Assignment #1

What you did over summer?

This summer was very exciting and amazing for me! My family and I went to Europe for the family vacation. I was very happy because it has been approximately four years I did not visited Europe. My first destination was the Netherlands, which is my homeland. However, I do not live there because I lived with my parents who worked in Vietnam. I had the opportunity to meet my relatives and friends in Eindhoven. I remember most of them and they all treated me nicely. Afterward, my family and I stayed at Novotel Hotel for the night. The next few days were epic! I went to places such as Zaanse Schans, Amsterdam and Heereven, the place that I was born. I also bought some souvenirs for my friends such as the traditional wooden clogs, windmill magnets for refrigerator, Holland plate.

On the second week of my trip, my family and I traveled by car to France. It was a seven-hour trip so we stop at Belgium for the night. When I arrived to France, I stayed at a hotel in the 13^th street. The 13^th street has many Vietnamese and Chinese people, which gave me a feeling of home in Vietnam. I ate many Vietnamese foods instead of French foods. I went to Paris and I was lucky to saw the enormous Eiffel Tower. It was extremely beautiful and huge. When I look at it far away, it looks more like a masterpiece. The weather in Paris is similar to Vietnam, very hot. There were many tourists so it was very crowded. After hanging around the Eiffel Tower, I went to a palace, which is across the Tower so is really near. I went to museums and palaces the next few days. I also went to Palace of Versailles, which is where King Napoleon lived. The inside of the palace looks elegant and magnificent! There are many rooms for the kings and queens. Every room’s ceiling are filled with artistic images. The best thing is the garden, it looks extremely gorgeous. The trees were cut into shapes and there was pool. If you look at it from the palace, you would see shape of a maze. This showed me that there are many professional artists and constructors back in the 1700’s. My last destination was Germany, I went to a shopping center. However, this time I went with my aunt, who is very sophisticated. In general, I had a great trip with my family. I love everything about it especially the Netherlands.

What are you most/least looking forward to this year in Social Studies?

I am looking forward to doing group projects and learn about European history in Social Studies this year. I like doing group projects in this subject because we can share different opinions or knowledge about certain topics. I can also hear different ideas from people. I think is good to do that so we can have a mixture of ideas, making it a good project. I enjoy learning history of the world mostly European history because I found Europe, a great continent with amazing civilizations and kings. I prefer reading out-loud or taking notes from PowerPoint instead of silent reading. I love social studies very much so I would love to learn about history of anything. I hope this is going to be a great year!