Losing weight

It seems that many people today are overweight. No one wants to carry around extra pounds, lout few people know how to slum down effectively. They look for miracle pills and magic cures. In the end, they fail and the pounds come back. But the most effective way of losing weight is actually very simple. It is a combination of a good diet and proper exercise. What makes it work is determination. It requires discipline and commitment to succeed. Here is an example that proves the truth of these words.
My aunt had been trying to lose weight for years. She went on one diet after another, but none of them worked. She lost a lot of weight quickly only to have it come back. Finally, she followed her doctor's advice and began to eat a simple, well-balanced diet. She ate lots of fruits and vegetables and avoided high-fat foods. In addition, she joined an exercise class. She worked out three times a week. At first, my aunt wasn't happy because the weight came off so slowly. But her classmates encouraged her to stick to it and eventually she reached her goal. Best of all, she was able to stay at her ideal weight. That was because she had developed healthy new habits.

Chinese calligraph

I knew that many foreigners know a little about Chinese calligraph. I want to introduce it because I love it. It's a part of Chinese traditional culture.

In ancient China, the oldest Chinese characters existing are Jiǎgǔwén characters carved on ox scapula and tortoise plastrons, because brush-written ones have decayed over time. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, the characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved.
With the development of Jīnwén (Bronzeware script) and Dàzhuàn (Large Seal Script) "cursive" signs continue. Moreover, it is evident that each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters.
Imperial China
In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles — some dating from 200 BC, and in Xiaozhuan style — are still accessible to us.
About 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's character uniformisation, which created a set of 3300 standardized Xiǎozhuàn characters[1]. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, few papers survive from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles.
The Lìshū style (clerical script) which is more regularized, and in some ways similar to modern text, was then developed.
Kǎishū style (traditional regular script) — still in use today — is even more regularized. The Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have be made, for example in the shape of 广 which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi dictionary of 1716 as in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order is still the same, according to old style[2].
Kǎishū simplified Chinese script was created by the Chinese government after World War 2, to promote simplification of writing and increase literacy. Simplified script is occasionally used in calligraphy.
Cursive styles and hand-written styles
Cursive styles such as Xíngshū (semi-cursive or running script) and Cǎoshū (cursive or grass script) are "high speed" calligraphic styles, where each move made by the writing tool is visible. This styles especially like to play with stroke order rules, creating new visual effects.

This is the history of Chinese calligraph. In China, handwriting is an important part of studying life even the whole life. It is regarded as a part of personal charictors. People who has good writing will very be pround it.
Some foreigners don't learn about Chinese calligraph and maybe have prejudice about it. I hope more people can learn about this great art.

Qingming Festival

Today is a traditional festival Qingming Festival. For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honour one's ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, paper money, and libation to the ancestors. The rites are very important to most Chinese and especially farmers. In defferent area of China, there are also some different traditional activities in this day. In my area, children usually receive some gifts that are swallows or other animals made of flour. Qingming in Chinese means clear and bright. This festival also means the coming of Spring and a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime. From this year, Qingming Festival becomes an official holiday in China and have three days off.
It is interesting that I also find many different English expression about its name. Show you.
All Souls Day Clear Brightness Festival
Festival for Tending Graves
Grave Sweeping Day
Chinese Memorial Day
Tomb Sweeping Day
Spring Remembrance

It is heard that Tomb Sweeping Day is used in several English language newpapers published in China.

Lost 2

When I came to Canada, my lost problem has become more and more serious. During the first week in Calgary, whenever I went to C-Train station from my dorm, I was lost. Even though I followed the correct way from my dorm to C-Train station, I couldn’t find the way when I came back. Is it incredible? It’s true! It’s me! About my feeling of direction, I even think it’s unbelievable. Even though I know 24 Ave. (the road that my building lie on) and 32 Street (the road that university C-Train station lie on) are across, I always feel they are parallel! It’s a strong feeling in my mind. I friend told me that it’s takes only twenty minutes walking from my dorm to Co-op. I know where is Co-op. And then, one day I tried to walk there with my friend. The result is we spent more than one hours going there and asked two guys! The truth is that my feeling of direction is totally wrong and we went the wrong direction. All my friends always laughed at me because of this stupid experience!
Now I still can’t remember the back route when somebody leads me to a strange place in Calgary. The only thing that I can do is bringing with a map and remembering how to go back taking bus.

Moving

I remembered Zalfa once said every international student hate moving!!!! I really agree with this idea. Even though, I have been here only seven months, I am still bothered by moving.
I am living in campus dorm and very satisfy my room. However, Residence Service on compus has a rule that every student should apply for residence again every May and September. Only not need I pay $50 unreturning application fee, but also there are posibility that I cannot get a room!!! In addition, I should change a room in most cases. I really hate this rule!!! Now my situation is I have got the offer of accommodation for May to August, but I should move to another building. I am glad to accept this offer because I want to change another room style. The big deal is about next acadamic year (Sep-Apr). Although I appied in evey first time, because of lottery rule (arrange room according to lottery)I was put into waiting list and my waiting list number is 356!!!!! I shocked about this number!!!!!I really really hope to stay here because of its convinience, safe and other reasons that I don't know, even though it's a little expensive. Fortunately, I heard that last year they went through the entire waiting list and the current waiting number is 421. It means I still have big possibility to get a room. Oh, bless me !!!

Lost

I am always not good at remember routes and direction. So I am always lost.
My hometown is a small city. How small? If you drive from this side of city to the other side, it only takes about fifteen minutes. Even though it's small and I lived there for almost ninteen years, I still can't find some places by myself. In fact, I once went to those places for many times. Sometimes I can find there, but I am not familiar with the route. One day, I was in taxi and were talking with my friends. Now I forget the details that we talked. anyway, it's about a big hotel in my town. The taxi driver even asked me where were you from. I told him that I was born here and grew up here. He didn't believe me, because I even didn't know the exact position of that hotel. At that moment, I felt upset. I was regarded as a stranger! I ever made this kind of mistakes for many times. Anyway, I don't know why I always can't remember routs and never have feeling about direction. Therefore, friends or parents always are my guiders.

Calgary's weather

In the past week, everyday is very nice, Sunshine, warm breeze, about ten temperature. It makes me feel that Spring is coming andwinter is gone. But some Calgary people told me that sometimes it snows in May in Calgary. So I just told myself that the true warm hasn't come and maybe next week will cold. This winter is so long and make me crazy. Thanks goodness, minus forty is gone. This kind of warm has made me happy. I am try my best to enjoy it and hope it will not leave.
To be honest, I don't like Winter expect for snow and my birthday. Because of bad winter, the coming spring is my favourite season. Spring's everything make me excited every year.
The pasting Winter is a true winter for me I think. In my hometown, the lowest temperature in winter is about minus ten. However, about one month ago, the temperature of Calgary even was minus forty. It is a fantastic experence for me. Before that, I even can't imagine people can bear so cold weather! For me, everything in this low temperature is interesting.
Anyway, experiencing this kind of cold weather once is enough for me. I am look forward to warm and ture Spring so much.