Everyone can feel the allure of summer as the end of the year draws closer. Caught up in the desperation to be done with homework and tests, it is easy to forget the boredom that often comes with the summer months. However, there are many events that are taking place right here in our great state, beginning the moment we trade our textbooks in for sunglasses.

Whether you want to stick close to home and attend one of the many summer camps offered in Austin this summer, or whether you want to take a day trip to Luling for the Watermelon Thump, there is guaranteed to be something going on this summer that will definitely put taking advantage of Sonic’s happy hour (let’s face it, it’s on everyone’s mind), to shame.

1. Concerts! Living in Austin has many advantages. One of them being the many opportunities to concerts of local as well as major artists. Popular bands like MGMT and Passion Pit can be caught at Stubb’s this June and live locals can be caught almost any night of the week at Antoine’s, Emo’s and La Zona Rosa.

2. The 119^th Birthday Party of Dr. Pepper Beginning on June 7 and lasting through June 11, the party will feature a 10-2-4k race as well as the annual “Tour de Pepper” bike ride. In addition to a car show and free tours of the bottling plant, there will also be a carnival and endless opportunities for free Dr. Pepper! For more information, visit www.dublindrpepper.com

3. The 57^th Annual Luling Watermelon Thump Celebrating the true fruit of summer, the Luling Watermelon Thump will feature a watermelon eating contest, a carnival, and of course, a seed spitting contest. Beginning on June 24 and ending on the 27, there will be live music and endless opportunities for fun and for watermelon.

4. Bat Cruises Summer sunsets are undoubtedly beautiful. To add to the interest of twilight, the bats that occupy Congress Avenue Bridge make a nightly appearance in the sky.  Capital Cruises offers an evening boat ride on Lady Bird Lake to experience the wonder of the largest bat colony in North America, firsthand. Reservations for groups can be made at www.capitalcruises.com

5. Summer Camps Though summer camps generally bring to mind tent pitching, camp fire building and other activities that isolate non-outdoorsy folk, our great city offers a camp opportunity to everyone.  Camps for aspiring musicians, chefs, artists, and then some are being offered at various prices throughout summer. www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Guides/SummerCamps

6. Fiesta Texas Always a summer favorite, Fiesta Texas only gets better with age. If the allure of the Superman: Krypton Coaster alone isn’t enough to lure people in, the entertainment planned for this summer will have people lining up. Jordin Sparks (6/27) and Mitchel Musso (7/2) are just a few among many that will be rocking the stage at Six Flags over the break.

7. Volunteer at Dell Children’s Hospital For those in need of CAS hours, community service for NHS, or just wanting to do something good for the community, Dell Children’s Hospital offers volunteer opportunities specifically set aside for teenagers. In an eight week program,  high school students over the age of fifteen can help those in need and get service hours. The application process is simple and inexpensive. More information can be obtained by calling 512-324-0161.

8. The 3^rd Annual Austin Ice Cream Festival Nothing exemplifies the fun of summer like this festival about a common treat enjoyed in the months that bring us three digit temperatures. The Austin Ice Cream Festival will feature live music, many contests, and part of the proceeds will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas. The festival is to take place on August 15^th and admission will be for $5 for adults and children under 12 get in free. Bring your family and friends to Waterloo Park to participate in what is sure to be a good time!

   From the constant rumble of their engine to the squealing tires of their wheels, some students at LHS have a need for speed. We see them every day in our school parking lots.

    We all are constantly reminded once we drive onto the pavement not only to look out for people walking, but for students in their cars as well. Those certain students have created a dilemma on how they perform their driving abilities.

   Speed; it’s the one thing teens love when it comes to cars, and there is no exception when it comes to students in the school parking lots. There’s not a school day that goes by without seeing at least one person speed off campus going more than 30mph.

   “I think speeding in the parking lot is ridiculous and immature,” said Lauren Gonzalez, junior. “People who speed try to be ‘cool’, but they’re really being dangerous.”

   While the average person starts pulling out of the parking space, that certain person with the urgency to move fast flies by without a single glance left or right. It’s surprising that we don’t hear about car collisions constantly.

   Yes, the school did take precaution by putting speed bumps on the side and back of the school. Most cars do use them with caution, but with big trucks that ‘must’ go fast; there is no need for them. They seem useless when trucks zoom past you at the speed of light.

    “I think that speed bumps don’t work because people never really slow down when going over them,” said Shelby Vollmar, junior.

  The evening of April 9, 2010 was one a great joy for the cast and crew of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the UIL One Act Play. Breezing through Zone and District competitions last week, this week they advanced from Area to Regionals!

    Several cast members also received individual awards. Safaa Hansen and Mitch Slan received Honorable Mention All star Cast, Hailey Suggs and Josean Rodriguez received All star Cast and Harley Roberts received the All star Techie award.

   Competing against three other well-qualified schools, Leander was one of two that advanced out of this level. Alongside Temple High School, they will be traveling to Waco to compete on April 23.

  When a group of students take it upon themselves to help the less fortunate, humility rises in all who bear witness. This Fall, the Leander High School ICAP students displayed this better than ever.

  Hearing about an opportunity to give money to the Dell’s Children Hospital, the students came up with the idea of “Boo Bags.” “Boo Bags” were filled with candy and stickers and were sold to students at all lunches. They were delivered twice weekly, leading up to Halloween.

  As friends started “boo-ing” each other, the ICAP students were able to learn about business and help rather than be helped. Not only was it monetarily valuable, it was also a beneficial learning experience for the students.

  Upon learning that however much money they earned for the hospital would be doubled, the students decided to use half of the money to buy toys and books for the children at the hospital, as well as donating a check.

  The students were able to take the check and gifts directly to the hospital and take a tour while they were there. Raising $800 total for the hospital, these students show us that if they can do it, anybody can.

   Meagan McDonald, a Leander High School senior and captain of the Cheer Team, has been battling thyroid cancer over the past few months. Fortunately, after having undergone surgery in Houston, her prognosis is good. However, the expenses that come with both the medical treatment and the travel required to receive it remain a strain on the McDonald family.

   For that reason, the Blue Belles dance team are holding a dance clinic this Saturday, Feb. 13^th, for students from Pre-K through High School, one that will donate absolutely all of its proceeds to support the McDonalds during this time of crisis.

   The “Gift of Love” clinic will be held at the Leander High School Dance Studio, and lasts from 9 am to 2 pm. At 1 pm, family and friends of the participants are welcome to attend the ending performances in the competition gym.

   The cost for the clinic’s preregistration is $30 and covers a photo, T-shirt, CD, certificate, and lunch. The preregistration form can be found at www.bluebelles.org where it should be printed, filled out, and mailed in. Though, it is also possible to register at the door for $35.

   Meagan McDonald has been sharing her smile and spirit with LHS for four wonderful years, and many have risen up to do their part to help her make it through. To the end of last month, the Blue Belles posted by the Commons a heartening pink banner which proclaims, “We Love You, Meagan” and with this week’s clinic they’re out to prove it.

   Pictured (left) are Walker McNabb as Gaston and two members of the chorus, Hawley Starnes and Izzy Bowen. (right) Josean Rodriguez and Brittany Amador are Lumiere and Babbette. (center) Beauty is played by Katie Paschall and Mitch Slan portrays  the Beast. 

   Tickets are on sale tat school through Friday during all lunches for $8 or $10. They may also be purchased online at www.leandertheater.org. Saturday matinee is at 1:oo pm while the Sunday matinee is at 2 pm.

   High school is often heralded as “the best time of your life” or in some cases, the worst. People either tell you it’s the least stress free or they actually remember it for what it is. High school is what they say should prepare you for the real-world: Jobs, college, finances, and beyond. Some take their diploma and enter the workforce but recently there’s been a huge pressure to go to college. The workforce is becoming more and more specialized and the jobs that are the real money-getters required college degrees to even qualify you for consideration.

   For children whose parents have already earned their degrees the transition from high school to college may be easier. Parents have already fought through the paperwork, research, applications, and scholarships required to make your way into a higher education and can pass the knowledge onto their children.

   Some children, however, are the first among their kin to test the treacherous waters of college. Many of those kids are in the dark- teachers tell you one thing, colleges another, counselors don’t always have the time to help you through the confusing debacle of even applying. Yet getting accepted is only the tip of the iceberg.

   Going to college generally means you‘re about to make a long series of life-decisions in rapid succession; the first decision is whether you’ll go straight to college, or take a semester or even a year off before hand. For some, this decision seems like it wouldn’t mean much but some who decide to take this time off never stop taking this time and end up working a desk job somewhere just to pay the bills with no time for college. Whether to go in-state or out-of-state is also a tough decision, both financially and educationally.

   You have to decide if you’ll live in dorms or try to make it work with roommates in a tentative dance of paying the bills. And the big question, the one you’ve heard since you can likely remember, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s time to pick a major, or a double major, or a major minor. Sometimes, even picking what you want to do isn’t enough- you have to be good enough to get into that department at the college you got accepted to.

   Entering the real world is not a gradual slide for most, but a nearly vertical tower of terror. Planning ahead, getting your facts straight, and writing scholarship essays until your fingers bleed ink are a few of the ways you can conquer the huge, complex beast of college. By now most students have sent in their applications and/or been accepted to various colleges. Currently, the top priorities are scholarships, most of which have upcoming deadlines, and filling out your FAFSA- the one hour of online paperwork that gets you money from the government.

   You can get a wealth of scholarship information from Collegeboard.com. You can buy The Scholarship Handbook from Collegeboard for $28.95 which has a TON of scholarships arranged by major, ethnicity, sex, and other scholarship qualifiers. Your FAFSA can be filled out at fafsa.ed.gov but make sure to have all of your paperwork together before hand (they’ve got a rather helpful checklist online for that purpose) so that the process takes the minimum amount of time.

  The college transition isn’t easy, but it isn’t hard to find information and help left and right. However, a word of caution: any companies asking for money to aid you are more than likely scams. Talk to your counselor to see if they’ve heard of it and if it’s ‘legit’ before you hand over any money that can be spent elsewhere.

   Jiu-Jitsu started in Brazil with the Japanese immigration in 1908 – through Santos Port – with the ship Kasato-Maru. The practice of Jiu-Jitsu was only taught to Japanese Immigrants at the time, but this changed in 1913 when Mitsuyo Maeda arrived and helped Jiu-Jitsu to form its roots in Brazil. Maeda travelled through Brazil introducing Jiu-Jitsu to anyone who was interested until he eventually opened a gym where he taught several students, including Carlos Gracie.

    Carlos Gracie, continuing in his teacher’s footsteps, traveled through Brazil teaching Jiu-Jitsu until he opened a gym in Rio de Janeiro where he taught his brothers George, Gastao, Helio and Oswaldo. Helio Gracie, paid special interest to the use of the techniques.

    “Because of his small frame and slight stature, Helio Gracie introduced the application of leverage to the art, making it possible for a smaller opponent to defeat a larger one. He began experimenting, modifying and enhancing the basic techniques to make them effective for a person regardless of his or her stature. Thus began the development of a new and more effective art – Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.” Rickson Gracie, Helio Gracie`s son, is reported to have said.

   Carlos taught his brothers, through Jiu-Jitsu, a way of life, encouraging tolerance, respectfulness and self confidence. He created the idea of a natural diet, the first special diet for athletes, the Gracie Diet, made jiu-jitsu a synonym for healthy.

  “Thanks to Jiu-Jitsu I’ve become a much better person in life, at school and with myself,” said Brazilian, Gustavo Riso, black-belt college sophomore. “Jiu-jitsu requires us to stay inside the tatami with honor, which is something that you will only understand after you are part of it.”

    The main difference between the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and the Japanese original is their varied specializations. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu focuses on ground fighting and finishing moves, instead of take downs.

   “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu made a big difference for me in MMA, using grappling techniques as opposed to using Jiu-Jitsu,” said Nico Campos, junior. “It improves my ground game no matter how big the opponent is.”

    By changing the international rules of the Japanese jiu-jitsu, Gracie started the first nationality change in a martial art, or sport. Years later, the Japanese martial art was known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as it started to spread all around the world.

    Today Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is considered one of the most popular martial arts in the world and is a mandatory knowledge for any Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, because it is the only martial art that is fully fought in the ground.

    “I became interested in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu when I saw Matt Hughes fight Royce Gracie at UFC 60,” said Campos. ”I looked up Royce and found out about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and I went after it”

   The belt order in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is as follows:

White – Beginner

Gray – 4 to 6 years old

Yellow – 7 to 15 years old 

Orange – 10 to 15 years old

Green – 13 to 15 years old

Blue – 16 years or older

Purple – 16 years or older

Brown – 18 years or older

Black – 19 years or older (up to 6 degrees)

Black & Red – 7 to 8 degrees (Master title)

Red – 9 to 10 degrees. The 10th degree was only given to the creaters of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Carlos Gracie, George Gracie, Deoclécio Paulo, Hélio Gracie and Armando Wridt)

   To advance a belt rank 4 degrees, which are aquired through belt exams, are required. Belt exams happen every 3 to 5 months.

   “To change a belt is almost the same as being promoted, but that most important difference is that you are not doing it for a living, you are doing it for the pleasure to see yourself improve and it is the confirmation that every drop of sweat is really worth it,” Brazilian, Gustavo Bertola, purple-belt junior, said.

   As children of a young age, everyone loved to play with toys and/or games. From dress up to Hot Wheels, we all had those little pieces lying around the house for our parents to step on. Once we start growing older and older, we become more and more uninterested in those very toys/ games or do we just recreate them into something more fit for an older age?

   For instance, girls love to play dress up during their younger stage of their adolescence. Dressing up in their mother’s fancy clothes, putting on a favorite fairy princess costume, and parading around, have something in common with a girl in her young adult years. The connection is simple; shopping. It’s just like dress up. When shopping, a girl must try on the items she likes before they are bought, either to show off to friends/family or just to see what it looks like on. Once bought, the plan is to parade around in the item of clothing.

   Related to dress up, little girls love to put an excessive amount of make up on their face with many crazy colors. Once a girl grows into her teenage years, she still uses makeup, but on a more simple level without the use of so much color and amount applied.

   “I loved playing dress up. I always set up a mall and would pretend my closet was a store. I created all of these wacky costumes and everything,” said Tristan Pope, junior.

   At a young age boys love to play with little toy cars, such as Hot Wheels. Crashing, racing, and creating the coolest looking toy cars is what they do best. As they mature into their teenage years, boys are still fascinated with cars. You may not see them crashing into each other or racing, but in every stage of a boy’s life, they love to show off what they’ve got. We see and hear it every day.

   Since the creation of video games, little boys spend hours on end playing video games on the computer. From the websites of nickelodeon to Disney channel, there is an endless list of games little boys love to play. As boys grow older and older, video games are still a big priority. They may not be playing computer games, but they certainly will be playing video games on new technologies such as the Wii, PlayStation or Xbox. These games are more likely to be more violent and difficult than ones of an early age.

   “I totally agree with this idea. I used to love to play army man when I was little. Now I play Call of Duty on the computer. They both have to do with fighting,” Kyle Denny, junior.

   Those are just a few of the many examples of how toys/games can still be a part of each stage of someone’s life. So, think back to what you’ve played with the most when you were little and see if it has any relation to your life now.

By Caio Jahara

Name: (Johnny) Chan In, Lai

Home country: Hong Kong, China

Age:18

 Brothers & Sisters: One Sister

 Language(s): Catonese (Mandarin variation), English 

 Favorite American food: Hamburger

 Favorite music/favorite artists: POP

 Favorite class at LHS: Environmental Science

 Favorite sport(s): Football

 Hobbies: Travel, Music, Movie

 How often do you communicate back home? 2 days a week

 How homesick are you?  Not much

 You may be the first person from Hong Kong that Leander students have ever seen, what is the main thing about your country that you try to tell them?

The main thing I try to tell them is that Hong Kong is in China and not in Japan! I also tell them that school here gives more freedom to students than in China  

  What are the main differences between your Host family and your real family?

The main differences between my host family and my real family are that my host parents are older, I do not have any brother and, of course, they speak a different language.