Shamu: 鱼眼看美国,以及中国

春节的回忆

天安门（1）

终于又有时间写了一些－－在坐火车的时候。也许能看出来写字的时候有点颠簸。
越写越象流水帐了，大概因为这样不费脑子吧。 呵呵。

Friendly Fire

Being a Texas Longhorns fan (that’s my alma mater), nothing was bigger than last night’s game.

Texas 41, Southern California 38.

We are now National Champions!

For the next few days till this weekend, the UT Tower will be lit orange with a big #1 on each side, as shown here in this photo from UT’s web site:

There is a real-time tower cam. If you visit this page during night time in the Central Standard Time zone from now to this weekend (January 8, 2006), you should see the same picture as above.

Like Lee Corso on ESPN said, this game will go down in history as one of the best college football games EVER played. I know, he’s a little opinionated, but hey, nothing is too exaggerating when you describe the heroic comeback, especially what Vince Young has done with his magical legs.

What makes this game extra interesting to me is that my sister and her husband are actually students of USC now. So you can imagine, above and beyond all the hypes built towards this game, between two undefeated teams one looking to three-peat (USC) and the other to finally win that game after winning all but the big ones (Texas), our little extra twist makes the game so much more special.

We hosted a party to watch the game at our home. For the record, here are the mails I sent out to my Texas friends before and after the game.

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BEFORE THE GAME:

Hi guys,

Are you ready for tomorrow's big game? I don't know about you but I'm
totally hyped up. Especially consider the fact that my sister is at
USC now! I will be hosting a party at our home to watch
the game with some old UT friends and new friends. The only
requirement for non-UT people to join is that--it's a very small
requirement--that they cheer for the Texas Longhorns! And my friends
are totally cool with that. Of course, I will be wearing my Longhorns
T-shirt and I've got my supply of Dr. Pepper, some salsa and tortilla
chips!

The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition on December 31 had an
interesting piece about predicting the result of the game. Basically, it says the computer predicts Texas will win, but human experts prefer USC.

As an IT expert, I say "let the computer prevail and human experts be doomed".

Go Longhorns!

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AFTER THE GAME

Wow! What a game. This will go down in history as one of the greatest
college football game evers played. My only wish after the game was to
be in Austin right away. It must have been quite a scene. I still
vividly remember the day in 1996 when we upset Nebraska in the First
Big12 Championship game--all the drivers were hunking their horns and
all the toilet papers were thrown on trees. That game was nothing
compared to this win. I can only imagine what it must have been last
night.

Instead I went to UT web site and found the tower will be lit for the
rest of the week. We can see the tower live cam here:
http://www.utexas.edu/spotlight/2006/tower0104.html

GO HORNS!
=======================================
And here's a response from a UT friend:

I was too nervous to watch at the very last. I have kept both my fingers
and toes crossed. I have even pushed three people who didn't care about UT
to cheer for UT. (But in return, I have to sing one person a song, tell a
story to another one, ... But it is all very worthy. We need all the
supports we could get. It was too close.)
One of the best games I have ever watched. Go Vince!! Go Longhorn!!

不熟悉的北京（4）

从小巷出来，向左转，进入一条略微繁忙一些的但一样狭窄的胡同。两边是拥挤的院落。从门口望进去，是蜂窝煤炉冒出的烟下笼罩的简易的民房。从院子里闪出来的面孔和他们说话的口音判断，这里大多是外地来京打工的人租住的。就像他们的居住的位置，他们生活在城市的边缘。他们做着平常没有人注意，却又不可缺少的工作，比如买菜，做早点，修鞋修表--很多人已经如此习惯以致忽视他们的存在，只有在过年大多数外地人回家才意识到他们的重要，发现他们也和其他人一样支撑着这个城市。而他们用劳动换来的，比起那微薄的收入更重要的是对明天的期望和更多的机会。我想，开始我刚到美国的时候，心态和他们没什么两样。正是我们这样的移民，心甘情愿地以极低的报酬努力的工作，去追求自己的忽然非常实际的梦想，给这个城市，或者这个国家，作出不成比例的贡献。比起当时的我，他们的要求可能很低。他们不奢求本地人的尊重，和完全的平等。只希望能有机会，用自己的勤劳和智慧让明天比今天更美好。

我向Ron和John解释着我关于这里居民的猜测。不知道他们是否能体会到这些人生活的艰辛，但我看着他们专著的望着所有身边的人和事的眼神，知道他们对中国的兴趣和认识已经超越了长城，烤鸭，假名牌的层次。能理解这些好像生活在离他们自己的世界远的不能再远的人，也就能理解很多当今的中国，这个生产着几乎所有他们日常所用物品的国家，这个人民对美国爱与恨交织的国家，这个大多未曾亲眼目睹的美国人看来象外星一样无法理解的国家。连我这样一个生于斯长于斯的中国人也好像一下子认识到如何能理解当今中国的最直接有效的方式了。

我忍不住对他们说，“Welcome to the Real China” (欢迎你们到真实的中国).

穿出几条胡同，怀里揣着蝈蝈（好像还没有任何动静），我们回到了酒店。我们展示着我们的成果。其他学生有点羡慕的看着我们的蝈蝈。我想他们还不知道没有看见的，比这两只蝈蝈要有意思得多。

至此我们的旅程的第一天才刚刚开始。