A G: 2016

Friday, December 16, 2016

Memories - Christmas Gift for our 3rd Grade Teacher - 12 Days of Room 2 by Aaron and Gordon

12 Days of Room 2

- Aaron and Gordon

Memories - Christmas gift for our speech teacher - 12 Days of Speech Class by Aaron and Gordon

12 Days of Speech Class

- Aaron and Gordon

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Presentation / Essay - Culture Doll , Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 by Gordon

Culture Doll - Qin Shi Huang

By Gordon

Culture Doll Descriptive Paragraph

     Today I would like to talk about my doll, which is modeled after the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang.

Qin Shi Huang had a massive army of soldiers, who helped him conquer the number of individual vassal states during the Warring State period, and united them into one great kingdom about 2,200 years ago. During his reign, he built and connected many fortifications and walls into one single defense system, the 5,500-mile-long Great Wall of China, which is now considered as the symbol of China. He buried the famous Terracotta Army in his tomb as the guardians for his afterlife. The great emperor ruled until his death in 210 BC. He is one of the most important people in Chinese history.

Made mostly of earth and stone, the world-famous Great Wall of China, built by Qin Shi Huang, stretched from the east China Sea port to the western desert in Gansu province. The walls and a series of forts standing along the historical northern border protect China against the raids and invasions from the north. Several walls were built as early as the 7th century BC. These, later were joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall of China. Little of that original wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced. The most of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty.

Guess what color ancient Chinese people cannot wear except the emperor? The answer is yellow. Yellow color decorated with dragon patterns are the privilege of royal families. In Chinese culture, red means the symbol of importance and royalty. Yellow symbolizes the power of the throne. Dragon symbolizes power and excellence along with royalty.

My doll of Qin Shi Huang is completely made of paper. He is holding the national flag of People’s Republic of China. I searched for the picture of the emperor, then printed it out. I cut out the wrapping paper, glitter paper and fabric stickers in small pieces for his clothes. I used markers to outline my doll. Question, where is my original paper doll? It is right here at the back. One of his arm is bent forward.

Culture Doll Personal Narrative

With a strong technology background, my grandparents and my parents all work as experts in computer technology. My parents came to the US for jobs, and they are the first generation in their family that has moved to and lived in America. They have black hair and brown eyes, like typical people from East Asia. Although I have black hair and brown eyes too, I was born and grew up in Fremont, California.

My parents were all born and grew up in Beijing, the capital of China. Imagine living in an ancient city with thousands of years’ history at childhood. My parents visited those hundreds of years old ruins and buildings like Tian An Men Square, Palace Museum and Summer Palace almost every weekend. Well, just like I go to the Exploratorium and California Academy of Science, or might visit the Six-Flag park and Disneyland at weekends and holidays.

Being proud of as one of the four great ancient civilizations, my parents love to keep our Chinese traditions and cultures in our family. We celebrate the Chinese New Year. I wear traditional Chinese clothes, red and yellow with dragons at the special time. My brother and I are also attending Chinese school at the weekend.

My family loves to travel in China to explore the interesting Chinese culture. I have visited many cities in China in the last few years. Xi 'an is the most interesting city I have ever been to. It used to be the capital where the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, lived and was buried. Although his palace, E-pang palace, was burned down shortly after his death and falling of Qin dynasty, his Terracotta Army survived for more than two thousand years. In 1974, thousands of soldiers and horses were found, and I was shocked by the detail and vivid color when visiting the Terracotta Army.

I love to explore all different kinds of cultures by traveling around the world. While I was amazed by the history of China, visiting iconic museums, the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court in Washington DC, makes me proud to be an American.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Presentation - Chinese Idiom Stories by Aaron

Chinese Idiom Stories

- Aaron

滥竽充数

掩耳盗铃

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Vancouver - Thanksgiving in Vancouver, Canada by Gordon

Vancouver

- Gordon

Seattle train station
King Street Station

Seattle train station
King Street Station
6：50 am

Ocean view from the train

King Street Station

Ocean view from the train

Arrived at Vancouver
thanks to Amtrak Train

What a thanksgiving break! Do you want to go on an amazing trip? Go wild and visit Canada! We started at Seattle and so now we were sitting on Amtrak when we arrived at Vancouver downtown, Pacific Center Station. My family had a full Italian lunch and departure for our hotel. Our hotel room has a pretty view of Coal Harbor. We quickly got ready for our first stop, Lynn Canyon Park at North Vancouver.

Vancouver Pacific Central Station
(train station)

Our lovely hotel has a beautiful harbor view
Coal Harbor

Seabus Terminal

Seabus view of the harbor

How to get to Lynn Canyon Park at North Vancouver? Two choices for us! Long way by bus #210 or short way by Seabus across the bay. We definitely chose Seabus.

Seabus ride to North Vancouver

Lynn Canyon Park

walked to Lynn Canyon Park

Lynn Canyon Park
Suspension Bridge

suspension bridge gate

On the suspension bridge

Everybody that comes here is for visiting the suspension bridge. The bridge was built across the canyon. It kept shaking when I walked and I wasn't scared. When I jumped, it felt like the bridge wouldn't hold everyone. It shook so much that a medium sized rock fell. The rock was as big as my head! A visitor center was there open late. I received my "love bug" as a souvenir.

Lynn Canyon Park

suspension bridge

On the suspension bridge

View of Lynn Canyon from the suspension bridge

Playing with water at the canyon creek

Playing with
warm water

Lynn Canyon Park
visitor center

North Vancouver
outside of
Lynn Canyon Park

Cruise ship terminal

Canada Place

Vancouver Harbor Centre

The Seabus took us back to Vancouver downtown. We started to walk along Coal Harbor and enjoyed the beautiful night view, the water, the light up buildings and holiday decorations. The 2010 Olympic torch was dazzling with blue lights. A model of Earth is spinning but you mostly see white because they also simulated the clouds. The trees were decorated bright white lights. In the view is the Vancouver Harbor Centre. It glows with pretty purple colors. 49 years ago, the Vancouver Harbor Centre was the highest building. In 1977, Vancouver Harbor Centre was called Sears Tower. A restaurant at the top is there waiting for everyone to come in. Also, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, has a footprint at the top of the tower.

Gastown center

The Steam Clock

The Steam Clock is a famous landmark of Gastown. It was a clock that runs by steam. You could say that it runs by water because steam is a formation of water. It was the very first steam powered clock and it runs 100% steam power. Every 4.5 minutes, a steel weight goes up to the top. A short set of beeps sound every 15 minutes. A medium beep goes every 30 minutes. A long set of beeps sound every hour. Sadly, the clock is late 5 minutes. There you go! Listen to the 8:45 pm beeps...

Steam Clock beeped at 8:45 pm

well... sort of 8:50 pm beeps

beautiful night
Coal Harbor view

Cruise ship terminal

Olympic Cauldron, Coal Harbor

MOV museum
Museum of Vancouver
at Vanier Park

Playing at Vanier Park

Playing with water at Vanier Park

False Creek Ferries

Filming at False Creek Ferries

False Creek Ferry

The next day, we went to Granville island by a ferry. The ferry is actually a boat. Because of the rain, we are the only riders on board. It was like a private boat to our family. The boat drove us along the beautiful English Bay.

Kids Market holiday decorated

Kids Market

The island was flooded with people and there was even a Kids Market. The kids can find lots of toys and video games there. The fun part was that you could see through the doors of the elevator.

Granville Island Market

View of English Bay from
Granville Island

Science World

Tower of Bauble at the entrance of
Science World

Our dinner was at a market where we had many soups, breads, and even desserts! The boat took us to the Science World, which is a purple glowing ball. It sits at the end of the False Creek. With its beautiful glowing lights, you hardly miss this place. Unfortunately it closes at 5:00 pm. The tinker machine, Tower of Bauble, at the entrance of Science Center was so cool, my brother and I staring at it for more than 15 minutes. Just listening to the balls collide with other objects was fun enough. We walked to Chinatown and later Gastown again.

Chinatown in
Vancouver

Coal Harbor Park

Walk towards Stanley Park
Coal Harbor Park

Stanley Park

The next day we went to the extraordinary Stanley Park. It is located at the border of Vancouver downtown with 3 sides of water front. We enjoyed scenic views of water, mountains, sky, and majestic trees along Stanley Park's almost century old Seawall. It has 9 kilometers of trails, beautiful beaches (the 2nd beach and the 3rd beach). We were brave enough to choose to walk all the trails.

Stanley Park's almost century old Seawall

Entrance of Totem Poles

Totem Poles

Statue of Native Indians

The Totem Poles at Stanley Park are very important for the local Indians. They were made of red cedar. There are set of animals carving on the tree trunk. The eagle was the king of air and the whale was the king of the seas. The wolf was the genius of land as the frog was the transition link of land and sea. The Totem Poles are awesome.

Stanley Park

Lions Gate Bridge

Shell at Stanley Park

Siwash Rock

Third Beach

Beautiful view from Third Beach

Stanley Park

Swimming pool filled with
ocean water

Second Beach

Walk back to hotel on Robson Street
the busiest and most popular street
of Vancouver downtown

Now you know my complete trip front to back. Let us all hope that you can have a trip the same! Don't you think it's amazing? Next time you go on a trip, be sure to check out Canada!