I know that London does not have heavy snow, but I have evidenced my first time - see the real snow. It was at 8: 45 am, and I looked out the window, pretty white snow has already covered over cars, our garden and the roofs. I saw the few snow flakes slowly and gentlely coming down from the sky. After few minutes, the heavy flakes like raining was flying down. There were big and chunky. Unforturnately I can’t go outside and touch them because I was still in my pyjamas. Here are some pictures I took.

However, it was only last 15 minutes, then it turned into rainning, then sunshine. That is amazing that you can always experience various weather in a day, and that’s why I fascinate about Britain - so unpredictable. I was overwhelmly excited to see the real snow, and experience the hail in the other day, because I grew up in the South of China, and haven’t seen the real snow and hail before. I am sure I will have many oppotunities to see the them, even a white Christmas in the future.

The weather is cold, windy and raining (sunshining). I was really exhausted to prepare my essays and exams and I am so glad it will be over soon, and I can enjoy my relaxing weekends again. Last week I was sick and I know many my friends in China are sick as well. Guys, take care and keep warm.

约翰跟我说伦敦很少下雪，下也可能短时间。今天我见证整这的下雪。早上8点45分，约翰跟我说外面下雪了，我猛得爬下床，看了下窗外 － 雪已经覆盖了车顶，屋檐和我们的花园。雪静静的漂着，我象个小公主在窗内，两只眼睛大大的等待着惊喜。过了几分钟，雪渐渐的大了起来，雪花大到象空心的乒乓球。我太激动了，打开窗去触摸它，可惜太冷了，还穿着睡衣，要不然我绝对冲外面感受 “雪”。我拍下了几张照片

仅仅15分钟的雪,然后雪转为雨，雨转为阳光。太惊奇了，一天有3种天气，这就是我喜欢英国的天气的原因－变化无常。我太兴奋看到伦敦第一次下雪，前几天也经历了冰雹。相信以后很多机会看下雪，在南方长大的我还没有看过真正的下雪，说不定也会经历‘白色的圣诞节’哦！

第一学期快结束了，所以很多考试和论文要准备，都快过去了，希望我可以过上轻松的周末，不用埋头苦读。累坏的我也感冒了，中国的朋友们也很多都病了，大家注意保暖哦！

My friend Miwa and us went to see the Bonfire in Victoria Park on 2nd of November.

It felt so weird because traditionally we only have fireworks on Chinese New Year. It made me feel that it was New Year’s night, except there was no signs of a New Year’s atmosphere. Thousands of people showed up in Victoria Park and it was fantastic that the fireworks were directly above us with no buildings to block your vision. It’s true that pretty things wouldn’t last forever, but amazingly it was a new experience for me to see my first bonfire in London.

Soon Christmas will be coming. My last Christmas was in Beijing and it is still vivid in my mind. Time certainly flies and soon it will be Christmas in London. Can’t wait.

Miwa和我们一起约在2号去看维多利亚公园看“篝火”之夜。“篝火”也包裹放烟花，总觉得超级别扭。对我而已，放烟花只在中国传统过年时在有的，传统篝火是5号正式开始的，还没有到那天，天天就听到人家放烟花的声音，气氛十分象中国过年，除了没有任何过年的味道和大家忙碌的气氛。当天成千上万的人出现在公园里，首先是燃烧一个开口常开的太阳，然后烟花正式开始。超大的烟花在你头上打着，人都被烟淹没在里面。虽说烟花刹那间而过，但却让我在伦敦留下了烟花般的美丽。圣诞节快来了，上年在北京度过的圣诞节还历历在目，时间真象流沙，过得真快。听说约翰的家人要给我一个隆重的圣诞节，迫不期待啊！

I am occupied by my studies and I am so surprise that the amount of the reading and preparing I am involving. Even though I don’t have much time to relax, I certainly enjoy the processing of learning new knowledge.

As my major is Business and Global Politics, financial crisis which happens recently is one of popular topics that we can not ignore. I believe it really affects the UK’s economic and employment situation. We buy the newspaper everyday since Lehmen Brother announced their bankruptcy. I felt I am connected with the country - news and surprising headlines in everywhere.

I remember when the financial crisis in Asia happened in 1997, maybe I was young or either we had limit information to experience the real affects of financial crisis, besides, not all of the occupations were affected it, such as Civil Servants, so it didn’t change much of people’s life. As I know that people were tightened their belts and reluctant to spent their money. Now it’s same here in the UK. The economic is slowing down. People don’t want to spend much. The exchange rate rapidly drops. Banks are deceasing the interest rate and stock market is unstable. Frankly, I learned a lot what is the free market.

For China, I saw the news from Guardian(1/11/08) explained that due to the slow economy in the West, many exporting factories in Dongguan were shut down and the workers were forced to lose their jobs. Even the stock market in China was not promising at all. The news in BBC said that frnancial crisis wipes out billions off wealth of China’s super-rich. Sincerely hope 2009 will be getting better and better.

Regardless of all the sad news happened, a stunning good news that the Unite States has their first black president Barack Obama of democratic party, who has won the presidential election on this Weds. We are looking forwards to seeing the new leader of America.

08 经融危机

最近因学习超忙，要读很多课外书和做什么准备工作，学习不再是死记应背，是理解运用。虽没太多时间放松，但却乐在其中。因我选经济和全球政治为我的专业，经融风暴是无法不提的一个话题。英国的经济和就业状况是严重受到它打击之一。从美国强大的经融实业 雷曼兄弟 宣布破产，许多意想不到报纸头条和新闻是关注的重点。同时，我也深感和这个国家一起波动。

记得97年亚洲经融危机时，可能自己太小或有限的媒体接触，不觉得和我们生活有太大的关系。当然，不是每个行业的人都受到影响，例如在政府部门工作。但那时侯只知道，赚钱不容易，花钱也格外谨慎。现在英国经济也是一样。大家都不想花太多钱，以备雨天。英镑外汇率大跌，银行宣布减息，股市波动起伏，这些都在发生中，我也学到了什么叫做 “无制约经融市场”。

在英国看不到很多中国新闻，朋友们也说他们不感到经融风暴对她们生活的影响，但在Guardian报纸前周六报纸大副报道：南方地区东莞，很多出口的工厂被迫宣布倒闭，因西方经融危机而已导致出口订单大量减少，很多工人也被迫下岗。中国的股市也跌得很厉害，希望09年越来越景气。

这周却有好消息，美国第一非洲美国血统的奥巴马在这周3赢了08年美国总统选举，希望他的当选和新的政策给美国或全球经济带来新的刺激。

I have one week of enrollment before my classes begin at Queen Mary University of London. The University is on the East side of London in Zone 2 near Mile End tube station. The Regents canal is next to the school, with some student residences having a great view over the water. On top of this Victoria Park is just 10 minutes walk up the canal. My house is about 10 minutes walk to the University. I love walking along the canal area and visiting Victoria Pack at the weekend for leisure. The East End of London is a little poor and rough, but I found Queen Mary’s location to be great and very well connected - you can reach both Canary Wharf and Central London in 15 minutes.

Most students are undergraduates, although a there are plenty of postgraduates like me. There are maybe 4000 international students in the school and we all registered and received our student card and then chose our modules. I expect this will be a very new learning experience and I’m sure will be a lot of hard work. I hope I can handle it well. Our programme director is great and has provided us with a lot of information. Each of the module teachers took time to explain exactly what their module involves so you can choose the one that suits you most. I think it’s great! You get to know the teachers and what you will expect in the class. Fantastic. Moreover, I just paid 5 pounds to join the Fashion Society Group. I’m not sure what is it, but it sounds my style. I also joined the Asia group to meet more friends. We will see.

离正式开学还有几天，开学前个星期是搞登记注册啊，学生证和选择课程之类的东西。皇后玛利伦敦大学坐落在市中心的东部，学校有一条运河刚好坐落在学校里面，位于学生宿舍正对面，学校还蛮大的，维多利亚公园离学校10分种。我们家离学校也是10分钟路程，学校的位置去哪里都蛮方便的，去Canary Wharf 金融中心15分钟巴士，去市中心10到30分钟地铁，去伦敦塔骑自行车15分钟就到，Sainsbury超市10分钟就到，十分方便。

大部分学生都是17－24岁，读本科的，少部分学生读硕士的；大概有4000多个国际学生，我是其中之一拉。第一周老师给你介绍学校和英国的东西，接着注册，选择课程。我觉得蛮好的是在你选择课程之前，老师简单介绍10分钟，介绍课程的内容和你要学习些什么东西，让你自己多点了解哪个你最感兴趣的，再做决定。（开学前每人还要考机算机测试，读金融的还要数学考试，幸好我不感兴趣金融）考不过不要紧，你就要学习计算机拉，更好。

我已经交了5磅参加时尚社团，不知道干什么，不过我喜欢时尚，也登记了亚洲的社团，看看认识多点朋友吧。我要好好努力学习，天天向上。

The weather in the UK this summer has not been fantastic and it’s been reported that this year has been the coldest summer on record. It seems that the weather around the world is pretty bad too - New Orleans’ has another hurricane, there are floods in some areas of the UK, and Guangzhou has been continually raining.

UK weather is very variable and can be raining one minute and then sunshine the next. The temperature is currently about 15-26 degrees, which is not bad actually; I perfect it cool. Talking about the weather, there is a silly question but fun to mention is that many of my friends always refer to London as a foggy town (like A foggy Day in London Town). We are even taught this in University!

Actually, it was only during the coal mining time from 18th century to 1950 when the UK suffered these problems. Coal made the UK famous, but it also produced serious air pollution. Due to these environmental issues the UK government has changed the image of the Britain, and now London is the 7th greenest city in the world (according to this article in 2007), and this news claimed that (London to be the ‘greenest city’) in 2005.

Well, London definitely had changed and there are so many beautiful royal parks, as well as other general parks. As well as this a lot of people have gardens, so you can imagine how green it is in London. After my friends read this article, hopefully they will change their image of London - it is not a foggy town anymore; it’s a busy but green city in the UK. I often hear people complaint about weather in the UK, I think there is not fair because its location in the world and coastal seasons, but if you choose to live here, my attitude is be part of it and enjoy it; nothing is perfect. When there is a beautiful day, you will treasure it more.

英国今年夏天的天气时而下雨，时而阳光明媚。不要说很typical哦，英国四季很分明的。报道说英国今年夏天是最冷的夏天，我想整个地球今年的气候都怪怪的：象新奥尔良也遭受了多一次龙卷风，英国很多地区水灾，广州暴雨连连。

虽然伦敦天气蛮清凉的，气温在15到26度之间，还不错，我喜欢凉爽的感觉。说到天气，很多我的朋友（甚至我曾以为）伦敦是个雾城，爵士歌曲也唱到 ” 一个雾天的伦敦城”，甚至我们大学的教科书里的故事也提到伦敦是个雾城，但实际是因为我们课本教的是经典的故事，故事发生在18－19世纪人们的生活，或是有些已过时了。爵士歌曲是黑白年代了，可想而之有多久了。原因是 (more…)

We went to visit Sheffield, Derbyshire, and Leeds last week and drove to see the famous Chatsworth house, owned by Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This house is famous for appearing as Mr Darcy’s house in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie, as well as the upcoming calledThe Dutchess (featuring Keira Knightley).

Unfortunately when we were there they were holding a country fair so I didn’t get chance to visit it properly but I’m sure I will do so in the future.

We also drove to Bakewell in Derbyshire and the Peak District. It’s a small, peaceful, and very pretty market town. It reminds me of Europe a lot.

Another day we drove to North Yorkshire from Leeds to visit Harrogate . It is a very large and wealthy city, we enjoyed our time there.

Sheffield a city of many hills with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. There is a National Park next door and it was famous for producing steel. It’s quite a small city (could be like Shantou, not sure), but the hills remind me of Hong Kong.

Leeds is not bad, got a lot of young modern buildings and restaurants near the canal.

Here is some pictures I took.

The picture of the cover is from www.theage.com.au (Chatsworth House at sunset.)

我们上周去了谢菲尔德， 德比郡， 利兹，去看了很多周边的小镇，去参观了电视剧 /电影－达西先生住的房子（傲慢与偏见），还有9月5号即将上映的电影（女爵）也是在这个房子拍摄的，来头不小啊！听说那整片地区包裹房子都是属于一个公爵的，太富有了！但因为我们刚好碰见公园在举行活动，人山人海，没有仔细进入里面，以后再去罗！我们也去了利兹，利兹还好拉，蛮有小伦敦感觉的。谢菲尔德也不错，到处都是树木花园，国家公园也就在隔壁，居民的房子都建在山腰上，感觉象香港的半山腰。这是最新的照片和大家分享拉。

We reserved tickets to see The Dark Knight at the London IMAX Cinema over two months - the seats there really are that popular, and the main reason is that it is the largest cinema in the UK.

We’ve been wanting to see the movie for a long time since we saw it being filmed in Hong Kong at the same time we happened to be there in 2007.

The movie is directed by Christopher Nolan. Normally I dodn’t care about directors but I have to say that Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors I’ve seen. He produced Memento (2000) The Prestige (2006) and The Dark Knight (2008). It seems he likes Christian Bale in his films. There is no doubt about Christian Bale’s professional acting. I love all his movies, such as American Psycho (2000) .

People said The Dark Knight might break Titanic’s record in the movie history. I hope so as well. It is a big budget movie with the latest technology, good story and good actors, and looked absolutley fantastic on an IMAX screen. In fact, the movie was specially shot so that certain scenes were recorded on an IMAX camera, which really gives you a great feeling of being directly in front of the action.

The bad character in the movie is called The Joker and was played by Heath Ledger, who recently died of an accidental drug overdose. His most famous movie is Brokeback Mountain (2005).

I really enjoyed thismovie and was glad that we waited so long to see it at an IMAX cinema.

我们在一个月前终于定到了（蝙蝠侠之黑暗骑士）的电影票，在伦敦imax 电影院放映。因它是英国最大电影屏幕的3D电影院，所以超级受欢迎，每天都暴场。在里面看蝙蝠侠，就象你会跟着镜头走，跟着蝙蝠侠飞，超级逼真，超级动感，再说，能用3D看蝙蝠侠更是最大的享受。

我们不只是因蝙蝠侠的超人气要看它，还因为我们07年底在香港旅游时，当天刚好碰上蝙蝠侠摄影组在香港桥上拍摄的那一段，还有拍摄的直升机在我们头上飞过，所以我们势必一定要看。

这电影的导演Christopher曾拍摄几部我超级喜欢的电影，包裹（记忆碎片, 致命魔术，当然还有这部蝙蝠侠拉, 都是蝙蝠侠主角Christian Bale 主演的，那是因为Chris导演知道他能胜任这些难度超高的角色。看过Christian的演技，大家公认他是十分出色的演员，我也喜欢他演的（美国狂魔），总之有他的电影都值得一看。

听说因为蝙蝠侠的超人气,票房可能打破Titanic的最高票房历史纪录，希望吧。看得出电影的经费特高,排场超大， 好主题，好电影，值得去电影院看。听说里面的小丑坏人主角是（断背山）他在08年1月因意外自杀了。真可惜，不然他会是好莱巫以后很抢手的演员。

蝙蝠侠黑暗骑士是部不能错过的好电影，值得一看。

The Tudors was first presented by Showtime in 2007, and they are back again this year for season 2. Along with Dexter they are producing my favourite TV programs. It is a historical fictional drama about the early reign of the King of England Henry VIII. Henry VIII was famous because he overthrew the Roman Catholic Church so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, and then continued on to marry a total of six times.

In the TV series Henry VIII is played by super handsome Jonathan Rhys Meyers . Along with being very handsome, Jonathan plays the part of Henry perfectly, and makes the series especially compelling.

The first series finished in 2007 and now the BBC is presenting season 2 in HD now - fantastic! 2 thumbs up!

The Tudors 是关于15世纪亨利八世的历史故事，我只记得当我们在学历史的时候，亨利八世为了娶安.波林而推翻天主教罗马教会，这也是英国社会在当时一个重要的转折点，还有他因结了6次婚和推行宗教改革而在英国史上出名了。

在电视上，除了演技出色并超帅气的Jonathan扮演亨利八世这个主角和激动人心的奢华场面，还有最特别的是人物性格描写得特别仔细，这也是亨利八世这部电视剧成功的理由。第一季在2007年放映完毕了，现在BBCHD在放映第二季,值得推荐看的一部电视剧。

We bought a Nintendo Wii games console over one year ago in Guangzhou and recently bought the Wii Fit in London. Apparently we have influenced at least six friends to buy it after they have played it, and they are extremely popular in the UK and we had to order the Wii Fit online shipped from German because UK ran out of stocks.

Using the Wii Fit you can practice your yoga, balancing, and other fun exercises to burn your calories. It’s really good for the lazy people such as myself and when I have time I use it to excercise and keep track of my weight. It’s really fun to play with freinds and makes for a good purchase.

不知不觉我们在广州买了Wii 任天堂游戏机有一年多了，之后在伦敦才买Wii Fit。我们成功的说服了至少6个朋友也买了它。Wii 在哪里都超级受欢迎，我们还要上网订购Wii fit，而从德国运过来才行，因为当时英国卖短货了。

我用Wii Fit锻炼俞加或是一些平衡的游戏，每天锻炼，它不仅让你流汗，还真的可以消耗卡路里，对我这些懒人又可以玩游戏，又可以做运动，何乐不为呢？我要保持苗条的身材，或要再瘦点！当你有很多朋友来你家时，大家可以一起玩一些互动游戏和一起开怀大笑。我觉得是不错的投资！希望你也买一个玩玩吧！

I packed my luggage and it took me 7 hours to get to HK airport. Luckily I could see the Olympic Opening Ceremony while I was waiting to check in. Even thought I am tired of Olympic topics in China, the opening ceremony was stunning and I almost burst into tears when I saw our national flag and everyone was singing our national song.

Anyway, after another 13 hours on the plane I finally arrived at Heathrow airport and went through the immigration. I thought I would need to take an x-ray on the spot because I’m staying in the UK more than 1 year, but apparently you don’t anymore. Great!

I arrived and felt like I had never left, everything was so familiar. The next day I registered with the police. Hopefully I will open my bank accounts on tomorrow morning. The weather is not fantastic here, chilly and raining, although often with a blue sky.

拿起包袱，做了7个小时的巴士到香港机场，在机场看奥运开幕式。虽然自己有点反叛不想老听到奥运的东西，因好像2008年就离不开奥运话题，但看到精彩及令人惊叹的开幕式，觉得自己真自豪！在升旗和唱国歌，自己也情不自禁的想落泪，香港机场气氛很好，各个都拍掌惊叹多么漂亮的开幕式。

到了伦敦机场，因假如在英国停留过于1年，就要求做胸透体检，啊，居然不用，太好了！到家了，好像我从没有离开过，隔天去警察局登记，明天去银行开户就大功告成了。这几天的天气都不是很好，一会蓝天白云，一会倾盆大雨，而温度象是秋天了，我要我的夏天回来啊！