Guardian Angel

I learned this prayer in my first grade back in the Philippines.

Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day (or night) be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.


I still use this prayer till now.

Tying my shoe laces

Today I learned how to tie my shoe laces. Dad bought me and Aron each a new pair of shoes last night. The color of my shoes is checkered pink. Aron's little shoes color is bright pink. At first it's so hard to tie the shoe laces. But Mom and Dad taught me how. Today, I practiced until I knew how to do it. I am  so happy.  Aron still don't know how to tie her shoe laces hehe. Yey, I'm now a big girl.

Later at night, we chatted with  my godparents Ninang Wawai and Ninong Richard. We talked in Skype. Their son Deu is very cute. He will be Aron's boyfriend soon. His little brother Ean is still a baby, very very cute and always sleeping. I and Aron danced for them with the song "Nobody" by Wonder girls. Deu showed us all his toys. He is so cute and handsome.

I love Sherlock Holmes stories

Mommy bought me a new story book yesterday. It is entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. He solves mysterious cases with the help of Dr. Watson. The book is divided into three stories. The first story is titled "The adventure of the speckled band". The second story is titled "The adventure of the blue carbuncle". The third story is titled "The scandal in Bohemia". I like the stories so much. Mom reads the story to us last night. Then I read it again. I love to solve cases with Sherlock Holmes. He is so smart. I didn't finish reading the whole book yet. The story book is for grade five students. Mom said the English used here is basic and not hard to understand. So now I'm going to read more. Thank you. See you!

My Chinese name

My Chinese name is 范美麗 or read as Fan Mei Li. Fan is short for Franje. It was followed from my Mom's Chinese surname. Meili means beautiful and my Dad gave me this name. I don't really like my name because I think I'm not beautiful hehehe. My sister's Chinese name is 安亞 or read as Anya. I chose her name. I don't know what it means, but it sounds like her English name Tanya. My Mom's Chinese name is 范凱希 or read as Fan Kai Xi. Mom said Kaixi means something about victory, but actually she just took it from her nickname Kathy. Dad's Chinese name is  弗瑞杰 or read as Fu Rui Jie. The Taiwanese embassy gave him his name. Dad said it sounds like his surname Franje, in short nothing special hehe. If you want to come to Taiwan, you should have your own Chinese name. How about you? Do you want to have a Chinese name?

My family in a House

Today, I asked my Mom and Dad to help me make a poem. They taught me about  rhymes, metaphors and  creativity of  words. Mom asked me to start with comparing ourselves to a house. Here it goes:

Daddy is the post of the house. Like a post, he is strong. He works and provides food and comfort for our family. He makes our family strong and never to fall apart.

Mommy is the lamp of the house. Like a lamp, she brings light to our lives. She guides us, makes us smile when we are sad, comforts us, and tend to our wounds.

Joey ~ well that's Me! Guess what I am. I am a "television" of the house. :) Like a television, I'm so loud and always talking he he he. I dance and sing for my family. I am the entertainer. I make everybody laugh and sometimes annoy them with my loud voice.
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Aron, my younger sister is the "alarm clock" of the house he he. Like an alarm clock, she is so annoying. She wakes us up early in the morning and begs us to sleep early at night. When she wakes up, she is so loud greeting everybody good morning. Then she starts making noises by going in and out of the bathroom, playing with the water, taking a shower, and sometimes watching TV. She is so annoying he he he.

How about you? What kind of thing are you in the house?

My family in a house

Learning to ride a bicycle

You know, before coming to Taiwan, I still don't know how to ride a bicycle. It's because I don't have a bicycle or nobody taught me how to drive one. Well, I had a bicycle once when I was a toddler but it was a three-wheeled type. When I came to Taiwan, my Mom's friend gave me her daughter's small bicycle. Few weeks later, my Dad brought me and the bicycle to the second floor of our building to practice. He taught me how to balance and how to drive it. At first I was so scared to fall down. But my Dad told me not to be scared and to stay focused. He held me properly so I would not fall. We practiced everyday. But on the third day, my Dad let go of me suddenly. I still don't know how to turn the bike by myself, so I went straight crashing to the post. I got slightly wounded on my foot but it was not that painful. And on the fifth day of practicing, I finally learned how to ride the bicycle. I was 7 years old. Yehey! I celebrated my new found skill by riding my bicycle around the campus, together with my Mom and Dad. That was such a fun day. How about you, when did you learn to ride your bicycle?

That was me practicing in the campus, November 2009.

Driving around the university campus with my parents.

My little sister

My little sister's name is Aronne Tanya. She is 5 years old. I was 4 years old when she was born. She was very tiny and so cute back then. I love her so much. But now she is already annoying. She always take a shower twice a day. Daddy always scold her about it. Before, she is not scared of taking a bath in the swimming pool. But now she is scared, such a sissy. If we eat ice cream she eats like a pig hehehe. She eats all of my ice cream. On August 30, Aronne will be studying in my school. Her grade is kindergarten. Aronne said she don't like to go to school. I told her sure you do! Aronne said "No" hehe, I am just joking. As I write this blog, she is so loud hehehe. How about  you? Do you have a little sister like Aronne?

Aron is hiding from the swimming pool. 

Aronne is enjoying swimming before. Seeee! (with her nanny)

I love my grandparents

My grandparents are the best and the coolest Lola and Lolo ever.

My Lolo always drives us around in our neighborhood and towards our favorite spot in the university campus - the fountain. We feed the big fat orange fishes there, feed and play with the pigeons, run and race around with my cousins. He will then drive us to the marketsite and buy us our favorite snacks - banana cue, halohalo, benignit, camote cue, rice cakes, barbecue and ice cream. After hearing the mass on Sundays, my Lolo and Lola would bring us to our favorite place in the city - Jollibee. Their fried chicken and spaghetti are the best.

Lolo often drives me and my cousin to our school. Sometimes, if my Lola comes along, we would stop by at a good food court and eat any delicious food we want to eat. Lolo always brings us to the research station where Lola is teaching her college students and let us play all around in the corn field. At night, Lolo teaches me my homework while Lola cooks delicious food for us.

On the weekends, Lola would bring us to the farm. She has a cottage there and a tree house. The air is so cool and fresh. It is so cool at night time and we never need an airconditioner. Sometimes, she make me skip my classes and make me play with my sister to my heart's content. Isn't that so cool!

Lola always make me smile whenever Daddy scolded me. Lolo always brings us delicious snacks and fruits whenever he gets back from his trips. Since Dad was so busy with his job and only comes home on weekends, I and my little sister would sleep with my grand parents. Then when Dad went abroad with Mom, my Lola and Lolo were our parents for one whole year and my little sister's parents for another year. They took good care of us.

Oh, how I love my Lola and Lolo and how I missed them so much.

www.fotosearch.com

Why I don't like ballet class anymore

I love dancing that's why I begged my mom to enroll me to ballet dance class. I joined the class for two years. My mom was more excited than me. Little did I know, as time went by, I realized I don't really like ballet dancing that much.

Before the school year ended, I told my mom I will no longer attend ballet dance classes, even on free class offered on summer vacation. She asked me why, I told her I don't like ballet anymore. She asked me again why. These are my answers:

I don't like my ballet dance class anymore because it's boring and I don't really enjoy it that much anymore. It gives me muscle pain. I can't do a split and I'm already far behind my classmates. My ballet dance class teacher is so scary and always bark at us when we commit mistakes. I don't like some of my ballet dance classmates, they are so bad-tempered. And lastly, I know I am just bad at ballet dance. My Mom was sad but my Dad was happy because he said he can save money.

I asked my Mom to enroll me to taekwondo or swimming or piano lessons instead. She said she'll think about it. I hope I can. By the way, my PE/English teacher asked me to join her Girl Scout team next school year. She knows I am active and I run fast. I will be a good addition to her team. I told my Mom I love to join.

Maybe I will have more fun in girl scout that I did with ballet. So, goodbye ballet dance, hello to girl scout he he he. Sorry Mum hehehe.

Ballet recital on my first grade, May 2010.

Ballet recital on my second grade, May 2011.

A visit to Taichung Park

Yesterday was a lazy day. All of us woke up so late like 11:30 AM. After eating our lunch, we decided to take in fresh air and stroll in the park. We've been almost in all parks of Taichung City, but only once in Taichung Park so we decided to go there. It is about 10 min away from our place by scooter .

Taichung park I guess is the biggest park in the city. It has a man-made lake where people can rent canoes for 200ntd (7usd). Few people went in for a ride. Maybe we go ride it the next time.

The lake

Resting for a while

I like the big old trees found in almost all corners of the park. They are huge with so many big and hanging branches. Dad said it's name is Balete tree and they are homes of the fairies and elves, but Mom said it's not true.

The Balete tree

Is this where the fairies live? Can I have them for a pet?

Aron and the trees

We saw some squirrels jumping and playing on the trees. Mom was taking their photos but Aron scared them away.

Two squirrels posing for us

Aron wanted to touch them so they ran away.

The grasses are so green and well maintained.

Me in the park

Healthy trees

Aron with the flowers

I love the view of the lake. Mom said it's romantic (what is romantic?).

The lake late in the afternoon

The Taiwanese shed

 Food stands are also found inside where we can buy Chinese food and drinks.

The shops at my back

We saw white ducks swimming or resting in the corner of the lake but I think they were not happy with so many people disturbing their privacy.

The ducks were bored. The fish ate all their food.

After touring the whole park, we went on to play in the park's play ground. When it's almost dark, we went home and had dinner. Later on that night, we went to Atena's swimming pool for a swim.

Aron and Mom after playing

Goofing around with Daddy and Aron

Playing with giant doggie

I'm thirsty!

I love swimming

I don't know how to swim properly but I so love swimming. Mom taught me how to swim but I'm not a good student. So I only know how to keep myself afloat and swim at short distances.

Last night, we went to swim at our friend Atena's swimming pool. It is found on the 5th floor of their building. Their apartment is right in front of our apartment and we are just neighbors. I came with Mom and Aunt Yvonne. Atena and Uncle Jupiter cooked some delicious healthy spaghetti for us. Healthy means with carrots, tuna and broccoli. Daddy was so lazy to join us while Aron was too scared to swim. So both of them stayed at home and watched some movies.

I had so much fun at the pool. Uncle Jupiter was so funny, he's like a monkey. Everybody hit him with the inflatable ball that we played with. Him against all of us girls - me, Atena, Aunt Yvonne and Mom. When he's using the float, I always annoyed him by dragging him all around. Everybody laughed at us. The pool closed at 10 pm. So we went up to Atena's place and ate some chocolate ice cream. I devoured it all like a pig hehe.

Summer is so hot today and I wish we will always plunge for a swim. I wish Dad and Aron are not lazy to join us the next time. Thanks for the fun!

How about you? Do you love to swim?

Atena is killing Uncle Jupiter hehe

Who am I?

Hello everyone, my name is Joanne Katrina. You can call me Joey. Why Joey? Mum got this crazy idea of calling her daughters with boy's name. She nicknamed me "Joey" while my little sister Aronne Tanya was called "Aron". Mum said Joey means a baby kangaroo, and since I run fast like a kangaroo, she said it suits me he he he.

Oh no I looked so funny hehe!

I was born on March 23, 2002. I am 9 years old. I am studying at Kuokuang Elementary School in Taichung City, Taiwan. I am supposed to be in Grade 4, but at the start of this school year, I will still be in Grade 3. You might ask why. You see, both Mum and Dad are studying in Taiwan for their graduate studies and they wished to bring me along. I was on my second grade in the Philippines when they snatched and brought me here to Taiwan with them. Since I don't know any Chinese, they decided to enroll me back to first grade here. At first I cried. I don't like being left behind by my classmates in the Philippines. But my parents know what's best for me. So far, my Chinese is good, far better than my Mum and Dad he he.

Me and my li'l sister

I love swimming, riding bicycle, playing badminton, dancing, singing, drawing, reading both English and Chinese story books, watching cartoons, and eating delicious food. I studied roller skating, tennis, playing harmonica and ballet dancing. I wish I would learn playing the piano. I think it's very cool. My Mum's friend Atena bought me a little piano to practice with. I also wish to learn taekwondo so I can beat my Dad he he he. Right now, I'm good at running. I always won first place at school. I'm also good with jumping ropes, we won second place last time.

I'm living with my Mum, Dad and my little sister Aron. Mum said, we will be happy as long as we are together. I love my family so much but I missed my grandparents, uncles and cousins back home.

Mum said I need to practice my English, and this blog will be my project. She helps me edit my spellings and grammars. Thank you for reading my blog. Tell me what you think about it.

Love,
Joey

Me having fun with mascots in Taiwan, August 2011.