Special Edition: Jeanettes Birthday and Chapter 5: Trying and Taking a test
Autor: Exchange Group | Publicado: 2012-05-07T18:21:00-07:00



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;I woke up. "Happy Birthday, Jeanette" I went to her bedroom and jumped in her bed. She was really excited. Who wouldn't be? 16 means that she could drive at night and I don't really know what else but birthdays are good anywhere.



Anyway, it was time to go to school. In first period we interviewed the 9th grade students about the crisis and about we were studying in history class before we came. They hadn't studied it before so it was very generalized. On Friday we are going back there to talk more about it since they will have studied it more. We chose the 9th grade because they have been taking classes about USA's government, so &nbsp;they would have a good idea about the topic. During the art class I broke my 2 pices of pottery so I made others 2 [much more beautiful XD]. I hope not brake these two right know.&nbsp;



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The chemistry class was also amazing. The topic we were introducing was Limitan reactions so we had a kind of lab. But we did it with S'mores. We had to "react" a portion of chocolate, marshmallows and graham cracker "producing" S'mores. But one of the "reacting" wasn't enough which means that two of them were in excess. So we work with theses definitions. And, of course we ate everything. To give you a better idea I am going to describe it. We take a pice of grham cracker, put pice of chocolate on it, then the marshmallow a then another pice of grham cracker. We envolved it in metal papper and put it in the barbecue[it was an adaptation because we cannot make a fire at school] But the thing is: it was fired. So the chocolate was melted and so was the marshmallow. The graham cracker got even more crispy. When we bit it, it "explode" inside your mouth. It was amazing, really.&nbsp;









&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;When we came back home Jeanette finished cooking her birthday cake. She choose a coconut cake, Cindy have already cooked the "basis" so she just had to put everything together. Funny and obviously delicious. We had a special dinner: salmon, brussels sprouts and rice. There were some colorful balloons on the table and also a band made by her mom. It was really nice.&nbsp;













Jeanette and Cindy!



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Then we went to a presentation called the ED sessions where the founder of Kahn Academy talked about how he created it. The project is really, really interesting, go ahead and take a look:



http://www.khanacademy.org/



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; In very simple words, the project is a new way to try to make education in a different way. I just love the idea, the videos are very funny and the important thing fot them is: you can watch it wherever you are whenever you want, it means you can go in your time. It is a very good project. Let's stop making a comercial and keep with the day. We came back home again and we ate the cake. I feel water in my mouth just remembering it. Jeanette opened her gifts, including the one I gave to her [on frame made by me and a Nando Reis e os Infernais' CD] and it was time to go to bed.



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;It was already Wednesday. Wednesday means the half of the week. In our case the half of the second trip's week. Three more days to enjoy. It's a kind of scary because I wish I could have more time to enjoy everything here. These two weeks went to fast. Faster then they should go. At the same time I wish coming back to Brazil. Always this freaking duality. Coming back to Brazil also means twice more work. Anyway...



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;During the art class we presented to the kindergarden and the first grade a video about insects at Pantanal. They were really cute kids and some were very smart. A girl called Nina went to talk with me. The picture:







&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;We took the first part of math test, the one without calculator. Here they always use the calculator on class, so they learn the definition and also how to "tip" and get it on the calculator. After Me and Jeanette went to the art class to finally do my mug! It was good, not perfect but good. I can't wai to be able to have some coffee in my on pottery mug. At home I watched Grey's Anatomy while Jeanette was sleeping on the sofa. She was very tired. These two weeks have been crazy, awesome and crazy.



&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; After we went to Cottonwood Grille for have dinner. The first problem was understand the menu, it is one of the things you have to know, it is vocabulary and only it, but I got it. I choose one plate and the waiter bring a different one. In the beginning I got angry, but I was so hungry and It couldn't be better. I ate brown rice with mushrooms in the roasted red pepper and a ratatouille with vegetables, salad, and &nbsp;a kind of onion in the tomato everything over the sauce dry tomatoes. It really couldn't have been better. It was just amazing, tasting so good.







&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; You know? I think these days have been the most crazy days I ever had in my life during class time. I still thinking that I am in a movie all the time. And Bruno said a good thing: It is strange to think that we are coming back home soon, for a extremely different reality and also these people here are coming to their "normal" lives. But for us, sometimes it seems that these two weeks are part of a parallel plan. something created specifically for these situation. I cannot explain it very well, because I can't even understand. Well, if you are here, it means that you read it until the end. Thank you dear reader. I hope you like it.

Kisses

Milena