Jan 8 2106 hi line

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TEEN PARENTING

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Friday, Jan. 8, 2016

New year delivers new life for teen couples/Pages 10-11 Follow us on Twitter at tigerhiline, Facebook at Hiline and on our website at www.hiline.cfschools.org

Volume 56 Edition 13

Editor’s Note: This is a followup on a Nov. 13 story

Teen reaches stuffed animal goal for foster home donations On Dec. 16, the face and founder of Furries 4 Fosters, Aaliyah Tournier, was surprised with a $250 check from the Cedar Falls Police Association going towards the organization.

Furries 4 Fosters is now an official non profit organization.

“It makes me feel pretty good. It helps me sleep at night because I always have wanted to do this, and when I think about kids being happy, it makes me feel good. I was very surprised when the police department gave me the check, like how did they know about this? I was just so blown away by the donation,” Tournier said.

Aaliyah has reached her goal of 50 blankets and over her goal of 157 stuffed animals.

The organization will be delivering the items to the DHS office

late this week in the new Furries 4 Fosters that came Dec. 30.

Tournier said she is very thankful to Ara Mark uniform services for the boxes of stuffed animals and blankets that were collected and donated by the employees.

“I thought of my little brother and how he loves the little blankets he has. I thought it would be cool to have both, and it would make them feel safe and warm.”

Also, Tournier received a donation of $75 and new stuffed animals from Kimball and Beecher Dentistry. She was awarded the Patient of the Month for her honorable and selfless acts of running Furries 4 Fosters.

“We appreciate everyone’s contributions to the Furries 4

Fosters organization,” Tournier said.

The family said it will not be stopping just because the goal was achieved. There will be more to do in 2016, so be sure to look out for more news on the Facebook page, Furries 4 Fosters.

“I want it to become a big thing. I want everyone to know about it, for the kids. I am hoping to make up T-shirts in the near future. That would be cool,” Tournier said.

If interested in donating new stuffed animals and/or blankets, be sure to check out the facebook page Tournier has set up.

All the contact info is there.

By Staff Writer Tehya

TOURNIER

Administration reveals new plans to ensure Power Hour success

Sweet Sweaters

Miranda Cole Photos

The food staff, art teacher Emily Luensmann, senior Austin Reyhons and many others donned their ugly sweaters on Wednesday, Dec. 23 to raise money for the Iowa Children’s Hospital.

Teachers and administration are buckling down for next semester’s Power Hour.

They’re determined to make struggling students be as productive as possible.

The original idea was to provide a guaranteed time for students to have easy access to all staff in any subject, to study, interact, or hang out with whomever they please.

But for some, the period of freedom hasn’t come easy.

Conflicting issues of time management, motivation and responsibility have challenged some CFHS students.

To fix the gap, administrators recently created a step by step plan for academic success (see photo).

From direct teacher instruction to having a strict support plan, the Power Hour culture is continuing to evolve.

With the goal of helping students to succeed academically, assistant principal Troy Becker is optimistic about improving the program.

“Students are now realizing

that it’s their time. We’ve seen gradual increases of students staying with their teachers, but we want to make things even better. As an administrator, our goal is to see them prevail,” Becker said.

Referral slips will now be distributed to those who need them, and if they don’t oblige, larger consequences will follow such as calling home, suspension, alternative school and other options.

“Some students are their worst enemies. The more you get behind, the harder it is to catch up. We now have something set up that will help them,” Becker said.

Now that things are set in place, more people understand it and the have steps that will be taken to address slacking.

“We want to ensure all the academic support. As long as they take advantage of it, it’s there,” Becker said.

By Staff Writer Allie

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Friday, Jan. 8, 2016

International Club speaker shares harrowing tale of quest for freedom A weary, 12-year-old boy steps out of a crammed bus somewhere in West Africa. He gazes around at a once familiar city, confused. It doesn’t quite register yet, but he knows he escaped. His mind wanders to his family. “Surely they will understand,” he thinks. He traipses along with his two close friends in search of something they might recognize.

Umaru Balde was born in Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. He has travelled around the world before settling in the United States in 2007. He speaks multiple languages including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and additional African dialects. Currently, he works at YWCA as the director of Latino and Multicultural immigrants or refugees. Balde says there are often misconceptions of what immigrants or refugees are doing here and who they are.

“There are a lot of misconceptions, who is who and what they are doing here. Taking away jobs of course. And criminals, bad guys, we don’t know them. They don’t have the right to be here,” he said.

The topic of immigration and refugees is a very personal topic for Balde. He has travelled all around Africa and parts of the Middle East, staying in countries as an immigrant as well as refugee before settling in the United States.

Balde’s travel away from

home started at a fairly young age when his parents sent him to live with and learn from a religious leader. He was born to a Muslim family and is still a practicing Muslim today. “In our tradition at home, they tend to give kids to religious leaders to raise them up, which means if you are raised up by a priest or pastor, you tend to be a good boy and grow up to be a really good person. [Families] just think that these people are holy men, and your child will grow up to be a holy man as well. So, I was taken to one of these religious leaders, and it turned out to be more like slavery; the kids worked for him every day,” Balde said.

The sheik, a religious leader, that Balde stayed with had several kids living with him at the time, and he made them do everything. “If you know the definition of slavery, we were slaves,” Balde said.

Exhausted, he planned his escape with two other young boys, one of them being his cousin. “I ended up running away when I was 12. We planned it out. I got money from my grandma, and we just decided to jump in the bus and go back to the city, but when we got there, we didn’t know anything about the city anymore. We got lost and asked people a lot of questions. One of them did end up finding his family, but they didn’t let the three of us stay,” Balde said.

Disheartened and denied by

“I got arrested, of course, for being illegal and not having any documents. Getting into the country illegally, ‘jumping the fence,’ but I did not jump the fence. I cut the fence and —Umaru Balde crawled.” immigrant from Guineau-Bissau

his own family, he ended up in the streets. At age 14, he joined the rebel’s army in Guinea-Bissau. Balde stayed in the military until age 17, when he decided he wanted to leave the country.

“That was when I started wandering around the world and went through so many countries in Africa that I ended up near the Middle East. [I] later went to school in Egypt. I lived there for eight years and graduated, got my first B.A. and Masters, and then I had to move to Israel,” Balde said.

He entered Israel as a refugee. There was a civil war going on in Guinea-Bissau at the time. “In Israel I went in as a refugee because I did not want to go back to my country. So, yes, I got there, found a job cleaning restaurants for 25 days. I got arrested, of course, for being illegal and not having any documents. Getting into the country illegally, ‘jumping the fence,’ but I did not jump the fence. I cut the fence and crawled,” Balde said.

He was in jail for approxi-

mately three months. “When I was taken to jail, I got there, and I saw a lot of people there, actually, from Asia. A lot of people from Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines and some Africans too, and lots of Russians from Ukraine.

Some people there were trafficked, human trafficked. So, I got there and saw all these people, and soon, I made my first friend. He was from Ethiopia. I asked him how long he had been there. He said he had been in that jail for a year and a half. I asked him, ‘What do you do? Who is helping you?’ He said, ‘Well, the human rights people have been trying to get us lawyers for a while now.’ I thought, this is not happening to me, I am not going to do that. So, I started a hunger strike. Actually, my first two days everybody in the jail hated me because I would get up at two o’clock yelling for bread. I just wanted to yell about something. I would bang on the doors. ‘I want bread! I want bread! I’m hungry.’ And [the guards] wouldn’t

my schedule right away so I could be done by second semester.”

Weaver plans on being an art teacher. “I have always planned on graduating early so that I could move to Colorado. I never had a plan at first when I decided that I wanted to go there.

My first plan was to go to Colorado School of Arts, and get my degree there, but focus more on energy healing,” she said.

After doing a college visit, she fell in love with it, but then this semester after taking beginning painting and advanced drawing, she real-

ized she wanted art in her future, so she now plans on going to art school in Colorado Springs.

Weaver’s favorite memory from high school was homecoming week of senior year. “Just the way that everyone gets excited for it makes me happy, especially seeing people in my class this year since we’re all seniors now, and, of course, the football games and finally being able to sit in the front with my senior class,” she said.

Saul is graduating early because she had enough credits and wants to work

do anything or just come yell, ‘Shut up!’ So, I started a hunger strike. They would bring lunch, I would dump it. Bring dinner, I would dump it. This went on for two weeks, and I was like a toothpick. Even though I’m used to fasting for a whole month, you get to eat at night, but for a hunger strike, you just drink water,” he said. About two weeks into the hunger strike, the head of the prison facility called Balde into his office to talk. “He asked me why I was doing all of this.

I told him I wasn’t doing anything. I just wanted to get out of there. I said, ‘Either you get me out of here or give me to Red Cross. Let them send me back, or give me to somebody else. Just, out, not in prison for years.’ I asked him to get me a lawyer. He said, ‘Oh, so you know the laws.’ I said to him, ‘I don’t know, but I know my basic rights.’”

Balde learned about human rights around the world in a cultural studies class he took during his stay in Egypt.

“During that class, the cultural studies class, we learned everything about human rights and how to live in different cultures and how to adapt if you want to and how to assimilate if you want to assimilate, if you are not forced to. In the U.S, you have to assimilate. And so, anyway, he wanted me to come hang out in his office, and he REFUGEE Continued on Page 3

21 seniors making plans for early graduation As the fall semester of 2015 comes to a close, many things are ending, but for some seniors, that includes their high school careers.

Each year, Cedar Falls has a number of students that decide to graduate early. This year’s numbers aren’t extremely high, but there are 21 seniors who are deciding to graduate this January. These students include Chase Ager, Ameen Bridges, Gabe Chestnut, Kelcie Scott, Carissa Wordel, Kade Berry, Zach Buss, Andrew Edgeton, Austin Edgeton, Rawley Ficklin, Megan Gardner, Majda Hasic, Taylor Hyl-

ton, Destiny Kelley, Sadie Kolpek, Duong Nguyen, Michael Pfalzgraf, Madison Pitzenberger, Autumn Saul, Ashley Sires and Marley Weaver.

All of these students have their own personal reasons for early graduation. Weaver decided to graduate early because she is moving to Colorado in a couple months. “I really wanted to work a lot until I moved. I have the option of going to Colorado at basically any time after I graduate, so once I found out that I only needed seven credits to graduate, I set up

full time at Applebee’s and become a server. She is starting at Capri College in August. “I’ll have the whole summer to have fun and not worry about anything,” she said.

Her favorite high school memories include the people. “It’s going to be sad not seeing my friends every day because after high school, you really do lose touch with a lot of friends,” Saul said. She plans to visit some people a lot second semester.

By Staff Writer Annebeth

AHRENHOLZ

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REFUGEE

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Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 Continued from Page 2

asked if I liked computers. He asked if I wanted to play games on his computer. And I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘We don’t have Internet.’ I told him, that’s OK. By then, I was already a computer scientist.”

Balde had an interest in computers since he was a young boy. He learned about them from acquaintances in Egypt. “So, I’m sitting there, and I decode his computer and send out an email to the newspaper. So, that’s how they sent these journalists to come and investigate the hunger strike.

It became a big deal in Israel,” Balde said.

Balde sent an email to one of the most well known newspapers in Israel, The Haaretz, and the woman who interviewed him, eventually took him in to live with her family for a court-ordered three months.

“When she took me out of [jail], I told her, ‘Look, they only gave me three months to stay with you, and you can keep me for three months and then you can call them to come get me, but they are not going to come find me here, so, I’ll be out.

They are not going to find me.

I am not going back to jail, and I’m not staying in this country.’

So, I told her the only option if she wanted to help me is that she could go with me to university, and I can get my papers because I knew where I left them. I can get them here in two days, so I can show them all my diplomas and certificates and see if they can accept me into a university,” he said.

Although it was a long shot, they went and tried it out. They sent his papers to a university, and he got accepted. The admissions people were aware of his story due to the news coverage in The Haaretz. Although Balde was a student at university, it was still a fight to keep him there, and his Israeli family was with him every step of the way.

“This family that took me in, they were a jewish family.

You would imagine Jewish and Muslims, uh, how is that going to work, right? But, like many people here in Iowa, they accepted me even though they did not know anything about me. They did not think, well, he is a Muslim. He might be a terrorist. He might come here and just wake up one morning and have nice pancakes and go shoot some people, right?

It’s not like that. Most people

“Refugees or immigrants are not criminals. They are different. Refugees are running away from something. They are forced to leave their countries. Migrants/immigrants might make the decision. It’s not something that people like to do ...”

—Umaru Balde immigrant from Guineau-Bissau

don’t think like that. Unfortunately, some people do. [The government officials] tried to deport me so many times, but they couldn’t because one family accepted me, and they are citizens. My Israeli mom, the one who adopted me, she went to the ministry of interior who takes care of all these [issues], like the homeland security here. She told him, the person there, that if he is going to be deported anywhere, I am going to go with him to make sure he is back to his parents.

How many people do you think would do that here [America]?

Not that many, unfortunately.”

“My Israeli mom, I can count, for the last eight years that I’ve been here, was only 16 days that she did not call me. She calls every day, but it is not the usual mom worries, ‘Do you drive safe? Do you go to bed on time?” She says, ‘You’re not organizing demonstrations right?’ That’s her concern, all the time. ‘You’re not into these politics right?’ I tell her, Yup I’m fine. I am not yelling at anyone in the streets. She checks every day to make sure I am not in jail,” Balde said.

“Refugees or immigrants are not criminals. They are different. Refugees are running away from something. They are forced to leave their countries.

Migrants/immigrants

might make the decision. It’s not something that people like to do, but there are these misconceptions that people think, ‘Oh, they are refugees?

They are just immigrants coming here for our jobs, and they turn out to be criminals.’ That is not true. I am a good example of that. I studied here. I was a good student at UNI. I got a lot of scholarships. I graduated, and I decided to stay and work in the community. Americans call it, ‘giving back,’ so, I try to give back. I love people, and I work with people from anywhere and everywhere, and all I want to do is help others. Because I live here, whatever happens here, affects me personally. I take everything personally; if it is fun, let’s have fun. If it is sad, let’s all mourn together.

What I advocate is together, and the good thing is what makes that happen is learning. We have to learn. If you don’t know people, you will be scared of them. People come here because they feel safe, and they do feel welcomed even if, I didn’t want to say this, but people like Donald Trump, say no … and people will try to come here. It’s never going to stop because they do have the rights. There is something called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was passed in 1948,” Balde said.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was declared Dec. 16, 1948 in France. It gives the right to people to move from their countries to another country seeking safety.

The United States was one of the first 48 countries to sign this treaty.

“Everybody has the right to enjoy in another country, the freedom from being prosecuted. Actually, a lot of people I was in jail with, they live in Israel, but they are given these weekly visas. They have to go sign to let the government know where you are and what you did this week. And if you are working, you have a weekly work permit, so if you don’t go to sign and they don’t know for a week. [Then] the next week, the government officials will come looking for you, and you are going back to prison.

And getting out is whole other process. So, these people still live like that or worse. That is why when they get a chance, they are going to go risk their lives in the boats trying to get to Europe or trying to come here. So, if you really have the choice or any other option, you wouldn’t ride on an inflatable boat for 300 miles on the ocean. No one would do that, especially with their mom, dad, kids, little babies or anybody.

They think, ‘We are going to risk it. We might make it or not, but anywhere is better than here.’”

“The U.S. takes hundreds of thousands of people every year to come here on green card and all that stuff. In my country, only three or four people get to come here, so, it’s almost impossible. I was lucky.

I consider myself lucky.”

Balde had to travel back to his home country, Guinea-Bissau, from Israel to gain a student visa for the United States.

“I had to go home although I didn’t really want to. I had to take that risk to see if I could make it here,” Balde said.

The situation in GuineaBissau is still terrible to this day. “Since 2012 we had about four different governments.

It’s really bad. No one stays in power for more than two years. So, because they are dealing with drug trafficking and the government members, ministers are involved, and they make all their money with from drugs. They [leaders] don’t want to leave. They don’t want the drug trafficking

3

to stop. So, when you try, one person comes and tries to fight against corruption. In two or three days, he gets killed, and then someone else comes, and so on … and that’s been going on for a long time. The country is still very poor. A lot of young people are dying. I read the newspapers every day, and every single day we have a victim, and a lot of them are actually people I know. It’s a pretty sad situation,” Balde said.

Although he was reluctant, he had to go back home if he wanted to go to America. “So, I went home for the first time in 12 years, and I got my visa in two weeks, and then I had to go fly from a neighboring country (Senegal),” Balde said.

He had to stay in Senegal for a couple of days prior to his flight. “I was talking to my dad on Monday. He said to me, ‘I want to make sure you get your flight, and if you are going to stay in a few days in Senegal, why don’t I go with you? Because if you are in Africa spending those two days or few hours, I want to spend as much time with you as I can.’

So, we decided to leave, he decided to go with me,” Balde said.

The bus ride to Senegal was supposed to be approximately nine hours, but five hours into the trip, their bus broke down.

Balde and his father switched buses to continue their journey. “We moved to another truck and switched seats. So, where my dad was supposed to sit, I sat. An hour into the drive, we got into an accident,” Balde said. His father suffered horrible injuries and died two weeks later in Senegal. “I took him again and went back home for the funeral, and then two days after the funeral, I moved to America. So, it was a very stressful situation. Yeah, it was crazy, but I made it,” Balde said.

After his long path, Balde remains hopeful. He has seen many struggles, and he knows the path to acceptance is never easy.

“I wish people would really be a little more tolerant and more willing to learn from refugees and what exactly these people are going through and why these people are coming here. I wish people would try to learn, to know because a lot of people don’t. They just assume.”

By Staff Writer Amna

HAIDER

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OPINION

Our View

Seize your 2016 resolutions Despite our new year intentions to become healthier, start exercising or losing weight, it is common within the first few months of the year to let our gym memberships lapse, and start replacing our healthy foods such as carrots and celery sticks with chocolate chip cookies, salty snack foods and sugary drinks that put us back into the position where we started, or even worse.

Although our intentions are good, they are usually short lived, and we end up going back to our old habits because they are easier and we enjoy them more than the effort it takes to stay on track with healthy diet and exercise.

So, what is the key to having a plan that you can stick with and feel more confident that you will be able to keep what will eventually become part of your normal routine instead of the failed resolutions we have tried in the past? Here are some painless steps to get started.

First, check with your doctor if you have any concerns about increasing your activity or health conditions that may affect the type of exercise you plan to do.

Second, get some gear. There is no need to spend money on high-priced equipment or apparel. It is worth investing in a good pair of sneakers though to protect your feet and joints from harsh impact. Wear comfortable clothes that won’t restrict your movement.

Third, start slow and set goals that are realistic. Pushing yourself too hard at the start will end up in failure. Gradually increase activity so your mind and body can adjust. As you reach small goals, set new ones such as walking a longer distance each day or increasing weights. Try a charity walk/run event and team up with a partner to help with accountability and to make it fun.

Fourth, make a fitness schedule and stick to it. Schedule yourself appointments on your calendar and don’t skip them.

Treat it like a doctor appointment to help keep you honest about how you spend time without making excuses for missing.

If you get bored, mix up your routine and try something new like a new workout DVD, change locations you walk in or join a amateur sports league. Invite friends and family to join you.

Fifth, reward yourself when you meet a goal even if just a small one, but make it a healthy reward, like new earphones, heart rate monitor or fitness watch.

Your body has the potential to be fit. When tuned up, it gives you optimal performance. Keeping yourself fit helps you look better and can make you feel good about yourself. Don’t dwell on breaking a resolution to stay fit. Focus how you feel about yourself when you can achieve small goals at a time. Keep your hands and feet moving, and you will be able to keep your wellness commitment one step at a time. Cheers to a healthy 2016!

Contact Us

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Fridays to read during their third period classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the majority of the editors listed below. Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Monday for publication in the following Friday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editors-in-Chief: Zuhayr Alam and Sommer Danielsen Entertainment Editor: Tana Gam-Ad News Editor: Sarah Stortz Online Editor: Zuhayr Alam Feature Editor: Sommer Danielsen Sports Editor: Jason Rathjen Graphic Artist: Sierra Steen Staff Writers: Annebeth Ahrenholz, Billie Ann Albert, Daphne Becker, Madison Belden, Jamie Blair, Ben Boezinger, Abbey Carlson, Gabi Carr, Miranda Cole, Amanda Crockett, Ashton Cross, Sommer Danielsen, Alyssa Dekutoski, Noah Forker, Emma Gerdes, A. J. Godbey, Camryn Grubic, Amna Haider, Aaron Heimbuck, Noah Hermansen, Cody Hood, Nathan Hoy, Jacob Jensen, Kierston Johnson, Brennan Kohls, Mercede Kraabel, Sam Magee, Olivia Martin, Jade McBroom, Scott Miller, Nolan Nickerson, Madeline Nicol, Kaylee Olson, Austin Reyhons, Hannah Sanderman, Lane Schwickerath, Lexi Sheeley, Allie Taiber, Tehya Tournier, Isaac Turner-Hall, Drew Walker, Isabella Wilson

Tiger

HI-LINE

Friday, Jan. 8, 2016

Benghazi questions remain unanswered for Clinton On Jan. 15, the movie “13 Hours” will begin showing in theaters. The movie is about the six brave American CIA contractors who fought off vicious attacks from Islamic militants at the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya, the same attacks that will forever stain Democrat presidential front runner, Hillary Clinton.

When Clinton was the Secretary of State under Barack Obama, an affiliate of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, named Ansar al-Sharia, a terrorist group that worked with the new government of Libya after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took Gaddafi out of power, attacked the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. In the months leading up to the attack there were several attacks on other Western nations’ convoys and buildings. The State Department knew that Benghazi was a very dangerous place but decided to keep Americans with very little security there. More than 600 security requests from the United States Ambassador in Benghazi, Chris Stevens, went unnoticed by Clinton. She had 150 emails from her friend Sidney Blumenthal concerning Libya, but yet none of the 600 requests from trained security professionals made it to Clinton, only messages from her friend Blumenthal, who was never in Libya, who is not a State Department employee, made it to her. If she had read the letters, the attacks most likely could have been prevented.

Around 9:40 p.m. local time (2:40 p.m. CST), Islamic terrorists launched their first assault on the main American compound.

The first compound contained Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and a few other Americans. A call got to the CIA security annex alerting them that there was an attack underway. “We’re under attack, we need help, please send help now.”

A rescue team was ready to move to the main compound about a mile away, but it was denied clearance by the top CIA officer in Benghazi. The team decided to disobey orders and moved out to the main compound at 10:05 p.m. local time.

Around 4:30 EST, government officials in Washington read the reports of attacks in Benghazi, and around 5:41 EST, Clinton learned of the attack.

There was a drone overhead watching the annex by 11 p.m.

local time, but air support was denied. Our government watched as a small number of Americans fought off hundreds of terrorists and did nothing about it. We had troops and aircraft ready to roll. Throughout the night the terrorists attacked the annex killing two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods, a former Navy SEAL, and Glen Doherty, also a former Navy SEAL. Two days later on Sept. 14, 2012, Clinton lied to the American people over the bodies of the brave Americans killed in the attacks. “We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.”

The attack was not in retaliation for an anti-Islamic video. It was not a spontaneous protest as the Obama administration led the public to believe. It was a premeditated attack against our embassy.

Clinton knew the truth, but that’s not what she told the American people. In her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 23, 2013, Clinton shouted the words, “At this point what difference does it make?”

What difference does it make? Well, the fact that four Americans were killed in a coordinated terrorist attack, and Obama and Clinton both lied and blamed it on a spontaneous protest inspired by a video makes it a little bit important.

Last October, Clinton testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi where emails from her “wiped” server were presented. In an email to her daughter on the night of the attack, Clinton said, “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al-Qaeda like group.” The day after the attacks in Benghazi, Clinton in a phone call with the Egyptian prime minister said this, “We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film.

It was a planned attack — not a protest.”

“Your experts knew the truth, your spokesperson knew the truth, Greg Hicks knew the truth, but what troubles me more, is that I think you knew the truth,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a representative on the Committee.

Clinton lied over the bodies of the brave men who died in the attack. She lied to their families. She lied to the American people and she lied to Congress while un-

der oath, which is also known as perjury, but yet the liberal media hailed her as a hero after the hearing. If Clinton was a Republican, Obama would’ve had his justice department put her in jail already.

In March of 2015, the Clinton campaign was shaken again by a second scandal, the use of a private email while serving as the Secretary of State. Instead of using a State Department email with a highly protected government server, she used a standard, unsecure server for her private email.

The main question was if she sent or received classified information on it. Clinton assured America that, “Nothing I sent or received was marked classified at the time. This is an absolute fact.”

Insert the “Maury lie detector meme” because this was determined to be a lie. In June, the state department inspector general and the intelligence community IG found several highly classified emails in a 40 email sample, not even all of her emails.

They took 40 random emails, and four of them contained classified information pertaining to national security. One related to a drone strike, another related to spy satellites and others came directly from the CIA and the NSA. She flat out lied, again, but this time the FBI got involved.

David Kendall, Clinton’s lawyer, wrote in a letter to Senator Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, that the server had been previously erased. First she used an unsecure private email and server that any amateur hacker or state sponsored hacker could breach, and then she wiped it in hopes of erasing the scandal. The FBI recovered the emails and is now looking to see if Clinton or any of her aides jeopardized national security with the use of the private server.

As we’ve seen with Benghazi and the email scandal, Clinton cannot be trusted. Currently 61 percent of voters do not think that she is trustworthy (Quinnipiac University Poll.) She lied over the bodies of brave American heroes, and if she can do that, there isn’t a lie that she won’t tell.

Former President Richard Nixon deleted 18 minutes of recordings, and he resigned as president. Clinton deleted 30,000 emails, and she’s running for president. Hillary for Prison 2016.

By Staff Writer Brennan

KOHLS

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Friday, Jan. 8, 2016

OPINION

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Korean heritage holds many lessons

I was raised to love everyone equally. Everyone was born as equals. No one is less than anyone else. I just assumed that everyone was made different and loved the same.

That’s what my mom taught me. I didn’t think about how my brother and I were being raised. I didn’t think that when my mom called my aunt “Oni” that it meant anything other than her name. It wasn’t. As I grew older I began to realize that wearing shoes in the house wasn’t that big of a deal and that not everyone ate rice for every meal. After realizing that not all younger brothers called their older brothers hyung, I realized my family was different.

It didn’t faze me when I realized we were different than other families. We still do things a lot different. The expectations for us may be different, and the way we speak to others may be different, but in the same manner, there are a lot of things that are the same too.

Being raised in a half Korean household, we still celebrate Christmas, but it’s a little different. We still have Christmas together as a family — my mom, dad and brother — but we set aside New Year’s Day to celebrate it all together with all my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on New Years Day. Along with the traditional ham and turkey, my grandma makes Korean food: chopchey, fried rice, kimchee, bulgogi and my favor-

“I am the hyphen in Korean-American.”

ite egg rolls. My mom, grandma and aunts spend days preparing our meal. They cut the veggies, marinate the meat, mix the kimchee, and the whole time they are cooking they are laughing, talking and my mom and aunts are learning.

Being raised in a Korean-American home, I have different expectations than most American kids my age. I never call my aunts and uncles by their name. They are not Aunt Jeanine and Uncle Rob. To me they are Emo, Sumo, Emobo, Samchun and my grandma and grandpa are halmeoni wa halabeoji. Younger siblings address their older siblings with titles as well. Older brother is Hyung. Older sister is Oni. Your spouse is not to be called sweetheart, but instead is to be called Yobo. You are to address you elders with the title not their names.

Being Korean, we have different things that would be considered disrespectful than my unhyphenated friends. Stepping over someone who is sitting on the floor is disrespectful, holding one hand out to accept something is rude, calling an elder by their given name is disrespectful and wearing shoes in the house is disrespectful. The list goes on and on, but only when you think about it does it seem picky and weird. I

Some feminism goes too far The definition of feminism is the advocacy (public support) of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality of men, but is that the main goal of certain aspects of feminism today?

Don’t get me wrong, equality between men and women is a desired outcome for most Americans, but let’s face the facts. We don’t need this modern version of feminism that is described and documented below in today’s modern society. Women have already achieved the highest offices of political power in many countries, teach in the highest areas of academia, and we have great examples like Carly Fiorina being the CEO of Hewlett Packard.

So why are a lot of modern feminists dressing up as vaginas, verbally attacking men on the Internet, creating a trend wanting to #killallmen?

Some women might be joking about that hashtag, but in today’s world of “hate speech,” this is a serious issue.

Now not all feminists act like this, but there are a significant amount who do, but worse are the average women who don’t denounce those radical women.

Also, many feminists may try to use the already disputed “fact” that women are only paid 77 cents to the men’s dollar. That has been debunked, and here are some real facts. Men work longer hours on average than women,

and women tend to take days off because of either maternity leave or childcare issues.

All jobs in America today are available to both men and women, and sex discrimination in the workplace is illegal since the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Women have achieved equality even in the military where just last month it was announced that women have been deemed eligible to serve in ALL areas of combat.

For some examples of real inequality, check out Iraq, where rape is legal in some instances, and women are stoned to death if they are even suspected of being raped. Iraqi women are only allowed to leave the home only with the permission of their husbands or male relatives.

I believe that modern feminists actually want it all, and they seem to be angry at the world because of the rigorous requirements in the career world. Shouting down men and putting anger into the social media world won’t solve anything. Calm, rational conversations based upon facts, not distorted reality is what will allow women to make decisions about their lives that not only make them fulfilled, but enhance the lives of all people surrounding them.

By Staff Writer Alyssa

DEKUTOSKI

mean I never knew that people didn’t take their shoes off until I spent the night at a friend’s house, and heywalked in the house and to the bedroom without removing his shoes. I remember standing there wondering what to do. I did take my shoes off, but I wondered then why would he be so disrespectful.

Birthdays are also something we do differently. In a Korean family, you have your 100-day birthday, your first birthday and your 60th birthday. These three are the most important. On your 100-day birthday, in Korea you would be one. This is the one year mark from conception. The celebration isn’t huge.

All the kids in my family received their baby ring on that day. My mom still wears ours on a necklace. This is when, in the olden days, that the family gave thanks and offerings for the well being of the mother and child. This is celebrated with rice and soup. It was believed that if you shared 100 rice cakes on this day, the baby would live a long life.

Then is the first birthday. This is probably the best known of the Korean birthday celebrations. Tables are set and decorated with bright rice cakes, fruits, meats and sea weed soup. The baby is dressed in a brightly colored outfit called a dol-bok. Food is not

the only thing on the table. There is thread, a brush, calligraphy set, pencil, book, money and a ruler. The baby picks up various things on the table, and it is said that this predicts the baby’s future. The pencil, calligraphy set and book indicate a good scholar, while rice cakes and money mean the child will be rich.

The ruler and scissors show the child will be creative. I picked up the brush, money and a ruler.

Being Korean we also celebrate different holidays than Americans. As a Korean growing up, I celebrated Children’s Day. This is a holiday in Korea that celebrates children.

Celebrated on May 5, Children’s Day is a day that we get gifts from our parents. The morning would start with a breakfast of rice and seaweed soup. The day is spent with family. The best part was that on Children’s Day, we were given presents. Mom always made sure we got a new book.

I am the hyphen in Korean-American.

I celebrate Korean holidays and American holidays. I eat Korean and American foods, and I have been brought up where the values of a Korean family dominate my American culture, but I have the best of both worlds, and, to be honest, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

By Staff Writer Scott

MILLER

Staff writer kicks off pal project Hey pals, I would like to introduce you all to my brain child that I plan on starting in the new semester. It’s what I am calling The Friend Project. I know, the name needs some work.

I have noticed that a lot of people here stick with the same friends and the same groups from pre-K up without ever really venturing out of that little world.

While that is all great for some, seniors will soon be venturing to the outside world, making new friends and leaving the groups that we have spent these years forming.

I myself am one of those seniors, but I think it would be interesting to see if the people I would never consider to have anything in common with and I could possibly have some unseen connections deeper than the personas we portray at school.

My plan is that every week or every other week, depending on other people’s schedules, I’ll pick someone in the school at random and spend time just hanging out.

Prospects would be from every gender, social status, race, religion and sexual orientation. Basically I would do whatever they are known for, well, as long as it’s school appropriate. Basketball player, we might go shoot hoops. My limit is usually about the game of HORSE, but I will try.

Into music? I will look for music playing in town or listen to some of your favorite songs. I will immerse myself into your interests.

I’ll give you a little background into what inspired me to do this.

I was watching a Buzzfeed series (isn’t that where all great ideas come from?) where a guy is on a journey to find himself a girlfriend. In the particular video I was watching in the series, he found that on the dating website OkCupid that there actually is a rating of how likely you and another person would dislike each other.

Well, Zach, the man who does the series, found his “nemesis” or the woman who has the highest likelihood of disliking him and returning the “favor.” He decided to ask her on a date, and, by fate, she accepted.

The date has quite a rocky start, but by the end, they found they actually had some things in common and ended up at least friends.

I thought if they can find connections with someone who isn’t supposed to even like them, why can’t we look for connections with people who aren’t our nemesis’ on a strictly friendship-based level?

Fellow students, I urge you to help me by participating in my project. Send me ideas of activities, and because this doesn’t work unless people are actually willing to spend time, I would like if you could consider spending a short time together.

After each time, I will write about the experience for the Hi-Line. Don’t worry I won’t spend the whole time talking about how boring the person was or make fun of anyone. Just if my ideas on the person changed at all, and if I see us being friends in the future.

By Staff Writer Daphne

BECKER

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Writer enjoys process of exploration As many of you know, I am very passionate about writing. Often times I can be emotional and even “overly dramatic” in my pieces both independently and in the Hi-Line. For those of you who have gotten a chance to know me, you’ve seen a lot beyond the upbeat, funny, energetic and often times annoying kid that I appear to be. You’ve seen a much more emotional side of me. As easy as it is to judge a book by it’s cover, I urge you not to. First impressions are certainly important, but can often be misleading.

There are several ways people can reveal their true colors. For me, I do it through writing. Granted, my writing does not necessarily reveal all good qualities, but what is important is that it reveals who I really am and allows me to better understand myself. So, there isn’t exactly one objective to this article. I simply want to show everyone what writing has done for me and the immense amount of happiness it has provided. I also want to encourage others to find something they love and embrace it regardless of what people think. This won’t be a traditional journalism story, but hopefully the message gets across.

As cliché as it sounds, writing is an escape for me. I have told very few people this, but I suffer from bipolar disorder. Every day thousands of thoughts that often conflict with each other race through my head and prevent me from focusing. Every night those same thoughts hinder me from relaxing and keep me awake. It’s a vicious cycle. I go through periods of extreme highs and extreme lows that nobody, including myself, really understands. I’m indecisive, uncertain, worried too much about people’s opinions and am constantly over-analyzing things. Sometimes I question myself so much that it prevents me from doing my best work or making the right decisions.

Writing helps me cope. Writing gives me the ability to take all those thoughts and spew them onto paper.

Sometimes I can’t actually know what I’m feeling until I make what I feel into something that I can see. When I write, all those feelings of anxiety and sadness melt away, and I am able to think much more clearly. I’m not sure if I’m a good writer or not, but it makes me happy, and that is what’s important.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that society has made being emotional “uncool” and “feminine”. This baffles me.

Why would showing emotion ever be looked down upon? Why should emotion be gender specific? Why should we be expected to put on an act and mask our true feelings for the sake of avoiding embarrassment? I will admit that I used to put on an act. I can also admit that I still do at times. As a male, I know nobody wants to be called “gay” just because he or she shares what’s on

between simple and complex. There are times when I want to write so much that I get way ahead of myself and feel frustrated. Other times, I just want to write a simple sentence or two and call it a day. I still haven’t mastered this technique yet, but I have become a lot better at finding the place between too much and too little. Sometimes you need to add more detail to something to get a point across and paint a better picture. Other times you can say entire pages with just a few words. It’s all about balance. Writing has helped me learn that editing is never over. You constantly have to make adjustments in order to create the best work possible.

I’ve done a lot of preaching in this article so far about what I think is important. An idea that I know I need to work on is practicing what I preach. I need to take my own advice. My whole life I’ve been great at helping people Mercede Kraabel Photo and giving them good advice. I was always focused on others when I needed to focus on my own happiness. Writing has been extremely helpful with that. I have been able to discover who I am as a writer and a person, which has helped me solve issues that I struggle with. I am now able to come up with plans and advice that I can use to help myself. to be happy with my writing.

My writing keeps me mentally and There is not one definite process emotionally healthy in a way. It prowhen it comes to writing. Every writvides stability. It allows me to face realer has his or her own way of forming ity and deal with the internal and exterideas, organizing them into words and nal problems that I tend to avoid. This editing the product. Whenever I did a is perhaps the most important contriwriting project I would always stress bution writing has made to my life beabout how I was going to lay it out and cause if I can’t help myself I shouldn’t organize it. Recently I’ve developed be helping others. my own way of putting out my work.

After reading this, it is easy to write I usually start out by coming up with me off as just another confused, overly a main idea. Sometimes this main idea dramatic kid writing a wordy article so changes. Then I jot down a few points people will tell him what a good job I want to cover and begin writing my he did, but I promise it’s not about the opening paragraph. From then on I recognition. I could care less if I win jot down ideas and subjects I want to an award for this article or if everyone cover throughout the piece as a side in the school hates it. I just want all of note. Then, I work those ideas into the you to be aware that you have to be piece as I go. real with yourself in some way. For me, My writing process is far from linear. I found that through writing. You can I’m all over the place constantly tweakfind it through anything: painting, basing different areas. You could say I’m ketball, music, teaching and so much functionally disorganized when I write. more. My story is just one example of If writing is your thing, find a process how finding your passion can also help that works for you and stick with it. you find yourself.

Routine is important to me, but I have My advice to you, and myself, is to also learned to deal with curveballs. just stop thinking and do. Move forNo matter what you’re doing, just find ward. Stop trying to find answers to something that works and produces all your questions right now because it your best finished products. won’t get you anywhere. In fact, some Overthinking can be a killer. It’s a questions are never meant to be anconstant back and forth of not knowswered. Don’t force things. If you worry ing what to do next. On one hand, you too much, you’ll never take the risks just want things to be simple and easy. you need to take in order to discover On the other, you want a challenge of new opportunities. Just live your life, beauty and complexity, and you want find your passion, and most importantto spill everything you’ve ever thought ly find happiness. onto pages. I struggle with this as a writer. Throughout my writing experiBy Staff Writer Aaron ences, I have learned to find a balance HEIMBUCK

“My writing keeps me mentally and emotionally healthy in a way. It provides stability. It allows me to face reality and deal with the internal and external problems that I tend to avoid.” his or her mind with their friends. Sharing your thoughts is healthy and should not be categorized as feminine. Writing has allowed me to break the norm and not worry about being labeled. It has slowly allowed me to figure out who I am and be myself.

Have I figured it out completely yet? No. However, I have made huge strides in accepting who I am as a human being because of writing. Don’t be afraid to be passionate. Be emotional.

Embrace those cliché and cheesy moments because great things can come from them. No amount of social status or popularity is worth your own longterm happiness.

This year, I took a big step as a writer. I went from trying to please everyone with what I wrote to being content with pleasing myself. I used to want everyone to like what I wrote, but I’ve realized that each person thinks differently and has his or her own idea of what good writing is. Of course, I still aim to intrigue readers, but I no longer stress over getting every last person to love it. I used to see criticism as a bad thing. I, being the overthinker that I am, would let criticism spiral me downward and upset me. I could literally have 50 people tell me that a piece of mine was great, but if one person told me he or she hated it I would freak out. This would ultimately prevent me from putting out my best work in the future. I’ve grown a lot since then and have learned to be proud of what I write as long as it pleases me. In the end, I am the only person who needs

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Coming in 2016...

Check out these releases coming your way in 2016

MOVIES 13 Hours: The Secret Soliders of Benghazi

Ghostbusters

Two unsung authors, played by Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, release a book early in their careers claiming that ghosts are in fact real.

As they begin to excel in their professional lives, this comes back to haunt them. However, their expertise is vital as ghosts invade Manhatten.

This action packed movie shows the events from the Battle of Benghazi, when Islamic militants attacked the American embassy and CIA annex in Libya on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The story focuses on a small group of operators and soliders and the challenges they face to protect their men and women.

Release Date: Jan. 15

Release Date: July 15

Moana

In this new animated Disney film, Moana, a young girl from the South Pacific sets sail to find a legendary island. Along the way, she teams up with Demi-God, Maui.

Release Date: Nov. 23

The Circle This science-fiction drama is based on the book The Circle, by Dave Eggers, and follows Mae Holland as she moves to California to work for a giant tech company run by “The Three Wisemen”. But the longer she stays, the more things begin to fall apart. Features Emma Watson and Tom Hanks.

Release Date: TBA

Star Trek Beyond In this Star Trek film, the USS Enterprise is stranded on a new planet after an alien attack. Now they must find their way out whilst facing an unrelenting new enemy.

Release Date: July 22 Finding Dory Finding Dory takes place six months after Finding Nemo, when Dory is suddenly able to remember all her childhood memories.

Nemo, Marlin and Dory then set off to find Dory’s family.

Release Date: June 17

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot The war comedy, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, is based on a memoir by Kim Barker entitled, “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Starring Tina Fey and Margot Robbie, this film recounts Barker’s time as a war correspondent, and the unexpected relationships she forms along the way.

Release Date: March 4

Music

ARTIST

ALBUM TITLE

GENRE

RELEASE DATE

David Bowie

Black Star

Art Rock

Jan. 8

Ty Segall

Emotional Mugger

Garage Rock / Lo-Fi Rock

Jan. 22

DIIV

Is the Is Are

Indie Rock/ Dream Pop

Feb. 5

Kygo

TBA

Tropical House

Feb. 12

Animal Collective

Painting With

Psychedlic Pop, Experimental Pop

Feb. 19

The 1975

I Like it When You Sleep, For You Alternative Rock Are so Beautiful Yet So Unaware of it

Feb. 26

Gorillaz

TBA

Alternative Hip Hop/ Trip-Hop Electronic

TBA

Kanye West

SWISH

Hip-Hop

TBA

M83

TBA

Dream Pop/ Synthpop

TBA

By Editor in Chief Sommer

DANIELSEN

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ENTERTAINMENT

NEW RELEASES

MUSIC

•DAVID BOWIE: Black Star •VILLAGERS: Where Have You Been All My LIfe? •DAUGHTER: Not To Disappear •PANIC! AT THE DISCO: Death Of A Bachelor •PUSHA T: King Push - Darkest before Dawn: Prelude

MOVIES

•THE FOREST 01/08/16 •ANESTHESIA 01/08/16 •THE TREASURE 01/08/16 •13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI 01/15/16 •BAND OF ROBBERS 01/15/16 •RIDE ALONG 2 01/15/16

GAMES •AMPLITUDE (PS4) •HARDWARE: RIVALS (PS4) •LOVELY PLANET (PC) (XB1) •ASSASINS CREED CHRONICLES: INDIA (PC) (PS4) (XB1) •THE BANNER SAGA (XB1) (PS4) •GONE HOME (XB1) (PS4)

ONLINE EXTRAS

Shock Talks:

with host Henry Shockley The show where Henry gives you life advice by telling viewers what not to do.

This week’s feature: Check out these studying spots for finals week

Find the inspiring video online at https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCdEFM8XYsgqyzioHUrnka4w

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Cat game claws to top Walking outside into my background, I recognize the same white kitten, Snowball, playing near the tree stump with the same flyswatter that he had yesterday. Right next to him, I notice a brand new orange kitten named Pumpkin scratching on the post that I placed on the deck. In hopes of attracting more cats, I refill the food bowl left outside with Frisky Bits as I did before and wait for the newcomers.

As wonderful as this all might sound, this actually happened through a cellular app.

On Oct, 20, 2014, Hit Point Co. released Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector on the app store as a free-to-download game.

The app revolves around you, the owner of a garden, who has the ability to purchase food, toys, and furniture that can attract several different types of kittens to visit and play in your backyard. However, the cats won’t show up unless the app is closed. When you open the app back up, you can watch the cats interact with each other and play with the various toys. After the kittens leave, they start leaving you with sardines that you can use to purchase new types of goods.

On the surface, the gameplay of the app really isn’t all that complex, if not downright simple.

While this can easily come

off as seeming dull or boring to play, in actuality, this is what makes the app so stimulating.

Originally from Japan, Neko Atsume has started to gain a notable spike in popularity in the United States since its English release last October.

There around 49 different kittens in the game that you can collect, each with their own unique personalities and designs. When you delve more into the game, you start to become more intrigued to meet every cat and see just how big your collection can grow. The simplicity of it all somehow makes it strangely addicting to play.

Among all of the social media platforms and competitive games that you usually keep on your phone, it’s nice to escape from that every once in awhile and return back to your garden to see if one of your kittens are liking the new ball that you recently purchased for them. Several other users seem to share similar feelings over the app as well, since it currently has over 10 million downloads for both Android and iOS combined. Even if you’re not a cat-person, it’s extremely hard to get past all of the simplicity and charm that this app has to offer.

Burning Blue breeds intriguing storyline Bur ning Blue is written

by Paul Griffin.

Nicole C a s tro had her life turned upside down in one moment. One second she was the most beautiful girl in high school, and then next, she was a freak. The last thing she saw was the squirt bottle coming up to her face. Now with half her face burned from acid, Nicole is left wondering: Why did this happened to me? and Who would want to do this to me?

It made the news, but there was one person who didn’t want to gossip about it. Jay Nazzaro understands how it feels to be treated like a freak, and now he, a hacker, wants to find the person who burned Nicole.

They form a friendship, but Jay soon finds that he is falling for Nicole. With everyone as a suspect, including Nicole Castro herself, it’s a mystery to be solved.

By News Editor Sarah

STORTZ

Will Jay find who did it before he becomes the next victim?

Burning Blue is a wonderful mystery novel. It keep me on my toes wondering what would happen next. Every time I thought I knew who did it, there would be a twist in the plot that lead me to someone different.

I love that how it didn’t matter to Jay that half of Nicole’s face was burned.

He still wanted to find the person who did it because he knew what it was like to have no friends and be an outcast.

I think Jay didn’t want Nicole to feel like she was alone. I also think that we need more people like that, people who don’t care how other people looks and still want to help them. People who don’t want other people to be alone in the world.

Burning Blue is a wonderful, page turner book.

Griffin has written this book in a wonderful way, the way that you just want to keep turning the pages to see what happens next.

By Staff Writer Mercede

KRAABEL

Pokemon of the Week: Haxorus Haxorus is a 4th gen attacking dragon type. Though its speed and defense lack in numbers, if it can take enough hits, it’ll deal some damage. There are many options for all who want to use this interesting dragon type, and though he’s fallen from grace with newer Pokémon becoming better and better, but it’s still fun to use.

The first recommended set is known as the “double dance” set. This set consist of haxorus using a lum berry as a hold item and running the following moves: dragon dance, sword dance, dragon claw/ outrage and earthquake. The lum berry will restore any status conditions the Pokémon may receive. This covers confusion very nicely because after two to three turns, Haxorus will become confused due to the outrage. So, with the power of sword dance,

fallen from grace but still strong

which raises attack,and with haxorus already hard attack, it can deal a ton of damage and then heal its confusion and keep recking. It also lets you use dragon dance, which raises speed and attack, which would help Haxorus with its low speed stat.

The second set is the choice band set. The moves recommended for this set are outrage, earthquake, poison jab and dragon claw/sleep talk. The choice band is a special item that locks you into one move but raises your attack by 50 percent. This is a risky set. If you’re asleep and lock yourself into sleep talk and move that when you’re asleep, it lets you use a random move, and that might screw yourself over. However, if you lock into a move like poison jab, the opponent could switch into a steel type, and you’re done for because

poison doesn’t affect steel types. It’s a very, very risky item, but worth it if you can predict the first turn.

The third set is the dragon dance set. The held items recommended for this set are the lum berry and the life orb.

The moves recommended for this set are dragon dance, outrage/dragon claw, earthquake and taunt/poison jab.

The moves you run really depend on the item you chose.

The lum berry is an item that heals any status inflection, which would be good if you’re running outrage. The life orb takes 10 percent of your HP (hit points) every time you attack, but it raises your attack by 30 percent. If you’re planning to use dragon claw, then go life orb. If you’re planning for outrage, go lum berry.

Not much more to it.

The final set is the sword dance set. This set requires

you to use the move sword dance a bit to power up. The items for this set are the same as the dragon dance set. The moves are sword dance, outrage, earthquake and poision jab. The moves and items will be very well linked. The major difference between the dragon dance and the sword dance set is that dragon dance raises speed AND attack by one stage, while sword dance raises just attack by two stages. It is a very good trade off if you use him right.

These sets complement Haxorus very well, but if I had to chose, I’d personally run the double dance set because they’d both be very nice, but at the same time, life orb is a very good, though risky, item to use. Overall, it depends on what the trainer wants.

Staff Writer Noah

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Serial-ously worth a listen

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Check out these podcasts for engaging stories

Getting In: Your College Admissions CompanionFor millions of American teenagers and their parents, adolescence is increasingly defined by one all-consuming goal: Getting into the right college. “Getting In” is a real-time podcast following a diverse group of New York-area high school seniors through the exhilarating and harrowing process of applying to college. When I first started listening to this podcast, I felt disheartened. It seemed very focused only toward seniors, so I was a bit concerned that it wouldn’t be helpful to me. However, I continued to listen, and there’s even an episode entitled “Juniors, Start Your Engines.” That episode plus “Early Decision Crunch Time” are probably my favorite two episodes, and the most helpful for juniors. I would recommend this podcast because it’s a testimony from experts, high school seniors and their families about the process of applying for college and topics that stem from that.

The EnsemblistThe Ensemblist is an inside look at the experience of being a Broadway performer — from the first rehearsal through performing eight shows a week and beyond. Whether you’re an experienced theater professional or just a passionate fan, The Ensemblist will give you the opportunity to get to know new performers and the great work they do onstage, while also shedding light on some of the hidden gems of Broadway.

I would recommend this podcast because even if you aren’t a huge theater nerd, actors are so different and have different hobbies and passions besides theater that they discuss in the podcast episodes. You also get to hear funny stories about shows and other theater people, and it’s just a great and entertaining podcast.

StrangersStrangers is just that — episodes telling a different person’s story each time of how they ran into someone, and it changed their lives. Each episode is an empathy shot in your arm, featuring true stories about about the people we meet, the connections we make, the heartbreaks we suffer, the kindnesses we encounter and those frightful moments when we discover that we aren't even who we thought we were. I recommend this podcast because we all have some situation where we awkwardly met someone or keep on running into the same person, and it somehow changes our lives — whether for good or for bad. Each episode is honest and raw. You feel like you are having coffee with the narrator, and who doesn’t need a bit more honesty in his or her life?

Mystery ShowIf anyone is the Truest Detective, it's Starlee Kine. Simply put, Kine's Mystery Show solves mysteries. but not mysteries in the vein of Serial. Kine investigates the odd, banal deeply human mysteries — like who an intricate belt buckle originally belonged to or how tall really is Jake Gyllenhaal. Kine's investigations are never quite linear — she hops through time, people and sidetracks into the depths of humanity with complete strangers. It's addictive, heartbreaking and will leave you wondering what lingering life mysteries that Kine can solve for you. I’d recommend this podcast because it’s full of knowledge that’s on a basic level, but something you might not know because we don’t think about it. It’s a perfect way to become more knowledgeable.

LoreLore is a bi-weekly podcast about the history behind scary stories. The people, places and things of our darkest nightmares all have real facts at their core. Each episode of Lore looks into a uniquely scary tale and uncovers the truth of what's behind it. I really love Lore because it gives you both reality and fantasy, and it debunks the connection between the two. It’s like a horror movie coming out every other week, but a bit less scary. This podcast will keep you on your toes for the almost half hour episode, and it’s never repetitive or boring; there’s always new information and a new ‘lore’ to learn about.

By Staff Writer Albie

NICOL

Find scary good stories on CreepyPasta

The horror genre is something that even the most experienced of writers have difficulties with making things scary without it being cheesy, but while all this goes on in big Hollywood, a small site online shows extreme promise. The website CreepyPasta is a large archive of horror stories by amateur writers. They have created stories that we all know and fear like Jeff the Killer and Slenderman.

The Russian Sleep ExperimentA story that plays on the fear and true life stories of the Nazi experiments in concentration camps. The story follows twisted scientists performing experiments on prisoners of war, keeping them up for days at a time, seeing what they could do to their victims and what would happen to them.

After a few days of no sleep, they become less and less human.

Gateway of the MindA story about some devout Christian scientist who thinks that if you detach all of a person's core sense that he or she would be able to talk to God. An old man volunteers, claiming he has nothing to live for.

After a while he claims that he can hear the voices of the dead, but what he utters at the end will leave you with chills.

SCPSCP stands for Serve Control Protect. It's a series of stories about a military type place that keeps, under lock and key, some of the most dangerous creatures of all time. Some of the fan favorites are SCP-049, a plague doctor-like thing that turns people to zombies in an effort to cure them, and SCP173, a statue that kills you if you look away. The stories are so formal and well done, it makes you think that all of this is actually real.

Boothworld IndustriesA normal guy gets a call from a place called Boothworld Industries. On the other end of the phone he hears a woman who asks if he wants to schedule a reconstruction. Confused he instinctively says he exgirlfriend’s name. Later on he gets another call, but this time all that can be heard is his ex dying. The woman calls again after that and said that a reconstruction is scheduled for him and the only way to get out of it is to get 1,000 people to join Boothworld. The weirdest part? It ends with a phone number that actually leads to a place called Boothworld.

The EggThis story will makes you question your entire life. It's not gory, not really creepy but the whole idea is just ... unsettling. The story is about a man who dies in a car crash.

He goes to heaven and meets what he assumes is God. God tells him that his life and everyone else's, is the same life.

Everyone is the same reincarnated spirit, and we are just reusing it in different time lines and dimensions.

By Staff Writer Kierston

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New year delivers new life for three teen couples Not only was junior Megan Locke scared out of her mind, but she was so disappointed in herself. She was nervous to find out how everyone would react. This was going to change the rest of her life forever.

When she looked at the pregnancy test that she had just taken in the doctor’s office, she realized that in just nine months she was going to be a mother.

“I had a million different feelings. I was scared, nervous and disappointed in myself, but now I am happy. I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Locke said after the birth of her son in September.

But motherhood wasn’t and still isn’t easy. She credits the support from others and faith in herself as two of the most important things in overcoming challenges like the negative comments or people.

She also credits the father, 2015 graduate Noah Terrell, who picked her up from the appointment on that first day, and they went to a park to talk about the news they had just gotten.

They were scared but said never will they regret this.

They both decided that they did not want everyone in their business, so they only told one person, but all of a sudden everyone in the school was talking about it because when Locke told this one person, someone else had overheard. Once everyone found out, they were both mad at first, but eventually they came to terms with the fact that they could not change it now, so they accepted the stares and gossip.

Locke especially remembers being judged by people she did not even know, but she let it go because it was her decision, and she decided to embrace it.

She started to try better in school and get all of her homework done so she could succeed. She barely went out with friends and started to stay at home more with her boyfriend or her mom.

She even stopped hanging out with people who were bad influences on her.

Months went by with the same routine almost every day, until one day, just a couple days before she left to go into labor, the stares stopped. The gossip stopped. Everything. Done.

Finally, the best-worst nine months of Locke’s life were mainly just the best.

Of course, she said she still expected some bad days, but after the birth, there was still a little while until she had to come back to school, so she made them count for as much sunshine as she could.

She fell behind in school, but her friends tried to slowly catch her up by bringing her homework while her mom

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watched Oliver. “That was kind of a change right there,” Locke said.

Finding time to do homework while taking care of Olivier at the same time was different for her. Her plate was always heavy with responsibility, but she still found time for Oliver and so did Terrell. Even now, she doesn’t really have a social life, but she is OK with it because she said she has all that she needs with her.

Locke’s main support would be from her mother, Jennifer Locke. “Being a grandmother is a blessing! I get to do all the things moms do except I get to sleep all night, but seriously, it does come with it’s challenges,” Locke’s mother said.

Since she is encouraging Megan to stay in school, she does have to take on some of the caregiver role. Locke’s mother watches Oliver on her days off and cleans the house. She explains that the mother in her wants to step in and take control of everything, but instead she keeps her distance. However, she is willing to give advice when they need it.

She said Megan does a great job and it makes her so proud to see her take care of Oliver and her responsibilities.

Time passed, and it was time for her to go back to school. Locke said that being in school as a mom is both weird and scary. It is weird because she is getting stares in the hallways again; she chooses to ignore them, though. It is scary for her because she does not know what is happening with Oliver while she is in school. She is not right there with him as she longs to be.

Locke also said that it is hard for her to find a babysitter during the day because most people have jobs during these hours or are just busy. Soon she said she will be able to take him to her aunt’s in-home daycare, and this way she will know he is always in good hands, and she can stay there and do homework for as long as she needs. For Locke, the support is key.

And it is as well for a few other young ladies at the high school, like junior Aubrey Rodriguez. Locke and Rodriguez’s initial reactions to motherhood were much alike, yet very different. “When I first found out, I was in total shock. Thought my whole life was going to be over because I had so much planned out for myself, and I was nowhere near ready to hold someone up considering I couldn’t hold myself up,” Rodriguez said.

While Rodriquez thought about being able to care for the both of them, her boyfriend, 2015 Parkersburg graduate Matt Truax, thought relatively the same. He realized he needed to get a

better, stable job and go back to school so that he could provide for his new family.

Money is tight for her, and her brothers are gone, so she is struggling quite a bit. Truax is an enormous help to not only Rodriguez, but to her family as well. He has helped her through many bad times and has been there through the good. She said she feels as though her parenthood happened for a reason; she needed to pick herself up and look at things that are better in life, and maybe that is the reason that she is having a baby boy. This is helping her to see the brighter things lying ahead of her and maybe not look at the negatives.

Truax is not her only support, though. “My support would be my family. Even though my parents are struggling, they find every way possible to help me with everything I need,” Rodriguez said. Truax’s family is a huge help as well; they are always there when they need someone to talk to, and they are doing everything they can after the birth of this baby.

Rodriguez’s family also means everything to her, and they have been there for her and her coming son Karson 100 percent of the way, even though money is tight.

Rodriguez also has friends to help her through everything, but she still feels as though she can’t trust enough because she is growing up, and her friends are still the teenagers who go out and party all the time and have fun.

She said she can still hang out with her friends, but not in the same ways as she used to.

At one time, that was Rodriguez.

She admits that she has done some things she is not proud of, but now she has pushed everyone away who was a bad influence on her and is starting to focus so much more on school. She said she is committed to change who she is as a person for the better.

Truax also now has a stable job that he enjoys, and he is going to start college in January for police science. Not only is he bettering all of their lives by being able to provide for them, but he enjoys what he does, and that is a huge advantage. He said doing something he hates while trying to raise a baby would be so stressful.

Rodriguez’s biggest help would be her mother, Jennifer. Although the pregnancy was unexpected, she knows Rodriguez will still make just as much of a future as she thought before because her support system is so strong. “Mrs. Walsworth is a great teacher at Cedar Falls High School. She has helped every one of my children. She never turns

her back in any situation. I know she goes out of her way for students, including those who face bigger challenges in life,” Jennifer Rodriguez said.

Teachers and staff are also doing a lot to help her high school year stay strong. There are a few teachers who have always been there for her since day one. They offer a lot of help throughout the day with power hour, small study halls and after school help.

She said being the one who is young and pregnant is really hard, but at school it is like a battle of picking herself up and focusing on just her instead of all of her friends.“The only thing that gets me through school is knowing that through all this stress with grades and paying attention, it’ll be worth it,” Rodriguez said, and like Locke, she said having this baby might just be one of the greatest things to happen to her, maybe even a blessing in disguise at such a young age.

Locke and Rodriguez were still able to go to the high school full time while being pregnant, but some girls need another path. For senior Mary Ingalls, she cannot get all her credits done here at the high school, so she goes to the alternative school so that she can knock out all of her credits faster and still graduate at semester in January.

Because of her previous years of skipping school and not caring about her grades, she now needs 10 credits in order to graduate, so she decided to go to the alternative school. Her baby Ellie is due at the end of January, so graduating in the middle of January will give her the perfect amount time to get situated and ready to head to the hospital.

Throughout all of her school years, Ingalls said she didn’t feel a purpose in finishing high school because she struggled a lot and didn’t see how it would benefit her. Ingalls said she has a lot more support from friends, family and the Cedar Falls alternative school staff than she thought she would, but it still is not easy.

“Being able to speak my voice through this article gives me a chance to say thank you to my teachers and counselors,” she said.

At the beginning of the school year it was tough to find the best classes to take and what the best option was to be able to graduate early. Counselors Chris Wood and Dan Wiechers made it possible to go to both the high school and the alternative school.

Ingalls had times where she’s missed test days or struggled with an assignment, but her teachers have given her a fair enough time to complete work, and if she needs any help, they help

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her with any questions she has. She said she is very thankful to everyone who has helped her come this far and could not thank anyone enough.

Weichers is the principal at the alternative school and has made a very big impact on Ingalls throughout the years that they have known each other.

Weichers has known Ingalls from the time she was a student at Dunkerton Elementary School. “She has always been a kind, thoughtful and hard working student. My sense is that all of the people she has made a positive impact on — friends, family, school personnel will support her as she deals with her pregnancy. Personally, I plan to encourage, listen, provide honesty, empathize and believe in Mary as she closes out her high school career and prepares for the next stage in her life.”

Wood has a similar perspective. He wants to provide a safe space for her where she feels comfortable and open and can relieve all of her stress. “I think the hardest thing for any teen mom is to find someone they trust and won’t be judgemental.”

He wants her to know that he is always there for her, and he would never judge her, not anyone. When Wood found out that Ingalls was pregnant, he had a number of emotions. He was scared, concerned and fearful, but he was also a little excited in the aspect that she was going to have a child, and that is beautiful for anyone of any age.

He knew right away that she needed to graduate as soon as possible, so he presented her with some options, one being the alternative school. He did not want to force any options onto her, so he let her decide what she thought was the best idea.

She chose to go to the alternative school for half of the day, and Wood said he believes that this is a good stress

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Three teen couples have recently come face to face with parenthood. At top left are 2015 graduate Seaver Sink and senior Mary Ingalls, and (at top right) junior Aubrey Rodriguez and 2015 Parkersburg graduate Matt Truax are expecting births this year. Ingalls’ daughter is due in January, and Rodriguez’s son is due in February. At bottom, 2015 graduate Noah Terrell and junior Megan Locke welcomed their son Oliver back in September.

reliever for her because she is still able to socialize and be with friends during the first half of the day but also get her credits out of the way and come closer to graduation during the second half.

“She’s a strong kid. She’ll be a great mother,” Wood said. “Everyone is faced with obstacles and barriers. Hers just so happens to be preparing for a child. She is facing this barrier by graduating high school and taking it step by step. I‘m proud of her. That’s for sure.”

The father, 2015 graduate Seaver Sink, worries for Ingalls and the baby while she is away at school, and it is somewhat of a bother to him. Ingalls often has troubles keeping her blood pressure up even though she drinks as much water as she has been told, and she just does not get enough salt.

Along with help from staff at the schools, she and Sink also do many things to better their family’s lives. “Every choice I make is for her,” she said.

Having a healthy relationship with her boyfriend is very important to Ingalls. They both attend activities regularly to better their baby Ellie’s life once she comes. They attend the Alternative Pregnancy Center, which is a non-profit Christian organization because they believe it is important to have a relationship with God. They also attend Young Parents Together every week, which provides information and prepares young parents for the future.

Not only are they attending these appointments, but Sink also has his own way of becoming a better father by asking other men that have children about advice.

Ingalls would like to get the message across that she is not, by any means, encouraging teen pregnancy, but she also says that there can be worse things.

In fact, after all the assistance she and these other teens parents have received, they all said they remain hopeful of the possibilities that the new year delivers along with their new families.

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Lessons from differences extend beyond classrooms

M

y family lived in Budapest, Hungary, for six months during the second half of my freshman year of high school. I ended up going to a British International school. I took a city bus with my sister to school every morning and then walked up probably 100 sidewalk steps to get to the school, which was perched on a hill. Actually getting to school was a contrast from what I was used to, but I was not prepared for how different the educational system would be, too. The British rules were rigid and strict. We had to wear a uniform: a white polo with the school’s crest, dark blue pants or skirt and black or brown shoes. One time, I wore black shoes with white soles to school, and the principal made me color the white in with a Sharpie marker so that my shoes were fully black. The teaching style was also completely unfamiliar. Unlike American teachers who, for the most part, genuinely care about their students, the British and other foreign teachers I had were generally unsympathetic. The rule was that if you didn’t understand, it was your fault, and you were on your own. Also, I had to take three science classes as a freshman (chemistry, physics and biology), not just one. It was definitely a different experience for me to be in a foreign school. However, I am not the only one who has gone to other schools in other countries. There are a handful of students going to Cedar Falls High School who have had very different schooling experiences in Tanzania, Brazil, Spain, Denmark and China.

Luiza deJesus lives in São Paulo, Brazil, a city with more than 11 million people. She can’t drive yet because you have to be 18 to drive in Brazil, so each morning she takes a city bus to get to school. Freya Arildsen is from a small village in Denmark. She said, “I live in the countryside, so my mom drives me, I bike or I take the school bus to get to school.” Helena Sacristan is from a village called Colmenar Viejo in Spain.

“It’s 30 minutes from Madrid,” she said.

In the morning, her dad drives her to school. In the middle of the day, she takes a city bus home to eat lunch at her house, a bus back to school and finally when school is over, she takes another bus. Jianan Chen lived in a city in China called Fuzhou, home to 2.124 million people. Luckily, his school was close to his house. He said, “I walked to school, it was like a 10 minute walk.”

Haamid Ashraf’s school in Tanzania has two floors and an open roof. He said, with a smile, “The prefects have access to the roof.” Prefects, who are students with extra authority powers, have higher status in his school, and so they get special privileges like access to hang out on the open roof. deJesus said that her school building is incredibly small compared to Cedar Falls High School and that all of the classrooms in her school look like the history classrooms here, with a chalkboard and a map on the wall. Arildsen also said, “Our school is not as big as here. There is just one floor with a lot of classrooms.”

So, although Cedar Falls High School is a medium-sized school in most people’s

eyes, for some of the foreign-exchange students, it seems massive. However, for Chen, who attended elementary school in Fuzhou, China, his school was quite large. “There were two buildings, both for the elementary, and they had a couple stories each,” he said. After growing up in the Chinese elementary school system, Chen and his family moved to the United States in 2009.

Although it is hard to imagine having uniforms at Cedar Falls High School, many schools in other parts of the world require them. Just like in the British school that I attended, deJesus, Sacristan, Chen and Ashraf have had to wear some sort of uniform to school.

Sacristan, who goes to a private school in Spain, said that her uniform consists of “a white polo and red sweater and a dark blue skirt.” deJesus, who attends a private school in Brazil, has to wear a uniform with the blue and yellow school colors. deJesus likes having a uniform because it takes the guesswork out of picking an outfit each morning. Ashraf’s experience at his school in Tanzania is a little different, as he was a prefect before coming to Cedar Falls High, so he had a specific uniform. Prefects are chosen based on high marks and good behavior, and they enforce rules for all of the other students. Ashraf said, “There are two types of uniforms: regular and prefect. There are badges to show if you are a prefect or not. They are like name tags, but they say your position.”

At the school Chen went to in China, the students wore uniforms not every day, but on some designated days. It

has been a while since he lived in China, but he remembers wearing a red scarf around his neck. In contrast, Arildsen’s school in Denmark doesn’t have uniforms so coming to Cedar Falls was less of a change for her.

In the United States, the studentteacher relationship is actually quite informal compared to many other places. A lot of the students experienced a much more official relationship with their teachers. For Ashraf, “There are some teachers that I don’t even know their names. I just call them sir or madam.” deJesus and Sacristan had a similar situation. She said, “Teachers are not very friendly. It’s very formal.” Sacristan’s relationship with her teachers is formal, yet she said, “I can still talk to them.”

Chen had a very strict relationship with his teachers. Arildsen, in contrast, had a very different relationship with her teachers, maybe even more informal than the relationship at Cedar Falls. She said, “Teachers are not strict at all. You can call them their first name and talk to them and be personal with them.

It’s a relaxed relationship.” One reason that deJesus is enjoying her experience at Cedar Falls High School is because her teachers are supportive and approachable. “The teachers are easier to talk to here,” she said. “They’re really nice.” Chen agreed: “It’s easier to talk to teachers here.”

Another difference between U.S. schools and schools in other countries is the process from getting from one class to another. At Cedar Falls High School, there are passing times where hoards of students pile into the hallway, catch up with friends, bump into fellow students and try their best to walk fast enough to get to their next class on time. This idea was new for the foreign exchange students. For deJesus, Sacristan, Arildsen, Ashraf and Chen, the tradition is for students to stay in their classrooms and the teachers come to them. There are a few classes that make an exception to this.

Ashraf said, “We move rooms for certain classes like the sciences and the computer classes, but other than that, we stay in the same room and the teacher comes to us.”

As for the actual classes, some countries have schools with fewer options than at Cedar Falls High School. For Ashraf, who does not have art classes offered at his school in Tanzania, he has found the CFHS art offerings to be refreshing. He said that his school used to have drawing and music classes, but about 10 years ago they removed them because they believed the students were spending too much time doing art and not enough time doing science. Schools

in Tanzania heavily promote science classes because of the cultural tendency to regard those people who excel in science or business as more intelligent.

Even though Ashraf likes science, he still wishes that they had art at his school. “I would like to do art and drawing, but they don’t have that, so I do science,” he said. Ashraf added that he is really impressed by how many options there are at Cedar Falls. “It is easy here to specialize on what you want. There are so many classes to take.” Taking the art classes offered at Cedar Falls have sparked such an interest in Ashraf that he wants to pursue art in college. “I’m looking up colleges right now in Iowa so I can come back and get a degree in graphic design,” he said. Ashraf might even be back in Cedar Falls attending the University of Northern Iowa. At Sacristan’s school in Spain, there are music classes in some grades and some drawing opportunities, but not photography, painting and ceramics. “I wish we had those,” she said.

Many students at Cedar Falls High may take art classes for granted. They also might take access to technology for granted, but the foreign-exchange students definitely do not. Arildsen really likes having a Chromebook. She said that at her school in Denmark, they only have one big computer room in the library where they can use computers. At deJesus’s school in Brazil, they are taught by their teachers writing on a chalkboard. For Ashraf, it’s the same.

“Everything is written on a chalkboard.

You have to take handwritten notes,” he said. At Ashraf’s school, they use pencils for drawings and diagrams, and blue or black pens for writing. They only use blue or black ink, he said, because “The teachers use red pens, and green pens are for the president of Tanzania!”

A major difference from U.S. students

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and those in other countries is the age at which they begin to learn a second language. Compared to other countries, the United States is very behind in terms of language. In Spain, Sacristan began studying English at five years old. Chen began in the fourth grade in China. For deJesus in Brazil, there is English class, too, but “people don’t take it too seriously.” In Denmark, where Arildsen went to school, they start learning English in fourth or fifth grade. At Ashraf’s school, they take learning English very seriously.

He said, “Sometimes there is a punishment if you speak in a native language.

My native language is Arabic. I’ve gotten used to speaking English since I was young because I’ve always gone to a private school, where they make you speak English.” In Tanzania, they speak English in formal situations like going to the bank, and at school.

One thing that shocked Arildsen was how sports are so important and such a large part of Cedar Falls High School.

Arildsen, who plays soccer in Denmark, said that one of the biggest differences between Cedar Falls High and her high school is that “You do the sports in

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school, and we do sports out of school.

We join clubs outside of school.” In Brazil, deJesus said, “We have P.E., but [we] don’t have sports in school.” In Tanzania, school teams compete inside the school instead of competing with other high schools in the area. “We have four houses, named according to gemstones: Rubies, Sapphires, Topazes and Emeralds.

The houses compete in sports and other competitions. At the end of the year the house with the most points gets a trophy,” Ashraf said. For Chen, exercise was a part of every day, but not in the usual sense. He said, “In the morning, when you first start the class, you have to do exercises. It’s outside. Everyone does the same moves, and the younger grades just follow the bigger kids.” He said there is a second set of exercises later in the day, and “after a few classes then you have to do exercises for your eyes.

There’s a TV, and you follow the person on the TV telling you how to protect your eyes and do eye exercises.”

Among all of these differences, the general consensus among all of the foreign students was a common realization of just how easy school is in the United

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States compared to their home countries. “It’s not the content. Just how they teach us,” deJesus said. “In Brazil you have to do long answers. It’s much harder.” deJesus’s school grades on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. She said that there is only “one big test in the quarter and then daily assignments.”

Sacristan’s school in Spain also operates on a scale of 1 to 10. If you get from a 1 to a 4.9, that means you failed, and from 5 to 10 means that you passed. Sacristan said, “I don’t like when I have a 4.9 and the teacher tells me that I fail. Here, you have a 70 percent, and it’s like bad, but in Spain it’s really good.” deJesus and Sacristan agree that they have never met anyone who has all 10’s. It’s basically unheard of. Sacristan gasped, “No one has all 10s!” Sacristan, who is used to staying up until 3 a.m. studying in Spain, said, “In Spain you don’t have quizzes or short answer exams. You have a unit, but it’s a really long unit and study for all of your tests, which are all big ones. Tests are like long answers. You have to memorize everything. We have multiple choice, but they are much harder than here.” Arildsen’s system is completely different, and

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even confusing to the other foreign students. “Minus 3 is where you fail. There are also grades 4, 7, 10 and 12. If you get a 12, it’s an A,” she said. In Arildsen’s class, only one person had all 12’s. Chen said he thinks that school here is easier here mostly because the teachers are friendlier.

We can learn a lot from students who have lived in other places in the world.

There are similarities in every school around the world, but also many differences, like wearing a uniform, the grading system, or even what color pen is allowed. Through learning and understanding the differences, we can begin to see the world through a broader lense. Haamid, Luiza, Helena, Freya and Jianan already have a unique perspective because they have experienced education in their home countries and then at a high school in the Midwest.

Sometimes, what people can take away from these experiences is not what is on a test, but rather what they learn from being immersed in a different culture.

By Staff Writer Olivia

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Sundown Mounatin keeps boarders on the slopes

Although this winter hadn’t yielded much this year, it didn’t keep snowboarders off the slopes this past winter break. Sundown Mountain makes its own snow to combat the uninviting winter and allow the snowboard and ski enthusiasts to hit the slopes. Seniors Trevor Brimeyer, Noah Hermansen and myself along with CF graduates Sam Lindaman and Brandon Kane enjoyed an entire day and night of snowboarding.

Although Iowa experienced a blizzard the day before, the staff of Sundown didn’t get the chance to groom and prepare the entire resort’s ski runs, which gave us the opportunity to ride off course and surf on the clouds of fresh powder, a blissful experience that is humbling to enjoy when living on the flat lands of Iowa.

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Senior races into wild country competitions

As the two symmetrical wheels of the light, carbon fiber mountain bike spun over the rugged terrain, senior Connor Houlihan couldn’t help but let let out a deep breath as he quickly slipped in between two trees that any normal person would think impossible to pass, but that’s pace he’d set the second after the gun went off and all reality seemed to stop.

For the next 15 miles, Houlihan focused solely on the task at hand; pedal harder, push farther and enjoy the beauty of the race more than ever before. Or as his dad would say, “make the body and the bike one.”

Houlihan races mountain bikes on courses that most people would definitely think twice about before attempting to cross on a small man-powered machine balanced upon two wheels.

The love for bikes started back when Houlihan was just three or four and his dad taught him how to ride without training wheels. He instantly fell in love with the idea of creating his own movement without touching his body to the ground and insisted on riding every chance he got.

Houlihan’s dad built a lot of the trails that are currently at Hartman, and he used to love going to work with him on those trails. “My dad taught me everything I know,” Houlihan said. “I would go ride with him every chance I had and found it to be the most fun I could possibly have.”

His dad would compete a lot, and one would find it impossible to find his dad at a race without his boy by his side. He competed in four national races in Bloomington, Ill.; Big Bear Lake, Calif.; Durango, Colo.; (where the Houlihan’s used to live) and Mount Snow Ski resort in Vermont.

As Houlihan grew older, he started to ride a lot more of the harder trails and continued to learn even more from his dad.

“I’d try some jump onto a log or something and fail. My dad would then continue to do the certain task to show me and then come back and tell me what I did wrong and how to do it correctly,” Houlihan said.

“We called a lot of what we did ‘dodging trees gettin’ snaky in the woods,’” Houlihan smiled as some of his friends who have ridden with him before laughed.

The Houlihans currently have 15 bikes at the house, and the entire family has the same kind of bike that they regularly ride on the courses called a Super Fly. Trek is a company that builds and tests bikes throughout the world. Houlihan’s dad has the privilege of being friends with one of the main engineers, and he was invited along with his son to ride around on what they call “the farm.” This is the place where they test the bikes that they have just designed. “That was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever been a part of; however, the two best places I’ve ever ridden at were the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah and Phil’s World which is in Colorado,” Houlihan said.

Mountain biking is not a sport to get involved in if one doesn’t like a little bit of risk, and especially if one never wants to give one’s bone strength a run for their money.

Houlihan has broken his pinky four times — all from hitting trees. His dad has broken his collarbone, and his dad’s friend broke his spine. “So, yeah, it’s kind of dangerous,” Houlihan said as straight up as he could.

“I won’t sugar coat it for ya. It can get pretty gnarly.”

As the sun started to sink over the mountains of Utah in the summer of 2015, Houlihan stood at the end of the desert course, bike standing next to him and his dad’s arm wrapped around him. He couldn’t help but think of the bond this sport has given him with his father and the amazing beauty and memories he’s been able to encounter through it. As they packed up the car and headed back to the farmlands of Iowa, sadness entered, but not enough to get his spirit down because he knew he’d be back soon. Back to the huge jumps, winding curves and narrow trees. The course never really does truly end.

By Staff Writer Nathan

HOY

Submitted Photos

Following his life-long passion for biking, senior Connor Houlihan raced through the backcountry of Moab, Utah, in a mountain biking competition last summer. He picked up his passion for off-path pedaling from his dad, who’s also a competitor.

16

The

SPORTS

Tiger

HI-LINE

STAYING FIT

Friday, Jan. 8, 2015

Athlete of the

Week

Follow these steps to jumpstart your routine If your resolution this new year is to get in shape, the Hi-Line has got you covered. Here are four crossfit routines that will push you to the limits. Each workout takes 30 minutes or less to do, so it is easy to fit one into a busy schedule. Best of all, little to no equipment is required. If you find that these workouts are too difficult, just tone back the reps, time or distance until you feel you can bump it up to full speed.

Burpees

Jump Lunges

Step 2

Nick Gehling Men’s Swimming

Step 1

Step 3

Step 2

Push Up Step 1 Step 1 Step 3

Workout 1

Step 4

Circuit: AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) 10 minutes. Run through this workout to build up stamina and increase leg and core strength. Try not to rest in between exercises and rounds.

Keep track of how many rounds you complete to try and increase your score every time.

-10 burpees -20 air squats -30 Sit-Ups -Repeat

Step 2

Workout 2

This workout is a race against time. Try and complete all four exercises in as little time as possible. If you are unable to do a handstand push-up, just do regular push-ups. If you do not have access to a track or have no way to measure 200 meters, just run hard for about 30 seconds. When you finish, you can repeat as amny times as possible.

-5 handstand push-ups (or 20 regular push-ups) -10 reps per leg jumping lunges -15 mountain climbers -200 meter sprint

Step 2

Box Jumps

Sit-Ups

Junior Nick Gehling is helping lead the men’s swimming team to something special this season. Leading the team in the 100 backstroke, 200 individual medley and the 500 freestyle, the beginning of the season is looking strong for Gehling.

As a swimmer with another year at the high school, how does it feel to get a good jump on the season?

It feels great. I’m excited for the rest of our meets, and I’m ready for the fun we are going to have. I know as a team with the way the season is going so far that it will end up on a lot of good swims.

What is one thing that you look foward to as the season progresses?

I really look forward to swimming at State again this year and having a couple relays go to State as well.

What seems to be the best characteristic of the team as a whole this season?

So far one of the best qualities we have this year is work ethic. Many people are doing what they need to do in and out of the pool to make them better swimmers.

To you, what is the best part about swimming?

The best part of swimming is seeing your hard work mean something and having fun with the team.

What would it mean to win a state championship?

It would mean the world to me. It would show me the hard work paid off.

It would be amazing.

Tigers in

Step 1

Step 1

Workout 3

Step 3

The next workout is a minute by minute workout. Do each exercise for 60 seconds until you have been working out for 20 minutes. If you finish an exercise before the minute is up, just rest until the next minute. If you don’t have a box, you can use a bench or a step-up.

-Minute 1: 10 burpees -Minute 2: 15 box jumps OR 15 step-ups -Minute 3: 20 kettlebell or dumbbell swings -Repeat for 20 minutes

Step 2

Workout 4

This next workout is pretty intense. If you are not accustomed to running for long distances or high reps, this exercise may not be for you. If you are in for an extra challenge, double all the reps and distances. If you don’t have a way to measure 800 meters, just run for about three minutes. This is a timed workout so try to beat your previous time each time you workout.

-Run 800 meters -50 push-ups -100 air-squats -150 sit-ups -Run 800 meters

By Sports Editor Jason

RATHJEN

Action

Men’s Basketball Beat Dubuque Wahlert 73-63 Next up Linn-Mar Friday, Jan. 8 @ 7:30 p.m.

Women’s Basketball Beat Dubuque Wahlert 56-47 Next up @ Linn-Mar Friday, Jan. 8 @ 7:30 p.m.

Wrestling Next up Varsity Tournament @ Crestwood High School Sat., Jan. 9 @ 10 a.m.

Men’s Bowling Next up Iowa City West @ Colonial Bowling Lanes Friday, Jan. 8 @ 3:15 p.m.

Women’s Bowling Next up Iowa City West @ Colonial Bowling Lanes Friday, Jan. 8 @ 3:15 p.m.

Men’s Swimming Next up @ Johnston Johnston High School Saturday, Jan. 9 @ 10 a.m.