A Month in Review

Old Friends, New Friends
The past month I have made new friends, kept friendships, and became closer to my friends. I have made new friends with Kelly, my new science partner who I also sit with at lunch. I have become better friends with Stephanie, a friend in my gym class, who I was friends with in seventh grade, but didn’t talk much in eighth. I stayed very good friends with Lauren, Natalie, Nicole, and Alyssa. I also stayed friends with Abbie, Amanda, Allison, Kelly, and many others.

SHS Activities Attended
The first school activity I attended was the Freshman Dance. This was fun, as well as the Welcome Back Dance. The funniest of all are the football games. Something about them is so enjoyable. I have been to every home game, and I am very I also went to the Invisible Children Movie. This was heartbreaking to watch kids afraid to sleep in their homes. Last Friday, I went to Homecoming, which was super fun. On Monday it was a bit weird to see everyone not dressed up.

Funniest, Weirdest, Scariest Moments
Well, I don’t know what of those categories this fits under, maybe a mix between fun and scary. Every Monday I got to Youth Group at my church. We do pray, and do other stuff like that, but we also make skits, watch movies and take fun field trips. Last week’s was Halloween themed. There were pumpkins to carve, a no-hands eating contest, and a haunted house. We were the last group to go into the haunted house, and so they were getting good at scaring people. A group of six walked (and crawled) all through the Youth Center. It was surprisingly scary. One of the scariest parts was when we were in the garage, and a gorilla, and a masked man started running towards us. Our guide, Jennifer shut the door behind us, we opened that door and ran out as fast as we could!
Hardest, Easiest Class and Assignments
The hardest assignment so far is the Universals of Culture for Mrs. Bergeski’s class. There were ten categories, and each category had about three sub-categories. We picked five categories and for each sub-category we had to right a couple of sentences about Australia, and the Aborigines of Australia. This was very time consuming to look up multiple websites for each sub-category, and write it.
Top Five Current Events
In the past few weeks current event quizzes have occurred almost weekly. The top five most important are as followed. A Yale student who was murdered, at her work in a lab by another employee named Ramon Clark. The government funded group, ACORN was caught on tape by two amateur photographers giving out illegal information of how to cheat the government. Funding was later suspended. In Atlanta Georgia a total of nine people died in floods. NASA found two liter bottles worth of water on the moon. This means it could have sustained life. NASA then tried to ram a spacecraft into the moon looking for more water. It failed. Roman Polanski was an American director when charged for raping a thirteen year-old girl. He served forty-two days in jail, and he escaped by moving to Switzerland. Switzerland caught him and America he was extradited, back to America.
Faces in the News
On every news quiz in Mrs. Bergeski’s class there are one to four faces and we must tell her who they are, and what they did in the news this week. If you study the faces then usually it can really help you, but if you don’t it can really hurt you. Some of the faces this year have been…. Ben Bernanke is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and he told America we are almost out of the Recession. Mahamoud Achmadinejad is the President of Iran, and at the UN meeting Obama told the entire council that Iran had a secret uranium enrichment facility. This led to Hilary Clinton into being a face in the news because as the Secretary of State she talked to Russia, a close trading ally with Iran. To study for these I made a power point. The face will show up, full blown on the screen; I say aloud the name and what they do. Then the name and job will appear.
Interesting New Words
I am in French two and a few weeks ago we were learning professions. Mrs. Ruiz taught us a new word, avocat meaning lawyer. This word sounded a lot like one of our vocabulary words for the week, evocative meaning to bring out emotion. I thought a lawyer kind of brings out emotion with the people involved with a case, especially if it a family member or someone close. I ended up getting avocat and evocative right on the test!
Popular or Memorable Songs
So far the best song of 2009 is definitely You Belong with me, by Taylor Swift. I love this song! No matter what Kayne West says the music video was good too. My favorite song right now is Smile by Uncle Kracker. The song is a bit slow, but I think it’s really cute, (the name Uncle Kracker sounds weird but once you listen to the song it won’t matter his name.)
Popular or Memorable Movies
The movie everyone is waiting to see is coming out in November. It was based off a book by Stephanie Meyer, about a romance between a vampire and a regular girl. Any guesses? The second film of the Twilight Saga, New Moon, is going to hit the theaters on November twentieth. Another hit movie was the Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. I really liked this movie, and have it on DVD.
Rumors and Gossip
This year as well as who’s going out with who, cat fights and other rumors floating around high school, the swine flu has been a popular topic as well. Who has it, who’s going to get it, and who getting the shot. I heard any number about five people have it or did have it at Stevenson. I’ve heard both arguments for getting the shots. The benefits outweigh the risks, but what if you’re one of the few cases that have bad reactions to it. Should you take the chance? Personally, I don’t know if I’m going to get it. I haven’t decided, because I see both sides.
Fads and Trends
Like most time periods we have clothes that mark us, that explain our generation. I think we will most be remembered by vibrant colors, Ugg boots, and tight –fitting clothing. Colored skinny jeans are now a popular trend. Zebra print and plaid shirts are also very trendy. As well as Ugg boots we wear a lot of moccasins, and Etnies. I wonder what people of the future will think of these fads.
First Cultural Event
I did my first cultural event on the Invisible Children movie after school. It was so sad, it almost made me cry…. It was written which in my opinion is the easiest because in oral’s you have to give the speech (which can be scary) and in creative display you have to write, and think of a display (and I’m not that creative.) A tip I learned is always do your cultural even as soon as you can, and look at the calendar to see if the weekend before you are doing anything, because if you are, finish it early! Fortunately, I was lucky and didn’t have much of a problem with being busy that weekend, but I don’t want it to happen.
Homecoming
Homecoming was last Saturday and was very fun. It was a lot like the other dances, except for the decorations, more slow songs, screen playing the music videos, and everyone was dressed up. I didn’t know if I would, but I ended up really liking the getting dressed up part. It was nice to feel like you really look good in comparison to everyday clothes. It was geared more towards couples, which was okay although I’m happy not every dance is like that.
Advice for freshman
Freshman, study, study, study. That is all I’m going to say. In middle school to receive an A all you need is to go to class, and get most of your assignments in on time. In high school to receive an A you need to do all that, and pass most of your tests and quizzes which are harder than middle school ones (except for math seemed to be a lot easier.) This is pretty much the same as Middle School, but make sure you’re really sick if you miss a day of school that you really are sick, because it’s a pain to do all the work you missed for homework.
What I’m looking forward to
Well, currently I am super excited for Halloween, this Friday. Four of my friends, and I are dressing up as fairies. We are all wearing leggings, t-shirts, a cami over it, and fake brightly colored hair. Each of us are a different color, I am blue, Erin purple, Holly pink, Rachel green, and Nicole is orange. If everyone isn’t sick (many people in this group haven’t been feeling good this week) my mom invited everyone for a bonfire after! I am also excited for Winter break, spring break, and summer break.
Other Noteworthy Events
One hundred and fifty more days! Until what, you may ask. The Livonia Ice Show! I ice skate at Eddie Edgar Ice Arena and every other year the entire ice rink comes together for an exhibition. We are put into one to four groups, and make a routine. There isn’t long between the end of competition season and the ice show, so we are at the rink 24/7 the entire month of March. It’s very tiring, but also very rewarding because we become so close to all the girls when we hang out in the locker rooms between shows, and practices. I’m so excited!