Letter ♥

How does advertisement affect your consumption? ♥

★ How does advertising influence consumption?

- In my opinion, advertising has a really big influence to our consumptions. If there weren't too many advertisements and commercials, people wouldn't buy too many products and use a lot of different resources like right now. All of the advertisements show the audience all of the good sides of their products. They always tell the useful and efficient things that the products can do or give us, so not anyone can realize how those products can affect the environment and society.

★ Do you think citizens are sufficiently informed about the sustainability of our consumption habits? If not, how can we become more informed about sustainability issues?

- No, I don't think so. Most of them only know about what can those products that advertisements show help their lives, but not what if those products are sustainable or not. I think the best way to help people to become more informed about sustainability issues is through advertising, because it is the best way that companies can communicate with us. Instead of always showing the good side, those companies should give the audience about some facts from the bad side also.

★ Do you think these advertising techniques influence what you and your friends purchase?
- The advertising techniques influence a lot to what my friends and I purchase. Advertisements usually use celebrities or really attractive models to introduce the products, and I think that it's one of the best technique to get the audience the attention and think that if celebrities use that product, then it must be good and I should use it, too.

Sustainable Development Examples ♥

- Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain is one example of a sustainable city. It has implemented a policy of mixed land use and high density development along its major transport routes. An upgraded public transport system allows more residents to live there, while still providing habitat for wildlife.

- An park in Kalundborg, Denmark. The waste created by a power station in the park is used to make cement by another firm. Other businesses use heat generated by the power plant and cement factory for some of their processes.

- In America, Interface Inc., a major carpet tile producer has greatly improved its ecological footprint. By using recycled and more environmentally friendly products, and more efficient manufacturing processes, they have reduced their energy and water consumption. The levels of waste have also been greatly reduced.

Migration / Immigration Assessment ♥

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, called FB Land, there lived a handsome young king, Adam Lambeast with his gorgeous wife, Megan Wolf. The country was full of grasslands for farming, so their economy was mostly based on agriculture. The king and queen ruled the small kingdom really well since they were the nicest and kindest rulers that could ever existed. However, they weren’t very wise for not giving lots of strict rules. That was why Lady PawPaw, the weirdest and meanest citizen in FB Land, who lived in the outskirts of this kingdom stood up and started the very first civil war. The war destroyed half of the kingdom, and most of the lands that were used for farming, so people couldn’t produce plants or herd animals anymore, and that caused no more money was earned nor used.

Since they couldn’t live that miserable life anymore, some of the citizens started to flee and immigrate to another kingdom; most of them relocated at Tineneryna Island. Adam and Megan kept their positions as rulers of the land, and this time, they realized that they should make up some more strict, but reasonable rules for the people to follow. Plus, they also cared about their people’s education more after then Lady PawPaw’s incident: they opened schools for everyone to study, no matter if they were poor or rich. Since Tineneryna was an island, which means it was near the ocean, and also this island was really big, so it had quite a lot of rivers, too, the ability of developing agriculture was very high. Because they left their old kingdom, death of citizens was no longer a big concern for the king and queen. However, FB Land was destroyed and no more plants could be grown there, and that caused a very negative effect on the process of desertification. In the other hand, they had a hard time adapting to the new climate, too. Their old kingdom used to be on the top of the mountain, now they had to live near the sea, which was really challenging, because the climates were completely opposite. Although they had to face a lot of difficulties migrating to another place, but they all knew that this external migration was a good decision to make.

One of the pull factor was seeking for peace (:

A Message from Mother Nature? ♥

1) The main point of the article is that many scientists have the theory of extreme weather is linked to climate change and global warming, but they still don't have proofs for it.

2) monsoon - winds that change directions due to the seasons

reluctant - unwilling, be forced to do something

skeptics - a person who doubts about everything

parched - extremely dry

3) Weather is the change of atmosphere conditions in a short period of time. Climate is the repetition of weather in a long period of time, for example: decades, hundred years, etc.

4) Some examples of extreme weather:

• In Russia, a record-breaking heat wave with a record-breaking drought destroyed millions destroyed millions of plants, especially wheat, and sparked wildfires that killed dozens. 
• In the U.S, floods battered New England, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, while the huge heat wave baked the entire eastern part of the country.
• Torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan caused the worst flooding in decades, killing more than 1,500 people and uprooting millions.

5) I've never been through any wild, or extreme weather before, but I've experienced the craziest rain ever. I was on my way coming home when suddenly a torrential rain poured down from the sky. My dad and I put on our raincoats as fast as we could and continued to ride the motorbike. Because my house is placed on a very low land, so the whole area was 'covered' in water. It definitely felt like a flood in the city. The water was so high that it reached my hip, caused our motor's engine dead; we had to push the motorbike all the way to my house. It was a very rare and special rain that I've ever experienced. 

6) 'Perception' means the understanding of something.

7) My perception of global climate change is that the climate is really changing. Even though that there's not really any proof, but based on what the weather has changed in many years lately, I can predict that the climate is starting to change slowly. In my opinion, this climate changing is kind of linked to global warming, because according to the article, the climatologists theorized that the added heat would cause more record highs than lows, which means the trend is toward warmer climate.

PFF Land - 5 Themes of Geography ♥

Location – Phineasopia and Ferbland are two of the three countries that make up PFF Land (which stands for Phineas and Ferb Forever Land). The whole land covers from 2000^o N, 3000^o W, to 1500^o S, 500^o E. These two countries are separated by a huge mountain, called the Iron Mt.

Movement – There will be many movements which occur on Mars from 5025 to 5077. The first big movement is from Heartlessia to Phineasopia, because they want to help humans to fight against the Martians. When the Martians and humans finally get along, ‘people’ from Jupiter invade and start another war in Phineasopia. This time, the whole country suffers serious damage. Therefore, Phineasopian have to move to Ferbland for peace.

Human – Environment Interaction – There are only two bodies of water here because it’s a super dry land. Some people live near the Electronic River because they’re mad scientists who can use electricity to invent machines that can produce materials. Two thirds of the Phineasopian and Ferbies live next to or near the Cytoplasm Ocean. Those are not scientists, so they need real sources to live and near the sea, the ocean is the best choice.

Place – The most gorgeous and natural place is Fructose Valley in Phineasopia. It is 100km deep. Fructose Valley is beautiful but dangerous; it’s also really precious. It mines all kinds of sugar, especially FRUCTOSE (of course!). It takes a long time walking down there so Phineas builds an elevator just for mining.

Region – Even though Phineasopia and Ferbland are created by two brothers, the physical characteristics are really different. Ferbland and Heartlessia actually have a lot of things in common. They mostly consist of plains, many bodies of water like rivers and lakes. There are a few hills in these two countries, but they’re only between 500m and 700m high.

Study Guide ♥

Vocabulary:

1. Geography - the study of people and environment of places
2. Spatial - where a place is located and its' physical relationship to other places, people or environment
3. Environment - the physical surroundings of location
4. Region: an area that has one or more common characteristics that unite or connect it with other area
5. Place - a geographical term that describes the physical and human characteristics of a location
6. Location - an exact position using latitude and longitude, or a description of a place in relation to places around it

Topics:

1. The 5 Themes of Geography - place, location, movement, regions, and human- environment interaction
2. The 6 Essential Elements of Geography - the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, the uses of geography. 
3. Kinds of Maps - Political, Physical, and Thematic
4.  Family Tree
5. Jobs in Geography - Land Surveyor, Location Analyst, Urban Planner, Climatologist, Cartographer
   
   

Idea:

1. How to read maps
2. How to think "outside the box"
3. What is Geography?
4. How do people who work in "Geography section" work?
5. How cultures are different or similar? 

What I've Learned (:

I really enjoyed planning and working on this project, and I've also learned a lot from it. Before this project, I just know that my family does this and that, but after doing this, I really know the reason why we do these things. For example, I found out why my parents always have the "Mai Tree" in our house on Tet holiday: it's because they believe that the flowers on the tree will bring us good luck in the new year. I know more about Vietnamese history, too, like the legend of the food: bánh chưng and bánh dày. This project gave me a chance to look back at my memories, such as pictures of my family and me when I was a little kid, so it's really special to me.

What I've learned more are my friends' cultures and countries. Like Norway. Jennifer told me a lot of information about what I need to know about her country. Now I know that people who live in Norway are mostly from other countries, and only 1/10 of people there are really from Norway. Or another interesting thing is the boy scout that Henry and Jack told the class. I've heard about those activities, but it was the first time I could actually see the uniform, the badges, etc. It was something that was really exceptional for me to see and know.

I can now truly understand how cultures can be different from different countries or different backgrounds. The 'Family Project' really DID give me the idea of differences in people, and why people act in different ways and celebrate or believe in different things. And that's a really efficient and useful way for people to know why they should respect each other because everyone's different in a specific way, but still similar in general.

Santa Barbara ♥

I've been to a lot of places, but my favorite one is always Santa Barbara, California. I lived there for 1 and a half months last year and I enjoyed it so much. I love the weather, the views, the people and EVERYTHING there.

Santa Barbara is located about 90 miles (145 km) WNW of Los Angeles, along the Pacific coast, between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea. The Santa Ynez Mountains rise behind the city. Our guide said that it snows once every three years, but I was kind of sad because I didn't get to see it.

The weather here is wonderful. Because of the city's proximity to the ocean, it is cool and sometimes a bit too cold. When I went there, my host family said that the climate changed a bit that year, so instead of the sun shining all the time, it was raining quite often.

Alameda Padre Serra is a hill right next to the Mission Santa Barbara, and it's a spot where we can see the views of the Pacific, the Channel Islands and the sunset/sunrise views. Unfortunately, I couldn't go there so watch those beautiful views, but if I have a chance to come back to Santa Barbara, I would definitely come there.

One thing that I like the most here is a huge beach to relax and swim on the sunny days. Because of the weather so the sea was pretty cold. That's why it's the best to tan, rather than to swim.

 At the beach :)

There are quite a lot of fun activities in Santa Barbara, and most of them are on the beach. For example, there are people surfing, or playing volleyball or just simply swimming or tanning. I think that people live there really love and connect to the environment, because they did a lot of good things for it. They grew A LOT of trees everywhere: along the streets, in the park, at the beach,... It's really great seeing that, because it made me think about Ho Chi Minh city: what would it be like if it can be "GREEN" like Santa Barbara.

Our group at the park

SB people are beyond AWESOME ♥ They are the nicest people I've ever seen. Even when they're complete strangers, they still try their best to help me when I was in a bad situation. For example, I was lost on the way to come back to school, and I asked people every 5 minutes, and ALL of them helped me with concern.

Going to Santa Barbara is an experience that I can never forget. I have so many great and awesome memories with my friends and teachers. I'm looking forward to visiting it again in the future. ♥

ALL ABOUT ME!! ♥

I'm Mary and I'm 13 this year. I've studied in AIS since last year and I really love being here. I have such great and awesome friends and they're always there for me when I've got problems or anything ♥ I love to hang out with them to watch movies, or to go shopping [even though I really hate shopping]. 

 My hobbies are simple - going out, listening to music, playing basketball, and drawing weird stuffs when I'm bored. ;)

Also, I'm soooo obsessed with FACEBOOK ♥ It's one of my favorite ways to contact and of course, have fun with my friends *BIG SMILE* The other ones are YAHOO and definitely SKYPE ♥

I'm pretty friendly [got it from my dear daddy ♥], but also impatient and I can get mad easily sometimes [and this one's from my mommy ;)]. I have a pretty cool family, but they all expect a lot from me, especially my mom. That's why I ALWAYS have to try hard to get good grades, and that's also why I'm a NERD ♥

This is my last year in AIS, and also in Vietnam, because I'm going to America, so my friends and I are sure going to ROCK this year ♥ There are a lot of new teachers, and they all seem very nice, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this school year with them. And of course I really want to study well in Social Studies class with Mr. Blake.

So that's pretty much all about me. Now let's check out a few pictures of me with my friends :)

Contace me through:

Yahoo! ♥  pewekute24@yahoo.com
Facebook! ♥ http://facebook.com/mary.tran24
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HOPE THAT YOU'LL LIKE MY BLOG! LOVE YOU ALL! ♥