Peng's Family
Lucinda Peng
Hello Everyone!
We’ve had a busy year, full of excitement, fun, and happy times. I’m in 8th grade at Lincoln Middle School. I still play violin with my teacher Kim Chalmers, and this year I got into the Alachua County Youth Orchestra. In the past year, we went to China, Hong Kong, and the Florida beaches. I got a very exciting, wonderful visit from one of my best friends in Wisconsin, Aleksandra, in the spring. Over the summer I went to Camp Crystal for a week. There were lots of places traveled to, many people I got to see, and all that made it a great year. Just this past week, before the end of the year, my family and some friends went skiing together mainly because I hadn’t seen snow in two years and missed it terribly. On the way home, we spent a night in Atlanta, GA.
In China, we went to many different places; Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zheng Zhou, Xi Xia, and Beijing. We traveled to various places, visited lots of friends of my parents, and stayed with relatives. We had tons of fun.
Lucinda’s Stories
This year, I am in 7th grade at Lincoln Middle School. I play the violin in the school orchestra, and I have a private teacher Ms. Kim Chalmers as well. I started to learn tennis this past summer. In this past year, I did many fun and exciting things. I traveled twice without my parents this year, once to Atlanta, Georgia, and the other to Orlando, Florida with the orchestra of Lincoln Middle School. In addition, I also went to Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fort Lauderdale, and other places in Florida with my family.
Orlando, Florida
I went to Orlando, Florida in early spring for Orchestra. Since I was just going with my friends, I knew that I was going to enjoy myself that day. Around 6:00 AM, my daddy dropped me off at Lincoln Middle School and I got on the bus to go to Orlando, FL.
Lucinda playing violin with orchestra
Atlanta, Georgia
At 8:30 AM, we arrived at the place we were going to perform at. When we finally were let out of the bus, my legs were stiff from being squished on the school bus on the way there. We had to wait a little bit before we played, so we talked about where we could shop, and other unimportant things. Finally it was time to play our pieces. We played very well, it sounded a lot better than when we played at school. According to my teacher, we didn’t sound like dead fish. We played with a lot of energy. I was just happy that I didn’t have to go to Chinese School that day.
Right after we finished playing we went to the mall for a quick lunch, and then shopped a very little. I did not buy anything that day because we were rushed to get back home before 6:00 PM and we had to go with a chaperone in huge groups. On the way to and from Orlando, I called my friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time, like my friends in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I went to Atlanta, Georgia with the band and orchestra in the spring. We stayed there for five nights. Everyone got to share a room with three other friends (not necessarily friends, but since we, the kids, picked the groups most likely we stayed with at least one person that you knew and liked). I shared a room with my best friends, Stephanie, Vivian, and Yuxin. We entertained ourselves by painting our nails, playing, and stuffing Yuxin’s hair full of conditioner (don’t ask why, but just so you know, we enjoyed ourselves greatly). We also played in the pool and went shopping at the mall, but this time we actually were planning to buy things, not running around for ten minutes like in Orlando. Since we had time, I actually bought two shirts from Hollister. Since we were in Atlanta for three days, we spent one day playing for the competition, and the other two for traveling there and back, and having fun, like shopping, and playing at the hotel.
Our orchestra team played really well, and we got a score of five out of five. Then we had to sight-read a piece. Our score on that was only okay; we got four out of five. Since we played three prepared pieces and one sight-read piece, we got an average score of Superior, which is equivalent to a five out of five. After we packed up our instruments, we had to listen to the other Orchestras play. We didn’t know what we were waiting for, until the last orchestra played, and then the award ceremony came. Before that, most of us were thinking, this is so boring, let’s go, we’re bored to death. Then we heard that we got third place (I think), and we were really excited, but it was really just because we were free to go. We went to the mall for dinner and then headed back to the hotel to change out of our concert clothing. Later that night we swam in the pool (inside and outside) and just relaxed. I was glad that we were there, in Atlanta, because that’s where I was born. But I had no memory of what the city looked like, because I moved when I was a half year old. When we went there for our competition, I liked being able to see the city that I was born in; it was big, but there was not as much traffic as I had imagined, maybe we were just lucky those few days.
Melbourne, Florida
We went to violin camp from July 29th to August 1, 2008 at Melbourne, Florida. I learned a lot of things, and had tons of fun with my friends there. We stayed at a hotel that was right on the beach, so each morning, you could wake up and see the ocean waves crashing onto the shore. After the class was over, I went out to the beach or pool to play and swim with Christina and Kathryn. Before or after going to play we had to practice though.
I learned a lot of things from my teachers there. I learned that the difference between playing and practicing is, when you practice a piece, you are looking for things to fix, but when you are playing a piece, you just play from the beginning to the end without fixing any mistakes. When you break the hard part down, it makes it easier. If you find that you are having trouble with one thing, like shifting, just practice the shift.
When you shift, your elbow leads, and your thumb has to go with your hand, it can’t follow your hand. Your shift has to be in one smooth motion, and you need to have really good posture. Good posture is when your violin is high on your shoulder, and you aren’t slouching. Your thumb should be relaxed. You can’t be holding your violin up with your hand; your head and shoulder should be doing that. By holding your violin up with your head and shoulder, you can do vibrato and shift easier.
A good bow hold is very important. You need to curve your fingers, and be able to hold your bow with only your thumb and middle two fingers.
On the last day there, we had a recital for the parents. I played in the Advanced Orchestra. We played Fantasia Espanola, Adoration, and Divertimento. Fantasia Espanola is a Spanish dance. It had a lot of tempo changes. Adoration is a slower piece than Fantasia Espanola. It’s a really beautiful piece. Divertimento was my favorite. It was fast, and light.
One night we went back to the hotel, and went for a walk on the beach. On our way out, we met up with Chanti, her mom, Christina, Manny, their cousin, mom, Claire, and John. We walked by the ocean for a while before turning back. We had found glowing algae, an abandoned turtle nest, and saw two shooting stars/ falling comets (I wish I were on them). I’ve never seen a falling comet/ shooting star before, so it was really exciting to finally see ones. Before I saw them, I thought that they were imaginary things that would never exist. When we were halfway back to the hotel, Chanti, Manny, and I had a race. We ran back to where everyone else was to see that they had found a turtle. It was huge, probably longer than Naomi, my sister! It had made a nest, and was probably laying eggs by the time we got there. Before tuning around, the turtle hadn’t been there, so we were really lucky to have seen it. Our trip to Melbourne was very fun. I really enjoyed being there.
I really enjoyed going to Melbourne, FL. Not only did I have a good time spent with my friends from violin, I also learned many new things on the violin. I played on the beach, enjoying the sunshine, warm waves, and boogie boarding. The trip to Melbourne, FL was very educational, but still fun.
Lucinda and Kathryn at Melbourne, FL
Advanced Orchestra Camp at Melbourne, FL
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
In July we did a lot of things with friends. We visited our friends in Wisconsin and had some friends come here. It was very fun here in Florida, and up there in Wisconsin. I had been waiting for this time to come, I finally was able to have fun, and play with them again! We did lots of cool things with them, for example, camping in a friend’s backyard with lots of other friends is not something that happened everyday. I really enjoyed being there, and if you were like me, you would have, too!
On July 4th, 2008, Molly, Randy, and Kathy McCready, came to visit us from Wisconsin (it wasn’t just to visit us, it was for a meeting in Orlando, FL. It was nice to see them again after moving to Florida last year in August. Naomi is going into 4th grade, and Molly is going into 2nd grade, but Molly is taller than Naomi! It’s really amazing how stuff like that turns out, isn’t it?
Naomi, Mom, and I walked down the block towards the entrance of our subdivision to lead them to our house, but their car met us half way there. Naomi and I ran back to our house as fast as we could (which isn’t very fast compared to a car). I ran quickly inside to wake up my sleeping Dad. My dad was asleep because he had just returned from China, so he still had a little jetlag. I ran back into the house, and yelled, “Daddy, wake up! Daddy, wake up!” Just as they walked into the house, I got my dad awake. I was very excited to see Molly, Kathy, and Randy. I didn’t care in the least bit that it was 10:30 p.m., because Molly, Naomi, and I went to bed that night at 12 midnight! Before we went to bed that night, we dressed up in Chinese dresses, ate cake, played, and took lots of pictures.
The next day we had homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast, and then went to the Ichetucknee springs park, a spring where you can go tubing or canoeing in. We went tubing down the spring, it was very enjoyable. There wasn’t much wildlife to be seen that day, because there were so many people. We would get stuck really easily, so I swam around and helped move things along between our three tubes. There were many dead trees that fell into the spring, so in some parts it would be like trying to get through a very crowded maze with a current pulling you forward. The current wasn’t very strong, but in some places it was strong enough to not let you swim against it. We splashed each other, goofed around, and had an awesome time there. When we got to the end, we had a late lunch, and then went to the University of Florida, where my dad works. For Naomi, Molly, and me, it was pretty boring to do that, but on the way home Kathy, Molly, Naomi, and I (my mom didn’t even go to the Ichetucknee springs park with us) stopped by at CVS, and Molly got the same kind of headbands that Naomi and I have, and a “squishy” brush (the handle was squishy) like Naomi. We then walked home (since my dad and Randy went home after they dropped us off), and had a wonderful dinner that my mom had made. After dinner we went for a quick swim, and then Molly, Randy, and Kathy left for Orlando. We would be leaving for Orlando the next day, too!
We went to Orlando on July 6, 2008 and stayed there overnight so we wouldn’t miss our early flight to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The ride to Orlando, Florida seemed to pass by in no time at all because I was busy thinking and planning about all the fun things that I would do once we landed in Wisconsin. When we arrived in Orlando, we found our hotel easily, and went to bed. Our hotel room was large, and comfortable. It actually had three rooms, the living room/kitchen, the bedroom, and the bathroom (duh!). The next morning we woke up by a wake-up call at 5:30 a.m.! Then we went downstairs to have breakfast. For breakfast I had a doughnut, orange juice, sausages, eggs, potatoes, a bagel and some fruit. It was very yummy, but my stomach had too many butterflies in it; I was very excited for the plane to land even though we weren’t at the airport yet, I wanted to see my friends that badly. After breakfast, we left for the airport. I was really excited.
We arrived at the Milwaukee airport around 9:45 a.m. central time. From there I called Natalia Gess, my friend from when we were in UWM Daycare together. We rented a car, and went to Natalia’s house since she was the only one of my friends that didn’t go to Summer Academy (glare, glare). I hadn’t seen Natalia for about 7 years, so we talked about what had happened over the time that we hadn’t seen each other. Then we played with her dog, Buddy, and went on the computer. We played the game Sorry, right before lunch. Then I had to leave for Rachel and Alex Heuer’s house.
At Rachel and Alex’s house we kept our tradition going (every time I go to their house, I get soaked). The tradition started by coincidence, but then it became our tradition. This time they sprayed me with their mister for their pet birds who are named after two people from the Beatles. After playing around with their birds for a while, we ran over to Laura Bahn’s house since she lives in their neighborhood. We spent around ten minutes banging on her door screaming for her to come out, and unlock the door for us. We finally decided that she was at her dad’s restaurant, Royal Wok, working. On our way back to Rachel and Alex’s house, Laura came back. We saw her car passing by, and we ran back to meet her. With Laura with us now, we went back to Rachel and Alex’s house to play. We talked, and played on their swing set.
After we got bored, we ran as fast as we could to Laura’s house to play there. We had to bang on the door and wait for a few minutes while Laura’s brother, Alan, spent his time taunting us, and then finally let us in. At Laura’s house we played Pachellbel Canon together with her three pianos, and a violin. Alex got bored of waiting for us to finish, so she ran back to her house and got her viola so she could play with us. It was pretty, except we weren’t all in the same key, so it sounded sort of awkward. After playing Canon we went down to Laura’s basement to play a game called monster. Monster is a game just like freeze tag, but the monster person always has a disadvantage, like they only can hop on one foot, or they can’t open their eyes, etc. Another difference is when you play monster you don’t get frozen, you get a life taken away (you started with three lives), when you loose all three lives you basically die, or become the monster’s servant and have to help the monster tag other people. When we got bored of playing that by ourselves, we persuaded Alan to join us and be the monster. Alan had been playing Runescape, and after we went up for a rest, he went right back playing. We again persuaded him to play with us. Then we went upstairs for a snack. We had these peanut butter and chocolate sort of thing. It was extremely good. After that, we walked back to Rachel and Alex’s house. Naomi was going to go to Emma Anderson’s house, so we went to check if my mom had arrived to pick her up yet. After Naomi left, we went back to Laura’s house. At Laura’s house we played monster a little while longer, and then Laura and I said good-bye to Rachel and Alex, and went to Jeni Hansen’s dad’s house to spend the night, Laura only stayed until around 8 p.m.
At Jeni’s dad’s house, Alyssa Eidenburger met us there. I was very glad that she was there too. We went upstairs to Jeni’s room and talked for a while, as we sprayed sour spray candy into our mouths. We took some pictures of us being silly. Then my mom took us out to Noodles and Company to eat dinner. When we finished Alyssa had to go to her violin lesson, so back at Jeni’s house it was only Jeni, Laura, and me. We biked around the block for a little while and Laura had to go home. Jeni and I each took a quick shower, and went to watch a movie in her dad’s room, but when we had just started the movie, Jeni’s grandpa came in to go to bed. So Jeni and I went downstairs to watch something on TV since the TV downstairs didn’t have a DVD player. We watched for about 15 minutes and the signal became too weak for the TV to pick up since a thunderstorm was raging outside. So we went to bed, but stayed up to talk a little about what had happened during the time I had been gone. Around 10:30 p.m. we finally went to sleep, which was difficult because the lightning and thunder was getting pretty annoying.
The next morning I woke Jeni up at 7:06 a.m. bright and early. The minute I woke her up, I told her good morning. She asked me what time it was and I told her that it was 7:06 a.m., she told me good night. A few minutes later she finally got out of bed. We went downstairs for breakfast, and went to the Summer Academy afterwards. Summer Academy is like school, but you pick your classes, and they’re usually more exciting than regular school.
At the Summer Academy, I went around the school looking for Aleksandra Gurneau. Along the way, I saw a lot of my other friends. It took me a pretty long time to get back to look for Aleksandra again. I looked all around on the lower grounds, where the older kids were supposed to be, but I didn’t find her. I went to the main floor, and right as the first bell rang, I found her. We hurried up the steps to our first class, “Girls Club”. In Girls Club we wrote compliments to every person in the class. Then we went to our 2nd period class, swimming. Swimming was really fun, Joanie Chan, my 7th going into 8th grade friend, and Aleksandra had it together, so the three of us and two other girls in the swim class “bothered” Bryce Uy, and played tag with him and some other boys. In the end, all the girls linked arms and tagged Bryce, and we said “No tag backs!” Bryce couldn’t get any of us, so he quit, and it was the end of class.
I was doing half the day with Aleksandra, and half the day with Alyssa, at least that’s what I had planned. The only problem was that Aleksandra had swimming 2nd period, and Alyssa had it 3rd period, so I went with Laura and Joanie to “Clay, Paint, Fleece, Oh My!” for 3rd period. There I helped Joanie paint her box black and white. It was really fun, because Rachel and Mari were also in that class. Unfortunately, and fortunately Bryce was also in that class with me. It was unfortunate because we had to deal with him again, but on the other hand, Rachel painted a mustache and goatee on his face with the paint we were using to paint the boxes. At the end of class when we were paying attention to something else, he washed off the mustache and goatee. After that class I went with Laura to Soccer, and that was one of the best classes of that day. There was Jeni, Anna, Alyssa, Molly, Laura, and Jilhanna in it, which made it really enjoyable. Soccer was the last class, so I went home with Jeni. Naomi, Jeni, and I were going to her mom’s house for a sleepover with a few friends.
When we got to Jeni’s mom’s house, we “funkified” our hair. It was really fun playing with each other’s hair. After we did that we set up the air mattresses downstairs. We figured out that we would be one space short, so we took the couch pillows to make that Naomi’s bed since she was the only one who could fit on it, LOL.
After playing with Liz, Jeni’s baby sister, for a little bit, we went to Jilhanna’s dad’s house to pick her up. Together we went to blockbuster to rent a movie 27 Dresses for the sleepover. Back at Jeni’s mom’s house we “funkified” Jilhanna’s hair and Jilhanna, Jeni, Naomi, and I played the game, “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” but half way through it we got bored of playing, so we went upstairs to play with Liz again. After that, we heard the doorbell ring, and went downstairs to say hi to Laura, and Molly. We went upstairs with them to “funkify” their hair too. We played some more games like, “Guess Who?” and “Mancala”.
The minute we started playing though, Anna Novak came. Thanks to Anna’s mom, we still got to go to Habaneros Restaurant, a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Almost everyone ordered enchiladas. On the ride back to Jeni’s house we sang Barney songs for Liz, who was in the car next to us. It was hilarious. At Jeni’s house we went downstairs to set up our sleeping area. Outside it was not cold, but we put on a sweater each to try and not let the mosquitoes bite us by the campfire. When we were sitting around the campfire, we did the “When I go to camp I will bring…” ABC game. Then we played “Ghost in the Graveyard”. When we went inside we had a snack, and then went downstairs to watch the movie “27 Dresses”. We stayed up until 12 midnight watching the movie, and quickly fell asleep afterwards. Jilhanna, however, was feeling sick, so she went home.
In the morning eating breakfast
Playing water balloon toss
In the morning, I woke up around 7:30 am, and went upstairs to Jeni’s room to get a book to read. Around 7:45 am, Jack, Jeni’s brother woke up. Then Laura and Naomi woke up. After a while, Anna, and eventually Molly and Jeni, all came back to life and energy. While eating breakfast, we also watched with Liz, Barney, something I liked watching when I was a baby too. The song got pretty annoying after a few times, and so we left Liz watching Barney, while we painted our nails. Jeni had a cute little book about how to paint your nails with different patterns. For example, Jeni painted her nails like bumblebees, and I painted mine like a dice with three dots on every face. We left Jeni’s house around 11.
From there, we went to eat lunch, and go to Isabelle and Daria Gill’s mom’s house to help set up for the party. Aleksandra, her sisters and mom also came earlier to help set up. We filled up water balloons and tested out some games. When doing that, our younger sisters got us soaking wet, and in return, we sprayed them with the hose. We also made signs to show who was in which tent. It was really fun. At 3pm, other people started coming. Some came at 4pm because of the afternoon program after Summer Academy.
When people first arrived, Aleksandra, Belle, and I had to tell them the rules of the party, and where to put their stuff. At first, we were telling people that they should probably put on their swimsuits, but as more people started coming, they started to see that everyone else had their swimsuits on. By the end of the time people were coming, we didn’t need to tell people where to put their stuff because there was already a place of piled stuff, and everyone was wearing their swimsuits, so no need to waste extra breath there. I was really, super excited the whole time. I was so happy that everyone that I had invited could come, and that everyone, except Alyssa was able to sleepover. When some people came, they gave me gifts. For example, Minlie gave me a few things, and Rachel and Alex gave me the books Twilight, and Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony.
We first set up the places in which we were going to sleep. Jeni ran to the side from outside of the pool into the pool with a huge jump over the side. After that many people, including me wanted to try it. We played many games like milk the cow, and the towel game. For dinner we had Pigs-in-a-blanket, Mac and cheese, and some other really good things. After dinner, we made a campfire, and roasted marshmallows for s’mores. Naomi and I had a very early birthday (very early for me, but for Naomi it wasn’t as early). We got a birthday gift from everyone. It was a hat that everyone had signed. Naomi got a turquoise one, and I got a lime green one. All of my friends had signed mine, and all of Naomi’s friends had signed hers. We all had birthday cake, and/or an ice cream sandwich. Then Alyssa had to leave. We did a little karaoke, and then went to our tents. We were supposed to be sleeping, but nobody was planning to do so just yet. We talked for a little, and then Belle’s mom came and told us that we needed to go to bed. After a little more talking, we got yelled at again, so we finally went to sleep.
In the morning, I woke up at 6:30 am! I didn’t know this, so I woke up everyone else that was in my tent, sorry! I decided that since they were taking so long to wake up, that I would start reading the books that Rachel and Alex gave me the day before. They were not in the tent, but in the house, and Rachel, who was half-asleep, was in the way of the tent’s door, so I told her, “Rachel, I’m going to get the books that you and Alex gave me yesterday.”
Rachel said back, “Great, go ahead and get them.”
I said, “I can’t though!”
Rachel asked me, “Why not?”
I finally get the point that she doesn’t get that she has to move, so I told her, “Move out of the way then!”
“Huh? What? Ooooooooooooooh. Sorry about that.” Rachel moaned.
It took a little while to wake up everyone else in the tent, but when we were all awake, besides Laura, we went downstairs to do karaoke. When we went back outside, Laura was still not awake, so we left her alone, and went to get breakfast. After breakfast I went back to our tent to see if Laura was awake yet. She finally was awake, (well I woke her up when I entered the tent)! Some people and I played catch in a circle around the pool with a squishy ball. I splashed some people when I threw the ball by cupping my hands in the water and throwing the water and the ball at someone. In the end I was soaking wet, but it was fun anyways. Then I had to leave.
Jeni, Naomi, Diane, Lucinda at the park
Jeni, Eva, and Laura were car pooling with us. We first dropped off Laura at her dad’s restaurant. Then we went to Eva’s house. At Eva’s house, we had to wait a while since no one was home, and Eva forgot the password for the garage door since she had been gone for three weeks at camp. We pounded on the door, and finally Eva got the password.
Next we went to Diane’s house. Diane is my friend from Chinese School, her mom was our teacher. She was, and is still the best teacher ever. I missed her a lot, especially when I started Chinese School here in Florida. At Diane’s house I introduced Jeni to Diane. Then we went upstairs to her bedroom. There we talked, and played with her dwarf hamster. After that, we went on the computer for a few minutes, and went to the water park. It was enjoyable there. We ran into the water, which was “cold” according to Diane, Jeni and Naomi. To me the water wasn’t too cold. We went to lay on our towels and talk, we went through the water again, but this time, it wasn’t as shocking “cold” as the first time. Jeni and Naomi were out of the water, so Diane and I splashed at each other. When we were done with our mini splash war, we ran back to our towels and then after a bit, we went back to Diane’s house when my mom and Diane’s mom came out to get us. We walked back to Diane’s house, and ate a really good lunch, noodles and vegetables. Right after lunch, Diane and her brother Ben had to leave for tennis lessons. We said good-bye.
We drove to Joanie’s house next. At their house Jeni, Naomi, and I ate a little more lunch with them (it was Chinese food, that’s sort of odd that we had two Chinese lunches in one day). We played with Margret and Derek, her younger brother and sister. We played balloon duel, a game on the computer, while still playing with Margret and Derek. Around four, Jeni, Laura, Joanie, Naomi, and I went to Glen Hills to swim. Joanie used to be not so good of a swimmer, so I was surprised that she could swim very well now, and that she was in level six, which is lifeguard. There we tried to teach Laura how to dive. After playing a little more, Naomi left to go to a sleepover at Emma’s house. We played “water quidditch”, Laura and Jeni against Joanie and me. Water quidditch is like quidditch, but you only have a “broom” (noodle), a quaffle and a snitch. The snitch is not like the snitch in Harry Potter, which is where we got the idea of water quidditch from, the snitch, is a diving brick which can be retrieved after any team scores a total of 100 points. Since you can’t go very fast on a noodle, it is hard to block and score points with the “quaffle”, and the snitch is really easy to catch. We swam around for a little bit more, and went to shower and go back to Joanie’s house.
Back at Joanie’s house, we watched the movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, which was really freaky. It was about a girl named Ofelia. She is a fairy princess, but when she came to the mortal realms her memory was erased completely of the fairy realms. When she is traveling to the military camp (her step-father is a general) she see’s a fairy. During the night, she finds a faun. The faun tells her that she must complete three tasks to make sure that she is immortal. It was a really good movie, but it was really sad too.
At Laura’s house, we had a sleepover, and Laura gave me a painted box and a few other gifts too. Jeni, Laura, Joanie, and I ate some ice cream, talked for a little while, and then went to sleep. I was sort of sad that night, because I would be leaving the next morning, and I didn’t want to go. In the morning, we would drive to Chicago to meet our dad, who had a conference there.
Towel Game
Friends around camp fire in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Chicago, Illinois
At Chicago, we met our dad and went to the nearby Millennium Park. There we saw a huge stage. There was going to be a performance later that night. We walked around a bit. There was a brick rectangular prism that had water pouring down its sides. There is a picture of a person covers one side of the prism. The person shown has its mouth open so that every 5 minutes or so it “spits” water out of its mouth. It was very cool. Naomi and I got ourselves a bit wet, and then we headed back towards the other side of the Millennium Park to watch a show, “Australia’s Strange Fruit”.
Naomi, Mom, and Lucinda on bridge
Millennium Park, where Barak Obama made his election victory speech
“Australia’s Strange Fruit” is a show where two men and two women are on these tall poles and they sort of dance on them. When they first got up on the poles, I thought, how could they stay on those tall poles without falling? Then, I thought, what if they fall on top of us? As I soon realized that they weren’t going to fall off, I started to just relax and enjoy the show. After the show we went to see this jellybean shaped thing, the Cloud Gate. It is made of stainless steel. It was made to reflect the city and the shoreline. We took a lot of pictures at the Cloud Gate.
“Australia’s strange fruit” show
Whole family in front of the cloud gate
After we got back to the hotel, there was a wine reception in the front lobby. My mom and dad had some wine, and we went upstairs to our room to decide what we should do before the evening concert. We walked along the Chicago River and then got some dinner and went to the park. The Chicago River is not a very peaceful place, with lots of people walking and talking all around us, but then again, where in Chicago is peaceful? There were a lot of boats in the river. It was fun to watch them and their passengers riding past us. The concert at the Millennium Park wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I actually thought that it was very boring, evidently Naomi thought so too, so we left early, and went to see a huge water fountain. The water fountain was really amazing. It had colorful lights that switched colors every so often, and there were statues of animals with water coming out of their mouths.
Lucinda in front of a tall water fountain
Lucinda in front of Millennium Park
The next day we went to the American Girl Place, and had dim sum in Chinatown. At the American Girl Place we looked at all the cool new things there. We bought some stuff for the American Girl dolls we have at home, and some stuff for us. We spent a lot of time looking at some things that we wanted. When it was near an early lunch time, we headed for Chinatown for dim sum.
Lucinda at a colorful fountain
Lucinda at the cloud gate
We went to a place that we had dim sum with friends before. It was really good. We had fried shrimp dumplings, and lots of really good stuff that I forgot the names of. After we ate, we went back to Milwaukee for our flight back to Florida. I was sad to leave, but I was glad that I could have at least seen most of my friends. I will never forget the fabulous trip we had. I loved it.
St. Augustine, Florida
My family went to St Augustine, Florida in April this year. When we first got there, my dad went to the information place. The people there made us go to all these weird places I had never heard of before. The main reason Naomi and I wanted to go to St. Augustine was because we wanted to play on the beach. My dad said that he would let us go to the beach after we were done sight seeing.
First, we went to an old city inside of St. Augustine. There was not much to do there, so we drove through the town, looking at the old buildings and houses. At the end of that, we found ourselves at our next destination: the old Spanish Fort, Castillo de San Marcos. At the fort we listened to someone talk about how the place had functioned when the war was going on. The villagers and their animals would go to the fort for protection.
There were many places that people could be covered, but still shoot from. The cannons were strategically placed so that if needed, some of the cannons of the most protected side could be rolled over to the side in most danger. There were four watch towers on the four corners of the fort. I loved to look over the walls and see the peaceful calm beach. The palm trees and everything else on the sand made me feel relaxed. As we headed out the fort to our second to last destination, we saw just how cramped everything was for the fighters. It all looked extremely uncomfortable to me. As we drove away, the old fort didn’t look as formidable as I had imagined it to be.
Naomi and Lucinda in front of Castillo de San Marcos
St. Augustine water fountain, Flagler College
We then went to Flagler College. Flagler College is a real college now, but it was actually was the Hotel Ponce de Leon. It was built by Henry Flagler. The hotel was a beautiful resort for guests who could afford such a price. Flagler had very odd ideas for simple problems. For example, when he installed the electric lights, the light switch would zap you every time you touched it. So Flagler hired many workers to stand in different hallways to turn off and on the lights for someone coming down. Another example is when he found the water was bad, he made a huge, pretty fountain to circulate the water, but it didn’t change the water’s quality. So he had to hire people to dig a waterway from somewhere with fresh water to the hotel. There were many rooms that we looked at during the tour. There was a room for the ladies when the men paid for their stay because it was considered improper for the ladies to see such a large transaction occur. There was another room that had all these pictures in it. Inside that room, there was a picture of one of Flagler’s wives. She was so much younger than him, but he didn’t like that fact very much, so he got a portrait painted of her with black hair when you looked at it one way, but as you looked the other, she appeared to get gray hair, bit by bit. It was funny how he could get away with that stunt because he was such a powerful man in society. We finally were done with the tour. Naomi and I were probably thinking the same thing: it was finally time to go to the beach.
When we got out of Flagler College, it was pouring buckets of rain, so that almost canceled our beach plans. Naomi and I were very disappointed; we wouldn’t be able to go to the beach nowL, but after we got to our car, the rain was only a slight drizzle, so light you could hardly feel it. So we decided to go to the beach just to walk around for a little bit. The sand was wet, and the water was cold. It was not the kind of perfect weather it had been that morning. It didn’t change the fact that we were at the beach though. Naomi and I found shells, and got our feet a little wet in the gently lapping waves. Then the waves picked up a bit, and we decided to go home.
Naomi is cold
Amelia Island, Florida
We went to Amelia Island over the long Labor Day weekend. My family went with several other Chinese families, such as Vivian’s family, Alicia’s family, Jason’s family, etc. It was really fun there. We played in the ocean, swam in the pool, and relaxed. It was like a mini summer vacation (it was hot enough at least).
Vivian, Lillian (her sister), Alicia, and Michelle were playing on the beach when Naomi and I got to the beach (they left a day before us). When we got there, we all ran into the ocean and started crashing waves in water that was up to our shoulders. We jumped higher than the waves so they wouldn’t crush us. We got soaking wet, and my eyes stung a little, but that was all okay; I was having too much fun to care that much. When we all got too tired to jump any longer, we swam back to shore, and started looking for sand crabs. Earlier in the year, at Melbourne, Kathryn had showed me how to catch sand crabs. This time, I was the one teaching. Vivian, Lillian, Naomi and I were digging a hole as a fort for us (Alicia and Michelle left earlier). Whenever we found sand crabs, or feet, these shells that had a translucent body inside that they used to dig and cover themselves under the sand, in buckets filled with water and sand. While we were working on making “furniture” the high tide was coming, and we kept on having to make the walls thicker and stronger, but before the tide got any farther, my mom said it was time to eat dinner.
Lucinda and Naomi with Jungle Book characters
Having fun at Swan and Dolphin pool
Vivian, Lucinda, Naomi, and Lillian at Amelia Island, FL
Lucinda boogie boarding at Amelia Island, FL
The next morning, Naomi and I went to the beach to boogie board, but we had to go back up to our room for an early lunch. My mom said that the sun was too strong to play under until around 3 pm, so Naomi and I were stuck in the hotel until the sun got lower. When it finally was three, Vivian and Lillian had to go back to their room. So Naomi and I played in the pool, waiting for someone else to come. When we got tired of the pool, we went to the beach to make another fort, but since there were only two of us instead of four like yesterday, we had a smaller fort.
The next day when Naomi and I begged to go to the ocean in the morning, my mom said that we were going to go biking. So we rented bikes with Jason’s family and took the bike paths around the resort that we were staying at. It was very pretty out there. Some of the leaves were changing colors, it was not that much compared to a real autumn in Milwaukee, but still pretty. I really liked how it was just like a little bit of my old life added in with the Florida mix. Staying at Amelia Island was really fun.
Naomi, Lucinda, and Mom taking a bike ride
Mom boogie boarding at Amelia Island, FL
Maggie Valley, NC
We went to Coral Springs for Naomi’s State Competition. She did very well. She got second all around, and second on everything except on floor, which she got fourth on. This competition had her best score overall, but it was not the best placement. I watched Naomi and her teammate Logan (the only one in the same age group) do every event: floor, bars, vault, and beam.
After the meet was over, we went to the beach to play and relax. Naomi and I made a sand volcano with a mini village and guard posts around the volcano. We tried to get to water, but we needed to go to eat dinner. Logan’s aunt lives in West Palm Beach, the place where we were staying that night, and she recommended us a really good seafood restaurant. Unfortunately, we hadn’t known that there was going to be a marathon there the next day, so there was so much traffic just to get into downtown, we went to our hotel to search for a restaurant that wasn’t in downtown. We ended up going to a really nice resort’s restaurant. Naomi got Filet Mignon for dinner, because she passed Gavotte Mignon on the violin, and our teacher says that after you pass that piece, your parents have to get you Filet Mignon (a steak).
Lucinda and Naomi at Fort Lauderdale
Naomi’s Filet Mignon
The next morning, we went to Lion Country Safari. It was, according to my mom, better than Disney, because it’s much calmer, and not as hot and noisy. We drove through the different habitats for the animals. There were regular zoo animals, plus some exotic ones too. The big difference between a zoo and the Safari was not the different animals, but at a zoo, the animals are usually confined to a little space which they can’t run around in, but at the Safari, the animals would cross the road whenever they felt like it. They were completely oblivious to the passing cars. There were signs everywhere, warning us to slow down and stop for the animals, because they didn’t know that cars could hurt them.
Parrots
Lucinda with flamingos
The animals also crossed into each other’s habitats, except for the lions and monkeys. It’s not like those animals had any less space though. The monkeys had a pretty big island with multiple playgrounds on it. There were monkey bars, forts, and ladders for the monkeys to use. One even had a water bottle in its mouth and it was drinking from it! The lions had a little less space than the monkeys, but they seemed so lazy, and didn’t run around trying to escape or anything. The keepers probably didn’t want other animals to get hurt. The Safari was so much fun.
Abigail’s Bat Mitzvah
In the beginning of the school year, I went to Abigail’s bat mitzvah. It was a huge celebration for her thirteenth birthday. There were two parts of the bat mitzvah. In the morning, we went to the services. I thought it was very boring, no offence, because I couldn’t understand any of the Hebrew. After Chinese School ended, we went to the Hilton Hotel for dinner, dancing, and lots of fun. Naomi and I got these blow up shoes that made us look like penguins with puffy feet. We danced, ate cake, and partied until eleven, when we got too tired, but we were still extremely happy.
Whole family at Lucinda’s friends bat mitzvah
Lucinda in front of our house
I might not have traveled as much as I usually do, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the year, nor have as much fun. In some ways, this was a better year than the last, because I got to visit my friends in Milwaukee, WI, whom I still miss so much! I am adjusting to Florida and making a lot of new friends. But I still don’t like the weather; it’s too hot for me! Can you imagine me swimming on Christmas Day, in my pool that’s outside?! I did actually do that, five days in a row!
I hope that everyone enjoys the holidays! Enjoy the snow if you have any!