Trip to Peranakan Museum

To find out more about Emily, we went to the Peranakan museum. Looks can be deceiving, the design of the museum mimics that of the Raffles Hotel, not much like museum. However, once i step into the place, i feel that i am immerse in deep peranakan culture. After a few rounds around the museum, i realize myself gaining a deeper understanding about Emily and why she was so obsessed with power, wealth and status. In the peranakan world, being wealthy and powerful is everything, marrying into a rich household is a even more glorious achievement. Sophisticated is a very suitable word for the peranakans. This is evident not only in the types of cutlery they use to the type of clothing they wear for important events. The cutlery they have an array of patterns, from flora to butterflies, enveloping the entire plate/bowl. Furthermore, food plays a very important part in Emily, it is used as a way to socialize and get to know more people. The wedding dress that they wear seems very heavy, with intricate patterns on both the headdress and the dress. Unlike modern gowns, they are often red in color to signify prosperity as the peranakans are known to be half chinese. Going to the peranakan museum has not only brought the character Emily alive to me but it also allows me to learn more about peranakans. In conclusion, going to the museum has not only aid me in my preparations for the upcoming test but also broadens my horizon about others

Task 1

We slept in our boots

About the writer

Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1^st battalion 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82^nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peace keeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends Southwestern Michigan Collegewher his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.

In the poem, it is written in the point of view of a soldier, or rather all the soldiers, from the use of words like"we" and "I run as fast as I can". All the soldiers seem to be doing same thing at the same time. this is evident from"We fought from the valleys to the mountain peaks" and"We slept with our boots on so we were always prepared". this shows that they are very organised. He also introduced religion in the poem. he states that" Everyone loses their innocence when they carry guns Washed in the blood, and baptized by fire". this shows us that he knows that it is against his religion to hold a gun and kill somebody and he knows that he would be punished soon. The poem gives a rough overview on how a soldier is going through war by revealing to us his feelings and actions.

The situation of the poem is during a landing operation. this is evident from"Where we would land we had not a clue

Bullets are flying, the LZ is hot " LZ stands for landing. from the evidence, it can be seen that the situation is very serious and he has to be quick to avoid the enemies fire. He was in the middle of an intense fight as he had to"I kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more". this shows us the type of atmosphere the soldiers are feeling during a war, as they have to be quicker than the enemy to avoid being killed, hence telling us that the atmosphere was tense and they could not slack for a moment.

Lastly, the poem is written in simple and straight-forward language which makes it easier to read and more reader-friendly. The author also includes a few terms used in the army like" Lock N Load" and strong words like"shit" to allow the readers to feel with the soldier and allow them to feel what the soldiers are feeling. in conclusion, this poem talks about what a soldier experience in war.

I just took my learning profile and I realized that I am best at interpersonal and musical. i feel that these two points describe me the best. i enjoy communicating with people and seem to get along with strangers just fine. i like to make friends and go out with them occasionally. For being a musical person, i feel it is partly because of the fact that i am constantly plugged on to my ipod and listening to music for hours on. i guess i cant survive a day without music by my side.

My weakest is Naturalistic and linguistic. i feel that time to time, i find it hard to find the perfect word for the situation and i prefer using graphs and tables to just plain word documents. However, i am surprised that i am not naturalistic as i always help my dad with gardening during the weekends, but i have to admit that i did not enjoy gardening and sometime i feel that i cannot "connect" with nature.

Hence , it can be seen that i am inclined towards music and people.

Really in need or a scammer?

Today, after Malay Special Programme (MSP), I boarded bus number 157. I was on my way home. it was then that i witness an interesting event. it was an handicapped-friendly bus and the bus roughly looks like this:

i was standing at the two parallel standing cushions. So, now on to my story. i saw an old malay woman, with a floral-patterned shirt on seating at the front four seats(on the right of the picture)next to her was a boy from a JC.

After several stops, she suddenly started talking to the JC boy. the conversation was short. "Can you lend me 40cents?"she spoke coolly. the gentlemen, who was engrossed in messaging with his phone, without any questions asked, handed over the 40cents in small denomination, silently, to her. After which, continued texting, as if nothing happened. the woman on the other hand, after receiving the 40cents, took a look at it. She was unhappy.
after another few more stops, a chinese couple boarded and sat at the other two seats. to my surprise, the lady repeatedly asked the old man for another 60cents(40 + 60 =100)the old man ignored her,and to further express his discontent, he got off the sit.
the lady was looked very angry.
at the next stop, a chinese lady boarded the bus and sat next to the Malay lady. they exchanged glances temporarily. the malay woman asked the chinese for another 60cents and the lady just ignored her. she was frustrated at her futile efforts. Meanwhile the lady pretended to be on the phone to prevent the woman from talking to her again.
Not long after, the stop which i should alight came and i wished that i could stay a bit longer to see how the event unfold.
In my opinion, i feel that if i was seating next to her and even if she is a scammer, i would have given the 40cents she wanted so as to prevent any other events. As to if she is a cheat or not, i find it hard to determine so i would just leave the decision in your hands.

my favourite poet

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” Robert Frost once said and cannot help but agree with him.
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.
Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "My Butterfly," was published on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The Independent.
In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White, who became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death in 1938.The couple moved to England in 1912, after their New Hampshire farm failed, and it was abroad that Frost met and was influenced by such contemporary British poets as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves.
By the time Frost returned to the United States in 1915, he had published two full-length collections, and his reputation was established. By the nineteen-twenties, he was the most celebrated poet in America,
The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.
i first got to know of him when i was in primary 4, when my sister's literature text was a book entitled "Robert Frost's Poems" by Louis Untermeyer. at that time i had no interest in poems and have not touched the book till now. flipping through the pages, i realise that Louis has gave a detail analysis of almost each poem.
the three poems that i picked are:

1. the gift outright
2. a considerable speck
3. the silken tent

these three poems are the most quoted poems by Robert which illustrate his ever- growing and increasing variety.i would recommend everyone to read his poems and maybe you might get some enlightenment.

it lesson 1

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

1. the use of figurative speech in the poem is evident. in the first line, "Nature's first green is gold," it is a symbolism as green cannot be gold, the line is to show that nature is very important, just as important as gold to humans.In line 2, hue is just a colour or shade and it cannot be hold on to. it is a metaphor. from line 3-5, the figurative speech used is also a metaphor as the leaves are not flowers but the leaves are as beautiful as flowers.
2. i like this poem by robert frost as it is simple yet full of meaning. it describes the importance of nature from, "green is gold" and "early leaf's are flower". even though i did not study the poem in depth, i know that there is a strong message behind it.
   

My favourite character in Village by the sea

My favourite character in Village By The Sea is Lila. She is the older sister of Bela and Kamal and takes over a parenting role in her dysfunctional family. Although she has an severely ill mother and a irresponsible father, she is resilient and is often concerned over the bleak future of she and her family. Out of all her qualities throughout the book, i would just be discussing three of her qualities:filial piety, dutifulness and frugality. Lila is a filial daughter.This is evident from"She stopped to add a little extra milk to it" and "Lila lift her head and help her drink in little sips from the tumbler". From this, we can deduce that Lila was very filial towards her mother. This can be seen from the way she fed the mother and even added extra milk in the tumbler before letting her mother drink when milk was so expensive and precious to them. Lila is also a dutiful sister. This is evident from" She made them tea" and " stay home and do the cooking and washing and look after the others". From the evidence, we can say that Lila is a dutiful sister as she is fully aware with her family's situation and has no choice but to take on the "mother" role in the family.She also performs her daily chores and duties without complaint. Lila is also frugal. This is evident in"Lila was not used to being rich."and "she bought some jaola."From the evidence provided, we can conclude that she is frugal as she bought the cheapest fish one could find even with the amount of money Hari gave her. In conclusion, Lila is a filial, dutiful and frugal daughter, sister and "mother" respectively.I admire her because of her array of qualities displayed throughout the book which helped her through the obstacles in her life.