Peng's Family
Naomi’s 2011 Activities
By Naomi Peng
December 31st , 2011
Lucinda on piano accompanying Naomi
In this past year, I have done many extra-curricular activies such as sports and music, playing with friends, and traveling, besides the normal school work. I am in 7th grade at Lincoln Middle School. I skip level 7, had my level 8 gynmnatics competitions in the spring and now I am in level 9. I went to Gator Gymnastics Camp this year as well. I still play the violin and am in book 5. My family also got to go to my friend Anneliese’s lake house several times this year. We traveled to China for three weeks. In this trip, we went to Shanghai, Suzhou, Cheng Du, ZhengZhou, and Zhangjiajie, where part of the movie Avatar was filmed.
I finished up the end of 6th grade on a good note and did pretty well on all my finals with all “A”s in June 2011, and started the 7th grade in the fall. It has gone past very quickly. In my opininon, 7th grade isn’t as hard as 6th grade was. I have 5 new teachers and one that I had last year; my orchestra conductor. All the teachers have different personalties and I love them all. They are all very nice and have taught me a lot. I also continue playing the violin at ACYO (Alachua County Youth Orchestra) and school orchestra.
ACYO Winter Concert
ZhangJiaJie JingBianXi
I had a pretty good gymnastics season in level 8. I went out of the state to compete 3 times, at Chicago, South Carolina and Georgia. In total I had 7 meets. Chicago was my best competition. It was in Febuary and it was super cold. Some of our old friends from Wisconsin, Ann, Alexsandra and Natalia, came and watched me. On beam, I got a 9.475 out of 10, on floor I got a 9.375, on vault I got a 9.05, and on bars I got a 9.375. In the all around I got a 37.275 out of 40, which put me in second place. Afterwards, our whole team went to the Cheesecake Factory and had dinner. When we got there, we discovered something very weird. It was already 11:30 pm so we figured it wouldn’t be that busy. We were completely wrong. The wait was about one and a half hours long. We decided to do take-out but it still took 30 minutes. By the time we got to the hotel, it was 12:15 am. Oh well, at least my dinner was very yummy that night. The next day Alexsandra’s family and I went ice skating at the Central Park. I was very lucky because a couple of weeks before we went to Chicago the weather was so bad that they had to close the airports. But when we went, I was even able to take off my big puffy jacket while I was ice skating. Afterwars we played snowball flight until we were all exhausted, then we went to Chinatown for dim sum; the food was so good and we stayed there for a bit too long that we almost missed our fly back to Gainesville.
Naomi, Aleksandra, and Natalia at the Chicago Competition
Naomi 1st place on Beam
Naomi with Aleksandra and Natalya at Navy Pier
Ice Skating with Natalya
Naomi at Navy Pier
Naomi meets Obama and Michelle in Chicago
This was my first year of optional and I made it to Regionals which was in Georgia. I got 6th place all around. I also went to the state competition at Lakeland, Florida and then the next day we went to Siesta Key Beach. The sand there is crystal white and soft, 99% of it is quartz. The sand was cool even under the direct sunlight because it was so white that it didn’t absorb the heat from the sun. Siesta Key was said to be one of the best beaches in the world based on some professional magazines. I loved it. Lucinda and I had a wonderful time playing around with the awsome sand.
State Competition
Regionals
From the beginning of the first semester, we have been visited by my parents’ friends. The family of Hongjie Zheng came from New Jersey right after Christmas and had lunch with us. My mom and dad were glad to see them after so many years, and they had a very nice opportunity to catch-up over lunch. We kids had a fun time together too. One of my Mom’s high school classmates’ sons who is studying in Florida for college came to visit us as well.
Lucinda and Naomi at Siesta Key
Whole Family at Siesta Key
On this spring break trip, we also went to Key Largo for snorkling. I had only snorkled once or twice so we practiced a little near the shore. We saw a large manetee that I could almost touch. We then took a 30 min boat ride to get to the snorkling spot. On the way we saw a family of dolphins jumping out of the water. The water was very blue, surprisingly shallow, but cold since it was still April. However, once we got used to it, then it felt good. We saw beautiful coral reefs and lots of sea creatures like fish, sea stars, baracutas, sea anemone and lots more. It was a very enjoyable experience. We also went to Coconut Grove, where there was a cute little shopping center. I got to buy cheesecake there at the Cheesecake Factory. We walked along the beach; seeing the clear, blue water, felt so refreshing. The park was filled with palm trees, and looked like how most people imagine Florida as. We looked at some historic districts, like Coral Gables, where the old buildings were preserved, showing the old architecture. By the roads were trees that arched over perfectly, providing shade all along the road. We also went to the South Miami Beach in Miami. . The beach was super crowded, packed with people sunbathing everywhere. It’s nearly impossible to find parking, and it took us about 30 minutes just to park. So a little advice: don’t go to South Beach in Miami during spring break.
Lucinda, Dad, and Naomi snorkeling
Naomi loves dolphins (South Miami Beach)
Dad, Naomi, and Lucinda in Coconut Grove
Dad and Naomi at South Beach Miami
I went to Gator Camp again this year and shared my dorm with Maddie Fillmer and Ashley Jones. The theme this year was Hawaiian. My counselors were Dali Lemezan and Alaina Johnson, and our group was called the Surfin’ Sweeties. We practiced gymnastics 8 hours every day. I was in the highest level group, the Tropical Tkachevs. I had the best and very helpful coaches like Alicia, Chrissy, Rhonda, Dali, Robert and Adrian. I was so happy to be chosen as camper of the day for one of the days and at the end of the week, camper of the week.
Naomi and Rhonda at Gator Gymnastics Camp
Maddie, Naomi, and Ashley in their dorm at Gator Gymnastics Camp
I always look forward to going to Anneliese’s lake house. We went there several times this year and I love it, watching the Gator Football games for a couple of times, but the other times were just for fun. Anneliese and I go to different schools so we never really get to see each other. Plus, we both have very busy schedules; she goes to dance every day while I go to gymnastics every day. At their lake house, they have a sail boat and usually we take it out and go for a boat ride.
Having lots of fun on the sail boat with Emma & Anneliese
Naomi and Anneliese at her lake house (we like to switch our clothes)
Also during the summer, I got to go to Maddie’s beach house with part of my Sun Country Team. It is in St. Augustine. We stayed for 1 night and 2 days. The first day we got there around 4pm and we were still able to go to the beach and surf. At first I was a little nervous but then once I did it, I thought it was really easy. I couldn’t stand up for too long though. It was a really fun and enjoying experience.
Naomi surfing
Part of the Sun Country Team at the beach
Our China Trip
Zhengzhou is where my mom’s side of the family lives. I went there with mom while Lucinda was volunteering in Beichuan, Sichuan Province in China. I was so excited to see my cousins and other relatives. My aunt and cousin got a new dog and they named Honey. He is very cute and easy to play with. We stayed with my aunt and went to my grandparents’ house almost every day when we were there. At their house, we played Chinese checkers a lot. I beat my grandma a couple times but my grandpa was really good. I celebrated my birthday in Zhenzhou. My aunt got me a really nice necklace and a bunny statue thing. On my birthday we went to a fancy restaurant and celebrated it there along with my aunt whose birthday is two days after mine. We had a huge cake and before we ate it, they made me wipe frosting across my face because they said that it was good luck according to Chinese culture. This is my first birthday in China, and I got a lot of gifts that I like very much.
My Mom’s Family in Zheng Zhou
Lucinda, Cousin Feng, and Naomi with Honey
Cousin Feng and Naomi are hungry
Aunt and Naomi cut the birthday cake together
Naomi and Grandpa playing Chinese Checkers
Naomi at the gymnastics place in Zheng Zhou
Since I was gone from home and gymnastic practice for so long, I decided to do a little gymnastics at Zhengzhou so I wouldn’t lose everything. I experienced something totally different and unexpected. The gym there was very small and there were only little kids practicing in the gym. They were probably 5 or 6 years old. They had no air conditioning so it was very hot inside the gym. They didn’t have a real vault table and only one bars set. They didn’t have a pit either. I was very surprised to see this. The boys and girls side combined was probably a little smaller than our girls’ side of the gym at Sun Country.
While we were at Zhangjiajie (张家界), we went to Huang Long Cave（黄龙洞）, a very large limestone cave. At Huang Long Cave there were lots of interesting things, such as more than 10,000 stalagmites and stalactites. Some of them were up to 50 feet tall. It had two underwater rivers and four waterfalls in the cave. They used special lights so we could see things in the cave. They also put lights near the stalagmites and stalactites to make them colorful and pretty. Outside of the cave, there was a huge garden with many different crops. There were water wheels as well. It was very pretty. There was also a shopping place and they had beautiful had carved wood animals.
Whole family at Huang Long Cave
Lucinda and Naomi with the wooden carvings
Lucinda and Naomi with the water wheels
Whole family in the garden with lots of squash
We also got to go to Jin Bian Creek (金鞭溪). We hiked the whole trail, about 4 miles long. On the trail we saw lots of different types of animals. The monkeys were all over the place. One was near a pear that had fallen on the ground and the monkey snatched it and quickly ran up a tree. It was so cool. On the way there were also places where you could see Sun Wun Kong’s (or Monkey King, or 孙悟空 in Chinese) face carved into the rocks naturally. The trail was along a river. At certain points we could stop and go into the water. Lucinda and I played there until she got mad at me because her glasses had fallen into the water. Continuing on, there were lots more stones that looked like characters and animals. We walked to the end of the trail where the river turned into a little waterfall and we couldn’t walk any further. By that time, I was almost exhausted.
Whole family at the end of Jin Bian Creek (金鞭溪)
Naomi watching the monkey with the pear
While Lucinda and mom were going to Beichuan (北川), I stayed in Chengdu (成都) with my aunt Feng Ping. After mom came back we went to dinner. The next morning we went to Wu Hou Temple (武侯祠), which is a historic site made for Liu Bei (刘备), a famous general in old China. Outside of the park, my second cousins brought me to this little shopping place and I got little key chains that had our names on it. It was very special.
Naomi and Mom with great aunt and great uncle and Wu Hou Temple
Naomi and her second cousins
Naomi and Mom at the shopping market
Shanghai is our first stop in China. At Shanghai we went to the Expo Museum. After the World Expo in summer 2010 in Shanghai, China, they made some buildings and exhibits into museums so tourists could go visit them later. I was very happy to go inside the China Pavilion. There was a huge waiting line and we finally made it to the top where we could enter. To start off the tour, there was a movie that showed china’s history to today. Then there was an extensive picture called “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” (or 清明上河图), in which the people moved. Next there was a Land of Hope. The trees were lit up with very bright lights and everything was very joyful and happy. Then there was a water part and it was kind of like a water fall except that it was programmed so the water would fall at certain times and then it would make out the word Expo and other patterns as well. At the end there was a very long escalator and it showed a pretty view that allowed us see a large part of the city of Shanghai.
Whole family at China Pavilion
Entrance to the Land of Hope
We went to Suzhou (苏州). One of the places we went was the Tiger Hill (虎丘). It got its name because the hill looks like a crouching tiger. There were two major parts of this park. One of them was the well. There was an old fashioned well with the bucket and the rope and I tried to get some water but it was really hard because the bucket was wood so it floated on the water and I couldn’t get it flipped over on its side to get the water. There was also a temple. It is called Huqiu tower (虎丘塔), also known as the Leaning Tower of China. It is leaning because when they built it, they used half rock and half soil. The tower is 154ft tall and is leaning about 3 degrees and counting.
Lucinda and Naomi at the Humble Well
Whole family at Tiger Tower
Looking back, I had a really busy year. Lots of activities took place including gymnastics, violin, school, and friends. From the experience, I learned that I must do my homework very fast and efficiently, since I do so many things. Every time we go back to China, my Chinese improves significantly by playing with relatives and friends, and by visiting places like was Zhang Jia Jie. I am doing well and am very happy. I hope you are too. On New Years Eve (tonight), my friend that lives a couple houses down will come over to our house. Right after the ball drops, we will jump into our pool as a way to welcome the New Year. The water will be very cold but afterwards the hot chocolate will warm us up. I am really looking forward to the next year to see what other exciting things will happen.
Naomi’s Gymnastics
Lucinda and Naomi at Violin Winter Recital
Happy New Year!!
Naomi Peng