment. In the classrooms, computer labs or any inside buildings, you never get a chance to feel sleepy because the temperature is so low. Stillwater is definitely a countryside. But there are not so many water pools, rivers, and trees. You need to drive to anyplace since buildings are so far away from each other. When you walk around, you may not find a single person who is also walking as you. Walmart seems to be the only supermarket here. I solely depend on Walmart for my living.
I haven't met my advisors yet. I have scheduled to take the bus to Tulsa to see one of my advisors there. One of my courses is in Tulsa. My advisor has made the schedule of me to travel to Tulsa twice a week. I look forward to going there to see what kind of place it is. In the US, you need to do everything by yourself. Everyone is taking care of his own business. No other would help you unless you open your mouth to ask. This rule also applies to Chinese students here. I was really shocked that Chinese students wouldn't talk to you even they knew that you are from China. At first, I thought they might not know that we were also from China. But later I found that they wouldn't even say Hi to you when they heard you were speaking Chinese. They did say Hi to those they know. I am really not feeling good about this. This is really not a warm place to live. But new students do get together to help each other. The faculty and staff are willing to help but they suppose you are going to help yourself. They got you here but let you survive by yourself. I got to be WILD. 2008-8-13
星期三(Wednesday)
晴
I bought regular salt, vegetable oil and sauce in Walmart the other day. (It's so hard to find the right stuff I need here in the US.) I cooked beans and pork yesterday night. Today I cooked eggplant, chicken wings. They looked really nice although they were not that tasteful. I ate break and apple in the morning, bought western food in the Student Union. The beef thing I ate the other day was good. A cool chicken wrap I ate this noon was really bad. It looked like Chinese and had vegetables in it. I thought it might taste good and was healthy. But I was totally wrong. In China, I was picky about foods. But now in the US, food is everything to me.
2008-8-10
星期日(Sunday)
晴
I am sorry that I can't read and type Chinese on the campus computers. But it's lucky to find computers on campus to access the internet. I would like to tell that I've arrived in Stillwater safely and just moved into my apartment, and how I got here.
On August 6th (Beijing Time), I got on the Z train from Nanjing to Beijing. The Z train is so luxurious that four people share a private room, which has a TV screen in it. It is clean and quiet. I arrived in Beijing Station next morning and pulled my two heavy suitcases all the way to the airport bus station. I thought there would be some Olympics volunteers around to help. But no, I put the two heavy devils onto the bus all by myself. It cost me less than an hour to travel to the Capital Airport. The safety inspection in the airport was not terrific at all. All the United Airline passengers waited for it to open at 9:00. I checked in, got all my boarding tickets, dealt with my luggages, and called my friends while waiting to get on the plane. UA was relatively good and wasn't what it was said on the internet. We watched the episodes of Desperate Housewives, How I met your mother, etc on the plane. I also took naps from time to time, talked with the people sitting next to me, drank all kinds of stuff served by UA. The lunch was good and I ate beef and potato mud. The sandwich was not that tasteful and the breakfast I had was relatively not bad, which was noodles and chicken. We arrived in San Fransico more than 11 hours later. I followed the instructions to get through the custom quickly, sent my luggages to OKC, and connected to my flight to Denver. It went smoothly and nothing troublesome happened. That was the moment I stepped on the ground of the US. But I just thought I was in a different city of China. Sometime later I arrived in Denver. I had a meal in McDonald's in the airport, which was not that bad. About one and a half hour later, we arrived in OKC, got my luggages and found the school Greeter Service, travled to Stillwater. This was the first time I took plane but I was not excited at all. It was just like a car and it made my ears hurt while landing. The only fancy thing was that the cloud looked like snow and ice. After about a hour, we (three Chinese, one Korean and one British) arrived on campus and checked in our temporary living place, Kerr Hall. We happened to meet another two new Chinese students in the Kerr Hall and they gave me bread to eat (I was starving). The next morning, we went to the Graduate School, the internation students and scholars office and had a brunch in the Student Union (I had a cheeseburgar). Then I went to the HDFS Department to meet the graduate assistant and got the forms I need to fill in. Later we went to the Family housing center to get our apartment key, opened the a/c (air conditioner) and walked to our department. The sun was burning!!! Our neighbor happened to be a Chinese couple with a 10 year olds daughter. We spent the afternoon in his house. He served us lunch and super (first time we had Chinese food in the US), also helped us to bring luggages from Kerr Hall to our department. In the evening, we watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC in my neighbor's apartment and went back our own apartment to sleep. Yesterday morning, we took the shuttle to Walmart and bought cooker, pan, coffee maker, knife, mop, shampoo, body wash, face wash, pillow, some bread, a bag of apples, potatos and sweat potatos, pork etc. But you know what, we forgot to buy salt, cooking oil. (^_^) 2008-8-5
星期二(Tuesday)
晴
6日晚上去北京的火车票已经买到,不安定的心放回了肚子了了。奥运倒计时已经是最后3天了,而我的倒计时只有1天多点了。处理完所有的琐碎的事情,和老师同学朋友道别,把行李打好包。等待明天晚上坐火车去北京了。
《幸福的心理学》我翻译的部分校对工作也已完成,里面有不少翻译错误的地方,不通顺的地方就更多。这个第一版第一次印刷实在有点愧对读者,希望第二次印刷能够把错漏减少到最少,不影响读者阅读。这次校对,把书的这部分又读了一遍,发现这本书真的不错,很值得认真从头到尾读几遍。也希望黄老师和我们的努力可以让中文读者真的获益,每天工作和生活都开开心心。 可能在相当长的一段时间内我没有办法在这里出现了,也可能会很快出现。总之,在这里祝朋友们学习进步,工作顺利,家庭和睦,身体健康,心情愉快! 2008-8-1
星期五(Friday)
晴
这两天感觉累,很没有精神。是因为这次马不停蹄从家里一直赶车回南京么?还是因为台风过后的连绵不断的雨?
这次返校,一早从家里赶公交到县城,再坐大巴到南昌,就直接坐下午的火车回南京了。算是比较STRESS的旅程,但是我还不至于老到这个都吃不消的程度。回来后又连续盯了两天电脑,可能10多天没用电脑,突然一下子不适应了。 去出入境打第二针MMR,居然说疫苗已经断货,而且不知道什么时候有。注定是要到美国去打,而且那边比国内还要便宜很多。接下来就是处理银行卡和兑换外币,不过连绵的雨让我毫无出门的兴致。 朋友们都不在南京了,YM说得有东西来KILL TIME。好在还要继续校对那本据说销量不错的《幸福的心理学》,修改了很都翻译错误和语句不通的地方,如果再版不修改的话,实在对不起读者了。努力ing...... 2008-7-30
星期三(Wednesday)
小雨
台风“凤凰”29日过境江西,我已经朝着台风行进的方向“逃离”到了南京。火车站很有意思,只提前5日售票,结果一大早去买票,一样买不到票,八月初的票都没有,居然29日还有票。归根结底是因为俺火车站没人。这次在奥运期间不得已要去北京,只能托火车站有人的朋友的朋友帮忙搞定。搁平时打死我也不会去凑这个热闹。
在家待了不到两周的时间,天气太热,不太习惯吹风扇,好在家里有个房间不那么热。大部分时间只能在电视前度过,凉快的地方光线不好,光线好的地方很热。不过我居然也校对了几页书,翻译了一些东西,看了篇文献。 这次算是一次长时间的离别,妈妈还以为我以后5年都不会回家。两老最大的心愿已经表明了,就是希望我早点成家立业。可惜我业未立,家未成,还要远渡重洋,没想到两老丝毫没有感觉光荣,还觉得非常没有必要,不如早点成家立业。 爸妈是的确老了,一身的病痛,儿女还不能在身边,是我的大不孝。岁月如梭,我娘都在感叹3年5年的日子易得过啊,也许她在想当时还不如让我考个差点的大学,留在县城里做份工,互相都有照应,这下我和我姐都跑得远,不单照应不到,而且更是孤独,还不如书也不让读,留在农村种地来得好啊!到现在那肯定是孙满堂了! 2008-7-13
星期日(Sunday)
晴
学历史的时候几乎不会强调民国时期,日常生活也很少会用到这个词,至少我的经历是这样。但是南京却是一个民国影子抹都抹不掉的地方。北京西路、梅园新村的民国别墅,1912的民国建筑仿制,甚至路旁的每一棵法国梧桐树,都昭示着民国的意味。学校的民国建筑也是很多,这两天又有摄制组过来排戏,拍的是《对手》这部剧,民国的学生打扮和民国的军服。上次一个戏也是在大礼堂借景,还把总统府改成“国民政府”。
突然发现自己对南京的大街小巷非常熟悉,可能是因为轮滑的关系,什么地方都经过过。在南京住的日子已经是用个位数来形容了。这个住了三年的城市即将进入我的长时记忆中,包括所有的如意和不如意。不同于重庆,我不会喜欢南京的饮食和南京人的品性;更不同于广州,我不会为南京讲好话,更不会为别人讲南京的不好而辩护。但是要离开了,还是会不想动。可能是老了,我想人越老就越不愿意挪窝吧。南京此次一别,不知道还有没有机会再见? 2008-7-9
星期三(Wednesday)
晴
处理衣服,书籍,其他杂物。去广州的时候把大学时代的笔记和专业书籍从重庆带过去了,来南京的时候把那些东西连同研究生时代的笔记和书籍都过来了,这次却不得不舍弃大半。把所有的笔记都扔掉了,翻看那些笔记本,泛黄的圆珠笔笔迹和淡去的铅笔笔迹呈现在眼前,读着当时记录的内容,感叹岁月变迁!复印那堆英文原版书也不得不送人,看得还没来得及看。我得出的结论就是,不要囤积书籍,一定要在看到的当下阅读和吸收。
这段时间的南京已经是热气蒸腾,好在我不是一个怕热的人,出着汗还能睡得着。不过蚊子好像都怕热死了一样,卸下蚊帐也没被蚊子咬到。宿舍15日交钥匙,我也买好了15日回老家的火车票,快了,没有几天了! 前几天也体验了一把地震,句容发生了3.6级的地震。傍晚我做在电脑前,突然伴着哐当一声感觉地板水平方向一摇,还以为是前面的同学踢到隔板,接着感觉地板往下一沉,发生了地震没错。结果楼下站了一堆学生。 2008-6-29
星期日(Sunday)
晴
最近跟JJ、ZY、YM逛了很多次街,JJ、ZY送了我一个价格不菲的电动剃须刀做出国礼物,非常感谢她们。
前天晚上去德基的陶然居吃了很好吃的重庆菜,然后顺便在德基看了电影《功夫熊猫》,还是相当不错的。 最好玩的事情在昨天晚上,我们在YM家先吃火锅,然后投票筛选我带过去的两箱衣服裤子,是否带出国,最后打包进大箱。 这几天的主要事情就是收拾东西准备回家了。同时希望能够再做些事情,看点文献,为自己要写的文章构思好框架。Cheers, fighting! 2008-6-24
星期二(Tuesday)
晴
这两天其实都是运气不错的两天。该办理的事情都办理很顺利,D老师还特别给我报销来回上海的车费。昨天黄老师突然电话来说书稿的稿费已经到了,而且今天下午已经寄出。在我经济低迷的时候,居然还有贵人相助。
同时也在开始在处理自己的一些小物品。今天上午也去了中检大厦体检和注射相关疫苗。这些小事情也在一项项办妥。但是心里却觉得慌,一种莫名其妙的慌。那种如临大敌的慌乱和不安定,是大逃离之前的恐慌吗?是对未知不确定的恐慌吗?还是对现有的种种不可割舍的留恋? 又像是一种害怕,真的是人生重大事件发生的时候,一种无法避免的STRESS。只不过这种STRESS和江南的梅雨搅和在一起,又加剧了作用在我心上的力量,真的不好受啊! 2008-6-21
星期六(Saturday)
晴
今天是夏至,也是南方暴雨又发生了洪水灾害。姐姐也是受灾者之一,家里估计也难逃此难,很多地方肯定涨水涨得很厉害。好在我们家房子在高处,水不太可能浸到家里,但是年久的老房子二楼一定是要漏水的,不知道爸妈如何应付。
紧张签证不过,带了一大堆材料来上海,没想到什么材料都没用上,VO查看完DS表格和我的I20,问了几个简单的问题,就直接让我PASS了。可怜那天排了3个多小时的队,最后只不过1分钟。那天是F1专场,看到很多高中生。为何如此多的人要去美国念书? 预定好了8月7日从北京出发的机票,在旧金山和丹佛转机两次,折腾一路到OKC。在焦虑那天如何去北京,第二天是奥运开幕,不敢想象那天的北京会拥堵成什么样子。也许最“危险”的地方就是最安全的地方,可能没那么拥挤,但是去北京终究是个问题。 走到今天,我的飞跃之路剩下体检和打包行李这两项。回想过去的每一个步骤,个中的SUFFERING只有自己最清楚。好在路总是人走出来的,出路是闯出来的。办完这边的手续,7月份回趟家,然后就要启程,离开南京了。 |