PEI

Sculpture by the sea

2009-11-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

Sculpture by the sea is an annual spectacular international art exhibition. Last Tusday, our class(AMEP B) and AMEP A class went on an excursion to Bondi to see the sculpture by the sea.

We took a train to Bondi Juction at 9:16 in the morning, but that was something wrong, when Lucy and I got on the train, we found out that our classmates were still standing outside the train, then the door closed and we went on our journey to Bondi Junction by ourselves. But soon we saw May was on the train too. We met our classmates at the bus stop to Bondi Beach.

By the time we arrived, we started to take photos. I was busy taking photos, so I got lost most of the time. The first thing I saw was "alchemy", the artist put the steel sheet and mirror inoto the rock pools so the pools look like fulll of water after rain. "eye sea you" was quite impressive, a pair of big eyes were looking at you and said "I see you", that's my imagination. The artist was expressing people's differing perceptions of reality with special reference to technology and the changes it brings. "The shoppers" was a good one too, in a commercial world will you lost youself? Jin and I queued up to see the "firmament 5770", it was a surprise for me, it was dark indise, through the tiny hold on the plastic wall I could see the sunlight streaming in, it really looked like the firmament. It was a good experience to see something like this.

We had lunch under the trees, in front of us was "tatters", the money-covered sandstone. We went to the toilet after lunch, but we didn't hear the "privy", that was a shame. We walked toward the beach, on our way we saw the sand shoes which is my favourite one, its name is "step by step, inch by inch... to wards teh precipice". It reflect our existence, soft worn centres hidden beneath hard exteriors. At any moment we may find ourselves at a precipice. But I didn't receive that, I just found it beautiful and funny, there were many many shoes, from the top of the hill down to the road. It looked like our street, different people, different shoes, different life.

After that, I found my work, the assignment I'd got. It was named "subterfuge", I took penny of photos of it, not only because it was my work but also I like it, it was made of matel and I love matel things. Then we saw the winner's one "Where is the freedom?" and the "little boy lost" and a fantastic house "illums box". Finally we went to the beach.

At about 2:30 we catched a bus from Tamarama beach to Bondi Junction, and then changed the train to come back, we were so tired that we slept on the train, but we all had a good time.

A letter to the editor

2009-11-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

The Editor
Dear sir
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES
But Smoker Joe, we do pay taxes to the government, maybe much more than you do, but not in cigarettes.
I don't believe that fouling the air is your right, if so, is it your right to let other people get health problems? Don't you know smoking is bad for others? Think about your family, your friends, it's harful for them too.

So give up smoking, use your millions of dollars to help others.

Yours,

Pei

By the way, I've found the link to the song "Smoke gets in your eyes".

Physical punishment

2009-10-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Physical punishment is a kind of abuse, in my point of view, it's really bad, both for children and parents.

According to psychologists, hitting children can be harmful for their development. Abusing children whatever their mistakes are, would make them think that they are useless and can not do things in the right way. One thing leads to another, they might lose their confidence. If you hit your children badly on the head, that might cause brain injuries, their IQ might be reduced. Furthermore, if parents are always rude and violent, children might become bullies. They might hit others when they are unhappy.

Evidence suggests that physically abusing children when parents are angry can result in serious physical damage. Parents often lose their temper when they are hitting children, if so, children may suffer from bruises, bleeding, broken limbs/ribs, brain damage, even death. It's no use when parents regret the damage they've caused.

Even physical punishment is very serious, but no evidence has been given that it really works. If parents keep hitting their children for a long time, they might get used to it, and they might get more rebellious. The relationship between parents and children may get worse.

To sum up, parents shouldn't use physical punishment without thinking the result.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

2009-10-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

A day at Featherdale Wildlife Park

2009-10-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday AMEP A, B and C classes went on an excursion to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. We met at the bus bay outside Building A at 8:45 in the morning. The bus left TAFE at nine, about one hour later, we arrived at the park.

Susan gave each of us a passport, and we started to separate into small groups to visit the park.
We saw the red and green parrots and the long neck turtles at the first place. After crossing the small bridge we saw the Wombat, Cockatoo, small Kangaroos, and many kinds of birds. The Kangaroos were jumping around, so we could take photos with them.

Then we saw the Koalas, the baby Emus and the Tawny Frogmouths. The Koalas were so lazy, they stayed on the trees all the time without moving, but they are so cute. I touched one of them, and took some photos with him. But his fur was not as soft as I thought.
After we left the Koalas, we saw the Albino Kangaroos which is white Kangaroos. They are white because both of their parents are carriers of the albinism gene that cause a genetic disorder passed on to them. Surviving in the wild is not easy for them because they are easily seen by the predators.
Then we saw the bats, crocodile, snakes, Dingo and the impressive peacock was displaying its tail. And the escaped goat. Next to the peacock, there are big Kangaroos and big Emus.
On our way to the canteen, we saw the Devil and little penguins and some other beautiful birds. And this is my favourite picture, four little birds was sitting together, they are so lovely.
After lunch, we started to go back, we all met outside the park. We went back on the same bus, that took us an other one hour, we arrived at TAFE at about 2pm. That was a wonderful excursion, though I was tired.

Guangdong

2009-09-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Guangdong is one of the most prosperous provinces in China. It is situated in the southern part of China mainland, and faces the South China Sea to the south. It also has 3,368km winding coastline which is the longest in China.
Guangdong became the most populous province in China in 2005, 110 million population which includes 79 million registered permanent residents and 31 million migrants who have lived there more than six months.
Guangdong’s summer is always hot, wet and lasts for a long time; typhoons hit it frequently in summer and autumn. Because Guangdong has a humid subtropical climate, you can see green plants and blooming flowers all year round.
Guangdong is a multicultural province, Cantonese cuisine is one of the attractive factors in Guangdong, and Cantonese Opera is a traditional Chinese art form which is popular in Cantonese speaking areas. Han opera , Hakka folk songs and Teochew Opera are also very traditional art forms in this province.
Light industry is the main industry in Guangdong, icluding food processing and manufacture of textiles, which is rather common in Guangdong. Lately tourism is also booming in Guangdong.

Technology & ESOL

2009-09-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

After fire was found, our world started to change. People started to think and invent.
Nowadays we have more technological products than ever before and our everyday life has become mostly dependent on the technologies and it has become more and more beautiful as a result. As an English learner, we can also use the technology to help us with our learning.
Computers and Internet are many learner's favourite tools. Once you have a computer and connect it with the Internet, you can do many things. You can talk with others who are learning English as well as your teachers, your classmates and some fluent speakers. Joining a forum is a very good practice for your writing and thinking. Creating your own blog just like what we are doing now, is an excellent way to exchange your ideas.

There are many websites for learning English, they have many online activities and exercises. reading, writing, listening and speaking, they have everything. "Time4English" is a free English learning website, "voicethread" is a very good website to practise your speaking. See what we did, fantastic, isn't it?

Learning all day is a bit boring. Find some games, learning while playing. If you like music more than games, you also can find some English songs, don't forget to get the lyrics. On "yappr" you can get all the subtitles of their videos, but I'm afraid you have to pay now.

You can learn even with your mobile phone or ipod, your can listen to the radio while you are walking or on a train. Put a dictionary in your phone, your can check some new words which you can find in the street.

With technology, you can do all these things and more. Try now!

Tigers & Lions

2009-09-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

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Tigers and lions are large carnivores of the cat family.

Tigers mostly native in eastern and southern Asia, they feature their near-white to reddish-orange fur overlay with black vertical strips, most of them carry the Chinese mark "Wang" on their forehead. Male tigers can reach 3 metres in length, and heaviest one can weigh more than 225kg. Wild tigers can eat as much as 18kg at one time which can last for several days. By contrast, tigers in the zoo may eat a prepared diet and vitamins, about 4.5kg meat per day.
Many tigers are facing endangered because of hunting and other reasons, the most critically endangered one is the South China Tiger which is also known as Amoy or Xianmen Tiger. Tigers can swim and climb, because of their fur they need swimming to cool off. Wild tigers live about 10-15 years while tigers in the zoo are expect to live to 16-20 years.

Lions mostly live in the grassy plains of eastern and southern Africa, the Asiatic Loin leave 290 in the Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat of India only, because of human population gowth and development make them loss their habitat, hunting, and so on.

Male loins all have a mane, and cam reach about 2.7 metres in length, and weigh about 250kg. They usually live in group whilst tigers like to live alone.

On average, loins live for about 15 years in the wild, but they can live for about 24 years in captivity.

Can they back to the wild? Are they guadually disappear?? What can we do to save them?

Building A

2009-09-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

Building A in the Sydney Technical College (Ultimo TAFE college) is part of the earliest buildings in the NSW public education system, the first building purposely built as a technical college. This Federation Romanesque style building was built in 1891 by W E Kemp. He is the designer and the maker of this building. This old building is still in a good physical condition and has a high degree of original details intact.

It is a three storey brick building, it has a roof which was made of slate and ends by a central triangular parapet. On its second level, double semicircular arched recessed windows and sandstone carving are its main features. And it also has terracotta tiles on the window for decoration. Anyway it's a beautiful and stylish building.

I've never been there, so I haven't had the chance to look inside. If I had a chance to study there, I would tell you more about it.

09/09/09

2009-09-09T18:22:00.001-07:00

A man said that his dog’s birthday was November 11th, and he pronounced it as one-one-one-one, which is funny because it sounds like a dog barking. Today is September 9th, 2009, o-nine, o-nine, o-nine, which is funny too.

My name’s Pei, I come from China but I now live in Sydney. I’ve only lived here for a short while, so I’m studying English at a technical college. Yesterday was a normal day in my life. I went to class, where we met Silvia in the morning, and we did some listening exercises. One of them was a little bit too fast for us, but if we listened two, three or more times we could catch the ideas. It’s good for us to practise like that. But it’s not very good to do it in class, because it needs time, so Silvia said she might give us an easier one next time, she’s quiet a good teacher.
After lunch it was Rosa’s class. Today is Rosa’s birthday, she might be a lucky girl because ‘9’ is a lucky number in China, and it means your happiness will last as long as your life. Rosa said there was also a car exhibition at TAFE today, but I missed it. What a pity!!
I went home with Maggie after class, and Jin always likes to go to the library! As soon as I came home I started to prepare this recount.

Charity Bed Race

2009-08-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

My vaccine

2009-08-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

I took my second dose of Chickenpox vaccine on Monday. The injection site becomes swollen, pain and itch today, it's really uncomfortable. It feels like I have infected the Chickenpox. Fortunately, these are the side effect. It was more painful when I took the injection, the doctor gave me the intracutaneous injection which is the most painful injection method.
But I'm lucky, I will not be able to infected any more.

Bike

2009-08-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Please click the photo...

The International Youth Day

2009-08-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

12 AUGUST, 2009 the International Youth Day(IYD), the theme for this year is Sustainability: Our Challenges. Our Future. Young people will be encouraged to adopt a global sense of social responsibility.The IYD was established by the United nations in 1999, and the first observance was in 2000.
Every year it has a photo competition which called the "shoot nations photo competition". And you can submit your photographs or drawings to attend the competition(age between 11-25).
What are my challenges?
Everything...

Cooking

2009-08-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

I like eating very much, but I don't know how to cook, so I search the internet for help. This site is very intersting, but I think it's for selling sauce...
And in this website you can find any kind of food cooking method. I like any kind of food, if you want someone to taste your new meals, you can ask me to do that, and I'll be glad to do so.

Our environment crying for your help!!

2009-08-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

Do you know?
Our household rubbish has a double impact on our environment. First, it represents a massive waste of our natural resources. Second, because we still throw out so much garbage, we’re rapidly using up precious land as rubbish tips.
That’s awful. Can we do anything to stop it?
These are some things you can do:
●Buy in bulk to reduce the number of packs and save money.
●Buy your fruit and vegetable loose instead of pre-packed in plastic.
●Put a notice on your letter box refusing junk mail.
●Buy recycled writing and photocopy paper.
●Buy re-usable or refillable pack products.
●Re-use or refuse plastic bags.
●Start composting fruit and vegetable scraps and garden cuttings.
●Don’t throw out old household goods, furniture, records, books, magazines, clothes-have a garage sale or give them to charity.

Do you know what is stormwater pollution?

If you want to know more a bout it, read this information from the Australian government.

The stormwater is the rainwater, but not the pure rainwater, it carries something. Like our detergents, oil and greace left over from washing your car on the street or driverway, and also the fertiliser that haven't been used up in your garden. You can't always see the pollution, so you should be carefull of your detergents and fertiliser, and choose a right place to wash your car.
Except these, we can do many other things, our environment need your help…

My photographs

2009-07-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

This video was made by myself, I'm a new hand in this section, it took me almost one hour to finish it. Maybe someone who has much more experience can give me some advice.

PEI

2009-07-22T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is PEI, or you can call me Vivienne. I'm a Chinese girl, from Guangdong province, I can speak both Mandarin and Cantonese, but I can't speak English fluently, that's the problem. Glad to be in Australia, really a wonderful country it is. So many differences from my country, I should adapt myself to it as soon as possible.