E Mentoring

So for my Bio 2 class I have to participate in an assignment that involves little kids. I am an E mentor for middle schoolers in Pakistan. Isn't that exciting?! Actually not. I basically have to help them with their science fair projects. But the idea was exciting at first. Different kids from all around the world like Egypt, Israel, or China. I really wanted an Egyptian kid.... okay. But anyway, each college student is assigned a group of students and we have to monitor their progress of their project. Sounds easy, but I hated doing science fair. My mom had to help me do all of it... But I have a group of three boys that live in Pakistan. They're doing their project on plants and if the temperature of water affects the growth of the plant. I don't think it does, but it's a decent project right? I hope so because I told them it was. Hopefully they won't need too much help. I wonder what the time difference is... I'll have to ask my friend. He was born in Pakistan... I think. I'm pretty sure he was, but he visited recently.

My experience with science fairs are .... different. The first one was kind of stupid and boring. Does salt help raise the temperature of boiling water? Apparently I was wrong in my results according to the judge. 2nd place. The second was overdone. Which brand of popcorn pops the most kernels? 2nd place. The third one was just stupid and I didn't want to do it. Which brand of candle burns longer? (not exact but close enough) BEST IN SHOW. Best in show in County. I went to state and did not place... thank God. I actually stole that idea by accident. It was way back in the beginning of the year when we were supposed to come up with 5 topics. I forgot to do it and I jotted down five projects I remember people doing in elementary school. I felt bad for everyone too... and embarrassed. People had better ones involving plants and bacteria. And I tiny candles.

I just hope my group of kids are going to do awesome. Hopefully I do awesome too with the assignment because it's a good chunk of my grade.

Blueberry Muffins

I currrently work at Smoothie King. It's pretty much self explained. I make smoothies in a health food store. A few months ago we ordered some muffins. I thought that they were regular boring muffins. Nope. I was so wrong. One day I came in starving and picked up a blueberry muffins. I pretty much scarfed it down. It was delicious. Even when I pulled open the package the smell of blueberries met my nose. My mouth watered. My stomach growled. Mmmmm. Ha Ha. Wow I'm getting hungry thinking abut them. Actually I might be exaggerating a little bit... just a little bit. But I have to right if I'm going to get three hundred words. I may be close to one hundred now.

We also have banana and chocolate muffins. I haven't tried then yet; I'm not sure if I even will. In health food products, chocolate tastes so different - too chocolaty or fake. Also I don't like bananas anymore. They weren't my favorite fruit before but I didn't detest them. My taste buds are odd because if there is any hint of banana in my smoothie, I will taste the banana. I can't help it even if there were four other fruits in it. One time, my coworker, Craig, decided to make a crazy energy enhanced smoothie. He made the Power Punch Plus with energy and extreme caffeine enhancers. The Power Punch Plus has strawberries, bananas, and already has a energy nutrient mix that makes me hyper (it's the thing here that does.) So it was energy packed. It's actually our most nutritious smoothie. Anyways Craig took one sip of that smoothie and puked. Not really, that would have been gross. But according to him, it just tasted just like powdery. I took a sip and only tasted the bananas. I couldn't even taste the extra powders put in it. So I have enhanced banana tasting powers. But I wouldn't say that they were powers; if I could have any power I would fly... but that's a whole other blog. I could easily do three hundred words on that.

But back to topic.... blueberry muffins are awesome. They were what I looked forward too during my first class on the day. And I also had a pretty good day after that... so if you're having a really bad try a blueberry muffin.... preferably from Smoothie King.

Harry Potter

I have an obsession with Harry Potter. It's not too bad, but I love the books. The movies are good too, but in my opinion they could be better. But that's not really their fault because JK Rowling was still writing the series, and no one else knew where the story was going. A lot of things were left out, but it's kind of expected because there's so much that not everything can fit in.

But I love the books! I know to other people who haven't read them are like whatever to them but that's only because you haven't read them. I was like that too until I was curious and read the first one. I think if you've seen the movies and then read them for the first time, it won't be as exciting. Part of the series for a long time was "what's going to happen next?!" And the movies kind of ruin it, but there's still loads left out of them. Unfortunately for me, I didn't start reading the series until after the sixth book was published, so I only had to wait for the last one. But that didn't make me any less anxious than everyone else. I would sit for hours (no joke) trying to figure out what was going to happen, but I was also hoping I wouldn't figure it out as well because you don't want to ruin the surprise.

The movies are alright (in comparison with the books.) They're part of the big phenomenon of Harry Potter, and I still get excited to see them. Yes, I am on of those girls that buy her ticket as soon as possible (like 4 weeks before the premiere) and wait in line at midnight to see it. The casting is really great too. The actors portraying the three main characters have sort of become the figures I imagine when I read them. Also casting for the 5th movie, Order of the Phoenix, was awesome - Professor Umbridge and Luna Lovegood seemed like they fell out of the book. But really all the actors do a fantastic job like Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith); Snape (Alan Rickman); and Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane). Okay I have to stop because the list goes on.

One of the main reasons Harry Potter is so great is that it's for everyone. Everyone can read it. Also one reason why I love it is because of the intricate plot. JK Rowling is a genius. She leaves little hints and clues in every book - everything comes together in the end. It's amazing how she planned everything out. Imagine the patience and time for that. It took her ten years to plan everything out before the first book was even published! (I think...) Also the entire Harry Potter universe is insane as well. She imagined odd names and crazy wizardy objects. She even invented a sport that's actually played at some colleges - Quidditch. She even has history for the wizarding world like Gregory the Horrible Troll. Don't believe that, I made that up as an example. But every name means something. She took the time to look at Latin roots to give/make names. It's unbelievable. To think about all the effort and patience that took makes me dizzy.

Be prepared for more Harry Potter... so consider this part one.

First Time

Hello to whoever is reading this, my name is Christina. I've never had a blog before so this is going to get interesting. The only reason I've started this is for my english class. I know we're supposed to write about reflections and opinions about something twice a week, but that's it. I thought it had to be about literature or some peice of work, but apparently I'm wrong. It can be about whatever, and just has to be 300-500 words. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble with that because if I do, I'm going to come up with pretty random stuff. Which I guess is okay because my blog name is Arbitrary Thinking. I don't plan on blogging much outside of that, but I could change my mind - who knows? I might enjoy it. Hopefully no one else will be reading this besides my professor.....and my mom. Yep, my mom. She actually has her own blog called A Southern Daydreamer... i think. She's really into interior design basically, like table settings and flower arrrangements, and her blog is about what she's doing in our house. Also my brother has one too for the same reason as me. We're in the same class - we're twins just so you know. His is called Lone Y Chromosome because he's the only guy out of 30 girls in our class. So the teacher definitely knows his name... and of course mine. I've never really liked english, probably because I wasn't very good at it. But I did enjoy it during middle school because my english liked me and my writing, so I guess if you're told you're good at something then you'll have more confidence with it. Well I guess that's kind of obvious. Also I should tell you the origin of my arbitrariness. I'm actually not sure what it is, but the use of the word arbitrary started in 9th grade. We had to learn about 20 SAT vocabulary words a week, and one week arbitrary was just one of the words. Soon, instead of my friends saying, "Gosh Christina, you're soooo random" they started to say "you're so arbitrary." And it sort of stuck with me.