The work for the fashion show

The 27th of April, 2009 was Grade 10’s first Fashion Show Day in the GCA. It was from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. However, in fact, the more time and more effort were used to prepare this concert. I, as a student of GCA, took part of the volunteer work for the Fashion Show.

Before this chance, I had the volunteer activity in the Nanjing Library. At that time, I worked in the outside of the school, so I tried finding the volunteer work at this time. Grace, who is one of the members of the students’ council, and my classmate, introduced the volunteer work for the Fashion Show. Many people – in fact, only some people, I will tell you the reason - wanted to join in the activity, and many of them were accepted. (I guessed the work would be easy because so many people join.)

There were two parts of the volunteer work. The first one had a greater deal of weight. It was before and after the show. It was to carry the chairs – for audience – and desks – to block the too wide entrance to keep people from coming to watch the show without the ticket. Oh my god, we, all volunteers and some students’ council members, moved all of desks and chairs on the first floor and some on the second floor for over 2 hours. It was a huge effort. Two of three classrooms on the first floor were empty. However, after the show finished, we only spend half an hour moving them. I do not know how we could do that. The second part was to stand sentry in the path which was not the official entrance of the show. It was a boring one. I just sat on the chair during one and half an hour of the Fashion Show like I did last time, and there were only about two people try going through that path.
Just like the volunteer work in the Nanjing Library, it did not need many much abilities. Moving chairs and desks also can be considered as a kind of simple labor, and standing sentry can be, too. It just required some physical strength and a little power of concentration. This experience taught me almost nothing. I just felt I was ordered to do something.

Then, I found many other students were not honest. Most of “volunteers” did not come nor work, so there were only five volunteers working really at last, including me. Maybe they thought that not doing the real work and getting the certification to make portfolio were okay. I hate this kind of altitude. I have undergone this kind of happenings and felt unfair. Fortunately – unfortunately to “someone”, the member of students’ council checked our names after the work, and only we, five volunteers who really worked, got the certifications. I think it was retribution.
I hope I can find some new, skillful volunteer work next time. Then, I can learn more things.

The Nanjing Museum

The building which is in the photo on the top of this article is the Art Exhibition Center of the Nanjing Museum. It is located on Zhongshan East Road We, my three friends and I, attended the exhibition at approximate 3 o’clock after the lunch at the French restaurant on March 7th. Because the exhibition was free, we did not have to buy tickets.The Nanjing Museum is very famous, so we thought we should go to see it once at least.




There ware many kinds of exhibitions such as Ancient Chinese Lacquer Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Jade Exhibition, Ancient Bronze Ware Exhibition, and so on. Generally, it was dark in the exhibition room, so it was hard to take some good, clear photos.The different exhibitions have different special features. The different exhibitions have different special features. The lacquer had various sorts and shapes, but all of the colors were too dark and deep, so it was little lively, so I did not like it very much. The more one I like was the Jade Exhibition. The more one I like was the Jade Exhibition. Elaborate cut jade decorations were not brilliant but clear and fine. Bronze ware made us have a kind of old feeling. Most of the ware belonged to kind of containers, but some was different, just like bells. In the Modern Art Hall, there were some wooden sculptures. In the eastern Asian custom, 2009 is the year of the Ox, so there were some sculptures of ox. (They were being selling and one of them cost 78000 Yuan.) Then, also some more interesting exhibition was there, too.


We enjoyed ourselves during the whole watching. However, we feel tired when we finished the viewing. If someone wants to attend it, he or she should prepare enough time and energy.

A French Lunch

It was March 7, Saturday, 2009. My three classmates and I went to Les 5 Sens, a French Restaurant next to the Nanjing University, to have lunch at about 1 o’clock. That was my second time to go to Les 5 Sens to have a meal, and I had felt good before, so I persuaded my friends to have lunch in Les 5 Sens, to make them enjoy French food.





It was clear and quiet in the restaurant. However, just like the Mexican restaurant which I said before, it was little dark. The brightness of the most of my pictures has been changed by me with computer – the ability of camera was not enough to make photos brighter. When we arrived, there was some French, and when we are eating lunch, some English came, too. I thought Les 5 Sens a popular restaurant for Western foreigners.

The food on the picture left is my appetizer - the Caesar Salad. It was made with chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, croutons, etc. This dish was just a common one, similar to salads which I could eat in other Western restaurants, but it is expensive – it cost 22 Yuan, so I do not like it very much. The food on the picture right is my main dish - meat sauce noodles. It was one tasty and special dish. The noodles were stringy, and the sauce was suitably spicy, sweet and salty. One of my friends also ordered this dish, and we like it. My dessert was the Roasted Apple &Cinnamon. The fragrance of cinnamon was very heavy. The skin was not peeled, so I asked the waitress if I should peel the skin, and she answered “No.”. However, I think the answer should be “Yes.”.
In the mass, the environment is neat and the food is delicious. I will go there again when I have enough time.

My first club during my whole schooling time

Before I attended the GCA, I never join in the club both in the school and not in the school. There were some reasons. First, my introversive characteristics make me hard to communicate and mix with other people. As I was measured in a personality test, I am an extremely introversive person. (I “was” an extroversive person when I had another test in the primary school.) Second, I had almost no hobbies or interests. Third, I thought I was not good at almost anything. Then, finally, the most important one is that no one asked me to join the club – I am not active enough to look for clubs. These reasons made me not a member of any clubs during the primary and junior high school. (Oh, there is no club in “my” primary school.) To overcome this situation, I tried joining at least one club in my high school.
It was helpful for me to join the club in GCA. When the first term started, all of clubs in GCA announced the information of clubs and to raise new members. Because many clubs tried making new Grade 10 students (including me) join them, I, an introversive student, also could join the club easily.
Finally, I attended the soccer club. Soccer is almost the only one sport I like. (Hurrah for Korean team in the Olympic!)
There are trainings on every Thursday after school and every Sunday. It takes a lot of time of me. I glad to join in the training in the common time, but when the amount of homework is large or there will be a test in the school, it also makes me feel worried.
I am a goalkeeper in our team, but just a substitute player. We had trainings twice every week. However, in fact, we did not study many things. There is no systemic training and activity. It may is the difference between the club activity and the P.E class.
Our club need remain the good relationship with others. Sometimes our club activity should use the whole playground and it will be damage to others. If our relationship is not good, then no one will make the concession for us. Then, of course, because the soccer club is a kind of sports club, members should have enough endurance and enough strength. I did not have these lots, so I was worried about it, but also wanted to improve my physical ability by taking part in the soccer club. I think it was successful. After the 3 terms of the club activities, I felt I am stronger than before. (But I am still not strong enough.)
When I become a student of Grade 11, Mark, the main goalkeeper of our club team, will leave us. Then I will become the main. I am afraid of it. My ability is not high enough to take the main role of the team. I hope I can make the ability to be a more skillful goalkeeper. If not, our club will lose our honour.

First Bowling Experience

In fact, I am not very good at sports, and also I do not like sports very much. My favorite one and also only one I like was soccer. However, in my Grade 10, I learned a new kind of game of ball which I had never touched – bowling.
It was my first time to play bowling. Our family found the advertisement of the bowling alley near the home by chance, and decided to try playing once. Then, just as our family usually did, we started to play every day.
Maybe as you know, the way to play bowling is very easy: to throw the bowling ball, and knock bowling pins down. The more pins you knock down, the more points you will get. If you knock 10 pins in one time or in two times, you will get some more points. To knock 10 pins in one time is called strike, and to knock them in two times is called spare.
Because there were no teachers, our family should study on our own. Fortunately, my parents played bawling before, so they could teach me and my sister and my brother. Also, there were many players with high ability. I could imitate their actions to improve my skill. I found there were some differences between my family members’ actions and the superior players’ actions. Superiors gave the spin to the bowling ball while we just threw the ball straight. If we gave the spin to the bowling ball, the route of the ball would get bent. However, the way of the higher-lank player’s ball never gets bent. I have tried it many times, but always failed. I want to know how they can do that.
It is very tired of my hand to play the bowling. Because the ball I used was quite heavy – 13 pounds (about 5.9 kg), the action of throwing the ball is a load for my right hand. In fact, some of my fingers on the right hands hurt little at first. However, after my family and I had thrown the ball again and again, fingers became suitable to play bowling – they became harder than them before.
In the picture above the article, there are two pictures of score which I gained. They are both not my highest points. My highest mark is 159 points. It is the second highest (may be the first) mark in my family, but there are so many people could get over 200 points. (Why did I use “200 points”? The reason is that “200 points” is the mark of high game in the bowling rule.)
Bowling helps people get balance between two directions. It is good for our bodies. Also, it is one kind of sport which requires both strength and subtlety. If you only have strength, your ball will crush into the hole, but you should have strength to support your subtlety. Bowling is able to teach people how to get balance between two different characteristics.
p.s. Here is a video of me playing bowling. As you see, my skill is not very good.

My first volunteer activity out of my school

Last weekends, I found and had my first volunteer work which did not take place at the school. It was in the largest library in Nanjing - Nanjing Library. Nanjing Library is the third largest library in China. The forerunner of the library was Jiangnan (江南) Library which was established in 1907. It makes a collection of over eight millions of documents. Nanjing Library includes four parts. They are original hall, new hall, historical documents hall and so on. Among these parts, the most famous place is the new hall, and I worked there, too.

I was worked on January 24th and 25th. On every day, I worked from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but in fact, I just worked for 7.5 hours on each day because I should have lunch.In the morning of the first day, I worked in the Chinese newspaper reading room (中文报纸阅览室; own translation). The main work in this room was to arrange newspapers of that day and cabinets where to put newspapers and to keep a watchful eye on people who entered the room. They required few skills. In the afternoon, I was taken to the room on the under base second floor where to store overdue newspapers in the past and helped managers sort newspapers.
On the second day, I worked in the Chinese books lending-reading room (中文图书借阅室；own translation). In these hours, I just sat on the chair next to the entrance of the room, and watched people and helped them come in or made them take notice of their things – they should not bring bags, water or drinks.
For myself, I do not like this volunteer work very much. Firstly, it was boring. When I called Nanjing Library, I imagined some high work, for example, classifying some documents and books. Of course, the volunteer work is a steady and insipid job, but I could not endure to sit on a chair for not a few hours. Secondly, this activity just required little concentration and common physical strength. I want to call it a kind of simple labor. Thirdly, I could not study anything from this experience. My first aim was to go through this work – classifying documents, or arranging books in Nanjing Library - to study the effective way and the importance of arrangement and the system of a large-scale group. However, these kinds of work could not afford me satisfaction. There is almost no connection between my volunteer experiences in Nanjing Library and employability / life skills.
During this activity, the benefit to me and the result which I got were very little. I learned almost nothing and I do not have any feeling that I did some worthwhile things. Then, I also think the benefit to Nanjing Library was not much, too – one person who moved the newspaper and sat on the chair was slight. I just hope I can have more meaningful and useful experience, not like this one.

A dinner with classmates and mentors in a foreign restaurnant

I went to a Mexican Restaurant called Tacos. Originally, we planned to go to another Mexican Restaurant called Salsa, but it was closed when we arrived there, so we chose another Mexican one. On the 21st in December, my 8 classmates, 3 Grade 12 Mentor and I went to the restaurant for a dinner after school.

These pictures are the photos of interior of Tacos and my friends (Sadly, Grade 12 Mentors are not on the photos) which I took. The boy on the third picture between two paragraphs is me. As you see, the environment was clear but little dark. For myself, I did not like this kind of dark environment though it can give people warm feeling. The waiters and waitresses were kind, but their service quality was average.

The food on the first photo beside is the Mexican beef stake which I ate. It tasted a little spicy.Differently from the common beef stake, it does not have differences of rates of being done, and some noodles under the beef. I have been to Tacos to have meals some times before, and have eaten some kinds of food, but I think this one was the best one which I ate there. The second food is the most famous food of Tacos-Tacos. The tacos is a kind of food using tortilla, a kind of Mexican thin, round bread made of corn, to bundle the sliced meat, chicken or beef. My one was made of beef. It is good food, too, but not as delicious as the stake.





The food on these photos is some of what other people ate. All of it looks clean and delicious, and in fact, so are they. If someone asks me which Mexican restaurant is good, I will give him or her an answer-Tacos is a great one.