Monthly Archives: May 2024

Disneyland Paris Review

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Over spring break, me and my family made a trip to Paris and one of our days we spent at Disneyland Paris. I very much enjoyed my day, but beforehand would have liked some guides, so in case anyone is planning to go there, or just wants to know a little more about Disney Paris, here are some tips and my reviews.

Quick Overview:

Disneyland Paris has 2 parks, the main park (Disneyland Paris) and the Walt Disney Studios Park. The main park is much larger, featuring more of the classic Disney rides, similar to the park in Anaheim, with their own little twists. The Walt Disney Studios has some of the newer developments, like Toy Story Land and Avengers Campus. There are also many hotels near the parks.

My review:

I think that Disney Paris was super fun and a great place to spend a day at and even though I only spent a day at Disneyland Paris, I was still able to get on all the main rides at both parks, even being able to re-ride my favorites.

There were many rides ranging from super thrilling to pretty relaxed, and even though some were the same as the Disneyland Anaheim park, many were changed and different in their own ways. Some of my favorite rides were:

  • Hyperspace mountain: This space mountain was super thrilling and one of my favorite rides of the day! This coaster began with a launch uphill, giving great views of Discoveryland, and went  through many turns and a couple inversions. These exciting elements combined with the star wars graphics created an amazing experience.
  • Big Thunder Mountain: This was possibly my favorite part of the day. Through the whole coaster you got great views of the park because the roller coaster was located on an island, and although what some might consider a “tame” ride, it provided great thrills, and the ride itself was very long. I would recommend going on this at both day and night, because both provided great views of the park during the day, or lit up at night!
  • Avengers Flightforce: Flightforce was the most thrilling ride I went on all day. It was launched coaster themed Avengers where you went through many loops and sharp turns. All along the ride you were greeted with graphics of Captain Marvel and Iron man as you made your way through the indoor coaster. This was a super fun coaster overall, but one of the most surprising things about it was how short the line was. All day this line was under 20 minutes, and it may be because it was at the far end of the park, or it just didn’t have the audience in Disneyland Paris. Either way this was a fun packed coaster that I would recommend for anyone who wants a quick thrill.

Tips:

Going in, I did not know too much about the park, so here are some helpful tips for someone on their first visit:

  • Go to the rides you want to go on first: If there is a specific ride that you really want to go on, make sure to head there first to avoid long lines. Then, also, maybe later in the day you can be able to ride it again. To do this, you can go on the Disney Paris website, and see their attractions list in search for what you may be interested in
  • Go to Disneyland Paris, then Walt Disney Studios: If you have a park hopper, what I would recommend is starting your day off at Disneyland Paris (the main park), and then heading around halfway through your day to Walt Disney Hollywood Studios, where the lines are generally shorter. Once you have done all the desired rides at that park, then I would recommend going back to the main park to do the nighttime festivities, and ride any rides you want to repeat. For me this looked like getting to the main park at opening, around 2-3 pm going to Hollywood Studios, and then around 6-7 pm going back to the main park. This allows for you to have some time in your day at Hollywood studios, which has significantly less rides.
  • Preplan your day: Although you don’t need to know your exact agenda maybe before your trip look at the Disneyland Paris website for maps and attractions lists. Then remember some certain things that you want to do. But remember to keep it flexible because something will workout and some things might not, and especially do not overpack your schedule so you have time to just relax and enjoy the park

Overall, I think this is an amazing park! I would recommend this to people of all ages because there is so much to do for all ages.

Night by Elie Wiesel

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I must confess that when I first learned that we would be reading Elie Wiesel’s Night for my English class, I felt a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. But what can I say? It’s a requirement, so I read it with little to expect. I was wrong in many ways. Just a warning: this review contains spoilers.

It is a memoir that speaks about Wiesel’s experiences as a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Wiesel doesn’t just recount events; he invites us to walk beside him through the labyrinth of his memories, where each step is heavy with the burden of the past as he recounts his life in the small Transylvanian town of Sighet.

In the tranquil streets of Sighet, we glimpse the idyllic innocence of Eliezer’s childhood; young Eliezer’s world is filled with the simple joys of family, friendship, and the pursuit of knowledge.

He studies the Torah and the Kabbalah, taught by Moishe the Beadle. His studies are cut short when his teacher is deported. Months later, Moishe comes back, saying that the Gestapo took charge of his train, led everyone into the woods, and butchered them. Nobody believed him and called him insane. Then in the spring of 1944, the Nazis take over Hungary. The Jews of Eliezer’s town are forced into small ghettos within Sighet. They are herded onto cattle cars and forced to spend days and nights crammed into the car, exhausted and near starvation, until they arrive at Birkenau.

Wiesel recounts his journey through the terror of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where he experiences the brutality of the concentration camps firsthand. Wiesel sees many horrible things that scar him for life, recounting his and the experiences of many who had tried to hide whatever happened. Wiesel doesn’t hold back and tells everything, all the terrible things he went through during the Holocaust. He doesn’t sugarcoat it or leave anything out. This honest account of his experiences helps us understand how awful it was and how much it hurt him and everyone else who went through this dark time in history. I found myself transported there with him as he struggled to survive.

In the end, Night is more than just a memoir; it is an essential memory of one of the darkest chapters in human history, the Holocaust, and what many had to go through during that tragic time. It’s also a reminder that even in our darkest moments, there’s hope to be found. The memoir is exceptionally well-written and retells an authentic and meaningful story. Through his assertive storytelling and unflinching honesty, Elie Wiesel ensures that Holocaust victims will never be silenced. If you want to experience this memoir, it is available at Mission Viejo Library.

Here’s to a new reading experience!
Bella H

Night by Elie Wiesel is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Consumerism

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2024 is already an abnormal year for marketing and consuming, why is that?

March 12, 2024 marks 4 years since the pandemic and approximately 3 years since quarantine was cut. Since we were all held in our houses, unable to live properly, and make enough money to get us what we want and enough to get us our basic needs, we now see a burst of spending because of us being trapped.

Why do we consume what we consume though? Because us as humans, we have put ourselves in specific groups (or to specific people) and are comparing ourselves with others in that group that we see ourselves in, so we would consume what they have and become them, weather we have the money or wealth for it or not. 

That is an example of competitive consumption, which is the idea that we spend because we are comparing ourselves with peers that are spending, like celebrities, higher hierarchy, etc. In our society, we have structured things on social esteem which is connected to what we can consume. Which that in of itself means that we consume affects our social value… money measures worth and value, weather we like it or not that’s how people are viewed.

Humans aren’t driven by advertisements as well. Not in all scenarios though, some advertisements do hook people and get them to consume things they don’t actually need. Rather that people are just driven to things that compel them and make them more valuable by the people in the group they see themselves apart of, an example is if your whole family and some friends got a specific item, you are more in likely to purchase that item..

Us humans are also drown to cheaper stuff, which is what technology has began to market in the 1920. Another example are sales, we are drown to things listed as “–% off” or even that propaganda term “up too –% off”. 

Consumerism has too do with hierarchy, and its burst right now is because we were unable to get products that make us feel/look valuable or be seen as the group you compare yourself to.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22547185/consumerism-competition-history-interview

-Zina K

Five Feet Apart Book Review (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

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Five Feet Apart is a great book written by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott, and Tobias Iaconis. It is a coming of age romance story similar to The Fault in Our Stars. It was a pretty good book. I had already seen the movie before reading it, but, like always, the book was much better.

Five Feet Apart centers around a girl named Stella who has cystic fibrosis, which is a disease that affects your lungs. While at the hospital for monitoring, she meets Will. He is the classic bad boy, the “you only live once” type. You can’t blame him though, he not only has cystic fibrosis, he also has Burkholderia cepacia, which is basically a death sentence.

The two of them meet at the hospital when Stella, our hyper-organized-wants-to keep-living protagonist, sees Will skip his vital treatments. Not only is he basically trying to die, he is one of the few patients on a special new experimental drug. Therefore, he is eliminating someone else’s chance for living too. Naturally, Stella is pissed about that so she doesn’t like him. Will, however, think she’s hot and interesting. The two of them officially meet and it’s a disaster. It’s so bad in fact that she gets him in trouble. 

Given the fact that Stella has been going to the same hospital for all of her life, she’s made a few friends there. In fact, her best friend, Poe, is a permanent resident at the hospital. Poe is a Colombian soccer-loving aspiring chef. In my opinion, he’s by far the best character in the book. Anyways, Stella complains about Will to Poe (which let’s all be real, sometimes we complain about people to our best friends). The two of them talk it out, and Stella gives Will a chance.

Eventually, Stella and Will make a deal. She will talk to him if he does his medication every day. Over time, they start to fall for each other. Cystic fibrosis is a serious illness that leads to the death of most patients, unless they get new lungs. To prevent infections and an even higher chance of death, patients with CF have to stay at least 6 feet from each other at all times. The two lovebirds hate that rule because they can never get physically close to each other. So, they modify the rule. They steal back a foot, making them FIVE feet apart. Get the title now?

As the book moves along, Stella and Will get caught together and their nurse, Nurse Barb, is NOT happy about that. She had seen couples like them before and they always ended in death. In her attempts to keep the two of them apart, they only grow closer. 

Then, it’s Will’s birthday! Yay! Stella sets up a scavenger hunt for him around the hospital, ending in a big dinner with her, Poe and two of his friends. Poe makes an amazing dinner and an astounding cake that everyone loves. And it’s all going great, right? How could this perfect moment possibly be ruined? Oh wait, we forgot about Nurse Barb. She crashes their party and everyone is sent back to their respective rooms for the night.

Suddenly, Stella hears the blaring emergency alarm. As she swarms around in panic, she learns that it was Poe’s room setting off the alarm. His heart had stopped. Much to my dismay and my tears, Poe died that night. It was awful. The worst part was that Stella, in all her sadness and fury, threw the glass jar of black truffles that Poe had given her into the wall, smashing it into pieces. Personally, I hate this part of the book because I loved Poe. 

After that, Stella goes kinda crazy. She becomes reckless and runs outside, taking Will with her. She wanted to go look at the holiday lights with the guy she liked. Stella broke tons of rules and was buried deep in her sorrow, when she got the text. New lungs had arrived for her. New lungs meant a new life, meant she could live a little before she died. But it also meant that she was living when Poe was not. Stella ignored the texts and calls. She then had the bright idea to go on the iced over lake. On the lake, Will learns about the lungs and wants to get her to the hospital immediately. She did not want to go though and whilst they were talking, the ice under Stella broke and she went plunging into the freezing water. Will jumps in to save her, and once he pulls her out of the water, he noticed that she wasn’t breathing. Willm performs CPR on her, knowing that he would probably give her b. cepacia and ruin her chances at the new lungs. After that, he calls Nurse Barb and they get back to the hospital. 

Stella gets her new lungs, and as she was looking for Will in her room, she realized that he wasn’t there. She gets a call on her phone from him to look out the window. There he was, standing in front of holiday lights just like she wanted. He told her that he had to leave for her, to protect her. The two of them share a heartfelt goodbye and Will disappears.

Fast forward to the epilogue, we see Stella traveling the world and who’s that in the airport. Oh my, it’s Will!!

This book almost made me cry, mainly the part about Poe to be honest. It’s a pretty cheesy book, but overall it’s very good. I recommend this book if you like the book The Fault in Our Stars or just any young romance novel.

Five Feet Apart by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott, and Tobias Iaconis is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Book Review: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson)

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Two weeks ago, I started reading the series Percy Jackson. This series starts with the book The Lightning Thief. The book begins with an introduction to the main character Percy Jackson. He goes on a field trip with his classmates when a series of mysterious events occur (a monster attempts to kill him). Percy gets expelled from his school and learns that he is a half-blood, or demigod. This means that he is a child of a god and a mortal.

Later, Percy is sent to a camp for half-bloods and is sent on a quest with his friends Annabeth and Grover to retrieve Zeus’ lightning bolt; in the hopes of preventing a war. In this process, Percy discovers he is the child of Poseidon. As the chapters precede, Percy ends up returning the lightning bolt to the gods, and learns that his friend betrayed him by stealing the bolt himself.

Though this was the first Rick Riordan book I have ever read, I can confidently say that Riordan is an excellent writer. If you are looking for a series that is exciting, mysterious, and suspenseful, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a great contestant. I enjoyed this book because it was entertaining to read—there was never a dull moment. This book started out strong and ended strong as well. Despite the fact that The Lightning Thief is the first book in the series, Percy has much character development. I feel that he gains much wisdom after completing his first quest.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

A Book Review For Five Survive by Holly Jackson

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Six people crammed into a tiny RV. Five come back alive. This is what drew me to the book, Five Survive by the amazing author Holly Jackson, the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Red, the main character is a young girl going through the trauma of losing her mom. Although it may sound cliche at first, Jackson uses this short detail to move the story along and adds the biggest plot twist at the end.

Red, her best friend Maddy, Maddy’s older brother Oliver his girlfriend Reyna, and two friends Arthur and Simon on journeying on a long trip at the start spring break. They’re all looking forward to warm sandy beaches and wild parties. But that fun would never come. They wouldn’t make it to the beach. They wouldn’t even be close. One wrong turn leads them down a rabbit hole of secrets and someone won’t be getting out alive.

Red: She doesn’t have the best childhood. Her mom, one of her best friends and someone she looks up to died a few years before this trip. It has really taken a lot out of her self esteem and her family fell apart at the seams. Her dad turned into an alcoholic and spent all their money on drinks. Red had to be the parent and take care of her dad even with such a heavy emotional baggage. She carries around the thought that she was the one who had killed her mother. This leads her down a path of depression and obsessiveness over the reason her mother died which still remains a mystery to this day.

Maddy: This is Red’s best friend since childhood. Their moms were the best of best friends and Maddy’s mom cared for Red like a second mother. Sleepovers and hangouts were constant, there was no reason to suspect anything bad. Until this roadtrip exposed some dark secrets that led Maddy to discover family secrets that have never been spoken aloud.

Oliver: He is your typical arrogant smart guy who thinks that he knows it all. His snotty and blaming attitude immediately gets him off to a bad start. Siimon is also Maddy’s older brother which is surprising due to their conflicting personalities that clash. Some wrong turns were taken and soon enough wrong doings are made.

Reyna: Reyna is smart and shy but she doesn’t lay down in a fight. She is the girlfriend of Oliver’s and her dark past will be revealed in a startling game of sharing secrets. She is an aspiring nurse in a prestigious program, ready to start her life. Will this trip end it?

Simon: He is your typical happy and very drunk guy. He always lifts up the mood especially when he gets his hands on a bit of alcohol. When the signal goes out and the darkness sets in, even Simon won’t be able to lift the depressing mood.

Arthur: Arthur. There’s not much known about him or his past. He just appeared in their lives and joined the group.

Read Five Survive to find out what will happen to the seemly unbreakable bond between 6 friends looking forward to a relaxing vacation on the beach that will never come.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

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**this review will contain spoilers**

I would say I’m a hunger games fan as I had not only read the series once but twice and I’ve watched each movie a countless number of times. I actually had read the The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes before I went to go watch the movie to fully prepare myself for what was going to come.

The book follows along with Coriolanus Snow, now known as President Snow of Panem. Viewers get to see his progression of how he becomes associated within the Capitol and what sets him to later become President. Coriolanus Snow would be perceivably an outlier within the Capitol with his family being relatively poor, his parents dead, him living with only his cousin Tigris and grandmother also known as Grandma’am.

Coriolanus Snow is picked to become a mentor in the iconic and annual, 10th Hunger Games. Dean Highbottom, the creator of the Hunger Games assigns all 24 mentors to the 24 tributes; Snow ends up pairing with performer, Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Lucy Gray is seen as this eccentric character especially at her reaping ceremony with her wearing this rainbow dress, stuffing a snake down the mayor’s daughter, singing, it goes on. Snow hopes that Lucy Gray’s entertainment will come of value for those in the Capitol to enjoy her presence and sponsor her throughout the Games.

As the Games commence, tributes are slowly killed off one by one within this arena and a victor is left, being Lucy Gray. After the games, Lucy Gray is returned to District 12 to continue her performative personality by singing with her band, The Covey. However, Snow is left to become a Peacekeeper because it was found that he had cheated within the games to help Lucy Gray win. He is originally sent to District 8 but manages to switch his post to District 12 in hopes to see Lucy Gray and rekindle the romance that was evident when the Games commenced.

Now with both Lucy Gray and Snow in District 12 they live out this fantasy of a perfect life between the two of them but Snow gets caught up in troubles he’s made–lies, cheating, murders, etc. Lucy Gray and Snow head out to a cabin near a lake to settle for the night as they trek to leave District 12 and escape to a place without Capitol control but all the troubles Snow has been caught up in are slowly being pieced together by Lucy Gray. Lucy Gray makes up an excuse to leave the cabin and Snow feels suspicious and tries to find her but she has fled. He goes crazy being fed up with this paranoia and knowing he lost the one person who he had trusted.

Snow’s journey has just started as he returns back to the Capitol and to presume the life that he always strived to get. With his close friend, Sejanus Plinth dead, the Plinths take Snow under their wing as almost like a “replacement” son. Snow now heir to the Plinth fortune, he has an opportunity to truly succeed in the Capitol life which is evident he does so in the trilogy where he is the President of Panem.

That was a brief summary of the movie, but there is so much more that hasn’t been said. I think the only way to truly understand is just by watching the movie itself, especially with it being 2 and a half hours long. I will say even knowing the plot of the movie beforehand didn’t prepare for seeing it come to life and I felt emotionally attached for days on end. FYI there are a few jump scares so just stay prepared!! Honestly, you don’t need to watch the other Hunger Games movies before this one but it would be recommended because it gives you the background you would want to know to fully understand the little hints and details within The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

-Madison C.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. 

September 30 Oakland Athletics vs. Los Angels Angels

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Today I went to an Angels game with my mom and my baby sister. This was a typical Angels game that we got a lot of autographs near the bullpen and in the players parking lot. I got to the line a bit late than last time but i was able to get autographs by many players.

Oakland Athletics Starting Lineup:

  1. Ryan Noda: First Base
  2. Zack Gelof: Second Base
  3. Brent Rooker: Right Field
  4. JJ Bleday: Left Field
  5. Shea Langeliers: Catcher
  6. Jordan Diaz: Third Base
  7. Carlos Perez: Designated Hitter
  8. Nick Allen: Shortstop
  9. Esteury Ruiz: Center Field

Game Result:

Oakland Athletics vs. Los Angeles Angels

7-3 Athletics Win

Baseballs and Autographs from Players and Coaches:

  • An autograph on my baseball glove by Athletics Quality Control Coach Marcus Jensen.
  • An autograph on my baseball glove by Angels Pitcher Davis Daniel.
  • An baseball from Angels Catching Coach Drew Butera and an autograph on the baseball by Angels Catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
  • An autograph on my baseball glove by Athletics Bullpen Catcher Wilkin Castillo.

Fun Facts about Ryan Noda

Ryan Noda is a 27 year old who first got drafted to the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2017 as a first baseman then he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. Then he was traded to the Oakland Athletics. Ryan Noda attended to Great Community High School and he went to University of Cincinnati to play baseball.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Review

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In my 10th grade ELA class, we read the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This story includes the themes of love and identity. The main character, Janie Crawford, reflects on her entire life throughout the story. She explains the restrictions of her childhood to the constant desire for love in her adulthood. As an African American, Janie has to frequently deal with discrimination and racism, but she continues to persevere.

Janie’s friend Pheoby Watson sits on Janie’s porch and listens to her story. She describes her grandma (Nanny) and the limits she placed on Janie. Nanny lived through slavery and emphasized security and protection. She valued safety over following dreams, contradicting Janie’s beliefs. Nanny forced Janie to marry an unappealing man named Logan Killicks since he can offer stability. Killicks does not provide the sense of love that Janie desires, and the relationship shortly ends. Janie’s next man, Joe (Jody) Starks, takes her away from Logan Killicks and charms her. They stay together for almost 20 years, and Jody promises a life of prosperity. However, he attempts to remove her identity, and Janie learns that she also wants freedom. Finally, Janie meets Tea Cake, who seems to be the love of her life. Tea Cake offers more than just wealth and status: a sense of kindness that Janie had never experienced. As Janie matures, she accepts his flaws and continues to love him. However, when he gets rabies, she is forced to shoot him as he attacks her.

Janie shows levels of growth throughout the novel. She begins to value herself and her identity much more. The story represents the African American community and brings attention to the issues they face. Hurston uses countless examples of figurative language to further illustrate Janie’s struggles to readers. She wants to prove the importance of following your dreams and maximizing your happiness. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a great example of the power of love and identity. It is a great piece of literature that has many twists and turns throughout Janie’s life.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

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John Lennon, a hit member from the group “The Beatles” was pronounced dead due to Mark Chapman’s assassination. Mark Chapman, a deranged fan of The Catcher in the Rye felt as if he was identical to the main character, Holden Caulfield. Mark Chapman had killed John Lennon because he believed that he was a phony, a huge theme in the book.

The Catcher in the Rye is a book showcasing the main character, Holden Caulfield, wandering around the streets of New York and trying to understand what he wants to do in life. The book is still extremely relevant to people today as it demonstrates teenage emotions in the real world and an extremely realistic picture of someone who has lost something important. Holden Caulfield’s thoughts are all over the place in the book and to some it may feel like a bunch of words on a paper. Though to others, it’s realistic, it’s all of his thoughts as a teenager and it really represents the struggles of just being a teenager in between childhood and adulthood. Holden represents our uneasy feeling of walking off a cliff into becoming an adult and having to leave our childhood behind. Holden represents how us as teens would deal with grief and hardships without any guidance. Holden is a cry for help and he teaches us the truth about how much a guardian really means to someone so young.

Why aren’t we doing anything to stop growing up? Why has everyone turned so fake recently? What are we really meant to do? Many questions similar to these are brought up in the novel and it’s very intriguing and beautiful to watch someone we can all relate to try to figure out the answers. The book is relatable to all people. For those who are teens, it really clicks with you and gives you a sense of connectedness, like you aren’t alone. For those who are older, it brings back those teenage years and will definitely bring back the teenage self that still lives inside of you.

The Catcher in the Rye stands out to me because of all the emotions I went through while reading it and the feeling of realization when I found out that all of his thoughts really meant something and all of the subliminal messages inside of the novel. While re-reading the book you can really see all of his cries for help that you may not have picked up before and all the symbolism you may have brushed off. The Catcher in the Rye gave me a whole new understanding of books and a new perspective on the meanings of books.

So why was John Lennon really assassinated? Was it really because of The Catcher in the Rye? In all honestly, I don’t know. What I do know, however, Mark Chapman feared Lennon’s fame and really believed he was just a huge phony.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Libby.