Wynnewood Swim Club

For the first time in my life, this summer, I joined a swim team called Wynnewood.
 
One of the reasons why I like Wynnewood is because I get to swim outdoors.  In an indoor pool, your voice echoes inside so it sounds like people are screaming at you when they are actually cheering. In an outdoor pool, when you cheer, it sounds better. The pool is filled with well water so it is much colder in the pool than outside! It gets a little difficult to swim initially, in June, but by the time it was July, I LOVED it! On a hot scorching day it feels cool in that pool. It’s very refreshing! One day, we even swam in rain because there were no thunderclaps.

One of the main reasons why I joined this team is because of my friends. Carter and Spencer are two of my best friends. My little sister joined this team too because of me and because she is friends with Carter’s little sister, Margaret. She is friends with Mira too and her sister Tara is in my grade. My sister's friends Amanda, Jake and Alex are on the team too. It’s fun to go to the pool and see all my friends there and get to spend some time with them over the summer vacation. After a couple of weeks of going there, I saw that there was a huge blow up clown fish in the pool. It belonged to Carter and his family and he always shared it with me and taught me how to ride the fish. Nick is the best swimmer in the team and I want to grow up and swim like him one day.

In the swimming world, races between two teams are called meets. A meets are when boys do breast stroke and butterfly, and girls do free style and back stroke. B meets are vice versa. My favorite stroke is free style and I am fastest in back stroke so I like B meets. We have meets every Wednesday and Saturday. At the last week of the season we have more meets and meets on Mondays too. That is going to be one busy week!

We have our own team colors: green and black. I love my swim suit. At first, I was not sure about it but after the first time I swam in it, I started liking it. It is very comfortable.

A couple of meets ago, we swam against a team called Woodside. We had lost all the meets previously. But, this meet- this meet - we won. Woodside-120 points and Wynnewood-135 points. We won by 15 points! By the time we realized that we had won, our coach was in the pool! You see, our coach Kylie promised that if we won a meet, we could throw her in the pool! After throwing her in, we all jumped in with her and we pushed each other in. Then we all laughed and cheered.

So, in conclusion, this was probably the best meet ever for me and the Wynnewood Pool should be allowed to flood my Cool Lane with its cool water!!

Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit

Title: Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit by Tommy Greenwald

Why I Started to Read This Book: One day I went to the JFK Library to find a book to read since we were short on books. I was roaming around and I found this AWESOME book!

What is it About? It is about this kid named Charlie Joe Jackson. He is in middle school. He does NOT like reading or writing. However, he wants extra credit. Why, you ask? Well, his report card wasn’t that good. His parents wanted him to go to a camp called Camp Rituhbukkee (pronounced: read-a-bookie). Charlie Joe made a deal with them. If he got straight A’s with one B (he was not very good at science), they wouldn’t make him go to Camp Rituhbukkee. Now obviously, I wouldn’t tell you what happens because I want you to read this book and find out for yourself.

What Did I Like About This Book? Almost Absolutely EVERYTHING! It was full of suspense! It actually had a pretty interesting end and I wouldn’t want to give it away.
 
What Didn’t I Like About This Book? I HATED this book. Got you, didn’t I? I mean, there was one little thing that I didn’t like. People were kissing and they were saying that they liked someone- and I mean romantic like. I don’t like romantic stories that much. I am more of a humor or fantasy or science fiction kind of kid.

Does This Belong On My Cool Lane Or Not? This was hard to decide. I liked the book so much that I borrowed another one from the same series. On the contrary, I did not like the romantic parts of the book. Therefore, it is a book that can pass through my cool lane once in a while, but not always.

SPECIAL EDITION!

This is a special edition because this IS special! It is not about a book, movie, trip, or a camp. It is about my elementary school years and my experience with the best teachers and the best principal. In this special edition you will see that school is very important to me and that my teachers are so great. Starting off, I will say right away that these four years of my life are driving around on my cool lane.

Next year I will be going to 4th grade. That means that I will be going to a new school which is kind of sad because I’ve had to leave my old school. But I can still see my teachers and my principal, Mr. Stio. Well, the last part isn’t exactly true. You see, Mr. Stio is retiring. So next time I go to visit my school he will not be there. But, I think that for special occasions, once in a while, my mom will take me to see him. As a "good-bye and thank you" gift, my sister and I wrote a book and my mom helped us put it together online.

 

Mr. Stio was my principal for 4 straight years. He says he has been in our town for 40 years! Mr. Stio is very kind, generous, and funny. Everyday would start with a “Joke of the Day”. We would think of jokes and give them to Mr. Stio. Then, if he thought it was funny, he would announce it the following morning. One of the most fun things that Mr. Stio did was Dunk Stio. This was sort of an incentive game to get everyone reading. Every time you read for 30 minutes, you would get 1 ticket. You could only get 10 tickets. At the dunk tank you would get to throw balls at a target. For example, if you read for 300 minutes, you would get the 10 tickets to get 10 chances to hit the target. If you hit the target, Mr. Stio would get dunked in ICE COLD water!! I dunked him 4 times, but my friend Johan beat the record by dunking him 7 times. I am sure that is some sort of a world record!! 

 

 

 

One of my favorite teachers was Mrs. Ritchie-Ruta. She was my third grade teacher in 2013-2014. In the summer of 2013, when I got the letter from her stating that I was in her class, I was really upset because some kids had told me horrible and mean things about her and that I would get into trouble with her all the time. As it got closer and closer to September, I got more and more nervous. Then, one day, Mrs. Ritchie-Ruta called me over to her desk. We had a talk. She told me that I shouldn’t be influenced by what other people say (except my parents, of course) but that I should make my own opinions. After the talk, I decided that I would use her valuable advice for the rest of my life. I also wasn’t scared of her anymore. It might seem odd but I’m still sad. First I was sad because I didn’t want to be in her class but now I am sad because I had to leave her.  
 

Mrs. Young and Mrs. Elil were my kindergarten teachers. On the first day ever in my school, I was very nervous. You wouldn’t believe how tiny I was! But as soon as I walked into their classroom, I felt happy all over. I knew that I was going to have a great time. Mrs. Jacome was my first grade teacher. I was very excited to go to Mrs. Jacome’s class because I already knew her. One of the best things I liked about Mrs. Jacome’s class is that she did very fun, exciting things. She also always encouraged me to do MY best and not anyone else’s best. Ms. Cooper was my second grade teacher.  I absolutely adore Ms. Cooper. She is one of the nicest people in the world! All my friends were in her class with me… odd… but fun! We never got into trouble. We  worked hard and were always in her good books.

 

Mrs. Sernotti was my music teacher. She taught me lots of songs. She taught me how to play the recorder and violin. Señora V (as you can tell by her name) was my Spanish teacher. She taught me many phrases and sentences in Spanish. She always believed in me! Mrs. Moore was my gym teacher. She taught me many fun games and helped me stay fit.

 
My teachers were all very nice and they helped me learn new things. I think all of them cared about me very much. I will miss them a lot! Mr. Stio and all my other teachers have inspired me to be a teacher myself when I grow up. Their kindness, love, and care make me feel like I want to grow up and be like them.

 

Thank you… Thank you…. THANK YOU!!

My Trip to India, Part 2 - Memorable Moments

I just haven’t had time to write another post earlier because of school work all these months. In a way it is a good thing. Now I can write about the things that are really memorable because it has been 3 months since I came back from India.

When I was in Kolkata, my sister and I went to visit my mom’s school. We met some of her old teachers. It was really nice seeing my mom’s teachers, and who taught mom. It was nice that all the teachers gave us hugs and I could see that they must have loved my mom when she was in school. I loved the playground very much. The playground was very huge.

We also went to India’s National Library. The library has over 2.2 million books. That’s a lot of books! It is very old! It is about 123 years old. There were lots and lots of books on all different topics like science, history, airplanes, ships etc! Since I like reading in Hindi because I recently learned how to do that at HindiUSA at our township high school, I read a short story book that was written in Hindi.

I also shelled peas at my grandparents’ house. Here is how you do it:

1. Press the top of the pod.
2. A hole will appear. Pull apart at the hole.
3. Take the peas out.
4. You can eat them raw or cook them.
5. Have fun and enjoy!

 

At night, we slept in a mosquito net. It is a net designed to keep out mosquitoes. The net goes over the bed, and you get inside. The holes in the net are not large enough to let mosquitoes into the bed and bite you. OWCHIE!

I went to a place called Raj and ate pizza there. The grownups ate dosa (a crispy and salty pancake) but I decided to have pizza even though it was not a pizza place. The pizza was so good that it was better than Pizza Hut! I sat away from my grandpa so that he would not eat a slice of my pizza-heeheehaahaa.

One of the most memorable things that I tasted while I was in India was hot chocolate at Café Coffee Day (CCD). This was the best hot chocolate ever (Remember, this is just my opinion.)! It had both important parts: it was perfectly hot AND it was extra chocolaty. Yum!

I went to see where my grandpa plays tennis. My mom used to play tennis there when she was my age. It is called Kolkata South Club. A lot of important world level matches are played on those courts. A swimming pool was being made there. I hope it is done soon, so that next time when I go to India, I can go swimming! Splash!

We went to Mumbai and Bangalore for a few days. I loved playing cricket in Banglalore with my friend Shikhar. Cricket is a lot like baseball. The wicketkeeper’s job is to stand behind one set of wickets (a set of 3 sticks behind the batsman and another set near the bowler) and to get the ball if it goes behind the wicket. The bowler throws the ball at the batsman and the batsman hits it. While the fielders are trying to get the ball back, the batsman runs between the wickets to makes runs. The team who makes the most runs, wins. There are a lot of other things about cricket, but I just told you that much to give you an idea.

In Mumbai, we went to see my aunt and grandmom. My aunt has a cute daughter who is my dearest darling cousin. Her name is Toshani but we call her Puchki. She is the funniest and sweetest baby in the world. We had so much fun with her and I think she loves me.

This trip was DEFINITELY on My Cool Lane!

My Trip to India, Part 1 - Air India Flights

In December 2013, I went to India with my parents and sister for 3 weeks. I went to see my grandparents.

You have to go to India by plane. It is far away. It is in the continent of Asia. If you are in the USA, India would be halfway around the world. By plane, it would take you 14 hours to get to New Delhi, the capital of India, and 2 more hours to get to Kolkata where I visited.

I was getting ready to board the plane. I was flying with Air India. After a long wait at the JFK Airport and a lot of security checks and baggage check-ins, we boarded, and I sat down on my seat and put on my seatbelt. I saw a screen in front of me. I knew that there was going to be TV, music, and games. I had an UNLIMITED amount of TV and games. When the plane started to move, I got excited. We were going to take off! Wewerespeedingup! It was getting loud! Suddenly, it was quiet! WE HAD TAKEN OFF! The plane was slightly tilted upwards. It took 20-30 minutes but eventually the plane was horizontal.

I watched movies like Dennis the Menace which had a 7-8 year old kid who used to bother his neighbor a lot. I also watched Super Man and played games the whole time.
          
I didn’t like the food a lot because the plane was swaying and tilting a little and I lost my appetite.
                                                                                                 
Then it was time to land. I watched India come into view. Then we saw the airport. In two minutes we were going to land 5…4…3…2…1…WHOOOOSH! We touched down! We finally slowed to a stop.

My grandpa was at the airport. He was waiting for us. He took us to his home and we had lots of fun there. This was the place where my mom was born and grew up.

Stay tuned for more details about what I did in India.

I didn’t like this flight too much because of all the appetite-losing and plane shaking. But because of the movies and games and because it took me to India, I will tolerate it.

The Lion King on Broadway

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I went to Manhattan. We went there because of my birthday gift. I had turned 9. On the day of my birthday, I got a paper. On it, it had all these cool facts about the movie and play, The Lion King. Here is what it looks like.

As you can see, on the bottom it says that we (my family) are going to help increase the number of people who saw the play, by 4 (the number of people in my family).That meant that we were going to watch the play on October 27, 2013!

Approximately, 2 weeks after my birthday, we were on our way. We crossed the Hudson River through a tunnel. On the other end, there was New York! We drove for a little bit until we found the Minskoff Theater. It had signs all over the place about The Lion King. Near by, there was a bakery and coffee shop called Junior’s. We went there and my mom bought coffee for her and my dad. She got a HUGE chocolate chip cookie for me. JUST ME!!  When I was done, I fed the remaining crumbs to the nearby pigeons.

After that, we went to the Minskoff Theater. We had to wait a bit for the show to start. Then everything went dark and suddenly we heard a beautiful song coming from the stage and from behind us. The show had started and it was AWESOME!!

They had epic special effects. They had a lot of ropes and swinging. When Scar fell off of Pride Rock, he had a rope and swung to the floor.  That must have taken a lot of practice! One of my many favorite things was that a lot of the characters came in through the audience. (One giraffe even smiled at me! But I didn’t notice. My mom told me this.) A couple of hours later, sadly, the show came to an end.

 

I was amazed that young Simba and young Nala were only 10-11 years old and that is only 1-2 years older than I am! I can’t even imagine being on a Broadway show at that age. Their acting was flawless. I also loved how young Simba transformed into older Simba in the song Hakuna Matata. You might be wondering how that happened but I am not going to tell you. You need to watch this show and find out for yourself.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Planet Hollywood. The food was SO yummy. The Mac & Cheese was delicious. That’s it. WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! Hold your horses! The dessert! The hot chocolate brownie with ice cream, do not forget that – That is the most yummolicious(I just made that word up) food ever!

 

After that we unfortunately had to go home. This OBVIOUSLY belongs on my Cool Lane! Wouldn't you feel the same way?

The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage

Title: The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage by Enid Blyton

Why I Started to Read This Book: When my mom was my age (8), she used to read this series. She thought it was very funny. She told me that I should read at least one of the books and I would be hooked. Then, my mom reserved this book from the library and we got it and I read it. I thought it was hysterical!

What is it About? It is about five kids and a dog and they solve a mystery that even the local policeman can’t solve. Their names are Fatty, Bets, Pip, Larry, Daisy and Buster is the dog. Bets is Pip’s sister and Daisy is Larry’s sister. Fatty is a friend who lives in the same town. Buster is Fatty’s dog. 

One of their neighbor’s cottage burned down one evening. The five kids and the dog have to find out who burned it down. They use clues (or as Bets calls it - glues) to solve the mystery. They also made a list of suspects and questioned them and ruled them out one by one.
 
The policeman in the book who also tried to solve the mystery is Mr. Goon and he kept saying, “Clear orf! Clear orf!” instead of “Clear off! Clear off!” to the children. The children named him “Clear Orf” .The person whose cottage was burnt was Mr. Hick and he was sitting with a cup so the children called him Mr. Hiccup. There is also a Mr. Smellie in the book.
 
What Did I Like About This Book? I like the way the children thought about the clues and suspects. They were very good detectives.

What Didn’t I Like About This Book? I can’t think of anything.

Does This Belong On My Cool Lane Or Not? You'll have to comment and tell me what you think.

Hint: The rest of the books of this series are not available in our library but I am going to ask my aunt to get them for me from India. I can’t wait to read them ALL!