A Wedding Costs 6 Million RMB

I think in China, almost everyone know a kind a people we call them “coal boss”, who manage a privacy coal mine and get a lot of profit, and they are always very rich that maybe beyond your imagination. And when people mentioned about them, people always will relate it with a province of China, it is Shanxi, a province I come from. Because Shanxi is the province which is famous for producing coal. And of course, there are many coal mines in Shanxi. What I want to say is that Shanxi is not a province which only has lots of coal. I have to say that Shanxi isn’t an economic developed province, but it does mean that in other aspects it is also not as good as other provinces. However that is the point that I want to say today, if you want to know more about my hometown, I can introduce to you next time.

So why did I suddenly mention about this? Because when I surf the internet today, I read an article about a “coal boss” which really shocked me. It said that a man (whose hometown is not in Shanxi) who does some coal business in Shanxi held a very luxury wedding for his son. The whole cost that we can calculate for this wedding is 6 million RMB. He rented the whole four star hotel for two days (what’s more, he let the hotel change its all furniture to new ones), transported flowers which cost 200 thousand RMB from Guangzhou and abalones which cost 400 thousand RMB from Hong Kong. The whole feast cost 1.2 million RMB. He also held a firework display which lasted for 40 minutes. Maybe the most unbelievable thing is that he invited two very famous CCTV emcees (Lao Bi, Ju Ping) officiated at wedding. And there was also one thing that I have to mention, the new couple donated 1 million to charity.

After this wedding was reported by the media, it really caused a fierce discussion in society. Some people thought that the “coal boss” was too luxury and wanted to show who rich he was. He should donate the money which he cost in the wedding to the charity. But some people do not think so. They thought that he had the right to spend him own money and who to spend their money.

In my opinion, if the man got this money legally, however I thought he did, because if he got this money illegally, he may not dare show this. This action can be acceptable for me, but if I was at that state, I would not do that. Because he did this based on his ability which he can held, we have to say to he is really very rich. But I think everyone want to held a perfect wedding, and I think every normal families will also do their best to make their children have a good wedding. I think the percentage of which they (the normal families and this man) cost on the wedding of their whole poverty can be the same. The only difference between them is their whole poverty. So is it wrong that he is rich. What’s more, the new couple also donated 1 million to the charity, so will you donate money when you get married? And you may say they are rich, but who said that only the rich have the component to donate? I think the point is not the amount of money, but the will that you want to help others. The new couple really did this. And they donated 1 million RMB, which was 1/6 of the whole cost for their wedding. And Bill was once the richest man in the world; he even had a whale in his villa, because he can afford this.

So, I think this action can be acceptable for me.

What about having a belief in God

I have been considering this issue for a long time, since the day I was taken to watch the performance hosted by the City Harvest and saw many people dancing and singing to praise the God with sincere happiness from the bottom of their hearts. Yes. I was indeed moved by the scene that all of the people in the huge theatre with candles in their hands and their eyes closed prayed at the same time, although a large amount of them didn’t believe in the God. There were some feelings holy in my heart at the very moment when I closed my eyes and prayed with the priest. The people who took us there and who played their best on the stage were definitely missionaries, I thought. But I didn't see that they could get any benefit from us, or from persuading us to join them. They were so warm-hearted and sincere that I doubted if they were going to get something from me for many times, however, I didn’t lose even a cent when I left there. Why? I was thinking hard but got no answer.

I was taught that there is no God or something like that in the world when I was in China, just like most of the Chinese children. Despite that, the elder people always have their own beliefs nevertheless. For example, my father believes in Buddhism devoutely. We have a buddhistic sculpture in my house and he with my mother will go to the Buddhist temples every Chinese New Year to pray for health, wealth and good luck in the coming new year. It is him who told me that man should have his own belief which will back and support him whenever he is sad or desperate. I was too young to fully understand him at that time, so I just insisted that all the Gods are false and imaginary as I was taught in the school.

As time moved on, I felt more respectful to the unseen power which I thought might affect our life. I changed my attitude to that I preferred to admit that the Gods do exist in the world and respect them while I still didn’t believe that. I feared that the Gods who may exist in the world would punish me if I showed my disrespect to them. But there was not anything happening which I saw with my own eyes that could convinced me that there really were Gods on earth. In the other words, I didn’t receive any messages from the Gods.

Now, I change my mind again, after I came to Singapore, where people are more westernized and many of them are Christians, and saw the strong belief in the God which I have never seen before except in movies. I realize that nowadays, the religion is not what barbarians used to explain the strange happenings they had no idea about. The religion is a kind of faith where you can repose your soul, and just like what my father said, it will back you and give you the power when you need it. Even the most intellegent and strong person on earth will be helpless one day and he will also need the power which religion will offer, so that is why many Christians I know are highly educated, some of who are even PhDs.

Yet, I haven’t got the message from the God. But I’ve grown up and have my own opinions. Maybe, oneday I will get the message, or maybe, never will I. No matter how the things will be, I will surely have a belief. Perhaps in the God.

JiangXiaoning(Arthur)

Ready to handle Phase 2

Dear Students

It is good to see that during your break, you have kept your interest in your blog. Thank you for the many interesting posts and pictures.

We are all ready to handle phase 2 with more energy and determination to do better. In fact, your first assignment is Blog Writing 6.

Keep up the good work.

A Frightening Experience with a Cobra!

Yesterday afternoon, the weather was fine and the sky was clear. I decided to take some photos of the sunset in the beach. So, after supper, I set off with my camera and photographic equipment to Labrador beach.

As we know, we have to go through the Labrador Natural Reserve, which is like a virgin forest with many species of animals, to reach the Labrador beach. There are many routes for you to go through, some are paved with planks and protected by the guardrails by two sides, and they are also relatively wider; but some are paved by concrete with trees and grasses and any other plants surrounded. They don’t have guardrails, either, which makes you feel like in a natural narrow path.

I didn’t want to always follow one familiar way, so I decided to explore a new one to go down to the beach. Consequently and unfortunately, I somehow got to a “natural path”. Walking on the path, I found some strange sounds all the way. But I didn’t pay much attention to that; I just think it probably the sound of the rustling of the leaves or some small animals such as birds, monkeys or squirrels moving. I failed to realize what I was going to face until I reached an intersection. I heard a louder noise behind me which seems like something was moving towards me. So, I turned to look what was that. Oh, my god, what I saw almost frightened me to death, a big black cobra, which had reared up and spread his neck, flicking its tongue towards me. And it was only half a metre away from me. If it wanted to, it could bite me at will. Looking back now, I know that state of cobra is regarded as the attacking state and in such a situation, I had better stay still, otherwise there would be a big possibility that I became the target of the cobra. However, at that very moment, there was no room in my brain to think. The instinct led me to run at the fastest speed I could reach all the way down to the beach. I was so frightened that I dare not look back when running. Finally, after a frightened sprint, I got to the beach. Thank goodness, maybe I was not attractive enough or the cobra thought itself not big enough to eat me, it didn’t chase. Sitting on the bench at the seaside of Labrador, I still was not totally recovered from the fright just now. What if I was bitten? What if it chased after me? I was alone at that time; I even couldn’t find someone to help me.

Before this experience, I could never imagine I would meet with a cobra somewhere apart from zoos. Actually, there have been some of my friends who told me that they saw snakes nearby, but I just ignore their reminders. I should have paid attention to these potential hazards since I had come to a tropical country that is diverse in tropical animals, of course, cobra included. Now, after this “adventure”, I am more aware of the importance of self-protection. And hereby I also want to remind my fellows, dangers truly exist, watch out for them, watch out for the cobras!

ANTS ATTACK!

It was Tuesday noon on our recess week. In my dormitory, some of my roommates were playing computer games or surfing the internet; some of us were still asleep; some of us were reading novels. We were all enjoying this relaxing holiday. But, some thing unpleasant and unexpected was about to happen…

At that time, I was sitting at my desk. Jacky was surfing the internet. Suddenly, Jacky stand up quickly, shouted, “Ouch! Ants, they bite me!” Hearing the noise, we gather around Jacky’s desk. On the floor, we could see large amount of ants moving forward in lines. Maybe Jacky disturbed their march by accident, so they all climbed up to his leg and gave him some punishments. Living with ants could be very uncomfortable and disturbed. As early as we first arrived in Singapore, unties had told us about this. We decided to end these small insects. Jacky kept jamming on the ants. Hundreds of them were dead under his slipper. However, this war didn’t end. More and more ants came out. They climbed up Jacky’s slipper. These creatures were small but had strong mandibles. Jacky screamed under their attack. Killing all of them seemed to be impossible. Then, Jacky wanted to destroy the ants’ nest. Following the line made up by the ants, he found a hole on the floor which all the ants went into. We could not do anything with this hole. As a result, Plan B ended up failure. At this time, Jacky realized the ants must have found some food. He removed his stuff under the desk. At last, he found some fruit there. That was ants’ target. Throwing away the fruit, we fought against them again. This time, one of our roommates suggested putting some laundry powder on them. That was really a strange method for me. I didn’t know why, but it seemed work. Although the powder could not kill the ant, it made them lose the way. At the end of the war, most of the ants we could see had been killed. We all thought we win.

I went to play basketball after that. An hour later, when I went back to my room, another roommate was hitting the floor crazily. Ants came again! My roommate lost his temper. He used everything he could find to cope with the ants: powder, water or even the perfume… I thought he was so funny. But, at my desk, I knew how serious the problem was. The ants had found a new way to find food and that way was move across the floor under my desk! I had no idea. I was defeated by this little troop. The only way was to avoid disturb them when I was doing my own things.

Now, I should think about buying some insecticide…

Things do not change;we change

die down the flowers,blowing away in the wind,no directions,no destination
flying away with the white hair bless,with the water falls

every time, river is not himself as a second before
course,glideness,no turning around

life is all about missing,wondering in all missing,missing in every ignorance
idle away

so,treasure what your have,measure what you promised
inspite of waiting
no ignorance no blur

clearer as you are,nearer you will be

but,missing can never change
let it go if missing
no return,no regret
different feelings
pass away……

even if bad mad in a wrong way

what is wrong?
when time draw a furrow on you,no right or wrong

a poem of mine

coincidence

Coincidence？
One day in last month, I happened to meet two girls. At that noon, I was just the first time to print my paper. I asked them for help. They kindly told me all the things than told me that to pay the bill I should use the ez-link or cashcard, but since the new ez-link can’t be used that time and I didn’t have the old one. They help me and pay for me the single paper for several cents.
It’s not the unusual thing, because I will also do that if somebody needs help. But something happened unusually next.
After finished my lunch, the two girls found me. They gave me a cashcard and told me that it’s just a gift. At first I was thinking that they had some other purpose, but they didn’t ask me for anything, neither my name or phone number. They said I was a freshman so that they just wanted to help me. Without a time to say thank you, they had gone they left without leaving their names or connecting number.
It’s really a blessing to have such a experience. Even though in this substantial world, people are all searching for their benefits, there are still some kindness and nicety in the world. I happened to meet this, is this a coincidence?
I found my high school’s principal in the photo a newspaper on the March 14th 2009, the front page of strait time!!!
Is it also coincidence?
I think life is full of coincidences, also necessities contain coincidences. If I am not in that high school, she is not my principal; if I’m not in the NUS, never will I meet these two girls.
Coincidence?

The Hornet Nest

Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get. Sometimes it can be joyful, sometimes it can be sad, maybe in some particular situation you will also find it hopeless, but there is nothing worse than one day you get up and find a hornet nest right in your bedroom, and that is exactly what happened to me last week!

It was in a lazy Sunday morning. I woke up very late and found all my roomates had already been out. After finishing my breakfast, I sat down in front of my desk and started to read. All of a sudden, I saw a huge hornet fly inside my desk. Frightened, I stood up with a jump, but when I tried to find out where this hornet was hiding, it could not be found anywhere. I thought it had already gone so I sat down and went on to read. After about two minutes, the hornet appeared out of nowhere and again flew into my desk! This time I just stood still and waited it to show up again, as expected, the hornet reappeared from under the desk and flew out of my room. However, when I was about to get back to my reading, the hornet came in again. I was so annoyed that I went to the washroom and took a broom, planning to kill that hornet, but unfortunately, it was too fast for me to aim at.

Just at that time my roomates came back. Seeing my stupid posture with the broom, they laughed. Suddenly one of my roomates became serious and warned me that the hornet might be building a nest under my desk. Realizing the toughness of the situation, I kneeled down and put my head into under the desk. To my great surprise, there was indeed a hornet nest!

News always spreads very fast in Eton Hall, after a little while my room was crowded with people, they all looked at the nest and did not know what to do. At last, one guy came out, he took the broom and used one end to stab the nest. The hornet nest was small and unfinished, soon, it was completely destroyed.

After that, I sprayed a lot of pesticide under my desk, and that hornet never did come back again.

Chinese English ……

Chinese English ……
I learn from today's newspaper that Prime Minister Mentor asked the young generation of Chinese Singaporean to learn Mandarin at this very age.He said that learning dialects diverts kid's energy spent on other languages.He also emphasis that tody's parents in Sing. better using Mandarin when talking to their children. It help build the mother tongue especially both two of the parents speak one single language to their children. So he suggest that Chinese Singaporean families speak only Chinese at home.
What I think is that since the world is becoming more and more diverse and dynamic,we need to protect the dialects. Dialects contain the culture and civilization. I know that original Chinese got nine accents while in mandarin we only have four accents. When reading Chinese poems in ancient way,the sound is beautiful and they are all at rhyme.
Today we are losing the health, the favorite environment, also the diverse cultures, our cultures are conquered by the might culture more or less. Culture makes a self-determinate, where you are from, who you are. If we lose the accumulated culture influence, than who we are? We are not different from the westerners except the color if we can only speak English.
So I suggest that we should take dialects as a local education module learned by primary school students as their seniors did to learn English. It’s not fair English language conquers all the mouths around the world because of the politics and economical purpose.

What makes a difference

I bought a Digital Single Lens Reflex(DSLR) camera Sony α 300 in IT show, here I want to share my experience and why I chose Sony as opposed to Cannon which is considered better by many people.

Last Sunday, I went to the Suntec Centre where the IT show was held together with two of my friends. Apart from the Chinese New Year and the Christmas, It was my first time in Singapore to see so many people went to a place at the same time and they seemed to fear to drop behind others. One of my friends defined the phenomenon as a convincing proof of Singaporean’s “Kiasu”. My aim is clear, a camera. So, elbowing through the crowd, I made my way to the exhibition stand of camera directly. My first stop is Cannon which is considered good in equality and advanced in technology. Actually, I had an intention to buy a Cannon D100. So, if it wasn’t for the things happened next, I would have bought a Cannon DSLR. I headed to the stand of Cannon hoping to get some information. The salesmen there were not greeting at all. They just engaged themselves in talking with others and ignored me. Finally, around 5 minutes later, one of them came to me and asked if they could help. I told him that I want a camera, whether he could give me some introduction. He gave me a leaflet on which printed many types of Cannon cameras. Since I was not familiar with the professional technical words in camera, I asked him if he could explain to me the introduction on the leaflet. He seemed to be a little reluctant to do that. And after two or three questions, he became impatient and finally he said to me: “Sorry, our queue is still long. If you want to buy, please be quick.” Hearing the words, I felt very angry. So, I turned away without hesitation.

Leaving Cannon with anger, I went to Sony. In stark contrast with the attitude of the salesman in Cannon, Sony was very warm, patient and helpful. They gave satisfying answers to every question I enquired and showed me the camera’s functions thoroughly by demonstrating them with real camera. In the whole process, they explained to me patiently with smiles. Their gifts were fascinated as well. So, I was persuaded at last. I made up my mind to buy a Sony. The salesman even led me to the cashier queue and helped me solve the problems of my bankcard!

This is my experience of buying my camera. Now, looking at my Sony α 300， I can tell that what made my mind to buy Sony and what difference Sony made was the good service to its customers!

Design your life-an unforgettable tour in Red Dot Design Museum

I mainly came across you by chance, but I would not miss you on purpose.

You are more than a museum that simply displays paintings or sculptures. You are portraying ideas and concepts as a matter of fact. Impressed by how great minds can shape the world and how those inspirations may design our life, I did enjoy the tour in this design museum which exhibited not only entries from the winners of the international Red Dot Awards but also ideas that have already been applied to the market.

I would like to share some of them.

It is a magic pen that can draw with the colour you like. Simply point it to a certain object and then it will be able to draw in the colour of that object.

Such designs allow several persons to share the same MP3 device while listening to the music.

In this pair of dancing shoes, there are tiny buttons fixed inside that can quake to the rhythm of the music, which enable the deaf to dance.

Such curved ground can collect rainwater of a larger area and reserve it to water the nearby plant.

This device can produce ripples to the rhythm of the background music.

With this camera, the blind can touch the “shape” of every object after it takes a picture which transfers image of the real world into intensive dots.

There are much more things left there to be explored. What I have uncovered are just part of them. On top of the exhibation I mentioned above, you would be overtaken by the speed of various events that take place here. From mini-concert to on-the-spot portraying practice, you would surely enjoy to your heart's content.

Come, have a look yourselves, and be awed by the wide array of past, present and future innovations!

Arthas

As the prince of the human nation of Lordaeron, from the day he was born, Arthas was predestined to take on the heavy responsibility. And brought up by the good education, Arthas gradually became an excellent prince. He was goodness, zealous, honest, and brave… He almost had all the good characters which people should have.

Maybe it was also because of the responsibility, he was eager to find a chance to prove himself. Precisely at this time, the Scourge which is lead by Kel’Thuzad was doing damage to the Lordaeron; he transformed the human to the ghoul. In order to establish the authority of the prince, the king decided to let his son to fight with Kei’Thuzard. The strong responsibility and the historical mission made him hate the Scourge’s guts.

And finally, a thing which changed his whole life happened. The prince got the message that a village was attacked by the Scourge. When the prince arrived there, he harrowingly found that all the people in the village had become the ghoul. With the love for the people and the hate for the Scourge, he swore that no matter how much it costs, he must destroy the Scourge. At last, the pitying prince couldn’t control his anger; he began to butcher the residents who lost their souls. Objectively speaking, his action could be reasonable at that situation. But his father felt the desire to kill of the prince. The king decided to let Arthas retreat. However, because of the eyes blinded by the hate, Arthas didn’t follow his father’s command. To strengthen his strength quickly, with the strong desire to the strength, he began to find a sword which was under a curse but could make him become stronger---- Frostmourne. Arthas achieved his goal and got the powerful strength from the Frostmourne, but at that moment the prince of the Lordaeron had become the past. Instead it, Arthas had become the Death Knight, the faithful servant of Lich King, who is the leader of the Scourge. Lich King transmitted his own volition to Arthas by the Frostmourne. At last, the Death King Arthas went back to the Lordaeron and the killed his father.

In my opinion, I think the corruption of Arthas not only due to himself, but also because of his father’s and teacher’s distrust. As a young man who was eager to show his ability and make a difference, his father and teacher should give him understanding and correct instruction. When Atrhas decided to butcher the village, as a general who had many experience, his father and teacher should know that this action is unavoidable. However, all this mistake at last lead to the tragedy.

Qu Dong

Lucky

It was an ordinary day. We got up early, had a whole day class and caught the bus back to Eton Hall. Nothing seemed to be wrong. While, after I had supper, I heard from one of my classmates from HIT that another classmate called Liu Yangfan was send to hospital immediately after school, for there was serious pain in his kidney. On hearing this, I was shocked. How could that happen? I had just talked to him yesterday. At that time he even played jokes with us. Later a call came. It was from the classmate who went with Liu Yangfan. He told us that after testing the urine, the doctor said Liu Yangfan perhaps had something with his kidney and he probably should live in hospital. So another classmate and I immediately took some money and hurriedly took the bus to hospital.
About half an hour later, we got to NUH. There we saw Liu Yangfan sitting on the chair and waited for his turn to see the doctor. Besides our classmate, there were another two people sitting beside him. Then we knew that they were local and happened to meet Liu Yangfan on his way to hospital. So they came in company with Liu Yangfan and helped him to communicate with the doctor. Then the speaker said that it was Yangfan’s turn to see the doctor. We had to wait outside anxiously. Then we chatted with the two locals. They were also NUS students and this was their final year in NUS. They all had projects to do. But they still spared some time to be with us. We felt so appreciated.
A few minutes later, Yangfan came out. The doctor asked him to take the X-ray. After the X-ray, we and Yangfan had to wait outside for the result. About one hour later, the result came. He had nothing serious. There was a small stone in his kidney. By drinking enough water, the stone could come out itself. On hearing this, we were so happy that there were nothing serious.
We are now in Singapore. As classmates, we have to help each other. And so locals are really helpful. We appreciate it very much.

The Endings of Doraemon

Doreamon is one of my favorite cartoons when I was a child. It really entertained me with lovely characters Nobi Nobita(野比大雄), Kouta Takeshi(胖虎or技安), Honegawa Suneo)(阿福), Minamoto Shizuka(静香or宜静), Doraemon's pocket in which there are mountains of fantastic things and a world that is full of innocence.

 

Recently, the long story of Doraemon came to an end. However, it has different endings.

1.  1. All the funny stories are the dreams of Nobi Nobita who suffers from lunacy due to the cruelty of the modern life and he can only remember his life when he was eight years old, which is his happiest memory.

 

The author expressed his great disappointment about society by this ending while at least 16 people committed suicide resulting from this ending for Doraemon was the only comfort to them.

2.  2. The people from the future come to our times for traveling, which      bother people in our times very much. So the law in future times ban the time travel, therefore Doraemon has to go back to the future.

 

3.  3. The grandson of Nobi Nobita who sends Doraemon to him thinks that Nobita relies too much on Doraemon, which is bad for Nobita, so he calls Doraemon to come back. When Nobita gets to know it, he is determined to study hard so that Doraemon can go back without worrying about him any more.

 

I think these two endings are not that remarkable. Actually, Doraemon was serialized in a magazine that is designed for students in Grade four, the grade that Nobi Nobita is in. The author just wanted to use these two endings to say goodbye to the students in Grade Four.

 

4. 4. Doraemon runs out of electricity. The other robots like Doraemon have backup power supply in their ears to maintain their memory but Doraemon doesn’t’ have ears. Nobita chooses to leave Doraemon as it is since he doesn’t want Doraemon to forget about him. Then, Nobita spares no efforts to study in order to give Doraemon new power supply as well as keep Doraemon’s memory. More than ten years past, Nobita become a brilliant scholar whose wife is Minamoto Shizuka. Eventually, Nobita find a way after a long research. He press the button, after a long time of silence come the words “Nobita, I have been waiting for you for so long a time.”

This ending is my favorite ending. It’s related to one small detail in the looking of Doraemon—Doraemon has no ears. And this ending is moving. Sweet memories are very valuable and worth efforts to maintain them.

 

 

 

 

Smile to be happy
Smile is the gift which is distributely equally by god. We don’t need to learn how to smile. You will simle when you are happy. You can smile whenever you can. Smile is the beauty without which the world won’t be not so harmony. Smile is the beautiful flower which can contribute to the interaction between you and others. Smile is your honey’s confort which can heal your pain. More frequently you smile, more happy and healthy you are.
Smile is good for our health. Some one say it can make us live longer.It’s true and many scientists have proved it. Many people run to health but some hate running, while smile can make you healthy and take less strength and time.
It’s good for your relationships to keep smile on your face. Smile make you look better and friendly. Without smile, it’s hard to make friends with others. How do you think if you keep company with a person no smile at all? It’s no doubt that smile make you and your friends happy. If it’s the first meet with a stranger, the smile is more important which can contribut to the impression of you.
Smile not only can make you happy, but also can heal your pain in your heart. Every one must face challenges and be stress or sad sometimes. Smile of yours and your friend’s looking like angels can confort you and make you feel better. Smile give you hope and power which can help you finish the challenges over. Your smile just means that the challenges are not challenges at all.
When smile is so good a gift that god give us, why not treasure the gift and smile as often as you can.

A trip to the IT show

I have heard that the only feeling you have in the suntec is that there are so many people.
It is true!
There are so many people in such a small place. It drove me to wonder whether I was in Singapore or in China. I could hardly move a step when I entered the place.
I went there with another seven friends. Unfortunately, I got lost with any of them. I wanted to buy a MP4 which I forgot to take here from my home. Some of other friends wanted to buy cameras. And the rest wanted to buy software. So we left each other and went to different places.
I was wondering whether I should buy an i-touch or an i-pod. I had not decided yet. For me, I have already had a newly-bought laptop. Though it was a little heavy compared to the i-touch, it can still work efficiently. And I doubted that if I bought an i-touch, I would spend many time playing it during the class. It was so attractive to me. Having thought twice, I decided to buy a ipod-classic.
I have waited for nearly half an hour to pay the bill. I could not help being amazed at the great number of people. Many people walked by me one after another. There were still so many people waiting for getting on the elevator. I did not see my friends for a while. And I was a little worry about them. Did they buy what they want? Where were they? Did they find each other?
I thought the price was not cheap. But the sales man gave me a bundle: free USB power charger, Screen Protector and Leather Case.
I did not consider too much about the price. I did not want to spend too much energy in comparing the price one shop after another. What I should do is to buy what I need and do what I should do. Most of the time I do not want to go out of the eton hall and travel around to go shopping. I think it is a waste of time. Singapore is known as a shopping paradise. But it is still too early for me to enjoy a luxury material life.
I felt a little tired after I bought the ipod-classic. I have not gone shopping for a long time. And I suddenly realized I have a lot of homework to do these days. I immediately went out of the suntec.
I could not tell you the exact feeling I had at that time. Maybe I felt more tired than excited. I was tired of dealing something which had bothered me a lot recently. But I believe it is just a difficult period which I can overcome at last.
Now I am using the ipod-classic. It is nice, isn’t it? I hope I can adjust myself in the small holidays to come. I will be OK, so don’t worry about me.

The Titles of the Dream of Red Mansion

The Titles of the Dream of Red Mansion
It is impossible to talk about Chinese culture without reference to the classic literatures like the Romance of Three Kingdoms, the Journey to the West, the Water Margin, and the Dream of Red Mansion. However, I have only read the Dream of Red Mansion. Perhaps, reading the Dream of Red Mansion ahead of others novels is not reasonable because it is so excellent, nonetheless with some defects, compared with other novels that you always feel bored when reading them.

Frankly speaking, the English translation of titles of Chinese classic literatures above is not vivid as the origin and I am not sure that foreigners can understand its meaning exactly. Of course, it is impossible to translate classic Chinese literatures into English and convey the same meaning as the origin, just as it is impossible to translate English literatures into Chinese and convey the same meaning as the origin. Here I will talk about the titles of The Dream of Red Mansion.

In the first chapter of the novel, the author explains the origin of the book and at the same tells readers there are many titles of the novel. Now the most popular one is “the Dream of Red Mansion”, which appears in the title of the fifth chapter and the content of the fifth chapter. Another popular one is “the Story of the Stone”, which is the original title of the novel as far as scholars speculate. Why is it called “the Story of the Stone”? The reason is really simple. It is said that the whole story is carved on the stone, which ever appears in the human world with the birth of a baby and witnesses his life. The story is about that baby, who is the main character in the novel.

In addition to these two, there are another three different titles, “The Record of a Passionate Monk”, “Twelve Beauties of Jinling” and “the Precious Mirror of Love”.

According to the novel, the author tends to use the “Twelve Beauties of Jinling” as the title. However, I have to say that the translation is not accurate. If translated directly, it should be “Twelve Hairpins of Jinling”. In Chinese, the hairpin refers to woman, but beauty is not equal to woman, I think. “Jinling” is the hometown of the main characters. There are twelve main female characters in the novel and one of author’s main purposes is to show women’s talent, ability and misfortune; therefore, it is natural that the author names his novel “Twelve Beauties of Jinling”. The eleven poems in the fifth chapter imply their fortune.

In the first chapter, the author says that the novel is copied from the stone by a monk, who understands the essence of the world after reading the story on the stone and bringing the stories to the author and then changes his name into “Qingseng”, that is to say, Love Monk. Hence, some reader entitles the novel “the Record of Love Monk”.

A precious mirror ever turns up in the twelfth chapter and is made by a Goddess. A person suffering from unknown diseases will recover through looking at the back of the mirror; however, he will lose his life if he looks at the front of it. The author ever writes a novel named “the Precious Mirror of Love” before he writes the Dream of Red Mansion and the content of the Dream of Red Mansion is relevant to it in many aspects, so some readers call the Story of Stone “the Precious Mirror of Love”.

Above is what I know about the titles of the Dream of Red Mansion. The Dream of Red Mansion is a rare masterpiece. If you read it and ponder after reading it, you will gain great pleasure and learn more about feelings. I hope that you can read it and wish you gain pleasure from it.

Psycological welllness

Psycologicl wellness
As three people have suicided recently, I think it’s important for us to achieve greater control over the stress in our lives. It’s no doubt that psycological wellness is significant part of health wellness. It’s necessary for us to learn how to cope with the stress. We have learnt about it recently. Let me make a summary.
It’s normal that everyone has sterss in life, so it’s no need for us to be scared to face them. We can encounter challenges anytime, and any problem can come up even you have planed well. When challenges come up, we just be confident and respond actively to them. If you are strong enough, the challenges will be weak; if you are weak, the challenges will be strong. It’s the ups and downs that make life is life. So it’s necessary to cope with stress.
There are many positive coping mechanisms for you. First of all, you must recognize your stress signals and then choose the right coping strategies. You can keep a stress journal. Besides, think of one simple thing that could make your life easier. It can help you eliminate conflict and alleviate anxiety that you manage time well and make sure you overcome procrastination. Because if you don’t have a plan on your life and don’t have effective life, you will feel more stressful. In addition, relaxation techniques is necessary. You should learn how to relax youself. For example, you can sport, sing or speak up to your friends. Most of all, you should be more optimistic and put things in propr perspective. If you cope with stress properly, stress is not just a bad thing, but it can be a encouragement.
No matter how you stressful are, you just believe that you can deal with that. Let’s pay more attention to the psycological wellness.

How wonderful the activities are in Singapore

Having been Singapore for nearly three months, I appreciate it that I can take part in many kinds of activities. In those activities, I feel so clearly happy with my friends.
--The Valentine Day without the lover Although my roommates and I were still single, we didn’t like to miss any festival, so we decided to have an impressive feast outside. We took the MRT to the Kallang in hope for finding a restaurant where we could enjoy both BBQ and steamboat. The Goodness was so kind and rained the benefits upon the single men as well in that day. We found a cafeteria we were content with. The fresh vegetables and meat filled us, while the inviting seafood satisfied a craving for delicious food greatly. We finally attained greatness that we walked out of against the wall. Besides, we had Snow Ice in Chinatown. I called it that day the festival for food.
--The Group Activity Feb 15, 2009 was sunny, and we went to City Hall to enjoy our party. Most of us met our tutors at MRT station and then we moved for the restaurant where we have lunch. Along the way our tutors gave us the detailed description of the place and told us what we could enjoy the life in Singapore and so on. With the friendly communication, we arrived at the place for lunch. Mdm. Tan (our group leader) kindly told us to help ourselves to order one of our favorite sets while Mr. Kan (our tutor on Wed.) recommended the inviting ice cream all the time, and Ms Lim(our tutor on Thus.) continued the communication with us. Everyone, I think, couldn’t forget that exciting time easily. After lunch, we had a visit to the grand conference building and enjoyed a wonderful harmonica concert. Though the time of activity was not long, the memory was unforgettable to me.
--Oral presentation in groups Including the activities in the outdoors, the discussion in classroom aroused our special attention. After the individual oral presentation on March 11, 2009, we have another presentation in group. We express ourselves freely and enjoy the presentation. Happiness is the theme of this event. We learn how to research, how to be confident and how to create the happiness. Everyone is a success in my view, and I believe we can do better soon. (At last, I want to show you the moments we do presentations as a memory, at least, it is the first time of our presentation in group.)
Besides we have a lot of personal or group activities as well, such as birthday party, jungle travelling, the Christmas Play in City Harvest etc. I want to share with you not only the memory which we value, but also a belief that we really have lots of activities to enjoy and give up the thought staying at home to enjoy spring. Furthermore, the time with friends is well worth cherishing. P.S:I'm so sorry but I miss vedio of Gengxin Kangli Ranbo and Jinlong.If I find, I will add it up as soon as possible.

Something about future

Standing at the crossroad in my life, every now and then, I ponder on my future.

To be frank, there always exist many doubts and even a little bit fear when facing an uncertain future. The doubts range from some very practical things such as which major I am going to choose this April to some very big topics such as what the meaning of my life is. These problems are so important for me but always cannot be solved. So they are really bothering sometimes.

For example, the problem of choosing the major. Actually, I have an interest in economy and business. However, unfortunately, we are not eligible to choose such majors because we are supposed to master a major in science or technology. So I have to make decisions among the majors in the faculty of Science, Engineering or SOC. That is really tough for me, because I do not have “feelings” about those majors, I do not know whether I have an interest or not; they seem totally the same to me. So, I am still thinking hard to figure out the truth about myself.
And something about life is bothered, too. Sometimes I feel like to go out to explore something new, to go close to the nature, to lead a cozy and casual life without thinking about any tough things I will come across or even the mission I need to accomplish in my real life. Because I appreciate such life styles as well as the philosophy in it. On the other hand, sometimes I feel like to be very ambitious that I want to be successful in my working career, to have some achievements, even to have my own enterprise. The reason is that I like the job CEOs do, presidents do. They are faced with difficulties, they take risk and they make decisions. I would hopefully enjoy the thrill such jobs will provide me. It seems to be a contradiction. So, I always feel confused by such questions, or maybe by myself. Maybe I do not know myself thoroughly. I have not explored the deepest feelings in the bottom of my heart.

After all, these doubts are inevitable in thinking about the future. Maybe I do not need to worry. Be relaxed and the answers would be emerging one day.

My hometown—Dalian, Liaoning Province

Having left hometown for nearly three months, I more or less miss it and my family. In addition, after appreciating my friends’ description of their hometown, an idea of bringing my own forth occurs to me. My hometown is Dalian, exactly it is an area in the northeast of Dalian inner city called Jinzhou. It is like a plain girl, and her beauty is natural. Though there is little amazing scenery, you will be satisfied if you are looking for a tranquil place to spend your rest life happily.

First of all, please look at the mountain which is called Big Black Mountain. I think, that’s because there are not many plants so the black solid is exposed and that’s why it is called Big Monk Mountain as well. The height of it is 663 meters, and when you climb the peak, you are perhaps able to see the beautiful scenery that one side of the mountain is surrounded by the mist as like you are standing on the white clouds while from the other side the whole of Dalian city is absolutely in your sight. Some temples stand on the mountain and they also attract many visitors to come.

Next to the splendid mountain located our high school whose name is Jinzhou high school. It is said she is one among the best school in LiaoNing Province because of her advanced equipment. At the sight of the familiar playground, I think back the period when our class play football or play snow balls. The canteen reminds me of the time we rush for our lunch in crowd after class. The school gate seems to tell the story of my getting to the school every morning. When I leave it, I just feel how happy we once were. It’s true that I remember that time clearly. The teachers, the classmates and the school are all what I should cherish.

Besides the two palaces, in the inner of Jinzhou, there are about ten shopping centers. And some squares also provide many chance of entertainment such as dancing, walking etc. Though my hometown is not big, it’s really exquisite and can give me warmth and comfort. Welcome to my hometown..
To be honest, if I didn’t spend time on the preparations for description of my hometown, perhaps I never realize how charming she is. As the saying goes, the beauty of home is greater than wherever it looks beautiful. Finally, I also want to share with you it’s true that there is quite a lot of beauty in the world while you have not discovered it.

ma,I love you

Today I was deeply moved after finishing reading one student’s blog (“papa mama I love you” in group 3 posted by Yan Han). Her title attracted me very much, so that I couldn't help to reading her blog. She did so well to express her feeling, and show her mama and papa’ great love of her. They have done so much for her, and she did remember all they have done for her. That is really moving. They cared of her when she were sick; they prepared everything for her before she went to school; they helped her study; they switch their phone to make sure that she would have a good sleep；They comforted her when she was in great depression because of her failure in the national universities entrance exam. So much have they done for her. I think that when she was in high school everyday she would study with the heart filled with the love of her parents. That was a really wonderful thing. And I can know from her words that she is really grateful to her parents.
I also love my mother very much. My father died when I was 2 years old. My mother was only 25-year old and very beautiful at that time. I can't image what a great and tough decision my mother made to choose to bring me and a 5-year-old sister up instead of just leaving us. I can't image how many nights she cried nearly to daze but still had to take care of me and my sister. I can't image how great the stress was for my mother to support us. I can't image how sad and depressed she was when my sister got a tough disease. I just can't image how worried she was when I got the chicken box….
I don't have a dad, but mom tried her best to give me what other children had. She would buy us new clothes before the New Year no matter how little money she had. She just never let us envy other children. We had new clothes every year but she didn't change her clothes for 10 years.
I lived in the school in junior high school and senior high school. When I was in grade 3 in junior high school, she would come every night to deliver my supper. I will never forget that one day she was badly ill and had a fever, my grandmother told her not to bring the supper for me, and let me eat in the canteen. But she refused; she said I need nutrient before the exam. So she came, drugged her sick body, walked for 1 km to my school just for my supper! I can’t forget the days before the NMET, she put off all her work and rent a house to stay with me. Every night she will talk to me to reduce my stress. At that time my neck hurt very much sometimes I couldn’t fall asleep. She then asked me to put my neck on her arm so that I could fall asleep. But she couldn’t sleep any more. Then in the morning, she would get up early without waking me up and prepared everything for me and let me sleep longer.
But I still failed in the exam. I was very upset and depressed. She hid her depression and shows the bright thing in the life for me. She just told me that it is a small dot in the life and I have a long way to go. She tried her best to comfort me. She encouraged me to go on my study in Huazhong University instead of just being regret and upset.
When I have the opportunity to come here, she appeared to be very happy for me and just asked me to go. But I know that actually she didn’t want me to leave her for such a long distance and a long time at all. She came with me to Beijing to see me off. At such a cold day I didn’t want to go outside at all. But the night before the flight, she discovered that she hadn’t prepared a headphone for me which I thought was not important at all. So I told her to forget about it. But when I waked up the next morning, she just came back from outside with the unimportant thing and breakfast and was trembling. That day was extremely cold. Later on I knew that she searched the whole school for the unimportant thing in that extremely cold morning. When I now think of her, I could see in my mind that she was trembling in the cold morning, and walking against the cold wind to look for headphone for her son!
Now I always call my mother and talk with her for a long time. One day I called her but she didn’t answer. So I decided to call her later on. But when I remember to call her it was already 10:00 p.m. I thought she might have fell sleep, so I didn’t call her. But the next day I knew that she waited for my call till midnight in such a cold winter.
So now, I will give her at least twice call a week, and all of these calls were before 8:00p.m. I knew that she would sleep better after my call…
Finally, I just want to copy her and say “ ma, I love you!”

Yoga

The origin of Yoga was in ancient India. Yoga means harmonious.
Yoga was a series of exercises used to improve people’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual abilities. Achieving the physical, mental and spiritual harmoniousness is the final objective of Yoga.
The condition of the nerve system, endocrine and primary apparatus controls a person’s health. Practicing Yoga regularly can help alleviate mental nervousness. It can also help build up our body. So Yoga can help us stay active and have a clear mind.
In the fast rate modern world, our life is full of competition and stress. Moderate stress is necessary for it can inspire our interests and make us full of energy. However, when the stress reaches a level which we couldn’t stand any longer, we will feel physically and mentally unhealthy. Our immunity will decrease and we will feel tired easily. Also, we will feel depressed and lack of confidence. What’s more, we may find it hard to breathe normally and we may even have impaired consciousness.
In this case, Yoga is a perfect way to alleviate stress. Yoga consists of the exercise of extending our body, strength, resistance and building up the function of heart and lung. It can make our body stay healthy and regulate the function of the whole body. Also, cultivate the harmoniousness of spirit and the stabilization of emotions can lead you to balance the physical, mental and spiritual conditions.
Besides these, Yoga can also help people to build up a good figure. I think this is one reason why Yoga is so popular in the recent years.
So if you feel stressful or tired, you can try to do some Yoga exercises.

The movie Wall-E

I want to introduce the movie Wall-E to you. I was impressed by the robot and the obese people 700 years later in the movie. 200 years later, we human have invented very advanced robots that just have the same feeling of our human, and even can love. But at that time, we human have created so much rubbish that the earth is no longer suitable for we human to live. So the get in a spaceship called BUY and LARGE and leave the earth and leave a kind of robots called Wall-E to clean the earth. The people in the spaceship sit on a special chair which can move to wherever they want and have a screen on it. When they are hungry, they just call the robots to deliver food for them; when they are sleepy they just sleep on the chair. In a word, they just sit on the chair and never get off to do any exercise, even not walk for one meter. They just ask the robot to do whatever they want. They just send robots to search the universe to find if there are any planets at is suitable for human and to see whether the earth is cleaned up. What they do in their daily life is just sitting on the chair and enjoying the artificial sunshine and the TV show in the screen of the chair and the nice food in the cup. As time pass by, they become more and more obese, just like pigs. What’s more, as there are intelligent robots, so there is no need for them to think, to explore the truth in the universe and to create new technology and science. The seldom use their mind. Then as a result, 700 years later they can’t get off the chairs any longer because that they are so fat that they can’t even stand on their feet and of course can’t walk. What’s worse, their mind is no longer filled with knowledge.
Then one day, a searching robot called Eve come to the earth and search for plants that are considered as the signal that the earth is suitable for man to live again. That is to say that if there are any plants on the earth again, then the people in the spaceship can return to the earth. There eve (a female robot) find the robot Wall-E (the only one left on the earth). Before that, Wall-E is a very hardworking and optimistic robot. Thought he was the only robot left on the earth, he cleans the rubbish everyday and collect what he thought is valuable in the rubbish. Then the day comes when he finds a plant in a box, and he removes it in a shoe. When he meet eve, he is totally impressed by the beautiful robot. He talks to eve when Eve is search on the earth, and led her to his house—a shabby but comfortable box car. Accidently he shows to eve the plant and the instruction in Eve’s mind begin to work. Eve become like an egg, and is unconscious. The days later a spaceship come and drive eve away. Because of the concern of Eve, Wall-E grab the spaceship and go to the BUY and LARGE。Because of the finding of the plant, the big spaceship should go back home. The captain is so happy because that they finally can go home. But the wheel (assistant robot of the captain) has got a message from the original captain that the spaceship can’t go back. So he prevents the captain and imprisons him. But the captain is very eager to go back earth, so he asks Wall-E and eve to put the plant into the detector so that the spaceship can return. However, the wheel is so strong that he asks all the guard robots in the spaceship to catch them. Having overcome a lot of difficulties, they finally get to the detector. But the wheel knows what they are doing, and just close the door of the detector. Just before the door is closed, Wall-E uses his body to block the closing. He is nearly dying at that time. At the same time, the captain is fighting with the wheel, and finally switches off the wheel. So wallet is released and Eve put the plant into the detector. The spaceship then gets the instruction and return to earth. Nevertheless, Wall-E is badly hurt and nearly dies. At that time Eve has fell in love with Wall-E, so she is very worried about Wall-E. When the spaceship returns the earth, she rushes out immediately hugging Wall-E. She rushed to Wall-E’s home and replace the broken part of Wall-E. Wall-E finally wakes up again, but he doesn’t remember anything including Eve. Eve is very sad and doesn’t know what to do. Finally she kisses Wall-E sadly. How powerful the love is that Wall-E remembers everything and of course the love to Eve!
Then the sweet movie ended with the sweet moment that they hug each other. Good movie, isn’t it? You should watch it; trust me.

Gp.5 2009

You`ve shown us good work attitude. Keep it up. Good job of the posters !

Pony On the Cliff By the Sea

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki(宫崎骏) who is famous for his insistence on planar cartoon and drawing every picture by hand.

The plot is about a mermaid, who leaves her home by accident and is rescued by a five-year-old boy who lives on the cliff by the sea. The boy thinks the fish is quite lovely and likes the fish very much. He then names her Ponyo. At the same time, her father Fujimoto is anxiously looking for his daughter. The boy is very upset when Ponyo is taken home.

Ponyo and her father have an argument when Ponyo declares that she wants be a human. With his magic, Ponyo’s father locks Ponyo in a bubble. However, Ponyo’s younger sisters who love their older sister very much, help Ponyo breaks away from her father with the absence of their father. Ponyo drinks his father’s magic water and breaks his father’s chamber, which causes an imbalance in the sea and furthermore results in terrible storm. Stepping on the waves of the sea, Ponyo happily finds the boy and his mother Lisa. Lisa leaves Ponyo and his son home hoping the storm will be over when she suddenly thinks of the residents in the nursing home and goes there to look after the old ladies.

Meanwhile, Ponyo’s parents make a decision that if Ponyo can pass a test, she can become a real human and the world order will as well be restored.

The two children decide to find Lisa after a night of good rest with Ponyo’s magic which turns a toy boat into a real one. However, after going through a tunnel Ponyo begins to lose her magic and human form. Finally, the boy and Pony get to the nursing home where the boy is asked by Pony’s mother whether he will love Ponyo even Ponyo is just a fish. The boy answers yes and kisses Ponyo on the face, then the story come to a happy ending.

Actually, this story is another version of the fairytale the little mermaid, while the two main characters in the story are much younger and the story has a happy ending.

Though this cartoon received many awards but I have to say, I was disappointed by the cartoon. The story is too childish compared with Hayao Miyazaki’s old works such as spirited away, Howl’s moving castle, which leave the viewers to think about lives and imply Hayao Miyazaki’s opinions. I really doubt how can two children who are even not old enough to enter the primary school understand love? And Pony is too self-willed who nearly destroy the world just wanting to look for the boy， can we just give a laugh and consider this kind of behavior lovely? What’s more, the test that just needs a word “yes” from a child really test the love between the two?

Anyhow， I have to appreciate Hayao Miyazaki’s hard work in this cartoon. I can see that he spent much time and energy in it in order to make sure that every action of Ponyo is lovely.

 

 

 

Explore the Nanoworld

As the NUS Art Festival moves on, I carry on availing myself of every possible opportunity provided to accumulate my knowledge and refresh my mind.


Among several activities with which I have already be involved, “Explore the Nanoworld” is the one bringing the most joy, that I specially want to mention.A sophisticated instrument was used in this lab experience activity, that is, the so-called scanning electron microscope which is able to zoom in to a 10 to the power of -9 scale. The excitement resulted not only from the fact that I had access to operating the giant electrical monster myself, but also from the kind of experience it brought with.

The scanning electron microscope which worth million dollars lied in a quite corner of the physics department. The pictures below were taken by me, during the observation of different tiny objects in the lab.


It is a picture of the head of an ant, in which we can distinguish both eyes of it. It took great efforts before I finally managed to find the right angle to capture this photo.

You may be puzzled by the peculiar patterns in this picture. Guess what is it? It is the surface of a cockroach(a kind of insect called by lots of us’xiao qiang’)’s leg!!!

This one may be quite common in our daily life, not that disgusting as the above. Just a simple piece of paper.


It is a stomata which is usually find on the surface of a leaf. Gas for essential respiration goes in and out this tiny hole.


It seems to me that this picture is the most meaningful one since it is my hair!!! At least, I hold this and keep this, make sure that many years later I would have unique and precious memories to fall back on.

A lot of more things lying ahead for me to explore and see, what is my next stop? Who knows? ^_^

Zhang Qiong

A reminder. Submission of posts

Dear students

As we have only one week left before phase one ends, we remind you that you need to submit at least 5 blog entries and 5 comments. For those who have not kept up with your blog entries on your reflections and any other sharing, please make a conscious effort to do so.

Keep on working hard.

An Excellent Experience

Today we four, TIAN GENGYIN, WANG KANGLI, RAN BO and I, decided to do some research in McDonald in order to accomplish the assignment Ms Lim. At three o’clock pm, we started off. We arrived at the McDonald in Queensway after several minutes’ walk.

There were some customers having dinner when we entered the restaurant, but not many. We sit in some place first. Then we talked about how to start the research although we had prepared much for it on Friday evening.

Once we decided what we should do, we put it practice at once. We came up to the counter, said greetings to the salesman, and then asked him whether we could do a research in the restaurant. At first, he gave the answer “yes”, but he told us he would go to ask the manager whether to be allowed after several minutes’ reflection. The manager found that the go-between, the salesman that waited on us, was not able to communicate information efficiently. So he turned up to reply our questions in flesh. We appreciated his hospitability. However, what happened next proved our thoughts were totally wrong.

We asked him whether we could send some questionnaires to the customers in the restaurant. He asked us whether we had the permission from the headquarters. We definitely had no permission from the headquarters. He told us that we could not carry out this survey if we had no the permission. In the circumstances, we could not carry out the survey. Then we asked him whether we might ask him several questions about McDonald. He gave the answer of “yes”. Since it is so, we decided to ask him the questions we had come up with on Friday evening in case that our efforts went without any results. However, his answer frustrated us another time. We asked him where the source of the food came from. He said that it was confidential and he could let it out. Judging from his facial expression, he had been a little impatient. The behavior he made next proved it further. He requested to have a look at the questions we would like to ask. We gave him outline we made. After scanning it once, his reply was that the questions we asked were relevant to commercial confidentiality and he could give the answers. Of course, we were not satisfied with his reply. He was very aware of it. In order to comfort us, he gave us the address of headquarters and told us that we could go to apply the permission. In this case, we could not say anything more. Therefore, we left the restaurant after we thanked him.

It is a bad experience; however, to some degree, it is an excellent experience. We learn something from it, indeed. We learn that no matter how small the thing in business is, it is confidential.

Last Saturday

Last Saturday we were sent to NTU to have a psychology text. We were so happy because we had the chance to meet the classmates in NTU.
The text was called DISC text. Each letter standed for one kind of character. If you belonged to "D", it meant that you were aggressive but always self-center. You didn't care much about others' feeling. A man who belonged to "I" might be very romantic and good at talking with other people , but what he said was always much more than what he actually did. In another word, he was not reliable enough. A man with character "S"was not easy to change. He spoke less but did more. He might not be very romantic, but he must be very loyal. I belonged to this kind of person. The last was "C". A man who had this chacharacter was very critical. He always wanted to know more about the details. The text and lecture were very interesting. When it was finished, it was about half past one p.m. We got together with the classmates in NTU and took the bus back to Eton Hall.
One the way to Eton Hall we chatted about the life in bridging course and shared the opinions about what major to choose. After one month's apart, we really missed each other very much. When we got back to Eton Hall, we boys played basketball or billiards and they girls chatted in the room. Most of us were novices to play billisrds, but we still enjoyed the game. At four o'clock, we went out to have meal. It was a little cloudy outside. We didn't care at first. When we just went outside, it rained but not so heavily. The umbrellas we took just could make two of us share one. The rain then was heavier and heavier, at last it seemed that the water was pouring down from the sky. The umbrella was not useful at all. We were all wet through. It was really a hard journey to get to the place to have the meal. There, we ordered something hot to help us fight against the coldness. After the meal, we all felt a little better. In order not to catch cold, we seperaterd there. They went back to Pary Hall and we went back to Eton Hall to have a shower.
Although that day we were all wet through, we still had a happy day. I think the friendship between us and the classmates in NTU will last forever!

Journey to Pulau Ubin

Living in such a highly developed world today, are you always suffering from the pressures of the fast-paced city life? Have you been thinking of a vacation but have no idea where to go. If your answer is “yes”, don’t worry, today, I will be very glad to recommend you an optimal place for holidays---Pulau Ubin.

Seeing these two words, you may get confused. Where on earth this Pulau Ubin is? What in the world is it look like? To answer these questions, we must first pay a little attention to these Malay words. In Malay, Pulau actually means an island while Ubin is granite. Situated in the northeastern coast of Singapore, this offshore island is being developed into a nature park, which attracts myriads of visitors every day.

Stepping on this far-away island, the first thing I saw is a rustic village. It is a reflection of days gone by, when life was simpler. Besides, the natural scenery is incredibly breathtaking. Pulau Ubin’s rich and preserved wildlife, abandoned quarries and plantations, and untouched nature make it the last witness of the old village in Singapore that existed before modern industrial times and large scale urban development.

As a matter of fact, Pulau Ubin is also a perfect place for people who love cycling. The paths for bicycles are everywhere in this island, the best ones are those mountainbike tracks around the Ubin Quarry. As some of them are rather dangerous, you’d better not try it if you are just a green hand.

Apart from what I have wrote, you can also try camping or just leisure walking. Because much of the natural environment is being preserved on Pulau Ubin, you are able to experience the rural community atmosphere encompassing granite quarries, coconut and rubber plantations, mangrove swamps, fish and prawn farms. It is really a good place to let your hair down after a whole week’s busy city life.