Natural HIGH

Today I finally have a chance to experience what it is like about a real party, as today is the residential hall's annual dinner. After a pretty simple dinner(compare to the Chinese one), people start to dance(that's very good idea for balancing the eating and sporting!). They seem can't tolerant the sitting there with the music playing, have a very natural dance, very casual, which is, I think, totally different from the way the people from China think toward themselves. What I have been moved about is that they seems to be very care about other people's feeling, I mean they want to make sure every people in the party have a good. I and several other Chinese initially sitting there and watching their dancing was brought to the crowd by them, and they hold our hands to force us to dance with them. I have to say, they are really friendly, and this is the first time I have a natural HIGH, because people there were not smoking, were only drinking a little bit alcohol. They appeared to do that very crazy, but do it in a healthy way.

The End of the New Semester

It's time to have a summary for my first semester studying abroad. I have a reflection about what the most different aspect compared to the one I used to study in is the way of how students are led to absorb the context practically. It gives students chances to manage well the task they are assigned, potentially forcing them to learn how to manage my time in a reasonable way and learning more about myself in or after the process of doing assignment.

The biggest difference between the concept of assignment here and my home country is that the assignment usually is comprehensive enough to include many knowledge points and relatively have a long length of time for student to complete. Such kind of task is a really good way let student to connect the basic knowledge learnt in several weeks, and is also a good way draw students' attention to prepare and have clear aims on the coming lessons after the publication of a assignment.

There are several realisation I made from doing the intensive assignments in this semester. As I had totally 8 assignments(2 for each unit), it is not easy to have them done if there is no well planed schedule. Some of my classmates prefer rushing the assignments intensively a few days before the due date. I don't think this is really a good idea. Working in this hard way will expose me to the risk of getting sick, and let me extremely negative about my course. This could be a huge negative effect on my motivation of what I am studying and passionate about. To avoid this situation, it would be much better to have a general idea of what a assignment require student to accomplish, most importantly finding out what are the difficult points in it and trying to have a plan to tackle the problems bit by bit. In this way, it could be much easier to balance my time, giving me satisfaction and confidences after addressed a small problem.

This kind of comprehensive assignments in small number gave me a big picture of the units, helping me gain a better understanding the units in a concrete way.

Just need a languages switcher

Finally, I have reached the end of this semester. This is the 13th week, the last one, so the exams will come in the following month. Quite happy for that, as I guess this semester is the most busies one I have ever, and I know I can survive it in this new system.
So today I try to squeeze a bit of time to play basketball, my most favourite sport, with my friends with multi-culture background. Actually, both of them are from Malaysia. I found that it is very easy to find someone to speak Chinese if I am sick of speaking English all the time. The interesting thing about the Chinese from Malaysia is that they can speak various languages, including Hokkien, Cantonese and Haga, these major dialects from China. So it is no a problem to speak any languages I want with them at all. When I just like to speak English, just need to switch to English. If feeling tired of it, just need to switch back to Mandarin, even back to Hokkien (Fujian), where I am from. This is a really great relief for any homesick symptoms, during which I need to share some common senses with others.
I totally agree Australia is a multi-culture country. It always send welcome signals to the people here from around the world, no matter how different they are. It provides a really friendly environment to the people. This is the point I love this country the most. I gradually have a sense that Australia is not only a country, but also a world.

Mourning on shuttle bus

Every day when I have class, taking 15 minutes waling to bus stop, and take another 20 minutes to another campus for my classes. Actually, it is not too bad to do this, even it's very time consuming, I think of it as a good way to do exercises while rushing between the places I live and study. This is a way in which I like to think. I always like to think of things in different ways. When some unfortunate things happen, I like to what kind of positive result it would bring with.
These days, the shuttle bus seems to be a bit different from the past, when it is dominated by Chinese in terms of voice. Yes, I hardly can hear someone speaking Chinese in loud version, and I realised that people from other countries also love to talk on bus. And I am really moved by the silence made by Chinese students, as I finally know I share a same faith, a same believe with them. That's very encouraged. It reflects what ordinary Chinese students' believe and that we are just a bit naive about ourselves until a catastrophe strike that awake our thoughts.
I really hope the mourning can really help us growth rather than just let us to be silent for a while on the shuttle bus.

Inspiration

It has been quiet for recent few days as the orientation week is going to the end. New students start preparing their new lives in a new environment. In this period, I love to spare some time to reflect on what my teachers of the English bridging course have done to their classes and write something about them, as I am really inspired by the values they spread.

I am really impressed by one of them. In her class, she not only taught about useful academic English skills, but also lead students to think about what life is, and even asked students to read out aloud "Life is hard, pressure is everywhere", which make me recall some memories of studying as a children, since it is similar to the way how primary Chinese teachers help children to learn some basic knowledge by heart.

Some experiences she has are very hearten, making me change the view of time management. Nobody in class realised she wasn't born in English speaking country until she revealed that her age of 19 is when she immigrated from an eastern European country and started learning English from nothing. The most surprised thing is she only spent 3 years to master advanced English, and she has been qualified enough for teaching English for years. The answer to how she could archive that is hard working. During the period, she was working in factory, while taking evening English class and doing English practice exercises on weekend. It means there is no spare time for recreation. I asked why she could do that without feeling boring and with a large amount of depressions. The reply is that she enjoyed it as that's life, nothing is worth complaining, and why not just try to love it.

Yes, it's truly a "bridging" course before enrolling into the course of my major. Tomorrow is the beginning of 1st semester 2008, and I really want to have a hard try on study and see how far I will be able to go, instead of doing things like watching TV and movie, this kind of time costly things.

Friendly Australian

I've been Australia for 3 months, experiencing various interesting things, which make me really think about the differences between a developed country and developing country. From the beginning to now, the most impressive thing to me is always the friendliness of Australian people. Sometimes, they are so friendly that made me worried about whether they planned to trap me, as before coming to Australia I didn't face a stranger in a unknown place who is so kind of willing to drive me home when I just wanted to have an ask for a direction, didn't make a friend on the first day who could tolerate my poor English and took me to the city and show me around some interesting places.

I can't understand why they are willing to do this except for the reason that they really love just doing a favor for someone else who need it and make a little bit contribution to their society.

Haircut

It's been two months since I had a haircut in my hometown. I have much hair, so if I didn't have it trimmed monthly, it would look like this.

With a wish that after a hair trimming I could hopefully feel cooler this summer, in which I have experienced a maximum 43 Celsius degree day, I decide to have a haircut nearby my house. The place I went is a bit small, compared to ones I've been in China, where are big enough for customer to have their hair washed and have a head massage(actually I don't like this part as it's time consuming and uncomfortable for me) before doing anything else. If I had a haircut after that, it costs about 5 Australian dollars. But today the place I went is quite different from that kind of place in China.

After I arrived in there, sitting for a while and began to feel a bit strange as the theme of the shop seems just for the female customer. I were not sure this is the right place for me until checking out on a English learning website for a haircut topic. Now I know it's a Hair Salon, which is mainly for women, not a barbershop, where barbers usually have haircut for men. When I paid attention again to my first Aussie hair and compared the two sides, it is further proved that the place is really a hair salon.


Fortunately, it still looks fine if I could keep my unbalancing sides from the people I am facing.