Redmond Jamboree

Over the past week I have been going to water polo practice at 6:00 in the morning followed by and hour and a half of dry land practice. After week of pain and suffering, I went to the Redmond Jamboree. The Redmond Jamboree is a water polo tournament were instead of plying full games, keeping score, and having a winner, the games are purely for experience and getting back into the swing of water polo. A real game of water polo is about an hour long. We only played 10 minuet games. The girls we originally supposed to play 9 games, but when one of the teams didn't show, we only got to play 8 games wile the boys got to play 11. The first day, Friday, we played 2 games. My grandparents came to watch me play. On Saturday we played 4 games with 3 hour intervals. After all of the games were done, there was a coaches game. Our team didn't win, but it was still fun. That was a real game, not a ten minuet one. On Sunday we had two more games and the boys had four. We painted our car and the coaches as a prank. Here are pics of our car.

Most things we wrote are inside jokes. But it was still fun. 

~FRS

Saturday

Yesterday I finished my water polo conditioning. Today I am going with my friend to see the musical, Once on this island. That should be interesting. I'm excited for water polo to start on Monday. The banquet is on Sunday. I'm ready for this season.


~FRS

Astro. Camp 2013 Part 4

Early on Saturday morning, I got up and we had breakfast. We then waited around for 20 minuets for everyone to be done with their food. Cat, Paige and I went up to the youth tent to get string and return the bubbles and games. We then loaded up the bus and headed out on the road. I worked on Jon's friendship braclet and sang songs. Then we stopped for lunch. Soon we were in Portland and being reunited with our parents. I miss Hancock, and I love it so much. Part of me will always be there, and I hope to work there one day. The sky is so pretty. It might be a little dry, and taking showers is limited, but I could do it. Maybe.
On Monday I stared Water Polo conditioning. Only two other person on my team was there (come on Beaverton!!). Yesterday I went swimming with my friend and went to water polo practice. Today I went shopping at Cosco. Ready for practice tonight!!


~FRS

Astro. Camp 2013 Part 3

I woke up On Friday morning to the bright sun warming up our tent. We were allowed to sleep in till ten, however, the sun was not letting us. I got up a 8:00. Jon announced that there was going to be a hike of sorts at 10:00. Not everyone was required to go on the hike, but quite a few went. I went, and at 10:00 we were down in the forest looking for a spring. We found an elk skeleton(the antlers cut off of course) and then we headed down to another clearing.

skeleton!

The green part of the grass is where the spring was. 

After the hike we had a breakfast of pancakes. At around 12:00 we headed up to the swap meet. They had telescopes for sale, and a lot of things to star gaze with. we also checked out the youth tent. They had string to make friendship bracelets with, and you could make a rocket, barrow a game, or get stickers. Nearly everyone grabbed string. I made a friendship bracelet originally for myself (I could be friends with myself, it is totally possible) but then Zoe asked if she could have it. So I gave it to her. Cat was having trouble making hers, so I helped her. We hung out in the bus cause it was cooler until lunch. Around 2:00, we had lunch. After lunch I went back on the bus to play Uno. At about 3:00, Zoe announced that we were going to have dinner at a lake that was about a hour away. We were to go swimming if we wanted too. So I got suited up and we left. After the hour was up and we were finished singing Bohemian Rhapsody, we pulled into a park. It was cloudy, and a little chilly. I was of corse in my shorts and tank top, so I was freezing. Lightning flashed in the distance. Jon announced that we would have to wait until the storm passed. I took a walk around the lake with 5 other kids. When we were done, I took out some bubbles I had borrowed from the youth tent. Just before I got my hamburger, it started to rain. We got out buyer, I grabbed the ketchup, Paige yelled "KETCHUP ME!!" and I said "MUSTARD ME!!". After we both added our condiments and were getting soaked, we jumped back under a tree and wolfed down our dinner. Food never tasted so good. An Oregon Rain Berger. Thats what it was called. The rain never let off and some people started doing a rain dance and singing X-mas songs for some reason. We had a slice of water melon, and then boarded the bus again. It took us an extra 1/2 hour to get back to camp cause some one took down the signs that pointed us in the right direction. We eventually got there. The lightning had not calmed down. At about 9:00, we headed out to hear a talk by Dave, the head honcho of the Star Party give a talk. We made sure we were early this time. However, Dave was out trying to figure out who had taken down the signs. Instead we had an 4 people improvise. It was really interesting. Luckily they clouds were beginning to clear out and we could see the stars. After the imprvies, we headed back to camp. Jon asked me if I could make him a braclet, and I said I would. Tomorrow morning I would have to get more string. We were allowed to stay up later than usual if we wanted. I was exhausted, so I went to bed. I will tell you more about my trip home tomorrow.

~FRS

Astro. Camp 2013 Part 2

On Wednesday morning, I found it would be my last night sleeping in cabins, for tomorrow morning, we would be leaving for the Oregon Star Party. After breakfast, we made lunch and then we split up into our groups to work on what we were going to teach the little kids. After some research, we came up with a game. It is similar to the game of murder, but instead of the murderer who kills innocent people, you have dark matter who takes other matter into its gravitational pull. And, instead of a detective, you have a NASA scientists trying to figure out who it is. The dark matter takes other matter by shaking their hand and giving the other matters palm a little scratch. That matter that just got affected by dark matter then shook hands with one or two other matters before sitting down. They were then out of the game and had to wait for the next round. It was fun when they weren't so obnoxious and when they were actually playing. We joined in too. It was quite fun. I think the kids had fun too. After we planed what we were going to do, we had lunch and then rest time. I learned haw to do a fish tail braid and got ready to go swimming. It was an hour drive there and an hour back, two hours total.  However that part of the river was deeper, and cooler and nicer. I helped one of the 3rd and 4th grade councilors build a rock pile to stand on in one of the deepest part of the area where we were to stay in. 

My favorite photo of the day on the way back from the river.
My friend Paige on the left and my councilor David in the back.

After we got back, it was rec. time where I bought a sweater from Hancock which I was grateful for. We then had dinner followed by us teaching the kids for and hour. It was then followed by campfire. After that we got our sleeping bags and pillows and gather for a movie watching of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. At about 12:30, the movie ended and it was bed time.

On Thursday morning we got up at the same time and started packing. I didn't get to far when it was time for breakfast of french toast and sausage. Then we made lunch, then packed some more. Once we were done packing, and finished cleaning our cabins, we sat around the unlit campfire and waited for further instructions. None came until lunch time. We then split up into groups of three and eat lunch and discussed different things of the universe that were written on cards. We then got onto the school bus to head out the the Star Party. 

There is us as gangsters. Love it!

When we got there everyone was so hungry but of course making dinner takes time. We got all set up and Jon told us that there was photographer, Ben Canales giving a presentation on how he took pictures of the night sky. It was very fascinating. Afterwards we made our way back to the camp site and had dinner. We then waited around for it to get dark and made our way to another presantaion, which, sadly, as soon as we got there, ended. It was too cloudy to watch the sky or see anything, so we went to bed when we got back to our tents. I was sharing a tent with Paige, so I wasn't all alone. I will tell you more about the star party tomorrow.  

~FRS

Astro. Camp 2013 Part 1

This past week has been a lot of firsts. I saw my first shooting star, stayed in a cabin with no one I knew, went tent camping, attended the Oregon Star Party, saw the Milky Way galaxy in person, and watched The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I had such a fantastic time. I hardly thought of home any of the time. Where was I? Hancock field station, Fossil OR. What for? Astronomy Camp. For my birthday I got a Duffle bag, and a camera. I had no clue what it was all for until I came to the bottom of the box to find a paper saying that I was going to attend an Astronomy camp! I was speechless. So, last week early on Monday morning, I took a bus to Hancock Field Station. I was introduced to the four councilors, Zoe, Cat, David, and Katie, and the three instructors Jon, Sarah, and Beth. The first day, I soon realized, is always the most awkward. We learned how to use telescopes after meeting everyone. There were 25 of us total, all going into high school or already been in high school for the past year or two. We were sharing the camp with 15 3rd and 4th graders. We also got to stay up till 11:30pm. That night was the clearest of the whole trip. It was amazing. I really can't describe what the sky looks like to give it justice. And to be there, under the stars, under the Milky Way, watching the ISS pass over head at 12 miles per second, to stand there in the total darkness, the only light the stars, gazing down at us.

On Tuesday, we got up early, had a an amazing breakfast of pancakes, and watched a slide show of the solar system. We were told that on Wednesday evening us High School kids would be teaching the 3rd and 4th graders. So they two instructors split all 25 of us into 5 groups of five. We were to discuss what we were going to teach the kids and how we were going to do that. My group decided that we would teach them about dark matter, the 'glue' of the universe. After deciding what we were going to do, we had lunch, and then we attempted instructor Jon's Impossible 3D Constellation's. We worked on this activity in the lunch hall, a long building, where we had one spot on the ground where we had build a constellation from earth. Our constellations are unique to earth and only earth. No other planet can see the same constellation. We were split into groups of 7 with one leader for each group, and one over all leader. My group had Ursa Major, more commonly known as the Big Dipper. Each star that makes up the Big Dipper is a certain distance away from Earth. So we hung balloons for the stars and lined them up so you could see it from 'earth'. Once we were done, it was rest time. Rest time is one hour where everyone stays in their cabin and takes a nap, or reads, or talks quietly. I worked on my sudoku puzzles. Then we got ready to go to swimming. The whole camp went to The John Day River for a cool swim in the intense heat. It was very cool, literary, and figuratively. When we got back to camp it was dinner time. I had KP (Kitchen Party) the night before, so I didn't have to help set up.
I had an hour to hang out. I went to Lon's Lab, a smaller building with a concrete floor so it was nice and cool in there. After that it was taco Tuesday and dinner time. After a delicious dinner, we had campfire and sang songs. Then we went with Jon and Beth for constellation story time. We went up to the top of a hill and looked at the stars. It wasn't as clear, however I saw the best shooting star ever. There was a streak of white, then darkness and then a flash of light in the shape of a diamond. Imagine that, only super fast. It was so cool. After we heard stories of Hercules, Cancer, the Ursas, Bootes, and others it was off to bed. I will continue this tomorrow. Sorry for the "delay".

Some scenery when we went on a hike one the first day. 

~FRS

This past week

We got home on Saturday from a stressful drive of crazy drivers. I was not one of them. In fact I didn't even get behind the wheel that day. On Sunday I had another relaxing day. On Monday I slept in and we went shopping for clothes for my Astronomy camp next week. On Tuesday 'Madre' and I went to see Despicable Me 2. I had fun. On Wednesday, I went for a swim early in the morning, then I went for a heart scanning. Some fun! Then 'Madre' and I joined my friend and his mom on a segway tour.  Thank you.

Ready to go

All of us in Wshington Park.

~FRS