07262011 Summer 2011

This summer is special; there are a lot of things going on. For example, my aunt Sabrina, little cousin Josh, and my uncle Eric came and visit us from Taiwan, going to Vancouver Island, Whistler, playing basketball outside, and also doing chores.

(Uncle Eric comes to visit from Kaohsiung, Taiwan 高雄叔叔來訪)

On the night of July/15/2011, I was super excited because my family from Taiwan is coming to visit the next day. I couldn’t sleep, but something unexpected happened. We got phone call at about 12:00 Pm saying that my aunt is coming over to our house in about 50 minutes! The whole family was stunned, we did our best cleaning up the whole house, vacuuming the floor and picking up scrap piece of garbage from every corner of the house. Finally, the doorbell rang at 1:00 AM. I ran to the door as fast as I could and burst the door open, I was so delighted when I saw my uncle, little cousin at the door. Me and Josh (my cousin) talked and played all night until about 3:30 AM, what a crazy day! I looked forward to go to Vancouver Island and Whistler with them.

The trip to Whistler was spectacular! There are tons of sweet mountain bikes with disk brakes at Whistler. Also, there are verities of shops there. My favourite shops in whistler were Lids, and QuickSilver. Lids have a lot of cool and awesome hats; I saw this one that is a toque and hat combined. I wanted it so bad, but t was $50, my mom won’t let me buy it. The QuickSilver shop had a lot of interesting summer clothing, but sadly, I didn’t want to buy it because things in whistler are really expensive.

Vancouver Island was also amazing. I went to Nanaimo, the beautiful Butchart Gardens and a lot more fun places. Nanaimo had a famous town called Chemairus; it has countless mirrors (wall painting). I see them everywhere I go. The Butchart Gardens was one of the best gardens I’ve seen in a while. There are the Japanese, Italian, rose garden, and a lot more terrific gardens. I had a really fun time there.

(My aunt Sabrina, cousin Josh, and my sister Karen)




This summer it going pretty well so far, I hope it would get even better so it will be the best summer ever!

溫哥華島兩日遊

星期三的時候，我，哥哥，媽媽，家麒，嬸嬸，和叔叔一早就到Sheraton Hotel 去集合。 我們這一團有24 個人而我們導遊叫Vivi Lee，她開著車帶我們去Horsehore Bay 坐船。我們坐的是一艘很大的遊艇(BC Ferry)。船上有很多販賣機，咖啡店和禮品店。當你到船外面的時候，就可以看到許多小島和美麗的太平洋。過了一個小時又三十五分鐘，我們終於到溫哥華島(Vancouver Island)了!

到了島上，導遊就帶我們去溫哥華島的第二大城市~Nanaimo。那裡的風景很漂亮，剛好也沒下雨所以天空上的白雲也慢慢的飄過來，飄過去。我們只停了一下下就要出發到Chemainus 去看壁畫。那裡的建築物上幅幅的壁畫。其中最有名的是三個印地安人的那幅，表現出以前印地安人的生活。

接下來我們就去Duncan City看圖騰柱(Totem Pole)。聽說那些圖騰柱是從各個村落找來的。Duncan City 的街上又好多不同的圖騰柱，每根圖騰柱都有很精緻的圖畫。在市政府的旁邊就是全世界最大的圖騰柱。我想那棵樹一定很大!

到了四點，我們就開到美麗的布查花園(Butchart Garden)。裡面真的很大。有日本花園，義大利花園，玫瑰花園……尤其是玫瑰花園，裡面的玫瑰有好幾十種，五彩繽紛。最後還有一隻神豬的銅像!傳說你如果摸摸神豬的鼻子然後許個願望，它就會實現! 逛了兩個小時後大家都很累，於是我們就回飯店。飯店裡有養一隻狗，牠長得很像安可小時候，超可愛的!!可能是我很累吧，因為飯店的床真的超舒服的!

隔天早上我們六點多就起床準備出發去餵海豹。那裡的海豹是野生的，嬸嬸拍了很多可愛的照片，後來又有兩隻海豹遊過來。餵完海豹大家就坐小輪船到鹽泉島(Saltspring Island)。那裡有一個很漂亮的薰衣草花園，但是其時還蠻小的。那裡有賣薰衣草香皂，薰衣草乳液等等的東西，但我覺的最特別的是薰衣草冰淇淋。薰衣草冰淇淋酸酸甜甜的還有薰衣草在裡頭。

去完薰衣草花園我們就到Saltspring Island的市中心逛一逛。Saltspring Island的市中心有很多藝術店，每間店都非常有特色。時光飛逝，才過了一會兒，就要回家了。在溫哥華島時我真的玩得很開心，這短短的兩天讓我永生難忘!~~~

BBQ (Justin)

Today, me and Allan’s family had a BBQ lunch in our backyard. At 10:00 AM I was starving, waiting desperately for Allan’s family to come over. After one long hour of waiting, the doorbell finally rang.



I was overwhelmed, so I ran and opened the door excitedly. Like I expected, I saw Allan’s family standing in front of the door holding tons of meat for BBQ. Me and Aaron went to the backyard and set up the pans so we can eat earlier.

First, we took the kabobs on to the BBQ pan; I was latterly drooling when I heard the sizzling sound the meat make on the pan. When the kabobs are ready, Allan, Aaron and I finished in a split second. One juicy kabob obviously didn’t satisfy us, so we ate about 5 kabobs.
Then, it’s the beef’s turn! We put the beef on the pan; it was sizzling louder than the kabob! When it was half cooked, we added some salt and pepper the make it taste even better.
After a few minutes, the beef is finally ready. The three of us grab the biggest piece and start attacking on the super juicy beef. We got satisfied by eating about 6 of them. I was pretty full, but I figured that I could eat some more food so I drank about 4 cups of iced tea. My stomach was exploding!

After eating, I decided to burn some calories from the BBQ mean, so I went outside and play basketball for about 30 minutes. That wasn’t enough; I also did my workout routine. Overall, I had a great day, I wish we could do the BBQ lunch again in the summer.

Whistler (Justin)

Whistler

It has been an exciting week. Recently, my Aunt, uncle, and cousin came to visit us from Taiwan. We went to a lot of places such as, Grandville Island, Holland Park, and Whistler. I think Whistler was the best of all, we had loads of fun.


We planned to leave at 9:30 AM, but the travel agent called right when we were about to leave. My mom and the travel agent talked for about 1 hour about our trip to Butchart Garden, Victoria, so we left at 10:30 instead. The two hour car ride was long and painful; I sat in the back with my cousin. There is barely room for my legs to stretch. We stopped by A&W for lunch; the calories and fat of the food was OFF THE CHART, I regret eating those junk food.

Anyways, we arrived Whistler at about 1:00 o’clock. The first thing I saw was TONS of sweet mountain bikes with disk brakes. We decided to split up and go to different shops and meet up at the bench in front of Starbucks at 5:30. We went to countless shops, three of the best shops are, Lids, Cows Ice cream Shop, and a bike shop. There are a lot of awesome, yet expensive hats at Lids. I saw a hat that could also be used as a toque; unfortunately, it was 50.00 dollars so I couldn’t buy it. Next, we went to Cows Ice Cream Shop to eat some ice cream since it was so hot outside. Suddenly, I thought about all the calories ice cream have. I changed my mind. My sister bought 2 scoops of strawberry ice cream so I took a little bite out of it, it tasted pretty good but not as good as I thought. Lastly, I went into a bike shop full of awesome bikes. The bikes were so expensive; the sale price of a bike was 1000 dollars, no joke!

It was time to leave; we met up with my aunt uncle and cousin and headed to the parking lot. The trip home was tiring and long, it seems to take forever. At 9:00, we finally got home; I jumped on to the bed and fell asleep quickly. I had a great day at Whistler, I hope I can go there again some days

斯坦福大學開的這門課-- 女人的女朋友

(文章轉載)

前幾天一位好友Email給我一篇很有趣的文章［斯坦福大學開的這門課］(They Teach It at Stanford)。
於是翻譯如下，和朋友們一起分享。
我剛剛上完在斯坦福大學的一門晚上開的課。

課堂上最後一個講座是關於身心連接（Mind-Body Connection），壓力與疾病的關係。

這位教授是斯坦福大學的精神病學主治，他說，對一個男人的身體健康來說，最好的事情之一，就是結婚，有一個家庭。而對於一個女人的身體健康來說，最好的事情之一，卻是她應該建立和培養她和女友之間的友誼關係。

剛開始聽到教授如此說，每個人都笑了，但教授是認真的！

女人和女人之間有著不同的互動關係，她們互相提供支持，幫助對方應對壓力和生活中的困難體驗。高品質的＂女友的時間＂（Girl friend Time）可以幫助她們創造更多的血清素，一種神經遞質，而有助於防治抑鬱症，並能給女人創造一個良好的自我感覺。

而男性之間的關係往往是建立在活動/事件（Activities）基楚上的。男人很少會坐下來與好友聊天，他們幾乎不會去聊自己對某些事物或私人生活的感受。談論工作嗎？可以；體育嗎？當然；汽車嗎？是的；釣魚、打獵、打高爾夫嗎？也樂意。但談論他們的感情感受？恐怕很少！

而女人總是在交流感情，探討感受的。她們和她們的姐妹/母親分享自己的靈魂，顯然這對女人的身體健康非常好。教授還說，其實對於女人來說，花點時間和女朋友一起交心，是和跑步或在健身房中鍛煉一樣重要的。

人們往往有一種思維傾向，那就是認為當我們在鍛煉時，是做了對自己身體全然有益的事；而當我們和朋友在一起消磨時光時，我們是在浪費自己的時間，我們應該從事比這更有效率的事。事實上，這是不正確的想法。教授說，不能建立和保持與其他人高品質的人際關係，其實是和我們吸煙一樣，對身體健康有著極大危害的！
所以當你每一次和女朋友在一起＂閒聊＂或＂消磨時光＂時，請你拍拍自己的肩膀，祝賀自己為著身體健康做了一件好事吧！有女朋友交心，我們其實非常非常的幸運。

讓我們舉杯慶祝自己與女朋友的友誼吧，這也是為了我們的身體健康！

ps.感謝好友 Julie C. email 分享

Whistler Trip 惠斯樂之旅

Whistler Trip
July 18, 2011

Yesterday, we went to Whistler to see the beautiful sight. It was a long 2 hour ride. There were lots of trees by the highway on the way to Whistler. I slept for most of the trip. After about 1 and half hours, we went to A&W to get some lunch. Ahhh! It was such a nice and partly cloudy day, perfect for going to Whistler.

When we finally arrived at Whistler, there was a huge inukshuk greeting us. We took many pictures of that. When we were at the parking lot, we saw lots of people with mountain bikes and they looked so cool with their helmets and protective gears! It is also some sort of anniversary or something for Jeep so there were Jeep shows at the parking lot. After we paid, we went off to explore the Whistler Village.

As we walked, mom was taking pictures of almost EVERYTHING such as flower baskets, signs, and even shops! Seriously mom, I personally think that there’s nothing special about those things so dear mom can you please stop taking so much pictures? Anyway, Justin got a mocha flavored frappucino from Starbucks and he let me drink some. Frappucinos taste pretty awesome! But I saw this ice cream shop named Cow’s last time and I think it is quite famous so I decided to get that instead. (since Starbucks are everywhere)

As we went on our way to find the famous Cow’s ice cream shop, mom kept taking pictures as usual. We finally found that big cow statue in front of the ice cream shop I had to promise mom to take a picture with the cow after I got my ice cream*sigh*okay I just can’t stand her sometimes…When I got into the shop, there were lots of different flavors of ice cream. There were also postcards, pens, posters, and other stuff with the Cow’s logo on it. The ice creams had some funky names like Gooey Mooey, Brownie Explosion, and much more crazy marks there were also normal names like strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. I got a two scoop ice cream on waffle cone I chose the mocha almond crunch and vanilla. (Cow’s are famous for their vanilla ice cream that’s why I chose it)Both of the flavors tasted so good! Especially the vanilla I also bought a couple bookmarks and a pen from Cow’s.

We mostly just went to shops for the rest of the trip and I didn’t buy anything else other than the stuff from Cow’s on I am such a good kid. When we were on our way back, we stopped at Lion’s Bay since it was so beautiful. I took some pictures from my ipod and we played tag by the beach. I had a great time yesterday and I got really tired. I look forward to our trip tomorrow!

2011 Basketball Camp

This summer, I joined the “camp basketball” summer camp. It was ehhh, so so ; you get to play basketball for 2 hours each day. I especially like the five on five basketball game because I get to be the point guard for the first time. Since elementary, I was too tall to be a point guard so I have to play defense. But in the basketball camp, I am medium sized, just right for a point guard.

Being a point guard is interesting because you get to control a lot of things in the game. Also, teammates rely on you to score and lead them. As a point guard, my favorite thing to do is scoring, and do ankle breaking cross overs. Playing a one and a half hour of basketball game is an exhausting thing, cramps and pulling muscles is a big issue, because it affects your performance in the game.

I usually don’t drink water until half time (drinking water makes you have cramps) also, I stretch before the game so I don’t pull my muscle and get injured. One thing I didn’t like about the camp is that people fowl WAY to much. The worst thing is, there are NO calls or any sort of penalties. I also hate it when I have the ball in my hand; people start grabbing the ball out of my hand. Again, there are no calls, just jump ball. I guess “camp basketball” is for people who don’t know how to play basketball. I think they should improve on their raff skills and focus on drills.

Over all, the basketball camp needs great improvement. It is way to expensive to charge $17.50 just to do some drills and play a game. I don’t want to go to that camp to waste money.

Cultus Lake Field Trip

CULTUS LAKE!!!

Yesterday at Preteen Extreme camp we went to Cultus Lake Waterslides to have some fun! It was definitely one of the trips that I will never forget.

At 9:30am mom drove me to Guilford Recreation Centre to meet up with the rest of the camp members. After everyone was there, we headed on our private bus. It took about 1 and half hour to get to the Cultus Lake Waterslides. When we got there and saw all of the awesome slides, everyone was really excited. I was a little scared but at the same time wanted to ride on the slides.

We hopped off the bus and our leaders started talking about the rules like to not shove and to be back on time……. After their 5 minute talk(which seems like a 5 hour talk to me) was over, me and my friends Sarah and Maggie ran straight to the most famous waterslide in the Cultus Lake Waterslides-THE VALLEY OF FEARS!!! The alley of fears was basically a GIGANTIC ramp. You ride on a tube (it can be a 1, 2, or 3 people tube) and slide down the ramp. You keep shifting back and forth back and forth until you finally stop at the bottom. We were very lucky because there were not much people there on that day and it was not too hot so we got to go after a really short amount of time. Here we go to die! I thought when we were about to go. At the moment you go down the huge ramp it feels like that you just jumped down from Taipei 101!!! I went there for 2 times. The valley of fears was a super scary and fun experience I will definitely go next time!

After the valley of fears, we went to the colossal canyon. It was huge waterslide and you can have 5 people in a tube at once so it is a good choice for families (I saw lots of babies going to that one). It is not as scary as the valley of fears but it was also really fun, especially at the end when you go down and you splash into the water. I went on this one for 6 times since it was so enjoyable and there were not that much people.

At last, I went to the radical rapids. There are single or double tubes. It is a cool and unique waterslide. First, there was this small hill, then you get stuck in this small part of the slide when you have to grab on to the ropes beside you(me and my friend couldn’t grab on to the rope and got stuck for a long time and the lifeguard had to come rescue us>_