![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)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.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)
![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)
![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)
![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)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.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.
![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-300x201.jpg)
rustin • Oct 1, 2020 at 4:33 pm
awesome