Hope For Haiti Now!

This song was written by Taylor Swift. (Famous country singer). When she found about the disastrous earthquake that harmed Haiti, she took control. She dedicated this song to everyone who suffered from the earthquake in Haiti. When people heard this song they donated a humongous amount of money. To buy AID, water,food, and many more supplies for the victims!

To watch this video click on the hyperlink below! Please do watch this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQak8Lk_7EM

"Peak"

In English class we are reading a book called Peak. It is a fascinating book about hiking in the Himalayas. I like this book because for the winter break I went to Nepal. And this book took place in Nepal too. I made a lot of connections with the characters. Peak is the name of a main character in the book. I know, weird name, right. Anyway, Peak has divorced parents, and his dad is a climber " Joshua Wood". When Peak was separated from his dad, he had no where to climb. Except for the climbing walls in New York, that Peak thought were way too easy!!!

Peak is a mysterious guy, and likes to keep mystery's to himself. Peak is known for climbing 7 sky scrapers in New York, and putting a logo on them. "Mountains". When people found out what he was doing his mystery was ruined. He had to go to court, and had to pay a fine of 500,000 U.S. dollars! He was also band from New York! When Joshua heard this he ran down the mountain and flew to New York. He was currently climbing Mt.Everest.

Joshua hadn't shown up in years, Peak always sent him postcards, but never once came back a reply. And why did Joshua now rush down a mountain to see his son. Joshua had currently lived in Thailand, but does most of his treks in Nepal. When Joshua Wood came rushing down the mountain and saw his son in court he was depressed. But now Peak is climbing Mt.Everest with his father! If he makes it to the Summit before his 15Th birthday he'll be the youngest person to ever reach the Summit of Mt.Everest!

But the real mystery is if he will make it. Joshua has been a professional climber for years, but did his son have the same talent as his father? What if Peak doesn't make it to the Summit, he's already let down his parents once. He can't let them down with something his dad loves to do. Through this adventurous book Peak finds himself saying good by to the twins, leaving his mother/step father, melting yellow ice, and building up a tent by himself in the freezing cold weather!

I know how hard it is for Peak. My parents have had the experience, they reached Everest Base camp, but didn't go to the Summit. It takes A LOT of skill to climb the highest mountain above land, with all this pressure on you. The highest high I reached was 6,000 meters. And they reach 12,000 meters of height. Imagine how hard it is to breath in such conditions!!! I know I would have problems, would you???

10 reasons why Haiti is poor

1. One reason why Haiti is poor is because in 1934 the U.S. withdrawed Haiti leaving them with the Haitian Armed Forces, in charge throughout the country.

2. Another reason why Haiti is poor is because International Aid Agencies declared that the Haitian pigs were carrying African swine flu. The pigs were killed leaving the country with hunger.

3. There were protests against "Baby Doc". Baby doc arranged his family and him to be exiled to France.

4. Army leader General Henri Namphy heads a new National Governing Council.

5. President Avril leaves on a Trade Mission to Taiwan, he returns empty handed with no food or money.

6. A small reason why Haiti is poor is because of the horrible nature crisis's that happen to them.

7. Haitians were discriminated by the U.S. and all of the European powers.

8. Many people in Haiti were not able to apply for a job, since many of them didn't know how to read or write.

9. France, U.S, and Canada refused to notice the new government, and stopped the trade with them.

10. Haiti was a French colony, and the french don't do very well. When the Haitians stole property of the French they had no more help from the French.

10 Vocabulary Sentences

1. Many people that die in Rome are buried in a catacomb.

2. The arsonist burned down the building on purpose.

3. The magician tries to deceive you, but sometimes you can see what he's trying to do.

4. Many doctors have to be very careful when they do an operation, because they have to manipulate their hands.

5. When you work under a person you have to act submissive to them.

6. In the olden days they used cobblestones to pave the streets.

7. In the war many people try to assail their opponents.

8. When you do a puzzle you have to be meticulously with the glue.

9. In American Idol there were a couple of sisters that were inseparable.

10. The rescuers were obliged to save everyone in Haiti.

Personal History Project

In 6th grade you do a bunch of projects for English. The one that has really inspired me was the "Bintaro Lama Project". But I think somethings going to top that. Today we started the Personal History Project. And on Tuesday I called my grandma, to ask her a few questions. We spoke for about 30 minutes. While the talk I was very interested, and kept on coming up with more questions! I didn't know that she had 4 siblings, was a cook for 7 years, and was born in Karlsruhe,Germany. My grandma was 6 years old when World War II started, it was a terrible memory for her, and everyone else. Many people died, and many people were parched from not getting any water!

Could you imagine waking up every time you heard an airplane, and going to the cellar? The airplanes would come at 2am in the morning or 11pm at night. They had to stay in the cellar till they heard no more airplanes, and that was a while. The people who weren't in the army suffered terribly. There were no shops open to buy things, since the French forced them to shut down their business. The worst memory for my grandma was when my Great Grandpa was shot 500 meters from the house. She thought that things couldn't get any worse!

After World War II the French came, and invaded Germany. Mean while things got better, the people got enough food, and the shops finally started to open things. My Grandma went to Karlsruhe, to find a job which she did, as a cook. She had many great memory's during the job. The first place she worked for 3 years(cook), and the second place she worked for 4 years(cook).
My Grandparents have been married for 50 years now, also know as "Golden Marriage". The best things that she would consider was when her children were still young, and her marriage!\

Haiti Earthquake (Update)

About 1 week ago, there was a horrible earthquake that destroyed the entire capital city of Haiti. 5 days later the US army came with a couple of rescuers to save the trapped people. There are still about 300 residents trapped under buildings! 16 rescuers passed away during their mission. The US department sent Haiti survivors aids/food/water. They knew that many people didn't have enough money to buy supplies, so they gave them out for free. They also had a couple of doctors fly over to Haiti. They mostly cared about the patients that had head injuries!

There were many families separated from their kids, because the earthquake struck while the children were still in school! 2 days ago the rescuers pulled out a child from the school that collapsed. The rescuers took 8 hours till they finally found the 2 year old alive girl. The watchers clapped while the rescuers reunited the mother and child. They still didn't find all the residents! The rescuers search for survivors from 5 am to 9pm. It's a really long day for them!

Haiti Earthquake!!! Disaster!!!

2 days ago (12,January 2010) there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti, Caribbean! The earthquake destroyed several buildings, and crushed the National Palace! Haiti is one of the places that doesn't have much money. This earthquake made all the people of Haiti sleep on the streets! For 2 days now. America is sending the U.S army to help some people escape from the buildings that fell from them. About 1,000 people were able to get hospital help, but they only had basic things to help them. The people that were mostly helped were the ones with head damage!

Many of the local residence's helped the people that were stuck under buildings. The picture on top is the view from a helicopter. You can see that the earthquake destroyed the entire capital city! On the first day the phone connection was done! Many interviewers on BBC have interviewed people who's family lives in Haiti. The family still hasn't gotten in contact yet! There are many websites on the Internet (even YouTube) that give you an option to donate some money to the residence's, to help them. Please do think about it!

Family and Movie Time

Family time and Movie time!!!

I love family time. For me family time is hanging out with your family, and doing something together! It might be different for other people. What I did on the holiday was mostly hanging out with my family. Everyday for 5 days I hiked up mountains with my family. It might not seem like the talky family time, but we were doing something together! I really enjoyed it. You got to know ever more about the people that you love! We hiked everyday for 4-8 hours!!! It's exhausting, especially when you go steep upwards like everyday!!! The good thing is that I keep in shape, and improves my stamina, and you get to see a great view of the mountains. The sight is just marvelous!!! You wouldn't bare looking away!

Something else I did on the holiday was go to the movies. Out of all the movies that I watched "Avatar" was my favorite! The story was great, and the actors were outstanding! Avatar is the first movie to have animated characters, and real characters. Avatar made 1 million us dollars in 7 days! It cost 400 million us dollars to produce Avatar. But I guess the money's worth the success! Avatar was the number 1 movie on the us movie charts! Incredible! The reason I liked Avatar the best, was because the story is very cool! And it's not so violent. Avatar's technology in the film was based on the future. I find it amazing how they can make so many new gadgets when they haven't even been sold yet! Doesn't that ever wonder you, why there are so many cooler things in the movies than you have?

Christmas Holiday!

12, January 2010

For my new year holiday I went to Nepal. It was so much fun and at the same time exhausting! We went hiking, but the first couple of days we spent in Kathmandu. We strolled around in the street's and bought a lot of cool stuff. Mostly my parents bought things. But I bought a necklace,shoes, and a shirt.

The best day was probably staying all night to celebrate New Year. Unfortunately we didn't achieve our goal. We were already exhausted from our hike. What we did to stay awake was, that we bought a lot of junk food, like chips, oreo's, biscuits, and for drinks my parents bought wine, and we bought coke,mountain dew. I know it's totally unhealthy food, but you have to try to stay awake, and my parents made an exception. Actually it was their idea!
We stayed up till about 11pm, my brother went first to bed, and then I did. I'm not sure what my parents did since they have a different hotel room. My brother and I stayed awake till 11:45 reading. Then we both fell asleep forgetting to turn of the light. The next morning we took a bike tour, and road around the city. We went to the Devi Fall's, it's an under ground water fall. I have to admit it was pretty school.

We were in Nepal, so for New Years they had a strike. A strike was when there were no cars, or motorbikes allowed to drive. Bicycles were allowed which I think is good. It's a good idea to have a strike, because there's so much traffic in Nepal so you wouldn't get anywhere. The hard thing is that if you want to visit relatives and they live far away it might be hard to visit them. At night they had filled the city with lights. It was magically beautiful! Nearly all the restaurants were crowded with people, and some of them even had a special New Years dinner! We ate Pizza, it was truly delicious! I'm guessing it was an Italian. Because no one makes such good pizza in Jakarta! I wish you all a Happy New Year, and have a great new start with a new decade! 2010 here we come!

Happy New year 2010!!!

Happy new year 2010!!! It's a new decade!!!

Today we went on a bike tour, we went to the Devi Falls. The Devi falls is an under ground water fall. Right now you'll probably think how we saw it, am I right??? We went into a cave which led to the water fall. So that's how we saw it! After that our parents went to a mountain museum. And we stayed in the hotel room reading/resting. After that we went to buy some shoes, because they were cheaper there. Happy new year everyone!!!

6th day of Hiking!

Today is the last day of hiking. It was easy, you only went down wards. But it was slippery, because the horses/donkeys went the same way as us, and pooed all over the place! When we arrived at our car we found out it was a 1 1/2 hour drive to our hotel! Finally we arrived and then went straight to dinner. We had the best pizza ever! After dinner we went to the store, and bought many UN-healthy things, because we were going to celebrate new year by staying up till 12 pm/am.

So...... We had to stay awake! Unfortunately our plan failed :( ! We were very exhausted, because of all our hikes!

5th day of Hiking!

This morning our parents woke up at 5 am to go to the poon hill, because there was an outstanding view of the mountains. Which was true! My brother and I woke up at 8 am. Just in time for breakfast! Our hike was 4 1/2 hours steep down wards. We ran into a bunch of families that had the same aged children as us! Today I just found out that our tour guide walked the same way as us when he was a porter at the age of 14. He is a great role model for children who don't go to school.

Our lodge was better than we'd imagined it. It had a toilet, and a hot, and cold shower in the room. After coffee my brother and I went out for a slow easy stroll. We found this piece of bamboo that tasted really sweet. At dinner there was a game (which they had won), so they offered (killed) a chicken and gave it to the lodge we stayed at.

4th day of Hiking!

Today we woke up very early, because there was a clear sight of the mountains. It was marvelous! The sky was blue, and clear!!! Over the night it had snowed! It was freezing cold. On my hands I had pre-frozed bite, which means it hurts whenever I touch something! We had a 6 1/2 hour walk up and down. I reached 3,000 meters of height! It had been the highest I have ever been. Everywhere we went there was a clear sight of the following mountains -

-Annapurna South
-Annapurna 1
-Fish tail
-Annapurna 3

When we arrived at our lodge we packed out a soccer ball, and started playing. Not after a while many Nepali teenagers joined us. But instead of playing soccer we played volley ball! In the end we gave them our ball since we have a lot of access to balls, which they don't.

3rd day of Hiking!

Today we woke up at 7:15 am. Our tour guide said that today was going to be a short, and easy track. We took 4 hours till we reached our lodge. I liked it, although the rooms were puny. During our walk we saaw many of the same type trees, but sadly didn't see any long tail monkeys. For lunch I had noodle soup and chapatti. I must say it was delicious!!!

For me it wasn't so cold, so my brother and I went out to go shopping. We bought presents for our parents. Which we think they'll like! After that we had dinner, and by the time we arrived the dinning room was filled with people! I got a head ache, because of the gas, which heated the room. Finally, BED TIME!!!

2nd day of Hiking!

Today we had to wake up extremely early, my least favorite thing to do! Our tour guide (Hari) said that today was going to be the hardest day of all! We climbed/walked 1,100 meters up, and 740 meters down! We took 8 hours in all to reach our next lodge, which was located behind a humongous mountain! Which meant we had to climb up the mountain! EXHAUSTING! It was 4:30 pm when we arrived. Our lodge was called "Trekkers Inn".

We had 2 porters who each carried 2 bags! The total weight of 2 bags were 30 kg! The porters carried the bags using their head, attached to a rope! Plus the porters went the same way as us, and were there before us! With all that weight! Hari said that our track tomorrow was going to be half the distance as today! I'm seriously exhausted, and can't move a singly muscle anymore! All I can think about is sleep, sleep,sleep!

Something you should know!

Our porters were 22,35 years old, and our tour guide started as a porter at the age of 14. He only went to school for 1 year, and speaks fluent English. He did this all on his own!!! He's a real role model!

1st day of Hiking!

Today was the first day of hiking! I was so excited! It was exhausting, because you only went steep upwards. We spent 5 hours hiking until we finally reached our lodge. I wasn't surprised on how bad our lodge was! I mean we were in Nepal, so you can't expect a 5 star hotel, right?We arrived at our lodge at 4 pm. I liked it! At the lodge we saw a wooden Ferris wheel! We could tell that it hadn't been used in while, and not very secure!

Here in Nepal the sun goes down at 5 pm. My brother and I gathered up thin wood to carve. I hadn't realized till then that my brother and I had a hobby for carving wood. For dinner I had potato curry and chapati. It was local Nepali food! The really traditional Nepali food is Dal Bhat. When we went to bed it was so cold my entire body was jittering! I have to admit it wasn't such a bad day.

Something you should know!

My mom,dad and brother have already been in Nepal. They actually lived there for 3 years! For me it was the first time. I was very excited, but I didn't expect that it was cold!