Gentleman of Río en Medio ♥

*THIS STORY IS TOLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A NARRATOR WHO IS A CHARACTER IN THE STORY. HOW MIGHT THIS STORY DIFFER IF DON ANSELMO WERE THE NARRATOR?*

Everyone has different perspectives on everything. Therefore if Don Anselmo was the narrator, the story would be different, especially his feelings and opinions on situations. In the story, Don Anselmo was the man who sold the land for the Americans, and when the story was told by the lawyer, he didn't understand why the gentleman sold his land with such a low price. However, if Don Anselmo was telling the story, we would probably know why didn't he take the higher price for the land. Also, when he argued with the lawyer, he said that the trees were not his, but they were his people's. According to what the narrator said, which is the lawyer, Don Anselmo was just saying those things, but we don't really know how he felt when he said them. Was he proud to say that? Or was he nervous and worried. If the narrator was him, we could definitely know the answers for those questions. The story can be told in any point of view, but each one will bring us different feelings and we can understand that character, which is the narrator, better than any other characters in the story.

Gentleman of Río en Medio - Vocabs ♥

negotiation - The two countries went through a negotiation instead of starting a war to decide on lands that they would own. 

innumerable - Shane has an innumerable amount of Apple products.

boundaries - There are boundaries between all countries to separate their own lands and properties. 

descendants - I love my ancestors and in the future, I will love my descendants, too.

Stop The Sun - Vocabs ♥

commotion - I got distracted by a commotion in the neighborhood while doing homework. 

foundered - Her presentation was foundered because she didn't prepare at all.

ruin - The war brought great ruin to his life since he lost both of his legs. 

inert - My leg is inert whenever I get a cramp.

Stop The Sun ♥

*DO YOU THINK TERRY MADE THE RIGHT DECISION ABOUT QUESTIONING HIS FATHER ON HIS EXPERIENCES IN VIETNAM? WHY OR WHY NOT?*

In my opinion, Terry made the right decision about questioning his father on his experience in Vietnam for many reasons. First, he could figure out why his father always acted weird, and that was one of his purposes of asking his father. He knew that the war in Vietnam affected his father’s life physically and mentally. By that, he understood or at least tried to understand his father’s feelings and that was really important to their fatherhood. The most important reason was that he realized that even though he didn’t understand everything his father told him because he didn’t experience it, he would still try, and trying is enough. Once he tried, he would know that he should not be embarrassed when his father’s eyes went away or when he curled up on the floor. Therefore, by questioning his father about his past, Terry had understood his father and loved him even more.

Unbreakable Friendship ♥

Monsters. Some people believe that they do exist, some don’t, but I do. An appalling experience with it can’t seem to be faded in my mind. 

It all started after the spring break of our school. On a beautiful day of February in Santa Barbara, everything was so quiet that we could hear the sound of our hearts beating, the cafeteria of Pucca International School (PIS) was completely different. Students were chatting while eating lunch, teachers and supervisors were yelling at the students who couldn’t settle down to have their meals. Some of the young sixth graders who were so naive to believe that 2012 was real kept talking and discussing since they were living that terrifying year. We, the student council committee: Juicy, Suzzie, Sean and me, Muffy, just finished our lunch and started gossiping about what we’ve done during the spring break, while all of a sudden, a new girl sluggishly stepped into the canteen. We stared and inquired her from head to toe. 

She was such a stylish girl, but in a wrong way. Her yellow, curly hair was tied up separately. She was wearing a turquoise tank top with a dotted, red tie. Her purple pants and orange Ecko shoes turned her into a colorful walking stick. We caught her questioned and confused eyes glaring at us. Sean, the kindest guy on Earth, slowly walked toward her and greeted. He showed her around, introduced her to the teachers and us. Usually, we wouldn’t let anyone to join our group, but she had such a unique sense of style, we decided to let her in.

“Welcome to PIS. Since you’re a new student, we’ll be your guide and you can be a member in my group.” Juicy friendlily gave her a beam.

“Thanks. It’s so nice to have you as my friends. I’m Jossie, from San Francisco.”

“Hey yo! We’re in the student council. This is Juicy, this is Sean, that is Muffy and I’m Suzzie.” Our beauty representative smirked. 

I followed them as they surrounded Jossie and amiably showed her around. I must admit that jealousy got all over me. That pretty smile was no longer stayed on my face. It disappeared. And so did Jossis’s innocent look. She tentatively peeked at me with a pair of malicious eyes. There was fire in them, literally. I froze for one second, then wondered if I was just imagining it or not. Couldn’t tell that it was real or not, I decided to forget about it.

Since the day Jossie came, not only me, but the three of us all felt like we were losing Juicy. Every time we sought for her, we would have to look for Jossie, because wherever Jossie was going, Juicy would be there for her. Day by day, I could feel the distance between those two and the three of us were increasing. We could see that Jossie had been saying bad things about me, Sean and Suzzie to Juicy, and that was bothersome. Juicy turned her back to us: she didn’t sit with us at lunch anymore, she wore matching clothes with Jossie but not us. However, all four of us knew better than anyone else that our tight friendship was unbreakable, since we were not only friends, we were brothers and sisters. Therefore we all came together and uttered our feelings. 

“Jossie told me that you guys hated my clothes and made fun of them behind my back, right?!” Juicy frowned.

“What?! We’ve never said such things. Where did you get that from?! You honestly trust her over us?” We got hurt over her question.

We argued for quite a lot of time in the bathroom where no one could hear us. Three of us were trying to convince her to come back to our group and wake up from those lies and praises of Jossie. We kept arguing and quarreling and didn’t even notice thirty minutes had passed.  Finally, Sean spoke up, “You know what guys, this is so not worth it for us to fight. I’m not on anyone’s side, but honestly, aren’t we supposed to be best friends? Why are we letting a new girl ruin this friendship just because she said bad things behind our backs. Best friends are easy to find, but hard to keep. Remember that guys!’

His sentence was like a hit at our heads. Without saying a word, we bashfully smiled to each other. Immediately like follow her instinct, Suzzie snatched her phone and hastily pressed Jossie’s number. 

Surprisingly Jossie was standing in the bathroom within ten seconds. We started to play the role of police and criminal. The criminal was unexpectedly immaculate, but she couldn’t stay that long, because she ran out of excuses. We kept asking and questioning, and Jossie’s mind exploded. Her eyes went red, her soft, white skin turned into a thick layer of wrinkled pelt. Her body was enormous, and she warned us to give Juicy back to her with a thunderous voice. Jossie picked Juicy up by her giant hand. 

“I’m so sorry guys. If I didn’t trust her over you guys, things might not turn out like this. I love you guys. Please forgive me for what I did!” As Juicy’s tears falling down, the monster shrank too.

We all winked to each other as if we were giving signs to do something. 

“I shouldn’t have ignored you. I’m sorry, too” “I should’ve talked to you more so our friendship wouldn’t fall apart.” “I wish I wasn’t too presumptuous about you leaving the group. I should’ve found out the reasons first.” “I love you guys! I love every person in our indestructible, everlasting group!” All four of us proudly screamed out loud and looked at each other with our tears dropping on our cheeks. We blinked, and blinked, and blinked for the hot liquid in our eyes to disappear, not realizing the monster was gone. 

Monsters does not necessary need to scare people. They can be created to take away things that we love. They might be a barrier for our lives, but to me, they actually remind us to value what we have. Oh! And the monster I met was created in 2012! What a coincidence!