Due Thursday 12/12 - 2013

Part 1:

Make-A-Wish Foundation

The Make-A-Wish Foundation’s population, is children who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation makes the children’s biggest wish come true (if possible). For example, if the biggest wish is to meet Katy Perry, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will try to make that happen.

A lot of children, who have wishes right now. There is a boy; he would like to meet Michael Jordan.  A girl, she wants to have a royal sweet 16. A girl, she would like to have a Teacup Yorkie puppy.

The future hope and goal for the Make-A-Wish foundation is to get more donations and volunteers. So they can make, even more children’s wishes come true.

Part 2:

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is an organization; they are making wishes come true around America. There are 25,000 volunteers in the organization. A lot of renowned people also volunteer in the Make-A-Wish Foundation, because a lot of children’s biggest wish is to meet their idol. For example Michael Jordan, have made 200 wishes come true. The Make-A-Wish foundation’s population is, children with a life-threatening medical condition. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is making wishes come true, because they believe that, a wish come true helps children to feel stronger. . The Make-A-Wish Foundation made around 14.000 wishes come true in 2012.

The Make-A-Wish foundation divide the wishes in 5 categories: I wish to be, I wish to give, I wish to go, I wish to have and I wish to meet.  The 5 categories stand for their own kind of wishes.
The “I wish to be”, is the part where children gets a chance to be whoever they want to.  Lately a big event happened in San Francisco, a 5 year old boy wanted to be a super hero for a day.  What happen was 7,000 people made his wish come true, including the mayor Ed Lee.  San Francisco was turned into Gotham city for a day, and the bat kid should save the city and at the end of the day receive the key to the city. But the wishes are not only for the children with the medical condition, because the wish could also be, “I wish to give”. The “I wish to give” is the part, where children can give "away" their wish. For example a 16 year old boy, gave his mom her dream wedding.
Although the “I wish to go” is a the biggest part, most of the wishes involve travel, around 75% of all wishes involve travel.  There is also “I wish to have” it is a little bit easier part. It could be a girl wishes to have a dog or a play house. The last category is “I wish to meet”, it doesn’t have to be a famous person. A 6 year old girl, her wish was to meet real ballerinas. It’s happened and it gave her hope.

Health professionals, who treat wish kids, believe that a wish experience can improve kid’s physical health. The wish experience makes the children more willing and able to battle with their condition. It makes the children feel less isolated and gives them the feeling to be “normal” again. The wish experience can also make an impact on the whole family. It will give the family a good experience in between hospital visits, bad days etc. And over all it give more happiness to the family and the feeling of hope. This hope is all what the Make-A-Wish foundation is all about, they just want to make wishes come true. They want to give sick kids, a last chance to make a turning point. The wish have a big chance to making the children feel better mental and eventually maybe effect their health.

I’m a big fan of the Make-A-Wish foundation. Their work is amazing. I think it’s better to make a wish come true, instead of for example giving the family a lot of money. A wish is a dream and something you have been wanting for a long time, so what can be better to give the child a last happy moment? I especially like this kind of charity, because you can see a reaction on the child. Of course you can give money to a charity, but you are not sure of what they are using your money on. With the Make-A-Wish you truly have a chance to be a part and see the happiness in the child’s eyes. And that is the best about the Make-A-Wish foundation, it gives you a chance to be a part without giving money. If I could I would without doubt be a volunteer, unfortunately I can’t. But think about, won’t you love to help a really sick child? Go to http://wish.org/ and see what you can do.

Due 5/12 - 2013

The only tree in the Fairy Forest
Once upon a time, a little tree called Spirit, started to grow in the Fairy Forest. All the other trees loved Spirit, while he was a little kid. Spirit grew and grew, so after 50 years he was the biggest and the only tree in the forest.  And a lot of things happen over the 50 years, Spirit grew bigger. In the beginning of his life, all the other trees had been bulling him and called him weird. Because he’s color was so different from the rest of the trees. As he grew bigger his color changed more and more from brown to red, which made him stand out from all the other trees.
But the day Spirit turned 25 years old, all the trees forgot about him, because an enemy has found the Fairy Forest. The human race had found the Fairy Forest and started to cut down the trees. In the beginning Spirit was pleased; Spirit felt the human race had come to the forest to save him, from all the evil trees. But as the human race came closer and closer to Spirit, he started to feel scared and lonely. Because all the trees around him were cut down, even Spirits best friend Woody. And it was first then, Spirit released that the human race only, was in the Fairy Forest to kill. Spirit had heard the humans, talk about him a lot of times. But he couldn’t really understand them, because they were talking a weird language, he had never heard it before. The only thing he could understand, were “that tree”, because that were the only thing they said and pointed at him. So he guessed that it was him. But the years went by Spirit got more and more lonely, there were no other trees in the Fairy Forest.
Spirit didn’t know what to do. He was just hoping somebody would come and find him, so he could get a new friend. Unfortunately nobody came by the Fairy forest, and the human race had ruined the ground, nothing could grow in there anymore. But one day, Spirit heard a weird sound. He started to look out, to see if, there were more humans on their way. The sound came closer and closer every day. Spirit started to go crazy. There was nothing to see, just the sound. And out of the blue an apple came running, it said “you got to help me; a lot of animals are trying to eat me”. Spirit was glad to see the apple, because then Spirit knew that it was the animals, which have been making the weird sounds. So Spirit invited the Apple, to hide in his treetop. The apple were relieved and jumped all the way to the top. The apple never left Spirit, so the apple and Spirit became best friends forever.

Due Wednesday 4/12-2013

My name is Lea Norge Kristensen, I am 19 years old. I am form Denmark, and live in a little city called Vejle. I am a every social person and hate to sit at home by myself. So I love spending a lot of time, with friends and family. My favorite time of the year is Christmas and that is why, I am staying here in Santa Barbara over Christmas. I have always had a dream about, being a part of a real american Christmas. Normally I do gymnastic, but I am out for a season, because of this trip. But hopefully I will get fit and ready for the next season.
I have been in Santa Barbara for 7 weeks and I am leaving 5th of January.
I expect to improve my all around English; writing, speaking, listening etc. But especially, to be more confident speaking the language. I am not really proud, of any of my language knowlegde. But if I have to say one, I would say, my every day speaking. Because it has already been improved, a lot since I got here.
The area I really would love to improve, is my grammar/writing. As you can see, it is not very good. So it is also the area, where I think I need the most improvement.
My long term goal is just to be all round good; grammar, speaking, writing etc. Because when i get home, I want to start at Aalborg University, where everything is in English. And that is also one of the reason why, I decided to travel in my Gap year.