The year 2016 marks my second year farewell to full-time motherhood and back to the people. It’s a year discussing with my colleagues with great concerns about the big events worldwide: France terrorist attacks, Brexit, and Trump etc.. It's a year dealing with interesting projects, and exciting publications; and it's a year with Nicole every day as the past years. Particularly, as a typical family with both parents doing scientific research and making a life on academy, this year for us is full of changes. In the first half year, I used to devote all my Saturday mornings to a Deutsch class, try my best to catch up with Nicole’s language level and to adapt myself to the German-speaking environment faster and better. Then one day in September, I was told by my husband that I could make a pause or even stop my language course, because he would be promoted to a higher position, half a year later. But it would be somewhere else, not here. It was really a piece of good news for our career, but I was not that happy as expected. I was actually overwhelmed by the very complicated feelings. I became homesick instantly. What a pity I have to leave again! I looked around our small apartment, and found that it is not like the barely empty it used to be the day we moved in. It is now well decorated, and even a piece of small hanging on the wall records the very happy moment happened in our life here. It is now a lovely and warm home for us. As days on I’ve taken here as my second home already in the past years. Nicole was born here and has been growing up happily. Both adults and the kid have their own circle of friends and built up their social network. And now we have to say goodbye. But this is life, and this is reality. Looking back the past ten years, we left our hometown in China for overseas study and working, and then moved to Europe continue the research training, and again it’s time to go. Maybe years later in the future, we'll move to somewhere else on the globe. East to west, north to south, such an uncertainty and mobility. But isn’t it such an exciting endeavor? Life is full of changes and challenges, which we really cherish and enjoy. It's like a long journey with the fancy unknown destination yet. Every city we have been living represents a special stage of our life. People come and people go. Some become our life-long friends, like some I met here on the CD blog; some become our life mentors and idols, guiding the way we would like to follow, like all the pioneers in this field. With people accompanying on the way, we are making our own colorful life. I owe my sincere gratitude to all nice people whom we live and work with. Judy, on 16 Dec 2016

Yesterday afternoon I received a message from my younger sister, telling me that the family's neighbor and best friend, as well as my teacher before, died in a car accident. The moment I felt like I had a heart attack and a stroke, so painful. Later when I calmed down a little bit, I called my mum, only to confirm the sad news. But still I felt that it was so hard to accept it. It was the first day of the new semester. And he is a teacher, such a good person, and still at a young age of his early 40s. It was just unbelievable. My hometown suffered 'the flood of the century' this July. Our secondary school was all flooded, and some facilities were badly damaged. Since the school now opens for the autumn-winter semester, two reporters from the provincial government were assigned with the task of visiting the school, performing an investigation and making a report, for the reconstruction if needed. Mr. Yin drove the reporters to the train station after the work had been done, while unfortunately the tragedy happened on the way. Mr. Yin was killed instantly at the scene, and reporters were heavily injured and sent for ICU. This was what my mother knew about it. And the news actually arrived hours later after the accident, with a phone call from the police, to check the identification number of the car. Suddenly the whole school was trapped in great sorrow, and all his colleagues and friends drove to hospital. I have known Mr. Yin for more than twenty years. I remember the time when I was still a small girl in the secondary school, our head master introduced several young teachers to us in the morning exercise section. He was among them. A math genius who won the 1st prize of the National Mathematics Olympiad. He was assigned to our class for two-weeks teaching. In his early twenties, he was just an elder brother of us, smart, humorous and shy. Later I went to a high school far away from my hometown, and his small family moved to the new apartment above ours, then we became neighbor in the school. For almost twenty years, the two families have become very good friends. Although I can only go back home during school holidays, we always exchange greetings and have a short chat with each other. I remember the time I was doing my undergraduate study, every week when my dad and mum called me on the phone, they always mentioned him, how capable he was, how kind he was, how cute his son was... Later my father left us because of sickness, and my mother lives alone at home. Thanks to all the good neighbors around, whenever there is something my mother cannot handle with, they will lend a hand to her. Mr. Yin do helped us quite a lot. The telephone line, wifi, the computer network, and all things related to the handphone and laptop in the household, are rely on him. He is always ready for help. Not only for my home, but also for others where only the elders are living. People in our school all pay their respect and gratitude to him. His public account was circulated online after his death. I just found that he himself had done so much for the people of this small town during the recent flooding. He published and updated the disaster on the internet the first time it happened; he called for local authority and helped organize the rescuing of people being trapped in the flood; he helped raise the disaster relief funds and visited the poor people in villages. Pitiful that I only got to know this after his passing, with deep condolence. The tragedy had already taken place. We had to accept it although we were reluctant to. I'd like to be a person like him, with great love to people around. As Laozi said, 'What is natural, or at least more so, is properly acting toward the aged and the young in one's family and then extending that to the aged and the young in other families.' We will take care of your family like what you did to us. May him rest in peace. We'll miss him forever. As a student and a friend,Judy, on 2nd-Sep-2016.

My wechat moment has been flooded with all kinds of funny scripts on the topic of the college admission essay of Guangdong province since the first day of Gaokao on 7th June. Examinees were asked to make a composition according to a cartoon-- pupil X won a kiss when he got a score of 100 in one exam, and pupil Y was punished by a slap on the face with a score of 55; and in the second exam, poor X got a slap on the face because he scored 98, while Y won a kiss because he achieved a score of 61. Someone sighed that it was really not easy to be a top student. Someone argued that the score was not important, while the focus should be put on the knowledge the students learned and grasped. And someone joked that they could first hide their capability to some extent, and showed to boss later on that they had been making progress… The Gaokao essay actually provoked an interesting nationwide discussion. As parents, there came also an interesting discussion between us on the topic of Nicole’s education. What kind of attitude should we take on her schooling? What the scores on her subjects will mean to us? Or what kind of expectation do we bear in mind for her future? Here I like to make a summary of the discussion, which I think will provide a reminder for us in the future as well. Firstly, we both agree that to encourage rather than to blame her is a prerequisite, when she comes across with difficulties during her learning, experiences frustrations and endures adversity. Too picky and demanding about her performance would only result in counterproductive response of her. This is completely clear without any argument because we both experienced the harsh schooling and Gaokao before. Secondly, we’ll look at her scores, good or poor, but we won’t pay much attention to the score itself. Base on it, we will get the clues on how much she has mastered, and together with her, figure out an alternative way of a more efficient learning. Thirdly but not the least, time and efforts should be preferentially put to make some breakthrough. As shown in the cartoon, there is indeed no difference between the score 100 and 98 in our opinion. They both are at the top level, saying A level. But as to the case of increase from 55 to 61, there is actually something significant happened. It’s a leap forward from failed (means a grade of D) to pass (means a grade of C), a breakthrough of quality because of sufficient accumulation of quantities. We should encourage and inspire this kind of study or innovation for the kids. For example, I’ll suggest her to choose two or three more elective courses if she has some spare time and energy, to broaden her knowledge rather than push her to work harder and harder to make a progress on the scores like from 90 to 100. In the long run, time is limited, and it should be spent to what is worthwhile. Actually most of the great discoveries and innovations which have been made worldwide in the history belongs to such a leap forward, from D to C, but not A to A plus. However, to adhere to the guidelines summarized here, we need to be strong in mind first, and not to be affected by the scoring system. Furthermore, it would be highly expected that one day the universities don’t look at the Gaokao score only for recruiting students, while give it a weighting factor, and include other exams during the past three years together for a comprehensive review.Gaokao zuowen, Guangdong

I came to know one of my classmates in the first German course of this new semester. Her name is Paola, and if I’m not mistaken, she came to our previous class two months ago in the halfway during last semester. However, it was only by then (days ago) I’m getting to know more about her. There are always people coming and going in this kind of language class. So the topic in the first lesson for this semester is to not only make a self-introduction, but also an introduction of someone you’ve already talked with to the whole class. It seems to me the German dialogue for beginners are not so respectful to and protective of people’s personal things, because according to the textbook, students can even ask each other about one's age, marriage, employment and so on, while which are seldom being asked in an English conversation. Unfortunately we had to ask all these questions listed on the textbook one by one. Finally, it turned out to me really not a pleasant dialogue with Paola, but indeed a very impressive one. It was getting a little bit embarrassing when I asked about her age and got the answer of 52 years old. Then I got even more uncomfortable when I continued with the question on her marriage state while got the answer ‘’yes’ but that her husband passed away years ago. I felt so sorry and couldn’t find more words to say, because we are even not acquaintances. But she was such a nice person, and she further told me in German that she had a daughter, by pointing to a young lady who was practicing the same dialogue with another classmate. As our talk continued, I knew more about her. She is from Portugal, and she can speak a little bit English. She moved here with her daughter two years ago because her son-in-law got a job in Switzerland. Now both mother and daughter are unemployed and are in a German course. Later I introduced Paola in front of the class, and everyone was shocked by her experience and courage. We are all foreigners in this German class. We attend the language courses because of different reasons. As to me, I come for knowing better of my daughter, for better communicating with her educators, with her friends, and her friends’ parents. As to most people from the EU countries without any professions, it’s impossible for them to get a job here without knowing the local language. As to the common people, to survive here means to master the local language first. And Paola teaches me that we are never too old to learn. She shows to us her courage and effort for an independent new life. I can’t agree more with her. We are never too old to learn and to change. This is a kind of attitude I should bear also, and which I would like to show to the generation of our parents. I always hear voices like 'I'm old, that's it' from them. With this negative attitude they refuse to learn new things and refuse to change, therefore the gap between the two generations getting greater. How about following Paola’s way, just thinking positively?! Things will get different and better.google image

One can never imagine how big and complicated the internal world of a three-year-old child is. Yesterday afternoon I went to pick up Nicole from her daycare center. These days I have tried to be there a little bit earlier than before because of the jet lag after a long flight in this new year season. Her teacher, Sandra, asked her help with the tidying up first. Then Nicole went for toilet and hands washing. After all these being done, Sandra took her to me hand by hand, and we had a short talk about her daily routines. Then we waved bye-bye to Sandra and other teachers, and to her small friends. On the way back home, she looked joyful in the beginning, telling me about the daytime activities she took part in, while later when the peace and quietness came back to her, she looked tired. After we getting off the bus, there was still another 15 mins of climbing up along a hill to our apartment. The time when she stepped off the bus, she asked me where her daddy was. I told her that daddy was still working, and would only be back around six or seven o’clock. She accepted the fact, and sighed with ‘Okay…’, somewhat depressively. On the way back, she was not as cooperative as like usual. Sometimes she refused to walk, but to stand in the middle of the road, for quite a while, no matter how many times I asked her to move forward. Sometimes she stepped aside to the grassland where was covered by thick snow, and she tried to kick off the snow until the bare grasses were visible. And she kept silent all the way. I knew that she was tired and for some reason unhappy, thus I tried my best to be patient and to motivate her by playing the game of ‘Hare and the Tortoise’. Slowly and slowly, we were reaching our destination. Finally we arrived. But she bursted into tears and started to threw tantrums all of a sudden outside the door. I opened the door and asked her to come inside but she refused. I was upset, but still tried to persuade her, ‘See, Nicole, we are home now. Why crying like that? Come in and we can have a rest. Would you like milk or juice? Or you can play with your toys.’ But she shouted back with ‘Nein! Nein! Nein!’ Then I told her, ‘Ok. If you don’t want to come with me, I will go myself.’ Then I walked in and pretended to close the door. She realized that I was seriously going to do it and rushed inside, crying loudly. I was thinking about I need to do something to comfort her, because she was so sad and tired. So I lowered down to her and hold her with my arms, asked her, ‘why are you crying so sadly? Tired? We are home now. Want a cuddle?’ The last sentence triggered an even louder cry and appeal, ’Mummy can’t carry me! Mummy backache! Daddy carry me! Daddy…!’ My tears came out suddenly when I heard the words. Such a sweet and considerate girl she is. One month ago I had a bad movement when carrying her up and twisted my waist when we were going to school. I remember that I couldn’t move at all when the accident happened and this definitely scared her. After that I suffered from long-term lower back pain till now and couldn’t carry her although I’m getting better. It is clear that she knows everything. I was deeply touched. I am proud also, for I think that to possess a rich and beautiful internal world is to have a most powerful resource for dealing with life. No wonder why she asked me where her daddy was. No wonder why she kept silent all the way long but finally lost control when arriving at home. Dear parents, do you still think that our children know nothing or few about our world?google image, inner world

One time when we were watching her favorite cartoon series of the ‘smart tiger’ on my iPad (maybe actually hers in the little mind), the screen suddenly became black because of running out of battery. Then she turned to me, ‘Mama?’ I told her her that the device was out of battery and need to be recharged soon (I was so happy at this indeed). And I further suggested that maybe we could do something else like building castles etc.. Obviously she was unsatisfying at my response. She looked at me, thinking for a while, then answered, ‘Ehm, Baba? iPad!’ (it means that Baba has an iPad also.) I asked, ’Did you meant that you want Baba’s iPad?’ She replied ‘Ja, I want’ loudly. And I told her ‘Baba is not at home now. It’s not good to use his iPad without letting him know. Should we tell him first that Nicole wants to borrow his iPad?’This time she got upset at my words by repeating 'Nein, I want it! Now!’(Because she knew that her father normally wouldn’t allow her watch cartoons much) But I didn’t surrender to her unreasonable behavior. I told her, ‘Baba will be unhappy about it. Suppose someone takes yaour favourite car without your permission, won't you also be upset?’ Guess what kind of reply I got from her?! You won’t never imagine. I almost stopped my discipline at her answer, because she replied ‘I like Baba!’ and in the meantime made a big smile on her face. I couldn’t stop laughing, because this is the way she deals with her father exactly. Every time when she annoys him, she apologizes by saying ’sorry’ and adding this beautiful words ‘I like Baba’, and it works perfectly. And now she got the knowledge that it seems a golden tool (Daddy needs to be cautious about the issue!!!). She knows exactly what she wants and what she doesn’t want. She wants the iPad. She wants it NOW. She doesn’t want to tell Baba for he may not let her use it. And she even knows how to deal with him when he is unhappy. She is really a little people with sophisticated philosophy now. And I need to read more research articles on children’s psychology, and to communicate with her in depth to understand her. kids thinking, from google image

When watching Nicole playing her favorite colorful cartoon zoo animals board puzzles, I suddenly got shocked by a fact: I’m already a person without too much creativity, while I tried to influence her from all aspects in our life via my way of thinking. It’s a terrible finding to me, but how fortunate I am that I realized it-- better late than never. Yesterday it was a mid-week break for both of us, no school and no work, though it was not a nice day, windy and cloudy. As her best friend at home, I couldn’t reject her request for playing together. Recently the little girl is so fond of making puzzles which she was not interested at all one month ago. And we began with the colorful animal puzzles this time. She started the first round as usual. She randomly picked up one piece (15 pieces in total), and compared the shape to the one on the board plate, adjusted the angle and put it into a right place. Then she selected another one with relevant animal parts to the previous picture and connected to it. Sometimes when she failed to find a relevant one, she just randomly picked up any piece she likes and repeated the comparing and place hunting. Occasionally she would ask me to give her a hand to fix some pieces on the board when she was placing another one, because they were so mobile. In my eyes, her performance was so slow and clueless. For fulfilling one board, it took her about five minutes. Therefore I couldn’t help showing her my ‘fast and right way’ as soon as possible when it was my turn. It was a small case to me. I used to finish 1000 pieces printed puzzle of a small part of “Qing Ming Shang He Tu” (Along the River during the Qingming Festival) in two days, and enjoy quite a leisure time. I could manage 15 pieces in several seconds. But since the aim was to show Nicole how to do it fast, I slowed down a bit. I selected out four pieces supposed to be located at the four corners, showed them to Nicole and told her to notice the rectangular corner of each one and put them on the plate. When the four corners were fixed, the following part became so easy. In one minute we finished the game. Then it was Nicole’s playing time. Although I reminded her of the corner pieces, she seemed to insist on her own way, and the first step was still a challenging step to her in my eyes. ‘’Let her be, she knows what she wants,” I sighed to myself, “Anyway she was so proud of every puzzle that she worked it out.” Thus I watched her playing and sometimes reminded her of the corners. As she played and time passed by, I noticed that every time she worked in a different way. Sometimes she found the turtle first, sometimes she figured out the tiger family at the beginning, and sometimes she got the aquarium, etc. She displayed to me her new discoveries every time, and those were gorgeous and won my applause. And I also realized how boring my performance was, every time I just repeated the same way, from corners to the middle part, careless about what animals were in the picture. That was sad and shameful. When I realized that I almost became a creativity killer to her job, I stopped my interference and only advised her when she had troubles. I need to reflect on my way to teach her, to try to not fix her thinking mode because I am somewhat fixed. Actually she showed me what creativity is in this lesson.

Switzerland is well-known all over the world for it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. And Geneva, the second largest city in Switzerland, is the home to the Red Cross as well as the second largest UN office. When talking about the country, people usually think about its brands of luxurious watches such as OMEGA and IWC, the mountain Alps and skiing, which are the famous symbols of this country. After spending several years of life in Zurich, which is the largest city in Switzerland as well as one of the two global and economic centers (the other one is Geneva), the image of the country becomes more real in my mind, it’s never an illusionary ‘luxury, large, level up’ paradise for billionaires only, while it’s rather a safe, beautiful and harmonious homeland and dreamland for us, the majority of normal people who work and live in the society. Spiritual abundance and inner peace are two key features that I admire most of the local Swiss people indeed. As my neighbor and friend once told me, “You can totally forget the flashy brands of luxuries on the Bahnhof Strasse yelling for money from the rich people's pocket, while enjoy life with hiking, cycling, skiing and viewing the natural landscape almost everywhere outside." Swiss people are fond of traveling. In fact, Switzerland has the world most user-friendly public transportation system. Trains, trams, buses, and the stations are specially designed and facilitated with coaches and facilities which are conveniently accessible by baby strollers, kid buggies, bicycles and even wheelchairs. Therefore everyone, young and old, sound and disabled, can go out enjoying traveling via the public transit, across the country as well as Europe. Actually it's a small country situated in Western and Central Europe, with the neighbor Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Surrounded by these Germanic and Romance neighbors, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Therefore it's not surprising that during the first half of your journey, passengers besides talk with Swiss German, while later the newcomers get on at Lucerne shift to a soft French speech. People here cherish the natural resources: mountains, rivers, land, air, forests, plants, wild animals, etc.. Every resident here is the real environment protector. Household wastes need to be classified and organized before disposal to a special waste bin. Bio-waste, papers, paper packages, glass, metals, and old textiles, all of which could be recycled and regenerated, there are special cleaning teams coming to your community for collection on a certain day every week/month. The society is highly organized and in great order. A famous case for people’s endeavor to protect the environment is their success in opposing any hydropower station project on the famous Rhine falls. The fall is the largest plain waterfall in Europe, which is located near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, around 40mins by train from the main train station in Zurich. Tourists have been awed by the Rhine Falls for centuries. As a writer Mary Shelley wrote in her book in 1844, "A portion of the cataract arches over the lowest platform, and the spray fell thickly on us, as standing on it and looking up, we saw wave, and rock, and cloud, and the clear heavens through its glittering ever-moving veil. This was a new sight, exceeding anything I had ever before seen; however, not to be wet through, I was obliged quickly to tear myself away." But can you imagine that such a fabulous natural heritage, used to be in the danger of being destroyed, for the sake of economic benefit by launching a water electric power project, by previous government leaders. In their eyes, “If the full water flow were used, the power generated would average approximately 50 MW. The economic value of the falls as a tourist attraction may be greater.” However, the plan and consideration had been postponed and stranded because people’s opposition. As recorded, “In 1944, the Swiss Council of States granted permission to build the proposed power station. The permission was to become effective on 1 February 1948, with construction to begin in 1952. But in 1951, the Neuen Helvetischen Gesellschaft (New Swiss Society), under the leadership of Emil Egli, got 150,000 Swiss citizens to sign a petition protesting the project; among the signatories were 49 famous citizens, including Hermann Hesse and Carl Jacob Burckhardt. The petition not only scuttled the power station project, but effectively prevented all future hydropower and navigation engineering projects on the upper Rhine to the present day.” One more interesting tip, you may also wonder why the abbreviation for Switzerland is CH. And here is the answer, from its Latin name ‘Confoederatio Helvetica’, which means the Swiss Confederation, comes with the cute CH (previously I used to mistake it with the CN for China).

Let’s endeavor for a Clean Future --to support Solar Impulse II Dear friends, you must have noticed the news yesterday that Solar Impulse II, the aeroplane that is powered only by the sun, has landed in Hawaii after making a historic 118 hours flight in the air, flying across the Pacific ocean from Japan.This zero fuel solar-powered aircraft was born in Switzerland. It looks just like a super cute giant dragonfly. Before the non-stop flight in the past five days and nights, it flied over the United Arab Emirates, India, China, and Japan; and then it flied across the Pacific, finally landed safely in Hawaii. It will continue to circumnavigate the globe after a technical maintenance. Why is the Swiss team doing this project? As Mr Piccard, the co-pilot of the aircraft told the reporters, "Now you can fly longer with no fuel than you can with fuel. So, what Andre (the Pilot, Mr Borschberg) has done is not only a historic first for aviation, it's a historic first for renewable energies." The Swiss team is carrying a campaigning message to the world on the topic of clean technologies during its round-the-world journey. The Solar Impulse II actually launched a global initiative of clean future, which is named as ‘#futureisclean movement’. And what can we help? As a non-profit organization among Chinese professionals in Switzerland, the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in Switzerland (CASTS) has more than 700 registered scholars all over the Switzerland. We think that with the help of frontier knowledge and state-of-the-art technology the dream of a clean world will come true. CASTS supports FUTUREISCLEAN initiated by Solar Impulse II. Here we would like to help collecting signatures for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) which is going to be held end of this year in Paris. And the signature address is here: http://www.futureisclean.org/chinese-association-of-science-and-technology-switzerland (click Add Your Voice) We expect many hundreds of thousands of you to join us and thank you in advance for making yourself heard and for supporting the #futureisclean movement. BBC websiteBBC websiteBBC websiteBBC website

Dear friends and neighbors, The passing three years that we spend in this community and neighborhood are years full of love, happiness, joys, laughs, meeting many fantastic people like you guys, and kids’ giggles around. Of course, also changing lots of diapers. Those are great times and we would like to continue the life here with you for the next two years. I don’t remember we had a summer last year, but this year, it’s time to enjoy the gold summer sunshine! We would like to host an Apero and celebrate: When: Sunday 12th of July 2015 Where: the playground with the sands-pool and slip-slider outside our apartment 38 Time: 5 pm We will provide BBQ sausages, drinks (beers, red wines, soft drinks etc.), and some salads, but if you feel like contributing some salad or dessert we are very happy. In case you would like to BBQ something “special” it would be great if you could bring this as well. To keep track who is coming and who will provide some extra food please kindly drop a letter to our letter box. We are very much looking forward to seeing you!!! Judy, Nicole and TG