POST#78: MUSEO DEL NINO DE CAROLINA

Hey guys! Today I went to the Kids Museum in Carolina. We arrived and we entered and saw this huge fake volcano that had a mini rock climbing wall and a really cool slide. Then we moved on to a Mini City attraction where there was a pretend supermarket, a pretend police station, a pretend TV studio, etc. Then we went of to the Marine Life station and there was like a mini aquarium inside. After that, we went to the Transportation Vehicles station and we had like a little minigame contest. Then, we went up to the second floor and went to the Recycling and Alternate Energy station, where we generated our own electricity by pedaling, to give you guys an example. After that, we went to the Music and Arts station. There was like a thingmajig made of drums and there was a touchscreen where you chose what beats you wanted it to play it, and then it played back all the beats in order. There was also a stringless laser sensor harp, and a stop motion animation camera. Then we ate lunch, took a break, and then moved to the Aquatics station and there was a boat which modeled after a yacht, and there was like a little game where you tried to catch magnetic toy fish. We also went to a hurricane wind simulator. In there, you choose what wind speed would you want and then pressed a button and the wind comes to you. I chose 91 mph winds and they didn't even knock me off my feet! Then we moved on the the Solar System station, where we obviously learned about the Solar System and galaxies. After that, we went to the Energy and Physics station and we saw a huge mural of Albert Einstein, and after that we went to the Magnetism station, and we made sculptures with magnetic objects. Then we went to the Nail Bed. The Nail Bed is a plastic bed that has little holes from which the nails rise. You lay on the bed with your head on a pillow, then a worker presses a button and the nails slowly start rising. The nails don't poke you because when you put all your body weight on one nail, it pokes you. But when you rest all your body weight on lots of nails, they won't poke you because they distribute your weight evenly. After that we went to the Airplane. The Airplane is an American Airlines MD-80 and is 107 feet wide (from wing to wing), and 147 feet long. It has 73,655 hours of airtime. The last flight flown on the plane was from Tulsa Int'l Airport to San Juan Int'l Airport on January 6th, 2011, and American Airlines donated the plane over to the Museum. After giving us a talk about the plane and aircraft in general, we left the place. 

It was AWESOME!!!! I had never gone before and it was really fun. I give it a 10 out of a 10 and 5 stars out of 5 stars.


Happy weekend!



Maria.

POST#77: DESPICABLE ME 2!!!

Hey guys! Today we're talking about Despicable Me 2. 
I went to see it in the movie theater today. In fact, I actually got home about a half hour or so. Anyway, it was AWESOME! I actually think it's better than the first movie. I'm gonna tell you guys a couple things: there are LOTS and LOTS and LOTS more Minions. It's EXTREMELY FUNNY. And somebody falls in love.... I won't tell you, you'll have to find out for yourself by going to see the movie :) I absolutely positively recommend the movie... I give 5 out of 5 stars. IT'S AWESOME AND IT ROCKS!!! My favorite one out of the three girls is Agnes... She's so cute!


Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#76: BEACH!!!

Hey guys! Happy 4th! This is gonna be a short post because I'm spending the weekend in a beach house in Isabela... I also started a new summer camp on Monday and it's AWESOME!!!


Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#75: MONSTERS UNIVERSITY!!!

Hey guys! Today we're reviewing and discussing "Monsters University", Pixar's 14th and newest movie. Before the film, there was an accompanying short film called "The Blue Umbrella". 

         WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD 

Mike Wazowski is a 6-year-old at Frighton Elementary School who is visiting Monsters Inc., a scaring company, applying to help Monstropolis with energy. While on the field trip, the class meets Frank McCay, an employee. He gives the students a couple of pointers about being a scarer, then tells them to watch him enter the human world. However, Frank doesn't notice that Mike had sneaked into the room before he closed the door. At first what Mike saw and heard was Frank roaring, then a girl screaming. Before Mike snuck into the room, one of his classmates sees him, and reports it to his teacher. Frank comes out of the room, and followed by Mike. With Frank figuring out what had happened, he scolds Mike, but eventually perks up and reassures him. The teacher then scolds him, but Mike is happy and states he wants to be a scarer when he grows up. The class leaves, and approximately thirteen years later, Mike is accepted into the prestigious Monsters University. Now a college freshman, Mike begins majoring in scaring. On his first day, Mike befriends the nerdy and shy Randall Boggs, who desires to be popular and has difficulty controlling his camouflage power. While studying one night, Mike encounters an arrogant, playful, all-brawn, large blue monster named James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, who suddenly breaks into Mike's room to hide Archie, the mascot of rival college, Fear Tech. After greeting each other, Archie steals Mike's hat and escapes. Mike and Sulley chase Archie outside where struggle to catch him. When they do catch Archie, Sulley is invited to join Roar Omega Roar, the top fraternity on campus. Mike tries to join, but a fight with Sulley starts a rivalry between the two. While the duo compete to see who is the better scarer, Dean Hardscrabble, the headmistress of the MU scaring faculty, tells the students their final exam for the semester will determine if they can continue in the scaring program. Eventually, Mike and Sulley's rivalry gets out of hand and causes Dean Hardscrabble to drop both of them from the program and Sulley to be kicked out of the fraternity. Unhappy in his new major, Mike decides to enter the Scare Games, a series of physical challenges that tests a monster's scaring ability, in hopes of proving he can be a good scarer. However, the competitors are teams from MU's fraternities and sororities. But hope arises when he joins Oozma Kappa, a fraternity of misfit monsters consisting of founder and mature student Don Carlton, nervous and shy Squishy Squibbles, free-spirited and eccentric Art, and bickering siblings Terri and Terry (who share the same body). Mike tries to enter Oozma Kappa into the Scare Games, but needs one more player. Mike reluctantly lets Sulley onto the team and makes a deal with Hardscrabble to re-admit their team to the scaring program if they win and that if they lose, he'll leave the campus. Sulley doesn't think the team can succeed, but Mike offers to train the others to get them ready. Meanwhile, Randy becomes a member of ROR and asks Mike to stop talking to him. Oozma Kappa surprisingly advances through the first rounds of the Games. During a party at ROR house, the ROR pranks Oozma Kappa and humiliates them in front of the whole student body. A secret visit to Monsters, Inc. lifts their spirits and Oozma Kappa makes it to the final round against ROR. Even as the final round arrives, Sulley has a hard time believing Mike can be a good scarer. So in the final round, he tweaks the equipment so Mike can register a good score and allow Oozma Kappa to win the Games. When Mike realizes this, he is heartbroken and decides to prove to everyone that he can be a good scarer. So, he breaks into the door lab and uses a newly-crafted door to enter the human world at a summer camp, but his plan goes wrong and he fails to scare the kids. Back on campus, Sulley confesses to the Dean just as she is notified of the break-in. Realizing what happened, Sulley enters the door to look for Mike. After finding and reconciling with Mike, the pair attempt to return, but Dean Hardscrabble deactivates the door until the Child Detection Agency arrives, trapping them in the human world. Mike realizes that the only way to get back into the monster world is to generate enough scream energy to power the door from their side. Working together, Sulley and Mike scare the investigating authorities, generating more than enough scream energy to return to the lab. They then get expelled, but before they leave, Hardscrabble acknowledges that Sulley and Mike have both surprised her and wishes them luck. Mike and Sulley decide to take jobs at Monsters, Inc. in the company mailroom, and over time, work their way up until they become part of the scarer team, establishing the story for Monsters, Inc. 

The movie is really good. It has a really important lesson at the end and incorporated (pun intended) into the story line. In a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8.5. Oh, I almost forgot the short film! The short film was pretty good overall, but the best thing was definitely the storyline :-)


Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#74: SUMMER CAMP PART TWO

Hey guys! Today we're doing the second part of describing my summer camp. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my last day and last field trip, which both were today. I got to the summer camp, hung out with my friends before the bus got there and got on the bus. On the bus, there was air conditioning and a TV (I was really surprised about the TV). I sat with one of my friends, read on the Kindle app of my cellphone and watched what was on TV at the time. Eventually we got to our destination, which was Las Cabezas de San Juan, in Fajardo. We snacked something, took pictures and started hiking towards the lighthouse. When we got to the lighthouse, I immediately noticed I could see St. Thomas, Tortola, Icacos, St, Croix, Vieques, Culebra, etc. I also noticed there was a big meadow, and by big, I mean HUGE. We had a conference about the archaeological excavations currently going on at the site. We saw the excavations, talked with the archaeologists and volunteered by cleaning the pieces that came out. We then went back to the meadow to eat lunch, run around and play, and take a break. We then went back to cleaning until it was time to go and hike back over to where the bus was and leave the site. When we were back to camp, we went crazy getting each others email addresses, cell numbers, social network account usernames, etc. We came up with the idea to sign each others shirts on the back with Sharpies. I'm gonna miss being in camp a lot :(

Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#73: SUMMER CAMP!!!

Hey guys! Today I'm telling you about my summer camp (my camp in June, I have another one in July). I started camp on June 3, and it ends on the 21st. It's a camp on the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, and it's ages are between 7-12 years old. You only get admitted if you have an IQ of 130 a.k.a being gifted (BTW, I have an IQ of 130). We take different classes every day. Our classes are: Archaeology, Japanese, Science/Neuroscience, Art, Digital Photography, Geography with GIS and GPS, Pottery and Video Game Programming (that class is sponsored by Microsoft). We also have excursions to different places on Fridays. Some of these are: an exclusive collection of Taino artifacts and pieces reserved usually to highly qualified, world class and good archaeologists and the Governor, visit the University's History Museum and go to an excavation in Fajardo to help out the archaeologists to dig, clean and discover artifacts. I'm exhausted!!!

Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#72: RINCON

Hey guys! This is gonna be a pretty short post... I'm on my way to the town of Rincon to have a weekend vacay by the beach and we're gonna check in tonight so that'pretty much why this is a short post. I can't wait for next week so I can yell you guys about my summer camp!

Happy weekend!!!


Maria.