This idea came to me while I was listening to a really random playlist I made. It is filled with some of my favourite songs. Some of these songs are by: Maroon 5, The Script, Ron Pope, Ed Sheeran, P!nk, Edwin McClain, Hedley, songs from Tarzan, etc. (this just to list a few) 

    Yes I know...’Tarzan? Really? You have Disney music on your iPod?’, well you know what? Yes, yes I do have Disney music. The Tarzan sound track is by the way incredible and sung by Phil Collins. Who I might add, is an amazing guitar play and singer. But, I do have the Broadway version of The Lion King on there as well... 

    As you can tell from the crazy playlist, I like a variety of different types of music. Music wise, I like: Pop, Rock, General Rock, some R&B/soul, a little bit of the Electronic music, Dance, some Country, Alternative, Indie, Instrumental, and some Classical stuff too.  

    One type of music I am not really fond of is rap. Rap has taken over music these days. There are so many songs that have an amazing chorus, but are full of raping! Like the song Airplanes, I love the chorus but I don’t really like the verses. I mean, yes some are ok, but all the others? I can only really take rap in small doses.  

    One thing I have found is that my parents influenced my taste in music a lot. I grew up listening to old rock and old pop music. Long trips in the car, my parents would plan out the different CDs they were going to bring. My mom has this one CD that she always plays every time we travel by car on our trips. Some parents let their kids chose the radio station in the car, but with me... I have to beg and pled to get them to change it. But, most of the time I don’t even care if my parents have their station playing though, because I am most likely singing along too.  

    My dad has gotten me into a lot of different band and artists that he has been playing around me so long that I can sing along to most of them. These bands and artists include: The Who (dad’s favourite), Pink Floyd, Yes, Collective Soul, ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Jack Johnson, Phil Collins, The old Train albums, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Goo Goo Dolls, Queen, and so many others I can’t list them all. My dad doesn’t really like all the pop I listen to now, he’d rather his rock. 

    My mom also got me into some artists too. They are: Elton John, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Billy Joel, and some others I can’t remember at the moment. My mom compared to my dad is more understanding and kind of likes some of the pop songs. 

    When I hear a new song, I always listen for a guitar or piano. I love the sound that the guitar makes whether it is electric or acoustic. I actually always wanted to play the guitar. I know a little, but can only really play songs like Yankee Doodle and Au Clair du Lune that are from the guitar book I have. I also would love to play the piano too. I like these instruments for their sound, as well as the fact that they are the two main instruments people use when writing songs. 

    One of my all time favourite songs is Edwin McClain’s song I’ll Be. It is a beautiful love song that I just can’t not love it love. I first heard it from the movie ‘A Cinderella Story’ actually. A Cinderella Story is one of my favourite movies, even if it is one of those cheesy love stories.  



So what music do you listen to? Have a favourite band or artist?



^^here's the link from where I got the picture: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3qj05pw8s1rv94oxo1_1280.png

Everyone has that one thing that they are good at. That one thing they love doing. For some people it would be playing a certain sport. And for others it may be performing music or acting on stage. Maybe it could be creating a work of art. Whatever it might be, everyone has one. 

For me, that one thing is swimming. Not just lane swimming, but synchronized swimming. Everyone that knows me probably already knows that I am obsessed with it. If you read my ‘What Happened In Aruba?’ blog post, you probably even know. 

I know I complain about my practices, all the time. But when I am swimming in the chlorine filled water I feel at home. The moment after you know you swam a good run-through, is probably the best feeling in the world. 

Just over the past long weekend I had a competition, Saturday to be exact. For both events I swam at, my team swam first. Our first event was the first event of the day. So we had to be there at 7 in the morning. That might seem that bad, but you people are forgetting that this meet was at the Etobicoke Olympium, which is about an hour drive from Kitchener. So that puts the time for 6 o’clock when we have to leave the house. 

Because of this early morning, we decided to gel my hair the night before. What do you mean gel, you may ask? We put Knox gelatine in our hair to keep it back and out of our face when we swim. You just mix it with hot water and paint it on, and it
will dry so that it is rock hard.

The two events I was in were: 16-20 team and Combo. The first event was 16-20 team, which I was happy about since it was the hard of the two. Out of ten we came third. The second event of the day for me was Combo. Combo is a mixture of all the different types of routines (solo, duet, team...etc.), out of the two routines and music, I like Combo the most. It typically has ten
swimmers on the team and it is more interesting to watch. For Combo we came first. Over the season, we have held the first place position in each competition we went to, except the one National meet (We went against National teams when we were in Provincial and we still came second...).

 There are many reasons why I love Synchro. One of the reasons is that it keeps me in shape. For Synchro, you need to be able to swim for one, have good flexibility, core strength, endurance, breath control, and muscle strength. It has been said that Synchronized Swimming is the second most physically demanding sport in the Olympics. 

Another reason why I love this sport is because of the team bonding. Being a synchronized swimmer you spend a lot of your time at practices if you are a competitive swimmer. Meaning you spend a lot of time with your team. When you are on a team, you have to work together or else the routine won’t work. One slightly wrong angle and something looks off. The club I swim at is Waterloo Regional Synchronized Swimming Club, also known as my second family.

 Out of all the reasons, the thrill you get when you swim your routine is probably the main reason. The moment right after the whistle is blown is the moment I get nervous. When the whistle is blown, it means that the team is ready to start. It is the moment of no return. But, when the music comes on...something clicks in. It is what I have been training for, the routine I
swam a million times before. The routine becomes second nature. Before I know it we are at the last figure of the routine. As we make our way to the wall, I get that feeling you get when you know you did the routine to the best of your ability. The feeling you get when you hug you teammates after is one of the best moments. 

There are countless other reasons why I love this sport, but I feel I should stop here instead of continuing and ending up writing a novel.
 
So what are you good at? What’s your passion? 

What is your element?

Feel free to check out my Team and combo swim from the weekend-
Team: http://vimeo.com/64673536 , Combo: https://vimeo.com/64673535

If you felt like synchro was interesting and you might want to try it, check out the Waterloo Synchro site: http://waterloosynchro.com/

Have you even wanted to be something so bad that you used to pretend you were it? I think everyone wanted to be something really bad when they were a little kid. 

For little boys it could have been that they wanted to be a Power Ranger or your favourite superhero like Spiderman or A Fantastic Four member. For little girls it might have been your favourite princess or one of the Winx’s Club girls. 

But for me? I wanted to be a Witch. I wanted to go to Hogwarts and use magic. I don’t know why, but I was obsessed with magic. I love Harry Potter; I think all of you know that. But I also loved Twitches and Halloweentown. 

What is Twitches and Halloweentown you may ask? They are movies shown on Disney channel that have to do with witches and magic. The plot of Twitches is simple. Two twin teenaged witches find each other and learn they are from another realm full of magic. They have to control their powers and defeat the darkness! …Yeah I know cheesy. But hey, I loved that kind of stuff! And Halloweentown is about…well that. It’s about a town where all your favourite Halloween monsters and critters are good and live in peace away from humans. Then there are the Cromwell witches. They just found out about their magic and
have to save Halloweentown from evil bag guys who want to wreck it. Yes another cheesy movie. And for some reason, both those movies had sequels… Halloweentown had like three. And every year on Halloween, I still watch Halloweentown. 
 
ANYWAYS…as you can see, I loved magic movies and still do. When I was little I would always pretend I had magic and pretended to make potions and stuff. I am not joking! I collected shiny rocks thinking they were magical!

Tuesday April 16th is Harry Potter day at Grand River. I have never in my life gotten to dress up as a Harry Potter character at school in my life. Not even on Halloween. So right now I am jumping off the walls in excitement! My mom was able to borrow one of the grad robes from Lifetouch since I didn’t have a Harry Potter one for me to wear! I also searched my whole room
and found my Harry Potter Timeturner that I thought I lost. And they are selling Butterbeer! I’M SO EXCITED! It’s like a dream come true!


Sooo, what are your childhood fantasies?

Nicknames. I think everyone has at least one nickname. Maybe it’s a name your mother calls you that you may or may not be embarrassed by. It could be a name your friends call you because of something awesome you did. You can have a nickname from people who cannot say your name because it is either a unique name or it’s just really long and is hard to remember. Nicknames can be funny; a name that makes you and your friends laugh. They can be a short form of your name or your name spiced up a bit like Lauren to Lorenzo (A friend from Synchro). 

Some nicknames though can be mean and teasing compared to ones that are harmless and fun. Bullies often use nicknames to tease and ridicule other people, young and old. Mean and nasty nicknames have been known to stick to you and never seems to leave your mind. If you don’t like a nickname, stand up and say that! Don’t just let the person keep teasing you! I stood up when someone was calling me a name I didn’t like, so if I can you can too! 

I know I’m kind of jumping around saying nicknames are good one minute then saying they are bad in another. But, even though they can be mean, nicknames can be great. Some nicknames can define you in a good way. Like if you were a soldier and your name was Ace because of something amazing you did. Wouldn’t you want to be remember as that, as something great because of the nickname?

 Some of my nicknames would be: Shan, Shanaynay, Shanono,Shanoonin, Fitzy, Willis (I don’t know why...), Shan Shan, etc. So as you can see I have many nicknames. Some of them are from school friends, some from my Synchro friends and one is from my mom. Most of the nicknames I mentioned, I still have no idea why I am called that. Willis? I mean seriously. How did that  come to play? Now that’s a question I ponder!

 What are your nicknames? Any weird ones? Feel free to comment your nicknames!



--here is the site where I got the picture^^ : http://bestuff.com/images/images_of_stuff/210x600/giving-funny-nicknames-to-the-people-you-know-207965.jpg?1248336210

Hey bloggers! 

Most of you out there (minus most of my class) don’t know that was away in ARUBA from Wednesday to Wednesday for a training camp. As I mentioned in my ‘About Me’ section, I am a competitive synchronized swimmer. A lot of people have asked me “why a training camp in Aruba?” Well why not!! To be honest, I’m not completely sure why myself. The club that I swim at is friends with the Aruban team and they have a really nice pool (I think that’s why?). 

Each morning we got up at around 5:30ish so we could be ready to head to a pool...thirty minutes away...for a five hour practice. In these practices we would: Stretch, work on our routine and get burnt! If some people out there don’t know, Aruba is a small little island in the Caribbean. So each day it is at least 30 degrees out (maybe up to 37 or more degrees). I’m surprised I didn’t get that burnt at all. Oh gosh! I got off topic! Anyways back to training...some of the days we share the pool with the Aruban team, who are all really nice. Our whole team traded caps with theirs and we are now planning on wearing them at the next competition (which the Aruban team does not swim at). On the last day, the practice was shortened to a 3 hour practice. Thank goodness! The whole team was so tired from all the swimming we did the whole week. It was the most swimming I have ever done over a week long period! 
 
Since the practices were all in the morning, we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. The first few days there we spent the afternoons lounging on the beach and swimming (yes, swimming at the beach right after we just had a five hour practice). And when I say swimming, I mean doing some highlights and swimming to the buoys. We also did some handstands
  and cartwheels, as well as one girl on my team learnt how to do a front handspring. What’s convenient was that our hotel was right on a beautiful beach so we didn’t have to go far. 

As the days passed the team had gotten some nice sun burns, mostly on the face, back, and arms. So after getting these nice burns (not me!) we spent a day inside working on homework and other stuff, to avoid getting more burnt. 

Besides going to the beach we also went snorkelling. It was soooo much fun!! Because our team are strong swimmers (*cough* Synchro*cough*) we were able to swim without the huge lifejackets! We all suited up in flippers and snorkels, and got to see a lot of different marine life. As well as a sunken German world war 2 boat. Since we had no lifejackets we were able to dive down to get a closer look. It was soooooooo cool!! We also did highlights when we were by the sunken ship. The whole side of the boat was watching, taking pictures and or clapping for us.

Each night we would go out for dinner and once we went to this awesome restaurant that we then went to later on, it was called...Senior Frog. It is the best restaurant ever!! The whole team decided that if we lived in Aruba we would definitely work there. The workers were awesome! The second time we went one guy took my friends camera and took pictures of everyone he saw from the staff and of us. They also had this guy that made balloon hats; He was so funny! He gave the team each a
balloon (one of those really skinny ones meant to make balloon animals and hats) and told us to blow them up. It was really hard to do! Only one girl on the team was able to actually blow it up and when she did, we all screamed with joy making the whole restaurant look at us. Besides the awesome workers the food was amazing too! When we were going to leave, they started to play the funky chicken and got everyone to stand up and dance. You know the part where two people are
supposed to link arms then spin around in the circle, occasionally changing arms? Well since I somehow manage to sit at the head of the table, the balloon guy got me to dance with him! Overall the restaurant was actually really fun and kept us laughing the whole meal.

 We took a day to go out and buy souvenirs, so we went to downtown Aruba and visited all the different venders and stores. Aruba is so much fun and it was really hard to leave. 

Our flight out was good, nothing went wrong (except that the fact we had to be at the airport for 4am so we could make our 6:15am flight) and we made it to Aruba around the time we were supposed to. BUT THEN ON THE WAY BACK...our second flight got cancelled (From Aruba to Newark was fine, but Newark to Buffalo...). Since the flight was cancelled the airport people (I don’t know what they are called ok!) had put our group of like 12 on separate flights, so we had to somehow find a flight that could fit all of us. When we did find one, we looked it up and it didn’t seem to exist. So when we made it to Newark the person on charge of the group got off first to get all our boarding passes. After rushing to the opposite of the airport and finding Erika
(girl in charge) we finally got on to a pretty sketchy airplane and got home.



If you want to learn more about my trip and other crazy things that might have happened that was not mentioned above, you can check out the blog we made just for it! It is kind of weird since we are all pretty crazy, but here’s the link: http://waterloosynchro.com/aruba-2013-training-blog/