Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Paragraph on a Trip Taken (in the "Angell" style)

Post your paragraph here before class this Friday. This is the last assignment for the blog. Thanks for your participation here this term; I will review all your contributions when deciding on your final marks.
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12 comments:

Brad said...

I rode, and what I remember best thirty-four years later are the tense moments—not many in a 12 hour stint on a bicycle—where I had to climb some 14 mile hill (outside Kamloops) or duck the mirror of a tow truck pulling a wide load or watch, helplessly, as it whooshed by Arnold’s head, missing him by an inch. Yes, riding across Canada had its moments (well, if it didn’t why do it?) but one of the best came late one sun-drenched day in New Brunswick. The shadows were long when—pop!—a flat tire forced me to make a quick repair. I was riding on sew ups, ridiculous racing tires glued to flat rims. To fix, I pulled off the tire, cut the threads holding the casing closed, found the leak with spit pressed onto the latex inner tube, patched, sewed it back up, and (with a sigh of relief) glued the tire back onto its rim. The evening light was golden. I was alone at the side of the road—no cars in sight—and felt a happiness I still feel, sometimes.

—186 words

January 7, 2009 at 11:05 PM
ally said...

That was the summer vacation when I just finished my Grade Four term. My mother took my sister and me to see my father who was convalescing at a sanitarium with a hot spring. We went to the remote place by train, and because of a problem with our travel arrangements, we had to stay over in a large room with 20 beds in a small hotel. The story happened there. Our room wasn’t full that night--maybe just five or six people were there. The chirping of crickets and the murmuring sound of people whispering made my sister and I feel half excited and half nervous and we couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight. I recall having many strange dreams; I seemed to hear something from the window; I seemed to open my eyes and see a hand reaching in the window which was facing me. I closed my eyes immediately because I thought it must be one of these bad dreams. Until now I’m still not sure if it was a dream or not. But, the next morning we really heard that the hotel was robbed last night, but not our room. As time passes, the line between that dream and reality becomes more and more vague. Was it a dream? I wonder even now.

--215 words

January 8, 2009 at 8:04 PM
a crazy couple said...

In summer 1979 when I was eleven years old, we had our first family trip to the Caspian Sea. My dad took our new car, a green Renault to drive from Tehran to Mahmmoudabad, Mazandaran, with a childhood friend and his family. We met in Mahmmoudabad, another old friend of my dad, and he invited us to their villa. A sunny day, two families with a French Renault and a Japanese Toyota, drove two hours to reach Amirabad, a new small town full of fantastic villas. We spent a great day. Walking into woods, biking with friends and watching gorgeous villas, eating delicious kebabs, ended our day without recognizing when the night appeared. My dad wasn’t a night driver. We headed to our villa. Between those two small towns, at the left hand was Caspian Sea, and at the right hand rice fields lay down till the green skirt of Alborz Mountains – darkness – tired of playing all the day, my sister and I slept on the back seats. We felt flying. We opened our eyes while our entire stomach moved like a rising wave and felt down like a fall – ba- bump – our head smashed to the roof: “Ah!” – What happened? My dad just drove over a dead cow that had been killed by a truck driver before.
218 words

January 8, 2009 at 11:43 PM
Julie said...

A Monkey-Attacking Disaster

One summer holiday when my son was seven, my husband and I decided to climb E-Mei Mountain, a beautiful mountain stands on West-South China; in order to training our son’s perseverance, we did not take a cableway but walked. It began to rain when we climbed to 2000 kilometers high. Although it was summer, we still felt cold and exhausted due to the four hours’ walking. At that difficult moment, “vow”, six monkeys screamed and appeared in front of us. Ah! I screamed with fear. Then, two monkeys began to attack me—one grabbed my bag violently. Without knowing what had happened, I grabbed my bag tightly, so the monkey bit me on my right arm. My husband threw a stone at the monkey, and the monkey threw my bag away with pain. The next moment, all monkeys escaped out of nowhere. I began to cry with pain and fear; I just could not walk any more. Finally, I sat on a chair—which was carried by two local residents—who helped people to climb the mountain with payment—to finish the journey. Disaster! It seemed that it was me who needed to be trained for perseverance.

—197 words

January 8, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Makassia said...

A Trip Back to My Mother’s Hometown


We were riding on a bus (well, a truck, actually) full of parents and children. I sat on a suitcase (there was no seat left and many people didn’t want to miss this bus—it was the last—so they made their kids sit on suitcases). I couldn’t sleep and I felt like puking because it was hot and the air smelled like gas. The bus driver stopped for a cigarette and passengers got out for fresh air. As I stumbled to lean on a metal fence that stood a bit farther from the road, I realized we’d stopped on a bridge and the metal fence was on the side of the river. I gazed at and couldn’t take my eyes off the river. Not the cold breeze that blew my face made me motionless; the salty and muddy smell of the river—but the color of the water— coal black. Mystery. I still can’t put my fingers on the reason I couldn’t walk back to the truck (a man took me back to my mom). Was it out of fear? Uncertainty.

189 words

January 9, 2009 at 12:17 AM
Eman said...

One winter morning, when I was taking an English course in Arbil, a city that is eight hours far away from my city, I decided to go there with three friends by car. One of them was driving. We supposed to arrive Arbil before the sunset, but unfortunately we couldn’t. There were two completely different ways which lead to that big city: the first one was short, but it had surrounded with big mountains, and the second way was very long, but its streets were straight.
Me with my friends, decided to take the short road because we thought if we arrived on time, we could have some rest and got ready for the exam on the next day. After we spent 3 hours driving, we found that the whole mountains were covered with the snow, and the streets looked white. Imagine the situation! We were afraid of the possibility of loosing the way, or getting stuck in the snow. That was what really happened to us. Oh my God! That was a terrible situation because we kept looking for help, but no one was there. Even there were no network for cell phones. We were frightened if it got dark, and some wild animals came to us. Finally and after 2 hours waiting, we saw some cars were driving near to us. “Yay”, I screamed loudly. Then, some men helped us, and one of them drove our car back until we were on the safe street. Later, we returned back into our city. After we had lunch and an hour break, my friend’s brother decided to drive the car by taking the second way, the long and safe road. Finally, we arrived Arbil at midnight. Wow, that was a fun trip!
(210 words)

January 9, 2009 at 12:19 AM
mia said...

We drove our Buick Lacrosse on the way to Universal City, California (Universal Stadium is there). My brother in -law was behind the wheel and my sister sat beside him. They got a hard job-he a long distance driver; she a navigator holding a map most of time. Some minor arguments were not inevitable. My mom and I sat in the back seat, relaxing all the time. After five hours driving without a stop, the hour hand pointed to 12 at noon. Buying KFC meals at the drive-thru window, we continued our trip. The road condition was good and our car rode in the stream of the traffic. I put my meal in the middle seat between my mom and me and unfasten my seat belt, for I could enjoy my lunch more comfortably. Perhaps I was hungry-the fried chicken was so delicious .when-whoop!-behind our car-something happened. Damn. We got caught. Pulled the car and waited. A policewoman got out of the police car and walked toward us. After checking ID and questioning, she passed the tickets to my brother in-law, and left. “You got speeding ticket?” I asked. “And a seat belt one.” He said. A chicken bone almost stuck in my throat.

-204 words

January 9, 2009 at 2:13 AM
Ryan said...

On the last day of each year, every December thirty-first, we usually went to a beautiful beach or the top of a mountain to see watch the new year’s sun. Being part of Korea’s traditional culture, my family followed it each year and made resolutions for the upcoming year. When I was just a middle school student, we went out on a winter day with intolerable coldness. Terrible! We took our father's fabulous BMW SUV - his number one treasure after me - and headed to watch the new year’s sunrise with car's whirr sound just like my father's snore. We headed to JungDongJin - one of the most famous beach hills - for watching sunrise. During our ride there, mother kept my sister and me preoccupied by questioning our goals for the new years. The next thing I know, I woke up from a short nap on my mother’s comfortable lap with deep 'huh' breathe. Very soon, we arrived at our destination and obtained a good spot for watching the new year’s sun, like we always had in the previous years. Just like before, we prayed for our desires with many other visitors like ourselves. Though it may seem like a trivial trip, to me, this day of each year was a special day when our family could spend quality time together.

-223 words.

January 9, 2009 at 3:05 AM
kenny said...

Safari in the Masai Mara

Early in June, 2003, I had a 5 days Safari in the Masai Mara of Kenya with my wife. We visited the Caren Blaxon Museum in Nirobi where the author of “Out of Africa” had lived and cultivated coffee as her business.

When we arrived in the Masai Mara, the herd of animals had migrated to the Serengeti Plain of Tanzania. Gnu which is similar with American buffalo are migrating as a mass of hundreds of thousands looking for new grass shoots and lions and leopards which prey upon gnu are following them. Anyway we had a good chance to see group of lumbering elephants, towering giraffes and high-bounding impalas in the Masai Mara. What a lovely scene.

We visited one of the village of the Masai tribe. They are living in the vicinity of a stream where lions want to live too. The Masai village are consist of the outer circle of wood fence to prevent lion’s attack, the inner circle for the area of cattle pen and round shaped houses between the two circles. When I entered one of the houses, it was completely dark at the beginning. As time goes on, I can distinguish sleeping places and a kitchen and living goods. It is very simple house.

January 9, 2009 at 8:45 AM
sam said...

Last July, we decided to go to Okanagan for picking up cherry with our friends. The group includes two families: my wife, my daughter and I; another couple who are our best friends. We drove our Honda CR-V directly to Kelowna, a beautiful city beside the Okanagan Lake, visited the famous Mission Hill Winery, got some sachets in a lavender farm which are my wife’s favorite. Finally we think we got to pick up cherry since it was the main intention of this trip, so we went through highway 97 which is along the Okanagan Lake. We found a lot of sceneries on the way, but we didn’t see cherries, so we stopped at an information center in Penticton, and then the people told us that we may not able to find some cherries because of the abnormal cold weather in the spring. With such a disappointment, we decided to go back home through Highway 3. It was so dark when our car was running in the mountain, and I drove so carefully because I almost can see nothing, but suddenly I saw something, two green flicker points, it’s getting closer and closer. It’s a deer! With my braking, I heard the screeching and the exclaiming, other persons also found it. Fortunately, the deer was going to cross the road but had not done it already.

-226 words

January 9, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Neela said...

It was the middle of Ramadan (a month of fasting for Muslim people) after a long time of tolerance the war and having sleepless nights, my brother managed a way for us (me and him who stuck in that situation) to escape from Afghanistan and go to Pakistan to join with my other family members. It was early morning and the city of Kabul was deserted. The only sound we could hear were the sound of gun fire from long away. I still remember that trip in a dirty bus full of frightened passengers with no luggage and empty stomachs, with the hope to be alive. My brother didn’t get tired of my infinite questions, how long left? What if they don’t let as pass the edge to get to Pakistan? How to go back this long way and where to go next? I wanted my brother to answer my entire questions in one second. The roads were endless and my heart was trying to beat as hard as it could. Finally, after all fear and anxiety, our bus got to the border where we spent hours arguing to collect as much money as it could satisfy Pakistani police. We passed the border at midnight and got to Pakistan. Wow what a relief, and what a successful trip. No word can explain our happiness at the next morning.
228 words

January 9, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Eve Yan said...

Brad, sorry for the late submission, but the requirement was too difficult for me, I was studying very hard on that during the weekend!

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Trip to Nakust Hot Spring

My husband and I faced the snow mountain driveway by the narrow canyon through which the Kuskanax River runs. We sat on the Infiniti four-wheels-drive in December of 2002 – when back then, life was about adventure- without kids whining and crying. Figuring out that this “city car” could actually mange the snow condition of the road – he turn the switch into four wheels – and drove up the mountain road.

Nakusp Hot Spring at the top of the mountain is so peaceful; I sat in the spring water - snow flakes melted on my hair, cheeks and shoulders - my hair soon froze into ice tubes. But, pine trees surrounding the hot spring pool were resting cozily under the snow blankets. Hot - I got out from the hot spring water-“Wow!” - that was freezing-my body trembled.

My husband planed the returning trip by heading west to Vancouver at midnight – we will probably arrive home the next day morning. We drove on the highway 6. It started snow heavily – the road was covered – my husband turned on low beam lights in order to see through the dense snow fake. “Zee” – tires touched the edge of the road – that is a reminder of danger – we need to pull the car back into center. Light splashing behind us; a blue utility truck tried to pass us impatiently – rushed madly on the highway.

Police car stopped us and declared an accident ahead of us. The blue utility truck was lying by the edge of the cliff – like a dead horse has its final rest. “That was the car behind us!” I screamed. The thought – he replaced our car – was haunting me during the rest of our trip.
It was 5 am we arrived Vancouver, the morning news reported the accident we just witnessed and driver was dead in the hospital.

January 12, 2009 at 2:09 PM

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