My alma mater in Belgium – KU Leuven Campus Groep T 怀念母校10年

It has been officially 10 years since I first set my foot in the land of Belgium.  I remember it was a chilling morning in September 2009, I arrived at Brussels Airport with a few of my my fellow students, curious, excited and scared,  I was 19 years old. Luckily, the staff from international office of our university were already waiting at the arrival hall, and took us to the campus with a bus, invited us for breakfast in the canteen and then arranged the kot (Belgian way of saying student room) for us.

从我刚踏入比利时土地这天开始到现在已经是第十年了。我还清晰地记得2009年9月的一天早上，我拖着行李和其他一些同班同学到达布鲁塞尔机场，激动，好奇并对陌生的土地感到害怕，我当时只有19岁。

庆幸的是，我们学校国际办公室的老师们已经在到达大厅等着我们了，他们开了一辆大巴，接着我们从布鲁塞尔一直回到鲁汶学校的餐厅，邀请我们吃了早餐，然后给我们安排了学校的住宿。

There are 2 reasons why I started blogging about my school:

今天我突然想起要为母校写一篇文章，有以下两个原因：

• Last weekend I attended again the annually held Chinese new year celebration,  I met lots of the alumni like myself, the professors, the staff… Since my parents were visiting, I took them for a small visit in the building, I explained in details about where and how I used to study for 3 years.

上周末我刚刚参加了学校一年一度的中国春节的庆祝晚会，又见了好多熟悉又陌生的校友，久违的老师们。正好我的父母这个月在比利时看望我们，我带着他们参观了十年前我就读了3年的学校的每一个角落。

• As mentioned in one of my previous blog, Since last September (year 2018), I started going back to university again as a working student, in Brussels this time. Lots of the students in my class are full time studying students, looking at their situation, it reminded me of my pure student life back 10 years ago, where study was my main goal.

我之前的一篇文章也提到过，去年（2018年）九月开始，我又背着书包，重新回到了大学，这一次是以工作学生的身份回去，晚上上课白天上班。但是班上有好多全职上学的学生，看着他们青涩的面孔，让我回想起了十年前我刚来到比利时，寒窗苦读的日子。

My alma mater is officially called Groep T – International university college Leuven, since 2013, it was renamed to KU Leuven – Campus Groep T as it was integrated with KU Leuven, I will refer it as Groep T hereafter.

我的母校全名是：Groep T – 鲁汶国际工学院， 从2013年开始，由于并入鲁汶大学故而改名为：鲁汶大学Groep T 校区。

What do I miss most about Groep T?

我最想念Groep T 的是什么？

The building 学校的建筑

The Groep T building is one of the most modern university building I’ve seen. Natural light comes from the top which aluminates the whole building, the bottom is a open square where all kinds of activities or receptions took place, the roof and the ground floor is connected via a spiral shape, classrooms are located at outer side of the building, surrounding the spiral. There are 3 ways students can access the classrooms, via the elevator, via the stairs, or simply by walking the spiral up where for sure you will meet lots of people.

Groep T 的教学大楼是我见过的最有创意的教学楼之一。自然光从上而下照亮整栋楼，地面是一个空旷的广场，主要用于学校的活动，或者reception，顶楼和地面是有螺旋状的走廊连接而成，教室则分布在都得最外面围绕着整个螺旋走廊。

学生们上楼有三种方式，电梯，楼梯，或者我最喜欢的方式，沿着螺旋走廊往上走，因为你老会碰到认识的老师，同学，可以和他们小小的打个招呼。

The unique professors 有个性的老师们

I am sure everyone remembers their favourite professors and the Chinese nicknames we gave to them. They all have very interesting background, check a funky fish here.  🙂

我相信大家都还记得自己最喜欢的老师，和我们给他们起的中文绰号。老师们都有自己独特的背景和教学方式，还记得扫把头吗？

The international office 国际办公室老师们

每天上上下下都会经过的国际办公室，满口流利中文的白老师，还有老大真的是为我们这些学生们操碎了心啊。感谢他们为我们做的一切！

Small study group – 小而精的学习小组

There were only 4 engineering majors in Grope T – Electronics & ICT, Mechanics Engineering, BioChemical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, there were 2 study groups for each major, English speaking group (International students) and Dutch speaking group (local students), the study content and professors were exactly the same.

整个工程学校只有4个专业，电子，机械，生化和化学工程，每个专业有两个学习小组：由当地人组成的荷兰语小组以及由国际学生组成的英语学习小组。课程和老师都是一模一样。

Our study group were only around 25 students, where we could have very intimate lectures with the professors, and among students themselves. This is one of the classroom where I learned the course object oriented programming.

我们的学习小组大概不到25人，整个班级学生之间，以及学生和老师之间的关系都非常亲近。下图你可以看到我们的教室。

Beyond engineering – practicality of all the courses- 课程的实践性

In Groep T, every main course had also practical session, from which students needed to deliver projects as a team, I remembered there were days I spent more than 6 hours in the lab, to test the result and deliver the project. Each project needs to be demoed and source code to be handed in.

在Groep T，每一门主要课程都伴有实验课，学生必须分成小组完成实验，并最后交一个项目给老师。我记得当年有的时候在学校的实验室待上一天不只6个小时，因为项目必须要给老师和同学演示，工作以后才能上交。

Projects embraces creativity – 每一个项目都鼓励创新

Thanks to small study groups, each team got to choose the project subject themselves, we were never told what to do, subjects were decided among the team, I remembered we had very creative and interesting projects among the students.

由于我们的学习小组相对较小，每一个队伍都可以自己选择项目的题目，老师会给我们引导，但是从来不会告诉我们项目要做出什么来。一学期下来，大家的题目五花八门，各有创意。

During my studies, the most common way to talk to people is not “How do you like the weather”, but “What is your project for xxx about?”.

在我学习期间，最常谈的话题不是‘你觉得今天天气如何’， 而是‘你这门课的项目题目是什么？’。

Also focus on communication and management – 也注重交流和管理

Since I started working, I was amazed how bad communication and management skills some of the engineers had, but if I looked around, students from Grope T generally had very good communication skills.

自从我开始工作以来，我对有的工程师的交流以及管理能力感到（差得）诧异，但是如果我看看Groep T 的学生，他们这方面的能力都不错。

Although Groep T was an engineering school, but we strongly believed that communication and managerial is genially a must for engineers, that is why, every semester, we had communication and management course, as usual, also projects were delivered.

虽然学校是一所工程学校，但是我们坚定地认为，交流和管理能力是工程师必不可少的能力。每学期我们的学习项目里面都会有沟通能力和管理这两门课。像往常一样，课程会有项目，学生们必须以小组的方式做presentation，或者演示结果。

Care about international students – 关心国际学生

We had fellow students coming from China, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Nepal, India etc, we were able to get to know each other’s culture and collaborate easily.

The first year when we arrived, the international office organised 10 mini city trips during weekend to the famous cities in Europe, it was a wonderful experience to discover Europe with fellow students and teachers with a low budget.

记得第一年我们刚到的时候，学校国际办公室组织了10次小小的欧洲城市旅行，旨在让我们这些穷学生可以利用周末的时间看看外面的世界。

Groep T also provided student kots for international students for the first year, so that they did not have to worry about not having a place to sty when they just arrived to a strange country.

学校也会保证第一学期到的学生都能得到有学校给分配的宿舍，这样他们不至于到达陌生的国家没有落脚的地方。

Oral exam 口试

Most of the exam questions were open questions, first answered by students via writing, and then each and every of the students would need to go to the teacher to finish the oral examination.

学校大部分的考试都是开放的问题，学生们先自己以笔试的方式作答，然后每一个学生交卷的时候都要和老师面对面口试。

A student passed the exam because he really understood the theory, not because of guessing or luck. A student who forgets to put the answer on the paper would not lose the score if he demonstrated his knowledge in the oral exam.

这种方式通过考试的学生是因为他们真正掌握理解了课程内容，而不是因为猜测或者运气。有的学生忘了笔试的时候填写的答案，如果在口试的时候能回答上来，分数同样不会少。

I have never seen oral exam in any other universities I studied, it required lots of work from the professors. 这种考试方式需要老师花费大量的精力来准备，我从来没有看到其他学校有这样的考试方式。

Mixed culture empowerment – 鼓励学生交流文化，了解彼此

During the master year, both Dutch and English study groups in the department of Electronics and IT  were mixed together into English group. The professors encouraged local and international students to work together on the projects, labs, etc , some professors went even further and gave bonus points if the teams were composed of international and local members.

在我们研究生的最后一年，我们专业荷兰语和英语小组的学生都并入了英语学习小组。老师们非常鼓励国际学生和当地学生一起做实验，项目，有的老师甚至给学生奖励分如果实验队伍是由不同国籍的小组组成的。

Study trips to China 到中国的毕业旅行

Each year, Groep T organised 2 study trips during Easter break, one for Belgian students to visit China (with a Chinese student as guide for each subgroup), another one for international students to visit Europe.

每一届本科毕业之前，我们学校都会在复活节期间组织两个毕业旅行， 一个是比利时学生们去中国的旅行，另一个是国际学生去欧洲城市的旅行。

After those 2 trips, students’ (especially Flemish students’) mindsets were completely changed, they shared loads of funny stories which happened in China which increased collaboration, and they generally became much more interested in other countries’ culture, as a result, they became more open minded too. Check one of the post from my friend Toon here: A passion for China.

这次旅行之后，学生们（尤其是当地学生）眼见开阔了，也对中国有了新的认识，他们回来以后都会兴奋地和我们分享很多搞笑的细节，加深了我们之间的沟通。他们通常也对其他国家的文化也更加感兴趣，从而思想更加开放了。如果感兴趣，可以看一看我的好友Toon的一篇文章 A passion for China.。

Our graduation ceremony 我们的毕业典礼

It was the most exciting and fruitful moment from the three years of our lives in Groep T, the moment the professor declared: “when your names are announced, you are an Engineer”, then followed my name, I almost cried.

这对我个人来说是这三年在Groep T 来最激动人心而且最有成就感的一刻，当时Luc 老师说，“当我念到你的名字的时候，说明你成为了一个工程师”， 紧接着我就听到了我的名字，我的眼泪几乎掉下来了。

Write at last 写在最后

Although it has been 10 years since I started my journey in Groep T, I will forever remember those sweet times I spent with the professors, the local languages I learned,the fellow students, the exam stress, and the very same place where I met my current husband.

虽然这一晃就是十年了，但是我会永远记住我在学校和老师学生们度过的美妙时光，我也会怀念那些考试期间的烦恼，怀念这个带给我技术知识和语言知识的地方，以及，同一个让我认识现在老公的地方。

Thanks Groep T for giving us such opportunities to finish our study, and thank all my fellow students who spent 3 years while we grew up together, some of them are still around as one of my closest friends, especially thanks Li Zhi for taking and providing those wonderful photos!

感谢Groep T给我这个机会完成学业，也感谢所有同班同学这三年的陪伴和共同成长，他们当中有的人如今还在我身边，成为了我生命中最重要的人。感谢李智同学把当年的点滴用iphone记录下来保存了我们这些回忆！

What do you miss the most? Leave a comment 🙂

你最怀念你的是什么？请在评论区发言吧！

Related movie – A beautiful mind (2001)

As part of this blog post, I would like to recommend a movie called A beautiful mind (2001), IMDB 8.2/10. It is based on a real story, about a brilliant but asocial mathematician working in Princeton university, and about his life adventure about love, psychology, work , ups and downs, but eventually he managed to win a Nobel price thanks to his mathematical model.

I loved this movie not only because of my very respect to the people who work in academy, but also because I absolutely love John Nash’s attachment to his campus, and of course the campus itself – all buildings are grand but unique, all with European style but different architecture, if you get a chance to visit, definitely recommend!