A Time For Dancing

I just finished reading the book A Time For Dancing by some lady whose name escapes me. It was a really good book, but when I finished reading it I cried for about half and hour straight. It is about two best friends who are looking forward to professional dance careers in the future, when Julie gets Leukemia. It is the story about her solo journey to get better. It is not a long book and it is definitely worth reading.

Most surprising ending ever!

I just finished reading Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. I fell in love with the book as soon as I read the last words. SPOILER ALERT! At the end of Dear John he discovered that Savannah was married to Tim and six months earlier he was diagnosed with Melanoma, which is a fatal skin cancer. Savannah couldn't afford going to a more advanced hospital so he could get treated there, so the whole town was on their hands and knees praying for him. John knew that his dad's coin collection was worth a lot of money so he sold every coin except for one that he and his dad found together. He donated all the money from an anonymous source to Savannah and Tim so he would survive and he would live happily ever after.

Connecting to my life #2

When John was still at home with Savannah, they got in a fight which caused John to accidentally punch Tim in the nose. This was not intended, but Savannah didn't realize that until Tim convinced her. I have made mistakes before that have hurt people. They weren't really intended and at the time I really didn't know that someone else was going to end up hurt. John and Savannah eventually made up and everything was better again.

Sentence starter given to me by Mr. Lepauloue

If I were John Tyree at this point I would be more enthusiastic about going home and seeing Savannah. John is nervous about going home because he thinks it will be awkward to see Savannah after six months apart. Savannah and John really love each other and from being apart for so long will make it less awkward because they will be longing for each other even more. I think that John should have bought a web cam so he and Savannah could have seen each other while they were 6,000 miles apart.

Predicting in Dear John

I am a fourth of the way through Dear John and I have a really good prediction of what will happen next. Savannah and John will date for a really long time and eventually become GF&BF. They will be on one last date and John will be about to propose when Savannah will hand him a dear john letter and walk out. He will not live happily ever after.

Connecting to the World

In the book Dear John, Savannah builds houses for people who are in need of shelter. This is something that happens in the real world too. On Extreme Makeover Home Edition a bunch of people get together and build a house for a family who is desperate for a new living space. This is very much like what Savannah does.

Relating to my LIfe

I just started reading Dear John by Nicholas sparks and after a couple chapters I immediately recognized a relation to my life. John is in the Army and is stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. He was at a party with Savannah when he got approached by one of her friends, Tim, and they started talking about his job in the Army. Tim asked if he was stationed at the base in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany and he said no because that was an Air Force Base. This reminded me of the summer of 2009 because I spent two weeks in July living next to the Air Base in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany and I spent most of each day there. It is really cool on base because all the buildings are made out of plaster and there are huge jets taking off and landing all day long. There are many people walking around in their camouflage uniforms and pilots in blue jumpsuits. The base is like a really small version of America because everything is in English and there are very traditional American stores like Burger King. There is a mall with an indoor rock gym, a department store, a grocery store, a gas station, schools, a library, condominiums, apartments, a gym, and so much more stuff that I can't remember it all.
To get onto the base we needed ID cards so they knew we weren't terrorists. The two weeks that I was there, Obama was in Europe so there was a huge back-up air force 1 jet parked on the base and there were the flags of all 50 states lined up on the side of the road. There were miles of training fields and forests to get the troops ready to go to Iraq. I loved being on the base and hope one day to go back.

Finished

I finished reading Marcelo in the Real world and it was so good. Marcelo's dad is a lawyer trying to defend a windshield company called Vidromeck. A lot of people are trying to sue Vidromeck because when you get into a crash the windshields don't shatter into a million little pieces. Instead the break into big pieces that can cause serious damage. Marcelo was filing documents one day and when he was all done he looked through the trash box to make sure he didn't accidentally get rid of anything important. At the bottom of the box was a small brown envelope and inside the envelope was a picture of a girl with only half a face. Marcelo figured out that the girl was hurt by a windshield when she got into a crash and obviously the law firm wanted to get rid of the proof so Vidromeck didn't get busted.
Marcelo located the lawyer that the girl was using for her case. He went there and discovered that the girl's mom died shortly after the crash and she was living in a community house for girls with two friendly women. They couldn't afford the surgery so she would have to live like thateven though it hurt to talk and eat. The lawyer told him that if he found a document stating that Vidromeck knew the windshields were dangerous. He warns Marcelo first that if he finds it and makes it public that his dad will loose thousands of dollars but Vidromeck will have to pay for the girls surgery.
Marcelo thought long and hard aboutthe decision he was going to make and decided to make the document public. The law firm lost thousands of dollars and clients and Marcelo got fired and he had to go to public school for his senior year, but he was okay with it because the girl got her surgery.
Jasmine never ended up getting raped by Wendell, but she did get raped by Marcelo's dad. He confronted Jasmine about this and she asked him if he could pretend it never happened so it wouldn't interrupt their relationship. Marcelo decides that after high school he will move to Vermont with Jasmine and go to school to become a nurse and work with kids with mental illnesses just like him. He will get a bunch of ponies to use them as therapy with them. I <3 this book!

Visualization

Today I was reading Marcelo in the Real World and I got a really good image in my head. Marcelo went to Vermont for a weekend with Jasmine to see her father and go camping. When they arrived they pulled up on a long dirt road and up ahead on a green hill was a white farmhouse with peeling paint. behind the old house on the left are hills that go back for miles, in the middle are tall mountains with rocky, white peaks, and on the right are rolling fields tinted purple from all the wildflowers. To the right of the farmhouse is an old barn with cows, chickens, and horses. On the left of the farmhouse is a huge oak tree with a tire swing hanging off one of the lower branches. This is a greeting card perfect image in my head.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Right now I am reading a really intriguing book about an autistic boy who works in the mail room of a law firm. Marcelo Sandoval is seventeen years old and goes to a school for kids with special needs. He got a summer job at the school to take care of the ponies that the school owns, but his dad has other plans for him. His dad wants him to work in the mail room of his law firm so he can learn to live in the real world. When Marcelo starts working there he is confused by all the new people and strange sounds. His colleague is named Jasmine and she is very beautiful. Marcelo can't analyze that she is beautiful so when another one of his colleagues, Wendell, says that she is he gets confused and envious.
One day Marcelo and Wendell were eating lunch together and Wendell started talking about how much he loves Jasmine but she doesn't love him back. Wendell tries to get Marcelo in on a scheme that he will rape Jasmine, but Marcelo realizes that is not okay and does not agree to help. What I think will happen next is that Marcelo will not let Wendell rape Jasmine. Marcelo is really good friends with her and he would never let anything like that happen.