Many students worldwide don’t get the opportunity to travel and experience new things, but with the GTN Travel Club you get to do just that. Gudangaay Tlaats’gaa Naay (GTN) teacher Mrs. Joron believes it’s important to make students good world citizens. We will be hosting a traditional Costa Rican dinner Saturday, April 29 at the school with two sittings: one at 5 p.m. and the other at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $20 for a three-course meal, and tickets are sold at the high school office, Co-op, and the bank on April 27 and 28 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. All the cooking will be done by Travel Club students — unfortunately that means that I have to do work too. Ms. Joron started Travel Club because she loves to see students overcome fears and experience new things. We will be leaving for Costa Rica in May of 2018.
Travel Club isn’t the only group leaving the island. The girls soccer team travel to Kitimat this week to join a play day. They believe they have a strong team this year, and have a fair chance of winning something other than a participation medal. Success at the play day would be great because it would give them lots of confidence for zones, which will be held in Hazelton on May 13.
Fellow Special Projects classmates Marissa Abrahams and Kailyn Swanson are working on getting get new uniforms for the girls’ soccer team. They think it’s important to get new jerseys because we have a new school name, which is not represented on the old jerseys. A bonus of getting uniforms with the new name is that the old ones look “gross,” to use their words. Haawa to Gwaii Trust for sponsoring the girls. Unfortunately, the new uniforms will not be available for the play day, but the team will be sporting them for zones. Coaches Ileah Mattice and Cal Westbrook are taking the team to both competitions and have been working hard to help them improve.
One activity that doesn’t have students leaving the island is the trades program. Run by Northwest Community College, the trades program gives students in Grades 10 to 12 a chance to learn about trades such as mechanics, welding, carpentry, and plumbing. Everything done in the trades program gets students ready for courses they might take in college. I’m pretty happy here in Grade 8, because college isn’t something I need to really think about.
Haida Gwaii soccer season is in full swing, and if you’re like me and you just can’t get enough soccer, then check out the UEFA Champions League. I think everyone should follow soccer! Here are the teams advancing to the Champions League semi-finals: Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, and Monaco. Sadly both of the Bundesliga (German soccer league) teams, Bayern Munich and Borrusia Dortmund were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Ultimately, Real Madrid beat Bayern (my team), but it was really the referee who sent them out. The final game between Bayern and Real Madrid went into overtime because of a tie, Arturo Vidal was given a red card for a perfectly clean tackle (if you don’t believe me watch the replays) putting Munich down to 10 men. Cristiano Ronaldo (we don’t like him) scored two offside goals, winning them the game and unfairly making him the first player in Champions league history to score 100 goals. With no Bundesliga teams remaining we are left cheering for the Italian team, Juventus.
Make sure you watch the semi-finals and please don’t cheer for Real Madrid.
Jesse Seifert is a Grade 8 student at Gudungaay Tlaats’gaa Naay, and a Bayern Munich super fan.