The ending of "Me and You" / blog 23

In the end of the book, Lorenzo found his sister died in a bar because of overdose, which means that she had taken too many drugs. I was very surprised when I read to the end of the book, and in fact I didn’t expect Olivia to be taking anymore drugs because in the previous chapter, Lorenzo and Olivia had promised each other that they would meet again in the future, and Olivia would be quitting drugs forever. But it does not seem like they kept their promises for each other.

            Lorenzo and Olivia’s relationship eventually got closer during the ski week when he was hiding in the basement. At first, Lorenzo didn’t like Olivia and Olivia didn’t like Lorenzo. She swore at him and even used violence on him to express her emotion; Lorenzo was very tough too, he had his headphones on and pretended like she didn’t even exist. But, when Lorenzo saw his half-sister suffering and lying on the ground, his stone heart that only parents and grandma had broken. He accepted his sister as his friend, and maybe even part of his family; Olivia walked into his heart, and broke the wall of Lorenzo’s circle. He changed from a selfish boy that didn’t care about anyone except his parents and grandma, to a generous boy who has making more friends as his hopes and goals. He had also changed Olivia, in my opinion, because when the relationship of them got closer while they were in the basement, Olivia quitted cursing, and was being very calm. She said she would change in the future because she met  Lorenzo who gave her hope and passion to improve herself. Maybe Olivia was just saying these promising words to make Lorenzo feel better and comfort him, but through the experiences in the basement, Lorenzo had really changed a lot.

            In the end, the story tells me that no matter how hard your life is, you should always be looking forward to life and never take drugs, because it is really harmful to your life. Because of drugs, it made Olivia’s life very hard when she was addicted to it and when she tried to quit. She spoiled studying, her relationships with friends and family, and even her teenager period of life because of drugs. And at the epilogue (the end) of the book, she even died because of drugs. This is a really bad example of life model, and I wish that more and more teenagers can go away from the drugs, because besides making yourself happy when you are taking it, it has no benefits to your body both mentally and physically at all. I also learned from this book that, all the parents have the responsibility to take care of their children. If they don’t want to take charge of their children, then don’t get pregnant, because it really hurts the children if their family didn’t lead them to the right path and giving love to them. Children are sensitive; give then education, care and love if you give them their lives.

How has Lorenzo changed by the end? / blog 22

At the end of the book, Lorenzo changed from a introvertive feelingless boy who did not know how to feel sympathy for others to a hopeful boy who looks foward to his future life and wants to make friends like the others under his sister Olivia's effects. Before he met his sister, Lorenzo could not feel any emotion at all; he did not want to go to school, and did not want to socialize with the others, which makes him a very lonely boy, but after Lorenzo met his sister, he felt sorry for not being able to lessen her pain and thought for others at the same time in his life. After he had a conversation with his sister on the last night they could spend in the basement, Lorenzo "...knew that beyond that door the world was waiting for me, and that I would be able to talk to the others like I was one of them. Decide to do things and then actually do them".(Ammatini,143) Olivia lightened up her hope, and meanwhile also lightened up lorenzo's hope, which is to make more friends and walk out of his circle that he had set for his parents and grandma. Thus, the fact of meeting his sister changed Lorenzo's personality by having him looking foward and having the goal to make friends.

Adding a sentence / blog 21

Later in this chapter, Lorenzo relates how he "hugged her and leaned my forehead against her neck...and burst into tears"(author #).

It is the first time of Lorenzo putting himself into other's shoes, feeling sympathy and crying for others who is not closely related to him, which shows an enormous growth of Lorenzo's mind.

Coming from a solitary boy who doesn't like to have contact with anyone, this action represents a significant change that has overcome Lorenzo.

Chapter 5&6 Question / blog 20

Read chapters 5 And 6. Answer the following questions: At first, Lorenzo does not want Olivia to stay with him. Why? Why does he initially agree to allow her to stay? After a while, he begins to feel sorry for Olivia and wants to help her? Why? Explain in detail and use direct quotes from the novel.

            Lorenzo, the main character and also the narrator of the book Me and You, who was a twenty-four-year-old grown up man in the year of 2010, wrote down a long flash back about his childhood in 2000 when he was fourteen. In the prologue of the book, Lorenzo's sister's name appears; she is Lorenzo's step sister, who is nine years older than Lorenzo. She appears in the prologue, disappears for four chapters in the book, and finally appears in chapter five.

            Lorenzo was a kid that has bad relationships with all the inferiors- people who was not one of his family member; in his mind, the only people who could understand him is his mom, his father, and his grandmother. In order to make his mother happy of him making friends in school and being invited by them, Lorenzo fabricates an event which is a ski trip with his "friends" and hides in the basement of their living house which is a building. Lorenzo is afraid of his mom asking him to have her talk to his friend Alessia's mom, because this whole event is a lie. He hides in the basement and pretends that he went to the ski trip with his friends, and he thought that he could hide there for the whole week, but on one day someone fiddles with the lock on the door and finds him in the basement. 

            It is his sister, Olivia. She is looking for the money in a box in the basement that she gave her father before; she finds the box but she doesn't find her money in it. She promises Lorenzo that she wouldn't tell his parents about him hiding in the basement and left, but the second day she comes again. This time she is asking for Lorenzo to let her stay and live for a night; Lorenzo refused to do so because he finds his sister's diary of how she hates their father;  he also thinks that the basement is his personal space, the food supplies are limited, so he didn't want her to stay. His sister threatens him by telling his parents that Lorenzo is hiding in the basement and he has no friends at all, which makes Lorenzo compromised. He really wants to maintain a good relationship between his mom and him, so he doesn't want his mom to know the truth. For hiding the truth, he let his sister stayed for one night.

            In the next morning, Lorenzo wants Olivia to leave because the time he promised to let her stay is up. Olivia was cursing at him because he did not let her stay in the shelter and she has no money at all. When she is deciding to leave, Lorenzo's mother called Lorenzo and ordered him to let her talk to Alessia's mom, and to make sure that everything is alright. Lorenzo bagged her sister to pretend like Alessia's mom for making his mom less worried, by swearing that "on my parents’ lives that I will be Olivia Cuni’s slave...For the rest of my life...And I will always be kind and generous to her" and letting her sister stay in the basement. It is really a great effort for Lorenzo to swear so. His sister helps him went through the crisis, and for exchange, she stays in the basement. Accidentally, Lorenzo found her sister vomiting in the bathroom feeling extremely uncomfortable because of malaria. In the text it says that Olivia "...was distressed, constantly changing position like she was lying on a carpet of broken bottles. She wrapped herself in the blanket then threw it off and fidgeted and flinched like somebody was torturing her." Her sister was so sick that she couldn't stop groaning; Lorenzo feels annoyed first, but then he might feel a little bit sorry for her sister because she looks really skinny and sick. He finds some syringes in her sister's backpack while she's showering in the bathroom with cold water. He might feel pity of his sister because he used to like his sister's beauty and suddenly she was not as pretty as before because of the illness, and she is so poor and frustrated which Lorenzo had never experienced.

Summarizing chapter 1 / blog 19

Lorenzo, who was a fourteen year old Italian boy, went on a ski trip with his friends without his mother accompanying, but he didn't went there and instead he hid in a building.

Story about my break / blog 18

          Once upon a time, in a freezing winter, I went on a trip back to my hometown—Shanghai. The weather in Shanghai was as cold as the weather in New York; people on the street were all wearing heavy clothing for keeping their bodies warmer. My friends were all dismissed from school because of the Christmas break, so I could hangout with them as much as we want. It was only six days left to Christmas when I arrived in Shanghai.

          I called my best friend Joyce when I arrived home, and we hangout for the whole day. We went to a lot of places for food in the break, for example we went to the Korean street in Shanghai called Hongquan Road and had a Korean rice cake hot pot. The rice cake is made of sticky rice and mozzarella cheese stuffing in it. We also put a lot of meat and veggies such as pork, seaweed, Chinese cabbages, needle mushrooms and potatoes in it. After we finished all, the waitress told us that we could put a bag of ramen into it; the ramen with the special sauce and the soup tasted fantastic. Besides food, Joyce and I went to a hot spring on Christmas. It was a wonderful experience to chill in a boiling hot water with a friend when it was freezing outside. There were several different springs with different colors and functions; I remember the one that is made of a small portion of carbonic acid and mineral water, because after staying in it for a while, your body would be covered by tiny bubbles like the ones in coca cola.

          Unfortunately the break is short; I still had a lot of friends that hadn't met yet. Everyday in my break was enriched with fun; I woke up early everyday and felt energized. Although I missed my friends a lot, I have to leave Shanghai and go back to my school. I would miss the days in Shanghai where I had no work to do at night and free time.