Nemo.Nobody.

 Mr. Nobody

   Last week, I saw a movie whose name is Mr. Nobody. Since the movie gave me a great edification, I want to share with you what I have learned from the movie.

   The movie’s director said there are two kinds of tragedies in our life, that is, dreams cannot be achieved and the dreams have been achieved. And the life of Nemo.Nobody in the movie was made up by those two tragedies.

   It is 2092; a 120-year-old man is recalling his fore passed life, which includes his marriage with Anna, Alice and Jane. You may not feel puzzled because you will think that it is usual that the man had remarried for three times. But what if I tell you that he married three women at the same time but not the same place in the movie?

   In the movie, when the leading actor Nemo turned to nine, his parents decided to divorce and his life had to be changed into two paths. What he would choose at that time determined his life in the future. Even though different decisions would have different endings, none of them was wrong. They were just what you want to experience. There are six different lives in the movie, as the time is limited, I will just introduce four of them related to love.                                                                                                                                                                                    

1.       First one is about life two characters are truly in love with each other. Nemo find his true love Anna when he was fifteen and spent together for a perfect year. But the ending was not that perfect. Because of butterfly effect, Nemo lost the only possibility to contact with Anna.

2.       Second one is about life Nemo loved a girl who didn’t love him. Given the fact that he had a power to see what would happen in the future, he managed to let her marry him. But the ending also shocked me, that is, the wrong marriage made Ellice out of mind and leave Nemo.

3.       Third one is about life Nemo was loved by Jeanne but he didn’t love her. In a world without his true love, Nemo killed himself in the end.

4.       Last one is about life Nemo’s love was refused by Elise, and had an accident finally.

In this movie, the director showed six different lives Nemo would probably experience, but none of them was perfect.

Eventually, the 120-year-old Nemo helped 9-year-old Nemo find his appropriate way of life, that is, neither go with his father or with his mother, he went on his own path.

Earthquake in Japan

On 11th March 2:46pm, Tokyo time, the earthquake struck. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake set off a devastating tsunami that sent walls of water washing over coastal cities in the north. It is the strongest one ever recorded in Japan. Actually I know the earthquake was not the main catastrophe to Japan, to the world. The nuclear leakage was. The nuclear plant in Fukushima was severely damaged by the tsunami, which led to nuclear reactor explosion and radiation leakage. This has become the worldwide issue already. The radiation has spread over most part of Japan and threatened other counties of the world, but it seems that the leakage problem has not been controlled yet. I pray for Japan and pray for the world.
I try my best to keep track of all the related news about the nuclear leakage and found that the more serious the leakage is, the more rumors appear. People feel panic and thus, their judgments become weaker. The result is obvious. They will more easily to trust the so-called-tips and so-called-news. Recently, Chinese was told by a message that salt can effectively protect people from radiation effect. Therefore, people from most cities of China crazily grab as much salt from supermarket as possible. It caused chaos and perhaps will lead to other unexpected issue happen. I think our government should intervene promptly and honestly tell us the truths.
On the other hand, there are thousands of messages about gloating the disaster happened in Japan from Baidu search engine. Some of our Chinese think Japan deserves it and think it is none of their business to show sympathy and give a hand to Japan because of the unforgivable massacre and all their inhumanity. Yes, we must remember the history but when disaster happened, it becomes the obligation for us to show our sympathy and do whatever we can automatically, regardless nationalities, races, regions. It is because we are human beings. That is what a progressive country should do. Beyond that, I think we can learn a lot from Japan during the disaster; the self-discipline of its people, its extensive disaster preparedness, its strict construction codes and moreover and the emphasis of the government.

The King's Speech

It is a biopic about how King George VI overcame his stuttering prblem.


Bertie, Duke of Yoke, was embarrassed about making a speech in public because of his stuttering problem. To help the husband, Bertie's wife, Elizabeth spared no effort to seek assistance. However, all the traditional cures did not work. Finally, she found a speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Even though Bertie was not interested in Lionel's strange method, he was surprised that he could recite a Shakespearean poem fluently while listening to music. Therefore, he began to trust Lionel and accept the treatment. When George V died, his brother, Edward VIII became the king. However, in order to marry the two-divorced Wallis, Edward VIII abdicated, which forced Bertie to be the king. At the end of the movie, with the help of the Lionel, Bertie succeed in making an encouraging speech, leading his people to fight for humanity in the war.


There is a section which impresses me a lot. When Edward VIII insisted on marrying Wallis, Bertie came to ask Lionel for help. Gradually, he began to talk about his miserable child abuse. “My first nanny loved my brother, David, but hated me. When we were presented to our parents for the daily viewing, she would pinch me. Therefore, I would cry and be handed back to her immediately.” At the moment, Bertie was too painful to go on. He could only sing it, “Then she would not feed me, far far away." Every time I saw it, I could not help crying. Even though he was an exalted King, he was still a human eager for tender love.


After I watched the movie, a true friendship between Bertie and Lionel, a King and a speech therapist touched me deeply. Ultimately, it was noted on screen that Bertie and Lionel remained friends for the rest of their lives and Lionel was with Bertie for every wartime speech. Furthermore, Bertie, King George VI, made a Lionel Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for his acts of personal service to the Monarch. What is the most important is that the movie tells us that we should be determined and brave enough to overcome the difficulties when we have physical defects. Never give in or give up!

One day in Ubin Island

On one day of the recess week, we students from Dalian University of Technology went to Ubin Island. It is really a good experience to cycle most of the time on the island.
We got up quite early in the morning in order to have more fun there. After forty minutes’ MRT and over half an hour’s bus, we arrived at the Jetty and stepped into three small boated, aiming at Ubin. The boats were rather old, and the wooden boards were exposed to the air. However, we did not feel uncomfortable. Seated in such old-fashioned and up-and-down boats, we definitely had fantastic experiences. About ten minutes later, we finally got to the eagerly-awaited island.
At first, we were upset for what we saw. It is so different from Sentosa! There were no high-tech facilities. Instead, almost all the buildings are old and even sort of dirty. Fortunately, the unique thing we could do was to rent a bike and ride it throughout the island. We did so. It was quite a long time since I ride a bike last time. I enjoyed the freedom which I got from the free cycling. It is much more fun than an ordinary walk on feet.
We sometimes meet with bad roads, big slopes, and it is challenging and enjoyable. Some of us were missing half of the way. To make things worse, it rained heavily. They were totally wet when we got together finally.
Renting got injured when she suddenly fall off her bike. What a shame! It nearly ruined his recess week. That is the point. Well, some of the classmates who were grown up in sea side cities, so they could not ride. They finally managed to pick up it. They earned most.
Near the evening, we came back to our own hostels, tired but happy.

Picnic

This week is our first recess week. After two months’ study, our group members decided to have a picnic together. We planned to have a picnic on the near mountain this Monday afternoon.
We set out at 3:00pm in the afternoon. When we got to the destination, all of us are exhausted because of the hot weather and heavy food. Food was put on the desk of the pavilion on the mountain. We had a drink and rested after a long hiking. Then, we looked at the view from the pavilion. The sea under the mountain was very beautiful. From the mountain, we could clearly see the factory and road beyond the sea. I enjoyed the good view silently.
After several minutes, we open the packets to have snacks. At first, we only ate food and talked about the bridging course. Then, several monkeys on the security barrier near the pavilion got our attention. It was our first time to see monkeys in Singapore although our tutor told about some stories that monkeys usually appeared at his home. We are so surprised at seeing monkeys that nobody focused on our food. When I looked around, a cunning monkey had already went to our back slinkingly. Fortunately, it stole nothing before we protected the food on the table. We kept our eyes on the monkeys and expected them to leave. The monkeys tore the plastic bags near the barriers but found nothing left in the bags. Finally, they climbed away disappointedly.
Before we went back at 9:00pm, all of us were immersed in the comfortable environment and talked about some impressive stories in our lives. We enjoyed the pleasant time and were unconscious that time flew so fast.

Recess Day 4

It was the fourth day of our recess week.
I was extremely happy because I received a reply from R.K., who was the head coach of USA Olympiad of Informatics, which stated that he just accepted my suggestion on the online judge system. The online judge system of USA Olympiad of Informatics, which was a famous online judge system among we competitive programming coders and also known as USACO, had not been in a good condition for almost 20 hours and I just reported this situation and offered my suggestion on this disorder. I got great happiness not only because I was not ignored by a famous person but also I could write a proper e-mail to him and even received a reply and had been informed that my suggestion was accepted! Perhaps my e-mail was not using idiomatically English and looked funny in his eyes, but I did try my best to describe the situation and offer my solution. I thought that was really a milestone for me on my way of studying English.
That evening, I walked to Vivocity with Diana. Our route was quite unique but filled with wonderful sights: We walked through the forest walk linked between Alexandra Road and Henderson Road, and then crossed Henderson Wave, and walked to the top of Mount Faber right after, and finally walk down the Marang trail to Harbourfront. Standing on Henderson Wave, looking at the flushing streams of cars and the skyscraper far away, I was a little bit homesick. I recalled my memory about Xiamen unconsciously. Since I was too young that time, I could only evoke a vague sketch of what I saw when I was standing on a bridge: yellowish road-side lights, flushing cars, high buildings far away.
When we walked down Marang trail, we found a brunch of the trail which was built through the woodland. We were excited and our desires of adventuring were kindled. But after a few minutes of walking, excitement radically changed into anxiety because there was not a single light and the stairs were not in good conditions, in fact, many of them were missing! What was worse, there were brunches during our way down but there were no sign board along the way! Carefully and cautiously, I held her in my arms and every time we moved I stepped out my left leg first to testify whether there was a stair. With the help of my phone light and my perfect judgment of route choosing we finally stepped out the terrible trail and found the neon lights of Vivocity was just in front us.

Recess Day 3

It was the third day of our recess week.
My stomach did not serve me well that morning and I rested on my bed for a whole morning. I did not even eat much that lunch.
But I spared a wonderful afternoon with my group. We went camping on Kent Ridge Park. The scenery was wonderful and I would just retain the redundant word of describing Kent Ridge Park for I had already written it as an essay. We brought many delicious snacks there, and it was so delicious that even monkey on the mountain came to our table to snatch our food! The fighting for food between human and monkeys lasted about 10 minutes and we won, although we lost some of our food. You could imagine how hilarious it was when one of our group members swung a bag round and round to attempt to frighten away those stubborn monkeys.
I did not join the group games but played flying disc with another two energetic guys in the group. We competed about knocking down a bottle from distance with our discs and we found it was really fun. When we were all tired, we sat on the grass and enjoy the significant dusk with my guitar playing.
At about 7 pm, monitor Niu suggested us to share our love stories in the group. At first, monitor Niu was not that willing to share her story but after she started, she forgot where the end line was and poured off all her emotions. I felt quite pity for her because the guy in her story even did not know she fell in love with him.
We headed back at about 8 o’clock under the shower. But this time, no more unfortunate because I had brought my umbrella~

Recess Day 2

It was the second day of our recess week.
I was still in my tight dream until 12 o’clock at noon. Missing breakfast was already a usual practice. It was the deadline of submission of silver division of Elite March Olympiad of Informatics which was held by USA Olympiad of Informatics. Since I was the first time to participate in this online competition, I only got the invitation of bronze division at day before the competition began, which was the division for beginners. But the bronze division was only a piece of cake for me and I got full mark in my first attempt in bronze division of this competition. To my surprise, I received the invitation of enrolling the silver division on March 19th. I attacked all the three problems within about 2 hours but I still worried about the correctness of my program. Hope it would be accepted.
That night, our group discussed about the topics of our research project and we chose 5 topics at the end with another 3 as backups. I contributed one of those 5 topics which had been chosen. But I still a little bit puzzled because the topic I contributed was still too large for our project. It seemed that I needed some time to work something out to solve this actual problem.
One thing that could not be missed is that the first string of guitar was broken again and much worse, I put the new string up but in a wrong direction. I should have twisted it in clockwise but I just twisted in anticlockwise. That led my guitar sounded a little weird.
Boring day, boring blog. That is it.

Recess Day 1

It was the first day of our recess week and I went to Palau Ubin with my friends who were all from Ji Lin University.
We set off right after the end of our mathematics class. It didn’t take us much time to get the Changi ferry terminal. Though the weather was not that good, raining heavily actually, our spirit were not affected at all. In contrast, we were even looking forward to riding bikes in heavy rain. After about 10 minutes boat ride, we finally stepped on Palau Ubin and started our rides.
We stopped many times because of the magnificent scenery: birds twittered among tall trees, insects hummed around softly and formed into a melodious rhythm, streaks of the sun sewed the smaragdine forest and grass up. However, what impressed me most was the serene pool with some tiny ripples which was surrounded by the endless woodland and under the crimson sky decorated by a few floating clouds.
When we were highly inspired by the wonderful sights, an unfortunate thing happened to me. When I was trying to give my way to a car which was driving toward me, I was squeezed to the edge of the road because the car seemed wrongly estimated the span between me and the edge of the. What worse was that there was a gap on the edge accidentally and when my wheel approached there, it did not roll over but stuck there and I was on the muddy ground the next second. My ankle was injured and got a slight wrench. But the pain did not prevent me from enjoying the rest of our journey.
At about 7 pm we rolled back. On our way back, we enjoyed the Super Moon, which happens once in 19 years.

The gate of love

The gate of love
Unconsciously, our recess week is over. Perhaps some of us think that it is just so-so. But a surprising thing happened in Central South University in China. It just happened several days ago. I saw it from renren. And I want to share it with you.
One night, a girl’s name formed by lighted candles appeared under the girls’ dormitory. At first, everyone was confused and did not know what was happening. Then they knew that it was done by a boy. The boy liked the girl, so he spent a lot of time used the candles to form her name and there was a big love in her name. At night, he lighted the candles and asked the girl to come out to give her the surprise. It was very romantic and touching. And it really made a stir in Central South University.
However, not everything is perfect. The boy tried his best to do this, but the girl did not like him. She came down the building and walked towards him. Then she said something to him and left the view of her back to him without any hesitations. This actually meaned that she refused him.
Although the ending is not happy, but it becomes very famous in Central South University, which is called “The gate of love”.
I think it is romantic, but the girl has her own choice. No one is wrong. It is just a special experience in their lives.

Friends

AS Phoebe said "that is it", it was said to Monica' apartment, to friends, to the passing ten years.

We all say that life is like a drama and drama is like life. It would be prefect if our life is like a scene of Friends. However, I read an article few days ago which claimed that Chinese audience did not accompany the Friends for entire ten years as American did. We did not grow up with this drama, with these six persons. So we do not have feelings as deep as Americans. In fact, it is true. Whereas we did not grow up with the Friends step by step, it is only the Friends that can remain in our memory forever among so many American TV series. Every time I watch it, it brings me back to the years for idealism.

It is very cruel to say that every scene from their ten-year life will never happen in our real and peaceful life. What we miss is always past years, and what we are not willing to tell others is always our memory of past life. We were all ever full of youth and vitality. We all ever had an ideal for lifelong friendship and romantic and ordinary love. However, these ideals will never around us in the real and cruel life.

The atmosphere about idealism ran through the whole ten reasons. People who have dreams do not care for what problems they encounter in life. Just a smile and a hug can get you out of bad moods. As a result, Rachel left the Central Park for her favorite circle of fashion and said goodbye to princess time. Monica became the chief cook; Chandler began to do advertisement which is his childhood dream.

When I watched the interview of these six friends in the Central Park where they had been for almost thousands of times, I found these six persons were for the six roles. Their temperaments and life styles were similar to characters they played as in the drama. Aniston was as sensitive as Rachel; Cox was like Monica who was the big sister of three girls and she was very careful about doing anything; Lisa liked playing tricks just like Phoebe; David did everything carefully standing to the plans as Ross did...

There are so many details that have made you laugh or cry from these six friends during ten years. Perhaps the scene that touched us was too far from our real lives. However, most people choose to watch the Friends time and time again to recall some impressive scenes. I think it has been a habit for me to watch Friends; life may be not perfect but some details deserve remembering for the whole life.

our group picnic

During the recess week, our group held a gathering. We did not go to any famous or interest place. We did not have many activities. However, we all enjoyed ourselves. Just as our monitor said, perhaps it was the only change we could sit together and have a heart-to-heart talk. We treasured this opportunity.
At 3pm in the Monday, we set off to Kent Ridge Park. Fortunately, the minute we got the pavilion at the peak, some Indians just left. We spread plentiful of snack out on the table. I was touched when the monitor passed the mustard peanut to me and said she bought this for me. I just mentioned to her once that I liked mustard and was surprised that she remembered it. Our monitor also went around vivo in order to buy the entire snack we liked, to present an excellent picnic for us.
While we were eating, some monkeys suddenly appeared. At first, we were excited to see them, throwing some nuts to them and taking photos with them. The monkeys were so sly that they utilized our curiosity and drew near to us to grab our bananas. Some girls even could not help screaming. At that moment, Tom exploited his advantage of acting to the full. He acted as the monster and drove the monkey away successfully.
Time went by and night fell. The light in the pavilion glowed softly. We sat there quietly. Somebody suggested talking about the experience of love. No joking, no jeering, no despising. We are young but we understand the meaning of love. We listened carefully, to cheer and sigh together. We got into each other’s heart, having a better understanding of each other.
I felt cozy in this picnic.

Thomas' Calculus

I like to recommend a book called Thomas’ Calculus to anyone who is interested in calculus.
The book’s latest edition is the twelfth. The original work was done by George B. Thomas, Jr., who was a professor of mathematics at MIT. And it is revised by Maurice D. Weir and Joel Hass. They are from Naval Postgraduate School and University of California, Davis respectively. The book stands out because of several advantages, for instance, its language, graphs, exercises and structure.
The language is plain, accurate and rigorous, which is illustrated with plenty graphs. Let’s take an example of the approximating function. When explaining how we can approximate complex functions with simple ones, the author not only tells us that the tangent to the curve lies close to the curve near the point of tangency but also uses different illustrations to make it clearer. This makes it obvious for readers to see what the author is talking about. It proves the method to be right at the same time.

The exercise is designed painstakingly. Its difficulty ranges from a low level to a high one, which can guide reader through the progress of getting familiar with calculus. When doing the exercise, readers will be amazed to find that there are only answers to odd-numbered problems. Don’t get puzzled because of it. In fact, the even-numbered problems are related to the odd-numbered problems to some extent. The odd-numbered will either lay a foundation for the even one or give you inspiration to solve the next problem. What is more important, the book also has additional and advanced exercises for advanced learners. This makes the book suitable for all levels readers.

The last advantage is its structure. The book has seventeen chapters. First two chapters will let readers have a precise understanding of functions, limits and continuity, which are the fundamental preparations for calculus. And then the author spends seven chapters to discuss the concepts of differentiation and integration as well as their basic applications. In the rest chapters, further development in calculus is introduced. As readers can see, the structure is simple and clear, making it comfortable for them to know what will they learn in the future during the process of reading. They will also have more precious idea of the way that calculus is found.

That is all I want to say about Thomas Calculus. I hope anyone who is interested in calculus can read it thoroughly.




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Change

Perhaps I should make some changes in my daily life.
In the past, I might change my attitude towards study. In fact, I was addicted to the computer games to some extent. I may get up at 6am and continue playing it for twelve hours almost without interruption, ignoring the existence of the homework. I just played games day and night and put off the assignment until the last several days. But since I came to Singapore, I am very satisfied with my behavior.
Perhaps I can say I get addicted to study somehow. Although most people think that math is rather boring and dull. Usually I will read my calculus books whenever I have time. Once I even stayed up until 2am in the morning to solve my math problem. During recess week I just got out of my dormitory when our group had the picnic and SOC held a compulsive briefing meeting. I spent the rest days with my math.
This may sound perfect for students who cannot concentrate their attention on study. But for me it is a little harmful. It stranded out especially when I decided to write a blog last Sunday. Thinking that I have nothing to write about, I asked Yummy how she had so many things to put down. She said, “I have plenty things to write down because I go out of the Eton Hall to experience the outside world.” At that particular time, I had a strange feeling in my heart. Yes, I just enclosed myself in my small world regardless the beautiful nature and society.
It is the time that I should make some change.

meeting a friend

Meeting one of my classmates in Singapore
When I was in my senior high school, one of my classmates disappeared one day. We once cooperated but our acquaintance did not develop further. I didn’t imagine that we could meet any more.

Things always go like this. What you think will never happen just happen to you without any reason. He went to Singapore to continue his study one year ago and I also fell in this island by chance. The world is small, let alone on the tiny island.
We agreed to meet one day during my recess week. We did meet in an MRT station. He has not changed much. Maybe it is the same with me. I remember during my senior high school, he talked little in class but once he opened his mouth, in my view, he could express his own very naturally and clearly. And now I am sure he can spoke English much better than before after one year of English learning. We just talked in Chongqingese.

We talked about the things happened to us these days. We recalled the past days. We told the future prospective to each other. Of course, we both felt the homesick for China. The differences were he now was very satisfied with the life in Singapore. He emphasized the beautiful environment and the safe society. There existed obvious contrast between the environment of Chongqing and Singapore. He admitted that he did not want to go back to China to live or work any more if there was not any so attractive opportunity. I knew there was one thing hiding in his mind that made him make these decisions. His grades in our class were not so good at that time and he felt that those teachers did not like him or even showed bias to him. I tried to comfort him; at the same time, I knew that he actually had another way to treat himself rather than this one, which was not good to anyone. He did not to push himself so hard. Forgive and forget maybe better.

I do not know if I will also have the same feeling as he did. One thing maybe sure that it is an honor to be here and I should enjoy the life in Singapore.
24/03 jinlin

A terrible experience

Today is the Sunday of our recess week,students of both NUS and NTU from Dalian University of Technology went out together to Pulau Ubin .It is an isolated island at sea. Like most parts of Singapore, it has a lot of trees. More precisely, it is a small forest. Most classmates enjoyed themselves there, enjoying riding bicycles and some of them even made it to learn how to ride. However, my experience was kind of miserable.
As we were told that the island was a little big for us to walk around, almost everyone decided to rent a bicycle and ride around. Those who cannot ride could sit at the back of the double bike. I had not ridden since I was at junior middle school. But about three months ago, I tried and managed to ride from East Coast to Changi Airport, which covered a long distance. Therefore, I thought I was able to ride this time also. But I was wrong.
As soon as we have paid for our bicycles, everyone started and went to different directions. Within a few minutes, there was only one classmate in my sight. We rode thought a few upslopes and was a little tired. Then there was a big downslope in front of us. We were happy to see it and my classmate let her bike go freely down the road. At first, I acted like that also. However, when there was a slight turning point. I felt the bike out of my control. It was too fast! I could even hear the sound of the bike changing to a higher frequency! I wanted to slow down, so I held the brake. However, it seemed to be at a wrong time. The bike leaned to the right side and slowed down, but I was not prepared to slow down yet. I was faster than the bike!
As you can imagine, I fell off the bike and fell onto the ground at a very high speed.
My hands, my arms, my legs were all seriously injured with scratches. There was even a big scratch on my face close to my eye. At that time, I was really blank in mind and did not know what to do. Thank goodness! My classmate was there, not far in front. She came in time and used her water to clean my wound and called for help. It was quite difficult because no one knew where they were and where I was. After a while, some other students came and found us. We were saved.
A boy offered to take me so that I did not have to ride. That was so considerate of him! For one thing, I was hurt all over my body. For another, I was a little frightened and did not dare to ride any more. But I felt guilty because he was so thin that he was even lighter than me, which made it very hard for him to ride. In addition, I did not ride meant one had to hold one more bike while riding. That was also very tiring. Other classmates also came to help me and provided bandage for me. Everyone cared about me instead of laughing at me. Although tired and hurt, I felt warm inside my heart.
Actually, at first the injury was not that painful. Maybe I was numb and was not feel the pain at that time. However, as it was hot, I sweated a lot. That made things worse. My wound hurt and I found more and more wounds on my hands, arms, legs, shoulders and face.
Some of my classmates told me that if a person fell down, he would grow up. That was to encourage me. And I did learn something from this terrible experience: First, friendship is precious and we should always help and trust each other.Second, falling off a bicycle is really dangerous.Third, I will never ride a bicycle in Singapore unless I am sure it is safe!

give--first journey

Give program ---first journey

It was my first time that I went to River Valley Primary School to give my lesson, happy and excited.

Some background:

Yesterday we seven fellows paid a school visit to prepare for the coming lessons. Teachers there gave us a warm welcome and then we talked about the detailed thing about the st

udents, the materials and other relevant things. To our surprise, we were informed that we should take in charge of the class right tomorrow, which is today. I had thought that the class would not come so soon and I inten

ded to prepare my lesson after I got to know the specific situation of the school. Anyway, “now it is my time”, I told myself.

A girl and I take in charge of one class. There are

only 8 students in that class, three girls and five boys. They all come from primary 4^th grade, but are from different class. That is because they take this class just out of interest and they can choose freely. I am supposed to teach Chinese calligraphy and my fellow girl teaches fountain pen calligraphy.

We first introduced ourselves. Suddenly, one naught boy, very naughty boy laughed with a strange voice. Of course, his teacher instantly scolded him. I did not take it seriously and I continued to introduce my home country and myself. By a brief survey, it was am

She was the first one to who I talked a lot. She actually wrote relatively better in the small class. After talking to her, I thought I should talk to everyone in the class and get a better understanding of the students in Singapore.azing that more than half of them had once gone to China and one girl said she would visit China this year. The most amazing thing was they asked me which part of China I came from. So you know how close the relationship between China and Singapore. By the way, the naughty boy proved to be the most active one. Then the girl—Lv, did illustrations on the board and I just went around these lovely students. They all put their heart into the Chinese character writing, every point and line except one girl. She always put down her pen and picked up one English book

Here’s what I got;

1 Almost all the eight students use English in their family.

2 I used Chinese to communicate with them. They actually can understand the everyday Chinese. The bilingual education indeed makes a great contribution.

3 They use Chinese very little except in the Chinese lesson. And it is even much less to write Chinese. (that girl reading books said she only had a Chinese text book and other books were all English/ during the class, two girls write all other irrelevant things in English)

There are many other things worth thinking and remembering. I think I should improve myself to get a better understanding of them based on these meaningful experiences. I have talked to all of them. They were willing to communicate and share there what thought. I cannot wait to see them next week. Most importantly, give a wonderful class!

Jinlin 25/03

balance

It is another decadent day…
I find myself hard to focus on my studies. I am always distracted by some irrelevant matters. I try every means to overcome it but still does not work.
Then, I am reminded of my senior who takes care of me like a father. Yesterday he shared me something about “a boy”( who turned out to be the reflection of himself).
There was a boy. He lived in a small village. His family was so poor that he even could not afford his tuition fee in primary school and the beginning of every semester became the hardest days to go through which means he had to borrow money from relatives. The most pathetic thing happening to him was that he had a father who was addicted to drinking and gambling. Even though their life could not make ends meet , his father still gambled excess and the man even countered the family’s only surviving furniture for gambling. In the end, the house was totally empty. The worst thing happened when he was nearly ten years old. At that time, the boy’s father betrayed his wife and did something illegal resulting in his days in jail----leading the most tragic suffering----the boy’s mother attempted to suicide----and not only for one time, but several times! Those things had remarkable influence in the dedicate heart. Maybe it explained his bad behavior later in his secondary school. He used to escape from school and be addicted to the computer games. Then, one day, suddenly he realized it was wrong and turned over a new leaf.
Perhaps it was those misery memories that fostered his ambitions. He told me that he had so many dreams to realize and he enjoyed the feeling of striving after his bright future.
Compared with him, I know I am lucky. Although I brought up by my mother, I led a happy childhood. On the contrary, I do not have the ambition as he does.
It is time I thought about the future.
I do not want to leave myself an opportunity to regret in ten years. I do not want to be burdened with relationship which makes me to lose myself.
I believe I will find a balance between my studies and my emotional life.

Life is innocent

Life is innocent
On March 11, a big earthquake happened in Japan. There are almost 4500 people dead by now. It is really a pity. So many people are suffering from the disaster. Moreover, the rescue is still under way. What is worse, nucleus is leaking, which is more harmful for people there. The number of the dead people is continually increasing.
However, many people have prejudice on Japan. They are even happy that Japan has such problem and they do not care about the innocent lives. Some people even celebrate for this. I think what they do is wrong. Although they do not like Japan, the lives are innocent. Life is precious, and we should cherish life. They did not have good luck. They just lost their lives in seconds. They were so pitiful.
Furthermore, life is fair for everyone, which cannot be laughed at by anyone. Hatred cannot be related to life. We cannot make a link between life and prejudice. So I think we should pray for them. I hope that the damage will not be worse and they can live happily hereafter.
So from now on, let us pray for them. God will bless them.

A good neighbor is better than a brother far off

A good neighbor is better than a brother far off
“A good neighbor is better than a brother far off” is a saying in China, which means “Yuan qin bu ru jin lin” in Chinese. And I think it is really true.
Now we are all in Singapore, far away from our parents, brothers, sisters and old friends. And most of us have never gone abroad before. We sometimes feel homeless more or less. And I think most of us have already met many problems. Whom we can turn to for help? In China, we often ask our parents or friends for help. Now we can just call back and tell them our trouble, but they cannot come and help us. The only thing they can do is to listen to us and give us advice. Nevertheless, we have new friends, roommates and tutors here. We can ask them for help.
There is a saying that “Distant water cannot put out a nearby fire”. Perhaps we cannot get help from those people in China, but we can rely on our friends here.
One of my roommates lost her wallet weeks ago. She was very nervous and did not know what to do. She told her parents, but they could only comfort her and gave her support, which is also very important. And her friends in Singapore can help her do many things that those who are far away in China cannot do. So I think it is important to get well along with people here, because when we eagerly need help, only they can help us.
In conclusion, we cannot only rely on our parents. We should trust our friends and neighbors, because they are the only backbone of us when we are far away from our parents.

letter 2

About life

Let me talk about other things. Singapore’s MoE(Ministry of Education) arranged host families for us scholars, three or four students in one family on average. They are all Christians, and most of them are Singaporean Chinese. By the way, most Singaporeans have their religious beliefs. There mainly exist three religions, that is Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. For this reason, there are many public holidays about the religions such as Easter and Tuyao. Last weekend, my fellows and I were invited to a welcoming party. I got to know prayer. One sentence from the Holy Bile impressed me. It is “you should protect your heart”. No matter where I am and where I will go, I think as long as my heart is complete, my world is also complete. During that time, I came across two postgraduate students. One came from Zhejiang University and another came from University of Science and Technology. They are very excellent students. They don't need to pay any tuition here and the government will offers financial aid to them. I can imagine how great efforts the Singaporean government has put into the talent attracting.

About confusion

One senior advised us to ask ourselves once in a while that “am I really abroad?” Many fellows thought this question ridiculous at the beginning. Thinking over about this ridiculous question, there are actually many things to be discovered. I thought of a few points about why this question came out? First, if a man in a foreign country always spends his time with a group of students who speak his own language, watch videos from his own country, eating food from home, but not communicating with the locals, there is no difference from his stay in his own country. Of course, this is where he can do something. Second, for the reason of the particular background of Singapore, we are in another country but still in the huge Chinese world. The third reason, which I think is most important, is that China is in the world now. Main newspapers here like 联合早报 and the STRAIT TIMES often put up news about China as the headlines. The trade between Singapore and China is frequent and Singapore relies on external trade. China is flourishing the economic growth of Singapore. China learns a lot from Singapore also. To sum up, it is reasonable that some of us may have no feeling of being abroad. We just come to a place that is more international and modern. Here, I think I should make full use of this opportunity to broaden my horizons and enrich my life.

That is all for this time. I hope you can send me several pictures of snow? Is that OK?

Love from: JIN LIN

A busy but humdrum weekend

This is the first weekend after the Oral Presentation and the Comprehension Test 2. I hoped to have a relaxing and interesting weekend, but things did not go as I wanted.
On Friday, after the math and basic c program class, we should have gone back to Eton and had a rest. However, this time, we went back, but did not rest. The first IT Show of 2011 was held in Suntec City, so we got on the way again. Before we came to Singapore, we had heard about IT Show, where the electronic products were really cheap. Therefore, we really looked forward to buying something cheap and with good quality. Nevertheless, we were shocked as soon as we arrived at the Suntec City. It was so crowded that where was even no place to have a rest. In addition, the voice from the microphone was too loud that it did harm to our ears. Although products were cheap there, it did not reach my expectation. I bought a portable hard drive which was cheaper than usual time, but it still cost me a large sum of money. Nearly 4 hours later, we went back. I felt tired and not satisfied with this trip.
Saturday was another busy day. It was the first day of NUS Open House, so I got up early and went to NUS. I visited several majors, Statistics and Chemistry in Science, Industrial System, Civil and Environment, Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical in Engineering, to ask the details about the courses and majors, according to which I would decide what I would study in the next few years. However, the answer I got did not help me a lot; I still confused about the major. The only thing I got from the seniors and the professors was that all the courses were easy and interesting and all the majors had good quality; nothing more except this. The half day’s effort seemed useless.
Sunday was the most boring day. I spent the whole day in my dormitory, surfing the internet, eating lunch, watching movies, doing homework and eating dinner; neither interesting, nor exciting.
This was my weekend, busy but humdrum. I really did not like it. Next weekend will be the start of recess week. I am looking forward to it. I hope that it can be a wonderful weekend.

NUS Open House

NUS Open House
Last weekend, NUS held the open house to welcome the junior graduates and to give some information about the faculties and programs in NUS. I learned a lot during this trip.
There were three halls for lecture, and another one was for questions. All the halls were crowded with students and parents. During the lecture, I learned more about the faculties, and realized what I really interested in. I had a better understand of the importance of interest. Now I am determined to pursue a life I really want, no matter how hard it seems to be, for there is nothing more terrible than living a life I do not enjoy. Just as Joan Ryan, the pioneer female sports writer, said, ”Don’t let anyone keep you from doing what you want to do. Just pretend you have courage. ”
Besides the introduction of faculties, there are also briefings about the programs and activities. NUS provides students with numbers of opportunities. As long as you want, there is always something that suits you. The two programs which impress me most are the NUS Enterprise and the University Scholar Program. The NUS Enterprise can provide a person with the access to an oversea internship, which can broaden one’s horizons as well as enrich one’s experience. As for the University Scholar Program, it is very difficult to get in. They admit only 180 students totally. The ability of those top students makes me realize that there is still a long way for me to go. The SM scholarship is not the destination, but is the beginning.
I learned a lot from the open house, something not about the knowledge, but about the life. NUS, a great multidisciplinary university, is full of challenges and opportunities. “one needs to understand the wide world out there, and not sit in the well and be contented to see only a small portion of the sky”. Let’s work harder from now on!

NUS Open House

NUS Open House
Last weekend, NUS held the open house to welcome the junior graduates and to give some information about the faculties and programs in NUS. I learned a lot during this trip.
There were three halls for lecture, and another one was for questions. All the halls were crowded with students and parents. During the lecture, I learned more about the faculties, and realized what I really interested in. I had a better understand of the importance of interest. Now I am determined to pursue a life I really want, no matter how hard it seems to be, for there is nothing more terrible than living a life I do not enjoy. Just as Joan Ryan, the pioneer female sports writer, said, ”Don’t let anyone keep you from doing what you want to do. Just pretend you have courage. ”
Besides the introduction of faculties, there are also briefings about the programs and activities. NUS provides students with numbers of opportunities. As long as you want, there is always something that suits you. The two programs which impress me most are the NUS Enterprise and the University Scholar Program. The NUS Enterprise can provide a person with the access to an oversea internship, which can broaden one’s horizons as well as enrich one’s experience. As for the University Scholar Program, it is very difficult to get in. They admit only 180 students totally. The ability of those top students makes me realize that there is still a long way for me to go. The SM scholarship is not the destination, but is the beginning.
I learned a lot from the open house, something not about the knowledge, but about the life. NUS, a great multidisciplinary university, is full of challenges and opportunities. “one needs to understand the wide world out there, and not sit in the well and be contented to see only a small portion of the sky”. Let’s work harder from now on!

Choosing majors

It is almost the time for us to choose our major. Luckily, there is NUS Open House these two days, which gives us a great chance to get better knowledge of majors. I have learnt much from it indeed. However, I haven’t decided which to choose yet.

In front of us, there are three main faculties, science, engineering and computing. It was quite hard for almost everyone to choose because there are a lot of choices. I love mathematics a lot and I was in the department of mathematics in Nanjing University, so I first think about mathematics and statistics. Pure math seems to be quite boring since it is all about theories and logics. On the contrary, applied math and statistics are both focus on practical uses of math.

From wikipedia, I know statistics is just a branch of applied mathematics. It makes me quite confused about these two departments. I got to the Open House and asked the professors of both departments. The professor from statistics told me they focused on data analysis and the professor from applied mathematics told me they mainly do something on mathematical models to solve various problems. I couldn’t understand what they explained to me at the beginning because mathematical models and data analysis seemed to be the same thing for me.

Since I was so confused, I stuck to the professors and volunteer seniors and kept asking questions. After they took some examples, I had the right ideas. Statistics is specially study uncertain phenomena and probabilities of a likely-to-happen thing, and then analyze or forecast according to the data. Applied mathematics focus on regular and relatively certain things, and then uses mathematical models to solve problems.

I was a little happier when I distinguished the two departments. However, I still don’t know which to choose because I think they are both suitable to me. To accompany my friends, I went to others faculties and departments with them. I heard a lot about others’ conversations, many people couldn’t decide their major and even their faculty. Lots of information about other majors didn’t arouse me much interest in those areas, but at least after knowing something about other majors, I almost had 100 percent certainty to study in faculty of science and learn something about math.

I know that lots of students are not sure which to choose. According to me, the prime belief is to choose the one I feel happy and free to learn it. Since there are still some days, I will think about my choice again to make a final decision. Wish all of us can successfully take our ideal majors.

vegetarian reflection

Yesterday noon, I tried not to eat any meat but also vegetable and fruits. I ordered three kinds of vegetable and the salesman smiled: no meat? On a diet, right? Unluckily, before class was over in the afternoon did I feel thorough hungry.
Through this experience, my reflection dates back to the primitive times. At that age, people didn’t have as much knowledge as nowadays. They ate plants leaves and fruits for food. Dependent on vitamins and fibers simply, original people live peacefully and harmoniously.
On the contrary, large quantities of illnesses appear in modern times, which really trouble the citizens a lot. People are not aware of the significance of a healthy body. Some hard-working officers even spoiled their own lives only in exchange for money. What is worse is that the luxuriant life even causes the high rate of suicide and divorce. The fast-pace rhythm also stress a strong pressure to the youth. That is why more and more adolescents are addicted to drugs or internet.
Day by day, we get lost in the pursuit of wealth. Ignoring the true value of happiness, we don’t know what we truly want from inside the heart. Every day, please squeeze an hour to reflect, or to regret. Life will be simple and sustainable if we learn to be grateful for what we have and cherish the precious moments in memory.

A Unforgettable Day

On February 24th, we were going to Faculty of Engineering to attend the brief meeting in the morning. As usual, I carried all my stuff with me while I was following the others to LT 7A. Everything seemed okay and normal until my laptop suddenly dropped from my handbag and fell down onto the tough ground. Maybe because it was the heat wave that made me dizzy, I felt nothing at that moment. I just picked it up and put it back into the bag. Then I realized that it happened because I had forgotten to zip the bag’s zipper. Without taking a look at it, I quickly made my way to the LT7.

     After taking my seat in the lecture room, I began to take a careful observation of my laptop and estimate how severe the damage was. I turned it over and over again and finally found that all the three metal cases were damaged after a strong hit on the weakest part. However, fortunately the hardware inside was still in good condition. I could still turn on it and connect to the Internet to search the information and advice to this kind of situation. I went to the website www.apple.com/sg and found the authorized service providers’ information after a few of clicks. I had to copy all the addresses one by one and paste them onto the webpage Google Map in order to find the nearest repair center from NUS. At last, I found one in Funan Digital Mall. Before lunch, I made a phone call to them and they said that I did not need to take my warrant because that was a man-made accident and it would cost me at least 500 dollars if I  wanted to repair it.

      After the class in the afternoon, without anywhere else to go, I could only take MRT to City Hall with my friend to that high-cost service center. Having filled a form, I sat in the chair waiting for my number’s calling. “125” the staff was calling. I handed in my form and put my laptop on the table. “wow, it got severe damages on it and there are some scratches on the bottom case.” Then after a few minutes, she said “ well, to repair your laptop, we have to replace 3 parts. The bottom case which costs about 100 dollars, the middle one which costs about 600 dollars and the upper one together with the screen which costs about 900 dollars.” I was shocked when hearing the third one and then asked for the total number but I could only remember the first 2 places of the number “17”. After a careful consideration, I decided to require a repair and paid the first 85 dollars as the diagnostic fee.

     At the end of the day, my best friend treated me to a meal in KFC at the first floor in Funan. It was really a comfort to me. That night, after a call to my mom, I felt relieved because she said that a loss of money could drive away the bad luck. So I think that everyone will suffer some day and we all need to change an angle to view it instead of crying for the poured milk. It is no use at all. What is done cannot be undone. That is really reasonable!

Love or Just Friendship

What is the difference between a female friend and a girlfriend? I am usually confused about the friendship between a boy and a girl.
Most people's consciousness of gender divisions may grow at the age of 11, when students are in adolescence. Some of them start so-called love for the first time. Why do they fall in love? The reason may be his handsomeness or her beauty, or the care between two lonely students. They think the love can be kept forever that time, but usually, they will fall out of love after the fresh feeling. Can we call this kind of love true love? With my growth, I think it is an intimate friendship instead of love. The friendship is like the one with another friend of same sex. Because of the difference of gender, a girl is usually more careful and thinks more about others’ feeling. So a boy is easily to be inclined to say more what is rarely talked about between two boys. That is why boys need female friends. However, many people do not realise it. Some people confirm the love without any thinking, and they often have another lover after several months. A friend told me that she was dating with the 12th boyfriend some day. The word shocked me. After she talked about the experiences in the past, I feel she still cannot differentiate the friendship from love.
Although I have said much about love and friendship, sometimes I am even confused whether I love her or just want her to be my lifelong female friend.It is still a problem to distinguish.Maybe different people hold different views towards love and friendship.The opinion stated above is just
my personal viewpoint.

the preparation of the presentation

We have finished our first presentation. It definitely costs us enormous energy to prepare.
The moment we were informed that the topic of our presentation should be concerned about what we learned these days, I came up with the idea that I could say something about the acquisition of the national enterprise. But my friends were surprised at my topic. For usually I did not pay much attention to business, they were confused why I chose this topic. Actually, the reason was simple. I heard about lots of acquisition of the famous enterprises, such as IBM, volvo and huiyuan. I felt cautious why such excellent enterprises were taken over by others. So by this opportunity, I wanted to have an acquaintance of the acquisition.
Although I was interested in this topic, there were many difficulties during my preparing. The toughest one was, as I had mentioned, I was not professional about this topic. At first, I even did not know how to define the “acquisition”. So I referred to some materials to acquaint myself with this topic. In addition, I needed to avoid using too much proper words. Otherwise, my classmates may not understand what I said and lost interested in my topic.
Secondly, I did not find the plentiful supporting data. My assumption was to show the earning report of the xiaohushi from 2000 to 2010 to my classmates, so they could have a directly acquaintance about how it quit the history stage. However, I searched a large number of websites including the official website and did not find it. Perhaps this was the commercial secret. So the only thing I could do was just to say xiaohushi faded out. I felt it was not as convincing as I assuming.
Another problem was that there were plenty aspects I could choose from and I felt difficult to find the most suitable one. For instance, jili purchased volvo. Volvo had a long history and was admired as the securest car in the world. But jili was even not very famous in China. Some people commented that it was like snake swallowing the elephant. I wondered whether jili could shoulder the huge deficit of volvo. And that Lenovo purchased the IBM PC was also interesting. Nevertheless, I cut these aspects away to ensure that the topic was dispersed.
The presentation came to end and I really learned a lot from this.

Memory

Recently, I have always recollected the past. So have many of us done. We looked at the old photos, wrote articles about the past and so on.It was perhaps because we were entering the third stage of the "culture shock",called "regression phase". We no longer felt excited about being in a new place after staying in Singapore for three months. Worse still, we were worried about choosing majors and preparing the check point.All of these things put us on great pressure and we were just like a fish out of water. Consequently, we felt so lonely and helpless that we were eager to ask for the warmth from the memory.

These days, I am missing the tough but happy time in my high school. Those days were quite meaningful and unforgettable to me. Our life was full of endless lessons and exercises on that time. However, on the other hand, we felt pretty motivated and passionate because we were getting closer to our goals. What was the most important was that we had friends, parents and teachers who shared our joyfulness and sorrow with us. I could get the care and support from them. Memory is so significant to us that it can provide us the courage to go on to a certain extent. Nevertheless, if we are lost in the past, we will be rejected by the future. A person who lives on the memory can never lead a happy life because we cannot come back to the past.

Finally, I would like to share a poem about the memory with you.

dear friends,
how's your life?it's been a while since I heard you laughed,
I, sometimes, dream of us so clearly,
in this making of 'memory'

our past days surely are beautiful,
the things keep our memory books so full.
the things we left unchanged are so many,
in this making of 'memory'

dear friends,
where have you been?
our day, our time, do you still have that memory?
we live our lives now, differently.
we are, but for the making of another 'memory'

I like you for being my big brother

I like you for being my big brother

   Last week, we watched a movie “Rain Man” all together. The movie touched my heart because of a special reason, that is, my love to my little brother.

   The film told us a story about Charlie and his autistic brother Raymond. Raymond suffered from an abnormal psychological state in which he had a severely limited understanding of reality. More importantly in the film, he had little understanding of his own emotions, or the emotions of others. But what surprised us and Charlie was that his autistic brother inherited his father’s property. Charlie was so angry that he kidnapped Raymond in order to possess the money. However, in their way back to Los Angeles, Charlie found that Raymond was his best friends “Rain Man” when he was a little child and his brother suffered a lot for taking care of Charlie. Eventually, the brotherhood between them waked Charlie up. And he decided to attend to his big brother.

   Before the movie, I had a previous chat with my little brother, who is only eleven months younger than me. Why do I call it “previous”? My brother failed in his college entrance examination, and he did not want to go back to school again. So he decided to join the army, which is very difficult for a seventeen-year-old boy. And after he joined the army, he had no freedom to call or surf the internet. Therefore, he only could call my mother once a month for five minutes. Every time on the phone, he just held his tears to tell my mom he was all right. But we all know, the condition in the army was very tough for him because his body was not so strong. And I can call my mom as many times as I can. Every time I call my mom, she would tell me all about his second son, and asked me not worry about him. But she knew she and I missed my brother. Before my little joined the army, I have never bravely showed my love to him, even though he always said he was proud of having a clever brother like me. But this time, i.e. that noon before the film, I bravely said to him that I love him and I am proud of him no matter what he will be in the future. I also said that the friends of your big brother all envy me, because only I have had a brother to play with in the childhood. My brother was moved. And he typed out his last sentence, sent it to my computer, which was “I like you for being my big brother”.

A LETTER TO MY GRANDPA

Dear grandpa,

How are you going these days? Have you spent this Spring Festival in Shanghai? Hope you enjoy your eightieth New Year. Before I came to Singapore, I always spent the holiday with my family—may dad, may mom and my brother. Now it is was the first time and it was special.

Of my first Chinese New Year abroad

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, seniors from Xiamen University invited us, fellows from the SCUT, to get a get-together. It is a tradition here. Students from the same university in China should treat their juniors to a meal, if lucky, a big meal! It mainly aimed at strengthening the relationship between these alumnus and alumna, and in case of an emergency, they can take care of each other. And the seniors are more experienced than those freshmen, so they can provide many useful advises. However, our university is in its first year to join in this deal, so we have no seniors from the SCUT. Fortunately, seniors from Xiamen University have no juniors from their mother school either. So we accepted their invitation without any hesitation. Yes, it was a chance to “give”, most importantly; it was also a great chance to receive. Hehe. On that rainy night, we went to NTU(Nanyang Technology University). It was because the room there was larger and they could cook in their dormitory. A girl and a boy did the cooking that night. There were dumplings, fish, chicken and some special lettuce. A group of students from many different provinces in China gathered to enjoy the delicious. Up to now, I even did not remember their names. The outside world life was like this, we gathered, and then we parted.

About English learning

Two months passed so fast, and now I felt time flies even faster and faster. It is because we have so many things to touch, to understand, to absorb and to digest every day. When I put myself into these learning courses, one week, one month has no difference. During this period of time, the lectures on math and c program language are much less than before. It seems that I am sticking in the English learning. The tutors here focus on the ability of writing and presentation. These are all the things we lack enough exercising when we study English in China. We always spend a lot of time in preparation, writing, revising, and reciting. But the result is always like this: the tutor say, keep going on but don’t expect yourself so high. I do not know if I am truly expecting an unrealistic goal or I always feel unconfident in myself, I definitely have a sense of crisis. It was not easy if I want to completely master one foreign language. Even though, I believe diligence can make up for lack of intelligence. So I am still sticking on to it. Other than just studying English in class, I also seek for every chance to improve my English. Sometimes I take part in some activity held in NUS, or attend some open lectures. Things are always like this: those students sitting beside me are from all over the world, some of them are from English-speaking countries, and they speak English fluently. On these occasions, I must accept the fact that my future classmates also speak in this way. Many students think that language is not the most important part,. Probably, it is true. I can even say the studying in university is not the most important part either. I remember somebody once said that the last thing left when you forget all that you have learned in college is the essential meaning of education. I agree with this point. Actually, this is the reason why I treat English learning very seriously. I remember not just new words, or repeat the same mistakes, the things that make western countries what they are today conveyed by the language are what I truly fix my eyes on. For instance, it needs a well-organized thinking, which may help us work more efficiently. And the originality is also what they emphasized., that is they focus more on your own ideas and your honesty. So they take many soft and hard measures to prevent students from plagiarism. Now China also tries effort to improve the bad situation, but the consequence is not satisfactory. I believe without the society developing , it will become better.

About Chinese Drama

About Chinese Drama

Now I am a member of Chinese Drama in NUS. Rehearing twice a week makes me quite busy, but also makes my life during the bridging course meaningful.

It is rather interesting how I joined the club. I remember that during the beginning days when we came to Singapore, we had several camps hosted by befrienders, one of which is called Talent Time. It is a gala to welcome us SM3 scholars. It is also a showcase for me, even though I did not mean that. To be honest, I did not prepare for the performance that carefully. I had planned to organize our group members to perform a comedy designed by myself. To my surprise, the bridging course started just after we had made up our mind. As time is limited, we finally changed our mind to perform a simpler one. I felt a sense of loss and became passive to prepare for it. However, I did behave very well with passion in the gala that night, which definitely surprised me a lot. In addition, the talented and exaggerated perform caught one of befriender’s fancy, who is a leader of Chinese Drama. A few days later, he called me to ask if I want to join it. I agreed with him without any hesitation.

The drama we are working on is Mi Cheng based on the game Killer. The drama is to show the frightful society nowadays. I play a bad apple in it, and have some lines in some scenes. Exactly speaking, I am a thief and also a kind of sometimes. However, in the killer game, I become a policeman. With time going by, my value towards life changed faced with some deaths. I finally decided to be a kind person and lead a totally new life. By contrast, I once robbed others and had no conscience.

Someone asked me if I felt unpleased for playing such a role. Of course not! Even if he is not a hero and even not an ordinary person, my unique performance is sure to give the audience a deep impression, which is pretty important for an actor. Never mind!

I rehear twice per week, about 3 hours every time at night. That is to say, I cannot go back to Eton Hall till 10:00 PM on the rehearing night. It is quite busy for me when comprised with other SM3 scholars who are enjoying their life in the rooms, watching films or reading books. However, my effort paid off. I learned much about how to behave in front of the audience and some knowledge about drama. I made friends with several seniors who are experienced about life in NUS. The most significant reason is that I love it, and it is a kind of entertainment for me. That is enough!

Concert is coming

Our NUS wind band will perform at Esplanade on 28th, March. That is really exciting. Most importantly, that is my time to show my effort which I have paid for these three months.
I learnt to play the clarinet when I was ten years old and seriously I love it. Someone likes to play his instrument in person because in this way, every single note can express his emotion perfectly and it is more comfortable to immerse yourself in the musical atmosphere. However, I feel different. I enjoy the atmosphere when the whole band plays together. I can feel the rhythm, the power, the spirit of the symphony. With the effort of different sections of the band, the notes are alive. We just like a family and everyone plays different roles to contribute to it.
Interestingly, I did not feel cultural shock when I came to Singapore; perhaps it is because my hometown Guangzhou is much similar to Singapore. However, the challenges officially say hi to me when I attended the band of NUS. All the terms are in English, no matter the names of the instruments or the musical instructions. I did felt confused at the first time after I came to Singapore. I cannot follow the instruction clearly and the only one I can do was constantly consult to my partner. Fortunately, he is a good listener and helps me a lot. Now I am on my way.
We practice twice a week for our concert and promise to give all the audiences a memorable night.
Practice makes perfect. I have to pay more effort in order to catch up with others. Concert is coming, watch out!

The legend Nighteen Hundred

A few days ago, I watched a movie called 'The Legend Nineteen Hundred', and I was really deeply impressed by it. Now I will say something about this movie.
On a luxurious ship travelling between Europe and America, a baby was found left on a piano-maybe his parents wanted some rich people to adopt him and to offer him a better life. However, it was a poor worker on the ship that adopted him and gave him the name-Nineteen Hundred. He had no identity, no nationality, even nothing to prove his existence.In order not to be found by others, he could not get off the ship even once. However, he was a genius for piano, he never heard of the word 'jazz', but he could compose the most beautiful piece of rhyme. When he grew up, he became the pianist on the ship. His music was so peaceful and affective that every time he played, people would became joyful and dance involuntarily to his music. Soon, everyone knew that there was a best pianist who never got off the ship.
Also on this ship, the pianist met a trumpet player named Max, who later became his best friend. They both served in the orchestra on the ship and spent their best time together. And Max was the only person who understood him and always supported him.
Nineteen Hundred had never stepped onto the land, not even once in his life.There was one time that he had already decided to get off and experience the life on the land. However, at the sight of the flourishing and busy city in front of him, he hesitated. Eventually, he returned to the ship and continued his life on the ship. He loved a girl very much, and even composed a peaceful and touching melody for her. But he never had the courage to tell her about his love. As the girl got off the ship later, his love could just exist in memories.He spent all his life on the ship- born on it, grew up on it, work on it, and finally died with it.His story was quite a legend.

There were three plots that left the deepest impression on me.The first one comes when Max first got onto the ship. He was not used to the life on the sea, and became seriously seasick when there was a storm. Just then, Nineteen Hundred came and offered to help him. He asked Max to join him playing the piano on the shaking deck.They just sat in front of the piano letting themselves slide freely with it. It seemed that they were waltzing and enjoying the accompanying of the storm. And with the help of the music, Max did not feel sick any more.
The second one is the competition between Nineteen Hundred and the inventor of jazz. That 'master' was very proud and did not believe that there was anyone who played better than him, so he came specially to compete with Nineteen hundred. At first, Nineteen Hundred did not want to compare with him, however, he was later exasperated by him and performed a wonderful melody which shocked everyone present. People were all swept off their feet by the music and there was a complete silence. Then, Nineteen Hundred put a cigarette on the string of the piano. To everyone's astonishment, the cigarette lighted itself due to the high temperature of the string. From this we can see how proficient he was at it.
The third one is the end of the story. Many years later, the ship could not serve anymore, and people wanted to destroy it. Only Max knew that Nineteen Hundred was still on the ship, he believed that. Therefore, he got aboard and searched for Nineteen Hundred. He tried to persuade him to get off the ship, but he failed. For Nighteen Hundred, the ship was his whole world. While, the land was like a piano with infinite keys. It was not a piano he could play, it was God’s piano. Those were his last words to Max:
“I could never get off this ship
At best, I can step off my life
After all, I don't exist for anyone
Forgive me, my friend
but I'm not getting off”
With the burst of the ship, the legend of Nineteen Hundred, and a legend of music finally ended.
We were sometimes like him in some aspects. We tend to live within our own world, and feel tired of the busy city. Perhaps that is why I am impressed with this movie.

Goodbye, my castle in the sky

Goodbye, my castle in the sky
Once upon time, there was a girl, her name is Xiaoyu. She is very kind and beautiful. In her primary school, she had a friend named “Jingjing”. They usually played together. Then after graduate they entered the same secondary school. Though they are not in the same class, they still contact a lot. Time flied, Xiaoyu graduated and be admitted by a good high school. Then she knew a boy via her classmate. He is a very good boy, who is tall, kind and outgoing, so he has a
lot of friends. One day Jingjing went to Xiaoyu’s school and told her that she would also go to the same high school. Both Xiaoyu and Jingjing were very happy .Moreover, Jingjing was in the same class with Zhan. Slowly, they three became the best friends. They hung out together, ate lunch together, and studied together till late night. They share everything, having no secret. On one summer night, they had dinner, then they talked about their dream and future. Zhan wants to be doctor and Jingjing hopes to be a designer. And Xiaoyu wants to be a business woman, and they promise to be lifelong friends, forever. The stars were extremely beautiful. It was an unforgettable memory. On that summer vacation, Xiaoyu learned Spanish. When they walked together, Zhan helped her remember the words. Everything was so beautiful…
But one day, Xiaoyu learned that Zhan likes Jingjing more than a friend. A t that moment, Xiaoyu had a special feeling, a feeling of pain in the heart. Then she realized she had already likes Zhan. Since then, the valuable friendship can never come back. Xiaoyu just felt uncomfortable with them. Gone are the days, when they enjoyed doing everything, talking about their dream. She was very sad about the feeling, but she could not help. She did not want to face them, just wanted escape from them.
One day, she got an opportunity to go to USA, she decided to leave, to forget them. The day Xiaoyu left, Zhan sent her to the airport. The moment Xiaoyu would go into the waiting room, Zhan wanted her to teach him how to use Spanish to say Goodbye. TE A MO She said. So both of them smiling, waving their hands, repeated the same words TE A MO. The moment she turned back, tears rolled down her face out-of-control, but he will never know.
Time flies, ten years past. Xiaoyu became a successful manager in America, and Zhan and Jingjing went to Shanghai. On their wedding day, Xiaoyu did not come back, but gave her best wishes to them. That night, she wrote a long diary, named “Goodbye, my dear castle in the sky” for that valuable memory and for the boy. Reads, you used to be like a castle in the sky, helping me survive the desert, giving me hope, making me brave enough not caring others. I put all my heart pursuing the magic, now the dream ends. I will let you go. Please! be happy! We can never go back. Treasure the present life, make it worthy our sacrifice. Promise me, be happy. My dear, TE A MO, TE A MO…

Priorities in Choosing a Major

Priorities in Choosing a Major
These days, the topic which SM scholars concern most is the major. It is so important that it may affect a person’s career, even whole life. As for me, like many other students, I focus on two main points when choose a major—interest and job prospects.
Interest comes in the first place. Unlike in China, where all the diplomas are same for the graduates, the diplomas here are divided into two types—Bachelor Degree and Bachelor Degree with Honors. When it comes to finding a job, those candidates with degree with honors will surely have an advantage over those who has a degree without honors. Given the fact that employers give priority to the students with good marks, we should try our best to get a satisfying result, and, only when a person is interested in something, can he do it well. Therefore, give priority to interest when we choose our major.
Then comes the job prospects. We should take the job types, salary and the job opportunities into account. It is better for a person to choose a major associated with his ideal career. Candidates whose major are related to the target job will have more advantages and an ideal career will accompany a person’s whole life, so we should think more about the job prospects related to the major.
Concerning the significance of a major, we should think carefully before we make a final decision. We should choose something related to our ideal career prospects and what we are really interested in, instead of imitating others. Only in this way, can we more enjoy our study and job.

Remember the initial dream

I still remember how the burning desire of life science motivated me forwards during the “black June”. In those unforgettable days, it was the dream of having the chance of entering life science that got me through. The initial dream bloomed in my high school life which I will never forget. Every time I thought the efforts I took today may distribute my bright future, I was just refreshed and felt grateful. I always dreamt that I could do some research in the lab, which would benefit people suffering from disease. Now, look back. I suddenly realize it is exactly the initial dream that gives me the strength and courage to go on.
However, the dream was just a dream. I did not get into the medical field in the end.
I thought it might be a dream. I thought it was remained to be a pity for me. I thought I would never get the chance of starting over and following my initial dream, the little lovely dream.
But now, it seems that the Lord just makes a joke and the wheel of destiny gets back to my initial place. I know the possibilities are within reach.
Whereas, I will not rush to make the final decision. No matter what I choose finally, I will always remember the initial dream and lead my life without regret, holding the courage, just like what I used to do when I held the initial dream in the toughest days.

The Godfather

"I am going to make him an offer he cannot refuse." It is his skill for negotiating. He is an elegant gentleman who holds both Martini and butcher knife. He is a professional executioner in glamorous suit who does a sordid affair. It is only his gesture that can take someone's life. It is also his smile that can make a big difference. He is a respectable man as well as a killer who is proficient in social rules. No matter a politician or the boss of funeral parlor, they are obeying his gentle and cultivated orders all the time. All of these is the result of his honorable promise "Someday, and the day may never come; I will ask a service of you. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day." However, what is it that endows him the magical power. The power let him take charge of everything when he is just sitting at the dark corner of a room. People respect him, love him, and even are in fear of him. He is so deep and complicated. The most respectable virtue of him is that he knows his responsibility as a Godfather. As it is said "greater power means more responsibility". So he never goes against his principles and never trades drugs. As a result, he can deal with the relationship with politician skillfully and easily.

After watching the Godfather, I have some complex feelings. I think life is not so easy and simple as we imagined. It is not the food, if we do not like it, we can spit it out of your mouth. Everything is not depended on our willing. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to our families, to our friends, to the society, and to ourselves. Michael did not want to involve into his family business. But when the crisis came, he stood out. As a human being, we are not isolated. We are in different groups. So that, all of us have responsibilities. A position where we are, a responsibility we should take.