#4 Holocaust Survivor

Imagine having to watch your friends and family walk away from you to their death in the gas chamber, having to go to the kitchen and bring out a pot of soup with human bones and hair in it and told that that was your meal for the day, be told that you're going to Germany to work in a brick factory but instead be taken to a ''camp'' where you'll have to say good bye to everything and everyone you love. Dr. Eva Olsson had to go through all of that. On Monday our school was treated to an extremely moving and emotional presentation by a Holocaust survivor, Dr Eva Olsson. Dr. Olsson was taken to a concentration camp with her mom, her sisters, and five nieces. She was separated from the rest of her family and was forced to work all day. She was only fed a piece of bread and plain soup once a day. Some of the most moving things she talked about was being taken away from her mother at the camp, the reason for all the mass murders, and what happened after her life changing experience.





The reason for all the killing was hate. Hate from the Nazi's towards all the Jewish people. Hate caused hundreds of thousands of people to die, and even more to suffer. Hate caused Dr. Eva's life to be turned upside down. She and her mother had always taught her nieces not to use the word hate. Instead they were taught to use 'I dislike' if they didn't like something. She has also made such an impression on me that I to will try my best to not say the word hate. I would have not been able to go through everything she had without feeling hate towards the Nazi's and other people, but Dr. Eva was able to get through this horrific experience without that word.





On the first day at the camp she was separated from her nieces and mother. That would be the last time she saw her mother, the last chance she could have said 'I love you', the last time she could hug her mom. She only had her sister to fight through the pain and suffering she would go through. Many people take it for granted that they can have their mom drive them to school, pack them a lunch, or even tuck them in at night. We should be grateful for the family we have and love every one of them. Every chance we get we should say we love you to the ones who are important to us. You never know when you won't be able to anymore. After getting out of the camp Dr. Eva was taken to Sweden where she met her husband. They got married when Dr. Eva was 21. They loved each other greatly. But one night when she was 35 her husband was out and on the way home, when he was hit by another car. The driver of the other car was drunk. After everything Dr. Eva had gone through she had to loose her husband too. Dr. Eva Olsson's experiences taught me a lesson, you should always be grateful and loving to those you have and the way your life is, because you never know, it could be a lot worse.

#3 MS Team Building Trip

On Monday, October 19, our Middle School took a trip to Norval Outdoor Education Centre. The trip was the worst thing that has happened in grade seven this year. I went to Norval last year and it was pretty much the same, but this year we had a drum circle. There was a guy who led the circle who didn't talk very much so it seemed like he couldn't talk. He also got really excited, and started to sweat a lot. The drum circle was really pointless, but I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't feeling well or if it was really just pointless. In the morning we had to do low ropes. It was really boring because it was like the exact same thing that we did last year. Although the challenges were boring, our team seemed to not have any trouble solving them.


Our team was great at the challenge where you had to get a tire off of a twelve foot pole. Many ideas were presented and the one that worked was when Hannah stood on my shoulders and pushed the tire off. Our team was great at coming up with ideas to try. We also would always listen to each other when someone had an idea or something to contribute. Respect was shown most of the time in our group. Everybody would contribute anything that they thought would help the group. Our group always stayed positive and would encourage each other and cheer everyone on. But sometimes our group forgot that there is no "I" in team.

In the second challenge we had to get all of our team members across a wire that was about 30 feet long. We were unable to complete the challenge because we weren't letting people say their ideas, and if we were, we wouldn't try them. Also there were two people in our group, including me, who didn't get to even try when some people had already gone up to six times. Our team had stopped thinking about each other and started putting themselves first. Our team didn't ever start to put others first again, so we didn't complete the second challenge.


Norval was the worst thing that I have had to do this year in grade seven. Many people do not enjoy Norval and would prefer if it were not part of the Middle School trips. If you are planning to go out for a day to do fun and exciting things, I would suggest that you do not go to Norval. Instead of going to Norval I would have rather spent the day at school doing school work. For an exciting day out go to somewhere like Canada's Wonderland or another kind of place you enjoy. If I had the choice, I would not attend the trip to Norval again.

#2 Awesome Book

As some of you in my class have probably seen, I was reading an overly large book for the past week. You probably remember our science substitute asking me if I was reading the Bible when he was doing those cool math tricks. Well, I finished that book a few days ago and I think that it was one of the best books I have ever read! If you don't remember, it was not called the Bible, it was called Dark Visions. This fantastic book and many others was written by L. J. Smith, a well known author who has won many awards for her spectacular books.

Dark Visions has three smaller books inside it, but they are the same story continued on(in my opinion I don't think that it needs to be divided into three smaller stories). Kaitlyn Fairchild, the main character, has a special gift. She is able to predict the future and read peoples minds through her drawings. She receives an opportunity to attend a special institute where she will learn how to control and enhance her powers, but something very bad is happening to the herself and the four other psychics she meets there. Kaitlyn, Anna, Lewis, Rob, and Gabriel are at the institute and find out what has been going on behind their backs. One goes to the dark side and leaves the others to fight him and his new dark friends. In the midst of all this, Kaitlyn is falling for two guys, Rob and Gabriel. She must choose who she will stay with, but will all their psychic mess happening will she be able to choose? I guess you'll just have to read the book to find out.

This action packed story will keep you on the edge of your seat guessing what's going to happen next. I promise you, once your past the first couple chapters, you won't be able to put this book down! I sure wasn't able to put it down. For those who like action and fantasy this is the book for you. I LOVED this book and I'm sure if you read it you will too.

#1 The clothes make the man

Many people have heard the expresion 'the clothes make the man' Ithink that this saying is reasonable. Many people would judge a man by what he is wearing and then decide what class of society he is in, or if he deserves their attention. The same thing goes for women and children. Sometimes people will judge you on what you wear and how you look and sometimes that could be a good or a bad thing. On the negative side if you were wearing something like sweatpants and a sweater some people would take you as a person who doesn't care what you look like. They also might think that you are a lazy person. On the positive side if you were to dress formally to attend an interview for a job you'd probably have a better chance of getting the job because you know how to present yourself in a good way. Clothes can show if you are a structured person and know how to present yourself or if you're not worried what you look like and what people think about you.



I think that people can judge you on what you wear because it is like a piece of your personality. It can express what you like, for example if you like sports you could wear a sports team jersey. The clothes you wear however, don't shape who you are or what you do. You are the one who decides if you are a fun, happy, funny, or outgoing person. Your clothes aren't going to make you funny. You, yourself are going to be the person inside you and the clothes you wear aren't going to make any decissons for you. They might give you a little confidence boost, but other than that they aren't going to do much for your personality. Clothes can do a lot for showing people for how you want to express your style but I believe that they aren't really the things that make the kind of person you are.