Falcons have a great end to their season

By Sydney Fields and Kileigh Cerny

Staff Writers “Finish at Fargo!” That was the St. Albert Falcons’ goal all season, to play in the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. And they accomplished that and then some as they finished their season. The Falcons were seeded eighth for the 1-A class, heading into the tournament, but that didn’t dis-courage the team. When they went up against the number one seed, Danville, on March 27, they walked away with an easy 69-46 victory. With three out of five start-ers being sophomores, the St. Albert team was young, but they were able

to step up and lead. Sophomore Matt Fagan led the team in both scoring and rebounds, which earned him a spot on the All-Tournament Team along with senior Travis Miller. “I knew State was a possi-bility, but I was shocked,” Miller said. “I was glad to see what we ac-complished, but I am sad that it ended.”

The St. Albert players say that their difficult schedule during the season prepared them for the post-season competition during the tournament. “Our schedule really helped with playing bigger and tougher schools, so we were prepared for anything,” said junior Danny Koch. Miller said, “It really helped with us prepare and improve our

physicality.” The team played again on March 10 against West Han-cock, and again, they took the win with a score of 70-52. Their goal had changed from finishing at Fargo to win-ning at Fargo as they ap-proached the championship game against South O’Brien. Although the Falcons were ahead through most of the final game, in the fourth quarter they fell to South O’Brien with a score of 54-43 . “I liked just being with everyone and being able to play up there,” said sophomore Jake Carley. “It was just a fun way to end the season.”

Page 14

The Falcons hold up the trophy following their loss in the championship game. Photo by Fr. Paul Monahan

Venteicher Goes To Fargo By Maddie Skinner

Staff Writer Walking up and down the side of the court with plays on a clipboard and water bottles in hand, Falcons bas-ketball manager Harry Ventei-cher does his job helping the Falcons and Coach Scott. “I was mainly going to manage basketball for service hours,” Venteicher said of how he got started. He earned his hours by running errands and doing “housework” for Coach Dale Scott, such as sweeping, running the clock, keeping the shot chart, and, what he said was his least fa-vorite job, sorting jerseys. As the only freshman on the varsity team, “it felt pretty cool,” Venteicher said. “But after the first couple of varsity games, it felt pretty normal. But it was still really fun.” When the Falcons beat Stanton and qualified for state, “I felt excited about it, happy for the team, too,” he said. The moment the Fal-cons got to Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena Coach Scott had Venteicher running around and bringing in equip-ment, getting water for the locker room and making sure he had the play sheets. Sitting courtside with Coach Scott and the Falcons, Venteicher took water to the boys, helped

Coach Scott and held up play sheets. Then there was the moment when the time clock buzzed in the championship game and the Falcons came in as a close second. “I felt sad for the team,” he said. “I, myself, was sad about it, but I really felt bad for the seniors ’cause they won’t be able to try again next year.” Of all the memories, Venteicher said his best was “hanging with the guys in the hotel we stayed in before and after the games on Thursday and Friday.” Being a manager is time-consuming and he had to make adjustments to his study habits. “Some nights I would stay up to do homework and others I would do it during study hall 01 the next day,” he said. Stress came and went as the season progressed. “At times it did get a

little stressful to balance basket-ball with my family,” he said. “A lot of the times my family went to do something, I had practice. Sometimes I had to choose between family and managing.” At times travel and prac-tices took Venticher away from his family and friends. “I didn’t feel really bad about it at times, when my fam-ily went to do something really cool,” he said. “I would have a game and that made me a little sad, but it was always some-thing we could do another again another time.” Venticher concludes saying, “ I didn’t feel sad about not being with (my family) at first, I knew they would be there when I got back.”

Making new memories and experiences was a plus for Venticher. On the topic of next season, will we see Venticher alongside Coach Scott and the Falcons?

“If I have the time next year I would do it again.”

Page 15

Manager Harry Venteicher poses with the Falcons.

Soccer kicks off to a great start By Jack Geier

Staff Writer Soccer season kicked off this year with the boys and girls beating Creston in their season opener. The boys won 8-1 and the girls won 10-0. The boys and girls played Denison the following week. The girls won 10-2, but the boys lost 3-2. This upcoming soccer sea-son looks fairly promising for this year’s boy’s team. “We’re pretty young but we have a lot of athletes, along with people returning from last year so we’ll be able to get the new guys ready and prepared,” said senior Charlie Donaldson. Some of the tougher com-petition the boys will face this year is the Underwood team and Kuem-per Catholic, and the Hawkeye 10 conference will be good all around this year. “Drew Carlson is a return-ing player this year and will be a vital player especially for our defen-sive midfield,” Donaldson said. “Rodrigo Barajas is returning this year and will be our best striker this year. Brody Brandenburg will also be a good striker this year and has really improved over summer. Luke Waters will be back starting on de-fense alongside Kyle Barnes who will be back at keeper.” New players this year in-clude Tony Lincoln, Jake Hubbard, Luke Gronstal, Blake Rallis, Jack Socha, Andrew Hanafan, Connor Lenihan, Luke Blaha, Dan Pauli, and Danny Shudak. The girls are also positive. “We’ll be pretty successful this year,” said senior Kaitlyn Pearce. “There are 11 senior girls out for soccer this year so we’ll have a lot of leaders.” Some tougher teams the

girls face this season are Lewis Cen-tral, Harlan, and Tri Center. “Star player on the team? I would have to say Mary (Casson). She's an awesome leader and always taking control to help our team get better while still focusing on her own skill, too,” Pearce said. Some key returning players this season besides Casson are Shelby Shultz, Nicole Hilderbrand, Miranda Beezley, and Emily Cas-son. New players on the team this year are five freshmen: Maggie Wettengel, Athena Arculeo, Claire Wirtz, Baylee Ratliff, and Teagan Blackburn. “I’m excited to see what they bring to the team,” Pearce said. “I’ve always heard their grade is pretty strong in soccer so hopefully

they can step up and help out on the team this year.” Pearce noted that for seniors it will be a sentimental season. “It’s the last sport of my sen-ior year,” she said. “So I'm excited especially for tournaments and bond-ing with the team.” The players are anxious to get outside to run in the grass under a blue sky after a long, cold winter. “My favorite field to play at is either our home field or Creighton’s field because they’re both really nice, well maintained, and a great environ-ment to play in,” Pearce said. Max Donaldson prefers St. Albert’s home field. “YMCA field, home turf baby! Be there or be square.”

Last year’s team made it to state.

The team has several strong veteran players.

Page 16

Who’s playing who? By Cody Athay

Staff Writer From the first bulky arcade versions of Pac-Man to today’s smart phone apps, video games are a constant center point of entertain-ment for young people. But to put it simply, they’ve changed a lot. Video games used to be a simple system of game and console, or a stand-alone machine that re-quired a quarter or two. But in re-cent years, game companies have exploited a new market: premium gaming. This encourages people to buy in-game currency or items with real money, and this happens with both free apps and $60 game disks for X-Box and PlayStation systems.

And let’s not forget PC games. Although the game’s soft-ware can cost the same as on the consoles, in order to get similar per-formance, you have to spend hun-dreds or maybe thousands of dollars more on components, such as a high end CPU or Graphics card, than on the two main consoles.

E-Sports, more commonly known as a site for professional gaming teams, pay upwards of $500,000 to players.

And thanks to YouTube, people can make a living recording videogames. The most successful is Pew-die-pie, who makes an esti-mated $7 million annually from people spending so much time watching him play games rather than actually playing video games themselves. It’s not just the games and subcultures that have changed, so have the players. The stereotypical creepy guy hiding out in his base-ment who hasn’t seen the sun in months has been replaced by pretty much anyone with a device that connects to the Internet. “I think that for people that

game obsessively it can be brain rotting,” said freshman Gabby Burke. “But if it’s just once in a while I guess it’s ok.” “I like playing Mario Cart with my sister,” said freshman Zoe Trager. “I like playing as Toad, but I hate it when my sister keeps choos-ing Rainbow Road.” There are only a few things that never change about video-games. First and foremost, there will always be one or two people who go out of their way to annoy other play-ers in multi-player games. These “trollers” rarely stop, so the best way to handle them is to just leave.

Second, there will always be those one or two seemingly cool weapons, areas or vehicles that are mostly useless, such as buses or guns that shoot projectiles that bounce. The only thing more annoy-ing than this is when weapons don’t work. In Just Cause 3, aside from rocket launchers and explosive de-vices, the weapons don’t do much damage. Even with the best guns it can take about a dozen shots to stop one enemy.

Some franchises should

stick to what they’re best at. In Assas-sins Creed, the games mostly involve players covertly sneaking around at night and eliminating targets. But in the newest game, Assassins Creed Syndicate, players play as two assas-sins who build a vicious gang of thugs to take on another vicious gang of thugs in a battle to control 18th century London, while using technology that didn’t exist, such as grappling-hook guns and internal combustion engines.

Today it seems that the big-gest difference between newer games and Donkey Kong can arguably be that a plumber who jumps over barrels and chases apes with hammers can have a more interesting story, and one that’s easier to understand, than the new Call of Duty. In the newest game in that particular franchise, apparently your character dies then is alive again, and then it turns out that the entire premise of the game was that your character has been a virus living in the computer linked to your best friend’s mind and everything you experience is “just a dream.”

Look out below. In Just Cause 3, your character’s parachute glides through the air above the tropical island of Medici, allowing you to en-joy beautiful virtual scenery before pulling out your rocket launcher and raining down explosions on military bases. Image courtesy of Play station

Page 17

I had the best experience in the U.S.

By Chau Pham Staff Writer

Moving away from famil-iar everyday life and leaving behind everyone who made up my world to live in a new place that operates within a completely different set of cultural norms, surrounded by for-eign lifestyle, was not an easy deci-sion. The last two years have left a significant mark on my life as I made the hardest decision of my life, which posed the greatest risk of failure but brought the greatest re-ward: study abroad in the United States. As much as the experience has deepened my knowledge and understanding of different cultures and expanded my capacity to appre-ciate the world around me, it has been the knowledge that I have gained about myself through under-standing others that has made the biggest impact. During my time in the United States, I am required to inter-act with people out of my own so-cial and cultural group. Being in such a diverse country, in so many aspects, I have been given the chance to learn much about our dif-ferences and even more about our similarities. I have made friends from different cultures who show me different sides and views of the world. I’m beginning to understand how we can all be looking at the same thing, but based on our per-spective that is shaped by culture, social class, race, religion, etc., can see something so different. Familiarity is no longer a protection that I need. I have be-come more open-hearted and socia-ble as I have integrated into this ever-changing environment. With-

out my family beside me physically, I have become more independent and responsible. Studying abroad is also a great challenge. The thought of leaving home for the first time to come to a country where my mother tongue is not spoken, where the cul-ture is completely different from my own, and where my family is not there made me nervous and anxious for days, even though I had prepared for this reality for what seemed to be almost my whole life. Often times, people told me how brave I am to be away from home at such a young age. As flattering as that is, I know that I was and am often scared. I believe that courage is

many times overrated. It is purely about wanting to do it with all my heart that brought me here. From the moment I made my choice, I am aware that whatever comes my way, I will deal with it. This year at St. Albert has been one of the best experiences I have ever had. My first impression of SA was the welcoming and friendly students. As I get to know everyone better, it still has not changed. I have made great friendship and memories that definitely will remain. I will never regret choosing this school to spend the last year of my high school career. This lifelong memorable experience shapes the person that I am today and will stay with me forever.

Three of St. Albert’s exchange students are, from left, Christin Bach-mann from Germany, Chau Pham from Vietnam, and Praewa Towsajja from Thailand.

Page 19

Senioritis is spreading By Carly Hayes

Staff Writer There seems to be a case of senioritis spreading quickly throughout the senior class (or if you’re Mr. Heithoff you have senior-citizenitis). As the end of the year ap-proaches, the senior class seems to be slacking off a little more each day. Whether it’s showing up half-way through 02 or not studying for a test, it is clear that the class of 2016 is ready to graduate. After four long years of sitting through classes, obediently doing their work, and patiently wait-ing for the bell to ring, the seniors are now either on the edge of their seats each day or standing by the door with a tight hold on the knob, competing to see who can get out first. For senior Shelby Schultz, who will be attending the University of Kansas in the fall, the end of the year marks a new beginning. “I can’t wait to go to col-lege,” she said. “I’m just really ex-cited to be in a brand new place and to meet new people.” The teachers seem to be tired of the seniors’ attitudes to-wards school. Some are getting pretty vocal about it - Mr. Heithoff especially. “This class is probably the worst case of senioritis I’ve ever seen,” he said, then added, “I hate to see any of the seniors leave, but it’s time.” Wyatt Suhr, who is known to be pretty loud with his opinion, claims that he would rather put his face on a grill then come to school. Most of the senior class has already been accepted into the col-leges of their choice, so waking up at 7 each morning is seemingly

pointless. Miranda Beezley, who will be attending Atlanta Leadership College said, “I just wake up each morning and think about how I don’t need to be here.” Most of the seniors are ready for college. Some, however, are just ready for a summer filled with doing whatever they want. Paige Beacom said, “I just need more time to watch Netflix.” As the school year comes to a close, there are many “lasts” happening. When it all comes down to it, the seniors are a lot of talk and no game. While high school seems to be pretty tiring, most are actually going to miss it. Kasi Cox and Emma Eick-holt agree that they are truly going to miss the community and seeing their friends every day. “It really has been a great school to grow up in,” Eickholt said. “I am going to miss it a lot more than I say.” Kyle O’Neill, who has

gone to St. Albert since kindergarten, said, “I won’t miss getting told to shave every day, but I will definitely miss all my friends and how much school spirit we have.” When it all comes down to it, the seniors have been very fortunate to attend St. Albert. Although they are ready to leave, this school will have a lasting impact on their lives.

Senior girls show their affection for exchange student Jeff Ling.

Senior Kasi Cox enjoys saving trees by recycling.

Page 20

Big cast delivers big laughs

By Shelby Schultz Staff Writer

Actors, both experienced and not, came together in January to audition for the spring play “You Can’t Take It with You.” The play, written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, features the Sycamore family, a very quirky group of individuals living a very strange life. The plot thickens when the youngest daughter, Alice, brings home her love interest, a boy from a very uptight, prestigious family. Nothing short of hilarity follows. Since this year’s play called for an ensemble cast, director Liz Doll assembled a larger troupe than in years past, totaling 17 mem-bers. Some faces were familiar, such as senior Blair Heisterkamp and sophomore Kyle Barnes, who played Essie and Ed Carmichael. This was seniors Rachael Gronstal’s and Shelby Schultz’s sixth year do-ing the plays with Mrs. Doll. Other faces, however, were brand new. First time cast members included freshman Landry Cormier, and perhaps most notably Tori Moon and Erik Jensen, both walking the boards for the first time as sen-iors. “I decided not to play bas-ketball this year and wanted to try something new,” Jensen said. “I had always wanted to do the play, so I decided to try out for the one act and improv and I loved it. After that I auditioned for the play, and I'm very glad I did it.” The cast performed for packed houses both Friday and Sat-urday night. The last show ended with an emotional curtain call and a thank you from seniors to Mrs. Doll and the rest of the cast.

“It was a tough show,” said Heisterkamp. “It was hard knowing it was the last time we would get to perform on that stage. I think we put a lot of heart into it.” For the first time, the show was filmed and posted on Sportsfan Saturday night for those who were unable to attend the performances. All in all, the cast ended with great memories they can take with them.

Above seniors Shelby Schultz and Max Ross have the lead roles.

Above left, sophomore Kyle Bar-nes is onstage with senior Rachael Gronstal, who played the grandmother. Photos by Miranda Beezley and Lauren Cornelius.

Above, senior Erik Jensen plays the grandfather role.

17 students performed in the spring play, ‘You Can’t Take It With You”

Page 21

Time Takes on Zombies By Sophie Sykes

Staff Writer “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a spin-off of the British novel “Pride and Prejudice,” is a movie that takes you back in time to when girls wore corsets, men wore top hats, and zombies roamed the streets of London. I would give this movie a 5 out of 5-star rating for many reasons. One thing I really en-joyed was how proper they made the characters. But then again, they made them deadly and extreme in the art of kill-ing zombies. There were many special effects that went into making the zombies. It was not a movie that had cheesy or unrealistic-looking zombies. The zombies look so real that you can’t tell they’re zombies until their skin and

everything else starts to fall apart. This movie is intended for an audience that does not get bothered by violence or bloody, gruesome things. This movie based on the book by the same name combines comedy, love, war, and beauty into one wonderful production. Another thing that

kept me interested was how they made the zombies different from any other zombie movie. Unlike other movies, a newly bitten zombie would not look any different from any other human. But when flies are re-leased into the air they smell out the dead and land on the zom-bie. The zombies also talk just like humans. So as you can tell there really is no easy way to tell zombies from humans. The actors were wonder-ful. The two main characters in this ensemble cast were Mr. Darcy, played by Sam Riley, and Elizabeth Bennett, played by Lily James. This movie was proba-bly, if not for sure, the best zombie movie that I have seen in a while. If you enjoy watching movies that have war, blood, and love all in one, then this is the movie for you. I highly rec-ommend it. The Bennett sisters — Jane, Elizabeth, and Kitty — hunt for

more than husbands in this spoof of a British literary classic.

Page 22

Movies Set to Hit Theaters in 2016 By Maggie Sneed

Staff Writer If you’re a fan of Bat-man or Superman then you probably spent part of spring break at the theaters watching one of the hits of spring. “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened March 24 and is projected to make $1.2 billion worldwide. Another highly antici-pated movie this year is “Finding Dory,” the sequel to “Finding Nemo.” “Finding Nemo” came out almost 13 years ago and people have been waiting for a sequel ever since. “Finding Dory” is an adventure where Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) searches for her mother (Diane Keaton) and father (Eugene Levy) along with the help of Nemo and Marlin (Albert Brooks). “I love children’s movies, especially Disney movies,” said junior Jayde Sneed. “Plus it’s Dory… Who doesn't love her?” “Finding Dory” is set to hit theaters in the U.S. on June 17 and is predicted to make $1 billion worldwide. Another superhero movie coming May 6 is “Captain America: Civil War.” Not only does this movie feature Captain Amer-ica, but it features nine other superheroes who split off into two teams that face each

other. Chris Evans stars as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. stars as Iron man, and Scarlett Johansson stars as Black Widow. It is ex-pected to make $1.53 billion at the box office. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” the sequel to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” hit theaters March 24. It’s about the struggles of mar-riage and parenting between Toula (Nia Vardalos) and her husband Ian (John Corbett). Their relationship has lost its spark, and they are struggling to raise their teenager daugh-ter, who rebels with Greek tradition. Then a shocking family secret comes to light, and the entire Portokalos clan comes together for the biggest wedding. The cast includes Rita Wilson and Elena Kam-pouris.

“The Purge: Election Year” is another sequel. Trapped on the streets of Wash-ington, D.C., a senator (Elizabeth Miller) and head of security ( Frank Grillo) must survive the annual night of ter-ror known as The Purge, when all crime is legal for 12 hours. The release date is July 1. It is set to make $125 million world-wide.

If you're looking for a movie to watch and these ap-peal to you, then mark your cal-endars, head over to the movie theater and get your ticket. These movies are likely to sell out in the first few hours.

You’ll never know if the movie you end up seeing might be your new favorite movie.

Page 23

Hot Weather Hot Money By Leo Garrigan

Staff Writer High school students more than ever have a lot of things that they want and even need to spend money on. Teens need money to pay for gas for their cars and fast food, among other things. Some people are old enough to hold jobs or work during the summer at St. Albert to earn money. But other people who are not old enough have to find other ways to make money. Some students, like fresh-man Patrick Neal, mow lawns and shovel snow during the winter. Neal said he works year round doing whatever jobs he can find. He said he earns about $20 every time he blows snow or mows the lawn for his usual customers. Another St. Albert fresh-man Luke Blaha said, “I work at my grandmother’s ranch during the summer where I make $8 an hour mowing the lawn and pulling weeds

three to four days a week.” Freshman Christian Baker makes money by working for his friend’s dad, cleaning rental houses twice a week during the summer. Baker can make $50 during a five-hour day.

Those are just a few exam-ples of the types of jobs teens will do to make money if they are not old enough to get “real” jobs. So this sum-mer some St. Albert students will find their own ways to make money.

Our Sponsors ABC Electric Birthright of Council Bluffs Christian Nobel Furs Council Bluffs Savings Bank Cutler-O’Neill-Meyer-Woodring Funeral Home Dickinson & Clark CPAs, PC Doll family Echo EPCO Ltd. Inc. Harmony Court Hoy-Kilnoski Funeral Home & Crematory

Hy-Vee Iowa Western Community College Omni Dental Robert S. Perry, D.D.S. St. Patrick Church Sherry’s Shear Impressions, Sherry O’Neill Smith Davis Insurance Jay Malone, Cynthia Urzendowski , Don Mescher Southwest Orthodontics State Farm Insurance, John J. Scott Struyk Turf Maintenance

Freshman Patrick Neal cuts grass. Photo by Luke Blaha

Page 24

When Alumni Return as Teachers By Zoe Trager

Staff Writer Most high school graduates would never imagine

that they would work at the same high school they at-tended. However, sometimes people end up right back where they started. As Robi Spencer, middle school teacher and 1991 graduate, said, “To be honest, when I graduated high school and went off to college, I never thought I would return to St. Albert to teach.” St. Albert is no stranger to graduates returning to teach. There are many teachers in the school that have a history with St. Albert. Some teachers came back to St. Albert purely through luck. “I wanted to relocate back to Council Bluffs and the head boys basketball job came open,” said Dale Scott, high school teacher and 1989 graduate. Tom Heithoff, high school teacher and 1971 graduate, transferred from Gross High School, where part of his responsibilities was boys basketball coach. But that job took a toll on his responsibilities as a parent. “My being gone four months straight for basket-ball was causing my oldest daughter to get in trouble at school,” he said. St. Albert feels like a community and that’s what welcomed many alumni back as teachers. “We are so much like a family. Everyone in-volved sacrifices for all the others,” Heithoff said. Scott’s favorite part of working at St. Albert is “working where my kids go to school so I can embarrass them daily.” Teachers also realize how St. Albert has changed

since they attended. “SA is a much kinder, gentler place now than back in the beginning” Heithoff said. “I really see a camaraderie among the students that wasn’t quite there back then.” “I have witnessed many positive changes that have improved our school through the years,” Spencer said. “I’ve seen changes in the academics, the facili-ties, the grounds, and just an overall positive change.” However, they acknowledge that there could still be changes. Scott suggests that they “pay all teachers double!” Alumni that have returned as teachers know how special St. Albert is and how great it is that they are to be able to work in the same place they learned. “Our school is unique in that you see the children grow from the daycare to seniors. What an awesome experience,” Spencer said. “I feel lucky to teach and coach in the same school that was so good to me as a student, and I ap-preciate it was a special place,” Scott said. Heithoff feels especially close to St. Albert, considering the class of was one of the first classes 1971 to graduate from St. Albert. “My parents’ generation dreamed of a St. Albert High School and helped make it a reality,” he said. “My wife and I went here and my daughters went here. As my time here draws to an end, I feel good about the next generation and their efforts to keep St. Albert thriving.”

From left, Robi Spencer edits the SA yearbook, Tom Heithoff and Dale Scott.

Page 25

A luscious blond flow that will give any girl butterflies.

He’s got the soccer touch that would love to score a goal to your heart.

Don’t worry, he’s probably taller than you at a remarkable 6 feet!

Green eyes that glimmer like stars in the night sky.

A sly smirk that guarantees a good sense of humor.

Dapper attire that leaves no question who the “better” twin is. He

treats his mother well!

On the Market Max Donaldson

An artist’s hand that can draw wonders.

A pocket full of cash from the hours he spends at Hy-Vee. He’s a hard working guy!

What is your guilty pleasure?

“Dogs” “Watching basketball”

“Admiring Joe Liston’s height

every time I drink water.”

“Watching football film every night

before bed.”

What is a superstition of

yours?

“Knocking on wood.”

If you could go back in time who would you punch

in the face?

“Seventh grade me.”

“Hitler” “Gail” “The guy who invented the

yellow Starburst.”

If you dropped out of high school what would your occupation be?

“I just want to be a

dog.”“Become an

opera singer.”“Donate my body

to science.”“Work my way up the rankings at the local

McDonald’s or maybe Burger King.”

Underclassman/ Upperclassman

crush?

“Kyle Barnes” “Jackson Dunning”

“Reed Miller. Gotta’ keep it in

the family.”

“Travis Miller”

By Miranda

Beezley

Jaz Nelson

“I see dog. I pet dog.”

“I’m not a superstitious

person.”

“I have to kill three cats before I brush my teeth.”

Tyler Blaha

Getting the answers to the questions you are afraid to ask... Random Question Edition

Alyssa CarleyMaggie King

Puerto Rico Party at the school. Students played volleyball, basketball, and danced to salsa music on the court. After, some students went to a soccer game, some went to El Malecón to see the view, and the rest of the stu-dents went to the shopping mall. At night some students walked around the stores near the restaurant for souvenirs. Others danced the salsa with the dance instructors or stu-dents from the school.

The last day, students toured Lajas on a trolley. They met the city’s mayor, went to a pineap-ple farm, and went to a park. Later that night, some students went back to the school and learned how to salsa. This was their last night in Puerto Rico. At the end of the night, everyone was saying their goodbyes and exchanging information.

The next day, the students from the convent woke up early to say goodbye to all of the students from the Academia. St. Albert stu-dents taught the Academia San Luis the custom of group hugs. The bus left San Juan at 9 a.m. for a 2 p.m. flight back to Omaha. They arrived home at about 1 a.m.

All of the students had a lot of fun, even with sunburns, new foods, and plenty of mishaps.

One morning, the restau-rant wanted to serve the students staying at the Lindamar more American type foods, so everyone ate hot dogs for breakfast.

There were also some funny mishaps. Bardon said, “My favorite part of the trip was when Lauren got peed on by a dog.”

The hardest part of the trip for a lot of people was leaving the new friends they had made at the school, but they still often make contact through social media.

The students from the Aca-demia San Luis plan to come to Iowa, and Señora Fisher plans to make Puerto Rico an annual trip.