Howdy Partner!

By: Clare T.

Pull out your cowboy hats and dust off those leather boots...it’s time for a week of wild fun!

Western Week has been a tradition at Western Canada High School for the past twenty years. Like many school functions involving the difficult task of bringing together our diverse student body, this four day event is organized by our very own Student’s Union, who put in a great deal of time and effort into making sure it goes off without a hitch!

The purpose of the event is to offer students a break during a long and tiring semester with a bit of lighthearted fun celebrating the culture that has made Calgary famous. Every day at lunch hour from March 12th to 15th, the Main Gym is transformed into an arena reminiscent of the Wild West. This is where a variety of rodeo-themed events are held. The events vary from year to year, but usually involve a relay, a test of coordination, a test of dancing skill, and a challenge that focuses on team work. To compete in the western-themed events, students create teams of ten, called Ranches. Ranches compete against one another for prizes in each event. All the challenges that take place in the arena are intended to be entertaining for the cowboys and cowgirls competing, as well as for the spectators.

What’s the best way to describe Western Week? According to student Graeme McConnell, the word is “rowdy”. “Announcements are louder and all you hear in the hallway on your way to class are students cheering. The noise level is incredible! Everybody breaks social norms and just go crazy.” Graeme has participated in the event since coming to Western three years ago. To him, Western Week is about going back to the school’s roots and celebrating what Calgary is all about. “My favorite memory of Western Week is of my first year being part of a Ranch,” says Graeme. “One of the challenges I had to do involved eating refried beans without using your hands. During the middle of the task my nose started bleeding right into the beans. I didn’t notice it at the time,so I just kept going and finished the entire plate of food. It wasn’t until after I was done that I realized what had happened. I didn’t win the challenge, but I did receive an honorable mention!” Bad luck in one of his first challenges hasn’t stopped Graeme from taking part in the event year after year! What he’s most looking forward to about this year’s Western Week is just being part of the experience. “I can’t wait to see everyone break out their cowboy hats and their big belt buckles. Some students really go all out! The competition is good fun all around.”

So what should we be expecting from this year’s four day Wild West competition? In the words of a true cowboy, “Get ready for a foot-stompin’, yee-hawin’ good time!”

Deck the Halls

By Clare T.

Christmas is one of the most celebrated and recognized holidays in the world, but how much does the average person really know about it? Here are some fun facts!

1. The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.”
2. Each year between 34-36 million Christmas trees are produced to meet the holiday demand.
3. In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal.
4. The popular Christmas carol “Jingle Bells” was composed in 1857 by James Piermont and was originally called “One-Horse Open Sleigh.” It was written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas!
5. A Christmas wreath hanging on your front door is a sign of welcome and long life for all who enter.
6. During Christmas season in the United States, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute.
7. The movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” features more than 52,000 Christmas lights, about 8,200 Christmas ornaments, and nearly 2000 candy canes!
8. According to a survey, 7 out of 10 dogs receive Christmas gifts from their doting owners. My dog is one of them!
9. The first Christmas card was created in England on December 9, 1842.
10. During this Christmas season, 1.76 billion candy canes will be made.
11. Holly berries are poisonous.
12. 1 in 3 men will wait until Christmas Eve to finish his shopping.
13. The fictional figures that deliver gifts to children on Christmas are different in various countries:
    England: Father Christmas.
    Russia: Baboushka, a grandmotherly figure, or Grandfather Frost.
    Germany: Christkind, an angelic messenger from Jesus.
    France: Pere Noël.
    Scandinavia: children receive gifts from a variety of Christmas gnomes, one of whom is named Julenisse Holland, which translates to St. Nicholas.
14. Stuffed animals make up about half of the most popular Christmas presents given.

Three Books To Read in Your Spare Time

By: Yulia K.

Winter break is fast approaching, and while a large population of the school is going away for the holidays, there are many others who are staying at home with nothing to do. For the convenience of the latter, here is a list (in no particular order) of three books to read in your spare time.

Impulse – Ellen Hopkins
For those not familiar with Hopkins' writing, it is worthy to note that her books are not written in prose. Instead, she tells her stories through the use of dramatic poetry and has a reputation for writing from multiple perspectives. In this case, the tale is told through the eyes of three teenagers: Conner, Vanessa, and Tony. Their paths cross when each of them is brought to the same psychiatric hospital for the same reason: attempting suicide. Each of the characters offers something everyone can identify with, and their destinies become a major concern to the reader as the story goes on. The book looks incredibly intimidating because of how thick it is, but don't worry! There's barely any text on the pages, and the suspense in some parts of it will keep you zooming through.

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
I was late in starting to read The Hunger Games series - I didn't think it could possibly live up to all of the hype that surrounded it. When I finally did pick it up, I couldn't put it back down. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and although I was a bit disappointed with the ending, I did not regret reading it. The story focuses on Katniss Everdeen, a tough and very believable character who lives in a post-apocalyptic world, in a country called Panem. Through a series of twists and turns, she ends up competing on a television show called (surprise, surprise) “The Hunger Games,” where all but one of the competitors are killed by each other in a fight to stay alive.

Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
As the first book of my favourite series of all time, Uglies introduces Earth as known by Tally Youngblood, the protagonist of this novel. At the start of the story, she is eagerly awaiting her sixteenth birthday, since it is at that time that she will undergo the operation meant to turn all sixteen-year-olds pretty. Just as she gets to the point where she can wait no longer, she meets Shay, another almost-sixteen-year-old. However, Shay doesn't see the idea of becoming beautiful as the same chocolate cake that Tally sees it as. It is essentially through Shay that Tally's story becomes so interesting and compelling to read. What appears at first to be a fluffy, teenage-girl story is actually embedded with themes of war, conspiracy theories, and the negative aspects of blindly trusting those in charge.