Monday, May 30, 2011

O Principezinho

Today was a very strange day, so I've compiled a list of all the weird things that happened today.


  • It was raining, which is weird for a New Mexican, but it was weird rain. It would be really hot and sunny, then the wind would pick up and it would start pouring, and then the sun would be out again in ten minutes or so. This went on all day. 
  • I slept all through the night last night. Waking up all the time in the middle of the night is a normal occurrence in my bed. 
  • I woke up about 10 seconds before my alarm went off. 
  • On Mondays I take the late bus that leaves from Covão do Coelho (a town near Minde) at about 9:05. I got there at 8:40 today (host mom had to go to work). I waited a while under some makeshift garage thing to get out of the rain, and then a girl that I ride the bus with came walking up the hill and was like "We're supposed to catch the bus down there now" so I went down with here and we ended up talking (I don't know why we'd never talked before). It was nice because she didn't ask me tons of questions about the US or myself, but we talked about things we had in common. Turns out she was taking the big standardized test that the rest of my class was taking that day, too. She was really worried because she hadn't studied, though. 
  • It got to be about 9:20 and we were starting to wonder where the bus was. At about this time I watched a lady in a car back up into a van that was parked on the street. It was a really strange accident. 
  • At about 9:40 some little kid called his mom and she called the school to have them send someone to come pick us up because the bus never came. We waited for 15 more minutes before the van showed up and all went to school. 
  • I went up to my classroom because I wasn't sure what was going on with all the weird testing stuff, so I wanted to ask my classmates. They were just going in to take the test, so I decided to go to the bar (snack bar, not alcoholic drink bar) instead of sit in the room and read while they took the test. The Philosophy teacher was the one supervising the testing in my classroom, and she pulled me aside and gave me something wrapped in paper and inside a plastic bag. She was like "It's just a little thing, a children's book so you should be able to read it, and I think you'll really like it." It was so sweet! It's illustrated too :D
  • The book was "O Principezinho", or "The Little Prince" in English (but the book was in Portuguese). So I went down to the bar and read for a little while, and had a café (mom and dad, we need an espresso machine or I will have severe withdrawals when I come back). There were two other girls that I didn't know in there, and after a while one of them came up and started talking to me. I went to sit with them (they were making cheat-sheets for a Portuguese test) and we talked for a while (in English). They were really, really nice, and in my grade. I don't really know too many people from the other classes because when I got here, my class was in a room separate from the other 11th graders because our room was leaking or something, so I haven't been introduced to many 11th graders besides my classmates until now. 
  • When the period was over, the three of us went back up to our hall for DTA (I still don't know what this stands for, but it's when our class directors help us study and talk to us about class stuff. It's kind of like advocacy.). 
  • Me and my friends ate lunch in the bar because it's Monday and the cantina line is nearly impossible to get through on Mondays. I go up to order and the people already know what to give me because I get the same thing every day. What can I say, the chocolate croissants are delicious (:
  • The rest of the day was normal, until I go to get on the bus. I saw something was up when people I didn't recognize were getting on my usual bus, bus number 6. I went up to ask and my bus driver comes up and explains that now we'll all be riding on bus 2. I thought it was really nice of him to explain it to me, because I guess I looked kind of lost and he knew I probably had no idea what was going on (not that I usually know what's going on but whatever). 
  • Then on the way home, Alexandra's host parents called me up to their apartment and gave me food that Alexandra had left behind that they weren't going to eat, like sopapilla and pancake mix and grits. :D




And that was my wonderfully strange day. Of course, I have a quote to go along with it.


“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - Albert Camus

Okay, I have two. The second is from the book my teacher gave me. 

Portuguese version:
"As coisas mais importantes são muitas vezes invisíveis para os olhos - só com o coração é que podemos vê-las."

English translation:
"The most important things are often invisible to the eyes - only with our heart can we see them."

I also had an AFS activity in Tomar this weekend, but I don't feel like writing about that right now. But a picture's worth a thousand words.

*Author's note: All conversations and everything happen in Portuguese, except where it says otherwise.
Até o próximo! 


P.S. BARCELONA!!!!! SOMOS OS CAMPEŐES DO MUNDO!!!! :D

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