Community Involvement and Employability Skills

I have completed 10 hours volunteer work in this term. First, I was a volunteer for the curtain which would be showed on the “GCA Fashion Show”, second, I was a volunteer as a typist for Jiangsu Engineering Consulting Center.
I was the designer who designs the font of the words and painted those used different ways. I stayed at school for a week. GCA is an international school which I am studying in it, the teachers come from Canada, New Zealand, and USA. All of them use English to teach us, which is different from Chinese schools. GCA often provides a lot of volunteer works for us to grow our employability skills, and also provide too many chances for us to show our talent. Designing font is a hard work, because the style of the font must suitable for the title of fashion, our volunteer group had made about 4 designs, but all of them are not satisfied in the manager Ms.Hadly’s eyes, so she draw a new sketch for us, and asked us draw the and cut them out as soon as possible. I was responsible for the words “H” and “N”. The size of the words is so huge that I made some mistakes, and alter and alter for many times. I realized Ms.Hadly used a lot of different font to design the sentence “GCA Third Annual Fashion Show!” not only the cursive style, but also many other ways I don’t know. That is useful for me, from this detail I know it’s good for me to use different ways to think about one question, that may cause a wonderful result. Finally, I was responsible to paint the words. The way to paint them out is also special. We used fans color, cool color, and warm color to paint them look like different things. The skills required to work effectively and safely with others and to succeed as individual and collaborative workers are good modeling ability, creative and good at using art tools like scissors and knives.
I was also a volunteer as a typist with my friend Abby, that’s a very boring work for me. My job was just type the words for this company on computer like the documents and leaflets. Before this volunteer work start, I thought after this volunteer work I could know more about what a typist work is and know more about this company, in my opinion, if I can know more about what is work like in each kinds of company and know more about the “culture” of each company, that would more useful than prepare so many information about what’s the honor I got in my study life, but I got no choice this time, because the manager did not want us to stay in their company, they just decided give us a lot of sketchs which was written by their hands, and asked us to organize them to paragraphs. I felt so disappointed when I listened that. I thought I am a good typist, my speed on typing is so fast that just used 3 hours to finish all of them, but when I looked back and checked them I found I made many mistake, so I need to change them rapidly. From this work I knew I must be careful on each works and never impatient for success, I am not just need to improve my speed on typing, but also need to improve my sufferance on doing each works.
I love volunteer works!

Acadamic Showcase

English 10---A quize about the book "Chinese Cinderella"

Social Studies 10---a quize about chapter4

Math 10---a quize about Section7.1

Science 10(this is a group work)---a group work about how to let an egg doesn't be broken from 25m high

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Mandarin 10---a test

P.E. 10---this photo was taken in the morning before the class begin near Mr.Haris'

stuff room. We would going to play hocky today.

Planning 10---group work(do a western food, all of us got full marks on it)

Art 10---a project about how to paint

Go to a performance

On January 17th 2009. I have been to a performance which was held in Nanjing Olympic Center. The performance name was “Super Junior 2009---Super Show”. I went there with Abby and Penny. We attend there at about 5 p.m to get our tickets which was destined from the internet and lined up to wait the performance’s begin at seven p.m.
Super junior is a famous band from Korea. There are 13 members in this band, some of them are good at dancing, some of them are good at singing, some of them are good at play the musical instructions. They also had been divided into different small groups to perform in different areas. When their music came to China a few years ago, it attracted a lot of youth’s eyes and their music became popular not only in Korea, but also in Asians. They use their fantastic dancing skills, passionate performance, handsome appearance attract their fans. I am not a fan of them, but I like them because their songs can make me feel happy, and forget all the agonies in my life, so I chose to go to their performance.
I like this performance very much. From it I saw them who I just could find them on the magazines, I saw their dance from my own eyes, and they never make me feel disappointed especially that day. From their performance I found they prepared for a long time just for the 3 hours performance; I found they backed to the stage and continued their performance twice even though the original plan asked them the performance must over at 10 p.m. Otherwise I like their dance, their passionate dance let me danced with them together screeched loudly became exciting I had never been and forgot all the unhappy things happened on me. There were more than ten thousands audiences came to see this performance, most of them get a blue light stick, shake their hands followed their music, make the Olympic Center like a sea, Super Junior would also sing more passionate than before, they sat on a wooden horse walked around the stage, danced from the back stage to the front of the stage and got water guns on their hands, shed the water to the body of the audiences to make them smile and shriek loudly.
I will never forget that day in my life!

Religious Service

I have been to a Protestantism church on May 1st 2009 to do a religious service with my friend Abby. We attended there at about 11 o’clock and stayed there until 12 o’clock. The church’s name is St. Paul which is located on Mochou Road near the Xinjiekou. Church St. Paul is the biggest Protestantism church in Nanjing and most of the people who believe Protestantism choose to go there do the religious service; it is also the most famous church in Nanjing, so we chose to go there.
Protestantism comes from the Christianity, and then the Christianity was divided into three main groups---1.Roman Catholicism 2.Protestant Church 3.Easten Orthodoxy. The Protestantism talk to us all of us had got guilt since we was born to the world, we also do a lot of guilty things in our life when we are growing even though little things like lie to our friends. We need to say sorry to all of theses mistakes to the God to exchange the forgiveness of the God, finally, when we dead, we can go to the heaven instead of the hell. I think that is very necessary for us to say sorry to all the wrong things in our life, because sometimes no one could find my small mistakes in the life, but I know, if I do not confess to someone or do that in some ways, I would just keep it in my heart and never care about it ant more, maybe that would cause a serious problem in the future. To do a religious service in Protestantism church can help me think about myself and get the comfort from my own heart, make sure the bad thing such like that will never happens in my life any more.
I like this experience very much. It makes me know more about the western religion, and how to do the religious service in a church. First sit on the seat peacefully. Second, open my eyes and see the cross directly. Third, held my palms together, finally, I can talk my guilt softly in a common speed. That is a meaningful experience in my life. I find it is strange, because I have never do service like today in my life before, I also didn’t know how to do that in right way, but I know it will be the benefit for me if I will go to a Western University in the future.

Act in a Performance(due by May 4)

I took part in the performance “Snow White” on GCA’s Christmas Celebration. The celebration began at about 9 o’clock in the morning, at Nanjing Foreign Languages School’s hall.
I had two jobs in this performance. First I need to dub for the actors who acted as the dwarfs. The second job was act as the prince in this show. There were almost everyone in our class joined in this performance, that was very hard to organize each other at on time, because sometimes, everyone have there own thing to do, but our class is so united, all of us gave up their free time to prepare for “Snow White”.
We had changed the plot became more funny, we don’t want to just act what others act, so we changed the words and the way to show, for example, the queen ask the hunter to kill snow white and get her heart to her, but the hunter have mental retardation when he is going to kill her he find why he need to kill a beautiful girl and the snow white also give him a lot of money, so he let the snow white go.
I feel joyful about this performance. From this experience I know how hard a performance is, not only for act skill, but also because of the organization. A successful performance need every members’ hardworking and work as a group, do not just think about themselves. I also learned how to bring happiness for people, and know how meaningful to do this for the society.

The memory in Nanjing Museum

On March.15, I went to the Nanjing Museum that located on Zhongshang East Road, with my friends Abby and Katherine to appreciate the exhibition---Ancient Chinese Lacquer. We attended there at 14:00 p.m. We chose this exhibition because it’s full of traditional life styles in the past of Nanjing, we can learn more about our home city.
We visited there for a long time and saw each artworks and wrote the own opinions of ourselves, the most interesting artwork in my mind was the “Screen with Thousands Birds.” This artwork include detailed carving, unique technology on Chinese lacquer, colorful change in each parts of the wood, all of them made it so fantastic to me, I have never seen a screen like this one which can let me shake my body because of this artwork’s charm. The carpenter’s skill is also let me feel this artwork’s fascination, too many details like the birds, flowers, jewelry, were craved on it, from this reason it also made me want to stop to have a look for a long time on it, it’s so interesting, each parts on it is a piece of picture, an artwork.
I love this exhibition very much; all of them represent a colorful world of lacquer technology, and half of them put an end to the ancient Chinese lacquer technology and other half marked the beginning of a new age for lacquer technology in China, so this exhibition also gave me an exciting influence, just because our cultures are shown so strong, it also affect my soul to become excited with this exhibition.
I love it, and also will never forget it in my memory.

The Western Food Night(due by Mar15)

On March.8 I went to the Swiss restaurant-“Bebbies” with my friends Abby and Katherine, this restaurant are located on “XinJieKou”, at the first floor of “DongFang” shopping center, we attend there at 6 o’clock after the Badminton Club’s activity. We chose there because we have never eaten the Swiss food in our life, and the style of the food is also very special that we have never listened from anywhere, all the reasons made it attractive enough to let us to go there.
We ordered the food that be listened so unique and never printed in our minds, for examples “Chocolate Fondue,” “Cheese fondue,” “Swiss Roesti.” All of them are the only food I can find in Swiss restaurant, and all of these names are extremely cool!
I ordered the “Mountain Roesti,” and the “Chocolate Fondue”, the “Mountain Roesti” was dipped with fresh fruits and ice cream, when this food came to my eyesight I feel amazing, it’s different with Chinese fondue, this one was so cute, a wooden bowl which full of liquid chocolate, a plate with fresh fruits, a little stove and two forks formed this fondue, I could not wait the liquid chocolate get warm. The “Mountain Roesti” was cooked by ham, slices of sun, ripened, tomatoes, packed with cheese and topped with a fried egg, this one made me feel terrible, because it was full of mashed potatoes, that is different with the traditional food of China that I ate everyday, compares with the rice, I felt not so comfortable with the liquid potatoes, I don't like it very much, that was different to the love of me with the “Chocolate Fondue.” The environment of this restaurant is full of Swiss styles, made me feel I was living in the Switzerland, the service is also let me feel satisfied, the waiters are so passionate, and polite. I recommend other person to eat there, the Bebbies Restaurant is wonderful and a romantic place, and the food also very nice, I will go there if I am free and try more Swiss food that I have not ordered.

Volunteer/Work Experience（due by Feb.8）

I was a volunteer for the drama “The taming of the shrew” last year with a lot of my classmates, and our supervisor was our English teacher Ms. Mitschrich. She is a very kind teacher, she gave us lots of snacks as the energy to work, and been successful at each end of the volunteer day.

As the volunteer of this drama, we need to do too many things, for example, someone might make the props, and someone might draw the background. My job was making a “treasure chest” and made the ornament of the top of a tree. The treasure chest was made by a shoes box, a piece of yellow cloth, some pages of newspaper, some little tiny stickers, and a can of spray paint. First, I cut the box into two pieces, and then I cut two cotton threads as two hands to contact the two parts that make sure the “Treasure Chest” would not be destroyed because of the actor’s power, I have tried a lot of times to cut the same length threads, maybe sometimes the two hands would not balance. After that, I tore a lot of papers of newspaper and made them like balls, then I filled them into the bottom of the box, I need them to make the “Treasure Chest” could give the audiences a sense of fulfillment. Then I put the yellow cloth on the paper balls, used the glue to fix the cloth, finally we need to change the appearance of the shoes box like a “Treasure Chest”. First, I used the spray paint to paint the outside of the box full of black, second, I used the scissors to cut a lot of shapes like stars, moons on a big page, then I got the big page covered the box, and used the red spray paint to paint, so I got too many red stars and moos on the black box, so we need to wait the paint become dry for about one day, after I got the little tiny stickers on it, the “Treasure Chest” was done.

The ornament of the top of the tree’s work was easier than the “Treasure Chest”. I just need a pair of scissors and a stapler. Cut the green paper like a steeple of a gothic architecture building, then cut the green paper to make then strip, finally used the stapler to contact them as one body, the “ornament was done too!

From this volunteer work, I have learned a lot, if it is a group work we need to be unity, we need to use our minds to think what I can do, and how I can try my best in the work; we need to think about one plan, and make some details of the process; we need to help each other in many ways, do not just think about yourself in the work, do not just think about your own benefits and ask others to do the work, Because cooperation can improve the efficiency. I also know there are too many people behind the scenes to prepare too many things for a drama, they use their sweat to make the props and the background, try their best to ensure each things’ special, when we watch a drama, we can not only appreciate the actor’s acting, we also need to find the props fantastic point and thanks to the worker who make them but never show their face on the stage.

I must thanks to this experience in my life, it made me learned a lot of the life skill-----use my hand to change the life, improve the skill, however I do not be good at it, do not give up forever an ever, however that was a big barrier to me.

School club (due by Feb.8)

I attended the TV Series last term, in this club I have participated 7 hours to join the activities of it. We often watch TV Series or movies, my supervisor of this club is Grace Hu. We just have one hour activity time for each week.

We have watched a popular TV series named “Prison break” first. This story told a fantastic story-----a man named Michael Scofield, his brother was being wronged into the prison, he know the truth, and he want to rescue his brother out, so he draw the prison’s map of the sewer under ground hide in his tattoo on the back of his body. Then he pretended like a robber to rob a bank, and of course he had been arrested. After that, he often fined friends who can help him in the prison, and he often find the structure of the prison in too many ways. This TV Series has four seasons, but we just had time to watch the first season. The love of these two brothers and the wisdom of the Michael Scofield are like the clues through this entire story, and these were also attracting us to watch it.

The second time, we have watched a very interesting and full of Chinese styles’ cartoon movie---“Kung Fu Panda”. This movie was about a very fat, lazy, but very interest about the Chinese Kung Fu, and he always dream about he is going to be a Kung Fu master. After a chance, he was chosen to be the Dragon Fighter to save the world from an “evil” who named Tai Lang, but no body had thought that he can defeat Tai Lang even himself, so he chose leave, but his father’s sentences changed---“The secret ingredient of my secret ingredient soup is nothing to make it special. You just have believed its special!” after that he got believed his special power and faced this challenge, finally, he used his own way to defeated Tai Lang.

We had also watched another movie which named “The Chronicles of Narnia” and discussed about some problems of the TV Series and our Club’s future.

From the club activities I have learned a lot of things, from the “Prison break” I know everybody should treasure the love between each other and we should take care of each detail in our life. From the “Kung Fu Panda” I know I can do every realistic thing that I want if I believe myself, and pay more effort on my dream can also make me achieve them easily. From the club I know as a member of a club I must try my best to suggest any special ideas to make the activities more interesting. We also often sit around and discuss what movie should we watch and what’s the reason we should them or the implications of the movies that we will watch.

I also knew many new friends in our club that I have no chance to know in my study life, and I can more in-depth understanding of each other from each activity, we often chat about the movies or the TV Series that we have watched.

Best wishes for each members of our club for the next term.

I had joined another club is named designer club. I had finished 15 hours club time on it. From that experience i know how important to design things to make my life colorfully and interesting, i also train my designing skill on art projects.