The US Open –Win E. + Pranav.S

This year’s US Open is back! After the Australian Open, the French Open (Roland Garros), and the Wimbledon, the US Open is next in the line of this year’s fourth and last Grand Slam. The US open is one of the oldest and most well-known tennis tournaments; dating back to 1881. The winning prize for the singles tournament is $1,500,000 which is about 50 million baht! The first prize for mixed doubles is $420,000 and for mixed doubles is $150,000. Approximately 600 men and women will be competing for the prizes. The US Open is played at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York City. It uses a hard court called DecoTurf. This surface is faster by having less friction and having a lower bounce rate. This makes it better for serve-and-volley players. The main court of the tournament is the Arthur Ashe Stadium which seats 24,000 people. Court number 2 is the Louis Armstrong Stadium; it used to be the main court before the Arthur Ashe Stadium was build.

This year, Rafael Nadal was named the new first seed after Roger Federer’s four and a half year reign. But he was sent back home in the semi-finals after losing to Andy Murray. On the contrary, Federer beat Novak Djokovic to go into the finals. It turned out that Roger Federer has stood his ground by winning the title for his fifth straight US Open by easily beating Andy Murray. As for the women’s title, Serena Williams captured it with a win against Jelena Jankovic.

For ISB, the BISAC tennis team will be starting in the second semester somewhere around February or March. There’s also the Panther Tennis which you could join all year round. The Thailand Open is coming up in only a few weeks. Watch it and tune up your skills!

House of Sports Book Review - Raimy

This book was part of a homework assignment. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have ever read it. Firstly, I’m not a big fan of sports, so why would I read about it? When I grabbed this book off the shelf and looked at the cover, it didn’t look very fun. “This is only for homework,” I thought, trying to be patient. It was a pretty thick book. However, now, when I think back, I pat myself on the back for reading it.

House of Sports by Marisabina Russo overwhelmed me entirely in a way no other book ever did. The beginning of the book didn’t really grab me. It was about basketball, grandmothers, and family relationships. This wasn’t my safe zone. House of Sports was only the second book I read that was sports fiction. Still, this was a homework assignment. I had to read it. Therefore, trying to keep my eyelids up, I read on. Around the fifth chapter, where the grandmother with the weak heart was introduced, I started getting interested. The main character was Jim Malone and his weak, 82 year old grandmother. Jim loves playing basketball, but not studying. He was a sports kind of guy. On the other hand, his brother, Pete Malone, gets straight A’s all the time. Nana, from France, calls the Malone house ‘House of Sports’. Nana was a champion swimmer until the war had begun. However, because she was Jewish, she was banned from all swimming pools. The World War 2 killed both her parents and her family except for her sister. So, with her sister, she ran to America and had Jim’s mother. Nana loves watching Jim run down the court furiously with a basketball in front of him, dribbling madly. However, one day, after Nana shows Jim an opera and her secret laptop, the House of Sports gets a phone call from the hospital about Jim’s Nana.

“Is this the Malone house?” The nurse on the phone asked coldly.

“Yes,” Jim’s mother said nervously, recognizing Nana’s nurse’s voice.

“Your mother has had a stroke a few minutes ago, and she is in the hospital right now. If you wou--”

Jim’s mom dropped the phone. It crashed loudly on the bare kitchen floor, and the cord broke off. When she turned to tell Jim the news, her face was pale and hot tears were starting to form in her eyes. Jim, his mom, dad, and older brother, Pete, all rushed out into the car and drove off to the hospital.

Nana was lying down on a cot in the hospital, her face even paler than moms’, her skin all wrinkly. It just got worse from then. Nana moved into a home for “old people”, as Jim called it. The hospital couldn’t help her. She was too old and too weak for surgery.

One sunny day, minutes before Nana passed away, the member of the House of Sports sat around her. All they did was shed tears on her white wrinkly skin. Just then, Jim burst out, “We can’t do this. You have to let her go. If the people she loves doesn’t let her go, she’s nowhere, not in the sky, not on the land, just hovering.”

“Jim’s right.” Mom agreed.

“Hearing is the last sense to go. We should whisper what we want to say in her ear.”

Everyone did. Nana sat up from her bed, took three short deep breaths, and fell back, all the breath gone out of her.

The ending made me appreciate my grandparents so much. This book almost made me cry. I suggest this book if you need a good cry or a warm feeling in your heart.

Do you eat here, or bring food? By Sasha

Do you like food here? No? Do you think it’s too expensive? Do you bring your own food? Well, as a matter of fact, I bring my own lunch. I am not encouraging you to do so, but I think it’s a good thing once in a while to bring your own food. I know this because the baht is getting stronger and stronger, and as prices continue to rise, the food here may become too expensive. Every once in a while, it would be a good idea to bring your own food from your own menu at home, just to get away from eating school food.

I wouldn’t necessarily know what the school’s menu is these days, but I sure as heck know it doesn’t have my type of food on it. The only thing I think I would like would be the Continental section. I can’t eat pork, so that may be a part of it, but I still refuse to eat school food. So what do you eat for school these days? Or are you like me? Eating home food whenever you please? Yeah, that’s the life for some of us. Maybe someday it’ll be the same for you, given the fact that your opinion is as good as mine. To criticize one’s opinion isn’t nice, so try to understand. The select few of us who bring our food to school don’t necessarily HATE the food, but rather prefer their own food. I think that is understandable (considering I do that myself).

Hopefully, the food at home can come to school sometime. It gives you an idea of what kids eat at home, what food they like to eat, and most importantly their culture. And as ironic as it seems, you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their lunch!

Orphanage Care Givers- Sara

The Orphanage care givers are starting very soon. It is going to be every other Wednesday. What the Orphanage Care Givers do is go to the Pakkred Babies Home, where they can play with little kids and walk around with them on the little playground right beside the home. A lot of these kids were either abandoned when they were young or their parents could not take care of them. All of the children are very cute and adorable. Last year and the year before, the Orphanage Care Givers was a big success. About 12 kids signed up for it, and it was a blast. The kids at the baby home got very attached to the students. They even started to cry when they left. These kids are well treated and get all the necessities they need. They are looked after and cared for when they are sick. The Pakkred Babies home is a great place to go to make little kids happy! If you are interested in going, you should see Mr.Straub as soon as possible because spaces are limited. The Orphanage Care Givers will be starting on September 10, Wednesday right and will last from after school till around 5ish.Those of you who take the bus home will easily be back in time for the late bus. It is free of charge and a reminder for all of you who want to go, bring a water bottle with you because you will get extremely thirsty. Make sure you go!

Global War Crime by Ethan and Afek

ever wondered why and how the world is suffering from global warming? If so, have you ever wondered what will happen? Everybody in the world refers to this over pollution as global warming. Global warming, as we all know, causes many problems including stronger hurricanes, higher temperatures, Rising sea levels, polluted air and water. but it isn’t just these. here are a few interesting effect of global warming:

the well-known effect of global warming is extreme weather conditions. stronger hurricanes become more frequent and stronger. at times these hurricane’s wind speeds can increase to 56 meters per second.

Another major effect on global warming is the ice cap thinning. due to the rising temperatures, the ice caps of the north and south poles start to melt. this causes an even greater issue which causes the earth’s seas to rise. It is said that in the near future, 2020, water levels will have risen to the point where cities on the coast will go under water.

A very intriguing effect of global warming is the amount of animal species that could be at risk of extinction. About 20-30% of all the species in the world will be under the risk of extinction. this is probably because of the massive amount of co2, and the higher temperatures.

the effects of global warming involves an abundance of money. the cost to repair things after serious disasters may exceed their expected budget. The cost to upgrade the maintenance of roads, rail lines, airport runways, pipelines, AND ELECTRIC wires to withstand the physical effects of global warming will also cost a load of money.

Many students at ISB have feelings for global warming, whether they are scared of it or pretend the changing problem isn’t there. We had asked a few students here in middle school what their opinions were on global warming.

Ramy stated, “I think global warming is bad because it will kill everybody and i don’t want to die because of the heat.”

Matt and Toey declared, “we don’t really think of global warming as an issue we will have to deal with now.”

Benedict said, “i’m worried but not too worried because not much is changing.”

“I don’t want anybody to die from too much heat,” Christian stated.

Sara said, “i am worried about global warming because one day the earth will react to our doings and will do bad back toward us and what if the trees start giving of toxin.”

in conclusion, the disaster that has been thrown upon us is affecting our lives every day. even the smallest thing could help. what is happening in our world are just mistakes catching up with society. the mistakes are irreversible but can be decreased.

do you want to be part of the solution or do you want to be part of………..

the end!

Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment” By Benedict

I just finished reading a book called Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment. The book was written by James Patterson. The book is about 6 friends who are 98% human and 2% avian. Their names are Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel. Max is the oldest member of the flock (a name they call themselves). Fang is the second oldest. Iggy is third oldest. He is blind from some tests the white coats (evil scientists) did on him to improve his night vision. Iggy is also really good at making bombs. Nudge is the fourth oldest. Gasman is the second youngest and Angel is the youngest. They 2 are the only ones that are related by blood in the flock. Gasman can imitate any sound he hears perfectly. Angel and read your mind. In this book, the flock has to save Angel from erasers (evil half wolf half man creatures made by the white coats to hunt down the flock) that have captured her. On the way they are going towards the erasers, they learn a lot about their real families and what has happened to them.

I think that this is a really good book because they explained in really good detail, and it never gets old. Some books make you just want to stop reading and just get it over with but this book does the exact opposite. I like the way they how if one good thing happens, a bad thing happens. It keeps the book from going boring. Not many people read about it or even heard about it but it is the best book ever written.

Did you know that a visiting author came to I.S.B? By: Tim

Did you know that Marc Joel Levitt came to visit us on Monday, Sept. 8th? He talked to us about peer relationships and Bullying. He works as a writer, storyteller, educator, radio host, T.V host, filmmaker and land use activist. He lives in Wakefield, RI and NYC. He uses books to try to teach students in the U.S and at International Schools about violence, nonviolence, bullying, diversity, and peer pressure. He will also be coming to talk in our classes. I think his stories are funny and every one of them has a moral. If you want more information about him, you can check out this website: http://www.marclevitt.org/