Stories

Last week we wrote stories combining plots, characters, settings and problems from different sources.  Here are some of the results:

He had never expected to see her again. They'd had a break up, because the Nansy's parent didn't allow John's and Nansy's relationship. He had made wonderful surprises for her. He had sung beneath her window and others cute things. Their story was like Romeo and Juliet's. He had moved to another city to attempt to forget her. But once he saw her in the shopping center. John was so surprised, because he had moved more than 1000 km away. He ran to her. Nansy was also amazed. They decided that it was their destiny to be together. So after this they never parted from each other.

Marina Barmanova

There Were Four

Today in class we used our descriptive writing skills to tell stories about four visits (or visitors).  Each visit(or) was to be progressively better or worse than the previous.  Here are some we liked:

It was a boiling day last summer.  It was too hot to go out, so I was staying home all day long.  At 7 pm, the doorbell of my apartment rang.  I opened the door.  A stranger was standing in front of me.  She looked like an incredibly old woman.  She said to me that she was a singer.  Suddenly, she started singing.  She sang like the chorus at church on Sunday morning.


At 8 pm, the bell rang again.  The next singer was a tiny young woman.  She said to me, "Please listen to my song."
Her song was like a breeze at the beginning of the spring season.  I thought, "What a clear voice!"


At 9 pm, another singer came to my apartment.  She was a gorgeous and tall American woman.  She wore a beautiful, shiny gold dress.  It really suited her.  She was like the headliner of the most famous, fantastic musical.  Her voice was really dynamic and awesome.  It was so moving that I got goose bumps.


At 10 pm, a final singer came.  She was the most beautiful I've ever seen.  She had such a glamorous aura
I could say nothing.  I thought she must be a goddess.

-Hiroko Nagasaki

There was a wise man who lived in a forest. He had a problem to resolve, so he asked everybody if someone could resolve this problem. Nobody could be found.
At 9 o'clock, the top student of Harvard came to the forest to resolve it. He was a tiny boy but spotless and really clever. He searched, he searched, and he searched, but he didn't find the solution. He was really furious.
At 10 o clock, a very famous researcher wanted to try to find the solution. After one hour of research, he was exhausted and he gave up the research.
At 11 o clock, an ancient genius, famous for his theories, came to the forest. The wise man was laughing because the candidates were more and more clever and nobody could find the solution. The genius started to write lots of calculations but he couldn't find the answer.
At midnight, a boy, around twelve years old, arrived to the forest. All the researchers and geniuses were making fun of him. He was a normal boy, not clever not stupid, but he found the answer because the solution was very easy. Everybody was astounded.
Because we are clever doesn't mean we can think.
The end.

 -Matthieu Delacour

The first woman was as noble as Mother Teresa. She was like the sea, her heart was very wide and calm, but she was as old as a grandmother, always used to being very sick. So she wasn’t outgoing. Although she wanted go out everyday, she couldn’t because of her physical weakness.

The second woman’s eyes were spring water. When I met her, she inspired me. As she saw, I seemed to be spring water, could be creative. She was very energetic, but her energy made me very tired. Nobody could understand her mind, mentally.

The third woman was like my mother. When I felt homesick, she used to take care of me although we were the same age. On the other hand, she was very stubborn, instructing me like my mother and teacher. She loved to teach everything with good motivation, but people didn’t like to hear anything from her. She wanted to know about what all people wanted to be, what problems they had, who they loved……I thought that her life was very tiring. 

The fourth woman very funny; she was like a cartoon character. She always made me happy, but she was very strange. She sometimes acted like an unreal cartoon character. She seemed to be a woman who lived in a cartoon instead of now. She insisted that all people had to live like a cartoon character. She believed that that would make us very happy.

In NYC, I was able to meet various people I’d never met in my life.

-Sojin Kim

I wanted to move a new apartment last month, so I went to an agent to look for an apartment for myself.
First, he showed me an apartment. It was not big enough to share with 3 people (maybe for 2 people), but it was enough for me except it was filthy, so I wanted to see other choices.
The second house was really small. Only I could live there. Maybe I could invite just my one friend to stay. It was too small like my old house. However, it was dirty.
He showed me the third house, which just I could live in. I couldn't invite a friend to stay or have a party in there. It was tiny. However, it was clean like my old house.
The last apartment was really as minuscule and cramped as my dog's cave. I couldn't live there. It was tiny. However, it was spotless like a newly built house.
I wanted to move to a spotless and big house, but I couldn't choose my new house with this agent. I thought I should go to another agent.

-Cansu Usta

Ten Years Later

For another journal writing assignment, students imagined a fictional character's future ten years after the story ended.   

Matthieu Delacour wrote about Arsène Lupin:

The famous French thief Arsène Lupin always earned money by selling famous items, but 10 years after the last robbery, Arsène wanted to retire.  He bought a big house in Asia close to the sea.  He wanted to be in peace, with his wife and his son.  He had enough money to live, but he wanted to commit another robbery just for fun because he was addicted.  For example, when he went to a private party, he always stole jewelry from rich women.  One day he called his other "friends" to commit the last robbery.  It would be in Dubai, in the highest tower.  For this last robbery he had to prepare a plan.  He always thought that it would be the last robbery, but the only thing that could stop him was to be arrested.  So maybe Dubai would be his last robbery, but maybe not.
The End

Giulia Bartalucci  wrote about the characters Mila and Shiro* from the Attacker You! anime:

Ten years later...the marriage of Mila and Shiro was very good; their children Matthew and Sarah grew wonderfully.

Mila was the trainer of the "7 Team", the same team where she played when she was young.  She liked her job very much because every day she played volleyball!  Sometimes Shiro helped her with her team, but usually he worked in a pizza parlor with his brother.

Finally, the love between Mila and Shiro became stronger every day and the time when they hated each other was very far behind them.

*Note that Mila and Shiro are the Italian names for the characters You and Sho.

Food in NY

For homework, students were asked to write in their journals, describing their experiences in New York.  Here is what Giulia Bartalucci observed:

If you ask me what is the first thought that passes through my mind about American food, it's easy: JUNK FOOD.  

Try to think of a typical American food.   You find what?  Hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches...  Of course, the American types are very good, but they aren't "special meals": you can find them all around the world!

It's funny that in New York you can choose from a lot of ethnic restaurants, like Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Greek, or Irish food without finding typical American restaurants.  I'll explain better; yes, you can find them and you have a lot of variety: McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's, KFC, steakhouses, and hundreds of different names, but with the same food.

I think this is a bad thing because one of the essential points that defines a country is food.  Every nation has its flag, history, government, money, customs, traditions, attractions, national sports... and food!

Not only "something you have to eat to feed yourself", but a real culture: relish what you are eating, discern different ingredients and spices, have a relaxing moment, enjoy the meal with family or friends while you are talking with them around a table and not on the sofa, in front of the TV, or in 10 minutes in a fast food restaurant.  I think if American people learn just a little part of the food culture, they'll enjoy their lives very much!

So, what do you think?  Do you agree that Americans need to have more of a "food culture", as Giulia says?  Or perhaps you've had a different experience.  Can you recommend any great all-American dishes?

This is New York

Last week students were given the assignment to write about New York City from the eyes of another. The Story of a Bronze Woman was written by Galina Yakovleva.

I'm considered to be the symbol of the USA and New York City, for sure. Can't you guess who I am? Yes indeed, I'm the host of Liberty Island in New York Harbor and I'm the tallest (46 m) and the heaviest (225 tons) bronze woman in the world. I'm the Statue of Liberty, but my full name is Liberty Enlightening the World. New Yorkers call me simply Miss Liberty. The famous architect, Bartholdi, made me. I've got a torch in one hand and a tablet with the date of the issuance of the Declaration of Independence in the other hand. I was given as a gift by the French. My life is inseparably linked with New York. I have been living here for about 125 years, so I can tell a lot about New York City. It's my home city. We had a hard time: wars and crises, government reshuffles, but we've survived and become stronger and hardier, and we are ready for better days. They are yet to come. My city is growing larger and larger and getting greater importance. I think it's the cultural, political and financial center of the country and it deserves this. Nobody can belittle its leading role as a commercial and industrial city. I can't imagine my life without this city. We are birds of a feather and we are worthy of each other.

Poetry

Last week in class we looked at rhyming and non-rhyming poetry. Students wrote some very nice poems, in different styles, which we will post in the comments.

It was a dark and stormy night...

The first week of our ECNY Creative Writing elective we explored how having an assigned theme--or not--can affect the stories we write.  The results of these stories, which we wrote as a class, were fun and sometimes surprising.  Here is one of our favorites:

It was a dark and stormy night.  Perfect for a robbery!  No police around, everybody at home, and our action would be much easier.  The plan was made to break into a bank.  It was a quiet Sunday night, and because of the bad weather, we decided to do it.

We were looking round.  We were a little bit afraid.  We thought that our plan was perfect, especially for such kind of weather.  We started to do this, but there was someone on the corner.  However, we weren't afraid because we had guns with us.  This person would be shot once he made the first move.  We were confident enough to kill him, as we also had chemical weapons. 

It turned out that our chemical weapons didn't work.  And what should we have done?  Nothing?  You're mistaken, we had a Plan B in case our Plan A went wrong.  We offered him to be our companion.

We offered him 20% of the bank cash.  It sounds strange, but this idiot accepted our proposal.

We broke into a bank.  There was nobody inside except a sleepy security guard.  Of course, we killed him.  We took every last coin from that little bank.  And when we were giving 20% of the money to that stranger, he told us, "Hey guys, look around."  The police were already coming.  And his weapon was near our heads...