Canoeing on The San Marcos River

Yesterday was a loooong day. I went canoeing on the San Marcos river with four boys and two adults, all from my church. Since I was the only girl attending the all day activity I was allowed to invite a friend, but unfortunately she got sick at the last moment. That left me stuck with two seventh grade boys, and two ninth grade boys. Hooray! We left the church at 10:00, and the bus ride to San Marcos was only livable because I was listening to the latest US world cup game. (Which by the way they tied)! By the time we got to the check-in place where we would get our canoes, it was about 10:40. We ate our packed lunches, (mine reminded me a little too much of my usual school lunch) and then began canoeing.
I started out with one of the eighth grade boys as the chaperone had assigned canoes. We paddled for about a mile, and then reached a spot where you were allowed to swim. There were three shoots in the swimming hole. They were kind of like rapids, but you slid down the rocks and then the super strong current shot you through the water to the next shoot. Apart from almost drowning three times and getting quite a lot of water up my nose it was really fun. After cooling off in the refreshing water we continued our journey down the San Marcos river. I had switched canoes, so I was now with one of the chaperones. We were entering the more foresty part of the river, and there were many overhanging branches. Most of which had spiders and caterpillars hanging in them, and they would drop on your head if you went under them.
After a while without seeing the other three canoes the chaperone and I began wondering if something had happened. We waited for about ten minutes and only one of the canoes showed up with the eighth graders. We all decided to retrace our steps and find the two lost canoes. When all four of us had canoed for about another ten minutes the chaperone called the other chaperone to find out what was holding them up. Apparently the two seventh graders had “accidentally” flipped their canoe when they both leaned to their far left to avoid coming in contact with some low branches. When we arrived at the scene of the crime the two boys were treading water. The water in this part of the river was murky brown, and who knows what could be under there. Once we had rescued the both boys and flipped the canoe we continued down the river. One of the seventh graders had climbed into the back of my canoe, and was currently telling me to paddle only on the right side because when I switched sides it confused him. But I wasn’t paying him much attention because at the moment I was desperately trying to avoid spiders dropping out of nowhere and crawling up my legs.
I am going to skip ahead to the last part of the trip since the rest only consists of rescuing a lost inner tube that got stuck, for a group of people floating down the river with a cooler of beer, lowering the canoes over the huge dam in the middle of the river, and continuing to watch our creepy crawlies. (a.k.a. bugs).
When we finished canoeing we returned the canoes, and set up the grill and picnic table for dinner. We were having hot dogs and chicken. (I know, a weird combination). While dinner was being made by one of the chaperones, all of the kids went down to the river to swim in the rapids, hit each other with the beach ball, (I can assure you that was not me...) and skip rocks. When dinner was ready we dragged our sore bodies up the hill and served ourselves. Dinner would have been very enjoyable since we were cooled off from the water and it wasn’t sizzling hot anymore, except that there were a couple billion flies at the camp ground, and you had to constantly shoo them away only for them to fly back again.
When we were done eating we went to town to buy marshmallows and firewood at Wal-Mart, and believe it or not, they didn’t have firewood! And to think they had everything that existed in that one store! Once back at the camp ground everyone pitched in to help find sticks and bark for the fire and then began roasting the marshmallows. It was a fun and eventful evening.
When we arrived back it the church, it was closing in on 9:00. Moms scolded kids for not putting on enough sunscreen, chaperones cleaned out the van, and kids said goodbye to one another. I was soooo exhausted when I got home I watched Harry Potter 3. :)

The Joys of Summer

What do you love most about summer? I love going to the pool, hanging out with friends, getting a snow cone at Snow Beach (it's delicious!), and going on family vacations. Usually I get to do most of these things. But I also get to read classics with my mom, brother and sister such as"Oliver Twist" and "Crime and Punishment". And what about doing math pages to get ready for algebra next year, or studying Spanish on Rosetta Stone? These are also things I have to do over the summer. But I'm forgetting the homework! Since I go to a magnet middle school I have reading assignments over the summer. This years reading assignment is to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" and write three pages or something about it. Knowing me, I haven't even started yet, and probably won't until late July. In fact, I haven't even bought the book! (Although now that I think about it we probably have it...). Anyway I am still waiting for the fun stuff in summer a.k.a. "the joys of summer". So far my summer really hasn't lived up to my expectations, but hopefully in the near future it will. And if that happens I may not even mind reading a chapter of Crime and Punishment, and completing a couple of math pages every day!

My First Bat Mitzvah

Hello, it's me again. This morning I woke up late as usual. But I mean, who can blame me, it's summer after all! My mom had to come upstairs and wake me up, which means tickling my stomach until I open my eyes and sit up. The reason for me having to wake up (if it was a usual morning I would have still been asleep), was that I was attending my first Bat Mitzvah. Yesterday I bought her a "swatch" which is the name for a kind of watch. I chose pink because, well, most girls like pink, and a few boys like it too, I'm not saying it's a girls color...

Once at the building where the Bat Mitzvah was being held I sat in a pew with some of my friends who were also invited. Most of the service was in Hebrew so I couldn't really understand all of it, but it was nice to learn about another religion.

After the service, we were invited the a luncheon and they had salad and lasagna, and this really delicious brownie/whipped cream/chocolate/ice cream desert thingy that was really good. Yum!

By the way in case you're not familiar with what a Bat Mitzvah really is, it is a service held for a Jewish girl when they turn 12. It is basically a coming of age celebration in the Jewish religion. Sometimes they have a party for the girl after the service or the next day. I'm going to Crowsey Springs tomorrow to swim, (and let me tell you they have an awesome rope swing, but sometimes the rock can get really slippery because there is moss, so sometimes people slip and hurt themselves, but other then that downside it's really fun) and I am SUPER excited. Sorry to Chiara Alvisi that she can't attend but she is currently in Beijing, China. :)

June 18

Today was pretty standard. I woke up at 10 a.m., which is pretty late for me even though I went to bed at Midnight after watching 2012, (really good by the way). So I woke up late and had to scramble to get ready for swim team. I decided to wear my pink and brown two-piece swim suit with a little frill on the bottom, even though it isn't the best racing swim suit. Thats me! I always have to be fashionable. Anyway, since today was Friday, we got to play games. We ended up playing Sharks and Minnows. On the first round I was smiling and swimming to the other side of the pool along with all the other minnows and enjoying the game when I get kicked in the face by an oblivious ten year old. Don't ask me how I knew their age, anyone older then that does not kick people in the face without saying sorry. On the second round I was once again smiling when what would you know another ten-year old kicked me in the face again. That went on and by the time I finished practice I was kind of... well, you get it.

After swim team was over I went to my violin lesson. There I found out that she was putting her dog Cooper to sleep tomorrow. I've been taking violin from her for about 5 years, and Cooper has been there every single lesson, so it's pretty sad. Anyway, I practiced songs for my book 4 recital. (Suzuki book 4 recital, if anyone actually knows that method). Yes, I know, classical violin music can be pretty boring, trust me I know I have been forced to go to many recitals and have fallen asleep 5 minutes in, but I still get a lot out of it.

My mom and I then ventured to the mall, which is pretty much a death zone since once you go in with my mom you don't come out for another 4 hours. It's not so much that she buys a whole lot of stuff for herself, it's more that she will see something that one of her three wonderful children will need (me, my brother and my sister), or something for my dad for fathers day, and once in a while something she needs. (I am convinced she needs blinders while in the mall). Today wasn't that bad and I was able to pull my mom out of the mall to the car and drive home before we could stay another hour.

That was the most of today. I've decided I'm not going to write a post for every single day since most days are just as boring as today. Please write a comment if you think otherwise. Bye!

College Trip #1

Have you ever had to go on a super long boring trip to the mid-west to look at colleges for your sister who is going to college in a year, but you won't be going for another six years? Thought so. Well, thats what I got to look forward to, a little more then a week ago. We went to eight colleges: Denison, Kenyon, Wooster, Oberlin, U Chicago, Mcalester, Grinell and Carleton. Lets just say aside from my brother constantly poking me in the neck on the way to all eight colleges it wasn't as bad as I thought. In fact I think I almost enjoyed it. (Only a little). It got me thinking about where I want to go to college and what to study, and yes, I know I said I won't be going to college for another six years, I can still think about it. But I'm used to going to the beach, or Mexico, or some place in the United States. A vacation where we can sight-see and do fun stuff. And maybe you just love visiting colleges because it is exciting and other weird stuff like that, but to tell the truth it isn't. Anyway, just to annoy you, (because I know how much everyone loves reading about my college adventures), I am going to let you know that I am going on another college trip in a week, so you can read about it when I post it. I know exactly what you're thinking. LUCKY ME! Yes, lucky you. Okay, bye.