Review for Exams...

Today we reviewed for our exams, and I'm not looking forward to it. Apparently our human geography exam is going to be 100 questions and a huge essay, gross... We didn't too much other than that, which is sort of surprising because our class is always doing something. I had a secret Santa today and I got Peppermint Bark Chocolates, but I had the bad idea to bring them into class, because I was too lazy to open my locker. The thing though was that everyone wanted a chocolate, but I didn't want to give any to anyone, which might sound mean, I just guess I wasn't in the mood. Also my sister is in town, which is pretty exciting because she's in grad school, so she doesn't have many vacations. The thing that stinks is that the week that she visiting during my exams, therefore I feel like I'm going to lock myself in my room studying for exams and barely have any time to see her!!.. hopefully that won't be the case... Last thing, I hope it snows this weekend, because that would be awesome!!

Gotta Take that Test...

Today was definitely interesting. I had to make up the Micro Finance test, therefore Mr. Schick kicked me out of the class, and I ain't gonna lie I felt like a stray dog with no home. The test was really easy actually, only 15 questions, so you didn't have much of a margin of error, but that wasn't a big deal, because again the questions were easy. I got a 93 and I'm really happy about that, because that definitely helps me with my grade. The class today was super loud today, so Mr. Schick was going crazy just trying to calm us down, but we didn't calm down one bit. He looked different, and I don't know if I liked it, but I guess I'll get used to it or he might change. His birthday was last Sunday, so I'm dedicating this blog to him as a birthday present haha hope you had a great birthday my Mr. Schick :)

Sick

Today I wasn't in class, because I had a fever...

Pasta Day

Today was AWESOME!! It all started when I was able to eat my delicious pasta in class :) It kinda weird because we didn't do anything productive, but I'm ok with that, because that means class was fun! All I remember was getting all these weird answers from Mr. Schick and everyone was banging on their desk, because they wanted to answer the question first, but because we are freshman we got none of the answers right. Last of all is when I was literally cracking up with Caroline for at least 5 minutes because there was the word drugs on the power point and I thought it was bad drugs, but it really was health drugs. Therefore Caroline said "No Alexa, not the bad kind!" haha I guess you had to be there for it to be funny, but over all class was great :)

Questions, Questions, Questions....

what is microfinance? financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

list at least 3 things that microfinance affect people. 1) provides people who don’t have the money to get a loan to start a business, pay for medical attention, pay for schools, etc.

2) It helps small businesses start up and stay running

3) your small business gets damaged, they will provide you the money to get your business back on track so you can start making money again.

what are microloans? loans people money to help them them get a kickstart in a small business that they think will be beneficial to their village or town.

what 3 problems can microfinance fix?  1) malaria 2) clean water 3) Drought

what is malaria?  life-threatening disease transmitted by mosquitoes

in what year did scientist discover the real cause of malaria? 1880

how many deaths are caused by malaria? 655,000

are there any cures to malaria? no

how can we improve microfinance? we need to think of a solution to give people a chance to have a better life

what are 3 misconceptions about microfinance?

• Clients are too poor to pay interest as well as repaying the loan capital, so projects have low or no interest rates.
• Clients need a large lump sum to restart activities after a conflict, so loan sizes are large (for example, more than one-fifth of annual income).
• Clients prefer to use the loan for agricultural activities, so projects have long loan terms (six months to one year).

Micro finance and a cold...

Today was nothing exciting. All we did today we look at our Micro Finance power point, and we read over our facts. Mr. Schick wanted us to read them in our own words, but that was sort of difficult for most people including me. I really don't think the topic is very interesting and it is sort of confusing, but it seems very important. Today was 2 mods, so it doesn't really help with my interest on the topic, because it seemed as if it dragged on and on. Also the fact that I have a cold, doesn't help at all, it was actually pretty hard to keep up with the power point (really had to try not to complain and fall asleep... sorry Mr. Schick.) After we finally finished our power point, we went to look at the other section power point and I must say there's was a lot better, I mean a A LOT better. Probably because they had a lot of nice pictures that associated with Micro Finance. Last of all, we have a test on this subject before exams...yippie... -__-

Mr. Schick's funny stories...

Today was pretty awesome!! Mr. Schick told us how he was type a kid that could not keep still, therefore he told 4 stories. One the was about how Gumpy landed into his teacher's coffee, the other was that his Gumpy cut the Nun's hand (my favorite), the 3rd was about a teacher who lifted him up in the air with his short hair and last of all is when he flooded the boys bathroom (my second favorite). I literally could not stop laughing, I guess that I was mind blown with the facts that a boy from the age of 6 could think of things like that!! So Mr. Schick is pretty much the most coolest and funniest teacher EVER!!. The last thing is that it is Thanksgiving Break, which means this day couldn't get any better :)

  

Gumpy and Pokey!!

Class Presentation...

Today was pretty bad, definitely not your typical, happy and chatty human geography class. I mean we started pretty normal and then some seniors ( I think they were seniors) came to talk about how we should go to the variety show etc., but I don't think I'm going to go, because to be honest I don't feel like going. Then here comes the grand opening!! Mr. Schick had the great idea to give us a power point assignment on Micro finance, but here's the twist we have to do this presentation with the entire class, yes.. The ENTIRE CLASS!! The minute he said that I knew that this class assignment was going to end terribly, no matter if the other sections were able to do it, I knew that we just couldn't do it without Grace criticizing/critiquing us every 5 minutes...maybe less. There was also they are was a lot of "Why are you typing on my slide!!", so ya definitely not the best class.... Luckily I had my headphones.

Killer Silence...

Well Mr. Schick wasn't here today, which was sort of depressing, because his classes are pretty fun/interesting. We had a substitute teacher, whose name I still don't know, but I guess someday I will know it, but other than that we had to do the mini project, which hasn't gotten less confusing... That's all we really did, so not much to blog about, the one thing that was SUPER difference was that there was SILENCE, like really nobody was talking and I got to say I enjoyed it very much. Today looks pretty gloomy, but I like it when it looks like that, because things look so much more authentic, plus it's Friday and who wouldn't be happy about that? Well that is really it for the day, maybe the sun will come out, but for right now there is a lot of gray skies and no Mr. Schick...

We just kept on talking...

Today we literally just talked... We talked about a whole lot of things, but I will tell you the main things that class decided to bring up. 1st well it was just jibberish and excitement, mostly because we just had our free mod before class. 2nd was about the project that we were doing and how most people agreed that it was sort of confusing and pointless. The dilemma though was that the other sections just told him that they why wouldn't do something fun and not take notes all the time. While our group likes taking notes and just learning from Mr. Schick's power points and personally, I like that much better than doing this project. The 3rd and final subject was little small business v.s. big companies and to make this long topic short, big companies like Shoprite, Walmart, Target, Wawa are etc. are starting to beat other small companies that aren't as popular as the ones that we have now. Take for example, Shoprite. You see, before Shoprite there was Kleins, but for the obvious reason Shoprite bought out Kleins, and is now much more popular and had some few changes maybe in there food, but for the most obvious, reason it is the name.

 

Small shops from way back when... 

Disappointing class....

Today we got our World Leaders tests back, and it was pretty disappointing for the class, because Caroline was the only A, but it was super disappointing for Mr. Schick, because it was open blog. I mean I sort of understand why he would be frustrated, so I won't go complaining about it. I was pretty close on getting an A though, only one point from a 90, therefore I was disappointed about that, but it's better than a worse grade.... After receiving the test, we went over them, and surprise, surprise it took sooooooo looonngggg. Last of all we had a shadow, his name was Dori-- something, can't really remember his whole name, but he was shadowing Devin.

Weird Class...

Today was weird... I mean classes are always pretty "different" but this one was just weird. We started the class by asking if Mr. Schick graded the tests, and his response was no, which sort of stunk. He also said, that some of them were looking good so far, but he also said some had red pen all over it, which isn't very good. We also got into a new subject and that is Economic something... can't really remember what the whole thing was. Then after the mini introduction, we had to do this project, and Mr. Schick was explaining how to do it, but some of the places in this project, aren't real, so he kept saying that "it's all your mind" in a voice that resembled a lot to Stitch. After that explanation, we were on our own and trust me it wasn't pretty. Just to make the long story short, none of us understood the project and therefore none of us did it.

Blogger Test...

Today was pretty lucky day. We had a test today, and of course I was freaking out about this and studying until 1 yesterday, but I asked Mr. Schick at lunch time if we could use our blogs, and he said yes!! I was so happy, I mean I studied, but no way would I have done "well" on it. The test wasn't bad at all, especially if you took good notes. I think I might of gotten 2 or 1 wrong, but hopefully that is it. Other than that it was a regular Wednesday, except for the fact that I have 3 tests and 1 quiz (blah). It is starting to get cold, and I'm not a big fan of it, also for the fact that I have to practice a hour and a half in it, for track, but you learn to suck it up. I think it's actually funny that we had so much today, but tonight we have nothing... Last of all, God-spell is tomorrow!!

XX bell

Today we added more notes to the 12 leaders and we followed a xx bell, so classes were short.

2 long mods and a whole lot of leaders

All we did today was update our blog on the 12 leaders...

Going over an other test...

Today we started class pretty loud, so loud that Mr. Schick could hear from us from down the hall. He got late to class though, so that's why I think we were a little crazy. We had a shadow today and his name was Joe, he was shadowing Devin. After we calmed down after 10 minutes we went over the test that we had last week. It took most up of the class time, which isn't a surprise to me. I had to read one of the questions, but every time I read in Human Geo, I speak half alien, and I have no idea why. Next time if I have to read, I'm going to try not to talk like an alien. Well after going over the test, we went on to look at Mr. Schick's power point about the 12 leaders.(The night before we had to look up interesting facts about them). It was an hour late bell, so we couldn't get to all his slides. Last of all it's Friday, sweet, sweet Friday :))).

Important facts about the 12 leaders

Hamid KARZAI - 1) comes from the dominant Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan, the former clan of Afghan king Mohammad Zahir Shah.
 2) joined the struggle against the Soviets when he was 25 and became the director of the Afghan National Liberation Front. (ANLF).
http://www.panasianbiz.com/asia/asia-news-only/21-must-know-facts-about-afghanistans-president-hamid-karzai/

 Dilma ROUSSEFF - 1)  In 1970, she was arrested for her political activity and was jailed for three years even though she was never actively involved in armed operations.

 2) During that time she became involved in left-wing politics and joined the underground resistance to the right-wing military dictatorship that had seized power in ‘64 in Brazil  

   http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/profile/dilma-rousseff/            

President XI Jinping - 1)  It is because Xi Jinping is going to one day be the Paramount Leader, General Secretary, President, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China

 2) joined the Communist Youth League in 1971, 3 years later, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  He steadily worked his way up through the CCP, doing various party jobs for 25 years.  

http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/profile/xi-jinping/

President Joachim GAUCK - 1) Because he was considered by the Stasi an ”incorrigible anti-communist,” Gauck was denied entrance to his studies in German and Journalism and instead studied theology at the University of Rostock and became a pastor at a church in Mecklenburg-Pommerania. - See more at

 2) While he grew up behind the Iron Curtain, he opposed the East German government and the ideas of socialism to a point where he refused to join the Free German Youth (FDJ) and joined groups that opposed anti-communism. 

http://flensburgerfiles.areavoices.com/2012/03/22/joachim-gauck-is-president-of-germany-who-is-mr-gauck/

President Hasan Fereidun RUHANI - 1) as born Hassan Feridon in on November 12, 1948, in Sorkheh, Iran. His family was opposed to the former shah, and this exposed him to national political concerns at an early age.

2) After receiving his undergraduate degree, he spent his time traveling across his country and giving anti-shah, pro-Ayatollah Khomeini speeches, which caused him to flee Iran in 1977 because his life was threatened.

http://www.biography.com/people/hassan-rouhani-21313175

President Shimon PERES - 1) A year later, in 1948, Shimon Peres was appointed head of Israel's navy and at war's end, assumed the position of Director of the Defense Ministry's delegation in the United States. While in the United States, he studied at the New-York School for Social Research and at Harvard.

2) In 1953, at the age of 29, Peres was appointed by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to the post of Director General of the Defense Ministry, a position he held until 1959. During that period, he shaped the special relations between Israel and France, and established Israel's electronic aircraft industries, as well as its nuclear program.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/peres.html

Francois HOLLANDE - 1) He joined the Socialist Party in 1979  

2) He was spotted by Jacques Attali, the advisor to François Mitterrand, going on to write economic notes for him. Having left the ENA at number seven in the rankings in 1980, he was made Chargé de Mission at the Élysée. 

http://www.france.fr/en/institutions-and-values/francois-hollande-born-1954

ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud - 1) In October 1976, as Abdullah was being groomed for greater responsibility in Riyadh, he was sent to the United States to meet with then-President Gerald Ford. 

2) In 2002, Abdullah floated the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, what many considered at the time to be an opening salvo in a Saudi attempt to make peace with Israel. 

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/crownprinceabdullah.html

Enrique PENA NIETO - 1)  In 1999, he worked on the campaign team of Arturo Montiel Rojas, who was elected Governor of Mexico State. Montiel rewarded him with the position of Administrative Secretary. 

2) Peña Nieto was elected to replace Montiel in 2005 as Governor of Mexico State, serving from 2005-2011. In 2011 he won the PRI Presidential nomination and immediately became the front runner for the 2012 elections. 

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/presidentsofmexico/p/Biography-Of-Enrique-Pe-na-Nieto.htm

Prime Minister David CAMERON - 1)  Once he became head of Britain's Conservative party, Cameron sought to modernize it and shed its right-wing image. 

2)  His win was due in large part to his vow to inspire a new generation; he wanted people to "feel good about being Conservatives again,"

http://www.biography.com/people/david-cameron-39203 

President Nicolas MADURO Moros - 1) Maduro worked alongside the outspoken president until Chávez's death in March 2013. Prior to his passing, Chávez publicly named Maduro his successor. 

2) Maduro was introduced to future Venezeulan President Hugo Chávez in 1992, after Chávez and other disenchanted members of the military were imprisoned for an attempted coup and Maduro began campaigning for  Chávez's release. 

http://www.biography.com/people/nicol%C3%A1s-maduro-21145011 

President Pranab MUKHERJEE - 1) Seventy six years old, Shri Mukherjee is a man of unparalleled experience in governance with the rare distinction of having served at different times as Foreign, Defence, Commerce and Finance Minister. 

2) A powerful orator and scholar, Shri Mukherjee’s intellectual and political prowess as well as remarkable knowledge of international relations, financial affairs and parliamentary process are widely admired. 

http://presidentofindia.nic.in/profile.html

Countries government and presidents

  Afghanistan
 Islamic republic - qua ran is the set of law. 
Hamid KARZAI - he emerged as a resistance leader under Taliban rule and worked to undermine the regime. He is well versed in several languages including his native Peshto, Persian, Hindi, French and English. Several times in 2001 Karazi warned the United States about 9/11 

 Brazil 
federal republic - have elections 
Dilma ROUSSEFF - is opposed Brazil's military dictarorship of the 1960 and 70's and served 3 yrs in prison.
She has been divorced 2. She has a degree in economics and now rules the country with the eight biggest economy in the world. She underwent chemotherapy for lymphoma in 2009 and now is remission.

China 
Communist state - full control of the gov. 
President XI Jinping - son of revolutionary veteran one of the Communist Party's founding fathers. He married folk singer Peng Liyuan, who also holds the rank of army general, in 1987. To many in China, Ms.Peng was the better known of the half of the couple. They have a daughter and she studies at Harvard. 

Germany 
federal republic
President Joachim GAUCK and Chancellor Angela Merkel - (Angel Merkel) Graduated from University of Leipzig in 1978 with a degree in physics and physical chemistry; earned a PhD in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Science in Berlin. Has been since Nov. 2005, Merkel has earned the top spot on the FORBES list of the most powerful women in the world for the 8 of the past 10 yrs. 


















Iran - a theocratic republic
theocratic republic
President Hasan Fereidun RUHANI and Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini - Khamenei = Khamenei - in 1963 took part in street protests against the U.S backed Shah of Iran. After the uprising was quashed Khamenei was exiled. K was inmprisoned multiple times and in 1975 was internally exiled to a remote region in southeastern Iran. Was elected President of Iran in 1981 and re-elected in 1985. Became Iran's Supreme Leaders in 1989. 
(Hasan Ruhani) - has held several parliamentary posts, including deputy speaker and has also served on the Supreme National Security Council. Was elected president of Iran - June 2013. Has been openly critical of the outgoing president saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "careless, calculated and unstudied remarks" have costly the country dearly. 














Israel 
parliamentary democracy
President Shimon PERES and Netanyahu - Peres was born in Belarus. To escape the persecutions of Jews there, the family fled to Palestine in 1934. When Arab forces launched their attack on the new state of Israel in 1948 Peres was given the chief responsibility for securing military equipment for Israel form aboard. Later he organized Israel's nuclear program and is regarded as the father of the Israel's atomic bomb. As Israel's Minster of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres was in charge of Israeli negotiations during with Palestine. He share a Nobel Peace Prize with his own Prime Minister. 













France 
republic
Francois HOLLANDE- no previous experience in national gov. position. The mother of his four children is Segolene Royal, with whom he shared a 30 yr relationship. He was born in 1954 in the city of Rouen to an extreme right physician father and progressive social worker.

















Saudi Arabia
monarchy
ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud king and prime minister = he has fathered 22 children, the youngest when he was 79. He is worth approx. 21 billion dollars. He was appointed commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a post he was still holding when he became kin. In Nov 2007, King Abdullah visted Pope Benedict in the Apostolic Palace. he is the Saudi monarch to visit the Pope. On March 2008, he called for "brotherly and sincere dialogue between believers from all religions." .................................













Mexico
federal republic
Enrique PENA NIETO - He was the eldest of 4 siblings in a middle-class family; his father, Gilberto Enrique Pena del Mazo, was an engineer for the electric company and his mother, Maria del Socorro Nieto, a schoolteacher. Reports that he fathered 2 children in extramarital affairs while his wife Monica raised the couple's 3 children plus the investigation sudden death of his wife at home. Have prompted many ti call him the Teflon candidate because trouble seems to slide off him. He married Angelica Rivera = first lady of Mexico. 

United Kingdom 
constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth realm
Prime Minister David CAMERON and the queen - his first son Ivan dies = turning pt. youngest Prime Minister (43 when he took office) in over 200 years.

Queen = has been ruling for 60 yrs.
















Venezuela
federal republic 
President Nicolas MADURO Moros  

bus driver before becoming politically active in the early 1990s, he met chavez after chavez was out of pirson.was the vice president then he became president.

India 
federal republic 
President Pranab MUKHERJEE - He taught Political Science at the Vidiyanagar College, and worked as a journalist before entering politics. Was rated as one  of the best finance ministers of the world in 1984 and was adjudged the best par. in 1997. He had a conflict with Rajiv Gandhi (who took over as Prime Minster form his mother Indira after she was assassinated in 1984) and started his own party- Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress.  

Culture and Religion test today...

Today we took the culture and religion test and I got a 83% on it. I didn't do too bad, but I thought I would've done better. After we were finished with that we went onto a new topic which was Political Geography. Mr. Schick explained it to us, but it was too confusing, so I can't tell you much. All I know is that it is divided by 4 factors which are: country, nation, state and Nation State (with a capital S). When we were finished talking about those topics we watched a video. Mr. Schick started to talk about this guy is amazing (who was Canadian) and that he wished he were him, but then the video started. This guy had the worst sense of humor, I mean seriously it was bad. He said jokes that could have the potential in being funny, but then you think about and you are like no... Well that pretty much sums up today's class.

It was a "special" class

Today was a really short class, because we had mass and a memorial in the morning. To be honest it was pretty boring, but the memorial was nice I guess. The thing is that I didn't really know the people who had die, so it didn't really affect me personally. After the mass and memorial was finished we followed an one hour late bell, therefore all the class were short. We were supposed to have the religion and culture test today, but instead Mr. Schick was very kind to over his power point, which means that we will have to take the test on Monday, which sounds like a pretty good deal to me :). Today was especially crazy because I had like 4 tests, so hopefully I did well in all of them. Can't believe that it is November 1st!! Time seriously flies by... can't wait for Thanksgiving break haha.

More presentations!!

Today we finished Grace's power point (finally), then we did our presentation on Judaism. We didn't start  too well, because the website that we got the information from wasn't really accurate, but other than that we were rolling. It was neither too long nor too short, so for me it was perfect. Then Ryan's group was next. They talked about Buddhism, it was a really good presentation, the beginning was pretty funny too, because of the picture of Buddha (he was fat). They weren't able to finish it though. So that is really it, it was a pretty good day considering that it rained in the morning and that I barely got to school in time. Also Annie had another shadow, I don't remember her name, but she was the sister/twin of the girl that shadowed Annie yesterday. Last of all today is HUMP DAYYY!!! Oh and we have a test on the 5 main religions on Friday this week.

Going over the quiz and Grace's long power point

Today is Tuesday the best day of the week  for me, but Friday is pretty awesome too. We went over the 50 point quiz, and as always it took so long to look over. It was actually pretty fun. We had 2 shadows today, their names were Lee (I think that is how you spell it) and there was another guy, but I can't remember his name... whoops. So after using up a whole mod just reviewing the quiz, we finally got to doing a presentation and of course we started with Grace's group. She actually had the cool idea to print out her group's presentation. Therefore, we wouldn't be stressing out writing all of "Grace's important facts." We didn't get to finish her presentation, which wasn't a surprise to me and I think to everyone. Tomorrow we will have to finish Grace's presentations and do all the other presentations. Hopefully everybody can finish in time...

Groups!

Today in class we got into group of 3 or 4 to research one of the 5 main religions. The 5 main religions are Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Me, Grant and Caroline got Judaism. It was a long mod today, so we were able to get most of our presentation done. It looks really cool too. We researched a bunch of things and I'm pretty impressed with what we got. After the first mod, we got a 5 minute break, therefore I went to my locker and got some pretzels, but my pretzels didn't last that long, because I started to share them with everyone, but I'm cool with that because I was still able to have some. On the other hand some people went all out and got some fries, but they were pretty nice about it though, because they let us have some. Well I really can't believe that it is the start of the second quarter, but I liked this how this class started for the beginning of the second quarter :) .

It's only a 50 point quiz...

Well today we had a 50 point quiz that will counted in our 1st quarter grade. I really hope I did well, but I have no idea whether I did or not... So we had a shadow and her name was Mikalya, and she was shadowing from Fallston Middle School. Mr. Schick gave her the quiz also, so maybe she did well, or maybe she didn't. It wasn't too bad, but towards the end of the quiz, I just started to guess, but I looks like I guessed pretty well. We were crazy today, so hopefully Mikalya wasn't freaked out. Also Mr. Schick was wearing all grey!! Thought it was pretty cool/funny. I had a velvet muffin in health class, and it was really good. Last thing is that today is the end of the 1st quarter, can’t believe that I have completed one quarter of my freshman year!!!… J

We watched a video, then we talked

Today we didn't do any writing, which is surprising (at least for me). Instead we watched a video, on America, I cant really remember the title of the show we watched, or else I would tell you. The main point that the guy who had the blonde hair in dumb and dumber says that America isn't the greatest country in the world, and he supports this statement with so many data, that you obviously believe the guy. I mean I really don't know what is the greatest country in the world is, but I don't think that it is America, but it might be wrong. The thing is that sometimes, I might think that Switzerland is the greatest country of the world, because of all the green etc, but that is wrong because you can't just base a country on its greatness on whether or not it is pretty enough for you. You got to go with the data about that country.

Religious Wars

Today Mr. Schick ranted. He ranted about wars, specifically religious wars, and I can see why he is a little frustrated with this topic. Well we first learned that religion can be both unifying and dis unifying force. There are 5 major religions and those are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the things is that there are so many conflicts between these religions, but they almost believe in the same thing. You see the Jews believe they came from the descendants of Abraham, but Muslims and Christians also came from the descendants of Abraham, and I can bet that there is so much war between these faiths, especially Muslims and Jews. Also religion can have millions of followers all believing the same thing, therefore you can expect there would be a little bit of conflicts. The thing is that even if you look different or have a different belief, it shouldn't be resulting in the using of bombs and tanks to destroy cities.

Cultural Characteristics and Mr. Schick's awesome vacation

Today Mr.Schick was here!! But Arri was not (he has been gone for almost all of the month)... Well Mr. Schick told us about his vacations, which sounded pretty fun. 1st he told us about he saw his daughter, who studies journalism at the university Boston, but Mr. Schick's "adventures" had just begun. The adventure that he did was going to the Red Sox's game with the television crew. How he actually got into the television crew section was actually pretty funny though. He decided to go walking around the stadium, because where he was staying was pretty close to where the stadium was. Then he saw all the television crew cars, but it was blocked by police cars, but there was a gap. So he went walking in "like he owned the place." and guess went he got in!! Well to make the long story short he had a really good time with the television crew and they got right in the middle celebration of the Red Sox's win. We did do classwork, but I thought it was more important to blog this. :)

Well we took a test...

We took a test today, and let's say that I did not get anything. Apparently Grace, was the only one to finish; bet she was determined to take those AP classes. Also a shadow student finished, so that we my moment of shock, I wonder if he did well... The big thing though was that Mr. Schick wasn't at class!! I was pretty disappointed, but unlike Grace, I wasn't SUPER disappointed. I liked the substitute teacher, but I never remembere3d his name. As you can I stink with names... This week was pretty crazy, but I really liked it, it was nice to have a change for a little while. It sort of stinks, because today is the last day of spirit day, so that means I can't wear sweat pants all day. Apparently we have a Pep Rally today around 1:00, hopefully it will be fun, which I think it will. Well tomorrow is going to be a long day, because we have homecoming, but I think everything will look pretty cool :).

Going over the population quiz

It was COUCH POTATO DAY!! Enough said ... Well today we checked our quizzes, and that took most of our class time. I think the reason why it took so long is because everybody kept forgetting to say the question, and then say the answer. I did ok, maybe I could of done better, but I'm happy with what I got. After we finally finished checking the quiz, we went on to review cultural characteristics. The components of cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life, the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all the members, and the same characteristics can also link or divide a region.  To be more general about these characteristics can be put as language, ethnic heritage, and religion. That is really it for today. Sooo tomorrow is PSAT'S, nothing really exciting, except we get to arrive at 9 and leave at 12:30, which is really nice.

Quiz Today and wrapping up population unit!!

Today was the day we had a quiz. It  wasn't too bad, I think the most challenging part was the shapes of the population, but you never know, I might of have done a lot better than I expected. We also had 2 shadow people, which were from St. Paul's, I don't remember their names, but for me that isn't a surprise because I'm not the greatest person with names. Actually, I think one of their names was Nick. D, maybe I'm wrong, but I think I am right. I feel like we didn't we didn't do much, because our class took up most of our mod(s) to finish the quiz. A funny thing that happened today though, is that Grant was about to say he was finish the quiz, but Mr. Schick warned him that he could not take the quiz back after he was done, so Grant decided to look over his quiz more. Then Android (it’s really sad that I don’t know his real name…) said he was done and Mr. Schick took it so quickly, not even giving him a warning! That is really all… Oh and it is Daniel’s birthday today!!

Population shapes and quizzzzz

Today we got our quizzes back, and I did pretty well. Apparently, the classes before didn't have notes for this quiz and they got higher grades than us, which isn't that good. To get on an even happier note is that we have a test on Friday, about migration and population, which sounds like it might be hard, so hopefully I can do well on it. The last thing that we did was look at some states to see which type of shape they are and what kind of age of population they have. For example, Ann Arbor, Michigan has a lot of people between their 20's and their 30's, because Ann Arbor is a huge college town. Another example is F. Bragg, North Carolina, and in this state there is a lot more men in their 20's, because it is a big military place there. The last state we looked at is Florida. Florida, obviously has a higher population in older people, because it's warm and there isn't too many young kids running around, therefore this creates a hot spot in retirement.

Quiz today!!

Today we had a quiz about the movie, it wasn't too hard, but I don't know if I got the last question and the last names of the 2 guys, Panther and Daniel, other than that I'm pretty sure I did well. We also had cupcakes, which were really good!! I got a vanilla cupcake, but then I gave to Devin instead because I wasn't hungry. Another thing, is that we are learning a new subject and the subject is the Population Pyramid. In this pyramid, we see the oldies, the economically active and the kiddos. The age groups that starts for these age groups are 60 - 64 for the oldies, 20 - 24 for the economically active, and 5 - 9 for the kiddos. The last thing that we learned is that there are shapes that represents nations and these shapes are the Christmas tree, the box and the cup. Well that ended our day... Oh and it was Erica's 14th birthday!! ( That's why we had cupcakes :) )  

We finally finished the movie!!!

We finally finished the movie!! It was really good, especially towards the end. The boys has been in America for 3 years now and it seems to me they are doing things that they would never imagine they would in their lives. The things that are most inspiring is that they are all getting jobs to support their family and there friends back in Sudan and some of them are trying to getting a degree. The person I felt most inspired from is John. John isn't here just to live a better life but he is trying to learn everything. One of the accomplishments that he was able to achieve was finding his mother and sisters, he also became the sectary for the 'Lost Boys" foundation, and the last 2 things is that, he got his Bachelor Degree at Syracuse University and he went back Sudan to build a medical clinic, which is a non profit organization. Panther also went back to Sudan to get married to his girlfriend, but before he did that he got a Bachelors Degree in Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Last of all Daniel has a job at Whole foods and he is in a community college, but he still hasn't   located his family members, this may sound like he isn't going to be as successful as Panther and John, but he is the youngest. I think what I learned from this movie is to take nothing for granted, because you can achieve so many things that you might of not known you could.

Ya we are still watching the movie...

Instead of watching the movie right away today, we checked our test answers. Seems like it might of took up a lot of time, because we didn't see much of the movie (but we also had 1 mod, so maybe that's why). Then after checking our answers, we continued to watch the movie. We sort of focused on John in this part of the movie and about the jobs that he got. His 1st job is in a factory making baskets, which he says if very simple and his 2nd job is at McDonald's grilling burgers. One major aspect that John is doing is that he isn't going to throw out the traditions of the Sudan people and the other thing is that he wonders what Christmas trees mean and if they are in the Bible, because in, Sudan the people get in a big area and start to dance. The other person that we focused on too is Daniel. Daniel also has a job, but his job is at Bank of America. They all have been here for a year and they agree that the people here in America aren't very nice; they also are starting to feel lonesome. In the last part of the movie, which we will watch in Monday, we'll discover how these men can overcome these hardships.