Senior Reflection Blog #3

I have no idea what to write about again, so I'm just going to write about my memorial day weekend. So starting Friday, my cousin had a little get together at her place in Lansdowne. We ate chinese takeout, ice cream, and fresh baked cookies which were soooooo good. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out at her place, taking pictures, and playing pool. It was fun. It was about midnight when I realized I needed to stop by work so I did. All of my coworkers could have sworn that I was drunk THOUGH I WASN'T. They forced me to walk in a straight line, which I did no problem, then say the alphabet backwards. Even a sober person can mess that up fyi. So I went home and my sister, her husband, and their baby was home. I haven't seen my niece in about 2 months and she GREW big time. On Saturday I just played around with the baby and I had to spend the whole day shopping. My brother in law's sister and her husband came over for dinner but I had to work that night. I also had to work Sunday morning which is always fun. That night I stayed up and played with the baby again. If you have facebook, you can see her pictures on my page, she's extremely adorable. They left on Monday morning at 8 so I couldn't say bye because I was passed out from my long weekend. So that's my interesting weekend =)

4th QT CE #3

This week’s current event is on an article I found on Med Page Today called “The Mysterious Case of the Missing Fingerprints.” On May 27 in Toronto, a Singapore cancer patient arrived in the U.S. missing his fingerprints. He’s only identified as Mr.S and he was detained at the airport for four hours until Homeland Security could identify him by other means. His loss of fingerprints was part of a condition called hand-foot syndrome aka palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia. It happens to patients who take capecitabine aka Xeloda. This syndrome causes inflammation of the palms and soles of feet and the skin tends to peel, bleed, and develop ulcers and blisters, hence the cause of his loss of fingerprints. Some U.S. airports nowadays ask visitors to provide fingerprints in order to detect whether the new visa applicant has a visa under a different name. These fingerprints sometimes match up to a list of suspected criminals. Patients with this problem are suggested to travel with a travel note from their doctor in order to avoid this type of problem.

I thought that this article was very interesting. I’ve never heard of anyone losing their fingerprints besides how they did it in the Men in Black movie. I’ve never heard of airports checking for fingerprints unless they suspect the person to be a criminal. I’ve also never heard of this syndrome that causes inflammation of the palms and soles of your feet. I felt kind of sorry for Mr.S because he was detained for four hours. But I agree when they say that patients with this kind of problem should travel with a doctor’s note.

Senior Reflection Blog #2

Herndon High in General

I put a good amount of thought into what to write about for this blog. I wanted to write about something more specific, in the end I had nothing, so I figure I'll just write about high school in general for now. Unfortunately I hate high school, but then again so does everyone else I know. The saddest part is, I loved it when I was a freshman. Barely any homework and I could still maintain good grades, homecoming was actually fun, lacrosse was fun, orchestra was fun, pep rallies, games, etc. were all so much fun. And now? Everything about this school just makes me want to leave more and more everyday. I strongly dislike the administration, the facility, activities, people, etc. To top it all off, we got a new principal aka Gus Gus, who very few people like. To be honest, I don't know anyone who likes him. For the past two years here, I've gotten involved with almost nothing at Herndon High. A lot of my friends became acquaintances because we just never have time to do anything together anymore. Plus I got a great job at the Silver Diner and an AMAZING salary. I would definitely say I've met the best people working there. Overall, right now I'm just looking forward to prom (not Herndon's of course). I told a friend from academy that I wasn't planning on going to Herndon's prom and she suggested I go to hers (Woodson). She also coincidentally knew a family friend who wanted to take me so he ended up surprising me at her house. After prom is done, I'm just gonna slack until graduation.

4th QT CE #2

This week’s current event is from an article on Google called “GOP backs CIA in dispute with Pelosi.” It is talking about the dispute between Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker of California, and Congressional Republicans. During the Bush administration, detainees were waterboarded, which is a form of torture where the victim is tied down with a towel on their face and the torturer pours water on their face in order to simulate drowning. Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of misleader her and other lawmakers about the use of waterboarding. Apparently the Democrats were told that waterboarding wasn’t being used and they found out later on. She says that this just deepened the fault lines between the two political parties. Senator Kit Bond of Missouri says that it is a tragedy that we are seeing this massive attack on our intelligence community which has kept us safe. NBC’s Today’s show was where he questioned why Pelosi was calling the agency a bunch of liars. Bond said that it was clear that Pelosi was informed of the interrogation method although he wasn’t with her during the briefing.


In my opinion, I think that we need to forget and move on from the mistakes that Bush has made. President Obama has already put an end to American torture of these detainees and we need to move forward. Rather than focusing on this, we need to be focusing on other issues such as social security and the economy. I just think that looking back at the past just to criticize Republicans and the Bush administration is a waste of time because it won’t change anything or benefit us. Overall, I think this whole issue is kind of moronic.

Senior Reflection Blog #1

Chantilly Academy/ Interning

So some of you know that I take academy at Chantilly High School. I'm currently taking Hospitality Management at Chantilly and part of that course is going to a hotel to intern every Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, depending on the week (black day or red day). From visiting last year and hearing so many great opportunities from this course, I decided to sign up for it. Turns out this class is bull@#$%. Going to the hotel is not as luxurious as I thought it would be. Yeah, you get some work experience but they don't trust us to do anything beyond filing papers in the accounting department or folding napkins in the banquet department (sounds like free labor right? right.) So we get up early in the morning to take a bus to Chantilly, then take another bus to the hotel (unless you have a car then you can just drive to the hotel), change into our unflattering tuxedo shirt and pants and bowtie, then disperse into our stations. So far I've been in the restaurant, banquet, front desk, catering, and accounting departments; I would definitely say restaurant was my favorite. Ironically now, everyone loves being in the classroom on Mondays and Tuesdays and hates going to the hotel. I can't even give you an estimate of how many absences we've had this year because of people skipping hotel days.

Despite of all the negative things I've said about this class, we do have a lot of fun. We (including the teacher) go to places like IHOP from time to time and skip class for the day. My friends and I skip whenever there is a sub and it all turns into this big Mission Possible thing, trying to sneak out of the hotel. We also have a lot of parties. The highlight of this whole year was definitely the trip to Orlando, FL. We took a plane and stayed at the Disney's All Stars Movies Resort, which by the way was the BEST hotel I've ever been in so far. We went to all the parks and I ended up in the hospital the first night because I was running on 1 hour of sleep and 1 cup of coffee in my system, so I passed out. Not too smart. We got to see High School Musical 3 perform live at Universal Studios; but the real actors weren't there to do it, lame. We also had a gorgeous Russian chauffeur named Max drive us to Planet Hollywood the last night, another highlight of the trip. We also ended up getting into a fight with a girl who was standing in line for the rocknrollercoaster. Yeah that was entertaining and memorable. Overall, it was an awesome experience and I would definitely say it was for a great deal because 685 bucks covered round trip plane tickets, food, hotel, parks, 4 days, and a free refillable drink mug *hahaha*.

So that is just a taste of Hospitality Management at Chantilly Academy for you. I wouldn't say I fully enjoyed this class, however, I met some of the best people through this program, as well as a potential roommate in college, although she didn't get accepted to the same school. If you plan to pursue a career in the hotel/restaurant industry, I would definitely take this class. I think that this class along with my job and co-op are the magic bullets that got me into college.

4th QT CE #1

This week’s article is called “U.S. vaccine supply could be limited on flu pandemic.” It is referring to the swine flu that has been spreading around for a while now. The article talks about how we are limited on the supply of swine flu vaccine because it is manufactured in foreign countries. The government has tried to take steps to produce more of the vaccine in the U.S. by a diverse group of companies but so far, they have not even come close to finishing. They feel that if this flu turns into a pandemic, the countries would keep the supply to themselves. Global health official are currently debating whether or not to ask manufacturers to mass produce the vaccine to help everyone in Mexico, including a Mexican boy in the U.S. who is getting treatment. Turns out, it is going to take months to make a vaccine that can fight the newest strain. So far, the flu has been found in the U.S., New Zealand, Israel, Spain, and Canada.

I thought that this article was interesting. It gave me an idea of how far the flu has been spreading and what can be done to fight it. I wasn’t surprised to find that the vaccine is limited in the U.S. We’ve been focusing on too many other things and not paying much attention to health. I have a strong feeling that manufacturers of the vaccine won’t be willing to give us much. If the flu ends up spreading to Europe, without a doubt, they will keep the vaccine for themselves. I think that most people are overreacting. The swine flu is not much different from the regular flu. It is something we can fight off if we are healthy and overreacting towards it is like overreacting towards influenza. Overall, I thought that this article was interesting.