yeyj: Hello, I am here.

jingyang_nfls: Hey, just got to the computer room?

jingyang_nfls: You are still offline.

yeyj: The library has just opened. I prefer not to go to the computer room any more, unreliable.

yeyj: How? You are online.

jingyang_nfls: how come every time I send you a message, it tells me that you are offline. It's annoying

yeyj: I have no chance to use the internet at weekends.

jingyang_nfls: Ok. I shut it off. I mean the message box

jingyang_nfls: What have you been doing in the summer. You sure sound busy.

yeyj: Let's get down to business, I think I am preparing for the exams.

yeyj: Well, the O-level is in November, but the prelim exams are around the corner

jingyang_nfls: business? Doesn't that sound a little too harsh. By the way, when does O-level start?

yeyj: Besides, I have a lot of contests to cope with.

jingyang_nfls: And do these exams concentrate in one time slot or they spread all over?

jingyang_nfls: Calligraphy? Or the Singapore math competition that you told me?

yeyj: Oh, no, I think we should treat our life in a more mature way?

yeyj: No more calligraphy, I am already annoyed by the Singapore Calligraphy Society.

jingyang_nfls: Is that an assertion or a question?

jingyang_nfls: But you are still in it, right?

yeyj: There is a math competition two weeks later, a science quiz in one month's timje... I don't want to list the other two.

jingyang_nfls: The contest you are talking about must be science, etc.

yeyj: I am not a member of that society from the beginning--I just take calligraphy here as a ECA, and it doesn't matter now anyway.

jingyang_nfls: Are you still going to take the AMerican Mathematics Competiton and AIME? I often see perfect scorers in Singapore. More than in the U.S.

jingyang_nfls: Said you had a lot of questions for me. Ok. What are they?

jingyang_nfls: Wait a sec

yeyj: No really, I have signed up for a general knowledge quiz in agust, have to study stuff like music.

yeyj: Well, does your computer disconnect regularly now?

jingyang_nfls: like a knowled contest?

yeyj: What?

jingyang_nfls: NO, we got new internet service.

jingyang_nfls: It works pretty fine, I guess, just that I rarely go on the internet these days. Not for long.

jingyang_nfls: knowledge

yeyj: That sounds great. I can stay here all the way to noon,I guess, The library never chases students away.

jingyang_nfls: words got chopped off.

jingyang_nfls: Midnight for me.

yeyj: Are you going to Washington tomorrow?

jingyang_nfls: School starts next next monday, right?

jingyang_nfls: No. Thursday afternoon we will start driving towards Washington.

yeyj: Yeah, it depends on how well-read one person is. I am preferring to the knowledge thingy.

yeyj: Thursday?

jingyang_nfls: Actually, I prefer college campus visiting this summer, but that is not possible.

jingyang_nfls: California or Boston, too far away.

jingyang_nfls: Why, is that surprising?

yeyj: That's ok, the school is closed on this Thurday, Friday, so I cannot write you anything until the next Monday when school reopens.

jingyang_nfls: We are going to be back next next monday.

yeyj: Why not possible?

jingyang_nfls: I mean, my dad cannot leave his jib for a whole week.

jingyang_nfls: job

jingyang_nfls: And they won't just drop me on a plane and let me go on my own.

yeyj: That's alright. The terrible thing is that one the first two days of the next week we'll have four tests to do.

yeyj: Are you driving to Washington? I mean it is a bit too far away from Troy.

jingyang_nfls: Jeez. My test days are over for a while. It will start again next fall, though not as intensive. There's always the AP week next year, but that is so far away.

yeyj: So, you have never left Troy after you had moved here?

jingyang_nfls: I don't have my real license yet, besides, my dad won't let me drive highway.

jingyang_nfls: No, pretty much.

yeyj: But can you?

jingyang_nfls: I never thought about it.

yeyj: I have never dreamed of that.

jingyang_nfls: Never tried it before.

jingyang_nfls: It's pretty dangerous.

yeyj: So you are starting the second session soon, right?

jingyang_nfls: Are you going to take anything like TOFEL or SAT?

jingyang_nfls: Tomorrow.

jingyang_nfls: Boring lectures. I am sure.

jingyang_nfls: Three days, 6 hours. Then I will get ready for the road test.

yeyj: Not really, SAT I would be compulsory here in Junior College, and TOFEL, I don't know.

jingyang_nfls: Hope I don't fail it. LIke hitting a tree or something.

yeyj: At present I've got a whole bunch of other things to do.

jingyang_nfls: Not for your class, class of 2002, right?

yeyj: Quite sad to hear that, right?

jingyang_nfls: I guess so.

yeyj: How? You've got no problem, I believe.

yeyj: What is fail? 1400 marks?

jingyang_nfls: Nah, I'll try to pass it in the first time.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know. They subtract points if you didn't stop before a red light or turned a wrong turn.

yeyj: Class 2002? There is no such system here, and sometimes I feel I am dreaming, so blurred.

jingyang_nfls: If enough points are subtracted, you fail. I am horrible at parking, by the way.

yeyj: I see, it's fun talking in that way.

jingyang_nfls: You graduate in 2002, which is next year. So you are class of 2002.

yeyj: But you don't sound very serious. Are you pretending?

yeyj: Or were you pretending?

yeyj: I understand it. Can we move on? 20 minutes have passed already.

jingyang_nfls: No, I am series. I park rather tilted to one side, which would result in hitting the car right next to me.

jingyang_nfls: Never done that though.

jingyang_nfls: My dad screams at me pretty often.

yeyj: You mean last year?

jingyang_nfls: What last year?

yeyj: Wait, we are talking about different things.

jingyang_nfls: You sound a little impatient?

yeyj: The reference is in chaos.

yeyj: No, I am laughing.

jingyang_nfls: I am frowning.

jingyang_nfls: in confusing.

jingyang_nfls: confusion.

yeyj: It's Ok, there's always some problem whenever a teenager communicates with a mature adult.

yeyj: Just kidding.

jingyang_nfls: Ok. Did you contact with Wang Yu or anyone at all?

jingyang_nfls: And who is the mature adult?

yeyj: I did with Yin Jie.

jingyang_nfls: I don't like that tone.

yeyj: That was a serious tone, you know.

yeyj: Otherwise don't be serious any more.

jingyang_nfls: I heard that he got a perfect score on the science competition.

jingyang_nfls: It sounded cynical to me.

yeyj: You aren't actually. But you were in your last several letters.

jingyang_nfls: Or was I imagining?

yeyj: Yeah, where did you get to know that?

jingyang_nfls: I was under severe stress, which results is hysteria, mental breakdown and bad bad temper.

yeyj: He's scored 1st in chemistry olympiad in Nanjing and 6rd in biology.

jingyang_nfls: That emotion is subdued a little bit.

yeyj: That's good.

jingyang_nfls: Wow. In xici, of course, I just saw his name and I was like, Wow.

yeyj: Anyway, it should be something like that. And Wang Wendong, Shen Hongying...all got very good results.

jingyang_nfls: Tan Hongjin? Dong qin?

jingyang_nfls: Have any idea?

yeyj: I never visit that website, just like... I don't like that place, I mean the website.

jingyang_nfls: I don't, I am sure.

yeyj: I don't know, Jie has little time, and he never writes much.

jingyang_nfls: That website is the only means I can get a little information.

jingyang_nfls: I don't like it either.

jingyang_nfls: He still writes, unlike me.

yeyj: Dong Qing is in Nan shi fu zhong already, so who know.

yeyj: Who?

jingyang_nfls: I don't know how that past year went by.

yeyj: Neither do I.

jingyang_nfls: I mean Jie.

jingyang_nfls: To You I mean.

yeyj: I haven't heard from Wang Yu for half a year.

yeyj: At least you are better than Yu.

jingyang_nfls: Longer than that for me.

jingyang_nfls: I haven't heard from Jiafei for over a year.

jingyang_nfls: A little exaggeraged.

yeyj: I am not serious, in fact. Everyone has his own things to do.

jingyang_nfls: Thank you for the compliment.

jingyang_nfls: Which is a sad thing indeed.

jingyang_nfls: Do you have really good friends in Singapore now?

yeyj: She last wrote me in summer holidays last year, I think, quite far away. So are Hongyin, Hongjin, a long list.

yeyj: What compliment?

jingyang_nfls: Two of my friends are from Nanjing. That how we got acquianted in the first place.

jingyang_nfls: That I am better than Wang. Just kidding.

yeyj: Real good friends? Not really.Some are virtually good friends, though.

yeyj: Does that make any sense?

jingyang_nfls: It doesn't feel that weird. They talk in Nanjingnese all the time, I mean when they actually do talk in Chinese to each other.

yeyj: There is no one from Nanjing here in my schoo.

yeyj: I mean, one at my age.

jingyang_nfls: yes. Like you look like you are good friends, but not really deeply inside.

yeyj: Others are at least two years older.

yeyj: What about you? How deep is that tie?

jingyang_nfls: You are going to a Singpore university?

yeyj: Or bond, whatever.

jingyang_nfls: Not deep. I am a bit reserved.'

jingyang_nfls: I don't really show the whole side of me, really. No one really knows my past or anything.

yeyj: Something is wrong here, just a minute.

jingyang_nfls: So they couldn't completely know me and be my really good friends.

jingyang_nfls: Messenger?

yeyj: No, me.

jingyang_nfls: All right.

jingyang_nfls: ....

yeyj: So things haven't changed much over there?

jingyang_nfls: I really don't know.

yeyj: Here, it is so-so. This year has been more fruitful so far.

jingyang_nfls: It's just that I am not all that attacted to the idea of going back to China to visit.

yeyj: Yes, we are growing up!

yeyj: Why?

jingyang_nfls: Fruitful? acadamically? mentally?

yeyj: Just like we have no hope to meet again?

yeyj: Both, I hope.

jingyang_nfls: I am still happy about it, that it's actully possible now. I am just not that enthusiastic.

yeyj: Not so much, but better tahn last year which I literally killed away.

jingyang_nfls: Will you be there next summer?

jingyang_nfls: I might be.

yeyj: So why don't you go back the next month?

jingyang_nfls: Yeah, I got the feeling that I've wasted me freshman and sopomore year away, just to wait for graduation.

jingyang_nfls: It's not possible. I don't have the statues.

yeyj: Maybe. My parents want me to find a junior college somewhere else, like in the UK, but it sounds far-fetched sometimes.

jingyang_nfls: You going back this Christmas?

jingyang_nfls: UK?

yeyj: Why? You said it was possible.

jingyang_nfls: It sounds lonely to me.

jingyang_nfls: Next summer.

jingyang_nfls: Not anytime before that.

yeyj: You know, the education system here is almost the same as that in the UK, so

jingyang_nfls: England...Cambridge.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know. It does sound far away. But, we will all be in our Senior year next year.

jingyang_nfls: Which is pretty quick for me.

yeyj: Let me clarify everything. Here Singaporeans have 4 year's high school, two years' junior collelge and then university. It's different from that of US.

yeyj: Are you able to leave the US and return now?

jingyang_nfls: OK. Then when you'll be graduating from university?

jingyang_nfls: no.

jingyang_nfls: SAT is required for entrance to junior college?

yeyj: Put it simple. I am finishing the high school this year, and JC in two years' time. I have dropped one grade you know.

jingyang_nfls: or graduating from junior college?

yeyj: But I am still as old as my classmates anyway.

jingyang_nfls: I don't get it. Ain't you in the same grade as I am?

yeyj: That's why I am not deprived of the chance to compete in all the competitions here.

yeyj: No, I am not.

jingyang_nfls: Now I am really confused.

yeyj: I guess I haven't mentioned this to you before?

jingyang_nfls: Never.

jingyang_nfls: And is your school an all-boy school?

jingyang_nfls: just wondering?

yeyj: The other PRC students here are between one to two years older than their classmates.

yeyj: Yes.

jingyang_nfls: Just to catch up on English or what?

jingyang_nfls: Why do they have to drop grades?

yeyj: That's why some of my friends in China suspect the possibility of gay.

jingyang_nfls: Give me a break.

yeyj: Maybe, I don't know.

yeyj: It's the rule. Think over everything, sometimes there aren't too many choices.

jingyang_nfls: Most good schools in England is unisex.

jingyang_nfls: Besides academics, how is your recreational life?

yeyj: Even though, I guess some of our former classmates would come here this fall.

jingyang_nfls: Who?

yeyj: Wang Xin, Ding Ling... Some of them probably.

jingyang_nfls: I heard lots of people are trying to go abroad.

yeyj: I don't mind.

jingyang_nfls: My GOD!

jingyang_nfls: All of them.

yeyj: All? What do you mean?

jingyang_nfls: I mean all the people you mentioned?

yeyj: Everything is going in an uncontrolled manner.

jingyang_nfls: Are they trying to aviod the final exams?

jingyang_nfls: I am sure. I mean, is the competition really that fierce that people don't want to stay?

yeyj: Yin Jie told me that 20 students from the NFLS took part in the exams, and 10 would qualify for that.

yeyj: But who will come? I don't know.

jingyang_nfls: I don't seem to get it. So many people are coming over to the United States, others are going to Australia, etc.

yeyj: No, not really, what about the others?

jingyang_nfls: To Zhu Haifeng's school?

jingyang_nfls: All these talks make me feel sad.

yeyj: I don't know, it's quite impossible for Singapore to get everyone stay here, without those contracts.

jingyang_nfls: People are really scattering.

yeyj: I am not tied to this country so far, I ain't sure how the others are.

jingyang_nfls: I mean. I don't feel that I have a root here.

jingyang_nfls: Even after 5 years.

yeyj: I mean, the students coming this fall.

jingyang_nfls: They are just trying to achieve success in one way or the other, I guess.

yeyj: No, those students are possibly going to polytechnic.

jingyang_nfls: World is going crazy.

jingyang_nfls: is that a school's name?

yeyj: A form of school.

jingyang_nfls: and what form is it?

yeyj: Like those zhuan ke xue xiao in China./

jingyang_nfls: colleges or high schools?

yeyj: I am not certain about that. I still have little information.

jingyang_nfls: Did jie tell you all these?

jingyang_nfls: I have no idea what is going on. I am either too ignorant or too naive.

yeyj: No one informed me about this except Yin Jie, who was asked by Ding Ling to get some instructions to the qualification tests.

yeyj: Chaotic, right?

jingyang_nfls: very.

yeyj: I've no idea.

yeyj: From me. Those sample questions, etc.

jingyang_nfls: Ding Ling is in the science class, which surprises me, because she has predilection for literature.

jingyang_nfls: Then singapore.

yeyj: Wang Yu said she was doing surprisingly well.

jingyang_nfls: I am sure. She is talented and strong-willed.

jingyang_nfls: Any information about the others?

yeyj: Anyway, Wang Jie, Zhao Suyuan, etc are also topping their classes, even though they didn't get into the science class.

yeyj: When I went back to the NFLS last winter, I felt alienated.

jingyang_nfls: Zhao didn't? Is she going to English-related area then? Jounalism? Whatever?

jingyang_nfls: How so? Aliened from the people or the environment?

yeyj: Sad indeed. But our class 1 students are generally good, so are we hopefully.

yeyj: The people. Teachers are still friendly, if not I heard of that incident from Jie.

jingyang_nfls: I am not sure about me. I don't really care anymore. I have no standards whatsoever.

jingyang_nfls: Just trying to be at the top of whatever school I am in, hoping that it's good enough.

jingyang_nfls: What incident.

jingyang_nfls: ?

yeyj: I used to write letters to Ye Qian. But one time when her mother, our English teacher in Junior 3 found about it, she was forced to burn my letter.

jingyang_nfls: I still have this fancy dream that I will get to meet everybody and travel around in China together.

yeyj: I cannot explain it well, Wang Yu refused to tell me about it.

yeyj: I don't know what was happening.

jingyang_nfls: Why is she so narrow-minded? Just because you are a boy?

yeyj: I met so many strange people during my one month trip to Nanjing,

jingyang_nfls: I've always been pretty open.

jingyang_nfls: Strange, as in people you never knew, or people who changed so much that you don't know.

jingyang_nfls: them anymore?

yeyj: One of my grammar school classmate, well, she was one grade lower than me, was making boyfriends.

jingyang_nfls: China is changing pretty quickly.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know in a positive or negative way.

yeyj: She was only in gao yi, Senior 1 or something like that, and she was wearing several earings against her parents' will.

jingyang_nfls: When I go back, all the notions I carry about China will be so ancient that I will be laughed at.

yeyj: But her results are constantly good, she is among the top ten in N0.1 middle school.

jingyang_nfls: I still have the images of my elementary friends as children in my mind.

yeyj: That is possibly true. I fell outmoded myself sometimes.

jingyang_nfls: Aliened in China, aliened here.

yeyj: But it's a different thing to wander about in the streets, there is still a sense of old stuff.

yeyj: Well, poor choice of words.

jingyang_nfls: Don't know if it's the teen years, or a universal truth.

jingyang_nfls: I get you.

yeyj: For now, we cannot think of too many things. We can kill ourselves.

yeyj: Now the only reliable place is home.

jingyang_nfls: I am afraid that all the things I used to know will be torn down.

jingyang_nfls: Then memories will be destroyed.

jingyang_nfls: I don't feel attacted to home either, because I cannot define it.

yeyj: Yeah, so sometimes we'll have to resort to some cliche to get ourselves out of the blues.

yeyj: Not today.

jingyang_nfls: What is the so-called home-place.

yeyj: The place which you can call home.

jingyang_nfls: Probably not ever.

jingyang_nfls: And where is that?

yeyj: I don't think I am felling very well today,.

jingyang_nfls: apartment? Nanjing, Houghton? Troy?

yeyj: Here in our. hearts

jingyang_nfls: your mood, you mean?

yeyj: Disgusting that is.

jingyang_nfls: physically?

yeyj: No, It's sunny here, so I cannot fell too bad yet.

jingyang_nfls: due to over-heating? Kidding.

jingyang_nfls: I am quite light in the head myself.

yeyj: Could you please.. How is the weather over there? 70 degrees?

jingyang_nfls: 90F

jingyang_nfls: Conversion?

yeyj: It's cool in the midnight, and a sense of forlornness.

yeyj: Wrong spelling, I guess.

jingyang_nfls: Ok. I lost my train-of thought.

yeyj: I don't care.

yeyj: So we can move on now?

jingyang_nfls: forlorn.

jingyang_nfls: About what, the pace has slowen down quite a bit.

jingyang_nfls: we already get into this moody mood, then ...

yeyj: Why did you regard yourself as mature ?

jingyang_nfls: While I am getting hot in between, cause air-conditioning is not working.

yeyj: I find you have changed little in the daily conversation.

jingyang_nfls: I didn't. I don't believe I did.

jingyang_nfls: Daily conversation?

jingyang_nfls: Some classes hit me really hard, as well as some of the tests.

yeyj: The air-con here is just fine. Why do you have to use it over there? Is it very hot?

yeyj: Ok, so you mean you have growing up through those tests?

jingyang_nfls: I told you I struggled in English, in someways I cannot please the teacher, and that had never happened before.

yeyj: Lucky you are. I have never pleased myself in English.

jingyang_nfls: I mean there are certain things I hold on to in order to move on with my life.

jingyang_nfls: Writing could be one of them, but I am losing my identity.

yeyj: Even though they are constantly pleased with me, comparing to other PRCs.

yeyj: So writing more things you are really concerned.

yeyj: But I cannot help if you are too lazy, hee.

jingyang_nfls: I hate to follow one form of writing, but I had to in that class, so I don't get to writing what I want, or else I'll get a bad score.

jingyang_nfls: Then the whole college process is starting to break me down.

yeyj: The situation here is no better, the most horrible thing happens in the Chinese writing.

yeyj: We are confined to a certain style in which we never used to write before.

yeyj: It was like killing us.

yeyj: I heard the school system in US is still relatively better.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know. Just that I've given up a lot of things. Like volleyball, writing, TV, music, China, whatever.

yeyj: You won't be able to imagine what is happening in China.

jingyang_nfls: Not in APs. Teachers are still preparing the students for the exams, so we have to follow a certain format.

yeyj: But you are picking them up soon.

jingyang_nfls: What?

jingyang_nfls: i don't think so. Once I gave them up, the entrusiam or confidence is gone.

yeyj: Now the primary school students in Nanjing are like in the hell.

jingyang_nfls: spelling error.

jingyang_nfls: Why?

yeyj: You can. Like me, I have virtually lost interest in calligraphy, but I won't drop it after all.

jingyang_nfls: I heard that NFLS are getting more students through general testing.

jingyang_nfls: It won't be fun anymore.

yeyj: Those little kids are not attending those math olympiad courses from grade 1.

jingyang_nfls: Once it carries too many memories and failures.

yeyj: Just to get into NFLS or Jinling Zhongxue and so on.

jingyang_nfls: Isn't that better?

jingyang_nfls: Or were you being cynical?

yeyj: No, five years ago only NFLS carries out such "su zhi ce shi", now it is happening all over the city.

jingyang_nfls: So they have more opportunities.

jingyang_nfls: I don't believe in that.

yeyj: From No.i middle school to the second or third foreign language school to Nan shi fu zhong...

yeyj: All one the same day.

jingyang_nfls: OK.

jingyang_nfls: Isn't that better?

jingyang_nfls: people can go where they want to go?

yeyj: What about the question? Ranging from primary school test problems to encyclopedic ones.

yeyj: I had a glimpse of several questions, simply unable to answer those literature ones.

jingyang_nfls: ouch. How does that help shu zhi jiao yu?

jingyang_nfls: Me neither, I am sure.

yeyj: They can go wherever they wanna go with enough money.

jingyang_nfls: I am having difficulty wrting the simplest Chinese characters.

jingyang_nfls: Now it's about money. They are getting more and more like the U.S.

yeyj: I don't understand. Tens of thousands of students competing for a few hundred places. Is that good?

yeyj: Even worse than US. Who knows where the money is going?

jingyang_nfls: Tens of thousands of students were competiting only for NFLS before.

jingyang_nfls: The opportunities are much more. The winners get the prize.

yeyj: In this aspect I support Singaproe, which provides its citizens with large sums of money for their education.

jingyang_nfls: The competition is fierce for 6 graders, but I don't see any other way.

jingyang_nfls: Singapore can afford that, not China.

yeyj: But is that worth for six year's training? Thousands of dollars are invested.

jingyang_nfls: U.S. support the rich ones, while poor students can only go to less famous schools.

yeyj: And when one fail, believe me, they canhardly get up again, cos the rest schools, those zhi sheng ones, are simpy too bad.

jingyang_nfls: Chinese parents are always hoping for the best for their children. And education seems like the only way.

yeyj: Yeah, they want to have an easy life themselves, but things just develop in the opposite direction.

yeyj: I take that back/.

jingyang_nfls: Then how can the government do anything about it? The standard for sucess these days is going to a top US, Canada, UK, univerisity with scholarship.

yeyj: Oh, the Chinese are aiming to build a university quite on par with those abroad.

jingyang_nfls: We all do, don't we. What am I struggling for? To please the parents, and to get a bright career, whereas I believe in totally different things.

jingyang_nfls: Where do you get the money to do so?

yeyj: It was hard though, requires decades of work.

jingyang_nfls: And how long does it take for the government build these attractive universities so that top students are returning from aboard?

yeyj: China is developing fast, the 21st century belongs to China, education is the basis of development... That's what those officials are crying.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know. I don't believe in spending my high school life in misery so I can please certain college admittion people. But I have to.

jingyang_nfls: But topp students are going to foreign countries, helping them.

yeyj: They are returing, with certain aim. Those people are thinking of their own well-being after all.

yeyj: What can we do? It is cruel reality.

jingyang_nfls: What percent? HOw many people actually have that ambition anymore?

jingyang_nfls: It's life.

yeyj: Just a minute, I'll check my email to see if anyone has sent new information.

jingyang_nfls: We can only dive deep in our book and study hour after hour.

yeyj: That's correct.

jingyang_nfls: new information on what?

jingyang_nfls: OK, I'll try to get my supper.

jingyang_nfls: Oh, forget it.

yeyj: Forget it, the inbox is empty.

jingyang_nfls: Junk mails fill my inbox.

yeyj: Sometimes I doubt what those people in China are doing.

yeyj: How affluent is the life there. Some are really amazing, you know.

jingyang_nfls: I don't care anymore. Studying maybe. I wonder what Chinese college life is like.

jingyang_nfls: It sounds almost exotic to me.

jingyang_nfls: How I preceive it and how it really is.

yeyj: In fact we cannot comparing those families on top of the social hierarchy.

yeyj: Forgive my poor grammar.

jingyang_nfls: Commuism..Ha. Social hierarchy.

yeyj: I am over-heated.

jingyang_nfls: forgive my spelling.

jingyang_nfls: Same here. Well, I am cooling down.

jingyang_nfls: Night here.

yeyj: How is life in Troy?

jingyang_nfls: I'd say it's getting better.

jingyang_nfls: Once I get things to do, it's not that empty.

yeyj: You are getting to know the locals?

jingyang_nfls: Also have goals for myself.

yeyj: Where do you live in then?

jingyang_nfls: people? only a few.

yeyj: How is your room?

jingyang_nfls: Besides, I cannot go anywhere without a car.

yeyj: Well, the last one was optuional.

jingyang_nfls: apartment.

yeyj: Is it big?

yeyj: Apartment, of course. It'd be a dream to live in a bungalow here in Singapore.

jingyang_nfls: cozy, comfortable, with a stuffed santa clause sitting in my bed.

jingyang_nfls: Thought you want to know.

jingyang_nfls: It's all right.

jingyang_nfls: There are huge houses around here, I can only watch them in envious eyes.

yeyj: It costs millions of dollars.

jingyang_nfls: Hoping that when I grow up, I get to live in one of them. Kidding.

jingyang_nfls: Most of them cost 70,0000 here.

jingyang_nfls: dollars.

yeyj: Yes, most people in Singapore still live in moderately big houses, sometimes I think the situation in Nanjing is not much worse.

jingyang_nfls: Yeah, I can feel a little dejected looking at all the houses, but I am OK.

yeyj: Until I saw those squatters.

jingyang_nfls: School life?

yeyj: is it 700.000 or 70,000?

jingyang_nfls: 70,0000

yeyj: No, I was referring to Nanjing.

jingyang_nfls: 700,000

yeyj: OK.

jingyang_nfls: OK. We are clear on that. I am not used to the american way or writing numbers.

jingyang_nfls: How is school?

yeyj: Ok,

yeyj: Not so boring as last year.

jingyang_nfls: or your summer vacation, which ever you like to discuss.

yeyj: But it is boring after all.

jingyang_nfls: Too general, May I have the previliage to get more specific details? Kidding.

yeyj: I went to several places of interest in Singapore in the holidays.

jingyang_nfls: Mine was miserable. Whenever I get together with my friends, it's always:"When are you taking the SAT/SAT II/ACT.

jingyang_nfls: Where?

yeyj: At school there is hardly anything going on, even when we learn new things, my classmates act as if they know everythuing.

jingyang_nfls: Well, actually, I wouldn't know because I don't know much about Singapore.

yeyj: Except when the tests are coming.

jingyang_nfls: don't you act like that also?

jingyang_nfls: just to be cocky?

yeyj: No, I was either dreaming or reading my own stuff. Just joking.

jingyang_nfls: I don't believe they are any better than you.

jingyang_nfls: I sleep or sleepwalk.

jingyang_nfls: Lack of brain cells or oxygen in brain.

yeyj: Because of those comptitions, I feel very distracted this year. They are like some devil thoughts that couldn't be got rid of.

jingyang_nfls: I stand as if I am drunk all the time.

jingyang_nfls: Why? Do you have to perform so well on them?

jingyang_nfls: Are they an extracurricular interest or obligation?

yeyj: You should eat something, like those "chinese turtle essence" or "brain stimulater", well, these kind of things are very hot in Nanjing, all because of those exams.

jingyang_nfls: The competitions I join are really tickets to college, if I do extremely well.

jingyang_nfls: I drink coffee.

yeyj: Yeah, maybe obligation. I am to try my best--representing school isn't easy work, i am stressed.

yeyj: But the wose things are still on their way.

yeyj: Oh.

jingyang_nfls: Just think of the honor. And all the stress will be gone! Joke.

jingyang_nfls: 0-level?

jingyang_nfls: I just picked up that habit due to a friend's advice, Works well.

yeyj: I am sated of dreaming sometimes, just cannot imagine how life will be like when the hope is shattered.

jingyang_nfls: what kind of hopes?

jingyang_nfls: I don't hope too much now. I cannot imagine myself be any older.

yeyj: Even before the O-level, I guess I may fall and die.

jingyang_nfls: Staying forever at 16.

yeyj: It was horrifying.

yeyj: Over exaggeration.

jingyang_nfls: Before I know it, I'll be 20. Scary.

yeyj: No, only a few monthys left.

jingyang_nfls: You can pull through.

yeyj: Yeah, it felt like we were twelve yesterday.

jingyang_nfls: i don't even want to think about my exams.

yeyj: Atop the whatever hill.

jingyang_nfls: I wish I am still 12 and still in the first year in NFLS, staring with my naive eyes and be excited all the time.

yeyj: Nor do I. So what are you thinking of now?

jingyang_nfls: nothing, hopefully.

yeyj: You are excited, aren't you? Only in a different manner.

jingyang_nfls: until my score comes back.

yeyj: When would that be?

yeyj: So I know when to send a congratulation postcard. Kidding.

jingyang_nfls: I am not excited. I guess I have anticipations for the activities. But my hopes never fail to disappoint me.

jingyang_nfls: Next Friday.

yeyj: So quickly? I am so surprised.

jingyang_nfls: but we are leaving for Washington on Thurday, so I won't get to see it afterward.

jingyang_nfls: 3 weeks.

jingyang_nfls: Why, I think it's a very very long dragging time.

yeyj: What is the Friday and 3 weeks about respectively?

yeyj: Next Friday refers to the 22nd June?

jingyang_nfls: The report card comes on Friday, three weeks after I took the SAT.

jingyang_nfls: yes.

yeyj: I told you we'd have to wait for three long months to get the O level results.

jingyang_nfls: Ouch. Is that good or bad for you?

yeyj: And you've got so many chances afterwards, unlike me.

yeyj: I've no idea, I may simply forget it.

jingyang_nfls: I am running out of time. The applications are due next fall.

jingyang_nfls: I am in a better situation than you, but it's not utopia.

yeyj: Next fall? Year 2001 or 2002?

jingyang_nfls: 2001.

jingyang_nfls: next school year.

yeyj: So 2000 is this fall or last fall?

jingyang_nfls: I lost sense of time ever since I started high school.

jingyang_nfls: Are we in year 2001?

yeyj: Yes.

jingyang_nfls: I thought so.

yeyj: Answer?

jingyang_nfls: so 2000 last fall.

yeyj: What is this fall then?

jingyang_nfls: Are you trying to mess me up?

jingyang_nfls: 2001.

yeyj: Well, forget it then.

jingyang_nfls: OK.

jingyang_nfls: Yeah, I am graduating in June, 2002.

yeyj: What shall we talk about next? Maybe my execursion within Singapore?

jingyang_nfls: And going to enter college at fall, 2002.

yeyj: Only one year from now.

jingyang_nfls: Sure. Still taking pictures whereever you go?

yeyj: Get ready to step into the adult world!

jingyang_nfls: yes.

yeyj: You know Iam not serious.

jingyang_nfls: I am not very excited about it. It's much more complicated.

yeyj: Yes, I can send you some pictures if you'd love to.

jingyang_nfls: college, school, work

yeyj: I know, thnigs are already very complicated here.

jingyang_nfls: I'd love to see them. Maybe another Singapore coin? Kidding.

yeyj: I have an adult cousin to write to reguarly, and it was like crazy.

jingyang_nfls: how come?

jingyang_nfls: In Chinese?

yeyj: I've got a Malaysian note, may give it to you.

jingyang_nfls: I've given up a long time ago.

yeyj: Yes, in Chinese, and he constantly complain about his work, life, everything.

jingyang_nfls: And I'll exchange it using an US coin.

jingyang_nfls: How old is he?

yeyj: I am tired of consoling, though it may sound wierd.

jingyang_nfls: One of my older cousin is going through gao cao.

yeyj: 22, I think.

yeyj: Not really a brilliant chap, and that's where the problem arises.

jingyang_nfls: I don't think I can communicate with a 22 year-old, even my relative.

jingyang_nfls: Where is he going for school?

yeyj: I shoudn't have said that... Anyway, he felt isolated.

jingyang_nfls: don't we all.

yeyj: I found a head-to-head communication with him tough also.

jingyang_nfls: And he confides it all to you?

jingyang_nfls: I am not a very good people-person.

yeyj: Yes we do, but he is isolated at home. I mean, among the other relatives of mine.

jingyang_nfls: I cannot console or say the right things.

yeyj: Do you think I am sociable?

yeyj: yeah, we may only make things worse.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know.

yeyj: But it feels good, right?

jingyang_nfls: So I stopped trying.

jingyang_nfls: what feels good? isolation?

jingyang_nfls: or consoling?

yeyj: So I've got an idea how terrible adult life might be from him.

yeyj: Hopefully, it would be the worst case already.

jingyang_nfls: We get to experience our own.

jingyang_nfls: It's horrible just to think that we will go through the aging process.

yeyj: Of course, everyone leads a unique life, there is no mass production in this way.

yeyj: You may have a rest now, like the sleeping beauty.

jingyang_nfls: hopefully a worthwhile life.

jingyang_nfls: Give me a break. At 10:12?

yeyj: It is indeed. SOmetimes I found myself lucky, you are even luckier.

jingyang_nfls: I never sleep this early. But I am getting up ealier, so I don't feel ennui all the time.

yeyj: 10:15

jingyang_nfls: me? How so?

jingyang_nfls: i don't think so myself.

jingyang_nfls: I am just dragging through life, not wanting to accomplish anything.

yeyj: Don't you find the people around us all better than us in some aspects.? I cannot understand it.

jingyang_nfls: Not seeing any purpose in any thing.

yeyj: Well, you will change your mind after going through other forms of life. It is a wide range.

jingyang_nfls: Nah, I value my own merits and other people's. I may feel gratful, but bitter most of the time.

jingyang_nfls: First of all, I would like to be a genius.

yeyj: We shouldn't get satisfied easily, but do stay away from self-depreciation.

jingyang_nfls: So I don't have to worry about school.

yeyj: Not for now.

yeyj: It was terrible deviation.

jingyang_nfls: I cannot do so. I can get my hopes up once in a while, but I'll be dejected the next minute.

jingyang_nfls: What? being a genius?

jingyang_nfls: Mood fluctuated.

yeyj: I don't know.

jingyang_nfls: So, let's talk about school.

yeyj: We've got a lot of contradictions and controversy here.

jingyang_nfls: Yeah, what a lovely subject.

yeyj: Again?

yeyj: You are got kidding?

jingyang_nfls: Yeah, you said it was boring, that was all.

jingyang_nfls: Just kidding.

jingyang_nfls: Any questions for me?

yeyj: (Sigh with relief) Go to this website http://www.birdpark.com.sg/

yeyj: I went there thh other day.

jingyang_nfls: Now?

jingyang_nfls: What is it about?

jingyang_nfls: Bad choice.

yeyj: It's the biggest nirdpark in Asia.

jingyang_nfls: I am going to freeze up my computer.

jingyang_nfls: never mind.

yeyj: http://www.sentosa.com.sg/

jingyang_nfls: warnings released.

yeyj: I went there yesterday.

jingyang_nfls: what now?

yeyj: Ok.

yeyj: You said "school"

jingyang_nfls: And?

yeyj: I feel so nervous at the thought of being rejected.

jingyang_nfls: What is your point for leadning me to this website.

jingyang_nfls: rejected to where?

yeyj: You asked me how I spent my holidays.

jingyang_nfls: or what?

jingyang_nfls: rejected by.

jingyang_nfls: Oh. I get it now. Very beautiful place.

yeyj: So I told you I went to the jungle and beaches and had a good time.

yeyj: Thank you for your coorperation.

jingyang_nfls: I am jealous of you.

jingyang_nfls: Jungles...I've always wanted to go to a rain forest or africa

yeyj: In fact, I've never visited that website before.

jingyang_nfls: savanna.

yeyj: Africa? Beware of the diseases.

yeyj: You know how much I suffered from those malaria pills.

jingyang_nfls: all the free-rummaging animals! fantastic.

yeyj: I told you I went to Malaysia for camp last month, right?

jingyang_nfls: You spend your vacation pretty much travling and studying?

jingyang_nfls: Yes.

jingyang_nfls: How was it?

yeyj: In order not to be killed by the mosquitoes or leaches, I almost killed myself by applying those repellent.

jingyang_nfls: With your classmates and all?

yeyj: Yes, my class.

jingyang_nfls: leaches, ewww. I get to see some of them in biology. Dead ones.

yeyj: I 've sent you the links to those websites, right?

yeyj: "not again"

jingyang_nfls: I actually like the repellent, its fragrant is rather sweet.

yeyj: Ok, I accept your request.

yeyj: No, it was spearmint smell.

jingyang_nfls: mt request?

jingyang_nfls: my?

yeyj: Just a joke, haven't you got it?

jingyang_nfls: Yuck. Mine was watermelon or something.

jingyang_nfls: When I went to one of my friend's houses and climbed trees with here.

jingyang_nfls: her.

yeyj: On the box of the malaria pills wrote "poison", and after I took the last pill, I felt I would die.

jingyang_nfls: I was scared to death by a huge been.

jingyang_nfls: Poison? As a joke?

yeyj: My throat was burning, and the ache receded only well over one week later.

yeyj: Over dose would kill.

jingyang_nfls: Did you get the disease or were trying to prevent it.

jingyang_nfls: My hands are getting sweety that I cannot type very well.

yeyj: Now, someone said the chance of getting such a disease in that national park was very low. But singaporeans are kinda sensitive.

jingyang_nfls: great weather over there?

yeyj: Sweety or sweaty?

jingyang_nfls: I thought so.

jingyang_nfls: sweaty. See, I cannot type.

yeyj: Yeah, I think i may have another outgoing.

yeyj: Is the air-con on?

jingyang_nfls: In the following days?

yeyj: You mean the last few holidays?

jingyang_nfls: No, but it's pretty cool now, well after sundown.

yeyj: When does the sun go down? 9pm?

jingyang_nfls: no, the next few days.

jingyang_nfls: yeah, somewhere around there.

yeyj: You haven't explained that "huge been"

jingyang_nfls: bee.

jingyang_nfls: sorry,

yeyj: I'd have to prepare for the tests, too many things to memorise.

yeyj: How big?

jingyang_nfls: Didn't know you actually noticed.

jingyang_nfls: enough to give me a painful sting.

yeyj: In the park in Malaysia there were simply hordes of insects.

jingyang_nfls: It was interested in my lunch.

jingyang_nfls: Do they bit after you've put on the repellent?

yeyj: And the whole washroom was covered by their bodies overnight.

jingyang_nfls: Then I almost fall off the tree.

yeyj: You eat in the tree?

yeyj: I felt a bit digusted ooly.

jingyang_nfls: yes. Part of my friend's plan.

jingyang_nfls: Quite comfortable, actually.

yeyj: After certain process, those insects, either moth or ants, just shed their wings and die.

jingyang_nfls: ants are coming into our kitchen. lots of them.

yeyj: Was it a tree house?

jingyang_nfls: So I have to crush them and be disgusted by them.

yeyj: There are a lot in my dorm as well,

yeyj: That is cruel.

jingyang_nfls: After the biology class, I kinda view each animals as a lively organism, so I actually thought about it before I crushed them.

yeyj: Are you getting into the caterpillar mood?

jingyang_nfls: I have no choice.

jingyang_nfls: no. no caterpillars here. Thank god.

yeyj: So you shouldn't have done that

yeyj: How is the vegetation? Also humid continental of cool temperate?

jingyang_nfls: What else can I do, let them get in my food and Be washed down to my stomach afterwards.

yeyj: I am driven crazy by geography.

jingyang_nfls: It was thunderstorming like crazy a week ago.

yeyj: That is an ideal source of protein.

yeyj: Summer is here, the much anticipated summer.

jingyang_nfls: You try and taste them, and you can tell me about your experience afterwards.

jingyang_nfls: Just read a novel about summer, It sounds romantic and ideal in that novel.

jingyang_nfls: Not in real life. Not in teenage years, where time just passes too quickly.

yeyj: Alright, but in those chinese restaurants you may haveto pay a lot to taste them. Chinese are expert eaters.

jingyang_nfls: monkey brains, cats, dogs....

yeyj: Could you please stop comparing the ideal and reality? Leave alone the last dream.

jingyang_nfls: I don't remember my last dream.

yeyj: Yeah, I've no idea why they do that. Certainly they don't kill them after analysing then as organic stuff, etc.

jingyang_nfls: Do you have time just to be by yourself and ponder about your life.

yeyj: That's what dream is like.

jingyang_nfls: ideal combination: rice and beans. All the proteins required by the body.

jingyang_nfls: 8 essential amino acids included.

yeyj: Yes, fortunately. When I was sitting at "southernmost point on continental Aisa" yesterady afternoon.

jingyang_nfls: Did you really?

jingyang_nfls: in Singapore?

yeyj: I feel digusted when thinking of the alimentary system, please.

jingyang_nfls: Forgive my geological impotence. I have not a single idea where is where.

yeyj: A so-called place, I don't believe that in fact.

jingyang_nfls: I didn't ask you think about it.

yeyj: You are inducing me into that.

yeyj: Kidding.

jingyang_nfls: There's nothing disgusting about it.

yeyj: That was a wrong word I guess.

jingyang_nfls: Couldn't help it.

yeyj: Those juices?

jingyang_nfls: guided?

yeyj: Whatever.

jingyang_nfls: Building blocks for your body.

jingyang_nfls: Let leave biology alone. I've had enough during the year.

jingyang_nfls: let's

yeyj: Alright, I don't take biology now, you know, although I may consider in JC.

yeyj: Let's talk about something fresh.

jingyang_nfls: I failed environmental part on the AP>

yeyj: Do you watch any movies now?

jingyang_nfls: Same classes next year?

jingyang_nfls: NOt really.

jingyang_nfls: Hidden dragon, crouching tiger.

yeyj: No, next year would be totally new to me.

yeyj: How was that?

jingyang_nfls: How did you like that movie?

jingyang_nfls: It was all right.

yeyj: I am waiting for the Final fantasy movie, though I expect it to be a failure in plot.

jingyang_nfls: Not extremely good. A little fake.

yeyj: I didn't watch it. But it received harsh critical from mainland Chian.

yeyj: China.

jingyang_nfls: I don't know about final final fantasy.

yeyj: The latest movie I watched was Shrek.

jingyang_nfls: Americans liked it. That's all that mattered to the director.

yeyj: Go to www.finalfantasy.com , it has nothing to do with the game.

jingyang_nfls: That latest movie I watched is ...bring it on.

jingyang_nfls: three websites now.

jingyang_nfls: Still read chinese news online or no?

yeyj: Director? I don't know how to judge the standard of a movie. Pearl Habour isn't exceptionally good, but it got such wonderful response.

yeyj: That Cheer thingy?

jingyang_nfls: I didn't watch it, but some of my classmated totally hated it, saying that it's a retarded love story.

jingyang_nfls: What cheer thingy?

jingyang_nfls: Cheerleaders?

yeyj: Reminds me of your volleyball team. How was it now? I bet you won't go back to Houghton in the near future?

yeyj: Yeah, Bring It On.

jingyang_nfls: I am not on the team right now. Told you I gave it up.

jingyang_nfls: Did you watch it?

yeyj: Don't fret over it.

jingyang_nfls: Too much time and energy involved, I couldn't afford it anymroe.

jingyang_nfls: Occasionally I still do.

yeyj: No, this year I have been almost immuted in books, boring or interesting, I am fed up to a certain extent.

jingyang_nfls: I try a variey of sports now.

yeyj: That's good. I hardly do any sports, that's why I am so weak.

jingyang_nfls: I still like reading novels, just not textbooks. But I am forced to read the whole biology book, which is 1200 pages with thousands of strange words.

yeyj: I jog and swim adn play pingpong about once half a year outside PE lesson. Is that a variety also?

yeyj: Just thousands?

jingyang_nfls: more.

jingyang_nfls: Oh, I have to go off the internet at 11.

yeyj: I would find ten new words in a single paragragh.

jingyang_nfls: Final command.

yeyj: Ok, It was nice talking to you.

yeyj: Sounds formal.

jingyang_nfls: 9 more minutes.

jingyang_nfls: irrevocable.

yeyj: What command?

jingyang_nfls: oh, parent's command. I still need to eat supper.

yeyj: Even though it is the last time I chat with you this summer, I feel satisfied.

yeyj: At least I know you are still the old yourself, 90 percent.

jingyang_nfls: Oh, I am distracted.

jingyang_nfls: Thanks you.

jingyang_nfls: you too.

jingyang_nfls: Now I am very distracted by my parent's hassel.

yeyj: Or is it that you have put on or taken off your mask? I don't mind. I hope you've been feeling well over the last three hours.

yeyj: It is a record, I bet.

jingyang_nfls: ok. Alarm released.

yeyj: Never mind, I can easily concentrate here.

jingyang_nfls: Yes. A pleasant one.

yeyj: The last couple of sentences.

jingyang_nfls: I don't put on masks with the people I know.

jingyang_nfls: Still six minutes, and you sound so final.

yeyj: I think we haven't talked as much as today in the past one whole year?

yeyj: The final can be endless

jingyang_nfls: yeah.

yeyj: So it'll be good already if it carries on.

jingyang_nfls: I am at lose of words.

yeyj: The problem is that more restrictions are likely to set in as we grow up.

jingyang_nfls: Don't know what will happen next year.

jingyang_nfls: loss.

jingyang_nfls: Jezz.

yeyj: It's the growing pains!

jingyang_nfls: TV series.

yeyj: The next year you wouldn't be so busy, I hope.

jingyang_nfls: Oh, do we still email each other.

jingyang_nfls: The first half of the year. college stuff.

yeyj: But that soap opera ends at the age of 22 or so, I am referrnig to the biggest cg=hildren.

yeyj: Children.

jingyang_nfls: If I can get into a good college, then the second half of my senior year will be heaven.

yeyj: I hope you will, but don't force yourself to do such things.

yeyj: Me too.

jingyang_nfls: in order to stay alive, I have obligations.

jingyang_nfls: Will I get to see you next summer if I do go back?

yeyj: If I can do well in the next five month, virtually no troubles would come.

yeyj: And I might manage to see you the next year.

yeyj: Sooner or later, the dreams would come true.

jingyang_nfls: Hopefully. Let's just get through the next few months first.

jingyang_nfls: Emails once in a while, even just once in two months>

jingyang_nfls: ?

yeyj: Let's pray hard, though I've no belief in god, I believe in something.

jingyang_nfls: One more minute.

yeyj: That line was so curt.

jingyang_nfls: Well, final farewell. Please leave first.

yeyj: Who? Why? I never leave first.

jingyang_nfls: This doesn't seem real anymore.

yeyj: It was like chasing a person away.

yeyj: What are you referring to?

jingyang_nfls: Ok, I'll go. bye.

yeyj: Well, Bye!

jingyang_nfls: Sorry. That wasn't my intention.

jingyang_nfls: Gotta go. Bye.