Hey guys, I'm David Wong, a 24 years old french dude who's going to start a Master of Cryptology in the university of Bordeaux 1.
Cryptology (or as Americans like to call it: Cryptography, because we all know they don't care about etymology) is the study of the techniques for secure communications (thanks Wikipedia!), from withdrawing money with a fake credit card to establishing a safe phone conversation between two government officials, it can mean a lot of things... I still have no clue what my future job will be, that's why I had the idea of making this small blog where I could post about my ventures into this new world and, hopefully, being able to take a step back and see what I did, what I liked, what happened in two years of Master (and maybe more).
I've already took Cryptography I given by Dan Boneh from Stanford and I must say I really enjoyed going through his course. Might be one of the most interesting and eloquent teacher I had in my life, and I have never met him. Had a few back and forth mail exchanges with him but sadly, there was no collaboration between our universities. California I'll see you later in life I guess.
I'll also post some thoughts about the new city I'll be moving to : Bordeaux. This is for at least 2 years, or less if I change my mind. Anyway, this is going to be exciting!
I successfully found a new place after less than two weeks of exhausting research.
It's a pain looking for a place in Bordeaux, a real pain, and fortunately I'm french (I've seen lots of places that wouldn't take foreigners). But I found a place! After squatting at Amandine's place and at a very cool German guy I met here, I finally found my new home.
It's a cozy place in St Michel, the Arab district, it's a very lively area only a few minutes away from the center.
The city has been a wonderful experience to me, it's like a miniature Lyon. I'm just minutes away from the bars, from my friends, from the stores AND above all, I don't have to take the subway, which is the worse part of living in a city (or so I think).
Classes have started as well but waking up at 8 am everyday is pretty hard (and next to impossible with all the people I'm meeting who want to party every nights). Fortunately, the campus is way cozier than the one of Lyon 1 (which I strongly disliked) and classes never exceed 2 hours (still not the 50 minutes classes of McMaster (Hamilton) but still better than the 3 hours classes of Lyon 1).
It's just been two weeks but it feels like I've already spent an eternity here. It's kinda scary knowing that I'll never live again in Lyon, but it's exciting to know that I now have a new home, a new life.
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