My Science Camp Experience

Science Camp - Day 1
October 19, 2009

Today, we left to Science camp. All the 6th graders in our school came late at 8:45 am to school. We packed all out stuff in a luggage truck. At 9:00 am or 9:15 a.m. we left for the science camp. We arrived at the Semperviren's Outdoor School located at Boulder Creek around11:10 a.m. This is where we were to spend the next five days.

I ate a lunch of 2 potato sandwiches. Then we were put in our cabins. I was in the Garter Snakes cabin. Then we went on a hiking tour. We saw banana slugs, newts, and salamanders. Then we had recreation time. I sat and relaxed in my cabin.

It is 5:20 p.m. right now. We are going on a night hike and have a campfire tonight. Dinner is in 10 minutes.
Science Camp - Day 2
October 20, 2009

Yesterday's night hike was kind of scary. We got separated from the trail twice.Today morning. had pancakes for breakfast. Then our group went to Natural Bridges State Park. We went on the Monarch Trail and through a wetland. We then climbed a rock wall and waded though the water to get to the beach.

We had a lunch of apples, pretzels and custom sandwiches. We then played 'Crab Tag' on the beach. Then we created our own animals in sand. Mine was called the Titan Dragon, formally known as "Draconius Aquarius Ursus". It could spit poison, fly, swim, walk, camouflage itself, eat anything, live in Carribean coral reefs, and kill many things in many, many, ways. We went into water for five minutes. Then we went back to camp. At teacher time, I got a letter from my sister and mom. I was really happy to get the letters.

For dinner we made delicious burritos. We are going to the "Town Hall Meeting" now. It is now 7:12 p.m.


Science Camp - Day 3
October 21, 2009

Yesterday at the 'Town Hall Meeting', I played the role of a Semperviren teacher at camp. I helped make an important decision about a marsh. Today morning, at breakfast
I ate a bunch of potatoes with ketchup. Today my group went to a hike that promoted co-operation and solitude with "Turtle Tag' and the 'Solo Hike', respectively. Then we got back to camp from the forest. The only change in today's lunch was that, instead of pretzels, we had gold fish crackers.

Then we headed off to the garden at the camp. I did some weeding and chopped up some tomato plants. At the chicken coop, I overcame my fear of chickens, and caught the fastest one, Roadrunner. And at the goat pen, I played with Willa and Tracy, the goats. Frankly, I liked Willa more. I walked (well..., more like ran!) her down the camp's hill and I fed her a lot of acorns. We then had some cookies to eat.

It is recreation time right now. Tonight we're having Pizza for dinner and the 'Barnyard Boogie'. It is 3:50 pm now.
Science Camp - Day 4
October 22, 2009

Yesterday's 'Barnyard Boogie' was okay. However I had lost my voice so when we limboed, danced the polka, and sang, I did not enjoy it much. Also, I got a letter from my dad and grandmother. I also sent a reply letter to them.

Today I went to Big Basin State Park. To tell the truth, it was kind of boring. I also joined the 'Hardcore
Club' by eating every part of an apple. We also met Marble, the corn snake. I really liked her. I also played with the chickens during recreation time. Tonight is 'Skit Night'; I wrote our cabin's skit. It was about the life cycle of a Garter snake.

It went like this:

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Life Cycle of a Garter Snake

(5 snakes appear on stage.)

Narrator: This is a small family of Garter Snakes. Normally, they live in families of 16. This looks like a peaceful day in the forest... or is it....

Owl comes on screen and eats 3 Garter Snakes. 2 Garter Snakes hide. Garter Snakes find and eat baby Bullfrog, Red-Legged Frog, California Newt, and Pacific Tree Frog.

Narrator: As you see, Garter Snakes eat baby Bullfrogs, Red-Legged Frogs, California Newts, and Pacific Tree Frogs.

(Summer comes. Garter Snakes sleep.)

Narrator: In summer, Garter Snakes estivate, or enter dormant periods.

(Winter comes. Garter Snakes sleep.)

Narrator: They also hibernate in winter.

Narrator: The 2 Garter Snakes have grown old. They are having a peaceful day in the forest. But something’s coming to finish what it started....

( Owl comes. Owl fights and eats both Garter Snakes.)

THE END

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Credits:

Nathan Graham: California Newt

Raymond Doug: Baby Bullfrog/ Pacific Tree Frog

Donnovan : Red-Legged Frog

Rayshan Rayner/John Mappala/Ryan Bunyard: Snakes eaten in the beginning

Tyler / Jacob Hernandez: Main Garter Snakes

Abhijit Ramaprasad (Me): Writer/Narrator/Owl

Everyone at camp thought it was good!

Sadly, tomorrow we leave.

Science Camp Day 5 - Going home

October 23, 2009

Today is the last day at the Science Camp. We woke up at 6:35 am and packed up all our luggage. We had a breakfast at 7:30 a.m. It was cereal and milk. We had only 4 oz. of food waste! Then we headed off to our cabins to clean it up. BTW, on Thursday, we won the Golden Dustpan Award!

After cleaning up, we went on a hike and read the story "The Table Where Rich People Sit". Then we signed our cards for our counselors. At the graduation ceremony, we talked about memories, sang songs, and ate a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we went to the bus for the trip to go back home.

Home:

October 24, 2009

Now, don't het me wrong. I loved the Science Camp and wanted to stay. But it was comforting to sleep in my own bed last night. But no matter what, the memories I sealed in the camp's memory stick (an actual stick), will always be with me.

My 11th Birthday

On Saturday, September 12, 2009, I turned 11.

I had been waiting for a week. My parents told me a few of the things that would happen.

Any way, first of, I got awesome gifts. I got the 5 books I wanted, which were: The Search for Truth, The Sea of Monsters, The Titans Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. I also got the new WII Sports Resort. I also got a cell phone. It is a LG Neon.

My friend, Stephen, came at 10:00 A.M. My other friend, Ankith, came at 10:30. We played on the computer for some time. At 11:00, my other friend, Sanjana, came. We started talking. Later, a few other friends came. We ate some cake, which was delicious. Then we played a few games with lemons like the Lemon and Spoon Race and Lemon Basketball. Then we ate some pizza. Then we created our own ice cream. We got delicious Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream, strawberry syrup, cashew powder, and M&Ms. It was delicious. Afterwards, we watched the movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

In the evening, I had a birthday feast with my cousins, aunt, uncle, and family. After eating, I played WII Sports Resorts. I skydived from a plane, flew into a volcano, and fought hordes of swordsman.

Anyway, I had an awesome birthday. I hope my next birthday is just as good. I’ve been using my phone every day and I’ve been really happy.

My Mount Madonna Adventure

On September 7, 2009, my sister, mother, my grandmother, two cousins, my uncle, my aunt, and I went to the Mount Madonna Center. It is a kind of Indian resort/retreat. It has a temple, a picnic area, cabins, a yoga area, a cafe, and more! It was really new, too.

We left our house at 10:00 A.M. I don’t know when we arrived. I was kind of skeptical about mountains since we went up and down a horrible one called Mt. Hamilton sometime ago. We got mountain sickness, headaches, hunger pains, and more there. I just crossed my fingers and hoped Mt. Madonna was nothing like that. And it wasn’t. It was covered in beautiful greenery. It was much safer there, too. The turns were gentle as well. I knew right then that it was going to be a great day.

The first thing we did was go to the temple. It was new, clean, warm, and shady. It had huge shade-like thing at the top. The floor was a mixture of carpets, tiles, and rugs. They were all soft and warm. The mixture of all the different colors of the rugs and carpets was incredible! There were also little statues everywhere. I really liked it.

Stop # 2: The Anjaneya Cafe. It was a little, comfortable place. It was also near

some private picnic tables.

Moving on. The next place we went to was the picnic area. However, most of the tables were reservations only. However, I found two tables with no reservation required. I ate some chitraanna, madurvade, and potato chips and drank some pink lemonade. It was delicious.

Next, we had a photo spree at the picnic table. We took a picture of everyone climbing on tree stumps and moss and a lot of other things.

Finally, my father, sister, cousins, uncle, and me went on a 1 mile hike. We saw redwood trees and huge, fallen, moss covered logs and one of the less nice aspects of the hike: HORSE DUNG! It echoed all around and I made a few noises exploiting the echoes.

Finally, at 2:00 P.M. we went home. We took one of our cousins with us and my sister played with her on the way back.

We returned home, tired but happy, at 3:30 P.M.

Mt. Madonna was an AWESOME place. My family has even decided to stay there for a day in spring. Anyhow, I LOVED our trip picnic at Mt. Madonna. It was GREAT. I hope we go there more times.

Complete works of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle - A report

For my book report, I read Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The publisher is Bantam Classics. It doesn’t seem to have a copyright date, or at least inside of the book, probably because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died over a century ago, never copyrighted the stories. It has 1,059 pages.

Sherlock Holmes is the main character of all the stories. He is very tall and has very keen powers of deduction and observation. It can even seem as if he can read minds because he can observe the expressions of a person. He uses these powers to solve various mysteries that would never been solved without his help. He actions show how he is felling at the time, though only his friends would be able to understand them. One example is that when a case is going badly, he is always running around, smokes incessantly, eats at strange hours, and does many other strange things. Holmes also has a brother who is 7 years older and named Mycroft who has even keener powers of observation and deduction.

The setting is between the late 1880s to the early 1900s in London, England.

This book has many different stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is divided into 4 parts. It starts with the story A Study in Scarlet, where Dr. Watson is introduced and meets Sherlock Holmes. They solve their first mystery together. It is a very strange mystery, because a rich man was killed, but nothing was stolen. The word RACHE was written above the body in blood. However, there was no injury on the body. A Sherlock Holmes point out that rache is German for revenge. However, Holmes solves the mystery. The next story is The Sign of Four. When this mystery is solved, Dr. Watson gets engaged to Holmes’ client.

The next division of the book is The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Most of the stories in this division are mysteries that Holmes’ solved before he met Dr. Watson. Some of the mysteries are such as The Yellow Face and The “Gloria Scott”. The last story in this division is The Final Problem. In this one, Holmes’ appears to die, but takes the biggest crime lord in London, Professor Moriarty.

In The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson discovers that Holmes didn’t die, but was hiding from the late Professor Moriarty’s crime empire, which saw him hide after killing Moriarty. By the end of the first story in this division, Sherlock Holmes is safe from the gang because he captures the top member of the leftover group.

The last story in Volume 1 is The Adventure of the Second Stain, where Holmes averts an international crisis.

This book is like Agatha Christie’s books because both series are about strange mysteries and Christie’s characters Poirot and Miss Marple are like Holmes.
*Read page 781

I recommend this book highly to anyone who likes mysteries. On a scale of 1-5, I rate it a 6.

Return to California...

On August 11, 2009, at 2:00 (India) in the morning, my sister, grandmother, and I were in Banglore International Airport preparing to go back to California. We had arrived in India a month ago on July 5, 2009. We had a lot of fun in India, but now we had to go.

We were flying on Dragonair Airlines. Before we left, we had some issues with luggage weight. I was already tired when we got into the plane. The flight was delayed because of paperwork. I decided to sleep because it was taking so long. I slept for about 2 hours. I didn’t do much during the flight besides sleeping and having a light snack.

When we got to Hong Kong, it was lunchtime. My sister and I ate our brunch and we got ready to go to California. I also did a short Sandhyavandanam. After our luggage was searched, some complications were aroused that almost made us miss our flight. I’m not going to go into detail of the events because I don’t think any of us would want to be reminded of those grueling and terrifying 45 minutes. Luckily, we got to the plane in time.

This time we were flying on Cathay Pacific Airlines. Since I had already gotten a lot of sleep, I wasn’t tired at all. Anyway, for once, the plane left without delay. I watched some TV and a few movies during the 12-hour trip. My sister and I ate some pasta for our Lunner (like brunch, except a mix of lunch and dinner instead of breakfast and lunch). We also drank a lot of apple juice.

When we got to San Francisco International Airport, we were really happy because we would be able to see our parents again, who had left India 2 weeks earlier. It didn’t take long to go through customs because my sister and I are U.S. permanent residents and citizens. We picked up all our suitcases, and right when we went out, our parents came.
They told us they had just come. It was good to see them again. We went home, I did my Madhyanka, we ate lunch, our parents returned to work, and me, my grandmother, and my sister relaxed for the afternoon.

Today is August 17, 2009. We have been in California for 6 days. I have no jetlag, aside for the fact that I didn’t get a second of sleep on the first night back. I already miss India, but I’m having fun here. On the 20th my 4th cousin (my cousin’s, cousin’s, cousin’s, cousin) Vignesh is coming to visit from Dallas. I only remember him from when we visited his house last year. School is starting on the 24th.

I had a really great visit to India.

My Munji experience

(Some posts are out of order due to internet unavailability from time to time)

At a certain age, boys of some Hindu cultures have a 2 day celebration called the munji (upanayana or sacred – thread ceremony). Different families have it at different times. It is a number of rituals to a help a boy attain spiritual enlightenment. A special mantra is taught as well, called the Gayathri Manthram. They also give the boy a Yajnopavitam (or sacred thread) to symbolize his right of passage. This year, I had my munji.

The first day of my munji was July, 12, 2009. I woke up at 4:00 A.M. I dressed up in panche early in the morning. We went to the temple where I would have my munji at around 7:00 A.M. I recited a lot of mantras. They were all prayers to the gods to give me good fortune. My parents and the priests at the temple also did many things. We had many homas, which are fires used to pray to the Gods. We also put things like fruits and clothes into the homas to give a fragrant smell. My eyes burnt because of the smoke though. We had a break sometime in the afternoon. After that, we had a music concert (flute) & Mahabharata epic singing.

On the second day of my munji, July, 13, 2009, we did some of the same things as we did yesterday, such as making homas. That day, I was given the Gayathri Upadesha by my dad & the sacred thread was put around my body. I memorized some of the mantras I would need to know. I got some money, Wee game, a few board games, a cool watch, and a few books as gifts

Today, July, 14, 2009, was the first day after my munji. I did my sandyavandana, a bunch of rituals I have to do every day, my madhanka, which is like a sandhyavandana, and today evening, I’m doing the rituals again. The mantras I memorized went like this:

Keshavaynama
Narayananamaha
Madhanayanama
Govindayanamaha
Vishnavadanamaha
Madhavayanamaha
Trivikramenameha
Vamanyanamaha
Sridharayanamaha
Rishikeshayanamaha
Padmanabyanamaha
Dhamodarainamaha

My munji was complicated, but rewarding. Looking forward to practicing it all.

My Experience at Cubbon Park

On July 29, 2009, my sister, grandfather, and I went to a place called Cubbon Park. My sister was really excited and said there were motor boats and roller coasters, but said I was a baby just because I don’t like speed and heights (And I’m older than her by 2 years!). My first thought at arriving at the park was that this was either a city in a metropolis or it was a township in a city! The park was at least 10 acres long and wide! The trees were huge and the place had a playground, a train, at least 3 ice cream parlors, a planetarium, an aquarium, and I think there was even a Museum of Industry, among other things!

We went on the 3:30 train ride around the first area of the park. We ate snacks along the way. My grandfather and I thought it was fun, but my sister said it was stupid. Then my grandfather bought us a small cup of vanilla ice cream, which we ate. Then my sister started complaining because there were no roller coasters and things like that and there were only swings, slides and monkey bars. Honestly, I don’t know why she expected what she expected. Anyway, my sister said it was boring.

We went to the aquarium next. We saw lots of fish, small sharks, albino goldfish (albino!) giant gouramis (which are quite ugly), and even a tank full of small, deadly tiger sharks! I thought it was interesting.

Next, we went to the planetarium. We heard there was going to be a celestial fireworks show at 4:30 PM. While we waited, we checked what our weight, in kilograms, would be on different planets. My sister told my mom when we got home that I weighed 109 kilograms and that she weighed only 2.2. But she said what my weight would be on JUPITER (which has a lot of gravity) as if it were mine on EARTH, an, she gave what her weight would be on PLUTO (which has very little gravity) in the same way! Anyway, at 4:30, we went to the fireworks display. It was actually an IMAX show about outer space. However, it was very realistic. We saw supernovas, black holes (simulated, because in real life, it is impossible to see a black hole because not even light can escape a black hole because of its immense gravitational power, and light is needed to see things), and what effects an asteroid’s impact would have on earth (which is bad, bad, bad!). We thought it was really cool. I know my sister even thought that. But she still complained.

I thought my experience there was really fun. We will go again to the other parts of Cubbon Park soon. Until then, stay tuned!