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.

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.