GO OBAMA!!!!!!
---                 After school on Monday, Oscar and I went rock climbing. It was challenging (because I haven't practiced in months) and fun. I ripped a callous which was not optimal but I survived.
---                On Tuesday, the Biology teacher had it out for my whole class. She starts out with "today I am going to check your notebooks, you should have all of these in them (respiratory system, digestive system......)" knowing perfectly well we had little more than none of those. How she can do that while smiling at us, I have no idea. She then says, "Since you don't have it now, I want you ALL to do it for Thursday (our next Biology class)." I knew then, I was in for it. I called my dad and told him I wouldn't be able to go to soccer due to an emergency homework session. He understood and told me it was okay for me to skip one practice.
                 After school, we went home; Oscar really really didn't want to go without me though it is possible he was unintentionally working himself up. He was crying so I helped him get dressed (he had asked me before to try and convince dad to let him stay home and since I quickly found that a useless cause, I decided I would try to make it easier for him to go). After he left tear-streaked in the van with my parents and Papa Tom (who was going to watch him), I sat down and got to work on my project that seemed big but I didn't realize how enormous it was until I started writing explanations. To imagine my project, think about the Asian legend where this guy uses chopsticks and moves grains of rice one at a time.....yeah....it took me more than four hours I think!!!
              I was bent on watching the election so I sat at a table doing my homework while my family gave me updates about the ways that the states were going and such. I stopped to eat dinner and watch the part where the channel announced which candidate had to win. I am pleased Obama won because I cannot imagine having such a lying, doofus, fake, creepy man (ahem...aka Romney) for President. Though Obama had his faults and didn't do some of the things we wish he had done, we think he is still a great man and we have hope he can help turn things around.
---              On Wednesday, my grandparents had to leave. We were all very sad because they are such good company. Papa Tom and JoJo, if you are reading this, I thank you deeply for leaving my room better than it was when you guys had it!!!! I miss you guys!! After school, I still had to finish my Biology project so I finished that before I went to sleep.
---              The part of Thursday that really stood out to me was soccer practice. Profe only had us do drills that were challenging but not impossible. Oscar and I were partners so I did not have the awkward time of waiting for Profe to choose some younger kid to work with me. Profe used me as an example of a drill we were going to do with headers. I am generally not great with headers but that time it all worked out and I headed all three right to him. Another accomplishment was that when we were practicing juggling, I felt like I could actually make it most of the time.
                 When Profe told us to get into triplets, we kind of stood around wondering who could be our third person. Without even waiting, Profe told Fernando (the smiley) to be our third person. We were very pleased and the whole time we did group drills, we laughed, talked and smiled. When we did the scrimmage, I made a goal!!! That practice was the best practice I have ever had here. I wouldn't have changed anything about it.
---             On Friday, we went to San Diego's festival; we played foosball for probably a half hour (we all really enjoyed playing that) and then ate some churros. There was a lucha libre performance that none of my family seemed to enjoy as much as we liked the idea of watching it. Then we shot BB guns at little metal levers that when you hit them it would activate music and dancing puppets. It was very fun to do!
---             On Saturday, I went to Lorena's birthday breakfast with her family. In the U.S. when they say a family birthday they generally mean their siblings and parents; here they invite cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even more distantly related family members! Also when they say birthday party it means like a WHOLE day party. It was really fun because I met a lot of cool cousins I didn't even know she had and we played some fun party games.
                At one point Lorena (who I had been sticking with practically the whole time), went to go set something up and told me to wait where I was. Monica--who is the cousin who was around at the time- started asking me questions. First she asked me if I had relatives in the United States and when I told her that I was from the United States, she was gob-smacked! I was kind of surprised she didn't just automatically assume that's where I was from. So, apparently I sound mostly like a Mexican! She proceeded to interrogate me about the U.S. The question I thought was the funniest was when she asked me if there are a lot of carpets in the U.S. and once I answered that, yes, there were many, she then questioned how they kept them clean! I said normally they have a welcome mat or something similar and that it depends in what climate you live in. I forgot to mention that in the U.S. most people have vacuums which is pretty much essential for living in carpeted places. She also asked if most things are industrial and gave me some examples of things she thought there were a lot of in the U.S. (pre-made microwaveable food, big stores etc).
              We played musical chairs (I tied for first); we played a game where everyone ties a balloon to thier ankle and then tries to keep theirs out of reach while attempting to pop others (I was the first to lose because my ballon popped with the sun), and then we played basketball. That was pretty fun until I was accidentally elbowed in the face by Lupita (one of Lorena's many cousins), though she gave me a big hug and said she was so sorry. I didn't blame her and it was kind of funny how part of my lip ballooned up!
               For Lorena's gift I gave her a a picture of her and me in our costumes for the Day of the Dead festival! She seemed to really like it and gave me a big hug after she opened it!