Sniffles...

Oh no, I think I'm catching a cold! First I had a sore throat, which got better, and as soon as it got better, I got the sniffles. I sneezed like a million times today. Hopefully, it won't turn out that bad, and I won't have to miss school or anything. Or hopefully I won't have to spend a day at school while being super sick at the same time, because that's a lot worst.
Anyways, today was such a busy day. It's just running everywhere, trying to put things together, and making it on time. We had to do our dreaded 6-laps in P.E. today, for one. I actually like doing Langara more than running 6-laps. It's a lot easier for me, not having to count my laps, or seeing how far everyone already is, or counting how many more laps I'll have to run. Running Langara is like super fast hiking on a nice little trail all shady and cool. I just really hope that we won't have to run Langara on a rainy day. I'm not looking forward to slipping in mud anytime soon.
Band was better, we got to play Bluesville which is a cool little song from last year. We played it a ton of times last year, and for one performance too. It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of playing in swing style.
We watched the awesomely-awesome speeches during Lunch, and it was only really annoying when people were being extra loud, and you can't tell what the speeches were about. After lunch, it was our group's turn to do the English presentation, and I've got to say that it went pretty well. The minecraft trailer was a fun twist to our presentation, and it was pretty funny and amusing! In science, we talked about the one thing we didn't ever want to hear: SCIENCE FAIR. It's really going to take me forever to think of a topic, it was hard enough last year. I just want to do an experiment that's really fun, and hopefully won't take too long. Sigh, hopefully I'll think of one by the end of this long weekend. I really don't want to have science fair lingering around in my head. And HOPEFULLY I'll survive this one.
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Weird Weather

When I woke up this morning, the sky actually looked almost clear, whoa. I guess I kind of expected it to be pouring rain again, but it was so different this morning. I did still wear my boots to school, since it's fall, and you can't trust the weather. During Socials we had our map quiz. I'm so annoyed with myself! I knew the river was Dnieper, and that's what I put. So in the end, I kept on staring at it, thinking that it was wrong, and I changed it! And in the end, Dnieper was the right answer. Next time, I'm just going to stick with what I put first, and only change it if it was really wrong. Thankfully there was two bonus questions, and I got one of them right, so that made up for the missing mark. Next week, we have ANOTHER quiz. Geez, I hope I do better for the next one. YEEEE, in Applied Skills, I'm actually making progress on my hat, and it's actually growing! I can't wait to see what it'll look like. HOPEFULLY, it won't be loose. In math, our test got moved to next week, and in french we had a new seating order, and this time, we don't get to pick. I guess I got a good spot, even though I'm all the way in the back.
Okay, when I was almost home, it started raining a teeny bit, and the sky was still clear. Then, like 2 hours later, it started pouring rain for no reason, and when I looked outside again, the sky was STILL clear. Geeez, what weird weather we have in Vancouver.
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Typical Monday.

Gloomy. Dark. Pouring Rain. How else can we describe today? It was hard enough dragging myself out of bed, we had to drive through the pouring rain on the way to school. I also had P.E. first thing, which just added to the disappointment. It was so cold, thankfully we spent the day inside skipping, running, and working out in the weight room. In band, I was just so tired, it was nice to just sit on a chair, and enjoy our (slowly improving) music. It wasn't bad, we were actually getting better! English presentations are pretty interesting, the stories that the groups choose are really fun to read, but sometimes really sad and deep, like the one we read today, Alicia. Science was fun as usual, we had awesome presentations are great ideas for science fairs if we had unlimited supply. It pretty funny listening to people talk about them, especially since some were really weird and disgusting.  Like ours, we did ours on dairy products, and poo. Pretty strange, but hey, it was a great idea. When my sister and I walked home, the rain actual stopped for a bit, which was pretty nice, since I really didn't want to walk/bus home in the pouring rain.
Now I really have to study for Socials, since I've put it off long enough, and I guess I can't run from the terror of maps. Hopefully I won't do horrible on my first Socials test.
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Building skills one at a time

This morning, I had to drag myself out of bed for skating lessons. It was just that hard. It was so dark in my room, and I could hear the rain pelting down on my window, and I just didn't feel like moving from my warm little fort. Eventually, I inched toward the edge of the bed, and just climbed off. After changing into my skating costume, it just suddenly became real to me. I guess I became more excited then, and so I ran to get ready to leave. I had breakfast in the car, a energy bar, which might seem little, but it actually helps in the morning, when I don't feel like eating anything else, and can't eat anything big before skating. I tied my skates there, while my mom went off to swim at the pool, which was right next to the rink. Both were inside, since it was at the Killarney center. My cousin and I got there right on time, and we met up with Lianna, our coach. We did our normal warm up exercises, and then instead of doing salems, like we did last time, we worked on our edges, which I'm also bad at. She taught us where to place our hands, and then how to use our free leg to guide. After the half hour lesson, she left us to work on our skills for the next half hour. I actually can do my edges perfectly now, I just have to work on the backward ones. We also practiced our Spirals, and Lounges, both of which are super fun!
After skating, I had time to finish my homework, have breakfast/lunch, and then head to piano. Since my piano teacher owns a dog, I always take time off to play with it. This time, he was so happy with all the attention, he rolled right over, and let us rub his belly. It was so funny, since he looked so relaxed!
Sigh, I love Sundays. I wish they would never end, Mondays always seem like torture.
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Relaxing...

Today was just a taking time for myself day. Basically, I just enjoyed myself and relaxed after a stressful week. I did have to get up a bit earlier to tutor piano, and then helping my brother do his homework.  But afterwards, I had a nice trip to the library, and then came home and just watched TV, which I haven't done in a long time. I barely have time to watch TV anymore. I remember last year, or the year before that, I would get to watch TV almost every night, I guess the homework load has changed, and I just don't have time. But it's nice once in a while, when the whole family huddles near the TV and just relax in peace. After an awesome dinner, I took a nice warm, hot shower, and then went to bed early. I just can't wait for skating lessons tomorrow!
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The Truth

So later on today, I found out about the mystery of why me and my siblings weren't picked up yesterday. Turns out that the guy was busy, and he told my mom that his friend would pick us up. In the end, his friend's car had some problems, and she couldn't pick us up. They tried to call my mom, but she wouldn't pick up either. So they phoned her again this afternoon, and she told us what happened. If they ever have to pick us up again, I hope that nothing else is going to go wrong.
The day went pretty well, but the weather just made me miss the summer. All that sunshine and blue skies...It was a lot better in the morning. It LOOKED like summer. And then it does a nasty trick when you walk out the door to greet the sun, and you get a nasty cold feeling instead. It even started getting colder. But then your body gets used to it, and it gets hot again...weird. So my sister and I were walking home, and it was the weather was still nice, and all of the sudden, I felt a drop of rain on my arm. So we walked a little faster, and then there was more rain, and then in a minute, it was close to pouring. We just rain the way home, and thankfully, we didn't get too wet. Funny, how just as we walked through the gates of our house, it stopped raining.

Confusion.

Today was just crazy. I had P.E. first, and our class was just scared that we would have to run outside, especially since hearing that the other classes might be doing Langara run in the pouring rain. We ended up just doing the Fitness testing which was so fun! I found out that I grew 1 cm, and I really hope the tape isn't messed up like last time, when it said that I shrank 5 cm. I got better in some parts, and worst at others. Aww, I really want to improve in everything next time. Band was fun as usual, and we had our first English presentation. It was actually really well done, and they actually managed to make us do work for the whole 80 minutes! And their story was so interesting, so much suspense! In Science we had a sub, and also got our safety quiz back! I'm so glad I passed it, and I got a good mark for the first test, too! 

After school, an uncle was supposed to pick me and my siblings up, because my parents were both busy and at work. But he never came. So we waited, and waited...Eventually I decided to call my mom, and she didn't pick up. So I called my dad, and finally, he drove us home. We got home at 5, and just started doing homework...It was pretty confusing and weird, since we normally got home a lot earlier. 

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First collab day of the year!

Wow, we a random collab day in the middle of the week. I've got to say, it actually helped me out a lot. Our family went out for dinner for my grandma's birthday yesterday, so I barely got any homework done. For her birthday, I decided to give her one of the scarves that I knitted last year. After ton of thinking, I decided to give her my red scarf, one of my favourites.  I think she really likes it, but I do miss having it in my closet. Hey, at least I have more of the same coloured yarn. I'll probably just make another one. I didn't even have time to finish Math and the Socials map. So this morning, for we had to drop of my brother, so I arrived at school at nine, and finished my map at 10:10. During lunch, I stayed in the Applied Skills room to finish my math homework. Turns out that it was pretty easy, but I finished at 12, leaving me 10 minutes to eat lunch...
We had a math quiz today, and I was just dreading it. Enriched math just seems harder for me right now. For some reason today, everything is the opposite. The quiz WASN'T hard, and the notes and work we had to do WASN'T hard, and the homework ISN'T hard, either! I'm glad to say that Math went pretty well today, and that I'm sure I'll get a good mark on the quiz.
For french, I was all worried we would have to do our presentations, but it turns out that we only had time to finish writing our speech, and then spent the last 20 minutes practicing it. Next Friday, we have our presentations, and I just remembered that we also have our first QUIZ.
Studying away,
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Just Tired.

So for PE today, we did our normal 3-lap run, except for some reason, it felt a lot more tiring than ever. Maybe it was because of the sun, because somehow I always manage to do better on gloomy days. We're also doing 6-laps next week, or next class. Anyways, while I was stretching, I managed to pull my knee, so it started hurting a bit. When I ran, it was fine, but when I had to stop to wait for Mimi, it started hurting like crazy. Even walking or sitting down made my knee hurt. In the weight room, we were doing this exercise machine, and I thought it was going to hurt my knee, but I decided to go on it anyways. Turns out that it didn't make my knee hurt, which was weird, but made me so much more comfortable again.
In band, we played a new song, Celtic Air and Dance 2, and we played the original Celtic Air and Dance last year. They both sound really nice, and Mr. Hurst even said that there was a Celtic Air and Dance 3! Anyways, it sounds really nice and pretty, and our band sounds pretty good!
Lunch was spent studying for Science, for English we just worked on our presentations, and for Science we had our big science test. It was ok...not too easy, nor too hard. Some questions were tricky, but I'm pretty confident that I got 86%. Well, I really hope so. I don't really want to take the test again...
Tonight I barely have time to do homework. It's my grandma's birthday, so our family is going out for dinner. I don't event know how I'm going to finish everything. I'm so happy and thankful that the school decided to have the Collab day tomorrow, so that I'll have time to finish my work.
Baaaack to work,
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No Procrastinating!

Today is my no procrastinating day, and I mean it. I have so much work to do, I just don't want to rush it all at the last minute. My socials map is due on Wednesday, and I'm only about half way there. I think I'll manage to finish it by today. I'll just spend the rest of tomorrow trying to see if there's anything I can fix. In Applied Skills, I'm learning to make my first hat, and it's going awesome! I'm so excited to see what it looks like in the end. Photo day was today, too. Photos, blargh. Having people take photos of me is the worst thing ever. It almost always comes out horrible.
Math class was ok, I guess. I'm finally understanding what the teacher is talking about. It's just that I hope we don't have to do Surface Area any longer. It's driving me crazy, all those surfaces and shapes and holes and whatnot. Last of all is French. We're having presentations based on this Mission Impossible video that we saw earlier. It's actually pretty fun, but it's really hard trying to remember all that we learned last year, and actually making french sentences with them, on our own. Well, we can get the teachers' help, except for the fact, that everyone needs help, and you have to raise your hand for five minutes before they can get to you. Besides that, today was a pretty good Day 1, and it's becoming better than I thought it was.
Off to knitting my new hat,
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Wheeeeeeeee!

Okay, today was a pretty good day for me. I had to wake up early for figure skating lessons at 8:30. My cousin and I decided to take figure skating lessons together, and today was our first private lesson with our coach, Lianna. We had figure skating lessons with Lianna for a long time now, and we were pretty excited to start private lessons, since we would learn a lot more from her. It was pretty tiring. I had a granola bar for breakfast, and then it was time to skate. It still feels weird wearing a skirt and tights, but then I guess after a few times, it'll be perfectly normal. We had a 15 minute lesson today, practicing our saloms. It's basically like doing edges with both feet, like skiing, but you're skating with your feet stuck together. It's one of those things that I'm horrible at, but then after our short lesson, we had 45 minutes to practice it, and by the end of the lesson, I was getting the idea. I did some homework when I got home, and then I went with my mom to see the doctor, since she needed a "physical check" thingy for her new job. We went to visit a Montessori preschool open house after that, and it was neat because the person who opened the new school was a friend of my mom's. They had a long discussion, since my mom was going to work at a Montessori school as well, and they exchanged tips and information, and I just stood there looking around. The preschool's really pretty actually, everything is all neat and tidy. It looks really cozy, totally opposite of the huge rooms at Churchill. After an hour or so, we headed to Michael's to get some yarn for our Applied Skills project. Piano lessons followed after that (really enjoyable, actually) and then it was back home for yummy dinner. Right now, I'm trying to finish my homework before bedtime. Yeah, I actually made a plan to help me sleep earlier. Since I can't just start sleeping at 10: 00 right away, every week I'm going to go to bed 15 minutes earlier than the previous week. This week, I have to get to bed by 11:15, and so I'm determined not to go past my bedtime. I really want to get some sleep...
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Busy Day

I'm so tired, just running around, and my arms are so sore...
This morning, I had to wake up early to tutor my piano student. She's pretty awesome, not rude or anything, and she goes to my old school, so I remember all her teachers. We always have a nice chat, and she follows my tips and advice. I was pretty tired after that, since I didn't eat breakfast before, and I was starving. So I had lunch and then helped my brother with his homework. After that, my mom decided to tell me that I had Badminton class that day, and I had to leave at 2, which was in 5 minutes. So my sister, my mom, and I rushed to the community center, and then my sister and I practiced playing badminton. After half and hour or so, when class was supposed to start, our teacher just kept on teaching the group before, and it was then that we found out that our class was moved half and hour back. So on top of that, we had to start our lesson at 2:45, and then play for an hour. My arms were already sore from the weight room the day before, and playing badminton just made it worst. By the end of it all, my arms just felt like Jello. Right after that, my sister and I had tutor, and we rushed there. It was surprisingly hard to write words when you have a sore arm. My right arm was just shaking from the effort of it all. Eventually, my strength came back, and I COULD WRITE AGAIN! It was pretty late after that, so our family just ate at a nearby restaurant. That was the only thing that was relaxing that day, and I almost fell asleep in the car on the way back, because I was so comfortable. Sigh, I'm just going to go to bed early, because tomorrow I won't get to sleep in.
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New music skills!

P.E. today was pretty awesome. For one, I got my best time for running 3 laps so far. Also, weight room seems to get easier and easier every time, so this time I started pulling heavier weights. My partner was Mimi, but since Leslie's partner was injured, she joined our group. We worked out nicely, and then we spent the rest of the time skipping. It was the perfect weather outside. Not too cold, but not too hot. It was just cloudy, which was perfect, especially with the nice breeze. If only the weather stayed like that for Langara. I'm really hoping it won't rain on that day. 

Band was one of my favourite classes for that day. We played our scales and technique stuff, and then came the fun songs. We played it halfway with the flute, and then Mr. Hurst decided to want the Timpani part. So he asked one of he flutes, since there was more of us, to play the Timpani. Nobody wanted to go, so I decided to give it a try. And it was AWESOME and super FUN! It was just reading the bass clef, I guess it was weird, since flutes play treble clef all the time, but basically it was just three notes. It has a lot more to do with rhythm than notes, and I had to learn how to do a drumroll, which is harder than it sounds. Other than that, Band was awesome.

For English we had got another project, and our group had to do a "teaching day" on Setting and Atmosphere. The stories in our section was pretty interesting, and I'd even read one of them before. The bad thing is, we get a really short amount of time to prepare everything, so we kind of have to get to work fast. 

For Science we just did more learning on safety symbols, and then we got a worksheet. 

My sister and I walked home together, which seemed like it took eternity. I guess we have to get used to it, my mom has a new job, and she wouldn't be around much anymore. 

Wow, the teachers really let us off easy for Grade 8, Grade 9 is a killer.

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Back in the grooove!

Today was pretty enjoyable, it went a lot better than any day this week. For the first time this year, I actually enjoyed today. For P.E. we had our warm up run, and even if I did forget my waterbottle in my P.E. locker, I managed to stay hydrated, and not get dizzy or anything. Weight room went well, Mimi's a good P.E. partner, and we just worked, and worked, and worked....And now my muscles are tired...Which is good, of course. Band was next, and that was my favourite class of the day. We still did things the same as last year, with scales and arpeggios and exercises like that. We did get a new song though, which was awesome to play. It's called Arabian dances. Flutes don't get a important role in it, but we have this pretty cool clapping part, and about 36 bars of rest.
Mimi and I had lunch, with Judy, Cynthia and Alex. It's so peaceful where at Alex's locker. That hallway isn't very loud, compared to the other places I've had my lunch. Maybe because there's less people there, and it's close to the very end of the hallway. English was fun, we read another story, and talked about symbolism. I think my brain's dead from thinking about all those symbols and ideas, and what it's actually supposed to mean. Science was last, and we learned all about safety signs. We had so much fun laughing, because Ms. Jay's examples are so funny, and she'd always somehow slip in jokes. That went well, and we only had to do a worksheet for homework.
Hopefully tomorrow is as great as today was! (If that sentence made any sense...)
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Day 2 Unfolds

This morning we had PE with Lopez in the small gym. I've always disliked the small gym for some reason, it reminds of of those horrible high jumps that we had to do in there last year. It also has an over-whelming smell of wax, or crayon-smell, or whatever it is. Anyways, Mr. Lopez is pretty cool, he's so funny and nice! The weird thing was that so many synergy kids were there! During attendance, I was so surprised by how many names I recognized. At least half of the synergy kids were there.
Band was next, and it was exactly the same thing as last year, since I took up Intermediate Band again. This time, Gabriel and Roy were in my class, so at least there was someone there I could recognize. I also met some synergy grade 8s that was taking band.
After a nice lunch, it was time for English. Mr. Hauck turns out to be very amusing, and it just felt so comfortable there being in his class. It was so warm in his class, but once you walk in, you could just feel this happy aura radiating. It kind of reminds of Ms. Greskiw's class. Hmmm, must be something that English teachers do. Anyways, we had an awesome time introducing ourselves, and it was so fun! We learned so many new things about our classmates that some of us didn't even know! English class sped by so fast, it seemed like the other classes dragged on longer. (Except for band.)
Last class of the day was Science with Ms. Jay. Everyone was looking forward to her. And it turned out great! We took attendance, and then played two games outside. We played "North Wind Blows" to the point where people were really getting pushed out of their seats, and then we played this twister-style game where we had to put a certain number of body parts on the floor while being connected in some way to our group. We didn't have enough people for everyone to be split in fours, so our group became a group of 3. The game got kind of challenging for us, since we didn't have as many people. Day 2 was pretty satisfying, it went over better than I thought!
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New rooms, new teachers, different feeling....

This first full-ish day has finally hit me, and being at school has finally started seeming real to me. So I had home room first, and I don't really get he point of it. Most of the time, we just sit in class for half an hour doing nothing at all, but talking. My first class was Socials with Mr. Martin. It went pretty well, we made "appointments" with our clock buddies, and then talked about rights and rules, and responsibilities. Mr. Martin seems like a really cool guy, he's pretty funny, and I bet we'll have an awesome time with him. We had Mr. Olson's class after that, and we just looked over the outline for the year. But we were arranged into our ancient desk settings, and it just brought back memories of that first day in Grade. I had lunch with my sister, Mimi, Leslie and Carina. Taking my sister around the school reminds me of my Grade 8 teachers, which I still miss. I wish we still had Mr. Sale teaching us, he was that awesome. I bet Mr. Martin is going to be just awesome, though! And Ms. Greskiw and Ms. Smedley, they were so nice...At least we still have Mr. Olson! And today in class, when he brought up the subject of Natasha, I was so sad...I really wish she was back in our class, she was such an awesome friend! :(
I had math after lunch with Ms. Knott. She seemed ok, and she gave us a worksheet on Math right after class. Then came French, which I was dreading the whole day. But...it turned out a lot better than I thought! Ms. Todd is actually really, really nice! She's encouraging us to speak French most of the time, but I think I'll get used to it. I think I can actually try to LIKE french this year!
So tomorrow I meet the other Synergy teachers, and then I'll have Band again. Hopefully, there's someone I'll recognize in band, because so far, no one I know is in Intermediate Band. Sigh, I hope it was like last year. There was so much support, because so many Synergy kids were in Intermediate Band, we just encouraged each other. But this year....I don't know, I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe it'll turn out just as great as French did!
Hope you had an awesome first day,
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