Wall+Street+Journal


 * Idioms

Go Bananas-**to go mildly crazy The week of finals, I was going bananas.

The more I participated in Truth or Dare, I felt more that I went against the grain.
 * Go against the grain-**you do not like saying it or doing it, and it's not normally what you would usually do


 * Rome was not built in a day-**many things cannot be done instantly, and require time and patience

"You need to wait, and work harder, Rome was not built in a day, you know," my mom advised me.
 * Round peg in a square hole**-if someone is in an organization or situtation where they feel out of place.

She felt miserable and lonely because she felt like a round peg in a square hole at her new job.


 * Shoot from hip-**Someone who talks very directly and insensitively without thinking beforehand

In an interview of going to a school or applying for a job, it is best not to shoot from the hip.


 * Shot in the dark**-where you try at something you have little hope for success

She was shot in the dark of trying to keep up with night school work and her daytime employment.

Jump the gun**-doing stuff before the appropriate time
 * On the double -very quickly


 * I have a piano competition coming up. Before, I stage a wonderful performance, I have to practice, practice, practice. When I hit the ivory eggshells, I start a piece that has a rapid, upbeat tempo. I play on the double. But then I always stop, when I jump on gun, and my inner beat is off. By the steady beat of the staccato metronome in front of me, I am restricted to a harsh, square beat for now. As soon as I learn well the beat, I can express anything I want. I can make the piece piano, forte, etc. I can put all dynamics in any order deems fit. A song will be pouring from my fingers. I hope I can do well at the performance.

This lifestyle has not been pleasurable but it's bearable, I guess. At least I have companion, Crispin, the boy, the lucky boy which I stumbled on. He is in hot water with this priest and steward he keeps babbling about, terror-stricken. I have to teach him how to sing, to juggle, to make merry, but I think it goes through one ear and comes out the other in two shakes of a lamb's tail! I'm getting at the end of the stick, losing my patience. But it's up to my duty to teach some useful, meaningful things to the boy. The boy's had too much of a bland life. I'll shall bring some color in his pitiful life. All the more reason to make a living and get me more food..

Loose cannon**-someone who is unpredictable, does unexpected things, and can cause damage if not in check.
 * Tickled pink**-to be very pleased or entertained


 * Making a mountain out of a molehill** means you make a big deal out of something a minor issue.

My brother likes to make a mountain out of a molehill, and sometimes it gets really annoying. I don't think I like making-a-mountain-out-of-a-molehill people. They exaggerate too much. They should be more level-headed, but that's how people are. If my brother is a mountain out of a molehill person, I wonder what he'll do when he gets a major issue.


 * In two shakes of a lamb's tail** means a very very quick time.
 * When I arrived to KIS, I realized you need to get to class in two shakes of a lamb's tail. The policy doesn't allow much time. It's relentless. I wanted KIS to go sideways, instead of upwards so getting by and by would be more easier. But since Korea doesn't have much land, they have no choice but to go up if they want more space, more land. It's also a very big campus, and you are expected to scour it in just two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Idioms** Something that gets my goat is the fact that I have to memorize a lot of vocabulary words from the book I am currently reading with my tutor, Oliver Twist. It is very grueling to memorize 35 vocab words every week! I have a test on the vocabulary. And if I get more than 2 wrong, I get a retest which the teacher doubles the amount of vocabulary. In fact, today I have that tutor and am getting tested!


 * Write a journal entry from one of the character's POV. Students will guess who it is.

Everyday I wake up, a tremendous load of pain, worry, and agony weigh upon my tender, wearied shoulders. An overpowering gloom shrouds Ithaca as the blank absence of our great leader, Odysseus, prolongs. I wonder, pray where is he? Day by day, I can, but watch the greedy suitors infatuated in selfishness and evil, devour our cattle, Odysseus's livestock, live in our timbered halls, plan to court me and kill my beloved son, Telemakhos. Night by night, I seat in front of my loom, weaving sadly, but I always tear it out, for dread, fear, and melancholy drain the hope and strength out of me. My one and only son, Telemakhos, has left for Pylos, and these land-stealers plot of his death. It disgusts me! I weep every night, and pray to the gods that something will give. At this point, I would eagerly be glad to try anything to have my dear husband and son back and drive all these bombarding suitors away. Every day is a nightmare that I barley survive, and I wish, if it continues to be so, that life would soon come to its closing end.

Hi, This is Erika~ I think that this is a journal written by Penelope? Hehehe you have a lot of nice vocabulary, I think. :p **

Actually, besides this Ulysses book, I am reading the real version of the Odyssey written by Homer. It is different from Ulysses, it is written in epic poetry in lines. The storyline is different, too. It starts out with Telemakos, Odysseus's son, instead of going right to Oddyseus's adventure. I love //The Odyssey//! I have the version translated by Robert Fitzgerald, which is the best version, lended so graciously from my tutor who happens to have a capacious library filled with high-quality, best versions of books as well as rare books. Odyssey is challenging, but the language that it's written in is very beautiful. The choosing of words and the way the poem flows is astounding. Besides Odyssey, I am reading Oliver Twist for another tutor. I like Odyssey better than Oliver Twist because the story is so much more interesting. Oliver Twist is gloomy, but still there are some happy parts. She and her family packed up their luggage, and prepared themselves for a grueling road trip to Gang-won-do, to their destined pension they were going to resort in. They rode in the car for almost 2.5 hours, and she did a lot of things in the car to amuse herself, for she was very bored. She slept, listened to music, read magazines and books, and just stared out the window. Finally the little family was at their destination. It was a beautiful hotel-like structure constructed out of marble, with grand marble halls, and elegant statues. She and her family went to their assigned room in the entire pension, and she sunk into the lofty bed, worn out of her travel grime. She saw that this was a pleasant place, and her eyes rested on the green, manicured meadow in front of the room, with a fountain and a swing. She saw numerous ATV's to the left, and felt a jump of excitement. There was a little stream to the right side of the friendly, mild meadow. She rested herself on her bed, and closed her eyes, and sighed. KIS is a 1:1 program meaning we have Macbooks to incorporate as part of our school curriculum. This means we have to purchase the Macbooks and bring them to class everyday. We have this because we have eTextbooks or textbooks from the Internet, as well as applications for learning. There are Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, iTunes, and iWeb to create our school projects on. **
 * Besides Ulysses, what other book are you reading? What are your feelings about it?**
 * Take a snapshot of what you did over break, writing in third-person point of view.**
 * KIS is a 1:1 program. What does this mean to you? What are the pros and cons?

I have various favorites for ice cream, but my top, all time favorites are frozen yogurt, caramel pecan, and rocky road. I like frozen yogurt because not only it's healthy, but it really tastes good if you add the right toppings. It's not that sickeningly sweet and simple and smooth. I like caramel pecan because of two reasons: 1. I like pecans because they are sweet nuts. 2. I like caramel, because it's a nurture for my sweet tooth. I like rocky road because it's old-fashioned chocolate ice cream with marshmallows, nuts, and bits of chocolate. It is like eating a mud pie. It is sweet, and I strongly crave for it as I am typing this journal. Ice cream is one of life's necessities. These are my favorite ice cream flavors.
 * What is your favorite ice cream flavor?**
 * Pretend that you're Ulysses and you're writing a letter to Penelope in Ithaca**

Dear Penelope, How I have missed Ithaca and you and dear Telemachus. I long to come home, to see the familiar place where I have lived almost my whole life. I have been facing many perils, lately, Penelope, for I think I may have gotten on Poseidon's bad side. I don't know how I came to be that way, but I have offended the gods. I pray and beg and worship to the skies for help. After we sailed away from Troy, our cargo stuffed with riches and jewels we so victoriously gained, our troubles came, unstoppable, and I had no choice but to try and combat each catastrophe, one by one. My men and I have been withered and worn away. I am greatly sorrowful that most of our men died, and two of our three ships have drowned. It has been so terrible, Penelope, and my only joy and hope these days is writing to you. You wouldn't imagine the horrifying thing we suffered through. It has been a rough voyage, so frustrating me. We were only a couple miles away from our Ithaca, when I foolishly fell asleep, and my no-good, selfish crew opened my bag of winds. We were blown off course all the way to the end of the sea. And we had to restart, I was so frustrated and it seemed hopeless. All I can do is try and hope for the best.

-Ulysses

Schoolwork has been annoying me lately. It's only been the second month of school, but school work has been getting on my nerves. I sleep at 2am every night!!!! With all my tutoring, my tennis lessons, and my piano and cello lessons, I cant squeeze time!!!!!!!!!I have to finish some of my homework at school. What really ticks me off is the Spanish project I have to do. I hate it cause I did it wrong!!!!! I drew the picture on one side and now I have to do it again and measure it and all that stuff. ><
 * If there's something that has been annoying me lately, it would be...**

If I could change anything yesterday, I would change the fact that I ate so much before going to tennis lessons. I had horrible cramps when I played, and I had to jump-rope at the end. But I had no energy and a stomachache. I really didn't feel like doing jump-rope, but I had to do it, or else, I couldn't leave. I really wish I didn't eat anything before tennis practice. Next time though, I won't eat so much food right before exercising.
 * If you could change anything yesterday, what would it be and why?

How's my day going for me?** It's only in the morning right now, but my day is going as same as usual. I woke up a little later than I was supposed to, got dressed and ready, ate pancakes in about 5 minutes, grabbed my Mac and charger, and headed straight out the door. I always worry that I might be late for the bus, but I'm never late. So I rode the bus, and on the bus, I looked over my study guide for Spanish-(there's a huge unit test today). When I got to school, I chatted with my friends and hung out in the library. I also took an AR quiz that I had to take for P.E. And now I'm in English class typing this journal entry.

If I could go anywhere in the world right now, I would probably go to New York City, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Even though I have been to New York before, I was young, and I didn't understand all the luxuries, the interesting things of New York. I want to take a stroll and window-shop on Fifth Avenue, the "most expensive" street in the world, and see inside a million dollar Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment. I want to to Central Park. I want to attend elite dinner parties. I want to go see the cool museums and all the art lofts in Brooklyn and Park Avenue. I wanna see shows on Broadway, and tour the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Natural History. I want to stay in elaborate hotels like //The Plaza// and //The Star Palace.// There are other places in downtown New York like the UN building, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. I went to New York in Christmas, it was so so cold, so cold and different from the sunny California home. At Christmas, there's a huge skating rink with millions of twinkling lights with a huge statue of Promethesus giving birth to mankind. The statue hovers over the skaters and descends right next to the giant Christmas tree with gold ornaments. It's a superb sight. I want to see that again...
 * If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?**

**If you could change one thing about middle school, what would that be and why?** If I could change one thing about middle school, I would change that we would have more free periods. I would change the schedule, so there's a morning free period and an afternoon/lunch free period. If that was the case, the students could snack in between, in case they skipped breakfast or something, so they recharge their brain energy. They can also catch up on homework, in case something happened last night that they couldn't do it. Or they could squeeze in a little extra study period and testing their friends on the quiz or test that's coming up. Or they could basically read. Some students cannot fit in reading in their lives, because of their busy extracurricular, after-school activities. So a short (but not too short) free period could allow them to catch up on their reading. That's why free periods should be allowed more frequently.


 * Erika's Comment**- That's a great idea! I guess I want a short break in the morning. In the morning, my brain is always asleep and doesn't work properly. (sigh*) Well, I wish that we REALLY can get a break in the morning, afternoon, and lunch.

One person I admire is dead, t ** ** he dramatic silver screen actress Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn was an actress, socialite, a UNICEF contributor, and a fashion icon. She had very enhancing qualities: beauty, style, grace, intelligence, wit, and courage. One of her biggest movie hit was //Breakfast at Tiffany's-//one of my all time favorite movies. She made the fashion trends like the little black dress, capri pants, ballet flats, and trench coats. She was also a very good actress, too. **
 * Who do you admire the most, alive or dead?

//**How can video games and television influence your behavior?**// Video games and watching TV are fun, they take your mind off of stress and other means of distress in your life. But it can make you cranky afterwards because your head hurts from watching an electronic screen for hours. Your eyes want to close. You just want to rest and sleep and nap until the next program plays, but you have a huge pile of work heaping up on your desk. So, it makes you feel cranky and annoyed and snappish to other people. Or you could watch television and video games so much that you don't want to do schoolwork or your after-school activities. You could fail and drag behind in school. Video games and TV become the main priority of your life. You can get in trouble with teachers and parents, and that can make you angrier. This is how I think TV and games influence your behavior.

If I had a super power, it would be to make myself invisible because in some situations when I don't want to be seen, I could just disappear. I would be invisible so I could sneak up to the people that I don't like and I could sneak into an airplane, and take an empty seat for free. Invisibility could mean you could spy and eavesdrop on other people. And spying and eavesdropping on people is really fun and exciting. I could sit and watch TV with my dad on weekdays, but my dad knows that I'm studying in my room, not watching TV right next to him.
 * //If I had a super power, what would it be?//**

Journal Entry #1

First, I woke up a little early and I was //too// drows y to do anything else so I just went back to sleep, but then my mom came **storming** in, and told me my bus was coming early. At least my breakfast my nanny made for me was good (vanilla pancakes with honey) and my dog Toto was behaving well, much better than yesterday. School was ok, I had an excruciating social studies class, a fun science class, an "ok" tasting spaghetti, and now an English class. I half/half want to and not want to go to A Block because a.) I like playing in groups, like in an orchestra, and b.) there might be a test in orchestra.><!!