Haverhill Swim Meet

今天我去游泳比赛。我游的是个人混合泳，蛙泳，蝶泳，和自由泳接力，我最喜欢蛙泳。我先游了个人混合泳。我今天游的最不喜欢这个了因为有仰泳。我知道我的仰泳不好，会慢，所以我的手很快。我仰泳最后怕头会撞到池边。但是我每次都会怕所以我没办法。我就慢了一秒。最后很累，但是我努力往前游了。出游泳池的时候，我的脚很酸和我在大喘气。我努力了所以我满意了。

下一个是蛙泳。我的教练叫我去游蛙泳了。蛙泳是我最喜欢的所以我很高兴。跳进水里快游错动作了。我发现了然后我改变了我的错误。我停下来，慢了一秒。还好，因为我第二，第一的人是我们组的。我下一个是蝶泳。我有很多朋友不喜欢蝶泳、但是我很喜欢蝶泳。我不喜欢游很长的距离都是蝶泳。蝶泳会很累的。我游得挺好呢。但是最后很累。 游完了还要游一个。

我最后要游的是个自由泳接力。我跳进水里我就开始努力游得快。我的手动的飞快。妈妈说我游的也很快。我们不是第一，但是我努力往前游得快就对我自己好。今天算游得快了，因为我进步了！

JJ's Figure Skating Competion

Today JJ had a skating competition at the “New England Sports Center”. It was pretty early in the morning. JJ was skating to “A Whole New World”. It was from the movie Aladdin. What was cool was that there was a princess in the movie named Jasmine, and her name is Jasmine too. My sister had a sparkly white dress and a bun. She was last in her group. She was the ONLY Nashoba Valley Olympian in her group (Group B). There were even people from Arkansas and Texas!

After warm-ups, it was time for the judges to watch the skaters. JJ was last so I had to wait a LLOONNGG time. Finally, it was time for JJ. I was really nervous! What if she fell? But then they said her name and I watched attentively. She skated gracefully with her head held high, and arms straight. She circled and I waited for her spiral. She lifted her leg high. She looked so beautiful! Her dress shimmered. At the end, she did a pirouette and a pose. I clapped as loud as I could. She came off the ice and we all ran to hug her. I didn’t really care if she got first place, I just couldn’t believe she was on ice in front of so many judges and people!

When she got her jacket on, she asked, “What place am I?” My dad said he didn’t know, so we went to check. The score wasn’t up yet, so we waited ... and waited ... and waited. Finally, a girl came with a bunch of papers. She started taping them on the wall. I leaned over, and saw Jasmine Lai. It was right next to…first place! JJ and I jumped up and down! I couldn’t believe it! The first time JJ ever was in a competition she won! We went to get her medal. It was blue, my favorite color! She won five points for her team. There was a stand that had first place, second place and third place! JJ stood on the very top. We finished taking pictures, and sat down. JJ was admiring her medal. I was very proud of her!

Wentworth Swim Meet

On Monday I had another swim meet! It was against the Wentworth Dolphins. The pool was in New Hampshire, near the beach. It was a very scenic place. I thought the water was going to be salt water, but luckily it wasn’t. I swam every stroke but breaststroke!! I was going to swim 25 free, 25 back, 25 fly and a 25 in a free relay. I wish I was swimming 50’s.

First I swam 25 free. I was in heat 3. I tried to dive very far, and my arms went very fast. I didn’t look back, but when I looked ahead, I could only see the wall. I reached for the wall and I won!! I was the heat winner! That was very good for me since this was the first time I ever swam 25 free not including a relay. My next one would be backstroke, which I really didn’t like.

I didn’t like backstroke because it felt uncomfortable on my back. And I always got water in my nose, and I was afraid of hitting my head on the wall. I could count now from the flags, but I was still scared. Finally, it was time for backstroke (not that I wanted to do backstroke, I just wanted to do it, to get it over with). What was scary was that Brie was doing it too, and she was REALLY good! I still wanted to win, but I wasn’t sure, because I wasn’t good at it. Luckily I was in the widest lane, so it would be hard to crash. I was surprised when I swam, I went pretty straight! I made sure my arms were moving quickly, but at the end I kept my arm out just in case I crashed into the wall. I was second! Brie was first, of course. I was good, because no one could beat Brie, but when my grandma told me that I was neck to neck with her until the very, end I was very surprised and proud! She said that I only had to do one more stroke, and then Brie wouldn’t beat me. Well, I would rather win than hit my head, but my mom said it was ok. I couldn’t wait until fly!

When it was time for fly, I found out that Jill was doing it too! No! Then I had NO chance of winning. She was ten, turning eleven. She could even beat Brie at fly! The girl from Wentworth was right next to me, and her brother kept yelling, “Win! Win!” But the truth is, I didn’t think she would win. I tried hard, but my grandma said Jill was WAY ahead of me. I wasn’t that surprised when the girl from Wentworth was last. I couldn’t wait until the relay! Megan was in it with me.

The Night Before Play Date

I can’t wait until tomorrow! We are going to Tristan’s house to give him the mew that was on a rain check. It came in on-uh oh, my mom told me to do something else. Goodbye!

Katia's Birthday Party

On Sunday we went to Katia’s birthday party. I was a little bit excited, because Lada was going to be there. It was at “Jump on In”. JJ was going to be there, but my mom and dad weren’t staying.
We got there pretty early, but Katia was already there. Katia was Russian, and her baby sister’s name was Nastia! Like Nastia Liukin (I think that’s her name). It was really cool. BTW Nastia Liukin is a gymnast from the Olympics! Lada came later. We went into a gym room “A”. It had an obstacle course and two HUGE slides. There was also a big bouncy thing. Lada wanted to race down the huge slides, so I went with her. The slide was very fast. It was scary. I don’t get used to scary things that quickly. Then she wanted to race me on the obstacle course. I didn’t want to race, I wanted to get used to it first. There was a place you had to climb, then a place you had to squeeze (I just made it through that) and a tunnel. Then there was a wall to get to the slides. It was like a rock wall, but easier to climb. Lada beat me, but I beat her the second time. I raced my sister, and I beat her too! We went into the bouncy thing, but it wasn’t bouncy at all. I went in the obstacle course a few times. That was the most fun to me. Then the ref called us to go into room B. Lada said it was basically the same. I thought it was even more fun. There was a slide for two people and another obstacle course. For both rooms, it was actually kind of boring after you tried everything. Because you knew what was going to happen. All the climbing made me hot and sweaty and hungry. We finished playing, and we had pizza and cake. Finally!

While I was eating, my mom came in. I wanted to ask if we could go to Katia’s house, where Lada was going but my mom immediately changed my mind when she said we were going to Sushi after! I immediately stopped eating. I first wanted to go to Katia’s house, but then Sushi is my favorite food!!!!!!! (I even capitalized it!) I wanted to have Sushi, but Lada really wanted me to go to Katia’s house, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by saying no. My mom and dad and grandma were all hungry, so my mom was the “bad guy” for JJ and said no, we were going to Sushi. I was very, very, very happy! We went and my mom ordered lots of salmon and some tuna. Mm mm! It was delicious as usual! JJ had some too. I was stuffed. The Sushi was the best thing the whole day. I wish I could have more… my day was very fun! Because of the Sushi, of
course!

Playdate with Jasmine and Tristan

On Saturday I went to Tristan’s house to deliver the mew. The mew was so adorable I didn’t want to give it away, but I gave Tristan a rain check so I had to give it to him. But I was happy we got the mew, so we could have another play date! This was the third one this month. I was excited, because we were going swimming. I LOVE swimming! Sadly, my mom wasn’t staying.

When we got there, I rang the doorbell and waited. But I didn’t have to wait long, because they were as excited as we were. JJ started jumping up and down when she saw them. I wanted to but I was holding my laptop AND the mew. When we went in, Tristan instantly asked, “Where’s the mew?” I dug it out of the bag, and Tristan and Jasmine went crazy! Jasmine was like, “Awww, its SOO cute!” I agreed it was very cute. Tristan ran over to the couch and we followed. We saw the paper roller coaster they made at camp. Then I saw a bunch of clay pokemons. I saw a weird one that I didn’t know, and I asked Jasmine. She said it was one that she made up. She said its pet peeve was pill bottles. Then the mew started saying, “What’s my pet peeve? What’s my pet peeve?” It was really cute. Then we started to get bored again so Jasmine asked if we wanted to play and we said yes. We played in the basement for a while, and then I remembered that we brought our bathing suits to go swimming!

We got our swimsuits out. I got on my new swimsuit that was blue. My favorite color is blue, so I liked it. (JJ’s looked the best to me). It was cloudy out, but I didn’t care. Bryan was going swimming too. I wanted to play Marco Polo again, but it started raining, and Bryan didn’t go in the pool, and no one wanted to play Marco Polo! Jasmine and I dived off the board together, not hugging each other but holding hands. Then me and Tristan and Jasmine held hands and jumped off. We tried to swim holding hands but it was hard. It was very awkward. It was also fun. Then it started to rain harder! It was fun! I was dancing happily in the pool. Unfortunately everyone else wanted to go in. So I had to go in even if I didn’t want to. Actually, swimming wasn’t as fun as I thought.

When we got in and changed, JJ noticed the paper fashion that Jasmine did, so we started to do paper fashion. I wasn’t good at it at all, so my fashion was bad. JJ’s fashion and Jasmine’s were really good. Tristan didn’t want to do it, and I was already done with two, so I wanted to play Ticket to Ride with Tristan. When I said that, everyone wanted to play. So in the end, Bryan, Jasmine, JJ, Tristan and I played. As usual I was yellow. But JJ was red. I was lucky, I kept two of my tickets, and I got so-so cards. I had the longest route, but Tristan won. I couldn’t believe it! I actually thought I was going to win. But it was still enjoyable. Out of all the things we did that day is Ticket to Ride, but I was happy that Tristan finally got the mew after a really long time of waiting!

Beach Club Swim Meet

Today was my swim meet at Beach Club. It was against Beach Club and Wentworth. I was swimming an I.M., 25 breaststroke, 25 fly and a 100 freestyle relay. My I.M. came very soon. Tammy told us it was a 33 yard pool which surprised me. I was in heat 2, I think, and I was first place in my heat. Jill was in the heat before me. My time was 213. While swimming I looked ahead but I didn’t see anyone. But I tried to beat my time. It is hard to figure what it really was, because it was 33 yards. But I earned points for my team because I was first place. I hoped that I would do as good in my other events, because the other team was pretty fast, and Jill was swimming in my heat for most of the events.

My next event was 25 (actually 33 yard) breaststroke. I was excited because breaststroke was my favorite stroke, but I was nervous because Jill was swimming against me. I tried hard, but she beat me and I was third place. My time was 30.90. It wasn’t that bad, but I planned to do better on my fly.

This time, I was swimming against Brie, Jill, Megan and someone from Beach Club. I was already 0.34 seconds faster than Megan, but Jill and Brie were WAY faster than me. I kicked as hard as I could, but Jill just got farther and farther. She was first, Brie was second and I was third. It looked like I beat Megan by more than a second. I was very proud, because Megan used to swim better fly than me! I could barely walk after it though. Unluckily, my relay was right after it.

Mia , Mackenzie Drew and Jenna Bailey were in my relay. I was glad I was second so that I didn’t have to dive. The block was slippery and it looked like it was slanting straight down. At least it was better than NO blocks at Shirley. I also have big feet which are good for pushing off the wall with. We were already ahead, and I stretched us even more ahead. But then someone (I’m not going to say the name) slowed us down a bit. We were still first. All the relays I’ve been in this year are first! I didn’t ask for the time though. I was very happy, but very tired. I really wanted our team to win!

Play Date with Maggie and Gigi

On Sunday JJ’s friend Maggie and her sister, Gigi came over. The cool thing is that Maggie’s mom’s name was Christine. We were going to go biking in the morning, and then go to the town beach. I was excited about having ice cream and swimming at the beach. Gigi was on a tag along and the rest of us were biking by ourselves. JJ and Maggie were biking slowly, so I had to bike slowly. My mom told me to be first, but then I was too fast, so I had to slow down. While I was biking fast, it was fun. It was a bit hot out but then when I was fast the wind blew on face. Finally we got to the ice cream store. I was ready to get a lot of cold ice cream!

On the way to the ice cream store, all of us saw there was a darling and very, very teeny and tiny Chihuahua that was Soooo cute!! She was as small as my mom or dad’s hand. Her name was Chewy, and the owner said she was so small, that if she was out in the yard, the eagles would eat her. What was even more surprising though, was that she was one year old, and she would never get any bigger! Awww! She was so adorable! I couldn’t stop looking at the cute little puppy. She didn’t look like a real puppy, she looked like a robot. My mom said her legs look like chicken legs and I have to agree. The puppy had tiny claws, even smaller than my nails. She jumped on me when I sat down. Well, she tried to, but she was too small. I wanted to know how small her tongue was. When I stuck my hand out, she licked it, but it didn’t feel anything! She was also very soft. She was the most adorable and sweet puppy I’ve ever seen (and the smallest). I told my mom I was going to get the same puppy. Gigi was SO happy, because she loved Chihuahuas. After we all petted her, we went to get ice cream. I got an Orange Pineapple to share with my mom. The ice cream was delicious. I felt a lot cooler. We biked back and went home. Biking was fun, but to me, swimming was the best!!

After lunch, the four of us got to play a while before going to the beach. Maggie and JJ were playing together, so I played with Gigi. We took the croutons up to my room and sat on my bed. Gigi was very cute, just like the Chihuahua. Gigi saw my Webkinz Chihuahua and immediately fell in love. She picked up the dog and asked, “Can I have it?” I let her have it, but I wasn’t sure her mom would let her. So we went down and asked her mom. . When Christine saw the dog, she joked, “I think the Chihuahua we saw is smaller than that!” I laughed. That might be true! I told Christine that it expired. She told Gigi, “If Christine lets you, you can have it.” I said yes, and that it was a late birthday present. Gigi was very delighted. I was happy too. She named him Tango. We went back upstairs with Tango. I had a stuffed animal, Eeyore, and we decided to find more clothes for him. I didn’t need any clothes for him, Jasmine wanted clothes for her stuffed animal. We found a Santa outfit, but that was it. We found a Santa hat too. Then I had an idea. Eeyore didn’t have to be a boy! I would be kind of weird, actually VERY weird, but we decided to try it. I found two dresses for him-oops, I mean her. It was hilarious. Eeyore didn’t look that happy, but we left him in a summer dress that was too small for JJ. I was laughing as we ate some more croutons and got ready to go to the beach (which I found out was actually a lake-or pond?).

At the beach, Gigi had a Speedo suit that was pink. I wanted to match her so I wore my team suit. Maggie had the same colors, but it was not Speedo, it was Nike. JJ’s was different from all of us. We brought toys, but we didn’t use them. I wanted to get out of the water and use them, but I was like a lifeguard for Gigi. But when she got out, I wanted to stay in. We found snails too. Live ones, I think, but I was not sure. Gigi, Maggie, JJ and I were playing together. I dunked JJ when she climbed on my back. It was fun, but I wanted to be dunked. I was the oldest one so no one could dunk me. My friend Megan was there, and so was her brother, Ben. Ben started splashing me, so I chased him, only far enough so that he couldn’t splash Gigi. Then he came back and did it again. Then I got mad at him. I went under water and grabbed his leg. Then he got scared and stopped. It was actually pretty fun. I was in the water the whole time except when it was time to go. The bad thing was that Gigi and Maggie had to leave. So we said goodbye, and I hoped that we could have another play date soon (hopefully Christine and my mom are reading this). I went back in the water and Ben started splashing me again! I got mad and grabbed his leg, holding on to him until he said, “I surrender!” I knew he would start annoying me again, but I wanted to get out anyway. So I got out and had strawberries and cupcakes. The strawberries were good. Luckily the strawberries were sweet, not sour. I dried myself and it was time to go. I really want another play date, oh, and I really want a petite Chihuahua like Chewy! The day was VERY fun but I was tired.

聚会

前天我的妈妈和爸爸的朋友们来到我们家。我妈妈的朋友连炜阿姨有一个孩子。她的名字叫妞妞。她两岁了。她很可爱。她也可以说话。我跟她玩了很久。我带她去三楼玩。我也让她爬到我的背上骑马。她很可爱也很好玩。

一个很好笑的事情是最后我们拍照的时候。我拍了一些好的。赵凯以为我们拍完了, 所以他开始玩ANGRYBIRDS。我看到他玩、我就拍了。但是我拍的有点晚了。张昕把他的脚抬起来、象他要踢赵凯。赵凯一下子就缩起来。那个照片很好玩！我们晚上吃了龙虾。很好吃。我玩的很累，所以晚上睡的很好。

JJ's Dance（妹妹跳舞)

今天我要去看我的妹妹跳舞。她跳芭蕾。我很想看她，因为我的爸爸说她跳的不错。我以前也跳过芭蕾。这是她第一次跳舞。我很高兴！我看到我妹妹跳得很好。她不是只跳芭蕾，她也跳爵士。她跳的很漂亮。姿势很好看。她也跳的很高兴得样子。我觉得她跳最好的是爵士。我很高兴我的妹妹跳舞只跳了一个星期就跳的哪么好呀。我妹妹肯定是很认真听老师的话。她们已经学了两个舞蹈。她跳的真好呀！

Learning Chinese (学中文）

今天我想用中文写日记。我的妹妹出上芭蕾课。我的妹妹在家很吵闹，所以她不在家，家里就显得很安静。我不喜欢她吵闹，但是她不在我会很郁闷。现在还好、我的奶奶可以跟我玩。我电脑上有中文、我就可以练习中文。我现在也可以用中文发行给我奶奶和姑姑发行。中文很好玩！

Writing Chinese (中文）

我的名字是赖芷婷。你也可以叫我婷婷。我很喜欢游泳。我也喜欢弹钢琴和吹笛子。但是我不喜欢做KUMON。我10岁了。我和我的妹妹在跟我们的奶奶读中文。我们还不会写中文。我的家住在美国。我喜欢我的学校。这是我第一次在电脑上用中文。我有很多朋友。

BoBo (宝宝）

We are taking care of the cutest dog in the world! Her owner went on a vacation. The dog’s name is Bobo. In Chinese, that means precious. She is a pug, and she is very small. She is 4 years old. Her ears are the cutest part of her. They are black, and velvety. When she smiles, they go back, and when she runs, her ears flop.She can also smile. When she is just sitting down and my mom says her name, she looks up and sticks her tongue out from the side of her mouth. Then she smiles. She is so cute!

The thing she does most is sleep. Well, she goes to the bathroom a lot. But when she sleeps, she likes to sleep by the shoes at the very bottom of the staircase. I think it would stink by the shoes. But she’s a dog so she won’t mind. She is also snores SOO loud. I always tire her out so she likes to nap. She sleeps all day, and she doesn’t have to do any chores like I do! (But then she doesn’t get to go on vacation!) She sleeps all day, and then she sleeps at night too. She must be VERY sleepy.

When she is awake (she never is until my mom is home) she follows my mom everywhere. And she even follows my mom to the bathroom! When my mom gets home, she jumps all over my mom and licks her. My mom thinks that is gross, but I say that that’s just the way dogs show how much they like you. She likes my mom the most. When it’s time to sleep (nighttime), she crawls under my mom’s bed instead of going to her bed. Even if my mom is just sitting on the bed, Bobo thinks it’s time for bed. She is the BEST dog in the world!!(My mom calls her stinky, I think she smells good.)

Laser Tag

Today was Tristan’s birthday party. The party was at Laser Zone. Jasmine and Tristan were playing in the Thriller Zone so we joined them. There were three big slides, and I liked the middle one the best. I liked it because I felt safe and it looked the fastest. The thing that I liked the least was the rock wall that you had to climb to get up to the slides. I wasn’t very good at it. Laser Zone was a fun place so far, but I couldn’t wait until the cake and Laser Tag.

Finally it was time for Laser Tag. My code name was CC. JJ’s code name was…JJ. I wanted it to be boys against girls, but my sister was on the opposite team. It was me, Connie, Jasmine and Tristan for the green team. I was #04. My light blue shirt glowed, but my shoes were glowing so hard. It looked really cool. I wished I had worn darker clothes. We got huge and very heavy vests. The laser guns were attached to the vests. The laser gun was a two hand motion. I kind of liked that, because I could hold the gun steady and I was ready at all times. I was getting even more excited. The lady introduced us to our bases. There were huge obstacles that glowed. But that was good because you could hide behind them. She showed us how to get points. I was excited to start. Then a microphone said, “The game has begun”. I saw some red starting to come over. The green team was hiding and shooting people, so we were getting a lot of points. The first game we won. The second game I was braver to go over to the red base. When the thing said I was invincible, I went and got a couple five hundreds. Then, I saw JJ and shot her and shot her. Then my invincibility was terminated. I went back and recharged. This game we won again! I had a lot of fun, but there were only two games. Waa!

For lunch we had ONE slice of pizza. And the pizza was very small! We had a chocolate cake and we went to play games. I didn’t really like the cake. We each got six tokens to play games. I earned tickets, and with the tickets I got two tiny airplanes for prizes. Another fun thing we did is a train on the huge slide. We connected hands on the big slides. I liked to be the caboose because I didn’t have to worry about someone grasping on my shoulders. That was very fun too! The day was very fun. I really want to play laser tag again. I was bothering my mom with that sentence. I really want to play laser tag again!

Pool Party in Vicky's House

Yesterday I went to my best friend Jasmine’s house. It was a pool party. I was very excited because I hadn’t been to her house in a LONG time. We were playing around on the computers first. Luckily I brought my laptop. While we were playing, Vicky painted my sisters’ nails. When my sister was done, I wished I could have got my nails painted too. It wasn’t just a solid color it had very pretty designs on it. But before I could ask to get my nails painted, but Connie came and we started to play again. Playing was fun, but I really couldn’t wait until we got in the pool!

After lunch, we changed into our swim suits. I brought my blue one. I was the last one to go in the pool. I was scared that the water would be cold. I was going to dive off the board, but I got scared. Then my mom yelled, “Bryan, push her off!” Then I didn’t want that to happen so I screamed and dived off. The water wasn’t too cold. But I still shivered. Then Jasmine called out, “My dad is going to jump! Everyone get out of the pool!” I hopped out and Bryan dived. He only made a tiny splash. I was surprised.
Later, we started playing “Marco Polo”. At first I didn’t want to be “IT” but then Bryan got me. It was actually pretty fun. Then I got tagged right before mama came in the pool. I heard a splash and knew my mom got in. I started crying mama! Bryan kept on tapping on my back and I finally turned around and said, “I’m ONLY tagging my mom”. Finally I tagged her. When it was one of the kids, I liked to spray them. Once I was even brave enough to tap on Bryan’s foot when he was it. The adults liked to sacrifice me, but every single time I got away. I liked being it, so I purposely tried to be it. I had a strategy to catch Bryan. I would call Marco, and I would hear his low voice coming from the same place. I would reach the wall and I knew he pushes off diagonally, so I do that quickly. If I am fast enough, I will get him before I get to the other wall, but if I am not fast enough I get to the wall and push off horizontally. It was fun. At the very end of the day, my mom didn’t let me get my nails painted so I was mad. I really wanted them painted, not just a solid color. The rest of my day was really fun!

4th of July Party

On July the fourth, my family and I went to the Hendleys’ house for Independence Day. I was excited, even though I didn’t know there were fireworks. I was wearing my bathing suit. Bobo came too. The boys started yelling Bobo! Bobo! There was a pool that my sister immediately went into. At first I didn’t want to get in the pool. But then my mom forced me to. I used my (big) toes to see how cold the water was. It was freezing!! I yelped and hopped into the freezing cold water. I swam around. It was very boring because I had nothing to do. So I got out and started going on the water slides. JJ didn’t like the water slides because she was whining that the water was too cold. I liked it though.

For dinner we had barbecue. There was YUMMY SCRUMPTIOUS chicken wings and ribs. Mmm mm mmm! After that, we got water balloons. A guy in a green shirt threw a water balloon at Topher. Topher got mad and then there was a war. I used my two balloons wisely. I threw one at the green guy since I didn’t like him. He was mean to kids. The next one I threw at Topher just for fun. I liked the green guy even less when he started throwing kids in the pool. Luckily,I didn’t get wet at all. He even threw people in when they didn’t have their bathing suit
on. I really didn’t like the green guy.

After dinner we watched fireworks. My favorite was the Medusa. None of them were really cool. I still had fun anyway. We got glow sticks to bring home. It was very fun!

Beach, Firework on July 3rd!

Today is the day before Independence Day! We went to Plymouth for fireworks. We went with
Andy, my mom’s coworker.
First we went to the beach. The water was cold, but I still went in. The first time I went in, I didn’t put my head under. The second time, only Katelyn and I were in the water. We were playing a fun game called Water Dare. Someone had to dare you to do something in the water. If you didn’t do it, you had to do the chicken dance. (I don’t wanna be a chicken…) I liked the chicken dance, but I also liked the dares. Later we got out and tried to bury ourselves. JJ and Julie both got buried. Then We went back for the barbecue. I couldn’t wait for the fireworks.

The fireworks were at the beach. This was the first time I ever saw fireworks at the beach so I was very excited! I was also very sad because we had to leave Bobo at Andy's house. What if she ran away or someone stole her? I was very worried. But when I got to the beach I forgot about everything. There was a HUGE bonfire near us. We didn’t want to sit in the sand, so my dad had to go back and get the blanket. When he came back, he said he saw a coyote in the neighbors’ lawn. This made me worry about Bobo even more. Luckily, my dad said he tied Bobo to the deck upstairs.
Suddenly, the fireworks started. The sky was filled with flashing colors. It looked like magic! It was so colorful. The wonderful fireworks made me forget about everything around me. My favorite was the big ones that shot high up in colors and then exploded into thousands of tiny golden sparks. Down by the big bonfire, there were some “serious fireworks”. Andy was saying that a lot. The sky was filled with “serious fireworks”. I was lying down and enjoying the fourth of July happily.

But when my mom said it was time to go, I didn’t want to go, even though it was very late at night. When we were walking back, I started to get anxious about Bobo. JJ and I were REALLY scared. When I searched on the deck, she wasn’t there. Oh no! Where did she go? I heard barking, and I saw Bobo inside! She was safe! I ran in and hugged her. July fourth turned out perfect!

Research of San Francisco: My Summer Vacation Destination

San Francisco is located in California, U.S.A. It is about 46.7 square miles. There are about 808,977 people. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the twelfth most populous in the U.S.A. San Francisco was ranked the sixth largest television market in the U.S.A. in the year of 2009-2010. San Francisco is one of the most important cities on the west coast. It has a big history and lots of landmarks. San Francisco has a very amazing interesting history. CA is roughly one-fifth Chinese. San Francisco has many landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Alcatraz Prison. San Francisco was the first to open Levi Strauss & co. and Ghirardelli Chocolate. Also, they are the first city to offer universal health care. San Francisco is a perfect tourist attraction.

The gold rush of California became a big part of history for San Francisco. The beginning of the gold rush started in 1848. The gold rush caused lots of immigration from lots of different countries. From 1848 to 1849 the population of San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 2,500. Chinese immigrated too. From then on until 1920 San Francisco had the biggest city west of the Mississippi River. Although many people were happy with the gold, the people caused lots of trouble. They started stealing gold from other people. San Francisco made new laws and a new court. When they wanted to get people out, they limited the number of Chinese men, women and children that could fly to CA. In 1855, after the gold rush, a ship (they don’t know which) brought cholera epidemic. In 1900 a ship brought bubonic plague. Fifteen blocks of Chinatown was quarantined. They had lots of money now, but not much later. The gold rush was one of the biggest attractions in the U.S.A.

The major earthquake that struck San Francisco was a big problem. The earthquake happened at 5:12 am on April 18, 1906. Many people were asleep, and the head fire chief died. Without him, the firefighters could not save any fires. They tried many different things, but they only destroyed more homes. More than three fourths of the city lay in ruins and more than half of the city was homeless. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed. 375 people were announced dead. The most deaths were in San Francisco. The fire burned four days and nights. Evacuation was ordered. Later, they had the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. They gave the liberty bell to Philadelphia. The earthquake was one of the biggest problems.

Things started getting worse after the earthquake. The stock market started to fail in 1929. Until then, not one of the San Francisco bank had problems. That’s when they started the Alcatraz prison. Alcatraz Island used to be a former military stockade. The Golden Gate Bridge was finished in 1937 after the destruction from the earthquake. During World War II, San Francisco was the major supply point. San Francisco changed the way of earning money. They became a tourist attraction with tourist attractions.

Instead of what they used to do, San Francisco became a tourist landmark. They had many beautiful sights and historical museums telling about their history. The Alcatraz Prison is now a landmark, not a prison. The Palace Hotel is both an attraction and a hotel. You can sleep in a landmark! There are also many national parks. San Francisco is a landmark itself!

San Francisco is an amazing vacation spot. There are many national parks and there are many other landmarks that anyone can enjoy. San Francisco has many architectural landmarks like the golden gate bridge. It is also near the coast and has warm water. San Francisco seems like a very fun place. It could be one of the most historical cities in the U.S.A. San Francisco has a very large history.

My First Nike Swim Camp

This summer I was going to a swim camp. It was a stay away camp. We were going to be away for five days. I was very excited and nervous for swim camp. I knew my friends could help me if something went wrong, and I had my cell phone. But I didn’t like to stay away from my mom for too long. I started to get worried too. What if I forgot to bring something? It was too late. All I should think about is swimming better though. Thinking about swimming made me excited!
We arrived on Sunday. I changed and got ready to swim. I was nervous and excited for our first swim! When we got there, Jared, the coach, told us we were swimming freestyle. I learned a few things that I did not know before. For example, your streamline is the fastest part of swimming. Everyone can get better on streamline. After practice, Josh, the director, told us a bit more about the rules and what we were going to do the rest of camp. We were going to keep journals and someone was going to win a prize for the best journal. On Thursday, the last day, we were going to have ceremony. On Thursday, the last day, we were going to have ceremony. Also, we were going to watch videos on each stroke. Later we found out that our counselors were Keli and Whitney. Keli was on our floor and she seemed nice. She was right across our dorm so we were
very lucky. When it was time to sleep, I was already very tired. I squeezed Eeyore hard and fell asleep. It had been great for the first day.
On the second day I woke up pretty early in the morning, still a little bit tired, but ready to swim again. We swam two times and watched videos. We kept journals too. We started to do dry land. I thought we were going to play games, but we did a lot of stretching. I really didn’t like stretching. We had a contest at who could do the most sit-ups and push-ups. I could only do about five seconds. When I found out that we were doing it every day, I groaned. Nobody wanted to do it again. I bet I would be very tired when it was bed time. Swim two hours a day and do stretching for an hour. Who wouldn’t be tired? I was very tired. This time when it was time to go to bed, I had to drag myself onto the bed. My legs were killing me! I fell asleep happily and quickly that night.
Wednesday was very fun after all the dry land. On Wednesday we got to do night swimming. Josh dimmed all the lights and we got really cool glow sticks. Mine was purplish blue. It was very cool. All you could see was glowing glow sticks. I swam around for a long time. In fact, it was a very long time. We started swimming at 7:00 and got back at 10:00. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t even have time to take a shower after swimming THREE times a day and doing a lot of sweat included stretching. I didn’t have time to shower but it was fun swimming at night. I couldn’t wait for the ceremony tomorrow!
On the very last day, we were having a mini meet in the morning. I was swimming 50 breast and 50 fly. I didn’t like backstroke and a TON of people were good at freestyle so I didn’t want to lose badly. I was very surprised because my fly time was 42! It was eight seconds faster than my best time. My breast time was 49. It wasn’t too bad. It was one second faster than my usual. The mini meet was fun because you didn’t really have to try your best, even though I did. The bad news is your time isn’t official. That means it doesn’t count if you qualify for the districts. WAAAA! But now I knew I improved so I was happy. Soon, I would be as happy as happiest person in the world! (Or maybe I would be even happier than the happiest person in the world).
Later we had a ceremony. They would announce the best journal winner. I really didn’t think I would get that prize. I was just excited to see who was going to win. First they called up an Asian girl named Ally. Then they called up her brother. Last Josh said, “Christine Lai”. He even pronounced my last name right. At first I was wondering, huh? Who did he call up? Is that my name? He was looking straight at me so I walked over to him. He reached out his hand so I shook it. He said, “You look surprised, are you surprised at winning your first time here?” I nodded, still unable to speak. I walked back to Brie saying that they might have made a mistake. But inside I was very happy. I am still surprised now. I was very proud of myself!!
The swim camp was helpful and fun. I was glad that we kept journals so that I could remember what we learned. I was excited for next year, hoping that I would learn even more. The only thing that could be better is if my mom could come. I still learned a lot though. I hoped that next year more people from our swim team could go. And I wished that I might be able to make new friends, and see old friends. I couldn’t wait until next swim camp!