A little guide dog

Today went great! We had our socials presentation which was really interesting. I can't believe how good they are, they actually are really interesting, and I just kept learning and learning! Egypt totally blew my mind, and Somalia just made me wonder how cruel humans can be. We also worked on our map, which is really frustrating, since you have to label a lot of things in the teeny, tiny space given.
In Applied Skills, I just worked on knitting more hats! I'm finally on my 3rd hat, and it's getting really easy. This time, since our table was so crowded, I moved to sit with Mimi's company. It was really interesting having a conversation with them, and my hat just kept growing and growing. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, I'll have two more!
Math was a rush, as usually. Everyone was just trying to finish their worksheet before the end of class, so they wouldn't have to bring it home for homework. Like always, more than half of us didn't finish, or should I say, got now where close to finishing.
French was fun with my new table mates, and we did a review on school supplies since we have a quiz coming up. It isn't bad, our vocab sheet is the same formatting as last year, so I'm pretty used to it. While we were waiting for everyone else to finish up their worksheet, Carina taught me how the art of spacing out. Basically, both of us stared at a waterbottle, and just tried to imaging we were the dust floating on the water. Oh, Carina, she's just so funny!
But what made my dad was what happened after school. I walked home with my sister, and while we were riding the Expo-line, there was a guide dog sitting with its trainer. After asking questions, we found out that the trainer was getting the guide dog used to loud noises and being around really busy and social places. The dog wasn't really "professional" yet, but that's why he needed training. The person also told me that the dog was only 5 and a half months old, so he was only a puppy. He had on a guide dog harness, and sometimes he would squirm around. He was really sweet though, and he really tried hard to stay still on the train. The trainer was volunteering for The Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind, which really interested me. I think that later, when I'm older, I might volunteer there, too. I might try the SPCA as well. It's nice to know that there's so many neat animal places out there, so many opportunities for volunteering!
Anyways, here's a picture from their website:

And here's a picture of another (smaller) puppy with their harness on:

And that's all for today!

The animal-crazed fan,
Dapple Grey

T1 B22: Cold...

This morning, it took me so long to get out of my bed. Mostly because it looked gloomy, and it was so dark. Well, i recovered by the time I got to school. I had P.E. first, which seems to get easier and easier, which is awesome, since I'm really getting used to it! Then in Band, we did a lot of rhythms and articulation practice. I'm actually a lot worse at tongue-ing than I thought. I guess I really need to practice it..
For English we had another lovely presentation, which is also the 2nd last. AND he mentioned that we would have a final test on short stories. Another test to study for. At least it won't be so hard, since we've learned some of it last year.
For Science, we did our review on Cells, which means that we'll be having another test next week on cells. I know some people hate memorizing all that cell stuff, but for some reason I find it ok, and pretty interesting. I mean, it's not too hard, and it's pretty easy once you get it. At least there's something that I won't have to struggle with...except for that science fair proposal looming up...
Better go to bed before I collapse...
Dapple Grey

T1 B21: Second four-day week

I just realized that we have a lot of Pro-D days in October, which is pretty cool. Hopefully my cold will end by the end of this long weekend, because it's just really annoying. In socials, we had two civil war presentations, and they were so good! It was so interesting, and they just set the bar up really high. I don't know how we're going to do better than the presentations today. I guess I have a lot of research to do, and I want to read up as much as I can, since there were so many questions asked today, that the groups weren't prepared for. We got ANOTHER map of Europe, but this time it's going to be easier, since we don't have as many countries and things to label, and it just looks easier. The bad thing is, with a map, comes a quiz/test, and with that quiz/test comes a possibly horrible mark, and with that possibly horrible mark comes a possibly horrible grade, and with that possibly horrible grade, comes possibly angry parents...Mimi and I were talking about how a small map creates all this, and it was really funny in the end, it came to death or something, from this tiny map.
In Applied Skills, I FINISHED MY FIRST HAT! :) I was so satisfied with myself, but since Jessie's already finished 8, I have a lot to catch up on. Now that I know how to do it, it isn't going to be a lot easier to finish. We also have a lot to hand in for our company: patent, mission statement, a report..... I can't even remember the rest, I'll have to check the website again.
In Math we spent the whole class doing our math test, which was somehow hard for me, but easy for the rest of my table mates. I really dislike surface area, and I'm glad we got that out of the way. Also with a math test comes no homework! So I'm free!....until next class. But I'm so relieved that we have space to breathe before we start our next unit...Wow, that's like 2 units in less than a month. She's really going to squeeze in a lot of lessons for us. Hopefully, I won't have to struggle through most of them...
In French, we watched this really interesting video on the creation of pencils, which is actually a lot more fascinating than it sounds. It was all in French, but we already did some of the translations last class. We also got our textbooks and a new workbook. It's so new! Did I mention that I love new things? It's so clean and the pages are so crisp and not wrinkly. I'm pretty lucky that my textbook is pretty new, and it's so clean and beautifully wrapped. It's so new and pretty, I don't want to do write in it....
Dapple Grey

T1 B20: New teacher

This morning, I woke up super early for skating lessons, I was so excited all over again. I changed into my lovely skating outfit, and then arrived right on time for my lesson. Turns out that Lianna (my coach)'s brother Alvis's student changed her lesson time, so he has no one to teach that morning. So instead of Lianna teaching a semi-private lesson (me and my cousin) she decided to let Alvis teach me, and she'll keep teaching my cousin. At least that's what I think it was. Either that, or it was only for today. Anyways, I was a little nervous, since I've never met her brother before, or seen his teaching style, I've only seen him around during Lianna's lessons. Turns out that he's a bit shy, but really nice. His teaching style is really different than Lianna, he takes things slowly, and just wants you to practice it, while Lianna just forces it on you, and make you do it until you get it right. That sounds different than what I mean, it's hard to explain it. He really does look like Lianna, the first time we saw them, my cousin and I just knew that they were siblings. Anyways, I worked on my saloms again, since they were horrible, and then practiced my edges. After our lesson, my cousin and I got half an hour to practice it on our own, and I'm just really satisfied with our lesson, it was awesome!
At home I did homework, had a big lunch, then went for piano lessons. When my siblings and I came back, we had an awesome yummy dinner, and then I had to have a chinese lesson with my cousin. We have a Chinese tutor come to our house to teach us, and she's really cool. Her lessons are pretty awesome and there are so many times when we just laugh, she actually makes me feel like Chinese isn't as boring. I'm glad that we found this Chinese tutor, because since I started learning with her, Chinese has actually been a lot better and more interesting than before. I love it when she tells us stories about a poet, or an author about things that we learn. If only everyday could be awesome days...
Dapple Grey

T1 B19: A nice shopping trip!

This morning, I almost forgot to wake up early, and I slept through my alarm clock. Then I woke up at 9-ish, and remembered that I had to tutor piano at 10. I still made it in time, but just barely, and I felt hungry the whole time, since I didn't have breakfast yet.
I did half of my homework, and then my sister and I went to the community center to play badminton. It was ok, but it made me a lot more tired, since I was already sick. We had an awesome time though, and it's kind of like a replacement for the missing PE block on Friday. We went to Metrotown on a shopping trip after that, which was awesome, since we haven't had a trip all through September. There were Sales, though they weren't really big, but they were ok, and we got a lot of stuff at good prices. I just have to run it through the washing machine, and then they'll be ready to wear!
I'm going to practice piano now, since I have my lessons tomorrow, and I've barely had time to practice today. Then I'm going to take a nice hot shower, and go straight to bed...I can't wait to snuggle in and sleep!
Before 11:15, of course. I'm really going to force myself to follow that plan of mine.
Dapple Grey

T1 B18: Mopey

It started out as a sore throat, and then it turned into a runny nose, which is a lot more annoying. So for most of today, I spent it blowing my nose on tissues, and feeling completely tired and worn out. Good thing it was a weekend, too, because I just feel like I need a couple days off to renew and just freshen up. I didn't even sleep in today, I guess I'm getting used to waking up early, which is good, but bad too, since I sleep really late. I really really have to start following my bedtime plan! I did do a little work, and took some notes for my socials project. We're researching Sierra Leone, so I took a book out from a writer who wrote about Sierra Leone and was at a Writer's Festival interview I've been to. The book is actually really interesting, but some parts are really disturbing, and it's really sad how cruel the people are. At 2-ish, I bused to my old school to pick up my brother. And then I went home, and was more motivated to do more work. We had dinner at a nice little restaurant that we visit more and more now, and it was just an awesome night!
Dapple Grey

T1 B17: More Quizzes...

Today we had our bearings quiz for Socials, and I'm pretty sure that I did horrible. Some things I forgot how to do, and weren't even in my notes. It's so confusing for me, it's just like last year when I did horrible on my geography test. Hopefully I don't do TOO bad, and besides, my first quiz will probably make up for it. But still, I can't help it but to have friendly competition with the other people in the class...I really need to work on time management and actually following my schedule. Not only that, I still have to manage to follow my little bedtime plan. So far, it's not great. I think I'm going to pull myself together this week, and actually finish things. Long weekend, new start. In Applied Skills, I'm really happy, since I'm almost finished my first hat. I can't wait to see what it looks like!
For math, we just had a review for another math test I'm dreading...Hopefully, I'll actually understand what I'm doing. I like I need to learn a lot more, and the people in my class are so much more smarter. It's so different from last year, when I was just breezing through regular math.
But hey, at least I'll have a chance to learn a lot more, instead of repeating things I've already done.
Have a nice long weekend!
Dapple Grey