So, hi this is Emma, and I was asked to talk about my school year. The first thing that really happened in school was the Spain Trip.
Spain Trip
Leaving for the Airport
The Spain Trip was a school sponsored trip so that we could have first-hand experience for Spanish class (I learned more in Spain than in all of my Spanish classes). On the Spain trip I was able to spend tons of time with my two friends during the evenings when we were in our room. Unluckily we were in different chaperone groups so we didn’t see much of each other during the day. In the chaperones groups we toured around Spain in Sevilla and other places in the southern Spain area. My group leader is the guy in the pink shirt in the pic above just outside of the bus. He was the best teacher in the whole middle school (for a guy). When we were told we could shop with our chaperones my teacher looked down on his five students and shooed us off and told him to meet him in 10 min. while he had coffee.
Softball
Playing Outfield
Up to Bat
Supportive Siblings
Supportive Sisters Even in the Cold!
Team Cheer
“Good game, good game!”
Team Picture
These series of pics show my softball season this year. I had the privilege of playing on the team with four of my friends. We had a blast and all played beautifully. We won most of our games and went out fighting when we lost (to be fair those British teams are scary). My school’s mascot and team name is Hawks and it was it was fun to be able to represent my school with team spirit, (plus I could boast to all those guys when “I” won a game).
Hadeel & Maesha
These two girls came from Belgium for ISSTs softball. That means that teams from all over come and compete with each other. We had the honor to host these awesome girls and I got to become great friends with both of them.
Outward Bound
This is Outward Bound. I like to rant about this experience and this is a good way to do that. So to get to were we were going we traveled two hours (in a crowded bus of eighth grade boys – you can imagine the terror I was feeling) to Aberdovy, Wales. When we first arrived we found our rooms to be small and ten girls packed into each one. Piled in the rooms were prison bunks (I am not joking here – they were yellow and metal and prison-like). Every night they would lock us in our rooms.
Anyway, on the first day we did trust exercises, which just taught me to trust no one (I mean look at my group in the above pic; they do not look trustworthy). The next day we packed for our 18 mile hike (all uphill – no joke) and then camp. So we packed everything and then we had one last night in our warm (comparatively) beds. When we set out we were not so excited and everything just got worse after that. Being Wales it started to rain as heavily as the skies would allow. When we finally reached our campsite it was dark and everyone was exhausted. We looked at our campsite as if it was heaven on earth (not minding at that time that it was a sheep field and our campsite the sheep’s personal toilet), then we were told that we would have to hike another mile or two to collect our camp supplies. It was mostly downhill until we got our huge bags (which weighted as much as I did) then we had to go back the other way, all uphill.
Finally we ate our space food in a bag and fell asleep in our poorly constructed tents. The next morning we were told that we would be rock climbing a sheer rock face. My stomach jumped. I knew that I would be laughed at because I was deathly afraid of heights. We climbed a mountain first just to get the hang of it then we started to climb the rock face. I held back and tried to disappear into the weeds but at the last minute our instructor, James, noticed me and hooked me up to the ropes. I protested a queasy stomach and warned I would throw up but he grabbed the rope and hauled me up five feet, which seemed so scary to me – I was petrified. But I didn’t want to stand there so continued up the rock face. Half-way up I looked down and started to sob. I begged James to let me down but he said nothing and continued to hold the rope steady, leaving me dangling on the rock face. Not wanting to hang there, I made it to the top. When I came back down, as relieved as could be, James told me that the track on the rock that I had followed was the hardest track on the wall to maneuver. This made me very proud and when the awards were given out per group, my teacher gave me the Personal Achievement award out of all the kids in my group.
8th Grade Graduation
Our 8th Grade Class
Mrs. LaPine and Me
Me & Andrea Walking Down the Aisle
8th Grade Girls
My Good Friends
This series of pics shows my graduation day. The entire day was practicing for the actual ceremony. I can’t count how many times I walked up and down that aisle. Luckily they put us in height order so I wasn’t paired with a boy (this is the reason I wore flats.). It was sad to say goodbye to all the people that were leaving but luckily all my friends and most of those I wanted to stay are staying and I will see them next year.
Over all it was a great year and I can’t wait for next year!
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