Today, in history, we learned about ancient West African civilizations and what they discovered or how life was for them. About 5000 years ago, climate in West Africa was damp, not dry as it is now. When the weather began to get hotter and dryer, people had to move out of places they could no longer survive so villages and communities formed. Both men and women had to work hard to survive in West Africa, but they didn't have modern tools like the ones we use today, so the work was even more exhausting. The had to farm with sticks for a long time, all the way until they discovered that they could melt certain kinds of rock to make iron. Then they can melt it again to shape it into weapons, farm tools and other items nesscesary to live. Since their salt and gold mines were giving more produce than needed, and they have camels instead of horses to carry them across the desert, they began to trade with people thousands of miles away. They traded all the way across the Sahara and into parts of Europe. 
    Africa became very wealthy after they discovered trade with other villages, but still the men and women of Africa had to work hard to make enough produce to trade and live on. Though they used to make an abundant amount of produce to live on, they now had to make overa quarter more than they used to have to. I haven't got so far into the chapter to discover how they solve these problems, but I'll tell you as soon as I do. 

Happy Halloween!
 
 
    The book Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind is about an 11 year old Muslim girl's, Shabanu, life. Her 13 year old sister, Phulan, is going to get married in a few months to her cousin, Hamir, who is 18 years old. In about 2 years, Shabanu will marry Hamir's younger brother, Murad. When Shbanu's father sells her favorite pet, they become instantly richer than they've ever been before, but Shabanu couln't be sadder. They have Phulan's dowry and are now preparing for the wedding. They go to visit Hamir and his family on their land, which is owned by the horrible landlord, Nazir Mohammad. When Nazir Mohammad sees beautiful Phulan, he is set on having her for himself, and he'll take Shabanu as well. If Phulan and Shabanu are to live, their family and them must leave immediately. But when Nazir Mohammad attacks Hamir, he's in no state to marry anytime soon. The wedding is called off.
    Nazir Mohammad's brother, Rahim-Sahib wants peace on the land and agrees to keep the peace, if he can marry Shabanu. Shabanu's parents agree, and now Phulan is to marry Murad, who Shabanu loves, and Shabanu is to marry a 55 year old man who already has 4 wives who are sure to hate Shabanu. What will happen next? Will Shabanu really marry Rahim-Sahib? Read the book to find out!  
 
    This week was the start of a new quarter in school. In all my classes, I start out with an A+ and I was planning to keep it that way. Last quarter I was lucky and got by with all A's even though I barely studied at all. I knew this quarter was going to be different. There was no way that I was going to be able to get good grades without a lot of studying. But, I was sure I was going to keep my A+'s no matter how much studying it was going to take. That meant studying for science day and night. Science was deffinately my worst subject. All the other subjects came really easy to me. I got high A's in all the others. In history I got a 99.8% last quarter. But in science, I barely scratched by with a 94% and that was the only because I did a lot of extra credit. There was no way I was going to get that close to getting a B this quarter! So, obviously, when our first science project of the quarter came, I was ready to get 100% on it.
    The project was to make an edible cell and each group has to do one. The first day we heard about it, my group already had tons of ideas. The cell membrane was to be made of rice krispy treats, the nucleus would be pudding, the DNA would be a gumball. You get the picture. I knew it was going to be fun, but alse hard. I was put in charge of making a big bowl out of rice krispy treats and filling it with cherry flavored jello. I still have no idea how I'm going to pull that off, but if I want a good grade-  no, not a good good, a PERFECT grade- in this class, then I'll have to find a way. I got so caught up in doing great in science, I hardly had time to study for my other classes. Before I knew it we were having a big test in history that I had completely forgotten to study for. There were only 25 questions, so I couldn't afford to miss more than 2 or 3 if I wanted an A. The only problem with that is that I didn't know the answer to 6 of them.
    Though I now have a nearly perfect grade in science, my history grade dropped to 86%. I now know that I have to make time for all my subjects in school, even the ones that came easy to me before. I have a certain amount of time to study for each subject every night so each subject is studyed equally always. I'm positive that I'm going to get straight A's this quarter, just like I did last quarter. There's now way I'm going to get a B in my best class! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of history extra credit to do. 
 
    Though I've learned a lot of difficult concepts this week in all my classes, the hardest thing I learned last week happened in my Science class. We were learning about animals needs and at first it seemed kind of simple. My teacher told us how most need oxygen and water. But then he started talking about phospholipids, amino acids, homeostasis, nucleodites and a bunch of other sciency stuff. It all looked like a bunch of jiberish to me. I didn't understand a word of it. I studied day and night for the test on this, hoping something in my brain would finally click and I could say, "Your cell membrane has 2 phospholipid layers," or, "Protien is made up of amino acids" and "All animals must constantly maintain homeostasis to live." But, unfortunately, nothing like that happened. So on Friday it still looked like it was in a different language than the one I speak. I took the 20 problem test, the whole time wishing that it was longer so I could afford to miss more problems and still get a passing grade. Most of the problems, I seemed to know. "Maybe all that studying did pay off!" I thought. But then, at the last 4 questions. I blanked out. I started to worry and I couldn't remember what the difference was between amino acids and nucleic acids.  I was positive I got those 4 wrong. That was NOT going to bring my grade up. I had a high B, and was hoping to bring it up to an A with this test.
    I ended up getting the last 4 wrong on that test and it brought my Science grade down by 2%. I was so disappointed! When I really thought about it, I realized why I missed those 4 questions. I realized why I didn't understand it. I didn't ask any questions. I now know to ask questions when I don't understand something. I still have 2 days to bring my Science grade up and I'm going to do everything I can to do so. Wish me luck!
 
    The hardest thing I learned this week was in my computers class. We are working on these things where we go on Microsoft Word and have to do a variety of different things to the text on the page.It sounds pretty easy, but there are 9 sections with at least 4 excersizes in each sections and there are 6 different pages we have to do. I thought it'd be easy to just read and follow directions, but I kept losing my place on the directions paper. I tried my hardest, but my head started to hurt from all the words. I didn't think I would finish by the due date.
    Luckily, I did finish by the due date, but not without difficulty. I barely got by with an A-. The only thing that got me through all of them was that I knew I wouldn't have to do anymore. Well, at least there's no more for Microsoft. But I hear there are 6 more papers for Excel. I'm sure they'll be easier... hopefully.