“Go Local!”

“Go Local!” is GWN's motto, starting from May 27, 2008, a motto started by GWN Founder Diane Zhou's dad. “So many big chain companies, like McDonald's, own newspapers that turned from local to national or worldwide. That loses the meaning of 'local news', so I support GWN,” Diane's dad told GWN. GWN is being motivated by this motto. Without it, GWN would have disappeared long ago in November, 2007!

Volume II No. 6

Florida Fun!
GWN Founder Diane Zhou and GWN Writer Alex Zhou got to go to Orlando, Florida from June 25th to June 30th! She had tons of fun! Let's see the story Diane and Alex sent us...

You know, Turtie is just too busy for a Turtie's Kitchen Announcement. They may go back to monthly...

Table of Contents
Cover Story
New News
Debate Time
Mail Pail

Debate Time

Favorite Florida Fun
After reading about Diane Zhou's trip to Florida, which day was your favorite?

Read about Diane's trip to Florida on the Cover Story. Which day do you think you would like the best out of these?:
  • Day of Arrival!
  • Disneyworld: Magic Kingdom
  • Disneyworld: Epcot Center
  • John F. Kennedy Space Center
  • Disneyworld: Disney's Hollywood Studios
  • Day of Departure!
What do you think? Send your answers to:
GingerbreadWklyNews@gmail.com

GWN Announcement
GWN decided to have a new website! It's a blog where you can make comments on stories (you will receive tickets for your comments). Please do NOT write your debate answers on the blog though because then other people will see your answers to debate. There would be no point for Mail Pail! Also, sorry for the inconvenience, but GWN cannot make email copies unless you use Open Office. Open Office will NOT work on Microsoft Word. Sorry.

Cover Story

Florida Fun!
By GWN Founder Diane Zhou
Florida was really fun! It was actually my first time going there. It's exciting because my family doesn't travel a lot. The only other states I have been to (and played at) are Nevada, Illinois, Texas, and of course, California. Now add Florida to the list! It wasn't too hot in Florida, but it rained a lot...
My dad was actually on a business trip so he arrived in Florida on Monday, June 23rd. My mom, brother, and I got to Florida on Wednesday.
On Thursday, my dad had one more day of meetings in Orlando, so just my mom, Alex, and I went to play. We went to Disneyworld! We chose to go to Magic Kingdom on the first day because it's the main Disneyworld park. My mom got discount tickets from her work, IBM, so we didn't need to buy those expensive tickets. After we parked our rented Kia car, a tram took us to a place where we could ride a ferry or a monorail to the park. We decided to ride the ferry. Magic Kingdom is like a copycat of the Disneyland in Los Angeles. In fact, Orlando is the same as southern California! There's Disney, Seaworld, and even Universal Studios! Except in a much bigger version! Oh well...back to Magic Kingdom. We got some fast passes so the line would be much shorter. It's boring if I go into the details, I just went on tons of fun rides! About 5 of them. My favorite is Space Mountain. It's super fast and has many turns and drops. If you didn't know, I LOVE roller coasters! I rode Space Mountain with the other GWN Founder, my friend, Amanda Chang. She knows how fun it is too! Very sadly, it started raining around five o'clock. Then Alex just had to start complaining about his soaking shoes and blah blah blah. We bought a rain jacket so I could still go on indoor rides, but Alex just ruined my day. We went back to the parking lot by monorail, and that was the end of the first disastrous day of Florida...
By GWN Writer Alex Zhou
On Friday, June 27 Alex and his family went to Epcot. There, they went to the world center. They went on a ride that showed history. Then, they went on a ride in a clam that moves while watching Nemo. After they finished, they saw animals that live in the sea. Alex's sister saw a big turtle. Alex saw a stingray at the top of the water. How unusual of having a stingray at the surface of the water. Next, Alex's family went to eat lunch. Alex ate Macaroni and Cheese. Later, Diane and Alex went on a simulator ride. You're supposed to go on a mission to go to Mars. Alex had to be pilot and engineer because they were missing one person. Then, they went to a movie ride. It was about energy. There was a person named Ellen who didn't care about energy. She was watching Jeopardy when she fell asleep. She dreamed that she was in Jeopardy and there was a person named Judy who knew all about energy. The categories were all about energy so Judy got them all right in the lead with $17,800 in points. Albert Einstein was there and had $0 and Ellen had -$100. Later, Bill Nye comes and takes Ellen through time and they talk about energy. After that, they go back through time back to Jeopardy and Ellen won with a score of $35,600! Then, we watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was very boring. Next, we went on a fast and fun ride, Test Track. It was fast! Later, we went around the world. First up, was Canada. We watched a movie named O'Canada. It was a good movie. Next was United Kingdom We did a Narnia Quiz. Later we went to France. We watched a show there. Next up, Morocco. We didn't do anything there. Then we went to Japan. We saw pokeplushies there. Alex wanted Chimchar and Diane got Turtwig. Next was USA. We only took a picture there. At china, we only looked around the shops. Next up Norway. We went on a ride there. The ride was fun. Later we went to Mexico. We didn't do anything there because we had to go on a ride called Soar'in. Soar'in was very fun. After that, we went all the way back to Japan and bought PokePlushies. After that we watched fireworks. It was a fun day!
(By GWN Founder Diane Zhou):
Our third day was spent at the John F. Kennedy Space Center. They still launch space shuttles there! We took a tour. We learned a lot of things! The first stop was just about America's beginning of space travel. Very unsuccessful. Russia was very successful at the time. Next was fun! We saw the exact control center of the first successful orbit around the moon by Americans. We also took a cool picture! All of the people in my family took individual pictures with poses like we were floating. Even the PokePlushies and Gingy (Yay! GWN's Gingy!) took pictures. We saw how the person put our poses together. We looked like we were floating in a spaceship! We ate lunch at this stop. The third and final stop was about the International Space Station orbiting around Earth. NASA is constantly sending people up there. After the tour, we rode a space shuttle simulator and went back to our hotel.
On our final full day in Florida, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios! Fun! We went on rides and blah blah blah, but the best ride was the Tower of Terror! There's tons of drops, and I LOVE those! The second best was the fastest roller coaster in the whole Disneyworld. SUPER FAST, and with upside downs. Well, that was our trip to Florida, and back to Home Sweet Home!

New News

My 11th Birthday
By Birthday Girl Chloris Li
On Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, it was my 11th birthday. I was really excited! When I got downstairs to start my breakfast, there were 3 boxes of donuts. My dad or mom wrote a letter that said 1 box was glaze, 1 box was chocolate, and 1 box was filled with glaze and chocolate. I brought those donuts to school, eager to meet my friends. I found out that there was a substitute that day so my teacher never knew it was my birthday.
At school, I placed the donuts at the back desk. The substitute saw them and she asked if it was my birthday. My reply was yes. On the board, the substitute wrote down the schedule for the day. One part said to say Happy Birthday to me. I was so happy!
When the time came, I chose Deanna, my friend and classmate, to help me pass out the donuts. Most people took the chocolate donuts when I thought more people would've taken the glaze! After all that passing, my classmates, including the substitute teacher, sang happy birthday to me. I was pleased and happy!
At home, my mom bought an ice cream cake. The whole entire cake was ice cream! It was delicious! I was really full when I finished eating that day. I barely was able to eat my last piece of cake! I was proud of my presents. My whole family gave me a card, my friend Susan wrote Happy Birthday on a piece of paper, my friends Jessica and Chela made a card for me, Deanna was going to give me a card the next day, Diane, another friend, gave me a Japanese doll which I named it Jade, my mom gave me a Melody water bottle, and finally, my grandma gave me a red envelope! I was really happy! I hope I will be as happy in my 12th birthday! (I can't believe I'm almost a teen!)

Japan
Contributed to GWN by GWN Reader Cynthia Yao
I am currently in Japan on a tour. The food here is great and the places we go to are fun! So far, my favorite place is "Nara Deer Park". We got to pet the deer, and for some reason, they didn't seem to be scared of us at all. We walked to the museum, which was basically a monk temple. After walking around inside, we went back to the place with the deer. I was so excited! My mom had agreed to let us feed the deer with crackers which you could buy for 150 yen ($1.50 in U.S. currency) on the sides of the path. The deer were so cute. They kept bowing their heads, that meant they wanted more which I learned from our tour guide. After feeding the deer, we went to the souvenir store. I bought a small statue of a deer sitting on a slice of wood. We had to get back on the bus to go to our hotel. That's where I am right now! I'll see you later!

Jokes Center
By GWN Joke Maker Tiffany Chen
  • Squeeze it and it cries tears as red as its flesh, but has a heart made of stone.
    a cherry
  • Nicole is Cara's daughter's aunt's husband's daughter's sister. What is the relationship between Nicole and Cara?
    Nicole is Cara's niece.
  • What has two backbones and a thousand ribs?
    rail road tracks
YOU can send jokes to GWN too!

Emily Wang answered the interview about Kung Fu Panda! Here it is (you can answer it too):
GWN: How did you like Kung Fu Panda? Rate it from A through F.
Emily: A
GWN: Was it really funny? What was the funniest part?
Emily: It was funny. The funniest part was in the end when Po thought Master Shifu was dying and then he [Master Shifu] said, “I'm not dying, you idiot, I'm simply at peace.”
GWN: What was the secret ingredient? What had to be done to be the Dragon Warrior or even the be a great cook?
Emily: nothing
GWN: Which character in the movie would you like to be? Why?
Emily: Po
Remember about guessing what the secret ingredient is? Emily Wang is correct! Good job! Some people got the answer wrong, but it's okay. “Nothing” is a hard thing to guess.

Mail Pail

Favorite Place:
“My favorite place is Canada. In fact, I am going there on June 30th. My cousins and mostly everyone from my mom's side is there. I will meet my cousin over there and stay with a lot of people.” Laymeh Rahmanzai, almost 6th grade
“My favorite place to go is definitely California Adventures, Disneyland's sister park. It has some of the best rides!! =)” Brigitte Gong, almost 6th grade
“My favorite place to go is my grandma's house. I get to see my cousins.” Deanna Wong, almost 6th grade
“My favorite place is Great America. I would like to go there for 4th of July.” Susan Pham, almost 6th grade
“I think my favorite place is Home Sweet Home. Nothing is more soothing, loving, comfortable, or as important as a home. I always enjoy sleeping on my bed after a long vacation.” Diane Zhou, almost 6th grade

Divide Score?
“I think GWN should divide the scores since there are 2 people working on it together and they are most likely to get more words.” Chela Abregana, almost 6th grade
“Yes, two people did it. You should divide it by 1.5.” Deanna Wong, almost 6th grade
“I think you should divide scores, because that way, it will be fair to both of them.” Cynthia Yao, almost 6th grade
“I think you should divide their score by 2. Or, they can do separate entries. Yes, I think it is fair to divide the score by 1.25 if they get 100 or more points.” Susan Pham, almost 6th grade
“No because it doesn't really matter.” Emily Wang, almost 5th grade