06. Life at the CCAT 在CCAT的生活 (1977)

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A normal school day would be that Barbara and I would meet each other in the morning at tea time in 'the Batman', a smoky coffee bar at the CCAT. It was crowded and there was always someone we knew.

Sometimes on Tuesday I would find Barbara sleeping there, with her head on her arms, hanging on a table . She had been playing mahjong previous evening, this often went on till early in the morning. During the tea break we decided what we were going to do that day. Normally we go to the lessons after the tea-break and meet again in the canteen at lunch time.

During lunchtime we did something with sport. We played al lot of table tennis. Barbara taught me the Chinese grip. This grip I use still when I want to impress my opponent nowadays. We also played a lot of badminton. After the afternoon lessons we meet as a group again. Just hanging around or playing more sports. When it was time to go home for Barbara I escorted her to the bus station. I guess we had a healthy way of living. A lot of sport, we didn't smoke or drink alcohol and ate normal food.

At the CCAT a lot of different nationalities followed studies. I can't remember that there was ever any problems between them. In my class there were a few Arabs and we socialized with them. They had more money than the other students. They were always friendly, well mannered and neatly dressed, Barbara liked them. One time the lent us their traditional customs for a fancy dress party we went to. Barbara looked really lovely as an Arabian girl.

The Cantonese speaking students thought that it would be a good idea to start an Asian society. This society was very active. They organized parties always with fantastic food. They had cultural exchanges and organized sport events. Barbara was very active in this society. She designed a logo for the posters of this society. She had drawn a white dove. Only her design was turned down because the white dove was too much a symbol for the United States. Barbara found this a ridiculous reason.

Barbara's mother didn't object if Barbara went to the parties organized by the Asian society. Her mother assumed that al members were Chinese or Malaysian. I wasn't a member but I was invited for all the events they organized. Once the society organized an cultural exchange between the Asian CCAT students and the Asian Cambridge university students. The CCAT group made a traditional Chinese show. They all had much fun in preparing this show. Barbara and another Chinese girl sang a love song duet. I think Barbara sang the male part. That was the first time I heard Barbara sing.

My problem with Asian society was that everybody spoke Cantonese. I never mastered that language. I still have the book Cantonese for beginners, but I didn't get very far in it. In the beginning Barbara wrote down in note book the words I had to learn. But I didn't have the discipline. What also didn't help was that the Chinese guys had great fun in trying to learn me words which probably were not very nice. One word I still remember "soipow", I still don't know what it means, Barbara refused to tell me. But I was told never to use it.

 The book from which Barbara tried to teach me Cantonese.

After we broke up I used the Cantonese I learned twice. Once to win a bet from a Chinese girl who thought I couldn't speak ten words of Cantonese. The second time was when the volleyball team I played in, wanted to annoy the referee. We played with Chinese numbers on our shirts. The regulations said that we had to play with numbers but it didn't say in which language.

这是翁美玲叫我学习广东话的书

我和翁美玲分手后，我用了两次翁美玲教我的广东话。一次是赢了个打赌，有个中国女孩赌我不能说10个广东话单词，结果我赢了，她输了。还有次，当我和队友打排球时，我们用广东话来标志球衣编号来达到干扰裁判的目的。规则上说我们球衣上必须有编号，但却没说用哪种语言。

剑桥设计与科技学院如今已被重新命名，并且成为安格利亚鲁斯金大学的一部分。但它依然位于当年所在的剑桥大学里的位置。

Barbara waiting in the court yard of the CCAT

Barbara and I enjoying the food of one of the Asian society parties (1978)

翁美玲和我在享受亚裔学生派对上的食物。

在CCAT的生活

 通常翁美玲和我早上都在"蝙蝠侠"咖啡厅见面。这家无烟咖啡厅在伦敦艺术科学学院里面，咖啡馆总是挤满了人群，人群中总是有我们都认识的。周二的很多时候我都能看见翁美玲在那里睡觉。她习惯周一晚上打通宵麻将，打到第二天的早上才结束。在这段休息时间，我们决定当天干些什么事情。通常，我们在休息时段后会去上课，然后午餐又在学校的自助餐厅见面。在午餐期间，我们喜欢做些运动。我们打了许多乒乓球。翁美玲叫我中国人的握球拍方法。直到现在，我仍然用她教我的这种握拍方法给我的乒乓球对手留下深刻印象。我们同时也玩许多羽毛球。下午课结束后，我们又待在了一起。不是单纯的待在一起就是做更多的运动。当翁美玲该回家时，我送她到学校车站。我想我们过着一种很健康的生活方式。许多运动，我们从不抽烟或喝酒，并且我们饮食都很正常。

有许多其它国家的学生在剑桥艺术与科技学院里学习。我不能回想他们之间是否有什么矛盾。在我的课堂里有几个阿拉伯的学生，我们同他们有些交际。他们比其他学生都有钱，并且很友好，举止礼貌，穿着整洁。翁美玲很喜欢他们。有一此，他们把他们的传统服饰借给了我们，我们穿着这些服饰去参加了一个精致的派对活动。翁美玲穿着传统的阿拉伯服饰真的很像一个漂亮的阿拉伯女孩。

讲广东话的学生想如果成立个亚裔学生组织将是个很好的主意。他们这个组织十分活跃。他们组织的派对上总是有很好的食物。他们也有很多文化交流，组织了许多运动活动。翁美玲在这个组织中十分活跃。她为这个组织设计了标志。她画了个白色的鸽子。她设计的鸽子标志是唯一被拒绝的，因为那白色的鸽子看起来太像美国的象征了。翁美玲认为这是个十分可笑的理由。

翁美玲的母亲没阻止她参加亚裔学生组织的派对。她母亲设想这些成员或许全是中国人或者马来西亚人。我不是这个组织的成员，但我总是被邀请。有一次他们组织了个剑桥艺术与科技学院亚裔学生与剑桥亚洲学院学生的文化交流活动。他们准备了许多传统中国节目表演。他们都很乐意准备节目。翁美玲和另外个中国女孩一起唱了首爱情歌。我想翁美玲唱的是男音部分。那也是我第一次听翁美玲唱歌。

我和亚裔组织的问题是，他们都说广东话。我不能掌握这种语言。我仍然有一本广东话入门书，但我并没有学习太多。最初，翁美玲在笔记本里写下了我必须学习的一些语句。但我没有固定的去学习。还有，一些华人学生总是喜欢模仿我的说话，我想这并不很友好。有个广东话发音"soipow"的单词，我至今都不知道那是什么意思，翁美玲拒绝告诉我。但我被告知我绝不能用那个词。