ウィタニー／リバーフォール高校 (アメリカ ウィスコンシン州)
Whitney／River Fall High School (Wisconsin, USA)
本人が書いた文／Original text／本人原文／본인이 쓴 글
春休みにモールオブアメリカ（Mall of America）に行きました。モールはとても大きいですよ。たくさん店があります。とてもたのしかったですよ。
This is the Mall of America. It is the largest mall in America and is a major tourist attraction. I live only 40 minutes away, so I'm able to visit it fairly often. There are over 520 stores in it, along with Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Sears. It also contains Camp Snoopy and Lego Land. I love the Mall of America because it contains so many cool stores. You can find anything there; you just have to know where to look! They decorate the mall for different holidays, putting massive Christmas trees up for Christmas, and they always have some sort of entertainment right outside Camp Snoopy in the huge plaza. The Mall of America even has an AMC movie theater in it.
スヌーピーです。チャールズ・シャルツ（Charles Shultz）はスヌーピーのせいさくしゃです。このぞうははなやかですねえ。
This is one of the many statues of Snoopy that can be found throughout the mall. The creator of the comic Peanuts, Charles Schultz, died not too long ago and many fans from across the US painted statues of Snoopy and several other characters as well in commemoration of Schultz. They are mounted on platforms and there are also little collectable glass replicas of them that you can buy at a store in Camp Snoopy.
とても大きいエスカレーターです。たのしそうねえ。何度ものりたいです。キャンプスヌーピー（Camp Snoopy）はエスカレーターの後ろにあります。
This is the huge escalator that's in front of the plaza and behind Lego Land.
It goes up and down from all three floors. The outsides are shiny, so you can see yourself in them as you walk underneath. I love to ride escalators. They're more fun and scenic that elevators. The mall, however, does have two glass elevators, so you can see out as you ride.
ビーマニ（Bemani）ですよ。私はディディアル（DDR）が大好きです。ぜんぶ友だちはビーマニをたくさんします。ビーマニはたのしいですよ。
Of course, there is an arcade in Camp Snoopy. And what should I find, but DDR!! I came here once about a year ago and met this guy from Minnesota who was really good at DDR. I got to play against him, and actually survived a couple rounds!! A lot of my friends have the home system of DDR, so we don't need to go to an arcade and pay to play, but then no one can do cool tricks off the bars either…^-^
レゴランド（Lego Land）です。レゴでつくりあげます。かっこいいですよ。
This is Lego Land. You can go here and play with legos, or buy legos, or just look at legos. The sign and people standing by it are made completely out of legos. It's amazing how much detail there is in some of the creations, and how huge they are! I think it would be really fun to have a job as a person who makes things out of legos to put in Lego Land.
このちきゅうはレゴランドの上です。日本を見ていますか。ちきゅうは大きくておもそうですねえ。
This is a globe made of legos, and is hanging in Lego Land. You can see Japan on it!! I always get nervous walking around in Lego land because these massive lego creations are just held up by one wire!! Imagine having the world fall on your head!!
キャンプスヌーピー（Camp Snoopy）ですよ。中にはカイトイーティングの木（Kite Eating Tree）です。とてもたのしいです。たくさんのライドです。
This is an overview of Camp Snoopy. It is the largest indoor theme park in the US. There are many rides to choose from, the main ones seen here are the Kite-Eating-Tree, the Ferris Wheel, and the brand-new roller coaster, the Timberland Twister. I love Camp Snoopy because of the atmosphere. I'm not a huge fan of rides myself, but just watching is fun. You can also watch people in Camp Snoopy, you wouldn't believe some of the people you can see!!
ブルミングデールズです。私はブルミングデールズで買い物をしませんけどたくさん人はブルミングデールズで買い物をします。大きい店ですね。
This is the sign from Bloomingdale's. This anchor store is found all over the US, along with Sears, Macy's, and Nordstrom. One of each of these just so happen to be in the Mall of America. I love to shop at the Mall of America. There are so many fun things to see. They have an entire Sanrio store, and Asian food, even bamboo growing in vases that you can buy.
マクドナルドですよ。私はマクドナルドが大好きです。とてもおいしいです。チキンとハンバーガーが好きです。一週間に二度ぐらいマクドナルドで食べます。
Food is a big deal here, since most people who come the Mall of America stay the whole day. McDonald's is here of course, because one can be found in nearly every town across the US. The food's all the same, and it's all yummy!! The signs are all lit up, even during the day, to attract attention and get people to eat there. I like the big fries on the awning, they look delicious!!
ペプシぞうです。私はペプシを飲みません。好きではありません。マウンテンデューが大好きです。おいしいですよ。
This is a 3D advertisement for Pepsi, one of the major soda suppliers in the US. The lights are fashioned so they look like pop pouring into the big cup. I don't like brown pop, but I can't live without Mountain Dew!!
   
はじめまして、私の名前はウィタニーです。日本語のじゅぎょうでつかう名前はけいこです。リバーフォールズで生まれました。かぞくはリバーフォールズにすんでいます。私は高校二年生です。日本語の四年生です。十六さいです。六人かぞくです。母と父と妹と弟が二人います。亀を一ぴきかっています。ねこがとてもほしいですよ。しゅみは本を読むと話を書くことです。げきをするのが好きです。おんがくを聞くとするのが大好きです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。
   私のへやはとてもちらかっているですよ。ちょうちょうかべがみはかべにあります。ベッドはふとんの上にあります。バンクベッドですね。とんぼのふうせんはまどの中にあります。竜のぞうをもっています。ねこのぞうももっています。ハローキティー物が大好きでたくさんもっています。へやはうつくしい、ちらかっているにもかかわらず。へやのまん中にまるでじゆうな人のようだとおもいます。
   まほうをしんじます。一番の友だちと「ザ・ゲーム」をあそびます。そうぞうの本をよく読みます。
   私の家はしろいです。こうえんはちかくです。私のりょうしんは大学で働きます。母はニュースビューローではたらきます。父はコンピュータープログラマです。
  
Hello! I'm Whitney, and this is my story. I was born on June twenty-fourth, 1987, at 2:49 PM. I am sixteen years old. I live in River Falls, Wisconsin, and have all my life. My family consists of me, my parents, one sister (Logan), and two brothers (Xander and Zack). We have a turtle for a pet, but he lives in a pond outside. We used to have fish but most of them died or were eaten by the turtle! My very first fish were named Weewee and Walleye, a goldfish and a walleye (surprise surprise ^-^). One day we left to go on vacation for about a week and we didn't want to leave them in the house, so my mom filled up our little pool and put it on the front lawn for them to swim in while we were gone. They lived through it, and grew quite a bit too! I've always wanted a kitten, or two, or three… but my dad is allegedly allergic to animals of any sort so we can't get any other pets. When I move into my own house, it will be filled with animals. ^-^
      My life started out with a bang. I was born a week later than my due date, and had already started breathing before I was out of the womb. Big mistake on my part. After an emergency C-section, I was diagnosed with Meconium Aspiration, which basically means I had fluid in my lungs from breathing too soon. I was in the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) for fifteen days, and after that, life was peachy… until I turned ten. I got a stomach ache on the day that I was supposed to go on a long bike ride with a summer school class. My mom thought nothing of it but I couldn't go on the ride. After it didn't go away, in fact got worse, she took me in to the hospital. They poked and prodded for a good thirty minutes, and finally decided on a cat-scan. I had to drink a bunch of this disgusting white liquid, barium, to make my organs show up better on the c-scan. After that was over, they said I had appendicitis… and needed surgery right away. Next thing I knew I was lying in a hospital bed with needles and tubes sticking out of me and a major side ache. Little did I know the worst part was yet to come. The doctors discovered (after another round of barium, which the nurses had to squirt down a tube into my stomach because I couldn't stand drinking the stuff) that I had an abscess from the bacteria that had leaked out of my ruptured appendix. I was scheduled for another operation—this time to drain the abscess—on my tenth birthday. All I remember after that is all the stuffed animals and the huge happy birthday poster the nurses made for me. The nurses made me get out of bed—not a joyful experience, let me tell you—and walk around "to aid the healing process." Walking up and down the hospital halls may have helped me heal, but it sure hurt. My teachers came to see me in the hospital, well, actually my teacher and the teacher from the classroom next door to mine came to see me. I was making necklaces at the time, and my teacher told me later I looked like death warmed over—and never let me forget it. ^-^ So I left the hospital after fourteen days, after eating nothing but jello and having barium forced down my throat. I had to take medicine for about six weeks or more after I got home, and now I can't stand the taste of Diet Coke because it tastes like one of the medicines I had to take. I also don't drink eggnog because it tastes like barium, and I can't stand green jello because that's all they fed me in the hospital.
      I'm a huge fan of fantasy. My best friend and I have our own role-playing-game, where you take on the personality of the character you're playing. It's called The Game and we each have over fifty characters. I also read many fantasy books including Dragonlance, books by Madeline L'Engle, and just about any other fantasy book I can get my hands on. I believe in fantastical creatures, the power of the human mind, and magic. I play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) with my friends. My friends are also obsessed DDR. We've even taken to having "DDR parties" where we all sit and play DDR and video games. We also hold what is called a LAN (Local Area Network), where people bring their computers from home and connect then all together so they can play games against everyone there instead of just themselves… One time at a LAN we would up going swimming at four o'clock in the morning. That was quite the experience, and quite cold!! A bunch of my friends are also going down to Indianapolis this summer to Gen Con, a gaming convention held every year. One of my friends is going to dress up as a fairy. She's got an adorable dress to wear and little white shoes as well. ^-^ Most of my friends are major geeks, and all they talk about is Gen Con lately. I really wish I could go!!
      My extracurriculars mostly consist of drama and band. I play the flute in the Wind Ensemble and am in guard for marching band. Guard (AKA auxiliary) is "flag twirling." We are the ones who dance and do flag work along with the music. I love it because it gives me time to just be me and wear tons of makeup and funky costumes. We won best guard twice last year, and got third place at state. This year I'm hoping to get first!! I've been in three plays: The Crucible, Tome Jones, and The Lady Cries Murder. I love to act, and when I'm on the stage, I feel free. The drama geeks in my high school are awesome, and nothing is quite the same as the bond you form backstage during a play. I also write my own stories. I have a few started, but can't quite finish them yet. I think they're turning out to be much more like novels than stories, but I hope to finish some and send them in to contests and make a little money that way.
      I'm a junior in high school now, but when I go to college I want to either major as a professor of physics and teach college students, or be a high school English teacher. I also love interior design and artsy things that don't involve drawing. I'm a very creative person, but I can't draw well at all. ^-^ Instead, I make jewelry and cards, or I take and scrapbook photos. My class color is purple, which has become my favorite color over the years, along with blue. I've always been a sucker for blue things. I'm also a sucker for romance. I have fairy tale visions of my husband-to-be, how he's dashing and flatters me every chance he gets, but right now I'm stuck in the world of teenage boys, which isn't going as well; as I had planned… ^@^ I want to go on to college, but I'm not sure where yet. I know I have to stay in Wisconsin or Minnesota, but I'd like to go somewhere in the southern part of Wisconsin so it wouldn't get so cold during the winter.
      I ice-skated for nine years, then my knees gave out. I got all the way up to the eighth level (My First Skating Lessons, Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Freestyle 1, and Freestyle 2) before I started having troubles with my knees… We would do a show at the end of every year. I was Minnie Mouse for the first one, and one year I was a worker on the railroad as we skated to "I've been working on the railroad." That was always fun, the anticipation of waiting to go on, all the skaters going on at the end for the final bow. I miss it. I was also in tennis through school my freshman year with my best friends, but it interfered too much with my marching band schedule, so I couldn't do it again sophomore year. That was really fun though too, and it's nice to have a few athletic skills to show off every once in a while. I'm thinking of joining the team again this year, but I'm not sure if my band schedule will interfere yet.
      I am a self-proclaimed geek, but I'm not a hardcore gamer. I don't play many video games, and I'm pretty computer illiterate. I only use them to type my homework, stories, and quotes. I love collecting good quotes and end up writing them down on pieces of paper I find in my pocket, on napkins, or just on my hand so I don't forget them. My clothing also screams geek, bordering on punk. I love baggy jeans, but opt for tight ones if my shirt happens to be baggy. I can't stand straight leg or "boot cut," or anything with elastic around the ankle. My shirts all have their own personality, and most of them are pretty old. I really don't care what I look like to others, just that I look good in my own eyes.
      So that about sums me up. I'm a bit crazy and get a little off the wall at times, but I can be very down to earth and downright stubborn if I want to be. I'm a compassionate, intuitive person at heart, though I put on a rough exterior. This is who I am, and this is my story.
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