The Brewster Browser, April 2020

1

The

Brewster Browser

April 16, 2020 Wolfeboro, NH

Brewster Spring Trimester Moves Online

by Ella Quinlan '20

ceremony. If you have any ideas to celebrate the seniors, Dr. Gemmell made it clear that he is open for suggestions.

As expected the community is devastated. Instagram stories of iconic Brewster views flood my personal feed and comments continue to pour onto the Brewster page. Seniors in particular seem to be overcome with nostalgia as it becomes apparent that their senior spring will never be how they imagined.

The Spring Trimester will be the never before seen Brewster experience that none of us could’ve ever imagined. There is nothing that would have prepared us mentally for this. So if you are angry or are upset that is totally understandable.

But Brewster will always be there when the world begins to heal again.

Once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat.

The academic building on a quiet campus on April 15.

photo by Mrs. Maria Found

PREP B-BALL

NATIONAL CHAMPS

SEE PG. 4: Girls' Varsity B-Ball at NEPSACs

Photo by Phil Stiles. See pg. 5 for more photos.

Khelsi Petigny ’22 dribbles past Holderness defender for a line to net.

photo by Mr. Phil Stiles

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

For the first time in Brewster’s 200 years classes have moved out of the classroom, and into your bedrooms. On April 14th Dr. Gemmell officially announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the student body will not be returning to campus this Spring, thus we will all be continuing online learning for the rest of the year. Dr. Gemmell did not bear this news lightly. In a letter to parents and to the community, he writes, “To say that I am sorry to bear this news is an understatement”.

Events like reunion, prom, and the commencement ceremony will be postponed until next year, or will occur as soon as it is safe to do so. It was suggested that there may be creative ways to celebrate the class of 2020, including a virtual

Volume 42 Issue 4

2 Page 2

Student & Faculty Poll

Editorial/Opinion

April 16, 2020

Predicament Penny

What did you do for March Break?

by Faith Suwannapong ’20

Timothy Moses ’20 "Go to Ohio to visit colleges."

Alyson Nagorniak ’22 "Have a trip to Disneyland in Florida and go to Washington D.C." Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

by Ella Quinlan ’20

Chase Marshall ’21 "Go skiing, hang out with friends, go to Boston."

Yiota Prinea and Caren Cowper Yiota: "I will go back home to Greece."

Caren: "I have a mystery trip with a fellow worker in the dining hall."

Yezena Degu Endeshaw ’21 "I will visit colleges in NYC, then go back home and hang out with friends."

Sotaro Kobayashi ’23 "Go back to Japan."

Be Safe & Be Well!

The Brewster Browser Brewster Academy Wolfeboro, New Hampshire

Managing Editor:

Ella Quinlan ’20 Sports Editor:

Robbie Rohrbaugh ’20 Nameplate art:

Shemar Joseph ’19 Staff members:

Omayma Al Balushi ’20

Kai Alvelo ’23

Kaeli Bennett ’21

Jawan Lawson ’20

Bill Mulgrew ’20

Abner Parzen ’22

Faith Suwannapong ’20 Faculty Advisor:

Jennifer Metcalfe Dumont From the Editors: The Browser is a student publication, written, edited and proofread by the students under the direction of the faculty advisor. The authors and editors take full responsibility for any errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar that may occur.

THE BROWSER IS UNDERWRITTEN IN PART BY THE JON KONHEIM JOURNALISM AWARD.

3 April 16, 2020

News

Coronavirus Pandemic Travels from China to Globe

by Omayma Al Balushi ’20

by Jawan Lawson '20

Before March break, the junior class began their college kickoff, which is the college office’s way of introducing the big challenge of the college process. Clear skies and a slight wind chill defined the conditions on that wintery, Winnipesaukean Saturday in February. Dean of College Counseling Mrs. Laura Duffy and Assistant Director of College Counseling Mr. Tim Cushing gathered all of the juniors in the Estabrook at 8:40 in the morning and told them the plan.

The plan was defined in an email.

The email stated that the juniors would be attending four different workshops on the different aspects of the college process. They had to walk around campus to three different spots: the Pinckney Boathouse, the Smith Center and Academic Building.

As stated above, the juniors had a lot to cover in one A week Saturday. According to junior Kaylie Rosen, there were four different stations that juniors had to go to in order to learn about the college process. One of the panels that juniors started off with was one with Mrs. Duffy, who presented a general overview of the college process. She explained how to request recommendations from teachers.

Assistant Head of School Mr. Bret Barnett and Director of Student Development Ms. Allie Cooper gave a presentation on interviewing skills and strategies.

These tips prove to be helpful in any interviewing situation, not just for college.

Another group that spoke to students

A couple of days later, videos from the infected city were published on social media showing the empty streets with dead bodies. People from around the world panicked especially after announcing three confirmed cases in France, nine in the U.S.A and some in the Middle East. However, the numbers of people with the 2019-nCoV, as the virus is known, jumped from 200 cases on January 20 to 7711 cases on January 30 in China and countries like Spain, Sweden and UK confirmed their first case. Thus, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus a global emergency.

Moreover, on February 14th, the Guardian reported that a senior White House official accused the Chinese government of “lack of transparency” as the news agency labeled. They claimed that Wuhan city authorities said that the earliest case has shown symptoms on December 12th, 18 days before they officially announced it to the international community as a “mysterious pneumonia”. However, a study published by a professor at Georgetown University on January

24th showed that according to the connections between the spread of the cases and the reasons mentioned in the announcement, the virus could have been moving around Wuhan as early as October. This evidence, besides the threat that faced the late Dr. Li Wenliang for warning his colleagues about the virus that eventually took his life and the lives of many health care workers, put the Chinese authorities in a questionable position of delaying the warning and keeping the international community away from the frame.

On January 29th, a passenger traveling with Hainan airlines coming from China to Logan international airport was diagnosed with the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. Thus, Hainan airlines flights were canceled for a while. With all of these circumstances happening currently, the Chinese students here at Brewster Academy will not be able to return back home during the spring break, unfortunately.

The school’s administrators along with the international students office and the Health Department are working on supporting our Chinese students and

spreading awareness about the virus.

“People from all around China are supporting Wuhan,” said Hang Liu '20 about the ongoing events. “My only fear is that my family will not be able to attend the graduation in May, I was looking forward to it.”

On February 7, Brewster staged a “Town Hall meeting” open to the Brewster community and to the townspeople. The Director of Health Department, Carrie MacDonald, and the Director of International Students programs, Jason Wang, talked about the ongoing events during that presentation.

At the time, with the information that they had, Mrs. MacDonald highly recommended the students to clean their hands constantly, cover their sneeze or cough with a tissue and never touch their nose with unclean hands.

The pandemic has accelerated greatly since these beginnings in early December. With most of the world now quarantining to avoid illness, the only thing citizens can do, besides taking precautions against infection, is to wait and weather the storm.

that day was a panel of admission representatives from Bentley, Northeastern, and Dickinson. The admission representatives told the juniors what they wanted to see from prospective applicants. They also opened up the floor to questions from the juniors.

The last group on this list was the panel with current seniors and recent alumni. The panel featured current Brewster students and seniors Alexa Thornton, Leanne Durham, Jawan Lawson, and Spencer Kiley. The panelists, including recent alumni Dexter Hanson ’18 and Olivia Papp ’19, told their stories about the college process. They discussed what was going well and what wasn’t going so well within the college process, as well as leaving some pieces of advice for the juniors to take with them. The floor was also opened up for questions.

After interviewing Mr. Cushing, the Assistant Director of College Counseling, we were able to figure out why he values the College Kickoff. He stated that he enjoys making kids excited about the college process and tries his hardest to make it manageable and fun. Mr. Cushing says that he enjoys his job, and even though the college process can be daunting, he still wants it to be a good, and enjoyable, process for kids.

Sydney Caldwell, a current junior at the Academy, was interviewed recently about the College Kickoff. When asked if she found any information from the day useful, she said: “Yes, definitely.”

Caldwell said that the day helped her

find strategies for doing well in interviews and applying to schools. When asked what one of her biggest takeaways from the Kickoff was, Caldwell said, “It’s very important to invest yourself in your

school community.”

Now, the next step is for the juniors to finish up the Naviance questionnaire and start to put together the lists of colleges they are interested in.

Juniors Begin College Kickoff

Fiona Connelly ’22 fights through the line of Holderness defenders. See pg. 4 for complete story and photo by Phil Stiles more photos.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

In 2011, Hollywood released a movie set in 2020. In the movie, two days after she came from Hong Kong to Minnesota, a character names Beth Emhoff died because of an unknown disease, leaving her six-year-old son with the symptoms. Soon, many others started to show the same symptoms, and the doctors were trying to find solutions but failed, before the stakeholders announced a global pandemic. The crisis brought the world to the edge of the end. But fortunately, Scott Z. Burns, the writer of the movie titled Contagion, included a vaccine that helped the doctors to contain the disaster.

Turning the page to reality, on December 31st, 2019, when China first alerted the World Health Organization to several cases of an unknown virus in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in Hubei province China. The Chinese government closed the seafood market in Wuhan’s port. This market is the place where the first 26 cases were located. The government, as well, built a hospital in 10 days and closed all city’s points of entry and exit.

page 3

4 Page 4

Sports

Girls Varsity Basketball Makes Waves in NEPSAC

by Robert Rohrbaugh ’20

After a NEPSAC playoff berth in 2018, the Girls’ Varsity Basketball Team failed to make the playoffs in 2019. Heading into the 2019-2020 campaign, plenty of question marks surrounded this team.

First, the Bobcats’ leading scorer and NEPSAC All-Star, Sophie Tougas, chose to leave Brewster before her senior year to join Bradford Christian Academy. Additionally, multiple seniors graduated in 2019, leaving several roster spots vacant.

Lastly, a new coach, Mrs. Rebecca Brooks, left Pomfret School to become the head coach of the team.

Despite all of these moving parts, the team has found success, as they finished with a 13-8 record and earned a NEPSAC Class C playoff berth. In their first playoff matchup, they were victorious against Holderness School. The win gave the program their first NEPSAC playoff win in almost 30 years, showing the strides they’ve made this year.

While the team went into the playoff game against Holderness as the higherranked third seed in the tournament, the game was far from a guarantee. Earlier in the season, the girls suffered a tough loss at Holderness, 43-61. Still, the Bobcats were the better team, and proved it, win-

April 16, 2020

ning by a score of 38-32.

After winning, the team traveled to Chestnut Hill, MA to play Beaver Country Day School in the NEPSAC semifinals. In their second-to-last game of the regular season, the girls won big over the higher-ranked NEPSAC opponent 71-60, making it clear that the game in the semifinals was going to be nothing short of competitive.

Once the game began, it was clear that it would go down to the wire. Beaver Country Day did have a sustained lead for a good portion of the game, and that carried into the last few minutes when their lead was in the double-digits.

Instead of rolling over, though the girls gave it all they had. While applying full-court pressure on the defensive side of the ball, the Bobcats were able to force turnovers, leading to multiple clutch perimeter shots by Annie Perry ‘23 and Senior Captain, Emmy Dumaresq ‘20. Eventually, with just under a minute remaining, the game was knotted at a score of 59-59.

Here, the game could have gone either way. Both teams had a shot at taking the lead, but the score remained the same after an empty possession from each team. Then, the ball was in the

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Jordan Thompson ’20 launches above Holderness opponent towards the net.

hands of the Beaver Country Day starting center, and she drove to the hoop, made a layup on the left side of the basket with contact, drawing a foul to send her to the free-throw line.

With four seconds on the clock, she sank the free-throw, giving Beaver a 62-59 lead over Brewster. The Bobcats tried to advance the ball up the court and get a shot off, but they were unable to in less than four seconds, giving Beaver the victory and the right to advance to the NEPSAC Class C Championship Game.

While it was not the result that the girls and the members of Bobcat Nation watching on livestream were hoping for, their effort and performance were symbolic of the strides the team took in the

photo by Mr. Phil Stiles

2019-2020 campaign. The move to bring Coach Brooks in at the helm of the team paid off, as the Bobcats were fortunate enough to have their most successful season in close to thirty years.

Moving forward, the team will dearly miss Senior Captains Emmy Dumaresq and Jordan Thompson ‘20, as well as Neema Mollel ‘20 in the upcoming season. Still, the team is balanced, as eight players, including three starters, will return, and improvements of girls currently in the JV program, as well as the addition of new students, will help to fill the void created by the departure of current seniors. While the future is always uncertain, this is the type of team to bet on for the years to come.

(left) Emmy Dumaresq ’20 shoots a three-pointer effortlessly over defenseless Holderness opponents.

photo by Mr. Phil Stiles

5 April 16, 2020

Sports

COVID-19 Puts Professional Sports on Hold

by Robert Rohrbaugh ’20

Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder prior to its tipoff.

Any players who had played against the Jazz in the two-week period before Gobert tested positive, as well as the entire Jazz roster and organization, were tested for the virus.

Many players tested positive, and the names included other all-stars, 2014 NBA MVP, Kevin Durant, and Brewster Academy graduate, Donovan Mitchell ‘15, among others. One player, Christian Wood, a forward for the Detroit Pistons, also tested positive for the virus but had erupted for a career-high 32 points on the night where league activities came to a screeching halt. This performance speaks to how those who contract the virus can be asymptomatic and be healthy, something Mitchell also spoke to in several interviews.

Following the NBA’s lead, several leagues that were either in play or gearing up to start their season were put on hold. These included the MLB, NHL, and the NCAA, which made the difficult decision to cancel the Division

1 national championship playoff, or March Madness.

With all of these cancellations, it is contributing to the massive amounts of Americans who are losing their jobs and have no way to earn the income they would if the games were still playing.

There are people working concessions, security inside and outside of the stadiums, and so many more positions that are not being filled. To help out, though, many athletes who earn millions of dollars each year pledged to pay the salaries of individuals who worked for their respective teams.

Looking forward, it is unclear as to when leagues will resume play, as it seems as if we are still unaware of just how horrible this virus can get.

Supposedly, the NBA has discussed quarantining teams in certain arenas and proceeding to continue to play without fans. However, many individuals around the league are not hopeful for what is to come with the rest of the season that would typically conclude

in June.

Still, President Donald Trump spoke optimistically on a call with many of the commissioners of professional sports leagues about how he assumes the National Football League (NFL) will be able to start the season on time. This news is positive for all sports leagues, but the validity of the statement is unclear at this time.

Additionally, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said that he will allow play to resume once he gets a message from the government that it is safe, which has given fans a sense of hope.

Still, the reality doesn’t prompt much optimism as there is no sign as to when Silver will get the signal that it is okay to play.

While the situation is one that many sports fans, players and team employees wish would be playing out differently, this is in the best interest of our nation.

The spread of the virus is being limited, and that is what is truly important at the end of the day.

Prep B-ball Earn Spot as National Co-Champs

(above) Javohn Garcia ’20 slams into the opposing team for an effortless layup to net. (left) Marcus Dockery '20 shoots his shot in the NEPSAC Tournament Semifinals. The team went on to victory in the semi-finals at the National Prep Championship tournament in March. The final game was not played, and Brewster was declared the champs, a title they share with Putnam Science Academy. photos by Phil Stiles

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

So far, COVID-19 has clearly presented its fair share of challenges to individuals all around the world.

Among these challenges has been the complete shut down of several top-flight professional sports leagues, as well as the entire sports scene in the college realm. The leagues and the NCAA alike determined that while many individuals enjoy the nationally televised games and matches, continuing to play was not worth the risk of furthering the spread of this historically dangerous virus.

The charge of shutting down the sports leagues was led by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its commissioner, Adam Silver. On Wednesday, March 11, the All-Star Utah Jazz Center, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for COVID-19. Immediately after receiving the results, the NBA declared an abrupt shutdown of all basketball activities, allowing games that had been started that night to play out, but canceling the game between the

page 5

6 Page 6

Features

A Pretty Snazzy Performance

by Kai Alvelo ’23

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

The blue blur recently made his way into theatres and critics say it’s the fastest, funniest movie of the year. Sonic The Hedgehog got 64% from Rotten Tomatoes and 6.9/10 from IMDb. That is about one thousand times better than what people panned out the movie to be.

It seemed the movie was lined up to be another bad video game movie adaptation, but surpassed Detective Pickachu, a movie released in 2019, in sales within the first three days.

A little history on the speed demon: on June 23, 1991, Sonic took the world by storm on the three Sega systems out at the time, the Genesis, Mastersystem, and Game Gear. Sonic was originally conceived to combat the Italian plumber, Mario.

Sonic differentiated himself from Mario with his speed and the physics mechanic that complemented it. The story was to stop the evil Doctor Robotnik from forcing critters into robots to run them so he can achieve world domination. Sonic’s original name was “Mr. Needlemouse”.

Luckily, the “knight of the wind” was eventually given his noble title, Sonic The Hedgehog.

November 21, 1992, was “Sonic 2s day,” by Sega to celebrate the release of Sonic’s second speedy game. This game introduced Sonic’s foxy friend, Miles Tails Prower, but his friends call him Tails.

This two tailed genius mechanic would appear in pretty much every Sonic game following, either as a playable character or a cameo. More games were put on the Sega Genesis, Mastersystem, Game Gear, and even the Genesis attachments the Sega CD and Sega 32X, but they would soon be discontinued because of Sega's

by Kai Alvelo ’23

From book, to Broadway show, and now a movie, Cats was supposed to be a purr-fect adaptation, but ended up a-paw-ling in the box office. I’m not kitten, the movie got low reviews in the 20% by Rotten Tomatoes and 32% by Metacritic.

The announcement of a movie adaptation to the, greatly received, Broadway show brought great expectations, but unfur-tunately let most people down.

The story of Cats is about a cat tribe called the Jellicle Cats. The Jellicle Cats come together once every year under the Jellicle moon to choose one of the many cats that attend to be reborn to a new Jellicle life and ascend to the Heaviside Layer, the cat variation of heaven. Throughout the rest of the story, we meet many other cats who claim to be worthy to ascend and tell us why in a song. After that, the Jellicle Ball is held and all the cats are excited, except for Grizabella. She is rejected by most of the cats because of her age and physical appearance, but (SPOILER

next system the Sega Saturn.

The Sega Saturn was planned to have a brand new Sonic game named, “Sonic X-Treme.” This game was going to bring Sonic into the third dimension like Mario and Crash Bandicoot, but the team wasn’t pleased with the game so instead gave us some other fun titles for the Saturn such as Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, and Sonic Jam. When Sega released the Sega Dreamcast, people were expecting the next Sonic game and got Sonic Adventure, the game to finally bring our blue hero into the third dimension.

After releasing Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Shuffle, the Dreamcast was nearing the end of its life and so was the hardware the company was producing.

So what was to become of Sega? They became a third party developer for other video gaming consoles. Sonic was then put on Xbox, Playstation 2, and Nintendo Gamecube. It’s funny seeing Sonic go on a Nintendo console considering they were rivaling Nintendo beforehand, saying stuff such as, “Sega does what Nintendon’t.” These days, Sonic games are continually being released for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo systems with a new game confirmed to be in development currently.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2020 movie wasn’t the blue blur’s first appearance on the big screen. Well actually it was the small screen. In 1993, “The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog” and the Saturday morning “Sonic The Hedgehog” programs both came onto tv. While “The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog” was more of a comedy, the Saturday morning cartoon was a dark, gloomy show about Robotnic taking over the world and about

A still from Sonic The Hedgehog 2006, "My, that's a pretty snazzy performance there."

how the freedom fighters are fighting to take it back. It definitely is an oddball considering Sonic, at this time, was all about bright and colorful lands, but this cartoon was the opposite. It definitely showed a different side to Sonic that would be in many Sonic games to come.

In 1996, two tv episodes were released in Japan for Sonic. When it was brought to the west the two episodes became one movie released on VHS and DVD and, as you know, now we have Sonic The Hedgehog that came out this year. To people's surprise, it was actually a good film. (SPOILER ALERT!) The story for the movie is more down to earth than some may think. It’s about how our favorite blue hedgehog wants a true friend and finds it in Tom, or Donut Lord as Sonic refers to him. When Tom accidentally shoots Sonic with a tranquilizer gun, Sonic drops one of his magical rings that opens a portal to San Francisco. Sonic passes out and drops his bag of magical rings into the portal. At the same time, Dr.Robotnik finds one of Sonic's quills

that contain the essence to his speed. He is able to put the quill in one of his robots, thus giving it unlimited power and speed.

Now with the world in danger, Sonic and Donut Lord must retrieve the rings and send Sonic away to Mushroom Hill so no one else can use Sonic’s power. At the end of the movie, everything ends just fine.

Dr. Robotnik is sent to Mushroom Hill, instead of Sonic, and is trapped forever and Sonic finds a true friend in Tom, one may say they are family now.

I, alongside 94% of the audience who saw the movie according to Rotten Tomatoes, really enjoyed the movie. There was a lot to enjoy for long time Sonic fans and some for new. People who don’t even know Sonic enjoyed this film. The movie has very little cliches and has a lot of original content that really makes people enjoy this film. Sure Sonic flosses two or three times, but the overall experience is great. Being a Sonic fan has been a great experience. I love a lot of the Sonic games and now there is a movie on him! It truly is an exhilarating franchise.

Cats. Tom Hooper has been a long time fan of Cats and was excited to be directing the film. He said, “It all started at eight years old being taken by my parents to Cats in the first year it run and I was completely blown away… I’m here today to because of that experience I had when I was eight…” Tom Hooper

has directed other films such as The Danish Girl and The King’s Speech. Both movies were given great reviews, nearly perfect. Cats was looking to be a good movie, but when the first trailer dropped, impressions were unsatisfactory. People stated that the cats in the movie looked,

Jellicle Cats, Oh Jellicle Cats

ALERT) ends up being the chosen one to ascend to the Heaviside Layer.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the director of the Broadway show, always dreamed of putting Cats into movie theaters. When Universal bought the rights to it in 2013, the dream came closer to reality. Webber was so excited about the movie that as soon as Universal bought the rights he tweeted, hinting at the film’s existence.

There were many fans of the Broadway show that were excited to hear such news, but after seeing what became of it, they are a little bit saddened. “If you’re approaching this Broadway classic for the first time, well, this might not be the cinematic catnip you’re expecting.” said Bob Hoose from Plugged’n. But behind every bad review, there may be a good one. Such as the review Oggs Cruz from Rotten Tomatoes gave for it, “Clearly, Hooper’s films, while riddled with glaringly awful mistakes, is not bad at all.”

Alongside the director of the Broadway show Webber, Tom Hooper directed

April 16, 2020

cont. on pg. 8

7 April 16, 2020

Oman

Features Cultural Corner

by Omayma Al Balushi ’20

The Sultanate of Oman is an Arab country in the Middle East that’s lying on the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Holding a strategically important position at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the country shares land borders with the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. Oman’s official language is Arabic. The country is famous for fresh, sea air. Muscat, the capital is famous for dazzling old souks and superb seafood. Sadly, the Omanis lost their Sultan, the king, on January 10th of this year. This was a big shock for the people as he ruled Oman for almost 50 years with wisdom and dignity.

The Arab Republic of Egypt is a Middle Eastern country that is bordered by Palestine to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Their official language is Arabic and their capital is Cairo. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and one of the world’s most famous monuments, the Giza pyramids. The Egyptians invented the 365-days a year calendar. Egypt is the home of one of the longest waterways in Africa and the world. Soccer is the most popular sport. Actually, there are two teams that are fierce rivals, but still sharing the same stadium, Cairo international stadium. The teams are Al Ahly SC and Zamalek SC, and their derby is known as the Clasico El-Arab.

page 7

Egypt

Travelling from a country where it hits 122°F in the summer to Wolfeboro’s winter, Rahaf Al Balushi ‘20 talks about her experience at Brewster Academy.

Rahaf said that she acclimated herself to the Brewster community faster than what she expected.

“Frankly, I cried every night of my first week here because I missed my family and friends. But then, I found myself amongst great people who are willing to support me and provide me with everything I need,” said Rahaf ‘20.

Her previous school before coming to Brewster was an international school in her hometown in Oman. And that, as she said, is one of the reasons that she did not face any cultural shocks when she first came here.

“I was open to such a community so I didn’t feel at all weird or shocked,” she said.

Al Balushi also referred to the “Shuwa” as her favorite Omani food, which is a special main course that Omanis make on popular occasions, mostly Eid. Shuwa is basically meat that is marinated with spices and then wrapped in sacks made of dry banana or palm leaves. These sacks are then thrown into the underground sand oven, which is covered with a lid and sealed so that no smoke escapes. They put it under the ground for up to 48 hours and then serve it with special herbs and rice.

Eid is Rahaf’s favorite holiday. In Arabic, Eid means festival or celebration,

and it’s a special occasion for Muslims from all around the world as they celebrate it twice: once after Ramadan, the fasting month, and once in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

What she misses the most about Oman, she said, is her family.

Rahaf is planning on attending college here in the U.S. for four years and then she will go back to Oman to work there. Her advice to all the students is to enjoy every single day here and try to work their best because the difficult days will pass and they will touch the results of their hard work.

Q: Introduce yourself to the community?

A: My name is Youssef Samir Soliman, but most people call me Joe. I'm a senior and 18 years old. I am an international student from Egypt but I live in Saudi Arabia. I came to Brewster in my Sophomore year.

Q: What do you miss the most about Egypt when you are here at Brewster?

What’s your favorite Egyptian food?

A: What do I miss the most about Egypt? I guess I miss mostly Arabic things, I miss walking down the street to bazzars and speaking arab, I miss the noise of the street venders advertising their wares I miss my family and I miss arabic food. I probably miss that the most. My favorite food is Wera Ainab which are stuffed grape leaves with rice meat and some spices.

Q: What was the biggest cultural shock you faced when you first came to the United States?

A: I honestly couldn’t tell you .

Everything was pretty much a culture shock to me. I guess it would probably be the way people interacted with each other. It was totally different to what I was used to. From the way they greeted each other to a plethora of small things (left) Rahaf Al Balushi, (right) Joe Soliman

it was all completely different to what I was used to Q: What is one thing you want to share as an international student living at a boarding school?

A: I guess what I would want to say is for people here to talk to more international students when they first arrive. It's hard to go from something you've known your whole life to something completely different and for me when I first came here I was having trouble interacting with other students and making friends so introduce yourself and be friendly it can make the world of a difference when trying to settle into a new place if you have a friend to rely on.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Rahaf Al Balushi ’20: Q&A with Between Oman and Wolfeboro Youssef "Joe" Soliman ’20

8

features

Page 8

Wishful Thinking: Why Newspapers are Important

by Ella Quinlan ’20

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

In 1994, 60 million subscribers were reached each week day by paper companies who spread news across the United States, while today only 35 million people subscribe and are reached by print and digital papers circulating the States. The steady decline that has occured for newspapers over the past three decades is a concern for pro-democracy governments across the globe.

The Brewster community can prove that print media is a dying art. Typically Brewster students consume their news through social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram. Faculty members typically read online subscriptions that also have print forms like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. News consumption is obviously shifting drastically. Technology advancements allow people to be informed faster and more efficiently through social media or unregulated websites than a printed paper.

What separates newspapers from social media or unregulated websites is the glorious “gatekeeper”. Unlike social media or private websites where anything could be posted by anyone, newspapers have an editor. An Editor ensures that real news is being reported with real facts and information. When reading a reliable newspaper like the New York Times, there is no fear of “Fake News”.

Fake news comes from these unregulated websites and from social media not from reliable established media outlets.

Newspapers also play a crucial role in the success of American democracy

cont. from pg. 7

Hall Talk or Zoom Talk?

“You will never catch me slippin’ again!”

“Drove 20 minutes to find a place that was still open.”

"It's like getting a Christmas present from the Easter bunny!"

“Shoulda known” out now!!! – NB Whatta year.

“I’d recommend eating some carrots or something.”

“Can you hear me? Oh boy, I think you’re frozen.”

Alexa Thornton ’20 reads her local newspaper, available in Keniston Library.

photo by Ella Quinlan ’20

"Can you please stop eating my foot? It is not for you."

“Had to take a break to wash my hands.”

and democracies everywhere. Without newspapers we would be without the trustworthy information within them.

Journalism is considered the “watchdog” of the government. Meaning the goal of the newspaper is not to create large sums of wealth, but to accurately inform the public. Therefore, newspapers are informally called the “fourth estate” in the American government. If we were devoid of the trustworthy information contained

within newspapers; our capacity to make informed decisions on the things that impact our lives would slowly diminish.

Thomas Jefferson felt that newspapers were crucial to our government, “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I

should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

The key to democracy is rule of the people, by the people. By being properly informed through trustworthy sources ensures that we the people are being truly ruled by the people.

instead of paws was weird.

“In Broadway, though, you couldn’t tell that they were people, they just seemed like cats, she continued. “It surprised me that they didn't go to such great lengths to have amazing costumes. I wish they had costumes instead of CGI. I saw the Broadway musical when I was 14 and when you are there, it opens and the scenery to this back alley and the cats sing this beautiful music. It was full of beauty, magic, mystery and color. It seems to be bigger than life.

“The plot made sense on Broadway,” said Bellinger. “Hearing their songs, stories, and history of each cat made you think about who was going to go to the heaviside layer and in that sense, I feel that it’s better than the movie. The Broadway show was better because it fulfills all of your desires whereas the movie left you wanting more the whole time. Each scene was beautiful, but they didn’t fulfill you. Even when you heard the song “Memory”, it wasn’t as fulfilling, even though the actor was really good. It was a nice walk down memory lane though.

Seeing and hearing the songs from Cats was amazing.”

Other people also missed the subtleties of the Broadway show in the movie.

“The costumes in the Broadway show were cool because it reminded me of the Wizard of Oz's the cowardly lion,” said photography teacher Steve Burgess.

“The Wiz, [a modern adaptation done in the late 70’s], has a person playing a cat and your mind has the transition or instinction of it being a cat that can walk and talk and have human emotions. It was easier as an audience member that the people on stage were cats.”

At its heart, Cats is about accepting who people are, no matter what they look like. It’s about a cat being accepted for who she is instead of what she looks like.

The movie is criticised for being so creepy and that’s because of the CGI placed on the actors making them just seem like humans with a fur body, ears on the top of their head, and a tail. I feel that if it was a cartoon animation like Disney's Aristocats, the Broadway musical could be represented in it’s full glory.

Scenes from a quiet campus: Brewster misses our students! photos by Mrs. Maria Found

Jellicle Cats, Oh Jellicle Cats

“demented,” and, “nightmarish.” A Twitter user said, “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with Cats.”

Many people have interesting perspectives on the movie and the Broadway show, such as Theater Tech teacher Mr. John Ling.

“Although, I like CGI in movies (I think it's amazing tech), I'm not entirely sure how I would enjoy it being used in a musical,” said Ling. “But seeing the trailer made me want to see the movie.

My only hope is that they keep it as close to the musical as they can. I know that the reviews weren’t that great, but I think that people have different views of, mostly, every show/movie.”

Many fans who enjoyed the musical were eager to rush out to see the movie.

It’s natural to compare the two.

“I thought the CGI was amazing,” said music teacher Candice Bellinger.

“You couldn't tell that it was fake. The whole time I was trying to see a flaw in the CGI, I couldn't see anything other than they had human hands on the cats

April 16, 2020