Make a Change for the New Year

Kids think that the world is all games, cookies and rainbows but it is not. Everyday people die from natural causes but many are killed, shot or stabbed or things worse than you can imagine. When children are little their parents hide the truth from them until they are old enough to understand. When you start middle school or maybe younger, you start to hear the word terrorist and suicide bombings. You might try to pretend that it isn’t real but deep down you know it is. You start to hear the word racism and see it happen. Politics comes into your life. 9/11, the 6,000,000 Jews that were killed in World War 2, the nuke that was dropped on Japan. All the terrible things that happen come into your life. It might overwhelm you, it might scare you but don’t, don’t let it take over your life. Don’t let it drive you into a deep dark hole, don’t push friends and family away. Now that you know that there are murders out there you need your friends and family most. Don’t bottle up your feelings, share them with people you trust. Most importantly don’t let anything like it happen again. We are the children of the next generation that is going to make a difference. We are going to be the leaders of the world in 10-20 years and I know that I will do the best I can to stop the bad that is out there.

How will you?

My name is Gavriel Hammer. I’m 13 years old and I live in Israel. I’m a Jew. Israel is surrounded by people that want us dead and they don’t hide it. This winter a wave of terror came out of nowhere and has had people living in fear since. Now that it is a new year I want there to be change. In the old city in Jerusalem there is the Western Wall and people say if you put a note in it, it will come true. That’s a pile of BS. I have five notes in there that all say, “World peace, no more wars.” And as you can see that hasn’t happened. People have protested to stop the terrorism but it hasn’t helped.

This whole long thing that I’m writing is to show that if you want something to happen you need power. Power doesn’t come from money it come by being united. It is terrible but true that people that hate each other only come together at crises, but why can’t we just be nice to each other all the time. I’m going to end this small speech by saying this: A Jew, A Muslim and a Christian walked into a coffee shop and had a cup of coffee together because they are decent human beings.

Fun Friend

Hi Everybody,
I have a cool friend named G.G. Frammer. He has a cool blog where he writes books and other cool things like Q&As and inside information.
Hope you like his blog.
Here is the link:teenauthorinc.blogspot.com
Signing off,
Gavi

The Bar-Mitzva

Just wow.
I worked for a whole year just for one single day and it all payed off. I felt so happy and excited when I got up to read the whole parsha from the Torah but when I did it I just did it. It was an amazing feeling to know that now I count in the Jewish people as a man. The whole Shabbat was a blur. I when to shul that night and prayed, next we had a dinner of brisket and turkey. It was great!
Then we went home and I went to bed for the big day up ahead. The next morning I got up and ate breakfast and then we went to shul. We prayed for about and hour and then i got up to read. It felt weird at first but I just did it and I kept on going through all seven aliyot. After I finished I got pelted by candy. Surprisingly it hurt a lot even though it was gummies. When we finished all of that there was a big lunch and I had a speech. It all went fine and  that was really the exciting part of my            Bar-Mitzva.
Signing off,
Gavriel Age:13

Yet Another Move

Moving School

Our school year is almost over but there are many things I fear to come.  1)I'm very nervous about moving schools. 2)I still don't know if my teacher will be nice. 3)etc, etc... But that is only the part I worry about. 

Last week we had a graduation party and the whole 6th grade put it on.  It was pretty fun to do, and the part I got was really fun, except for the fact that all the girls were running after me so I would say my lines with my "cute" American accent. When I had said it once, they wanted to record me saying it which was even more annoying.  Well that was the only bad part. Besides that every thing is going pretty well.  We finish school in 4 days and then I'm free for another 2 months.

Hope you all have a good summer break,

Signing off,

Gavriel

Frammer Disney

Our first day at Disneyland was a very exciting one.  We woke up to Boaz's alarm for 6:30am.  We had Crispix for breakfast.  After breakfast we set out on our 8 minute walk to Disneyland/California Adventure Park.  When we got to  Disneyland/California Adventure Park, Uncle Boaz got our tickets, and we went to wait in line to get in to the park.  When the gates opened our tickets were scanned and we were let into the park. 

We started to make our way to Fantasyland and went to Peter Pan's Flight, it was one of  the highlights of my trip. Next we went to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It was one of the funnest rides. There were some scary parts, but they were only scary because it seemed as if stuff was falling on you and when it seemed like you were going to crash into a train. Then we went on Pinocchio's Adventure, it was a bit scary but in the fun way of being scared.  After that we went on Snow White's Scarey Adventure, it was one of the scariest rides we went on. My eyes were closed for almost all of it!  Then we went to Alice in Wonderland, it was sensational! I really liked that ride. Next we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, it was really fun. There were two drops, but they were very small so you barely felt them. Then we went on Indiana Jones, it makes me sick just thinking about the ride. I screamed and cried so hard my throat was really sore afterwards. It was terrible! I hated that ride! I loved the Haunted Mansion, it was one of my favorite rides. The start was really fun when you went in an elevator and the pictures started to grow. 

Then we got a Fast Pass for Star Tours. After that we went on Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. It was a very fun ride. You had to shoot little targets with your blaster gun. Then it was time to use our Fast Pass. Star Tours was a 4D movie. It was super-duper fun! A 4D movie is a movie where your chair moves according to the movements on the screen. Then we went on a ride that is a favorite for many people, Small World. It was a very calming ride, and I really enjoyed it.  Then we saw a play called Mickey's Magical Map. It was one of the coolest plays I've seen. It combines live action with animation. One of the coolest parts was when Mickey got sucked into the screen. 

Next was Jedi Training Academy where kids got picked to train to be a padawan. My brother and I were the last ones picked. We had a really fun time doing it. At the end of the training, Darth Maul and Darth Vader came out, and we had to battle them. Ezra fought Darth Vader, and I fought Darth Maul. Before we sent away Darth Vader, he asked if anyone wanted to join him on the Dark Side, and I thought to myself "Yes! Me!"

Then we went to find a spot to have lunch. We wanted to have lunch in a quiet place, so we decided on Tom Sawyer's Island. We had to take a small boat to get there. For lunch we had cream cheese bagels. After we finished lunch we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was very exciting with all of the animatronic birds clicking and singing. The man who ran the ride said that there was a giant room of technology below where we were sitting, but it only had as much memory as an iPhone. After that we went on the Jungle Cruise. It was really fun. It was also our longest wait in line - 25 minutes. There were elephants in the water that were supposed to be bathing, but since they weren't working our guide said that they were playing freeze tag.

We went back to our hotel room and took an hour-long nap. Afterwards we went to the water park at the hotel called The Pirates Cove. One of the coolest things about it was a giant bucket that would fill with water and then when the bucket was full a bell rang and the bucket dumped out on whoever was standing under it. Then we back to our hotel room, took a shower and ate dinner so we could get back to Disneyland in time for the fireworks.

Back at Disneyland, Boaz said that we should go on Splash Mountain. When you think about Splash Mountain, think about a 55 foot drop in a log. It made my stomach do back flips. Before we did that, we got a Fast Pass for Autopia. Then we went to a place where a guy named Bob told us a story. The story was Peter Pan, and the room was special because you got to see part of the movie on a screen. There was also a cannon you could fire, that made a "hole" in the wall. When we started to leave, Bob gave us a Fast Pass that we could use on nearly any ride. We used it for Splash Mountain. That ride tells the story of Song of the South. As I said, it made my stomach do back flips. After Splash Mountain, to calm our tummies down, we went on Small World again. When we exited the ride, the fireworks had started and we had an excellent view. The fireworks display was 15 minutes long. It was one of the coolest ones I've ever seen. 

Then we went back to our hotel room. Boaz put on Cat Parade, and went to the hotel store to get milk for our cereal in the morning. When he got back, we went to sleep. That was the end of our first day at Disneyland. And it was only going to get better.

Signing off,
Gavriel

Gavriel in America

This day, the 28th of July 2013, was the day I would start one of the most exciting things of my life. I had a regular day until noon, then we went to pick up Boaz and go to the airport. One of the best things was that we didn't have any luggage to check-in, so that made everything take a shorter amount of time.

Once we had passed through security, we started looking in the stores in the airport. Boaz got an ice coffee at Starbucks, and Ezra and I shared a little sample of one of Starbuck's newest drinks, Frappaccino Oreo Crumble. It was really yummy because it was cold and it tasted like coffee ice cream with Oreo bits in it.

Then it was time to board the plane to California. We got on the plane and waited around 15 minutes until we were ready to take off. During those 15 minutes we were discussing how much fun we would have. The flight was almost three hours. When we got to LAX, Boaz's friend Scott, picked us up. We all went to The Milky Way restaurant which is owned by Steven Spielberg's mom. At the restaurant we started off with tempura vegetables with soy sauce. I tried broccoli for the first time. For the main dish, I had cannelloni, it was delicious. Scott and Ezra had fish and chips, and Boaz had trout almondine.

Before we had dessert, we ordered a cab using a new app that Boaz got, called Uber. It gives you the name of your driver, the car he is driving and how highly he is rated. First the app said we would be getting someone named John, he would be driving a Lincoln Town Car, and his rating was 9.8. Then, all of a sudden, while we were in the middle of our dessert, which was a Dreamy Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse Pie, it said we would be getting Dennis and not John. Then Dennis called to tell Boaz he would be coming in 20 minutes.

Mrs. Spielberg came to ask us how we liked the dessert. She asked me how I liked the cheesecake. I said that on a scale of 1-10, the cheesecake was an infinity. She said that I had made her day! Then it was time for us to go. We got our bags from Scott's car, said good-bye to Scott, and hopped into Dennis' car.

Dennis took us to our hotel, the Howard Johnson in Anaheim. It was a five minute was from Disneyland/California Adventure. We went to check in, and then Boaz got side tracked and started talking to the hotel check-in person. After they finished talking, Boaz got our room key and we went to our hotel room. We had a view of a fountain outside the window that lit up at night. After we were ready for bed, Boaz went out to the store to buy milk and cream cheese for the next day. When he got back, he played a song called Cat Parade. We listened to it every night before bed while we were in California.

Signing off,

Gavriel

Gavriel in America

Here are some of the other things we did before Disneyland:

• We went to the zoo with friends
• We went hiking in Silver Falls with the same friends
• I had a playdate 
• I went to the arcade with Ezra and Saba
• We bought shoes and clothing
• Lots of grocery shopping
• I went to the swimming pool with my friend
• I had a sleep over with Ezra at Boaz's apartment
• We went to some parks

That really sums up what I did.

Stay tuned if you want to know what happened in Disneyland.

Signing off,

Gavriel