Notes:

1.  I wasn't sure what Jasmine's ostrich's name is, so I just made up a name--Lebanon.

2.  How about we add Debate to Friday since there's only art shows that day?

3.  I figured out what Jasmine and Mary-Lee's last name is: HenriaJah! I found it in Jasmine's second post. Alamea asks what Jasmine's name is and Jasmine replies, "Jasmine HenriaJah". Anyways, now we know what their last name is! :-)

4. Here's the list of events for the week: Monday would be singing, instruments, theater and dance; Tuesday would be filled with the races, hippos, ostriches and horses; Wednesday was also dedicated to animals: Some ostrich dances, hippo taming, horse jumping…; Thursday had a lot to do with sports: Archery and fencing were just some of them; Friday was filled with art shows and debates; The winners would be chosen on Saturday and Sunday would be the palace visit.

5.  Sorry this is so long! Whenever I get started writing, I tend to keep writing until I end up writing a LOT! :-)  Hopefully, you'll all enjoy reading this and will want to write more to continue this thread!

//Mary-Lee//

Today we travel to FariSayah! The bus ride passes quickly, for I write the whole time. After we get off the bus, a man dressed in a fancy suit reads off the room numbers, and the names of the people who will be occupying them this week. I half listen for my name while I look all around me. There is a sign at the entrance of the building. It reads "FariSayah Dorm". A very creative name. And it definitely describes the dorm. (The last two sentences were sarcastic, if you couldn't tell). They should've named it "The Golden Sleeping and Staying Place". Now that would describe it! The dorm is made out of gold! Yes, I know that it's probably just a thin coating of shiny yellow paint that is covering a plain white wall, but I'd prefer to imagine that the walls are made of pure gold! My ears perk up as I hear the Man In the Suit say my name.

"In room 42," he says, "will be the following girls: Mary-Lee HenriaJah, Kristen GeshKat, Jillian Bershen, Annalise Tarish, Jordan HirpShah,  Beth LamiaHish, Abbi MarliRak, Tara TrishHan, Natti Jorshha, and Henni JorshHa." I do not know why he says our first names and our last, while he only says the last names for the older girls. I assume that he thinks that ten and eleven year olds do not know what their last names are, so he says our first names, too, so that we will hopefully recognize them. Humph! Apparently he hasn't been around many first year girls because he does not know that we DO know our last names! Anyways, the first six girls are the girls in my room at GenkuSuh, and the last four girls I do not recognize. I figure that I will meet them later, though. A few minutes later, I walk into my empty room and hang my carpetbag up on the rack in the corner of my bedroom. Inside are my clothes, ballet costume, and, most importantly, my notebook. I sit on the bed closest to the window and claim it as my own. I figure that I have a better view of the city this way. The whole city shines from the brightness of the sun, and the Palace of FariSayah rises above the city. It sits on a tall hill and looks majestically clothed in its golden splendor. I finish looking at the view, open my notebook, and start to write in it. First, the date. December 1st. The first day of the month. I really like the first days of the months. It's almost magical, especially as we have a whole new month and a whole new season to go with it. The sound of my pencil's scratching fills the room and my paper.

Dear Amari,

    Here I am at the Palace of FariSayah. It is wonderfully beautiful here! I wish you could be here to see it! I will take some pictures later and send them with this letter. If I have time, that is. I am going to be really busy this week. I am competing in Debate and Ballet. My roommate Kristen is going to do Ballet with me, and I have persuaded Jill to do Debate.

    I brought your last letter to Language Arts class last week, and read it aloud to my debate group. They all agreed with your ideas, so we have chosen to debate about Pluto. Half of our group will be FOR keeping Pluto as the ninth planet, and half of our group will be AGAINST keeping Pluto as a planet. I am with the FOR group. I'm glad about that, because I have always liked little Pluto. The group divided into partners, and we had to research the facts about why Pluto should remain a planet or not. I was put with Annalise, another girl in my room. I'm glad because I don't like being partnered with strangers. And I have already known Annalise for three full months, so she doesn’t count as a stranger.

    We are performing Swan Lake for ballet. A girl named Lily is a Odette, the Swan Princess. Everyone agreed that she looked absolutely beautiful in her costume! Kristen and I are cygnets. Kataira Abishag sewed our dress'. Both of us love them! She is a really good at sewing! They are a perfect snowy white color with a white tutu. Our tights are white, and so are our slippers. I had to buy new white slippers since my other ones are pink, so I used the birthday money that you sent me. By the way, this is also a thank you note. Thank you for the money that you gave me. I used it to buy ballet slippers for my ballet competition this week (see above). I will get a lot of use out of them. Thank you, Amari! Back to the letter, I really like my role. Alamea, a roommate of Jaz, is also a cygnet. Alamea, Kristen, and I don't mind having minor roles because all of us are glad to just be on stage and dancing! There were so many good dancers that tried out for any role for the ballet, and not very many girls and boys got them. We are all glad that we all made it! Oh, I forgot to tell you that Alamea has a costume that is just like mine, except for it is made by Lily, a roommate of Alamea and Jaz.

    Tomorrow is Monday, and I will be performing The Swan Lake along with Alamea, Lily, and Kristen. It should be fun! I am so glad that you will be there to see me! I can't wait to see you again! The last time I saw you was at the beginning of the summer when you came to visit Jaz and me. That was such a long time ago, but I am so glad to be seeing you again soon! Anyways, Tuesday I am going to watch Jasmine race her ostrich, Lebanon. She will be SO excited to see you again ! Jasmine, not the ostrich. Wednesday, I promised my roommate Beth that I would watch her and her horse, Sugar, jump. Thursday, I'm planning on watching another roommate of mine, Jordan, do fencing. And Friday, Annalise and I are going to do Debate. Saturday the winners will be announced, and Sunday we would be touring the Palace of FariSayah. We'll even get to meet the king, King Antadomon the fourth! Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun, Amari! I really wish you could be there with Jasmine and me! Don't worry, though. I'll be sure to write and tell you all about it!

Can't wait to see you again!

Lots of love,

Mary-Lee

I rip out the pages, put it into an envelope, and head down the hall to the mail room. I hope that Amari will receive the letter before she comes! Otherwise, I'll just have to recite it to her instead. When I get back, the girls are all gathered in the room. We all introduce ourselves. The four girls that I did not recognize say that they are representing the local FariSayah boarding school. They are excited that the competition is in their hometown. We all start to compare our competitions. We find the girls that have the same interests and that are competing in the same subjects as we are and immediately make friends with them. We like finding out what we all have in common. But there is one thing that we all have in common. We are all excited for the upcoming MadrianaGusic!

Okay, it's kind of late here so I won't post now but I think your idea is great! I'm going to post tomorrow! Oh and debating sounds good! I really like how you write as Mary-Lee!

Alamea-

Most of us had lounged in the comfortable beds until dinnertime. Around five thirty, I finally got up and started to unpack.

I had taken some pajamas, a few matching GenkuSuh uniforms, normal clothes, socks, my sprinting outfit, my fencing clothes, riding clothes and other necessities.

My outfits for the performances were in a separate large duffle bag, but there was no need to take them out at the moment.

I changed into a fresh uniform and put the dirty one in a small laundry cannister next to my bed.

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

I almost had to cover my ears, it was so loud. A bell had started ringing.

“That means dinner!” Jasmine whispered in my ear.

“Oh.” I felt embarrassed.

Our whole room joined each other to walk downstairs.

Sorry, it's so short! 

No, that's fine that it's short! I'm just glad that you posted! Thanks! Oh, and it probably just looks short because you're comparing it to my SUPER long one that took a LONG time to write! :-)

I wanted to let you all know that I will be gone for the weekend since I am going to stay overnight at my Grandma's house with my siblings. I will post next week, though!

Hello! I'm back! Let's see...since no one has posted yet this week, why don't we make next week the first day of the MadrianaGusic? That way, everyone has time to write their post. Don't forget to post it next week!

Top and hi Princess P.! I'm glad you're back!

Sounds like a good idea! One thing...do you think we need a whole week for each subject? I actually like that idea. :-)  That way, we can have a post from each character's different viewpoint. But then again, it will take a long time to get through the MadrianaGusic. But...then we can keep writing about it. And we know what to write about and don't have to brainstorm anymore! :-)  What are all your thoughts?

TOP please!!! *poke*

Actually it might be more like weeks. :-)  Either that or it just seems like it. :-)  WHERE IS EVERYONE??????? DOES ANYONE ELSE READ THIS THREAD??????

Anyways, I think I'll write about chorus from Eli's view, piano from Kataira's view, and debate from Mary-Lee's view.

Elizabeth-Are you going to do something from Banier's view, too, or just Alamea's? Oh, and maybe we should do Monday for more than a week since some of us will be writing multiple posts since we have more than one character. What do you think? Also, I was wondering something. Even if no one else posts here, do you want to try to keep this thread going, even if it's just the two of us? I think it would be a shame to let such an awesome thread die, right? :-)  Or should I put a frowny face? :-(     :-P

Okay, um... Princess P., which dancing would you like to take? We can divide it between us. And Lizzy, which dance do you want? And on piano, can here be more than one piano playing person because I also want to do some cover on that... And is anyone else wanting to take part of theater?