April 22, 2015 - Gothenburg Public Schools

The Swede Chronicles
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015
Gothenburg High School
1322 Avenue I
Lauren goes to London
Volume 38
By Jessie Rudolph
Lauren Andres, a GHS junior, got the
opportunity to perform a cheerleading
routine in a different country. Lauren
traveled to London, England in late
December last year. She came back home
with many stories to tell and felt like she
cheered for a good cause.
The cheerleading squad at Gothenburg
attends an UCA summer camp in Kearney.
The girls have a chance to try out and earn
an All American title. The title is given to
the girl who shows cheerleading skills and
leadership. The one who gets the title gets
to cheer in London. UCA holds the
audition for All American all over the
country. The event that Lauren cheered for
is called the UCA All American Tour. She
got to perform in the center of London for
their New Year’s Day parade.
Lauren found the opportunity to be
exciting. The cultural differences of
England, all the other Americans she met,
and the cheerleading were the highlights
of her trip. “There were students from all
over the US that I met. About nine from
Nebraska went, I became good friends
with three of them. The others came
mostly from Texas, North Dakota, and
some from Hawaii,” she said. To perform
in a parade, the cheerleaders of course had
to know the dance. Lauren remarked,
“They sent us a video of the dance and we
taught ourselves some of it and got more
details when we got there.” Lauren was
initially scared to travel alone to another
country. “I had never flown or traveled
that far before and I didn’t know anyone.
Once I got there I stayed at the Guoman
Tower Hotel,” she explained. Regarding
to the London culture she says, “Coming
from a small town it was weird because
they aren’t as friendly. They weren’t rude
though. I also thought it was weird that
they didn’t have ice in their drinks. By the
end of the trip I was used to the accents.
When I came back home it was weird to
not hear the British accents.”
UCA puts on this program to give
Londoners something new to watch.
“Cheerleading isn’t very big over there, it
was something that they don’t see a lot.
Cheerleading is growing though,” Lauren
admitted. Lauren thought that one of the
best parts of the opportunity was to learn
more about her sport. “I got to see how
other squads do things and how they make
their jumps better, moves sharper, and be
louder,” she commented. She also got to
learn about leadership amongst her team
mates.
Lauren thinks that she would go on
the trip again in a heartbeat if she could.
She would recommend this opportunity to
anyone who can go.
Standard
Airport Rules
By Brianna Richey
Kim Whiting have been on a plane many
times.
Kim Whiting has been on a plane eight
or nine times while Tyson has been on a plane
for a total of 14 times. Kim enjoys flying
because it is relaxing for her. When she does
fly, she tries to not think of all the plane
crashes that have happened recently. Tyson,
Shelprisha
Most everyone flies on a plane at least
once in their lifetime. For some people, flying
can be extremely terrifying, while others can
just kick back and relax. Tyson Schwanz and
By Brianna Richey
This week’s couple is Caprisha
Sabin and Shelby Smith. The freshman
and sophomore have been dating for two
months and seem to have a happy
relationship. They met at the beginning
of the year and started talking for a while
before dating. Caprisha and Shelby hang
out everyday after school. They like to go
to the park or just relax at each other’s
houses. Their most fun date was when
they went to China Café and had fun with
some of Caprisha’s old co-workers.
As a couple, the duo would like to
have a long term relationship. They value
a lot in each other but have some specific
things they enjoy the most. “I like how
caring he can be,” Caprisha answered
without hesitation. Shelby commented
that, “Caprisha is just an awesome person
to be around.” Caprisha and Shelby have
a lot of things in common. They both
have the same music taste, and like the
same movies and foods. To them, this
makes hanging out together fun and
interesting. Caprisha and Shelby also
share the same attitude towards their
siblings and kids in general.
Caprisha and Shelby have a good
relationship building up. The pair are
looking forward to having a bright future
ahead of them.
Courtesy Photo from Lauren Andres
Lauren poses with some other cheerleaders that also won the All American title.
on the other hand, is not scared of the plane
crashing. “If it does go down, I’m with the
people I love most,” Tyson said.
Before you can get on a plane, though,
you must go through a metal detector. “I have
had to go through a metal detector more than
once because I forgot to take off my belt,”
claimed Kim Whiting. Tyson has never had
to go through a metal detector twice but has
been pat down because of the buttons on his
shorts.
Even though Kim doesn’t know much
about the regulations, she uses her common
sense to help her. “I know you can’t take big
bottles of anything. I also learned that you
can’t take soil back to the U.S. from another
place.” Tyson added on, “When you’re
coming back into the U.S., you can’t have
your electronic device out. Also, you
obviously can’t bring any weapons.” She
feels the rules are good and keep everyone
safe. Tyson agrees with Kim that the rules
keep everyone safe and their belongings dry.
Some people tend to get out of rules that
other people have to go through because they
are more important. Tyson thinks everyone
should have to follow the same rules. “I
honestly hope that nobody gets special
treatment, but you never really know.” Kim
believes that pilots don’t have to follow the
Airport Regulations and that they may have
to follow a different set of rules.
Whether you have been on a plane or not,
the Airport Regulations are more common
sense than anything. If you are unsure on a
rule or do not know a rule, you can look them
online or ask an employee at the airport.
Taken by Brianna Richey
Caprisha and Shelby have been dating for two months.
Page
2
Gothenburg High School
The Swede Chronicles
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015
Secret Writer
By Lily and Loki
Dear Lily and Loki,
I’m having a hard time right now with making it
through the school year. I’ve gotten to that part in
the semester where I’m just giving up. I’ve lost
my 4.0 GPA and my grades are slipping. I have a
hard time with caring about school work. I don’t
think I can even make it to May at this point. What
should I do to regain my focus and make it
through the year?
-Unfocused
Dear Unfocused,
I think you’re in a really good place right now.
It’s the perfect time in the school year to just give
up. Who cares about grades at this point anyway?
There is only like a month left of school and then
it’s summer time. During summer, you can just
relax and not worry about school for three months.
Since we’re almost there anyway, I think it’s the
perfect time to stop caring. Stop worrying about
school and just focus on summer. You need to concentrate on the plans for summer break 2k15. Just
show up to your classes but put in no more effort
than that. I think it’ll be fine if you just show up to
school and coast through.
Good luck, Loki
Dear Unfocused,
Oh, my dear, what shall we do with you? How
can you possibly be giving up when you’re so
close to the end of the year? I think it’s the time to
really push through. Think of it as the last leg of a
track relay. You are the anchor and you must give
it your all to win. You can’t just let your teammates down. In this case, your teammates are your
teachers and other students. Your teacher would
hate to see you fail at this point. You need to regroup and get organized with your school work.
You need to study hard to pass all your finals tests.
I think once you get back on track, your GPA will
go back up. Now is not the time to lose focus yet.
Like Dory from “Finding Nemo” once said, “Just
keep swimming.” You can’t just coast through the
school year. You need to try your best and get good
grades. Dory never gave up on finding Nemo, so
you can’t give up on your school work.
Love, Lily
Making
Mistakes
By Jessie Rudolph
Guess that Defintion
Do you ever do little things throughout
your day, that just kind of ruin it? Do you ever
do awkward, embarrassing things that you
think about months later? I do these kinds of
things all the time. I’m generally just an awkward and clumsy person.
For example, last week I dropped someone else’s curling iron into a toilet. Then, I attempted to iron a black skirt and ended up
burning it. I cannot get these errors out of my
head. On a regular basis, I laugh too loud and
talk too much. These little things all add up
into the category of ‘mistakes’. I think mistakes are things that are done regrettably. The
tricky thing is that you don’t regret it immediately. You usually regret the silly things you
did while trying to go to sleep. These thoughts
cloud into your head and make you feel terrible. This leads to a lack of sleep as you lie
there trapped in your own thoughts.
Scrofula. Do you have
any idea what that means?
There were three Gothenburg
High School students that got
asked one simple question.
What does Scrofula mean?
A senior Brennan
Spencer answered with something to do with the neck. A
junior Haley Juarez said some
kind of food. Then a sophomore Isabell Rosenberg said
maybe some kind of disease.
Brennan was the one that has
the closest answer, scrofula is
swelling of the lymph nodes
of the neck. If there is ever
anything wrong with your
neck, don’t worry it could be
scrofula.
The funny part is we all do dorky things
from time to time. It makes us normal human
beings. Everyone has done things on a regular
basis that just don’t even make sense. Humans
make hundreds of mistakes per day. It’s time
that we start to embrace our mistakes. Instead
of over thinking them, we need to just laugh
them off. Mistakes are a part of life and are
perfectly normal. Some classic mistakes are
not being able to take a good selfie, shouting
out the wrong answer in class (with confidence), and liking someone’s Facebook picture from 2010. I can remember a time I’ve
done all these things, and I hope you can too.
The next time you see a friend make a little mistake, just laugh it off with them. The
truth is we’re all pretty awkward and deserve
to sleep at night. Mistakes are okay. It’s time
to accept them as a part of life. Like Hannah
Montana poetically said, “Everybody makes
mistakes, everybody has those days.” If we
play off our mistakes now, and don’t judge
each other for being silly, we won’t regret
them eight years later.
Haley Juarez
Haley thought Scrofula was a type of food.
Drawn by Lily and Loki
'Unfocused' is having a hard time realizing that there is still nearly a month left
of school. What should he do?
High School Track
By Natalie Mazour
slowly.” Sydney enjoys running, but not running for track. “I do not enjoy the circles,” says
Sydney. Mathiel on the other hand loves track
with a passion. “I love it, except for the condiTrack has kicked off for their 2015 season tioning. I enjoy the social interaction with peowith high spirits and beautiful weather. Juniors ple, and getting the hang time for pole vault,”
Mathiel Martinez and Sydney Gruber are two says Mathiel happily.
of the many students out for track this year.
The team practices every day after school
Mathiel pole vaults, and might do the 400, 100, to improve their skills. In an average practice
and 1600 meter later on in the
Mathiel does some pole vault
year. Sydney runs the 3200 “I love it, except for run throughs and some pole
every meet. She has been run- the conditioning. I vault drills. He usually gets
ning the 3200 since freshman
with that around 5:30enjoy the social inter- done
year.
6:00 unless it is pre meet. SydThe coaches make sure that action with people, ney runs four miles every day,
the competitors strive to be
and then she will sometimes do
the best they can be. “Mr. and getting the hang 600s and 400s. She usually gets
Reeves has pushed me to my
practice around 5:00.
time for pole vault." out ofBoth
limit and keeps trying to help
of them agree that
me improve. I cut an average
track benefits them by keeping
of 20 seconds off my time in
them healthy and keeping
all track meets so far,” says
them social. The track team is
Sydney enthusiastically. ”It’s going great,” off to a good start this year.
Mathiel said jokingly. ”Pole vault is not clicking at the moment but I am getting there
Mathiel Martinez
Brennan Spencer
Isabell Rosenberg
Brennan guessed something in your neck. His
guess was the closest.
Isabell thought scrofula was some kind of disease.
Page
3
Gothenburg High School
The Swede Chronicles
What's going on in our school?
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015
FFA
Finale
By Jessie Rudolph
Eighty Gothenburg FFA members attended
Nebraska State Convention in Lincoln from
April 8th-10th. The Gothenburg competitors
did an excellent job and had some fun along the
way.
Ebony Anderson, a sophomore, competed
in Junior Public Speaking and Junior Parliamentary Procedure. “Junior Public Speaking is
my favorite event. I like speaking in front of
people. My speech was about horse slaughtera controversial topic,” Ebony said. Before the
students left for state, strenuous preparation
was done for the contests. Ebony comments, “It
had been stressful because I had to research for
my speech.” Besides the competition aspect,
Ebony enjoys the extra things FFA has to offer.
“I like seeing all the blue corduroy and meeting new people,” she exclaimed.
Junior Shae Brown enjoyed staying downtown for convention. The chapter got to stay at
the Courtyard Marriott, just a few blocks away
from Pinnacle Bank Arena, where convention
was held. “I liked staying downtown because it
was close to everything and I could find the sessions.” Shae also enjoys the people at FFA State
Convention, “I got to meet many people and I
bonded with my teammates. We liked to bond
over meals, it is where we got to mingle.” Shae
got the chance to participate in Floriculture.
Herschel Foster, also a junior, had the
pleasure of competing in Meats and Welding.
He had an interesting experience. “Welding was
a last minute decision. I was unprepared and
used everyone else’s gear. I had to use Roman’s
jacket, which didn’t fit!” He did, however,
enjoy the sessions and workshops. “I went to
Awesome Animals. It was a workshop where
they had live lizards, toads, and alligators,”
Herschel reported. Mr. Foster also thinks highly
of Gothenburg’s chapter. “I like our overall attitude and our success,” he explained.
The Gothenburg FFA students had a lot of
success at the 87th annual Nebraska State FFA
Convention. The Gothenburg Chapter received
a premier chapter award for the second time.
The students are already looking forward to
next year’s convention.
The Book Thief
By Natalie Mazour
Taking place in Germany in the mid
1930’s, The Book Thief is an exhilarating
story about a young girl and how she handles
the horrors of WWII in Germany. The movie
itself is narrated by Death, which you would
think would create a suspenseful tone to the
movie, but actually leaves you with some
knowledge of how the movie ends. Which at
first makes you think, “There is no reason for
me to finish the rest of this movie,” but that is
not the case. You need to finish the rest of the
movie! Nothing will prepare you for how it
ends. Death only tells you one character's
fate, and it is not the one you were expecting.
Jr.High Corner
Amber Brown
Jordan Rossell
Amber Brown, who is an eighth grader, is
excited to start her track career.
Jordan Rossell, a seventh grader, shows excitement for the track season ahead.
By Danyel Westermann
Taken by Jessie Rudolph
Shae Brown (left), Herschel Foster (middle), and Ebony Anderson (right) experienced 2015 Nebraska State FFA Convention in Lincoln.
Just when you think the movies ends, it
shoots another twist at you when the mysterious and kind hearted jewish boy, Max,
comes back alive after escaping capture by
the Nazi’s. It has an ending where you think
that it’s over, but then it keeps going and the
final ending leaves you with no questions. It
is definitely a movie worth watching.
The movie gets its name,”The Book
Thief,” when Liesel Memminger, who is the
main character in the movie, steals a book
that fell out of a man’s pocket while they
were burying Liesel’s younger brother. Her
fascination with books started that day, and
continued on throughout the movie. She later
saves a book, when she thought no one was
watching, that was thrown into the fire during a book burning.
If you are interested in history and heartfelt stories that have meaning, then this movie
is for you. It is one of those movies you can
watch again and again and still find something new that you had missed before.
Jr. High Track
Jr. high track starts the season off
with a bunch of new yet experienced
students. Amber Brown, an eighth
grader, has done track before. She did
it in seventh grade. This year she says
she is doing track because it is fun
and she likes the competition. The
events that Amber will be doing this
year are four by one, 100 meter, and
discus. Amber mentions that she prepares herself for her event by practicing a lot and doing the conditioning
and warm ups. “I would like to make
it to state for the relay again,” Amber
states for her personal record. Jim
Clark, Dave Clark, and Barry McDiarmid all help her get ready for her
events. They help by pushing her to
try harder. Amber’s track idol is Usain
Bolt.
Jordan Rossell, who is a seventh
grader, says he has done track before
if you count elementary track. Jordan’s track idol is Michael Johnson.
He did the 100 meter dash, and he
was also the fastest to ever do that.
The events that Jordan is doing are
long jump and triple jump. “I would
like to get 24.9 in the triple jump and
then 13.2 in the long jump,” Jordan
said. Jordan says he is doing track because, "I want to stay in shape and it
is fun to do." He prepares himself by
staying focused and making sure he is
prepared for the events. For the events
that Jordan does, Jim Clark, Dave
Clark, and Coach Steinke help him
get ready by making him work hard.
Jr. high track started the season off
with a cancellation on April 9th due to
snow and rain. Their next track meet
is Friday the 24th at Holdrege at one
p.m. Don’t forget to tell those track
students good luck.
Swede
Tortilla
Burger
Burritos
By Danyel Westermann
Mr. Lathrop’s recipe is
called Tortilla Burger Burritos. You will need to cook a
pound of hamburger until it
turns brown. If you would
like some extra taste to the
hamburger, you can add
ketchup, yellow mustard,
Worcestershire Sauce, salt,
and pepper. Lineup four tortillas and sprinkle on some
cheese of your choice. Scoop
some of the hamburger onto
the tortillas and fold into
square burritos. Put the burritos on a panini press or a
griddle until the tortilla is
brown. After all the preparation is finished, you can
enjoy your Tortilla Burger
Burrito!
Carnegie Hall
Page 4
Chronicles
By Natalie Mazour
Something exciting is happening
here at Gothenburg High School:
Eighth grader Margeaux Belanger got
selected to perform in the Junior
Honor Choir at Carnegie Hall this
summer. Margeaux is excited for her
upcoming experience and is looking
forward to working on her vocal abilities.
This is an experience of a lifetime for Margeaux and no one from
our area has done anything like this
before, as far as Margeaux knows.
Her and her father, Mr. Belanger, will
leave for this event on the 22nd of
June, but the performance is on the
27th of June. They are getting there
by train, which should be a fun and
new experience for them because they
have never taken the train before.
While there, Margeaux is expected to
rehearse daily for four days, with little free time, and then perform on the
27th.
Mr. Belanger was the one who
found out about this event. He has
been practicing with Margeaux ever
since. “I had her go through an electronic music audition and in March
she got picked. It is a huge thing.
Thousands of applications were sent
in,” says Mr. Belanger proudly. They
have been practicing for a while now,
and are almost ready to go.
While they are there Margeaux
does not get much free time, but they
still have big plans for the little time
that they get. They are looking forward to seeing a Broadway show one
evening. They are unsure which one
Margeaux is going to perform at Carnegie Hall this summer.
yet, but are certain they would like to
see one while they are there. They are
also planning on taking bus tours and
going to the Metropolitan Museum of
art, and other New York sights. “I am
excited about meeting new people and
seeing new places. I am also excited
about going to a Broadway show. I
hope that it will be Aladdin,” says
Margeaux ecstatically.
The event is put on at Carnegie
Hall, and it is extremely hard to be selected to go to.
“Performing there is like going to
the Super Bowl,” says Mr. Belanger.
Margeaux does not know anyone else
who is got selected to go, but does
know that there are going to be people
Taken by Natalie Mazour
from 49 different states and various
countries all around the world. She is
very excited to meet new people, and
gets to work with world renowned clinicians.
Margeaux is passionate about
music and is ecstatic to further improve her vocal abilities with this opportunity.