Vacation '10

What did I do on my vacation?
This winter vacation, I was lucky enough to get to see both my family in Lebanon, and also my uncle and his new wife in Dubai! We started in Dubai, and met up with my uncle and his wife. His wife had to work most of the time, but we still got to hang out with them. We got to stay at the Kempinski hotel, which was attached to The Mall of Dubai, as well as Ski Dubai, which was the biggest indoor ski in the world. The days we stayed in Dubai we toured a lot, but also looked back at where we used to live, and our old school A.S.D. (American School of Dubai). We soon left for Lebanon, where my mother's family surprised all of us at the airport, than took us to our hotel where we got settled in and had an authentic Lebanese dinner. I hadn't seen snow since I was very small, but got to see a bunch when we looked outside. Our hotel, "Faraya" was actually a ski lodge, so we got to play in the snow for the time we stayed there. Sadly, it was the first time in years that it took so long to snow, so we had to settle with the week old snow the entire time we were there, but it was still a lot of fun. After Faraya we went to the capital, Beruit. In Beruit we stayed at the Ramada hotel, and toured the city and shopping places. We only stayed for a few days because we left back for Dubai again. In Dubai, we had more time to spend with my uncle and his wife, and old friends. We also went back to see Burj Dubai, which is now the largest building in the world (it's not the Patronas Towers anymore!), it was so big and thin. I didn't go inside, but i did go inside Atlantis, which is also a big tourist attraction. There were so many new things built that were'nt there when I lived there, like palm island and many more shopping malls. Burj al Arab was something that was still there when I lived there, and is still such an important place. It is the only 7 star hotel in the world, only the most important and rich of people stay there.

Dear Daniel,

Hello, my name is Merina Shaban and was just reading the book Julie of the Wolves. I was just wondering why you were so rude to Miyax? If your friends think it's okay to mate a girl at the age of thirteen, do you think it's alright? You are really disgusting and a pervert. Wanting to do something at such a young age with her is horribly weird. All I'm trying to say is you should think over what you do before you do it. Imagine being in her position, what would you do? She couldn't hit you cause it wasn't working! She would hit you and hit you, and defend herself but it was as if you just felt a feather poke you! It wasn't even tradition to marry at a young age so you should just accept that, you don't need to mate with your wife until you are about 25. YOU REALLY DISGUST ME! Don't you even feel slightly bad and regret what you did? Wouldn't everything work out if you just stoped, thought about it, then just GIVE UP?!

I wish you knew that what people say means nothing really, what you know, now that is something really important. Be smart, even I, a eleven year old would know that is not a smart thing to do. What makes it worse is, I'M YOUNGER THAN YOU, and still, you find it okay to be a PERVERT! Now all there is left to say is ew!Ewwwww, ew, eW,Ew,EW!

Write back,

Merina Shaban

P.S. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Julie of the Wolves Blog post #3

I noticed a big change in Julie/Miyax's characteristics. In the beginning she was very useless. Since she was lost she was very weak and just depended on the wolves to get her food, but by the end she was hunting for herself! She began hunting and the patience she put into it was all worth it; soon after, hunting became very easy and she made it a priorety. She didn't fully mature just from hunting, but when the wolves dissapeared to migrate, she had to be on her own and with that she grew mentaly and physically. She learned more ways to survive which helped he mentaly, and she did a lot of active activities which helped her physically. After what I read pages 1-147, I really saw her mature more! Julie/Miyax saw Jello, Amaroq, and Kapu die before her eyes, most thirteen year olds can't stand watching animals die and would be scarred for life!

Julie of the Wolves Literature Circles #2

In the current Literature Circle discussion, I think I did excellent on staying on task because anything that I would say would always have to do with Julie of the Wolves. When someone was talking I made sure I never interrupted or stopped listening to them at all.

This time I made sure my passages were clear and had the exact explanation. In the questions I had three clear and they seem like questions a lot of people are always wondering. The vocabulary was a bit hard to find because the book didn't have much hard words so I'm not so happy about them. I'm not confident about the vocabulary; although, I'm not so stressed about them so it's also good.

In all, if I had to rate my disscussion AND the Literature Circle sheet out of ten I would rate it a nine point five due to the vocabulary. So I actually think I did VERY well for the second Literature Circles but I'm hoping I would rate myself a 10/10 instead of a 9.5 just a half a point away!
:D

Julie of the Wolves Literature Circles #1

had a dictionary or a thesaurus next to them to give them the answers. I think my passages were long, complete, but not clearly explained. The information I wrote were unclear because I wrote which page that interested me, why it interested me but I don't think I was specific with the exact parts I liked. For example, I liked this page because... What I should of I couldn't participate in the group due to late homework; however, I am confident about the work I had done and how it was set up. My questions were long and so were my responses. My vocabulary words were not just easy words I knew the answer to, and if someone were to look at the words in sixth grade, surely they wouldn't understand them unless they written was, In this page on the third paragraph I noticed the varieties of ...

I practiced my discussion and home and although I didn't get to participate in the group discussion because I was unorganized I had though studied a lot for it. Persionally, I think I did well!

When have I shown courage?

When have I shown courage?

I remember the day clearly; we decided to do something fun, so we went to the theme park. I was so excited to go, but there was only one problem I was too short for the cool rides. I would watch my sister Merissa and my brother Danny run up to the roller coaster seats and I would go the the "baby rides". I hated the baby rides I do something about it. I came to my parents and said, "I don't want to go on the baby rides. They're for-for-for-BABIES!!!" They looked surprised. "I'm confused." said my father, " I thought you liked to go on these rides. I didn't know that you had a problem with it." I felt a little bad after that, but I didn't like it and I had to make it clear to my parents that that's how i feel. I had to answer quickly because now my mom and dad seemed to be all ears. "Well... I don't have a problem with it... its just... I just NEVER go on roller coasters, just because I am not the right height! All I'm saying is, I want to go on a roller coaster... Just try it out. We searched everywhere for any roller coaster for me. Not to big but not for babies. Finally when we almost decided there was no use we found a roller coaster. It was THE roller coaster, a Scooby Doo roller coaster indoor and it looked awesome.
(Prompt)

I was anxious, excited, scared and dizzy at the same time. There were so many emotions inside me at once; however, I was sure this was what I wanted. Right when I was first in the line I had butterflies, no more like crickets in my stomach and I was freaking out! My mom didnt want to go the first time so I just went with my father instead. I began to sit in my seat, I pulled down the safety bar. The ride began and I smiled trying to look like i wasn't scared at all. I loved it and I wasn't even scared. my hear jumped up on a part that turned you around and then you go fast backwards. I was so proud of myself afterwards, I felt like I somehow wasn't just a little girl anymore. I felt good about myself and I had fun.I went to my mom after the ride and talked about the awesome parts and how "cool" I was because I wasn't even scared! Obviously I went around five more times until I decided I should, "move up a step". My brother and sister came with me this time. It was a bigger ride and I specifically remember it being YELLOW because it was even more better! It was so fun and that day was probebly one of the best days I had ever had.

My dad was proud of me because I had been brave and I had the courage to come up to my father and tell him that I wasnt having fun. I was proud of myself, too. I had a spectacular day, and it was the first time I had went on a roller coaster. I had over came the fear of roller coasters that day, too. Now, I would have said I wasnt scared about it, but trust me I was very scared!

Thank you for reading! - Merina Shaban

What do I need to improve on? What have I improved on?

1.The successes that you have had so far ~ things that you believe you are coping very well with in Middle School.
I have gotten good at opening my locker. Considering the fact I missed half of class trying to open mine ... Yeah ... I couldn't open it ... I just kept messing up! For example : Say my locker combination was 1-2-3. When you open a locker you have to ... Pass one once then go to one, then pass two once then go to two. Finally just go straight to three. Its as easy as that! But being the person I am I did this : Go to one pass two the straight to three and I would turn it the wrong way! It was just sad, but now I think I can do it well now. I helped a new student open her locker on the first day and I opened her locker faster then you can imagine! Now to her I am considered as " THE LOCKER MASTER!!!" Im am happy about that. I also improved on my math! I was terrible in math last year but now looking at my grades I am sure I have improved not just a little bit but a whole lot but not as good as my other classes. I also think I am doing well in HUMANITIES!!! I just love humanities its fun and easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2.The things that you know that you need to work harder on/pay attention to.
I do think I should improve on writing in cursive. I say this because I know i dont have bad handwriting but if I wanted to write nicely for something very important or even a handwriting test I want to write in cursive and thats wat I need to improve on. I also need to work harder on being fully organized rather than forgeting something as important as my PLANNER!!!