Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.
For chemistry and physics teacher Emily Fitzgerald, the proverb applies a little differently: her “silver friend” is physics, a new addition to her repertoire of classes, and chemistry — as she is hardpressed to distinguish a favorite among these two “friends”, an old and gold subject.
“There are parts of both that I really enjoy. I think physics is really fun because you can do a lot of hands-on things and see it happening,” Fitzgerald said. “Whereas [with]chemistry, it’s really interesting to make models that can interpret what’s happening on a tiny, tiny level.”
The retirement of physics teacher Mike McCrystal encouraged Fitzgerald to request a section of physics from the administration as she readied herself for a second year at MVHS. Her fellow staff members had assured her the first year of teaching is always the hardest, but Fitzgerald’s case is an exception. Fitzgerald had taught six classes of chemistry her first year, but is now assigned four classes of chemistry and an addition of two physics classes. Double the subjects equates to double the work, as Fitzgerald phrases it, despite both subjects qualifying as a “science” and requiring similar skills of experimentation or making hypotheses.
“I think [physics is]a very intuitive subject so you can actually observe physics happening [if you]drop a ball and see it fall down,” Fitzgerald said. “But with chemistry, it’s not quite as intuitive, so I have to come up with ways for my students to see what’s happening even though they can’t see it in person.”
Before she even became a full-fledged teacher on the West Coast, Fitzgerald was all the way across the country in New Jersey, earning teaching credentials in both chemistry and physics. The former she earned in a rather unprecedented way: Fitzgerald was under the impression that her teaching credential program focused on chemistry, until she realized that physics constituted the bulk of material. She was quick to sign up for an additional, chemistry-centered course. Regardless of the past confusion it evoked, she is very grateful for the mishap, as it has rewarded her with valuable insight and experience in teaching two subjects.
There’s one slight change, however, Fitzgerald can’t quite adjust to.
“I’m still learning how to be [at]the D building which is always on the back of the school,” Fitzgerald said, “and the E building which is in the front of the school.”
Dawn to dusk, notifications and YouTube videos surge in a bellowing, merciless wave, flooding our eyes and ears with an onslaught of vibrant colors and noises. We retire to bed, lulled to slumber by the natural darkness of the night, only to be jolted awake by the artificial daylight of the computer monitor. The cycle continues, the soundtrack of our lives forever the repetitive ding of an incoming text and summer afternoons squandered away on social media sites.
Yet even as we spend every waking minute online, the majority of us never truly scratch the surface of the web. There lies a kind of technological underground unlike your typical Google Chrome or Firefox browser and shielded from the public eye: the deep web, and its shadier counterpart — the dark web.
According to junior Naomi Tai, a technology enthusiast, the deep web is unable to be accessed by regular search engines like Yahoo or Google.
“Most of [the deep web] is actually just data and a couple of them are websites that you have to use different browsers like TOR [if you want] to access them,” Tai said. “And it’s usually a bunch of shady business and whatnot.”
TOR (The Onion Router) refers to the onion router which is used to mask Internet traffic under blankets of encryption and uses its own form of an Internet Protocol (IP) address by using a .onion URL. But downloading TOR won’t make someone’s life easier by giving them specific sites; it is up to the user to find them on their own.
Unlike Tai, MVHS computer technician Brandon McArthur interprets the deep web as an infrastructure of the web and more organized than a storehouse for data.
“That means you can control who has access to your websites and your services,” McArthur said, “and so that can be good or bad.”
Graphic by Stuti Upadhyay.
Security is a constant priority, but there is a difference from sitting at home and using an electronic device than using an insecure network in a public space, like a coffee shop. Other people may be inclined to steal account information and assignments jeopardizing a job or a grade. But often most stores or school use a virtual private network (VPN) to create easy access
and provides security precautions like searching anonymously without being traced or keeping personal and personal information secure.
“Whenever you go to a website [VPN] encrypts it, sends it out over the router as encrypted, so nobody even knows what you’re doing,” AP Computer Science teacher David Greenstein said. “Whatever information you have and whatever comes back is totally encrypted because the only people who have the keys are you and the server that you’re paying way out there somewhere. So they call that tunneling, so that data tunneling essentially it’s a way of getting around systems.”
As a graduate student studying computer science, Greenstein was invited to work with the military on ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a kind of predecessor to the Internet we know now. The network was established in 1969 as a testbed for networking technologies between niversity and research centers (Britannica.com). ARPANET was exclusively for the military, and public use was prohibited, but Greenstein had the privilege of experiencing the technology firsthand when tasked with “file transfer protocol.” He sent files through a network of computers connecting to over thirty universities. The government eventually shifted ARPANET from a military project to a public project, and it gradually evolved into the Internet as we know it today.
In the 1990’s, however, the deep web made its humble, benign entrance.
“[Internet users] were starting to put some secure stuff [online] and they had this security program called PGP [Pretty Good Privacy] that you could download,” Greenstein said. “The [creator Phil Zimmermann] got sued by the military and they were going to [go] after every person that owned a copy.”
Nowadays, PGP is considered a vital email encryption program, but its implementation and possession in 1991 — a violation akin to owning a bomb — garnered three years of criminal inspection after the program spread worldwide (Phil Zimmerman). The U.S. Government considered the program an “armament” and infringement of the Arms Export Control Act, a law ceding the President authority to manage the import and export of possible defense articles or services (U.S. Department of State). However, the government ultimately dropped Zimmerman’s case in 1996, and the result of his efforts birthed today’s deep web, of which PGP is a component.
“It was so damaging to the security of the United States,” Greenstein said, “[for the public] to own something that they couldn’t break into.“
The term deep web has a negative connotation, but what many people do not realize is that we use it in our everyday lives. Only small parts of it are illegal, therefore people have justifiable means of using it. According to Greenstein, over ninety percent of it is harmless and a majority is essential in everyday life, thus there is no driving reason for the deep web to be rid of. Common uses include webmail, of which PGP plays a role in security, online banking and also video on demand.
“A lot of [the deep web] is data based driven, so when you hit a site like Amazon you’re hitting a deep web,” Greenstein said. “It’s going to generate the page automagically for you, so the page you see is not the page other people see.”
It is the dark web — the sinister story within the story — one should steer clear of. It is a breeding ground of immoral measure, flourishing with black markets and bidding sites for illegal weapons or substances. Tai expresses her unwillingness to access the dark web with a “Hell no!”
Junior Naomi Tai checks her email for notifications. Both email and everyday online applications use components of the deep web for security and privacy. Photo by Helen Chao.
“Since it’s this shady business sometimes they can try to track you down,” Tai said. “And do like, I dunno, kill you if you don’t do what they want you to do.”
According to Tai, one of her acquaintances has had some interaction with “bitcoins,” a feature also used on both the dark web and surface web.
In order to buy or sell things online, people use bitcoins, a form of digital currency where transactions can be made without central banks and no single authority has control over them. One bitcoin estimates to a value of 4,609 US dollars. Tai herself knows of someone who has traded bitcoins before on the surface web, a perfectly legal action as it is not inherently tied to the dark web.
Accessing the deep web itself is not illegal unless someone gets involved in criminal or illicit activity, which is primarily quarantined in the dark web.
“No, I have no reason to be [on the dark web],” Greenstein said. “It’s like saying I’m going to go to the worst place in town where they have people that get stabbed and people get shot and I’m going to walk down the street to see what it’s like.”
Some people may come back out alive, Greenstein acknowledges, but he himself certainly wouldn’t take the risk to find out for himself. The newspapers he’s perused report of dark web users ultimately facing criminal court instead of their computer screen.
Greenstein is adamant he will never be one of them.
“I don’t want of your readers to be [on the dark web], either,” Greenstein said. “That would be a really really bad thing so if there’s anything that I can stress in this whole thing it’s that it is dangerous – it really is.”
AP Computer Science teacher David Greenstein surfs the web on his laptop. Many people use the deep web in their daily lives without even noticing it. Photo by Helen Chao.
With their spindly legs and beady eyes, spiders aren’t creatures we would usually snuggle in bed with. Instead, the sight of a daddy longleg elicits a flight or fight reaction: does one utter a bloodcurdling shriek and flee the vicinity, or grab the flip flop to smash the creature into a pulpy spider pancake?
Of course, a kinder individual would simply acknowledge him or her with a nod and leave the spider on its merry way.
Below, a spider hater, junior Evelyn How, and a spider lover, junior Carl Rosenthal, each share their contrasting experiences and feelings about these eight-legged creepy crawlies.
View the photo gallery below of Rosenthal’s spiders. All photos used with permission by Carl Rosenthal.
As children, we have all swept a cautious glance around the house when home alone. As the skies outside darken to an inky black, we wait in tense anticipation for the yellow searchlights of our parents’ cars to sweep across the windows. Some of us refused to be tucked in bed, sure that death was awaited us in the form of a hairy ogre lurking in the depths of the closet. The spider in the shower was sure to be our death sentence and the swimming pool was as deep as the Pacific Ocean, chlorine water ready to envelope and swallow us whole.
Nowadays, these fears litter our consciousness like dust from our childhood.
For some of us, however, our “fear” isn’t simply being scared of the dark; it manifests itself as agoraphobia, arachnophobia or claustrophobia. In this timeline, we’ll look at the development of the word “phobia,” an anxiety disorder in which the afflicted has a serious and extreme fear of certain situations and objects.
Regardless of their passion for business, prospective DECA or FBLA members must take a CTE class(Career/Technical Education) to be eligible for club membership. Freshmen will typically take Principles of Business, an introductory course, and other students may take a Money and Banking or Java class, but there lingers still the underlying question of whether or not the class truly helps with the DECA or FBLA experience.Junior Urvi Shah is in her second year with FBLA, but is a one-year DECA club member who took Principles of Business freshmen year solely for eligibility in DECA. She believes this reason is applicable to most of her peers, as FBLA and DECA members amounted for almost all of the students in her Principles of Business class and she has noted similar patterns in her friend’s Money & Banking Class. There is a correlation between the class material and her DECA and FBLA activities, but she still considers the class requirement nonessential, citing its lack of significance or direct influence on her overall club experience. The class requirement may discourage prospective DECA and FBLA members who are exclusively interested in club participation.
Graphic by Helen Chao.
Akin to Shah, junior Brandon Ma also has experience with both FBLA and DECA organizations as a current DECA officer and second-year FBLA member. Ma, however, didn’t initially know of DECA or FBLA and simply signed up for Principles of Business out of personal interest. He believes the class requirement is logical and impactful, because it assisted him in both clubs — specifically on the DECA and FBLA multiple choice tests at conventions.
“A lot of [the test]is just memorizing a lot of content or concepts,” Ma said, “and that’s where Principles of Business is really helpful because it does give you an overview of like economics [and]an overview of how things work with the economy.”
He feels sympathetic for those unable to take a business class for whatever reason — resulting in ineligibility for DECA and FBLA — but ultimately believes the class requirement may be a “guard” against the lack of dedication he occasionally observes amongst the organization’s members. Some of the members are attracted to the social aspect of the conventions more so than the competitive essence of the club itself, opting to miss study or coaching sessions. Unfairly, extra time and resources for earnest and serious members are also potentially wasted.
“If people taking business classes right now aren’t very dedicated towards DECA [already]and that’s already like the very baseline requirement,” Ma said, “if we lower the requirement, there is going to be an even larger amount of people that [are]not trying to win [and]they’re just there for their friends.”
Business teacher Carl Schmidt, the advisor for both FBLA and DECA, stresses that the requirement cannot be disregarded regardless of student, parent or even administration complaints.
Funding is directly issued by the state government – uncoincidentally, they are also the originators and supervisors of the class requirement policy. If MVHS were to undermine the requirement, Schmidt believes it unfair to use the state money on the DECA or FBLA members who aren’t enrolled in his business classes, considering the money could be used for districts less fortunate than FUHSD.
In the grand scheme of things, however, Schmidt isn’t trying to limit the ambitious, high-pressure playing field for the students – be them prospective or full-fledged members – but strives to tilt it in their favor.
“If I can give our kids an additional heads up or little bit of a lift, why shouldn’t I do that?” Schmidt said. “Heavens knows they have enough challenges right now competing with everybody else to get there. Makes sense? Okay.”
Right as he walks into his stepsister’s classroom, English teacher Randall Holoday cracks a joke about how people only contact him because he’s fellow English teacher Jackie Corso’s step-sibling. Since their parents got married when Holoday was in sixth grade, Holoday and Corso developed a close relationship, which continued due to their current jobs. The chances that the two step-siblings would end up not only working in the same school and department, but also hold Team Lead positions are slim. Listen to the podcast below to hear the two English teachers talk about their relationship and their closely related jobs.
Co-written with Karen Sanchez, Vivian Chiang, and Amanda Chan
They stand together outside the girls’ locker room, right in front of the lower field. His hands fly in front of him as he touches the speaker on his shoulder and then motions to the phone he’s holding in his right hand. The girl next to him listens intently, obviously focused, but also a little confused. Her own speaker, slightly smaller than his, is also slung about her shoulder. They talk until the bell rings, signaling the end of brunch and the end of their meeting. Walking down the path between the girls locker room and the fieldhouse, they part ways towards the C building.
He walks away, and for the first time in two years, his speaker stays silent. However, there’s still a rhythm in the air, music echoing not from his speaker but from the girl’s.
Senior Andrew Hsu has found his successor — a prodigy to carry on his legacy.
And despite terms that have been used in the past to name what he has been doing, such as “Music Man” or “Speaker Boy” — both gender specific terms he wasn’t necessarily fond of — he prefers the official title of Shoulderspeaker.
“Shoulderspeaker … is not just for the privileged people,” Hsu said. “It’s not for the person that everyone likes … it’s [something]everyone should relate to, and I think that’s why I wanted it to be Shoulderspeaker.”
Most know about Hsu, or have at least heard his music blasting through the hallways during passing periods. For some, it is a source of relaxation — a break from grades, competition and stress. For others, it’s entertaining. When he first began Shoulderspeaker, his primary goal was to unite the students through music and to make them happy.
“[MVHS] is a very negative environment,” Hsu said. “It’s very competitive and there’s a lot of negativity that’s associated with this school … Basically, what I’m trying to do is to use something that almost everyone enjoys and try to just make this environment and this negativity seem less vile.”
He first began to think about finding a successor when he realized how big the Shoulderspeaker role had become and was convinced the majority of the student body approved of his actions.
Hsu likens the self-confidence in being Shoulderspeaker to standing on stage and giving a speech one knows nothing about. Understandably, he considers freshman Shreya Patibanda as a stroke of luck who approached him herself.
“At first, I wasn’t very good at finding people that would actually do what I do,” Hsu said. “[Because] it takes a lot of guts to play music really loud in front of a lot of people.”
Patibanda remembers being “mind blown” the first time she heard Hsu’s music because she never thought something as bold as this would exist; akin to Hsu, she commends the guts it takes to play loud music.
Before coming to MVHS, Patibanda was already wary of the school’s reputation as stressful and depressing and references how school spirit simply decreases after the welcome rally, pushed aside by fretful thoughts of academia and colleges for the rest of year.
“It’s not just about grades,” Patibanda said. “It’s about living your life to the fullest extent.”
Patibanda came to know about the open position for Shoulderspeaker at Challenge Day. Both Patibanda and Hsu were present, and it was at this time Hsu announced that he was looking for a successor. Patibanda leapt upon the opportunity — to her, it was a chance to liven up the dreary school atmosphere. She immediately approached Hsu one day and expressed her interest in following his lead. She simply told him that she was going to be the next Shoulderspeaker no matter what.
They agreed to meet the next day, March 24, a Friday, to talk about what the role of Shoulderspeaker means. Patibanda quickly learned that being Shoulderspeaker was much more than just blasting music.
“First he shared with me a document … that’s a list of 15 things Shoulderspeaker should do,” Patibanda said. “The point was to play music that makes people feel lit. Another thing was that in addition to just playing music when you walk, you have to smile to others – it brings a more personal connection and it makes them happier.”
Hsu and Patibanda strive to respect all the varying student opinions of Shoulderspeaker. As certain teachers are more conservative and sensitive about profanity, Hsu firmly emphasizes the importance in considering teachers’ different tolerance levels — especially for song selection, a considerably delicate and tedious process. He cites the weather, time of year and day of the week all as factors swaying song selection, with holidays like Christmas or Halloween bringing in more of a festive touch. For Patibanda, the student and teacher reception has been a little unexpected: rather than teachers, it is her fellow students who are startled by the profanity and who dissuaded her from playing particular songs.
“I walk into a classroom and then [the song has]swear [words]every five seconds,” Patibanda said. “And the funny thing is that all the students that are around me … [they]say ‘no Shreya, don’t play that song, you’re going to get in trouble’ but all the teachers are chill with it.”
Occasionally, students have confronted Hsu and Patibanda for “disturbing” people, yet Hsu genially dismisses the negativity, choosing instead to highlight the positive experiences the Shoulderspeaker has offered students and the grateful hands he has shaken — laughing, he remembers an anonymous student’s comment by the B building.
“She ran all the way down the stairs,” Hsu said, “and [came]around a corner just to shout that my speakers are sexy.”
He recalls a freshman who previously perceived the “high school experience” as a “kind of hell,” a degree of pessimism echoing Patibanda’s eighth grade self. Luckily, the freshman’s outlook immediately brightened after seeing Hsu and his speaker: there’s some good to find at MV.
“Winning hearts and changing opinions is definitely one of the most powerful things in the world,” Hsu said.
The concert begins. Suggestive winks summon screams from the crowd. The performers, along with their signature look — defined cheekbones and hair dyed various different shades— are singing and dancing energetically for their international fans. Fans, who, in terms of physical exertion, are just as exhausted as the performers, having screeched themselves hoarse and then continued to scream silently even after their vocal chords give way.
Tomorrow, on July 12, Rao will leave Los Angeles and fly back to Cupertino with two other friends, and if it were even possible, she’ll be even farther from Got7, one of her favorite K-pop boy groups — who are most likely already on the next flight to another country. They’re gone as quick as they come, and she, like many other international K-pop fans, are left behind in Southern California, a once-a-year pit stop for most Korean idols. And while it may be a year later, Rao still clearly recalls the overall silliness and exhilaration the concert aroused.
Three girls waiting in line for over six hours, famished and sweating buckets under the merciless rays of the sun. Perhaps the songs are sung in Korean — with the occasional English word belted in the chorus — but for fans like Rao, language isn’t a barrier anymore. There are subtle details that bring significance to the entire three hours, elements of the concert atmosphere she’ll cherish for days to come: feeling the pumping bass in her chest, being so flustered she didn’t know where her phone was and seeing the raucous crowd swarming.
The concert trip may have been only three days among her entire lifetime, but the experience reigns as one of her top five memories.
“Some of the songs have really nice beats and tunes,” Rao said, “and [the songs]sound really unique to me, at least how they produce their music.”
As an international fan, Rao considers it especially hard her to keep tabs on idols’ activities. For instance, V-Live, a live broadcasting app specifically catered toward idols and their fans, primarily has broadcasts at around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m — a time when most American fans like Rao are sound asleep. And regardless of whether broadcasts happen to align with Western time zones, live broadcasts are entirely in Korean and unsubbed. In essence, it is a testament to the dedication of any international fans watching live instead of waiting for subtitles.
“They already get a lot of negative comments, as any artist does,” Rao said. “So I feel like if you just stop giving them positivity, then you’re opening them up to negativity.”
Thanks to the many hours spent in Korean School — an American school dedicated to teaching the Korean language — junior Kathleen Ra jumps over such language barriers with ease. Yet even Ra doesn’t run free from the financial burdens of K-pop merchandise. Almost everything, from albums and clothing to fandom light sticks, comes with a heavier price tag once they travel across the Pacific. As companies concoct more elaborate packages to ramp up their albums with exclusive photos and posters of the artists, K-pop albums can range from 10 dollars and more. Concert tickets are no exception, ranging up to several hundred dollars. According to Ra, it takes serious devotion, or a matching financial capacity, for an international fan to enjoy the luxury of seeing their favorite artists in real life.
As Rao has dedicated over five years of her life to K-pop, she believes it would be a waste of time, effort and commitment if she were to suddenly relinquish K-pop. In fact, her lime green bedroom wall has vanished underneath the explosive colors of her K-pop idol posters. And there’s not just the music to deliberate — as one out of numerous, feverish fans supporting these groups, in brutal honesty, her “leaving” the fandom wouldn’t evoke even as much of a ripple — but nevertheless, she still considers the idols’ personal feelings.
“They already get a lot of negative comments, as any artist does,” Rao said. “So I feel like if you just stop giving them positivity, then you’re opening them up to negativity.”
Like Rao, Ra tries to maintain more personal interactions with her artists. Even while she traverses multiple music genres in her free time, she relays relentless support for idols in her own ways. For one, she escapes the lure of illegal downloading, as she pays for the albums with her own money. Her thumbs sometimes scurry across the keyboard for a brief warm comment on an artist’s Instagram selfie. As a student artist, she even sketches them on paper as fan art, posting them online for further support.
But she tries her hardest not to cross the line between support and obsession, as some extreme fans often do. In fact, such fans compose a radical subsection of a fandom, gaining the ugly name of “sasaeng” fans by the Korean public. While sasaeng fans objectify their artists as simple possessions— resulting in illegal actions like sneaking into the idol’s dorms— Ra firmly denounces such invasion of privacy.“I’m sure all the support motivates them to create all their music,” Ra said. “As long as they’re happy, and they’re happy with what they’re doing, that’s enough for me.”
Ra calls herself a “supportive audience,” rather than the artists’ “best friend,” as she has no personal connections to the artists themselves. Yet her emotional ties with certain artists have surely thickened as she grew up with them for a long period of time. She delved into the depths of K-pop with the popping beats of “Fire,” the group 2ne1’s debut song in 2008. Wonder Girls shook the grounds the year before with “Tell Me,” embodying the group’s namesake with a Wonder Woman inspired music video. Girl’s Generation’s “Gee” followed suit, catching all eyes with their thin rainbow colored leggings in 2009. Two years later, 2ne1 swallowed the charts yet again with their electric tunes of “I Am the Best.” Many groups emerged later on, in hopes of emulating the success of those stars at that time. But those very first artists she listened to still hold a special place in her heart.
And then, last year, the inevitable happened. A chain of various groups she loved started to disbanded one after another — 4minute, Wonder Girls and 2ne1, among many others. Some were lucky to have more than the said 15 minutes of fame in the increasingly competitive K-pop industry. But even the most recognized groups could not withstand the test of time.
2ne1’s disbanding hit Ra the hardest. Ra accompanied them since their inception, and for eight years she deemed them as her favorite artists, even role models.
“2ne1 was just a big part of me so when they disbanded…I told all my friends [about the news]– I even told my parents, I told my sister and I listened to all of their old songs,” Ra said.
As it is with any fandom, there are the seasoned veterans, like Rao — stanning for a considerable amount of time — and the novice, typically wrangled into the K-world by K-pop familiar friends.
“The song was catchy, the dance was great and the faces were attractive, Yu observed, and in summation — what’s not to like?”
At first, junior Kendall Yu solely associated K-pop with the industry’s “systematic training”: idols usually train under a company such as SM Entertainment or YG Entertainment for several years before debuting. While Rao has noticed strangers to K-pop may mention how “gay” or “feminine” male idols appear, Yu, fortunately, never held any misconceptions or judgements and simply listened to several songs. While she couldn’t quite match “handsome face” to “idol name” just yet, a friend’s birthday party exposed her to variety of K-pop music videos and daily spams of idol photos. Around October of 2016, watching Got7’s “Hard Carry” music video sealed the deal. The song was catchy, the dance was great and the faces were attractive, Yu observed, and in summation — what’s not to like?
“My friend gave me a whole rundown on all of their names, music personalities and music videos and an whole entire crash course on this group,” Yu said. “But I actually ended up liking them and bingeing a bunch of stuff on my own.”
Yu appreciates the catchiness and diversity of K-pop melodies and also the “calculated” concepts, choreography and fashion of the music videos — aspects which she believes differentiates it from Western music. Yet at the end of day, like Rao, it really is the idols’ personalities themselves that are truly undeniable.
“You can really see the differences in their personalities and how funny and caring they are, so it’s just all of this stuff combined [that]really, really makes me like them,” Yu said.
A lot of students in the nation have read the controversial classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird” in their freshman year. Students are always asked to interpret the significance of the scenes and characters, but what do the teachers think about this popular book and it’s underlying themes? Listen to three English teachers discussing their thoughts on “To Kill a Mockingbird” below.
With the temperature on the rise, it is a shame to miss out on the summery weather and lounge around at home. Instead, head outside and experience Cupertino’s Cherry Blossom Festival, or “shake it up” during Bay Area National Dance Week. Whatever you do, get some fun in the sun and don’t come back home until you do!
April 6: LAUNCH Festival
Time: 8 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Location: Innovation Hangar
Head to San Francisco and attend LAUNCH festival, a gathering dedicated to new startups. Listen to informative lectures by seasoned company founders or view over 100 startup demonstrations.
April 8: Fantasy Faire
Time: 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Location: Discovery Meadow Park
They say time travel is impossible, but the San Jose Fantasy Faire begs to differ. Dress up in themed costumes and take part in this Renaissance-era, fairy-themed festival with live shows and book signings galore!
April 15: Big Bunny 5K
Time: 7 a.m.- 11:15 p.m.
Location: Civic Center
Instead of moping around indoors, sign up for the annual Big Bunny 5K race. You’ll be killing two birds with one stone: getting exercise and taking in some fresh air.
April 21: National Dance Week
Time: 8 a.m.- 7 p.m.
Location: Various Bay Area Cities
With over 600 free performances, classes and workshops, Bay Area National Dance Week should have you up and doing the salsa! Visit www.bayareandw.org to sign up for free events to attend, all which vary from city to city.
April 22: Earth and Arbor Day Festival
Time: 11 a.m.- 3 p.m.
Location: Civic Center
Dust the lint off of your yoga mats and get ready for the Earth and Arbor Day Festival. Participants can relax in a yoga session, enjoy a neighborhood tree walk and a “Pedal 4 the Planet Bike Ride.” No tickets are required to attend this free event.
April 29: Cherry Blossom Festival
Time: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: Memorial Park
In honor of Cupertino’s sister city Toyokawa, Japan, come out to Memorial Park for tasty Japanese food and beverages, cultural exhibits and all-day entertainment at the Amphitheater.
Meanderings Cont. 