I Believe I Can Fly

I'm so happy and elated that I might just take off!
Today has been a great day - mostly!

Okay, so I'm operating on waaay too little sleep, first off all - I just don't seem to manage to go to bed early, and I'm doing 1.5 to 2 hours of Maths a day. It's not that it's hard, it's just that it's a lot and we have to draw a lot, which takes time.

But anyway, so I woke up, wonderfully sleep-deprived - just enough so that I'm not falling-asleep-standing tired, but hui-I-might-not-be-completely-filled-up-on-sleep tired. I love that feeling, I have to admit.
But I should sneak a couple of hours in at some point, because the longer this goes on, the crankier and more exhausted I get... But at the moment everything's still fine!

First lesson: Spanish. Spanish is still super boring, because we're only doing review stuff, and only a few students had Spanish 10 last semester, so the majority has forgotten almost everything. Seriously. -_-
Second lesson: Entrepreneurship. I hate people I can't rely on. For our project we had to sell things during lunch. And I had gotten cups and straws for $10, while my other two 'co-workers' promised to get lemonade powder so that we could sell lemonade.
The thing is, I wouldn't even have had to do it, because of the ESL meeting, but I said I'll do it anyway. I had come up with the idea, and I had chipped in with the cups and everything.
And they didn't provide their end of the deal.
They got it figured out, but I have been the idiot trying to save everybody's ass often enough, so I just said "find a solution, I'll figure out how to pay my San Francisco trip", because my name had disappeared from the schoolcashonline account that is used to make any kind of payment.
It was apparently just a technical inconvenience, so I finally paid up. (Great thing nr. 1)

I helped them set the table up, and then excused myself to go to ESL.
I figured out that I already knew the new ESL teacher - our old one is on maternity leave - because I talked to her in the ESL room during lunch and she's one of the chaperones for the San Francisco trip! (GTNr 2)
She's super nice and genuinely so, while our old ESL teacher kinda gave me the feeling she wasn't taking us seriously. I hate that (and she strongly favoured the Mexican students and those in her ESL English class).
Third block: Creative Writing, and I used the free writing time to ponder the question of the school (It's like silent reading just that we're writing, and I absolutely love it).
I didn't come to a conclusion, and felt totally lost, so I resolved to asking Mr D for a bit of time after school, because he's brilliant to throw ideas around with.
We did a funny exercise: We got clay (that plastic stuff we used in kindergarten to mould stuff [Knete]) and he closed the blinds and switched off the lights, so that we were sitting in pitch black darkness (the blinds are pretty decent ones, better than usual blinds here, like the Rollos at home), and then we had to mould - a duck!
Mine got a price for general horribleness and was put up as one of the three worst ducks in the whole class, and I was crying because I was laughing so hard as Mr D was making fun of my duck. I really thought it was hilarious - and doesn't that say a lot about my growth here, because a year or two ago I would have burst into tears because I was hurt he would say such a thing? No, but art isn't my strength when I can see and bereft of my most important sense, what do you expect?

Anyway, it was an exercise to show us how our other senses are sharpened when one sense is gone.
Pretty great lesson, imo, and at the end I was like
"Mr D, do you maybe have a few minutes after school, I have a question?"
He: "Sorry, no, I have a meeting after school..."
Me: "Oh, so ... I dunno, should I come by tomorrow during lunch? Or something?"
He: "I could write you a late notice; why don't you just tell me now?"

So I reported my dilemma with the school, explained why I didn't really like the GN where I went to (teachers pretty narrow-minded [at least some of them and especially compared to Canada], teachers making me feel dumb for wanting to know more, year mates talking behind my back about me being a suck-up and a show-off [Maybe I'll make a post about that, too, I thought what he said was pretty great and would be good for me to remember], me being bored, my fear of falling back into my pattern of stressing myself ["When you got stressed, your personality changed visibly" - "Seriously? I never noticed" - "You start obsessing over details, asking questions trying to regain control over the little details where you can have control. You still ask those same questions, but you're way more relaxed"]) and we bounced a few ideas back and forth.
We settled on one option I don't want to detail here, because it's not sure whether it'll work out, but those needing to know will find an e-mail in their inbox in the near future!
So I missed almost half of my Math class, but I was feeling so much better afterwards. I hadn't even realized how much it had been weighing me down!

Math ... was pretty unremarkable, because we actually have already done that stuff; the only problem I am facing there is that we had a totally different approach, but I need to comply by the Ministry standards here.

After school, since I had some time to kill like always, I went to inquire about my final grades before we get our report cards tomorrow (technically today).
Spanish: Final Exam - 98.1%, Final Mark - 100.7%. Best mark in her two classes, I am proud to say! (I love the advantage Latin has given me)
In Japanese I didn't actually get my grade, but my teacher told me I had done "very well" and had an A overall.
I'm looking forward to the report cards tomorrow!


I'm not actually finished with my homework, because there was the most-anticipated and strongest game in the NHL at the moment on, but it's mainly drawing some stuff, and I might use it to lull me to sleep.
It's tedious, repeating all that stuff over and over again, but what can you do?

We had tacos for dinner - absolutely delicious, let me tell you!

So... that was my day.
Below follows only a bit of hockey, because I need to get rid of all these feels!

So, the match-up tonight was Blackhawks vs San Jose Sharks.
The Blackhawks have 7 wins in 9 games, and only two Shootout losses, which don't count as real losses - shootouts (SO), as I detailed in my last post (If I'm not wrong) come after overtime (OT), and as soon as it is tied and has to go to overtime, both teams get one point, and the winning team gets a second one. So the Hawks have had a start of six wins in succession and have had at least one point in every single one of their games. (People also say, they're undefeated in regulation, meaning nobody has yet defeated them during the regular 60 minutes).
The Sharks have a similar record - they started out with 7 wins in 7 games, making just as the Hawks a new franchise record, but then they got a shootout loss and, yesterday, their first regulation loss - which made the Hawks the only team so far to be undefeated in regulation and also giving them the lead in the league.
San Jose was pretty close behind, though - only one point.

I have to admit that I had given up the game after five minutes of play when the Sharks were up 2-0. Coach Q of the Blackhawks called a time-out, gathered his team and gave his goalie a moment to calm down,  and after that, the Hawks were on fire.
Rookie Brandon Saad, who had been pretty good in all the past games after replacing a guy who twisted his knee in his first or second game on the top line with Jonathan Toews (Captain) and Marián Hossa (one of the top goal scorers and second in points, just behind Patrick Kane), finally got his long-awaited first goal, and that was kinda all it took for the Hawks to light it up.
The Sharks scored to make it 1-3 only 38 seconds after Saad's goal though, and I was ready to tear my hair out. 8 seconds later? 2-3. 42 seconds later? 3-3.
With the two best teams in the league who have both had great defensive play, having 6 goals in not even 13 minutes was kinda a miracle for the announcer who went nuts.

Thankfully, the scoring abated after that. Second period? Patrick Kane scores - which was pretty lucky.
They were playing four-on-four because one of the Hawks, Jamal Mayers, had gotten a legal hit but Duncan Keith (Defenseman) wasn't pleased about it and started a fight with the player who had hit Mayer, for which he got 19 (!!) penalty minutes. The perpetrator was thought to have delivered an illegal blow and was ejected from the game until they did video review.
So Kane had the puck, was skating towards the net, when the Sharks stole it from him - only to have the captain himself fish it out from between his feet in a move of total beauty, send it to Kane and see it dumped into the net. The goalie (fun fact: He was the goal tender in the Hawks' net when they won the Stanley Cup in 2010, and one of the opposing players was Patrick Sharp's best friend, before he got traded) never stood a chance.
And later in the third period, the Sharks pulled their goalie in order to get one more skater on the ice, and Kaner recorded an empty-netter (again with an assist from Toews), so the Hawks won it comfortably 5-3 after falling behind 0-2.
Now they are the league leaders without a regulation loss and three points on their next opponent.
I'm really, really happy, although that game was killing me - I was trying to do my Math homework, and I constantly got distracted because it was so nerve-wracking!

And now I seriously need to head to bed.

Love y'all,
Julia

ASDFJKL

I'M SUPER EXCITED AND BASICALLY SCREAMING SO HAVE SOME CAPSLOCK TODAY!!!!!

So I was putting up the chairs in English class and this boy from my Biology class comes in and I've talked to him a few times, but he's mainly a friend of Spencer's. But since we're both polite and in Canada, we're like "How are you - I'm fine and you? Fine too how are your classes?" and he asks me whether I had gotten my Biology grade for the Final already.
And I'm like, no, so I think, well, Andy's gonna pick me up at five past four after he's dropped Jenna off at arts, so I go to the Biology room and meet my teacher in the hallway and we start chatting and not-quite-small-talk - it had always seemed a bit like he was just listening to me because he had to, so I tried keeping my questions and things like that brief (I told you I am sensitive in that regard), but while we waited for the Laptop to boot, he asked about my classes and I told him a bit about what I'm taking this semester (he seemed greatly amused by how excited I was about Maths, but the course is really interesting and has the potential to become demanding in a good way) and so we chatted for a bit and then he told me my grade AND IT WAS ALL I COULD DO NOT TO SCREAM AND SQUEAK AND CRY BECAUSE BASICALLY I WAS AIMING FOR 50% OR SO TO GET AN A AND I GOT FRICKING 96% AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT BECAUSE I HARDLY DID ANYTHING AND I GUESSED ON MORE THAN HALF THE QUESTIONS (going by process of elimination and then guessing between the remaining two answers) AND I HAD NO PLAN ABOUT THE SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS AND I STILL MANAGED TO GET A PRETTY HIGH MARK AND I CAN'T EVEN AND I REALLY ALMOST CRIED.

So, I'm alright again - that was just something I had to get off my chest. But seriously, I don't understand that - the test I re-took was still only 80% and I actually studied for it and I don't understand this world!

And then I spent about $30 on school supplies - we need a notebook for both Spanish and Creative Writing, and I took a pretty nice one for the latter one :)
Because we have to write in it every day, and I think it will come in handy to have a nice one.


I was talking about attending a different school when I get back to Germany, but the plans have become slightly derailed, it doesn't work out as we thought it would for the friend I was going to attend the different school together and I'm not sure I want to do it all on my own...

Then I found new friends at school!
In my Entrepreneurship class :)
They're really nice, too.

And then the San Jose Sharks lost in regulation to the Anaheim Ducks (Yes, they're called Ducks, initially The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, after the Disney movie The Mighty Ducks) which means that the Blackhawks are now leading the league (and they're playing the Sharks next, so as long as they can force overtime, they will stay on top!) and are the only team undefeated in regulation...

The only "bad" part of my day is Maths, because as much as I enjoy it, it's kinda different from how we've done things, and there is the panic creeping up on me that I will not understand that stuff...
Seriously though, I spent more than an hour on my Maths homework - pretty much 80 minutes or so, which I never had to do in Germany.
But a) it's a lot and b) I have to draw a lot, which takes time.

But my teacher already has resorted to my German teachers' favourite sentence:
"Somebody else, please" (although I embarrassed myself by saying '1 through 8'. It's '1 divided by 8' or something else which I can't remember right now, so I think it was pretty obvious that I am not a native speaker... and my German Maths teacher has answered my e-mail, detailing what of the stuff we're doing when in Germany - and the three topics marked as 'especially hard' by my English teacher we're labeled 'not needed' by my German one! :D )
Here it is - sorry the comments are in English :D

1. Function Transformations
     1. Horizontal and Vertical Translations  DAS SIND DIE

VERSCHIEBUNGEN (WIE BEI DER PARABEL),WAS WIR MIT SINUS UND COSINUS DIESES
JAHR GEMACHT HABEN

     2. Reflections and Stretches   DAS SIND DIE SPIEGELUNGEN UND

STRECKUNGEN BZW. STAUCHUNGEN

     3. Combining Transformations   ALLES ZUSAMMEN, ALSO BEI DER PARABEL

y= a(x-d)^2+e  DIESE PUNKTE SIND SEHR WICHTIG!!!

     4. Inverese of a Relation (Graphs)  UMKEHRFUNKTION KOMMT IN Q11

(hier der Graph)

     5. Inverse of a Relations (Equations)   (hier die Gleichung der

Umkehrfunktion)

     6. Ich nehme mal an, dass das genau das ist, was wir in der 9.
        Klasse gemacht haben mit Funktionen, oder sogar schon 8.

Klasse...

 2. Radical Functions
     1. Radical Functions and Transformations     WURZELFUNKTIONEN

KOMMEN IN Q11

     2. Square Root of a Function
     3. Solving Radical Equations Graphically (Exact and Approximate
        Solutions)
 3. Polynomial Functions
     1. Characteristics of Polynomial Functions    POLYNOMFUNKTIONEN,DAS

IST DIE ERWEITERUNG VON QUADRATISCHEN FUNKTIONEN AUF FUNKTIONEN MIT x^3
oder x^4 usw.  SEHR WICHTIG FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR

     2. Remainder Theorem   WICHTIG
     3. Factor Theorem   WICHTIG
     4. Equations and Graphs of Polynomial Functions  WICHTIG!!!
 4. Trigonometry and the Unit Circle
     1. Angles and Angle Measure    WINKEL AM EINHEITSKREIS UND WAS

FOLGT IST ALLES MIT SINUS UND COSINUS,WAS WIR IM 1.HALBJAHR AUCH GEMACHT
HABEN, WICHTIG!!!

     2. The Unit Circle
     3. Trigonometric Ratios
     4. Introduction to Trigonometric Equations
 5. Trigonometric Functions and Graphs
     1. Graphing Sine and Cosine Functions
     2. Transformations of Sinusoidal Functions
     3. The Tangent Function    (TANGENS-FUNKTION IST BEI UNS NICHT IM

LEHRPLAN!)

     4. Solving Trig Equations using Graphs
     5. Equations and Graphs of Trigonometric Functions (Problem and
        Equation Solving)
 6. *Trigonometric Identities*  (DIESES KAPITEL IST NICHT SO WICHTIG UND

WIRD BEI UNS AUCH NICHT BEHANDELT)

     1. *Reciprocal, Quotient, and Pzthaorean Identitities*
     2. *Sum, Difference and Double-Angle Identities*
     3. *Proving Identities*
     4. *Solving Trigonometric Equatiosn Using Identities*
 7. Exponential Functions    (DIESES KAPITEL HABEN WIR GERADE

ANGEFANGEN, IST WICHTIG FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR)

     1. Characteristics of Exponential Functions
     2. Transformation of Exponential Functions
     3. Solving Exponential Functions
 8. *Logarithmic Functions*   (LOGARITHMUS IST AUCH WICHTIG V.A. AUCH

FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR, ES GEHT UM "DIE SUCHE NACH DEM EXPONENTEN", IST ALSO DIE
UMKEHRUNG DES POTENZIERENS, NUR SUCHT MAN JETZT NICHT DIE BASIS (DANN WÜRDE
MAN WURZELZIEHEN),SONDERN EBEN DEN EXPONENTEN)

     1. *Understanding Logarithms*    WICHTIG
     2. *Transformation of Logarithmic Functions*  NICHT SO WICHTIG FÜR

DIE 10. KLASSE

     3. *Laws of Logarithms*   WICHTIG (RECHENREGELN), STEHEN ABER IN

DER FORMELSAMMLUNG

     4. *Logarithmic and Exponential Equations*  SOLLTE MAN KAPIEREN,

KOMMT IN Q11 NOCHMAL

 9. Rational Functions
     1. Exploring Rational Functions Using Transformations   

BRUCHFUNKTIONEN (WAR IN DER 8. SCHONMAL DRAN, KOMMMT IN DER Q11 DANN
NOCHMAL)

     2. Analyzing Rational Functions     VERMUTLICH WERDEN HIER

GRENZWERTE BESPROCHEN, WAS WIR AUCH IM 2. HALBJAHR MACHEN

     3. Connecting Graphs and Rational Functions
10. Function Operation
     1. Sums and Differences of Functions       AUS MEINER SICHT IST

DIESES KAPITEL NICHT SO WICHTIG, BZW. SOLLTE EH KLAR SEIN

     2. Products and Quotients of Functions
     3. Composite Functions
11. *Permutations, Combinations and Binomial Theorem*   

NICHT WICHTIG IN DER 10., KOMMT BEI UNS IN Q12

     1. *Permutations*
     2. *Combinations*
     3. *The Binomial Theorem*

Capslock are his comments :)

Sorry for the capslock and the screaming and the length, I'm just so excited!

Love y'all,
Julia

You Have Reached The End Of Semester One

Yep. That's it. Today was the last day of Semester One. Kinda officially.
So all that remains is that stupid re-test on Wednesday, and if I knew my final exam score right now, I would cancel it. But I don't so I won't. Not that it's gonna make any real difference... in my final mark it had an impact of somewhere along the lines of .35% or so... Why again did I believe that I had to make it up?

So, today was Japanese, and it was 20% and not 10% as he had initially told me - but I managed at the very least 50%, rather more, and I'm not complaining. I have my A for sure there.
And English... was fun. I wrote so much that my thumb started hurting where it joins my hand, but all in all it was pretty good - I wrote the same thing for my composition as for the practice exam. Not exactly the same, because no matter how much I pride myself on my good memory where it concerns spoken/written words, I can't memorize 1,150 and I didn't even try. But I think I got the gist and only changed the ending - it now simply says something like "It has changed the way I think, and if this is all that I take away from this journey [I should have written endeavour, that would have been a better word] then I am well satisfied with my achievements." Which is true. Because I think that realizing how I think and how my mind works will do me a huge favour in the future.

Mr Derksen said he's looking forward to having me in his class next semester... I think he even might have been genuine. No, he's really an awesome teacher!

And yeah... There is one fricking huge mistake I made in English: I re-wrote the first text production and forgot to cross out the first draft!
I meant to cross it out, but my mind was swirling all throughout writing and so I forgot -_- All the nice quiet of yesterday's Biology exam was gone :/
Well, can't change it now...

And it's not as though it actually matters for me...

That's it. I have decided that you will get the thoughts transcript from yesterday only if you actually know me and I can give it to you in person. Nothing against those I know only via web, but I honestly don't wanna type that stuff up...

And now I'm going back to watching Oil Change. No, it's not about cars, it's a documentary about the Edmonton Oilers that is really, really interesting :)
And I wanted to re-watch yesterday's Blackhawks game, because the Blackhawks commentators are soooooo much better than the Dallas ones!

Have all the love,

Julia

P.S.: NO SCHOOL TILL FRIDAY!!!!! (Except for the exam, but who cares?!)

P.P.S: And to anyone (silently) complaining about me being obsessed with things:
There is an article. Because Sidney Crosby "Wanted to feel a real winter again" and chose to walk in the cold. And that warranted a whole ARTICLE! Seriously, check it out. It's the Globe and Mail. (Crosby is considered the best player of the league [not by me] and the face of the NHL. And he is ridiculously good, although prone to injury)

Finals Day I

Okay, just a short post because I slept 5 hours and am really tired:
Finals went alright I guess. Once it started, I was feeling pretty relaxed, and Spanish went better than expected. I'm not so sure about Biology though... I have a thought-log about the two exams which I will type up tomorrow, just if maybe anybody's interested in what such a day looks like.

And of course I forgot the Biology notes we were supposed to hand in today. Or rather, I grabbed the wrong stack of notes...

I also didn't do anymore Japanese. I don't really care about it, and I will get an A no matter how my exam turns out, so duh.

Well, that's it.
Have a great day!

A person’s view of the world may change over time

Especially over the last four months I have become increasingly aware that my view of the world isn’t set in stone, no matter how it might feel at any given moment.

I’m not ignorant. I’m well aware that there is a world outside of my thoughts, my expectation, my comfort zone. It’s just that sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind. When I start out into new territory, my view of the world is narrow-minded, focused inwards. I don’t consciously avoid thinking about other possibilities, they just don’t occur to me.

It's the Final Countdown

Yep, today was the last day of school (real school at least).
We did... a bit of review via Jeopardy in Japanese (although he only called it Jeopardy. Jeopardy actually is you have the answer and have to come up with the question, we had the question and had to find the answer/translate), then finished the review booklet in Spanish (wasn't so bad, but I'm gonna take another look at the foods and the subjects again...) and then there was lunch ... Mr Derksen actually wanted to go over my essays with me because of the flow, but he had another appointment, and at the end of lunch we talked about writing in general - he said my composition (6/6 and an awesome) was really great to read and was a "counseling session" :) but according to him it was really good - I have one metaphor that I used throughout the whole essay, and Doro was another "Leitfaden" ... and it wasn't even intentional! Just as the sentence "But sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind", which is a paradox he really liked, wasn't planned. I hadn't even noticed that!

After that we had regular English, and I went and talked to the counselor and switched Psychology 11 to Spanish 11 - the Psychology teacher sounded very much like my English teacher in 7th grade, and while he was an awesome man, he was a bad teacher. And I don't wanna do that, if I can do more with Spanish!
Even though I'm not sure the Spanish teacher is much better - I went to tell her that she wouldn't need to tutor me off the time table as she had said she would do, only to have her tell me that she wouldn't have been able to  that anyway. Why would she offer that in the first place then? It didn't just (kinda) piss me off and make me insecure (I always take that pretty personal, even though I know that she doesn't mind me personally, that it's not directed against me, but knowing and really being aware of something are two different things), but it also ruined my day...

In Biology, I was all alone - both Spencer and Krystin were gone, so I sat next to Spencer's friends in the row before us. And I'm so jealous of the guy I was sitting next to. He gets to see the Blackhawks in Anaheim in March!
WANT!!!
He said the price for tickets down there were only $150 for Premium Seats - in Vancouver you get really shitty seats if you're lucky for $300 to $400, and in Winnipeg? Good luck trying to get seats at all. They have a 4000 people wait list for season tickets in Winnipeg, and most of the arenas all around are sold out at the moment!

(Btw, our school news paper came out today. Here it is! I have two articles in it... although one of them is messed up: the left and the right side, or the first and the second half are switched! -_- and nobody caught it :/)

What else was today? Nothing much ... I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch (best thing ever) and caught glimpses of the Vancouver - Calgary game (Vancouver won!).

And I'm deceptively calm... I've been swinging between near freak-out/panic and utter calm all day ... and right now I'm feeling "screw it, it won't get better", so I'm like "let's just see how it turns out tomorrow."
The only thing I have to remember is read everything carefully and make sure you know what the question is asking.
Yeah, that's it.
Spanish and Biology tomorrow, so I'm signing off right now!

Have a lot of love,

Julia

EDIT: I'm actually sitting here crying because they mentioned Lukas Podolski on TV in a soccer game, and it's just like OMG that does still exist - soccer is pretty ... invisible here, but they're doing a recap of this day (at 12.13 a.m.) and it's always these little things that catch me...

Chelsea, Chelsea, I believe

No, don't fear, it's not another hockey post...

Okay, my school day: I almost overslept. I had woken up, switched off my alarm (I only vaguely remember that) and fallen back asleep. Luckily, my inner clock woke me about five or ten minutes later.
I had a rather weird dream anyway, but I can't remember it now...

So, I made my lunch and went to school, and almost went to Japanese - before I remembered that we had Japanese first perios yesterday, so it was Spanish's turn today ;)
We finished the movie we'd been watching - some Mexican drama about illegal immigrants, and it wasn't even so bad, but I'd missed a significant chunk yesterday, so duh. Once that was done, we started on our review booklet. I think I got the farthest, but we'll complete it tomorrow.
Then Japanese, as mentioned we finished Kamikaze girls and wrote our test, and honestly? I don't really care about that grade anymore. I'm tired of Japanese, I should have listened to myself and changed it at the beginning of the year. It was just a waste of time (Yes, you will get reflections on my courses and my choices once they're over and done with and I got my report card... maybe even already before that!)
Biology: I mentioned the test, didn't I?
Well, aside from that I was writing up my notes on the Male and Female Reproductive Systems which we have to hand in by the end of the week, and I'm taking my re-test Wednesday morning. 9 o'clock. Yay. But at least it's a fairly short quiz, so it shouldn't take me too long.

English... as always my favourite period of the day. (Although Spanish is a close runner up). Some people were rewriting a practice exam where they had failed the multiple choice (I got 20/23, which was alright) and so the rest of us had free working time.
I started out reading, but decided to finish my Biology notes. Interspersed with reading, of course. Since I had complained to Mr Derksen that we didn't do any silent reading anymore because of preparation, so when I was leaving the room, he was like "See, you were complaining about not getting time to read; today you had the whole period!"
So I laughed and said "Yeah, but I had to do Biology..."
And since he's such an awesome listener, I told him about the shock from Biology, and he just looked at me. "I'm surprised he didn't notice himself. If that happened in my class, I would notice, especially when it's a student with your marks. I usually scale my tests by your score." My first though? God, no, I don't want others to get a bad grade just because I have a fairly easy time learning! But what he was talking about was:
"When you have a bad grade, I know there's something wrong with my test." So, yeah :)
I had to go, because I thought the Hawks game started at 4.30 (it was 5.30), and I had to go to the mall for top-up for my phone, so I just said 'bye'.
And he? He said "Goodbye, darling."
Teachers here are so amazing, and so nice, and actually try to interact with their students. Like, he does it all the time. And he doesn't just listen because you talk, he listens because he wants to hear you. There's a difference, and I think that that's one reason why he has the class under control so well. (He never has to raise his voice, but he also doesn't require absolute silence. It's so relaxed in the classrooms here...)

So, anyway, Gordo and I went to the mall and the store, I got a cinnamon bun (there is little better than a warm cinnamon bun with the icing still running), and when we came back, I realized that I had hurried all for nothing.
But I had to wolf my dinner down, because I wanted to see the puck drop - it was the Blackhawks Home Opener, and they didn't disappoint. It was a fast-paced, amazing game, keeping me at the edge of my seat, and just over all so great... The Hawks won, of course. (or not so of course, but their goalie was really good. He'd been pretty inconsistent last season, but so far he's been amazing, making some incredible saves.) In the end, it was 3-2 - tight, but really good.

And since it's been some time since I last had pictures/gifs, have some!

Flyers vs Peguins - Brayden Schenn misses Sidney Crosby (x)

Patrick Kane (88) scores the first goal of the night - with an assist from Patrick Sharp (10) (x). It was a beauty shot. Seriously. Their goal celebration was ... pretty great, too:

Kaner flying through the air (x)

 Aaand:

Hockey Players :D (x)

The Blackhawks twitter loved their fans today, giving them this gem, too:

(x) Yay. The guy talking is Duncan Keith, part of the co-dependent defense pairing
Keith-Seabrook. (eg living in the same neighbourhood, having vacation houses
next to each other, having each other's teeth, always being on the ice together)
Keith had the puck from Toews, shot and Seabs's skate redirected the puck into the net.
Seriously.

Aaaaand... that's it from me. Now I spent one hour more on here than I meant to... hui. Sorry!

Shock

Once more an update out of Biology...
I just hit up JupiterGrades, the online grading system, because Mr Kruger had out up the my grade for the Nervous system test, and I got a shock. 48.5/60 ... that's pretty bad. So I went up to him and looked at my test ... 48.5/54... which is something entirely different. I asked him - and he had just entered the wrong total (the original test had been 60 points, my re-test was six points less). So I have 90% on that, which means I'm re-taking the excretory system one.
The funny thing?  I have zero mistakes in the first 49 questions, and the last five (which were all about the neuro-endocrine system) wrong. But I'm really not complaining, because I totally missed that part of the notes *wry grin*.

So, and now I'm going back to studying - The Blackhakws are playing tonight (this afternoon) at 4.30, and I need to go to the mall to get top up for my phone...

And by the way, Spanish went really well. The review booklet we were doing today was pretty good - I only have to take another look at the time...

Tired Thursday

Since I am almost sixteen (three months left, so duh), I still don't know when to go to bed.
As a result I'm really tired.
Which is why I'm foregoing doing Biology and opting to go to bed right away. Today I'm really going!
I might have infected a friend with fanfiction. My bad, I'm so sorry (I told him all about it during Biology, and he stole my kindle and started reading, so I'm counting that as a win!).
School wasn't bad, in Spanish we started our final chapter, in Japanese we started out final chapter (and we're having a vocab test tomorrow!), in English I finished my second essay (it's not a masterpiece, but I knew I couldn't get better) and in Biology... we finished dissecting our pigs!
It was really gross and fascinating and revolting and awesome and I almost puked (I didn't but, it did smell horrible, the mixture of Febreeze, preservative and latex), so have some pictures! (They are under the cut, but let me tell you, they're awesome!)
But they might be somewhat revolting...
So here have some school pictures first! (because I'm pretty sure not everybody will finish this post)
One of the hallway, leading towards the gym (the gym is through the left wall, basically, but you can access it after the fire doors)

And luckily we're not in Germany - they're talking
about the gym, not the whole school.
But I anyway had to laugh the first time
I saw it! :)

So, I have a Japanese test tomorrow, a Spanish test on Monday, our regular Biology test on Monday, my Biology test I missed on Wednesday, and then the week after that, final start!
And since in the last week of January, the Provincial exams are taking place and I'm taking none, I won't even have to come to school!
So I'll probably be meeting up with Doro, who will be a single ball of nerves since she's leaving ;(
But it will be great to see her again!

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Rockets, and I'm saying good night with that!
And the pictures are under the cut!

123

First of all: Skip my introduction. I welcome you to read it, but if you want to go straight to my post, click this.

Today is, for those interested, in fact my 123rd post on this blog!
It's an awesome number, although I do hope to crack the 234, which is even more awesome. Why? Well, for one it's my birthdate, April 23rd, and two it's two prime numbers (2, 3) and the square of the first number, and both square numbers and prime numbers are something really beautiful.

Anyway...

You might have noticed, but I'm kind of remodeling my blog with a "Welcome Site", although Blogger doesn't let you do it per se, so I have to circumvent it with this little box up there.

Other changes?
Well, the labels can be found in a list at the side in alphabetical order, I have a page view statistics thing, the "About Me" page is totally new (and still being reworked, so have patience with me. I'm trying to compile a list with the post I imagine will be most read - my farewell book, my Vancouver trip with the multitude of pictures, my Christmas post, the feeling stuff), and I'm trying out a few new things.

I'm also trying to decide whether to stop posting once my exchange year is settled, or if I should continue; I guess I'll make it dependent whether or not I'll be taken by the University I have on top of my wishlist - or rather whether I'll be going abroad for my studies. If yes, I might keep posting, I'm guessing there are a few folks out there interested in studying abroad; or I might leave this blog as it is and make a new one so that future exchange students can find this here and ... not things muddled by a student.

I definitely will keep posting though, because I believe it's really great, for me at least, even if it's only me rambling. But it gives my day structure :).

Okay, about today.