Summer time :)

Summer is the best season. From the first day of school in September to the last day of school in June, summer is all I can look forward to.
During the summer, there is nothing to worry about. No homework, teachers, or catching the bus. The only thing that I’m required to do is put on sun screen so I don’t get a sun burn.
The best place to be is Irish Hills. In our two bedroom cottage, we usually fit around twenty people. Some camp out in the back, some sleep in their cars. The pontoon is our main way of transportation, other than our flip flops or bare feet. By the end of the three month vacation, my feet are as tan as the sidewalk. My aunt brings her large, plastic raft called Paradise Island that reeks of sun screen and lake water. That’s the usual tanning spot. We swim out to the large, wooden raft where we do backflips and cannon ball in after soaking in the sun for a few minutes. Sometimes we catch minnows from the dock and even fish.
The nights are the best part. Every night, no matter what there is a bonfire. We roast marshmallows, talk around the fire, and sometimes light off fireworks. Our music is always blaring, and there Is always excitement. All the little kids tell stories. Sometimes about lake monsters, and sometimes just about nothing.
In the summer, there is no sense of time. The only clock is inside, and I’m rarely there. I can never tell whether it is Saturday or Thursday. I’m either sitting on the boat, walking around, watching the bonfire, or listening to loud music with friends and family. I really like boatrides, especially when we go really fast. It’s almost a rush, because I feel like I could fall off.
Sometimes we go fishing. I like fishing, but I usually get bored because it takes so long. Once, I caught a two foot Pike! Of course it was too big for us to keep, but I was very proud of myself.

big fish story

Ice fishing -a common winter sport. Oh no, not for my family.

Saturday morning, bright and early. Unfortunately for me, being the light sleeper that I am, I was woken up by the “creek” of my bedroom door opening. Good thing I had something to look forward to, otherwise I’m not sure I would’ve ever gotten up. My cousin Val walked in the door. “Hi! Are you ready to go? Are you going to shower first? Did you pack a bag already? Should I grab your phone charger for you?” I lifted my head up off my pillow. “I’m just going to take a shower.” I quickly hopped out of bed, and took a shower. Once I was out, I got dressed, got my bag ready, and went down stairs.

“Are you ready Chlo?” my dad was eager to get on the road. “Yeah, let’s go.” After about an hour of country music, snowy scenery, and family singing, we were at our cottage. It took a while to unpack. My brother, Danny fell asleep in the car and had to be carried in. As we unloaded our bags and the food that we brought, we waited for the other guests to come. Ken and his son Christian, Jason and his daughters Kelsey and Lauren, and Dave and his daughter Kelsey. For a while we just hung out. We had a few snacks, and I took a little nap. Once the dads were ready to head across the street to the lake, we grabbed the clam, the bait, and the oggers.

Being on the ice was thrilling. It took us a few tries to find a good spot to anchor the clam down. The crisp air was blowing through my jacket. Everyone was slipping and sliding, and enjoying the weather. Finally once we settled down, some of the younger girls began to ice skate. I’m not very strong, but I was determined to drill a hole to fish in. it took me a while, but I finally did it. Christian, Val and I were huddled around my hole, seeing if any fish were biting. Unfortunately, none were. After sitting around for an hour and a half, we got pretty bored. I couldn’t resist. Ice is ice. I had to taste it. And yes, I do know its lake water. It wasn’t that bad to be honest. Now all I wanted was to taste the water in the hole.

I stuck my head as far as I could (it wasn’t very far, the hole wasn’t very big) and tasted the water. Quickly I jumped to my feet. “The water is warm!” I said. “No it isn’t! Is it really?” Val couldn’t believe it. “Give me the ogger! I’m going to dig the hole bigger! Put on your bathing Suits! We can all go swimming!” We all ran back to the cottage, changed, and for the rest of the night we forgot all about our hats gloves mittens and scarves. The next morning, we went back home. I told my mom, and of course she didn’t believe me. Neither did my grandparents, or my best friend. I don’t really mind though, because we all know what happened, and it was a lot of fun.

New Mayan Tomb

The discovery of the Mayan tomb will not reveal what happened their culture.

Recently archaeologists have began to believe that we will unravel the secrets of the Mayans. Things leading to what happened to them. How their culture died out, and for what reason. This is false information. The mayan people were spread out on a lot of land, and had many tombs. Not all their information would've been kept in one place. Like in this situation, when someone dies you can't go to one person for their life story. You have to keep finding out more and more things, because not only may they not give you accurate information, but they won't be able to tell you everything about it.

Some would say that this will reveal all their secrets. This is not true. There could be an artifact in one place, and in another undiscovered tomb somewhere can be another piece to it to make it work. While you won't get all the information you need to really learn about the Mayans, there will be some that will help us learn a lot.

What I've learned over the simester

Over the course of the semester, I learned a lot. We covered a lot of material, from the use of periods and commas to what happened with the Rwandan genocide.
The first thing I learned was how to write a good thesis. When I first came in the beginning of the year, I wasn’t exactly sure what a thesis was supposed to have in it. I learned that the theses should be an introduction to what you are writing about, and should help your paragraph stay on topic. When we started actually writing papers, I figured out how. When we wrote our letters as Paul Rusebigina during the Rwandan genocide unit, I made sure that all the writing led back to my theses statement. For a paragraph where I wrote about why the Interahamwe were killing, my thesis was “The Interahamwe are being persuaded to kill.

Another thing I learned was how to comprehend something that I don’t know anything about. When we first started having a weekly article from the New York times, it was really hard. As we did more and more, I figured out that I needed to define all the words, and then put the sentences together to get the gist of it. It took a lot of practice, but after a while I started getting higher grades on the responses from understanding the articles better.

By listening to The Man in the Well, I learned how to think about things at a deeper level. When we first heard the story, I wasn’t really sure who the man could’ve been. Was It a robber? A homeless man? Someone who was just trapped? It took me a while to figure out that it could’ve had more of a meaning. The class discussion helped a lot. I discovered that the man didn’t really have to be a man. It could’ve been the children’s conscience, or anything else like that. Now when I read things, I take into consideration that there could be a deeper meaning.

Researching the countries we were learning about on the computer helped me a lot also. In the beginning of learning about each country, I didn’t have any background knowledge. Each time we were assigned to look certain things up, I learned a lot. If we hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t know as much as I do now. The articles we printed were mostly details about the countries. This helped me a lot for the Rwandan genocide debate, and the South Africa quiz.

Margin notes helped me understand things a lot better. When we did the articles from the new York Times and had to decode and understand them , I still had questions. Margin notes gave me a chance to answer those questions, and make comments to think about. They really helped me have a better understanding, and also compare and contrast with other things we’ve been learning.

Christmas Time :)

Imagine- A holiday where you unwrap present after present. Eat tons of delicious food, while spending time with your family. The snow glistening on the ground, and driving around at night to see the illuminated streets. There’s good news. It’s called Christmas.

To tell you the truth, in my opinion this is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas. One of my favorite things to do is when my family and I are in the car driving anywhere, the Christmas carols are blasting. There are so many different songs, and they all can put me in a different mood. Some are about the beautiful weather, and some about being together. Some are even about being home for the holidays.

Another thing I enjoy is putting up the Christmas tree. The tree is pretty much the centerpiece of the room, and when the lights turn on I can always tell that Santa will be coming soon. Looking through the bins of ornaments is like going on a ride down memory lane. All the “Baby’s first Christmas” ones are still shiny like when we got them.

Gingerbread Cookies- What’s not to like? Every year my cousins and I go to my grandma’s to cook. Not only the gingerbreads, but snowmen, trees, and many other fun shapes. The frosting is pretty good too. Usually, we put Red Hots on for the face. After we are done cooking and the cookies are cool, we separate them into separate bags of either the ones we made, or the ones we just want to take home.

Christmas day is a lot of fun. My little brother and sisters wake up very early. Sometimes even at five in the morning! When my parents are finally up and have coffee, we see what Santa brought us. I love seeing my siblings’ eyes light up as they open every gift. After a while, my Aunt Colleen and cousins come over. They usually bring over their favorite gifts, and we show them ours. I love spending Christmas day with them.

The Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide. Who was responsible? There isn’t really an answer to that question. The only answer is who the blame is given. Belgium played a big part. They first contributed to the separation of Hutus and Tutsis by giving them identity cards. Did they expect everyone to get along? United Nations. They were supposed to be the ones uniting people across the globe but when it came down to it, they wouldn’t send any troops in to help save innocent lives from being taken. United States. A very large world power. But when CNN had the slaughtering that was going on on TV, all they did was turn their heads and look away. Juvenal Habyarimana. Brainwashing innocent people, offering land, food, and money, and broadcasting on the radio that if they didn’t kill the Tutsis that they would be killed. Romeo Dallier. He did nothing but stand around because the United Nations wouldn’t give him and troops. Paul Kagame. Leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group formed to fight against the Tutsis. Interahamwe. A group made by Juvenal that he brainwashed, gave weapons, and threatened.

From many standpoints, the blame can be given. There isn’t one specific group. The genocide was wrong, and if other countries had tried to help stop it, it could’ve been a lot different. The debate we had in class helped me see this. When each country was asked questions, and made accusations, it really showed the good and the bad. If Belgium never gave out the name cards, none of this would be possible. Although other countries could’ve stopped it. During the debate, I learned a lot more about what really happened. I liked being able to talk about what happened, and hear each group’s opinion of who started everything. What I heard was that the Tutsis were upset because they were driven out of their country, and the Hutus were upset because the Tutsis were trying to take away power from Juvenal. Once Juvenal was killed, the war should’ve stopped. In reality, it couldn’t, because the Interahamwe were brainwashed and the RPF were still very active, along with Paul Kagame and the FAR. I’m very glad we got a chance to learn about this, because it opened my eyes to how our country shouldn’t take some problems over another. If they want to help, it shouldn’t matter where it is, as long as everything is okay.

The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar” about American society still holds true today.

One reason Emerson’s argument still holds true is people are known for their occupation, and not who they really are. Over the summer, I was at a wedding and when people introduced themselves they would say things like, “Hello, I’m Dan and I’m a lawyer." Why people are dependant on their jobs? No one really knows. People also specialize in one thing, which causes them not to broaden their horizons.

Another reason Emerson's argument still holds true is that people only know how to do one thing, so when they are put into difficult situations they have nothing to fall back on. In Emerson's article, he says "Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all."