Trip so far

Today was the second day of our wonderful trip. Waking up in the morning was kind of rough, but the
waffle I had, made things better. One this day, our first stop was at the Fort De Soto, which is actually a
beach compare to its name. The beach was really beautiful and I was looking forward to getting into the
water. That means a lot coming from me, who am not the biggest fan of beaches. I am more in favor of
rainy, stay in bed and away from the salt water, kind of person. Yet, the beach was nice, the sand wasn’t too hot and the water didn’t remind me of The Simpson’s Movie. The only thing that scared me was a sign we saw at the entrance of the beach area. ‘Stingray Season. Shuffle your feet.’ Now, the only thing that came into my head was the crocodile hunter, who died because of a stingray. I mean, if they can kill him and not a lion, I think we got a problem. Though, I wanted to get in the water, just for a bit. Shuffling my feet and half blind (being that I don’t have my glasses on), holding Nicole’s hand because I didn’t want to trip and die. Yet, Nicole is no help. Just when we really got into the water, Nicole screams about a stingray and shuffle out the water without me, so much for friendships. Even though, I did get out the water, I just went back in till I was tired. After I left the water, about a good minute or two, something made this huge splash in the water. That is when; Amanda the mentor shouts out that it was a stingray. At the point, I flew off the beach and just chill around the shop area. Battling with the evil blood sucker was a pain but I wasn’t going back into the water. Plus, the shop wasn’t cooler than outside. I thought that was some kind of rule, but whatever. I just chill up there with Nicole, Denise, and Aminah. So, the lesson is, not all gift shop are cool. -Amanda

Upper classmen trip........sigh

Welcome to my view of the upperclassmen trip! On this little excursion we took a trip to a different part of Florida, this year it was Tampa, and we go to national parks and such. So after the first day, drove and got situated, we woke up at a whooping 6:00 AM, at breakfast and we departed to....the Parks! so at the Soto national park and it was a BLAST! we got to see Manta Rays in the water however, I had a nice little scooby doo type of chase with one of them causing me to run out of the water...screaming.....after that we got on the bus and I got attacked by some mousse by my lovely mentor Laura because I messed with her while she was sleeping but seriously who would'nt mess with her while she is asleep.after the ride from the park we journeyed to the Soto National Park which was a stuggle. After the wal around the park we had to watch a very interesting movie on the native indians from around that area but I was too sleepy so it took all my energy in my body to actually survive during it. On the ride back we saw a interesting movie, I cant repeat the name but I will say it was very vaulger and offensive, and got to the hotel to do work and play some more.......well see you guys later I gotta go jump in the pool see ya!

                                                                                                                       -Raymond

Goodbye Miami

     Nothing last forever! I have been in the upward bound program for four years and I am very sad since this is my final field trip with the program.   This year the upper clas-man trip was to Tampa, Florida, I was excited since I love going out of town especially with my friends.  This morning I woke up extremely early so I could finish packing for the trip.    I was too lazy and tired to finish packing, but moving on, I packed my entire house in my duffel bag since I don’t really know when enough is enough. It was a nice sunny day, a perfect day for a trip; I was ready to have fun. I got ready and headed to the Museum, when I got there we got on the bus and off we went to Tampa. We took our sit on the bus and that’s where we stayed and conversed for a few hours until we got to Tampa.  The bus ride was fun, we joked around and we also made a few stop. We stop for lunch and also went to a museum called ”MOSI”   the exhibits were entertaining.    We got back on the road and didn't stop until we got to the hotel. The hotel was raggedy compared to the other La Quinta we usually go to so the hotel did not meet my standards for a nice hotel. We unloaded and got ready for dinner; we got real dressed up and fancy to go to Golden Corral.   When got there, we stuffed our faces.  The boy’s bellies look like fat Albert and all the females looked pregnant. After dinner we went to Walgreen to buy a few things and it’s just ridiculous how we were discriminated against. While we were in there they said “security watch the floor” I  thought discrimination ended years ago but I guess not since some people still seem to be ignorant by their actions. After that we went back to the hotel

room and just chilled until it was time to go to sleep. -Claudia

Stingrays, Mosquitoes, and Mistrust

Today we got on the coach bus and headed to Fort De Soto Beach. We got off the bus and were attacked by mosquitoes. We had to hurry and spray ourselves with insect repellent. It was Off Deep Woods, that good kind. Then after applying sunscreen we headed to the beach. I was in the water for no more than 5 minutes when I saw a baby stingray. I immediately got out of the water. I told others who were in the ocean but no one believed me. I still got out and then proceeded to make a sandman. It didn’t really work out. After that I just sat on the shore and later collected sea shells. On my journey in the search of sea shells Amanda, my mentor, screamed “Did you guys see that?” I turned and saw a huge splash circle. Amanda said that a big stingray jumped out of the water. Raymond, my friend, backed her up. He also saw it happen. I turned to another one of my friends saying “I told you so.” I bet people will start believing what I say. -Nicole

Okay...not really...

This one is cute..don't touch them!!

Blast from the past

The fourteen year old steps off the mild cheese, rusty, humid, bus. She looks around with bug-eyes, soaking up her surroundings. The chatter from the upperclassmen, the vegetation dancing as the wind plays its music. It’s the first day of impact. Fast forward, it’s her junior year. She’s
stressing. Trying to balance out how she’s going to find her perfect school. Many of her
classmates already gave up on their future, and chose a different path to take. She hops onto a
boat and rides off to sea. A day filled of petting sharks, laughing with close friends, good food,
and dealing with frozen fish heads. Another year passes, and here we are. Senior summer.
Almost the beginning of the end, but yet again, almost the start of a new beginning. I, myself,
have high hopes for this year. Trips, bonding, entertainment, but also finding the perfect school.
Getting as many scholarships as possible and improving my musicianship is what I’m going to be
focused on all year. I hope that this year will set off the big bang for the rest of my life, so I can
trace it back to the first day the fourteen year shyly stepped off that bus. -Leandra

Strong opinions

Three years and you would think we would know each other. You would think we would work well enough to strengthen ourselves and help each other to get through our weaknesses. We were faced with sort of a problem this first week. What and how do we do this research project? 12 motivated students in one class were asked to come together to decided one big topic to research this summer. Mind you we all have different mindsets and different ideas so you are bound to get some types of confrontation. But because we work well with each other we pulled through. It took some arguing, raising of the voices, and some attitude but we did it; and that’s what family is all about. We argue but at the end of the day we get whatever we have to get done. You might ask what all the commotion was about anyways. Well our project is to create a website to talk about an extreme environment and write a 5 page research paper about it. We decided to use the Dead Sea and talk about the impacts like the different organisms and the environment and all that good stuff. So in all we had a pretty hectic week but it was all worth it. -Liz

Senioritis

Last week was basically the first day of Impact. I didn’t want to come back... I would have liked
to stay in Guatemala a little bit longer. I came back to see all of my friends and mentors. It’s also my last year in the summer program. I want to make the best of it and enjoy it. I can’t
wait to find out what we will be doing and the overnight trip this summer. The only thing I’m not going to enjoy is writing the research paper. I’m already used to it, but its summer. In the summer, what we did last week was we went to the Everglades. We learned things new, and had a nature walk after lunch. I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m used to walks. Especially the ones that are unexpected. The blog we are doing in the summer is about the deep sea in the ocean. We are going to try to make it interesting!
 -Denise