Prologue

After the graduation of elementary school, summer vacation started. I had ten classes a week and became busier.

On the last weekday in the third week, I was on my way home and tired. I was standing in the crowded subway. After several days, I was going to America and Canada.

I spotted Dad on the subway.

We waved and walked home happily.

I couldn't focus in the summer classes these days. I was so excited about the trip. I almost felt like (A trip to America+Canada=Paradise).

Arriving(7.21-7.22)

Dear fifth-grade journal:

Today is 7/21. Today I flew from Shanghai to Toronto. I felt my ear deaf during the take off. I was lucky I hadn't vomit. I vomited once before on the plane, when I ate so much. I went to my father's friend's house. I had an excellent dinner with turkeys, rice, chickens, and etc. I went out walking this evening. I read A to Z mysteries. I had a fun day.

I put down the journal, which I kept for 3 months. Today I went to the bookstore and bought many books. I lost my watch. I thought I had lost it when I was walking out yesterday. We went to a supermarket and bought some fruits. We arrived at another friend of my father's house too. So far, America and Canada journey had been fun. It was really like paradise life with no homework. I enjoyed it.

I Missed Dinner(7.23-7.24)

I was watching television when I suddenly felt so sleepy. I was tired because of the twelve hours time difference between China and Canada. i went to my bedroom and immediately started sleeping. I forgot about the great dinner.

After I woke up, it was eleven in the night. I then slept again and felt a little dizzy. I read a Magic Tree House book in the morning.

I realized I was missing an important dinner, which they had yesterday eveing when I slept. But I cheered myself up by thinking that I almost eat too much, cause I had too many times eating too much and felt sick and vomited in the night, that's not good, especially during trips.

Niagara Falls (7.24-7.25)

We drove to Niagara Falls. The hotel is on Stanley Avenue. I took a picture of Flat Stanley on that avenue. We ate dinner in Papa Johns. It was delicious.

I went to Niagara Falls the next day. It was a Monday and raining hard. The sound of the Falls was like thunder. However, there were still many people. I wondered how many people will be there if it was a bright sunny day. I couldn't see the falls clearly because there was misty fog. It was a view that couldn't be described by words. So much water all fell at once. I got a little wet and cold. I had a fun day.

Hamburg (7.25-7.27)

I went to visit Hamburg in America after playing a day in Niagara Falls. We checked our passports and credit cards when we were about to enter America. Unfortunately, we met an inspector who said we needed to be checked. I waited an hour and finally went through it.

We drove straight to Comfort Inn. It didn't have Wi-Fi that day.

I had hamburgers in Hamburg. The next day I ate muffin. I went to many roads, such as Harvard Road, Columbia Road, all kinds of roads with good universities in America in their names. I took pictures with them. I then went to the beach. Mum was afraid of the sun, but me and father wasn't. I was soaking wet after playing in the waves. We ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant near the beach, which served Chou Mien. We went to Hibert College Library, which was closed. This was a busy and fantastic day.

Harvard and MIT (7.27-7.31)

We left Hamburg and flew to Boston. We lived in "Best Western". It is near the Alewife station, the terminal station of red line. I read A to Z Mysteries "The White Wolf". We were so tired and couldn't go to visit mom's friend. Whatever, I had a good day.

The next two days were actually fun. I had a wonderful Wednesday and a terrific Thursday. I went to Harvard University and MIT museum. My dream is going to MIT for university. In the first day, I bought a Magic Tree House book and finished reading it; I bought a hat; the subway in America was so slow compared to Shanghai, it was so old. I visited the freedom trail on the second day. I walked five miles and had lunch in Subway(the restaurant, not the real subway, which is the synonym of metro). The hotel had a special kind of chocolate cookies. I liked it.

Then I went to Concord, I took the Commuter Rail. My father was leaving tomorrow. I went to swim. I also bought a watermelon by myself in Crosby's Marketplace. I followed the map and walked down Elm road. I turned right on Main Street. I was almost lost when I asked some kind people, and they showed me the way. I realized I should have turned right on Thoreu Road, but accidentally walked straight, cause the road has a different name on it on different sides of the intersection. I turned to Sudbury Road instead. I came home at four and had a satisfying day.

On 7.31, my father went back to China. I would go to A-Star math camp to study AMC 10-12, although I was only sixth-grade, well, almost. Mom and I went to Walden Pond. We ate lunch at Starbucks. I ate a piece of bread. I was going to the camp next.

Concord Academy

I swam for an hour in the pond in Best Western and quickly got my clothes back on. I was about to enter a summer camp.

When I came to room 203, the room I would be staying with my roommate for three weeks, I saw my roommate had already been there. I went to my mother's room and changed my clothes, after one hour or more, the meeting would start.

I sat in the cafeteria. Well, actually, we sat in the cafeteria. We were all the residential students. There were pizzas in the back, which made me feel hungry. Then our camp coordinator, Murat Biyik, gave us a speech. He told us what to do and what not to do.

Then I went and got a student card, which we needed to wear every day in the camp.

We ate pizzas and went back to our rooms after the lecture. My roommate is named Justin. We were ready for the camp. A feeling inside me told, this was going to be fun, although it would also be a hard time.

First Day

I slept early the mroning before. I got up and ate breakfast in the harvest room.

I piled the things in my package then walked downstairs. I sat on the hotel sofa and waited the bus with a bunch of other students.

I began to wonder if I had my pencil case. I didn't know how I got this feeling, it came inside me. I checked and suddenly noticed I hadn't brought it. Where could it be? I wondered. Then I heard the teacher say the bus was about to arrive. I was afraid that the teacher might be angry with me if I said I forgot my pencil case, so I just said to the teacher that I wanted to go to the bathroom, which he agreed (this is another teacher, not Murat Biyik). I ran upstairs to my room. It was just on my desk and I put it in my bag. I then walked down again out of breath. Luckily the bus still hadn't gone away, so I got into the bus and sat near Justin.

We went to school in another way. The bus drove down a highway and turned to Main Street. It then went to Lexington Road and turned bac. There were some gravestones on the way. We all got off and went into a room. Murat gave us another speech.

Then I followed some students and a teacher into a classroom. I studied AMC 10-12. The morning teacher made us introduce ourselves, and said he is Kevin. I found out that I was the youngest one in my class. There were even high school students who were seventeen. I was eleven.

In the morning we had a test, and I got 6 out of 25. It was a little hard.

We had fun activities after lunch.

In the afternoon, the older teacher walked in (His name is Hikmet Erdogan) He is not really old, but looked quite old, and also a little fat. He loves to chew gum in class. He is humorous. He told us about logarithms.

I didn't understand what logarithm is, so I asked Hikmet after class. He explained to me kindly.

Then we had dinner. We went home in Murat's car. He asked us about how today was. I saw lights and the Best Western. I grabbed a chocolate cookie and went upstairs. I telephoned my mom and dad. The first day ended slowly, as slow as a snail crawling.

Some Other Events on the First Week

The second day (the first Tuesday) of the camp was much faster than the first one. I played Connect 4 with two black classmates. I also played Rubik. I read A to Z Mysteries The Zombie Zone. This is the end of A to Z Mysteries, later I would read the super editions.

The third day I had a bad lunch with spicy spaghetti. I chose to eat bread. We had a barbecue for dinner, which was so delicious. The smell of roast was everywhere. I couldn't see the building clearly because of the foggy smoke. I read Rain Reign and the first book of A to Z Mysteries Super Edition.

The fourth day we had rice for dinner! I missed rice so much since coming to America. There were spaghetti everywhere, every meal. I had already eaten this kind of food for a whole year in Smic School. I hate it now. I just ate rice. I hadn't eaten any of the other vegetables or bread. I was also a little tired and frustrated of $e^{i\pi}=-1$ in the afternoon class. It was meant for grown-ups and too early for me. i was looking forward to the field trip this Saturday.

On the Friday of the week, I read Rain Reign. The book was so good and tells me about bravery. I liked it so much that I read it until eleven in the evening.

I finally got rid of thing about the complex numbers and "i", which was so hard. I was happy about it.

On Saturday we traveled to freedom trail and MIT Museum. It was fun, and I took some pictures. The tour guide talked about Boston tea party and people yelling "Huzzah". I had traveled there on 7.28 and 7.29.

Then on the seventh day, my mom came to see me and also brought some books along. The first week ended.

The Second Week

Well, the second week was boring, just a little bit interesting.

We played Frisbee in the playground. Once it had fallen in the grass with a bunch of bees around. Some people (not including me) went to get it and got several bee bites.

I played puzzles, they were so fun. But an unhappy thing happened. I couldn't find one piece of a puzzle, which was there the day before. So we completed it with two pieces left.

The teacher taught us number theory, which was so easy for me. I am very good at it. I was always the first once finishing the problems. We also learned log base and probabilities, which was a little hard.

In the second Friday we played Sudoku in the fun activity time period. I liked Sudoku so much ever since I went to the summer camp and saw it. I was the first one finishing my Sudou in my group.

I watched a detective movie called Forensic Files in the evening that day. It was so scary. It is about a woman who watches her phone until two o'clock in the morning and a man shot her. I didn't sleep well that night. I locked all the doors in the night and opened the curtains, so if the murderer awoke me by trying to unlock the back window, I would see him and call the police at once. Luckily, there wasn't anyone trying to shoot me. Even if there is, I had a roommate. Two people are stronger than just one.

This Saturday, we went to Harvard. I read the Chronicles of Narnia The Magician's Nephew. I fell in love reading it that I read it the whole time during that trip. I liked the time Digory saved his mother best.

I read Everything for a Dog on 8.14. It was written by my favorite author, Ann M Martin. I ate watermelon and swam. My second week had passed.

The Third Week

In the third week our morning teacher changed to a guy called Ali Gurel.

He was nothing like the other teachers. I had a little trouble with English because I am from China. He didn't even explain the English words kindly to me.

We learned geometry, which I was not so good in. We learned sin, cos, tan, cot, sec, csc. When I searched for them in the evening in the Best Western lobby computer, three Chinese people came in. They were impressed that I was only sixth-grade and started learning such hard things.

In the night, a full moon glowed in the dark sky. I suddenly started to think about the poem Su Shi wrote, "When will the bright moon appear".

That Thursday, when I opened the water faucets, I couldn't close it. I called the front desk, but they only left it dripping. It was so hot in the night because of the water was so hot. I couldn't sleep in with the heat. I opened the air conditioner. Then Justin went to watch a film, which began at eleven thirty in the night. I was too afraid Murat would see the guys and punish them. I slept around one o' clock and was so frightened that a killer would break through the door.

The week was fun. There was a worm that came inside our classroom. I used my book to kill it.

Then we graduated. Murat showed us many pictures. I was the fourth one in my class (in tests). I couldn't believe it! I was the youngest.

Mum and I went walking after I graduated from the summer camp. We walked to the library and the bookstore. Then I walked home alone. The way home was too long, too familiar... And it didn't seem familiar to me anymore now.

Justin left that night. I was home alone. Luckily, I drifted off at once. I was still alive when I woke up in the morning.

But one sad thing happened that Saturday. I was going on my way back to China. Murat bought me an orange juice. A strict man took it away when we were going through the customs.

Then we flew back to China. My American journey ended.

Epilogue

This summer, Concord Academy came and gone. The times we had fun is still vivid in my mind. It will never be gone.

I still remembered the first day is just as long as the other days of the first week. The other days of the first week are as long as the second and the third week add together. Time time started like a snail and began getting faster and faster. It started to fly at last, where the last part was so various while the snail part was nothing.

That's what life ought to be.

Life is like a moon, it's full of wax and wane.
Life is like an ocean, it's full of ebb and flw.
Life is like a mountain, it's full of peak and valleys.
Life is full of ups and downs, persisting is the easiest way