Author: bellayhl

Qingming Festival

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Qingming Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, which is also the most important festival for sacrifice, and it is 108 days after the winter solstice. The traditional Qingming Festival has been celebrated since Zhou Dynasty, which was about 2,500 years ago. The theme of this festival is to tend graves and have some outdoor activities.

“Qingming” was just a name for a solar term at first. Solar terms are 24 points in calendars, and the most famous four terms that everyone knows are vernal equinox (Chunfen), summer solstice (Xiazhi), autumnal equinox (Qiufen), and winter solstice (Dongzhi). But there are actually 20 more terms that match astronomical events and/or natural phenomenon. For example, the rain water (Yushui) is on February 19, which means more rain than snow, and the awakening of insects (Jingzhe) is on March 6, which means hibernating insects awaken. The next coming solar term is the grain rain (Guyu), which means the rain will help the grain grow.

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The traditional customs of this festival are graves tending, fire forbidden, being outdoor, planting trees, and playing with swing, kickball, and polo. The most important aspect is to worship and tend the graves and tombs. On the other hand, everyone has to go outside and have fun. Therefore, this is a really special festival, which involves tears from parting forever and laughs from playing outside.

About the food, it is always different everywhere in China, no matter if it’s a festival or not. In Jinnan, people make small loaf of steamed bread with a little walnuts, jujube, and beans in a specific shape, which is a traditional food called “mo” or “bo”. In Shanghai, there is a really healthy food called “qingtuan”. To make qingtuan, people stir the juice of brome into polished glutinous rice first. After it, they put sweetened bean or jujube paste in the middle as fillings. In the end, they steam this with a special kind of leaves on the bottom of the steamer, so the food smells and tastes fresh eventually. People in Shanghai have this with their special peach blossom porridge together. In some areas, people eat boiled eggs colored in red. There are also a plenty kinds of pastries desserts everywhere.

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Mo or bo

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Qingtuan

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Peach blossom porridge

Style Your Spring Stripes

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Everyone has some stripes clothes in his or her closet, because stripes are just chic and very easy. It doesn’t matter where you are going to, on a beach or in a city. Stripes clothes always go well with your style. Spring and summer are coming, and the weather is getting warmer. Try some ways to show the freshness with the stripes that you totally forget in your closet.

  • Your stripes t-shirt with a sleeveless jacket
  • Your stripes t-shirt with a pair of high-waist jeans
  • Your stripes t-shirt with a pair of overalls
  • Your stripes dress
  • Your stripes skirt with a long-sleeve shirt

In the next two days, the weather will be so much warmer. Don’t be afraid to put on something fresh and go outside enjoying the sunshine! If we had no winter, the spring wouldn’t be so pleasant. Spring is the nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”

The 15th Annual Student Poetry Contest

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Smoky Eyes

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Spring Break Is Coming!

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After tomorrow, the spring break is really coming! Have you already planned out your spring break? To make this year’s spring break fantastic and memorable, here are some tips to stay safe, healthy, and organizing.

  • Have a plan

First, know what you need and what you want. Go on a trip? Keep company with family? Get some rest? Or catch up on homework? Think about what you need and schedule out a plan to follow. Make sure you’re not missing anything.

  • Watch your step

The most important thing is your safety. There might be some fun but high-risk activities out there. Think one more time before making a decision about to do or not.

  • Protect yourself from the sun

Getting a little sunshine can bring a lot of benefits, but staying under the sun too much can also cause some problems. If you’re going on a beach or outside for a day, it’ll be always better to wear sunscreen all the time to protect your skin. You can also wear sunglasses for protecting your eyes.

  • Be active

You’ve probably been sitting in front of books and computers so much for school. It is time for you to get some exercise and relax your body. As the weather is getting much warmer, going hiking, walking, or swimming sounds like a good idea.

  • Eat healthy

Do some exercise, and also eat healthy. Because of college life, you’ve been probably not eating healthy. Now it’s the time to think about eating and have a variety of foods. Good nutrition should be a part of healthy lifestyle.

  • Do not forget about college

This is what I really want to say – don’t forget you’re still enrolled at college. Some students forget about college totally and give up on classes after spring break. Think about this spring break as a new beginning to make this semester better. Catch up on your missed homework and work ahead to make the future easier. If you think you’re failing one class, go to talk to the professor after spring break and see what you can do. Use this time as a physical and a mental break. Have fun, but also incorporate work that will go toward your future study and career.

Relax, refresh, and renew.

Have a nice break!

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Studying Abroad at GCC

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In July 2013, I made the decision to come to the United States for college. In April 2014, I got a conditional admission from SUNY Geneseo, which suggested me to come to GCC first for improving my English. In August 2014, I came to this country I had never been in before and started my life at GCC.

I’ve taken a lot of helpful and interesting classes here. The classes I love and I’d definitely suggest are Foundations Academic Success (FYE 100), Ceramics 1 (ART 123), Advertising (BUS 203), Female Role in Film (CIN 242), and Career & Education Planning (CEP 101). As I want to graduate and transfer with Public Relations or Advertising this semester, classes I’ve had before are very beneficial. Also, professors and faculties here are truly helpful.

However, the experience is the point here, which has been more enjoyable and helping me more to be what kind of person I want to be. If you ever used StrengthsFinder to look up your top five strengths, you would probably notice those five strengths have been supporting your life and never changing. It was surprising when I found out my strengths had changed from September 2014 to February 2016. I realized that adventure is the best way to learn. I was a resident assistant at College Village in Spring 2015, and I definitely improved my listening, leadership, and communication skills because of it. I also used to be a DJ for the radio station here and I learnt about communications a lot, as the radio station at GCC is awesome. I also work on campus and it gets me to talk more, write more, and get more ready for my future college and career. I think both classes and all these experiences here is exactly why my strengths have changed, which I also believe I’ve been getting into a better person. This is not a life lesson only from classes, but I’ve been also seeing both cultures, talking to people from different countries, and especially experiencing a different life here. Studying abroad is the most effective way for me to get a better view of the world. Being alone in another country has also made me a stronger person to face to and solve all the problems.

This explains how I believe that, nobody can discover the world for you, and nobody can steal your experience you get for yourself. Study more, see more, and suffer more.

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Fun In Winter

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Talking about living in Batavia, snowing is a big topic when it’s winter. There’s definitely some inconvenience in winter because of the snow. However, “snowing is an attempt of God to make the dirty world look clean”. So there’s definitely a lot of fun which people can do in winter when it snows. Since the winter doesn’t want to leave here still, let’s talk about the fun in winter.

 

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Go ice skating

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Go snowshoeing

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Have a snow ball fight

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Build a snowman

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Go sledding

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Make a snow angel

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Build a snow fort

Batavia is a small town with a lot of snow in winter, so there can be a lot of fun here actually. But some people are afraid of the cold, so they probably don’t want to go out. Don’t worry! This is your perfect time to have some fun with families and friends together.

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Bake cookies and share

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Have some hot cocoa and chat

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Make a batch of chili for dinner

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Make a warm and cheesy casserole

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Pop open a bottle of champagne and have a movie night

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Curl up under blankets with a good book

Winter is with a lot of snow and bad weather maybe. But winter is also the time for comfort, for good food, for some company from families and friends. The warmth you get from a talk next to the fire is always warmer than only the fire. Feel stressed so far? It is the time for some love.

Chinese Valentine’s Day

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The Valentine’s Day is coming up this weekend and it reminds me the Valentine’s Day in China. It is also called Qi Xi Festival or Qi Qiao Festival in Chinese.

The date is July 7th in the lunar calendar and it is August 9th in 2016. July 7th means the “evening of seven” and the original meaning was from the stars in the sky – the Plough, since about 800 B.C. The original myth for the festival is about a couple in the ancient China, who can’t get together but only meet each other once a year, which is the Qi Xi Festival.

It has been a famous festival in China and some other countries in Asia and it is an especially important festival in the southern part of China. People make Chinese knottings with red color ropes and cut red papers into some specific patterns, because these decorations mean happiness and luckiness in ancient China. In some provinces from the south, girls do their nails in a beautiful and special way, because it was also lucky for girls in ancient China to meet their “Mr. Right”. They also put candles in a boat made of paper into the river, in order to pray for their coming relationship. In some other provinces, girls also make Chinese traditional cookies and beautiful dresses by themselves to show that they are not only modern independent women, but also good at the things women had to do for their families back to thousands years ago. I really want to watch the contests for girls to make cookies and design their own clothes during Qi Xi Festival. But unfortunately, the Qi Xi Festival is not a very popular festival in the area where I’m from. Qi Xi is more famous in the non-developing towns in south and in Thailand, Japan, and Korea. Here are some photos of what girls make and do on Qi Xi Festival.

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Food of the Chinese New Year

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After I came to America, I noticed that everyone loves Chinese food, but there actually isn’t real Chinese food here. In New York City or some cities in California, there are some amazing restaurants with the real Chinese food there. Besides those, most Chinese food you can see here is not the real Chinese food. So I want to tell you a little common sense about Chinese food.

First, there are six characters of Chinese food, what Chinese people think while they’re cooking their own food or judging others’ food – colors, smell, taste, meaning, decoration, and nutrition. Second, there are many kinds of Chinese food. I heard the favorite food what people from outside of China like are Spring Rolls, dumplings, Chow Mein, Ma Po Tofu, and Sesame Chicken. There are so many kinds of food more that nobody can really put all Chinese food in a menu. Last, food is totally different again in different provinces and areas. The Chinese usually divide Chinese food into 8 main cuisines, which are Sichuan Cuisine, Confusion Cuisine, Cantonese Cuisine, Su Cuisine, Min Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Hui Cuisine, and Hunan Cuisine, are each of them is unique. Besides these 8 main cuisines, there are at least 12 more different cuisines. It is too much to be all shared, so today I’d like to only show you the traditional Chinese food for the Chinese New Year.

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Customs of the Chinese New Year

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Monday, 8 February, 2016 is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. From February 7th to February 13th this year, people don’t go to school or work for a week, as an official holiday. In this coming week, I’d like to keep posting and sharing something about the Chinese New Year. For today, let me tell you what we do for the Chinese New Year.

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About Taking Winter Classes

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Welcome back college, everyone! I hope you just had a nice break and got ready for spring semester. In the first day of college, I’d like to share about my experience in winter taking classes online. I heard many students are afraid to take classes in a quick term online, so I wanted to tell you something about taking winter classes.

In order to graduate in May, I decided to take two classes in winter. They were Business Communications (BUS 106) and Female Role in Film (CIN 242). They’re both 3 credits courses. CIN 242 could be a class for your humanities class. Both of these two classes could be your elective class.

First of all, you are right to know there’s a lot of work for a winter class because most of the winter classes are still 3 credits classes. The time you will get to finish the winter classes is about 3 weeks, which means it is a lot of work. Therefore, the first suggestion I’d like to offer is “never procrastinate”. For my BUS 106 class, I had 4 homework assignments, 4 quizzes, and 1 project every week. For my CIN 242 class, I had about 4 homework assignments and 1 essay quiz every week, and 1 final project which we needed to work for it every week. Compared with a normal class in fall or spring semester, this is a lot more work. But you will also get a lot more time in winter. The second suggestion I’d like to share is “manage your time”. The homework is usually divided by weeks. In the beginning of the classes, I printed out the homework deadlines and hanged them up on the wall next to my desk. Checking the schedule out every day and following it well helped me out from these two classes very well. Also, the last suggestion I have is “communicate”. Professors are really nice to talk to, and they’re always there for you while you’re taking winter classes. You’ll also have the discussion board to ask any question to your classmates. As an international student, I worked this out well. So it shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Talking about what classes to take, there are not many classes, but enough and useful. In Winter 2015, there were business administration, cinema, English, geography, health education, history, math, meteorology, music, and sociology. I chose BUS 106 as my additional elective class and CIN 242 for my humanities class. From what I’ve known, it would be a great idea to have ENG 101 as your English class, GEO 101 as your world civilization class, SOC 101 as your social science class, or some health education classes as your health/PE/ATH class. These are most likely required classes for many students, and it is not too difficult to take them online.

Hopefully, you feel not afraid of winter classes anymore and have some ideas about what to take next winter if you need to. You need to know what classes you have to take. How to check your classes: Login into Genesis – Banner Self-Service – Student Services – Registration Menu – DegreeWorks-Run a Degree Audit. You’ll see all the classes you’ve taken, future classes you have to take, and what classes you might want to take. Then, you can look up for your classes, and add or drop your classes online also under Registration Menu. All the classes you have to take are shown under your Degree Works. Just remember to check the requirement first and talk to your advisor always.

I hope this is helpful. Wish you a great semester! Lastly, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is a thief of time.