Plastiki

Plastiki! When you first hear the word, 'Plastiki', you might think that it is related to something made of plastics which is true. Plastiki is a boat made of plastic bottles but don't say WHAT?! because only the bottom part of the boat is made of plastic bottles. The main purpose of creating this boat is to show that we shouldn't waste but recycle lots of things to save our earth. The person who had this idea called 'David de Rothchild' and other five crews have to start from San Francisco and sail to California to Sydney, Australia. There are lots of interesting and important gears in Plastiki but I will only show three things I found really interesting.
The first purpose of Plastiki is to raise awareness about plastic waste. Plastiki is a boat made of about as many as 12000 PET soda bottles which are used keep it afloat. To make sure that the bottles are strong, mechanisms had a 'PET Stress Tests.' To get the right result, you have to do it two times. The Breaking Point in the first trial was 6 tons. The second breaking point was 4 tons. So the average breaking point was from 4 to 6 tons.
There is a thing called, 'Desalinator' in Plastiki. It has an ability to process 6 litres of water every half hour. The amount of sunlight, hand pump and some people's power are the only things needed to make drinkable water.
There was one gear that surprised me. It was an Energy Bike. At first I thought, 'Why is there a bike on the boat?' But then later, I realized that this one is a great thing to save earth. The catamarans navigation and communication systems all need electricity. However, electricity generation is a big issue so they created an Energy Bike and it has extra benefits. It can make 0.4 kilowatt with an hour pedalling!!!
I never thought Plastiki would do these things and I was really fascinated. It has all high technique and good-looking gears which makes to want to have my own 'Plastiki' boat.

Vocab #10

1. Primitive

2. Godsend

3. Melancholy

4. Ambivalent

5. Impeccable

6. Probation

7. Despicable

8. Beckoning

9. Melodramatic

10 vocab

1. Cask- A wooden barrel for holding drink especially alcohol such as wine.
2. Cynical- An attitude of serious wining or complaints.
3. Provisions- Your important supplies like your meal and drink and it also can be an equipment.
4. Subvert- Making things not work; ruining
5. Accumulate- Get more items; fill with
6. Congregate- Every body joining together.
7. Ominous- Thinking that something bad is going to happen.
8. Contradict- To be going against.
9. Adversary- Your oppenent (In a negative way).
10. Flabbergast- Really amazed and fun.

My mom's birthday

January 12th is my mother's birthday!! I was really busy doing my homework so I totally forgot about mom's birthday. When I finished my homework and turned on TV to rest, my sister came to me and asked if I know today is my mom's birthday. I replied no and my sister scolded me how I forgot that. I was a little bit suspicious because she was much busier than I was and she remembered it was mom's birthday. So my sister and I decided to write a letter and make some delicious food. I used an envelope I liked the best and we made a cake. My mom went shopping so she didn't know anything we were doing at that time. The first cake we made looked awful and tasted awful so we made another cake. This time, the cake looked OK and it tasted good. We added some topics like kiwis, oranges etc. Then we put it in a refrigerator and when my mom rang a bell we took it out quickly and hid it in my sister's room. My mom didn't notice what we did and I got scolded because I didn't finish the rest of the homework but I felt good. Later when it was dinner time, my sister tiptoed to the dining room and put the cake we made and candles enclosing two letters we wrote. When my mom came down to the dining room to start making food, she found the cake and was impressed. I was really happy at that time. I realized that my sister also didn't know it was mom's birthday because later when my father came back, he said that he told my sister about my mom's birthday. Normally, I would be kind of angry but at that time, I didn't.
It was really a nice day. :)

Haiti History

1. Haiti was discovered by Spanish, Columbus in 1952, December 5.
2. At first Haiti was Spain's colony but then in 1600s France assailed Spain and won so Haiti became France's colony. Since the France conquered Haiti, Haitians learned how to speak French and nowadays, Haiti's one of official languages is French.
3. Once, Haiti was France's colony and French increased the production of crops such as coffee, cotton, sugarcanes, corn, sorghum and wood.
4. Through revolution under Toussaint L'ouventure led by half million slaves, they acquired independence and became the first black republic in Lation America in 1804.
5. Haiti was one of the wealthy countries in the Caribbean Sea because lands in Haiti were once very fertile and there were abundant resources.
6. However long dictatorship and continuous natural disasters brought a calamity which was that Haiti became the second poorest country at the Western Hemisphere.
7. Americans invaded Haiti and stayed there for 19 years and finally left Haiti in 1934.
8. From 1957 to 1986, Francois Duvalier and Jean Claude Duvalier who were father and son, carried out dictatorship which caused a great disaster to Haiti.
9. One of the terrible things they did was they became Papa and Baby docs and murdered Haitians for 29 years and more than ten thousand Haitians died.
10. In 1990, Aristide was elected as a president of Haiti. However one year later, a coup d'etat overthrew the President.

Vocab List

1. Once, the king of Chin Ci buried scholars at catacomb who didn't follow him.


2. To hide that he is arsonist, he manipulated perfect alibi.


3. The thief easily deceived the policemen by disguising.


4. Kim professor manipulated his student's thesis and anoounced it as his.


5. USA assailed Afghanistan so there were many victims.


6. In Christmas Carol, the main character Scrooge was very meticulous about everything at first but his character changed as he traveled with fairies.


7. My friend and I are inseparable because we have known each other for 6 years.

8. I am obliged to tell him a secret because he also told me his secret.

9. In the country of South Korea, I could see lots of Cobble Stone as I was walking.

10. A servant was submissive to his master so the master liked him.

Now I feel comfortable

In 'Back to School' journal entry, I wrote that I didn't like to go to school but now, I want to go to school. My family was right. I was just being lazy in Winter Break. Even though I have history project to do which is interviewing my grandfather and writing big historical event that happened to him, it was much more comfortable than just writing about ancient Egypt, Rome and those kind of subjects. From interviewing my grandfather, I could understand him better and also learned historical event.
I could make friends and they were more kind to me than in the first semester especially friends in Health class which was the class I worried most. But now, I feel comfortable because of good friends and kind teacher. I am learning Self Concept in Health and it was much easier than I expected it would be.
Everything is going very fine in school and I will try to work hard.