Saturday, September 11, 2010

THE TIME WHEN I SHOWED COURAGE.

Hi!! Here's another blog, and this time it's about when I showed courage. "When did I show courage?" It's hard to answer, at first I couldn't really think of something. But then, I thought back on when I was still in Holland. Then I had to tell my old class that I was leaving.
I didn't go to a International school when I was in Holland, but to a normal school. Very different from the ISKL!! We were all in one classroom, with about 30 kids. In that school there were groups, so I was in group 7, witch is grade 5. And I'm missing group 8 with my old class, which is grade 6. Group 8 at that school was the fun year. You went on camp far away in Holland (to one of the small islands above, I would of gone to Texel.) and you got to do a musical with your class. And in group 8 there wasn't as much working as in group 7, group 8 (grade 6) was more of a fun year to spend with you class. But anyway, the courage part still has to come:

The time when I  showed courage, is when I had to tell my old class I was leaving. (see first paragraph, "but then I thought back on when I was still in Holland.....") I wanted to tell them, so at first I told my teacher, and we set up a date to tell the class. When the day came, I was nervous. I don't really know why. But at the end of the day, the teacher said:
"Om de dag af te sluiten, wil Megan nog wat aan jullie vertellen..." translated: "To end the day, Megan wants to tell you something..." And then it came. My moment, but it didn't go as I wanted it to go. In fact, I bursted in to tears, and said:
"Ik ga naar de andere kant van de wereld!" translated: "I'm going to the other side of the world!" My teacher, took it over for me. She explained the situation that I was in, and then I also found out, that she used to live there!
That was such a surprise to me, I never expected this, but in a good way! She told all these interesting things about Malaysia, how nice it is, and she said it's much warmer there then in Holland!! She made me feel much better about going. I thought it was going to be terrible and I would miss my friends so much that I would feel miserable (but I did like the fact that I would go to the ISKL because the site made a huge impression on me!). I do miss my friends in Holland, and sometimes I do get miserable and I just want to lie down, but I have got a million friends here now and I can't imagine going back to Holland in two years!



After I told my old class, they were all really nice to me! Even the boys were really nice to me. (Even though there were only seven.) Big groups would go to the beach with me, (in Holland we just could go alone, it's really safe in Holland and everyone new the way) and we would have a lot of fun. Especially in the summer, when it was nearly time to go, then nearly the whole class was going to the beach in a big group with me, and we had the most fun ever!

But the saddest was when I had to leave my sister behind. That's also a time when I needed the most courage, to not cry and never forget here. But next summer vacation, I'm going back to Holland for a month. Then I can visit my sister, who lives in Amsterdam, and also my friends.

One of the most fun things is that my mother had arranged with my old principal that I can sit in the class with my old class!! Because when I have summer vacation, they still have to go to school for a little longer. And I'm also invited to go to there musical. I'm so happy that I can do that, and I'm really looking forward to see them again!

Of course, I'm very exited to see my sister again! Your probably thinking: "Why didn't she come to Malaysia?" Well, because she is in University in Amsterdam. She also now lives in Amsterdam in a small apartment with two other girls. She could of come if she wanted to, but she chose not to. She had started already and she had fun in what she was doing. She also didn't want to leave here friends.  But the good thing is that she is going to visit us at Christmas! So that won't take to long until I see her again!

This was my blog, a long one! It's not all about the courage part, there is also a lot of information, and what happened after, but anyway: That was how it went when I wasn't here yet!
Here's something I want to say to my sister:

Love you Kirsten! <3

I hope you liked my blog and the way I wrote it, and that you will respect the way I still feel about being here, and not in my home country,

Megan


I edited the picture, but the original I found on Google images:

Original pic of speech:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&gbv=2&nfpr=1&tbs=isch:1&&sa=X&ei=1VSMTNL5Gs6cceXWlZQE&ved=0CCMQBSgA&q=speech+in+class&spell=1&biw=1366&bih=568

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Artifacts: studying the past

Archaeologists study the Artifacts of the early humans to discover about the past, and find out how the early humans lived the way they lived.


Cave painting of shapes and handprints. The painting was found in a cave in Argentina, South America. This painting has animals that look like gazelles, witch are panicking about some dangerous animal. There are also yellow type of bugs, and it seems like the gazelles are running them over. There are also bigger and smaller handprints, and different kind of shapes such as: zigzag lines, and circles. We have learned from this artifact that the early humans probably had special rituals, witch involve this type of drawing on the cave walls. And also, scientists think that these places in the cave were used for special gatherings, because where the painting is, the voice is the loudest. The handprints were very small, so the prehistoric people were probably much smaller then we are now. And some scientists think that the artists signed there painting by putting a handprint there.





Here is a picture of the cave painting of hanprints and shapes: 







Clay Sculptures. These clay sculptures were found in a low room deep inside a cave in France. These two clay sculptures are of bison, one of them looks injured, because it is lying down, and the other looks like it's just leaning on some rocks. It looks like there is water behind the bison, and it looks like the injured bison is reaching to it. Some scientists think that this meant that the cave belonged to a certain clan, or that these were used in special ceremonies, to show a child has grown up. So we learned that there were probably special ceremonies for reasons such as the children have grown up (because there were small footprints found close by the sculptures.)







Here is a picture of the clay sculptures: 









Cave painting of animals. This painting is painted on a leveled wall, and it looks like some horses are running over a ledge. There is also a unfinished animal on the wall, and it looks like a other animal is running away, while jumping over the herd. Some animals look older then others, because it seems like the paint is peeling of. This painting shows that probably this is something that happened, or these paintings were also used for ceremonies. It also could of been that the artists believed in spirits, and they made this art to honor them.


With all this information about the prehistoric people, we can learn a lot about the past! I hope we find lots more interesting artifacts that the early humans made.
Megan

first picture:
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:-hTt5moBAON8EM:http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb124/skimac/altamira.jpg&t=1
second picture:
http://puffin.creighton.edu/bucko/courses/syllabi/images/buffalo.gif