Sunday, September 17, 2006

Once again, its been a loong time, no see. It just occured to me to update this blog after I was working on the previous post, originally written for the SIS 'News and Views' paper. Not all of the writing in the previous post is mine, because I'm working on that piece with two other people. Paula Blomquist wrote most of the part about the 'pentathlon'.
Anyways, back to the blog.
How's it going? getting a little cobwebby around the edges yet? guess not, Google still keeps the dust off the hard drives on these things, lack of profit and lack of blogposts notwithstanding.
Since the post before last, I have:
- been to the states and back for the summer, and had my last year of Teen Adventure Leadership Training (TALT). Basically, awesomeness. lots of it. holy tamole, there was a lot of awesomeness.
- Spot 3 completed its challenge: finding and collecting a ball in a set area. We also made a second version of the programming, which makes a computer with a webcam communicate with the robot, find the ball by webcam and instruct the robot where to go.
- gotten my drivers' learning permit. wow, that was a while ago. it really has been quite a long postless period.
- I started IB1, or 11th grade, and am currently taking 4 higher level classes: math, english, Spanish and Physics, and two standard level classes: history and chemistry.
bye again.


11th grade trip: Dalarna

Grade 11's trip kick'd all y'all's trips' asses. And their report's also gonna have much'a more apostropheage'n' y'all's.
The activity-packed trip took grade 11 on a 4-hour bus ride to the stunningly beautiful area of Dalarna. The students and teachers chilled at a ski resort-turned-summer resort called Säfsen, which put them within walking distance of a mini-golf course, frisbee golf course, swingset, a heckofalot of trees and some rocks, not to mention a beautiful lake which we were sure to take advantage of for a few exciting moonlit dips in its 15-degree water.

The first day, grade 11 split up into three groups for three different activities: horse riding (Paula Blomquist, 11s: "Amazing!"), mountain biking (Griff, 11s: "ouch. (m/)"), and rock climbing (Jason Curtis, 11s: "HELL YEAH!")
Among the activities taken part in on other days were whitewater rafting, forest brenboll, riding bicycle-like vehicles on railroad tracks, and the inaccurately named 'Pentathlon,' firstly due to there only being three activities and secondly because these activities were of no match to the impressive Pentathlons seen on television -- though our version was a match for shock and 'huh?' value. Instead of the discus, javelin, and long jump, we did things the Nordic way: boot tossing, shooting, and even axe throwing. As for the latter; parents, fear not: the guide assured us of complete safety "as long as you don't bend your arms when you throw it; if you do that you can accidentally [chop your head in half]." (Mr Hogans number: 070********)

Another highlight, of course, was the white water rafting. Not only did we have the chance to giggle at each other (and the teachers) squeezing into wetsuits, the ride itself was exhilarating as we attempted to paddle through Swedish rapids and grabbed on to the raft for dear life (actual quote from one of the instructors: "when you hear me yell 'hold on,' that means we're all going to die." Luckily, he was kidding. We think. In retrospect, nobody knows, since he never used that command...) We also all learned an important lesson, demonstrated by Eric and Jonas: even the strongest grip on a slippery boat doesnt always work!


All in all, the grade 11 trip was a LOT of fun.