#12 About my blog

Up to now, I have written 11 blog posts, most of which were based on my blog theme, My Life.

My favorite post is Sustainability Post. It does not mean I like the words or sentences I wrote; In fact, I enjoy the preparing part. In order to know more about sustainability and SLS, I wanted to interview a teacher in SLS. I was so lucky that Director Christian replied to me very quickly, and we made an appointment soon. I tried my best to think about what I could ask him and how I could finish it perfectly. After interviewing, a student took a picture for us, and I was very happy. I think it’s a great chance for me to know more about sustainability. It’s my favorite post! Of course, in this post, my writing needs improvement……

I really enjoy writing blogs and communicating with people. When I was recommending a post, I found many funny blogs, such as climate change blog, travelling blog, math blog and so on. I followed them and communicated with the bloggers. I got different ideas, and improved my English skills at the same time.

Because I mainly concentrated on my homework and math knowledge, I didn’t do many interesting things. So, in my blog, there are not many things about my life here. After I go back to my country, I’ll continue writing blogs. I think at that time, you will find many interesting things happening in China. BTW, welcome to China!

I also hope you can communicate with me, and tell me more interesting things around you!

#11 Serve-Learn-Sustain

“Serve-Learn-Sustain is an institutional effort to equip Georgia Tech students to learn and serve around the theme “creating sustainable communities” through engagement with content and context.”

Do you know what sustainability is? Sustainability initiatives integrate environment, economy, and social issues. I’m lucky enough to interview Christian Braneon, the Assistant Director of Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain. I know that they really do many things for Georgia Tech before, now, and in the future.

I was interested in how they organized faculties in the past. Director Christian told me that they went to the faculty apartment to tell them what SLS was, and welcome faculties to join SLS. Those faculties could also call people off campus to join some activities, and to let them understand SLS. So, you can see that SLS not only have effects on campus, but also devote to contribute to create sustainable communities. They also gave faculties funding to help them hold activities, and pay for class.

A significant activity that Director Christian remembered was that they organized students to pave the path on the Martin Luther King Day. They used special Eco-friendly materials which could let water sink in. How amazing it was.

I got some ideas about climate change from Director Christian. We all know that atmosphere in America is very great. But in China, the atmosphere in winter is bad. In his opinion, it’s because of coal-burning. That’s true. In winter, coal was used for cooking and heating directly in China rather than electricity in America.

What is your opinion about sustainability?

Exchange=gain weight (#10 cartoon)

In this picture, there are two people. But, do you find that they are the same? Before he went abroad, he was thin. When he comes back, he is so fat. This picture is so vivid. It is so funny.

I believe it’s real since I am a little fatter here than at home!!! I think the food here is high-calorie, like Hamburger, and pizza. And I do not always exercise.

I’m a little nervous. (T_T)I do not want to gain weight…..But actually I enjoy my exchange life!  Are you an exchange student? What is your feeling when you see this picture?

#9 The first is the happiest

I remember three happy things! I want to share them with you!

I’m in the middle of this picture! Can you find where I am? 🙂

The first travel without acquaintance

This is easier to find me 🙂 haha

Sometimes, I’m a quiet girl. Sometimes, I’m an outgoing girl. But, do you know that I’m also an adventurous girl?! Since I went to the university, I had wanted to climb, but people around me did not like climbing, and of course, they did not want to climb with me together. I could not suppress my urge, so, I took part in a climbing club and went out with them first on September 13^th, 2015. It was also the first time that I went traveling without acquaintance. I really liked the scenery on the way which was totally different from the scenery in the city. The fresh air, the beautiful flowers, and the challenging route, all of which gave me different feelings. I enjoyed this travel.

The first social activity

See, it was my first social activity, visiting alumnus. I could not imagine going out with my classmates, and contacting alumnus by ourselves. But we did it and we finished it perfectly. Within those days, I often felt proud. After going back school, we had to reply with what we did and what alumnus said in this activity. And then I got an honor “Outstanding student on social activities of Xi’an Jiaotong University”. How happy it was!

Getting the scholarship

It’s the certificate

In my opinion, every student feels happy when he/she gets the scholarship. At the beginning of my third year of university, we had to wrap-up our study in the second year and gave honors or scholarships to outstanding students. Within those time, since there were many items to be considered and it was filled with a lot of uncertainty, nearly all students were nervous, of course, including me. At first, I guess maybe I could not get the scholarship or got ¥1000 at most. However, I got ¥5000 scholarship. It’s awesome! It’s unexpected! I was very happy as it was a surprise and it was the first time that I got scholarship in university.

For many people, for many things, the first is the happiest. Do you remember some first and happy things? Welcome to sharing them with me!

 

About math (#8 recommend a blog)

In my “about me”, I’ve said that I would write something about math. However, I’ve not got any information about other countries’ math education up to now, so I recommend this blog.

How did I find this blog? Ah… When I searched on the internet, I found this post first, counting every moment. Its writer is from Poland. In this post, she said Asians are not inherently smart, but they value education in a different way than Americans do, and she gave an example. I really agree with her opinion that talking to children in everyday conversation about math is a good thing. I will do it after I have a child in the future, hahaha… Within her post, she recommended a blog, which I want to recommend. To be precise, it is “I will re-recommend”.

This blog is about elementary math education written by a woman living in the US. I looked through her blog and found those posts were very interesting. She called those posts math journeys, like “Wednesday Word Problem”, “Time 4 Fraction”, and “Click”. There were also some math concepts which I thought were abstract. She showed them in an easily-understood way. In her blog, some pictures were very cute, like this one:

If you are  interested in math games or math tips, you can follow her blog. If you want to know how you can help your children build up connections in math, you can also follow her blog. If you don’t know where to start, you can follow its “Table of contents”. It will be easier to find what you like.

In my opinion, she can make her blog more vivid. So, I give this blog 4 stars.

#7 “Let me know” by After 7

“Let me know” is from After 7’s “Timeless” album, released on June 10, 2016. After 7 is an R&B group. When I first listened to it, I liked it because its prelude is like one of my favorite Chinese song called “heniyiyang”. In my opinion, lyric is the most important part of a song. People can always decide whether or not to continue to listen to this song after hearing the lyric.

In addition, the mood is warm and touching. You can listen to it:

Let me know:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKLNu1uUTtw

heniyiyang(和你一样): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GZ0HrhEHQs

#6 Everyone has problems or challenges to overcome

I believe that everyone has problems or challenges to overcome.

For students, I think there are many problems, such as study pressure, loss of entertainment, strict requirements from their parents, etc. Many students have to study hard year after year. When I was in the primary school, my parents told me that I must study hard in order to go to a good junior high school. When I was in the junior high school, they still told me that I have to study hard in order to enter a good high school. In China, nearly all students have to undergo stress from their study. I think it is a serious problem for students. They have to do a lot of test exercises, so they have no time to go outside, to travel, to make new friends who are not study-partners but communicate-partners with different background but similar interests. Some students have no way to deal with this stress and overcome this challenge, so they commit suicide.

I have to deal with some problems now. One month later, I will go back to my country, and then I should decide where I will study for my graduate degree, and which research area I should choose. After these days’ preparation, I decide to work on Operational Research or Bio-statistics. When I was searching some information about these research areas, I also looked through homepages of many schools and teachers. I tried to find some professors who work on those two research areas, but some teachers’ homepages are too incomplete to provide any useful information, so it wasted a lot of my time. I think choosing school and teacher is a big challenge for me. I still need to spend a lot of time on this thing, and I still have to practice English as well since I have to speak English when they interview me.

Do you have any challenges in your life? How do you conquer them? Welcome to communicate with me!

Link:   https://soundcloud.com/zhaoxia-ma/this-i-believe_zhaoxia

#5 Haiku

(This picture was taken in Daming Palace National Heritage Park in China)

A beautiful woman

Tilts body and looks thoughtful

How graceful she is

Link: Zhaoxia_Haiku_soundcloud

#4 Education in China

In this post, I’ll introduce Chinese education by my own experience.

When I was 4 years old, I went to the kindergarten. In my memory, I learned Math and Chinese. At that time, I had many free time, and I always played with my friends. An important festival for children was International Children’s Day. We always prepared it for nearly one month, mostly on dance and songs.

I went to the primary school when I was 7 years old. In this period, I had to learn three major courses, Math, Chinese and English, and some other courses, like Nature and Science. We had less time to play since we had to work hard in order to enter a good junior high school.

The next level was the junior high school. I went to junior high school when I was 13 years old. In this stage, besides for Math, Chinese and English, I had to learn Physics, biology, Chemistry, History, Geography, and Politics. But I did not have to learn them the whole three years.

Because I did very well when I was in junior high school, I did not take the high school entrance exam before I went to high school. We called it “recommendation”. In the high school, I just learned all the same courses as I learned in the junior school in the first year. When I was in the second and third year of high school, I did not have to learn History, Geography, and Politics.

When I was 19 years old, I went to the university, and I am now in the third year of university.

I am interested in your countries’ education. If you are also interested in Chinese education, we can communicate further!

#3 Things cannot be judged by their looks

Have you ever mistaken something because you just looked at the package itself rather than the name of the product? Have you ever bought something that is not what you need but looks like what you need? My friends have! I also have!

About two months ago when we first came  to the US, we went to the store  right away. We bought many necessities of our life here. One of my friends wanted to buy shampoo; he just looked at the package, the bottle, and the liquid in the bottle. Then he bought one without looking at the words on the package, and the name of that product. Of course, he bought the  wrong one, which was a conditioner rather than shampoo.

When I went to IKEA, my friend told me that he needed wallpaper to decorate the walls in his room, and he hoped that I could buy one for him. I thought it’s convenient for me to help him, so I bought one. See, this is what I bought:

It looks like wallpaper, but it’s actually gift paper because it doesn’t have glue on the back of the it. When I went to IKEA some time later, I went to the same area. Unsurprisingly, there was a sign saying “gift paper”. I just ignored it when I first bought the paper.

Here is another thing that is really funny. Look at this picture:

What do you see in the middle of this picture? They are two donuts, or maybe they are two breads. But it is obvious that they are not chicken claws, a kind of food really popular in some parts of China. When I first saw them, I just told my friend, “See, they are chicken claws! But around them, they are chips, bread. How strange it is?” When I looked at them carefully, ahhh, I found they are donuts!

Maybe these things are ridiculous, but they are also funny. Aren’t they?