Summer Activities

This summer, I’ve done a lot of things. Most of them, I have wrote about in my blogs. However, there are some things I haven’t written about. This blog is a collection of all these things.

Tennis

This summer, I went to tennis classes. Our coaches, Coach Barry, Coach Warren, and Coach Lucy, taught us how to play tennis. I went in to match play at every class. I got better after every class. We normally started with something called running doubles to begin the class. Then we were divided for match play. At the end of each class, we normally played a game called around the world. On the last day, we did exactly that. The last shot of the season was a good one this year because we were trained by such good coaches. We had a potluck on the last day.

Swimming

Another thing I did this summer was swimming on a swim team. Every week Monday-Thursday, I had to go to a Mission San Jose High for swim team practice. We normally did what we had already learnt, but sometimes we did new things like Egyptian Freestyle and the Corkscrew. Near the end, we were faster than any other team of our age. During the last week, we had to do 20 laps of freestyle non-stop. One day, we swam 50 laps. On our last day, there was a swim team meet. I had to do everything, even though everyone else only did 2 short events and one long event. For the short events, we had to do 25 yards of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. For the long event, we had to do 50 yards of freestyle. During the half time between the two events, we had a belly flop contest. In 25yard freestyle, I was second, and for everything else, I was in the middle. Being in a swim team was a really fun experience.

Eragon
This summer, I also read a book called Eragon. It was written by Christopher Paolini. It is about a poor farm boy named Eragon. Eragon raises a dragon so he can stop an invasion of evil creatures. It’s a good book. It was more than 400 pages long.

Erec Rex And The Monsters Of Otherness

Erec Rex is an adopted boy. A few weeks ago, he had saved a magical world with a new friend named Bethany. He is given a dragon Eye from a dragon for his last challenge. The only problem is he was tricked. Still, he saved the world from an evil person bent on stealing his dragon eye. In The Monsters Of Otherness, He is hated, even though he does the right thing. In the end, he learns that everything he learnt about monsters were lies. He must save them from a terrible fate. He could only save them by using a special scroll that could only be used once. He also gets a second dragons eye and saves some of the all but 2 dragon hatchlings. He still has to do 12 quests to stop the evil person. He also learns that a secret the evil person was trying to solve was in the mind of his friend Bethany, even though she doesn’t know the secret.


Sly 2:Band Of Thieves

A few years ago, I got a game for my play station 2 called Sly 2:Band Of Thieves. It was a difficult game. In the game, a master thief named Sly Cooper and his friends, Bentley and Murray, sneak into a Museum in Cairo. They were trying to steal the parts of Sly’s worst enemy, the giant ancient metal owl, Clockwerk. They find out that they were stolen the night before. They get caught my Inspector Carmelita Fox and her assistant, Constable Neyla. Carmelita believes Sly stole the, but Neyla said it might have been a Klaaw gang job. They had to pull a hasty escape. They discovered the first member of the Klaaw gang, Dimitri, had the Clockwerk tail feathers. Neyla helped them with there operation. Sly ran into a few difficulties, but he was able to get the tail feathers. They found that the second member of the Klaaw Gang was named Rajan. He was in possession of the Clockwerk wings. Once again, Neyla helped them. However, during the operation, Sly was dancing with Carmelita in disguise. Neyla secretly took a picture. Sly then found out that Rajan was plotting his revenge in an ancient temple in India. He was also in possession of the Clockwerk heart. Neyla helped them again, but just Rajan was defeated, Neyla double crossed them and gave them to the prison warden, the Contessa. She also showed the Contessa the picture she took of Carmelita and Sly. Carmelita was also taken into prison. However, luckily, \Bentley had not been captured. He had to save his friends. He learnt that the Contessa was also a member of the Klaaw Gang. When he rescued Sly and Murray, however, she escaped in her blimp. The Contessa’s secret alliance with the Klaaw Gang was revealed, however. Neyla was given money to hire tank and bomber mercenaries. The Contessa and Neyla were beginning a full-scale war. The Contessa also had the Clockwerk Eyes. She was trying to brainwash Carmelita with them. The Cooer gang still foiled he plans, but Neyla tried to take one of the eyes. Sly was able to get it though. The Contessa was taken to jail. The next member of the Klaaw Gang was Jean Bison. In the 1800s, he was frozen during a Canadian gold rush. He was thawed thanks to global warming. He did everything he could after that to destroy nature. He had the Clockwerk lungs and stomach. The operation wouldn’t have had any bumps in it if Neyla didn’t come in the middle with her mini-bomber to steal the pieces. Bentley was able to use his dangerous RC Chopper to destroy the mini-bomber. Jean Bison went to his secret logging camp to send something called the Northern Lights Battery to his partner Arpeggio. Jean Bison also had the Clockwerk talons, and Arpeggio had the Clockwerk brain. They joined Jean Bison’s woodcutter contest to win the talons. Just before they won, Jean Bison found them cheating and trapped them. Jean Bison then told them that he sold the Clockwerk parts he found in their hideout to Arpeggio. When Jean Bison was neutralized, they pulled of the old Trojan Battery trick to get into Arpeggio’s blimp. When they got there, they learnt Arpeggio was working with Neyla to achieve immortality. However, Neyla double-crossed Arpeggio and killed him. She joined herself with the Clockwerk parts and became Clock-La. They had to stop her before she became immortal. Carmelita and Sly had to work together to stop Clock-La. After they beat her, she destroyed Arpeggio’s blimp and kidnapped Bentley and Murray. They were able to beat her, but Bentley’s legs were crushed in the process. Carmelita then caught Sly, but he escaped. It was a great game.

Sly 3:Honor Among All Thieves

Sly and Bentley were reunited after sly escaped. A guy named Mac Sweeney told Sly that he worked in his father’s gang back when he was alive. He told him about the Cooper Vault. All of Sly’s ancestors put their wealth in the Cooper Vault. It could only be opened by a Cooper. When he got their, he learnt that a “Doctor. M” had built a fort. He secretly was part of the last generation Cooper Gang. He needed a gang of new, world-class team. He recovered his old friend Murray, his old enemies Dimitri and Panda King, and two new members named Penelope and The Guru. However, once in the Cooper Vault, Sly and Doctor. M got in a fight. Then the Interpol officer Inspector Carmelita fox came in. Sly, in a desperate attempt to save her lost his memory. It is unknown if he really lost his memory. Inspector Fox him he was Constable Cooper. They both escaped while the Cooper Vault caved in. Doctor. M died in the cave in. Sly left his cane, the key to the Vault on the island. It was worth millions. Murray became a racer, Dimitri became a celebrity diver, Panda King was in charge of screening all of his daughter’s would be husbands, The Guru started having to teach a famous rock group in central park. Penelope and Bentley performed world class jobs around the world. Bentley wrote in Sly’s book, the Thievius Racoonus, that he was building a time machine to find out if Sly, Murray, Bentley, and the rest of the gang will ever meet up again. It was super cool.

Badminton

This summer, I also played Badminton. I play against my sister. I’m really good at Badminton. Yesterday, I played one game against my mom. I lost 5-15. Badminton is really fun.

Politics

This year, I’ve been following the election. I followed the campaigns of Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain. Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are both in the Democratic Party, while John McCain is a Republican. John McCain was the Republican nominee, and Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee. So far Obama is winning the election. In November, the next president will be elected.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

This year, the Summer Olympics are taking place in Beijing, China. The United States has 12/13 gold medals. 8 of them are Michael Phelps’. He got the most gold medals in a single Olympics in history. He won a swimming race by 0.01 of a second. At the beginning, he was in 7th place, but he still won. I think the Olympics are an important event.

The GATE Program

Yesterday, I got a letter from the school district saying I was in the GATE Program. GATE means Gifted And Talented Education. I passed the Stanford Achievement Test. I’m really happy about it.

These are some of the other things I have done this summer. It was a great summer.Next Monday, August 25th, 2008, school starts. My uncle is also moving in to his new house on that day. My grandmother is also leaving on the 28th. I guess I'll be bored from that day on, but right now, I'm happy.

Canada Trip -July 2008

In July 2008, I went on a huge trip through America and Canada. I had been waiting for this trip for months. It was a 8 day trip.

On 7/22/08, I went to Dallas, Texas. I took a plane at 6:00 clock Pacific Time. I also ate a chocolate chip cookie. While I was on the plane, I read a book called Eragon and took a nap. I was a 2 hour-long flight. It was 12:00 Mountain Time, which is 2 hours faster than Pacific Time when we got there. I ate my dinner when I got to my grandmother’s sister’s house. I felt exhausted, but when I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. I just stayed up until 2:A.M. Mountain Time.

On 7/23/08, I woke up late. I brushed my teeth, took a bath, and ate my breakfast before lunch. I played with my second cousin, Pranav, who is 1 and a half. In the evening, I went to Detroit, Michigan. I did the same things I did on the way to Dallas. It was late after I went to my third cousins, Vignesh’s and Anagha’s house. I just slept after getting there.

On 7/24/08, I played with Vignesh. We played in his backyard and on the computer. I had lots of fun with him, but at 12:00, we had to leave. We drove for 4 hours to Niagara Falls, Ontario. We went through the border between America and Canada. It was something I’ll never forget. It took us almost half an hour to pass. When we got to Niagara Falls, we went to the falls. We went behind the falls in Journey Behind The Falls. It was so rough I got blown back every time I went to the right side as well as getting soaked. After that, we went and saw Niagara’s Fury. First we saw a mini-movie about Niagara Falls’ history. Then we went on a 4-D simulated boat and helicopter ride around a simulated early Niagara Falls. At 10:00, we went to our hotel and slept.

7/25/08 was my dad’s birthday. We couldn’t buy him a cake, so we made him one and had a small celebration at the hotel. I made a card for him. At 9:00, we caught the second Maid Of The Mist VII boat. It was just like Journey Behind The Falls except it was even cooler. When it was over, we went on the White Water Walk, took pictures, and ate ice cream. We left for Toronto, the capital of Ontario, immediately after the White Water Walk. We took a bus tour of the city. We didn’t get down at a castle called Casa Loma because we couldn’t go inside. Casa Loma was built in the early 1900s by a rich man named Sir Henry Pallat. It cost over 3 million dollars to build. Right after he built it, he went bankrupt. To add to his troubles, his wife died as well. We got of at a building called the CN Tower. Until 2007, it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world. The view from up there was magnificent. When we left the tower. We went on a boat tour of the islands around Toronto. When we got of the boat, we found a place to eat pizza. The slices were a third the size of a normal pizza slice, but they were twice as tasty. After eating pizza, we went to a hotel on the outskirts of Montreal, Quebec. The trip took many hours & we reached there at the wee hours of morning (2.30am).

On 7/26/08, we took a tour of Montreal. One of our first stops was the church NotreDame Basquille. In front of it were some horse-drawn carriages. There was about 20 or more stained glass paintings. It was a very spacious church. It had many rooms. There were also a few statues. Some people have their weddings at the church. The waiting list for a wedding is two years. It seemed weird that such a big city like Montreal was so quiet. That was because most activities in Montreal take place underground. Our next stop was a short picture and rest stop near the Olympic Stadium. I took a few pictures of it. None of us went there, though. Our next stop was a huge church for all religions. I took a picture of it, the garden, a large building close to it, and a statue. We passed by one of the biggest graveyards in the world. It had over 1 million graves. Our final stop was on top of a huge hill called Mount Royale. I took pictures of my family with a view of the city in between them. I also took a picture of the whole city. We were on the opposite side of where the Olympic Stadium was. It was miles away.

We went to Quebec City, Quebec. Quebec city was the first French settlement in North America. All the street signs and names were in French. It really was like a European city. We saw a park that went on for acres and acres. There was also a beautiful fountain built by a clothing store in Quebec. We also saw a statue commemorating a French woman by name Joan of Ark. After the tour, my sister and I got soft ice cream. At night, we went to the outskirts of Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

The scenery and landscapes in Canada were beautiful. California was a desert compared to Canada. It gave a whole new meaning to the term greenery. The flowers were all sorts of colors. The roads there were thinner than the ones in the U.S. The flowerbeds on the side of the highway were extravagant, exotic, and colorful.

On 7/27/08, we went to the Museum Of Natural History. We started with pre-history. We saw the bones of ancient mammals, reptiles, and dinosaurs. We saw a mini-movie about how the dinosaurs went extinct. In room 2,we learnt about modern mammals. In room 3, we learnt about the ice age. In room 4, we learnt about birds in the bird gallery. We went to the gift shop afterwards and bought some books. We went to the Capital Building soon after. The Capital Building is where the Canadian parliament has meetings. We took a few pictures of it and left. We were headed for Detroit. At lunchtime, we bought pizza from Hot Fresh Pizza Pizza. It was the most delicious pizza we ever ate. It took us 9 hours to get to Detroit. We left Ottawa at 1:00 and got to Detroit at 10:00. When we got there, I played with my cousin for hours.

On 7/28/08, my grandmother, sister, and mom went back to California. Vignesh and me played with aircrafts in the morning. It was funny. We each had two planes. Vignesh launched 100s of heat-seeking missiles. The first time, I shut down all my power and they went to the sun. Luckily, my base was in Asia, where it was nighttime. At Vignesh’s base, it was daytime. His base got incinerated. The second time, I did the same thing and the missiles hit Destiny, a spaceship that was going to colonize Mars. Then I launched a space ship. It colonized Mars first, so I won the game. We also played Wii sports and built our own army camp.

On 7/29/08, I left for California at 4:00 am. When I got home, I did some math and found out we drove and flew for 36 hours during our trip. That’s 1 and half days. My trip was exciting and fun, but in the end, I was happy to get home.