University Offer

I am very pleased to receive an email come from the university which I would prefer to study in that it takes a place for me, but the other problem turns out that the tuition fee is too expensive to cost me nearly 11,000 pounds. In contrast, the tuition in the university where I study now is 2,000 less than it, but I’d prefer to learn the 3D technology which it doesn’t provide rather than the Mechatronics it provides. That made me really confused, and I don’t really know which I should consider first, tuition or interest? 8,000 pounds tuition will be my burden, while 11,000 will be a heavier burden. The overseas student tuition is so big that causes the students spend little money on their daily life; I really hope the UK government would consider this point to reduce the fee to release the students’ burden. Meanwhile, I find out some information about scholarships and some of them seem suitable for me, that is a good sign, may be I can get it to reduce some burden. Hope not too hard to apply!

Receiving Mutualpoints cheque; Applying the first debit card

Yesterday, I was pleased to receive a 45 pounds cheque from Mutualpoints which I online shopping from. I earned points when I shopping in it, and redeem it a week ago. In the beginning, I thought it was hard to collect over 3000 points to redeem £20. Actually I was wrong, when I booked a monthly payment T-mobile phone on e2save.com, I easily got about 2600 points. Also, I bought Dell computers, registered Coral account and bought something else on the internet. It verified the points after 30 days and I easily reached the redeem requirements. I’ll put the cheque into my bank account tomorrow, thanks Mutualpoints.

If you apply a UK bank account in the first time, you may undergo some blocks. I remembered that when I went to the Edinburgh headquarter branch of Bank of Scotland first time, I was informed to apply the debit card in condition that my saving account, which I opened 20 days ago, should be opened over one month. 3 weeks later, I went there to apply again, and then they informed me the minimum of 6 months condition. Meanwhile, some of my friends had already gotten a debit card, so I wanted to try it again, so went to the branch but got the minimum of 1 year answer, my god, why they changed so frequently. I gave up applying one until I helped a friend to deposit money 2 weeks later. He could not speak English so I helped him to deposit the money in a branch of Bank of Scotland which is near his flat. I felt the service there was good and intent to apply a debit card there. The staff who checked my detail was a young friend lady with lovely smile, she asked me some information about me, like the name of university, time in the UK, and so on. Fortunately, she told me that I was passing the credit system and would get the card after a week when they sent it to my address. Many thanks to her, and I really wanted to give her a kiss, hoho. After that I began to like the bank but still could not understand why there were so many differences between different branches of one same bank.

Easter Holiday

In the beginning of April, the university was on holiday, so there was no class in the next two weeks. I started to look for some part-time jobs, but unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten one and couldn’t get any information from campus computers sites.

On the first Saturday during Easter holiday, there was an Easter play at the meadow of Edinburgh city centre. They were many people going there and that was the first time that I felt so many people in the UK. The play was held by a group of volunteers who had rehearsed since December 2005, over 4 months ago. It was absolutely perfect that every actor were indulging the play. I stood on their way to other spots and one actor who acted as a soldier nearly pushed me away, he pushed any others who forbade their way to escort Jesus to the court, but they were just audiences. How real they acted, I liked it.

I decided to go to a church next day. Meanwhile, a friend invited me to go with her to the church which was beside the biggest meadow in Edinburgh. I got up early with no breakfast, my friend did so. When we arrived there, it didn’t begin until 30 minutes later. It was very fantastic that I was happy to see so many Scottish and greet each other happy Easter. The priest looked like a common person that if he didn’t give any speech later, I would recognize him as a prayer. All the people in the church were very friend and the songs were very beautiful and joyful that I could easily follow some rhythms of them. The priest’s speech was very interesting too, even though I couldn't understand what he meant fully, it still made me laugh due to his funny actions. In the afternoon, I went to a Chinese church nearby, but I understood the contents less than in the Scottish church because they spoke in Cantonese which I just knew little about. I felt very sleepy in that afternoon, but thanks to the god, I met many new friends there, and found myself be happy to see people, too lonely in my flat.

Feeling the UK Financial System

I didn’t have any credit card in China because I knew little about it at that time. When I came to the UK, I must deal with everything, like renting rooms, cooking, applying broadband etc. Meanwhile, I found most of them require a bank card to transfer to, and it’s best to have a debit card or credit card, that cause me to learn more about it.

It seems that there are many kinds of band accounts in the UK. Except the debit card and credit card, there are still some saving accounts and current account and a little different between same kinds bank accounts with different logo, like visa, master, etc. The advantages of its financial system I got are online banking, shopping, or some like that. After I came here 2 months, I intended to buy a personal computer, but it’s too expensive in the real stores, so I tried to find out shopping online and logged on Dell website which was famous for its price, quality and service. That is definitely right. I found it was about 50 pounds cheaper than other online stores and real stores, without any doubt, I decided to buy one. At that time, I’ve already gotten a debit card and that was my first time used it. It was really fresh to me, and I got it after one week later and it direct debit me 2 weeks later, that made me love shopping online, not only the price, but I also got refund from the other website , Mutualpoints which I linked through. Today, I received its cheque, 45 pounds, not the only refund from Dell computer but also something else like mobile, books, CDs etc.

I also registered and verified a paypal account, and banking some pounds in it. One day, when I surfed on its site, an advertisement attracted my eyes – betfair, a sport betting website was combined with Paypal and gave a new user 5 pounds bonus if he deposit more than 5 pounds through paypal. I registered Betfair and deposit 5 pounds immediately and got the bonus after about 30 minutes. Even though it was not cash, but I knew it was my money and I could transfer it to my account. So easy 5-pounds income, felt nice! I also registered online bank function about my 2 accounts. It was very easy to see the statement and I don’t need any statement letter now because I can easily access them on the internet.

An Interview

Last night, I went to a Fuqingese family to repair his computer, some software problems in the system. He came here for about 9 years, and already had a daughter here. The government gave him a free flat even thought he is still a refugee. Good pension.

Introduced by him, I got an interview about waiter in a Hong Kong restaurant. I made a mistake as it is in the first time that the boss could pay no money for me if he wouldn’t satisfy me. Few hours later, he phoned me and accused why I said that, very stupid, ho.., yeah, he was right, I was stupid like a baby. I need experience and the chance to practise English with customers.

Google Launching in Shanghai

Few months ago, Google launched its search engine in China, but many western people on the internet accused of its behaves that they thought strict forbid are still controlled by Chinese government. But honestly speaking, I don’t think so that if you knew Chinese, you could log on Chinese websites and see the people’s blogs or any comments in forums. They are still alive in the forums even though we abuse the government and what we concerned about indeed is how to make money, not the complex and changeable politics and religions. In addition, there is still a famous Chinese search engine, Baidu, I often use it to search information when I was in China even though its technology is not as good as Google.

I felt freely than in the UK because there is a lot of free software which could be downloaded freely in China. Even though there are some privacies law, we need a free world in our society; the internet would make it become true.