A Famous Boy and Some Paper!

“At 9:30, is your next chance to win Justin Bieber tickets for December 21st. Keep listening to 98.7 AMP radio.” In second hour, Mr. Johnson lets us listen to the radio while we do our artwork. On this particular day, the guy at 98.7 had just announced the next chance for tickets to Justin Bieber's concert. I had been trying to get tickets for days and out of the hundreds of times I had called, I got through a total of 4 times. All 4 times, unfortunately I was never the 98th caller. When I heard they were giving away tickets at 9:30, I silently tried to figure out a plan. I decided I would just hide my phone in my sleeve and call in 3rd hour. Ally and Olivia both agreed this would be a good plan, until we thought of one minor detail. What if I did get through? How was I supposed to talk on the phone in Mrs. Bergeski's without her noticing? And what if I won the tickets? I would start screaming and I'm almost positive Mrs. Bergeski would not appreciate such a distraction during her class. Well, I guess I could call at lunch I thought, maybe they will be nice and give me tickets?! Yeah not the case.

I was distracted until the lunch bell rang and Olivia and I literally sprinted to the bathroom. We locked ourselves in stalls right next to each other. We both called. And called. And called, until we decided it was useless and gave up. I resisted the urge to call during the rest of the day, well at least I didn't call again until the end of 6th hour. In 6th hour, we had a sub and he was giving us free time. So I sneakily snuck my phone out of my pocket and put it into my sleeve. Again I called, and called and called. I couldn't believe it. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the line was busy. Like honestly, how many people call during their 6th hour? I decided to give it a break. After school, I texted Ally and told her about how much I wanted these tickets. She decided to try for tickets too. After a full day of calling the radio station I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow. As soon as we got to school, Olivia, Ally and I pulled out our phones and called. I got through once and they said I would have to wait. Well I told the guy that I was about to go to class and he just said “oh well.” How rude I thought and hung up. I was aggravated and I just went to class and decided not to call anymore during the school.

That night, I was listening to the radio, trying to figure out when the next time to call was and then the radio announced they had gotten the 98th caller. Wow! The lady that won tickets sounded so familiar but I couldn't figure out who it was. The lady who was talking said that she wanted tickets for her daughter, Ally. Then they told her she had just won 2 tickets! After they told Ally's mom that she had just won tickets, I heard a loud scream in the background! I realized it WAS Ally! She called me right away to tell me her good news! For a few minutes we talked and Ohmygoshed over her going to see Justin Bieber!

A few days later, Ally texted me and she said “hey i have something to tell you.” I asked her what it was and she replied “oh its just about a famous boy and some paper!” Then she told me that she wanted me to come to the concert with her! I literally couldn't talk- I was just so excited! I asked my mom if I could go, and thankfully she said yes! In 10 days, me and Ally will be at Justin Bieber's concert! Our plan is to get there early and push our way up to the front row and get as close as possible to JB and the stage! In 10 days at 7:00 p.m., we will be singing along to “One Less Lonely Girl” and “One Time” and staring at his beautiful face! Ahhh I can't wait!!!

The Rwandan Genocide

Yesterday in class, we debated the topic of the Rwandan Genocide. Jackie and I worked together as the Rwandan Armed Forces, Rwanda’s National Army. We worked hard to research our topic, but we still were a bit confused. For me, this topic was personally challenging because I don’t understand who the bad group is. I kept getting the names “Hutu” and “Tutsi” mixed up. In different articles, each stated that the opposite group of who I thought was at fault for killing all the people. Once I started researching this topic, it started to make more sense to me. During the research I did on FAR, I learned that it was made up of Hutus. It was interesting because during this debate, the Rwandan Armed Forces name was never brought up in conversation. This means that neither Jackie nor I had to defend the FAR. I was almost glad the the FAR's name wasn't brought up because I feel like I wouldn't have been able to confidently state the facts of the FAR. Now I feel like I know the facts well enough to defend the FAR if we had another debate.

My group, the Rwandan Armed Forces, had very little role in the genocide except for the fact that we killed the Tutsi rebels. The FAR, is a group of Hutus that were trained by the French. The rwandan armed forces were led by Juvenal Habyarimana until his plane was shot down by the Tutsis. The Tutsis are led by Paul Kigame. Kigame says that he wasn't responsible for shooting down Habyarimana and his plane. Although he says this, I strongly disagree. I believe that he was the one who shot it down. I was glad to hear that the French Court accused Kigame of killing Habyarimana. The French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, was the one who accused Kigame of “ordering to shooting down the plane, which contributed to triggering the 1994 ethnic massacres and genocide.” The United States and Britain supported Kigame. (Paul Kigame accused by the French Court, globalreasearch.ca) I think that the US is also at fault during the genocide. I think they should've came to Rwanda's need when they knew the terrible things that were happening. The US and the UN both could've helped Rwanda by donating military supplies and providing food for the displaced Rwandans. Instead of helping, they sort of just watched from the side lines waiting for the genocide to be over. I think that if they would have stepped in, a lot of lives could have been saved. The Rwandan Armed Forces did their best to protect the people of Rwanda.

The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar” about American society still doesn’t hold true today because individuals are not just identified as their job, but by their other skills as well.

An individual may go into college and choose a career in something such as a lawyer. This individual may be a lawyer during the week but when the court session is closed, the lawyer doen't have to worry about the stress of a challenging case. On the weekend, this same lawyer could also be a handy man, and a father. Emerson is saying in “The American Scholar” that this is not possible. In our society, it is very common for an adult to work 2 jobs or hold a job as well as being a parent.

In Emerson’s time, teaching was less demanding. Anyone who had a certificate could teach a class. Today in modern times, an individual must have several different skills in order to be one teacher. “Just as the hand is divided into fingers, the better to answer its end.” This quote from "The American Scholar" tells us how we might think we are one job (the hand) but in order to do this job right we have to know several things (fingers). We must continue to find the balance to be able to work more then one job.

Halloween 2009!

Halloween is normally a very exciting holiday for me but this year it is different. I always have my costume and a plan how to carve my pumpkin. This year I got a bit of a late start on planning these things, but I think I will be able to pull it together and have a great time. My Halloween weekend starts tonight. After I eat my dinner, I am planning on carving my pumpkin! This is like the event that I look forward to each year. I cut a hole in the top so I can scoop out all the pumpkin “goo”, and clean out the inside of it. Next, I take a sharpie and draw on my pumpkin a face that I think would be cute. This year, I think my Jack o’ Lantern will have heart eyes and a big smiling grin. Once I get an idea of how I want it to look, I start to carve. Me +a pumpkin +a knife= a very dangerous combination but somehow it always turns out okay. Once the pumpkin is carved and transformed into a jack o’ lantern, I light a candle and put it in the pumpkin. I turn off all the lights in the house so it’s really dark, then just sit and admire my work!

Saturday is a busy day! I will hopefully sleep in and will be well rested enough to keep myself going throughout the whole day. After I get up and star moving around, I will help my mom put the final decorations on the outside of our house. We try to make our house festive, but not spooky! We usually put orange and purple lights in the bushes along with some spider webs for a creepy look. We set out all of our pumpkins and make sure we have candles in them. To light up our walk way, we take small orange paper bags and put a little candle in each one. Around 5:45, I plan to put on my costume. This year I’m going to be a ladybug! After my siblings and I are in our costumes, my parents always take a million pictures to remember the holiday. Once the mini photo shoot is done, my mom drives me over to Sam’s house. We have a big group this year and we are all meeting at Sam’s for dinner and even more pictures are taken. After this we run around Sam’s neighborhood, trick or treating and having a great time! I will ALWAYS go trick or treating regardless of my age!

Spirit Week!

This week at school has been Spirit Week. I absolutely love Spirit Week because you can dress all crazy without looking like a dork. The week before Spirit Week, the student announcers read the days over the PA system. They said:

Monday is country club day. Wear your plaid and preppy clothes.
Tuesday is tye-dye day.
Wednesday is wild west day. Wear your cowboy boots and flannel.
Thursday is senior citizen day. Wear your grandparents clothes.
Friday is super spunky spartan spirit day. Wear your double blue and white.

These days sounded really cool. On Sunday, I went to the thrift store and got some grandma clothes. I was so excited to dress up for spirit week! Monday morning I was in a frazzle. I had a hard time deciding what to wear, but finally I decided. I wore a pink and green argyle polo with white capris. For the final touch, I put a sweater around and tied it for a preppy look. When I got to school, I was shocked to see that almost no one had dressed up. Well at least a few of my friends dressed up so I wasn't alone. The next day, Tuesday, I knew exactly what I was going to wear! I wore a tye-dye shirt, a tye-dye bandanna with some tye-dye knee high socks. I must say, a lot more people dressed up and I was pleasantly surprised! I think our school should have tye-dye day more often because it looks so cool. Wednesday was more of a challenge. I decided to wear a long sleeve plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I found an old white bandanna which I tied around my neck for a “country-ish” look. Unfortunately, I don't have cowboy boots because that would've looked super! Thursday was senior citizen day! I thought it was a riot to see kids dressed up as grandmas and grandpas! I wore a sweatshirt with a teddy bear on it, just like something my grandma would wear! I also wore a pair of “velvet” sweats to make the outfits even more granny like.

Friday is double blue and white day! I cannot wait to wear all my blue and white clothing! It will be nice seeing all the students in their spartan spirit gear. Spirit Week has been a blast, I'm sad its almost over but I'm already planning next years outfit!

Swine Flu: And What To Do!

What is the world doing about swine flu? As of May 2009, the World Health Organization said that there were 985 confirmed cases of swine flu among 20 countries. But, a later study taken by the World Health Organization in September 2009, it was reported that 3,486 people were killed by Swine Flu (H1N1).

Some people wonder why the H1N1 virus is called Swine Flu. This name is given because the virus was only in pigs, but then the virus changed. H1N1 is now found in people. Originally it was transmitted pig to pig, but now it is passed on from human to human. It all started on a pig farm, where the pigs were infected. The farmers became sick too, and then the virus spread to Mexico. When people in Egypt heard that pigs were the cause of this illness, they killed hundreds of thousands of pigs. These pigs that were killed didn't even have the Swine Flu.

People are misinformed about the H1N1 virus, which would make it hard for the world to contain this illness. The symptoms of Swine Flu are a high fever, a cough and runny nose, sore throat, chills and body/headaches. These symptoms are very similar to those of the regular seasonal flu. More serious symptoms of the Swine Flu are troubled breathing, bluish-gray skin color and having trouble waking up. The groups of people that are most susceptible to the
Swine Flu are pregnant women, people with chronic medical problems and those who are obese.

Since children are likely to get the Swine Flu, they began giving immunizations to children just a day after hospitals started immunizing their workers. As of October 6th, only 14 states have received this vaccine and only in the form of a nasal spray. It is said that you would need 2 vaccines to be fully protected this year against the Swine Flu. Its important to know that the regular flu shot will not protect against the Swine Flu and the seasonal flu vaccine will not protect against the Swine flu. So to make sure you don't get either of these flu viruses, some precautions you should take include washing your hands frequently since the H1N1 virus can be spread by touching contaminated objects. Also, covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough. This will help limit the spreading of the Swine Flu.

In order to not get H1N1, remember to wash your hands frequently and if needed hand sanitizer works well too. Every time you sneeze or cough, make sure you have a tissue near by. Most importantly, be informed. It might seem dorky to carry around hand sanitizer, but its really not. You are just being a safe cautious person who doesn't want to get the Swine Flu.



For more information go to:
http://http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-03-swine-flu-cases_N.htm

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/swineflu/a/409_symptoms.htm

Summer Swim Team!

Over the summer I was on the swim team for Newburgh Swim Club. It was the first time I had ever swam competitively on a swim team. Starting the day we got out of school, we had 8 o'clock a.m. practice. I got up at 7:30 and managed to put on the blue and red tye-dye one piece swim suit. I packed my swim bag with a towel and a sweatshirt and sweatpants for after swimming. After I was all packed up, my sister and I would ride our bikes up to the swim club. When the coaches said it was time to start I had to put on my swim cap. It was really funny to see all the people in their swim caps because they looked like brightly colored, bald heads. I absolutely HATED these morning practices because there is nothing worse then jumping into a freezing cold pool and swimming what seemed like millions of laps every single morning.

The pool lanes are based on ability and speed level, lane one is the slowest and lane 6 is the fastest. I decided that I would rather swim in lane two with all of the nice little 6th graders rather then the other lanes in which the swimmers practically drown you if you swim to slow. Of course, I didn't exactly want to admit my age to these 6th graders in my lane so when they asked me how old I was I simply replied “um I'm not sure.” However, I was able to blend in with the swimmers in my lane because I was so much tinier then these kids 3 grades younger. Once the hour long practice was done, I quickly dried off and threw on my sweats. Lydia (who is also on the swim team) and I would talk about our plans for the day and sometimes we would decide to go do a 3 mile run. It felt so good to be active and healthy but it was especially fun since we did it together.

I did this EVERY single day until the end of July but looking back, I am so glad I did it because it was a great workout. My swimming skills have improved 100% and I have learned many new strokes. At the beginning of the swim season, it was really hard for me to swim 2 laps but by the end, I was able to swim much, much more. Hopefully, next summer I will be in lane 3!