The Holocaust

The Holocaust. It is a horrifying event to hear about, so imagine living it. Well Eva Olsson did and she came to talk to us about her atrocious memories. I think she was the best speaker I have ever heard. They way she told it, it made you feel great empathy towards her and all the Jewish people who had been killed. She made you feel like you had been there. She had great pictures and even though her speech was very professional and even though she had probably said it a million times, it still felt very personal and like it was hard for her to talk about it.

Her speech started with her describing her family and where they lived and how much money they had had before they had been taken away. She then moved on to talk about their walk to the train. Their seven mile walk. She said that the bystanders just lined up and watched them get taken away like a Santa Clause parade. She said that in other countries simply would not let the Nazis - or the Nazis bullies as Eva said - take the Jewish people. They would physically not let them. She said that the bystanders were just as guilty as the Nazis themselves when they would just stand and watch the Jewish people get taken away.

Eva then talked about how all the Jewish people were told to line up and this man at the front of the line would tell them weather to go to the left or to the right. If you were sent to the left you would be sent right to gas chambers to be killed. The people that were sent to the right were then sent to concentration camps where they would eventually be killed. Eva said that her mother had been sent to the left, as well as the rest of her family, besides her sister and dad. Her dad only survived four months after he was sent away. That was only the beginning of the horrendous things that she told us about.

The thing I liked most about her presentation was the messages she had for us. One was never lose hope because in the end, it will turn out good. Another was never use the word hate. It is okay to dislike someone but never hate. Another was never ever bully someone, because that was how the war started. Also that being a bystander is just as bad as a bully. I think she taught us all some great life lessons, some history and she was a memorable speaker. I hope to follow her courageous example for the rest of my life.

Norval

I think that something my group did well was that we all contributed very good idea's. Like when we were doing our first activity we had to stand on a triangle thing and organize ourselves into alphabetical order by middle name. We had to try and pass each other and keep our balance at the same time. It was very hard to pass people because the thing we were sanding on was only wide enough for one person to stand on at a time. Damon and Jenny came up with the idea of going to the corners and the person who had to get past would pass them. I came up with the idea of lying down and then the person would pass them, so it wasn't all just one person who would come up with idea's, it was all of our idea's put together. That's what I think my group did well at Norval.

I think one of the things we didn't do to well was when we had to do this thing where we had to get across these thin lines without losing our balance. When we did that we had to have spotters on each side of us and sometimes people wouldn't pay attention and the person they were spotting would fall. No one ever got hurt though and that's good, but it's not very good team work. Also another challenge we had was when we had to get a tire over this big tall pole. We had some really good idea's like a pyramid, lifting people up, we even put Jenny on the tire and lifted her up to the top, but we just couldn't get the tire to the top. I think something we could have done better if we had just all been quite and listened to everyone's idea's instead of trying to scream over each other, which is what we did. That is what our group needs to work on.

I think that Norval mostly it was fun. Sometimes it could get a little boring, like when they were explaining things. Though other times it was lots of fun, like when we were doing the low ropes. I liked Norval way more last year. When we did low ropes in the morning and high ropes in the afternoon. I didn't like the drum circle. It was way to loud. I think the drum circle would be better if it wasn't that loud and not so long. Other than that Norval was fun!!! That is what I thought about Norval and how our team did.

Do Clothes Shape Who You Are?

Do clothes shape who you are? I think you get to chose weather you want clothes shape who you are. I think this because say you saw someone walking down the street wearing designer everything, then you'd know they cared what people thought about them, and that they had a lot of money. If you saw someone who was walking down the street in just a plain shirt and pants you wouldn't be able to tell anything about them. You wouldn't be able to tell weather their nice or rich or poor or weather their cool. You'd only be able to tell that they decided to wear that today.

If you saw someone who was wearing a shirt that said "Go Green" you would be able to tell from that that they cared about the environment. Like sometimes when i go to the mall after school or the dentist or the hair dressers, everyone knows what school i go t0 because of the uniform, but we don't get to chose what we wear. They also know that i go to a private school. I don't think clothes can diffine who you are, beacuse mostly i think you get to chose. That is what i think about "Do clothes shape who you are?"