University Life 6

A graduation ceremony

On Wednesday, May 18th, 2008, I attended my sister’s graduation ceremony, which is a fantastic activity in the University of Toronto. I arrived there with my sister at 2:00. Then, she picked up her graduation gown with her friends, and I waited for them outside of the building. There were many people who were carrying flowers standing around me; I thought that they must have been the graduates’ family or friends. At 2:20pm people started to enter the Convocation Hall. Firstly, the graduates walked in a line to enter the Convocation Hall from the main entrance. Then other people who were invited by the graduates entered the Convocation Hall by the side entrance with tickets. The Convocation Hall totally has three floors, and it looks like a huge birdcage. The roof of the Convocation Hall, which was gilded and painted, made the Convocation Hall look luxurious and magnificent.

The graduation ceremony began with the Canadian national anthem at 2:30 pm, and everyone was standing in front of their seats. Then, the chancellor of the U of T, who is around 40 years old, delivered the opening address and congratulated those students who graduated from University of Toronto. The people who were sitting under the platform roared with approval and clapped, and everybody looked very happy and excited. After that, several professors also made speeches and congratulated the graduates. At last, the most important and exciting thing was that the professors awarded the graduates diplomas. During that time, most people took pictures for their family members or friends. Of course, I took lots of pictures for my sister, and I also shot a video for her because I thought that time was very significant and unforgettable for her.

That was the first time I attended a graduation ceremony, and I felt very excited. I was very glad and proud that my sister could successfully get a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in three years. I will definitely study harder in the future, and I hope I can get the same honours as she has gotten.

University Life 5

Royal Ontario Museum

Hi, everyone, I’m Jing. Today I would like to share my experience of visiting the Royal Ontario Museum with you. On Sunday, May 8th, 2008, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum with my friends Johnson and Jason. Actually, we went there at 5:00 pm on May 6th; however, the manager of the museum said that the museum had to close before 5:40 pm that day because they had a very important activity. Therefore, we went back home and went to the museum again on May 8th, 2008. The Royal Ontario Museum is one of the world’s great museums and the fifth largest museum in North America, and it contains more than six million items. The Royal Ontario Museum totally has five floors that include two major kinds of galleries, which are Natural History galleries and World Culture galleries.

The Natural History gallery includes three galleries, which are the Gallery of Birds, the Gallery of Insects, and the Gallery of Mammals, and all of these galleries are on the second floor of the museum. I think the most interesting gallery of the Natural History galleries is the mammal’s gallery, which has many models of mammals, such as tiger, wolf, lion, etc. (but I didn’t take any pictures there because my camera didn’t have enough electricity). However, Johnson and Jason liked the bird’s gallery because there are many fossils and models of different kinds of dinosaurs that Johnson and Jason are really interested in. The gallery of birds displays many specimens of different kinds of birds, as you can see from the picture. The gallery of insects contains both live and dead insects, such as toads and cockroaches.

The World Culture galleries include the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Canadian, Indian, and Egyptian galleries. The Chinese, Japanese, and Korean galleries are located on the first floor. I think the Chinese gallery is the most interesting one because it has many ancient Chinese sculptures, models of Chinese famous buildings, and some other Chinese cultural relics that I have never seen before. The Canadian, Indian, and Egyptian galleries are on the third floor of the museum. The Canadian gallery contains many examples of early 19th and 20th century artifacts, which are from the indigenous cultures of the Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Northwest Coast, and Arctic regions. This gallery also has some famous artworks and paintings (as you can see from the picture). The Egyptian gallery contains a wide range of artifacts, which are agricultural implements, jewelry, cosmetics, and more. There are also a number of mummy cases, including the gilded and painted coffin of Djedmaatesankh, who was a famous female musician in Egypt, and the mummy of Antjau, who was a wealthy landowner.

We spent almost three and half hours visiting the museum because it is so big and knowledgeable. I think visiting the Royal Ontario Museum was an unforgettable and pleasant experience for me because I could see and learn about many histories and cultures of different countries from the museum.

University Life 4

Speak Your Mind

On 28 May, 2008, I attended an activity which was called “Speak Your Mind” with my friend Dohee at the Art Gallery of York University. This activity was a spoken word performance, and it was organized by Nancy Kamalanathan, who is a trainee at York, and hopes to pursue social work or psychology at York.

This activity actually started at 6:30 pm. However, I could not find the place; when I arrived there, it was almost 7:30 pm. It was not a very spacious room, but it had a high ceiling. There were around 30 people in the room. Dohee and I sat in the front row. The first performer we saw was a guy who was a high school student and also wrote a journalist about fashion. He was not very tall, wore a pair of glasses, and looked like a hardworking and serious person. However, when I listened to his speech, I felt that he was very funny. Even though he spoke quite fast, so that I could not completely understand his speech, I enjoyed in his performance. The second artist, whom I really liked and appreciated, was a black man. (I’m sorry that I have forgotten his name.) He had very short hair, wore casual clothes, and carried a drum. He drummed and sang during his speech, and he swayed his hips in time with the steady rhythmic beating of the drums that made us excited. I took pictures of him.

There also were many other new and experienced spoken word artists, such as York English student Adebe D.A, who is assistant editor of York’s Existere, a journal of Arts and Literature; Blakka Ellis who is a Jamaican writer, performer and educator; Jamaican-born d’bi young who is a dub poet, playwright and actor now living in Toronto, and Michael St. George, who is an Canadian dub poet and Asian UK Hip Hop producer etc. Here is a website about Michael St. George. http://www.canadianreggaeworld.com/michaelstgeorge.htm. I regretted that I was late and missed Michael St. George’s performance because I heard that he was also good at singing, and he sang that evening before I came there.

Anyway, I think this is a fantastic activity; I really enjoyed it. Actually, that was the first time I took part in a York event outside of class, and that was an unforgettable experience for me. I hope I can attend more fantastic activities like this in the future.

( Here I have some other people’s pictures; they also performed in this activity.)

University Life 3

Last week, I attended a lecture at the University of Toronto with my friend who is a first year student at the U of T, and studies environmental science. The lecture was about weather and climate. The professor, who is called Corinnel Schiller, is an energetic woman. She spoke loudly and clearly in the lecture. She used many good examples from our daily life to support each point during her lecture. In addition, Schiller had an excellent PowerPoint presentation; the content was well organized and visually appealing, which was helpful for us to understand the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Schiller showed many chemical reactions in Polar Stratosphere Clouds, such as O3+NO→O2+NO2; O3+CL→O2+CLO; NO2+O→O2+NO; CLO+O→O2+CL; etc. After that, she explained some pictures about Ozone in different seasons. Then she gave us several suggestions on what needs to be done by us. Firstly, the chlorine in the stratosphere must be decreased. Secondly, because we cannot remove the chlorine, we must be careful about what chlorine compounds we use. Thirdly, the Montreal Protocol, which was signed in 1987, should be expanded. This protocol was a convention to reduce the production of CFCS, which had been shown to be responsible for damage to the Ozone layer. In 1995, the scientists (one American, one Canadian, one French) who had contributed to this protocol won the Nobel Chemistry Prize.

This lecture lasted less than one hour. Even thought some parts of the lecture I could not understand well, I think attending this lecture was a very useful experience for me because when I attended this lecture, I gained a lot of knowledge about weather and climate. For example, after attending this lecture, I now know that the Ozone hole is getting bigger currently due to human behavior, so we should take more positive measures to save the Ozone layer. I really enjoyed this lecture. Moreover, I noticed that the lecture style in Canada is similar to the style in my country. In both styles, the professor leads the lecture and talks a lot in the lecture; students take notes and answer some questions.

Mourning for the victim

University Life 2

At 2: 28 p.m. on May 12th, 2008, a strong earthquake, which measured 8.0 on the Richter scale, suddenly struck Sichuan province in southwestern China. This is the deadliest earthquake on the Chinese mainland since the 1976 Tang Shan earthquake that claimed 249,419 lives. Up to now, the Sichuan earthquake has left 55,239 people dead and 274,683 people injured. Moreover, at least 15.61 million buildings have been damaged by the earthquake including 3.13 million that have collapsed. After the earthquake, many Chinese people spontaneously went to Sichuan province to succor the victims and donate money and blood to the victims.

Last Friday, the Chinese Embassy in Canada also held an activity to mourn the people who died in the earthquake, and donate money to the disaster area. As a Chinese, I attended this activity. There were almost 200 people in the activity, and most of them were overseas students. We all wore the yellow silk ribbon. The activity started at 8 p.m. At first, all the people held candles and stood in front of the embassy, and the consul read a memorial speech. Many people cried. Then, we prayed for the victims and sang the national anthem together. After that, we donated money to the disaster area; all my friends donated 20 dollars. Also, people from many other countries donated money. At last, we put our candles in a shape like a heart, and stood in silent tribute around the candles.

I think this was a very beneficial activity. The 8.0-magnitude earthquake alarmed the world. The victims’ destinies also affected the 1300 million Chinese people’s heart. Whenever I see the pictures of the disaster area and victims I cry because in this earthquake many people died, and most of them were children. They can not see their family members again. Moreover, although many people did not lose their lives, they lost their family members. As overseas students, even though we can not go to the disaster area to help the victims, we can pray for them and donate money to help them. It has been said that “whenever we face disaster, unity is strength.” Therefore, I believe that any difficulties are temporary, and any disaster can be overcome.

University Life 1

Last Saturday, I had a wonderful evening because my friend Xiang invited me to her birthday party. There were nine people at the party; two boys who come from Canada, three people who come from Korea, and the rest of the people, who come from China. All the people at the party were very friendly and outgoing; therefore, I made many new friends. We chatted about our experiences and dreams, and I really enjoyed the time. All the people talked about their ages, hobbies and majors. Most of us study or want to study business for different reasons. One Korean girl, who studies in the University of Toronto, made an impression on me because we both love fashion design, and we have similar tastes in music. Moreover, she is a hard-working student. She prepared for and passed the TOEFL test by herself in two monthes. I hope we can become great friends. After dinner, all the friends danced and sang together, and we were very happy. I am sure that coming to this party was a fantastic experience for me because it not only gave me a chance to meet many new friends, but also to make my university life more rich and colorful. In addition, this party also gave me a chance to speak with native speakers and friends rom other countries. I could practice and improve my speaking and listening skills by talking with them. In the future, I hope I can take part in more useful and enjoyable activities.