January 14, 2008

  • MY YEAR IN REVIEW: 2007

    In the not so distant future.  The Year Two Thousand… Eight.  Here we come. 
    But as we enter the vast unknown, let us look back on the year 2007.

    But before we dive into this, I just want to prepare
    you.  First and foremost, I do not expect
    anyone to read this entire
    thing.  I don’t even think I will read it
    all.  Please feel free to pick and choose
    what interests you, or don’t read it at all. 
    I really don’t care.  This
    essentially is for me; the only reason I post it is in case you are home alone
    on a Saturday night and have nothing to do. 
    This is the only paragraph that I wrote for you, the reader, so enjoy it
    while it lasts.  I want to have some sort
    of memory for the year, and this is my way of doing it.  The writing is not the best, but that is not
    the point.  If you do have a response to
    what you read, I would like to hear it. 
    At least let me know what you read, because don’t you think it’s creepy
    if you know things about me that I never knew I told you?  I could tell you the same story twice without
    even realizing it, and that would just be horrid.  I don’t plan on doing anything like that
    until I’m at least 65.  With that, ladies
    and gentleman, without any further ado, I hereby present to you… 2007!

    To give this all some historical context for any future
    readers, I’ll first give a short update on the current situation of our nation
    and world.  The news is in, and the world
    will end in the next hundred years. The only question is whether it will be by
    global warming, terrorism, avian flu, nuclear warfare, Armageddon, or robots
    taking over.

    …that is, unless we elect Barack Obama as the next President
    of the United States.  I like Clinton,
    but she is way too divisive, and we need someone who can bring our country back
    together.  And can I just say how
    strongly I dislike Mitt Romney?  This year
    is about the youth, and Obama and Ron Paul are showing that.  Unfortunately, I won’t even be able to
    vote.  I miss it by two months.  But on ASB we are doing a mock primary
    election for the school at the end of January.

    Adventure in the City

     With my 16th birthday on January 15, and Carlo’s
    on January 19, we started our year off by going into San
    Francisco for a birthday adventure with Emma and
    Stacey.  I can’t remember exactly
    everything we did, but I know at one point we walked from the Metreon to   Pier
    39.  We basically saw half the city on
    foot.  I live only 10 minutes from San
    Francisco, but I rarely go, so this was a really cool
    way to see the city as a tourist.  That
    night, we went to an under 18 club called Glow. 
    We started in about the middle of the line, but about two and a half
    hours later we were somehow the very last people in line.  We obviously were not very good at working
    the line.  Since then, I have mastered
    the skill.  Because of my experiences at
    Glow, I now realize that lines have a ‘cut or be cut’ mentality, so I can now
    effectively ease my way into the front of any line with ninja-like
    precision.  Anyway, we ended up leaving
    with some new friends we made in line, and walked to the Metreon instead.  My dad couldn’t believe we still hadn’t
    gotten in, so he had a little chat with the guy running the show, who I’ll call
    Ray Dawg.  He said if we came back, he
    would let us in for free and give us VIP access to the next event.  He must have thought my dad was in the mafia,
    because he was very apologetic when we came back.  It was pretty sick, Ray Dawg hooked us up.  After we went with our new friends and Leo to
    Mel’s Diner and had a midnight
    birthday dessert.  We spent the night at
    a nice hotel, where we played elevator tag (what else are you supposed to do at
    a nice hotel at 2am?).  It was a sick birthday.  Carlo and I plan on celebrating together
    again this year.

    Lions Club Speech Contest

    Over Winter Break of last year, I wrote a speech for the
    Lions Club Speech Competition on the topic of Global Warming: Fact or Fiction.  I researched the facts behind global warming,
    and attempted to prove in my speech in an entertaining and informative way that
    global warming is in fact occurring.  At
    the first round of the competition, I scored the highest and so moved on to the
    Zone level, where I was required to have my speech memorized.  I had the option of using a note card, but I
    didn’t use it.  I usually have fairly
    realistic expectations of myself, but I felt confident after hearing the other
    speeches and delivering mine.  I ended up
    getting the highest score from just one of the three judges, so I did not
    advance to the next round, although I got a lot of positive feedback
    afterwards.  The principal of McKinley
    elementary school heard my speech, and asked me to lead an assembly at the
    school.  That was definitely the highlight
    of the entire experience, and I went to McKinley so it was really cool to go
    back in a different capacity.

    The Birth and Subsequent Decapitation of the KARMA
    Initiative

    When we got back to school for the spring semester, Carlo
    and I started an all out advertising campaign for the KARMA Initiative.  We had over 20 members at the first meeting,
    30 at the second, and 40 at our third and unfortunately final meeting.  That made us the largest ‘club’ at Burlingame
    High School.  We tried to make our meetings fun, so we saw
    a very high retention rate in members.  We had competitions for KARMA Points, videos, and handouts about the ‘club’.  We even elected officers at our second
    meeting.  I put club in quotations,
    because we weren’t technically approved as an official club at this point.  I wasn’t too worried though, because there
    were about 45 clubs and only one had been denied all year.  Also, Carlo and I were both on the 13 member
    ASB, and ASB makes the decisions about club charters.  You might have guessed by this point that our
    club charter was denied.  This happened
    for a few reasons.  One was that I made a
    mistake in the phrasing of the purpose of our club.  What we were actually going to do were fun,
    random, viral public stunts.  I was
    thinking big picture though, and saw these things as a way to unite the school,
    bring people together, and generally raise morale.  So I wrote that as the purpose in our
    constitution.  Apparently you are only
    allowed to have one organization on campus that does each of those things (because
    competition is bad in our capitalistic society), so our goals conflicted with
    those of the Human Relations Commission and the Student Impact Team.  The presidents of both organizations were
    also on ASB.  The hardest part for me was
    telling the club the news, because they had been coming every week and seemed
    to enjoy it.  As ASB President-Elect
    though, I had to stand by the decision, however much I disagreed.  We ended up using one of our ideas, the Rock
    Paper Scissors tournament, in the Buddies program.  It was a huge success, and we are planning on
    using it again this year and in the future. 
    We also did a mini version of the Free Hugs Campaign with the people
    from Camp Everytown
    through the HRC.  I would still like to
    see some of our other ideas like the MP3 Experiment happen, and I would love to
    see a resurgence of KI, but neither of us really have the time to start it up
    again, at least not right now.  One day,
    the KARMA Initiative will rise again…

    Random Highlight: Basketball

    I
    filled a March Madness bracket on a whim. 
    I ended up doing really well and really getting into the games.  Somehow my dad and I were able to get tickets
    pretty cheap to the sweet 16 games in San Jose.  The back-to-back games were unbelievably
    exciting, especially the Kansas
    game vs. the underdog Southern Illinois.  This was a year of very exciting basketball,
    as I got to go to game 4 of the Warriors victory over Dallas
    in the playoffs, and the recent intense BHS vs. Serra game.

    Burlingame Theater

    In the spring, I decided not to do the musical so I could
    focus on tennis.  When I was trying to
    decide, I paid 99 cents to watch it on Google video.  It was horribly boring.  So I didn’t audition, but I signed up to crew
    the show.  The show ended up being a lot
    better than on the video.  I think it was
    good for me to crew, because it really opened my eyes to all the work that crew
    does and made me appreciate it a lot more. 
    On an unrelated note, I won Best Actor for the Fall Play Inherit the
    Wind at our annual Drama Awards.  That
    was pretty cool.

    Skipping ahead a few months to our Fall Play this year, we
    once again had a new director.  I have
    never had the same director for more than one show.  She choose One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as
    our show, which worried me a little because of how male-heavy it is.  It ended up being one of, if not my favorite
    show to be a part of though.  The cast we
    had was fantastic, and I really enjoyed working so closely with the other crazy
    guys in the mental ward.  I was cast as
    the stuttering, depressed Billy Bibbit, so it was a great part for me to really
    test my acting range.  We had a number of
    rookie guys like Max, Jordan, and Stephen, but they all were fantastic.  Fran of course did an amazing job as Nurse
    Rat-Shit, and Soren worked really well against her as McMurphy.  It was awesome doing the show again with Leo,
    who just got into it last year, and is hilarious all the time.  And of course my lovely prostitute
    Emily.  I always knew you’d be the one to
    steal my stage virginity.  And our new
    director was great.  She really knows
    what she is doing, is not crazy (this is a huge plus), and has credentials that
    make me wonder why she is directing at Burlingame High.  She amazingly is staying on to direct our
    Spring Musical, Into the Woods, which she has already cast before Winter
    break.  I actually did this show in 6th
    grade at Nueva.  I was Cinderella’s
    Prince.  This time, even though I don’t
    sing, I was cast as the Baker, probably the biggest male role.  My goal is to hypnotize the audience to
    believe that I can sing even if I actually can’t.

    Random
    Highlight: Quiz Kids

    I
    was on the
    game show Bay
    Area
    Quiz Kids.  We didn’t do very well.  I’ll leave it at that.

    Tennis

    While I was on crew for Working, I was playing on the fringe
    of the Varsity tennis team, playing at #3 doubles.  I hadn’t played at all really during the
    fall, so my game wasn’t as good as it probably could have been.  I am pretty disappointed in myself because I
    haven’t played since the end of tennis season. 
    Between not having practiced, and having a lead in the musical, I really
    don’t think I’ll be able to play on the tennis team this year.  That’s pretty disappointing, especially
    considering that’s essentially the only exercise I get besides walking to and
    home from school.  If it were up to me, I
    would add a few more hours into the day to make room for it all.  I mean really, whoever decided that we have
    to have 24 hours in a day?  I say stick
    it to the man.

    Random Highlight: Flea Market Montgomery

    Talked to the actual Sammy Stephens from the commercial Flea Market
    Montgomery with Carlo and Andy Santana. 
    As soon as this call ended, we raced to the classroom of a just as
    spectacular man, Mr. Morgan, to share the wonderful news.  This topped the list as one of the most
    exhilarating experiences of my life.  If
    you are not familiar with this glorious man, please sit back, relax, and enjoy
    this wondrous Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk  You can even call the number on the truck
    yourself if you want a chance at the same life changing experience.  (PS. He sang for us.) (PPS. There are fan
    clubs on Facebook for both of these fine men. 
    Join them.)

    Camp Everytown

      I could never do Camp
    Everytown justice in writing.  The emotions that you feel and the empathy
    you learn defy description.  Saying that
    you learn about prejudice and gender relations and accepting others as they are
    and celebrating diversity makes CE sound hokey and brainwashing, when it really
    is deep and core shaking.  We also had a
    lot of free time, where we could hang out, play games, and just enjoy each
    other company in a beautiful natural environment.  Some of my fondest memories include playing
    mafia, eating delicious cookies, and singing together at the campfire.  I was sent to CE with 50 other students and 8
    teachers from my school.  The group of
    students was ethnically and culturally diverse, including many immigrant
    students and students who I had never met before.  I made so many new friends that I could smile
    at or hug in the halls when we came back. 
    I even became friends with the teachers, who we called by first names
    (Nueva flashback) and got to know as people rather than as figures.  We built an unbreakable trust in four days.  Sharing you inner soul with other human beings
    for one moment can bring you closer then you would get by sitting in the same
    class with them for four years.

    They told us that we would probably never come back, because
    they want as many people to get the experience as possible, so they can’t have
    people going more than once.  Abdel and
    Lucie, as the coordinators of the Human Relations Commission this school year,
    would go again so they could lead the effort to spread the Camp
    Everytown message when we got
    back.  Somehow, I was also invited back
    again, this time as a staff member.  It
    was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I was able to have twice, with an entirely
    new group of people.  The second time
    around, it proved to me that this works every time, regardless of the people
    that go.  I once again instantly bonded
    with this new group, and even though I was doing many of the activities for a
    second time, it always felt new.  One of
    the most rewarding parts of the trip the second time around was getting to work
    so closely with the teachers and administrators.  This time more than ever, I felt like they
    talked to me as a peer and it was enormously eye-opening to see things through
    a teacher’s eyes.  In the end, they are
    people just like you and me, even if you don’t want to believe it when you fail
    their tests.  I got to see first hand how
    much they care about their students, and I even got to play basketball with
    Brent Daniels, who is as chill a guy as you will meet.  And Shane Karshan will never beat me in ping-pong, no
    matter how hard he tries.  I would say
    that Camp Everytown
    is the type of thing that every child should be able to experience.  It might… heal the world; make it a better
    place for you and for me and the entire human race.

    Random Highlight: Interviewing Committee

    I
    was the student representative on the interviewing committee to choose our new
    Assistant Principal.  It was a great
    opportunity to see how professional interviews are run, and what potential employers
    look for.  It absolutely helped me to
    reform the way we do our ASB interviews, and gave me an idea of what to expect
    when I applied to be the Student Member on the State Board of Education (you
    can read more about that below).  I felt
    like my opinion had equal weight to that of teachers and administrators, so I
    really felt like the student voice.


    With that… it finally brings us to the summer of 2007.  Definitely one that I will never forget.

    Discovering Prague
    and a Bike Trip to Vienna

    In June, I spent a week in Prague
    with my family and my grandpa, and then I biked for one week from Prague
    to Vienna.  I really connected to my heritage on the
    first part of this trip, because both my grandma and grandpa on my mom’s side
    lived their childhood in Prague.  There is so much rich family history there
    and my grandpa had so many amazing stories to tell.  The very first night we were there, before my
    grandpa arrived, out of all the places in Prague,
    we happened to eat at a restaurant that my grandpa later told us is directly
    underneath where my grandma lived (picture at right).  It
    was mind-blowing and bizarre, almost as if we were drawn to that place.  The next day he took us to have lunch in the
    same building where he grew up, right down the street from my grandma’s.  We got to see my great-grandpa’s leather shop,
    the place my grandpa got his first suit, the steep, winding hill that my
    great-uncle rode down without holding on to the handlebars, the place by the Vltava
    River where my grandma taught my
    grandpa to dance, and other family landmarks around the city.  We also saw the movie theater where my
    grandpa would sneak to with his brother and friends after removing his Star of
    David and leaving the Jewish Ghetto under Nazi rule.  The penalty if they were caught could have
    been death.  We went to the Pinkas
    Synagogue, where my great-grandfather was head cantor and my grandpa was bar
    mitzvah’d.  It is now a memorial to the
    80,000 Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust. 
    Their names are engraved in the walls, including the names my grandma’s
    entire family and countless other relatives and friends of my
    grandparents.  We also visited the Spanish Synagogue, where we discovered a photo of my grandmother and her school
    class when she was 11-years-old on display (she is sitting in the second row, second from the right). 
    Almost all of her classmates were later killed.  We visited Terezín (Theresienstadt), a garrison town for Jews during the
    Holocaust where my grandmother was kept with her mother and sister.  Her father was held at the Terezín concentration camp, where he died.  It was extremely sobering to walk through
    this ghost town and prison where thousands of people died and were sent to die
    in concentration camps.  My grandmother,
    Eva, was loaded like cattle onto traincars with her mother and sister to Auschwitz-Birk
    enau, the most deadly of the
    concentration camps.  Her mother was
    killed upon entrance, and h
    er sister later died of typhus.  Somehow Eva, who was only in her teens, about
    my age actually, managed to miraculously survive the unthinkable
    atro
    cities.  She escaped during a death
    march near the end of the war, when she stayed behind at a stable and hid in
    the hay.  Nazis came around stabbing the
    hay, but they did not find her and she was soon rescued by Russian
    liberators.  Even though they were Jewish
    as well, my grandfather Peter and his family escaped the more severe atrocities
    of the concentration camps and were instead held at a prisoner of war
    camp.  They were there because my
    great-grandfather Paul was a professional soccer player (who played in the
    Olympics), and was playing in
    America when my
    great-uncle Jerry was born, making him an American citizen.  For some reason, the Nazis followed the code
    of the Geneva Convention that protected their family because of Jerry’s
    American citizenship.  Paul however, was
    falsely accused of blackmarket trading, and so was imprisoned by the Gestapo
    along with 11 other men.  He was the only
    one that survived the turture and beatings in prison, and was eventually
    released and sent to
    Theresienstadt.  He
    would not have survived had he not been such an athlete.  His family members were traded as prisoners
    of war, and so were sent to America, where Paul joined them after the war.  My grandparents were eventually reintroduced
    in New York City and fell in love.  Like
    I said, rich family history.
      

    I did not expect to write all of that about my family history… but as I
    was typing it just started pouring from my fingers and I couldn’t stop.  I’ve debated whether or not to keep it in
    this public entry, because it is a very personal part of my background that
    very few people know about.  I decided to
    keep it in, because what is a story or a lesson that cannot be shared.  It’s important that my grandparents’ stories
    live on so that future generations can learn from them and be inspired to
    persevere through their own struggles. 
    Also, anyone who has read this far in this entry probably cares enough
    about me to be a good friend with whom I can share this part of me.  This year was a lot about discovering who I
    am and where I came from.

    Back to the trip… Prague is an amazingly
    beautiful city, and
    my favorite in the world that I’ve been to.  It is one of the most well preserved cities
    in
    Europe, because it is known for surrendering before it can
    be destroyed.  The part of the city
    called the ‘New Town’ is from the 1400s. 
    Cobblestone designs line every street, and it is really clean.  The people are also extremely kind, and might
    I add, the women are probably the most be
    autiful in the world.  I had been noticing that there were a lot of
    dance clubs in the city, but I didn’t have anyone to go with.  One afternoon I walk out of our hotel into a
    relatively deserted street, and who do I see but Doug Bojack
    and his mother
    sitting at the one table right outside the pub next door.
         I didn’t even know he was going to be in Prague, but they just
    happened to be staying right down the street. 
    So that night, I went club hopping with Doug Bojack.
      But that’s not all.  As we are walking along the streets of Prague, we nearly run
    right into Eric Mann.  He had nothing to
    do, so he came with us, and we went to three or four different nightclubs,
    including one that had 5 stories with 5 different types of music, that they
    said is the biggest club in Central Europe. 
    I ended up going again another night with my cousin’s Czech friend that
    was showing us around the city.  The city
    is so safe that I felt fine walking around at two in the morning.

    After a week of connecting with my past, eating heavy dumplings, and
    drinking pivo (Czech beer), we set off on a bike trip to
    Vienna.  My grandpa went to go speak in Vienna, and we were
    joined by
    my cousins Kendyl and Kacey, and my aunt and uncle for the
    biking, with a company called Backroads. 
    I had never really biked very much before, but I really enjoyed it on
    this trip.  There is no better way to
    really take in a landscape and enjoy nature than on a bike.  We biked through small towns that we never
    would have visited otherwise, and could go at our own pace to really take in
    the beauty.  We biked anywhere from 10 to
    40 miles a day, which made the food taste even better.  We made a stop in Český Krumlov during the
    one weekend of the year where there is a nonstop medieval festival.  Our hotel was right in the main square, so I
    could hear and see the festival and all the people dressed in costumes from my
    room.  On the last night of this annual
    festival, there is a fireworks show at midnight, so I opened the ceili
    ng window
    of the room and watched the spectacular fireworks show from the roof.  At our second stop, now in
    Austria, they had
    Austrian bowling in the
    basement of the hotel, so of course we took advantage
    of that.  It’s not at all like American
    bowling, and I think near impossible to get a strike. 
    During dinner one night, we were surprised
    with a special dance by traditional Austrian
    Schuhplattlers, who specialize in slapping parts
    of their body (there is a short video of this on my Facebook page).  There were other families on this trip as
    well, and we always had dinner together. 
    This is where I realized that I enjoy lying to people about pointless
    things like the 1000-year-old bear that mauled the king.  I know it’s horrible, but you would do the
    same thing to keep your senses when the other possible conversation is about someone’s
    pet potato.  When the bike trip was over,
    we stayed for a few days in
    Vienna. 
    We met up with Ben (one of the other kids on the trip and just about the
    only one who could tell when I was being sarcastic) and his family and did a
    Segway tour around the city.  There is no
    better way to get everyone to look at you than to have 15 American tourists
    riding around a foreign city on Segways.

    The Global Young
    Leaders Conference: Washington DC and New York City


        Two weeks after
    we came back from
    Austria, I got to have another once-in-a-lifetime
    experience at GYLC
    (is my life charmed or what?).  It started in Washington DC, with 360 students from about 60 different
    countrie
    s.  Meeting so many amazing kids
    from all over the world was absolutely priceless and eye-opening.  In my small country group alone (The United
    Kingdom), the group leader was from India, there were two from Britain, one
    from Northern Ireland, a girl from Germany, a guy from the Cayman
    Islands, a
    guy from Chile, three from the Netherlands, two from Canada, a girl from
    Jordan, one from Hong Kong, a girl from Singapore, and a girl who is half
    French, quarter Spanish, and quarter Filipino, but was born in Venezuela and
    lives in Singapore, who speaks Am
    erican English but considers herself
    French.  There were only three other
    Americans, so I was constantly surrounded by people from around the world.  They all spoke amazing English though, and we
    had more in common than anyone would think. 
    One thing that I found almost everyone had in common was
    a strong
    dislike
    for George W. Bush.  Everyone
    seemed to get along so well, which made me really hopeful, because if we as
    teenagers can find international common ground, it shows it’s possible in the
    world.  We just have to understand each
    other’s cultures and spend some time together to re
    alize that we all want the
    same things in the end, like friendship, love, and happiness.  In DC, we saw most
    of the memorials and went
    to a few museums including the Holocaust museum, which was great to see and
    discuss with an international group. 
    Some people were really upset with it because of how it focuses so much
    on the Americans as heroes, and yet had nothing about the current genocides
    taking place in the world and our responsibilities to stop them.  One time when we had a choice of places to
    visit, I changed my mind at the last
    minute and went to the headquarters of the
    International Republica
    n Institute
    because the president of the organization, Lorne Craner, was going to speak to
    us.  When we got there, we introduced
    ourselves and said where we were from.  I
    had my hand raised for the entire question session and he never called on me
    (he even waited a few seconds at one point when he saw that mine was the only
    hand).  I’m certain this was because I
    said I was from
    San Francisco.  It was
    interesting to hear him speak though. 
    Anyway, about six day
    s in we took a bus to New York City (bus counts:
    aiiiiiiggghhhttteeeeeeeen).  We stopped
    in
    Philadelphia for lunch, where everyone went on a mad
    rush for the new and final Harry Potter book that had just come out.  Those Brits sure love Potter.  In
    New York, we visited Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Chinatown and Little Italy, saw The Drowsy
    Chaperone on Broadway, and I chose to go to
    Ellis Island. 
    Meanwhile, over the course of the conference
    , we were listening to
    speakers, learning about global affairs, coming up with solutions to global
    problems, and simulating international conferences in which we represented our
    country
    group.  There were also eight
    commissions of about 50 people each that prepared proposals that each country
    group voted on at our culminating Global Summit at the United Nations.  I was in the Health Commission, and decided
    to run for Chairman of the commission.  I
    was elected Chairman, and so ran the meetings where we came up with our solution
    to make clean water readily available in all countries.  At our last commission meeting, we
    had the
    opportunity to elect one person to serve on the Global Summit Team
    , who would
    run the final conference.  I threw my
    name in, and ran on the platform of “If you liked my leadership style, vote for
    me.  If you didn’t, vote for me.”  I was elected, and was immediately rushed off
    to meet with the other seven delegates from the other commissions to start
    planning the Global Summit.  When I got
    to the meeting room, the other seven were al
    l there already, including my
    roommate and buddy Tristan.  They were
    all for the most part really tall, which confirmed in my mind the idea that
    height matters in creating a sense of prominence and power.  Poor Dennis Kucinich.  I was also the youngest in the group.  There were seven guys and one girl, and it
    was geographically diverse, with two Norwegians, two British (or was one
    Australian?), two Americans, one Dutch, and one Canadian.  We had about a day to plan the entire
    logistics for the event, for exam
    ple I made the seating chart for the country groups,
    and then before we knew it, we were there. 
    When I got there it hit me… I am planning and overseeing an
    international conference at the United Nations Headquarters.  Not many people ever get an opportunity to do
    something like that.  It was absolutely
    surreal.  We were rushed through security
    so we could begin setting up before the delegates arrived, and then the alarm

    went off that said there was a security threat, so we had to evacuate.  When we got back in, we had to get everyone
    inside in double time so we would stay o
    n schedule.  Delegates made speeches in favor or against
    proposals from the point of view of their country, and each resolution was
    a
    pproved or denied by a vote, like a real UN meeting.  One thing that I thought was interesting
    about the process, and concerns me a little
    , is that every country had already
    made up their mind as to how they were going to vote before the Global
    Summit.  I got to thinking that UN
    meetings are probably just a formality and very few really listen or attempt to
    compromise.  Anyway, that night was our
    final night, and we had a dinner dance c
    ruise. 
    It was the perfect way to celebrate an amazing two weeks with new
    friends from all over the world.  I miss
    them all so much (especially my
    UK group, you are all amazing), and hope
    that I can see at least some of them again someday.

    At the end of
    GYLC, I needed to go back to where we saw The Drowsy Chaperone, because that
    happened to be the same building that my family was staying at.  I was going to share a cab with Tristan and
    two more Brits, Ed and Jamie, but Ed’s dad booked a limo instead on
    accident.  We left GYLC in style.  When I met up with my family, we stayed in
    NYC for a few days and saw two more Broadway shows, Spamalot and Avenue Q, both
    of which were fantastic.  We then went
    (back) to DC, so my family could see the memorials and museums, and I could see
    it all again for the second time in two weeks. 
    This time I got to go to the
    Spy Museum, which was very interesting and I
    definitely recommend it.  I also kicked
    off the college search by taking my first tour at
    Georgetown, where the ‘French’ girl from Singapore, Claire, currently attends.  We flew home from DC, and as soon as I got
    home, I started reconnecting with my GYLC friends through Facebook, which apparently
    is popular all over the world.

    CASC Leadership
    Camp

    To end the
    summer, I was again sent by my school to CASC Camp at Stanford for four
    days.  Since I did it last year, I was in
    Track Two, which moved on from the curriculum to focus more on the community
    and service.
      Since I already wrote about
    CASC in last year’s reflection, I won’t write too much about this.  Basically we relearned a lot of the same
    silly curriculum, but then there were more fun activities, for example some
    great teamwork challenges.  I loved the
    Track II people of course, but I felt like I met less people this year because
    we were separated a bit from the majority who were in Track I.   The dance was so much fun.  It was definitely worth going again.

     

    Back to School: Classes

    I have been really happy with my classes and teachers this
    semester.  Even though it is a lot of
    work, it is so much more bearable than sophomore year because I enjoy it
    more.  In History especially, I really
    disliked the teaching style of my last teacher, Mrs. Costa.  I told my counselor that if I was in an AP
    class that was taught the same way as Costa, that I would drop AP.  Now I have Mr. Gnass for AP US History, and
    his teaching style includes discussion, debate, and the ‘Big Picture’.  He doesn’t make us memorize stupid dates or
    battles or anything like that, he just cares that we understand the Why, which
    is exactly what I love about history. 
      He’s also really funny and caring, so I like going to his class.  The difficulty of Precalculus doesn’t even
    compare to the ease of Algebra 3-4, but Ms. Krepple is a really good and chill
    teacher, unlike Stoehr who has OCD and takes a third of your points off for an
    incorrect heading format.  I have Mr.
    Martinez again for Spanish, and I am starting to feel like I really don’t know
    anything for this being my third year of the language.  I think maybe we need to start speaking less English
    and more conversational Spanish in the class. 
    He really does not like our class though; he says we make him
    uncomfortable…  Physics is so much more
    fun than Chemistry, and there is a lot less work too.  My class is so abnormally quiet
    (understandable since it is first period) that Mrs. Lindgren told us to go sit
    wherever we wanted in hopes that we would talk more.  Weird to have a teacher that says we don’t
    talk enough…  English is great; I really
    like Ms. McClain (nothing can compare to Mr. Morgan’s 3rd period
    class sophomore year though).  I feel
    like she’s really taught me a lot and I find myself using the tips that she’s
    given me, and the American Culture Project is a really good idea for a long
    term project.  I did mine on cliques,
    researching aspects of them like how and why they are formed, and what the
    effects of them are.  She just told me I
    have the ‘and’ virus in my writing, as you can probably tell by how I use ‘and’
    to connect my sentences, even if they are unrelated (look two sentences
    back).  I really need to learn how to
    consolidate…  Next semester I am adding
    on Advanced Drama in my 7th period so I don’t have to take seven
    classes senior year.

    Random Highlight: San Diego

    My parents rented a beach house in San
    Diego around my dad’s birthday (August 31), and Carlo
    came with us.  It was so much fun going
    to Del Mar racetrack, boogie
    boarding in the ocean, eating amazing food, and just hanging out in the
    beautiful fresh air for a few days.  Plus
    Carlo took some amazing pictures, of course (they are in an album on my
    Facebook appropriately titled San Diego
    (from Carlo)).

    ASB and Leadership Class


    As Student Body President this last semester, I was able to
    play a big part in reorganizing the structure of the Leadership class.  One big idea I had coming into the year was
    to give people specific jobs and responsibilities to create buy-in and give
    every aspect of Leadership someone to oversee it.  I created a list of jobs we needed people to
    do but never had anyone assigned to in the past, like a Historian, a Buzzicist,
    a Techie, and a Spirit Chip Chief, and everyone in the class who was not on ASB
    or a class cabinet got one.  Each
    position falls into one of three clusters that meet once a week to check-in
    with each person: Activities, Communication, and Outreach.  It has worked extremely well, because you
    know who to go to when you need something, and everyone always has a personal
    project or responsibility to be working on. 
    We’ve effectively covered our bases and a lot more is being
    achieved.  I still hate filling out the
    weekly leadership reports though…

    Our ASB team worked together extremely well.  I started the year by doing an ASB Overnight
    at the school where we could bond, share ideas, and plan for the semester.  We played some games, ate pizza, baked
    cookies, and did some teamwork and leadership building activities including a
    secret one I learned at CASC.  We
    brainstormed and voted on our goals for the semester, and we came up with our
    main goal being to improve communication across campus and amongst
    ourselves.  Publicity had been a major
    setback in the last school year, and this semester our Publicist Brendan was
    amazing and really stepped it up.  Good
    publicity and communication was a huge reason why we had such successful events
    this year, so it was a perfect goal for us to have.  We also had another goal which was to focus
    more globally and philanthropically, and we did that thanks to our Service
    Learning Liaison Emma who put on Pennies for Peace and One Dollar for Life,
    with more global plans for next semester. 
    We also voted on our theme for the Welcome Back Dance: Black Light, Wear
    White.  This was almost identical to the
    theme that was denied last year, but we got it approved this year by giving
    administration the second choice of Cops and Robbers.  That’s politics baby.  The dance was the most successful Welcome
    Back Dance we’ve ever had, with over 500 people.  A large part of the success was One Dollar
    Wednesday and the publicity for it, which let you buy your ticket for $1 on the
    first day of sales if you bought the $25 ASB card.  By selling a lot on this day, and with two
    amazing videos by Brendan (http://hs.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=6443051062&oid=4762013642),
    word spread that this was going to be HUGE (ßword of the semester
    for ASB).  This was our first big team
    project, and its success led us to even more successes throughout the
    semester.  In addition to our activities,
    we made some changes in regards to how we operate.  One thing I wanted to do as president was add
    a time for public comment at all student council meetings for people to voice
    their concerns or give feedback, and people have really begun to use this time
    to make their voices heard.  I also
    wanted to change the way we do appointed position interviews to make them fairer
    and consistent, so we went through the process with much more organization and
    precision.  With our new class structure,
    we have three people working on clubs compared to what used to be just the Vice
    President, so the club Point System that I made back when I was Vice President
    in fall 2006 was finally implemented (I wrote the details about the Point
    System in last year’s entry).  Clubs are
    now approved and denied objectively depending on how active they are as long as
    they follow school rules (sorry Students Teaching Others New Ethnic Rituals,
    aka STONER Club).  These five months were
    the most I have enjoyed ASB since I have been on it.  I felt like we really worked as a team, and
    helped and encouraged each other to make the semester a success.  I felt like I was able to oversee to make
    sure every aspect of our school was running smoothly, and delegate to make sure
    everything we planned on accomplishing was done, and I am proud of the work our
    ASB and Leadership team was able to do.

    At the end of the semester, I decided to run once again for
    ASB President-Elect.  I made flyers with
    taglines such as Don’t Stop Believing and Embrace the Future, and I gave my
    speech as Doc from Back to the Future, warning BHS that the future is doomed if
    they don’t elect Adam Klein.  I won the
    election, so I will go back into training as President-Elect in the spring, and
    then I will once again be President in the fall.  I have really enjoyed working with Anaselia
    as my President-Elect this semester, so I’m excited to see her to take over and
    run with it, and still get to work with her and help her out.  I’ve noticed that since I got on ASB as a
    sophomore when there was me, three juniors, and nine seniors, that ASB has been
    getting younger.  There are now only
    three seniors left on ASB, with seven juniors and two sophomores.  We have many great new people on ASB, so I’m
    pumped for the upcoming year.  My
    personal project for this semester is to finally update our constitution, which
    we have been trying to do ever since I joined ASB.  I will not leave ASB until we have a working
    constitution that we actually abide by.

    Relay for Life

    For the second year, I was on the planning committee for Burlingame’s
    Relay for Life as Youth Chair.  This year
    Alex and Emily joined me which made it even more fun.  They also took over as presidents of the
    American Cancer Society Club for this school year, because I didn’t have time
    to take it on again and do it well with everything else going on.  I did still head up the club up through Relay
    though, getting people to go and running the meetings that led up to Relay.  It is unbelievable how many youth we were
    able to get to come this year.  It
    absolutely exploded, or reached the ‘Tipping Point’.  At one meeting alone, we had over 250 people,
    out of a school of 1400.  Leading these
    meetings was a fantastic public speaking experience for me, because if you
    haven’t ever tried to hold the attention of 250 teenagers in one room without a
    microphone for a full 30 minutes, it is very, very difficult.  I couldn’t miss a beat, or I would miss my
    chance to get out important information. 
    I was red and in a sweat by the end of every meeting.  Our ACS staff partner said to me after one of
    the meetings that we may possibly be the Relay with the largest youth
    contingency in the state of California.  When you compare our 37 youth teams to that
    of 2005, when Team Nueva was one of only two youth teams at Burlingame Relay,
    that is a fantastic statistic.  My team alone, Panthers for a Cure, had over 40
    members and raised about $5000.  The whole event raised about $100,000 to
    go towards survivor services and the fight against cancer.
      This
    unheard of growth though is becoming increasingly difficult to manage, because
    it brings up tough questions of safety, security, and responsibility for
    hundreds of youth when we have a committee of one about ten.  We did not have the resources or solid
    logistical plans to enforce the youth guidelines that we set, and I am slightly
    worried about people not taking these guidelines seriously in the future.  Checks were supposed to happen during the
    night for chaperones that never really happened, along with other problems such
    as the one group that will always bring alcohol and the general apathy when it
    comes time to clean up.  And although it
    sounds funny, Relay Babies have absolutely crossed my mind as a concern.  With some of our committee members, including
    Dorene who does everything, not returning next year, we desperately need to build
    up a larger committee so we can effectively deal with these youth issues that I
    know will come up.  We have to solve the
    problems before they happen. 

      The day of Relay was of course a great day as it always
    is.  I loved seeing so many young people
    out there fighting for a good cause and having a good time.  It really makes all my work seem worthwhile.  I felt so proud of so many people.  I could do without having to round up people
    to go watch the Luminaria ceremony though, which I had to do with too many
    people, including a group that I was very surprised to see playing poker during
    the ceremony.  It’s completely
    disrespectful to the event, and I was very disappointed that I had to do
    that.  I missed almost the entire
    ceremony because of it.  I expect every
    single Burlingame High student that comes to that event to be respectful and
    remember what they are there to do.  I
    hope everyone who came had a good time and was inspired to continue the fight
    against cancer, and we’ll see you at Relay again in October!

    California State
    Board of Education: Student Member search

    I applied to be the one Student Member on the California
    State Board of Education for the 2008-2009 school year, and I was selected from
    my application as one of twelve semifinalists. 
    They called me one Friday in early November while I was in Spanish class
    (I didn’t care, I picked up the call), and told me to pack my bags, because I
    was flying to Sacramento the next
    day for a five-day conference and selection process.  It was the SABE (Student Advisory Board on
    Education) Conference, with about 100 students from all around the state coming
    together to reform our state’s education system.  I roomed with three of the other finalists,
    so I really got to know them well and it is amazing how accomplished but at the
    same time unique they all of the semifinalists were.  The Student Member position is a paying
    position that has full voting rights. 
    They said it is the only position in America
    in which n underage person can vote on policy, so the process was intense.  The first step in the selection was an
    election by the delegates at the conference. 
    We delivered six-minute speeches, had a question and answer session, and
    had to make and justify a decision on a theoretical board vote.  This gave me an excuse to really get out
    there and meet people, and strike up conversations, so I had a lot of fun with
    it.  It was almost like participating in
    a reality show.  After about three days
    of this and participating in the drafting of reform proposals to the board, we
    had a vote, and I was elected as one of the seven finalists.  The next day the seven of us got interviewed
    by the State Board of Education. This was different then the previous round in
    that I could not rely on my personal relations or conversations, it was all on
    the line in a fifteen-minute interview. 
    Instead of looking for someone to represent them like the students were,
    the Board was looking for a coworker, with each member hoping that person would
    fit into their own vision.  Each person
    on the board has different goals, so selling myself to the whole group was much
    more difficult.  At the time, I felt
    extremely pleased with my interview, as I felt comfortable and managed to get
    across what I wanted to say, but of course in  retrospect I wonder if I should
    have said something else.  I was not
    selected to be in the final three, whose names were sent to the Governor’s
    office and they will return to Sacramento
    in a few months when Governor Schwarzenegger will appoint one to the
    position.  But I have no regrets, because
    I know I did everything I could, and I was amazed that I had even been selected
    as a semifinalist, let alone a finalist. 
    I was even more amazed by the other people that were going for the
    position.  For example, the guy who was
    the director of this SABE and is also the Educational Policy Director for CASC,
    along with the President of the California Association of Student Leaders both
    got out at the same time as me in the process. 
    The accomplishments of these people were endless, and mine were
    completely insignificant next to theirs. 
    For example, one of the girls I made instant friends with and was also a
    semifinalist had made an award winning documentary about Wallenberg and his
    efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust, interviewing people such as former
    Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan.  The current Student Member even found a way to
    detect melanoma, and currently takes about nine AP classes.  And of course, I had the opportunity to meet
    the members of the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent Jack
    O’Connell.  The entire process was
    extremely surreal and I learned so much from this amazing experience.  Even though I didn’t get the position, I
    would do it all over again in a heartbeat if I could.

     

    In Closing…

    I think that pretty much covers every big event that I did
    this year.  The one thing I haven’t
    really mentioned is my social and family life. 
    I think this goes without saying, but my love life is essentially
    nonexistent.  Another uneventful year for
    Adam Klein and relationships.  I don’t
    really understand it all, but that’s just the way it goes.  I think I’m too picky in who I like.  Plus, I think the fact that I’m not really
    one to spend all of my time with one group of people plays a part.  That goes with friends too.  Recently though, I have started to spend more
    time with friends, and I’ve grown especially close to Carlo over the year with
    everything we have been through together. 
    And my relationship with my parents is still one that I cherish so
    much.  They have supported me once again
    in so many ways this year, and I am so grateful that I can consider my parents
    my friends.

    This has taken me countless hours to write, as I’m sure you
    can tell.  I think this year I need to do
    what I did in 2006, which is split this up into two six month entries, so I
    don’t kill myself over something like this again next year.  If by some decree of God, you somehow read
    this whole thing, I hope you can find some comfort in the number of nights I
    stayed up until at least 3 am writing, which was at least four.  So you are not the only one that went through
    hell.  In review of my review, I really
    don’t know how I feel.  I feel
    accomplished that I actually did it, but disgusted at how long winded I
    am.  There is no way that this should be
    as long as it is.  But if I keep slaving
    over this, trying to edit it down to something feasibly readable, I will not
    get it posted until I have to write next year’s review.  So this is it, I will leave it like this, and
    leave it to myself to judge in twenty years. 
    For now, I will close the year with finality that this year was more
    than I could ever ask for.

    To close, I want to explain why I am not going to tag anyone
    in this entry (on Facebook).  Not because
    I don’t care about you, but because I do not want to compel anyone to read
    about me.  If one really cares to know,
    these 8995 words will find that person, as it apparently did for you.  If you have read this, even parts of it,
    either you are really bored and have no life, or you care enough to be a part
    of my life, and I love you for that.  My
    friends and family mean the world to me. 
    I would not be who I am without your love and support.  Thank you for 2007, and here is to 2008.  L’Chaim!

    ~Adam Klein

January 1, 2007

  • Rounding Out 2006

    Hi there.  I figured since it is New Year’s Eve, and I haven’t updated in 7 months, this might be a good time to give closure to the year.  I am in Lake Tahoe right now ready to ring in the new year.  I’ll start from where I left off.  My summer was fantastic

    At the beginning of summer, we had our Nueva reunion party at the beach, and that was a ton of fun to see most of the grade again.  To my surprise, we actually played Survivor (and I wasn’t even the one that suggested it!) like we did on the 7th grade backpacking trip.  This time I wanted to play instead of host, so John hosted.  I had a blast, and I actually ended up winning against Brian in the final two (I won all of the individual immunities so they couldn’t get rid of me).  I hope we have the beach party again next year.

    Africa

    Then, I went on the most amazing vacation to Kenya with my parents, brother, aunt, uncle, and two cousins.  We went on a safari out in the bush, and also stayed at two ‘lodges’ in between the national parks.  In total, we went to 5 different locations in Kenya: Samburu National Park, Laragai House, Lake Nakuru National Park, Shompole Lodge, and the Masai Mara.  Each of the three National Reserves had their own unique characteristics and wildlife.  Samburu had elephants all over the place; we even saw them bathing one time.  We spent 3 days there, but I spent one of them resting because I had been sick for the week before we left, and I was just getting over it when we got there, fortunately.  There were also a bunch of monkeys in Samburu, and we even saw some lions lazing around at sunset.  Laragai was amazing, the rooms were so big and luxurious, and we had the entire place to ourselves.  I even got a room to myself!  At night by the pool at Laragai, my cousin Dave (who does film stuff for a living) took some incredible star photos.  He took over 7000 pictures throughout the entire trip.  Everyone took so many photos; it was ridiculous how many we all had.  When we flew over Lake Nakuru, you could see thousands of flamingos all across the lake.  One morning, we woke up early to watch the sunrise right by the lake.  We played a bunch of Frisbee golf at our campsite at Nakuru (it had just enough trees spaced perfectly); I even put together a double-elimination tournament that one of our guides ended up winning.  We lost a Frisbee in the trees two or three times though, and one time to get it down, they brought over the huge truck that transports the entire camp from site to site.  That kept us busy and very entertained.   Shompole was like nothing I have ever seen before, and will probably ever see.  It was built on the top of a mountain, so every enormous room is open and looks out at the beautiful sight.  Even though the room is completely open on one side, there is a sense of privacy because you can’t see any of the other rooms.  Each room has its own little pool, and it is just the most amazing thing ever.  The shower was so cool; it was like a waterfall.  Shompole would be anyone’s dream honeymoon location.  My DSC_0717 description doesn’t even do the place justice.  While we were there, we had an amazing experience.  The local Masai tribe performed a dance for us, chanting, singing, and jumping all the way through.  It was the coolest thing ever; the highlight of the trip for me.  I wish we had more contact with the locals, because I would have loved to learn from them more about how they live.  Then we were off to our last location, the Masai Mara.  Just as a side note, while we were staying at these beautiful resorts, there were people packing up the entire campsite, driving it to the next location, and setting it up in time for us to get there.  These guys were so nice, and I felt uncomfortable sometimes because they did so much for us.  I think I tend to be uncomfortable with people serving me, because I don’t feel like I deserve it.  For example, when they would try to carry my bags for me, I would thank them but say no thanks, because there is no reason why they should be doing it when I am perfectly capable.  Maybe I would feel more comfortable with it if I had been the one to earn the money to pay for it, instead of someone else’s charity.  Anyway, at Masai Mara, we saw a cheetah kill a hare, which was crazy to watch.  It’s not that often people get to see a kill on a safari.  It was also my parent’s 25th wedding anniversary on the last day we were there, so we had a celebratory feast, and they even made a cake.  When they first brought out the cake, they had my parents cut it together.  They were having a really tough time cutting it, and then when they got through it they saw it was elephant dung with frosting on it!  After we all had a laugh, they brought out the real cake that looked exactly the same.  Speaking of food, the food we had every day was out of this world.  There wasn’t a thing I didn’t like the whole time, even when we tried ostrich one night.  I have never ever eaten so well.  How they prepared all of it out in the middle of nowhere in such a tiny portable kitchen is beyond me.  We saw so many animals over the course of our trip, including lions, zebras, baboons, giraffes, cheetahs, topis, gazelles, elephants, hyenas, dic-dics, and all kinds of birds, just to name a few.  Even the tents we stayed in were amazing, and they had this thing where they lifted up a bucket of hot water that then goes into a section of the tent for a shower.  It was an experience I will definitely always remember and cherish.  I feel so lucky to have been able to see and experience what I did, and I thank my parents for that.

    …Jeez, I meant for this to be sort of a summary entry, but I guess I got carried away thinking about our Africa trip.

    Tennis Camp

    The rest of my summer included going to the Nike Tennis Camp at Stanford for the second year.  I had an even better time this year, mainly because I clicked with the people a lot more.  Last year there were extremely few people my age, and it was basically all guys (it was the lowest amount of girls they ever had, so I heard).  This year though, there was a good mix and a lot of cool people my age.  We took a trip one evening to Great America, and I don’t know how they did it, but these two really nice guys Peter and Evan somehow convinced me to go on my first loop-to-loop roller coaster.  I was scared out of my mind, but I’m really glad I did it and I think it helped ease some of my fears.  I am a very stubborn and individual person, so I am still impressed they were able to get me to go.  They encouraged me to face my fears (in a very supportive way), and I thank them for that.  Another night, we did a Dating Game type thing, tennis style, and I had a lot of fun with that when I was one of the ‘bachelors’.  I got a lot of laughs from my responses, and I ended up winning the ’date’, so that was cool.  Of course, we played a ton of tennis, any my game improved a lot.  Unfortunately, I have been so busy this school year that I haven’t played at all for months, which really is no good.  My floor also kept having to do wall sits at night because someone would show up just like a minute or two late to walk to the courts.  One night I think we had to do 6 minutes of wall sits and lunges down the hall and back.  A lot of the staffers were really cool, but there was one in particular that was completely power-hungry and never treated any of the campers with respect.  I expect people to treat others with respect, no matter what their status or authority is, and I will always give the same respect in return.  It’s a matter of being human, and understanding that others, regardless of everything, are people too.  When he was on a particularly unreasonable rampage, I told him he needed to calm down.  He threatened to make me do wall sits, but it never happened.  At some point my honesty will probably get me in trouble.  I had some really good conversations with some of the other counselors though, and I appreciated that they could talk to me as a person, regardless of my age or that I was a camper.  Anyway, I want to go back again next year, hopefully with some of the same people.

    ACS Youth Summit

    I also got to go on some trips as a member of some of the groups I am a part of.  The day after tennis camp ended I got to go to Los Angeles for an American Cancer Society Youth Summit.  The entire thing, including the flights, was paid for by the ACS.  It was a lot of fun and they treated us very well.  There was a big sort of banquet when we got there, and they had a Superhero theme for the 2 days.  At night we got to go to an Anaheim Angels game in the nosebleed seats, which was fun.  I got a wave started with the help of some of the people sitting with me, and it went a good way around the top section.  I met a lot of great people who were all obviously very caring, since they dedicate their time to helping other people’s lives.  I also met 2 girls who had faced cancer, and it was very insightful and inspirational to hear their stories.

    CASC Leadership Camp

    The other trip was again, at Stanford, but this time it was for a CASC (California Association of Student Councils) Leadership Camp.  It was a 4 day camp and this too was also mostly funded by the Parents Group at my school.  My favorite thing about the camp was definitely the people.  Imagine the leaders of schools from all over California coming together; talk about a great time.  I especially met some amazing people from San Mateo and Notre Dame, both local schools.  I was hoping I could plan a reunion, but I have just been way too busy and I haven’t talked with most of the people from CASC for a while.  The activities at CASC were not really what I expected.  I expected more games and teamwork activities, but instead it was more curriculum based.  I was a little disappointed that we spent most of the time with small groups in a small room learning leadership ‘lessons’.  I wouldn’t have minded a day of that, but 4 days was a little much.  I think we went into a little bit too much detail, for example we learned what colors were best for writing down ideas when brainstorming.  I have used some of that curriculum in facilitating a student focus group, but just the basic ideas of it, not the completely structured details.  I really enjoyed the general sessions however, when we had a speaker or saw a presentation or something.  Micah Jacobson, who I have seen speak now on five different occasions, spoke at CASC and he said and had us do some really cool things.  On the last night, we had the sickest dance ever, although unfortunately it was only an hour long.  It was outside, and unlike dances in other places where it takes a while for the dance to get started, as soon as the music went on all of these leadership kids went crazy.  It made me so happy to be with a group of people who just wanted to have fun and don’t care about the possibility of embarrassing themselves.  After the dance, Micah did this thing with candles where we each had one lit, and he talked about how we need to protect our flame.  He also gave everyone what he calls a ‘warm fuzzy’, and then we went around giving people warm fuzzies and getting them in return.  That was an awesome thing, something I might want to try to bring to our school if I get the chance.  Another night we saw a video from a camp in the 70s where they discussed race, gender, and orientation stereotypes, and other general problems that effect a lot of people, like abuse and inner struggles.  It was an extremely thought provoking and moving documentary, and we had some great discussions about it afterwards.  Overall I had a great time and I would go back just to be with those types of people again.  The people from my school didn’t really get much out of it though this year, so I’m not sure if we will go back next year.

    Focus Group

    The focus group I mentioned was something I had the idea for when I was up doing homework at two in the morning, and I had been working for like the last six hours.  I thought it was ridiculous, with all the busywork, so I thought about getting together a group of people who had an interest in changing the way the education system works, especially the honors program at Burlingame High School.  Since everyone interested in the group has very busy lives, we are taking it slow and we understand that change will not happen instantly, but it will take time. We have only met twice, but we have some good things down on paper (in the CASC style of course) that we can hopefully make an impact on.  At our first meeting, we listed what works and some problems, and at our last meeting we came up with specific goals that we want to tackle.  The biggest thing that I think I took from CASC is that when I’m facilitating, I make sure that what I do and say is to try to get out what the group really wants, not what I want.  The group really drives what we do.  Our next meeting is in January and we are going to figure out some action plans to achieve the goals, and also I am going to try to get some people from some other schools to come and talk about what works and what doesn’t at their schools.

    ASB Vice President

    I was ASB Vice President this last semester, and that was a really good experience.  I enjoyed working with ASB, although I wish we could have met more regularly and for a longer chunk of time, so we could talk about some goals and student life issues.  I was in charge of clubs, Club Faire, and the Blood Drive.  Unfortunately, our school district has a major budget crisis at the beginning of the year; they thought they had $3 million more than they actually did.  This meant they fired teachers in the middle of the year, and had to make a lot of other cuts, including recently limits on teachers’ healthcare.  The teachers, in protest of district decisions, temporarily would not write college recommendations, closed their doors before school, after school, and during lunch, and could not be advisors to clubs.  This made a big problem for clubs who could no longer meet in their advisor’s room.  Because this happened right around the time of Club Faire, we postponed it for a few weeks.  Where we postponed it to however, was the week before the Fall Blood Drive, which put a lot of stress on me.  I put together four competitions between clubs for the Club Challenge, including a scavenger hunt, a competition called Mummy, a watermelon eating contest, and the final which was the Extreme Club Relay, which had 6 different elements.  The Relay was definitely the hardest to plan, but I think it was the participants’ favorite activity.  The elements of the Relay included charades, a bat spin followed by shooting a basketball into a trash can, a orange pass with their necks, a water pass to fill a cup, a cucumber pass between the legs, and then a teamwork thing where they had to get a marble into a bucket by rolling it through little pieces of PVC pipe.  On Friday was the Food Faire, and that was a huge success.  About 25 clubs sold food, and there were a ton of people out there buying it.  The very next Tuesday was the Fall Blood Drive.  I had been getting signups for it for the last few weeks.  The Blood Drive was even more successful than Club Faire.  Last year, at the same time, there were 45 pints of blood donated.  This year, we got 96.  In the spring, we should get even more, because more people will be old enough to donate.  I will be old enough, but it still won’t be a year since I traveled to a malaria infected area, so I still won’t be eligible to donate.  Ryan Buckley will be Vice President next semester, so I know he’ll do a great job on the Blood Drive.  It was challenging to manage all of the clubs because there are about 45 of them.  I have been working on a point system proposal for all new clubs.  It would give all new clubs a one semester probationary charter, and in order to become a permanent charter, they have to obtain a certain number of points.  The idea behind this is to give clubs a push to remain active and contribute to the school or community, and also give ASB an idea of which clubs are flourishing.  They would earn points by turning in minutes of meetings, putting on a fundraiser, advertising their club, and so on.  As long as they are serious about the success of their club, then reaching the 20 points needed by the end of the semester shouldn’t be a problem.  The problem about the proposal however, is that since we didn’t meet very often, especially at the end of the year, I never got the chance to talk about it with ASB.  Now it’s not technically in my hands anymore since I’m not in charge of clubs, and I think some people see me as too controlling as it is, and that I am trying to impose what I think should be done on everyone else.  I have talked to Ryan about it and he likes the idea, but I think it is possible it still could be voted down at our first meeting just because I wrote up the proposal and not Ryan.  One thing I feel I am still lacking on ASB is respect, and I think that mainly is because of my age, and also probably has something to do with the fact that I tend to talk a lot about issues I care about, as you can see by my already 3200 word entry.  I have felt a certain bit of doubt and possible animosity coming from a few members of ASB ever since I ran for Vice President as a freshman.  I am hopeful that as I grow older, learn from my mistakes and experiences, and continue to prove my capabilities like I did for the Blood Drive, that I will gain the respect I desire from ASB.

    Elections

    My term as Vice President was only one semester, so I had to run again for office, and I decided to run for President.  I felt like if I ran for Vice President, I might be stealing the place of a very deserving senior on ASB, like Ryan.  VP is only one of two elected positions in the whole school that is only one semester (obviously seniors can only run for those or one of the two semester long appointed positions).  Plus, I feel like the school is gradual downward slope right now with all the budget problems and general morale, so I want to see if I can do anything to help the situation.  The position is actually President-Elect, which means I will kind of be the apprentice to Ian next semester, who will be president, and then I will take over as president for the fall semester of my junior year.  I actually ran unopposed, which just shows the general apathy of my school right now.  At the same time last year, 7 people ran for the position.  I was actually very disappointed that no one would run against me, because I actually really enjoy campaigning, and I think the president should be someone who the people choose, not someone who just lucks into the position.  If the school likes what I have to offer, then I should be president; if not, then I shouldn’t.  Simple as that.  Also, during the process of campaigning and talking to people, it helps me to realize what the student body actually is interested in, and what they would like to see in their leaders.  It’s easier to represent people who choose you to represent them.  I also don’t think I will have gained any respect from ASB by winning unopposed.  My friend Carlo is the new Treasurer-Elect, meaning that we will both be on together for the next full year, and another very smart sophomore is the new Secretary, Caitlin.  It is very unusual to have one sophomore on ASB, and now we will have three.  This should be interesting.

    Relay for Life

    I was on the committee for Burlingam e’s Relay for Life this year, which made the actual event even more rewarding.  When people just go to Relay, I don’t think they realize how much planning actually goes into it.  The committee starts meeting months and months before, and there is a lot of planning that needs to happen every single year, especially when you are a nonprofit group and need to find donations for most of what we do at Relay.  The committee is mostly a bunch of ladies who had been doing this for years, and they are the nicest people ever.  The only other guy, Eddie, is extremely rational and even works as an event planner, so he knows what works and what doesn’t, and always brings us back to the main idea when we get too far off topic.  The committee chair, Dorene, lives right around the corner from me and is one of the nicest and most supportive people you’ll ever meet.  She worked so hard on the Relay and she really doesn’t get enough credit for all that she does.  It was a lot of fun to be a part of the behind the scenes process, and since I am only a sophomore, I have two more years as a part of it.  I hope in the years to come I can get more of an idea of what needs to be done so that I can be more helpful and take more initiative.  I was the captain of Team Nueva for the 3rd year in a row, and I was really excited to get a Nueva group together again to Relay.  I was a little disappointed with the Nueva turnout and the amount that was raised, but such is life.  You can’t force people to come; they come if they want to.  For the people who did come though, we had a great time.  I actually spoke twice on stage during the event.  The first time I wrote and delivered a speech about Prop 86, if you interested you can read it, if not just skip it:

    I would like to take a minute to talk about why we, as a community, are here today. It is because every one of us is here to fight cancer.  We are here because our personal experiences or observations have driven us to act. Because our contribution, multiplied by over three million others nationwide participating in Relay provide a tremendous opportunity to gain the upper hand in this fight against cancer.

     

    But we have more working for us than just Relay. We have the greatest opportunity California has ever had to fight cancer, and it is headed for the ballot this November.  Tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death in the country, and lung cancer is the number one most deadly cancer.  We can do something about it.
     

    When the tobacco tax initiative, Proposition 86, passes this November, it will boost our fight against Cancer to new heights.  This initiative will tax each pack of cigarettes by $2.60 which will raise more than $500 million a year to directly fight cancer.
     

    Where will the money go?
     

    Proposition 86 will triple current state funding for Cancer research. 

    It will triple funding for the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program.

    It will establish a new program for Colorectal Cancer Screening.

    It will protect the prostate cancer screening program from funding cuts.

    It will establish a new program encouraging nutrition and physical activity.

    It will reinvigorate California’s tobacco control programs by tripling the budget for many of the programs funded by a proposition passed in 1988 that has successfully cut adult smoking from 25% to 14%.

    Lastly, the Tobacco Tax initiative will provide access to health care for every child in California.
     

    Obviously, tobacco companies are doing everything they can to fight this proposition. You may have seen the campaign ads on TV.  But remember that what you are watching is coming from a BUSINESS, whose sole purpose is to make money for personal gain.  The organizations in support of Prop 86 however, including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association are nonprofit, meaning they have no personal monetary vested interest in the outcome of this vote.  The only motivation is saving lives.


    But don’t just take my word for it.  Think about
    it, and what a vote one way or the other could mean for you, and for future generations.


    To help you do that, I want you to think for a second about a world free of smoking, free of cancer.  Wouldn’t that be nice? 
    Now think of your children, your grandchildren, the teenagers out here today.  This generation, my generation, our generation, is the future of this country.  We will not accept a world void of progression.  Progression.  Progression.  That is the key.  We must move forward, and continue to make greater and more meaningful achievements.  We must build on the successes of the past, so we may one day live in a world of peace, a world without fear, and a world without unnecessary death.  What is our purpose on earth if we can’t make it better for future generations?  This proposition will help to do just that.  Prop 86 will reduce teen smoking by almost 50%, and I consider that an amazing form of progression.

    I also spoke briefly at the Luminaria Ceremony about what a luminaria is, what the significance of it is, and why we light them.  Overall, it was once again an amazing event.  The message is still powerful and moving, even the third time.  Plus it is so much fun.  I even met some people at Relay, one in particular, who I am really glad I met and had a great time with.  I’m excited to start planning for next year.

    KARMA Initiative

    My friend Carlo (the treasurer) and I are planning on starting a club next semester at BHS called the KARMA Initiative.  The original idea for a club was inspired by ImprovEverwhere, but over some time the idea has grown and become our own.  The original name we came up with was ‘Beyond Improv’, but when we figured out the main goals of the club, we thought Improv gave off the wrong impression.  Basically the idea of the club is to make people happy.  It is our way to try to raise morale at BHS which is seemingly pretty low right now.  We will achieve this through events that are either really fun and random, that make people feel accepted and part of a group, and satisfaction with themselves and with helping others, or that just make people go ‘Wow, that’s so cool!”  We have a whole page full of ideas, including The MP3 Experiment, The Free Hugs Campaign, Mission: Random Acts of Kindness, and the School-Wide Rock Paper Scissors Tournament.  These are the types of events that will hopefully make people’s day.  I am really excited about this; I think it will be a great thing for our school, and I think we already have a lot of people really excited about it.  We had our first mission, which was a trip of nine agents to the offices of Smalltown.com for a focus group.  We were welcomed with pizza, drinks, and cookies, they gave us free t-shirts and mugs, and they paid us $75 dollars for each person.  All we had to do was give them an hour of our time and feedback.  They also set up a promotion for us, in which if people go to http://www.smalltown.com and register with the promotional code KIP, they will donate $2 to us for every review that person posts, up to $20.  After five reviews, that person will also get a $10 gift certificate to Century Theaters sent to them.  It is a fantastic deal, all it takes is about 10 minutes, and it’s a great website too that has a real potential to become the next big thing.  Go try it out.  We also set up a website for the club, located at http://karmainitiative.googlepages.com.  It is a work in progress, but once we start with the missions, it should be a pretty cool site.  I’m excited to get this thing started; we have a lot of really exciting plans.  Expect to see a lot of advertisement and buzz at the beginning of the semester; we want to start with a bang.

    Inherit the Wind

    This year’s Fall Play, Inherit the Wind, is a very good show and is also very current, as the theme of evolution being taught in the classrooms is unfortunately still an issue in today’s world.  I auditioned, and to my complete surprise, was cast as the lead, Henry Drummond, the defense attorney.  It was a fantastic role and I had some great lines.  It certainly was a lot to remember though, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to remember it all with everything else I had going on.  I was surprised at the choice of show because it doesn’t have very many big parts for girls, and honestly I was a little skeptical that we had enough talented guys at our school to pull it off.  Fortunately, there was a whole batch of rookie guys this year that were so much fun to work with and did a fantastic job.  Everything had a much different feel than the play last year.  The whole cast in general was a very new group.  Out of a cast of 32, it was the first show at BHS for 19 people.  Don’t ask me why I know this; I have no life, so I count.  There were only 5 seniors and 5 juniors, and then there were 15 sophomores and 7 freshmen.  I think some people just assumed that the show wasn’t going to be any good because the typical ‘drama people’ weren’t in it, but this group definitely proved any doubters wrong.  They all did an amazing job, and I consider them the true drama kids.  We also had a new theater that was finally reopened after the building was under construction for about 3 years.  The theater looks exactly the same though; they didn’t do any work on it at all.  We had a new director too!  This was my third director in three shows at BHS, and she just quit, so we are going to have a fourth for the musical.  The cast and crew had a really tough time come show time because the flu was going around within our group, and it was bad.  The night before our first show there were four leads out with the flu, throwing up at home.  We had never run the entire show all the way through without stopping until our preview performance.  It continued to spread, and the majority of the cast had gotten sick by the time we were done.  Just about everyone who got it threw up a few times.  I think we had three people throw up backstage during one of our three shows.  That is called hardcore theater.  I got sick on Saturday, but I managed to not throw up I think by convincing myself that I was ok.  Someone came up to me during intermission and said “I heard you’re going to blow any second,” so I was able to laugh it off by telling people “Word on the street is that I’m about to blow.  That’s what I’ve heard anyway.”  A lot of people really toughed it out, and I was so proud of everyone for getting through it and still giving a great performance.  I really hope these people continue with the drama program, because even though it felt so few, it also felt promising, and I can sense we have a building   program.  For now, we have no director for our musical, no musical chosen, no date set for auditions, not even a drama teacher.  I just hope it’s not another Cinderella.  Plus, I still have to decide what I’m going to do about the tennis and drama conflict.  Here we go again!

    This has been an amazing year in my life.  Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of it.  On to even bigger and better things in 2007.  Happy New Year!  May it bring you peace, happiness, health, amazing experiences, and the time of your life.  Lechiem!

    ~Agent Klein

    PS.  Oh wow, this took a hell of a long time.  I’m really glad I did it though.  It gives some closure for the year.  Just in case you care, this whole entry is 5850 words long.  If you read this whole thing: 1) Wow, and 2) I’m sorry.  It is so late in the morning though that I am embarrassed to even say what time it is.  I’m not even that tired, which just shows how screwed up my sleeping schedule has gotten this break.  Happy 07!

May 27, 2006

  • Life as a Freshman

    It’s been another 6 months again since I’ve posted anything of value, so its time for… ADAM’S SEMIANNUAL XANGA POST!!! Things are fantastic.  Obviously I miss Nueva, but I am loving high school.  I have figured out about myself that I enjoy keeping busy with school related activities, and I hate wasting time.  There are so many opportunities to get involved or try something new at Burlingame, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all.


    Igor and Me in Cinderella


    Speaking of not enough time, I attempted to both play on the tennis team and be in the musical.  Unfortunately for me, the show was Cinderella (I didn’t much enjoy the script, personally), and I was just in the ensemble, and then in tennis I started the season playing #1 doubles on the frosh-soph team, and finished the season at #2 singles (the team has 3 singles and 2 doubles teams).  Tennis was fun, but our coach rarely actually coaches us (especially the frosh-soph team), and there is no team spirit at all.  We did well though, and both the frosh-soph and varsity teams came in 2nd in league.  Every day we would have rehearsal for the musical, I would have to go to tennis practice, and then immediately after race over to rehearsal.  It only worked this year because I am playing on the frosh-soph team, and I didn’t have a big part in the musical, but if either of those changes next year (and I probably will make varsity), then I might have to choose between doing one or the other (still do the Fall Play for sure though).  The coach can’t let me miss a week of tennis for tech week if I was on varsity, and the director is going to want me available for rehearsal at all times if I have a bigger role.  I have no idea what I’m going to do, I guess part of it depends on what the musical will be.


    Like if it is Cinderella again, no thank you.  I really enjoyed the company of all the people, but the show itself I wasn’t a huge fan of.  I thought the script was unoriginal and cheesy, I didn’t like the music, and there was no added twist or spin to make it exciting.  It was just the story of Cinderella, even dumbed down a bit.  Also, I didn’t enjoy my part that much.  What I like about the shows is the acting part, and in ensemble (especially for Cinderella), it’s just singing and dancing.  Usually in shows, even the ensemble has a chance to do some sort of acting, but not in this show.  The opening scene only had one bar of music for the townspeople to set the scene before we have to start singing.  But enough of my complaining, I still had a great time just being involved with it, the people were great, and I loved our outings after the shows to Friday’s and BJ’s.


    Me and Trisha at Drama Awards.


    Recently, we had the drama awards, which is a really fun event where people dressed to the 80′s theme and gave out all kinds of awards.  I got to present the award for Best Musician, which is the coolest award to present because band at Burlingame is basically the most awesome thing since Chuck Norris.  At the awards, I was inducted into the thesbian troupe.  I also won the award for best actor in the fall play, to my immense surprise .  It’s great to know that my peers respect me enough as an actor to even think of voting for me as a freshman.


    Speaking of voting, I decided to run for ASB Vice-President (school VP) instead of Sophomore Class President.  I decided to run for ASB because I felt like I did almost all of the work this year, and class cabinet just wasn’t as dedicated or motivated as I wanted them to be.  I didn’t want to go through another year of me having to do everything and think of all the ideas if I want something to happen.  So I ran for ASB because people on ASB are much more dedicated, involved, motivated, and they actually enjoy meeting and planning things.  When I decided to run for VP, I was hoping that two or more juniors would run also.  My thought was that they would split the junior vote, and then if I just got the freshmen to vote, that would be enough.  That didn’t exactly work though, because only one other person ran, and it was a good looking, popular junior girl.  Even though I knew my chances weren’t good, I campaigned like hell, talked to anyone and everyone about it, worked hard on my 30-second speech (that was the max.), petitioned to my classes at the end of every class to make sure to vote, and I made 4 different flyers, a poster, and a banner.  My banner was actually torn dorn and ripped into 15 different pieces before it was even up for a day, but as one of my flyers say, I won’t take no for an answer.  So I found the janitors, found out what trash can it was in, pulled it out, and with the help of my friend Julia, pieced it back together and stapled it back up:


    <–Before the tearing.


     


     


     


     


     



    <–After the repair.


    As you can see, my ‘tagline’ was: The Fresh Choice, because I’ve got ‘Fresh ideas and a new perspective’, I am a freshman, and I thought people might remember it more because of the restaraunt chain.  I guess it worked, because I won!!!  From what I’ve heard, I think I am the first freshman to ever do that.  ASB Vice is only one of two elected positions out of all student council that is only for one semester, so I’ll just be VP for the Fall semester next year.  My main reponsibilities are that I am in charge of all clubs at Burlingame, I organize the Club Faire, and I organize the Blood Drive.  Oddly enough, even though I will in charge of the Blood Drive for my school, I won’t even be old enough to give blood.  I got a really nice, really helpful letter from the current ASB VP about what my responsibilities are, and he gave me a lot of tips.  It sounds like a lot, but I am really excited for it.  Already, I am so glad that I am on ASB on not class cabinet.  We have already done a lot, and there are some fun things we are planning to do over the summer.  We already had interviews for the ASB appointed positions (Service Learning Liason, Human Rights Commisioner, Publicist, and Student Manager), and we actually chose the girl I ran against for Student Manager.  At the beginning of summer, we are having an ASB Pack-up day, and we get to look in the new building for next year that day.  Then, the very next day, we are all going to a ropes course together, and then at the end of summer, we move into our new ASB/Leadership room.  The day after that, 6 of us (there are 13 on ASB) get to go to a leadership camp that is mostly paid for by the school for 4 days!  I heard it is a lot of fun, so I am really looking forward to that.  We also had an ASB transition party, with the current ASB and the new ASB for next year.  I took that idea and I am doing the same thing for the Class of 2009 Cabinet.  In which, by the way, John Masline was elected Sophomore Class President.  Nueva is taking over the school.  So tomorrow we are having our transition party, and then maybe we’ll go see The Da Vinci Code afterwards.


    Also this summer, I am going to Kenya with my parents, my brother, my aunt and uncle, and two of my cousins for two weeks!  I’m really excited, it should be an amazing experience, and we are also stopping in London for about 2 days on the way there.  I am also going to the Nike Tennis Camp at Stanford again this year, so that should be a lot of fun too.  I am one of the BHS Representatives on the American Cancer Society Youth Council for San Mateo County, so as a freshman, they invited me to go to a youth summit in Anaheim for one night and two days!  It’s so I can learn from that this summer, and come back and keep it going when the seniors and juniors leave.  The whole thing is paid for, including flying me there, and going to a baseball game.  I guess all these paid for things are my reward for being so involved haha.  That, and I got a certificate and my name on the BHS news for doing over 50 hours of community service (I’ve done about 80).


    I am also going to be the BHS Rep. on the planning board for Burlingame Relay for Life.  This means I will probably be expected to be on the BHS team, but I still want to have Team Nueva there.  So Nueva people, mark your calendars, October 7th and 8th, 2006.  On the topic of Nueva people, I can’t wait to see you all at the beach party.  I’m so excited we get to do that again.  I really do miss all of you.


    My classes and homework load seemed to get a lot easier by the end of the year.  I got straight A’s last semester, and this semester, before the finals I didn’t have less than a 97% in any of my classes except probably PE, which I don’t know my grade in.  Health has been fun, it’s kind of like SEL, except more fact based.  Ms. Perea is really cool also.  Spanish has been really easy, and the teacher loves me.  I think I have about 110% in that class.  English was fine, didn’t love it, didn’t dislike it.  I really like that Ms. Caret is so involved with the school, and I appreciate that she eased off the work load at the end of the year.  It’s probably because she only has two freshmen classes, and all of her other classes are senior AP ones, and we all know they do barely anything after AP tests.  Geometry was a really good class, and Mr. Skrable is a seasoned and attention commanding teacher who really knows his stuff.  Probably the more clear and to the point teacher I have ever had.  Biology was beyond easy, and I never took notes in that class.  My notes consist of one page of doodles, including one of Mr. van Rijn, and scribbles that if I remember correctly was me testing out some pens.  The assignments in that class were so pointless, and the people who actually need them don’t actually do them.  They just put down some BS answers without actually doing any work that get them points because he doesn’t check for content.  I feel like such a smartass in that class, because I often corrected and challenged what he said.  I gave him some suggestions the other day and told him what works and what doesn’t, and he actually had a really good idea; that the people who score well on the tests don’t have to do what I considered the busy work, as long as they do the reading and continue to score well.  I said that was a good idea because then he also has less assignments to grade, so he can spend more time actually reading them to make sure they didn’t copy or BS it.  And then PE… I thought PE was supposed to be fun?  It was in middle school anyway.  Mr. Dowd has zero empathy, is borderline racsist and sexist because he can’t control a damn thing that comes out of his mouth, and seems like he has a grading system where whoever he likes or can run a mile in 6 minutes gets an A.  From what I have gathered, it doesn’t even seem like he keeps a grade book.  Anyway, that’s how I feel about my classes.  I am really not looking forward to Chemistry next year, because the single unit in bio I had trouble on was the biochem unit, and I never liked the chem stuff in Ken’s class at Nueva.  Algebra 3-4 should be a breeze after Geometry AS, but I have heard that the honors history class next year is one of the toughest courses they offer.  I am also taking Leadership, Spanish 3-4, English 3-4 AS, and… PE again.  Uhg.


    Even though I am constantly busy and exhausted, and I have almost no social life, I still am liking high school a lot.  I like that I am able to be doing so many extracurriculars and getting so involved, it feels good to be helping out with something.  A problem about Nueva was there wasn’t enough people to have so many extra programs, but at BHS there is a fully-working student council, two shows a year, the PAWS program (volunteering), a leadership class, and just a bunch of things that a smaller school couldn’t have.  The only problem with all this is it doesn’t give me a lot of time to make good friends and make plans to hang out with people.


    I guess that wraps it up.  Evan is going off to Pomona college next year, so I’ll be an only child in the house for the next three years.  Hope all is just as well with all of you, and if anyone wants to hang out, the cell is 346-3731.  Good night, and good luck.


    ~Adam


    PS.  I spent two and a half hours on this.

March 3, 2006

December 11, 2005

  • The Kleinster is Back

    If I have ever said my entries were too infrequent before, that was nothing.  I haven’t updated in almost 6 months.  All those day by day memories, lost in the vast abyss of space and time.  The truth is I have been way to busy to update.  I have had so much going on recently, and when I did have a break, I felt like doing anything besides writing. 


    To poorly sum up my measly two months of summer vacation in about a paragraph…  I went to a few camps.  I think this might have been our last year at Cal Camp/Lair of the Bear.  I have a great time with all of the activities and games, but there are very few people there my age that I bond with.  I also went to Mountain Camp, which was pretty fun.  I kayaked a lot (I won the Kayak Master award, now that is something to put on my college application ), and I did all sorts of different activities.  I also did a tennis camp, and I improved dramatically.  It’s too bad I haven’t played since summer; I probably lost all the improvements to my game.  These camps, although fun, didn’t give me a lot to look forward to going into high school.  At Nueva, there were no assholes, no bullies, minimal talking behind peoples backs… And then I go to these camps, and I am in shock at how mean people can be to each other.  At Cal Camp, everyone talked behind everyone’s back.  At Mountain Camp, I met the biggest insecure asshole I have ever met.  People shot each other down for any little thing.  It made me really thankful for my friends at Nueva who supported each other, and would laugh at your jokes even if they didn’t think it was very funny.  By the end of my summer, I went into high school with little excitement or anticipation for the school year to start.


     <—Picture I took at Mountain Camp.


    Now that I have been through high school for almost a full semester now, I am so happy to say that my experiences from summer camp didn’t transfer into high school.  I was pleasantly surprised at how welcoming the rest of the school was to the freshmen.  I expected our class to be disrespected and tossed around, but there was none of that.  Our first day of school, we walk into the gym to the sounds of the band playing, and all the Junior and Senior buddies lined up on either side of us cheering and applauding us as we walked in.  I think that kind of environment where even the Seniors respect us is great, because how we are treated now is likely how we will treat future classes.  Also within our class, everyone I have met is warm and friendly.


    Elections for freshman class cabinet took place only 1 week and 1 day after the first day of school.  I decided to go for the glory and run for Freshman Class President, even though John was the only other person that came from Nueva with me, out of a class of 350 kids.  I ran against a girl that was 7th and 8th grade president at BIS, the main feeder school for BHS (about 60-60% of the people at BHS went to BIS), and a guy that I had seen around and knew was pretty popular.  I didn’t think I had a chance to win, but I still wanted to get my name out there.  The day of the vote I got to make a speech to the whole class in the gym, which helped a lot.  The one guy didn’t even prepare a speech.  Here was my speech:


    My name is Adam Klein, and I am running for freshman class President.  There are a number of distinct qualifications that make me great for this job, for example my 4th place ribbon in the Burlingame marathon dog walking contest, voted best 4-square player in the 1st grade, and champion of the endurance hula-hoop competition.  Now you are probably wondering why I would be running for class President after all this.  Well, the truth is, I’m in it for the money.  Besides, I dig free coffee.  But in all seriousness, I really do have the experience and commitment to be class president.  I feel students should have a strong voice in the daily life of their school experience.  At my last school, I oversaw the creation of the first ever student council, and then was elected student body president.  I hope to carry my enthusiasm on to Burlingame High.  I believe that commitment demonstrates the drive and passion I have for Student Leadership.  If elected as class president, I promise to bring fun to the table, and always dedicate my energy to getting the best for the class of 09.  I believe that elections should focus on the opportunity to make a difference.  With my experience in leadership, I know how to get things done, and put ideas to action.  As a freshman, I know about as much about the BHS Student Council as you do, which is not too much, but I am eager and willing to take the time and give the effort to make this year’s freshman class the loudest voice in the school.  If you want the most energized person bringing the best to the class of 09, I urge you, vote Adam Klein.  Stay classy, Burlingame.


    After the speech was the vote which was during lunch, and that’s the few minutes when I think I won most of my votes.  I just went around talking and introducing myself to people, and reminding them to go and vote.  It worked, because the next day they announced over the loudspeaker that I had won.  I honestly couldn’t believe it.  Since then, we (the freshman cabinet) held interviews and chose two class coordinators, won a lot of class competitions, and we have been working on T-shirts for the class.  I just got sample shirts the other day with the design on them, and so hopefully we’ll start taking preorders very soon.  We have regular T-shirts and also a more fitted option for the girls.  I think we’ll be able to sell a lot.  I’m not sure if I want to run for Sophomore Class President next year or ASB Vice-President.


    I also was in BHS’s fall play, “All In the Timing”.  It was a collection of 8 completely unrelated comedy sketches put together sort of like Saturday Night Live.  It was a great show to do freshman year for me, because it was an ensemble cast, with each person having roles in two of the sketches.  My roles were great; one was I was a monkey in the scene “Words, Words, Words” which was about three monkeys locked up with typewriters trying to produce Hamlet.  My other scene was the last one of the show, and I was the Maypole (play off of Maytag) Repairman that falls in love with a seductive washing machine.  The play was a ton of fun and I became pretty good friends with just about everyone in the cast.


    This brings me to my next point.  I feel like a have a ton of acquaintances, but I don’t really have my ‘group of friends’ yet.  I really like the drama people, but I should also find another group of friends my age.  I guess it’s only a matter of time, because I am continually getting to know people better.  I feel accepted in most of the groups I hang out with, but I still feel like an outsider.  Most people have found their group, whereas I tend to roam from group to group.  I guess that’s kind of a trait I’ve always had, even at Nueva.  I always like to meet new people and get to know everyone, but then I find myself not being able to settle with one group of people.  Maybe that’s the politician in me…  In addition, I never have any time for a social life anyway.  I’m always busy with homework, or some student council thing, or earlier, the play.


    To expand on that… homework.  The homework load is the one thing that has shocked me most about high school.  Every night I have 10 times more homework than I ever did at Nueva.  I never knew going into BHS how much homework there would be.  I have 7 classes, and I get homework in usually at least 4 classes a day.  What some of these teachers don’t realize, is all of my teachers are like them, giving 1 1/2 hour assignments, and I have homework in five classes for one night… it adds up.  Homework absolutely leaves no time for anything else during the school week.  I am always exhausted during the week, because I’m up past midnight every day doing homework.  It doesn’t help that I am a perfectionist and a slow worker.  And next semester I want to do tennis and the musical, which will leave even less time.


    I have only gone to the movies once since probably the beginning of summer.  I just recently saw Harry Potter 4, and I really want to see Rent.  My parents got me the Rent soundtrack on the opening night of the play, and so now I’m really stoked to see it.  But all the drama people have already seen it, so I have to convince them to go again.


    Speaking of movies, my movie Why Bother (http://www.studentfilms.com/film/get.do?id=891) got accepted into the Poppy Jasper Film Festival, and it was screened four times throughout the weekend-long festival.  It also currently is ranked #12 in best reviewed out of the about 1000 films on the Student Films website.  I also just figured how to directly burn a DVD or CD to another.  So now new DVD’s of my movie will have a menu on it, instead of just automatically playing.


    <—At one of the screening sites for my movie before the showing.


    I am the alumni coordinator for our Nueva class, so we had our first reunion at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Burlingame.  I thought it would be a great place to have it because: one, a number of us had done it the year before and it was a great event, and two, it was an already planned 24 hour event with that was the perfect place to talk and hang out, and still have something to do, and have free food and drinks already supplied.  Team Nueva had a good turnout, and it was great to see my gifted and talented friends again.  We also had another reunion planned by Nueva at the school right before Thanksgiving, but all we did was go there and talk.  The relay was better.


    I think that’s all I want to comment on right now.  Hopefully I’ll find the time and energy to update again soon.  I have finals starting on Friday, and then Winter break starts the next Wednesday.  Not looking forward to taking seven tests that could ruin my grade for the whole semester.  I am so looking forward to break though.  I need it.  Until next time, stay classy.


    ~Adam

June 17, 2005

  • Oh. My. God.  I’m a Nueva graduate.  Where in the world has time gone?  Seriously, it feels like it was just a day ago that I was writing that entry before leaving for Japan, and just the day before that I was going over the 7th grade drama culmination.  It has been way to long since I updated, especially since there has been so much going on recently, I should be writing about it.  Maybe that’s why I haven’t written anything though, because there is so much going on.  Or maybe it’s because I can’t update as fast as new things are happening.  Like at the end of May, I started writing about the Japan trip, but I never finished it.  Or maybe it’s just because I am the worlds worst procrastinator.  Yes, yes that is the reason.  I am a terrible journal keeper.  I am such a bad procrastinator, really I am.  Journals are so much better if they are written in the moment, yet I can never get myself to do it.  I put it off and off, and by the time I sit down to write anything, I have a months worth of events to write about.  Such is the reason that my entries are so damn long.  So now I am forcing myself to get down as much as I can before my Xanga completely slips into oblivion, and I leave for my many summer adventures…


    Which leads me to my next topic… summer.  How is it summer already?  How can it be?  People usually can’t wait for summer, but once it is here, it comes and goes so quickly we aren’t ready for what’s next.  I have a really short summer this year, because all San Mateo District public high schools start really early next year, August 16th.  And ah, public high school.  I never really covered this in my Xanga, but I was choosing between Crystal Springs, a small private high school in Hillsborough, and BHS.  I choose BHS.  I think I would have done fine at Crystal and it would have been fun and fine and all that, but I decided not to take the safe path.  I’ve already got the small private school experience, and I think it will be good for me to go back into the public school life.  Some people may say Nueva isn’t ‘real life’, but it is, it’s just a different kind of real life.  There are some times in life where you might be dealing with a group of very accepting people, and there are times when you will be faced with confrontations.  I have a very outspoken personality, so I want to learn how to deal with those while I still am young and have family around to support me.  But back to summer, tommorow I am leaving for the Lair of the Bear, or Cal Family Camp (note the colors), and I will be gone for a week.  The Lair is so much fun, there is so much to do, like activities and tournaments.  This will be my 7th year in a row going.  After that, we’ll come back and right away do laundry and pack again to leave for Lake Tahoe for my grandma’s 75th birthday.  I’ll be there for about 1 1/2 weeks, then I think I’ll have a few days at home.  After that, I go to Nike Tennis Camp at Stanford for a week, I come home, have two days, then I go to Mountain Camp for 2 weeks.  Then I come home, and have about 2 weeks before school starts.  I have two different overnight camps by myself this year, so hopefully that will prepare me some more for meeting new people in high school, since John will most likely ditch me.


    Like I said, I started writing about Japan, but I never finished.  I figured I’ll just take a piece of what I wrote and stick it in here, because that was a big part of the last few months.  It really was a great experience:


    Going into the trip, I was worried about my homestay week and excited for the travelling after that, but I ended up having 10 times as much fun during the homestay than I did when we travelled.  I loved my homestay Yosuke and his family, they were extremely kind, fun, and they knew a great amount of English.  Even enough so to make up for my completely lackluster effort of Japanese.  Everything I wanted to say I was able to get across through accented and slow English, with a few Japanese vocab thrown in here and there.  They were also able to get across everything they needed to say, whether it was by a translator on their computer to explain to me that Yosuke’s grandmother accidentally washed my wallet in the washing machine, or through their own English ability and a handheld electronic translator to discuss politics at an Italian restaraunt.  That first week I felt was more the ‘modern cultural experience’, whereas the travelling part was the ‘historical cultural experience’.  We did a lot of things that people actually do for fun there, which is what I wanted to see.


    My movie is online!  It went online a while ago actually, when I was in Japan.  It is located at http://www.studentfilms.com/film/get.do?id=891.  Feel free to watch and review it!  It also won an award at the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival.  It won a Special Recognition Award for Individual Achievement.  I have made and sold/given away about 75 copies, and I am still making more.  E-mail me (SoleSurvivorAdam@gmail.com) or let me know if you want a copy.  I’ve made labels for the DVDs and cases too.


    Exactly a week ago, I was graduating.  Actually, I think I might have been giving my speech right at this time, because I was the first person to speak and it started at 4:00.  The next day after graduation, we had a graduation party that could possibly be on of the best if not the best party I will ever have.  We spent the day and night on a private beach in Half Moon bay.  We played volleyball (we kicked the parents butts hellz yeah), went on a trampoline at the top of the cliff by some cabins (where some of the parents, including mine, stayed the night), hung out on the couches by a big bonfire, ate good food, at night had a dance with a DJ on the beach, watched a fire dancer and a lady who balanced a sword on her head, and some fireworks, and we slept under a tent on the beach.  The whole thing was really spectacular, that party is going to make my senior prom and high school graduation party look bad.  Here are some pictures of me from that:








    I was given the job of being the reunion coodinator for our grade, and I have one planned to be the Relay for Life (like I did with like 7 other people last year) on October 8th and 9th.  If you’re in the Nueva class of ’05, you’ve already got like 5 e-mails from me, so I don’t really need to say much else here.  I e-mailed this to you, but just go here: http://www.acsevents.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=108594&lis=1&kntae108594=&team=948019 and click ‘Join Our Team’ to register.  The just follow the instructions.  It will be an awesome event (not as awesome as that grad party but still very cool), so mark it off on your calendars.


    We have ton of stuff to do and pack before we leave tommorow, so I will finish now.  I can’t believe I actually finished this entry, it’s been a while since I could say that.  I’m glad I wrote this today, because I won’t have much time the rest of this summer, so I’m glad I got this down now.  I will leave you with the speech I made at graduation.


           Over the past 3 years, I have learned so much about myself.  I never would have thought that I could make a movie, start a student council, and get a group of 11 other kids to play Survivor on a backpacking trip.  Nueva has not only taught me how to learn, but it has also enriched the way I interact with others.  One important thing I’ve learned is how to be myself, and without this great group of students, I would not have been able to do that.  I have never met another group of kids that are as welcoming and accepting of all personality types as the people sitting behind me.  There is no stereotypical ‘cool’ in our grade at Nueva, and that has allowed me to feel welcome as a peer without changing who I am.


    I won’t ever get the same opportunities that I have had at Nueva.  I will never get to experience the same types of amazing trips and adventures at any other school; like the end of year trips, the advisory camping trips, and small things like going out to lunch with my awesome advisor Karen and two of my best friends and fellow advisees, John and Trevor.  The recital project was also a great chance for me to try something I probably wouldn’t have given a shot otherwise.  I just wanted to try something new, and I never expected I would be able to make a decent one man movie.  Not only was I proud of my finished product, it also got a great positive response.  That one shot to try something new has sparked my interest in filmmaking.


    It is hard to believe how quickly my Nueva life has come to a close.  It seems like time has just flown by.  I wish I had more time with these awesome classmates and great teachers.  The teachers here have been incredibly supportive, not only being there as an academic resource, but as people who I would consider my friends.


    I came to Nueva in 6th grade as an energetic 11-year-old hoping to make friends, but still with a lot to learn about understanding others.  Since then, I have learned how to watch and observe, and use what I see around me to make myself a kinder gentler person who attempts to see things through other’s perspectives.  I have learned from all the positive influences around me at Nueva how to be a better student, a better family member, and a better friend.  I would in no way be the person I am now without these last three years, and I thank you all for that.  We truly are a class to remember.


     




    ~Adam


    PS.  I got a cell phone!  The # is 346-3731.  Give me a call when I’m around or leave me a messege!

May 5, 2005

  • Wow… my time at Nueva is quickly dwindling to an end.  I leave in about an hour for the airport, to head off for Japan for two weeks, my last Nueva trip.  It should be fun and a great experience, but I’m worried about how well I speak the language.  No hablo japanese.  I really feel like I haven’t learned enough to be able to make casual conversation in Japanese.  We’ll see how it goes though I guess; the first week I am staying with a Japanese family.  I’ll use my hands like Cynthia though, so I should be fine.  I started packing at like ten o’clock last night.  Probably not the best idea, I would assume.  Hopefully I will update a few times while I am over there, I think I’ll have a good amount of free time when I’m at the school during the homestay.  I’m not sure what the keyboard will be like though, I’m guessing it’s going to be hard, if not impossible to type in English.  I’m staying with the guy that stayed with Cody Williams and his family when he was over here.  I found out from Cody after we had gotten him his presents, that the two things we got for him, a Giants hat and a Giants T-shirt, they had already gotten him.. great huh?  Well, I should get going, here are some pictures from when the World Music and Steel Drums classes performed and I sung ‘Hot Hot Hot’ at Carnaval to hold you over until I get back or post from Japan.  See ya,


    ~Adam







    PS.  My movie was supposed to be online at Student Films yesterday, but apparently that didn’t happen.  When it is up I will let you know and post the link.  There should also be judging results of my movie from the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival.

April 20, 2005

  • Wow… a TON has happened since my last entry.  It’s been a month, that’s kind of pathetic.  The exchange students came and went, spirit week started and ended, I performed in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, I sung at the auction, and I finished my movie and showed it on Recital Project Night.  I even started an entry after the exchange students left, but I never got around to finishing it, and now it isn’t even relevant anymore.  It was a ton of fun having them here though.  I stayed at Trevor’s house that whole week since it was my brothers spring break, and my parents took him to see east coast colleges.  Trevor had an exchange student named Kouki who spoke practically no English and didn’t show any emotion.  He could say “Yes,” “No,” “I don know,” “So-so,” and “I’m so full.”  We had no homework that week, and we did all sorts of things, like go into the city, go bowling, mini-golfing, baseball game, tennis, and a field trip to the Asian Art Museum one day.  I took so many pictures that week… The pictures aren’t working for some reason right now, but maybe I’ll add them later.


    The next week was Spirit Week, organized by the SC.  Lorri actually received two complaints from parents about Spirit Week.  Spirit Week!  They said we shouldn’t have planned it for that week because it would be too stressful with Recital Project Night coming up and all.  Since when is spirit stressful?  Nobody was forcing anyone to dress up either.  It was just a fun little thing that you could choose to do if you wanted.  I dressed up every day, just because I would have gotten a load of crap from people if I didn’t dress up one day.  It was fun though.  Not a ton of people dressed up, but enough.


    The next week on Wednesday was the first performance of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.  I was Snoopy, Claire was Lucy, John was Charlie Brown, Trevor was Linus, and Charlotte was Sally.  I was surprised at how well we pulled it together.  I had lost my first script that we got like 2 months before we started rehearsals, and I only got my 2nd script like 5 days before the performance, so actually I guess I was just surprised that I was able to get my lines and my song down.  We performed it Wednesday and Friday after school, and then again the next Friday during assembly.


    A week before last Saturday was the Nueva Benefit Auction.  The theme was (Brazilian) Carnaval, so the steel drums and world music classes played at the auction.  One of the songs was “Hot Hot Hot” by Buster Poindexter, and I sung it while the steel drum played.  There was actually a producer in the audience (the one that donated the tickets to the Emmy’s and down the red carpet), and she liked me!  She said she wants to try to find me something!  She didn’t even know I liked acting.  Singing isn’t really my thing, but I guess she just saw stage presence.  We’ve been e-mailing back and forth, so I’ll keep you updated.


    Last Thursday was Recital Project Night!  I spent 3 hours one day, and 9 hours another, editing my movie with my mentor, to be ready for Thursday.  I was so excited at how it turned out.  There are a few pieces I would have shot differently, but looking back I think it really came out well.  The whole thing was pretty much experimental, so just that it ended up looking like something coherent was either really amazing or really lucky.  My mentor really was a ton of help; I never would have been able to do all that cool editing without him.  My advisor Karen was submitting a movie my class made last year in Art class to the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival (http://www.mediafestival.org/), so I decided to send mine in too.  The judging results come out in about a month, but I highly doubt I’ll win, because Karen said there are 100′s of submissions in each category, and 1000′s overall.  I was also just searching around, and I found this: http://www.studentfilms.com/.  That looked really cool, and a great place to host my movie online so other people could see it, so I went ahead and sent my movie in to that!  It should be up on the site in 2-4 weeks.  When I give copies of my movie to people, I’m going to ask for a $2 donation that would be used to pay for that submission, and any other costs of furthering the reaches of my movie, like submitting it to other festivals.  Let me know if you are going to want a copy.


    Anyway, it’s Spring Break now, and we are about to leave for Lake Tahoe.  My aunt, uncle, and two little cousins from Seattle will be up there.  I wanted to finish this before we go because I don’t really have Internet access up there, and I’ve already put this entry off long enough.  When I come back, I’ll put up pictures of me as my four characters, so if you haven’t seen me as a Goth girl or a homeless man yet, you will.  I’ll let you know when my movie gets on that site.  Thanks for reading, now leave comments ,


    ~Adam

March 20, 2005

  • Ok so I lied, I didn’t update the next day like I said I would.  Shoot me.  Actually I shouldn’t say that, because someone out there is probably on the verge of doing so.  So don’t shoot me.  Please.  So now I shall stretch my memory way back in the day when it was last Friday.  You don’t really have to read this entry, because it’s just a fairly boring day by day summary of last week.  I still however, advise you to pretend like you read it and comment with nice thoughts and optional cookies.  That would make me smile, or at least open my mouth for the cookie.  That is only if you leave me a cookie of course.


    When I got back from the retreat, I had my one and only letter from a private high school I applied to, Crystal.  I got in, and the letter they wrote was really personal.  In one line they said “…you impressed the Admission Committee with your commitment to student government at Nueva, sense of humor and passion for the stage.”  There’s Adam in a sentence for you.  So that was nice.  Once I got in I decided I would at least consider it (I had been planning to go BHS), so I thought about it a lot and my mom scheduled me a shadow day.  That night I went with Trevor, Shana, Kathryn, Riley, Marlowe, and John to the Crystal play, Footloose.  Graham Toben (who used to go to Nueva, and is now a Junior at Crystal, and when I was in 6th grade all the 8th graders called me Mini-Graham) was the lead; I didn’t know he had a good voice.  I liked the play, it’s well written and exciting, but I think some of the dance numbers could have had more energy from some people.


    Sunday I went with Marlowe, Alex D, Mai, Riley, Kathryn, Shana, and Andreanna to a fairly early evening showing of Be Cool.  It wasn’t that good, but there was a funny line at the beginning where John Travolta said something like, “Did you know you can only say the F word once in a movie to hold a PG-13 movie?  You know what I say?  F*** that.)  After that Alex, Andreanna, and Shana left, and the rest of us went to dinner at Amici’s.  On the way there we walked by some poor schizoid guy that was cursing out anything and everything.  After dinner we went to Marlowe’s house, and went in the hot tub and watched the first hour or so of a movie before I went home.


    Monday we had no school (of course we didn’t, it’s Nueva), so I didn’t really do much besides go to tennis from 3:30-5:30 for a makeup for the rainy days, and Arielle was there too since they mixed Red Star 1 and 2.  I did the same thing Thursday.


    Tuesday I didn’t really have any homework, so I went with my parents, Riley and Kathryn’s family, and Marlowe’s family to a showing of a documentary about Woman’s tennis that a good friend of Marlowe’s mom made.  It was pretty interesting and the little town near Marin that it was showing in had a great view of the city and was really small and cute.


    Wednesday I shadowed at Crystal again.  I got Nick as my host which was pretty cool, since he had been my host for Nueva too.  In a French class that I went to, all seven or so of the people that went to Crystal last year from Nueva were all in the same class.  It was cool seeing them all again.  I liked my visit; I felt like I fit in pretty easily and talked with a lot of people.  I still stand by that I think Crystal would be a safe choice for me.  I think I would be happy and fit in, but I also think that socially wise, it would be a continuation of Nueva, and I wouldn’t learn to deal with the types of people I need to learn how to deal with.  So even though I think Crystal would be nice, I’m going to take a chance with BHS.  It keeps life simple to not really have any social problems, but then again I need to learn how to handle bullying and teasing and such.  I would say I would be an easy target for that in high school, just because I’m such an outgoing and ‘out there’ person.  I might really annoy some people at first.  I guess I’m just getting nervous about high school.  I’m curious who I’ll end up being friends with.  I know a number of people from various places that are going to BHS, like elementary schools, or soccer teams, or from tennis.  Plus I’ll have John and maybe Arielle with me.


    This weekend my parents are out of town at some resort in Carmel with some friends.  Friday I went to this Carnival thing (that’s Brazilian car-nih-VAL not like a circus carnival) at Nueva.  They had some of the schools steel drums bands playing and they got this band from the city to come and play called Loco Bloco (http://www.locobloco.org ).  The benefit auction theme is going to be Carnival, and my world music class is going to be playing, and I’m going to be singing ‘Hot Hot Hot’ for the Steel Drum class.  That’s gonna be hot .  I’m also doing another singing thing for Claire’s recital project.  She’s directing parts of ‘You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown’, and I’m Snoopy, so I have a solo song.  Speaking of recital projects I still have my last character yet to film, and then I need to edit.  I’m excited for recital project night.


    Yesterday I did absolutely nothing.  You know you had a boring day when the most interesting story of the day is that you realized that you were out of syrup after you started toasting your waffles, so you took them out and put them back in the box, only to find out later in the day that the extra syrup was in the one place you didn’t look.  I woke up at noon, so now I’m ready to eat breakfast and go outside.  Too bad it’s night .


    Ken gave us some great goddish news and said he was canceling the Science test on the skulls and anthropology and such, but now we have to focus on our critical analysis papers more.  My revision is going to be so hard; he gave me a ton of comments that I have no idea how to respond to.  I still know no (Noh) Japanese, and we are going to Japan in like a month and a half.


    In student council, we (or I) have been trying to get an extra dance for the Friday when the exchange students are here (April 1st), but now Lorri says that that is too close to the scheduled dance, April 29th.  So now we have to choose one or the other, we can’t have both.  It’s either April 1st with the exchange students, or the 29th with guests.  Then I wanted to look into a dance June 3rd, once everyone is back from their trips (there isn’t a day in May where all 3 grades are around), but now we can’t do it then either because that’s the same day as the 4th and 5th grade culmination.  Then the next week is graduation.  So after all that we are still only going to have one more dance this year.  We are going to have a spirit week though, April 4th through 8th.  I wish we had more to show for all of our (my ) hard work though.  I did put in a proposal that I wrote to get new microwaves for the MS kitchen, and Lorri said that that is going to happen.  It’s just bureaucracy crap that’s making everything take so long.  Trust me; I am putting a lot of work into this, even if it doesn’t show.  I got us a page in the yearbook, which is cool, and I like how my page with Trevor and John turned out.  I got Adobe Premiere recently to use to edit my movie and anything else, and Photoshop came with it.  So here is our yearbook page (I had to black out Lorri’s note because I don’t think we are supposed to see that yet) and two pictures I fooled with in Photoshop:





    That’s all for now, I’m off to bed.  Have a good one,


    ~Adam

March 15, 2005

  • Hey, got back from the retreat Friday, and this weekend has been pretty fun.  First off I just want to say, I would have loved the trip to the zen center (called Green Gulch, near Marin I think) if it was just a regular field trip, but I’m not exactly sure it fit what the retreat was meant as… a time to ‘retreat’.  I have a TON of pictures, and it’s probably going to take me hours to add them to this entry.  It took forever just to upload and host them.  I’ll be pissed is Photobucket shuts down or something and I lose all my image hosting.  Anyway, it sucked, cus I was sick the whole time, since Wednesday night.  I had a sore throat, headaches, runny nose, fever… etc. I was pretty much a wreck.  I even had to miss the meditation everyone else went to because I would be too much of a distraction.  When we first got there though, we went to the beach (you know, one of those great Northern California beaches ) and did some relays which were pretty fun (my team kicked all of your butts of course ).  Then we went back and checked into our rooms.  I was in the only 4 person room, with Trevor, John, and Alex D, and a few of the other guys were right in the same place, while everyone else was in the Guesthouse.  Some interesting conversations (and sounds, might I mention) with the guys there at night.  Wednesday night we watched some foriegn film that no one paid attention to, and everyone pretty much left in the middle.  Thursday we had a work schedule… yay.  My group worked in the garden pulling non-native plants in the blistering sun, then we had our tea ceremony that Kenji farted in, and that killed my knees.  Then we went back to work, this time pulling more plants, Cape Ivy this time, and I accidentally grabbed poison oak, so I had to walk back to the zen center all by myself and washed it off with the poison oak soap.  So at this point I have poison oak, I’m sick, my knees hurt and the rest of my body is acheing, and I’m sunburnt, but I’m not complaining  (don’t get me wrong I had fun).  At a meal sometime that day though, I was in line getting my food, and the guy next to me started singing the bean fart song (they must know a lot of those considering every meal is vegetarian).  I joined in, and so did the guy across from me.  You know how it goes, “Beans beans, the magical fruit/The more you eat, the more you toot/The more you toot, the better you feel/So eat your beans at every meal.”  Or the other one “Beans beans they’re good for your heart/The more you eat the more you fart/The more you fart the better you feel/So lift your leg and let it squeel.”  My apologies to any girl who just read that, you should learn to choose your literature more wisely.  The first 10 minutes of every meal was supposed to be silent, just like almost every other moment we were there, even working in the garden.  I had a really good conversation about religion with Christian, Dan (math teacher), and Claire that night after dinner.  Then we met and talked about high schools, and then I stayed back with a group of about 10 and we played Telephone and Mafia, which is a ton of fun.  I love playing Mafia because it’s such a mind game, and using tactics to manipulate people… hehehe.  The next day we had an appreciation circle and we each wrote how we wanted to be remembered as a class, and that was nice, sweet, and and all that mushy stuff.  We went back to the beach again, and then headed home.  Ready for the pictures?  Beware, there is about 60.  But as painful as it is to look at all of them, just find hapiness in the fact that it took me 40 times as long to put them up.  And then there’s more writing afterwards .  I know what you’re thinking, why does he write so much?  Easy.  It’s a great way to put off homework.




























    And the blackmail picture!



    Actually, since that took so long and it’s late, I’m going to do the extra writing later, hopefully tomorrow.  So until then, farewell my fellow onliners with more of a life than me.


    ~Adam