Good question!!!
I've been asking where I was after the summer break started.
First, I was in Paris.
Then, I came back to St. Louis.
One day after, I was in Taipei.
After 3 weeks, I flew to HK.
Now (6/23), I am in Taipei AGAIN.
However, I'm leaving for Singapore on Sunday.
Literally, I'll stay there the next 9 weeks doing my internship.
But who knows......
她 其實並不想忘記他
天冷的時候 她會想起他的外套
回憶的時候 她會想起和他鬥嘴
在人很多的路上 她會想起他的背影
沮喪的時候 她會以為他正在陪伴她
醒來以後 她才知那也許是幻覺
她後悔 後悔不該讓他知道她的心情
因為 一個人的時候 她會想起他的冷漠
因為 她想跟他說話時 再也鼓不起勇氣
因為 她曾經很傻地為他默默的努力過
因為 她回不去那個他們認識的地方
於是 她選擇和他待在同一個時區
天真的以為 距離可以用時間彌補
她旅行 距離對她來說不是個問題
但是 這是一段她永遠也到不了的距離
他在那頭 已經非常明白
她在這頭 猶豫躊躇...
她 有著很多人羨慕的生活
旅行過很多地方
不錯的工作
很多的朋友
讓人笑的能力
和守護著她的主
但是 她一直在流浪
這些年 她一個人 在城市與城市 人群與人群間飛來飛去
卻總是低頭找尋可以讓她永遠停留的地方
從小 她偷偷羨慕著同學們和樂的家
於是 她決定飛出去
越遠越好 遠到讓她可以看不清楚那些幸福
然後 可以忘記
她用忙碌和笑聲掩飾對家的渴望
又不禁回頭觀望那夢中的溫暖
曾經 她以為 她可以停留在一個陽光普照的地方
後來 她發現 那陽光並不是為她而閃耀
她只能拾起行囊 留下祝福 張開翅膀 繼續流浪
現在 她累了
可是 她的腳卻像穿上紅舞鞋 再也停不下來...
有多久沒有把鞋子脫去
光著腳丫紮紮實實的踩在土地上了?
這兩天看TVBS的節目 "一步一腳印 發現新台灣"
講到"有機生活" 訪問了一些農家
最讓我印象深刻的是 "大屯溪自然農法教育農莊"
農莊的主人是一對夫婦, 先生是位日籍的華僑醫生
為了醫治女兒的病而開始他的農耕生涯
節目中 所有進農地的人都打著赤腳
農莊主人的孩子們更是赤著腳在田地裡奔跑 毫不受束縛
對我來說 這是一幅多遙遠的景象啊!
國小最後一個暑假
我參加了一個被我戲稱為"世紀長"的7天6夜夏令營
嚴格說是有點像禪修
每天早上起床要靜坐
還要到外雙溪山上做早操
有趣的來了
每次的戶外活動都必須光著腳
頭一兩天 所有人都叫苦連天
城市的小孩皮薄的咧
走沒兩步就被石子或野草劃傷
紛紛求饒 要穿鞋
但是老師堅持不准
我們只好咬著牙 硬著頭皮撐著
接下來幾天
我們光著腳溯溪 從外雙溪走到七星山 在樹林裡活動 偷摘路邊橘子
到了最後兩天 神奇的是 我的腳底似乎變厚了
厚到可以在大自然的土地上行走也不會受傷
我的腳可以和土地和平相處了
大自然是最奇妙的萬靈丹
就像陽明山對我來說是一種安定的力量
看到他 我就知道世界都還在 於是就安心了
只是 看完那集節目
我思思念念的是
何時才能再回到大自然的懷抱?
何時才能再光著腳走在泥土地上?
也許 有一天 我會去當農夫...
The following article was posted on New York Times which can summarized my learning and feeling after the Paris trip.
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May 12, 2006
Higher Learning in France Clings to Its Old Ways
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
NANTERRE, France — There are 32,000 students at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, but no student center, no bookstore, no student-run newspaper, no freshman orientation, no corporate recruiting system.
The 480,000-volume central library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library's 100 computers have Internet access.
The campus cafeterias close after lunch. Professors often do not have office hours; many have no office. Some classrooms are so overcrowded that at exam time many students have to find seats elsewhere. By late afternoon every day the campus is largely empty.
Sandwiched between a prison and an unemployment office just outside Paris, the university here is neither the best nor the worst place to study in this fairly wealthy country. Rather, it reflects the crisis of France's archaic state-owned university system: overcrowded, underfinanced, disorganized and resistant to the changes demanded by the outside world.
"In the United States, your university system is one of the drivers of American prosperity," said Claude Allègre, a former education minister who tried without success to reform French universities. "But here, we simply don't invest enough. Universities are poor. They're not a priority either for the state or the private sector. If we don't reverse this trend, we will kill the new generation."
It was student discontent on campuses across France that fired up the recent protests against a law that would have made it easier for employers to dismiss young workers. College students were driven by fear that their education was worth little and that after graduation they would not find jobs.
The protests closed or disrupted a majority of France's universities for weeks, labor unions declared solidarity and eventually the government was forced to withdraw the law.
"Universities are factories," said Christine le Forestier, 24, a 2005 graduate of Nanterre with a master's degree who has not found a stable job. "They are machines to turn out thousands and thousands of students who have learned all about theory but nothing practical. A diploma is worth nothing in the real world."
The problems stem in part from the student revolts of May 1968, which grew out of an unexceptional event at Nanterre the year before. One March evening, male students protesting the sexual segregation of the dormitories occupied the women's dormitory and were evicted by the police.
A year later, Nanterre students protesting the war in Vietnam occupied the administration building, the first such action by students at a French university. The student revolt spread, turning into a mass movement aimed at transforming the authoritarian, elitist French system of governance. Ultimately 10 million workers left their jobs in a strike that came close to forcing de Gaulle from power.
One result was that the country's university system guaranteed a free — or almost free — college education to every high school graduate who passed the baccalauréat exam. University enrollment soared. The value of a bachelor's degree plummeted.
But the state failed to invest much in buildings, facilities and professors' salaries to make the system work. Today the French government allocates about $8,500 a year to each university student, about 40 percent less than what it invests in each high school student.
Most students are required to attend the universities closest to their high schools. Although certain universities excel in specific fields of study, the course offerings in, say, history or literature are generally the same throughout the country.
Compounding the problem, France is caught between its official promotion of the republican notion of equality and its commitment to the nurturing of an elite cadre of future leaders and entrepreneurs.
Only 4 percent of French students make it into the most competitive French universities — the public "grandes écoles." But the grandes écoles, along with a swath of semiprivate preparatory schools, absorb 30 percent of the public budget.
They are well-organized, well-equipped, overwhelmingly white and upper middle class, and infused with the certainty that their graduates will take the best jobs in government and the private sector. Students are even paid to attend.
The practice in the United States of private endowments providing a large chunk of college budgets is seen as strange in France. Tuition is about $250 a year, hardly a sufficient source of income for colleges.
But asking the French to pay more of their way in college seems out of the question. When the government proposed a reform in 2003 to streamline curriculums and budgets by allowing each university more flexibility and independence, students and professors rebelled.
They saw the initiative as a step toward privatization of higher education that they feared would lead to higher fees and threaten the universal right of high school graduates to a college education. The government backed down.
At Nanterre, Alexandre Frydlender, 19, a second-year student in law and history, complained about the lack of courses in English for students of international law. But asked whether he would be willing to pay a higher fee for better services, he replied: "The university is a public service. The state must pay."
A poster that hangs throughout the campus halls echoed that sentiment: "To study is a right, not a privilege."
Professors lack the standing and the salaries of the private sector. A starting instructor can earn less than $20,000 a year; the most senior professor in France earns about $75,000 a year. Research among the faculty is not a priority.
Because students generally are required to attend the university closest to home, most do not live on campus.
At Nanterre, for example, there are only 1,050 dormitory rooms and a long waiting list. The amenities are few. Twenty-two students share three toilets, three showers and a small kitchen furnished with only a sink and a few electric burners.
"There's no place where students can hang out, no place to play cards or to watch a movie," said Jean Giraud, 20, a second-year law student who lives in one of the dorms. "People come for class and then go home."
While students are ready to protest against something they dislike, there is little sense of belonging or pride in one's surroundings. During the recent protests over the contested labor law, that attitude of alienation contributed to the destruction of property, even computers and books, at some universities.
The protests also were the latest warning to the French government and private corporations that the university system needs fixing. Officials, entrepreneurs, professors and students alike agree that too many students are stuck in majors like sociology or psychology that make it difficult to move into a different career in a stratified society like France, given the country's troubled economy.
The fear of joblessness has led many young people in different directions. Students who have the money are increasingly turning to foreign universities or private specialized schools in France, especially for graduate school. And more young people are seeking a security-for-life job with a government agency.
In a speech at the Sorbonne in late April after the labor law was rescinded, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin pledged "a new pact between the university and the French people."
Mr. de Villepin, a graduate of the École Nationale d'Administration, the grandest of the grandes écoles, promised more money and more flexibility, saying that as in the United States, a student with a master's degree in philosophy should be able to become a financial analyst.
When a student asked him to explain how he proposed to do that, Mr. de Villepin had no concrete answer. Instead he talked about the "happiness of the dog that leaves its kennel.
"But flexibility is not at all the tradition in France, where students are put on fixed career tracks at an early age.
"We are caught in a world of limits where there's no such thing as the self-made man," said Claire de la Vigne, a graduate of Nanterre who is now doing graduate work at the much more prestigious Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. "We are never taught the idea of the American dream, where everything is possible. Our guide is fear."
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My first perception of Paris, of France was wrong. Seeing many people wearing their traditional clothes walking on the street, in the subway, and parks gave me the feeling that France was a country that can tolerate different cultures. However, I neglected the fact behind the appearance, that was French's belief in "Equality". Anatole France said “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”This is the "Equality" that French believe. Everybody was born inequable, but government can make everybody equal by the social welfare system.
Thus, all the immigrants were forced to be "French". Not until a series of strike and riot did I see the scene on Paris streets. Islam immigrants were forbidden to wear turbans to school before. It was interesting that I went to Paris at this point of time. Disparate timing makes different perception of a place, people, and culture. It is history that makes the current condition. It is also history that really matters when trying to understand a culture or a person. And travel has deeper meaning than just seeing.
