Here's my essay for Johns Hopkins. I feel so happy I just finished it after 3 hours of torture. I haven't had time to check it carefully, so don't stop reading because you find too many mistakes. Anybody who has a comment, please do it quick, because i'm gonna send it on Saturday, the deadline. Thanks
The essay is also quite lengthy ( strangely ).
If you had only $10 and you plan a day’s adventure, where would you go, what would you do and who would you take with you?
6:00. The alarm clock just went off, like everyday. The only difference is instead of going to school, I’m going on a trip today.
6:30. It’s still early on this Saturday morning, and there are not many people at the bus stop. I’ve been waiting for the bus number 21 for ten minutes. It should come any time now. Ah! Here it is.
6:31. WHAT? Not that again. I have to stand on crowded buses everyday to go to school. The sixty-seat bus I take is usually overloaded with about eighty people, which is all right in the winter, since it helps …warm me up a little bit when the doors are open. But it’s late spring, and today is Saturday, what’s wrong with these people?
Suddenly I realize. What’s wrong with ME? For so long I’ve taken this day off for granted, forgetting that normal high school and elementary school kids still have classes. On the other hand, we, students of a university's subdivision high school, have the same advantages college students do, one of which is not having school on Saturdays.
And so I stand here, blaming myself for not considering this, and thereby, maybe spoiling the whole day. I could’ve just taken the bicycle instead. But because somebody just gave me 150,000 dong the other day, I decided I would find every single way to spend it. Yes, 150,000 dong is equivalent to $10. And while it’s not worth that much in America, it’s a decent amount of money in Vietnam, to plan for a day trip. I told Viet, my best friend, yesterday, that I just got some money, and if he was interested in my plan, I would like him to accompany me. Of course he was more than happy to go after listening to my plan. Now, I’m not sure if even I am interested any more.
6:40. Thank Buddha, I can get off now. Hopefully, the next one, which is larger and usually less crowded, will be better, and maybe I will even find a seat.
6:45. Here it comes.
…
6:47. I just successfully reach the rear part of the bus from the front door, which took me two minutes. Now I realize I’ve made a fatal mistake, trying to use the bus. It’s been only seventeen minutes since I got in the first bus, but it seems like half a day has passed away.
7:00. Outside the window appears the familiar sight of Viet. But not as lucky as I was, trying to get a view of the window, I can’t get there to wave to him, as in the plan, so that he would know and get in the bus. I watch him looking for me in the bus, and then looking away…
Can it even get worse? Now I have to force my way to the door, get off and walk back. As much excited as I was last night, now I feel disheartened.
7:07. “Where have you been?” asks Viet, “I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes.”
“The darned bus…..” I hear myself starting to tell him about what happened.
Having heard my story, Viet agrees that we should change our plan. We would walk instead.
7:20. Surprisingly, I’m enjoying this walk. Without a backpack, without having to worry about literature or geography at school, walking doesn’t seem too bad, at least compared to my recent experience. More importantly, I’m talking with my best friend about the planets, the stars, about what we were taught yesterday. The lecture that has inspired me to go and buy astronomy books is now lightening my day. The more I learn about physics, the more I love it and feel happy with my choice of specializing in it.
8:30. We talked so much on the way that we seem to forget how we made the nearly-one-hour walk and even what we had for breakfast, beef noodles or chicken noodles. But it’s not important. The point is we are here, the famous old-book store in Ba Trieu Street.
Visiting old-book stores has always been my favorite pastime. I usually spend hours there, finding and reading old books. Though most of the time I don’t buy any, it’s still fun to look for old, cheap books that are no longer published, and sometimes to smile to myself mischievously, having just found a book with the solutions to all the exercises assigned by one of my teachers.
“Do you have books in astronomy?” I ask, “We want to buy some.”
Assured that we would buy instead of just looking, the storekeeper looks patiently for what I asked, finally brings out a stack of books. Beaming, we thank him and begin our own search.
12:30. Four hours have passed without our notice. Feeling fulfilled, we call it a morning, pay for the books and leave. On our hands now are books, written by Russian, American, French and Vietnamese writers. I’ve picked up “The first three minutes” by Steven Weinberg, “A brief history of time” by the famous Stephen Hawking and several books by Professor Nguyen Chau, our physics teacher. In Viet’s stack I see some books published by Mir Publishing House, Moscow, a familiar name to us but not extant any more, and some other interesting ones. We would exchange our books, so that one can read the other’s.
Walking out of the store, we head toward the famous restaurant in Mai Hac De Street, where we will have lunch. With the money, I will, of course, pay for it, just like I did for breakfast and the books.
6:00 p.m. Another four hours have passed since we got to Viet’s house. Here we’ve gone through the books, stopping here and there to discuss. Also, we didn’t forget to check all the figures that Professor Chau gave us yesterday without reading any note or book, to end up every time gasping at his astounding memory.
As it’s getting dark outside, I decide to go home. Saying goodbye to Viet, I start walking. Not until now do I realize that on my hands are about ten kilograms of books, not like when we started out in the morning. In fact, we’ve walked like that after leaving the store, without being aware of the weight on our hands. “But now”, my arms say, “it’s time for us to have a break.” And so I get on the bus, now full of students going home from school.
“Why are you carrying so many books”, asks a small elementary kid.
“It’s physics, boy. Soon you’ll know”. I answer, and smile to myself. Suddenly the bus doesn’t seem so terrible.
I can't believe you still remember Promina and the gangs!!!! Hahaha - oh my god! Man, really couldn't believe I wrote thousands pages of nonsense - out of space adventures, ninja robot and romantic crap! It'd be interesting to come back and reread all of my "novels." Never know when they might become famous 
