城中人

      Vocation is almost over and I will soon start my new work.

      I'm a bit worried about the new start as there bound to be many challenges. In the past 2 weeks, I did enjoy my long-waited vocation, a free one without thinking about work! I visited the beautiful Egypt, met interesting people and did pre-work shopping. I'm happy to try every item in shops but the last thing I wanna see is my credit card bill.

      OKay...work...and then I can travel again...

     I'm back to HK, from Egypt. The 10 day trip appears a dream to me, something in a distant world.

     This is a country that you shouldn't miss in your lifetime.

     My journey started with midnight flight and the expected hot weather. Upper Egypt has blue sky, golden sunshine, green palm tree and peaceful Nile. I like the cruise on Nile. The river goes through towns where temples from acient times stand in the evening twilight, silent. Stones and sculptures are telling us yesterday's glory, while boys and girls that sell handcrafts to tourists are telling today's helplessness. It's unlucky that more than 80% of its land is covered with sand and the country lives heavily on agriculture, tourism and oil exploration & transportation.

     I do like the Red Sea and the beautiful corals. I wish I had learnt diving before. I was a bit scared to jump into water at the beginning, but in the end I was reluctant to stop swimming. I hadn't seen so many colors of the sea with my true eyes. I got to know that industrials are not developed in this country and air is not much polluted in upper Egypt and the Red Sea area. Some people live in proverty here, but they enjoy the luxury of clean air and sunshine. We're not living in proverty in HK, but we need to spend money to fly to other places for fresh air. There is always a trade-off.

     Needless saying too much about Pyramids, Sphinx, temples and the Nile. I wish I could have more time talking to local people and get to know more about this country. Thanks to Omar. More than explaining the heritage to us, he did tell me much about the culture and religion about the Arabic country. It might be common in Islamic countries, but surprising to me, that I can hardly see women working. Girls that start their middle school need to wear hijabs. Women don't wear tight clothes and they need to wear hijabs no matter how hot it is. As a result, I don't think women are as pretty as I expected.  

      Some interesting topics that we came across: women's status, terrorism and property price in Red Sea area. Though a Muslim man can marry up to 4 wives, he needs to be fair to all his wives and he needs to get other wives' permission before he marries another wife. It seems that divorce rate is low in Egypt. I'm not sure it's because of the religion, but I think it should have something to do with that. Many people in western countries and Asia think Muslims are those kind of terrorists. But the Muslims I met at Egypt are nice and peaceful people. It's human nature that salespeole would like to earn more money in tourist areas. I admit that I did meet with sexual harrasement on my first at Hatsheepsut Temple, but that is the only occurance. Generally speaking, I don't feel unsafe in Egypt. At the time that I was lost at the Bazaar in Cairo, I felt anxious to find the right way back and some people couldn't understand English but they managed to find someone that can speak English and told me the right way back. Talking about terrorism, I still don't think it's related to religion or race. I would rather think it's because of someone going to extreme or it's the wrong way to express some desire or even hatred. Regarding the property price near Red Sea, seaview apartment might cost USD200K - 300K. Well, think this might not be expensive for a world class resort area. If not a house near Red Sea, an apartment in Alexandria facing the Meditteranean is not a bad idea as well. 

      There is still one question that confuses me even after my trip to Egypt: what made the acient giant fall and why it failed to develop as what China did in the past 30 years. China and Egypt share a lot of similarities in the past, but they're on different routes now...

     I miss home.

     After seeing high turnover in our team in the past 2 years, I'm not shocked at all when I hear more people quit. I congratulate them as they're either brave enough to end this chapter and look for something new, or lucky enough to find a better or happier job.

      Watching a team getting looser everyday and good staff leaving, it's hard to keep subjective. Still, trying to keep professional and responsible for what I say and what I do. Another lesson in life - people behave significantly different under such circumstances and you won't know what a person truly is until such critical point.

      You might think you know some close friends well, but end up find unable to see a person. So don't be too critical on others, and more importantly, don't be too critical on yourself. This is another lesson I need to work on.

      Still, I wish I could open my own juice-shop someday, somewhere in China. And I do miss home and parents.

         I'm not ready to accept the fact that a friend of my age is engaged only 4 months after she knew her Mr. Right.

         I'm not ready to admit that I will be called Auntie next year as another good friend around my age just gave birth to a babe boy.

         Maybe it's just because I am not ready to step into another stage of life.

     I used to be scared when approaching my 25th birthday, as I felt 30 would be right at the corner when I got 25...

     Now only 3 years left before I get 30 years old but I'm less worried. I've come up with an idea at midnight one day that I should call for a get-together with my childhood friends who grew up in Nantong, no matter where we will be then. We can pick a place and a date and every participant, should try their best to make the attendence.

     Hopefully I can get some support...

    

       回家的时候楼下的管理员跟我说，旁边的1号楼今天确诊了H1N1流感的病例，并安慰说不用担心。

       想来他的上级指示也确有此地无银三百两之嫌，不过住户们想必早有心理准备，没有哪里是绝缘的。

       家是照样要回的，班耶是照样要上的，所能做的就是保持个人卫生，其他的，留着让命运去决定吧。

       想起前两天，还在跟妈妈开玩笑，说SARS的时候很怕死，学也不上了，偷偷溜回了家，而现在，没那么自由了，不能不上班跑回家，不过能做的，就是让老妈老老实实待在南通别来香港。

     随着年龄的增长，我已经写不出煽情的文字，但是我还是想祝愿我那些即将离开香港的朋友们 all the best!

     坤坤要回北京了，不知道香港给她留下了什么样的印象；Hannah今天last day，过两个月会开始她在法国的学生生活；Amy明天last day, 她非常勇敢的做出了一个选择，我很欣赏她的勇气，扪心自问，我做不到。

     当我们为了生活或者这样那样的原因而不得不放下我们的年少轻狂和自尊时，我们便被赋予了成熟的字样。但是，生活是需要转折点的，而且工作不值得我们去为之牺牲亲情，爱情，友情和健康。在合适的时间做合适的事情，才是生活，而不是度日。

     希望有一日，我能有勇气和决心让生活轨道出现一个转折。