People on exchange
One thing that I'm constantly pleasantly surprised about is the
quality of people on exchange. Although Waterloo is known for hosting
the "smartest kids in Canada", it's only referring to
book-smart people. It doesn't really host the most rounded-up
people around, and especially NOT the most social-smart. Most of the
time it's just geeks who are extremely proficient in their technical
field, but nothing else - except maybe gaming. :P
the best schools of their countries themselves. They are open-minded
to differences in people, are interested in things around the world,
and are eager to learn many things from other field such as art, music
or sports. And since they know how big the world is, they're not
stuck-up on their own skills, aren't arrogant (*cough* like loo
students *cough*), and are humble, but are not full of false modesty.
People who are pleasant to be with, who know how to respect
differences, who are social, friendly and nice. But at the same time,
they are just as ambitious, have their own values that they stick
with, know what they want, and work hard for it. Most people here speak over three languages, and many even over five
(yes, I'm just "normal" around here :P). A lot of them are currently
on their second, third or even fourth exchange. A lot play musical
instruments, do lots of sports, and participate in many events and
activities. All in all, if the best schools of each country host the
highest IQ people of their area, then the exchange students at
these schools host some of the highest IQ AND EQ students of the
world. And since they are so international, you pretty much can
predict that a high percentage of them will be pretty successful in
life, working at big multinational companies. Of course, I must say I am pretty biased - it highly depends on the
school you go to (from my experience in the countryside last year...),
and what kind of people you hang out with. There's also a bunch of
those who are around Asian countries just to pick up chicks
(*cough*Europeans*cough...), whom I obviously don't hang out with and
are therefore not included in my appraisal in this post. And finally, of course I don't mean that I don't love you peeps back
at 'loo!
I'm just saying that in general, I am very impressed at the people
here, more so than back at loo, which prides itself for having so many
smart kids. Coming here really made me open my eyes - 大開眼界. After
being 4 years at Waterloo, which charged up my arrogance and
ego-centrism, NTU exchange students have made me open up even more,
and realize that there are so, so many more impressive people in this
world.
