Cooking Class, by Aimee

On one of the last days we were in Lombok we did a cooking class.  It was taught by the home stay hostess at the place where we were staying.  The home stay was called Angekk Putih.  The cooking class started at around 10:00.  She first introduced all the spices and veggies we were cooking with.  Some of the spices were familiar but others were not.  Each person was given separate dishes to work on.  We had Tempe (which is a kind of tofu; we made it with tomato sauce),  pineapple chicken, curry chicken, Mie Goreng (fried noodles with veggies), corn fritters, and fried fish (on a real fire!).  I was in charge of the pineapple chicken.  All of us had to make a paste with some veggies and spices to flavor the meal.  My paste was made with garlic, shallots, chili, salt, galangal, and a few other ingredients.  Then I started frying the chicken and added the paste.  We also added pineapple, sweet soya sauce, and chopped tomato.  The smell was amazing.  I also got to try Hannah's corn fritters while I was making my meal.  They were very good.  They tasted a bit like corn chips but thicker.  After everyone was done making their meals we sat down and ate.  Everything was so delicious.  My favourite was probably Kate's curry chicken and my pineapple chicken.  My dad had made the fish, my mom had made the Tempe, and Elizabeth made the Mie Goreng.  We were so full that we could not finish everything.

Trying the corn fritters that Hannah made.  The hostess is beside Hannah.  We cooked outside on her porch

Me cutting up veggies

Grilled fish

Mie Goreng

Curry chicken

Pineapple chicken

Tempe

My recipe (except we added pineapple too)

First Weeks of Seventh Grade, by Aimee

The first few weeks of seventh grade have been considerably harder than sixth grade.  We get way more homework and homework takes up to two hours each day.  My favorite class so far is probably either Bible or P.E. In Bible we get to do mini projects on character qualities such as honesty or integrity.  In Gym we get to play sports.  We have a newly renovated gym so the floor is all nice and glossy and it is raised up an inch.  The best part is the locker rooms in the gym.  They look very nice and modern now and the showers are much nicer and it is much bigger and less dirty.  We also have a new slide in the middle school area that goes from the top floor of classrooms down to the bottom floor.  It is blue and yellow.  I don't go down it that much because it gives me a burn.  Another thing that is new this year is that there is a different schedule, for example we have Chapel and middle school activities on the same day now.  Also, Eurekas (after school clubs) are not mandatory anymore.  I liked last year's schedule a lot better because we got lunch a lot earlier.  But now that we are in seventh grade the good thing is that we don't need supervision.  They made this new rule that sixth grade and under need people watching them after school.  Their parents need to be on campus and basically following the students.  Seventh grade and up don't need that.  The hardest subject for me right now is Pre-Algebra.  The teacher is really hard and gives us really hard equations and inequalities to solve.  One of the easiest subjects for me is World History because most of the tests are open book (meaning you can look in your textbook for answers). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mkqY4CQkBY&feature=youtu.be
You may have watched this before but this was the second day of school.  Can you spot me? I am wearing a black t-shirt coming down a water slide on a tube (1:58, 2:27), There are also some of my classmates in it.  My dad is in it (0:37 and 0:50) and Kate is in it too (1:04) wearing her bathing suit helping herself to some food and also coming down a slide on a tube with a friend (2:16, 2:17).

Middle school slide