Tour to Boston---worms for the late birds

Fortune is on our side this time. Sometimes there are worms there waiting for the late birds.

Dear friends, I hesitate but have to tell you, that we 8 chose to live on campus at Yale because we are lazy and dependent. Last weekend we went to Boston, with a New York travel agency, for we didn't want to think too much about what when how and why. It turns out fate is on our side this time. Here is how:

1. You know, dear Carrie and Siggy, after we say goodbye after that Thimble Islands tour, we 8 rush with our dinner and then rush to get the bus to the union station to catch the train to New York. We each gets our $ 1.25 ready, but the bus driver says,"No, no....it's broken." We feel very strange. Because with this in China, we will not be allowed in bus, which will be driven away empty. We do not need to pay. OK! But the time! It flies callously. The bus is not in a hurry. Although it does not collect money, it collect people as usual. We begin to worry about the train that will leave at 6:45. 

Finally it starts, and we arrive at the station at 6:36 and at the train just before it starts its engine.

2. It is not until the next morning when we are going to meet the travel agent that we realize we may stay some time at Yale as the first attraction. We feel depressed, especially when it grows dark to threaten us with a pouring rain. We do some self-mocking that anyhuu, we get the chance to use our restroom at Yale and to take the umbrella there. We try to ask about the detailed itinerary of the tour from the guide, who feels very lost how we get there with him. Actually, it is the kind Leoking who spoiled us by having done all the things for us and she is not going to Bo. We give up since the guide does not seem very amiable, feeling down down down to the pittest pit.

The turning point comes when the guide finally announces the places we are going. Yale is the last stop! HURAhh~~~~We will not lose any valuable tour time and we will go home as the last stop, not wasting time to go to NY and then back to Yale.

3. Perfect conclusion

We have known that our tour will end at Yale, which is quite satisfying. We even don't want to ask if they can drop us on the nearest place to our dear Calhoun, thinking no matter where they stop, we will find our way home. By~~~~chance, the bus stops right beside our abode, haha! We also get the chance to take photos with the two handsome men having served us.

 leisure lady time on the street of Boston

lobster dinner which lingers~~~

the university at Rhode Island that is even more beautiful than Yale 

My favorite scene at Vanderbilt Mansion

Phantom of the Opera

The opera is majestically shown in the Majestic Theater.

It also is the culprit for the tears and depression of most of my girl colleagues, who is desperately sympathized with the Phantom.

I, shedding the fewest tears, do not feel the same way.

The ending of the opera, when the phantom lets go of Christine, sinking deep in his own abyss of pain and loneliness, does not at  all seem to me so depressing. 

Why not? To me: 

Just like the ancient character Oedipus can be taken as one feature of human nature in modern psychology, Christine and the Phantom are two features of human nature. They are of the opposite quality existing in one person. I have seen many people who have the purity, beauty, and loving nature, side by side with the dark, ugly, and evil aspect--- the Christine and the Phantom in one body---struggling to dominate.

In the opera, Christine is developing her singing talent with the help of the Phantom, who, paradoxically, may be Muse here. Then, she is seized by the dark soul of the Phantom, whose terrifying sense of possessing being revealed. Admiration soon turns into terror and disgust. Christine wants to run away, to dodge the phantom. But can she? No. All kinds of struggling are tried, but in vain.  

The breakthrough comes only when she has to choose between the life of her beloved one and kissing the terrifying phantom. Christine bravely chooses the latter. She bravely chooses to face the biggest terror of her life---may be seen as the dark part of the person in whom they both live. She is then released and gets her freedom of having a normal happy human life...

We all kind of want to expand the angel of us so much so that we may easily be seized by the devil who is just the same and opposite of the angel. We should come down to earth, to love the real human being to face this terrible truth of us to get rid of the complex and thus to have a normal human life with modest, down-to-earth way of existing, thus the peace of mind ever after.

I am really happy for Christine to successfully get rid of the phantom.

Yale outdoor education

July 3, 2015 Friday  sunny  (Junia has written this long ago, but now she adds pics to it and has it published.)

There will be the outdoor education today. We are somewhat excited at the idea of participating in it.
But first, we have doubt about American's punctuality. We are supposed to get on the bus at 10:30 or 10:45 with different information we've got. But the school bus came at about 11.

Getting on the bus, we saw a cute, cute, cute little boy of about 4, just like one jumping from a children's book. He beamed so friendly that I felt my heart melt. I couldn't help but reach to touch his hand, hehe. The school bus driver was very amiable. Although we guess it must be a children's school bus borrowed by Yale for the summer session for we saw the paper Christmas tree hanging above the driver's seat, and a cute girl's photo. Lorrie told me it is the custom for American drivers to hang their children's photo in the car.
After 1 and a half hour's ride, we finally got to the Private Yale Location for the outdoor education. This is not the kind of education we heard back in China. The outdoor education is just for fun, no morals to learn. If you want one, that might be life is colorful: study hard and play hard, enjoy intellectual life and the world's beauty and leisure at the same time.
Getting off the bus, we first saw dear Carrie and then food. It is the first time those who rented staying place had the kind of food of Yale dinning hall. They thought it was too rich and warned us of gaining weight with this kind of meal.
Then we went canoeing. Two or three of us were in a canoe, paddling through the beautiful river water. The water was clean, the trees were refreshing, the sun was bright, and the air is breezing. I even wanted to take the risk of switching seats so that each one of us three got the chance to paddle. If we fell into the water, "the life jacket can keep you for a while before the safeguard comes". And I just wanted a little bit to have the adventure to fall and be rescued---what an experience it would be! But the idea was immediately refused by the other two of the group.
Then we took photos with each other, with dear Siggy and Carrie...
To tell the truth, If I can choose, I'd rather like to stay there, all by myself, and just stare at the water, the mountain, and the sky for a whole day or even longer without any thinking or worry or anything.(photo by Marina)

Hush-------- Church time now

Let's have some blissful quiet, and peaceful moment!
In Church.

The church visiting counts our days of staying in America: this is the beginning of our 3rd week since we have attended church twice. We chose the one with Saint Maria this time.
It is bigger and grander than the small cozy one we had last time. The upwardly pointing part of the Gothic building just leads our imagination soaring to where God is.
Into it, I feel the peace of the world, ourside and inside of me. The piety of the Christians, the devotion the soul shows when attending to the holy thing... I love the way you are looked into, like something warm is piercing your inner core, the hand shaking and hugging---just a declaration that each pure soul is a boundless universe, embracing all: friends; animals; enemies; strangers...
One peculiar thing I notice this time is kids in church: infants; babies; children. They are cute but also naughty and noisy. I saw a father who was almost immobile while the son was playing with him, from up to down and down to up. Another father felt embarrassed by the daughter's crying interrupting the procedure, so he asked pardon from God and quit quietly. Children are innocent. They can easily be pardoned by God and His Son. What touches me is the way Americans treat kids. Kids shouldn't be left alone at home since they are dependent, and they cannot be kicked or hushed or reprimand for they are the weak that should be protected. It may just be like the siren of police car--you cannot stop it from annoying residents and rush to rescue people in need.
Oh, I find it----there is always something the Can-Do Americans just CANNOT do.
Therefore, they just let it be. It should be left to God and God just want the world to be loving and be loved, with nobody biased. He is too idealistic and the human world is not so ideal for Him. Since even God has difficulties like this, we human beings can just laugh our problems away.

Hush now----let's show some real piety to God, from whose image we are all made.

We are invincible!

Chinese Dama are famous, a group of Chinese Dama are powerful, and a group of CSU Chinese Dama at Yale are just invincible.
We, luckily, are the Group of CSU Chinese Dama at Yale. Here is why we are invincible:

When we are together,
1. the long trip becomes a piece of cake. There are two and a half hour flight trip from Guangzhou to Beijing, and 13 and a half hours from Being to New York. It sounds horrible to most normal people, but we just feel nothing. With the pleasant company,the long boring journey was turned into a happy trip.
2. Jet lag is nothing to us. Jet lag is a common problem to internationally travelling people. It exists among us 15 too. But we just laugh when talking about this so that it has to pass without letting us down. Company happiness can cure anything.
3. Tribulations are good experiences. Dear American friends, do you see a throng of Chinese Dama, marching their way to Clinton Outlets?Yes, that is us. we got off Clinton station, and walked all the 1.8 miles. To us, all the car way to Americans can be walk way. At Outlets, we crazily grabbed the luxury merchandises. Then, we marched back to the station with all kinds of heavy loads. What's more amazing, is that we were incredibly happy when we had to wait, with empty stomach and coldness of north American deep night, at the station for 2 hours for the train that would take us back to our dear dorm. We chatted, took pictures, having a good time, beating the bad luck and becoming heroines.
Another time, we encountered a sudden heavy rain while waiting for the bus to T.J. Max. The rain tried hard to intimidate us, but we didn't even blink our eyes even though some of us were forced to climb to the pole for a while. We didnot forget to take pictures, laugh, and feel grateful for the testing experience.

If you see us CSU Chinese Dama at Yale (with 2 handsome men), don't forget to applaud.

You may not believe it if I say I found the way from the airport to New Haven was much like the one of the suburban area of my home city, Changsha in China., "I just don't feel out of China yet", as one of the lovely ladies among us said.

Life flies and we have been in America for four endeared days so far. Freedom and equality are the two things that hold my deepest impression:

Freedom    

I think American people are born free, literally. For one thing, they can be borne of any kinds: black; white; colored; Asian origin; European origin; Jewish; Christian...... 

While I was in the bus to Yale, I loved to peep into the cars passing by: the people diversity was conspicuous. You never know what comes next so that you expect some gorgeous features to stir your heart, and you always get it.

In America, it seems you can show up in any way. Nobody really cares. This makes conscious people like me feel better. I am no longer worried while in my low heels, and concerned less about my skinny facial feature. If once I wear the wrong thing, I worry for 1 habitual minute and then learn to let it go because I know nobody here really cares.

Equality

Sometimes equality may come shockingly as the opposite of freedom. For example, if freedom of running fast as it is supposed to do. In America, most of us 15 "family" members are just touched by the sweet and softness of the drivers who slowed their vehicles for us, especially when sometimes it was obvious we were the trouble makers. The strong and powerful steel just consents to the flesh, and live in harmonious equality.

Another thing is about the homeless people in the town. We ran into them frequently in some parts of New Haven. I don't know them all but my impression is that they are not as humble-felt as their counterpart in China. They may look at you into the eyes, smiling, saying, "Be happy and just smile" in the early morning when two of us were exploring the mystery of the early city. They may also kindly show you the way before asking for some change, which was hard to turn down.

The last but not at all the least is the professors here. In my impression so far, Americans are generally friendly and kind. The professor are extremely cordial. They do not possess the authority air as Chinese professors traditionally do. The dean spoke at the opening ceremony and the students may cheer or make jokes at him. And he seemed to enjoy the non-superior position of this kind. In our classroom, students sit around the lovely instructor. We just love Siggy and Carrie who are always so nice, loving, interesting, and easy to approach.

Other things, like the air, the food, the greenness, American enthusiasm in their work, the big big and big space...may come next. So, just wait......