For the first time...in English...!

Hi! As I've already told you, today and for the next "few" weekends I'll write the posts in English, for my Creative Writing class (you're making it harder for me Mrs. Kies...and... for some of my friends...ehe just kidding).

So this will be a great opportunity for you to practice your reading in English!! Aren't you all excited...? (they are, Mrs. Kies, don't worry...).

Well, the first thing I want to tell you about is a very important matter... I am really concerned about this and I'm sure you will be too...the thing is...(and I have to take a deep breath before saying this...)...every single time I turn on the radio...this song is playing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9fToekkUJg...and it's driving me CRAZY!!! I don't know how they take it...I really don't...

Besides that, nothing special has been happenning...I mean there's a new guy at my place...but...pfff...what importance does that have...?

It has a lot...! This is now a double placement!! I mean, are you getting the picture...? There's another exchange student who has come and who will live with the Tarps too!! He's colombian and he's also on 12th grade, but he has already graduated back in Colombia (they only have 11 years of school). I'm not going to have so much privacy in my bedroom and so much space to put things as I did before, that's true, but this way there will always be someone around even if no one else is at home, as our only means of transportation is that funny yellow little thing (also known as "the school bus", as I told you the other day), and if I start having some cultural shock, I'll have someone in the same situation to talk to (and I can practice my Spanish, of course...!).  I think we're getting along pretty well...so far...the room is getting a bit messy...and I don't really like messy...

Other than that...ahhh...oh, yeah. On Friday I had my first two quizzes...! On Chemistry and English. The Chemistry one was really easy, if we ignore the fact that I didn't know how to say stool...and I was like hours trying to figure out another way to say it...and then I asked the teacher and he simply told me...and that was the answer to one of the questions...I wonder why I didn't do that in the first place... The English one was a bit more difficult: it was a spelling and a vocabulary test but with rather bizarre words (like "bizarre")... Let's keep it simple: it was kind of a plethora of garish periphrasis...(Google Translator will probably simplify it a little bit more...at least it did for me...)...so basically... I'm doomed... :)

Well, in this same day I went to the Historic Re-Enactement which is something that happens in a park next to the school and which consists in a series of recreations of the early XIXth century (music, clothes, guns, food, handicraft, etc). It was very interesting and I surely liked it! I went there during my PE class (and so I had to ask the "actors" questions about health and the way of living in this period) and during my Principles of Engineering class (in which I had to describe some early-engineering-related things and how they worked - I chose a firearm and a surveyor's compass).

Later, in my class of Creative Writing, some guys went there too but I decided not to go again and so I went to meet Mrs. Kies (the teacher) and I gave her the link to this blog and...she tried to read my last post...(in portuguese, of course)...and it was really funny... aha...sorry, Mrs. Kies, but it really was...! However, I must say she has a tremendous talent for it as she was able to understand quite a big part of the post!!

After that, in the Guided Study, we did a moment of silence because of 9/11 and we talked about the meaning of it to some of the students and what we were doing at the time it happenned...I hadn't yet realized it's been so much time since that terrible thing...I was only in 2nd grade...

But let's not talk about sad things... That night the "Dairy Days" started in town. They're a kind of a festival related to the milky tradition of Wisconsin and, more specifically, Platteville. Of course the first thing I did when I got there was get some Cheese Curds...what else?! :) However, we didn't stay long: we rented a movie, went back home and watched it for the rest of the night...and it was soooo boring...I think I had never seen such a boring film in my entire life...I mean the subject was interesting (Jack Kevorkian and Euthanasia) but...it's one of those movies that makes you suffer if you want to reach the end of it...and I got to bed really late...

So yesterday I only woke up at...11...and it's so good to wake up late...and go watch the Badgers play, on TV (yes, I haven't told you but that's the college football team I support...! I wonder why...ehe). However, the laziness couldn't last forever and as soon as a friend of my brother James arrived...we decided to play Guitar Hero...in which at least you move your fingers... Later, James, Olivia (his friend), Mateo (the colombian guy) and I, took off and went to the festival. However, it was still very very quiet and so we went to give something (I really don't remember what) to the Pastor of my family's church but he wasn't there and as he had a basketball hoop we decided to play a 2-on-2 (it's probably better if I keep the score to myself...). Then we went to the big M (yes, Diogo, I took a picture of it lol), which stands for Mining because Platteville is traditionally a mining town, and it has a beautiful and astonishing view, and afterwards we went bowling again, before returning to Dairy Days (and this time my shoes were more slippery than ever...I really don't want to talk about it...). In Dairy Days I had a great Funnel Cake - a traditional cake full of sugar...yhummy...and we rode one of the ferris wheel...it was so much fun... After that, we left but there was going to be a tractor pull...! Yes, that's exactly what you're thinking about... People take their tractors to see which one can drag the most weight in the shortest time... Poor "little" vehicles... Especially when we start to see some black smoke...and no, that doesn't mean the Pope wasn't elected yet...it means one of the beasts just got...let's say...damaged...in a very serious...and expensive (that's what makes me feel a little bad...can you imagine the cost of one of those things...?) way.

We left and we went home where we stayed for the rest of the evening playing "Apples to Apples", a hilarious game in which the goal is to associate a person, thing, place or happenning card with a card with an adjective and get your card to be chosen by someone who is playing as the jugdge (basically you must make the most ridiculous comparison possible aha).

Today, Mateo and I woke up earlier to go to Mass but...once more I got late...I really have a problem with mornings... Anyway, we got to listen to most of it (despite the fact that I didn't understand a word the priest said - he is hispanic...) and afterwards we went to our family's service at the City Hall and today it took AGES...

And that was pretty much my day... We had lunch (some nice juicy steaks) when we returned home and then I was all day trying to finish the pile of homework I had to do...and I finally did... besides that, I listened to a lot of non-sense during the day...from conversations about the neighbour's cows to someone trying to fool me saying that the great and glorious SLB (my soccer team) had lost (as if that were even possible...)... I watched the Bears' (my NFL team) victory...and someone asked me why didn't I call my host mother, Mum...what kind of question is that...? She has 6 kids...! She's tired of being everybody's mum...!!

Oh well...it's time to go to bed now...I'm so tired...I wish I hadn't started classes yet like you portuguese guys... That way I wouldn't have so much stuff to do...yeah...

"The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake" :D

See you.