TGIF

T.G.I.F.! (Thank goodness it’s Friday) since its summer on a Friday most teens are sleeping in. Since I’m not like most teens that does not have nothing to  do. I had to force myself to wake up at 6 something in the morning, to go to my upward bound program. It’s not that I don’t love the program, I just  don’t enjoy waking up really early in the morning. Moving on with my story, I went to catch the bus at Edison middle school. Then I headed to my second home: the Miami Science Museum. Once I got there I met up with the other abnormal participants of the program and off we went to the Everglades. The bus ride was ridiculously long but since I was socializing with my friends it did not bother me that much. We got to the Everglades an hour later. We went on a walk to appreciate nature, talk about the ecosystem and the creatures in it. I saw a few turtles and an alligator that reminded me of my friend Rex. The rough skin and everything I thought that was her twin. After we ate lunch (the best part of the trip) then we headed back to the museum. The trip was fun, but the last thing on my mind after the field trip was T.G.I.F. now I could go home and get ready for the weekend. -Claudia

IMPACT Field trip: Everglades National Park

Today we are going to Everglades National Park. I think it’s going to be
interesting. I’m not completely sure though.
(After Trip) Well it was fun I guess. I met some new people while walking the
different paths. I also saw a turtle and a poisonous spider that looked like twigs.
The spider sighting was funny though because once the mentors realized it was
there, people started freaking out like crazy. It was a pretty funny sight actually.
In the end, even though it was extremely hot, I think we all had and extent
of fun. The overall most exciting part of everyone’s day was probably the water
fight on the way back. We thought it wasn’t going to happen at first because Felix
came on the bus all serious saying “There will be NO water fight”. The thing is that
as soon as we were on the road, their bus (Felix’s) attacked us first. Then, it was
ON!! Next thing I know, there’s water going back and forth and the bus is all wet.
Yep, that was definitely the most exciting part of our trip. -Aminah

The Betrayal

It was a cloudy day on Friday and we were boarding the bus to head to the everglades. We were sharing the bus with the disgusting juniors and it was as hot as the Sahara dessert. We were sweating like if there was no tomorrow and we kept begging the bus driver to start heading to the everglades. We finally took off at nine forty three with sixteen seconds and thirty seven mini seconds. It has already been a long day and most of us are ready to head home already but there’s just one problem…. Were barely half way there. So I’m on the back seat of the bus and the air is flowing through my rock star hair. I’m jamming to some young money and the time has finally come, we have arrived. We get off and the first thing I see is a grown lady about the size of Rick Ross wearing a sports bra. The time has come to make jokes. Tori’s baby momma maybe? I still didn’t understand how a person can go out like that knowing there are blood thirst mosquitos everywhere. Ok let’s cut to the chase now and let’s talk about the best part in the trip…… the trip back home! Felix completely betrayed the freshman and seniors. He clearly stated that if we start a water fight that we would be in big trouble. But what do you think happens when we board the bus? We have our windows open and I see Felix coming by my peripheral vision with a whole water bottle and he launches all the water inside our bus. I got completely soaked. Traitor!!!! They were then convincing me to moon the other bus but what was the downside? If I moon them I might blind there bus driver and blam! They crash. So I couldn’t… and that was the end of a crazy but amazing day at impact . -Anthony

Everglades......GREEN EVERY WHERE

It was a Friday, if I remember correctly. I and a few others in the program visited the Everglades National Park. We took a bus there and we, the seniors, usually sit with the juniors however, on this particular day we sat with the freshmen! They were the most interesting bunch that had me so engaged into learning their background that it made my head hurt…….ok by the heavy sarcasm you can tell I was lying; in actuality only a select few would actually talk to me, while they were cool and all, the others were just too hard of a nut to crack. On the other hand, we were at the Everglades National Park and it was pretty “Naturey”. We walked through the everglades and we saw a lot of vegetation and Animal life which was actually interesting. Now after we ate lunch we took another trail, with the most mosquitos in the world by the way, and it was mainly trees and such. 

On the trip I learned that in the Everglades there is actually only two seasons….wet and dry. As many negative jokes popped into my head I kept it clean and listened to the ranger tell us more about this swampy place while we waited for the bus. This is when the main event of the day happened; Felix came onto the bus stating to not start a water war because of some ridiculous reason. Then out of nowhere while it was all tranquil then, Felix tossed a nice heaping of H20 at the bus. We all got wet and although we tried to put up a fight we noticed that no water was on our bus to retaliate with. So I, and the rest of the people on the bus, went home wet and grumpy……..Felix I hope you are reading this……I will find you…..and I will get revenge. -Raymond

It was a Friday, if I remember correctly. I and a few others in the program visited the Everglades National
Park. We took a bus there and we, the seniors, usually sit with the juniors however, on this particular day
we sat with the freshmen! They were the most interesting bunch that had me so engaged into learning
their background that it made my head hurt…….ok by the heavy sarcasm you can tell I was lying; in
actuality only a select few would actually talk to me, while they were cool and all, the others were just
too hard of a nut to crack. On the other hand, we were at the Everglades National Park and it was pretty
“Naturey”. We walked through the everglades and we saw a lot of vegetation and Animal life which was
actually interesting. Now after we ate lunch we took another trail, with the most mosquitos in the world
by the way, and it was mainly trees and such.

On the trip I learned that in the Everglades there is actually only two seasons….wet and dry. As many
negative jokes popped into my head I kept it clean and listened to the ranger tell us more about this
swampy place while we waited for the bus. This is when the main event of the day happened; Felix came
onto the bus stating to not start a water war because of some ridiculous reason. Then out of nowhere
while it was all tranquil then, Felix tossed a nice heaping of H20 at the bus. We all got wet and although
we tried to put up a fight we noticed that no water was on our bus to retaliate with. So I, and the rest of
the people on the bus, went home wet and grumpy……..Felix I hope you are reading this……I will find
you…..and I will get revenge.

                                                                                                                                    -Raymond Pache

Beach Day

Normally, I dislike beach days because that means sweat, bugs, and bad tasting salt water. We usually go straight to the beach from the museum and from then until lunch we work on an activity. After we are stuffed with food, so stuffed that you wish school would let out, we get in the water. Once in the water, it’s FULL ON TRAINING!!! NO BACKING DOWN!!!! NO BREAKS!! JUST YOU AND THE WATER…with snorkeling gear. It’s not as extreme as I make it out to be. For most people...but... since I have this near death fear of drowning which makes it hard for me to do anything in water. Yet, that Wednesday started off different. We had our speaker on that day and normally, we don’t have a speaker on a beach day. All that was going in my head was, ‘YAY!!! COUPLE HOURS FROM BEING OUTSIDE IN THAT UNBEARABLE HEAT!!!’ So, we went on our way to RSMAS, where A/C is nice and the seats are comfortable. The talk was alright until the speaker started to explain about one of the processes of surveying fishes. That was just complicated. After the talk we had to the beach but we had a problem... between the normal time for activities and training in the water, we didn’t have enough time. Lucky, having the speaker ahead of time, we were able to push the activity for the next time and went straight to training. After, a bit of training it was beach time. It was pretty fun, hanging around the water and stuff. So in all, it was an all then okay beach time…. For its first day. -Amanda