T2 B8: Square Dancing

Ok. First day of square dancing. Word to describe it? Awkward. Really awkward. But I'm considered lucky. Our class got to dance with the other grade 8 class that took place at the same time. Hearing from my friends, they had to dance with grade 9s. Anyways, class started with our group forming two lines: boys on one side, and girls on the other. Then we walk forward and "pair up". Yes, holding hands and walking in a circle. We were all uncomfortable, but you could hear laughter every once in a while, because, of course, there was funny couples. Some had a tall girl, and a really short guy. Others had a really tall guy and short girl. There was giggling, and at least that loosened us up. Then we had a circle dance. Left heel, right heel, slide, slide. clap, clap, knee, knee. twirl around, switch partners. Left heel, right heel...It's actually quite simple, easier than I thought. Of course, it gets more complicated....I hope I'll pull through...

Dapple Grey

Back to School....

Groan.....I really hate going to school right after a holiday. How does everyone do it? It's so hard. I mean, you get really relaxed and lazy, and then bam! You have to wake up really early and be focused all through your classes. Maybe I'm getting way too lazy in the weekends. But isn't everyone? It's torture! You get a taste of relaxation, and then no more! Back to school. Okay, I'll stop the complaining, it's probably annoying you. But I just can't wait till Winter Vacation! Oh yeah, I kept forgetting to check the book test list at school and so I finally remembered to check it today, and guess what? It was gone! She took it off! Nooooo.....I can't believe it! This is like getting to the exciting part of the book and not being able to finish it. Oh well. I really have to stop being reactive. I snooze I loose. Anyways, the reason I really need to check the list this time is because this was my final book test, and I have only need that las tbook, and so this list will determine if I made the test, and got 100%. Plus I really hope I get it, because I don't have another chance to do it again. I'll remember to ask her when she tells me my percentage. I'm crossing my fingers!
Dapple Grey

Art Class

Awww. Today's our last day to work. Next week's the official last day, but we won't have much time to work on our artwork, because we have to prepare it for the trip home. (we have lots of pastel drawings. Imagine all that powder!) I'll miss it, because I loved my art lessons. But at least I can still work during winter break! Anyways, before the class, our teacher was talking about art and identity. He talked about how China had their unique art style, and Egypt with their mummies and paintings. He talked aobut Italy and their famous shoes. Then came Canada and Australia, who don't really have an identity in art. He told us how fustrated he was when he was travelling with his Australian friends. How people would say, "Oh yeah, Australia, the kangaroos! Or "Oh yeah, Canada with the maple syrup, hockey, and igloos!" He was just astonished that we didn't have they didn't recognize our art style, maybe because we don't have a specific one, we're still finding one that will represent us. Like you don't hear people going "Oh Canada, they have Emily Carr!". What we did today was fun I guess, we had to make another cellphone pastel drawing. It was hard because we had to replicate our other cellphone pastel drawing, but not make it exactly the same. Does that make sense? Anyways, we had to use the same style as the last drawing. He knew it would be hard, which was why we were doing this. Why? Because well, let's say you start on this painting today. You work hard on it, but it's not quite finished. You decide to work on it the next week, but you just can't remember what you were thinking when you were working on the drawing last week. What I'm saying is that you can't continue a drawing after you leave it for some time, because you don't have the same feeling and mood as when you first drew it, and you'll just try to change it. So, you just can't continue it. My art teacher told us that long time ago there was the Museum of Art, and they had these wonderful paintins by Picasso. Anyways, they knew they had fakes in the Museum, but they didn't want to display their Picasso paintings yet because it would be horrible if even the slightest mistake was found. So, them, being proud and all, invited Picasso himself to come to say which ones was his real paintings. So they paid for Picasso's flight there, and they set up this huge room with tons of Picasso paintings. So Picasso, arrived and spent one hour looking at his paintings. When he was finished, the museum manager asked him, "Well, what do you think? Which ones are fakes?" and do you know what Picasso replied? He said, "Their all fakes." Then he left. Can you imagine how angry the museum was? Anyways, what my teacher wanted us to know was that you can't come back to a drawing that is left for a long time, you'll never remember, or have the same feeling and reaction when you see it. Stories, stories, stories. I love the stories that my teacher tells us. They're so fascinating! I love them so much, I'll miss listening to them every week. Also, for you, it'll mean no more art facts every week! (aww....) Anyways, I'm growing to love Picasso, maybe I'll do him for a project.
Dapple Grey

Embarrassing Moment for Brother

Haha. Oh wait, actually it's rude to laugh at this situation. But it's too funny! We had english tutor today. So we headed to her house. My dad told us specifically, before we left his shiny white car, that our mom (she drives a big gray van) would pick us up. We all agreed, but I think my brother was daydreaming that time. Me and my sister didn't seem to notice that he wasn't paying attention. So we had tutor, and the sky started darkening as night fell. My brother peered out the curtains to the outside and spotted a white car and yelled, "Dad's here!" So we all packed up our stuff and went ot the front door. Me and my sister was only reaching the front door when we looked outside the door and we saw a white car. Only it wasn't my dad's, because he wasn't picking us up, my mom was. We were about to call out to our brother, but it was too late. He must have been in a hurry because he was already all the way outside, and to our horror, he opened the car door! I guess he figured out at that moment that it wasn't dad's car. He just stood there, staring at the stranger inside. Then, in a flash, he shut the car door and run back to us, his cheeks all red. We had a long, hard laugh at that one. We didn't mean to tease my brother, but yeesh, we didn't have a funny moment like that for a long time!
Dapple Grey

Pro-D Day

Awwww. I'm sad now. I didn't have riding lessons yesterday because my mom thought it was too dangerous to go. So I miss it. Anyways, after school yesterday, I helped my mom shovel the driveway, and the sidewalks. It was actually reall fun. No kidding. Scooping up the snow. Then dumping it onto a pile. A perfect plan to build something big. Unfortunately it was too dark. And by the next morning, it was raining, and the snow was already starting to melt away. Noooooooooo. Oh well. I hope that's not the last time it will snow.
Today is Pro-D day. I'm stuck doing homework inside because it's so gloomy and wet outside. I had fun playing games on my computer though. No, I wasn't procrastinating. Or was I? Just kidding. I only play the games because it's easier to focus on your work afterwords, so you don't overwork yourself. The problem with this plan is that you have to know when to stop. I have to make sure I don't get too addicted or else I'll end up playing games for the whole day. It's hard, but it's a good way to practice self control!
Dapple Grey

Snow.Again.

Snow. Snow Again. More Snow this time! Maybe it'll be a snow day this time! I found out later that only the private schools were closed. Oh well. A nice, snowy days with friends! How wonderful. Getting to school was torture. The cars were creeping ever so slowely on the road. And the clock ticked and ticked, reminding me how late I was going to be. At least I was safe, and I don't think my band teacher would mind. He called us "Snowbound people" and at least we had a really good excuse. The roads near Churchill was harder to drive through. Later, we found out that one of the cars broke down. Ouch. As I ran into the school, my hands started feeling numb because of the sudden temperture change. It was so warm in the school. Especially in the band room, because it was one of the only rooms where you could control the temperature (because of the instruments). Ahhhhhhh. Then at Social Studies I was really lucky. I had the seat right next to the heater. It was so warm. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I almost refused to leave my seat at the end. It was just to warm and comfortable. And it was one of my favourite classes. I hope you were somewhere warming up as well. Check, no frozen bodies lying on the hallways.
Dapple Grey

P.E. Basketball Test

Hello!
I guess I was kind of expecting a P.E. Test soon. All the other classes had so many P.E. written tests, but our class didn't have any. Our teacher made us focus more on skill and more practice and playtime rather than studying rules. I thought that was cool, our teacher's really nice. But sooner or later, comes a surprise skills test. Today. On basketball. It was a test out of 10 to see if you could do your layups. If u missed....I don't even want to talk about how low you'll get for that. Anyways, we've been praticing for weeks, so I thought I was ready for it. Not. I guess I was too panic-stricken to focus. We had a short time to practice. And then we had till the rest of the class to show him what we've got. I practiced until I almost ran outof time, and then I went for my practice test. We had two shots at the test. If you looked down at the floor it would be marks off. Shoot. I always had to look down to check if my footing was right and I had enough distance. Once, I forgot to look down, and the by the time I had glanced up, I was past the net. Oops! So for the first time I didn't do so well, but my teacher encouraged me to try again, so I did. My last chance. I summoned all of my courage. Counted my steps. Dribbled perfectly (or tried to at least). Everything turned slow motion. Then swish! The sound of my basketball going through the net. Yessssssss! Score! I raced over to my teacher to find out about my score. I was so nervous, waiting in front of him for his answer. And the score was.....drum roll......9.5! I was so surprised. 9.5 out of 10! I had expected lower, but I was so happy, and burstin with pride. Proud of me, Dapple Grey, who does not even like Basketball. I found out later that 0.5 was deducted because I glanced down at the floor once. Figures. Anyways, I patiently waited for my friends to finish their testing. And surprise! They both got 9.5 as well! Not bad at all! One of them glanced down once as well, and the other half-tripped. Still, we got pretty high scores!
Dapple Grey

Brrrrrrrrr....It's freezing already!

Hi y'all!
I'm ssooo cccold! I can't believe it's getting so cold already. It's snowed so much already! I've never had a winter like this. Last year was just down right disappointing. Barely any snow, and no white Christmas! I hope this year won't let us down. In fact, it already looks promising. Anyways, my siblings had a art lesson at Granville Island, and they were already kind of late, so guess what? I had to tag along. It was an hour and a half, and I guess it wasn't so bad. Or so I thought. I did my homework in the car, and it was okay for a while, and then the sky started getting darker, and the air got colder and colder. Next thing I knew I was huddled in my kind-of-warm jacket, curled up in a ball, trying hard to get warm because it was so freezing. I was bored, I didn't want to move my arms to do homework, it was too dark anyways. I was bored and I didn't bring my book, so the next thing I knew, I was dozing off....ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Dapple Grey

End of Term

The end of term. Otherwise known as the main cause of students panicking, and stress attacks. Everyone desperately does everything to raise their marks, after groaning after they look at their posted marks. Basically what I'm doing is trying to comfort my stressed-out friends, but their uneasiness is rubbing off on me. I'm doing fine I think, but even I'm stressed out. But hey, what can I do? I'm not the one marking my papers. What's the use of stressing over something you can't change? You'll just get a panic attack. So repeat after me: Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out....Calm down.

Dapple Grey

P.E. Workout

The Grade 8 indoor P.E. track meet is coming up around the corner, so its's not exactly surprising what we did today: Practicing relee races. I admit it, I'm not a big fan of relee races, what I dislike about it is the pressure thats puts on the competitors. Everyone always gets so competitive. They seperate the faster, the stronger, the agile, the quick. Then we come up with team positions, so that the faster people will be first and last, to increase our chances of winning. And worse, during the track meet, everyone would be looking at you. If I didn't die from shyness first, I'll die from the pressure or the embarrassment. Anyways, for P.E. today, we did our warm up run around the gym today because it was way too cold outside, and then we got into different teams. We tried out a few relee races, and okay, I admit it, not all of them were bad. I especially loved the jump rope one and the shoe race. There were some that I didn't like, though. Probably everyone's worst was the hockey stick rickshaw, where two people hold the ends of the hockey stick and another person sits in the middle. Obviously, I was forced to sit on the hockey sticks. I'm the lightest, its obvious why they did it. But I dislike it the whole time. It's uncomfortable, you have to hold on for dear life, and even then you're in constant fear of your teammates dropping you. Other then practicing, we signed up for events. I'm in a total of 5, and they're all really fun, so now I'm looking forward to the track meet!

Dapple Grey

Art Class

At Art Class today, we did something very interesing. It certainly took me by surprise. I've never done anything like it. Do you know what we did? We took our cell phones, took them out and drew them. Three sides, at the least. Then we took out our painted colour fields. Remember them? We worked on them last week. We took them out, and using soft pastels, we created an abstract art using only shapes from our cell phone. It was really fun, actually. We had to be really creative, and think really hard about the decisions we make. Where we place the shapes, which lines we make dark and which lines we make lighter. Then there's the point of colour. Should we highlight certain parts? Should I colour this part blue? It took a lot of concentration, and when I had really got into my artwork, the two hours was up. Boy, does time go by fast when you're realy enjoying things. I wish I could spend four hours at he studio. But hey, I could create a studio in my room too. Maybe that's what I'll do now, and create another piece of artwork.

Dapple Grey

Night Snow

Whoa. Whoa. Thats all I can say. It's really pretty, the snow I mean, especially at night. It's snowing a lot, and you can see it coming down hard because of the street lamps shining on them. It's a nice snow night tonight. Snowing outside, I'm sipping warm tea inside, and getting ready for bed. It's one of the times when the world seems so at peace, so beautiful. Heading off for bed now, I can't wait to see how much snow has falling by tomorrow!

Dapple Grey

Waking up to snow

YAHOOO!! MORE SNOW!!! Sorry, getting a little too carried away there. This morning, when I opened my windows it was snowing! There were little, delicate snowflakes floating from the sky. Just beautiful. I couldn't believe it. I woke at 7, and stuffed down breakfast and charged outside. I want to build a snowman while the snow lasts. Gotta go play!

Dapple Grey

Snow!

Snow! snow! there's snow! I can't believe it! I've never got to play with snow for a long time. I've been really patient, waiting that whole year! I'm going to build a huge snowman, and then maybe an igloo or a chair....I'm bursting with ideas! But I'll have to get through school first....I've missed my first white christmas, our family was on vacation to China to visit my cousins. We thought it wouldn't snow that year, but it snowed so much, I was so jealous of my friends back in Vancouver! Good thing the snow stayed when I got home. Even though there might be a thin blanket at the moment, I'm positive it'll grow bigger. I'll just sit by the window now and wait....

Dapple Grey

Busy Day

First, hand in Body Worlds assignment for English. Then off to French. Back to the locker, grab a bite of lunch, then head to English for the book test. Then, use the remaining time to study for science. Oh no! I'll have to change for P.E. So I use the remaining 5 minutes to run down and change. Good thing my teacher was late that day. After P.E. I head to Applied Skills and quickly review science notes, after that down to the library. As soon as I get home, chinese tutor. After that, Mr. Sale's forum and lots of other homework from school. At night, I collapse on my bed and right when I hit the pillow, I fall asleep. Sigh. So tiring and so busy, not a minute of rest. I guess I'll have to be more prepared, because there's probably still more days in the year like this. At least I pulled through! I feel like a superhuman!

Dapple Grey

Riding

It's raining and its cold, so my mom decides to skip my volunteering session at the barn and stay home until its time to go for my lesson. Problem is, you can't really calculate when you'll arrive at the barn. So, I was late. But my instructor was nice enough to stretch my lesson longer, so I have a full 30 minutes of riding. What she did was combine my lesson with the girl's who usually ride after me. I've never had a joint lesson in a long time. I used to have joint lessons all the time with this girl called Lauren. Anyways, that was back before my lessons were cut. Sadly, I never had a chance to see her again. The reason why I don't have joint lessons now is that I don't have someone else who is at the same level as I am. So I have private lessons, which is okay too, I guess. Anyways, I just worked on trotting today, no cantering. Still, I'm lucky to have a horse that is so obedient, and so willing to go. He's pretty frisky. Oh well, that's Foggy for you!

Dapple Grey

Broken Dreams?

What's the worst thing you're parents can say when you're a horse maniac and don't want to do anything except ride all day? We're not bringing you to riding lessons anymore. And that's exactly what they said. :(
At the same time, I always dying inside. I loved my riding, it's what I look forward to every week. I know its cold, and that my mom has to drive me there, but can't I keep my lessons if I just paid for them myself? I already do. But's its hard, I'm struggling to pay up the big sum of money. And its mostly due to HST. But I heard a new mayor is going to take over and cancel the HST. Then maybe my mom would let me continue. But it really is not fair, cutting me off like this. I've been through cuts like this many times. I would be getting really good at riding and almost to the next badge, but my mom would cut me off and I'll stop. Maybe I would wait a year, but then I'll have to slowly start building my skills, and when I'm getting the hang of it again, she'll cut me off again. But with this cut, I feel like I'll never be able to continue again. This is the farthest I've ever come in riding. I'm getting really good at it now, I'm close to bein able to jump. If only I could have more lessons. It's not fair. My mom gets to pursue her dreams in being a Montessori principal. She taking all these classes, driving all the way to Richmond for them. Yet I'm not allowed to pursue my own dreams, what I truly love doing the most. But if I think hard about it, it's not really a give and take situation. She's sacrificing her time to drive me, and I'm taking, but not giving back. But I can't, because I have nothing to give, which is why I'm loosing this battle. Knowing this, it makes me really sad inside, because my dream of starting a ranch in the future is growing stronger by the minute. But maybe there will be an opportunity for me to ride somewhere....

Dapple Grey

Hunger Games

Yaaaaaaaaaawn! I stayed up most of the night to finish the Hunger Games. First of all, I have a book test on it tomorrow. But that's not the only reason. It's one of those books that are so captivating that you really can't put it down or doing anything except keep turning the pages and reading on. There is so much suspense, I wouldn't even be able to sleep if I don't finish it. I agree. It's very very good. I'm looking forward to reading Catching Fire and The Mockingjay. I go to sleep now, because I'm so tiiiiired. But hey, if you want to know more about the Hunger Games, just ask my friend Katniss Everdeen, she's a big fan!

Dapple Grey

Allemarle Fantasy

Ta da. Ta da da. Ta ta ta ta. Argh. The band song is stuck in my head again. There's this song we play call Allemarle Fantasy. We always manage to run it through right before we leave. Also, the melody is very catchy too. VERY catchy. You can hear all the synergy kids from band singing it in science, which we have next. But hey, we can't help it. It's just so good! Oh yeah, we've started practicing our Christmas songs for the Christmas concert. Don't worry, I'm not going to leak about the songs. You'll have to wait in suspense until the Christmas concert!

Dapple Grey,
Ta da. Ta da da. Ta ta ta ta......

Minesweeper

Click. Click. Click. Click. BOOM! Awwwww. I guessed I've never played minesweeper much before, but know it's getting kind of fun. I was well, um.....procrastinating (I know, shame on me, I'll fix this problem though) when I found minesweeper in the games section of my computer. At first it was just mindless clicking, but then I figured out how to play, and I played until, I had to go back to homework again. Now I don't play it as much, maybe because I'm bored of it. Or...homework has become more of a priority! See, stories always end in good endings. I'm not procrastinating as much!

Dapple Grey

Math Contest

HURRY! Oh no! I'm late! Quick! Dash to my locker to drop off my stuff, then charge to find the contest room. RIIING! I made it in time! ....That's how my day started, almost being late on a math contest day too. So I'm just sitting there catching my breath. Is it just me, or is there a whole bunch of synergy kids in the room? Anyways, we had 40 minutes to finish the test, which isn't a lot. It's really easy in the beginning, but it does get really hard after. I was about 3/4 through the test, when the teacher announced that we only had 5 minutes left. I couldn't help but panic. 5 minutes? So go throught the rest of the test, and try to finish as much as I could, trying to smartly guess the answers. There were some answers that were totally wrong, and there was usually two that you had to guess between. Anyways he AMC math contest was kind of fun I guess, I good experience, and practice for the many other contest to follow.....

Dapple Grey

Reading time

Ahhh, I love the free reading times we have at Applied Skills. Whether it's time to catch up on books for book tests, re-winding after a tiring day, or just relaxing. It's great! I love having time to read, since I'm normally too busy to read. You get to read without being interrupted, read in PEACE! It's just so nice, so thank you. I've grown to really appreciate the times we get to read.

Dapple Grey

P.E.

Awww, P.E. today. We're starting basketball today. The drills were ok, I guess. I've discovered that I'm quite actualy pretty good at basketball. But I really liked having handball, it was just so exciting. Running down the middle of the gym, the opposing team, in chase, and the thrill of trying to score, and blocking your opponents from scoring. At least we won't have much basketball games. And if we do, it's girls against girls and boys against boys. It's nice to have a P.E. teacher who's fair to the girls. I know there are some who take a liking to boys, and ignores the needs of girls. Basketball is ok, but I'm shuddering about what's coming next....squaredancing. Even thinking about it makes me shudder. You see, I've not really a dancer. I've tried a couple of times, and it just feels awkward for me...especially with a partner. But I know it's coming and I can't avoid it. At least it's in December, so we wouldn't have so many squaredancing sessions. 6 in total, I counted. Oh well, I guess I'll just do my best to try not to hate it, and enjoy it. That's pretty hard....

Dapple Grey

Block Rotations.

1234, 3412, 2143,4321. Numbers, numbers, numbers. I'm so confused I don't know where to start. So will 1-1 still be 1-1, or will it be 1-3 now, since it's technically block 3 now. I'm confused, why do they have to change it anyways, it just confuses everyone, or is it just me? Anyways, my band teacher says they changed it so the people on sports team didn't have to miss the same class again and again. Blah, sports. I'll pull through this somehow, I just hope I won't be too confused. I have to think really hard before going into every class, because I'm scared I'll enter the wrong class room because of the block rotations. That would be so embarrassing!

Dapple Grey

Hair Cut

I don't like hair cuts. In fact, I dislike them. That's why I've been avoiding the subject of hair all this time. But I know I can escape from them, because my father has records when we cut our hair, to make sure we don't go half a year without one. I guess cutting it is okay, I just don't like the part where you discover how little hair is left on your head. Especially when you're thinning your hair, which is what happened in my case. Now, it's so thin, and way shorter then before. I can barely tie it in a ponytail, so I don't bother at all. But leaving my hair down feels kind of weird as well. I guess I'm just not used to it. I've never actually realized how convenient tying your hair into a ponytail is, but now I know.

I hope you don't have to cut your hair anytime soon.
Dapple Grey

Drawing Class

No updates for a while, eh? Have I kept you waiting, me friends? Well, sorry if I did. Today we worked on creating colour fields with paint. Next week I assume we're going to draw on them. You expect us to use paint brushes, but we didn't. Instead, we took a paper towel, dipped it into a bucket of water, then spread the water across the paper to make it nice and wet. Then we dipped another paper towel and dunked it into a bucket of paint and spread that across the paper. Then you could paint another colour to mix with the original colour, and then you could add another colour. Soon, the paper will come up with this mixed colour, it may be pretty, or it may not. Anyways, you also have to pay really close attention to the painting, because you don't want to repeat colours twice. My teacher mentioned his name, but I forgot the artist who used this technique. Picasso, maybe? Maybe not. It'll come to me one day.

Dapple Grey

Restaurant

Yummy! Another restaurant to go to tonight. This one is one of my favourites, located in Chinatown. No, it's not a Chinese restaurant, it's a Vietnamese restaurant. Close enough. I'm feel so guilty I've forgotten the name. Anyways, it's quite popular, especially with our family. They've got the best noodles you could ever imagine! My stomach is growling with the delicious food thoughts. My brain would eat them if it could. You're supposed to mix the noodles with this sauce, while mixing the noodle with meat and vegetables, which are prepared for you. It comes in a pretty big bowl, but I could finish it al by myself if I was really hungry. Amazing, right? Well that's how good it was. The restaurant also has a reputation for the best fried chicken. Not just plain fried chicken, they've done something with it, no other restaurant's fried chicken could compete with their's. You can choose to deep the chicken into this sour sauce! Oh, I can't wait for tonight! Maybe I should stop talking about food.

Dapple Grey

Library

Do what he best thing about badminton lessons is? That it's right next to the library! I just looove the library! I could spend the whole day in there if I could. I mean, I love the joy of picking new books to read. I can't understand people who don't like books. Those people don't exist in my world. What's not to like about books? I love the variety, whether it is mystery, classics, graphic novel, romance, sci-fi....I can't even name them all! I can memorize the where books are placed in the library by heart. Recently, I've taken a liking to the Classics, especially books by Jane Austen. I don't know why, but I love them! They make you feel like you're in a different time period, where looks matter, as well as social status. Also, they're just interesting. Haha, I shouldn't say that! All books are interesting. I hope you read....

Dapple Grey

Badminton Lessons

As I predicted, basketball lessons turned up horrible. I was the ony girl there. Imagine how awkward that must have been. Anyways, I had along talk with my mom, and now she's going to let me transfer out of basketball lessons and into badminton lessons! It's fine with me, since I'm like playing badminton, and it isn't all that hard. Also, she signed my sister up as well, so we could play together. We have 30 minutes of instruction, and we get 30 minutes for free play. The lessons go by so quickly, I must have been having tons of fun! Anyways, it requires me to much running, so I could prove to my mom that it's good exercise! By the way, she said she would sign me up for skating lessons in the winter, since the spots are full at the moment. I can't wait!

Dapple Grey

Basketball Lessons

Panic. Panic attack! Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! OK, enough with the reactive responses. But the most terrible thing has ever happened. My mom has signed me up for basketball lessons!!!! WHY??!! She knows I dislike basketball, I've had terrible experiences of them smacking me in the face. I assume its because she thinks I don't exercise enough. Maybe she should sign me up for more riding lessons, you know, outdoors, in the open! Or skating lessons, where you use all your body muscles, to jump, and twirl, and do tricks. Hmm...I'll have to talk to her about this. But not until I go through the lesson this afternoon....

Dapple Grey

Tom Sawyer

Tonight we watched Tom Sawyer. Such a classic. One of my sister's homework assignments were to watch it, and since I didn't have any homework to do, I just watched with her. Obviously, the graphics weren't as nice, but the movie was still really good. The ladies all had their gowns, and the boys with muddy faces. Huckleberry Finn was in there as well. It was nice to see all the energy and passion in the children. Also, you could see how everything was different then, and that was what was more interesting. Streets with donkeys pulling carts, old court rooms, etc. The whole town even went out for a big picnic with games in the field! You don't see that happening nowadays. Speaking of picnic.....I'm sooo hungry....

Dapple Grey

Burnaby Central Park

It was a Pro-D day today, and it was a nice sunny day, so I joined my grand-father on a trip to Burnaby Central Park. I haven't been there yet, but from the pictures he's shown me it looks so cool! There are squirrels that aren't shy, and they run right up to you for a couple of peanuts. We went earlier in the day because it was more quiet. He was right, it was so cool! We rode the skytrain there, so when we walked off the road and into the forest-like park, it felt like I was leaving civilization behind. Anyways, it turns a little chilly in the park, but its totally amazing. One time, my grandfather even spotted an owl! As you walk along the many trails, there are little interesting sites to visit. I think this park was designed to help people exercise, because there were little workout sites scattered throughout the park, each with their own little activity. For example there were one with 5 stumps, telling you to balance on them for one minute each. Another one would tell you to do a pullup on a bar. I've never actually seen something like this, so I was intrigued. We walked for a bit, then came to a place where there were tons of squirrels. We brought a bag of peanuts along, so we started feeding them. There were so friendly, but cautious not come too close. Some were so friendly that the climbed right up my leg and onto my lap for peanuts! It was very fun, and I hope I could come back to visit them again.

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Turkey Dinner

Yummy, turkey! Yup,yup, turkey for dinner! We went to our family restaurant, and had a good Remembrance day dinner. It was so good! We had so much soup and turkey and potatoes and corn! I was totally stuffed. Aren't we supposed to do this for thanksgiving? Oh well! I'm too full to even type.

The new laptop

Hurray! Hurray! My parents finally let me have my very own laptop! And I got it today! It's so cool I can't believe it! I had to get a big one, because they think it's easier on the eyes. Oh well. I have laptop to call my very own! I can't believe it! Now, I can do my homework in peace! Now let me admire it in peace!

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Pro-D Day

For Pro-D day today, I have nothing to do except homework. So here I am fooling around doing homework. la.la.la.la.la.la.la.la. Just kidding, I actually have a lot of science homework to do at the moment. I'll tell you if anything interesting is going on.

Eye Appointment

I had an eye appointment today, all the way in Burnaby. It's kind of interesting, what they do to examine your eye. First of all, they make you stare into this machine, which takes pictures of your eye. They showed me pictures of mine, and it was totally weird, and so cool! Then you go into this room to stare at screens and read tiny letters out loud. Then they tell you how bad your eyesight is. Luckily, my eyesight has stayed the same, so I was relieved that it didn't get worse. Finally, they give you two different eyedrops that dilate your pupils, so they can examine it better. At first, I didn't notice any difference. Then, when I checked the mirror, they started getting bigger, and everything turned blurier. Weird.....

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Body World

Today was our field trip to Body Worlds. It was so weird looking at all the different bodies. When you first walk in, there's this brain display, a real brain! It was so weird, and it looked wet. I lost my appetite after that. There's so much to see, it's hard to describe them all. There were figures, showing muscles, and tendons. There were embryos, tiny little white circles. Also, there were lungs, and limbs, and bones....I had to force lunch through my throat. But it was worth it, Body Worlds was awesome!

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Concert

I had a bad concert to go to tonight. Churchill was hosting a band concert, and many schools came. I couldn't help but to compare us to Byng. They had a wonderful band! They had such a variety of instruments, especially those I haven't seen before. Also, another band had a small orchestra, strings included! I was hoping to see friends from Hamber, but we were playing first, and they went on closer to the end. We got dismissed early, so that made up for the torturous hours waiting for the concert to start. It began at 5:30, and school ended at 3:07, so I had to wait till then. Luckily, I had a friend who stayed after school to do homework, so I was entertained. Overall, we did great at the concert.

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Science Lab

I love science labs. Who doesn't? It's so fun peering into microscopes to look at specimens. The thrill of it is that you don't know what it looks like, because its going to be all new. It almost feels like discovering a new species, and you're the scientists and you have to record the data. Some of the micro-organisms we looked at today looked all weird, but the interesting thing was, they all looked different! So different. We even got to look at snake's blood!

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Socials Project

Today we started a new socials project. We had to draw a map. No, not a boring normal map, this was a map of Churcill post-invasion. Sound interesting? In our group, we decided that the Slytherin group from Harry Potter was going to invade Churchill. In our map, Churchill gets flooded. Big-time flooded. Its so flooded that its being separated into pieces. Even the basement broken in half and floated to the top. Sound scary? Well I hope we don't get invaded anytime soon, but if we do, our group planned an escape route. Shhhhh! Don't tell the other groups about our genius idea!

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Cars

Today we started watching the movie Cars. I've never paid much attention to it, I always thought that it was a weird movie about talking cars, and I never bothered to watch it. But while I was watching it at school, I discovered that it was very cute and touching, and full of meaning. My favourite characters have got to be Rio and Luigi. They are the funniest characters ever. Luigi has a funny italian accent, and there expressions! Rio has such big, cute eyes, and I could die laughing at there expressions. Other than that, Cars have really good detail, down to the little bit of pieces of tires on the road that they raced on. I was also told that they had to draw many different view of the backgrounds. Imagine drawing that! That would be so time consumning! I wouldn't even make it through one!

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Art Class

Today, we worked on our own personal drawings. Our teacher gave us our own time to draw whatever we wanted. He knew it was going to be hard, because he didn't give us an idea about what we were going to draw. It was soo hard. I didn't have an idea of what I should draw. So I just sat there for a long time, thinking about my drawing, when I thought: You know what? I'll just drawing whatever comes to me. So I picked up my soft pastel, and just started drawing many lines. They soon started turning into objects and I decided to turn it into a park. But the park had a portal that lead to another park, and that park lead to another park...Maybe I just felt confused that time.

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Hamster

It was a sad day for the hamsters. They started fighting, which we thought wouldn't happen because they were siblings. But one got kicked out of the house, and the other one wouldn't let it return, so it was forced to spend the night in the food bowl. We decided to seperate them as soon as possible, so we set out to buy a new cage and supplies. We came home, set up the cage, and put the kicked out hamster into the new cage. He must have been pretty happy that he wasn't going to bossed around anymore, because he was running around the cage like crazy. I never knew hamsters could run that fast. Anyways, I hope I've done a good deed when a seperated them, I hope they don't get too lonely.

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SPCA Kids Day

Today, we went to the SPCA for the kids day there. It was mostly for little kids, so I just stayed and helped my siblings. It was kinda fun, I guess. We did scavenger hunts, and lots of activities. Then we got to go on a tour around the SPCA. It was so cool, so many animals all at once! I even got to pet a pet rat! It had a Halloween theme, so they were the stars of the show. Anyways, we got to enter lots of draws. My brother even won one! We had a greats two hours, and we be sure to return for the Christmas day. I made sure to donate a lot of money, poor animals!

Make the SPCA your first adoption option,
Dapple Grey

The pet store

Yup, the pet store: that was where we headed the past weekend. Our dwarf hamster died in January, wanted to get another one, and we were ready to get another one. The pet shop didn't look very new, but don't judge a book by its cover! There were so many things inside. On the main level there were so many pet supplies! Then we had to go downstairs for the fish. If you go through those exhibits, you go outside and into another room, the reptile/rodent room. So many reptiles! There were lizards, snakes, crickets, and hamsters! We instantly fell in love with these chinese hamsters, which looked so cute and tiny! They were only babies, but were really energetic. Yes, i meant hamsters. They were twins, so they came in a pair. My mother gave us permission to buy two. What a surprise!

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Riding Lessons

I'm not sure if you like my posts about my riding lessons, but here is another one.
Probably the tip you hear the most from your riding instructor is "Keep your heels down!". It takes a lot of stretching your calf muscles and practicing to naturally have your heels down when riding. So if you see me sitting with my heels down and frozen, don't ask questions. Anyways, today we worked on cantering! That has got to be the most exciting thing I've done on a horse. Last week, I was so tense and scared of falling off my horse during cantering, that I barely made it through the lesson without falling off. This week was way more fun, because I relaxed and was used to cantering. (I haven't cantered for a year!) It was so fun and bouncy, but so fast, you wouldn't believe it! You thrown forwards, so you really have to keep in rhythm with your horse. I haven't mastered it yet, but if I do, jumping, here I come!

Anyways, here's a picture of a horse cantering. Obviously, it's not me riding, nor my horse cantering, but you get the idea:


One more thing. Our school is having a concert next week, and other schools are coming to play in it, and guess what? My friends are in one of the schools coming. We've decided to meet before the concert and chat and catch up with each other. I can't wait! I'm too excited to speak!

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A wonderful surprise!

I'm slowly getting used to waking up to a dark and gloomy sky. Everything's almost pitch black, and just very...dark. I still remember one morning so dark and it was pouring buckets of rain... Anyways, today was different. It even felt different. When I opened my bedroom curtains, the sky was brighter than usual, and even just seeing the clouds, it was so beautiful! I walked down to the kitchen for breakfast and when I glanced out the window and saw.....


A very nice sunrise! It was so pretty it just made me gasp. It was such a nice contrast. The very light pink next to the sharp pretty blue. The sky was also surprisingly bright. Anyways, if you saw it as well, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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Busing Home

I hate taking the bus home. Fine. I dislike taking the bus home. Hate is a very bad word.  I had to take the bus home because my mom had to drive my siblings to art lessons down at Granville Island. So there I was, all cold and miserable, waiting for the 29th bus. I waited a long time and then a bus came. When it arrived, it was jam packed. I never thought that many people could fit on a bus! So I had to wait for another bus. Luckily for me, it came soon enough and there were still a lot of people on it, but not as much. So I got on and was pretty much squished. When I collapsed out of the bus onto the skytrain station, the other bus that I was switching to (taking me home) was just leaving. NOOOOO!!!! So I had to walked home, and it took me a long15 minutes. The bad thing is, I have to do this every week.
Here's my advice: buses can be very evil!

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Halloween Fun!

My Halloween was awesome! I had the whole day off, since all my lessons were cancelled. (Except my art classes, but i refuse to skip it.) Every year, we go Trick-or-Treating. I have never skipped a year.
This year I'm dressed up as a pirate. I found this really cool pirate hat with a really long white feather sticking up out of it. It go great with my costume! We gulped down our dinner and literally ran out the door. So we went trick-or-treating in Burnaby. (We always went there, don't know how it started.) We spent about an hour and a half running around collecting candy. We were tired, but none of us wanted admit it. Us, meaning me, my sister, and my brother. Just as we reached the van, and collapsed in it, it started to rain. I was so glad that it rained right after we just finished!
Then we went home, dumped our candy in our seperate piles, sorted them, traded them, and created a pile to send to our close cousins in China. We do this because they don't celebrate Halloween. (Can you believe it?)
Anyways, that was about it. I hope you had a great Halloween, too!

Dapple Grey

Perspective Drawings

Today for art class, we did perspective drawings. Of course, I've already done them at school, but with 2 point perspective. In art class, we did perspective drawings with only one vanishing point.
It was really cool, and we experimented with cubes. Then, we had to draw cubes with blocks cut out of them, and you had to draw them to look like they were really real. Some of us struggled through it(I kind of did) and some of us breezed by. But by the end of the class, we got better at drawing in a one point perspective.
Before drawing, our art teacher told us about M.S. Escher. I thought he was really interesting. He was described has the "master of architecture" and did all sorts of really crazy drawings, including some with 16 or more vanishing points! I thought he was a real genius, but at that time, he wasn't considered an "artist", only an illustrator, so unfortunately, he couldn't sell his works.

Here is M.C.Escher's Relativity:


This is M.C. Escher's Print Gallery:



All you can say when you look at these is "Wow!" So I hope you found it interesting as well.

Dapple Grey

Why computer, why?

Oh great, out of the three computers in our house, I just found out that one of them broke down. Whenever I try opening it, it just restarts and restarts. I only found today that the harddrive isn't working, so my mom wants to buy a new computer. That's good news, since our computer was here for a long time, and by long, I mean LOOOOOOONG. Also, I'm going to start bugging her about the new laptop she promised me when I entered high school. Then I won't be fighting for time on the computer. I have money saved up on my bank account, so it's only a matter of time before I come home with my laptop. Five people sharing a computer is actually harder then it sounds. My mom has to use hers for homework for her school, and my dad has to use his for work. In between that, my sister and I have to do our homework on the computers, that is, if we can find a time when my brother isn't playing on video games on the computer. (Impossible?) At least we have a long weekend to figure this out.
I hope your computer(s) is doing way better,
Dapple Grey

Field Trip: Writer's Festival

Hey Readers!
I had my first full-day field trip today, to Granville Island for the Writer's Festival. I still can't believe the freedom we have on theses fieldtrips. Normally, on a field trip, my teacher would say: "Listen up! Partner up, and stay in the line! Follow me!", so imagine how weird it was when Ms. Greskiw said "We meet back here in about an hour! Go wherever you want, but be back in time!" The Writer's Festival was really cool, actually. We met the author of "the Billionaire's curse" and Kenneth Oppel, author of the silverwing series, and so much other books (20 in total, that's a book a year!) Anyways, he got us hooked on his latest book, which is about a family who take in a chimpanzee and teaches it sign language. At the end, I got their autograph! It was so exciting! We had lunch at this little restaurant that's kind of tucked in a corner, so it's not very noticeable. Anyways, we found Ms. Greskiw there, so we had a nice conversation and lunch. The soup there was unbelievably good, and they had awesome service! We had gelato icecream there, and was so full and happy by the time we got back to listen to the next presentation.
   This one however was different from the other, waaay different. The author's most recent books were on war, and so her presentation was more serious and well, it made you feel sad. She actually went to Afghanistan and experienced what being in a war was like. She told us many stories, but made sure that the presentation didn't end on a bad note. Anyways, right after that, we went right back to school.
Getting tired...but you should totally go check out the Writer's Festival at Granville Island, it's really worth watching!
Dapple Grey

Apple Barn

During the long weekend, our family went to a apple barn in Abbotsford. It only just opened for picking, so there was almost no one there. There were so many apples, and man, they were huge! When I say huge, I mean HUGE! They were so red, and some were green too, for people who like both sweet and sour apples. We picked a lot of apples, in fact, there was so many apples that we had trouble carrying them to the car. Then, in the car, we had a big lunch of....what else? apples. Who knew that just one apple could get you stuffed? Anyways, just across the street was the Main Apple Barn. Thanksgiving Festivals were held there. So much activities and so much fun!There was a big jumping pillow (huge trampoline) that you could jump on, you bounce so high, and it's just so fun! Also, if you fall, it's hard to get up, which makes it more fun! There was also a petting zoo where you can pet bunnies (so soft!), Goats, Sheep, and Llamas, yes llamas, but who knew they could be so fluffy? (By the way, they didn't spit). There's too much to explain: You could have hay rides, slide down slides, have fun in the pumpkin patch, shoot pumpkins from afar, have a pony ride, and there's also this big market where they sell all kinds of natural foods (mostly with apples), and a factory where you can watch them make apple cider! I was so exhausted from that day, but I got to admit, it was a ton of fun!

Thursday, Oct. 14

Yup, I'm slowly catching up. So, today I had my weekly riding lessons. This one was especially interesting, because I had Stable Management instead of riding. So today, I learned how to put on horse boots and polo wraps. (For the horse, of course.) It was really fun, because I have never tried it before, and my teacher says that I have to start using horse boots for my lesson. Horse boots are easy to put on, but you have to be really really careful in putting them on so they won't rub on the horse's back tendon. Polo wraps, on the other hand are more annoying. They are like cottony toilet paper. You wrap it around the horse's feet and roll it around and around and around.....you get the point. But you have to wrap it carefully to have the exact length of wrap at the end. Otherwise, you have to start all over again. My instructor demonstrated, and man, it is waaaaaay harder than it looks. Even she can't get it right sometimes!
Lucky for me, I don't plan on playing polo anytime soon.
Yaaawn! I'm getting sleepy...goodbye before I droop off!

Assembly

Today after lunch we had an assembly. There was a guest speaker who came in to talk about homophobia and bullying. So the message is....Stop homophobia, stop bullying! It's an eye for an eye (I think that's how it goes), treat others like what you want to be treated. When you call someone gay, it may seem as a joke to you, but it might really hurt someone else. Anyways, the guest speaker made this assembly really interesting, it was so funny and entertaining, but I also learned alot and I really felt sympathetic for him, after hearing all about him being bullied at school. This talk also made me grateful that our school has many counselors and people that we could talk to. At times, we may feel lonely, or desperately needing someone to talk to, like the guest speaker when he was at school, so the counselors are hear to listen and help. My favourite parts of the assembly was when he told stories. You really understand what's going on, and I just love his voice imitations!
Remember, tomorrow is Purple Day! Wear Purple!

Two very interesting art classes

My mom signed me up for art lessons at Grandview Island, and I have to admit, it was really interesting. It was titled "Drawing and Painting Techniques", and we meet every Sunday. Our teacher is very interesting, he really digs deeply into the arts, and it is probably one of the best classes I've ever attended.He's a teacher at the Emily Carr University, so he always tells us all about it.
 Last class, we learned the difference between lines and mass. Then we experimented with charcoal, and eraser. Charcoal adds to your painting, and so does the eraser, (black and white lines) while the paper towel is the eraser, smudging away unwanted lines. Anyways, the lesson this week was particularly interesting. When I entered the classroom this week, the teacher told us to gather around his table, and there was a white piece of paper on it. He told us to describe it. Someone said "white and blank", another person said "manufactured", and another said "you kill trees to get it". But he said that we still had to dig more deeply. Then he said that the paper was the culprit of our global warming problems, and how much trees we kill for paper, and how much bleach we deep into the waters just to have that paper white for drawing. He also told us that in Emily Carr, you have to do more of this, including writing a 1000 essay describing a piece of brick!
Then we got into drawing. He walked around and told us that he was impressed with our drawing styles. He told us that our drawing styles are as unique as our signatures. That we were Alphas, and that our styles represent our generation, and how we make our mark on the world. He also said that when you get older, you become a Beta, and when you get to the age where you turn around and reflect on yourself, you become an Omega. I found that really interesting.
One story he told us was really interesting, he said he read it in a book. Picasso had many colour periods. He had a pink period, where he only experimented and painted in pink. He also had a blue, green, grey, black. When he was younger, he had a long blue period. He only painted in blue, and that red was better, but still, he painted in blue. Why? My teacher told us that Picasso used to be a broke student! Red paint was more expensive, and blue paint was the cheapest, so he could only afford blue.

I know, this is getting long, so I'll stop now. I can't wait for the next art class! I'll be back!

Dapple Grey

I'm Back!

Yes! I'm back, and I promise I won't leave you in the dark, ever again. I really do. I was just so busy managing my google site:
https://sites.google.com/site/classasproject/.

I'm sorry, it's just, well, time flies! But don't worry, I'll make sure you catch up with everything, and by everything, I do mean EVERYTHING.
Today was just another typical. Except I came to school with a cold. I caught it during the weekends, and man, it is so annoying! My nose is so stuffed up, I can barely smell.
Anyways, I'll work backwards, so I'll talk about Thanksgiving. We had our dinner on Monday, with the family. We ate at a restaurant, my uncle owns it, so our families all pitch in to help. We had a big turkey, potatoes and corn. The turkey was good, but I loved the potatoes the best! I could eat it all day. It was whole potatoes, so it was pretty big. I smeared melted butter on it and yum! Also, we had soup with potatoes and smoked salmon and it was just....so good. (I apologize if I'm making you hungry) We talked, and had such a good time that I didn't notice how late it was getting. As soon as I got home, I just drooped off and slept.

Off to dinner for now, I'm feeling so hungry from all this food talk. I'll get back to you soon! No worries....

Dapple Grey

Reliving Summer

Sorry about all the complaining in the previous post. I was just so tired.
Anyways, today was the total opposite of what happened yesturday. Today was the most relaxed day I had ever had since school started. I didn't have to worry about homework, I had the whole day to play and relax, and the weather was just so, so nice! It really felt like summer had come back. Today I decided to spend time with my siblings. We went to the movies and watched Alpha and Omega 3-D, which, I admit was a pretty good. Afterwards, we walked around the mall, and just had a great time. (We also made sure we visited the sweets shop before me went home!) Afterwards, we went home, played some more, and did our homework, to make sure tomorrow would be another relaxing day. I hope you enjoyed you "summer" day,
Dapple Grey

Friday, September 24

Owww. I haven't posted yesterday because I was too exhausted to move. Yesturday, I had to do my first 6-lap run around the tracks at school. It wasn't that bad, I was proud to finish, but then came the pain afterwards. I could barely walk, my knees felt like they would buckle under my weight. I got to rest a little, and warm up in the cafeteria, which was like someone said, "heaven" Afterwards, I had to run up and down stairs to my next classes. Luckily by then, my legs only felt really sore. When I got home, I ran to the couch, and just sat. It had never felt so good to just sit. I wouldn't budge from my seat, it was just so...comfortable! So for the rest of the day, I did my homework in that exact spot.
That's not the last of it, next week I'll have to tackle the Langara run. I wonder what it's going to be like then.
It'll be a wonder my legs won't break,
Dapple Grey.

Riding in the Rain

Welcome to another busy, chaotic day. This morning, we spent some time in the computer lab working on this forum for Social Studies. It was really fun, how it was all set up. Anyways, my typical day continued as usual, except for the nonexistent Period Four. After school, I returned home to do my homework.

At four, I hurried off to the stables for my riding lessons. Raining, again. It's a wonderful way to welcome Autumn. Luckily, I had my rain coat, water-proof boots, and my helmet. And thank god, it wasn't raining as heavily as it did later on. It was really fun, getting on a horse again, as I haven't ridden for over a year. But I still remembered all my techniques.

After riding, we rushed off to school for the Parent Walkabout. By then, we had already missed all of Day 1. So we listened to two of the classes, then my listened to a presentation for the band/choir about a possible trip to New York during the spring break. New York! I was so excited! New York, out of all the places in the world! As I expected, it was quite expensive (obviously) so now, my parent are discussing it.

Hope your day was as fun as mine was,
Dapple Grey

Wednesday, September 22nd

I know, I know, I'm missing a post for Wednesday. Hectic day. Even if it started at 10:17. Me and my grandpa wanted to test the different ways to get to school, vso we decided to try. We left home at 8:45 and took the bus. Then, we switched to another bus. Unfortunately for us, we had to wait for three "Sorry, Not in Service" buses until we got onto a available one. Bad luck again. We got off at the wrong stop, two blocks from where we were supposed to get off. So we walked, and it was quite nice, actually. It was perfectly sunny, and we walked down this road, and it was so pretty. Instead of being straight and boring, the sidewalk had many curves in it. Also, the trees were tilted towards the sidewalk as if to give shade. The houses were beautifully designed, and everyone just looked so...beautiful, like it belonged there. Anyways, despite the interruptions, I still got to school on time.

When I got home, I had Chinese lessons, and then we went to my grandparent's house to have dinner. (I think it was because of the autumn festival.) We had a good time there, cushion fighting, chatting and watching TV (America's Next Top Model :) ) That was really fun. Then, I came home did some Math, and then drifted off to sleep. You know that time before you sleep, where you lay in bed thinking over the day, or just about something random? It until then that I remembered about my blog. But by then, I was too tired to even move. Every part of my body felt so sore....

I hope you're doing better than me.
Dapple Grey

Nightmare

A message to all readers: S.O.S.!

Help! Save me! Their chasing me! Do you want to know who? Oh, here they come: 2 English quizzes, Math quiz, French quiz, Science quiz, and Fitness testing. Save me! It feels like the end of the week will never get here. I've spent every night up studying, and I feel so tired...

Anyways, I noticed I forgot to post details about the family dinner. (Sorry if I've been keeping you in suspense.) When I came home from piano lessons, my Grandparents were already there. Following them, my two Aunts, and my cousin arrived. (It was a small gathering.) We talked for a bit, then we started dinner. We children had our own little table, so we could talk and gossip about our own things. Me and my cousin had a long talk about school, and then we moved on to talk about other stuff. After dinner, we played some games, and talked some more. Eventually, I had to go into my room to finish my homework, but it was a fun night. My throat was dry from all that talking. I hope your weekend was as nice.

May the sun light your path, (Walk on Sunshine!)
Dapple Grey

Why can't humans be more like dogs?

Dear Readers,
As I was walking through the park, today, I saw something that made me smile. I was walking in the off-leash areas, and I saw the most wonderful sight: dozens of dogs. It was a dog heaven. There were so many dogs, they just ran up to each other and started playing, chasing each other, play biting each other, and teasing each other. They looked so happy, so innocent in their little games, and they reminded me of human children. So playful, yet so loyal, and so protective. They really deserve the title "Man's Best Friend." Their always with us, and we're always with them, so how come their lives are so peaceful, and ours so chaotic? Can't we learn something from our animal friends? It saddens me to see so much animal cruelty in our world, because how you can harm an animal that can teach you and love you so much? How you people be sad around these happy, energetic creatures? Anyways, I was thinking about this for the whole day, so I thought you might want think about this too.

Keep on thinking,
Dapple Grey

Family Reunion Time!

Hey Readers,
How is your weekend? I'm having a blast! The sun is shining, and I'm in a super good mood! I'm spending lots of time with my family, playing games, and watching movies. Tonight, we're having a big family reunion at my house. (meaning more fun!) I'm getting really hungry thinking about all the good food my mom is going to cook. Right now, I'm finishing my homework so I don't have to finish it tonight. Can you believe it? It's only my first full week of school, and I've already got four quizzes! English and Math are both easy, but it's French and Science that I'm scared of. I have to get back to my homework, but keep watching for the details of the family dinner!

Stay Tuned!
Dapple Grey

Mama Mia!

Welcome Readers!
Yes, Mama Mia! I have to admit that I love (LOVE!) that movie/musical. Always have. (It's an old movie). The first time I've ever watched it was on a flight to China. It was 17 hours, and I was tired, and it was cramped. So I turned the TV on, and picked the first movie on the list. It turned out to be Mama Mia! and so I watched it. I've got to admit that I was hooked. I didn't realize until the end of the movie that Maryl Streep was in it. She is my favourite actress, ever. I also found out that she has 14 Oscar awards for best actress. 14! Anyways, the movie ended up being so good that I watched it again, and again. I was hooked! So tonight, I brought the movie out, and we watched it,(My fourth time!) as a family. I couldn't take my eyes off the television, it still that good. I could still remember all the names of the characters, and the lyrics to the songs. It was like I was in a dream...

Dapple Grey

Friday, September 17th

Hello Readers,
 I know I'm missing a post for Friday, so here it is. If you're wondering what happened, it's because I was enjoying my freedom a little too much. As soon as I got home from school, I ran into my room, kissed my bed, and told my bed how much I loved it. Then I had a nap and took a very long, hot, shower. It was all necessary. I was feeling cold, wet, and tired, and I didn't want to think about the 4 quizzes I would have to study for, or the homework I had piling up. So I had fun for the rest of the day, and pushed all my homework and the things I had to do, to the back of my brain.(which, unfortunately, included my blog.) Now, I'm saying that writing my blog is homework, or a "task". I just simply forgot about it. I was way too happy to let anything interrupt my day. Have you ever felt that way?

Dapple Grey

My Miserable Cardboard Box

To all readers,
One of my assignments this week was to illustrate a picture of my house from an angle. I'm a good artist, but drawing houses is not my thing. I've tried drawing it a couple times, but it seems as if no matter how much times i try, it still ends up looking like a miserable cardboard box. Luckily, I have google maps and my house to fall back to. So after playing around on google maps and google earth, i finally managed to draw something that looked like my house. Seeing as my mom was an architect, she could have easily helped me, but i figured that would be cheating. So she had an amused look on her face as she watched me struggle.

Anyways, the weather doesn't seem to be agreeing with me today. As I headed towards my first class, P.E., I looked at the weather: Cloudy. Good, i thought, it wouldn't rain. However when we headed out to the grass to do some field hockey, the grass was really wet and my shoes and socks got soaked. Then, by the end of the class, it was sprinkling. I didn't even have an extra change of clothes. (lesson learned) So I headed to my next class with squeeky shoes. After school, I had riding lessons, and it was sunny, perfect! When i got there, i helped around the barn, happy and excited to be riding again, and the perfect weather was just perfect! When I was getting ready to ride, it started drizzling. So i had to do stable management instead. Which was ok, i guess, but not as fun as actually riding.
A message to all my readers: Beware! Even the most unexpected things may turn its back on you!

Dapple Grey

Have I shrunk?

Hey guys!

Today was just another typical day at school. (Don't worry, i won't use the B word.) Running to class, and dodging countless bodies in the school. I couldn't even believe it when yesterday at the assembly, the vice principal told us that there were about 2100 students in the school. 2100!!! (and the grade 8s only make up 360 of that population!) There's so much people, and everyone is so tall and big. It really feels as if i had shrunk. I feel incredibly tiny! Like a mouse in the midst of a group of elephants. Anyways, my french teacher was wondering, are we getting used to high school? Well, for me, sort of, because you can't really get used to having 8 teachers. For 8 years, you've had just the one teacher and you know all his/her expectations and can get to know them really fast. But you walk into this new school and *poof* 8 teachers all appear all with their own expectations and homework. That's why I'm really grateful to have AP Class because I can spend time talking with classmates to get to know them better and doing that, I can release the stress that's been building up.
Also, the french teacher asked if we were scared to go to her class. That, I found was hilarious. But i agree with her. She needs to know if everyone's comfortable, and that's really important. You can't go be at your best when your not comfortable. That's part of the reason we had couches in my grade 6/7 class :). (By the way, high tables and spinny chairs are a good replacement)I can't learn if I'm forced to sit on a cold, hard chair the whole day. Could you imagine?
One last thing. I love the freedom you have in high school. During lunch you could wander around and eat almost anywhere. Compare that to elementary, where you are forced to sit on a specific bench in the gym, and aren't allowed to move, literally. You could barely talk to your friends.
I think I'm going to pass out from exhaustion any minute now...

Stay tuned,
Dapple Grey.

Where did the other posts go?

Hello Readers!
I'm sorry I've been missing some posts this week. It was because of a computer problem that came up over the weekend. It's fixed, so I'm back on track and you should be expecting a post from me every day.

What happened today, do you ask? Well, I'm glad to say that today was a good day and everything was just great! I'm really getting used to my new school, so I know where my classes are now. I find it very convenient that there is a class website for one of my classes so that if I forgot my agenda, or if I was absent, I could just check the website for updates. So thank you, Mr. Olson! Anyways, this morning started out perfect. It was bright and sunny, unlike the day before, all cloudy and wet. (They might as well call the city Raincouver) Since I'm in band, we got to perform at the school assembly (after only two rehearsals!), and that was fun! We ate lunch up in the balcony, overlooking badminton players practicing, which was really entertaining, surprisingly. The rest of the day passed by in a flash. Fast, eh? I can't believe it's Tuesday already! After school, my siblings  had art lessons, so I did my homework and played around in the car while I waited. Sound fun?

Yours till the pen, er keyboard, drops,
Dapple Grey.

The dawn of another day...

Hiya!

It's finally the end of another day, and I've survived the first week of school! (phew!) I say survived because I can barely keep up with the excitement of going to school. Anyways, I'm very confused because my emotions are all very mixed up. I'm relieved that I've made it through the week, but at the same I'm wondering about what tomorrow will bring me. I'm not used to my school yet, so when i walk in every morning, it's like BAM! I've walked into someone else's life: the teacher's are all different, the student's are so tall, and the school is just so...big! It's hard to take in. I'm not used to waking up so early, so I'm doing everything i can to stay awake...maybe I'll try the nap thing. For whoever is reading this, I hope you are doing well at your schools.

Yours truly,
Dapple Grey

Introduction

Hello Readers!

 This new blog started out thanks to a classroom assignment, and that class is great! It's only been a couple of days, but it seems that I'm really beginning to fit in. It doesn't take a lot of effort to do it, since everyone is so different, yet so much the same. Walking into this class, with some familiar and some new faces staring back, I think: this is it. I'm here because I want to be, and I'll try my best!

Welcome to my blog!
 Dapple Grey