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.