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In 1861 through 1865, the newly formed United States of America broke into war, with the Southern states wanting to leave the country and start their own.  Tensions first started rising when the issue of slavery was heavily debated, and contemplated wheather or not it should be abolished.  When no conclusion arrived, the country split in two and became the Union and Confederacy, fighting against each other, the outcome of the war would determine the fate of the country.  In the end, the Union won and was able to retain the nation’s solidarity.  A large factor contributing to the North’s triumph was due to the war technologies it possessed, including the telegraph and railroads, and the use of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Firstly, the Northern states had made immense industrial advances that the South did not.  Where the North relied on machines, the South had relied on labor and agriculture.  Because of this, the Northern states were able to implement a telegraph system where communication was quick and efficient, unlike the South who had to use runners to relay messages to and from places, “Abraham Lincoln was the first president who was able to communicate on the spot with his officers on the battlefield”.  Another structure used to win the war was the railroad system, which had already been built before the war, and was used to transport everything the troops needed, from food, artillery, supplies, and even the troops themselves.  Lastly, although often overlooked, the Emancipation Proclamation actually played a very large role in the Union’s victory over the Confederacy.  The Emancipation Proclamation was given in 1862 after a previous battle draw, and stated that all slaves, even those still captured in the Southern states, were now free.  Those enslaved in the Southern states would obviously still not be free yet, but it had a powerful psychological impact on everyone.  For the slaves, it gave them a sense of hope, Lincoln had intended for it to “undermine slavery”, a key in the South’s war efforts.  For all in the Union, it had changed the purpose of the war from preserving the nation, to also abolishing slavery altogether.

Although all these factors were vital to the North’s success, the most key aspect of the North’s victory would be their war technologies.  When war technologies are brought up, guns and arms come to mind, but the true star of war technologies in the North would be the railroads and telegraphs.  As discussed before, telegraphs were used in the war, it was said that Lincoln was the first President to be able to communicate with troops on the front lines, firstly the telegraph would be used as a means of communication, while morse code kept the messages from being intercepted.  The second part of the key factor in the North’s victory would be the railroads, which were something unavailable to the Confederate troops, their supplies would take much more time to arrive.  While the Southern states did indeed have railroads, it was explained that they were not as efficient due to not all cars fitting on all tracks, meaning it would take longer and more money to transport goods to and from the front lines.  The Union had standardized tracks and cars, allowing them to move war supplied with ease.

Hey guys it’s ThucDan I am 15 years old and I turn 16 in two days.  I went on the cruise last week in Europe and it was pretty litty.  First my fam bam and I got to Milan Airport and drove to switzerland to spend the day and night, the next day we were in the Alps and on the way down all the roads were blocked due to danger of avalanches, we were almost late but we made it, then we missed our train to Genoa which was where our cruise would take off, but this dude helped us find another train that was 10x more expensive but we took it anyways and the guy asked us for 10 euros and we were big ballin anyways so we were k den.  Then we get to Genoa and to the port and it’s getting litty because we met our squad of 16 people it was very hectic because there were like 30 kids but anyways we get on the boat and we ate and explored a little and then we went to sleep.

The next day we arrived in Rome Civitavecchia and left the kids at the kids club because it would be a lot of work to take them everywhere, we went to the spanish steps and vatican city and then went back to the boat.  We picked up the kids and they said they didn’t like the club and they didn’t want to go back, the parents were like whatever and then got them ready for dinner.  That night my mom, cau ngan, di xiu, and I all went to the resturant, it wasn’t that good so we decided not to go again, then we went to the buffet and ate some more.  Then we chilled and then went to bed.

The next day we were in Sicily and it was pretty cool we went to see some weird catacomb things and I got boba so it was an experience.  That night there was a teen club meeting so after i signed up I took a shower, got ready and went to go eat at the buffet, when it was like I went to the teen club and waited outside for like 45 minutes playing games on my phone until a dude told me to come in.  Then I met Emma, Ethan, and Aiden, who were all American but lived in Germany, Haley and Kaden who were American, Dan from Spain, and Leo from Lithuania.  We all spoke english and we hung out with each other, until around 11, which is when the club opened and then we danced all the way until 1 am and then I went home, which is the nice thing about being on a giant boat, because it meant I could stay out late without my parents worrying because where else am I gonna go, off the ship?  Then I went back to my room and my parents didn’t even wake up they were knocked out.

To be continued.

With all this support to enact stricter laws and regulations on guns, and even gun owners themselves admitting change must happen, why is nothing happening?  The National Rifle Association (NRA for short) is a U.S. non-profit organization that is self described as tireless defenders of your second amendment rights.   The Second Amendment of the US Constitution states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” And although this proves a good argument for gun-rights advocates, this is not an unlimited right to own guns (most rights are not unlimited either), and with what I am imposing, one can still possess such weapons, as long as one does not have a violent history, or background that would suggest the misuse of firearms, including mental illness, and/or irrational tendencies, then feel free to legally purchase and use guns for personal defense or hunting as a pastime.

In the past year, hospital doctors took to twitter, to talk about the frightening amount of blood they see everyday from the violence of guns, Dr. Haughey, an emergency physician and the director of St. Barnabas Hospital’s emergency medicine residency program says. “I never get used to it. It’s tiresome.”  The NRA responded not too long after, and tweeted, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

Dr. Haughey replied with another tweet, saying “I see no one from the @nra next to me in the trauma bay as I have cared for victims of gun violence for the past 25 years,” she wrote. “THAT must be MY lane. COME INTO MY LANE. Tell one mother her child is dead with me, then we can talk.”  Doctors everywhere saw this interaction and flooded in with responses similar to Haughey’s.

The NRA presents the argument that gun laws infringe upon the right of self-defense and deny the people a sense of safety.  This also would be deemed incorrect, because carrying around high-capacity magazines, assault type rifles, is not convenient, nor would make anyone else feel safe around you, in addition, if all you want to do with guns if self defense, then feel free to go through all the background checks and mental health tests, I am suggesting, to get a gun.

Protecting yourself will not be a problem, simply go through all the procedure to get smaller scale guns.  But high capacity weapons should not be available to anyone other than ones with licenses granted through extensive background checks and psyche evaluations.  And with all of this, should come with regulations that enforce people to keep their weapons non-accessible to minors in their households.

With better background checks and health checks, we could downsize the amount of harm guns cause in US society greatly.  And with tons of support from people everywhere we can make this vision become a reality.

Living in the U.S. we live everyday hearing about a new shooting that happened last weekend, and it makes everyone wonder.  What are our gun regulations, and how come it’s so easy to get one? What do other countries do to prevent what happens here in the U.S. so often?

Let’s start with the numbers, 64% of all homicides in the US were caused by guns, in Canada, it’s less than half of that, 30%, in Australia, 13%.  In 2016, there were 33,594 gun deaths in total, about 14 thousand were homicides, 71 of which were mass shootings, and the rest were suicides.  46% of Americans are for stricter regulations on guns, compared to the 39% that are satisfied with the current laws, and the 9% that want regulations to be looser.

As you can probably see, guns cause a lot of deaths, and there is a wave of support to have stricter regulation on gun handling, and how we, as a country can prevent further tragedies from happening so often.  Currently in Arizona as long as you aren’t a prohibited possessor (someone prohibited from possessing a firearm) and are over the age of 18 you may carry an open or concealed firearm without permit or any background checks (NRA-ILA).  With regulation as lax as this, don’t be surprised when you hear that in 2015, Arizona was ranked the best state in the nation for gun owners, for the third year in a row. While this news was a delight to gun-advocates, skeptics saw this as Arizona being the place where criminals, or future criminals can easily access guns. 

Out of the 60-70 million Americans who own firearms, a large sum actually do support tightening regulations on assault weapons, and a whopping 97% of gun owning households supports doing more background checks on potential gun owners.  Tom Galinat, a 35 year old hunter and farmer who owns 9 guns is a speaker for a complete ban on all high-capacity weapons. Jonathan Leech, who is 56 and owns 10 guns, went to speak in front of Maine legislators to propose a bill that would take dangerous firearms away from people deemed unfit to possess such weapons.

To be continued, to read more, wait until next week’s post!

World War 2 was a great tragedy to some, and to others, it was an opportunity to learn and not repeat old mistakes.  The United States’ entry into the war was initiated Japan’s bombing on Pearl Harbor, killing 2403 military personnel.  Approximately 4 years later, the US would end the war by dropping 2 nuclear bombs on 2 towns in Japan, killing nearly 200,000 people and causing sustainable injuries to many others.  Despite the large death toll, many still survived, and are still living today, sharing their stories of hardship and heartbreak, that inspires peace and non-violence.

As stated, after the atomic bombs were detonated, although many lives were lost, many lives were also spared, though most with injuries that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.  The number of survivors is around 131,000, most sustaining injuries that will last a lifetime. One mustn’t forget the things the survivors went through after the attack. After being exposed to radiation, people were left with chemical burns and many visits to the hospital for the rest of their lives.  But keep in mind what happened helped the war finally come to an end and help us learn more about the true destruction of atomic weapons.

These attacks were the first of their own; atomic weapons.  It was the first strike that used such nuclear weapons that were able to cause that much damage.  It showed the world, and future generations what humanity is capable of, and it will help our posterity decide whether or not they will support or resist weapons on the level of the ones that were used to win the war and make Japan surrender.

Unquestionably, the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were key to the war, and will be remembered for many generations to come.  And while it is important to honor those who died because of it, it is also crucial to remember those who survived and bear the marks of war on their scarred bodies.  

So the last time I posted was december next year, which is quite unfortunate, but I’m busy so I hope you understand my 2 readers.  Also I forgot how to add color so welcome to my first post in black because I write in the color of my soul and heart.

Hi, my name is ThucDan and I’m 13, which makes me the youngest person in my school.  I started high school two months ago and now I want to murder everyone so don’t put me on edge or I will roll my eyes and sigh as I listen to your annoying voice drone on about what I did wrong, even though I really didn’t and you’re just being a donkey about it. I shall now move on.

I’m going to start with a life update although I have no idea why any of you would want to know.  I’m on the swim team, it’s great, except when the coach makes us swim 24 laps in a row, or makes us swim a whole lap without taking a single breath, or when people look at me in disgust when they see how tan I am, I know I’m tan, now if you don’t mind please walk off the edge of a cliff 200 meters above the ground you racist dog.

I’m doing fine in school, it’s honestly much easier than the elementary school I went to, the workload is very small and I barely get homework at night, except for that one time when I was assigned a 5 page essay due at 11:59, and turned it in at 11:42 but didn’t go to sleep until 1:30 because I had to finish my five math problems that took forever to do.  And I can’t forget about me getting a 98 on a Scripture test and having someone tell me that it doesn’t matter because math and english are much more important, which is basically equivalent to telling me I could’ve gotten an F on that test and it wouldn’t have mattered because, you know, math and english are much more important.  Because if that was correct, then I could get F’s on all my tests, fail the course, retake it next year, realize that I need 4 credits of Theology, and then just drop out when I turn 16 because I need 4 credits to graduate, but don’t forget that you were the one that said one subject is any more important than the other.

So I guess I can talk about my trip to the Bahama’s, solely because of the fact there is a prize, that will indefinitely go to Nam and ThucLam because they are the superstar writers, not that I’m mad, because they really are, but I will hold back from saying any further because what I may say would probably not be appropriate for my catholic hands to write, nor would it be appropriate for your catholic eyes to read.

It was fun of course, except when I came home everyone gawked at me because, wow! I got tan! well I don’t know maybe I spent time at the beach, which, by the way, is completely shrouded in sun, which, gasp! makes you tan.  But please, by all means go to the beach and let me look at you and ask you, why are you so tan?  What would your, most logical answer be?

The food was also great, we had these fried fish things which were also great, until I digested them and had people tell me I was fat, I need to run more, and my personal favorite, stop eating.  But PLEASE enjoy yourself when your comments finally get to me and I die of anorexia. 🙂

The resort was very beautiful, my favorite part was the aquarium, it was fun, the pools and slides were also really fun and Khang and I went on one of them several times.  The sea water was clear and blue.  I loved it so much, I bought a SHOT GLASS from the gift shop, because I have depression and so I drink my problems.

So yeah, that was my post, I must admit it was a little rude but that was so much better than writing in my journal.  Feel free to leave a comment about how prude this was, or whatever, don’t, I don’t really care.

ps. I really did have a lot of fun, but I’m a teenager now, so consider this post just me making sure you remember that teenagers are big, bad people, who will stop at no cost to cause you trouble, this how we’re SUPPOSED to act, just me, living up, to your expectations 🙂

Hello my name is ThucDan, I am 13 years old as of today, that means I am now officially a troubled teenager.    For my birthday party we did tons of things like watch movies and make cookies, the cookies were kind of spongy but that’s OK. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about, I’m here to talk about my fantastic vacation with my cousins and my family.

 The first day my cousins came over, it was Christmas Eve (what about Chrismas Adam you men activist?)  so then me and Khang went to church I introduced him to my two friends that I have.   The mass was longer than expected, two hours to be exact,  but after that, my friends mom took me and Khang back.  When we got back we mostly just played on our video games and ate eggrolls, they were quite delicious I must say.  

The next day we got up bright and early, to go into a car for six hours.    This is the most agonizing trip I’ve ever had I believe, I was in the middle two rowdy boys  that refused to quit laughing at my face, like, they were actually doubling over, laughing, at my face.   When I went to sleep it was uncomfortable because I was in the middle.   But soon enough we were in there.   By there I meant California, I apologize for not telling you earlier that we were going to California.

When  we first got there,  we went to eat at a restaurant.  The food must’ve been delicious but I wouldn’t know because I was really sick.   I threw up four times a day, once at a corner store,  the second time in the car, the third time also in a car, and the fourth time it was just straight up tea because I refused to eat anything other than tea.  It was a good thing though because I did end up just vomiting everything I ate that day.  

We rented a house, it wasn’t the best but it did what it was supposed to, except for the heater working because at first it wouldn’t work.  I was mostly in my room for a while due to me having the stomach flu, which I believe was just fancy words for throwing up alot and a fever.  I had planned to take a nap but when I woke back up all the lights were off and my mom was sleeping next to me, figures. 

The next day I felt completely better and was ready to go where ever i was taken.  First we went to a historic missionary.  It was cool but could have been cooler because I had already hone there with my friend Cindy.  So that was pretty swag.

After that we went to NewPort beach, that was super swag because I had a hat that said California Newport beach, and I was like, “swag my doods!”  So then we into a boat to find whales, there was a snack bar so a bunch of people ordered foods.  After 45 minutes of nothing, Khang and I fell asleep, we then woke up at the very end when there were dolphins, but they were really far away so we couldn’t see much.

This is all I will be writing for today, I will write an update with all the other things we did, that post will also have pictures, thanks for reading!

Vietnamese:

Xin chào tôi tên là ThucDan, tôi 13 tuổi như ngày nay, đó có nghĩa là tôi bây giờ chính thức là một thiếu niên gặp khó khăn. Đối với bữa tiệc sinh nhật của tôi, chúng tôi đã làm nhiều thứ như xem phim và làm cho các tập tin cookie, cookie là loại xốp nhưng đó là OK. Nhưng đó không phải là những gì tôi đang ở đây để nói về, tôi ở đây để nói về kỳ nghỉ tuyệt vời của tôi với người anh em họ của tôi và gia đình tôi.

Ngày đầu tiên anh em họ của tôi đã đến, đó là đêm Giáng sinh (những gì về Chrismas Adam bạn nam hoạt động?) Nên sau đó tôi và Khang đi nhà thờ tôi giới thiệu ông với hai người bạn của tôi mà tôi có. Khối lượng dài hơn dự kiến, hai giờ để được chính xác, nhưng sau đó, bạn bè mẹ tôi đã cho tôi và Khang trở lại. Khi chúng tôi trở về, chúng tôi chủ yếu chỉ chơi trên trò chơi video của chúng tôi và ăn eggrolls, họ đã khá ngon tôi phải nói.

Ngày hôm sau, chúng tôi thức dậy sáng sớm, để đi vào một chiếc xe trong sáu giờ. Đây là chuyến đi đau đớn nhất tôi đã từng tôi tin rằng, tôi đã ở trong hai chàng trai ồn ào giữa mà từ chối bỏ cười vào mặt tôi, như thế, họ đã thực sự tăng gấp đôi lên, cười, nhìn khuôn mặt của tôi. Khi tôi đi ngủ nó cảm thấy khó chịu vì tôi đã ở giữa. Nhưng không lâu sau chúng tôi ở đó. Bằng cách đó, tôi có nghĩa là California, tôi xin lỗi vì đã không nói với bạn trước đó rằng chúng ta sắp đến California.

Khi chúng tôi lần đầu tiên đến đó, chúng tôi đã đi ăn tại một nhà hàng. Các thực phẩm chắc hẳn là ngon nhưng tôi không biết vì tôi đã thực sự bị bệnh. Tôi đã ném lên bốn lần một ngày, một lần tại một cửa hàng góc, lần thứ hai trong xe, lần thứ ba cũng trong một chiếc xe hơi, và lần thứ tư nó chỉ thẳng lên trà bởi vì tôi từ chối ăn bất cứ điều gì khác hơn so với trà. Đó là một điều tốt bởi vì mặc dù tôi đã kết thúc chỉ nôn tất cả mọi thứ tôi đã ăn ngày hôm đó.

Chúng tôi thuê một căn nhà, nó không phải là tốt nhất, nhưng nó đã làm những gì nó được cho là, ngoại trừ cho các máy làm việc, vì lúc đầu nó sẽ không làm việc. Tôi là chủ yếu trong phòng của tôi trong một thời gian do tôi có dịch cúm dạ dày, mà tôi tin là chỉ là lời nói ưa thích cho ném lên rất nhiều và sốt. Tôi đã lên kế hoạch để có một giấc ngủ ngắn nhưng khi tôi tỉnh lại lên tất cả các đèn đều tắt và mẹ tôi đang ngủ bên cạnh tôi, con số.

Ngày hôm sau tôi cảm thấy hoàn toàn tốt hơn và đã sẵn sàng để đi nơi bao giờ tôi đã được thực hiện. Đầu tiên chúng tôi đến một nhà truyền giáo lịch sử. Đó là mát mẻ, nhưng có thể được mát bởi vì tôi đã trau dồi đó với bạn bè của tôi Cindy. Vì vậy, đó là swag khá.

Sau đó chúng tôi đến bãi biển Newport, đó là siêu swag bởi vì tôi đã có một chiếc mũ mà nói bãi biển California Newport, và tôi là như thế, “Swag doods của tôi!” Vì vậy, sau đó chúng tôi xuống thuyền để tìm cá voi, có một quán ăn nhanh do đó, một bó của những người ra lệnh cho thực phẩm. Sau 45 phút thi đấu không có gì, Khang và tôi ngủ thiếp đi, sau đó chúng tôi thức dậy vào lúc cuối cùng khi có cá heo, nhưng họ đã thực sự xa vì vậy chúng tôi không thể nhìn thấy nhiều.

Đây là tất cả tôi sẽ viết cho ngày hôm nay, tôi sẽ viết một bản cập nhật với tất cả những điều khác mà chúng tôi đã làm, mà bài viết cũng sẽ có hình ảnh, nhờ đọc!

Continue reading “Read This and Give Me Good Ratings”

Hello, my name is ThucDan, I am currently in eighth grade, I have no clue what high school I want to go to, this is quite scary because I have to know in order to take my HSPT (high school placement test), it’s a test that you need to take in order to apply and enroll in a Catholic high school.  There are only 6 Catholic high schools in Arizona: Xavier college prep, Brophy college prep, Bourgade Catholic high school, Saint Mary’s, and Notre Dame Prep, there’s another one but I can’t remember.  So let me tell you about each of these schools.  Xavier is an all girl’s school, and is one of the most prestigious schools you can go to in Arizona, I would like to go here, but it’s a bit far from my house, so I can’t.  Also, the tuition is 15 grand.  Brophy is the same as Xavier only it’s for boys.  Saint Mary’s is at the bottom of the scale, although it”s not a bad school, it’s not the best.  Last of all, Bourgade, this is the school I’m looking at, it meets all of my requirements, it’s affordable, it’s private, and it’s close to my current school, which is where my sisters are going at least until next year.  Anyway, high school is not what I came here to write about, I’m here to talk about my Marine Biology trip.

For those who don’t know, each year, at my school, the eighth graders go to California and get on a boat, we sail to the Chanel Islands, which are a few islands that are part of the national parks system, which means we need to bring a nature specialist.  We stay on the boat for 3 nights and 4 days.  We kayak, snorkel, do a science labs, and hike.

So the bus ride there was 8 hours, since it was in California, when we got there, we took our bags and put it in the boat and went to the beach to play, my friends and I took lots of pictures and played in the water, there were a few sea lions, they got really close and you could touch them!  Of course they kept their distance, the teacher ordered pizza and we went to the boat galley to eat, it was about 7 when we finished eating, we went to the top deck, and yelled at the boys (They were in a different boat and both boats were docked because we haven’t set sail yet.)  We sang songs and took pictures until 9, that’s when we went to sleep.

We started sailing at 4 in the morning, and I woke up when we started sailing, the boat was really rocky, and it took me a while to go back to sleep.  We woke up at around 7 or 8, we upstairs where the galley was, placed our breakfast orders, and brushed our teeth.  That morning, I believe I got scrambled eggs and some meat I don’t remember, it was probably ham.  We then went down to the bunk room and changed into hiking clothes, this hike was 4 miles long, and it was very beautiful, the nature specialist told us about the island, and had an answer to almost every question we asked, her name was Tara.  After hiking, we went back to the boat to eat lunch, and the real fun started;)))  My first station was snorkeling, I got on my wet suit, which was sooooooo hard to get into, I then proceeded to slip on my booties and fins.  My group snorkeled to a rock and saw a ton of things, I managed to collect a shell, but then I accidentally dropped it and so it was gone forever.  On my next station, I dissected a fish.  And the best part of the day started, we went kayaking, I had never kayaked before, so I was pretty bad, but my mistake was was choosing a partner who also did not have any experience, we were always last, we were also very slow, my arms got really tired, it was draining.  But still fun.  In between these activities, we would go on the top deck, sit over the ledge, and watch the waters move,  after sitting there for about 10 minutes, we got salt on our knees!  We went back to the boat and showered, changed into pajamas, and ate dinner.  That night, I think dinner was string beans and steak.  When we finished, we brewed a cup of hot coco, and went to the top deck, we had a concert, one of us would dance one of the platforms, and someone else would sing on the other.  We all had this odd dance, I’m not sure how to really explain it, but it was pretty funny.  A few kids didn’t know how to do it, so we would pause the concert to teach them, we ended the concert and held a dance class.  Then, we went back to the galley for desert, that night, we had brownies and ice cream, it was quite yummy I must say.  I went to sleep that night and woke up at 3 in the morning, it took me a whole hour to go back to sleep.

The next day was the same, but the hike was very tiring, it was also 4 miles, but it was also up hill the whole time, I don’t even know how I survived.  That day was just the same, except for a few hiccups, when we went snorkeling, we found out that some irresponsible person had left their wet suit out and when the boat moved, it flew off into the ocean, that one suit happened to be my size, so I had to downsize, I was very uncomfortable, and it was very tight.  That day we looked at sea water under a microscope, and tried to find plankton.  We then went kayaking.  This was my favorite day because the boys and the girls had a kayak war.  There were 2 seats for each kayak, but for reasons of the war, we would put someone in the middle.  The front person was the rower, the middle person was the offender, and the last person was the defender.  I was the rower, and it was hard, because we kept being attacked.  If you haven’t already picked it up, the boys were climbing on the girls’ kayaks and they flipped us over.  We, of course, retaliated and flipped them.  Of course, there were people who weren’t involved in the war and they paddled around in their kayaks and they picked people up and dropped them off at their own boat, we called these people taxis.  I got flipped over so many times it almost got not funny.  

This is all I will be writing for today, I cannot attach pictures that I took because I do not have access to them at the moment, for pictures of this trip with me in them that I did not take, visit  http://www.simonjudeschool.org/archives/2016-8th-grade-marine-biology-trip-to-the-channel-islands/  I will post the pictures I took in another post.

Update: I have now gotten access to my pictures, which i will insert here.

 

 

 

My friend Bianca has a blog spot on the school website, she also had posted a post on her page about this trip, hers is much shorter, so I suggested you read it if you mostly skimmed over this one http://www.simonjudeschool.org/student-life/

 

 

Hi, my name is ThucDan and I am 12 years old, guess what? I’m being forced to write a very long post that only 2 people read.  Isn’t life wonderful?  So here is my very long post about the wonders of Singapore, ugh. (Disclaimer-these are in the wrong order, I totally forgot what happened in what order, sorry)

OK, let’s start off with the fact that it isn’t as clean as you would think it would be.  It’s only so much better than America.  I kinda sorta but not really did not enjoy the trip because I had no friends, I was force to play with little kids, which gets boring after a while.  

When we first got there, we had to take then subway from the bus to the nearest station to our hotel, which was a 10-15 minute walk by the way.  After we got there, we went to eat and I got a durian smoothie but apparently, Singaporeans don’t like durian, so we had to secretly bring my smoothie up and went to sleep cause we were boring people.  The next day and the day after that was the worst, we had to walk everywhere, except when we were on the subway.I actually don’t know what where or when this was taken.  So I apologize for misleading you, Which is 2 people.  Anyway, our first stop was china town, which makes no scene because Singaporeans are Chinese, which makes all of Singapore china town.  Once we got off the subway, we walk 20-30 minutes to get to the place where we were going to eat.  It was supposedly a dim sum, but there were no cart mulling food heaven, so I would call it a dim sum rip off.  After we went outside, a Singaporese lady came up to us and started talking in Chinese, we answered in Vietnamese, which is stupid, and the lady went on in Chinese.   Eventually, we said our foreign goodbyes and went to the shopping place.  Now, just a quick side story (I bet all of you already know),  I had brought 2 shoes along with me on this trip, but one of them was too small.  So I was stuck wearing my wheel shoes everywhere.  I know that none of you have worn them, so let me tell you how they feel.  They are a very clunky shoe, and if you are not rolling, you are uncomfortable because 50% of the shoe’s thickness is for the wheel stuff.  So naturally, I rolled anywhere I could, to avoid being uncomfortable.  Here is when the story begins.  So I was rolling around the store, and I was pushing myself with the shelves around me.  Soon, I come across a temporary sign/shelf.  I push and it rolled 2 inches away and the sign fell.  I did all of this in front of the shop lady and she rushes over.  I tried to help my picking up the sign but she snatched it away from me.  (I don’t remember what her exact words were)  And she says,Why would you do that? In an accent, I could see that she was angry so I slowly backed away.  After I finally turn around.  I heard her say something under her voice, “stupid girl,”  So I rushed out of the store and stop rolling, I was so scared that I didn’t touch anything in that store at ALL after that.

So I go to my mum and she asks me if I want a custum necklace or bracelet.  I look back now and I wish I had have said yes, they were so cool.  But I did’t, I hate myself.

So after china town, we went to some garden thingy that his nothing but plants, so that was pretty boring.  The one fun part was when we went on high briges that my mum refused to look down on.  Everyone was worn out and tired so we weren’t really excited about anything. Soon it got dark and we went back to the hotel.Now the next day, we went to a Temple that had Buddist tooth in it.  Which is prettly dang cooler, but it would be even cooler if I wasn’t catholic.  They had a garden up the temple and it was really pretty.After the temple, we went to a mall, which was really far away.  When we got to the mall, a couple of girl decided they would rather shop than go to a theme park, (so stupid).  While we were on the train to get there, we passed through a mini Hollywood and I saw Marilyn Mon Roe.  When we got to the theme park, we went to a little car ride, it was really fun, but some of the adults freaked out on the lift to the top of the ride.

So that night, we went to eat at the sushi place.  We were very cheap and all the grown ups drank out of one beer bottle.There was an ice cream man at the eat out place and he tricked us when he gave up our ice cream.  So that was my Singapore trip, it was avually really boring if you counldn’t tell…

Hello, my name is ThucDan and I am12 years old and I like to cook.  Mostly because in the end, I can eat it.  So I guess I will start of with just that, Food.

As soon as you step outside the airport, you are greeted by tons of people holding up signs that have names on them, my family walked right past those people and called a taxi.  From there, we went to a relative’s house.  Just so you know, we were not cheapos.  So almost immediately went out side and bought food.  There was street food everywhere so we didn’t have to go to burger king, cause there wasn’t any Burger King on that block, or street, or city, ok maybe city.  Anyway, then came my uncle and he had brought his kids with him.  That night, me and my mum went to her old friend’s house, we went up to her garden and literally just stared at it for 20 minutes.  We then went down stairs where we drank water at the dinner table and talked.  Since I was still used to USA time, I passed out on the dinner table until it was time to go.  We got on the taxi and I slept again till I got home, also that certain taxi driver was annoying because my mum asked a couple of times what street it was and after a while, he asked and my mum told him we were from America.  And then he was like, “I KNEW IT, OMG I JUST KNEW IT,”  And he did that 10 times.  So I couldn’t sleep.  When we got home, I can’t remember what we ate, but I think that we totally did.

The next day was the day me and my family got in shape, so me TL and my mother went out to take a walk, (and buy food)  And we came home with a lot of food, we came home with lots of sandwiches, hot tofu, and coffee.  Everything was quite good, and after that, we rested for 20 minutes and took another walk to buy food.  It was like the word thrifty was never invented, if we saw food and we liked it, we bought it and we ate it, no mercy.  There was a smoothie shop that was 2 seconds away from our house, (I am not kidding, I went out there by myself). Everyday, me and TL bought 5 smoothies throughout the day.  Everyday, we walked a lot, like, a lot.  One day, we walked all the way to the  local store, which is 20 minutes away.  While we were walking there, we passed by my mum’s hospital in which she was born in.  Along the way, you could see studends going to school and buying food.  The kids there don’t go to school until 10 or 11.  Which is totally unfair, I wake up at 6:00 every morning to got o school.  Anyway, if you read this post, comment and say that you did because I think only 2 people read this.  So one day, we were running pout of money because we bought too much food.  So my mother pulls out an amazing zip-bloc bag will gold in it.  Yes, gold.  In the bag were necklaces and  earrings and bracelets that have been abandoned.  So we walk in a new direction that day and we find a jewelry shop.  So they take my mum to go help the gold and he tells me to watch the shop.  After seeing this advantage, I stole a pretty necklace that I liked.  Wow, you actually think that I would do that?  That’s just rude and I no longer like you.  I kinda was confused on how I was supposed to “watch” the shop, it’s not like I can tackle somebody if they rob the place.  So the guy and my mums comes out and the guy is holding a lump of melted gold.  It turns out that it was 300 USD.  But it didn’t matter that much since my mum gave all of it away to my gramma and uncle.  Apart on the money she spent to eat sticky rice.  On the way home, we also bought a lot of jello and a smoothie.  I can’t really remember anything else.  But I do remember when we went to the store, it was a lot like department stores in America.  We spent a lot of time looking at PJs cause they were all pretty.  But it was really hard finding my mum and gramma’s sizes D=.  After that, we went and looked at silverware and bought some cool stuff, and then we went to check out everything.  When we went down stairs and saw a food court.  And for the record, the food was disgusting.  When we got our coconut jello had wayyy too much coconut.  The cool thing about this place was that you can have them deliver what you bought to your house so we didn’t have to drag it all home.  After that, we went to my gramma’s old house and bought noodles and took a nap.  When we got home, everything that we bought had already been sent home.  All of this took a lot of walking and TL had seen a rat the very fist time in her life, so I would say that we were traumatized, in  some sort of good way.  By the way I got a haircut in the last few days and I am sad.  On the last night of ,my stay we had candy tortillas.  Which was molten candy(not really) inside a tortillas with coconut, I was not a fan of it because I refused to try it, the candy was super sticky so my uncle got it all over my cousin’s hair.  While I was there, I expected some to reach behind me and pick pocket me, but it never happened.      

That last picture is lopsided because I didn’t know how to turn it back again, because I am stupid (words of someone who will be un-named for their own protection) And for the record, this post is 1007 words long.