~Experience at the "Door Is Open"

On May 4th, Caitlin, Karissa, Marvin, Adam, Justin, Martyna, Tyler and I went to the "Door is Open" for service hours.
The first thing we did when we get there was actually help make the food. We chopped carrots, celery, cabbage, etc. After that was done, all the stuff we chopped up and everything was made in to tuna. That was the spread we used to make the sandwiches. That was really fun ALTHOUGH MY AWESOME HOODIE GOT DIRTY!

After that, we waited for the homeless to arrive. While waiting we got everything ready, basically the soup and the sandwiches. Justin and Adam helped hand out the socks at the front of the lineup of the homeless.

Everyone finally came, and there was a pretty long line. Marvin and I gave out the sandwiches for a while, and that was fun because you got to talk to them, and sometimes they would pick white bread or whole wheat then we would panic when there wasn't any more on the tray! =P Many people would come back for seconds, thirds, maybe even fourths... but it was great to help out, most of them seemed really nice.

After that, we had to clean up then we left that place!

I think that was a great experience. This ties in to religion because God too, did a lot of service work. It's great that everyday, we try to be more and more like him.

~--,Best 10 Moments @ Evans Lake.-- ` :]

This is so sad! We're back to school from Evan's Lake, a trip that I and others been waiting for since grade 3. I miss it, we all do, and I wish we could've stayed for another week or two. From those five days and four nights, of course there were such fun moments. Too many, that I'm only going to list ten.

10. Canoeing AND Archery. They were two of my favourite activities and I liked them both equally, so I might as well put them together. For canoeing, my partner was Caitlin, with her in the back and I in the front. This was my very first time to canoe, and for that first time it was awesome! We did though get splashed by Justin and Arash, and we tried to splash back but they got away. I wish we had more time to canoe, but on the way back to dock Caitlin and I raced with Ms.Surian and C-Lo, and guess who won... them of course. =P

For the archery, that too was my first time. People from class I were with was Kristina, Adam, Justin and Arash. This is only number ten because I thought I was terrible, but not bad for a first timer. Anyways, canoeing and archery are really fun to do and I wish I could do them again!

9. Cabin Inspections! I'm not sure how many we had but we had quite a few. Cabin 7 consists members of Karissa, Rachel, Iana, Lauren, and Gemma. With two councilors, Emilie and Mariana. We would always try our hardest to get a full 5 points, and our theme for most of the time was pirates... because we know Mr.Dotto loves them! That was fun because we got to act and suck up to the teachers. x]

8. This is a repeat after me song! That night where we sung, danced, and told stories with C-Lo was SO FUNNNN. It was so funny as well, I was basically laughing for the whole time. Seeing Mr.Field dance? Really weird, yet hilarious. We also did the "Let me see your funky chicken" dance, which we also did in Spirit Day. Then we C-Lo told a story, with help from Dima and Lori... that was really great! :D

7. SKIT NIGHT! KARISSA AND I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. Mr.Field wasn't there, because he had to take Zach to the hospital because of his injury, which I pray for that he'll get better. So Ryan impersonated him, and they did that thing where only his head was showing, and for his hands, someone was in the back using their own hands. After that, all the cabins did their skits. Personally my favourite one was Cabin 5's, KIMI DORA! :P. Ours was probably the worst... due to the fact we only had 10 mins to make something up last minute because two of our cabin members couldn't participate.

6. Sleeping... because it was something I valued. We couldn't get much of that honestly, how could you when you're with other people and lights out is at 10:00pm? :D I treasured every minute of it, because the next day was just another full of fun and "awesomeeeeeeeeeeee" activities.

5. The dance! I always enjoy these stuff, it's not something we get everyday. The food, and the music was great. Slow songs are okay, but I honestly prefer the fast ones we can all dance to. I danced with a lot of people, and a lot of them had dance solos which were great. My favorite was when Caitlin and Tyler were doing "the worm". Although a couple of tears shed, excluding that, the dance was great. Better to focus on the positive than negative. :]

4. Free time. We were so busy with activities, cabin inspections, jobs, etc. We were always with our cabin or activity groups, that we could barely talk to our friends! Free time was fun though because that was a time where we could do whatever we wanted. (Not really) What I mostly did was talk with my friends, play badminton, or volleyball.

3. Having my birthday and people greeting me ^_^ As much as I wanted to be with my family and friends AT HOME instead of being at Evans Lake, having your birthday there was...amazing. I now think I'm dumb for rather being at home, :P ... they sung happy birthday to me on Apr.21, Wednesday night's dinner. Martyna walked up to me with a slice of cake while everyone sung, and I didn't expect something so nice would happen to me while I was here. And on my actual birthday, the 22nd, I woke up to many Happy Birthday greetings. That was great, even though my family wasn't there.

2. First night! MY CABIN COULD NOT SLEEP. I think most of us slept at 3:30am, but I think Iana and Gemma only got 1 hr of sleep. We kept talking, making jokes, laughing, etc. It was our first night, not being used to it so we couldn't sleep right away. It was hilarious. At 2 in the morning, Gemma says that she hears animal noises, like frogs. She was freaking out the whole time! 30 mins after, Iana PROUDLY announces that she has to go to the washroom... hahaha so I went with her and Emilie and we silently walked there. 3:00am, finally most of us fell asleep. When we woke up, Gemma told me that Iana and her didn't get any sleep, since they were "scared." Lauren was so quiet! ^_^ xD

1. MMMEEEAAALLL TTTIIIMMMEEESSS!!! Honestly before I got to Evans Lake, I didn't think the food would be so good. But by Monday's dinner, you could tell the meals were going to be awesome. Not only was my favourite part about meal times was the food, but the fact you could sit wherever you want with your friends because we haven't talked in a long time. I loved all the food. It was so good. I think it's actually tied to my mom's. :P... I LIKE TACOS!!!

Evans Lake is one of the greatest memories of my LIFE. :D I wish I could have the same experience again, and I wish others could experience it too. I miss it when C-Lo would say "C-Lo!" then we could respond "Eyo, eyo!" ... Anyways, these were the Best 10 Moments for me at Evans Lake. ^_^

*Confirmation Retreat 2010 :]

Yesterday, the grade 7 class 2010 of St. Edmund's went to St. Paul's for a retreat, learning more about Confirmation. At first when I woke up in the morning, I didn't want to go because it seemed boring and I was really tired. But once we were at St. Paul's and got started, I saw the NET people and knew for sure that, the day was going to be fun. So to start off in the morning, we first had a morning prayer. After, we played "all it tag" to get warmed up for the rest of the afternoon. It was where everyone was it, and if you got tagged, you had to go down. If the person who tagged who got tagged as well, you got to go back up. This was a good game because it made us all to be sure to be honest. After the game, we went back inside to have some talks. Then we got into our small groups. All the girls were together, Isabel, Caitlin, Jessica, Kristina, Juliana, Karissa, Martyna, Clarissa and I. We all told our names first and our favorite dessert. We talked about anything together, if we had any questions about Confirmation.

So many things happened that day. We even said grace in a Star Wars theme, which was awesome! Now we do that every Friday at school I think? :] Many skits were acted out by the NET people too. They were all fun and enjoyable to watch. After, we watched a video. It was about a boy who lied to his parents just so he wouldn't get in trouble. But his parents find out later because he was acting weirdly. It was a very short but good movie, That teaches us a lesson. And there was this quote, "Nothing you ever do, can make me love you less." In this case talking about God's love for us. You'll need to watch the movie to have full understanding. Right after that video, we went into the Church. That's when everyone became emotional... many of my friends were crying :( It was just when we could have our own time to talk to God. There was even Confession available to us, which I went to. After about an hour of that, we had another hour of mass. It was atleast total of 2 hours inside the Church. And honestly, it really helped me. I wanted to stay longer. :)

Well that was a very fun day at the retreat, and I wish we could have something like it again!

~ Do's and Don'ts of Grade 7

Dear Rachel,

Grade seven will be the most fun year you will have at St. Edmund's. You will actually be looking forward to go to school every morning, because you have an awesome teacher, Mr. Dotto... who will make your final year at St. Edmund's memorable :D

There are many fun things that you get to do, inside and outside of the classroom.
~ There is the Homework Grand Prix, where you are in groups of 3 or 4 in a kind of board game. It's takes a long time to describe everything, so you just have to wait ;)
~ There is a couch in the classroom, and when it's your day, you get to sit on it with one other person.
~ There is also a TV, where sometimes we get to watch movies ... either for assignments or just for done during lunch.
~ I'm pretty sure you know about the mac laptops. How many times do you use them... like twice or three times a month? Well in grade 7 you use them twice or three times a week, or maybe more! So take good care of them, because our class sure did... =P

~ So many field trips and retreats, to prepare for Confirmation! I think the best field trip we had was "Spirit Day". You're there from the morning till night. I don't want to spoil it for you, so why don't you wait for 5 months? ;)

Some things you'll want to do when you're in grade 7 is...
~ Start on big assignments and projects as soon as you can, because you don't want to procrastinate and leave it all to the last minute.
~ Mr. Dotto is a great guyyy, his singing and artwork is amazing... ;] .. he's a lot of fun to have as a teacher, but you better not get on his bad side or you won't have such a fun year like you're supposed to. :)

~ Try not to get your name on the board! It affects your letter grade, and your chances to participate on the Homework Grand Prix...
~ Study hard, like you would always! There's a lot of prep to get ready for high school... and you want to make sure you're focused on that.

~ Not joke in religion! Mr. Dotto doesn't tolerate that! If you ever were to make a joke though, make it good... because if not he'll just completely ignore you :P

Grade seven will only be fun if you try to make it that way. Study hard, because you know the year after that is high school! Keep Mr. Dotto happy so you'll have a lot of free time and more freedom... hope you have a great year of 2010-2011!

Surprising Parts in "Super Size Me"

Super Size Me was quite a disturbing video to me... but then again I learned a lot of things and it was quite interesting. A lot of the parts were shocking and surprising because I didn't know most of the things. First of all, most of the video is talking about fast food restaurants and how unhealthy they can be. The man Mr.Sperlock, he had to eat McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All the meals, and that would be for 30 days straight. If the cashier offers him a Super Size, he has to accept it and eat it all.

The first thing I found most shocking was what they do to the chickens when making chicken nuggets. They had to get chickens with enlarged breasts... and they would kill it, slice it... I can't even go on... it's really gross for me to think about because I used to eat chicken nuggets a lot and now that I know what they do to make then is just... disturbing... Although they made this video before McDonalds made the new chicken nuggets with white meat, I can't really imagine what difference it would make on how they made it.

There is some sort of addiction when it comes to eating McDonalds. Let's take an example from that guy who ate like... 700 big macs in a month? I'm not sure of the exact amount but he eats like 8 or 9 big macs a day, which is insane. On one of the McDonalds restaurants, outside on their ad, it even said, "Congratulations (name of the guy.. I forgot) .. for your 19000th big mac" 19000! That guy is awesome to have eaten that much :P ... 90% of the food he consumes are big macs. One thing that I found both funny and surprising was that he had his wedding in McDonalds. I bet for the reception they had big macs! (sorry I took your joke Martyna...muahahaha)

One thing that also shocked me is that so many people in America are obese. The #1 place in America where most people are obese is in Houston, Texas. Many people are obese and some don't know how harmful it can be to your body. If people keep up eating all these junk from fast food restaurants, obesity could pass smoking as the #1 cause of death. I think people should be looking out for their own health and actually caring about it.

Super Size Me, again, was a gross video but you will learn a lot out of it. At some parts I thought they were exaggerating a bit... I mean fast food is fine as long as you don't have too much of it, and the way they talked about it was as if it was extremely dangerous food. Anyways, this video of course talks a lot about McDonalds and people who have too much of it. If you don't know too much about that topic, you should watch Super Size Me.

.... make sure you have something to cover your eyes with though.

Safe as Houses: Chapter 4 & 5

1. There was a lot of things that happened in both chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4, you can tell that the flood gets a bit worst. First Lizzie found a dead cow being pushed down in the river outside. Then from there, both Lizzie and David saw more objects and even animals, knowing how bad the situation is. A truck crashes against the house... it was all terrible. Now in the end of chapter 4, a window in the McBride's house shatters and explodes. Starting in chapter 5, Lizzie gets smashed against the wall with a loud thud. The air in her lungs have been forced out. Her back was in sharp pain. She didn't know what to do, but then she saw David with his flashlight and swam over to him on the stairs. While with David, he has a 6 inch gash below the elbow. Here it is getting worst because now the characters are getting physically hurt. Now they wake up Suzie. All four of them, Lizzie, David, Suzie, and even Daisy, had to get out of the house because the water was rising quick. They all get new clothes as fast as they can and put them on. They try to get onto the roof, it was the only way they could survive. They all had to get up, one at a time. In the end of chapter 5, Lizzie goes back down into the house, trying to get the first aid kit and a soda for Suzie. The chapter ends there.

2. I think the person who is developing the most is David. I like his character in these 2 chapters, because he is helping out Lizzie very well in the situation. He is cooperating well, and doesn't argue as much as he used to. I also think Lizzie is great. She is trying her best to keep the 2 children alive, which is technically her job as a babysitter. No matter how much pain she may be in from the cold water, she continues what she's doing to keep everyone safe.

3. The newer challenges between the characters are being able to work together without having to argue, as this is a serious situation where joking around has to be set aside. The water is rising up in the house, so they need to stay in the safer area, which I think is the roof for now. Also, Mr. and Mrs. McBride or Lizzie's dad hasn't arrived yet, so they need to work as a team.

4. I think this is a pretty important part of the story. The flood is getting worst, the rivers are up to most people's knees or higher, you can see dead animals in the water, and all the power is out. We never know what can happen next in the story, whether they make it alive or not. Also, we get to see more out of the characters in the chapter, as we get to see more of their personality.

5. Unless if you have not read the other chapters, no one can be really sure what will happen next in the following chapter. But I think that the water will stop rising, and the kids will turn out safe. The next problem they'll have to face is how to get rid of all the water everywhere, especially the house, because the water in there is how many feet deep...

Spirit Day 2oo9 ~ .

On Saturday, November 28 2009, we went to a special event called Spirit Day. We left the school early in the morning at 10:30am and got home late at 10:30pm. We spent almost 12 hours there. It was a very long and exciting day, but even though, on the way home, none of us were tired or slept on the bus. We were all talking about how fun the day was and that we wanted to stay even longer. We all learned a lot of things and I would like to have that same experience again.

When we first got into the school, I didn't know what we were going to do first. We actually had a few games. My favorite one was "Funky Chicken". It's where one person would say, "let me see your *insert person or animal here*!" And the rest of the people would go, "What's that you say?!" And they repeat that 2 or 3 times then the one person would do an action related to the person/animal. ex. For Spongebob you would say "I'm ready! I'm ready!" That was a great way to start the day and I was laughing for almost the whole time.

One of my favorite parts were Brad and Gene's acts. They were very entertaining, you couldn't keep your eyes off the stage, which made it good. They were excellent jugglers... and comedians. From Brad, it was funny when he taught us how to quickly tie a tie... and with Gene, I enjoyed watching him struggle to get out of the straightjacket! Both acts were very funny. Sometimes they did tell some stories about their families which were very touching. Like Brad, he told us the story about his sister Britney, who had a disability and had a lot of challenges to overcome. The thing is that he focused more on what he did for her, how it made him feel and such, not that fact that she passed away or how she did.

Another one of my favorite parts is the singing. Matt Meher is awesome... my favorite song is 'Alive Again'. I can relate to that song in a way... I also liked the song "Glorious"... I pretty much liked them all. Sometimes I go to YouTube and listen to those songs. It was fun clapping, singing, and even dancing to the songs. They all had a meaning related to God.

The 'So You Think You've Got Talent Crew Idol" game was very fun to watch. It turned out funny in the end because none of the contestants won... Matt Meher did! It taught us that winning isn't everything and when you are doing something, you do it because you enjoy it and have fun. Not because you want to win.

I met... or atleast saw... some people I know from other schools. We all also saw Lily again, a classmate and good friend of mostly the girls since gr.6. We also saw Noah, our classmate we used to have back in gr.5 who transferred to Capilano Elementary School. There was also Nelson and Dominik, 2 of our other past classmates in the younger years. They haven't changed much and it was great to see alot of people, enjoying the same thing as us.

That Saturday was a very fun day. If it were possible I'd like to attend it again with my class... I will not forget the great experience I had. We learned many things and Spirit Day was a great time for us to get ready for Confirmation.