The World According to Miss B

After much delay...

So I feel bad because I haven't posted in forever and have been promising one soon.  So here's what's up:

I had a great time in Indiana and Ohio.  I absolutely loved spending time with Rachel, John, and Riley. While we were there we took a walk down the canal, had a picnic dinner while listening to some great music, and spent a lot of time just catching up. I took a lot of great pics while we were there (hopefully I will be able to put them up soon).

After that my parents dropped me off at Indiana University.  I did the same program last year, however this year I took Desktop Design classes.  I basically got to spend all day working on InDesign, the program we use to layout our newspaper.  I also did a little bit on Photoshop. Though I didn't really learn that much new stuff, it was great to brush up on my layout skills.  My roommate and I clicked really well (I've been really lucky with roommates at summer programs. I hope it doesn't wear off for college!).  It was also nice because I already knew my way around campus.  On our down time we went down to Kirkwood, where there's a lot of shopping and eating.  I did some browsing at Urban Outfitters, which is one of my favorite stores. Wish they had one near us! :(  Anyways, as a senior I was able to apply for a scholarship to IU.  Surprisingly I received one for $500!  So that's a little bit of incentive to go there, although it's still not one of my top choices. 

After being at IU for a little less than a week, my parents picked me up. We took mama to the airport and dad and I traveled back to Cincinnati to spend some time with Aunt Terry and Uncle George.  I enjoyed my time there so much just relaxing by the pool and catching them up on everything that's going on. 

Dad and I came home after a few days and arrived back in FL waaaaay too late (try 1:30 am), and mom had to come and get us. I didn't waste any time because less than 12 hours later I began a two week SAT class. I'm only TWENTY points away from 100% for FL Bright Futures Scholarship, so my parents are hoping the class will help me get there.  I just love how that worked out -__- 

Since my class has ended, I've been avidly reading my summer reading books. So far I've finished The Shack (a must read if you ask me), Ceremony (let's just say Native American Lit is not my thing) and Invisible Man (I finished it today and am extremely happy about that).  My final book is Naked Economics for my Macroeconomics class.  That one is going to take a bit out of me for I have to take notes on it for an upcoming test. But I'm actually kind of excited about it! 

I also had my Youth Leadership Broward retreat last Friday and Saturday.  Last year I participated in the program, and at the end of the year I applied to be part of the Youth Advisory Council (YAC).  I am now the "head YAC" which basically means I have to make sure all the YACs are informed about everything.  I absolutely LOVE IT.  And I had a great time at the retreat meeting next year's class (they will be juniors) and spending time with my YACs.  Once school starts YLB will be in full swing and I can't wait!

I'm also doing a lot of planning for newspaper next year, as Editor-in-Chief.  We have a lot to do and I have a lot of ideas and things in mind, but I'm looking forward to making a lot of improvements and getting more people interested in it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Finally, I've begun....GASP....my college applications!  I can't believe the time has already come!  So far I've started UF, UT, and the Common App which is going to be used for Hofstra, Boston University, and NYU.  I also have to do some more work on my scholarships.  Boy do I have a lot on my plate.....

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and I miss you all a lot.  Hopefully I will be able to do some more posting before school starts in less than TWO WEEKS. 

Love you lotssssss

B

SJI 2010: University of Florida

So it has been forever and a half since I have posted last, and I'm sorry!  School has been out for a few weeks, but I just got back from my amazing trip to the University of Florida for a journalism program, plus a few days of disney at the end.

The program I participated in was about five days of workshops and lectures relating to journalism, specifically for high school students.  There were only about 87 kids, and those 87 were divided into classes based on their interests.  I was in the newspaper editors group, but there was also yearbook, writing, photography, and multimedia.

Each day consisted of a couple lectures and a couple class sessions.  The lecture topics ranged from interviewing, blogging, photography, and everything in between.  My class was very relaxed, and I loved it.  We had a lot of discussions about staff management, communication between us and our administration, and proper style in formatting our papers and writing articles. I got a ton of really useful advice from editors from other schools, as well as my teacher, who was so nice.  I definitely learned a lot and have a lot of ideas for next year's paper. 

My goal, as I will be editor-in-chief, although it sounds extremely corny, is to make it the best it has ever been.  Last year was not horrible, but I had a lot of issues with what went on.  Our process was very inefficient. We also had horrible participation, which is near the top of my "Things To Fix" list. 

So, besides classes and learning stuff, it was pretty awesome just living like a college student.  This would include my three dorm-mates, who I clicked with instantly.  We stayed up until like 2 am talking about the random-est things. But we had so much fun.  I also made a lot of other friends, some of which live not too far from me.  The good thing is that most of them want to go to UF, so there's a good chance that I will see them in the future.  

What else did we do?  Well, mattress surfing of course.  Who knew sliding on a mattress down the hallway could be so fun?! Yes, I got a few scrapes, but let me tell you, it was SO worth it.  We also had a dance party on our last night that was pretty crazy.  It was on the 13th floor, my floor, and the top floor of the building. We were jamming out!  Even our R.A.s joined in.  However, it was a little loud, considering we had people on lower floors come up twice to tell us to turn it down :/ Needless to say, we had a lot of fun.

The food wasn't too bad, especially cause it was all-you-can-eat (although that isn't always a good thing) and the costs were included in our tuition for the camp.  After the first few days we realized that the menu didn't change all that much, but nonetheless it was pretty tasty.  The major downside was that we had to walk walk walk kinda far to get to the cafeteria, and there were about ten sports camps plus music and science camp going on. This meant trying to avoid getting run into by mini gymnasts and six foot tall basketball players while you were getting your food. 

The last day was sad, especially when I had to say goodbye to all my new friends.  But luckily they all have facebook, so we are able to keep in touch. Overall, it was an awesome trip, I learned a lot and I met a lot of cool people.  And maybe it is just the beginning of my journey as a gator.......  

NYC :)

So im very sorry this post has been so delayed, but i thought everyone who would like to know what an awesome time i had in NYC.  Visiting Hoftra made me so happy, because now not only do i love it in description, but i love it from actually seeing it.  The campus was beautiful and i loved the dorms too! 

So after a stressful day of finals and traveling to the city and dinner at Maxie's, i woke up early to try and get on the today show for my birthday.  Though we did not get on the early part of the show, Al Roker did say hi to me.  And when we came back from a delicious breakfast at the Rockefeller cafe (pancakes of course) where Meredith Viera was also enjoying her early morning meal, we made it on the Kathy-Lee and Hoda show.  I got to wave my "Today is my birthday" sign behind Donny Deutsch's head :)   After that we went to the Tim Burton exhibit.  It was so interesting and demented at the same time.  I loved it!  Then mom and I took a trip to one of the most amazing stores i have ever been to: H and M.  Oh my gosh what an amazing place to spend birthday money in!  Anyway, later on we went to my favorite restaurant, Sarabeth, for a delicious dinner of salmon, spinach, and homemade bread (i could have eaten it all myself!).  We took a carriage ride through Central Park (what a wonderful way to relax after dinner with mom and dad). After we went to Starbucks and the barista gave me a free green tea latte for my birthday! And ten we went to Magnolia Bakery for a birthday cupcake.  I have never tasted such a delicious cupcake in all of my life. So after an exhausting and amazing birthday that could not have been any better, I completely crashed in my clothes.  But I didn't care because it was completely worth it. 

So after a very gratifying birthday, mom, dad, and I traveled to long island for a tour of Hofstra and to meet up with mommy's co-workers.  One reason I love Hoftstra is that it is only a short train ride away from te city (perfect for potential internships).  So after taking the train ride and checking in, we ate breakfast at the student union. Then we went to a presentation and tour.  Like I said, i loved it so much and am completely sold (except for the small fee of $40,000.....haha no biggie).  So after that, we got to talk to Andrea, the admissions rep. that I have been in close contact with.  I actually met her when she came to m school for college fair when I helped her find the bathrooms.  Then i saw her again at the Broward college fair. So we had a good time talking to her after. Then we took a trip to the bookstore where i bought an official Hofstra sweatshirt with my birthday money from Grammie (thank you Grammie!)  I have been wearing it non-stop.  So after all of that and a trip to the local mall (which has both Urban Outfitters and Anthro), me and the family met up with mom's co-workers for a delicious dinner at Grand Luxe.  Then we traveled home on the train after a long and successful day :)

Sunday we didn't do as much, but we headed down to SOHO for breakfast, walking around the NYU buildings, and an unsuccessful scavenger hunt for vintage shops.  It was a little rainy so we weren't out for too long, but I got to make another trip to H and M which made me happy.  Later on we ate dinner at the hotel and headed out to see the show Rock of Ages.  Probably one of the coolest and most un-play-like play i have ever been to.  I felt like I was at and 80's rock concert.....so cool. Except for the old farts that were getting a little excited. but other than that it was pretty good. 

Unfortunately, every trip must end, and Monday was that day for my wonderful NYC birthday trip.  We had breakfast at the hotel and mommy and I stopped at Anthro so I could buy a purse I fell in love with using some of my birthday money.  After that we headed out to the airport to return to the unfortunate reality of school and such.  But I was glad I got to spend time with the family and see Hofstra with my own eyes (and was very satisfied). 

Sorry again this post has been so delayed (and is a little informal and has grammatical errors) but school has been crazy and I've been very occuppied with things.  Thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday and for all my cards and gifts.  I truly appreciate them :)  I'm going to put up an album of the pics so you can check them out.  Goodnight and sweet dreams to all!  

xoxoxoxoxox b 

Quick Thank You!! and Goodbye 2009

Just a quick thanks to everyone for the amazing Christmas gifts.  I'm working on the thank yous!!!!!!  I am so truly thankful and had a wonderful Christmas with all the family and friends.  I didn't want it to end :(  Break unfortunately is almost over, but tomorrow is New Years and my best friend's birthday, so it should be a good day.  Once I finish some undesirable chores that must be done.  Hope everyone else enjoyed their holidays as much as I did and I send endless amounts of love.  Hopefully I can post some pictures from my new camera :)

love miss b

ps- feel better aunt terry!!!!

Christmastime is here....

So I'm finally on Christmas Break......although i still have to do work (grrrrr) because my finals are after.  So that kinda stinks.  Oh well, just have to mix work and fun so it won't seem so bad.  We've already been to two Holiday Parties this weekend. 

School's been a little hectic lately, with projects and tests and stuff.  I had YLB again this month, and the theme was education.  We got to go to this place called junior achievement, which ties in with economics and money management lessons taught in 5th and 8th grades throughout the county.  They use what they learn in school and travel to the place and are in charge of their own business and stuff.  It was pretty interesting. 

Then we visited this school for pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers.  Its was interesting and very different from what i'm used to.  There's actually a daycare attached to the high school.  The babies were so CUTE :)  But don't worry.....haha i'm not getting any ideas. 

After that we went back to one of the local colleges in our area, talked to an admissions officer, talked to a guy about leadership styles, and then went to the Fire Academy, where you can learn to be a medic or fire fighter.  All in all I had a good time.  YLB days are the highlight of my month. 

I've already gotten some packages of Christmas gifts, so i'm looking forward to opening them in only 5 days!!!!!  I know mom is going to or already has sent out our Christmas cards. Um, I can't think of anything else going on with me at the moment, but hopefully I can post again in the next few days.  Happy Holidays!!!!!!!

 

I'm still alive!

Wow I can't even remember the last time that I posted which is not so good.  Things have been kinda busy and they're gonna get busier.  Since I can't remember what I last posted I'll give a recap of the past month. 

Homecoming week was in early October.  I had a pretty good time.  We had superhero day, field day, spirit day, and theme day.  Our overall theme was Wacky Worlds, and my grade's theme was Dr. Seuss.  For theme day I wore my class shirt that said "Thing 11" for my graduating year.  On the Saturday I had to take the SAT :((((  but I had my first dance at the Signature Grand, which was pretty nice.  The music was kinda not so good, but it was good to see friends and stuff.  Surprising the SAT didn't seem too difficult, but time will only tell (next week) when I get my scores back.  :/

A few weeks ago I had YLB, and the theme for this month was "Culture, Arts, and Recreation".  I had to drive downtown at 6:30 in the morning, which was a new experience to day the least.  But mom drove in front of me so I could find the way and I was able to get home, so it was all good.  We got to take a tour behind the scenes of the theatre (ie: dressing rooms and go onto the actual stage).  We also did some improv and a drum circle.  We also drove to a new and developing Holocaust Museum and got to meet a Holocaust survivor.  Then we went to a nearby park, watched a glass blowing demonstration, and ate lunch.  It was a lot of fun.  YLB program days are my favorite days out of the month because we get to experience a lot of interesting things around the county.  All of my YLB classmates are really awesome too, so it's fun to spend the day with them.

Next week I have quarterlies, which kinda sucks.  I have two tests a day Tues, Weds, and Thurs.  Luckily I don't have school Fri, and Mom and I are hoping to go shopping and see "Where the Wild Things Are".  School's gonna be a little hectic in the next few weeks with my AP US History class, so I'm a little bummed about that.  Hopefully I'll make it through!!!!! (wish me luck)

Good Night :)))

School School School

I'm sorry for the very very very long delay of posting.  I have been busy beyond belief wit school work.  Trust me, if I had a choice I would rather be writing hundreds of uneventful posts than not writing any because I'm so busy.

Well, work has been kinda overwhelming, with AP US history being in the number one spot. A teaching project the first weekend and a paper this weekend are the big things I've had so far. 

Math, Pre-cal to be exact, isn't much easier. My teacher is probably one of the most feared in our schools, and has a wall of shame for people who get 100s. Homework for that class takes me forever!

For AP English I got the teacher I wanted, which made me pretty happy.  He's a good teacher, and the class is really chill.

My AP Bio teacher is the same way. She makes learning biology easy and not so boring.

My Spanish teacher is really funny, and I'm surprised at how I can actually understand some of the things she says.

Social Justice is a pretty cool class too, and my teacher is always telling us stories from his life.  Another bonus is that one of my close friends is in my class, and it was the only potential class that we could have together. 

I think my number one complain would have to be my "lunch" at 10:00.  I no longer eat a sandwich.  I snack on pretzels and wait until 3:00 when I get home to eat :/  Not ideal, but what can you do?

Driving has been pretty convenient, though it's weird that I'm the only one up in the house when I'm getting ready.  Surprisingly (so far) I've been able to get out of the house on time, something I was a little concerned about. 

Right now I'm in the process of finishing my history paper, so I must say ciao.  But hopefully I'll be able to post again soon! (maybe I can let you know about the Key West trip :] )

Bee <3

It's almost over :(

Yes. Sadly summer is over in one week.  I go back to school a week from tomorrow.  I'm so bummed.

This is the point where I start getting really depressed and wishing it was still that first day of summer. But since it isn't, I'll do a mini recap of everything I've done these past few months:

Summer School

License

Lots of Reading

Indiana University

Monday Night TV

Fun with family

Cooking

Baking

Chillin with friends

Library Runs

Independent Grocery Shopping

Blogging

And lots more little things that made this summer great.

So my plans for the week are as follows:

Journalism meeting tomorrow.  I'm ready to use all of the stuff I learned at HSJI and make this year's paper rock!

Laundry (I'm majorly backed up)

Finish my cookbook review, which involves cooking nonstop.

See Time Travelers Wife.

Read as many books as possible.

Project Runway premiere.

Have an awesome night with friends before school starts.

And so far that's it.  Nothing too spectacular, but I want to make this last week amazing so I don't regret it once school starts. 

I'm not sure when I'll post again.  But in case it's after school starts, wish me luck for my first day as a junior(aaaaah!)

Bee <3

Hello All!

I'm sorry this post has been so delayed, especially since it has be anxiously anticipated. I'm back from Indiana, HSJI, Journalism Camp, whatever you'd like to call it.  I had a lovely time, and I'm sad to say I wish I was still there (though I did enjoy coming back to my comfy bed and my own private bathroom).

I had a lot of fun while I was there.  The girl  I was supposed to go with got sick at the last minutes, so I knew absolutely NO ONE.  I tried to remain calm on the outside, but inside I was definitely nervous as heck.  Fortunately for me, people up north are very friendly and welcoming, so I had no trouble making friends with people. 

I didn't see much of my roommate for the first day, but by the evening we had finally met each other and things weren't so awkward.  She was from Lafayette (spelling?) and she was doing the Yearbook part of the workshops.  Our dorm room wasn't too bad.  Not as spacious as my room here, but it wasn't too bad.  We each had our own desks and closet space with shelves and stuff.  Unfortunately for me, I only brought a sheet for sleeping, considering it's summer and supposed to be hot.  Well just my luck when it ended up being the coldest summer for like the past fifty years or something like that!  Not only that, but I packed all shorts, tank tops, and t-shirts.  Only one pair of jeans besides the ones I wore on the plane.  After the first day I was fine though, and it warmed up a little.

My days consisted of two lectures and two class periods, with varying activities each night.  Our lectures just had to do with different stuff involved in newspapers, like designing the page, writing stories that people want to read, changing technology and its impact on media, and some other stuff as well.  Our class periods were done in our small groups; mine was section/page editors.  It was a good group and my teacher was really layed back.  And the best part?  I think we were the only group that didn't have a final project.  I was really happy about that.

In our group we talked about managing staff, budget lines, story ideas, etc.  The whole newspaper group held a writing contest, too. It had to do with a lecture we had.  One of the professors from the University came and spoke about the religion of Islam (he was also the president of Bloomington's Islamic Center).  With him came Muslims of different ages and ethnicities, including some from Turkey and others that had converted.  We were able to interview them after the lecture to get info for our articles.

For the contest you could write either a column, staff editorial, feature, or news story.  I chose to do a column, which is like an opinion piece.  I talked briefly to a Muslim girl that was my age who had actually been at HSJI the week before. I thought it was kinda cool that she had a hair streak like me.  

After waking up early and sacrificing my breakfast for the day, I finished my article.  And guess what?  I won first place in column writing for the contest!  I was really happy, especially since my parents were there when they announced my name at the closing ceremony. I'll put a link to my essay on here so you can read it too. 

Download Muslim-catholic editorial

This trip was definitely a learning experience.  I got so many good ideas for our student publication next year, but I also learned some stuff about myself and my future in journalism.  I realized that I don't want to be a writer.  Though I may be good at it (not to brag), I don't have the passion I think I should.  I also don't like having to do sources and quotes and boy am I lazy?  hahaha.....I most certainly am.  I think I may want to focus on the visual aspect of journalism, like photography or design.  One of our lectures was about photography, and it definitely gave me a different view of photojournalism.  Another one of our lectures, like I already mentioned, was about layout and page design.  I liked that lecture a lot too, and I could definitely picture myself doing that in the future.

Who knows? I may change my mind yet again.  But everyone does that.  Especially teenagers.  Both of my parents are doing things COMPLETELY different from what they originally planned to do.  Dad: movies to property management.  Mom: nutrition to computer programming. 

Well enough of this "future" talk.  All I want to think about is my last month of summer vacation before I am forced to return to............that place.  That place that shall not be named because I can't stand the thought that this glorious summer is going to have to end at some point.  Hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip.  More to come since family will be here in two days and I'll actually be doing something other than sitting at home all day wishing I was doing anything but :)

While the world is ending......

We are leaving for Indiana in less than 12 hours and I feel like Florida may not be here when we return.  It is POURING and I am scared to death!

Regardless, I am still uber excited about my trip to IU.  Unfortunately, the girl I was supposed to go with fell ill and has an ear infection and strep.  Which means I will be the lone ranger from my school.  Hopefully I'll get to meet some new people from around the country and improve my journalistic skills. 

Wish me luck and I'll be sure to post upon my arrival back home. 

Good Night :)