Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pumpkin Carving

Hi again!

Yesterday I had one of the most american experiences ever... I carved a pumpkin!!!

As you know we bought the pumpkins last week in the farmers market, and finally we got to carve them yesterday. rose made a funny face and I designed a cat with some stars and a moon. I think we did a great job for it being the first time! :D

I have looooots of pictures, so you better see them!

School was good yesterday as well. Mrs. DiJulio (my Art teacher) took us outside so that we could draw some cars. It was veeery cold, but I managed to finish my drawing. We are going to do something cool with them, you'll see! ;)

Today I had an interesting experience as well. Mrs. Davis (my public speaking teacher) brought in a guest speaker. He is a marketing teacher and it was really fun! We did different activities and it was really cool. First we had to do a puzzle in groups of four (my group was the last one... wron strategy! :S). Second we had to throw some paper balls and hit some paper plates he had put on the walls. Finally, in groups of four again, we had to hold hands and keep a balloon in the air touching it only with our hands, arms and heads.

The point of these activities were: 1)Know the big picture (we all agreed that we would've been able to do the puzzle better if we had known what we were doing before). 2)Keep focused (The more focused you are, the biggest chance to "hit the target"). 3)Know your role and learn teamwork (We had to work together to keep the balloon in the air).

It wa sreally interesting to do all these things and relate them to speeches and public speaking. I am sooo glad I'm taking this course, really!! I'm goin to give my first speech on Friday. It is an interview speech, that means that we have to introduce to the class someone we've inteviewed (we all have interviewed someone from the class, and of course we know each other, but well... we have to introduce them anyway!). Every night I'm practising in front of Mom, UBie and Rose, because I can't read the speech, which means that I have to know fairly well what I'm going to say. Mrs. Davis will only allow us to take a 3x5 index card with us. I am reaally nervous about it!! If it were in Spanish I wouldn;t mind speaking for 2 minute sin front of the class, but being in English I'm not so confident... Oh well, as UBie said, I'm taking P.S. because it's challenging!

I also had rehearsal today. Starting this week we have to stay after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This week, however, I'm going by myself, because Rose has orchestra rehearsal (she's there right now) and tomorrow will be the concert. So thanks that Rose wasn't there (and I know it might sound mean!) I've been able to know a whole bunch of new people! If I'm with Rose I know I'll be shy and I won't speak to anyone else unless they talk to me. Aaanyway, it was fun today :D

I was so happy I talked to everybody this weekend!! And I'm glad everyone's doing good! :)

That's everything for now... don't forget to chek out the new pictures!!! (in the Halloween album)

I love you

Elena

Sunday, October 26, 2008

2nd Month

It's already been 2 months since I'm here... Wow! i can't believe time passed so fast, yet slowly at the same time.

This month I've gotten used to my new life, and I can say that, although it took me a while, everything's okay now.

Everyday I learn something new about English, other people and even myself.

One of the things that I've discovered is that I just take thing too seriously. I mean, it's ok if I worry about good grades and things like that, but not to the point that I get mad at myself when I get a B instead of an A.

Another thing that I hadn't notice before is how nervous I am!! I just noticed when Mom told me that I was just chewing gum at 100 miles per second. She knows about body language (I'm reading a book about it too), and she told me that it was a sign of being nervous, and that it wasn't the only thing I did. Sooo I thought about it and yes, I was getting nervous about everything and sometimes without a reason!! So I'm learning to take things a little bit easier, without goofing around, but not taking them as seriously if I don't have to.

And so far, it's worked! I study, I do my homework, I do well at school and without stress :D

I'm also considering a lot of new things about what I want to study, and why. I don't have an answer yet, because there are many things I really like, but hopefully this year will help me.

This month I've only read one book (and I'm not finished yet) which is Brisingr. I don't know why, but I'm reading it rather slowly, it's not as exciting as I first thought. I'm working on a lot of drawings, which is good, and I'm going to work on different crafts (such as craving pumpkins ;D).

My only objectives for next month will be finding more intesting books, keeping up the good grades (that includes not losing more textbooks) and working a bit more in knowing myself. I really want to improve my self-esteem and try not to be so hard on myself. After all, nobody's perfect, and that's a lesson I have to learn!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Haunted Hayde Ride

I'm back!!!



I'm sorry I haven't posted anything new during the whole week, but I was rather busy with homework, and I barely touched the computer :P



On Wednesday evening UBie and Mom took us to the Haunted Hayde Ride!! :D It was something that in Spain we would call "casa del terror". I enjoyed it very much!!! They said that the actors liked me a lot because I got scared many times, and actually maybe that's possible because they kept following me all time!!! :D I also had a corn dog... it's awesome! It's like a hot dog, but instead of having a bun of bread, it has like a batter around, and they fry it... Really, really good!! I uploaded some pictures, the ones Rose took with her camera, but most of them are in Mom's and Ubie's camera so we'll have to wait a bit...



On the other hand I have the pictures of me in the supermarket in my jammies!! :D I think that was the funnest part of the night, even funner than the dance :S



Aaaanyway, the Halloween festival was on Wednesday, and I wanted to upload the pictures yesterday, but I couldn't because today in Chemistry class we celebrated the Mole day!!! (Mole being 6.02x10^23... We love you Avogadro's number) and we had to bring some projects, so I worked on a poster, and since we had rehearsal and came back home later than usual, I finished really late so I just felt like reading and drawing for a while.



And today... hahaha it was funny :P Rose didn't go to school (healthy day...long story), and it had to be the only day on which I've overslept!!! So UBie woke me up at 6.50 and had to ruuun to the car. Actually I din't even had time to brush my hair and have breakfast (but this last thing he told me I couldn't do, so he was kind enough to wait until I had a glass of milk and some loaves of bread). Thankfully I'm kind of changing my look (you'll see in the pictures) so I didn't worry a lot about my hair.



School was ok. In Art Mrs. DiJulio took us outside to draw some car engines, and talking about Art, she put the 2 pictures I've made so far on the board!!! The board is right next to the front door, and not everybody's pictures are there, so I was veeeery proud. I couldn't help taking pictures ;D



Chemistry was fun! Everybody brought in food (a mole of cookies, a mole of soda...), so it was fun. I got a 100 in our last test, and the teacher even said he was thinking about giving me extra work, because what it takes the rest a hour to do, I do in half an hour... On one side I want him to do it, but on the other hand I don't really want a lot of extra work, so who knows...

After school I nearly missed the bus, because they changed the number (from 8 to 61). Sometimes they change the number and they drive me crazy, because I don't know it and keep looking for bus number 8 until I ask one of the teachers that are outside.... But I didn't miss it in the end! ;D

Then this afternoon Mom took us both to the farmers market to buy our Halloween Pumpkins!!! :D It's a lovely place. Actually, even in the area we live, every time I look up there are big trees, so if I didn't know I'm the coast, I'd think I in Dakota or some other state in the mountains :P It's a beautiful place. We chose our pumpkins, took many pictures and I even got to pet a puppy!!! hehehe :D

After that we went to the post office (I didn't send the package, but I bought stamps ;D), and to Toys'R'us, because Mom wanted to buy a Jenga for Jim (UBie's brother). Jenga is a Japanese game in which you have to build a tower, it's fun! There I got to play Guitar Hero for XBox 360 and it was sooooooooooooo awesome!! it wasn;t only a guitar, but also drums!! So yes, I liked it very much :P (I didn't like the price, though xD)

Soooo I had fun today!! Tomorrow I will email everybody. By the way, Mom, you have to show me how to decorate the Photobucket album, because mine is always white and boring... I really don't know how to change it!! :S And I love all the pictures, really. :D It's very nice that you are doing that. I love the pictures of Madrid, and the ones in which you are at Grandma's house :D

Dad, this week I tried to log into the Online Bank and I couldn't... Which card number do I have to use?? I used the regular one, instead of the golden one... :S Or if you have any way to see it for yourself, can you tell me if I've done okay this month??

Lots of love everybody, and be good :P

Byebye!!

PS. By the way, I uploaded pictures in the Halloween album, the Homecoming album and the Art album ;)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

PSAT

Here I am again!

This week's been good so far, except for my little problem in Public Speaking. However, now everything's solved! I have my new book and I'm waiting for Mrs. Davis to tell me how much it is. I still have detention on friday, though! :O (yes, I'm such a bad girl! :P) but looking at the bright side, I'll be able to do my homework for the weekend, and that's good because on Saturday is the Homecoming dance, and rose and I are going ;) (I promise lots of pictures)

Today was a special day, because it was the day on which the PSAT test has been taken. It is some kind of pre-college test (have to find out more about it). Neither Rose nor I took it, but many kids of the High School did, so from 7.20 to 10 we just sat in he cafeteria and waited. I brought my Brisingr book with me, so it wasn't that bad (almost read 150 pages...wow!). Then we had only 30 minutes of our 2 first blocks and around 1 hour of our third block instead of 95 minutes. The fourth block, however, was a regular block. (Which was Public Speaking, and we had a nice time today!)

I think today we're going to the 39ers (thirtyniners). It's something like the chinese shops in Spain, for you to understand. That's one of the only ones of the kind I've seen, besides The Dollar Tree.

I've been thinking about what I'm going to do this year, and the clubs that I've joined don't seem to meet regularly (maybe only the anime club once each 2 weeks, and I'm not sure yet if I want to be there!! :S), so I've heard about this Teen Readers club and maybe I'm going join it. My English teacher is the cosponsor, and I really like her, so yes, I want to try it! Reading can't hurt anyone, can it?? ;D

Tomorrow we have our 2nd rehearsal. Looks like we extras only have to go on Thursdays, and that's great, because I wouldn't be able to sit and watch the whole play over and over every day!

Sooo I'm going now! I promise to write again this weekend, because it seems it's going to be full of interesting things ;)

I love you very much! :D

Elena

12 de Octubre


Porque es un dia especial, actualizo en espa;ol de Espa;a, aunque sin la letra clave de nuestra lengua!


Se echa de menos la patria, especialmente las tapitas, el chorizo, el cocidito y hasta las lentejas! Que viva la gastronomia espa;ola!!

Aqui tambien he podido apreciar las diferencias entre Europa y America, y especialemente la forma de vida mediterranea de la que hacemos alarde. Aqui la gente no anda! No hay parques por los que pasear, calles llenas de tiendas en las que dar un paseo mientras ver los escaparates, nada!! Aqui vas con el coche y te recuerda a los poligonos industriales que ves en las carreteras. Y tiendas peque;as? Olvidate! Son gigantescas! No se si sera que es de es amanera en esta ciudad, pero algo me dice que colo en ciudades al estilo Nueva York podemos encontrar calle en las que andar (si por no haber,a veces no hay ni aceras, oye!).

Ya he decidido que lo primero que voy a hacer cuando vuelva a Espa;a va a ser:

1) Comer comida de verdad
2) Nunca mas quejarme por andar
3) Apreciar la historia que hay en nuestro continente en general, y en nuestro pais en particular, porque aqui NO HAY NADA QUE VER! :O (excepto Williamsburg xD)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Oops...

Hey everyone!

This week's been pretty normal. Now the routine is starting to begin. Actually, that's good, because it is now when we're going to be able to get used to being here (which Rose and I pretty much are by now)

On Wednesday something happened. I was really scared :P Here I am in my Art class, and then one of the kids that work in the seccurity desk comes looking for me, because I had to go to the clinic. The teacher was as surprised as I was (I wasn't sick at all!! :O). So I go to the clinic, and it turned out to be a simple check because I'm new in the city :D They checked my eyes, my ears, measured me and all that. Pretty cool stuff!

Then on Thursday things got a little worse... a lot worse, let's say :S At first the day was awesome, i got a B in an English test, but then, in Public Speaking... I got an E and detetion!! :O Yes, me, detention, next Friday after school. Why? because I'd forgotten my book!! :( In the morning I looked for it at home, and it wasn;t there so I guessed it'd be in my locker. Nope, it wasn;t there either. Then when I got home after school I looked for it again and Oops... not here! So yeah, I've lost the book and I have to pay for it :S ($52).

The thing that bothers me most is that I got an E, because she often makes us take notes from the book and then gives us a quiz on that, and lets us see the notes. No book, no notes, not a clue of what the quiz was about. Oh well, I have plenty of time to make up for it, so let's not worry about it :P

In the afternoon it was fine, I went with Mom to the supermarket, and then to the pet store and all the places she had to go.

Then yesterday was a normal day, except for this little thing that happened in Marh. There was a fire drill!! So we had to go out running, and it was very fun :D Sometimes they'll do things like this.

In the evening we all went to Barnes and Nobles, the book store with a Starbucks in it. I like that place very much, you can pick the magazines, read them while you have your coffee and then leave them if you don't like them :D (I know that's not very polite, but everybody does it!! :P). I've seen some books I want that I'll buy when I finish Brisingr (which I'm reading at a very slow pace because the beginning is not very interesting).

Lately I've been working harder in my pronuntiation. Sometimes I notice that people make weird faces when I talk, and sometimes they don;t really understand me. I talked to Mom and she told me that she understands me well because she's used to listening to people with very different accents. After a while we noticed that my problem are the vowels (wow :O). The "e" and the "i" are not like in spanish at all. You have to say them with your mouth in the shape of a smile. (like é in French). I was soooo upset!! Nobody had told me that before! So here I am practising. My mouth actually hurts :O

That's everything for now! :D I think I'll call you tonigh, Mom and Dad, because you seem to want to talk (I read the comments). then I'll send emails tomorrow or on Monday! Please, send me the pictures of Linares, ok?? And Esmeralda, I want some pictures too! :P Lucia, it is better if you send me emails because that way I won't forget to answer you!! but you can do whatever you want, actually. I hope you tell me a bit more about how you're feeling! you said you felt confused, right? :)

Lots of love!!

Elena

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Progress Reports





Hello!
How's everybody doing?? I have some exciting news!!


Yesterday we were given our progress reports. It seems that they give them to us every 4 or 5 weeks. It's not the final report of the semester, or even the quarter, but it gives you an idea of how you're doing. I'm actually proud of myself! I thought I wasn't doing well at all in English, but i can't ask for more! Being an exchange student, taking Honors English and getting a B is quite impressive, don't you think?? :D (I uploaded the picture in Photobucket, too)


I also had my first National Art Honor Society meeting (no regular Art Club this year, it seems...). They have a lot of interesting projects, although they are not 100% sure at this point. As I get to do things, I'll tell you! maybe (only maybe) there will be a trip to Washington D.C. to go to the National Art Museum. It depends on if we manage to get the money.


Now let's tell things in order... This weekend was very fun! I finally got to meet Anushka, she's so funny! :D I liked her very much, and seems an interesting person, I really hope I can get to know more about her.


Saturday was pretty normal, but on Sunday... we finally went to the movies!! (oh yeah!! :P. Chris wanted to go too, so he took us and watched 'Burn after Reading'. Let me tell you this, if you have the chance to see it, don't. We all thought it was a comedy...wrong idea, not funny at all. The story is confusing, that if we can tell it has a story! :O So the 3 of us were a bit dissapointed... I can't believe Brad Pitt let me down :(


There was something that really shocked me. The tickets are $10!! :O That's madness! Gul says in Turkey it's more or less the same, but in Spain it's like 4E. Crazy, crazy! Before I came I thought things would be a lot cheapier here, but it's not that way at all! there are some things that are more expensive than in Spain (Food, for example). I'm still not into the clothes thing, but I'll find out soon :D


Today it was fine, just a regular day of school... It was a B day. i don;t know why, but I seem to like A days better.
How are you doing in Linares, Mom and Dad? I don't know what you mean by 'enough' :S Anyway, try to look at the bright side and enjoy yourselves, it you vacation after all! (well, maybe not for you Dad :P)
How was it in Portugal, Esme? I hope you send me a looong email with a lot of pictures! :D
Well, everybody, I'm leaving for now! ;)
Love y'all!!
Elena.
p.s: I added a new link. It's a website with a lot of pictures of a lot of countries, I find it very interesting. check it out ;)

Friday, October 3, 2008

Busy, busy week!!!

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry I've not written in this whole week... the case is... I was really busy!!! :P First of allI want to answer to the comments in the previous post.

Lucia, thank you fro writing!! really, it made me very happy to hear from you!

Mom and Dad... Thank you for keeping me filled in! Good to know all the things that are going on! Have fun in Linares ;) (I still don't know when you are going :P). I hope nex week there won;t be any problems with the phone card, so that you can tell me everything hehe! Take a lot of picures!

My girls.... EVERYTHING IS SOOO COOL!! :P It had to be the year that I'm not there, but anyway I'm happy for you! (And I'm not worrying a lot because you said that maybe next year I can do that exchange student thing hehehe...) Please, email me and explain me everything in detail!! The play also seems interesting, I bet you're going to have a lot of fun ;)

On Wednesday it was the first rehearsal for drama club. I have to say that this is very different from our little plays in Villaluenga. I will only tell you that the script has around 70 pages. And it'll be performed in November... Not bad, huh? We took a whole year to get to perform only 10 pages! I'm glad I'm just an extra, so I don;t have to study all that bunch of lines hehe. Basically what we did is read the script. The kids with speaking roles are totally awesome, without a single rehearsal they just got the right entonation :O

It was Open House, too. That is the day on which parents go to the high school and see every teacher and listen to thei class expectations. Not every kid goes, but Mom and UBie wanted us to go, so we went. UBie went with Rose and Mom went with me. It was kind of funny because they know almost every teacher, so when they find out that I'm staing with the Reeds, they start remembering all the other kids that they've had :P Then that night they have a stand where they sell sweatshirts, and you can decorate them with Princess Anne stickers. I have mine yay!! I'll take pictures of it this weekend, I just love it. (I'm wearing it right now)

Then yesterday I had to finish an essay for English. I though I had finished it, but nooo!! I started it over again, because I didn't like it. It was an essay about The Crucible, a play we've read in class. Probably it would've been difficult in Spanish too. I had to write a sketch on any character, and I chose Reverend John Hale (not that you mind, but well, I just felt like saying it :P). The problem is that I'm good at writing normal essays on a topic, but when it comes to making points, proving them and then explaining I get lost. Aaaanyway, this year will help me to get better at it too! ;)

Today.... is finally Friday!! probably my favourite day of the week! Today I had a Biology quiz, and a vocabulary quiz in Public Speaking. I think I did great in those, as I've already said, for a Spanish student this kind of tests might be really easy. Guess next year I'll have to get used to our exams again! :P But this year is totally worthwhile.

When I came home and finished my homework (or half of it ;P) I saw something very curious on TV.... In the food channel.... They were making Pallella! (yes, Pallella... they can't say Paella :DD). It was a "Chicken and Sausage Paella". At first I was thinking "Well, I don';t know of any paella with sausages, besides, sausages aren't spanish!!" but then... she said it!! it was a chorizo sausage!! :D Not that we use it in paella (yuck >xP) but at least it was Spanish. So I;ve come to the conclusion that I need to show these people what a true paella is!! Maybe next weekend I'll try and make one so please, Mom!! Could you send me the recipe? :D I'd appreciate it so much!

After that I went out for a while and played tennis with Joey, and I got so tired that I said "Well, I'm going to write in my blog!" hehehe! I'm waiting for Mom to come, so that we can go to Hallmark because I want to buy some things there (I'll tell you next day what it is).

Tonight Chris and Anushka are coming! :D I can finally get to meet Anushka, I'm sooo glad! ;)

I love you all!! May the force be with you ;)

Elena