Greetings! My name is Lorraine, and I am a 9th grader (or "Junior" according to Mercersburg lingo) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I am also a French citizen.

The recent French elections have been keeping me interested. My personal favorite, Phillipe de Villier was eliminated by the preliminary election, but oh well! Now that the race has been narrowed down to socialist Segolene Royal and the more right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy, I am curious to see who will be elected as the next French President. 

Last Tuesday, my roomate and I went to see jazz pianist Joe Utterback perform at our Burgin Center for the Arts. He was amazing, and we both enjoyed the performance. My roomate and I have completely different personalities and completely different philosophies, yet somehow, not only have we managed to go through the year without any major conflicts, but we have also become good friends.

That Friday, I got to skip classes to help with a Model UN conference for Middle Schoolers that was organized by 12th grader Chuck Roberts as his Senior Project. Although I am a member of the Model UN club, I had never attended a conference, so that was an interesting experience. After watching thirty some students discuss the prospect of a nuclear war and the steps that should be taken to avoid such a disaster for six hours, I can just imagine how difficult finding to real solutions to real problems could be.

This weekend, I went to a game at Notre Dame Prep with the JV Boys Lacrosse Team as their manager. Traveling to different schools is always fun, and so are the post-game stops to fast-food restaurants. Unfortunately, we lost, but I am hoping that our scores will improve as the season progresses.

All of these extracurriculars, on top of my classes and such, have are making for a busy Spring Term, but I rather be a bit to busy that too bored. Spring Term seems to be hectic for everyone. As a lowerclassmen, trying to peice together a tentative schedule for the next four years that will enable me to recieve all of my graduation credits has been challenging, but luckily there are alot of people around to help.

Well, I better go tend to that growing stack of homework I have been trying so hard to ignore!

A plutard!

 

 

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Posted by Lorraine at April 23, 2007 5:56 PM
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Filed Under: Lorraines Blog

    Hi! I'm back again after a long period of absence (oops!).

 A few days ago, my english teacher gave us an interesting article from March 2007's edition of "the economist". In it, the article explained how companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo amongst others have been scanning books onto the internet in an effort to create an electronic book archive. Google has been estimated to "digitize" about 3,000 books per day. The article went on to pose such questions as " What is the future of books?" and "who would read digitalized books?". An overlaying question, however, was "what exactly ARE books?". One thinks of a book as a material thing, a set of pages bound together. The merriam-webster dictionary defines a book as "a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together into a volume". Yet it also goes on to define it as "something that yields knowledge or understanding". Can something written on the internet be considered a book, then? According to the article, in the future people will be able to publish their writings on the internet. Are those writings still considered books even if they don't have a publisher or an editor, yet they yield some form of understanding or entertainment? And what will happen to fiction novels? While I admit it would be convenient to save a trip to the bookstore and some money, what will happen to publishing companies? Businesses such as barne's and nobles and hastings in addition to libraries would see a diminish in the amount of books people read/check out. Let's not be exaggerated, though. Books will not disappear over the next 100 years, and people aren't just going to stop going to libraries and buying books. But the article still hits on a few questions (what are classes going to be like in the future, with the new technology of "ebooks" available?) and makes me wonder what comes next (first ipods, then ebooks, then....?).

Hopefully you find this question interesting too, and will forgive me for boring you a little with a topic that is a little bit serious. =)

Until Later!  

    Armine

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Posted by at April 6, 2007 6:56 PM
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Filed Under: Paolas Blog

Decisions are in and we Seniors are solidifying our plans for the next level(s) of our educations. I've got my options before me and a gap year in Great Britain before I enroll, so here is what I'm thinking right now

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Posted by at April 2, 2007 10:23 AM
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Filed Under: Chucks Blog

        The first few days, the boat 60 other passengers and I stayed, Sea Lion, on sailed into Bahia Magdalena, the very spot where grey whales of the North Pacific migrate 10,000 miles to give birth and to mate.  Every late winter/ early spring, mother whales nurse their calves in the protected waters of Bahia Magdalena, out of harms way in the vast Pacific.  Fortunately, I was there at the right time.  The first morning we went out on our zodiacs (inflatable rubber motor boats) to go whale watching and we spotted many whales and their calves , but that afternoon, I experienced something that I will always hold on to.  We spotted a mother and calve and both swam up to the boat and we were able to pet and scratch them.  It was unbelievable- I didn't expect to be able to get that close to them, and to actually touch them.  I'm not exagerating, we were with this pare of whales for half an hour, touching them, studying them, getting water and whale sneeze sprayed onto us...I felt like a kid again.  On the zodiac trip back to Sea Lion, I was able to converse with the local pescador (fisherman) who drove the zodiac, Ernesto, in Spanish. 
    Off the tip of Cabo, though, is humpback mecca!  As we headed northwest into the Sea of Cortez, we encoutered many humpback whales.  "To the right!" "Look, off the bow!" "Tale flukes, look!" It was great, just being immersed into such rich nature.  As we sailed further into the Sea of Cortez, I was able to see blue whales and got to snorkle with some California sea lions.  One afternoon I went sea-kayaking around an island and was able to see a variety of life swimming underneath me in the blue water, crawling along the beach, and flying above in the air.  Pufferfish, rays, and starfish abound by the Baja coast. 
    Finally, after a week of exploring the natural resources that the  Baja California peninsula has to offer, I had to book it back to school since my spring break was about to come to an end. 
    I am grateful to have visiited Baja and I will appriciate its natural beauty always.  I was disappointed to hear some of my friends say that they did nothing over their breaks, but I just feel happier and even more fortune to have been able to take everything I could have gotten out of that trip. 

-Adios

Posted by Mark at April 1, 2007 9:36 AM
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Filed Under: Marks Blog