What is Happiness
November 6th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
SFU is good!
SFU is good because here I am no longer worried about a seat for selfstudy. Study places are everywhere in the academic buildings, and in library there are even specific areas for quite study or silent study (although I can’t tell the difference between these two). I can stay in the library till almost 12pm (I supposed it to be 24 hours open before I came here), and some safe guards will soon come and shout ‘library is closed’. What a fantastic idea to warn students by shouting!
In ZJU, the situation is very weird. A piece of sad song ‘梁祝’ or ‘song from secret garden’ will disturb your mood for going on studying. Except those have great endurance, one must leave on time. But you will find that it is only 10pm or so if you look at your watch. I always wonder why the library will be closed so early for a top university.
In ZJU seats for study are always in short supply. During the exam week, it is not a strange thing that you get up at 6am and rush to the classrooms only to find that all the seats have been occupied. Wars are on show every day between those who have occupied seats and those still hunting for a seat. In these wars, a boy is no more a gentleman and a girl can discard all her femininity. Boy friends are the backups for the girls. People around are paparazzi who are always ready to report these events on the school BBS. (OH! Why there is not a formal BBS for SFU?) And those seats are just crowded together and you may be disturbed by others from time to time if you don’t wear ear plugs.
Well, in SFU, every study area is well designed. The seats are enclosed by covers, and soft sofas are offered for group study. It is just like other things in Vancouver, or in Canada, they are well designed and efficient and reasonable existence. In China, there always exist absurd designs. As in ZJU, there are lots of empty classrooms and even empty lands leaving unused, but at the same time the seats are not sufficient. Also in my hometown Guangzhou while forests of skyscrapers over hundreds meters and the world’s tallest towers stand in the city, the poor citizens or outlanders are still struggling for a shelter.
However, I found that happiness cannot be easily defined as absolute fairness and satisfaction. In ZJU, one can be cursing those occupying seats for a whole day and at the same time still feel very happy during this process. In SFU where all facilities with efficiency have been maximized, few will have interest to use them.
Happiness is not enjoying what others design for you but witnessing magnificence from which you gain motivation to chase the fully satisfaction of your own.
(end)
