Peng's Family
Naomi Peng
Naomi’s Story
This year was very busy. Besides my school work I go to gymnastics 3 - 4 hours a day, go to private violin lessons and violin group lessons every week, play violin 45 minutes a day, and go to Chinese school every Saturday. But we still traveled to lots of places. One of the places was China. While we were there, we visited Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zheng Zhou, Xi Xia, and Beijing. For a school field trip we went to Camp Crystal for a few days. We also went skiing in North Carolina after Christmas day. We also got a hamster over Thanksgiving break. We named it Maple but later we gave it the nicknames Hamy and Peaches.
Our pet hamster
Blizzard Beach
Hong Kong
The most interesting place we visited in Hong Kong was the peak. The peak is the tallest mountain where you can see the entire view of Hong Kong. It has little shopping centers on each floor and when you go outside there is a big porch to see the view. We went to the highest level, used the telescope, and saw pretty much the whole town. Plus you can see some of the harbor too. The telescope was so clear that I could see through all the windows in the people’s houses. I saw some teddy bears and clothes drying and play toys in the window. But my mom said not to look at them. So I tried to avoid looking at people’s windows, instead I looked at the boats on the harbor.
The whole family on the Peak
With Joe and Lissa at the Jumbo Seafood restaurant
In Hong Kong there are lots of fancy restaurants and delicious foods. We went to Jumbo -- a restaurant that was surrounded by water so we had to take a ferry to get there. The introduction of the dinner was the Chinese traditional dragon dance, followed by some speeches with thanks to all the people that had organized the conference. After all the talking was done we got to start eating. It was my favorite dim sum dinner that was very well prepared. On top of the dessert there was a cool candle where you lit the flowers pedals and soon the flower would burst open with music playing. I liked the candle so much that I asked the waiter for one to bring home for my birthday and I got one.
Shenzhen
At Shenzhen we met Xiao Lei (my cousin), Gugu (aunt), and Nai nai (grandma) on my dad’s side. Xiao Lei is in high school. She stayed in the same hotel but in different floors. Sometimes we called her on the phone and asked if she wanted to come down to play with us. When she came to our room Lucinda and I played cards with her. We taught Xiao Lei how to play Apple and Egyptian War. We all liked Apple better, so most of the time, that’s what we played. We mainly spoke Chinese, but if there was something we didn’t know how to say, she could mostly understand what we were saying in English. It was really fun, and even though we couldn’t really communicate easily, we still became good friends.
Zheng Zhou
Lucinda and Naomi's Chinese dance
It’s fun to go shopping with a rich aunt!
Zheng Zhou is where most of my other relatives from my mom’s side live, including my two aunts, two uncles and grandpa and grandma. We spent a week at Zheng Zhou and part of the time, we learned a Chinese dance at Zheng Zhou Youth Dance Center. Lucinda and I each had different parts but when we put them together, it made a beautiful dance. The dance is called “Dong Bei Yang Ge Xiao Kan Xi”. This is a north east Chinese traditional dance and it describes the excitement of the people watching a show. In the dance we had two Chinese spinning handkerchiefs. They were red and had a little circle in the middle so it was easier to spin it. It only took us three days to learn the dance but the teacher said it would usually take a couple of weeks.
Xi Xia
At Xi Xia we went white water rafting and we had a blast! During the rafting we had water fights while going through dangerous water channels. We used our helmets to take water and thrash the water onto people’s heads in the other boats. We were so crazy that we even stopped for a little time behind a rock to rest and stretch our legs out for a little but mostly-----can you guess? WATER FIGHT!!!!! My cousins, Lucinda, and I would splash water on the other boats that pass by and they would try to splash back, until we all got soaking wet. Some parts of the river were scary. There was a huge rock that was right above us and we had to duck our heads or else we would bump our heads onto the rock. My cousin’s boyfriend lost his hat because he didn’t duck his head that much. We had to watch some strong currents that could push us into rocks. In some places there were very steep slopes the water crashed down into our boat and our boat was almost filled with water at the end. We had to hold on really tight or else we could fall out. It was an exciting, full of action, and exuberant trip.
After the rafting we also went to the largest reservoir in China and took a boat to cruise around the reservoir. My cousin Jessica and her boyfriend were on the boat. I tried to make fun of them and asked them to kiss each other. They were a little shy and didn’t want to do it. So I had to try to push them to do it. But finally they did it and everyone laughed.
Beijing
Lazy Panda
Bear begging for food
We were only at Beijing for two days. But we don’t want to miss the opportunity to see the pandas at the zoo. When we got there it was very crowded; everyone was looking for the pandas. However, the pandas weren’t very interested in entertaining the people and they just decided to sleep and enjoy their free time. I found the pandas were quite boring this time because the pandas would only occasionally move around but still wouldn’t do much. We also went to see tigers, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, bears, and a lot more!!!!! When we went to look at the bears, everyone was standing around feeding them crackers and stuff, so each time something would fall and the bear would stand on its hind legs and beg for more. Lots of people weren’t following the signs which said “no feeding allowed”.
Camp Crystal
Naomi and Lucinda at the zoo pond
Mom and Naomi in front of Lake Camp Crystal
For a school field trip, the fifth grade went to Camp Crystal for two nights and three days in October. We went there to learn about science and ecosystems and things related to that. The first day we moved into our cabins. My cabin included Mallory, Emma, Anna, Kayla, Nadine, Brittney, Sana, Afrina, and me. That night we did a camp fire, hay ride, story time and a midnight hike. The hay ride was when you sit in a bunch of hay and you ride around Camp Crystal. The scary stories were not actually scary at all. The next day we got split up into six groups and we each had three different activities. Our first activity was Team Building, in which we learned why you had to work together and did some activities to prove it. Our second activity was called O’deer. In O’deer we had some people as deer and some as a habitat. The habitat people chose either water, food, or shelter to represent. Then the deer had to choose one and look for it. If there weren’t enough of the habitats for the deer then the deer would die. Our last activity for that day was learning about the layers of water in the ground. That night we had the ice cream social and the dance. The next morning we did the lake investigation where we looked for stuff in the lake and studied them. We also learned what ant lions were. Ant lions are these kinds of ants where they catch regular ants and suck the blood out from their body and then toss the remaining out. We were assigned to search for ant lions in the woods. First, we looked for what looked like an ant lion home. Next, we picked up an ant and put it inside the home and if we saw a black claw come out then we knew there was an ant lion living inside of it. Then, we very carefully dug the spoon under the sand and dumped it in to a bucket. There it is, a lively ant lion. On the last day my mom came on the hike with us. She wanted to stay but my dad was in China so she couldn’t leave Lucinda at home by herself.
Skiing
Over the winter break our family and Alicia Fan’s family went to the Cataloochee Ski Resort in North Carolina to ski. The drive there was about 9 hours long. When we got there we stayed at the Best Western hotel. The first night for dinner we went to J. Arthurs. Inside there was a huge Christmas tree, an enormous wreath, a train that moved around the restaurant, and lots more decorations. It was filled with holiday spirit. Weirdly, everyone but Alicia’s dad ordered ribs. The food was really scrumptious. After dinner we went to Skis and Tees to rent skis. Everyone went skiing except for Kevin (Alicia’s brother) who chose to snowboard. The next morning we went skiing. I first took a few runs down the bunny hill just to get used to skiing again because I hadn’t been skiing in two years. After I went down it a few times my dad and I went to the blue square. The blue square wasn’t that difficult for me though. Next I took the lift all the way to the top of the mountain and took the trail all the way down. The trail is a little more difficult than the blue square but easier than the black diamond. I did that 4 or 5 times because I was afraid of going down the black diamond. After lunch we continued skiing and this time my dad convinced me to go down ¾ of the way of the black diamond hill. By then Alicia was done with her lesson so we took her up the bunny hill and skied with her the way down. She was skiing pretty well but then she got out of control and fell. The other time she fell was when she was about to crash into a lady she moved out of the way by skiing right up a hill and then sliding right back down. When we finally got down the hill we saw Stephanie -- one of Lucinda’s friends and Elizabeth -- one of my friends. We were surprised that they were staying at the same hotel as we. We let Alicia eat her lunch while Stephanie, Elizabeth, Lucinda and I went down the blue square once and turkey trot (blue square) once.
The next day Alicia’s family chose not to ski at all and to sleep in instead, so our family was on our own. Lucinda and I chose to learn how to snowboard that day. We got there too late so we had to take a group lesson instead of a private one. Lucinda and I found snowboarding a lot harder than skiing. At our lesson our teachers -- Suzie and Catlin taught us how to turn, how to stop and how to strap your foot in the foot area. After the lesson we practiced on the very baby hills. I kept on falling and got a bruise on my right knee. Snowboarding was fun but not as much as skiing. That night we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I got 3 enchiladas, one beef, one cheese, and one chicken. I especially liked the cheese one, every bite I took there was melted cheese hanging from my mouth and the enchilada. It was so mouth watering.
Oh, fell again
Going snowboarding
On our last day we went skiing again because we wanted to end our trip by going on the big mountains skiing instead of the small ones snowboarding. This time Kevin went skiing too. My dad, Lucinda, and I went on the trail 2 or 3 times before we met up with Kevin. We went on the ¾ of the black diamond together 5 times till we went to the very top and skied all the way down many times on the black diamond hills. I thought it was scary for the first few times but then I got used to it and didn’t feel scared anymore. However, I did fall down once. One time Kevin was in front of me. When he fell I couldn’t stop myself and fell as well because I followed him too closely. Lucinda almost fell as well until she stopped herself. We were going to take a last run through the black diamond but while Lucinda was standing in line her ski broke so Kevin and I went without her. That time there weren’t that many people in the way so I was going so fast and it felt like I was flying.
Atlanta
On the way home we decided to stay at Atlanta for one night. Alicia’s and Stephanie’s families came with us as well. We went to a Chinese restaurant called East Pearl Seafood. We ordered 11 dishes to share among 11 of us. But the food was so much that by the time we ate 9 of the dishes, most of the kids were stuffed. The next day we went to the Georgia Aquarium. At the Aquarium, we saw people feed the fish and the sharks. There were different sections, including Ocean Voyager, Cold Water Quest, Georgia Explorer, River Scout, and Tropical Diver. In the Ocean Voyager there was a huge window where you could see all the fish and sharks. The most interesting animal there was the Whale Shark. At 10:30am we saw two people feeding the Whale Sharks. They ate cutup squid, krill and other small fish. At the Tropical Diver there were jellies (jellyfish), fish, and lots of coral. At the Cold Water Quest there were Australian weedy sea dragons, garibaldi damselfish and Japanese spider crabs. It was very educational.
With Georgia Aquarium character
Naomi with lots of fish
After that we went to the World of Coca-Cola and learned the history about Coca-Cola and watched the 4-D movie “the Secret Formula.” The most fun thing that we did there was the Taste It!! I tried almost all of the sodas – more than 60 different types from all over the world. I especially liked the apple kiwi from Thailand, Bebo from South Africa, Hi-c and Vegoaltimno from Japan. I also liked the Nestle Mango sweet tea from Belize. When we are leaving, everyone got a free bottle of coke that was specifically made from a machine just for the World of Coca-Cola.
Naomi and Dad at the Coca-Cola history exhibit
Naomi and Lucinda with Coca-Cola Bear
For lunch we were going to have the best burger in the world at Ann’s Snack Bar that Kevin found out about when reading a Wall Street Journal Article. But when we walked inside, this lady who owned the store whose name was Ann said we had to wait outside. The store was very small. Inside there were only eight seats. It also was in the bad side of the town. We would have to wait for another two hours until we could get a burger so we were a little disappointed when we heard that because we were so hungry and if we wait we couldn’t get home in time for the New Year’s ball drop. We were planning on talking to this lady but the others that were already waiting before we came said it wasn’t a good idea to do that. So we just left without a taste of the “best burger in the world,” but before we left Kevin insisted on taking a picture for memories.
In Summary
Well that was some of the stuff I did this year but I also do gymnastics, violin and Chinese school. In gymnastics I was in level 6 this year. I practiced and participate in different competition a lot. People may say it would be boring to practice so much every day. But I like it so much that I feel the time past so fast before I even notice it. At the state competition, I got 3rd place All-Around. At my home meet I got 1st place all-around.
I got first place all-around!!!
We enjoy playing the violin with Ms. Kim
In violin I am in book four. My teacher is Kim Chalmers. We had a violin recital in December and May. The May recital was where we each had a solo. But in December, it was a group recital. It works like this: the most advanced students played first, the next advanced students joined them and played pieces together with the previous groups. This process continued one after another, till the beginners joined the group to play “The Twinkles.”
Naomi on the Beam
Team Champion at Tampa’s Judges Cup
Hope you had a great 2009 like I did, and have a wonderful new year!