Outdoor Ed

Hi guys, I know it's been like a long time since I posted something, because it's already 2012! But the very first thing I seriously want to share with the blog is the best thing fifth graders looked forward too: OUTDOOR ED! If you don't know what "Outdoor Ed" means, it basically is camping, except with your schoolmates, since this is a school program at my school. Anyways, when I got on the bus (there were three buses, but there's four fifth-grade classes so my teacher had to drive her own car to Camp Loma Mar, and so my class was split up) I could see my parents out the window, waving. I gulped, hoping that I wouldn't be homesick, and waved back. They smiled, and we kept waving at each other for which seemed like forever. My cabin buddy Jasmine had already gotten on and had sat next to me. Since I was in her teacher's bus, the teacher started out role for her class, and then my class. When she was done calling out the last person, the teacher whispered something to the bus driver, and the bus driver nodded and pulled out of the school slowly as possible. No one screamed to get off the bus for their parents, thankfully, for I was scared that I might.
When the bus screeched to a stop next to the other buses, we got introduced to the camp and settled into our cabins. My other cabin buddy, Destiny, spotted Jasmine and me. " Hey, guys, over here!" she said, patting a spot for the introduction to Girls' Village. A woman explained the rules firmly to all the girls, and we all nodded vigorously. She finally put us into our cabin groups, and I got into a cabin called the Western Bumblebees. Our counselor introduced herself to us. " Hi, I'm Amanda," she said excitedly. " Guess what? I have decorations for the cabin." " Cool!" our cabin chorused. " I also have stuff for you guys to wear to the Barnyard Boogie." Amanda grinned. The Barnyard Boogie is this night where you can dress all crazy and... well, boogie! It happens on the next night. More Cools traveled around the cabin. A girl I know who was in my cabin yelled, " We have the best counselor in the whole village!"
After we set up our stuff, we went to meet our naturalist for an Opening Ceremony. We saw the principal, Kodiak Bear (I think that's how it's spelled), and he introduced all the naturalists, and a couple of songs. Also a "Baby Erin," who everybody suspiciously suspected was really a 40-year-old. I met my cabin's naturalist, and she gave us an "Intro Hike," which really meant just a walking tour and some walking around the trees. She didn't tell us her real name, just that her nature name was Dandelion. Who knows, her real name may be Dandelion! After that we had Rec Time (Recess Time), where a lot of games were introduced. My whole cabin went up to the Western Bumblebees Cabin, since you could also hang out in the cabin. Amanda was there, and she suggested we do our skit for Skit Night. Skit Night is an evening activity, just like the Barnyard Boogie. We didn't have time for that, though, since we were too busy unpacking and decorating. We pressed on about the Barnyard Boogie decorations, but Amanda kept her lips zipped about it. After that, we had Cabin Time, which was pretty useless since we already spent an hour in the cabin. We thought of our skit though, which was this:
Main Girl: Oh my gosh, there's a piece of trash on the floor! What should we do?
Main Devil: Why'd you wake me up?
Main Angel: Oh, hello, I was just getting my beauty sleep (British accent).
Main Devil: You mean ugly sleep?
Main Angel: No. Anyways, what do you need?
Main Girl: So what should I do with this trash?
Main Angel: You should recycle it.
Main Devil: No, you should litter!
Main Angel: Nuh-uh!
Main Devil: Yeah-huh! See? She agrees with me.
Minor Devil: (jumps in) Yeah, of course.
Minor Angel: (jumps in too) I agree with the angel!
Main Girl, Main Angel, Main Devil, Minor Angel, and Minor Devil argue at once.
Yoga Girl: (walks in) Excuse me, excuuuuse me!
Stops arguing.
Main Devil: What do you want?
Yoga Girl: Stop arguing, people, and inzen with Mother Nature.
Does yoga pose. Two backup yoga people join in with other yoga poses.
Main Angel: Oh, you mean, like ploga?
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: YEAH! We'll teach you how.
Yoga Girl: Only if the devils agree.
Minor Devil and Main Devil: No.
Main Girl: ACT. Attitude, cooperation, and take a chance. Please do it for once!
Minor Devil and Main Devil: Well, alright.
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: teach others to do ploga, which leads into a plant song we learned from Outdoor Ed.
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: disappear
Minor Devil and Minor Angel: disappear
Main Angel: So, what was I saying? Oh, yeah. You should recycle.
Main Devil: Well... yeah, you should! I think I'm going to go get myself a halo.
Main Angel: Yup, the best ones are at Target.
Main Girl: I'll recycle! drops trash into recycling bin
THE END!!! I hope you liked the skit. So, anyways, that was Skit Night, so I'm not going to talk about that. The Barnyard Boogie was fun. So the last thing is the Night Hike. It was very quiet and dark and so nice! We couldn't use our flashlights, which was the best part about it. The time when we started hiking around the trees, I was kind of scared and wanted to hear some voices so badly. Unfortunately, we couldn't talk, because Dandelion had specifically told us not to since she wanted us to hear some owls. I couldn't hear anything, and I couldn't see anything. It was like I was blind, since everything was so black. We all sat down in a circle, and Dandelion told us a story of how she survived in the dark and so we would too. Then, to prove it, she told us that she would walk down the path, and then the people would follow her without any help. Amanda and our other group, a boys' group's, counselor Sheldon, started picking one person. Amanda got to choose first, and she chose ME. Isn't that scary, being the first one to follow Dandelion the naturalist? I gulped and stepped carefully onto the path, blinking. My night vision wasn't even clearing, but I made it to Dandelion safely, with the help of her instrument's music. We went back to our cabins to sleep, and I could sleep better. Well. That's all I'm going to tell you, future Outdoor Ed people! And relatives, read this now for pleasure! Outdoor Ed rocks!

Summer Sensation!!!

It's my summer break right now, and I am enjoying every second of it! I'm going to fifth grade next year, and turning double digit 10 in November! I watched Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer on Sunday and I loved the movie. One of my friends Jasmine made up this cool phrase called "Summer Sensation!" She emailed me about how she loved the "Summer Sensation," and now we include this phrase A LOT in our emails. I'm also thinking that it's a title of a song. Is it? Uh-oh, I hear the cries of my dad yelling, " Janel! Get over here! I need yakap!" I better go. I don't want to waste my whole summer hearing wailing noises, right? Well, all the people who are reading this right NOW, happy SUMMER SENSATION! Well, you should probably check the date if you read this in winter. Okay, bye!!!

Spring... BREAK!!!

It's spring break the first whole week of April, and I am psyched for my golf tournament on Monday. There may be two days of golfing, but I haven't checked the website yet. It's the JGANC one. They have their own website for the results, and FYI, I am playing on the Castlewood Tournament in Pleasanton, CA. Lent. I have a hard time giving up things. So when I gave up ice cream and my dad gave up chocolate, we knew we were going to have a hard time. So whenever I brought up my courage to pass by Baskin Robbins and into the laundry cleaners, I wondered why I didn't give up something more simple, like my mom's tacos ( my mom has some kind of easy but special recipe) . I mean, I'm giving up tacos anyways. Dear Mommy, if you are reading this, please cook tacos. Not on Friday, though. We should be eating salad/fish & chips on a Friday, and then sushi on the next Friday. My dad is pretty crazy; he thinks we should be eating no meat on every Friday. What has the Earth done to my dad's head?! My mom says it's okay because it means sushi for her, but we might get sick of it. We are like fish, eating seaweed... :( Well, family and relatives, bye!

P.S. Hi Ate Louise, if you are in Hawaii, we will schedule Zeum some other time. I hope soon. Good luck in Hawaii, watch out for tsunamis, and swim with the dolphins ( WARNING: DO NOT SWIM WITH THE SHARKS) :)

L.A and San Diego Trip so far

Hi guys. It's Janel. I have just went to Los Angeles to eat at an American Girl cafe. It was expensive, but it was kind of okay. Again, kind of. I also got a doll there. Then, we went to Universal Studios because of our annual passes. It did not go well as I thought it would turn out to be. It was raining when we went on the tour, and it was still raining when we went on the Simpsons ride. So, of course, we didn't want to be sick, so Universal fun was out of the way, and into the hotel. Top-secret hotel, my dad said, since Holiday Inn Express was really nice, and cheap. My mom would agree to that hotel any time. Then, we drove to San Diego and ate for dinner sweet and sour fish filet and another type of fish at a restaurant called China Max Restaurant. Another expensive restaurant. Expenses, expenses. Bye, I have to go eat breakfast at the Ramada Plaza, the hotel we're staying in for San Diego. See pictures on Facebook. Friend Art Liguidliguid, but watch out; he may decline.

Sunol Valley (Cypress) Course

My new tournament starts today! I warmed up and am going to practice at the Pleasanton Driving Range in a couple of minutes! Wishing myself luck, I am going to play at approximately 2:00 pm. My dad is going to caddy me again, and the next Junior-World-Tour tournament will be at January 2nd and 3rd. I will start blogging again a couple of days later, maybe, and when I get to San Diego, same routine. So root me luck, relatives!!!!!!

golf tournament in san diego

Hey! It's Gianelli again, from some major golf tournament, the Junior Masters. (I think.) All of that hitting and practice made me exhausted a million times. (Seriously. How about if you had to practice at 11:00 and practice for four hours? Plus, have your back aching for a bit? Sorry I didn't post any pictures, but I'll try to. By the way, if you were wondering who won the tournament, it was this girl you probably don't know but is super good- she beat a champion! Nicole Anne Abelar, who shot 34 and 36 ( trust me, she is really good)- and played with me yesterday. ( There's two days of the tournament. We played nine holes a day.) Her name's Karah Sanford ( look it up at google.com on san diego junior masters golf, then click on results, go to Girls 7-8, and see it.) Don't look up Karah Sanford; look up San Diego Junior Masters Golf. Oh! I saw a lot of sporty fashions on the run to the golf course. A filipino flag jacket, which was worn from these two boys and Nicole Abelar. There was this girl, Michaela Phan, who we played with today, and we shot the same score. We were supposed to shoot a play off and go to Junior World, (woo-hoo!) but instead Michaela shot 37 because of her lucky day. (Way lucky day. She went to Junior World!) Junior World is this great golf tournament you have to qualify and then compete against the best. Isn't that great? Well, I'll send some pictures some day, then you can see. Remember, look up San Diego Junior Masters golf! Look at my name. Have fun for all of your stuff for the seasons!

San Diego Tournament

I'm excited for the big day today! It's my Junior-World-Tour tournament! Playing against the best, I need to hit the ball solid and aim right to become one of those best. The person caddying me will be my dad. Let's all hope he doesn't mess up! Let's also hope I make a big difference for my golf. Well, break a leg, dad! ( Or should I say, don't break a leg?)