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Insider’s Guide to the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee – The Journey Begins

Spellers and their family members could decorate their name badges with colorful ribbons.
Kindle Corner (for spellers only) includes a cereal bar, poster making station, and comfy beanbags to read our favorite books.
All spellers completed the six steps outlined in this poster.
Orientation was the perfect place to start filling my Bee Keeper with autographs!
Spellers signed the poster, forever commemorating the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Getting autographs in my Bee Keeper is my favorite bee tradition.
There are two people named “Tara” at the bee this year!
Akash is the youngest speller this year; he’s six years old!

This morning, my family and I departed from Louisville, Kentucky and arrived in Washington D.C.

The main event today was a Spellebrity Welcome and speller orientation. This was my first opportunity to meet the other amazing spellers and it was so exciting! My favorite part was when I received my Bee Keeper, a picture book with interesting facts about each of the spellers. I am determined to get every speller’s autograph in my Bee Keeper this year!

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Insider’s Guide to the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee

The very talented Mrs. Porter created this beautiful card for me.
Good luck messages from my schoolmates.
Amazon Kindle is sponsoring the Scripps National Bee this year. A couple of weeks ago, all of the spellers received a Kindle Paperwhite with an exclusive cover. Thank you Kindle!

For the last couple of months, I have spent every spare moment studying for the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee. I’m really excited to be returning to Washington D.C. for the third time to compete at the national level.

Last year, I wrote a series of posts detailing Bee Week and my personal experience and I would love to do the same this year. I hope you all enjoy reading my Insider’s Guide to the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee! The journey begins tomorrow when we depart from Louisville, Kentucky to Washington, D.C.

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osteopoikilosis (ästēōpȯikə̇lōsə̇s)

Note the white spots around the knee joint in this x-ray which represent the small bone islands inside the medullary cavity, characteristic of osteopoikilosis.
Bone islands (white spots) are seen clustered around multiple joints in this x-ray of the pelvis consistent with osteopoikilosis.

My dad is a radiologist and he suggested that we start our medical theme with the word osteopoikilosis. Some diseases are best shown with medical imaging, which is what my dad is an expert in. This disease is a great example.

Osteopoikilosis is also known as “spotted bone disease.” Bone is made of two major parts: the cortical bone, which is on the outside, and the medullary bone, which is on the inside. When cortical bone forms islands inside the medullary bone in multiple locations in the body, osteopoikilosis occurs.

The disease is associated with symptoms such as joint pains, rashes, syndactyly (when digits fuse together), and dwarfism. It has a characteristic look on x-ray with bone islands concentrated around joints.

Osteopoikilosis comes from the Greek roots osteo- meaning bone, and poikilo- meaning spotted or variegated. The suffix -osis meaning condition of. Osteopoikilosis literally means “condition of spotted bone.”

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cucurbitophobia (kyü-ˈkər-bətə-fō-bē-ə)

Cucurbits everywhere!
This was one of my favorite pumpkins that we saw tonight!
These neighbors do a great job every year decorating for Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I had a fabulous time trick-or-treating in my spookily decorated neighborhood this evening. Almost every house that we visited had pumpkins decorating their porch. If I had cucurbitophobia, I would not have had a very good time tonight.

Cucurbitophobia is the fear of gourds. Pumpkins, squash, and watermelon are examples of gourds. The word curcubit comes from the Latin word cucurbita,  meaning gourd or cup. Cucurbitophobia comes from the word cucurbit, and phobia- meaning abnormal fear of.

 

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petroglyph (pe‧trəˌglif)

Ancient Hawaiians created petroglyphs to express what was important to them.
Pu’u Loa contains approximately 15,000 petroglyphs.
These images engraved onto pahoehoe portray humans.
Petroglyphs can be viewed from the boardwalk which protects and preserves them.

I hope you all enjoyed my previous post on pahoehoe! During our visit to the Big Island of Hawai’i, we hiked over fields of pahoehoe to see the ancient Pu’u Loa petroglyphs in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

The word petroglyph contains the Greek roots petro– , meaning rock, and glyph, meaning carving or engraving. Petroglyph literally means “rock carving.”

The Pu’u Loa petroglyphs were carved many centuries ago by native Hawaiians. Since the ancient Hawaiians didn’t have a written language, they created petroglyphs to express what was important to each of them. I was in awe of the sheer number of petroglyphs; this site contains approximately 15,000 images that have been engraved in pahoehoe. Some of the images we saw included human forms, insects, and geometric shapes. We spent a lot of time poring over the images and contemplating the meaning behind the petroglyphs.

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pahoehoe (pəˈhōē hōē)

Pahoehoe is smooth, shiny, swirled lava rock.
Pahoehoe as far as the eye could see at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
My sister and I enjoyed climbing this hill of pahoehoe on the Big Island.

This summer, my family and I visited Hawai’i for two weeks. It was my first time going to Hawai’i and I loved it! We spent time on both Maui and the Big Island. Both islands were very pretty yet very different. Maui is older than the Big Island, has beautiful beaches and is very lush. The majority of the Big Island had seas of lava rock as far as the eye could see.

The Big Island is the biggest and youngest of the Hawaiian archipelago. The lava flowing from the two most active volcanoes in the world, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa, is responsible for the still growing island. We spent a week on the Big Island and while we were there, we visited the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. One of the coolest sites was the lava lake at the Kīlauea Summit. We went at night and the steam rising from the vent glowed a brilliant red.

As we drove through the park, we saw fields of pahoehoe. Pahoehoe is lava that has a smooth, shiny or often swirled surface. Pahoehoe comes from the Hawaiian word hoe, which means to paddle. Since the surface of pahoehoe resembles the ripples made in the water by a paddle, the name is very fitting. Hawaiian words are fun to say because they often repeat a sound within a word, like humuhumunukunukuapua’a (fish) or muumuu (dress).

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eulogy (yüləjē)

Cutest Tibetan Spaniel ever!
Midas was a beautiful Tibetan Spaniel!
Midas loved to relax in his bed!
Midas’ favorite activity was to wait for the mail so he could attack it!

A eulogy is a speech or composition in praise of someone, especially one who has recently passed away. Eulogy comes from the Greek roots eu meaning good and log meaning word. It literally means “good words.”

Midas was an adorable 14-year-old canine member of our family who passed away unexpectedly on July 23, 2015. Midas was a Tibetan Spaniel, an intelligent and loyal breed of dog that originated in the monasteries of Tibet over 2000 years ago. He was a beautiful golden color and was named after King Midas from Greek mythology who had the golden touch.

Midas was the best dog ever! I will miss him sitting near me as I studied for spelling bees or did my homework. He was always the first one to greet my dad with wagging tail and joyful yelps after a long day of work. My sister misses feeling his soft fur and hearing the pitter-patter of his paws on the hardwood floors. My mom will never forget how he needed to hide his stuffed animal pig after he ate.  We all smile thinking about how he would spend a long time trying to figure out where to hide his precious pig, only to hide it in the middle of the floor!

His favorite activity was waiting for the mailman, even on Sunday, so that he could attack the mail as it came through the mail slot. In Tibet, Tibetan Spaniels would perch atop the monastery towers and alert the monks when they saw people approaching. True to his breed, Midas would always alert us when he saw anyone approaching the house. He did not like strangers but he sure did love his family.

We know that Midas loved us as much as we loved him. We are all sad that he is gone, but he will never be forgotten.

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Insider’s Guide to the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee – Awards Banquet and Party

My new friends, Ella from Kansas, and Shayna from Indiana.
We danced ’til midnight!
The dance party was the last time to get autographs.
Spellers had their own tables in the front of the ballroom.
The National Air and Space Museum was very interesting.

The morning after the Championship Finals, spellers had the opportunity to explore D.C. We decided to go to the National Air and Space Museum which was interesting.

That evening, we attended a fancy Awards Banquet, at which we honored the ten finalists. Afterwards, we all went to the Cherry Blossom Ballroom for a dance party that lasted until midnight!

Participating in the National Spelling Bee the second time around was more fun because I knew what to expect and spelling on stage wasn’t as overwhelming as my first time. The Bee is a great place to meet kids from all over the world and forge friendships that will last a lifetime! It was amazing to be surrounded by so many people who share my love of words! 

I hope you all enjoyed the Insider’s Guide to the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee. I know that I certainly enjoyed writing it!

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Insider’s Guide to the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee – Championship Finals

Spellers invited to sit on stage during the Finals each received a unique commemorative pin.
Speller #140 Gokul Venkatachalam is from Missouri. This is his 4th year at the Bee.
Speller #90 Vanya Shivashankar is from Kansas. This is her 5th year competing in the Bee; her sister Kavya also won the Bee in 2009.

Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam were declared co-champions of the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee!!

I watched in amazement as these two spellers exhausted a list of 25 extremely difficult championship level words! Gokul spelled the word nunatak for the win. Nunatak is a hill or mountain surrounded by glacial ice. On the road to the championship, Gokul also spelled filicite, Sprachgefuhl, nixtamal, and pipsissewa. Vanya’s winning word was scherenschnitte which is the art of decorative paper cutting. Along the way, Vanya also had to spell zimocca, tantieme, urgrund, and Bruxellosis.

It takes lots of hard work and dedication to just qualify for the National Spelling Bee so I’d like to say congratulations to every single speller who participated this year!

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Insider’s Guide to the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee – Semifinals

Spellers have 2 minutes to spell their word. When the light turns red, spellers have 30 seconds to complete the spelling of their word, or be eliminated.
Dev Jaiswal of Mississippi spelled both his words correctly and will advance to the Champion Finals tonight.
During commercial breaks, spellers got up, stretched, and talked amongst each other.
Each time a semifinalist missed a word in the semifinals, the other spellers would give him a standing ovation.
Paul Loeffler named ten Championship Finalists.
The Championship Finalists each received a medal.

The Semifinals were suspenseful and full of excitement! I got to sit in the front row with other spellers so I had a great view! Last night, all 49 semifinalists had to take another written spelling and vocabulary test (this was Round 4 of the competition). Rounds 5 and 6 occurred onstage this morning and lasted about 3 1/2 hours. After Round 5, 38 semifinalists remained. There were 21 semifinalists after Round 6. Some examples of words that flummoxed spellers were diamante, syrette, eupyrion, and calefy.

Up to twelve semifinalists with the highest overall aggregate scores from Rounds 1 – 6 can move on to the Championship Finals. This year, ten spellers will advance to the Championship Finals which will occur tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST, and will be broadcast on ESPN.

During the Championship Finals tonight, a speller from every state (or country) has the privilege of sitting onstage. I was chosen to represent Kentucky, so if you are watching, you might just see me on stage!

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