Author: enternity1030

When We First Met.

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When we first met, it was like a miracle.
Unexpected and unprepared, we came across somehow someday.With blue sky, breeze and blooming flowers,
Birds flew and butterflies fluttered.
The sloppy clouds seemed to be sleeping,
And the whole world was so wonderful.

Then you appeared like an angel,
Surprising me with the sweetest smile.
You were bestowed with all the beauty.
Brilliant, graceful and gracious.

Suddenly,everything vanished.
Desperately finding you in the twilight,
I found anything was just a lie.
Without my beloved in my sight,
Only left were my cry and sigh.

Admissions

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As far as our college applications go, I’m pretty sure that everyone is now stressed out and curious about how the college counselors would review our apps. It reminds me of a great movie I watched this summer – “Admission.”

“Admission” is a comedy directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz, starring  Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.
Every spring, high school seniors anxiously await offers from college admissions. At Princeton University, admissions officer Portia Nathan is one of the counselors who evaluate thousands of applicants.

On her visit to New Quest, an alternative high school, she then meets with her former college classmate, idealistic teacher John Pressman – who has recently surmised that Jeremiah, a gifted yet very unconventional New Quest student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption years ago while at school. More importantly, Jeremiah is about to apply to Princeton.

Now Portia must re-evaluate her personal and professional existences, as she finds herself bending the admissions rules for Jeremiah. She recommends Jeremiah to all the officers who refuse to admit him. And the result does not change – he gets rejected. In the end, in order to get her son into Princeton, Portia steals Jeremiah’s folder and changes the decision into a “Yes.” Portia quits her job and starts a new life.

Even though the movie is mainly about love and family, I personal find it is also a fairly helpful movie for high school students to get more knowledge about the process of applying to college and more closely, about how the officers review our materials and make the final decisions.

If you haven’r watched it yet, I strongly recommend you to do so!
And also, good luck to all the seniors!

“There is no formula to get in. Just be yourself.”   – Portia

Turbines

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In our APES class, we are doing a research project on renewable energies. “Wind” came up across my mind immediately.

Since the first time I saw a huge turbine on TV, I’ve been curious about how the turbines work and how important they are.

Wind exists because the sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth. As hot air rises, cooler air moves in to fill the void. Therefore, wind will blow as long as the sun shines.

The use of wind power originated back to the ancient mariners who used sails to capture the wind and explore the world. Later, farmers used windmills to grind their grains and pump water. Nowadays, more and more people are using wind turbines to wring electricity from the breeze.

Wind turbines have various sizes. The biggest wind turbines can generate enough electricity to supply about 600 U.S. homes, and farms sometimes have hundreds of these turbines lined up together in particularly windy spots such as ridges. Smaller turbines are mostly settled in the backyards to produce electricity that is enough for a single home or small business.

However, wind power also has disadvantages.
Wind turbine can be a threat to wildlife such as birds and bats. Wind, sun, and rain are not always consistent and are often hard to predict, which cannot always make for a reliable energy source unless the energy can be stored. In addition, wind turbines make plenty of noise which is regularly reported as a problem in the neighborhood.

The only thing I don’t really understand when I was doing research on the turbines was that many people think the turbines look ugly.

For me, I see nothing wrong with such clean and grand inventions. They work in the wind, they are brave!

Sweeeeeet

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Speaking of desert, my favorite would definitely be a “macaron.”

A macaron is a French sweet meringue-based confection made with eggs, icing sugar,  almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling and sandwiched between two biscuits. The name is derived from the Italian word “macarone.”

Macarons are usually really small. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. There are numerous flavors and each has different colors. The traditional flavors are raspberry and chocolate to the new ones such as matcha, lemon, green tea and rose.The fillings also range from jams to ganache to buttercream.

Macarons are more and more popular these days. In Paris, the Ladurée chain of pastry shops has been known for its macarons for about 150 years, and even McDonalds sell macarons from McCafé. Outside of Europe, the French-style macaron can be found in all over the world, not only in U.S, but other nations like Australia, Korean, Japan.

I’ve not tried all the flavors of macarons yet, but my goal is to try all colors of them and then decide which one is my favorite, right now it’s rose.

But if you are not a “sweetness” lover, you probably will not enjoy macarons that much, because to be honest, they are really really really sweet!

Oh, btw (to my dear friend Emmy), they are not hamburgers!!

Big Day is Coming!

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As the Thanksgiving break is coming, most of my friends are already planning on their “Back Friday” shopping schedule.

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, and it’s one of the major shopping days of the year in the US.

The term “Black Friday” can be traced back in the 1960s. “Black” refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” back when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit. Ever since, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been known as the unofficial start to a holiday shopping season.

As the retailers began to realize that they could draw big crowds by discounting prices, Black Friday became the day to shop, even better than those last-minute of Christmas sales. On “Black Friday,” most retailers put their items up for a BIG sale on the morning of Thanksgiving, or inform their customers through emails days before the actual event.

On Black Friday, crowds of people will line up in front of the malls or stores waiting for the opening. Many retailers open up at 5 am or even earlier to hordes of people.

At the same time, those people who prefer to shop online also get the deals. Many online retailers also have pre-Black Friday or special Thanksgiving sales.

Anyways, get ready for the break and this BIG DAY!

Bubba Gump.

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Speaking of restaurants in the United States, “The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company” stands out as one of my favorite. I love it not only because I am a seafood lover, but also is because of the interesting background. The “Bubba Gump Shrimp Company” is a seafood restaurant chain inspired by the 1994 film, also my favorite movie – “Forrest Gump.”

The first Bubba Gump restaurantt opened in 1996 in Monterey, California by Viacom Consumer Products. The Bubba Gump restaurant is named after the film’s characters Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue. In the film, Bubba suggested the shrimping business and ultimately Forrest pursued the idea after Bubba’s death in the Vietnam War.

The restaurants are fairly popular throughout the nation. And by September 2010, thirty-two Bubba Gump restaurants operate worldwide. I am not sure about people’s motivations of going to Bubba Gump, but as for me, I mistakenly thought that the restaurant was the real one in the movie.

The menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. is primarily associated with shrimp dishes, but also offers a variety of other seafood. One main focus of the culinary style is Southern and Cajun cuisine, as the main characters in the film came from Alabama.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was really thematic – full of the quotes and posters from the movie. The waiters also ask questions about the movie.

I enjoy the restaurants with certain themes. They provide the customers various feelings and experiences besides just eating their meals. Such restaurants can always easily build profound impressions and make people want to return. This is actually a great strategy!

Trash & Fashion.

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Recently I did a story on our school’s first Trash Fashion Show and I gained some new knowledge about creating beauty.

What is the definition of beauty? In my opinion, beauty does not mean a gorgeous appearance, but it’s more about the internal significance. Just like Trash Fashion, which most people would refer to the costumes that are just simply made of trash.

However, trash fashion is much more than that.

It takes time and endeavor. Since I have the same art class with my friend Sophia, I was lucky enough to actually watch the complete process of her making the plastic wedding dress. She started from collecting and reorganizing the materials – plenty of white  plastic bags. First of all, she created the long train by sewing knots. It turned out to be a “web” eventually. Then she made the body dress, in which she built several layers to make the dress fluffy.

It took her about two months to complete the whole bridal gown. According to Sophia, the most difficult part was to glue the bags together and the materials were so soft that she had to be really careful not to tear them off.

Finally the big day came. I did not expect to be her model, but because of the absence of Ellen, who was supposed to the model, I had to wear the dress instead. I was totally astonished when I put on the huge dress.

We walked on the deck of the pool. It drove everyone’s attention and I felt extremely proud of my designer. It seemed like a real fashion show to me and people were taking pictures, asking questions. For a moment I thought i was dreaming.

Just like Sophia said, “Trash Fashion does not mean everything will look trashy, it’s more about fashion. Within such simple materials, we can still make beautiful pieces.”

Yes, I think she’s right. Trash Fashion combines two “opposite” concepts together and builds something beyond the normal beauty.

On the other hand, trash fashion also helps to increase people’s environmental awareness. Fashion may be fabulous, but the way our clothes are made is incredibly wasteful. The small things we waste from daily uses can be saved instead of being thrown away.

It was my first time seeing and wearing such gorgeous fashionable clothes made out of “trash,” and It was also the time that I realized trash fashion can be beautiful as well.

Rainbow.

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If there was a rainbow
connected the worlds between you and me

Even though nothing was happening
I could not help myself from smiling
because I was thinking about you

You were not that kind of magnificent beauty
you were just a quiet rainbow that emerges peacefully after a rain
but beautiful enough to reflect endlessly in my heart

If there was a rainbow
stretched the distance between you and me

I would run towards the end
to embrace the shadow of your light
and meet you who was running towards me at the same time

What Hill?

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“Ready, set, GO!”

I’ve never even thought about running 3 miles before. And I am not kidding.
But once I reached that goal, I fell in love with running. And I am not kidding either.

I was not born to be a runner, so I did not treat running seriously in the beginning.

Last year I joined the cross-country team, because we did not have tennis.
“It’s just running, not a big deal,” I told myself. But I was totally wrong.

Everyday we ran different things. At the beginning, I could not even finish one whole mile without walking and the worst part of my day was always  sports time.
The sun never rested during the practice. We did harder workouts at least once a week. I could not walk the day after tough practice. I was hurting everywhere on my body.

But I was getting better.

Then I had to face the very first cross-country meet in my life – at Thatcher.
I was extremely nervous. I could feel my legs shaking and my heart was beating like a drum.
I did not expect to run the whole three miles, that seemed impossible to me. But I decided to try anyways.

Everyone was exhausted and I just kept running in slow pace. I thought about the days we ran together; I thought about how Mr. Alvarez encouraged us and pushed our backs; I thought about home and wondered if my parents were having fun this holiday; I thought… I thought about everything, i thought about nothing.
I just ran and ran.

Everyone was encouraging me as well. “Let’s go, Shelly!”

“Almost there!”

“Way to run girl!”
And yes, I finished it without stopping or walking. I guess that would be the time I felt the most proud of myself.

After the very first race, I changed my opinion of running. I did not hate it or fear it anymore. I started to accept it because I knew I was capable of defeating it.
Three month’s of training, the season ended strongly with all the incredible improvements i gained everyday.

This year, I was glad to see our cross-country team grow much bigger, with more than 20 people.
The weather was fervent as well, of course. We ran pretty much the same courses but it did not feel as painful as it did before.

As for me, running is not only the thing I do to fulfill my sports time. It changes me, slowly but thoroughly. I became faster and stronger.

Our team got new shirts this year, and they says “What Hill?” on the back. They are the best shirts ever, I think, because no one else but we runners know the special meanings of those two words.

Finally it comes – my last cross-country meet at Thatcher, the place where everything begins.

It is probably my last time running a whole 3-miles course with my friends, wearing the green uniforms which we would never stop complaining about.

We don’t run for the certain miles or the destination, we don’t run for fame or glory.
But we do run to conquer all kinds of hills, we do run to challenge and prove ourselves.

We line up as usual. Everyone is encouraging each other and smiling.

Suddenly my heart is filled with joy.
Suddenly I realize that running does not only bring me power and strength to defeat all the distance and hills; running brings me courage, friendships, love, and valuable memories.

Yes, we are Cross-Country Team.
And WE RUN.

Rene Magritte.

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“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist. ”
—- Rene Magritte

This summer I had a chance to see Magritte’s real work at MOMA museum in NYC. Magritte has been one of my favorite artists for a long time for his particular impressionistic style.

Rene Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, in 1898. His earliest oil paintings form 1915 were Impressionistic in style. The oil paintings he produced during the years 1918-1924 were influenced by Futurism and by the offshoot of Cubism practiced by Metzinger. Most of his works of this period are female nudes.


In 1922-1923, he worked as a draughtsman in a wallpaper factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926. In 1926, Magritte produced his first surreal oil painting, “The Lost Jockey,” and held his first exhibition in Brussels in 1927, in which he got lots of critics on the exhibition.

Later during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Magritte remained in Brussels. He briefly adopted a colorful, painterly style in 1943-44, and was known as his “Renoir Period.”

His work was exhibited in the United States in New York in 1936 in Museum of Modern Art and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Magritte’s paintings mostly embody the combination of realism and impressionism, and he is able to present his particular idea of humanity and dream. One of his representative piece is “The Lovers I (1928),” which identifies the mystery of two lovers who are shrouded in white cloth.

Magritte inspires me a lot, not only in art area, but also life.

“Life obliges me to do something, so I paint. ”
– Rene Magritte