Connecting with others

Matt has backpacked around the world to 70 countries and all the 7 continents. He has danced badly around the world, in front of famous landmarks. He danced with many people from Tokyo, Japan to Paris, France. From Christmas Island, Australia to Mumbai, India. From Antseranana, Madagascar to Marid, Spain. He literally traveled around the world to dance badly with random people.

"People want to feel connected with each other" Matt said. They do, and as i saw on the video, that these people were smiling and having fun and acting ridiculous. They like to be with each other and to connect. Laughing, smiling, dancing, acting funny- Matt has brought people together by just doing a dance.

There are 6 billion people in the world and we are all linked together one way or another. People from different races, religions and nationalities came together to do a silly dance. Matt has helped bring the world together by doing a dance.

I chose the picture for it shows children from different races and backgrounds, holding hands and literally connecting. It shows that you don't have to be the same religion or nationality to be friends.


http://www.kely.org/artonthego/img/communityteamworks2005.jpg

Make a person's day.

People are getting depressed or gloomy around this world of ours and i think making people's day is a great small thing to do, which will lead to bigger things throughout the day. A compliment, a hug, a high-five or even a smile could make someone happy and feel good inside. The last time i made a compliment was today at soccer, somebody scored a cool goal(i forgot who :P) and i said nice goal and gave him a high five. Also, when i played a match againts Garden International today, someone shook my hand and said, "good game, you played well" to me after the game and that made me feel good. I think we should be doing what these two guys are doing in their school, giving compliments, and putting a smile on someone's face. These two boys did a good job doing it, and while they did it, they sounded sincere and not sarcastic. These two college boys took two hours of their own time to give compliments to cheer people up. It's nice to give a compliment becasue it makes you feel good and it makes the person you compliment feel good. I think we should go somewhere, like pavillion or KLCC giving people free compliments for a field trip. It would be pretty fun. We should maybe even spare some of our lunchtime to give free compliments around the school. We need compliments to cheer us up and to give us a good day.

picture:http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/mar/13/nation/chi-compliment-guys-13-mar13

my name

It means river. What kind of name means river? Rio was the weirdest name ever. Too short, too Spanish, and it doesn’t fit me at all. It just didn’t feel right. It was a boring name, and too different. I just thought I would end up with something simpler, something that fit me.

I was named after the Joseph from the Christian bible and I got the name Romario from my parent’s two names, Rosano and Maria. Why didn’t I stick with those names? Well, Joseph was easy to pronounce, but it just didn’t fit me at all. Being called Joseph was weird for me. When people would say my name, I wouldn’t respond. Then I tried Romario, but then they either pronounced it funny or got it mixed up with my last name, Rosano. This was not working.

I used to wish for a new name so that people will not tease me for it, and a name that would be so simple a cat could pronounce it. Then I stopped wishing. I demanded for a new one. Of course I can’t just get a new name just like that, but at least I tried.

The name Romario was just simply too hard to pronounce. They would call me Rosario, Rosano, Ronaro, or just Mario. They never got it right. They murdered the name. One day, someone pronounced it so fast all you could hear was the “rio”. I liked the sound of that. The shortness, the easiness to pronounce, everything. It was the name I always wished of getting. The name I always wanted. So I looked back and responded, “Yes?”

Ever since I heard that name, more people kept calling me it. It I would ask them to or they would just go off calling me that. After that year, everyone called me Rio. It was officially my new name.

People still teased me and called me Rio de Janeiro or Rio Grande and thought they were so funny. Yes the name those mean river and it is a Spanish origin, but the name sounds like me. It’s short, simple, easy and unique. Just like me.

http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/the-chama-river-elena-maza.jpg

The Road Leading to the Unknown.

The quote written by Charles de Gaulle, explains that we need to explore the world to discover by taking journeys and paths. This means we have to do or go somewhere to learn new things. I find this quote by Charles de Gaulle tells us that we have to do or be something great to explore.

My picture shows a beautiful painting by an anonymus painter. It shows a river, which symbolizes a road for fish as it keeps flowing on towards the unknown. The river also is the definitions of my name. My name means river, and calm and peaceful, and so is this beautiful painting.

http://popartmachine.com/machine/daily/2009-08-10/atmosphere-landscapes-art/Country-Road-Painting_wallpaper.jpg

Merapoh

THIS MALAYSIA WEEK I traveled 4 hours to a place called Merapoh located in the Taman Negara Rainforest. We traveled with the Gunung Tahan team. Our guides who were there were D'Jungle People who were really nice.

ON THE BUS. Really early in the morning.Everyone tired and sleepy. We put our bags in the bus. And went in. I was sitting next to Ib. I tried to sleep but Ib kept annoying me. Helena and Angela kept taking pictures. Yi Khai kept talking. I couldn't sleep.

4 HOURS LATER. We were there. Merapoh base. We then checked in our bag since it was a National Park. Jumped in a truck and rode on. It was a bumpy rode. Up and down and up and down, it was fun. Hair was everywhere. Someones hair flew in my mouth.

THE BRIDGE. The starting point of our hike. Went through it and- PLOUGH. Foot stuck in the mud. Great way to start the day. We walked through the rainforest. It was going well. 1 hour passes. Not so tired. We trekked through the rivers and up and down the rough trail. 3 hours passed. Halfway there. We ttok a break, carrying 11 kg in my bag was hard. It got tiring. We crossed our 9th river. We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. And walked.

KEM KOR. It read on the sign. We were there, finally. We set up our tents and went in. YiKhai and Fabean were in our tent. It was raining outside. We started playing games and stuff. Dinner time. We climbed out our tent and stepped in the mud. The Porters. Carrying 60 liters of all our food and tents. They were really strong and carried all the food and tents. They cooked food. It was nice.

LANDSLIDE. We were about to say goodbye to the Gunung Tahan team, since they were going to go all the way up. Until the guides said there was a landslide and it was way to dangerous. So we all went back down. All of us.

BACK AT THE BASE. We took a shower and took a break, played some poker and went to sleep.
Next day (DAY 3) we woke up and did some activities in the jungle, as we went on a hike for 2 hours. We learned about a lot of stuff like why the vines curled up the tree and why the trees would lean toward the river.

AFTER THAT, we came back and did some activities, like walk around the base looking for a spot with some coordinates and a compass. We then crossed a river to learn how to make an animal trap with a couple of sticks and twigs.

CHINESE TEMPLE. We were on a way to a small chinese village to learn other people's cultures and customs. We visited a temple where we met kids who were very different to us. They were very shy, and they even rode their own motorcycles which was pretty cool.

FREE TIME. We then headed back to the base and had a choice to do anything we want. We played soccer or frisbee or even American Football. We played for a long time until it got dark. We then took a shower and had dinner.

NIGHT SAFARI. After dinner we hopped in a truck to go back in the jungle to experience wildlife at nighttime. Fabean, Yi Khai, Emily, Mezha, Vandana, Tanya and others. We felt the breeze on ou faces as we rode by. "DUCK!" Our guide said, as the branches nearly hit our faces. We ended up ducking a lot because of all the branches. We had to stay real quite since it might scare the animals away. We saw some cats and a whole lot of wild boars.

DAY 4. Had reakfast, and went to SMK Merapoh school for a soccer game. We thought they were our age and our grade but as we alked in, we saw the kids-or teens-or maybe even adults we were going to play againts. They were sitting in their motorcycles, smiling at us with their beards and moustaches. They were 2 times taller than me, as everyone got scared to play. The score was 2-0 we were losing , until Fabean scored. 2-1. Someone else scored 2-2. It ended up as 4-3. We won, and ythen donated some supplies and stuff.

RIVER TREKKING. We walked through the river for 20 minutes and found this small pool that we played in. There were strong currents so we rode through them. After that we went back and worked on our presentation. It had to be about Malaysia Week and our journey. Our group made a song by the tune of YOUR BEAUTIFUL by James Blunt.

DAY 5. Going home. It was really fun, but it had to end. We said bye and got ready to go home. We went on the bus, and rode back to school.

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot of important stuff. We all wished we could've stayed longer. I can't wait until next Malaysia Week.

XMAS IN LA!

This winter break, we went to Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of America. We did many things there like go to Disneyland, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., and a lot of other stuff. We also went to the walk of fame with all the stars on the floor. But on the way, as we walked, we bumped into some other people. There was Zorro, Iron Man, Batman, Yoda, the Mask, and a lot of other guys. They were fake and all, but it was pretty fun taking pictures with them. They were just a couple of random guys who put on a costume, and walked around everywhere. They mostly did it for the money, which we had to give to them after we took some pictures with them.

In Disneyland, we went to nearly every ride, except for the big roller-coaster with all the spins and turn and loops and all. We did have a lot of fun there, as it only lasted for one day. Universal Studios was another theme park we went to that was a lot of fun. It included rides like the new Simpsons ride (picture on the left), the 4-D Shrek movie and the Jurrasic Park water ride. In Warner Bros. Studios, we had a tour to see all he sets of a lot of cool shows like Friends and Two and a Half Men. We also saw the Batmobile from the Dark Knight.

We all had a lot of fun in LA, and we'd like to go back there some day to see other stuff. We were goin to see a basketball game there- Lakers againts Celtics, but it was sold out. We ended up having 2 christmas days because when we were in Japan, it was 3:00 in the afternoon, 25th of December, and when we went to LA it was 9:00 in the morning, 25th of December. So that was pretty cool to have, because we kind of went back in time. I didn't get to play any soccer at all during the whole holiday, but i still had a lot of fun there.