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,