THE LAST CHANCE
What’s the thing that makes you happy all the time and blows out your stress? When I was in Korea, speed skating was that sort of thing that made me feel happy all the time. I was glad to speed skate because it was the only time that I could give some rest for my brain to relax like a bear during the winter sleep. As soon as I stepped into the ice rink, I let my brain rest and followed my instincts. Sports might need the use of your brain but sometimes it’s better to follow your instincts. For example, people speed skate really fast. They are human and can make mistakes and fall down. Due to their speed when they fall down, they could slide into you. In that situation, if you tried to use your head and measure the degree that the person would come into you, eventually you would crash. So sometimes, it’s better to switch off your brain and follow your instincts. I also liked the feeling when the icy cold air passed through me really fast. It felt fresh but my nose hurt a bit because it was freezing cold.
I started speed skating when I was in about 2nd grade. I started a lot later than usual kids who speed skate, so I had a harder time than the other skaters with the age of 7~9. To speed skate, you need to be in the perfect squat posture but you must bend your waist. It MUST be perfect. For it to be perfect, you need a lot of flexibility in your waist and power in your thigh. I endeavored hard with those two parts. I especially strived my best with the flexibility. When I got used to it, my capacity of speed skating improved rapidly. I guess it was because I was flexible enough to speed skate due to the practices and I could understand what the instructor asked me to change. The other members were little kids, so they had some problems with understanding. For example, the teacher asked them to put their weight on their butt, so their butt went down, but they couldn’t understand it. They all looked at the instructor with a silly face.
I made such fast progress, so I moved to the advanced level but not the master one. I practiced hard there. Sometimes, I went to the competitions too. I usually got 3rd place. However, after my 5th competition, I realized how to control myself before the competition to jump over that 3rd place wall. It was like a quirk of fate because when I was practicing for my 6th competition, I heard terrible news. My mom told me this would be my last competition. I was in panic. Thus, I tried harder to get rid of that thought. It was too hard. Later on, I changed my mind. I decided to keep that in my mind so I could remind myself and practice harder to finalize with the first place medal.
It was the day that I had my last competition. I was so nervous that I ran up and down the staircases. I ran the hallway. I did squats several times.
I was sweating like a pig. I watched the clock and I had about 15 minutes left before my competition. My heart was beating so hard as if a thousand elephants were in my heart and dancing. I speeded up to the waiting room and quickly put my skates on. The woman who called out the names, to tell it’s your turn, called my name. I rushed to her. She gave me a white cotton cover for my helmet. She gave different colored helmets to each person so people could identify who they were.
BOOM! With a loud gun sound, the race started. My starting was awesome. It was because of the one that I ran the staircases before the race. My legs were already stretched and familiar with that icy-cold temperature because I was running around the ice rink before the race. Therefore until the 2nd round I was in 1st place. Nevertheless on the last lap, I was so accelerated that I couldn't overcome the centrifugal force. Thus, when I went around the last corner, I went a bit outside of the corner. At that time, the girl who was skating right behind me speeded up to beat me. Then she went to the finishing line faster than me. I was so furious that moment but when I came out of the rink my mom told me “good job Kina!! See? You can do this!! You got 3rd places before but on this time, you got 2nd place which was really close to the 1st place.” Her compliment made a slight smile on my lips. Then I told my mom that when I come back to Korea and go to the college, I will go into the speed skating club and get 1st place
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Welcome to Baja
Whale watching in Baja, Mexico pic.twitter.com/gHw3VaTIcY
— Best Earth Pics (@BestEarthPix) October 24, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The Journey of Love by Amira
The Journey of Love
The beauty of a rose is to be respected,
Yet stray too close to be affected,
By the stinging thorns of evil,
A cut could easily be lethal,
The feeling you have could start out new,
Like the bud of a rose as it grew,
Your mind, your actions and your heart,
Blinded by this loving part,
Because love is like a rubber band,
Two people holding different ends,
Stretching and stretching,
Farther apart,
Until one person finally lets go,
And the person left holding it gets hurt the most.
Business Letter (Body) by Louisa
27th, August 2013
IKEA
Beijing, Chaoyang district CS.CNIKEA@IKEA.COM
Dear Geoffrey Xu (Beijing store manager):
Thank you for giving up your time to read this business letter, as I have some things to say about the rules and regulations at the IKEA store. I claim that rules in the IKEA store should be stricter to people sleeping in the display beds and sofas because this causes shoppers not able to try out the beds they want to buy and sanitary problems throughout the store.
IKEA is well known for its furniture, simplicity, color, usage, etc. IKEA often plays big roles in decorating and theming rooms, kitchens, studies and other parts of the house and office. IKEA also plays a very big role in many bedrooms. I think that one of the most important pieces of furniture in the bedroom is the bed. The bed can be used for sleeping, but it can give the room different feelings depending on its kind of bedding too.
Firstly, I suggest that the rules in the model bedrooms or sample beds and bedding displays to be improved. When I walk into the bedding area of the store, I always find lots of people sleeping, or people lying on the beds when they are not planning to buy the beds. I understand for people to lie down and feel how the bedding or bed feels on their back to choose the right bed they want to buy. At the same time, I do not understand why people sleep on these model beds. There should be strict rules against this action for several reasons. One, the actual customers who want to try the beds out may not get a chance due to other people sleeping on them. Two, the idea of people sleeping on beds displayed on furniture stores is not the correct mindset. Furniture displays are there so people can see what it looks like in a regular room space. If rules do not get stricter, more and more people could sleep on them. Shopping is a tiring thing, but beds are not the place to lie down and sleep on.
Furthermore, people sleeping on beds can cause sanitary problems too. We have unknown, unseen germs that spread in places like IKEA where there are lots of customers daily. Beds can be full of germs, and if people sleep on it, it causes even more germs. In order to keep stores clean, and customers healthy, IKEA may have to have a stricter usage of beds in the store. Also, you may find that bed sheets get worn out easily, dirty, smelly, unclean faster if people actually use them, rather than just touch them with hands or sit on them.
It may be greatly useful to strictly designate an area for beds that can get tried out, and an area for display beds so people do not try out display beds, which will then help stop people sleep on them. These kind of rules are crucial because people sleeping in sample beds can affect customer satisfaction, sanitation and healthiness.
Thank you for your consideration and I await your response.
Sincerely,
IKEA
Beijing, Chaoyang district CS.CNIKEA@IKEA.COM
Dear Geoffrey Xu (Beijing store manager):
Thank you for giving up your time to read this business letter, as I have some things to say about the rules and regulations at the IKEA store. I claim that rules in the IKEA store should be stricter to people sleeping in the display beds and sofas because this causes shoppers not able to try out the beds they want to buy and sanitary problems throughout the store.
IKEA is well known for its furniture, simplicity, color, usage, etc. IKEA often plays big roles in decorating and theming rooms, kitchens, studies and other parts of the house and office. IKEA also plays a very big role in many bedrooms. I think that one of the most important pieces of furniture in the bedroom is the bed. The bed can be used for sleeping, but it can give the room different feelings depending on its kind of bedding too.
Firstly, I suggest that the rules in the model bedrooms or sample beds and bedding displays to be improved. When I walk into the bedding area of the store, I always find lots of people sleeping, or people lying on the beds when they are not planning to buy the beds. I understand for people to lie down and feel how the bedding or bed feels on their back to choose the right bed they want to buy. At the same time, I do not understand why people sleep on these model beds. There should be strict rules against this action for several reasons. One, the actual customers who want to try the beds out may not get a chance due to other people sleeping on them. Two, the idea of people sleeping on beds displayed on furniture stores is not the correct mindset. Furniture displays are there so people can see what it looks like in a regular room space. If rules do not get stricter, more and more people could sleep on them. Shopping is a tiring thing, but beds are not the place to lie down and sleep on.
Furthermore, people sleeping on beds can cause sanitary problems too. We have unknown, unseen germs that spread in places like IKEA where there are lots of customers daily. Beds can be full of germs, and if people sleep on it, it causes even more germs. In order to keep stores clean, and customers healthy, IKEA may have to have a stricter usage of beds in the store. Also, you may find that bed sheets get worn out easily, dirty, smelly, unclean faster if people actually use them, rather than just touch them with hands or sit on them.
It may be greatly useful to strictly designate an area for beds that can get tried out, and an area for display beds so people do not try out display beds, which will then help stop people sleep on them. These kind of rules are crucial because people sleeping in sample beds can affect customer satisfaction, sanitation and healthiness.
Thank you for your consideration and I await your response.
Sincerely,
You Found Me by Amira
A story how there is always someone out there who would look out for you, even if you don’t notice it at all.
“Alix! 100% on the final unit test! Congratulations (again)!” The teacher’s voice boomed across the classroom, directed to a certain tiny girl. Everybody eyes seemed to turn to the emotionless girl in the back of the room. Her straight raven locks fell down to mid-waist, her bangs delicately framing her porcelain face. There, on top of her nose, nestled a pair of enormous Coke bottle glasses.
“Thank you,” She replied blandly, ignoring the whispers that had spread around the classroom. ‘She’s such a nerd.’ Alix glanced slightly at the girl who spoke up, but after contemplating mentally in her head, she remained doing nothing as more of the test scores were announced, no one’s as perfect as Alix’. ‘Look at those ugly glasses!’ She heard another kid whisper. What did they mean by glasses? Just because she wore huge glasses did not mean that she was a nerd. However, unlike most students in this rich academy, she had gotten to this school on a scholarship instead of paying the rather large sum of money that her “commoner” family was unable to produce. She refused to trouble her hard-working parents in paying for the school tuition fees. All she had to do was remain at the top in class and the school would pay everything for her, not including lunch, which she packed herself of course. People would introduce her to be an extremely responsible person, as she never seemed to mess up. She was what people called perfect (minus the extra big glasses), and that’s what made them detest her more. Too bad there was no such things as a perfect person.
~Chapter 1~
Don't let your emotions bottle up; because once you do, you’re going to eventually have to let it all out. –Amira Chou
Alix stared at her belongings that were strewn across the floor, the binders messily ripped apart from the papers. She stared at the wretched bag on the ground before slowly reaching down to get her wallet and walked away. This had become a daily thing, so Alix knew that the belongings had to stay at home. This is everyday of my life… Alix thought, mentally depressed. On the outside, however, her facial expression didn’t even twitch. She knew that once you don’t show reactions, bullies would leave you alone once they got bored. Sighing, she slung the bag over her back before making her way to her house.
“Sister! Sister! Look what I made!” For the first time throughout the entire day, Alix let a smile grace her features as she stared down at her younger brother. He was the joy in her life. He was the only thing she looked forward to when she got home. Alix set her wallet down on the bench before bending down to hug her 9-year-old baby brother. He had drawn a messy drawing of her and him holding hands together with the word ‘family’ messily scrawled on top and presented it proudly with a grin. A frown adorned Alix’ delicate features when she noticed something missing.
“Oh, Adrian. Where are mother and father?” She spoke softly, placing a pale hand on Adrian’s head. His smile wavered slightly.
“Mother and Father don’t take care of me. It’s always Nana and you! You’re my only family!” He retorted. Alix felt her heart tug in pain from how he thought of his own birth parent, and swell at the same time to think that she was so important to him. That feeling left when she felt the words settle down in her.
“Adrian!” She scolded, tapping his head hard.
“Mother and Father have to work, and you know it!” The boy shrugged, looking away, tears welling up in his eyes.
“But none of them show up for any of sister’s important events! Only for Adrian’s!” He cried, hugging Alix’ waist tightly. Alix froze, remembering all those years for her past 13 years of her life where her parents never once came back on time to wish her a happy birthday. Only for Aiden, but she felt it was a need for the boy to celebrate his birthday with his parents, so she had begged every year with all her strength for them to come home. They even forgot what day her birthday was after that! Alix’ lips trembled slightly, but she held strong for her little brother. She couldn’t let her brother know that the wall he leant on for support actually needed more support itself. She couldn’t. That would be unfair for her brother, who was only nine. He was too young and innocent to understand the world around him.
Finally, after returning the hug to her brother a little longer, she let him go and smiled fully at him, one of her special smiles that made her eyes twinkle brightly.
“Let’s go see what Nana’s cooking!” She ushered her now excited brother into the kitchen before telling him that she needed to do homework, leaving her brother to watch their maid cook for the two of them. Nana had been their maid since Alix was 4, when her parents started to become too involved with work and no longer had time to take care of the girl. Honestly, Alix felt that she was closer to Nana than her own mother, which immediately made her feel guilty for thinking that. She stared at the lone picture in her simple room that consisted of a bed, a desk (with a chair), a bookshelf and a door that led to a bathroom. It was a family picture taken when Aiden was just born. That moment seemed to be one of the only moments where her parents looked like normal parents. In the worn-out picture, stood a four-years-old girl holding tightly onto her baby brother, smiling widely. There, her beautiful mother was smiling tiredly, and her father, dressed as a businessman even then, stood professionally next to his wife, letting a small smile slip through his cold demeanor.
Unknowingly, Alix could feel tears slide down her face as she remembered how her family used to be. Faint memories of her when she was 2 and first learned how to read flashed through her head. All her life, she had studied hard to show her parents how smart she was. She aced every test and even skipped grades! All she wanted to do was show to her parents that she was special and yearn for the feeling of being congratulated, but all her parents would do (if they were there,) would stare at her, then walk away as if she had disappointed them somehow. She was indeed a genius, but she never knew being a genius could be so lonely.
~Chapter 2~
Different shouldn’t be used in a bad term. Everybody’s different. Some are just more different than others, and that’s whom we neglect. –Amira Chou
Alix stared ahead as their homeroom teacher made his way into the classroom. As everyone settled down, the seat next to Alix stayed empty. At least I have a window to look at and talk to. She thought sarcastically as she turned her head back to the teacher who was addressing to everyone in the class that there would be a new student. Another one? Alix thought as she stared at the door that she knew the student would come in from. Automatically, this new student would most likely find a group to join, and classmates would welcome him/her, and they would automatically fit in. Unlike herself, who would most likely be taunted again if she spoke. Alix could feel something churning where her heart was, as if it was twisting in knots tighter and tighter, and her stomach seemed to burn. Was this… jealousy? Alix brushed that thought off. She was raised through discipline, not emotions. Of course it couldn’t be jealously. Why would she be jealous anyway? The new kid would probably just join a group and then have someone to hang out with during break, or eat with during lu- Alix cut off her trail of thoughts. What was she doing again? The door suddenly creaked open, and the class quieted down, waiting in anticipation to see who it was. A black shoe made it’s way into sight, before a tall boy entered the classroom. His black hair swept over his onyx eyes as he scanned the room, ignoring the gawking and drooling girls.
“My name is Hayato. I come from Japan. Nice to meet you.” He spoke coolly before the teacher could utter a word, stuffing his hands in his pocket as he observed each and every person, as if deeming them worthy of his presence or not. There was a long silence before the teacher spoke up.
“Why don’t we all stand up and introduce ourselves and say something they like? Then ask a question to Hayato here?” The teacher asked nervously, seeing all the sudden fangirls.
“Hi! I’m Hana! I like-“ She twirled her hair flirtatiously. “-Cute things! And are you single?” Alix rolled her eyes. It was typical for the girl to try to act cute and flirt. How was he so popular anyway? There was nothing cool about him anyway. He was only from Japan. Hayato rolled his eyes, too.
“You’re disgusting, trying to flirt with me without even getting to know me. People like you shouldn’t be here. But to answer your question, I am, in fact, single.” He sighed.
“He responded to me~” She whispered to herself, her face tinted a shade of bright red, completely oblivious to what Hayato said. Hayato growled lowly to himself, that was only picked up by Alix’ sensitive ears. She mentally chuckled to herself. Too bad for this guy! Looks like he’s going to have to deal with the rest of the dense female population for the school year, and the next after! More people stood up to introduce themselves one by one, each failing to try and impress the boy, until finally, everyone except for Alix. Everybody’s eyes seemed to burn holes into her body as she slowly stood up. Staring emotionlessly at the boy, she started with her introduction.
“I am Alix. Don’t call me anything besides that. I like very little things. For my question…” She paused. “… Do you get good grades? If not, then I do not have any interest in you.” She said in a dead tone, neatly seating herself before Hayato could answer. The room quieted, before someone shouted out,
“Nerd! Say something cooler, or no one’s going to like you! Wait- never mind! Everybody already dislikes you!” Alix did not even flinch as the class started to laugh. The whole entire class started to turn into an uproar, but all Alix did was stare ahead at the teacher as the teacher tried to settle the class down from that outburst. Suddenly, Hayato spoke up, silencing everybody in the classroom,
“Alix? Is that you?”
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
FIRST TIME AT THE BEACH by Andrew L.
<<FIRST TIME AT THE BEACH>>
In everyone’s life, a chance to go to the beach is just essential. It is a wonderful place to go to and enjoy your day. I was born in the US, in Los Angeles, where the ocean waves surge against the Los Angeles coast. At that time period, I was still 2 and a half years old. I would spend my entire time everyday staying at my house, playing with my toys. All I knew about and all my knowledge, was simply “trapped” inside my house. I had absolutely no idea what joy was even there in the outside world. One of my highlights of my entire life was the first time I actually visited a beach.
It all started on this sunny day, the first time when my dad actually took me out to play. Full of joy and excitement, I dashed out of my house with my dad. The fresh air that flowed into my nose, and the wind that breezed across my face, gave me the feeling that this was going to be a very special day.
My dad and I arrived at this place where there were these tiny little bits of things that looked really similar to rocks spread everywhere, and this “huge swimming pool” that seemed limitless, stood right next to it. I took a step into the tiny rocks, noticing that they were much softer than ordinary ones. My toes sunk into the small bits, making me feel really comfortable. This was completely a different world than the one I used to be in!
My dad told me to have fun and play around here, but he also told me not to touch the water. As he walked away to rest on a couch, full of curiosity, I disobeyed his orders and charged toward the body of water. Just at the same time, an enormous wave rushed right towards me like a rough and hard wall, knocking me to the ground. My dad ran towards the place I fell and picked me up. Tears of fear went gushing out of my eyes, but at the same time, I felt like this was one of the best moments of my entire life! That was the very first time I actually went into the ocean!
Everyone has a first time on everything. Thinking back to the moment I first came to a real beach, I feel really different comparing my life now and my life back then.
My First Day of ISB by Hyo Jin
My First Day of ISB
I was amazed at the size of the school. It was huge, twice as big as my old school. When I went in, the school was smaller than I expected. But, soon I noticed that it was only half of the school that I saw.
In the computer orientation, I got the MacBook. This was the first computer that I owned for myself. The computer was very new to me. So I had some trouble in my class.
“Follow me,” said my buddy on block C, enrichment time. I had no idea what “enrichment” was. There was no “enrichment” period in my old school. Instead, we had five tests in a week. We had tons of thick textbooks and no computers. It was easier to study in ISB than my old school.
After school, I had to go to a bus. I regret that I did not ask for help. When I came out, I noticed that I wandered around the whole school. Thankfully, the bus was still there in the parking lot. The next day, I thought of a way to go out easily, it was to follow the crowd that was going to the bus.
I learned that ISB was a big school. I like many things in ISB, like getting computers for myself, and the teachers were not so strict, but the best thing that I like is that there are not so many tests as my old school.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
"God Our Father..."
“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessing, A-men, A-men.”
My family always used a traditional prayer at every meal; mother or father would sit at the head of the table and speak about how thankful we are for the specific gifts that we have been granted. This list of blessings God granted us would conclude with the phrase, Amen. Then it was time to eat. This is important to my parents, and religion played an important part in the forming of mealtime rituals in my house. When I started my own family, however, we took parts of my parent’s influence, and that of Joanne’s parents, and started our own ritual.
We often start our meal in the kitchen – the place where we gather most in our home. I assume the reason is because we want to involve whoever is cooking in the social aspects of pre-meal entertainment. I am often cooking and feel fortunate that we've lived in homes with kitchens large enough to hold many loved ones.
After the initial courses of the meal are eaten in the social setting of the kitchen, we often move to the dining room to eat the remainder of our meal. During more formal dining engagements, we begin the meal by taking time to go around the table and say one thing we are thankful for. This is a bit of a deviation from the prayer of my parents, but it serves the same purpose. Usually if the meal is in honor of a person, say for a birthday, we will take our turn to say something nice about the person. If it is a specific holiday, we take our time to speak about something we are most thankful for at that time.
Years ago, probably due to the influence of Parker’s nursery school, we began another tradition. It has spread beyond our dining table and on to much of our extended family as well. When the sharing of blessings is finished, a young voice, usually a Bennett or a Devon, begins; holding hands, we follow.
“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessing, A-men, A-men.”
My family always used a traditional prayer at every meal; mother or father would sit at the head of the table and speak about how thankful we are for the specific gifts that we have been granted. This list of blessings God granted us would conclude with the phrase, Amen. Then it was time to eat. This is important to my parents, and religion played an important part in the forming of mealtime rituals in my house. When I started my own family, however, we took parts of my parent’s influence, and that of Joanne’s parents, and started our own ritual.
We often start our meal in the kitchen – the place where we gather most in our home. I assume the reason is because we want to involve whoever is cooking in the social aspects of pre-meal entertainment. I am often cooking and feel fortunate that we've lived in homes with kitchens large enough to hold many loved ones.
After the initial courses of the meal are eaten in the social setting of the kitchen, we often move to the dining room to eat the remainder of our meal. During more formal dining engagements, we begin the meal by taking time to go around the table and say one thing we are thankful for. This is a bit of a deviation from the prayer of my parents, but it serves the same purpose. Usually if the meal is in honor of a person, say for a birthday, we will take our turn to say something nice about the person. If it is a specific holiday, we take our time to speak about something we are most thankful for at that time.
Years ago, probably due to the influence of Parker’s nursery school, we began another tradition. It has spread beyond our dining table and on to much of our extended family as well. When the sharing of blessings is finished, a young voice, usually a Bennett or a Devon, begins; holding hands, we follow.
“God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessing, A-men, A-men.”
Monday, October 7, 2013
Saturday, October 5, 2013
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