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我昨天晚上做了一个很长的梦。梦到了很多细节，好像亲身经历的一样。觉得这件事很奇。不过醒来之后很多细节都忘记了，只记得一些梗概。就把这梗概写下来吧，省得以后都忘了。。。

那是我从普林斯顿毕业以后被耶鲁的研究生院录取了，就前去报道。不过我去的地方不是New Haven的总部，而是西域的一个分部。那时已经是初冬，耶鲁的研究生院在一座很高的山的山脚（凌霄山？），外面已经下了小雪。我老远就看见耶鲁那石头垒成的四四方方的口字型楼。楼有三、四层高。在口字的一角，有一个凹进去的门和楼梯。外面挂着一幅耶鲁一个college的盾牌招牌。这座楼是耶鲁的一个college。这楼的后面还有几座类似的楼。楼的前面有一道栅栏，把里面的楼都围起来，好像一个山寨一样。我看看好像是要去这栋楼，就把我大大小小的行李都搬了进去。那时还不知道住在哪儿，就把行李放在走廊里，自己去办手续。楼里面暖气很足，我也就穿着一件T-shirt，在楼里到处跑。有一次排队的时候看见前面那人是位年纪很大的妇人，就和她聊了起来。发现她是耶鲁董事局的副董事长（梦中如此），而且也认识我的host family。就一起伤心了一阵。之后她跟我说可以晚上一起吃晚饭，就道别各做各事了。之间又和她碰到几次，但都不记得说了些啥了。那时我在嘀咕耶鲁的效率怎么这么慢，都几个小时了，我还不知道要住在哪儿。转眼就到晚上了，就和那妇人在dining hall一个很优雅的地方一起用餐。餐中我向她抱怨到手续没办完，不知道什么地方住。她到很爽快，说她会打声招呼，会有人帮我的。吃完饭后我就回到我放行李的走廊，闲逛了一会。就发现有几个长得很高，很粗壮的人向我奔来。其中一个人问我的名字，我就告诉了他，心里想，这关系还真有用，一下子来了好几个人。谁知其他人扛起我的行李就往外面跑。我急了，忙问他们干什么。他们反问，你不是要到你住的地方吗？我答道，是呀。他们说，这就对了，你学的专业和你住的地方不是这儿，是一个叫cupertino的地方，离这儿开车90分钟。他们就把我的行李往楼外一个很小的车上扔，那车比美国的车小很多，和欧洲的小车类似。然后他们上了车向我招手（也不知这小车怎么坐的下那么多人的）。我听他们一说才想起当时申请的时候看到说耶鲁在cupertino有一个分校的分校，旁边有一幅图，那是一个很小的两层楼的系，房子也不是石头的，感觉很孤零零的样子。当时只瞟了一眼，一点也没有在意，可没想到自己竟真的被分配到那儿去了。我真是怨恨交加，大声叫道：I don’t want to go to Cupertino。我要知道要去那儿就不申请了。。。

这一叫就把我给叫醒了。。。醒来之后好久我还想自己有没有真的去了耶鲁的那研究生院。。。

前一段日子，我穿了多年的一件衬衫终于被穿了一个洞，我只好很不情愿的把它丢进了垃圾堆。唉，以后再也穿不了了。。。

这可不是件普通的衬衫，这可是北大的黄老师千里迢迢到Princeton陪我逛街时买的。那时是冬天，外面下着大雪。干什么好呢？就逛mall吧。于是一行几人就开车到附近的Quakerbridge mall，打发时间。到了Macy’s时，发现Ralph Lauren有25% off。我可高兴了，老早就看中一件jacket了，就是觉得太贵，一直舍不得买。。。这次可好，有折扣。我一马当先，跑到柜台前，拿了一件穿在身上。过了一会其他人走过来。我很高兴地问他们觉得怎么样。谁知黄老师只瞟了一眼就说不好看：这么小，包在身上，一点也不大气。我当时一下子就掉进了冰窟，沮丧得很。黄老师大手一挥，说，我来帮你挑吧。她很快就帮我选了两件，一件T-shirt，另一件就是这件衬衫了，说，穿上去保证好看。我也就糊里不糊涂地买了下来。

回去以后发现这两件衣服还真的很好看，就经常穿它们。我也不是没有其他的衬衫，可都被我打入了冷宫。只有几件还看得顺眼，被我反复穿。。。其结果自然是，新的穿旧了，旧的穿破了。。。那件T-shirt也是我的最爱，有点什么事情的时候总是穿它。虽然穿了很多，可感觉还是很新的样子。希望一直这样就好了。。。

我真对我的审美能力完全丧失了信心，稍微喜欢一点的衣服都不是我选的。。。看来以后逛mall还是要找mm一起逛的。。。

特撰此文，悼念那躺在垃圾桶里的衬衫。。。

Preamble: This article is a description of my year 2005, supposedly accompanying my pictures for that year on my website. but I post it here anyway… it is just a snapshot of the article… future updates will only be made at the website…

What a year! I have to say… I was soooo happy at my REAL home at the beginning of the year…. and had to leave for Princeton… after reviewing both the Chinese and US market… I decided to gain some industry experience in the states… so immediately after I was back… I started looking for a job in a down market…. I wondered… hesitated… worried… depressed…. really depressed… I even asked my advisor to give me one year extension on my study…. though my secret intention was not afraid of not being able to find a job… but simply to stay at Princeton for one more year…. however… my crude advisor frankly told me… “NO”… maybe he was sooo smart that he saw through my underground purpose? (to be honest, he was still a very nice guy… he left a back door for me… saying I could submit my readmission application…) but still… I had to look for a job… after several unsuccessful interviews… I finally got an offer from a company I really wanted to get into… suddenly got excited…. then geeerrrr…. it was over… didn’t want to think about it ever again…

Knowing I would leave Princeton… soon… itself was a painful thought… so I played a lot… had a number of gatherings… went to the Street a few times… went to the international festival… communiversity… fristfest… watched movies at UFO… played pools… basically I went to every activity I could think of… hanging out with friends was such a fun thing to do… well… I had my first and most memorable surprise party… in the middle of final exams… It was quite a SURPRISE for me! Now I will still laugh when I watch the video clips some guy secretly shot in front me… no kidding… he secretly shot the video just under my eyes… sorry… no video for you guys…. it was my good old days…..

Then the semester was over… half a year was such a short period… went away in a glimpse… June was my last month at Princeton… I had to make use of my last chance… so I went to NYC quite a few times… just to meet my old friends… went to Atlantic city… went to Boston… and many places… however, I still left a lot of places unvisited… I didn’t realize it until I was about to leave… when I was at Princeton.. I always told myself that I could go there one day… but I did not… I wish I had been to Acadia… west point… or even the statue of liberty… can you believe I still haven’t been to that place!

I started my first ever full-time job… which was quite a change for me… I was afraid of saying one extra word… afraid of walking one extra step… //grin… and I had a lot of things to do to settle down on the other side of the Continent… find a place to stay… get a car… purchase furniture… and in the mean time… I had to work on my thesis…. my book chapter… gosh… I was soooo busy at that time…

And it was my happy time again… I went back to Princeton to defend my thesis! I was sooo excited about it because I could go back again… I took an entire week off… left my vacation days in negative numbers… I stayed in a friend’s place… played and played again… played Mafia… went to the street…. ate in the eating clubs and dining halls… hang out with friends… and of course… defend my thesis… you can’t assume that I didn’t prepare it… In fact, I rehearsed it many times… a long time before the defense date… (as I always do)… the date was Oct. 5th, 2005… (the date was 10, 05, 20, 05… my favourite number is… of course… 5… what a day!) The committee was: Prof. Jha, Prof. Kung, Prof. August… the presentation started at 1:30pm… went quite smooth… not many questions asked… shortly after I left the room and waited anxiously in my office, Prof. Jha came in, in smile… he shook my hand… and said: congratulations, you are a doctor now…

And it was over, no celebration, no excitement… as expected… well. an era was over… it was indeed over…

And I went back to bay area… life was plain as water… till the end of the year…

If you think some of links broken, it is not a mistake. I only put my pictures on this website. No other people will (shall) appear in the album. Many times I took pictures with many friends or just shot the scenery… And they have been left out…

2007/10/23

What a year! I have to say… I was soooo happy at my REAL home at the beginning of the year…. and had to leave for Princeton… after reviewing both the Chinese and US market… I decided to gain some industry experience in the states… so immediately after I was back… I started looking for a job in a down market…. I wondered… hesitated… worried… depressed…. really depressed… I even asked my advisor to give me one year extension on my study…. though my secret intention was not afraid of not being able to find a job… but simply to stay at Princeton for one more year…. however… my crude advisor frankly told me… “NO”… maybe he was sooo smart that he saw through my underground purpose? (to be honest, he was still a very nice guy… he left a back door for me… saying I could submit my readmission application…) but still… I had to look for a job… after several unsuccessful interviews… I finally got an offer from a company I really wanted to get into… suddenly got excited…. then geeerrrr…. it was over… didn’t want to think about it ever again…

Knowing I would leave Princeton… soon… itself was a painful thought… so I played a lot… had a number of gatherings… went to the Street a few times… went to the international festival… communiversity… fristfest… watched movies at UFO… played pools… basically I went to every activity I could think of… hanging out with friends was such a fun thing to do… well… I had my first and most memorable surprise party… in the middle of final exams… It was quite a SURPRISE for me! Now I will still laugh when I watch the video clips some guy secretly shot in front me… no kidding… he secretly shot the video just under my eyes… sorry… no video for you guys…. it was my good old days…..

Then the semester was over… half a year was such a short period… went away in a glimpse… June was my last month at Princeton… I had to make use of my last chance… so I went to NYC quite a few times… just to meet my old friends… went to Atlantic city… went to Boston… and many places… however, I still left a lot of places unvisited… I didn’t realize it until I was about to leave… when I was at Princeton.. I always told myself that I could go there one day… but I did not… I wish I had been to Acadia… west point… or even the statue of liberty… can you believe I still haven’t been to that place!

I started my first ever full-time job… which was quite a change for me… I was afraid of saying one extra word… afraid of walking one extra step… //grin… and I had a lot of things to do to settle down on the other side of the Continent… find a place to stay… get a car… purchase furniture… and in the mean time… I had to work on my thesis…. my book chapter… gosh… I was soooo busy at that time…

And it was my happy time again… I went back to Princeton to defend my thesis! I was sooo excited about it because I could go back again… I took an entire week off… left my vacation days in negative numbers… I stayed in a friend’s place… played and played again… played Mafia… went to the street…. ate in the eating clubs and dining halls… hang out with friends… and of course… defend my thesis… you can’t assume that I didn’t prepare it… In fact, I rehearsed it many times… a long time before the defense date… (as I always do)… the date was Oct. 5th, 2005… (the date was 10, 05, 20, 05… my favourite number is… of course… 5… what a day!) The committee was: Prof. Jha, Prof. Kung, Prof. August… the presentation started at 1:30pm… went quite smooth… not many questions asked… shortly after I left the room and waited anxiously in my office, Prof. Jha came in, in smile… he shook my hand… and said: congratulations, you are a doctor now…

And it was over, no celebration, no excitement… as expected… well. an era was over… it was indeed over…

And I went back to bay area… life was plain as water… till the end of the year….

2007/10/23

2006 is a special year for me. I finally got the highest degree possible: Ph. D. Even though I officially graduated in year 2005, and I’m called as class of 2005, I attended my hooding and commencement in 2006. It is a once in life event. Now I just wish that I did more… did better for this event…

The hooding and commencement are no doubt the highlight of the year. I especially invited my parents to come to Princeton and share with them my joy and happiness. My host family also attended my hooding ceremony. They were seated in the front row of the second floor of the McCarter theater. To me, it was the best seat for the hooding ceremony, as you can see from a short video showing me on stage. I really spent a lot of time figuring out the best seat. I first started thinking of the seating even two years before (2004). In that year, I volunteered (paid volunteer) to work for the hooding ceremony… and my secret purpose was actually searching for the best audience seating…

It’s soooo great meeting lots of old friends at Princeton University once again. I personally have known a lot of them for 5-6 years, or ever since they first came to the University. We have built up a strong friendship during our work, study and lives at Princeton. I still don’t know when I will meet many of them again in the future… but I’m sure I could not meet that many friends at the same time and place ever again… it is a sad… sad… fact of life…

I was sooo sad that I finally had to leave that place…. a place I spent five whole years of my life… honestly… it was the second best time I ever had… in my life… the best time was from first grade to sixth grade… a time I knew nothing about life… nothing about future… and precisely because of that… no other time can surpass it… But anyway…. as I walked out of the FitzRandolph gate, I knew… no matter how I unwilling I was… Princeton became a past tense in my life… It became a piece of memory… drifting away… and I had to look to the future… accept the hard, bitter life (compare to Princeton life)…

But the commencement was not all for the year. As you can see from the long list of places I went during the year… I travelled a LOT… the credit should actually go to my parents. They came to the states for half a year… attended my commencement… and travelled a LOT… we actually went out almost EVERY weekend… and I used up all my vacations for the year… What a year!… but as you might have guessed… I did not travel at all (almost) in the other half of the year… hmm… maybe I should be more active for myself?… heh?

2007/10/16

Preamble: This article is a description of my year 2006, supposedly accompanying my pictures for that year on my website. but I post it here anyway… it is just a snapshot of the article… future updates will only be made at the website…

2006 is a special year for me. I finally got the highest degree possible: Ph. D. Even though I officially graduated in year 2005, and I’m called as class of 2005, I attended my hooding and commencement in 2006. It is a once in life event. Now I just wish that I did more… did better for this event…

The hooding and commencement are no doubt the highlight of the year. I especially invited my parents to come to Princeton and share with them my joy and happiness. My host family also attended my hooding ceremony. They were seated in the front row of the second floor of the McCarter theater. To me, it was the best seat for the hooding ceremony, as you can see from a short video showing me on stage. I really spent a lot of time figuring out the best seat. I first started thinking of the seating even two years before (2004). In that year, I volunteered (paid volunteer) to work for the hooding ceremony… and my secret purpose was actually searching for the best audience seating…

It was soooo great meeting lots of old friends at Princeton University once again. I personally have known a lot of them for 5-6 years, or ever since they first came to the University. We built up a strong friendship during our work, study and lives at Princeton. I still don’t know when I will meet many of them again in the future… but I’m sure I could not meet that many friends at the same time and place ever again… it is a sad… sad… fact of life…

I was sooo sad that I finally had to leave that place…. a place I spent five whole years of my life… honestly… it was the second best time I ever had… in my life… the best time was from first grade to sixth grade… a time I knew nothing about life… nothing about future… and precisely because of that… no other time can surpass it… But anyway…. as I walked out of the FitzRandolph gate, I knew… no matter how I unwilling I was… Princeton became a past tense in my life… It became a piece of memory… drifting away… and I had to look to the future… accept the hard, bitter life (compare to Princeton life)…

But the commencement was not all for the year. As you can see from the long list of places I went during the year… I travelled a LOT… the credit should actually go to my parents. They came to the states for half a year… attended my commencement… and travelled a LOT… we actually went out almost EVERY weekend… and I used up all my vacations for the year… What a year!… but as you might have guessed… I did not travel at all (almost) in the other half of the year… hmm… maybe I should be more active for myself?… heh?

If you think some of links broken, it is not a mistake. I only put my pictures on this website. No other people will (shall) appear in the album. Many times I took pictures with many friends or just shot the scenery… And they have been left out…

2007/10/16

Today, Oct. 7th, is the annual Blue Angels flight demonstration show at San Francisco. WOW! That’s the only word I can describe it. It is my first time watching a flight demonstration, live, ever… Plus, I did not watch it at any of the piers, where tons of people must have packed every inch of space. I watched it in a private yacht specially for Princeton Alumni. That, gave me a perfect view of the entire show. It’s well worth the $$$… I have to admit, however, that most of the alumni were undergraduate alumns… I searched the entire yacht back and forth, and could only find one graduate alumun…. who got his master degree in 1984… well… it is still a world of undergraduate alumns….

The yacht was a pretty, three-storey yacht… free finger food and drinks were served at the second and third floor… half of the third floor was open so it’s perfect to view the flights. The yacht stopped at a place with equal distance to the golden gate bridge and the bay bridge… it was exactly the place where the jets would flew over in short distance… at first, we stopped exactly under the flight route…. and the planes flew over us in like a hundred feet…. becuse the jets were supersonic… we could not hear anything when they approached us… and then suddently found them just overhead… with thunder like ground-breaking noise… it. was. scary. so we backed up a little bit… and I personally felt a lot safer… who knows what would happen.. after all.. it is a really risky demonstration…

I took a LOT of pictures during the show… actually I used up all my 1G memory for my camera… and I shot over 500 pictures… you can find some of my selected pictures blow… They show how close we were to the jets… jumbo fligts…  the words painted under the jet wings could be seen with ease… and even the pilots were very clear in the pictures…

Below are some continues shots I took for a series of flight demonstration… a heart pieced by Cupid’s arrow… jets flew UNDER the golden gate bridge… and a LOT more!

At last… show two pictures of jets flying up-side-down…

oh… I love Blue Angels… I love Princeton…. I will defintely come again next year!!!!