I will always like cheese

In english recently we have been reading the boom called ‘The Giver’ and we are up to the stage in the book where jonas has gotten his assignment and he is now wondering what will become of his future. We were asked what we and our parents wanted us to do with our future.

For my future I want to be a professional swimmer and make it to the olympics and win 9 gold medals but then retire and finish my life in style, but if i get bored I will need to have something to fall back on and that will either be a astronomer or a sports scientist. At least then I will get paid and still have a great life. As for my parents they expect me to finish school, finish university, get my degrees and then be a responsible, considerate and kind adult. I want to complete my schooling and maybe get a bachelors or a masters degree at university so that I can get a good job and mybe travel around the world. Right now my main focus is swimming right now because I really want to go to the olympics and represent my country.

This last week in english we have been reading a class novel called ‘The Giver’, which introduces a boy called Jonas and everything that goes on in his community. We have been asked to see what are the positive and negative aspects of Jonas’ community.

Some of the negative aspects of Jonas’ community are the priviliges. ex. You are not allowed to cycle until the age of nine and you cannot own a bike until the age of 12. Isn’t it my own decision whether i want to own or ride a bike before those ages. Another is that Jonas and his family have to share their feelings every night… Well what if i want to keep my feelings to myself…. can’t i just keep  them to myself and not share them??? Another negative aspect is that if you live in Jonas’ community, your future job is chosen for you by someone else. If it were to me, i wouldn’t allow anyone to choose which career path i should take, it is my own choice and not someone elses to decide for me.

Some of the positve aspects is that in one family there is 1 boy, 1 girl, 1 mom and 1 dad, which is good because the population won’t grow more than it needs to and which means that there will be more role models to choose from, which may give us a better future. Another positive aspect is that the community tries to match a person to a job based on their talents, hobbies or what they do best., which is good because then there will be no arguing nor jealousy and the community will be able the live in a much more peaceful way. The last positive aspect is that doesn’t telling our feelings bring the family together because if we have a problem and we share it our family will be able to help us but if the issue was something more personal i would either have to lie about it or not say it at all.

Today in history we talked about why people were so powerful and how were they powerful and so Mrs Gould gave us a person to research and she gave me Edward the VI. The questions that we are supposed to answer are why were they important to history and how were they portrayed as powerful. But first i will give you a brief introduction.

Edward the VI was a young prince born on the 12 October 1537. When Edward was older he was a miserable child but had a high intelligence. His uncle, the duke of Somerset gave him little money, little priviledges and he was always strict with him. Edward then talked to his advisors to see if he can rule England by the age of 16.(Which is 2 years less than when he was supposed to be king). In the beggining of the year of 1552 Edward became very sick with small pox and the measles. Even though he recoved the illness seemed to have taken a great toll on his body and his overall health. After his tour of England in the summer, he health began to drop tremndously fast and in the fall he was coughing up blood. On Thursday, 6 July, 1553 Edward died.

The reason why Edward the VI was so important to history was because he changed the church from being a full on catholic to extremly protestant. When Henry the VII and III died the church turned catholic but in 1558 Mary I had changed it all and in 1547 Edward had changed all of the churches practises.

Edward the VI was portrayed as powerful by having a portrait of him done when he was about 14 months looking like a small adult, wearing and adult dress and with the gesture of an orator. From what it looks like i think they are trying to tell that he and his father are one of the most powerful men in Europe at the time.

Image by Unforth

Today in english it was a little different. We did work like how esperanza did in the book, so we swept, washed the clothes and made tortillas. And we were then asked how we felt after, did we learn about ourselves and what we felt about doing this work before we started.

Before we started the work the first thing that came to my mind was hard work and lots and stress. Because being in a group you always don’t get the things you want or the way that you want them to go thats why I felt stress a I felt hard work because of everything that was there from the mixing bowls to the drying rack all the way to the brooms.

What I learned about myself was that I have an easy life compared to esperanza’s life because we now have washing machines ovens to cook tortillas in and cleaners to clean our own house which makes us all lazy and we take that for granted. An example would be if you go to Africa or India and you see all of the men and women fighting for survival by working their heads off all day long out in the hot, boiling sun. We don’t actually realise it until we see it with our own eyes in that country or we do it ourselves and today by doing the work it made me realise that life back then was very hard and still is even though we have all the fancy gadgets and technologhy to help us it is still a hard life. I always remember that life will always be unfair to you even though you are the greatest person in the whole world.

What I felt after was relief, exhaustion and sympathy. I was relieved because it was really hard and it felt great nto get the work load off my back and just relax. I felt exhausted by the amount of work we did because when we were sweeping some teachers “accidentally” knocked the buckets over so we had to sweep it up again and again and that for me was really exhausting. I feel sympathy because i now realise how hard Esperanza’s life was in 1930 and that makes me feel sad because i can’t imagine me doing all that work everyday, 365 days a year.

The question today is… If you did this work how would you feel before, after and what would you learn about yourself?

This one is so cool. It may have heaps of pictures but it is all about only one swimming pool. Actually the best swimming pool in South-East Asia!!! So good.It is called Vinepearl. At this very moment i don’t know where it is but give me some time and i will get it to you guys.

Today in english we talked about how Esperanza met Isabel and how Isabel talked about going to school and learning english and how Esperanza has been in a private school since she was 4. We were asked if school is a right or a privilege.

To me school is a privilege because not every single person can afford to pay for an education because they were brought up in a poor family or they just don’t have the job that pays enough money for an education. But in other countries scooling is payed by the government and therefore school is mandatory for all children but in the countries that i have been to i don’t think school is mandatory there.

The question today is… Do you think that school is a right or a privilege???

Today in english we talked about what thing/s anchor us in life and if we did not have it that we would go mentally insane, like how a boat anchors to the sea bed. So we were asked what anchors us in our life and this is what anchors me in my life.

What anchors me in my life is my family first because without my family i would not have been born for one, not have any clothes, no food nor have a good education. My family is so important to me because they feed me as well but what hits me most is that how many people in the world don’t have their families with them or don’t have one at all and that just astonishes me and makes me so sad at times. Which then makes me feel very greatful for having my family with me.

The other thing that anchors my life together is swimming because swimming has been my passion since i was about 10 but i started swimming when i was 6 months old and as soon as i arrived in Doha i begged my mum to put me in a swimming club which she did but if i did not have swimming i would go mentally insane. Some people say i awim like a fish but others say i swim like a shark but what i am trying to say is that i have been swimming for a long time so i am just very greatful that i have gone to great swimming schools with great coaches.

My question today for everyone outhere is What thing/s anchor your life and what would happen if you didn’t have it.

Today in english we talked about how Esperanza met Carmen and talked about how she was poor bust still rich and then when Esperanza saw a crippled indian women and how Carmen gave her some tortillas and a coin and then the indian women blessed her. For homework we had to pick one of two quotes from the book then explain what it means to us and this is what i think one of them means.

 “The rich take care of the rich and the poor take care of those who have less than they have.” Page 79.  What does that mean to me?? Well to me that means that the poor takes care of the ones with less because the poor may be poor but they will still be happy and have a life and give thing up for others, where as when he/she becomes rich he/she becomes a bit selfish of there money and goods and they only look out for their fellow rich friends and nobody else like the poor and homeless.

This is my question for you. What do you think this quote means to you???

Today in English we talked about our experiences with the poor people and when we give them money they use it wisely or got to the pub and drink their problems away. We were asked if we have had any experiences with the poor people in any way and these are my experiences.

When i was in thailand and i was in the taxi and i was so surprised to see how many people were on the street just lying there and asking for money. Also when we were walking around we saw all of them asking for money but i didn’t want to take the risk and give them some money for buying bad thing like drugs etc. Looking back at it now i could have bought them some food or got them something to sleep with or on so that they don’t use the money for bad purposes. When i went back to Australia and compared how many homeless people there were i was just astonished about how many people there were in thailand ansd australia.

This is my question for you. Have you had any experiences with the poor and homeless people??

Today in English we were talking about Esperanza and how she had to pack up her most special items when a fire started to roar like a lion roaring at a enemy and we were asked what we would take if we had to pack up instantly. These are the items i would bring.

If my house burned down tonight and i only had a small box the first thing that i would bring is my stuffed dog called fu fu which my mum gave me so long ago that i can’t even remember, which i had until only recently when i had to give it to my brother but the dog is brown in colour, still in really good condition and has brown eyes. When i had it i would take it every where to keep me safe and cheer me up when i was sad or crying. The reason i would take it first is because it is the toy that i have had the longest and it is so soft and stuffy.

The second item that i would bring is my ipod that my dad gave to me last year for my birthday which was sent all the way accross the country. It is a blue 8gb Ipod nano and i would take that second because it will remind me of my dad everyday as he is about 16 000km away now. I would also take it with me because if i lost all contact with the music world i would be as sad a non stop crying baby.

And the final item is my photo album that has all of my childhood memories from my birth to my 10th birthday and all of the good times i had with my friends. I would bring that as my third thing because the photos in there you would not be able to get them again if they were burned and i would be so sad and dissapointed if that actually happend. I would…….would just be so angry that something like this has happend to me.

So this is the question i have for you. What would YOU bring if your house burned down tonight? That is the Question.