Monday, March 23, 2009

Math, +25 degrees feels like 10


A rose in the front of my house


At my city's gold mine with the wife of the governador of Rotary and Lydia (rotarian) Withthese glasses I look like my mother in the eighties and nineties!! LOL


Hugging the Rotary sign in my city


A little piece of Brazilian sky


My little ballerinas :)

So I haven't really written in here for a really long time. I guess it is just because I have been procrastinating. I have been doing so much and don't really know where to start with what to tell you. So I guess I will just start with today. That is always the best way to start anyway, right? I'll fill you in on the other stuff later.
Today in school I was completely surprised by myself. A few weeks ago in Math class my teacher asked a question and asked this boy named Willian to answer it. He didn't know the answer and the teacher just waited there expectantly. So my friend Felipe told me the answer, which was really simple, and I put up my hand and answered it. Just for fun. And so of course everyone was all like, "oooohh, Willian, the exchange student knew it and you didn't". So then he kinda stuck his tounge out at me, so in playful response I told him that on the math test I would get a higher mark than him. This was said as a pure joke. I didn't actually think there was any way for it to happen.
First of all because I didn't even finish grade 10 math in Canada. Because I was doing so bad I didn't want to have a terrible mark so I decided to stop while there was still hope. So I can repeat it in summer with a tutor and actually learn and understand it while getting a better mark. Instead of uselessly scratching through, and then not really understanding anything so doing even worse in grade 11 math.
so that was the first thing. The second thing is, I am not even in grade eleven here. I am in grade twelve. So I am doing grade twelve math, with having pretty much skipped grade 10 and 11. And not only that but right now, I have difficulties in math, especially trigonometry. On top of all this, I am learning it in Portuguese.
Anyways, I did the test, actually amazed that I was almost sure I got a question completely right. Today when I got it back my teacher said, "You scored higher than Willian". I didn't believe it. And I felt kinda bad for it, like I didn't mean to actually get a higher mark, I thought that it was impossible.
Now before you go thinking that I got 60% or something, politely just throw that number out of your mind and take all the above factors into consideration. So with everything I managed to get 26%. I know, I have never been so happy at failing in my life!!!
Also on my Brazilian Literature test I got 31%, which was really surprising. Again this was a higher mark than some people. But that is not the point of course. The point is this; now all the kids who scored lower than me are saying to themselves, "the exchange student who doesn't even have to write the tests managed to get a higher mark than me? And she wrote them in her second language?". So maybe now they have a little motivation. I hope. Or maybe they just hate me. But they are not those kind of people. I just think that maybe next time they will study a little harder. Which will only do them good.

I should also mention that last week or so I was freezing in class. Shivering, the works. I commented that it must have been at least 10 degrees outside. After school when Mamãe picked me up, I asked her how many degrees it was. Turns out it was +25....and I was cold. I couldn't believe it, my body has really adapted to the climate here. When I return to Canada it is gonna be like shell shock.

Wednesday I am going to go to Belo Horizonte by bus. Then I will stay in the house of the coordinator of all the exchange students. then on Friday I am gonna catch a plane with all the other kids to go to the South of Brasil. There I will see Foz do Iguaçu, Santa Catarina etc. It is colder there so I better pack a hoody. My god, it could actually be like 20 degrees. LOL.

I won't get back until like the 10th of April I think, so, good-bye until then!!!

Emily <3

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

FIVE MONTHS!!!!!!!!!

I have been here for five months today! Whoo hoo! I have five months more. I have come to the halfway mark. You can expect some blogs really soon, with photos too. I have been working on them but not finishing them so saving them to "drafts" lol. But anyway, WHOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!

<3 Emily