Feeding Birds on the Meadow

           

     Sitting on a bench on the edge of the meadow in front of the library, I saw flocks of sparrows flying down .They are small and thin, with small, but bright eyes. They hopped here and there , looking for food. I threw some pieces of bread on the ground, they immediately came forward .They took the food, not frightened at all.

       The leisure of the sparrows, the lightness and ease they come and go  surprised me. They reminded me of the birds that often come to the patio of our apartment in Changsha. Our apartment is on the top floor. My mother always grows some vegetables and flowers there. The birds often come to eat off the shoots of plants. Some of them will even dig out the seeds in the ground. They flush out as soon as we open the door to the patio. What is more, they are rather fat, some of them as heavy as small chickens. So when they flutter, we could feel the movement of the air and hear the sounds of the wings.  Instead of being cute and lovely, they are sometimes annoying. Sometimes I wonder how they could get so heavy ! Is it they eat too much? Or is it they move so little?

The Basement in Our House

        Since we moved in last month, we have been to the basement only once. That is when we came to look at the house for the first time and were told where to wash our clothes. I am a little afraid to go down there .

One day last week, Sunny wanted to get her blanket washed. So Christina, Armanda and I accompanied her. Once we were in, we turned to one of the three big machines painted in white. First we tried to insert one dollar coin, but we could not. Then Sunny changed to quarter coins, but still it did not work. Armada somehow pulled back the small pane with the coin. Suddenly the machine gave out a sound and started working. We could not help laughing. Sometimes things do happen by accident.

After that , I had a look around the basement. It was a bit dark and smelly. In the middle , there are three big water containers, each maybe for each floor. I think that is where our hot water comes from. Along the walls are piled some broken furniture , some used bicycle and some discarded clothes.

I noticed the lower part of the wall. It was built of stones of some kind. The cement and the stones were naked, suggesting that this must be a house built many years ago. Water leaked from water pipes so that a quite large area of the ground was wet. The basement floor was naked as well, neither with coverings nor painted.

On the ceiling there are more pipes, this time of smaller size. It seems to me there are a lot of them, going in this direction and that direction.  They must be pipes for heater in winter.

Four Police Cars Outside Our Apartment !(2)

        Four Police Cars Outside Our Apartment!(2)

Two firemen in uniform, one young, one elderly, fully equipped , came up. They asked us about the strange sound, went around the apartment and made guesses about the cause. They examined the heater as well. Another fireman came with the detector. Finally they said it was probably from the battery.

As they went down I felt a little guilty of causing trouble to them. As I stepped out of the house, I stood frozen. In the street in front of our house four police vehicles were parking !  Two were cars , the other two firemen trucks with water pipes or something. Red lights were flickering . Some police were getting out. Still others were talking by the cars. Some neighbors came out out of curiosity. A scene I have only seen in terror films!  

Our heart swelled with guilt at this. We had felt worried a fire might break out. We had never meant so much fuss! We sincerely expressed our apology to the police but they said that is what they are here for. We could not but marvel at the efficiency and professionalism of American police.

   In New Haven, every now and then , we can hear police car horning . I will instinctively become tense and nervous at this, for in China it means terrible things have happened. The experience makes me more relaxed about the sound of police cars. 

Four Police Cars Outside Our Apartment! (1)

      One evening last week, about one hour after supper, we were busy in our rooms doing reading and our homework. It was quiet and peaceful. Then some sound came up. It was a whistle of some kind.  At first , we did not pay much attention to it. But it kept coming  , once every two or three minutes, quite sharp and annoying. So we called to each other what had happened. I got up to be close to the window  , but it was not from outside. Then I went to the kitchen , it seemed to be coming from there, but it did not. Yingzi thought it came from my room. I immediately became nervous about my computer.  Again, no,  not from my room. Thus we went from one room to another, trying to figure out what was wrong.  Rich, who had fallen asleep, was waken up at this time. I said that maybe something went wrong with the icebox. I was afraid that the electric wire went wrong and a fire might break out. At this , Rich decided to call police. She dialed the phone while we were still hesitating. 

         However, several minutes after Rich hung up, the strange sound disappeared. Almost at the same time, we heard the alarm call of the police car . Is it the police coming? We looked at each other in disbelief.

Kirk, an Instructor of Passion

  

In the very first week of our observation, Kirk got a reputation for being “crazy” among us. Some of us were even afraid to observe his class again, for we all felt awkward when we had to follow him to do “crazy” things.

By the time I went to his class, I had got well-prepared in mind for the craziness. He is really an instructor of passion. Ten minutes after the class began, he was sweating all over. In addition to speaking loudly or shouting, he had been gesturing, moving his body all the time. He combined pronunciation with breath and movement of the body so that students do not only read out the sounds, but feel the difference of the body in pronunciation.

Imagine the students and the instructor all “dancing”, shouting sounds together. It is full of passion, funn , engaging . No one in class could have a chance to get distracted. This may well account for the crazy things he asks students to do in class.

Last week, he further explained his way of teaching. It turns out this way of practicing pronunciation comes from the way actors of Shakespeare train their voice and speaking. Only a devoted teacher , a hard-working teacher could have come up with the idea of applying acting techniques to pronunciation study!

Touring a Rich Community

On Saturday afternoon, before we went to the book sale, we took a tour of the rich community nearby.  One house after another stand among big shadowy trees, surrounded by huge courtyard of meadows. As the houses are generally painted white, they stand out among green trees and meadows. In fact, we should call them mansions, for every house seems to have more than ten rooms. Some have porches , High round columns stand on the front . How magnificent they are.

Yet what strikes me most is the huge courtyard every house enjoys. The houses are far away from the road, separated by huge great meadows.  Generally a path winds through the meadow, to the entrance. There seem to be stripes of light green and dark green on some  meadow which has just been mown. Different shades of green are there.

In some courtyard we find pingpong table at which the owner and his friends play the ball.  Also trampoline is set up maybe for children to jump or for adults to keep fit. It seems that both luxuries have much to do with keeping oneself healthy.

The courtyard of every house generally is marked by low white fences.The beauty of the houses and its attached meadow is in the view of all passersby. It is a view possessed by the rich , but shared by all.

  

Going to church (2)

                                  

    After the donation was over, a black woman in her thirties rose .She was of great height, plump , sexy , above all, healthy , reminding me of dark brown soil in vast fields stretching far far away. Somehow the warm breath of earth came over me immediately.

    The woman sort of danced while she sang. Her voice rang as she moved slowly around the rows of chairs to the beat of the song. I could not understand what she sang, but the volume and pitch of the song amazed me. With no music to accompany her, she caught all of us with her clear , high-pitched and somewhat rough voice. Something about her moved me. I do not know what it was. Maybe it was the spontaneous issuing of the song, her own indulgence in the music itself, the sadness (which I felt) revealed that rendered the singing vivid and natural. It  was completely still. All the eyes were on her. Clearly the spell was on everyone.

   After the service was over, I had a chat with the woman sitting next to me , and the guy sitting behind me. Both of them had moved into New Haven recently, the woman following her son , the guy dong research job in a company nearby. It seems to me that people in New Haven are highly mobile.

   In the fellowship we joined in , we had more talk with people present.. Everyone was so kind, ready to give whatever help they could. One old woman offered to take me to various free programs . The preacher hoped that we would go again. It seemed more like a social gathering.