Folk Lore, and finally a break from Nutella sandwiches

This will be my 26th post in February, and that means I've only had one day in the month I haven't posted something (because I deleted one post). I have too much time on my hands. I have a feeling (which may or may not come true) that I might ease up on blogging after this month.

Implicit Discrimination

I thought, and I would be the first to admit that I'm very sheltered, that because of the policy of multiculturalism, that discrimination isn't bad in Australia, or at least, a lot better than some other countries. But just because something is better doesn't mean it shouldn't continue to change. Australia is better than a lot of other countries in terms of discrimination, but even if explicit discrimination doesn't exist, implicit discrimination is still abound.

Yes, Mr Malfo- I mean, Mr Harrison

Yours truly by Lasaro

Ugh, I'm sick. I hate being sick. It's when I am sick that I remember how comfortable I am when I'm not sick. I can't sleep properly because I can't breathe through my blocked nose and I keep coughing. Being sick is miserable. I've taken medicine, but I'll probably get a sore throat tomorrow. Ugh.

Ghost stories: Japanese school girl

I was walking home from the station to my house this afternoon and I went past a group of boys. They're only teenagers, most likely my age or only a little older. One of them lingered a little behind and he was fiddling with his phone. Then he said to me, "I have a problem."

So I stopped, because that's only polite. I thought he was having some problem with his phone and he wanted to borrow mine, which, now that I think about it, can't be true. He could have used his friends' much more easier.

So I was looking at him with slightly raised eyebrows, saying nothing and waiting for him to say what his problem is. He continued, "I don't have your number on my phone." Can you believe that!

"I have a problem, I don't have your number on my phone." What! What! That's such a cheesy pick up line. My eyebrows shot up and I walked away. I could here the group of boys laughing behind me and that boy saying "What! She just walked off!" It was funny, I admit. I was grinning with my back turned to them.

~o~o~o~o~

In Physics we were telling ghost stories because with the teacher we have, we're learning very very little. He just doesn't care. He did give us all fruit to eat though, rock melon and honeydew, it was really sweet.

One girl told two ghost stories that were really good. They scared me, though I'm not that hard to scare, I don't really like horror stories, but these aren't that bad when I'm not in that atmosphere anymore. I hope they don't haunt me tonight.

They're more effective when told in person because it relies somewhat on sound effects of the story teller where she hits the table with her hands or her fist, and she mimes opening the sliding doors and does the creepy voice and pauses in all the right places, but here they are (organised a little by me):

In an Asian school, there were two girls who were best friends. However, one girl always, always comes second in everything to the other girl. Every test, all the time.

Even though they're best friends, the girl who always comes second got really jealous. So she ask her friend to come to the roof of the school with her, and pushed her off the roof. (imagine those tall school buildings with the flat roofs students can go to in J-dramas and mangas)

The girl who pushed the other girl off the roof went home and pretended she had nothing to do with it. The next day after school, the girl was staying back to study, and she was studying in the fifth room on that floor. The layout of it was typical of the Asian (Japanese) schools, there's staircases at each side and there's the corridor with rooms on each side and the rooms all have sliding doors.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. The footsteps went to the first room. Sheeee, the sliding doors opened. "Not in here." Sheeee. The sliding doors closed.

The girl was really scared because she knew it was her friend she pushed off the roof coming back to get her. She was panicking and hid under the desk, hoping that her friend won't find her this way.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. The footsteps went to the second room. Sheeee, the sliding doors opened. "Not in here." Sheeee. The sliding doors closed.

This happened for every room until the footsteps came outside the fifth room, the room the girl was in. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. Sheeee, the sliding doors were opened.

Multicultural Day at Hurlstone

Multicultural Day was on teh 17 wasn't it, I didn't know until I saw a video on Genieve's blog. So now I'm going through all the performances on youtube. I'm so grateful that some nice people (EPIC has every single one of them) have put all the performances onto youtube. While I'm at it I'll be watching everything else Hurlstone related like swimming carnival and assembly performances.

Swimming Carnival and Capitol Square :-)

Fox Spirit's Mask Painter

I got to the swimming carnival ok, and it is a free, huge, whole school picnic with swimmers as the side entertainment. Or that's what it felt like. Only about half of the students were on the stands, and all the others are spread around the grass area around the pool, squishing onto little shelters with a table and benches under it, under beach umbrellas and onto sunbathing chairs.

I can't believe I said that

Noise From the Silence 5 by Shel-yang

It was the last period of the day and there's less than 5 minutes left, and my Economics teacher was dictating to us. But he being silly (like he sometimes is, but funny too), and saying it one word at a time. That was probably to make fun of the fact that some girls always tell him to slow down. Then a girl said, wait, what was that again. And he went even slower, by that I mean he's stretching the word out.

Then I said: "Oh stop doing that." in what sounded like a really annoyed tone. It sounded like the tone you would take with an annoying whiny kid. I wasn't, seriously, I was startled when I realised I said it because I really didn't mean to say it, it just slipped out. It directly bypassed my brains and fell out of my mouth. There was silence was a few seconds, and then everyone laughed. I laughed.

Super Mario Bros

Noise From the Silence 4 by Shel-yang

I played Super Mario Bros yesterday on my Wii. Grandma bought it from China and it's the first real "game" game that I've played on the Wii. Everything else I've got is mini games of sport. It's a good thing we didn't get to play my disks on at Cinda's birthday party. My maths tutor said that a Wii that's not been hacked yet won't play the pirated copies.

Falling into a rountine, and that's a good thing

Noise From Silence 3 by Shel-yang

It's the end of my third week at Sydney Girls High School. I'm settling down into a routine, I know when to wake up, what train to catch, how to get to classrooms, who to sit with at lunch and where to sit in classes. It's no where as bad as I thought it might be. I was lonely before, but now that I've been adopted into a group, I'm okay.

Introduction to SGHS musical and Grandma's back in Australia!

Noise From Silence 10 by Shel-yang

 Yesterday was assembly. I forgot that entirely when I came home. I've been sort of out of it in the last few days, I can see the dark circles around my eyes. I promise to go to bed earlier, or at least, I should.

What homework?



Noise From Silence 9 by Shel-yang

 I'm sure you've seen this happen before too. The teacher says, "while you're doing that I'll check the homework", and half the class, in perfect unison, choruses "What homework?"

Science teachers and their lame sense of humour



Noise From Silence 8 by Shel-yang

 It seems that all science teachers have the same sort of so-lame-it's-occasionally-funny sense of humour. My chemistry teacher put some solutions to chemistry questions up and there were "solutions" on it. The way he said it reminds me so much of Mr Spies. They says a lame pun or a lame joke and it's so obvious that they thinks it's so funny that you just have to groan and laugh.

Rosary and Books



Noise From Silence 7 by Shel-yang



I saw a dead little white worm on top of the cooked rice yesterday, when Mum cooked it, and I paid extra attention today when I'm washing the rice. Guess what, I found 11 little white worms in the one and a half cup of rice I washed. They look like little maggots and it’s making my skin crawl. High protein rice much?

The habits we used to have

Noise From Silence 6 by Shel-yang

If my life is a TV show this must be the running gag.

"You must be ... year 7." She sounds so sure of herself.
I laugh quietly, resigned. "No, I'm actually year 11."
Shock, embarrassment, and she hides her face in her arms. "I'm so so so so sorry."
I smile, "It's okay, I get that a lot."

Valentines Day and the incident in North Ryde

It's Valentines Day today and I didn't realise until I was at the school bus stop and see so many girls with roses in their hands. I know for a fact that one group was doing something like Secret Santa, except that it's Secret Valentines.

Even after the stolen generation

We were all taught as part of mandatory Australian history about the stolen generation, about how Aboriginal children were taken away from their family and sent to Christian missionaries. We know that they were treated badly, used as cheap labor and abused physically, and sometimes, sexually. Yesterday when going over Samson and Delilah, there was a part of the summary that said Gonzo "found accommodation with Christians". My English tutor made a comment that it might be taken in a negative light, and told me something experienced by a friend of his.

Random school stuff



Noise From Silence 2 by Shel-yang

Thought of the day (from chemistry teacher): If a famous scientist says something is impossible, you can usually bet that by the time he's dead he'll be wrong.
 

Funny Economics Teacher



Noise From Silence 1 by Shel-yang

My English room had a fireplace! How cool is that. There’s even a chimney to go with it. It’s filled in now, and a heater is put in the same place, but isn’t it so cool that my classroom has a fireplace?

Friends! and House Meeting

Leaf by Fengjing

I found a group to sit with during recess and lunch. They seem to be really nice girls. Time will tell whether we’ll be good friends or not, but I’ll be optimistic for once and lean towards yes. I’m sitting with Claire in maths and it’s great (but I see her no where else). We don’t talk much because she’s one to get all the maths homework done in the lesson, but that’s what’s so good about it. I’ll also be rushing and rushing to finish everything with her, privately racing with her to see if I can get it done before her. It’s wonderful because I don’t have any maths homework to do at home. I wouldn’t be so productive if I wasn’t sitting next to her. Thanks Claire!

Year 11 new students' meeting



Arabesque by Toonikun


Yesterday our year advisor called all the new year 11 students for a meeting at lunch. She asks us who's in our “friendship group”. If she asked last week I wouldn’t be able to tell her.

Sport for the first time

Riddle: I fell asleep on the bus, and woke up again. I was surprised, why?

More of the same

Sunny by BANP

Lame joke of the day courtesy of my Economics teacher, who heard it from his student:
What's a Hindu in New Zealand?

Rambling and observations on school

Singing Dolls

On Thursday, a girls in my English class came up to me and ask “I was wondering, did you happen to have skipped grades?” So of course I said no. Then she said “Oh, you just look so young.” I asked her how old she thought I was, and the girl next to me said, “Honey, you look 12.” O.O Again. I really don’t look my age, do I? That would be a wonderful thing to be able to say when I’m 30 or something, but I’m only 16, any younger and I would be a baby.

All Girls' School and Special Assembly

A Rustle in the Wind

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese new Year everyone. 新年快乐，恭喜发财！

Chinese New Year is a time for family, so I hope you all have a nice get-together with your family and relatives. Watch the 春晚(I don't even know what it's called in English, that late night concert/celebration that's on every year) or watch it tomorrow, since it'll be very late due to the time difference. Most Chinese channels will be replaying it again and again for the whole day tomorrow, and many more times days after that.

There's quite a bit of homework for me already, and I have to finish reading Jane Austen's Emma by next week. So I'll probably be doing that instead of celebrating. There's only Mum and me anyway, with Grandma in China. There's nothing special planned, we're not even eating dinner. Mum's usually so tired after work, and she recently hurt her leg. It doesn't feel like a special occasion, I only remembered it was Chinese New Year because an Asian girls at school made a comment of not wanting homework because she's celebrating Chinese New Year with her family.

Grandma left me two 利是though, one from her and one from Grandpa. I think there's 200 dollars in each of them, so I'm pretty happy. Hope you all get lots of red pockets (those two words sound so awkward), and be lucky all year. 身体健康，万事胜意。

New School



Melt Down



It's so hot. I hope you're all bearing the heat well, Mum finally caved and turned on the air-con, so I'm good now. But I wouldn't have survived school without my fan. In teh new school it seems lots of girls bring those Chinese/Japanese fans to school.