How do we say "Goodbye?"

How do we say goodbye to friends?  Hopefully, it won't be goodbye, just a farewell or see you later, until we meet again.  It is always hard when one thing ends and another begins.  Sometimes you are ready to move on and other times you wish you didn't have to go.  I suppose everything must come to an end, and all we can do is hope that the journey was fun and that we learned a lot along the way.  Friendships were formed, and I hope that they last a long, long time and stay true.  As for what is to come, I am an eternal optimist, so I am looking forward to the adventure as, I hope, are you.  Have a great summer! 

Sharks and Stingrays

On the weekend I was lucky enough to be able to visit the New England Aquarium, which is one of my favorite places in Boston.  I am always fascinated by the Giant Ocean Tank, and could sit around for hours staring at the marine life swimming round and round.  In fact, I did exactly that.  I am also always fascinated by the fact that the animals, especially the sharks in the tank, do not eat each other.  I once heard a diver who worked there state that they actually overfeed the animals, so that they are not even tempted to nibble on any other occupants of the tank. 

While at the aquarium, I also had the opportunity to visit their new Touch Tank exhibit, and guess what?  I got to touch a small hammerhead shark and small stingrays!  They swim right up to you if you hold your hand still in the water.  It was amazing!   They feel slightly slimy, but it was well worth it.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to take any pictures (as I was too busy trying to touch the animals), so I am borrowing a few pictures from the Aquarium's website, just so that you can see what it looked like.

(The blond kid is not me.) 
Picture Source:  http://www.neaq.org/animals_and_exhibits/exhibits/individual_exhibits/shark_and_ray_touch_tank/index.php

There is a sun after all!

It is really nice to see the sun again after all of that rain.  I couldn't believe the storm that we had last Thursday!  The clouds appeared to lie like a blanket over the city, and then they blasted us with a heavy stream of rain.  It was like nothing that I have seen before.  Luckily, so far we have been able to avoid tornadoes.  I hope that our luck will continue.

Good luck to all who are performing in the Student Showcase tomorrow.  As it is said in the acting world, "Break a leg."  (Please don't actually do that!)

Hawks and other stuff...

I haven't seen the hawk in a while.  I wonder what happened to it.  I couldn't believe that it sat so close to our window and we were able to take pictures of it.  Ms. Fuezery has a picture of it, she just has to download it and post it online.  I was very grateful for the help of Luis, who helped Ms. Fuezery take a good, mosquito-net-free picture of it, so that I, too, could see the hawk.  There is something so interesting about predators; they always seem so majestic and graceful to me. 

On another note, I cannot believe that we are almost done school.  It seems like it began only recently (Oh, I guess it did for me!).  I look forward to doing a lot of reading and spending time outdoors during the summer.  I think that I will go bicycling a lot (with my helmet!).   That way I can go explore the area, a lot of which I haven't seen before.

What about all of you?  Do you already have plans for the summer?