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 They are original hall, new hall, historical documents hall and so on.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.

Profession Wu Weishan's sculptures

Professor Wu Weishan is a famous Chinese sculpture artist around the world. He is the member of many famous art organizations, and the supervisor of some institutes. He held an exhibition in Nanjing recently. In December 4Th, our class went to visit the Wu Weishan’s sculpture exhibition. It showed us contemporary sculptures, and there are some artworks made by other artists, but most of them were made by Wu Weishan.
There were many different sculptures. Some of the sculptures had tender lines and even surface, but most of them had rough, heavy lines and harsh surface. “The sleeping baby”(睡童), is one of the most famous sculptures of Wu Weishan, and it is the example of the sculptures have tender lines and even surface. Then, “Lao Zi goes out of the gateway” (老子出关；own translation) is the example of other type. My favorite sculpture in this exhibition is called “The highest good is like water-Lao Zi” (上善若水-老子；translation from Internet） and it is included by the second group, which includes “Lao Zi goes out of the gateway”.



The sculpture in the right photo is “The highest good is like water-Lao Zi”. It was made in 2005. The sculpture of Lao Zi has a very sharp but dim shape and thick, rough lines. The colors of this sculpture are mainly green and a little blue and yellow because the material of this one is bronze. Also, it has coarse surface, too. Lao Zi is an ancient saint and scholar in China, and Professor Wu used him as the subject of this artwork. Lao Zi has a long beard and his whole body is little bent. He sat on a chair and makes his thumb on his right hand stand straight. People can not know which expression is on his face because his face is with too many holes.

Lao Zi’s long beard, bent body and old colors make him look aged. This artwork seems to have a profound meaning about the world, lives and morals. The strange thumb of the right hand means that there is only one truth in the world. Maybe the artist wishes people find the reasons which Lao Zi said, such as the title of the artwork, “The highest good is like water”, and make us look back over ourselves. This artwork can relate to the lesson called Idea and Moral (思想品德；own translation) which students in China have when they are in the middle school. Some parts of Idea and Moral are about some thought of ancient scholar including Lao Zi, and the moral of Lao Zi is similar to that in the subject.

I like this sculpture because it looks not only strict, but also calm and quiet, and gives an active feeling to people in the dead image. His arm which was protruded to his front and his slant legs give me this kind of feeling. However, I do not think every one can appreciate this artwork. People might feel uncomfortable because of its rough lines, harsh surface and unclear shape, and it is hard to realize the meaning which an artwork implies deeply.

It was meaningful for me to visit Professor Wu’s exhibition. I touched a new kind of art which I had touched before. People say Wu Weishan’s artworks are contemporary art, but in fact, they are in harmony between contemporary art and traditional art. I felt a great admiration for professor.

Some views in my class

It is my own picture.


They look very busy.

Guest Artist

Professional Zhao Bing is a famous expert on landscape architecture in the Nanjing Forestry University. Last Monday afternoon, Professional Zhao came to our school, and gave the students of GCA a speech about the Su Zhou's Gardens. He started from telling us an analysis of the word "Garden" in Chinese. He also told us the simple history of garden, some kinds of gardens and some characteristics of the Su Zhou's Gardens.
The word "Garden" in Chinese is "园林". In the old Chinese, "园" was written as "園", and this character include 4 parts. "土" means earth and the change of landforms. The small "口" and the bigger one represent water in the garden and wall around there. Finally, another part of "園" means branches of trees. Thus, "园" can describe the garden well . Then, "林" is a word of woods, so "园林" means the garden with many trees, or woods.
Su Zhou's Gardens have many nicknames because of their characteristics. One of Su Zhou's Gardens' characteristics is the contrast between the outside and inside of them. Su Zhou's Gardens are called "Old woods in the city" because it is much more silent inside than outside. There is another nickname called "Fresh history culture", for people can see the past from these gardens in the present. Many gardens in Su Zhou were built in different dynasties in different ages, so we can infer how cultures were then. All of these points are about characteristics in some broad areas, but Professional Zhao also told us some details, such as strange stones and rocks in Su Zhou's Gardens, and the ways to locate and draw water, etc.
In truth, I think the speech was educative but little boring, for maybe I was too busy at that day. I think I could learn many things which I did not know from this speech. The explanation of the Chinese word of garden was interesting. On the other hand, that speech included many important parts of the landscape architecture, but they were introduced in some uninteresting and hackneyed ways, so I could not remember the contents of the speech without my note. I hope I will listen to a more interesting one.