Spring Backpack Camping Trip

  Pete Seeger said, “Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.” I went on a backpack camping trip with Mr. Mahon and Mr. Vail who are my teachers from OVS. I learned a lot of things that I did not know before. I believe the things I experienced during this trip are worthy and useful for me for the future. Because of these reasons, I do not agree with the decision which is to cancel the Spring Backpack Camping Trip because we will lose a great chance to experience some worthy things.
    At first, I had never been backpack camping before. This was the first time I went camping. On the first night, as soon as we got to the camp site, we started to set-up our tent. However, I totally did not know how to set up a tent. Luckily, my tent group taught me how it works. They were really patient to help me understand. Maybe I will not set up anymore tent in the rest of my life, but I still think setting up a tent was a great experience for me. It is because I will never know what is going to happen in future. I also learned how to pump the water, and start a fire without a lighter. Most people in the world do not know how to set up a tent, pump water with a pumper, and how to start the fire even they have a lighter, so at least these skills make me different from other people.
    Secondly, we had so much great time during the camping trip, and some of the places are really enjoyable. For example, the swimming pools and the beautiful views, gave us a lot of pleasant times. I really love the natural swimming pools because some of them are very deep, so you can jump in them from about five feet high. It was really cool to jump in natural swimming pool because it is totally different from the swimming pool in our campus. On the third day, we went to a camp site which is in the fog. It made us feel scary because we could not see very far, then we were not very sure what was in front of us. We slept in the fog because the fog surrounded the whole camp site. All of those things you can only experience when you go camping, you cannot feel them in the classrooms. I think all of the things that we did are very mysterious because those things are a kind of feeling, they are a kind of things you can never forget.
    At last, we also learned some survival skills. Mr. Mahon showed us about edible plant and how to get away from a bear. For example, you should put your food away from your tent when you sleep, then the bears will go to your food not you. Also, we learned how to know the direction without the tools. I think the most useful skill is how to get clean water because water is one of the most important things for a human. You should find a small bag, if you don’t have one, you can even cut your pocket, and then put some sand in the bag. Then pour the water into the bag, then you let the water come out from the bottom. Of course the water cannot be very clean, but at least it can help you to survive in emergency.
    We can see, I tried a lot of things that I cannot experiment in classroom. Let us think this way; the things we can only experience by ourselves when we go camping, or the things we can learn in class anytime we want. These two choices which one is more worthy for a person? I think most of people’s answer is the first choice. In China, we have an old saying, “Life is short for everyone, so experimenting more things is the same thing as making your life longer.”

How to Make Chinese Tea

  

How to Make Chinese Tea

There are a lot of kinds of tea in China. Nobody can ever know every kinds of tea very well. I am going to introduce how to make a “Tie GuanYin” Tea, which is my favorite tea. “Tie GuanYin” is really bitter, but it is good for your healthy, so you can learn to enjoy it. Trust me, it is amazing.

There are a lot of differences between making tea in China, and making tea in America. In China, if you want to make a real Chinese tea, you need to have a tea set. Usually, a normal tea set is not very expensive.

If you already have a tea set, then you can make a tea if you follow the directions.
1. Boil some hot water
2. Put some dry tea in a small pot
3. Put the boiled water in the small pot, and place the cover on for three mins.
4. Pour all the water out, but keep the tea. This is an important point, you never drink the first batch. We call that "Wash the Tea".
5. Then, do the same thing again. Pour the water in pot, and wait three mins.
6. Lastly, enjoy your tea.

Poetry Lessons

                                          Poetry Classes

    We just finished our poetry lessons. I learned a lot of things from the lessons,
and we had a lot of fun too. This is the first time I learned about the poetry. In China and Singapore, we thought poetry is not formal enough, so the teachers do not teach you about this special type of writing. However, I think the informal style is really fun to write poetry. It is because we don’t need to worry about the format, or other things which we should be careful about when we write an essay. I learned there are a lot of other styles of poetry, for example “Haiku”, “Cinquain”, and “Diamantes”. They also have their own format to write. I think poetry also can be very literal. Some poetry is really hard to understand because they are just the writer’s thinking. It means poetry is really free, it can be just your ideas and thinking. I glad I learned a lot of useful things from the lessons. I like poetry. This is my favorite poem which is I wrote.  





                           Seasons
Summer

hot and boiling sun

people putting sun blocks on

ice creams and ice blocks

Fall

Summer is over

animals preparing for hibernation

old leaves falling down

Winter

Soft blankets of ivory

people wearing scarfs and gloves

The cycle is done

Spring

Butterflies flying around

Gorgeous flowers blossoming

The cycle begins

Thank you, Dad

     My father is forty three years old. He is a businessman right now, but he was a soldier when he was young. He is a serious man, he seldom laughs at something. I think it is because of his job. He is easily distracted; he usually forgets to bring home some important things. I think it is because he needs to remember too many things.    I really need to thank him because he taught me a lot of things what I cannot learn in school, for example, how to trust a person, how calm down when I get angry, and how to study.

     When I was eleven years old, I did not want to trust anyone except my parents. I did not trust my friends; in truth I did not have any friends at that time. I still do not know why I was like that at that time. When my father discovered my problem, he felt very strange yet and found a way to help me. He started to not believe in me, nor did he trust everything I said. I learned through pretend this lesson if I trust no one, I would miss out. Then, I started to change myself.

     Last year, I am easily angered, I do not why, but I could not control myself. When I was angry, I would throw things at the wall. If someone pushed me very hard, I would fight with him for sure. My father noticed this, and again taught me by to be mean to me every day. At first I felt very strange; I did not know why he was like that. Then I realized I was that way to everyone.

    When I was eight years old, I did not know how to study, I only knew how to write, write, and write. So, I learned very slowly. Then my father discovered that, and taught me a lot of good ways to study. I am very happy to learn some different ways of studying from him.

     A lot of people taught me something what are really important, I also want to thank them. However, my father taught me most of the things, so thank you, dad.

Camping Exprience

    Have you ever had an unforgettable experience? I think everyone has. I have. I went on a camping trip with all of the 8^th graders from my school. That was a great trip. We had a lot of fun. This is the first time I went on a camping trip with my schoolmates. I did not know a lot of things about camping. I think the camping trip is not just a chance to have fun, because I learned a lot of things from the camping trip. For example, I learned how to set up a tent, how to hike correctly and how to make an ant catcher.

    
     When we arrived there, we needed to set up our tent. However I knew nothing about that. I did not know how to strike the nails for the ground pad. I did not know how to use the stick which should be the tent’s strut. The classmates who slept in the same tent with me were Gene and Victor, so Victor taught me everything about the tent. I think that will be useful for me. When we set our tent, we discovered there were a lot of ants around our tent. Victor Gong said he wanted to make an ants catcher for us, he thinks that will be useful. Then I saw he make a cave first then put some cookies and water in the cave. That is very easy to make, but I think that is really useful.  

I went to many camping trips for take photograph of nature with my photography teammates. However, we have some Jeep cars, so we slept in car. So, I think the skills are new and useful experiences for me.

     There were two rainy day when during our camping trip. The first rain let a lot of tent got wed, so some students slept in the restroom. When the first time I heart that, I think that’s funny. However, later I think that is a very good idea, restroom was very warm, and it was very clean. So, after the thing, I think sometimes we should change our mind a little bit, we may choose a different way. Maybe that’s batter and more useful!

     We hiked beside a river. The small road was very difficult to walk. I did not bring a pair hiking shoes. I just wearied my basketball shoes for hiking, so I always slipped. Mrs. Vail told me that if I tie some rind of tree under my shoes they will get batter. Then I tried it, it was really useful. I am very happy to learn the smart skill. However I still do not know why it worked. Anyway, I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot of skills from the camping. I will remember it forever.

My most embarrassed moment

     I think my most embarrassed moment happened when I studied in Singapore. I was not border but I rented a house with three of my friends. I have a chum who was very smart, so he never works hard. However, he always could get high marks in the test. His English name is Bartholomew.

     One day, I was going to the library to study be myself in my free time because of the test. When I got there, I saw there was a boy who looked like Bartholomew. I felt very strange because he never came to library. The man was looking for a book, so I went to kick him. I think it was hurt, but we were sworn friends. That was how did we say hi to each other. I said to the man, “ Are you serious? You are in library!” However, when the man turned back, I was very scared, I discovered he was not Bartholomew! I was so embarrassed. I think he was also very scared, he did not say anything.

      Three seconds later, I said that I am so sorry, I thought you are my friends, are you okay? I am so sorry about that. However he still did not say anything, he still stood there. At that time, I had no idea about what should I say or what should I do, so I ran away. He still did not know what happened just now. I think this is my most embarrassed moment in my life.

Mo Mother

    My mother’s name is Shen Qin, she never had an English name. However she has a pen name which is Jin Er, because she is a writer. She is forty-three-years- old, but a lot of people say she looks very young, and she always is happy with it. She has a brother and a sister; both of them are older than my mother. Her father was a soldier, and he was very famous in the armed forces because he killed one hundred and sixty-five Japanese soldiers in the battlefield during the Second World War.
 
    She was the student leader from 6^th grade to 12^th grade. She was a very good student.  Her major in college was Thermal Energy and Power Engineering. The major was very unpopular. So she changed her major to accounting. She joined a big company to be an accountant. Two years later, she got married to my father. Then my father started to set up his own business, so my mother went to his company to be an accountant. She told me that she was very happy at that time.

     Five years later, I was born. So she turned into a house wife. However, she is not a competent house wife. She still does some work for the company. She said that she likes to work. She thinks stay in home is very boring. When I was twelve years old, I went to Singapore. I lived in there by myself. She can drive very well and she likes to drive a car very fast. Her favorite food is chocolate. She will not be fitter even she eats a lot of food. I think it is pretty amazing. Her hobby is knitting, and she can knit a lot of things. For example shoes, shirts, socks and something like that.

     She was a gymnast when she was twelve years old. She told me that she was very good on it. She is pretty good on cook. She also likes to cook some strange food. We always kidding her. We said that we will hide the detergent when she was cook, or she will let us try how is detergent. I think she is an imaginative person because she always has a lot of strange and fancy idea. Sometimes she always can get some new idea for our company. My father said that that is very helpful. This is my mother, I think so.