The Avid Reader (and enjoyer of all subjects)

In the first four chapters of “Johnny Tremain“, Esther Forbes brings us 125 years back to colonial America and introduces us to Johnny Tremain (an arrogant silversmith apprentice), the family he serves (the Lapham family), and the two other apprentices (Dove and Dusty).  Johnny is assigned to recreate a silver bowl, but he messes up on a crucial part and has to finish the project on Sunday.  When Dove, Johnny’s biggest enemy, gives Johnny a cracked crucible, Johnny ends up burning his hand (the accident), thus disabling him from learning his trade.  Johnny goes to one of his distant relatives, a wealthy merchant, but is falsely accused of robbery and put to trial.  One of his friends, Rab, finds the finest lawyer in Boston, and Johnny wins the trial.

Johnny’s haughtiness stands out conspicuously before his accident with the cracked crucible.  For example, “Johnny’s ability made him semi-sacred.  He knew his power and reveled in it.  He could have easily made friends with stupid Dove, for Dove was lonely and admired Johnny as well as envied him.  Johnny preferred to bully him” (Forbes 4).  Only an haughty person (to put it mildly) would prefer to bully their inferiors over befriending them.  Also, when Mr. Hancock, one of Boston’s wealthiest merchants, arrived at the Laphams’ shop, Johnny tells the slave ” ‘Mind that horse doesn’t trample our flowers’ ” (Forbes 13) even when there aren’t any.  These are just a few examples of Johnny’s arrogant attitude before his accident.

Johnny’s actions immediately after his accident don’t differ with his previous actions (for example, when he scared Mr. Tweedie in the Laphams’ shop), but after he gets accustomed to his new life his personality instantly transforms.  After Mr. Hancock gives Johnny a bag of silver, Johnny thinks of Cilla and Isannah when he buys a picture book for Cilla and limes for Isannah.  Had the accident not occurred to Johnny, he would have spent all of his money on food, shoes, and books, which he didn’t really need.  Another example is when Rab gets Dr. Josiah Quincy, Boston’s best lawyer, to defend Johnny.  Johnny responds to Rab, ” ‘I could never pay him’ ” (Forbes 79).  Before his accident, Johnny wouldn’t have thought about the money and felt he deserved the opportunity.

Johnny’s accident that led to his crippled hand definitely alters his personality.  Before he gets injured, Johnny acts superciliously to everybody, including the Lapham girls, his fellow apprentices, and even Mr. Hancock and his master (an elderly and therefore venerable man).  After his pride went before the fall, though, Johnny starts being more humble to his friends, like Rab, and thinks of other people as well as himself.  It is because of his injury that Johnny truly realizes the importance of being humble.

My eyes slowly open as I get accustomed to my environment.  There’s a bright light shining outside the door, and I become aware of a figure in my room–my mom.  Oh yes, she’s preparing my clothes!  I sit up, stretch, and yawn, then slip my clothes on and brush my teeth.  My recent dentist appointment did not yield satisfying results, so I brush hard.  When I’m done, I come down the stairs, where half a muffin, sliced, is waiting for me.  After I stuff in all the muffin slices and gulp down my milk.

Then, my mom drives me to Morrisville Elementary.  My teeth are chattering all the way.  When we arrive at the school, we wait for some time, reviewing for an upcoming science quiz.  Suddenly, we hear a roaring of an engine, and the long yellow bus pulls in the parking lot.  I get out of the car, wave quickly to my mom, and run to the line for the bus.  On the bus, I sit down next to a sixth grader taking algebra, and close my eyes.  What are we going to learn today?  Will the science quiz be hard?  I wonder about some events on the bus.

RRRRR!  I wake up with a start from my nap.  It’s the bus’s engine; we’ve arrived at Enloe, our first stop, and are getting ready to go to Ligon.  Sleepily, I rub my eyes.  Some high schoolers have gotten off the bus.  I only know one of them, a freshman who went to Davis Drive last year.  I’ve been able to make the acquaintance of an eighth grader who takes Pre-Calculus at Enloe.  He’s getting off, too.

Soon, we arrive at Ligon.  Most of the Ligon kids look down upon us Carnage kids.  Ligon and Carnage are BIG rivals, especially in academics.  I think that Ligon will become 2008’s Carnage in a few years; with all the smart kids at Carnage no one would be at Ligon.

Ligon is only a few minutes away from Carnage.  I get off lethargically from the bus, with Roy and my friend Tony following.  It’s 7:20, and the bell hasn’t rang yet, so we go into the auditorium, where I talk a bit with some friends.  Then, when the bell rings, the eighth grade principal dismisses us. 

After a short stop at my locker, I walk quickly to Spanish I, my first class.  There are no core classes in Carnage, so electives take up about the same amount of time as regular classes.  Spanish I, unfortunately, is very far away from the Pirates hall, the 400 hall.  Most of the kids in my class are sixth and seventh graders, but I don’t care.  After the bell rings, we do the daily warm-up and an activity.

Next, we have to go to our homeroom.  My homeroom is Ms. Armstrong.  There, we watch the morning news show and stand up for the pledge of allegiance.  After that, we give Mrs. Armstrong some papers we were asked to sign.

My second period class is social studies, which borders Ms. Armstrong’s classroom.  Today we take some class notes out of a textbook.  Most people don’t like taking notes; I find no problem with it.  After that, the teacher asks us some questions.  Most of the questions our teacher asks have to do with logic more than social studies.

Third period is geography.  I expected a course in which students would prepare for the National Geography Bee (coming up in November), but I totally messed up the definition of “geography” and forgot to include the different cultures!  In Geography we do a TON of projects, which are pointless and boring, but some of the classwork is interesting.

Many changes have occurred to me and happened in my life recently.  For one, I switched schools, from the regular Davis Drive Middle School (with excellent teachers) to the GT magnet middle school Carnage–perfectly natural to satisfy my hopes to attend Enloe High School.  Then, my age turned from 11 to 12 two weeks ago (erm, I think we were also supposed to mourn over the lives lost when I was four *cough cough*).  My body cannot control my age change at all–nothing can.  But as I reflect over these changes, I am reminded over and over again about the one word that describes almost every aspect of me:  sensitivity.

Sensitivity applies to both my physical aspects and mental characteristics.  I’ve realized that a few days ago I picked a tie-dye shirt from 3rd grade.  I remember it was a medium sized shirt.  When I put it on it came two inches down my waist.  I’m surprised at how little times my mom’s been forced to go to Wal-Mart to find new clothes for me.  My height still hovers at around 5′, and I’m hoping for a growth spurt, but I did have the same wishes two years ago, and I grew an inch or so.  I’m still not taller than my mom (I’ve noticed many of my peers being taller than their parents, even their dads) and Roy can still stare me down.  On the bus everyone assumes I’m a sixth grader; when I tell them I’m in 8th grade they can guess that I’m young–all pointing to my height.  And my weight–well, let’s just put that my weight hasn’t changed for almost two years, and my sister is catching on fast, though I eat two times as much as she does and have never lost appetite before a meal.  My dad is even considering taking me to see the doctor about my weight.  Finally, the thing about crying:  it doesn’t take much to make me cry.  Normally a grade under 80 can do that.

Not only my physical characteristics but also my mental state reveals how much sensitivity fits me exactly.  Remember my travelogue at China, when I said I was bored at the toy store?  Well, here’s my actual confession: (I have to gather my courage to say this)  I can still become fascinated by LEGOs or even little Hot Wheels cars.  You know on some LEGO box labels when people write “Ages 5-12″?  I bet that two years later I still won’t have lost interest in LEGOs.  I still love to fantasize about “Toyworld” and “Playworld” with my sister.

But being so sensitive isn’t always a bad thing.  Whenever I’m awake in the night I am extra cautious if there’s a criminal in our house or not; when I’m in the bathroom I check all nooks and crannies before doing my business; and before I sleep I always look underneath my bed and in the closet to check for lurking figures.  And my sight and hearing aren’t bad either; even though I’ve had to get new glasses, when we went to Yellowstone the first animal we saw was seen by me.  (My parents had perfect vision with their glasses, and in 5th grade I was supposed to get glasses, but we postponed it. )  And I was the one who saw the grizzly bear hidden among the forests in the distance from a football field’s length away.  (Note here that I’m not trying to brag; if this is offensive, I apologize.)  Finally (and probably the most relieving to my parents) I don’t act like the stereotypical American teenager.  A stereotypical American teenager has better things to do than blog or do math games and math problems online; he/she spends most of their time watching TV shows, listening to his/her I-Pod,  excitedly playing their Nintendo DS or Wii, or  updating their Facebook page, MySpace page, or (oh god) Twittering.  (When I was in fifth grade I hadn’t even heard of those chimerical contraptions.  Twittering?  The first thing that came to mind was a real-life bird.)  I don’t let my mind sleep, my identity gradually be revealed, or my eyes get increasingly worse.  (Note:  I have a congenital astigmatism in my left eye.)

Most of all, my dislike of change makes me cling to my personalities of childhood, not to evolve to the adolescence period:  to obey my parents less than most teens do.  I NEVER give in to peer pressure.  I try to follow my parents’ instructions, and I will NEVER EVER forget my promise to afford the best house and car I can for them when I start earning my own money.  Some teenagers don’t listen to their parents’ commands.  They don’t know what the right thing for them is, no matter how much pain, boredom, or sadness it causes them.  They only know how to satisfy their own pleasures.  That is the wrong course of life.  So I think, it is my exaggerated sensitivity that will lead me on the right track. 

Back in 7th grade, in the middle of the school year my parents signed me up for Carnage Middle School.  Carnage is an AG Magnet Middle School, so if I would get accepted I would be in the same classroom as people in AG, and it also offers Algebra II as a course in 8th grade.  When we got back a letter from WCPSS, I immediately opened the letter and was overjoyed to discover that I could attend Carnage!  The rest of 7th grade passed very quickly, and before I knew it I had to say a sorrowful farewell to my 7th grade teachers, who I will remember forever.

On the first day of school at Carnage, I was shaken awake by my mom at 6:00.  Rubbing my eyes and yawning, I brushed my teeth lethargically, stuffed some slices of chocolate muffin into my mouth, and jumped into my mom’s car, which takes me to Morrisville Elementary.  Every day an Express bus stops at Morrisville Elementary, picking up everyone attending Carnage, Ligon, and Enloe (yes, we do have to share buses).  The first day of school everyone seemed awkward, with few friends they talk to.  I talk a bit with Roy and his friend Tony.  Then the bus pulls up, and we line up to board it.  The bus is already filled, so we must sit two-to-a-seat.  Enloe students sit in the back of the bus; the middle-school students occupy the front section.  I close my eyes, pining for rest as the bus rumbles on its way. 

After half an hour, we arrive at Enloe, which will always be our first stop.  The William G. Enloe High School is one of the best high schools in North Carolina.  It takes almost another half hour to wait for all the cars and buses to pass by, as the area is very busy.  I recognize this place from February when I took the SAT here. 

Soon, after loading, we pull up by Carnage.  This is not our usual second stop; the usual second stop is Ligon.  A bunch of students get off the bus and enter the side door.  On the first day of school, there are signs and posters instructing all eighth graders to report to the auditorium, which is (I think) bigger than Davis Drive’s auditorium.  I barely recognize anyone in the auditorium except for a few Davis Drive kids (who I will not name for security reasons).  A few minutes later, our 8th grade principal, Ms. Watson, calls students to follow their teachers to their classrooms based on what team they were on.  I am on the Pirates team, the AG team of 8th grade.  The Pirates team this year has over 120 students, even more than 7th grade at Davis Drive.  We are the last to be called.  I am in Ms. Armstrong’s, the language arts teacher, homeroom, so when Ms. Armstrong calls her homeroom to line up I squeeze through the aisle and get in the line.

We are lead to a classroom not far away from the auditorium, where we stop.  I notice some numbers on a pink slip of paper taped by the doorway, labeled Magnet Number, and wonder what that could refer to.  Ms. Armstrong shows us our seats by alphabetical order.  I don’t know anyone in my class, though I’ve seen one of the students in my homeroom at my Chinese school.

Next, we pass up our school supplies.  Because of the economic recession, many schools don’t have enough money to buy the needed supplies in the classroom, so us students are required to bring them.  Boys are supposed to bring a stack of paper.  I pass my stack up.

Then, Mrs. Armstrong leads us to the auditorium.  The teachers then give us a presentation about the rules of the team, the expectations, rewards/consequences, etc.  Ms. Church, the social studies teacher, also tells us that our first (and only, depending on our behavior) field trip will be to Bethabara in Old Salem, where Germans from Europe first settled in present-day North Carolina.  There will be two rotations:  one at the learning area and one doing hands-on activities.  The rotations will switch to the other station at around noon. 

Then, Ms. Armstrong explains to us our schedule for the first two days.  We will rotate around the team, doing activities at each place.  First, we go to Ms. Church, then Ms. Jerread (Spanish), then Ms. O’Rawe (Math), and finally Ms. Lucas (Science).  In the four core classes the teachers give us expectations for their classes, and in Ms. Jerread’s class we play a rules game.  During Ms. Jerread’s class the ecology teacher at Carnage, Ms. Knapp, picks the new students up and gives us a short 20-minute tour around the school campus.  We get to see Carnage’s greenhouse, a model wetland, and a model garden.  I think Carnage is the only middle school in Wake County which has it’s own greenhouse.  (That’s from Wikipedia, by the way, so you guys might want to double-check )

After we get to all our classes, school is over.  I am confused, and just happen to bump into Roy without his backpack.  He says we have to report to our bus rooms, so I quickly run after him.  Roy tells me our bus’s room (our bus is Route 567).  The teacher is the manager of the short stories elective at Carnage.  We have to wait for almost half an hour before the number 567 is announced on the loudspeaker.  The teacher tells us to protest to our bus driver to be on time.  We all shuffle out of the classroom, go down the stairs, and go out the side door to the bus loop, where we see the bus bearing the number 567 in black paint.  Then, we all find seats on the bus.  The bus is already full after arriving at Ligon.  (Enloe will be the next and last stop.)  I find an empty seat and talk to one of the new friends I’ve made, Eddy.  As the bus speeds towards home, I feel excited for the days that will follow at my new school.

I’m very sorry, but I’m not sure if I have enough time to write my travelogue in China in detail, as now school has started and I am busier than ever.  But I’m sure you would love to hear about my adventures, so sure.

Shanghai Museum:  The day we got back to Shanghai after a long train ride (almost 12 hours!) we visited the Shanghai Museum.  It had many classical sculptures, bronze works, and ceramics.  I was surprised when, in the ceramics section, I read that most works were found in Jingdezhu in Jiangxi, where my dad’s family lived.  My favorite part was the painting and calligraphy section.  I was astounded at the quality of artistry, and sometimes the quantity (some very long paintings were there).  They were very hard to paint!  I can never train my wrist to draw so well.

Nanjing Road (formerly Nanking Road) Malls, Round 1:  Okay, since the Shanghai Museum was located right next to this famous row of malls, my sister and mom just had to visit it.  My favorite part was in the New World Mall (or something like that), where there was a level specially for Madame Tussauds, where you got to see painted sculptures of famous people.  (I don’t know if I have time or not, but I might want to transfer some photos to make a short quiz ).  The cost was expensive, but the experience was totally worth it.  My sister’s outright favorite was Audrey Hepburn, who was outside the booth because of extreme popularity.  There were a lot of actors, but politicians like Barack Obama and the Clintons as well (I liked those people the most).  Then we went shopping and I forgot about that boring experience at the other mall, Shanghai’s First Department Store.

Cheng Hua Miao:  One of the most popular tourist attractions in Shanghai.  I thought that there would be this big building with small shops that sold antiques (I had a huge butterfly kite and a few classical pens from there), but there were actually row after row of small shops outdoors!  My sister bought a fan for her friend, who needed a birthday present.  Then we arrived at a lake.  I instantly saw some big goldfish there.  Then, suddenly, my sister saw a seabird!  It reached its empty beak in the water.  Its beak came back with a small goldfish!  The next thing I knew, the bird had swallowed it down.  There were also a few small turtles in the distance.  I wanted to find some frogs or toads, but there weren’t any.  After my sister got a shake at Dairy Queen’s, we went back.  The bird was still there!  Then, we went to taste the food, which is highly recommended.  After that, we headed to…

Nanjing Road (formerly Nanking Road) Malls, Round 2:  Nothing interesting at all, besides a few billion-dollar houses.  We did get to eat at a Western restaurant, though.  Its tuna salad sandwiches were quite good.  There, I saw a Ferrari with a sign on it!  I think it was test-driven.  If it was, more cars (like Lamborghini) that I didn’t see might have preceded it.  I also liked a gallery where four luxurious cars, two Ferraris and two Maseratis, were.  A few Americans were there admiring the cars as well.

Note:  nai nai = father’s mother, da bo = father’s older brother, shu shu = father’s younger brother, da ma = father’s older sister (in this case da bo’s wife), sen sen = father’s younger sister (in this case shu shu’s wife), er bo = adopted uncle.

Look at that gap.  Anyways,…

When we first arrived at Nanfeng, we went directly to nai nai’s house.  There, we were greeted by nai nai and one of my grand-aunts.  Nai nai and my grand-aunt exclaimed how I had grown so much since two years ago.  They offered us tons of fruit–apples, grapes, and canteloupe, but we took little.  Then, nai nai took us into one of her rooms specially dedicated to the Buddha.  She instructed us how to pray to Buddha.  My mother, sister, and I did so.  My mother noticed some sores on nai nai’s knees.  Nai nai said she got them from praying every day.  Then, after fifteen minutes, we were driven to da bo’s house (or rather, apartment), a stately place with five bedrooms and air conditioning.  Da ma was there to greet us.  Soon, visitors began pouring in.  Sen sen was the first to arrive.  Our 20-year-old cousin, Sisi, came along with her mother.  Finally, da bo arrived.  He explained that he had a big emergency–he had been investigating why police had been slow to arrive at the murder scene of a child.  (The killer committed suicide, but not before killing his victims.)  That night, my two grand-uncles arrived.  Two years ago I did not recognize them.  Now I could.  Finally, er bo with his wife and daughter came. 

Jiangxi is a very rural area overall, though Nanfeng is a bustling city of over 100,000 (therefore bigger than Cary).  The result is not many places to visit (if you excluded a whitewater rafting site two hours away).  At da bo’s house, I talked to my dad via webcam about Shanghai and Jiangxi.  The computer at da bo’s house is as fast as my computer in America, so that’s why I used it more.

One of the major things was that I learned how to play Chinese checkers (nai nai taught it to me).  When a few guests came to see us, I played a few rounds with them.  A family friend (a week older than my sister) also took the time to come over, and I played countless rounds of Chinese checkers with him.  We also played marbles, but he had experience playing with his classmates while I was just a novice.  It wasn’t fun losing round after round.

On the last day, da bo surprised us by inviting us to an outside restaurant.  Though we protested, he said it was my mother’s birthday.  At the restaurant, we had all types of seafood (a huge lobster, delectable crab, and oysters).  I made sure to eat my crab leg perfectly clean, a habit I have when eating my meals.  When we arrived back home, my mother was given a flower candle that sprouted and hummed “Happy Birthday” when we lit it.  A few minutes later, the driver arrived to pick us up for our return trip to Nanchang Train Station.  (Normally, country folk like the people in Nanfeng can’t get the comfortable 4-bed compartments with a window and small gray table, but we could get in, probably because we were Americans.)  In the waiting room with an hour to spare, we insisted that da bo and his colleague go and have dinner, as it was past 8:00, but they also insisted that they stay with us until our train left, which would be at 9:00.  Da bo and his colleague actually came with us onto the train for a while.  After saying good-bye, we settled down in our compartment.  Bye bye, Jiangxi!  Hello, Shanghai!

Another eon since I haven’t updated my blog!  I’ve just sat back and watched visitor after visitor pour in, seeking news about IMO 2009’s results.  (My FlagCounter has been working hard recently, and my ClustrMaps found it had work to do after napping.)  Anyways, what about this music school, as you ask?  I’m getting to the post:

One day, in the morning, out of the blue, my grandpa asked us if we wanted to go to a music school in the community.  We refused, as I wanted to do some blogging, but my grandpa always has his way, no matter how many people are against him, so we left the house for the music school.

There, we saw quite a lot of students with a few adults.  One of them was in her 50-’s to 60-’s, at the front of a piano.  The rest of them were around 20.  As the students turned slowly towards my sister and I, our faces reddened.  One of the teachers handed us a packet with songs in Chinese.  Students needed to sing two songs.  Since my sister and I did not recognize some Chinese characters, we just heard the students sing.  After they sang the first song a few times, the teachers directed them to sing the second one.  The second one was a song my sister and I were familiar with, so we sang along.  It had been sang at the Beijing Olympics by a girl called Ling Miao Ke.  However, when the teachers asked the class which song they preferred, the students said the first one, probably because it was shorter.

Then, it was time for a talent show involving music!  At this, my stomach turned over.  My grandpa told us to go up and perform.  Heads rotated back again, and my face turned as red as an apple.  However, I was not prepared for this, and would not do so.  I stubbornly refused.  This time, my grandpa had to acquiesce.  I sat back in my chair, relaxed, watching one of the teachers playing “Old McDonald” on the harmonica, then a courageous little girl singing one of the songs in front of the whole class. 

After the class ended, I was relieved that I didn’t play piano in front of the class.  I knew that without sufficient practice, my usually nimble hands would shake and tremble so much I would botch up the notes.  My grandpa, who didn’t have a single notion about piano, said that I had no reason to be afraid–the students did not know piano.  At this point, I was reminded of a scene in “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan (which I have recently re-read, by the way) in which the protagonist, Jing-mei (June) Woo plays a song on the piano at a talent show.  Her incessant messing-up causes the whole audience, with the exception of her deaf teacher, to disapprove of her performance. 

At least I got away that time, but I’m still wary of a day when my grandpa will tell us to go to the music school and play a song for the rest of the class.

Sorry for not posting yesterday.  No time   I also had some stomach problems during the morning, but it was just consumption of overly cold drinks.  Yesterday we didn’t go to either the aquarium or the science museum just because of me DX.  But I can safely assure you that tomorrow, we’ll go to the science museum  (I hope we have time for the aquarium, too.)  Since there wasn’t enough time today (we went to play piano for two hours) we just settled for a browsing of Huai Hai Road’s malls.

Today, after lunch, wai po, my mom, my sister, and I set off by bus to the subway station.  Then, on the subway, we headed for Huai Hai Road, with its many malls.  Huai Hai Road was once the home of famous Chinese author Adeline Yen Mah.  Her stepmother used to take her half-brother shopping on the malls.  My mother also lived nearby there when she was young–Huai Hai Road was only a few minutes’ walk away. 

Sorry for digressing…I bet you’re wanting to read about our experience at Huai Hai Road.  Not much, really–quite the same as Xu Jia Hui.  The first store we went to was a store especially for children’s clothes, toys, and games (thank god).  While my sister looked for a dress (an avid clothes-lover ) wai po and I went up a few levels and looked at the toys and games.  I immediately went to the LEGO section (nothing else interesting) and began to build a house (yes, inventing is the only LEGO activity fit for my age).  It had three rooms, a magnificent entrance, two doors, and two windows.  Soon, my sister and mom came over.  Since they didn’t find anything interesting, we left. 

Outside, it was almost beginning to rain.  We located another mall, Novel Department Store, and tried to find something there.  It turned out that all five levels were dedicated to adult fashions!  (I’m getting migraines out of how popular that is.)  We instantly left.  Then, we saw something that I consider “the event of the day”–a red Ferrari (Enzo Ferrari, I think?) which made an abnormally loud noise.  That Ferrari was the second I saw actually being driven. 

Finally, we went to another mall.  Over there, I saw a decent amount of LEGOs but there was no “inventing station”.  I just wandered about, memorizing my perfect squares and some of π’s digits (what I love to do when I’m extremely bored).  Finally, my sister and mom came up.  Since they had not seen anything extraodinary, we left for home.  I think that if I was four or five years younger, I would have liked this experience more than I did.

Two days ago, we decided to visit Xu Jia Hui Malls.  My sister wanted to find a dress, and I wanted to find some English books.  We took a taxi to the Xu Jia Hui Malls.  First, we went to the bookstore to see if there were any English books available.  There were none that were my level (should have known better).  But we did meet a friendly Japanese guy and his mother there.

After that, we headed off for the malls.  There were also four 6- or 7- floor malls.  All the malls had fashion and women’s and men’s apparel on the first few floors (yeah, total heaven for an average shopaholic but not at all to my favor), but all we needed to see was the toys, games, and clothes section.  I’m too old for “toys”, so I just took a look at some LEGO products, which I had liked a few years ago.  At the first, second, and third malls, my sister found nothing appealing, so we left quite soon.  I did try out a few “smart” toys like IQ puzzles and such.  The last one was my favorite, because it had a large section just for toys and games, which I could admire.  My sister found a dress there that she liked, and she bought it.  Then, we were done.  We took another taxi home. 

Short, eh?  Well, I think today we’re going to visit the Shanghai Aquarium.  That will be more of a heaven for me.  I’ll be sure to bring a notebook so I can do some more blogging .

The International Mathematical Olympiad, or IMO, is an annual mathematics contest in which 7 of the finest mathletes from each country participate in.  (Not all 195 countries in the world may participate.)  The IMO is part of a long “chain” of contests.  For students in middle school, the AMC 8 (a 25-question multiple choice test) is the first test, then the AMC 10 (which is similar to the AMC 8 except for the scoring), then the AIME (a 15-question test in which all answer choices range from 0-999 inclusive), the USAMO (a 6-question proving exam with two days, three questions per day), and finally the IMO (similar to the USAMO).  For students in high school, the AMC 10 is the first test, then the AMC 12.  The rest is similar to what middle-schoolers experience.

Well, finally the overly verbose and abstruse avid reader is done with his blabbering about.  Here is the website for the results:  http://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx, or in order,  http://www.imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2009.  If you’re too lazy to click that link and view the results, here are the notables (what I call “main events”):

• The People’s Republic of China finished 1st. 
• Japan finished 2nd.
• The Russian Federation finished 3rd.
• United States finished 6th.
• North Korea beat the United States.
• One of China’s mathletes got perfect score.
• All six members from China got at least 5 questions with perfect score.
• All six members from China got gold medals.
• The leading mathlete of United States, John Berman, from North Carolina, got 5 questions with perfect score.