Countdown to Christmas

Well, last Saturday my family and our neighbors went to Six Flags over Texas, an overpriced amusement park that makes its money off of $9 chicken nuggets. It can be fun, though. The only reason why we went is that my mom won two tickets at an auction. Those tickets, along with some other coupons, got us in. Six Flags is doing Holiday in the Park, where there are Christmas lights galore and Santa hats everywhere. I went on my first actual roller coaster, well, I've been on many that go upside down and shoot up quickly, but this was the first that I was actually scared to go on. The Titan begins with a 45 second ascent that descends in 4 seconds. After that first hill, the rest of the 85 mph ride was great. For the majority of the coaster, my bottom was not touching the seat. Next I rode the Super Man which is a tower that shoots you straight up, then down, then back up, over and over. It's fun and really gives you that weightlessness feeling. I've rode it before, but the ride is still intimidating. The experience would have been more fun if it was 70 degrees like it was supposed to be. Instead, the temperature hovered around 33. I was wearing a short sleeved T-shirt, a light jacket that Mom forced me to wear and a scarf I stole from Mom. It was a bit chilly.

Riding the Holiday train at Six Flags.

Shivering in line for the Super Man.

Strapping in to the dirty but warm seat of the Super Man tower.

On Sunday, the family went caroling with the missionaries at our church. It was fun, especially the dinner served before and the chocolate fountain afterwards.☺Then on Tuesday, we went to see Santa and a train display at the mall. The Santa was great and very nice. The trains were okay; it was the largest display of vintage trains in Texas. The exhibit was cool and traversed through America, from San Francisco to New York. I was getting sick though (I have a cold) so I left early. It was too crowded and hot for my comfort.

Sitting on Santa's lap. His hand looks like a thumbs up, but really he was motioning for the helper to turn on the fan.

The Dallas part of the train exhibit.

The Holiday scene in Washington D.C.

Hi Again

It's been a long time since I last wrote and I apologize for that. It's been a crazy past couple of weeks with all kinds of school work, piano, etc. Well, my dad is doing great! He went to see the Pune Zoo and found that the tiger, if he really wanted to, could jump out over the railing. Pretty scary! He's lost a bit of weight, but he is healthy.

Life's been good. Yesterday was the Church Christmas party and, with my mom in charge, I didn't really get to spend the time with my family. It was fun though, chatting with friends and relaxing.

Thursday was a bit of a stressful day for me, not for anything really bad, though. In Science class, we had to build a mini roller coaster out of flexible pipe and tape. My group was doing great; the day before, we had practiced building the thing and were confident in our "Frostbite" (the name for our awesome coaster). However, we only had 30 minutes to build on presentation day, so we were a bit rushed. We were making great time when, suddenly, the marble wouldn't finish into the cup placed at the end. We kept at it, but by minute 29, we were pretty frantic. Why? If the marble made it through the roller coaster, you made an A; if it fell off, you received an F for the project. We responded in different ways: I was pacing the floor trying to think of a solution, one of the team members actually started praying, and everyone was a mess as we saw the teacher walk slowly towards are project. Finally, D-Andre said, "Put a piece of tape right there!" We were pretty game for anything, so we did as he said. We dropped the marble, Suzy, at the starting point and after 2 seconds, the marble landed safely in the cup. We tried again: it worked again. We were so happy, that when the teacher walked up to grade us, we were dancing together. My grade? 100! In my opinion, our roller coaster was the best after all that hard work; it displayed a paper tunnel, flags showing where inertia was overcome, where the speed changed, etc, and little signs saying things like, "Please enjoy your ride" and "Please exist to the left" (I was rushed so I wrote 'exist' instead of 'exit'). I was very proud of my group; we worked well together.

So that pretty much sums up the past week, fretting over little school projects, papers, and benchmarks. How was your week, Be Happy readers?