Yuan 

M.A. Graduation 

Graduation from Peking University 

Historic Promise

Poor Laura today is freaking out about her interview and the moving out tomorrow. I can help a little bit by calculating the marks of her TA work for her. She was really grateful and I gotta write down the word she said, "Yuan, thank you so much. I owe you my FIRST CHILD"----wulalalah folks! Isn't that exciting?!! That means I will be the godmom of Laura's first kid!! Beth has promised me the same thing last semester. Now I'm counting down the days to be a fabulous godmom for two cute babies. I'm thinking about teaching them Chinese hahah~~


Good luck with Laura's interview and have a safe trip back!

April Toronto, Goodbye Season

Last semester, during the terrible winter and under great pressure of studying, there was such a desire in my heart for the nice spring. I was imaging the happy and cheerful time. Now the spring has come and all school work was done, by contrast, I do not feel so relaxing as I thought, nor do other friends in the program.

Beth packed and finished her last TA work. She flew back to St. Louis yesterday with a whole bunch of luggage. Such a small girl as she is seemed to be totally overwhelmed by that. I did not feel too sad at the airport. Partly because I know we'll see each other again at the graduation in June. Partly because I was kind of unprepared, and could not believe the program was already over.

Laura left me way too much chocalate and cookies. I always feel she as the youngest among us--so innocent and has very little to worry about (even though she complains about life from time to time. That is not a real problem for her :) Laura will move back to Ottawa the coming Monday. Before that I promise to help her with her marking by my maths--you bet! that's what Chinese students are good at! Laura did ask the right person!! We were the fantastic partners in the supporting group, in which we encouraged each other all along the way to the end of the program.

Lillie (as it is spelled in Italian, not in English) has one more paper to go. I went for the BBQ at Massey college with her. She had a little cute blue paper umbrella in her ponytail today. Lillie was standing at the ice-cream stand and was supposed to serve it. However, I only saw her eating and chatting happily plus very enthusiastically asking people to help themselves with some ice-cream hahah. :)) Lillie's next step is the McGill law school--a fantastic future awaits her. I love Lillie--a perfectionist and a fearless trooper with a sensitive and tender heart.

Noman, Elias and Kerem--the only gentlemen in the program this year seem much relaxed about their future than we girls. My friend in Beijing says girls nowadays are much hard core than the guys. I guess that's is not only true for China, but for Canada as well. If you notice that those guys are from India, Germany and Turkey respectively, you might also say, it's applicable to lots of parts of the world heheh.

Noman never really freaks out about any schoolwork. The former engineer shows little worry in political science study, or more broadly in being a student again after several years of work. The most helpful things I have learned from him are: 1. good food and good rest are most important in life 2. everything will work out in its own way even if sometimes it is totally out of control. I always like to call him "uncle Noman" and talk with him about "Asian Values"

Elias is the unruly German! He throws his sweater to the floor, keeps his zipper of the pants open, and seldom combs his hair! Sorry folk,I have to mention this one more time. I think I will never forget and will still make fun of you on those details after our graduation, especially when one day you becomes a great political theorist. I would say, hey I know that guy when he was young ~~~~ Elias and Noman are competing for the "last-one-to-finish-the-program award". I bet on Noman to get it actually :)

Christina is moving back to Ottawa. She is more much mature than I am . The way she smokes, drinks and talks makes me feel like a high school girl in front of her. Kim is still working in a couple of bar while writing and reading all the time. Kerem never wants to go back to Turkey. Me, the opposite. I miss Beijing like crazy.

People from last year are very interesting too. Suleiman is a shy but very very very nice Lebanese. I just intrgued him into Chinese culture.He likes the red "Chinese net" I gave him as a bagpack accessory. He can speak two words in Chinese now--1. "ni hao"=hello/ how are you. 2. "suan le ba"=forget about it, which he says sounds very much like French. Alison is so an elegant and smart young lady. Her editing skill is amazing. She likes editing as much as International Relations. By the way, she'll spend 4-5 years in the quiet Cornell where she cannot quarrel with Noman by a lot of dirty words~~ (I don't know who usually starts it though. Did I say she is elegant? so it shouldn't be Alison) Regina is a Western African expert and worries about job searching too, like me. Nir is the happy father of little Eden, but also a very serious student. We all took his public international law notes to the final. His 8 pages beat the crazy version of 200+ page from a law school student.

If I miss the cold Toronto, the thing I miss most will be people I met here. They are not necessarily my friends or people often I hang out with, but they show me a great diversity. I am always happy as a quiet observer. Sometimes I cannot tell wheter our differences are more because of our nationalities or as different individuals.

The only pity is that I studied too hard in the past several months. I did not really hang out with friends but instead imanged the good spring. When the spring really comes, the time to say goodbye is also here. I felt the same way in my last day of undergraduate. Now it comes to me again. "Life goes so fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you'll miss it." I hope in the next period of my life, I will have more chances to stop and share more with my friends.

Keep on one side

Bad news~ my old friends cannot open this blog from within China. I have to split my journals--I'll build another blog based on a Chinese server, and keep this one in English. Oh, don't get upset those Chinese lovers (like Elias). I'll still throw some expressions here and there to enhance your Chinese. :)

My heart in Chinese

对我而言,英文是一种工具,用来学习,求职,结识朋友,获得信息...而中文是用来倾诉感受的.这个blog两种语言混用，注定会有分裂的倾向。英文的部分关于日常琐事的絮絮叨叨，中文的部分也许一把鼻涕一把泪地大涂大抹。国内的朋友正好看全了我的生活，而“西人”朋友们对着屏幕上奇怪的字符不知作何反应了呵呵。

Blog个这个东东是从朱朱那里最先听到的，郑重其事地是她毕业论文的研究对象。大四某日在baidu上随便输入了“陈乐民资中筠”，竟误打误撞地掉进了轩轩的blog世界。我兴奋了整整一个下午，沉浸在她一篇篇美文中不能自拔。然而又很忐忑，不经意窥到了她在网上表达的喜怒哀乐，不知是否本不想与现实中的朋友扯上关系的。反正我认真地默默地崇拜着，接着一篇又一篇地读了下去，一直是我的最爱。轩轩的文字流畅自然，有种男孩子的豪气，而且充实有趣，让人一口气读下去欲罢不能。在很多个赶论文的深夜或者凌晨，我常常快要在英文里淹死的时候打开轩的blog，偷个10分钟的懒大口大口地呼吸中文。呵呵，这些细节轩轩恐怕不知道。Handan的，朱朱的我也是常常光顾，只是更新不快，满足不了我这中文饥渴症哈！喜欢handan旅人的漂泊中夹着不变的小资情调。也喜欢朱朱那种神秘感--从高中起就让我傻傻向往的自我自在。

费费看了Handan和轩轩的之后说自己也很想建一个，只是满脑子苏联解体以及核武器之类，没有心思。我也曾有过这样的奢望，不过留学生活太痛苦，没有一点点自己的时间和闲情逸志。要么是从早到晚麻木地学习，要么就是抓起电话对着我家猪头一顿好哭。终于结束了所有课程，修成正果。现在等着毕业典礼，四处找工作实习，正是百感交集的时候。一个新建的blog代表着新生活状态的开始。能不能把它进行到底不是问题，回头的时候能看到自己深深浅浅的脚印就够了。

那么，现在开始咯！

A Brave New Start

Hey Friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm coming!!
Thanks for Laura's suggestion!
A leisure to build a blog is a real celebration for the M.A. degree :)

A new life is beginning.
I'm fresh! I'm expecting!
I'm so ready to go!

(Just tell me where to though~--post-school syndrome hahah)

Still a trooper!!