School Life – Episode Two, Penalty

Students of the Globe International School (GIS) were anxiously waiting in the classroom. This was the announcement day of the mid-term examination result.
When Peter got the exam result slip, he was shocked. He found out that his attendance grade is deducted, and that his general exam points have also gone down.
Peter demanded an explanation from the headmaster, who is dubbed as the Big Brothers by students.
The headmaster, Lion, told Peter that his attendance grade is deducted because he skipped school for one day.
“Aren’t we supposed to have one day off from class each month?” asked Peter.
“No, we do not allow that anymore,” Lion said.
“When? Why there is no one telling me that the policy is cancelled?” asked Peter, confused but angry.
“It has been cancelled. I don’t need to tell anyone. I can change policy whenever I want,” Lion replied.
Fine, Peter thought, because he really took an extra day off from class last month. But he was still puzzled about the deduction in his examination points.
“Because you took an extra day off, so you could not complete some class work and thus your examination points were deducted,” Lion told Peter.
What a ridiculous explanation, Peter thought. Yes, he has taken an extra day off, but he always does extra class work on other school days, and the quantity of class work he has completed is no less than his classmates.
“You already lowered my attendance grade. How can you also deduct my examination points? It is double penalty!” yelled Peter.
“Bingo. It is. It is my job, constantly finding excuses to lower your exam points,” Lion said.
When Peter wanted to say how unfair the policy is, his classmate Sherry interrupted. Sherry’s exam points were also deducted and Lion said it was because she took a day of sick leave last month.
“Are you kidding me?” Sherry said.
“No, I am not. I am serious. Because you took sick leave, you could not complete some class work, and thus your exam points were deducted,” Lion said.
“I am sick,” Sherry defended.
“That does not matter,” Lion said.
“I still have to go to school even if I am sick?” Sherry asked.
“I am afraid you have to,” Lion said.
“What’s the point of that? If I was sick or had a fever, I still could not do the class work even though I came to school,” Sherry said.
“You still have to come to school and try to do some class work,” Lion said.
“I would be spreading the diseases to others if I came to school when I was sick,” Sherry said.
“I don’t care about that. You have to be present even though you are sick, or you pay the price for being absent. This is an order,” Lion said.
Sherry was speechless, and she was wondering whether this Mr Lion had been sick before. Mr Lion had been sick and needed to stay in hospital for days, and Sherry wondered whether he had been penalized for that.

School Life – Episode One, Dictation

In this story, everything happened inside a university or college. This is a poorly written story, just about what I am interested in and what I think.

School name: Globe International School (GIS)
Main character: Peter, a student

Peter was shocked today because his English teacher Tan Ping, an old fashioned guy who cannot think of anything else but asking students to memorize vocabularies, told him that there will be a dictionary dictation next week.
“What?” Peter exclaimed.
“Dictionary dictation. Please go home to memorize the dictionary. If you fail to pass the dictation, you will be given lashes,” the teacher said. “And remember, we are learning American STYLE English. If you write in British STYLE, you will lose points.”
“What is the passing mark and how many lashes if I fail?” Peter asked.
“I don’t know yet. I will decide after the dictation,” the teacher replied.
“What’s the point of having a dictionary dictation? Dictionary is something that we can check. We don’t need to memorize that. We should learn vocabularies by using them, but not by memorizing the dictionary,” Peter said.
“I don’t care what you feel! You need to memorize. That’s how I learn. The dictation will be at 8 am next Wednesday,” the teacher said.
“8 am! It is too early. Classes start at 9am. We have to come here early for the dictation?” Peter said.
“Yes!” the teacher exclaimed.

Team Leader

Meeting good people is essential for surviving in any places, especially when I am in a strange city.
Thanks God. My colleagues are nice and cooperative, and I am particularly impressed by my team leader SJ. We do have clashes sometimes, but he really deserves my respect.
SJ, about one year younger than me, is really patient. He still smiles sometimes when I am rude to him, probably because I have lost temper out of some ridiculous arrangements.
And whenever the big brothers are making things chaos, and causing trouble to me, he always comes to my rescue. Yes, you can say it is part of his job to deal with the big brothers, but my life will be like hell without his help.
I, growing up in other city which shares different systems and values, is still getting used to living here, and on many occasions, I cannot stand the big brothers and disagree with some of SJ's ideas. But I think he has tried to understand how I think.
Sometimes, my thinking clashes with the others, which lead to big troubles for him. On one occasion, he had to write a retrospective essay because of the “mistakes”I have made (something that the big brothers believed is a serious mistakes, but I find nothing wrong) . But still, he did not blame me or scold me, and tried to console me when I was very upset by that trouble.
Last but not least, he volunteered to help when I needed to move apartment last month.

Thanks.

青島遊/ Qingdao/ Tsing Tao

上個月去了青島玩三天。上機前一晚發燒，速速光顧貴價私人診所，幸好上機時已退燒。
基本上，三天都是悠閒遊。沒有安排什麼特定的行程。第一天去了歷史博物館，博物館介紹青島在德治及日治時期的情況，我的印象是，博物館對德治時期的評價好像比較正面。
博物館後，去了八大關，就是歐式建築物的集中地，幾舒服。
第二天，去了青島啤酒博物館。很多東西看，有2杯免費啤酒飲(其中一杯更是原漿啤酒)。玩了大半天。
第三天，去了德治時期的監獄及康有為故居。
悠悠閒閒。
我真的很想放假，放長假。

Had been to Tsing Tao for three days last month. Got fever the night before on board the plane, and I paid a huge amount of dollar to a private clinic. Luckily, the fever eased the next day.
The three days are leisure tour. No planned itinerary. I visited the history museum on the first day. The museum has details about Tsing Tao when it was being ruled by German and Japan. My impression is that the museum has, comparatively speaking, more positive comments about German.
On the second day, I visited the Tsing Tao Beer Museum, which is an obligatory item in the city. I got two cups of free beer.
On the third day, I visited a German prison and the residence of Kang Youwei.
I like the leisure tour.
I really need a holiday, long holiday.