Christmas in NZ?

Usually I don't stay in NZ for Christmas, I usually just go to the Philippines to celebrate Christmas and New Year. And I actually enjoy going to the Philippines because of how much family and friends we have over there to see and how hard-core celebrations are.

For example, my dad's family live in the heart of the bustling city of Manila and almost all the streets hang lights and have decorations hanging on poles. But the biggest difference between NZ Christmas celebrations and Filipino Christmas celebrations are the parades. The parade is basically floats with statues of Jesus and Christian ornaments that are brightly lit with candles. And the décor around the city centre are full of parols, which are
Filipino Christmas lanterns shaped as stars that are lit with various hues of coloured lights.

And not to mention New Year with the fireworks and the exclamations of joy and happiness. Filipinos gather outside a minute before midnight which will signify New Year, and one it's midnight they will start shouting and then have a midnight feast. Well that's what my family does. But all of this is not going to happen since I'm staying here in NZ.

At least this Christmas my cousins from Auckland, Sydney, and London are coming to visit in Wellington. So it won't be too bad, and then we go to Masterton with some family friends. I also just get to relax before I get anxious with college.

This blog post will be my last official post, meaning my last homework post. But if and when I have the time next year I'll try and write something . . .

Highlights of 2014

The year has come to an end. And for us Year 8's, it will be our last year at St. Benedict's. But it would be nice to list our highlights of the year. I've been at St. Benedict's from Year 1 to Year 8, and I have enjoyed my time here greatly. I've seen everyone improve in their academics , sports, and their own character.

As always, OPC Camp will be the biggest highlight for Year 8's. It was week full of adventure and fun with classmates. It was great experience for all Year 8's.

The theme for the Production this year was different to the other years. It was like a futuristic space story named, 'Agents of Space'. Unlike other years where the theme has been 'Not Another Fairy Tale, 'Uno's Garden', and 'Remember the Days of the Old School Yard'.

I don't know why I'm putting this as a highlight as it is a very minor highlight, but basketball at school has always been really fun. And for me, it was big highlight for this year. I played for the basketball team last year and I was rubbish, I guess you could see the improvements. But everyone improved in their skills, partly from playing every morning tea and lunch. Even though there is basically no rules, where people can get away with 'travelling and 'double dribble', I guess you could describe it as street rules. But it still helped everyone to get better at whatever skill they lacked.

There are many more highlights but I just can't remember them, so yeah. Have a fun last two weeks of school.

College (High School) - St. Patrick's

It's funny for me to think that I've already had my 8 years at primary and intermediate. The years went by so quick, but I can't even remember half my time at St. Benedict's. All my cousins say to enjoy primary while I still could. They always talk about writing a lot of essays and being given a lot of homework in college. The college I will be attending is St. Patrick's College. Their school logo is similar to the St. Benedict's but with a motto written under it. The school motto is 'Sectare Fidem' which I forgot what it meant.

Usually people would be anxious and agitated to go to college, but I'm really calm about it. I've enjoyed my time at St. Benedict's School, but we all have to move on someday. St. Pat's have tried their best to not intimidate new Year 9's. They talked about how easy it would be to just fit in and find new friends. And getting lost is not a challenge because they explained that all students will help guide each other. So as you can see, St. Pat's is nothing to worry about.

I'm really glad that most of my friends and classmates are going to St. Patrick's. That will help with the making friends part. The other thing that is good about St. Pat's is that I know heaps of other Year 9 Filipinos going there. 

There are a lot exams that you have to take in college, first there is the entrance exam, the scholarship, and the NCEA stuff. My cousins always had a hard time with the NCEA exams because apparently they were to hard and complex. But I'm determined to actually try hard and aim high to get good grades and stuff. 

St. Pat's is well known for their basketball programme. I really want to get in to one of the three teams. The college held a one day basketball tournament for the Year 8's going to St. Pat's. I think I did fine, but my biggest concern is that all the people I've seen going to St. Pat's are really tall. I guess my height is about medium, I'm not too short. But when I stand next to my future classmates, I look like a midget. Not all of them super tall, and I've seen other older students who are shorter than me, so I think I won't be too bad. I'm still thinking if I should try for the swimming club and other water sports. I can swim pretty well, but the main problem would be practice, for both basketball and swimming. I've heard that the basketball and swimming practices were pretty early in the morning. I can wake up early enough, but it will still be a huge trouble.

The only challenges I will face is how to transfer from class to class, keeping my grades good, and being confident in an enormous school of over 800 students.

Well I still have 2 weeks at St. Benedict's and I'm feeling really positive. I can still be able to visit because of my younger brother anyway. But I will still miss being in a smaller school where I know mostly everyone's names. At St. Patrick's, I won't be able to even know half of the students there.

My Trip to America Part 2

The plane back to LAX was ok I guess. It was boring and dull. Anyway we got back to L.A. and got picked up by my Aunt. We stayed the night there and the next day we went to an NBA game. It was the L.A. Lakers vs. North Carolina Hornets. Lakers are kind of doing really bad so everyone was expecting the Hornets to win. But to everyone's surprise, the Lakers won! It was the first win for Lakers.

The ride to San Diego should be an hour and a half or something but with traffic it took two and a half hours. I fell asleep during the ride and woke up to see lagoons of clean blue water on both sides of the freeway. Then huge villas and mansions on an extravagant cliff side overlooking the harbour of the tourist part of the city of San Diego. We passed Lego Land and drove pass Sea World to Hyatt Hotel. sea World and Hyatt was like 3 minutes away from each other. After we were checked in to our hotel we just slept because it was already late.

The next morning we went to Sea World. To quickly summarise the theme park, we just saw heaps of marine animals and there were two fun roller coasters. Some of the marine animals were sea lion, otters, dolphins, and mantas (stingrays). The roller coaster were called Manta and Journey to Atlantis. Mata was just a quick roller coaster that went around and around and into loops. And the Journey to Atlantis was like a water ride thing where go down a steep part into water. There was more things to do but our time was short. But we came back the next, next day.

Our second day in San Diego we went to Lego Land. It wasn't as fun as it sounds though. The two huge water parks were closed and only the actual theme park was open. And that was not to big. As I walked around I saw heaps of children aged 5 - 11. But still it was a nice experience. There were mediocre rides that weren't that dumb but out of the two theme parks I went to in San Diego, I liked Sea World better.

The next day we came back to Sea World to watch the Shamu show. Shamu is the killer whale mascot of San Diego Sea World. It was fun and the tricks were complex. Then we went to the Shark, Turtle, and Fresh Water Aquarium. And the Arctic Enclosure. The Arctic Enclosure had Manatees, Polar Bears, and Penguins. So that was interesting.

That is pretty much a quick summary of my San Diego trip. After that we went back to L.A. and went shopping and stuff.

But we also went to Hollywood and Universal Studios. I went there 5 years ago and nothing much has changed, but it was still fun. There were two new rides. The Transformer one and the Minion Mayhem Ride. It was all in 3D, but the Transformers was kind of like a roller coaster and the Minion Mayhem one was 4D.

This is pretty much what I did in America. Hopefully I can come back again sometime later.

Getting a Speech and a Truck Load of Task Dumped on me . . .

I just presented my speech and to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I understand everyone is scared and anxious but I tried my best to create a calm atmosphere in my head. It was working until the part where I was walking up to the front of the classroom. I was nervous. I just came back from a trip to America and a truck load of tasks just got dumped on me. I'm surprised that everything is going according to plan.

I know I should have finished my speech and memorized it while I was gone. But since I was only gone for a couple of weeks, the sight seeing schedule was very tight. Once we came back from Dallas, it was a straight drive to San Diego. Every night I was exhausted and every time there is a chance to do something, I would fall asleep.

But anyway, I did my speech and I was happy with my performance. It wasn't flashy and super vibrant, but it was not so average. But the question that stuck in my head was, why didn't I have a heart attack?

I guess because of countless sleepless nights of typing, reading, and writing, I accomplished most tasks by Wednesday! I'm just glad that my mind is still in L.A. time which is 4 hours early! 

My Trip to America

Sorry I couldn't post anything because everytime I have the time to write anything I won't have wi - fi. But finally this is how my trip has been going so far.

The plane was okay. I watched a couple of movies to make the time run by quick but the games were a rubbish. The flight to Brisbane, Australia was about 3 and 1/2 hours with no entertainment screen on the back of the seat. The airline I flew on was Virgin Australia and instead of having entertainment screens, they used an app and wi - fi. There is an app on Google Play and the App Store called Entertainment - Virgin Australia. And when you open it on your tablet or phone, you can access all their movies, music, and the flight path. So that was great.

And the flight from Brisbane, Australia to Los Angeles, USA was the longest but definitely the best. They had entertainment screens and gave dinner and breakfast (The meal times changed as we left Brisbane because the time is different in America then in Australia and New Zealand.) But the other great thing was they had a self services snack bar. Though it only had a bag of chips called Ruffles (which is probably a brand of chips in America or something) and a Coke can, it was unlimited. The obviously huge plane had a bar (an actual wine and beer bar) but I don't know if it was only for the Bussiness class to use. And again the airline was Virgin Australia.

We got to LAX in the morning (LAX is the Los Angeles Airport, the X is just some random airport code or something) and one of my relatives picked us up. It was weird becaause we left New Zealand on Tuesday but when we got to America it was still the same Tuesday! It was Fall (Autumn) in America so it wasn't hot, you could imagine a Summer day in Wellington. But the smell was totally different. It smelt like cigarettes and car exhaust smoke. Basically we stayed in L.A. for 2 nights and departed for Dallas. Yes, where Ebola is but we stayed far away from the area, somewhere in Colleyville which is several hours away from the Ebola area.

We were picked up by my cousin at the airport and drove straight to their house. The airport had a lot of random people wearing mouth masks which my cousin thought was funny because apparently the televised Ebola scenes were exaggerated so much and that the US government already had it in control. 

I'm writing this in Dallas so I don't know what will happen next in my trip. But we got to my cousin's house and left our baggage and drove to a formal chinese restaurant to meet my uncle. After we ate we did some shopping and stuff and went sight seeing. But one of the best things we did was go to the street where John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We saw the exact spot where he was first shot, and the second where the fatal shot was taken. We also saw the building and the window where the shooter was. There was a grassy area covered with bushes and trees, and some say there was another assassin hiding there waiting to shoot.

After that we went to an actual Texas style country town, where they had a cattle drive ( A bunch of cowboys riding cattle down the main street.) We ate at a B.B.Q Ribs Buffet, but I didn't eat much because after the appetizer which was corn nuggets I was already full. 

A few days after we went to the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science. It was about 5 floors. the lowest floor was on sports and physics. The high light of that floor is the Sports Run. You can race a T Rex, athletes and a cheetah. My brother and I raced a T Rex but we out runned it. ( The T Rex, athletes, etc. were on a screen beside the race track, not real or robotic.

We explored the rest of the museum, it had rooms on Energy, Minerals and Gemstones, Elctronics (Robots etc.), astronomy, and birds. Overall the museum was fantastic. Porbably better than Te Papa.

After that we ate at a hotel. 

I have a few more days left in Dallas, but when we fly back to L.A. we drive to SanDiego to go to Lego Land and Sea World and stuff. So that is what has happened in my trip so far.

P.S. - 

I also had Halloween in Colleyville, a small city in Dallas as I said. I borrowed by cousin's Batman mask and we went around the neighbourhood and we got a lot of the American candy that you wouldn't normally get in New Zealand.

Someone I met in the Holidays . . .

I read the last book of Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light. It was probably the best book of the series. I wasn't expecting so much action in the book, besides that I also got to meet Derek Landy in person! He had a couple of book signings, I went to the Queensgate mall in Lower Hutt. and I came an hour before it started so I was 5th in the line. Apparently the 1st guy in the in came in at 8 am and the book signing started at 12 in the afternoon.

 I've got the main 9 books in the series and 2 short story books. I also got a "Baddie Bag", it had a balloon, a wrist band, a book mark, and a poster.

Production Summary

Production is done, and I am surprised to say that we did really well. Even though I spent most of my time on backstage, I enjoyed watching from the side. The only trouble was I had to play guitar at the beginning, and change into my costume for the first dance. I was on mic transfer and I have to say we did really well (Ethan and Astin), Astin was on mic stands and Ethan and I was on headset mics. But I have to admit Ethan did most of the transfers. My highlights was probably setting up because even though it was stressing, it was still fun. I don't think there could be any more improvements, the Productions that I have done have been pretty high quality and I think they should just keep what they're doing. My performances on the first night was a bit below average due to timidity and fear of messing up. But on the second night I improved really noticeably.

Production is 2 Days Away . . .

First of all I think that we are not ready for Production that is only 2 days away. We still have a lot to finish, whether it is a costume or a dance. The productions I have done in the last years have been really easy as the dances were simple but really effective and the costumes were also simple and easy to create and even if they were quite plain it gave the dance way more potential to do intricate moves. But the intermediate dances have been made so complex that instead of being astounding and cunning it just falls apart. Personally I think that the dances for the year 7 and 8's would've been good but they still need more time to practice. And the key to big group dances is to be in time together.

The scenes are getting there but still still have mistakes in them. For example the Cantina Scene has a problem with knowing where to stop chattering for the actual scene to start. But with cooperation it might come together.

Parliament and Elections 2014

Our current topic in class is the Elections 2014 for NZ. We have just read a page from a book about the history. The Elections 2014 will be held on the 20th of September.

The Parliament in New Zealand, also known as the Beehive, is divided in four different buildings.In this picture the tall rounded building is the Beehive, but formally it is called The Executive Wing. The closest building in the picture is the Parliament House. It is connected to The Executive Wing and the Parliamentary Library, where important documents is kept. And the last building that is less noticeable as part of parliament is the Bowen House which is across the road from Parliament.

Important things I already know are:

- General Elections happen every3 years.

- John Key is the present prime Minister.

- You have to be at least 18 years old to be able to vote.

- Woman can vote in New Zealand.

- You are not required to vote.

In recent lessons we have been taught about the Government as the winning party, which currently is National, with John Key as their leader. And that Parliament has more power than the Sovereign, the Queen in England, to control New Zealand.

Later on in the term we will have a school trip to Parliament exploring the rooms and learning more about it. This topic is worthwhile for me since it is important and is for the country.

Reading Challenges

In intermediate at my school, we have Reading Challenges given to us at the start of each of the four term. I am doing an average job at completing challenges. Out of seven challenges, I have completed 3. There is a Random Book Challenge where you pick a book of the shelf without looking. I did this in the new book section in the school library. The book I had picked was Four, an extra Divergent book. I finished the Series Challenge where you have to read 3 books from the same series. The series I read was the Ranger's Apprentice. And the last challenge I completed was the Family Challenge where you have to read a book recommended by a family member. The book I read was the Ranger's Apprentice.

Basketball

I like this sport because it is really fun and enjoyable, when you win your game. But if you lose it is easy to learn what you need to improve on. Basketball is not all about your physical strengths or how fast you can run. Mental tactics and planning plays a vital part of basketball. And if you can communicate with your team mates quick and easily, that will make passing more efficient. And this is what makes basketball fun for me.

I think everyone should play this sport because the skills you learn while playing it can relate to real life problems. Anyone is capable of playing basketball, whether a girl or boy. In every team I get put on to play for St. Benedict's there is at least two girls. Others would think this was a disadvantage because girls that would try playing basketball originally play netball. But using their stregths you can create a great team. 

Production Dance

My school is having a School Production as they always do every two years. This years theme is space, as in asteroids and spaceships. As well as the main acting scenes we need to practice the dances. I guess I can catch on pretty quick. I don't have many problems with the dance. But having do it over and over again is agonising. But I guess it's part of practicing. Any way with a few more weeks until the actual opening night. The teachers are frantic to get everything perfect. And that means heaps of listening and waiting and redoing. But I guess it's worth it.

Rainbow Song

Throughout my years at school, we would sing this song at least five times in a term. It's mostly about us and God happily living under his rainbow. His promise that he will never flood the earth again. The chorus goes on about the colours red, orange, yellow, and green, blue and indigo, and violet. I like it because it gives rainbows another meaning and inspires us to live better to thank God for the occasional colours in the sky and for giving us the world.

Egyptian Art - Ra the Sun God

A few weeks ago, my class was learning about Ancient Egypt as I have said in my past posts. And to help give us an image of Ancient Egypt's mythology, our teachers  let us paint a god from Egypt. Originally I chose Horus the Protector of Egypt to paint, but after looking at the picture, Horus' hat was a lot taller than I expected. So I had to change my painting to Ra. I thought it wouldn't be that great because of Ra's hideous snake hat but after seeing the finished version it was spectacular. And just saying the background is suppose to be yellow, not green.

Ancient Egypt Topic

For the past few weeks, our intermediate classes have been learning about Ancient Egypt. This topic instantly spread to different branches, like the gods, temples and structures, and civilisations. I was excited about this topic because I read a book by Rick Riordan, The Kane Chronicles, a book that revolved around Ancient Egypt's Gods and myths. But before that happened we had to look at the First Dynasty, the dawning era of Ancient Egypt.

The Ancient Egypt was split in to two areas, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. But what interested me was that Upper Egypt was far more South then Lower Egypt, meaning that Lower Egypt was closer North. It intrigued me was why the Ancient Egyptians did it. the reason for this was that The River Nile's water went downstream going North. The source of the water came from a city from the South of Lower Egypt and carried downstream North exiting out into the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Egypt also had their own religion, they believed in the Afterlife. They had their own creation story, I will explain it. In the beginning there was only the Sea of Chaos, then the First God appeared, Atum. He spat out Shu and Tefnut, who gave birth to Geb and Nut. Geb and Nut were going to have five children, but Ra, the Sun God and the King of the Gods, forbade them because he thought Geb and Nut's offspring's would overthrow him as king. Ra stated that none of Geb and Nut's children was supposed to be born on any day of the year. So Geb and Nut gambled with the Moon God to create five extra days. And that's how the world of Egypt began.

I have learned a lot from my classes' Egypt Topic, and I loved learning all about it.

Nairnville - Gymnastics

For the past five weeks, on Thursday, my class would walk to a gymnasium called Nairnville, which is a five minute walk from my school, to do gymnastics.

For all the years that I've been at St. Benedict's School, I dreaded gymnastics the most. Not because I think it's mostly a girl thing, but because of how the exercises are excruciating. We have to do cartwheels, handstands, rolls, and bar flips, and many more. You have to put a lot of effort to perform these, especially if you're not an experienced gymnast.

The routines were usually split in to three parts. One of the routines was just a circuit with obstacles that goes around and around, this is supervised by the accompanying teacher. Then there would be the beam, handstand, and rings routines, which is led by one of the two Nairnville staff. And then the last routines were the rolls. This I hated because of the foam that you had to roll on. It was rough, and had that odour of gym lockers. Over all the routines weren't that bad.

My favourite part was the circuit routine because of the easiness and the effortless tasks. You just had to climb a ladder, go down a slide, hop to a jumping task, and more, then repeat. It was, well, easy. And that was my favourite part. The other thing I kind of enjoyed was the trampoline, though I've only went on it once due to the fights on going first and getting off. The trampoline was expansive and stretched in to a rectangular shape.

I think I improved in nothing, because I've had seven years already to practice all these routines, and I probably should already be an expert. Though I've had many troubles, I've learned to just get it over with and continue on.

The gymnastics this year have been agonising and thrilling at the same time, and I guess that kind of fun.

Learning Golf - Again . . .

In the week ends, my family went to Masterton as a short holiday because of the Queen's Birthday. Our hotel had a Golf Driving Range, where you can just hit a ball onto an obtuse field. When I was 7, my Dad had enrolled me and my brother on a Children's Golf Programme. Back then I didn't want to play any sports, especially the physically involved, for example, rugby. I also thought that golf was more of a hobby then a sport, for retired men. But still, I was already enrolled, so every Saturday, my Dad would drive me, and my brother, to Lower Hutt, to a golf club.

And to add to my agony, it was winter. Yes, it was winter, and I would be left out on a green, white frosted field for an hour and a half, with some other kids, that hated the place as much as I did.

At first we had learned to putt the ball in the direction of the hole, which was much more boring then it sounds. Then we moved onto to actually hitting the ball so it would soar through the air. For a while I actually enjoyed just hitting the ball, until the cold finally came into effect. It was freezing, I had looked around to see the others clutching their shoulders as a feeble attempt to get warm. After a few more minutes of excruciating cold, it was over. But I still had to endure this pain for a whole term.

So that's my story of my first golf experience. And it certainly didn't help that I was at a driving range, watching my Dad smash the ball past the 150ft mark. When I tried, I wasn't really hitting the ball, not because I kept on missing but because my Dad had me practicing my posture, like bending my knees and straight arms, feet flat and more. There was a rubber ball holder that jutted out of the ground, in fact there were several of them that formed a circle, probably so you could hit the ball in different directions.

Finally, after correcting my postures and stuff, I could hit the ball. At first I did keep on missing the ball, but then I could hit the ball, and it would fly to the 50ft mark. Not that glamorous, but at least I could hit it.

Then something, unexpected happened, I smashed the ball, and I watched it fly through the air, past the 50ft, then 100, then 150ft! My Dad had stared in disbelief, I stared at my hands which were numb from gripping the golf club, called a 'hammer' which helped you hit hard, really tight. And then I could repeat it again and again, I saw other kids struggling, there grandpa's at their backs glaring.

And that's is my story of how I learned how to play golf, the second time,

Book Groups - Again

As the same as last year, we have Book Groups. This year we have a wider selection of books, one of them was 'Tangerine' written by Edward Bloor. This book is about a boy by the name of Paul Fisher, he moves towns and is stuck in a place where tangerine trees were a mere folklore and muck fires, rains, and lightning appear at the same precise time of the day. He struggle to fit in with a mysterious eye injury, he fights to survive in Lake Windsor Middle School until disaster strikes, he is forced to move to Tangerine Middle. He meets a few friends and enemies.

My Book Group consisted of Paolo, James, Astin, Matthew, Sam V. and me. I thought that we would struggle because I certainly didn't think that this group will co-operate well, until the 'Crackers' were announced again. 'Crackers' is pretty much equal to chips, biscuits, chocolate, and candy. The first two times we couldn't conquer the challenge of Book Groups, but eventually we did.

I really liked the Book Groups, it was a great experience to have.

A Book I Read . . .

When I was five, someone gave me a big, purple book about the history of cars. I'm sorry but I've long forgotten the title and author, but I remember all the details of the information. At first I had no interest in reading the huge and intimidating book, I didn't even open it until a few years later when I was seven. When I opened the book, I ws surprised, the book was full of pictures and text filling the page with just the perfect amount of words.

As I read it, my interest in cars grew bigger and bigger, I started to memorize the car brands of passing cars and their logos. My dad then gave me a huge collection of 'Hot Wheels' and 'Matchbox' car models. Soon I had a huge shelf with the cars displayed on them, I kept on reading until the end and I was shocked with the outcome of the book. The book included information about the first forms of transport, horse carriages, to the modern cars. It also talks about army vehicles, trucks, buses, and even the biggest vehicle made!

I really enjoyed this book, and now I have a clear idea of the timeline of cars. And this book not only talks about cars but planes and boats too. 

Have you read anything related to the history of vehicles?

3 Movies I Watched in the Holidays!

Captain America - The Winter Soldier

First of all, this movie has a big twist that I don't think anyone was expecting. Marvel has done really good movies over the past years, but this one was one of the best, yet not quite. This Marvel movie revolved around Captain America and the famous T.V. series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America works with Agent Romanoff (Black Widow) and Nick Fury to stop some bad people from launching Helicarriers satellites that have the power to destroy threats. And their assassin, The Winter Soldier, is sent to destroy the S.H.I.E.L.D rebels from stopping them. And the rest is in the movie. Over all, this movie is a thriller and is suitable for everyone to enjoy. 

Divergent - Based on the book written by Veronica Roth

Before you watch the movie, as always, you must read the book, or else, the story is spoiled. This movie is about a girl who is different, and this makes her powerful, yet, desired to be destroyed by an evil person, by the name of Jeanine Matthew. She under goes an aptitude test which should help her decide on her choice out of five factions, based on human virtues. The girl, called Beatrice Prior, will meet many friends, but more enemies. She can't trust anyone, or else her life is in jeopardy. Friends might turn on friends, but who? I personally enjoyed this book, and I think everyone should read it. If you liked the Hunger Games, this book is definitely for you.

The Amazing Spiderman - Rise of Electro

This movie by Marvel is the second out of the Amazing Spiderman. This movie is pretty much all action and adventure. Sadly, someone dies, unexpectedly. But, this movie is the best out of all the Spiderman movies. This is because there is two villains, Electro who wants to take electricity from the city because he was always bullied as an adult at work, and Harry Osborn, who wants revenge on Spiderman, because he thinks Spiderman's blood can cure a sickness his father died of that he now will enevitably have.

What movie do you think sounds the best out of these three?
Did you see any movies in the holidays?

Mission Fair for Solomon Islands!

On Thursday we had a school fair. All money was given to Caritas to help the devastated Solomon Islands. Our stall was in two parts, we had a Nerf Shooting Range and a Fruit Burst Guessing stall. Together we earned a lot of money. I helped run the guessing stall. There weren't much things you could buy, it was all candy, bracelets, and games. Our stall was made out of me, Astin, Josh, Andrew, Paolo, and Josh. And our stall together earned $58.00, and the grand total of the school approximately $1000! I think our stall ran perfectly with not much money put in to it. I'm happy with the cost and how much it earned. The total was way past my expectation. I hope Solomon Islands will get the attention they need.

What I've been doing at Home . . .

I've been mostly reading books, going through my huge shelf. But I've finished most of it all. I borrow books from the school library, but finish it quickly. So otherwise I would do tasks (homework). Once I've gone through that, I'll play guitar for awhile until it's dinner. And after dinner I would mostly be on my iPad mini.

What I Like About It . . .
Books. I like books because of how when you read it, you can imagine what they look like. But in movies and television, they just show you. Books are great instruments for education, they're the major and main thing you use for school.

Tasks. I only do it because we were asked to. If it was optional, I probably wouldn't accept the offer. Sometimes the tasks are worth doing, and sometimes it's just time consuming.

Playing guitar, or other instruments, is great thing to do to take your mind off things. I have lessons every Saturday, which means more homework.

What's your favourite book (series)?

Do you play any instruments?

Statistics

Improvements:

I had no idea on idea on pie graphs much, until after our assessments. I had trouble trying to include all the needed tips to make a perfect graph. I had learned this several times, but it is easily forgotten. 

Areas to Work On:

I'm confident with Statistics, and i think i don't need much improvements, due to my 100% score on our final test. 

What Helped me Achieve was . . .

Miss Bolger's work sheets that practised me with the unit. It was a big help reviewing over the graphs and averages, range, mode and median, which were common in the test. 

Statistics is a branch of maths that every job would include. Especially in business, calculating the profits and what not. So hopefully i will remember all of it.

OPC Camp - Finished

Last week was camp, it was fun, though I came back with several cuts and bruises. On the first day, we arrived at the Levin Adventure Park for lunch, then the Waiouru Army Museum and finally The Sir Edmund Hillary Out-Door Pursuits. We left at about half past ten and got to OPC at quarter to six. We settled down unpacking a bit then attended lunch at half past six. Dinner was nachos, corn and mixed vegetables and dessert was ice-cream and fruit salad. After we were showed a short presentation of what OPC's purpose was, which was to encourage people to experience the outdoors and co-operate with others. The reason it was named after Sir Edmund Hillary because after Hillary completed his climb up Mount Everest, he went home and found out about OPC. He supported them and so that's how OPC got named after Hillary. We went on with the rules and so on and returned to our cabins.

The next day we had a Local Day as the instructors called it. That meant that we'd do activities just around the compound of the camp. We had packed a day pack with all our needs for the day, including a hat, water bottle and sunscreen (etc.). First we did a Low Ropes course, which in fact was quite low, hovering a quarter of a metre above the ground. Then High Ropes which was as high as about thirty five metres. We just did two of the courses. The objective of one was to walk across a log which wobbled, the log was about five metres maybe. And the other one was to jump a gap of more than a metre to another platform. We then went on a flying fox which went over a river. Then we went urban caving, which kind of disgusted me at first then turned out to be fun. We crawled through a sewage pipe, but the water was just the excess of our drinking water and tap water, definitely not toilet water. It was maybe fifteen or twenty metres long. By the end you would feel like "I just did that . . . Wow . . ." feeling. As you can see we had a lot of fun.

We gained a lot of experience from our week, including how to abseil down a sheer fifty metre rock cliff face, rock climb up a thirty five metres and go caving. We also learned the value of co-operation, trust, teamwork, friendship, courage and most importantly resilience. These were essential, these values were crucial to live through that week. You had to pay attention because most activities are life and death. But we all lived and had fun with just cuts and bruises. I hope the Year 7's enjoyed E.O.T.C Week as well as we enjoyed OPC Camp.

Swimming Term 1

In Term 1, we have swimming lessons on Tuesday every week.. For Year 7's and 8's, there is swimming extensions. Meaning if your considerably well at swimming, you can skip lessons and water safety, and choose from kayaking, snorkelling and diving lessons. I chose to be in kayaking. I wanted to be in kayaking because I thought it would be fun, but my Dad said to just do diving, so it would help me in swimming sports competitions, but I already chose kayaking. It was worth it, since we might do kayaking when I go to camp (OPC). The first few lessons we practiced a safety routine when we capsized in our kayak and how to enter the pool with your life jacket. The instructors said to tuck your knees under the knee guards for balance, then delicately slide out, leaning forward, and tap three times on the kayak so the instructors know your safe. But if you can't get out, you continue tapping. After this we went on the bubble machine. At first I was baffled at what they said. I then understood that it was an exercise, so you could feel what river rapids were like. We were told to huddle up together, there were approximately about ten of us. Next they activated the machine. It was reasonably strong since I was sent back to the corners of the vast five metre pool. I looked around to see that we were scattered across the pool, with our life jackets. I was amused at how strong it was. We were then asked to rate the aggressiveness of the burst of water out of ten. The average score they rated was five, some eight. They told us it was not even over half of one! Everyone was amazed. After we could catch up to the people who had lessons and now was in free time. We had about five minutes until we actually changed. I spent a few minutes there, people telling about what they did, and how fun it was. That was my typical swimming day. But for a few weeks it was cancelled due to a swimming meet apparently. And plus OPC Camp. But swimming enjoyable as the past seven years.

OPC Camp

OPC Camp stands for Outdoor Pursuits Centre. Year 8's go there for a week to boost up their confidence. I am now Year 8 (Grade 6), so I have to attend this event. I am feeling a bit concerned because of my gear, if I have everything or not. The activities there are almost once in a life time opportunity, with caving, tubing, camping, high ropes and more. So i have quite to look forward to and worry for. Anyway while the Year 8's are there, the Year 7's are doing EOTC (Education In The Classroom). They learn a lot and may explore an astronomy observatory, art museum, go on tramp up a mountain or visit a film festival. Well that was what I did when I was Year 7. I guess I could say I'm  excited about OPC Camp. It'll be fun.