English Diaries

July 15thMon.

  The typhoon came suddenly as the clouds crowded. The sky changed into darker and darker when I stopped my pen to watch outside. Theinky blackness soon surrounded the sky.The rain first dropped obliquely then vertically, harder and harder with a strong, chilly wind. Looking down at the street, passers-by with colorful umbrellas hurried to different destinations.Hearing the voice that the downpour hit the trees, the buildings, the umbrellas, the windows, the ground, just like an amazing movement impressed my heart.

  It reminded me of those hot and damp days waiting for the typhoon when the temperature was almost 40 degreeCelsius. I enjoyed these days when typhoon was coming as it directly led to a dominant drop of temperature and a cooler summer. After several hours, the rain eased off and turned into drizzling. A few moments later, the rain stopped. The sky became clear. The air became fresh and fragrant. As John Keats wrote: “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day/and touch the stubble plains with rosy hue”, I saw a wonderful sunset outside the window, enjoyed a peaceful summer night.

July 16thTue.

  It was quite a fine day. I visited my grandmother. At the time I was with my cousinwatching SpongeBobSquarePants, my father and my grandmother chatted. They talked a lot about the things that happened recently. Later, my father felt it strange that most my cousin said was in mandarin. He asked my cousin if he couldn’t speak Cantonese. The answer, out of the blue, was, “of course I can, but I am used to talking in mandarin at school so I speak mandarin at home as well.”

  My father said nothing but sighed: “how could things continued this way? Cantonese is our culture…”

  I sank into meditation.

  There is no denying thatthe popularization of mandarin promotes social   development and plays an increasingly important role in our daily communication. Nonetheless, from another perspective, it exerts negative effects on preserving the local dialect, to some degree.

  It reminded me it is reported that a great number ofchildren cannot speak local dialect.

  Local dialect not only stands for our hometowns’ characteristics but also belongs to a kind of culture. It is worthy to be saved. We should not abandon it in any case.

  Unconsciously, it was nightfall already.

July 17thWed.

  There was a movie that I have long desired to watch called Flipped.Today I finally got a chance to see this flim.

  A gril, a boy, a sycamore tree, a touching little story.

  “The first day I met Bryce Loski, I flipped. It was those eyes, something   in those dazzling eyes. “The words the girl said reminded me of a lyric: feels like falling and I’m lost in your eyes.

  She stared at his attrative eyes,flipped.

  “The way she talked about what it felt like to be up in that tree to be held above the earth, brushed by the wind. Who in junior high talks like that? “

  He saw her toughness, her bravery and maturity, put aside all the prejudices, gradually, flipped.

  As a fond of thrillers actually, I haven’t seen this kind of movies for quite a long time. But I don’t know why I was so into this movie and loved it.

  The way you talk, the way you walk, the way you call my name…Every single moment of you is so nice to me.

With the girl’s little mind, I saw innocence in her heart.

  The character impressed me most was Bryce’s grandfather.

  At the time he knew about the mistake Bryce had made, he didn’t get mad but took a walk with grandson and said kindly:”Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road.”

  “Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, and some in gloss. But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”—The most famous dialogue in this movie.

He was just like a light that lighted up Bryce’s life and warmed my heart as well.

  In the end, a tender sycamore seedling was carefully planted. Bryce eventually held Juli’s hand.

I closed my eyes; a picture appeared in my head: an old couple sat on a tall, leafy sycamore tree, stared into the distance, enjoyed the sunset…

  A gentle voice came out--the theme song started:

  “I bless the day I found you, let it be me…”

  At the ending of the brilliant film, I flipped.

July 18thThu.

  Today I have finally finshed reading such a thick book calledLegend of the Enigma.The book was about codes, encryption, decryption and the legendary appliance: Enigma.

  In this book, there was a gifted logicianpeople sigh for :Alan Mathison Turing.

  Mr. Turing showed his talent for maths at a very early age. In his early twenties, he has made a great contribution to maths and computer science.As early as the fall of 1939, he used “Bombe” to decode Enigma. Later, he broke the normal thinking pattern and found the way to improve the technology of decoding.Mr. Turing also worked on designing ACE which made him be hailedas “Father of Computer”(though it is a controversial issue till now). However,this was only ONE of all his great achivements.

  However,things went bad suddenly.He was charged with being a homosexual so that he was compelled to inject female hormone and was physically and emotionally abused.He counld no longer take it then killed himself at last.Isn’t it tragic?A great codebreaker became a victim prejudice. To deny someone because of his sexual orientation, wasn’t it ridiculous?

  As the proverb goes:the greatest obstacle to progress is prejudice.We should not judge someone without properly knowing him and should see others objectively.

  I closed the book, signed with emotion.

July 19thFri.

  On a whim, I watched the MV of the song which Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran sang named <Everything Has Changed>again.

  The MV was about a deep friendship between a little boy and a little girl. They have been childhood sweethearts. In fact, it’s also how the two singers met, knew each other and became friends.

  The MV was beautiful, so was the song.

  “Is green eyes and freckles and your smile in the back of my mind making me feel right…

  I’m feeling like I’ve missed you all this time.

  All I knew was a simple name, and everything has changed”.

  It reminded me of an old friend of mine. After graduation, I wrote to her a couple times and met her once by chance. But we hadn’t been in touch ever since. I haven’t seen her for a very long time and it seemed that she had faded out from my life.

  But I haven’t forgotten about her. Sometimes when her name suddenly flashes into my mind, I will still think of her long hair, her voice, her smile and with it my heart gets warm.

  “All I know since yesterday is everything has changed.

All I know was a simple name, and everything has changed.”

  In the process of growing up, people change a lot. But Taylor and Ed keep pure hearts all the time. The friendship of these two singers moved me a lot. From childhood to youth, their friendship never changes.

At the end of the video, Taylor and Ed looked at each other’s eyes with sincere smiles.

  “All my walls stood tall, painted blue. I’ll take them down, take them down, and open up the door for you.”

  “All I know is you held the door. You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours.”

  …

  After years of time, everything has changed. But so lucky that your innocent heart hasn’t.

July 20thSat.

  I made some black coffee without sugar for myself today. I guess I was just unable to refuse the special, bitter but smooth taste. I held a cup of brewed coffee, stood by the window, enjoyed the morning light shining on my face.

  The memories of those days during the final exams flashed into my mind. In those days I often brought espresso. A can of “Extra Rich” Nescafe was the one that sustained me in reviewing lessons. But thanks to a guy who stopped me drinking that much strong coffee or I would probably get caffeine intoxication…

  Like coffee, life is bittersweet as well. I still remembered what Monica said inFriends: “This is life. It sucks, but you will gonna like it. “Coincidently, inTwo Broke Girls, Max once said likewise: “Life sucks, but worth fighting for.” Without bitter, coffee will taste less delicious. Without hardship and setbacks, life will lose its meaning.If one's life is full o fjoy,that'sincomplete.

  As we say: No sweet without sweat. Face the frustration, strive for dreams, struggle against adversity, and overcome the difficulty, that’s how life works.

  I finished my coffee, enjoyed such fabulous views I got.

July 21stSun.

  I found it hard to put pen to paper.

  I visited the website of our school. After I clickedpassage management, I was shocked, completely.

Good lord. Over 30 new articles were already uploaded. There was already someone finished writing all the English diaries while I was writing my fifth one. And she even almost finished writing all the Chinese composition! (MY GOOOOOOD)

  I felt ashamed. In comparison with myself, I found myself still not hard-working enough. It reminded me of a paragraph I saw on microblog: “there is always someone working on a maths problem while you’re playingFruit Ninja;there is always someone memorizing English words while you’re spending time on DOTA; there is always someone listening to VOA with attention while you’re chatting happily on line… There is always someone running faster, working much harder than you do: will you still waste your time?”

  No. A strong voice deep inside my mind said so.

  “I won’t stand myself that lazy anymore. I will make my time count.”I promised myself.

  I stopped writing, began to recite the politics paper.

July 22ndMon.

  Unconsciously, Monday is coming. I took a deep breath after getting up, looked outside the window, and watched the distant light blue sky. I stood at the balcony and started to hum an old song. All my feelings in one word was: enjoyable.

  I like Monday.

  What? You’re thinking I am an oddity? Um…Probably, I guess.

  As the first day of a week, of going to school, Monday may make some of us get stressed out. Many people think that working on Monday is especially tired for them. But no, not for me.

  At the start of the busy days, I often feel nice. Monday is a busy day, absolutely. Butfrom another perspective, getting busy also makes life more meaningful and full-filled. As people say: Pressure inspires the motivation. Therefore I feel myself full of energy on Monday.

  After reciting periodic table of elements, writing a couple of compositions, doing some crunches and push-ups... I feel exhausted but great.

  “Monday, such a wonderful day...”

  I muttered to myself, flopped into bed late at night.

Aug.4th Sun.

    As the first day for the nine-day journey, today was quite a special day. After a quick lunch, my sister and I left home for the railway station. The queue was long but luckily we didn’t miss the train. We put away our luggage then enjoyed the views outside the window. In the meantime, a tall middle-aged man asked if someone would like to play chess with him. The passage sat opposite me agreed. The middle-aged man shared some fruit with him. They chatted a lot, laughed happily. It seemed that they were not strangers to each other at all but old friends.

    An experience about a stranger and I flashed into my mind. It was an overcast day, I got lost in a strange city alone. What was worse, I didn’t have a cell phone and I was unable to find any policeman anywhere. Nonetheless, I got help from a stranger fortunately. He led me to a bus stop and after getting off the bus, he showed me the way. When I crossed the street, he exhorted me to be careful. Till I crossed through the dense traffic safely, he did not leave.

    Likewise, one day my right eye was hit because of an accident that my tears could not stop falling down. A lady sat next to me on the bus asked me in a soft voice:”What’s up?”

    We have been told not to trust strangers from childhood. “Do not talk to them, do not eat their food, do not answer when they ask anything…” How many times have I heard these warnings? I have lost count.

    I helped strangers and got help from strangers then I found they were actually friendly and kind. I don’t mean we should relax our vigilance completely but strangers are not all so horrible. I believe most of them are nice.

    Suddenly the ringtone interrupted my thinking. A text was received and it said: “Remember to be careful on the train! Keep an eye on your luggage! And more importantly: don’t believe strangers or eat their food or talk to them….”

    I chuckled, deleted it.

Aug.5th Mon.

    The train arrived in Hangzhou, the first stop of our journey, early in the morning. Later on we went to West Lake, which was much bigger than I thought.

    We were amazed. The sky was light blue. Under the clear sky, the wind rippled the lake and the still water of the lake mirrored the shapely figure of those pavilions. The willows along the river waved softly in the melodious song warbled by birds. I walked along the bridges and every single step I took made me get different special views.

    I guess the reasons why I was amazed were not only the picturesque scenery but also that tranquil mind I saw through.

    Though I have heard before, when I saw the escalator leading to Leifeng Tower I was still surprised. What’s more, there was an elevator inside the tower as well. Was it really necessary? I hardly think so.

    In my humble opinion, installation of elevators inside and outside such an antique, historic building was simply inappropriate. It ruined the atmosphere Leifeng Tower was supposed to be.

    We planned to go to West Lake Museum but at the time we reached nearby, we realized that no museums opened on Monday. Therefore, we strolled around the lake.

    Sounded like fun? Not entirely. The highest temperature here was over 40 degrees Celsius. Every second under the sun, I felt myself like a walking toast.

    In spite of the hot weather, indeed, Hangzhou was a great city.

Aug.7th Wed.

    After a long-time bus ride, we arrived at our destination: Huangshan Mountain.

    I was ab-so-lu-te-ly shocked. I finally knew what was called “speechless”. I could not find any words to describe how great these mountains were. I was totally amazed by nature’s masterpieces. Pine trees, seas of clouds, rocks, peaks… everything here was eye-opening and remarkable.

    I still remembered in the process of climbing up Lotus Peak, I heard many climbers root for others and cheer them up. A stranger even showed a map, planned the best route for us, gave us a lot of nice advice, and told us to be careful.

    At the time we reached the top of the mountain, I looked around and a lot of feelings came up to my mind in an instant. Did I conquer the nature or I was conquered by nature? I’ve got no idea.

    It was a pity that we didn’t have enough time to enjoy such impressive views. I wished I would have a chance to visit here again.

Aug. 8th Thu.

   Guess what? Our trip has come to the third stop: Suzhou. I could not help praising: “God I love it…”

    In the morning, we walked to the bus stop. You know what, the bus stops were built as pavilions. On the way, I found something interesting: the announcements of next stop were not only in Mandarin but also in Suzhou dialect, which sounded mild and cute just exactly liked the personality of Suzhou citizens: gentle and unhurried.

    After quite a long time, we got to Suzhou Museum. It was designed by I.M.Pei, the world-famous architect. Indeed, the design of the building was so extraordinary that it deeply impressed me. Inside the museum, the exhibits were nice and delicate. The names of each exhibition room were poetic. But overall, the one impressed me most, was not the gold, jewelry, silver ornament or jade, was a painting exhibition. The artist had not been accepted by others for a long time in the past but he did not give up and kept chasing his painting dreams. In order to draw mountains better, he climbed Huangshan Mountain for ten times. Even for the young people nowadays, it is pretty hard to climb once. Besides, at that time the roads were much more dangerous and difficult to go. I could see willpower through his excellent paintings.

    In the afternoon, we went to Tiger Hill. It was a small but nice place. To my surprise, the tower was tilted. I was pretty sure it did not drink Mizone, did it?

    At night, we went to Shantang Street. Walking around this ancient street was like being in a Chinese ink painting. At the time we walked by the first store, I heard a familiar melody:

    ”If I had to live my life without you near me, the days would all be empty, the nights would seem so long…”

All the memories about this song flashed into my mind. I stopped and listened quietly but my sister seemed to be more interested in another store nearby so we kept on walking. It was an amusing store. The special decoration inside gave me a surprise. The walls were covered with colorful notes and railway tickets around the world. We ordered a cup of double-layer steamed milk and enjoyed the classical music. The landlady was easy-going and voluble. Having a little store and living a life of ease, wasn’t she enviable?

    We kept strolling. A foreigner told us where the greatest place was. We walked along the direction he pointed at and were deeply attracted. After a while, the lights were on. The scene changed at every step we took. I guess strolling along Shantang Street must be the most romantic and enjoyable experience I had ever had. I was completely intoxicated by such attractions.

    After writing a postcard, I wanted to keep enjoying such beautiful views , but the last bus was about to leave, so we had to bade farewell to Shantang Street and got back to the inn.

    Aha, I guess I have fallen in love with this city.

Aug.9th Fri.

    Today we visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, one of China’s four most famous gardens. It was built in the fourth year of Zhengde Period of Ming Dynasty. Therefore, on the whole, it has kept the style of Ming Dynasty. Centering upon the broad expanse of a lake, the poetic, picturesque garden always amazed us with exquisite pavilions, halls, towers, corridors and bridges which seemed to be changing at every step. Every name of the pavilions was elegant and poetic. The one I loved best was a boat-liked pavilion called Xiangzhou which was surrounded by water. Its innovative, quaint and special design impressed me. No matter where I looked, it was attractive. Inside it, the decoration was graceful and gorgeous especially the carved windows. The cool summer breeze and the fragrance of water lilies refreshed us a lot.

    Of course, the scene outside was fabulous as well. Lotuses were everywhere that I could smell the strong, pleasant fragrance all the time. The limpid water was painted in jade green by the lotus. Standing by the water and looking beyond, I could see Tiger Hill hazily from afar.

    The tour in the Humble Administrator's Garden was really an enjoyment. I was so into it that I did not want to leave at all.

    Compare with the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Lion Forest was smaller but more fascinating. As the Kingdom of Rockeries“, the garden is famous for its labyrinthine man-made rockeries with winding pathways and caves. Long roofed walkways going round the garden leaded us to different views. When Qianlong Emperor visited here, he found it was so amazing that he even forgot to have lunch. During the lunch time he sat in a pavilion and wrote “very interesting”, which became the pavilion’s name.

    The trip today was really worthwhile from having a chance to enjoy such beauty.

Aug.10th Sat.

    Today we visited an ancient town called Mudu. It is said that Qianlong Emperor came here for six times. Nonetheless, this town was not as attractive as I thought.

    The next place we went was Tai Lake Wetland Park. What’s funny, my sister could buy a student ticket but I could not. I showed her my ID card, my bus IC card and my school IC card but I still had to pay the full fare.

However, it was worth costing this much indeed. The lake was as clear as the baby blue sky. It reminded me of those beautiful verses in <The Book of Songs>. Everything here was like a piece of poem.

    I first saw a panda here. It was lying on the ground, seemed to be exhausted. There were all kinds of plants and one was called evening primrose but it was a pity it was noon. Birds were everywhere. There were some graceful, niveous birds which impressed me a lot.

    In order to hide from the blazing sun, we went to Suzhou Pavilion which was in World Expo then. It looked pretty nice outside. Inside it, most of the exhibits were photographs.

    After enjoying the air-conditioner, we kept on going. The park was so big that even we walked for over three hours there were still some scenery spots we missed.

    Out of the blue, the wind suddenly rose. It became cloudy and seemed to rain. Did God finally pity us after these hot days? Well, it was artificial precipitation actually. It was especially joyful to feel the cool.

    A nice day, wasn’t it?

Aug.11th Sun.

    Thanks to the rain, the air was still humid in the morning that we felt comfortable. First we visited the Lingering Garden. As one of China’s four most famous gardens as well, what made here so special? With this question, I walked into it and tried to figure it out.

    In the process of touring, I knew the answer. Its excellent structure and nice layout were enough to amaze the tourists. Every halls, pavilions and bridges were fancy and wonderful. There were a number of attractive peaks from Tai Lake with grotesque shapes in the garden. The most well-known and unusual peak was one called Guanyun Peak, named for its special shape. The windows here were impressive as well. Not only because of the different patterns but also because windows were like picture frames: when I looked through every window, the view outside was like a perfect painting.

    At noon we left Suzhou for our next stop, Shanghai.

    “Wow” must be the word I wanted to yell out most after getting off metro. Though I have already known the street I was in was called China’s first commercial street, Nanjing Road’s prosperity still surprised me. Towering skyscrapers lined the road; the sidewalks were bustling with people of different nationalities. We walked along the road and saw the Bund present an amazing sight. As we walked by the river and enjoyed the great scenery around us, a gust of wind blew from Huangpu River which brought cool and comfort.

    At twilight, though the Oriental Pearl Tower’s lights were not on, the night scene in Shanghai was gorgeous that I was deeply impressed by what I saw.

    I believe that this wonderful trip will never be forgotten.