Blog #7

My favorite unit we did this year had to be "The Road". I enjoyed the road, because unlike with some of the others units we did, we discussed and reflected what happened in the Road day by day, for example: After the father killed the man, we discussed what the boy and the father would be feeling internally and then discussed how they are displaying it internally. It involved more discussion and I feel that made most of the class emotionally attached to it, which later showed in the effort we put into our presentations. My least favorite unit we studied this year had to be "A midsummer's Nights dream" this is for the reason that, although the literature in it was great and comprehensive, it was often hard to understand what was going on in the story without having a teacher explain it and translate what Shakespeare said in the story. This as a result made it harder to relate to the story in other assignments such as Critical and Personal Responses. In addition to that; because we did not really understand what was going on in the story at times, it became hard to have discussions where we could reflect on our opinions in the story. In addition to that we watched the movie at the same time we were reading the book, and they both had discrepancies so sometimes it was hard to remember which scenes came from the book and which came from the movie, which presented as a challenge when doing assignments based on those. If there was anything I would improve in future English 20-1 classes, it would be to have more debates going on, where people with different opinions on a certain topic would debate why their opinions are better or more valid than other ones. I feel we didn`t do much of that this year, and we just followed the general opinion of the class rather than getting the opinions of others, who could have also then changed the opinions of the class.

Blog #6

My Spring Break was a complete and utter waste. So instead of depressingly reflecting back on that sad time, I will instead choose to reflect on Spring Break 2 years ago, when my family and I visited China. It was the complete package, filled of excitement, despair, drama, and plain happy memories. It all started when we left Calgary for Vancouver. It was a perfectly smooth flight and journey until we landed in B.C. That's when things started to get chaotic. When we landed, we could not find our gate for our connection to Hong Kong, and if that was bad, things were about to get way worse. After the hard struggle to find our gate, we finally sat there for the next hour and a half until the plane was ready for boarding. Finally we were ready to board. Then, panic ensued. I had just realized that my phone was missing. Trying to remain calm (which failed miserably), I started ripping through my hand-carry and triple-checking my pockets to find where my phone was. I had just broken my phone's screen a month back, and losing it now would give my parents the impression that I shouldn't have one. What was more concerning to me, was what had happened to my phone, who has it, and what would they plan on doing with it (for example, stealing personal information). Arriving in Hong Kong, I was quick to send in a lost-items report to the Vancouver Airport Authority which proved unsuccessful. What made matters worse, is that my parents and sister believed that I had lost my phone as opposed to someone stealing it from my possession, and they thought I may have dropped it in the last flight and it may have been thrown away by accident. That is until we got back from our vacation, and I received an awkward notification from Facebook regarding a sign-in attempt to my account from an address in Surrey, B.C. Personally, I wanted to report it to the police, as Facebook provided me with the exact address and location of where the sign-in was attempted from, but after already getting the new iPhone 5- of which I currently have, I decided it was better to avoid all the trouble and to let it go. And that capped off how my Spring Break started and ended.

 Probably what happened to me...

Blog #5

Personally, I find New Year Resolutions to be counter-productive. At times, it can of course be productive, but it can also lead to procrastination as people who are looking for a change will often wait until the New Year so that they can continue with their bad habits until that point, which in the end is just hampering their efforts to change whatever it may be in their life. Take for example if some guy wants to go to the gym. If he promises himself he will do it starting from the new year in September and then continues with his bad habits, it will 1) Lead to a harder amount of effort needed once he does starts to change and 2) He ultimately would be delaying what he wants. This applies to all aspects of change. If you delay it, ultimately you are not helping yourself, and you would be going against what you want. Procrastination can also transfer to other aspects of your lifestyle. If you are to apply it towards one thing, ultimately it will spread and control all aspects of your life whether it is work, or life at home. This is why personally, I don't believe in New Years resolutions. If you don't like the way you are handling something in your life, don't wait until New Year to change it. What is so special of starting a resolution during the New Year? How does doing something a couple of weeks or months later going to change the way you approach a resolution. The answer is nothing. If you have an intent on changing something you should handle it immediately, and not wait until a new year. You will get it done sooner and instead of starting the New Year with a resolution, you will start the New Year knowing you are completely satisfied with all aspects of your life.

Blog #4

I remember when a couple of years ago, my family and I went to Dubai for Winter Break, and it was amazing. The weather was perfect (15-20 degrees), people were outside enjoying the holidays. The mall (which is the biggest in the world) was massive. There was actually a fake snow park, where people could Ski, Snowboard, or just enjoy the snow INSIDE THE MALL! But that's not all. The mall boasts some amazing features such as a 10,000 litre-aquarium (one of the biggest in the world), a hockey rink, and a 76,000 square ft theme park. The real attraction to me though were the New Year fireworks. When it comes to celebrating New Year, no one is even on the same planet as Dubai. Their fireworks were absolutely amazing and it was definitely high up on the list on one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. I remember how we were on the streets which were packed and I remember looking around and seeing so many people from so many different places around the world, it was truly a gathering of different cultures. Strangers were greeting strangers they've never met before from the other side of the world. This truly teaches the significance of events such as these for the fact that amidst today's generation of hatred and fear, it can play a huge role in bringing people of different cultures and ethnicity's together as a whole, and that is an experience on its own.

2015 Fireworks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csQu9GSEVYA

The "Snow Park"at Emirates Mall in Dubai