Bandes,+Maria+Isabel

WEEK-1 The first week of summer I watched this show called THE OC, which stands for Orange County in California. I watched the entire show, season 1,2,3 and 4. The reason why I wacthed it was because my friend Veronique watched it last summer and told me I was going to love it and she was absolutely right. I guess this is an example about something that I did this summer for english because obviously the show was in the english language and used very high vocabulary words ocassionally during the show. The OC is about this boy called Ryan Attewood which had a very messed up life, his mother was an alcoholic and his brother and father were en prison. Ryan's life changed when he met this guy named Sandi Cohen, which was also his lawyer. Sandi after seeing how misearble his life was decided to take Ryan in to live with him for a few days since he didnt have where to go. While living with Sandi and his wife Ryan met Seth which was Sandi's son, Marissa his neighbor and Marissa's best friend Summer which was also Seth's crush since elementary school. After a long time living with them Sandi and his wife Kirsten decided they should legally adopt him because he was getting along so well with them and Seth. The whole concept of the show is how Ryan from being a troubled child turned into a completely different person. The show is also about true love, how Ryan and Marissa are deeply in love; how Seth and Summer turned out to be a fantastic couple. This is right now my favorite show because I really connect with it somehow in some parts. I even cried at the end of season 3 when Marissa dies in a car accident, which by the way season 4 sucked without her.

2. Ryan carrying Marissa when she dies.3.Seth and Summer kissing

WEEK-2 On week 2 was my birthday, June 9. I turned 15 years old that day and I had a small get together with my close friends. Under all of my presents was one package from FEDEX which said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, love your favorite cousin". When I read it I wasn't exactly sure what was in the package and which one of my cousins sent it to me. But then I opened it and it was a book called "Anti-Arab Racism in the USA" by Steven Salaita. And at that moment I found out what cousin had sent that to me it was Steven Salaita Bandes; the author of my present. This book is not that old but it wasn't new and everytime I spoke with Steven I would tell him that I wanted a copy of his book, but I wanted that one specifically. My family is from arab origin and I want to learn more from it everyday so that week I started reading it, I havent finished the book but I am in the process of it. In the begining steven thanks all of his family and he mentions my dad's name and all of my uncles. While I read this book I get this rare feeling like if Im proud of what im reading, I feel proud of my cousin and I feel proud of my family. In one part of the book Steven tells a story about his father. His father is a teacher at a university and he tells this story that one day he went to visit his father at his class and that he found a post it sticked to the computer that said "GO HOME YOU F** IRANIAN". This is an example of arab racism and I was shocked when I read it, this is too offensive. And the worst part is that my uncle isnt even from Iran, hes from Palestine;and obviosuly the person wo wrote that has no idea of the difference between them. I also read another part where he tells this story that when he was in elementary he took some arab food in spanish called "warag dawali". (grape leaves) He says that everyone was bothering him because they told him he was eating poop. I think this book is very interesting and I feel very proud of being an arab. This is my cousin Steven at the left with my uncle holding my niece, and her father Michael. (Steven's brother)

WEEK-3 This week was no reading at all, I had a small marathon of two scary movies with my best friend Natalia. On Friday we went to her little sisters frist comunion and after the small reunion we went straight to metro media and checked out The Hills Have Eyes 1 and 2. We saw them one after another and they were kind of grose. These movies are old but they told us they were good and we were in the mood for scary movies. Well this is what the movies are about. There was this guy that worked in a gosline station in a dessert on the way to some place, i dont really remmeber the place. And he was allied with these weird deformed people who were carnivorous. Everytime a family passed by the station he would tell them to go through a shortcut so that these people could eat them and by him doing that for them they didnt eat him and they gave him everything that the people that they ate owned. These people tortured them and they almost everytime rapped the women so that they could have babies like them and after they killed the women. So the first movie is about one family that gets eaten by them and only 3 of them survive and one fo them is a pregnant girl which they then kill. After this family was killed everyone heard about the news so the second movie is about a group of militars that go there to investigate what happened, but the same happens;most of them got eaten by them the others survived and they killed all of the weird people. It was very grose, but I liked it.



WEEK-4 On the 4th week I had the best surprise! One year ago I ordered a book that Cristiano Ronaldo wrote about his life. I am his biggest fan. I love Cristiano Ronaldo, I love how he looks I love how he plays. I think he is the best soccer player in the world. I never read the book because I couldnt find it but this summer I cleaned up a drawer and there it was so i started reading it and I loved it so much that i finished it all in one day. He tells his story with great passion, he says how he was poor in Portugal and that he lived in an island called Madeira. He describes his favorite sport and what he does for a living, soccer; with such passion and love. He tells the story about when his father died that he dedicated him the last penalty he scored against England in the Germany World Cup. In the book he quotes what he said to him, "You, there, this one's for you". He even shows a picture of him pointing up at the sky after scoring that penalty. This book talks about his personal life,his hobbies,his passions and his career. I already knew alot of him by reasearch and the first book I read but this one was better, it was special because while I was reading it I could kind of feel what he was saying. In a way I felt his passion and everytime i read about something sad like his father's death I felt sad, it was like I felt what he felt at the time. This is a good example of english during summer because even thought Cristiano ROnaldo is portugues he speaks english very well and his book has a very advanced english.

WEEK-5 Week five Edith came back from Houston! We went to visit her to her house and we watched some T.V and talked and then we played TABOO. This is like the best game ever! We have a tradition that to every sleepover we have we play this game. This is a great example of english this summer because 1. the game is in english OBVIOUSLY. 2. the word consists in finding how to explaing every word you get without saying a list of words on the bottom. So it is kind of related to vocabulary, you need to guess the word by its definition. An example is, Alana got the word "Geek" so she only said "all of you guys tell I am a BLANK" and everyone in her team said geek, since we all tell her that. This game helps us learn the definition of new words.



WEEK-6 On week 6 I saw this movie called "Everybodys Fine". This is kind of a sad movie, I cried at the end of it. It is about an old man, who's wife just passed out and he has 4 children; 2 boys and 2 girls.When his children were little he didnt have the same connection that their mother did with them. He wasn't a bad father but his kids just didnt tell him the same as they told their mother. So when his wife died he lived alone, he one day invited all of his kids to a barbecue to his house but all of them canceled on him. That was kind of sad and dissapointed but he decided that if they didn't go to him, he should go to them. The old man traveled to 4 different cities to see his children. First he went to Rosie's in Las Vegas, After he went to Amy in Chicago, Then to New York he went to see David but he never found him, so he then decided to go to see Robert. When he got home he had a heart attack but he survived and when he woke up at the hospital he saw 3 of his children;Rosie,Amy and Robert but no David. They started to talk and they all told his dad the truth which was that they didnt have the life he expected them to have. He thought all fo his children were succesful but the truth was he didnt know it all and the worst he didnt know that David had died in an accident in Mexico. Since that day on the 4 of them saw each other more often and always remembered their passed mother and brother. This is a very sad movie and it made me think of my passed grandfather.



WEEK-7 On week seven I watched the entire 2 seasons of GOSSIP GIRL! I am waiting anxiously for the third season to come out. I know gossip girl sounds like plastic but if you see the show you can see that apart from all the gossiping there are other very strong things in the show. Thw show is about family unity, mistakes you do, true love, true friendship and last the bvious one gossip. The primary characters are Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey, Serena Van Der Woodsen, Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald. All of these characters are different; some are very plastic others humble, some have alot of money others don't their personalities are completely different but at the end they are all friends and at the end of season two all of them show unity by trying to discover who gossip girl is; who is the one that sends all the tips that they send to the website. They still don't know who it is but maybe just maybe together they will find out. Together they were through high school and together they will be through college on season 3.



WEEK-8 On the last week of summer Anastasia gave me the last (8th) book series of PRETTY LITTLE LIARSS!!! I was waiting forthis book to come out for months and I finally got to read it! I was so excited I couldnt stop reading it I finished it in two days nonstop. These series of books are written by Sara Shepard. Its a story about 4 high school girls who used to be friends with the most popular girl in school called Alison DiLaurentis. Seh was the queen bee in their group but one night at a sleepover Alison disapeared and they never found her for like a year after they found her dead body. By that time the 4 girls weren't friends anymore but they were all receiving texts saying secrets only Alison knew and things the girls were doing and had done and at the end of every text there was an -A, like if it was Alison sending them. Many close people to them were killed and -A kept sending them messages. The police spent years trying to figure out who was the murderer and the cause for everything that was happening. -A tried to kill them she screwed everything fot them, their lives were hell because of her. The last book is very confusing, the girls met Alison's secret twin sister called Courtney. But then Courtney took them to her house in Poconos, a place where they always went with Ali and she tried to kill them! They found out that Ali was Courtney and Courtney was Ali. Thye got mixed up years ago so thayt meant that the girl who was with them beofre she dissapeared was Courtney not Ali and the one who tried to kill them was Ali not Courtney. After the fire at the poconos house everyone thought Ali was dead but then at the end it said that a girl arrived at a new school and her name was Alison DiLaurentis mixed up, but no one knew if it was her. These books are so misterious I LOVE THEMM. I am so sad the series is finished and i think these books helped me with my english vocabulary.