Personal Rituals (extra credit) 

I wake up at 5:30 a.m. My mom always wakes me up. She always wakes me up with one glass of milk. After I finish the milk I have to wake up for fro my room to the kitchen for another glass of milk. Then, I have to do the same. When I’m full of milk I have to take a shower. I always take a long shower to wake me up well. My brother screams at me to get out of the shower. When I finish my shower I put a towel on the floor to dry my feet. Shivering I dress me up thinking what I have to do in the school. I comb my hair before brush my teeth. After I brush my teeth I ask what lotion should I use? Red Lacoste or Black Ferrari I always have this question in the morning.

 Usually I choose Red Lacoste because it is my favorite one. I start to walk to the living room to pick my things, the keys of the cars and the keys of the house. I open the trunk of my mom’s car to put in my lunchbox. I open the doors of the car to put my things in the front part and I open the back doors for my brother. I enter again to the house to leave my dog in a part of the house where he has its own room. I have to take out his bed and to serve him water. I say good bye to my dog and I close the kitchen door. I open the gate of my house garage and my mom drives out the car. I close the door of my house and the gate of the garage. I get in the car and my mom drives out of the neighborhood.

 We get to Periferico and we take a way to the Roosevelt. My mom hears the morning news I don’t like the news of the radio so I put my headphones. My brother sleeps while we are going to my aunt’s house. We have to take my bother to my aunt’s house because he studies in another school with my cousins so my aunt takes him to school. When we get to my aunt house my mom have to wake my brother we leave him at the front door and we wait since they open the door.

 My mom drives to school while we are getting closer to school I start feeling bored. If there is traffic my mom starts to worry because she doesn’t know if she will be on time to her work. I get down of the car sleepy and I say good morning! To the teacher that is in the door of school. I start walking to the stairs that take me to my classroom. When I enter I leave my backpack and my lunchbox in my desk. I take my locker keys to take out my books. I see the schedule that is next to the board. I get out of the classroom and I take all my books with me. I enter again to the classroom and I order my books in my desk. Again I get out of the class to the bathroom because I don’t have time to go in my house. When I come back to the class I say hi! To all my friends and the bell rings.

When it passes the four first classes my friends and I get out of the class to take our snack. Then we return to class and when it passes four classes again we get out to the yard to talk and joke on the recess. We come back to the classrooms for the last class waiting for the bell to ring. When the bells ring I get to my bus and I finally leave school.       

First Time in Mickey’s Land

Go to Disney was the dream of my life as a typical child. I was nine years and I wasn’t expecting to go that year. My relationship with my father isn’t the best. He doesn’t live with me since I was born. It was November and I was in vacations and he asked my mom one week after the trip if I could go with him to Orlando. This was unbelievable my dad offering me a trip of one week to Disney, how could I say no? We went to the embassy of the US. It was full I wasn’t nervous I really didn’t know what to think. After a long row we got to the little window where it was the woman in charge of giving visas. She asked a lot of questions to my mom, she was ready with all the things that she asked for. My dad instead went without anything; he was very nervous. She just looked at me and didn’t ask me anything. I got the visa and I found out what my dad was hiding. We weren’t going alone; if I wanted to go I had to share with his family (two half-brothers, his wife and my grandmother). I really didn’t wasn’t sure to go but it was a great chance to met Mickey to let it go.

When I got to the airport I was happy I was going to know that awesome place called Disney. The plane was full, the flight detached Guatemala more or less at 7:00 p.m. two hours late. I was knowing them better when we went down of the plane I noticed that my grandmother stole a blanket of the plane. It made me feel that I didn’t belonged to that type of family. The next day we went to Magic Kingdom when I saw the castle I was stunned it was imposing to see that magnificent castle. I took a lot of photos that day the most were of the castle. I remember that I had a silly camera it was old it wasn’t digital so it was pretty difficult to use it.

The next day we went to a park called “Bush Gardens” I didn’t know a lot of English for that time so I thought it was named in honour to their current President George Bush. The park actually is called “Bush Gardens” because it is full of gardens with geese. The park is in Tampa, so we made a tired trip of three hours from our hotel that was of the size of a big house to Tampa. The park was only of Russian mountains. I was glad because I had the height to enjoy all the games. My half-brother is younger than me so he cried all the day because he was too little to get in the mountains. I bought my mom a pink bracelet because I didn’t want to come back without any gift.

We also went to the famous Florida Mall and an outlet next to it. My dad bought me my second pair of soccer shoes. They were awesome, the tennis all wanted, a pair of gray “total 90”. I bought two nice cars for my car collection. The day on the mall was funny I got nervous when I saw two black people talking by walkie-talkie in front of the Nike store but they didn’t do anything or at least something I could see. It was a rainy day so we got very wet. When we went to the hotel I stayed with my dad’s wife; I can’t call her my stepmom and my two half-brothers because my dad and my grandmother went to Wal-Mart, that mysterious supermarket that now it’s the greatest supermarket in Guatemala. My half-brother broke one window of one of new cars. I cried all night and I fall asleep very angry.

The previous day after we came back we went to Sea World. We were annoyed to follow the tour guide so we went alone to the park. I didn’t want to give food to the dolphins because that experience of giving a fish to a dolphin seems repulsive. I missed the Shamoo show because I was hungry. I bought a dolphin toy for my real brother because I wanted to give him a gift. We made a row of one hour for the unique Russian mountain of Sea World as the entire trip my half-bother couldn’t go in.

When I came back I felt good when I watched my real family I was happy because I was in Guatemala. I didn’t see any Mickey in my entire trip but I felt bless to know Orlando and Tampa. I bought one thing for every member of my family. I was glad to be again with the people I love the most. The second time in Disney was better. I went with my uncle, my aunt and my three cousins two years later. Go with my mom and my brother is my dream. 

Managua

It was the first time I was going to travel to another country; I was very excited to know what it feels to be on a plane. I went to Nicaragua for a Cruzada of my church Casa de Dios. I traveled with two of my aunts, my cousin Paulina and a friend of the family. I remember that day very clearly, I didn’t go to school that day; my flight was going to leave at 1:00 p.m. more or less. I remember that the flight was full because it wasn’t going only to Managua; it was going to San José and Panama City too. I sited on the window to see all the clouds from my sit.

When we arrived to Managua I have a clearly memory of what I saw. I saw an old airstrip full of large grass. The sun was very hot. I remembered that the horizon was unclearly because of the high temperature. I thought that the temperature of my grandfather’s town in Chiquimula was hot, well, the climate in Managua was higher; even that the city is the cooler in all the country.  I got down of the airplane full of delicious food. My family and I were surprised to see that the Managua’s airport was better than our airport. I don’t know what was the temperature, but I think it was like 35ºc I have never been at this high temperature.  I got out of the airport, out of the airport the temperature was even higher.  I got on the shuttle of the Holiday Inn Hotel. In the shuttle were only my family, the friend of my family and an American citizen called “Jaguar” or something like that. The driver turned on the air conditioner as we entered to the shuttle.

We got to the hotel like at 4:00 p.m. I really don’t remember. The workers of the hotel weren’t very nice I think that the high temperature made them to stay in bad mood. The hotel was amazing and I was happy because it had air conditioner in every part of it. When we entered to our room I saw a large pool it really seemed to be fresh but the sun was very hot so I really don’t want to discover if it was fresh. The next day we had to go to the national baseball field in the downtown of Managua. It was the time of the traffic on a typical Thursday afternoon. The temperature was high; I felt warm even with the air conditioner of the rented car turned on. We get to the stadium at the end of the afternoon it was full, the temperature was fresher at that hour, but the temperature was higher than the temperature of a noon in Guatemala. At 11:00 p.m. the temperature was like 30ºc or more.

The next day we stayed in the hotel with my cousin, we were alone and we were just nine years old. It was bored to stay in the hotel, but we were with air conditioner all night. We can’t get out of the room because we were very young. We have to hide of all the church staff because we were supposed to be in the stadium that night. On Saturday we went to shop with my family to the greatest mall of Nicaragua. I think that the taxi driver turn on the air conditioned because he noticed that we were foreign, he seems to be very normal. The mall was very hot we entered to every shop to enjoy the air conditioner I remember that in Benetton I saw that the air conditioner temperature was -8ºc but we were looking for that cold temperature. My uncle was buying exotic rocks and next to it there were a fountain so we entered to wet us with my cousin.  All the people were looking at us but we really didn’t care.

The last day in Managua we stayed in the hotel all day our flight was leaving like at 7:00 p.m. The return flight was full of wildness so the airline “Copa Airlines” didn’t serve us food. We landed in Guatemala at 8:00 p.m. My adventure in Nicaragua was ended. If someone told me to go to Nicaragua again I would go without any doubt. Even the temperature I love that country and I want to go again.  

First Day

It was the first day of my life in High School; I was very excited to know what feels to be in High School. High School will bring many changes to my life. Two of my best friends were gone to another school, so I was going to be with people I didn’t talk a lot the last year. I was sit with my new friends in the classroom; of course the teacher wasn’t there so we were talking about what we have done in our vacations. I remember that this new guy entered though the door and he said: “Hi! I already came” his sarcastic tone wasn’t funny at all, I don’t like sarcastic people. Maybe he was nervous or he was just trying to catch our attention as the new one of the group. He also said “don’t bother me because I’m new” it was obvious that he wasn’t shy because he was screaming to all the class what he was thinking.

I forgotten about him for a moment, because the new teacher entered to the class and he started talking us about his name and all that stuff. Cell phones aren’t allowed at my old school “Manos a la Obra” and there he was again playing with his cell phone; he is very disrespectful! I thought. The teacher told him to keep away his cell phone. He was lucky, maybe because the teacher was new he doesn’t knew that if a cell phone was out he should take away it. The teacher told us to say our name to all the class as a normal activity on a first day of school. He was at the other side of the classroom so I heard that he said: "My name is Oscar Fernando Reyes Jimenez", as it was necessary to say you full name; I thought.  

Now I realize that when you’re new you should say your full name because no one knows anything about you. Someone asked: "Of what school do you come from?" "Capouilliez", he replied. I knew that a lot of crazy people study there so that didn’t help.

The next day one of my friends told me that he was repeating seventh grade; that maybe made my statement true; he was stupid. That day, in gym class, I realized how tall he was. He wasn’t very shorter than me. Thank God, I’m not racist because he is dark skin and I don’t know what else I would think about him if I were racist. We were playing, someone asked the score and he said five- two you understand five-two in English it doesn’t make sense but in Spanish for me it isn’t fun. That was the point that he really started to dislike me. In art class the same day I made a human shape making fun that it was him. I don’t know how it feels about this but, I’m sure that my acts weren’t funny at all and that maybe it hurt him.

The year passed by, and we became really good friends. I went to his house and to my surprise his house is amazing. His house has everything a house need and much more; a pool, a room with mini-soccer,  air hockey, pool, Playstation 3, Wii, led TV’s a big mirror of the size of the wall, Jacuzzi, sauna and that was just his room. The greatest house I have ever met. But, material things aren’t everything what he have. I realized how humble he was because he never told us about his incredible house. He is a very loyal person, he is the type of person that is always there for you. He has some attitudes that I still don’t like, his sarcastic jokes for example.

He taught me two things don’t judge people if you don’t know them well. You never know if some that you don’t like will become your friend. You don’t know how much you hurt when you make fun of someone just because what they say or how they look. He also taught me that being humble is the best quality you can have. 

Changing Places

Once in a while changes are important. We need constant changes in our lives to make it more interesting.I like changes because it keeps me from feeling bored. I think that we have to adapt to all the changes because life is always changing, the life always give us changes that we have to accept. Just guess how bored the life would be without changes. Life give us changes always, every day, every week, every year that we have to go though because they are normal situations that all the humans live in some part of their lives. Sometimes, the changes are very hard but we always have to fight and not to give up. God always give us changes because they are essential part of life. All the changes are for our benefit, because nothing happen for accident. Changes always teach us something, they give us important experiences that will help us in daily life.
My mom is an English teacher. She teaches Kinder Garten at Colegio Internacional Montessori so every year she and all the teachers have to make the decorations for their classroom. At the end of the year this decorations end in the trash or they are given away to a public school. Claudia Chacón one of the teachers that work with my mom decorated her class with dinosaurs. She made four dinosaurs and one Pterodactyl. 
She made one green T-Rex, a red Stegosaurus, a sky-blue Giraffatitan, a pink Triceratops and a yellow Pterodactyl. She asked my mom if she wanted the decorations because she knew I like dinosaurs. My mom accepted all the dinosaurs. Since I’m a little kid I love dinosaurs, I used to read magazines about dinosaurs and I used to play only with dinosaurs toys. I have thirty-two magazines of dinosaurs. I used to know all the names of dinosaurs. I love all the movies of dinosaurs like Jurassic Park and the Disney Movie Dinosaurs.  My mom Ligia showed me all the dinosaurs and I just like them a lot because my dream was to decorate my room with dinosaurs. She asked me what color did I want to paint my room. My answer was red because it is my favorite color and I was bored of the white bored wall, but my mom told me that the color red was going to make my room darker. My room only have one little window at the left corner of the room with an old sunblind. I was indeed to choose a color that didn’t made my room darker. I choose blue because I like this color. I think blue is a fun color, is a strong color for boys and also it was lighter than red. My mom Ligia and me went to a paint shop to choose the color and the size of the pail. We went to a little mall called Montserrat close to my house. We started looking for the best blue paint. My mom chose a big Sherwin Williams pail. I was very excited because it was the first time that my room will be paint. We bought yellow, soft sponges because my mom wanted to paint my room with sponges. We paint my room in two days with the help of the son of one aunt of my mom called Adolfo. I was always helping in my room but I was a little kid so I couldn’t do that much. We had to be careful and I could ruin the entire wall.  It was very exhausted and very fun to paint all my room, we only rested at night. Painting with sponges was a great idea because it looked very cool and very original. When we finished I put the five dinosaurs spread in the four walls of my blue room. I was very happy because my room looked very cool. I accomplished one of my dreams at the age of five. One year later we had to remove them because they were full of dust. My room will never look the same without those dinosaurs.