I just finished a book called Sisters of the Sword: Chasing the Secret recently. (It's the sequel to a book, simply named Sisters of the Sword). It would take a long time to explain what was happening in the book, so I'll just give you info based on a need-to-know basis. Basically, a girl called Kimi, her sister Hana, and their friend Tatsuya are running away from their training school because Kimi's murderous uncle is there and chaos has ensued. Tatsuya spotted something that he thought was a ninja behind a rock. Here's a part from the book.

"He's not moving," Hana whispered. Her gaze was fixed no the flat rock, where the shadow warrior's head was just visible.
"Perhaps he realizes we've seen him?" Tatsuya suggested. "He knows there's no point trying to hide."
...(skipping a paragraph)
We inched closer, and I saw the shadow take shape. His clothes were bumpy, almost a green color. One more step and I laughed out loud. The shape behind the rock was non ninja. It was a bush, small and round, rooted into the rock!
"Kimi!" Tatsuya motioned for me to be quiet, but it only made me laugh harder.
Tatsuya shot me a furious look. "This is no time for laughing, Kimi," he whispered. "You don't understand how ruthless ninja are."
I grinned back at him. "Well, if that's true, it will be the first time I have met a ruthless thorn bush."

It's easy for a book to grow dear to me if it has some comedy in it. Another book that had an interesting part in it was the book Vive la Paris (unfortunately, it doesn't take place in Paris, but the main character is named Paris). Paris's piano teacher, an old lady, said that they could go to Paris, France, by just walking a few blocks. She took some glasses and scribbled over them with a marker, and had Paris put them on. (Hence the saying about "rose-colored glasses/spectacles", meaning someone sees things in an optimistic light or sees things as better than they really are)

Paris asked if she would need a toothbrush since they would be going to Paris. The old lady replied that they could just buy one later, it was better to travel unencumbered. Paris probably didn't know what that word was, because she thought to herself, "Why would you need a cucumber to travel anyways?"

At the moment, I can't really think of other books I would like to mention for their humor, so instead I'll point out the weather. It's still January, but it seems to be warming up (though it can be cold one moment and warm the next, depending on whether the sun comes out from behind the clouds). I've seen flowers blooming and I noticed some of the squirrels are looking pretty plump (then again, it never gets REALLY cold around here, and besides it would be easy to find things things to bury for when they're hungry in my backyard). I wonder if it's already springtime this year? It seems early to me, but maybe I'm not the best judge of these things.

In French class, we read about flea markets in our textbook, so the teacher talked a bit about markets and she asked us what experiences we had. Several students agreed that speaking English means you'll get ripped off...Their parents tell them not to speak, otherwise they'll be asked to pay a higher price than someone who seemed to be a local. Although I don't like the idea that people are being cheated out of their money because of their ignorance, I guess the shopkeepers have to make a living, and it's easier to fool a tourist. I mean, even if the tourist knew it was a bad deal, they might buy it anyway, because one of the general mindsets is, "I'm on vacation. Since I'm here, I shouldn't waste it. I shouldn't let money stop me from doing things since I won't get that opportunity again soon." (Unless you go to a place pretty often.)

Labels: books, bush, chasing the secret, cucumber, market, maya snow, money, ninja, paris, rip off, rose colored glasses, sisters of the sword, spring, tourists, travel, unencumbered, vive la paris, weather

When I was young, back in elementary school, the teachers taught me that March could arrive with two kinds of weather...A lion (bad weather) or a lamb (nice weather). I suddenly thought of how some Twilight fans keep spouting the phrase "And the lion fell in love with the lamb" what with Edward being the lion, Bella being the lamb, or whatever. I was told that Stephenie Meyer got the inspiration for her Twilight books from a dream she had. I thought maybe she had a dream about springtime, and then thought of the lion/lamb idea.

My grandmother is sick too despite practically being across the world. I guess it's because the weather is suddenly so much warmer and it is springtime. I can hardly remember how cold it was just a month ago. The tulips in my backyard are blooming now, so it is very nice to look out on them while sitting at the dining table. Most of them are red, but one of them is pink. I wanted to take a picture of them but in the afternoon they started closing their petals. I panicked and thought they would be dead tomorrow, but my mom assured me that they just close up for the night and open once more in the morning. I hope she's right, since I want to take a picture before they're gone. (People in California don't seem to grow tulips much, maybe the climate or soil here isn't right for it. In Washington D.C., you'll see tons of tulips, in front of hotels, business buildings, and even planted around statues of Civil War generals. That's all well and good, but seeing tulips everywhere makes you get bored of them. It's better over here since not everyone grows tulips.)

Today I went to the library. I had to return a lot of books, so I couldn't resist checking out some new ones. I tried to go to the second floor of the library to tell my parents I was done, but I had trouble getting up the stairs and even dropped my books twice. Luckily they did not fall all the way down, so I could pick them up and keep going. Either my sickness is putting a damper on my health or I really need to see a doctor.

Then my family went to a mall near their offices. My mom bought a shirt from a place called Charlotte Russe (some of the stuff looks alright but some of the stuff is scary. The music is a bit loud. They have shoes you can try on, though). Maybe I won't go shopping for a long time since nowadays I don't even buy anything. Besides, I'm trying to save money. It's not going so well since I can't get hired by Jamba Juice or Target yet, and I only have $12 allowance each month, and most of my teeth have fallen out by now. Oh well, it's better than nothing. I let my money sit and collect dust in real life AND in computer games/web sites.

I would've posted my blog a lot earlier but then something really, really stupid happened. So I started typing this post a pretty long time ago, but I took a break from the computer and went off to do something else. Then I came back and typed the rest of the post. I tried to publish it, but it turned out during the time I was gone Blogger had logged me out. So I had to log back in. And then all my text was gone. I had to spend a long time typing it again. I'm still seething, since this isn't the first time a similar thing happened to me.

Labels: blah, blog, books, income, library, mall, march, money, season, sick, spring, stairway, tulips, twilight, washington D.C., weather

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