旅行的意義

2011夏，我為學生生涯劃下了句點，利用踏入社會開始工作前的最後一個暑假，我選擇踏上中國這片歷史上與我息息相關的寬廣大地。四處旅行，走遍世界，是我現在進行式努力實踐的夢想。對我而言，旅行除了能夠觀賞世界各地的美麗奇景以及人文古蹟，過程中對於當地文化的親身體驗更是別具意義。曾經走過了不少國家卻還不曾到過中國大陸，是因為覺得兩岸的風俗民情相似，尤其說的還是相同的語言，總以為到內地旅遊應該不會有太多的新鮮感。然而，因緣際會下得知十傑基金會暑期舉辦赴大陸參訪的消息，對於絲路的參訪的行程特別感到興趣，於是抱持著到中國內陸體驗大漠風光的心態，決定踏上絲路之旅。這次所走的絲綢之路，起始於西安，行經河西走廊的蘭州、武威(古名:涼州)、張掖(古名:甘州)、酒泉(古名:肅州)、嘉峪關、敦煌(古名:沙州)，最終抵達玉門關，而當今甘肅省正是以甘州、肅州各取一字得名。踏上絲綢之路，彷彿追尋著西漢年間張騫開拓絲路時的歷史足跡，不過我所要走過的路段其實只有絲路全程的三分之一，不得不佩服張騫畢生花了多年時間才成功開拓出這條絲綢之路。順帶一提，事實上張騫起初西運絲綢的主要目的並不是為了促進與西域國家的貿易往來，而是為了策動諸國一同聯合抵禦北方兇悍的匈奴。

經過了三個多小時的航程，抵達了陝西省的西安，為此次絲路之旅揭開序幕。西安古名長安，是中國歷史上最多朝代建都的城市(13個)，其中西漢、秦、隋、唐是最具代表性的朝代，一般被認為是中國在歷史上的極盛時期，即使往後朝代政治中心已轉移至北京/南京，仍舊難以撼動其造就多次盛世的歷史地位。

西安最著名的人文古蹟莫於位在西安郊區下河村的秦始皇陵兵馬俑。兵馬俑其實只是秦始皇陵的一小部分，而我所參觀的兵馬俑博物館是直接建於原址之上，這些兵馬俑最早於1974年被一位打井農民意外發現，然而為了避免破壞這些擁有千年歷史的古物，考古學家開挖時必須小心翼翼，此外由於大多數的兵馬俑被挖掘出來時都已破碎不堪(根據歷史文獻推測罪魁禍首應該是項羽)，使得修復兵馬俑的工程更加艱鉅，至今仍有許多尚未修復完成的兵馬俑。

仔細觀察兵俑的鞋履，鞋頭翹得越高，代表官階越高，符合古人所說的趾高氣昂。

最近在幫學校做瑞典留學的生活資訊整理，其中我是負責撰寫出國前準備的部分。

所以想說就PO出來，希望對以後要出國交換的人有所幫助。

就算不是去Chalmers的人也可以參考一下，很多東西應該都大同小異吧XD

瑞典 Chalmers University of Technology

新台幣(TWD) = 4*瑞典克朗(SEK)   2009 MAY

第一次實驗室出遊(去年暑假本來要去綠島 後來遇到颱風所以沒去成)，學長們精心策劃了"雪之旅"，三天內環了半個台灣XD

                  (蘇花公路)                   (中   橫    公    路)    

新竹 =>  蘇澳 ===>  花蓮市區  =>  太魯閣(燕子口 天祥)  =>  合歡山(武嶺)  =>  清境農場  =>  台中市區 => 新竹

====== Day 1 ========

一大早七點多就從新竹開車出發，總共出了三輛車。以前去花東都是搭火車，所以這次是第一次走蘇花公路@@

   A few weeks ago, I took part in the salon about 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and it was held by "Lung Yin-Tai Cultural Foundation". The word "salon" is actually associated with French literary and philosophical salons of the 17th century and 18th century. Elites gathered together and exchanged their thinking, and therefore gained more knowledge through conversation.

  The lecturer of this salon is Mr. Jörn Mothes. Actually, he is not only a theologist but also a champion of the human rights for former east Germans. Before his lecture, we saw a documentary film named "Jeder schweigt von etwas anderem (Last to know)". The film depicts three families who had been imprisoned by former government of east Germany for political accusations. The director interviewed these sufferers and tells us their still alive memories. Most of them refused to recall the past because it would be very suffering for them. They can only keep it in their deep mind as if a secret which is always last to know...

   After finishing the film, Mr. Mothes started to share his experience of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At that time, most of east Germans were really glad to see it. However, he didn't see any judgement on the abusers, so he decided to fight for the sufferers' rights. I think most people have no doubt about the unification of Germany, but the subsequent policies may be not so well considered. During the salon, many people asked Mr. Mothes's opinion on the political issue of Taiwan and China. He relied the experience of Germany may be not suitable for Taiwan since we're in quite different situation, but there are still something we can learn from. 20 years is actually not so far away for me...How would we (the young generation) be in the future?              

    I've studied the master program in Taiwan for around three months so far, and I think the studies at NCTU is totally different from the master program at Chalmers in Sweden. Let's talk about how the education systems differ first. In Sweden, there are four "quarters" in one academic year which means one semester is split into two quarters. Then, it only takes two months to finish courses, so you can image how intensive the courses are...(there are 8 to 10 hours lecture per week for one course) But I think that it not really that bad, I can concentrate more on the courses because I only take two courses per quarter and there is only a final exam (no midterm exam) in the end of quarter.

  Second, compared with the interaction between professors and students in lectures in Sweden, it is also quite different from what we get used to in Taiwan. It's very common to see many students there ask questions or express their opinion in lecture, and students are very welcomed to argue professors' point of view because professors are not always right.

   Third, as for the education way in Sweden, the courses are almost "project-oriented", so I even had to finish five projects within two months when I took two courses... The professors usually don't say too much about projects and the content in lecture has no relationship with projects.. So I think I learn more from the projects than from lectures... Besides, the projects are very important since it may cover up to 70% of the final score which means it's impossible to pass the course if you fail the projects, but it also means we don't need to take the final exam if we pass the projects :) So some of students didn't take the exam and even started their vacations before final exam! So, maybe it's a kind of trade off. Unlike the way in Sweden, professors in Taiwan usually give students a lot of assignments or homeworks and these matters come every week...   I also found one thing from this. I remember when I did the projects in Sweden, the rule is always the same that I must complete them with two or three classmates. If the project is done individually, it's really hard to pass or the score may be bad even if the results of projects are excellent... So, more or less, I learnt what the teamwork is, how to divide the task, and how to communicate with teammates (especially free riders...)   I think these things can be a kind of knowledge and are not so easy to learn from the education in Taiwan.   

   Finally, let's talk about the research. In Sweden, during the first year, what the students have to do is just taking the courses. Then, finding an advisor in the second year. But it only means that students follow their advisors' research and not definitely relate to the thesis. That is because the thesis is not the necessary requirement for master degree. Instead, they can choose to have an internship in company. In this case, what they have to do is just finish the internship. That's all. I think the education in Taiwan has the quite different requirement for a master student. Maybe more like a Ph.D? You have to read many papers, know more theoretic things, of course finish a thesis in the end. (Professors may even hope you publish some papers..)

One of my friends from NCTU, Pia, is now taking part in singing competition of SuperStarAvenue 6th.

She sang with a talented girl (以恩) this week and the song was composed by her.

The song is for her grandmother and the lyric is really touching...

Their singing is harmonious and they are even said to have professional level !

It seems the level of SuperStarAvenue 6th is much higher than 5th :)

I took three courses this semester, Queueing Theory, Computer Networks, WiMAX.

   Queueing Theory is a very interesting subject. It discusses about the situations that customers have to wait in the queue until receiving service. It is actually very common in our daily life. For example, when we go to a supermarket, there are many counters, but sometimes there is no available counter and therefore we have to wait. In our point of view, we may think the counters should be as more as possible, but the operator of supermarket may don’t think so because it will increase the cost. So, Queueing Theory can be therefore used to find out the optimal number of clerks should be hired so that the cost can be reduced and the customers’ waiting time is acceptable. It sounds like it’s really an interesting subject and I like the ideas in it indeed, but the fact is that there are so many complicated formulas in it…too much mathematical computations… :(

   Computer Networks is actually nothing new so far, and it is more like a review of some courses that I took before such as introduction to communications and data communications.

   Conversely, WiMAX is absolutely new for me and it is still an uncompleted technique, so maybe what I have learnt so far is not the truth…haha. We can regard WiMAX as an evolutional version of WiFi since it supports much longer distance transmission and higher data rate. It is said that WiMAX can also provide cell phone service and now is one of 4G candidates. Taiwan currently promote WiMAX very much since we believe it will bring us a lot of benefits if we develop it well and get the patent of WiMAX products…

   On the other hand, many European countries are now devoted to LTE which is another candidate technique for 4G. The working groups for LTE are mostly from the legacy of mobile 3G working groups. So, it makes no sense for them to forsake the benefits or advantages they already have. I had ever taken the course Wireless Networks when I was in Sweden, and what they talk about is all the issues related LTE. Many of my classmates said that they had never heard about WiMAX…In the end of semester, I also took a visit to the company of Ericsson at that time, and all of the managers and engineers there strongly promote LTE. Although it might be the trend that LTE becomes the major technique of 4G, Taiwan can still develop WiMAX due to their interoperability and Taiwan government has already allocated the spectrum for WiMAX. Anyway, this issue should be not students’ concern, and what we should notice is if we can learn something from the technique. WiMAX and LTE actually have many similarities and we should find out what are worth learning in the future.    

The most agonizing thing is that :

You can't seize the chance because you are not ready to go for it. 

   Last year, I took the exchange program to Chamlers in Sweden and stayed in Europe around one year. Although many universities in the U.S. may outperform than the ones in Europe in my study field, I still decided to apply the exchange program to Europe because the European culture is much attractive to me.

  In Europe, there are so many countries with different culture, history, and languages. People from different countries have their own distinguishing characteristics and this is always an interesting topic whenever I talk with them. They really made different impressions on me, for example, Swedish are actually very shy and not easy to be closed friends, French don’t like long working hours and usually have much leisure time, Italian guys like to wink at beauties and sing to them, Spanish start their dinner after 8pm and have parties all week and can’t live without alcohol, German work very hard during the day and drink beer “very hard” during the night as well…haha

   Besides, since these countries are just adjacent to each other, it‘s really very easy to travel around in Europe, ex: taking one hour flight or train from France to Germany. So, I think the culture diversity in Europe may be one thing that I would never experience if I was in the U.S..

   It's very common to get culture shock when firstly arriving a new country, so somemes I feel uneasy. However, everything will be fine once getting with it, so it's not necessary to be too anxious when making changes, just do it! My experience about life in Europe really makes me get a more wide view of the world which is still quite different from the knowledge I knew from books, news, or other people' stories. So, I would like to say that if you get the chance to go abroad one day, don't miss the chance and make it be regretful to you, just go for it. : )          

最接近上帝的部落-司馬庫斯(Smangus)，位於新竹縣尖石鄉的深山裡，海拔高度約1500公尺。

由於交通不便，在新竹待了這麼多年都還沒有去過，上周末總算上去了!

在阿澤的帶領下，一行人13人包了輛小巴士，前往司馬庫斯。

這是我們包的20人座小巴士

話說山路實在是相當之陡! 髮夾彎沒辦法直接過...轉到一半還要倒車...好在司機技術很好@@|||

那天德國朋友還有大概跟我介紹西方宗教的一些沿革
                                                                                
他畫的示意圖大概長這樣(只包括主流教派)

                                                 古猶太教
                                    /                |              \

前幾天跟德國朋友談歐洲宗教的事
後來才發現我們對於"基督教"一詞的認知似乎有誤
我問他: 你是信奉基督教還是天主教? Are you Christian or Catholic?
結果他覺得這個問題很奇怪
後來他跟我解釋之後  我才知道是中文上的謬誤@@