You know what? I'm mad. Mad at the world. The western world, to be more specific. The damn Europeans started it and ruined everything. Before I start off on my rant, let me explain where I'm coming from. It seems that my crappy Cultural Studies class can be good for something. I learned (actually, it was a research project, so more specifically, my partner and I learned on our own). This entry will focus on the injustices that happen in the world, more specifically, the genocide in Rwanda. Happy Valentine's Day, by the way.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race." In the 20th century, there were several cases of genocide. For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, crawl out from under your rock and do some research. NOW. It is important for the world to be aware of the atrocities that have happened and the atrocities that still happen today.

In Rwanda, Africa, the conflict was between two groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. No one knows the origin of the words, which are used to describe the two classes. Before the colonists came, Rwanda's society resembled Europe's old feudal societies; the "Tutsis" (the minority) where wealthy cattle owners while the "Hutus" (the majority) were farmers.

When the Europeans came in mid-1800s, they created a division by assuming there was a difference between the two classes but in reality, there was no difference in ethnicity. It was actually the Belgians who started it when they took over Rwanda as a Trust Territory in 1916. They called the "whiter" (or more "European") people "Tutsis" and the darker-skinned people "Hutus." Every Rwandan was given an identity card stating with "ethnic group" they were from.

A quote from the movie Hotel Rwanda (excellent movie, go watch it!) sums this up: "Well... According to the Belgian colonists, Tutsis are taller, more elegant. It was the Belgians that created the division. They picked people; those with thinner noses, lighter skin... they even used to measure people's noses. The Belgians used the Tutsis to run the country. Then when they left, they left the power to the Hutus. And the Hutus took revenge on the Tutsis for years of oppression."

Do you see the problem here? There was no difference to begin with! Only the stupidity of Belgians is to blame. The Belgians relied on Tutsis to govern so they were given superior, higher-paying government jobs and positions.

Fast-forward to 1959 when the Tutsi King Muratara III died and the Hutus claimed that the successor, Kigeri V, was chosen inappropriately. Fighting erupted and the Hutus won, resulting in thousands of Tutsis fleeing the country. This left the Hutus in power when Rwanda gained independence on July 1, 1962.

The killing of Tutsis continued to occur, until finally, the situation got really bad in the 1990s. Exiled Tutsis in the Rwandan Patriotic Front attacked from Ugandan bases using guerrilla warfare. The Hutus used this as a justification for large-scale killings of innocent Tutsis. The killings were carried out by militias and death squads, originally organized as "youth wings" of Hutu political parties.

Meanwhile, the president Habyarimana and the government stirred up racist feelings against the Tutsi. Creating death lists and identifying targets was easy because of the ethnic ID cards (introduced by Belgians). Additionally, the Radio des Mille Collines (A Thousand Hills) was set up by the Hutu government to broadcast racist propaganda. Radio broadcasts by Hutu leaders were used to increase hatred for the Tutsis.

On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana was killed in a suspicious plane crash. Tutsi rebels were blamed, but many analysts think his plane shot down by Hutus who were opposed the power-sharing plan that was going to be implemented with the Tutsis. As soon as Habyarimana's death was announced, the militias began killing immediately. This started what became known as the "100 Days of Violence" which was a systematic massacre of more than 800,000 Tutsis (and some moderate Hutus) between April and July, 1994.

Rwanda had "a rate of killing that was five times faster than the Nazis' industrial methods during World War II." 6-11% of Rwanda's population was killed in a two month period. Compare that to France and Germany who only lost 1.5% and 5.3% over several years of fighting. Violent methods were used to kill people – they were slaughtered in the streets by Hutus armed with machetes and guns.

In conclusion, over the course of 3 months, 6 people were murdered every 60 seconds and an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed total. More than 1 million refugees were forced to flee and are still displaced to this day. There are more than 60,000 widows and more than 200,000 orphans in Rwanda. Sounds bad, right? Here's more:

Approximately 535,000 women were victims of an organized rape campaign. This means that 4 women were violently sexually assaulted every minute, mostly by HIV-positive men. More than 67% (two-thirds!) of women who were raped are now dying from AIDS and there are at least 500,000 people in Rwanda living with HIV. Can you believe this? It's true.

So where was the world when this was happening? It's pretty hard to ignore people dying every minute. Somehow, the international community was able to ignore it. The first action the U.N. took was to reduce the number of UNAMIR peacekeeping forces (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, sent there in 1993) from 2500 to 270.

Four weeks later, the number was increased to 5500 but that did not prevent more deaths because they were only allowed to use "self-defense." Another Hotel Rwanda quote: "we're peacekeepers, not peacemakers." Later, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to abandon Rwanda and the rest of the peacekeeping troops were evacuated. Now, how is that supposed to prevent slaughter?

You know what really pisses me off? The U.N. and the U.S.A. avoided calling the massacres "genocide" to prevent an emergency intervention and to not alarm the public. Well you know what? The public needs to know! People were dying. Blood was EVERYWHERE. The U.S. government refused to act and blocked a vote on a U.N. resolution to deploy more troops to Rwanda to protect refugees and aid workers. Stupid move. More people died as a result. If the international community had intervened, tens of thousands of lives would have been saved. The only action taken was to remove all foreigners from Rwanda, leaving the Rwandans to fend for themselves.

This whole mess was started by the Europeans and their imperialist crap. During the Age of Imperialism, Europe exerted its force over the whole world. Africa, the Americas, Australia, Asia, EVERYWHERE. For instance, look at Great Britain. Its goal was to "paint the world red," a euphemism for "control the world through colonies and such." India, Australia, Hong Kong, and America. Did I miss some? Oh yeah, parts of Africa, too. The other European nations weren't any better. King Leopold of Belgium practically killed Congo before others made him stop. When the Europeans left, they left a mess behind. A HUGE mess. Take a look at the world today. It's not getting any better.

We are now in the 21st century. Genocide still occurs today. There are still issues in Africa. A well-known case is in Sudan, the Darfur region. If you look at world history, it's littered with genocide. Even the United States is guilty of it. Look at the time of the "manifest destiny." Native Americans were driven from their homes and "relocated" or slaughtered. The Trail of Tears was only one event in the whole movement. Remember the Wild West? Shooting "Indians" and taking their land? The U.S. is no better than a big bully. If you look at the world now, the U.S. is still a bully that throws its weight around to get its way. When the going gets tough, the U.S. pulls out and leaves a mess behind, just like the Europeans did in Africa. Iraq won't end well. I can feel it. Just look at Somalia.

So what are your thoughts on this? Serious, no? The human race is slowly destroying the Earth with its stupid antics. Enough depression for now. Anyway...

The weather where I live is crazy. We had an early dismissal from school on Tuesday but it barely snowed. However, it started pouring the "wintery mix" stuff where it's all freezing rain and whatnot. We ended up having no school yesterday and now we have a 4-day weekend. I find it ironic that we had snow days during Valentine's Day week last year too. Whee!

Leave some love (and comments)!

School. That one word should sum it up. It's self-explanatory. School. School is hard. School sucks. School should die. And to think, I used to like school. Sophomore year is hard. One thing that really pisses me off is SAM, the online report card. Our teachers can post all of our grades online and our parents can see them at any time.

I am normally a good student but I had a rough first semester. The first few grades were pretty bad for me. I know I can raise them by the end of the marking period to get those coveted A's, but my parents logged in, saw my (current) marks, and started yelling at me. My parents and I have argued about school before. That why I hate it so much now.

Things like SAM and school ruin my otherwise good relation with my parents. I am a good kid. I don't do drugs, smoke, have sex, drink alcohol, skip school, or any of those other stupid things people my age do. Yet, my parents feel the need to berate me for every little detail of my life. So what if I don't want to start reading SAT books now? I'm not taking it until next year. I'm stressed. I hate my life.

Schedule for 2nd semester:
Period 1: French III
Period 2: Adobe Photoshop Essentials
Period 3: Study hall/Choir
Lunch @ 10:20 AM
Period 4: Honors English
Period 5: Honors Cultural Studies
Period 6: Honors Algebra II
Period 7: Honors Chemistry

French III – Last year, French class was awesome. I had to coolest teacher ever and it was something to look forward to at the end of the day. This year, my teacher is terror and I have her first thing in the morning. She actually said to our class, "I know it's early, I know I'm bitchy, but you have to learn the material!" Thank goodness I'm good at French or I'd be failing right now. The tests are harder this year and they have a lot of grammar and vocab. There are actually people who get really atrocious grades in that class. I managed to scrape by 1st marking period with an A-, and I consider that a bad grade especially since French is an academic level class, not honors.

Right now, I'm okay in this class. I'm not too worried, but every marking period we have to memorize a French poem and recite it in front of the whole class. It's not hard but it just adds to the stress already surrounding class. It's hard to say in English how much I hate French class, so maybe I can say it in French; Je déteste ma classe de français. Il doit mourir maintenant! Merde!

Adobe Photoshop Essentials - Wow, this class is boring. I basically take pictures with Photobooth while the teacher talks.

Honors English – Normally, I like English. But that's normally. This year, I have an insane teacher and we don't learn anything at all. There is so much s*** in that class that I don't even want to repeat it here. Suffice it to say, I hate that class, its stupid projects, assignments, and the stupid books we have to read. We learn nothing, get nothing done, and it's just a waste of my life. My teacher doesn't teach; she gets sidetracked and goes off on a tangent and insists that we take notes on the s*** that spews from her mouth. I want to learn in English, not talk about London cabdrivers (that lecture took a whole class period). One student got so fed up with our class that she dropped it and is doing an independent study. Lucky duck.

Honors Cultural Studies – I usually like social studies but in cultural studies, it's basically world history and current events in-depth. Like, every-little-minuscule-detail-matters in-depth. At times, it's interesting but mostly, it's Hell. Do I really care about the history of Latin America? No. there is so much useless information that we do not need to know. Shoot me, please.

Honors Algebra II – I consider myself pretty darn smart. Call me conceited, but I am (both conceited and smart). The thing is, I hate math. I can get by in that class, but I hate it. I'm really considering dropping down to an academic level class next year just so I don't have to deal with it. But, if I take an academic math class, will colleges still accept me? Stupid colleges. If they don't accept me, they don't know what they're missing.

Honors Chemistry – I love this class. My teacher is awesome and I can actually pass this class without too much trouble. It's a good class to have at the end of the day. Woo.

Midterms & testing in general – Our midterms were last week. They were pretty tough. My parents were not happy. Also, I took the practice PSAT and got a terrific score considering that I did not study beforehand. However, my parents already want to discuss classes and college and other things like that. Whenever I have these "talks" with my parents, I always end up crying. It's not just the talk itself, it's a lot of factors combined. Life is stressful. I'm going to fail at it. The end.

Moving on, let's talk music. We finished up all our winter concerts and now concentration is on the musical. Auditions were in December and this year, we're doing Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. There are wayyyyy too many people in the girls' chorus. Our director shouldn't have been so nice. If he had cut some people, we would sound better but NO, instead we sound awful because there are so many tone-deaf people. In a MUSICAL. @#% &*^%#!!! I'm upset, as you can tell. We girls outnumber the guys by a whole lot. It's supposed to be the other way around. Boo.

So, some happier news; our debate team rocks. We totally pwned this tournament we just competed in (did I just say "pwnd"?!). Hopefully, our school will give us more funding for being so insanely awesome, but not likely. Whatever; we know we're cool. Another thing; our FBLA club (I'm the Secretary now) also did well at the regional competition. 14 of us made it to States including me! I'm also attending the HOBY Leadership Conference in May. Each school sends only one outstanding sophomore to represent their school. I applied back in November and I was chosen! Yay!

So goes my life. Most of this was old news but at least I posted another entry. Second semester is now beginning and school will probably suck even more. Ah well, I'll live. I always do. Comment!

OMG. Can you believe it has been over FOUR MONTHS since I last posted? Life has just gotten in the way of writing on my blog. Some good news first: I got my braces off! This entry is actually not that interesting. I wrote it a looong time ago and should have posted it a looong time ago. Here you go: Cheerleading & Football - the good, the bad, and the ugly, otherwise known as pep rally, injuries, and practice.

"Cheerleading has dramatically improved. And now it's over (for me, at least… darn our football team. More on that later). Before I get to the good part, let me tell you about the not-so-great parts of cheerleading this year, namely, the Homecoming pep rally. Things were really glitchy that week and we practiced so hard for that by the time Friday came around, we were sick of pep rally. Let's see if I can relive that week.

Our routine went something like this: music starts, stunting, dance, music stops, transition chant, cheer with stunts, music starts, stunting, and end with a hip hop dance. It should have been simple, but it needed so much work. We put the routine together in less than a week (except for the dances; we learned those before Homecoming week). Doing the whole routine on such short notice just made it harder, especially since we were very tired towards the end of the week.

The biggest problem was that stunts were not hitting, mainly because the coaches had switched the stunt groups around. Because they didn't want people's feelings to get hurt by being left out of the stunts, they tried to include everyone, even when certain people weren't ready to do certain stunts. I don't know about you, but I prefer safety over happiness, especially when I'm the one being tossed around in the air.

I have never hit the ground while flying as much as I did that week. Even when I was first learning how to fly, if I started to fall, people would catch me. But during that week, if a stunt didn't go up/hit, instead of being caught, I would smack the ground most of the time. This was due to inadequate spotting abilities. I repeat, you are NEVER supposed to let the flyer hit the ground. If we were still at cheer camp, we probably would have had to do over 100 pushups a day as punishment.

Inventory of my body at the end of that week: countless bruises, my back hurt, my left calf/lower leg (tendon in my ankle?) hurt, my left wrist hurt, my shoulders and right forearm were sore, and my abs and torso hurt. This is all from stunting/being dropped.

The actual pep rally was worth all the trouble that was put into it. First things first. Preparing for the pep rally included wearing these ugly bow things, sticking tattoos/glitter on our faces, and curling our hair. I didn't wear glitter but thank goodness that tattoo came off easily because if it hadn't, I'd freak out. The coaches had ordered new hair bows for us. Actually, they're not bows. They're BARRETTES. Ugly barrettes that could poke someone's eyes out. Honestly!

Pep rally: We started out by teaching the crowd the words to a chant and we had several teachers do the motions with us. Then we did a competition between the classes to see who was loudest. Obviously, the seniors won, even though the sophomores (go sophomores!) were loudest. We threw little plastic footballs at the seniors and then we started our routine.

We still had practice after school where we did the cheers that we were going to do at the game, including a new welcome/good luck cheer for the guest school. Stunt-wise, my original stunt group (I love them so much) enjoyed a cheerful reunion after being separated/scrambled up during the pep rally routine. We practiced our leap-frog stunt that we put it in the welcome cheer, reverse load-in, and lib. I also got a chair with the guy on our squad. Go us! The next day, we had to be at school at 7:30 AM to decorate the field, practice, and march in the Homecoming parade. The game didn't start until 1 PM-ish but we won 42-12. Yay!

Seriously, is this the same squad that couldn't even cheer in rhythm way back in June? Since school started, we have practiced every day so we could perform three cheers for the games on Friday with different stunts every week. It was intense. Eventually, we got so great, we could cut practices down to about two per week. I think we've done really well since the pep rally and I'm very proud of the fall squad. Too bad cheerleading is over for me this year; I won't be doing winter season.

Okay, I've talked about cheerleading. Now for our football team. For the past two years, our varsity football team has been the league champion. They were undefeated in 2005 and only lost two games in 2006. This year they were UNDEFEATED again (regular season). 10-0. Amazing. We even won our first playoff game. Now can someone tell me why we lost our second playoff game against a team that we previously beat??? We lost 0-13. It's the first time we have not scored a single touchdown in three years. I'm disappointed, but I'm still proud of our football team. It's easy to cheer for a winning team, especially undefeated league champions."

So did you enjoy my little rant about cheerleading? I know this is a sad excuse for a post, but I figured that since it's a new year, I should put something up. More entries to come (I have SO MUCH to say and brag about! ).

I am way too busy to blog this year. It is just awful how busy I am. This may be the last post for a while because this school year is extremely busy. My plan for the "California Chronicles" will have to wait. This post will focus on school, activities, and life in general. Straight to it then!

My 10th grade schedule for 1st semester:
Period 1: French III
Period 2: Study hall/P.E.
Period 3: Study hall/Choir
Lunch @ 10:20 AM
Period 4: Honors English
Period 5: Honors Cultural Studies
Period 6: Honors Algebra II
Period 7: Honors Chemistry

As you can see above, I have French during first period when I'm not awake and my academic classes are all in a row after lunch when I'll be sleepy and exhausted. Not cool. Lunch at 10:20 AM isn't too bad because I'm used to it, but it's still really early. Here's my description on each class along with my opinions, complaints, and things that just might make me cry:

French III – As stated, I don't want this class early in the morning. I can't cram-study before tests, my brain won't be awake, and I will be tired. Last year, I aced French. It was easy for me. I'm afraid I won't like French as much this year. It's just not fun anymore; I don't know if it's the teacher, the material, or the class itself. I know those are horrible excuses but I feel as if I'm not learning as well as I did last year.

Study hall/P.E./Choir – Study hall is pretty straight forward; go in and work. I just don't like how I have two study halls in a row one day and no study halls the next day (my schedule is every other day for periods 3 and 4). Choir is okay this year. There are just a lot more people than last year. Physical Education is stupid. I think if we already do a school sport, we shouldn't have to do gym. It's no use getting sweaty during school. Ew. Right now we're playing flag football. It sucks.

Honors English – I can't live with this class all year. Normally, I like English class; however, this year, I may just jump off the roof. That's how frustrating it is. We aren't learning anything (our teacher goes off on a tangent and we get nothing done), we haven't finished discussing the summer reading yet (it's the third week of school already!), and the teacher makes us keep these "reflective notebooks" to take notes with... um, ok? Taking notes? I can do that on my own, thanks. I don't need a binder to write down your silly jokes in class. I am totally ready to shoot myself. We are also reading 1984 by George Orwell. It's interesting but taking notes every single night is taking a while. Are we ever going to discuss it in class?

Honors Cultural Studies – I have the same teacher as last year. It's not so bad. The only thing I have a complaint about is the "current events journal" where we have to write about current events a couple times a week. I don't want to have to pay major attention to the news every day! I'm busy enough as it is.

Honors Algebra II – I hate math. We have homework every day (I have to lug around that huge textbook). Last week, I was on my teacher's "wall of fame" for being one of the top scorers on the test. Well, this week, I don't understand anything. I bet I'll fail the upcoming test.  My math class is on the bottom floor of our school. It's the only floor without air conditioning (whose stupid idea was that?). The heat combined with my lack of energy makes me nod off in class. I seriously almost fell asleep several times. Not a good sign. It's only September!

Honors Chemistry – I'm afraid I'll fail this class. I'm seriously worried. I don't get any of this class at all. Enough said.

There is a lot more schoolwork and homework this year than there was last year. I am really concerned about keeping my grades up. At least I was able to quit the Math Plus program my parents forced me into. On top of my classes, I am also involved with lots of activities this year and I'm thinking about joining more. My after school schedule for this fall:

Monday: cheerleading practice until 5 PM, tumbling 6-7 PM
Tuesday: Women's Ensemble rehearsal 2:30-3:15, debate team/cheerleading practice until 5 PM, Children's Chorus rehearsal 6-7:30 PM
Wednesday: occasional FBLA meetings until 3 PM, cheerleading practice until 5 PM
Thursday: cheerleading practice until 5 PM, volunteer student coaching cheerleading 6-8 PM
Friday: cheering at football games 4:45/5 PM until the end of the game (for away games, sometimes we don't get back until 11:30ish)

I am on the student council this year, I have signed up to write for the student newspaper, and I've also applied for a leadership position for my school's Peer Mentoring program. Wish me luck. I am pretty freaking busy this year. I won't have a social life because any extra time I have will be spent on homework. Woe is me.

Notes: (1) If a football game is on Saturday, we have an extra cheerleading practice on Friday until 5 PM. (2) This year's Women's Ensemble is a lot bigger than last year's. How can it be a "select" women's choir if there are 40 people in it? (3) The FBLA meetings have been pretty chaotic so far. Hopefully, that will improve as we go along. I wonder, how many people are actually serious about FBLA?

As a team, we cheerleaders are progressing so much. Tumbling on the squad still needs work (I started my lessons again and my muscles are sore) and there are still little issues with knowing the material, but we have come a long way. Our stunting is so much better and my stunt group has been doing so many cool stunts! It is terrific fun, even if we're exhausted afterwards. Yay for boring football games.

Well, I hope this entry has been long enough to fill in for the two/three weeks I haven't been posting. Let me know if you want me to type about certain aspects of my life. I will see if I have more time to do another entry later on. Maybe towards the end of September? Later, loves.

School starts on Monday, August 27th for me. Weird things are happening. For one thing, our school got rid of homerooms. Our 1st period class is now our "homeroom." Does anyone from my school have an explanation? If so, please explain in a comment or email. For me, this came totally out of the blue.

Tuesday night was the Peer Mentoring Picnic/Pool Party; only, it wasn't a picnic because it rained. It was moved inside to the gym/cafeteria and we mentors had to be there at 3:45. The freshmen and new kids didn't get there until 5:30, which made coming early a big waste of time if you ask me. I mean, setting everything up only took like what, 15 minutes? After dinner, they were given their schedules and we led them around the high school to show them where their classes were. It was over rather quickly. There were other funny little moments but they were you-had-to-be-there types of things.

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday was cheerleading practice. It was mostly review for things that everyone should already know. Then we "worked" on tumbling but all we really did was fall on our faces/backs/butts a lot.  Stunting-wise, we didn't accomplish much. On Friday, we had to cheer for a scrimmage (the football team "played" another school). There wasn't a winner, but we still cheered. We had to be there at 5:00 but we didn't go out on the field until 7 PM. Until then, we threw stunts up, reviewed, practiced, and wasted time etc. I even did my full-down (bases toss flyer up in the air, flyer twists around and lands in cradle position). The scrimmage was the saddest thing I've cheered for in high school; the marching band wasn't even there. Thank goodness it was over quickly. Now onto the recap of cheer camp!

My squad went to a UCA cheer camp from August 6-9th. I missed the first day because I was in California/on a plane back form CA. I got to camp after lunch on the second day. Cheer camp typically goes something like this:

6-6:30 AM – wake/get up, get dressed, and do hair/makeup/sunscreen.
7:15ish-8 AM – eat breakfast, complain about lack of sleep, and practice.
8:15-11:30 AM – work, work, WORK.
11:30 AM – lunch and more practice time.
1:30-4:30 PM – more work, obviously.
4:30 PM – dinner/practice.
6:00 PM – evaluations.
6:45 PM - camp contests.
7:15 PM – review material.
7:30 PM – awards/coaching.
9:00 PM – group activity.
Until whenever the coaches let up sleep – PRACTICE.

So basically, cheer camp is a bunch of teams from different schools coming to stay for 4 days at a college campus with unairconditioned dorms (omg, it sucked), public restroom-like bathrooms (showers... ), and plenty of stairs (try dragging your luggage up that). We spent at least 10 hours working in an open field each day. There was actually a heat warning about not doing any sort of doing physical activity outside, but there we were, running around, dancing, jumping, and sweating like pigs. The hot sun gave us all tans (ew!), but at least there was plenty of water. It was immensely tiring and we were exhausted by the end.

At camp, we learned an "Extreme Routine," a hip hop dance, more dances, cheers, sidelines, and stunts. Stunting was fun. I won't bore you with the details, but on our squad, there is only one "elite" stunt group—we were the ones who learned new stuff beyond the basic prep. Go us. However, since we only had one solid stunt group and we needed two for the Extreme Routine, we had to switch it up a bit. They put me (the experienced flyer) with the new bases and put another girl with my stunt group (the experienced bases). This was so we could have some sort of balance.

The extreme routine is a dance with extra choreography at the end (put in your own jumps, stunts etc.) and for our end pyramid, the stunt groups did side hitches to the timing of the dance. Easy, right? Apparently not. It took forever to get it right. My back (the girl who holds my ankles and catches my head/neck/shoulders if I fall) dropped me. TWICE. THE NUMBER ONE RULE IN STUNTING IS TO NEVER LET THE FLYER HIT THE GROUND. EVER. And what does she do? She drops me twice. I mean, as I started to fall, she ran away and let me hit the ground. It HURT. It wasn't just that; it was also her work ethic/bad attitude (cursing off the coaches? Who does that?). Before I say something regrettable, let me get to the point; she quit (now the squad is down to 11 people). I guess she didn't like cheerleading enough. The morning of the final competition, she got sick and was unable to perform and another girl had to back me (it went up!) and we had to change some formations. Ah well. At least we didn't screw up too bad. We already did that (as in, screwing up).

At UCA there are individual competitions called the Jump Off and the UCA All-Stars. The Jump Off is a jumping contest to see who has the best jump in the camp. For the All Stars, you have to perform the Extreme Routine, All Star cheer, and do a jump in front of the whole camp. The coaches select cheerleaders to compete and I was chosen to compete in both. Obviously, I didn't win, but it was a good experience.

Overall, cheer camp was fun. I lived (even though I got bloody scratches from people's nails and bruises from stunting), got a tan (I hate tans), and lost two pounds (I weighed myself when I got home). Even though whole squad had to do 50 push-ups as punishment for dropping a flyer, we managed to get 6-ish hours of sleep each night (approximately). When school starts, we'll have practice every day after school (except games on Fridays). I will be so exhausted . Anyone who thinks cheerleading is easy is obviously not a real cheerleader (or they could just be a cheerleader who is trying to impress you).

Good news. I'm almost done my summer reading. Just half of The Odyssey left (one day to read it!). We had to read five books this summer. In the end, I didn't even bother with notes. I never use my notes anyway, and taking notes disrupts the reading. Yay for school. Note: The California Chronicles are coming up; basically a huge monologue about my trip to California. Stay tuned for that. Comment!