Theater Notes

Hi readers, it’s Nicholas. During Thursday’s class, Mr. Brian spoke to us about Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo which is a tragic war story. To start with I want to say that I really like the story Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo story because it’s just one of those real love stories that you don’t hear very often. Some of the notes that I wrote down was frame of reference which is how we see Slash perceive the world. We spoke a bit about documentary Theater which you have to do a few things to achieve and to start with you have to choose a theme, then you choose a subject, you then choose a research subject matter plus misleading trajectory, frame of reference, audience, review material, order the material, Workshop material, and finally need to rehearse good directors and blocking. We spoke about other things but these were the most important things so these are the ones that I decided to note down.

Genius Hour Project

20130119_DSC_9862.jpg Mateusz Łoskot via Compfight

For my Genius Hour Project I choice to do my research on rock climbing. I have been rocking climbing before and liked it a lot. I think I’m pretty good if I say so myself. When I was doing my research I learnt good safety types like that you should always tell friends and family where you will be going and when you will be coming back. You tell your friends and family so that if you don’t come back in time they know where to go and where to send help.  Another good tip is to never go climbing alone. Whenever you go climbing go with at least two friends. I also learnt that you should always check the weather before you go climbing because you don’t want to get caught in a storm and have to call for help.

Not only did this project teach me new and very important tips about climbing but It also helped me grow as a  person. I learnt how to do research independently but more importantly do research on a topic of my choice. Before this project I had never done research on a topic I had chosen before. This also helped me grow as a person because it taught me to have faith and not give up on my ideas. I wanted to do my research on rock climbing but thought it would be boring for my peers to listen to a presentation on rock climbing so I did a bit of research on race cars. Soon I switched back to rock climbing and I’m glad I did so because I think my class liked it a lot.

What I learnt during my Genius Hour will help many people who are interested in starting to rock climb. Instead of them having to learn from trial and error or them having to take a lot of time and do there own research they can just listen to my presentation and they will be prepared to go climbing. When I do research on survival I will help many people who like the outdoors or are outside a lot. My research will prevent them form having any trouble if they get lost or hurt in the wild.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qu698TQGGCHZAZEKPDbCIDxMYNAnHgoTj2giG27xDXE/edit

Twitter Expert

Alfonso en Mens juan valdes via Compfight

For the Twitter Expert part 1 and 2 I did several things. Firstly I followed ten people on Twitter who I thought were experts in my Genius Hour Project which was rock climbing and high altitude rock climbing. I followed @thestonemind @WriterGrrrl @udini @sashadigiulian @tfsohn @katesiber @JonGugala @Earth_ist @HalSF @stephanieapears. These people are authors, freelance writers, journalists and they work for well known magazines. All seemed to be very experienced rock climbers.

After I followed them I asked them questions about rock climbing. I asked them all sorts of things such as what the most dangerous mountain they climbed was, if there is something they always made sure to bring with them that wasn’t anything obvious like ropes, helmets and water bottles. I asked them where the most remote place they’ve climbed was and what the longest time they have climbed a single mountain was. I asked them these type of questions because I wanted to learn something that I couldn’t just search up on the internet, I wanted to learn something about their personal experience that was unique. I thought that that would have been more interesting to add in my presentation.

 After two to three days I started getting a few responses but the the responses weren’t what I was looking for. A few of the people I followed liked the question I asked them but they did not respond to it. Mr Leinbach gave me a bit of hope by telling me that sometimes people like a tweet so that they don’t forget to respond to it which gave me some well needed confidence. I checked Twitter a few days later, and he was right! They had responded. It still wasn’t what I was looking for but at least it was something. About three people responded and they said things like “Hi Nicholas haven’t done a lot of long climbs. Ha’Ling Peak in Canmore  was fun (app 2400m elevation gain).”

What I realized was that many people I tweeted weren’t active climbers anymore. Since they weren’t active climbers anymore I didn’t think there was a need to continue the conversation. I will us what I learnt in school when I need credible sources because there are many well educated people on Twitter. Overall, Twitter Expert taught me that real experts are a lot easier to access than I thought and with enough persistence you will be able to learn anything.  

Around The World in 80 Days

Running, sprinting, looking around for something that you just can’t find. Today I will be talking about one of my favorite things to do, travel. I have traveled so much I can not even remember how many times I have been on a plane. I live in Senegal and to get to see my grandparents and to go for an occasional ski you have to go to Italy and The Netherlands. To get there I have to take at least two plane rides then to go to were ever you want you have to take another plane ride. That’s three in total and two more to get home, so five plane rides to visit grandparents and ski.

But travel is more than just sitting in a plane. Travel is learning about new cultures and experiencing new things. For example I almost always fly with Turkish Airlines and the airport in Istanbul (not mentioning the line in front of the Starbucks) is the most diverse place I have ever seen. In this airport you will see people from the middle east, people from Asia, people from Africa, people from the US and people from Europe. There are people from around the world in just one airport.

While traveling you experience soooooo much. I lived in Tunisia for a year and was in the airport like three times. There were goats with hay on the ground and no walks. The airport was a run way and a room with a roof over it, nothing more, nothing less. I would never have thought I would experience something like so close to Italy. Thank you for reading and please reply in the comments what weird travel stories you have.

 

No One Surfs Alone

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If you’ve been reading my blogs you should know that I LOVE to surf. And if you like to surf and live in Dakar you have the chance to surf with a group. You dont have to, you can surf by yourself or you can be like me and surf with a group like Quiksilver, Rip curl or Malika. Even though these groups have there rivalries we always have each others backs.

If you read my last blog you know that surfing inst necessarily a safe sport and things can happen to you. That is why you never and I mean NEVER surf alone. You dont have to even know that person but if your with him/her you are so much safer than if you were alone. That is why I like to think that there is a strong surf community in Dakar. Surfing is a new sport in Senegal so there arnt that many people who surf. There isn’t either much of a coast guard so we kind of have to look out for our selfs and each other.

All that you have to do to be part of the community is respect each other and be kind to each other. This means that you say Bonjour, ca va? (which means hello and how are you in french) when you paddle into the line up. This also means that you dont drop in on someone (which means that you dont paddle and then surf the wave if someone is already on the wave, which is also a good safety tip). Now you know how to join the surf commuity we welcome you in.

Photo link = https://www.flickr.com/photos/photobak/16331028016/in/photolist-qT7MEy-6XDrwg-b264Yk-2ssphS-75QevC-56cPfo-edh2eZ-2PFaAr-oasn87-nBDnWs-7Nwhj1-8APS3F-dYsmi6-5gmwLg-7NwhxQ-9Vj15y-8dDmvf-pzR76z-fUXyGp-5jJ4mN-8RAidL-gKBaoe-cyKB6S-qJnN1y-6UXBtX-fUWyHV-pLWosb-dYsmyM-auBzXD-6wvoRM-6jWeGY-7h7yEN-6SUg44-pG24eb-rfPXvP-bzqx7h-bmTUT-6shtHr-6hyEF1-5DxhHr-btmzy9-6CaHj2-7mQZoL-fUXBED-pZAGQf-pN6ffh-nmWfVR-9E6JG6-6huvwZ-5iyUu5

Go Jaguars!!

If you don’t know already, I go to a school called The International School of Dakar. ISD is located in the capital of a country called Senegal. Senegal is the country most to the west on the continent of Africa. What’s really cool about my school is that from the 3rd and 4th flour you can see the Atlantic Ocean. If I had really and I mean really good binoculars I could see South America. Enough about my school and more about me. I am in 9th grade with 50 other kids from around the world. Thankfully 9th grade is not as hard as I thought it would have been. When I was in middle school (which is on the same campus) I was really worried about going to High School. Now that I am in Middle school it’s not the work that stresses me out it’s all of my after school activities. On Monday and Wednesday I have tennis or swimming depending on the trimester. On Tuesday and Thursday I have Dutch School from 5:10pm to 6:40pm. On Fridays after school I surf for about two hours and on Saturday and Sunday I surf for like 4-5 hours depending if the waves are good or not. I hope you learned a bit about my school and what activities I have. If you have any questions just comment below. BBBYYYEEEEE!!!!

Commenting?

During the Student Blog Challenge I have gotten many comments like 80 plus. I really love receiving and reading your comments and keep them coming. I read all your comments and try to reply. Trust me. Sometimes there just not enough time to reply to all your comments. I personal dont think there is anything annoying about commenting. I found interesting comments by looking at the flip board. Overall this blog I’m going to keep short and sweet so BYEEEEEE!!

Final Breath

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If you might not know already I LOVE to surf. I surf around 3 times a week and can not get enough. Its very hard to describe how addicting it is so just trust me when I say its addicting. If you wanna be a good surfer there are a few things you need to know. Firstly, when you surf you will get hurt. I have cut my head on my fines numerous times and even know people who had to get stitches. Whats most important is not how good you are but that when you have a bad day or you get hurt you keep surfing. This is the only way to get better. As a wise woman once said “The bad days only make the good day so much better.”

Besides a good attitude, to be a good surfer you must know the rules. These rules are that you say hi to people when you paddle to the line up and that you don’t drop in on people. Dropping in on people is when someone is already surfing the wave and you paddle and stand up in front of them so they loose there wave.

Another important rule is to relax and keep calm when you wipe out. When you take your last breath before going under you want to keep your heart beating as slow as possible. When your heart beats fast it consumes more oxygen therefore forcing you to go up sooner than you want to. Thank you for reading and if you have the chance I hope you try to go surf.

 

Genius Hour Project

In my Technology class we have been taking time in class to work on a project of our choice. People did things like rocket ships, origami and graffiti. I personally did water pollution, a subject I am very interested in, due to the fact that I spend a lot of time in water swimming and surfing. I learned a lot about The Giant Pacific Garbage Patch. I thought that it was an island of trash, it was really a space were Micro Plastics are brought together with tides. These Micro Plastics are very small and extremely easy for animals to eat. Not only does our pollution affect animals in and around water, the pollution affects us as well. A fish might eat a piece of plastic by accident and another piece by accident and before you know it, this same fish is on our plats soon to be eaten by us.

What I learned is important because I will teach people what I learned and teach them the importance of not polluting our oceans. Here is the video I made.

My next genius hour will be making a viral video. This will impact people because many people see these videos and therefore you can spread a message.