The Chinese have made many achievements. They invented porcelain, an old version of a calculator,the first earthquake alarm, and many more. Their most famous masterpiece, was the Great Wall of China. 
        I think the two best achievements they made was the old calculator and the Great Wall. They both helped the Chinese in many things, one physically, and one mentally.Also, I chose the Great Wall because it helped the Chinese guard and protect their city. It's been around for many dynasties and years, and it was really big. In fact, so big, that it could be seen from space! The Chinese had to make every brick and stone from scratch, and spent many years making it. Almost everyone had to work on it for their whole life! At least I think so. 
         The old calculator helped a lot of Chinese scholars. Even though we have more technology to create the calculator we have today. Back then, the Chinese didn't have any technology at all. The only computer they had, was their brain. They were very clever, and took many years. Possibly, maybe they even created more than what 

      Griots are the story-tellers about legends and history, and the role they play in West Africa are basically the entertainment. They tell history in an authentic way that gets you interested, and wanting to know what happened next. Many people say that they have a good choice of words, which is probably why how they made "boring" history into something as interesting as the Hunger Games.
       In Mrs. Kanzler's class, my persona named Sogolon is a griot. She was picked by King Mansa Musa to accompany and entertain him with her stories and legends. These days, I'm not sure if griots are still common, since now we have books all over the world. If I ever become a writer, then I would surely take a lot of advice from a genuine griot, so I can know how to make a book interesting and "authentic." Griots can be all over the world, with different names, and if I ever meet a griot, then I would surely ask him or her to tell me a story from the past.

      The best things I like about fall is Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Fresno fair. They reasons why I like these is because they're all fun, and give a positive atmosphere. 
       Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. At my church, we have a Harvest Festival, where we play games and earn candy. We also get to volunteer to help, and we get to watch scary movies or go into the haunted house. 
        I like Thanksgiving because it's when we give thanks to people around us who helped us. We get to have a nice dinner with relatives and eat turkey! My family has a tradition when it comes to Thanksgiving, it's when we give little gifts to each other for saying thanks. It's practically a small Christmas!
        Despite all these, my most favorite is the Fresno fair. At the fair, there are booths, rides, food, a petting zoo, and a gem and rock collection! The rides are really fun, but I don't like going on the high rides, unlike my friend Shyann. She's a big daredevil when it cames to rides. The food is very good too. I love the chili-cheese curly fries, but I don't really like the hamburgers. The petting zoo is really fun, because you get to touch cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, bunnies, and more! The bunnies and the baby piglets are really funny and adorable, because they do funny stuff when they're small. I think that I liked the piglets better.
          Everybody has different favorite things in the fall, but i definitely know that these are my favorites, and I hope you have some good times in the fall too. Happy Autumn!

        Even though Mrs. Kanzler hasn't taught us yet, I think I can make some reasonable guesses. Here are a few reasons:
         I think that iron changed West Africa because of its toughness. It's sturdy, and rough, so possibly the West Africans carves the iron into a weapon, like a spear or a sword. It can also keep prisoners. I don't know if West Africans kept prisoners back in the days, but if they did, then it would've been possible for them to turn the iron into jail bars. They could also create shields, helmets, locks, keys, jewelry, or other accesories and equipment that could be useful. They could even make toys! Also, it would be a good item for trading. It could've outranked gold or salt!
         There are many possibilities for West Africans to use iron, and if they did, then hopefully they're using it well, and not selfishly.

       I think that the region which has the most hardships of Africa is the desert. Mainly because it doesn't really carry food or water for humans, and there's too much heat.
       In the desert, there are sand dunes, and when the wind blows, it carries the sand dunes and could possibly get in your eyes or cause a sandstorm. Also, there's this thing called a "mirage," which is something that you imagine when your hot and thirsty in the desert, which I think isn't a cool trick. Also, cactus can be very nutritional, but there are too much spines and prickly stuff on it. They say that if you get water from chewing some cactus, you will want more and more of that water. The animals in the desert can be dangerous too. I've heard mainly of scorpions and rattlesnakes living in the desert, so that's possibly a good thing. Living in the desert can be very hard, so it takes a lot of guts to live in the desert.

         I think the hardest pillar of Islam is the one that stands for fasting. The reason is because most people can not live without food or water, and it would be a bit more difficult if you have to wait till sundown to eat. I'm surprised that the Muslims have endured the hard points, and still manage to follow their religion and go on with their everyday lives. 
        Another pillar that I think is the hardest is traveling to Mecca. Reasons are because Mecca is very far away, and I doubt that it's easy to get to. They say that every Muslim should travel to Mecca atleast once in their lives, but what if they can't? Would they get kicked out of the Muslim community? There are many reasons why they possibly can't go naturally.What if they don't have enough money? Would they really force themselves and possibly risk their lives to drive or even walk all the way to Mecca and still believe in Islam? I am not trying to insult the Muslims, but I'm just pointing out the possibilities of incidents that could occur during these religious beliefs. 

   Muhammad was a person who believed in prosperity and honesty and he had many experiences in his childhood. As he grew, he noticed that the wealthy people have been ignoring the poor, and so as time passed, he kept on thinking about it. When he was an adult, he worked for a wealthy woman name Khadijah, and eventually they married and had a daughter. One day, when Muhammad was in his 40s, he went to a cave to meditate like he always did, and according to Arabians, Muhammad was recieved a message from an angel. They said that God, later known as Allah, spoke to Muhammad through that angel, and ever since that day, Muhammad  created a new religion called Islam. 
    Everyday, Muhammad reported new things about Islam, and most of them were based on Judaism and Christianity. He claimed that there was only one God, Allah, and that no one should respect any idols but him. Muhammad said that wealthy people and poor people should be equal, upsetting many people who were wealthy, especially in Mecca. Not long after that, the people of Mecca decided to kill Muhammad, forcing Muhammad to run away to the city of Medina along with his daughter. Luckily, Medina had many followers of Muhammad, and so the people of Medina came back to Mecca with Muhammad to war. Mecca finally gave up, and then let Muhammad stay and then they turned Muslim.

    My mother called me over as I was washing my dusty, worn out, sandals. I quickly put them on and went to my mother's side, surprised to see the sudden caravan and camels surrounding our house. Then, a familiar man came in from the dust. I realized it was my uncle, who I haven't seen in a long time. I quickly embraced him into a hug, and fetched him some water to drink. He thanked me, and went to talk to my mother. While he was approaching my mother, I quietly pretended to feed and water the camels. I admit, I was spying on them, but it was because I was curious.  I saw my mother with her eyes wide while my uncle was talking, and she turned slightly pale. I was worried for a slight second, then when my uncle faced me, I quickly looked away and continued working with the camels.
    That night, my mother came up to my bed. She had a perplexed look on her face, and looked at me. "Crystal, your uncle will be staying with us for a week, and I want you to make him feel comfortable," she said. I nodded and watched her walk away in her flowy, white clothes. She almost looked like a ghost. The days went by fast. My uncle showed me the inside of his caravan, and we even got to ride and travel in it for a few days. It was the first time in my life that I felt freedom. I never knew or cared about why he wanted to take me. Besides, his caravan was almost like a little home on wheels. There were some food in it. Meat, small bottles of honey, some vegetables, rice, and some sweets for desserts. Time passed, and soon it became the day he had to leave.
    We were saddened by his news, but then he asked me a surprising question. "Crystal, will you come travel with me? I have already asked your mother, however, she said it was your choice. All those times when I took you to small travels, a trip inside my caravan, feeding and grooming the camels, they were all small practice for when you come travel with me. I understand if you want to stay, but if you please consider my offer, will you travel with me?" my uncle said sincerely. I was appalled. No wonder my mother looked pale. I was worried that if I left her, she would have to do all the things by herself, and it didn't help that my father was still working in the fields, coming home tired and sleepless each night after I've gone to sleep. I couldn't believe that I was doing this, but I rejected my uncle's offer. He nodded to me in approval, because he understood my situation after I explained why, and then he saluted to my mother and rode off with his camels and caravans. My mother and I both teared up a little, small beads of tear drops rolling down our cheeks, while hugging each other. Then we slowly went inside, and never saw my uncle again.

   If I had another role in the Roman Simulation, then I probably would've been an Ostrogoth barbarian because they got to take control of anything. A reason is because Ostrogoth and Visigoth barbarians work together, making things easier. They got to take over Rome, and overpowered many things, even Rome. During the simulation, all the tribes of barbarians worked together, overthrowing Rome's power. It looked like they all had fun, while I was just sitting there watching "Rome" being taken over. I admit, being a province can be fun, but a barbarian was looking better. The only fun part we did of being a province was doing a commercial for our trade items.
    However, throughout all what happened, everybody ended up having a good time anyway. Plus, we got bonus grades for our report cards. Even if I didn't get a part I wanted, I ended up having fun just like the other students. I hope that the next simulation will be even better than this one.

    September 11th, 2001 was a very important day in the United States. Especially in New York. Many people died, including children, and many people made sacrifices.  Since then, it has been an important event to this day.
    All I know about September 11th is that many horrible things happened. I never knew about what exactly happened. I only knew that many people died, and that's it. I think it changed America somehow, because it was one of the the things people remembered the most. If it wasn't that important, then we wouldn't have named it, or remembered it. 
    I'm not sure if it really affected me or not, since I was really little. All I know is it created a big impact to the American civilization. Ever since then, people couldn't seem to get it off their minds on September 11th. We even had a broadcast during 5 or 6th period about it. I feel really bad about the families who sacrificed most of their life for it, because they worked so hard. It is one of the biggest, political events that happened in the 21st century, and we will remember it to this day.