Florence

We arrived in Florence on Friday the third of May. We’d come by train from Montevarchi. The whole trip we passed small rundown stations, so when we arrived at Florence  station we were surprised at how big and modern it was (even though Papi continuously said it was). First we went to Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. But we couldn’t get in so we went to see Donatello’s David (David and Goliath). I thought it looked gentile, David stands in a very female position and looks like a child. Michelangelo’s Bacchus (Roman god of wine) looks dizzy and unsteady, like he is about to fall over. Made for Raffaele Riario whom rejected it and was sold instead to Jacopo Galli. Giambologna’s Mercury is supposed to look as if floating but it doesn’t give much of that impression to me.

Bacchus

We saw all these in Nazionale del Bargello.

Donatello’s David

Michelangelo’s David

The Tea Appreciation Class

In Hong Kong we took part in a tea appreciation class which teaches you about Chinese tea how to prepare it (the right way) and it’s history. Tea is very healing and can be detoxifying. There is a legend that a person ate leaves to find their uses and teach the people about them. One day he ate around 70 toxic leaves, then almost dead he saw a tea plant ate it and was completely healed. Chinese teas all come from the same leaf. The different teas are just different fermentations. Here is a table of the different teas and the fermentation. The name is the colour of the leaf before it is made in into tea.

Avia preparing “Oolong” tea

Rice Growing In Bail

What is a Subak?

A Subak is a community of rice farmers. Each Subak has a leader to represent the Subak at the temple. The leaders go to the temple to set the irrigation system for the next year. This is important because the irrigation system makes sure that every field from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill gets an equal amount of water.

The  Priest

The high priest is chosen at birth by the goddess of the lake to be a human form of herself until death.There are twenty four  priests and one high priest. It is the high priests job to divide the water from Lake Batur and Kintamani between the people and to decide when to farm the land, as it all has to be farmed at the same time. This is a natural pest control because if pests have no were to go to eat, they will starve and there wont be any coming to eat the crops when you are farming again.

Farmers

Rice farmers harvest their crops three times a year and make $500 a year ($1.50a day) some make no money and eat only the rice they harvest. They harvest just enough to keep themselves and their families alive. this is called subsistence farming.

The Importance of Rice

Rice growing is very important in hindu balinese community. There are rise ceremonies, offerings of rise and people put rise on their forehead and neck at the temple. Rice is a source of life for the balinese people.

Origin of Oceanian People

To view presentation click here: Polynesia

Biomes of the World

Click here to view: Biomes grade7

Some uses of the coconut

Explaining El Nino and La Nino

Warm water is at the top of the ocean and cold water is at the below it. Usually wind  blows from Peru to Indonesia and pushes  the warm water away. Therefore no rain falls near Peru because all the warm water has been pushed west. When El Nino happens no wind pushes the warm water west. This means it rains in Peru when it is not supposed to.

When the wind blows harder than usual from Peru to Indonesia to pushes the warm water further west than normal from Peru to Indonesia. Causing intense rain in South West Asia.

Pictures from Arvind Tirkey, AuthorStream.com