My Indian Odyssey

This year I went to India for two weeks. This is week one and I’m going to share my experience with you.

Stray Dogs treated like Pets

First of all, there are so many dogs strolling on the street. These are all stray dogs and are not anyone’s pet. There are also so many cows roaming around on the streets. While we were driving, the car almost hit one!

My brother brought his drum pads here and is teaching me how to play. There is this real big problem of electricity here; there is power cut and we get only few hours of electricity. The generator can keep one fan and few dim lights running. With temperature of 104 degree Fahrenheit during the day, it was way too hot without an air conditioner. I was fainting on day 2, but then I am getting used to it little bit more. There is also a major bug problem here. I can’t go anywhere without stepping on one or getting one up my nose. That’s really disgusting!! Maybe by next week, I will get used to this as well. The bathrooms have no toilet paper so it gets really weird using spray water. Can’t get used to this one!

Rickshaw used to carry goods

Its interesting to see how goods get transported within the towns. Most of the time they use a bicycle connected to a big cart at the back. Its called a 'Rickshaw'. In India, a rickshaw is used to transport goods as well as people, and even kids to school.

A full-sized refrigerator home delivered in a Rickshaw

A kid going to school, and a busy road for sure!

Another scene: a motor bike that drives a family of four, and its common to see these bikers. 

A biker family, and a cap for biker. We don't like helmets. 

Another one: a public water fountain, its called a 'Hand Pump'. Its cool, you get some exercise as you pull water from the fountain. The fountain is attached to an underground well.  

A public water fountain; Hand Pump

This is all for now. 

Next week is going to be a lot of fun. My mom is joining us, and then we are planning to go to Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and few other places. I cannot wait for next week.

-Writing Girl (WG)

Book Review: Curse of the Bologna Sandwich

- a book from Melvin Beederman Superhero series

Melvin Beederman is a superhero who yet hasn’t found his weakness at the academy. But after his friend James held up a piece of bologna, he found his weakness and went to the place he was supposed to protect; Los Angeles.

He started by catching purse robbers, then saving babies, starting to catch bank robbers, and so on. When his cape got dirty, he gave it to the cleaners. His future partner in crime is Candace Brinkwater who gets picked in her school play as Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of her small cape she gave to the cleaners, she gets Melvins big one when the cleaner switches the capes accidently.

Since Candace really loved being a superhero, a person who had agreed to make changes to Melvin’s cape, split it in half and the second part was given to Candace. Now Candace and Melvin are partners in crime.

They caught the Mcnasty brothers when they were trying to rob a bank. When the partners gave the bad guys to the police, people all around cheered for them. The next day they were in the newspaper. Both superheros were famous all around Los Angeles.

They had one deal; Melvin would help Candace do her math homework and Candace would help Melvin save Los Angeles!

If you want to become a law enforcement office (like Police) and fight crime, I suggest you read this book because you can learn tricks about fighting crime and catching criminals. I also suggest it to kids who live in dangerous places because they can find ways to fight criminals and protect themselves.

- Writing Girl (WG)

If you are still deciding whether ‘Melvin Beederman Superhero’ series is for you, you can read the review for this series here: http://thebasketballchamp.wordpress.com/

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My First Showcase

- narrated by Writing Girl

This year, for five weeks in summer I went to a performing arts camp. Every day we worked very hard. Our schedule was, warm ups, learn songs and review songs. At the end of everything we were going to have a show case; and everything had to be perfect.

My group was vocal singing and the songs we sang were; Summertime Porgy and Bess, Avia Maria - Old Man River, La Habanera, and Lets Call The Whole Thing Off. My most important song was ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’ because me and the http://thebasketballchamp.wordpress.com; my brother had a solo together. There was also an opening and a finale. In the girls dressing room we changed and then talked. When we got our cue we went out of the dressing room and got in line backstage. When we went on stage we had to be smiling and happy. when we went off stage we went to the dressing room to get prepared for the next song. They were other groups like drama and dance so it wasn't like we were the only ones on stage.

Singing Summertime!

Singing La Habanera

Singing Lets call this whole thing off!

Photo shoot after the show

In the audience my parents recorded the whole showcase; the showcase was two hours long. I was excited that I could watch it again and see my improvements. At the end, my brother couldn't find his suit jacket. All the boys basically got the same thing; so someone might have accidentally taken it. The place was a mess; I even found a pack of gum. I still had an amazing time; it was awesome!

Singing is my passion. My mom tells me I don't have a rhythm, oh well I am learning. I do think she is right because I just sing songs, without thinking how they sound. During these five weeks, I learned more rhythm.  Now I keep humming my songs when I wake up and many times during the day especially during the boring rides in a car. At times, I make up my own lyrics, and add my own tune to them. It really doesn't matter to me how my song sounds, at the end of it I just feel relaxed and calm.

-Writing Girl (WG)

The amazing series, The Secrets of Droon

- a series review by Writing Girl

This summer I chose series like The Secrets of Droon because it was exciting to me. It was exciting because it was about three kids who entered another dimension under Earth. The kids names were Julie, Eric and Neal. They helped out the good guys.

The good guys are Keah, Max, Galen, Urik who is lost, Sparr who turned out to be a bad guy but was really a good guy and Zara who is dead but can be brought back alive. Zara is a queen and the mom of Galen, Urik and Sparr.

If you wanted to know the bad guys they are Ungast he is Eric’s bad side, Gethwing, Neffu Keah’s bad side and Ninns. Remember Gethwing, he has a wheel of life. To make him die seven people have to put their hands in the hand spots. Until the last book they don’t know where Gethwing keeps his wheel of life. The only clue they have is that it is at a very cold place. In fact it is kept in a cave on the moon of droon.

When I read this series and my mom asks me to do a favor,  I don’t listen because I am so into the book.When I read this series I feel suspicious about what will happen. According to this review do you think you like the secrets of droon? If you do please message me with a clue from you.

The trick I use is that I read the last books first because they involve more people and more action. You learn more information in them too.

I learned what it means to be brave. Bravery is not that if someone is sitting peacefully and you hurt him trying to be brave. It is when there is a problem and you are not scared of anything, you go up and solve the problem.

Writing Girl (WG)

You can review the list of all books in this awesome series here.

I Do Not like to Fail

I have always enjoyed learning, and find it exciting and challenging. I remember my kindergarten teacher once taught me the concept of friction, and I tried it out with many different objects. It was fun. When I do not understand a concept quickly, I get frustrated. I don’t have the patience to learn it from someone else, and I just want to figure it out myself.  In front of people, I do not like to accept my mistakes, and I do not like to let people know I failed. This is how I was (maybe still somewhat), and I do not enjoy it.

During a chess game recently, when I lost, and my opponent shook my hand; I got so angry that I started telling him to shut up. You can tell that was embarrassing.

Last year, my brother and I did a charity sale of our toys, and we sold zero items. I was miserable. I had worked hard to create flyers and posted them outside my front yard one day in advance so people would know about it. I and my brother stood outside with the sale sign next to a table full of toys for 3 hours and not a single customer came to our table. Few people passed by, and we just smiled. My mom asked me later that night, “what was the biggest mistake in your sale?” I did not want to answer her or even speak with anyone about it. Deep in my mind I knew that I needed customers and my house was on a quiet street and not just the right place to do it.

Recently I was reading a book that had a question which caught my attention, “Would you rather try more ambitious things knowing you might fail or try easier things knowing you would succeed?” Obviously, I want to do ambitious things, it’s fun!

If doing ambitious things is fun, then failing should also be fun, and this is what I must learn. When we fail, we look over our mistakes, carefully spotting the miscalculations in our ideas. Failure and defeat are life’s greatest teachers.

I came across this amazing article on Michael Jordan: http://launching-a-leadership-revolution.blogspot.com/2011/10/failure-is-one-of-lifes-greatest.ht

Failures of famous people:

·       It took Thomas Edison 10,000 tries to make the light bulb!

·       In her lifetime, Emily Dickinson published less than a dozen of her 1,800 poems! After Emily Dickinson died, the rest of her poems were found

·     Vincent Van Gogh only sold ONE painting out of 900 in his life! The rest of his paintings were found after he died

Source: GoComics.com