Switzerland—between heaven and earth

Feeling really sick right now, maybe every legend does need a price tag. In this case, the price I have to pay for wearing one single pair of jeans on top of Europe is severe cold and feeling endless sleepy. Though I really need to get myself back due to the coming millions of tasks.

In retrospect, I felt happy about everything during this trip. I think Santa really favored us this time. We went there without a careful plan, but everything turned out just fine. Switzerland impressed me by her beauty, wealth and kind people.

The best part may be not the breath-taking view on the mountains, but the time we four spent together. We shared and encouraged each other. It's always nice to be inspired by smart people, especially when that happened during a wonderful trip to a wonderful country. I have to say, I really need that.

When I standed on top of the mountain, surrounded by the spectacular view that I had never seen in my life, I was lost... I felt there was just one step away from heaven, one person away from being completed. Yes, life is a bitch. Even when you are offered the unexpected excitement, somehow you are always reminded by something you wanna forget.

Amazingly, I didn't feel as christmasy as when I was back in Shanghai. The night we came back, a simply instant noodle really cheered me up. It was good to feel home.

: 26 Dec 2007 20:03 |  Tags: Travel |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Paint Your Thoughts

It is another busy Wednesday with long but interesting seminars. During today's VAI session, we were first asked to listen to a piece of music, and then paint whatever image or graphic that we thought well represented the music. To be honest, I was a little bit concerned when I heard this task, because I am not much of a arty person and have never been good at painting stuff. But it is always nice to have a try.

The music itself was not so attractive, at lease I felt this way. I didn't sense many colors in it. There were certain rhythm going on with strong drum beating in the background. My work was more symbolic I'd say, well, compare to my classmates'. When I heard that music, it reminded me of a high way in an early morning. There were not many vehicles and everything was kind of in grey. And then the day was getting brighter, and the road were gradually full and things started to turn red. So I simply using lines and dots to express such feelings.

After, Jonathan hung all of our paintings on the wall. Then the roon suddenly got shining. I was absolutely amazed by what my peers came up with. That was a wall of imagination and creation.

There were two pieces which I'm especially fond of, or rather had strong echo with. The one done by Dinos was just mysterious. I like the dark background but with curving wave at the bottom. And the small colorful dots illustrated some contrast somewhere in between.

The other one was from Jessie, another Chinese girl. When I first looked at her piece, it looked like a Chinese character to me. Yet I couldn't tell which character it was. Then she explained that it was exactly a Chinese word ¡°ÔÏ"! I was just impressed by the smart trick over there.

The second part of the seminar, we listened to a man reading a poem with some weird background music. And we were asked to pick out one word that we thought most represented the peom and express it on the paper, whether write this word down or using images.

I chose VISION and wrote it down in different range of colors. I put it in a cold tone to maintain the calmness which was delivered by the speaker. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take pictures of this part due to the time limit. My classmates also raised many fantastic ideas. Some chose WISDOM, some chose STRUGGLE, and some using colors and graphics to represent the words that hit them.

: 07 Nov 2007 21:32 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Cambridge

It was a great fun to go out after one hell of a week, especially when you chose such a place like Cambridge.

We set out from Warwick in bright sunshine but when we arrived in Cambridge, the sky started to turn grey. Well, it is Britain we are talking about... We started to wander the streets within this nice and small town. Cambridge is so different from Oxford, more quiet and concentrate I'd have to say.

I have been deeply moved by a Korean drama once I saw and my favourite part of it was when the lovely couple cruising along River Cam. And lucky for me, I did it finally! It was absolutely fantastic. We reviewed those famous bridges across river, listened to the stories behind, and embraced the clear air and view from both sides of the river. It was like a mobile gallary.

Cambridge is so connected to Chinese because of a famous poem written by Xu Zhimo. He studied in King's College for one year and wrote this masterpiece, which I believe was his most famous piece. The poem is about departure, combined with sensible description about the scenery. And I could finally understand a little bit after really being in this scene.

Indeed, Cambridge is a place that you can't say goodbye to.

: 04 Nov 2007 10:55 |  Tags: Travel |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Starbucks Ad

We were asked to choose one particular piece of ad which applies a specifie approach of expression. I instantly chose this one when I saw it. I think it is a piece using randomness. And what's more, it delivers a casual and relaxing feeling. With the text SOCIALIZE on one size, the whole piece seems quite balanced.

And Jonathan added that these circles are not so random as they are seemed. Actually the artist must have come up with many different versions of arrangement with these circles, to ultimately bring about this balance.

And I think it is a vivid illustration about a bunch of friends hanging out together, which really fits to what Starbucks is trying to convey. And the background looks like a piece of napkin, which is smart to hell!

I like this ad.

: 31 Oct 2007 20:16 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

STRATFORD–UPON–AVON

I woke up this morning at 7 when it was still dark outside. It was my earliest get-up since I've been here, all for the trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.

We missed the scheduled train due to the boys' late. But somehow it gave us a reason to have a real nice breakfast. Two hours later, we headed to the birthplace of William Shakespear--a legend of English literature.

Stratford is a tiny beautiful town and surely has been well develped for tourist industry. It is surrounded by the famous River Avon. Behind lots of trees, you can always find a church, a garden, a tower, or simply a nice lawn. The place actually never needs a famous figure to boast her existance, because she is already amazingly charming. And the fact is Shakespear left this town for London in his early age and never returned, left his wife and daughter there...

The sunshine showed up briefly during noon time when we were walking along the riverbank. Such a relaxing scenery just made me want to stay for ever.

When I was on the boat wandering on the Avon, I just wished he was there and saw everything that appeared in my eyes. It was a moment to remember.

: 27 Oct 2007 22:25 |  Tags: Travel |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A WOMAN TO KILL FOR

There was a very interesting part during today's VAI course named CONCEPT BOARD. We were given a blank white piece of paper and several copies of fashion magazines to create a vision or concept for CD J'adore perfume within 10 minutes, which was very challenging. Concept Board is quite new to me, yet a very common and workable approach in advertising.

Four groups came up with four totally different visions, which I think were all outstanding due to the time limit. The J'adore bottle shape ad was quite impressive in my mind. It was a truely romantic way to express, just as they presented. The red lip right in the middle was kind of narrating the relationship between men and women. The faded colors, even black-and-white snap shots were nicely balanced the whole scenery.

I think our group did excellent too, and obviously in a unique way of expression. There was a slogan A WOMAN TO KILL FOR which really standed out the whole piece. The concept was easy and direct. A chic Dior kind of lady, a mysterious guy with his face covered behind, a gun surrounded with burning fire which sturred the passion and desire. Finally, we cut the border of paper, which was also an out-of-box approach.

I should have brought my camera to capture the essence of group intelligence. Well, maybe next time.

: 17 Oct 2007 21:59 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

NOT JUST ABOUT SURGERY

Writing about web page http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/index

I have a thing for my favourite collection of TV series, for instance FRIENDS, SEX AND THE CITY, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES... I tend to watch them again and again till I can remember every detail of how things were going on. Many may think it is pretty much a waste of time, but amazingly every time I watched these I had a deeper understanding about a lot of other things. So, I'm keeping this BAD habit. And the latest victim is GREY'S ANATOMY of course!

Basically it is another story happened in a hospital set. A bunch of young medical school interns dedicated everything to get ahead in their future career. I think that's the major appealing point to young freshers like myself.

When people at this age, facing career problem, relationship dilemma, family incidents and etc. I couldn't help but wonder, exactly how much more can we take? Is it because we are young so we are supposed to experience all these challenges and responsibilities? Enough is enough...!

GREY is just one of us, but much more attractive obviously. What she did was not always perfect or even correct, but still I appreciate her toughness. Maybe that is just what we need to deal with all the problems. The ways we understand this world are certainly varied, but when we achieve this goal, we will no longer be who we once were.

If you are willing to take the chance, the view from the other side is spectacular.

----My favourite quote from GREY'S ANATOMY

: 15 Oct 2007 23:26 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

MAKING CHOICES

It comes to us that at certain stage of life we have to choose and can't have it all. When we were kids, the choices may concern the flavor of icecream, what color I'm gonna wear today, or simply if I can skip school for just one day. As we grow up, the choice-making seems more and more tricky, because the stakes are getting higher and higher. It does not just involve icecream, but what kind of life we are heading to.

So here I am. I've made my choice to come here. When I waved goodbye to my family and friends, I knew there would be a whole lot of unknown ahead of me. But that's actually the fun part, when you can really live your own life, isn't it?

I don't like when people say,"I don't have a choice." Indeed, we always have and we always make the choices. Maybe what we need is just to back it up.

: 14 Oct 2007 21:45 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem