May 10, 2009

The Lord of the Rings (AW)

This is a very famous story which was written by J.R.R.Tolkien in1956. At first, the writer only wanted to keep track of the story that he often told neighbor’s children and his daughter. However, since his book named The Lord of the Rings was published, his magic story has been read again and again even adapted for a film.
As famous as the story of Harry Potter, it directs us into a dangerous and magic world. In this world, there are many special creatures and these special Rings, of course. It is said that long long again, a blacksmith forged 20 pieces of Rings. Among them, three Rings were given for the Elven-kings, seven for the Dwarf-lords, nine for mortal Men and the last one Ring for the Dark Lord on his throne. The last Ring was the One Ring that could control the rest Rings, unfortunately, it was fallen to Dark’s hand. After many adventures, One Ring came to the pocket of Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo. Though the One Ring was filled with great power and everyone wanted to own it, but it only belonged to its master, Dark Lord, the others who owned it would be swallowed by it. As a Hobbit, Frodo was born with the ability of resisting any temptation. After he had known the whole thing, he volunteered to bear this burden. With the guide of other warriors, he would send the One Ring to the Cracks of Doom which was in the center of Dark Lord’s land, Mordor, to destroy it. However, the journey was rather rough, and the enemy from Dark Lord always pursued them, wanting to get the One Ring back to exert its power and let the world become dark.
There are three parts of this journey. I am reading the first part, named The Fellowship of the Ring. After finishing half of the first part, I think it is a very good story for me to continue. The plots are very interesting that I never feel tired of reading.

P.S. We have studied our bridging course for four months, and one month later, we will finish our course. As time is enough for us, I recommend that you should read more books in this leisure time. Maybe you think it is quite difficult to start, but you can choose comparative easy and interesting one to do, like me. That is what I want to say.

May 9, 2009

Happy Events (YSM)

“To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love.

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.”

After reading the poetry above, I remember this sentence: “ No matter the distance between us is hundreds of meters of thousands of meters, my heart will always be with you.” Though I am far away from home now, my heart is always filled up with happiness from home. This year witnesses many happy events in my family.

First, I am very happy that there is a new member in our big family. I have finally waited until there is someone calls me aunt. I heard of that he is a handsome and naughty boy. How I wish I can see his lovely face. May he be healthy and happy everyday!

Second, my cousin got married. She is the first one to marry in my maternal grandmother’s. Mom said that my dear cousin dressed in her dreamlike beautiful wedding dress, smiled sweetly like an angle. I can imagine how happy and excited she was at that time. Best wishes for her and my new brother-in-law.

Third, my parents celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. I am always proud of my harmonious family atmosphere. As for as I can remember, they have never quarreled with each other, though they do sometimes get a little angry with each other. However, it is like the thunder shower, coming fast, going faster. When I was at home, they left the center of their life to me. They took every care of me day after day. Now I am away from home, at first they said they were at a lost, but now I am glad to hear that they begin to enjoy life for themselves. They have worked so hard and burdened themselves with too many responsibilities for others, they should give themselves a rest to enjoy life. Mom said that they felt as if they went back to the time when they fell in love.

In fact, there are many other happy events in my family. I just state these most important three ones, and want to share with you my happiness. I believe that happiness is around anyone. Do not narrow it to be only the moment when you make a good fortune, get a high mark, win a game… It also can be the moment when you peacefully read a book, enjoy your dinner, stand among trees listening to birds’ twittering… Sometimes we chase after it, when it is just waiting around us. Do not ignore the small happiness in your life. All in all, happiness is not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do possess.

May 2, 2009

A Visit to MINT Museum of Toys (YSM)

Last Sunday evening, we attended our first get-together with our host families in an MoE’s activity. We met in a museum of toys. Sound exciting, right? I’ve never imaged that there would be a purpose-built museum for toys, but this time I saw a wonderful one.

At first, the friendly people in charge designed some games for us, in order to let us be familiar with each other. The fist game was looking for people born in the same month as you. The room suddenly turned out to be in a mess. I saw hands rising highly gestured one, two, three, four… At last people gathered in groups, and the first group in order got chocolate as rewards. The second game was looking for people who satisfied the requirements on a chart. This time people rushed around like ants on a hot pan, the atmosphere became so lively. Then we were divided into two groups, one visited the museum first, one ate buffet first. We were the second group. Though there were not so many kinds of food, they were very delicious. We had soup, rice with raisins and pine nuts, fried fish with fruit, roasted chicken, fried onions and potatoes. We ate and chatted with our host families happily.

It was our turn to visit the museum. The toys in the museum were all older than us, some of which dated back to 1920s, while most of them dated from 1950s. The toys there were extraordinary, some of which were the only one or two in the world, and of course, owing to this, their value frightened us very much. The price of them can be as much as 50,000 US dollars each. They were collected from China, Japan, UK, USA, and India… Walking in the museum, I recalled those days in my childhood, or I can say that the memories suddenly woke from deep sleep and rushed out. Mickey, Snoopy, Popeye, Bat Man, Tidy Bear, Star War, picture-story books, masks, candy boxes, water pistols, Beatles… They stand peacefully in the showcase but inspire endless excitement from deep of our hearts.

Then we were called back to the lobby and invited to enjoy some snacks. They offered us fruit puddings, cheese cakes and chocolate cakes, and gave each of us stationery as souvenirs. Until then, our dreamlike journey came to the end; however, the happiness didn’t fade. It was such an unforgettable experience that I will cherish forever. Thanks for our host families offering their kindness and love for us, thanks for MoE arranging such an interesting activity for us, thanks for the MINT Museum of Toys reminding me that small and pure happiness in my childhood.

May 1, 2009

My Roommates(YSM)

It has been almost 5 months since I came to Singapore. Namely my roommates and I have been living together for about 5 months. Maybe it is time to write something about my roommates.
The first one is the second oldest one in our dorm while looks like a boy. He is a very good at swimming. He always thinks about how to saving money for his parents which requires him a great ability of bargaining. Fortunately he is a professor in communication. Also he is an optimistic boy.
The second one is the oldest in our dorm. He is a funny one who always plays jokes among us. He is very good at playing Red war3 and when he plays it someone else will always watch him playing to learn some skills and enjoy the art of playing it.
The third one is the youngest but the tallest in our dorm. His ability of jumping is so great that he got his nickname “airplane”. He is the most curious boy in our dorm especially on food. He had once bought an avocado and tasted it. Then it turned out that the avocado tasted bad except for making juice. He is also the best player of computer games in our dorm. He plays all kinds of games and does well in each of them.
The fourth one is a very handsome boy. He plays table tennis very well. Also he is famous for his posture, jumping up straightly and shooting when he shoots in a basketball game. For he does well in sports and has a handsome appearance he is popular among girls.
The fifth one is the leader of our dorm. He plays well in basketball. Though he spends a lot of time on playing he has some efficient strategies on study that is why does well in study. He goes to gym almost every two days which gives him a muscular proficiency.
The sixth one is a carefree one. He never cares about the money he spends on things especially on food. His favorite two things are eating and reading e-novels. He eats four times a day, one breakfast, one dinner and two meals during daytime. All these meals cost him about 7 dollars on average per day which equals 3 days’ meals for me. As to novel he can finish 40 novels in three or four days. Every time I see him apart from eating and sleeping, he is read a novel.
The seventh one is the most hardworking one among my roommates. His pace of life is at a high speed. He does thing as quickly as possible and every time I see him he is in a hurry. He is so proud of his voice that he often sings songs in our dorm.
As all above each of my roommates has his own character. All of them make our room full of the atmosphere of harmony and happiness.

Learning Great Thoughts(YSM)

Yesterday I met my old friend and classmate who is an SM2 student in NUS. As it has been several months since I saw him we went to McDonald to have dinner together. During the dinner we talked for a long time. We talked a lot of things including how we are going recently, which course we have chosen and our plans about our future. After the talking I realized that he had improved a lot. His thoughts became deeper than before.
Last night when I was lying on the bed I tried to found out what made him improve so much. After a while I realized that maybe it was the people he met who pulled his thoughts forward. As he has been in Singapore for more than one year, he has met many people here and some of them are great people who have many great thoughts. As he talked with them he could learn from them and achieve the thoughts. After learning and judging those ideas by himself whether the thoughts were right or wrong he accept the good ones he thought. In this way the great ideas permeate into his mind and were assimilated by him so that he has his own great thoughts.
In fact I think it is a good way to develop our thoughts by learning from others especially those who are great for they all have their own great thoughts which make them succeed. After we get a thought we judge whether it is right or wrong and if it is right we can accept it. After we have accepted many great thoughts our views will become wider and our thought will become deeper. Someone may say that if we learn ideas from others we are not ourselves however I will say that we have the right to learn from others. Furthermore though some of the ideas are others’ it is we who have the unique idea which includes all the great ideas.

Learning Journey(YSM)

After a tough test we went for our second learning journey to Science Centre today. It was really a great place which was full of interesting and amazing things. One thing that impressed me very much was the IMAX movie.
It was my first time to watch this kind of movie. It was really fantastic. The screen was much bigger than the normal ones and it was in a spherical shape. When the movie started, we all half-lay on our chairs with our back leaning to the back of the chairs. Such kind of screen gave us the feelings of three dimensions. When the lens moved it felt like that we were moving as well following the movement of the lens. All these changed us from audiences to a character in the movie.
After enjoying the IMAX movie we were distributed to visit other parts of Science Centre individually. During the visit we found many interest things as well as learnt a lot of knowledge.
After such a journey I realized how interesting and mysterious the world of science was. I also had the feeling that how close science was to our daily life. Many things which seem mysterious can all be explained by some theories in science. Furthermore with the help of science we can make some amazing things.
In addition I realized that Science Park which I used to think it was only a place for children was also available for adolescents and even for adult for everyone who visits it will achieve some knowledge of science used in daily life which will help raise the level of literacy of the entire society. Furthermore it can also raise one’s interest in science which is very important for some teenagers in school and universities especially those who are studying in science faculty.

The last day of April (Yap)

Today has just passed too fast, so fast that I have to write down something to make my mind no longer haphazard and keep my memory fresh.

This morning as planned, we took our second progress test. Unfortunately, I still had a scarcity of time as usual, no matter I was doing the writing or reading comprehension. If truth be told, I nearly finished two hundred words in the last twenty minutes during part 1 and even failed to accomplish part 2, leaving a question undone. I have been wondering why time is so limited to me during such a progress test. Thank goodness! This seems not a very difficult question and I deem that I may have the correct answer. After all, the morning went in such a rapid and unpleasant way.

Lunch time was short, and I hoped so. Last weekend I had gone to the website of Science Centre Singapore and found that there are many intriguing things there. I had been looking forward to enjoying the prehistoric adventure, SEA MONSTER, all the time in the past five days. The movie tells about the sea creatures about 82 million years ago in the eyes of “Dolly”, a dolichorhynchops. And it was the first time for me to watch a 2D movie, very fascinating and magical. Besides, I have watched many interesting phenomena, such as the duet and unpredictable transformed face. But time was not sufficient to visit all the various exhibition galleries to enjoy all the exhibits. To my great surprise, I did not complain about my tiredness even a bit after walking for one and half an hour.

It is really a meaningful and wonderful learning journey, much better than the last one which I only felt boring. At least, I have enjoyed myself and the journey has evoked my strong curiosity about the miraculous scientific world, a world full of unknowns, magic and miracles, a world having attracting lots of people of all times over the whole world. Actually, the curiosity is a feeling that has been hidden in my deep heart for a too long time and may have contributed to my choice of Engineering Science without my awareness.