If I could imagine a perfect day it would start off by waking up at a beautiful hotel or house by the beach not too late but not too early, like around 8-9 am. Then I would go and open my curtains to a beautiful sunny day. I would go eat some breakfast, like fruits such as watermelon and strawberrys and maybe some pineapple, and then i would have a waffle with some whipped cream. Then I would go change and get ready for the day, and I would go get my nails done. Then obviously I would get my hair done also, and I would go shopping and find the perfect jean shorts that fit perfectly. Then I would go back home and change for the beach. I would leave my house and walk down to the beach. I would sit and tan and eat some tru fru for a bit then I would go swimming for a little while. After that I would shower and be very tanned and put on a little summer dress and go to a restaurant with my family or friends. I would get either sushi or something with a side of ceaser salad, depending on what I would be wanting. After that, we would all go to the beach and take perfect photos with the perfect sunset. But not like a really dark sunset, kind of like the sun is still out and the sky is still blue but with a hint of pink and purple but not too much. Like it’s still light out but it’s a sunset. After that we would go back and get changed and ready for bed and I would put on some slik pjs and sit on the couch with a nice warm blanket and watch a movie. Then I would go to my bed and go to sleep immediately and have a really good sleep.
Author: Sofia B
IRJE #2
The book ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom is a book about the author’s former college sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz. After finding out that Morrie terminally ill with a sickness called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Mitch Albom reconnects with Morrie after drifting apart. They start to have weekly meetings on tuesdays, and during those tuesdays he Morrie talk about his life and life lessons such as love, his job, family, forgiveness, and death. Mitch learns how to live a meaningful life and what to prioritize.
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in. It is not so much what you do in life, but how you do it, with love.” (p.52)
This quotation highlights Morrie’s belief that love is the most important part of life. He explains that it does not matter what you do, rather how you do it. He believes you should do everything with love and that love gives life meaning and reason.
IRJE #7 – The Handmaids Tale
The book ‘The Handmaids Tale’ by Margaret Atwood is a book set in a dystopian society in which women have very little, or no, rights. The main character is named Offred, and she is a handmaid who’s only purpose is to have childeren for the ruling class. She then navigates through the cruel, harsh environment, she then reflects on her past and begins to question the society and its ways.
“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it. Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it. It’s too late to rebel.” (p.154)
This quotation highlights how ignoring problems does not happen just by accident, instead it is something you do on purpose. The comparison of the slowly heating bathtub is just about how small changed can have a big impact or make you numb and you don’t even realize your in danger until it’s too late. It is simply a reminder that if you wait too long to fix or recognize the issue, changing or fixing it will be almost imposible.
PW #7 Vacations
When I am older, I would really like to travel or even live somewhere tropical. I want to tan on a boat all the time and I want to wake up and go look out to the beach from my balcony. I want to go shopping a lot and visit new places and stores. I want to be really tanned all year and my hair to always be how it is in the summer. I do sometimes want to see snow but not have no snow and just be cold. Like this year it hasn’t snowed yet and it is just cold and gloomy outside. I also just want to travel honestly, sometimes tropical but maybe other times it could be a ski resort. But mostly tropical.
PW #6 – Birthday Party
I personally don’t really have big birthday parties anymore, I usually just go to dinner or be with my family. At least that’s what I have been doing recently, I had bigger parties when I was younger. I faintly remember them, but I do have pictures to jog my memory. My favourite birthday party was one that was in this karaoke place in Cuba. My parents invited my whole family and a lot of my friends. I got to sing in the microphone, and I had a really pretty princess cake. I have a whole photo album full of my birthday parties in Cuba. I also had another one for my 3rd birthday and that was at my grandparents appartment with again a lot of my family and a lot of my friends. I had a big poster of me at a photo shoot and it had “happy 3rd birthday Sofia” on it. I have pictures of me with everybody individually in front of that poster. I remember I was wearing a yellow dress with a matching headband and some bracelets. I remember getting dressed downstairs at one of my aunts appartments and then we went upstairs and went to my birthday party. I do remember walking up the stairs and I was so excited. It was so long ago but I still remember the feeling.
PW # 5 – The Power of a place pt 2
Some memories are just memories, some are on video or through texts or letters or drawings, but most of my memories were luckly caught on video when I was with my grandparents. My grandpa always had a camera in hand, so he caugh my first smile, my first steps, and I think my first laugh. I’m not too sure about my first word. I am so thankful he videoed these memories though, because now I can go watch them (if I have a CD player). Like my aunts house, my grandparents house was a very important place in my childhood. However whatever house it was, it was more the people that made the memories. However, my grandparents live on the 4th floor of an apartment in Los Olivos, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba. They had a balcony where my grandma would hang clothes to dry, and a kitchen with a window leading out to all the garages, they had two dogs who I loved very much, they had a kitchen table and above that table on the wall was one of those clocks that would have birds pop out. I remember my garndpa and I would always go into this gate beside our garage leading to the forest where there were chickens. I also remember my grandma would always take me to this candy store that was in a plaza. And at night my grandparents would always take out the dogs before going to sleep and I would usually go with them, and the gate to the appartments had a hole which the dogs would run through before we even got a chance to open the gate. There was this big tree specifically, it was a mango tree and it had benches all around it and I would just sit and wait to go back upstairs. One time we were waiting for the dogs and it was so dark, but there were these fireflies, and I got to catch some. Then we let them go, but it’s the memories that count. I have so many memories and pictures and videos that sometimes I remember I have them and I just look at them and remember. I am really happy that I have them so that I don’t forget.
PW #4 – The power of a place
In your life you make so many memories. Some are with you friends, or your family. And those memories are made in a place. Like a beach, a house, a school, etc. One of the places that I made really good memories in was Cuba. Specifically my gradparents house, and my aunts house. My grandparents house is in Sancti Spiritus, it is around the middle of Cuba. And my aunts house is in Havana, which is the capital. My aunt has a big house with a pool and a poolhouse, she has the ocean in her backyard, seperated by a short concrete fence. I have so many memories of running up and down 3 flights of stairs while playing hide and seek. I remember when I was little my cousin and I would play by the pool and me and my aunt would then go into the ocean and she made me wear shoes which I didn’t like, but she made me because there was rocks in the ocean. And one day I took them off and cut my foot. I then went to the pool house with cousins and I was so upset because she said I couldn’t run around until my cut healed. So instead of running around the house everyday. We would go sit on a white hanging chair every night for a week or so, and there frogs in her back yard that we would just watch. I remember watching them jump along the short concrete fence hoping they wouldn’t fall in the water. I have so many lovely memories of my aunts house, and my grandparents. But that’s for another personal writing.
Personal Response for “Our Town”
This play is called Our Town and is written by Thorton Wilder. I really enjoyed this play, and I am happy that I got the opportunity to read and watch this play. I personally do not think that before I read it, if this book was on a shelf with many other books, this one would not have been my first pick. This book has so much emotion and is very realistic. It also has a narrator which helps you not get trapped into the play, by simply reminding you that it is just a play. A quote that really made me feel the emotions and made me think about them is a quote said by Emily Gibbs,
Oh, Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead. You’re a grandmother, Mama. I married George Gibbs, Mama. Wally’s dead, too. Mama, his appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it – don’t you remember? But, just for a moment now we’re all together. Mama, just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s look at one another.
When Emily said this quote, she knew her mother couldn’t hear her, she knew she had passed and that she never truly just stopped and looked around. I think that is one think I have noticed in my life. We live in such a busy world, that we hardly ever get a chance to just stop and apreciate everything that we have , everyone that we have. I found it very sad that she now notices everything she did not notice before. She noticed how fast that morning went by, she noticed how young her parents looked. Time is such a valuable thing, because the truth is, you have no idea how much time you have, or how much time others have. Things can change in an instant, in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it is better to not blink, in hopes that you wont miss anything. You cannot slow down time, you cannot go back in time, or into the future. Use your time wisely, and wait things out. Good things take time.
In conclusion, this play really did make me think about things, it made me think about life. It made me dig deep and realize that we only really have one life. This play is very well written, and I would reccomend it to some people, maybe it could impact their outlook on life.
PW #3 – Places I want to travel
I have been to many hotels in Canada, and have been many times to Cuba. However those are the only two places I have ever been to. When I am older, I would love to travel, I do love to travel, but as of right now I cannot go to every place I want to go. A place I really want to go and explore is Europe. Specifically Spain, Greece, and Monaco. Those are my top three countries. I have seen so many beautiful pictures and I have heard so many beautiful things about certain parts in these countries. I really hope to go when I am older either with friends or family to share that beautiful experience.
PW #2 – My favourite seasons
I really enjoy all the seasons, however I do like some more than others. My top seasons right now are summer and winter. Two opposites, with different reasons. I really like summer because the air is so fresh and I am tanned and happy. Some reasons why I am happy are well because we do not have school, its not that I do not like school, it is just that I feel like I need a break once in a while, and summer is just the time! Other reasons are swimming, trees are full, flowers are blooming, there is always so many colors, I can hangout with my friends any day of the week, the summer clothes, and so much more. I truly feel so joyful in the summer, and so fresh. But summer does have to come to and end after three great long months, and then it is fall. Now I do really like fall aswell, however I am talking about my favourite seasons. Therefore after november, winter begins. I just love winter! I love the cold breeze that I can feel under all my layers of coats and sweaters. I love when the cold snow falls on my face, it is pretty refreshing. I love how it is always light out even if the sun is down and it is night. By this I mean the snow is so white and bright that it lights up the darkness a little bit. I also love that it is my birthday month! December 17th is one of the days I look forward too always. However my favourite part of winter, is Christmas! How I love Christmas. I love the music, and the lights, the joyful people, the decorations, the Christmas trees, the families coming together, winter break, Butchart Gardens, the cozyness of the warm blankets and hot chocolate, the snow and building snowmen, throwing snowballs. I love winter. Both of these seasons make me feel so happy inside and out. I again, like all the seasons, but I truly do love summer and christmas.
PW #1 – What I want to be when I am older
As of right now, I am not too sure what career I want to have when I am older. Well if you think about it “older” just means in four years. I have always wanted to be someone in the medical field. Maybe a pediatrician or a doctor. I would have to start off as an intern, and move my way up. But now I have been looking into law or buisness. Most likely I would hopefully be a doctor of some sort. I have really always wanted to help people, especially kids. The majority of them are always so sweet and so innocent . I have always thought that if I was to get a job, I would want to enjoy it. I would want to look forward to it, and not have to wake up in the mornings with no motivation to go. This is why I would want to be in the medical field, because I could look forward to helping others and hopefully making their lives easier. Including my family, I could be their personal doctor! Right now, I am still not sure what I want to be, or what I can be when I am older. Eventually I will fuigre it out, and whatever I choose, I know I will have to love doing that for me to choose it.
IRJE #1
The book Nothing More to Tell is a mystery novel by Karen M. McManus. This book follows a girl named Brynn, who four years ago, left Saint Ambrose School following the murder case of her favorite teacher, a story that made the headlines after the teacher’s body was found by three Saint Ambrose students in the woods behind their school. The case was never solved. Therefore, Brynn wants to be the one to solve it.
“Things’ll get worse before they get better”.
My reasoning behind this quotation was because it shows when Brynn was trying to solve the case, she knew she would uncover some things she did not want to uncover before she got to the truth.
My personal opinion on Master and Man
After reading Master and Man, I realized that I did not understand it very well. I think this is because I didn’t understand some of the vocabulary. Personally I dont really read books like this but after reading it I would say it was an okay story. I think that this short novella tries to show what it was like back in the 1800s as in the importance levels. They showed that Vasili Andreevich was the master by his authority and wealth, and they showed how Nikita was the peasant by saying how he navigated in the storm and how his home life was, how he had run out of money for drinks so he sold his clothes. I think that I would have enjoyed the book more if I would have understood a bit more.
My introduction
Hi, my name is Sofia Bequer Zayas. I was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. My family and I moved to Canada when I was 3 years old. As of right now we live in Duncan, BC. I have a dog, and two brothers. My favourite colour is probably light pink or red. I love to travel and I hope that in the future I can travel lots. Some places I want to go is Spain, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Costa rica, and Columbia. I really just want to travel the world. When im older i would like to be something in the medical field.