存在的体验

转帖Facebook上的一帖，回味在芬兰的时光

YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN IN FINLAND TOO LONG, WHEN……

1. You rummage through your plastic bag collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to garbage

2. As you walk past the Parliament Building in Helsinki, and see the statue is titled "Svinhufvud" you no longer read it as "Swinehead"… instead you think "What a good Swedish name!"

3. When a stranger on the street smiles at you:
a. you assume he's drunk
b. he is insane
c. he's an American

4. You don't think twice about putting the wet dishes away in the cupboard to dry

5. A friend asks about your holiday plans and you answer, "Oh, I'm going to Europe!" meaning any other Western European country outside Scandinavia.

6. You no longer scrunch up or fold your paper money. You always put it in your wallet

7. You see a student take a front row seat and wonder "Who does he think he is!!??"

8. Silence is fun

9. The reason you take the ferry to Stockholm is
a. Duty free vodka
b. Duty free beer
c. To party hard….no need to get off the boat in Stockholm, just turn around and do it again on the way back to Finland

10. Your coffee consumption exceeds 6 cups a day and coffee is too weak if there is less than 10 scoops per pot

11. You pass a grocery store and think "Wow, I had better go in an buy something!"

12. Your native language has seriously deteriorated, now you begin to "eat medicine", "open the television", "close the lights" ´, and tell someone "you needen't to!"
Expressions like "Don't panic" creep into your everyday language.

13. You associate pea soup with Thursdays

14. Your idea of unforgivable behaviour now includes walking across the street when the light is red and there is no WALK symbol, even though there are no cars in sight

15. Your notion of streetlife is reduced to the few teenagers hanging out in front of the railway station on Friday nights

16. Your bad mood becomes your good mood

17. Sundays no longer seem dull with all the stores closed, and begin to feel restful instead

18. "No comment" becomes a conversation strategy

19. You finally stop asking your class "Are there any questions?"

20. The fact that all of the "v's" and the "w's" are together in the phone directory seems right

21. Your old habit of being "Fashionably late" is no longer acceptable. You are always on time

22. Hugging is reserved for sexual foreplay

23. You begin to understand Jussi Jyylanpaarvi's broadcast of the hockey game

24. You refuse to wear a hat, even in –30 degree weather

25. You hear loud-talking passengers on the train. You immediately assume:
a. they are drunk
b. they are Swedish-speaking
c. they are American
d. all of the above

26. You give up on trying to find fat-free food and pile on the butter, cream and sugar

27. You know how to fix herring in 105 different ways

28. You eat herring in 105 ways

29. You no longer look at sports wear as casual wear, but recognize them as semi-formal wear

30. You can now reconstruct the missing letters on a building. For example :MERI…….LITTO OY

31. You have undergone a transformation
a. You accept mustamakkara (Black-blood sausage) as food
b. You accept alcohol as food
c. You accept

32. You understand why the Finnish language has no future tense

33. You no longer have to search for the flushing mechanism

34. You no longer see a problem in wearing white socks with loafers

35. You no longer correct people who say MAC Donald's

36. You just love Jaffa

37. You've come to expect Sunday morning sidewalk vomit dodging

38. You know that "religious holiday" means, "let's get pissed."

39. You enjoy salmiakki

40. You know that "men's public bathroom" is another phrase for sidewalk

41. You know that more than three channels means cable

42. You get all Swedish jokes

43. When you're hungry you can peel a boiled potato like lightning

44. You've become lactose intolerant

45. You accept that 80 degrees C in a sauna is chilly, but 20 degrees C outside is freaking hot.
Also, you accept -30 outside as a reasonable temperature, but anythuing under 22 indoors is unreasonable...

46. You give the air hostess your undivided attention when she demonstrates how to fasten, tighten and unbuckle your seatbelt. You eye the person sitting next to you suspiciously when they don't do the same.

47. You don't waste alcohol. When you spill your drink on the desk and actually contemplate slurping it up anyway

48. You stop asking "how are you" when you meet people. It's just plain "hi" or "mmph" or *nod*. Communicating becomes less and less important...

49. It doesn't matter what nationality the other person is, they'll understand finnish as long as you talk really loud. If this doesn't help, just talk very slow (but still very, very loud).

50. Upon hearing finnish when abroad, you immediately duck for cover and hope they go away. Whatever you do, you in NO WAY, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE utter a single finnish word (By god, they might want to come and talk to you, as if that was completely acceptable finnish behaviour when not in Finland!)

51. You start to believe that pulla is a treat.

52. When jumping into a lake to sober up and then carry on drinking seems like sound advice!

53. You sincerely believe that Fazerin sininen is the best chocolate in the world.

54. You find it normal to drink milk with your meals.

55. You eat dinner at 6 PM and understand the concept of iltapala.

56. You think it’s normal to pay 50% income taxes.

57. You understand why people talk about church boats (kirkkovene) all the time.

58. You answer the phone by saying your name rather than 'hello'.

59. You understand the question ‘What’s your gallery nick?’

前几天，跟着我做实验的一个本科生Niko，在做presentation的时候，大谈他的理论和设想。台下的人听了，都知道他其实是有好多基本原理还没弄明白，只是都含笑不语。我也暗笑，可忽然回想起一年以前的自己，那时不也是这般慷慨激昂吗？

去年在做出那个实验现象的时候，我便想出了一整套的理论来解释它，然后做出了许多的推论。那时真的是很兴奋，真的是有一种谁都不放在眼里的神气。结果变成了盲目的自信，与别人讨论时，或者看文章时，我都毫不犹豫的用我自己的假设去推断，批驳别人的结论，按照我的假设真可以来一次革命。“现在想来，我那时真是太聪明了”。真的，那时相信自己的理论太完美，反而害怕它他是错的，对很多不利于自己的现象或结论都无比惧怕。要是结果若不如自己预想的那样，真的感觉好像失恋一样痛苦。慢慢思想变得狭隘，考虑问题也都太过片面，做实验也浮躁起来。

后来，看的东西多了，实验经验也丰富了，我才渐渐明白：原来这世界并不如我想象的那么简单明白，即便简单的现象，其中包含的不确定因素也要远超过我能想象的。并不是事事都能如我所愿，事实就是事实，没有对的，也没有错的，没有好的，也没有坏的，它可以让你百思不解，却不会因你的意愿而改变一毫。那时觉得天马行空，精美无比的构想，现在看来实在有些幼稚，那些武断片面的想法来，其实是来自于自己知识的匮乏。

自然科学的进步，是一点点积累起来的，后人先要学习前人，要比前人走得更远，然后才能前进一点点。即便历史上那些突破性的工作，在当时的环境下，也是以同行们大量的工作作为铺垫的。没有人能事先预见一切，我们只是在尝试中不断修正自己的想法。没有大量知识积累做前提，任何精妙的设想都只是空中楼阁。可能很美，但是正确的可能性却很小。伟大的预见者，往往先是时代中知识最渊博的人。现在想来，Google Scholar 里引用的那句牛顿的话：要站在巨人的肩膀上，真是铁律！

假设固然很重要，它引导着实验的方向，而且往往是最需要天才的地方。好的假设源于实验，也反过来指导着实验。就像建筑的设计，不论外观如何新颖，如何大胆，若造不出来，或者是没钱造，也不过是一张废纸。建筑史上的杰作，没有一个是只存在于图纸上的。我的superviser，已经做Metalic Nanoparticles六年了，发了六篇一流的文章。我现在走的方向，也是基于他的一个并不太难的推测。虽然目前实验结果没能证实他原先的假设，反而使疑点更多，可正是这些意想不到的结果，却带来了新的发现。实验往往是漫长而乏味的，有很多时候，我的实验结果不理想，自己的设想被现实无情的粉碎，我感到灰心丧气，甚至不想再做下去了。是他的沉着在安慰着我，先走着看吧，谁知道事实会怎样呢？发现往往就是在不经意间诞生的呢。

和一年前相比，我现在的知识更丰富，做事也沉稳了很多。很少凭空幻想着事实会如何，该会有如何的突破。我知道，只想着结果的功利行为，往往只会带来冷冷的失望。在制定方案的时候，我也会考虑很多现实的因素，和实现的可能。无法实现的方案不能指导实验，没有实验，也不会有新的发现。可是，只要有一个小小的设想能够实现，就坚持做下去，坚持下去，不放过每一个细节，然后才会有发现新知识的可能。

我相信我脑中总会有用之不竭的新点子。大部分是错的，但也有一些可能是对的。但不论如何，只有我真正做出东西来，才算是对科学有点贡献。我相信我的解释会是正确的，我也在做实验去证实，但正确与否不重要了，重要的是我们已经开始认识自然了。

路还长，求索漫漫，厚积薄发。