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!