My First Few Days of Eighth Grade

 My First Day of Eighth Grade

Izzy

8/31/20

    Today was my first day of eighth grade. It was definitely a very different experience considering I was wearing sweatpants and stayed inside the entire day. This is because we are continuing online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year is going to be interesting for sure...

    This year we have a completely different schedule and only three classes a quarter. 

My schedule:

1) English

2) French

3) History

4) PE

5) Accelerated Math

6) Science

So for the first and third quarters I will only have English, French, and History. Then for the second and fourth quarter I'll have PE, Math, and Science. I think that only having three classes will make it easier to balance all of my work. 

Today I woke up at 8 and had a very chill morning. I had breakfast and put on sweats and my swim team sweatshirt after I showered. I had my first zoom call with my English teacher at 9:45 which lasted about an hour. The school actually gave us all chrome books so I used mine but the camera was broken. We went over the assignments for this week and my teacher introduced himself. After the call I called one of my friends and we worked on an assignment together, called the Welcome Week Portfolio. It's a bunch of slides where you watch videos and answer questions about digital learning and some other stuff to get you started for the school year. To be honest I don't think it's the most useful thing to be doing and it's pretty long. It took me a little while to figure it out because my teacher didn't go over it in depth. I did some of the slides assigned for today, but got very overwhelmed from the amount of work. I ended up lying on my bed and falling asleep for a little bit.

9/1/20

Today was the second day of school. I woke up at the same time and got ready. Today I had my zoom call for second period, French. It was a pretty easy morning and I worked with my friend Adelin over Facetime. I had much more work to do today to catch up from yesterday but I managed. I needed to let myself take a break yesterday so I didn't finish all of the slides in the portfolio for Monday and had to catch up. Today I felt less stressed and I think getting to talk to my friends while working really helps me. I worked much later today but felt satisfied with everything I did.

9/3/20

Today I had my zoom call for History. It went pretty well and I snacked on the BEST cereal ever, Apple Jacks. Today I still had to catch up a little but felt much more relaxed about everything. I worked on more of the portfolio and a new assignment from my history class where we introduce ourselves in a slideshow. I talked to my friend Isabella which was nice because we haven't gotten to talk in a long time. Talking with my friends definitely makes the work more enjoyable. I'm still adjusting to online school, but I think it won't be too bad. Even though I don't love regular school, I miss being on campus and learning in person. And I really miss being with my friends. 

 Our Stay-cation at Paradise Point

Izzy

8/27/20

    This week Mom, Ethan, and I stayed at Paradise Point on Mission Bay. We checked in on Sunday afternoon and left earlier this morning. We had so much fun relaxing at the pool and feeding the ducks and it was a great way to sort of end the summer. I can't believe there are only three days left until school 

starts -- the summer went by too fast!!

    One of the best things about this resort is that there are 5 different pools spread out around the grounds. The main pool is in the center and was where we spent most of our time. We also had a smaller pool right around the corner from our room. My favorite part of the main pool was what we called the cold pool. There was an area with three waterfalls that poured into a small pool which was colder than the big pool. Ethan and I did challenges trying to see who could stay in the cold pool the longest. When we jumped back into the big pool the water felt so much warmer! We went night swimming on Monday and Wednesday which was super awesome too.

    Another AMAZING thing about Paradise Point is all of the ducks that live all over. There are probably over 50 ducks and other types of birds. We found out we could get bags of duck food from the gift shop so be bought probably 10 little bags of the duck food. Ethan and I had so much fun feeding the ducks and creating duck trains where they follow us around. I did some research and can conclude that our favorites ducks were Pomeranian Ducks. They are all black and have a white chest. Ethan and I have been watching Bob's Burgers recently so we decided to name our favorite ducks after the kids in the show -- Tina, Louise, and Gene. Louise was our most favorite because she always came to us and could catch the duck food in mid air. There was another mallard duck who was SO GOOD at catching the food in mid air. I would say she caught 80% of the food I threw. She was also so cute and always found her way to be right next to us. On Wednesday, Ethan and I made a duck train. We were walking around the pond with about 20 ducks walking behind us trying to get food. I love ducks so much!! And now Ethan wants one.

    We had an amazing stay at Paradise Point and I really loved this hotel! I already miss the ducks so much and I hope they miss us too. I had so much fun and am so lucky to have gotten to do this trip (thank you mom!). 

P.S. Now Ethan and I really want to have ducks 😁

Tina

     

Gene

Louise

 Jaws

Izzy

8/21/20

    Today Dad made me watch Jaws. I can't say I liked it because I was anxious the entire time, but it wasn't bad. Living near the ocean and just having done a surf camp, I do sometimes worry about sharks but stingrays are a much bigger threat. After watching Jaws, I'm not scared to go back into the ocean because I know it's fake and have seen where they actually filmed the movie at Universal Studios. When you take the studio tour you get to see the Amity set as well as a fake shark just like the one they used for Jaws. There's a pretend skit where a fake diver is out on the water and then gets attacked by a big shark and you can see the water turn red. 

    

    One thing I have to say about the movie is that I couldn't really understand anything Quint (the fisherman) was saying. He had a unique accent and when he talked a lot I was confused. I also am kinda mad that the mayor didn't get attacked because he deserved it for not taking the shark attacks seriously and keeping the beaches open just to make money. I honestly thought more people would be killed than just 5, so it was kind of a snooze fest. It's more centered around anticipation of Martin Brody, Quint, and Matt Hooper on the boat trying to kill Jaws. Overall I think it was a pretty good movie and the shark looked pretty real. I would not recommend watching this if you plan on going to the beach any time soon though ;)

                                

 Surf Camp

Izzy

8/18/20

    This week I've been doing surf camp with Cia. It's through San Diego Surf School in Pacific Beach from 12:30 to 3:30. I've already had lots of fun and can tell I am getting better from all the practice!

    Yesterday was the first day so we got there early and got ready. I'm using a wetsuit Cia is lending me, but the water is so much warmer than last week that I don't actually need it to stay warm. We went over the rules as a big group and split up into smaller groups of 2-5 with an instructor. Cia and I were the only ones in our group and we had a really nice instructor named Coco. She gave us some tips and we went right into the water. I'm pretty sure the boards we were using were 7 feet and they are foam boards. We practiced surfing in the whitewash, which means after the waves break. I had only surfed a little bit last summer during the free time at Junior Lifeguards and have been wanting to improve so I'm really happy to be doing this camp. Cia and I have both been able to stand up on our boards and caught some good waves.

    Today was also really warm. We had a different instructor but spent the whole day catching waves and trying to stand up longer. The current was pretty strong so we did have to get out and walk back down the beach a few times. It was even hotter out today so the water felt really nice. I was really happy today because I could stand up on my board longer than yesterday. I really want to get my own surfboard soon so I can keep surfing. I'm sad tomorrow is our last day but I have loved getting more experience and hope to surf more in the future!

 Our Stay-cation at Loews

Izzy

8/17/20

    Last week Ethan and I got to stay with Dad at Loews Coronado Bay Resort. We went from Monday, August 10th to Friday, August 14th and enjoyed lots of time at the beach and the pool. It was really fun to get away even though we were really close to home. Just like a normal vacation I was really sad when we had to leave.

    Our first full day was Tuesday and my friend Adelin came to spend the day with me. Mom came too but she had to work :(. We spent some time hanging out in the pool and swimming around. We got some food from one of the hotel restaurants and ate it outside where we had a beautiful view of the Coronado bridge and San Diego. One of the best things about Loews is that there are golf carts that take you to and from the beach. We rode the golf cart to the beach and spent a few hours there. Adelin and I somehow got all the way in the water even though it was FREEZING! Our feet went numb but it was worth it for the fun. 

    On Wednesday, Mom came and we went in the pool again. It felt really good as it started to get hotter outside. For lunch we had the fries from the poolside Cantina, which were AMAZING!!!! They had guacamole, sour cream, feta, nacho cheese, shredded cheese, and pico de gallo on them and it was heavenly. We all went to the beach and the water was still really cold. I was all alone in the water because Ethan didn't want to get all the way in so it wasn't as fun. 

    For our last full day, we went to the pool and got the Cantina fries again. We met up with our friends, Cesar, Juliana, Martina, and Bruna at the beach. Martina and Bruna are about 7 and 4 and we had a lot of fun playing with them. We started digging a hole and decided to hang out in the water. We ended up digging a new hole next to the water so it could be filled up easily. Our hole got flooded as the tide came in so we had to dig another one, which ended up getting flooded as well. We also went body surfing in the waves and it was super fun even though it was still cold. I hadn't seen them in a long time so it was really fun to hang out again. 

    Another big part of our trip was watching Shark Week on Discovery channel. We watched it everyday because it's so interesting. I love learning about the different kinds of sharks but it's also crazy to see the people diving with the hungry sharks and even hand feeding them. I had a super awesome stay-cation and am so lucky to be able to do this before the summer ends. I'm even luckier to be doing another one next week with mom!

Fall Guys By Ethan V.

                                                               Fall Guys                                           8-17-20

By Ethan V.

    Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is an online video game that was released on August 4, 2020 and has since blown up. I personally play Fall Guys and I love it. I love it because it is very fun, and once you get better at it and you are able to win, it makes it even more fun. Fall Guys is available on PS4 and PC. It is a battle-royale game that is multiple rounds of different players and your objective is to be one of the first finishers to qualify for the next round. A battle-royale is a fight/competition to be the last man standing.

    I have played Fall Guys for 3 days and I am addicted to this game. I have gotten good enough where I can qualify for the finals about 1 in 3 games. The finals are usually in round 4, 5, or 6 depending on how many people get eliminated. I have never won, however I have been very close and then gotten super mad when I've lost. One time, I was in the final two and I lost because my character in the game fell over and got eliminated. That one was very frustrating for me because I know I could've won if it weren't for my character.

    Your character in Fall Guys is a marshmallow looking figure that you can customize with different skins that you earn and buy. On my character I have a triceratops skin that is very cool looking. One way to get new skins is by leveling up. The other way is to use the game currency, Kudos, to buy them. You earn kudos from playing but you can also pay money for it.

    All in all, Fall Guys is my favorite video game out right now, and I would definitely recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun game. I think that Jiji would enjoy this game if he had a PS4 :)

 My Favorite Studio Ghibli Movies

Izzy

8/8//20

    Since we're doing the Studio Ghibli drawing class, I thought it would be a good time to re-watch some of the Studio Ghibli movies and talk about my favorites. There are still a few I haven't seen like Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and Nausicä of the Valley of the Wind, but I plan to watch them soon. I love the animation style and how the movies make you feel good and also make you laugh. Many of these movies were a part of my childhood and I love learning to draw the characters.

Out of the movies I've seen so far, I think my favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki is a young witch who goes away to live on her own for the traditional witch training with her talking cat, Jiji. The movie is about her adventures while she's away, and a very cool part is that she can fly on her broom. I also love it because she's around my age. Jiji is my favorite character because he's funny and seems like a great companion.

My Neighbor Totoro is my second favorite because of how cute and magical Totoro is. I used to watch it in Japanese when I was little so it's definitely special to me. Satsuki and Mei are sisters who move into a house in the country with their dad and meet some forest spirits including Totoro. I love the story and all of the super cute mythical creatures.

Some other awesome movies that I need to re-watch are Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Another great movie is The Secret World of Arrietty, which is based on the book The Borrowers so it's about Arrietty's tiny family and their adventures borrowing from normal sized humans. It's cool to see how they use our everyday things in a new way because they are so small. For example, a pin as a sword and a small clip to hold up her hair.

                                                                    Kiki and Jiji

                                                                Totoro, Mei, and Satsuki