September 15, 2005, 3:29pm

I want to write about the squirrels many times but every time when I begin to write, I just keep writing something else. So, right now I'm waiting for the GatorLift to pick me up for classes. Let me grab this time to tell you the beauty of the squirrels. At least I find them really beautiful.

Squirrels are everywhere here and I see them everyday. Well, I saw a lot of them in London too. But like, about one month ago, I was simply struck to see a squirrel jumping from the ground onto the trunk of a tree. Probably a pine tree, where they find food.

Its streamline body and the long tail made a posture so striking to the extent that, to me, it's like the gymnastic athletes in Olympics. That is, like the moment when the athletes jump off the ground, spread their legs apart at the highest point, their bodies would look as if they stay in the air and fly momentarily.

I remember I usually thought people actually can fly at least a little bit before I learnt Newton's Second Law, that we are subjected to gravity and we simply wouldn't be able to stay in air no matter how high we jump. (Well, at the highest point when v=0, probably it's kind of staying in air momentarily theoretically.)

When the athletes do look like they fly a little bit, it's just an illusion. At least my physics teacher said so. Well, I don't know if he's correct. (Sister Yuk, what do you think?)

Now, I don't need to wait for the Olympic Games every four years and sit in front of the TV to see this illusion of wonder. I am able to enjoy this beauty of illusionary flying if I just take a chair outside my apartment, sit there and wait.

Yesterday I actually saw one of the World Beauties and Olympic champions combined, wagging its tail like mad on the trunk of a tree. Almost like the helicopter.

I'm beginning to doubt that perhaps the squirrels can actually stay in the air momentarily even though they are also subjected to the gravitational force. Planes fly too. Why not the squirrels with their frantic tails? Olympic athelets don't have a tail to help them. Perhaps squirrels are very proud of their powerful tails, who knows.