Laura
Friday, August 31, 2007
hello :)
The idea of making a blog used to sound really time consuming and boring to me. Actually, it still does but i guess when i get to blog about anything i want for english class, it beats having to write an essay or anything of that sort. When I come to think of it, blogging isn't that bad.

Guess what! After this my brother Nick is picking me up and we're going to go to sushi tei for dinner. I love sushi. If ive had a day where Ive been eating unhealthy food - for instance mie goreng for breakfast, chicken nuggets and rice for lunch - I always ask to go to a sushi restaurant for dinner. To me sushi seems so healthy and clean and light. I could eat it everyday if i had to. Japanese people are geniuses.

Speaking of Japanese people, my brother Chris is moving to Japan in January next year. Im so upset! Partly becuase im going to miss him becuase he's going to be moving even farther away from Jakarta than Vietnam and partly because I am SO jealous. I WANT TO GO TO JAPAN!!!!!!! I've actually never been to Japan before but it just seems so cool. I mean, so many cool ideas originated from Japan. Japanese people are uber smart, aren't they? Robots, handphones, heated toilet seats. wow. Im also a Naruto and Bleach geek (for people who don't know what that is, they're Japanese cartoon/comics). Before I started to get into Japanese manga and anime, i hated comics. I still do but with the exception of Naruto and Bleach. The storyline of both animes are awesome. I sound retarded. Because i grew a liking to these cartoons, Ive wanted to learn the actual Japanese language. See?? There is something good that can come out of watching cartoons! :)

Anyways. my brother's here now. He's already yelling at me to get off the computer becuase I'm always facebook-ing and chatting on msn but now i have an excuse. This is for english.

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posted by four and a half at 6:42 PM | 0 comments
Hannah
The New Kid

FINALLY i figured our how to sign into this dumb thing! why was that so hard for me to do? like seriously it was right at the top of the page...why is that? that when your looking for something so hard you can never seem to find it?? anyways.... here is my blog FINALLY...here goes...So here i sit 4 weeks into my "new kid" career. i cant believe that i have made it this far! although i miss my best friend from america like crazy (love you katie!) im really glad we came here. im not ging to lie, i really didnt want to come here at first. i wanted to stay in america where i was in my comfort zone and knew everyone. but stepping outside of that bubble and meeting new people has really turned out for the better. sure not EVERYone is nice here but i didnt expect it to be that way. it sure beats all the drama i left behind in the states. there are so many great opportunities here that i would have missed out on if i would have stayed cooped up in that little podunk town. within the 4 weeks i have already been to bali and have plans to go to australia (hopefully)...to some people that may seem stupid but if you lived where i lived and your anual vacation was shopping in Portland Oregon once a year than i think you would understand. here you just fly to singapore or bali...pshhh no big deal :) well theres my blog. hope you enjoyed :). ciao!!

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posted by four and a half at 4:31 PM | 1 comments
Would it kill you to wait two seconds?
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Not my main entry, but...

Can I just say how much it annoys me when people (ahem, my family) interrupt me when I'm practicing? They don't knock but instead barge in demanding that I answer to their needs first. There I am in the middle of trying to dissect a particularly hard phrase in the music and they come in to my room completely oblivious to the fact that I was actually concentrating and trying to get it right. I ignore them and try to at least finish my thought before I forget the fingering or whatever dynamic I was supposed to write in but they persist even more to annoy me, growing more impatient with every second.

It’s that feeling of losing your train of thought in the middle of a truly stupendous idea; because when you go back, you’d have most likely forgotten the revolutionary thought.

Playing eight positions down the E string on the violin is not an easy feat and I’d appreciate it if people would be a bit more courteous and try to understand that.

Ok I'll help you with your homework and I'll do the dishes, but could you at least let me finish my scale first? There are only two notes left!

Seriously.

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posted by Pb, lead at 11:22 PM | 0 comments
Love Learning, Despise School

So let it be said to those who are "purist learners" (a la "football purists") - IB is most definitely not for you.

At our school the benfits of IB are heaped endlessly onto us (yes, they really do need to emphasize that your prospective university will take IB credits twenty million times) and apparently they feel the need to enforce it upon everyone who attends this school. Very much like the Asian (Chinese?) stereotype to mold every student into perfect overachievers, isn't it?

The IB Diploma Programme is an internationally accepted university prep program. The DP prepares you for university, but what else does it do? You learn how to analyze a political cartoon in the most textbook way possible, your biology classes are spent making sure the mitochondria and Golgi bodies on your cell sketch is exactly as you see it in the photographs, your essays are filled to the brim with SAT words and constructed in a way that would make a computer proud and after two years you are essentially a walking, talking encyclopedia. That's not a bad thing and it certainly gives you that preparation for university life that's mainly academia, but there is such a thing as learning for the sake of knowing. In IB you work towards exams, grades mean everything and creative ranges are diminished in favor of more practical work. Opinions can be wrong and classes are chosen in accordance to your 10 year plan. Besides, who would take a course just because it seems interesting?

IB teaches you do well in school. It teaches you to do well in university. It teaches you to excell in a class environment where everything seems black and white. You grow knowledgeable about IB things (or so says Johanna and Alice).

Not even all facts are black and white. Nonetheless, there are so many things you can do with them. Knowledge should not be something that is so clearly defined when the world is full of information that is controversial and ambiguous. How then can it be categorized as something that is absolute?

The grades of IB are sometimes ridiculous. Can one's acquisition of knowledge and information really be ranked? It would be immensely difficult, to say the least, for an accurate report of progress to be made on each individual student with the current teacher-student ration that exists without the use of the current grading system. It is international, after all. How else can you effectively measure the success of getting "stuff" into a child's mind?

But really, are exams worth 80% of your grade really necessary?

Apparently the IBO felt it was important to stress the fact that IB isn't all about exams: (video)

Seems to me like a one-size-fits-all program for a people wearing sizes 0-30.

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posted by Pb, lead at 10:38 PM | 0 comments
Zoe (:
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Well, I was supposed to post a blog yesterday, but my internet wasn't working, so I'm going to post one now. I'm not really used to this whole blogging thing, so I'm not really sure what to write. I was just viewing my Friendster and then my Facebook and so, although it's random, I want to talk about the whole debate about Facebook being better than Friendster. I've had Friendster for about 2 years, and then just recently Facebook comes along and everyone ditches Friendster and goes to Facebook. I mean c'mon.. Maybe Facebook has a lot more applications, but I think it's just too much. Okay, so Friendster's getting a little old, and there isn't so much to do on there but I personally think simple is better (especially when we have IB homework to do). On Facebook I always get these random emails saying "so and so has just bit you" and "so and so wants to fight you" I mean.. okay, i guess it's not reality but still, there's always so much going on; I can barely keep up. I have about 20 requests for all these applications; I've gotten to the point where I don't even bother to read what they'e about, I just accept them and then leave it for a few days. Yes, it's interesting, and I'll admit, it's very addictive, but that just makes it even harder! Here I am trying to do my IB HOMEWORK and then a little message pops up saying "You have just received an email from Facebook" and so what do I do.. I go right ahead and check it. And instead of spending only a few minutes checking it, I end up spending an hour on it; it completely draws me in. Anyway, that's my blog about Friendster and Facebook. I like Facebook, don't get me wrong, I just hate the fact that it's so addictive (so much more addictive than Friendster; completely due to all of those extra applications that Friendster doesn't offer) that I end up spending far too much time on it. I think I should just stick to Friendster from now on because I can never spend more than half an hour on there. Although I'm saying this I know that I'll end up checking Facebook any minute now.. arghh.. *hopeless*. Anyway people, leave comments.. Do you think Facebook is better than Friendster? Friendster is better than Facebook? Facebook is too addictive? Or the IB Diploma Program just gives us far too much homework and therefore it's not Facebook's fault that we never get our homework done? :) I like the last option.. Who agrees? ;)

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posted by four and a half at 7:10 PM | 3 comments
Zoe, Hannah, Laura, Phoebe (We're filling in for Kendal, she's in America)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Hey everyone :) This is our new blog! We're still new to the whole blog writing thing, so at first we might not be very interesting but don't worry, over time, we'll try to entertain you! We're still waiting on Kendal to get back from the States so that our group will be complete.. Seeya!

Posting Schedule:
Monday - Kendal
Tuesday - Hannah
Wednesday - Zoe
Thursday - Phoebe
Friday - Laura

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posted by four and a half at 1:45 PM | 0 comments