Parque de diversiones June 5, 2008
Posted by lee in Random.Tags: Bocaraca, Ciclon, Pacuare, Parque de Diversiones, Rusted Metals
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The last field trip of the school year is to Parque de Diversiones; practically the only amusement park in Costa Rica. Even though it is not as fancy as Disney World or as big as Six Flags, there are some pretty good rides out there. Some of them are the Pacuare, Ciclon, the bumper cars, the Bocaraca, go karts and the tower.
The Pacuare, a water ride, is a ride for about 4-6 people. It takes a lot of courage to get on that ride because the ride itself is not that scary since you just spin around in a toboggan and then go around a little place peacefully. However, the challenge is o go up the place. Since the whole Middle School goes, the amusement park is usually packed so it takes a long time to get on the ride. To get to the place where they launch you off, you have to climb the metal stairs were you constantly have to stop because of the line. The scary thing is that there are at least fifty people in the metal stairs. I wouldn’t be that scared if the stairs were new. However, the stairs are rusted so you never know when the stairs will break because when I look at it, it looks pretty unstable.
Next, with the Ciclon, it has the same problem with the Pacuare. The Ciclon has been around for such a long time that the whole place is rusted. Sometimes, I feel that as we are going through the ride, I see a loose nail or think that I saw a losing nail. The ride is actually pretty cool but I would consider it too small. The ride is so cramped up that it feels that your head is going to hit the metal things.
Last, with the Bocaraca, I think that it’s the best ride in Parque de Diversiones because it only has like a few years since it has been created. The metals are not rusted and a lot of people can get on it at the same time. However with this one, the ride is only about 30 seconds which is way too short. It would be the best if it was about 3 minutes long as a normal ride in the States or in Korea with different kinds of things like tunnels and other stuff.
I think that they should completely rebuild Parque de Diversiones and make it bigger with better rides and built so that it looks safe.
-Lee
Too many weekends wasted… May 29, 2008
Posted by lee in Random.Tags: Band, Make Up, Weekday, Weekend
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I wonder how much more time we are going to have to give up our whole weekend. From Friday to Sunday and in some cases, from Friday to Monday when there is a holiday. We don’t get to do anything but to practice our instruments, watch TV, and hanging out with your friends. There still isn’t a lot of things to do because sometimes, we get tired of doing the same things all the time.
We shouldn’t have too many rehearsals. It’s not as if I wanted to become a musician, I just want to play the saxophone so that I could relax myself with some music after stressing myself out. However, with concerts in the middle of the week, there is not enough time to do our projects and our homework and in some cases, study for a big test.
At the last concert, many people had to stay very late finishing up projects, doing homework, and to some people, study for any upcoming tests. Many who are in 8th grade and in the the band had to stay late finishing everything up because the concert ended around 8:30-9:oo p.m.
Most teachers would say that it was our entire fault that we left everything for the last minute but that is obviously not true. In my case, I had to cover myself with leaves so if I did it two days before it was due, the leaves could have dried up and then they would have fallen off. That would take a lot of points off me. Also, instead of a Wednesday or a Thursday for a concert, we should have it on a Friday or Saturday so that we would still have time to do the homework during the morning instead of having to do it all night.
Another thing is that missing classes due to a rehearsal is not that ideal. Many people would be happy because they get to miss class but if you see it from another angle, that schoolwork that you missed piles up on you and you are going to have to make it up for next class which is sometimes worse because you might not get some parts of the assignments.
I think that that’s my problem this week because I was already forced to go to a concert that I did not even play and now I have to sacrifice my whole weekend again to play on some concerts and a rehearsal. Then, I have a draft due on Monday and a quiz to make up on Monday at math time so that then, I will miss another lesson.
Out of this, I I would be glad if we kept on playing concerts but not as much as five on one weekend and another one in a weekday and then sacrificing my whole entire weekend.
-Lee
A Weekday’s Night May 22, 2008
Posted by lee in Random.Tags: Food, Geography Fair, Guestbook
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Getting out of the car in a rainy night, we hurried across the school. “The fair is about to begin!” my sister cries anxiously. “There’s gonna be a lot of good food out here!” she says. “Yeah” I agree.
As we get inside the gym, all the people are starting to sit down as the parade is about to begin. The mosques, the elephants, the mountains all parade down the gym, receiving the applauds from many people.
Watching all the floats pass through the gym, we hear Mr. G giving a brief description about it. Commenting about the quality of the floats, we would compare the best ones, the biggest ones, and the smallest floats.
As soon as the last person passes by, everybody rushes down the stairs to try out all the different types of food out there. Sometimes trying to annoy people, we would ask the 7th graders really hard questions like the 14th highest peak in Tanzania or the altitude in meters from a 9000 feet mountain.
Hanging out with friends discussing who we should bother next, we would first ask them a lot of questions, then get some foods, and then sign the guestbook.
As they ask us to sign the guestbook, we threaten them that we will put things like “No garbage can”, “Declined to give a presentation”, “Kicked us out”, “Doesn’t know her presentation, and “False information”.
If they don’t really care about the guestbook or pretend not to care about it, we would tell them that Mrs. Porter told us to ask a lot of questions to them and if they didn’t know the answers, we only had to write it in the guestbook so that she could find out about it. Their eyes would get all big and then they would start blurting out all the information they knew about their country so that they wouldn’t get a bad grade.
It was an outstanding night because even though this was the same fair as last year’s, we didn’t have to stand behind a desk but instead we could actually enjoy the food and we could relax because our turn had already passed.
-Lee
School year’s almost over May 15, 2008
Posted by lee in Random.1 comment so far
School’s almost out. Finally. A couple more weeks of school. The time period that I dread the most. A lot of projects, papers, tests, and quizzes. The time period that feels twice as long as the rest of the school year.Since we’re in 8th grade, it’s soon time to have our moving up ceremony and then celebrate at night in a hotel. Quite expensive and what I hate the most is that parents are invited to come. It’s going to be so awkward for a lot of us that we are not going to be able to enjoy the party as much as we would without them.Then comes our time to enjoy the summer. Either staying home or leaving the country for a change of scenery and to get rid off all your stress. You wouldn’t have to study hard for another two and a half months. What a beauty. Waking up late, watching TV, and hanging out with friends.I really want that to come. Only that when vacation comes I have nothing to do in my house. Same thing over and over again. Nothing ever changes. I would want to go back to school. Then when I’m at school, I want to be out after a couple of weeks.
Maybe that’s what the people are. Wanting things they don’t have while not wanting what they have. Just like in that book of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster where in the beginning Milo wants to be in school but when he gets there, he wants to be at home. His life is always like that so he thinks that even life is a waste of time until someone sends him a tollbooth that took him to a whole different world where it changes Milo’s point of view about life.
I say that we always have to do our best in everything because life is too short so there is no time to waste.
-Lee
Rafting May 11, 2008
Posted by lee in Random.Tags: beach, Manuel Antonio, Superman, White Water Rafting
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Manuel Antonio was one of the best school field trips I ever had. We had AC in our rooms, we got to do a zip-line tour, we went to the beach, we rafted, and best of all, we got to go to the beach (with a lot of casualties).
Going to the beach was pretty fun because we all got to play American football where a lot of people started bleeding. I tried to tackle Lucas by kicking his shin but it wouldn’t work. He would keep on running as if nothing had happened while I was lying on the floor holding my foot tightly. It was so red that I could feel the heat coming out of it.
At the end of the game, I ended up with two scratches along my stomach and chest, a bloody toe, a bruised up foot, a pain on my back, and three interceptions. I think that it was worth it because we are not allowed to play tackle football in school because of security reasons. However, we managed to convince the teachers that we would not get hurt because we were playing on the sand and on the ocean.
One of the best things we did at Manuel Antonio was to go white water rafting at the Rio Savegre. I was with David, Diego, Elena, Paola, Isabela, Hyerin, and our guide. It was pretty fun there because I would pretend with my friend David that we were falling out of the boat when the water was calm.
We would plan out exactly how we would fall and how the other guy was going to react. Our best one was when I would fall into the water and when David got me out of the water, he would fall the other way because of all the force he used trying to get me out of the water. Another on was that when he gave me the pole, I would pull it so that he would also fall into the water. That one made everybody to jump off from their rafts and join us in the water.
However, in one place where the water currents got all mixed up, I fell into the water since our boat was tipping over. The current carried me away and when I looked up, David had jumped into the water to save me (something they told us to NEVER do). I was drinking a lot of water because first, I was panicking and second; my life jacket was well adjusted because I had gotten it loose when we went to the waterfall. The life jacket was up to my neck so it was practically strangling me.
When I finally got back into the boat (the guide threw me in), I asked David why he didn’t save me but all he said was that he saved my paddle. I got kind of angry because I was drowning and instead of saving me, he saved the paddle. He said, “The guide told us that the paddle is more important than someone’s life.”
He was right because I also heard him say that but all I told him that he was a very nice friend in a pretty sarcastic voice laughing.
I think that this was one of the best school trips I ever had and that all happened because of my experience at the white water rafting.
-Lee
Saturdays April 24, 2008
Posted by lee in Blogging, Random.Tags: Korean School, Saturday
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I wish I could relax on Saturdays. Isn’t that the reason we have a Saturday? So that we could get rid of all the stress we go accumulating during the weekdays? I wish I could actually do that though. Instead of sleeping late on Saturdays, I have to wake up at 7:30 every Saturday just to go to a Korean school. Can you imagine this? Going to school on a weekend? That’s crazy?
The Korean school may help me improve my Korean but still, who would actually want to go to school on a Saturday when you could be hanging out with your friends? Less than 25% of the people would.
I have to spend my time in a room studying vocabulary, grammar, and literature for 3 and a half hours. That may seem short, but you know, in a class of 5, you’re get a lot of attention from the teacher so you have to be constantly paying attention or else your teacher can call your parents or something similar to it.
At 12:30, when school’s over, I have to stay there because after eating lunch, I have a youth meeting where we have activities there every week from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The activities there are pretty fun but they are also pretty boring once in a while.
Even though some activities that I do on Saturdays may be fun, most are actually pretty boring to me because instead of all this, I could be doing better things like hanging out with my friends, but the thing is, everything has consequences. Maybe the Korean school may be more benificial. Who knows? I’ll know when the time comes.
-Lee
