Reading Response #4

Now, I read to page 205 of Magic Moon and the story just flashes back to Kim's dream. Kim's imagination turned into a harsh situation in which he had to fight two dragons in order to protect his sister. It seems that Kim was going to lose this fight and also his sister. However, Kim's situation reminds me of one movie called "Pay It Forward." Pay It Forward was about one family that has only mother and child. The mother just got divorce with her husband, so she had to do many jobs to earn more money and raise her child in each of the day. She worked in a casino and a night club which she was full of fear from those angry, drunk customers. One day, she was punched in the face just because she forgot to put the ice into the customer's drinks. Although she had to confront with many obstacles and fears of her jobs, she always got an encouragement from her son who tried to solve his mother's mistakes. She had never lost her fight because she had a great person who was always beside her. I think people's life are not perfect. Every body can't choose their own destiny or lives. Some may have a wonderful life but some may not like the mother and son. In this world, everything is not fair, but the most important thing is to make our lives happy. The mother and son don't have a lot of money but they can still live in their wonderful world. This is just because they always encourage and love each other. However, I think this movie would probably be the best model for people who are having bad situations. It will definitely encourage them to be patient and pass through those situations to have better lives.

Reading Response #3

Have your dreams ever come true? Now, I reached page 91 of Magic Moon. While Kim's sister was still in the hospital, Kim fell asleep on a sofa where he found himself in the realm. He was like a horse that were fighting against other ruthless monsters. In his dream, he found that his sister's coma was relieved. His sister was like a normal person. Kim, as a horse, tried to communicate with his sister that he was her brother in the realm. He also was trying to protect her until someone's voice passed through his ears. "Wake up Kim," "Can you pass me that bottle of water," Kim's sister whispered. Kim's mouth was open widely. He couldn't believe that his sister just woke up! he thought that his dream came true that his sister was a normal person again.
After I read this part of the story, Kim's experience reminded me of last night. Last night, I had a dream that was about all of those university things. I was trying to open the ets website where I can see my TOEFL score, but I couldn't open it. I was trying to open this website for a long time until someone in the admission office of the University of California called me. They asked me to go interview with them like next month. I told my mom about this phone call and she started to cry with the pleasure and happiness. I was very glad and then, the clock beside my head started ringing. My dream is not real like Kim's.

Reading Response #2

Reading Jack's Run for about 2 hours, I started to get confused and bored. At First, I thought the story would be interesting because of the cover and the explanation on the letter, but when I have read it, the vocabularies didn't challenge me that much and the story also confused me by flashing back and forth in each chapter. I asked myself that should I change the book? Will I get confused rather on? The answer is yes. I have changed a book!
As I bought this book long time ago, the cover looks old and dirty but the quotation of Susan Schulz, Editor-in-Chief, CosmoGirl caught my eyes. "Like philosophy class on Red Bull." This made me imagine to the drinks of Thai people and it made me wonder that is this story going to be about Red Bull? Is it going to be about Thailand? (as the owner of Red Bull is Thai.) Therefore, I chose to read this book, Magic Moon. It is written by Wolf Gung and Heik Hohlben. The plot of the story is about Kim and his family who are having a bad situation as Kim's little sister has fallen into a mysterious coma. Kim is heartbroken that he can't do anything to help her and this makes him wants to lock his little sister and himself in his dreamless sleep as he really wants to protect her.
When I started reading the summary of Magic Moon, it reminded me of one movie called "Love Actually." This movie is about five couples in England who face different kinds of problem and try to make their relationship still work. Some couples could make it work but some could not. I remember one couple who face a hard situation because a woman had to go take care of his brother all the time, so she didn't have time for her boyfriend. His brother was an alcoholic and really needed someone to be with him. This woman was frustrated and she even felt like she couldn't help his brother that much. She tried many ways helping his brother escaped from the injury. While I was watching this movie, I had a great sympathy for this sister and brother. they were showing a lovable relationship between brother and sister. Even though, we have to die but the most important thing for me is to live with the people you love. Our lives are so short but we can live every moment like it's the happiest moment!

Reading Response #1

Dear Catalin,
"This is the letter I wanted to send to you, but couldn't... My real name is Jack Osborne. A year ago my dad was arrested and put in jail for drug trafficking . Three men broke into our house and threatened to kill my sister, my mom, and me..." I just started a new book called Jack's Run which is written by Roland Smith. When I grabbed this book and looked in the back to search for the summary of the story, it has only conversations between Mack and someone in Elko. Let me tell you that my face looked so confusing at that moment, but when I opened to couple of pages, I found the one letter which drew the attention from me immediately. The quotation from above is a part of this letter. Do you think that it's interesting? I'm impressed with this opening.
However, I have made a prediction for this story already. According to the letter that Jack wrote to Catalin, I think that the story would be a tragedy which includes the killing, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. I predict that Jack and Catalin were a couple who didn't stay together because the drug dealer might find out where they were, so that Jack had to change his name. Jack's father who was released from the jail might work for CIA to find more evidences and information about this drug dealer gang. Jack's family would be living in a hard, dangerous situation in which they had to escape and check every step of proceeding their lives. I hope it would be so much fun for me as I'm a mysterious book fan!

Reading Response #8

After I have read Escaping Paradise for a month, I finally finished reading it. In the back of a book, it has a glossary of Indonesian words which make me think that "is this a true story?" The author must have a knowledge of Indonesian language or a lot of experiences in Indonesia because the author provides a very long definition of each word. For example, dukun: it means the shaman/witch doctor/clairvoyant. The author also says that although most Indonesians are Muslim, many villagers, both on Bali (where the scene depicted occurs) and other islands, believe that some people are gifted with exceptional spiritual abilities and mystical powers. I think these beliefs are buried in Indonesians' mind. It's like a traditional belief that most people will believe the dukun who is the shaman or witch doctor. Another example is Allahu Akbar which means God is great. This Arabic greeting forms part of muezzin's call to prayer, and may also be used as a war cry. However, from my view, I predict that the author or someone that he knows might encounter with this kind of situation before. The author might go to Indonesia on a vacation and was kidnapped by the freedom fighters or he might work in Indonesia for a long time or he might be Indonesian. What do you think?

I recommend Escaping Paradise for those who like a mysterious book. I would say that it was fun and a bit confusing in a way of flashing back. People who like mystery will like this book because they have to figure the clues out all the time. They have to be inferring while they're reading this book and if they can figure it out, it would be so much fun. For me, overall was great. It was challenging for me at first but when I reached to the point or understood what was going on, it was fun! I didn't learn just English vocabularies in this book, but also Indonesians too.

Reading Response #7

Have you ever had an experience that you couldn't say a word when you saw a face of someone you love? I still have some connection with Nicki. The following story is going to be an insightful one. I'm almost done with "Escaping Paradise." It's coming to an end when Nicki was released by those freedom fighters. She was sent to the U.S. embassy in Jakarta where she could recover her bruised body and a suffered heart after she was locked down by those freedom fighters about a month. However, the main point of this reading response is when Nicki was flying back to Australia to meet all of her family and friends, in the deep of her heart, she thought that it was so impossible to have the day that she would meet her family again. When she arrived the Australian airport, she walked through all those gates with a very fast impulsing and her face was blushing. Her body became so warm. After she exited the gate, her mom and dad's faces were gazing at her with a very passionate look. Without spoken any words, they leaped to Nicki and hugged her immediately. Nicki couldn't say a word. She just stood there with the tears all over her face. I can imagine that it's the day that Nicki would remember until the rest of her life.
My experience is kind of the same as Nicki's. After I spent almost a year in the U.S., I started to think that no where else is like my home or no one else is like my parents. It's like my favorable quotation during that time. While I was in America, I realized that people who care me the most or who are always by my side are my parents. Even if I had the worst problem like I couldn't stay with the first host family again or if I had the happiest moment like I came in 6th for the state golf tournament, they are going to be by my side for all time. When I flew back to Bangkok and stepped to the exit gate, I was just looking at my mom's face and couldn't say a word. It was too impressive for me to say anything. It was like an impossible day in my life seeing my family again.

BLOG Reflection

According to two years ago, when I was a ten grader, I wrote the independent reading responses on tons of papers. I might be exaggerated but I'm sure that you can imagine how many it is. Every Thursday night, I would sit down, take my paper out, and wrote down what I thought of my books that I read over that semester. I really like this way. But now, we are using a computer or laptop as a new technology. We write about our thoughts, feelings, and etc on the blogs.  From my view, I have faced some difficulties when I use my laptop to write reading responses. For example, when I went out with my family over the weekend like Hua Hin. There doesn't have the wireless internet for me to use, so I have to wait until I get back home and it might be overdue. However, for second quarter, I will try to figure some ways out. I will write my responses on Microsoft word first and then, I will go to the internet cafe' and put it down to my blog.

No doubt that laptop is a high technology to use and the blog creates a lot of nice pages, but for me, I think it's hard to use. I want to change to our traditional independent reading response which is writing on the papers. Some might think that writing on blogs is not waste of time, but in contrast, I used about two hours to write each response on mine because when I use my laptop, I couldn't resist to turn on my MSN or look for facebook or other websites. I couldn't concentrate that much writing on my blog.

As I'm a partner with Eisuke and Taku. I think Eisuke's comments are very honest and insightful. Every time I read his comments, it always reminds me of my mom who like to say things straight forward. For Taku, I like his unique writing. He always expresses his personality on the blog. It makes me want to write more comments.