“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home" Quote by: Matsuo Basho

I chose this quote as my title because it really inspired me. I think that this quote can show people that no matter where you go everything starts at home. Even if this quote isn't very long it is still inspiring and meaningful. Though there are still some people who might not understand this quote or won't take it seriously. But I think it is very important for people to understand that manners start at home and just because those people are at home, they can't treat their family different from others.

~Alex~

Malaysia Week!

Malaysia Week was really fun. It is about all the Middle School students go to different places in Malaysia. You can either go to Coastal or Rain forest. This year I went to Coastal. I went to Pulau Tioman an island located at the East Coast of Malaysia.
When we arrived there the first day we were there it was raining. So we rested in our rooms. It felt good after traveling on a bus for 7 hours and on a boat for 2 hours. That night I couldn't sleep. As it got later and later I started to hear little paws and screeching. I turned on the lights and saw a long pink tail go under the furniture. It was a rat! Apparently it was in the trash.
The next day we hiked for 5-4 hours across the mountain. There were many leeches and mosquitoes. It was very tiring but when we got to the top it really paid off. We got to swim in a waterfall! It was really cold but it was nice at the end. When we got to the bottom where the beach was we had to walk in the rain until we got to our camping site. When we got there we had to put up our tents.
That night we cooked our own dinner. That night our site leader told us there was a big boa constrictor near to out campsite, and three girls left their tent open. Luckily the snake didn't go in. It rained in the night and all our things were wet.
In the morning we walked for 1 hour to a turtle sanctuary. There we learnt about a turtle called Jo who was naturally blind, so she had no eyeballs. She was a green sea turtle but even though she can't see she has really strong sense of smell. After that we went on a boat for 2 hours and went to snorkel at this place called Soya. There we saw baby sharks and a variety of different fish. After that we went to the other side of the island on boat and went back to the hotel. We rested until it was time to go to dinner. That night we were exhausted so we fell asleep right away.
In the morning we went to snorkel to 3 different places, one of them being Coral Island. When we got to Coral Island the water was so clear we could see the bottom and the sand at shore was white and soft. We snorkeled there for about an hour. We went to this other place after that, it was a Marine Park. The water there was so deep I couldn't see the bottom. We didn't stay there for very long because most of the people weren't snorkeling.
The next morning we were rushed because we didn't want to miss the boat back to the main land, and if we did then we would've had to wait until the other boat comes at 4:00. We didn't have much to eat that morning. Luckily we were allowed to stop and buy a few snacks for the long way back home. Then when we entered Melacca we had lunch. The last day of Malaysia Week was sad, none of us wanted to leave this beautiful Island.

Australia!

Many people went out of Malaysia to visit family or friends or just because its a vacation they wanted to go out of the country. For my Christmas break I went to Australia! I've never gone before so I was very excited to go for the very first time! We went to Cairns, Gold Coast and Sydney.

Cairns was the first place we went to there I went to Port Douglas. We were planing on going to the beach but it was Christmas day so everything was closed so we had lunch at Rattle 'n' Hum and had desert at an ice cream shop called Wiked Ice. The second day we were in Cairns we went on a train to a little village not far away. There we went to a Australian zoo that only had Australian animals. So I had a picture taken with a Koala and a Kangaroo. Then we took a tram back to the city. We left the day after that and flew to Brisbane and from there we drove to Gold Coast.

The first day we were in gold coast we went to Sea World and went on some fun rides but you always got wet no matter what. The ride I liked the most was called Jet Rescue, you see every ride has a story to it. In Jet Rescue you have to save the Sea Lions. The ride goes really fast you can't even open your eyes to see whats happening which makes it fun. There is this other ride called the Bermuda Triangle. It is about a boat going into the Bermuda Triangle and finds aliens and it is in water and the thing starts to sink and you get wet but the boat doesn't go under water but the room does which makes it fun. At night we saw Kailee and her family in a strip mall so we had dinner with them. The strip mall was big and nice but it wasn't covered, and in the restaurant we were eating at wasn't covered it only had a little porch that was covered but not many tables could fit there and my sister, Kailee and I were siting outside and it started to rain! We tried to move the table in and luckily it fit. But then there were some umbrellas outside and they started to fall on us and the tables and plates were falling over too. We managed to get through it and fortunately we didn't get hurt, and Kailee and I called it The Natural Disaster.

The day after that Kailee and her family went to Warner Bro.'s Movie World. IT was so much fun! The first ride we went to was called Rio Bravo, it was very fun! We went up about 10 meters off the ground and went backwards for 5 minutes. Then we turned and went down this really steep hill and got very wet. Then we went on roller coasters and went to some other things they had there. After that we went to our hotels to dry off and go to dinner together. This night we decided to go to a covered restaurant so we went to Hard Rock.

On New Year's Eve I went with Kailee's family to Wet 'n' Wild, a theme park which is obviously filled with water slides. We went on many water slides and then went to the beach together. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant called Sayas. After we went down by the beach to see the fireworks at midnight. After that day we drove back to Brisbane and took a flight to Sydney.

The first day we were in Sydney we walked around the city. The next day we went to the Sydney museum and then went back to the hotel. The fourth day we were there we went to The Rock which is the old part of Sydney that hasn't changed since the 1800's. There we bought a lot of stuff. The nest day we went to the Australian museum and to the Sydney Zoo. The last day we were in Australia we went to the art museum and then left to Singapore.

We arrived a Singapore at 10:00pm. So we went to the hotel in the airport and went to bed. the next morning we took a plane at 6:00am to Malaysia and my adventure in Australia had finished.

Christmas Vacation!

Happy Holidays!

We are one week away from Christmas break and I am very excited to finally relax. Up to now this year has been a busy year, changing schedules, teacher and classrooms. All of middle school has been busy with the MS Play, The Nightmare Before Christmas. But it turned out to be great. It will be nice to have 23 days off. There are a lot of things you and your family could do for example, go to the beach or to visit your family.

I'm excited for what I'm going to do this Christmas! I am going to Australia for the very first time. I'm going to go to Sydney, Gold Coast and Cairns for two weeks. But if you are staying here for the holidays then you can go shopping or you can practice your favorite sport. Though it would be a good idea to revise your school work so that you don't forget anything when yoiu go back to school.

New years is coming soon too! You might also want to start to think on a list for a New Years Resolution, you want to start 2009 clean.

Happy Holidays!

Gymnastics

Everyone has their favorite sport! Some like, softball, basketball, track and field, swimming and of course soccer. All these sports are great. Well my personal favorite is gymnastics!

I started gymnastics when I was 4 years old. And ever since I've always done it. Except for two years. My mother couldn't find a gymnastics center and the gymnastics at school was for beginners and I was more advanced. After those two years they had a more advanced after school gymnastics activity. So I decided to join. Now every Saturday at 1:30 I go to a gymnastics class. Sometimes my teachers can be quite mean. Well they are more strict than mean. But I always need to,

• Warm up
• Keep focused
• Always try my best
• Never give up

If I do these and I always practice them then I will be able to improve my flexibility. So if your favorite sport is track or baseball you have to do your best no matter what. Even if your coach is mean sometimes. But if you don't warm up then you could stretch a muscle. That's what happened to me once when i lived in Costa Rica. I arrived late for gymnastics class and missed the warm up. So we were on the floor doing cart wheels, but when it was my turn I ran and skipped and did a cart wheel.

But in the middle I stretched a muscle. I had to go to the doctor. He said I would be fine but I would not be able to do gymnastics for a long time. I couldn't believe I wouldn't be able to do gymnastics. Its like living without chocolate for chocolate lovers, or baseball for baseball players. So I had to spend time at home and do nothing. See, it's good to stretch or you could be in trouble and not be able to do something you really like. So practice and try your best at your favorite sport always.

The telephone!

The telephone is one of the most important inventions. Without it how would we be able to communicate? Alexander Graham Bell was the first to invent telecommunication. Alexander was born on March 3,1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He moved to Ontario, and then to the United States, Boston. Alexander was always interested in the education of deaf people. In Boston he became a teacher for the deaf, he was also working on an invention that would allow a few sound waves, over a single wire at the same time. After he finished his job with the sound waves that would go through a wire he was determined to be able to talk through the wires to another place. Then he hired an assistant, Thomas Watson, and they did Alexanders dream happen. When the first telephone was invented they did not like it. They wanted it to be more perfect.

On August 2, 1922 Alexander died. He was not able to finish his invention. Many have tried to finish the invention but it would not be the same. A few years after Antonio Mucci was the one who finished the invention. We use telephones almost everyday. Without it we wouldn't be able to contact each other.

"The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion."

—Alexander Graham Bell

SPCA!

Hi everyone!

A few days ago a lady that worked in the SPCA came and gave us a presentation on what they do there. She says that they don't have many things for the animals. I think she did a wonderful presentation and I think we should help them by donating:
used towels, puppy pens, water and food dishes, toys,food (dog,cat,rabbits, etc.), and other things the animals will enjoy having. We could also do a bake sale at school and donate all the money we raised, or we could use the money to by something for them.
For example we could buy some puppy pens or food for the animals. The lady who came also said that they don't have a very big place and it's not very noticeable, so they could get enough money to buy another place, but that would take a while. Also I think the middle schoolers should go to the SPCA for a field trip at least once a month. The SPCA doesn't only need money and stuff for the animals but they also need help. So schools should go and help them bath the animals and other things they need.
I hope people who read this have enough time to go help the SPCA.