It's been awhile since my last blog, so I figured I would give you all (you all aka Mom and Bui) an update. There isn't a whole lot of news, but hey...
I've been at La Ribera more than two months now. I absolutely love my school. I have: Math, Geography, English, Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Business, Economics, Culture and Communication, Language (like English class in the US) and Community Investigation and Intervention.
Culture and Communication is a class where we supposedly learn about culture... I guess. Usually the teacher just lets us chat the whole class, because the other exchange student and I are "sharing our cultures" ahem ahem doodling and talking about what we did over the weekend ahem ahem.
Community Investigation and Intervention (Proyecto de Investigación e Intervención Comunitaria) is a class where we have the whole year to choose a problem in the city we would like to know more about and possibly change (eg lack of water in the poorer areas, graffiti, lack of knowledge when voting, etc). The class is actually pretty interesting, because the teacher just came to Formosa from Buenos Aires and expects more of the students. Expecting more... meaning that we have to actually do the homework and take tests (the horror!).
Philosophy. What can I say about Philosophy. I'll put it this way: history bores me out of my mind, but it's a useful subject. Philosophy bores me out of my mind, and no one can explain to me why it's useful. So. For those of you that know my feelings about history, multiply that by about 10 and you'll understand my feelings towards Philosophy.
I actually really like our Business class. We've been doing a lot of accounting, and being a number person, I like doing the work in that class. It's a lot of keeping track of accounts and sales and debts. The teacher is also my Economics teacher, which I also find interesting, but I only have that class once a week so we don't get a lot done.
I must say, I'm kind of awesome. Not so humble... but pretty awesome. I've passed every test we've taken so far:
Language: A+
Economics: A
Business: A+
*Chemistry: B+
CII: A
Math: A+
* I didn't understand a thing, but I passed due to rote memorization. The day before the teacher put all of the questions AND the answers to the exam on the board for us to study. The only question I got wrong was due to the fact that I misread the teacher's handwriting and thought that he put a 2 on the board when he actually put a 7. I think first quarter grades come out next week or the week after, so we'll see how everything turned out. The kids at this school are a lot more responsible about doing their homework and usually have it done in time for class, although usually that just means copying a classmate as the teacher is walking in.
I also had to do a presentation for my class about Vermont. I was actually kind of scared at first, thinking that they would be entirely uninterested and just chit chat throughout the presentation, but I swear, I have never seen them so concentrated in over ten weeks. Afterwards, they actually had intelligent questions, and the rest of the week kept asking me about all sorts of things from the US. I had to make the same presentation for a few other grades, and they were all pretty interested too (though their questions afterwards weren't so intelligent; they asked things like "Do you like McDonalds?" and "Do goats bite?".)
What I really like about La Ribera is that the students are very friendly. I spend a lot of time with my classmates outside of school. I've been to birthdays, to friends' houses, out to eat, and just to hang out and drink mate. All in all, so far so good in school.
Other news (although it is old news): swim team is back! In mid April we started again, but not in Don Bosco. There is an "indoor" pool (a pool with a metal removable roof) a few blocks from my school where we train every night from 9 to 10. It's late, but it is actually pretty convenient because it doesn't interfere with my Italian classes or tutoring my cousin. The pool is superrrrrrrrrrrrr hot, (I actually don't think 13 "r"s acutally explain how hot it is) so it's hard to do long sets, but a hot pool is better than no pool. There aren't many of us that go, but it's nice getting more attention from the coach. We still hang out as a team, including those that don't swim any more, but it usually means walking over 30 blocks (no exaggeration) looking for a place where we can all agree to eat, then arguing, then deciding to get empanadas delivered and eating at 1:30am, walking another 15 or so blocks to go get ice cream and ending up going to the ice cream store that was right next to the house where we ate dinner. But hey. We have love-hate relationships. Last night we hung out, but I decided to make life easier. Being the organized American that I am, I put on our Facebook group "Friday night after swim practice. Hipermercado. Who's going?" We got together after practice, went to the Hipermercado, ate dinner, played pool, and nobody cried or argued or died from hunger or exhaustion. It was actually pretty fun.
More news: Formosa has actually gotten a bit chilly. It has been around 50 degrees the past few days. Although 50 isn't that cold, it's a humid cold, a cold that is inescapable by putting on a jacket. The cold arrived quickly. Last Tuesday I was walking around it shorts and a tank top, and come Wednesday, I was in leggings, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a sweat shirt, huddled up in the kitchen drinking coffee. My reputation as a polar bear that is incapable of feeling cold has been ruined. :(
Travel news: I am probably going on the India 2014 trip with the Academy, which I am super duper excited about. Time to start learning the language (though I still have no idea what language that would be...) and I have decided to backpack Europe summer after freshman year in college. Just saying. Two thousand bucks, a backpack, a cellphone, and a passport.
Also, I was accepted into the Coast Guard AIM program. For those of you who don't know, it's a week long summer camp at the Coast Guard Academy for rising seniors who are interested in attending the CGA. I applied in March and got my acceptance notification the first week of May. That means I have to train, because there is a lot of physical work at the camp. Running. Push ups. Sit ups. And I have school. And swimming. And Italian. And a social life. So far, I've managed to stick to a schedule, so hopefully I'll be in shape for the camp. I've made it through some tough swim camps, so fingers crossed, this won't be too different. The annoying this is that almost all week it has been raining, which has messed up my running schedule a bit. But I can't change it, so there's no worth complaining.
Sticking with the college theme, I've been looking a lot into colleges lately. Most of the schools I'm looking at are in the greater Boston area, DC, or other urban areas in the East. That means that I get home, have a weekend at home, go to the CGA for a week, go to Coutts for two weeks, and have two weeks of college visits down the East Coast, then back to school. Yayyy.... (I actually am kind of psyched though... kind of).
And, last but not least, I have decided that I'm probably going to be hospitalized or in a psych ward by next December. Four AP classes, college apps, capstone, snow, lifeguarding, swim team... in freshman health class they voted me as the first one in the class who would be declared mentally unstable and I'm kind of thinkng they're right. We'll just have to see. Are there even mental wards in Vermont?
This part actually is it: I got my return date. I leave FSA on Tuesday, July 16th. I get home on July 18th. Less than two months. Eight and a half weeks. Sixty days. Wow. Time flies.
LAST THING, I PROMISE: If anybody wants to Skype, send me a message. Today is rainy and I have nothing to do till 8 tonight.
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