Now at Christmastime the kids brother is still doing drugs and even offered the kid some. The kid said no. I wish I knew what to tell that kid to do, like if he told on his brother that would be wrong but maybe its more wrong not to tell, if something bad happens to the brother.

The internet sucks down there but i hope i can post from there, where my parents live. I will definitly try. So see you guys soon and Merry Christmas!

from Jamey

People who are coolest are the ones everybody likes. Or says they like because other people like them. They seem to know what clothes to wear that other people will think are cool. And they have a personality that makes people like them and want to be around them. In a way they have power over people because they can decide not to like someone, and that person will become uncool. And if you become uncool you are a total reject, you will have to sit at the losers table at lunch.

One thing, I don’t think the coolest people are always the nicest. So when i look for a friend I don’t try to worry about if their cool or not. I just want to know if they have a good heart and kind soul.

But I think most people specially teens worry way to much about Cool vs. Uncool. One day we’ll all be allowed to be ourselves.

I hated being there. It was sad and I just wanted to go home. For one thing it was boring and two, it was depressing.

I passed out some cookies and one old lady grabbed my hand and started to talking to me.  But I couldn’t understand what she said. But she didn’t let go of my hand for a long time.

Then we sang Christmas carols.

Then the pastor started to talk about how to get ready for Christmas. He said presents and decorations were nice but that wasn’t really getting ready. To get ready you had to prepare your heart, like John the babtist said from the woods, prepare the way. And to do that you had to repent for your sins.

I started thinking about my sins. I have had a lot of bad thought and feelings. And the worst one was acting like the old people weren’t important just because they were old. But the good thing is, God forgives you.

After that I wasn’t so nervous and I could talk to them more. Because maybe some of them are alittle crazy even but to God we’re all the same. He loves us all the same and we’re all just as important. And to me that’s the meaning of Christmas.

The worst thing, there’s this kid whose last name is Booth and every day a bunch of kids call out his name in a very sarcastic and mean way. “Booth! Booth!” they yell when he comes on the bus. Just because he wears glasses and he’s big and shy. People arent use to seeing big kids who are shy so they think its weird.

But he’s okay I think and its those other kids who have something wrong with them. Why do they have to pick on him? I wish the driver would do something. Or they could put another adult on their to supervize.  I feel bad because even though I want to say something I don’t, because then I’ll get teased to.

One of the big differences is how many kids in a class. I have about 25 kids in my classes. Eddie has 43!!  “That’s alot,” I told him. “How do you get help from the teacher with so many kids?”

“Shout,” says Eddie.  (He’s a funny guy.)

But he also said there’s a kid in the class called a classhead (I know it sounds weird) whose job is to do alot of stuff the teacher would normally do.

Eddie has tons of homework, like 2 hours a night. That’s not that much more than I get. At least he doesn’t have to do lots of reports like us. But he still does some stuff that sounds hard, like learning  physics. That means forces (gravity, stuff like that).

Eddie says his teachers are all “fierce”. I think he means strict, and I told him alot of our teachers are strict too, but some of them aren’t so strict.

Eddie used to think American kids could pretty much do whatever they wanted in school but I told him that really isn’t true. (Wish it was.) We have tons of rules just like everywhere else.

Eddie told me yesterday he likes his school so I guess he doesn’t mind fierce teachers that much. I don’t mind strict teachers, its better than having the whole class be wild. I hate it when the teacher goes out of the room and some kids start acting weird and making trouble for no reason.

Today I want to write about my penpals. I have two penpals and their both from China.  Ranon is a 15 year-old boy who lives in Hong Kong. He is in the scouts and likes to go camping. He is also a good swimmer and is on the swim team. Ranon likes English in school but he sucks at math. (Just like me.) He likes movies except for romances (I hate romances too).  We have written two letters to each other now. Ranon seems cool.

My other penpal is Eddie who lives in Shanghai. He is a 14 year-old boy. He is fun to chat with which is what we do, on the computer I mean. In his first letter he said “I like to eat but I’m NOT fat.” I thought that was funny. He has a good sense of humor I think. Eddie wears glasses. He has lots of homework. School for him starts early in the morning at 8 and he goes to bed at 9.  His parents are doctors. See, I only met Eddie a couple of days ago and I already know that much!  Eddie is fun and a nice guy.

I really like having penpals because you can learn about life in other countries. And also if your shy (like me) its easier to make a friend that way. You feel less lonely.

This book is both historical fiction and fantasy at the same time, which is cool. The historical part is  that it happens in the 19th century when England had an empire. The fantasy part is that it happens in this made-up ocean where people live on islands, its kind of like Polanesia but its diffrent.

Anyways this boy who is about 13 is suppose to pass this test to become a man. So he goes out to an island by himself. While he is doing that a big wave comes and wipes out his whole village. When he gets home he buries all the people. Its really sad.

Meanwhile an English girl about the same age, her ship crashed on the island because of the wave, everybody on the ship but her died. So now the boy and the girl are stuck on the island together. At first they can’t comunicate at all but then they start to. And other people start washing up on the island needing there help. Whats cool about this story is how the girl and the boy are so diffrent, but they learn to like each other and become friends.

This is a funny story and it is also serious and sad too. I would give it 5 stars out of 5, the maximum! Everybody should read this, and you don’t have to be a kid! Adults will like it too I think.

Its a historical story thats based on true things that happened to the author’s grandfather when he was 9 years old. He went with his father to American on a ship and to get into America back then if you were Chinese you had to pass a test on this place called Angel’s Island. So the kid is really worried about getting ready to take the test.

Some good things about the book are how the boy and his father get to know each other and start to like each other even though the father has been away for the boy’s whole life. Plus there are some really good historical stuff if you want to learn about history.

The bad thing about the book is that it isn’t all that exciting even though its kinda interesting. This would be a good book for teachers to make their students read to learn about history, but it might be too boring for most kids to want to read on their own.

I would give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

So thats my first book review hope you liked it!

And this is the first time I ever been grounded like this to. I mean, Mom would sometimes but then she’d sort of forget or let me off the hook. But Grandma seems like she means businesss. They aren’t really mad at me now though. No TV tonight and I’m not suppose to use the computer except for homework. Well writing is sort of homework I guess.

I’m gonna try and write in my journal every day from now on. My teacher says I should keep a journal if I want to be a writer. He says its the most important thing.