My Fabulous Winter Break-by Tanisha Mandal

           During my Winter Break I had a lot of fun! In the first week I didn’t do much, but the second week was awesome. We went to Legoland and Las Vegas. On Saturday we left early in the morning was a long drive to LA. First in LA we went to a church where we had to pray and then across from the church was a Walt Disney Concert Hall Studio. That is a masterpiece of architecture. It was so cool! On that evening we drove to a hotel. It had a living room with a couch with a bed and a kitchen. The other room had two beds and a TV obviously a bathroom. When we were in the hotel we ate dinner and my brother and I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (the first one).The next day in the morning it was Christmas but we didn’t get any presents (not Santa but our parents) even though every year we get presents from our parents. Though we went to Legoland it was just 5 minutes away. Legoland was just amazing. We got to ride on lots of rides. Legoland doesn’t have fast rides as much as Great America, Legoland has a new Star Wars ride that goes super-fast and my parents didn’t let me ride on it. The water park was closed because it was winter but we went to a ride called Splash Zone where there is a ride that goes slow then splashes you. My whole body got wet. My favorite part in Legoland was MiniLand USA. Everything was made out of Lego of exact mini replica of San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, and Washington DC etc. There was a boat ride where we saw lots of other great places of the world like the Taj Mahal, Eifel Tower, American presidents on Mount Rushmore and more. Legoland closed at 5:00 pm. 

            We left and drove all the way to Las Vegas; it was a six hour drive. We reached there at 12:00 pm; we stayed at a hotel called Palace Station. It was a three star. All of us were tired. We booked two rooms, one was for my parents, and the other one was for my brother and me. The next day we had at our breakfast at Starbucks. We enjoyed lots of nice hotels. My favorite hotel was called Bellagio. In the lobby everything was decorated with penguins, a huge Christmas tree, polar bears and more. Every 15 minutes in the night a water fountain show happens in the water. It is like fireworks on the water. The next day we went to Circus Circus , I got lots of prizes but I was hoping I would get a guitar which I didn’t .After that we saw more hotels and then went to Planet Hollywood  watched a show called the Ultimate Variety Show. The show was about juggling, dancing, magic, etc. My two favorite performances was a boy and a girl were on a trampoline and roller skating. The boy was spinning the girl in the air that she almost hit my eye. My other favorite performance was a man juggling and hitting the piano and playing Fur Elise. The next day we had to get, back to our home, but I have to say I had a great trip. Soon it was New Year’s Eve, We went to a party. We danced till 12:00 p.m. We came home at 3:00 a.m. Clearly, I had a marvelous Winter Break.

Yo Yo Ma By Vivek

    Do you play the cello? If the answer is yes, then you probably know Yo-Yo Ma. He is Chinese American musician who is known for his mastery of the cello.


     Ma was born in Paris, France on October 7, 1955. Music ran in his family: his mother was a singer, and his  father was a violinist, composer, and music scholar. His father trained musically gifted children, like his own son! Some reasons he is popular is that his smooth tones express so much passion, and his technique is almost perfect. Also, he can play the toughest works for the cello with out batting an eye. He is also versatile, playing music like baroque, bluegrass, and Argentine tangos. He first played the violin, but he found his true calling when he switched to the cello at age four.  He was a natural even then! Three years later, Ma’s family moved to New York. At age seven, he was one of the youngest students at New York’s prestigious Juliard School of Music. In 1964, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall at nine years old. He was well on his way to becoming the next musical star! After graduating from Harvard University in 1976, Ma  began his full time playing  career. However, he had to undergo surgery to fix his scoliosis- a condition that results in an unnaturally curved spine. Ma had suffered from it since childhood, and it had gotten so bad that it was threatening his ability to pay the cello. Luckily, the surgery was a success, ans Ma was able to resume his career. 15 of his albums have won Grammy awards. However, he has 75 albums. He has also won the National Medal of Arts.He also made cello solos in  the Oscar award winning soundtrack of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Master and Commander: the Far Side of of the World . He is a cultural ambassador and a UN messenger of peace.  He also appears on shows like Sesame Street! He once preformed for president Ronald Reagan! He also met Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple! He also appeared on the Colbert Report, the television show Arthur, and world renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone!

 I hope you have learned a lot about Yo-Yo Ma. Thanks!

 Do you play a musical instrument ? Do you know a lot about someone famous?

Up and Down Masada- By Jonathan Neduva

         My older brother, Dan, is a soldier in the Isreali Army.  He is twenty-two years old and has lived in Tel-Aviv, Israel for the past four years.  Dan lives on the base sometimes and has another home in the city.  This past December, just before Chanukkah (a Jewish holiday my family celebrates), I visited Israel and I got to see my brother on the base. The army base has a soccer and volleyball court that the soldiers use when they are not training.  There are a lot of army cars and tanks.  There is one car that is all armor and it is designed to throw grenades. Every army vehicle has a code on it made of numbers and letters, like a license plate.  When you want to take pictures on the base, you are not allowed to take pictures of the codes on these vehicles.  They contain private information.

         Dan’s daily training is really tough. A part of his training is to climb to the top of Masada, an old abandoned town at the top of a mountain.  He has to climb up and down the mountain twenty times in one day.  From the top of Massada, you can see the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea is famous for being covered in salt.  The Dead Sea is actually underground.  It has a depth of 100,000 feet!

         I miss my brother a lot.  If you had a brother or sister who lived away from you and only visited on vacations, would you miss them too?  

                                                                         Masada