A Wonderful Way to End the Semester!!

Time Flies! Final exam is only one week away, which means our HC class for second semester has almost come to the end. To leave the best memory ever, we decided to hold a buffet lunch at Starworld Hotel this Friday.

This week is a rainy week, luckily, the god had treated us well on Friday. So, our buffet idea could go on.

In the buffet, we grabbed the chance to talk to people we seldom talk to. We also played Pik Pak Boom and other games. Unforunately, our team lost in Pik Pak Boom (the game that tests how fast you can react) and had to receive the punishment. The punishment we had to get was sushi with wasabi. :( Luckily, our Ms. Smile, Helen saved us by putting less wasabi on our soy sauce. Leaders should be kind-hearted!!

We had a great time there, not just eating, but also enjoying the moment to be with our classmates since after the final exam, we will have to seperate for the summer. Also, Dr. Udani won't be teaching us for the next semester, so we had to take photos and keep this memory forever on the photos. I really appreciate what Dr. Udani has done to bring us an unforgettable semester, as well as all the other HC classmates!

Two Workshops, Two Different Experiences

This week is a fruitful week. Why? Because all our hard work has been paid off. Our group successfully held a wonderful workshop on Saturday. Before telling you how wonderful our workshop was, let me tell you about the workshop of group B. Since without the workshop on Wednesday, we may not be able to learn from others. In such result, our wonderful workshop would be less wonderful.

Comparing to the workshop on Saturday, my role was totally different when I was at the workshop on Wednesday. I was not a facilitator but a participant. So I was having a relaxing feeling to join that workshop. The most impressive thing I had seen on Wednesday's workshop was the game they introduced us - Speed Stacks.

I have seen this game on TV before, but I could never expect that we really had a chance of playing it. It was quite an innovative move to a workshop. This game had highlighted the whole workshop and brought us an exciting atmosphere. Moreover, this game taught us how to be collaborative. I remember that Megka had made a mistake when stacking the cups and it led the team losing behind. However, her group mate didn't blame her but encouraged her to go on. Although their competing group had already finished, they still continued their part with sportsmanship. I really appreciate their spirit.

Speaking of our own workshop, I like the balloon part the most. Everyone has his/her fear and I am fear of balloons. The purpose of the balloon game was not only to build teamwork but also to learn how to face your fear. I realized that when one of the group mates is fear of it, there must be at least another group mate encourages him/her, telling him/her not to be afraid. Leadership is also like that, when people need your encouragement, you will encourage their hearts and give them a hand with generosity. This is what I saw from the whole process of the game.

After joining these two workshops, I've gained the experience of how to plan and set up a workshop. Also, the friendship among the members of HC big family has been strengthened. We used the theories we learnt from class to make it practise on reality by holding workshops. I think the next HC class will learn from what we've done and follow our footsteps (of course with innovation adding) to make HC continuously shines!

Everyone Needs To Be Encouraged

It has been long since I last wrote about my HC class. So today, I am going to write some reflection about my last HC class...

This Wednesday, as I was going back to UM to have my HC class, I came across my HC classmates on my way. I was so glad that I came across them before the class. Why? Because if they didn't tell me that the classroom had been changed, I would definitely end up in waiting alone in HG01. Now I tell myself I must check email before going to the HC class. I hope I will do that...

Anyways, in the class, Dr. Udani gave each of us a piece of paper to write down our encouragement to one of the students to whom you wanted to write. It reminded me my old high school life because we used to do so. I think the purpose of this act is to make ourselves step forward to encourage people who may need our encouragement. We may always give encouragement to our friends but don't often give encouragement to our classmates. Sometimes we know some of them need to be encouraged but we are too weak to give them encouragement by speaking out. So this time, we do the written form, ignore the awkward oral form.

I got four pieces of paper from my classmates. I really appreciated their encouragement to me. Their acts told me that I am not unnoticed in the class. Their encouragements are normally about the coming TOEFL test. Actually I've been worried about it since I must get a good result in order to go to USA. With their encouragements, I have the motivation to do better. So from now on, I won't let those who encouarged me down.

And I noticed there were some classmates who didn't get any encouragement note, here I want to tell those ' let's work hard together, hope we will all go exchange! ' :)

A Movie to Recommend...

Yesterday, I watched a movie. Its name was The Time Traveler's Wife. It's a wonderful movie because it brought some useful ideas to me. Before I tell you what they are, I would like to tell you about the story of this movie.

There's a guy called Henry in the movie, he has a genetic problem that he has the power to travel to the past and future. You may think it is good to have such power. But indeed it is not, Henry cannot control when or where he will travel. When the moment comes, he just disappears and leaves all his clothes on the floor (when I say he disppears, I mean only his body disppears). As he doesn't have the power to know when or where he is going to travel, he always ends up showing up in a place he doesn't know and in a year he has no idea about, NAKED!

You may think it is a torture to live like this. However, Henry didn't end his life because of this, instead, he keeps on living, although he keeps travelling to a place he has already traveled and seeing the people who have passed away repeatedly and repeatedly again. Until he meets a little girl, who has turnt out to be his wife when she grows up, he feels no more lonely.

Although the story is mainly about the love between him and his wife, it still tells the audience that we shouldn't waste the time. Just like Henry in the movie, he never knows when he will disappear. He has to grasp every second he has with his wife. And his age keeps changing when he shows up again (sometimes younger, sometimes older).

The movie told me that time should be valued, we should do something we want to do and useful before it flies away. Once it flies away, it will never go back. I am sure everyone wants to be a time traveler, so you can go back to the past and do something you regret not doing. However, life is life. Something we missed in the past will never go back. So why not we just grasp the moment and do something useful, or just show some cares to our family? Before everything is too late....

Here I link the trailer of the movie, I hope you guys will enjoy!

Drama Class

The HC class of this week was like a drama class, Why? Because we had to perform the rest of the class about what leadership is. I really enjoyed it. And I found that Albert Fong was really good at acting :) He should be nominated by the Oscar!!! Anyway, that is just my personally feeling about the dramas. And the best screenplay should go to Andrea's group because who would come up with Angel & Devil in a very short moment?!Let me tell you guys more details about that day in the following.

At first, Dr. Udani randomly grouped us into 10 groups. And each group stuck together for the whole class. Later, he asked each of us to tell the class what we could do to help the others. Different people had different thoughts. The most impressive was what Elly said. She told us she could give us massage. I can't wait to try that!!!







After expressing our own thoughts, Dr. Udani told us to perform what leadership was, in
 other words, acting the leadership. Each group had shown its creativity. Our group chose a simple way to express the criteria of a leader. Although it was short, about 30 seconds only, it still brought the students the idea of leadership.

I think the drama section was an innovation to the class. It really helped us use our brains, to think creatively. I really appreciated that Dr. Udani had brought in this new element to the class.

HC Interview Project

Last week, I went to do the HC interivew project with my group mates to get to know more about leadership. The guest we invited is a director of Macau International Airport Co. Ltd. (I can't tell much detail here until the video is submitted to Dr. Udani). It was our hornor to invite the director to do the interview. She told us many things about her experience and her thoughts about leadership. But the highline of that day was I experienced how to act like an introducer to do the opening part of the whole video FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!

It was hard for me because I had no experience at all in introducing things in a video before. I kept forgetting things when i looked at the camera. YES the nervousness drove me crazy AGAIN. However, our group mate, Steve, was so patient, he kept telling me it's ok and kept holding the camera to record the best shot if luckily I would make any. I repeated like at least 3 times to finish each script and was so guity that I took him so much time to make the shot but he didn't blame me at all. Finally, i made it.

From this short story happened on me, I learnt that support really means a lot to me, actually to everyone also. For example, if Steve didn't act patient and supportive, if he kept blaming me for forgetting things, I think I would already be discourage or might even give up doing the introducing part. So as a leader, being supportive is one of the criteria. Being supportive can bring encouragement to your followers, to tell them not to give up things easily, and even lead them to success. This is what I learnt from this little event....

Our Renewed Class, full of surprsies!!!

The HC class I had this Wednesday gave me lots of surprises! And now I do believe life is full of surprises :) The class was so different this week because first, the venue had been changed as Dr. Udani took the suggestion of Rosan's. The new classroom made everyone closer to each other and the way we formed our seats made the class more relaxed. Thanks Rosan!!

As I said the class was full of surprises, Dr. Udani gave us the first surprise by showing us a magic (of course exposing the magic secret unintentionally is the biggest surprise...). He did really light up the whole atmosphere. Another surprise was that we were actually celebrating Ida and Ray's birthday with our HC twins, Elly and Megka. They sang birthday songs with us to wish Ida and Ray a happy birthday. Echo did give us another surprise too, baking cake for the birthday guys. We were like a big family and although I was not the birthday girl, I still felt so warm for what the guys did for them. That also told me being a leader, you should know how to warm the heart by memorizing birthdays and giving surprises to the people you work with so they can feel your care.

After all the warm moments, our next HC member wannabes, Steven, Stephanie, Tiffany and Joana, told us a story about water. This water story taught us being a leader should consider about the others. Just as Dr. Udani said, a leader is never self-centered. One of our Chinese idiom says that one hand can never make a sound, while two hands can. I think if a leader only considers himself, this leader will lose followers. In the end, he is just a loner. No matter how well he can lead, it's still nothing.

The last surprise I may say is Albert's You Raise Me Up. He sang very well and that was impressive. He taught me something by singing in front of us, that is a leader can be entertaining sometimes, not being serious all the time. A leader should be able to make us feel relaxed when we are in pressure.


In short, I pretty much like this Wednesday's renewed HC class.

UM Miracle Night

This Wednesday after HC class, I went to see the magic show at UM Cultural Center. Before the show, my HC classmate Vicky, gave me two tickets and of course I had to go to support her and other UM students. Oh I think Jackon and Alvin were in it too. I was so excited about the show. And I invited one of the buddies, Steven, from the buddy program I joined.

That night, as we were waiting at the entrance, I saw the other foreign exchange students, I told them the show would be in Cantonese and no English at all. They were so surprised and one of them decided to join me and Steven. And they both were asking me to be their translator. So I said yes and hopefully I could take this chance to improve my English.

They made me sit between them so I could do the translation job better. When the show started, the MCs showed up. I recognized one of the MCs, it was Alvin! He started to talk and I started to translate. I recalled that some sentences I didn't know how to translate. So I had to draw on a piece of paper to express the idea. I think I should have improved my English by talking more ages ago!!

The funniest part of the show was that, Steven, who can only speak English, went up stage to be a volunteer. I remembered that the magician asked him if he could speak Chinese (in Chinese of course). He was so confused and he wanted my help so he said 'Janice Janice' on the stage. Maybe I was too shy to go up on the stage or I was afraid what if I couldn't translate what the magician said. I asked another Chinese guy whom I think his English is better, to help him. Unfortunately, he didn't translate at all while just standing there and watching. At that moment, I felt really sorry that I didn't go to give him a hand.

As Steven couldn't understand what the magician said, he made some jokes by exposing the magic trick unintentionally. Everyone was laughing so bad. After Steven came back to his seat, I asked him if he knew that he exposed the trick, he said 'No, I am so confused, still.' I think if i was a little bit braver, what had happened would not be even possible to happen.

From this little event, I realized that my shortcoming is I am not confident and brave enough. From now on, I should start talking to different people although it has to be in English. Because I know I will never improve if I keep being at the status quo. Anyways, the magic night was so miracle!

Not just another HC lecture

This Wednesday, as usual, I had my HC class, but at an earlier time. In the class, we had two guests. One of the guests is a three-year UM student, Carlos Pang. He is orginally from Beijing but went to the States at his 8. He told us his experience in New York City and the culture of that city. As the whole HC students will have a chance to study abroad in USA, we were so interested in what he would talk about.

One of the things he said inspired me the most, that is to challenge the professors in class. Professors will be happy to be challenged because they know their students have leanrt something from them. This is so different from our Chinese teaching method. In China, we only listen to the professors and drop down the notes without critical thinking. Love to challenge is actually a trait of leaders'. Without this trait, in another word, the leader doesn't challenge at all, he will only mark time and stop improving.

Another thing I learnt in the class, was after Carlos' speech, Dr. Udani asked all of us to stand up and say something positive and encouraging to the others. This is also another trait of leaders'. As a potential leader, we should learn how to talk positively and  be able to encourage the hearts. For example, when our team mate fails, we shouldn't just blame him and talk negative things, we should encourage him and give him support so that he can improve. Just by saying something positive can make a huge difference to people. And I am practising on it now....

Feedback from NLP Seminar

Last Saturday, I attended a seminar called NLP. I didn't know what NLP is until I attended my first NLP seminar.. NLP actually stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which includes the three most influential components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programming. The neurological system regulates how our bodies function, language determines how we communicate with other people and programming determines the kinds of models of the world we create.

The seminar was held by a crew from Hong Kong. They illustrated the process of setting a goal and achieving it. The steps are first setting a goal, then thinking positively about the future when your goal will be achieved, and finally harvesting the fruit. I think sometimes we may set a goal but we are too afraid that the goal cannot be achieved and therefore, only think negatively. In the end, the negative really takes effect by affecting how we act , so the goal of course cannot be achieved.

Whenever we do things, we must have a postive way of thinking. For example, if we have a goal and we only have 50% of confidence to achieve it, try to think positively, then your confidence will be increased and it will push you work even harder to the goal. Undoubtedly, more effort leads to achievement of goal more easily. Also, imagining the scene you already achieved your goal will help too because the happiness and satisfaction  you gain after your goal has been achieved can boost your motive power so that you will work harder towards the goal.

These are the two key steps I learnt from the NLP seminar in terms of achievement of goal. I hope these will help me in the future. :)

Lecture by Dr. Choi Sai Peng

Before the lecture on Wednesday, I kept thinking how it would turn out to be as our guest for the lecture is Dr. Choi Sai Peng, the cousin of our Chief Executive. After the lecture, I was so surprised because I thought that lecture should have been boring while it turned out that it wasn't AT ALL!!!

What did Dr. Choi do to surprised me so much? Just be patient and read then you'll find out.

Acutally the whole lecture was mainly about urban planing in Macau, but that was not the surprising thing I mentioned. So let's skip it. The most surprising thing always comes the last. After talking about urban planning, Dr. Choi had added something more on his prepared PPT, which is how to be a human well.

I am so inspired that he said knowledge can change your life. And I believe so. I think the teens nowadays only spend most of their time on the computers. They rarely read newspaper or even watch news on TV. Acutally I do have the same mistake as most of the teens do. I rarely read newspaper. The only source from where I know about the world is from TV news or Internet news.

As Dr. Choi said, some of the news that we have read may not be used in future. But if one day someone asks you about something that is related to what you have read or what you have heard about, then that piece of news is definitely useful.

Dr. Choi inspired me that we have to equip ourself well little by little. Knowledge is never enough for us. No one would blame that the knowledge he has is too much. As a potential leader, we have to grasp even more opportunity to gain knowledge than anyone else. As everyone says NO PAIN NO GAIN. If we put more effort, we will have gains, of course there must be luck too. This is what I got from the lecture. Knowledge and luck are two main key things to achieve success. But I do believe that knowledge weighs more than luck.

And the surprising thing to me is that Dr. Choi he put on our HC t-shirt right after we gave him. His act told me that a leader should not always be serious. A little funny act can ease the tense. This is the reason why I think this lecture is so different from the previous ones.

HC News Forum

This Wednesday I participated on the News Discussion Forum hold by HC students. I didn't have time to join it at first because of my make up class. However, the class turned out to be finished earlier so I had the opportunity to join the HC News Forum.

There were two topics at the forum, one is General Education and the other one is Internet Addiction. We were divided into 3 groups. Each group had a different role. We had to express our thoughts in the group and let the leader to speak out for us.

Although I didn't speak much because of my lateness, I noticed that everyone had participated so eagerly even the ideas they had were sometimes banned. I realized that was the attitude a leader should hold. Never give up to speak out as long as you think you have a good idea. The communication method is also important when you persuade others to buy you.

So to be a leader, you must have good communication skill and be able to think critically. You have to express your idea clearly in a right tone and at a right speed. This is what I still have to improve. I think the forum provided me a platform to learn from others and force myself to use my brain to think things deeply. I think from now on, I have to read more news so I can gain more knowledge about different things in order to speak out more next time!

SHOW TIME for One Minute

Today I had my second class of HONR202. Today's feature was the 1-minute performance. Dr. Udani divided us into 6 groups. Each group had 5 people. He gave us 5 minutes to prepare what we were going to perform.

In the beginning, our group didn't have any idea of what to perform. Each person had different thought. We had thought about singing, reciting poetry, and even dancing. We didn't come up with any feasible performance until one of our groupmate, Polly told us about the idea of singing Because of You at the last minute. Since this song is a catchy song and almost everyone in our group knows about it, we decided to sing this song.

However, there's a problem. We could not recite the lyrics. So Polly was trying to look for the lyrics on her phone but all we know that the screen is not enough for 5 people.  Then I asked the group whether we could use Dr, Udani's laptop to search for the lyrics in order to present everyone. The group agreed and finally we  performed the song sucessfully. We even asked the others to join us singing!

From this activity, I learnt that as a group, everyone's opinion is so important no matter it really works in practice or not. Even their plans don't work, the plans may still inspire other people so the other people can improve theirs. Also, once we approve the plan, we have to stick to the plan with no other evil thoughts (being jealous at other people because their plans have been approved while yours has not). Helping each other to practise the plan and doing something to improve the whole process are two significant parts in group work. In short, We have to work together so that our plan will work perfectly.

So many first times of mine this week! (part II)

Apart from what happened on Wednesday, there is another event that made this week unforgettable. It is what I did yesterday. Yesterday was our HC second retreat. I was so excited to expect the day to come this whole week. Why? Because I would do my first sky walk, have my first buffet in Macau Tower. It is funny that i didn't feel any nervous before the day came because i knew I wouldn't have to do the bungy jump.

On Saturday morning, I arrived the tower on time. And later we headed to the open space of the tower bottom and had some games. Our first game,hmm i may say our first task, was to build a tower which can stand firmly on its own with newspaper. We had to apply the knowledge we learnt from Physics. With appropriate teamwork and Jackon's lead, we became the winner of the task. From this task, I think a good leader is required. With a leader, we know what to do and so we don't do things out of order. And sometimes, a leader should listen others' advice. So the whole team can improve.

Actually the second game 'deliving message' is more or less the same, which also requires teamwork. After we played a few games, we headed to the top of the tower. And it is also the most important part of the day. We were required to cover our eyes with pads when we did the sky walk. The idea is to learn how to trust your friends. Because you can't see anything, what you could do to move on is to put your hands on the shoulders' of the person who is in front of you. And to do the sky walk, you need to be brave. A leader always walks ahead of his followers. And a leader loves to explore new things to broaden his horizon.

After the sky walk and lunch, we had a game which is to build net to bounce ball. The main idea is to learn how to cooperate and bounce the ball at same speed. We needed to make decisions about where the string should go and we had to shout out the number as well as move at the same speed. And we needed a person to act like a leader to say the number.

After all the games, it came to a game that could burn our calories and required us to show our encouragement to others, which is rock climbing. To do this, first you have to be brave enough, and second you have to be presistant. This is what a leader should be. Whenever our friends are stuck, the people on the ground would give them support by saying GO GO!!! , and we gave them directions when they couldn't see. This is what people should do to support their teammates.

From the retreat, I learnt how to be supportive, how to be cooperative and how to be BRAVE. Every leader has his fear, but they know how to face their fear and it made them leaders. Hopefully, I will apply what I learnt from this week to my future life!

So many first times of mine this week! (to be continued)

Warning: Below is the FIRST blog I have ever typed, so please bear with the mistakes if I make any!

This week is the beginning of the second semester of my year 2 studying. I couldn't wait to come back to the university to meet my friends. On Wednesday, I had my first lesson by Dr. Udani. I have learnt about him from other students long before. So I was curious what knowledge he would give us.

Before the lecture, Dr. Udani had asked us to bring a pair of chopsticks and I knew the lecture would be unusual as there would be a game on class. Just as I expected, Dr. Udani prepared us magics and game to show us what teamwork is. Unlike Prof. Mok's lecture, it focused on practice more than theories.

During the game, everyone was so dedicated to the team. They figured out which way we could do to transfer the ping pong ball without letting it fall. Even some people had made their turns, they still helped to safe guard the ball. I could see the selflessness of them from this move. They could have just chatted after/before their turns but they didn't. This is what the team members should be. After we finish our part, we still have to provide help for the other members.

Everyone is equally important in this game. None of us can achieve the success on its own. We need support from others and provide support to others. If one fails, encouragement is needed but not blame. This is what I learnt from Wenesday's game. I really appreciate Dr. Udani's teaching method. He passed us a clear idea of what a team should be from real practice!

                                                                                                                           (to be continued)