Slice Of Life #226 - Middle School - Tuesday, August 8th, 2019

    I've just came back from middle school. Today is the second week of middle school, but we have already done our reading and math MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test. Tomorrow, we don't have any tests (which is a great relief), but we have a test on language usage on Thursday.

    In middle school, everyone has a really heavy backpack (or most people do, at least) because of all the supplies we have to bring to school everyday. We need a bunch of A4 notebooks now (which are a lot heavier than you think it is) for school. According to our math teacher, we need the thickest notebook we can find for math because we are going to be using a lot of paper for math this year.

    For us, middle school is like university. We have a 10-minute break between classes, where we have to walk to other classes. The teachers don't come to us. Instead, we go to them.

    Other than that, I haven't met a lot of people (from grade 5) in middle school yet. I think this is because all of our classes are in different orders, and we all have different classes (some people may have drama, while I don't - for this trimester, at least).

    I have completed most of my homework at school already (YAY!), but still have some math homework to do. I also have to practice my clarinet, so I'm just going to wrap up this post right now because I don't really have anything else to write about. See you next week!

Slice Of Life #225 - The First Day Of School - Tuesday, August 8th, 2019

    I looked at a piece of paper to confirm my homeroom. My mom was chatting with her friend. "I'm gonna' go up first!" I said to my mom. "Bye!"
    My mom waved goodbye to me and continued talking. I walked up the stairs to my locker.  I opened it, put my bags inside, set the combination and locked it. I pushed open the glass doors to the common area.
    Inside, I saw some of my friends on the sofa, chatting. I went over to join them. After a while, my mom came up just to check on me and see where the grade 6 common area was. She looked into my locker to see how big it was and how much space was in there. After that, she left for home.
    At 7:55, I walked to my homegroup. Me and my friends walked into the room and started talking (because we had nothing else to do). At homegroup, we got some information about the whole day. At 8:10, we left homegroup for our first class. Because today was day 1, I would have periods 1, 3, 5, and 7. I would start my day with period 1, which was Spanish. I made my way up to the 4th floor, where all the language arts were.
    After Spanish, I had a 10-minute break, where I didn't really have time to do anything. I had to make my way down the 1st floor, which was where my lockers were. I put in anything that I didn't need and got everything that I needed (or thought I needed, at least).
    After period 2, we had a welcome back assembly. After the welcome back assembly, we had lunch.
Then, I had period 3 (and I did not know which class I had - math or science - because I did not check my schedule - but I knew that we weren't gonna' do anything in the 1st class - and math and science were in the same class. After period 3, I had period 4, which was humanities. Humanities class was slightly shorter this time because we had a Green Team (which was my house - Green Team's the best!) get together. At the end of the get-together, I got my ID card. After that, I went to the library to borrow a book - which I already finished - and went home.
    And that was how my first day of school unfolded.

Slice Of Life #224 - At The Clinic - Tuesday, August 6th, 2019

    Currently, I am at the clinic. I attempted to sign in to my private account to write this post, but Google kept asking me for the a verification code and stuff like that. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because my mom wasn't around (and she had the phone). I called her but she said she didn't receive anything and we tried different ways but it didn't work.
    Because of that, I have to use my school account to write this post. I wanted to use my private account because I would be able to do some writing after I wrote this post. Unfortunately, now I can't do any writing because all my work and stories are in my private account.
    I am currently at my dad's clinic because my mom is doing some things outside. Okay... The AC just turned off for no reason. I'm gonna go and turn it back on.
    I'm back. Now, I don't know what to write about. I'm reading on my Kindle. Oh, wait... I said that I was gonna write about my trip to Taiwan last week.
    Last week, I came back from Taiwan, where I went to a summer camp. At the summer camp, I got to experience the outdoors. The summer camp was a "farming camp", and so on the first day we played a few games that were widely played in rural areas.
    On the 2nd day, we went to a pineapple farm and an organic farm. At the pineapple farm, we got to eat as many pineapples as we wanted. At the organic farm, we got a lot of free food (in exchange for the fact that we had to "work" for them). We also helped them harvest vegetables.
    On the 3rd day, we we went to a beach and also a place where they would grow trees and use them to make things. We had a lot of fun at the beach, but unfortunately I forgot to charge my watch, so it "died" at the beach. My watch is alive now because I charged it when I got back. We also went to a place where they would take naturally grown trees (I forgot the species) and would make them into clothes and things like that.
    On the 4th day, we went clam catching and fishing. We did fishing the way the indigenous people did it. They would build houses for the fish and the fish would live in it. Then, when they needed food, they would catch the fish and eat it.
    On the 5th and final day, we went to a rice farm, where we learned about how they packaged rice, how they harvested it and how they made it white rice (basically stuff like that). After that, we went home.
    And that's basically what happened. I'm gonna go now. Bye!

Slice Of Life #223 - Life As It Is - Tuesday, July 30th, 2019

    Throughout this week, life has been pretty good to me. On the day before yesterday, I came back from Taiwan. In Taiwan, I went to a summer camp where we got to experience and play with nature. But because my brain is currently really exhausted, I'll save that for next week.

    I've just finished all my piano homework - which was a lot of homework - and because of that, my brain is exhausted and I don't want to write a really long post. Today is our king's coronation, so today is a public holiday. Because of that, I went hiking with my parents friends this morning.

    We went hiking in the mountain next to our neighborhood (or really close to our neighborhood, at least). I last went hiking there ages ago, which is pretty weird if you consider the fact that I live almost right next to it.

    The mountain we went hiking at is really massive, and also really energy consuming to climb it. There is also a waterfall in the mountain, which we went to (but didn't go swimming in). Because my dad is taking a lifestyle medicine exam soon, he stayed at home to do some revision. Malaysia has lots of really beautiful mountains, and I've went hiking in lots of them before. Some parts of the mountain we went hiking at were closed by the government because there were really beautiful lakes in there one of the lakes were green - in color - or something like that...

    While I was in Taiwan, my dad ordered a kindle for me to read books on. The kindle came yesterday (delivery was surprisingly fast), and it is extremely useful. You have to buy most of the books, but you can get pretty much every classical book in the world for free. Just make sure you get the one that says Amazon Classics Edition. For me, that's really good - because I'm reading classical books (I'm reading Treasure Island) right now and need the dictionary (you can click on any word if you don't understand it and it's definition will appear). If you want to read books that cost money, they're a lot cheaper than the paper version.

    Well, that's pretty much my life as it is. I'm gonna wrap it up for now. Bye!

Slice Of Life #222 - A Piano Exam

    I took a deep breath as I walked into the examination room. "Good afternoon, Madam," I said to the examiner.
    Today was a big day. In the morning, I had my Moving on Ceremony, where I got my certificate for completing elementary school. Now, I was taking my grade 2 piano practical test.
    "Please take a seat right over there," The examiner told me.
    I walked towards the piano and put my music on the stand. I opened it up to my 1st piece.
    "Let's start with Balleto, your first piece. You may start whenever you're ready."
    I placed my hands on the keyboard and started playing my first piece. I finished playing my first piece with a few mistakes, but not very obvious mistakes. Next up was my 2nd piece, The Ballerina. Somehow, I messed up in the middle and couldn't keep playing on, so I had to restart, which was extremely disappointing because I played that piece the best. I played the 3rd piece almost perfectly, so I was happy about that.
    Next up were my exercises. I had selected an exercise to play (the easiest one), and managed to play it perfectly. My examiner had the privilege to select my 2nd exercise. Fortunately, she selected the 2nd easiest, and I also played that perfectly.
    Next, the examiner came and asked me for my favorite piece. I showed her my favorite piece. She asked me a few questions about the piece. I was able to answer them all correctly (for some reason, she asked me really easy questions).
    After that, I played my scales. Scales are a set of notes in different keys. You would play either one octave or two octaves (for me, I had to play all my scales for two octaves). Overall, I played my scales correctly. My index finger slipped while I was playing a scale, but I managed to recover.
    Last but not least, I had my aural. I actually did pretty well in my aural test, because I got all questions correct except for one.
    "Your test is over," My examiner said to me. "You may go home now."
    "Thanks," I told the examiner. "Have a great weekend!"
    "Indeed, I will."
    I clutched my book tight as I opened the door and walked towards the waiting room, where my mom was waiting for me. The test was finally over.

Slice Of Life #221 - I Almost Forgot... - Tuesday, July 7th, 2019

     Okay... I have almost forgot to write today's slice. And, I don't know what to write about. It is really late now in Malaysia, so this slice will be a quick one - I need my sleep.
    Tomorrow, I'm going to do some maintenance in my "Lego Paradise". I need to do some repairing to a few things I have made out of Lego a long time ago. I call this place a "Lego Paradise" simply because it has lots of things made out of Lego in it.
    I am now laughing because of something I have found on Google. This picture brings me good memories - I was doing some research and trying to find a picture about plastic pollution with my friends when I came across this picture (on the right) and me and my friends started laughing like crazy - even though now that I think about it it really isn't that funny...
    Okay, it's getting late! I'm gonna go to sleep now! Bye!

Slice Of Life #220 - Social Change Blackboards Share - Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

    I walked into my classroom and got my computer out of the computer cart. My teacher, Mr. Herbert walked into the room.
    "Okay, class," He said. "As you know, today, we're going to be sharing our social change blackboards, or SCBs, with the 4th graders, your friends, some teachers, and your parents. Please get your blackboards ready."
    I opened up my computer and opened up the online map that showed live statistics of the air quality all around us. I was going to show it to the people that came to my blackboard. After everyone had done what they needed to do, we all started chatting to each other - because we felt like it, at least.
    Mr. Herbert croaked the frog. When he croaked the frog, it meant that he was trying to tell us to stop talking. He told us to go find our blackboards (but you didn't need to if your blackboard was on your table).
    At last, people started coming. I started presenting about my blackboard. I talked to them about global warming (which was my blackboard topic) and greenhouse gases and asked them to "go home tonight and do something to help our Earth."
    I actually managed to convince a parent to go vegetarian 2 days a week (I don't know if she's actually going to do it or if she's just saying it, but DO IT!)
    On the other hand, some of the 4th graders just wanted to know stuff about the blackboard.
    When I got home, I stuck my blackboard to the wall with a "sticky sticker" I had. Then, I took a few steps back and adored my amazing masterpiece. I had spent a long time working for this, but it had all paid off.