Towards the end...

This morning, I finished the last class of my second year of study in UMAC, and there are complex emotions in me that I have to share with you.

In this year, I grew from a freshman who was filed with curiosity to a big sister who can take care of other Year One students. Although only one year passed between this transition, I can say that I've grown up a lot in this process, and my growth is marked not only by achievments and happiness, but also by challenge sand frustration. Maybe there is no need to remember those not-so-happy moments, because after all, I've picked up myself and decided to preserve only happy memories! :)


This academic year is also my first year in HC. I guess everyone in the HC would agree with me that we have become closer friends, better co-workers, and greater leaders in this year, right? Looking forward, there are more to come---a new HC cours, the thrilling exchange program, a new batch of members of HC...I hope everyone is ready to continue our exciting journey with a fresh start!

I'm happy that I've lived up to my promise of keeping this blog. Just now as I browzed through all the blogs I've written in this semester, those beautiful memories once again arose in my mind, and I couldn't help by smile. Who said we can't preserve the past? As long as we have the wish to do it, and hold on to that wish, there is simply nothing we can't accomplish.

Even though I said it's almost the end, but I really don't mean it's the real END. In the nearest future, our final exams are coming; a nice summer vacation is waving to us; a more exciting new semester is waiting for us...and in the long term, we still have countless miles to go along the path of life...Can you say it's the END?

In the end, I cross my fingers to everybody in their final exams! Let's fight for the nearest future now!

Art exhibition at Macau Tower

This after noon, I visited an art exhibition with some of HC students at Macau Tower. The works in this exhibition were all from a famous Chinese artist Liu Sifen, who is a painter, a poet, as well as a calligrapher. From Mr. Liu's self-introduction, I got to know that he perceived the production of spirit different from industrial produciton. He said, in industries, each worker should have his/her own specialties, but in arts, all the fields are connected. That's why artists are usually not constrained to a specific field.

I also leant how important creativity is to an artist. Mr. Liu told us he tried to make every work of his different from the other works, so that the visitors wouldn't be bored with his exhibition, and he wouldn't be bored with himself.
One thing special about Mr. Liu's paintings was that he liked to paint modern elements using traditional ways of Chinese painting. This clever combination of tradition and fashion again proved his creativity. Uniqueness is always pursued by artists. Although I'm not an artist, I also want to be unique. Mr. Liu told me with his works that people's potential and creativity are boundless, as long as we don't give up discovering them.
Tomorrow Mr. Liu is going to give a speech in our university. Can't wait to hear from him!

Hard to be Sleepy...

To be honest, before today's HC class, I was quite worn out and sleepy. However, after the two-hour intense yet exciting class, my sleepiness was completely wiped out.

First of all, I was surprised by the award given to me---one of the TOP 10 best bloggers! When I heard my name announced and the HC clap applauded, I felt as if my heart was also pounding with the rhythm of their applause. It's a good idea to keep this HC clap and pass it on to the coming HC students, isn't it?

The following was even more exciting---the Pik Pak Boom! The game was easy to carry out, but not so easy to play well. Our group, with four girls, did a good job and survived the first round. However, in the second round, competing with the other six groups, we didn't make it till the end. The final round was the most thrilling, since only two remianing groups were competing agianst each other. They did so well that I wondered if there was ever to be an ending...Finally, Professor Udani gave in, and he announced that both the two groups were today's champions. Actually I was quite satisfied with the performance of our group. The four of us were all concentrated with our "job" and my hands were even sweating. There was one time when our group's number was called but I was looking backwards. I nearly ruined everything, but thankfully I wasn't too slow. "Even one nerve can't be spared!" I told myself after this incident. If I can remind myself of this saying in the future when I'm occupied in other tasks, I'm sure I can make a big BOOM!

We will have our last HC class for this semester next week. It's sad to part, but I know HC students won't part no matter where we are and what we are doing. Throughout this semester, HC has really become a warm family for each of us. In this family, no one is left out, and no one will feel lonely. Let's move on as a whole, my dear HC friends!

Hard work paid off!!!

It's almost nine o'clock in the evening now, and I'm really tired. However, I've decided to update my blog as my memory is still fresh, since this has been a really memorable day.

What happened today? Our "CAN" workshop was finally held, and it proved to be a big success! Since two weeks ago, our group has been working on it and making progress bit by bit. Some produced wonderful videos, some designed various activities, some took nice photos...honestly none of us were left out!

Many of my groupmates began the preparations of this afternoon's workshop from as early as twelf o'clock, but I had to be late because of my three-hour class in the afternoon...I really want to apologize to them, and feel regretful for having missed part of the workshop. Inspite of that, I enjoyed the remaining part so much that I could show nothing but awe to my HC classmates. They are not only intelligent, but most importantly, they are hardworking and responsible, which also distinguish them from many other students I've seen in Macau.

There were quite a lot of participant from outside the HC. From their performance and feedbacks, I'm sure they must have learnt a lot about leadership and about HC. In the past, we were always carrying the "learners' role", sitting in the classroom and listening to lectures. This time, however, we became instructors! The switching of position gave us a valuable chance to share what we've learnt with peer students and also allowed us to digest the knowledge. We've made newpaper towers and spaghetti towers, but looking at other students making balloon towers brought me some fresh feelings; we've heared about "HOST", "WHAM" and "WHAW" many times in class, but when these interesting things were introduced to Year 1 students, I seemed to have understood more about them. The Year 1 participants surprised me as well in the drama perferming part. They could comprehend the videos so well, and produce so creative skits in such a short time---all were beyond my expectation! Good job, everyone!

After the successful workshop, we had a short debriefing with Professor Udani. By listening to my groupmates' reflections, I could sense that everyone was proud to say that he/she had worked with"WHAM" for this workshop, and everyone had gained a lot from it. Just like our professor said, we would never have another chance to do the same thing again. Congratulations to all of us for having seized this opportunity! Should there be any more challenges ahead, I'm confident that HC students will say, "Yes, we CAN!"
I often wonder what the spirit of the Honours College is. Is it collaboration? Kindness? Or hard work? It's really hard to conclude in one word, and maybe each one has a different interpretation. But no matter what the spirit is, let's PASS IT ON.

Aiming to be the tallest!

Are you the tallest? Do you want to be one?

You may never become the tallest in the world, but you can make the tallest tower! And, with speghetti!

This class, we were devided into small groups, each group having a bunch of speghetti and a marshmallow which was to be placed on the top of the tower. We've made towers out of newspapers, but speghetti, with its crispy and fragile texture, would be such a challenge...After we were told to start, Cathy, Ray and I immediately set down to our work. At first, we were running quite fast, as the base and part of the body completed. But when it came to the top, we were always thinking we could make the tower taller, so we kept adding more anbd more speghetti to it, letting the tower grow longer and longer. However, after a while, when Cathy tried to let go of the tower, we found that the tower couldn't stand on its own! Unwilling to sacrifice its "height", the only thing we did was strengthen the foundation, but no matter how hard we had tried, this naughty tower still resisted to stand still...

Finally time was up. Looking up at other goups, I found almost all the towers were different from the rest. Some towers were extremely artistic, like the one from Happy's group---

Some were quite "elastic", like Steve's "feeding machine"---(The marshmallow is already in his mouth!)
There are also some awesome ones, being both tall and stable. However, ours could only be called a "tower" with my hands holding it...

Such a tower-making activity seems simple, but actually we can derive many reflections from it. From the variation of the shape of towers, I saw how differently people think when faced with the same problem; from the failure of our group, I realized how important the foundation is; from the success of Helen's group, I had to admit that professional knowledge did help a lot because they had two engineering students. It also came to me that human mind is indeed creative---even speghetti can be used in such a way!

After this team-building activity, we had a chance to say "thank you" to HC classmates, as many as possible! In the five minutes' time, I wrote five thank-you notes to different people, which was better than last time, but I was still not satisfied. To my great delight, I received six in turn!!! Reading the notes my dear classmates sent to me was really a comfort. Most of the notes said "thank you" to me for organizing the BBQ, which may be the biggest reward for all what I did. Since I was too busy sending my thanks to my classmates, I didn't have time to write one to Pro. Udani, but I'm sure that everyone of us want to say THANK YOU aloud to him, who has made so many efforts to bring us together as a sweet family :) Thanks sooo0 much!

After several cuisines, our class ended with a perfect dessert. I mean, real dessert! Thanks to Echo, she baked another cake for us. Looked delicious, right? It tasted even more delicious!

A "special" Wednesday afternoon

Yesterday I had a very special Wednesday afternoon, which began from 12:30 p.m. On the previous day, I was informed to attend a department meeting as a student representitive. Thrilled by the news, I was a bit worried as well, since I didn't know what to do in such a formal occasion. Fortunately, my mentor, who would be in charge of this meeting, proposed to have lunch with the four student representitives including me. ^^

In the lunch, my mentor not only talked about the main content of this meeting---the revision of English curriculum, but also cought up with all of us and introduced us to each other. The four representitives were from different years of study, and it was such a good chance to meet with other excellent students! What my mentor did showed his concern for students, which had always been one of his "charms" to me. I often take him as a model leader, because I strongly believe that a good leader CARES.


Returning from our lunch, we got to the meeting room to get ready. One by one our professors came in, and to our surprise, we were seated at such important places! This kind of attention paid on us made me feel so honoured to be there. I've never joined any department meetings before, and it was also my first time to meet with all the professors in the English department. Throughout the whole meeting, we felt we were treated equally as everyone else, and the head of department sometimes asked for our opinions as well! I raised one question about the required elective courses offered by our department, and made a suggestion to conduct a survey before deciding on which courses to offer for each semester. I was so happy to see the smiles of several professors, and even happier to hear one of them saying, "It's really a good idea!" Their attitude towards the opinions of students left a deep impression on me. Hope more and more departments can do the same!

I had to leave the meeting a bit earlier since the HC class would begin soon. In yesterday's class, Pro. Udani asked us to write some words of encouragements on a piece of paper, then give it to the person we wanted to encourage. I sent my encouragements to Shelly, wishing her all the best in the coming TOFEL test. Just when I was guessing maybe nobody would give me a piece of paper, I saw Happy smiling at me, and handed me her paper! She called me "my dearest princess", and suggested that I open up to more friends, so that I can be more energetic. I was really moved by her sincere encouragement, and meanwhile very regretful for not sending her any encouragements. How I wish I could have more than one piece of paper! Anyway, encouragements can be given to people at anytime, and I decided to send her some words of encouragements after class. This simple but meaningful activity let me feel how easy it is to draw myself closer to the people around me, and what a difference I can make by encouraging a person.

After the class I was quite tired, but I felt that I had been nourished in this special afternoon.

BBQ at Hac Sa

The Honours College has held its second activity this semester---BBQ! This time, I played a "dominant" role, which helped me learn a lot and also experienced quite complicated feelings throughout the process.

To be honest, the preparation for a BBQ is tiring. We need to reserve the food, plan for various games, and arrive at the beach very early to make sure our classmates have enough space to cook and eat. I really want to say "thank you" to Yolanda and Jackon, who gave me lots of assistance in the preparation period! Jackon, thanks for reserving the food! Yolanda, thanks for coming with me three hours earlier before the BBQ!

Fortunately our hard work paid off. Although not every student participated, we saw a big group, and I was very very satisfied to see them eating happily, playing excitedly, and having a lot of fun. I knew it was impossible to make everyone fully content, but we had done our best, and that's the most important thing indeed.

Maybe our professor was not very happy to see many students come late. I was a bit disappointed as well, but I can understand them, since we are all extremely busy in April. Just hope that they can be on time in the future.

Cooking food and sharing with my classmates was great fun! I felt that my relationship with other students has been drawn closer after this activity, It's also my first time to organize a BBQ, and I learnt from it how it works, what needs to be done ahead of time, and what people usually do in BBQs. I believe that next time if I'm gonna hold another BBQ activity, I won't be so messed up like this time ^^