Au revoir, la France

Writing this post was certainly not easy.

After returning from Italy, I was sitting at the Paris Gare du Nord yesterday, waiting for my train to go back to Compiègne. All of a sudden the thought dawned on me that I would be leaving France for Canada in just two days.

It was hard to grasp the idea that one year had gone by since I had arrived alone in this station for the very first time. Indeed, one year is a funny time frame. It seems long if you look forward, but it often feels like a fraction of a second in retrospective.

So was it a good year?

This year had been a busy one.

I must have had signed at least thirty sheets of administrative authorizations before and during the year of stay. It was unavoidable. Coordinating between two universities from two countries was a daunting task.

This year had been an adventurous one.

I trekked through 9 countries in Europe:

France
Belgium
Netherlands
Switzerland
Germany
Hungary
England
Spain
Italy

For a kid like me who grew up in China and then immigrated to Canada, Europe always had this mystery to it. Now after seeing a major part of it I am starting to understand its beauty. I am fascinated by the fact that each country has distinct personality and culture, which give them unique colors. I like this diversity.


This year had been an educational one.

Plunging into technical courses that were taught in French was not an easy task. I had to record some of the lectures, and listen to them after the class in order to understand the course material.

The efforts were well spent though. I have met many students from different countries, and through my participation, observed how they learn and work. I feel fortunate that I have had the chance to experience, appreciate, and learn from these cultural experiences.

On the personal front I found out my weaknesses, especially what puts me down. These are some of the areas for me to work on.

Best of all, this year had been a fun one.

I have met many people from all kinds of backgrounds and professions, and through the enjoyable conversations we have had, I have gained many new perspectives on life.

So looking back I can say: “yeah, it had been a good year.” At this point it is still hard to pin point exactly what I have learned, but I am sure it will be come clearer as time goes on.

Now trip is done, over with.

It is time to regroup and focus on the next big thing: Fourth Year Systems.

Despite all the nostalgic feelings, I do not feel sad. The past had been great but the future is more exciting than ever. I am looking forward to all the unknowns that the future will bring.

But really though, one just have to be grateful, have a positive attitude, and carry a big smile, then everything will be fine. I think it works for me.

Italy - Florence Day 3

David

During the summer of 2003 when I was into sketching and painting, I had the chance to sketch the statue of "David" by Michelangelo.

Today I had the chance to see the real thing. Below is just a short reflection that I wrote after seeing the statue.

Reflection of the second habit of The Seven Habits by Steven Covey.

I had the privilege to see the masterpiece "David" by Michelangelo in Florence, Italy in the Museum Academia. I had to wait two and half hours just to get into the museum. However, seeing the real statue was worth every single second of the wait.

Looking at the real statue of "David", one can only feel a sense of perfection, and admiration of Michelangelo for his brilliance and his talent. However, after learning how the statue was made, I felt that it was perhaps his method of attacking the problem which helped the result. I believe that Michelangelo possessed a special habit. It is this habit which helped him. Steven Covey described this habit as the second out of seven habits of effective people : The habit of beginning with the end in mind.

What is the second habit? Covey claims that for every thing that human creates there are really two creations. The first one is a creation in the mind, the second one is the physical creation. He argues that this is how effective people carry out tasks. First they create an idea in their mind, then mentally work with the idea until a final product can be visualized or throughly defined. The next step is the physical creation, the "Mise-en-forme" of the idea, the implementation.

How can you link the creator of the statue with this habit? Most statue I've seen are composed from different body parts or are made up from several sections of stones. "David" is one single solid piece. Michelangelo approached the project from a outside-in point of view, which means he started carving the stone with the end product in his mind. Before the first bit of marble was chipped off, he already articulated the proportion and the posture of the statue. He then started the project knowing exactly how to work with the rectangular stone, making little or perhaps no modification to his original plan. Of course, this is not only the reason why David looks so real. It was also because of Michelangelo's mastery of sculpturing techniques.

What can one benefit from practicing this habit? Well, perhaps not creating a statue that matches the realism of "David" but it definitely is a great way to tackle a project. By defining the concrete results that one would want to achieve, one has a set of definite goals to work towards. This certainly will make the efforts more effective.

Italy - Florence Day 2

On the second day in Florence we decided to go for more nature. We spent about 3 hours on the local train to "Cinq Terre", a famous rock beach outside of the city of Florence.

Voila!



How many days in your life can you have an authentic Italian pizza



with a famous Italian wine named Chianti



and a view like this for lunch?

Italy - Florence Day 1

After the last day in Rome, we got on a regional high speed train and made our way to Florence, a much celebrated city for its culture and arts. The city style was a fresh change from the metropolitan city of Rome. One can see a lot more aged residential buildings, locals who speak Italian to you instead of English, and it was MUCH cleaner than Rome for sure.

The artistic style of the buildings were very distinct, as most of the buildings wear a type of decoration named "Polychromatic". One example is this church, Santa Maria Novella, which reflects the Renaissance genius of Leon Battista Alberti:



It's also one of the biggest buildings in Florence.

---

Besides dropping our jaws by the wonderful artwork, we had to find ice cream! Thanks to Richard's guide book, we were lucky to try out the best ice cream bar in town, Vivoli.



It might as well be the best ice cream I've had in my life. All the fruity flavors tasted like real fruits!! Well worth the two Euros for the two scoops!

Italy - Rome - Day 4

The Vatican City

A visit to Rome is not complete without a visit to the Vatican city, the smallest self-governing country on the surface of earth. That's right, this is supposed to be where the Pope lives.


St. Peter's Square from outside of the Vatican City.

We headed for the Vatican City museum at around noon. Bad timing. The sun was directly above our heads plus there was a 1.5 hour line up. The line moved relatively quickly though.

We went straight to the museum which lead to the famous Sistene Chapel.

A beautifully created sculpture.



The museum itself is just as extravagant as the Louvre. It's unfortunate that I am not religious to know enough about the stories that the paintings are telling. This one did make sense. A beautiful painting of the symbolic slaughter of the Seven Sins.



We walked for about half hour before finally reaching the Sistine Chapel. It was smaller than I thought, but then again it was very well decorated. How can it be bad when you give the job to Michelangelo?

After visiting the museum we went outside to the square to catch an amazing view:

Italy - Rome - Day 3

Today we went to visit the Catacomb in Rome. This is the description according to Wikipedia :



The word Catacomb comes from a Greek phrase kata kumbas (L. ad catacumbas). It roughly translates to "near the low place", and originally it meant a certain burial district in Rome. It can refer to any network of caves, grottos, or subterranean place that is used for the burial of the dead.

We had to travel to the outskirts of the city in order to visit the tombs. As a respect to the people who where buried there, no photos were allowed in the tombs.

---

The day was really hot and after two 2 days of walking, we retired for the rest of the afternoon and went out again for the night. It was on this night when we stumbled upon the best pizza that I've had in my life.

Richard and I were just wondering around, hunting for some beer, then we went to a part of the town where the locals hung out. It was already 1:30AM but there was still lots of people. We picked a pizza joint to sit down. It was not fancy at all. We ordered and about 7 minutes later, our pizza came: the Pizza Capricciosa, "Everything in the house".



It simply beats everything else I've had in the past. The base was a thin layer of pizza doe without crust. The top was loaded with mushrooms, and then scattered with ham, egg, and artichoke heart. I will have to try to find it in Canada!

After the pizza and some beer, falling into sleep became an easy task.

Italy - Rome - Day 2

After Richard and Mel arrived we had lunch then went to get some shopping done. We are in Italy, of course we will visit the authentic brand name shopping malls.



Only to discover that a hat and a hand bag from such store will clear our savings for our upcoming school term.

Then we saw a store who wasn't afraid to let the customers know what to expect. Boy did I look surprised :)



We then went to see THE fountain to see in Rome. Apparently for this one if you can flip a coin into the water with your back against it, you are destined to come back to the city. I was quite impressed by its magnificent presence.



For dinner we found a pizza place to eat. Mel was kind enough to treat us to dinner. It was great, thanks Mel!