腊八腊八，小孩要炮，姑娘要花

2011第一锅

今天开了2011年第一锅，宾主尽欢，肉尤未尽。

Before & After...

Hometown

Hometown always brings me mixed feelings. It is a place I spent 24 years, but for almost half of the time I couldn’t wait to leave, to see "the outside world". Now, from the outside world 6,500 miles away, every time I go back, I can’t help feeling relieved that I only come to visit. That sounds cold-hearted. It’s more cold-hearted to say I feel more connected to a city where I only worked for less than four years, than to my birthplace, where my old ma and pa live, and where I forged the strongest friendship with three friends since I was 19.

I blame the economic boom, which has flattened the house I grew up in, widened the shaded lane where I used to shop fabrics from street vendors, and moved my high school out of the city to the “high-tech development district” where it used to be corn fields. So hometown has become just the town of homes of the people I love. My parents live in a building that didn’t even exist when I left the town. The only thing in their apartment that can bring back my teenager memory is the sticker on a chest door.

Walking on the street to the farmer’s market with Dad, I found I was looking at everything through a tourist’s eyes. That felt strange. Apparently the women Dad was buying eggs from thought I looked strange too. She asked me why I took pictures of her egg baskets. I told her I was just waiting for my Dad to pick eggs. She was glad I was not from the Administration Bureau of Business and Commerce to check her license.

新年第一帖

新年第一帖，是用来回顾的。2010年最后一个月的故乡行为去年画上了一个完美的句号。

这次行程很短，又是冬天，冷呵呵的，本来不打算去哪观光的，但热情好客的家乡好友一定要给远道而来的中国功夫爱好者Mike展示一下我们中原武林圣地，于是驱车四个小时前往少林寺，结果没领略到什么少林功夫，倒是颇为领教了河南人民的彪悍民风。啥都不说了，上图。

看到山上的卧佛了吗？

金庸大师到此一游。

千年古刹见证了时代的变迁，在塔林的石刻上可见和尚也追求现代的科技与便利：汽车和电脑。

小和尚和老和尚。

塔林卖野菜的婆婆和草丛里打盹的老汉。