I AM BACK! (11/11/14)

HELLO, MARIAN'S EVERYDAY LIFE!

I have missed blogging so much! I am sorry for the month long hiatus. If you have forgotten why I left, I had final examinations. Yes, one month just for five rounds of exams. It was definitely worth the break though, I focused on dimensions other than my intellect; social, catching up on reading time, catching up on sleep, and getting my chores done.

I will personally write about each exam and what I thought about it in chronological order.

Science - First final! This was the most difficult since we (as in my classmates & I) had to fill in five booklets based on the topics we had studied during the year. The easiest booklet to complete was acids & alkalis since we had a test on it the same week.

Mathematics - Easier than I expected. I was studying the formula for the area & perimeter for the circle (π x diameter, or π x r^2), true bearings, and the difficult topics, but on the test it ended up to be simple questions like, "what is the sum of 768 + 3499?" It felt like I had wasted my time & effort on studying. The exam was easy as pi.

Religious Education - Definitely the easiest out of the five. It was open-book and I had all the notes for it, so I finished without hesitation in less than two hours. But the notes in my book didn't have the answers for the general knowledge questions.

English - In this exam there were two booklets. In one of them, we had to read different passages and complete the questions asked. The second booklet asked us to write a character description from the novels we studied about during the year. I wrote about (Oli)Via Pullman from 'Wonder' since she is my favourite book character ever. 

Social Studies (the final exam!) - This exam had four sections to it, and two of those sections were NZ current events and essay writing about change, cause, and consequence. I wrote about the American Indians and how the settlers took over the land. This exam was about 90% easier than I expected.


Exam preparation -

Preparing for the social studies essay section. Answering the
consequences question.

My 'learning wall' which features the topics
I have studied during the year.

My next post won't be published until the week after the next! That's when another hiatus starts, but don't worry, it's not as lengthy as the last. Just five days. I will be at year eight camp and electrical devices are banned except cameras. I promise to take photos during the week. See you soon!

-M.Y ❤ 

A new Letter to Electra will be published tomorrow on electraandmari.blogspot.com.

Child Marriage Needs to be Stopped (12/10/14)

Hello, Marian's Everyday Life!

Before I leave for one month I want to write as much as I can. The topic I will record will be pretty serious and suits my other blog better, but since I have recently posted something on there, I will write here instead.

Lately in the news I have read about this twelve-year-old named Thea planning to marry a man twenty-five years older in Oct. 11. As a girl who had been twelve-years-old not long ago I reacted to this shocking story with total disturbance. Girls as young as this age should not be forced to get wed until they're ready. When Oct. 11 (or 12 here in NZ) came I finally found out this was staged by Plan, an organization which fights for the universal rights of children. I've scanned through Thea's blog and by what Google translated, Thea thought she was going to have the best day of her life, but she still felt like nothing. Thea also mentioned that she had dreams of becoming a vet but there was no chance because the man she was planning to marry, Geir, is already rich. Which is better: having a well-planned career, or getting married at twelve to a wealthy man?

 Besides that situation and how I feel about it, I am ready for school!
Camp!
Getting to see friends again!
Exams — hold up, exams?

I'll see you once final examinations are done and dusted. Which is in one month. I'm going to miss you, Marian's Everyday Life!

-M.Y ❤ 

The 18th Birthday (4/10/14)

Welcome to MEDL!

I, along with two other friends, have hosted an 18th birthday debut this night. Even though I am tired and in desperate need of rest, I will write a blog post!

This whole 'hosting' sentiment was private and the only people who knew were the debutant's mother, the two girls and me. Throughout last week we have rehearsed our script and the three songs we were to perform: 'I Only Want to be With You' by Lodovica Comello, a solo sung by me; 'Treasure' by Bruno Mars; and 'Price Tag' by Jessie J, which was our opening song.

Flash forward to tonight. During the first song, 'Price Tag', hardly anybody was there so we all relaxed. As the second song came, which was 'Treasure', the audience laughed every time we pointed at the debutant as we sang the song title. And for the third song, my two friends danced behind me as I stood behind the microphone stand hardly able to move because of my dress and heels.

At the end of the eighteen roses, there was a father/daughter dance. Seeing my close friend dancing with her father/my not-related uncle nearly made me cry. Being a father to a new eighteen-year-old is exciting but scary. She's moving out of the house and she would never move back in (unless she is studying in a university in the same city and is still living at the house and not a dorm).

When the end of the debut came, people mentioned that they wanted us to perform again at a Christmas party. Maybe we could be future superstars and travel around the world if somebody discovers us...
That would be wondrous, but no thank you. I'd still like to pursue being an author and a psychologist or something related to the science field.

Thank you for reading this blog post! Bye.

-M.Y ❤

A Change in Me (21/09/14)

Bonsoir! (or whatever timezone you're in right now.)

I am back! Yesterday I auditioned for my school's musical of Beauty & the Beast. My audition was awkward because I had never done anything like this before, nor have I done a 'proper' one. The director, my vocals teacher, the drama teacher and pianist were there. I sang 'I See the Light' from Tangled and read a script from the musical for them. After I presented those two items they asked me to sing 'Happy Birthday' in different tones. By this point, I had no idea what was going on and why I had to sing two songs. Towards the end, my vocals teacher gave me a song which I had no clue about. It's titled, 'A Change in Me' and I have to sing it on the day when I get a callback*, which was today (Sunday). As I write I am listening to it. It is an appealing and beautiful song to listen to. Belle sings it when she talks to Maurice, her dad, about the beast (Scene 5, to be precise).

* 'Callback' means that you have been considered for a role in the play.

Today Sunday I had my dance audition. I had forgotten the choreography which we were taught on Friday, but luckily a few girls memorised and showed me how it goes. As I was talking to one of the girls Gwen had finished her dance audition. I didn't get to talk about how awkward I acted in my audition nonetheless still managed to receive a callback. I hope she had gotten a callback also. During the dance audition, I was out of sync & moved a little bit too gracefully. It wasn't as bad I had expected; I still had a smile on my face throughout the whole time. I bet the choreographer hates me now.

Oh my gosh. The director knows my name. I walked outside the gymnasium after my dance audition and she called, "Marian, let's go to the music suite for your callback."
She's aware that I exist! The director has directed a lot of musical and theatre productions. She's considered 'famous' now. A famous person knows my name! Eeek! (That was an 'eek!' of excitement, by the way.)

There was another girl in my year (grade) who also got a call back. We've hardly ever talked, but I know that she takes drama with my friend. In my callback audition I sang 'A Change in Me' in front of the choreographer, director, drama teacher and the pianist (who is also my vocals teacher) and I think I sang it too powerfully. I then read a piece of script as the narrator. The narrator is supposed to have a French accent. In my CV I put down, 'can fake an accent'. I lied without knowing.
They stopped me immediately. They knew that me being a narrator was not worth considering, and I felt the same way also.
Rule for directors seeking narrators: Never consider Marian Yao for the position, she cannot do a French accent.
After all of my auditions were done & dusted, I went back into the waiting room to grab my stuff. As I was about to leave, my R.E teacher from last year (her son was also called back) congratulated me and commented, "well done, Marian."
I left with a smile on my face and presented the news to my parents. Their reactions were lovely.
I hope whoever receives the title of Belle cherishes it and does well.

-M.Y❤

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My First Musical (4/9/14)

Hello people, it's me.

My school is having a musical and it's called 'Beauty & the Beast'. When I first saw the advertisement I thought, hey, why not put my music and drama skills to the test? I went to the drama teacher who is organizing the auditions and said, "May I please schedule an audition time?" and now I have something to freak out about. Gwen also scheduled an audition one hour after me. She mentioned she was nervous about singing since she hasn't experienced anything related to that, but she was absolutely fine with dancing and acting - they're her 'thangs'. For my audition songs I am planning to sing either 'On My Own' from Les Miserables or 'I See the Light' from Tangled. I am completely jittered and excited for this.

On a different note, I did a good deed yesterday; I had sent out cards that had compliments on them to my class. My classmates and teachers appreciated them and it made them happy, which meant that I was happy also. Handing out those cards made me feel well about the world. Am I turning into a hippie?

Thank you for reading this short blog post. I am feeling quite guilty and despondent for not posting enough on this blog. I have been busy with Electra and Marian and school. I hope you are contributing good things to the world! (Yep, I'm definitely feeling hippie-esque)

-M.Y ❤

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M.A.S.H (16/08/14)

Hello, Topplegigio!

It was the last day of Maori class and since Gwen and I finished all our work we played M.A.S.H.; the game that determines your future by your friend drawing a spiral, you deciding when she stops and her counting the lines. In our first game I chose to predict Gwen's future first. Her five chances of transportation were car, jet-pack, boat, surf board and carriage; homes R.V, haunted mansion, palace, box and public toilets; husbands Cedric, her current crush, my current crush (Ben Savage), Stuart and Darren; amount of kids 26, 12, 1, 3 and 101 (who the heck would give birth to 101 kids?). Her final results told us that her husband was Cedric, that she would have 3 children, that she lived in an R.V and she would go to places by car (what's the point of having a car when you have an R.V?).

Later on, Regina finally finished all her work and decided to join in all the fun. As the game continued future options got more outrageous with the chances of being married to teachers, having impossible amounts of kids (like 101 wasn't enough, right?) and living in a teepee.

Our next class option is music, and I'm really looking forward to answering the questions to what kind of music notes there are in the language. I have been told that as an assessment we have to perform a musical item in front of the whole class. Ever since term 1 I have been searching for the perfect song to sing. I'm currently considering  'On    My Own' from Les Misérables or 'Middle of Starting Over' by Sabrina Carpenter. I'm planning not 
to use any musical instruments because I find it difficult to strum the guitar while singing and 
having to sing my heart out. Let's see what the future brings us!

-M.Y ❤

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I feel as if the character Riley tells my life story. Is Michael Jacobs
stalking me?

Sick But Still Strong (29/07/14)

Today I woke up with a sore throat and spells of dizziness but I still forced myself to get to school because I had an English exam. How did I get on throughout the school day? Read furthermore to find out:

When I arrived at school today I started to regret my decision. Why would I go to school if I had a virus? But on the other hand, I considered my choice positively. At least I didn't miss out on an exam I had to pay a large amount of money for. Throughout the day I started to feel worse; my dizziness influenced me to faint, my throat forced me to hack saliva. Yes, mother, my day was as productive as yours.

Things suddenly calmed down before lunch, though. That was the time of the exam. I was so glad that I prevented myself from coughing. The setting around the classroom was very silent, so if I cracked that silence I'd be drop dead. The dizzy spells were strong in this time period. It caused me to gaze out of the window for a couple of minutes and distract me from my test. It also tried to make me think that this day wasn't real, and it's all just a dream...

Nevertheless, I am here at home trying my best to recover from my sick mood. Let's see if I need to become absent from school because the process of recovery is too long, or I'll be fine and have a better mood than today. Wish me luck! 

-M.Y ❤

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