Sunday, November 14, 2010
Alex: Hiking
This weekend our Cub Scouts group wen
t on a hiking trip.
First, one of the scouts came to our house to get a ride to the hiking place with me. It was a very long trip to get there and I was sleepy. Soon, we got to a place named Adventure Land. This is the place my brother Andrew had been there for a week when he was a Venturer. Then we were having a hard time getting to our desired location until people came and helped us out. I heard them said 55 and that was where we were going. They told us to go to Tamarock. When we arrived after 15 minutes, there were venturers and a lot of people already there. We went hiking and I got a stick to play with. It was thick, straight and I thought it was unbreakable. After a long hour, we were finally finished but my stick broke. When we came back, the ventures were making fires so we gave them a lot of bark. We made these circular things for the tie that you get when you finish scouts and it was so hard! After that, we started helping the venturers again a
First, one of the scouts came to our house to get a ride to the hiking place with me. It was a very long trip to get there and I was sleepy. Soon, we got to a place named Adventure Land. This is the place my brother Andrew had been there for a week when he was a Venturer. Then we were having a hard time getting to our desired location until people came and helped us out. I heard them said 55 and that was where we were going. They told us to go to Tamarock. When we arrived after 15 minutes, there were venturers and a lot of people already there. We went hiking and I got a stick to play with. It was thick, straight and I thought it was unbreakable. After a long hour, we were finally finished but my stick broke. When we came back, the ventures were making fires so we gave them a lot of bark. We made these circular things for the tie that you get when you finish scouts and it was so hard! After that, we started helping the venturers again a
nd i was really tired so I stopped. A venturer tried to make a fire but it didn't work. We were so hungry after all that and got to eat burger king on the way home .
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Summer Family Reunion
The end of summer is rapidly approaching, so I will write down what I did with my family in the past two months. This was really one of my best summers, fraught with camaraderie and regaled relatives.
A grand total of six relatives from China visited our home in Richmond Hill and seeing these old faces again made me meander in my memories. All my relatives from my father's side were here, my grandfather, grandmother, my two aunts and my two cousins, Richard and Bao Bao. Richard was nine years old and Bao Bao was a fifteen year old girl.
My grandparents would cook for us everyday and so we enjoyed meals that were so good that is was inexplicable. They also helped out a lot with household chores so the only work i had to do was wash the car and mow the lawn.
Bao Bao loves to draw and read all day, and isn't very fond of going outside and participating in activities. Richard, on the other hand loves games and doing activities. I feel I have taught Richard some English and my brother Alex has learned some Chinese.
Since a total of ten people lived in our house, lots of hubbub was always present in our household. Richard enjoyed watching Naruto with my little brother and also playing the game on the PS2.
Our big family visited many tourist attractions in Ontario. One of our visits was the CN Tower, the tallest tower in the world. I have already went to the CN Tower once years ago, and nothing has changed. As we slowly increased in elevation in the elevator, my brother was very excited. The view from the top was the tower was ingenious, we could see an array of buildings such as the Rogers Centre, the busy streets in the city of Toronto and also a private airport not too far away. We visited the CN Tower on a long weekend, hence the tourist attraction was ubiquitous with people. We decided to buy the photo of our whole family flying in mid-air with the CN Tower in the background, but there were technical difficulties and it was postponed an hour.
Next up was a world famous splash of fun, Niagara Falls. The drive there was really intermittent as traffic was very ubuquitous. I've also been here once before, and I didn't find it any more interesting than last time. I don't really like watching waterfalls, but i guess it's big enough for some entertainment. My brother learned to love taking pictures with a camera in Niagara Falls, but the bad thing is, he takes pictures of everything, which is an encumbrance to relatives who want to look at more attractions. We had a fast food meal right beside the Falls of pizza and chicken wings, which was scrumptious thanks to our laggard journey there fraught with hunger.
The longest trip was which a bit of a disappointment to everyone was to Bruce Peninsula. I guess it was because my hopes were too high, but here's the story. The trip to Bruce Peninsula was the longest, and the drive took the longest too. The drive to Habourside Motel took about three hours, and the GPS we borrowed from a friend provided much help. I enjoyed navigating with the GPS, and the kids loved that it would speak about directions in a stilted manner. We met up with a family who we have knew for years now and we got comfortable in the motel. At night, the room was very torrid and I could not fall asleep. We tried turning on the air conditioning but it's so loud that i would rather leave it hot. That was the first thing that made me annoyed on the trip. In the morning, we decided to leave this motel since it was just impossible to fall asleep.
The next morning we went on a cruise aboard the Blue Heron V. It had a glass floor smaller than the CN Tower's, but the view of sunken ships so close to land was enough to make someone voluble stay quiet. The ship stopped at a nationally protected park, Flowerpot Island. We hiked through the island
Ending the summer was the trip to Lindsay, a town we visited once. A spot in the river close to a dam was once fraught and overwhelmed with fish, and if you put your fishing pole down a fish instantly would pop up. It was so easy that it got boring eventually, but for kids it seemed to be doted. The family that came to Lindsay with us brought their monstrous dog. Its name was Sarnia and it would bark at the sight of any unknown human. But, if you just talk to the owner for a few seconds, Sarnia would stop barking and regconize you as a friendly target.
The plan was to go to the dam spot and let the kids have some fun, then fish in a nearby river where we could rest, have some snacks and fish for bigger prey. After taking a good look at the old dam fishing spot, we decided to leave. Once fraught with fish and fishermen, no one was even trying to catch a fish there, and the fish population seemed to have decreased dramatically. The water lvl seemed to have decreased as well, and we were severely disappointed. So, we moved to the river and tested our luck there. My brother and Richard were very eager to fish and so I showed them to how cast with the rod and they learned quickly. In no time,everyone started to catch little sunfish and yellow perch. My brother seemed to get the hang of it easily, and enjoyed going for such small prey. I felt it was no fun to catch these fish, so I took the job of watching over all our paraphernalia. After what felt like an eternity, we decided to leave with a net full of sunfish, rock bass and perch. It was time for lunch, and we headed to a great picnic spot right beside a trail. After a short lunch, we set up our 6-person tent for us to relax in. I just brought my laptop and let the kids play Naruto Fighter, while I tried to sleep. The adults went to another fishing spot under a bridge nearby, obviously not satisfied. As I grew tired of the hot weather, the girls were eager to head outside for a walk, so i decided to sit outside for a while. A call finally came from the adults, and they came back to drive us to the bridge spot.
Dinner was to be portable hot pot, and we ate in the town on two picnic tables. Lamb slices,
By Alex: today i went on the maid of the mist
Friday, June 19, 2009
Quebec
I'm back from my four-day trip in Quebec City, and I am so very tired. Actually, I've been to Quebec once before on a tour with my family, but the city wasn't the main attraction and so we did not explore everything. I slept from 10pm to 9am when I got back, and I was still tired. I've never slept that long ever since I first came to Canada and was affected by jet lag.
The drive to Quebec actually took about 11 hours by bus, including lunch! It actually went by pretty fast, probably due to the intense hand-held gaming with my friends. Everyone who had a DS played Mario Kart by Download Play, and that killed about 4 hours of time, which could've been more if my body could handle it. I was surprised I could stay up that long, normally i would've fell asleep. Even playing games for that long could get boring, surprisingly.
Arriving in Quebec City was very relieving, and we first checked in at a Delta hotel. Our hotel room had two beds, one tv and one washroom. We also had a landscape view of the streets and buildings of the city. At night, my friends refused to sleep and we made some cup noodles and drank lots of Coke to stay awake. We watched movies on our PSPs past midnight and we only got about 5 hours of sleep each day, which was clearly not enough as my eyes were red all the time. Taking turns for showers was a drag because I was always 3rd, and everyone took so long. It's really uncomfortable to sit in a room all sweaty and tired, so I always looked forward to showering, but some of my friends had to take 1 hour periods in the washroom, and who knows why. I sure don't want to find out.
The meals we had in Quebec were simply delightful. We had buffets everyday, except for lunch where my friends and I just went to McDonalds. I know, it's horrible, but it was our only choice. Every time the guide gave us free time in the city, we would just march over to McDonalds and grab a large Coke, and waste our time there. THe breakfasts were always filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and sausages. There were also always the French-style crepes which I drowned in syrup. The dinners One dinner buffet actually had Chinese food, which was awkwardly surprising yet very enjoyable.
Our tour guide led us through Quebec City, looking at many statues of important people like Samuel de Champlain who founded Quebec, historical buildings such as the Martello Towers and learning the history of the city. I didn't find the tours too interesting, and my friends moaned in annoyance as we had one tour after the other. I learned that the battle of the Plains of Abraham only lasted about 10-20 mins, even though it was such an important battle. Honestly, I liked just staying in the hotel room with my friends, just relaxing. It is just the independence that I like the most, not having to follow orders and such.
The drive to Quebec actually took about 11 hours by bus, including lunch! It actually went by pretty fast, probably due to the intense hand-held gaming with my friends. Everyone who had a DS played Mario Kart by Download Play, and that killed about 4 hours of time, which could've been more if my body could handle it. I was surprised I could stay up that long, normally i would've fell asleep. Even playing games for that long could get boring, surprisingly.
Arriving in Quebec City was very relieving, and we first checked in at a Delta hotel. Our hotel room had two beds, one tv and one washroom. We also had a landscape view of the streets and buildings of the city. At night, my friends refused to sleep and we made some cup noodles and drank lots of Coke to stay awake. We watched movies on our PSPs past midnight and we only got about 5 hours of sleep each day, which was clearly not enough as my eyes were red all the time. Taking turns for showers was a drag because I was always 3rd, and everyone took so long. It's really uncomfortable to sit in a room all sweaty and tired, so I always looked forward to showering, but some of my friends had to take 1 hour periods in the washroom, and who knows why. I sure don't want to find out.
The meals we had in Quebec were simply delightful. We had buffets everyday, except for lunch where my friends and I just went to McDonalds. I know, it's horrible, but it was our only choice. Every time the guide gave us free time in the city, we would just march over to McDonalds and grab a large Coke, and waste our time there. THe breakfasts were always filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and sausages. There were also always the French-style crepes which I drowned in syrup. The dinners One dinner buffet actually had Chinese food, which was awkwardly surprising yet very enjoyable.
Our tour guide led us through Quebec City, looking at many statues of important people like Samuel de Champlain who founded Quebec, historical buildings such as the Martello Towers and learning the history of the city. I didn't find the tours too interesting, and my friends moaned in annoyance as we had one tour after the other. I learned that the battle of the Plains of Abraham only lasted about 10-20 mins, even though it was such an important battle. Honestly, I liked just staying in the hotel room with my friends, just relaxing. It is just the independence that I like the most, not having to follow orders and such.
The ride was back very saddening, because we all knew we had to get back to our normal lives, going to school, doing chores and well, all the other boring stuff. It was a great trip, and I wish I could do it again. It's been so much fun in B.H.E.S. these two years. What lies in wait for us in high school, now that we're finally finished with Grade 8?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Quebec Trip finally!
I`ve waited the entire school year for this four-day trip! I`ll be rooming in a hotel with 3 other guys and we`re going to have lots of fun exploring the streets of Quebec City. Last year in Grade 7 we got to go to Ottawa, and I thought that was a blast! I enjoyed playing poker in our rooms at night, watching late night tv shows and the best thing was the independence we received. The only downside to this trip is that just driving there on the bus would take 9 hours. 9 hours of playing hand-held games and watching a movie that we hope someone would bring, and maybe I would get some sleep in, but that`s unlikely.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Biking
Yesterday I just learned to ride a two wheeled bike. This is a very cool bike because it has springs so it can jump.
Today I learned how to start off by myself as you can see from the video here on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI2akHMi5_k&feature=channel_page
I want to ride this bike every day so I can jump off the steps one day. Tomorrow I will ride outside without falling down.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Science Center
Today I went to
This was the movie I watched in the
I also have a video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDfohL6uqZ4
Sunday, February 22, 2009
First Winter Camp
Things I brought: 2 t-shirts, 1 pair of boots, 4 pairs of extra socks, 1 pair snow pants and two pairs of track pants, mess kit, one hat, bedroll, two sweaters.
My first winter camp was exｃiting, painful and a great experience. I went to Camp Wildman, a camp for the scouts near Georgian Bay. It was much colder there because it was up north. The camp was for the whole weekend and we were to sleep in a cabin for the first night, and in a quincy hut for the second.
We had a hearty breakfast of bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs to begin the day. It was to prepare us for an obstacle course in the woods. It was fairly easy, until I got to the double rope bridge. Using only the two ropes, we were to get ourselves to the other side. There were many ways to do it, but what I was wearing restricted me to one option. I just sat on one rope and pulled myself with my arms across to the other side. It was honestly extremely painful, because of the intense friction on the ropes. A better way was to lie down on our backs and push with our feet. It was also more challenging because if we had fallen off we would fall into a frozen river. Most people made it across, but others were too scared so they walked on the river.
I think the most tiring thing I did at this camp, and ever was building a quincy hut. A quincy hut is a hut created by snow, then digged out so there is space for people to sleep in. It needs to be very big, since we needed to fill four people in the hut with their sleeping bags. It took my partner and I at least 3 hours to finish the snow hut. It was very exhausting, but it was a great experience. A game of capture the flag in the dark was pretty exciting after a dinner with the Cubs in their cabin. Sleeping in the quincy hut was very comfortable, but when you want to go to the washroom, it's a horrible experience. Wearing only a sweater and track pants, you slowly try to put your frozen boots on, with no success. Then you walk over to a tree, shivering so much that you feel you're going to die. It's something like this that makes you realize that you need to improve, on planning things and executing them.
On Sunday, it was a day of mostly free time in the camp. We had snowball fights, fort building and we also had a good walk on Georgian Bay in the evening. The frozen lake was a beauty of nature, and there were icicles everywhere that were as long as swords. A dinner of loads of hot dogs were served, and everyone ate at least three.
It was an exhausting camp, but it was a good experience and also was pretty fun. I realized that I did not bring enough clothing because all of my socks got wet and also, when my boots froze I had to stay in the cabin and wait. It was a good lesson, and I won't make the mistake again. Good equipment is always prior to a good trip. When I got home, all that was in my mind was sleeping.
My first winter camp was exｃiting, painful and a great experience. I went to Camp Wildman, a camp for the scouts near Georgian Bay. It was much colder there because it was up north. The camp was for the whole weekend and we were to sleep in a cabin for the first night, and in a quincy hut for the second.
We had a hearty breakfast of bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs to begin the day. It was to prepare us for an obstacle course in the woods. It was fairly easy, until I got to the double rope bridge. Using only the two ropes, we were to get ourselves to the other side. There were many ways to do it, but what I was wearing restricted me to one option. I just sat on one rope and pulled myself with my arms across to the other side. It was honestly extremely painful, because of the intense friction on the ropes. A better way was to lie down on our backs and push with our feet. It was also more challenging because if we had fallen off we would fall into a frozen river. Most people made it across, but others were too scared so they walked on the river.
I think the most tiring thing I did at this camp, and ever was building a quincy hut. A quincy hut is a hut created by snow, then digged out so there is space for people to sleep in. It needs to be very big, since we needed to fill four people in the hut with their sleeping bags. It took my partner and I at least 3 hours to finish the snow hut. It was very exhausting, but it was a great experience. A game of capture the flag in the dark was pretty exciting after a dinner with the Cubs in their cabin. Sleeping in the quincy hut was very comfortable, but when you want to go to the washroom, it's a horrible experience. Wearing only a sweater and track pants, you slowly try to put your frozen boots on, with no success. Then you walk over to a tree, shivering so much that you feel you're going to die. It's something like this that makes you realize that you need to improve, on planning things and executing them.
On Sunday, it was a day of mostly free time in the camp. We had snowball fights, fort building and we also had a good walk on Georgian Bay in the evening. The frozen lake was a beauty of nature, and there were icicles everywhere that were as long as swords. A dinner of loads of hot dogs were served, and everyone ate at least three.
It was an exhausting camp, but it was a good experience and also was pretty fun. I realized that I did not bring enough clothing because all of my socks got wet and also, when my boots froze I had to stay in the cabin and wait. It was a good lesson, and I won't make the mistake again. Good equipment is always prior to a good trip. When I got home, all that was in my mind was sleeping.
