Pin-Chu Wu's Blog

This professor is more of an advisor to students who are from UofI and are studying abroad in Vienna.

I talked to him today in regards to my academic performance, and many interesting topics were brought up. 

He asked me am I always so concerned about the grade?

"No, usually not" "That's good"

"but now I am here, we are talking about the "business," so I have to care about them"

"and not that I care about my grade, but the recruiters and my future employers care about my grade"

Then he suggested that there are also many other means that I can show to the employer that my academic performance was indeed well above average, as I told him that I got an 86 on one of the class and might be transfered back as a B (which is not that good at all in the U.S.), yet it was already quite good in Austria.  

"but the transactional cost will be too high...how do you expect an recruiter to take time read over those things" 

"Then I wouldn't apply jobs in those companies because it's likely that I am not going to be happy in that kind of company."

Then I replied, "that's true, but it's also a bit biased to say that" and he agreed. 

I further on my argument, "don't you think that it's like a spy, sometimes you have to work all the way to the position where you are in charge, only till then you can switch from white to black. You may have to sacrifice and compromise, working like a slave perhaps, before you become happy. 

He brought up another topic saying that he would really like to talk to me about those topics and the place that he planned on going (with a group of the students) next Saturday, drinking wine by the splendid, peaceful lake! He then will discuss such with me. 

He went on and on, and I was checking my schedules on that day, though I already knew that I was going to Salzburg with friends on Friday and Saturday...

I was a bit disappointed that I will not be able to discuss such matter with him by the beautiful lake, drinking wine!!!! (although I'm not a big fan of drinking) He told me that he has a story for me to read, "but sometimes talking is much more fun than reading even though reading is much fun too"

"perhaps we can talk about the story after you read them" (he will send me the story through email later). 

When we departed, he asked me whether would I like to work in the U.S.. I told him I do, yet not because I like it, just I plan to do so in the near future. Even though I am such an illiterate in Austria and other European countries, unable to communicate directly to the locals, and seems many information I got in is second-handed. He said that it could be an orientation for the future. I personally like Europe much more than the U.S. I feel the people here are more interesting, not in a way of funny or humorous, but they are deeper and more ancient and more open-minded (perhaps). To me the U.S. people care more about money and European care more about life.

It's a mere feeling and I could be wrong. I think that U.S. has its favorable characters to me, more like a child, an rude, arrogant and more primitive one. EU is deeper...older...less cute in some way. 

but I also reflect that perhaps the strong cultural and racial(nation) binding in the Europe was the root that they are so intolerant to different nations. They are so isolated from each other and although they bind together, they are all segregated. U.S. was a country where there is no one dominant amount of race. U.S. is not really a nation-state (meaning less of culture and distinctive national features) in comparison to the European countries, and that also make U.S. (the country) more tolerant to different nations! (but there are many other unknown factors perhaps, making me feel that U.S. people are not as open-minded as Europeans.) Maybe care too little about life clog up their brain too.

Sometimes I wonder the necessity of the existence of a country...and whenever I think of that, I think of the U.S., one of the few country that I know was a combination of many many different nations.

Country is like an age, a very abstract and artificial thing, like a mask...

and what not. 

like a shield, physically and mentally. 

therefore the flows clog. 

Anyway...

I somehow said to him that "if the world is like a ball, the deeper you deep, the darker you get, but at the end when you get too the other side...it's all bright again!" (as we were discussing seeing more/knowing more is not necessary a good thing, I can't recall), he concluded that "It's like an apply that when you look at it, you can see and appreciate its beauty, and when you eat it, you get another satisfaction, but you won't be able to see it anymore."

I didn't use too much of my brain pondering today...these are kind of old stuff to me but I think there's always new stuff in the old stuff. 

Hopefully these are not cliche...