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!

The Fantasticks

Today Ms. Greskiw, our English teacher took us on an awesome field trip to the Vancouver Playhouse to see a famous play called The Fantasticks. This play is the longest running play ever, and almost in every play, the tickets are all sold-out. We were really lucky to get good seats. The play opened with a small band playing musics. I really like the harp player because she made such beautiful sounds using a harp. The play tells about a girl named Luisa and a boy named Matt, and they are deeply in love with each other. However, their fathers, Bellony and Hucklebee are in constant battle with each other and they built a wall between their houses. Every night the couple would sneak out and meet under the moonlight. They did not know that their fathers are using their sense of rebellion to unite them together and arrange a marriage between them. The fathers planned a theatrical abduction with the clever El Gallo (who is a bandit) to improve the relationship between their kids. Their covers were blown when Hucklebee blurted out the truth, and the couple split up due to an unexpected argument. However, El Gallo found a way to solve the problem and the lovers reunited with each other. The whole play was fantastic, just like its name. One of our classmates got so emotional at the end that she wept. I have got to admit: that is one excellent show and everybody should go see it.

Paper Models

Today I need to finish my paper model for Applied Skills class, so I went online and print out instruction sheets of the Capitol Building of United States model. It looks really complicated, but in fact, it's not. When I carefully examined the sheets, I found out that you only need a little bit of cutting and gluing to put this model together. The model parts are already colored, so I guess I won't need any coloring tonight. I don't have any glue, so I am going to try my double-sided tape. It works really well, and it is more sticky than glue. The problem with that is once I tape it on to something, it's very hard to peel it off, so I have to be extra careful with it. I am confident that I can put this model together successfully, and I would say two hours are enough to finish the whole thing. I can't wait to get started!

Homeworks!!!!!!

I just checked my student agenda and found out that tonight, I will be doing a LOT of homework. Scrolling down the list, there are several things that needs to be completed: art, social studies, English and science. For science, I need to draw graphs according to three data, and I also need to complete a short essay for English. For social studies, I have got three pages of worksheets which I have to fill in, and for art it's basically to draw a picture of my own choice. According to my daily schedule, I have got an hour and forty-five minutes to finish those tasks. Uh-oh, I feel pressured! However, I am very confident that I will be able to finish them on time, because even though they sound like a lot of work, they are not that hard. I have done this kind of work a thousand times back in China, so tonight it's only going to be a small challenge. I better get started, because I don't want to waste a single minute doing nothing right now!

Tunas!

Have you ever tried the fruit of a cactus? Well, I have, and it does not taste bad at all! Today I saw some tunas( fruits from a cactus plant) in the supermarket and I thought maybe I could try some to see what they taste like, so I bought a box containing three tunas. The skin of a tuna is green when it's almost ripe, and red when it's completely ripe. I was being extra careful when I was skinning a tuna, because even though the skin looked completely smooth and not prickly at all, you never know when there's a little thorn sticking out somewhere on the tunas. I put an oven glove on my left hand while holding the knife on the other hand, and quickly peeled the tunas skin clean. The flesh of the fruit was an amazing color of purple and it looked so delicious that I couldn't help but to take a big bite at it. As my teeth dug in the fruit, purple juice oozed out, giving me a taste which I could never describe. There were lots of black little seeds in the center of the tunas, but I swallowed them anyway. Tunas is a nice fruit that you should give a little try on. Who knows? You might like it!

My Trip to Cleveland Dam Fish Hatchery

The weather was really nice today so I took my mom and her friend to Cleveland Dam fish hatchery in North Vancouver. I planned out the trip on the previous day, so we had no trouble getting to our destination. The hatchery is located at the edge of a canyon surrounded by tall fir trees. The trails were curvy and some of them were really steep. stream of water flowed at the edge of the trail and mushrooms grew wildly on dead woods. I took many pictures with my favorite mushrooms. Soon after about 10 minutes, we arrived at the hatchery. The hatchery aquarium is underground so you can see salmons swimming their way up the current. There were some cool displays at the hatchery as well. There wasn't much to see other than the salmons, so we decided to take a hike to Cleveland Dam which was not far away from the hatchery. When we finally reached the top of the stair way, a beautiful sight appeared before us: a shimmering lake as shiny as a mirror, white clouds floating on top of green mountains and the sky with an amazing color of blue. Roses and berry bushes grew along side of the hill and everything was just WONDERFUL. It was my first time to see something this beautiful, and I am glad that I chose the right spot for this weekend's trip.

Fridays------Trip Planning Day

Don't you just LOVE Fridays? They are usually the last day you have to work in a week, so you can rest all you want and have all the fun you can have during the weekend. Today I am actually doing a little "homework" for my mom: to figure out the best route to get to the Capilano fish hatchery for our trip tomorrow with a friend. Ever since I took my mom to Granville Island and White Rock, I have become the trip planner. I search online for a fun spot in British Columbia, and then I would copy down the route, then check it out with my mom or dad. Since my dad is always busy burying his face in accounting books, my mom became my best "travel buddy". I really enjoyed going out and explore new places with my mom, because she is so fun and she buys me treats when I am hungry(ha ha). It's a good practice for me, because I need to be independent, so that's the main reason why my mom came up with this brilliant idea. It's also really exciting to travel to a totally unfamiliar place by public transportation------ Sky train, buses and sea buses. Oh, I just remembered------ I haven't copied down my travel route for tomorrow yet! Well, I better hurry up, because I am taking a huge responsibility for it!