Rachel's Spacey Walk

        10月18日（星期六）去大学城中山大学参加“亚运英语之星”比赛的复赛。参加呢个比赛的初衷系希望可以入到复赛，做亚运志愿者。既然现在入到复赛，目的已经达成，能不能成为最后十强我都唔系好mind。我担心的系我上到台会唔会讲唔出野，如果系，咁就真系disaster了。我抽签抽到下午比赛。好彩唔系上午，因为前一晚加班成11点先翻到屋企，而且可以趁上午少少时间再准备一下。

    我的亲友团只有灰灰同mila，距地山长水远去到大学城，仲带埋爱心蛋糕同奶茶，惊我口渴肚饿，让我感动了好一阵子。

    我下午第19号出场，坐在选手区等，唔紧张就怪，尤其是前面两个选手都完全screw up，上到台完全唔知讲咩。我心林，死喇，我会唔会好似佢地咁噶。不过后面的选手一个比一个厉害。唯一一个老外选手Alberto（我之前在工作中就已经认识佢。之前在初赛的时候见到佢接受媒体访问，仲以为佢来做评委，点知原来来参赛。）太引人瞩目，拿到最高分完全是在意料之中。好似灰灰话咁，佢完全知道中国人的心理。

比赛包括三分钟的prepared speech，两分钟即席演讲，同埋两条广州及常识问答。我上到台之后，无我想象中咁紧张，只系觉得d 灯光好炫眼，咩都睇唔到。我顺利咁背晒自己的
prepared speech。跟住的即席演讲只讲了一分多钟，问d咩唔系好记得。后来的常识问答题目第一条问“Who is the secretary of Guangzhou?” 我林左林，Secretary系咩意思啊？书记还是秘书长呢？朱小丹还是张广宁呢？后来我答朱小丹，好彩，岩左。第二条问题，问广州英文的旧称系咩，相信好多人都知道。系度比你地估下，唔讲答案。我的即席演讲同埋常识题目都算简单，有d人的题目简直连睇都睇唔明。

    落场之后，我去搵我的亲友团，大家一起听完我的分数，得81.44分，还算可以喇，不过我知道有点危险。因为六十个选手只挑选10个入决赛。而我当时的分数大概是下午比赛完20个选手里面排第4。听完分数后，三个系会场外面的五只羊吉祥物度影影相。

     之后，佢地返去先，我继续等到比赛结束之后先走。

    之后我入翻去继续睇埋其他人，我后面的还有一两个劲人。所以我就无份入决赛喇，果三千蚊奖金都冻过水。不过可以系2010年做亚运志愿者都系一个唔错的机会喇。比赛完之后，所有比赛选手都上台领奖状，仲有一个吉祥物公仔做纪念品。后来我问评委之一的谢睿师姐，叫佢俾意见。佢话我太calm太斯文，唔够passionate。我本来就唔系full of passion的人，再加上我都已经是“老鸟”了，还有什么passion可言呢。

详情请留意广州电视英文频度每晚8点半播出的复赛片段。

最近工作比较清闲，

有许多空余时间让我胡思乱想。

虽然俾人话我“晒气”、“晒时间”，

但是既然是自己选择的就要坚持。

无论结果如何，至少我尝试过、争取过，

就好似小学课本里面那个“小马过河”的故事，

松鼠说河水太深，老牛说河水很浅，

最后的结果是怎样，小马自己尝试以后才知道。

我不知道自己能不能成功过到对岸，

但我想如果我在河中遇溺，

会有人拉我一把吧~~

对于朋友在生命中的重要性，我从来也不怀疑。

我是一个害怕寂寞又超级缺乏安全感的人，

讨厌一个人在家中无所事事。

周末与朋友小聚 –

吃饭、行街、打球、唱 K……

节目多得很。

感谢有这样的人在我身边，

听我说话，对我包容，知道我的不安全感~

Thanks, friends!

在家的时候，

读读书，看看报，听音乐，看电影。

最近爱上看老掉牙的电影 –

1959年玛丽莲·梦露的《热情似火》(Some Like it Hot),

搞笑又夸张的演绎，

让我笑足两个小时；

经典的爱情喜剧《蒂凡尼早餐》(Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

虽然剧情是不怎么样，

但是以后的同类电影都是按照这个套路的，

所以现在看起来，才会觉得它老套，

我超爱最后的雨景，呵呵。

1932年的《亨利八世和他的六个妻子》，

画面和音质太差，

只看了一半就没看下去了。

间中还跟老妈练练书法，

因为被人很批我的字写得太差了。

还有帮红十字会的心灵阳光工程做笔译，

工作量不大，没有报酬，也不计报酬，

当是自己为灾区出一份力。

这就是我的近况，

没有太多的激情和惊喜，

但也过得不算无聊吧，

(*^__^*) 嘻嘻……

This November, the Americans have a choice to make – to choose a man who they think deserve the title of "President of the United States". Will it be Barack Obama, the first black presidential nominee in American history with a last name rhymes with the biggest terrorist in the world, or John McCain, an old and loyal Republican who claims to have devoted himself for the country not only in the Vietman War, but also in most of his life?

The Americans are keeping their figures crossed, praying that the next president could guide them out of the darkness. But in my opinion, whoever they choose, he is going to fail them.

In 2000, the Republican and the Democrats fought a long and hard battle only to let a big disaster hold power. In the 2008 election, however, the two contestants within the democratic party already put up an ulgy fight and wasted a big fortune. Who knows what will happen when the real game begins.

This election system is more likely to nurture politicians(政客) than statesmen/women(政治家), particularly in recent eletions. Politicians set his or her sight at the elections, trying every means to win the votes. They make empty promises that please the voters but care less about whether they can achieve them in the future. A true stateman should have broad and far vision that can see the big picture of the present world and US's status in it.

For instance, in the end of 1920s and the turn of 1930s, a big reccession hit America pretty bad. Franklin Roosevelt, who is well-known for his "New Deal", took a drastic move soon after he came into office and led America out of the slump. Looking at the present economic slowdown (more and more are calling it a reccession), Bush administrastion's actions to save the market was "too little too late". If it had realized the potential damage that the sub-mortage crisis may do to the country as early as last July, did something more than lowering interests rates and injecting tax payers' money to the about-to-bankrupt banks, this crisis may not have spreaded like a contagious disease to almost every field of America or even the world.

But this economic crisis is deep-rooted. In the Reagen and Bush sr. periods, when economy boomed and fortune accumulated, the gap between the rich and the poor has increasingly widened. Aggravated in the Clinton period, the conflicts began to surface at the last one or two years of the 20th century. But Bush jr. is no smarter. He lay his hands everywhere and spent such a large amount of the country's wealth on military, leaving this mass to the successor. For a quarter of a century, these presidents borne by the "Two-party" system have failed to meet their promises to develop a healthy economy, which led to the present crisis.

Whoever will be elected as preident in November, he has a cliff before him and a devil behind. While bearing so much expectations from the voters, he has to clean up the mass left by Bush Administration, or to say it fairer, by the fault of the American political system.

Written with information from Guangzhou Daily, July 27, 2008 A7.