School Projects

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in maybe a decade (okay, two weeks, but in the blogging world those are basically the same thing). Honestly I just haven't been doing anything really blog-worthy lately, and have been so swamped with schoolwork that I all I've had time to do is study. It seems that since the first marking period ends this week, all of my teachers are frantically cramming in the required number of tests, quizzes, and projects that they somehow forgot to factor into the rest of the term. Which means that instead of giving you guys a great post about Halloween, I spent the entire night at home finishing a formal lab write-up due the next day. This lab counts as three test grades, and my teacher forgot to give us the rubric for it until the day before it was due, which coincidentally happened to be Halloween, and I had specifically gotten all of my homework done on Wednesday just so I would be able to go out with my friends. Sidenote: this is also the teacher that lost my quiz before she could grade it, so she gave me a zero. 

On a separate note, in World History we're learning about the Exploration (Columbus, the New World, etc. etc.). But because I'm in this accelerated program at my school, instead of taking a test on the unit, we had two projects instead. 

Project 1: Two mock-trials, where Christopher Columbus and Francisco Pizarro were being charged for crimes against humanity against the natives of the Americas. You were assigned a part for one of the trials (defense/prosecution witness or defense/prosecution attorney), and you would serve on the jury for whichever trial you weren't apart of. We spent a week researching our character (I was a Peninsular, a defense witness, which is a member of the top social rank of Spaniards in the New World), and then would be tried in the court. It was actually really fun! It was a little intimidating to be questioned in front of the entire class (especially when, as a Peninsular, I had to defend the use of slavery and the murder of thousands of Incan natives), but overall I'd say it was much cooler than a test, and we learned a lot. Plus, the jury found Pizarro not guilty (both juries had to base their rulings solely on the evidence provided during the trial, even if they knew that it wasn't accurate), and we won the case! 

Project 2: Everyone created a dish that used ingredients from the New World and the Old World. We all brought in the food on Monday, and we spend the entire class eating! Needless to say, this was definitely one of my favorite projects ever. I made Nutella rolls with cream cheese icing, and made the biscuit dough myself. These sound good, but they came out disappointingly bland. However, I remade the recipe using a pumpkin-cream cheese filling I developed, and they are amazing-recipe coming soon! 

Anyways, I just wanted to throw a quick post out there to let you all know I'm alive, and will post something much more interesting shortly! 

Beaches and Ballgames (Your Typical High School Weekend)

This past Friday, I went to a football game...
...and not just any football game, my first high school football game. ever.
I apologize for the severe lack of pictures, I promise to have more the next time around!

We started the night off watching our team kick butt against a little rural farm school from the middle of nowhere. They tried to hold their chins high as they watched their team fall into the clutches of the Rebels, but they just didn't stand a chance.
Also, as Freshman, we were confined to the upper rows of the bleachers, packed in tighter than sardines. But eventually the chilly, windy night began to set in, and we started to be pretty grateful for all that body heat.
Plus we won 24-14, so score.
Anyways, I only managed to snap one photo, and it may just win the title "Katie's worst photo of 2013"

I promise, I promise I'm not usually that awkward-looking. Oh wait, yes I am.

Oh, and by the way, a friend I went to middle school with was having a slumber party that night, and I had told her I was going to shoot over to her house the second the game was over.
But there's a frozen yogurt shop five blocks from my school, so of course I just had to stop by, right? I mean everyone was going. I'm a horrible person.

Nevertheless, I did eventually manage to show up at my friend's house. At 11pm. 3 hours late.

But hey, the party don't start 'till I walk in anyways.

The next morning, most people went home, but one other friend and I got to go with the birthday girl to Virginia beach. Not to mention the fact that while it was warm and sunny there, we were going to be skipping town on the coldest, rainiest day of the week, so extra points!

Again sorry for the lack of pictures, but basically we spent the entire day boogie boarding and sun soaking, so eventually we were bound to get hungry, right? We went to grab a slice at a little pizza joint across the street, but we were silly enough to walk their in our bikini tops! Clearly we forgot about the "no shirt no shoes no service" rule. Thankfully a T-shirt shop next door was selling shirts for $2 a piece, plus they had free saltwater taffy! Random right? Funny how things work out. After we decided our pizza wasn't quite filling enough, we decided to pop into the Ben n' Jerry's next door...

Beaches, pizza, and cookie dough ice cream. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Is it bad that an oatmeal cookie was the healthiest thing I ate that day? Nah. Totally worth it.

Eventually we had to get back to reality, since we all had our textbooks to read and quizzes to study for. Leave it to high school to ruin your fun.
We left just in time though, because that was right when all that rain that had been hitting back home finally rolled in!

Another football game this weekend, and more pictures are promised to follow!

5 Things I Learned after my First Week of High School

It's official...I somehow managed to survive the first week of Freshman year. Just barely. In a sense, it was similar to how I was expecting it to be, but also different in a few ways. Since I'm going to a special program that isn't at my zone high school, I didn't know a single person. Not one. And now that my heart-rate has gone back down to a semi-normal speed, I thought I'd share with you the 5 things I learned after my first weekof high school. For those of you still in middle school, maybe you'll learn a few things; for those of you in high school, maybe you can give me some encouragement that I'll be able to get through the rest of the year unscathed!

(I know the picture says 10...it's 5)

1. You will never feel smaller than you do in 9th grade. You just spent your entire 8th grade year at the top of the food chain, and nothing keeps your ego in check like getting smacked back down to the very bottom again. The seniors are big and scary, and they strut through those halls like they own the place. You're a scrawny 14 year old feeling more out of place than a polar bear in the Sahara. It sucks, but hey, it's all part of the Freshman experience!
2. High school is sketchy. Some people (like myself) went to a sheltered, suburban middle school where texting in class was considered a felony and cough drops were contraband drugs. For those of you who went to a more inner city middle school, just know that the term "sketchy" takes a whole new meaning when you get to high school. My first day I walked into the gym bathroom, only to start feeling a little lightheaded and dizzy. Next thing I know another girl comes in after me and says, "oh gawd, someone was smokin' some pot in here!" I've officially done secondhand marijuana. 
3. Your teachers move five times faster. The thing about high school is you get 2 or 3 days to review what you learned the year before, and then get thrown headfirst into a whole pool of new material. Like seriously, I have to give a 3 minute public speech on Monday. This is the second week of school- don't you usually wait until the second semester for this stuff?? 
4. Not everyone wants to be your friend. Coming from someone who has been the new kid a few times, I can tell you right now that in high school it's a whole lot harder to find your group of people. Why? Because high school is cliquey! It's as simple as that. But just know that if your high school is as big as mine is, your group is bound to be out there somewhere, and it might take a little bit before you find them. I know that in seventh grade it wasn't until the second semester that I found the people I could really identify with, and from then on it was a breeze! 
5. This is it. Take a look around- these are the same people you'll see on your graduation day. These are the same hallways you'll walk down as a senior. These are the same bleachers you'll cheer from when you're 16, 17, 18, maybe even years later when you're watching your kids run down that same field. You'll make more memories in this school than you will anywhere else these next four years. You're still a kid, enjoying your last run before you have to move out and start your adult life. If you're anything like me, this realization will hit you the minute you step into school your first day, and it'll make you want to high-tail it back to your kindergarten teacher and beg her to take you back. 

For those of you who haven't started high school yet, I hope I've scared you enough that you'll want to take full advantage of your last year of middle school. For those of you already in high school, I hope you can relate to these, and if you have any more lessons feel free to share them! But honestly, high school is one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking experiences I've had so far, even though I'm only 5 days in. You'll hate it, but at the same time you'll love it, because for the first time you finally start to feel like you're growing up, and it's great! Enjoy the good and embrace the bad, it's all part of the experience!

DIY Binder Covers

(The monograms on mine messed up when I emailed them to my mom so she could print them, oh well!)

For most of you, school has already started. For the rest, it's rapidly approaching. My school starts on the third, and I've spent the past two weeks in a desperate scramble to get everything done. So far, it's been a flurry of clothes shopping, last-minute summer reading, and, of course, searching for school supplies that are both cute and durable. Believe it or not, that task is a lot easier said than done. Luckily, I've created some adorable covers for the front of my binders, and to kick off the start of my new blog, I thought I'd show you how to make them too!

They're personalized, and can be easily altered to look however you want them too! As an example, I'm going to create a binder cover for my Geometry, Honors Biology, and French II binder (I combine three subjects into one 1.5 inch binder to save space in my backpack, since most of our work is done online anyway).

1. Open up Microsoft Word on your computer (Note: This tutorial is being done on a PC, and unfortunately I'm not sure how differently things are set up on Macs. However, all you Mac-users should be able to figure it out on your own, I believe in you!). 

2. Select the "Shapes" button, and draw a large rectangle. Change the "Shape Fill" and "Shape Outline" to whatever you want- I chose pink. 

3. Create a second rectangle inside the first. 

4. In the "Shape Fill" button, select the same color you used for the first rectangle. 

5. In the "Shape Outline" button, select a second color of your choice- I chose white. 

6. Also in the "Shape Outline" button, mouse over the button labeled "Weight", and select "3 pt."

7. Repeat steps 2-6 towards the bottom of the page, but make it considerably smaller. Alter the colors to your liking- I chose green.

8. Now, go back up to the top rectangle and draw a text box.

9. Alter the "Shape Fill" and "Shape Outline" to match the background color. 

10. Using any font you like (I used Cicle Gordita, off FontSquirrel), Type the name of your binder inside the circle. Make sure it's big enough to be read easily (I used size 42), and centered. 

11. Repeat steps 8 and 9 with the smaller rectangle towards the bottom of the page. 

12. Using the same font you used for the title, type your first and last name. 

13. You're almost done! Now find a monogram font that you like (I used Monogram KK Font, off dafont.com).

14. In the middle of the page, draw a large text box. Using a size 300 font, press "Shift" and type your last initial. Change the color to whatever you would like- I chose orange

15. Create a second text box to the left and slightly above your last initial, and type your first initial in size 300, but without pressing "Shift" (it will still be uppercase, but will be smaller and the perfect size for your monogram!) Change the color to match your last initial

16. Repeat step 15 on the right side, and using your middle initial. 

And there you have it! No more scribbling "English" across your binder in Sharpie. You now have a way to create cute, personalized covers for all of your binders! 

Test Post

Test test test test