​Peng's Family
Lucinda Peng
January 2008
Happy 2008! The Year of Rat.
Hello everyone! In the past year we took many trips and made a big move. The following are stories about our trips and about our move. We'll tell you one by one, starting with Lucinda's story.
Lucinda's Story
This is Lucinda. I am now eleven years old (I’m going to be 12 really soon) and in 6th grade at Lincoln Middle School. In the past year, my family did many things, and traveled to many places. We even moved to Florida! That’s why I am at Lincoln, sadly, not Glen Hills Middle School.
Places We Visited
We traveled to many places in the past year, including Washington D.C., Michigan, Florida, and China. After we moved to Florida we also went to Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World, and Cedar Keys.
Washington D.C
It was the first time for Naomi and me to go to Washington D.C. We stayed there for four days. There we saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, the Museum of Natural History, the Sculpture Garden, and many other places.
In the Museum of Natural History we saw all kinds of fossils, and copies of animals. The minute we got inside, I saw the T-Rex fossil, and I knew that it was the one from the movie, Night at the Museum, which I saw with one of my best friends, Aleksandra. I wanted to see if this was the same museum as the one in the movie, and it looked exactly the same.
In the Sculpture Garden, we saw many famous sculptors?work. The sculptures had many weird designs. In the Sculpture Garden there were many trees and shrubs, one tree was called the Wishing Tree, and it had many slips of paper on it, just dangling off. On the papers, were some people’s wishes! We saw plenty of things in Washington D.C.

Cherry Blossom at Washington DC, March 2007
Lucinda in front of the Capitol Building, March 2007
We didn’t get to go into the White House because you would have had to get permission almost half a year in advance. The view of the White House wasn’t that clear because of so many fences and security things, but when my parents and grandparents came, it was not surrounded by that tight security, and it was good-looking. The Washington Monument we didn’t get into either, but we were able to play around it for a while. On one side of the Washington Monument there was a really warm steam vent, and Naomi, and I ran into the smoke coming out of it. Surrounding the Washington Monument there are eighteen American Flags, (Naomi and I counted them when we were playing).
Finally, we were able to go into a building, the Capitol Building. Inside there were many statues, they were mainly of Presidents and important figures from different states, which got moved around once every month or so. Guess which state’s capital building is the only one that is only a bit smaller than the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.? It’s Wisconsin’s Capital Building! In the Capitol Building there were mosaics everywhere. The Capitol Building was so big that it felt like you could have a million people stay there!
It was really fun seeing the monuments, and other things that I read from the books.
In front of the White House
Inside the Capitol
Munising, Michigan
We went camping for five days in Munising, Michigan in the summer. There we went to Picture Rocks and the sand dunes, and did many other activities. When we went to Michigan my dad did not come with us because he was in China, instead we went with our Chinese friends, the only one my age was my best friend from Chinese School, Diane. We camped right by Lake Michigan, so every morning when woke up, there was the background sound of the lake’s waves lapping the sandy beach. In the afternoon, when it was not too cold and not too hot, all the kids went swimming. We even washed our hair in the lake! The bubbles floating around in the water looked like there were millions of fish under us, blowing bubbles. We went on a cruise to see the colorful cliffs, right on Lake Michigan, which is how I think Picture Rocks got its name, because the rocks are so colorful and so beautiful, people want to take many pictures of them.
At the sand dunes, Diane, Naomi, Ben and his friend, and I raced to get from the car to the place where we could start sliding down. When you went down the sand dunes, you sort of slide and slip, if you have ever gone downhill skiing before, it’s like that, except instead of having to stop yourself from going too fast, the sand does that for you. Once we went up and down several times, we started jumping down from parts that stuck out a bit, and then we slid the rest of the way down. At the bottom of the sand dune, a nice, cool Lake Michigan was waiting for you to splash and play in. We played at the bottom for a while, and then went to a steeper and bigger sand dune. At this sand dune we went down once, and then played down there for a while, we even found a spring that was freezing cold! It felt like it just melted from snow and ice to the water that was bubbling out of the sand. The spring made the rocks underneath look so pretty and cute. After dinner, we made a huge fire and roasted marshmallows for s’mores and sometimes we even melted the chocolate onto the marshmallows! After a while, we also roasted corn and other things as well.
We went hiking on some nature trails. We saw birds, lots of trees, and some waterfalls. The constant flowing of the river that was right next to us gave me a calm feeling when I listened closely to hear its every move. Later that day the teenagers, Diane, and I went kayaking down a river. After we pushed off Diane said that she knew that Ben would sometime fall out of his kayak. Not five minutes after she said that, Ben tried to stand in the kayak, and he fell overboard. The person renting us the kayaks told us that the river had a really slow current, and was about two feet deep. When Ben fell off, he said that he couldn't get back into his kayak, because the water was too deep. Now, let's think... The person said that the river was two feet, ya right! The rest of the way was without another mishap from Ben, but his friend, Jerry, fell off too! The only difference was that Jerry got right back in, because the water was shallower than when Ben fell in.
In Michigan we had tons of fun. I had a really good time hanging out with Diane, Naomi, and my Mom.
Lucinda and Diane kayaking, July 2007
Lucinda, Naomi and Diane at the mini Sand Dune, July 2007
Florida
My dad got a job offer from the University of Florida in May. So we came to Florida to look at the city and look for a new house. It wasn’t as much fun as the other times we came to Florida, but we still had fun claiming bedrooms, for “if we bought this house? and our realtor, Jean, is nice. But we just didn’t do anything really exciting, like go to Disney World or something like that. All we did was look at houses, end of story.
Typhoon Lagoon
After we moved to Florida, on one long weekend, my dad had a meeting in Orlando. So after school let out, my mom drove us to Orlando. After we went to the meeting spot, we ate lots of desserts, even though we didn’t eat dinner yet... There was a huge chocolate fountain which Naomi and I dipped our strawberries into. It tasted really good! After a while Naomi, Mom, Dad, and I went to Downtown Disney to have dinner. The next day we went to Typhoon Lagoon, but my dad forgot to bring his swimsuit, he has a tendency to do so, so now he has a whole collection of swimsuits at home. After we bought Dad a swimsuit, we headed to the water park. We had a really good time going on a particular slide, but Naomi wasn’t tall enough to go on it, so she didn’t know what it’s like. She just stayed at the Wave Pool. We had a really good time at Typhoon Lagoon.
Cedar Keys
After moving to Gainesville, we went to Cedar Keys, Florida, which is a small town on the gulf coast.? The long drive there was well worth it.?When we were close to the town, the view was so beautiful! ?/span>There were all sorts of plants, birds, and lots of snowy white sand.?The birds were really noisy sometimes, but other times, when they were sleeping, or doing something else besides squawking as loud as possible, they were as quiet as mice! ?/span>The water lazily lapping the shore made me feel so calm and relaxed.?In the parts of the lake that were close to shore, there were islands for sale.?Some even had houses on them!?I wish we could have a house there, but then there might be alligators, and mosquitoes in the summer time, and we would have to take a boat to our house, which would not be convenient.
After a really good lunch, we headed toward the beach.?When we got there, we saw the pretty white beach and then we noticed a playground not too far from the beach, so we played there first. ?/span>When we got tired of the playground, we played at the water’s edge.?We were dodging in and out of the crashing waves, when we found two tops of jellyfish, and many shells. The jellyfish were squishy, so now I know why Dory, from “Finding Nemo?called the baby jellyfish the name of Squishy, because they are actually squishy! ?/span>When we caught the jellyfish out of the water’s reach, it reminded me of last year, when we went to Tampa Bay, and found the jellyfish, and puffer fish. ?/span>Only this time, we were not as scared as last time, because this time we knew that the jellyfish would not hurt us, since it was lifeless?
Trip to China
We went to China, it was winter this time, not summer, and now I definitely know which one I prefer. It’s so hot during the summer, I feel like I’m in an oven every time I step outside, while in winter, I can just wear my puffy, squishy winter jacket, and I’m fine! If you haven’t noticed, I’m more afraid of the hot than cold, I like the crisp little bite in the air. To me, since I grew up in Wisconsin, it’s normal in the winter, and it keeps me awake, and it refreshes my mind. During the winter in China, the air doesn’t bite as much as in Wisconsin. Instead of a freezing cold, it’s more of a warm cold.
This time in China, we just went to Zhengzhou, to visit my large family. My grandma, grandpa, my 3 aunts, 3 uncles, and 3 cousins on my Mom side were all there. It was fun play with them. On our second night there, it was my aunt’s (my mom’s oldest sister) birthday, so we went to a very fancy restaurant with my big family, and some of my aunt’s close friends. In China, the restaurants are a whole lot better than the ones here in the U.S., there are waitresses and waiters everywhere, that once you eat whatever you put on your plate, they take that plate away, and give you a new one, and even if you don’t want anymore of something, they’ll give you a new plate. It’s very different from here in the U.S.
The big family, December 2007
At Aunt's new house, Jan. 2008
During the time we spent at Zhengzhou, we visited neighboring cities to sightsee. We went to Kaifeng, one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China, which was the capital of seven dynasties. We visited Xiangguo Temple, I was amazed by the Song Dynasty bronze Buddha and a ten foot high gold covered statue of the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. We went to a folk-fair park called Qingming Shang He Tu, there we could have spent the whole day just watching the shows, and playing around. We also went to Longmen Shiku (Dragon Door Grottoes), in Feng Xia, which is a place where the ancient Chinese people carved many Buddha into the cliffs, the largest of these statues is 17 meters tall, and the tiniest less than 2 cm, sort of like people carved some past presidents?figures into Mount Rushmore. Except at Longmen Shiku, there are a lot more carvings than those on Mount Rushmore. There are more than 1300 grottoes. My grandparents even climbed up with us to the biggest grottoes!
On the last night we were at China, we celebrated my grandma’s birthday early. We ate dinner at another very fancy restaurant. I liked this one better, and since we had gone there before we got two of everything that everyone liked. In China, the drinks are very different, like they have the same kinds of sodas, but there is watermelon juice, peach juice, and almost any other fruit that you can think of. My favorites are watermelon juice and peach juice.
China is so big of a country, that every time I go there, I will never feel bored because there is so much more to see. Even if there wasn’t anything else to do, I still have my big family there, and I can always have fun with them. I can practice my Chinese by just talking to them. Sometimes, I even teach them English, so now everyone knows yes, no, good evening, and good morning. I love going to China!
Guess what were we doing? Riding a cart pulled by a goat! Jan. 2008
Blowing amazing candy animals, Jan. 2007
Our Move
We moved from Glendale, WI to Gainesville, Florida on August 18th, 2007 (which is two days before school starts here, in Florida). At first I missed my old friends a lot, but now I have new friends, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still miss my old friends in Wisconsin, it’s just that I don’t think about, what they’re doing, and things like that all the time. In Florida the winter, isn’t winter. It is almost like Wisconsin’s spring or even summer all the time. I feel like it is summer, not winter all the time. It’s a lot different in Florida, but new places just take some getting used to. I love it now.
It’s been a very busy year, lots of traveling. I guess you could say that it was even a bit hectic, but no matter if it was a sad year or whatever kind of year, there are always good friends to help us through the hard times, and celebrate the good times. While we all have new, good friends, they will never replace the ones we left behind in Wisconsin, and the ones in Wisconsin will not be the same as the ones here, in Florida. I’m just glad that the New Year is here, and the stress associated with move that was built up in the past year, hopefully I can just let some of it go. Just enjoy life while you can! Be happy!
Just a note to those in Wisconsin, I miss you guys a whole lot! I’ll never forget all the times we’ve had together. The good news is that we’ll be coming to Wisconsin this summer, so I’ll see you then!
Naomi and Lucinda playing at the Cedar Key, Oct. 2007
Naomi at Cedar Key, FL, October 2007