Fingerprints & Footsteps

Au revoir, la France

2005-07-31T02:42:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

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.

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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

2005-07-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

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

2005-07-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

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.

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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

2005-07-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

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!

Italy - Rome - Day 1

2005-07-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

I took the plane with EasyJet and arrived in Rome on the 20th of July. I was the first to arrive before Richard and Melanie (A friend from Montreal who came to visit). My first trip was to the famous tourist spots. Colosseum.

The romans must be really good civil engineers, although the building looked fairly beaten up, and there must had been a lot of money put into restorations, it had stood years and years of wethering. It will probably continue to last if maintained properly.

However it also resembles the savageness of human nature, as it was a spectator theater for the slaughtering of animals and humans. The center of the Colosseum is opened up, so you can see the underground tunnels and cages. I suppose that's where the prisoners and the animals were kept.

I wanted to wait for Richard and Melanie to come before really visiting all the touristy spots, so I spent the whole day wondering around the town and sightseeing. The result was a great mix.

you will find ancient Roman ruins :

beautiful fountains :

and professional nose-picking tools on sale :

Departure for Italy...

2005-07-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Another long break between the updates. Sorry no pictures about the Spain trip. My hard drive is full so I can't download any of them from my camera. I will upload all of them when I go home.

My next destination is Italy. Looking forward to the authentic coffee..hmm...

MRIed

2005-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the chance to get a MRI scan. It was my first time and it gave me the chance to see some of the biomedical imaging equipements and their usages.

And of course there is nothing wrong with my health (I hope!), it was to help one of my friend with her project. They are studying the élaticities of the walls of the two main carotids in your neck that supplies your brain blood, by taking successive images of the neck synched with the heart rate, then measure the changes in diameter of the artery cross section. In order to accomplish this, she will need to collect some data. I was one of the subjects.

During the imaging process there were no feeling but it created quite a bit noise, which was applified by the cavity that surrounds the patient. For usages for a long time it is quite unpleasant for the patient. Noise reduction for the next generation MRI machines?

Poor Self-Esteem vs. Healthy Self-Esteem

2005-06-30T01:55:00.000-07:00

People with poor self-esteem often rely on how they are doing in the present to determine how they feel about themselves. They need positive external experiences to counteract the negative feelings and thoughts that constantly plague them. Even then, the good feeling (from a good grade, etc.) can be temporary.

Healthy self-esteem is based on our ability to assess ourselves accurately (know ourselves) and still be able to accept and to value ourselves unconditionally. This means being able to realistically acknowledge our strengths and limitations (which is part of being human) and at the same time accepting ourselves as worthy and worthwhile without conditions or reservations.

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One of the problems that I have sometimes it's having low self-esteem. Sometimes I look at the accomplishments of other people around me and get depressed and lower the value of the task on hand or even sometimes completely disqualify it, and in doing so I feeling even more depressed about myself. This is certainly a symptom of low self-esteem.

The first step was to identify it, the next step is to manage it. I think bit by bit I can counter this problem.

Done exams

2005-06-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

Schools with UTC has came to an end with the controls exam yesterday. It went fairly well except the length.

Now it is just about focusing on the finish my work term, and then Italy for a week, then Canada!

Need to learn how to make right decisions...

2005-06-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things I need to improve on...

Back from Spain

2005-06-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Wow. That was one of the most memorable trips since coming to Europe. Spain's mix of Latin and Arabic cultural makes it standing out from the rest of the countires I have visited. Pictures and stories will follow, but just one quick post about an incident on our last night in Spain.

On the last night of our stay in Spain, me and Vince made an awesome dinner and were ready to enjoy our last meal in Spain. During the dinner, we overheard couple people chatting besides us about international issues and one guy who appeared to be an American made the comments that he feels all the Canadians hate Americans, and he also thinks that by putting a Canadian flag on our backpacks is an away of saying “I don’t want to be an American”. I was a bit disturbed since he probably made that comment up based on the encounters with a few Canadians if not based on pure feeling and imagination.

Couple personal comments,

We would like to distinguish ourselves from the Americans because we are fundamentally different people. We may share the same continent and the same language but our historical background is totally different, and therefore our cultures are different. Are Chinese people and Korean people are the same just because we share the same skin color? Are Indian and Pakistani people the same just because they are neighboring each other? The answer is of course not.

Putting a flag on our backpacks is not directly directed to the Americans, it’s just a way of saying I am proud to be a Canadian. It’s like putting a name tag on your shirt the first day at your work, a way to open yourself up. Putting our flag on our backpacks also forces us to be good ambassadors of our country in behaving ourselves, since any negative actions will be immediately attributed to our country.

We have a good international reputation, and it needs to be up kept. We just know how to do it right.

This is not good

2005-06-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

As Rohit had rightfully pointed out in the previous entry, it seems that my English skills have been decreasing ever since my landing here in Europe. This is certainly not a good sign.

It is inevitable, however, as the usage of the language decreases you are less good at it. I think learning a third language had given me the incentives to go back and relearn my first two, being Chinese and English respectively. Back to the 5 paragraph essays...

Back to the future...or not...

2005-05-31T04:29:00.000-07:00

I had never seen the film of Transatlantic Tunnel

The construction work will begin in June 2005 from Paris to New York to create a Transatlantic Tunnel that cuts the travel time to just 8 hours. Big wall sized posters have posted everywhere inside the metro stations in Paris, it seems to be on everyone's lips.

or really...

Apparently this is a marketing compaigne...I must admit I did fall into the trap of naive believes ....

Marseille

2005-05-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

One of the most southern citeis in France, just besides Nice and Cannes. Marseille is the second largest city in France and enjoys the reputation of being a great summer resort.

Last weekend me and Stefan the Canadian hit the sun after 3 hours of TGV train ride from Paris. It was a nice change from the rainy Paris weather as we were greeted by the warm sun light and clear skies.

The city is self is just as busy as Paris, so the first thing we did was heading for the sea. One of the most popular momument here is the Chateau d'If. It's a prison situated on an island just besides Marseille. It's actually the french authur Alexandre Dumas who wrote "The Count of Monte Cristo" who made it famous. In the novel the main character Dantès was thrown into jail in the prison in this castle.

The view of the castle from our ferry.

The view from the island is not bad. I wouldn't mind to be locked up there for a while.

You get the sea.

and the view.

Now lets go inside and live the experience.

How does it feel to be in a prison?

All locked up no escape.

Full view of the castle when leaving.

After getting back to the main land we explored the city, at the same time made our way to our hostel. The city offers every thing from

HOT beaches

to wooden crabs

to appetizing garbage cans

After a long day of train ride and sight seeing, we chilled on the beach until the sun went down. I don't think I will be able to get any work done if I live in this city though, just a bit too comfortable.

Back from the sun

2005-05-25T01:36:00.000-07:00

The trip to Marseille was awesome. Photos and stories follows, once this week is done.

Home Coming

2005-05-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Time flys.

I have booked my return plane back to Canada already.

Augest 1.

Travel Plans

2005-05-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

May 21-23

Marseille, France
Cassis-Calanque, France

This will be a weekend getaway to the beaches.

Art of expression...

2005-05-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

I like this picture.

Full Credit goes to JULIUS J. PASTORIUS
http://www.jacop.net/julius.html

Thats a first

2005-05-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

Today is a religious holiday in France, and it also happened to be father's day in Germany. What do germans do on a holiday? Nothing but beer. According to them, traditionally on this day the guys go out on the street with a baby carriage filled with beer and drink the whole day long.

Martin, Micheal, Ralph, and Bejorn decided to invite me, Stefan the canadian, and Kevin the american to "celebrate" this day. We had no baby carriage so we improvised with back packs full of beer. The drinking session started at 10 AM in the morning, in the city forest. Now drinking 10 am in the morning was hard enough for me, not mentioning the climbing in the forest, but these german guys just kept on opening new bottles . Beer is seriously useless to them.

After the walk we all got pretty tired so we settled down at Bejorn's house for a nice BBQ. Of course there were more beer involved. During the whole day I managed to keep a constant level of alcolhol in my blood stream that even by bed time my cheeks were still red. May be I should carry this tradition back home, any one would like to join?

Now this is serious...

2005-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Chinese Student Accused of corporate espionage

Guess what, she's from UTC, my school here in France. The girl was even in my Numerical Methods class last term. Although we've only exchanged few words through out the term, I never got to knew her personally. All I knew was that she was doing her first work term in France.

Sad but true. Today I went to work and the knew something was changed. Ever one was talking about UTC and this "fille chinoise". The next thing I saw was the report on French national newspaper, and now Forbes.

I doubt it is really espionage. It's just curiosity and lack of prudence. In this aspect the north american students are much more matured. We are immersed in an environment of intellectual property and corporate privacy, where we understand the danger, and self-protection.

But what do I know. May be they are right, may be there was a bigger plan. Whatever the cause, it's certainly a blow to the school's reputation, China's reputation. As for Li Li, as much as I sympathize her situation, she's done. France would't forgive her, I don't think China will either.

So there is a lesson to be learned. Becareful whereever you go, and don't let the excitement of the adventure blow up your head.

Almost beats William Hun

2005-04-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

This will cheer you up

In case if you dont know the song. It's by O-Zone, a boy band from Romania, and this song was once THE club anthem here in Europe. You hear it everywhere.

I think the guy did a pretty good job, only if he was on american's idol...

Random Fun

2005-04-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

first of all my keyboard is acting crazy lately. When every I press space ,or "i" it continously inserts commas. So my ,sentences ,are ,always ,li,ke, ,this, ,whi,ch ,is, ,really ,annoyin,g ,consi,derin,g ,that ,i ,wi,ll ,need ,to ,keep ,goin,g ,back, ,wards ,to ,remove ,them.

oh ,and ,"enter" ,as ,well
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,

,
,
on a ,second ,note , this, random CS ,paper generator ,I, ,found ,i,s ,k,i,nda ,cool ,gi,ve ,it, ,a ,shot! hmm , no more report writings?

http://www.pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/

Under Control...

2005-04-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

Living on your own forces us to be able to adapte to new and unfamiliar situations.

well, my current situation is that I am living right next to the university and the Control course was being offered this semestre. Some of you may know that I was not able to take the control course last semestre and my plan was to make it up back to Waterloo. No more make ups. I have just worked out with my boss and UTC that I will be taking the course while doing my coop. If I loose too much time during the term, I will work a bit longer in the end.

More work now, less worries later. I like that.

(It seems that I've started to use french words in my english entries without knowing it :) )

Two weeks afterwards...

2005-04-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

That's gota be one of the longest idle streak I've had on my blog.

Let's begin from the top. Vince had the chance of visiting me on his way to Switzerland two weeks ago. Unfortunately his train for Compiegne was delayed for 6 hours on the day of his arrival. I had to go to the station 3 times but only to find out that his train kept on getting delayed, and the third time finally picked him up.

Even though his stay was short but we had a great time.

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Next weekend I will be going to Paris for the paris marathon

http://www.parismarathon.com/

Unfortunately not participating, but cheering for my three German friends Matin, Konrad and Micheal. I went training with them yesterday and was happy that I was able to keep up with him. To kick this off, there will be a pre-run party next Saturday at Konrad's place. To store up enough energy apparently the marathon organisers suggested that each runner take at least 250g of pasta the day before for carbohydrates. How can we miss this chance to throw a party? The dinner will be a pasta night with every one bringing a different type of pasta source. Richard, any suggestions? Preferablly non greasy and vegeterian.

Pictures will be up soon.

Let there be peace...

2005-03-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

China had recently passed the anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan's separatist groupe. This act leagalizes any military means to prevent Taiwan declearing independance if it chooses to do so.

Taiwan's situation is the legacy of internal civil warfare in the 1940s, it needs to be resolved eventually and the communist party simply will not tolerate the possibility that it will declare independence.

This law is not a threat of war, but a very direct warning to the Taiwan government. I am no politician but I do hope the Taiwan government will shift their efforts from trying to declear independence to negociate the possiblity of a peaceful outcome.

After all, no one wants to see missiles flying across the Taiwan strait.

2005-03-13T05:04:00.000-08:00

The mustard museum in Dijon

2005-03-13T02:35:00.000-08:00

Richard's Visit to Paris.

Richard's Visit

2005-03-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

Richard took a few days to swing by Paris from his spring break tour. It was quite nice to see him again after our last trip to Budapest.

In terms of scheduling, I worked during the day while he toured around the city, and we chilled during the night time.

On satuday, we hit the town of Dijon. That's right, the origin of the French mustard. The town itself was small but quite pretty. The best part of the trip was probably the mustard museum where they show you the history of the making of the mustard, the choices of ingrediants etc. Strange but after that trip, I've been eating mustard with almost every meal! :)

2005-02-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

My neighbour Rosa.

Start of a new semestre

2005-02-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be the start of a new semester at UTC. It doesn't really affect me in a great deal since I started my work already. However, all my friends are back and of course, there are new international students.

My new neighbour is a spanish girl named Rosa. She's in mechanical, so "fludios dinámico y termodinámica" were her specialties. I will have a photo of her posted when I get a chance.

It's also nice to see some more Canadian representations. Two girls from the University of Sherbrooke and two guys from the University of Montreal are staying here for one term. Interesting, now I can REALLY hear the quebecois accent. It's quite noticible, although I can understand perfectly fine.

In term of sports, I will probably pick up mountain climbing again, hopefully this time I can stay with it. I should also try out for the basketball team. :)

It was nice to see every one back, although it had only been barely one month. This was actually one of the major reasons I want to stay in Compiegne and that is to stay close to the unversity environment. Now when I think about it, it's probably a right choice.

2005-02-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

Beatrize, Rosa's friend.

2005-02-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of saying the word "Chorizo". The name of the Spanish sausage, damn it tastes good. Going to get a whole bunch of them in Barcelona!

2005-02-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

Bea's little figures of spanish dancers! All the way from Spain!

Going under the knife...

2005-02-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

Knifes, cuts, blood and submission. That's what it was about this morning. No, I didn't get attacked. It was the operation on my ear.

So the swell of my ear had subsided quite a bit since last week, and it stopped hurting but it was still not 100%. The swell was soft, seems like there was a collection of liquids. So this morning I went to the hospital to see a specailist, not knowing exactly what will happen.

I had no problem checking into the hospital, got a sheet from the front desk indicating the doctor's name, and the room number. I went into the room, the first thing I see is a operation table. Wow, that was serious, I thought. I had never had an operation before, not even a dental fix.

The doctor was there waiting, with my files in hand. After a quick exam, she confirmed that it was necessary to cut it open and empty out the collection of liquids, otherwise the problem will come back.

She had to put my ear to sleep first. She had to inject the medicine into my ear in order to do that. It was a strange sensation. You first feel the pain of the needle, then afterwards it feels like a trickle of water is going down your ear tunnel, straight into your ear drum. She then asked me if it had hurt as she pushed on it. It felt like she was poking it with a Q-tip, so I told her no (Afterwards she told me she was using a operation knife! boy did the medicine work). She then started her operation. It was funny because it was right in my ear so all I heard was the sound of scratches, like how it sounds when you scratch a piece of paper, but in reality she was slashing the swell open, and squeezing the excessive liquids that are in there. I lied there like a baby, listening to these strange sounds of flow of liquid, clingings of metals, and separations of flesh at literally zero approximity.

I am quite impressed with the speed of the completion. It only took her about 5 mins to clean it up throughly, and afterwards it kept on bleeding but it was just blood coming out so I am sure it was cleared. I will still need to finish the anti biotics, also wash my ear regularly until it heals.

That was something...

I am almost discouraged...

2005-02-21T01:38:00.000-08:00

monday morning and the first thing I get is a phone call from my boss saying that there are some problems with my stay permit.

This problem is even more complicated because they put down a stay permit marking that I am chinese in my canadian passport.

INSERM can't pay me until this is solved.

I am really pissed off now because no one told me its a problem until the last minute! I got my work permit fine, no problem at all. The next thing they just turn around all of a sudden and say that there is a big problem that you will have to fix!!

The worst case is that I will have to redo all my papers.

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That's right, there is a chinese proverb "Huo Bu Dang Xing" which bascially means that the bad things always happens together. :S

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And let me futher state that I am proud to be chinese. I am only frustrated with this untimely logistic mess.

Lost in Translation...

2005-02-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

One complication about going on exchange to a non english speaking country is that all your materials will be non english and what do you have to do when you want to get them accredited at UW? You will have to translate the materials in English, at least the detailed course outlines.

Extra work...but what can you do, it's part of the process. I will complete a document for my undergrad chair with as much info about the courses as possible. This way he can look at my course informations now, rather than after I go back.

More Danone Photos

2005-02-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

UTC School News Paper covering the Danone event.

Ear problem.

2005-02-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Never thought I would actually end up in a hospital here.

For some strange reason my right ear had been acting a little strange lately. It got swollen so badly for no reason all of a sudden, and even worse, the swell was in the ear that it blocked the tunnel so I was having trouble hearing.

Yesterday my little swell friend decided that he really didn't like me so he started to give me this pain that I could hardly bare. So to the hospital it was! It was late so no bus and since now is really holidays for the French students, my friends with cars are all gone. So I had to walk for a hour in the cold, but really needed to take care of my buddy.

The hospital and the ER was actually quite similar to those in Canada, which I remember quite vividly not too long ago from my bike accident.

The ER doctor couldn't really do any analysis since I really don't know what was the cause, so he took my ear and squeeze the sh#t out of it. Boy did it hurt, although I must admit that after most of the crap had been taken out, it felt much better.

The doctor then gave me a prescription of some anti-biotics, which I had to buy right away for the night. After finding out that I walked to the hospital and had to walk back, the nurse felt kinda sorry for me and decided to give me some anti-biotics at least to cover the night. I felt saved because the pharmacy is all the way on the other side of the city!

I am seeing a specialist next tuesday to have it further examined, I don't think it's anything serious, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Happy New Year!!

2005-02-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

That's right, it's the chinese new year and I would like to wish every one the best in the new year!

The Louvre. Free...

2005-02-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Mona Lisa. From a far view. You can't take pictures close up. The actual painting is much smaller than I expected. The colours have faded greatly. It was interesting none the less.

There is a thing in France where the first sundy of each month the major museums are free. This is one of the chances when you can visit the Louvre museum without paying an arm and leg. It certainly surpasses the British museum that I had seen just past week, in fact it's so big that one needs at least 2 or 3 days to see every thing in details.

My first site was of course the painting "Mona Lisa". No surprise it was extremely crowded. I was not even allowed to take photos close up.

The next big site was the statue of Venus, not as popular but busy none the less. The shoulder has some parts chipped off, but over all it was in a good shape. The Greeks knew how to make statues. Their interpretation of the bodies was unbelievable. Take a look at the album for yourself.

They also had some really nicely designed jewlleries, of which I forgot the origins. A really impressive part of the Louvre is also the museum itself. Allmost all of the ceilings have relief statues, and amazing paintings. It's hard to describe in words so you have to see it for yourself in the album :)

Over all the Louvre does hold up it's reputations in my opinion. In terms of collections as well as presentation. Best of all, it was all free :)

2005-02-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

A crown of pearls. From the Louvre

2005-02-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

The ceiling of Louvre. My jaws had dropped...

2005-02-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

The REAL statue of Venus.

Alright... May be Agent Smith is not an easy cookie after all

2005-02-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Work is kinda slow in the first week. One thing that is quite painful is waking up early each day to catch the train to Paris. Then the metro...You have to literally push your way out other wise you will certainly miss the station. As well as the formidable odours of dried urine, smoke, and sweet in the tunnels.

Folks, some parts of Paris is not as elegant as you might think or have imagined.

When you come back home, it's already 7, you eat, 8, you take a break, 9, soon it's time to sleep. :S

The thing is also that I find I still have trouble sometimes communicating with my colleges. The good thing is that there was a formal coop student to help me out a bit.

Things should pick up in a few weeks I hope.

I also want to see if I can help out with the local school Aerial robotics group. That will be late Feb, early March.

Aside from that I am also waiting for an response from my undergrad chair on how to procede with the course validation process as I will need my credits here to be transfered to UW in order to have them recognized. The fact that I will have to make up a 3B main course will also mean I will need to repick 4A / 4B courses.

Many things still in the state of uncertainty...

Imagine the scene in the Matrix where there are thousands of Agent Smiths...

2005-02-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

This is practically what I will be doing for INSERM. A simulation that will be able to simulate an hospital with each personal as an agent, interacting with each other. After we will introduce agents of virus, and observe how they evolve, in the end we will introduce vacines as agents as well. The goal is to simulate a "Micro Monde", micro world, with each player interacting with each other.

Lots of work ahead...

Day 4 British Museum

2005-01-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Japanese sword

Martin left me for Frankfort on the last day of the trip. I started the day myself with a nice easy stroll in Hyde Park. I then marched on Oxford street for some "Window shoping".

The main goal of the day was to visit the British Museum. It is simply one of the most impressive museums I've ever seen. The giant building is separated into 4 wings each carrying the collections from a specific geographic area. The high lights are the asian, roman, and egyptian collection.

2005-01-27T11:47:00.001-08:00

"Love and Respect"

2005-01-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

"The Judge", a chinese myth character. He is supposed to be the one who tracks the good things and bad things in your life, and when you die, he will decide whether you go to heaven or hell.

2005-01-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

The British Museum. Simply Awesome. Wide range of collections.

2005-01-27T11:44:00.001-08:00

They feel very safe being near humans.

2005-01-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

Morning view in Hyde Park.

Day 3

2005-01-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

Underground path for the station "Notting hill Gate". This is where they shot the movie.

Day 3 was relatively quite, we wondered around the town a bit more. Things were extremely expensive. I can't imaging living how much would it cost to live there for a long time.

Day 2

2005-01-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

Change of guards in front of the Buckingham palace.

On the second day we went to Buckingham palace to see the change of guards. It was a very formal procedure but in all honesty, wasn't very interesting.

We also visited the National Gallary. Amazing collection of paintings but unfortunately, photos weren't allowed.

Day 1 London!!

2005-01-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Tower bridge by night. Beautiful view.

To celebrate the end of exams and the short vacation. I and Martin, decided to hit the capital city of England, London for 4 days. It's one of those cities that you can not miss when you hit Europe.

The first day consisted of mostly site seeing the famous monuments.

2005-01-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

The front door of Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives.

2005-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

Another famous tourist spot, the london eye. Unfortunately it was closed due to maintenance constructions.

2005-01-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

The tower bridge. Probably the most famous bridge here in london, The bridge is held up by two castle like towers. It is situated on the Thames River.

2005-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

London Bridge. You know you are in london when...

2005-01-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

This Martin in front of the Hyde Park entrance

I am alive and kicking

2005-01-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

That was the longest streak without updates.
Now that exams are over, and I just came back from a trip to london. I have loads of memories to share.

The Danone game

2005-01-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

Today is the day. Me and my five friends woke ourselves up early today to head to Paris for the "Trust Danone Management Game". After a long train ride we arrived at the Haussman/Printemps shopping district of the city, where the headquarter of Danone is.

There were a lot of teams waiting outside of the building already. Once we went inside the building, the first thing that the security did was taking away my camera! They said it was for security and confidentiality reasons... oh well,

We then were led to our individual team rooms where we start the game. The entire game is sort like the econ project for Engineering Economics, except you do everything in a computer program. The main program has a ticker that tracks the time. The sub sections of the program has different tasks arrive in real time that you are supposed to complete and submit the answers.

The whole day was really fun. We engage in discussions mostly in french and together we make up our proposals for the scenarios that were given to us.

The main problem that we had was time. In the end there were too many tasks that we had to prioritize and select.

The results were sent to us one week later and unfortunately we were not selected to go to the country final, but the fun I've had during the day was while worth every single piece of effort put into it.

The water...

2005-01-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

is hot.

Two weeks to go till finals and there are tons of work to do. Not mentionning the TRUST day next saturday.

Hopefully I will be alright.

Happy New Year Everyone 2005

2005-01-01T04:44:00.000-08:00

First entry for the new year. I hope this one will be a great one for everybody.

Spending the new year aboard has undoubtfully stired up some feeling of nostalgia.
I will see you guys very soon.

New Year's Eve in Paris

2004-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

For new year's eve 2004, I spent it in Paris. You can say it was special, but I do wish some of the more familiar faces could have been there, but it was fun none the less.

Couple of us arrived in Paris about 9pm, and discovered that the metro was free for the entire evening. First stop was the street Champs-Elysées which starts at the Arc of Triumph was already decorated with pretty lights, making the street as bright as in daylight.

We then marched our way to the Effiel Tower, which at the time was had a gold high
light, and from time to time the entire tower sparks for about 2 minutes. It got so crowed that the people were almost shoulder to shoulder. Most of them are visitors just like me.

We waited for a while then made our way to the Concorde, where the Louvre is. It's also where the fire works will be held.

We waited, waited, and waited for the count down. Finally it came.

Although, the actual fireworks was pretty standard. There was no amazing stunts or fireworks off the buildings which what were I expected.

After the new year hit things got a bit out of hand, and I have to say I didn't quite enjoy the rest of the night. The city went wild and there were traffic jam and drunk ppls everywhere. We tried to find a restaurant or a club that we can go to but all the clubs charge ridiculus entrance fees. Chaos and disorder were only appropriate as the description. So poor us wondered on the street until 6 in the morning to catch the earliest train back to Compiègne.

Although the last part of the trip was not really pleasant but I suppose just being able to be able to spend that first second of the new year in such a city had already made the whole thing worth while.

Budapest Day 5

2004-12-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Our last day together in Budapest :(

We started out the day with a visit to the PALVOLGY STALACTITE cave in Buda. The cave is a lime stone cave which was discovered in 1904. Apparently, the city was still covered by the sea, and later the sea retreated, leaving behind the stone cave. You can even see the fossilized sea shells on some of the walls. It was an interesting journey indeed.

For lunch we tried some Hungarian pancakes, which were bascailly crepes except prepared especially with Hungarian twist. I ordered a salty pancake with pork stew and a sweet one with apple fillings. Great stuff!

We then went back to the Castle district.

A small castle

The last thing that we did was the Buda castle labyrinth. This was sort like a underground maze created long long time ago by the people living there. The atmosphere was emphysized by the oil lamp that they give you before you go in.

At the dinner time there was a moment where I can't decide whether I should go to Prague with them the next day and lose my tickets to Paris. I was on the virge of just buying the ticket until it hit me that there are alot of work to be done in the next coming upcoming two weeks. Sucks..

So that was it, my trip to Budapest. It was definitely a great experience since Eastern europe has got such a distinct character that is not found in the west.

Budapest Day 4

2004-12-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

Today it was the first day that everything was open so, we woke up early and hit a local market for some souvenirs and Hungarian food.

In the afternoon we went to the famous Gellert thermal bath. It is rated the "most" elegant bath. It's cool to be steamed for 5 min and then jump into a pool of water of 18 degrees. You get a temperature shock but it feels strangely great when the entire bath is finished.

At the night we went to see a Hungarian folk dance and music show. We got lost a bit but it was alright. The music was awesome and the musicians were obviously extremely proficient at their instruments. Some of the high-lights were the duel between two violinsts, and a solo performance by the xylophonist.

Pictures soon.

Budapest Day 3

2004-12-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

Today everything was still closed. We continuted to explore the city, this time we hit the citadel on the top of a mountain just beside the castle district. It was used in world war 2 to defend the city.

More pictures when I get them.

I the citadel Ori bought a cool magic box. It's a wooden box about the size of your fist. In order to open it, you will have to know the machanisims behind it. I think it's a nice gift.

We then went to the national fine arts palace, and stumbled upon a French art exibition. It was cool because apparently some of the art work from the Louvre were there.

Budapest Day 2

2004-12-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

After waking up relatively early, and feeling rested up, we went out to explore the city even though most of the tourist places are closed.

A typical building in Budapest.

We wondered around the city a bit, and then we hit a giant Basilica.

It was nicely constructed and inside was even more impressive, with giant marble columns and gold plated walls. It's the most expensive looking basilicas that I've seen so far.

After the basilica, we went again to the castle district and saw the awesome night view of the city from the other side of the river.

For dinner we went to this nice game food place, and I had some awesome wild boar stew. It was a bit sweeter than normal pork. A first for sure.

Budapest Day 1 -

2004-12-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

The christmas Trip had started with me travelling to Berlin Germany to meet Vince and board the Easyjet plane to Budapest. After about 1 hour of flight and some long needed chatting, we arrived in Budapest. Ori and Richard were already arrived and we had no trouble finding each other.

The next step was to get into the city and find the hostel. The problem was the automatic bus ticket dispenser only accepted coins and that no one among us had any Hungarian Forint coins to buy the bus ticket! After some difficult conversations in English with the bus driver, he let us stayed without tickets. We got to the metro station, got some tickets with the help of a local lady who knew English, and finally boarded the metro to the city center.

The city is distinctively eastern European. There are beautiful scalptures on almost every single building. ( I will post pictures soon because I used Richard's CF card, and he is travelling to Prague and Vienna, so most of the pictures wouldn't be avaliable until at least mid Jan. )

At the hostel

Unfortunately, pretty much everything was closed at the time. We just wondered around the city after it got dark. The city Budapest is actually composed of two separate cities separated by the Danube river. One is Buda and one is Pest, and there are 3 or 4 major bridges linking the two cities. The views along the river is
just breath taking. The parliment is built on a hill, and they light it up really nicely during the night.

After we got back to the hostel, we exchanged Christmas gifts. I got Vince a french brand scarf, Richard a book on the origion of different kinds of beer, and chipped in for Ori's Ipod. Ori and Richard got me a authentic Swiss Army knife! yeah! and Vince got me a nice sweater and a winter hat. Thanks guys!

This is me opening a bottle of wine with the knife.

Cheers!

However, everyone was hungery as hell after a long day of travel. We went out to try out luck again, and guess what, we stumbled upon a chinese restaurant that opens all year around! Who can say no?

good stuff...

After the dinner we went back to the hostel and called a early night.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2004-12-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

This will be a very special christmas for me. I will be spending it with Ori, Vince, and Richard in Budapest, Hungry. I am looking forward to see the good old friends, and the scenary of eastern Europe.

Right now it's all about packing...

Keep you updated.

Titre de Séjour...

2004-12-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

I am finally legal to stay in France...

Last wedsday me and my fellow Canadian Jeremy went to Beauvais ( The capital of the Picardie region, where all the administrative work are handled) to get our definitive "Titre de Séjour".

We woke up early for the trip, 5.30AM, to catch the earliest train to Beauvais. The original plan was to take the train to Creil, and change the train to Beauvais. However, mais be because none of us got enough sleep last night, we boarded a dirct train to Paris that came 2min early. It wasn't too too bad since we can take a train from Paris to Beauvais as well, just not as direct.

At Gare du Nord something unusual had happened. We were waiting for the train by the heating host in the gare, then suddenly a Asian lady came up to me and showed a piece of paper in my face. The paper was a photocopy of a tourist map, roughly indicating the cities of which she wanted to go. I was confused at first what she wanted. I tried to speak french and english to her but from the blanked look in her eyes I knew she understood none of it. I only had one more option left, chinese. She was surprised to see that I spoke chinese and then started to tell me that she was really lost and she wanted to go to Vienna in Austria, and she looked at me and I was the only asian other than her in the gare so she just asked for help. After knowing exactly where she wanted to go I was able to get the information from the ticket booth and explain to her what to do.

The next scene was kinda comical. She then wanted me to buy a phone card for her. We went to the Tabac store in the gare and I ordered a phone card. Without hesitation, she pulled out a stack of 100 euro bills out of her pocket (They are light green apparently, I had never even seen them before) , and asked me "Are these euros? Can I use them here?" Boy, lady, at least know the currancy before you leave.

On the train to Beauvais Jeremy was telling this was the moments where knowing multiple languages shines through. Even if you dont really use it often after you have learn it, it will still be useful and help you out from time to time. I guess he has a point.

The day was relatively smooth, we got our titre de sejour after about 5hours of medical exam. On the way back to Compiègne, exact the same thing happened. There was another chinese lady who was lost and wanted to go to Paris! Jeremy just started to crack up after I started talking in chinese with that lady.

Lesson of the day: Learn as much as u can, u never know how it will help you out, or how you would be able to help others.

Nadia's birthday!

2004-12-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

Nadia is this french girl in my numerical class. Yesterday was her birthday and couple of us planned a little surprise party for her. She was of course overwhelmed with joy!

Check the albums for photos.

Are you tired?

2004-12-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

A little test of posting pictures in my blog, as well as showing a little bit of what I've been doing.

The program is used to observe the fatigue of your biceps muscle. The experiment is to pull a strain gauge at constant force for 2min. Your biceps are attached to electrode sensors that will capture the EMG (electromyograph) signals of your muscle and analyse them. The more your muscle fatigues, the lower the MPF( The mean power frequency, which is a specific frequency, where in the frequency domain, the sum of the energy below it equals to the sum of the energy above) of the EMG decreases, while your actual total EMG increases.

The program is built in HP Vee Pro, a visual programming language like Labview and Simulink of Matlab.

Birthday Edition...

2004-12-08T02:17:00.000-08:00

Well, 22 hits.

I don't know, the past year hasn't been exactly smooth. Travelled quite a bit, but at the same time many of my shortcomings are exposed as well, but I guess you learn as you live.

In retrospect, I think it was more or less a fruitful year. I should give myself a pat on the back for the achievements, and also a push to correct the short comings that I have, then keep walking forward.

To those who are going through a rough time right now...

2004-12-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

"There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid Of what you are
There's an answer If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you "

I mean it, to all the people including who are going through a hardtime right now. Exams, relationships, whatever it is that is hindering your way.

You just got keep going, don't let the stress or problems slow you down.

One old french phrase is "Qui veut peut" - who wants can.

Wondering

2004-12-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Has any one seen or heard of "Envelope with flavours"? Like when you lick them, they supposed to taste like orange or apples or honey?? If not, I would like to invent them!

Image, instead of having that nasty glue taste in your month after you seal off a letter you are left with a refreshing taste of peppermint. I mean it definitely puts you in a happy mood after you write the cards and seal them off! It gives you the incentive to write another one, the more you write, more of your friends will receive them and as a result you will receive more cards and you will feel happy and write more cards...

It will just make the whole world a better place wouldn't it!?

I think there is a market for it, wouldn't you agree!? Either that or I am just going out of my mind :D

For Dora who is getting married!

2004-12-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

Dora:

I can't attend your wedding, sorry. :P
To be honest, this is the first wedding wish that I ever made,
so what should I say?

One appropriate phrase is hard to find,
so let me just wish you guys:

"Live happily together ever after!"

sounds a bit childish but in my mind,
that's the description of a happy marriage!

---

That's what I told to one of my biomed class mates Dora, she's getting married next weekend but I can't attend her wedding. She's a UPenn student who met her soon-to-be husband who was a UTC exchange student at UPenn, and now she came over to France to study and to live with him.

To my great surprise after I wrote it, those phrases rhymes after you read it out by the punctuations. Haha, My mind must has been subconciously influenced by Julia and Mel's birthday poems!

Radiohead

2004-12-04T01:40:00.000-08:00

I was asked yesterday to be the guest of a UTC school radio show on Monday. The show is about an hour and half, and I will have a conversation with the host to talk about life as an exchange student.

It will be a cool experience just to be featured on a radioshow, and see how they operate it. Have to prepare some material though.

The bill went away...

2004-12-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

I sent an email to Cathy monday, and apparently I wasn't on her block list so I was registered for the courses. She sent an request to the registar's office for it to be removed and today I checked again it was gone! Can always count on her!

Untitled

2004-11-29T03:11:00.000-08:00

Today for our biomed class there was a subsitute teacher. He was special. The moment I walked in to the class room I really didn't believe my eyes. His face was completely deformed. It seemed like someone hacked it up with a knife and put acid on it. When he started moving, I was even more shocked to see that his hands were deformed as well. No fingers, just two ends. On his right hand it had some kind of device attached to it so he can hold a chalk. It was really scary at first sight to be honest.

At the end of the lectures I offered help to him unscrew the connection between the projector and the laptop. I honestly didn't know how he did it himself in the beginning. You probably know there are two screws that are really close to the plug on the connector, I can't imagining tightening those screws with two deforemed hands...amazing.

I just feel that there are people that are facing much more serious inconveniences than I do, and yet they are still doing what they really wanted to do. It just makes my logistic problems seem insignificant.

It does motivates me in a positive way though, I must say.

administration...

2004-11-27T01:04:00.000-08:00

once again the administration is just piling up.

Now what I need, Work Permit, notify CECS about the placement, clear up the tuition problem...

I am still waiting to get my stupid stay permit... "Titre de sejour"

oh boy...

A whole lot of craziness

2004-11-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

Alright, where shall I start. Good news and bad news.

Good news, I got the job at INSERM. The interview was pretty crazy, with 4 people. It was entirely in French. I guess I did alright, after the 1 h 30min interview my superviser Jean-Francois Vibert told me I got the job on the spot, and I signed the papers afterwards. The projects will be some multi-agent work on simulation of epidimic diseases (Kayley I think it's up in your domain). The pay is almost nothing comparing to what we get in Canada (540 euros a month), but it's about the average here in France. Students at interships are not meant to make money here.

So I will be working in Paris for the next 6 month starting from Feb 2005. I will probably still live here in Compiegne though, since it's impossible of finding a cheap place in Paris anyways. Plus I will be living with ppls that I am already familiar with.

Bad news. I got charged for tuition again for the upcoming winter 2005 school term in UW. I don't know why that it seems I can never get an straight answer from anyone. I mean I anticipated this problem back in Canada before I left and ppls at Registar's office told me I will only be charged for tuition once, in the Fall, even Cindy Howe (exchange coordinator) said so. If I have to pay for this, my coop money wouldn't cover it at all!

Well, if they make me pay for it, I will just have to apply all sorts of financial supports. But I would rather not to pay for it, cuz it doesn't really make sense to do coop to pay off the tuition for the classes that I am not even attending.

Anyone has suggestions on who can I talk to? or any one had similar experiences? Thanks.

"You can explain it in English if you want..."

2004-11-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

So I am back from my two interviews in Paris. Interesting day.

The first one was with Qualimucho, a start up company making applications for cell phones. It was in an apartment building, 10 ppls at max.

The director of the company was quite nice to offer me a cup of coffee before we started. Everything was alright, but only for about 15mins. After I started to explain the technical stuff that I did in the past he started to sense that my french was becoming more of "Franglais", he said " You can explain it in English if you want." I was a bit shocked that he was extremely fluent, but right there I was also a bit disappointed to realize that it's true my technical french doesn't really cut the mark. After that he didn't say much. He's the type of interviewer that doesn't show any big emotions at all. Well, from my past experience, it usually doesn't lead to good results.

The second one was with a consulting firm SCET, they do financial, logsitical consultings. The job is to design some web tools for the consultants. The interviewer was a really nice senior consultant, not technical. So we just chatted for about an hour and he told me I was the first one that he interviewed and he will let me know in two weeks.

Well, first, I definitely need work on my French. While my vocab is ok for daily activities and school work, it's definitely lacking quite a bit for the work environment. Second, let's say a fluke happens and I get these jobs, do I really should take them? After all, I think I will learn more French in school taking formal classes...

One shall see...

Quick update...

2004-11-20T05:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, I am still alive.

Thanks for all the encouragements! I am trying to keep myself busy so that I don't think about the past.

However I think sometimes I have this habit of am overbooking myself. Here are some of the things coming up on my calender.

Next week there will be two mid terms on monday, and two job interviews on tuesday in Paris, one interview on Friday. The job opportunity is for the next term here in France.

The two on tuesday:

One company is with a telecom company who makes applications for cell phones, Qualimucho (Sounds like some kinda of nacho chip company to me ) the other one is with a consulting company SCET.

The one on friday:

This is the one that I really wanted with INSERM "Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale". Developping a simulator of epidemic dieases in C.

How I think of it that it will be a great learning experience even if I don't get any of them. In that case I would stay for another term to do the Control course so I don't have to make it up in UW, and take the highest level French course, and may be even Spanish.

Mad prep for the interviews !

Whatelse is new?

I have also signed up with other five french friends to do this management competition "TRUST" set up by "Danone", that's right the yogourt company. It's like OEC but for managements. The objective is to act as the directors of a consulting company and propose a three year plan to Danone to expand its business. The national competition is this Jan 8 2005, and if we make to the international finals this april 2005 in Paris, we will be competing with ppls from all over the world, such as UK, Italy, Spain, China, Mexico etc...Should be exciting.

They still have to do a initial team selection for each school, hope we will get selected!

Exams...

2004-11-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

You might wonder why I haven't updated regularly in a while. The answer is: "Exams"
Like Rohit said, this blog might be giving people the wrong impression that I am chilling my tail off every single day :) Schools are rather busy with labs, lectures and tutorials to attend.

I am just trying to show you guys the fun side as much as I can, that's all.

P.S. Christmas is coming and I miss you all.. :( This feeling is kicking in more and more now. I even miss the old days that were spent doing projects in E2.

One thing that exchange has made me realize the importance of what I have at home. I don't know what is the cure for this feeling of nostalgia, only time can tell I guess.

Germany

2004-11-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

After saying goodbye to Richard and Ori in Switerland, I spent the whole day on the train travelling from Switzerland to Germany to see Vince. He's studying in the city of Braunschweig.

We had lunch at the university cafe. I also happened to bump into Martin who's from Braunschweig originally but is currently study at Compiegne, my school in France for a double-diploma Mech Eng degree. The two days of stay was relaxing and enjoyable.

See the photos here

After Braunschweig, my last stop was Berlin. Vince was nice enough to take me there and show me around. It's truly a lively city but at the same time wearing the scars of it's history. From times to time you can see the buildings with bullet holes on them. In the centre of the town, there is the remaining of a chuch which was bombed during WW2. Monuments of rememberance of the war are everywhere.

Alright...enough of the heavy stuff...

When we first arrived at the city we went to the natural history museum where they had the tallest dinosaur skeleton in the world. We spent the morning there.

The modern section of Berlin is very well built. How can one not visit the car showcases when u are in Berlin? Me and Vince visted MINI, Audi, VolksWagon..

and this car here, Bugatti... is just mind blowing... I remember seeing it on a poster long time ago, but never expect to see it with my own eyes!

Beauty!

Vince also took me to the Sony center, a shopping district of the town and we had authentic german roasted and boiled pork elbows...ah...

yummy!

:D....

We also listened to a concert by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Oh boy, just the concert hall was impressive enough. We were so under dressed though... Everyone else was in suits or nightgowns, while we were in jeans and running shoes :P

The concert was just a new level of enjoyment. Even sitting away from the orchestra you can feel the power in the music. Each note is carefully articulated to express the emotion of the music. The level of concentration of the musicans were just enormous.

The next day we went to the Jewish Museum. Some shocking exibits, and powerful arctitecture.

Photos of Berlin

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I think in the future I would like to take my parents to here sometimes. A city rich of history. I think they will enjoy that!

Switzerland

2004-11-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

The two days we've spent in Geneva and the two days in Lausanne were a blast.

First impression of the country is that it's clean. Especially in Geneva that you can see from the pictures the water of the lake is CRYSTAL clean! Even though Geneva is such a touristic city but everyone is responsible of not littering around. In comparison to Paris, Geneva is about at least 5 times more clean! The city was built besides the lake Leman, and also surrounded by the Aples. The scenery is just breath taking, I couldn't resist but to take couple of panoramic photos.

Geneva Panoramic

Jet D'Eau

Lausanne is a great city as well. It too situates besides a lake. The two days I've spent at Richard's place were very fun. Thanks Richard and his housemate for accomodating me!

Pictures are worth thousand words :) , here are the albums:

Geneva

Lausanne

I am back...

2004-11-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

Long time no update. Things have been quite busy for the past two weeks. Just to recap: During the last week of Octobre I paied a visit to Switzerland and Germany to see other SYDE exchangers. During the week long trip I visited four cities, Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland and Braunschweig and Berlin in Germany. It was a nice break from school and also it was a good chance to travel a bit before it gets cold.

Big Week ahead...Trip to Switzerland and Germany

2004-10-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Things have been quiet for the past week or so.

The last week of October here in France is a week off for the students. So I've decided to visit Ori, Richard, Kevin in Switzerland, and Vince in Germany. After coordinating with them, the plan for now:

Sat Oct, 23 : Leaving from Paris to Lausanne, Switzerland. Spend 4 days there, and probably heading to Geneva for a day.

Wed Oct, 27 : Leaving from Lausanne to Braunschweig, Germany. Stay there until the weekend.

Sat Oct, 30 : Head to Berlin. Check out this historical town. Taste some quality German food and beer. :D

Mon Nov, 1 : Head home from Berlin.

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That's the rough plan for now. It's a long and winding road, and the travelling cost is going to rack up, but hey, the best part is that I get to see everyone in one shot! how cool is that?

Keep you guys updated.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2004-10-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Another day where families gather up, but this time eating turkey!!

Hehe, May be I should make a turkey dinner or something. :D

Alright, need to chill down a bit...

2004-10-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Just realized something today that may be I shouldn't be get so overly upset with the administration here. Sure, logistics are always a pain, especially when you are new to a school, let alone of a new country. However, just because few things didn't work out, I shouldn't be saying it's always the French administration, which seems to be blaming on the French cultural in general... Perhaps I got a bit upset...but in retrospect, the attitude I had was not something that I personally would tolerate.

Administration Problems...

2004-10-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

just a pain...

I am supposed to receive an email for confirming the choices of my courses a week ago! But I NEVER got it!!

The thing is that I want to take 6 courses this term, by the time I realized what I want to take for the 6th one, they told me the 1st registration phase is over, I would have to wait for an email a sometimes now to "add" my course. A week ago I was getting worried and sent the IT department an email asking why it wasn't sent out. As of now (Technically the last day that I am able to change my course) I still haven't received it (Nor did most of the international students) so I sent the responsable person an email saying I need to get one of the courses added...

~~We will see what happens, but this logistic pain is starting to tick me off...~~

The castle of Pierrefond

2004-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

It's true that they say in France the sights change a lot from city to city.

Today we went for a bike ride to another city "Pierrefond" beside Compiegne and saw the castle there. It's a mid-evil castle which was build by Louis D'Orlean, the son of Charles 3 in 1393, and then was conquered in 1617 and burned. However, Napoléon 1 had bought the castle in 1810 and Napoléon 3 restored it.

It is the first "REAL" castle that I had ever seen so it was quite exciting. It's not a castle like Versaille, which was for pleasure; It is a castle made to defend the enemies. You can find arrow slots through out the castle. There are trenches around the castle as well.

So...no sleeping beauty or Princess fiona at the top of the tower...:( I was disappointed.

Around the castle is the "city" of Pierrefond. It's way too small to be named a city though, but very pretty indeed.

Remember, in France it's impolite not to kiss a girl...

2004-09-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

...when you meet her the first time...

Today a girl thought I was offending because I didn't peck her on the cheeks when I met her. I am still not really used to this kissing business but looks like if I dont want to be misunderstood I would have to get use to it...

Happy Autumn Festival!

2004-09-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

In case you dont know, today is the Traditional chinese festival "Mid Autumn". It's the time when family gather around andtime to eat moon cakes.

Although I am far away but I just want to say:

Happy Autumn festival everyone!

Language Lab

2004-09-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Learning multiple languages are not only encouraged here at UTC, but it's obligatory for the French students. Each student is required to master another language other than French before they can obtain their diploma. To accomodate this requirement there is a language center with resources (Movies, Recordings, Course materials) for all the languages that is offered here at the school.

In order to get the French credit, I will have to spend at least 10 hours at that center learning on my own, whether it's grammar, phonetics, or listening ability.

It's neat, I found the materials are quite helpful. I wonder if there is such place in Waterloo...

I will need to work on my French quite a bit because there will be at least 3 presentations in French through out the term.

Stupid me...

2004-09-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

Did something stupid today. I forgot the fact there is a voltage difference here and plugged the battery charger into the wall without a adapter... 2 hours later, no more battery charger...

It's not extremely expensive, but it's just inconvinence and stupidity... How can I forget??