Science Fair?

For Biology this year, we are required to do a project for the International Science Fair, or we fail the course this quarter.

Unfortunately, I am completely blanking out on ideas!

Any suggestions? (Before Thursday?)

Projects not allowed to involve vertebrates, mircorbiology, fungi, radioactive envergy, hazardous chemicals, or human surverys.

Happy Birthday...HEATHER!!!!!

I had such a hard time picking the best photo of you!

My goodness there are a lot of birthdays in September!

Every day at school it seems like somebody else has a birthday...strange...

But speaking of birthdays, I'm still keeping track of all of you, don't you fret!

So, I hope you see this, Heather, but even if you don't, somebody's going to tell you I said happy birthday, right? ;-P

OMG I still can't believe I only knew you for a year! I can't find another P.E. partner so awsome!!!!!! :-O

Anyways, a very very very happy birthday to you! And according to my calendar, I'm wishing it early ;-P

Birthday September 23rd

Grading...

So I finally found out the grading system at this school:

A+ = 100%

A = 94-99%

B+ = 90-93%

B = 84-89%

C+ = 80-83%

C = 74-79%

D+ = 70-73%

D = 64-69%

F (for fail) = under 63%

Harder to get good grades? We shall see....

Happy Birthday...LILY!!!

Excited?
Oooo boy....

Aww....

For some reason I got a present too ;-P

Happy Belated Birthday, Lily!!!!!

Best of luck this year!!!!!!!

Birthday September 16th

Crawl Like a Cougar

My brother and sister's school is Canterbury Woods Elementary School.

Their mascot is Cody the Cougar.

Every year, the school holds a "Cougar Crawl" which is a mile (about 1.6 km) walk families can participate in. Afterwards there is food and games.

Ready to walk, everybody?

The crowd takes off!

A police cruiser helps control people and car traffic.

Follow the blue arrows!

Woodson (my school) cheerleaders encouraging the walkers!

Eating

Playing frisbee

It was fun enough, especially with all the silly old dance music that was playing (eg the chicken dance), but I wish more people I knew from school had been there (as in, more than 1) ;-P

Happy Birthday...NURUL!

OMG this is absolutely shocking! I have NO pictures of Nurul-the-bomb (tick tick tick KABOOM!) AT ALL in my folder!!!!! So thank you, Badi, for the emergency relief photo ;-P

Anyways, Happy 15th Birthday, Nurul!

Despite you being older than me, I'm still taller!!!!!! =D

Hope you had a great birthday!!!!

Rock On!!!!

I miss you!

Birthday September 13th (you can't forget that famous 139!)

Happy Birthday...KATE!

Happy Birthday, Katen!

I don't know if you'll see this but hope you do!

Hope your birthday was awsome! (though I bet it couldn't have been as awsome as last year ;-P)

I miss you!

Birthday on September 12th

Greetings, Mr.President

Guess What, Guess WHAT!?

Mr. George W. Bush (to be said with a southern twang) went to The War College, my dad's office (well, technically it's a school), today to give a talk to the students about changes in the numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan!

I mean, the topic doesn't sound very exciting but still my dad got to see the President up close!

However, he forgot to bring his camera with him so he didn't get any pictures =.=

If you are interested, you can read all about it on www.cnn.com

Happy Birthday...AFIFA!

Happy Belated Birthday, Afifa!

(don't worry I didn't forget you =D)

Hope you have an awsome year and had a great turning of age!

I miss you! <3

Birthday September 3rd

Schedules, Schedules, Schedules!

School here is so different than JIS!

First of all, I am in Grade 9, and school ends in Grade 12. (This is because what we call Kindergarten the Brits call Year 1, so that causes the difference.) Grades K-6 go to school together, grades 7&8 go to a different school together, and grades 9-12 go to school together. Since we are the youngest year group at our school, and new to the school, we're called freshmen. Grade 10s are Sophomores, Grade 11s are Juniors, and Grade 12s are Seniors.

Some subject differences between the schools are we only take one science, one specific math, and only get one elective! I was seriously upset when I found out about the limited elective part =.= Fortunately history is required so that helped narrow it down for me =D My subjects are as follows:

1. Health and PE - we do PE for three quarters of the year, and then Health for one


2. French 1 - why'd they put me in the beginners class! I've studied French for 3 years already!


3. Geometry Honors (honors is just the top class) - the thing with this class is that you need to have completed Algebra 1 first, which some stuff we never did last year! However, we've already done trig, which puts me ahead of the other students somehow...


4. Drama - I was torn as to which elective to take! There were so many on offer!


5. PreAP World History/Geography1 (PreAP is just the advanced class) - there are 60 kids in my class! And then there's a second one, too!


6. PreAP English 9 (PreAP English and History are combined into one class called World Civilizations) - we are going to be studying Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men later on in the year =.=


7. Biology Honors - my teacher is exactly like Mr. Bartlett!

Our typical school day lasts from 7:20 am till 2:05 pm, which means I have to wake up at quarter to 6 if i want to catch my big, yellow, overcrowded school bus on time at quarter to 7. It is unpleasant waking up at that time, as it is often still dark outside and the morning is cold! After school it becomes Brunei-hot, as we run around all over the place looking for our bus. Then we have to wait at the middle school to get those kids. (btw the buses aren't air-conditioned)

We don't have ever-changing schedules every day. We follow a system called block scheduling, and we have odd and even days (blue and red). On a blue (odd) day, we would have lessons 1, 3, 5, and 7. On a red (even) day, we would have lessons 2, 4, 6, and 7. Each lesson is about 90 mins long.

Our lunch changes depending on the day. I always have B lunch (11:20 - 11:55), which happens in the middle of World Civ. The advantage of having 4 different lunches is that the cafeteria is just full, but not overcrowded. The Seniors (12th graders) have a seperate cafeteria, which also helps to reduce lunch lines. Plus, the lunch lines are the sort of thing where you slide your tray along, take what you want, and pay at the end. However the food is worse than JIS food =.=

We have no tutor time first thing in the morning: we just have to go straight to our first class and the teacher takes attendance there. We have no designated time for assemblies, so if we have any we miss class. I think we have a snack break, but nobody bothered to tell us so I'm not entirely sure.

This schedule will take some getting used to, and I'm just telling you about it cause I thought some of you might be interested =D

Final Closures

"...and that's the end of my summer vacation."

What?! You're kidding me! Summer's over ALREADY! There is no way you're making me go back to school yet! We only got our shipment a couple days ago! My summer vacation was way too busy to be counted! I'm not ready to make new friends yet! You're not making me!

Above is the sort of panic I felt when we came to our house, 1 1/2 weeks before school started. Now, it's all a bit better. We're fairly settled in (though the house is still mostly in boxes), school's started and we've all begun a routine, and we're starting to eat more home-cooked meals as opposed to eating out or ordering in every night. I've met a lot of people, though I don't really consider them friends yet.

In a way, this move is like starting a new book in the series of my life. New things will happen, many new concepts will need some getting used to, and there's always sure to be something shocking on every page. Old characters will still remain in this book, though many a new will be introduced. You could almost consider it as good if not better than book 14, as book 15 brings in many new dilemas to the protagonist of this series.

So continue on reading the Friedman Chronicles: S Section. Extracts and insight will continue to be posted on this blog, along with many little-documented photographs.

Thank you for sticking with my series thus far.

Sincerely,

Sophie

P.S. If you found this boring, there is plenty to come to make up for it!