Life Is Beautiful

今天北京下了今年冬天的第一场雪。一早起来就看到外面白茫茫的，匆匆忙忙的出去见一个工作上的contact. 车已经变成了一座白色的小山，我的车上还没来得及备雪刷，就只好把一朋友送的除味碳的袋子用来“扫”车上的雪。

好久没有在雪里开车了，说时话在北京这两年也没太见过这么大的雪，只记得两年前的11月刚回来时，北京阴阴的、冷冷的，地铁上的人一脸疲惫，在这个浮躁的社会里挣扎。

现在看到一大片一大片的飘下来，周围都变成白色的世界，看上去很干净，也让我心情很好。开着车，大片大片的雪好像扑面而来，有一点以前在北达的感觉。记得当时，人家当地人都特别会在冰雪中开车，只有我常常控制不了车。还记得第一年到北达的时候当地的同事在一次吃饭时围着我讲了很多冬天在路上的恐怖故事，告诉我车里要备雪锹、沙袋、毛毯等等一系列的东西，以防开长途时遇到暴风雪。当时听的我蛮害怕的，但还是很懒，在那边住了两年也没有准备这些东西。现在全球变暖，到处天气都怪怪的，也不知道冬天应该做些什么样的准备。

这是我从五台山一座寺庙的一个门上抄来的一副对联，虽然不少朋友一看我在msn上用它做标题就知道这是有些禅意的话，我没什么文化，对佛学了解更少，当时姐姐指这句话给我看的时候，我觉得写的很好，是我很羡慕的境界，就抄了下来。

国庆8天长假，原本打算呆在家里，于是1号看了国庆游行，2号约了几个朋友爬慕田峪长城，一下子从8号烽火台走到20号，外加一小段野长城，把自己累的快傻了。结果3号，竟然和父母还有姐姐一家开车去五台山，最初出发的时候，计划3天就回来，还可以有时间做一些必要的购物、加一点班，没想到这次出行一发不可收拾，竟然从五台山临时决定去山西西南边的壶口，计划的3天的行程变成了5天，开车开了2，100多公里，回京后就只有睡觉的力气了，没有加班，该买的东西也没买。

至于山西的见闻，以后有时间再慢慢的讲 -- 现在要睡觉了。


五台山的白塔 － The White Tower at Mount Wutai

下午在外面办事，居然看到一个叫秋林的店。因为除了在哈尔滨有个著名的秋林公司，我在其他城市没有见过叫秋林的店，所以用手机在外面拍了张照，然后好奇的走进去。食品店还没有开张，里面的工作人员好像在开会，看我推门进去，很吃惊。他们告诉我该店月底开张，将卖俄式食品，比如大列巴等等。食品店离我新家不远，将来可以很容易的吃到在家乡时吃的东西了。：）

我对秋林这个词并不了解，于是回家后上网搜了一下，原来它是俄国的一个商人的姓，秋林公司就是他在哈尔滨开的，有100多年的历史。


北京秋林－Churin food store in Beijing


哈尔滨秋林公司（新华图片） － Harbin Churin (Xinhua photo)

PRC's 60th anniversary celebrations are finally over. I have to admit that I was many times annoyed by the Olympics-style security and the hassle and interruption the celebrations brought to people's lives. But at the same time, I also can't help but feeling proud and inspired sometimes (despite my strong distaste for official rhetoric and public pronouncement of nationalism).

Today for example, when I got off work, I found the subway station playing the well-known Chinese song, "I love you, China", played by a violinist. I had never been so touched by this song. Even though China still needs to improve in a lot of areas, the country has come a long way. And the music seems to convey that. It was 8:30 p.m. and there were not many people on the platform. I looked around, the other passengers appeared to be enjoy the music as much as I did. It seemed to have given people a sense of calmness.


慕田峪长城 － The Great Wall at Mutianyu
 
Now that the touchy-feely part is out of the way, a few tidbits about the National Day celebration and its preparation:

• Some 100,000 civilians participated, with a large number of students from elementary school all the way through college. These participants carried flowers, ribbons, musical instruments as well as other gadgets, and each time they hold up what they were carrying, they form a patterns such as words and the national flag. The neat formations come from months of practicing, which means missed classes, school events or even sleep -- as the National Day approached, participants were shuttled to airports in the outskirts of Beijing in the middle of the night to practice there. For three weekends in September, all participants practiced along the Chang'An Street, where the actual parade took place on Oct. 1st, and streets nearby were blocked, subway halted, and for a couple of weekends, we who work along the Chang'An Street were let home early in the afternoon because there would be no transportation available after that.
• My coworker -- along with others living along the Chang'An Street -- got a postcard from the Public Safety Bureau suggesting that they get a few days of food and necessity and try to stay home during the Oct. 1st celebration and watch TV.
  
• During my business trip to southern China in late September, the airport security screening was strict, esp. if you are coming into Beijing. At the Shenzhen airport, where I was getting checked before boarding my flight back to Beijing, people were told to take out their computer, cameras and even umbrellas. The guards carefully checked through each item.
  
• Before that, after I flew to Shenzhen and boarded a bus that took me from Shenzhen to Dongguan, some guy (either with the airport or the authorities) came on board right before the bus departed with a video camera in his hand, and held it still in front of each passenger's face for about a couple of seconds and taped all of us. Not a word was said, not an explanation was given, and he got off the bus after he was done. I gave them the best picture: with my mouth dropped and eyes wide open and a big frown on my forehead and my hair frazzled -- completely shocked and offended. But of course, nobody cared how I felt. Public safety first. ;-)
• Back in Beijing, I felt even safer, even though for the entire month before the celebration, we kept hearing stories/rumors of crimes in the city, and increased police force, of course. Then on the days we were allowed to go home early because streets were going to be blocked off, we saw an amazing number of cops, everywhere, every few steps -- I'm not exaggerating. When I drove, I often saw cop cars -- with their fancy lights on -- making the rounds. At a lot of intersections in the city, you see cops -- sometimes more than one, sometimes standing next to SWAT cars -- directing traffic or simply making a presence. I didn't have to wait until the parade to learn our military strength -- I could see guns, big guns sometimes, that some of these people carry. We also heard there are plainclothes police everywhere in the Tian'anmen square. The word is they outnumber the tourists, but I don't have the best information. I'm just an average citizen. Yet, oh, I felt so safe, and protected. I guess so long as you are a good citizen and are on the good side of the government, you are protected. 
• On a more serious note, I do think the city should have more patrol officers during normal days, as in the U.S. If it were not for the celebration, most of the cop cars with sirens on are just trying to get ahead of the traffic for no reason. They are not there to enforce traffic rules and they don't care to stop if a driver breaks the rule. 
• My second serious point is, the world has changed a great deal. It truly is no longer safe. There seem to be unrest everywhere. You always hear about car bombings and suicide bombers in other countries, and here in our own Xinjiang region not long before the National Day, we had confirmed stories of people using needles to poke others. This is the kind of stuff you should only be reading about on the urban legends Web sites, where people have got nothing better to do but to create bizarre and scary stories. It's a new world. What can I say.
  

前些日子公司请客，组织lady's night, 所有的女同事一起出去吃了顿晚饭，并看了百老汇经典“猫”。

其实一听说“猫”在北展上演，就很期盼，一直打算着如果公司不请客，我就自己请自己。从前在纽约看过百老汇的Phantom of the Opera 和Mamma Mia. Phantom of the Opera 是我第一次看百老汇，那次是和一个朋友一起去纽约玩，接待的朋友的朋友很热心，帮我们买了便宜的学生票。但是觉得男主角的声音真是美极了，好像把我带到了另一个世界。其实在那之前，我最想看的是 “猫”，因为“猫”是我唯一知道的百老汇剧。后来才在网上看到Phantom of the Opera也是非常的经典，而且已经超过“猫”成为在百老汇上演场次最多的剧。

看Mamma Mia是因为一次组织大学生交流活动，好心的同事看我想削减经费，就向他熟悉的业内人士要了十几张票，都是相当好的座位，Mamma Mia剧情简单，又唱又跳，欢快活泼，香港过来的学生看了非常喜欢，赞不绝口。因为大家都对ABBA的歌很熟悉，所以都觉得听得很过瘾。

有了那两次经历，这次看“猫”，自然期望值很高。这也可能是为什么上半场过后我稍微有些失望。原来对情节、演唱的期望好像都没有能得到满足。还好下半场非常精彩，也由于对剧中“猫物”更加了解，又有主旋律Memory不断以各种不同方式被重复，慢慢觉得对该剧喜欢起来。

每次听到剧中的猫唱Memory，又不禁想起一个朋友，她曾经在博客上post这首歌的歌词。我个人则是更喜欢这首歌的旋律，深深佩服能写出这样经典的曲目的人。