The Holiday season is getting closer and closer! And I can’t help but write more about the holding as my excitement is overflowing!

Have you ever had a special ornament? One that would get you excited every year when your parents pull out the box of Christmas decorations?  An ornament that, when hung on the tree, brings back sweet lovely memories that you want to cherish forever? I have one of those! For those of you who have been keeping up with my blog, you probably know by now that I LOVE dance. Especially ballet and dancing on pointe. Infact, I’ve written quite a few posts about my passion for ballet which you can view here. Anyways, given those clues, my special ornament is obviously a dancer. But what makes an ornament memorable and special is the untold story behind it. Perhaps it was given to you by someone special or you got it at a memorable event, regardless, each ornament, like a person, has a story. Here’s the story behind my ballet ornament and why it’s special to me.

It was the final show of the 2017 RCYB Nutcracker. The audience gave its final applause and the curtain began to close. As the theatre began to clear out and the audience left, the dancers crowded in the dressing room to prepare to part ways for another year. Makeup was wiped away and their tight buns were let down into a long ponytail. The magic of the Nutcracker was over but the Christmas holidays had just begun. We exchanged cards and hugs and I wished I could stay there forever with my new found friends but the buzz of my phone told me that my mom was waiting outside and it was time to go. I gave my friends one last goodbye before leaving the theatre and ran out to the car where my mom was waiting.

I was sad that I’d have to wait many months before I’d get to see my friends again and experience the magic of Nutcracker season. As we pulled out of the dark parking lot and into the dim snowy road, my mom handed be a small paper bag. I was very curious and gave my mom a curious look which she returned with a smile. “Open it,” she said. So I did. I carefully opened up the bag and found a a package wrapped in pink tissue paper. The paper was folded back to reveal a beautiful ornament shaped as a ballerina. She wore sparkly pink pointe shoes and a tutu and looked as if she were dancing as she was in an arabesque pose. I smiled at my mom and she smiled back. “Do you like it?” She asked me. “I love it. It’s perfect!” I replied. The ornament then became the trinket inwhich I stored all of my precious memories of the 2017 RCYB Nutcracker. Nutcracker season may be over, but the holidays had just begun!

That was my little story about how I got my special ornament. If you have a Christmas decoration that’s special to you in any way, I’d love to hear about in the comments below! I’ve also created a video on how to make your own special unique Christmas gift with my friend Jordyn! You can add your own personality flair and background story to your homemade ornament too! So hopefully, it’ll be treasured for years to come and you’ll feel the same joy when you pull it out of the box as I do! Regardless, I hope you enjoy the video and craft!

Happy Holidays!

Whoever thought work could be worse than school? I mean at work, you get to choose what you want to focus on and you get paid for what you do while at school, your teachers pile you up on homework and you definitely don’t get paid. If anything, your just paying your teachers through tax dollars! One things for sure, by the end of the day, I definitely had to rethink this statement. Today, I had a chance to have a glimpse into the busy life of an adult.  I got to see just how hard and stressful working could be. Today, I had to participate in Take Your Kid to Work Day.

Dr. Cindy Shum

For this event, I would be shadowing the usual daily routine of my optometrist and mother Dr. Cindy Shum. I would be stuck in a boring office from 7:00 am to about 5:30pm helping out where I could and watching tentatively as others did their jobs. This is my journal-like recap on my workday.

The moon shone its final few glows on the walls and windows of a little optometrist clinic on the corner of the street. The sun had not yet risen as the day was still new, but the loud sound of cars and busses had already begun as people began to make their way towards their workday destinations. My workday started at 5;30am in the morning beginning with having to drive my little brother Cameron to early morning hockey practice. By the time he was dropped off and my mom and I reached the office it was 7:00am. Still pretty early. We were at our family owned optometrist clinic, BurnabyVisionCare. The normal preopening setup began. As the early morning sound of cars and traffic roared outside the windows, the little clinic came to life. The lights were turned on, the computers rebooted, eyewear was checked and arranged in their pretty glass cases and the window blinds were opened letting in the pale light of the morning sun.

Work started off pretty boring. I was placed in a dark prep room. The only light came from the few computers that lined the walls and the only sound was the humming of machinery and the tapping of my fingers against the keyboard as I typed in each of the patients names. I had no idea what was happening outside and was forever thankful when I had finally finished typing in the final name. I opened the door and was greeted with real daylight again. It felt so amazing to be able to see outside after spending what felt like hours but really only was a few minutes inside the dark prep room. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the brighter light, a spray bottle and tag was placed into my hand and I was told to clean the lenses.

It was hours later and I was pretty sure that I had wiped down almost every surface and eyewear frame in the whole clinic. I got to then see the cycle of what a normal eye exam would look like. From first checking in, to seeing the actual doctor to being lead back to the lobby, I quickly realized that the whole process resembled a circle. I found this kind of fascinating and actually based my Take Your Kid to Work Day Video off of this cycle.

Again I was stuck in a room. What is it with always being cramped into a dimly lit boring room? This time, it was the staff room where I sat down to a lunch of Sushi takeout. It felt like only minutes when my mom came rushing in and told me my break was up and it was time to work again.

It was back to cleaning eyewear and the sun began to set as my tired arms rubbed each lense. As the evening went on and the number of staff and patients lessened, I was finally able to stop working and take a break behind the front desk. Just as I got to see the little clinic come to life, I got to see it go to sleep. The lights dimmed, the « Open » sign was turned off and the doors were locked. With the few remaining rays of light off in the distance, I turned off the final lights in the staff room and followed my mother out the door.

Ok back to reality. The lesson I learned from the day? That work, when it’s not your passion completely sucks. Anyways, back to the actual project that accompanied this experience, our Take Your Kid to Work Day Video! I interviewed Sydney, one of the front desk staff who worked there and also got permission to film a bit of how she would handle a patient and take them through her process. Watch the video below to see my final product!

While this experience was very interesting, I’m glad I never have to do it again…unless I become an eye doctor one day😬

T’is the season to be jolly! Falalala Lalalala! For me and for many other dancers, it’s time to break in those pointe shoes, fluff out the tutus, turn on the stage lights and bring out the Nutcrackers! As soon as it’s back to school season, dancers, instead of going school supplies shopping, they book their next pointe shoe fitting to get ready for upcoming Nutcracker auditions!

The Nutcracker is a festive ballet which is commonly performed around Christmas time. This famous ballet, originally written by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, is performed by dancers around the world and is a huge holiday tradition in the dance community. Dancers begin auditions and rehearsals for the ballet way back in September so that there ready to perform as soon as the holidays begin! As the curtain rises, the dancers take you on an unforgettable Christmas adventure through Clara, a young girl’s dream. You get to encounter toy soldiers, large beastly mice, life sized dolls and delightful dances from all over the world! Although there are many variations to the story, a brief overview of the plot line would be this:

Its Christmas Eve in the 1800s and a lively party is being held at Clara’s house. Suddenly, Clara’s godfather Drosselmeyer appears and presents her with a Nutcracker doll. Acting like a spoiled child, Clara dances around happily with her doll and even ends up falling asleep beside it under the Christmas tree. I mean how comfortable is that? Clara awakes and realizes her Nutcracker has come to life! Together, they battle an army of mice and their evil mouse king and ride through a frozen forest and encounter the beautiful Snow Queen until finally, the two arrive in the land of sweets and are greeted by the lovely Sugar Plum Fairy. There, they watch many dances performed in front of them from all around the world! As the night goes on, Clara begins to feel sleepy and falls asleep. When she awakes, she is back under the Christmas tree, her Nutcracker doll is beside her and she realizes the who,e thing was no more than a dream.

Now that you have an idea of what the Nutcracker story is about, you probably also have an idea of how much work goes into this production to bring this story to life. Allow me to take you on an inside look at the rehearsal process us dancers go through as we prepare ourselves for the big nights ahead!

You may be wondering, why on earth would you want to give up your weekends and the majority of your Christmas holiday dancing and being stuck in a stuffy studio? Well the production isn’t only a show but it’s a chance for the dance community to come together and hang out while expressing a common interest, dancing! Just like the saying, “if you do what you love then it won’t feel like work!” The Nutcracker is meant to be a fun and positive experience and is a great chance for younger aspiring dancers like myself to meet and perhaps even get to dance beside those who are more experienced or are dancing at the professional level! The magic isn’t only shown on stage but even happens backstage as we all help each other out and through the pure joy and happiness of all those pearly white smiles on our faces.

The rehearsal process goes like this. After going through a gruelling 4 hour audition, selected dancers are then invited to dance in the company’s production. Your given a phone call about a week after the audition telling you the roles you’ve been given. These roles are decided not only by talent and ability but also height, weight, size, appearance, maturity and age. This means that the company may not give you the role simply because your an inch or two too short or tall to fit the costume or that you look older than their other girls your dancing with. This sounds harsh but it’s true! Imagine 12 year old who looks like they’re 15 playing Clara who is meant to be a child around the age of 12! That wouldn’t fit with the story very well. So, for those who know me, I was dancing with 11 year olds simply because I match the face, size and height of them.

Rehearsals start early and can take the entire day depending on the number of roles you’ve been cast in. By the end of it all, your feet hurt, your sweaty and more than anything your ready to go home and relax. And if your someone like me, finish up the assignment that’s due tomorrow 😬. However, on the night of the show, all the stress, sweat and tears are worth it. As soon as the curtains are up everyone is nothing but smiles as they excitedly bring the audience through Clara’s magical dreamlike experience.

So the next time you see a ballet, regardless of how effortless the dancers make it look, remember all the pain and effort that went into the production your seeing. And hopefully, it’ll help you appreciate the overall experience just a little bit more.😊

Happy Holidays!!!

Below are a few more images from past Nutcracker performances⤵️

Hibou! That’s French for owl, my absolute favourite animal of all time! I literally walk around my classroom each day telling people how much I love owls! Some of my friends call me crazy, but I’m just expressing my love and passion for such an incredible animal. Therefore, it’s only normal that I do this weeks blogging challenge post about owls! I’ve attached a video below as a way to show you just how amazing these bird are!

For this weekly task, we needed to research the science behind a certain object, animal or thing. We would then need to embed a video to show further information or to support our investigations and lastly, create a two truths and a lie quiz about our researched topic. As shown in my intro and the video, this post will be about owls. But I’ll specifically focus on how they fly so silently. After all, that’s a special talent unique to owls only.

Have you ever seen an owl fly? Can you recall what it sounded like? If you recall the experience correctly, you probably didn’t hear any sound besides perhaps a minor screech and feel a soft gust of wind. Owls are the only birds that are able to fly soundlessly due to both their wing shape and the method used to fly. Because they are a bird of prey, meaning they hunt animals such as mice, being absolutely quiet while in flight highly benefits the owl as it very rarely scare its prey away through sound. The people in the interview show a very clear experiment on testing different types of birds to see how the owl differs while in flight. Hopefully after watching, even if you only watched the beginning, it’ll give you a good visual on what I’m about to say.

An owl, although fairly small and cute is a fearless animal and a master at hunting prey. One of the reasons for the owl’s soundless wings is the shape and size proportion to its body. It very quietly flies through the air in order to be able to sneak up on its food. Unlike many birds, an owl has very large long wings for its size enabling it to have more lift in one stroke. You see, each time a bird beats it’s wings or flaps them, it creates sound waves which initially is the sound we hear from other birds while in flight. Less sound waves means less sound heard! The owls large wings create one large smooth beat which allows the owl to remain in the air longer and have to flap its wings less. Below, you see a pigeon and an owl side by side. Look at the size difference in the wings! No wonder an owl can glide for longer!

An owl truly is such an amazing animal. It has so many unique features which allows it to survive in the wild. I hope that after reading my post, you now realize just how incredible an owl is and now understand why I love them so much. And perhaps, you may have even found a new favourite animal too! Just as a small test on what you learned today (oh gosh I’m starting to sound like a teacher😂) I’ve created a short two truths and a lie about owls while in flight!

Welcome to the world of Asian Invasion! Yes, ironically enough, my whole group for this project was made up of Chinese kids. We were Guan, Wong, Chong and Cui. But don’t be fooled! Just cause we’re all Asian doesn’t mean we’re all psycho geniuses at math nor are we all crazy rich. Infact, for this project, us group of Asians work fairly well together.

Our combination of strengths helped us accomplish this project mostly stress free! We had our own special roles which benefited the team well! We had Jason (Guan) the math genius, Emerson or Foghorn (Chong), whichever you prefer as our main presenter. If you haven’t already figured it out after reading his nickname, he’s best suited to the presenter role due to his unbelievably loud voice. Then there was Sam (Cui) our main builder and designer. After building a solid structure that was able to withstand over 200lbs of weights at Destination Imagination, we all had to agree that he had talent! Finally, there’s me. The writer/note taker. Yes I LOVE taking notes and writing! So as you can see everything basically went pretty smoothly. Either than the boys being unionized and having to take a break every 15 minutes (thanks boys 🙄).

Our project was to create a Metaphor Machine which would show the story of our given revolution. And weirdly the Chinese got the Chinese Revolution or in this case, the Xinhai Revolution.

To read about metaphors and other poetic terms, click here!

We all then did some research on our revolution so we’d know the details on how it started, what happened and the outcome of the revolution. To make this slightly easier on all of us, my group decided to divide our research into the four stages. Each of us would research about one stage.

Now, your probably wondering what on earth is Kiera talking about when she says a “stage”. Well, all revolutions can be devided into Four Stages: Incubation, Moderate, Crisis and Revovery stages. This was designed by a man named Crane Brinton thus known as the Crane Brinton Theory. A revolution, like a disease begins with the Incubation Stage where an event occurs causing people to become angry or unsatisfied about something. This could occur through an economic crisis, a week ruler or simply not being payed enough. This then leads to the Moderate Stage where small protests occure but not a lot of violence. The revolution then moves to the Crisis stage where wars are waged and many politicians or leaders are killed in battle. After this comes the recovery stage where everything begins to settle down and return to normal.

Once the research was done, it was time to draw our machine diagram. This would show all the necessary dimensions we’d need to know before cutting out the cardboard pieces. Jason and Sam drew the first diagram and Emerson and I drew the full sized one. Once that was done, it was time to start building!

In Scimatix, we had been learning about circuits and electricity. This project was a chance for each of us to show our knowledge in circuits as a circuit had to be included in our machine. Sam and Emerson expertly created a circuit to simulate the emperor loosing power which ended the revolution.

The construction of our machine wasn’t an easy process. Not only did each Metaphor have to represent a key event in the Xinhai Revolution but the machine also had to match the Steampunk aesthetic. This meant lists of exposed machinery such as nails red, copper, go,d and silvery colours and older looking designs. Like researching, we devided the jobs up to complete the task faster. Just as if we were an assembly line in a factory, I began by cutting out the raw pieces of cardboard in the shapes and sizes I had taken note of during our drawing of the diagram. The pieces would then be handed to Jason who spray painted and dried the cardboard which would then be handed to Sam and Emerson who carefully glued and measured each piece into place. What a team!? The process was not only fast but fun! Not only did I learn to properly spray paint, but also to loosen up and not worry!

The creation of our video was simple enough, I mainly did the filming and editing and Jason mainly created the music. We decided to stick with our a Chinese theme by creating traditional Chinese music on the Garage Band App. The sad part was disassembling our machines. After weeks of hard work, our mighty Metaphor Machine ended up as no more than a stack of spray painted cardboard in the recycling bin.

Stretch your legs! Point your feet! Lift your arms! Use your core! Lift your leg higher! And on top of that, don’t forget to smile!

When you look at a dancer, they appear absolutely carefree and elegant. As if they’re floating in thin air! A dancer’s sole job is to make their movements appear absolutely effortless, giving others the illusion of dance being a world filled with tutus, pointe shoes, fairies, mermaids, princesses and happiness. What you don’t see is the hours of hard work, dedication, pain and perseverance that goes into the finished product. While dancing on pointe looks beautiful, it requires a lot of work and training. I’ve created a short two minute video of the behind the scenes of a dance class at my local dance school SeymourDance.

Since the early 1800s dancers have been dancing on the tips of their toes in an effort to give the illusion of floating and elongating the leg line, which, in my case isn’t a bad thing considering my height. The first pair of pointe shoes were nothing more than soft ballet slippers with a heavily darned tip. This only allowed the dancer to leap onto the tips of her toes for a millisecond before having to come down. However, that small second of dancing on your toes started a whole new evolution of dance. Nowadays, there are hundreds of models of pointe shoes to ensure each dancer has their perfect fit. Although the pointe technology is much more advanced, most dancers will tell you that pointe work isn’t a walk in the park. On the contrary, pointe shoes are more of a foot torture device than anything else.

For this project, each of us had to create a short video no more than two minutes around a live event. The live event was our choice and could be anything from a sports game, a festival or get together or even just an event you made up at home! I happened to have dance class that evening so wouldn’t have to to create or go to any other event within the given time frame, so I decided to film my pointe class!

During the process of revision, I can tell you for a fact that I revised and re-uploaded my video at least 5 times. Each time fixing a small mistake here or there such as the audio, interview or clips. Below is my finished product which will hopefully give you an idea of the work that goes into dancing on your toes. After watching the video, I hope you can agree with me that pointe work is not just a walk in the park!😂

This or that? Red or blue? Night or light? There’s so much about each other we don’t know! This post is to help me learn a bit more about my readers, you! I’ve created a small slideshow showing two things. Let me know in the comments which ones you prefer!

Each slide on the slideshow showcases two images. Each of something that could be paired but in a way are complete opposites. Kinda like us humans! We’re all humans but are all so different and unique! This is a great fun chance for me as a writer to learn a bit more about my readers! I can’t wait to hear from you!

I’ve also created a short survey containing a few questions to get to know you better! This is just a fun questionnaire and by no means do you have to answer all the questions. Just answer the ones your comfortable with🙂.