As of Monday, April 8, the freshman are leading the Spirit Week scoreboard, with the seniors tailing right behind, and the sophomores and juniors are just about tied.

Final Spirit Week scores will be tallied after the canned food drive ends on Friday, April 12.

All other activities–including volleyball, dodgeball, jolleyball, basketball shots and an eating contest–were held April 1-5.

In addition to the lively competitions during Spirit Week, students enjoyed shorter classes.

“I found the five minutes [reduction in class times] to be very uplifting. It contributed to the overall mood. Every time you remember that the classes are only 45 minutes long, you also remember that it’s Spirit Week,” senior Demir Tulunoglu said.

The volleyball tournament was the first Spirit Week activity. Each grade had two teams, A and B, playing in a tournament.

Dodgeball was played on Tuesday, also in a tournament-like fashion. The competition had to be prolonged after the final bell rang, but the freshmen won in the end in spite of smaller physical stature.

Wednesday was jolleyball day. Each class chose people to fill up the four sides of a large square on the gym floor, with each side being that class’s goal line.

Unlike other games, earning a point in jolleyball is bad for your team, because the aim of the game is to kick a large beach-ball over another class’s goal line and add a point to their score. The team with the least points by the end of the game was declared the winner. The game was made more interesting by conditions placed each round. Only players who met certain criteria, such as having a driver’s license, could take a shot at the ball.

The jolleyball match was intense, and included some poor sportsmanship. As a few seniors ran around the square with paper signs, cheering for their class, a couple of sophomores got up from their goal line and ripped the signs, promptly earning a point for their team.

Also, some people rushed the ball even though they didn’t fulfill the round’s condition, earning a point for their respective teams. By the end of the game, it was clear that the seniors were dominating, quite a few points behind every other team. Chants of “get the seniors”  were resonating through the air as the last ball of the game was thrown, but the ball flew past the sophomore goal line, winning the game for the seniors.

Thursday was a continuation of the volleyball tournament, with the Senior B team taking the win. A hoop scoring contest was also held in the auxiliary gym.

An eating contest was held on Friday, with sophomores and freshmen taking the win for the girls and boys competitions respectively. The crowd cheered as they downed pretzels, pringles, rice krispies, gummies and water.

There were other ways for each class to earn points. One way was through an Amnesty International fundraiser. The club raised money for the Kisaruni School for Girls in Kenya, and the grade that donated the most money was awarded Spirit Week points.

Another way to earn points is to donate to the canned food drive.

“I thought Spirit Week was a very fun and enjoyable experience”, said Tulunoglu, “We don’t have things like this in Turkey, so I’m glad I had the chance to experience it.”

While the week was considered fun, Student Activities Coordinator Craig Alexander thought that a few improvements could have been made.

“One thing that I didn’t like was the registation for Spirit Week activities being sent online. Not many students check their e-mails, so we couldn’t get a good representation of the members of each class,” Alexander said.