Life at Bellerbys College

Counting Down to the Olympics!

Posted by Shiny

The games will start in about 100 days. Recently, the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch has passed through Hong Kong and quite soon it will be relayed in my hometown. What an exciting event!  It is a pity that I can’t go back to China to witness it, but I’ve been to the torch relay in London roughly one month ago.  It was such an unforgettable experience.

On the last day of the Easter holidays, we four boys went to London to witness the relay of the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch.  Although we knew it would be snowing on that day, we didn’t feel cold with few clothes on due to the great passion on our magnificent significance.

Just after we got on the 9:17 train to London Bridge, the weather started roaring with a heavy snow.  On the way to London, everything was white with almost 3 cm of snow.  It was the heaviest snow I’ve ever seen in Brighton, and also in my life.  It was unambiguously an unforgettable experience to the people who have been living in South China for a long time.  So taking photos and chatting have become our ways for refreshments.

It was raining and snowing in London's China Town by the time we reached there.  But it didn’t reduce the number of enthusiastic people who were keen on seeing the event.  People were holding British, Chinese and Olympics flags, either in the rain or in the shops.

The police were already there and metal fences had been set up on two sides of the path that the torch will be passing through.  We were excitedly waiting on both sides regardless of the weather as we believed that no matter what sorts of weather we were going to encounter, the torch would be relayed successfully by the shields of the athletes.

Easter Holiday - Shopping and a Visit to Devil's Dyke

Posted by Shiny

Shopping

On the first few days of Easter, SING (Shiny, Ivan, Nelson and Gary) went out shopping.  As the May Ball is on the way, people want to buy an outfit so that they look their best.  A spectacular suit is the dream of many men, including the SING.  Shiny was not looking for a suit, but he had just got “annoyed” by ING who told him that the way he dressed was too childish.  So he began to check himself again.

Usually, when you are criticized by two groups of people frequently, you’ve got to review yourself.  These two groups of people are “boys & girls”.  As you can’t have a 3rd group, the opinions from these two groups of people are absolutely vital and fatal.  For the past 20 years in my humble life, what I wear has definitely demonstrated the aesthetics of my mom since I don’t really pay any attention to clothing and I am happy for her to do so.  Gradually I’ve got used to the life.  Virtually school uniforms have become my favourites after wearing them for so long.  It is actually a breakthrough to hear their comments since I don't window shop any more.  Therefore this trip was meaningful.

The comment from Ivan about me was “country boy who comes into town”.  It was a fair comment which clearly told my situation.  Yet I still think that being united in terms of uniforms may look tedious but I like the simplicity sometimes.  “Whatever” has become my personal idiom since long time ago.  Because I was “sealed” and didn’t grow tall (just as plastic which can’t be reshaped), and as time passed on, I kept wearing the same clothes until they were worn out utterly.  I was aware that I've saved loads of money by not growing up!  As what the people say, the clothes I’ve brought to the UK were regarded as “sports clothes” and classified as “for kids”.  OMG, life is so short that we can’t afford to waste any time, but why shall we spend lots of time on the silly dressing?

Devil’s Dyke

On March 24th, I went to the Devil’s Dyke in East Sussex with three lovely little dollies: Lim, Mandy and Yuka. To get there, you need to take a number 77 bus which only runs on weekends and Bank Holidays.

Trip to Bristol

Posted by Shiny

During the Easter holiday, I visited my relatives who are working in Bristol.

It was a long, long journey which lasted for over four hours.  As usual, I enjoyed the time on the train.  As I’ve never been on a train in China, after I came to the England, I’ve become attached to trains and never, or not yet, got fed up with it even if the journey is long or even though some trains are a bit filthy.

And as usual, it started raining not long after I left home.  Although my name is Shiny, it rains almost every time when I want to do something vital or meet someone important to me.  There is a saying in China: “The auspicious people usually travel with rain or immerse into water.”  I am not sure whether I am one of them or not.  It suddenly reminds me of an ex-classmate or a “diehard follower”, How Huang, who got wet three times when he came to my house.

It took me 1h 40min to get to Southampton Central from Brighton and it rained extremely heavily outside the window, which took away my interests of enjoying beautiful scenery.  But thank goodness, the sun smiled at me when I got on the train to Bath Spa. 

Cultures of Valentine

Posted by Shiny

A couple of weeks ago, there was a questionnaire from Psychology coursework spreading around Bellerbys collecting information about love.  Love may have become an inevitable topic in our daily life.  Today I would like to talk about a hit topic which is about different cultures of Valentine’s Day and what love means in different ways.  Although I am not an expert on love, I have attempted to exchange ideas about love with some students in our college.

Above all, let’s talk about marriage.  Students from different places have different opinions about this.  For instance, in China, one man mustn’t have more than one wife, although in the ancient China, some wealthy men could.  As for the culture of some countries, a man can have more than one wife.

A few days ago, I saw a piece of news telling that Muslim people in the UK can have up to four wives although this is illegal according to the law.  It is said that the British government would subsidize those who are legally having over one partner within Britain.  Obviously, the British culture is so tolerant and humanistic, even the law would allow moral cultural issues to happen. 

I once had a chat with one of my Nigerian female friends in Bellerbys whose father has got “dozens of” wives.  I was shocked and I asked her whether she though this is kind of discrimination.  What she said did make me give in.  She told me that, “Of course I don’t think it is.  Who makes money and earns the living for your whole family?  It’s your dad, right?  That’s it.”  It is indeed a fair comment if we think in terms of contribution to a family.  Yet some casual empiricists may argue that women also devote themselves to their family to a large extent.  Whilst what men and women do were different, it is not sensible to compare with each other.  No matter what people think, as long as there is an agreement between women and men, everything is fine.

"Noi" in Italia...Posting in Order Not to Forget It

Posted by Shiny

为了忘却的纪念 (written on 1st-6th March 2008)

Sometimes I enjoy writing hybrid entries with both Chinese and English as I find it easier to express my feeling to an optimal degree.

写下这篇日志，不是为了记忆，而是为了去纪念，为了短暂地忘却这段不堪回首的壮丽诗篇。 Memory is a knife, it always hurts me.  But I still cherish it.  That’s why I usually put it down and keep it inside a box.  Perhaps in a few years later, it will not hurt me again after I’ve learnt how to handle it.  By then, it would be a souvenir to me from life.

“兄弟姐妹就像天上飘下的雪花，本来谁也不认识谁，可是，一落到地上，结成冰，化成水，就永远也分不开了。”这句话用来形容意大利之行之后的感想就再合适不过了。在那所学校里，据说是专业的问题，三分之二的学生都是女生，我想，在那些欢乐的日子里，我们都已经成为了其中的一员，想起来，我们应该亲切地叫他们“姐妹们”。

There were so many things going on in my head these days and if I didn’t write them down, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on something else.  I should at least put a full stop on the journey.  After all, it was really an indispensably pleasant experience and I don’t want it to fade out in my brain by any means.  好想有一部带有时间留驻功能的神奇照相机，也许，在未来的一天里，真的可以凝固时间。人们都说照相机是记录人们美好一瞬的记忆天使。虽然这位天使总是给人以片面和局部的回忆，也许，这已经足够，相外之人与事也许会在记忆深处随着岁月的蹉跎而逐渐模糊和褪色，但我们依然能想起她们大概的轮廓和音容笑貌，想起与她们一起经历过风雨，一起看过很美丽的彩虹，想起来却也充满温馨。Therefore I've decided to write every piece of memory that I can remember so that it fits my own perfectionism.

Chinese New Year 2008 @ Brighton & Hove

Posted by Shiny

I've mentioned the Chinese New Year before but it was actually just the beginning of it.  What I came across later tended to be much more eye-catching.  This is a marvelous day in my life.  It was supposed to be a simple Chinese New Year performance, but then we’ve made it into a great success.

Before I start talking about what happened in Brighton, I would like to recall the memories about our trip to the London School of Economics.  On Sunday, 3rd, Feb, we went to LSE for a Chinese New Year performance.  There were three cars taking us to LSE from Brighton.  It took us approximately two hours to get there due to the traffic congestion in London even though it was Sunday. (If we can by any means improve the traffic condition in a city, it would definitely make a big difference to people’s life. Travelling is inevitable in our daily life.  Sometimes we travel for fun while sometimes we travel for work.  No matter what the reasons are, transportation is extremely important.  That’s one of the reasons why I would like to study transportation engineering of Civil Engineering).  The traffic was a bit annoying as I had car-sickness.

After arriving at LSE, we paid a visit inside the Confucius Institute of LSE then we went for our performance in the campus of LSE.  Many volunteers from LSE, Imperial and UCL were working with us. As we were in a new circumstance, we unprofessional actors didn’t do as well as we did in the rehearsal. But we have tried our best.  And after dinner, at about 7p.m. we went to the Old Theatre to prepare for the performance.

Celebration of Festivals – Chinese New Year and Christmas

Posted by Shiny

6th February is the 2008 Chinese New Year.  Last year, the Chinese New Year was at weekend, so we had time to play and had dinner with Mr. Qin, the teacher who works in the Chinese Cultural Centre.  However, this year is quite special.  The Chinese New Year’s Eve is on 6th which doesn’t allow students to play truant.

After class, the Chinese students and Vietnamese students all vanished from college at a “thunder speed”.  After making a couple of phone calls back to China, I decided to go back home to cook my own dinner.  In the past, I usually spent the Chinese New Year with friends and classmates, but I think I gotta try a new style of life.  Some students decided to go to London for karaoke whilst some went for a dinner together.  Like us, other students just didn’t have a plan.  So instead, we spend our time at home.  We could go to CC (the Chinese Centre) to have dinner with some other people, but I just wanted to go back home to have a rest.

Compared with the Chinese New Year, Christmas seems to be much more popular.  This New Year reminded me of the all the Christmases I’ve ever experienced in the UK.  In 2006, we had a fantastic Xmas lunch with our host-family.  It can be seen from the photo that we had vegetables, stuffing, turkey, champagne and dessert for lunch.  We opened crackers and the housemother gave each of us a box of chocolate. 

One Week in January

Posted by Shiny

It was the last week of the January exams.  We have experienced a lot this week.  And it was indeed a busy week.

On Monday, in the afternoon, we had an awards ceremony of the United Kingdom Senior Mathematical Challenge.  This year our college really had a fabulous harvest.  We’ve got hundreds of certificates to hand out this year many of which are Gold Prize.  At least 25 candidates have received a gold certificate.  My ex-high schoolfellow Chen Jun has got the best prize at our college.  Some students believe that in the recent years, the mathematical level of Bellerbys may have gone up gradually year by year.

On Tuesday, I had a C4 exam, which was almost a doom.  I found out that I have got many answers wrong.  I was horribly frustrated after the exam as I think that I should never have a bad grade for an straightforward module.  I don’t really want to retake any modules in June since there would be loads of work then.  Nonetheless, “There is a crook in the lot of every one.” 

I went out of the library, attempting to comfort myself, but I just couldn’t calm down until I saw the “Table Tennis Club” going on.  Oscar and I went to join them in the exam hall without any hesitation.  We played with some Russian students.  Haven’t played the table tennis for ages, I really missed it.  At first I couldn’t play properly, and it was partially because the Russian students were skillful.  There is no doubt that the balls were a bit small and not like those for formal competition and the bats are not ideal enough either.  However I definitely enjoyed the game since I lost myself and utterly forgot the sadness of my painful exam memory.  Finally, I got some practice and I was able to compete with the Russian athletes.  Since then, it was a bit hard to judge who was better at playing.  The Table Tennis Club has enabled me to tackle my bad mood in time by doing some sports I like.  Hopefully soon students will be able to play basketball and badminton in the college too.

Our Biggest Enemy

Posted by Shiny

Living in the UK, one of the biggest enemies is language.  If you don’t solve this problem, it will become a barrier to your life, just like the sands inside your shoes which makes you inconvenient and uncomfortable to move.

Undeniably, linguistic problems are really inevitable.  Having problems is not scary, because you can learn something from that.  But the thing is, sometimes we won’t learn things until we become a “clown”.

Just before Christmas, my housemate August caught a cold, so he went to a pharmacy to buy some medicine since he has almost eaten up the pills I had given to him.  He asked the shop assistant to get some medicine for him.  The shop assistant showed him a bottle of liquid, but August didn’t trust that kind of medicine.  So he told the assistant to get some other sorts of medicine.  Unfortunately he didn’t know how to say, so he asked, “Have you got something like candies?” “Can candy cure your cough?” asked the assistant.  August said, “No, I mean something you put into your mouth.”  The assistant said angrily, “Your mouth! Not my mouth!”  “OK!”  Finally August learnt a new word which is “oral administration.”

Meet Our Student Bloggers!

Thinking about studying in England?  Find out more about the lives of some of our current students here in their blogs.  Each week, they'll share their thoughts and experiences as they progress through their courses.

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Our bloggers are:

Ksenia Rostislavleva from Moscow, Russia
Ksenia is 17 years old and in the first year of an A Level course.  Ksenia previously studied English Language Preparation and GCSE courses at Bellerbys Brighton. 

In her spare time, she enjoys shopping, reading, socialising with her friends and she is a member of the college United Nations Association and Debating Society.

Ksenia is hoping to attend Imperial College, London ("If I'm very lucky!") to study Biochemistry.

Wang Xuxi (Shiny) from Guangdong, China
Shiny is 21 years old and in the final year of an A Level course at Bellerbys Brighton.  He's hoping to study Civil Engineering at Imperial College, London when he leaves us this summer. 

Like Ksenia, Shiny makes the most of life at college and is a member of the Music Club, Poetry Circle, United Nations Association and Table Tennis club.

Sam Hang from Hong Kong
Sam is 18 years old and currently studying Business Foundation at Bellerbys Oxford.  He would like to study Economics at university in September and has a conditional offer of a place at Bath University. 

In his spare time, Sam enjoys reading, watching movies and telling jokes!

Jag Gupta from New Delhi, India
Jag is 16 years old and studying IGCSEs at Manor Campus, Bellerbys Cambridge.  After completing his A Levels at Bellerbys, he hopes to go to study Business at Bath University, followed by a Masters.

Jag is a sociable chap and outside of class enjoys rugby, cricket, basketball, drama, Young Enterprise and playing the drums.