RatSoap

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winners

One of my classmates went to Brazil for a week and she brought back a bracelet for each of her closest friends.

She said that you had to put it on and make three wishes and then wait until it fell off by itself. When it falls off, the wishes will come true.

The photo above is what the bracelet looked like when I first put it on. This is what it looks like now:

The knot is already starting to wear, so it will probably fall off in about one or two weeks.

---------------------------

In English class we are studying "the city and the country," and we made a chart of positive and negative things about each. I contributed a lot because I am the only one in class who has lived in both.

After doing the exercise, the teacher asked me if I lived in the country or the city. I told her in the country, and that I didn't like the city at all.

Then she asked me if I could do a presentation about where I live in Virginia.

So I've been putting together lots of pictures of different parts of home.

The presentation starts by saying how many people in the United States live in the city and the country. We have been learning to use Excel at school, so I did this population chart for the presentation (with some help from Dad).

And here's another chart that shows how more and MORE people will continue to prefer living in American cities instead of the country in the future:

I don't understand why, because the country is a much better place to live. This is what I see when I think of home:

And these are some good reasons to live in the country: There is clean air. People don't smoke right in front of your face. There aren't so many cars, no traffic, no loud buses, no smoke, everyone lives in houses, no tall buildings to block the beautiful view of trees and fields growing with corn and barley and soy, lots of grass for kids to play in, neighbors, etc., etc., etc.

-----------------------

My English teacher often asks me for help with words and how to say them (she isn't a native English speaker).

The students have seen that she always asks me for help, so now they think they can't ask the teacher for help because she doesn't know. So they ask me!

The other day, we were all set up in groups of two, writing a type of interview where you had to ask each other questions. My partner and I got started with the first question, and then someone came up to my desk and asked me how to say "¿Cual calle?" in English ("Which street?"). I answered and then got back to my interview.

A second later, two more kids came up to my desk and asked me another question. Two minutes later, there was a LINE of five people behind my desk, and so I never finished my work.

The day after that, the assistant teacher wanted me to dictate three sentences to half the class (we split up in groups). The teacher told me to read each sentence three times and very slowly.

I started reading, walking around the room so everyone could hear well, and I said the first sentence: "John...is...taller...than...Mary."

"John...is...taller...than...Mary." "John...is...taller...than...Mary."

Some of my classmates said, "Huh? I didn't get it. John is what?"

The teacher told me it was fine and to just go on with the next sentence.

At the end, I told her, in the way I normally speak English, "I don't think they understand my accent." But SHE didn't get that either!

Mom jokes that it's because my Virginia accent is too strong. But I think everyone in class here---including the teacher---have a hard time understanding any English accent that isn't Chilean.

-----------------------

In another class, we have an assignment to write an autobiography about our WHOLE life (in Spanish, of course). But the teacher said, "You don't have to include anything that you don't want other people to read."

We have to start with saying our name and where and when we were born, and then write everything else we remember from birth.

In class, I finished my whole life in one page, while some kids were already on the fourth page at two months old!

When I got home and wrote it in the computer, I noticed that I had skipped many things, like when I started playing soccer, when I lost my first tooth, when Dad used to speak to me in Spanish (before I was four), etc.

The next day, the teacher mentioned that the autobiography had to be at the very least four pages long and typed in the computer. I only had a page and a half!

The assignment is due in three days, so I'm still adding to it.

---------------------

This week we had an athletic event at school for the 400th anniversary of the founding of our school (in 1607, in France, where it started).

Fortunately, only one of the three schools that were invited to participate in the track competition could come.

That meant it was easier for us to win something. The athletes from the school that came were more at our level, not like the much-better ones we competed against at Saint George a few weeks ago.

In the end, we ended up winning many medals. I won first place in the long jump with 3 meters and 11 centimeters (about 10.2 feet).

Here's the "gold" medal: