Spring Break, San Diego, and reads

Finally!!!!! Today is the first day of Spring Break for me!!!! Wow. There's only a few weeks left of school. Then it's off to camp, then just a few weeks of Summer left, then High School... Wow. Everything is passing so quickly.

I got off really lucky. No homework for my vacation except for setting up a Science Project, which I can't do quite yet. On Tuesday, I'm gonna go to California for the first time with my brothers, My dad, his girlfriend, Jackie, and two of Jackie's kids, Emmy and Caroline, both of which are older than my brothers and I. My friend Marek got unlucky. He's going on a roadtrip with his family for 8 days into the middle of nowhere with his hyperactive little brother and no computer. Kathryn is even luckier than me. She's going on her annual trip to Hawaii. Lucky her. So many kids at my school are going there. I've never been to Hawaii, and I want to soooo badly. 

Well, we're going to San Diego. A huge zoo, Seaworld, and best of all, the beach!!!! Warmth!!!! It's been freezing for weeks here on Mercer Island. It's torture. And it's been raining. If it's going to be cold, it should at least snow instead of rain.

I've also got a mission over spring break. Kathryn wants me to read a book called The Shack that she's been going on and on about, saying somthing about it "strengthening her relationship with God." We had a long argument, or well, you can't really call it an argument. It was more like a discussion about religion. I told her I'd read it if I could start it before the end of break. I had already been planning to read The 13th Reality 2 over spring break (finally!) and before that, I have to finish rereading Brisingr. I'm probably gonna finish Brisingr tonight, so I'll be done with 13th Reality in a few days. Does anyone else know about this book, The Shack? It was a New York Times Best Seller.

The Merchant of Venice

Last Friday, I went to see the Shakespeare comedy, The Merchant of Venice, with my dad. It was preformed by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, and they did a TERRIFIC job! This was the first Shakespeare play I've ever seen, and I loved it. (Picture, from left: Lorenzo, Salario (I think), Antonio, and, uhh, I forgot his name.)

****Spoilers****

There were a lot of funny moments, and Gratiano, one of the comic relief characters, did a very good job, but I wouln't call it a comedy. It was funny, but, and this is a lot more visible if you're Jewish, it was a really sad and cruel story. My dad and I had a discussion about this in the car on the way home. Shylock was made into the terrible person he was by the protagonists of the play. They pushed him around his whole life, spat on him and called him a dog, all because of his Judeaism. All he had was his money, his religion, and his daughter. He had no friends or kindness. Then, when Jessica, his daughter, ran away to be with a Christian, Lorenzo, and stealing a large sum of money from him in the process, Shylock went nearly mad. He had lost nearly everything. Now all he had left was his religion and his chance for revenge. When Antonio's ships did not come back, and he could not pay back Shylock, Shylock was ready to take his life after he Antonio was proven guilty. Shylock wanted his revenge so badly, that he refused twice what he'd given Antonio from Bassanio. That's when Shylock literally lost everything. P0rtia came in disguised as a lawyer and lost Shylock his money, his home, and his religion even. They forced him to convert to a Christian. He could either take Antonio's life, and lose his own, or he lost everything. He'd even have to give half of it to his run away daughter and her husband. Shylock really is a sad story.

*****Spoilers over*****

Even through the sad story, I still loved the play. Great acting, especially by Shylock, Antonio, and Bassanio. Oh, and by Jessica. She was played by an intern even.

Invite-Only Private Fencing Program..... I WAS INVITED!!!!

This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was at my fencing class tonight (I missed last week because I as sick, so tonight was my first night in the intermediate class) and the instructor asked to talk to my dad. I went and got him, and the coach told us that he was reccomending us for an invite-only fencing program at the Sammamish Plateau nearby. He said that I had a lot of potential as a fencer and wanted to give me some private lessons to see if I should permanantly join!!!! This is the kind of program that gets people scholarships, and even into the Olympics!!! This is so cool!!! I'll tell you more when I know more!

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

This was an amazing, touching story about a calico cat who is abandoned at the edge of a forest by her owners. The pregnant mother wanders the forest until she finds a sad old hound dog, Ranger, chained to a post by a house in the bayou. He is maimed in one leg, having been shot by his owner, the evil Gar Face, years ago. Now, the chain is all that keeps him there. She sympathizes with Ranger and they are instant friends, living in the shadowed area under the crooked house. When the kittens are born, Ranger is like a father to them. And they are given one rule: Stay in the Underneath. Puck and Sabine respect this rule, until the trickery of a sunbeam gets the better of one of them. As Gar Face breaks up this family, Ranger, Puck, and Sabine must find a way to bring it back together. 

Meanwhile, there is magic at work in the Bayou Tartine. A thousand years ago, there lived Grandmother moccasin, an old snake, bitter after the betrayal she felt when her loved one fell for another and she morphed back into her serpent form. She has waited for many years, lonley but for one companion, the Alligator King. Until she meets her daughter, Nightsong. She is a sweet and loving companion, with a voice like sweet honey. They are happy, until another betrayal tears Grandmother Moccasin apart, and she sets out to wreak her revenge and gain a new companion. And she bides her time...

This story was amazing, told by the trees of the forest. It has the perfect balance of mysticism and reality, and a thousand emotions bundled into it. I really loved it. It was also a National Book Award Finalist! It's funny how I learned about it. I really had no desire to read it. I read it to participate in an author chat on Wandsandworlds.com It was a really fun chat. I'll be sure to post the link when it is released.

Work, work, and, uh, more work

Whew.... I've had so much homework this weekend. I missed most of last week, and had to make up all of the work this weekend. The flu has been going around Mercer Island, and my family caught it. My mom's boyfriend gave it to my mom, who gave it to Jordan, who gave it to Ezra and I. Luckily for me, most of the school was sick too. Over 200 kids were out on Tuesday and Wednesday!!! Even a lot of the teachers were sick.

Well, I just finished (sorta) my massive load of homework. I had 4 math assignments (I only finished 1. My math teacher is very lax on all of that, and said I had a while to do it all,) 2 science assignments, 4 history assignments, 3 language arts assignments, and a spanish assignment. What a load! And even worse, the trimester ends at the end of the week, so I need to make sure everything is in by then! I've also got a huge test on Friday on To Kill a Mockingbird. I'll write about To Kill a Mockingbird once I've watched the movie. I finished the book a while ago, but I havn't seen the whole movie yet.

Sorry I havn't posted in a while. It's not that I've been busy, but I havn't had anything to write about. I havn't seen a movie in ages. No new books to talk about, other than To Kill a Mockingbird. Hmm.... Oh! I do have a book to talk about soon. I read The Underneath by Kathi Appelt a few weeks ago, and participated in an author chat on this chat website. I'll talk about that one soon, too. Hmm... I havn't gotten much work done on The Necromancer Apprentice. Yeah, nothing new has really happened. I'm seeing two Shakespeare plays soon, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. I tried reading The Merchant of Venice, but I gave up pretty quickly. It took me 10 minutes to even vaguely get the first page. And these are small pages.

Well, that's all really. I'll post soon. Oh, and to Bettina (and Jacoby. You havn't really talked 'bout them) good luck on the SATs!