Why do some people have better lives than other people?

Because certain people are missing oppurtunities to get money because they have to work a lot and don't get paid. Their family needs to have enough money too. I personally think that poor people in a small villaige in afria or asia are living better than poor people on the streets of Chicago or New york city. Because most poor people in africa or asia have a proper kind of home and more access to oppurtunities with money. The city poor person only oppurtunitie to get money is asking people for money which is not a very good oppurtunitie. And probaly a better life is for people at WAB." (Western Academy of Beijing)

Friends in Beijing

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Jasper and Theo are some of my best friends in Beijing. They are in my class at WAB. Theo is from Holland and New Zealand, and Jasper is Australian. But he was born in Germany. I also have good friends in my compound. They are Axel, Digby, Amir and Valerian.

Great Wall Jiankou (箭扣) at Chinese New Year

During Chinese New Year, we went on a trip to the countryside, to a village near the Great Wall. We slept in a traditional Chinese house, and our bed had fire underneath it (“Kang bed-stove”). So even though it was really cold outside, our bed was so warm.

Theo and I helped find the wood for the fire. First we got little sticks, then the fat ones. That part was not fun. But the fire was warm. But the smoke kept getting in my eyes.

We bought our own fireworks and they launched on the street and some of them even launched into the air. Some of them were really cool and Theo and I were pretending to be scared. The beautifulness and the colors was the best part.

We went on a hiking trip all the way up to the great wall. I always fell down because I had hiking boots that were actually more slippery. We knew other people came up the same way because it was a dirty trail with footprints. I was the one with the water and food in my backpack and Theo was the one with the first aid which I thought I needed really bad with all the slipping. About half the way up, we had to sit down and drink all the apple juice. When we got to the top, we were on one of the most dangerous ruins of the great wall, so our mommies wouldn’t let us climb up very high and Theo was very unhappy and got in trouble. The view really gave me the fright because it was like a kilometer and two miles down there. We were the only children there but on the way down we saw someone with a child. We slid almost the whole way down the mountain.

But the very best part was the motorcycle ride. Sometimes we didn’t go that fast because lots of snow was on the road. It was really cool.

We ate lunch at a restaurant where Theo and I played with two dogs. We named one Wilson and one Jack. Jack was a little frightened at first but Wilson really liked us just at the beginning. I think Jack was maybe a stray but Wilson was the restaurant’s dog. Jack was white and Wilson was a bit brown. We just thought that some dogs that aren’t that lucky need a little good treating.

Rest in Peace, Slider

Our mouse died. We are going to bury him tonight. We made a letter to bury him with.

Rest in peace Slider

We’re going to miss you. Were going to miss your red beady eyes and the way you chased all over the cage. Sometimes you even kept us up at night with your racket when you rode on that wheel. Even the cat liked you. We will miss you.


Sincerely,
Adrian and Mommy

My currency

This is my money – I called it the “Flynn”. First I made from 10 to 100 clay models. I rolled up green and white clay then made yellow numbers and two red F's on each side. Then my mommy printed them and made lots of copies.

All this money is going to be stacked inside a cage I like to call the "Money Making Machine 4000". You just take money out of it and if it runs out you just put more of the copies in. Some of this money will go to help children and some of this money will be transferred into Renminbi. Flynns can be transferred into any kind of currency.

Jackpot! (and snow!!!)

On Sunday, my mommy and I went out to enjoy the snow. It was snowing and snowing and snowing and just like powder, with big hills everywhere. But after a while it was getting cold so we stopped by at a games place (mommy calls it Chinese Chuck E. Cheese). We played "slam a winner" and got a jackpot and also a 100! Actually it was our last coin that got the jackpot! As soon as the ball went in the hole bells started ringing, the machine started printing thousands of tickets, and it ran out. We had to ask the man to refill it and then it kept on going til they were bunched all on the floor. We actually got a bit frustrated earlier because the machine was made just to give you like a 1 or 2 or 5 and not 25 or 50 or 75 or jackpot. It was impossible to get those, because there was a little piece of plastic put there on purpose to make the ball go into the other holes. So my mom started cheating by pushing on the outside plastic, and then guess what, an alarm sounded, it sounded like a police car! But because the rest of the place is so noisy, nobody heard! Our total was 959 tickets. We went to the counter to see what we could buy with them, and I wanted a little orange tea set. We thought it was 800 but the prices were actually switched and it was really 1800! We were really bummed out so we started thinking. I had the idea for my mom just to buy it. She asked and they had to ask the manager and then let us buy it for 45 RMB. My mom said it was cheaper than all of those tokens. Then we played basketball. It's like real basketball. You have to see how many baskets you can make in like one minute.

My school art show and concert

Last week it was my second grade art show and concert. I was really nervous. We had to find black pants and black shoes and a white shirt. On the day of the performance, my mommy came to pick me up just after school and we went for a snack of hot chocolate and pumpkin soup. When I arrived at the school we went to the founders theater and I found all my friends and we started playing until they told us to get into the theatre. Then they gave us little cowboy scarves which I thought was a ridiculous idea. Because I had to glow in the dark and also why wear cowboy bandages in school, it should just be regular scarfs. After the first song I was more relaxed. My favourite song was H-I-P-P-O hippopotamus. My mommy's was Mo Li Hua (famous Chinese song).
We did a dance with masks, and they glowed in the dark because we used black lighting. It was only a little dance, didn’t take that long to learn. I tried to make my classmates shush because they were all like “oh wow awesome” when everything started to glow.

My dental surgery

I had to go to the hospital for an operation on my teeth. I was very nervous and scared and unhappy because my mom couldn’t come with me in the operation room. Carl was helping me to be strong because he has been in the cat hospital sooo many times. My mommy and me practiced a lot at home with a mask like the one they would use in the operation room to give me gas. But the day of the operation, the one they used was not the same as the one we practiced. Imagine if you have had a shot, they have to clean the place on the skin where they do it and it was that same smell that was all over my mouth and nose with that mask. I tried to shout that that’s not the same one as with my mommy, but before I knew it I was asleep.

The next thing I remember is that I woke up in a real bed-like bed just relaxing there. There was a big bandage on my hand with a needle stuck in my skin that sent sugar there. It made me fall asleep for about 2 hours even when I was not a bit sleepy. But I was really dizzy because of the sugar after so I had to hold my mom’s hand when I got up. I had a very silly dream when I was asleep.

Before the operation, I had to do do like a million tests. They gave me a chest x-ray, which was really cold and an ECG which is when they put a whole lot of little things on your chest to listen to your heart.

The doctor was very nice and her son is in my grade at WAB (not my same class though).

When I got home I got to unwrap the biggest gift under the Christmas
tree and it was the Star Wars lego rogue shadow!

Dalian aquarium and the Whale Shark

Last weekend, we went to Dalian to the aquarium. Mommy dove with the whale shark, and I used the itouch to write messages to her while she was in the water, telling her to find more sharks teeth. She only found one, but the other divers found more! At first I was afraid that the whale shark was going to take a bite out of her, but it was fine - he liked swimming around at the top. There were four other kinds of sharks, plus eels, rays, and lots of other fish. Mommy got to pet one of the eels, he was very gentle. There were lots of other tanks too, with sea lions, beluga whales, and big fat walruses. I have to wait two years to learn to dive.

Real Story of the Bahamas Cafe

Long ago in U.S.A they wanted to give money to the poor people of Bahamas. But it did not work well the rich people in the States did not care! Then they had an idea they started a Cafe in the Bahamas! Everything was for free so the poor were now healthy! Even today the Bahamas Cafe is running great!