So this is what dying feels like

Whoever though it would be a good idea to get into hockey?
It'll be fun, they said.

I'm dying, because omg, the game is unpredictable, which you could see tonight--Blackhawks vs Minnesota, first seed vs eighth, and it was, dare I say it, pretty evenly matched.
Even though the Wild encountered some huge road blocks--their starting goal tender hurt himself during warm-ups, so they had to play their second goalie, who was pulled the last time he played (after allowing 2 goals on 4 shots against the Blackhawks back in January, I think).
But he was terrific. For his first playoff game, it was really, really good.
And Ryan Suter, also from the Wild, played unbelievable 41:08, which is the new franchise record for a playoff game.

The Wild scored on their first Shot on Goal, but Marián Hossa equalized it on the power play with a beauty pass from Kane and then both goalies were super stead-fast, blocking 26 (Crawford) and 32 (Harding). The amazing thing about Harding is that he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis last year and yet is still playing!

Late in the first Over Time (in playoff games there's so much sudden-death OT until there's a goal), Shaw rammed the Wild player with the puck into the boards, Oduya picked the puck up, sent it down the ice to Stalberg who charged ahead, didn't shoot (even though he was pretty alone up there) but passed it to Bryan Bickell, and it was not hard for Bickell to out-deke the Goalie and net the Game Winning Goal (his second OT goal in the Playoffs).
He was subsequently named first star of the game, with Hossa second and Harding the third, and the whole United Center was making its name proud--it's called the Madhouse on Madison.
It was pretty loud.

Well, anything interesting happen?

You could say so!
We got our report cards yesterday, and my lowest grade was 95% in Math and Entrepreneurship.
Right, Entrepreneurship--we had the presentation on Friday, and we didn't advance :(
Well, I'm not exactly heart-broken--I never thought our idea would even get past task one, but we apparently did rather well, but task two just wasn't to our judges liking :)
Well, they did cut down from 18 to 8 teams, so it was no great surprise that a lot of teams wouldn't make it, but one thing that is rather unfair is the way they select the teams that advance:
They have to let a certain amount of teams through in every room, so we might have been in a rather strong room.

Anyway, we still gotta work on our project, and while we did that today, somehow we got talking about age--right, I said "I'm finally legal to drink beer in Germany" or something (never mind that I don't even like beer) and then added "Now that I am 16" and Jake just looks at me--"You're sixteen?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm sixteen. Actually, I turned sixteen just last week."
And Cici is laughing and Kevin is grinning and Jake says to Kevin "She's only sixteen?!"
And Kevin's like: "Yeah, I told you she's way younger than us."

I'm pretty proud that you can't notice my age immediately, though :)

My class is writing a Pre-Calc test tomorrow, which I'll probably have to make up next Tuesday, but I really don't want to... I'm in the swing of it right now, I'd love to write it right now (no, I wouldn't, but well...)
We're writing monologues in English, which is probably gonna be fun--I'm gonna have a bit more time because I'm just now starting to write again, but it's gonna be awesome--basically, this is a monologue, so I'm not worried at all.
Perfect place for musings ;)

On Sunday, Kaieko, the exchange student from last year, and her husband were here, and they brought the girls and me Japanese sweets and were really nice!
It was great to meet them (Kaieko came here to learn English, I think).

Anything else?
I can't think of anything.
We\ll head off for the school parking lot in a bit less than an hour, because we're leaving at 11 p.m., but they said nowhere when we're supposed to be there, so I figured 40 minutes early couldn't hurt.
I'm really tired right now, stayed up way too late last night reading, and I am already packed.
It's exciting and I have the nagging feeling I missed something, but I can't think of what right now.

I have clothes and sunglasses and treats and shoes and ... maybe I should pack sunscreen?
That couldn't hurt, I guess, because it's super hot and sunny in San Francisco right now!

So yeah, and that's it from me.

I hope you have a wonderful five days, and I hope I'll have a ton of wonderful pictures for you once I get back!

Have a great time!

Julia