Piano Festival=Result

Hi again, I'm back with the results.   (Before you declare me a terrible piano player, listen to my explanation.)
To my disappointment, I did not get ranked. (That means I didn't get first, second, or third place.)   Oh well...
Now for the excuses. I know that excuses are never good, but my teacher says it's really hard to get ranked. But it was also my first time trying this particular competition. The kids that I competed with were all only in about grade 3,4, or 5, so it was kind of embarassing to compete against these 'youngsters' and LOSE....
Oh well, I mean, there's a first time for everything, right?  heh heh...
But seriously. At least I tried.
My teacher advised me to bring an eggwarmer or mittens or something to keep my hands warm, because when you're nervous, you obviously get cold feet and hands and stuff like that. I thought eggwarmers were a little exaggerated, but it turns out that I was wrong. My mom insisted that I bring the hot water bottle thingy, and so I did. It really helped. A LOT.
All the other kids were CRAZY good, and I was kind of intimidated by them.
When the adjudicator called my name, I proudly stood up, somehow my nervousness swept away, marched up to the grand piano, and bowed. People clapped. Thank goodness for that. Clapping really reassured me. I sat down, adjusted my seat, and then the wave of fear struck me. All of a sudden, it felt as if my mind had gone blank. I didn't know the song that I had practiced for over 2 months. I focused on my hands for a minute, then I saw the white and black keys. White and black keys...  FINALLY, SOMETHING FAMILIAR! I thought. I took a good hard look, and I started. The song that I had thought I had forgotten just a minute ago came out of my fingertips. I mindlessly played. When I realized the song was over, I stood up with a triumphant smile on my face, secretly glad that it was over, and I went and took my seat.
That's pretty much the long and short of what my experience at the festival was.
I thought I did pretty well for a 'newbie' though.

Well, I guess I'll see you later with a new post!
Good-bye for now!

Piano Festival

*gulp*  I have a Piano Festival coming up. Coming up as in RIGHT NEXT WEEK. I am always nervous before festivals. Whether it is 5 minutes before I play or a month before. I always get worried about what will happen if I mess up. I have practiced for so long now, and I hope I can win this thing. I have completely memorized each little bit of the song. My mom kept telling me to practice 120% out of 100%. She told me that when I get up there, I will get nervous and that will cost me around 20% of all my hard work practicing. Just because I'm nervous. Oh well.
So it will be a semi-formal occasion, but according to my mom, I still have to wear a dress. (wearing a dress is not really at the top of my "favourite things to do" list.) So I'm wearing a fancy black dress with fancy black shoes. I'm not fond of fancy black anything. But it's all I have so I have to wear it whether I like it of not.
I'm going to my teacher's house today to get the feel of playing on a new piano. (new as in I've never ever played it before.) I have to go in my "festival attire."  That means all dressed up as I would to the real thing. So this is pretty much like a rehearsal.
The past 2 weeks I've had to practice the song in my shoes, so I can get the feel of working the pedals with my shoes on. This is a pretty stressing experience. I'm in the competitive division, so they will be giving us prizes. 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place.
Well, I'll report back to you how I did after Wednesday, November 17. That's the date of the REAL THING.
Good-bye!

Immunizations!

Hi! I'm back with a terrifying story... IMMUNIZATIONS!! (Girl screams in backround) Yeah, we got our immunizations two weeks ago. But I survived. I was really nervous, and everyone was sweating and had cold hands and feet. When they were called to the staff room to get the shots and left the classroom, most of our faces were white and were sweaty and had looks of terror on their faces. But they came back into the classroom all happy and cheerful with a lollipop in their mouth. Then it was my turn. I left the room just like everyone else. Scared. When I got in the staff room, there was a couch and we could lounge there until they called us up. We played Jenga there for a while, and then we were having lots of fun, until the nurse called me up. I smiled to hide my terror, and I went and sat down in the chair. I told her I was pretty good with needles. I wasn't really that okay with them. She rolled up my sleeve and held the needle a centimeter away from my arm. She told me to breathe out. I didn't look. It was scary enough to feel the pain. I didn't want to have to see it happen. I looked straight ahead, not down at my arm, and breathed out. Then the needle went in. It pierced through my skin and in went the vaccine. It felt like she was sucking out all my energy and blood. I felt myself go kind of queasy for a second, then regained my strength and looked at my arm. It was fine. You couldn't even see the hole. I smiled at the nurse to show her that I was still alive. I repeated that process once more. I was glad to go, but she really scared me when she told me:

"If you feel any dizziness or nausea, or if you feel queasy in any kind of way, sit down on the floor immediately."

That really scared me. She said it with serious eyes. I wasn't queasy at first, but after she told me, I think I felt a bit queasy. So I sat on the couch for a few minutes just to be sure, then I headed for the classroom with my lollipop.

As I came in through the door, everyone looked at me with a did-you-survive face.

I smiled triumphantly and tapped on the shoulder of the next student to be taken down. The student smiled weakly and asked me a few times if it hurt, then left the class.

I have to admit, the immunizations weren't as bad as I thought they were... but that still doesn't mean that I'm going to be okay with needles from now on!

Well, I'll see you next time with another post~!

Book Review #5 ~ Rules

Hi, I'm back with a book review!!
This book is called "Rules" by Cynthia Lord. This is a touching story about a 12-year-old girl named Catherine who loves art and longs for a friend. She is the sister and often-babysitter for her autistic brother, David, and has a hard time fitting in with her classmates because of David's behaviour. She works hard to help David be more "normal," specifically giving him rules to live by that most people take for granted. Her best friend is away for the summer, visiting her father, so Catherine is excited when she learns that the family moving next door includes a girl her age. She spends most of her summer days helping her mother with David, visiting the clinic where David recieves occupational therapy, and hoping that Christy, her new neighbour, will not be scared off by David's differences. At the clinic, Catherine befriends a wheelchair-bound paraplegic boy named Jason who is also a mute and "talks" through a communication book he keeps with him at all times. The story comes to a sort of predictable climax when Catherine must choose whether or not to invite Jason to a community dance when challenged to do so by Christy, who doesn't know about Jason's disability. This book really helped me feel for children with autism, and I hope you will find some sympathy for them too.
I rate this book a 6 out of 5 stars. It was a fantastic book. I left out some of the parts, because just in case you read this book, I wouldn't want to spoil the whole thing for you. It is really worth reading. Really.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my book review (and I hope you didn't fall asleep during parts of it), and I'll see you next time!

Grade 6 already?

    Yes, that's right, I'm in grade 6 now. When I was little, the grade 6s always looked so big and cool to me. Now, I am in grade 6. It almost surprises me how fast time has gone by...
    It felt as if the grade 6 and 7s always got to do stuff that us grade 3s couldn't do, and had much more exciting lives. Now, I get to experience a grade 6's life. So far, it's been as great as I expected it to be all those years ago!! I have a great teacher (shout out to you, Ms. McCleary!), a good amount of homework, and a perfect classroom.
    I apologize to all my faithful readers (if I still have any readers, that is)for not being able to blog that much during the summer, but I have an excuse. I was having too much fun!! A lot of exciting events happened during the summer, but it's too bad that I didn't get to blog about it...
    Today, I found out that my teacher is going to be reading my blog, so I must do my best to impress!!
    What I love about my blog is that you get to do this fun kind of writing, not always the serious kind that you have to do at school. You can always joke around in your writing, have fun, and also know that your teacher won't tell you not to do this, and not to do that. (haha.)  And I think it's better than a journal or a diary, because everyone that wants to look at it gets to look at it and comment on it.
    Well, from now on, I promise that I will start blogging again, at least once a week. I hope a lot of people will start to read my blog!!

        Stay tuned for more stories of my exciting everyday life as a 6th grader!

Yiruma!!

Have you people heard of Yiruma??

If you haven't then I'll give you a few facts about him.

-He's a pianist. (most important fact)

-He's Korean.

-He composes the songs that he plays.

-He is just awesome. (Actually, this is the most important fact.)

So those are a few facts about him. I'll give you the link to one of his songs right now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so6ExplQlaY

There! This song is called "Kiss The Rain."

It is one of my favourite songs!!

Well, listen to this insanely awesome song, and tell me what you think by commenting below!!!

Thank you!

Bye~

Book Review #4 ~ Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel

Some of you may know the Silverwing series. (If you don't, you really should read the series!) Kenneth Oppel, the author, seems to take great interest in bats, because he has now made 4 books that are quite thick all about bats. Of course, it is fiction. I admit, writing 4 full books that are non-fiction about bats and their habitat and diet would be pretty boring.

Anyways, Darkwing is sort-of but not really a sequel to the Silverwing series. It is sort of like a prologue, except it's a whole book, and it doesn't have the same characters in it.

So, Darkwing, unlike the Silverwing series, takes place in prehistoric times, where raptors were still lurking around. Dusk is the main character in the story. He is a chiropter. A chiropter pretty much looks like a bat, but it has fur on its wings, and it can't fly. It can only glide. But you see, Dusk's wings are very much bare, and ever since he was pushed off a branch and taught how to glide properly, he had felt the urge to flap, like a bird. But he resisted, not wanting to be any more a freak than he already was. With his bare wings, he felt like a shameful naked newborn.

But he was the first bat of his colony. Now, we all know bats for their ability to see clearly in the dark with their echo vision. Dusk is the only one in his whole colony that can see in the dark. Dusk first figured out that he could see in the dark when he was hunting for a midnight snack. He had sent out his hunting clicks towards a firefly instinctively, and a world etched in silver returned to him.

So he had bare wings, could use his hunting clicks to see in the dark, and he could fly. Sound familiar?

He is a bat. Not a chiropter, but a bat. A completely different kind. Meanwhile, the world starts to change. Beasts start to hunt each other. Birds attack beasts. Can Dusk lead his colony out of distress, in a stressful time?