New Troop Bike Ride

 

    Ever since my mom and I received the news that my old troop was going to come to an end in December, we had been looking for a new troop in Claremont. Darren was also looking for a good troop, and his mom was the one who found a nice unit for us, which was Troop 403. The first troop activity we had was last Sunday, a 16-mile bike ride in the Azusa mountains.

    Magically, when we first heard about the bike ride, my mom immediately signed both of us up.  Then the following afternoon, she bought a bike from the village bike shop and somehow fit it into the mini SUV of hers. She even got a cute little basket to go with it.

    After we switched the small SUV for a van, we fit the bikes in snugly in the back, and set out for the Azusa mountains. In less than 40 minutes, we arrived at the parking lot of our trip’s starting and ending point. About 10 minutes was spent waiting for everyone to arrive. At around twelve, we started the ride.

    The first hour of the trip was pretty uneventful. Darren and I just chatted about our accounts on Clash of Clans. It was during our lunch break when things got a bit interesting. I had control over my mom’s phone at that time. With a downloaded app, I started playing random songs like Gangnam Style, and The Fox. A younger scout called Anzo asked, “Do you even have any good songs that one can enjoy?”

During a 1D song, Darren and I simultaneously started to dance to the music. Everyone in view cracked up. Soon I couldn’t resist the laughter, and joined in. After the One Direction song finished, Gangnam Style started playing again, and Darren suddenly did the dance move I remember very well from the movie Internship. As everyone chuckled, I literally started choking on my own sobs of laughter. Then, without warning, I suddenly lost my balance and tumbled to the ground. As I tried to push myself up, I only succeeded in rolling over on my belly. Finally, a kind scout helped me up on my feet.

    As we started off on our trip again, I let the songs I had play randomly. When the phone reached a song we knew, Darren and I would sing purposely off tune and as badly as possible. Some the scouts would stare at us in a funny sort of way and I doubled over in laughter so much, I almost fell off my bicycle.This continued until we reached a steep slope and did not have the breath to sing anymore. Luckily, I made it to the end of the uphill only with my legs on fire. Even more luckily, we were turning around to head back the way we came, and that meant we could go down the steep slope now.

Darren, Wesley, and I hurriedly made an agreement to see who could get back to the end the fastest. Darren got a head start, yelling, “SEE YE!” over his shoulder, leaving Wesley and me scrambling on our bikes in hot pursuit. I turned my bike’s gears up as high as it could go and zoomed down the hill, leaving Wesley on his little wheels, and singing, “What does the fox say?”

In the end, Darren won our unofficial official race. I got last, although all three of us were really close together. Worn out, we returned our bikes to the cars.

         This was probably one of the best activities I have had with Troop 403 so far (of
course, it was the first one). This memory of the first activity with this troop will stay with me for a long time.

 

Darren the Great

 

I have made and kicked out many friends during my time here in the USA. But a friend that I think will stay with me for a long time is Darren Chau, or Darren the Great.

    Up until third grade, I had not known that this Darren character had existed. The first encounter I had with him was when one of my friends took me to meet a new buddy he made. The new buddy he was talking about turned out to be Darren. Sadly, after my friend left to live in Japan with his family, Darren and I didn’t talk much until fourth grade.

    Fourth grade was when I got addicted to handball. Darren also played a lot of it and soon we found out that we made an excellent team. That was probably the official start of our friendship. The first time I laid eyes on him, I knew he would be a nice fellow and friend. Now I proved that statement to be true. At first, I wasn’t very good at handball, but Darren taught me the finer details, and soon I was improving.  Then, when we had different levels of math class, both Darren and I got put in the advanced one. Then in the math class, we magically got paired together to work on a math poster. All the fun we had drawing, doodling, and scribbling strengthened the bond between us.

    At first, Darren and I met only at school. But in fifth grade , our family moved into the house right next to Darren’s. From then on we started seeing each other more and more. Almost every morning, we would walk to Chaparral together. Sometimes, during the weekends, we would go to each other’s houses, and play video games, Nerf guns, and watch movies. I soon got addicted to a game called  Clash of Clans, which Darren recommended to me. This game also added one more topic to the list of subjects Darren and I usually talk about during recess or lunch.

    Not only is Darren a great game strategist, he is also a great singer. I am totally awed  by the fact that he can think of the words of his own made-up songs as he goes and the song still flows and makes sense. It really is amazing that his voice still hasn’t changed and has remained pure.

    Darren is also a charming and nice boy. He cracks lots of jokes and always remodels my Clash of Clans base for me whenever he comes over. When we play on Darren’s Wii, he always allows me to play before he does.

    Darren is, in short, the friend I have wished for for a long time. I hope he will stay with me for years to come.

 

                               

The Tacoed Thanksgiving Party

 

    This year’s Thanksgiving party was probably the most interesting one I have ever attended. It was celebrated at Big Justin’s house.  His mom invited our family and a couple other Chinese families over. Darren and Wesley also came to join the fun. The party lasted for more than five hours, and still we did not want to go home.

    My mom and I arrived at Big Justin’s house at around 4:20 pm, while my dad went to pick up the turkey we ordered from a nearby restaurant. Although everyone invited had already arrived by 4:45, the feast did not start until around 5:30, for the moms had to quench their thirst for gossip first. The meal was buffet style, with Wesley’s dad cutting up the turkey. For some odd reason, he gave me a whole turkey leg, so big I could knock someone out with it. I also had a lot of other food (mostly meat, no shrimp), and I was totally stuffed by six o’clock.

    After the meal was when things got a bit interesting. The big kids were down in the basement, doing something random. Darren, Wesley, and I were trying to annoy them by coming to the edge of the basement stairs and sniggering. We even got some lego robots and put them at the foot of the stairs. When Big Justin came to check, we told him that it was the robots, not us. Eventually, they were really annoyed and dragged us painfully down the stairs and into the basement. In the middle was a play mat, which the big kids put Darren and me on, side by side.

    What happened next was really weird. Big Justin rolled Darren and me into the mat and bound us. So there we were, stuck together and barely able to move a muscle. I bet that we looked like a human taco, inviting everyone to take a bite. Suddenly, a hand that felt like Wesley’s grabbed my foot, and tried to pull off my socks.  But I kicked furiously and Wesley only succeeded in taking of one sock off half way.

    Soon, Darren and I fought free, and everyone started tacoing everyone. I got tacoed 3 or 4 more times, and also rolled myself up and almost tripped someone while rolling. A boy in college who has the same Chinese nickname as me dragged his sister to the mat and tried to taco her as well. But she was strong and quick because of her training as a tennis player, and got free. We tacoed and tackled for almost an hour until we went back to playing games.

    This Thanksgiving celebration was one that I won’t forget soon. But even though it was awkward, the party was still very fun. This party will probably stay forever in my memory.