People Are Born to Do Different Things

I watched Victoria's Secret show 2013 last night, and I watched 2008-2012 Victoria's Secret show during last month. It sounds too dishonest if I say I am not jealous at all after watching six years' Victoria's Secret show, I'd better honestly admit I feel it's unfair---- angles on the stage are just taking advantage of what they were born with! They are born with long legs, trim waist, sometimes even big boobs and nice bottoms, etc. They are gifted with super-model-DNA! A friend of mine comforted me that they have to take drugs to keep their figure. Also, I know they have to be on diet every minute and even do intensive exercise like professional athletes. I know they work hard behind the stage, but the point is no matter how hard we normal people try behind the stage, we are not going to be on the in front of the stage. Just like what I said they it's unfair, they are just taking advantage of what they are gifted with.
WAIT A MINUTE---they can take advantage of what they are gifted with, why can't we?! They are gifted with perfect figure and flawless face but we are gifted with other things, things that are not so obvious to find out. Go and dig out your own gift. They can be super model, but you play even better roles.

Scattered thoughts about 'Secondhand Lions'

It has been a long time I haven't seen such great movie that touched me, educated me,and struck me both artistically and philosophically.
In general, I really like the overall mood of this movie----the main part of the story happens on a remote farm, which kind of actualize traditional fairy tales usually happen in a totally fictitious place.However, I have to say the whole story is still a fairy tale because it purifies and beautifies a lot of complicated things in real life. In the movie, the remote farm is insulated not only by distance,but also by some signs read "DANGER EXPLOSIVES IN AREA NO TRESPASSING KEEP OUT", "ATTACK DOGS AND A PIG", "NUCLEAR RADIATION",etc.Actually, these are things that insulate us from fairy tales. Of course, I don't mean the literal meaning of those signs and there was no such things on the signs exist in the farm.Those signs are created on purpose to keep people away from the farm, but in reality, people like to create obstacles by themselves to block their own way to "pure land".
There was no terrifying crash scenes to excite you, there was no heartbroken love story to upset you, there even was not hot guys and girls to attract you. It's just a simple story save you from the cruel reality, give you a breath from your rushing life.I know it's all about not-gonna-happen dreams, but I'd rather believe in it just like what Hub taught me in the movie:

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things needs to believe in the most.That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that goods always triumphs over evil; and I want to you to remember this, that love...true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."

My Adventure in the Supermarket

Every time I go to supermarket, I feel like I am an illiterate, actually, I am worse than an illiterate because at least they have no problem in speaking but I am the one who cannot speak in Finnish at all,not to mention reading the instructions on the package. However, I have several strategies to deal with my awkward situation in the supermarket:
1. If it is agricultural products, I always try to dig out all my common sense hidden in my memory to recognise what it is and this method works quite well relying on my relatively abundant "market experience" back in China. The problem is usually I don't buy it if I don't recognise it, but recently I decide to try something new even though I have no idea what it is and how I am going to do with it. It takes me quite a long time to google it after I bring it home.
2.If it is food with package, I always make a guess what is in it according to the picture and the words on the package.The words on the package are seldom in English but some Finnish or Sweden are quite like English so I can always find some "clue" between it, for example fett is fat, jogurtti is yogurt. However, picture sometimes cannot help especially when you looking for some ingredients, they look all the same no matter you show the picture of them or even themselves. Smelling it can help but normally you cannot do this before you buy it.
3.Recently, I've found another quite useful strategy to solve my problem---google the Finnish for your "targets" before you go to supermarket, and ask people when you are in the supermarket.The problem is you cannot always find a staff to ask in the supermarket.

Strategies are just strategies, which means they cannot always work.However, Finnish people never let you down whenever you need help.
About two month ago, I was trying to find some pork in the supermarket. How can you distinguish pork from beef and other kinds of red meat without reading the instructions on the package???!!!(back then I didn't know we can buy meat in the fresh counter) I wondered in f the refrigeration block for a while but still didn't have any idea in my mind so I decided to ask a lady approaching me.Unfortunately, she couldn't speak English but what surprised me was she didn't give up because of the language barrier--- after I kept repeating "pig pig pig", she seemed to understand my question and she made a sound like "moo moo moo"to show me which is beef and made another sound to show me which is pork. My problem was perfectly solved.I felt more touched than happy because her lovely acts to help a stranger.
Such things are not rare. About two weeks ago, I was trying to find some fish in front of the fresh counter. I was curious about one kind of "white fish" so I ask the girl behind the counter what it was. She felt sorry didn't know the English name of it but she made her effort to explained to me the fish was special for Christmas dishes and wrote down the Finnish name "turska" for me so I could google it after I came home. When I left the counter, she even said "wish you can make good soup" to me.However, the best part of the story hasn't come yet. When I went to the supermarket again this week, she was there wearing her warm smile as usual and suddenly, she asked me "How was you soup with turska?" "I was really good, thank you so much!" "I am really glad to hear that." Again, a strong stream of warmth was flowing in my heart.
I feel so honored to meet such great people in Finland.

Music and I

My father is very talented in music.He can sing Bel canto beautifully and even has won several prizes because of his beautiful voice. I still remember one time after he sang at a Karaoke bar, some stranger presented a bouquet to him. Like some talented people in the story, he began to play different kinds of instruments at a very young age, of course, without anyone teaching him. Later, he even began to compose.I know my topic is "Music and I" but why I keep talking about my father? Because later, he became an outstanding surgeon whose works do nothing about music except when new year party is coming.Also, he married my mother who was extremely beautiful but cannot sing at all.So he became nervous about my talent in singing when I was only a baby. However, life always goes against one's wishes. After I learned to sing my first nursery rhymes, my father couldn't be more disappointed.I inherited my mothers' talent in singing, which means I have no talent in singing.I just couldn't sing at the right pitch no matter how many times my father sang the right one to me. I just couldn't.
When I was 7 years old, my mother decided to send me to learn to play the accordion. Actually, I was about to learn to play the violin but my father said "No, she cannot play the violin because she cannot reach the right pitch, just let her to play some kind of keyboard instrument."
However, I proved he was wrong later. My ears are  perfect compared to my mouth, they can easily sense the difference in pitch. Even more surprising is that I do have talent in playing the accordion, or in the music. I think my understanding of music is as good as my father's, or at least, can compare to his. I clearly remember there was one time I was sleeping, suddenly I felt some melody in my mind attracting me, dragging me out of my bed. Somehow, I was in the living room when I opened my eyes and saw my father was in a great shock.
" Do you know you have been sitting there with your eyes closed for a while? I didn't dare to wake you up because I thought you were sleepwalking. But you just sat down and it seems you were listening to the music. You were?"
 "I don't know, I don't know if I was awake or not. I just heard something. It's beautiful. I think is the one playing on the CD now, right?"
" Yes, it's 'An der schönen Blauen Donau'."
From then on, I was deeply fascinated by classical music and Johann Strauß became my favorite composer.I will never forget how I enjoyed when I was playing 'Frühlingsstimmen’. Every time I listened to a symphony I feel like there are pictures showing in my mind, or the composer is personally telling me his story. Music for me is like another space where I can get rid of any suffering and be the purest self.

Homesick

I feel I am the one who seldom feels homesick.
I still remember the first day I arrived my university--two of my roommates couldn't stop crying after their parents left. My father also came with me to my university in Beijing which is really far from my hometown. The last time I saw him before he went back home was in a hospital where I was doing my physical examination and he just came by and said goodbye to me. I didn't feel much then and afterwards so my roomates' upset was quite beyond my understanding. However,it's maybe just like my mom always says "You are just too shy or too disdainful to show your true feelings". Yes, I am a real coward when expressing my fragile feelings. Sometimes, I even cannot face up my true feelings by myself.
There do exist one occasion when I truly feel homesick or I can properly face my homesick.That is when I miss the food there, the food only exists in my hometown, the food I've got used to for 18 years, the food made by my parents.Food is an essential part that connects you to your hometown, it stimulates your homesickness.Food reminds you of how you felt when you ate it, with whom you ate it with, when and where you ate it, who made it for you...all of these burn your desire to come back, to recreate the scene in your memory. There is a saying: To capture a man's heart, capture his stomach. I think your hometown does the same thing.
Hometown is not a physical site,instead, it more exists in your mental world. Your hometown could not be beautiful, but it must be warm. There, you can find things that grew up with you, places that you are most familiar with, language or accent through which you can best express yourself, people who were in company with you when you were in your most naive period, families who will never leave you... these form your root which forms you.

Snow

I've never seen such a big snow in my life.Also, this is the longest time a snow ever exists in my life. I mean, the snow in my hometown usually only stayed for one day, or one and half at most;this time, the snow has already stayed for three days and I think, or I hope it will last for the whole winter.I know this sounds not fun at all or even boring for Finnish and other people from the north, but you will never know how children lives in the south have been longing for the snow.I dare to say every southern child has a dream full of snow--- roof is covered with snow as blanket, road is covered with snow as carpet, there is no green or yellow tree but white, you can feel the crunch when you step into the snow...of course, snowman and snowball fight cannot be missed.Although I am not a child any more, the dream is still alive. Finally, the dream has been realised in Finland. However, as a grown-up, compare to the noise we can make during the snowball fight, I am more fascinated by the quietness the snow brings to us. Jyvaskyla is already a pretty quiet city compared to Beijing, the snow even makes the city quieter. We always relate snow with purity. I assume the reason should not only be the color of the snow which makes all the surrounding in white, but also the silence comes with the snow. The silence is not simply related with my hearing,moreover, it calms me down.It gives me the space to think separately, to think all by myself.It gives me a pause to rest my heart.

Scattered Thoughts about St. Petersburge

Two things impressed me most about St. Petersburg was the architecture and women there.
The glamour of the architecture in St. Petersburg took my breath away.Almost every building in the central part of the city has been standing there for over hundreds years. The marks of the years on each building gives people infinite space to imagine--- what happened to it? who lived in it? who has the same feeling with me when passing it? Every building is like a book recording the history happened around and telling the story happened in.I was not a visitor, I was more like a reader, a devotional reader. Streets in the city are all extremely straight. The architectures along the streets even added more dignity to the streets.However, they never bores you with the dignity, they strike you with the elegance and overwhelming spectacular behind the dignity.They reminded me of, no, they are the embodiment of powerful king and queen in the days of the Czars.They convince people of the prosperity and tsarist Russia.The ordinary building in St. Petersburg are so striking, let alone those cathedrals and palaces. Sometimes, I felt they are too much for me. The luxury and splendor became the burden for me to digest. I felt they crossed the border thus being over even showing some kind of affectation.
Women in St. Petersburg are just like the architectures--- extraordinarily glamorous.I walked on the streets, I was busy resting my eyes on those architectures and taking a quick glance at those stunning legs. I seldom saw any woman in St. Petersburg wearing trousers even it's snowing, instead, they were extremely good at using stockings to show their beautiful legs which were well deserving a show.No matter how old they are, they are never stingy to give people a feast of their attractive legs which are extremely straight(like streets there) and long, without any excessive fat.Fine,I admit, I am kind of jealous.Oh, I almost forgot women there are fans of high heels. I think high heels like them too, they can bring the best feature of those high heels.
Splendid, unapproachable, and mysterious, for both the architecture and women in St. Petersburg.