My City Connection Reflection

     Making the city connection presentation was kind of fun, being able to listen about some countries that you've maybe never even heard of, and explore further in your own was interesting. Things about Singapore for example, and how there was a whole riot started over one little girl. On my presentation I liked the information about the spice trade that I included, because I found that other students who had done the same city did not mention this into much detail as I did. Finally I also thought I found good graphics to go with each slide on my presentation which I think is quite important because I always like to see visuals. Although these are all positive things on and about my presentation I know that I have space for improvement.

     I get nervous very easily, so when it came time for me to present my slide show, I could have done a lot better. I wasn't very loud so not everyone could hear. And when I talked I could of looked at the audience a bit more, I think I was reading and looking of the board a bit too much. Saying all of this, in the end I really just need to improve on my presentation skills. Talking in front of a crowd is not one of my strongest skills so practicing would really help me improve on my overall presentation.

     Lastly I think the preparation was very important, I learned that using key words when searching is really handy and when gathering all your information you should really try to keep every organized so it is very easy to put it all together in the final product.  I also learned things from other presentations as well.

     I saw how other people planed their information, for example instead of answering each question on a separate slide, some people  morphed the two or three together so it flowed smoothly. I also learned (like I said before) interesting facts about different cities in the world. Different facts I never knew and even cities themselves i'd never heard of.

So all in all I think the presentations were fun and I think I did quite well and so did everyone else.

(: ☆ My New Years Resolutions ☆ :)

Well to tell you the the truth I haven't made any new years resolutions yet so I guess this is a good time to start. It is quite hard coming with two resolutions because I am just so incredibly perfect, :P But really, one of my resolutions most probably, actually would definitely be to stop eating so much junk. My second would be to start dancing a lot more.

Let's face it most of the food in ISKL's canteen is very good, but definitely isn't the healthiest around... and almost everyday of the week we eat it all. Some of the favorites, "Rocky",deep fried chicken, plain rice, and popsicle's. I am not going to lie eat I eat these foods as well and I've noticed it's gotten really bad. Everyday I probably consume lots of fat, salt, and sugar. And I'm just guessing that these are not one of the top three things you want to let your body have everyday in fact these are definitely one of the three things you really want to avoid when trying to eat healthy. So that is why I am changing my diet to a more "sane" one. Im hoping all the "temptations" around me will not affect my resolution. Hopefully with effort I'll be able, and willing to complete my promise to myself, and this will be quite hard....

I love dancing, most probably because of the huge influence my sister had on me "Ileana"and when I say influence, I sort of mean she forced to dance my whole life which I am definitely not mad at, in fact I'm really grateful because some people say dance is the funnest and best way to exercise. And I just love doing it :) Besides practicing for the showcase I haven't really been dancing, and the reason I think this is such a big deal is just because of personal I really want to be a good dancer, (maybe to get into IASAS dance a little too) But really, I hope that Ile will be able to help me when I try to accomplish this new year resolution.

All in all I hope I achieve all my goals for 2011 and I hope that this will be a great yea for me and everyone else!

I spent my Christmas at the beach and I went to Bali and it was amazing. I will tell you about one of the sights that most impacted me on our visit.

First item on the agenda was the Uluwatu Temple. It was absolutely amazing! It was a temple perched on top of a high mountain surrounded by crashing waves about 250 feet below. It was breathtaking, literally, this is the trip when I found out I was afraid of extreme heights. I love looking down from towers and building maybe the same height but there was something about the atmosphere of the winds and sprinkles of sea water from below that just made my brain react much differently. Unfortunately for me, my family did not feel the same way. " Let's take a picture while i'm precariously perched on top of the railing!" I was freaking out I grabbed on to the nearest tree and din't let go, I shut my eyes tight and held my breath until everything was over I even startled when seeing other people just look down from the peak.

Monkeys getting a little too friendly!

Uluwatu Temple, Bali

Iva right after they took her earring!

Finally we went to sit down at a rather popular place, under a nice shady tree for monkeys! They started to draw attention when finally all the tourists had come over. We were all sitting there and watching their playful fights with one another when suddenly from behind I heard a yelp. "It's stolen my glasses, my glasses!"Everybody jumped up at the sound and turned to look at what had happened. The keepers of the Temple came rushing over with small plastic bags full of food. Amazingly, they used these bags to barter with the monkeys and managed to recover the glasses after a little negotiation. My sister turned and said to me, "this is a vicious cycle" - "what?" I replied. She explained to me that the monkey not only was never interested in the glasses but that he was smart enough to know that if he stole something from the tourists, they in turn would give him food to get the items back. Suddenly I heard another scream come from right next to me, it was my sister, Iva, clutching at her ear. A monkey had run up behind her and bit the earring right off her ear, all in a split second. The monkey played with the earring in its mouth for a good fifteen minutes, while my sister fretted about getting her favourite pearl back. Finally, another keeper came over and noticed the problem. He passed the monkey a hairnet and a fruit but apparently this was not enough to persuade him. Knowing the earrings were shiny and probably worth more than one single fruit, the monkey held onto the pearl which he had already placed inside the hairnet, as if negotiation for a little more. After tossing him another bag of fruit, the keeper finally managed to recover the earring and hand it back to my sister, covered in monkey saliva. Thus ended one of the more entertaining days in Bali.