Having had the "junk" lunch, we walked through the municipal square, turned to Changjiang Street, the so-called "Anhui First Road". When Dave mentioned that he was planning to order a Cheong-sam for his fiancee, April according to his requests. Accidentally xiuzun happened to know a shop would offer such kind of customization, moreover, it was just around the next crossing. So we headed for there. However, what xuzun hadn't expected was that she had to sacrifice as the model for Dave this time as she was the only female among us... The shopkeeper showed Dave how to measure his fiancee's body data, meanwhile turning and twistering xiuzun from top to the buttom... I almost ROFL if it had been allowed. Then, when we came out of this great shop, xuzun asked..."Am I like a fat bucket when she was rolling the tape on me?"... This time, I really acted as if I had been tongueless...

 

It was already 2 in the afternoon by then. Everyone was a little bit tired. So we dragged ourselves to the nearest bus station, also the Sanxiaokou Stop, squeezed into a bus, bumping all the way back to USTC. Having waved to Dave, a pleasant trip finally came to an end.

 

For the first time, were we entitled to speak Chinese again. Hoooo... Suddenly a feeling of relief came over me -- how wonderful Chinese was in practice!!! For WY's invitation to visit his new house, we simply went to the campus bus station waiting the ragular bus. However, I came across YJB first. He was going to the School's Hospital. Soon the bus showed up, and we got the western campus around 1500.

 

Soon after xiuzun called WY to come to fetch us, he appeared at the front gate of the western campus on a bike, rushing towards us.

Ever before we entered the park, we loitered along the outer side of the park's inner lake. Trees simply didn't mind walkers like us, for they kept cutting into the path here and there -- one of them even grew stucking into the centre of the path, which I almost got bumped onto. After rounding to the front gate of the park, buying the ticket (one disappointing thing was that this one was not free of charge), we entered the park with sort of complicated feeling -- it was one of the favorite place I used to go to in my childhood.

 

Dave was so inspired that he called Sherri telling her that he was exploring another extinguished beauty in Hefei, which, really surprised me -- is the park really really so attractive? Anyways, we just moved on. Pagodas, pavilions, islands and countless trees. We took pictures while "shuttling" back and forth in hursts. Xiuzun began claiming tired due to the 4-hour-walk nonstop. I laughed at her," Then what if u really carry out the plan of 'CRAZY-WALK' in this winter vacation?" Another unpleasant thing was that all other inner spots were charged, what was worse, all the tickets were deadly expensive. ROBBERY, I poped up this word to Dave and xiuzun without any sign...

 

My feet took me to the playing park from small childen without my actually realising it. I must have been mad, but facts were facts. I climbed to the top of the rather small slides and... slided down. As I was sliding down, I instinctively reminded of another similar scene, in which, a girl whose face filled with sunshine was doing the same. The only difference was that that picture was taken in Hangzhou, in the sun...

 

Really miss u.

 

Soon our stomach couldn't help protesting, so we got out of the park and crossed the underpass to the other side of Shou Chun Street, the walking street. We had an egg pie each, and looked Ming Jiao Temple from outside -- just because it was also charged unreasonably as if it had been quite popular among people nowadays, in spite of the fact that there were just countable scrounges lying on its front stairs, puting on a ever-absurd mask, that deadly look without any point to have mercy on. Then Dave found out unexpectedly a place selling preserved pineapple slices. Then...he bought, and we ate... Still because of the ticket of Li Hongzhang's Home, we didn't actually went in. Thereafter, KFC for lunch.

 

Stuffed...

Talking all the way, xiuzun seemed to be getting rid of that nervousness. We got on the No. 115 bus, 4 stops more, we got off in Sanxiaokou. After several minutes' walk, we arrived at the back gate of our high school, only to find it closed, solidly.

 

So I had no other choice but to lead him through that shabby alley, where resided the most famous 'EggPie' of our dear No.1 High School. As we were passing through the narrow alley one after another in a row, those mid-aged womensitting around the steaming stove all turned their curious head, glaring at us as if we all had been exterrestrial creatures... We met a little trouble when passing the doorkeeper in front gate. However, HOHO, as I was there, trivial~ I told the dedicate guard that we were here looking for Ms. Feng, yet I still said a lot more... I highly doubt whether he survived my streaming words, because he seemed to be caught in a delusion that we were invited by the principal or people like that important...

 

The first teacher we met inside the yard was Xie Chunlei. He was really enthusiastic... in fact, he was so ardent as to keep shaking Dave's hand for a continous 15 seconds or more, even I could clearly notice Dave's uneasy in the face... Faint... I chuckled and fainted inward as he finally loosened his grasp. Xiuzun was also amused, who also later on exchanged an embarrassed view with me about Mr. Xie. While wandering in the playground, Xiuzun and I expressed the upset about our school's future to Dave, as the authority eventually made up their mind to move the 105-year-old high school to the new centre of the city, abandoning this historiy-and-story-satuated schoolyard after they rudely disposed 67% of our teacher to other schools, averaged our newly-enrolled students, and imposed those ridiculous "brand-new innovation of teaching methods" on our struggling shcool. We didn't go to find Ms. Feng at last, as we still had a lot more spots on the plan. Having shown him around the main teaching building, the track field, the library, the gym, the laboratory... in a word everything in the "most famous and best high school in our province ever since", we decided to head for the City Park.

 

It's long been a pride for we Hefeier to have such a great park, namely the City Park around the city's centre. I can still call up those stereotyped comparison used for thousands of times in our compositions in primary school -- "the splendid emerald nacklace circling (or decorating) our beloved hometown...". Back to the subject of the exploration. Dave seemed to be quite light-hearted as we kept introducing beside him. I still cannot remember how we got to the topic of American senior citizens' daily life, just from seeing a kite flying in the sky. Then, the very first formally-organised community, Hu Po Shan Zhuang. Then, Black Dam~( I really don'y know how to translate it into English). Along the path to the City's Library, we amazingly found a lonely boat waving to the rhythm of the tiny ripple activized by the fringe of boat. Several young duck were swimming worrilessly far in the middle of the artificial lake. Dave took out his camera, quite excitedly taking photos entirely composed of natural things, changing the body's position every now and then. Suddenly I came up with xiuzun's famous qoute..."GaGa嘎嘎"...

 

Afterwards, we went across the Xing Hua park, talking about American parks and squares. Dave told us that China definitely had more parks than the U.S., which was indeed quite enjoyable and considerate, however, back in their hometown Colorado, there was in reality a far bigger and more fascinating "backyard", the mountain waiting there for residents to relax in. They could do hiking, bicycling, skiing, skating... almost everything related to nature. And also, I got to know that "garden" in their common sense simply referred to a piece of field in front of someone's home, used to plant vagetables and some fruit, rahter those elaborately organised with fragant roses, elegent trees and stuffs like that.

 

Our feet worked at the same speed with our mouth. Soon we got to the Meng Cheng Bridge. Well, it was not quite a morden city... someone was burning paper in the small hurst, which Dave was quite interested in and shot the scene. Also someone was discharging urine back against us indelicately... Also Dave tried to pretend not to have noticed a stack of human run-off when he nearly stepped onto it, however I still felt kinda embarrasment as a host. Regardless of those above, the walk along the moatturned out to be pretty good. The sun was shining weakly, while some mist still haunted the near-surface of the moat and the woods flanking its both sides. It was a bit, as what Dave described, mysterous.

 

Later on, we passed the City's Gymnasium. And another one kilometre further, we got to the Xiao Yao Jin Park, where all of our city's profile was recorded.

Above are two websites which link to the registration of volunteers of Beijing Olympics. Personally I'd prefer to call on everybody around me to take part, ACTIVELY~

 

What I wanna record down here is the unforgettable experience yesterday. That was the re-exploration of our familiar, or perhaps, unfamiliar hometown.

 

Not feeling tired of humming beside my dreaming head, my little Philips began waking me up joyfully early in the morning, or rather, before dawn at a quarter past six. Still immersed in unconsciousness, I felt the little buzzing box tightly held in my palm, with my one eye adamantly closed and the other extremely unwillingly opened. After pressing the "stop" botton to shut it up, I finally managed to struggle to my feet and then, got myself dressed, teeth brushed, face washed. As soon as I came back from the public washroom, amazingly I found the little guy started screaming silently again. Looking into the madly shinning LCD of the little Philips, I eventually realized that it was xiuzun making the arranged early call. Ah, yeah, we would lead the American foreigh teacher David Harrison to explore our familiar hometown -- H.F..

 

No moon, few stars, misty air, mysterious path, shimmering horizon, it was dawning outside the dormitory building, as commonly seen in a mid-winter daybreak around solistice time. The moment I stepped out of the building, chilly wind satuated with moisture made me shrink into the collar without actually concerning how much I'd already been wearing. I carried my schoolbag hurrying to the Constellation Cafeteria, only to find xiuzun already waiting there, with an empty stomach fully fueled to cut down my credits in the one-card-pass. Having had a simple breakfast, we went to Teaching Building One to do some self-study so that the time before we went to David's place wouldn't be wasted for nothing. Time flied! Just covered several pages of TOEFL words, I was taken aback that time was up! We arrived David's apartment about 10 minutes before 9. After some breif introduction, we set out from the newly-opened north gate of USTC.

 

The first destination. Heifei No.1 High School. My mother school.

突然发现很喜欢李琛的《窗外》，尤其是最近偶然连续三次听到它，而且，还有一次，唱到它。唱的时候很是感动，天啊，真是奇怪，也许这就是年轻人的小资情调~完蛋了现在……

 

最近两三天天气真的好的没得说了。看到这样的天、这样的阳光，不知不觉中那种毛躁焦虑的心态在强烈白炽的光线中蒸发的无影无踪了。上次跟张玉琼还说呢，这样的冬天，要么就享受清晨的雪地，要么就享受午后的阳光。据说保定是爽快地下了场大雪，现在又率性的亮起了和这边一样灿烂的大太阳，真是，好地方；既然合肥这边迟迟不肯下雪，那就来几个这样彻彻底底的太阳晒晒，也不失为另一种幸福。

 

前天第一次上了公安厅后面新盖的小高层，楼顶，24F，俯瞰北方久违了的电站的大烟囱，还有淡淡的杏花公园，那种美妙真是不言而喻，弄得我下午2点才被迫下了楼顶，一边下楼还一边暗暗地想，5点一定要来看日落——这么perfect的天！……不争气的是……一到家就变得能睡得像只猪，估计太阳白白等不及我了，要么就是坚持不住掉下去了。总之，等我睁开眼，妈呀，天边就只剩一抹红了。落落余晖映在阳台的铝合金窗沿上，怎么着就让我想到保送生考试前那一段最难忘的时光。怎么会忘记呢？那一周天天和金鑫翘了课去市图狂啃程稼夫，早上0700到黑池坝大读英语，通常是0825，就看见金鑫穿着大号而的皮凉鞋，晃悠晃悠地蹬着个哐啷哐啷的自行车，骑到了市图门前。0830等市图大门一开，一天的紧张复习就开始了。打开程稼夫，质点动力学，牛二，动量，能量，天体运动，静力学，流体……电场，恒定电流，磁场，交变电场。转眼头上就咣当咣当响起钟声了。这时候，往往我们会下去吃盆方便面，后来貌似也不怕麻烦，干脆穿过杏花公园，去CenturyMarket下面的Dicos炸鸡店里海一顿。然后回去，一路上海侃海侃，憧憬憧憬……光学……热学，通常到这里，由于没睡午觉的缘故，我会小小地打个盹儿，再然后……近代物理……质能方程……当时近傍晚，又是这种懒懒的阳光一不留神落到了自习室的窗棂上，唔...揉揉眼睛，拍拍脑袋，嗯，可以离开了…… 貌似最后一天，正要去科大报名考试还是回学校交表什么的，一不小心在Dicos碰到马亮了，于是，同路！

 

想太远了……

-HY

 

I received it today, the letter from my past self, via the FutureMe.org server.

 

Quoted here: