IP Chun Wai, Kelvin Day 1 In day 1, we almost spent all the day in the plane. After arriving at the Barcelona airport and settling down in the hotel, we set off to the Sagrada Familia which is a catholic church and one of the world heritage sites. This is the first time for me to visit a European church. Day 2 Day 2 actually gives me the most impressive experience as I am one of the members who plan the schedule of day 2. We went to the Muso Nacional De Arte De Catalunya in the morning, a museum showing different kinds of art collection. Although the museum is about art instead of something about building, it widens our horizons. In the afternoon, we planed to go to the Park Guell. Due to the capacity of the bus going to the Park Guell, we have to split into two groups. With the communication problem with the driver as they do not speak English, our group got off the bus at another station which is different from the bus station we planned before. Facing the problem of getting lost in foreign country, instead of putting the blame on me, all of the members contributed all the things they know and cooperate with each other to find a way out of the difficulty. The team spirit shown by our members impressed us most. Fortunately, we arrived at the Park Guell and met the rest of the members. Day 3 In day 3, we went to the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and then we had a lecture given by the Spanish professor, which is talking something about the history of Spain and some knowledge about the geography and urban planning in Spain in the past and now. The lecture also let us know more about the design of the building in Spain such as the most of the base level of the building is planned to be commercial and the rest of them is residential use. The professor also introduced the concept of using window and door for the building to adapt the weather such as summer or winter to provide a comfortable environment to the users. Besides having an extra lecture, we pay a visit to the campus of UPC, we looked around the campus and took a look at the library. Different from our university, they have a library especially for civil and architectural department. Apart from that, we had a chance to have a chat with the Spanish architecture students there. We talked a lot about the architecture and exchanged the ideas in building and other aspect. After the visit to the UPC, we went to the Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. In the visit, there was a guide there to introduce a brief history and gave a description of different parts of the building and hence to give us a more comprehensive understanding about the building. This two building is designed by the well-known architect Antoni Gaudi. The two building let me know more about the features of the concept and design of Gaudi. Day 4 In day 4, we are very glad to have the honor to visit a surveying company and have several directors of the company as our guides to explain and introduce the facilities management of their company. In the company, the directors showed us some facilities and devices in their company such as the water pumping device, fire protection device, air conditioning, electric devices and lifts etc. We learned some basic principle of how the above devices work. One must have to be mention is that the lifts in their company contain 2 compartments in order to serve more people and save time. So maybe we can bring this concept back to Hong Kong as a reference. All these knowledge is related to the building services which will be learned in year 2. After that, the directors gave us a sharing about a little history of their company. We learned much about the facilities management and the building services. After the company visit, we visited the Justice City and we walked along the coast nearby. The building in that area is much different from the main city in Barcelona; the building there is comparatively old, however, the urban planning is more or less the same with the main city area as they are both in a grid form. Day 5 In day 5, we took train from Barcelona to Valencia and settled down in the hotel. We had a city walk in Valencia later. We appreciated the building such as church; European building. We also visit the market in Valencia, which is much tinier and cleaner than that in Hong Kong. Even it is just a normal market; its design is very special. This day is relatively leisure than the other day. Day 6 In day 6, we also visited the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The Professors and students there are very nice. We had a lecture there talking about the technology applied into the surveying industries such as photogrammetry & laser scanner, remote sensing & environmental cartography, GNSS system etc which is totally new to us. We learned much about the science related to the surveying field. Similar to the previous visit to the University, we have some chat with the local students. All of them are very nice and shared their school life and Spanish culture such as the special festival there with us and hence we know more about the Spain. Finally they took us to have a tour walking around the campus. As the campus is quote spacious, some of the students drive their motor bike in the campus. After the visit in the University, we went to the City of Arts and Sciences to take a look into the design and building form of the museum. In Day 7, we almost missed the train going to Barcelona from Valencia, however, all of our members helped each other and figured out the solution, and finally we got in the train successfully. The whole trip is very successful; all of us have acquired more knowledge related to surveying field and know more about what surveying is in other country. Also we have cultural exchange with the local students there and have a deeper understanding in Spain. This study tour provides us the international exposure, broadens our horizons and builds up our international sight which is very useful in further career. As I am one of the group mates of finance group, I have learned how to control the expenditure within the budget and this is a valuable experience especially for surveying students. I hope there will be other opportunity for me to have study tour in the future.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 18:46:30 +0000
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