New Year

For New Year’s I went to my cousin’s house. My cousin lives in Taylor. On New Year’s Eve we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as soon as we woke up. While Lucy, Lydia, Cas, and I were watching it there mom, Aunt Carol, made delicious pancakes and bacon. Of course, being the klutz she is, Lucy spilled her orange juice. After that little incident, we played board games. We played Apples to Apples first. I dominated the competition. As we were cleaning up the game, there little brother Christopher, who is two, puked! I t was so gross! So we helped clean that up and Auntie Carol told us to go upstairs while because she was going to put the baby down to go sleep. When we went upstairs, we watched The Breakfast Club. As soon as we were done, Cassie brought up another game. It was really strange but we played anyways. By the time we were done playing all of our games it was 11:00 pm. We sat down to watch the performers in New York. My favorite was Justin Bieber! We counted down from ten. When it hit one, we all shouted quietly because the Topher was sleeping. We grabbed pots and pans and ran outside in our pajamas. I wanted Lucy to be my first kiss of the year. Let’s just say she wasn’t thrilled about this and I started chasing her around the block. In the end I got my wish! When we went back inside to defrost, my Uncle Don had glasses of champagne waiting for us. I thought it was the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life. Lydia jokingly said, “She like tequila better!” The next morning we went to church because it was a holy day, and my aunt said it was a great way to ring in the New Year. I will be sad to leave behind the last good year to make glasses out of the numbers with the double zeros. I’m looking forward to my trip to Germany this summer with my fellow Globies.

Christmas

Christmas is a very important holiday, especially if you’re Catholic. For Christians it is the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. For Christmas, my family and I always go to Christmas Eve mass. We normally go with my mom’s side of the family at St. Stanislaus in Wyandotte at 4:30 pm. After mass we go to my grandma’s house. We wait for everyone to get home from work. When everyone is there, my uncle Dave says prayers. Then, the four brothers and my mom get the Optlak to pass around. The Optlak is a blessed wafer symbolizing strong family ties. After, we eat. My grandma makes the main dishes, the pierogies, kielbasa, and the mashed potatoes. Everyone brings either a dessert or appetizer. When we are done eating we do White Elephant. White Elephant is a game we play with gag gifts. This year I got a leopard Snuggie! Next, the godparents give gifts to their godchildren. We all hang around grandmas until about 10:30 pm or so. The next morning we are allowed to wake up at any time and open our stockings, but nothing else. We have to wait for everyone to get up before we can start opening because my mom likes to take pictures of us when we look our best. Then, we sit around and have some quality family time. Next, at around 3:00 pm my dad’s side of the family comes over and we eat and my grandma gives everyone twenty dollars! My worst memory about Christmas was from when I was in the fourth grade. My teacher, Sr. Josella, told my whole class Santa Clause didn’t exist right before Christmas break. I went home that day devastated.

The Power of One

In The Power of One, it was difficult to see how badly people were treated if they weren’t the same ethnicity. It was also difficult to see Piet eat the human waste off of the soldier’s black shoe. I thought that was disrespectful and I can only imagine how ashamed Piet must have been. He must have also been humiliated. The one part in this scene that I like happens right after Piet was done eating the waste. He tries to scrap the remaining pieces and the taste off of his tongue. When Piet got up, one of the other inmates held up a cup of water to help get the taste out of his mouth. All though it was a small gesture for him to give Piet his only water, it made me realize something. Just because you are put into terrible and awful situations, people, like the man that helped Piet, will always try to make things right and better for others, no matter how bad they feel or are treated.
I liked The Power of One, better than any of the other movies we have watched so far in Global Education. I like it more because it’s more of a movie than a documentary. I did enjoy Hotel Rwanda, but I liked The Power of One more because I love romance movies. Also, P.K. was kind of cute. I liked how P.K. looked up to Doc as a father figure. Finally, I thought that Maria and P.K. were a really cute together as a couple.