Interim Term

China

ChInterim term has been an awesome experience. I have had a lot of fun throughout these 3 weeks. I've liked all my classes. I was in Intro to Cryptology, Reading for Pleasure, Experimental Psychology, and Spanish Cinema. They were all great! I love interim term because it's stress free, fun, and gives you a good break before we have to dive back in to real school. I've had a little bit of homework throughout the term but not too much. My classes were all interesting. In Intro to Cryptology we learned how to code and decode messages that were used during the World Wars and during this time period. After that, I had reading for fun and all we did was read. I liked it because during the school year I never get to read. Usually, it takes me a few weeks to finish a book because i never have time due to sports, school work, and other activities. However, during this 3 week class, I read 2 books and I'm half way done with my third one. Next I went to Experimental Psychology. There we learned about ways the mind thinks and why unexplainable things happen. After that, I had Spanish cinema. I liked this class because we got to watch movies. We watched three movies that included Spanglish, Goal, and In the Time of the Butterflies. They were all good movies that were very entertaining. Interim term was a really good experience because of the many different classes they offer and the many trips you can go on. The trips that people could go on this year were China or a home stay in France or Spain. They all seem like a lot of fun! There are so many options and I'm so sad that there are only 2 more days of interim term. Now I can look forward to interim term next year

Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars, written by Sara Shepard, is a really good novel about five best friends, each with a really big secret. In this book, a young girl named Allison has four best friends, Spencer, Emily, Hannah, and Aria. They all share one big secret with each other, however, each of the girls also have a secret that only Allison knows. One night Allison goes missing. No one knows where she went or who took her but each of the girls have their suspects. Once Allison is gone, the girls seemed kind of relieved because now the secret that each of them shared with Allison was safe. Or was it? A few years later, each girl starts receiving strange text messages from an anonymous source named A. Each text message has to do with the secret that only Allison knew so they have no idea who could have sent this because a few weeks after these messages start, Allison's body is found dead. The police said that her body had been dead for a few years so A couldn't have been Allison. "A" starts sending the girls text messages about their new secrets that no one else could have known about, along with their old secrets. Each book in the series is filled with twists and turns that unravels a new mystery. Read more to find out what happens.

Pretty Little Liars is the first book in the series followed by Flawless, then Perfect, Unbelievable, Wicked, Killer, Heartless, and lastly Wanted. I have only read the first two so far and I am on the third one right now. Pretty Little Liars is an amazing book. Once you pick it up, you are not going to want to put it down because of the many exciting mysteries in the book. This novel is suggested for those who like murder mysteries and complicated, intriguing plots. As the novels go on, the story unravels and things start to happen that one would least expect. I would give this book a very high rating if I were to rate it because it's interesting, keeps you entertained, and gives much detail to help explain what's going on. Read the book in order to find out what happens to the four pretty little liars.

Field Hockey

There are many different topics that are covered in the book Pretty Little Liars, but one topic that interests me in the book is field hockey. I love playing field hockey and so does one of the main characters, Spencer Hastings, in Pretty Little Liars. She works hard at it by practicing it everyday. Field hockey is a team sport in which one tries to score in the opposing net by using a hockey stick. It is played all around the world by men and women. There are many international tournaments that host field hockey games. Some of which include the Olympic Games and the Hockey World Cups.  The professional name for the sport is hockey. During the winter, hockey is played indoors due to the weather conditions. With this, the rules change a little because the field is smaller being only 40 m X 20 m, and the shooting circle is only 9 m.

History
This sport originated from a game called hurling, but in the early 19th century, the game started to grow from English public schools. It was first played at British universities and schools, but it soon became popular around the world and is now the third most popular sport in the world- first is football and second is cricket.
Rules
- The ball is not allowed to touch one's foot
- If the ball is hit higher than one's knee, then it is a penalty
- The objective of the game is to score in the opposing net
- Each team may have one goalie that is covered in protective gear
- Each team may have 11 players on the field at a time
- Each team is allowed to substitute
- You can only hit the ball on the flat part of the hockey stick

To learn more about field hockey click here:
http://www.fieldhockeywest.org/docs/2009FIHRules.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_hockey

Sara Shepard

I just finished the book Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard, who is an incredible writer and has written many novels which include Pretty Little Liars, The Visibles, and The Lying Game series. She graduated high school in Downingtown, Pennsylvania in 1995. She then graduated from New York University, and from there, she got an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College. She is best known for writing the Pretty Little Liars series (which is now a TV show on ABC family). The inspiration for writing this series came from the experiences that she had from growing up on Philadelphia's Main Line, which is where she lives today.

She did not start out with writing book series. Her first story to write won second place in Pennsylvania's state college library and was put on a shelf. It was about yellow creatures living in a backyard garden. Since then she has written many other novels and series. Her hobbies include swimming, playing the piano, cooking, knitting sweaters, running, and driving the back roads of suburban Philadelphia.


To learn more about Sara Shepard click here:
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=30521

Here are a few books/species written by Sara Shepard

Pretty Little Liars: There are currently eight books in the series, and it is about a young girl named Allison who goes missing. She has four best friends named Spencer, Hannah, Aria, and Emily. They all share one big secret, but each of them also have their own individual secrets. I'm only on the second book right now, but so far, the books are really good, each with its own twisted and suspenseful plot.

The Visibles: This novel is the first book that Sara Shepard has written that is meant for adults. It is about a girl who becomes obsessed with the idea that DNA links you to your parents. She keeps hold of this idea because her mother abandoned them.

The Lying Game: This series is a thriller about twin sisters that were separated from each other at birth. There are six books in the series.

My Trip to Mexico

Instead of doing the same routine for Christmas, which includes staying home for Christmas day, having a big Turkey dinner, and then flying out to Canada to go skiing the next day, my family and I decided to take a big family trip to Mexico and spend Christmas there. Not only did me, my dad, and my mom go, but all the rest of my family on my mom's side which includes 23 of my relatives went also. All 23 of them flew in from Canada and met me and my family in Mexico. Not only did we all have an awesome time, but it was a trip I will never forget.

We stayed in Mexico for a week, but those 7 days seemed way to short. We had so much fun just being able to hang out in the sun and relax. However, we didn't just sit on the beach the whole time. Some mornings, we got up around 9:00 and went to the market where we found numerous bracelets and jewelry that we were able to buy. I bought about 10 bracelets. They were all handmade with different patterns and colors on them. When we got back from the market, we would usually go swimming. There was also many activities like parasailing and water aerobics that we could do. Around 4:00, we would go back up to our hotel room to get cleaned up for dinner. Each night we picked a different restaurant to eat at with food ranging from sushi to Mexican food. Every meal was amazing. Not only was each day filled with lots of fun, but the nights were filled with many festivities as well. Each night, there would be some sort of festival that included dancing, stands selling all sorts of things ranging from jewelry to plates, and really good desserts. Overall, I had so much fun, and it was one of the best trips that I have ever been on.