Diving

Today I went to the GISC (Germantown Indoor Swim Center). While I was swimming laps I observed other people currently in their diving practice. They could dive from many different places such as 3 platforms with heights up to 10 meters, 4 diving boards with 2 of each height and a little wooden bench that you jump off of. There were many people who attended the practice so my dad and I were able to see many people jump off of platforms and make giant splashes.

People in the diving boards were either really advanced people that practice on low grounds or beginners that were practicing to get better. The people on the diving boards weren't really interesting because they only did basic things like jumping into the water or going head first into the water. One guy was really advanced so he went to the upper level of the diving boards and did cool tricks like making a flip or doing a "V" by touching his feet with his hands in mid-air. That was basically it and the coach didn't pay much attention to them while he was more focused on the platform divers.

The people platform diving had to be brave because they had to jump from 6-10 meters into the water without injuring themselves. In case something bad happened, the coach had something that could make tons of bubbles so when the diver touches the water, they fall slowly and gradually go up to the surface. These people had to go through three flights of stairs to get to the top and jump off repeatedly. In conclusion I can infer that it takes a lot of bravery to jump off a 10 meter platform and hope you don't get hurt.

A Fall Festival

Today I went to a Fall Festival and this is what I saw:

There were many things to do at the festival. You could go in bounce houses, compete in a mini obstacle course, go on a slide or race in an inflatable obstacle course. If you were hungry you could go get some popcorn and enjoy it for free. But if you didn't like those, you could get a free Halloween goodie bag and get your face painted. Overall, it was a good place to hangout or to have fun at.

There were two bounce houses, a regular sized one and a baby one. The younger kids went into the smaller ones to be safer and the other kids went in the big one. The slide was a giant inflatable slide that was around 15 ft. tall and someone had to assist people because it was so crowded. Another thing was the obstacle course. Kids around 5-8 were doing the obstacle course because it seemed fun to them. First you had throw a rope, then you jump over some hurdles and go around some cones. Eventually they step into a giant tire and get out. Finally they jump over hurdles and at the end they get a tattoo. The other activity that was there was that you could go race your friends in the inflatable obstacle course. You had to pass some things in your way and then you climb a short wall. Finally you slide down the wall and you get out.

The other things they offered at the festival were amusing as well. You could of just come there to watch you siblings, and if you got bored it was probably as pain. But not anymore, you could of got some free fresh popcorn so you could be bored but still doing something delightful. Or you could wait in a long line full of little kids who were excited to get some paint on their face. I'm not saying it is bad but is sort of a thing to pass time so you could do that when your siblings are doing something else.

Hopefully in the future the add more events and keep the free popcorn so people can enjoy the festival even more than they do now!

Cruise to Alaska Day 4

Have you ever been to the capital of Alaska? Well you should go there and explore what the last frontier’s capital offers. In the city of Juneau you can go ride buses or tramways to go to glaciers. My cruise line gave my family a bus to ride on so we could go to downtown Juneau.

When my family got to downtown my mom bought us a shuttle bus ride to Mendenhall Glacier National Park. There were many things to do but we couldn’t go in to the visitor center because we had to pay an admission fee to get in. So other than that we started walking on a trail called the Nugget Falls Trail. This trail was an intermediate trail and was around 2 miles for a round trip.

I was ahead of my family by far most of the times so I had to sit down a lot to wait for them to catch up. Soon I reached the end of the trail and what I found was amazing! I walked on to a beach and saw a giant waterfall. The waterfall was so large I got wet even at 20 feet away from the water. Also in the background I saw a giant glacier. I took many pictures of my family with the background and then we left.

Soon my sister was hungry so we had to get back on the boat and eat. During the afternoon I listened to some violin music in the lobby of my cruise. After that I just watched some TV for the rest of the afternoon. When it was time for dinner I ate a spring roll with chili sauce and some lamb.

Finally it was night time and I got to go to the Stardust Theater to watch a show. This show was about love. Everybody was breaking up and coming back together. They called this true love but I didn’t like it. I was disappointed by the topic they chose and ended up not really getting the show.

By the end of the day I had discovered Alaska’s capital and what it had to offer.  

Cruise to Alaska Day 3

Have you ever visited Alaska? Well on the third of my cruise my cruise docked at a port in the city of Ketchikan. Ketchikan was the first city ever made in Alaska. There are many sources of salon and other fishes in small ponds or lakes. There are also many wonderful museums and historical sights but sadly we didn’t go to any because you had to pay an admission fee. One of the most common things there were totems. You could find totems anywhere around the town and take pictures.

First my family walked all the way to some souvenir shops. Most of them just sold some expensive gifts but we found a cheap shop so we bought a magnet for my cousin. Other shops just sold some funny Alaska clothes that made parody of other famous brands. Another shop had samples of some seafood dips on some crackers. We got greedy and tried as much as we wanted to.

After we were full we walked around on some trails and some roads and we found a bunch of fish everywhere in large packs of 40. We took a bunch of pictures and went walking to find a bunch of totems. They were everywhere representing something probably special to the people who carved the totems. Some of them had animal heads while others had monster heads. Even though they were really interesting, they were freaky.

When I got bored we went back onto the boat. I just watched TV the whole entire afternoon. For dinner I just ate at a restaurant. But when it turned 7 p.m. fun things happened. I went to Splash Academy because it was Survivor night. We faced off in competitions and earned points to win. My team was Team Gucci and we were the champs.

Soon I had to leave and go to sleep, but still it was a good day!

Cruise to Alaska Day 2

Have you ever been on a cruise and gotten seasick? Well read about my wild adventure on the second day of my cruise. I had really tried not to be sick but ended up wanting to throw up. But thankfully I didn’t.

When I woke up I went to have breakfast at the Garden Cafe Buffet. They had everything from omelets to bacon to all types of breads and cereals with much more to eat there. I stuffed myself with tons of bacon, an omelet, some watermelon, a hot cocoa and much more to list. By the time I was finished I was so full I couldn't eat lunch. But soon I would find out that all this food would turn against me when the boat did something...

My mom and grandparents and my mom want to go play on the casino on the boat so they would have to leave my sister and I at some place. We found this daycare thing called Splash Academy. There were different groups from 3 months to 18 months, to 2-5 year olds to 6-9 to 10-12 year olds. Of course I was in the 10-12 group while my sister was in the 6-9 group. First we had free play time. We could do anything we wanted to do as long as we weren't loud. Some people played four squares while I beat anyone at Connect 4 without trying. After that we went over some ground rules and that was when the boat started to shake.

The boat was going through seas so everyone would have to bear with the boat. The 10-12 year olds could go to the teen place to explore what they do. All the teens had to do was play. They had PS3’S, Xbox’s, Air hockey stadiums and even a foosball table. We played for a long time until we had to watch a video. During the middle of the video some kid threw up so we had to go somewhere else. Then more people had to throw up and soon I started to feel sick. Thankfully my mom came and signed us out so we could leave.

We had lunch at the Seven Seas restaurant. I wasn't feeling good so I only ordered an orange juice and a vanilla ice cream. My afternoon wasn't exciting. I just stayed in bed and watched TV. Soon I went to the Garden Buffet to have dinner. It was seafood night so I ate from fish to shrimp and a few mussels. Then it was time to get ready to see the performance at the Stardust Theater.

I got front row seats and saw the show. It was about the performers on this boat and a little about themselves. Some tap danced while others sang songs. Overall it was just about people dancing or singing. When it was the evening the boat stopped shaking and I felt better.

What a scary and uneasy day for me on the cruise today!

Cruise to Alaska Day 1

Have you ever been to on a cruise? Well I went on a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska and it was fun going on the cruise but, the only thing not fun was the time that I used to travel there.

First my family had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to travel to the BWI airport. We got on our first flight to the Chicago O’Hare Airport. The flight was supposed to be one hour and twenty-five minutes but to me it seemed like two hours. Then we had to go to a flight from Chicago to Vancouver’s Intl airport which seemed like ten hours. After that we had to do a bunch of immigrant things like examining passports and filling out declarations. Soon we had to get a taxi and go to our cruise. Then at the cruise place we had to wait in a super-fast long line to get check for security items and show our passports to get our room cards so we can get on the cruise.

When we first got on the cruise we had to put on hand sanitizer because they wanted the boat to be a sanitary place. We heard music and saw people dancing, but we just went to go find our rooms. My grandparents’ room was on the eighth floor and we opened it by sliding our room card in a slot next to the doorknob. When we went inside the room we saw a king sized bed, some lights, a bathroom and a little TV. There was also random food and drinks, but those you had to purchase those after you ate it or drank it. Near the bed was a sofa and a second bed. That bed you had to pull to make a come down and it was very small. Then we went to my room and our room was the same except that our room was bigger and some things were in different places.

We went to explore the boat after we saw our rooms. There were a lot of restaurants and bars but there were only three that were free or didn’t need additional money to purchase things. The first one was an outdoor buffet that was on the eleventh floor called the Garden Cafe. It had from ice cream to salads to soup to choose from in the buffet. You could stuff yourself from all the food they had to offer. The other two were both restaurants on the fifth floor. They were called the Seven Seas and the Four Seasons restaurants. They had similar food and you had to order with a menu to eat the food. So there were other restaurants that had Asian cuisine, French Delights and even a steakhouse. With so many food choices, how could you get tired of the different types of food?

When I it was becoming night time there was a show starring a bunch of performers and people introducing themselves and performing very funny or beautiful sights to see. First we had our cruise director, Richard introduced himself and gave us a summary of what thus cruise is going to be like. We had dancers dance, a comedian tell very funny jokes and discover the senior officers that had to take care of everybody.

So by the time I finished day 1 on the cruise I had discovered our rooms, eat at restaurants and saw an amazing show on this wonderful cruise!

Middle School

Ever experienced the pain of the so called "prison" for kids? It's called Middle School... On my first day there, (It was the 3rd day of school for other students because I arrived late) and I had to make some serious changes from elementary school to middle school. First, I had to memorize my schedule because I had to walk around the school to go to my classes instead of like in elementary school I just sat there having the same teacher and occasionally walking to math class. Secondly, the work is way harder. I have 8 periods and I have way more homework compared to elementary school.  Finally, I also have way more P.E. because I have it every day for 2nd period.

Once I got used to my schedule, things got easier. The first bell is when I leave to go to my next period and the second bell is when class starts. My schedule is, 1: Science, 2: P.E, 3: World Studies, 4: Math, 5: Lunch, 6: Media, 7: Reading, 8: English. You might have never heard of my 6th period, media because it is exclusive to my magnet program. It is when my class and I go on Macs and make things that involve multimedia. Some school schedules have different period days, but my school is a little overpopulated so we have the same schedule everyday. 

In the morning of everyday I go on a bus near a local elementary school that takes about 40 min. to reach school. When I wake up in the morning it is around 6:30 and go on the bus at 6:53. My bus goes to many other elementary schools to pick up other kids. When I get to school it's around 7:45 and I go to my locker and attend regular day at school. When the last bell is rung, we go outside to ride our buses home. It is so overcrowded with buses, we have two lines of twenty-four buses. By the time I arrive home it's all ready 3:30 so I been away from my house for at least nine hours.

Overall middle school is really tough but I will have to get used to this because when I get to high school, things will be way worse.