在MVRDV的半年中最刺激的部分莫过于20天内两次（2005年10月20日和2005年11月8日）冲回国去给甲方做方案汇报了：出发前一两天加班不合眼，上了飞机还在做pdf的presentation，到机场转机时还在安排成都那边的打图，到达成都后刚踏进机场洗手间准备方便一下甲方的电话就已经打过来了：“杨小姐，到了没有啊？” 于是脸不洗，牙不刷，奔到朋友那儿把打好的图取到，直接冲进威斯顿会议厅，只见甲方20来人黑压压的一片。。。这样的经历真是难得啊，如此短时间内的时空转化不知道下次会是什麽时候会再体验到？去年底在专栏里写了一篇文章纪录这个生活片断，把它转贴在这里：

Life is always on the way to somewhere, one year ago I left China to the Netherlands for studying, now I travel everyday from Delft to Rotterdam, morning and evening, the same time, train and metro, sometimes came across the same people on the way, I got on the train while he got off…

It is a routine, to go and to come back…

Within the past three weeks, I traveled back to China twice. Booking a flight ticket via the Internet is nowadays as easy as buying a train ticket on the platform of Delft, done within three minutes. Then simply packed with pieces of shirts and got on the train from Rotterdam to Schiphol, after 40 minutes arrived at the airport, spent 10 minutes on self-service check-in and just on time for boarding. The flight took off punctually at 16:50, which would take nine hours from Amsterdam to Beijing. It was not a short trip, but when you have got used to it, it’s just another extended journey from Rotterdam to Delft. The first dinner served exactly two hours after taking off; KLM blue stewardess sweetly smiled asking “chicken or pasta?” always the same, if this time I took chicken with rice, the next time I would take pasta; they never change, I had to invent some changes by myself. After the starter of a salmon salad, the main course of chicken and rice as well as the dessert of chocolate mousse, I and the colleague with me started working on the presentation to the client which is going to take place in ten hours in Chengdu, a capital city in south-west of China. Chinese clients are always in such a hurry…they suddenly told me on November the 1st the final presentation of bidding had been changed to 7^th of Nov instead of the 14^th which we had agreed on in the meeting last time in Beijing. What then could we do as architects? Only to work harder… I didn’t sleep at all the night before the flight only went back home taking a shower and picking up the luggage. Now when we were doing the pdf presentation on the plane, some other colleagues were also working for the booklet in Rotterdam…

9:10am Beijing time, arriving at the national airport, the first thing was to go to the business center to recharge our laptops and contact my colleagues in Rotterdam, making sure they had sent the booklet to my friend in Chengdu who was going to help us print it out. Poor guys… they just sent the finished booklet to my friend, it’s 2:00am already in Rotterdam, and they didn’t sleep at all the day before neither! However, they didn’t manage to do the required A0 panel, we had to do that. My flight to Chengdu was at half past twelve, so I still had some time to finish with it and send it for printing.

Four hours later, just landing in Chengdu my mobile rang, it was from the client that everybody was already waiting for us in the conference room, no shower, no tooth brushing, no sleep, only picked up our booklets and the A0 panel at my friend’s place, then the presentation started right away…

The start of the presentation could be the end of this journey, but after one night in Chengdu, a new journey would begin again, flew to Beijing, spent a night there and back to Amsterdam… never end, where is the destination?