When people are still immersed in a festival atmosphere here in China, it is depressed to most of the visa applicants to Australia. Feb 8th might probably be the most dreary day for all the applicants as Australia government abolished a policy that favors the applicants whose nominated occupation is on the MODL, a list of occupations that is in urgent demand in Australia. Now I am not eligible to apply for the visa there.
As the economic downturn hit the western world, most of the developed countries have tightened their own immigration policies. Canada issued new policy in the very beginning of the 2008 to curb the immigration. However, Australia did pretty well during financial crisis since it’s main business partner is China. China’s fast economic growth calls for enormous energy source, while Australia is abundant in coal, petrol and etc, which guarantees the continous prosperity during the crisis. It is said that this sudden policy change is due to the fact that Australia intends to attract more professionals like enginners and doctors instead of work force like hairdressers or cook. New policies will be realeased in the middle of the year.
As an engineer myself, it seems my worries are quite redundant, however I don’t have much work experience and i certainly don’t wanna it be a disadvantage when comes to point testing. There is still something i could do, improving my english writing skills to get a 7 in IELTS. I might start writing essays on this blog… Hope it all work out within the year.
How time flies. We have already moved from 00s to 10s all of a sudden. 2009 means a lot ot me, since significant changes happened to me in 2009. 2009 is the year when I graudate from school and begin to work;2009 is the year when I move from Chongqing to Beijing;2009 is the year when I live an indepent life for the first time;and on and on. However, I am looking forward to 2010.
In 2010, I plan to continue to consolidate my knowledge basis in terms of CFD, enhance skills at work. In 2010, I plan to practise piano to a level that I have never achieved. And I wish my visa application would go smooth. However, most importantly, be healthy and be happy.
I’m not a Christian and I really don’t celeberate Christmas. However, I guess I said Merry Christmas to everybody by singing Messiah last saturday. Because of the late performance permission，we put off the Messiah concert on 19th, usually the first saturday of Dec, and even change the concert hall to a small one outside Beijing instead of forbidden city concert hall. Even so, we gave the audience a lovely show in my opinion.
Messiah is a Baroque music production, more specifically, Cantata. I always have affection towards baroque music and I definitely enjoyed singing messiah this time. It is such a great work for chrous. When we singing the famous Hallelujah, all the audience stood up following british tradition. It is such a sacred moment. According to other members, it is sort of an european tradition for choirs to sing messiah during christmas time, which is why IFC does it every year. I am looking forward to singing it next year.
PS: After the concert, we had an italian dinner party, people danced and chatted and got drunk. And our director told me I am a great great asset to this choir, which makes me very proud of myself. I have enclosed the video of one of my favorite movements, For unto us a child is born, which is not our performance but I do wanna share the joy.
I have heared about the forthcoming shut down of all P2P and BT websites here in China. I just don’t realize it comes so quickly unitl I find out that VERY CD, a website that thousands of users share their digital resourse on, was cracked down today. The authority justifies their actions on the grounds of protecting copyrighted products and controling the widespread piratic and illegal digital resource.
From my point of view, this bold and imprudent action might act as just opposite as the authority expects. Admittedly, some of the internet users might turn to copyrighted movies or softwares. But considering the high price of those products, I would not call it majority. As a result, most of the internet users here in China who used to download digital resource with P2P or BT via websites like Verycd will probably turn to piratic contents，which in turn would definitely prosper the piratic industry.
In fact, as far as I know, many web users consider VERY CD as their precious resource website, where you can find from exotic tv series and movies with chinese and english subtitles to professional softwares, etc. Yes, I admit it might need some regulations to protect the copyright of those digital resource. However, I would not call simply shut down the website as a progress action. Instead, related authority and the big players in this industry are well-advised to sit down together and work out a plan to progress and normalize this business, which however is unthinkable here with the authority’s proliferated bureaucracy. Moreover, the real purpose of this action might be controlling the alleged “illegal” content, oversea TV series and movies notably. So there is no room to compromise for the authority.
What leaves me to do right now is just mourning. Now I would not surprise if someone here is bored to death one day.
Last weekend, I went to Jiuzhaigou for a business trip, but it’s more a vacation than a business trip to me. As a matter of fact, we went there for an experiment to testify a theory that is going to apply to our next project. I set things up on the first day, then we got a chance to go to Jiuzhaigou, one of the most famous travelling spot in China, for sightseeing.
The Hotel that we stayed. Intercontinental Hotel pricing 3,000 a night. lol
Inside of our room, I lived with my supervisor. I espcially like the glass facade and the fireplace in the living-room-like space. It looks cozy.
Jiuzhaigou gains its reputation for its stunning view like this picture. I almost feel like myself a photographer. hehe
Isn’t it beautiful? I took it, haha
Water there is so transperant that you can see the green plants deep in the lake, which makes that lake so colorful.
One of its most famoust spot, Pearl Waterfall. Do you still remember the shot in “Journey to the West”when Monk Tang and his apprentices walk through the waterfall?
The swimming pool in the hotel, I actully climbed up on the glass rooftop to set thermometer.
The view from the glass rooftop, where you can see the whole resort.
We caught flight back to Chengdu that night. It took us almost an hour car drive from hotel to the airport. Because that is a rural place where there is no artificial lights, I saw so many stars shining upon the sky when i was in the car to airport. I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. What a breathtaking view!
We’ve been running a project for a tobacco factory lately. As an energy Sustainability development consultancy, we make green construction schemes to help our customers to apply for green building certificate according to certain codes in our industry.
As stated in green building evaluation code, constructions should not have any excessive decorative parts. Here comes our problem because our client seem to like the rooftop design as shown in the picture.
We’ve come up with some ideas, like paving solar panels on the top of that，which in turn would increase structure load in the building. My idea is vegetation like grape or wisteria, decreasing the heat load on one hand and beautifying the building on the other. So any WIDE ideas?
IFC definitely rocked the audience last night at the concert. I was very concerned about the orchestra, since the rehearsal was a disaster the day before the show. But everything was very good and the choir fitted into the tempo perfectly, which is all the effort made by our conductor, Nick.
My favorite part is the end of the act 1 when choir and the orchestra built a cresendo and the soprano came out. I think we did rock the audience at that moment.
I was very exciting at the end of the show when audience applaused and screamed for us and i really had a sense of achievement. Afterwards, one of our member told me we might be the best choir in Beijing. I am very proud of it, especially when friends came to told me that i am an excellent singer. : )
I just wish all my friends and people who love me were here and share the joy with me. My mom was there and she had fun
Joining IFC is definitely the most unique experience that I have so far. I consider it a good way to expand the social circle. Especially the diversity of the backgroud of our members coming from all over the world attracts me most. I did make some friends here and i did have a lot of fun. For a people who cherishes the unique life experience like me, it is absolutely a fortune in my life.
The pirates of Penzance is a comic opera, which is the first concert that i am going to take part in next Saturday after i joined IFC Beijing(International Festival Chorus).
The storyline of this opera isabout a stubborn young man, Federic, who is just realeased from apprenticeship to a host of pirates at his age of 21. He meets Mable, the daughter of Major General Stanley, with whom he fell in love instantly. However, he finds out he was born on February29th, which means he only has his birthday every leap year. As stated in his indenture, he will only be realeased from his apprenticeship from pirates when he has his 21st birthday. His strong sense of duty makes him decide to serve the appenticeship for 63 years more. And Mable agrees to wait for him.
Im singing the tenor this time. According to our conductor, the difficult part is singing the words as clearly as speaking. For a non-native English speaker, i found it’s very difficult. But i do work on my part to improve it. Anyway, wish all the best to our performance.
Hey guys, I am very exciting to have my first own blog online, which is all the effort made by one of my best friends, Jing. So thanks for putting this for me, i really like it. Hey, Jing and Karen, how can i find you guys online? Am i allow to have you on my friends list or something? tell me about it.
