2013-10-17 Let's go to Europe!

It was a huge surprise to see our special European guest in our CI class tonight. It turned out to be professor, Tim, who came visit us this early year. It's always a joy to welcome our old friends.

I think a lot of you hadn't seen me for a long time since our class started. It was the seventh class of this semester, but it actually was  just my first class. I felt kind of embarrassed and sad that I'd missed so much about our class. However, just like what our teacher, Abbie, always encourages us that being late is better than never!

When I walked into the classroom even later than usual, I was welcomed by the warmth of the classmates, and deeply in my heart, I was totally touched and grateful for the generosity offered by everyone! It seemed that all of you were saying "Welcome home, Jonas." Thanks a million, my teacher, classmates, friends and family!

Tonight, it was a pity that I couldn't make it to Julie's presentation, but I could guess that she gave a brilliant one about her trip to Spain. She even brought some gift for us to taste! Those dried figs from Spain surely tasted wonderful, and I was lucky to try 5 delicious ones during our short break because Julie was so kind to offer them for the second round, ha!

Zaili stepped onto the stage after Julie and shared the history and some interesting stories about Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. She would be a great history teacher! She gave us a brief but precise introduction to these two queens. Queen Elizabeth I was also called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana", or "Good Queen Beth," and she was the fifth and also the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. She was the daughter of Henry VIII. Elizabeth's reign is known as Elizabethan era or the golden age of England. One of her mottoes was "video et taceo" which means I see, and say nothing. In government, she was more moderate than her father and half siblings had been.

As for Queen Victoria, she was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. She inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder brothers had all died leaving no legitimate, surviving children. She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married to royal and noble families across the continent, so she earned herself the nickname "the grandmother of Europe." Her reign of 63 years and 7 months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history. Her reign is know as "Victorian era," and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. 

Jerry always knows the way to surprise us by his traveling around the world. He is also the expert of describing his stories with pictures. Tonight, he shared some pictures of two special churches during his traveling in Europe. One church is in the water now and only the tower part is above the water. The other church he visited during his motorbike trip is over 700 hundred years old.

After the break, Marian and Ching shared a remarkable story about a young man whose last name is Lee from Taiwan who volunteered to develop an useful agriculture system in Kiribati since he joined the substitute military service. Lee, who graduated from NTU and majored in Gardening and Landscape Design, developed an agriculture revolution in Kiribati. Not only has he helped the locals learn how to cultivate vegetables, but also helped them establish an efficient marketing system. His goal is to introduce them to more vegetables for healthier life and also be able to help them gain higher income. It's a true, encouraging and yet inspiring story about a Taiwanese young man who has been determined to change the world and make it a better place, or at least, to make one small country in Oceania with better access to a healthy life with a longer lifespan and a better market for them to lead a better-quality life. Thanks to Marian and Ching for this wonderful true story.

Then Julia gave a thought-provoking presentation about Denmark. During the first oil crisis in 1975, people in Denmark realized that they should come up with a better solution for their energy since almost all of the energies are imported at that time. As a result, they started to devote to search for alternative energies and that was the beginning when the Danish began to develop the energy from different renewable sources. As for now, 23% of energy in Denmark comes from renewable sources such as the wind power, solar power, biomass power and other green sources. They have a great ambition that by 2020, Denmark will generate over half of its electricity from their world-leading-technology wind turbines. Moreover, recently the Denmark's parliament has passed the most ambitious green economy plan in the world: it will source all of their electricity from renewable energy by 2050. It's something that we all need to stop to think about our own situation. It's also a must for all the mankind to consider there is a better, cleaner and safer way to get what we need from our mother, Earth. If you are interested in more information about Denmark's renewable energy, here's a link from the Public Television Service Taiwan's website. 我們的島：核能，不，謝謝！(丹麥北歐再生能源教育中心)

The last but not the least, our special European guest, Tim, stepped onto the stage to give us a fascinating history lesson! However, I'll need more time to gather the information before I put on the review about Tim's presentation.

What a informative class we got tonight! I'm looking forward to our next class on 10/24! I'll see you all again then. :D