《劝学篇》

小时候总觉得自己很聪明，算数比班上大部分人都好；一起玩耍的同龄小孩中，象棋我从来没输过，一段时间甚至忘乎所以，以“天才”自称。年十三到了新加坡，令我出乎意料。英语听不懂，课跟不上，与同学无法交流。受了这打击后发奋图强，两年后情况大有好转，不过又开始得意忘形。东林并不是什么顶尖学校，虽然认识到了这个问题，但觉得也不太碍事。升学时出了很多状况，可以说是第二次打击，但这次不太一样。国初里多才多艺的人不在少数，我这井底之蛙突然感到十分无用，为什么别人能这么有效的利用他们的时间？我尽力弥补前几年的无所事事，效果终究有限。到了剑桥，这种自卑心理得到了另一种的升华。我可以说是虚度了二十多年的光阴，一无所成，能力有限是一方面，对事情认识的不够清楚是更大的障碍。

荀子的《劝学篇》有一句话是这么说的

"故不登高山，不知天之高也；不临深谿，不知地之厚也；不闻先王之遗言，不知学问之大也。"

每个人的经历都不同，有时候可能一辈子也没出过自己的村庄，但是却有“秀才不出门尽知天下事”的本领。原因在于他们对事情的好奇与关注，加上对世事和道理的认识，从接触的人中就能得到所有知识。反观现在信息科技这么发达，人们反而什么都不知道了。

每本书都有它的局限性。《劝学篇》鼓励人么好好读书，但在这个时代“万般皆下品，唯有读书高”这种观念已被淘汰。但我们可以从全方面发展的角度来理解它的含义，取得“青。取之于蓝，而青于蓝。”的效果。

The Hungarian bit

Now the Hungarian bit of the story.

I went to Budapest to visit a friend. He is the legendary and elusive Mate. I have him as supervision partner this year for all 3 of my supervisions. Other than making me look incredibly stupid during supervision, he is a very nice person. Very quiet, but great to talk to and very enthusiastic about Physics.

He has kindly agreed to let me stayed in his house, and also offered to pick me up from Keleti train station. However, there was a small drama before we met. I was sleeping during most the train ride. Subconsciously I knew I need to be alert and not miss my stop. So when I suddenly heard Budapest something, I just grabbed my bag and alighted. The place look surprisingly run-down. Mindless graffiti and wall posters are very not European like. Is Budapest so different from Vienna even though they are just two and half hours apart? After wandering about for a while, and not seeing a sign of him, I finally came to realize I'm at the wrong stop. It was Budapest Kelenfold. Oh what a start! Luckily I met a kind soul who spoke perfect English, and he told me the directions to Keleti by other public transport. Finally after 2 more transfers and an hour late, I arrived at Keleti to be warmly received by Mate.

I was first brought to his house. He lives in what looks like a suburb area. It is very peaceful and quiet, and very beautiful with all the snows. His mum was in to receive us. However, she doesn't speak much English, so the initial meeting was kind of awkward. Mate then showed me around the house and my room. It was not a very big place, but very cosy. His room is full of the medals and certificates he won in high school, and there are seriously loads of them. His brother and sister are living upstairs, and strangely they had a kitchen to themselves! As this is the case, I hardly saw two of them during my stay. We then had lunch prepared by her mum, and after a short rest, and went out.

Mate has to be the best tour guide in many ways. He knows the place at the tip of his fingertips. The history, the story and how in some ways he is connected to them. Throughout the 4 days, he showed vast knowledge of Budapest. Honestly, if I am supposed to do it, the only city I can possibly do a half decent job is Cambridge. I seem to have lost touch with Singapore, Shanghai, and my hometown. If there are any serious connection to begin with. Haiz this has set me to some pondering.

After a brief tour of city centre and then Margaret Island, we went back to home early. His mum was preparing a very Hungarian dinner for us. It was some sort of beef stew and was absolutely delicious. This has to be the first time I have eaten in a traditional meal in an European family. We played lots of puzzle and games after dinner. I have never seen so many of them in my life. They were intellectually challenging and interesting.

The rest of the days were pretty similar. There was touring the city with Mate's extraordinary explanations and the quiet evenings of puzzles. I have learned a huge amount about Hungarian history and random facts. It was also a very culturally enriching trip. Very grateful for Mate's family for hosting me and it was a very special trip.

BBC featured a similiar random walk on Wikipedia

BBC featured a similar random walk on Wikipedia. It is definitely more sophisticated.

The article is called Lost in Wikipedia. It is part of a series of programme to celebrate Wikipedia's 10th anniversary.

Tour of Austria-Hungary Empire

Disclaimer: The union of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary back in the 19th century created a united land that spawned a big part of Central Europe. I have not, in this short month, travelled even a fraction of that. I just thought it is a cool name and was not meant to be misleading in any way.

I first landed in Vienna on... I think the 7th December. I can't remember the exact date, but I knew I stayed back after term ended to finish up that bloody report. Had a complicated room arrangement and then went to Zhengjie's place for a night in London. Anyway the reason for me being in Wien is that my uncle is here for a post-doc position, and I am here to see him, have a holiday and save some rent.

Vienna at first reminded me of Lyon. I think continental Europe has similar architecture. It is peaceful, and I could not understand anything just like in Lyon. Before I could begin to explore the city, I tracked the progress of "The Great, Greater and the Greatest" (ie the 3 greats) on Facebook. They happened to be travelling in the region and I met up with them for a day to tour the Schonbrunn palace. It was the first major tourist attraction I went. Other than all the fun and talking the most memorable part was the cold. It was really very cold with temperature around -10 degrees. As it was a Sunday, which has a special significance in Austria. After labouring very hard to locate the restaurant "The Great" was interested, it was closed, just like all the other shops. Luck for us, there was a Vietnamese restaurant open for business nearby. It was such a relief to be indoors. We went in and "Greater" used his Cantonese to help us order food. It was very hilarious in that moment as we were trying to find out exactly what we were getting. It was a super long lunch. When we were done with the main course, we ordered dessert, and then another round of dessert by the "The Greatest". We well achieved our purpose of defrosting and filling our stomach before we left.

Oh well that was a nice day. But for quite a number of days I followed my uncle to Technische Universitat Wien to study. My first few days were embroiled in the bitter struggle to finish the Math Computer Assignment. After that it was the math example sheet, and optics. I was quite alarmed by the amount of things I did not understand in term time. Even now I still have loads of overdue work and a significant chunk of the syllabus to revise. Anyway I became quite familiar of the place after a while. The buildings and facilities are very new, and it is located in the city centre. I got to know one or two persons. I also attended a Masters student's graduate party, and then a Christmas party of the department. It was not easy to talk to anybody as it was firstly very weird and also they speak German. Feuerzangenbowle was the main thing I remembered, as well as a very delicious beef stew.

Another noteworthy thing is the underground system. There are no gantries, so everybody just walk in and out freely. There's a ticketing system but from the look of it much self-discipline is needed. There are people conducting random check though, and I was checked on Christmas day itself. That day I went to the central cemetery Zentralfriedhof. The graves of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms and most importantly Boltzmann are there. It was kind of like making a physicist's pilgrimage to visit Botzmann's resting place. It took me quite while to find but I think it was worth it. Luckily I had my tickets.

Vienna's beauty are undeniable. The city centre is full of palace, church, museum, theatre and other places that are just pleasant to look at. The city layout is awesome and everything just seem to fit with each other. The transition of modern and medieval is smooth, especially with the old fashioned tram and subway going around. It was like a old photo with most of it frozen in time and some parts slowly developing using modern technology. With the Danube flowing through it, it is perfect.

However it is such a pity that the cold spell has to arrive so early. From the first day until the end of 2010 I never saw wien without a significant amount of snow. I love snow as it makes everything look so ever pure and angelic. But the love so often are in contention with the welfare of my ears, hands and feet. So I ended up spending a significant amount of time indoors talking with my uncle and aunt. As a (extended) family tradition, the topics is always on China and the academia. It often extends to human nature. Sometimes I wonder why nobody in my family ever studied social science? We could have potentially write many thesis on contemporary Chinese culture and politics from such talks alone. It was great discussing these issues with them, as it made me more aware of how things are done in China, and its various issues.

And of course there are my two lovely cousins. I don't know many adjectives to describe them but they are just adorable. Lele is very eloquent and curious. He always takes his own time to do things though, and doesn't eat much during meal time. This, coupled with his whys can really drive me "mad". He loves Thomas and makes me watch it with him. The one achievement I have over this holiday is that I can recognize most of the tank engines in the series now, having watched none of it previously. I also read stories to him and he likes me to brush teeth together with him. LOL. Songsong is not yet one year old, and he is as chubby as my brother when he was Songsong's age. He has changed significantly during this month, now always be to stand up. There are so many things to say about kids of his age as they are always curious but can't talk.

Overall it has been a great experience coming to Vienna. Very sad to be leaving now. I shall talk about the Hungary bit next time, as this blog post is already quite long.