Anqi Zhang
Spring 2013
SGA Spring Break Trip to Pennsylvania
On 30th March, the school organized the trip to Pennsylvania. It took us 15 days for us to go from Huntsville to Pennsylvania. The journey lasted 6 days and there were 25 members in the team. Our first day is spent in the bus. We arrived at Pennsylvania after staying 17 hours in the bus. In the second day, we visited the museum commemorating the American Civil War and watched the movie about the war. In the afternoon, we came to a small town which is a major battlefield during the American civil war. The local tour guide said that there are many ghosts of people who dead during the war in the town. He took out a machine which looks like a radio. There are two lights on the machine. The twinkle of the red light indicates that there is no ghost around us while the twinkle of the green light indicates that there are ghosts nearby. Each of us held one machine in hand and we found that the green lights were twinkling continuously around a big tree. The tour guide took out another machine and yelled out towards it, “Hi, ghosts, my name is Jack. How many are you there?” The machine began to send out noises continuously and we can hear the intermittent voice of a man and a woman and at last it clearly uttered a word: four. Then the tour guide asked another question, “Angie is a girl among us. Can you speak out her name? Even the abbreviation of An is also ok.” After a while, the machine uttered a word: An. The tour guide said, “let us play game together. Steve, if you are alive, what kind of wine do you want?” one minute later, a voice in the machine answered, “rum”. At last, due to the chilly air outside, we had to return the hotel.
In the third day, we went to the chocolate factory. This is a giant building, in which we could learn how to find good chocolates and get the graduation certificate of chocolate graduates. Besides, we could also design personalized chocolates and packages in the factory. There several thousands of varieties of chocolates and the kind of Hershey was my favorite, for Hershey boasts the smell of milk and the moderate sweet flavor.
In the fourth day, we went to the community of family of love to help residents there to refurbish the wall. In the activity room of the community, we found the library, computer room and the free lunch center. The manager said, “The community is built on the basis of the subsidy from the philanthropic people and the financial support of the government. All of the staff here are volunteers.”
 |
 |
| Anqi Zhang (Center Left) with friends at Hershey's Chocolate World. | Anqi is excited to be surrounded by thousands of different chocolates! |
In the fourth day, we visited the German town. The local women all wore distinctive headwear and black long skirts. It was very cold that day. We found a mother wore a cloak passed our bus by driving a carriage. All of the men in the town had beards. They usually wore hats and like suspender trousers. There was no phone, mobile phone and electric light and camera in the town. The residents do not like electricity and dislike visitor taking pictures. We visited a family’s house which was not locked. The tour guide told us that the hostess is her friend and she is almost 90 years old. Being big, the house was sweet and warm, though the facilities in it were simple. In the biggest bedroom laid the bed sheets and pillows made by the hostess herself. All of these are sold to the tourists. Although they were expensive, they were exquisite. In the evening, we watched the local musical drama. The love story was quite boring, but the actors’ songs were euphonious.
 |
Anqi Zhang (Left) and her friends in a traditional German town in Pennsylvania. |
In the fifth day, we went to Philadelphia. The city was quite prosperous and I love the high buildings there. The team was divided into several groups to conduct activities. We walked 10 blocks and arrived at a famous café, but I did not like my coffee which tastes like the milk. We passed the mark of red character of “Love”, the Messi Bazaar and the memorial hall of Franklin. However, due to the limitation of time, we did not appreciate them attentively and we had to go back soon. We arrived at the school about 10 am in the sixth day.
| Participants in the SGA Spring Break trip in front of Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia. |
 |
This trip is quite impressive. I learned several different languages, the table etiquettes, the manner of going to church, the methods of chocolate making and wall painting. During the journey, I met people from different countries and many of them became my friend. In the bus, the members are from 7 different countries and we use 13 different languages. We used these languages to write a letter of thanks to the diligent driver, expressing our appreciation for his hard work during the past days. I will surely introduce my experiences to my friends, so that they can come to appreciate the cultural customs of Pennsylvania during the spare time.
Svetlana Woodcock
Journal Entry
Writing 050-14
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are becoming to be a problem for many younger and older females. They are pressured by the influence from advertisements about losing weight quickly and easily, thin bodies on the covers of magazines and all over the TV. In this competitive world, girls want to be pretty no matter what the consequences are. The pressure of having thin body is resulting in anorexia and bulimia becoming commonplace.
Anorexics are obsessed with avoiding eating food. They will go to extremes to avoid gaining weight. For most of them losing weight is very important as well. For example, they will hide their food inside their napkins during meals in order to avoid eating. Some girls will run for several miles daily so they can lose half of a pound, or what they think is extra weight.
Bulimics, in contrast with anorexics are not as easily recognized, because they binge and purge. The sufferer may not be unusually thin and eating habits may seem are normal. They are so obsessed with food so other things can be unimportant (people, hobbies, entertainment). Bulimia is extremely dangerous. Repeated purging and bingeing can lead to extremely serious problems with the liver and lungs as well as heart disease. Both bulimia and anorexia are life threatening disorders.
There are many clinics and programs to prevent eating disorders and to help those who are currently diagnosed to overcome their problems; although positive family relationship, healthy lifestyles, and positive outlook are proven to be the most effective prevention from eating disorders.
 |
Classmates Svetlana Woodcock (Left) and Judith Cruz taste and describe different American foods during a grammar lesson. |
Yanan Liu
Mrs. Little
ILC Writing 050-14
4/17/2013
Global Warming
During the 21st century, we have many issues on the earth, like environmental issues, health issues, education issues, social issues, and political/economic issues. But, in my opinion, environmental issues are most important now, especially global warming. Nowadays, we can see the global warming information not only in the newspaper, but also on the Internet. What is global warming? What caused global warming? What are the negative effects? And what can we do to help the earth? Global warming is caused by many problems, and we need to control the global warming.
Global warming was called "greenhouse climate". And there are several causes which lead to global warming. First, human-related emission of carbon into the atmosphere is one of the main causes of global warming. Atmospheric pollution has already become an international major problem. For example, people burn fossil fuels, coal, and oil that release carbon dioxide. However, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. The result of this is rising global temperatures. If the earth's average temperature increases 3-4 degrees Celsius, the world will have more than 30 million pepole with water shortages.
But, a few natural phenomena are the reasons for the global warming. The most important natural cause may be marine ecosystems took a turn for the worse so that erosion , salinization, and desertificaiton of land make the ecological environment deteriorated, and flood and sand storm may happen frequently. In Beijing, because of the environment get worse, sand storm to become more serious.
Because of these causes, the earth has some negative effect. First, global warming is dangerous to humans' health. Global warming could induce extreme weather, and is bad for babies and old people. Second, when the temperature increases, ice melting is the most difficult problem. The melting of ice raises the sea level and the sea level rise will destroy some big cities such as Shanghai. Third, many animals and plants could be endangered. The hot temperature will kill rare plants. There are endangered animals such as polar bears. Some researchers say that polar bears in Alaska will be extinct in 100 years' time.
To sum up, global warming is a terrible phenomenon; we need to change the world, and to protect the environment. On the one hand, we should eat vegetable instead of meats. In addition, we should save water and electricity. At last, we should plant trees or other green plants, because we need the trees to cool our planet and yet they are chopping them down to create roads or homes. The more attention we paid, the better we gained.
 |
Yanan Liu (Center) enjoys the autumn weather in Alabama with her friends Zhiyan Cheng (Left) and Anqi Zhang during an ILC camping trip.
|
Sijia Li
Writing 040
Oct 29, 2012
Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve
The Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve in Birmingham is an amazing place. At first, we saw a man who worked there, and he introduced his three lovely babies- a frog which had the same skin color as trees, a box turtle whose name was Romeo, and a corn snake. My favorite animal was the corn snake. He had brownish- orange skin, and the skin was smooth. I touched him and also put him around my neck. The temperature of the snake was the same as the temperature of the air. When the man put the snake on my neck, I was nervous first and then relaxed. The snake wound itself around me when I felt nervous and loosened when I felt relaxed. It was interesting. Then, we went hiking in the mountain. Many trees were around us, and there was only a small trail for us to walk on. It was hard to see the sky when we were hiking, and it was refreshing. We could hear birds singing, and the leaves were falling down. I felt really relaxed and comfortable when I was hiking, and I experienced nature. I had a great time at Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve, and I learned that we should love nature and animals. I would like to go there again when I have a chance.
 |
 |
| Sijia Li (Center) enjoys a hike with her classmates. | Weiji Dai (Left) and Luting Chen pet a corn snake. |
- Details
- Hits: 950
