![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
As It Turns Out, Animals Cannot Social Distance
Review of The Exotic Resort Zoo
During my experience at The Exotic Resort Zoo I got to see many different types of animals. My favorites were the zebras because it was so fun and hilarious to watch as they stuck their heads in the window trying to catch the food.
October 1, 2020
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a camel stick its head through your car window? If you haven’t that’s okay, I haven’t either. That is, until I went to The Exotic Resort Zoo. And let me tell you, while having a camel stick its head in the car window was a bit terrifying, the drive-through zoo was totally awesome.
When my friend, and CPHS alumna, Ashley Poulsen first asked me to go with her to a drive-through zoo, I have to admit I was a little skeptical. It just sounded like riding in a hot car with weird animal smells. Not to mention random animals that come in your window to invade your personal space while you feed them food. After going there, I discovered that it was exactly that! However, the hot car ride and weird smells were totally worth it for the great experience that I had.
The Exotic Resort Zoo is a bit of a drive being at about 1 hour and 15 minutes, but time flies by when you have good company and a good playlist. When first arriving, I was glad to see that the zoo had a fast and efficient system to get people in, despite the large number of cars in line. One thing I would recommend is buying your tickets in advance because it makes the process go even quicker, not to mention it is contactless. I will say, however, that the tickets are a bit pricey. It is $16.95 for those above the age of 12 so you may have to shake out your piggy bank for this one.
After getting our bags of food for $6 each and checking in at the entrance, we were ready to go on our great adventure. Starting off, I was a little nervous because I could see some of the animals were sticking their faces up really close to the windows and I didn’t know how I felt about having an animal coming all the way up to me in the window. As it turned out, animals getting close to the windows was the least of my worries. In the first five minutes a camel, instead of just getting really close to the window, decided to stick his entire head right THROUGH the window, practically out the other side. Not only that but he tried to make a break for our bag of feed, and in the process of getting it away, the bag exploded animal food all over Ashley in the driver’s seat. Legend has it that she is still finding bits of feed in her car to this day.
Now you might be thinking that sounds terrible, but for us, it was hilarious! That was just part of the reason why I loved the drive-through zoo. It was an hour of funny animals and laughing with friends. Totally worth a little, or even a lot of animal feed in your car.
Loading ...After the camel incident, everything was great. There were plenty of animals that ranged from funny to just downright adorable. Some were scary though, like the ostriches. If you have never seen an ostrich coming towards your car window, it kind of feels as though you are being stared down by a careful and calculating dinosaur. Last but not least, one of my favorite parts was seeing the zebras. You are not supposed to feed them because they might bite your hand which would be bad, so the zebras have learned to just open their mouths and people will throw food into them. And that is exactly what we did. It was so cool to even just see the zebra up that close not to mention be able to feed it.
Though the drive through lasted an hour, it felt like it went by so fast probably because time flies when you’re having fun. Before I knew it we were headed home with huge smiles and great memories.
Overall, the zoo is definitely worth it. The only downsides would be the cost and the long drive to get there. Other than that, this experience was not only loads of fun, but also helped me to get off my phone and get out of the house for a change. For those that are concerned with social distancing, the drive through zoo is a great way to have an enjoyable time while also keeping safe from COVID-19.
For anyone interested in going, The Exotic Resort Zoo is located in Johnson City, Texas and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday. To buy tickets you can click here to go to their website.
rustin • Oct 1, 2020 at 4:33 pm
awesome