UEFA Champions League

 Sarah Berger

The UEFA Champions League is currently going on in Europe right now. The teams that have made it to the Quarter-finals are some of the most prestigious clubs in the world. Some of the more recognizable squads are Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool. The other teams consist of AS Roma, FC Schalke, Fenerbahçe SK, and FC Barcelona. Just recently was the First knockout round in February and March. Luckily my favorite team, Arsenal, came out with a 2-0 victory against AC Milan. Liverpool was able to pull out a 3-0 win against Internazionale, getting the squad into the Quarter-final round. Some of the top scorers in the tournament so far are Lionel Messi and the all-time favorite Cristiano Ronaldo with 6 goals each. Cristiano Ronaldo is also the top scorer in Barclays Premier League with 22 goals. However it is Liverpool with the most goals scored during the Champions League so far with 21 goals.

Now, for those of you who are saying to yourselves, “What is the Champions League?” here is a brief summary of what it is and why you should know about it. The UEFA Champions League is the most famous club competition. Real Madrid CF and AC Milan are the two teams that have won the Champions League three times. The UEFA Champions League is open to domestic champions and clubs who have finished just behind them. How the rounds work is fairly simple. After the first three qualifying rounds, the 32 teams left divide into the group stages. Those group winners and runner-ups pass on to the knockout rounds. In order to determine who the clubs play in the knockout stage, a draw is completed. The club that scores the higher amount of goals moves on. It is extremely similar to the World Cup. This year the final match will be played in Moscow. The upcoming matches are the following:

Roma vs. Manchester United on April 1^st
Schalke vs. Barcelona on April 1^st
Arsenal vs. Liverpool on April 2^nd
Fenerbahçe SK vs. Chelsea on April 2^nd

Exams and stressing out about them: Why you need to just stop.

Within the next week or so, the Upper School will be taking our final exams. Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of the students here are going to be stressing out about the exams. It’s not as evident now, because a lot of people are more concerned about the ends of sports seasons, actual class assignments, and other typical Cary Academy stuff, but when these die down in the week before, and the week of, exams, there’s going to be pressure from the teachers about reviewing and the importance of the exams. This, as it sounds, is most likely going to cause a lot of students to worry about the exams a lot and add a lot of stress. If you look at students during this period, you’ll either see people furiously studying, people with open panic or discussing their stress with other students, or you could see some people who don’t obviously freak out about the tests, but could, if you pay attention, obviously be nervous about the exams, and kind of be “closet panicers”, for lack of a better phrase. And even if you already know it, all this stress is not going to help you at all. If you’re just studying out of fear, you’ll probably retain less information than if you are relaxed as you study. Pouring yourself into a book and stuffing yourself with memorization will get you a lot less information than just calmly reading content and understanding it. If you’re hiding your panicking, that’ll probably be even worse than clearly freaking out, since you’ll have no real outlet for your stress and it could all build up inside. The Imperial College Health Centre shows a lot of the common problems of a fearful or tense exam taker are confusing your feelings with the truth, such as if you’re studying and you begin to feel like an idiot, you tell yourself that you are an idiot, which isn’t going to help you. Anticipating failure is also another big problem, since you’ll just be setting yourself up for failure that way. If you go through the studying positively and the exam with a sense of optimism and curiosity, you’ll do far better, and not have any after-exam stress either. You’ll also want to avoid comparing your performance to other students, past or present, because that will just make you feel even less confident and not push you to work harder as much as it sounds. Studying a different subject at different times also really helps, for example, one a day. To be honest, you only have four subjects to study, so it’s not all that much work if you look at it. From a personal standpoint, it’s really better to not worry about the exams at all. I’m not saying they don’t matter, but don’t think about how much they matter. If you just take as if it were any other test, you’ll probably be a lot less stressed and thus do better. Also, if you give off this positive feeling about the exams all the time, your tranquil emotions will most likely wash away a lot of worries from those you study with too, so it can only help. Overall, the main point is not to stress. The teachers give a lot of “tricks” to calm down and whatnot, but here’s an easier one: Just don’t freak out. Simple as that. So, think about it. I know I won’t.

Summer Concert Tours ‘08

Sarah Berger

Summer is just months away and of course everyone is planning their schedules. Most kids our age work at restaurants or local businesses around the triangle as well as go on family vacations to the beach or mountains. But there is one event across the country that teenagers make it a point to attend. The Vans Warped Tour is a huge event every year for music lovers all over the U.S. People pay a cheap $24 to see tons of bands all day long. The Warped Tour will be held in Charlotte, NC this year. Some of the bands include The Academy Is… and Family Force 5. It’s a chance to get sweaty and crowd surf to some pretty awesome music. It’s probably one of the most popular events of the summer in the U.S. for the young population. If you’re looking for something exciting to do this summer then the Warped Tour should be on your list.
Now if you’re really looking for some amazing music and entertainment, Bamboozle is where it’s at. However this show is located in New Jersey on May 3rd and 4th. So it’s probably a bit harder to get to this one. Some of the bands included are Tokio Hotel, Paramore, Panic at the Disco, and OneRepublic. This festival lasts two days and includes over 100 bands. It’s a pretty awesome line-up so if you ever get a chance to go to it, consider yourself pretty lucky. Right on up there with Bamboozle is the Honda Civic Tour. On the tour this year are Panic at the Disco, The Hush Sound, Phantom Planet, and Motion City Soundtrack. But unlike last year, this year’s show doesn’t come to North Carolina unfortunately. It’s also an extremely popular tour. Last year Fall Out Boy was the headliner along with New Found Glory. They did come to Raleigh and it was a pretty amazing show. So I’m betting this year’s show will be just as good. These are just a few of the tours that are happening during the summer, and I definitely recommend attending at least one!

Easy Summer Vacation Ideas

The school year is about to start winding down soon, and summer will be here before you know it!  Some of us may be looking forward to being able to sleep in every day; others may be looking forward to taking advantage of internships or job opportunities.  Whatever you choose to do, make sure you don’t lie around the house too much or work too hard.  Try taking a small vacation!  You don’t have to go through the trouble of buying expensive plane tickets and flying around the country just to go on vacation.  There are plenty of great attractions right here on the east coast that are within driving distance; just take your family or get a group of friends together, and go check out some of these cool places:

 

–          Wet ’n Wild Emerald Point  –  Greensboro, North Carolina

http://www.emeraldpointe.com/

 

–          Tweetsie Railroad  –  Blowing Rock, North Carolina (near Boone)

http://www.tweetsie.com/

 

–          Kings Dominion  –  Doswell, Virginia (near Richmond)

http://www.kingsdominion.com/#actions

 

–          Busch Gardens  –  Williamsburg, Virginia

http://www.buschgardens.com/BGW/default.aspx

 

–          Myrtle Beach, South Carolina  http://www.myrtlebeach.com/amusements.cfm?subcategoryID=16&newUserLocation=1

  Francesca B.

Maze Game: Can You Reach the Middle?

Suduko

Summer is Almost Here Word Search

 BEACH  BIKINI  CELEBRATE  HEAT  PARTY  POOL  RELAXATION  SAND  SHELLS  SUNGLASSES  SURF  SWIMMING  TAN  UMBRELLA  VACATION 

Created by Puzzlemaker at DiscoveryEducation.com

Mind Games