给我的朋友们：

在过去的15天里，我几乎断绝了和你们全部的联系，错过了你们所有的聚会，MSN上见不到我，电话不听，连email也不回。其实，我是为了一年一度的SOA（Society of Actuaries）洗礼又闭关了15天。现在，我恐惧了整个学期的朝9晚12的15天就这样结束了，真的有点难以置信。

 

这15天的生活听起来怎么都不像个正常人应该过的。早上8点多起床，洗漱，着装，收拾物资，抱着近半米高（这是我和Pris两个人的）的复习材料下楼到学思温习室。记得有一天搭电梯，见到我们层的tutor，她大为惊异的瞪大眼睛，问：“这些都是你要读的吗？”我告诉她“不是啦~这是两人份~”她那对大眼睛一点也没变小。学思的温习室是给全楼的同学们用的，不过期末之后，那里就成了我和Pris的地盘儿，我们每天都煞有介事的摊开书书本本，加两瓶留着汗的水，两盒蒙牛高钙低脂，提子饼干若干，小熊饼若干，Pocky + Flan —— 各种不同口味若干，划开皮的西柚一个，Zero不少于3罐，等等。它们支持，安慰我们的战斗下去。我们曾经试图在大学图书馆的二楼报刊杂志区外面读书，可惜那里不能自由讨论，移师学思温习室就方便多了，我们的地盘儿我们做主！其实开始的时候还是有人试图和我们共用一室的，不过最后可能嫌我们吵，还是打消了在温习室读书的念头，为此，我们深表歉意。

 

在这十五天里，我们和新亚饭堂的阿姐们结下了深厚的友谊，整整15天，每天午饭和晚饭我们都是在那里解决的。每天固定的时间，我们会出现在餐牌前，看着亘古不变的餐牌，度量吃点什么。其实我们需要做的决定并不复杂，我们只要选一个肉就可以了，因为我们每餐必点的是腐乳通菜。收银的阿姐每次见到我，几乎不用等我张口就知道我要那菜。终于有一次，Pris去点菜，我来点肉，阿姐听到腐乳通菜之后就抬头看了排在Pris之后的我，会心一笑…我估计在她的意识里，已经建立了一条关于我的样子和腐乳通菜的条件反射…十五天吃下来，我们对新亚餐厅的中厨菜式已经有了极其深入的了解，基本上只有间或才有的虾仁炒蛋值得推荐。当然，力荐的还是：腐乳通菜。

 

我们15天的努力还是颇见成效的。一本厚5厘米大开本的ACTEX study manual还有一本厚4厘米大开本的ActuarialBrew review notes曾经都是全新的，不过现都已经被作过至少一遍。要知道，在熟练情况下，平均下来每一道要用6分钟的啊…这还没算订正的时间…现在看看书上花花绿绿的备注，自己都觉得挺感动的。这真的是毅力大挑战。

 

在这15天里，我最最感激的是3个人。第一个是Pris, 如果没有和你因为一点无聊事情就狂笑不止，如果没有你讲不完的笑话，没有晚饭后的两圈散步时的上海话课，我真不敢想象我的15天会因为压力而多么难熬。第二个是Snow，虽然因为你的存在，我在宿舍的时间是根本没法读书的，可就是因为这样，你把我每天从读书的压力中拉出来。你的冷笑话和天津话真得很好笑！！！第三个嘛~当然是宝贝啦~你的朱古力豆短信我现在还留着呢~其实不光是在这15天里，就是在整个学期里，你们三个对我都是很重要很重要的！我特别感激有你们在我的生活里。Pris, 和你一起sit的课让我觉得我的大学生活终于充实了。喜欢你给我推荐的电影！更喜欢和你一起讨论电影！我们对一些细节的体会相似到不需要在语言的层面去沟通。Snow,虽然我从来都不知道怎么回应你每天大同房，小同房地叫个不停，但我还是挺难想象如果没有你每天这么叫，没有你考试前还忍不住要给我讲的冷笑话，没有你先做的照烧鸡翼，我的生活会是怎么样的。至于宝贝嘛…这一年有你，真得很不同。谢谢你！

 

考试结束了，rollroll又回来了~我会记得骚扰你们的~=）

 

祝所有的朋友们暑假快乐！

 

p.s.我整个暑假都闲！有计划毕业旅行的记得和我联系啦~=）

熟悉电脑真得很重要，有些晓得tricks如果没练习过还真会让很多小问题变得痛心棘手。电脑聪明，但有时候也会傻乎乎，他不知道原来两个没有东西的空格子是一样的，所以你需要装个小空格字符进去才可以让它比较，它也不知道两个无限小数之间也是可比的，非要我们告诉它若两者差的绝对值小于一个很小很小的数就是说两个数近似相等。不过Excel和Access的很多功能还是很强的。他们的好处在只有很少数据的时候并不易被察觉，但是当面对几十万数据的时候，哪怕一个小小得比较都会让你感激他们的存在。

 

今天见到Susie了，好开心！它是那种见了面我就有无数话想跟她说的朋友，我想把我这半年见到的人，看到的景，发生的事，都一股脑告诉她，但时间总是那么快就过去了。我们说我们是不同的，但是就是可以做朋友的那种。像两块拼图也是不同形状的，但是她凹的地方，我是凸的。=）我真得很感激有这样的朋友！

 

在下地铁的天桥上总是有人发传单，广告和试用品等，这些人以此为生，哪怕不全靠这个，也多多少少借此贴补自己的需要。虽然天桥上有顶罩着，可以免除日晒雨淋，但是香港的湿热天气还是逃不掉的。发广告的人什么年龄都有，又长者，也有青年。在天桥上的人流熙熙攘攘，但真正伸手接过传单的比例并不大。人们大多只是匆匆掠过，对他们视而不见，更不用说给这些辛苦的人哪怕是一个礼貌性的微笑。很可悲的，我也变成了他们其中的一个，也变得那么冷漠了。其实伸手接一下就那么费事吗？会占用自己哪怕多一秒的时间吗？就算要，我真得连多几秒钟都没有吗？妈妈说得对，地球离了谁都转，有多少人会因为这一秒就造成很大的影响呢？不过话又说回来，还记得“罗拉快跑”里的几秒钟差别却是带给她不同的命运，不过那只是夸张的艺术表现手法吧…而且那些人里有一些是和我一样的学生，也许他们是在为了用劳动来支持自己读书的吧，哪怕我只是结果那张志，看都不看就扔掉也多少可以帮他们一点啊！但就这一点点力都不用出的忙我都不愿意帮，想起Anne, Rasheed,和所有帮过我的人，真是觉得有点汗颜…香港是不是文化沙漠我先暂且不论，我可不要被这里的人情冷漠吞噬，那就太可怕了…怀念在美国的日子，怀念有问候的早晨，怀念路上的笑脸和生活中的一点一滴善良！

今天是实习的一天，当然一早是紧张加激动的，起了个大早，就怕迟到…无奈自己知道有这老毛病…从小学时候住得最近学校，霸占着钥匙让全班小朋友在每口等开始,到中学时候班主任纵容我每天姗姗来迟…于是我想出了把表拨快五分钟，那时候觉得自己挺天才的，后来才知道原来好多人都这样…姑且说是英雄所见略同吧…现在我手表已经调快了15分钟，可是…上课迟到是没有改观的…不过今天还好~没有迟到。工作还算轻松，虽然一大堆的excel 和 access 连来连去，一串串的公式好像轰炸，不过那种从乱麻中旅出头绪后的小小成就感还是让我挺开心的。给我布置任务的Kenny很好人，他很耐心而且解释东西很清楚。其实有时候真的很佩服香港人同时做很多事的本事，真的是有分身术一样，而且每件事都做得有条不紊，井井有条，真的很佩服，而且请他们帮忙的话，他们真的会很认真地帮我。我问Grace怎么样寄内部邮件，她就带着我找信封，帮我填好内容，然后还带我去信件室，帮我把信放到应该放的盒子里。还有阿Yan, 我初初只是知道还有一个中大同学在，今天才知道是她，她也帮我很多~还帮我佩了女卫生间的钥匙，真是奇怪，公司女卫生间居然会锁门…听说男生的就没有…精算部的人真的是很敬业，整个部门员工都迟半个钟头才吃午饭，这已经成了不成文的规矩。今天接触最多的是失效保单分析（lapsed policies analysis）,但是其实这部分东西在课上讲得很少，却是关乎公司盈亏的重要项目。照这样看，我应该能从这次实习学到不少东西呢~期待~不过这一天的实习也让我对原来心中想象的道路有了一点点怀疑，可能需要重新思考自己今后的路了...this is just from my instinct, I may figure something totally different or even opposite later as my internship goes. But whatever I end up with, it will be sure to be enlighten for me I guess, or I hope. 一定要睡了，为了明天不迟到…

Marvelous, fabulous, gorgeous, lavish, luxury… none of these adjectives is enough for Las Vegas. It’s a place just over the top. I don’t know which word is the best match for Las Vegas. But, in spite of the thick plastic wall on overpasses reminding everyone the sad stories of gamblers suicide from losing everything in casinos, I do know that Las Vegas is definitely not a place simply for gamblers. It’s a place for everyone, for adults to get rid of the hassles of work, for kids to experience the magic in fairytales turning into real, for girls to fulfill their never ever satisfied desire for fashion, for tourists to understand the meaning of American dreams, for opportunists to seeking for their free meals, for gourmets to spoil their taste buds, lovers to find their perfect romance, friends to hang out from night to night, artists to find their audients, literarily, everyone! This is why I like Las Vegas. It’s a place for fun. Compare to Macau, which city I believe is running solely for gambling, Las Vegas is such a wonderful eclectic place for everyone to enjoy. I believe, Las Vegas is a LIFE STYLE -- nothing is impossible.

 

p.s.: I saw a pretty ironic ad of casino Rio, it says “know when to stop before you start”.

It has been so long since my last entry made longer than 2 months ago... But I want to start it again as I’ve seen, heard, learnt, felt so much during the past 3 months and I know for sure that there are much more yet to come.

 

Two days before yesterday, I was preparing everything I can for a phone interview from Winterthur Life (Hong Kong) for half-year internship, everything in English.

The day before yesterday, I received the phone interview, to my great surprise, everything in Cantonese…for a whole hour…

Yesterday, I got the offer for the position, implying that my Cantonese is definitely at an oral-fluent level, at least for those who have strong Mandarin background…

Everything’s simply too fast. I always think or even hope the clocks here could run in a laid-back California style. But it turned out to be no wonder where they were born, as long as they are members of the clock-family, no one works harder, and neither does any slack off. This is definitely encouraging for the clocks in those metropolitan financial cities. Unfortunately, employees in those cities are ineligible for equal rights to the lucky ones working in other parts of the world. Not for this, the O.T. cultures wouldn’t have been prevailing in Hong Kong offices… This was none of my business before. My only duty was to show my sympathy for them. But in a few months, I will be one of them too…the senior actuarial director told me in the interview that O.T. will be common, by that, he meant it will be REALLY common, can be like routine…

Today, even though I’m a little bit scared. I still accepted the offer.

As I have chosen, I’ll follow my choice, Tomorrow.

To my roomies and neighbors:

 

Ryan, you might think I was lonely there in your apartment last night. You were partly right. The reason for that is I didn’t really enjoy the stand-up comedy, neither your talk. The only reason why I say you are partly right is because I was with YOU (I mean you all).

 

You can say last night was a live lesson of American students’ conception of sex. If you count it to be part of American youth culture, which I always want to know more about, it seems I should really enjoy it. But it’s a little bit too random and too much for me. But I know you may be the only friends who tell me those staff openly. So I still appreciate you for that.

 

Olena, you don’t need to feel bad about American girls’ sexual preference. I’d say our different values about sex root in the cultures we were brought up. And the values about sex in both the cultures have merits and defects. Sex and City, which represents Americans’ sexual life in an exaggerated way, promotes a very healthy sex concept, at least I think so. The scenes in it of people having sex are mostly with bright background and neither their joys nor their satisfaction were omitted. It’s so real and that’s partly the reason why I love that show. On the contrary to the American shows, these scenes in Asian movies always have dark background, which like crime scenes, making people think having sex is something underground, something unhealthy, which should feel guilty about. That’s how we oppress the idea of sex in our culture. However, everyone knows these shows are actually playing everywhere in this city and all cities around the world. How comes people dare do it but dare not admit. If the purpose of not showing them is to prevent youth from mimicking, I’d say it makes more sense to show how to have safe sex.

 

In American culture, you value individual happiness and satisfaction more. What’s more, the ideas of individual and liberty back up each other, making sexual topics more public. While in our culture, family and tradition are considered more important than individuals. This contributes partly to the fact that the idea of sexuality is intentionally omitted from mass media. However, cherishing family and tradition has a lot of merits as well, which I personally appreciate very much. It fosters an environment that someone’s overseeing everyone’s conduct. As the father god to Christians, this someone in our culture is all the people around. I know this is something to hard for you Americans to understand, as you see yourself as an individual and don’t really care about what other people around you think about you. But with this “someone”, we watch our conducts and think about the outcomes to ourselves as well as to the others. But actually I’m not sure how many youth in China still think the way I’m thinking. As the powerful American culture sweeping over almost the whole world, youth in different places are all affected by it. Youths are definitely not the only group exposed to it, but they are at the stage which they cannot really tell right from wrong and they absorb everything fast. I remember a cousin told me, according to a survey, more than 30% of the female graduates from her high school, which is a considerable good high school in Beijing, have had sex. The percentage’s even higher for boys. This may be nothing for you, but it’s striking for me. Of course there may be someone who haven’t actually had sex but ticked the positive option and also some ones did the way around. But it at least showed the value of these youth about sex. I’m sure the percentage should be much lower one decade ago. Movies like American Pie and Mean Girls may have influenced them in some way.

What I’m thinking now is why you all like drinking. What’s the magic shots do? Is the 21-year old ban doing something with it? I haven’t really found out the explanation. I’ll take it down here later after I get some hints. And you tell me am I right.

 

p.s. If you have time I really like to watch movies with you, or I’d love you to introduce me the music you like, or take me to your home town sometime! It will be more fun for me~ =)

I cooked my first brownie and cookies today~ with Tina and Olena~=)

 

I first thought we would start from the SCRUBs, but actually we just need to add eggs, milk and oil in the mix bought in supermarket…Although this makes me feel not having really cooked them, but it did save a lot of time and brought the same deliciousness, happiness and satisfaction, definitely no less~

 

Tina introduced me the easiest way to cook cookie, that’s to buy pastes and simply put them in the oven~ haha~ that’s really easy and cannot be easier~!

The funniest thing is that after the cookies were done, Tina asked me to knock on the neighbors’ door, introduce myself and give the cookies to them. I did go, frankly speaking I don’t really know how dare I going then. May be aspired by my roomies, I did have the courage to go and knock on the door even without hesitation! Everything went on smoothly until our neighbor reached out for the plate, I said, “sorry, you can take one, or more if you like but not the whole plate”…I really didn’t realize that in the American culture, giving cookies to neighbors with plate means that you are giving all to them… When I came back, Tina and Olena were so amused. They told me I should have given the whole plate of cookies to our neighbors…Olena used some foil to cover the plate after taking two more and dropt another two and drew a smiling face on it. Thus I knocked on our neighbors’ door again. They took the plate and promised to give us something to pack back. So just wait and see what we will get later~=)

 

Thank Ryan for the American culture education~=) But it may be easier for me to absorb more if less slang are used… But it doesn’t matter. I think I can get you idea! Thanks a lot~

I've been considering for a week that I should write something in English here so that you can also check and get to know what I'm doing and thinking. So here comes my first entry.=) To start quickly, I post my email to a friend in Hong Kong here. He's really a very good friend of mine. I think you are going to be very good friends of me too as he does, so I borrow my email and “send” it to you all. Hope you don’t mind me doing so… When reading, please change all “Mark”s to your own names, only Mark don’t need to bother substituting~^^. I promise there won’t be another email being posted here again~

 

 

    十点多才睡眼惺忪地爬起来，还有一个小箱子没打，东西摊得满地都是—收拾! 心里其实很是忐忑不安，再过十几个小时就要到美国了，但还是没有找到住的地方…难不成真要露宿街头？那就真不愧为游学了！

 

早上一起床就收到了不少短信，谢谢你们！我会一直挂念着你们的~你们也要想我哦~下午很多人都来了，我知道他们都很忙的，居然还都从各个地方溜出来送我，真得很感动！谢谢叔叔阿姨~尤其谢谢大葱！我们俩把钱藏得真秘密！那个笨蛋海关检查的人居然翻我包包都没翻出来！哈哈~lol 之前只知道你胆子大，这次又发现你心细的优秀品质了呢！~ 你放心吧~我会记得发相片给你的！

 

糊里糊涂就上了飞机，居然是靠窗边的座位…难为我并不苗条的身板儿要挤过宽达15cm的“四腿障碍”…还有那个靠过道坐的“奶奶”（其实她也就四十岁出头的样子…），满脸不高兴挪一下他那金贵的屁股的样子，心想我这一程千万别喝水！要不去厕所都是难事…

 

不过好在哥哥让漂亮的一点都看不出有30多岁的乘务长姐姐帮我找了个头等舱的空位~哈哈~于是我就美美地睡了~下飞机的时候还有幸参观了驾驶舱，原来那么小啊~驾驶员在里面还不可以睡觉！真是惨呢！

 

飞机上还遇到坐我旁边的女孩儿，是4岁就去美国的，现在在UCLA读书~人很好！有空要去找她玩~

 

LA 机场没有我想象得那么宏伟，灯光有点昏暗，空间也不是很大…我觉得还是香港和北京机场好一点…或者我还没能见识它的全貌吧~ 进美国的关口没有我想象得那么严格，入境检查的官员可能见中国老人太多了~竟然知道“探亲”！！！！！真是了不得~

 

打电话找到了Chuck哥哥，原来他就拿着写着他名字的牌子站在那里…真是汗颜自己的“文学造诣”…害他在备考的百忙之中来接我，还真是不好意思呢…他可能因为等得太久有点不开心，所以都没笑，还我心里忐忑不安的，心想我的明天找房如何是好…但其实发现他不是啦~

 

就这样迷迷糊糊，忐忑不安达到了圣地亚哥，这里的阳光明媚的像夏天，大海广阔的让人觉得轻盈，舒畅。

 

到SD的首要任务就是找房子住。中午时候到了这里就和Lisa还有Tina联系。确定接受我做同房的决定好像不是太难作出，当然也多亏有人不停地推销，房子的事也就算顺利解决了。

 

接下来的3天就辛苦Cherry了，和我挤在一张小床上…原来她保持苗条身材也有我的功劳~=）直到我周日（一月六日）接到电话，说我可以搬进去了。我从此终于有自己的小窝了。真开心！但是其实还有一大问题没解决，我还没有床…在craigslist上面找了半天，才发现大概是由于美国人身材大都魁梧健壮的原因，卖所谓“queen-size”这样大床的多如牛毛，可卖我需要的”twin-size”床的就极少了…好容易找到了个50块的，还因为找不到大车运而不能成交。好在同房支援我4个沙发靠垫，我才勉强凑合着在地上睡了2天。其实那两天真得不知道应该怎么才能找到床，能在地上凑合也知足了。

 

到今天（一月十二日）为止的8天里，我觉得我真得一直是很幸运很幸运的！幸运的是有那么多的人帮我，支持我，让我在这个陌生的地方一点都不觉得孤单和恐惧。我真得从内心深处希望感激很多人。

 

百忙之中抽空送我出发的大葱，爸妈和叔叔阿姨们

  我临走发给我祝福的朋友们

  一直帮我的亚囡姐姐

在LA机场等了那么久，又带我来SD找房，安顿，还不嫌麻烦带我去海边的Chuck哥哥

  帮我祈祷的奶奶

  帮我找房子还介绍Shawn帮我的梅叔叔和Vivian阿姨

  收留我3天，借我被子，介绍我认识其他朋友，还带我买东西的Cherry

  不辞辛劳带我去Wal-Mart的Mind

  帮我找小卡车的Shawn

  晚上车我去shuttle站的不认识的女孩子…

  我亲爱的同房们，完全打消了我对于和美国学生住的担忧，还教我他们觉得幼儿园的单词

  在我最需要手机的时候回邮件给我的I-housers, Kate, Andrew and Dom.

  。。。。。。

  要感谢的人真得太多了！！！！

 

周二是我在这里8天以来最幸运的，在我完全没有心理准备的情况下，一个免费床就这样从天而降，结束了我的以天为盖以地为庐的生活。我一早来到International-center的二手商店，想问问有没有二手床垫卖，没想到在失望地听到他们不卖的消息后，紧接着就是一个特大好消息，里面的一个六十来岁的太太（后来知道她叫Anne）说他有空床可以借给我用，还问我需不需要电视，衣柜，衣架，等等等等。之后她居然开车带我到她家，不光取了东西，她还教我怎样剪树上的柠檬，后来他开车把我送回我住的地方，又驾车送我会了学校。我都不知道应该如何感激她才好。真得觉得有些美国人真的太善良了！虽然她不会看到我写的东西，但是我还是想真心的感谢Anne!!!!

 

每个人都有闪光的思想。

 

那天上美国的人种与种族，觉得老师说得很对。很多人移民来美国是因为把这里神化了，美化了。

 

搭公车的时候和司机聊天，他说我们每天都在从一个笼子（他用的bubble）钻到另一个笼子里。