Jacaranda is one of the most frequently seen trees in Sydney. It bosoms many purple flowers high above in the branches, and look exactly like purple clouds at the distance. Many overseas students actually don’t know the exact the name of it, but they call it “Exam flower”, because it generally comes out right before the examination.
Despite the beauty, this kind of flower is not so popular among students. Most of students here pay overseas study from their own pocket, so it’s inevitable for them to take part-time job to release the financial burden. As a result, they really have little time to make preparation, and hence exam turns out to be a big headache. I actually heard a touching story about this flower.
Once there’s a graceful lady. Her eyes always get wet the moment she sees this flower. At first, her classmates didn’t know what truly happened to her until she spoke out her own story. (Privacy is regarded as the critical part of human rights in this society, so almost nobody asked other’s personal story unless they reveal it themselves).
This lady used to have a happy marriage with a lovely daughter. Her husband went to USA for his PhD, and then fell in love with somebody else, but she didn’t know it, and was waiting anxiously to also come to reunion. He played a trick to persuade her to study on her master degree in Australia. When she was ready for her first-year exam, also the time when Jacaranda bosomed, she received the letter for divorce from her husband. She failed to endure this sudden beat, and was down with serious illness. The next day, she didn’t attend her exam. She actually wanted to give up her degree. The coordinate professor in her department came to find out the real reason for her absence. He showed great sympathy for her, talked her into taking the make-up exam, and managed to win her a large sum of scholarship to support her to finish her entire study (at that time, the Labor Party was in office, and didn’t cut down the money for education in Australia, it’s still possible to apply for scholarship, but now it’s almost impossible). The next year, the wife of this honorable professor passed away.
This lady found she gradually fell in love with him, though it was merely gratitude and appreciation at first. They planed to marry on the Christmas. Unfortunately, the professor was found to get cancer, and left her one month later. She wiped her tears and came to take her final examination; the time coincided with the bosom of this flower of course. She was so impressed by this kind of “Examination Flower”, actually it seemed to bring her misfortune every time, but the past is after all bygones. Now she is learning to live her life better to console the spirit of her professor in the haven.
There’re some Jacaranda trees around my house. Every time, when I see them, I just think of this story. When I learnt the strategies to pass IELTS in Peking, I once heard one of my oral-English teachers said that overseas study had produced so many tragedies in love or marriage. One of his friends said jokingly that even the best couple in China was likely to divorce if one of them went to abroad. In this story, the husband fell in love with somebody else, and hence deserted his wife, and it’s really very common.
Many of my Chinese classmates have lover or husband (there’s almost no Chinese male classmate in my class), for them, it’s really one of the hardest decisions to make in their life to go overseas study. Many of them told me it’s really painful when they departed the other half of them in the airport, because they knew the high-rate risk. Some of them told me that life abroad was too harsh for them to think about anything else, resulting in escape of feelings towards their previous boyfriend, and some of them simply wanted to immigrant, which made it impossible to maintain the previous relationship...
It’s really strange that what has “stole” the future of marriage or love of this sort. Distance in space and time could explain to some extent, but why can’t real love conquer the physical distance? I’m just wondering what can be used to sustain or strengthen the previous relationship.
July 11, 2004
