^{神采飞扬地}

    People come and go. When those who you met by chance get in wonderful terms with you and you start to love them and care about them have to leave from your life and probably will scarcely be back, how you would face it? I have to say I’m pretty dumb in such situation. It’s so not like in any movies that you could grab them at the very last moment, and make a very sentimental confession. There’s the real life situation where some good wishes just fit.

    Dear Y just finished his project in China days before, having staying here for over one year, and went back home with his family today. I always become very upset and frustrated when people I love leave and will never show up whenever I want to see them. I would take it quite well, but it hurts so much.

    And this is a friend I made in a very uncontrollable situation and a very innocent period. I started my work at SWS in September that year. For the first several months, I knew nothing about the environment and people there, and I got very awkward meeting all those Greek people for the first time. Right after one month, Y came to be in charge of the site team, and I met him for the first time, when he stroke me nothing special but being a quite polite and very handsome man. I know I was very careless and clumsy at work at that time, and I couldn’t get used to their strong Greek accent. But he was always generous and patient and took everything easy. I started to feel better and sometimes I would even be joking with them. His door was always open to me and he shared his life anecdotes with me all the time. But during his work hours, he was really committed and serious. It seemed that he would worry about too many things, the work, his family, anything that comes along, but actually living abroad is not easy for him, he had to be sure that everything was going in his way. He even tried to learn Chinese, though ended up in understanding a lot of crap.

    Among all the Greek people that I knew from work and social gatherings, I found he's the only one who’s every devoted to his family and wife. He didn’t have various romantic histories with other women before and he’s always responsible for his family even when he’s alone abroad for a rather long time. And besides, after I was introduced to his children, I found the way he took with them was the exact way my father took with me. And I just love it.

    He’s such a man of merits, and what’s very important is that he always puts things on the table; he never shies away from anything he doesn’t like. Is this the most gorgeous man on the world? Plus, he’s amazingly handsome and tasteful for fashion.

    We had a happy send-off dinner last night, but I was too shy to express myself properly for my real affectionate feelings as a friend, and only ended up with some stupid good wishes. I really should learn to be very straightforward from him and air all what I want to say whenever I want. Stupid people, damn it! Who cares.

--Claire

In the daily occurrences, she was silent while the world was talking; while in her poems, it was she, alone, who’s articulate for belief, nature, and death. I suppose she’s aware that it’s hapless to expect perfection of an imperfect world but perfection was all she wanted for her life, therefore she made up a spiritually perfect little world of her own, bringing all the heavenly immortality to the feast.

I think I know the culprit for her keeping at a distance from the world. That was her gradual obsession with letters. As a horse sense, people would be more frank to their own feelings and “speak” more correctly on the paper, because they are granted with time and space to listen to their heart closely. But as soon as she found words on paper instead of that from mouth could speak more and better of her mind; and all the people around her unconsciously encouraged this way of communication, she got a good reason to retreat from the world entirely. It was just like the modern internet over-indulged youth, who communicate better and more via network than in reality. The only vital difference was that some create something spectacular in this condition while some else don’t.

And the world is a huge substantial machine, which needs people to contribute to its proper operation in order to guarantee the worldly happiness of the majority. But such mysterious great poets should just be worshipped high at the shrine and their master works be relished to keep a calm and safe distance from the desire-ridden society.

--Claire

    Right after the delivery of Ana’s ship, Vas got struck by the electric current and was found to have an explosive fracture on the backbone. But fortunately the strike didn’t get further onto the nerves, which otherwise would be a disaster for him. He hesitated to take any therapy in Shanghai since he didn’t trust China’s medical capacity at all. The doctors here refused to give any pain killers, which compounded his desperation. He tried to get advice from the specialised doctors in his own country, and also get as much information as possible from the local doctor to thoroughly understand his own case before anything is made done to his bone. Actually the backbone could heal itself gradually as long as he doesn’t move. But he was anxious to go back to Greece. He thought his life sucked here, but his pretexts were quite lame. Finally he agreed to take the surgery with still glimmerings of suspect. His seventy something parents flew to take care of him, his fellow supervisors came to see him now and then at their spare time. Though he’s querulous about his life here, he’s got a lot of friends coming to visit him. He’s a very fun man anyway. And also I took much time to be a company of him in the hospital, partly because I thought it would be very miserable for a foreigner, who hated this country, staying here all by his own in such a terrible condition, partly because I could well communicate with him and enjoy the same hobbies with him, such as the fancy cars, travelling, etc.

    His parents arrived, and he’s over with the surgery, and moved into a larger hotel apartment. After nearly a month from the early August to early September, he got gorgeous fellowmen, who helped him contact with the insurance company, which helped him get onto the plane with air hospital to go back to Greece.

    Vas was a fun man, though he didn’t like China. He’s really fun to be with. People would never get bored with him. He has always been leading a venturous life from his childhood, therefore he’s got a lot to share with others. Perhaps it’s the national trait, he always had a bunch of interesting experience and thoughts like a real philosopher. I cherish all the time spending with him as we probably could not meet again for the rest of our life.

    Now there’re things about myself. While Vas was undergoing the pain, I’m taking the mentally even more tormenting interviews in the hope of changing my job as soon as possible. Due to my short work experience, I got some tiny slim chances to the interviews after sending dozens of CVs, and even fewer offers after taking the few interviews.

    The interviews normally last a short while, but I could tell from my own experience that the preparation for a would-be-successful interview could be anything but pleasant. I don’t have a slick tongue, but I’m supposed to show the best self, which should naturally be displayed through one’s behaviour instead of extravagant description. I’ve been tortured for nearly two months and finally got a might-be desirable offer. Every family member was happy for me, and every friend was happy for me coz at last I managed to strut to get out of this company, and leave all the jealous eyes on my back.

    Actually I’m not so sure what I’m going to go through, whether it’s another dungeon beyond my expectation. But what I am certain is that it’s going to be one step upward. It is located in a business centre, and it’s a quite famous company, and my position could be a lot more challenging, plus, with a catching package. It looks all right, and what’s more important is that I made all the things happen all by myself, which made my parents rather proud of me. I know one of the happiness in my life is to make my parents always feel proud of their daughter.

--Claire

    It was a perfunctory ceremony as far as I could tell. The ultimate buyer and ANA were neither satisfactory about the ship we built. But with regards to the money the buyer considered they would lose if they rejected to receive this vessel, they made this business anyhow. And the original delivery day was already dragged off for nearly a whole month, they had to made quick decision otherwise they both party would lose more. Therefore, the naming day was fixated on 19^th, this Thursday.

    Therefore, I worked out everything needed within the short two days. I went out with Mr. Z the evening right before the naming day to buy the gifts for the godmother and my company. We chose a gift of nearly one thousand euros for the godmother, which was a very stunning pearl necklace. Before we did that, I consulted some of the leaders for the value of a present, they all proposed for something which worth 1000 RMB, to take and give some numbers, compared with which, Mr. Z looked so generous like Duke Edmond. On that very day, we received all the guests in the early morning by 9:40, and left for the naming site onboard outside the wheel house. At noon time, we held the banquet for celebration at RAMADA pudong, at last we went back to have the relevant documents signed. All the things went quite well, but I think I could have behaved more high-mindedly. I was kind of nervous to be Mr. Z’s simultaneous interpreter that day, just because I cared too much about his opinion to concentrate and be gracious.

 
--Claire

I almost spent all my June at sea for a series of sea trials due to the crummy quality of the ship’s main engine. It was tough time for the supervisors, who were supposed to do many tests for almost every mechanically equipments to ensure that they were working properly. But it was entirely different to me, who regarded it as not only a kind of vacation, but a smart chance to learn something new. For the first day onboard, everything was just amazing to me. Originally I thought it never hit between my eyes to see such a big ship for it was just a commonplace in our company. But when it came to onboard myself, it’s totally a different story. The ship was just titanic in front of me looked from the left wing of the bridge. And it was really high above the horizon for about seven or eight stories.

When I was totally puzzled about what to begin my journey, a supervisor who happened to be not occupied offered the tour guiding service to me. He took me around to the forecastle deck to see anchoring, the stern deck to see the life boat and even down to the engine control room to see how things work for the ship sail as was expected. That was really fantastic to me. And also I got to know the accommodations myself thanks to the signs at the turn of every stair. After grasping some basic knowledge about this giant machine, I moved on to something technical. I actually was not assigned to do anything pertaining to the work, and people all knew that I was onboard to relax. But I was not such person who would let the grass grow under the feet. I started to learn how to navigate. I stayed in the bridge all day long to see how the captain was working and I tried to ask some questions at his break. He taught me how to spot the position we were at sea, how to understand the radar control board, and how to make a turn, to name just a few.

But the most gorgeous thing I felt during the sea trial was the unparalleled beauty and the vastness of the sea. The water was still very muddy for the first day we left the quay for it was still within the range of the Yangtze River. But when I opened my eyes the next morning, it was completely a different view. Being surrounded by the dark blue water stretching far away to the end of the earth, touching no land at all, the ship was simply in the narrow middle of the water and the very low clear and azure sky. I was so struck by this greatness that all words failed me to articulate my ecstasy. Fortunately the weather was unexpectedly fine that day, which was once in a million chances. There’s no wind at all, so almost no waves were stirred. Only some ripples were jiggling while breezes blew westwards, which was nothing but calm and carefree, at the tip of the right intensity to pacify the impetuous mind. And the very romantic picture happened in the evening when the crescent was hanging high up in the sky, reflecting its shadow so brightly onto the surface of the sea to a broad extent. My eyebrow was so raised to catch this scene, which I never thought I would have to chance to feast my eyes on for my life. It was so beautiful, almost the same as that in the fairy tales, that I was just stammered to utter a single word. All was silver on the shimmering waves.

The great nature without any exterior forces asserts its potency in front of the human humbly but with indomitable spirit. A single person’s sadness was so dwarfed by the vast sea that my ambivalent thoughts about the future was to some extent diffused. I was peaceful in my soul at the sight of all these things. And it really made me resolute about what I was planning to do for my lifetime.

--Claire Ding