Dungeons and Dragons

On Saturday, I franticly worked on my friends birthday present that I was attending later that day. His present was $20 in origami.

(From left to right) a pyramid, and armadillo, a starship enterprise, a swan, a frog(it jumps. really)
 a fish, a butterfly, a F-18, a shirt, an elephant, and a flower. 

It was hard work. At the party(all guys) we played a game called Dungeons and Dragons. (D and D for short.) D and D is a role playing game with a bunch of people. You must have a dungeon master, who serves kind of like a god. He or she(in my case a he) basically controls everything. What kind of monsters we run into, how a person dies or gets hurt. He basically makes the game interesting. When you start a round you role a 6 sided die(D6). This will tell you when it is your turn. When it is your turn, you can announce if you are going to attack, and with what. then you role a 20 sided die(D20) to see how much damage you give that monster. If it is a low number, then you end up missing the monster. It it is a high number, you hit it. If you get a 20, you kill it! If you get a 1, you some how killed yourself on accident. The DM just will add color and blood/gore imagination to the game.
After that, I went to my G2CS reunion. Not a lot of people showed up, but it was still fun.

Last night I had my Swim Team Banquet. I got two plaques, one for best attendance, the other for most detected, I lettered, and I got an award for raising over a hundred dollars for the swim-a-thon, and getting to go to the second day of districts. I got lots of pictures with my friends and coach. I am going to miss everyone next year, so much.


~FRS

....Continued

I was still nervous as heck. At one point I felt like I was going to fall over. We(the outbounds) were facing the officers and inbounds. The officer from Denmark came up first. There was a lot of competition for that country. The inbounds wandered throughout the the crowd, giving people weird looks, giving others hard stares. They would then sneak up behind someone and give them a welcoming hug. The suspense was death. When My friends got chosen to go to their first choice, I was so happy for them! I almost cried. All the tension almost made me buckle as I was so happy for them. They went through the countries. About half way through, Thailand came. The two girls before me got chosen, and three slots were open. They inbounds kept circling a guy, trying to build the suspense up. I was preparing my self to not get chosen for the country. Then suddenly, one of the girls, Eve, came up from behind and gave me a huge hug and dragged me from the crowd. I was shocked. I hadn't processed what was going on. I could feel the tears well up in my eyes. I ran up to my country officer and gave her a big hug. I was trying to hold it back, I was so happy. THAILAND! That is where I am going. Everyone else got their country chosen. The officers announced that we could stay up till one to dance and then go to bed. That is what we did. every time I thought about Thailand, my eyes would well up. We danced until one, and then rolled out our sleeping bags on the hard wood floor. I didn't go to sleep until about 2:30, and woke up at 6:00. I was sore from snowboarding, dancing and laying on the floor for the past three and a half hours.  We packed up and had breakfast. We all sat and waited in the lunch room, ready to go home. Then, one of the officers anounced that the roads were too dangerous and that we would be spending an extra day in cove. I was really hoping to go home that day. As much as I loved this weekend, I was ready for some quality sleep. We all loaded onto the bus and headed back to Cove. They gave us two hours to unpack, and take a shower. After that we talked in groups to our country officers about the countries and learned a little of the language. We then had lunch and headed out to watch Monument Men. It turned out to be a lot better than I expected. We then head back to the pizza place for an hour or so. At about 19:30, we headed back. We got to go to bed early, witch was nice. We woke up the next day to good news: we were going home! We packed, board the bus, and headed out. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and then headed all the way home. In the end, I was glad I got to spend an extra day, but I was glad to be home.



~FRS

SO FLIPPING EXCITED!!

So...I won't make you wait...I'M GOING TO THAILAND!!!
On Thursday, at 7:00, the bus pulled out of the parking lot in Tualatin. The bus pulled into Pendleton at about 14:00 and we went roller skating. We arrived in Cove at about 18:00. We talked about what we were going to go this weekend, and soon went to bed at about 22:30. On Friday, all the out bounds(the ones who are going this year) played a game. We were split into two groups. One group was called the alphas, and the other was the Batas. The Alpha culture was male dominated, and it was similar to that of a Latin American culture. The Batas were direct and to the point, and not at all warm and fuzzy. I was in the Alpha group. Two at a time, the Alphas joined the Bata group, and two Batas joined the Alpha group. You tried to fit in and see what was going on. Oh, did I mention? The Batas had their own language. Now it seems hard. It was. But it did get me thinking, that you have to be very observant of what is going on around you, and aware of what will happen if you make one mistake.
After lunch we went to an interactive museum about the Oregon Trail for the Inbounds(Students from other countries exchanging here) to learn more about the state. After that we had dinner at a pizza place and played some games in the arcade. We then went and watched the Cove girls and boys play basket ball. Neither boys or girls won, but it was still fun cheering for the team. After that it was bed time at 22:30.
I woke up at 5:30 I woke up and packed and got ready for snowboarding. We left camp at 7:00 and arrived at Anthony Lakes resort at 9:00. At about 10:00, I was out in the snow learning to snow board. I ride Goofy Foot, meaning most people ride with their left foot forward, and I ride it with my right foot forward. After falling a few times, learning how to use the rope tow, and sliding on my butt down the bunny hill, I was ready for lunch. During lunch we got a ballot and had to chose what country we wanted to go to. You had to have a first choice and four alternates. The choices were as fallows: India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Austria, Czech Republic/Slovakia, Denmark, Finland/Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.  You could also say that you wanted anywhere in Europe, Latin America, Asia, or even the world. I could't decide what to chose, so I picked anywhere in the world as my number one choice. After turning it back in I got lunch and visited for a bit. I was soon back on the bunny hill, falling on my face and tumbling down the slope. Once, just once, I started at the middle and made it all the way to the bottom and got a bit further without crashing and burring. I snow board until about 13:45, when I stopped and played in the snow with my new friends. Everyone board the bus by 16:00, and we were off back to Cove. We had an hour to get everything packed and loaded before we were off to the La Grande activity center. After we were dropped off and unloaded, the country officers were off to decide where we were to spend the next year of our lives.
At the center, there was a haunted house, mini golf, and laser tag. They also had a game room and a bar were we were served water. We had cleared out a big space for a dance floor. First I went to the haunted house with three of my friends. The suspense leading up to it was the scariest thing about it. As we went through it, we each took turns as to who went first in line. People would jump out at us and bang a knife at us. No one ever touched us, but it was a thriller. It did frighten me. After that we had a lot of laughs, and made some inside jokes. We also went mini golfing and went to the dance floor. Then, at 22:00, one of the Rotarians walked into the dance room.  He was fallowed by a few others, and the room went quiet for a second, and then became filled with cheers and applause. After having a crazy evening, and being high on life, I suddenly stopped. The impact of my putting down anywhere in the world suddenly hit me, as I realized I could literally go anywhere. And I had no clue where. I became quite after my cheering, and I didn't laugh or say much. Time itself suddenly started to slow down. I wasn't even sure what was happening was actually real.
It took another 30 miners for the rest of the team to come wandering through the doors. Once they finally did, they had the outbounds on once side of the room, and the inbounds stand behind their country officer.

To be continued......


~FRS

The Brink of Information

This weekend I will learn how to snowboard. I will also find out what country I am going to. I am so excited. I leave at 7:00on the bus to go to Anthony Lakes. It is a long drive, but it will be worth it! Wish me luck!

~FRS