Test Review Day

Today in class we reviewed for the exam next Wednesday. To prepare, we talked about what would be on the test, and what kind of questions would be on it. The test itself was around 19 pages, which seems like a lot, but considering that it's just a bunch of multiple choice it's not as intimidating. We also reviewed the test that we took on Tuesday, and that went well. I'm still really happy with the fact that I got a 100%, since it was my first one in the class. I think I was the only one in my section to get a 100 which was kind of cool! I'm feeling much more prepared after going to a few more classes to review. The material is still relatively fresh in my mind which is good. I hope I do well on the human geo exam!

Peer Editing Day

Today in class we peer edited each other's essays. I spent around 20 minutes looking at a few other people's essays, and the rest of the class catching up on homework and blogging. We got our tests back at the end of class, and I ended up being the only one in my section to get a 100%. I was surprised after hearing this since I thought the test was actually really easy, but maybe I just studied more than everyone else. I also find this topic relatively interesting, so it's easy for me to pay attention in class and take the information in. Reading the articles and packets we got also helped me a lot, along with reading over my notes before we took the test. I'm getting excited for exams, since I'm starting to look forward to Christmas break!

Quiz on Migration

Today in class we took our Quiz on migration. I didn't think it was too hard compared to some other tests we've taken, or maybe I was just more prepared for this one. I also thought that the multiple choice and fill in the blank was much less stressful than short answer questions, since sometimes when I take tests I get into my head and forget important things like names and dates. Seeing a word bank, or even multiple choice, helps me relax and think about what the answer is. I'm starting my essay tonight to prepare for the peer review on Thursday, which I think will help me improve my writing a lot. Its easy to skip over mistakes that you've read multiple times, but having a fresh pair of eyes can help clarify your essay. I'm excited that most of my classes are starting to wind down on new material, so I can start getting into studying a lot more for the exams next week.

12/10/18

Today in class we went over our some things for our exams, and continued with our unit. We spent some time talking about the essays, which I don't think will be too hard. I've written a lot of five paragraph essays in the past, and I think they're a good format! It's easy to get your thoughts down, while keeping them organized and clear. We finished the slideshow today, and I think I'm ready for the test. The information was relatively easy to take in with the past knowledge we had from the last unit. I think I'm also going to rewatch the video we saw in class, and listen to the podcast. Hopefully, they will be helpful for me in the long run, and if not, they're always good to hear anyway! I thought the video we watched was really informative today, since i didn't know what sanctuaries were until today!

Why Do Immigrants Face Challenges?

Today in class we did something called a "flip classroom" where we work on homework in class and the lesson tomorrow. These are the notes I got from the packet:

- Today, most problems immigrants face are political
- A migrant legality needs:
   1. A passport to emigrate
   2. A visa to immigrate
- Most visa's are granted for a specific reason, (employment placement, family reunification)
- Countries Classifications for migration:
   1. Maintain current number of immigrants
   2. increase level
   3. reduce level
   4. no policy
- Terms for identifying illegal immigrants:
   1. Unauthorized Immigrant (neutral term)
   2. Undocumented Immigrant (people who believe in more rights for immigrants)
   3. Illegal Alien (people who believe in tougher restrictions)
- There are 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States
- 1 million of them are children
- 8 million unauthorized immigrants are employed (jobs no one else wants)
- Quotas: maximum limits on immigration per year

Classwork 12/4/18

Today in class, we took notes on the packet we got the other day. We specifically focused on the pages 84 and 85. This was titled "Changing U.S Immigration"

- 80 million people migrated to the United States between 1820 and 2015.
- The United States had three main eras of immigration. They were:
     1. Colonial settlement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
     2. Mass European Immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
     3. Asian and Latin America immigration in the late nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries.
- Immigration to the U.S and to the colonies came from mainly two places: Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Most of the Africans we're forced to migrate to the colonies as slaves :(
- Germany has sent the largest number of immigrants the the United States. (7.2 million)
- 1/4 of Americans trace their ancestry back to Germany.
- Most Poles immigrated to the U.S at a time when Poland was not an independent country.
- More than 3/4 of the recent U.S immigrants have migrated from two regions: Latin America and Asia.

Podcast

Today in class we listened to more of the podcast. We covered the topics that applied to applying for asylum. I thought it was interesting how broad these topics were. They included: race, nationality, religion, political beliefs, and social group. Later, under president Obama, domestic violence, gang violence, terrorism, and sexuality also became some of the groups. I believe that its good that in the U.S people can apply for asylum. If we let everyone in it would be a mad house. I think Trump is trying to make sure not everyone gets into the country and over flows it, and I agree with that. Im excited to finish the podcast as i find it interesting.

11/29/18

Today in class we discussed the vote over if the total percent of immigrants in the world was 3% or 9%. I voted for 3%, and turned out to be right! I tried to think logically, as in how the world has a huge amount of people in it right now. 9% would be close to 10%, and 10% is a lot of people! So I decided to stick with 3%. We also spent time looking for the answer in trustworthy sources, which helped us learn about which websites to trust. This will be helpful information for the future when we have to do research projects and we're looking for facts. We spent the last portion of class discussing and voting on our political views. Im in-between pro trump and anti trump, and I agree with somethings he does, and I disagree with other things. I voted for no opinion because of this. Im excited to start having more votes and such in class, I think it will be a good way to start discussion.

11/28/18

Today in class, we looked at a packet on migration. We highlighted everything that we had already gone over and learned in the past. I thought it was actually quite a lot of information! Turns out, it was by the same companies and publishers, so it made sense. I enjoyed doing this since it was like another review and it was starting to make it easy to remember. I think i'm starting to memorize and comprehend the material a lot more than when we started all of this. I'm excited to continue with this topic, as I find it really interesting! I've always tried to stick close to the migration topic, wether it be on tv, or in the newspaper. I really enjoy keeping up with all of the new immigration laws and things like that.

11/17/18

Today in class we took notes on our new unit: Migration. These are the notes I took:

- Mobility is most generalized a term that refers to all types of movements
- Short-Term and repetitive acts of mobility are referred to ask circulation
- A permanent move to another location is called migration
- Ravenstein's "laws" for distance that migrants typically move:
    1. most migrants relocate a short distance and remain within the same country.
    2. Long distance migrants to other countries head for major centers of economic activity
- Migration can be divided into two categories
    1. International Migration - permanent move from one country to another
       - voluntary
       - forced
    2. Internal Migration - permanent move within the same country
       - interregional
       - intraregional
- Approximately 9% of the worlds population are international migrants
- Global Pattern reflects migration tendencies from developing countries to developed countries
      - Net-Out migration
         ex: Asia, Latin America, Asia
      - Net-In migration
         ex: North America, Europe, Australia

11/20/18

Today in class we took a quiz on the video we watched yesterday. It was about Hans and his course on Global Health. The questions were mostly from the worksheet we completed yesterday so we had a good idea of what the answers were. It also helped that we went over the worksheet in detail before taking the quiz. I think I did good on the quiz, hopefully i got a 100%! We also had time at the end of class to start/complete our blog for tonight which is helpful since it will be due by midnight. Knowing myself, I would probably forget to do it since it feels like a Friday, even though it's a Tuesday. I'm looking forward to break because it will be nice to have a week off to relax and re collect ourselves before the end of the semester. I think I will be able to get all my grades up to A's and hopefully get first honors. I got second honors the previous quarter, and I'm hoping to improve.

11/19/18

Today in class we watched a video. It was from a few years ago, so the information is probably a little outdated but it was still a good representation. In the video there was a man named Hans who was presenting us with information on a graph. The X-axis represented Life Expectancy and the Y-axis represented Income. Then he color coded all of the nations and put them onto the graph. He showed us how over time, the nations progressed and improved (mostly). Some places like Europe and The Americas improved a lot, while others like Iran only had minor improvement. I thought it was helpful to see the information plotted on a graph!

11/16/18

Today was the day after our snow day! We actually had a two hour delay which means we had shortened classes. I was late due to the conditions on the road, which wasn't great, but I was able to focus back on class quickly. We talked about the 4 stages of growth in population, the industrial growth in Europe and North America, and how to lower population. We spent most of our time taking notes, but we also viewed a graph too. It didn't make sense at first, but after we went over everything it was much more clear. Im looking forward to thanksgiving break next week!

11/14/18

Today in class, we took notes about things related to World War two. These are some things that I wrote down:

- The total fertility rate in the world is 2.5. This is above 2.1 which means the population is increasing.
- About 82 million people are added to the world each year. This is natural increase.
- Developing countries have high crude birth rates, total fertility rates, and infant mortality rates.
- A population pyramid is a bar graph that displays a countries distinctive population structure.
- More than 95 percent of the natural increase is in developing countries.
- TFR stands for total fertility rate.
- Dependency ratio is the number of people who are too young or too old to work compared compared to the number of people in their productive years.
- Developed countries have low crude birth rates, total fertility rates, and infant mortality rates.

I think that this unit will be easy for us to understand because of our prior knowledge on some of the subjects. Hopefully this will give us the upper-hand when it comes to taking our test!

Test Review Day

Today in class we reviewed the test we just took. I thought i did pretty well, as I did get a 94, which is an A. The questions that I got wrong were minor mistakes which was frustrating for me, but I'm glad I've gotten to learn from them. This was my first time getting the bell after a test which was pretty great! It was nice to see that the results of studying actually have payed off. I'm going to strive to do even better on the next test, and the next, and so on. Hopefully one day I will be able to receive a 100 percent on a test! I am going to set that as my goal from now on, to try and receive a 100 percent on a test within the rest of the semester.

New Unit

Today in class we started a new unit. This unit is going to go a little bit more in depth and more into what we had learned prior to this. It's already seemed to be a little bit easier than when we first learned about this topic since we have some prior knowledge about it. For example we already know about crude birth rate, crude death rate, and the rate natural increase. We also learned more about population density. Population density is going to end up being an important topic for us and will be something we remember after the course is over. We also looked at multiple maps about population density with various topics. I'm excited to get more into this unit!

Test Day

Today in class we took our test. It was mainly focusing on population, birth rates, death rates, and other terms that we've been over. I thought I did really well on it compared to my other tests. I studied for a few days before the test which I though helped a lot. I think I ended up getting a good grade on it which will be a good way to start the quarter. After the test we drew cartoons on the back of the test. This actually helped me relax and think of a better answer for one of the questions. The cartoons we're also just a really fun thing to do after thinking for a while on the test. I didn't think the questions were too hard, except for the push and pull forces, which were a little more challenging.

Test Review Day

Today in class we reviewed for the first fifteen questions on the test tomorrow. To do these we used our computers and went onto Cia.gov. We got to explore the website again, although this time we had more of an idea of where everything was on the site. I thought this was a good review because it reminded us how to use the website and how to look for the answers. We mostly looked for information about people, like crude birth rate, death rate, and fertility rate. We also learned about Mr. Schicks career as a producer which I found really interesting since I also have an interest in doing something like that. I hope I do well on the test tomorrow!

Not in class 11/2/18

I was sick today, and couldn't come to school.

Population Pyramids

Today in class we talked about population pyramids. I thought these graphs were really fun and informative. In the beginning of the class, we were told that we might be confused by them, but I found that they were really easy to understand after multiple examples and explanations. I learned things like how the males are always on the left, and how the females are always on the right. I also learned that the colors vary depending on the graph and really have no significance overall to how it effects the graph. I would like to look at population graph tonight on Maryland to see how it differs from what we saw in class!

October 29th

Today in class we were given time to ask questions about our recent assignment, and we were given time for the kids who didn't do the CIA assignment to complete it. I used this time to do my blog and get caught up on writing down what I need to do for homework. This was a good thing for me since I have been out of order today, and completely unorganized. This mod helped me relax and take a minute to calm down after all of the tests and assignments I had prior to this class. We also talked about how our grade works every semester. I thought this was interesting because our semester exams are only 20% of our grade. Also, the lowest grade you can get on it would be a 50% which I think is helpful.

CIA facts

On Friday in class, we were assigned to look at cia.gov and find five interesting facts. Here are some that I found:
1. Hong Kong has a lower infant mortality rate than the United States
2. The net migration rate in Mexico is -1.8
3. Guatemala's total fertility rate has slowly declined during the last few decades.
4. Almost 9% of the population of Costa Rica is foreign born
5. In Niger, there is 6.49 children born per woman
I believe all of this relates to what we were doing in class because it covers most of the topics we had talked about. Mostly, I focused on migration and population in different countries. I also looked at a few facts on fertility, death rate/birth rate, and infant mortality rates.

Migration and Population

Today in class we talked about migration and population. I think it's surprising how many people there actually are in the world. I knew there were a lot, but i never knew exactly how much. Yesterday, we got to see a live population counter which had gone up quite a lot just by the end of class. We also talked about migration. One thing that surprised me about migration was how many people immigrate to Canada. I've always assumed more people migrate to the United States because of how relevant it is in todays news channels and politics. However, I was surprised to see that Canada's immigration rate was actually much higher than the U.S's. Another thing I found interesting was how Canada provides less expensive health care.

Sick day

I missed class today because I was sick.

Test Day

Today in class we took our test. It was nice because we didn't have to learn anything new, and for me tests are relaxing. I say they are relaxing because to me, when you have a whole period just to sit down and show what you've learned, it's stress-free and calming. I also liked how we had time at the end to work on our homework, which I surprisingly have a LOT of for a Friday. It helps me out a lot because I'm going to the beach this weekend, and I won't want to spend my time there worrying about what is due on Monday. The test wasn't to hard in my opinion. I think I did really well, which is good since it should help me bring my grade up a little bit. I'm trying to get on honor roll and so far the only classes I have a B in are this class, and math. I took tests in both classes today though so hopefully I end up getting a good score on both of them.

Review Day

Today was our last class before our test on Friday. We reviewed a lot of things including longitude, latitude, distortion, and lots of time zones. I feel like with some studying, I have the potential to do great on this test. I am going to start studying some terms and things I need to memorize tonight, and I will practice with time zones tomorrow by quizzing myself with random places around the world. Also, we had two shadows today who seemed nice! I hope they end up coming to John Carroll next year. Based on what I've seen so far, the incoming 9th graders for next year seem promising. Hopefully they wont be too loud since I'll have to share the same lunch with them next year. Ive also started a new studying system that I'm excited about. I have a fresh new composition books that I will write my important notes in, and what I need to study. I've decided to do this instead of typing since studies show that writing things helps us remember things better. Hopefully this helps me on the test this Friday!

Culture

Today in class we talked about everything that goes into culture. The first thing that I think of when I think of culture is clothing and other things that have something to do with appearance. For example, lots of places around the world have specific garments that people wear everyday. These may include items like hijabs. Another example of culture is how America changed after 9/11. We now have a whole new department of security called homeland security. After the sad event that changed many people's lives seven years ago, we are now much more specific when it comes to security. This may include security at the air port, train stations, and even at a baseball game.

Classwork 10/15/18

What is Eratosthenes known for? (Other than making the first map)

1. He found the first accurate measurement of the circumference of the world.

2. He became the second head librarian of the Library of Alexandria in 236 B.C

3. He created a mathematical technique to provide a way to find prime numbers up to a specific integer. This is now known as the Sieve of Eratosthenes.

If it is 10:00 AM in Bel Air, Maryland, what time is it in..

1. It is 7 AM in Portland, Oregon. They are 3 hours behind us.

2. It is 3 PM in Greenwich, England. They are 5 hours ahead of us.

3. It is 10 AM in Toronto, Ontario. They are in the same time zone as us.

4. It is 10 PM in The South Pole.

Locations and Place names:

1. Five toponyms that are named after physical features:

         1. Blue Creek (Neb.)         

         2. Cedar Valley (Iowa)         

         3. Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)         

         4. Greenfield (Wales)         

         5. High Rock Canyon (Nev.)

2. Five toponyms that are named after Native American places:

         1. Philadelphia

         2. Chicago

         3. Seattle

         4. New York

         5. Boston

3. Five toponyms that are named after a person of prominence:

         1. Columbia

         2. Bolivia

         3. Adams, Massachusetts.

         4. Floyd, Virginia

         5. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

4. Five toponyms that have religious affiliation:

         1. San Francisco

         2. St John

         3. St Peter

         4. San Juan

         5. San Diego

Antipodes:

"In geography, the antipode of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it" -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipodes

1. Beijing's antipode: Depatamento Conesa, RN, Argentina

2. Bermuda's antipode: Only Water

3. My Houses antipode: Only Water

Sources I used:

https://www.windows2universe.org/people/ancient_epoch/eratosthenes.html&edu=high

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_after_people_in_the_United_States

Culture and Location

Today in class we talked about how your location can affect your culture. Culture includes what sports teams you route for, what traditions you inherit, and how you feel about a certain place. For example, in Maryland, we have a prominent tradition of crab feasts. Other places around the world may not understand this, and might think it's weird. I agree that it is kind of odd, and I would understand why other places think it's completely insane. If i walked into arizona, and saw then picking apart squirrels for a "squirrel feast", I might scream and run away. It also determines what things you believe in. One example is sports teams. Since my dad lived in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Maryland when he was growing up, he routes for the Eagles and the Phillies, along with the orioles and ravens. Even though he lives in Maryland now, he still brings his old beliefs with him.

Pop Quiz

Today in class we were surprised with a 10 question pop quiz. It wasn't too hard and it didn't effect our grade too much. It was only about 3%. I'm not too upset about it, as I got an 80%. I'm glad I know some of the questions that will show up on the next test though. I learned two new things from taking the quiz, so I don't think it went badly at all. We also talked more about location for about twenty minutes after the quiz. It was odd to hear that crabs are such a Maryland thing, for some reason I haven't though about that before. Now, I understand that it's completely different from what people from other states are used to. I personally am not much of a crab person because I get so frustrated from all of the cuts, and the old bay coating my hands. It's not super fun. My family, however, LOVES crabs. I don't think I'll be carrying on this tradition. Lastly, we talked about learning languages. I personally am very interested in learning multiple languages. Right now, I'm learning spanish, and it comes pretty easy to me. In the future I'd love to speak mandarin, french, german, and dutch.

Location Notes

Today in class we talked about ways we refer to location. When we got later into the class we talked about how different places natives have different accents. I find it really interesting how just the way your family talks and how the people around you talk completely influences the way you speak. My cousin attends a college a few states away from here, and whenever she meets new people they all say she has a "cute country accent". I think this is funny because she talks exactly like me and my family, and I don't think of us as country people at all. When I think of country, I think of Texas and Kentucky. I wonder if people in London think that we have American accents!

Test Review/Test day

Today in class, I took the Socrates test. The test wasn't too terribly hard in my opinion, it was just difficult after not talking about it for so long. I'm glad I finally got it done though! I couldn't remember everything on it, but I remembered enough of it to get an okay grade. It was not my best test, but i'm glad that now I have room to improve. We also had time at the end of the mod to do our blog, which is what I'm doing now! I'm glad I can do this now instead of for homework since tonight is a busy night for me.

GPS notes

Today in class, we talked about things like GPS and other technology. I thought it was interesting how a couple years ago no one had even thought it was possible to have such a precise tracking system. Now, it's completely normal to use a GPS wherever you go. The other interesting thing was when we talked about amazon Alexa. It's a little bit unsettling to know that these things are always listening, but I feel like I've grown up being used to these things. I also think that our phones listen to us because of the feature "Hey Siri". I've known this for a while, so I'm okay with it. I think that if they needed to, the government could use these recording for catching criminals which is good.

H Day

Today in class we finished making our maps that we started yesterday. It was a really relaxing and fun way to end my day which I appreciated. Finishing my maps was fairly simple, I used multiple maps as a reference. Then we had the rest of the mod to finish homework and other assignments that we didn't want to take home which was a huge help. Whenever teachers give us this opportunity it really helps us, as students with getting things done and helping manage our time after we leave the campus. I had a pretty good day in total!

8/26/18

Today in class we continued going over some basic things like longitude and latitude, and we also got into some more complex things. Some of the more difficult things were the International Dateline, the tropic of cancer, and the tropic of capricorn. After we had learned all about the new terms, we got three handouts. On these handouts were maps that showed all of the continents, but everything was blank. We had to fill in everything including the oceans, continents and some other specific stuff like where out ancestors are from and where John Carroll was on the map. It was a fun activity, but it was also a little difficult. Im looking forward to completing it in tomorrows class, and hopefully doing well on it.

Unit 2 Day 2

In Todays class we talked about more of some of the first maps ever created. We also compared the Mercator map with the more accurate map. This really surprised me since I have been looking at the Mercator map ever since kindergarten. I think the U.S should incorporate the newer map into our schools more since its more up to date and more accurate. It would take a lot of adjusting but it would be worth it. What also shocked me was when the cartographers on the show flipped the northern and southern hemisphere. I can say that I have never seen the map look like that before in my life. It looked like a completely different planet. After seeing all of these different options of how the map could potentially look, it's definitely opened my eyes and made me more interested in geography.

Early Maps

Today in class we talked about the earliest map of the world. Personally, I believe that map was relatively amazing for the time period that it was created in. Even though Ptolemy wasn't spot on, he did really well for piecing together what others had showed him, and what he had learned from his own explorations. We also saw a picture of a map that represented islands. I thought this was really cool because not only was it different from any other map we usually see, it was three dimensional! Most maps that we see in this time and age are two dimensional with a few exceptions. I thought that looking at these maps was really cool, and I hope that the rest of the course is fun too.

Excellence Day 3

In class today we went over what is going to be on the test on Tuesday. It's going to have multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and an essay question. We have human geo first period on Tuesday so hopefully I'll be awake enough to remember everything. Maybe I should stop at Starbucks before school. In my essay I'm going to try to incorporate the greeks and socrates words. I'll try to align my essay with my john carroll experiences too. I'm really intrigued by Socrates words from the end of the slide. I'm going to try and incorporate what he said into my daily life as well. I'm going to start stepping back and examining my actions and my thoughts to make my life more worth living.

Socrates

In today's class, we debated on whether or not Socrates was guilty or not guilty. Personally, I don't believe that the charges he got were accurate. They were:

- Corruption of Athen's youth
- Impiety

The only thing Socrates did was simply give the youth other options than what they had been taught over and over again throughout the years. He didn't force them to believe anything; instead, he opened their minds. Socrates was also wrongly charged with Impiety. He never directly said that he didn't believe in the Gods. He thought about the alternatives, and brought them to other's attention. The jury had assumed that he was going against the state's beliefs, when really all he did was question it. We all question our faith sometimes, so should we all be prosecuted as well? I do not, and never will wish death upon anyone, especially not for crimes that they didn't commit.

Excellence Day 2

Today in class, we talked about our beliefs, and we talked about how we cannot prove our beliefs to be true. I wanted to talk a little bit more on this topic. We were asked what happens to us when we die. Personally, the only logical answer I can think of is that we part with our bodies, which act as our shells, and our soul stays here, or goes somewhere beyond this universe. I don't believe in specifically heaven and hell, since I don't think that someone who we praise for being so forgiving and kind could send anybody, no matter what, to a chamber of eternal torture. If that's what our "God" is supposed to do, why are they considered a god at all? Why do we worship someone who can send people to hell? I'd like to believe in a God, but if it involves someone or something who has the power to decide whether we are at peace, or never at peace, I don't know if I'll be able to.

Excellence Notes

Today in class, we learned more about "A Message To Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard. We learned about it's publishing date, (1899), and we went more in depth on some of the characters. We talked about how popular the essay was, and how it sold over 40 million copies. It was even translated into 37 languages. The essay was turned into a movie too. Not once, but two times! Sending a message to Garcia also became a popular thing to say about taking initiative. I hope that I, myself can take the initiative this year, and put all of my time and effort into my school work.

What I got out of "A Message to Garcia"

A Message to Garcia is a story written by Elbert Hubbard about people being too lazy or finding excuses not to listen to others. I can use this story to help me through my freshman year by remembering it in times that I'm asked to do things. When an authoritative figure asks us to do things, my first reaction should always be to do what it is that I was asked to do. I can also use this when I'm doing my homework. For example, if a teacher assigns us something to do, I should do it as soon as I get home, instead of pushing it off and procrastinating so I can do other things. I don't completely agree with everything that Elbert says, especially when he gets more violent, but the message itself is pretty good in my opinion.

My first few days at John Carroll

My first few days at John Carroll have been kind of all over the place. I've already had some good times, and some challenging times. I think that personally the most challenging thing is when i can't open my locker. I had a few upperclassmen help me with it on the first days, and even though I can open it now, sometimes it still takes a few tries which is frustrating. Luckily, I've had more good experiences than bad. I've gotten in touch with a few of my friends who I haven't talked to in a while, and I've made some new friends too. Most of my classes seem to be interesting, and I think that I will like them. All of the teachers have been really nice, and really understanding of everyone not having all of their supplies yet. I feel pretty organized and prepared for the school year. I have all of the supplies that I needed for my classes and my computer and veracious are both working well, which I'm grateful for. I'm looking forward to my next four years here!