Australia Part 4 "The Tourist Sites"

Most of the time when we were spending our days in Australia, was going around different places and visiting the tourist site. All of the places we visited in New South Wales, Australia, were great and fun. Our relatives from Australia brought us to many different places like going shopping, cave exploring, to the zoo, seeing the Three Sisters and the Kiama Blowhorn.
My family and I went shopping a lot in Australia going everywhere that sell about anything. We went shopping for clothes, souvenirs, delicious food, and etc that we could find. I brought one or two jackets and some souvenirs for my friends/family. One of the things that were most surprising was my family buying some couple of paired socks in Australia. Also, the first place we went out of all the places in Australia was Chinatown yay... I mean come on, same thing with the socks, we can go to other places that we have never been to or only stuff in Australia we can do, other then Chinatown where we can just go to Oakland. But regardless of that, I learned that Chinatown in Australia is way cleaner then Chinatown in Oakland.
Our relatives took us to a tourist site (forgot the name) where we went cave exploring. It was very fun and adventurous when we were exploring the cave. The tour guy led us all around the cave telling us about its history and how it was found. He showed us some crystals in the cave and some rocks that looks like the Statue of Liberty and some that looks like a big mushroom. The tour guy turned off the lights for us to see how dark it was in the cave when there was no light at all. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anything at all, I thought to myself that it would be scary if you were lost in a cave and couldn't see anything at all. He told us that you would lose all your five senses if you were in total darkness for 45 minutes, you won't be able to tell what up or down and left to right.

I will continue the rest next week.

Australia Part 3 "The House"

Once we got out of the car and arrived at one of our uncle/aunt's house, one thing pop into my head "big, very big house" was all I could think.
Their house was in one of those cul-de-sac places, and I thought it was pretty cool because I never saw one before. My family and I got our luggage first into the house, as soon as we were done, we all went exploring. The house was magnificent for my opinion, it is a two-story building with a huge backyard connecting a walkway to a park, and highly protected so no thieves can trespass. The house have four bedrooms upstairs (three of the rooms being used by us), one bathroom on each floor, one large living room, and a kitchen. Our uncle/aunt even have their own little private bar for themselves in the living room, and a fish tank filled with fishes for the kids.
I thought things couldn't get better (I spoke too soon) until I saw their backyard. Their backyard was pretty big too that include a miniature play structure, a waterfall fountain with pond fishes, a small steam room, a hammock, couples of tables and chairs, overall they have a lot. I am just amazed and blown away for just exploring the house. Come on they even have their own little room where they can watch all their movies with surround sound, SURROUND SOUND!!! I am just jealous of their house when comparing it with mine; it's like a dream house for me. Good thing were staying here for four weeks, so I can do everything in this house that I can possibly think of.
There were about eleven people staying at that house, but that was no worries since the house was pretty big. I was happy that we were staying at this house instead of some hotel when were exploring/having fun in Australia.

Australia Part 2 "The New Family"

I was still awake in the plane, flying to our destination meeting with our other relatives in Australia. It was pretty early and everyone was either sleeping or reading a book, which I was sitting bored to death. I looked out the window to see the peaceful ocean and the sun rising out of the clouds, at that moment I saw land, thinking to myself "We're finally here".
The plane landed, everyone got off and started walking to do their own business. My family and I got our luggage, and waited for our relatives to pick us up. It was mostly my cousin and I first time meeting them since we were babies when they arrived in the U.S.. The ones who picked us up were three of our uncle and aunts (three pairs of couples) who looked to be around their 30s or 40s from Australia. We all greeted each other with welcoming hugs and smiles. Once we got out of the airport and into their two cars, I first noticed that the driver seat drives on the right, instead of the left side back in the U.S.. While I was in the car, I started thinking if anything else was different from Australia. One thing for sure was that winter season over here was like summer in Alameda.
I was told that one of my uncle/aunt have a son and two daughters who we'll live with too till we go back to the U.S.. I was told that I was older than all of them, which was good news because I don't like to be the youngest one. Their son, named Aaron, is only one year younger then me which was very close, the middle daughter, Nina, is ten years old, and the youngest one, Kaitlin, is only five. When we all first met, we didn't really talk to each other that much, but later on we did and got to know each other better. Even though Aaron is younger than me, he is bigger and taller compare to me (sad face). Nina and Kaitlin on the other hand were shorter (happy face), but their only ten and five (sad face again). Their all very energetic and we got along with them easily. It's a good thing, because were going to stay with them for four weeks, might as well get used to this new family of ours.

P.S. I'm going to post my blogs on Saturday for now on. Btw wondering if you(Mr. Sutherland) gave me points for the last two weeks cause I'm not sure if you got my blog or not.

Tatum's Article Paragraph 4

(4.) Though this group of children, almost all of whom were White, did not live near a large Native American population and probably had had little if any personal interaction with American Indians, they all had internalized an image of what Indians were like. How did they know? Cartoon images, in particular the Disney movie Peter Pan, were cited by the children as their number-one source of information. At the age of three, these children already had a set of stereotypes in place. Though I would not describe three-year-olds as prejudiced, the stereotypes to which they have been exposed become the foundation for the adult prejudices so many of us have.

How I annotated this paragraph was by underlining the key information, and leaving comments for me to understand the paragraph much better. This helps me a lot because, I don't have to read and go over again to memorize what has happen. Doing the annotation, I can just read the underline sentences and the comments I put that was important to me to refresh my memory. If I didn't do the annotation, I would take more time and it will consume how much time I have left which would be wasteful. Annotation is important because its an easy way to take notes and helps you understand more about it then just reading the whole thing.

Dim Sum anyone or Dim Sumthing else?

Haha get it? Pretty lame right, haha yeah I'm not that funny. Well guess where I went today that had absolutely delicious food, Dim Sum, which literally means "Touch the heart". Back in the old days, Dim Sum (touch the heart) was originally not suppose to be a main meal, only meant for snacks, thus only touching the heart. Now it has evolved serving a wide variety of light dishes (dumplings, congee, rice noodle rolls, etc.) alongside with Chinese tea (bolay, oolong, and ect.). At first it was unfitting to combine tea with food, because people thought it would lead to extra weight gain. Later, people soon found out that tea can help in the digestion, and soon many Dim Sums' owners began adding wide range of foods. Dim Sum is usually served in the morning until mid-afternoon and at some Dim Sum eateries serve specific dishes throughout the day. Mostly all the dishes come in small portions that includes meat, seafood, vegetables, as well as dessert and fruits. The foods are usually served in small steamer basket or on small plates. Dim Sum's foods are mostly served on a trolley by servers and special food (not consider a dim sum plate, such as a plate of chow mein) are ordered from a menu. Every time you ordered a plate, the server puts a stamp on the bill at the table to record the dishes you order. They then add the total number of dishes all up together to get the price. This is more organized then before, when they just look at the number of plates, size, and even sometimes the color of the plates left on the customer table. This way prevents the customers from stealing or hiding the plates to reduce the price that they have to pay. The bill is divided into four sections labeling the plates as "small", "medium", "large", and "special order". All in all Dim Sum is a great place to eat there, they have delicious food, great service, and it will delightfully touch your heart.

Australia Part 1 "The Plane"

Night time around 8:00 P.M., on July 16, 2009, two cars stop in front of the building and dropped off couples of suitcases. My mom, cousin, grandma, two of my aunts, and I arrived at S.F.O with the help of my uncles who dropped us off there. We are going to Australia for four weeks to visit our other relatives from there. Last time they came here to the U.S. was around ten years ago, and now were going to visit them to have a reunion.
When our plane was ready, we said our goodbyes to our uncle and got on the plane. My cousin and I sat next to the window while my relatives sat in the four seats in the middle. When we took off into the air, I looked out the window and pretty much saw nothing. Of course it's all dark and murky since it was like 9 something when we took off. My cousin, same age as me who also go to AHS was scared of lifting off into the air, because she rarely go on planes that much. I of course wasn't scared at all, but instead thought it was cool to be going super fast and lifting in the air. I laughed pretty hard when my cousin was holding to her seat when we took off and told her the possibilities of us crashing. The plane was slow and tiring for just sitting there for fourteen hours. My butt was hurting, but we got to stretch later on when the pilot of the plane said it was ok. The food in the airplane was ok I guess, the only best thing was dinner that served ravioli with a chocolate brownie for dessert. They show pretty good movies on the plane like "He's just not that into you," "Star Trek," "Monsters vs Aliens," "Dragonball Evolution," and many more. I enjoyed most of the movies and they were all great, except "Dragonball Evolution" that I thought was a great disappointment. My cousin and I made fun of the movie like calling out "Ka ma ha me ha" out loud in the plane. I had a great time in the airplane with my cousin, and I mostly didn't sleep at all in there which I'm thinking why I didn't. I guess I was having to much fun and didn't even want to sleep at all.