Noooooo....Shopping Again?!

Today just when I thought I could stay at home and keep on sleeping, my mom dragged me out of my bed and told me, 'Mimi, we are going shopping." Shopping! Ugh. I hate the crowd and the smell of the mall, so I was trying to make some excuses so I could stay at home. "Mom, I have that slide show I need to do." I pleaded. "No, Mimi. You can do it when WE COME BACK." Oh well. So I put on my clothes and ate my breakfast and brushed my teeth and everything else (my morning routine). We went to Pacific Center and my mom was like, "OMG look at that!" or "*Gasp* the price is just right!" I sighed and went on with her. Oh yeah, we were suppose to buy a pair of swimming goggles for me (I broke it like, two days ago). So we went to this store and looked for goggles, but they were either too ugly or doesn't fit me. So we went to another mall and my kneecaps began to twist as I walked (?). I was tired, hungry and mall-sick. At the end my mom bought me a Purdy's chocolate ice cream and we headed back home. Sigh~~~~~~~

So Much Stuff to Do

Today I have a lot of work to do. First, I need to print out my book talk cover (I designed it using photoshop) and my speech. So I went over to the computer and started printing. And guess what: we ran out of ink! OMG!!!!!!!! The picture came out but instead of the bland and grayish color I wanted it turned pink with tiny blue stripes. So the printing failed. At first I thought it was just the color cartridge running low on ink, but when I tried to print out the speech using a black-and -white cartridge it didn't work as well! I was so frustrated. Oh well, maybe I should just move onto my brain project. I finished the notes and work cited, but I still need to finish my quick CCRAP sheet on Google Doc (I finished the hand-written one). So I tried to open that document in Google doc, but it wouldn't open! Well, it opened for like, 2 seconds and the whole screen turned blank with a sad face like this :-[ in the middle. I was getting fed up with Google doc because I have had enough experience with the sad face. No matter how many times I refresh the page ad enter the URL again, the sad face still remains! Uggggggghhhhhhh! Now I have to do it in Microsoft Word!!!!

Owwwww...

My head still hurts from that terrible migraine I have just suffered. I woke up at 3:30 this afternoon and I felt miserable. The sun was burning hot outside! I tried to open the window but decided not to because of all the noises outside our building. My feet felt cold for some reason but I didn't care. I pulled aside the curtains and let the sunshine fill in our house. Wow, the sun was just bright red at the west side! In fact, it was so bright------I made a mistake by looking at it directly! One of my eyes got blinded for a few minutes and I had to write this blog with that bad eye. Oh well, at least I am fulling awake now! I have decided to shut this computer down right after this blog and refuse to watch TV tonight. Seriously, I need some rest. My eyes are gonna die early if I keep on with this 2 hour computer activity and 3 hour TV show lifestyle.

I HATE TURKEY NOW

I still have that turkey from our Christmas dinner. It's huge, for a family of three. The first turkey meal was fine, but it keeps getting worse. I hate meat, and my daily turkey meal is just disgusting. Sigh...we still have to finish this big turkey! Dad why did you buy such a big bird in the first place? Oh well. So for dinner tonight my mom gave me an assignment: finish one of the turkey legs. I only finished 1/89 of the turkey leg and had to suffer my mom's annoying comments. She's all like, "Mimi if you want to get fatter and stronger you must eat more meat." Yes, mom, I understand, but I have been eating that turkey for four days! Both lunch and dinner, so that makes eight meals! O.O I am so fed up. What's worse, the turkey breast is all gone! Now we have to eat the legs and wings and the other side of the turkey which is pretty messed up due to my mom's inexperienced cooking (she cooked the turkey half raw so the breast was good and the other side was drippin' blood and oil). Heheheh. Oh well, I will leave that job to my parents. More veggie for me!

Home Alone Again

Sigh...this afternoon I had to stay at home all by myself again. I hated it. It was boring. The reason I was trapped inside this house is because my parents are going shopping and I hate shopping! So instead I chose the house. Before my parents left my mom gave me some thing to do. "Mimi, you need to finish your math, play the piano and read page blah blah blah to blah blah blah in this book.". So I did all of the above. The math? Uhhh it wasn't hard. But I had to go online to search for cube root calculator. After I did the math, I cooked some corn for myself because I was hungry (weird snack, heh?). Then I read the book and played the piano. Yep. Everything was done, but my parents were still not home! So I popped on the couch and watched some TV shows. It wasn't until 7:00 did my parents showed up. Phew! I am no longer alone now!

After Christmas

Christmas is over now. I feel kinda sad about this. It's kinda like, oh, it's ALL OVER! Now I have to wait till next year to celebrate Christmas. We still have lots of leftovers from our Christmas dinner. Basically it's just the turkey. We only finished half of it so there's still plenty of meat left. Oh yeah, there's still a little bit of stuffing left, but I finished it for lunch today. My jar of cranberry sauce is still there, and I need to consume all of it in a week or else it will go bad for sure. Today is Boxing Day and we didn't go out. The weather outside was BAD. Wind and rain just crashed together. My mood is very rotten right now. Sigh...only one week left for winter break. I still have that brain project and the book talk to do. Gotta give them a start now...

Mmmm Cranberry Sauce

Today I made some cranberry sauce. It's all home-made and organic! Hahahaha. Yesterday I bought a bag of cranberries, hoping that I could eat them like a snack (fresh cranberries weeeee), but then they tastes so sour and it was almost impossible to consume them like fresh fruit.So I decided to make cranberry sauce with them. There was a recipe on the back of the bag, so I followed it and made a jar of delicious cranberry sauce. I had 1cup of water, 1 cup of sugar and 3 cups of cranberries (that's basically the whole bag). First I boiled the sugar and the water together for 5 minutes, then added cranberries to the mixture and switched to a gentle boil. I waited for about 5 minutes till the skin of the cranberries popped. The mixture soon became red and I removed the saucepan from heat. I left it there to cool off, and the jam was all sticky when it was cool. After I poured the sauce into a glass container, I also licked the saucepan clean. Mmmmmm. Nothing says joy like my home-made cranberry sauce.

Christmas Eve-----FOOD XD

Christmas= food, that's my opinion. This Christmas Eve was fantastic. We had yummy food (FOOD!!!Arghhhhh irresistible). Sadly we did not have any turkey. It was too big anyway. But holy, our Christmas dinner was awesome. Well, it consists of three meat dishes which includes pork, beef and chicken. My favorite one was the pork. It's just so...juicy and sticky and delicious! I didn't taste the chicken though because it was only the chicken drummer sticks (not my favorite). There was this salad thingy and it tastes absolutely amazing with a touch of some kind of spice. Anyway. I am so FULL right now my stomach hurts. Ow. Gotta....Stop writing...and get some rest...

A New Microwave

Ahhhh finally! The new microwave is here! As you can see, my dad broke the original one about a week ago (I don't know how he did it) and he was too lazy to get another one. But due to my constant complaints he had to get another one because I was so fed up about it. Yep. I had to heat up the food using the ACTUAL stove for a week! Ughhhhhhhhh it was horrible. But today I was so happy because he finally got us a new microwave! Ohhh and he also bought pizza for me! Isn't that perfect? I quickly microwaved the pizza in my new microwave and oooooo it tasted so delicious. From now on I can cook my favorite meal in the microwave again! Yes! Days without a microwave sure felt different!

A Warm Christmas Hug

Today I brought a present to one of my best friends Maia's house. Maia was my first friend in Canada, although she is only 6 years old. She is always very bright, and we used to rent the same house. In fact she is still living in that old house. We used to play with each other everyday before I moved. Anyway. So I got her a little Christmas gift. It's a little snow-white bear with a ribbon around its neck, and I also put in a beautiful card with a cool Santa on it. When she opened the door she rushed toward me and almost knocked me over. Oh man she was soooooo happy! I gave the gift to her and she immediately unwrapped it and screamed in joy. Their dog Shadow was barking happily as well. Then Maia took out three presents from under the Christmas tree and handed them to me, and urged me to open it. I opened all of them. I got a hot chocolate mug with a cute teddy bear in it, a set of really cute and colorful erasers, and a sketchbook. Wow. I hugged her so hard that she laughed. It's so nice to exchange gifts with each other during Christmas season!

A New Pet?

Today I got a new "pet". No, it's not a dog nor a cat. It's definitely not a goldfish (man I just hate them. I have already killed about 4 of them and 11 tropical fish when I was little)! Well, this little animal I am taking care of is actually a ladybug. Cute, isn't it? Well my mom found it this afternoon. This little guy fell from the window when my mom opened it. At first I thought it was dead, because its legs were not moving. My mom told me to be patient with it, and after 5 minutes of waiting, it finally moved one of its toes (not legs)! It was alive!!!!!! I quickly brought it to a lamp and turned on the light, and the ladybug was shocked by the light and the heat that its whole body flipped over and started moving!  I panicked because I thought it was going to fly, but it didn't. I found this container and put the ladybug in. I also put in a piece of lettuce and some shredded paper so that the ladybug could be comfortable. Then I sprayed a little water onto the wall of the container, and closed the lid on the container (I poked holes on the lid so that the little guy could breathe). I put the container not far away from the lamp so that the little guy could stay nice and warm. Ahhhhh...I just love it!

Home Alone

Today I had to stay at home all by myself! Both of my parents went to work today and my mom is going to have her break on Wednesday (she is a student at VCC and their break starts on December the 23rd.). So this morning I was kinda bored, because I couldn't really do anything for fun. The computer is being locked. Now don't get me wrong, my parents only put on passwords for safety reasons. When I go on the computer it's just the blogs, the Sale website and homework and Photoshop. Anyway. So I decided to do some math! Ha! What a great idea! So I took out my grade 8 text book from China (Heh, they have harder math in China) and started doing the questions. I did about 7 pages and stopped, because I still got plenty of time left. What to do...what to do...Ah ha! I would watch TV! Yep, cartoons. After the cartoons I watched a show (don't really remember the name) which featured an artist doing an oil painting, so I watched that for another hour and then it was lunch time. I was too lazy to cook actual food, so I just popped two slices of bread in the toaster, and put butter on them once they were done. After "lunch" I started reading one of my favorite books Battle Royale, and that was that. When my mom came home, I was so happy because the last 8 hours were like hell...Finally, I have someone to talk to...I am free!

Willington Church Concert

Today we went to Willington Church in Burnaby to attend a Christmas concert. This church is the biggest church in greater Vancouver. We came here last year too but we didn't get a chance to see the concert because all the tickets were sold out by the time we got there. But this year we went there extra early so we were able to witness this great Christmas concert. We waited 2 hours before the concert started. The opening started out with the orchestra playing softly. Almost all of them are professional players! And all the actors, players ad singers are all members of this church as well! The the drama began shortly after the music. The story is about a rich man in England. He owns one of the biggest company in all of England and every Christmas his family would get busy for the big Christmas party at their mansion. However at this Christmas the man felt really empty. He thinks that he has got everything, but yet he feels really sad. While his family is having a fuss over which choir they should choose for their Christmas party, the man went to a doctor. The funny part is, the doctor is actually a fraud. The man then left and went to his friend and asked for help. His friends explained his troubles but the man still felt incomplete. Finally this man met a beggar, who sang a verse from the Bible and told him how to be happy for Christmas. The concert went on for 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was such an incredible show. All the seats were filled, and boy it was absolutely amazing. I was glad that we came today to witness such incredible work of art.

Woohoo! Winter Break!

Today is the last day of school and I am soooooooooooo excited. Can you imagine it? Tomorrow the winter break will officially begin! Man, I can do so many stuff during the holidays, such as painting, shopping and watching TV. Actually I am going to spend a lot of time working on my Applied Skills project------the brain presentation, and of course, there's the science project as well. But no worries, they are not going to be a lot of work. Today when I came back home I quickly finished my lunch and then slept like a dead pig. Yep. It was the best nap ever. I slept from one o'clock all the way to five thirty in the afternoon. After I woke up I went swimming in our swimming pool. Yesssssss...the jacuzzi...... Anyway. Today I will be working on a siggy that one of my clan members has requested. But I am actually enjoying my free time at this moment. It feels so nice to have a break once in a while...

Socials Test!

Today we had a frightful socials studies test. Although I have studied for many times, I was still afraid that I might get a brain jam (I have had this in my previous tests. Not a good thing to have). I was so nervous and my whole body was actually shaking before the test! And Mr. Sale is being sooooooo mean to us! HE CHATTED WITH US FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE TEST SO THAT WE COULD FORGET EVERYTHING WE HAVE MEMORIZED! Mr. Sale! Sigh....he's always like that. When we got the test, my hands were trembling like the frail branches of a tree in a tornado. I quickly filled out the answers I know, and then when I am done this I moved onto the harder questions. The whole test took me about 20 minutes and I was shaking the entire time. Oh no. I had the brain jam again! Sadly the test was over and I had to hand in my test. When we were checking the answers I found out that I have got about 4 or 5 questions wrong. NOOOOOOO. Luckily there's the bonus question...maybe I will still get an A (the test is out of 30, so yeah).

Yes! It's Movie Time!

Today we went to see the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for our Synergy party. I didn't know a lot about Harry Potter except the fact that he is an orphan and he has a magic wand and that lightning scar on his forehead (Serious, I should read some of these Harry Potter books). So basically, I went through half of the movie completely clueless about what the story is about. Harry Potter is a grown-up man now------and he looks pretty mature. I didn't like his manliness because he looks kinda dumb. Heheheh. I still like Ron because he didn't change a bit! Except his appearance. Ron is still like his old self------obedient, blunt and funny. I acted a little bit immature at the movie because I was chuckling at some of the scenes which involves Harry Potter kissing the other girl (EWWWWWWWWWW!). Some of the other scenes look pretty weird as well, because the characters in those scenes look like they were about to kiss each other. Again, with the EWWWWWWWWWW. It was so sad that the little elf died at the end! He was such a royal friend to Harry! Argggggggggh I so dislike these evil wizards and witches, especially that ugly guy with no nose and really freakishly pale skin. This is only the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I wonder when will we get another chance to see the second part?

Gladiator!

Today we finally finished the movie Gladiator for our Social Studies class! It took us three classes to finish the whole movie! It was a very good movie though. The protagonist is Maximus, a general royal to the empire of Rome. Emperor Marcus Aurelius trusted him and wanted him to take over his power after he dies (the emperor was really old and dying), but he is murdered by his son Commodus who is very jealous of Maximus. Maximus rebelled against Commodus and was sentenced to death. But he escaped successfully. When he got back to his home, he was heart-broken at the sight of the ruin. His son and his wife were murdered by a troop of army sent by Commodus. Maximus fainted but a slave trader picked him up and sold him at the market. A gladiator trainer bought Maximus and he was amused at how Maximus can fight. People call him the " Spaniard" and they praised his fighting skills. Once they get to the city of Rome, Maximus was persuaded by Commodus' sister Lucia to kill Commodus. They were fed up by Commodus' rotten rules, and soon Maximus decided to take action...anyway, I will leave the rest of the movie up to you. It's a really sad movie, but I love it very much.

Oooo...I Am Just So Excited

Today is the day when we are going to have our Christmas program at my church! I am so excited. Of course, there will be a Bible presentation and the choirs will go up on the stage and sing Christmas Carols (I am in the choir also). After the presentation there will be a turkey dinner following downstairs. I am bringing Carina over as a guest and I think we will have a great time there. It's a tradition at our church to hold a Christmas dinner annually in honor of Jesus's birth. So far I have been to two. There's not much of a difference between each one-----there's always the presentation and the dinner. But this year, I finally get to be the host! Woohoo! One of my friends from Sexsmith will also accompany me as the other host as well. We have been doing weekly rehearsals since last month! Well today our hard work is finally gonna pay off. I think the whole thing will start at about 5:00 and end at about 8:30 or probably 9:00 or something like that. I just can't wait to go there!

Wow------Tonnes of Homework!

Tonight I have a lot of homework to finish, because I don't have any time tomorrow, due to a Christmas program we are going to have. I only have science homework to do, but that's still a lot of work to finish. I mean, I have got the pathogen comic strip and the science fair checkup! Oh noooooooo, the science fair checkup...I am so dooooooooomed. I haven't done anything yet except filing the import application form! Argggh...wait, wait! It says right here on the sheet that I can explain the reason! Hooray! I AM SAVED! What about the comic strip? Oh yeah...I have already done half of it, I just need to draw the other half of the comic strip and color it... But really it's not that hard to finish everything. Drawing is really easy for me because somehow I just have that kind of talent to draw whatever I want (quit bragging, you!) Anyway. Gotta go to work now! Oh, I almost forgot, I need to finish the Go Book and the quiz also!

Finally------The End of the Week!

Friday has always been one of my favorite days of the week. And today's finally the day once again! Woohoo! Today when I came home, I just popped on the couch and started watching Law & Order: SVU. Ahh. It was soooooo relaxing! While I was munching on a bag of cheese nacho chips, I also doodled (It's one of my favorite hobbies!). Anyway. When my mom came home I was so excited, because today it's the day she goes shopping and she brought home many yummy food (there's nothing better than yummy food in this world). I fed hungrily on the fresh grapes and was about to move onto the cookies, my mom told me to stop. "Soon you will get obese, you know. And I am NOT gonna buy food to make you loose your appetite when it's dinner time" she went on and on. Haha. That's just like her typical self. I wonder what I should do for the evening. But I will definitely do something really fun. I mean, it's not like we get Fridays every day!

Oh No!

My science project is NOT going too well. I had to import termites and I need that permission form...but I have waited for such a long time and they still won't give it to me. I checked my dad's mail everyday, and found nothing. Today when I came home and checked my dad's email (I go on his account all the time), I found a new message. I was so excited, because I thought I would FINALLY get my permission form. But nooooooo, I didn't. Instead, it was a message from the department telling me that I need to complete ANOTHER application form (I think it was the" plant protection" application or something like that) and forward it to the department in Ottawa! Now this is getting complicated. I had NO IDEA it would become this way. I reply to the email and asked why I needed to fill out another application form. Hopefully I will get a response by the end of this week. They are just too slow!

Picture-Siggy

Relaxxxx...

Today we have no homework or anything else to do, so I have got plenty of free time. Ahhhh! It's so nice for a change------I usually work A LOT these days. It's slowly killing me... Enough. So today I made a little plan of what I am going to do for the rest of the evening. Actually, there's not a lot to do------I am gonna spend two hours watching my favorite TV show------Criminal Minds. Oooo I just love Criminal Minds! And on Wednesday they usually play two episodes in a row! Woohoo! At 7:00 I am gonna have my dinner and wash the dishes until 8:30, so I have about an hour and 30 minutes left. I have decided to work on my Sale Clan signatures (I have five clan member and I need to make a different siggy for each of them) in Photoshop. So that's about it. Oh! When will I get another day like this! Hmm, perhaps during the winter holidays :)

It's Report Card Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew! Today we FINALLY got our report cards back! I was so excited. However I knew I would not get on the Principal's list because I suck at PE (Last year I almost got straight A's but then PE ruined it). But hey, I knew that I was sure to get on the honor roll, because before we even received our report cards, I have already confirmed 6 A's, which exceeds the requirement for getting on the honor roll. So when my homeroom teacher called my name, my heart nearly jumped out. But when I looked over my report card------ 6 A's! And then I immediately ran down the stairs all the way to Mr. Olson's class for a Manuel change and got an A back. So now I have 7 A's! 7 A's out 8! That's not bad! In fact, I was pretty impressed myself. It's certainly a good start for my grade 8 school year. Now I need to pay more attention to PE. Oh! PE! When I conquer this course, I will finally be on the Principal's list! But now, all I needed is rest. Yep. Due to the fact that I got a little bit too emotional after getting my report card, I need time to calm down now. Phew!!!!!!!!!!

Today Sure is a Busy Day

Oh my GOSH! Today I have so many things to do: call the import office of Surrey, make the science cheat sheet, study for the science test tomorrow and finish my social studies homework. Now you may think: well that doens't sound like a lot of stuff! But noooooo, they take time to finish. I have already finish the phonecall for the import office this afternoon, and I am rushing to write the science cheat sheet (we need to hand it in) on my computer. And guess what: I have only got about two hours on this computer because my dad needs it for his accounting work (he has a big test on Sunday and now he is studying like crazy). Anyway. Oh, and there's the science test on Chapter 3! I am soooooooo gonna die. Now you must be wondering: dude, how come you are so depressed? Well, the reason is obvious: too much work!!!!!! But the social studies homework is pretty easy, so I don't really need to worry about that. That's all I can say for now. Gotta get to work fast!

It's the Final Rehearsal!

Today at our church we had the final rehearsal for our Christmas program. We have been practicing our Bible verses and hymns for about 4 weeks, and next Sunday we are going to have our Christmas party. I was the host and in charge of announcing the program. Our rehearsal started with the Senior Group Choir singing Christmas carols on stage------this will be the part where the guests will come in, and then when the choir has stopped singing and everybody's arrived, I would then come down stage and announce that the Christmas party has begun. Then we had the Junior Group which consists of about 6 little kids singing for us, and then they would give their Bible verses. When they were done, the Senior Groups would then go up stage one by one and give their Bible verses, and then they would gather upon the stage again and sing for us. When the singing's done, we came down stage and a guest speaker would then give his speech and after the speech we would go up stage again and sing three more Christmas carols, then one of our church Fathers would then give us a prayer and then we would go downstairs for the Christmas dinner. I have been to two Christmas dinners so far. I wonder if this year's will change a little.

Let's Go Winter Golfing!

This morning I went golfing at Langara Golf Course near our building (I live in Langara Garden, which consists of four tall buildings and bunches of little townhouses not far from our school). It's been a while since I golfed. Actually, thinking about it, I haven't golfed in almost a month! The main reason why I haven't gone golfing for such a long time is because of the cold weather, the rain and the snow. But today the sun was shining so brightly, and I just couldn't resist the urge to go and play one of my favorite sports again. When I got to the golf course, I was kinda nervous, because I haven't practiced in a month. But surprisingly, when I played again, I wasn't that bad! Me and my dad played golf for about an hour, then we decided to head back home because my shoes were soaked wet by the dew and the melting frost. It's true. During the snowy days the golf course had become really wet and everything. I think I will go again next time when it's nice and sunny and dry.

EH! Art!

I must admit that I am a really picky person and I like stuff to go MY WAY. At art, we did sketching from movies again, which bored me out of my mind. I dreaded to do something FUN. For god's sake, we should do something like clay sculptures and other fun projects. Oh wow, now I sound like a really selfish person. I don't know why I am like this. I exceed at art, so that's probably the main reason why I wanted to do something that's at my level------something really cool and really involves some creativity. I love the art projects I did at 4Cats studio, such as acrylic painting of colorful landscape, charcoal sketching on painted canvas and clay sculpture. I just think that they are more enjoyable than just drawing pictures from a movie scene. Even drawing manga chibis and characters are more fun than that! I just hope there will be some FUN projects waiting for us next class! I am totally fed up with this!

The Rifle Bird Sanctuary

Today we went on a fantastic field trip to the Rifle Bird Sanctuary on a little island just at the edge of Delta. The grade 9 Synergy student went with us as well. We rode the bus for about 40 minutes, and then there we were: at the bird sanctuary! It was larger than I thought. As we got off the bus and started walking, herds of ducks began to gather around us, their eyes squinted as if they were wondering if we have any food or not. Our first stop was the little bird museum. The museum staff via our guide introduced us to different variety of birds and even quizzed us a little just to test how much we know about birds. Then we were allowed to walk around the museum and discover. Bird and small animal models were lined up neatly on the display case and shelves, and there was even a large whale back bone. I was so thrilled to see all these fine specimen, but our guide said it was time to see the 'real thing' and promised us it would be 10 times more magnificent than the models. We walked on the small trail, holding our birdseed bags. Herds of ducks were already following us again and had gathered around the spilled grain on the ground, pecking and quacking like crazy. As we got deeper into the sanctuary our guide gave each of us a small handful of sunflower seeds, and taught us how to hold our hands high up and stay still so that the chickadees would come and feed on the seeds. I attracted about 10 chickadees and it was really fun to watch them standing on my hand and carefully pick out the seed they desire. We continued on walking and the trip ended in 30 minutes. It's not very long, but the birds added more fun to it.

What?! Shopping AGAIN?!

Today I went shopping AGAIN with my mom. My mom is going to a party on Friday at Canada Place, so she wants to wear a necklace with her dress. My mom doesn't have many necklaces because she does not usually wear them, so today she wanted to buy one. We went to a mall beside the Pacific Center (I forgot the name) and went straight to the jewellery section. We didn't bother to look at the ones with gemstone in it or the ones made of wooden beads and leader. We went to the sterling silver display case. Oh, my mom just LOVES silver (she basically ignores everything else, except gold and other precious metals). She wanted me to pick one necklace for her because she said she trusts my taste. It's true. My taste is not bad at all. I chose a sterling silver necklace with pearls and sparkling gems and let her try it on. "When you go to a party, you need to SPARKLE, or nobody will notice you." I said. My mom smiled and put it on. Oh my, she looked so beautiful. We also tried on some other ones, but they were just not as good as this one. Finally , we bought it, and I like the content smile on my mom's face as she walks out the mall with that beautiful necklace.

Charlie the Unicorn

If you search "Charlie the Unicorn" on Youtube, you will find hilarious videos about three unicorns: Charlie, the gray unicorn and his two blue and pink friends. Today I went to Youtube just to have a little bit of fun, and I watched Charlie the Unicorn. There are about 4 videos in total made by the FilmCow company. My favorite one is the "Ocean Blue", where Charlie goes on an adventure with his weird friends.underwater to build a snowman (odd, huh?) Charlie's friends are so weird------they talk in a squeaky and funny tone and always bring up odd ideas. Anyway, when underwater, Charlie met a half-goat half-dolphin creature, and the creature sang a really cool song. My favorite verses in the song was "Swordfishes-----love you; jellyfishes-------love you; starfishes- I WANT TO BE WITH YOU FOREVER!!!!!!!!" Oh yeah, the screaming starfish was hilarious. The video ended with creature exploding and Charlie losing consciousness. After he regained consciousness, Charlie found the snowman, and found out that his friends had broken his horn and stuck it on the snowman for its nose. What's more, he found his kidney (which was also stolen by his friends in the first episode)! Oh boy, I JUST LOVE CHARLIE THE UNICORN! It's so HILARIOUS!

Square Dance

Today at PE we did square dancing. Square dancing is very new to me, since I have never experienced it before. It's basically a country-style dance. Each girl was paired up with a boy as her partner, and then we did several dances together and switched partner in each one. First, we joined hands together, all 8 of us (because there were 4 pairs of dancers in each square), and went around in a full-circle counterclockwise. Then we did a dos ado- going around your partner without turning your body and bumping into him/her. After the dos ado we swung each other around and turned to our corner and switched to another partner. We basically did the same thing over and over again. There were some other techniques, such as the accommodation, which is basically partners criss-cross their hands and join the together. Overall, square dancing was fun.

CorelDraw, Photoshop + GIMP

Today I spent the whole day editing images on CorelDraw and Photoshop. I have many image-editing softwares in my house because it was part of my mom's career as an artist. She used to use a lot of photoshop and CorelDraw and it always amuses me how the images can become so cool once being edited. I am familiar with CorelDraw because I basically used it for everything last year, but Photoshop is kinda new to me. I played around with it, exploring new functions as I click onto different icons. I wanted to create a signature just like what one of the members on the Sale website created using GIMP, another program designed specifically for image editing. I tried to open GIMP on my computer but unfortunately it wouldn't run on it, so I was stuck with CorelDraw and Photoshop. First I created a Hunter X Hunter signature on CorelDraw, and then I edited in photoshop. It turned out to be really cool and I put it on the Sale website as my current siggy.

I Hate Shopping!

After reading the title, you might ask: Are you CRAZY?! Shopping is fun! But ho no, it's not. Shopping makes me SICK. I just don't know why. I mean, girls are suppose to get ADDICTED to shopping! But whenever I get into a mall I would become extremely bored and sick. I get dizzy and that's just weird. Today my mom dragged me to go to shopping with her, and she promised me lots and lots of food (My favorite). How can I resist the lure of food? So I went with her. I though it would be just fine, that I have NO NEED to panic or whatsoever. But when we got to Pacific Centre, I became sick AGAIN. After one hour of shopping I was complaining and begging to go home. I felt like I had a nervous breakdown. Holy cheese, it was horrible. I was absolutely horrified. Do I have the disease of "Shoppophobia"?

It's Mailing Day

Today I had to mail the original copy of the application for animal import directly to the office in Surrey. I have already faxed the second application to them, but they still needed the original copy. I almost forgot where I put the copy but I found it anyway, just under a pile of books. Yep. My dad had left it there. I quickly went on the department's website and copied down the mailing address for the office in Surrey, then I shoved the original copy into an envelope. My mom then gave me some money to buy stamps because we ran out of them. We are really lucky that we have a post office right outside our building. I went to the post office and purchased 12 Christmas stamps and stuck one on the envelope. I gave the letter to the staff and that was it. I had finished the mailing process! Now I only have to wait patiently for a response. Oh boy, I hope I will get that permission from the department!

Heavy Snow

Today's snow was heavy. Yesterday it was predicted that it was going to snow today, and it did, so it was not a surprise. The cool thing was, the blizzard continued for almost a whole day and covered Vancouver, once again, with soft white snow. People rushed out immediately after snow to play in the snow, including me and my friend. Yep, the snow was plenty and untouched so it was ideal for making snow balls. Talking about snow balls, we had a really cool snow ball fight as well. However the heavy snow resulted in numerous traffic jams, and my friend was late this morning because of it. It was hard for her to walk all the way from her house to the school so her dad gave her a drive everyday, and of course, I missed the days when we used to walk together to school. As you can see, the heavy snow can be fun but sometimes annoying as well. Overall, I am still pretty satisfied with the snow because it is what we are suppose to have in the winter.

Criminal Minds

Criminal Minds is my favorite TV show. It's about a group of FBI agents who solves crimes based on human behaviour. Today's case is about a serial killer who abducts women. This psychotic nurse whose name is Samatha, was raped by her father when she was 10. Her father felt guilty so he gave her dolls as gifts. Samatha became obsessed with these dolls, but when her father gave them away, Samatha went crazy. Although she is an adult now, she still can't get over with the obsession, so she searched for her dolls. When she couldn't find them, she abducted women who resembles these dolls: Petite and have beautiful features. Samantha sewed wigs on her victims' heads and dressed them up like dolls at a tea party. She then injected them with drugs so that they could stay conscious could could not do anything else other than blinking and breathing. For some reason Samantha killed these women, and went on and searched for new ones. This time she had three hostages. The team of FBI agents: Dr. Reid, Hotch, Rossi, Jason and Agent Prentiss have already figured out where Samantha is and at the end they captured her and rescued these three women. It was a pretty good show and I really enjoyed it.

To Have Fun With Charcoal

Today at the 4Cats Studio we did a charcoal sketching of ourselves on painted canvas. We painted the canvas brownish yellow so that it would look "aged" and "old ". We are sketch in the Michelangelo style with charcoal. I have never handled charcoal before, so I was really excited to use it. Charcoal is really thin and easy to break, so I was being really careful not to break it. The color is beautiful. It looks better than pencil, and what's more, it is more smudgy so I can create various kind of shadows for my portrait. But then I exhaled and blew away some of the charcoal color on my canvas. Hmm. It was like dust... I was drawing with a stick made out of dark dust-------this was weird. When I had finished my portrait the charcoal sketching looked awesome. It looked so realistic and cool. You may think that I haven't erased a single bit while I was sketching with charcoal, but I did. You see, charcoal is very erasable. That's another cool fact. I love sketching with charcoal.

Wrapping Up for the Sale Website

Ah...my days on the Sale Website for term 1 is done...I feel so relieved. Actually, I finished it a week earlier, including all the student trivia, current events (3 threads + 25 responses), food for thought, and the sale trivia. But I still log onto it everyday, checking to see if anything new comes up. Today I am really surprised to see my sale trivia suggestion being selected for the sale trivia (ya! Extra 3 points) and lots of new posts popping up. Lots of people are jamming in their posts for the sale website, and when I logged on I saw 14 users all posting on the Sale Website. Seriously, people should not always leave these things to do at the last minute. I post a lot and have already earned two sale scholars: the TMaster and Guru. Now I am aiming for the Eater. Yep. More posts are coming up today!

The Snow...Ruined

Yesterday we had beautiful snow, but today it's ruined! Many people have stepped on it, making the surface kinda dirty and mushed up. There are lots of footprints in the snow, and some part you can even see the dirt and the melted snow mixed together which created many muddy pools. Winona Park looked bad too, because all the beautiful snow is ruined by people who sledded there yesterday. The sun is making the snow melt. Only a few places still preserves the pristine and untouched snow. I really missed it. The whole city looked so amazing yesterday, covered in white, but today almost everything is back to normal. I really hoped that it will snow again tonight. I just want to experience the feeling the winter once again. Snow is amazing.

It's Snowing!

Finally! The first snow of the year! When I woke up this morning, the whole city was covered with a layer of soft, white snow. Actually, I already knew it was snowing, because last night the sky was really pink and it was snowing pretty hard. But hey, it was morning, so I quickly put on my coat and finished my breakfast, then grabbed my ski-doo board and took my parents to Winona Park. The thing I love about Winona Park is that is has steep slopes which becomes great ski-doo hill when it snows. When we arrived there, boy, the park looked amazing. It was so quiet, because it was still early in the morning and people haven't waken up yet. We took some great photos, and then I quickly hopped on the ski-doo board and slid down the hill, laughing as I went down. My parents were tempted to try the ski-doo board as well, so they got on. My mom had a thrill ride but my dad accidentally got off the board while it was still sliding and rolled down the hill. My, was that HILARIOUS! We ski-dooed for about an hour, then I went down the hill and decided to build a snowman. My parents helped me with the snowman by transporting all the snow to my side using the ski-doo board. I made this snowman with a fat body and a tiny head, and its hands were posed in a waving position, as if it was greeting someone. After all these thing I was wet (from the snow) and tired, so we went back home. That wasn't bad for the first snow of the year!

Burgers+Fries+Drink=Ugh

Ugh. Fast food makes me want to vomit. I hate to say this, but I use to be so addicted to them. The funny thing is, I eat fast food every Friday and I am not obese (weird!) I stopped for several times because I started to feel so grossed out about them. Yeah, for people who doesn't eat fast food very often it tastes yummy, but for me who consumes them on a regular basis, it's not okay. I am fed up with them. For some reason they don't taste yummy anymore. The fries taste bland. The burger tastes gross, but the drink is not too bad. Where's all my desires for fast food?! Yep, they must be hiding somewhere deep inside my brain, a place where nobody can disturb them. Today I had two medium fries, two burgers and one drink. I ate one medium fries, one burger and drank the root beer. The taste was horrible. And do you know that fries taste ridiculous when they are cold? And do you know that bacons make the burger taste bad? Well, I have experienced all of that today, and I would never want to experience it again. I am going on a diet next week. No more fast food for the next three months!

Another Science Test!

Today at Applied Skills we had another science test because Ms. Smedley had switched classes with Mr. Olson. I came prepared and all ready to go. I was a little bit frightened at the beginning because I was not sure if I had studied enough. But when I got the test I smiled. They were all questions that I know! I quickly wrote down the easy answers and then moved onto the hard ones. Actually, there were no really hard ones because I have studied really hard last night and basically understood everything in Chapter 2. The organ system mix and match took me some time because I was not that familiar with it, but I think I did okay. I matched all the ones I knew and then slowly matched the rest up using what I have learned. This test was definitely way easier than last time's science test, and I think that I will get a decent mark on it. This has also taught me a very important lesson: Study hard for a test and you will get satisfying results. Although I do not know what I will get, I am still very confident that I will do a very good job on this.

Must...Nail This Test!

Tomorrow we are going to have a science test and I must nail it in order to get an A. Last time's test score wasn't as good as I thought it should be so I must do my best on this test and increase my score. This test focuses on Unit 1, chapter 2 on diffirent cell functions and such, and it's not that hard, but I still need to study and review it. Last time before the test we all did "cheat sheets" which were actually like review sheets, but this time the teacher told us not to do it because we don't have time. Oh well. But tonight I will make a little quiz to test myself and see how I would do. This way I can review and practice at the same time. Well, I better get to work now, because there's plenty to do. I am planning on doing one full page of notes and then maybe two pages of quiz. I better get started.

Lonely...Miss Lonely

I was alone all day. Well, not exactly, but I missed my best friend Asma very much. She was absent today and I walked to school and back all by myself. Lunch was boring as well. The whole atmosphere lacked of her gentle smile and humorous conversation. This morning I phoned her, and nobody answered my call. Gee, I thought. She must be sick or something. Or maybe she forgot to charge her phone and the battery just ran out. When I got to school this morning I expected a familiar pink figure (she always wear that brilliant pink sweater), but there was none. I felt really sad and worried. I know that Asma has asthma, and the cold weather probably affected her health. She was absent many times lately, and I felt terribly alone when she's not there with me. Oh, I just hope that she gets better and we can see each other's familiar face tomorrow!

Timetable Rotation

Today we had our first timetable rotation! Before the rotation, our schedule is #1234, but now it's #3412! So today as a day 2, I had PE first, then Science, and after lunch I had Social Studies and Art. I was pretty familiar with the timetable before, but now I have to deal with a new one, so it was pretty tough, but I managed it anyway. Things were kinda odd, because I was having a difficulty with having PE first thing in the morning. While we were doing our warm up, my back and legs ached and were sore from yesterday's work. My flexibility was poor and my whole body hurt. I was glad to have Art last, because Art is a fun subject and it's usually good to save the fun things at the end and walk home happily. I think I am beginning to adapt to this new timetable now. Tomorrow I will have English first, then French, and after lunch I will have Math and Applied Skills. I wonder if I will get use to it tomorrow!

This Book Sure is Hard to Understand

Today I spent my whole morning reading a book called Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. It's a challenging book, because it's basically a memoir about the history of China from the last century. It's really complicated. The author wrote about her grandmother, who was a concubine from a rich family, her mother, who got involved in communism, and herself, who got involved in with communism as well. It's basically like a history book. There were a lot of facts about China several decades ago, and I did a lot of checking with my dad to make sure that the book is stating out the true facts about China, and it turned out it did. The author recorded the time of the great Leap Forward and the famine, which was the most insane time of China. I was shocked when I read about how people suffered during that time. The author herself didn't suffer much, because her family had high authority and her parents were high-ranking officials, but her observation toward the world around her was keen. I learned a lot while I read this book. In fact, the only reason that I picked this book from the Independent Reading Program is because this book focuses on the New China when Chairman Mao reigned. Anyway, the whole book was hard to understand. I am having a hard time reading and undertanding everything, but overall, this book is very interesting and I am still reading it.

Working Together With My Partner

Today my partner and I got together to work on the Social Studies project again. However the other partner (I have two partners) did not come because she had church, so it was just me and my partner. Last time we didn't finish everything, so today we planned to speed things up. I still had to finish the map because last time I only fine lined it, so today I needed to finish coloring it. I finished the coloring in an hour while my partner typed out the story (The story was unfinished as well from last time), and when we got a little break, we went on Youtube again and watched some funny video of a girl singing while holding a green onion (anyway, that's not important). It took me some time to measure out things and paste the material on the displaying board, but I finished it anyway. My partner got bored of typing so she came over and helped me with the lettering. I drew the bubbly letters for the title and she cut them out and paste them on the board. At around 6 pm I had to leave because it was late and I had to be home for dinner. We got little time working on our project but still we managed to get something down. Tomorrow at lunch we shall meet again and work on our project. With the map all done, it wouldn't be hard for us to finish the whole project.

The International Cat Show

I love cats. They are just so adorable! When my mom found about an international cat show in Richmond, I was dying to go there. And today, I finally got my wish. The international cat show is held inside a hotel, with over 200 cats participating in the show. Oh, they were just WONDERFUL! There were Siamese cats, Rag dolls, Sphinxes, Persians... I couldn't count them all. The cats were having a tournament to see which one was the best cat. There were several rounds, and different ribbons were being awarded to each owner. Each of these kitties have different features. Some have tortoise shell colored spots, some have cute muzzles, and some of them are just big hairballs. My favorite one was this Bengal cat. Oh my, he looked almost like a cougar with that gorgeous striped fur! He was so skinny, and every move he made was graceful. When I talked with the owner she said that this Bengal cat is a fast runner and a very wild kitty. There was also this lady with a cute white Persian cat named Pearl. Pearl had silky white fur and a pair of big blue eyes like the color of the ocean. She just looked amazing! Of course, the owner got several awards for this pretty kitty. Some of the cats were exhausted from the show, so they just cuddled up in a ball and hid their tiny little heads in their fur. The cat show is a must-see show. It's where you can meet different kinds of cat. Trust me, these little kitties will sure steal your heart!

My District Closure Day

Today is Friday and we have no school because of district closure day, so I decided to go over to my friend's house and work on our project. We are suppose to design a project based on the idea of the destruction of Churchill Secondary, which includes a little bit of writing, a map, directions and title, and all of these will be presented on a huge piece of construction paper. Ours will be presented on a black piece of construction paper. Our map design is ready and we just need to make a good copy of it and then paste it on the black background paper. My partners have finished the script for the story about how the school was destructed, and all we needed to do was to type it out. I arrived at my partner's house at 1 pm and brought all the supplies we needed for the project. When everybody had arrived we started working on our project. However we got interrupted because we took a break and watched some funny stuff on Youtube, but as soon as we were finished with the videos we got back to work. Unfortunately we had to leave at 3 pm because one of my partner had a dentist appointment, so we were not quite done with the work yet. We planned to meet again on Sunday and finish off our project. At the end, we left everything at my partner's house and we will get back to it on Sunday.

This is Driving Me Crazy!!!!!!!

This morning I had to contact the online gardener's shop to see if they could ship plants to Canada, and I got quite an unsatisfying answer. I needed several plants for my science project, and I could only find them on that website. Unfortunately, they only deliver to customers inside of the United States. I felt so depressed, because I had to start researching again. I spent the whole morning doing research online and found nothing. But then------an idea popped up! I could replace the live plants with dead ones! Since I only needed mint, catnip, chives and garlic, I can find them in any grocery store, particularly in TNT, where there are plenty of these herbs. I immediately felt relieved. Because even though I have a good science project proposal, I still needed the ingredients and materials in order to make the experiment real. Finding the solution towards the problem really made my day. Now I just have to worry about the termites! I still have to import them from the United States!

Such a Relaxing Day for Reading

Today is Remembrance Day and we have no school, so I slept until it was 9:00 in the morning. The weather was not that nice outside: a little bit of rain plus gray clouds plus cold temperature, and it just made me more sleepy. After finishing up my homework I was left with nothing to do------until I saw my books. Books! I can still read! I quickly picked up a book called The Alchemist, and started reading on the page where I left it on. Time went past by slowly and when I have finished The Alchemist, I moved onto another book called Anil's Ghost. It was quite a good way to kill some time------ and I quite enjoyed the tense atmosphere the book gave me. Shortly after I have finished my afternoon snack (I call it the Consumer's Time), I started reading again. When I read, I feel like I was watching a movie. I couldn't stop. It was almost impossible to take my eyes off the page. I kept on reading and reading as the whole afternoon went by. I seem to have lost track of time while I was reading!

The Body World

Today we went to Telus World of Science for the amazing body world show. The show is actually called Body World 2, and there previous show was held in 2006. Today we got a chance to see it, and it was really cool. The displays are all made of real samples from body donors, and I was kinda scared before I went in, because DUH! They are dead bodies! But once we got in, I relaxed, because these displays weren't that scary at all. They were real bodies all right, and they have been inplastinated so that the flesh wouldn't rot and the bodies would be well preserved. Some of the bodies were carefully dissected to show the structure of the body and the organs and body parts, and there was this display called "Angel", with blonde hair and shoulder blades split open at the back. I think that it got its name because of the shoulder blades which resembled wings. There were displays of organ samples, all protected in glass containers. I was so tempted to touch them, but we were not allowed to. Fortunately, there was a little station where we could touch some of the samples like kidneys and livers. It felt kinda like plastic models. There was a special section for babies, and we saw glasses of liquid containing fetuses. A pregnant woman's body stood there as part of the display. I felt sorry for the babies who died and became part of the exhibit, and that woman who was going to be a mother if she hadn't deceased during her pregnancy. A part of the exhibit also featured blood vessels, and they were all dyed crimson red. The blood vessels made me shudder so I moved on to the brains. The brains were smaller than I thought, and they looked repulsive (descriptive!). I was amazed. I definitely learned a lot from this show, and I would like to thank the donors for donating these bodies so that we could learn and understand about us human more.

It's a Rather Cold Day

Brrrrrr! It was really cold today! When I walked on the way back home from my art studio, I felt that winter had hit Vancouver. My breath turned into vapour against the cold air. Wind blew by my ears, and I felt a chill running down my spine. I legs were freezing, and my fingers were numb, even though I was wearing gloves. It was also raining a little, which made the weather even worse. Ugh. My nose was freezing and I was afraid that I might catch a cold. I wrapped my heavy jacket around my body and held onto it tight, but it was still cold. Trust me, it was pretty horrible. I hated this kind of weather, because it always make my nose stuffy and cold. As night approached the temperature was dropping down really fast, and the rain just never stopped. Oh dear. Is it going to be like this the whole winter? Do we have to suffer through this kind of horrible weather until spring arrives? I hope not! I am just DREADED to see the sun and feel its warmth again!

The After Effect of Passing Out

Yesterday I passed out during a choir rehearsal and my mom was worried sick. She thinks that I am not getting enough nutrition. So today she packed extra lunch for me with lots of fruits and veggies and such. She told me to eat them all and drink lots of water. After school when I came back home, she asked if my day was okay, and that I didn't feel any dizziness. She asked if I ate all my lunch, and I said I did. She looked relieved, and then prepared some snacks for me. I think she is still recovering from the shock. I must have scared her a lot yesterday, and somehow I feel guilty about it. It was really scary that I actually fainted and lost consciousness for a few seconds, and my mom must have felt terrible and scared about it. I think that I will eat healthy and keep myself fit so that this kind of stuff will never happen again. This is just too much for my mom, and I think once is enough.

I Passed Out

Can you believe it? I passed out today while doing a choir rehearsal at my church! It was only a temporary pass out but the people in the church still got freaked out and I was carried off in an ambulance. It was weird------ we were standing on the stage singing for our Christmas Program, and then I suddenly feel my stomach turning, and my vision became blurry and my legs were wobbling. I staggered forward and then swung backward, and I could hear my friend Harmony saying "Are you okay" to me, but then I collapsed. There was a moment of black-out which I didn't remember what happened to me, but then a few seconds later I regained consciousness and I saw my mom, calling out my name. I thought I was hallucinating, because I could only see my mom's face and not other people's. "Mom" I called out, and then felt really sick again. Oh boy, I felt like throwing up that moment. I was immediately being transported to the washroom, but I didn't puke. When I was starting to feel better the ambulance arrived and the paramedic people came to make sure I was okay. They asked me questions and gave me some test like measuring my blood pressure. When answering their questions I tried to focus, but my vision shifted even though I tried so hard to get them into focus. Later I had to go to the children's hospital where I had other tests to ensure that I have no problem at all. It was a rush, but I could still remember what happened during the incident. It sure was an exciting afternoon. This was my first time passing out, and it felt so unrealistic! When the doctor had finished examining me, he said the reason why I passed out is because my body is growing and the blood couldn't reach my brain in a certain amount of time and that resulted in the fainting. Oh, I hope that it will never happen again. That was enough for a lifetime experience.

It's Skating Time

Today my friends and I went to Sunset skating rink and skated there. I haven't skated for about five months, so I was a little bit worried that I might lose my balance on the ice. But when I put my skates on and tried to walk around, it wasn't bad. Then I tried it on the ice, and I did better than I thought. I immediately got the feeling of skating back and became as good as I used to be five months ago. I bended my knees, feeling the skates gliding on the smooth ice underneath. It felt really good. Although the temperature in the ice rink was really low, I didn't feel cold. I could feel the wind passing by as I skated faster and faster. When I got familiarized with skating again, I tried crossovers, and I did it without losing my balance. I looped around the rink and tried different skating tricks I have learned last winter. I skated for about an hour and a half and soon felt tired. When I stepped out of the rink I felt really sweaty, and my legs were sore. But skating was fun, and I really enjoyed it. I think that I will go again maybe next week.

Watermania

Our trip to Watermania in Richmond today was fantastic. It was my first time going there and I was already very excited on the bus. I was a little bit worried, though, because I could not swim very well. After we changed into our swimming suit, my friends and I headed to the Wave Pool. One of my friends could not swim very well too so we stuck together. The others went in to the deep water area where only people with swimming skills above level 5 could swim in. The Wave Pool wasn't deep. In fact, it was kinda shallow, and crowded as well. The deepest part of the Wave Pool was about 1.75 metres. Me and my friends grabbed onto lifesavers and when the waves started, we began to float freely on top of the water. It was really cool, because it felt like I was in a raft or something. Then we went to the water slide for more fun. There were two water slides: a red one and a blue one. The red one doesn't have a cover on it and it has less twists and turns, so it was less scary than the blue one. I tried the red one first, and I went down the slide so fast and into a pool. I got choked by the water because I was not realizing that I was about to drop into a pool. Having learned my lesson, I went again and tried the blue one. The blue one was kinda exciting. It has many twists and turns, and it has a cover on, so it was kinda dark. I glided down the long tube and into the water again, and didn't get as much water I used to get in my mouth in the pool. After all these excitement we went back to the Wave Pool again, where we spent the rest of the time off swimming and floating on lifesavers. It was a really fun afternoon, and me and my friends really enjoyed it.

A Nice Solution

Finally! I found a way to buy termites WITHOUT having to get a permission from the Canadian Department of Agriculture! Today when I was visiting my friend Melanie, I asked her where I could get live bugs for pet food. Melanie owns a scorpion and a tarantula herself, and she always buys crickets for her pets. She introduced me to a pet shop called PJ's Pets. She said that it has lot of live pet food such as meal worms, crickets and other bugs. Then I asked about if I could get termites from the shop. She said that I could probably get them, but I better contact the shop first to see if the termites are available. I was so relieved to get this information. I have been searching for DAYS to find live termites for my science project. First I found a website which specializes in lab tools, and I was lucky enough to find live termites for sale on the website. The sad part was that the termites could only be delivered in the US territory, and I would have to apply for a permission from our country's Agriculture Department in order to import the termites. But now it looks like I don't have to go over so much trouble, for PJ's Pets is only located in Richmond near Canada Line, which is not really far away. I think I will go have a look on Sunday and hopefully get what I want.

It's Baskteball------Again!

Today we had basketball for PE again. It's not exactly my favorite sport, but it was okay. I think that I am starting to get the hang of it, because most of my shots went in the hoop. Today we moved on to dribbling. I thought that it was a really easy move, because what you just do is to dribble. But when I really tried it, it was not as easy as I thought. Mr. Pears changed the tempo after a few seconds so that we could speed up while keeping the ball under control. It was hard for me to look up while dribbling, because I was afraid that i might lose control of the ball. Shortly after the practice, we played a fun game, different than last time's. The girls formed a border, and the boys must keep dribbling the ball inside the boundary, while trying to knock someone elses' balls out. As more people got out, the area within the boundary became smaller, and finally, it was down to two people: Garry and Michael. But Garry quickly sent Michael's ball rolling out of the boundary and won the round. The girls did the same thing, and the final winner was Raida. It was a fun game, and then we switched to last time's old game again, but this time we added dribbling. The game was tense and the players were clearly challenged, but that just made it more exciting. I wonder what we will do next week?

Clay Work

Every Tuesday I would go to 4Cats Studio and make art projects. It's a very fun class, but there's only two people in the class not including the teacher: Me and another 12 year-old boy, John. Last week we have just finished our Tom Thompson painting, and today we moved on to Michelangelo. Today we did a clay sculpture of a human's upper body. The clay was really mushy and has a rather ugly grayish color. It kinda felt like Play-do, but a little bit harder. I sculpted an old man with a French hat and googly eyes and red peppers for hair. The head was going to fall off when I finished the sculpture, but our teacher Sam helped me to adjust the position of the head. It turned out really cool, and my old man sculpture looked really funny, and that's exactly what I wanted. I also liked John's project, and  I think his is funnier than mine and more creative. However, there's only one thing all the sculptures didn't have except mine------a beard! I added the extra beard because I thought it would make my sculpture look more realistic and aged, and it kinda worked. I really enjoyed this Michelangelo class, but unfortunately, it ended at 7:00. Next time we are going to work on charcoal drawing of our self-portraits, and I can't wait till next week's 4Cats class with Sam and John.

It's Time for Basketball!

Today we had another PE class and Mr. Pears introduced us to basketball. We were done with handball so now it was time for a different sport. I was kinda nervous, because I never had any real contact with basketball except for a few games, so I was very inexperienced. Back then I didn't join any basketball team because I was not allow to. I am a piano-player so it is very important for me to protect my hands. I also thought that basketball is a very violent sport, especially with people always checking you and try to take the ball away from you. Well, people who are really tall really benefits in the game, because they could simply block your ball and then shoot. So today we had a little bit of practice on how to shoot in the hoop. Mr. Pears told us that we are suppose to start out with walking, not dribbling, and with two hands supporting the ball, jump up and shoot. I scored a few hoops and I felt really great. Then he told us that we could add the dribbling and try to shoot. It was very cool, and I scored one goal on my first try. But then I messed up all the others, so I went back to square one------walking. After our practice, we had a little game. In this games, we were not suppose to dribble the ball. We simply pass it to our teammates. But everybody has a checker, so the game was really exciting. Garry, the tallest guy in the class, was advancing in the game. Gee, most of the boys are really good at basketball! I didn't think I did a bad job either. It was a really fun PE class, and I look forward on playing more basketball games in the following classes.

It's Halloween

Ah, the annual Halloween has finally arrived! And what do I love the most about Halloween, well, it's the trick-or-treating! I mean, I just love these wonderful costume people put on and cool decorations on their houses, but most of all, you get FREE candies. This year I invited my friend Asma to go trick-or-treating with me, so at about 6:30, I arrived at her house. I was dressed up as an evil bunny, but my friend preferred to dress up as herself. We went knocking from door to door, and most of them usually open up and the owner would smile and give us treats. Some of these houses, however, did not bother to open up their doors, even though their houses' front porch lights were on. Me and my friend came up with a good idea: whenever we came across a door which nobody didn't bother to open, we would count to five, and then say "aww" in a frustrated and sad way (to make sure that they know that these poor kids are suffering from their ignorance). Most of the people thought that I was a flower, because the headpiece for my costume was a bunny with flower petals around its face and a stem. We went trick-or-treating for almost three hours, and our bags were full of candies. I walked my friend home to make sure that she was safe, and then headed back to my own apartment. While we were walking on the way back, it started to rain. Good timing! Because we just had enough time to get lots of treats!

Still Working...on My Science Project

This week I finally got my proposal back! Now it's time to take action. Last time I visited several websites to find the ones I want as good suppliers for my experiment. I went on numerous gardening website to find chives, marigolds, catnip and mint, while other website which specializes in lab supplies for my termites. However, there's a problem. All of these stuff have to be delivered from the United States! I mean, shipping is fine, but because I am importing live animals, I must apply for the Canadian Department of Agriculture for permission to import my termites. Now that's a bit of problem, but it says on the website that I only need to fill out a form and the application will be done in three days. Meanwhile, I worked on the construction of the containers. I am not that satisfied with the store-brought containers, so I decided to DIY them myself. Each contain will require 5 piece of foam board, 4 pieces of translucent plastic cover and some crazy glue. I can simply get them at a dollar store in order to decrease the cost for my experiment. I am quite satisfied with the topic I chose, because it's a real challenge for me.

Finally! My First Book Test!

Today is Friday and it's also the day I am taking my first book test. The book test was at lunch and I was pretty nervous. I studied a lot last night, but I was just not sure if I studied enough. But there was no turning back. So I bravely stepped into Mrs. Greskiw's room and grabbed my test sheet when she called my name. When I quickly scanned over the test, I found out that it was not hard at all! It was basically multiple choices and true or false. I finished the test in a flash and handed it in. Oh boy, was I dreading to know if I have passed or not! Then during my English class after lunch, Mrs. Greskiw marked all the tests, and a lot of people in our class didn't pass. I didn't think I would fail. I have just finished the book I had the test on recently and the memory is still fresh. Finally when she read out my name, I found out that I have passed! Thank God! I was quite relieved, and I was left with 7 more points to score in order to complete the mark for this term: 12 points. I am planning on reading another Challenging book which is worth 5 points, and maybe an Easy book which is worth 2 points. I have to do it before November the 20th, because term 1 will end shortly after and I wouldn't be able to score enough points if I don't finish the tests before that date. I wonder which book shall I choose?

Big Tests Tomorrow!

Tonight I feel so nervous. I am going to have a book test tomorrow at lunch, and the points will count towards my grade. I have chosen a challenging book, Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt. Tonight I reviewed the book again and look for essential points in the novel. I even did a little bit of research online and took some online quizzes as well. I have never taken a book test before, and I am not sure what's gonna be on the test! Oh boy, I sure feel pressured. I collected a lot of information about the book on a notebook so that I could study. I also have the Applied Skills test, which is gonna focus on the skill of drafting. For that I am not too worried, because I think that I have everything under control for this upcoming test. Wow, isn't it exciting? Two tests in one day! My heart is pumping like crazy, because I do care a lot about my scores. In fact, that is the second most important thing in my high school life! I hope that I can pass the book test and gain 5 points so that I will only be left with 7 more points to earn, and hopefully that I will pass my Applied Skills test as well, and maybe get an A on it.

Tonight is a Busy Night

I have tonnes of work to finish tonight. First, there's the Social Studies homework then I have to study for a little quiz tomorrow, and there's the Science homework. They don't sound like a lot, but believe me, they are not time-savers. I have to do these things in two hours, then I have to read Angela's Ashes, my Independent Reading Program book which I selected for my book test. I have arranged my book test to be on Friday at lunch, and I still have a little part of the book to finish. I am planning to reread the book again after I have finished the whole book, just to make sure that I understand everything clearly. Most important of all, I have to finish the homework tonight. The book can wait, because I have got plenty of time tomorrow, but still, I want to save some time for my free time. My high school life is getting busier and busier now, but I still have it under control, and it will always be. Uh-oh, the clock is tickling now, I might as well get started on my work.

Drop Everything and------Read!

This is probably too late to mention in my blog, but yesterday at Applied Skills, we had the Drop Everything and Read activity 20 minutes before the end of the class. Drop Everything and Read------that means when the announcement goes on, you have to put down your pen or whatever stuff you are working on, pick up a book, and start reading. Luckily I brought a novel so I wouldn't be doing nothing during the reading time(It would be a little embarrassing, don't you think?). I think this is a very good activity, and there are certain ways to extend it. For example, we could encourage people in our school to read daily by starting up a reading club. The Independent Reading Program is probably a good suggestion as well, because it's a list filled with wonderful books for you to read and discover. Our English class is already doing the Independent Reading Program, so this is not new. You know, maybe we should have 20 minutes reserved at the end of each Applied Skills class for reading time. Reading is definitely a good thing. It gives you knowledge and creativity, and it also teaches us how to view the world around us and let our imagination flow.

Arggggh! Money for My Science Project!!!!

I have already planned out my science project ideas and it is time to take action. I have to buy 15 containers, 15 catnips, 15 marigolds, 15 mints, 15 chives, 15 garlic plants, 15 pieces of wood, 300 termites, and a lot of soil. Look at all these numbers! Maybe you would think: ah, they are just plants. They won't cost you a bundle. Well, you are wrong! I have to buy these plants online and they are like 4 dollars each except the garlic plants (which I already have)! That's like...60 times 4...240 dollars! I am going to be bankrupted! And then there are the termites. 30 of them for 11 dollars. Great. I need 10 packages, which is also gonna cost me 110 dollars! Who knows how much the soil is gonna cost?! Well, hopefully I am just going to dig some of them up from my friend's garden. The containers? Oh, It's gonna cost 50 bucks at least, so at the end I will end up with an estimated amount of 400 dollars of debt towards my parents! Holly! However, I will put in some of my savings (I have a lot) and my pocket money, and I can also work some of them off (By washing dishes)! This is not the end. I am going to do a little more of research online and find some cheap deals. I think I will be able to reduce the cost maybe down to 300 hundred dollars? Well, I am not sure, but the only thing I can be sure of is that I am PRESSURED!!!

There's a lot of Posting Going on!

The favorite thing I like to do during my free time is to go on Mr. Sale's website and do a little bit of posting. There's a lot of stuff there, like current events, food for thoughts and student trivia. I have already published three articles on current events (unfortunately, one got locked because I forgot to post my link), and about four or five(I don't remember how many) posts on food for thoughts. I posted numerous posts on student trivia and earned myself a rank call TMaster (Trivia Master).Sometimes when there's not much on these things, I go to games. The games on the site aren't bad. My favorite one is the King of the Hill. It's basically a game where you can become a king and dominate the hill. However, once you have become the king, other people can say something that will cause you to fall off your throne and they would become the king. For example, you can say: I am the king of the hill because I said so. Then another member can say: Oh yeah? Well I stabbed you in the heart and you died and now I am the king of the hill. You can post anything to get other people off the throne and make yourself the ruler. Sometimes I go on polls too, and I remember the first poll I went on was the anime poll. I couldn't really find my favorite anime in there so I randomly selected three of them from the list. I have also created my very own poll (two of them, actually). One is about favorite books and the other one is about favorite manga. For favorite books, it looks like most people are really obsessed with The Hunger Games trilogy, which is also my favorite. For Manga, Naruto seems to be the most popular one (Not exactly my taste). Anyway, Mr. Sale's website is a very educational and fun site where you can share all your good ideas and knowledge and news around the world.

A Day at Burnaby Lake

Every Saturday my family and two friends would go on a lower mainland trip together. Today we selected Burnaby Lake to be our destination. I have been to Burnaby Lake before. It was last summer and we saw a beaver at the dam. I was hoping that we would have this kind of luck today as well. We went on the old millennium sky train and stopped at Sperling Station, then walked to the park. It was a long hike, and I was really annoyed by the mosquitoes which constantly bugged me. The area around the lake is basically marshes covered with bushes of these green weeds. While I was walking I made myself a bow using a nice stretchy branch and marsh grass. The whole park was so quiet, and the only sounds I could hear were the chirping of the birds and the insects hidden in the marsh. When we were a quarter way through the park, hunger seized me. I searched my backpack for food, but I could only find two bottles of water and my maps. Great. My dad forgot to pack some snacks. Oh well. We walked for a little while, and I was almost fainting from hunger. Finally we arrived at the dam, and what luck, we didn't spot a single beaver, only a few ducks. But hey, I could finally eat! We went on the sky train again, and arrived at my favorite Japanese hot pot restaurant------Posh. The sight of food made me feel alive again. I learned an important lesson today------ never go on a trip when you are feeling hungry!

Racing Track Games!

Today I went to my friend 's house to do a testing for her science project. I think her project is about doing other stuff while driving can really affect us. For the test, I had to play a racing track game instead of driving the real car. That was when I found out that I am indeed a horrible player and if I drive like that in real life, I would probably get in a lot of trouble. When I was starting to get use to the game, my friend gave me a phone and told me to text while playing the game, and she was going to record my timing. After the texting test, we started the game over, then she handed me a wrapped monster cookie and told me to keep on playing the game while unwrapping the cookie and eating it. Oh boy, the plastic wrap just wouldn't come off! At the end, I finished the game, and my cookie was still unfinished. Then my friend gave the phone back to me, and told me that she was going to phone me while I was playing the game. That one was easy. I could keep almost everything under control while chatting with her. When I have finally done the test, I think the one that had the most effect upon me was the texting one, because I had trouble keeping my eyes on the game while busily texting on the phone. To tell you the truth, I rarely text, so I am really clumsy at it. We repeated the test for three times to make sure that our record is accurate. It was good testing, but because I had to eat three giant cookies during the test, I was starting to get sugar-sick (I won't eat cookies for at three weeks). I really enjoyed this test, and it was great to help out with my friend's project.

Full Metal Alchemist

Today as soon as I got to the library, I picked out five Full Metal Alchemist Mangas. I really like them. In fact, they are my favorite comic books. The story is set in a time in the early 1900s, in a fictional world where alchemy really existed. Two brothers, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric tried to bring their dead mother back to life, so they practiced a forbidden ritual in alchemy------the human transmutation. After the ritual went wrong, Edward, the older brother lost his right arm, while his brother Alphonse lost his whole body. In order to save his brother's soul, Edward sacrificed his left leg and drew a transmutation circle on a suit of armour, so that his brother's soul could stay in this world. Edward's childhood friend Winry made Ed artificial limbs also known as auto-mail. The two brothers decided to go on a quest, to find the Philosopher's Stone which they believed could turn them back to normal. To gain more access to top secret information, Edward became a state alchemist at the age of 12. He was the youngest state alchemist ever, a genius. When he found out about homunculus------result of a human transmutation, he was thrilled and suspicious, which led him to the ultimate creator of the Homunculus.The whole story was filled with tension, excitement, and also the expression of the dark side of humanity. I think that the author Hiromu Arakawa did a great job on writing this manga. It's kinda sad to see this pair of young brothers going through all the suffering, but I am also impressed by their courage and their determinations. This graphic novel is a must-read.

The Writer's Festival

I have always dreamed of meeting Kenneth Oppel and get his autograph, and my dream finally came true when we went to the Writer's Festival on Granville Island today. Our whole Synergy 8 class went there, on a field trip led by Mrs. Greskiw. Before the show started, we had had half an hour to roam around and discover the island. The show started at 10:00, which features Kenneth Oppel and an Australian writer whose name is Richard Newsome, the author of a popular book called The Billionaire's Curse. The first person who came up on the stage was Mr. Newsome, and he briefly introduced himself and his life in Australia. He created this really funny slide show about his childhood and books, then he read us the beginning of The Billionaire's Curse, so that we could get interested. Then he talked about the plot of the book, and then Q and A. Kenneth Oppel got on the stage after and introduced his latest book------ Half Brother. It was a really interesting book about a teenage boy whose brother is a baby chimpanzee. His presentation was really educational, and humorous as well. At the end of his presentation, we gave him a big round of applause and it was time to get his and Mr. Newsome's autographs. I got them to sign my tickets. After lunch break we had another show featuring Shannon McKay, another famous Canadian writer. She is a war artist and she wrote many books about children in war. What's really amazing is that she actually stayed with the Canadian Military in Afghanistan last year and experienced what it feels like to be in a war. Her presentation was really interesting, and I got her autograph at the end also. Today it had been a fantastic day, and I have definitely learned lots of new things

Say No to Homophobia

The school really wants us to focus and emphasize on the idea of say no to homophobia, so we had an assembly based on it. Today we had a special guest (I think his name is Jeremy), who talked about his high school life as a gay kid. He had lots of humor in his story, but it was also shocking to hear how hard his life was, living in that kind of life. Jeremy told us about how he was being bullied in his high school and how the principal and teachers took no notice of his problem and didn't even bother to , and how he struggled with his everyday life with kids calling him names and being disrespect to him. However, he did have some friends who stood up for him, and he felt really thankful for their kindness. The  presentation took the whole third period, but it was a fantastic presentation. When he finished his last word, cheering exploded in the auditorium and every hand was clapping in the air. I felt happy for Jeremy, but also sad for those kids who are being bullied and treated differently just because they are gay or lesbian. Tomorrow it's going to be Purple Shirt Day. It's a day when we wear purple shirts in order to support the idea of say no to homophobia. I think that's a great idea, and that's why I am going to put on a purple shirt tomorrow, because everybody in our community deserves respect, and it doesn't matter if they are gay or not.

Yes, It's Homework!

Tonight I have to finish my map assignment for my social studies class and the science project proposal for science class tomorrow. These are only two tasks but they take time to finish, especially the map assignment. The science project proposal is very easy, because I only need to make minor changes on my previous proposal. For my map I need to finish labelling it, draw the International Date Line and color it properly. I would say that to finish these work will take me about 1 hour, which is my whole working period tonight. I also have to read, and tonight I am planning to finish three chapters of the book Angela's Ashes, a book I chose for my book test for English class. I have a lot of work to do tonight, and these tasks will certainly keep me busy for the whole night, but I don't think I will have to stay up till 11:00. Sometimes I can finish my homework pretty quickly, and sometimes I just feel kinda lazy and take my time doing all my work. After writing this blog I am going to finish my daily task: washing dishes, then I am going to get started on my homework. You never want to hand them in late and unfinished!

Books!

I go to the library every week, usually on Sundays or Wednesdays, to pick up my requested item or just simply borrow some books. Today I went to the Oakridge Branch to pick up three books I have requested: a Hunter X Hunter manga and two Yuyu Hakusho Manga. I also picked up the book Twilight since I have never read it before and is interested, and also another Mar Manga. I read all kinds of books, but my favorites are fiction and manga. You know, for manga I just like to copy its illustrations in the book, because some of their authors have really good sketching skills and that is what I would like to learn. I really like Yoshihiro Togashi ( The author of Yuyu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter), because his works are very brilliant. I like books with lots of action and adventures in them, but love stories would immediately bore me out of my mind. Last week I just read this hilarious book called The True Diary of a Part- time Indian. Oh man, it was so funny, yet the facts in the book are very realistic. The author of that book sure has a good sense of humor. Anyway, these are my preferences for books. What's yours?

Awesome Day at White Rock

You wouldn't believe what I did today! I went to White Rock again, but this time, with two friends, and we didn't go to the west beach where the big white rock is. Instead, we went to the Semiahmoo First Nation Reservation east of the west beach! It was beautiful, but we didn't go deep in the reservation, so we circle at the front near a river which ran under the bridge which links the road to the reservation. The river was small, and it was salt water and fresh water combined. You need a written permission to fish in it, since it's the river for the first nation people. We left the reservation shortly after because my friends were hungry and tired, so we went to a little restaurant with a nice ocean view near the beach. I ordered wild mushroom and Alfredo pasta, but when I was half way through it, I felt kinda sick due to my react to dairy products, so I traded my lunch with my dad's fries. After lunch it was still early, so one of my friends suggested that we go to Crescent Beach. We hopped on bus 357 (I think) and reached our destination in about 20 minutes. The beach stretched for about a mile and the water very very clear yet some part of it was filled with eel grass. Man, it was gorgeous. People were crab fishing on the deck, and I saw a pair of teenagers with 3 crabs already in their bucket. We kept on walking until we have reached the end of the sandy shore. When we left White Rock, the weather was still nice and we still got lots of time left until sunset, but I was so exhausted that I dozed off to sleep as quickly as I could on the bus heading for Vancouver.

Science Quiz

Today we had a little science quiz on Microscopes and characteristics of living things. I studied really hard for it, even though it was just a quiz, not a test. However, when I got the quiz, I quickly read the questions over, and I found them extreme EASY. I studied too much and almost covered everything the teacher had taught us on microscopes and the characteristics of living things! Well, it was better to have a good preparation, because you never know what the quiz or the test is going to be like until you get it. I scanned through the questions and quickly filled in the blanks. There were three main questions. The first one was a matching game. We had to match each part of the microscope to its function. The second question was to label a microscope, which was really easy as well. The third one was to list all 6 characteristics of living things, and I wrote them down as well. The quiz was a short one, and I was really confident about getting a good mark on it.

Langara College's 40TH Anniversary

Do you know that today was Langara College's 40th anniversary? Well, a party was held at the college and everybody was welcome to join. My mom and I went there, and we had lots of fun. There were free hot dogs, pop corns, cotton candy and drinks. I was lucky enough to get a goody bag, which contains three Langara College brochure, a highlighter, a pen and a note pad. I was going to get some food, but when I realized how long the line ups were, I gave up my idea, so we toured around inside the college building. First we popped in a designing workshop, and the beautiful displays of dresses we saw------they were amazing! And you know what else is cool? These dresses were made of gift bags and paper wraps! It was so fascinating! As we walked towards where the pop corns were, we saw little booths from the science department. There were displays related to electricity, biology, and technology. At the biology booth there was this aquarium which contained various sea creatures of many sizes, such as starfish, sea sponge and urchins. The booth next to it stood a lady with a bug on the back of her hand. I came closer to have a better look. It was a cockroach! "Would you like to hold it, dear?" She asked. "Sure!" I replied, so she carefully transported the cockroach onto the back of my hand. It felt kinda ticklish, and it made my skin crawl. I had to ask the lady to take it off. It was pretty fun. Unfortunately, the party had to end at 7:00, so we left after another small tour on the the second floor of the building. I wonder if there will be another party next year?

Science Proposal

Today we finally got our science proposal back! I was very worried if my proposal would pass or not, since I am doing an experiment on termites and I have to eliminate all of them at the end of the experiment. My proposal almost got pass ( I got 22.5 out of 25), and I only need to add a few more details and a little change to it. However, Mrs. Smedley suggested that I should not kill the termites. Instead, I should find someone with pet lizards or frogs and give the termites to them as pet food. I gotta admit, that is a good idea, because I am going to have 300 termites and it's going to take a lot of time eliminating them, and I would not want to clean their carcasses up (EWW!). My friend Maia has a pet scorpion and a tarantula, so I am probably going to give the termites to her pets. My next proposal is due on next Tuesday, and I will make sure everything is ready, so that I will pass and get a better mark on it. I look forward on transforming the proposal into a live experiment, and believe me, it will be an awesome project.

Debate Tryout

Today after school, we had a debate tryout for the debate tournament in UBC. Even since I joined the debate club, I have been looking forward to this tryout for days. Although this was my first time debating, I was still excited, and I was really confident. We had ten people who came to the tryout, so we split into five groups of two. Our first topic was on legalizing prostitution in this country, and my team was the opposing team. We only had about 7 minutes to prepare our speech and summarize our ideas, so it was very tense, but we were able to manage it. When it was my turn, I got up stage and greeted everyone, then brought on my speech. During my presentation, people from the other team stood up and asked me questions, and I answered some of them, because I have only got 5 minutes to do my speech. After my timing was up, I got off stage and listened to the other team's speech. While I was listening to it, I also took notes, so that I could come up with idea to break down their reasons. The debate ended shortly after and it was indeed a good match, and on Thursday night we will be able to see on the email they send us to see who is the lucky student who gets to go to the UBC tournament.

Horseshoe Bay

This morning was really sunny so my whole family decided to go to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. I was the trip planner as usual. We went on Canada Line and got off at Vancouver City Centre, then got on bus 257. Uh-oh, the sky was getting dark. It started to rain when we got on the Lions Gate Bridge, and I was really worried about our trip. After about 40 minutes on the bus, we finally arrived at our destination: Horseshoe Bay Park, and sure enough, it was pouring rain. I only had a thin sweater on me and my teeth shattered as chills ran down my spine. I searched my backpack for an umbrella, and found nothing but food! The rain was getting heavier and heavier so we hid under the trees. I suddenly remembered that my friend once told me I could find sand dollars on the beach of Horseshoe Bay, so I walked down the muddy shore with hope to find some beautiful shells, and I never did find one. My parents just couldn't take it anymore. We quickly hopped on the next bus and returned to Vancouver.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Whew! The stuffing is finally DONE! After a day of preparation, our early Thanksgiving dinner was really successful, even though it was our first time putting a turkey in the oven and first time to make home-made stuffing. We have got all the ingredients from the supermarket and most of them were for the stuffing. I made the rice and raisin stuffing using cooked rice, chicken broth, raisins, onions, carrots, bread crumbs and seasonings, and believe me, it tasted WONDERFUL. My mom was worried about the turkey, since we have no experience whatsoever about cooking a turkey. However, the turkey was nice done and it was DELICIOUS with a coating of melted butter and honey on its crispy skin. I also made butter-coated baked potatoes for our entree and it went well with our home-made gravy. The whole Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely FABULOUS. Too bad our guest was unable to come and missed this wonderful meal. Oh well, he had still got a chance to taste our amazing cooking on Christmas Eve!

Thanksgiving Shopping

Thanksgiving is on Monday and but we have decided to invite a friend over for turkey dinner on Sunday. Today me and my dad went to Safeway to buy ourselves a nice frozen turkey and other ingredients to prepare a turkey dinner. I bought bread crumbs, raisins, butter, poulet seasonings and chicken broth to make the stuffing, and a meat thermometer for the turkey's temperature while we bake it. I also purchased a measuring cup. We didn't need a very big turkey, so my dad chose this turkey which is less than 7kg (Heavy!) When we had everything we need purchased, I ran to the fresh produce aisle and bought two boxes of raspberries because I haven't tried them in two years. The raspberries turned out to be very nasty and I truly regret choosing them. Tomorrow we are going to marinate the turkey with butter and spices, and prepare the stuffing. However, we are not going to stuff the stuffing inside the turkey's stomach, because it kinda turns my appetite down when I see a turkey with stuffing oozing out of its bum (Gross), so we are going to bake them separately. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that we also bought a beautiful pumpkin pie for our Thanksgiving dessert tomorrow. Right now I am just drooling at. Man, temptation sure is hard to control!

Friday----Sigh~~~

Today is Friday and we were lucky to get a break from school due to District Closure Day. However, I was not able to enjoy the whole day to myself. I had to finish a painting that was suppose to be finished a week ago. I usually have a lot of work to do on week days, so I would do most of my paintings on the weekend and holidays. So today here I was, in the bathroom, painting. I had to paint in the bathroom, because other than that and our kitchen, the whole suite is covered with carpet, and my gouache paint is very hard to wash off once it gets on the carpet. The painting was almost done, I just needed to add a few more details to it and perfect it. I didn't like mixing gray colors. The gray is always the hardest to mix in all colors, because in order to make the right kind of gray you want, you have to blend various colors to it. I needed a lot of different colors of gray for the pot in my painting, so that took a long time for me to finish. The other hard thing to paint is the cabbage. Who knew there were so many colors of green in it! Light green, lemon green, dark green, grayish green...you name it. After 5 hours of painting, I was able to perfect it to the way I wanted it to be. Oh well, there goes my day.

Debate Club

Ever since school started, I had been dreaming about joining all these fun clubs in school. On Clubs Day I signed up for the debate club, the piano club and the dissection club. Today we had our first debate club meeting, and we were introduced to our two trainers from UBC who will be coaching us and teach us how to debate. They briefly introduced what debate is, then they invited four experienced debaters from the club, including our class president Vivian. A topic was chosen: should drugs be legalized for amateur athletes? The four debaters were split into two teams, and they were given 5 minutes to discuss and come up with their speeches. Two people represented team "Government", the other two represented the opposing team, and one person was chosen for the timer. Team Government quickly greeted the whole club and introduced the topic and their point of view towards the topic. Team Government explained why they support drugs for amateur game athletes because they could pull everyone to the same level and let them compete, but the Opposing Team immediately rejected the idea during the other team's speech. When the other team's timing was up, the Opposing Team brought up their idea of why drugs should not be legalized for amateur athletes because they could become addicted to the drugs. During the debate we paused, then our coaches pointed out what we should do and what we should not do during a debate. The debate had to end early due to the time, but now I have a clear idea of what it looks like in a tournament. I can't wait for my tryout on Tuesday. Who knows, maybe I will be good at it!