Go to a performance（due by May 4）

Go to a performance
On January 17,2009, I went to Korean singers Super Junior’s music concert in Nanjing Olympic Center with my friends Penny and Edward. This concert was their first Asia tour, so it’s a very meaningful memory.
Super Junior is a famous boy singers group in Asia, all the members are Korean except HanKyung, he is Chinese. They are very hardworking and try their best to practise singing and dancing, that’s the reason why so many people love them. We can find precious spirits on them. They are all excellent youth. Another reason is that all the boy members can sing wonderfully and dance beautifully, also they are extremely handsome in Asian girls’ mind.
I went to their concert for an accident, Penny had two more tickets, so she asked Edward and me to go with her. That was an exciting night, everyone was screaming, I also enjoy the concert very much. When I saw my idol HeeChul dancing on the stage with such a short distance in front of me, I could even feel my blood rushing to my the top of my head. Sometimes I was also screaming with others. I love the concert very much and I enjoyed all the beautiful songs and exciting dances. Super Junior’s concert was extremely different with others because they didn’t use any dancing partners. Everyone on the huge stage was a member of the group, they could dance in coordination with each others. Also. I thought they could dance better than any dancing partners because they all have that talent and they were hardworking. That night was a memorable night that I will never forget.

Participate in a Service Activity organized by a GCA teacher（due by May 4）

Participate in a Service Activity organized by a GCA teacher
On April 11,2009, I wen to school to learn how to cook Western dessert under Ms. Bartell’s project. Our cooking teacher was Ms. Beath, she was a gentle woman and she taught us very carefully.
I learned a special dessert that day. It was named Bread and Butter Pudding, it was made of 2 eggs, 4 slices of bread (crusts off and buttered), 50g sugar, 300ml milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 50g raisins. First, I cut the bread into fingers,laid them in the bottom of a big glass dish, buttered side up and sprinkle in raisins and continue the layers. Secondly, I beat together the eggs and milk, add the sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon, stired well and pour over the bread layers until it completely soak the bread. Thirdly, I let them to stand for approximately 1 hour so that bread soaked up all of the flavours. Fourthly, I put them into the microwave oven on medium power for 4-5 mins until it begins to set at the edges. Finally, I left it to cool down for about 5 minutes until it was completely done.
It was the best “little” project in Planning class, I think. We could have fun in it and also we could learn a Western dessert, who can believe it was a homework project! I really enjoyed it and my pudding tasted very nice, at least I like it.

Act in a performance（due by May 4）

Act in a performance
The last day of last year was a special day for me. On that day,drama Snow White directed by me had succeeded in GCA New Year Show(Art Festival). It was memorable for me because it was the first time I acted in formal show in GCA, and I directed this drama by overcoming a lot of challenges.
Our “Snow White” was put on in the NFLS theatre on December 31. Although some of us had made several mistakes, the whole drama was very successful. We all liked it very much. Howevr, only a few people knew how difficult we practised.
At first, our teacher told me to make a performance for the Art Festival because I am in charge of this part in my class. Almost every class prepared singing songs or dances, so I decided to make something speacial. After thinking a lot, I decided to make a drama that had enough roles for my classmates because we needed this in our portfolio and maybe this was the only chance for us. A drama looked better, but a bigger challenge lying in front of me. I chose nearly 2/3 of my classmates to act in Snow White, the more people we have, the more hard rehearse. I divided the actors into 3 groups, each group practised for one day, but I was the director, so I had to stay at school everyday and I usually left school at 9 p.m. I had thought of giving up this drama, but the spirit of perseverance encouraged me not to say I can’t easily. However, our hard work wasn’t useless, Snow White was shown wonderfully that morning, at least I thought it was.

Volunteer/Work Experience（due by May 4）

Volunteer/Work Experience
I was a stage backdrop artist in GCA Third Annual Fashion Show, and I got 5 hours of volunteer work intotal for doing this.
I stayed at school after class and did volunteer work everyday for a whole week. My duty was to design the font and draw them out, sometimes I even need to paint the letters and cut them. Someone said volunteer work was boring, but I don’t think so. I have found a lot of fun in it. I think I have a great talent in designing and drawing, I had much interest in them since I was very young, so when Joy from Grade 11 asked me to make the christmas tree in the end of last year, I agreed immediately, and several days ago when she came again and asked me to make the stage backdrop, I was also willing to do. First, we measured the cloth which we would change it into a backdrop and decided a suitable length and width for it to be a wonderful curtain. Then, we went to the shop and bought several pieces of big colourful paper to make the letters on the curtain. After that, we started to make the backdrop. The other two designers were thinking for a speacial font of the 3 biggest letters ”GCA” and they also asked me for advice, I thought for a while and came out with a great idea--- made the letters angular and have different width in different part. I quickly drew them out and they all loved the font very much. The other letters “FASHION SHOW” were designed by a certain teacher, I drew some of the letters and painted them.
When I saw the backdrop on April 27, the FASHION SHOW, I was so excited that the beautiful curtain was made by me. I was too proud to control myself not to say to others , “Look! that wonderful stage backdrop was made by me”. I thought it was a sense of accomplishment, it is very important in working. When we finish our work and the work is done well, we will be very proud of ourselves. That will make us have more motivations to do work well. I think doing volunteer work is very useful in our future life, it is the best way to experience what taking a job is like and what will we be resbonsible in.
I also did volunteer work as a typist and I got 5 hours volunteer time for it. Consider to the work I got in Fashion Show, it was much more boring. The only thing I did was to sit in front of the computer and do the typing work. Before staring, I thought that can help me improve my speed of typing English words. However, I found I was wrong that my job was to type Chinese words, that meaned the work would be tougher and less intersting.. No matter how hard it would be, I had to get my volunteer time, no companies would sign for a strange student who did nothing for them. Of course I finished the boring typing work and got enough volunteer time. It is just like that I was a poor candidate, but I needed $5000 to rent an apartment. I had no work to do but boring typing work which I thought I would never do it, but I had to do it because I need money to find somewhere to live, it’s very important, so I did it and finished work well, then I got enough money. That’s it, sometimes we don’t have any interest in something but we are reasonable to do it, because we can get back profit.

A dinner at Bebbis（due Mar.15）

A dinner with my friends at Bebbis
On Mar.1, 2009, I went to an Swiss restaurant named Bebbis with Edward and Katherine to have Swiss food. The restaurant was on the first underground floor in the Dongfang shopping mall. We chose this restaurant because some of my classmates had eaten there before and they thought it was a good restaurant.
I had chocolate fondue and Hawaii roesti at Bebbis. Roesti is the national dish of Switzerland. The Hawaii roesti that I chose was made of potatoes, pineapples, baconn, and cheese. It was really delicious. The chocolate fondue is for we three because it was expensive. It was formed with liquid chocolate and fruit. We heated the chocolate and ate the fruit with liquid chocolate all around it. It was a good idea to have fun with eating fruit and chocolate.
I like the food there very much because the restuarant was very creative and the food there was also delicious. There was a cow model and some buckets milk models. Its much more wonderful inside the restaurant. The restaurant used wood flooring on the ground and that made me felt interested. The air inside was fresh. The Swiss Roesti was also new to me. Usually, the food I ate at home was Chinese food and I used chopsticks to eat. However, I used fork for the roesti and there were cheese in it. There were also a family eating there and enjoyed the food. The service was good, the waitresses were patient and polite. I think Bebbis is a really good restaurant to have meals, but it’s too expensive for our students to eat there often, so I would not recommend other students to come.

Ancient Chinese Lacquer Exhibition with my friends (due Mar.15)

Ancient Chinese Lacquer Exhibition with my friends (due Mar.15)
On Mar.15, 2009, I went to Nanjing Museum for the Ancient Chinese Lacquer Exhibition with Edward and Katherine. The museum is on Zhongshandong Road. We chose to go to this exhibition because we were all interested in Chinese Lacquer and some of our classmates have been there before and thought that it was very interesting. In addition, the museum is the biggest one in Nanjing and we can go to the exhibition for free.
The most interesting artwork I have seen at the exhibition was the huge lacquered folding screen. It was about 1.5 meters tall and 2.5 meters wide and was surrounded with dark brown wood frame. The screen was divided into 4 parts and each part was a erect rectangle with picture on it. The patterns on the screen were first sculpted on the wood and then colored with lacquer and looked very smooth. It was a speacial artwork and was quite useful in the past.
I like the exhibition very much that I could deside to go there. After the exhibition, I knew that China was the first country to use lacquering technology and the Chinese Lacquer had a long history. The lacquer products are nice and usefull. Because of the lacquer outside, the product could hardly be destroyed that we can keep it for a long time. I thought the lacquer products could show us Chinese culture, so they were different and unique artwork. I can see the wonderful Chinese art and knew the folk artwork from the products, and improve my appreciation of beauty. It was a meaningful journey.

School club/Organization(due by May 4)

Education & Career Planning

School club/Organization

I attended the TV Series Club during the past term and I have got 7 hours for my participation. In the club, we always watched TV series or some famous movies.

At first, we watched a popular TV series, “prison break”. Because we only had one hour for each club activity, we only watched the first section. The main character Michael Scofield was very smart and he planned to get into the prison in order to save his innocent brother. After he was arrested, he usually walked around inside the prison and made a map of it. During this process, he overcame a lot of challenges with using his wisdom. The love between Michael and his brother is valuable and impressive.

The second time, we watched a funny cartoon movie---”Kung Fu Panda”. In the story, there was a lazy panda which loved eating very much but was also interested in Kung Fu. It found the principle of Kung Fu from his father---“The secret ingredient of my secret ingredient soup is...nothing. To make something special, you just have to believe it’s special.” That’s true, there is no principle at all. If we want to get better, just believe in our ability and believe we can do it.

Watching good movies and TV series can help us find the truth that the movie has told us and improve ourselves. Also, we can relax and enjoy the pleasure during watching movies. At present, movies and TV series are entering our life, watching movies is becoming an important part of our life. More and more people are affected by the movies, students are also one part of them, so watching movies is important for us. After a whole day’s study, TV Series Club can help its members to relax and have fun. In addition, we always watch English movies and this will help train our English ear. It will become easier to talk to our foreign teachers. Now I have been to the club activity several times and I can understand almost every word that the characters said. I think watching English movie is the quickest and easiest way for our students to train our ear, and the most fantastic thing is that we can also have fun in it.

During the activities of TV Series Club, I found that when we are watching movies or TV Series, we must be quiet and share our opinions afterwards. We should respect the other students who are watching movies that we will mix in easily.

In the club, I knew many new friends who I don’t know before. Participating the activities helped us know each other quickly and we also learned what fairness is. Every time when we had club meeting, we would discuss together and decided which movie we should watch. That is fair for each of us. “The minority is subordinate to the majority.” In this way, no one would feel unfair and get angry. Voting is a good method to make harmony and reduce quarrel.
School club or organization is an important part of our school life, it can make our boring life become more colorful and meaningful. Let’s enjoy it.

Last year, I attended designing club and my work was to make the christmas tree. Joy had already make a metal construction of the huge christmas tree, the things I needed to do was to cut the big green cloth into circles and set these circles onto the construction. Then Joy put some cotton on the edges of each circle to make the snow. A beautiful christmas tree was done!
It’s my first time to make decoration for GCA, and I have done well. Everytime when I saw the tree, I was very proud. During the designing club activity, I had a lot of new friends. It's my greatest gain.

PhysicalActivity (10 hours due by May 4)

Personal Health
PhysicalActivity (10 hours due by Feb. 8)

I attended the badminton club of GCA and played badminton twice a weekend. I have got 42 hours totally for my physical activity.

Our club play badminton at Nanjing Normal University from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday afternoon. Each member should pay 20 yuan for each activity. I went there by bike every week.

Playing badminton is a very healthy activity, we can keep fit and have fun in it. Generally, I played badminton with my classmate ---Katherine. She was my good partner, we always play together in the women’s double badminton game and we both played well. At the beginning, when I first went to play badminton, I didn’t play very well. However, I was very hard-working, so I went to practice playing badminton every week. After one month, I had a little progress and I joined the GCA badminton team. On Oct.11 afternoon, I went to a badminton competition at Nanjing Internatinal School. We must play in double and my partner was Edward, he was my good friend and he played badminton very well. Although I played better than before, I still played not very well in the team. Because of me, we did the worst in the team. I felt very sorry to him but he said, “That’s OK. We are still good friends.” From that day, he started training me to play badminton and I played better and better. On Dec.14, we had another badminton game against Nanjing International School and this time we must play in single. I tried my best in the game, and after the game I found I was the only girl who winned one game. At that time, I felt very happy.

After I played badminton, I found I am good at this sport. I am one of the tallest girl in the team, that is an advantage to play badminton. In addition, I am interested in badminton and I am hard-working. Because of this, I think I can be a good badminton player.

During the badminton club activity, I knew many people from GCA and made friend with them. I played with many of them and improved my skills. One day, our chairperson’s friend Yang jian, a badminton coach, went to our sports hall to teach us some important skills. After that, our P.E. teacher Mr.Harris trained katherine and me how to hit the bird back in normal way. I learned a lot from that night.

I can keep fit during plaing badminton and become stronger. Because of playing badminton, I hardly get sick now. At present, I played badminton much better than before and I am the member of GCA badminton team who have the experience in the badminton competition. Those are very good for my university life in the future. I think I can continue improving my badminton level and become healthier.

Sports match can help us practice more and become healthier. If a person isn’t interested in sports, activity match will help him/her to do more exercise and get fitter. However, if we don’t do any sports generally, we can’t overdo it, that will hurt our self.

Volunteer/Work Experience（due by Feb.8）

buCommunity Involvement & Employability Skills
Volunteer/Work Experience
I was a volunteer for the drama ‘The taming of the shrew’ last year and I get the verification from Ms. Mitschrich. As a volunteer, my job was to make a big ‘fried pig’, this stage property would be used in the drama. The pig was made from newspaper and magzine paper. First, we used a big paper box as the basic structure of the big’s body. Next, we kneaded the paper into a lot of paper balls and sticked them around the paper box to make the body become bigger and rounder that it would look like a pig’s body. Then we made many slips of magzine paper and used the glue to stick them onto the round body smoothly. After the body became dry, we painted it into brownish dark red, the fried pig’s color. The body was finished, so we started to make the pig’s head. The head was also made of paper, we used two thick long slips of paper to make the basic structure of a ball----the shape of the head. Then we filled paper balls into the model and made it become a solid ball. After that we added the nose and the ears onto the head, and fixed it onto the body, the ‘fried pig’ is done!
During this volunteer work, I learned a lot. I knew we must make a plan before we start to do the work., and cooperation is very important in a group work.. When everyone in a group work together, the efficiency is much higher than only one do the work.. I made the pig with 3 or 4 people and we finished it quickly and I don’t think I can do it by myself, because I only have two hands.
Before, I thought making a play is very easy, but now I understand, it is a very tough work that a lot of people must work together and think of creative ideas. Before I thought there were many people in a play, but now I know there are even more! Not all the people that attended a play will be in the play and show on the stage, that is only a little part of all the participators, more people work behind the curtain.
When we work in a group, each of us must show our good skills and work actively. That we will do better. Being selfish won’t help to do anything. When we work on our own, we can also listen to some good suggestions from others, this can help us make progress.
If I decide to be a volunteer, I must be in charge of my work, although I can’t get any money from this work.However, I can get valuable experience from being a volunteer, I know how I can work better, I know what is my duties, I know how to coorporate with my partners.
Volunteer is a holy job, if there are more volunteers in the society, the world will become more beautiful.

A dinner at Lucky Star

Culture Awareness
On Dec.28, 2008, we went to an American restaurant called Lucky Star in Xinjiekou and ate American food. We had a big dinner with 13 people in total, 11 of us are from Grade 10 and 2 of us are from Grade 12. We were Peggy, Laura (both from Grade 12), Kevin, Alex, Penny, Oliver, Gerry, Laurence, Evelyn, Maria, Amy, Chris and me. We chose this restaurant because it is an American restaurant and we are all interested in American. There is another reason that we thought the restaurant that provides American food may have low price of its food but actually it is still a very expensive restaurant.We arrived at the restaurant at about 6:30. It is on the second floor of the Jinlun shopping centre in Xinjiekou. Because no one of us had been there, we spent some time to find it.
I think the American food tastes not so good and it is also very expensive, so I don’t like it at all. The first dish I had is mushroom soup. It tasted really strange and had strange smell and color. When I had one spoon of it, I seemed to vomit and didn’t want to have it any more. Then I have two pieces of bread. They were really nice. After that was the beefsteak, it was not ripe at all and there was some blood in it. I felt bad after having it. American food is totally different from the food I usually have. Firstly, when we have Chinese food we often use chopsticks but for having American food we have to use the fork, knife and spoon. When we have beef in Chinese style we often have many small pieces of it but in American style, we have a big thick slice of beef and the beef is usually fried.
The environment there was really perfect. There were a few people in the restaurant and it was very clean and tidy. The atmosphere inside is fresh and warm. It was very comfortable. Most of the people in the restaurant were the people who went shopping in the Jinlun shopping centre. The service there is good. The waitress was polite and the food was prepared quickly. However, I won’t recommend others to eat there because the food there was expensive.
This was a good experience. I realized what the American food was like and enjoyed the different culture.

Wu Weishan Sculpture Exhibition

Wu Weishan Sculpture Exhibition
On Dec.4,2008, we went to Nanjing University for Wu Weishan Sculpture Exhibition. All the artwork is sculpture and most of it was made by one artist named Wu Weishan.
Through all the artwork that was showed on the exhibition, I like “sleeping baby” best. This artwork was made by Wu Weishan in 1998 and it helped him get the highest award in sculpture around the world. The general shape of this artwork is a cone, it is made of bronze and it is greenish black. The subject of this artwork was a sleeping baby. He was the grandson of Wu Weishan’s friend. He used simple points, lines and faces to make the baby’s face but all the facial features are very clear and verisimilar. The sculpture is just like a real baby. From this artwork, I see a lovely sleeping baby. The baby was innocent and just like an angel.
From this artwork, I seemed to go back to my childhood and sleep deeply with my lovely dream. I think this artwork shows us what all the children are like when they are sleeping. It shows us the innocent face of the baby. It reminds me of the scene when my baby cousin was sleeping, his mother was also looking at him with full of love in her heart. It was so warm.
This artwork is related to a recent big event in China----the harmful milk powder made by Sanlu. The milk powder made many babies get sick. They were painful and couldn’t sleep so happily and deeply like the baby of the artwork. I think the artist’s intention is to remind us of our innocent childhood and let us touch the pure heart of the child. He showed his thoughts when he first saw the sleeping baby to us through this artwork.
I like this artwork because this sculpture is simple and meaningful. It makes me feel warm and I seem to go back to my childhood. The artist wants to show us the innocence of the children. They are the only pure colony in our society. So it is meaningful. It is simple and not complicated at all. We can easily understand what the artist wants to show us. I think other people might appreciate the artwork because it is a good artwork with unforgettable meaning and structure. It combined both tradition and contemporaneity. The sculpture is traditional because all the artwork is hand-made and made with in the old way. It is also contemporary because the artist showed us the emotions and the meanings of the sculpture in a simple way and it is a little abstract.
This exhibition is unforgettable to me and I like it very much. The artwork that is showed is very interesting. The sculptures are all very verisimilar and also meaningful. Each artwork has its own story. They have good structure, form and design. I can enjoy the beauty of the artwork and have fun.

WHY MATH