WBZ Tour

    Today I got to go on a tour at WBZ news! When my dad went to London on his semester abroad, he went with a girl named Paula who is an anchor at WBZ news, so he asked her if we could get a quick tour of the place, and she got in touch with Danielle Niles and Pamela Gardener (both meteorologists)and made it happen! It was such an amazing experience for me because that is what I want to be when I grow up. I know that the meteorologists stand in front of a green screen, but it was cool to see what everything looks like. And, Pamela even let me have the experience that a meteorologist has by letting me click through the slides and describe what the maps and radar shows, and figuring out where to look and point. Since the President was having a speech about the supreme court, Danielle had less time to present the forecast. She only had about a minute! She had to go fast and keep it simple. It was fascinating that there were so many jobs to help edit, record, broadcast live on TV, and produce! I got to see people recording live for the WBZ radio, and even got to see my neighbor, and how she edits the sound and decides what is on the radio station at the moment. I want to thank Pamela, and Danielle for taking time out of their really busy day and taking me on a tour around the studio, and thanks to Paula for making this all happen! I didn't get to meet Paula because she works the night meteorologist shift, but Danielle and Pamela were so nice to me, and I really enjoyed them and the experience.

Summer is Finally Here

      So finally, school is out and summer is here! I have a pretty busy summer planned, but its going to be fun. I have like 2 weeks or so before I start camp so I just get to hang around the house and play with friends. I am doing camp for 6 or 7 weeks, so that pretty much fills up my summer. But, I enjoy going to the camp I go to because they have a variety of things to do like: swim, laser tag, rock climbing, crafts, tennis and more. There is a regular indoor pool, and then outside there is a water park. The 2 water slides can go very fast. This will be my second summer at this camp, and more to come.
      Also, in July I'm going to New Jersey for a soccer tournament with the same team that I went to Kansas with. Except this tournament is outdoors and on grass instead of indoors. I don't really know what the competition will be, but I'm sure the teams we play will be equally as good as us because I know our coach wants to give us a challenge, and doesn't want it to be a total blowout. And, I might do a soccer clinic that my Club is holding for a couple of days with some of my teammates.
      Overall it was a great school year with lots of exciting moments, and I'm ready to dive into the summer.

Post Kansas Trip

So I just got back from Kansas a few days ago, and I was planning to blog the whole trip day by day, but I got very busy with all the soccer games and just hanging out and having a blast with my teammates. So because I didn't blog each day, I'm going to do a recap of the games.

          I got to Kansas on Thursday and then we had a game Friday night. We were very nervous because we didn't know what it was going to be like. My team got beaten 4-1 by a very good Kansas team. I think we made too many mistakes when we had possession because we were still getting used to the court size. All of the team except for me had flown in on Friday, so I think they were very exhausted and tired because travel days can make you VERY tired. There was some getting used to do because at regionals (the tournament we played in in order to go to Kansas) the courts were a lot smaller and then we got to the courts in Kansas and they were a lot bigger so we had to get used to the width, and we had to remember to keep wider than usual when we had the ball. Also I think all the teams we played were teams that play Futsal year-round and are a Futsal academy. GPS (my club soccer team) doesn't focus on Futsal a lot, they focus more on outdoor playing, and we hadn't played in any Futsal games that were not in a tournament together, so we hadn't had a lot of practice. Next, our goalie that played with us throughout all of regionals couldn't make it to Kansas, and I didn't think that was going to matter, but it did because my coach just had to keep switching the goalies up, because nobody on my team plays goalie all the time. After that game we knew what it was like to compete in Nationals, so we had to come into the next two games with a different mindset.

        Our next game was against a team from Richmond, VA. We lost 7-4, but I wasn't very disappointed in how we played because we had kind of a slower start to the first 5 min., but we quickly turned it around, and was putting more pressure on the other team, and making better decisions when we had the ball. I thought though at some points, we were rushing the ball, and just shooting it wide when we had players wide open to pass to. If we had had a couple more lucky breakaways we could've won the game. I feel this was our best game we played, and we really
showed people what we are capable of and what we can do. I scored 2 goals in this game, but technically 3 because the left forward crossed the ball in, and I kicked it, but it bounced off someone  from the other team and went in so it was an own goal by them, but it was kind of me. The first goal I scored was a lucky play because the goalkeeper liked to kick it to the sides instead of throw it, and she didn't kick it hard enough, and went off the wrong part of her foot, so when she tried to kick it to
the defender on the left, and was right there, and simply kicked it into the back of the net. The second goal I scored was also kind of lucky too, because me and the left forward had passed it to each other a couple of times, and she passed it to me, and I kicked it low and at the goalie, and it went right through the middle of her legs.
         We were hoping to end our weekend with a win, but unfortunately we lost 2-1 to another team from Kansas. If we had had the same intensity from the second game in the third game, I think we could've won it. The other teams goalie was very talented and she managed to save all but 1 of our shots. In the first half, we had a lot of great 1 on 1s which led to a lot of shots, but again, their goalie knew just what to do in most situations. Towards the last 15 min., we started playing with 1 defender and 3 forwards, so we could have a better chance of shooting and scoring. But what happened a lot is that we were very tired and we were forgetting to come back and help the 1 defender when the other team had possession.
        I had a great time participating even though we didn't get the outcome we were looking for, and we had a lot of fun, and made lots of memories. After our last game I said "Well, it's going to be time for payback in New Jersey!" Because in the summer we are going to New Jersey for an outdoor soccer tournament which I'm looking forward to.

After one of our games our whole team went to a restaurant called Jack Stack Barbecue because everyone was recommending it and the Kansas City area is actually known for good BBQ.  I got ribs that were really good, I ordered from the adults menu and got more ribs than I could eat and one of my teammates next to me was stealing some of my bbq sauce because it tasted so delicious so I had to ask the waiter for more sauce and everyone at the table shared it. The last day we were in KS there were 2 other girls from my team still there, so we decided that we wanted to go site- seeing and just explore Kansas City together. Unfortunately, a lot of the historical places were closed, so we ended up doing more of a shopping day, which included going skating, eating frozen yogurt, and going to a Hallmark Card place that had a lot of stores. I was so glad that I got to go, and I Had a very fun time!

Enjoy some pics below!  If you want to see more I am going to make a slideshow that I could email to you if you send me your email address. 

        

Off to Kansas! Day 1

As you know from my previous blog I'm in Kansas right now! Its my first day here and I'm enjoying it very much. Our plane took off at 7:00 am but I had to wake up at 4:30 am so I was really tired on the plane and it felt a lot longer than it really was. Finally we got to Kansas, and a nice gentleman picked us up and drove us to our hotel. We were very early at the hotel because it was 11:30 and the lady at the front desk told us our room would be available at 2:00. So then my mom called the guy who was going to pick us up to drive us to the rental place where we would pick up our rental car. My  mom thought ahead and reserved a car for this trip so we could drive to places by ourselves, not always having a taxi pick us up.

Unfortunately my mom and I were stuck in the hotel lobby because the guy who told us he was going to be picking us up, told us he would be there in 10 minutes which, turned into 40 min. The both of us were being hit with waves of exhaustion, and on top of that, we were starving beyond belief because the last time we had eaten was 6:00 am. After a long wait, the guy named Logan picked us up, and we went to a place called enterprise and got a very nice silver Toyota Corolla. And, both of the drivers that picked us up recommended a really good barbecue place called Oklahoma Joe's. We decided that would be a good choice for when me and my teammates are all together. Due to how hungry we were, we decided to go to AppleBee's for lunch.  It was right next to the car rental place.

Our server brought food to the table that was very good and filling. The waitress was super upbeat and friendly and thought it was cool that we were from Boston (our waitress also worked at a bowling alley nearby that I really want to go to). Then, We hopped in our car and went back to the hotel.

Since our room still wasn't ready, the front desk manager gave us a room for a few hours so that we could have a place to be until our real room. I was on my I-pad and we were watching tv. About an hour and a half before the front desk manager told us it would be time for us to go to our new and real room, I decided that. I wanted to go swimming. Literally, I couldn't drag myself out of the jacuzzi because it felt like paradise. I went into the regular pool too. We came back to our temporary room and realized that it was the time that the manager had told us to come down, so we went down hoping that our room would be ready because he said it would be, but of course NO it still wasn't ready. He told us in 25 minutes it will be ready, so to kill time, we went to Kohl's (there was one right behind the hotel) because we wanted to shop around and, I forgot my Patriots had at the house so I wanted to get a new hat. I got a scarf and 2 hats. I got to scratch a coupon and we got 30% off! we saved a lot! Finally, we got back to the hotel and our room was open! We got settled and then I started blogging!

SUPERBOWL 50:PANTHERS vs. BRONCOS

          On Sunday, the well-liked annual SuperBowl happened. The two teams that were playing were the Carolina Panthers vs. the Denver Broncos. I personally wanted the Panthers to win simply because they had such a great season coming out of the regular season with only 1 loss (against the Arizona Cardinals), and i really wanted them to finish out on top. On the other hand the Broncos came out of of the regular season with 12 wins and 4 losses. The Panthers were heavily favored to the SuperBowl, and in conferences previous to the game, all of the players on their team acted like they had it in the bag, and they were very confident about how they were going to play. I feel that the Broncos were more humble and low key about it, and they didn't want to get too ahead of themselves. Peyton Manning had tons of people flocked around him trying to ask him questions. no doubt that he was the spotlight in the conference.  Tons of people were hating and trash talking the Broncos, but I don't think that they let that get to them because how they played blew everyone away, and they proved everyone wrong. The Broncos ended up winning 22-10, and I'm fine with the Panthers losing because the Broncos deserved it, and they certainly played very well. Congratulations Broncos, and lets just hope that the Patriots can bring home the trophy next season!

Going to Kansas

        From previous posts, you probably know that my North National Girls 06 team has won the past 2 tournaments that we have participated in. First, there was a Thanksgiving tournament at the end of November, and there was a Futsal tournament a couple weeks ago. Girls on my team had been telling us that if we won the Futsal tournament, we would go to Kansas to compete in the Nationals, but I never really knew if that was true or not. My family didn't think we were going because it would be such short notice. Turns out though...... It was true after all! When girls on my team would ask the coach "If we win this, do we go to Kansas?" But he would reply back "We need to focus on the game we are playing now." After the tournament had happened, everyone on the team was dreading the wait of the email that we either say "We're off to Kansas!" Or, "No, we are unable to play." Finally, my mom got the email saying we were going to Kansas! I remember that I was in my room, and my mom called me downstairs and said: I have some very serious news, WE'RE GOING TO KANSAS! It was awesome. We are leaving Thursday very early in the morning and hopping on a plane.
                                                                                ~
                                                I'll blog more in Kansas at nationals!

MA Youth Futsal Tournament

 

    Over the extra long weekend, I participated in a Massachusetts Youth Futsal tournament. In case you don't know, Futsal is indoor soccer, with a smaller court than outside, and you can't kick the ball off the walls. The ball is also a little bit smaller, and it doesn't really bounce.There were 2 tryouts that the team had to go to so that my coach could pick certain people. Since Futsal has a smaller court, there can only be 5 people on the court at once, including the goalie. So because of that, my coach picked 9 players to participate in this tournament. Out of the 9 players he picked, fortunately one of them was me!
       There were 2 games on Saturday, 1 game on Sunday, and 2 games on Monday. I was very proud of how we played on Saturday. The first game was at 8:00am, and we played Kings FC. For most of the game it was tied, and at almost the end it was 3-3, and then one of the girls on my team immediately scored twice, and then the other teams goalie was going far up because she wanted to try to steal the ball and get goals, but then my teams goalie threw it about 3 feet over the halfway line, and one of the forwards was there, and I forget if it bounced once or not, but the goalie was not at the net, so it was wide open, and one of my teammates just kicked it right in the net. The final score was 6-3 my team.
       The second game that day was against Cape Cod Futsal Club. The first half my teams goalie didn't get 1 shot on net, and we scored 10 goals. I scored 3 goals (hat trick technically) The first 2 were just simple on the ground shots in the corners, but the 3rd one was even better. One of my teamates (or me) shot the ball, and the goalie saved it and it was moving very fast about to go out of bounds, but I stopped it, pulled it back behind a defender, and then no one was in front of me, so I held onto the left post (to get my balance) and shot it fast and high to the left. In the second half, we switched our goalkeeper who had a couple of great saves, and my team continued to try to win the ball as much as we could. We got up to 16-0, and then my couch called a timeout, and he told us that we needed 5 passes before we could shoot unless we had a wide open net. And then, he switched it to
3 passes, and THEN he finally told us that we should just try to keep possession of the ball and pass it around. Everyone wanted to try to keep scoring, but we just passed it around. The final score of that game was 16-0 my team.
     And then on Sunday, the stakes were high because whoever won that game would be in 1st place In bracket A, and would have to play the 2nd place team in bracket B (there are 2 brackets for U10. A
and B.) We played a very aggressive and competitive team called DV Academy from Long Island,
New York. The game ended up in a tie 3-3. My GPS North National 06 girls team only plays together once or twice a month, and people think we have very good chemistry together even though we don't practice often. A lot of the teams we played (including DV Academy) practice together all the time. But since coming into the game on Sunday we were already 1st place, we stayed first place, and then on Monday played the second place team in bracket B, and DV played the first place team in bracket B.
     On Monday morning, we ended up playing the Bayside Bolts FC. I thought something that was critical that my team did that morning and afternoon was high pressure, and making good decisions. We made sure that we tried to take as many shots as we could. At first, we were shooting the ball a lot , but they were just a little off target. Soon though, we turned it around, and the final score was 4-1 my team. They scored in the last 10 seconds, and I take the blame because I got the ball and tried to kick it away because there were a lot of people around me, and the girl in front of me stopped the pass, and shot it up high and fast into the left corner, and the goalie had no chance of saving it. Everyone thought in their head after the game was over "We won the semifinals, now all we gotta do is win the finals, and it's all ours!" After our game was over, we went on the next court to watch DV Academy play Futnado FC, and they had tied, so they had to go into penalty kicks, and even as the number one team in bracket B, they still lost to DV. So, later on in the day, we had a rematch with DV Academy in the finals.
    The game started out scoreless, and then a girl on my team scored, and not soon after, I scored! I was on defense, and the ball got kicked away on the ground, and I one touch smashed the ball high into the middle of the net, and the goalie tried to jump, but it was to fast to stop. After my goal, we were up 2-0. Later, DV scored, and then at the last 10 minutes, me and another girl were talking on the bench about how much it would mean to win this. We kept saying 9:30 to go, 8:30 to go, 7:30 to go, and on and on, until about the last 3 minutes because I subbed in for left forward, and played the hardest I could. I distinctly remember the last 10 seconds of the game because we were on the verge of winning, and finally I heard the BIG LOUD buzzer and I ran over to the bench and I just hugged the other girl named Avery who scored the first goal so tight. Everyone was so happy and excited! My coach came over and told us to go to court 8 because that's where we got our medals and pictures taken. After that, we went into a room off to the side of the courts because one girls family on my team had brought cupcakes to celebrate, and we just had tons of fun, and took lots of pictures. EVERYONE ON THE TEAM WAS SO HAPPY WITH THE OUTCOME!!
    Throughout the  tournaments and the practices, we have really grown big friendships with one another, and we really bond together. At the start, no one really knew each other, and now, whenever you see us, we are Moses likely laughing. We earned the outcome we were looking for, and we played our hearts out his Futsal tournament. Oh yeah, I forgot, one last word: YESSSSSS!!!!!!!