Criminal Masterminds

Leave takings

Last Saturday Crystal and I were talking on MSN; she was saying how Bastian was leaving on Wednesday, and he was riding a bus down to the airport because both of her parents were working on Wednesday, and they wouldn't let her drive down to the Cities alone. At this point, I'm feeling horrible that someone as awesome as Bastian was going to have to ride a bus down to the Cities that I volunteered to go with so she wouldn't be alone.

No approval from parents or anything, I just said I would; and Mom and Dad were in Eau Claire so it wasn't like I could just go upstairs and ask them. Well, that was a no go, but then it occurred to me that Mom had Wednesday off (an ever present fact for the last two years), so I tell Crystal to hold on and I call Mom. Mom immediately offers to take him down, saying that it wouldn't be right for him to ride a bus down to the Cities. So, I have just successfully found a ride for Bastian, allowed Crystal an opportunity to see him off, and gotten out of school on Wednesday; I was pretty happy and sad at the same time because Bastian was leaving and I knew it was going to be hard on Crystal. Of course, after all of this, I realize that I have Knowledge Bowl on Wednesday, which normally wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't the first practice we were having together as a team, so my intent was to be back in time for Knowledge Bowl.

Wednesday morning comes, we go and pick up Bastian and Crystal at Crystal's house nine-ish. Bastian is possibly the most organized guy I've ever met; he had managed to fit everything in all of his suitcases (two of them) and they were all packed; like I said, impressive. So, we throw things into the back of the truck and head down to the Cities. The ride there was pretty uneventful. With two exceptions: when we were driving by Albertville, Bastian remarked how cheap things in America (or Minnesota at least) are. He claims the $500 he spent on clothes would have cost him $2000 in Germany; so apparently America is a third world country where gas is cheap (he figures it's about $6 a gallon in Germany) and clothes are too. Second, somehow we got onto the topic of Spanish and Alvarez, and Bastian gave me news that made my semester; Alvarez is retiring after this year, which means I will not have her next year in AP Spanish. I do believe I can survive the rest of Spanish 4 with minimal eye-rolling and homicidal/suicidal tendencies because of it. What a great way to leave, Bastian; I'll probably never forget you now.

So we arrive at the airport (Mom was very proud she did not get lost), and it's a little before noon. His flight does not leave until 2:50, but Crystal and I both need to be back to Brainerd a little after three so there's no way we can stay even for a couple hours (not like we can get that far into the airport anyway, stupid laws...). There was a relatively amusing moment at the check in counter where Bastian said that his bag would "explode" if anyone tried to open it. Crystal, Mom and I all immediately looked at one another and realized that saying the word "explode" in an airport was probably not the best idea ever.

Bastian got all checked in (had his passport checked, which is in German so that took a while) and handed off his bags he was putting on the plane to the people, and we walked up the stairs to stand outside the gates at the Hubert H. Humphrey terminal (that place is tiny). We stood and talked for about fifteen minutes before it became pretty much unbearable and we all said goodbye, Bastian basically pushing us away because he was probably about to cry.

So, we got back into the car and drove back to Brainerd; we had plenty of time to spare so we stopped at the Appleby's in St. Cloud and had lunch. Which led to a conversation about saying "I would win" in Spanish ganarí­a and what it sounds like in English gonorrhea. Oh, and telling Mom about when Crystal's mom thought that the interval (an "s" like symbol) of e^(x) looked like it spelled out "sex."

We dropped Crystal off at home, picked up my siblings and I showed up at Knowledge Bowl at 3:50, just in time to hear Rezac talk about the next meet and have a very shortened practice, which kind of sucked for us. Okay, the first half was bad, it was better in Rezac's room, but hardly. And Logan, apparently he did show up, but since it started 25 minutes late he left to go to One Act. Anyway, had some interesting fights over who was going to be spokesperson. Sam does not trust Tay to be spokes and Tay does not want Sam to be spokes, so Sam wanted me to be spokes but Tay couldn't handle that. It was fun. And that was my Wednesday in a nutshell, very long and exhausting, actually.

posted by Kara @ 11:01 PM 0 comments

Uprising? What happened to that?

Remember back in October when I started this and said it was the beginning of an uprising? Yeah, right. That obviously did not happen; all that really happened was about three people signed up and only Sara proceeded to update even once. I'm not going to pester them, but I'm surprised that Sara did not take to this. After all, she is notorious for her random mass e-mails. Besides, isn't this the perfect opportunity just to talk?

Today I was sitting with Rachel in the SRC first hour, she was copying her Addison essay from a rough draft to her final draft. At one point, she brought up a very valid point; how are we ever possibly going to be able to write like this for the AP test? We struggle coming up with a decent essay when we can bounce ideas off one another for days and then revise each other's papers. I just put more effort into an essay than I think I ever have in my life; and it probably is the best paper I've ever written, but it took me three days and various conversations with Rachel, Tay, Celina and Amanda before I was even comfortable about putting my thoughts down on a piece of paper.

This leads me to complain about one thing about the AP test; they're individual tests, which is fine and great, but as humans do we do anything alone ever? Well, certain things yes, but when we have a big idea, isn't it human nature to discuss and pick apart things as a group? After all, no idea is flawless in its conception. Therefore, when you're sitting there on the day of that AP test, the task before you is rather daunting.

Crystal and I have had numerous discussions along this vein in the past just because of the AP Calc test. Logically, there is no reason in the world why my score is better than hers. All semester long she had a higher grade than I did, in fact, I think that at least five or six other people in the class had a higher grade than I did, and it always seemed to me that everyone else was understanding more than I was. The only reason I can find that explain why I did better than Crystal is that the day Jason taught the class she left and I stayed, but she did not need him to explain it to her. I did. Crystal to this day still normally figures things out a little faster than I do, but most of the time, we can figure out any problem together. (Unless they're the problems that Jason deems as "fun" then we're all screwed).

But, is she more dependent on me in her problem solving than either of us think? She called me after this last BC test, and basically said, it was all there the night we studied together, but it was gone when she sat down alone to figure it out. I, on the other hand, only struggled with a few problems, and even those, I think I understood up until a point and then my brain just gave out because I was taught this myself or by Jason or Crystal or by a video that cannot answer questions.

Long ago, the point I was trying to make was that the AP test makes us show what we know individually. However, that is not necessarily an accurate statement of what we really know. Sometimes we know things we do not realize we know until someone else says something that allows us to express that idea. Individually you might be smart, but when you're surrounded by like minded people, you're even smarter.

Does that make sense? I'm far from the most eloquent person I know, so even placing these ideas on paper has been a slight struggle for me, but I think I've explained my point to the best of my abilities.

posted by Kara @ 8:18 PM 0 comments

Monday - Not nearly as bad as people think

Why aren't Mondays all that bad? Well, first off, excluding classes like Art History, you rarely ever have tests on Mondays, so even though you have to come back to school; it's never too bad a day. Second, in Spanish, Eliana (one week more, it's sad, and Bastian leaves soon too, MENTAL NOTE: must talk to Crystal about that party idea) talks to us all hour about Argentina. Today it was about important women in Argentina's history. I thought it was great, but hey, I like things like that. I'm so taking a woman's studies course in college; I'm totally a feminist, but not the scary-man-hating kind. In case you were wondering, there is a complaint about something here: Spanish.

I don't normally complain, I try not to, most of the things I complain about are unimportant crap (this probably is too!), but seriously, Spanish IV sucks. Maybe it's because Senora Alvarez drives me insane, and she had a tendency to treat us like we're a bunch of second years. Yo hablo espanol bien, no hablo muy bien, pero si no hablamos en la clase de espanol, cuando lo hablamos?

However, good news, a Knowledge Bowl thing that gets me out of school tomorrow! Okay, the only good news, out of Spanish, but that's enough. Yes, I'm incredibly sad, but it's so very true.

posted by Kara @ 6:12 PM 0 comments