Field Studies
For this years field studies, we went to Phuket and we stayed at BIS (British International School). After finishing this amazing trip, we learned a lot about the ecosystems, the environment, and what we could do/ what we did to help (learnt this from the hike, snorkeling, and planting mangroves). We also learned a lot from helping the Burmese Work Camp and working with the orphans. For my first reflection, I want to talk about what I learned about the ecosystems, the environment, and what we could do to help.
From hiking through the rain forest, I learnt about the ecosystem such as how vein goes on trees and uses them to get closer to the sun. Mr. Jones, teacher from BIS, also taught us about natural adaption and bio-diversity. We learned that when we cut down trees we are making a big difference to our environment and to the creatures that live in it. Trees and nature provide a habitat for creatures, provide us clean air and reduce carbon dioxide. So what will happen if we keep on cutting down trees? If we keep on cutting down trees, one day we will end up with no trees, and we will lose our best oxygen source. We will have more carbon dioxide and less clean air. The animals will lose there habitat, and like what Mr. Rossing taught us in our Natural Selection unit, animals cannot change their form to fit their new habitat (quick enough; it will take time) because they are born with what they have, so most of the animals will extinct. Mr. Jones also taught us how we can prevent the world from losing trees. We can always join a community, donate, recycle, participate or do what Mr. Jones did, tell the story. Just by telling what is going on, you can inspire others to make a change. Mr. Jones inspired, us, me, to share this with others so maybe in the future someone or I will make a change and try to make a world a better place.
After we finished the mangrove planting and snorkeling, we made posters about the Food chain. We all made different posters about different food chains and I made one about the coral reef. Coral reef food chain goes like this: The coral reef gets energy from the sun (photosynthesis), and the fishes eat the coral reef and bigger fishes eat the smaller fish. The way it works is easy, but the process is being harmed and the death of the coral reefs has increased. The cause of the harm and death is because of us. Many tourists loves to come here, to see the beautiful ocean, but when they do, tourists sometimes feed the fishes (human food) or throw their waste out in the sea, which causes to ruin the sea and changes the diets of the fishes. Just because of our mistakes, a lot of the reefs has been damaged and dead. When we lose coral reef, not only the fishes lose there natural food, but loses its shelter. When they lose there shelter, it will be hard for them to hide from predators and to hide there eggs. If the fishes can’t hide, the predators will eat them all, and one day they won’t have anymore little fishes and the bigger fishes will starve to death. Just by harming one of the livings from a food chain, can harm the whole living. The way to prevent this is like the way we can help the trees.
Helping the Burmese Work Camp and working with the orphans was one of the great experience we experienced in this trip. We learned how to communicate with people who speak different language, even when we went mangrove planting. We gestured the movements and when we wanted to teach the children from the orphanage, we did an example. I found it interesting when we tried to understand each other who speak different language.
Helping the Burmese Work Camp create school, probably made all of us really happy because we were being part of helping children get education. From this, it also made us reflect on ourselves, how lucky we are to be able to educate in a school like ours.
After this, we went to a village to hang out gifts. This village seem to be facing poverty and we noticed that by the difference between the houses that are built here and the houses that are build around the main road. When we were handing out the gifts, some of us communicated with children and the parents about which gift they wanted and some of us even made a hang shake with them! Seeing the children smile was the best thing that happened during field studies for me. The smile on their faces was so astonishing, it made me cry. It made me really happy to give joy to the children.
Overall, it was an amazing experience and I do not know how it can be better than how it was. I really wish we can go back next year.
The activities and how we cooperated with the people that live there was just so indescribable and I think that this will be those breathtaking memories that stay in your mind, forever.
Northstar (: Forth day…
Today we had eggs and sausages for breakfast. Everyone was surprised how quickly time passed and how we are leaving tomorrow. We needed to start packing today, so we can leave early tomorrow. Today, Karina and I helped the hotel. Such as, cleaning the tables and wiping the windows. The worker was so nice, they gave us a second breakfast! we ate 2 bowls of cereal. And right after that, we had lunch 
We had soba. I choose hot soba since it was cold today. We had the professional soba and it tasted homemade. It was delicious! 
After Ms. Holovecz took us to a gift shop! They sold food, drinks, and gifts. I bought a snack and a drink. 
Karina made some hot chocolate and made a different shapes.
It was so tastyyyy (: YUM!
So tonight, we just packed our bags and went to bed!
Northstar (: ♥Third day…
No….. today was hike.
We rode the bus to get there. I rode the bus with Caitlyn and Go. 
When we got there, it was FREEZING COLD! The leafs that had fallen out from the tree was even covered with snow. We walked to the lake where we had a hike group photo.
The hike was way better than last year since it always did’t have up hills. The view was magnificent. There were some trees left from the volcano explosion and also we learned who was te founder of this place. We saw a memorial statue as we went on. 
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Before we went back on the buss to go home, we went to a gift shop where they sold, funny flavored candy, dolls, and photos. They even had a photo gallery!
When we went back, it was movie night! we took time choosing the movie but Karina, Estia, and I voted ‘A Perfect Getaway’ and we all watched it and i think a lot of people enjoyed it. (: They sold snacks too!
Northstar (: ♥ Second day…
Today was activity dayyy (: Our group went mountain biking first. It was not my favorite activity, but i loved the down hills ♥ There was two ways to enjoy the ride. The beginner class and the advanced. Satoka, Caitlyn, Anya, and I took the beginner class.
After we ate lunch at Northstar.
Our next activity was community service and we painted a house. Caitlyn, Satoka, and I painted one part of the house. We painted brown, in a darker color.
When we came back we went to the onsen and we ate dinner at Northstar. The dinner was better and better each day. 
We killed some sting bugs before we went to sleep (;
Good Night ♥
Northstar (: ♥ First day….
Yes! Its finally field studies (: This morning, I took the train with Melanie and Saimon to get to the school gym to catch the bus. 
” When we got there, we saw everyone with there packed bags. We went on the bus and I sat next to Estia, while Karina sat next to Caitlyn. 
It took us 6 hours to get there. We stopped at couple of stops to it lunch and use the restroom. We got there around 3:00. Then we got told that girls are sleeping in a different hotel. It took us less than 3mins by walking (from northstar). When we went upstairs, where the rooms were, there was a paper with names on it to tell who is in the room. But, we got to change roommates and they were mine.
We had dinner here and had free time at Northstar.
And we put ‘futon’ and we were talking for a while, but then realized there were TONS of sting bugs! We killed it with tissue, but then the woman who works here got us a duck tape, so we sticked the bug on it to kill it
Well its all safe now…. GOOD NIGHT ♥
Field Studies :D Day one
My mom and I were driving to Ishikawa station. We were suppose to meet at minami-guchi, but we accidentally went to kita-guchi. Before we even realized, we met Sarah and Ghada. We knew something was wrong because its 8:20 and no one was here, when we were suppose to meet at the station at 8:30. We decided to go to kita-guchi and when we saw everyone there we were relived that we were at the right place.
After greeting our friends, I waved good-bye to my mom and I set off myself to the train to go to Urabandai (HERE I COME 
). We rode the train to go to Tokyo station so we can ride shinkansen to got to kori-yama. I rode the shinkansen with my best friends E<3 We had a BLAST <3 <33
When we got their, I rode 2hours of bus with Estia, Christina and Ghada at the back seat. We mostly spend our time playing truth or dare, talking, and singing (even though, we were playing with other friends too!).
The bus took us to the farm, where we had lunch. It was a barbecue. Me, Sarah,
Ghada, Marina, and Estia started cooking the meat, but since it was lamb’s meat, i didn’t eat it 
We had free time, so I went to touch the animals :] <3 I’ve never knew we could rent a rabbit. 300 yen for 20minutes. When I rent one, it had a color of white and black. The rabbit was so adorable <3 Since I had so much FUN 
time passed so fast.
We went back to the bus and we headed straight to the hotel.
We got to this big parking lot where I saw a hotel and also gift shops, I thought it was going to be that beautiful hotel. Even though, I heard that the hotel was going to be filled with bugs. But then, we started going down and up the little hill where we obviously knew it was going to be the hotel filled with bugs.
When we got to this place with a big open space, I thought the house filled with bugs might be not bad.
We stood there so we could know which room and which room mate we will be with for 5days. There was a girls room where their is 10 people in the same room. I just hoped i wasn’t in that room. When they finished saying who was in the 10 roomed people I was great-full cause I was with my 2 best friends and 2 friends.
Well, now I get to know my friends better so YEAH!…. i guess…..
Field Studies :) Day 2 :D
NOOOOOOO!!!! It’s the second day!!!! Today is hiking!!! Grrr!!!! We needed to climb this mountain which takes us 5hours going up to the top and going back to the bus. I’m exhausted (trying to breath) because the side walk went up then down. Sometime it was really steep, but i still enjoyed the view.
The best thing about hiking was the view, when i saw the road with electric, and lunch where we got to rest.
Estia and I kept on singing while hiking (la la la….)
We got to the top and it was so high that we could touch the clouds!!!!
We had lunch, and it was so good
We started going down, down, down. When we were finally back, i first went to the bathroom Then, I was so happy to see TECHNOLOGY AND FLAT GROUND!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3
We drived back to the hotel.
I was so tried……
We wen to the onse, the hot spring where my friend and i were so hyper we started singing ’California Gurls’ which Mr. Curkuvic heard. So everyone obviously heard us singing so we were so embarrassed But i had so much FUN cause we were filled with laughter after all:D
Field Studies <3 Day 3 :3
Today, we went lamp making and we went to nishinkan where we did other activities. We were divided into groups and we went lamp making first. It was signifiant, but I got a burn My lamp was a colorful one and had a pink bottom. I exchanged the bottom with Moena cause I wanted a blue one. The lamp was shaped like a christmas tree after we were finished.
Then, we went to Nishinkan for lunch. It was delicious. It had a lot of type of food and it was Japanese food.
First we went to a tea ceremony, which taught us Japanese cultural manners. We learned how to give food to he customer and how to mix green tea. It heart my feet, while learning it because we needed to ‘seiza’ which is one of the cultural ways to sit down. But, the teacher was caring about us that she said if we got tired, we can sit normally, since we weren’t use to it.
It was a good experience for us to learn Japanese culture and Japanese manners.
Utana translated Japanese to english so i think she was a risk-taker.
We painted the ‘Akabeko’. ‘Akabako’ is a cow which brings us luck. I loved painting the Akabeko cause we got to make our original one!!! IT WAS SO FUN <3
We also did archery. It cost us 200 yen to do it for 4 times. When I tried, I shoot until the bottom of the goal, but it didn’t shoot to the goal.
Today we learned a lot about Japan, so it was a great experience for us.
