quarta-feira, 8 de agosto de 2007

School's on!



A brazilian thumbs-upped hi!
(Those are my bass-player friends, Heider and... well... Bass-player)

First of all, sorry about the blog's off-time. I forgot to pay my domain (www.usaexchange.us) so they canceled it, both blog and e-mail. Now, if you can read this message, everything is alright!



A nice 7a.m. picture on my way to school. That's to show our winter (and a Lions' monument). Right now I'm wearing my BUCKEYES shorts and a T-shit - by the way, no air conditioners, just opened windows. Just have to pay attention if any monkey get in.

My new school uses a pretty cool educational system. It's the best I've ever seen (we do have some crappy ones here, but not this one).

We don't have those yellow, unconfortables - but free - School Buses (sorry, I hated those things). So we usually pay for private transportation, like this:



That's mine, the basic. The one below is fancier:



"Escolar" means "related to school" (like scholarship)

This is my classroom:



Differences you can see here: no obligated desk arrangement, no fixed desk-chairs, no teacher's customized room or cool - depends on the teacher, boring - posters (they change among classes and we stay there), bags everywhere (we don't have this school-terrorism concept), windows that can really be opened and opened door right over winter, no TV, computer or any technology and right outside the door you can see some plants (going up there we have a small vegetable garden project going on).

Other differences:
-Scores goes from 0.0 to 10.0. The effort here to get an 8.0 is the same as to get an A there, so no 10.0 students like the As students there.
-We have Philosophy.
-No picking classes. They give the classroom (mine is Third A) the schedule and it's the same to everyone because you don't change classrooms (so it's easier to get closer friends).
-No cool classes like wood/metal-work, french and some other ones, neither dumb classes...
-In Phys. Ed. we play... SOCCER! (Ok, sometimes volleyball, basketball and handball).
-No detention.
-No big drama plays :( - that means, no money for it.
-No teachers asking "Who's AC/DC's lead guitarist?"
-No cool crazy parties
-It's harder to skip classes
-No school lunch (THANKS!)
-School 'till 12:35 p.m.
-And... my English teacher has a British accent! (argh...) And his English is pretty good by the way...

Ok, let's eat now!



43 bananas of 3 or 4 kinds and 7 apples! (yeah, I spent some time counting... now you count and see if it's right!)
That lasted for a few days (like 3 or 4) here at my house. Yeah, we do eat more fruits.
And every day we have fresh bread, cheese, ham (fresh sliced, not packed).
Oh, and here we say that hot-dogs are made of recycled newspaper... and we still like'em! But American ketchup is better. And we also call it ketchup but nobody knows how to spell it, so it ended up being "catchup".
And it's really hard to trash food here. Like reusing food (like make cake or pudding from old bread), using to feed the dogs or even to feed teenagers (that's the most efficient one) is pretty common.



Random pic.



yay Rotary!



McDonnalds! (it's kinda bad pic, but you can see the "M" flag and the brazilian flag.

That's it by today.

It's 12:16 a.m. and I have school tomorrow morning (starts at 7 a.m.). Then I have Kung Fu from 1:30pm to 3pm, then Kung Fu from 6:30pm to 9pm. Then I'm in bed!
It's really hot in here.



That's my Kung Fu mattes.
We have a contest this weekend. And in a few months it's gonna happen in China the World contest, one of our girls is going! (actually, we hope so. We're not finding sponsors and it's 7000 reais - US$3,500.00 dollars. So if you know of anyone wanting to sponsor it, any help is useful, just email me). Then, after the world one, they'll get the best ones to go to the Olympic Games! Chine will include in 2010 Kung Fu as a new sport over there!

I heard about a heat wave over there and people dieing, is everything ok?
We also got about the bridge over Mississippi.

Ok, now about comments. First of all, thanks for everybody reading here!
Judy, I tried to call you today... How was talking to my brother? And I have just the no-bake cookies recipe, but I got them wrong (but still, people here loved it!) I'll try it again later.
Ryan, well, we have that one golf ball... we just need clubs... you know... here they are expensive... (cough, cough...) lol. Say bonjour to Vanessa.
Kim, yeah, because of what you guys said I'm trying to put some different things over here. But the guy from Denmark actually got a picture of a 2 ft monkey over my high school! I'll try to get one too just for you!
Sarah, I brought your books here! lol. It's right there with the other ones I didn't read!
Lyssa! Someday I'll answer your MySpace messages! I swear! (I miss your mom's food...)
Pegleg, Ok, sorry... Pegleg? Who is it? Thank's for the recipe anyway! lol
Eddie, I hope you like this book! And, you know... I really miss a corvette.... like a black one, you know... jk. Is your husband back home?
Debbie, Yeah, I have been Americanized.... and that's because I had a good time over there. I miss you (and your food). Thanks for going to the airport.
Jen, The messages you missed (after your connection got bad): (a long distance hug!) / I miss you too / I still have your pic on my desk here.

ok, good night everybody.
cya.
Gabe.

5 comentários:

Anônimo disse...

Gabriel!
What fun! I really enjoyed your blog, especially seeing your photos of home. Since you left Ohio, I have thought of you a lot, primarily because of the places I have been lately. When your Dad visited Lancaster (and Judy had the party)I thought I overheard you say that you hoped to go camping. Well, we just went camping to Kelley's Island (a small island in Lake Erie). It's an annual trip. While I was there I wondered if you ever made it on a camping trip?

The next trip was one to Niagra Falls in Canada. While I was there I remembered you talking about trying to cross the bridge to see the Horseshoe Falls in Canada and not being able to go because you forgot your passport. Well, it was so beautiful that we have decided to take Caitlin, Alanna and Hannah to the Falls in October (when school is out because the Fairfield County Fair is going on and there is no school for a couple of days).

I saw Judy today when I stopped in at the bank. We talked about you for a bit. She said that you had received some communication from one of the universities to which you applied (Ohio State?). Well, as a graduate of Ohio State I can say that they have more resources than almost any university in the world. OSU is huge! So, if you get in, take it and then you can transfer to the school you really want - Ohio University! I do understand why you want to to go OU because we visited it a few weeks ago and it truly is a beautiful campus.

The only other thing I will share is that the weather here has been unbearably hot!!! The heat index (temperature plus humidity) has made the temperature feel as if it was about 106 F - 110 F (actual temperature has been 96-98 F). Today, Saturday, August 11, it was only 88 F which is cool compared to what it has been.

Take care and please continue to update us! (Unfortunately, I don't have a peanut butter recipe! Sorry!)

kimberly disse...

hey gabe!
sorry i missed your phone call saturday!
so i can't wait to see this picture of the monkey on your school! it sounds great!
i miss you!
-kim

Anônimo disse...

Gabe,
Love the pics of friends, family, Brazil, and your pets. It looks like you are adjusting just fine! School starts at LHS one week from today and Liss said it will be very strange without you & your smile. We do miss you here but we know that you are going to be doing great things at home. Stay in touch and let us know how school is going. Still haven't gotten your candy recipe (HINT! HINT!).
Debbie Pitts (liss' mom)

Anônimo disse...

Gabe!!!
this blog thing is cool. i still feel like an idiot from when u called, i had no idea it was u. so i hope things are going great in brasil. and i didn't know u were in kung fu. well i'll have to visit this place more often. well ttyl.
Fri

Anônimo disse...

hey gabo, I was looking at my mails and I rememberes you haven't answered the last one i send to you... I hate you!! lol jk Wow.... now im the one americanized. Someday i'll call you now that I know when you are free... See ya boy... 3 days for your bday!!!
Besos