International Food Festival

Year 2000

Year 2001

Year 2014

 

One of the best Boy Scout events of this past month was the 35th Annual International Food Festival on April 12th at the Claremont Colleges. This was my first time attending this event, and I was very curious about the different types of international foods. Our job during this service project was to change the trash bags and man the First Aid Booth. When I was taking a short break with my food tickets from the troop, I found out that there were more than 23 booths representing different countries, selling exotic foods. There were also many professional performances by different clubs and organizations, such as Africa Soul Dance, 5C Korean Pop Dance, Mariachi Serrano, and Psycho Taiko, which is Japanese Drumming.

Everyone in our patrol, The Eagles, was present. I went to this event because my mom told me that it was worth the time and that both she and my grandma had participated in it. I was already interested in the international food, so it didn’t take too much persuasion from my mom. When we drove to the Colleges at around 11 o’clock with Darren and Wesley, I was eager to start working, although the others didn’t seem so enthusiastic.
    Throughout the whole three hours of service, I kept pretty busy, apart from a couple minutes of eating. I changed more than 30 trash bags, although I did not participate in any First Aid acts apart from treating a weird looking cut on a college student working at the French booth. With twenty tickets from Mr. Raus, our Scoutmaster, I bought lots of diverse food. My favorite was the sausages and boba milk tea from the Taiwanese booth, which was doing a roaring trade with the Claremont community (Go Taiwan!!!). I also visited the Italians for some rich and creamy tiramisu. Another of my favorites was the Vietnamese egg roll with some savory fish sauce. I considered getting another, but after a quick debate with myself, I decided that I would use the last five tickets I had to get some bulgogi (BBQ pork) from the Korean booth. My mom was stuffing her face even more than me!

This experience gave me many things. This service obligation was only three hours long and after that I was already bone tired. I could only imagine how tiring doing physical labor for a living would be. That has motivated me to work even harder to stay away from these types of jobs. Another thing I found out was that I had just participated in a tradition in our family. For three generation, our family has attended this International Food Festival. My mom first took part in this festival in the Chinese Booth when she studied at Claremont Graduate University. Then, the next year, my grandma helped my mom in the booth because my mom was pregnant with me. I felt very honored to have participated in something that has become a tradition to this family. That was why I felt that this event was delicious and traditional.

This was probably one of best the service projects in my time as a Boy Scout. If this service opportunity comes up next year, I will totally go, not only for the service hours, but to keep up the family tradition. Well, I had blast there even when I was changing the trash bags, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in international food!

Success, Big and Small

 

    There are so many different ways of describing someone’s success. Most people, including me, think of success as achieving a goal. The way my definition of success differs from others’ is the size of the achievement I want to reach. For different people, the expectations are varied.

    At my young age of twelve, my expectations for success aren’t very high. For now, success to me is to turn in all my homework on time, and to pass my classes with at least a B. Another part of success in my childhood life is to achieve good times in swimming, and to give it my best effort. To reach beyond my level of success is to squeeze into the lower levels of the Junior Olympic swim division. One of the best parts of my success is actually a pretty small thing. It’s basically to become better at the addictive iPad game Clash of Clans. A more specific and short term goal is to max out all my defences and upgrade the Town Hall to Level 8. For now, all the goals of my personal success are minor, but still important to me.

    One of the places where I feel particularly successful is at school. All six of my classes have some challenges, but I am still able to cope with them pretty well. My average grades right now are around an A, which is well above my success bottom line. The elective I am taking, Web Design, poses few challenges. The codes needed for passing the class are pretty simple and I always find a bit of time to play some games after the assignment is finished.

    Another place where I feel successful is in afterschool activities. My main afterschool events are swimming, piano, and writing. Swimming has turned out to be better than I thought. When I do my best, and put everything I have into the race, I can make it into the Blue Division (the second highest division), which I think is pretty good for someone who only joined the team half a year ago. I started piano a pretty long time ago, but it was only recently that I improved. Over the past three years, I have won almost a dozen trophies from various festivals. Some credit should go to my excellent piano teacher, who lives right up the street. For your writing lessons, I won’t say I am an expert at writing yet, but I still feel successful because I have learned to not hate writing from studying with you. Now I approach each essay with care and determination, not hatred.

    Qualities that I think are markers of success would be determination and not giving up until the goal is reached. Another great quality for success is consistency. It is better to have a steady pace at reaching my goal than to have a fast pace toward the goal for a short time, then end up not going anywhere at all. Another is to have a positive attitude toward any goals that I have. Being annoyed at not reaching my target is not going to help me get anywhere.

    For some people, having lots of riches is being successful. Although having money is part of success, it is not a major part. With too much money, I might not be very lighthearted and carefree. That grumpy personality might not allow me to make a real family and have close loved ones. I think of a successful adult as my dad, who owns a stable corporation with not an astronomical, but still good, income. Being the boss of the company is not very taxing, which allows him to spend quality family time with my mom and me. Apart from us he also has many close relatives and family in mainland China and Taiwan. Someone with a stable and manageable job, good amounts of vacation time, and relationships with loved ones is the kind of person I think of as a successful person. Things that lead to this kind of major success are the smaller things that I am doing now, like learning at school and playing sports.  

    No matter if the successes I have achieved are small, like getting an A at school, or big, like starting my own company, they are all equally important. Keep in mind that only you can define success for yourself and to always set a goal of success to reach!

Letter to Principal About Letter Grades Against Pass/Fail

Dear Mr. Martinez,

Hello, Mr. Martinez. I am Justin W. and I am writing to talk to you about an issue you may have heard about: the replacement of letter grades with just a simple Pass/Fail system of assessing a student.

My advice to you is to keep the more precise system of letter grades. I shall weigh the pros and cons of using the letter grade system. This will allow you to see that the positive effects of the letter grades are far greater than the negative ones.

Mr. Martinez, my first point of view supporting the letter grade system is that this way of evaluating students is more accurate. Without the letter grades, there would be no difference between a lazy, barely passing student and a hardworking “A” student. With the letter grading system, the hardworking students are separated from the barely passing ones, making the good students feel confident that they are well above the passing score. The barely passing students also get the idea that they need to improve their grades. This leads into my next point.

This next point is motivation. If the letters were replaced by the Pass/Fail system, there would be an overall drop in percentage grades, due to the lack of motivation. With the letter system, there is a major difference between “A” and “D” grades. With that, the good students know that they are doing great and above average, and that they need to keep up the awesome effort for the grades to not drop lower. The mediocre students see their grades, and know that they have to work harder to raise them. Mr. Martinez, you should know that some people might argue the Pass/Fail system would allow the mediocre students to feel better about their grades, because only a “Pass” would appear on the progress report.  However, it could be very likely that the student would not know that he was only barely passing, and would not work as hard. This lack in motivation could easily change the Pass to a Fail.

My last point in convincing you to keep the letter grading system is related to the previous point. With more motivation and competition to see who has the highest grade, students try to improve and beat the kid one letter grade higher. The “F” students try to pass the class.  The “D” and “C” students strive to get slightly above average. The “B” students try to get to the top of the grading system, and the “A’s” try to stay there. If students were assessed with a simple Pass/Fail, they wouldn’t know when to improve, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have the motivation to do so.

So, Mr. Martinez, as you can see, the letter grading system strongly outweighs the Pass/Fail one. With the letter grade comes a definite increase of overall GPA. I really hope you can see this situation from my point of view. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Justin W.

Clash of Clans

 

    One of my favorite games on the iPad is Clash of Clans. This game was produced by Supercell, in August of 2012. Although this strategy game requires Internet connection, there are so many different types of building to construct in my village, I never will get bored of this game.

    In this game, we use currencies of gold, elixir, and dark elixir to buy items from the in-game shop. Also, with enough resources, I can also upgrade my buildings to unlock different warriors and unlock other buildings to protect my village. The warriors in my Barracks (the place where I train troops) can also be upgraded to give more damage and health. With my troops, I can also attack other people’s villages to receive additional loot (resources) to fund more upgrades. Once we have rebuild the Clan Castle, they can join a clan and donate troops. The troops I get can defend or attack a village.

    I love that Clash of Clans is a free game, but I have to resist the temptation to buy resources with real money. In most games, I can only defend  a territory or attack one, but in Clash of Clans, I get to attack other people and defend my village, too. Also, unlike some other games that say they are free, Clash of Clans allows me to play for as long as I want. Some other games make me pay just when the game becomes interesting.

    With all of Clash of Clans’ fun and amazing content waiting for me to be played, I strongly recommend you to download this app. I think this is a game worth playing. So, no more talking, get out your iPad, download Clash of Clans, and start playing!

   

A New Experience

 

    Usually, my instinct is more than sufficient to tell me whether an activity, class, or food is enjoyable to me. When my mom suggests a new experience my gut tells me whether I will like it or not. This peculiar sixth sense has never failed me before. But it broke its “A+” score of one hundred percent during my last summer vacation to China.

    This past summer vacation in China was a perfect example of the summer break I want. Almost every day, my grandpa and I would just lounge around the living room chatting about random stuff and devouring any good food we could lay our hands on (this is why I gain weight so easily in China). After spending the drowsy times of early morning this way, we would go down to the community park and ride our bikes to somewhat control my weight gain. Then I spent lots of time on my iPad until my mom caught me and made me do summer homework. After the gruesome homework was finished and the fantastic dinner cooked by my grandparents was demolished, I would play a card game with Grandma, sometimes joined by my uncle and aunt. After doing my “ritual” of attacking someone on Clash of Clans (an addictive iPad game), I would watch cartoons until close to midnight, sleep, and start the cycle again. And there were the ever present invitations to lunch or dinner at excellent restaurants.

    My instinct failed me during one of these lunches with Cherry and her parents that took place in a really fancy and realistic Japanese restaurant where everyone removed their shoes (very stinky) and sat crosslegged on thick woven mats that slid around ever so slightly on the oiled wood floor. Although the mats felt comfortable for the first ten minutes or so, they steadily became stiffer after that.

    At first, the adults sipped on hot green tea and filled each other in on the latest celebrity gossip, while Cherry and I chugged mango juice. Then the adults started ordering the dishes. First came six steaming, aromatic bowls of miso soup. I sipped slowly straight from the bowl since the Japanese don’t use spoons. Then came the food that I absolutely despised in Japanese cuisine, sashimi. There were salmon, tuna, shrimp, yellowtail, eel, and some type of fish called Ayu, all raw and shining with oil. My guts told me immediately that I would not enjoy sashimi. Luckily for me, a dish of dragon and caterpillar sushi came and I gratefully helped myself to the more inviting food.

    I was able to avoid the slimy sashimi for a few more minutes, before my mom noticed I had not tried it yet. She told me to eat some sashimi and that Cherry loved it as well. I stubbornly refused and continued munching my sushi. A couple of minutes later, when I was off guard, my mom unceremoniously stuffed a particularly large piece of salmon  sashimi into my mouth. Cherry was stunned for a second, then burst into uncontrollable giggles. Mom tried to look mad, but couldn’t stop her lips from twitching upward. As I was forced to chew, I suddenly noticed the pleasant soft texture of the salmon flesh, as well as the exotic wasabi and savory soy sauce. For a moment, I was stunned that sashimi tasted so good and that my instinct had been mistaken. Then I started wolfing down every piece of sashimi as fast good eating manners would allow.

    From that moment on, sashimi has jumped from my least favorite to my second favorite food, close after eggs. I learned that trying a new experience with the urging of your parents is not harmful at all, even if your instinct is telling you to back away from the experience. To this day, I am still very grateful to my mom for stuffing that delicious piece of salmon into my doubtful mouth!

Technology For The 21st Century

 

    The first elective class I had ever taken in my life was Technology For the 21st Century, a computer class.  Before that, I had never known that elective classes even existed. Tech Ed turned out to be a good starting experience for these optional classes.
    Overall, the experience in Tech Ed was pretty enjoyable. We always had something to work on, but were still not overloaded. There was always a little free time where we could play games on our assigned computers. All the lessons Ms. Mejia, our teacher, taught us contained something new. All of the information Ms. Mejia taught us is knowledge that has been carved into my brain. Ms. Mejia was also pretty organized, and the grades were accurate. If I were to grade this class like a teacher with a letter grade, I would probably give it an “A” or “A-.”

    One of my favorite parts of the class was the free time, where I got to play lots of interesting games. The one I played the most was called Strike Force Heroes. I used to play that game a bit at home, but soon stopped playing after my mom’s “reasoning.” I played so much at school and saved all of the content that by the end of the first week, I had beaten the whole game on Normal level. I also played a few other action games that were not blocked by the school district. Playing games was sometimes so addicting that I barely had time to finish all of the assignments.

    Although these Tech Ed classes were nicely taught overall, there were still some places where there could have been improvement. This suggestion is based on my opinion, but I think that the class should contain less work. Although it is not an overload of work, it still pressed down on me, especially because we could not work on our assignments at home. And, as always, there is the constant suggestion of more free time!

    If I were given the chance to recommend this elective to a younger student, I would do so without hesitation. I recommend this class not only for the opportunity to play on the computer, but also for the awesome knowledge of  keyboard shortcuts and unknown functions of the computer.

    If I were given the chance to retake this class, I would do so willingly. Taking the class again might allow me to learn some of the vital information about computers that I missed while I was trying to successfully capture the flag with only a minute handgun on Strike Force Heroes. I might even have the chance to beat the game on Hard level during the free time.

     For all of these reasons and more, I have totally loved this class. If anyone has no idea which elective to take, please consider taking Technology For the 21st Century.  

A Surprisingly Satisfactory Swim Meet

 

    I have failed and excelled in many sports events, but, believe it or not, the events that stick to my memory are the ones in which I do both well and poorly. One of the most recent events in which I had this experience was a swim meet at TMEC, or the Temecula Swim Club.

On January 11th, my mom and I set out for Temecula, one and a half hours before the warm up time at one o’clock . After an uneventful one hour drive, we arrived at the swimming pool with ten minutes to spare. But when I saw my couch, Tyler, he informed me that the swim meet was 15 minutes behind schedule. So my mom and I found a comfortable, shady seat and settled down for the wait. While I just stared at my book without taking anything in because of my nervousness, my mom started to let out a stream of continuous advice on all of my weaknesses, like the start and the different types of turns.

    At around 1:20, we started our warm-ups. These were pretty uneventful, apart from being kicked one the head a couple of times and having people brush my toes for the whole warm up. At 1:40, the actual meet finally started, but I still had to wait a while before my first event, the 100-yard IM’s.

    I had a bad start. Even though my time for the IM’s improved, I got DQ because I turned my shoulders past vertical in the Back to Breast turn. But quickly I forgot about that as my next event came up, the 100-yard freestyle. I made a satisfactory dive in, keeping up with the others. My muscles steadily became sore as I pushed on. The three flip turns I did were all neat and quick. When I took my first breath after my third flip turn, I caught a fleeting glimpse of Coach Tyler bent down, yelling at me to put in greater efforts. As I reached the last 25 meters, I gave a final effort, and with my muscles screaming, I finished the race, coming in third of the heat. I was even more happy about the fact that I got in the Red Division, one division above the entry level.

    Before I knew it, the next event, 50 Breaststroke, was up. My mom encouraged me and patted me on the back. It somehow gave me strength, and I was grateful for that simple yet effective gesture. As the starting machine beeped, my dive this time was not so great, for I belly-flopped slightly, and a small amount of water found its way into my goggles. But the dive was still okay, and I recovered quickly. After the first 12 meters of the race, I gave it my all as I had before, and hit the finish with the muscles seriously on fire. When I talked to Coach Tyler, he was impressed that I dropped about 5 seconds on a 50-yard race. I also made the Red Division for this event.

    My last event, the 50 Free, was separated from the 50 Breaststroke by more than 10 events, so my mom and I settled in for another long wait. Sometimes we would chat quietly about random things, and the rest of the time was spent in companionable silence. Finally, after almost thirty minutes of waiting, my last event was up. As soon as I left the diving block, I knew the dive was a good one. After 4 quick dolphin kicks I broke the surface and swam furiously to the other end. The flip turn was excellent, and I finished first of the heat.

    This 50 Free event made the swim meet stick to my memory because I also found out that I had squeezed my way into the Blue division, only one level below the Junior Olympics. Also, the DQ of the 100 IM’s gave me a learning experience. My mom told me that a great way of learning is through your mistakes and failures. Surprisingly , I agree.

    This swim meet contained both the positives and negatives I needed to learn. I hope this experience will stay with me for a long time.