ANGELA SHAN 

“FAMILY”

They are always the ones who can give you hope, the ones that support you, that cares for you and make you learn through mistakes and happiness.  They can give you everything.  They can solve all your problems even if it takes a big sacrifice from their own life.  I hope everyone can understand that family is the biggest, and strongest help you can ever get from anyone else in the entire world.  It is also the most important relationship.  Even if they seem to hate you sometimes, they still love you, and they will forever!  Cherish EVERY SECOND with your family, no matter what happens, the love of you and your family will never break apart, no matter how far they are.

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“Latin”

I really, really, super enjoy Latin dance.  It’s just SOOO magical that somehow it makes people think it’s like magic!  In Latin dance, the music can go fast or slow, and so do the dancers, and so do your emotions.

I started to learn Latin at the age of 5.  At first, I did not appreciate this idea, but after one class I think I can’t stop dancing — like I had been brain washed or something.  So, I started to train.  I practiced harder and harder each day as I grew up.  I remember once I practiced so much that my entire toe was covered with rotten skin and blood.  It was unforgettable!  That was right before a competition.  And once, when I was stretching, my feet were stuck in the “stupid” stretching machine which my dance teacher had to saw open to pull my feet out.  I was crying very loud!  (Don’t get me wrong, I was only 6) I shrieked as my toe scratched to the bottom part of that stretching machine.  Then when it was completely done, I had to go to the hospital immediately……

After a few weeks, my first competition had arrived.  I really didn’t know what to do.  I was still hurt and couldn’t go to the competition, but if I didn’t, I would let my whole class down.  And that’s the last thing I wanted to do, to let anyone down, so, I went to the competition!  I was super-duper nervous.  First, it’s because it’s my first competition ever!  Second, it’s because my toe wasn’t completely healed yet.  You can describe it as if there were butterflies in my tummy!  And so, I went on to the large, large stage with about 2000 people in the audience watching me as I stood nervously like if I didn’t belong there.  I could barely breathe!  As the music started, I didn’t know what to do, but a voice told me inside that I have to prove myself, my work, and my heart.  As the music played along, I started my twist, my moves and my swirls.  I put on my emotions, my smile, and suddenly I was not afraid anymore.  I did my best, and didn’t care about the score? I didn’t care anymore that it was a competition, and instead treated it like it was an unforgettable moment­­ — something that I enjoyed.

Written by:  Angela Shan 

COCO WAN

Magic

I like magic because I love the faces that other people make. It makes me very excited to learn more magic.  I like discovering magic.  It makes me feel very happy.  I want to be a magician someday but I still have other dreams blocking me.  I am willing to discover more interesting magic and display it.  I want every thing that a magician owns  and I wish to be like them.

I wish I could partner with a cartoon magician.  I wish my magic could top them, so I need to study more magic to make me better.  I like how magic works.  I want others to understand what it feels like to love magic.  I want them to feel how much I love magic. 

I want a partner,  a partner who loves magic and is good at it.  I wish we could meet one day and be the best partners in the whole magic world.  I am willing to get better at magic, and be the best at magic.  I want to learn how to make my body disappear and a lot more interesting magic.  I want to bring magic to a whole new level and I want every one to believe that magic is real.

I love magic!   I want to show the world how much I love it.

Mysteries 

I love mysteries and detective stuff.  I wish I could be a detective for just one time, but this chance never came.  I love mysteries books and stories.  I wish that I could meet the characters one day and solve a case together with them but I know that it will never come true in real life.  I want to try everything that makes me feel like a detective, and I wish I could be a detective.  I like mysteries because I will never get the same excitement I get from other things.

I want others to feel why being detective is fun, I wish I have a partner who has the same dream as I do, and I want us to be together.  I like mysteries so much that I have become a part of it, and I want to push myself to discover the rest of this world.    I want more mysteries and I want to be the one solving cases — I want to be the one who is being called the detective.

I want to see a real detective and talk to him or her.  I want to have all the tools that a detective has and  I wish I had a police officer friend too!

Mysteries makes me happy.  When I am sick, mysteries can cheer me up.  When I am bored, mysteries can keep me busy, and when I am happy mysteries can make me even happier!

Written by:  Coco Wan 

PHINEAS ABBOTT 

Family

My family is amazing, and we do so much together. We go camping we go to the the beach, we go hiking, and a lot more. Sometimes it gets hard being with them because i am tired or grumpy. Other times it feel great being with them. Even when I am tired of my family, at least I have a family. I am so glad that my family goes on so many adventures, because each adventure we go on is a new experience i get to have with my family. I love helping my family. I like sharing with my siblings, giving presents to my family, and sometimes cleaning up extra around the house. Usually when i go back to the U.S.  during the summer, my family stays at my grandmother’s house. I help her a lot. I have mode her lawn, picked up pinecones from her yard, raked up the dead stuff in her yard and watered her plants. Even when I was little I liked helping my family. It made me feel good helping my family and that’s one of the reasons I did it. I also did it because after I helped then they would sometimes help me a little more too. It’s nice to have a family who is willing to help you. Written by Phineas Abbott 

Juniper

ETHAN HUANG

Minecraft 

When I play Minecraft I will first make a home. Then I will make a bed, door, window. The next day I will kill the cows, sheep and pigs. After that I will make an oven to cook the cows, sheep and pigs’ meat. Then I will make my house bigger so I can put my things in. At last I will go to many different places to build houses and do the same things. Later I will make a tunnel so I can go to every house that I want and I can go there fast. Sometimes I will play with Michael on Minecraft. I like it because I can build anything I want. I feel very happy when I am playing it. 

AMELIA CAPPELLETTO

A Surprise

When I was 3 years old, I really wanted a sister.  I begged my mother every single day.  One day I was sleeping then all of a sudden, my dad woke me up.  He told me to get dressed and bring a water bottle.  So, I got dressed and took my water bottle.  My dad took me to the car and buckled my seat.  My mother came in and got in very slowly.  I had no idea what was happening.  Then we got on the road.  While my father was driving, I fell right back to sleep.  It took about 30 minutes then my dad woke me up.  I was at the hospital, my mom was missing.  So, I sat down in the waiting room.  About an hour later a nurse said “who is Amelia Cappelletto?” I said, “Me.”  The nurse took me to a room and there was my mom and someone else waiting for me.  There was a new born baby girl!  My mom said it was my baby sister.  I was shouting with glee, and we eventually took my baby sister home.  I even got to hold her but my mom was a little over protective.  I even got to have a little party.  So, after that day I knew it was the best day of my life.

Written by:  Amelia Cappelletto 

Billy

About 10 years ago there was a dog named Billy.  He was a yellow retriever.  The first time I saw him was when I went to my grandparent’s place.  I was only a little baby when I met Billy. My parents put me down on a mat next to Billy.  He started sniffing me, then all of a sudden he was cuddling me like a teddy bear.  Soon I fell a sleep and my mother took me to a bedroom, and Billy followed me.  Unfortunately, he was locked outside of the room.  After my nap, my parents took me outside.  Billy was outside too!  My dad put me on Billy’s back for a ride.  After that, we went back to my grandparents house, we ate supper and watched some television.  About a month or two of that it was time for me to go back to Vancouver.   Over the years, I still got to see Billy.  But one day, as I was in Shenzhen, China, my grandparents called and they said that Billy had passed away because he was old.  I started to cry and ever since then I kept looking at Billy’s photos that my parent’s took.

Written by:  Amelia Cappelletto

Zoe

Zoe is my best friend.  She is a smart and friendly girl.  She has a younger sister called Bianka.  She is very small but smart too like her sister. Zoe and I first met in third grade.  I was in class and I got up and introduced myself and she did too.  We played together and read together when it was break.  Soon after that day we were best friends.  Every day we played, ate, read, and so much more.  Then our mom’s met each other and they started to like each other.  Then I met Zoe’s other friend Maddison when she was in kindergarten.  Her mom Mable also likes our moms and so she joined the mom team.  Then with all of our time together we went trick or treating, watched movies, travelled and did much more.  One day, our moms told us we were going to a city called Xian.  We were so excited we were already packing.  After 2 weeks we went to the train station and travelled to the airport.  It took about 5 hours to get to the airport.  At first I thought we were the first ones to get there but it turned out Zoe and her family were there 1 hour ago and they were waiting for us to come.  Maddison was too young to come, because she was only 4 in 2018.  When we were waiting, we went to McDonalds.  I only had some water and a blueberry muffin but I only took 4-5 bites out of it because I get air sick and it is not a good idea to feed me if I am going to be on a plane.  Then we got on to the plane and just sat there and watched movies the whole time.  I found out that Zoe also got air sick.  About 3 hours later we were in Xian and I didn’t vomit!  But Zoe was not so good.  We got into a van and drove to the house we were going to stay in.  A whole crazy thing happened then we got into the house and it was 1 a.m in the morning.  We were extremely tired.  Well that is how we became friends!

Written by:  Amelia Cappelletto

Blueberry

Blueberry was one of my favorite stuffed animals.  I slept with him every night.  The first time I saw him was at my great grandma’s house in Canada.  When she died I was with my grandma (Karen) and told me I could take whatever I wanted from the house so I took a Russian doll, some spoons, and a teddy bear.  I was only 5 at that time, and it was kind of different without my great grandma cause she would come and give me a big hug and give me a different dessert every time I saw her.  She always bakes and her apple pies were the best. After I took the stuff with me I went back with my grandma to her house.  When I got back to my grandma’s house, I took off my shoes and ran to my room.  I jumped onto my bed, because I was so tired, and I cuddled with the teddy.  It smelt like Vanilla I loved the smell.  I named it Blueberry.  There are 2 reasons I named the bear Blueberry.  The first reason was I loved my grandma’s Blueberry pie and the second reason was because blueberries were small and Blueberry had an older sister called Vanilla.  Vanilla was another teddy and she was very big.  She was passed down to me from a girl called Emma.  She wore a small dress and the colours are chocolate brown and beige.  Well that is my favorite teddy Blueberry.

Written by:  Amelia Cappelletto

KARL SONG

Climbing

At first, I didn’t like climbing at all, and my mom always asked me to try it once to see if I liked it.  I always said “NO!”  One time, I couldn’t believe that I tried it and I couldn’t believe I climbed to the top on my first try!  Now, I think if I didn’t try that one time, I maybe wouldn’t climb, so my life would be a lot different than now.  Maybe better, maybe worse.   After all, I love climbing sooooooo much! In my first year climbing, I went to the climbing place seven times a week! 

Then, because of climbing, I came to S.A.I.S.(Shenzhen American International School). Sometimes, I really wanted to give up climbing and do nothing because I finished a line to climb, but I know now that “There is no such thing as the hardest thing but just harder things in life.”

Written by:  Karl Song

Chinese Chess

I did not like Chinese Chess the first time I saw it, but one time, I was really bored, so I asked my dad to play Chinese Chess with me.  At first, my dad only used 12 players to play against me, and I didn’t believe that I would lose.  But, when we started playing, I found out that my dad was super good at it. 

But I still like Chinese Chess because, when I am playing Chinese Chess, I need to think about a lot of places and I have to think, “What will happen if I go there?  Where should I go next?” I have to think about those questions when I am playing. 

I had been practicing a lot and now, my dad has to use 14 players to play against me! (^_^) 

Written by:  Karl Song

FREDDY XU

MY PLANE BOOKS

About two months ago (2020.4.16), I got 6 books about airplanes.  I drew millions of airplanes, and now these 6 books are my favorite books!  You maybe don’t know why I like airplanes so much, so I’ll tell you!   5 years ago, I started to draw airplanes, but my school (not SAIS) almost ran out of paper!   When it was my 7^th birthday, I ate an A380 (an airliner that can carry 853 people) cake.  Now I started to send my airplane pictures to TikTok.  I draw many planes still today.

Written by:  Freddy Xu

JACK XU

Last summer weekend, I went to the playground to play. 

First, I go to the roller coaster. When I was waiting, I think roller coaster isn’t so scary, but when the roller coaster start, I feel very dizzy, like there is hundreds of bees in my head annoying me. When I get down from the roller coaster, I feel very sick. 

Then, I went to the jumping machine. When the jumping machine is going up, I think it’s very slow. But when it falling down, it goes very fast and I am very scared. 

At last, I went to the Ferris wheel. I thought this mustn’t be very scary. But when it went to the highest point, and I look down to the ground, it is VERY high. Suddenly, I close my eyes until it is on the ground. 

At afternoon, I went out from the playground. I am very happy. 

Written by:  Jack Xu

URI XU

My Little Sister

 When my little sister was born I felt so excited, happy, worried as well a little bit scared.  When I wanted to touch her and hug her, I was so scared that maybe I would hurt her or make her cry.  Still, my mom let me hug her and my grandma helped me take a picture of me hugging my sister.  My brother and my dad were standing behind me.  That time my sister was very small and cute.  My family and I were playing with my sister and I was taking pictures of my sister.  My mom was very, very tired because she was very, very weak.  As a result, she needed to sleep and take a break even though she still needed to take care of my sister.  Now my little sister knows how to crawl, eat, sit and drink milk and sometimes a little bit of water.  I remember when she was 4 months old my mom helped my sister to cut her hair, and after she cut her hair my sister looked like a boy.  We love her very, very much! 

Written by:  Uri Xu

ANGELINA XU

My Dog

When my dog first came to our house, my mom was very excited and I was not born at that time yet.  My grandma and grandpa didn’t like dogs because they thought dogs were very, very dirty, but right now they like dogs because I told them dogs were not dirty.  My mom told me that when I was little I always pulled my dog’s tail, but she didn’t get angry because she knew I was a baby at that time.  Now she is very old and she has arthritis and heart disease.  She has to take pills for the rest of her life.  Last time when I was having a video chat with my BFF and I saw my dog was not walking properly and then I cried.  I am so worried, so I let my aunt to take me and my dog to the vet.  After my dog did a body check, we found out she has arthritis.  We love her very, very much! 

Written by:  Angelina Xu

MICHAEL HE

 Detective Conan 

The things I like are always changing, but Detective Conan is an exception.  Detective Conan is a very famous Japanese cartoon, which is scary and the main character is very smart and handsome. Conan cartoon was published in 1996 and Detective Conan have already been around for 24 years.  The Conan comics came out in 1994 and I have a Conan skin in Minecraft.  I like to watch Conan because it is very thrilling.  

Written by:  Michael He

ANN GUO

Sad

When I was in kindergarten, I had a very good friend for 3 years.  I then went to another kindergarten and I cried, because I knew I couldn’t see her at school again.  But I was surprised to be at the same school with her for first grade and in the same class! But there’s a kid I don’t like, so I told my friend to not play with that kid, but my friend still played with her sometimes.  However, I still think she is my best friend because she was my only friend and she had an after–school class, so I went to the same class as hers even though I didn’t want to. Once I was just playing with her, pretending to pour water on her but I didn’t.  She did the same and she really poured her water on me!  By that time, I had no clothes to change and it was very cold so I had to wait to change after school.  When I was about to go to another school (here), my best friend and the kid I didn’t like said things to hurt me.  As a result, I thought, why should I buy chocolate for her using my money? And why do I even have her as a friend anymore? So I moved to Shenzhen and we have never seen each other again. 

Written by:  Ann Guo

BESS MO

I am very glad that I came to this wonderful world.

I was born in July 22, 2009, and I started my strange and wonderful journey. Soon, something interesting happened…

Childhood 

July 22, 2009 was the first time I opened my eyes. Because everything was new to me, I started crying.  My mother and father were comforting me.  Then a lot of  “first times” came up: the first time I talked, the first time I ate, the first time I had a birthday party — I remember once I even put the cream of the cake on my nose.  These were all good memories.  I also had some bad memories like:  beaten, scolded and taught by mom and dad.

Unfortunately, when I was three years old, my grandfather passed. This is a sad passing for my mom and dad. But in the end, the good memories were always more than the bad memories. 

Written by:  Bess Mo

My Dog “Yummy” 

Time waits for no one.  Slowly I grew up and up.  I’ve always wanted a puppy, but every time I talked about this subject with my dad, he would always say “No” or “Never”.  After I begged my father again and again, he finally agreed.  We have chosen a dog, and we named him “Yummy”.  But when I was going to see the dog, he suddenly fell ill.  Until now, I am still waiting… 

School 

When I first came to this school, nobody knew me, and I didn’t know them, so I didn’t speak much.  Slowly I began to integrate into the team: working with people who I had not worked together before, and I spoke more and more.  At school, I enjoyed every minute with my classmates and teachers.  I heard voices discussing homework.  I also heard voices from playing. But, when I get home, I felt a little bit LONELY. 

 Summary 

Thank you to my parents for accompanying me on this journey.  Thank you to my teachers for teaching me.  Thank you to the people who helped me feel kindness.  Thank you to the people who hurt me made me and made me strong.  I always reminded myself  “I’m better than yesterday!” 

Written by:  Bess Mo

AMY HU

Written by:  Amy Hu

Friendships

Written by:  Amy Hu