Holiday greetings from Xie Laoshi

Hi!

Finally I can post something here. Thank you, Thomas!

I tried to post the newsletter (your pair-up reports) here, as I said in my message to you guys LONG LONG ago, but the PDF format cannot be accepted. So, I''ll wait till the technology can satisfy our needs.

Now it's Christmas and New Year season, I wish you all a peaceful holiday and a new year filled with happiness!

圣诞快乐，新年如意！

Xie Laoshi

Santa made me do it!

Well I 'upgraded' the blog and now things are a little bit screwy :-(
That was stupid... I blame Santa!

Summertime Soldier 徐筱渊

Here's two pictures from back in the hot days of summer when my program partner, along with all her classmates, endured three weeks of arduous training for long hours under hot summer sun - which made her one hot soldier!

Knowledge Gap

The Chinese students have had a very different high school education that we have, and when I mean different, I mean that what they learn is much more in content. Hence when we are put in the same classes together, it's not only unfair for us, but also unfair for them. It's unfair to us because the rate that the teacher teach here is more for a review rather than for learning the material for the first time (my belief in any case). They also go into more complex theories since most of the content, as mentioned before, had been learned in high school. Then when it comes to test time, our marks reflect that. There is a giant and obvious gap between the marks of the
Canadian students and the Chinese students. Example: The highest mark for the physics midterm was 99%. The lowest I believe passed (60% is a pass), if not within 10% away from passing. The highest mark for the physics midterm done by a Canadian student was 60%.

Obviously, the departments are trying to figure out a way to resolve this, but my point is that the knowledge gap between the Chinese students and Canadian students is very very large. Hence our current stress with the school work.

Asian Squat

The country that brought the world Kung Fu fighting, (which demands great bodily flexibility), is where you see people of all ages squatting down as if it were the most natural posture in the world, (which is likewise indicative of flexibility).
Perhaps it was that snow skiing accident that hurt my knee, perhaps it's my grasshopper-long legs, but it doesn't come as easily to me.

Update on Academic Situation

I'll have to keep this update short, as I am short on time. It seems I'm always short on time these days. No time to relax, or play, only work.

Currently, we have tutorials for ever class, whether it's formal (i.e. taught by a grad student or a teacher) or informal (i.e. taught by other students in the same class). Surprisingly, most of us passed Calculus. In terms of Physics, only one of us passed the midterm.

I'm withholding my decision to stay or leave this program until the end of the semester.

Thank you everyone for your support and your replies to our posts regarding our troubles here in China.