by Thomas O’Harra So, in the past week, I’ve gone from living alone on a bunk in a hostel to having the best bed in a house with a bunch of my teammates from Team AK. We have a pretty good situation, although to get to meals we have to walk almost a mile, which gets old when we are walking two or three miles every day. Other than that, the food is really good, and everyone is really pumped to be here. Yesterday, we had the first race of the championships—a skate sprint. For the qualifying round I started first, because I am the highest seeded sprinter here. It…

by Olivia Lada Cold, wet, and utterly uncomfortable.  I wasn’t having the best day sifting through tide pools for slimy invertebrates. Too squeamish to touch any of the recent finds, I was happy to allow my fellow students to overturn the glistening rocks and dig through the stinking silt for small creatures. We had been crouched over on the beach all morning, my entire science class shuffling around observing tidal pools across the bay from Homer, Alaska. In all, it wasn’t a bad way to begin the school year, but if I’d have any say I certainly would have requested better weather. The initial excitement of the day had finally…

by Kayleigh Gilbert Are nonfat yogurt and sugar free candy as good for our bodies as many ads make it sound? What do we actually know about the chemically processed ingredients and their reactions with our bodies? Can these ingredients be connected to many mental and physical problems like ADD, unexplained blood clots, birth defects, and quite possibly even Alzheimer’s? Refined sugars like the ones you would find in a bagel or a pumpkin bar have been linked to hypoglycemia which causes hyperactivity during low blood sugar. Wade and Wolraich (1995) did a study to find a connection and found, “This hypothesis became prominent after it was found in a…

by Thomas O’Harra When I got to the Truckee area last week, there was little to no snow, anywhere. The temperature was in the 50s, and there was green grass growing in places. Coming from Switzerland—where it snowed almost three feet in one 24 hour period—it was definitely a shock. The family that I was staying with told me that they had raked their yard the previous week—not a typical February activity to say the least! The first day or so, I spread out, cleaned all my clothes, and relaxed a little bit. I explored the woods behind their house on short runs. The forest here is very different from…

by Brittney Alston Our elevator pulled to a stop at the third floor and my sister and I, two giggling girls of eight and eleven, stumble out and excitedly greet our cousin. He is a ten year old boy, grinning from ear to ear, and we hug shyly. The fatigue from the fourteen hour plane ride suddenly wears away in all the commotion of hugs, laughter, and excited greetings. Our mother begins chatting noisily with her two sisters, and our uncles, with their familiar tall, lanky figures, pick up our suitcases for us and wink knowingly. A flicker of white paper attached to the luggage catches my eye as my…