Cruise: Top 5 Lists

By: Jaelyn W. & Kara S.

LGG staffers, Jaelyn W. and Kara S. each went on separate cruises in 2013. Here are their top 5 lists on the best parts of their adventures on the high seas.

Jaelyn W:

I went on the Carnival Fascination Cruise Line and the 5 top things were:

1. Club 02 (Teen Club)

2. Food

3. Hanging With My Friends

4. Sleep

5. Running Around The Ship 

Kara S. 

I sailed on the Disney Fantasy in the fall. Here's my top 5 list. Enjoy!

5) The AquaDuck: This is a huge waterslide two stories above the pool deck. At one point, the slide takes you over the edge of the boat! You can go completely airborne in a few places!

4) The shows: Every night after dinner, we went to the Walt Disney Theater for a live show. Every night the show was different. The shows included Aladdin, Believe, Welcome to the Boat, Farewell, and Mickey's Pirates of the Caribbean. 

My personal favorite was called Wishes. It was about three best friends who were graduating from high school and a wish at Disney World. They then meet different characters that help them make their wishes come true before they had to leave each other to go to college.

3) Vibe: Vibe is the teen hangout at the very front of the boat. No adults or little kids were allowed. At the Vibe, they had a Wii, movie room, smoothie bar, ping-pong tables, and our own pool and hot tub!

2) Castaway Cay: Castaway Cay is Disney's private island in the Bahamas. I especially loved the Teen Hideout, sand volleyball courts, and comfy hammocks:)

1) The food! At each meal, you could try so many new foods and order as many desserts as you want. During the day if you are hungry, you could go up to the pool deck and get any of the wide variety of free foods including ice cream

Embarrassing Moments

Collected by: Allison B.

    

        Whenever something really embarrassing happens to us, it’s usually a little upsetting or strange at first. But if you look back on it, it just might seem a whole lot funnier than you remember. Everyone has a moment like this at least one time in his or her life. Here are some examples from girls our age and their most embarrassing moments!!!

           *I remember one time I was hanging out with friends in my basement. After we did some other things for a little while, we decided to have some fun and set up an obstacle course. We made it have a tunnel, a couch jump, and hula-hoops. I was the first one to try the course, and as I was jumping through one of the hula-hoops, my pants fell down. While everybody laughed about it, I quickly tried to pull up my pants, hoping they hadn’t seen too much!!!

            *Not long ago, I was running around my backyard. My little sister was chasing and throwing the dog’s tennis balls at me. The only defense I had was a badminton racket that I had found lying around. After we ran around for a few minutes, I stopped when she was right in front of me and put the racket to my face. As I slowly walked backwards, looking at her. Before I knew it, I turned around and smashed right into a tetherball pole. My legs tucked under me and I tripped right beside it. So not only did I crash into the pole, but I also tripped over it when I stumbled back. Guess my sister had won that round!!!

*One time I walked into Starbucks really happy, because my mom was actually being cool for once. We went to the counter and she ordered a pumpkin latte. Yum! Then the lady at the counter asked what name she should put on the cup, and my mom responded "Primrose Everdeen." Never mind what I said about the cool thing. My mom is a nerd. She told me that she would take the latte and give it to my younger brother if I didn't reply when the coffee was ready with the phrase, "I volunteer as tribute." It would have been fine except for the lady who called it out struggled to pronounce "Primrose Everdeen" and obviously didn't know what it meant. I muttered, "I volunteer as tribute" and turned bright red as all the businessmen in there for coffee stared at me.

*Sit down folks and enjoy my story. There will be no bathroom breaks so please, go now so what happened to me won’t happen to you! So, when I was five, my mom and I were with my grandma looking at model houses in Florida, because she was going to move. I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. Not just like "Oh I can hold it" but like "IF I DON'T GO NOW I WILL PEE ON YOU!" So we ask the lady who was renting the house where the bathrooms were, and she told us (the modeling houses in Florida used to screw down the toilet lids so no one would use them. Keep that in mind as I tell my story.). We then went to a bathroom, and I’m doing my little dance so I won’t pee myself and guess what!! It's was the WRONG bathroom!!!! So we spent like 10 minutes trying to open the darn thing and I ended up peeing on the floor. Yes, a little 5-year-old girl peed on the floor then the lady got REALLY mad and kicked us out! How rude! I ended up wearing my grandpa’s shirt home.

*Once I went to a restaurant with my dad, and the most embarrassing thing happened. So my dad got in line while I went to the bathroom. When I got back, I realized I wanted extra fries with my order. I walked to the line and saw a man wearing a similar shirt that looked A LOT like my dad. I tapped on his shoulder and said “Hey Dad. Can you order me extra fries?”  He looked at me kind of funny after that and when I realized that he wasn’t actually my Dad, I laughed nervously and scooted away. I finally found my actual dad and said “So, dad. Can I get some extra fries?” then told him what happened.

*A couple of years ago, I was bun-busting behind a boat at camp, nothing special. Then I was whiplashed off the tube by the driver (my really hot counselor). That would have been totally fine and a lot of fun, if my bathing suit bottoms had been held together by something other than plastic circles! One of the circles on my bottoms broke, so I had to hold my bottoms up and yell “Hey guys! My bottoms broke!!!” Luckily all the campers on the boat were girls, so it was hilarious, and I ended up laughing at myself because it was so funny. The thing that made it embarrassing was my muy caliente (‘very hot’ in Spanish) counselor aka: boat driver. But other than that, it was actually really funny for me too, and I discovered that swimming in Nike shorts is really fun, because I had to wear my shorts for the rest of the day!

Here’s an embarrassing moment from an adult:

*Once I had a business meeting at a restaurant on an outside patio.  The tables on the patio happened to be right near a three inch drop-off.  As I was sitting down, I didn’t notice my chair leg was off the edge, and when I leaned back, I flipped over with my legs sticking straight up in the air and my skirt upside down, showing my panties. The businessmen just stared at me for what seemed like forever with their mouths wide open. Finally my business partner came to help me up, and I tried to quickly move on with the meeting.

We all have moments like these, and sometimes sharing them with others is a great way to have a good laugh. No matter what happens, it’s not the end of the world! Each of us has something fun and unique that makes us special. So if something ever happens to you that never meant to happen, don’t worry! It’ll be more enjoyable to think back on in the future!

Women in Engineering Day at Georgia Tech

By: Allison B.

         Here in Georgia, we have some of the top colleges in the country. Every college here is fantastic for girls! But one, the Georgia Institute of Technology, or as we know GA Tech, is one of the co-ed colleges that has the least amount of girls. It has an excellent education, cool campus, and students and professors of all diversities, there’s still one thing missing… the school is only made up of 35% women…a very small population considering the University of Georgia is the complete opposite, with 68% of its student body being women! But GA Tech is doing some wonderful things to get more girls interested in engineering, especially something they did in 2013: the Women in Engineering Career Conference.

         On October 10, 2013, walking into the GA Tech Student Center, it would look a little different than usual. Many of the people you’d see would be young girls, ranging from freshmen in high school to seniors. Sitting down at one of the tables in the conference room, one might think, “I wonder if I have anything in common with the girl sitting next to me?” Soon, they’d learn they have quite a bit in common! This conference was for girls interested in engineering and maybe even GA Tech. That’s what was so special about everyone in the room: They all had the same wonderful and reachable dream!

         The word conference might make some of you think “business” or “BORING!” but in reality, this was one of the most amazing events to take place for girls interested in engineering. There were no boring talks, no wrong questions to ask, and definitely no fears to be there! The engineering topics were some of the coolest ones out there: biomedical, mechanical, civil, environmental, industrial, nuclear, aerospace, electrical, computer, materials, bimolecular, and chemical engineering. That’s a lot of different types! The presentations were all unique. Some had slideshows to help you visualize the praiseworthy work the engineers could accomplish. Some  slideshows featured actual college girls talking about their experiences with internships, classes, projects, and job searches. Some even had visual demonstrations…like breaking a liquid nitrogen covered ball into a ton of pieces with a hammer! All the presentations were so interesting; they made it hard to decide which type of engineering was best!

Not only did professors talk about engineering, but also something very important for some girls to not be afraid about applying took place as well. A woman who looks over the college applicants for GA Tech talked to everyone about the process, and made it seem way less scary! She explained the importance of grades, SAT/ACT scores, but also the importance of being you and staying well rounded. A lot of applicants say they are nervous about their essays because they don’t know what to write, but in reality, they just have to write about themselves! The way she talked about the importance of extracurricular activities and confidence definitely sent a sigh of the relief throughout the room in the end!

During this conference, many girls learned that it really is possible to become an engineer at GA Tech. When I asked a girl who went about her experience she said “I think what I learned was that engineering is one of the coolest jobs out there…especially when you’re a woman! The professors were so nice and helpful, no one was afraid to ask questions! I loved the entire experience, and I think everyone should think about the engineering career field. There’s a place in it for all of us!”

By going to the conference, it helped prove that if you shoot for what you really want, you CAN get there! No dream is too big, and no girl is too small. We all have a place for us, and if you strive to be the best you can be, then you can be anything you want. That means that hopefully within the next few years, that 38% might rise as more girls get into engineering. So if you have a dream, don’t hold back, be yourself, and follow your heart!!!

For more information on The College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, click here.