Tuesday, February 28, 2012

An Interview with Maggie-by anna

An Interview With Maggie Wiener

Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of SOAR?

A: I enjoy watching movies, fishing, traveling, trivia, exploring Asheville, cooking (pizza’s mostly), ZUMBA/working out with Julie and Ramona, reading, and “tea time”.

Q: All of the students at SOAR have 3 main goals to work towards while they are here. Do you have any goals? If so name a few.

A: I am hoping to become more organized. I would like to travel more. I move around so much that it seems like I don’t have any permanent homes, so I would like to work on creating a home also.

Q: What got you interested in working at SOAR?

A: It’s everything I like doing. Being outdoors, cooking, and adventure! But at the same time it has challenge and purpose.

Q: At SOAR we do wild and crazy trips! Are there any wild and crazy trips that you have been on outside of SOAR?

A: 1- When I was 19 years old, I backpacked Europe with my brother. 2- I studied abroad in Kenya. 3- I worked at a clinic in Uganda. 4- I rebuilt temples in Thailand.

Q: SOAR deals with kids that have learning disabilities. Do you have any learning disabilities? If so, what are they?

A: I can’t read numbers. I can’t tell the difference between a lot of numbers when they are written down.

Q: What’s your favorite meal to eat at SOAR?

A: Trail Pizza!

Q: How do you cope with your anger?

A: Do something else. Channel the anger into doing something productive.

Q: What is a strength you have?

A: On my strength finder my two top ones are adaptability and action. I think I do well being flexible and working with other people. And I do well setting plans in motion.

Q: What are some of your weaknesses?

A: Chaos and inactivity make me really frustrated. Also, keeping my room clean.

Q: How long do you plan to work at SOAR?

A: Until one of my current students becomes my staff partner, then it’s time to retire!!

Friday, February 10, 2012

J.K.'s 2nd x blog 2012

For the last two weeks I was in the Keys. The Keys are in southern Florida. In the Keys I fished, got SCUBA certified, snorkeled, tasted hot sauce, and ate a GIANT cookie and ice cream.

I tasted hot sauce at a place in Key West called Peppers. At Peppers they had the hottest hot sauce in the world. It costs about $2,000 and if the bottle breaks you have to call hazmat, that’s what they said at least. It can also leave 3^rd degree burns, or at least that’s what they said. They also said that it can kill you if you don’t train for it, or if you eat too much. You also have to sign a waiver to say that if you die from the tiniest little taste it’s not their fault and basically they had nothing to do with it because you basically signed a paper so they could kind of in a way kill you.

Also in Key West I went to a place called Kermits.
This is where I had the GIANT cookies and ice cream. The cookie was as big as my face, literally!! The ice cream was not as big as the cookie but they were both very VERY good!! It only took me about two minutes from the time I got them to the time I was finished. While in Kermits, we tasted the various samples. There were samples of jelly beans, key lime cookies, and salsa, yes salsa, at an everything key lime store. I wish I could have eaten the whole time but I had better fish to fry.

The better fish was in SCUBA. SCUBA stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. My dad used to certify others just like Greg and J.B. did for us. >=?{[]))))). J.B. and Greg were awesome. Sure the things my dad taught me were a little out dated but they were still useful and helpful.

In conclusion, I had a very wonderful time down in the keys.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Allie Key west

Allie Bridges 02-4-2012

Today is Saturday and our first expedition has now come to an conclusion. We are now headed back to the Base after two weeks in the Florida KeysJ! Life in the Keys was amazing, relaxing and very exciting. <3 Today we woke up a 4AM to make the 16 hour dive back to North Carolina. It should be better than our drive down here which was a two day trip down. Monday morning we woke up at base and we were in the van by 9AM that morning.

The first few hours were not very eventful and nothing really happened. Then things started to get interesting in Georgia. Our first incident was that the van popped a tire from running over a nail. We pulled over on the side of the highway and started fooling around and doing some Scuba work. It took Richard 2 hours to return with the van (we were all very happy to see him after wards). The rest of that day went by without any other difficulties. We camped at a very nice camp ground that was on the outskirts of Florida.

The next morning we woke up at the usual 6AM and did our run and loaded everything back up into the van and started driving again. Everyone was pretty quiet and was occupied with their iPods and books that they had brought with them ( I finished two books in 5 hours J). Then about 4 hours before we got to our destination all the tires on the boat trailer went flat. J So at 7 o’clock at night we pulled over at a tire place and got new tires. Then we got back on the road. We arrived at Scout Key at about 12AM <3. The counselors had a lot of tired and mad kids setting up tents. J

The two weeks flew by with the boat, scuba diving and just having a blast. We went to Bahia Honda State park, The Hemingway house in Key West and Fort Jefferson also in Key West. We had a fabulous time but my all-time favorite was going to the Hemingway house and seeing all of the 6 toed cats and learning that Mr. Hemingway was the first person to build a pool in his house. But the two weeks were up L and the Saturday we were going home. So we went to KEY WEST! We had fun their and watched all of the street performers and bought a lot of snacks and sweets. All in all we had an awesome time. Then Saturday morning we were woken up at 4AM to hit the road back to North Carolina.

The trip back seemed a lot faster than the way down because first, we didn’t have that big old boat to hall around everywhere and nothing bad happened. For the most part we slept. We also caught up on sleep when we weren’t eating or getting mad at each other for getting in our sleeping areas. All in all we slept for more than we were awake until about 11PM, when everyone was asleep but me and Anna, but me and Anna got to have a snack and we got Orange Crush and we got high and started singing to Phineas and Pherb, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lavato and the Cheetah Girls. It was sooo Amazing and fun J . We arrived back in North Carolina about 11:00PM. When we got out of the van there were a couple of gasps because it was so COLD!!!!!!! J . THEN WE WENT TO SSSSSSSSLLLLLLEEEEEEEPPPPPP!!!!!! (not that we really needed it) ;p

Love lots, Allie C. Bridges

nikos blog for keys 2/4/12

Niko blog 2/4/12

I have learned how to scuba dive. This has made me a better person in terms of getting away from reality and it is very meditative. I also learned to control my anger way better. I have seen and learned way more about the ocean because I was in it for around three hours.

Our team continues to grow and get better at working together. The team has grown with our new team member, Allie. She has been a great addition to the team. I’m already having an amazing time. I feel so lucky to be here. I miss my family I love them so much. But I do have a nine-person family here too, so I guess I’ll live.

___-_______-_______--______________---______ Niko______--_________-------------________--------___--

x2 Sarge

My experience on last expedition was cool.

The benefits outweigh the risks.

Soar is awesome no questions asked!!!!

Last is the Florida Keys.

We visited Key West a.k.a. key weird a.k.a. bone key.

We went to the Hemingway House.

We saw 6 toed cats and a cat graveyard.

Went to a Fort and played.

Fort Zachary Taylor is its name.

It was a fort built in the presidential term of Zachary Taylor.

It was used for a blockade squadron headquarters during the Civil War.