So, we’re going to ignore that it’s been 82 days since I’ve last posted… In summary: Portland band trip, very fun – sadly not many photos to share. School got out – Yay! John visited – definitely would deserve a post however it was a month ago.. Kayla and Jamie visited – also very fun but again I don’t have many pictures however you may see tagged photos of me (if you’re my friend on facebook): here.

Okay, so back to my original post..

Over the the summer I’ve been doing a health class online. I have to read pages upon pages of health information, then take quizzes and tests on it. Obviously over time I’ve begun to see a pattern in what they’re trying to say. Consistently, good ways to prevent chronic illnesses are: maintain a healthy weight and regularly exercise.

I’m not a particularly athletic individual but I have spent years walking distances either for a paper route or to and from bus stops to school (decent 20-45 minute walks from my house). My mom and I like to go on walks through parks here too. However since I’ve moved to Bellingham I haven’t had the daily need to use my legs as transportation.

I’ve decided that my walking exercise, although helpful and relaxing, wasn’t quite sufficient for the exercising habits I should be developing. As a result, I started looking more into riding my bike. In Bellingham there are a lot of trails to go on, and many fellow bikers. Also, John has been quietly wishing me to get on a bike again for pretty much two years so he and I can go ride together. These things got me to go around the block once or twice… not necessarily what you’d call aerobic exercise.

One day while driving into downtown my mom and I saw a sign for “Tour de Whatcom”. Once we looked into it, we found out that in was a charity bike ride with three different rides; 100, 50, and 25 mile. The rides go through Whatcom county and are near the end of July every year. You can read up and look at last year’s pictures here. Seems pretty cool, right? I thought so too.

So this has become my goal. Come next July I want to be able to participate in at least the 25 mile ride. Today I went out with my dad and went on a short ride. 5.5 miles. I did pretty well Seeing as it was my first ‘real ride’ in quite a while, I’m feeling pretty good about my goal .

Any fitness (or any other kind) goals you’re working towards?

Impulsively on sunny Wednesday afternoon, my mom and I decided to go to ‘Tulip Town’ down in Mt. Vernon. It was such a nice day and we loved seeing all the different kinds of tulips. We even brought some (more!) home! Here are quite a few… pictures from the excursion.

This was a reflection in the water between the rows

Mwuahaha! I made my mom the tulip fairy! Yes, I photoshopped her! I think I did pretty well ..oh, and did anyone notice the toes??...

So this past week has been my first week at Squalicum High School. This school is a little smaller than my old school, Southridge. Fortunately it kind of has the same layout. Although I haven’t quite figured out how the gym works into everything.. I found the gym, I think.. but where are the locker rooms….? The weirdest thing about the new school is the schedule. At Southridge we have all six classes everyday, in about 45-50 minute periods. At Squalicum there are only 4 classes a day, in 80 minute periods. All six classes are spread out evenly over three days, X, Y, and Z days. X: periods 1,2,4,5     Y: 1,3,4,6      Z: 2,3,5,6     (hey! and That was from memory! I’m learning!) There are also two lunches, which are decided by your thrid class of the day. I’ve had trouble deciding if it was a long or a short day because the classes were long, but it felt short to have only gone to four!

My schedule is as follows: Band, Viscom. (Visual Communications, aka. Photography), Algebra (2nd year), Physics, Spanish (3rd year), and Hon. English.

Band: Met the flutes right away and now they all know My name.. but I don’t know all of theirs yet:) We started on music for parade season. At Southridge we didn’t do parades so I’m looking forward to this. I also get to sight read lots of their music which is just about the same level I was at, if not a little more challenging It’s a productive but fun class.

Viscom.: The teacher has an interesting personality. When I first met him he was wearing tropical hawaiian shirts and wearing pastel colored reading glasses. This class has been the most neutral because we don’t do much and there’s not much for me to do… I hope it will get a little more interesting when I get a little more adjusted to the class.

Algebra: My teacher for algebra is friendly and “hip”. I don’t mind listening to him go over what I already learned (because I’m ahead ) because he teaches it in a new way. He, like the band teacher, allows the class to be fun but productive. He seems like a good teacher to me. The people at my table are enjoyable to talk to too, and we have to interact and “ask each other questions” on how to do the problems, so I’m glad they’re friendly.

Physics: The most recognizable feature of this teacher, in my opinion are his glasses. They make him have huge bug eyes! he’s not Mr. Choi, and certainly easier to understand, but that’s okay. We’re in electricity at Squalicum and Southridge was only at Light waves. I think I caught up pretty well and feel pretty good about the test I took today. If it makes my grade worse the teacher won’t count it because I haven’t gone over this section, but if it helps my grade, extra points for me!

Spanish: This class is certainly not as fun as my other Spanish class, but I had a pretty fun teacher. Like any foreign language class though, it’s enjoyable and a break from the norm. It is a funny coincidence however that at Southridge we were reading a Spanish novel called “La Catrina” and at Squalicum we’re reading the Sequel to “La Catrina”. Same characters, new story line. Also the teacher gives most instructions in Spanish. Which is a good strategy but something I’ll have to get used to. She tries to use words we know, and will define them for us if we don’t know, so it’s not that hard

English: Ugh… English… Just like any English class… However, the students are very close and like to chat a lot. Even though I’m not actually in the conversations I feel included a bit The teacher is a lot like my old one unforunately… she maybe could be a little worse…. BUT, I do appreciate that we’re writing Essays instead of reading and analyzing things. That’s my least favorite part. Essays are okay, and I get to write my own because I didn’t read Frankienstien or do the research that the rest of the class did.

Lunch: Yes, it’s totally a subject   I spent the first lunch looking for the library and hung out in there the first day. Then I was invited by flute players to eat with them the next day. A girl in my spanish class invited me to eat lunch with her the next day and she told me a lot about the school. Thursday, I ate in the band room with band and orchestra people which was very fun with the loud music over all the conversation. Today I had an enjoyable solitary lunch in the hallway with my book I liked just being out in the open but not actually looking like I didn’t have a place to go.

So, School hasn’t been that bad so far. Physics is always my favorite subject, then Band and Algebra. Teacher/student wise, my favorite class is Band, then Algebra and Spanish. Nows you knows… The only thing I’d change is make my friends from Kennewick go to this school too

Yes, yes… it’s been awhile since there was any action on this blackboard… Today is the start of Spring Break (in Kennewick) and I have some time before our flute party!

So , really the only interesting thing lately:  Mr. Choi-isms!

- There was an optional assembly about poverty in Africa during 5th hour yesterday, and seeing as Mr. Choi is my 5th hour teacher, I didn’t expect to go. However, some of the other students still had hope in convincing him that we should go. After a lot of ridiculous reasons why, Mr. Choi simply said, “Don’t eat for a week then you know poverty.” Shocking as it may have been, that was a typical Mr. Choi-ism and made us all laugh in surprise.

- As you’d expect sometimes there’s a small difference in the way Mr. Choi pronounces words… some of my favorites are:

Octave:
Us: oct-TIV Mr. Choi: oct-TAHve
Page:
Us: pay-guh  Mr. Choi:  pay-gee
Trumpet:
Us: Trum-pit  Mr. Choi: Trum Peht

(it’s especially funny to realize that We’re the ones that aren’t going with the spelling. Phonetically, Mr. Choi is right. )

- Mr. Choi loves to give advice based on physics when he can. Have you ever looked on headphones at the decibels(db) it’s able to produce? Typically a normal cheap-ish pair (lets say $10) can produce 12db-200db, while a more expensive pair (for exaggeration lets say $200) produces 8db-200db. You’d assume those 4db make a big difference, wouldn’t you??  Well, the human ear can only register about 12db!  Mr. Choi’s life lesson, don’t pay the extra 190 dollars so that you can say you Can’t Hear your music!

- Now, Mr. Choi’s biggest lesson (for boys he said, it would ‘Save Your Marrige’). Here’s the story:  So there a guy and a girl and they fall in love. The first anniversary comes along and the boy give the girl 10 flowers. and the girl is “oohhhahhh” (Mr. Choi makes a sound kind of like an excited school girl). The second anniversary comes along and the boy give the girl 20 flowers. Again, the girl is “oohhhahhh”. But now the the third anniversary comes and the boy give the girl 30 flowers. The girl goes “awwhhhhh… “  (Mr. Choi acts disappointed, then looks up at us) Why she dissapointed? She want 40 flowers! See?? It doubles!! So after a few years you’re going to have to buy 1,000 flowers! The trick is, ‘don’t play the game’. Don’t give her Anything! You can’t win!
At this point a boy in the class asked: “So do you not give your wife anything?”
Mr. Choi: “That’s not a physics question!” *looks back at his text book*

So there you have it, Happy Spring!

I’d like to share with you a few more Mr. Choi-isms.

1. As we were learning about force, we learned every force must have an opposite force. (for a bowl sitting on a table: gravity vs. the table   yes, the table is considered to be “pushing up”) Mr. Choi then goes on to say that in Starwars they say “May the force be with you”, and they are wrong! You can’t have the force be with you unless you’re punching yourself. A student decided to ask if Mr. Choi liked Starwars. His response, “Ask after school.”

2. “If I give you answers, you be happy, and I be happy, but I be sad..”

3. For some reason Mr. Choi got on a rant on how it’s better to drive a manual than an automatic. Saying it saves gas, you were more intune with the car, and it was more fun! Someone asked him if he drove a stickshift. Quickly, he said, “That’s not a physics question!”