Schools In- But Not Forever

I started school this week, which was a LOT of fun. It's strange being a junior, an upper-class man, though. I'm still not used to saying I'm in 11th grade. However, I have great teachers this year. I'm the Assistant for my Spanish I teacher from last year, Senora Everist, and I'm going to design a class website for her. My AP (Advanced Placement) English teacher, Mr. Sudak, is funny and entertaining, as is my AP European History teacher, Mr. Lambert. I also have Spanish II, Algebra II (which involved getting a $79 graphing calculator), a semester of Ceramics, a semester of Weight Lifting, Graphic Arts II, and Marine Science. The funny thing with my Marine Science teacher, Ms. Kiki, is that she got her Bachelors Degree at UW-Madison, so she's a HUGE Packer and Badgers fan. She also is the teacher for the Science Olympiad team, coach for JV and Varsity soccer, and plays ice hockey and soccer in her free time. Also, she reminds me of Mags, my Latin teacher from West, and my friend Shoshana, combined.

With school, swim team has also started again. Most of my friends from last year are on the team, including Ryan and Nick, the music geeks, David, our resident movie-director-in-the-making, Sunny, the girly-girl of us all, Kat, my fellow classmate from history last year, and Ellie, the Sonoran Desert Museum junior docent and girl scout (who just returned from a six-month sabbatical in Japan). I'm still the shortest on the team by a good inch, but it gives my friends and coach, RJ, a good thing to tease me about. GO CFHS FALCONS, SWIMMING STATE CHAMPS FOR TEN YEARS RUNNING!

Photo Show

This last week, CFHS (Catalina Foothills High School) had our annual photo show. Every photography student had to submit five photographs. If you were voted on for "best overall portfolio" or "best photograph" you got a special place to show two photos at the U of A in a Tucson High School Show that includes judging and prizes. I'm one of those students who got picked! Next Thursday, I'm gonna miss school, spending the whole day at the U of A for the show. I'm SUPER excited! I'll post some of the photos after school on Monday 'cause I have to get the computer versions off my school account.

2009 State Meet Champions!

WE WON! This weekend we had the 2009 High School State Swim Meet and Catalina WON! For both the boys' and girls' teams! Its the tenth year in a row that the boys have won. The girls won eight years in a row, then we got second place last year. Now, we've won again. Our boys team actually won by over 200 points and the 400 freestyle relay was a second off the State Record. A few of our girls won their events, such as Brianna and Karima, who are both sprinters. Only a few of our kids didn't make it to the finals (the top 16 for each event) and two of those kids were a girl, Sarah, who is on our DD (Dominating Distance Team) and one of my closest friends, Nick. However, Sarah dropped a lot of time in her 500 freestyle and Nick now has a 24.4 in his 50 free. Thankfully, they both have next year to make it to finals since he is a junior and she is a freshman.

I got 14th for the 500 free and 14th I think for the 100 backstroke. After the meet was over, we followed our usual custom for the state meet and got into a huddle. The girls form a ring in the center with the guys around us. We all throw our arms over each others shoulders and rock back and forth, waiting for the announcer to tell us the results. It was girls' results first and when we found out that we won for our division, we were so excited. RJ, our coach, was so happy because the Arizona Daily Star (the state newspaper) said that our girls' team wouldn't even win at our Regional Meet. Well, we won Regionals and we also won at State! What also was awesome was that our rival, Sabino Canyon, got third in the division. CDO (Canyon del Oro), the next nearest high school to us, got second, which we were all surprised by because Sabino is the only team who got close to beating us in the dual meets.

So it was just an amazing weekend. We stayed at a Hyatt for two nights (Thursday and Friday), dressed up for Holloween night while we ate a pasta dinner, and I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends. I also got to meet new friends. Because of how our team is set up, the kids who practice with the high school team don't often interact with the kids who practice with their club team. This means that the high school kids and the club teams don't know each other very well. So this meet gave me a chance to meet a lot more of the swimmers and became even closer friend with the ones I already knew.