We need DARKNESS! This is what came into my mind during our 3-day trip to Moreton Island—the secret backyard of Brisbane.

The trip is a small adventure. As an adventure, we were asked to bring our own sleepbags or pillows and blankets. What’s more, to protect the whole environment of the island, no disposable things are allowed at the place we live, which means we have to bring our plates, forks and knifes.

Only after we arrived did we catch the true meaning of the place, Ecovillage. With drinking water from rain water, electricity from generator and solar energy, this is by all means an autarkic village.

Since the insufficience of electricity(we met with a rainy day which made the situation worse!), there is no light at night. Have never been in such a dark envrinoment, I felt quite strange and hard to get used to at the first night.

Everything has two sides,  darkness is no exceptional. After my eyes getting adapted to it, I started to feel the beauty of the dark. After all, rather than the orange we normally see in the city, this is the true color of the night.

Maybe I should make it more accurate. It’s not 100% true that the sky there is totally dark because there is moonlight and the sparkling stars. Please draw a picture of the night on the island in your mind with the following key words: beach, sound of ocean, genlte wind, moonlight from clear sky, counless stars, shadow of mountains and ships far in the sight. You can’t imagine how serene and fabulous the whole view is with seeing it by your own eyes.

We are running so fast in the modern society. We do need some time to wait our mind to catch up with our bodies. The place we live just provide a good chance to slow us down a little bit to  wait our tired minds. Without internet, facebook, mobile signal and dazzling lights, we can enjoy the pleasure of talking with friends, enjoy the true beauty of our mother nature and enjoy the peace of our mind. Surrounded by darkness, I got the time and mood to look into the sky above my head and came up with a bunch of thoughts which are easily dismissed during fast-paced life, some about the universe, some about the future, and some about my family in the other side of the ocean.

It’s a good trip, much better than I had expected. I went snorkling for the first time and got the amazing experience of getting surrounded by fishes. Also, sandboarding from the top of the sand hill was an exciting activity which gave me some joy different from the relaxing beach and ocean.

After this trip, I think I will create myself some darkness every several weeks, for the relax of my body and for my mind to catch up.

Good luck all my friends. May you have a good mood and enjoy every precious day of your life, of course, including the days with assignments and thosedays taking final exams(^_^)

Hey mates, have you come back yet? How is your break? I bet it must be amazing. For we exchange students, this week is a precious chance to travel and to know more about Australia.

I don’t know how to describe my break, maybe “crazy” is the best word. I got up around 5am, spent almost 5 hours on train everyday travelling to and from Gold Coast to volunteer at Uni Games held there. This is the thing I did for the whole week. Am I crazy?

Yes, maybe a little bit. But as a young student, crazy is not a problem, right?

Just as what I have mentioned in another blog, I want to get into the Australian society and try to meet more different people in different places. Uni Games is a perfect chance. And also, as a sports fan, how can I afford to miss this sports event!

Failed to be a player to play for UQ badminton team and soccer team(so sad…), I made my own way there: be a volunteer.

7-days work is a invaluable experience and left me a good memory(except the sleepless). I witnessed several good games presented by students from all around Australia and talked with them about the different citys and unies they come from(which gave me a good lesson on Australian geography, ^_^). Those things all left me a deep impression, not just about sports itself, but also about the more general sports culture, which is widely considered an important part of Australian society.

I know many of you guys travelled a lot during the break and went to a lot of fantastic landscapes in Australia(I saw the photos, they are really awesome!)  I also travelled a lot(200km everyday), although it’s just between Brisbane and Gold Coast. NO WORRY! I am sure I will catch up with your paces during the comming long summer holiday and see these places myself. But now, pushing myself a bit harder to finish the assignments and tackle down the final exams are my “noble duties”. (almost forget, before totally getting into books, we will have an adventure trip to Moreton Island this weekend. Stay tuned and see my next post!)

PS: there is something wrong with the photo uploader which makes it impossible for me to show the good pictures I took during my week there. I will do that later when it is fixed.

As you, all my dear readers, can see, I have tried quite hard to keep the pace of blogging at once per week. Everything went pretty well before this week: The week crowded with EXAMS. Exhausting…… Today, all the exams have gone and I have to do some catch-ups with the blog. May me finish this post by tonight.

In terms of price, I am sure a lot of complaint can be heard here. As mentioned in Katharine’s recent post, things are so expensive here, especially for us students. What to do with this situation? Apart from just accept it and sigh with empty wallets in hand, we can find some “free” chances and make full use of them to make our money worthwhile.

Free English courses—This is what I appreciated most as a non-native English speaker.

UQ language centre provide several high-quality english courses at the bginning of every semester, listening, speaking, writing, reading, etc. These courses, according to my own experience, are very helpful to those non-native English speakers and those just come to uni to transfer smoothly into a totally English environment. With the help of experienced teachers and well-structured courses, I can feel the improvement of my speaking and listening skills in these two months.

Here is one suggestion I want to give to future students from my home country and all other non English speaking countries: Find this course online before the start of uni life, enrol and take the good chance to polish up English at the beginning. This well makes life here much easier.

Free concerts—where you can enjoy good music without going to QPAC

I’m not sure how many of you have heard about this, but believe it or not, there are free concerts every Thursday on uni. The concerts are held by our music faculty and delivered by UQ well-trained students, with some visiting professional musicians. I should say this is really a smart idea and can undoubtedly lead to a win-win result. From students’ perspective, they get one of the most important and precious things on thier way to be a professional player: on-stage playing experiences. From audience’s perspective, those concerts provide a very good way to relax, both physically and mentally.

Now, attending weekly concerts has become a routine for me and I really enjoy those fabulous classical music. For those who have some free time, why not join me to have some “free” music and get your mind refreshed?

There are many other things(of course, free of charge) you may find on uni (free speeches or presentations by people with different background, a good place where you can learn a wide range of knowledge and have more idea of Australian society.  Free and exciting activities held by UQ student service, free computer courses, also free food sometimes……)

I am not moneygrubber(just a young poor student^_^). With many chances which are all free presented in front of you, why miss them? Just keep an eye on things around you, you can have the same joy, pleasure and knowledge without the bleed of your wallet.

That’s for today. hah, I made it!

After rains comes the rainbow. Then, what comes after exams? Holiday!!! Hope everyone have a good holiday week and look forward to hearing your stories later.

Back to normal, but still worth recording!

Today(09/12/2011), a special day which marks the second month of my arrival in this wonderful country, also marks the 21 years of my life on this world(I don’t know how to describe the world. I like it but it’s far from perfect)  Write something down for celebration, or just for memory.

After the exciting trips in last two months, life seems go back to normal now(even the evil Vegemite, I can easily spread it on the toast now and enjoy the special taste!) With assignment due and exams coming, I have to throw myself back in library for the rest of the month(knowledge, I am coming!)

But study doesn’t mean get away from the world and society, and it will never do. I always remind myself the main reason I am here is to experience, both the different uni life and the unique social life, and to see the western culture which is supposed to be totally different from the culture in China. With this idea in mind, I enrolled in the volunteer team of the Brisbane Festival which is being held in South Brisbane. Yesterday was my first volunteer shift. I can’t deny the tiredness after 4 hours standing and talking at a pretty windy night, but I enjoyed my time there. Especially the feeling of involving in the social life and doing some contribution within my ability with all other dedicated volunteers in differnt ages and from around the world to the new city I am living in, that’s really wonderful. Maybe for the whole festival, what I have done is just a small job, not to mention to the whole city, but it doesn’t matter since for me, I can tell myself proudly that I have done and I am still doing my part.

I think this is what we call “citizenship”. With this kind of spirit, people join in different volunteer positions to help the success of an event. And what’s more important, help the place a better one to live, even after such horrible attack as “9-11″. I can still recall the moment I saw the attack ten years ago on TV although at that time I was still a little boy. No word can be used to describe the scene in which two planes headed into two of the tallest buildings in the world and the scene of the two towers collapsing, just like no one can believe the pictures in cartoons may happen in the real world. Since I was not there, I can’t say too much about the attack and about how New Yorkers felt at the moment. But what I can say at this tenth anniversary time, from what I see on TV and on websites, New York has achieved a lot on the way back to normal: buildings rebuilt, people remotivated. These great achievements can’t be gained without the contributions and sacrifices made by New Yorkers. So at the same time we show our mourning to the death, please also give some applause to the live who demonstrated the meaning of citizenship.

Waiting for the next volunteer shift and look forward to having more opportunities to let me experience more of Brisbane, the real-life Brisbane.

And happy birthday to myself, hope the future gonna be better(and get high marks in all my exams)!(^_^) See your later!

Beach, Alcohol, Surfing, Travelling, Relaxing……. These things made up an incomparable weekend in Byron Bay. So amazing

As the most easterly point of mainland Australia, Byron has always been ranked on top of the list of “Must-Gos” in Australia. Before the trip, I have been told many times, by local students and travellers, that I’d better set aside a weenkend to Byron which, as they said, has one of the best beaches in Australia, even in the world.

At the beginning of Spring, I was given a chance to witness this highly-recommended place with a bunch of students from all around the world. Fantastic!  

Surfing—try and try and try

When in Australia, do as Aussies do. Surfing is one of the things one should try in Australia. At the second day of the trip, I was on my way to be a surfer. Sounds great, right?

But as with all the other things, good wills not always result in good results. Although I tried again and again, and the coach explained the skills as patiently as one can imagine(Sorry, coach!), all I got was falling down, falling down and down and down… It’s really awkward, I should say. With salty water in my mouth and skins burnt by killing sunlight, I was getting confused: why those surfers seem so easy to control the waves and look so cool standing on the boards, how they achieve that? I asked some surfers on the beach and I think I get the answer: Never go against the ocean. It’s so changeable and can’t be predicted. What’s more important, one should always bear in mind that oceans are always there, no matter the time, the weather or whether you are there or not. We human beings are so tiny, compared with the endless oceans. What we should do, as they told me, is just go along with the waves, with a respectful mind to the power of the ocean. (sorry to all the readers. It’s a little unrelated to the topic. But what I want to do is just to write down my thoughts and share some of them with my lovely readers)

Although the first surfing experience is a disaster, I promise I won’t give up. Never! With so many wonderful beaches here, it’s hard for me to not pick up surfing when I leave after a year!(^_^)

Sunrise—we are the sun runners

Early in the morning, a small group set about watching the sunrise. Only slept for a few hours, it was a hard job for us to leave the warm bed. But since we were here, no one wanted to miss anything beautiful and special. With the excitment of seeing the sunrise and the cold sea wind blowed to my head, I was awakend during the way to the top of the mountain, where the famous lighthouse located.

There was some cloud in the sky, which was quite frustrating for the sun runners. But luckily, the sun didn’t let us down. After a while, we saw the deep red light of the sun from the far end of the ocean. Then came the sun! The changing color of the sky, with the reflections in the ocean, what an marvelous picture! No one was sleepy any more and we were all immersed in it at the moment.

It’s hard to describe all the details of the 3day’s trip, especially when there are so many things happened, done and seen. With so many nice photos in my camera, I am sure this will be a very unique and precious part of my memory  of Australia.

Bye, Byron!

(This post is written for help, for suggestions and most importantly, for the attention of future students from non-native English-speaking countries)

Having been here for almost one month, I can say that everything is getting better and better now, not only in terms of getting used to the climate and food, but also in terms of getting involved in the daily life and keeping pace with local OZs in Brisbane.

Nothing can be blamed or complained until last week’s embarassment in the lecture. It was an lecture on environment during which we were separated into several groups to finish a group assignment in class. I felt quite glad at that time because most of the students in our group were Australian students, which, I thought, would give me a good chance to observe how they deal with problems and their ways of thinking.

Everyone was quite excited about the task since it was new and life-related and quickly got started to discuss and brainstorm. Here comes the problem. I CAN’T GET INTO THE DISCUSSION. When OZ guys are talking, they use slangs and abbreviations. What’s made the problem even worse were the speed, accent and the fact that everybody was talking out their opinions.

That was really a hard time for me when, the first time since my arrival, I felt I am an outsider. I wanted to express in a group environment and contribute my part to the whole group. But, constrained by my English level, they seemed so impossible.

I was striked and now, I am totally awakened. Although no big problem in daily communication, I have to polish my English in the circumstances like group talking. This must be a hard work but I have to go through it since language is the platform people transfer information on.

After talked with nice and warm-hearted student advisor from student service and read through many language-related articles, I have had some idea about what to do and how to do. Getting rid off the annoying language barrier is my final purpose and I am very proud to say, “I am on my way”.

For the future students from non-English speaking countries, My advice is to push yourselves harder now and lay a solid foundation of English so that you won’t  feel stressful in a totally English environment.

Nothing is impossible. I now take this post as a reminder on my way to good command of English. Keep reminding me, my friends! (^_^)

The last several days were occupied by preparing for the first exam here in UQ. It’s a quite nervous week since exam here is totally a “stranger” to me. Today, after the exam, I feel pretty confident about the result. It worths the time and effort I put in it.

Though there is a lot to say about the exam, the main idea of the post is not about the exam(although it’s really important!). It’s about EKKA just ended several days ago. Maybe you may think it’s a little too late to write about EKKA.I appologize for my laziness, but I still think it worthwhile to write down something I saw, something I learned from this annual big event of the whole Queensland. After all, it’s unlikely I will visit next year’s EKKA(What a shame…)

Here I don’t want list all the things I did at EKKA. To be honest, it’s impossible to list every thing since there is too many things you can do at EKKA which is the abbreviation of Exhibition. What I want to do is to share the most impressive things I met with.

One thing is the food in WoolWorths Pavilian. I still can’t name all the food there but I tasted a lot and they were really delicious. What makes these food more attractive is the fact these food are all made or grown by our lovely Queenlanders. Everytime I was tasting some delicious food, no matter it is cheese, wine or strawberry, I would  talk with the seller, as well as the maker, themselves. Every time, they showed great patience to explain their food in detail to me, a foreigner who knows almost nothing about their products. For me, it’s really unbeliveble when I heard that those people from all around Queensland made their own special food and took them to the state festival to show thier “masterpieces”. What’s more unforgettable is, from their words and expression, I could clearly tell the proudness in their mind. They are proud of their products, they are proud of the place they live. When they said,”Yes, we grew them in our own farm”‘Yes, we made it by ourselves. It’s really tasty.” I was almost touched by those lovely real people who make their fortune by their hands and efforts.

I love the food they made. I love the personality they demonstrated. The lesson I learned from them is not just about the specialties of original food, but also the attitude toward life: always be ative and positive toward life.

Life is not without difficulties, even you show great love to her. Sometimes you have to face the unexpected disaster, like the unprecedented flood happened last summer. I didn’t know much about the flood except that I knew there was a disastrous flood here and caused huge damage. I think this is because the excellent job done by the government or civil recovery team who made the city looks as if nothing has happenes. In the Queensland government pavillian, I was so honored to meet to people from resconstruction team. Just like the people in Woolworths pavillian, they showed me a whole picture of the flood with patience and in great detail, with videos, maps, computer images. They told me that the whole state, even the whole country was in grief due to the reports of casualty and huge loss. But no one lost hope. During the time of rescue, professional rescue team, joined by the “Mud” team organized by local people, gave all out to help. At that time, I din’t witness the flood. Now, I can hardly feel anything wrong in such a beatiful uni and beautiful city. This achievement, I think, can be attributed to those who have done their parts to help during and after the flood, while putting thier own life at risk.

I want to express my sincere thanks to those brave people who teach me what human beings can achieve when facing with such a disaster and to those life lovers who shed some light on how lovely life could be and what attitude I can take in my own life.

There are many chances one can learn a lesson of life, just like my trip to EKKA. Thank you EKKA and See you next time. I will be back, I promise.

Last weekend, I experienced the famous nature wonder, Gold Coast Springbrook National Park, with a bunch of funny interesting students from around the world. What an amazing trip it is! Hey, we are leaving!

After a long-time bus travel(it really boring travelling on the highway -_-), we arrived our destination. After visiting some lookouts( I have to admit that it’s really beautiful looking down from the high mountain. But I still think of them as some warm-ups), we started our journey of Purlingbrook Falls Circuit (it’s a 4 kilometers long expedition, including climbing down and up of a high mountain. That is really the “main course” of our travel, ^_^)

from the top of a mountain. Far in the photo is the Gold Coast City, even further is the Ocean!

The beautiful natural scenery amazed me a lot. It’s hard to describe my feeling when immersed in such clean and green environment. Maybe that’s just because it’s nature, it’s where we human beings come from.

Water Fall and Rainbow!

I am not a environment radicals, but I really care about nature and want to live in harmony with nature. Although the national park is just a small place compared with the large area of Australia, it do set a good example, or I should say it does give people a lesson on how to achieve a balance between human life and nature life.

It’s worthwhile to pay 50 bucks and one-day time to visit the wonderful park and to approach our mother nature. What’s more, it should also be worthwhile to set aside time and money to take good care of nature. If it is the case, I am thinking, is there still any need to debate so harshly on carbon tax?

Never will I forget this trip with you guys at such an amazing place!

(tomorrow I will go to EKKA, the most popular and traditional Brisbane festival. Living in Brisbane, do as Brisbaners do. I hope after one year’s life here, I can proudly talk to my friends in China,”Come on, friends, let’s go to Brisbane!)

Hi,Brisbane. I am here!

New place, new people, unfluent English…… Every thing was new and challenging a month a ago.  Despite the beautiful city and unbelievable climate (20 degrees in winter, Amazing!), I was totally at sea about everything else. Since it’s the first time I travel alone and the destination is remote from my homecountry, I thought, ” God, I am on my own. What’s in front of my journey?” I  was a little bit unsure and worried( ^_^)

Now, after one-month’s life here, I realized that I am not alone and never will I walk alone with the company of some many funny, helpful people around me.

I started my UQ life with  Jump Start Academic Preparation Program (JSAPP). I should say it’s really a worthwhile week for international students who are new here in UQ and in Brisbane. What I get from JSAPP are a bunch of friends who share the same experience and purpose,  a general idea of UQ. From our student mentor, we get many many tips to study and live in UQ (the best cafe in UQ, the secrets of libraries……)  Personally, I strongly recommend all the new future international students to join the JSAPP program. You will find yourself really” Jump Started” after a week’s life with staffs from different parts of UQ and senior students from various faculties.

So nice a campus, so many nice people in the uni, where are the things I was worried about?! Disappeared!

Up till now, everything is so good. Within the following year, I promise myself to try as many new things as possible in this fantastic place. What I am doing now is trying my best to learn Oz football. Hopefully, I will be capable of playing with Oz friends(^o^).  Let’s wait and see!

this is me and Trish, a really funny lady here. helped me a lot during my first week here. Thank you!