Easter Bunny and 'Alice in Wonderland' in Yorkshire

In this world, some are born to only one genre, whether that is their specialty or because they have been constrained by education in a given environment. Still others have achieved extraordinary lives by being versatile in many ways. One of the talented English, a mathematician and logician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) is famous for his fantasy literature: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by his pen name Lewis Carroll.

Dodgson’s (Carroll) original works—‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’— has been adapted into films, illustration books, TV comics and performances for many years and attracted children as well as adults a lot. Such an imaginary story written by a mathematician makes me curious about the background and context that he created the fantastic characters in his books. What inspired him and where the ideas come from?

This afternoon I was trying to search the Easter Bunny and taste festival chocolates on York streets as the holiday is approaching and many places are decorated at Easter time. 

Since the weather was quite nice, I then strolled into Yorkshire Museum Garden. Suddenly, it really reminded me some scenarios of 'Alice in Wonderland' in the movie.

When I came home and searched this story, I found that Dodgson was born in Cheshire but his father experienced a career change when Dodgson was 11. Afterwards, his family moved to Croft-on-Tees, a village in North Yorkshire, and lived there for the next 25 years. Obviously, the image of North Yorkshire - the straight-up pretty scenery in England - has incorporated in the settings of his writings.

在這個世界上，有些人只是天生有一種才華，不管這是他們的專長還是因為他們受到特定環境中的教育的束縛。還有一些人憑著各方面多才多藝實現了非凡的生活。數學家兼邏輯學家查理·路德維奇·道奇森(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)（1832-1898）是英國的人才之一，他的筆名叫劉易斯·卡羅爾Lewis Carroll，他的奇幻文學名為“愛麗絲夢遊仙境”。

Dodgson’s (Carroll)原創作品“愛麗絲的仙境冒險”多年來已被改編成電影，插畫書，電視卡通和表演，並吸引了兒童以及成年人。這樣一個由數學家編寫的想像故事讓我對他在書中創造出奇妙人物的背景和背景感到好奇。是什麼啟發了他，以及這些想法來自哪裡？

今天下午，我試圖在York街頭搜索復活節兔子和品嚐節日巧克力。由於天氣非常好，我便步入約克郡博物館花園。突然間，這真的讓我想起了電影裡的“愛麗絲夢遊仙境”的一些情節。

當我回到家中搜尋這個故事時，我發現原來Dodgson出生在柴郡，但他的父親在Dodgson 11歲時經歷了職業變化。之後，他的家人搬到了北約克郡一個村莊:克羅夫特戴斯，並在往後的25年住在那裡. 顯然, 北約克郡的意象 - 英格蘭的真正美好風景已融入他的作品中的場景了。

York is the best place to live in Britain

Two interesting news from last week, Taiwan is found to be the happiest nation (at rank 26 among 156 countries worldwide) in East Asia according to the UN 2018 report released on 15 March 2018, happier than its competitive neighbours: Japan and South Korea. Taiwan (R.O.C) — a de facto nation, is featured by its vibrant liberal democracy. However, the UN denied to recognize its independent sovereignty since 1971 when China (P. R.C) took over its seat. Even so, I believe that Taiwanese know how to enjoy a bit of happiness in their daily lives. Just like the Japanese writer 村上春樹 coined this term ‘村上春樹の造語「小確幸」（しょうかっこう）’. 

(Source: The JakartaPost, 18 March, 2018)

Another interesting news is York, the place I currently live, comes up with the best place to live in Britain. For people living in York, some may think it is a sleeping city without many exciting things to go banana; others may appreciate its historical beauty (According to the Sunday Times releasedon on 18 March, York — the best place to live in the UK 2018!). 

(Source: The Sunday Times)

Life is really all about how you discover what you want and how to define your happiness. Now I am the person from the happiest country in East Asia and living in the best place in the UK. Cheers!  

聯合國最新評等台灣是東亞最快樂的國家，比競爭對手:日本和韓國更幸福。自1971年以來聯合國未能承認臺灣的獨立主權。即便如此，我相信台灣人知道如何享受他們的快樂日常生活。就像日本作家村上春樹創造了這個詞'村上春樹の造語'小確幸（しょうかっこう）''。

同樣，對於居住在約克的人來說，有些人可能會認為這個地方是一個沉睡的城市，沒有那麼令人興奮的事情去狂野放浪;有些人卻欣賞它具歷史性的美麗（據“星期日泰晤士報”3月18日發布的信息，約克是英國居住的最佳地點！）。

生活真的就是關於你如何發現你想要的及定義你的幸福. 現在我可是那個來自東亞最快樂的國家，又居住在英國最好的地方的人呢。乾杯!

Spring is on the way

Now that we know the snowfall across the UK at the end of February is brought by ‘Emma’, as well as another storm hitting many British universities called ‘Strike’. Though it has been freezing cold for several days, and my train at the last weekend was thus delayed for 40 minutes due to Emma, how worse it could be? Spring should come very soon!

The snowfall is already beginning to melt as temperatures start to rise and fog often forms when colder air moves over warmer water in the morning. 

There may be small amounts of rain and milder air makes its way to Yorkshire. All the signs are for the surge of spring-like weather.  

I am preparing to say goodbye to the winter, (it is still icy beautiful) and hello spring.

As Easter is approaching soon, I joined a DIY group this week to hand-make an Easter egg to decorate my room.

This takes me 2 hours!

Also, I saved a bottle of frosted cranberry aroma that is ready to unlock and diffuse its fragrance.

Spring is the dawn of the year, a good time to reboot your life! Enjoy!

🌼 既然我們知道2月底英國的降雪是由' Emma '帶來的，另外還有一場風暴是襲擊了許多英國的大學的'罷工'事件。 儘管天氣連好幾天都很冷，而我的火車在上週末因Emma而延遲了40分鐘，還可能會有多糟？ 春天應該很快就來了！

隨著氣溫開始升高，降雪已經開始融化，當早上較冷的空氣轉為溫暖的水時，通常會形成霧。 可能會有少量的雨水和較溫和的空氣來到約克郡。 所有的跡像都是因為春天般一樣的天氣。

我正準備向冬天說再見，（它仍然是冰冷的美麗），迎向春天。 本週，我參加了一個彩蛋DIY小組，手工製作一個復活節彩蛋來裝飾我的房間，並且拯救了一瓶準備好要解放和散發香味的蔓越莓香水。

春天是一年之中的黎明，是重新啟動自己的好時機。享受吧!

Protest and Strike over pension reforms in Taiwan and the UK

Taiwan, like many European developed countries, is facing demographic changes in the past decades. In fact, according to Taiwan News (2017), Taiwan’s birthrate is now world's 3rd lowest, together with the growth of aging populations and the rise in average life expectancy, the government is gradually failing to keep the promise that made to civil servants, teachers working for public schools, and soldiers due to fiscal shortage. This week, Taiwanese Veterans’ group and other groups gathered and broke into the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest the pension reforms that aim to tackle the governmental pension fund’s deficit by a significant cut.

(source: Taipei Times 28 Feb, 2018)

Similarly, university lecturers across the UK began strike action over pensions since 22 February. This sweeping industrial action supported by the University and College Union is the biggest ever that brought widespread disruption to campuses across the UK (2018 Guardian News).

(Source: Financial Times, 22 feb 2018)

Students are quite vulnerable under such a situation and unable to predict how long it will take. Until 28 Feb, we are informed that the strike will be extended to one-month long. 

campus is now quiet and relatively empty

Studying in the UK can be highly pressured as the British university education is designed as an intensive module to be completed within shorter academic years. Without regular taught courses, students seem happy for self-study without too many complaints. Meanwhile, the UK is experiencing its spring snows, students take advantage of this spare time to enjoy making a snowman on campus.

臺灣及英國正針對年金改革抗議及罷工

像許多歐洲發達國家一樣，台灣在過去幾十年面臨著人口變化。事實上，根據“Taiwan news”（2017）報導，台灣的低出生率是世界第3低。

再加上老齡化人口的增長以及人均壽命的提高，政府由於財政短缺，正逐漸對公務員，公立學校教師和軍人失去原有的承諾。本週，臺灣退伍軍人團體和其他人聚集並闖入台灣立法院，抗議其以大幅削減年金以因應政府退休基金赤字的退休金改革計劃。 

同樣地，自2月22日以來，英國各地的大學講師開始針對退休金進行罷工。這一席捲而來的罷工行動由大專學院聯盟所支持,是有史以來規模最大的一次，大幅度擾亂了英國各地的校園。學生在這種情況下是非常沒有法度的，無法預測這場罷工會要多長時間。直到2月28日，我們被告知罷工將延長至一個月。 

在英國讀書可能會有很大的壓力，因為英國的大學教育是被設計成在較短學期內完成密集的課程。沒有常態的教學課程，學生似乎很高興自修，沒有太多的抱怨。在此同時，英國正在經歷春季降雪，學生們剛好利用這段閒暇時間在校園內享受堆雪人的樂趣。