The Big Game

“There is one more day before the biggest football game in the Premier League guys, get ready for it”, said Sir Alex Ferguson in the changing room. Every player in Manchester United wanted to repay the humiliation of the 6-1 loss to Man City, to the fans. Therefore, the players trained profusely, twice as much as they did before.

That night Sir Alex Ferguson had to think conscientiously about the team he will put on tomorrow because in the winter transfer season, Manchester United bought Sneijer from Inter Milan for 40 million. Also, Pogba was doing very well these days. This was extra thinking for the manager, and then suddenly, he had a great inkling about the team. Tomorrow he was going to have a classic 4-4-2 formation with De Gea in goal, Rio Ferdinand, Vidic, Evera, Smalling in defense, Pogba, Sneijer, Park Ji Sung, Nani in midfield and Rooney and Chicharito as the two strikers.

The day came really fast and it was near kick off. The players were warming up and all the fans were coming in, 77,800 seats all filled up with fans. There were some concerns about the Man City fans having fights with the Man U fans. Right before the match began, the commentators were discussing about how Sir Alex Ferguson’s plan of putting Pogba on was audacious and Mancini’s plan was very prudent. Also they were talking about Man City’s Balotelli pilfering donuts from Tesco.

The match embarked with Manchester United having all the possession, but as the game went on, Man City were dominating the game. In the 23 minute, Man City’s Balotelli missed an open goal. It was slovenly done by the Italian youngster. This rankled the Man City players because it was a very big miss. Right after the miss, Pogba and Sneijer gave a great one-two and gave a through ball to Chicharito; however he was pressured by Kompany from the behind. It was a great play by Man U. The first half ended with each side being neck and neck.

The second half began, there were no changes for both teams. Both teams played some of the best football people have ever seen for a long time. It was near the end and there was still no goal…. “It is a counter attack from Manchester United: Vidic, Pogba to Sneijer, Park Ji Sung is making a run to the center, Sneijer swerves the ball in…..GOAL!!!!!!!! Park Ji Sung, the former South Korean captain scores a diving header from just outside the six yard box. What a goal from a world class player!” the commentators said. “Everybody took part in making the goal; great passes from Pogba and Sneijer and great defending by all the defenders, also amazing runs by Park, Rooney, Chicharito, and Nani. Brilliant play from a brilliant team.” The commentators added. Now the Man City fans looked quite lackadaisical about the game and many left before the game finished.

Finally the referee blew the whistle and the match was over. The man of the match was rewarded to Park Ji Sung who scored the winner. After the match the commentators said that Man U looked serene by Man City and they also rebuked Balotelli for such a bad miss.

Confession Tuesday, I Want a different Manager!

These days Manchester United haven’t been playing beautiful football as they did a year ago. Recently, they have been eliminated in the UEFA Champions League which is a tournament where many teams from all over the World take part in it. At the start of Manchester Untied was in the favorite list to win the Cup; however, they were knocked out by a Swedish team called Basel. When I saw this match, I was shocked because it was really rare for a team as good as Man U to not go through to the quarter finals. This event also happened five years ago when they lost two matches and drew one; that was the worst Man u ever did.

This season (2011-2012), Man U bought some class players like De Gea, Ashley Young, and Phil Jones. These players played very well at the start of the season but as the season went on Ashley Young started to play absolute rubbish football. Although he played like that, the manager (Sir Alex Ferguson kept putting him on. There were other great wingers like Valencia, Park Ji Sung who were more experienced and better than him.

This was getting out of hand when Man U lost 6-1 to it’s next door neighbor and a rival, Man City. The past 2 years Man City have bought at least 10 players because Man City’s owner was the richest owner in the Premier League. This year they bought an expensive player named Aguero. He is the Argentinean international striker and to play for a team that includes Messi, Tevez, Higuain, and other great player one has to have to be a genius at football, in my opinion he is one of the best strikers in the Premier League. The match was a disaster. Man U conceded three goals in five minutes. It was a nightmare for the fans and the players. After the matcher, the commentators and the newspapers were saying that if Park Ji Sung came out, the result would have been different.

What I really want to confess is that Man U should move on to another manager who is young. Not a manager who is seventy one. I respect Sir Alex Ferguson immensely but I think it is time for him to retire. Also, I believe that Man u should buy a creative midfielder and stop putting bad players like Ashley Young.

A Chaotic Day, Memoir Monday

  My story is about when my mum’s car got locked and all our car keys and mobile phones and other imminent items were locked inside it.
  Yesterday, after church finished, our family went to buy supplies for my lunch. When we arrived at the store me, mum, and my brother went into the bakery and bought bread and snacks, next we went to a Chinese shop and bought some Korean foods such as dukbokki, tofu. When my dad came in and said that the car door was locked. It was quite funny at first because our car keys, mobile phones were all inside it. It was really ironic that all our belongings where inside the car. My mum quickly bought the foods she picked up, ignoring the foods me and my brother picked. It got really serious when my mum said that her spare car key was in her bag, which was inside the car. Therefore, we had to walk all the way to our house and charge my dad’s spare phone, which was out of battery. Everything was as if someone had planned it from the start. It was getting freaky.
  When me, mum, and my brother went home, we were shocked that something like that could happen in such a short moment. This happened when my dad went out of the car because he was falling asleep.
  After the phone was charged me and my mum had to go back to the place where my dad was. My brother didn’t come with us because he had his finals on Monday. We stepped outside and walked for about 100 meters when we saw dad coming down the hill. He said that he couldn’t wait anymore so he just walked home. Mum asked him why he stayed with the locked car, my dad replied by saying that he was worried that somebody will steal our family’s belongings.
  All of us got back home and my dad called a car service to open the car. Although he was tired he had to go to the place again and bring the car back. He came back in about 20 minutes, with all our belongings. He said that he was amazed how easily the service people opened the car. Yesterday was a really exhausting day for all our family, especially my dad.
  This event made me realized that a small moment can cause chaos like my mum’s car being locked with all my family’s belongings inside it.

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye Essay

During the 1950’s, there were many great books that influenced students. Some of these books are nowadays commonly seen in schools´ book list and libraries. These books have shed some negative and positive lights to the students´ points of views. One of the most famous book that has fans and anti-fans is a book named “The Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D. Salinger. The novel tells the story of a boy speaking from a negative point of view during a three day period. It starts off with the main character, Holden, getting kicked out of school. He experiences several events during his three days and writes about the events that have impacted him, in a first-person account kind of way. It is also the first coming of age novel that shows the frustration of teenagers on the daily events that most people just ignore.

This book was recently banned in many districts of the US and other countries because of the use of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women and the physically disabled (Chasan, 1). Despite it being banned, numerous individuals wonder why “The Catcher in the Rye” is challenged and if it should really be banned. I believe that it should be banned and that for certain it is not a suitable book to be in the school shelves for the reasons that follow…

First of all, the book contains offensive languages and violence that are unacceptable for teenagers. Nowadays, students in school use a lot of inappropriate terms, that should not be encouraged  Reading a book with this kind of behavior being accepted or praised is a bad example that is to be followed, or at least remembered by students. Although students know these terms, they don’t apply them often. Also, during the periods of time at school, the students learn myriads of new subjects through the books they read. The rising action of this novel was made clearly when Mark Chapman approached John Lennon and shot him five times and killed him. Then, he pulled out his paperback copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” signed by John Lennon, and tried to read it (Chasan, 1). It is said that Mark Chapman pretended to be Holden and tried to live a life like him. Therefore, I don’t think that it is relevant for children to read it, although the children in our days are going though the similar social issues. As everyone can see Holden is a horrible example for today’s children.

Secondly, for the 2.1 billion people who are Christians in the World, “The Catcher in the Rye” is an extremely rude book. It has parts that have statements that are disrespectful to Jesus. Such as: “I can see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs…” (Salinger, 17pg). Also, this book contains pages of humiliating statements toward Jesus. Even though I’m not a pious person, I believe that a book that includes disgraceful phrases shouldn’t be taught as a school’s novel for teenagers.

Countless people around the world believe that “The Catcher in the Rye” shouldn’t be banned because of it teaching life lessons to teenagers. Such as: Not judging people by just looking at them, bulling is bad and to work hard to succeed in life. However, I strongly believed that it should be banned because of its obscene languages that may induce violence and it’s rudeness towards specific religions and minorities.

Consequently, in my opinion “The Catcher in the Rye” should be officially black listed for several reasons. First, it contains vulgar languages that can impel students to turn violent. Additionally, it can make them learn the negative aspects of life before they are able to fully understand them, such as: suicide, prostitution, drunkenness and also in some occasions, getting beaten up. Thirdly, the book holds very disrespectful phrases about Jesus, ignoring his existence. Thus, since it is evident that the materials in this novel can mislead young people, I believe that it should be banned.

The life in the Holocaust, Book review for Thanks to My Mother

  First, the author mentions details about her family, and relatives that weren’t with her anymore. I could experience her feeling by reading the poems and I could feel that these written arts are her ways to escape her painful incidents. When Susie Weksler was eight years old, Hitler’s forces invaded her city. In this memoir she explains how brutal life in the camps was and how hard it was to survive in the camps for many years. Also, she tells her how brave her mother was during the period when she was in the concentration camps. Her mother brought her food, helped her survive by creating travel passes that let her move safely, and by giving her a fake age. During the years in the camp, she grew taller even though she wasn’t eating well and she was very skinny.

In this memoir, which was mostly organized in chronological order with poems written in the ghetto, all the way to the camps and the hospital where she recovered; reflected the feelings and thoughts from the point of view of an uneducated child trying to forget and ease her fears. Also, she sang songs during the hours when the German guards weren’t around. In the camp, there were some doctors that came and checked the people to see if there were any old and sick people. After having a cursory look around the camps, they would choose them and take them to another place and kill them. This occurred every two weeks. When it was a Jewish festival day the German’s would give them bacon (pork) soup for food knowing that this was against their religion but everybody ate it because that was the only meal they could have. The author experienced several dreadful events such as: one of her relatives and other people in the camp were taken to a gas chamber and were killed very painfully. She said that she could hear them scream in her dreams. Also, during winter she and her mother had to undergo on the “Death March” which was a long and almost endless march to Stutthof; many people succumbed during their way there. During the March the people in the camps were stripped naked and were left outside in the square. Many people gave up and died few minutes later because of the cold, but Susie and her mother survived.

The line I loved was a sentence in which Susie described how her mother impelled her to not give up in any condition.

 “She shook me with her strong hands; she hit me in the face with all her might and screamed, “Shut up! Stop crying! Jump; move; wave your hand; don’t breath with your mouth open!”  

I especially liked this because I could see how people can act in extreme conditions like this situations. It might be interpreted as cruel and detached but she was being extreme under the pressing circumstances.

After the march, the survivors were taken to a camp and were fed very with only a hand full of food a day. In 1945 the survivors were rescued from the main camp by the Soviet Army and were taken to a safe place.

I thought that this book was quite touching because I could imagine easily with the descriptions given by the author, how tough it was for her and her mother to survive the Holocaust. In the memoir I found craft moves such as: Flash backs, Excessive description, Photos, Names, Dates, Giving hints of age and many other descriptions. However, I thought the most imminent craft moves were the Excessive Descriptions and the Flash Backs. She compared the meals she got at home with the ones at the camp (flash back). Also, she describes the Ghetto, her dad, and the beds that were in the concentration camps with a lot of details. She also has a difference in mood when she sees the light come in from the open lid of the truck, she feels that her freedom is close but when she gets out she was forced to work. These events made her realize how important her mother was and how people in extreme situations can behave completely differently from the way they usually do. For example: She gave her own food to make her strong and grow in a condition were it was hard to find food. She also put make up on her to trick the guards and Susie’s mother put her in a bag to carry her to a labor camp.

By just reading the title of the book “Thanks To My Mother”, you are aware of two things, first: her mother was extremely important and second her mother survived, since she is thanking her. 

Overall, I loved how the author told the story, mainly about her mother taking care of her and I could draw in my mind the people getting shot when they were tricked with food. As well, the craft moves really made the whole story come together very well. I really enjoyed it and in the end it wasn’t so sad after all because Susie and her mother got to live a free life in Israel.