The Alchemist --- CHANGES in Santiago ?!

Santiago learned more things on the way while he was getting to the Pyramids than only being a shepherd. At first , he just liked everyone else that he was afraid to "Change". He never thought about to follow his recurrent dream if the old king didn’t show up. He never knew anything about omens. He never knew how to observe and read the omens. I think the old king became his HERO in his heart. When he met something challenged himself, his mind always showed up the time when the old king was talking to him. It means the old king affected him the most. The old king might even “light” Santiago’s road to his Personal Legend.

Besides, Santiago wasn’t afraid to change the way he always did, not liked the crystal merchant. He feared it might be disappointed himself after he changed something, so he never reached his own Personal Legend. In the beginning of the book, Santiago was anxious what would the “changes” bring to her but now he was more mature and confidence after all the experience he got from his journey.

Dear Mr. Garth Nix

March. 06 , 2009

Dear Mr. Garth Nix,

How are you? I am one of your "Sabriel" 's readers. Although I haven't finished it yet, it's a very exciting book. I pretty love "Sabriel" this character because she is an excellent girl. The main character of most of this kind of adventure stories is male, so I think it's kind of special for me.

When I started to read this book a week ago, I didn't get any of it completely. I didn't get anything about the worlds of Life and Death. How come she could cross those two worlds easily? And one more thing, what was Aboerson? These were just my questions at first, I cleared some of them later on when I continued to read it.

Sometimes, I felt a little bored when I saw so many desciptions in front of my eyes. I almost gave up but the feelings of nervous brought me back several times. When Sabriel met a monster after she summoned her guide or her "mother" (is it actually her "mom"?), she took her actions very fast. I thought the monster hit her already, but it didn't and she moved so fast. Her strongful power made me felt excited but when I kept reading it, I was very nervous and anxious just like I was "Sabriel" and I was fighting with that monster. After I finished reading that scene, I felt relaxed. I didn't know why it happened, like I have fallen into your "Old Kingdom". The only conclusion I had was Your descriptions were very good. Your description pulled me out of my world and brought me into your mysterious world. I think I will continue to read your "The Old Kingdom series". I am excited now, even I haven't finished "Sabriel" yet . ( >.< ) XD

P.S. I am appreciated to become one of your readers!!

Sincerely,

Mei Lan

" Sabriel " ----- I am a HERO !!

"Sabriel" is my third independent reading book of this school year (2008~2009). I choose this book because my sister read it before and I got some good comments from her. Actually, I am a younger sister that always "follows" my older sister. It seems that I am her "shadow", right?


(--......--;) However, today's topic is "Sabriel" !!!





"Sabriel" is a pretty hard book, but I think it's a exciting book. It's about MAGIC & SORCER!!(...>v<...) Sabriel was a girl who went through the Wall to get into the mystercies and dangerous place, the Old Kingdom, in order to find her "father" and discovered the whole secret which was hidden there. I dreamed about that I was the main character of an adventure story when I was just a little child. I daydreamed that I am going to save the whole Earth with my partners someday.Was I silly? I love to put myself as the main character and dream a adventure story, even though it's now!! (> v <)
I am a HERO !! ( >o+")

2nd Reading Reflection —— The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants

The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants was my first independent reading book of the fall semester of 2008. Actually, I didn't have special feeling when my sight connected with the book cover at first. My older sister had read this book last year and she said it was a good book though. This reason changed my mind and brought enough attraction to me with this book. After, I had the same feeling as my sister. It taught me so many lesson while I was reading it. Sometimes, I refused to accept "new" things. I really knew that "changing" wasn't bad for me, but I just didn't want to face the "new" things. You may think that I was a freak, I hated that feeling, and I was afraid the time of changing. However, I still had to face it because "life loves 'changing.' " In this book, the four main characters, Tibby, Bridget, Lena, and Carman, needed to accept the change of their life. Tibby needed to accept the life without Bailey. Bridget needed to face the sadness after Eric refused her. Carman needed to accept her new life with her father's new family. Lena changed her life because of Kostos. Sometimes, "changing" might bring you sadness, but "So What ?" I learned that I need to be brave to face "changing". This was the point why life is so interesting because you couldn't know what is going to happen next. If I didn't read this book, it means I couldn't realize this fact.

Actually, my reading speed is faster than before this semester, which means reading really helps with my reading speed. It also helps me to know more about the other countries. Every country has its cultures. I can know more about the other countries through reading. For example, sausages are came from German. Vodka means "water" in Russian, which means Vodka=water, which means they drink Vodka as water everyday!!! This is just my opinion... I want to read more and learn more about different kind of things through reading. I want to learn more extra knowledge other than from the textbook. This brings me the biggest interest to keep me read. Also, it may be the reason why I need "glasses" these wonderful things. ( >v< ) XXXXXXXXXD

1st Reading Reflection —— The Alchemist

The Alchemist is my English class's shared reading book for these several months. It contained a lot of themes, more than what I thought before I started reading it. Although I finished just a little bit, I've already discovered some themes. One of these is "You should seize your chance tightly and never let it go away." In this book, Sandiago had a recurring dream, and it directed him to find his treasures. This was a chance for him to travling the world and had a challenge. If he ignored his recurring dream, he might never had a chance again to get such a valuable experiment and treasures. In real life, sometimes if you meet a good chance, but you still think about it skeptically, the chance may go away suddenly when you decide to catch it. So, i think it's important to me that I should never fear to make a decision. I should seize my chance tightly everytime I need to decide something and never regret that I make this decision someday.

Dreams !!

Have you ever had a dream? I believe everyone has one, but it depends on would you still remember it after you wake up. In my personal opinion, I think DREAMS are very mysterious and enigmatic. We don't know when we can be dreamt and the exactly reason why we dream. One of my friends said that a dream only happen a few seconds before you wake up, even it is a super long dream.

Would it become real in the real world? I believe that, but it depends on what I dreamt. If it is a recurring dream, like Santiago in The Alchemist, I think it is about the future, the purpose, or my own life that somebody want to tell me. "Somebody" would be the ancients, the gods, or even it is myself. DREAMS can be a media for some "people" who want to tell me somthing, but they can't show up right in front of me. If it is true, I think that Santiago was wise in his decision to follow a dream that came to him at night. Besides, I think the dream interpretation is true because "nothing is impossible"!! I think sometimes the dream interpretations may be true, but sometimes are not. Anyway, if you really want to solve it, you would believe in everything, even you know it's impossible.

Yesterday, I have dreamt a horrible dream. It was about a girl, who was me, but she wasn't "look" like me, like my soul just went inside a wrong body, was running so quickly, like she tried to keep away somthing... I don't really remember it after I wake up. Then, I find somthing interesting about sleep. Sometimes, we can have more than one completely different dreams in a night, because of the sleep cycle. Dreams can happen in any of the four stages of the sleep cycle.

However, this is just what I thought about dreams, and you? If your want to share something to me or anyone, please make a common and this will be your free place to share forever !!

The New Post Assignment on 12/18/2008

My second independent reading book is “Twilight”. I finished it about a month ago and I am working on my second reading journal now. I discovered several things when I was reading it. United States is a “free” country!! In the book, the main chacarter, Bella, was a junior student. She had her own car and most of the characters in this book knew how to drive. They could go out with their friends at night and their parents didn’t limit them so much. They had lots of fun activities at school. Bella went out to the prom with Edward at the end of this book. Both of my parents are Chinese, and some of my friends are in China. They don’t need to drive to school and they don’t even think about driving when they go to college. It’s because they have very good transportations, like buses, trains, and MTR(underground train). In real life, my parents always limit me to go outsides without them, because it is very dangerous! It’s always be their most eloquent and most common reason, and I’ve heard so many time…… Anyway, I know it’s because they care me so I don’t quite care they limit me or not. Some of my friends in China tell me that they have so many fun activities at school, but completely different activities than in the United states. Although this book was just talked about the school life in the United States(a little bit), I compared it with the school life in China. This reminds me that every country , every person has their own personal way to face their life.You don’t have to do the same way to get the same results. In my personal comment, I enjoy the process more than the result itself. So that why I like to travel different countries in the world to see different kind of stuffs. That will be super funif I have this chance!!