May 7th, 2010:

I was dressed in a blue Wushu outfit as me, Mom, Aaron and his friend Andrew pulled in to the OHES parking lot. Those two were dressed in their Wushu class black uniforms with their shining white belts. They shown no signs of nervousness despite our situation. I was also not nervous, yet. Our situation was known by few, but as we entered Orchard Hill Elementary School, we had gained attention from many bystanders. We were greeted by other performers already dressed in their black uniforms. I carried my staff in. Well, enough mystery, you probably know what we are doing. We’re at OHES with important business concerning performing during the annual International Night OHES event. Me and 14 other students are performing Wushu and are representing the Zhao Changjun Montgomery class for tonight.

After our entrance into OHES, we are escorted to the meeting room where we would wait for thrity minutes. During that time, I practiced my Tiger Fist and Staff forms. I was the most nervous about the first part of our performance, Tiger Fist. To make matters even worse, I was calling the shots. I only had limited practice with the other students the previous night. What made me feel even more nervous were the discipline of most of the students who began to demonstrate almost no control over themselves.

Zhonghua Gate was a series of military outposts that defended the older part of Nanjing in Ancient Times. There were a total of 18 gates all connected by a wall that was over 35.12 km long, being the largest castle wall in circumference in the world.

The wall along with Zhonghua Gate began constructed in 1366 during the Ming Dynasty and ended construction in 1381. Several setbakes and delays included the collapse of the Zhonghua Gate (Zhonghua was refers to China as the Middle Kingdom, Zhong = Middle). According to legend a river spirit was angered during the construction, so an advisor recommended the aid of a peasant that would dig up a special bowl that would calm the river spirit. The gate was finished as a result of this and was named the Tresure Bowl Gate up until 1931 when it was renamed Zhonghua Gate by Jiang Gai-Shik (Chiang Kai-Shek).

The Gate as well as all of the other gates saw intense fighting in the 15th century up until World War 2 where the Japanese took the gates and stormed Nanjing. The Gate could hold up to 3,000 troops as well as 100,000 kg of grain in 13 chambers. The Gate was designed with a heavy stone portculis that would close as soon as a few soldiers managed to get into the fort. Then archers would fire down on the troops and kill them all. The defenders relied on archers and stones as their main line of defense against overwhelming odds. In World War 2, the Japanese took the fort at a heavy cost, improving its reputation as a fort.

The day I visited it was a clear, cool day. My mom, grandparents and my brother came with me on my visit to the Gate. We arrived at the gate around 11:00 and took a stroll around it. The Gate required tickets to get in, so we bought them on the way in. There were plants in te botanical gardens, in the yards and just outside the Gate. There was an archery range that I tried; I missed the target all five times. My mom then found a sign with  how to shoot an arrow written in Chinese on it and translated for me.

We found a building with a documentary of Zhonghua Gate and stayed around for the documentary. The Gate had 4 doors that led into the inner part of Nanjing. The city is surrounded by a moat with several stone bridges built over them. Besides that, there was a moat behind the wall with bridges over it. The Gate once had a palace on the top of the Fourth Gate until it was burned down by the Japanese during World War 2, now it lay bare and hot from the sun. Even more unfortunately, the rest of the wall is blocked off, so you could not get to the other parts of the wall.

On March 8th, 2008, an entire neighborhood lost all electric power, resulting in an enormous black out. I was at my house with younger brother, Aaron, when all of the sudden, the lights went flickering on and off and finally, it went out. The only light source were the 3 laptops that were on at the time. 2 off these laptops were in the kitchen, the other one in the family room. After half an hour, the laptops have lost significant power and my cell phone also went out. I decided to go to a neighbor’s house on a nearby hill with a water storage tower for emergency water. As we traveled, the winds were howling wildly and the sky was pitch black. It was only 7:47 PM. After we arrived at my neighbor’s house. I sat down around a candle lit table with my neighbors. My parents were busy.

My dad called at 6:28 PM and again at 6:37 PM. My mom was at a rehearsal for her dance team and my dad at a meeting.

My neighbors commented on my brother having only one shoe, so he needed new socks since his socks were wet. My neighbor’s daughter, Emily, went to get a pair of her socks. Her older brother, Robert, was flashing flashlights at my brother in a playful matter. Me and my neighbor conversed about getting more flashlights since I only had one and more batteries since I ran out. My little brother was eating Goldfish while we talked, Emily was sitting at one end of the table, Robert was in the living room with his grandparents. We talked about threatening situations like the Ku Klux Klan, terrorists, burglars, serial killers, etc. He also told me about severe weather conditions like when New Jersey recieved 6 ft. of snow in 1998 and heat waves. He told me to get a battery powered alarm system at home and to have extra food and water and some supplies like First-aid kits.

At 8:33 PM, the lights went on for a few minutes, but then it turned off once we were going to leave for my house. We waited. Finally, the lights went on for another few seconds, but then, it flashed off again. We waited and waited. Finally, we decided to go to my house anyways and search for some food that could be eaten right away. I ate an apple along with Aaron. My neighbor searched for batteries and/or flashlights, none were found. All the phones were dead, the laptops were losing power, the TVs were dead too. Finally, my dad was home and he had to enter through the front door since the garages were powered by electricity.

My dad lit 2 candles and started up the grill in the kitchen with a lighter. Soon, our dinner (which was supposed to be microwaved) was ready. We happily ate egg fried rice. Afterwards