MC Perry High School Newspaper - February

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INDEXSochi OlympicsFEJC RecapBlack History MonthScience of LoveCupid and ValentinesSamurai SpotlightGroundhog DayWhite DayTemple UniversitySports RecapsBack Page

UPCOMING EVENTSMAR 3-6th

Far East JSHSMAR 10-14th

Terra Nova TestingMAR 24-29th

Far East LinguafestMAR 24-26th Far East JROTC MAR 25-28th Far East JSHSAPR 3rd

End of 3rd QuarterAPR 4th

No SchoolTeacher Work Day

APR 4th-13thSpring Recess

School Resumes 14th

LOCATED ON PAGE 10 - SPORTS

SPORTS

LOCATED ON PAGE 11 - FEATURE

SAMURAISpotlights

LOCATED ON PAGE 4 - FEATURE

Far East RecapsSCIENCEof Lust and Love

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February 2014Volume 12 Issue 4

Becky [email protected]

Millions of spectators gathered in Sochi to catch a glimpse of the thousands of athletes from every livable continent that are competing for the gold. With 15 divisions of snowy events – alpine ski-ing, curling, ice hockey, figure skating, biathlon, bobsleigh, etc. – simultane-ously taking place, the Winter Olympics is a source of entertainment and a way of finding pride in your nation’s flag. Kyle Stevens said, I’ve watched it o n AFN and

it’s pretty awesome.” Irina Rodina of Russia, who began her athletic career at age 13, was the most victorious pair skater in history, winning 24 gold medals and claiming an additional silver and 2 bronze for the major competitions. Despite her low health condition and minor injuries, she aimed for the best every moment until her retirement in 1980 after triumphing over her second and last Olympic title. The majority of high school students at M. C. Perry have never heard of her name, yet she accomplished a great task for every one participating or watching in this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. Rodina was one of the two people that lit the torch in the opening ceremony at the Fisht Olym-pic Stadium on February 7, 2014. This year’s Winter Olympics at Sochi hosted a variety of events from February 7, 2014, to the closing ceremony which was held on Febru-ary 23, 2014. With 230 contestants competing in all fifteen categories, Team USA had the highest number of athletes that competed in the games. Throughout the entire competition, we won a total of 28 medals with 9 gold, 7 silver, and 12 bronze, ranking America 4th in the overall tournament. Anna Kehr said, “America has been doing pretty well. For all the people who are teenagers, it’s amaz-ing how they made it that far, and they’re only a few years older than us.” These headstrong American athletes have earned glory and proved what it means to be an American. Although Pres-ident Obama and Vice President Bidden were absent for this phenomenal event, the millions of supporters in the crowd cheered as skier Todd Lodwick rep-resented our country when he walked

the Parade of Nations with the Ameri-can flag raised high into the evening sky. For the previous 22 years, since

XXII Winter Olympic Games1992, the US has placed 5th or high-er in the overall ranking, as well as achieving a first place win in 1932. This year, however, we must congratu-late Russia for placing first in the So-chi Winter Olympics. Although these Olympics took place in Sochi, Russia, we must give Russia credit for earn-ing this honor through the dedication and lifetime training of its athletes. All the countries that participated in this global event, whether it’s Brazil, China, Germany, or Jamaica, have displayed their finest athletes this win-ter. These Olympic Games serve as a way to bring countries miles and oceans away together in one stadium, where the best of the best are given an op-

portunity to show the world what their country is made of. These friendly com-petitions unify this world we live in. The colorful rings are the insignia of the Olympic Games, each ring rep-resenting a different portion of the world. The Americas, Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe are brought to-gether in these games and, much simi-lar to the interlocked rings, are con-nected through this worldwide contest. Even in mainland Japan, we are in-spired by the effort of these daring ath-letes who are serving their country as a representative, much like us “mili-tary brats”. The exceptional talent and strength of every athlete allows them to be role models for many young Ameri-cans, especially athletes. To think that every one of the participants began as high school students in foreign coun-tries like Japan gives us hope to achieve something even greater in the future. Tyler Culp, sophomore student at Perry said, “By seeing what they do, it would inspire other people to do better.”

Sochi Gives Inspiration Worldwide

These friendly competitions unify this world we live in.

Maxinne [email protected]

Matthew C. Perry High School, “the little school that could”, left 2014’s Far East Journalism Con-

ference with a great bang! The compe-tition was tremendous, but M.C. Perry stood strong. FEJC is made up of three main categories; broadcast journal-ism, newspaper, and yearbook. De-spite being a school consisting of little over one-hundred high school students, M.C. Perry managed to win the first place gold awards, for each category. Originally, FEJC was scheduled for October of 2013. However, the recent government shutdown forced DoDDs to postpone the event. FEJC began on Feb-ruary 3rd, 2014. Students were greeted by a bone chilling air, but were burning with excitement. Though the atmosphere was friendly, everyone knew that an in-tense competition was about to begin. “Everything has been so intense. Watch-ing people scramble to find a story and finish their work on time… It was crazy,” said Kailey Cronin, a sophomore journal-ist for Kinnick High School’s newspaper.

Far East Journalism Without a doubt, every indi-vidual team of every category put forth outstanding material. The broadcast reels were professionally edited, anchored, and filmed. Broadcast journalism teams, newspaper teams, and yearbook teams that won first and second place all includ-ed students from M.C. Perry. Carlos Cas-tro’s (senior) broadcast team placed sec-o n d , w h i l e Richie Roth’s ( j u -n i o r ) broad-c a s t t e a m placed f i r s t . Julian Perez’s (junior) team placed second for over-all yearbook layout, and Gaku Lange’s (senior) team placed first. For newspaper, Maxinne Hernandez’s (se-

nior) team placed second for over-alls spread, while Ante Rosales’s team placed first. Sam Hess’s (senior) amazingly written article won first place for best newspaper editorial. M.C. Perry students won an abundant amount of awards for the indi-vidual photography competitions, as well. Mandolyn Peterson placed second in

both best non-con-ference and best To-

Perry brings home the goldkyo photography. Gaku Lange won sec-ond place in best people photography. Every product was created during the first three days of FEJC, unless stated otherwise. Matthew C. Perry students have shown that they have the heart and dedication o create amazing work, with limited time. As Julian Perez, a junior that attended the conference, “FEJC really showed how well we can work together, and how

our strengths and weaknesses mix to make us a great team.”

“FEJC really showed how well we can work together, and how our strengths and weaknesses mix to make us a great team.” -Julian Perez-Bosse

Elise [email protected]

The 2014 Far East Drama event wasa huge success! Put together with the help of Ms. O’Con-nell and hosted right here in

Iwakuni, several different schools came from all over the Pacific to show off their hard work in acting out a one act play. Students were able to perform in the Sakura Theater, and they also performed individual or small group scenes. The re-sult was a week full of fun and watching theater! To help improve specific areas of our drama abilities, there were also work-shops. The primary workshops included

Far East Dramaable and opened the way for fun times for everyone. “I’ve never loved Drama more.” Says Catherine, reflecting on the multiple field trips and team nights that we shared with all the schools. Although our school didn’t win any awards with our one act play, “The Miracle”, Tenacity Clayton and Dina Roman won best in room with their performance of “Cinderella”, and Rob-bie Johnson, Monica Grant, and Alexa Hodges won best in room

Stomp, Stage Design/Makeup, Readers Theater, Improv, Pantomime, and a Star Wars Shakespeare mash up. These prima-ry workshops met over the course of the week, then presented their skill in front of all the schools. There were also sec-ondary or “taste” workshops, with quick one hour lessons on projecting your voice, speaking in accents, puppetry, au-ditioning tips, and other useful things. This opportunity was especial-

ly important to people like Chan-cellor Gardiner, who had never before been to a Far East event. It was a very pos-itive experience

for him though, as he said, “It was the best opportunity I ever had at

Perry, I could walk up to anyone and instantly find

topics to talk about.” Other people shared a similar con-

senses, noting how Drama kids were naturally more outgoing

than most other students, which made the environment very enjoy-

with their performance of “Elevator Games”. Furthermore, Chancellor Gar-diner won an award for his participation in the primary Stomp group, and Elise Silvas won an award for best technical presentation, which included makeup, marketing, and script writing. Kou-dai Franklin, Chancellor Gardiner, and Catherine Taylor won awards along with the entire Stomp group, because their performance was voted the best of the primary workshops. After that exciting awards ceremony, everyone went to the Valentines Dance to conclude the week. Overall, it was a very good Far East experience, and everyone had a lot of fun showing off their talents on stage. Edgren won one of the best one act awards, with their performance of “Sweeny Todd” and Kubasaki won the other best one act award, with their per-formance of “Time for Tea”. Even though Perry didn’t win, however, we all made a lot of friends and created a closer friend-ship with each other. Most of the people on our team want to participate again next year, so you should join us too. As Alexa Hodges said, “This was definite-ly the best Far East I’ve ever been to.”

reflection

“I’ve never loved Drama more.” -Catherine

Taylor

2 Samur-Eye / February 2013 News

3February 2014 / Samur-Eye Feature

Marina Topel [email protected]

In 1926, a cultural occasion, which is now widely celebrated, was born. What we now know as “Black His-tory Month” actually began as Black

History Week. A member of the Asso-ciation for the Study of Negro life and History, Carter G. Woodson, originally created this week of remembrance and education of black history to be specifi-cally set on a certain week, the week that holds the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas. “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tra-dition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” said Woodson regarding his views on the nece s s i t y of Black h i s -tory

week. On the 50th anniversary of Black History Week, it was expand-ed to the whole month. This change in 1976 included almost the whole coun-try in the celebration of their histo-ry. Although black people do endure vast amounts of cultural history and a plethora of memories that they should always conserve, should there really be a month dedicated to Black History? The question as to whether or not

there should be a black his-tory month has been debated many times before. At the time, black history was ignored instead of celebrated or studied. How-ever, since then

times have drastically changed and black history has become a major part of Amer-ican History. Their history is no longer ignored, no longer looked upon as inferi-or to America’s history, and is no longer something that students aren’t interested in learning about. So why is there still a month dedicated to learning about black history? Why can’t we learn about their history everyday instead of only rec-ognizing it on February of every year?

Maybe the key to officially ending racism is to stop segregating black history into just one month. Instead, there should be EQUAL read-ing on black history as

there is on American History, Hispanic, Asian, etc. Every day, we should be learn-ing about black history. If all of mankind is really created equal, then this should have been a solution a long time ago. In a recent interview, Multi-award winning actor, Morgan Freeman, reveals to Mike Wallace of CNN “I don’t want a black history month. Black history is

American history.” After strange looks from Wallace, he promptly asked Free-man “How are we going to get rid of racism.” to which Freeman replied “Stop talking about it. I`m going to stop call-ing you a white man, and I`m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You`re not go-ing to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I`m saying?” Completely cutting out black his-tory from our everyday lives is never going to be a solution, but maybe not having a Black History month could be. Maybe if there was no black histo-ry month, people wouldn’t automati-cally separate blacks from whites from Hispanics in their heads. The new in-stinct would be to think of everyone as human beings. To think of everyone as their equal, and to never think they are above someone because of the color of their skin. The real solution to racism is acceptance of equality, and that just can’t happen if there is only one month out of twelve dedicated to black history.

Black history monthDoes its existence cause more division?

“I don’t want a black his-tory month. Black history

is American history.”-Morgan Freeman

750-800 Attendance 800-1015 Math Testing

1015-1020 1020-1045 B4 SEMINAR (25 min) 1045-1050 1050-1215 A1 1215-100 LUNCH 105-230 A2

Monday March 10 (A day) MATH

750-800 Attendance 800-1025 SS & LA Testing

1025-1030 1030-1130 B4 SEMINAR (60 min) 1130-1135 1135-1215 B1 (40 min) 1215-100 Lunch 105-145 B2 (40 min) 145-150 150-230 B3 (40 min)

Tuesday March 11 (B day) SOCIAL STUDIES & LANGUAGE ARTS

750-800 Attendance 800-1015 Reading Testing

1015-1020 1020-1045 B4 SEMINAR (25 min) 1045-1050 1050-1215 A3 1215-100 LUNCH 105-230 A4

Wednesday March 12 (A day) READING

750-800 Attendance 800-915 Science Testing 915-920

920-1045 B1 1045-1050 1050-1215 B2 1215-100 Lunch 105-230 B3

Thursday March 13 (B day) SCIENCE

Friday March 14 (A day) Regular A day schedule

Score at or above the 80 Percentile

In 4 out of 5 Subjects

Or Improve by at least 10 Percentile points in 4 out of 5

subjects

10

The Science of Love

Ways to Say “I Love You”Cherokee Young

[email protected]

Not everyone here at M.C. Perry High School speaks English. Some of the major languages spoken here

include: Japanese, Spanish and Tagalog/Filipino. Well, now that this is the des-ignated month of love, some of us may be trying send your love to that special someone (or something). You could go down the traditional route and simple state “I love you”, but where is the excitement in that? The correct answer is, there is no magic in just saying that. What you could do instead is (possibly confuse) and wow the love of your life by phrasing it in a different language, no matter how uncommon that phrase may be.

1. French- Je t’aime (pronounced: zhe tehm). More often than not, French is usually referred to as the “language of love” so it seems only fitting that it be added to the list.

Why do people love? The process of falling in love has been classified into three different stag-

es. Lust, attraction, and attachment these three stages all have their own hormones and receptors in the brain that are released and detected by. In each of these stages the person goes through several symptoms that make their lover seem like the best person in the world and helps to create a bond that will last. Helen Fisher said “it’s what gets up and going to get anything.” The first stage being lust is the most known, and often mistaken as love at first sight. Lust is the sexu-al attraction between two people; the creation of lust is created by the indi-vidual releasing hormones known as testosterone in males and estrogen in women. Testosterone is not only found in males but also in women with high sex drives. “It’s what gets up and go-ing to get anything.” Helen Fisher said.

2. Finnish- Mina rakastan sinua (pronounced: mee na rak a stahn sin oo a). This is a formal way of saying, but nonetheless, it’s a simple way to express your feelings.

3. Italian- Ti amo (Ti sounds like tea, ah-mo). Not to be confused with the Spanish version “Te amo”, Italy’s form of the word shares the definition.

4. German- Ich liebe dich (eee [then soft k] lee buh dee [soft k]). In Germa-ny, some of the sounds of letters and stressed but try not to make to but too much emphasis in the pronunciation; you don’t want to scare someone.

5. BBC’s Sherlock- Sherlock is actually a girl’s name. This is more of an inside joke with the series but you can still apply to anyone… as long as it’s not Moriarty.

6. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish- Amin Mela Lle (ah-mean mel-ah lay). Now some of you may now this phrase, but I think it is safe to say that Elvish is not the common tongue here.

7. Greek- S’agapo (sag-app-oh). Aphrodite would be in-credibly proud if you said this to someone. She’ll get giddy just thinking about it.

8. Romanian- Te iubesc (teh yoo-behsc). Before you get any ideas… no, this is not what vampires say to each other.

9. Danish- Jeg Elsker Dig (yee elskeh di [I as in hi]). In the northern areas of Europe like Denmark and Sweden, there are minor variations to the phrase but

the overall concept is synonymous.

10. Russian- Ya ne mogu zhit bez tebya. In Russia, this version of the words “I love you”, is actually translated to “I cannot live without you”. By saying that, that then becomes the most

sincere way to show one’s affection to

another.

These are just a few of the dif-

fernt ways that there are to say

“I Love You” so go out and find and use

as many ways as you possibly can!

Eric Cox [email protected]

Stage two of love is known as attraction. This stage being one of the most powerful to the person feeling its effects, this is the stage that people can-not stop thinking about their other. Some people might even lose their appetite, or even need less sleep. The body wants to spend less time sleeping and eating and

spend more time with the person they cannot stop thinking about. Moreover, during this stage more hormones are re-leased and help to create what is known as love between these people. Dopa-mine is released by the brain, this is also what is found in cocaine and nicotine,

this creates an addiction to the person, and your brain needs to see this other person in order to help feed its addic-tion. Norepinephrine, otherwise known as adrenalin, this gives a dramatic rush, creates clammy hands, flushed cheeks, and makes your heart race. The last hormone released by the brain is sero-

tonin. It is love’s most important chem-ical and one that may actually make you temporarily insane. When the hormone is released you lose all control, making anything look like a great idea, mean-ing you might actually do anything for your love. It makes you insane and re-

ally makes your love have control over you, doing anything they tell you too. Stage three is known as attach-ment. This is the stage in which both parties if feeling the same way towards each other makes the love last. This stage is usually seen with child birth with the release of several different types of hormones. These hormones are found in women and their children; they help create a motherly bond with the child. Oxytocin, one of the hormones released by the hypothalamus gland helps cement the strong bond between mother and child and also released by both sexes. Another important hor-mone released during this stage of love is vasopressin, found in long term com-mitment couples, scientist are not sure what it’s function is but have found some uses of the hormone is for kidney function. “Love is what I believe to be a reaction to chemicals, so the emotion we label as love is merely a bodily reac-tion.” says Elise Silvas a junior at Perry.

...the emotion we label as love is merely a bodily reaction.

---Elise Silvas

4 Samur-Eye / February 2014 Feature

5February 2014 / Samur-Eye Features

Ivan Davila [email protected]

On February 14 there’s a hol-iday called Valentine’s Day. On this event there are gift given from there spouses,

boyfriends girlfriends, someone spe-cial, and secret admirers. Some of the gifts that are given on Valentine’s Day are, jewelry, roses, sometimes dinner, and then there’s chocolate. Almost everybody likes the luscious goodness that comes in dif-ferent varieties of flavored chocolate, but why is it one of the first gifts hand-ed to someone? Why is it that the most com-mon thing to get handed, a box of chocolate, why can’t it be something different. Well here’s a little history for you, in the 1800’s there was these brother’s called the Cadbury brothers who set up a shop in England making chocolate and then selling them.

Richard Cadbury built the first heart shaped chocolate box for Valentine’s Day. There making one of the links from chocolate and Valentines Day. What do others think about get-ting chocolate on Valentines Day? Some might think it’s romantic; others disagree

and think it’s a waste of time and mon-ey. Some of there opinions are “to give people sweet stuff without having to get physical” said Matthew Sellers. Or “ be-cause it’s a way to show someone that you care about them,” said Hunter Kae-

mming. But of course that is not really accurate because the holiday really gets separated into to categories, people who are with someone, and then there are single people. So of course they have there own opinions of the holiday. Those people without a companion could hate

Valentines Day until t h e y

f i n d some-o n e , get some c h o c o -

late or another gift and think it’s the best holiday out of the whole year. If you ever come across the question why in the world do people give out chocolates on Valentine’s Day, it’s a waste of time, effort, and money. Well now you know because of the Cad-bury brothers, how Richard built the first

heart shape chocolate box. Have in mind you might think Valen-

tine’s day shouldn’t even be a holiday, that it’s a

waste of time and mon-

ey, but u n t i l y o u

found s o m e -

o n e to share

it with you will

probably feel different about it.

Valentine’s day chocolates

“Because it’s a way to show someone you

care about them.”-Hunter Kaemming

Johnmichael Pearson

Cupid is the most famous of Val-entine symbols and everybody knows that boy armed with bow and arrows, and piercing

hearts. He is known as a mischievous, winged child armed with bow and arrows. The arrows signify desires and emotions of love, and Cupid aims those arrows at Gods and Humans, causing them to fall deeply in love. Cupid has always played a r o l e in the c e l e -brat ions of love and lovers. In ancient Greece he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. A question we ask ourselves around Valentine’s

Day is why is cupid depicted as a baby? Cupid himself is not a child or a baby. He is the son of Mercury and Venus. He is actually depicted as a winged

t e e n a g e boy, I

think the reason that he is seen as a Baby nowadays is because he has be-come confused with cherubs (winged babies who shoot people with love ar-rows) or because children or and ba-bies are usually the result of love, pas-sion etc. of which Cupid was a god and

so became associated with them The story of Cupid and Psyche in

which he accidentally wounds himself with one of his own arrows and falls in love with Psyche this shoes he is shown as older than a baby. The story of beauty and the beast is actually derived from the story of cupid and psyche. The idea of

CUPID: THE BABY, THE MYTH, THE LEGENDcupid has been changed a lot throughout time. He has been depicted as an adult all the way to a baby. Another reason we might show cupid as a baby it shows a sign of immaturity however in that im-maturity one is expected to grow and de-velop the relationship into a loving and

m a t u r e L o v e that will last the test of t i m e . Here at Mathew C Per-ry many p e o p l e

don’t know the origin of the naked baby that symbolizes this well-known holiday. “I didn’t know the extent of cupid’s histo-ry! “ When asking around a small portion of the school seemed to know the origins. Maybe we can start our own tradition here at our school and depict him as something other than a baby, maybe an old man?

[email protected]

“I didn’t know the extent of cupid’s history!”

- Ivan Davila

Why is chocolate the renown Valentine’s Day gift?

ern Japan “All-Star Team” compris-ing of the top rising soccer players in the Southern Japanese Prefectures. His recent decision to sign for the Division 1 School, University of

the Pacific in California was not a simple choice. Lange also had to weigh two other offers,

one to Temple University in Philadelphia, and anoth-

er to College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

On behalf of the entire school,

we would like to extend our congrat-ulations towards Gaku on his tremen-dous accompishmets, and also wish him luck in his upcoming high school senior year “Samurai” Soccer Season .On behalf of the entire stu-dent body we would like yo wish you the best of luck in California!

Lakeyia [email protected]

February is the home of many other holidays, but it is notori-ously known as African-Amer-ican History month. Our very

own principal Mr. Lorenzo Brown used to be an African American history teacher long before his years at Perry. Prior to getting into the Department of Defense education system, Mr. Brown used to be a history teacher in South Carolina. After graduating from Coker College with a degree in education, specializing in history, he attended a job fair in his hometown of Hartsville, South Carolina. His job fair led him to the opportunity to teach in a little town called Greenwood in South Carolina. He became employed at Greenwood High School, where he was a history teach-er and a coach. Greenwood is a somewhat diverse town with residents of various ethnicities. He wanted to try to reach out to students as well as fulfill his pastime of teaching the history of the African American com-munity. So, he created the Af-rican-American History club (AFRAMHIS Club)

at Greenwood High.After all the saying goes, “those who do not know their history are con-demned to repeat it.” Mr. Brown has always had a passion for teaching his-tory, he feels that it is important that

all people know their history. “African American History month is important because it supplies a greater knowledge

and understanding of his-tory” said Brown. African-American His-tory month is rather important because just like Hispanic Heritage month and

Asian-Pacific Heritage month, that month is rep-

resentative to the nation of the resiliency and strength of an ethnicity. It is the ap-preciation of that group’s contributions to the world. His favorite part of being an African American histo-ry teacher was “being able to experience how people learned and understood concepts when they were aware of the history they never knew,” he said.

Here at Matthew C. Perry, sports scholarships are lim-ited to say the least. Howev-er, the isolated location did

not hinder soccer prodigy Gaku Lange from achieving his high school dream: to play soccer at the college level. When asked about his accomplishment Lange humbly responded “I try to hone my skills every day and want to keep playing soccer at the highest competitive level possible. I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity,

and will work my hardest.” Lange, who started playing soccer as young as 4 years old, always showed an interest in soccer. From 5th grade all the way to his sophomore year, the young star worked his way through Sanfrecce’s Youth Academy, earning not only a starting position on the team, but also making the South-

Mr.Lorenzo Browna diverse educator of many facets

Samuel [email protected]

SAMURAI SPOTLIGHTs:Sir Gaku Lange

Signs for University of the pacific


Joel [email protected]

Holidays are usually known for being the time of the year in which your family all around the world gets together just to celebrate that holiday. However, on February 2nd, there is a holiday in the U.S that some people don’t even celebrate nor care about. That holiday is Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is a holiday in which a groundhog comes out of its burrow, in-dicating whether or not we will have an early spring, or six more weeks of win-ter. If the groundhog sees its shadow and goes back into its burrow, it means that we will have six more weeks of winter. If the groundhog stays above the ground, it means t h a t s p r i n g w i l l c o m e e a r -ly. The type of weather plays an import-ant role

on this day, helping to change the outcome. Dating back all the way to 1887, Groundhog Day was a holiday that was often compared to another holiday named Candlemas Day. Some even be-lieve that Groundhog Day was based off of Candlemas Day, but it is not certain whether or not it really is. Candlemas Day was mostly celebrated by Christians that be-lieved if the sun came out on that day, winter would last for six more weeks, but if not, spring would come early. Although Candlemas Day tells whether or not spring comes early, Christians also celebrate the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on this day If you ever wonder why Groundhog Day is based on the ground-

hog of all animals, it is because the groundhog hibernates during the winter and comes out of the ground when spring arrives. Also, because several people around the world back in the past believed that the groundhog was the wisest of the hibernating animals, the peopole felt like the groundhog should predict the weather. In Europe several centuries ago, people watched for other

hiber-nating animals along with the ground-hog, including badgers, bears, and

hedgehogs. One specific groundhog in the United States named Punxsutawney Phil is the groundhog that makes the decision. Although Punxsutawney Phil is the main groundhog, several places have their own groundhog that predicts the weather, includingCanada’s albino

groundhog named Wiarton Willie, and New York City’s groundhog, Pothole Pete. Before, Groundhog Day was not very popular amongst the people all around the world. But in 1993, the movie Groundhog Day had boosted the popularity of Groundhog Day substan-tially. Ever since the movie had come out, about 40,000 people had started visiting the East Coast event annually to celebrate Groundhog Day over the re-cent years. Even Punxsutawney Phil had a major boost in popularity, allowing him to do several things, including being on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1995, and even traveling to Washington DC to meet with President Reagan in 1986. Although Groundhog Day was not very popular before, it has now become a holiday that many people enjoy cele-brating. Whether it be to hear about the prediction of the weather, or just to see Punxsutawney Phil himself, people from all around the United States gather in one spot on the holiday that is Ground-hog Day.

A Holiday for the Groundhogs

“Although Groundhog Day was not very pop-ular before, it has now become a holiday that

many people enjoy cele-brating.”

February: Holidays and Events Justin Hill

[email protected]

F ebruary is an exciting month with Valentine’s Day, white day, president’s day, and the super bowl game. There is also one

thing that is interesting about this month is that we only have 28 days. Why is it only 28 days? Well the first calendar was established by Romulus. He only had 10 months to begin with, and it started with March. After Romulus, Julius Cae-sar made his own solar calendar which we are using right now. He added addi-tional 10 days in the calendar. However Julius’s cousin, Numa said the month of February should be a purification month, and a religious month. But Julius new calendar required extra day every year. So every four year it’s called the “leap year.” February has different holidays. The most common holiday that people know is, Valentine’s day. People ex-change gifts among themselves. Normal-ly people give each other chocolates, or flowers. Sakura Fleming said “when the day comes I get really nervous because I want to get a chocolate from who I like.” In japan during Valentine’s Day the girl

has to give the boys or their lover a gift. After a month from Valentine’s Day is called White day. It was originated in Japan then it went to China, Korea, and Taiwan. If you get something from a girl you have to give a chocolate back to the girl that you got a chocolate from. The day before valentines and white day, they go to the grocery store to buy some ingredi-ents for the chocolate. When they make the chocolates, they make it creative and cute so the person they give it to will know that they made the chocolate from their heart. In America, most people will buy choc-olates from the store, because they’re just lazy or really don’t like the person they’re going to give the chocolate to. If you haven’t made a chocolate for some-body, you should try it because they will actually like the chocolate, and they will know it came from your heart. What is president’s day? Do you know why we celebrate president’s day? This holiday

wasn’t celebrated until the late 1870s. It’s a federal holiday because we are celebrating the day of George Washing-ton birthday, and also recognize our first president. During president’s day, some

people celebrate all presidents in the past and present. Did you know there were four executives that had their birthdays in February? The four people are George Washington, William Henry Harrison,

Abraham Lin-coln, and Ronald Reagan. Many Americans stay home during the super bowl game. Should students miss school just for a football game? Is it that important of a

thing that we can miss school? I asked Kai Lange who is Japanese American he remarked “why do you have to miss a day of school for a football game? It’s unbelievable in Japanese school.” In my opinion I think skipping a day of school just for a football game is ri-diculous, but I understand that football is the main sport in America. It is good to support your team, but I think we shouldn’t skip school for a football game.

“when the day comes I get really ner-vous because I want to get a choco-late from who I like.” - Sakura Fleming

7February 2014 / Samur-Eye Features

Valentine’s Day & White Day

To: Trish,Desmond,

Pj and Lakeyia

From: SaiyaTo: Angel Cadavos

From: Tyson (:

Shout-Outs

To: Bobbi Hill

From: Lewis Billups

To: Lakeyia Brown

From: Lorenzo “ZO”

Brown

To: My “Girlfriend”

From: Charles Jackson

To: Kahlei Van OstranFrom: Johnmicheal Peason

To:Penelope KehrFrom: MilesSaulsberry

To: Erin WaughFrom: Kayla Graham

To: Lebet “Rat” Erhart From: Caia Delavergne

To: Jen Natiola

& Angel Cadavos

From: Michael

Tanglao

To: Becky Lee, Sakura Hagensieker, & Dana Alfafara From: Penelope Kehr

“Sambai Gaeshi” in February

Red roses, chocolates, and valentines are the common thoughts that come to mind when Valentines’ Day comes

to town. Once a year on February 14th, Valentines’ day is cel-ebrated by e v e r y o n e t h r o u g h giving and rece iv ing gifts to show their love. Prior to this day, retail stores stock up on flowers, delectable chocolates, cuddly ted-dy bears, and elegant cards. Consumers rush to get their spe-cial presents for that special someone and schedule reservations at a fancy restaurant. However, outside the Amer-

ican continent, people celebrate these holidays in their own unique tradition. Chocolates, marshmallows, gifts, and cards are common gifts in Japan. Kikuko Ito, manager at the Paper Mint card shop, said, “Boys buy blank or white cards. Mostly women come, and girls shop the week before.” According to the manag-

er, there are no cards re-served for White Day at Paper Mint. Regions in Eastern Asia, which are mainly composed of the c o u n t r i e s of Korea, T a i w a n , China, and Japan, have a c c e p t e d White Day as an event-

ful day that follows Valentine’s Day. White Day is one of the newer mi-nor holidays, only being 20 years old.

It is also of inferior importance when compared to Valentine’s Day. Since this applies mainly to the younger couples of Japan, it is unable to become a true holiday that could be merged into Ameri-can culture. “It’s not considered a typical holiday where you would have a day off; it’s an important day for couples”, says Mr. Lange. The m a i n differ-e n c e s b e -t w e e n the two cultures celebrating the tradition are the gift giving gestures. In Japan, it is cus-tomary for the women to give the men chocolate, whereas in the American tra-dition, men are commonly known as the gift givers. In addition, the Japanese cul-ture consists of a White Day, on March 14th, when men give back and present chocolates to the women who hope to get something in return on White Day. The second difference would be that in Japan, there are two types of chocolates given on Valentine’s. The first, called giri choco, is mainly given to others as a sign of friendship. The second, honmei

To: Rebecca GrahamFrom: Kaede Goble

Becky Lee & Rebecca [email protected]

“three times the return” -Shuntei Harada

choco, can be hand-made or bought, and women offer it to the person that they like. Hand-made chocolate is a message from a woman to a man, saying that he is her one and only man. According to the vendors selling choc-olate, they begin the sale of Valentine’s Day chocolates starting February 4th. White Day chocolates, ordinary choc-

o l a t e s wrapped in a gor-g e o u s w h i t e box the color of

marshmallows, are sold beginning Feb-ruary 27th. Shuntei Harada, worker at chocolate shop la maison de chocolat Paris at Rop-pongi, said, “Sambai gaeshi is famous script from Japanese drama. Is three times the return.” Though, in the United States, there is only one kind of choco-late with no particular symbolic meaning for which people can freely give, on White Day, the man is returning the favor by giving a gift worth three times more. Sambai gaeshi reflects the traditions and practices used within Asian culture.

Photo courtesy of Becky LeeTwo friends in M. C. Perry hold hands this February as a

sign of friendship and love


9February 2014 / Samur-Eye Advertisement

a LONG WAY T O N O t T R A V E L

Gaku [email protected]

Tears were running down the faces of the team after the final buzzer. None more no-tably than seniors DQ Ber-

nard and Martin Ziola, who had just finished their last basketball games of their high school careers. The score-line did not show the whole story as a slightly lopsided final score of 70-54 was emblazoned on the wall. Our boys were truly Samurai for three consecutive days at this year Far East Division II basketball tour-nament held here on MCAS Iwakuni. Due to budget cuts, the length of the tournament was shortened by one day from the customary four days allotted for play. The resulting schedule was consequently beyond unimaginable. The first day the boys ran out winners with four consecutive wins in shortened matches against OCSI, Zion, Osan and EJ King. Sophomore Vince Ermitano was the standout performer scoring over 10 points each match and even hitting 22 against EJ King along-side Bernard. The second day, the boys

won their first two matches against Humphreys and Zama, but faced a dif-ficult task getting past eventual cham-pions Daegu in the third match. In the seventh match of the tournament, the Samurai were barely beaten by the War-riors, 45-44. The Samurai went on to tie Edgren in the final match of the day. Believe it or not, the team had to play five… let me repeat, FIVE full matches on the final day of the tour-nament. Overall, the team completed THIRTEEN matches in three days, a ridiculous number and most definite-ly against DoDEA policy for number of games allowed to be played within a certain timeframe. De- s p i t e the difficulties facing the boys, mainly physical and mention exhaustion, the team came out booming with a well-de-served win against the Zama Trojans. Following that match, the team beat OCSI once again by a margin of over 20 points. Then came the toughest match of their season, a semifinal matchup against Dae-

gu for the second time of the tourna-ment. Although Ermitano banged in 20 points and Jon Cadavos netted 14, the team was not able to quite hold out and barely lost in the dying seconds after a spirited c o m e -b a c k , 58-56.

The team had to fight their way back out of the loser’s bracket, defeating the Tro-jans for the third time 52-37, to reach the final game against Daegu. After already playing 12 matches against high level opposition, the exhaustion

caught up to the boys as they barely lost after keeping up with the Warriors

until late in the fourth quarter. Ziola put it best, saying “We gave it our all. We left it all on the court.” The team finished second place in the tournament with Ermitano and Cadavos earn-ing All-Far East accolades. All though we did not capture the much elusive banner that has been haunting our gym since the last title in ’96, our boys brought an immense feeling of pride to the school and made us all feel truly blessed to be

Samurai. Congratulations on a fantastic season, al-most perfect Far East.

Ante [email protected]

A tough week that ended with a n even more gruesome bus ride back home for the 2013-14 Matthew C. Perry Wres-

tling team who attended the 2014 Far East Wrestling Tournament. The Per-ry wrestling team came out third place for the team award in the tournament. 16 teams were participating in the three day event which caused many meets to be played in one day. On their first day, the Perry team was eliminat-ed out of the duals meet, but the other d a y s are where P e r r y show-c a s e d the i r wres-

tling abilities. The top wrestlers from Perry were sophomore Miles Saulsber-ry and junior Tristan Graydon who both won 1 dual and lost 2. Freshman Make-la Adams, Freshman Kieren McIntyre , Freshman Moziah Stew-art, Freshman Lucas Holsop-ple, and Soph-omore Christo-pher lynch all

lost 2 meets, but not without a fight. When asked about his thought on the team’s

effort, Sauls-berry said “we all did a great

job even we got eliminated the first day in the duals

meet the n e x t t w o d a y s w e n t g r e a t a n d o u t

of 7

Ante [email protected]

The Matthew C. Perry High School’s girls basketball team gave it their all this sea-son , but as it was winding

down towards the Far East week, they were told that they were not going to be able to attend the tournament that was held at Camp walker and Camp George in South Korea. They finished the season off with a record of 1-13.

The main reason that the girls basketball team did not travel to the tournament was a shortage of players. In a tournament where you have to play many game in one day, there must be enough player so that a player that has been hustling down court for 2 games straight can catch a breath. Another sce-nario is if a player get injured there must be someone else to take her position. “I wish we could have gone, but fate wasn’t exactly on our side this year. injuries, low numbers of players and other issues definitely made going to Far East a conflict” said Senior Lakeyia Brown who was one of the three seniors on the team. Hopefully next year our Lady Samurai basketball team will be able to compete in next year’s far east tournament.

teams we placed 3rd” Unfortunately, the tournament itself was not the most challenging part of the trip. It was a treacherous 26 hour bus ride that they were forced to endure

during their return. They were first de-layed because of heavy snow that caused traffic on the express way. It continued until the express way was closed for 14 hours causing a hefty delay. Many might think that this would be a bad thing, but some team members thought that it was fun because they were able to talk and spend time with their fel-low teammates. “We all had our heads up high and a sense of satisfaction in our minds. The ride back though, left us exhausted and just plain cramped in that bus. 26 hour bus ride is by far our limit for road trips” Said Graydon. Never the less, the 2013-24 Perry Wrestling team did not let a 26 bus ride to weaken the fun that they had during as successful tournament.

“...26 hour bus ride is by far our limit for road

trips”

26 hours of team Bonding

on the Court: In our Hearts

SilverGold

10 Samur-Eye / February 2013 Sports

MC Perry High School Newspaper - February

Education

Transcript of MC Perry High School Newspaper - February