Our visit to two museums of Singapore

Today, after the tensive English progress test, we got a wonderful chance to visit national museum of Singapore and Singapore art museum. It is a good chance to relax ourselves and learn more about Singapore and art at the same time.

In national museum of Singapore, I saw the whole progress of development of Singapore. Each of us was provided a video guide, which is seldom seen in china and can help us to visit the museum more easily and thoroughly. i learned that Singapore was very poor and was governed by England. Singapore went through the World War II, which made Singapore suffering in the battle with Japanese like most Asian countries at that time. After the war, Singapore still could not be free but under the control of Malaysia. Afterwards, because Singapore was made an independent country, it began to grow up very fast. The lives of Singaporeans changed a lot and eventually become a developed country.

In the Singapore art museum, I saw a lot of fantastic exhibitions. They are so special that I could not understand most of them. However, I think they must reflect some deep thoughts. I saw many small artworks when I went into the exhibition hall. These artworks could be touched, which is very different from all the art museums I have been to. There were also many abstract pictures that I cannot understand at all. But, I was told they were very worthy and some of them even worth several millions. I took a lot of photos in Singapore art museum and I would like to review them again sometime to see if I can understand some. Though I did not learn much in the Singapore art museum, but at least I broadened my horizon.

It was nice day that I both took the exam and relaxed. I also enjoyed the time I spent with my friends and classmates. I hope Singapore develops smoothly and I can learn well and grow up happily.

One afternoon in Singapore museums

This Wednesday, after the progress test 2, we SM3 students had a learning journey at the National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum. With classmates and the tutor, we visited the museums taking many photographs. In these two museums, I learnt about the history of Singapore as well as the art in Singapore.
Before we entered the history gallery of the National Museum of Singapore, the staff handed round the companions to us. The companion was a handheld device which gave visitors guide in the museum. At first I listened to the companion carefully in English; however, it was not so easy for me to understand some words. Then I found the companion was available in English, Mandarin, Malay and Japanese and of course I chose Mandarin to learn about the history of Singapore easier. Although I listened to it in Mandarin, some information was still hard to absorb. In addition, we only had one hour to visit this museum while there were about nine hours information in the companion. So we could only scan the pictures, clothes, furniture and videos. I wanted to visit the National Museum of Singapore one more time one day to learn more.
Compared to the National Museum of Singapore, the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) was more interesting. There were many abstract artworks in it. Some of them were easily to understand while most of them were tough to understand the meaning. One interesting artwork was a special bookshelf, on the top and bottom of which there were two big mirrors. Many students were confused as they saw the bookshelf at first because the two mirrors let the bookshelf seem very tall, nearly unending.
We had not much time to stay there and time just flew. I wish I could visit these two museums again, to have more time to know about the history of Singapore and to understand the abstract artworks.

Learning Journey

This Wednesday, we went to SNM and SAM after the test. After 30 minutes’ bus, we got to the National Museum. The building is quite splendid, but not very large. We went to the history gallery, with a high-tech equipment on each neck. Although Singapore only has hundreds of years’ history, we saw a lot of historical relics, from 14th century to 20th century. In addition, the equipment on us provided us a lot of information, which made us know more about Singapore’s history as well as culture. What is different from China is that a large number of relics are exposed to the air, without glass outside. So we must control ourselves, for some are fragile so that we must pay attention. The relics are of all kinds, photos, costumes, containers, newspapers, multimedia, and so on. The most impressive ones are the photos about world war two. It recorded what the Japanese did towards the Singaporeans as well as the Englishmen. We took a lot of photos in memory of our impressive experience.
The second destination is Singapore Art Museum. We walked there. The big cute rabbit outside the Museum is an icon of it. To be honest, I do not know much about art. However, the artworks here are various, some of which are very special. One coat was made of snake skin, another one is made of mice feather, very special. Besides, there are also high-tech products which display the information in term of different places of Singapore, since we know that technology is also a kind of art, art of the natural science. We also saw the artworks of Wu Guanzhong, which were presented by him. Art is always abstract, even this Chinese master’s. One of his artworks is about Zhangjiajie. I did not know this until I saw the title, which convince me of an idea that something cannot be understood is called art.
Generally, it was a good day. Our horizons have been broadened.

my impression of SAM and SNM

After the progress test, we went to National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum to have our learning journey two.
In National Museum of Singapore, I visited Singapore History Gallery. Just like the literal meaning, it exhibited Singapore’s history from the 14th century to the modern period. It took a story-telling approach to guide us to explore the Singapore’s history, which was dramatically different from it in china. In museums in China, plentiful exhibitions were on display. Most of them were historical relics and they restored the history in an objective method. However, National Museum of Singapore showed the history in a vivid way. Every of us was provided with a companion, which told us the stories behind those exhibitions. There were two paths we could choose---Events path and Personal path and I appreciated the latter one. It showed the life of the populace. They were nobodies in history but they reflected the real history. I was impressed by the students who suffered the racial discrimination but still fighted for the equal. I felt sorry for the carters of the rickshaw who struggled to support their family.
Singapore Art Museum collected the artworks all over the world. I like those three-dimensional works. There was a painting lay in the rack and the content of that painting was some bottles lay on a rack. Because of the chiaroscuro, I did not realize that it was a painting. I believed that they were real objects. The learning gallery also leaved a favorable impression on me. All the works were selected for the young visitors. There were lively discussions for each work, from which we could had a fundamental acknowledge of the art. They roused my interest in art. This embodied the goal of a museum. That was to introduce art to the people who knew little about art and guided them to appreciate the art.
There are many museums but these two museum have their characteristic, which distinguish them from others.

Reflection on the Visit to Singapore Art Museum

In the Longman Dictionary, a museum is defined as a building where historical, cultural and scientific objects are kept and shown to the public. This Wednesday afternoon, we paid a visit to Singapore Art Museum where we appreciated the unique art culture of Singapore.


I was impressed by lots of art exhibitions in the museum. As soon as I entered the museum, forty products which reflected art in everyday objects attracted me. They were designed of simple shape and color, which represented simple and accessible art in everyday life.


The painting exhibition, “Seeing the Kites Again”, displayed works from Wu Guanzhong. The majority of the paintings were about his childhood and homeland in South China. The most impressive work to me was the one called “A Former Homestead”. There were only two colors, black and white, in the picture. In the center of the picture was painted in black. When I saw it, it reminded me of my grandparents’ home, a peaceful and beautiful small village where I grew up. Even though the scenes he painted were ordinary, these works touched me deeply. As a Chinese saying goes, the most ordinary one is the most beautiful one.


In the museum, there was an interesting mixed media installation, which was called “He’s Satisfied from Monday to Friday and on Sunday He loves to Cry”. Actually, it was a diorama. Surprisingly, the designer converted this entertainment tool to one which made people depressed. In the glass showcase were ordinary objects in an office. The installation presented us a stressful and controlled environment. In addition, the missing human highlighted the atmosphere.


I really enjoyed the visit to Singapore Art Museum. I think that art derived from ordinary objects and everyday life is attractive and moving.

My visit to the SAM

My visit to the Arts Museum

After the second progress test in the morning, we went on our learning journey 2. We visited the National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum. The National Museum is very interesting; however, I was more attracted by the Art Museum and I found many interesting things there.
When we just stepped into the museum, on the second floor, there was an exhibition of many locally-designed products. Most of those products are all simple living things, such as bags, key rings, rulers and even erasers. At the first sight of those products, I thought they were some souvenirs to be sold. However, looking carefully, I found actually they were small pieces of arts designed by local people, probably students. Although their appearances are simple, sometimes only a pattern or two on the white background, they indeed create great visual effects. I believe that the designers must have put some meanings onto them. Each item has its own story and history. In addition, they are all made of simple materials- plastics, clothes, rubber or wood. Those materials are all very easy to get. The designers just use their imagination and put them together to make everyday things. They let the things around us look more beautiful. My favorite kind of art is just like that-simple and practical.
Art comes from life, but are prior to life. Many people are just focusing on the second part, but they forget the first part which I think is more important. Art should not just be a word to describe something that we all do not know. On the contrary, art should also be practical and in a way that most people can understand. Otherwise, it cannot be called real art.

the visit to SAM and SNM

27/04/2011

Learning journey to Singapore National Museum and Singapore Arts Museum

After an intense time of the progress test, our second learning journey came.

1 Singapore National Museum

Museum is a place where we put history together and playback it. In SNM I mainly skimmed through the evolution of Singapore from 14th century to 20^th century, during which a lot of things happened and Singapore changed to what it is now. Just drawing out several things from what I have come across. The first one is the United Kingdom established a colony in Singapore. Generally speaking, in the eyes of history, Singaporeans appreciated the colony of the British. It was the English that introduced advanced science and technology to this uncivilized fishing country. this country is still benefiting the heritage. The second one is the huge change of the social environment in last century. What made me excited is that I found Sun Zhongshan’s footprint here again. In that unrest era, I cannot imagine how many Chinese people left their home full of tears and settled down on the island in the South Ocean. At this time, great man Sun was trying to save our suffering nation. What he wanted to conquer was not just dozens of warlords but also many western countries’ thread to China. It is more or less the same with Singapore, Malaysian and Indian were trying to strive for their equal rights. All kinds of group competed here, and a story that an English officer who was the only one can speak Chinese settled down a dispute between two groups just by playing an instrument. According to many pictures of historical people and events, I can imagine that how terrible the life and how disordered the social environments it was at that time, you will only feel unbelievable when you see how beautiful the city and how well organized the society it is now. In this sense, we can see that there happened a great positive change to Singapore. Did people lived in that era predicated the future as we are in, and what the future Singapore will be. It is worthy everyone’s expectation.

2 SAM.

How can I say about Singapore’s art? It is hard to say. Maybe I can say that artists in Singapore are trying to find art in everyday life and they may regard some objects as an art thing in the eye of future. Especially those objects that are displayed in the special exhibition room shook my heart. As a Chinese, I am more comfortable with the arts that are more peaceful and closed to nature, such as mountains-and- waters paintings. I know that there a lot of stories behind those pictures, only when one is into it he can figure it out why it should be displayed in a national museum. Maybe that is where we foreigners can fit in to find the distinguishes from our own ones.

To sum up, it is a journey full of new things to learn, to think of, and to apply to daily life. The main point is it is free’.

A visit to my senior's home

A visit to a senior’s home

Today is Good Friday, one of the public holidays of Singapore. One of my seniors from the SCUT, who came to Singapore fourteen years ago, invited us to his home to eat hot pot. It was a time to experience Singaporean’s (his wife is a Singaporean) daily life as well as a chance to think about our own future.

When we arrived at his home, he and his wife (later got to her name is Sandra ] gave us a warm welcome. It is a pity that we all did not buy any present for them. Various courses were presented on the table already. So as soon as we got into his home, we were led to the table to start having launch. To be honest, as a sterling man from Chongqing, which is famous for its hot-pot and its loving-pepper people, I should sit beside the pot that was hot and peppery. But I chose to eat the lite one. I am not going to explain this. Actually, there are other two seniors from Fudan University and Shandong University respectively. While eating, we asked them what was it like when they studied in NUS, how they travelled back to China, what they are doing now, what did they think of the life in Singapore, where did they buy things or play when they were studying and so on.

From the chatting, I got to know that our host just married for a few years and haven’t have child yet. They lived in the house, quite small for me but relatively satisfactory for my senior. Maybe that is the distance between dream and reality. His wife once studied in NUS majoring in chemistry but now works in a church. My senior learned computer and now works in that industry. They all are Christiane now. They have lived here for so many years and they may live here forever. His parents are all in China now and they can only visit them very few times in one year. They are still young but fourteen years has been past. They are living a peaceful life and it seems as if there is no end of this kind of life.

How about me? After four years’ study in University and then work, live , marry in Singapore? I do not know. For a man full of energy and fantastic dreams, I certainly cannot stand such plain and predictable life. Maybe someday I will also become very easy to satisfy, maybe I will also join such religious association one day. To handle the present is to handle the future. In this sense, I should take every step carefully and make the right choice every time.

homesickness

Homesickness
I used to believe that I have already adapted to the lie there. Every day, I go to school, finish the homework, watch some American serials and go shopping. Sometimes, I imagine that if I do not come to Singapore, I would lead an approximate life as well. Nevertheless, we are informed that we cannot go back to china this summer. But our friends in NTS can go home. These days, they always discuss about booking the tickets, revealing the happiness. Hence, I feel homesick and I am determined that I am not the only person who have such feeling.
Frankly speaking, I miss the delicacy in my hometown. Shandong is located in the north of China; I am accustomed to the wheaten food, which seems to be compulsory for me. However, it is totally different in Singapore. Rice takes the place of the wheaten food. Moreover, people in my hometown usually sauté the food and use peanut oil. So the food tastes different from the food in Singapore. Although I appreciate the food here, I still miss that taste in my hometown.
I miss my mother. She is a teacher and is not occupied with her work. Naturally she puts much of her effort into looking after me, even spoiling me. Every morning, she wakes me up and passes me the clothes that I should wear. Every time I go home, the meal is cooked and displayed on the table. Every time I feel sad, she hugs me and let me cry. When we go shopping together, I hold her hands and murmur”mum, mum.”
I miss my father. In my mind, he is a truly extraordinary man. When I am confused, he can help me to set up an aim. When I am depressed, he will encourage me to persist. When I am dispirited, he can pass his passion to me. He infects me a lot. He expands my horizon. I try my best to be as persistent and optimistic as him. But I cannot.
I know that I should learn to live independently. But it is definitely difficult for me to stop homesickness.

Birthday party

Last Friday night, we held a special birthday party for the three in our room whose birthday was in April. It was special because they were born in different dates, but we celebrated it together. It is also because it was a surprising party, not only to them, but also to us who prepared it.

Recently, it seems a tradition that when it is a student’s birthday, all his classmates will celebrate it together. However, we have been a little busy these days due to our assignments and research. Therefore, we have no time to gather all the students together. When we talked about it last Wednesday, some of them felt a little disappointed. As a result, the rest of us decided to give them a surprise and prepare a little party for them in the room.

It was very tough to prepare such a party, especially when we did not want them to know it. Our room is so small that everyone could hear what we said, so we had to discuss about it outside the room. There were some times when we were caught discussing by them, we had to rack our brains to think of some excuses so that they would not suspect us. Just at that night, we worked out our plan. We were going to give them the romance of us girls.

On Thursday, we improved our plan and we ordered a cake, bought some candles and balloons, and we even prepared our lines for the party. We were a step closer to the party. Finally, the Friday came. It was quite a busy day. That day, we printed out our lines, arranged our music, and designed our special “certification” for them. To tell the truth, we hardly listened to the lecturer when we were having classes in the afternoon, we had been so busy preparing the party!

When the classes were over, we returned to the dormitory. We pretended to be just as normal; however, we all had a lot to do actually. We asked the boys to play cards with them so that we could be alone and decorate the room. I remember when the one who went to get the cake came back, she was like a spy. That was because she did not want others to know. Then we started our decoration. We almost filled the whole room with balloons, and put up a scroll as if it was a formal party. It was very tiring to blow up the balloons, but we were so excited at that time and forgot about tiredness. We spent totally almost two hours decorating the room. Eventually, we used candles to draw a pattern of heart and put the cake in the center of the heart. Lights off. Candles on. That created a perfect atmosphere. Even us who prepared it were touched by it. We sang together, enjoyed the delicious cake together, and wept together.
There were many sections of our party. And those sections were all to show that we cared about them because we are like a family. And I really appreciate the boys from our university who provided a video to show their blessing.
Time passed so quickly that we did not even realize it. We all had a wonderful night. I think every one of us got happiness from it. At least for me, I felt contented and enjoyed the process of preparing this party, for my cherished friends.

Respect your interests

Respect your interests
Next week we will choose our own major, so now some students are still very confused, including me. I cannot make a firm decision yet. The professors, seniors and even my parents all ask me to choose what I like and what I want to study.
This reminds me of an Indian comedy “Three idiots”. Three engineering students named Farhan, Raju, and Rancho become roommates at the Imperial College of Engineering. They go to study engineering for different purposes. Farhan studies engineering just because his father wants him to do this, but actually what he likes doing is photographing. Raju studies to earn much money for his family. Otherwise, Rancho has much passion for machines and devices, so he chooses to study engineering for joy. Then only Rancho studies very freely and happily, and gets very good grades. He also persuades Farhan’s father to let his son do what he likes.
Therefore, interests are very important. We had better not be like Farhan. He studies what he is not interested in, so he cannot get much fun from it and cannot enjoy studying, too. All in all, choosing majors is very vital, so we should take it very seriously. The most important thing is that we choose majors according to our interests. We should respect our interests. I hope that everyone can learn what they are interested in.

Something about intimates

I had a dinner with three of my high school friends last night. We all come to Singapore, but with different purposes. We chatted a lot and one of the topics was interesting and was worth to think about: our Chinese students are hard to find a real un-Chinese intimate in Singapore. In most situations, our intimates will also be a Chinese who comes from China. Well, my meaning of Chinese is the Chinese Chinese, not the Singaporean Chinese.

My friends told me that even though they know how to communicate with the locals and have classes with them every single day, it is still hard to chat with them in depth like with our Chinese. They can be good friends with locals but hard to be intimates. It is not because the cultural shock I think, it is because the condition here in Singapore is totally different as a foreign country. Most of us will find that it is true.

In contrast, those who go abroad to America or Europe countries can find their un-Chinese intimates more easily. When they come to America for example, everything is different. They have to communicate with other races in most of the time. They do not have many opportunities to encounter Chinese. Thus, they do have to find an intimate as soon as possible to talk to, and instinctively they will open their heart to the locals and adjust themselves to be more accustomed to talk with them like to talk with our Chinese.

From my perspective, the certain situation happens in Singapore may because our instinctive race tendency. We will get closer to those who come from the same country or even the same city and Singapore provides these conditions to us even though it is a foreign country. Therefore, our intimates are Chinese. This is my rough guess actually. I cannot tell the exactly reason of this situation yet but as the time goes by, I will figure it out.

My reflection on research projects

In the bridging course, all of us get a chance to do a research project in group. It an excellent chance to practice our ability of team works. As the leader of the group “Peace” for about half month, I have found I discovered some differences and learnt a lot between researches here and those in my senior high school.

In my senior high school, I have led a similar research about environment protection in my city. At that time, I led about 25 students. Teacher asked me to arrange all the work and let everyone do them own part. It was quite easy because I just needed to list out all the work and divided it. That research lasted less than one week and required just a few samples. Moreover, both the data analysis and the report were done by me. Since we were not required much, it was very easy to finish a brief report. However, this time, we are required to do a complete research. We should design a professional questionnaire and collect more samples. It is a long-term work lasting for months. Another significant difference is that a group has only 4-5 members, which means much more work for everyone.

As a group leader, there are also much more things for me. Since it is a long-term project, I have to arrange files used in a folder and keep them up-to-date in order to make sure our work on the right way. In addition, I should prepare for our each meeting, record main points of meetings in order to keep meetings efficiently. Because there are only 4 people, I have to remember all the time to encourage everyone and create a good atmosphere in order to motivate the group. We only have one chance to see our supervisor per week, so I have to make sure we do enough work ahead of time so we can make most of the chance. Thanks to good efforts of each member, our group project is going on smoothly and orderly.

I experienced a lot of differences here, which are challenging but good for our growth. I am trying everything to make our project better and give members happiness. I hope our project can be done perfectly and we can develop our intimate friendships. There seems not to be much time for us to do our report. However, I believe the use of SPSS will greatly accelerate our process of data analysis. We should keep going on all the time. Believe ourselves! We can make it!

To face changes

To face changes
After spending the first phrase in the classroom of school of computing, we will soon have a change. In one of my classmate’s oral report, he mentioned the memory of the classroom in the past few months, which made me think of a lot of things. There are changes along the way when we grow up, both good and bad. To live better, I think we should be open about these changes and face them calmly.
Adolescence is changeable. Living in a world of dreams, we had many kinds of imagination for the future. Dreams used to change so easily that even now I cannot remember all the dreams I had before. The changes have nothing to do right or wrong. It is simply a natural process of growth. Changes are usually unpredictable. Consequently, it is important to leave some space for changes when making a decision. After making sure even the worst result is acceptable, we can face any change calmly.
Changes are exciting. When we grow up, we keep changing schools, knowing different people, and overcoming the difficulties. It is during this process that we become stronger and stronger. We are now in a foreign country. The multi-cultural environment can not only provide us with a new experience, but also a different way of thinking. The global mind and the critical thinking is the thing our own country cannot help. Embracing the changes positively can provide a person more chance to success. Now when it comes to select a roommate in the hostel, choosing a local may help a lot to adapt to the life in a foreign country. Changes are also exciting, to embrace them may bring more chances to success.
Life is always full of changes, both good and bad. There are too many things we cannot decide. What we can do is to treasure every day, or even every minute, and every opportunity to do those meaningful things you want to. Keep company with those who you love. In case of changes, we should be grateful and leave no regret.
Life is like a boat, and no one knows what will happen. There are always changes in life, both good and bad. Some changes make us laugh, while some make us cry. However, it is also changes make our lives more meaningful. To leave some space for change and to treasure things in case of regret can lead to a calm life. To embrace beneficial changes may also help a person to success.

I am eager for the life in NUS

I am eager for the life in NUS
To be frank, the bridging course is not that meaningful and interesting. All the classes are compulsory to attend and we have other choices. Now, we cannot to choose what we want to learn, such as Japanese and business. But we must to have the bridging course to improve our poor English. Besides, I do not like to Eton Hall. The mosquito bites me every time I am eating or studying in the dining hall. What is more, the most of the dinners we have chicken in our mess tins. It is fine for most of the SMs students. However, I do not like chicken since I was a child. I do not like its skin as well as the sense while chewing it, especially when I think of what I eat is not that nutritional compared with other meets. The third thing is the network. It cannot be weaker. When we want do something tonight, we must bring the laptop to NUS tomorrow, or go to the McDonald’s. I really do not to say something bad about Eton Hall. I am just speaking out my personal opinions. And that is only part of my reason.
The most important are freedom and knowledge. Once enter the NUS, we can do what we want to do as long as we obey the rules. We can attend the lectures even though they have nothing related to our major. We can choose the course according to our interest. We can also join any club and society. That is the culture. That is what I really want. When the day comes, I want to study Japanese and Business as my optional course.
University school life is also a time to chase our dream and goals. It is a time to work hard and also a time to harvest. It can make me nearer from my dream. I am looking forward to it!

Two Experiences

Recently, I have been losing weight. I am not only on diet but also exercise every day, which is quite challenging for me. I still remember the first day when I did not have lunch. All students except me rushed to the canteen when the class was over. At that time, I felt so hungry that I could do nothing but drink water. The toughest time was when they returned to the classroom, talking happily about what they had for lunch. Some of them were even eating tempting fruit, which lured me to rush to the canteen and feast on dishes. When I was going to step out of the classroom, I hesitated. I said to myself that it was only the first step of losing weight. If I gave in to delicious food, I could hardly succeed in becoming slim. I learn a lot from the experience. Only if we are determined to resist lures can we be able to achieve our goals.


Another experience about choosing my major teaches me to be brave enough to have a try. When the day of choosing the major was around corner, I was extremely worried and anxious. Actually, I had no idea about the choice. Almost everyone told me to follow my heart and choose what I was interested in. However, the problem was that I was unaware of my interest. I just kept asking myself what I really liked. Finally, I got the answer. At the bottom of my heart, I clearly knew my interest. However, I was afraid the interest was temporary and I would regret making such a choice. In addition, I was uncertain whether other majors were more suitable for me. I hesitated to make a decision because I was not brave to take risk. From that, I realize that if we are not brave enough to have a try and struggle for our goal, the decision is always a mistake.

Let bullets fly

After watching Let Bullets fly for three times, I wondered how much money did this earned. Then I was told that this film had reached a record 700 million yuan at the Chinese box office. I thought it could reach one billion yuan easily if the government did not take effort to block it. It occurred to me because Feng Xiaogang's tearjerker disaster epic Aftershock (2010) got about 500 million yuan which I thought is ridiculous and extremely stupid.

Set in the chaotic years after the collapse of imperial rule, Let The Bullets Fly tells the story of a Robin Hood-like bandit who kidnaps a con-man about to take up the mayorship he secured through bribes. The bandit swops identities with his hostage and become mayor, only to find himself locked in a battle of wits against a corrupt businessman who made his fortune from tobacco and human trafficking.

As Jiang Wen says in the movie, he wants to "earn money while standing upright" instead of kowtowing to authority. Is that Jiang the film-maker saying he wants to make movies without censoring himself? I do not know how this movie which is full of political criticism passed the strict censorship. But Jiang made it. He did not sacrifice his artistic and personal integrity to produce a commercial hit. Chinese directors known for their earlier, critical works, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, have come under fire for gravitating towards apolitical historical and gongfu epics that do not offend the government and meet growing market demand. Compared with them, Jiang has a more firm belief and he does not regard the cruel reality as the excuse to give up his ideas.

In 2000, his film Devils on the Doorstep, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, was banned in China. In an unpublished document that circulated in Beijing' film community at that time, censors branded the film unpatriotic. I think this time, Jiang made his film express his personal politic beliefs in a more hidden way.

Movie critics say there is more to the movie than meets the eyes. Perhaps, the con-man and businessman are symbols of corrupt Chinese officials who have secretly pocketed the fruits of the country' capitalist-style economic reforms.

A Friend’s Birthday

What is friend? In the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, it was defined as someone who you like very much and like to spend time with. Several days ago, one of my best friends spent his 19th birthday in China, which I was not able to celebrate with him. Although I like to spend time with him, I cannot spend time with him this year.
Before his birthday, I wrote a postcard to him, but it will arrive at his university after 20 days. I regretted to send him too late because of my laziness. I postponed the sending time again and again and sometimes I do not know what I should write down on such small card. Eventually, I wrote several words to wish he happy birthday. I was glad to successfully connect to him at the night of his birthday. He was fetching a cake from the bakery that time and I talked a lot with him. We talked about different experience in the campus although we had talked about it every time I called him. However, we were never sick of this, and to some extent, it properly cemented our friendship. I said goodbye when hearing some sound from his friends, laughing and singing, to let him enjoy his birthday party there.
It was a pity that I could not see him the whole year even if I will go back China in the end of this year when he will still study in his university. No matter when it will be, we will make fun of each other as the past again.

Treasure Everyday

People come and people go. One fact we can never deny is that there are always something under our control.
The day when I was told about my grandfather’s death, I just cannot make it through. At that time, I was only 13 years old. But even today, I still remember the way he walked, the tone he spoke, and the look he smiled. The big tree now stands in front of our garden----I guess I am not the only one who miss him so much. But sometimes, we cannot live in the past; we have to move on…
Yes, life is always unpredictable. Life has a way of throwing these balls at us. The family’s main bread-winner suddenly passes away. A child finds new love and loyalty through marriage. No matter how perfect your organizational skills are, there will always be life-influencing factors over which you have no control.
Then, my friend’s words occurred to me,’ if you are afraid that the love is unlikely lasting forever, thus you hesitate to keep it, then what will be the meaning of love?’ We indeed may lose people we love someday, but it does not mean we have to bend down and focus on negative sides! We still own today; we still have this moment--- what is the most important thing is that we still have our breath to move on. Nothing can deprive our opportunity of making use of every minute to treasure our life and our dream.
I will still miss people who pass by my life. Anyway, I move on then. Since we are young, our greatest fortune is to stand up again and again after falling down.
Laugh or cry as we like; life is too short to oppress ourselves.
Treasure today. Treasure this moment.

About choosing majors

Next week, we are going to choose our majors. After considering for a long time, I choose Statistics. Firstly, I do not want to do a lot of experiments, so I will not choose Engineering. Secondly, studying in SoC requires me to stay in front of the computer for a long time, which is not good for my health. Therefore, although Information System is very attractive, I will not choose it.

Finally, in Science, Statistics is almost the easiest to get a good job. Moreover, it does not consist of so many courses, so that it is kind of easy. That means I can have more spare time to do what I would like to do, such as learning other subjects or participating in activities. In addition, it does not have a quota, so that I can enter it as long as I apply for it. That is safer than other choices.

I have heard of lots of people who want to major in Statistics; perhaps their reasons are almost the same as mine. However, I also know someone who wants to learn life science. It is a common knowledge that life science is very tough even for locals, not to mention us. Every two or three seconds, you will meet a new word. I do not think I can bear it. Thus, every year, very few students major in it. When I heard that one of my roommates wanted to choose life science, I was amazed! She knew it was difficult, and she knew it was difficult to get a job, but she insisted. Just because she likes it! I really admire her for her insistence and her courage. When we are making our decisions, we consider too much about other things, such as prospect and career. What we do forget is the interest in our hearts which is also the most important. As long as she insist, with all her interests and efforts, I think she is sure to study well and have a bright future.

love?

When I skim through my notebook, I find a profound sentence that was said by my instructor in Shandong University at our first class meeting. He said that: “I will not forbid the love affair between boy and girl. But, I sincerely hope you do not yield to carnal desire, lonesome, or the greedy for warmth.”
I find that the love affair prevails among is. Some people are in sweet love. Some people keep the love for a very short time. Some people extremely miss their lovers in China. Since we come to this strange environment, we may feel lonesome and long for a person to accompany us. Nevertheless, I feel it is indiscreet to confirm this is love. It is moved as a fellow sufferer. Moreover, little love between undergraduates can be lasted throughout the life. So I prefer to act as a good friend rather than love and then break up. I am afraid to lose an intimate friend.
Somebody has said that: “when you feel helpless and confused, the god will dispatch the angel to accompany and comfort you. After your life steps into regular, they may leave.” I admit that I have met some boys who encouraged me to overcome the difficulties when I was under enormous stress. Sometimes I held a special feeling to them but I did not think it is love. Nowadays we are just close friends, get contact with each other occasionally and then lead a respective life.
I do not know what love is. In the serial, Guo furong says that: “if you fall in love with somebody, at the beginning, you enjoy the unbridled passion. However, he is the person who you need to live together throughout your life. Ten years or twenty years later, when the passion fades away, how can you continue to live together?” she gives the answer “what you have suffered together can remind you of the present happiness. As long as you evoke the memory that you went through many difficulties in order to get together, you will treasure you present life. It may be insipid but it must be valuable.”
Perhaps she is correct, but I recall a gloomy love folklore------the love between Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian. Bai Suzhen is winsome, virtuous and gentle. All fine qualities assemble in her personality. She has saved the life of Xu Xian. But finally she loses her glamour for Xu Xian. He has a dubious relationship with her sister. He is tired of her. The unalterable oath of love seems to be a joke. I cannot understand.
What is love?

Checkpoint

After getting the result of checkpoint one, many people came to ask me, “You must get two A+s.” However, with embarrassment and a little sadness, my answer was a no. I knew there is an old saying in Chinese, “The loser should never praise himself.” So I just keep silent.
My failure was due to C programming. Or more precisely, it is because of my ignorance pride and carelessness. Thinking I had studied hard and known some knowledge, I finished my paper rather quickly. But I ignored some important details, which could cause totally different meanings. In addition, there are also questions I really do not know. So I can accept the fact that I did not do well in the checkpoint, realizing I need to study harder and become modest and careful.
Although I use the above reasons to calm myself down, I am still not balanced. It is because there are many people around me who just finish their homework and always play computer games or watch movies. They asked me for help one or two days before the exam, but they got the same or even better result than me! Why? How come?
I know this kind of complaints mean nothing, but for me I would feel rather bad if I do not say something or write it down. Hope I will not experience this next time.

What Are Words

                Today I accidentally watched a video on Youku website when I was wandering in the world of Internet. The title is What Are Words. It is actually a MTV specially shot for this song by Chris Medina. This video was shared over 300 thousand times and watched over 2000 thousand times on Youku.com website in China. The Chinese title tagged to the original video from abroad translated into English is “There exits a feeling that allows every spectator around moved, and that is love! It is going to make me cry out all my tears on it!” Well, I have to admit that this guy is not exaggerating the song. This song is really pure and beautiful with the simple but strongly touching lyrics. When the soft piano started the song, my heart soon entered a world of peace and love. Unlike most of songs, the prelude of this song is not more than 15 seconds and it quickly brought me into the main story of the singer.

               The first line of the lyrics goes “ Anywhere you are, I am near; anywhere you go, I’ll be there; anytime you whisper my name, you will see.”  With the beautiful and pure voice of Chris, the scene of their love memory comes into the video. I can see the happiness showed on the face of his girl friend when given a big surprise by him. Somehow I began to appreciate their love from my bottom of my heart when I knew their touching love story from the subtitle on the top of the video. Chris was ever one of TOP 24 of American Idol when he was engaged to his deeply loved girl friend. His baby, his finacee, however, was suddenly hit on her head in an unexpected car accident. And her brain was terribly damaged after the strong shock and lost its basic function as a normal person has. She could not take care of herself even in many basic daily things, every day with the help of his boy friend. Nevertheless, Chris Medina still worked hard as well as tried his best to take care of her although every one knew that how tough and heavy the responsibility he took on was going to be. He promised he would never give up on her or himself in the future life, which touched a lot of people around the world when they saw his determined love and faith in life. To be honest, I was deeply moved by him especially when I saw him singing this song in before the microphone. He was so getting in to this song and his heart was already filled with love for her leaving little space for himself. I have never experienced this kind of feelings for I am still young, but I really appreciated their love and I am looking forward my own touching story as well!

                 

You can click on this address to watch this video:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQ5ODM3MDg0.html

Here is the lyrics of the song:

<What Are Words>

by Chris Medina

Anywhere you are, I am near


Anywhere you go, I'll be there


Anytime you whisper my name, you'll see


How every single promise I keep


Cuz what kind of guy would I be


If I was to leave when you need me most


What are words


If you really don't mean them


When you say them


What are words


If they're only for good times


Then they don't


When it's love


Yeah, you say them out loud

Those words, They never go away


They live on, even when we're gone


And I know an angel was sent just for me


And I know I'm meant to be where I am

And I'm gonna be


Standing right beside her tonight

And I'm gonna be by your side


I would never leave when she needs me most


What are words


If you really don't mean them


When you say them


What are words


If they're only for good times


Then they don't


When it's love


Yeah, you say them out loud

Those words, They never go away


They live on, even when we're gone

Anywhere you are, I am near

Anywhere you go, I'll be there


And I'm gonna be here forever more

Every single promise I keep


Cuz what kind of guy would I be


If I was to leave when you need me most

I'm forever keeping my angel close

different personal space

Different aspects of personal space

As a scholar from China, this is the first time I stepped into a different culture. As a result of knowing a little about the culture of Singapore, I encountered a lot of embarrassments and difficulties. Some of those situations impressed me and I wanted to explore more about it. Eventually, I learned a lot from my explorations which includes doing researches, questionnaires, and studies. Among those, what intrigued me most is the experience related to the aspect of personal space.

When the befrienders (local seniors who help us adjust to the life in Singapore) brought us to play games outside, I intended to hold a male-senior’s hand as we always do in China to show our friendliness to him. To my surprise, that senior became a little angry with what I have done and he walked quicker trying to let my hands go. I felt that there must be some cultural shocks about this, and what happened next proved what I thought. We entered the elevator along with about 15 other students.  More locals wanted in but could see that it was "full", so they formed a small crowd outside the elevator.  Just as the elevator door was about to close, it suddenly re-opened.  Another Chinese student, had pushed through the waiting crowd, pressed the button, and worked her way into the crowded elevator.  Since Chinese like to be close with each other, I smiled when she went in. After that, one of my local friends told me that girl should never did that again, Singaporean hate this kind of behavior, it destroyed their personal space. Having gone through those two experiences, I began to contemplate and do some research about it which interests me a lot.

I found from our daily life that everyone is surrounded by an invisible zone of psychological comfort. This protective bubble acts as a buffer zone against unwanted touching. Our comfort zone varies depending on the different culture. Yes, different cultures have different concepts of personal space. Given the fact that Singaporean learned more from English culture, Singaporeans have strict concept of space. For example, Americans have a large personal space.  We can stand in line tightly, as long as all are facing in the same direction, but we don't want to stand close to anybody in face-to-face encounters.  If you enter that space without having earned the right, Americans get very uncomfortable.  On the contrary, Cambodians prefer to stand close to one another, maybe even touching each other occasionally.  Omanis sometimes stand so close they can rest their hands on each other's shoulders.  Egyptians not only stand almost touching noses, but they raise their voices, speaking loudly to each other.

Where does the difference come from?

Firstly, I think that it has a great amount to do with the space available within that country. Canada only has 3.5 people per square kilometer, whereas in small countries with massive populations, they have to get used to living in dense areas. However, another example proves me not exactly right. India is one of the most populous countries but they have a very strict sense of personal space. They bow and say Namaste instead of shaking hands.

Another reason I found is that our status, confidence, and power of the people around us affect our aspect of personal space. Because the people who possess the most power and authority command a greater amount of personal space that they can call their own.

I am very interested by those kinds of studies and I will continue to explore what’s the advantages and disadvantages do those different kinds of aspect of space have in different areas of our life.

girlfriend

As you see the title of my blog, do you feel surprised? Are you interested in what I will talk about in this blog? I am sure you will. However, if you are eager to know who my girlfriend is, perhaps I will let you down. I am sorry about that, but till now, I am single and more importantly, this time, I just want to talk about my thoughts about the things happened around me. It is about the friend of the opposite sex. If you still have interests, please go on reading. I would be glad of that and I would appreciate you as well.
Some things do happen unpredictably these days around me. There are five boys from Ji Lin University in this batch of SM3 scholars in NUS and I am one of them. At first, only two of us have girlfriend in China. I know it is very normal. What surprises me most is that the other two boys also get girlfriends one after the other; even one of the two girls is still in China. I just cannot understand why it is so fast that I become the only boy who is available of Ji Lin University. Moreover, I also do not know why my roommate wants to get a girlfriend in China. It is really far away. However, when I was still confused, another thing happened. One day, when I chatted with one of my best friends, she asked me whether it was the feeling that she fell in love with a boy. I was shocked when I saw the question, because from my point of view, anyone can make a boyfriend or girlfriend except her. She is a very good student and she always spends most of her time studying, but now, she is also “upset”.
These two things drive me back to think about that forever but difficult topic: love and relationship. Before I entered the university, I thought about it and talked about it with my friends. At that time, I got a conclusion that although it was ok to make a boyfriend or girlfriend in consideration of our age, it was better to live alone in university, because we had something more important to do, such as study, career and future. For that reason, we did not have enough time and energy to spend. However, this time, they remind me of another important thing, loneliness. When we enter the university, we have to be away from our parents, best friends and spend most of the time alone, especially for us who are far away from our homeland. Therefore, we cannot avoid feeling lonely. A girlfriend or boyfriend seems to be a better choice. I admit that with the company of a girlfriend or boyfriend, there will be more happiness, but is it all that good as it seems? Definitely not. As what I said before, it really requires time and energy. If we cannot make a good balance, it may ruin our whole life.
These are what I thought, only personal opinions and I do not want to offend those who have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Welcome you to comment and give me some new ideas about love and relationship.

The Early Hour of a Day

The Sunday before our recess, I tried to fetch the first streak of the sun. But to your disappointment, it was not a joyful journey for me though I was accompanied by a girl. To be honest, it was the first time I went out with a girl on such an early time of the day. So I did some checks in and around Eton Hall to make sure that our out will go on smoothly. I checked many things in Eton Hall like which gate would not be closed around 6 at Sunday morning, how many CCTVs would on their duties around that time and how many guards or staff would be awake that time. Moreover, I calculated the earliest and the latest time of the sunrise and the route we would take of the journey and even made up some reasons to handle the auntie if out for sunrise, especially with a girl, is prohibited. It really took me a long time, about 2 weeks, to do the preparation.

On Saturday night I double checked my alarm clock to make sure that it would alarm me up at around 6. Frankly speaking, it was really a dreamless night and I woke up several times in case I missed the right time. After turning side by side for a whole night, the alarm finally struck.

Things went on just as what I expected: 2 guards were in deep sleep, no gates were open except the gate near the laundry just as the usual, CCTVs which near the gate were all off. It took me no effort to get out of the Hall and then I made a phone call to call the girl. She told me to wait for about 20 minutes, which didn’t surprise me at all for it was just the time I expected.

But what happened next was just out of my expectation and really scared me. I was nothing to do that time so I just looked around casually. The weather was not that good but still I could see some stars twinkled through the crevice among clouds. But suddenly a lightening just burst out and lit up the whole sky. The pale white dominated the sky without any omens. To be honest, I was thrilled that time. Before I calmed down and tried to be me, the whistling of the wind and the unrhythmical sound of rustling kept pushing me to link what I was experiencing with those thrill stories I had read. The wind was a little bit strong and some thin branches of trees were broken and fell on the ground which was covered by fallen leaves. The sound was rather harsh in this horrible morning.

I tried my best to hold on and dispel the fear. At last, I saw the eventual familiar figure and waved my arms to make myself seen.

Give journal 2

Journal 2

This was my second time to teach p4 students calligraphy.

Hearing that art teacher will be there, to be honest, I felt a little nervous.

· First of all, when I stand in front of the classroom before the class, can I behave like a teacher?

· Second, I gained almost all my skills by self-learning, which means that I did not get systemic education. This is also an issue that beset me for a long time. Even though I am confident that I can do well, I am still fear professional criticize.

Even though there was hesitation in my mind, I still believed that I had something to give.

This time boys and girls were relatively more excited than last time because they could use brush pen to “draw Chinese characters”. Here I just write down some important points. Listed as follows:

1. In fact, these students have got used to listening to English rather than Chinese. Listening to an unfamiliar language, especially when I need to introduce some simple Chinese history and ancient liberties, is boring for them, so they tend to abstract. ---First try to use English; second learn some skills.

2. I need to learn to use the multimedia in the classroom. It wasted a lot of time to prepare the ppt. I need to show them some videos and music.

3. Save my ppt as the normal format so that most pc can read.

4. Avoid those technical items. Their knowledge of Chinese history and Chinese characters is very limited, let alone for p4 students. Education is a long way to go. Now I got to understand and more respect my primary school teachers. Teaching needs patience and affection.

5. Never hope that they can absorb and comprehend all the things you have presented. I spent one and a half hours to teach them how to hold the pen and how to draw a beautiful horizontal line and vertical line. I must admit that on one can write well without long-term training and exercise.

6. Take one step behind, I want to guide them to fall in interest in calligraphy and have a little blurring concept of the beauty of Chinese characters. And in the process, I want to encourage one or two promising students to do more exercise.

7. Every child is very lovely. They want to touch new stuff and always do not follow teachers’ instructions. They want to run forward to discover new things. They cannot wait to apply what they have learned to describe their future. All these remind me of my memory about the childhood. I told them as what my teacher once told me, take it easy, don't rush and lay a firm foundation for a better future. I am mature now. I have become the one who I cannot even imagine ten years ago. This is life/

speaking it out

Speaking it out
28th march is the first day after I made my decision to use English as the main language in daily life. One week has past since that day. Now I want to write down what I have experienced these days.
Thanks a lot to my classmates. You were so kind to speak English with me. It gave me a great courage to stick on to my decision. And when I got back to Eton Hall, it seemed as if all of them got to know my act. They asked me about my feeling. They told me they also wanted to do like this but lack of courage. From this experience, I know that something that you may feel uneasy to start, but once you start, you can gain a great joy. No one will stop you but yourself.
In the course of communicating with classmates, I found it is indeed a very efficient way to improve my English.
1. In order to make myself understood, I must organize the sentence in my mind and try to speak it out fluently. In the course, I felt the feeling of thinking in English.
2. In order to express my ideas concisely, I need some specific words. This is a chance to push myself to extend my vocabulary.
3. The more you speak English, the more confident you will be.
4. There are much more topics in our daily conversations than what we have learned in the class. So it is also a chance to learn English in areas that we are not familiar with.
I must admit that it went not so smoothly.
• I joined in other’s discussion much less, especially when there were more than two persons involving in that conversation. So my conclusion is it is suitable for two persons to communicate in English.
• Several roommates do not understand why I must speak English to them. One of them even used the word “ridiculous”. Of course, for me, these oppositions will form a force to strengthen my decision. I once said that: if I knew that I will give up one day, I will never start; and if I ever start, I will never give up.
• According to these days’ s experiences, I truly understand that how much I rely on my mother tongue. When I cannot even express some simple ideas, I can feel the suffering if I cannot share my shining ideas with fellows. In this case, I have to make some compromise. Luckily, I just said I would use English as the main everyday language.
• People should not have intended to construct the tower of Babel.
Despite the fact that many difficulties lay in store for me, I have made up my mind to persist in speaking English.
Jin Lin 03/04 /2011

A Barbecue with My Host Family

Last Saturday, March 27, 2010. I went to my host family and had a wonderful barbecue with them. They were very friendly and kind to me and my friend and they even invited their neighbors to join us.

        At about 4 o’clock, we set out for our destiny-----Bishan MRT Station. After arriving at the City Hall station, we transferred to North-South line and headed for Bishan. After about 40 minutes, we finally got there. Having received a phone call from the elder brother of the host family, we straightly made our way to the taxi stand next to the bus station to meet him. He picked up us there and then drove us quickly to their home. Well, at first I thought we were going to have a barbecue in their back garden, but actually they were driving us to their friend’s apartment where there were a big swimming pool and many barbecue spots. We helped carry all the raw materials onto a table next to the barbecue grill. Then our first step was to start a fire, we put one piece of charcoal on another just like building toy bricks and inside each pile we put a combustible ball to start the fire.

After finishing 6 piles, we began to fan them with a big fan to make a bigger fire. The charcoal started giving out a heavy smoke which hurt my eyes and I could not even open my eyes until my tears appeared to moisturize my eyelids. Then another 40 minutes passed and we finally began our barbecue. We laid chicken rings and chicken chips on the hot grill to cook our starting dishes. I also learned to apply oil and honey on the food and it was really gratifying when I smell the scent of the cooked rings and chips.

         After all the hard work, we finally had a chance to taste the delicious food cooked by ourselves! With the cool drinks, we gobbled the shrimps and the chicken to fill our empty stomach. That kind of feeling really drove away our tiredness when we were enjoying the feast with cool breeze drying our sweat after a sweating work with the fire.

        That night, we had a pleasant talk with our host family and we began to feel more comfortable and less nervous fitting into this new country. I was really impressed by their kindness and really thanked them for treating us to such a feast. They even promised us a safari in the Singapore zoo next time and I am looking forward to that exciting journey now!

letter from an unknown woman

Don’t tire of listening to me for a little while, I beg you. I haven’t grown tired of loving you all my life.
------

I have got to admitted that I was first attracted by the movie but not the original book. Anyway, all I feel now is that I should have read it earlier! Something rooted in the initial ‘seed’ will never be fully expressed in movie.
From the moment she gaped in girlish wonder at the new neighbeelr and curiously observed plenty of books written in different languages in his shelf, she was already faced with an unpredicted life. From the moment when she first saw the young and bloody handsome pianist, she fell in love with him. Through the love was all on her own, she still appreciated every moment with him.
I cannot help thinking of a famous saying,” I love you, but it is not your business.” How come when a woman was forgotten by love of her life! Even when he deserted her after a night of mechanical bliss, she continued to feel most kindly toward him and bore his children without doubt or hesitation. She spent every minute of her life loving the man and when their child was born, she even chose not to tell him for his advantage. “I preferred to take everything on myself rather than be a burden to you.” She wrote in her letter to him before she died. It just touches my heart while I unreservedly admire the way she behaves. No one can be as brave as she does, I think. She knew the responsibility from the very beginning , thus she took it. It probably explained why she could keep the love on her own and built her strength all way along---she took what was coming then moved on.
It is not her autobiography.
But we all know it is the reflection of society at that time---- woman just took it for they were not entitled for freedom to choose and made their voice heard.
Whatever a life she finally ended to, she never regretted every effort she made to get close to him. Then, maybe it was what she wanted. It is enough.

“Grieve” for the past recess week.

“Grieve” for the past recess week. Time flies. When I opened my eye this morning, I was like a child that I’m reluctant to take class again after the whole week recessing. One week is to some extent a bit shorter for me whereas it was fulfilled with joyfulness. I participated in different activities which made my life colorful. So I think it is necessity for me to recount a series of my experiences in case of my poor memory. On the afternoon of 19th Mar, we visited the six halls in NUS together with our NJU seniors. That evening, we were invited to watch a comic dialogue played by NUS Chinese Union. The next day, I went to NTU to meet friends and I have to say that the campus there has a quite difference with NUS. As a joke, we compared these two universities with another two famous ones in China. According to the campus size and majors, NUS is much like Peking University while NTU resembles Qinghua University. On Monday afternoon, our group went to Kent Ridge Park to have a picnic. The scenery on top of the mountain was very charming that we were all indulged in the beauty. In front of us was the sun shining brightly upon the clear blue sea. Quite a number of ships were resting in the harbor. It showed the great prosperity here in Singapore industrial economy. Then we began to enjoy the food we bought. Girls were chatting about how many weights we would have to put on during the recess week. At the same time, some boys started playing fly discs in the park. Perhaps that is the difference between males and females. All of a sudden, I got the glimpse of two monkeys climbing towards us. What is even more surprising is that more monkeys came for sharing our food. Fortunately, we have our brave assistant monitor who frightened all the monkeys using his bag. Before we left KR park, some of us frankly told their stories about their past. We ended our activity in a harmonious atmosphere Tuesday could be named as a day for museums. I visited three museums with my friend. They are the philately museum, the art museum and the national museum of Singapore. I especially love the European-styled appearance of the architecture. The displays inside were also unique and precious. My Singaporean friend was astonished to see so many things on show as well. Apart from the above, I relaxed myself by singing songs and having meals with my friends. After all, I enjoyed myself very much. It is true that Singapore is small but still has quite a lot of space for us to explore. Anyway, we shall remember it is our only honeymoon.

Growth in Volunteer Enterprise

Growth in Volunteer Enterprise During the past recess week, there were so many activities I have joined that I decided to choose one of the most interesting experiences. As the title mentioned, it is the GIVE program. Luckily I was chosen to teach pencil sketching in River Valley Primary School. Last Friday, for the first time I was considered to be a teacher and I stood in front of 16 students. It is also the first time that I got up at 6:30 when the sky was still dark. I, together with my friend was so sleepy that we got on the wrong bus in the wrong bus stop.as a result, it took us about an hour to reach the destination and both of us were late. When I arrived at the art classroom, I was surprised to find the teacher was playing music in the room while students were painting. In addition, what also shocked me was that big classroom, which in china can be full of students. The kids can choose their own seats. What is more astonishing is that the teacher let the children draw abstract pictures. In fact, abstract is a theme which many famous artists cannot figure out. He should make grade six students to paint!! Later on, I talked with that teacher and got to know more. Magically, he is a very intelligent teacher who had studied and lived in San Francisco for many years. His learning style is very different from other teachers. However, I approved of his idea about playing music in order to inspire the children. Anther segment is when the teacher introduced me to the class and said my name is yummy, the children are all laughing. Desmond, the teacher said he would let me myself decide what to teach. The only shortcoming is why Singaporean students have to get up so early. Anyway, I’m still expecting the next Friday’s teaching.

Precious experience

Yesterday, we had tests on mathematics and C programming. It is our first checkpoint. However, what I want to recall is not the tests but precious knowledge with precious experience before the tests.

Before the tests, all the classmates, especially girls, worked very hard on both the two subjects. Most of them picked up other related books to read. They all motivated me a lot. I recalled my classmates in my senior high school. The atmosphere of study was quite good as well. But there is something different. In my senior high school, we, boys, always shared our thoughts with each other and girls were always quiet and did their own work. Boys from my class in high school were quite excellent and we talked about everything freely and happily. On the contrary, now, girls exchange their ideas with me while most boys are silent. I feel a little bit lost. There seems to be a block between some boys. I have never come across similar situation before. How I wish I could get some close friends like the guys in my high school!

Though I have shared little with boys now, I learned a lot from girls. It is my first time I find so much in girls. I find girls are more sensitive than boys. However, they can discover some small but essential things easily. I feel like to work with girls because they are careful enough to add some missed ideas. I find girls are more patient than boys. All the girls are willing to listen quietly to what I am saying until I finish it. After that, they show their thoughts slowly but clearly. I find some of them are really mature. Some of the ideas are quite excellent for me but I have never thought about those before. Moreover, I find what boys and girls are like and what life is in girls’ eyes. Many of them think boys are more genius while I think girls were more genius and boys are naughtier. Also, I find girls are mentally weak sometimes and they hesitate at most time.

With communications to girls, I experienced a lot and learned a lot from a different point of view. It is quite interesting to learn from girls. I don’t know whether I am changing. Whatever, I know what a boy need to keep and what a boy need to learn in order to improve.

The week after recess

After a whole week of relaxing, we came back to the normal track of life; went to school early in the morning; then came back to Eton Hall. However, this week, there was another theme that we could not ignore, the check-point examination.
The first check-point examination would come in Saturday. Different from the progress test, there was only mathematics and C-programing this time, but it was still very difficult for us, because all the questions were in English and we had to answer them in English. Therefore, we just talked about mathematic problems and how to make a C-programing in most of the time. Sometimes, these topics sounded really boring, even annoying, yet we had to continue. It was said that the results of the check-point examination might be one of the references when we chose our major. For this reason, we had to pay 100% attention to this examination.
As for me, this week could be divided into two parts, according to time. I spent the first three days finishing the homework that I should have finished during the recess week. Then, from Wednesday evening, I started my review project. I read my learning materials page by page, line by line, concerning about leaving out any important word. Every night, to finish reading what I learned again, I stayed up late until 12 even 1 o’clock in the morning. Finally, I made it at the midnight before the examination.
The examination came at last on Saturday. We all expected that it could be an easy test, but things went to the other direction. At first, I just felt not too much, but a little nervous. However, when I saw the C-programing paper, I became upset. There was some knowledge that I did not find on my learning materials. Even worse, for some questions, I could not understand what it was talking about. These were not the worst. What did drive me mad was the mathematic test. It was so complicated that I had to multiple and multiple, differentiate and differentiate; it was quite different from what we had drilled before.
After the examination, when I looked around, depression was on nearly everyone’s face. Several persons left messages on the internet saying that, ‘I am waiting for my first warning letter’. It might be a kind of exaggeration, but it was exactly what we worried about. Now, everything has passed. No matter what the result will be, we should continue our study, continue our life. Let the check-point examination be a warning light on the road of our life, reminding us that we should work harder.