Anna Online

Anna’s fourth grade class has been asked to tell about their respective cultures, including their families, “shelters”, favorite foods, clothing, and traditions. Printed with permission. 

  Hi! I’m Anastasia. Everybody calls me Anna, though. I am 8, and will be turning 9 in 3 days. I hold an American passport, but since my Dad is Canadian, I call myself an American-Canadian. At the moment, I only speak English, but I am learning French. It feels great to be me!       I have a family of 4: me, my mom, my dad and my little sister. We have 2 cats, Bubbles and Misses Pumpkin. My mom’s name is Louise, my dad’s name is Brian and my sister’s name is Evie. We like to cook, travel, and spend time together. Doesn’t that sound like a great family? 

Since my family doesn’t own a house, I decided to talk about my grandma’s house. It’s not too tall, and it’s not too short. It is decorated with things that have come from different countries and lots of Canadian artifacts. It’s by the Saint Laurence, a river in Canada, so we can go swimming and boating. It’s a wonderful place.

 I really like eating the following foods: pancakes, (invented by the native Canadians) burgers, (a favorite of the Americans) spaghetti, (Italian… but I LOVE it) cupcakes, (I have no idea where there from, but they are soooooo good). 

 I’m not going to tell a lie- I love wearing dresses. They are comfy and make me feel good. My favorite shoes are crocs. They come in lots of colors and keep your feet cool. Jeans are nice too- long and comfy. I only like light colors, because black reminds me of death.  My family does not follow any religion, but like most people we have traditions. These traditions include Christmas, Easter, new years, and (of course) we celebrate birthdays. These are the traditions that most people have, but hey, they are fun. Almost every summer, we go to an island in the Atlantic ocean. It is called Star Island, and it’s a great place for families to spend a week or so.

At the beginning of April, the 3rd grade had a Walkathon. We raised money for a home in Cairo which helps elderly people. We raised so much that we got to buy all of the people in the home some personal items — such as toothbrushes, towels, etc. — plus a washing machine.

Yesterday, we actually got to visit them. The home is located about 5 minutes away from our school — the girls sat in the back seats of the bus and sang all the way. The home has about two floors and a number of rooms. When we arrived, we could see that it has its problems. We could see that the walls had crumbles and the floor was not exactly clean.

But it did look like a very nice place. They had pictures on the wall and some of the walls were painted. Some of the elderly people let us into their rooms. Once we got in, I guess we could tell that they do not get many visitors. They wanted to shake your hand, hold your hand, hug you, and kiss you.

I guess me and a few other girls’ favorite was a woman named Lillian. She could speak English. She let us into her room, which was about as big as two American closets. It was pink. She sat down in a chair and let us ask her questions and things. She had a poster with cats up, so we asked her if she liked cats. She said, “I do like cats,” so we started making cat noises with her.

We also noticed that she really likes flowers. Three pictures on her wall reminded me of Star Island and of Celia Thaxter.

She told us the sad, sad story of how her husband died. She said he was at the doctor and he had to go to the pharmacy to get something. When he came back from the pharmacy, he died suddenly — no one really knew. Lillian was walking by and saw a dead body on the floor — it was her husband.

But she still loved talking to us. We met some others, and they all felt happy to have students in their rooms who would hold their hands and say “Iz me (their names).” One man who could speak English wanted to play chess against some of the students, so some of the boys said sure. They did not get a chance to finish their game, but the man they played against definitely beat them!

We also got to paint with them. In Egyptian Culture class, we had taken a canvass and drew flowers on it. We brought it to the Elderly Home and they helped us paint the background. Their hands were trembly and things but they still painted very nicely.

We went back singing, again. But still, I treasure those elderly people, and decided that after tomorrow, when I become a Junior Girl Scout, that I would like to help them in some way.

I heard that some of the people came out after us because they wanted to say goodbye. The sad thing was we already had left. My class is going to go back in June.

Mary Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. When Mary was 7 her parents decided it would be fun to move to Paris, France for a couple of years. They showed their children some of the most famous works of art in the world. Mary was spellbound by the famous works of art these wonderful artists did. For example, she saw the work of Leonardo de Vinci.

When the family moved back to Pennsylvania, Mary saw that she could be an artist too. Her father said he would not and will not let his daughter be an artist no matter what she did. Mary argued and argued with him until her father had to give in. He gave her a small fortune so the she could go to art school. Mary chose the Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts. She studied very, very, hard.

After four years of studying, Mary decided a better way to study. She went to famous art museums and copied the art there. Then she decided she could make art of her own, after a few years of copying famous art. She moved to Paris and spent almost the rest of her life there. She even put a few of her paintings into the Salon, a place where wonderful pictures were displayed. The Salon had some very bad rules, though. They only allowed portraits that looked practically, exactly like life. At that time, Mary did paint exactly like life, so a few of her paintings were accepted. On the balcony was one of her pictures that was selected..

Then, something happened that changed her career. A bunch of impressionists invited her to join them. An impressionist is someone who paints in little dots, or whose work looks almost like life, but doesn’t exactly show what people actually look like. Among those impressionists was an impressionist named Edgar Degas. Edgar Degas liked painting dancers, especially ballet dancers. Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas became very close friends. Her paintings changed, and no more of her paintings were allowed into the Salon, but Mary didn’t care at all.

I need to stop her life here, so I can tell you about her paintings. You might know that Mary Cassatt is very famous for painting mothers and children. They usually have a look, or even if the person in the picture doesn’t look at you, that you can see what they are feeling. They can be sad, happy, scared or angry – Mary Cassatt could paint almost any emotion. In addition to mothers and babies, she also could paint wonderful backgrounds, so wonderful that you can tell where they are. For example, if you looked at her painting, Baby with Apple, you can tell they are in an apple orchard. You can really tell where the characters are – if they are in a house, if they are in a boat, if they are in a bathroom.

Have you ever heard of the Chicago World’s Fair? It was held in 1893. It had inventions and things from all over the world. Mary Cassatt was asked to make a huge mural called modern women for the Chicago World’s Fair, so huge that it had to be lowered into a ditch for her to finish it. It was to be put in the women’s building. After the Fair, her mural mysteriously disappeared. There were three paintings in the mural. They were called women reaching for fame, women picking the fruits of fame, and art, music and dancing. Some people think the painting I mentioned, Baby with Apple, was a miniature version of the mural, but no one is sure.

Mary died in 1926. Her work is still treasured today, and she is a famous American artist, even though she spent most of her life in France. We will always treasure and take care of her work, even after her lost mural. Mary Cassatt has shown some great effort and time into her work.

Great news, everybody — I made the swim team.  Mom might have told you already, but I just wanted to say it myself. 

Dad sent me an e-mail a few months ago, telling me when the try-outs were.  With a few lessons with the coach at the Maadi House, I was ready to try out.  He taught me to do crawl stroke very well.

Then finally came the day of the try-outs.  There were a lot of people competing for the swim team.  I was one of the first to be called over to the pool.  When they told me to slide in, I was really excited.  Then when they said go, I did my crawl stroke the best I could.  I kept repeating what to do in my head: “Hand up, Bring down, Tilt head and Breathe.”  Before I knew it, I was at the other side. 

Then backstroke. I used to be able to do backstroke really quickly, but then I found out I was doing it wrong. But I did my best backstroke — before I knew it, I was at the end of the pool. 

After the test, three kids were called to go with the coach.  I asked myself, “Could they be the people who made the team? Did I make the team?” And then I heard, “Congratulations, everyone, you made the team.” (Those three people didn’t make it.) I made it! And no one could be happier than I was.

At my very first practice, we had another test.  I was put in Lane 2. Swimming only has one problem for me: We always have to do “sharp pencil push off.”  I don’t like it, because you can’t just start your stroke. 

A typical practice: you get there, you change into your suit, you wait a bit, then they call you and take attendance, tell you to go to your lane, and then you are off.  It is a bunch of laps, but all different strokes: backstroke, “human stroke” and crawl stroke and some others.  Sometime I am very exhausted by practicing but — I haven’t told anyone this — I always keep the song “Just keep going on” in my head.

I will become a better swimmer, I know it.

Hi! Sorry I haven’t written in  a while. The news I want to tell you about is: 1) My new vote 2) The assembly And 3) My new after-school activities.

My New Vote

After strongly beliving in John Edwards, my vote now goes to Barack Obama. I changed my mind because:

Number one, my whole family is voting for Obama.

Number two, I was in the car with my friend and we were discussing the election and my mom said that when Barack Obama was younger, he lived in Indonesia, and that, if he becomes President, he will understand kids who live overseas.  Well, I live overseas, so he will understand me!

Number three, a few days ago, my mom told me to Barack Obama.com (his kids page). I went and I learned that Barack Obama is the first person in history to have kids under the age of 12 help him become President not by voting for him, but by their voice. So I guess that Kids are some of the important people who help him become President.       

The Assembly

On February 6, 2008, a bunch of girls were taken out of class at 12:15. Three were taken from my class, including me (lucky me it was math time). Then, we had our dress rehearsal for what we have been waiting for since September. Every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, we would go and we would practice our dance. 

The next day, February 7, we didn’t even go to class in the morning. What we did was, we went straight to the theater to get ready for the show.  Then, there we were for the first performance, for the thrid to fifth graders. We were all ready and excited.  Then we saw . . the curtain had been going up.  Quickly, we got in our line and got into the position. We were off stage, so no one could see us. And then, the music started playing. When we heard our cue, we danced on stage. 

After that assembly, we did all the same things for the preschoolers through second-graders assembly. Dad attended the one which Evie went to.  He was sort of sad to hear that he had missed the first assembly. The sad thing was that Mom wasn’t there, and Aunt Annie wasn’t there either.

After school activities

Now, our new session has sprung and that means new after-school activities. I got into three — MicroSoft PowerPoint, Web Page Design, and Needlecrafts. Well, it turns out that my friend is in my sewing class with me. We have fun talking while we are sewing.  I am pleased to report that MicroSoft PowerPoint now has many students. The classes for PowerPoint and Webpage Design started off very small, but now they are some of the biggest.

Last night at my school in the theater, a pageant was put on, called “Mr. CAC.” A girl in the high school asked herself, “How can I raise money to help kids in Ethiopia?” Finally, she had an idea. ”Why don’t I hold a contest for boys?” she decided. She hung up posters, she passed out flyers, she did anything to get people to compete. 

We went to the show, and it was great. There were four prizes you could win: Mr. Beachwear, Mr. Talented, Mr. Congeniality, and Mr. CAC. 

First I will tell you about Mr. Beachwear. All of the contestants walked out in their bathing suits and the judges got a chance to decide which one they liked the best. Some were as funny as they could be, like by wearing tweety-bird water wings, and some just wore their bathing suits. 

Next comes Mr. Talented. Violin players, singers, dancers, people reciting poetry.  They all did well, but the group that won my vote was the Italian eaters. They took out a big table and decked it with pasta and they saw who could eat the most. At the very end, they went up to the front and lifted up their aprons — they were still wearing their bathing suits! The guy who won “Mr. Talented” played the violin.

Then was the intermission. (Buddum, buddum, ba dum bum bum bum . .  ) Show time!

Next came the last competition: Mr. Congeniality. Some of them were just normal, saying what they felt.  Others made jokes. Like, when Ms. Youseff said, “You look as if you are trying to be Mr. McGuiggen,” he just said, “No one beats Mr. McGuiggen.” Then, Mr. McGuiggen (a judge) stood up, faced the crowd and opened up his black jacket.  He was wearing an orange vest under it! It gave the crowd a big laugh.

Then, they did the crowning. Mr. CAC was a dancer in the talent contest.  It was a great show, but the guy who I wanted to win did not win.  (I wanted an Italian eater to win.) But it was still a great show. 

For Christmas from Santa, I got the doll Julie. Along with her came all the books.  I will describe Julie:  She is a 9-year-old girl growing up in San Francisco in 1974.  Her mom runs a small shop called Gladrags — named for the Rod Stewart song that goes “the handbags and the gladrags.” Her dad is pilot and flies around the world.  Her parents are divorced.  She has one sister named Tracy who loves tennis. Her best friend is a girl named Ivy who is Chinese. (Evie got Ivy for Cristmas.) 

I will tell you about the books now:  Number One, Meet Julie — The first chapter is about the Moving Day, when Julie and Ivy were turning cartwheels in the backyard. Julie was about to leave because her parents had got divorced and Julie was going to live with her mom and sister a few miles away from Ivy and her dad.  A chapter later, Julie gets introduced to her new school, the Jack London Elementary.  When she finds out there is a basketball team there, she is so happy she asks if she can join.  Sadly, she finds out that it is an all-boys basketball team, and there are no girls allowed.  But one day, when she was walking with Ivy through the street, they run into Julie’s family friend Hank.  Hank was getting 150 signatures so that they would rebuild the Veteran’s Center.  He told the girls about what a petition is.  When Julie got home, she made her own petition, and got 150 signatures, so that she could play on the basketball team.  Fortunately, she got on to the basketball team. 

The next book, Julie Tells Her Story, is about a school project that Julie is working on called The Story of My Life.  When she was visiting her dad, he gave her a recorder, so she recorded everything instead of writing it down. She loves doing her project until she comes to the last question.  The question is:  What is the worst thing that ever happened to you? She doesn’t want to tell her class about her parents’ divorce.  Finally, something good and bad happened to her. She was playing basketball, against another team, the Wildcats, and the Wildcats team was teasing her because she was a girl. Here comes the bad part:  The biggest guy on the team of the Wildcats kept hanging around Julie and then finally he knocked her over and she landed on her finger and broke it.  Her finger brought her family close together, and she didn’t have to tell her class about her parents’ divorce.  She recorded that it was her finger for the worst thing that ever happened to her, but then when she presents the project to the class, she plays the tapes until the last question.  Then she stops the tape and says to her teacher that she would like to say that part out loud.  She actually told her class about her parents’ divorce.

Book Three, Happy New Year, Julie, is about how she spends two Christmases, one with her dad, one with her mom.  Her best friend Ivy celebrates Christmas, but at the moment is getting ready for Chinese New Year.  She and Julie have so much fun in China Town getting ready for Chinese New Year.  They get lost, though, because for Christmas, Ivy gave Julie a China doll and Julie wanted to go back to the shop. They both try on Chinese dresses. When they get back to the place where Ivy’s mother was, Ivy’s mother is gone. But they found their way through quite easily. 

Then when it is the day of the Chinese Festival, Ivy’s family and Julie’s family all get together in Ivy’s house for like 10 minutes.  Ivy rushes Julie up to her room, to show her that her mother had bought her the dress she had tried on.  She told Julie to close her eyes.  Ivy went and got out of her closet the turquoise one that Julie had tried on. Then she told Julie to open her eyes and there, right in front of Julie, was the Chinese dress she had tried on.  So they both wore their dresses to the Happy Panda restaurant where they ate and Ivy’s grandfather, Gung Gung, tells a story about the Chinese dragon, Niem. 

Just for fun, I will tell you the story of Niem.  Niem one day came through an ancient village and ate three villagers.  This Niem was not very hungry, so he only came out on the new year.  On the new year, all the people in the village would lock their doors so that Niem wouldn’t come through.  Then an old wise man from the village got everyone to come into the town square, bringing gongs, noisemakers, and firecrackers. They set them off so well, they scared the dragon off!  So every Chinese New Year, they always beat gongs and noisemakers and light off 600,000 firecrackers so that Niem won’t come back.

Sadly, that is how far I have gotten.  I have another four books to read. (Three more Julie books but I want to read Good Luck Ivy (Ivy’s book) too.) Thank you for reading this post.

At the assembly, Mr. Marriot gave us homework for the holidays.  He said that we had to take pictures of ourselves reading.  He said this because it is Year of the Reader. 

When my family was in Jordan, my mom took pictures of me reading.  We got a lot of good ones. 

The night before mom left, I said,”Boy, would I like to be an elf in the Cristmas asembly. She said I could if I asked Mr.Marriot. The next day I did. On the day before the assembly, Mrs.Neff told me to go to Mr.Davis about the elf thing. Then, on the day of the assembly, I was dissmissed from class ten minutes early. I was at the assembly room for about two minutes, waiting there for Mr. Davis. Finally, he told me to come to our “back stage.” There I put my costume on, over my PE uniform.  It was red pants, a red shirt, a green vest, and a funny little velvet hat. 

I missed most of the assembly, but at one point I heard the kids yelling at the top of their lungs, “Santa!  Santa! Santa!” After they yelled it six times, me, the two other elves, and Santa Claus came running in.  Santa read the letters that some of the kids wrote — it was a big panic when they figured out whose letter it was.

Just standing there, seeing my friends, my sister and my dad made me feel so warm inside, I have never had more fun.   

Every thursday, at 4:00, in the computer lab, I take microsoft powerpoint. Sadly only one other persn took it with me. My power point is about William Shakespeare, the other girl made hers about David Beckman. Yesterday was my last class but  on sunday, I am going to put my power point on disk.