Friday, March 27, 2009

There is a WINNER!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CONTEST WINNER!!!

Please congratulate Firaz D. from E7/8 for winning the "Who's Your Favorate Historic Person?" contest!

He wins artwork from me (Helena), which can be either photography, a drawing or a sculpture. He will recieve this prize on friday, April 17.
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Monday, March 23, 2009

My Break of March

Hello, people!!!!!



Since I have almost finished assignment 10 and have the rest of the information at home, I have decided to write about my March break.....



My March Break was...



------Excellent

---------Perfect

--------------------Fun

-----------------Exciting

-------------------------Surprising

------...Boring...



Yes, there were alot of things that happened in my March Break...



1. I ONLY want to tell my friends and classmates of this event. It has to do with when I auditioned to a school. For the biggest news during my March Break, try to unscramble the words...


(there are four words)



TEUBRYTTOCANNIGOI


2. My Dad got his graphic designer job back!!!! :D :D :D :D

3. I finished reading a 500 page book in..... only four days and.... the book is "Twilight!" I LOVE IT!!!!!

4. I SAW the movie, "Twilight!" YAY

5. my family and I went to Montana's on Wednesday to eat ribs.... all you can eat ribs to be exact...

6. We went to the movies to see "The Knowing." It is a very good movie, it is interesting, and a little sad, but a movie that is very well done, I strongly recommend it!

7. I had a homework-free week!

8. We got a new computor! Which means, the games I play won't lag anymore!!! :D :D :D !!!

9. We FINALLY played a family game - RISK!!! It was really fun, especially how me and my brother had absolutely no luck and pretty much lost after 4 turns.

There are tonnes more things that happened, that I don't want to mention because either they are personal, or... I forgot them....


Now I would like to ask you....

WHAT DID YOU DO OVER MARCH BREAK??!!

leave me a comment please if it is really cool and you want to tell the world!!!!
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Friday, March 13, 2009

Assignment #10

Assignment number 10

For this assignment, we were supposed to write a diary of any person who lived through or had something to do with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Canada. I wanted to put in as much information as I can into the diary I wrote, but all that information I found didn't really fit the opinion of that person - so I decided to write diary entries from more than one person and to point out what I think their own opinions were as well. The words in red have important information in them.





February 16, 1881

Dear Diary,
Today is a memorable day for Canada. I, as the new president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, am starting to lead the building of the railway from coast to coast, from Montreal to Vancouver. I am the honorable George Stephen! I am going to be famous! But the railway will take alot of planning... This railroad will be Canada's first transcontinental railway, stretching across the country, through mountains, over-top hills, and across the prairies! Andrew Onderdonk is our construction contractor. He is planning to recruit many Chinese people to help build the railway because we think that the Chinese are cheap labour. We will only have to pay them one dollar a day! And that is thrice less than what we would pay the others. By my calculations, we will save 3.5 million dollars - if we had already saved that much money in the past, we could have bought half of Alaska! But there is no time to waste. There is about 1,600 km of mountains and rugged terrain to build through. It would take alot of money to do also. I should get to work. British Columbia, especially, would definitely not unite with Canada unless the railway is built within ten years.




The new year, 1882.

Dear Diary,

I am excited to lead the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. I am William Cornelius Van Horne, and I will be payed much money for this. That George Stephen, that man was fired for building only about 200 km of track in 1881. That is the weakest thing I ever heard of! I, as an American, I claim that I'll build 800 km of track in my first year! And I wonder how long I will be president for... Hopefully a long time, and surely a longer time than that George Stephen! He is the one who got the building of the railway behind schedule! Argh!

November 7, 1885.

Dear Diary,

Yes, it is I again, William Cornelius Van Horne! What an honorable long name! I have been leading the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1882 until now, November 7, 1885! Even though this is lower than what I claimed, I built about 670 km of track by 1883! Although, I think I should let someone else finish up the railway. Currently, we are in Craigelachie, British Columbia. The Chinese have been a big help, though, but I don't want to show my gratitude to them. Even though they had the toughest jobs in the most dangerous areas, most of them left us for the gold mines, and from what started as 5,000 Chinese, turned into 1,500 by year 1881, so why should I thank them for leaving us?!



November 8, 1885

Dear Diary,

I am Donald A. Smith. The railway will be built up to Port Moody, British Columbia. I am currently leading the building of the railway from Craigelachie to said Port Moody. I heard that William Cornelius Van Horne discovered Natural Gas in Alderson, Alberta, while they were digging a well. That adds into the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's fame. I will be done building this railway by the end of 1885. I tell you though, it is really a challenge to build through the Rockies in British Columbia. I can almost feel the pain of all those Chinese workers who died and their families. They are given the most dangerous and risky areas to work in. They blast tunnels through the mountains, where either the tunnel will collapse on them or they don't make it out in time for the dynamite to explode. They build bridges over very steep gorges, where they could fall off and die. They also blow up boulders, and for this, they either don't make it away in time for the explosion, or they don't keep their distance from the rocks flying off from the explosion. But, that's life. But I do feel terribly sorry for the grieving families...





The new year, 1890.

Dear Diary,

It is tough being Chinese these days. I am still grieving the death of my uncle and brother. My brother was the best friend I could ever have, and especially, he always knew how to cheer up the 11 year old me. He has been sending us letters about what is going on in Canada and how things are going about. He always told us that it was terrible there for Chinese people. He said that something like 1 in 10 died of exhaustion, murder, accident or malnutrition. He said they lived in tents while everyone else lived in safer housing. The tents were dangerous because of various weather and falling rocks if the tent was beside a steep hill or mountain. My uncle told us that he was helping to build a Chinatown. Apparently, Chinatowns were built and are being built so that they could live beside fellow Chinese neighbours instead of being so confused in the mainly English speaking society. My brother and uncle were only paid a dollar a day, plus they even have to buy their own supplies for building the railway while non-Chinese people got them for free. I have a question though. Were my brother and uncle, as Chinese, given heavy blankets to sleep in during the harsh winter weather? If they weren't and others were, then that truly angers me. I hate how so many people are against us even when the Chinese workers were doing their best to help with the railway. And another thing is that the Canadian Government gave everyone who helped with the railway 25 acres of free land, while the Chinese got absolutely nothing, not even a thank-you! I heard that around 600 Chinese died during the building of the railway, and they were even forced to work long hours! This truly angers me! Currently, my family and I are living in a Chinatown in Canada, and when we go outside of our town, we get harassed and called racist names. I just hope things will get better. I chose to write about the conditions in Canada during the railway being built so that I will remind myself in the future that things were alot worse for them back then than for me. I am so sorry for my uncle and brother. I loved them so much.


OTHER INFORMATION (jot notes)

- After the railway was built, the government turned against the Chinese and attempted to disengage new Chinese immigrants, by levying a "head tax" of $50 in 1885, $100 in 1900, and $500 in 1904.

- Most Chinese people were unable to pay the head tax to immigrate to Canada.
- An 1896 legislation disallowed Chinese to vote in elections in B.C..
- In 1923, the government passed the "Chinese Immigration Act 1923" also known as the "Chinese Exclusion Act" which prohibited any Chinese from coming to Canada unless they were merchants, diplomats, students, or "special circumstances." This act ended in 1947.

- the law didn't allow Chinese to work a significant amount of jobs. They could only do a few amount of low paying jobs that other Canadians wouldn't do.







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Monday, March 2, 2009

the What's YOUR favorite person Contest!!!

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HELLO!!! Everyone

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I have a special treat for you all!!! :)

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First of all, I would like to ask you people, "who is your favorite historic person?" It can be ANYONE!!!! only, it has to be someone who died and ya... If you can tell me who your favorite is and why, your name will be put into a draw on March 31st, and you could win... a drawing/sculpture/creative photo of your choice!!!! And the drawing can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE!!! AND, the more reasons why that person is your favorite, the more chance you will have in winning this contest!!!! (more information is below)

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Second of all, if you can beat my lousy sentence for my historic person, you WILL be put in the draw!!!

"My favorite historic person is Alexander G. Bell, because he was an inventor and he is famous. "

Third of all, I found a great website from where you can start your search... Scroll down and you'll find it!!!

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GOOGLE.COM!!!!

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Now go there, and get your research on your favorite historic person starteeeed!!! :D

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BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU!!!! :)

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