Looking Back

A year has already passed. I still remember the first time I came here, Cheshire Academy. It is still clear and feels like it is still in front of my eyes. Full of new things and strangenesses were welcoming me. This was my first year in Cheshire Academy as well as US, so I had to fill myself up with those new things and strangenesses. I knew that I was going to struggle.

Actually, it was much tougher than I thought. Everything seemed so hard and felt like nothing was helping me, and I felt like I was left alone. English class was one of the hardest things that I had hard times. However, because it was hard, I think I had a lot to learn. In this class, I had chance to read english literatures and poems I couldn't read if I didn't come here. Not only I read them but also I had chance to debate in depth with my classmates. I was not used to doing that thing, so that was the major cause of my struggling in English class. I had nothing to speak. I tried to speak something but I had no idea what was I speaking. However, at least now I know this is American style English class which has many discussions and self-thinkings. In addition, because my teacher, Ms. Guarino, was in charge of Drama, I had an opportunity to be involved in drama for winter and watch two other productions. I could approach to english in various ways, so it was great experience. 

I think I need to work on reading a lot. No matter what kind of the passage or book is, I need to read a lot because my basic english reading skill is not strong and very slow. It usually took more than a hour to read like three chapters in a book to me. If I keep reading and reading, I think it would help a lot in terms of reading skill itself, vocabulary and grammar. For next year, I have to improve my understanding and analyzing skill to prepare for the time when my class is reading a novel or fiction that requires a high level analysis.

My favorite book was Me and You. That was really interesting book. Drug addict sister, a child who has a secret story, and the depressed atmosphere were so unusual to me, and they attracted me. Also the book was easy to read and the story went to the past and went back to the present again, which was very interesting. The book that I read recently called We were Liars was fun too. It was similar to Me and You because both of them are about secret story of the families and mystery genre. 


As I said above, I just want to read as many books I can in this summer. However, if I have to choose one that I want to read, I would like to read some books about politics. I like to read social science books, but I don't know why, I don't like politics. Therefore I didn't read the books about politics so I don't have that much information about politics in my head. Also most importantly, I know it will help me a lot in the future. 

Hairspray

I just came back from the production of Hairspray which was held in the theater that was about 20 minutes away from our school. I have never seen this show before, and all I knew about the show was , it is about a chubby girl who is really good at dancing and singing. After I watched this show, I now know the whole plot, which is that she wants to be famous and eventually she gets the chance to audition for her favorite TV show. She is rejected at first because of her appearance which is not attractive at all, but she is watched by Link who is one of the major character in the TV show and she gets in to the show and becomes famous. This show takes place in 1960s in Baltimore, so the characters were wearing little bit old fashioned and loose fit clothes, and their hairstyle was very styled neatly with a hairspray.

I liked the first song that was sung by Tracy who is the main character, and the song that was sung by Seaweed who helped Tracy to be confident. The all players were so good and awesome. The sub characters' harmony was perfect and they did an excellent backing up for the main singers. I wish our drama team could make the perfect harmony just like them. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of me and didn't bring the pamphlet to prove that I was there... Therefore for now, I will just upload the official poster of Hairspray musical.

Bone Chiller! : Scary but Funny

Bone Chiller! is mystery and thriller as well as comedy play that was played by our honorable varsity players. They did such a great job. I couldn't find any big mistake or flaw. When I came into the Black Box Theater to watch this show, it made me think of this winder season. I was in winter musical and was practicing really hard as one of the actors. I was looking at the stage setting and realized that this place can be changed into completely different place. I was surprised that I couldn't see or feel any trace of Spelling Bee except for some of the actors who were also doing winter drama with me.

This show was about the mysterious death of a rich guy (I don't remember the name of him) who has a large amount of heritage, and about his will that is in a puzzle form called "rebus" which is a kind of puzzle that is consisted of letters and pictures. Around 10 people gather together to find the killer and get the money. On the will, the guy said he will give all his money to the person who can decode the secret message.


Bone Chiller!, just like its title, actually chilled my bone in some scenes. Sudden light out which was the part of this show, Pippi's sudden screaming (played by Madeline Lanni) was terrifying and the scene that Lucretia (played by Dilyara Kuanysheva) hanged herself was also bone chilling. Some parts of the rebus were hard to understand but I think that was fine to follow the whole plot. I could at least see their progress on solving it and getting closer to the killer who killed the rich guy and the butler (played by Grace Greene). Although this show is classified mostly as mystery and thriller, it was funny too. A lot of characters' distinct characteristics were so funny. Especially Flame (played by Lexi Williamson) was funny. She was wearing a fancy and tight dress and put the wig on her head. The funniest thing was when she said "I teach kindergarten." And with Buzzy (played by Jack Palmer) who is a pediatrician, when they were talking about children stuff which was pretty similar.

My favorite character was the gypsy (played by Julia Rafferty). As we learned in the class before we saw the show, our teacher said that she will use Russian accent which sounds kinda weird and stiff, and because she is a gypsy, she had a special power which was highly unrealistic. Anyhow, she used that magical skill to Addie (played by Sam Weed) and put all the bullets out from Dan (played by Nadya Ponthempilly)'s gun to save everyone. It led to the ending scene which was happy. When Lucretia came back alive, people were shocked. In fact, she wasn't dead, but Buzzy, just said she is dead so the killer cannot think about kill her again. She hit (killed?) Dan's head with pan, and everything went peaceful. I loved it haha. Once again, you guys did a great job players!

In-class writing

In my opinion, three liars in summer 17 who didn't actually exist but were visible only to Cadence were the illusion that Cadence saw. The feeling of guilt and sadness from the loss of friends made Cadence see them. She had a really hard times struggling with those feelings, and maybe that damaged her mental system which helps human to memorize and behave normally. She didn't have the memories that she didn't want to remember, and saw the illusion she wanted to see.
At first, I thought they were the ghost because of my asian-like idea. The reason why I thought they were the ghosts was because of the grudge they had on Cadence who can possibly be regarded as a killer of three. However, when I thought about it again, I found it was way too unreliable and unrealistic.

Full of Unexpected Events

We were Liars was the book our English class has read for a month and eventually we finished reading it. Although I didn't read it carefully because of the schedule conflicts and making up quizzes, this book was fun to read. Especially it was fun to predict the next story. I remember the class time when our classmates talked about their opinion about the ending and their prediction. The ending of this book was extremely tragic and unpredictable, our discussion was longer than usual discussion I guess. Nonetheless one of our classmates actually succeed to predict, which was pretty impressive and even made our teacher shocked. Anyway, I liked the novel. 

The process of choosing this book was completely different from any other books we have read so far. To celebrate our last marking period as well as the end of the school year, we accepted the suggestion system and voting system which were very respectful and democratic. The book that was chosen is called We were Liars which looked like it has some similar parts to the previous book Me and You according to the description of the book that was on the book website. 

I expected kind of different ending. I didn't think it would be happy ending though but I thought Cadence was really injured and three of other liars were bullying her. Three other liars were pretending to be her friend by agreeing in front of her and talking in favorable way. However in fact they made the accident on purpose to harm Cadence. I didn't know that the ending will be this sad. I think Cadence dropped the fire by mistake and was so shocked so she just got out from the house justifying her action by assuming other liars would already be in meeting place otherwise it is not reasonable to me. I think, also, Cadence will live in suffer of survivor. I don't think the fire accident happened because of her but also every one's stupid, mischief, and thoughtless behavior.
If they thought one more time before they have done it which cannot be rewinded, and if they weren't drunk so they could think normally, would things be different? 

What is revealed?

What is revealed? What did we learn? What new information does Cadence remember? 

Cadence remembers some parts of summer fifteen such as Johnny, Mirren, Gat, and she squashed into that Clairmont swing together. She remembers all four liars gathered and set the fire. She also remembers a piece of accident and Harris's dogs are died. She was plunging down to the bottom, her legs and arms felt numb and cold, and she saw the slices of seaweed as she fell. And she sees the Claremont burns. Honestly, I am not done with reading all twenty chapters after chapter 50, I don't know this well. 

31-40 notes

31- Cadence drags the basket of her possessions to Cuddledown and meets Mirren. Mirren gives her handful of rocks and shouts out that she loves Cadence. Johnny comes and asks about the basket.

32- Gat comes and asks for a hug because he didn't get from her Cadence. He asks her to start over. Cadence agrees.

33- Cadence goes to the lunch at New Clairmont. She notices that Harris's old stuff has gone. Cadence asks Carrie if she found Johnny last night, and Carrie says she doesn't know what is Cadence talking about.

34- Cadence asks Will and Taft about the accident. Taft says that Bonnie saw the drug in her room.

35- Mirren says Bess has been trying to get out of Cuddledown. The Liars talk about Cadence's memory loss. Cadence needs to remember by herself.

36- The Liars play tennis. Gets asks how was Europe to Cadence. She tells about puking into the toilet.

37- Cadence remembers a part of summer 15. Everyone was having a dinner and was arguing about renovation. Cadence isn't sure what has changed.

38- The Liars talk about a motto. Cadence's is "always do what you are afraid to do" which she shouldn't.

39- Cadence kisses Gat because that's what she's afraid of. He asks if she has read the book Wuthering Heights. He tells about Harris's view that he would never be enough to Cadence.

40- Another fairy tale about the three daughters and a king. If you want to be around people who aren't afraid of mice, you can't live in palace.