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November 01 Analyse of My Personal EconomyAnalyse of My Personal Economy
Zhang Xi
Department of Engineering and Computer Science
University of Victoria,Canada
Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the income and expend of a typical engineering North American international grad student, which is, me. This study shed a light on the future life of studying aboard for Chinese students, which is, still me.
Introduction
I could win a Nobel Prize by this paper.
1.Expend
1.1 Food: ~150$ [1]
1.2 Health Insurance: ~50$ [1]
1.3 Rental: ~360$ [2]
1.4 Other Expend: up to 150$ per month so far (It's a loose upper-bound.) [3]
1.5 Tuition per month: ~6400$/12~533$ [1]
So the summation is: ~1243$
2.Income
2.1 Scholarship+TA: ????$ (protected by commercial reason) [4]
3.Advantage
3.1 Net income: x=????$ - 1243$=???$
3.2 My monthly income in China: y=???$ [3]
Subsequently, we have: x>y.
Conclusion
Not bad.
Reference
[1]Online banking record
[2]Rental contract
[3]My poor memory
[4]Cheques.
October 31 ConversationDan: "How is school going?"
Me: "Very busy, all the time."
Dan: "At least, your English must be better now."
Me: "Not actually. I think my English is moving backward. I don't have too many opportunities to talk."
Dan: "At least you know more words now."
Me: "I think I know less words than before. You know, I used to memorize lots of words for the exam. Now I have forgotten most of them."
Dan: "At least ...."
Me: "It's pretty ironic, ah?"
Dan: "At least you still know the word 'ironic'. That's good." October 29 Big discoveryToday, a Bangladeshi told me that Professor Gandi's speaking is good. His course is easy to understand. While another professor, Valerie King, her speaking is diffcult to understand.
It really surprised me. Because I feel the exact opposite way. Professor Gandi is from India, I can hardly understand his words. On the other hand, Professor King is a New Yorker, and her English is just like what I usually hear in Hollywood movies. So although she speaks fast, I can still understand.
Before this, I thought everybody should feel the same way as I do. But now, I realize that people are much easier to understand others who have similar accent. Bangladesh is close to India, so they can understand each other. But for me, I prefer North American accent. It doesn't mean we are close to U.S.. It means I've watched too many piratic American movies. October 27 I like cookingI like cooking so much that I even make my own breakfast. When I say "make", I don't mean heating cakes and milk in your microwave. I mean making a cake from flour.
I do cook a lot. Partially it's for saving money. But it's definitely not the main reason. If I just want to save some money, there are much more efficient ways to do that. Actually, because I invest so much on my cooking utensils like pans and mixer that it not really saves too much. I think that is because cooking is easy. I mean just basic cookings, not those fancy dishes.
Cooking is such kind of things that once you follow the instruction step by step carefully, then you will never fail. At least you will succeed in 80% trials. Starting one's study life aboard could be frustrated, but cooking gives me pleasures of success. That's really what I need. In fact, cooking is so easy that people can order robots to do it.(click here to see details)
The second rank easy task here is programing. Again, it's not fancy programming for some serious works. If you just want to write a website system for your university or an assignment of networking course, it will be easy. The reason is the same as cooking. If you think cautiously and debug your code carefully, you will never fail. I have a lab of computer networking course. It requires programming with C/Unix/Socket/Pthread. Among those things, I've never used Unix/Socket/Pthread before, and I haven't use C since 2002. So it really freaked me out at the first time. I used to consider it as a mission impossible. But since I learnt how to use these stuffs (much sooner than I thought), the assignment suddenly became a piece of cake. Just like cooking, you don't need to think too much when you are programming. Programming is more like a blue collar job. So when I need a break, I do my lab assignment. On the other hand, some things could be difficult and frustrated, like mathematic problems. You may sit in front of your table for a whole night without any progress. And it happens time to time. Or it likes reading academic papers. God knows how these people think when they were writing their papers. Could it be any harder to understand? Anyway, I think it's somehow because I am a newbie to computer network. When I get to familiar this field, it wil be easier.
October 24 Everything changes when it comes to intelligenceA biology Nobel Prize winner is widely criticized on medias recently, because he said something like "black people are less intelligent". By the way, this guy also said fat people are less competent because they are less ambitious. He is really a big mouth. I've seen his apology from tens of newspaper articles in the past month.
I'm not supporting this guy. I mean since I am not an anthropologist, how could I know whether black people are smart or not. But the question is: Is it possible that the statement made by the poor scientist is true?
People all know that there are huge difference between races genetically. We have different skin colors, and we have different physical height and weight. It is also well known that black people are good at speedy sports so they have more professional fast runners and basketball players. These differences are accpet by people without disagreement. So why do people so sensitive with intelligence? Yeah, I see the reason. First, intelligence is not easy to measure. You can deny the result of IQ test by arguing it's effected by postnatal reasons. But physical strength and size can be enhance by exercises as well. There is another reason that is even more important, which is intelligence is the most important quality for human being, so everybody wants to save one's dignity with it.
Unfortunately, investigation do support the argument that there are differences between races. It says the East Asian and Jew are the most intelligent races all over the world. Here is the table of details:
Or you can check it out visually from the following graphs:
There are some statements of truth:
At Harvard, for example, Asian American and Jewish students together make up 51% of the student body, though only constituting roughly 6% of the US population.
Yes, so is it in engineering department of Uvic, which needs more IQ. (I am saying it proudly. ^_^)
In various Southeast Asian nations, Chinese control a majority of the wealth despite being a minority of the population and are resented by the majority, in some cases being the target of violence.
We all know that.
The statistic data above is widely accepted. While some people still argue that this difference is caused by culture. They said education is more important in extensive Chinese culture region because Confuciusm.(Which means Korean, Japan, Taiwan and of course: China.) But another study also shows that the American East Asian descendants also perform better in IQ test. It says the weights of prenatal and postnatal factor are at least half to half.
So why don't these people just face to the fact? Come on, expectation intelligence on majority doesn't mean anything on individuals. It just like although we are weak on sports, we still have Yao Ming and Liu Xiang.
Some references:
October 23 CakeI made a cake today. It's not very successful. Although the smell and taste is not bad, but the appearence is not that attractive. It's cracked. You know, good looking is the paramount principle in my cooking philosophy. However, this my first time baking a cake. It's a rookie's mistake.
I don't know why it doesn't look like the one in the recipe. Perhaps I put too many yeast in or I set a wrong temperature. The reason also could be my African roommate kept criticizing when I was cooking.:) Anyway, it's just an experimental thing. Next time it will definitely be better.
October 18 May the flu be with youIn China, people say that when somebody is cursed or missed by others, this guy sneezes. If this is true, then somebody in the department office must be sneezing badly in every Thursday and Wednesday afternoon. I mean, the guy assigned me to be an instructor.
I teach my lab every Thursday and Wednesday afternoon. I hate it. Every time before I go to class, I curse this guy a lot in my heart. So if the superstition is true, this poor officer must look like in a flu. October 14 FishingOctober 11 United Nation In CSLast time, I went to class late so I sat in the last seats. Then I did some counting about students, which comfirmed my previous conjecture.
Yes, there are too many Chinese students.
The exact half of students in the class are Chinese(including Taiwanese), about 20% of them are Middle Eastern (Emad told me later that they are all Iranian), 20% are white people who could be from US or Canada or Britsh or wherever, and 10% are Indian.
Need to know that this course is considered as one of the most difficult courses in Uvic. There might be two reasons for that:
1 It's so difficult that only Chinese students dare to take it.
2 There are so many Chinese students in this course that make the competition fierce.
I'm kidding.
Well, it's actually easy to understand why there are so many Chinese. China has billions of people, and one fourth world's population is Chinese. So is India. But I am a little confused by why there are so many Iranian in computer science department. Iran is not a big country, but there are about 10% students here are from Iran. I can't explain that. Living costBesides tuition and rental, food is my major cost here. My uncle said when his parent came to Canada to visit him, they three people spent like 150$ on food in a month.
Franckly speaking, I don't really believe this. Because I have to spend near 150$ on my food every month, and I am already living in my lower bound. I buy the cheapest materials I can get, and I cook for myself everyday. It might because the living cost in Victoria is higher than Alberta. I don't know. And I eat a lot. My appetite is always good.
The interesting part is, although Victoria is near the sea, fishes is still extraordinary expensive. The cheapest fish is over 100 RMB/500g. It's ridiculous. In contrast that the price of pork tongue is about 12 RMB/500g, which even cheaper than China. It's my favorite.
I get all my clothes from second hand markets. The price is about the same as what I brought in China, which means, really cheap. But they are cheap for reasons. Some of them are worn, others have some strange logoes on it. I got a good sweater in 6$ because it has a "Times Colonist" logo on it.(which is a local newspaper). Usually, people don't want to wear clothes like this, but I don't care. Because it makes people talking to me. Several times, people in the next seat of a bus asked me :" Are you a journalist something?" Ha ha, am I? Thanks to that, I can have some great talking sometimes. It's cool. And I got another sweater with a "Uvic" logo on it. I don't mind neither. Because I am just a student of Uvic.
Good clothes are still expensive even though they are second hand. I saw a leather coat last week. It has good style, nice color. Leathers are not my type, but this one is perfect for me. The price is like 500 RMB. It's not really expensive even to Chinese people. I know some kids in China spend thounds of RMB on their clothes without a even think. But I'm not that kind of people. Although I can easily afford it by my income, I still consider it overpriced. I don't know, I'm just not too rational on these stuffes. It perhaps because my dad is very frugal, and it affect me a little. Plus, I'm not a little girl. I don't need good clothes to dress up.
I am considering to buy a bicycle now.(second hand, of cousre). It' will cost me 70$ dollars. In the same time, I saw a used car one day is 2500$. So driving here is not as luxurious as driving in China. Maybe years later, I will get one. October 07 Thanksgiving Dinner
I went to a Canadian thanksgiving dinner tonight, and it was great.
I have to say that I am so lucky to have friends thousands miles away from home. Actually, they are friends of my dad. Well, not actually. Because none of them knows my dad directly. Here is the thing: my dad's friend Norman is a relative of them. Although neither Norman nor my dad was here, they still invited me as a close friend. I think that's because my dad is always so nice to his friends as well as Norman is a nice person too. I am really thankful for that.
It was a very traditional North American style thanksgiving dinner. We've got a big turkey, pumpkin pies and many other traditional food. Thanksgiving is about familiy members and their lonely friends away from home. These people gathering together and eat like insanely. The host, who is a brother of Norman, he told me: "Try to eat as much as you can, then you won't eat for 2 days." We have 9 people in this dinner. whom are all families except me. My friend Dan told me this is the smallest thanksgiving dinner ever. Once they've had more than 20 people in thanksgiving dinner.
I brought a bunch of flowers, played poker with boys, ate as much turkey as I can, drunk too much home-made wine and had lots of great talking today. It was a really fantastic experience for me. They are nice and friendly. I really enjoyed it. September 22 Middle Moon Festival EveBelieve or not, these bizarre cookies suppose to be moon cakes. Moon cake is a kind of special cake made for Middle Moon Festival, which is one of three most important Chinese traditional festivals. These cakes are both non tasty and over calorie, but we still eat them every year. It's like a culture tradition. Although you may not enjoy its taste, still, you will feel something missed if you don't have one on that day. In Vicotria, there are moon cakes in supermarket, but they are extraordinary expensive. I can't afford them. Instead, I tried to do some self-made moon cake to amuse myself.
We don't have some necessary materials and utensils here, so I try to do it in my own way. I used raisin for stuffing, and made some other strange moves as well. However, as you can see, it turns out they neither taste or look like a really moon cake. I might do something wrong, probably.
Anyway, the good part is, the taste is not as bad as their appearance.
Nevertheless, I did something right as well. These chicken wing I made was a triumph. I like them. I bet they beat KFC at least. September 21 Bible discovery nightLeon was right. Daniel's place is a great place to go. By the way, Leon, if you are reading this blog, thank you. :)
Daniel is a Canadian and a Christian. I don't know his job, a scholar? Probably. He and his family invite international students to his house every Thursday night, offering a potluck meal as well as a discussion about Bible.
Frankly speaking, I'm not a big fan of Christianism. But it was a great night, which made people feel warm inside, especially to those of us who just came to a foreign country. The interesting part is that all the visitors are from Asia. I think it's because people from other continent perhaps already have their own belief.
Anyway, I decided to take it as one of my routine activities. September 19 Everyday RoutineI feel better today. My supervisor didn't kill me on routine meeting, and 1st year college boys started to call me "Sir" in class. Although it's 9:00pm when I finish all my job, I have to do my daily routine job ---- cooking.
I cook different dishes everyday. I think it's interesting as well as I can learn some cooking skills. Besides, the most important thing is I can have some tasty food by the way. I'm not a big fan of Canadian food, just like sandwich or pizza. I prefer Chinese food.
Today's dish is: potato and beef. (Actually this food is not very Chinese. Many western countries have this too.)
They only have electric oven and flat pans here.
One for lunch, one for dinner. September 18 busyI still can't believe that they assigning me to be an instructor.
The course I teach is easy. The advantage is that it's easy to prepare. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that all my students are native speakers, so they expect their teacher to be someone funny who can make them laugh. I could be funny, but only in Chinese. Here, my speech isn't funny but make me funny, and my word can't make people laugh but make them laugh at me. (I know that so I didn't try to joke them.)
It's shame.
Besides, I've got tons of works to do. I'm insanely busy right now.
I wrote to my Uncle to talk about my anxiety about my English and whole busy thing. Uncle Hu used to be a student in University of Alberta 10 years ago. Now, he is a professor in US. He told me that English is still a problem to him right now, and it seems to be a life time problem. It happens to every foreigner, he said. His words make me feel better. I know he used to be an excellent student. He was the president of student union in U of A. And he was both outstanding in research as well as in sociality. I would proud of myself if I could be half of him. So I think, if English still bothers him so much, perhaps my feeling of frustration is not that bad.
And he told me that he was also extremely busy on his first year. He compared it to his 3rd year in senior high school in China. I agree: it is that busy. Oh no, not to me. In 3rd senior high, I spent most of my time hanging out with my friends. OK, let's put it this way: it reminds me the summer when I was preparing my math contest. However, things changed a little. In math contest, if I succeed, I win everything; if I lose, I am still what I am. But now, if I succeed, I am still what I am; if I lose, I will lose everything. It's similar situation, but more pressure. I hope it won't change the result of my efforts.
Talking about effort, Canadians do have different definition. In here, if you start doing your homework 3 days before deadline, you are diligent. But to a typical 3rd senior high student in China, if you waste 9 hours on sleeping during the night, you are the lazy one. September 13 Being An InstructorCan you imagine a guy who barely speaking English at all but teaching college students? Yeah, that's me.
My TA (Teaching Assistant) job is instructor. I think somebody made a mistake. Because instructor is like the most difficult job (perhaps except leaders). As a foreigner and an ESLer, I thought they would give me a job like a marker or a consultant, which do not need to speak too much. However, they gave me this one.
Why? Why? W, H, Y, Why?
This afternoon, I taught 2 classes of college students of basic computer skills. The course is easy, but speaking English is difficult. I've never spoken so much English. And as a foreigner, speaking in front of people publicly makes me so nervous. Although I used to teach a little in China before, that was a totally different situation. My experience doesn't help at all.
Anyway, I successfully survived today. It was a terrible class though. Well, next week it'll be better, wishfully.
PS: Do you wanna hear something interesting? Here you are. This professor is in charge of the course which I am teaching. He has pierced lips, and he is a musician of a local band as well as a local DJ. He is also a big fun of motorcycles. It's cool, isn't it? Why we don't have this kind of professor in China?
September 12 ShameToday is open club day. There are lots of clubs in Students Center. I went and checked out badminton club, while, I found something interesting.
There are Japan students association, Korean students association and Taiwan students association, but there is no Chinese association. What's even more sarcastic is that there is a "Japanese Welcomed" signboard on Taiwan students association.
Why?
September 10 Views from department buildingThis is Mount Olympus of Olympic Mountain, a glaciated mount which located in U.S. This picture was taken from the lounge of the ECS buidling (Engineering and Computer Science). The building has 6 floors, but it's still the highest building around.
By the way, the word "Olympus" also means paradise in English.
I wish my office faced south so I can see the Olympus whenever I wanted to. Unfortunately, it doesn't. But the view from my desk is good too. This is a view from the window near my desk. It used to be a second generation rain forest. When I staring at these trees, I feel peaceful. (and good to eyes)
Poor apartmentIt turns out that this house is cheap for reasons. I can not access to MSN or QQ now, and I can't download any files either.(It's a temporary problem, hopefully.) Laundry cost is expensive and the machine doesn't work well. Personally speaking, my landlords are overly closefisted. Although I am Chinese myself, I have to say they are typical traditional Chinese, just like my father. While there is a difference, which is my father is only closefisted to himself. We've got an apartment for rent in Beijing as well, and he has never been so mean to the tenants.
On the other hand, their behaviors are understandable. In 80s of last century, China was an insane communist evil country. These early immigrants had to be hardhanded to survived in a totally unfriendly environment.
So, I'm kind of thinking about moving out after this contract is over. Hello WorldThis is my 4th blog at least, I guess. I will keep writing this in foreign language to improve my poor English. |
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