前几天和几位朋友去了Millbrae的一个集市，整个一条街都是一个一个的小摊位。这让我想起以前在Princeton摆摊位的事。
In every April at Princeton, the university and the community co-organize a street fair, called, communiversity. The community sets up lots of tents in the Nassau street, while the university puts tables in front of the Nassau hall, used by the student organizations. For the first time I went to the event, I had a lot of fun… lots of people… it was sooo rare to see that many people in such a quite town as Princeton. Some people were selling snacks, some were selling little artifacts, and some did live performances… When I went to the event for the second time, however, I found something strange…. there was no single graduate organization table in the event… I suddenly had an idea.. that I could set up a table here to advertise Chinese culture… and at the same time to make some money… so… I started to plan for the next year…
一年后我很早就和international center的主任打好招呼，说我也要摆个摊位。同时回国的时候采购了不少小玩意儿。和那个undergrad chair以ACSS的名义注册了一个摊位。。。这也算是我以公家的名义做了一点私事。然后就天天盼那天的到来。可communiveristy的前几天我收到一封信，说那天可能下雨，活动可能取消，要当天早上七点等最后通知。。。我的心顿时凉了。。。但还抱着一丝希望，盼着那天不要下雨。。。可事实是，早上果然收到通知说活动取消。。。那可是我plan了一年的活动呀。。。失望的心情就不用说了。可我看看窗外，只有毛毛细雨。等到九点钟的时候连细雨都停了。。。真恨美国的天气预报，一点都不准。。。后来听说别的社团更惨。。CSA买了很多dumpling，原来准备大赚一笔，最后只好自己一个一个的吃掉。。。
So another year went by. Having last year’s experience, I did all the preparations well in advance. This time, I applied a table under the name of CIGS… Because I was quite annoyed that the graduate students were excluded from the event at all, I complained it to the GSG…
我当时complain了两件事。一件是那时研究生院第一次学本科生，出了一本facebook，里面有每个新生的大头照。还把所有人按照国籍分类。。。可里面把香港、台湾都分列一项。我当时建议分类改成country and region。。。第二件事就是这communiversity的事了。。。谁知道这第一件事引起了很大的争议，台湾不用说了，一些人把Tibet都抬出来，说是什么occupied territory，于是又是一番争吵（我说话有时很sarcastic的）。。。而第二件事竟然没人提及。。。一年后第二本facebook出来之后，我发现更糟，香港并到中国里了，但台湾还是单列。于是又complain了一把。。。GSG没人理睬。当我把这件事report到ACSS board时，发现也没人理睬。。。只好作罢。。。有些事大家都不care，但还是要说的。。。这是题外话了。。。
I also wrote an email to the university chair of the communiversity, questioning why he did not inform the graduate student clubs… and obviously, it worked… soon after my email, I received a notice asking for participating… and it also postponed the application deadline for graduate clubs for two weeks… at that time, I hoped that through this effort, the graduate clubs would be informed in every year’s communiversity… don’t know what the situation looks like today…
那天幸好是个晴天，我摆了两大桌的东西，有剪纸、丝巾、漆器、折扇。。。还穿上了从中国买的唐装。。。很有点小贩的派头。。。感谢那天有几位朋友帮我看着摊子，其中有一人还挺着个大肚子，这让我有机会转了转其他的摊位。。。。一天下来，发现剪纸卖了不少，但其他东西都没有怎么动。。。原来美国人还是喜欢剪纸呀。。。还是我其他东西的标价太高了？
This, is some kind of experience in my boring everyday life.. in retrospect, it was a lot of fun… I just don’t know when I will have another chance to get a table or tent to sell stuff in the street le…