清明

<清明> 杜牧
清明時節雨紛紛, 路上行人欲斷魂.
借問酒家何處有? 牧童遙指杏花村.

這是小學時念過的詩句. 昨天晚上媽打電話來, 說她和爸剛從彰崙離開, 現在正在 Padang Sera 清明. 聽了後, 我才想起現在正是清明時節. 好快哦, 才剛過完農曆年不久, 現在已經是清明了. 再來就是端午,中元, 中秋, 重陽, 冬至, 然後又是一年了.

小時候總覺得時間過得真慢, 要等好久好久, 好不容易才盼到這一些節日的到來. 現在卻總覺得時間過得太快了, 這些節日來也匆匆, 去也匆匆, 沒有什麼值得回味似的. 或許是因為身在它鄉為異客, 身邊的人都不知道這些節日, 更別說慶祝了. 因為沒有慶祝, 所以就沒什麼好回味的吧.

Racist Crow

Its spring. Its the season where every living thing except human seems to get a little weird. Human might too, just that human are good at concealing, which sometimes closely resemble something called "hypocrisy" and that's why other human didn't notice the weirdness. Anyway, by weird, I mean the 'rites and rituals' performed the living things before copulating.

Last evening, after helping out with the Beer Game for a class, NW and I came back to our office and was getting ready to leave. Dr M came by to drop off something for me. Then, outside the glass panel, I saw a huge flock of black birds (because its black; I don't know the specie) swarming toward a tree as if they were attacking their enemy, rest on the tree for a while, then flew away in a flock and then repeat the 'ritual', over and over. Its amazing to watch that.

Seeing the flock of birds swarming, I told NW: "Watch out! They are coming for you." NW replied: "I know! I had been watching closely for that." Dr M was there and he was lost. So I had to tell him that NW was attacked by several crows in several occasions and that led her to believe that crows are racist. (Note: NW is African American) Dr M cracked up, really badly. If you happened to be in the second floor of IE building, you could hear him laughing all way down the hallway.

NW's "Racist Crow Theory" and "Crow Conspiracy Theory" were not new to us. NW told us her incidents with the crows when it first happened and we had been laughing at the two 'theories' for a while now. Last summer, NW was attacked by the crow while walking from the parking lot to the office. It happened almost on a daily basis, for about three weeks. NW took it personally, thinking that the crow only attacked her. I had the same experience too, only I wouldn't call it an attack and its definitely not personal to me. The crow just flew by really close to your head when you walked by.

After NW told us her two "theories", these are the reactions: LB told NW: "You sure its crow? I think those that attacked you were doves! OR.... they thought that they were doves."; Dr M asked NW: "What is the color of the crows?"; JS told NW: "Yeah, I heard of black-on-black violence before. Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

NW told us she even thought of parking somewhere else, maybe by the baseball stadium or something to avoid the crows. Then LB told her, "Watch out, the jackrabbit might attack you."