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 ^^

Moumou~we'll miss u

Last night I got an e-mail from my classmate Moumou, a girl who has been in bad health for a long time but has never given up. Guessing what would be in her e-mail, I opened it by a click, and the next moment, my eyes were welling with tears.

She told us she had decided to quit school for a period of time until her health turns better. She also wrote about the happy moments we had shared before, and how unwilling she was to leave her English major peers. What moved me the most was her last paragraph, which was particularly dedicated to individual persons. She said to me, "Christine, you are an excellent girl. I appreciate that you are not proud, and you are such a nice and helpful person. I really enjoyed working with you, since we don't need to spend a long time doing a project, and you often like to negotiate with us. I've learnt a lot from you. So lucky to have you as my friend!"

This is my first time to be so positively and expressively recognized. Not only was I thrilled to hear these words, I also realzed how important it is to express what we think. Being quiet may be a characteristic of eastern people, but I do feel the need to receive recognition directly from somebody at times. Thank you Moumou! Thank you for your compliments, and for the valuable lesson you've taught me.

Be THANKFUL, and say your THANKS aloud!

Do I have enough motivation?

How many points can you get as a leader? Do you know that leadership ability can be scored?

Today, Professor Udani sent us an interesting link, which is an assessment of leadership motivation. This assessment is quite simple compared to the others that I've done before, and only contains 14 questions. It took me less than 10 minutes to finish the assessment. By clicking "Calculate My Total", I got my score immediately, which was 52 points. According to the score interpretation below, I fell into the second category, saying my score implies some uncertainty over my motivation to lead.

A little bit disappointed at my result, I had to admit that sometimes I lack motivation of being a leader, although most of the time I'm willing to lead---that's why I was only 3 points' off the best level. Besides the final result, actually every single question of this assessment gave me some thoughts into my attitude towards leadership. From scoring myself in each aspect, I found that I seemed to be better at encouraging and recognizing others, but weaker at challenging and coaching my team members. After knowing this, I have a clearer goal for my next step along the path to a successful leader.

Hope next time when I do this assessment again, the result will say that I have a much stronger motivation!

p.s. Here's the link of this on-line assessment. Take a look at it and give yourself a score!
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_01.htm

VIP Project finished!

Today, our group finally finished the last part of the VIP---Video Interview Project. Through this process, I not only learnt from the leader, but also from my peer classmates. Different from my previous experiences, in which I usually had to take up a large proportion of the workload, this time, each member in our group was responsible and helpful. Jackon produced a wonderful video, Ivy wrote out what we said in the interview word by word to make subtitles, and Helen acted as a talented interviewer! I know that April is a busy month for everyone, but my hardworking HC classmates brought me into deep reflection---Am I complaining too much? Can I do more work in a limited time? Inspired by my groupmates, I also did my best to contribute to our project, which made me busy but happy.

I think people are very easily influenced by others. If no one in a group is willing to make an effort, this group can hardly make any progress. On the other hand, if everyone is eager to contibute a little bit, like the case in my group, who can prevent you from achieving your goal? I'm not saying we are the best in this VIP project, but I really enjoyed the experience of working with HC students, and I believe this sense of fulfillment is more valuable than a decent score. (Certainly we are looking forward to a decent score^^)

I don't want to say much about our interviewee Mr. Augusto here, since I've written so much about him in the group report. Wanna know more about the interview? Come and have a look at our video!

Share & Care

After every HC class I often have something to write about, and today is no exception. At the beginning of the class, the whole class celebrated Cathy and Shelly's birthday together, and Ray gave them a big surprise---Chocolates! Cathy shared the chocolates with all of us, and Ray led us to sing the happy birthday song to these lucky girls. Unfortunately my birthday is always during the holiday, but seeing every HC student has already made me very happy :) Our professor pays attention on everyone's birthday on facebook, and celebrate his/her birthday in class every week. I think he is not just doing it for fun; instead, this small thing shows his concern for each student, and sets us an example how to care about others in our daily life. I hope we can celebrate Dr. Udani's birthday together as well!!!

In each class we learn some interesting abbreviations. Today, I got to know what "share" and "care" stand for:

S---Smile

H---Help

A---Advice

R---Resources

E---Ear

C---Concern

A---Acceptance

R---Respect

E---Empathy

With the ability to share and care, we can demonstrate kindness to people around us!

When talking about teamwork in our class, there was one sentence that has left a deep impression on me---All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams. That's very true. People form groups everyday in all kinds of situations. But people only form teams when they have a common goal, and when they can strive for the goal whole-heartedly. One thing I enjoy in HC is that most HC students are spontaneous to build teams. Be it whether doing a project or holding an activity, I can always find my peers supporting me and offering help. I believe the HC family is really a TEAM rather than a group.

In addition, I've got a new interpretation of HC---H for Hardwork, and C for Change. HC people are not only hardworking, but also love changes! Maybe we can bring changes to other people and even to society in future.

Towards the end of today's class, our professor proposed that 5 students give a 30-minute inspirational speech. Those who made their speeches were much more than five, but I learnt quite a lot from their impromptu speeches. I remember Vicky told us a story about the life of three trees, which expressed the idea that everyone has his/her uniqueness and value. Ana read a Portuguese poem and explained the meaning of it. Some other students inspired me by their smiles, attitude, and encouraging words.

When it was my turn, I first talked about the importance of dealing with pressure, because April is a busy month for everybody. Then I invited my friends to the upcoming BBQ, which will be held on next Sunday, and I'm busy getting ready for it with my co-organizers!