I Had Dinner with My Professor

Days ago, I heard my friends who are under the mentorship ( I am under the mentorship of a another teacher)of the hotest professor were talking, that they would have dinner with Prof. I thought, Okay, they would have something to do.
But one day, one of them told me that I was asked by Prof to go with them. Immediately I was surprised to hear the news, why? It is a mentorship activity, it has nothing to do with me, why ask me? Later I was offered more info that we would have dinner at a Egyptian restaurant. Then I thought, oh well, it makes sense now that once I told Prof that I love Egypt, clearly he didnot forget. I felt warm.

And today I had my dinner with him. The restaurant is very Egyptian feel or Middle East feel. Dim lights with Islamic decrorations, Egyptian posts and old Egyptian films.
Before the dinner we worried that Prof was going to talk to us about the third year in Germany, how he have decided to put us. I told him that I wanna go Goettingen but one classmate has the same choice...It is all up to Prof to decide.
During the dinner we 5 all ordered beer called Sakara from Egypt. But the aitress came up and told us that that was only one bottle left in storage. Surprisingly Prof said that I should get this bootle of beer. What should I say, nur Danke! How should I read it, as a sign of letting me going to Goettingen or just because of my love to Egypt? And I was touched and...After that we chated for 4 hours, from moive to German people, life in Germany, food all around the world...everything, and it was very interesting, and Prof's personal charm was proved again.
Finally we came to the problem of third year, Prof said that Goettingen uni is very excellent and students there are all regarded themselves very intelligent and try to prove to Prof and make impression. It will be very challenging to go there, besides that, the living envirnment is quite good. Whe Prof was talking he looked at me and finally he toasted with me. I donot how to read the sign, but other friends all agreed that Prof has said Yes...Who knows?
I finished the beer, a whole bottle...we left at around 22:00. I wanna sleep...

My New Buddy on My Desk




Got it from my friend.
New home on my desk,
make me happy when I see this little buddy.

圆明园 / The Old Summer Palace, what should I say?

Twice, I watched. And after that the only reaction was staying still. What should I say and what should I react? I wanna be proud but I felt sorrow, I was sad but meanwhile I was excited. How great this Palace! Far beyond expression.

“请您用大理石、汉白玉、青铜和瓷器建造一个梦,用雪松做屋架、披上绸缎、缀满宝石,这儿盖神殿,那儿建后宫,放上神像,饰以琉璃,饰以黄金,饰以脂粉。 请诗人出身的建筑师建造一千零一夜的一千零一个梦,添上一座座花园,一方方水池,一眼眼喷泉,请您想象一个人类幻想中的仙境,其外貌是宫殿,是神庙。”

...............................

there is no way I can keep writing...

在世界的某个角落,有一个世界奇迹。这个奇迹叫圆明园。艺术有两个来源,一是理想,理想产生欧洲艺术;一是幻想,幻想产生东方艺术。圆明园在幻想艺术中的 地位就如同巴特农神庙在理想艺术中的地位。一个几乎是超人的民族的想象力所能产生的成就尽在于此。和巴特农神庙不一样,这不是一件稀有的、独一无二的作 品;这是幻想的某种规模巨大的典范,如果幻想能有一个典范的话。请您想象有一座言语无法形容的建筑,某种恍若月宫的建筑,这就是圆明园。请您用大理石,用 玉石,用青铜,用瓷器建造一个梦,用雪松做它的屋架,给它上上下下缀满宝石,披上绸缎,这儿盖神殿,那儿建后宫,造城楼,里面放上神像,放上异兽,饰以琉 璃,饰以珐琅,饰以黄金,施以脂粉,请同是诗人的建筑师建造一千零一夜的一千零一个梦,再添上一座座花园,一方方水池,一眼眼喷泉,加上成群的天鹅、朱鹭 和孔雀,总而言之,请假设人类幻想的某种令人眼花缭乱的洞府,其外貌是神庙、是宫殿,那就是这座名园。为了创建圆明园,曾经耗费了两代人的长期劳动。这座 大得犹如一座城市的建筑物是世世代代的结晶。为谁而建?为了各国人民。因为,岁月创造的一切都是属于人类的。过去的艺术家、诗人、哲学家都知道圆明园;伏 尔泰就谈起过圆明园。人们常说:希腊有巴特农神庙,埃及有金字塔,罗马有斗兽场,巴黎有圣母院,而东方有圆明园。要是说,大家没有看见过它,但大家梦见过 它。这是某种令人惊骇而不知名的杰作,在不可名状的晨曦中依稀可见。宛如在欧洲文明的地平线上瞥见的亚洲文明的剪影。
  
  这个奇迹已经消失了。
  
  有一天,两个强盗闯进了圆明园。一个强盗洗劫,另一个强盗放火。似乎得胜之后,便可以动手行窃了。他们对圆明园进行了大规模的劫掠,赃物由两 个胜利者均分。我们看到,这整个事件还与额尔金〔额尔金〕额尔金父子是臭名昭著的英国殖民主义者。小额尔金曾任英国驻加拿大总督,1860年10月,英法 联军火烧圆明园的罪魁之一。老额尔金曾任外交官员,参加毁坏希腊雅典巴特农神庙的罪恶活动,并掠走该神庙的精美大理石雕像。的名字有关,这名字又使人不能 不忆起巴特农神庙。从前对巴特农神庙怎么干,现在对圆明园也怎么干,只是更彻底,更漂亮,以至于荡然无存。我们所有大教堂的财宝加在一起,也许还抵不上东 方这座了不起的富丽堂皇的博物馆。那儿不仅仅有艺术珍品,还有大堆的金银制品。丰功伟绩!收获巨大!两个胜利者,一个塞满了腰包,这是看得见的,另一个装 满了箱箧。他们手挽手,笑嘻嘻地回到欧洲。这就是这两个强盗的故事。
  
  我们欧洲人是文明人,中国人在我们眼中是野蛮人。这就是文明对野蛮所干的事情。将受到历史制裁的这两个强盗,一个叫法兰西,另一个叫英吉利。 不过,我要抗议,感谢您给了我这样一个抗议的机会。治人者的罪行不是治于人者的过错;政府有时会是强盗,而人民永远也不会是强盗。
  
  法兰西帝国吞下了这次胜利的一半赃物,今天,帝国居然还天真地以为自己就是真正的物主,把圆明园富丽堂皇的破烂拿来展出。我希望有朝一日,解放了的干干净净的法兰西会把这份战利品归还给被掠夺的中国。
  
  现在,我证实,发生了一次偷窃,有两名窃贼。
  
  先生,以上就是我对远征中国的全部赞誉。
  
  维克多·雨果
  
  1861年11月25日于高城居

桂林之行04

本人屬於拖延症患者。。。遊記之類的東西。。。

到 達馬蒂中學的晚餐只有簡單的菜飯,我看着手中被乘的滿滿的飯,有一種吃不下去的感覺。平時不管是在家還是在學校,飯菜裏面沒有幾塊肉是不能叫菜的。本人是 個食肉動物,對於肉的需求量也不小。只是望着現在手裏的晚飯。。。再看看周圍得當地同學,拿着破破的鐵碗正吃得香呢。他們一邊嚼着菜飯一邊和身邊的朋友互 相説笑打鬧。完全沒有覺得飯菜的寒酸。是我太在意了吧。沒有選擇了,我吃下第一口菜飯突然發現並不是那麽難吃,甚至還很美味。原始的菜汁和着飯其實非常好 吃。沒有過多久我就把自己的晚飯裝下了肚子。

飯菜本是填飽肚子用的,何必每次都要太講究呢?有肉的也是飯,只有菜的也是。

晚上的時間都是用來聯歡的。我們和當地的一群孩子一起唱歌,一起跳舞。一拽眼就已經是9:30了。我們團長讓我們各自于不同的孩子坐下來交談。我就選了站 在我身邊的兩個小女孩。她們來自不同的班級卻都是初二的學生。我開始有一句沒一句的跟她們扯開了。我先問了她們的傢住在哪裏,是不是離學校很遠,她們回答 說要乘車才能到家。然後我又問了她們的住校生活,我很在意在這麽艱苦的環境下面她們的住校生活是怎樣的,結果她們都很高興得告訴我,住校其實很不錯。最後 我問了她們是不是想考大學,走出這裡看看外面的世界,她們的眼睛一下子就亮了,興奮得告訴我她們想上大學。談話的時間很快,在最後的時間裏面我們互換了地 址,拍了照片。其實在整個談話過程中大部分時間都是我在找話題,她們似乎有點拘束,或者是他們不知道要問我們什麽問題,因爲我們彼此都不太了解對方的生活 環境。後來領隊告訴我們其實她們和我們互換地址是有期望的,不要拿了地址卻不寫信。

第二天在我們就要離開中學前往芙蓉小學的時候,昨晚和我 們聯歡的同學一擁而上,把他們手裏各自的卡片塞到我們手裏。我拿到了一個紫色的金魚手機鏈,可能給我的小妹妹並不知道這是一條手機鏈。淡淡的紫色鏈子納在 手裏竟有幾分沉重。手機鏈上面的紙片上寫着:勿忘我。呵呵,我怎能忘記呢?

Reading Notes from the Book: Women in Ancient Egypt(00)

All the info was gathered from this wonderful book: Women in Ancient Egypt by Gay Robins.
I made these info into a pic and put it on my forum. And I translated some main info into Chinese, in this way, it will be easy for people who are not familiar
with Eng to read and understand.





桂林之行03

在當地學校校長的熱情招呼之下,我們很快就把行李放在了我們晚上要過夜的寢室裏。儅我看到這簡陋的宿舍之後,我不由得開始後悔參加這個團隊。宿舍簡單到令我害怕,一排木質的上下床鋪放在一閒狹窄的房間裏面,除了床所佔取得空間,剩下的空間都只能站一個人,勉勉強強哈。在看這一排床鋪,當地的同學告訴我們上面的床鋪可以睡8個人下面也一樣,所以我們總共16個女生就這樣被安排在這裡了。儅我在看到床鋪的時候,我的後悔感越發強烈了,別説床鋪上根本沒有被子,而且床墊也是單薄到不行,我問了一句:我們是不是沒有被子?果然答案是沒有。我當場傻眼,在出發之前他們只是建議買睡袋,但沒有說沒有被子供應阿。。這下我連睡袋都沒有帶。。這可怎麽辦?!放完行李,恍恍惚惚的下了樓,腦子裏還都是晚上該怎麽辦的問題,多問了幾個同學他們也有人沒帶睡袋,幸好不是我一個人的問題。這下我的後悔感才漸漸減弱,注意到學校的樣子。還是兩個字:簡單。

說實話,能在山區有這樣一個校園,應該是非常不錯了,只是學校的軟件設施並不充足,這也難怪,這裡是山區,環顧四周都是山,出到縣城也要個把小時。總之學生的條件應該(在他們眼裏)非常不錯了。

只不過這在香港人的眼裏就是貧民窟,我老天聽到香港人大呼小叫的聲音:好恐怖的廁所阿!好簡陋的洗澡閒阿!等等。不過對於他們這也應該是一種教育,讓他們走出香港,走出那個花花綠綠的繁華的小香港,看看大陸上的人們都是怎樣生活的。對我來說也是一個不錯的教育。生活環境優越的我突然來到這個沒有坐便器,沒有電腦,沒有shopping center的地方,體會一下生活的清淡。
乘着去廁所的時間,我偷偷的溜進了一閒教室,因爲那裏正好沒有人。恩。。。艱苦的條件阿。

集合時間到了,我們侷在一起開始準備晚上和當地同學的活動。老樣式的唱歌跳舞,唱是唱周華建的朋友,跳是跳小時候的集體舞。。但是由於天開始下雨,晚上的活動只好改在一閒小教室。

Today, I finally finished my wonderful book by Joyce. I have read many books by her and already familiar with her writting tyle.
This is the second part of my reading notes.

1,from the section of Ramsses the Hushand, I know that the role of queen in ancient Egypt was quite different from that in Hatti. In Hatti there can be only one queen who held the power. So that means that one queen must wait for the death of her mother-queen-in-law. Until that moment came, she can not practice her full power. But the situation was totally different in ancient Egypt, during New Kingdom. The power of queen seemed to be divided, so put it this way, the role of queen mother was ore political, she helped her son to govern the country if in need. However the queen of the Pharaoh was more ceremonial and religious. She played more in ritual ceremonies than in political cases. But there was no absolute rule for the queens to share power.
2, during the life time of Ramsses the Great, he had many queens, principle queens I meant. One was Nefetari who is until now staying the shadow. No scholar can tell who actually she was, she never claimed to be the daughter of King, so that means she can not be direct royal birth. Some people suspected that she was a small daughter of Ay. Maybe... Another queen was called Iset-Neferet who was also remained mysterious to us. But one interesting thing was that those children given birth by these two queens were equal. Usually, the children from Nefertari should be the first ranking then maybe those from Iset-Neferet. Author also expressed in this book the doubt of whether or not Ramsses did love Nefertari. Legend Held that Ramsses loved her consort Nefertari very much and he built her the most breathtaking temple and tomb. Yes, I believe so, Ramsses did love his wife! Author argued that the reason of building such beautiful temple to his wife was to promot his own image, which I am not agreed with! But after reading this book I have now in mind one doubt that maybe Ramsses loved two women at the same time, Nefertari and Iset-Neferet.
3,last point is about those princesses. In ancient Egypt those royal princesses were not allowed to marry low-ranking people or outside their royal family,even into foreign lands, so the only choices left for their husband were their father, brother and half-brother...

桂林之行02

話説第二天從酒店出發之前 ,我所在的第二小組被組長狠狠地批鬥了一番,原因就是太沒有組織性。的確,我也感覺到了我們第二小組的確沒有太強的小組性,大家都各自為陣,本人向來沒有什麽太強的全隊精神,自然也覺得不好意思。
在訓斥一番之後,我們便上了車,開始向着桂林市區外的龍勝縣進發。沒有過多少時間,車窗外已經見不到現代的建築,桂林特有的山邊闖進了我的眼中,灰蒙蒙的天空下桂林的山似乎被罩上了一層霧,看不太清楚。汽車開着開着,我們似乎進入了真正的山區,兩旁閃過的全都是黃色的開過晃的山面。一群連着一群,不斷不斷的閃過 車窗。在出發之前我查過,龍勝縣最出名的景色就是梯田,今天的確看到了幾十層的梯田排佈在連綿不絕的山体上,只不過過冬天的山全都是黃色的,我想到了春天,應該會很美吧?就這樣,這車上呆了2個多小時,我們終于看到了現代的房屋。領隊說,我們已經到了龍勝縣的中心。

典型的一個農村小城。我們在中心地帶採購了一點物資,準備帶給芙蓉村的小學校。我也太無聊來的東看西看,突然想起自己準備給農戶的禮物還不太充足,就在當地文具店買了一盒彩筆和一本素描本。當時我想這傢農戶的孩子應該差不多7,8嵗,送這些應該沒有問題。只是到後來我才發現,農戶傢的孩子已經6年級了。
在當地的一個還算不錯的餐館裏吃了一個簡單的午飯,我們就又上路了。我們的目的地就是龍勝縣的馬堤中學,我們一行人準備在馬堤中學的宿舍呆上一晚, 第二天在趕往芙蓉村。汽車顛顛簸簸的前行,外面開始下棋淅淅瀝瀝的雨,車窗很快被霧氣給遮住了,完全看不到窗外的景色。
朦朦朧朧的我就睡着了,直到有人喊了一聲:中學快要到了,大家醒醒!我連忙睜開眼睛,擦乾淨車窗向外看去,只見一排排的木質吊腳樓站立在一條並不寬闊的水泥路兩旁。領隊說,這邊的人大都是住這樣的房屋,上面住人,下面養牲畜。不到5分鐘一個特別亮眼的白色建築物出現了,原來那就是馬堤中學。可能正值下課時間或者是發現了我們的到來,每層樓上都站滿了學生,嘰嘰喳喳的嘈雜的很。汽車開進學校,我們慢慢的下了車,才發現我們被看了好久,一排排的學生就想再看表演一樣的看着我們。感覺怪怪的,不過我也不由得笑了出來。