My second hometown---Hurstville

Hurstville is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. I think it is a good place to live in .

Firstly, the environment is so good. The fresh air and the beautiful green parklands are good for your healthy. You can visit many interesting places and use the efficient transport. The Shopping centre is advantage for your life. People are friendly, you can get help when you need .

Secondly, many people who live there are Chinese, it makes me less homesick (OR miss my hometown a bit less). In Australia it costs a lot of money to go home to see family and friends, so I can’t go home frequently. There are so many Chinese walking on the street, which makes me feel like in China, and then I will miss my family and friends less.

For all these reasons, I like live in Hurstville, I think Hurstville is my second hometown.

Reaction to Annabel’s story

Everybody has his story when they are a new comer in Australia. A new comer has many difficulties, some try their best to overcome them; but some people escape them, and then complain about them again and again. Many years later, they stand there and have no progress, or return to zero.

Annabel is the brave one, she faced troubles. She worked hard then got same or even better achievement than other persons, even though they are local. She said Assyrian was her heritage, I think that English and challenging experiences also are her heritage.

Annabel experienced the revolution and Iran-Iraq war in her childhood; the bad circumstances didn’t hit her but made her good character. I think the most important thing is learning to study harder and have less complains. Being active is more powerful than complaining. Come on!

Cairns

Cairns is in the north-west coast of the Queensland, 1700 km from Brisbane by road and 2500 km Sydney by road too.

The population of the Cairns is 123,760, there are 25 state primary schools. The TAFE campus is large but the James cook University is small, it only has 3500 students.

Cairns is the safest tropical city in the world.The average temperature in the winter is 24-28 Centigrade and in summer is 30-35Centigrade. July is the coldest month, the minimum temperature is 16 Centigrade. It is often wet and very humid in summer.It often rains in the late afternoon or night. It has frequent thunderstorms on both October and December.It is the especially tropical climate.

The famous industry in the Cairns is tourism and fishing.Nature attractions are its main advantage.Firstly,the great Barrier Reef is very clear, and the water is very warm, which is good for dliving.Secondly, the freshwater lake are fascinating. Thirdly, white sand and clear water made beaches cleaning and beautiful. At last the tropical rain forest is also the main reason.Many tourists like to visit in winter, both diving and river rafting are the popular tourist activities.

A Bad Day

The day began terribly.My alarm went off and I left the house with only 1 hour to spare before my English class started.

When I was running on the way, it began to rain.I was wet.I hurried up and fell down the stair, I didn't think so much, because I worried about missing the train. Unfortunely, I missed my train.

I arrived at school , then I found I'd forgotten where my classroom was?What could I do? My god! It was a terrible day!

The 2009 Glebe streert fair

Last Sunday Peiyi and me went to the Glebe street fair.It was funny. We just looked around and didn't buy anything.

Sculpture 51 FIRMAMENT

My individual sculpture is Firmament 5770. The "firmament " is a reference to that solid sphere in which the stars were thought to be fixed. It was made by John Adair, he used timber, plastic and light to make up a 5m*5m*15m black three dimensional box.

I didn't understand it at all the first time I saw the picture and the information about the firmament. When I walked inside, it made me think about horror, it was so dark I couldn't see my fingers. I was worried about following the way around it in the dark. I always felt there was a trap and I would fall down in next step. Lastly, I walked out I couldn't think anything. The next day, I remembered it and read the information again, then I found the meaning but I can't express it with my poor English.

These are the artist words. They may explain it better than me: Here the black walls had been pierced by tiny pinholes which allowed needle like pricks of light to illuminate the dark and oily meterior creating an intense and somewhat disorienting effect. A box made of mundane material and yet full of mystery, both empty and full, dark and yet filled with light,slient and yet resonant with voices. Arttist also think that the sucess of this work may lie in its ability to stand without debt to any prior narrative or meaning.

The Day on the Sculpture by the Sea 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I find sculpture is very hard to understand. Before I went to Bondi beach, I read the information which Rosa had given us. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand it. I thought maybe when I saw the sculpture in Bondi beach for real, then it could help me understand it.

I woke up at 8:00am, before that, I woke up twice at 4:00am and 6:00am. I think I was worried about missing the train! After breakfast, I said goodbye to my family then walked to Hurstville station. During the 20 minutes walk, I was enjoying the fresh air and smelling and looking at everything. I arrived at Kogarah right on 9:00, I met my classmates, we talked about our weekend and the longing about the Sculpture by the sea 2009. Most of us missed the 9:16 train which to the Bondi Junction station, only May, Lucy and Peiyi, who walked quickly, got on the train. They waited for us at Bondi Junction station.

We arrived at Bondi beach after a 15 minutes bus ride. We walked around the beach and we saw many sculptures, we took photos of the sculptures and our classmates. I just enjoyed the colourful sculptures, but I couldn't understand what the meaning of them was. I also remembered to look for my individual sculpture . There was such a long queue to wait to see sculpture 51, that at first we gave up waiting and went away to see other things. After we went around looking at other sculptures, Peiyi and I decided to buy an ice cream and ate our ice cream while waiting to see the real face of the sculpture51(firmament).

We walked inside one by one, I held onto a boy who was before me tightly. We couldn't see anything in the firmament, everybody just walked, and one person screamed, then we all screamed, which made us briefly less scared, but really afraid again when we heard everybody screaming. The firmament was full of cries. I didn't notice how long we stayed there. When we walked out, one boy was swinging his arm, I couldn't face looking at his face and I walked to the other side, far away from him, feeling very embarrassed. I asked myself not to think about it, and I played in the water with Lucy and Peiyi.

On the way back home I thought about firmament. Its use of black walls which had been pierced with tiny pinholes which allowed needle like pricks of light, which were like stars in the firmament, to illuminate the dark.

It was a lovely day!