Blog Summary 1

“Leisure is a state of mind, freely chosen that results intrinsic feelings of happiness, satisfaction, pleasure and/or enjoyment.”

Throughout my leisure, I noticed most of my leisure involves in active and passive leisure like watching the movie “The Four Feathers” or doing sports like playing hockey. Moreover, I came to noticed that some of my non leisure events are also involving in active leisure such as my rugby experience. After I reviewed my blogs several times, I came to understand that most of my leisure activities are involving self-determination, freely chosen from external factors which resulting self satisfaction. For instance, in one of my blog, I find hockey is a leisure for me because first, I chose to try-out to get into the hockey team and practice with team (freely chosen), second I always give my 100% in practice to improve myself (self-determination), third, by playing hockey it allowed me to realize my childhood dream like becoming Martin Brodeur (self-expression ) and finally I have a great time with teammate and proud of my achievement ( satisfaction). In addition, passive leisure also appeared a lot on my blog like studying bible or even going to class. The passive leisure like going to class or studying bible affected my state of my mind; they gave me relaxation and an internal happiness. For instance, I always motivated to go AHSC 350 class because I really like the course and my program, I really found the course enjoyable because we mix fun with learning and always left a smile on my face knowing that I had gained a new knowledge.

“Another aspect of leisure appreciation is acceptance of the idea that leisure does not require a special timeframe in which to occur and an understanding that leisure can be experienced whenever the opportunity presents itself during the normal course of the day.” by John Datillo

Even though I had experienced several leisure activities, some of my leisure activity is constrained by intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural constraints. For instance, my rugby experience, I was not able to enjoy this recreation because sometime I found this sport is boring; I tackled everyone down, and I never enjoyed getting hurt and force myself to play because I want to win a reward. This is not Flow because my skill is too high and my challenge is too low. I also experienced interpersonal constraints, for instance, in my last blog, I was really angry at myself because I was not able to attend my own training in downtown because I have to attend team tournament for my teammate and train with my teammate. I also constrained by structural, for instance, in my rugby blog, I wrote that there is no hockey team in Champlain therefore I was not able to play hockey. Although, several constraints prevented me from participating and enjoying the leisure activities, I was able to be flexible with my leisure. For instance, The Movie Night, even though there was raining during day, my father and I were not able to enjoy golf, I managed to find other events that I can enjoy. I do not need a special schedual or planning to find out, I simply aware other options; after I finished my school work, I walked downstair, I noticed that my father was watching a movie and the movie seemed very interesting to me thus I replaced the golf by movie.
The example of the movie night also showed how I value leisure. I never stopped doing leisure, I consistently aware different options that I have. For instance, besides spending my recreation time in hockey, I watched T.V show with my brother, I studied bible in Sunday’s morning and going to class. John Datillo said that we do not need a special time frame, we can enjoy leisure everywhere. For me, I never really have a plan for leisure, I just randomly pick a day for myself to do an event that I want to do and enjoy, but I always have a habit of having an hour or two for myself. However, I have a fix plan for my recreation like Ice hockey. In addition, if I do not enjoy an activity, I will pursue other leisure activities. For instance, after two years

“I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.”

After all the blogs that I wrote for a month, I gain knowledge about myself and educate myself through leisure.

I am so piss!

Le Gym, I Miss you

I am so piss, i am not able to go to the "le Gym" in Concordia downtown, I had been busy with school works and hockey. I love to train in the gym in Downtown in my own time, but I can't. Most training that I done is for my hockey training, and I had been gone away for tournament in Toronto last week and this week, I am going away again. So how the world I gonna have a time to do things that I want it to do. Studying and pratices, Oh! my god! I miss my old day. I miss le Gym, feel good after a hard work and see the beautiful unset in the city after the training.

Leisure Science poem

Fun Fun Fun
Discuss and listen
Playing and learning
We listen and laugh
No chemistry and physics
No mathematics and old man's lecture
No rocket science
We get to play outside
And learn how to be a world's leader
Lead the world to a better place
Where everyone is relieve from stress and troubles
We are all in one world
Where a world is not always about reality
We can create our own world
And free from our trouble
Step into our imagination
And we live with it

Hockey, is my leisure.

After all the complains about rugby, I finally can say about my favorite leisure which is hockey. A lot of hockey player may not see hockey as their leisure time, well I see it. There is never a constraint that bothers me from playing hockey. This year, I am made to Concordia stingers hockey team as third string goalie, and I love it. I don't know how happy I am and how grateful that God gives me this oppunity. I love this game, this sport and this leisure. I am always first in the locker room, excited to be on the ice. I had never miss any practice and games so far. I have choice, but i chose not. Always excited to be on the ice, and motivated to do well and give my 100%, and it's never a problem. By putting 100%, I know it gives my teammate a trust and satisfaction and I also improve my skills and reach my potential to be the best goalie. That's had always to be my dream, to be able playing on the ice and realized my dream. Every time i am on the ice, I feel that I am children again, playing with the joy and hope and not worry about anything, but all I know that I am going to be Martin Brodeur. Live in my dream and realize by playing it, it's the best feeling ever. Hockey gives me happiness, every time I am on the ice, I just feel joy no matter how hard it can get to be, and I always have a smile on my face. I love the entire dynamic of teamwork, everybody is caring for everyone and cheering for every one. After the practice, you can heard the laugher and every one makes every one laugh. One of my teammate asked me " Why you always laughing?" " are you crazy?" I turned and I simply told her " I am just very happy, I don't know why it makes me so happy, I just feel so happy to be here." First time in Stingers team had been taugh for me, not just pratice but not able to see my friends and my best friend Katie which she is currently in Université Montréal and studying in pharmacy. But none of these bother me. Even though, a lot of time I do feel a bit lonely in the team but it's never an issue for me. I do not feel interpersonal constraint can prevent me from playing this sport, I really love this sport and truly enjoy it. Purely chosen from my will, I can choose to quite for my friends but I never do, it's not because I don't love my friends because deeply I know I can't put friends with my passion.

Rugby! Two years leisure?

" Leisure is not win or lose, goals or no goal, medals or none medals, it's about pleasure"

While, let's say that today's class really gets me to think about my leisure hmmm. Sports have been my leisure for most of time. I had always been intrinsically motivated to play. freely chosen and got a sense of satisfaction like feeling of accomplishment no matter the results. I like many sports especially I love hockey, it's my passion. However, I had encountered an incident during my Cegep Years ( Champlain College) , I did a recreation activity that I did not really enjoy it. First time in my life, for years I had never dislike a sport, but now I do. As the professor Henle said that we cannot put an "activity" in leisure definition because there are people will not enjoy the same activities as we do. While, perfect example for this, my rugby experience. Through out my two years in Champlain college, my head got hit on the ground, I got big purple blues on my left eye, two legs got twisted and my stomach got hit by soccer cliques. Coaches refused pulled me out of the game when I was injured on the field. Is it plaisant? While for me. no. I was a winger and defense. That's not the position that I wanted to play, that had already ruined my fun. I was a really good player but I did not enjoy this sport. I mean, I don't see how we can have fun by throwing yourself into somebody else legs or bodies and being vulnerable to all kind of injuries no matter what you do ( no equipments and no helmets). So why I did it? Since Champlain did not have a hockey team, I decided to give a try for rugby, why not?. In the pass, people told me that I should try rugby but I was just too afraid. Without noticing, it did not turn as well as I thought. I was a good player but I just disagree with this sport. Some of my teammate kept telling us how fun is and how she was so into this sport. One girl even told me " Oh man! I am so into rugby, O i love Rugby and I will play rugby in university." Once, I even saw a girl weared a t-shirt saying " I love Rugby." Sometime, I told myself next time I should wear " I love hockey," on rugby field. Man, I just don't feel same way as they are. Rugby is a special experience because first, I never played before and second I just want go with the ball and score. I never played with ball since I am goaltender for hockey and I had been in the net for very long. Go with wind to score, sounds interesting. However, again, it did not turn as well as i thought. During my second year of my cegep, I got my first goal against marianopolos, I was so excited, I jumped and waved my arms. However, all I have is a " high five," for one second, then kept on playing. Wow?!Even though we did won against marianopolos, big victory, but I did not feel good about myself and my existence seem doesn't matter to the team. My coach told me that in rugby you are not suppose to celebrate no matter what, it's not like hockey or soccer. After this experience, nah, I am not going back for another four years. By the way, sometime my position is boring, I tackled down that came to my way, and there's no challenge anymore. Boring!

Golf adventure!

Wow! what a shinny day! Today, I took a golf class in Candiac. The golf course was windy and hot. As always, my coach was always first in the golf course. After the entire morning that I dedicated to the reading for my psychology class, I finally can get my new blue golf equipment and go play some golf! Golf is a relax sport for me, when I am not playing hockey, golf helps me to take my mind off from school's pressure and enjoy the nice weather. I was quite excited to start golf class again. Coach came to me and told me " Fu-Chen, we will start with raquet number 5" At begining, I screwed up my swing by hitting too close or sometime I missed my swing. My coach is a PGH professional golf coach; by looking at your swing once, he can know right away where is your mistake. He told me that I should not moved my hip after my swing and keep my arm straight. As I swinged, I felt my energy started to rise and my hip just naturally move soflty like a wing, as I hit the ball, I can heard a "click" The next moment I saw my ball flied about 100 miles. As I got more practice, I started to feel much more comfortable with my raquet. As I swang more, I started to get a grip on, my swings started to get further,my furthest with the number 5 was about 120 miles. Then I switched to wood ( the biggest raquet which is 1). With this long raquet, I felt my body was much more balanced; as I lifted my long arms, then I hitted with my arm force, I saw my ball flied high then landed about 200 miles into the field. I was so proud with this shot and I enjoyed my freetime in this nice weather. Golf had made me felt confident on my athletic ability and felt as very much "hockey player."And my coach always told me " Do you know the fun thing about golf? People love to play golf and golf makes people happy because each time you hit, people will applause you no matter what" He always repeated this phrase, at begining, I did not know why he kept mentioning about this phrase, I don't know what he met, but until I started to read the " Leisure Education Program Planning" AH! I finally got it !

Monday's Training in the rain! Is it leisure?

Oh man! Before the training, I did not feel to go training and I was not all motivated. Then, one of my teammate came in and told us that our training coach was going to work on our cardio. In the locker room, i was sitting alone in little corner and looked very stunt and I told myself " Oh no! this is going to be a nasty training today." At the begining of the training, we ran six labs. It was shining, I told myself is not too bad. Until, we started to do the jumping and lunges exercises, the rain started to pour like crazy. I was really exhausted after an hour of jumping then speed running without stopping; for the bonus my t- shirt and shirt were wet. I was breathing so hard, I was feeling my heart was beating and I was feeling that I was going to die of exhaustion. I was soufficating and in that moment I was feeling that I wanted to quite right way. However, despite my aspiration and determination that I done all year long, I told myslef " I cannot quite, I will do it for the love of hockey even though I hate this training" The rain was still pouring and we finished the training by raining six more labs. The rain was becoming stronger and stronger, I could not see anything, only the color of shirts. On my fifih finally on my fifth lab, my assistant coach finally told us " Girls, last lab, keep it up!" You don't know how happy after I heard this. On my last lab, I started to exalerate my speed to 80% then to 100% to finish this painful training. O lalalala, rain then exhaustion! What a day!

Bible Study in St-Hubert

"I cried to him with my mouth,
And he was extolled with my tongue.
Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer
Nor His lovingkindness from me"
by Psalm 68; 17, 20.

Today, I went to the Jehova meeting in St-Hubert, and as always, I was always the first one who made it there. Before every meeting, I always get to know different people and meet new friends. Nobody is discriminating one and another, every one is opened minded and different ages and nationalities are all presented in this meeting. I met so much people from all over the world and from very young to old ages. Today, I met a man called "Ivon," he is electricity engineer and he is 40 years old. He talked about how his work functions and what his work about it. We talked about politics about new re-election is coming up. Each one of us interacting very openly, I had never received any negative remarks from him. Each one of us had listened to each other attentively. After this conversation, I felt really proud of myself and I found that my knowledge about the politics were not after all bad. Then I met a wonderful lady called Shana. She is about 60 years old, she is so funny because it took a while for her to spell my name.She often called me "Fu Lam." Today's bible study is about the Jehova witnesses go to door to door and their experience s. The fascinating issues about this discussion is the determination of these witnesses. During Roman time, the witnesses of Israel went to door to door and tried to spread the words of God. Even the Roman government threatened to stop by sending armies, they never gave up on God. Until now, it is amazing to know how the witnesses still doing the samething , they preached door to door , explaining and respond the questions of people. In 1920, there were only 25% of people were studying Bible in the United State, but now the percentage is twice more. The study not only taught me to have a faith in God but also have a faith in anything that you do and believe. Never give up on them because a person or a problem that are trying to stop you, keep on going and never loose faith on you. As I get close to God, I feel comfort and my wisdom increases every time ı attend to this meeting. It's not just bring peace to my mind but also it helps me to guide through my life. To know someone is beside you and love you, you never feel that you are alone. I strongly believe in God and I believe he knows my pain and difficulties. Now, I have so much worries and problems, but each time, I called his name, I know he is listening. My determination is like the action of the witnesses in Israel, and he will be there from storm to shining day. I know he will bring light to my life once again.

The Movie Night!

Hi everyone!
Today, I supposed to play golf with my father, despite the raining day happened in the late afternoon, therefore we canceled the activity. However, after hours and hours of doing school reading, my father and I watched the movie called "The Four Feathers movie." It is a war and romantic movie. Half of time, I felt that my tears were going to drop and half time I felt a lot excitement. As my leisure time, beside doing sports, I like to watch excited movies like horror or war movies. They help me to leave my mind out of school and enjoy my free time. Usually, after I watched the movies, my brain is fresh and relaxed. Laughing, crying or enjoying release my daily stress. My family values harmony and respect for each other. By watching the movie with my father, it strengths my relationship between my father and I, and I can spend some time with my father which we don't do it often. Often, my father is away for work or doing travel for work, I rarely doing an activity with my father, but the movies reunited my father and me. My father and I share a lot common characteristics, and I can learn a lot from father by interacting with him and asking questions about the movies. We really like to watch historical movies, my father is really good at history so do I, and I was able to gain a lot of new knowledge which I did not learn in school. What a afternoon! After all, it is as good as playing golf in the golf course :) .

Hockey Training!

What a nice day today! There were not too much wind and the sun shines right to your face. Hockey is my favour sport and I really like to play during my free time. I enjoyed a lot, especially outdoor hockey during winter where every one is laughing and chasing each other. No one is left out from the team and every one is enjoying. Well the best part about hockey is that I really like the teamwork where everyone is helping each other and we all go through challenge together. In addition, I like challenge because I will never feel bore and I consistenly challenge myself to become a better player. After I finished play hockey, I felt good about myself because I felt that I achieved my goal and what i need to improve for instance, before I had trouble with butterfly slide and now I can slide like a wind without hurting myself; feel good :). Like today, I was having a pre-season training session with the stingers, I did 12 times bench press for 95 pounds! What an improvement! Last year, I could not even do one and now I can do 12 times! After the bench press exercise, I told myself that I could had done better because I thought that I could not do anymore therefore I stopped at 12. However, the positive side is that I achieved my goal for this year. My goal for this year was to be able to lift 95 pounds, so along year plus this summer, I spend an hour to two hours in the gym on my cardio and muscle. One thing that I noticed that helps me to achieve my goal was determination. I was very determinant after disappointing start but I was able to bring myself back from the dark to light. I am very happy and proud of myself. Despite, my B test (the endurance test) did not turn well as I thought could be but it is still good because I did not understand the instruction very well. Well now, apparently, I have to work on my cardio with my assistant coach, and it would be much more harder and sweat. I know that I can do more than it was now, but one thing that I learned from this exercise is never feel afraid to express yourself and if you have a problem for a situation or an issue, please ask someone to help you, never stay in your little bubble and expect to be solved. YOU HAVE A PROBLEM? solution: ASK.

Big Brother Baby Activity You Tube

Hi Everyone!
Apparently, I cannot download the Episode of Big Brother in my blog, however, I have a website address that you can go on if you interest to watch. It would be very funny!
The Web address:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=D_GL-tKXPvw
Take a look!

September 2

Hi everyone! Today's evening, after supper, my brother and I watched our favor show called "Reba." It is a family show. My brother and I love this show because we find this show shows a lot of harmony among family members and every one in this family express their feelings and thoughts by using sense of humor. Most time, my brother and I do not see other a lot, however, every time, we watched this show, it helped us to feel integrated and it enriched our relationship. We all laughed together, and we got a chance to talk with each other which we had not done for so long. It was really a great time. When I have a free time, I like to play Ice hockey, table tennis, soccer, and going to gym. My brother likes to spend time playing computer and hang around with friends.
Therefore, we find a way to spend 'brother and sister' time by watching our favor. Even though, my brother and I do not have a lot of common personalities with each other, we all love the same show. This allows us to enjoy and feel no barrier to hang around with each other. Not just Reba show that we like, we also love to watch Big Brother 10 and Family Guy. My favor character is "Stewee" he always makes me laugh and makes me feel happy when I have a bad day. By wacthing family shows, my brother and I spend a good quality time together because we all get to talk with each other and share our humor. The most fun part is that when we were watching the show called Big Brother 10, often we saw a lot of funny activity like Baby activity. The "Baby Activity" is about mixing different participants' facial characteristics into one baby face. For example, there is one baby has a participant's bold and another participant's big blue eyes, and one of the participant has to label with correct combination by labeling correct participants names. I have the "YouTube" that you can watch about the "Baby Activity," it will be attached with my post. Take a look! Tell me about it. My brother and I really enjoy this part and we would like to share with you. Enjoy!