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.

Having the western food

On Dec.22 I have been to a western food restaurant with my classmates like Jessica, Grace, Katherine, and Chris and the grade 12 mentors like Mona. The restaurant’s name is “TACOS” which is a Mexico food restaurant, and it is located at Zhujiang Road. We have attended there at about 6 p.m.
We have eaten the traditional Mexico foot like the “Beef steak with rice”, “Mexico Tacos”, “Mexico Seafood”. I have never gone to a Mexico restaurant in my life, so that day was my first time.
In Nanjing, there are not any restaurants can cook the most traditional Mexico food, most of them just cook the food and mixed a lot of Chinese styles, these make us can not feel the true feeling of the Mexico food cultural. To these food, I feel very strange, also I just feel so so about it, I have ordered a food named “Mediterranean Meat Sauce With Rice”, the way that make these food is too different to me, the rice are under the sauce and it made of any curry and many pieces of sausage in the sauce, it tasted a little bit spicy and bitter, so that is so different with the Chinese food that I eat everyday, we do not use the curry in our food. The environment is wonderful the Mexico Western’s view comes to my when I went to this restaurant at the beginning. There are many foreigners there, the service is passion.
I recommend any of you can to enjoy your free or hungry time, which is a really nice place, I will go there if I have more money in my pocket and enjoy more kinds of food there in the future.

The art journey of me-----in Wu Weishan's Exhibition

On Dec.4 2008, we had been to a very famous Chinese sculptor's exhibition named “the sculpture exhibition of Wu Weishan”. This exhibition was showed to the public at the Nanjing University’s Art Building.

Most of the artwork is traditional artwork in this exhibition, and most of the Artwork was made by one sculptor-----Wu Weishan, just little of them were made by any other artists.

Through all the exhibition I have seek a lot of things, for examples their connotations, their ways of how to make them, their value to the public. From all of these sculptures, I also have found my favorite one, the “Lao Zi”. This sculpture was made by Wu Weishan, in 2006, it was put in the lobby that made me found it very quick. It is a back and brown sculpture.Weishan used a lot of straight lines to make this artwork and this artwork has many edges and corners that show the power of this artwork. He also used many streamlined lines on the body of it-----Lao Zi's clothes. The artwork was made of bronze, so it also gave me a steadfast feeling of the artist.

The artwork made me think about life and how to be a smart person in the world, Lao Zi ’s idea was the most modern idea not only in the past, but also in now. I think about the “empty” in his idea-----do not worried about the life too much. The problems would come forever, the most important thing is to try your best to fit the world. This artwork reminds me of the water flowing the river, the water just changes its shape when it faces many barriers.

It relates to the event that happened in my other class, and that was about me too. We are in GCA now. this is a new environment for us. We haven’t had classes full of English to study everything. That just like the environment that we couldn’t change. Some of my classmates just complain how terrible they are now to their friends, but any other classmates did not do that, they just change their way that how to study better, then they changed themselves and been successful in GCA. This artwork also has a lot of intentions:
1. To show the traditional way of art in China.
2. To show the ideas of Lao Zi.
3. Teaching us how to use a smart way to live in the world.
4. Wake up the old way of sculpture of China, and show it to the public, make the citizens be proud of our own culture.

I like this artwork, because of its connotation. It not shows the rational way of sculpture-----make everywhere on one artwork so specific, and make each details so similar with the real thing. That is the western way of sculpture making. We often ignore our own culture our own way to do any thing. Each country’s culture have its excellences we must find them, study them, develop them. I will never forget this exhibition, this journey in my life.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY (10hours due by Feb.8)

I attended the badminton club of GCA when the term was begin, I have got 46 hours activity time this term for my physical activity, I had special experiences in this club I think, and the supervisor is Leo Qin and Mr. Harris.

We have two places to practice and enjoy our badminton club time, first is the Nanjing Normal University, we played there every Saturday afternoon from about 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. the payment of the club is 20yuan. The other place for us to practice is the Nanjing Foreign Language School’s gym, which is free for us at each Wednesday’s night from 7 p.m. to half past eight.

Badminton is my favorite sports, I love it since I was a little boy, and I practice a lot when I was young. I can play both the single badminton play and the double badminton play. Tim is my classmates, and he is also a badminton club member, he can play the badminton very well too. I often practice with him, although I can play better than him, but he never give up for each goal, and he often to be the partner with me to play the double badminton play. We like to help each other to improve our skill in many ways. Our proprietor is Leo Qin, he also can play the badminton very well, and he often helps each of us to be better than before. I was chose to a member of GCA badminton team and joined a match at Nanjing International School. I attended the double play with Abby, she is my classmate, and my best friend, also she can not play it very well, and often made some mistakes that I thought very stupid, this caused we lost lots of points, but she never give up to be a good player, when our final match began we lost all the match before it, so she ran out of the gym and cried for a long time because of her guilt. I was sorry to her too, and I ran around the school to find her, finally I sad to her “I do not care of the result, you are my teammate, you are my friend, compare with my own win, I would rather fail with you, just try your best!” she showed me a smile, and finally we had won the only match that night.

At 14th of December our club held a match that every GCA students can take part in it, I joined it too, and got the gold medal at the end of the match, I was so happy that day, I had never thought that I can achieve the NO.1.

Today I still practice a lot to be better and better, I have learned a lot from the activity. Never give up although you can not do the things very well at the beginning. Practice more to be successful. Never blame your partner, they want to win too, they need encouragement.

This activity also helps me to keep health, after training, I have found I get stronger and stronger than before, I have not got sick for about 1 year. A healthy body is also a necessary condition of our university life in the future. On the other hand, if I have a good badminton skill in my life, its also good for our healthy life.

The activity match can test my result of training, it also a stage for us to communicate with each countries’ students and make more friends not only in China, but also in too many foreign countries. It is important for our job in the future.

I love badminton; I love our Badminton Club; I love the members in our team; I will continue to do this physical activity next year!