Destination imagination, all I ever heard from my friends that where in plp last year was that its the worst thing they’ve ever done, that its like hell. So from the start I pretty much had no confidence and was dreading doing it the second I found out I was in plp but lets just say that it actually wasn’t that bad. From the start I was actually very happy with the group I was placed in, my group consisted of Ryan, Alex, Tatum and myself. My group was very well balanced and we where all happy with who we where partnered with.
Planning: So are challenge that we got was the project outreach challenge, we had to find a problem in a community and solve the problem. We kind of already knew what we where going to do from the begging, our plan was to build a model of a mini hatchery that could purify water and create a safe hating area for the cutthrought salmon that live in the stream near Alex’s house, we never actually built a real hat hatchery as that would cost thousands of dollars and we didn’t have that sort of budget. We did build a model of the hatchery out of wood and glue that kept falling apart due to people knocking it over (willemse wasn’t to happy about that). To present our challenge we had to implement the problem into a fairy tale and have main characters who are not human, Tatum wrote the script and apparently it was very good because that was one of the best parts of our presentation. Me and Ryan where the main characters of the story, the story is that Timothy the trout has a best friend named Bruce the bear, one day Timothy is swimming around and runs into a bunch of garbage, the local troll rags has been polluting the stream so Bruce comes up with a plan to create a hatchery and water purifying system. Bruce shows Timothy his plan and they decide to go talk to rags about it, rags agrees that he’ll move away from the stream and try to stop polluting as much, Timothy and bruce build a small model design of the hatchery and are ready to build the real one but the city dwellers tell them they can’t build it due to the permit restrictions. In the end Timothy and Bruce are saddened by the results but decide to make another plan to fix their problem. The ending reflects upon how we couldn’t get permits to actually build a hatchery and how we didn’t have enough money to carry out the plan.

Destination imagination: 6:30 AM, my alarm was ringing and DI was just starting. We had to meet at St. George’s at 8:00 AM for the opening of DI, I was very nervous as I hadn’t fully memorized my script and I wasn’t sure how many people we had to present in front of. We also had to do a team challenge before our presentation so we could be evaluated on our teamwork and ability to solve challenges. All I can say is that my team crushed the challenge, I’m not really sure I can say what the challenge was but we almost got maximum points and we all worked as a team to complete it. I can personally say that DI is very hectic, there isn’t an age restriction so there are a bunch of younger grades running around and doing stuff I personally think shouldn’t be done at a big important presentation like this. I found it very distracting and annoying but the most annoying thing about DI was their planning, while waiting to do the team challenge they where half an hour late so we had to wait around and we could’ve spent that time rehearsing our lines. Another time was when, at the end of DI you all move to the gym To receive awards and find out which teams did the best, that usually starts at around 4:30-5:30 PM but we had to wait in the gym all the way to 6:00 PM just so they could say that they where experiencing technical difficulties. They could of just told us that twenty minutes after their computers not working but they didn’t and had to extend it out.

Presentation & Scoring: So, it was around forty minutes before we had to do our presentation, all my group memebers and I where in a class room a few doors down practicing the lines and growing through the presentation to make sure we knew what we where doing. Around twenty minutes before go time and we started heading down to the presentation class room, we brought everything we need like the “ghetto backdrop” we made (Ms. Willemse hates it when we say that), each of the costumes we made ( I was dressed as a bear, Ryan was a trout, Tatum was the fairy narrator and Alex was rags the troll). We went down early so we could answer the questions that one of the judges had about are presentation like “will your presentation use live explosives or anything that goes boom”, we answered her questions and moved into the room. I looked to the crowd of around twenty five people and all faces seemed familiar, I could see most of my class mates, my family, and my wonderful teachers. Ok so now is when we really started feeling nervous, the model of the hatchery we mad had made fell over so me and Alex where taping it back together as Tatum and Ryan fixed the backdrop. We all got our costumes on and set everything up, we hadn’t fully memeorized the script so for good measure ryan had put the script in a TelePrompTer app on his iPad and set it up behind a box in front of us just in case. We all got behind the backdrop and Tatum walked to the front to start the narration, Soon after Ryan walked in and said some of his lines and soon after that it was my turn. I walked to the front and said my first couple lines, the crowd laughed, they loved our script. We where told that everyone loved all the humour and it was a good change from all the other groups that had very dark stories. Our background did fall over so me and Tatum had to hold it up for half of our presentation time, the judges loved our story and execution. We where the only senior team doing project outreach so there was no possible way to come in second, we still tried our best and I think it showed off. For Regionals my group has to redo the whole challenge, we have to find a new problem, Ryan have alex have suggested that we donate money to help Field prep at MSLL (mount Seymour little league). It wo uld would make a safer and cleaner environment for the kids playing baseball. We would make an instructional video showing how to properly prep the field and revolve a fairytale around it. I personally think DI isnt the greates thing in the world but it’s definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever done, it builds public speaking skills, team building skills, willemse and Hughes points, leadership. These are all skills id love to improve and i hope to improve throughout the rest of the year. By the end of the year i hope to score higher with DI regionals and achieve bigger with my goals, DI was pretty fun and id like to see how it turns out next year. (Below is a video my friend Alex uploaded of our presentation)

Continue reading

My journey started at 3:00 AM, alarm screeching, suitcases rolling. Plp 9 was about to take flight, we where headed to the Vancouver airport. Our quest was to create a video explaining what draws us to imaginary worlds, so what place would be better to film in than Disney world. We met at the airport at 4:30 AM, two flights where ahead of us a Vancouver to seattle, then seattle to Florida. We where all very tired and security was just another block ahead of us. Me and my friends thought it was hilarious when our friend kyle got stopped as his suitcase was full of liquids like shower gel (he wasn’t too happy). I sat next to my friend Will on the first flight and we decided to watch the master piece of a film Sharknado The 4th Awakens. When landing in Seattle I quickly ran to the nearest Starbucks in need of a nice cup of coffee to wake me up, my plan was ruined when mr Hughes said the line was too long so I quickly grabbed a sandwich and Gatorade instead. On the flight to Florida I sat next to my friend Kyle, the flight seemed really long as I watched two of my favourite movies Straight Outta Compton, and Pulp Fiction.

Are first day in Florida was spent in the magic kingdom, we where up bright and early for rope drop so we could go on the most popular rides. The first ride up was “Seven Dwarves Mine Train” and then splash mountain, getting there early was a great idea because the lines get massive and its more enjoyable not waiting in long lines. We stayed for around twelve hours which was exhausting but all worth it at the end, the fireworks in the magic kingdom where spectacular, a great end to an amazing day.

Our second full day of being in Florida was spent at Universal Studios, this was definitely my favourite place of the whole trip.
Universal studios is amazing, the rides are a lot more intense than the rides at Disney, but universal isnt as immersive and magical as Disney world due to the theming. My favourite ride there was The Rip Ride Rocket, it’s a very extreme roller coaster that has many twists and turns, it was my favourite ride of the whole trip becasaue it was just so fun.

The third day we went straight to a wildlife reserve, we went on a peaceful nature walk to see what wildlife we could find after we went on a scenic drive to get pictures of crocodiles, we then stopped by to go on an airboat. The airboat was really fun, the feeling of air rushing through my hair as we rush down on a big air boat felt really cool. Another great experience that day was eating alligator meat, it was very salty but surprisingly good even my friend Robbie liked it which is very weird due to him being very selective with food.

After an an amazing sleep and a few too many coffees we where up and ready for our next adventure. Today’s plan was to go Surfing! I was quite nervous as I had never been surfing before, but after some training we where all ready to head down to the beach. Standing on the edge of the water with my board was quite exciting, me and my friends all paddled out to the instructors. I wasn’t very good at it but i always got back up on my board and kept trying. Surfing was great fun and i think of could get a lot netter woith Moore practise. Our next stop was Astronaught training at one of nasas visiting centres. It was very interesting and i learned a lot about what technology nasa uses, how the astronauts work in space, and how to land properly land a space shuttle (sorta).

After a tiring day of surfing we headed to over to nasas Kennedy space centre, i was very excited as i love learning about space and other worlds. I was actually really sick this day so I wasn’t fully there but it was still very interesting. Some people got to gon on an extra tour that went around showing the control room of the first moon mission. It was very cool but i just couldnt stay awake and actually fell asleep for like five minuets. After we got to go have a great lunch meet up with an astronaut. I cant recall his name but he lets us ask him questions, it was just great getting another perspective from someone who has actually been into space (he also had a great sense of humour).

EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was probably the breaking point for a lot of people. I can agree that Walt disneys invision for it seemed really cool but I couldn’t stand Epcot. In my opinion the rides where uninteresting and very boring. The best part of Epcot was definitely all the different countries inside of it, there  is a section of Epcot where there are little sections dedicated to other countries. The cool thing about this is that each person that works in that country is acually from that country so your can ask them questions and it’s just really cool getting those stories. Epcot was definitely my least park of Disney world but I’m still glad we went.

Next park up was animal kingdom, this park was amazing. Thoughout the trip i had constantly been filming the trip to get footage for my video but today was the day I literally filmed almost everything. Our project was to make a video showing how a ride from disney world draws us in to the imaginary world, and how we are drawn to imaginary worlds. My ride that i chose was the ride named “Dinosaur”. Making this video taught me a lot, before leaving for Florida we learned a lot about shooting videos and how top make a good well thought out video. But actua;l;y filming and choosing the right angles to further and make the story more interesting was very fun, and useful to filmmaking. I loved the rides in the animal kingdom especially the ride titled “Everest”. It’s a great ride and probably one of the best rides in disney world. Animal kingdom was great and definitely a highlight of the trip.

So the last full day of the trip, this day was interesting. Hollywood studios was the name of this disney park and its pretty good, some of the best rides in this park are holly wood tower of terror, star tours, Aerosmith, and many more. My favourite ride in this park was probably tower of terror as i sat next to my dear teacher Mr. Hughes which was hilarious, listening to his comontary as the story of he ride played out was very funny and each time the ride dropped you could hear him screaming at the top of his lubgs and see him grasping to the nearest wall. Another great thing at Hollywood studios is the Indiana jones stunt show, its a live show where stunt men/women show how they did some of the stunts in the Indiana jones movies. It’s one of the coolest live shows I’ve seen because they use real explosives and fire in their show, its really exciting and the stunts are very dangerous so its great fun to watch, I cant wait to come here again just to watch that show. I personally loved disney world and I’m definitely going back so i can share the experience with my family.

Ok so my favourite thing about are very last day in Florida was definitely sleeping in, we got to wake up at 8:00 AM!!!
Packing was horrible as i had bought so much stuff it was so hard to fit everything in my carry on, had a big breakfast so I wasn’t hungry on the plane. I was just really sad that the trip was over, I’ve never experienced anything like this before, this is my first year
In PLP and its been the best learning experience I’ve ever had, I’ve learned so much skills like public speaking, growth mindset, technology, language, writing essays, plp is definitely the best way of learning and i love it. The Plane ride home was terrible, i had to sit next to strangers that where they the nicest people, ran out of movies to watch so I listened to music for almost five hour straight. When we landed my mom was so happy to see me i thought my friends where going to pry her off of me. That’s night I slept for 12 hours straight and woke up with the amazing memories of the trip. Thank you again Ms. Willemse, and Mr. Hughes for planning this amazing trip and thank you Ms. Arnold and Ms. craven for coming belong with us.

Down below is a little video that I made showing what we did in Florida.