End of the Year

The time has come. Everyone made it all the way through with some problems along the way. The year went by really fast; well I guess that’s why they say that time flies when you’re having fun. It has been a great honor to be with all of you, together we’re the Yellow Class. We have faced troubles and solved them together. We discussed thoughts and ideas together as a class. Lastly we fought together as a class to get those cookies and milk, and defeat the Blue Class. It was really very pleasurable this year to be with you guys. Next year, we might not see each other like today, but we can’t do anything about it. We just have to continue our lives just the way it is. I’m sure that for all of us it was a great honor to be with Ms. Torie. I don’t know about anybody else, but for me Ms. Torie will always stay deep inside my heart as one of the best teachers I have ever had for LA and SS. Thank you for all the happiness this class gave me, good luck in high school.

Salute you all

Napoleon Theme Park

If I was one of the Napoleon theme park creators, I would add “bumper cars” as another attraction. But instead of car format, the cars will be ships. In 1798 Napoleon crossed the Mediterranean Sea to attack Egypt. He defeated the Egyptians in the Battle of the Pyramids and his victory was spread out all over France. But the situation in Egypt was not so glamorous. The English Navy, led by Sir Nelson attacked and defeated the French navy in the Battle of Aboukir Bay. We’ll have our visitors ride those cars and bump into each other. The visitors will be able to choose either the British Navy or the French Navy. I’m sure that the visitors will really enjoy this, and Napoleon’s history will be remembered. 

For more information for the Theme Park that will open on 18 February 2014 :

Napoleon Theme Park 

Courage since your birth?

         Courage is something that you cannot be born with, according to John Locke every man was born with the blank state. This means that all men are born with nothing except their natural rights, people will increase their experiences throughout their life. Your surrounding is a major effect on courage. For example: your parents raised you to be brave and they encourage you to try new things; this will help you gain courage. On the other hand, your parents raised you and told you to be quite and don’t get in troubles; this is not helping you gain courage. In conclusion courage is not born with you, but you have to develop it during your lifetime. Courage is within you, but you don’t know and when it is the right time, you’ll know.

Advisement Trip to Pattaya

            Last week on Friday 27, our grade went to an advertisement trip to Pattaya. This trip was supposed to be a 3 day trip but because of the flood which took away our school time and our money so the trip was reduced to be an only 1 day trip. The intention of this trip was for the students to do community service. We had 3 choices: to go to the school of the blinds, going to Daycare center, and going to paint or do farm work at the Children’s Village.

I got to go to the children’s village and painted the old playground equipments. We spent almost 2 hours hardly working on what we were told to do. I was on my best manners and contributed my time and energy to assist the unfortunate kids. First we were supposed to sand the old color out and then we had to color everything with blue paint. Though it was as hot as if we were getting cook, I didn’t complain at all. Some of my friends got paint all over their cloth, their shoes and even on their hair – including myself. The 2 hours which seems to be short but in reality that was the 2 hours of my life that I have donated to those unlucky kids

This also goes to one of our school’s ESLRs which were being caring citizens and we were being benevolent; we were making others happy by giving them our time, money and energy. We were demonstrating our generosity and showed that we are willing to help to those who need our help. In my opinion helping someone might be hard at times, but after you have helped them you’ll be able to feel proud that you were part of making their life better. I hope that we get a chance to do this kind of community service again because this was my first time and it was this fun! I can’t imagine how amazing it would be on the next trip.

Bostonian - Patriots or Terrorist

After a while studying about the American Revolution, we have discussed about the reasons that led to the revolution. On Wednesday we did a Socratic Seminar about the Boston Tea Party.  The day before Wednesday we were assigned to read a primary source about the Boston Tea Party told by George Hewes 60 years later. The story was mainly about the time the colonist were boycotting British goods such as tea because they had to pay too much taxes. They wanted to send a message to the King that they wouldn't buy the tea if they were being taxed. As a result, they decided to disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians and board the British ships that were lying at the Boston Port. The first part of the plan worked, so now they had to throw all the tea into the ocean - there were 342 chest of tea. Now that we have read it, we were supposed to do a Socratic Seminar about it. We started off by clarifying things that were confusing. Later on, Ms, Torie led as into the idea that "Were the Bostonian counted as patriot or terrorist?”

For me I don't think that all those heroic Bostonian should be called terrorist due to their diminutive action. Comparing to what the British were doing to those poor colonist, the Boston Tea Party isn’t really half of it. The British were taking away the rights of the colonist (English Bill of Rights), one by one. The colonist must do something to reveal that they also disserve to have rights as an Englishman. The British weren’t treading the colonist like men, because if they did they must have giving them their rights. According to John Locke theory, every person was born with the 3 natural rights – life, liberty, and property.  But the colonist didn’t have any of the rights. The Bostonians were patriots; they loved their country and were willing to have independence.

Unlike the terrorist at the southern part of Thailand, who are murdering government’s officials such as Police, Soldiers, Teachers, etc. These are real example of terrorist – it is for sure that they do not appreciate being in this country, they are not grateful to be a Thai, but all they want is to cause troubles for others.  Nothing like the patriotic colonist, they were willing to fight for the independence of their country. At the end, they really got what they wanted after all, they are now Americans. I would like to leave a quote which is not mine but I’ll have to borrow it, it says; “I rather die on my feet, than live on my knees”. 

Flood - Personal Experience

At first, I was very sure that no matter what, my house would not be affected by the flood. Although, my family was already alarmed about the flood, luckily my mom works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also known as the MFA. A friend of my mom called her, saying that the Ministry has brought about 200 sandbags. As a result they brought more than what they needed; they decide to give the leftover sandbags to the workers in the Ministry. We got 40 sandbags; we lined them up in front of my house. It was a relief that at least we were ready.  A few days later, I started seeing some water on the opposite Soi, but it was only a little bit so I wasn’t frightened or anything. After a few days, some of the villagers were meeting at the pak soi. I was wondering if they were talking about but I didn’t really paid attention to them. The next morning, I woke up and rode by bike to the pak soi as my dad told me to. Everything seems to be as usual, except for the 50 sandbags lining there like a fort. The water started to increase to knee height, as well as the sandbags increased too.  
Things weren’t normal anymore our family started to run out of food, and it was the men’s duty to take care of his duty in this case it’s nobody else but my dad and me. We were walking with huge tall boots to the market which was next to our village, it looked like a scene from a movie, it was so boisterous at the market place and only a few shops were opened. Pieces of pork and chickens went up, I guess it’s due to the supply and demand and I was so impress because it was the first time I have saw it in real life after being taught about it. Things were getting worse, the water didn’t run very well, consequently we had to fill out a giant bucket with water for storing it for late use.  Everything seems to get worse later on that week. It was Loy Kratong festival with I wanted to attend no matter what. I begged my day to make me a Kratong, it worked. My dad went to cut a part of the banana tree for me and my mom to decorate it with leafs and flowers. It was a Thai tradition to put money in the Kratong, we but 3 coins of 5 Baht and my grandmother put 5 coins of 1 Baht. We marched out to the flooded Pak soi, by the time the water was about my chest height and every single Moo Ban was attacked by the water, all except for ours it felt like we were the only survivors or something thanks to out collaboration. The Kranton didn’t manage to balance so it sank down a feel centimeters away from the shore (sandbags). That was the fun part during the flood. 
3 weeks without school was really fun at first, but later I realized that I miss my teachers and friends. It wouldn’t have been any troubles if my internet wasn’t cut off, I would have been able to catch up with the school work. Would you believe in? I was living part of Pathum Thani and about 95 percent of the province was flooded you expect the Internet company to still have internet around that area? Guess what? They decided to close the signals of internet around that province. I wasn’t able to do any school work, but yep I knew that the school would have open around the 9^th. I decided to miss school and see how many people would have gone to school. In the afternoon we received a school call, they asked if this was Thanitthi’s parent and asked if weather we were affected by the flood. My mother talked for a few minutes and asked “how many people is absence in Anwa’s homeroom?”. “1” the administrator replied “only him”. I was so surprised that I was the only person affected by the flood. After hanging up the phone, my dad came up with a spontaneous idea, he told me to pack up and get ready to head for my grandmother’s house. Again, it felt like a scene from a movie, the headquarters are telling you to report back to duty, immediately. I impetuously threw my cloth in to my travelling bag and packet all my books into my school bag. My dad called a friend who had a “Pickup truck” to meet him at the highway. 
We headed to the Pak soi, hardly walked to the market and wait for some sort of military boats to arrive. It wasn’t so long until a big gray boat came towards me, we hopped in a hurry, in only took about 10 minutes for the boats to be loaded with passengers. We were going out to the main street, where the solider could still pass through. This wasn’t my first time to get in to a journey like this one, perhaps it’s my 5^th time. We arrived at the highway and continued with my father’s friend car. We drove towards my grandmother’s house with wasn’t too far from RIS. I was trying to conform to the situation and focus on studying well at school. I ust hoped that, the situation would get better soon.

Quad Blog!!

     Hi! My name is Anwa, nice to meet you all! I am an eighth grade student at Ruamrudee International School (RIS)  Bangkok, Thailand. My favorite subject is Language Arts and Social Studies, because it is very fun to learn how to improve your English and learning about the past is even more interesting. Normally, school starts at 7:15 and ends at 2:40. Due to the flood situation, school was closed for 3 additional weeks. So now, school starts at 7:00 and ends at 3:25. It have been a really tiring week for us, but this weekend, we have one additional holiday, because it is the King's birthday which is on December 5.  I am look forward to read and comment on some of your blog post. ^^