As I said in my last post, I made it to Semifinals, which was my goal. But I didn’t expect to make it to the last round of the Semifinals! I spelled ‘venturi’ and ‘intercolline’ correctly in the first two rounds. There were lots of other hard words that other kids got out on. The remaining spellers onstage, myself included, cheered each other on. Finally, in the last round before finals, I misspelled ‘poilu’, spelling it like ‘poilue’. Oh well, I honestly didn’t know the word. I was pretty happy with how I did. After me, there were a couple other spellers who didn’t spell their word yet. But, weirdly enough, the Spelling Bee Committee decided that, if they finished the round, there would be too few spellers left for the Finals. They promised ABC 8-12 spellers, and there might be too few. So they cut the round off and said that the remaining spellers, including the ones who didn’t have to spell their word, would be continuing on to the Finals. It was very strange, but I guess it was in the rules. The finals went surprisingly quickly. The difficulty of words ranged enormously from ‘gnocchi’ to ‘engysseismology’. Anamika Veeramani was crowned the winner at the end of it all. Congratulations to her and the other finalists! Tonight will be the Awards Ceremony and Banquet. Guess what- I get to sit up at the front table with the finalists! All the people from the last round of the Semis will be there. After the banquet, there’s a dance party for all the spellers, which is a ton of fun. One more thing- Shaquille O’neal was the special guest at the Finals. He had a spell-off with last year’s winner. Very cool!
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Last night, the 48 Semifinalists were announced. I was one of them! YAY! We had a very nice dinner with the other semifinalists, and afterward, all the rules and details were clarified to us. A couple of people that I’d met over the week also made it to Semifinals, so it was very exciting for all of us. Anyway, the Semifinals will be on ESPN at 10:00 AM for anyone who wants to watch them. The Championship Finals will be on after that. Making it to Semifinals was my goal, and I’m just so pleased and happy that I made it this far. Only the very best spellers make it to the Championship Finals. Of course it would be wonderful if I could make it there, but I won’t be too terribly disappointed if I don’t make it. Again, I am so honored to represent my school, community, and state. Thank you, 11 Alive News!
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Yesterday’s Round One went pretty well, I think. We’ll get our results for it tonight! Also, we’ll find out if we make it to Semifinals. I just took Round Two, which consisted of one word spelled onstage. My word was ‘issei’, and I spelled it correctly! In a few hours, I’ll be taking Round Three, which is another onstage word. The process to determine who goes to Semifinals goes like this: 25 out of the 50 Round One words are graded. The maximum score you can get is 25 (they don’t tell us which ones are graded). The two onstage words each count for 3 points. The maximum score after that is 31 in all. The most kids allowed into the Semifinals is 50. Last year, you had to have 28 points or more to get to the Semifinals. I had 27 
Anyway, we’ll find out tonight who made it! And another exciting thing: ESPN interviewed me yesterday! They did a pretty long clip with me, and I answered questions and stuff. Finally, they featured me in the annual Spelling Bee music video. They’ll be featuring my clip in promos for the Bee. Awesome!
Update: I just finished Round 3, spelling ‘vibrissae’ correctly! I also received my score from Round One. A perfect score was 25, and I got 23. Adding on the bonus points from Rounds 2 and 3, my total score is 29. Tonight, I’ll see if I made Semifinals!
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Yesterday was a fantastic day! My family went to one of my favorite museums of all time, the International Spy Museum. We went through all the great exhibits, and we also did the interactive Operation Spy mission, where you do all these things that a real spy would do. Our group ended up accidentally letting the criminals escape, and we pretty much failed the mission. It was still a ton of fun, though! After that, we went to the Great American Barbecue that the Scripps Bee organizes. It was a little rainy, but enjoyable as well. There was face painting, karaoke, carnival games, and more. I watched other kids do karaoke, but I didn’t do it myself (I’m in band for a reason!). Today is the first day of competition. It’s the 50-word written round, which takes place at different times for different spellers. I’m taking it at 12:00. I’ve been studying intensely for it, so wish me luck!
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My family and I arrived in Washington, D.C yesterday afternoon. The hotel is beautiful, and it’s great to be here again! Today, I did some sightseeing with my family, including my aunt and cousins, who arrived here today. We visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (saw the Hope Diamond, definitely want one!) and the Washington Monument. We also saw the Memorial Day Parade, which was awesome! There were actors like Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise there. Also, there were lots of marching bands, which were almost as good as the Marist Marching Band 
. It was a fun experience, even though it was INSANELY hot outside! We came back to the hotel to enjoy the lovely air conditioning, and I signed in for the bee and met some nice kids. I received a t-shirt, watch, and lots more spelling bee goodies in a bag, along with an autograph book with a page for each speller. In between, I studied some words. Tonight, everyone signs each others’ autograph books. Should be fun!
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Well, my school’s last real day was today. Next week is exams, which I will be missing for the National Spelling Bee! But I’ll be taking the exams later . Anyway, thanks to all the 11Alive people who gave me this chance to share my spelling bee journey with others through this blog! I am so excited to be going to Washington, D.C this Sunday. I’ll post more once I’m in D.C. Can’t wait!
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Check out the results of the Spelling Bee: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/results/2009/round_results.
As of now, Julia is still in it, having correctly spelled “crucial”.
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Today was the day of the barbecue! We went out in a bus to a park in McLean, Virginia. It was pretty awesome. There were volleyball, baseball and soccer courts and inflatable thingamabobs (it’s amazing, I’m in the spelling bee but I don’t know the proper word for those big bouncy things), along with craft tables, face painting, and karaoke. I was too chicken to sing at the karaoke, though! While I was getting my arm painted with a cute bee (did I mention that they did arm and hand painting, too?), some people from ABC came over to interview me. I spoke with a lot of nice, normal kids, which was a relief. An ESPN reporter also came up to me earlier in the morning and asked me to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocous for her. Sweet! Tomorrow is Round One, the written round. There are 50 words, but only 25 are graded, for some strange reason. Wish me luck!!!
~~Julia~~ ♣ Luck of the Irish!
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Today I went to the International Spy Museum with my family. We spent a few hours there, and it was really interesting! The best part was when you assumed a fake identity and had to keep up your cover. There were whole exhibits on disguises, equipment, famous spies, and etcetera. However, I decided that I wouldn’t like to be a female James Bond because it’s too dangerous : ) Later, I registered for the spelling bee. I got a National Spelling Bee autograph book at the registry because, apparently, it is a tradition for the spellers to autograph each others’s books. I met a bunch of really nice kids at the autographing session. Hopefully I’ll make some new friends! Tomorrow is the Great American Barbecue. Sounds like FUN!!!
~Julia Denniss, secret agent 008
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Yesterday was my last day of school at St. Jude : ( I said many sad goodbyes to my friends and teachers. The teachers were all fantastic, and I know I will see my friends over the summer. Sixth grade has been a great year for me! Today, I got up at a miserably early hour and flew to Washington, D.C, arriving in the afternoon. The hotel, the Grand Hyatt, is beautiful and pretty cool. Thank you Georgia Association of Educators!!! On the way there, I saw a army of leather-clad, metal-studded bikers and bikerettes at the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Convention. I could be wrong, but I don’t think they’re here for the Spelling Bee. It would be great to see them in the audience, though : ) I also took a walk to the mall with my family today and saw the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument at sunset. I will get some pictures on this blog when the program stops acting up and lets me get the picture to normal size!
~~Julia~~
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I have had a fantastic couple of days! Matt Pearl, a reporter with WXIA, came to interview me at my school, and I was really excited. Then, I went on the WXIA Morning Live Show and was interviewed live on TV. The best part was quizzing Jill Becker, Chesley McNeil, and Donna Lowry. Everyone was so kind and friendly at the station, and it was so cool to see the set… there’s a lot going on behind the scenes! I will be leaving for Washington, D.C very soon, but I’ll still be blogging! I am so happy to have the opportunity to compete in the spelling bee (and to be on television, how cool is that?). I look forward to representing my school, St. Jude the Apostle, and the state of Georgia (I’m also hoping to have some fun and do some sightseeing in Washington!).
~Julia~ : )
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