Break

The Chinese school where I have been teaching will finish its school year this Saturday. On that day there will be a students' show for their parents. We have rehearsed twice. My students did great. I am very looking forward to it. It has been a great experience to teach Mandarin to middle school kids every Saturday morning. The school has six or seven classes for kids of different ages to learn Cantonese and Mandarin. During the class break, seeing students fly around and hearing their noise is very enjoyable. Also, seeing my students improve makes me feel I have accomplished something. It is a good feeling. We have reached a point where they are used to my teaching style and where I know how to teach them well. So it is sad to leave them. Next year, they will have a new teacher. I hope they will have a great transition.

My volleyball league has come to a break too. We finished the spring season. The summer one will not begin until a month later. Again we ranked No. 2 out of the six teams. This was the fourth time that I played with this team and the third time that we ranked the second place. There is always something missing in my team that stops us from getting the championship. "We have issues in our team", one teammate said. Our passing is not always that great; we don't have a fast-running setter; we have a few short people... Well, we just play for fun. A bunch of grads, posdocs, and lab researchers get together to work out a bit every Tuesday evening. The good thing for me is that I finally got the feel of passing in this season: Form my arm platform and place it facing the setter, ninety percent of the times, I'll give a good pass. During this break, I can focus on improving my hitting technique.

I had wanted to take a break with T too. After seeing him for several months, I told him the points in his personality that I had difficulty coping with. He was a little upset with me for a couple of days. Then one night before we went to sleep, he popped the three words. "I want you to know it", he said. That moment my heart was moved. And I decided to take this three-year younger, ghetto, completely spontaneous, not always patient, very judgmental, but very loyal, always supportive, and hopelessly romantic kid. I'll accept his personality. Certainly there will still be many issues. But my attitude has changed from "I don't know whether it is worth working on them" to "okay, let's work on them".

Some breaks mean farewell, some getting better.

清理

这一周的事情很多。周一学开车；周二、周三做口译；周四拔智齿；周五做研究汇报。周一时觉得压力很大，但当一项一项做起来，也就都过来了。

最近开始做几件拖了很久的事，就像清理陈年旧帐。

先是学开车。来美国三年多，在旧金山市内坐公交车，一点问题没有；可一出远门就要蹭别人的车。比如去滑雪，我很想多去几次，可是要找愿开车和我去又喜欢滑雪的，就不那么容易。又比如在夏威夷，都是T开车跑来跑去，我坐在车里，总觉得很不好意思。要搬去洛杉矶，人人都说不会开车不行，于是就学起来了。教练是个实践派，第一次见面就把我放在了司机的位置上，领着我在旧金山高高低低的路上练习。第三次时让我开车去接他的孩子放学，在一个盘山路上转来转去，非常惊险。在这样师傅的指导下，我的胆子也越来越大。

游泳课从下周开始上。这也是一个计划很久但一直没有实现的事情。夏威夷之行给了我很大刺激。不会游泳，连潜伏（snorkeling）都不可以，错过了很多乐趣。在慕尼黑做毕业论文时，实验室有一个潜水（diving）爱好者，休假的时候去埃及、希腊海边潜水，拍回了很多海底漂亮的照片。当时的实验室研究荧光蛋白质（fluorescent proteins），最常用的荧光蛋白质就是从珊瑚中提取出来的，我们开玩笑说，他在潜水时可以带一些试样回来。我当时也向他表示自己对潜水很感兴趣。在我离开实验室时，他认真地说，“don't forget to learn diving”。想想这已是三四年前的事，现在自己还是个旱鸭子。在这边去过几次游泳池，试图自悟一下。但水对我来说是一种全新的环境，真有点有力无处使的感觉。所以还是决定上个班看看。

还有就是对身体的修修补补。快要离开现在的工作了，要把健康保险好好利用一下。等去洛杉矶上学，保险就要自己买了。于是去配了副眼镜，计划把有潜在危险的两个智齿拔掉。周四去找R医生拔第一颗。据他说我的牙齿是一个“difficult case”。“I under-estimated it”，他的原话。所以拔了很久。他鼓捣了半个多小时，各种金刚器械频繁换来换去，只听他呼吸渐重，终于他说，“真费劲，我先坐下休息一下”。算是拔牙时的一个笑话。我开他玩笑说，要不要换个姿势？

最后就是在贻贝上做买卖。总是听人说贻贝上卖东西买东西如何好玩。我中文学校一位六七岁的小朋友有一天都说，“I don't like my sun glasses. I'll sell them on Ebay”。我始终很好奇，但都懒得建账号。两周前总算一试，卖出了一块硬盘。还记得看到第一个也是唯一的一个竞标时自己的兴奋。当时每天查一下出售情况，也给自己的生活带来些乐趣。