Author: Kalen

Besides playing video games and going to the cottage this summer, my mom, brother and I have been going to different restaurants each day for lunch to try out. So far we’ve been to Koi Sakana which is a ramen house, Bali Restaurant which serves a lot of different things, Made In Hong Kong Hot Pot which is like a Hong Kong cafe with hot pot, and this Korean tofu place which I forgot the name of.

The ramen house had some good stuff like pork cutlet, octopus balls, and obviously ramen. When we went there for the first time I got their bacon and cheese ramen which had bacon, cheese, a piece of chashu which is basically pork belly, some green onions, an egg, and the ramen noodles. The ramen was really good and my brother and mom both enjoyed what they ordered too.

Bali Restaurant was a place that was recommended to us by my mom’s friend who we went to eat there with. They served a variety of things at the restaurant like curry, chicken and pork with rice, salad, and some other things. When we ate there I ordered the pork chop with rice which was good, but the sauce that it came with didn’t taste that great to me. My brother ordered this really spicy curry and I don’t really remember what my mom ordered when we went there.

We were walking around a plaza with a bunch of different restaurants and one day and we decided to eat at this place called Made In China Hot Pot. Although the name of the restaurant had “Hot Pot” in it, we didn’t actually have hot pot and instead ate what they had there besides hot pot. I had a bacon and egg sandwich with fries, my brother got beef with rice on a sizzling platter, and my mom had the house special pork meat ball rice noodle soup.

After our optometrist appointment, we went to this Korean tofu restaurant that was next door and tried it out. While we were there I had rice and beef on a sizzling platter and my brother and mom shared a seafood pizza and a large bowl of soup.

We are still probably going to go try some more different restaurants, but so far those are the few new restaurants we’ve been to. I enjoyed most of the restaurants we’ve tried and it was also fun to try different restaurants around the neighborhood. We also went to this place that had bubble tea which was Tea Shop 168 which had really good bubble tea. Even though it wasn’t a restaurant it was still really good.

Two weeks ago my mom, dad, brother, and I went to Montreal for our uncle and auntie’s wedding. Since we were only going to Montreal for the wedding we only stayed for two nights. We left our house on Friday and went to our grandparent’s apartments to pick them up since they were also coming with us to the wedding. We stayed in the car for a while and stopped once at a service station to eat some lunch. We got to the house we were going to be staying at a few hours before dinner. For dinner, we had a lot of different food like curry, rice, beef, and some other things. A while after dinner my brother and I played some games on the PS4 with our uncles for a few hours and then we took a shower, brushed our teeth, set up our bed sheets on the couches in the basement, and then went to sleep.

The next day was the wedding day and in the morning we were supposed to go to church, but my brother and I didn’t want to go so we got to stay in the basement playing games and watching videos until it was time to go to the wedding. We went to a restaurant we’ve gone to before for the dinner and it was pretty normal with a lot of seafood. After a while, there were desserts, so my brother and I got some more stuff to eat. Since we were going to be there for a while I decided to bring a deck of cards with me because I knew I was gonna get bored. I played some card games with my brother and mom until it was time to leave. We got back to the house before everyone else, so all the doors were locked. We had to wait for the house owners to come back from the wedding to get inside. When we got back, I went to the basement and just watched a bunch of videos. A few hours later I got a bit hungry, so my brother and I got to eat some chicken nuggets as late night snacks. We went to bed pretty late considering we were leaving the next day.

The day we were leaving we packed our stuff and went outside for a family picture and then put everything into our car and started going home. Since we ate lunch before we left we only stopped once for a washroom break. Instead of going home, we went to a restaurant for dinner. When we finished dinner we dropped off our uncle at the transit station who came back with us from Montreal. Then, we dropped off our grandparents at their apartment, and then we went home.

Overall, I had some fun staying at the house and getting to play games and watch videos. The wedding was okay, but it wasn’t exactly entertaining.

 

This week I will be reviewing an article from CBC News. I will be reviewing this article, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-speech-governors-meeting-pence-1.4205000 which is about Justin Trudeau, NAFTA, and some U.S. governors. In the article, they talked about how Washington is planning to change NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which is an organization that contributes to trade between the three North American countries which are Canada the U.S. and Mexico. They also talk about Justin Trudeau trying to convince governors not to change NAFTA.

The article talks about how many U.S. jobs depend on trade between the three countries associated with NAFTA and how Canada is a major trading partner with the U.S. and if there is a change in NAFTA then trading between the two countries can also change. NAFTA has increased jobs between the U.S, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA has also allowed things like prices on food and taxes on specific items to be lowered so consumers don’t have to pay as much for something like a piece of fruit.

In the article, they also talk about how NAFTA isn’t perfect, but despite that NAFTA still does benefit trade between all three of the countries associated with NAFTA. They also mentioned Justin Trudeau having meetings with certain governors and how one governor said that what Trump said about NAFTA was only one of his negation tactics and that he only wants is a renewed deal that is fair to all sides.

Overall, a “number” of U.S. governors supported continued trade relations with Canada.

This week my mom, brother, my friend, and I went up to our grandpa’s cottage for three nights. While we were there we did things like fishing, go karting, and things like that.

When we got to the cottage on Monday we unpacked most of our things and then started to set up the hammock we stored in the basement from last year and helped move one of the kayaks that was also in the basement. We did a little bit of fishing using some old rods with some fishing line, a hook, and some worms as bait to catch some fish inside the boat house and near the dock. We didn’t catch too many fish, but we still caught a few. Later, I lounged around a bit on the couch and then we decided to go fishing out on the boat before we had dinner. A few months earlier my mom and I went to Bass Pro Shops and while we were there we bought some fake lures. I attached the lure that I got which was a spoon lure with two hooks at the end, but I didn’t catch anything that night. Then, we headed back to the cottage and had dinner which was rice, beef, fish, and bok choy. Later that night, my friend, brother, and I watched some Top Gear using the HooToo network that we brought along that had some movies and TV series that we could watch. After that, we set up our air mattresses and went to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up a bit early to go fishing. I tried using the fake lure again and that time I caught one fish which was a Perch. The others caught some fish as well and got some people also caught some Bass. When we got back we tried going to Pizza Palace which was a local pizza place near the cottage, but it turns out they were closed that day so we went to a buffet which was also nearby and we ate there and it was pretty good. The buffet didn’t have too many different items there even though it said on a sign that was outside that there were “Over 100 different items” however it didn’t seem like there were over 100 different items. Originally we were planning to go go-karting that day, but we ended up deciding to go the next day. When we got back from eating we tested out the new arrow nooks that our dad had 3D printed using his new 3D printer and they worked all right. I shot a few arrows at a new styrofoam board that we brought. We then figured out you could also throw the arrows if you really wanted to so that was also fun to do. We ended up playing Hide and Seek on the decently sized property which was fun. We went fishing again that night as well, but I didn’t catch anything with the fake lure. That night we also stayed up watching TV shows before we went to sleep.

Most of us slept in the next morning and decided not to go fishing, so when we woke up we decided to go go-karting after eating breakfast. The go karting was fun, but the track was kind of rough and there was still one bump on the track that was there from last year and years before. After go-karting, we had lunch at Pizza Palace where we had some pizza, onion rings, and ice cream floats. After eating we went to Walmart and I got some Pringles, cards, and some erasable pens. When we got back to the cottage we played some card games and then went fishing. This time when we went fishing I used a different lure and I got two fish this time which was better than one or none. I didn’t catch any bass though although the others caught some bass. When we got back we watch a lot of shows and had some snacks before we went to bed.

Today was the day we went back and we started packing in the morning by deflating our air mattresses and packing up chargers and the HooToo network and generally packed everything into the car. We stopped for lunch pretty close to my grandpa’s house at a local restaurant and I had some french toast which was good. We got back at around two o’ clock and got to bring in the bags.

Overall, I had a good time at the cottage and had a lot of fun with my brother and friend doing some random activites at the cottage and also fishing. My brother got to pilot the boat for the first time while he was there which was also fun to watch. If I get the chance I would go back again later this Summer.

This week was the last week of school before the Summer break for me and in school, we did some pretty fun things before school was over.

On Monday, we still had to do some work but it was pretty simple like finishing our projects that were due the next day on Tuesday and if I remember correctly we also got to play some games which was fun. I remember I was playing Tetris after doing my art that day. On Tuesday, we did our gallery walk of our space science projects where different groups were given a space related item to research about like the Hubble Space Telescope and Space Food. After a few days of researching, groups put their information on a board and then on Tuesday one of the group members of each group stayed at their board and the rest went around to other groups to gather information about other topics from other groups. That was most likely the most interesting part about Tuesday. During French class, we also got to watch a some of a Mr. Bean movie which was fun. After that, some people also started working on their art if they weren’t finished and then we got to go home.

On Wednesday, we mostly moved some things from our class like desks and replaced them with tables because my teacher prefers tables over desks. We also cleaned out our lockers and had an assembly where there was the last character assembly of the school year and we also said goodbye to a few teachers that were going away from the school for a few years in the future. The next day which was Thursday and also the last day of school started off with an assembly when we said farewell to our Vice Principal and we got to show a video that I helped to make and we also said farewell to the graduating grade 8’s that were going to high school. The rest of the day we got to use laptops to play games or do other things that you wanted to do and also eat some snacks some students brought in to share with the class. At around 12:00 we took everything out of our lockers and put them in our bags and went into to class and our teacher wished us luck in the next school year and then we clapped the grade 8’s out while the were exiting the school and then when the bell rang at around 12:10 we all got to go home and start our summer vacation.

Overall, it was a fun last week of school and I felt like this school year went by quite fast, but it was a very enjoyable year with nice classmates and teachers.

School is going to end next week, but despite that my class still, has a science project due next Tuesday on different astronomy tools. Each group is supposed to choose a tool used in space or that help study space and then put all the information on a bristol board to present the information.

My group is researching all about the telescope and we have gathered all the information and all we need to do is put it on our bristol board. The telescope was invented in between 1608-1609 by a German spectacle maker named Hans Lippershey. The first person to actually use a telescope to look into space was an Italian astronomer named Galileo Galilei. He improved the original design so that it was able to look at planets far away from Earth. Telescopes work by using two pieces of glass called lenses that bend light into focus so that when the light reaches your eye the image you are looking at appears magnified. This way, it is easy to see things that are far away. Early telescopes were used by sea merchants to observe ships. They were also used by some militaries.

Telescopes are still being used today and are also being improved. An example of this is the Hubble Space Telescope made by NASA that was created to observe space. The telescope is an interesting device that has allowed us to gain lots of knowledge about space without actually going there.

In the past few weeks in my French class, we were supposed to make a small group of around three to four and choose a French food, make a poster of the ingredients and instructions, and also make a video of the group making the food.

My group decided to make a macaron cake which was a cake with macarons on it. So we had to make a cake which was a chocolate one and also macarons. We had to find four different recipes because we were putting all of the items together like the frosting, cake, and macarons. First, we had to find recipes and then translate them to French which took a while. Then we had to design a poster, but since we had so many recipes we only put the chocolate cake on the poster and we also decided to just make the cake when making the video.

When we met to make the cake we waited around a little bit to decide what we were gonna do and then we started to film the intro which took a long time since some of us kept on laughing so it took a long time. Then we actually started baking, but while gathering the ingredients we found out that there was no baking soda so we had to use more baking powder. Once we finished making the cake batter and put it into the oven we took a break and then started making the frosting. The frosting was easy to make but there was a lot of sugar. I was slightly concerned about the cake however because we kept the cake in the oven for a long time which was more than half an hour at 350 degrees °F. The cake turned out alright, but I’m pretty sure I’ve made better cakes before. We ended up taking almost five hours just to make the cake.

In conclusion, I think the cake was okay but we took way too long to make it and probably should’ve used a different recipe because the batter was really thick and took a long time to mix.

This week there was the Track and Field Area event where schools from around our area send one or sometimes two students for each event to compete against the other schools and then they go to Regionals if they win in Area. This year I got to go to Area and skip a day of school which is probably the main reason why a lot of people from my school want to go to Area. A student is only supposed to attend one or two events, so I got to go for the 400m race and Standing Long Jump.

When we got to school instead of going in the normal way the people going to Area met in the gym through the front door and waited for the buses to arrive to take them to the high school where the Area event was. Each school gets a canopy tent for students to put their bags under and our tent was in around the same spot it was in last year so it was pretty easy to find once we got there. The 100m races started as soon as we got to the high school so I got to watch some of my friends do their events. The 400m race was my first event which was after the 100m races were over and I did better than last year since I did the same events as this year and didn’t do as well. While waiting for my second event, I got to watch a few of my friends’ events and also got to do some other random things. For Standing Long Jump I think I did pretty bad since I did worse than I did at school and the people at Area were really good.

For the most part, I would definitely go to Area again next year if I get the chance to so I can skip a day of school and also have fun with my friends and do all the different events.

Each year, there is a test called EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) which students in grades three, six, nine, and ten take which assess how well their teachers have been teaching the students and usually lasts for a few days.

This week at my school the grade sixes took the EQAO test which consisted of both math and language problems. Most of the questions on the test were multiple choice questions making them easier to answer, but for some of the questions in language, you had to write a few lines or a page depending on the question. I found those questions particularly annoying because my hand starts to hurt after writing for a while so I had to take some breaks if I was writing a long paragraph. I found the math to be the easiest of all the questions because most of the questions were either multiple choice questions or questions where you calculate and solve the problem then write a final answer. That way, I didn’t have to write as much as if I was writing a paragraph.

When completing EQAO there are four shorter sections of language and two larger sections of math, so we had to finish the test by splitting up the different sections into different periods and days. On Monday when we started. We completed the first section of language in the first three periods of the day and one section of math in another three periods. Then we did what we would do on a normal school day for the last three periods. On Tuesday, we took six periods to do the last section of math, so since it took less time we had extra time to do some other things. On Wednesday we finished the last sections of language and then EQAO was over.

I didn’t find EQAO particularly annoying or hard as some people said it was, but since we have to do it a few more times eventually I would expect the questions to get harder and more difficult therefore maybe making it more annoying to complete and possibly take longer to complete too.

This week I will be writing about CS: GO a game I blogged about before. Recently, there was a new update added to the game which was a new operation. An operation in CS: GO is when a certain event is added to the game with new maps or game settings are added, new objectives, an operation pass, an operation coin, and a few other things are added. The new operation, “Operation Hydra” is the first operation in around a year.

This operation brought back some of the old maps, but this operation is supposedly one of the best operations in the game. Instead of just new maps, missions, passes, and things like that the operation has a few new game modes. There are now things called “WarGames” where they have introduced some popular community-created mini games into the main game. A few of these new game mode involves headshot only deathmatch, flying scoutsman where you can only use a sniper rifle and your knife, Stab Stab Zap where you only have grenades, knives, and a rechargeable taser, a heavy armor casual game mode and a few more different ones.

I have yet to play any of these new game modes, but most of them look like a lot of fun. They even added a completely separate ranking system for the operation which they have never done in the past. The operation ends in the month of September so I should have plenty of time to experience the new game modes.