A Dream on a Plate

She says, I wish I was the best cook in the world. Noris has worked with us for four years, trying to help her family with the money. When my family and I go on vacations, she leaves too for a rest and to give the money to her family. They live in a poor village. She grabs the spatula and scrambles the eggs in the frying pan and looks out the window.

I want to go to a cooking school so I can become a chef, she says and puts the spatual on her chin and imagines herself, inside her resturant, at the kitchen, working hard to make her costumer happy with her food. Then, she puts the spatula on the frying pan and sighs.

Lets try this new recipe, she says, but I need to get some onion and eggs. What would you like for lunch? Look, what about this fish and tomato sauce, or a pasta with white sauce and salmon? This white chocolate cake looks too complicated. I’d better not do it.

Noris who works hard everyday is flipping through the pages of a cooking magazine, looking at new things, new creations. Washing the dishes after dinner with a frown on her face, realizing that she is just a housekeeper, but I know she is more than that.

An Important Day

It was around 6:30 in the morning and I opened my eyes. I saw mom next to me snorring as always so I went to sleep again. Later at 7:45 mom woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go to walk with her. I was to tired so I said no and went back to sleep again. Then at 9:15 I woke up, got out of bed and took a shower.
I went to the kitchen but before, I went to get my present for mothers day in my closet. I took it out and went to the kitchen.
"Mom, are you in here?" and I see mom come out of the laundry room all wet.
"Mom, here, happy mothers day!" I handed over my present and she opened it like a little kid in their birthday party. She started to read my vignette.
" Oh my! It's so beautiful. Thank you so much, I love it." She hugged me and kissed my forehead. Then my mom, my brother, my maid and I started to get ready for a party we had with the daughters of a friend of my mom that was in a trip. She left her daughters alone with the nanny and the gandma. So we thought of celebrating this day with them.
So the went on really fast and I had fun as I played with the two girls: We went on bycicle, we ate pizza and chocolate, we gave the presents to their nanny and grandma, and at the end, we went to buy the last decorations for the house.
It was a great day, and I had fun. Happy Mothers day(Although it was yesterday)!

The Rhythm of Words

My parents always say I can't do my homework while listening to music. I don't mind cause music always gives me an idea. Each melody makes me think of my past. For example...

If there is a slow song, just like Claire de Lune by Debussy, it reminds me of the times in Nicaragua I would see the sun set of the ocean and the waves crashing on the yellow sand.

If it was Good Girls Go Bad by Cobra Starship, i would remember the sleep overs I have had with my friends.

Each songs makes me think of my past or something funny that happened before. It changes my mood when I don't want to do homework, but instead I realize I just finished it. Music makes me write a lot and makes me do things in a happier way.

I love to listen to music when writing. Its just like having your words in your paper flow in a rhythm and you think about the music. Its the same as doing it without music, but in a fun way.

My Heart, My Sound

Italy, the boot of Europe is where you find my town,

Don't worry, this place wont make you frown.

Italy is what makes your heart pound,

Italy is what always makes sound.

From Rome, to Pisa, and then Florence to Sicily,

Make that trip with your whole family.

Italy is what makes your heart pound,

Italy is what always makes sound.

Pizza and pasta you eat a ton,

See the food there is always the number one.

Italy is what makes your heart pound,

Italy is what always makes sound.

Your trip ends here, no more Italy, you start to cry.

Come next year, for now say bye bye.

A Letter to a Friend

Dear Sheryl,

How are you? I'm fine. I have to tell you everything about my school, Balboa Academy. The school has an estimate of 700 to 800 students. In 7th grade you are put in different classes with different students.

What teachers expect from you is that you heed what the teacher says, don't bring sham work, come in a precise time, do not disrupt the class, don't agitate people from their work, no menial work, and the more industrious your work is, the better.

With your classmates, you would realize some are nice and others are just different. Some of them can infuriate you or pop up with something irrelevant, and can be obnoxious. That is what happens almost everyday.

In P.E., we play different games or we run. When running, you have to toil as much as you can and cannot capitulate. Just like a treck, and in the end, you end up tired and you move ungainly until you get to your next class.

You know that school is a prier, but in my experience, this school is different.

Sincerely,

Caterina Aragon

P.S: I know that this Friday is your birthday, but still, happy birthday!

A Letter To be Read

Carl, now he is 14, but still has one problem. He stays in his room alone looking out the window. He is shy, but there in front of him, a notebook lays there opened with a pencil by its side, and in the notebook, he draws. He draws what he sees, what comes out of his mind. Dragons, flowers, the beach or sometimes he would draw his little chihuahua.

He takes it everywhere, and when somebody gets close to him and asks him something, he closes his note book, screams, and leaves running.

Carl, the talented, the sensible, the one who doesn't talk, doesn't know we want to be his friends.

I had an idea that would free him from the box that keeps him captures. I would write him letters. Letters that would tell him that we could trade drawing, and then like that, we were friends.

Although years have passed, he writes me in hotmail and he scans his picture just like before.

He doesn't talk to people, he just keeps quiet. With me, a letter is always there in my inbox. Letters that are read everyday with a picture from him.

School in Two Ways

I like school a lot, and it’s the best place you can go to for learning, but it wasn’t like this all the time. Now I get excided when school starts and I’m in a new grade and I meet new people, but before, my parents and teachers would get mad at me because I would cry all day long when I came to school.

It all started when I was in Haiti. I was 2 ½ years old and I was going to go at pre-kinder. Obviously I didn’t want to go to school because I wouldn’t see mom and dad, so I started to cry.

Mom would hold me in her arms and I would cry all over her shirt, and when mom left me at school, I was lonely. I would cry, and cry, and it went on for a couple of weeks. The director would call my mom saying,

“Why don’t you give some discipline on you children Mrs. Tallarico? You should show your daughter some manures. This is unacceptable for a child that has been in school for more than one week to still be crying.” And so on and so forth.

My mom came up with this idea to come and eat with me at lunch time-that was the end of school-. Then I stopped crying because I knew my mom was going to eat with me.

Sometimes it wasn’t always mom, it was also dad, and then we would wait for my brother at his school and then we would go home.

Back Again

Every time I would have to leave a place in which I have met great people, I always thought I would never see them again.

When my mom told me we were going to leave Honduras, I even had the idea to glue my feet on the floor so we wouldn’t have to leave. It was always the same story: I wouldn’t want leave; mom would always give me some reasons go to, I would keep telling mom no until she drags me to the airport, and takes me to my next home.

I would cry, and cry thinking about my best friend in the world. Then I asked mom one day,

“Mom, as we are going to Nicaragua for Christmas, can we stop by in Honduras for a couple of days so I can see Sheryl again?” My mom would answer maybe, and would leave the room with a big smile on my face.

When we took our trip to Nicaragua by car, dad stopped the car at the Hotel Marriot in Honduras. We unpacked our things and my brother decided to stay and I went with my parents to go shopping.

As I look out the window, I would see the street that would take you to Sheryl’s house, and I sighed. All of the sudden, my dad took that street, and I started to get excided. When we were in front of Sheryl’s house, I rang the doorbell.

Sheryl opened the door, and she saw me in surprise. Both of us were happy, and hugged each other.

“Oh my god, I thought I was never going to see you! This is the best day of my life!” She said almost screaming.

“I know, I’m so happy to see you!” After that I left Honduras, and I kept on going with what my life would bring up to me.

In the end I realized that although we are far away from each other, friends will always find a way to see each other.

The End

Must Not Be Drank

When I was little, I would drink whisky by dipping my finger in my dad's cup.

One day, my parents had a dinner with some friends. As I was bored, I would go running at my garden. I would get tired all the time, and would go to kitchen to drink water. My dad left his whisky in the table where I would drink water. I came back to kitchen to drink water, and I see my dad's whisky. From a long distance it looked like water, so I ran as fast as I could, grabbed the cup, and chugged all the whisky. The next thing I know, I'm suffocating. I promised my parents not to drink whisky ever again. The problem is that when my mom has a dinner and she goes to see if the food is ready, I would drink what is in her cup.

The One I Must Trust

Whenever I had to write for a project or homework, I would wonder if it was okay. Usually I would think of going to mom and ask her, but I was scared that she would say a bad comment about it, and would make me retype everything. I couldn't trust my work on my mom's hands.

One day, I was writing my english homework, and mom came in my room to see how I was doing with my homework; she saw the paper. My attempt of hiding my work was a failure, but all of the sudden, she started to day that is was a good story, and showed me some grammar and spelling mistakes. After I realized that moms can help you a lot with your work. Just trust them, and she will be a great help-fathers too-.

A Long Journey

3ww November 15,2009

Two years ago, I went camping with my classmates. We were going to see the volcano of fire in Guatemala to study it. We took a really long journey.

"How much more do we need to walk?" I asked carrying my heavy bag up the mountain. Everyone was tired, but the teachers kept on walking like it was nothing. It was hard, but we all toiled our way up. I couldn't feel my legs, just like a doctor administering anastasia to my legs. We all started to agitate knowing that there was still more to go through. My arms were hurting and my legs too. I felt that I was going to get a permanent bruise.

"Gosh! Mr. King, we all want to rest a bit!" I cried and all the student sat down.

"Kids, we still have a long way to go, we don't want to get there when its dark right? Mostly, you guys know this is urgent." Mr. King told us.

" I need something to drink." I said as I took out my lemon juice and felt the sweet but at the same time sour citrus of the fruit.

" Come on, get up, we have disrupted this journey. Lets go!" I almost capitulated, but I kept going.

When we arrived, we were all happy. Walking up the mountain is strenuous, but with our distress, it was adequate. We were all assigned a tent with 2 more people. The tents were big but the problem was that the bathrooms were all of a hovel.

As my friends and I settled the tent, the students from the other tent were talking about people. My friends and I were indifferent. We would start playing with our sleeping bags like catch and hide and seek. Then we would sit down and take a long respite playing card. In the end we ended up sleeping at four in the morning.

" Girls wake up, we have work to do!" Miss. Beltinck said opening our tents. I couldn't open my eyes.

"Andrea, i think I became Illiterate." And then we would start to laugh. I couldn't do my work, I would sleep or daydream all the time and in the end I turned in a menial work to my teacher.

Bad news

When I was little my parents got this dog for my brother and for me and we watched him grow until he was 10, He was a dalmation and he was like my little brother. I always thought he was going to be with us until we were going to very old but my dad told me that dogs died at the age of 12-14 but he was only 10 so I didn't worry for that day to come. Well, years passed and then we moved to Guatemala and there my mom found a house and my brother and I were going to Colegio Maya and deverything was going very nice.

It was the 13th of November and my dog, Pongo was in my brothers resting in the rug and was trying to sleep as always and I was at his side, my brother was at the computer and my dad was watching t.v on my brothers bed. Then the next day my brother and I were waiting for the bus to come and pick us up. We were gone at 7:15am and so the hours passed and at the end of school my counseler called my brother and I to her office, we went inside and then She gave us the bad news that our dog, pongo died at !0:30 of the morning. I started to cry and she hugged me and I learned that all humen being and animals have their time to leave and also that he is better being in heaven and not on earth suffering pain.

Slice of life:
It was a shiny day as I woke up at 8:00 am a Saturday morning. I looked into my mirrior and said to myself, "Today Obama will win the elections." I took a shower and got dressed up. My phone was ringing and it was my friend Trisha. "Obama will lose this year I'm sure of it." She said with a superior voice very confident of herself. "No way, this year It's Obamas turn to win." Then we laught.
"Hey want to come with me to drink some coffee." As time passed and we were having fun talking and drinking coffee, the owner of the coffee shop turned on the T.V. and there were the elections and we were just in time to know who was going to be the next president and then it said "Obama is your new president." I started shouting and jumping all over saying "Obama won,Obama won, Ja, ja, In your face, Sorry." I said feeling guilty by braging alot. "Ja ja, It's ok, so Obama, new president, wow, he is history now in America." and we went walking home with a big smile in our faces.

A christmas trip

When it was the 2nd of December my mom told my dad that we had our trip to Panama the 19th of December and we were starting to pack our clothes for the big long trip and while my brother and I were doing your bags my mom and dad were planing where to stop and where to spend Christmas. Well, as the days passed the house was empty like a box. The 19 came and we were at the car to go to El Salvador and when we got there we stayed at a hotel called Mediterriano for one night only. The next day we didn't stop at Honduras and we went to Nicaragua directly and we stayed there until the 27th of December with my whole family. Then we made our trip to Costa Rica. My family stayed at a friends house and then the 29 we arrived to Panama. It wasn't a good trip, I couldn't sleep well on the seat but I made it alive to Panama.