Last friday (July 6th), we
went to the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau. There I saw multiple monuments
linked with Canada’s past such as some Totem from the Natives, some paintings
and statues of important personalities that have affected Canada’s history and information
about how people in Canada used to live. I also played a game about religion: a
lady was asking me questions related to the different religions that are
present in Canada and sadly, I got them all wrong. There was also information at the museum about
other civilizations such as the Mayans. I wish I could have seen more
but we didn’t have lot of time.
Beside this, I had two
questions that I had to ask which were: « What is particular with Yellowknife’s
Wildcat Cafe? » and « What are the 6 natives’ houses? ». However, I couldn’t
answer my questions because like I said, we didn’t have much time.
Z.X.
Pay It Forward
is a movie released in 2000, directed by Mimi
Leder and based on the novel of the same name written by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This movie stars Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt.
Summary: The movie tells
the story of Trevor Mckinney (Haley Joel
Osment), an 12 years old boy, with an alcoholic mom (Helen Hunt) who received from his social studies teacher, Mr.
Simonet, (Kevin Spacey) the assignment
of founding an idea to change the world and to put this idea into action.
Trevor thinks thus of an idea which is based on helping others, but in a more
radical way: Trevor has to help three different people by trying to solve a
problem that these people have, but cannot fix by themselves. Those three
people will then have to help three other people in the same way as Trevor did
and so on… Trevor decides thus to firstly help a homeless man by giving him
some food and a shelter, but he will soon realize that his task wasn’t an easy
one.
Personally, I think that
this movie is a good one. The actors were great, especially Haley Joel Osment who is, I think, very
talented for his young age. Helen Hunt also
did a great job by playing the alcoholic mom and Kevin Spacey gave an incredible performance too with his role of
calm but complexed teacher. Beside the actors, the plot was good too. The
storyline was logical, smart and original and captured my attention during the
whole movie. However, one thing that I liked a little bit less was the music,
not because it sounded terrible, but rather because there was only one sound track.
Another thing that I didn’t very like was the way the editors put the scene
together. Because of all the flashbacks and the different storylines, it was a
little bit hard to follow the story. The chronology was indeed quite a bit
confusing.
Ultimately, I would like to
say that although the fact that the storyline is confusing, Pay It Forward is still a very good movie.
I would give this movie the rating of 8.5 out of 10. It is the kind of movie
that makes us think about our daily acts and that gives hope about the
future of humanity. I recommend it. It is definitely a movie worth seeing.
Z.X.
I did many activities in
the past three weeks. One that I particularly liked is the Rock Climbing
Altitude Gym that I did on July 11th. At this activity, I went
to a rock climbing center in Gatineau to (obviously) climb on climbing
installations (you don’t say!).
There were lots of
installations of different kind: some normal one, others that look like
military training (with ropes and ladder), some with different and weird grip
(pipes, holes, hooks, etc.) and one that took place in a dark room in which we
couldn’t see a thing. All those installations were very fun and interesting,
but one that I have particularly liked was the one with the moving grips: The
grips were related to one another and each time one of them was moved, all the others
near this grip move too which has make my way up very difficult. I think that
this installation was the only one I didn’t manage to complete.
In brief, I really enjoyed
my experience at the rock climbing activity. Personally, I think that it was
very exciting, thrilling and exalting. It’s the kind of activity that makes you
push your limits and fight your fears. I recommend it to anyone who wants and
is not afraid of challenges.
Z.X.
This last Saturday (July
14th), we went downtown, to the Parliament Hill for the event of the capital
circuit. There, in front of the Parliament, I saw a fountain that seemed perfectly
normal except the fact that there was a LIT FIRE on top of it...
This fountain is called the
Centennial Flame and has been built in 1967. It is a monument shaped like a
polygon that contains the carvings of 12 of the 13 Canada’s provinces and
territories on it. There is one province missing, which is Nunavut since this
territory was created only in 1999, 32 years after the construction of the fountain.
The Centennial Flame was
originally built to celebrate Canada’s 100th anniversary in 1967.
The flame on top of the water, surrounded by the provinces and territories represents
the « Canada's unity from sea to sea ».
Personally, I think that
this monument is a good expression of art, firstly because of its originality
and of its beauty, but also because of the fact that it symbolizes something:
The Centennial Flame reminds us of events from Canada’s history by showing the
provinces and the territories that belongs to the country and also by being a
proof of our pride to be Canadian.
Z.X.
So far, I've lived many
experiences in Ottawa. One that has actually marked me is when I went to the
Imax Theater with school to watch a 3D movie for the first time. I thought it
was very impressive. We saw a movie called Arctic. It
explained how polar bears had to live with the consequences caused by
global-warming on North Pole with the temperature rising and all the ice melting.
We also saw how a polar family (a mom and her two cubs) had to constantly move
from an area to another to be able to find food and in order to escape from
predators such as male polar bears.
One thing I particularly
liked about the movie was the special effects (the 3D effect to be specific). I
liked the fact that we had the impression that elements from the screen
appeared to be close and «touchable».
People were waving their hands to the screen and were trying to capture the
elements.
In brief, I
think that this activity was pretty interesting for all of us and that it gave
us the opportunity to socialize.
Z.X.
Hey!
My name is Zhao Li Xiao,
I'm 17 and I'm from China. I immigrated to Canada with my parents at the age of
4. Because of that, I don't really remember how it was in my home country and I
thus, kind of lost my Chinese culture : I can't
read or write Chinese writing (I can barely write my own name) and sometimes, I
even have difficulties communicating with my parents in my mother tongue.
In my free
time, I like to play video-games, watch movies/TV shows or surf on the net. I
don't really play sport, not because I don't like it, but rather because I'm
bad at it. However, I like to jog at night, before going to bed because it
helps me fall asleep.
I chose to
participate to the Explore Program mainly because I wanted to improve my
ability to communicate in English. Furthermore, I also wanted to meet new
people, make new friends and maybe experiment how life would be outside of Québec.
Z.X.
