Happy Halloween

by Allie

I made this costume.  I am a 50's waitress.

Haunted House

Making my "trick-or-treat" bag.

This week I've been doing some fun Halloween crafts.  I'd thought I'd share them with you.  I sewed a 50's waitress Halloween costume that I am going to wear trick or treating (I worked on this with Ms. Hilde).  I made a haunted house out of two tea boxes.  I also used glue, paint, tissue paper and brown paper bags.  Every year we make trick or treating bags to put our candy in.  We take a brown paper bag and cut the bottom out of it.  Then paint the outside (I also used some glitter glue) and staple it together when it is dry.
Happy Halloween!

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Factory Tour

Last week we went on another fun factory tour;  this time to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.  Jay Isais, our tour guide, is the "coffee guy" who travels the world selecting and buying coffee beans.  We learned about the where the beans come from, about the coffee bean plants, and how they roast the beans, make blends, and prepare them for selling.

Hairnets required!

Beans roast @350'

Before and after roasting.

Here are some interesting things we learned:
*The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has 800 stores worldwide (2/3 franchised, 1/3 corporate)
*Their coffee beans come from 16 different countries (including Columbia, Costa Rica, and Cambodia).
*Each coffee tree produces 1 - 2 pounds of coffee per year.
*They remove all oxygen from their coffee bags and fill them with nitrogen before sealing so that the beans do not become oxidized.
*The beans come from their countries of origin and the roasting and blending takes place at the factory.
*It is a big process from the coffee plant to coffee in your cup.

Here are some things we learned about tea:
*All kinds of tea come from the same kind of plant - different kinds of tea depend on how much oxidation has occurred.
*For example - black tea is oxidized, green tea is not oxidized, and oolong tea is partially oxidized.
*The tea bags at the factory are sealed with sound waves
*One of their machines can make 20,000-25,000 tea bags per day.

A couple other favorite things were the smell of the factory (a much better smell than the guitar making factory) and the sounds of the machines.  The machine that filled the coffee bags had such a cool sound (from air pressure) it made us want to dance; it was very musical.  We also really enjoyed hearing Jay tell us about the different parts of the world that he has traveled to and his relationships with the farmers who grow the coffee beans.

Saltwater Fish

 ~Post by Carly~
In the past month I've been working on a new film project!  My latest short is Saltwater Fish, which follows a day in the life of two avid teenage surfers.  I entered it in the Big Shorts From Little Groms surf film contest (which I did last year, and won Transworld Surf Spirit Award:) and I am a finalist!  The screening of the finalists' movies is on Sunday, Oct. 16th at 1pm in Oceanside, and it's free!  Come down and check it out! The Brooks Theater 217 Coast Hwy Oceanside, Ca   It's their fourth annual festival, so the contest is pretty small but it is a ton of fun.  All of the finalists receive awards and an awesome goodie bag, and this year the overall grom winner gets all that plus a GoPro camera!  -which I already have, but it would be great to win another(;




Also another excited thing happened today in regards to my film!  I was given the opportunity to go down to the California Surf Museum in Oceanside (which by the way is around the corner from the theater) to be interviewed by Fox 5 News; live on tv!  And I had to wake up at 5am, by far my record so far.  I was super nervous before being interviewed, I've never really done an interview for tv before and it was gonna be LIVE!  But it actually went ok.  The spokesperson asked me a few questions, and I was on air for about three minutes at most.  I tried not to say 'like' a lot and to speak clearly.  I didn't get to talk that that much (she cut me off a couple times kinda) but that's probably because I don't speak as fast as some people do (i.e. my spastic sister...you know which one).

 
Overall it was a very exciting experience!  I'm so glad I had the chance to be interviewed, and I can't wait to see what's in store for Sunday.

 Here are some pictures...

Julie Cox the wonderful operations manager of the California Surf Museum

Posing by the 1970 exhibit

"We're going live in a second."  !!!

Anatolian Festival

Last week we went to the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival.  We were amazed by all that we saw and learned.  The art, music, food, and displays helped us come away with a much greater understanding of Turkish culture.  We learned about the Legend of Akdamar Island (a turkish composer is working on a ballet piece honoring this legend with plans unite 100 Turkish and 100 Armenian artists on the stage).  We learned about the Turkish Van Cat that often has mismatched eyes.  These cats love water, swimming, and eating chocolate.  We saw beautiful displays of marble painting, quilting and felting.  We heard music from the instruments we had never seen before and watched a variety of dances including the famous "Whirling Dervish".  We treated ourselves to some of the delicious desserts and even bought a box of "Turkish Delight."  Here are some photos of our adventure:

Nate with a local Trojan

The Bosphorus Bridge - The first suspension bridge to connect Europe to Asia (divided by the Istanbul Strait)

Aspendos Antique Theatre

Cuneiform

Turkish Van Cat

Boxes of Turkish Delight

Romeo & Juliet

by Micayla
I had the most amazing opportunity last week!  I got to be in the San Francisco Ballet Company's production of Romeo & Juliet at the Segerstrom Theater Of The Arts (with two other girls from Maple Conservatory and two boys from a different studio).  We played the part of village children, we didn't get to dance much but we got to do lots of acting!  We got our hair and makeup done by professional artists and we shared a dressing room with the apprentices and corps de ballet.  We were in a few minutes of the first act and almost the whole second act.  While we were not on stage we played around in the performers' lounge.  They have four really awesome vending machines!  There was a whole vending machine for tea and coffee!  We played ' So You Think You Can Dance '  and telephone.  We had a backstage "Teacher" who stayed with us and helped us around the theater.  We all enjoyed doing drawing rounds, where everyone gets a piece of paper and a pencil and draws one shape on the paper then passes it to the right and then the next person adds something and it goes on and on until you get it back to you, we also like to do it with stories!  On stage we got paired up with a "Mother" who was an apprentice with the company and we got to meet a bunch of the principal dancers!  It was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again!   Here are some photos:

Right after hair and makeup ;)

Playing in the performers' lounge

Posing by the SFB sign!

My "mom" in Romeo & Juliet

A friend of mine from the corps.