So Far From the Bamboo Grove(2nd post)

I'm done with reading So Far From the Bamboo Grove and I think it was a really good book. Not only did it give me the idea of what the Japanese went through , it also gave me the chance to understand them. Before reading this book, honestly I diddnt really think that I would enjoy this book because its in the perspective of a Japanese, but now I think about it, i dont regret reading this book. This story has alot of settings.The main two setting takes place in Korea and Japan however if you narrow it now, there are more then just two places. Because the family is on a journey, they move to places to places really fast. They go to Nanam to Seoul then Busan then to Japan.
The main topic of this book , is that you notice the loveliness of somehting after you go through a hard situtaion.

So Far From The Bamboo Grove

So far from the Bamboo Grove is a good book. A girl name Yoko tells the story about her terrifying journey that she had went through with her family. Yoko and her sister,Ko and her mother were forced to leave their houses in Korea because Koreans were mad and were trying to punish Japanese for what they did. Some of the Japanese that lived in Korea were neutral, like Yoko's family however Korean soliders diddnt understand that. So this book is mainly about those three, and Yoko's brother, Hideyo appears in the story once in a while.
Through out the story, Yoko comes out as a girl who is very young and curious. She asks alot of questions. At first she seemed like a girl who complains a lot but as the story goes on she learns to be strong and learns to just face the hard problems just the way it is. Even though it was really hard for her to walk all day long in the cold with her mom and her sister, she complained but never had given up. She might seem like a weak girl but deep inside she is strong hearted. To be honest, if i was in Yoko's shoes , I would of given up already and would of been really scared watching horrible things happening to people, like in the train. 11 is a pretty young age, however Yoko faced cruel problems even though she was young and learned from those by getting stronger.
I think Ko is a very good role model for Yoko. Yoko is also learning from her sister that she has to just face the hard situations.
For the past few days, reading this book has been a nice experience for me and I m happy to see how the ending is going to be like.

Secret =O

I remember when I was in 2nd grade; someone stole the candies in the candy jar. That day my teacher told the whole class to stay after school, until someone admitted that they stole it. For about an hour, no one admitted. So she sent us all home. The day after that, I went back to school and found out who stole it, my best friend, Katie did. She told me the whole story of how she stole it .Katie made me pinky promise not to tell anyone. The whole mystery about the candies didn’t settle down and my teacher seemed to really "care" about it. Then, I really didn’t understand why she's being so upset about the whole thing, but now I do. She wanted to teach us that stealing something isn't a right thing to do no matter how small or big or precious it is. As days passed by, the pressure of my guilt grew bigger and stronger as big as a monster. I remember every night before I went to bed, I prayed to God to please forgive me for not telling the teacher. About 2 weeks passed and my teacher told the whole class that if she finds out anyone involved in it, she is going to give them a big punishment too as well as for the person who did it. And later, the whole mystery quieted. One morning, I decided that what I was doing for Katie was right but wrong for our friendship. So after school, I went up to my teacher and told her the truth. I remember that day so vividly. She told my in a really calm scary voice that she's disappointed in me for not telling the truth for a month but also very proud of me. I begged her not to tell Katie that I was the one who bailed on her, and she didn’t. My friendship with Katie ended that day, but the big black monster of guilt went away to bother somebody else=]. Through this experience I learned a lot of things. For example, that you shouldn’t go with the flow, but you should go with the "right" flow and make good choices. A secret should be kept if its something that should be kept no matter how big or small it is. Even though this happened a long time ago, its still about ME, my secrect and it reveals my personality that I can't go under pressure of guilt for a long time but at the same time, I can't betray a friend

Courage

When I first entered Korean school, I felt scared. I didn't know the language nor did I know anybody there. It was like entering a whole different world. I felt courageous because I knew that I couldn't back out of this situation, and I knew, that if quit, I would have no where else to go back or forward to. Now that I look back, I'm glad that I went through it because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be where I am today. I would have to say that being in Korean school was one of the hardest times of my life, and the toughest experience that I went through. I had no friends that I could share my emotions with, and even if I could, they wouldn't understand. It was really emotionally hard for me. I felt so frustrated. My social life, had just crumbled. I had friends, but even if I did, like I said, we couldn't communicate. Then, my grades were going down as well. I didn't understand what was going on, and I was failing all my classes, except English. I understood then that communication is important and I also knew that everybody is good at something. Even in the worst situations, and you feel like you can't do anything, theres always and up side. In time, my friends had supported me and helped me through the year, and by the end, I was pretty fluent in the language, and my grades were pretty good. Through this experience I found about myself, that I'm scared of taking new chances, but when you put me in the situation, I can handle it. I can find an upside to the situation, and get my self out of it. In the end, I also felt courageous the moment I came into TCIS, because I really went through everything even though it was tough, and I faced the many obstacles life threw at me.