Choir post

Hey! In choir, we are studying "The Power of the Void", leading us up to the theme of the next concert. Void is easy enough to understand. The most simple description of void is empty space or nothingness. In the case of music, that empty space would be silence. Silence is a delicate element to apply in your music. When used to often or in the wrong place, it spoils the effect entirely. When used correctly, though, you can toy with the listener's mind and make them question, wonder, and imagine what is to happen next. If a composer writes his music to build up in tension, increasing in speed, volume, and variety and then has complete silence for a second or two makes the listener anxious, and on the end of their chair, wondering what ever could happen next? We want to do that with our audience and we can keep them entertained and enjoyed.

This is an example of void very simply in the school's mission statement. You have to read this aloud for full effect.

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education (silence) that challenges each student to develop the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

You see??? Thanks for reading!

My Current Fave Quote!! P.S. Will Change Over Time.

When I was 5 years old , my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life . When I went to school , they asked me what I wanted be when I grew up . I wrote down 'happy' . They told me I didn't understand the assignment and I told them they didn't understand life .

Snapshot: Snorkeling

My trip to Lankawi this Christmas holiday was great. One of my favorite things that we did was snorkeling. This is a picture of me at the beach there. One of the great things about this snorkeling experience was that I had two friends to enjoy it with. Trevor (12) and Mia (10) stayed at my hotel and we planned to take the trip to Pulau Payar Coral Reserve together. When my family and I signed up, they put a yellow band around each of our wrists (see pic). I was also armed with a red hair tie on my wrist along with the wristband. There were three beaches. The main one that we ate, changed, showered and rested at was in the middle. There was one to the right that I never did venture to, but I was told the coral wasn't as good over there anyway. The beach to the left (where picture was taken) was my favorite. The beach was great, the water was the right level that the sea urchins weren't too close, the fish were beautiful. I loved the water. but my snorkel popped right out of my goggles and into the sea a little after I got in! As I swam into deeper water, I noticed a yellow snorkel lying on the white sand of the ocean floor. Then I realized, the snorkel was mine! Trevor dared me to swim down the 4-5 meters and grab it. I looked down. It was either my goggles were fogging up, or 4-5 meters is a long way down! I sucked in all my breath, let it out (holding a lot of air in your lungs with only make you float more, making it hard to swim downwards), and dove under. No, my goggles were just fine, it was a long way down. I snatched the snorkel, turned my face towards the sky, and pushed off from the ocean floor. For a terrible moment before I reached the surface, I thought my lungs were going to pop! I did make it back to shore alive, though (dramatic much?).

My family and I had been to this particular snorkel site before, so we knew what was good to see. Some of the sights on the list are the barracuda, the giant (I DO mean giant!! Seriously, this thing was like, fifteen gazillion kajilonmeters long!!) grouper, a lion fish (extremely painful. Almost fatal to the touch.), little sharks (cute, they looked like a big scary shark that was put in a shrink machine by accident), and parrot fishes (beautiful). I loved to see all the marine fish!

The way we got to Pulau Payar is by boat. There was a really awesome boat that we took that was like a speed boat but about 3 times bigger. There was a deck with benches that the staff called the sun deck (properly named after the sunburns white people get when sitting there for the whole hour (see my cheeks in pic)!) I spent the whole hour standing on the side of the sun deck, leaning over the railing with the smell of saltwater tickling my nose. As the boat plowed through the blue, blue water, the waves churned, foamed and rippled. Islands in the distance passed over time and small fishing boats with fishers lying on their backs with their caps pulled over their faces came by and the fishermen would startle and then resume their afternoon naps. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I hope to take that boat back to Pulau Payar sometime and relive the experience!

My New Year's Resolution

School’s Challenges

A skill I’ve learned over the last five months in middle school is to manage my time wisely. The first few days of school, I was absolutely overwhelmed with all the things I was expected to do in What?? Due tomorrow? so little time. After working on homework until 9:45 one night, I realized what I had to do to get homework done easily and without rush. A few days into the year, I started to do my homework the day it was assigned so that I wouldn’t have to whip something together at the last moment. I stopped procrastinating, and my B, B- grades turned to A’s and A+’s! I hope to keep that skill forever.

A skill I would like to learn is to be kind to everybody. Sure, I’m great to my friends (most of the time, I hope) but I seem to ignore the kids I don’t particularly like or just didn’t get to know very well. My problem is common, but if I fix it, I could shine. I want to learn and grow in that skill and keep it and hold on to it forever.

We all know the MS core values, right? Honesty, Respect, Kindness, and Responsibility. I will give examples of when I showed each of those values. Honesty: When my friends maybe come to school with bed hair, and go about not realizing why everyone looks them in the hair instead of the eyes, I kindly tell them the problem and do my best to help them fix it. Respect: I realize that some kids in my class do not know how to behave in a classroom, or for that matter, anywhere! I realize how downright rude that is to the teacher! I try my best to respect my teachers and their authority. Kindness: Like I said before, I am currently working on my kindness towards kids I don’t know so well, but I think otherwise, I am pretty good at being kind to everyone else. Responsibility: When Zarina, Victoria, Gloria, and I set our hearts on making a difference to breast cancer victims, I think we all showed responsibility. We responsibly handled a lot of money, set up all our sales (with help from Mr. Callan and others), and organized the whole thing (again with a little help from Mr. Callan and others) almost by ourselves! My core values will be those four forever!

My two goals for the New Year are:
1. To help my family. I hope to do extra tasks to please and honor my family.
2. To befriend new students at ISKL. I would like to learn more about them and start a nice relationship with each of the new kids in my grade so that we can be friends forever!