Personal Narrative Essay

Cold and flu season was upon the nation and one December my kids, one after another, caught that season's cold, along with its lingering cough. After weeks of taking care of the kids, I inevitably, got the gift that kept on giving. A yucky cold. I should have known this was going to be one for the record books because the sore throat was SO painful. Not. fun.

Everything was planned – my mother had to arrive around 4pm in the town, where I was studying in university. Then, we would take a cab and go to the port. I had packed my luggage two days ago and I was already very

Day1: Today was my orientation day, I was given a green t-shirt with the champions logo on it to wear every sunday I volunteered for. I was expected to be there at 10:45. My hours were 10:45-12:30, 12;45 the latest depending on how long the service carried on for. When I come in I ought to watch over all the kids as they arrived one after the other. I had forms I had to take home and bring back in as well as a teacher handbook to complete.

I could tell you so much about me like I have moved 3 times with my mom but never with my dad, or I could tell you more about when I lost my cat Egon but that is not what I am going to tell you about. Today I will be telling you about all about me.

The tiger quickly climbed the nearest tree and then totally ignored me.” It all started when our uber driver geek, Randy Jackson, woke up in a imaginary desert. It was the second time it had happened. Feeling abnormally angered, Randy Jackson stroked a potato, thinking it would make him feel better. Absolutely excited, he saw that his beloved iPad was missing! Immediately he called his lover, Dee Jackson. Randy Jackson had known Dee Jackson for 200 years, the most of which were crazy ones. Dee Jackson was unique. She was outgoing though sometimes a little... pestering. Randy Jackson called for her, for the situation was important.

I sat in that cold dark room, getting maybe 2 hours of sleep every now and then but i had no way to tell how long it had been. When i got hungry i would eat the smashed food off the floor. When i was thirsty i drank the water that dripped out of the pipes above me. Once i ran out of the remanence of the food i had nothing to eat. I sat there hoping he would bring me something, even if it was nothing more than a piece of bread of fruit. I got so hungry i began to ration the bars of soap and minty toothpaste. The taste was very unpleasant and it made me sick to my stomach but at least i wasn't starving. Any time i had to use the bathroom i would move as far right at the chain would let me go and i would go to the bathroom. Then i would go back as far left as possible and sit back down. There were no vents in the basement. Just one hole in the wall where some piping broke off. That the only way air got in and out so the smell in the

Quack! Quack! Quack! I groggily tossed the fuzzy comforter to the other side of the bed and reached for my alarm. I groaned as the muscles in my legs tightened from yesterday’s workout. My phone read 5:00 A.M., and my whole body screamed for more sleep. I laid back down, but before I could re-enter my dream, my goals I had set for myself began playing over and over in my drowsy brain. I remembered the feeling of falling short last year in baseball, and my mouth began to taste bitter. This year it would be different and I knew it would not be any easier. I rolled out of bed and stumbled my way to the closet. I reached for my gym clothes and threw them on. There was work to do.

I had turned off the WiFi capability on my smart phone and laptop, and completely disconnect from any and all forms of virtual communities and social media within 36 hours during the long weekend. I chose to hanged out with friends to pass through the times without WiFi, so I don’t think it is a challenge for me for the first few hours because I can do shopping, keep eating, have a chill chat with friends, and these activities are able to possess much times. However, there are a bit different between my thought and the reality. When I was doing shopping, my brain was all about sales but most of the stores were not having sales, so I planned to do online shopping after get back home as there are always have online sales via my long-term shopping

Whew! Attending college full time and working part time kept my mind busy. The one hour drive home from UNC was a respite which allowed my mind to wander. On this particular day, it was wandering between summer vacation plans and my research on the meaning of Zen when I noticed the neighbor’s large, white cat, Phaton, wrestling with a small animal on the front lawn. “Phaton! Get away from that squirrel!” Stepping out of my car, I positioned myself as a barrier. There would be no lip smacking or paw licking on my lawn. “Now that you’ve made it to the tree, you can climb to safety,” I encouraged. To my dismay, I realized that what I thought was a squirrel was instead a prairie dog and could not climb. Its den was just a block away. As if on cue, the little rodent began to run toward 2nd Avenue, the intersecting street. I felt empowered to be at the right place at the right time to save a cousin of the slaughtered mink.

Emma! Pay attention!” “Stay on task!” “Stay focused” We are in a first-grade classroom. A small dreamy girl with blonde curly ringlets sits in the front row, directly facing the teacher. The teacher signals the girl in an effort to pull her back into the class but her efforts are fruitless. The girl’s mind has already flooded with anxiety, she retreats far back into her imagination, out of the reach of her teacher. A white envelope interrupts her thoughts. Her hands, heavy with the weight of what she knew she was holding, she stuffs her mediocre report card into her backpack along with a math test she might have failed, but she doesn't know because she can’t read either.

We arrived in florence at 11:00 a.m. even though it felt like night. We checked in and had our first meal in Italy. I had a little bowl of heaven, pasta with meat sauce! My sister had a sort of flatbread sandwich called a panini, but our vacation was not just relaxing. We got to work soon.

This was our first time visiting Italy in winter, because as future part-time residents, we felt that it was incredibly important to experience Umbrian life in all seasons. Orvieto looked like a dreamy, fairy-tale village, uncrowded with tourists, and only a few locals milling around. The Duomo was luminescent against a backdrop of a crescent shaped moon beginning to climb the midnight sky. Regardless that Emilio’s and Patricia’s shops looked inviting and Cafè Barrique beckoned us to come in, we weren’t ready to interact with anyone yet and resisted the urge to stop in. Through the window of the Real Estate office, we saw Vanessa and Mandy engaged in a discussion, however, feeling too exhausted to be social, we walked past without saying hello. Before returning to the B&B for some well needed rest, we ate a quick casual meal somewhere nearby. Tomorrow morning we planned to “hit the ground running.”

In Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes's account of her restoration of an abandoned house in the Tuscan countryside blends autobiography with plenty of description and a determined attempt to get under the skin of the local people and their lifestyles, landscape and architecture of the village. The first sentence of this travel book is “I am about to buy a house in a foreign country” (p. 151), which is able to give a sense of the concerns of the book as a whole. The action of buying a house in Italy is the kernel of this book. It can draw the readers into the book through sparking our curiosity. We would be inquisitive about the travel writer’s decision. Isn’t she a traveller? Why she had such a plan? Was she intending to migrate? The following

Italy was delightful where a brave, determined and smart girl, Ivy and her family lived, happily as ever. Ever since Ivy was little, every morning Ivy and her dad would go out and have competitions. Ivy was very active and she was always excited and fierce when she had to compete with her dad. No one could beat her. Ivy was having the best time with her family, she couldn’t ask for more. No one could break her from doing what she did until, the following day.

The pictures above show only a small fraction of Italy’s personality. The picture of Venice translates that this country is unique and full of romance. It is unique because of the water and the transportation. Venice is surrounded by four hundred other islands and in order to reach those destinations people have to boat their way across. Venice has their own version of roads in the lagoon and they have a strict set of rules for safety. Italy is romantic