My favorite restaurant is Bene Sushi. Whenever I visit Vancouver for trips or basketball tournaments and games it is basically a tradition in our family to visit this restaurant. It has the best sushi I have ever eaten in my entire life. I get the White snow roll which is lit on fire when they serve it to you and it is so good! There are also several other platters that they serve featuring lots of different Asian foods. The restaurant is located in West Vancouver just down the road from where I used to live in 2016 and it is by far the best sushi i’ve ever eaten. I also love the glowing ambient lights that they out up around the whole restaurant and the staff are super friendly. The prices are not very high which makes it even better! I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who is in the area.
Author: Archie
IRJE #7 – Harry Potter
Background Information about the book. Harry is waiting for the summer holidays to be over so that he can go back to school its his 4th year at Hogwarts school with his friends but there end up being some very cool adventures and mysteries and secrets hidden within this school year. Quote: “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” by Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Chapter 37, Page 602). I chose this quote because I think it says something very important about teamwork. It tells us that the most important thing to work efficiently is to work in a team. You will achieve your goals way quicker if you have people to help you and support you through anything. It’s always good to be in a team and stick together.
PW #7 – Basketball
I have barely played basketball over winter break and I really missed it. Practices are starting back up again and I am very rusty and out of shape. Im very excited to start playing again with my club team and school team. Basketball is my #1 passion and I love playing. I had my first practice back with the school team yesterday and today we are already playing a game against a school called Victor Brodeur which is a french school. We lost to them last time but today we are very motivated and i’m sure we will win. Another thing that I really missed was travelling to Vancouver basically every weekend with my club team. We always participate in tournaments and club games across the province and its aways very competitive and fun. We improve every game as a team and it’s the best feeling to win games against some of the other best teams in BC. I’m so glad I get to hooping again.
PW #6 – My trip to Mexico
My family and I went on a trip to Mexico over winter break. We left Victoria on the first of January. The resort we stayed at was made up of 5 different hotels. It had a very beautiful seawalk that was a little over 2 kilometers long. Over the whole trip, the weather was on our side. It was very sunny and warm, but there wasn’t a burning heatwave. One time as I was walking to the beach, I saw a very large iguana! I was always active and doing fun activities like playing volleyball, surfing, go karting and even parasailing! I went swimming a lot with my little sister in the ocean and in the pools, we also played a card game called “Love to Hate”. The days flew by really fast and before we knew it we were already packing to fly back. I am very thankful to my family for a trip full of amazing memories and this was the best way to start the new year.
PR – Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Archie S
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a famous gothic story. From the very beginning I felt that the book was very dark and emotionless. I could easily tell from the beginning that the book had kind of an eerie feeling to it and that there was kind of some mystery and darkness to it. Like for example when they talk about the setting in the book
“by-street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays. The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their grains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.” Pg.2
I could tell that the characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were keeping so many secrets and that there would be many crazy events that would happen in the story involving them. Something that I thought gave the book its personality was the amount of suicides , deaths and tramples that happened in it. Although I found the book a mystery for some time and I enjoyed reading most parts of it there were definitely some parts that had a dark twist to them like when Jekyll took his own life so that he wouldn’t have to live as Mr. Hyde. Another moment which i found just as crazy was when Mr. Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew the murder was pretty brutal but there weren’t any emotions to it, it was kind of just like an act of violence that happened without reflection. This made me think about the good and bad inside all of us. These things all made me think of the idea that we all have good and evil inside of us. Jekylls struggle with his evil side can show how different people can easily lose control over their actions and it really made me think, if he ended his life instead of facing the consequences of his actions and fixing things, making it right, it kind of made me wonder if he ever accepted himself as a good person or not. One more thing that this book made me think about was the evil that certain people contain and how easily we or they can be affected by it.
PW#5 – Archie Siminel
My favourite NBA team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. They have 2 of my favourite players and I love watching them play together. The first player is Anthony Edwards. He’s 23 years old and has been playing on the Timberwolves since 2020. He plays the shooting guard position and averages 19.3 ppg (Points Per Game). Anthony is very flashy and hits some of the craziest dunks and moves that anyone has hit in game. I love watching him play as he always scores in the most creative and impressive ways.
The second player is Rob Dillingham, he’s 19 years old and it’s his first year on the Timberwolves. I love watching Rob play as his play style is very flashy and fast. He never struggles to score and is always a big part of his teams wins. Before the NBA Rob played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats and on that team averaged 15.2 ppg (Points per game). Rob is probably one of the best 3 point shooters in the league at the moment and is definitely one of my favourite players. The Timberwolves recently won a game against the Pheonix Suns by 3 points (Score: 117-120) which they played on November 17.
PW #1 – Archie Siminel
This personal writing is about my next basketball tournament in Vancouver. I have a very important tournament coming up in Vancouver on November 22-23. Me and my team will be playing against several other teams from all over Vancouver. We will have approximately 3 games per day which will be quite tiring. I believe that if we continue to push ourselves in practice and work our hardest, it will translate to our games that weekend. We will be pushing for first place and giving it our all. I really enjoy these types of tournaments as i get to travel off of the island and do what i love with my amazing teammates. I am looking forward to this tournament!
IRJE #4 – Archie Siminel
The title of my book is “ Hatchet” and the author is Gary Paulsen Hatchet is an adventure novel about Brian Robeson’s survival after a plane crash. The novel shows examples of positive thinking and perseverance as Brian faces challenges from nature, like bears, porcupines, dehydration, and starvation, all with only his trusty hatchet to help him. “Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience waiting and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking”. I chose this quote because patience is very important and if your not patient then you will not succeed because patience is needed in everything.
IRJE #3 – Archie S
The book is called “Lebron James life lessons from the king”.
The book is written by Brian boone. It is about Lebron James and how he grew up as well as worked extremely hard to achieve his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player. Lebron James now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers and is now a very successful athlete.
“Greatness is defined by how much you want to put into what you do.”
I chose this quote because it always motivates me too. It tells me that laziness is not an option and I need to push as hard as I can if I want to get somewhere. The more you work, the higher the reward. If you don’t want to put in the work, then you shouldn’t expect and reward.
PW #4 – By Archie
My personal writing is about the time that I went to California. I went on vacation to San Jose and San Francisco in May. Me and my family did so many fun things.
First off, we went to California’s Great America, which is one of the coolest amusement parks I have ever been to. I went on a massive rollercoaster, which is one of the oldest in the park. It is called the Grizzly, and it was made in 1986. The ride had a massive drop on it which felt like we were going 100 kilometers an hour down a completely vertical drop from what felt like a 100 feet high. This was definitely one of the main highlights of my trip.
Another really cool memory was when we ordered a self-driving taxi. This car was called “Waymo”, and it drove and navigated around San Francisco completely on its own, which was such a cool but scary experience at the same time. It felt really weird completely putting our lives in the hands of technology, but it was still very cool and futuristic.
The last highlight of my trip was buying new basketball shoes. The shoes I bought were called “Ja Morant 1”. They are the signature shoes of a professional NBA player named Ja Morant. I purchased these in Footlocker, and I still wear them to this day.
Overall, I have created so many memories, visiting museums, the San Francisco landmark Golden Bridge, eating yummy food, and enjoying beautiful weather with my family. I hope to come back one day!
Our Town personal response – By Archie
I found that Our town was a great book/play to read and watch. I liked how the actors used imaginary props, it made things much easier to imagine and envision in your head. Another aspect of the story was the meaning at the end about how people take even the smallest things for granted, this really makes you think about how much more things you should appreciate and be happy about in life. I liked how the town was very calm and everyone knew what was going on, it gave the place a more sense of a community. I enjoyed seeing what life was like back in the 1890-1900’s and the way people interacted, it’s way different then now. My favourite thing about the book is that it had a play to it. After you read the book and pictured the story in your own head, you got to see what it was like from the perspective of acting and this completely changed everything. If I could pick a next class book I would pick any book which had a series of movies to it or a play to it so that we can watch the show/movie/play and read the book. This was my favourite book so far out of the 3 that we have read so far (Master and Man and The Story of Joseph) I rate it an 8.5 out of 10.
IRJE #2 – Archie – Michael Jordan The Life
Michael Jordan the life is a biography about one of the greatest basketball players of all time. It talks about the struggles that Michael Jordan grew up with and how hard he worked to get to where he is today. This book has many inspirational and motivational quotes but my favourite was this one:
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
This quote really shows that it is impossible to succeed without failure and that when you fail you should use it as motivation to try even harder, to do even better next time. If you don’t try theres 0% chance at success.
MASTER AND MAN OPINION
I think master and man was a short story that was had a deep meaning and lesson. Although this book had a deep meaning I think it was but overall I think it was a kind of pointless story and should’ve continued for longer. I didn’t like how it was just about them getting stuck in a snowstorm and it could’ve had more action in it. Sure it had a nice moment like when Vasili saved Nikita from freezing but other then that there was no really twist or crazy moments to the book. I liked to learn about the characters and how their characters and personalities changed throughout the book but overall the story was kind of boring. If the story had more action , plot twists and crazy moments as well as a longer continuation to it i think it would’ve enjoyed reading it.
About Archie
My name is Archie and i am 13 years old.
I was Born on October 18 , 2010 in Chisinau, Moldova. Before Brookes Westshore, I went to CML the newly built middle school in Langford. The thing i love most is basketball. I am very passionate about the sport I play for “The Grind” which is a tier 1 basketball team in Victoria. My dream is to play in NXTPRO Puma Circuit which is a tournament held all over the USA for the U16-17 age range. Another thing i am passionate about is shoes. I love collecting shoes and selling them. My favorite type of shoe is Jordan Fours. I know nearly every colorway and i love the way they look.