The very day of solar eclipse comes. With all my expectation, I get up early at 5:30 and set out for the 7.1 square in Jia Xing as a volunteer.

However, the gloomy sky indicates anything but the eclipse. Worse more, it never rains but it pours. Many people rush to the sheds on each side of the square, and I choose to sit in the rain because I’m one of the few people who has brought along an umbrella. “Isn’t it ridiculously romantic?” I joke to myself, since it is my first time in life sitting in the rain, waiting for the solar eclipse with mp3 music. But for once in 300 years, it seems worth the waiting. When everything is settled down, nature plays the role, amiable or harsh, which nobody would have the control of.

As we count down the time when the moon begins to get in the way, the sky greys down to entire black, and the people utter the sound of ecstasy. Though the weather is frustrating, we still witness and celebrate the great sensation of the interplanetary change.

The eclipse perhaps disappoints everyone on the square, but I’m most astonished by a disabled middle aged man, who has come all the way from the Netherlands. He is a great person, curious, enthusiastic, and mentally robust.