March 30, 2002: Biking in my backyard.
(and 7) I excavated a storage file holding papers from my elementary school days in Los Angeles while decluttering my home in Beijing at the beginning of the year. I had planned to make a project of digitising all those documents—diaries, short stories, drawings, homework—but my family and I left Beijing in a hurry before the epidemic shut down the country. I did manage to copy down entries from two diaries before I left though.
March 22, 2003: I was a Flower Girl at some church member’s wedding.
2003 (Jan-May + Aug)
1st grade // White diary with gold clasps. Illustration of a girl on the cover. There was a story about a girl who kept a diary at the beginning of the book. The diary came with prompts for some dates.
January 1, 2003
A Person I Would Secretly Like to Telephone: Layla
I like Layla because she is my friend. She is the best. She moved away. It is realy far.
February 10, 2003
My Secret Friend: Audrey
Audrey is my blue pet fish. But she died. I realy miss her.
(I buried her in the bush outside my house.)
February 24, 2003
Today I went to school. We learned about turn around facts. After school I went to story therter. After that we picked up Mia and doped her at MPM. We went to Another therter class.
(“turn around facts” – ???. Story Theatre – theatre program. MPM – math program.)
February 25, 2003
Today at school we did our Joarnel and phonics. We made a garden at art at your finger tips. It was fun. After school I went to another art class. It was the last day.
(Art at Your Fingertips – art program.)
February 26, 2003
Something I Would Like to Be Able to Do That I Can’t Do Now: write cursive
I would like to write cursive because it looks fancy, pretty and better to me. I like writing cursive.
(I can write cursive now, yay me!)
February 26, 2003
A Party I Would Secretly Like to Attend: Birthday
I would attend to a birthday because it is fun. Sometimes it is funny sometimes it is wiered. I like Birthdays.
(Not sure why I wanted to attend one secretly.)
February 27, 2003
Today it was raining. It was cold. We ate snack in class. We ate Lunch outside. We read in our Social Studys book. We did our t-test.
(Can’t remember what a t-test is. Is it a standard elementary school thing? Do you know what it is?)
February 28, 2003
Today Rena is going to Japan. She has all the Dr. Suss books. I really miss her. We gave Rena a huge hug. We had a party for Rena. She took evrything from school that was hers. Rena is my best friend.
(So many best friends. So many best friends who moved away. Little did I know, I’d be moving away in three years. It was only recently that I learned that my parents were already contemplating moving us to Beijing around that time for my dad’s job but pushed it off because of SARS. We ended up moving mid-2006, in time for me to start 5th grade.)
March 1, 2003
Today night we went to Andrew’s house. We ate dinner thier. Andrew, Allen, Kenneth and Monica were atacing me. I was fun. After that we went home and took a shower. Then DaD and Kenneth made fun of Me.
March 2, 2003
Today is my moms birthday. We went to church. At night lots of our church members came to celebrate my moms birthday.
May 22, 2003
A Gift I Would Like to Receive
Today at home Kenneth and me fighted but Kenneth was worser. He was angry at mom to Kenneth almost cried the whole intier day. Kenneth got in big trobble from mom. After that, they talked about what Kenneth did. Then he stopped cring.
August 25, 2003
Today I did all my homework. Then me and my family went to ymca. after ymca My family went to a Japenis restront. then I wrote in my Diary and this is my story.
(We had a family membership for the YMCA and would go all the time for squash and the pool. Didn’t end up writing the rest of my story though; that was the last entry.)
June 3, 2004: Family trip to Sapporo.
2004 (Mar + Nov)
2nd grade // Plain red notebook with lined pages. Hello Kitty on the cover.
March 8, 2004
Today is Girls Day! But March 3rd was really Girls Day. We ate Japenese food and made an Emporer and an Emporess. The best food was machi. It was really hard making origami people. My mom and my baby brother, Daniel came. We even did a dance! We also heard five musictions play instruments. We also heard two more people sing. We ate sweet and sugary rice crackers. I didn’t really like them though. Today I was way behind scegual! Bye! Time to go!
(Girls’ Day—or Hinamatsuri—is a Japanese celebration occuring on March 3, but apparently we celebrated it at school on March 8. We made origami “Emporer” and “Emporess” dolls.)
March 13, 2004
Today I went hiking. We hiked at Santa Canyon. We hiked to the water fall. It was two miles and two miles back! I was so exhausted I needed a brake. When we got to the water fall we jumped over walks rocks and climbed up a hill. We took four pictures at the water fall. While I was going back I saw my friends, Justine and Timothy so I walked again to the water fall so that equals eight miles I walked! When I got back from the water fall I was soaking wet so we went to a store and bought a new dress for me! Well I’m tired! Good night!
March 22, 2004
Today we had a sub. Her name was Mrs. Webber. After school Ali came to our house. We did our homework together. After we did our homework we rode on bikes. We played follow the leader and ahhh! We went to the race rout with Ali, Kenneth, Kelley, and Me. Ali and I ate dinner together and after we played a game. Next week on Monday we meieight have another play date!! Well Ali is leaving. Got to say bye!
March 23, 2004
Today after school At Ruth’s house I did math, reading, and phonics. I also ate dinner there. After that I danced with my mom a chinise ballet dance. My mom got vidio taped and I was vidio taped just a little bit. After I danced I got a snack. While I was eating I watched Bambi. The fireplace had fire and sometimes it sounds like a firecracker! Now I have to leave. Bye! Bye! Bye for now!
(I think the dance was to a Taiwanese song called “媽媽的愛” (“Mother’s Love”). The choreography wasn’t traditional dance; it was just the song that was Taiwanese. It was filmed and broadcasted on some Taiwanese TV channel.)
March 28, 2004
Today is Sunday but we got to go to Adventure City! We played on both rollar-costers first then we went to the hot-air balloon and we put our hands up on both of the rides.
November 11, 2004
Today was the worst day of my life! My parents made my to go hiking! So now I’m in the car writing in my diary having a boring time! Soon we’ll get to the hiking place! Wish me luck!