Here in campus we have a "cafeteria" called The Zone. The place is really nice to hang out (besides the light bulbs they use that you can bake your food under it while you talk, which is another good point I guess...) but fails selling food. What I would expect is something like what they do in the college my brother goes to in Brazil: $1 meals for students. Simple food, big plate, simple drink, and swallow it down. That's what I would expect from a college food place, some crappy cheap food for poor college students. Well, our cafeteria does half of it, but not the cheap part. It's crappy expensive food. I have to give some credit for their pizza, which is not actually a pizza, and not actually good, but also not actually expensive. But they overcharge like crazy, like our bookstore. I think the University should do something about it. Give the lease to another company to install there! They are already in a really privileged place, with a well defined market, in big number and out of town (there's nothing around here less than 10min driving). Instead of them being nice, at least a little bit, counting the fact I pay 13,000 a year here, they stab you mercilessly (in Brazil when people overcharge we say they stab you). I think that's immoral. And if they are going to do it, they could at least hire a good cook, huh?

I was talking to Jen about me going to Brazil and explaining how the difference in electronic items are so big:
For birthday + Xmas last year my parents got me an iPod Touch. I guess it costs right now about $230 dollars. If I take it to Brazil, used, as it is, and sell it on eBay (in Brazil eBay bought a site called "Mercado Livre", which I prefer personally), the prices range from $300 to $350, used! So I can sell it for $300 dollars, come back here, buy a new one again and have extra $70 in my pocket... That works for any electronics. Basically, in the US everything made by machines and with "intelectual value" (e.g. technology) is cheap, and expensive in Brazil. In other hand, in Brazil, everything that is hand-crafted or done by people is cheap. But this has been changing a lot since I was a kid. With the globalization, things made by people are cheap in the US, because it's now made by Chinese people.

It's finals week... That means that I take 4 big 2-hour tests, one each subject I'm taking. The tests are over everything we learned in the quarter. The quarter is defined as "9 weeks". The other college system here is semester, which I believe works better, since you have more time to learn everything. Here it's test, after test, after quiz, after final and the next quarter starts already. Not that it really matters, since with some of the teachers learning is not the important part.
Well, that means this week I'll work 40 hours in 3 different positions (painting, monitoring computer lab and assisting classes). On top of that, take the finals (8h). On top of that, go out with my girlfriend, throw a party (like yesterday) and kill some time. And, well, study.But actually, it is pretty nice. I was thinking, I guess I spent about 50 hours in this school every week before. So now to spend 48h sounds like a nice gain... Happy me.

Last Sunday I went to a Buddhist temple since I've always had the curiosity to go in one... Well, it wasn't exactly a temple. It was a meditation group. And it was so different than what I expected. The group met in a little apartment-like place in Columbus. I loved the trip to Columbus though. There I met a girl that is dating a guy from Venezuela. Her name was Lindsey. She was so nice and talkative, we talked for a really long time about several different world subjects. She had a Masters degree already (even though looked pretty young) and she knew more about world culture than I did! And, yes, she was an American. Her Spanish was great, since she spent 2 years in Venezuela in the Peace Corps. as a volunteer. And she knew a lot about the Economy and Politics of Brazil, which interested her. All the people were really nice, I felt at home. But it still isn't what I'm looking for. So by now I'll remain religionless.

I was going to write a post about gas prices. But like I said the last post, I woke up at 6 in the morning. Anyone that knows me knows that my morning starts at 10. So I was trying to recall what price gas was today, but I can't recall anything at all! I pass right besides 3 gas stations on my way here. I don't even remember driving at all... Morning sucks...
Anyway, when I was a kid my dad taught me what was inflation, and how in Brazil inflation is crazy, and how in United States inflation is minimal. OK. Then I come here and I see that it is a lot like that. Things don't change price. The money is strong. Until I got my driver's license... Then my car... GAS PRICES ARE CRAZY!! When I first started driving gas was on 1.69 easy... Then started going up... and up.... and up... Once to my way to school a gallon would cost 2.69, and on the way back 2.79! Within a week it went up 20 cents too. Stuff like that. For the US, a 5% raise in prices is big... now... what about almost 100%. Damn you gas tycoons....

I told you guys in the beginning of this quarter that I had to do this blog and explained everything. Well, today is the day. I have to print off all the 70 posts in English to get some points towards my ENG 150 grade. The problem? I don't have 70 posts! As all of you 2 persons that followed the blog could see, I didn't post every single day like I was supposed to. That's why I'm going to be for the next few minutes in a writer's golden age and writing about everything, e.g. the lack of writing. This is supposed to be a journal, and since this happened in my day, I think it's fair to be included. That class was easy in the beginning but then got harder and harder. But the teacher is really nice, and she really likes English. But not as a English teacher freak like some of them that preaches correct English. She's open minded. And I might be writing this to suck up since she will read it. Maybe...

Argh, I had five hours of sleep last night. Today I woke up at 6 (I was glad I actually woke up) and got ready to paint! Now I don't really care, it's a routine job already. Just sometimes like today I have some new challenge like painting a round wall. But it's usually all the same. Go, tape, trim, roll, untape, and watch it dry. At least I get my money and I have a job even with the recession. Because of my F-1 visa I can only work on campus. So I can't even work at walmart as a cashier! That's a little unfair from the government because I can't work anywhere, can't work much (I have hours restriction), but my tuition is almost two times as an American citizen. Plus I don't get scholarships.

Today I was painting here in OUL and I heard "dez e quarenta e cinco...". At first I didn't care, since I understood. Then I realized that I just understood because it was Portuguese! So I just yelled: "Brasileiro?", which means "Brazilian?". They said yes. It was a guy and his mom, he took the placement test to study in OUL. What are the odds. Then we talked for about half hour (Brazilians talk a lot) and I already invited him to a party and everything. Cool people. But it was nice to remember how Brazilians were. We act so differently than Americans, simple stuff that make a big difference. Ask my girlfriend, lol.
This guy was nice, and I never saw a situation like this: his parents are Brazilian, he looks Brazilian and his name is Brazilian. But he was born in the US and has a heavy American accent on his Portuguese. Weird, but cool. I'll be sure of how much Brazilian blood he has on him in the party.

Today I hosted a get together here in my house. Yes, this wasn't the best thing to do since I have a final tomorrow and this blog is supposed to have like 65 entries for my English class. But my story is: the party gave me some subject to talk about here, which doesn't really make it stupid and useless. Anyway. I was helping Judy to put together stairs in the pool (which now look pretty nifty). Then the water was warm so I thought "hey, I should call some people over". That's how it got started. It failed so bad as a party. Everyone is either studying for finals (which was probably a sign), or said that would come but didn't or had no service or phone off. In the end, four people. But it was fun, and a really nice start. So I learned that I just have to deal with the cilture difference and start planning parties ahead.

"A vida é feita de encontros. Embora haja tanto desencontro nessa vida."

I won't even try to translate the quote. Want to understand it? Learn Portuguese. But it comes from a Bossa Nova song: O Samba da Bençã.
It's funny how life is made from so many little things that end up building the big ones. I wonder if at some point of time there will be a really powerful computer able to analyze and observe the minimum details. If some day someone makes it, I bet it would be able to predict the future. Everything is so chained together. An infinite action-reaction process that can be fowarded or returned to any point. I think this understanding of this chain is the overcome on our simple notion of time, what Christians call God and Buddhists call ilumination. The society is probably so predictable. But right now our weather channel can barely tell if it will rain within a day. Maybe we are too far from this broad understanding.

"There are no good or bad news, there are just news"
The quotes from Kung Fu Panda said by the Tai Chi Turtle are incredibly good.

Last Friday we had a "discussion" about Food Irradiation. I had no clue this even existed. But now I know everything about it.

Food Irradiation is basically the process of getting Cobalt-60, a radioactive element and expose it to food. There's other kinds of processes, but this is basically it. It is supposed to kill bacteria and make our food last longer with less risks.

I thought the research was really interesting (but not the class, man...) and it made me think about where the humans are heading.

We are a bunch of animals that learned how to do tricks around death, brushing teeth and living until we are 90. These organized animals (us) are facing a limit now (and a overcoming it little by little and easily) of food, housing, support, and crappy structure... Who would guess that most part of people would live until they are 120? (maybe that's why they don't extinguish fast food and don't make incentives for exercise... they may be trying to reduce the life expectancy). So now, why not just spray uranium around and see how it goes?

I have to say I ended up agreeing with the use of that. Yes, it doesn't sound natural at all (if we still have any notion of what's natural and what's not). But what about things they do right now? The pesticides and all chemical used... I see it just as a high-tech trade.

I think it will be bad in the end. I don't know if you can feel too, but I've been always really picky about water (that in Brazil tasted better than here btw). Tiny little difference in water like exposure to sunlight, being warm, hot, cold, cold-er, all this can make it taste so different. And make you feel so different after you drink it.

The studies show that food irradiation is OK. It will reduce the vitamins and some stuff, but it wont glow in the dark. But I think the minor differences we will never be able to notice in this short run.

We are really ignorant about nature still. We feel we have so much knowledge right now, but I bet Newton felt the same when theoricized gravity. Can you imagine how Einstein felt when he developed the Theory of Relativity??

And, just as a plus, the countries that allow food irradiation have limits to the exposure and kinds of food irradiated. But.... Brasil! We are peaceful and OK with stuff. So do you want to make a caqui glow? Sure! Why not! Just sit down, grab a beer and let's watch in glow green!

(my reference to caqui is because I miss it so much... hum... juicy... I found it for sale once, but it felt like a rock)

I was listening to the radio a show called The Bob and Tom Show. I love it and listen to it every morning. One of the days they were talking about something like a guy's speech in the graduation. I don't really know because there was a really pretty girl walking on the sidewalk and I got lost, almost wrecked, and lost my focus. But anyway, in the US, graduation is like passing the torch. The honored older generation will pass its legacy to the future of the country. Americans have a lot of that (for Brazilians, graduation = party). And it was saying that the baby boomers, the generation that fought wars, dealt with terrorism, now will pass to the next generations... a debt. A big fat one.

OK, a better subject: I remember how when I was in Brazil one of the big topics was "we can't be owned by the Uncle Sam! Pay off the IMF (International Monetary Fund)!!". Well, I got more good news: we are not owned by the United States anymore! Hooray! Now we are owned by China!

Think about that, Brazil was in debt with the US. Now US bankrupted and who threw the life saver was China. But now US and Brazil are both trying to keep their heads above water (think of the US as a really big fat guy that naturally floats - human body fat density is about 0.918g/cm/cm - and the Brazilian struggling to stay above water, but kinda used to it since it has been such a long time, and imagine the Chinese guy in a yacht).

Talking about computers, I remembered an awesome quote that I heard from my drama teacher in my American High School:

"Theater is life; film is art; TV is furniture"

I tried to search who's quote this is, but I couldn't find it.

And now I was thinking how far can this quote be true? With how many more things?

I'm realizing how computer is also furniture. I've always been a computer guru since I was a kid. But I've never had the interest of getting a computer-related major for college. Even though I work with it, and use it probably for 40 hours a week (or maybe a lot more) to talk to my family on emails, to update the blog, webcam, mic, research, youtube, facebook... so many things in this one machine.

TV is probably the most furniture of all. Couch potatoe will always be the worst disease (wide spreaded in the US). And now with the TV shows in the computer on demand, TV will soon lose it's space (OK, maybe not).

I think I'm just losing faith on our western civilization's culture and future. Not only because the baby boomer's administration got this fatal fail right now (I'll talk about this later). I think because I live in the United States now, I kinda see this culture as a close preview of the other countries' cultures too. The East I think is the only thing that can save us. The problem: China has too many cell phones now.

I, angel Gabriel, bring good news to thee. The prophecy says that thou shalt not be afraid. Thine distorted mind shall be saved by the few verily friends from the East. And culture will be true, and suffering shall be seen no more, neither in mind, neither in soul.

Last week I lost my laptop. I was with the hope of finding it... Then it started to fade... So now it's gone. It was an oldy cripple Dell, didn't worth much (since the screen was almost broken). But the price to replace it is a lot more than I would like. The funny thing is that yes, I miss it, but not much. Here in the US the ratio is probably 7:1 for computers per family... maybe 3 computers per peson. I don't know, but it's pretty high. Right now I'm using my girlfriend's* laptop and in a room with about 20 more desktop computers. Plus 5 in the other building, because they are remodeling the library (almost rebuilding) and then it will have 40 more I guess. And in the library right now they have 2 laptops that you can check out for a day. And the more I stay without that computer, the more I see how now important it really is.

I remember I heard (I think my dad told me) that computers will be "ready" when they work like the other appliances, like TV or microwave. You press the power button and start using it. Press to cook 2 potatoes and it starts right away, instead of having to load the potatoe plug in, lol.

*I almost did a typo saying "I'm using my girlfriends' laptops", lol. But of course this is not true... not all of them have laptops... I mean... typo... I'll stop here...

TV sucks... I came home tired after a 13h day in the school and got home starving. Fixed somethig and had the great idea of watching a mythbusters episode (which was pretty good I have to say). Then, oops, Famiy Guy is on... Then 70's comedy something show is on. And I don't even know that show! But I watched it. No idea why. So I spent 2h I could be studying, talking to a pretty girl (i.e. my girlfriend), cleaning my bedroom, cleaning myself, cleaning the dog! Whatever! Anything was more useful than that 70's Show. But I didn't. Damn you TV! I'll never turn it on again!

I'm here listening to Chico Buarque. In one of the song he sings "quando eu tchum no colchão, é quando ela tchan no cenário". Just to hear the expression "quando eu tchum no colchão", just this part, made me remember of my routine in Brazil. Then, like in a chain effect, I started to remember the simplest events am feelings in Brazil. All little tiny things I miss. And everything sounds perfect, and my brain creates this paradisiac image on my mind. After traveling a little in this place and getting homesick, I stop and remember this place doesn't exist. It's funny, I'm just used to be a traveler. The other place will always be better. At 1:30 in the morning after work on homework of a boring chemistry class for hours and thinking about next busy day, all other countries sound so good.

Today Matus (my host brother from Slovakia) had his graduation, and I went to watch it. It was LHS' students' graduation. I met Fri there and we stood from 4 till 5:10 having our sunbath and listening to dull speeches downloaded from the Internet, as most part of graduations. While watching, Fri asked me about my graduation in Brazil. After hearing that we gave the dinner, beer open bar, speech limited to one page and it lasts until 4, he was a bit jealous. Which male sense, I know I would be. I don't like usually most part of American parties. You play cornhole or apples to apples, fill up your stomach with the same hamburger and hotdogs, baked beans, and 3 hours later it's over. I have to say, we Brazilians know how to have fun :)

School is almost over!!! I can't wait!!! The college system (not in the whole USA, but in Ohio University) works in quarters, which is almost the same as the Brazilian "trimestre". The school year start around September for the fall quarter. Then, a little before thanksgiving you have a quite long vacation, or class if you want, which are the winter intersession classes. In the beginning of January, the winter quarter begins. With only one week for a break, the spring quarter starts (which I am in right now). It will end in a couple more weeks. After that, you have the summer I and summer II quarters. You can have classes (if you want to graduate earlier, or if you failed a class), a lot of people do. You have classes from 8:00 until 17:00 straight, every weekday. It's crazy. Then everything starts again. But I don't have to worry about summer session... I'll be in Brazil :)

My Day

Today I left home at 9 in the morning. Went to college, took an exam for 2h then a quiz for another 40min. Had "lunch" in 15min then went to work from 1-5. Went to Jen's house for a bit then to a funeral. Then to Jen's house, then Fri drove us to Mongolian Barbecue. We had dinner and came back (45min each way). Here we stayed out of Jen's house for a bit, but I forgot my phone in Fri's car so he came back and we stayed there for some more time. Then I came home and here I am! Almost 18 hours after I left my house I'm finally back. Good night.

Tonight was great! We had the Crystal Falls' night. Crystal Falls is a mini golf, or put-put place. For the Brazilians, put-put would be a golf for fun. All you have is the final part of golf which is put the ball in the whole. It's fun. We had several students and staff from Ohio University there, which was weird. Hang out with my Math teacher felt kinda funny. Anyway. This got rained out though and we ended up leaving. So we went to my girlfriend's house to finish watching Da Vinci's code. I like that movie. It was great to hang out with friends. Usually I don't have much free time at all so I spend all my time with my girlfriend. So this was a different night. I wish I can do it more often.

I got my new car!! Chevy Malibu. Maroon. V6 with plenty of space, in a great shape and does 28.5 miles per gallon. And I'm finally done with all this car stuff. Ron (my girlfriend's dad) was really nice and did a check up on the car for me. He changed the engine belt, oil, oil filter, air filter while I held the light, LOL. And her mom helped cleaning, since the other owner smoked. And now it looks beautiful and it runs even better. The shifting is so smooth and the bright lights are... well... pretty bright, lol. That matters to me because I'm always driving on country roads with plenty of deer.
Now that this is done and my old car is finally sold, I am ready to go back on paying attention to classes. Two more weeks.

Ah, my schedule is so screwed up. This week has been crazy, but it's almost over. My new car runs so smooth. I loved to drive it. And it's good to know I won't have to worry about cars for a few years now. It's just start planning the trips. If someone knows about a place around here for me to drive to, tell me.
I feel I'm getting sick. I don't think us that bad. And, actually, I'm happy since I don't get sick for such a long time! I don't know what changed (maybe it's love), but my health is a lot better.

All this car stuff has been a really fun and new experience for me. I don't post or a long time. But the thing is: I bought a new used car and I was trying to sell my old ford Taurus. Hopefully tomorrow by noon I will have it sold. But it was funny. When I started getting the phone calls about the car I had no idea of what to say and how to sell it. But as I got more phone calls and commit more mistakes, I got the whole know how thing. I loved it, and i'm really excited about changing my major to business now actually. Let's see how it goes.
My routine here was totally broken this week. I loved it! The problem is that because of that I lost my study routine too. So tomorrow I have a calculus test that will be terrible. A "C" may be a good grade for that one.

I was hunting a new used car so I could finally get rid of my ford Taurus 93 that is almost giving up, and could also get out of Lancaster and experience some more of Ohio (and Canada, why not?). Well, I found a beautyful, prettyful and handsomeful Oldsmobile 88. Low mileage, no scratch and felt like new. Ah, beautiful and with more luxury and space than what I would ever imagine for my first real car. I fell in love with that car (and with its price). Today I went there. Bills in my picket and all ready and set to buy it. Sold. I missed it. I was so affraid to spend money in something I could wreck in a second and lose it all, so I was asking for everyone's help to make sure I wouldn't regret it. In the end it wasn't anyone's fault. Used cars are a one-item stock that you just can't hold. But I was so glad I was done worrying about cars for the next few years... Oh well... Craig's list, here I come.

I don't know if it's only me, but it feels like I can never balance my attention to all the areas in my life. My girlfriend and I are great together right now; work is working; I'm keeping in touch with brazil as never before and getting stuff there; I'm taking care of some stuff like looking for a car and I'm on top of that. But still, now I have no idea what's going on in Calculus (which means, if we have a surprise quiz tomorrow I will be hopeless) and haven't being doing my side study of Chinese as I wanted to; this blog isn't being updated; I didn't even sort my clothes out after doing laundry! Plus the sleep that I haven't being doing much. So things that I was on top of before, I'm totally lost on right now. And vice versa. Well, extremes, welcome to a Scorpio life.

Today I got to see kim!!! She's a really old best friend since I was an exchange student in lancaster high school. Ahhh I missed her so much. I think I only realized it now that she's back. We haven't talked for a month and a half. Because I'm terrible to answer facebook and my car is in a bad shape so I can't drive down to visit her.
After all that time I was affraid today was going to be awkward. But it's funny how with some friends the more time you stay apart, just means you'll need more time later to tell everything that happened. Timeless friendship. I missed her. :-)

I have this Chemistry quiz tomorrow and I started to freak out again about it. I realized how I've been freaking about about anything graded lately. And after the going crazy party, I've been doing as well as I did in the first quarter where I would just lie back and relax. All the tension that builds up on our mind overcome any study, and make us believe we are not ready.
And in Chinese I lost it like everyone is doing it. I think each one has a day. He started going over an expression and wrote the characters in Chinese on the board. Then I asked him to write the pinyin (the equivalent pronunciation in our alphabet) and he said "I don't want you guys to rely on pinyin that much, we just went over this, you should know" and didn't write anything down. He probably does that because he is a native speaker, and he can't measure the difficulty of what he's teaching. So I wont take Chinese next quarter and will probably be changing my major to Business Administration... Not that whole excited about that though...

It's funny how my situation here is weird: I planned and worked to manage to come here, pay a heck lot of money for college, to take 20 credit hours of hard classes, work as much as I can (which includes as much and more than what I want several times) to not make actually that much of money because of the immigration restrictions. Plus the leaving the family, friends and life in Brazil. And all that by choice. Then I meet people here that pay less than half of what I pay for college, take less classes, easier, and complain about the teachers, the tests and studying. Then don't work or work just a little to be able to maintain the car their parents gave them, and still complain about work and not having free time.
In other words, they have everything, but never had to work or accomplish anything for it. It's just out there, cheap and easy for them to take. So they wont give value for it, and they will careless. Unfortunately, teenage in America is ending up to be this superficial, unreal world. Even though recession shook it up a little, it didn't (and wont) change much. Let's see where this goes....

It feels like my head is going to explode! I'm so tired!
I think I've been burning the candle from both ends as Steve always say... I need some decent sleep.

I've always realized and it really pisses me off sometimes that Americans are too whiny. They complain about so many things, work, school, and how their life is hard. Of course this is a general comment and apply more for my generation, since I've seen a lot of old folks here that fought really hard to be where they were, and faced depressions and wars. But my generation is the mama's children generation. By the time they were born, the country was already too rich and too successful, thanks to their parents. And now their life will be too easy and they wont face problems and difficulties that would be good for them to grow up.
That's one of the reasons I would like to raise my kids (if I end up having my three kids) in Brazil, in a really simple place, regardless of how much money I have.

I'm getting behind on posting here. While I was doing my English homework for my last class I realized I have no idea how to use "on", "in", "at" and these prepositions! Now my girlfriend always make fun of me. I have been a lot more excited about stuff lately. Not sure if it's the caffeine from pop or mood, but it's good and I get a lot of things done. Even though, nothing that exciting happened lately. Just school, work and making websites to Brasil. It's good to hear stuff from home...

No time.

Today was a good day. I won't get enough sleep and tomorrow I'll be exhausted, but you gave your whole death to sleep, right? Why waste time? LOL. I was thinking today how I haven't been spending time with people. I txt a lot, facebook, call and email. But time with people, flesh, live, it's been rare. It's funny how technology can keep people in touch but at the same time keep a distance. We get so used to it we don't even realize it. And I've been passing the chances I have to stop and have a useless talk with someone, just because of a rush. I think, and almost being sure, that to have no time is not a state or situation, it's a psycological condition we put to ourselves. The stressful feeling of being busy and having no time make us, when we have that 2 or 3 hours free after work, sit down and watch an useless tv show instead of hanging out with a friend or do something constructive, just because we have no time for that.
If you can, watch the movie wallie. I'll talk about it next post.

Not that interesting. Personality flaws.

No matter how I solve problems if feels like there will always be areas with problems in my life. I'm feeling pretty well right now, with the tests gone and really happy that I spent some time with my host parents and gas awesome homemade pizza, but now I think about other things that I should so better, spend more time on, or at least pay more attention to. I am too perfectionist. So I am never in a peaceful state, and may never be. That helps me to go farther, experience more, other countries, things, dreams. But also never let me rest. I think that the price and my lesson to be learned in life (one of them). I see that every person has their flaw. And I see these flaws as gifts that god gave us as am opportunity to evolve. In my case, I think the best way to work with it would be Buddhism. I should try, but there's nothing in Lancaster. I had an opportunity once, but I missed.

First post worth reading: American Education and culture

Today I and a really nice talk with a friend. It was unexpected and a smart talk (remember, I'm in the united states, smart talks aren't that common). I can't recall all the subjects we got into. Besides the usual conversation with a foreigner about culture and how things are in brazil, we talked a lot about religion and beliefs. That's when I realized it's been such a long time since I talked about philosophy with someone. Or someone that even just mentioned this word. Plus that people here are so enclosed on their religion and beliefs that it's a really picky subject.
I can't really recall how was to talk to people about that in brazil, but just the fact that I had philosophy mandatory since fifth grade and we had a philosophy club already tells something. I think that in the US everything is so easy that people get used to not do their best. If your goal is a decent survivor, you can even work at Krogers or Walmart for your whole life in a small city and you will own and maintain a decent car, decent house, medical insurance. So the goals end up being too reachable. Not having a college isn't that crazy to think about (which is changing now with the recession).
In brazil we had the big tests to get in our "Ivy Leagues", that were great colleges and for free. So everyone had to study like crazy in high school just to be able to know what they were talking about on the test (and not actually pass)
Here in the US, this study hard is called AP classes. And people that take it think that oh my god they are doing such a hard word that their butts should be kissed. It's just a different point of view because the "normal" here is low. So any effort on top of is exeptional.

Note (before I get sued): the comment about AP classes are generalized and does not apply for every person taking AP classes, since many of them do study hard and deserve their credit (or some of them... Actually, a few of them... Ok, a couple...)

University home...

I should just end up pulling a mattress here in OU. I couldn't go to sleep last night because of my Calculus test, and I had the lightest sleep. After a lot of tossing and turning and waking up a few times during the night, I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep... So I got in OU at 7 in the morning (at least got a good parking space). Well, it's almost 11, and I'm still here. It would be a lot easier to just go to my mattress here and wake up for my Calc class tomorrow at nine... Who needs a shower? lol.
Today I worked out and I am finally going back to my Kung Fu practices. Right now I'm getting back used to staff and trying to remember 太极拳 (Tài Jí Quán). Just now I'm feeling my body back to some kind of shape (like going from round to oval) and I'm realizing how much I miss it. Everyone should get regular exercise. Usually the first or second month feels stupid, useless and uncomfortable. But when you can actually do it... man... it's addictive.
Too tired for this too. Hopefully I wont sleep on my way home and I'll be able to write tomorrow for all my 1 readers.

Calc III...

I'm now posting almost all the blogs from my iPod. This thing is a miracle. I still forget every day about writing here, but this saves my life. Tomorrow I will have my calculus test. I've studied so much for it, and still don't feel prepared. Calculus is terrible. And you actually have to think. I always thought this was not encouraged here in America (or maybe forbidden). But that may be the reason why we only have 6 people there.
I forgot I was going to talk about quantum physics today. Sorry guys, my fault. I feel bad about bringing all the one reader's hopes down, but I write about it some other day.
Ahoj.

An (almost) exciting post

Oi.
I don't think I'll stop the blog. Even though Jen is the only one that reads, LOL. But I'll try to pick more interesting subjects. Like quantum physis, the fourth state of matter, infinite series or something exciting like that.
Today it may be an exception though. Last Friday I went to sleep at 5 and Saturday I at 6. Yesterday at 1:30. So it's 10 and I feel exhausted. And I can barely remember what happened today. So the new exciting subjects topics start tomorrow. This us just an ornary teaser. 在线。

I was thinking about stopping this blog. It's a little pointless, I don't know.

I haven't been sleeping well for the last couple days. I go to bed, toss and turn, and give up. Then I watch my Kung Fu movies, do something on my computer, or sometimes, and a proof it's something serious, I study. Today I finally spent some decent time with Jen. It was great, we visited a place someting Arboreto (which sounds like burrito) and had a picnic. I loved to actually have time to talk and do nothing, without a hurry. Well, tomorrow life's back, same old. Really excited... uhu. Adios.

Sheeba

Today our black, butt-naked, cat peed on our one-day-old furniture. It wasn't fun. After all the looking around to find her to fix some Chinese supper, nobody could find her. She hides in a room besides my bedroom and there's no way she can be found. So we closed that door. Later at night I was talking on the phone and she heard my voice and started meowing, probably to pee on the chair this time. So I closed everything, got a towel and opened the door for her. When she left she trusted me, I even got to pet her (that's a big privilege). Then she tried to go upstairs and saw the door was shut, tried to go back and the door was shut. Then she looked at me and realized it was a trap. I felt terrible because of that look. I felt like a traitor. But now she went outside for the first time in her life. After crying like a baby, I was actually glad because now, if she makes until the morning, she will have the chance to see the sunrise for the very first, and maybe last, time.

加拿大!

Today was a long day but it felt I got nothing done. At least I'm starting to have an idea of how my summer is going to be. Besides of the 40h a week of painting, I want to go to Canada. In a couple weeks I'll buy a minivan (hopefully) and I can see if I gather some people to go with me. Or not. I really like to travel by myself. So I can do whatever I want and change my mind and improvise. It is great. Of course road trips can be a bit dangerous and lonely by myself, but it's a great feeling. I want to do that because I paid about 300 dollars for my Canadian visa and it will expire the end of this year without being used at all. I don't really know what there is to see in Canada, but I guess I will find out.

I BOUGHT THE BEST MOVIES EVER!!! This is for my brother in Brazil to be jealous! Lol. I went to blockbuster and saw the movie Forbidden Kingdom (which is not that good, but has the Kung Fu Dream Team in the cast), which I already had, thanks to my lovable and cute girlfriend, lol, but with the special features. Then I ended up going through the movies on sale and bought Fearless (I love this movie, one of the best) and Kung Fu Panda, which I think is really funny... So I wasted twenty bucks just because of pure childish impulse when I saw Kung Fu stuff, lol. I just have to find some time to watch it. And I was excited to take back home to watch with my brother... guess what... no Portuguese subtitles. I wonder why...

There's a guy in my Chinese class that works for AT&T, Lance. He is really nice. While we were waiting for a speech in the auditorium, he started saying how the cell phone companies convince people that they can't live without their cell phones. When we leave our house without our cellphone we freak out and drive back just to get it, that's how dependable we are right now (right Judy? lol).
While walking to get a drink here, I was thinking about the picture I just posted from Lancaster and how cool it is to be able to snap something from a device I take in my pocket and post it in real time and people 5,000 miles away can see it within seconds... And I thought what I'm going to do when I go to Brazil. Probably I'll buy a cellphone just to use there temporally. Which mean a basic phone. The service there is more expensive than here. And not only that. Here I pay 10 dollars a month for unlimited text messages. And I remember in Brazil it was about 80 cents per message (about 35 cents of American dollars). It is going to be weird to go to Brazil and get a phone to actually talk, lol.

Vizinhanca no centro de Lancaster

Yesterday was Jen's and my 6-months anniversary! Half year. Unfortunately I was so stressed out because of my quizzes that I ended up not giving enough attention to it :( Plus the fact I had Math, Chemistry, Chinese, work, dance and then more work so we didn't have much time together. But I'm happy, even though I haven't been the greatest boyfriend in the world showing that lately. And other reason I'm happy for it is pretty unusual. Just imagine: if every time I stepped in a country I would start dating the first girl I see and staying with her as long as I can, in the last four years I would be able to have 4 relationships of 1 year! Every year I change my country, and don't take girlfriends. So, half-year, that's a really long time to me! lol. And I'm glad. And I'm happy enough to have several other half-years to come...

For the first time in quite a while I am actually studying instead of procrastinating. It is funny that I am realizing I was more afraid of Chinese than anything else. How stress is so psychological! Just to sit down with calm and actually study, now it looks like it's so much easier and it feels like I'm in a baby class with a baby subject (of course I wouldn't dare to go too many units ahead in the book). I just set to myself that "I don't have time; I can't understand; it's hard" and that stops me, making me not have time, not understand and then going to class and find it hard. What I think made me stress out more throughout the quarter is that the teacher is a native speaker, and don't have much experience teaching. I think we are his first try. And once I asked what something meant and he said "How you don't know that? You should know it. We learned it in the last unit. You should know it". It's funny, teacher and student end up being a really close relationship in the learning process. The learning process happens when both parts work well together. So if I don't learn, who's fault is it? I would say both, and in different ratios for different cases, but still both. And also when I learn I would say both. What do you guys think (if there is actually someone reading this blog, lol)?

Today I set the date of my trip back to Brazil. It makes me a little nervous to think about that. Not the part of leaving everyone here (and having a real break from Ohio University, ah...), this I don't even want to think about (or talk about and remind Jen). But the part of being back in Brazil. It's been several months already and the image on my mind of Brazil has been distorted badly. I don't remember how was the weather, it's always good on my mind. I don't know what's the money situation, the prices, the economy, traffic; can't remember how is to get buses to go around; can't remember how to speak Portuguese; how people are doing; if they still live there. It's going to be weird now that I started to think about it. See those people that I don't see for such a long time. And change my routine, different lifestyle, food. I don't know. Probably I will get there and everything will be normal, barbecue, beer, friends, family and cats, like I never left. Oh well, let's wait and see.

In the end everything went (kinda) well. In my math quiz we had two questions and I knew how to do it. But, I ended up making a sign mistake and that made me get the question wrong. I just have to see how much the teacher will consider. And my Chinese stuff was (by some heavenly power) being postponed to Thursday. So, in other words, God gave me a chance to not commit the same mistake for the 134th time. I'll hope I can take this chance now and get in a better studying rhythm for college. I just end up putting so much on my back and so much pressure to overachieve everything, in the end if I end up having something good, I'll discard it because it wasn't as good as I wanted.

It's so frustrating. I am doing the same mistake over and over again. It's midnight and I have a Chinese and math test tomorrow and I just studied for the math one and the Chinese, again, got postponed too. The thing is that I've been doing that since first quarter. That's a year trying to change and nothing happened. Sometimes (like a lot of times) I just feel like giving up this college thing. It's not for me. I can't read, I can't focus, and I can't keep any kind of routine, including one I have to focus AND read. Not even this blog I cab keep posted. Of course I won't quit, but I freak out once in a while. And I feel like doing it. But oh well. Suck it up. Try it again and again. And if in four or five years I'm still doing my chronic procrastination, at least I'll have my degree and won't have to worry about that anymore (only at work, of course... But that's another story...)

Non-resident surcharge my butt

Yesterday at work I was just clicking around on Ohio University Lancaster's website and somehow I ended up in the tuition and fees page. For those who don't know, we have three quarters every year (trimestre in Portuguese) and for each quarter I get something like the following bill:
$1,500 Tuition
$1,500 Non-resident Surcharge
$22 Generation Fee

$3,022 Total for this quarter

And I'm in a regional campus in Lancaster, which is a lot smaller than the main campus and doesn't offer as many classes or majors. But if I transfered to the Southern regional campus, my tuition would be the same and my Non-resident Surcharge would go down to $400.00! Making me save $3,300 each year! Without scholarships or any aid!
And then what do you think: "Well, probably is cheaper because it's smaller..." No! Lancaster offered 320 classes this quarter. Southern offered 350! And they have more majors, including Computer Science, which I would be interested on doing!
Now the real question: "What the f-word are they doing with the extra thousand in Lancaster? Shoving up their a-word?" And I really have no idea. And they probably have no idea. But that's how it is.

For me it's really hard to write a journal. I feel that when I sit here and try to recall something interesting that happened, my mind goes blank. I don't know if it's all the rush or my life is in such a big routine now that nothing appears to be that exciting to me. Or, the more likely, I just have a terrible memory (which proves that the Memory Training class didn't work that well, hahaha). My English is getting a lot better since I started this English class though. I think I was in a better level than English 150. But even though, I never had a formal class of English - that I actually paid attention to - so this is a kind of a hole patcher to me. And it doesn't consume that much of time studywise. I have way too much going on right now with my 20 credit hours.

Right now (actually, it has been around one month and a half) I am going through the trouble of buying a new used car here since mine is close to retire. I am like his sixth owner and it has 148,000 miles on it. And it went through overheating, and a lot of good stuff. Once, with the last driver, she was driving on the highway and the front right tire went off. Just unattached, like this. So that side has quite a few bumps.
Here in the US people buy new things fast thought. every day there are millions of new cars being sold. The average number of cars per person and per family is big, and not all of them are being used. So it is not that hard to find a good deal actually. I'm just giving it some time. But now with the recession the number of buyers also went up since people are holding their money more tightly.

On time... Brazilian time...

Man... I never can get stuff on time. I can never follow a routine. Every thing I try to make with a set time end up going wrong. If not, just wait a few times and will go wrong. This assignment was supposed to use only about 15 minutes to write down a blog entry. Couldn't follow it. Can't answer emails, text messages, or anything. And when I have a free time, I'm so tired that I end up going to do something else like YouTube or just surf the web. I have to go back and do a lot of entries now. And too much homework going on. I don't know, it's probably my Brazilian blood. All I want is a barbecue this Sunday...

Welcome to sping...

Today we had snow! Isn't it great and beautiful? No, not really. Before I came here to the US I always wondered how was snow and how it looked like. Snow ball fights, snow angels, white Christmas... Like in the American movies. Then I got here, had a blast, froze my butt off. Then I got a car. And snow is not that pretty when you don't have time to enjoy it. Or when you start worrying if the water in your coolant reservoir in your car freezes up and some hose blow up. Even worse when you drive on ice storms. When I was an exchange student two years ago I saw a snow storm. I didn't go to school and didn't drive. Now I'm a college student. College doesn't cancel. I went to work. Drove and almost got in five wrecks while I didn't have the car insured. Now it's a different point of view. But ice and snow still looks pretty in the pictures I took, when I'm looking at it in my house during a Brazilian 55-degrees-Fahrenheit winter...

Memory Training

Today I had a class called "Memory Training". It is an one credit hour class just for this Saturday, but from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon. After getting 50 minutes late for class (or on time for Brazilian time) we had class until almost two (technical problems with the computer). The teacher was explaining techniques on how to remember stuff. That's everything the class was about. It was pretty interesting I have to say, and it worked for the first exercise. I can't really say if it works or not, because I haven't used it yet. But he showed me some ways to use it for Chinese (the most interesting one was using a grid) since we have to memorize all these symbols.

The only thing that made me think was that all that class he was saying about Acing a test because you memorized stuff and these methods to "learn stuff faster". But I always kept thinking that it's not learning, it's memorizing. And how different these two are.

For example, I can learn the properties of distribution in math by understanding how Algebra works and the proof that shows how we get there, and never forget it. OR, I can memorize it using the Acronym FOIL (First, outside, something, left... I don't know) and never forget. But they are totally different things.

I will never forget what I read (in one of the only books I read) in one of the books of Sherlok Homes where he said that our brain is like a basement of a house. You can keep saving stuff in, but eventually you will start running out of space. That is why he would only "learn" useful things for him, but he would careless about what are the planets on the Solar System.

Note: The best part of all this, I was trying to remember what's the name of these "techniques", but I forgot it.

Roadtrips

I was checking the other day, just for the fun of it, how would be a road trip from the US to Brazil.
So, to get from here to Mexico border is about 1600 miles. Then from there to the Brazilian border, through Central America, is about 3004 miles all the way. And from Amazon to my city crossing the whole country is more 3480 miles. A minivan holds 8, so I can get my host family, girlfriend and some friends. Eight thousand miles total. Going average of 60mph and driving 12h a day (we can do driving shifts), we make to there in 12 days easy, really easy. I just have to get my minivan and pack. We just have to make sure the brakes work and take some extra engine oil to change it about three times on the way. Plus the 450 gallons of gas...
Anyone wants to join?

The traffic today was terrible! The city of Lancaster with the population of 35,000 people had more traffic on that time than my city in Brazil, Jundiai, with 350,000... Probably because the average is 37 cars and a half per family and it has no public transportation. And there's no one-way streets.
One-way streets make a little confusing for foreigners because it is different, but it makes the traffic flow so much better. You can have 24/7 synchronized lights so you will get only one red light per street you are going. And street signs here in the U.S. is a little messed up. Too much confusing stuff, confusing signs and some of the intersections has lights with 12 different combinations of left turn only, then straight, then straight and left turns, then only west, only north, it's like Frankenmuth on Christmas' eve.

Wednesday

Oops....
Missed my one yesterday.
"Today I have to work until eleven... I might as well pull a mattress here in OUL and make it my bedroom. I have to operate for the Distance Learning classes (which basically means sit there and wait till a problem comes). It is funny that the students pay the big bucks to have that class once a week. And I get paid to take the same class. My package just does not include teacher support and the right to make questions. Of course I end up studying, facebooking and getting bored, but it is not that bad to get paid to get bored."

I was just looking over pictures from my friends in Brazil. Every day I am missing them more and more. And I am worthless on answering emails and messages.
My trip there is probably going to be on Independence day (the American one) so I can invite everyone here to the airport and see everyone there too. Yesterday I was listening to some Brazilian songs on my way back home from work and one of the songs made me remember the barbecues... I could taste the farofa, meat on a stick, and feel the cold beer... It made me miss everything even more. I keep telling everyone here about Rio de Janeiro, and the awesome Brazilian parties. Of course looking at it from 5000 miles away makes everything look perfect and all the problems go away. But it does not matter because I will end up going there and feel the same about the U.S.

1st Day

Today our English teacher Dee gave us an assignment to create a Journal and register every day a thought or something that happened on that day. I really was not expecting it, and I thought it was really nice. She said that is not a log as in "today I woke up at seven, drove to school, bla bla bla", but just a register of thoughts and more single, well developed, ideas. I remember the first time I heard about that as an exercise was in my Philosophy class with teacher Onesimo, to write five minutes of anything down.
It is weird to be back in school after the break, and not painting this time. But the first day is more like an exiting change, where you find out who are the new teachers and how boring (or not) the classes are going to be. And you always have the good news of good teachers and interesting stuff to learn, and the sameness of other things. But after all, everything looks better on the first day, where you are not stressed about homework, finals or anything.
We started to learn a little about grammar today. I liked to see more well detailed how English works, since I learned most part of it in an intuitive, baby-like way. And listening to her very simple explanations about the basic parts of grammar made me wonder how the other people are listening and absorbing the knowledge. Being bilingual is something really weird that not even I can understand. Is start counting one to three in Chinese, four to twelve in English and thirteen to thirty five in Portuguese and not even realize it. After you are, there is no way back of thinking in one single language. It is almost like being languageless, your thoughts being only ideas not related to words anymore.

ENG 150...

Ola pessoal,

Eu sei, eu sei, abandonei o blog e tudo mais... bom, nao consigo manter rotina e acaba nisso
Este trimestre estou fazendo uma aula de Composicao em Ingles e um dos trabalhos eh fazer um "diario". Ao inves de pegar papel e caneta, perguntei se podia fazer um blog. Entao vou fazer aqui e quem quiser treinar ingles tambem pode ler.

E tambem coloquei na direita a funcao de cadastrar o email pra acompanhar o blog, ai nao precisa checar todo mes se atualizei (e ficar desapontado...)

Abraco,
Ga.