咖啡色的倒影

在交图后的几小时内，空气中散去了焦虑的味道。不必躲避台灯，一点昏黄的光影下更适合沉思与安眠。零度。生活。等待。一些东西在一笔一划地结晶，不日不夜。

前夜大雪，天色暗红，好像那些不甘心闭合的眼睛，还在注视着什么。

今早，铺天盖地地像撒盐，我骑着车，忽然感觉痛苦涌动起来，几乎窒息。交图我不急，除了电脑有点卡，可是我忘了到底是为什么造形。我把上帝给的纸条打湿了，字迹模糊不清。

下午，看什么都像群组。譬如路旁的两排树，所不同的是Sketchup的树没有树根。

橙色是我跟舍友褚同学今天骑了一天自行车经过的路线。灰色线分别标出了北京的二环、三环、四环和五环路。

Experiencing Beijing on the road by bike is hard work indeed. But also rewarding.

This is the first time I have known how Beijing's summer has become more and more irritating. During most of our ride, roadside trees were scarce, and many of haven't grown up to bear a decent crown. So we have never stopped rushing for a shade to have a short break, especially on Chang'an Street. The sun rays also burned our skin, causing it ache and turn red, and by the end of the day clear boundaries appeard at our neck, arms, and knees. Each of us drank more than 7 bottles of water and soft drinks, though had hardly ever gone to the toilet.

It is surprising, and sometimes astounding to have an eye on the appearances of different regions in the city. The height of buildings alone has a lot to tell. Within the 2nd ring road, a certain limitation is imposed on the architectural design, (which is approximately 9 storeys?) so all of those plazas, office buildings, shopping centers have become big stocky cubes alike, nevertheless some of the older ones have traditional Chinese roofs on top. Therefore a stark contrast is made between this and things outside the 3rd ring in Haidian, where tall and glazing modern highrises predominate.

Contrary to our previous conceptions, districts in southern Beijing look a lot less developed and well-off than their northern counterparts. The degradation began as we went beside Qianmen Avenue southwards. On the pedestrian crossover we took a look down, and all we had seen were shabby huts mingled with torn-down courtyards. Newer buildings lacked good planning. Then we realized the renovation of Qianmen Avenue only provided a facade! And the wide roadside lawns concealed the real look of the semi-slums! Commerce around Qianmen also seemed a bit depressed.

The real target of our trip is a region between southeastern 4th and 5th rings. Besides crampt dwellings for disadvantaged migrant workers and citizens, southeastern Beijing is filled with factories, markets, warehouse stores for furniture, industrial material and seafood. All of them had red or blue roofs, lining in order. Loaded trucks rumbled past us in clouds of dust, enough for us to give good coughs within the next half hour.

On our way back, we had once got lost, which is to become immortal in our memory. After touring outside the Birds' Nest and the Water Cube, we were going to find our way back to dorm. Instead of going westwards, we turned out to have been heading south! Now the exact point at which a wrong turn was made remains uncertain, but it's probably in the entanglement of Jianxiang Overpass. You can see it in the Google image above.

On the whole, the bike ride was joyful. Without the bike ride, the joking, screaming, chatting, singing, monologuing, complaining, drinking, map-reading, and photographing would never take place. More academically, the ride added to a good sense of scale of the city, replacing the incorrect one formed inside subway carriages. Feeling the city on two wheels is a privilege, especially for crazy architectural students like us, who will one day make the city crazy.

《浮士德》草草看完了一遍，不得不承认还是没看太懂。书中用的西方典故极多，希腊神话、圣经、当时时代状况，都不是很熟。译成中文的诗歌语言也有点奇怪。不过，总算知道《浮士德》讲述的大概情节，模模糊糊地竟然有一点触动。

浮士德起初的形象好像叫做魔术士和经院学者，皓首穷经而一无所成。我似乎看见了自己的影子，才鼓起勇气读下去。浮士德久久陷于思辨无果的沮丧，几乎失去了活下去的信心，幸好回忆起童年美好的生活，在自杀前一秒停手。全书另一个主角是魔鬼梅菲斯特，他跟天主打赌，如果能引诱浮士德安于享乐，止步不前，就能将浮士德的灵魂据为己有。梅菲斯特来到人间，和浮士德签下灵魂契约，带领浮士德深入世间，寻求丰富的生活。浮士德凭着善良和向上的本性，向各种激情、至善、至美的绝顶挑战，每一次却都是一场悲剧。在此期间，梅菲斯特一面帮助浮士德，一面也将他诱向满足、懈怠、堕落，可以说每一个悲剧的造成都有梅菲斯特暗中诱惑的因素。浮士德最终失明，以为自己筑堤事业热火朝天，志满意得间，发出了“停留一下吧，你多么美啊”的感叹，让梅菲斯特赢了。

这本书的体裁是诗剧，又不好读，所以能记住的不多。印象深刻的只有几句话，几个场景。比如第一部的书斋里，梅菲斯特把中世纪的学问讽刺了一个遍，向学生道：尊贵的朋友，所有理论都是灰色的，生活的金树常青。在第二部开头，浮士德置身大自然中，面对壮美的飞瀑和彩虹，悟出：我们是在五彩折光中感悟人生。等等。

零零散散地看过一点：《停滞的帝国》，讲清朝外交的，好多话琢磨起来特难听，但绝不是辱骂，那里的事实都是发人深省的；《西方哲学的故事》，这本书其实不错，虽然比较浅显但是文字流畅、内容圆通；《近现代建筑语言》；《采访本上的城市》，一本记者写的扎扎实实的访谈录，了解到不少事的来龙去脉。又捡起《哲学研究》，这回下到了英文版。我还想读斯通写的《凡高传》，想读陀思妥耶夫斯基的《罪与罚》。读书好啊……

买了Beatles的Yellow Submarine。很奇怪，Beatles的专辑在书店只有这一张。还是CD给劲，就连耳机都能听出音质和mp3不一样。