junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	Joaquin from Spain (7/31) Here from Madrid for his first summer, Joaquin is going into the fifth grade. In "Hot Off the Press," he's mastering his interview and journalism skills, and in "Magic for Muggles," he's becoming a master chemist. What were you up to yesterday? Yesterday we had workshops. I had street hockey where we got to make our own teams. I also had soccer with Nate. They were really fun. In soccer, they taught us new tricks and Nate put together a mini soccer tournament where we got to play against each other and have a lot of fun. In street hockey, they taught us some moves and there were six of us, so we made our own teams of three. My team was called the “Bulls-eyes,” and the other team was the “Bullets.” We played against each other. It was a lot of fun. Sounds cool. What classes are you taking? My classes are “Magic for Muggles” and “Hot Off the Press,” which is journalism. Tell me a bit about “Magic for Muggles.” In “Magic for Muggles” we do an experiment every single day. Today we did volcanoes. We got cups and clay and we molded it together into a volcano, and then sort of blew it up. We put baking soda and vinegar inside the cups. Vinegar and baking soda react together, which made the volcano go. The other day, we made a chemical called “Hagrid's Toothpaste.” We combined two other chemicals and the result was the “Hagrid's Toothpaste.” It bubbled up and was white, but you can add food coloring and it will look like that color. And what are you up to in journalism? We're writing a newspaper, and I'm writing about Off-Campus Movie Night. I'm really excited. I interviewed the people in the Programming Office. They told me that during the last week, on Wednesday, we're going to go out and watch a movie and this session we're going to watch “G-Force,” which is about animals that are secret agents. How would you compare Explo with school? At Explo, you learn in a fun way. You do that at school sometimes, too, but I like Explo more. . . because at Explo you get to hang out with your friends, we have more snack time, and the learning is fun. The teachers are really nice here. What are your teachers like? I have Mara for “Magic for Muggles” and Jonah for journalism. They're both really nice and good teachers. What has your experience as a first-year residential student been like? It's fun. It was cool to see what it's like to be alone without my parents. My hall has been a lot of fun, too. We play four square. We have a lot of fun together. Has it been easy to make friends at Explo? Yeah. Everyone on my hall is my friend, and I'm friends with a lot of other people. You just sort of go up and introduce yourself and start talking. Is there anything you're really looking forward to for the rest of the summer? I'm looking forward to the talent show. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. . . I might play the piano. If Explo were a type of dessert, what would it be and why? I think Explo would be ice cream, because it's so nice to have when it's hot out! more conversations > first session \| second session