Team Fear Training

It was soooo much fun after school today!! Today it was the Team Fear training. We didn't do much besides running and swimming, but it was really fun. We ran from the school all the way to the beach, then we jumped into the ocean and had to swim about 5 laps all around the sea. It was really tiring but we got to play around at the beach for a bit afterwards.


But when we got back from the training, it was really horrible when we had to change. I was covered with sand and salt water, and I was soaking wet. And I only had 10 minutes to change in order to catch the after school bus! I was really uncomfortable the whole bus ride, but I took a nice, clean shower when I got back home.


Yesterday, mommy had bought me bike gloves, a helmet, and a camel-bak. I had to bring all that stuff to school today, along with my swimming stuff because at P.E. we had swimming again. I also needed to bring a change of clothes including sneakers because we had to swim in the ocean with our sneakers and helmets on!! Yep, it was pretty hard to swim with all those heavy things dragging me down.


I originally planned to be in a team of 3 with Alexandra and Grayce. But unfortunately, since Alex and Grayce are 11 years old and I am only 10, they can't do the under 11 age group; they must do the under 12 age group, and the under 12 group only allows teams of 2. So Alex and Grayce will be doing the under 12 race together, but I have to look for another person to team up with... so, I asked Niki if she could do the race with me... and luckily her mom allowed her to do the race!! So now I have a new team... too bad I couldn't do the race with Alex and Grayce... they have to be 11 huh?!

It was another really rainy day today. But I still had swimming for P.E. at school today, so the water was really freezing!!


At school for Social Studies, we got assigned to be different people for Cultural Encounters. I'm a black smith and I have US$150. Next Thursday, we have to dress up as whoever we are to school.


After school, I had clarinet class and we learnt many new songs... nearly finished with the whole book!!


When clarinet was over, I had disco class. We continued the dances we are learning for the charity bazaar.


At school, there is a program going on called Team Fear. Grayce, Alex and I are going to be doing this. It's a race where we have to do mountain biking, rock climbing, off road running, swimming in the sea, etc... This race is on November 29th and this Wednesday there will be a tryout to see if you are fit enough to make the actual race. 

Know Your Clarinet

There is a new concert in Hong Kong called 'Know Your Clarinet'. Mommy took me to that concert, and it was actually really enjoyable to watch! There was a really good clarinetist who can play all different kinds of clarinets.

Since the shopping mall IFC (no, it's nothing like Natick Collection in Boston) is very close to where the concert was, mommy then took me to a store called Zara and I bought a couple of winter clothes for this year. 

I also wanted to go to the bookstore Dymocks, but we had to go home for dinner; I guess I'll just have to wait for another time to go to Dymocks!! 

After practicing some clarinet, I ordered pizza for dinner and watched some TV. So now I'm just gonna go read my 'Eclipse' book and get ready for tomorrow's school! =P

Birthday Party

Today was so much fun!!


It was Frances' 10th birthday party, and last night I went over to Frances' house for a birthday sleep over. I helped her prepare for her party.


Unfortunately, my violin tutor started exactly when Frances' party started, so I had to be about an hour and a half late for her birthday. I bought Frances an H&M gift card -- like what Sophia gave me. Frances really liked it. At the party, we played games and treasure hunts and stuff :)


Also, I had tennis in the morning, and I thought it would be a bit cooler this week than it was last week; I was wrong. It seemed much hotter today than it did last week at tennis!! I was soooo hot :o


When everyone went back home and it was soon dinner time, Frances, Katy, their mom, my mom and I went to the pool side to have a barbecue dinner. It was really fun as well. After Frances, Katy and I finished dinner, we dipped our feet in the pool and played around. We started trying to make each other laugh and it was really funny. 

After school, I had violin class. Mr. Y wanted tested up on a song one by one at a really fast speed, but I did it without any mistakes! 


After violin class, I went to a tennis group lesson with Rachel. Rachel and I planned to have a sleep over on October 2nd... hopefully we can!! 


When tennis was over, Rachel came over to my house to help me a bit to prepare for my piano exam. She told me strategies about how to memorize things, and we practiced like it was really the exam. I really hope I do well on the day of my exam!


When Rachel went back home for dinner, Sophia sent me her speech that she will be saying to her class for Student Council tomorrow. I'm now reading through it and giving Sophia some advice about what she should add into her speech and stuff. I'm thinking about running for Student Council next year...

Making Posters

I had no after school activities today, so I had plenty of time to do all my homework. I had a lot of homework to do, but when I finally finished all of it, Sophia called me. She is running for Class Representative, so I wanted to help her with her campaigning. She brought some poster paper over to my house and we started to make a poster. I came up with a motto for Sophia that goes like this, "Check the box for the Rep that rocks!". I took pictures of Sophia, printed them out, and glued them on the poster paper. We also wrote, "Vote 4 Sophia!". I hope Sophia will become Class Rep! Sophia also got to stay for dinner, which gave us more time to finish the poster; Sophia has to start campaigning tomorrow. I'm so excited for her :)


At school for P.E., we had swimming class. Everyone had to do a test where we have to swim as many laps you can for 5 minutes... no stopping. So now I'm really tired. I swam 10 laps (250 meters) in 5 minutes today. 


I really want to find out what cabin I will be in for 5th grade camp!! I really hope I'll be in the same cabin as my friends. :P

Chinese Homework

At school today, since I am a peer helper at school, I had to give a tour of my school to parents!! It was my first tour, and it was really fun. Hopefully their children will come to my school! I hope I did a good job :P


After school, I had clarinet class, and today at clarinet we learnt many more songs. Mr. Lovett, my band teacher, told us that there will be auditions to do duets, trios, and maybe solos for the upcoming concert this December. Alexandra, Sydney and I want to audition to do a trio, and I might audition for a solo as well!!


After clarinet, it was really hard to get a taxi; we spent about 20 minutes walking around, trying to find a taxi that wasn't yet taken.


When I finally got back home, I had to rush to disco class and I ended up being a bit late. At disco, we practiced our dance that I will be performing for the Charity Bazaar. We are doing a dance to the song called 'Low' by Flo Rida.


After disco, I spent the rest of my whole night (about 3 hours), finishing my chinese homework which is due tomorrow. I had gotten it about 1 1/2 weeks ago, but I didn't exactly do any of it last week, so I ended up squeezing all of it into one night... next time I'll do one page every day. In the chinese homework I had to do today, I had to do 2 long articles, along with other stuff.

Aberdeen Marina Club

Mommy, daddy and I were invited to have lunch with Sophia and her family with other friends. We ate lunch at a club called the Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC). There are really cool and fun things in the AMC.  There are 2 pools with huge water slides, restaurants, playgrounds, boats, and lots of other stuff.

After lunch, Sophia and I went to a fun play in the AMC called the Adventure Zone. There are cool, steep, big slides, climbing ropes, dark tunnels, etc... it was really fun!! 

When we got back home, in the middle of some of my chinese homework, Sophia called me, asking me if I wanted to go to the swimming pool with her. Sophia's dad and her brother was there as well. Her dad played Chicken Fight with us and played other games as well. Soon it was really late, so we had to go back home.

I've just finished doing my chinese homework, which is due tomorrow. I still have to do 2 articles and other stuff for chinese which is due on Tuesday. But I'm really tired now, so I guess I'll just have to squeeze all that in tomorrow!

Hey... if I go to bed really early tonight, think about how much earlier I'll get up tomorrow morning without the alarm clock!! Yessss! Then I won't have to rush for the school bus tomorrow if I do get up earlier that usual tomorrow :)

The Sunniest Day Yet

I don't remember Hong Kong getting this sunny before. Yesterday, I practically died out in the sun playing tennis!! It was so extremely hot! It felt so good to enter my air-conditioned room and take a freezing cold shower. After all that air con and cold showers, I became cold and I wanted to be hot again...


After my violin lesson, I had french fries from Mac-Donald's. 


When I got back home, I called Rachel to see if she could play. We went swimming together and we made posters to advertise about the Charity Bazaar. Hopefully more people will come this year!! 


After taking showers in the clubhouse, I had to go back home to practice my clarinet and piano. In the middle of clarinet, Rachel called to invite me to dinner, asking me to go to her house. So I didn't get a chance to start piano.


Rachel's two friends, Michelle and Kenny, came for dinner as well. We played on the computer, and Kenny brought his iPod Touch with him, so we played with that as well. Kenny really likes dogs, so Michelle, Kenny, Rachel and I went up to my house and looked at Samantha. We dressed her up with hair bands, necklaces, bracelets, sunglasses, and other stuff like that :)


Soon it got really late, so everyone had to go back home. 

Ocean Park

Today was so much fun!!! Since there wasn't any school, Sophia and I went to Ocean Park!! At first, I thought that Sophia wouldn't be able to go, because she wasn't calling me at all. When I finally decided that she would never call, Sophia called! I was sooo happy that we could go to Ocean Park!!! 


At Ocean Park, we rode many rides. I'll describe every ride we did...


-Dragon = Roller coaster with 3 loops and 3 up-hills and 3 down-hills. Sophia and I rode it 2 times.
-Mine Train = Roller coaster with no loops, but really fast. 4 up-hills and 4 down-hills. All hills were really steep. Sophia and I rode it 2 times.
-Bungee Trampoline = Jumping up and down really high. Sophia and I did it only once.
-Raging River = Boat on rocky water, then a really steep drop. Sophia and I did it once as well.


Those were all the rides we did... not much :( But all the lines were reeaaallly long, so those 4 rides took up almost 3 hours!! Sophia and I might go to Ocean Park again on October 1st. We don't know yet... I hope we can go again and ride more rides!


After Ocean Park, since it was boiling hot outside, Sophia, Niki and I went swimming together. The water felt sooo good and refreshing. But we couldn't swim long because I had to rush to ballet class. I had such little time that I couldn't even take a shower after swimming!


When I came back from ballet, I went over to Sophia's house for dinner. But we only had time to eat together; we couldn't play because Sophia had a piano lesson to go to. We planned to play after her piano lesson, but she never called, so I guess I'll just have to wait for tomorrow to play with her!!

Yeah! Tomorrow there won't be school because... wait, I don't know why actually! So today was the last day of the short week. There were only 3 days in the week today!!

I had sooo much homework last night... I finally knew what it was like to have lots of homework!! But luckily today, since it's weekend for me now!!

The weather has finally gotten a bit better, so this afternoon it was really hot and sunny!! 

At school today, we had swimming for P.E. It was really fun, and I raced lots of people in my class. But the changing part afterwards wasn't very great because the changing rooms are wet and sticky and changing inside those changing rooms wasn't exactly the best part...

I'm hoping that tomorrow I can go to Ocean Park with Sophia because the weather that is predicted for tomorrow is supposed to be still quite sunny but not too hot and not too cold. Going to Ocean Park during the summertime is a bit too hot... so hopefully Sophia and I can go to that amusement park tomorrow!! I really hope so :)

 

So since I had no after school activities and not much homework, I'm now chatting with Frances and Katy and doing video calls with them :D

Yay! School was closed today because it was a Typhoon No. 8 outside!! 


Unfortunately, I couldn't play with anyone because everyone was really busy. So instead I just practiced my piano and violin. I prepared for my piano exam, and now I'm really nervous even though it isn't soon! 


When I finished a bit of chinese homework, it wasn't raining outside anymore. So mommy, daddy and I went to the hair salon, 'La Chine'. We always go there for haircuts -- we never go anywhere else :) I really wanted to get a haircut because I was getting split ends and my hair was getting quite long. Also, the fringe in the front was getting a bit long as well, so I wanted to cut that, too.  Also, tomorrow is Photo Day at school, so I decided I might as well get a haircut today.


Since La Chine is quite close to the clothing store, 'H&M', I went there to look at the clothes. There wasn't anything I really liked, so I didn't buy anything. 


When we went to wait for a taxi, the taxi line was reaaaalllly long!! It took almost 45 minutes to get a taxi! And while we were waiting the rain outside increased until it was pouring again just like this morning. I got really wet, but I made sure my hair didn't get wet or else the rain would flatten my hair =]


Finally we got a taxi, and now it is really pouring outside. Wow, this week of school will be very short because this Friday is a teacher's work day, so there won't be school for the whole day, and today there wasn't any school as well!! Hmmm... I wonder if there'll be school tomorrow... probably will be :)

Typhoon

Yikes!! It's a Typhoon No. 8 outside right now!! I'm hoping that tomorrow I won't have any school because the Typhoon signal will be too high. 

Since Monica is leaving to go to Princeton College tomorrow, mommy, daddy, Monica and I had dinner together at a restaurant. We came home quite late, but just in case that there will be school tomorrow, I finished all my homework anyways. 

After school today, I had clarinet practice. We learned 2 new notes. The Typhoon was already quite high and it was really windy. There were barely any cabs outside so it took ages to find one. 

When I finally got home, I was already quite late for disco class. I quickly rushed to disco. Good news at disco!! I don't have to do the Hoedown Throwdown anymore! Ms. Tiffany decided to do a dance to the song called 'Low' by Flo Rida. It's a really cool dance and I love it!! I can't wait for the Charity Bazaar when I get to perform the Low dance.

It seems so scary outside, like soon the trees will be pulled out of their roots and will be flying everywhere. I can hear screams outside my bedroom just like little kids screaming in the playground. I can hear the loud wind and I can hear the big drops of rain pattering on my windows. I really hope there won't be school tomorrow!!

Wait... how will I be able to sleep tonight?!?!

When I came home from Sophia's house after the sleep over party, I had to do my homework, but I finished that quite quickly because I only had very little. Since I still had some time, I had to practice my clarinet, violin and piano. I only got to finish my clarinet practicing and I started just a bit of violin. I didn't get to finish all of them because I was going to play baseball with Sophia, Sydney, Sophia's younger brother, Rogan, and Sydney's younger brother, Jacob. 


Baseball was really fun! Although the baseball hit my pinky and my cheekbone (no worries, it doesn't hurt anymore, thankfully), I really enjoyed playing. Next term, I really want to join the Little League girls' baseball team in the school. Sophia is in it and she says it's really fun.


After 2 1/2 hours of baseball, we went home for dinner. Sophia and I were hoping we could have dinner together, but we weren't allowed :(


School starts again tomorrow!! 

Sophia's Sleep over

Yesterday was such a fun day!! I woke up quite early in the morning because I had to go to a Peer Helper training lesson. I met all the other Peer Helpers in my school and they are all really nice! We played games and snacks and we talked about the tours we will be giving to new parents and students. I really enjoyed it!

After the training, I started preparing for Sophia's birthday party. Originally, Sophia was going to do a camping trip, but since the weather isn't that great these days, the camping trip was cancelled. So instead, Sophia had a sleep over birthday party. Hopefully we can still do another camping trip some other time when the weather is nice!!

I started making a card for Sophia. I printed out photos that Sophia and I took on the computer and put them in the card as well. Luckily there is a shop right underneath all the apartments, so since I was in a bit of a rush, I went there. I bought Sophia a little journal and now she seems to really like it! But I had to buy the present with my own pocket money... I'm trying my best to save up for the LG Xenon phone I am trying to buy with my pocket money. Right now I have HK$2,445!!

After practicing some piano, I went to swim some laps. It was nearly Sophia's birthday party, so I couldn't swim for very long.

I didn't take a shower after swimming because after dinner Sophia, Niki, Sydney, Amanda and I would swim again.

We had a barbecue dinner by the pool side, then the 5 of us went swimming.

We took showers in the clubhouse, so when we got home, we went to see the tents that we would be sleeping in. It looked amazing!! I got to sleep in the same tent as Sophia :)

We stayed up really, really late and had a midnight feast as well! It was one of my most favorite sleep overs I've ever had!

So the sleep over is the reason why I didn't get to write in my blog yesterday; so sorry. Tonight I will write again about what I did today.

Gotta go practice my instruments now!! Bye for now :D

Hi again! Sorry I didn't get to right an entry about yesterday... yesterday I didn't have any after school activities so I was quite bored. But at 6:00 PM I went to have a group tennis lesson. I still had some homework that I needed to finish, so by the time I was in bed, it was already very late so I didn't get a chance to write in my blog. :(

Once again, today my teacher didn't give much homework for us. So I finished homework in just about 45 minutes, then I practiced clarinet. I was about to practice my piano when I remembered that I had tap lesson, so I went to tap instead.

Tonight at school, there is a parent/teacher conference, so mommy went to school today and sister stayed here at home with me.

At school, we got permission slips for... CAMP!!! I absolutely love camp at school. We go somewhere out in the suburbs in Hong Kong for 3 days and 2 nights. It's been really fun in 3rd and 4th grade, but in 5th grade, we get to go to the best camp site in Hong Kong and we get to do really fun things like kaiaking and jet skiing and canoeing, lots of other water sports and other activities on land as well. I really can't wait for 5th grade camp which is going to start on October 19th - October 21st... too bad we can't stay at camp for 2-3 weeks!!

Tomorrow at school, we are going to have a free dress day, and my teacher wants the class to dress very wacky tomorrow. I don't have many wacky clothes, so it was really hard for me to choose wacky things to wear. Soon, I finally decided. I'll try to upload a picture tomorrow of what I looked like.

Well, I'm off to watch the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!! Bye :D

After school... wacky clothes:

Since I couldn't figure out how to upload a picture of what I looked like at school today for free dress, I'll just describe it.

I wore different socks: one with red and white stripes, one that is green with blue flowers.

I wore different shoes: one green sneaker, one red All-Star converse.

I wore brown leggings with swimming trunks with green flowers on them.

I wore a blue, baggy Abercrombie t-shirt.

I really did look wacky at school!!

First day of school

Well, today was just like the first day of school all over again. Summer ended, school started, an extra week of summer started again, and then school starts again.

I brought my iPod Touch to school today so during the bus ride it was really fun -- everyone wanted to play with my iPod and we played games and listened to music.

After school, I came back home happily, since I had no homework at all that I had to worry about. But when I got home I still had to practice my piano. Today was one of the only days that I wasn't busy since I don't have activities on Tuesdays, so I had to practice for a long time since usually during the school week I don't have much time to practice.

Finally, after finishing my piano practicing, I hooked up Monica's Macintosh laptop into my little clubhouse. My clubhouse is right underneath my horseshoe-shaped desk. I have blankets and stuffed toys and cushions inside my clubhouse so it is very cosy. I even have a lamp in my clubhouse!! So now I'm just playing with my sister's laptop, in my little, cramped clubhouse...

After browsing on Amazon (Granddaddy gave me US$50 on Amazon), I went night-swimming, just by myself this time. Pretty much every night now I go 30 laps. My goal is to try to swim 1,500 laps. When I finish swimming 1,500 laps, mommy says she will buy me an LG Xenon phone!! So far, I have swam 150 laps... 1,350 laps to go!

Last day of vacation!!! Sad but happy

About an hour ago, daddy called saying that school might not start again tomorrow, but they weren't 100% sure yet. I know I shouldn't have kept my hopes up that my vacation would still be going on, because just now, daddy called again saying that school will definitely be starting tomorrow :( I don't want my vacation to end!! Haha, that's strange though... just a couple days ago, I was really wishing school would start again, and now I'm wishing my vacation would last longer!! Maybe it's just because I don't want to wake up so early again...

Since today wasn't going to be very hot like these past days have been, I called Sophia in the morning, asking again if she could go to Ocean Park. She never called back with an answer, so I'll just take that as a no... at least there is Sophia's birthday camping trip that will be coming up this weekend! Can't wait for that :)

Today I spent my whole afternoon sorting out my clothes; I have many, many, many, clothes, but most of my clothes are much too small for me. So today I went through all my jeans, sweat pants, capri pants, shirts, jackets, etc... and now that I'm finished sorting through all my clothes, my closet isn't filled at all anymore!! I seem to barely have any clothes left now... I really need to shop for more clothes then! But I still don't know what to do with my smaller clothing, and now all my too-small clothes are all spread out on my bed, and the clothes take up pretty much my whole entire bed, which is a queen size bed! Yup, that's how much clothes I used to have...

Then I took Samantha out for a walk with mommy right before my disco class. For disco, we have to wear long, black pants, and since I was planning to go directly to disco after walking Samantha, I had to walk with long, black pants in the blazing hotness. It was sooo hot for me that I was practically drenched in sweat by the time I got to disco. You can't image how sweaty, hot and tired I was after disco!!!

At disco, my disco teacher, Ms. Tiffany, gave the class news saying that we would have to do a dance to the song called Hoedown Throwdown with the little kids that were one level lower than us in disco. If you don't know what the Hoedown Throwdown is, check it out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hoedown+throwdown&search_type=

It's not the best song to dance to, and I have to do it!! :(((

But luckily, we also get to do another dance for disco that isn't as easy...

I read the book 'New Moon' most of the time today, which is probably why I finally finished it and am now starting 'Eclipse', the 3rd book in the Twilight Saga. 'New Moon' is really good and everyone says that 'Eclipse' is the best one... the most exciting one!! So I can't wait to read more of 'Eclipse'!

After many, many hours of reading, someone was finally able to play. I always wonder why I'm the only one who is always free, 24/7!! People are always sooo busy, and I'm always sooo bored, with nothing to do, homework all finished, and all other friends aren't free to play. But luckily, Frances and Katy finished their homework before everyone else (thank you!), so I immediately called them to play.

We had decided to play in the playground, but ended up just playing at home because it was just much too hot outside to play.

Unfortunately, I couldn't play for very long because there was a movie that I really wanted to watch on TV called 'Princess Protection Program', starring Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. It's really good! I really enjoyed watching it :)

After watching 'Princess Protection Program', I pushed my bedtime to a little bit later and watched one episode of the TV show called 'Wizards of Waverly Place'. I ate a watermelon flavored popsicle while watching.

I'm hoping now that tomorrow I can go to an amusement park called 'Ocean Park' together with a friend, since I still won't be having school tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too hot and the weather will be just right for Ocean Park.

Today I had my second violin lesson with my new violin tutor. Mommy had bought new violin books for my tutor and I to work on. So he taught me new songs to learn.

I had planned to eat at McDonald's for lunch after violin, but I wasn't very hungry after violin class, so we just took a taxi back home.

When I finished a small lunch at home, I called Rachel to see if she was free to play. I went down to her house and we played on her new Macintosh laptop.

After playing a bit with Rachel, I went swimming with Frances and Katy since today was really sunny and beautiful (about 92 degrees). First we started out to just talk, and then we played a game of tag and other games as well. When we were in the middle of a game, Frances spotted something on the floor of the pool. We all went to investigate in it, and decided that it was definitely doo-doo! We ran to tell the lifeguard, and as soon as the lifeguard starting using a long net to scoop the poo out, everyone in the pool immediately got out and left. But we stayed (not inside the pool of course) to watch the lifeguard, giggling and laughing. Then I soon had to go home to take a shower because it was nearly dinner time.

After a warm shower, Frances and Katy called, inviting me over to their house for dinner. I was allowed to go since mommy and daddy were going out for dinner. Frances and Katy's parents were going out as well.

We played lots of things; it was almost like a sleep over!! So sad we couldn't actually have a sleep over :( . But luckily I will be having a sleep over with Frances and Katy on September 18th, because it will be a sleep over birthday party for Frances!! Also, Katy and Frances have loads of clothes that are much too small for them, but since they are taller than I am, their small clothes could fit me! So Katy and Frances let me have all of their clothes that they couldn't wear anymore. They had lots of clothes that were too small for them and they are really nice clothes!! I'm so happy to have them :D Thanks so much, Frances and Katy!

When mommy and daddy got back home from dinner, they called me and unfortunately I had to go home since it was already really late :(

But I'm probably going to be playing with Frances and Katy again tomorrow... hopefully!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I woke up this morning, I suddenly felt like cooking something. Of course, I wanted to cook something sweet. A dessert. So I asked mommy if she could help me cook chocolate chip cookies.

We found a cookie mix with directions. Preheat the oven, combine the cookie mix together with 1 egg and half a stick of butter. It was all very simple, but we didn't start from scratch...

Before I knew it, I was already making balls out of cookie mix, egg and butter. Mommy did an example for me, and I followed, trying to make the balls the exact same size as mommy's ball. It was really hard for me to decide whether my balls were going to turn out too big, or too small.

Soon, I was carefully sliding the tray of 12 cookies into the preheated oven, careful not to burn myself. I eagerly watched the oven, watching the tiny bubbles appearing on the cookies, making the cookies get bigger and rounder and taller. Soon, the smell of cookies starting filling the whole apartment. I pulled the tray of cookies back out, the tray much more hotter. I sniffed the cookies; they smelt wonderful -- I couldn't wait to eat them!!

After I let the cookies sit for a while to let them get a bit harder, I gathered the cookies up and placed them on a plate, making a simple design. I tried my hardest to place the cookies very gently, but I ended up breaking a few cookies in half. Oh well, at least they all still taste the same -- sweet, warm, sweet, yummy, warm and yummy.

I immediately grabbed for the cookie on the top pile, excited to try the cookies I had made. Mmmm... they were delicious!!! I especially liked the warm, melted chocolate chips :)

After some violin practicing, I went to ballet class with Rachel. We just prepared for our ballet exams, although they aren't coming up until next year.

After a tiring ballet class, I went over to Rachel's house for dinner and we watched a movie that was playing on Nickelodeon called: 'Spectacular'. It was a musical and it was really fun to watch! The dinner was great too =)

Okay... I really need school now!!!

Well, today was another one of those boring, nothing-to-do-at-all days. Well, at least it was like that during the morning, since everyone else was either at school, or they were busy with something else.

I woke up quite early in the morning, which wasn't quite a good thing because there was more time for me to wait until my friends got back from school. When I got up, I went to take Samantha out to the bathroom, because it was already 8:00 A.M. and Sammy usually goes at 6:30 A.M., so when I took her out, she was bursting to go...

Then I went straight back to my book, 'New Moon'. I really want to finish New Moon and go onto the 3rd book in the series, 'Eclipse'. Everyone says that Eclipse is the best book in the Twilight saga. So after about 5 hours of reading this week, I'm nearly finished with New Moon!!

Once I started to get tired of reading, I pretty much just stared at a wall for about 15 minutes. There wasn't anything better that I could think of to do!! And while I was starting to get fascinated by the smoothness of the wall, I realized I still hadn't practiced piano. Well, that brightened myself up a little! I had something interesting to do!

But, piano didn't last long because I only had 3 songs to practice for my exam. But luckily, it was already past noon time, so in just a couple hours, I would be able to do something fun with a friend!

I've just realized that now I don't go on the computer that often anymore. The reason is probably because there is nowhere to go on the computer!! I'm not very interested in games anymore, and I don't know what to watch on YouTube, and I barely know any fun, interesting websites to go on anymore! But I guess that's a good thing, that I don't spend so much time on the computer anymore. But without anything to do on the computer, I can't think of anything better to do! Oh dear, I really think I need school again :(

Finally, 4:00 came. The time when everyone would be back from school. I rushed to the phone and dialed Frances and Katy's number. They answered and luckily they could play!! First Katy came over and we played computer of course... Katy knows lots of things to do on the computer, which is probably why she spends loads of time on the computer (that was a compliment, Katy!)!! Then Frances came over and we took photos on PhotoBooth, since we didn't know what websites to go on...

Then Frances and I went to our tap lesson together. I thought Ms. Tiffany would be teaching tap since Ms. Claire had a baby to take care of, but luckily... Ms. Claire taught tap instead!! I really missed her and I was soooo, extremely happy to see her again! She told me she would be teaching both tap and ballet. I waited for her to say that she would teach disco as well, but turns out, Ms. Tiffany will still teach disco; for the first term at least. I really do hope Ms. Claire will start teaching disco again for the rest of the year starting from next term!!

I miss the buzz of voices all around the room. I miss the teacher talking. I miss the pencils scratching against paper. I miss the occasional crumple of paper as someone erases their writing. I miss school! I really wish school could start again... I have nothing to do without fun, exciting school, even if I have virtual homework to do on the computer.

So, like I said, I didn't do much today, since I didn't have school. But I woke up at around 10:45 A.M. today, so waking up later took some boredom away from my day.

After having brunch, I got an email from school saying that I would have virtual homework. So although I didn't really want to do homework, I went onto the computer anyway. I didn't have anything else to do right?

After some math problem solving, some current events and some writing, I practiced my 3 piano exam pieces. Although the exam is still a month away, I'm already really nervous about it!! I even have to sing!!

When I finished piano, I continued reading my book, 'New Moon', the 2nd book of the 'Twilight' saga.

Before I knew it, 2 hours had already passed! I rushed to the phone, eager to find someone to play with. Niki was the only one who was free to play because she is also in my school, so she doesn't have school, either, and all my other friends had school. Although Sophia is in my school as well, she couldn't play because she had gone out.

I had to leave Niki's house soon because I had to come home earlier to take Samantha out for a short walk. I couldn't take Samantha out later because I had tennis from 6:00 - 7:00.

When I was walking Samantha, I passed by loads of dogs, but surprisingly, Samantha didn't pull at all to play with the dogs. Before, Samantha would always pull and jump whenever she saw a dog. Well, I guess it's a good thing that Sammy doesn't pull when she sees dogs anymore... it's now easier to control her!!

After walking Samantha for a little bit, I immediately had to rush to go to my tennis group lesson. I'm glad that my tennis lesson is at night, because during the summertime, it really is too hot to play tennis during the day!!!

Although there was no school today, today was much more fun than I expected!! This morning, when I was still sleeping, Sophia called me asking if I could go swimming with her and have a picnic with her for lunch. I immediately replied yes, because without swimming and lunch with Sophia, I would be sooo bored!

I had brought my phone to the pool, so after an hour of swimming, we took pictures and videos. It was quite fun! But the water was quite cold, since it was still morning and the hot sun hadn't come out yet.

After swimming, Sophia's helper brought food to the pool side, and we had a picnic there for lunch. We had hamburgers and dumplings! Yum :)

When we finished lunch, we swam some more, playing games and talking. When we were starting to get sort of cold, we went indoors to take a shower in the club house.

After our showers, we went to my house and we picked out a movie together and watched it on the big-screen Macintosh in my room on my bed. We watched the movie 'Holes'. Our 2nd grade teacher read the book to us, and we really liked the book, so we watched the movie. The movie was really good as well!

Then it was time to take Samantha, my dog, out for a walk. Sophia and I took Sammy out together. Mommy came along as well. When we were on our way back home, we met many, many dogs. We also met a dog called Alex. She is 95% German Shepherd and she belongs to the Hong Kong Dog Rescue. Alex is 9 months old. Alex had a big sign saying: Adopt Me for Free! As soon as I saw that sign, I kept begging to get her.

Alex can sit, lie down, roll over, etc... Also, if you take Alex off the leash, if you call Alex's name, she will come right back, unlike Samantha. If we take Samantha off the leash, she would run off looking for food and never come back, even if we have treats in our hand. We also met a Yellow Lab called Simon. Simon is 3 years old and really well trained. We threw tennis balls for Simon to retrieve, and once, by accident, I threw the tennis ball into the bushes. Simon ran after it, and I thought Simon wouldn't come back, because that's what Samantha would do. She wouldn't come back at all. But after a minute or so, Simon came back... with the ball in his mouth!! I wish Samantha could be like Simon and Alex, so we could take Samantha off the leash and play ball with her, but we wouldn't do it now... not if there is a risk of losing her.

After a very fun but tiring walk with Samantha, Sophia and I went back to her house, because I was invited to another picnic with Sophia and her other friends. It was really fun as well. We played with hula-hoops and other things. The dinner was really nice as well; chicken wings, pasta, chicken, pizza and lots of other food.

Although mommy told me to go back home right after dinner, Sophia asked me to play at her house for an hour or so -- it was still really early! So mommy let me play with Sophia for a little bit, but I soon came back home because I have to go to bed soon.

I can't wait for tomorrow even though I don't know what I'm even gonna do tomorrow! But I bet tomorrow will have something to do with Sophia, and so will the next day... and the next... and the next... :D