the last blog

This is my last blog, I really want to write something about the Leap Program and Calgary.

First of all, there is a really difficult question haunting me,” who is my favorite instructor?” I can not give a satisfing answer because I really love all my instructors, and they have their own outstanding personalities and gave me lots of knowledge about English study. In the writing and grammar class, Ms Pam taught me how to study English through feeling, which greatly changed my opinion on English study. In the reading class, Dr. Sengupta taught me the way of critical thinking in English, which is a challenging skill and a valuable key to open the gate of the academic English. In the listening and speaking class, Scott gave me lots of valuable knowledge of speaking and listening English and corrected greatly my pronunciation. In addition, in his class, I gained skill of managing time, which is very useful in my present life. I overcame a great deal of difficulties in my daily life with this skill recently. In a word, what I want to say is that thank you, all my instructors in the Leap Program, for your kindness and I will benefit from your knowledge in a long term.

In the Leap Program, I have many admirable classmates, including Hussain, Mohammad, Gerard, Loreta, Betsy, EstellaJ, Yulia, Nikolay, Carlos, Amy, Nick, Leslie, Alif, Jennifer, Rachel, Becky, Sang Min, June, Kevin, Ted, Rayna, Edward, Sabrina, Kenneth, Bob, Serenity and Yichen. I really appreciate this opportunity of cooperating with all of you. This experience has become an invincible part of my life. I will miss you guys.

There are still lots of interesting activities, including attending lecture, pizza party, speaking journal, presentation, debate, quiz, mid-term test, and the up coming final test. All these activities are unforgettable for me, a new comer who received a different kind of education in a foreign country. In addition, all these activities are valuable for me to improve my English.

Moreover, I want to write something about my feeling of this city. Before I came here, I had been to other foreign cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Gannes, Nice and so on. I like the feeling as a traveler in a foreign city, Living in a foreign city for several days, visiting local libraries and museums. Especially, having a delicious seafood dinner with a foreign colleague in the restaurant located on the beautiful coast of Nice. In contrast, I am enjoying a very different life style in Calgary. In the past three months, my life was filled with class, assignments, and part time job. In addition, I have to finish some design projects in China and contact with my Chinese colleagues in night. Actually, I also love this kind of life, which let me get a great improvement in English.

Some amazing information

Recently, I got some very valuable and interesting information, which made me very excited. There are lots of programs and service supported by the government to help newcomer of this country. For example, there are some free English studying classes for newcomer and some programs that help newcomer looking for professional work. On March 23, 2007, I went to the Bow Valley College and attended a mock interview. That was really an amazing experience. My instructor in that mock interview prepared several questions for me such as “What experience have you had in the field of architectural design?”, “From your perspective, what are the benefits of implementing the CAD program in architectural design?” and “What responsibility do you have as an architect?”. After I finished my answer, she gave me some valuable suggestions according to my performance in mock interview. This mock interview is valuable for me because there was a great environment for me to practice my speaking English. In addition, the mock interview is just tiny part of these programs. There are still many other programs, including professional job searching, resume and career moderation. Or my god, local government is generous for newcomer, and all these programs are interesting; I will attend other programs after the Leap program. Moreover, from radio station, I know that the spring is coming now.

What a wonderful party

On March 30, 2007, all the students and staff of the Leap program stayed together and enjoyed a pizza party. There was a great environment in this party, and I met many new friends of other classes there. We sat together and communicated freely while we ate pizza as our lunch. In our conversation, we chose our topic freely, including the social attitude of the same sex marriage; the possibility of finding a professional job in this city; teeth clean; and studying in the Leap program. Occasionally, the classroom was filled with loudly laugh emerged from each group.

It is a wonderful party, and it inspired my memory of other parties I attended in china. Chinese always like to provide luxury service for their guests in the luxury hotels, and there are lots of luxury foods and wine in nearly every party. The reason of this phenomenon is that Chinese want to show their ardor, which is really a drawback of Chinese traditional culture. Especially, there are still many Chinese who are suffering hungry. Moreover, I always felt tired after these parties. Compared with parties in china, this pizza party is my favorite. It was simple and economical, and you can communicate freely in a friendly environment.

the coming spring

Recently, the whether becomes warm. Lying on the lawn, I can even smell odor of the coming spring. It’s wanderful, we can say goodby to the chilly winter and enjoy the great spring.

when I was a child, I lived in Chendu, a very beautiful city in the southwest of China. In my childhood, in this season, I always went out and enjoyed the panaroma view, the fresh air, and sunshine in the countryside. In addition, in every spring, there were some great flower fairs in several public garderns in Chendu, where many citizens showed their beautiful flowers and shared happy together. for the citizens in Chendu, Spring means hope and happy.

In our Chinese traditional culture, all the four seasons have their own special meanings. Spring means hope; summer means prosperity; fall means harvest; and winter means preparing for the coming year. among all the four seasons, my favorite is spring. the reason that I love spring is just because I need hope in my life, otherwise, my life is unimaginable.

By the way, I will go back after leap program and spend spring and summer in Beijing. It's a wonderful news because that I have been here lonely for 9 months and I really miss my friends and relatives in China.

I was lost on campus again

Today, I went to the tri lab individually. Unfortunatly, I was lost on the way to the tri lab. It’s incredible that I was lost again on campus. I have finished 2 projects of campus planning in my homeland and am familiar with the planning of the campus in china. However, I was lost on campus for 3 times. After I got to the tri lab, I began to think through it. Why was I always lost on campus? Finally, I got the answer. The reason is that there is a great difference in the planning ideas between in china and here. In china, architects always emphasize the visual feeling in the space design, which lead to a series of legible spaces which can be easily orientate. Here, the architects focus on creating the comfortable spaces for the students. Students can enjoy the sunshine and the fresh air in these spaces. That is the reason why I was lost for 3 times on campus. I am disappointed for my mistakes, on the other hand, I am very happy that I got some interesting knowledge from my mistakes.

after the Spring Festival

Almost all of my Chinese classmates complained that they are missing the Spring Festival in china, and the colorful activities in the Chinese Spring Festival, including the lion dance, dragon playing, Paohanchuan, firecrackers, cake, Dumplings, sumptuous meals and mutual blessings. Actually, we lost much happiness here forever, because we lost the context and environment in our country. Recently, I have been thinking about this topic. How can we do here to give our life more colourful activities in the Spring Festival? Or, how can we enjoy the life here? Maybe, all of our Chinese here should think through this topic. Although we couldn’t copy the custom in china, we could steal some useful Western wisdom and put them into our life. It’s a good idea to live harmoniously with the local residences and study from them. The life will go ahead and we need moderate the way of life frequently according to the environment. I think that is the essential part of our Chinese traditional culture.

In the next year, I hope I can get a totally new Spring Festival here.

the mid-term test

Or, my god. Finally, the horrible mid-term test is over. The nightmare is end, and I can have a good sleep now. Generally, I hate this test and I hate myself in this test. I made a variety of stupid mistakes in this test. Moreover, I lost the insightful feeling in my former test. Anyway, I have been out of the university for a long time, which makes me forget lots of gifts.

On the other hand, I really love this test. It's really a great test, and it is so challenging that need your hard work and gift to get pass. It inspires my desire for survival. Similar to a gamble, you couldn’t know the result till the end. And the possibility of survival is 50 percent. However, I like gamble and the feeling in the casino. Sometimes, the life is a gamble. Who can know the result of his life.

In addition, this test depicts some drawbacks of my English, which is really a good thing for me. I get some useful knowledge and experience from this test. This test will pilot me to get a better preparation for the final test. I am so lucky that I still have enough time to moderate the way in which I study English till the final test.

I am dying, but I am sure that I could survive with confident smile and successful results.

I begin to love the Leap program now.