Class Activity - The Spot

Visual Perspective, Place, Observations
Alexander benches. How convenient to have a bench that is nearby the library where everyone goes to and from everyday. Not to mention that it is also nearby classrooms, lockers, snack bar, cafeteria, locker rooms, etc. It stays pretty shady here on most days. However, it doesn't protect you from the rain. It is also somewhat quiet, except when the freshmen invade the SENIOR spot. Couple things I'm noticing is that there are way too many birds congregating in one area, and there is litter everywhere along with the massive amount of backpacks left unattended. For the most part, it is safe. A couple days ago one of my classmates' bags was taken from where she left it, taken into the boys bathroom, got raided and left there. I guess this story contradicts my observations in terms of safety in our bench area, and also on campus. There are policemen who roam the areas quite frequently, but they never seem to catch culprits in the act. Are they not doing their job? This is not a place to chill and do homework because there are too many people who walk by the area. It is a common pathway to also get to and from different classes.

Different Perspective
From another bench area about 10 feet away from the Alexander benches, another perspective emerges. As I sit and observe the original bench itself, I notice that it is a calm and quiet place to just hang out whether it is doing homework or talking with friends. There is no shelter from the rain. Yet from where I am sitting, there is somewhat of a roof overhead that barely covers most of the bench. It looks like there is too little space for the amount of people who hang out here. However, on breaks, there are less people, so everyone can pretty much fit.

final 3 day weekend

man, how does that feel to have your last 3 day weekend of your entire high school career? i woke up on monday thinking to myself, "how am i going to survive the remaining 7 weeks until graduation?" SEVEN STRAIGHT WEEKS OF SCHOOL, ONLY TWO DAYS OF THE WEEKEND. senior sing is going to start, and once that begins, everything will go by in a flash. we will long reminisce the long days of school, the friendships we've had since we were little, and the teachers who helped guide us through our journey. i don't know how we are going to survive the remaining seven weeks of school. it's not like teachers are slowing down the work load, and we're continually learning new things everyday in class. we're fourth quarter seniors! we have senioritis! get over it! we're going to college, and starting off somewhere new! if you add senior sing to that everyday after school starting in may, and homework, our remaining days as a high school senior will still be demanding.

polynesian talk

as the polynesians join our student body each year, we all, at one point become friends with them whether we want to or not. they are obviously not the quietest students on campus, but stereotypically, the spontaneous and loud ones. for the past 4 years, i've been on the basketball team with a bunch of them, where i've learned to catch on to their "lingo." i also realize that i am not as sheltered as i once was when i first came to this school. the way that they stick up for themselves ad each other, and the "mokeness" in their sentences. i have come a long way since the times i was using proper english. i guess it isn't such a good influence in a way because my english isn't so good, but at the same time, it's like we all sort of caught on to a new way of communicating. a lot of hawaii kids who go up to the mainland for college talk about how their roommates slash friends at the school can't understand what they're saying. it's like listening to some person from another country speak a foreign language that you can partly understand at the least.

prom

prom. the new buzz on campus. "who's your date? what are you going to wear? what are you doing after?" we bought prom bids last week, and that's what everyone has been asking each other. because it is one of the last few events where the class of 2007 can spend time together and enjoy our remaining weeks as high school seniors. i guess you could call it a feeling of joy. graduation is right around the corner, too. it's kind of weird to think that girls have to buy their own dresses and spend hundreds of dollars for a dress that they will probably only wear once. then there are the guys who rent their tuxes. shouldn't girls be able to rent dresses too? it all seems like a total waste of money. add that to prom bids, pictures, flowers, shoes, accessories, the works. but after all this hard work from school and the college process, aren't we deserving enough? it's like our reward for being such excellent students. :)

librarians

Does anyone ever understand why the librarians at school are so strict and grouchy? I'm not talking about all of them. Probably just two, no wait, one in particular. Just yesterday, she went on a rampage trying to keep the library free of noise and chatter. She roams around to each table, tries to shut them up, and goes on to the next. She claims that the 4 seater tables (newly put in this school year), were meant for group studies, but conversations are to be held within the table and the noise level cannot go beyond so other people at other tables can hear you. All the college kids who've come back to visit say that these are the dumbest things EVER created. And who could the person who came up with the idea be? Obviously the one who ends up dealing with the noise control. It's actually quite a laugh for everyone when she comes over to scold us for making too much noise, and when no one is doing anything wrong, she still walks over and tries to look for a table to bust. One of my college friends said that in his college apps last year, there was a question about what kind of environment he studies in; complete silence, some noise, or lots of talking. This made us realize that those were the exact three study environments we have in the library; the silent zone, the independent study tables, and the group tables. If there are people studying on the group tables and don't want noise, why don't they simply just go to the silent zone if they cannot handle it? It's confusing what the school is trying to do because the thought behind it seems so pointless, but it's hilarious for everyone to crack jokes out of the whole issue.

the hills

Alright, I'll admit that I am addicted to MTV...The Hills to be exact. Each episode is filled with so much drama that you think the next one will get better for Lauren, when in fact, it gets worse. Who could ever imagine getting screwed over by two best friends? Many people believe and are assured that most of the drama going on in each episode is stupid, which makes them think that the show in its entirety is a waste of time to watch. I could agree on that in some sense. I hear people say, "Lauren should realize what a backstabbing friend Heidi is, and that if Heidi doesn't trust her "best friend" about the things that Spencer was doing, they really in fact, shouldn't be friends anymore." Ah, how much drama girls cause. I'm not gonna lie, whereever girls are, drama occurs...inevitably. As much as I hate to say it, the more girls are caught up in their boyfriends, the less they see wrong about them, and the less they listen to what other people have to say both positively and negatively. Which brings me to connect to Ami's whole blog post on "What is Love?" Middle and high school relationships seem so sketch to me too because people end up taking their relationships so seriously, and get themselves to believe that they are truly in love with this person, and that nothing can come between them. Reality check. You are only in high school still. You are not out in the real world. Grow up. You know what else irritates me? When the whole college issue comes up and people are like "Oh yeah I'm gonna go to college with so and so." When it's like "What about your goals and what you want to do with your future?" People these days are so caught up in love, that they forget about themselves and what they really want instead of trying to be everywhere where that significant other is. Don't get me wrong, I don't totally disagree with high school relationships. In some cases I do think the love that people have for one another is surreal, but it's just those couple instances that make me feel like so.

we caught SENIORITIS

Ever since second semester has begun, every single senior has senioritis. Yup, I said it. Senioritis. One of the biggest occurences on campus. Homework, tests, and projects just seem so pointless. What makes it worse is that along with school, comes BASKETBALL. Although I plainly just love playing the game, it's recently taken up most of my "homework time." If it weren't for the long hours of practice and games, I could be using that time to get other stuff done, and cruise through second semester senior year. Oh the stress.