PSAT: Are you ready?

Paly juniors this week are preparing to take the PSAT, a test that (supposedly) gives students an idea of how they will score on the all-powerful SAT, the mother of all tests.

Time was, anyone from the freshman with the overachieving parents to the senior who wanted one more practice round before the real deal could take the PSAT. This year, the Paly administration has decided to limit testing strictly to juniors.

The majority of freshmen, sophomores, and seniors probably couldn't care less, and I'm looking forward to that 10:45am Wednesday start time just as much as the next kid.

But shouldn't anybody be able to take the test if they want to?

Being a true Palo Alto kid, I trekked over to the tower building as soon as I heard about the test to ask the kind guidance staff if I could possibly take the PSAT this year. Pretty please?

This is what I got: "No. You'll have to make arrangements at another school."

Pause.

Um, could you maybe tell me which schools are allowing us lowly sophomores to partake in the sacred ritual of the PSAT? Give me a phone number? An email? A website? A name? Anything?

"No." Pause. We stared at each other.

Then, "I'm sorry. I don't know which other schools are offering it."

Um, lady, you're the supreme head of all standardized testing at Paly. You're sitting in front of a computer. There is a phone two inches from your right hand. And you can't make one call so that you can at least tell every overachieving Paly sophomore about another school to which they could pay money to sit for hours and take a test they don't really want to take anyway?

I left. We'd said all there was to be said. Well, I'd thought it, anyway.

Of course, there are legitimate reasons for the administration's decision. Yeah, there are a lot of Paly kids who'd like to take the PSAT. (Those extra 100 freshmen always ruin everything! :-) Yeah, that means more work for whoever fills out and files PSAT registration forms. Yes, I suppose if you really wanted to, you could make the warm-and-fuzzy-feel-good case that taking the PSAT as a sophomore and flunking it would kinda lower your self esteem.

But come on now. Kids as young as 7th grade are allowed to take the SAT! The real deal! And we, three years older, can't rely on our school to help us take the practice test? There isn't a way to register online for this test, like there is for the SAT. Collegeboard says, and I quote, "This test is administered by high schools, not through test centers. Online registration for the PSAT/NMSQT is not available."

It's like telling a 5-year-old at Great America that if they really want to go on Xtreme Skyflyer, they can go buy a ticket over there at the window. But a 10-year-old? No, you can't go on the carousel. You'll get hurt if you fall off the horse.

Eye Contact: The Presidential Debate

Pundits have been saying for days that this debate would not be about what the candidates said, but how they said it and what their body language was like.

I think most people could agree that the debate was fairly equal in terms of substance; if you agreed with one candidate at 5:59pm, your opinion was no different at 7:31.

Jim Lehrer started off by encouraging the candidates to speak directly to each other. It was a legitimate request; Barack Obama and John McCain know each other. They've worked together in the Senate.

Obama immediately picked up on this and was completely open and direct in his body language. He addressed McCain directly as "John" and called him out when he strayed from the truth.

By contrast, McCain never even looked at Obama.

He directed all of his comments to Lehrer and never once called Barack by name. Obama might as well not have been there.

McCain's message was pretty clear. As far as he was concerned, Obama wasn't really there. And if he was, he certainly wasn't worthy of consideration.

If McCain was coached on this, and he most certainly was, that was very carefully calculated to send a certain message to the American people.

Now, not having a TV myself, I went to watch the debate in a hotel bar. After it was done, I talked with a hotel worker about the outcome. He said he thought both candidates were crazy, but he also said, "I just couldn't vote for Obama. I don't trust him."

And even though you didn't say it, you knew why.

And it's scary. It's scary that America is so racist. If we can't make the right decision, I'm all for California seceeding from the union.

Arnold can be our president.

And you know what the really scary thing is?

I'm not kidding.

UPDATE: If anyone saw Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric: Why does Sarah call her running mate by his full name? Are they not even on first-name terms yet? Yikes.

Palo Alto's Party of the Year

A golden September twilight was sprinkled throughout the air. The light slowly faded into a shimmering darkness, illuminated only by occasional laughter and clinking of glasses. This being a Tuesday night, I had math homework, endless ions and compounds to memorize, and a complex number quiz to study for, but I could not have cared less.

I had just shaken hands with an Oscar-winner, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and the former vice-president of the United States of America.

I'd just met Al Gore.

My luck had come from a friend with connections to a certain company known for the incredible gourmet food it serves its employees, not to mention one of Silicon Valley's best-known companies.

The food at the party wasn't bad, but the company was phenomenal. You couldn't walk two steps without bumping into the CEO of FedEx, the author of a bestselling childrens' book series, or at least two journalists from the New Yorker. Barack Obama and Lance Armstrong had been on the guest list as well, but couldn't make it; Obama because he was down in LA at precisely that time at a fundraiser with his own celebrities, and Lance because he's busy training for his announced 2009 comeback to competitive cycling.

I forced myself to calm down as I stood a few feet away from the man who had been mere hanging chads from being the leader of the free world. Finally, he turned and fixed me with a piercingly intense stare. "It's such an honor to meet you," I said.

"Best of luck to you," he replied.

I already thought I was a pretty lucky girl. But a little extra from Al Gore doesn't hurt.

Wrapping Up the Torch

Olympic. The word has come to mean the epitome of greatness. An Olympic feat is a task one step short of superhuman. After all, people are only human.

But the 2008 Olympics came about as close as is humanly possible to the superhuman. From the moment the fiery footsteps started on their path across Beijing, events that would never even have been possible 20 years ago (and still stretch our conception of what is possible today) became reality.

43 World Records and 132 Olympic records were broken at this Olympics. A single person garnered eight gold medals; more than any other in history. (By the way, this same person gave swimming lessons to 30 lucky youngsters last week at the New York YMCA as part of his Visa sponsorship.) And whether or not the pool depth or various other tweaked factors made any impact on the athletes' performance, the fact remains that it was a human who broke each and every record, who swam each stroke, who ran each step, and who launched themselves airborne for every flip.

And speaking of humans, approximately 3 billion humans worldwide watched the 2008 Olympics.

One of those people was Lindsay Y, a senior at Paly. And she was actually there.

So, how bad was the weather? "It was hot for a few days, but I could definitely breathe. It was so much better than Shanghai," said Lindsay.

Tickets were sold by event, but at $30 per ticket for evening track finals, the cost was definitely not the limiting factor. "A lot of the tickets were reserved for Chinese companies to hand out to their employees," Lindsay said.

An international rumor was going around back when the Beijing venue was announced that there'd been an American who offered several thousand dollars to any hotel who could guarantee him a room for the Olympics. As the story goes, the hotels told him they could not guarantee him a room. Of course, many international guests were able to secure accommodation for those so very important 3 weeks in August. "There were definitely more foreigners in Beijing than normal," Lindsay said.

And of course, these Olympics did not go down without some contention. Liu Xiang, the famed Chinese hurdler, pulled out of the 110 meter hurdles with a severe injury to his foot after one false start. Clearly in a lot of pain as he took his mark for the start of the race, China's track champion started off the block only to be called back because of a false start. And that's when he made the decision to sit out. "I personally was really surprised because I didn't hear about his injury being that serious," said Lindsay. "I think about 60% of Chinese felt that it was not a legitimate injury. He was under a lot of pressure, though. He's really big in China - he was in so many ads."

The international stage was anything but calm as the fireworks exploded over the Birds' Nest, though. George W. Bush was seen chatting amiably in his seat next to Vladimir Putin as Russian tanks rolled into the former Soviet country of Georgia, and China endured criticism about their violations of Tibetans' human rights all throughout the Games.

However, this Olympics, China, the most populous nation in the world, showed how much can be accomplished with people power. This is a lesson Barack Obama and John McCain must understand as they ready themselves for the homestretch of a campaign that went on longer than any other in history. This is a lesson the Chinese government must also take in if they are to continue to grow economically and socially in world society. And this is a lesson we all must internalize and remember every time we think, "What I do doesn't matter. Someone else will do it."

But in truth, every chorus member, every background dancer, every person who moved a box up and down and made cherry blossoms bloom on the Great Wall of China, and every drummer counts towards the whole production and every person who participated makes the performance that much more spectacular.

Biden His Time

Complement or supplement?

That was the fundamental decision our two aspiring presidents had to make when selecting the top contender for Dick Cheney's soon-to-be-vacant position.

Is it better to fill in gaps in your resume or reinforce what you've already got? Obama, at least, has made his choice - at least according to the newspapers. Even though news of Obama's running mate is splashed all over online news sources, apparently he hasn't even made the formal announcement yet. CNN was the first to spill the news, and their source was a press leak, not a rousing speech by Barack himself. (By the way, today the Wall Street Journal released a headline news story naming Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as the running mate for the Obama; and retracted it hours later. They'd published information straight from the computer of some enterprising hoaxer.)

In naming Senator Joe Biden from Delaware as his right-hand man, it's clear Obama is looking to even out his credentials.

Here's the quick version:

Pros for Joe Biden: Well known in Washington. (Helps with experience issue.) Expert on foreign policy. (Helps there too.) Not too risky. (He's not going to make or break the election by himself.)

Cons for Joe Biden: Well known in Washington. (Undercuts Obama's message of change; Biden is a 6-term senator, which translates into 36 years as a Washington insider.) Expert on foreign policy. (Might be seen as better suited to the top job than Obama, given his knowledge of international affairs.) Not too risky. (He's not going to do much either way for polls.)

Conclusion: OK, Obama's going the safe route. Now who's his red elephant counterpart going to pick?

And speaking of John McCain, I half expected him to announce his running mate literally two minutes after Obama in order to dull the buzz surrounding the selected Democratic would-be VP.

And there are some radical choices out there for McCain VP's, including a woman (!!) from Alaska (!!).

But of course, we all know how McCain has been eyeing those 8 million votes Ms. Hillary Clinton could swing his way.

So hey! You never know.

Spotlight: International Soccer Camp in Holland!

An international athletic camp in Holland with kids from all over the world that will look good on a college transcript and be a lot of fun along the way? Sign me up.

People to People's Youth Friendship Games through their Sports Ambassadors program sounds like a total blast. Incoming Paly sophomore Julia E gives us the inside scoop on her international athletic experience.

Founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, People to People was established in 1956 to promote peace and understanding through international conferences - not between government officials, but between individual citizens. Eisenhower famously said, "The people want peace; indeed, I believe they want peace so badly that they governments will just have to step aside and let them have it."

The Sports Ambassadors program (www.sportsambassadors.org) is fairly new; it has only been in existence since 2000. According to Julia, it shows. Athletes for the summer program are nominated by their coaches from AYSO (the recreational league of soccer); not, as the website boasts, "through a selective interview and recommendation process." Applicants did go to one interview, but "I think everyone who applied was accepted," said Julia. And when scheduled plans for the 2,000+ student athletes fell through, more often than not they went souvenir shopping. The venerated "Friendship Village," the hub of everyday activities, consisted of seven tents and several soccer fields.

One of the tents boasted Domino's and Ben and Jerry's franchises, but otherwise, "the food was really bad," said Julia, recounting their first lunch of two pieces of bread and a slice of ham. "And the drink sizes were really small. They gave us a small tumbler of soda and expected that to last the whole meal."

By the end of the week, one girl was making a list of everything she was going to eat when she got home. Top of the list? "Fudge," said Julia.

According to Julia, there were almost enough redeeming qualities to make up for substandard food and underscheduled days. A bike tour of the Dutch countryside provided beautiful scenery, while other morning cultural trips included a boat ride on Amsterdam's canals and visits to cheese and clog factories. However, some days' agendas fell short of expectations. "What are the two places Amsterdam is famous for? The Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum," said Julia. "We didn't go to either of them."

But the camp's main fault? "There was very little meaningful interaction with kids from other countries," stated Julia. "Mostly, it was American girls going up to non-American guys and going, "Hey, you're kinda cute." There was no, "Wow, what's it like to live in Brazil?"

Teams were mononational and assembled upon arrival at camp; there were US teams, Canadian teams, Saudi Arabian teams, etc. "We played a total of two international soccer matches," said Julia, "and we played four against American club teams."

The Sports Ambassadors Program participated in the Regional Haarlem Cup, which was open to club teams as well. "The club teams have been playing together for months, whereas we jest met days ago, so they had a huge advantage," said Julia.

That is not to say that no friendships were made. "We all bonded the most on the last day," said Julia, smiling ruefully. "Last summer, when I went to summer camp, I went in with one of my friends, so I didn't make very many new ones. But in Holland, all of us exchanged emails and Facebooks. One girl emailed me yesterday."

Last words? "I wish there had been more team-building with kids from difference countries." In other words, People to People is missing the "people" factor.

Spotlight: MODEL UN

Palo Alto's weather has recently improved, now resembling something reasonable for a state known for its beaches, and I'm starting to feel like it's really summer. Unfortunately, if it's really summer, that means that school is really going to start again in August. And if you, like me, have a lot of free time on your hands, you're probably looking ahead to the next school year (or trying not to) and thinking about (or trying not to) what classes and extracurriculars are going to both be fun for you and look decently challenging when you apply to college in two summers.

Soccer, football, basketball, swimming, water polo, music, art, and debate all feature prominently in "Mr. or Ms. Average American High School Student." Fencing, wrestling, curling, underwater basket weaving, and Model United Nations do not.

Hmmmm...Model UN...I think that's the thing I heard about once on the Simpsons, right? Where people have to dress up and talk about a bunch of boring things?

Is is boring to talk to a kid from Cancun, Mexico (who happens to have the same birthday as you) about what happened in their hotel last night? Is it boring to (almost) trip and go flying across a sidewalk on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley because you tried to run in high heels and you have to eat dinner at some place that serves edible food in half an hour? Is it boring to spend an hour arguing with people about why the US should bomb Iran? (Don't answer that last one.)

Model UN can be a blast, according to last year's Paly participants. One freshman MUNer from last year recalls that in the Security Council, "China led an effort to burn all the marijuana in the world with funding from the International Monetary Fund and then drop food by hot air balloon to satisfy 'the munchies.' And it was allowed."

While debate, Mock Trial and Model UN are often grouped in the same "nerd" category, the goal of Model UN is to work with other students to come up with realistic solutions to actual world problems. "[Model UN] teaches you to stand up for what you believe in," said the Paly MUN participant.

Debate, from what I hear, involves pulling a red Radio Flyer wagon overflowing with large sized storage boxes containing all of the possible research, arguments, and speeches that could be helpful in a one-on-one argument. Apparently, debaters don't know whether they will have to argue for or against something until they arrive at the competition. Judges have been known to fall asleep.

Mock Trial, on the other hand, requires new members to argue both sides of why Goldilocks was committing a felony when she broke into the Three Bears' house and stole their porridge, inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on an undersized chair, and then ran from the scene of the crime.

While all of these intellectual extracurriculars provide an opportunity for social networking and a reasonable amount of actual brain use, Model UN is the best choice for those who value the essential 21st century skills "cooperation and collaboration" and want to improve their speaking skills. Unlike Mock Trial and debate, Model UN allows for flexibility in the amount of involvement. Technically, one could sit through an entire Model UN conference without speaking a word. Or, one could give several of their own speeches, raise their placard to comment on every speech made by another delegate, write their own solution to the problem and talk it up to other delegates. This flexibility makes Model UN a good choice for beginners who may want to do Mock Trial or debate later in their high school career.

Of course, as with anything, Model UN is definitely not for everyone, and if you are shy, only doing it because your parents told you to, or have issues with sitting for long periods of time, Model UN is probably not for you.

I will close with a story I first heard from a Berkeley Model UN student. Disclaimer: this is not intended to be discriminatory in any way against any of the groups involved.

A worldwide one-question survey was recently conducted by the UN. The one question was: Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world? The survey was a failure.

In Africa, they didn't know what "food" meant.

In Eastern Europe, they didn't know what "honest" meant.

In China, they didn't know what "opinion" meant.

In the Middle East, they didn't know what "solution" meant.

In Western Europe, they didn't know what "shortage" meant.

In South America, they didn't know what "please" meant.

And in the United States, they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.