Peng's Family
Lucinda and Naomi Peng
December 21, 2005
The Biggest Birthday Present Ever
Hello, Everyone,
I cannot believe we are at Christmas time again. For this year’s letter, I will write the most of it since I am in the 4th grade and Naomi is only in the first grade. But she will write one paragraph by herself.
I have a lot of things to write since we had a lot of activities this year and had a lot of fun. Our family took a spring vacation in Tampa Bay, Florida in March and a summer trip to London in June and July. I also did very well in my piano and cross-country running. It is fun most of the time, with a little sister playing with me, although I don’t like it much when she annoys me.
I participated in a piano competition in the Cascio Interstate Music Piano Festival in May 2005. I won the 1st place in my age group. Then the first place winners from all age groups played again to compete for the grand prize. I was shocked (and my Mom was shocked too) when I heard the announcement that I won the grand prize. This is the first time for me to participate in any kind of piano competition. I was so happy!
Like last year, I did it again to be in the first place in my school’s cross-country running race. Plus, I also won the first place in the elementary school group at the Glendale-River Hill School District’s “Run for the Hill” run-walk race, a fund raising program for the school district. It was a 5000 meter run and I got to the finish line even earlier than the boys! My daddy ran too this year. But he only won the third place in his adult man group. This was pretty good for his age and it was a surprise to me, my mom and my dad too. The first two runners were much younger than he was.
Oh, two other things for Mom and Dad. Mom was promoted to be a Senior Business Data Analyst at her work and Dad was promoted to be full Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee this year. I don’t know what that means, and I don’t feel any difference. They are still the same to me and Naomi. Oh, I almost forgot that my American Grandparents Grandma Ele and Grandpa Ted came over and stayed with us. We had a lot of fun playing with them like going to the Jelly Belly Factory where we saw how Jelly Belly beans were made and we ate lots of Jelly Belly bean samples. We had a great time together when they were here. We cannot wait until they come to play with us next time.
I wrote two papers after our trips to London and Tampa Bay. I would like to share with you. But before I do that, I want to let Naomi to say a few words.
Naomi: I started learning to ice skate at the University School in this spring. I love skating. I also learned how to do a fan dance in my Chinese School. I did a fan dance performance at the Milwaukee International Folk Fair. It was fun. I also started my Piano lesson in this summer with the same teacher as Lucinda’s. Lucinda and I are going to play a duet in the piano federation. My daddy promised me to teach me to do downhill skiing this winter. I cannot wait.
Now, let’s get to my London and Tampa Bay story.
A Wonderful Trip to London
My dad had a meeting in London and our whole family went with him. We spent ten days there, and visited many places in London and surrounding areas. It was a wonderful trip. Here is a rundown on what we did there. I hope you like it.
On June 29th we went to Hyde Park. In Hyde Park we fed the swans for half an hour, and there was a playground that is made out of a lot of ropes! I climbed up and down and up and down the ropes and across the rope bridges. Then I went on to the spinning thing that made me get really dizzy. That same day I went to Covent’s Garden. At the beginning we thought Covent’s Garden was a garden, but it is really a huge shopping place. We bought crystals with pictures of famous London sites on them. We also bought things to hang on our front porch.
On July 1st we went to the Buckingham palace. In the Buckingham Palace we saw the changing of the guards! They came marching right in front of us!! When they marched in the gates I couldn’t see them all I saw the tops of their fuzzy huge hats. Dad said that the old one would exchange with the new one and the old one would tell the new one what to look out for.
On July 2 we went to the Windsor Castle. In the Windsor Castle we saw the Queen Mary’s Doll House, and a HUGE garden with roses and trees. It was beautiful! They made Queen Mary’s Doll House because she liked mini things (especially dolls). People built her that Doll House because she made sure that every soldier had a place to stay.
On July 3 we went to Greenwich. We saw and stepped on the Greenwich meridian line which divides the world into the eastern and the western parts. We also went to the Greenwich Observatory and we saw a room made just for mapping the stars, but there was one problem. Facing directly north there was no window and only pictures. So they couldn't really use the room to map the stars on the north.
On July 4 we went to Oxford. In Oxford we saw a college where the first 2 Harry Potter movies were made. Alice in Wonderland was also made there! We saw the dining hall where Harry Potter ate his meals. We also saw a place where he got in Hogwarts the first time and where Professor McGonagall stood watching them.
On July 5 we went to the Westminster Abbey and went on the London Eye. In Westminster Abbey we saw Queen Mary 1st and Queen Elizabeth 1st’s tombs. We also saw and learned a lot about a fire that happened. The fire ruined most of the stain glass windows and only a few stain glass windows survived the fire. There was a floor so old we couldn’t step on the floor in the middle.
On the way to the London Eye, we crossed the Tower Bridge, which is the bridge that kept falling down in the song of the “London Bridge is falling down”. We also went to the London Eye! It looked like a huge wheel with things hanging off it! Inside the London Eye, we could see the overview of the whole London. Once we got to the top I looked down and felt like I was going to fall. I saw a lot of buildings that were huge. I also helped dad videotape outside.
The next day, we went to the Holland Park that has the coolest playground ever! There was a rope thing that had trampolines in the middle! It also had a thing where you could pretend to surf. There was a girl at Holland Park and we played tag on the ropes and trampoline. I swung on the ropes with her too. It was really a fun and cool way to spend the day.
On July 7th, we went to the Globe Theater, and saw half of a play named A Winters Tale, which was written by William Shakespeare. I didn’t really understand it at all.
We also went to the National Gallery. We saw a lot of famous pictures in there. They were beautiful! We saw some of Vincent Vogh’s paintings like the one with sunflowers.
London was really fun and full of adventures.
My Trip to Tampa, Florida
On March 10th 2005 my family took a trip to Tampa, Florida. On the way we had so many turbulences my legs felt like they turned to jell-o and my ears felt like they were filled with bees! The part of the airplane smelled stinky because we were near the lavatory which smelled yucky. Finally we got off the stinky airplane. By the time we reached our hotel it was midnight!
A Day at the Clearwater Beach
The next day I stepped outside the hotel. It was a pretty spring morning, and we were going to the beach for the day. When I was waiting for mom and dad to come, Naomi and I played hop-scotch. At the beach I got soaking wet because I was wading in the water and whoosh a huge wave hit me and I forgot my swim suit! After being freezing cold in Milwaukee, I didn’t care if I got soaking wet in the Gulf of Mexico. When I was all most dry I went on a waterslide and got soaking wet again.
After that we walked to the other end of the beach, we found 2 body parts of a jellyfish! At first when Naomi saw the jellyfish she wouldn’t even go near it! She thought it was still alive. When Naomi and I touched the jellyfish it felt like touching a fat puffy pillow. We also found a fish that looks like a puffer fish! Naomi and I tried to pick the puffer fish up with 2 sticks, but the sticks kept breaking so we gave up. We thought the puffer fish might have gotten there by a seagull that caught the puffer fish, when it was above the beach the seagull saw the puffer fish had poky things on it, and dropped the puffer fish on land. We wished it was still alive so that we could through it back to the ocean and let the puffer fish swim. It was a very exciting day that was filled with fun at Clearwater Beach.
The Busch Garden
When I went to the Busch Garden, there were rides and trains, birds and animals! The Busch Garden is not like a garden, it was like a world full of everything you would wish for. There were a lot of roller coasters and one of the roller coasters called The Python seemed like the larger version of The Scorpion, another rollercoaster. They were a ton of fun with about 5 upside downs which made my smutch feel weird! On our way to another rollercoaster we saw some alligators and crocodiles. They weren’t normal though because the alligators and crocodiles were friends with the turtles, isn’t that amazing?!?! I even saw a turtle take a ride on the alligator’s back! We also saw millions and trillions and billions of fish! At the same spot where the fish were there were hippos. Finally, we got to the soaking wet water slide. When we came off the water slide I was as wet as a huge wave! I hated the last rollercoaster because I always was shaking from left to right. Eeeeeeeeee! It was finally over, but my chest hurt badly. I wish that day would never end.
The St. Petersburg Beach
At St. Petersburg Beach I was soaked by an enormous wave. It was a nice, cool day for riding with the waves. I was using a kick board and riding the waves back and forth, but sometimes it didn’t really work. When I rode a huge wave back and reached shore another huge wave hit me! Ahhhhhhh, it just blah hit me and now I got salt water in my mouth and nose! It tastes yucky. The seagulls tried to eat our lunch, but Naomi chased and yelled at them (I got annoyed by Naomi yelling and screaming after the seagulls)! After lunch we took a walk and found a lot of shells. Each of the shells was kind of different. Some were big, some were small and some had swirls. That’s how the day went at St. Petersburg Beach.
A Weird Looking Tree
At the Pier there was a tree that didn’t have any leaves, and only pinkish reddish flowers. They were my mom’s favorite kind of flowers. It was a great climbing tree even though it looked weird. It had giant branches and a huge straight trunk. It looked easy to climb, but it was really slippery. I climbed on the tree with a lot of other kids, and most of the time we just jumped down a hole that was in a branch of the tree.
It was the best vacation ever!
I hope you like my stories.
Wish you merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Year of Dog.