English class

Agh, my Internet connection has been down, and I've been too lazy to fix it, so I'm writing this from my mother's computer.

Seeing as I live in Mexico, the foreign language we learn at school is English. Hardly anyone can speak it half-decently, so a few people- I have no clue as to where they got the idea- jokingly "translate" things into English by adding "-ation" to the word. For example, Chóforo, who I can't even begin to describe (suffice it to say that he is the object of about one third of the total of jokes made every day and practically has his own subculture) becomes "Choforation", Kevin becomes "Kevination", and so on.
Today in English class, we were learning about some James Watt guy, and the class was repeating stuff (I am James Watt, I was an inventor, etc.). There was a bit where we had to say "I was born on January 19th, 1736". This phrase, however, proved to bee too long for them, so it came out as a confused babble lasting about 10 seconds. At the end, Mikey cried out "-ation!".

Ah, happy days.

Some things that people do that annoy me

I was on my bed reading and it suddenly hit me that for a while I've wanted to write what it is that annoys me about people, and I finally have time to do it (well, okay, I've always had the time, but now I'm in the mood to do it).
This is not, of course, the entire list. If I ever remember something else to add, I will, I f I... uh, have time.

1. Smoking- That's just dumb. Why do people smoke? Not only is it horrible for your health, but it makes your breath stink. Goodbye lungs, hello cancer.

2. Sudden, fake, attitude changes- When one moment people are "Ooooh, a bald rat-sized dog! With a glittery T-shirt!!!", and the next they are all, "I am dark. Nobody understands me. Life is bla bla bla [insert "deep" thought here]". The best example I have seen lately was a shiny pink website decorated with anime characters in frilly little dresses and big, big, eyes, and a post saying stuff such as "There is a dark side of me nobody knows. They do not know the real me. I am different. They do not understand." No, I don't understand you, confused little person. Pick a personality and stick with it.

3. People at the movies- You've been looking forward to watching this certain movie, and you've finally got the chance to go see it. You get there nice and early, find a good seat. But- horror of horrors- you discover you have to share the theater with either one (or several) of the following:

a) People who won't shut up, even when everybody yells at them (sometimes this makes them erupt into giggles, which is even worse- and that leads us on to the next one)
b) People who won't stop laughing. Once I watched a movie which I absolutely loved next to a large man who snorted to himself at all the serious parts
c) Large groups who don't pay attention to the movie
d) People who can't refrain on commenting on the movie
e) People who sneeze/cough/snore a lot
f) People who brought along small children to a movie where it is obvious that kiddie will get bored and, depending on the age, can cause all sorts of disturbances, including (but not limited to) crying, complaining, asking loudly for something (usually candy or popcorn), climbing all over, etc.

There are more, but I have to go to the orthodontist.

Hulk, grrarrr!

Today is the 15th of September. On the 16th of September is the anniversary of Mexico's Independence, but since today is Friday, the ceremony at school was today, seeing as there is no school on Saturday.
On occasions like this, we're supposed to wear a dark green tie to match our school uniform. Last night I forgot to stash mine in my schoolbag (the tie's on my bed, where it usually lives), and consequently, I forgot to bring it. I remembered it on my bus, along with the Civics homework I dindn't do (which was completed afterwards at school). I stopped to buy some green ribbon at a little stall just outside school. The only green ribbon they had, however, vas a light, almost pistachio green, and was rather thin. Oh, well, no time to go somewhere else, and anyway, all the nearby shops have no cloth ribbon (I know this owing to previous situations resembling this one). Huff, puff, go to school. Okay.... it seems that I'm the only one who forgot their tie. There were probably others, but I didn't see or remember them.
And then I proceeded to fix my "tie". I whipped out a green marker and colored in my pistachio tie, so that when I was finished it, it was acceptably dark-ish.
The marker was water-based, so it rubbed off on my hands, turning then Hulk green. (they still are green as I type this).
It turned out the ribbon was not long enought to go round my neck and hang down, and the knot was pathetically small. So I took a piece of card, cut out several triangles the same size, and glued them back to back. I then wrapped the ribbon around the triangles, and secured them into place with a paper clip. To attach it to my collar, I bent another paper clip into a sort of hook, and stuck one end in the back of the tie, the other end in my shirt collar. And there you have it, a sucky "tie" made out of a ribbon that turns your shirt collar and hands green.

Chips

The Geography teacher who taught us in first year told us she would give us extra points each bimester if we gave her enough empty chip bags. Explanation: She found out about this thingy where people take chip bags and weave them into purses. When you give them chip bags, they give you money. So she used extra points as an incentive for us to run around and collect other students' garbage for her. I never joined in- I didn't need the extra points- but a few people did. Not that many, though; at least, not as far as I remember.
This year, however, she has many newbies doing her bidding. Today, there were about five, maybe seven, firsties crowded around the trash can, fighting ferociously over chip bags (they tried to snatch mine before I could bat them away, seeing as I did want the remaining half of my snack). Afterwards I had an idea: I snuck up from behind and waved the now empty bag over their heads. Half a second later three hands shot up, and a quick scuffle insued. A winner was proclaimed.
Then inspiration struck. First, a friend and I got a chip bag. Then, we got Emmanuel, who is really tall, to go over and wave it above the kiddies' heads. The firsties, being firsties and therefore short, couldn't reach the bag. They immediately moved their position from a ring aroung the trashcan to a ball around Emmanuel. They shoved him off, and after a few meters, he ran, the bag high up over his head, to where Rodrigo was, the firsties hot on his heels. He had just enough time to stuff the bag down Rodrigo's sweater before they attacked.
The whole thing happened very quickly, and it was absolutely hilarious.

Here's what I do at school

Last week in English class we had to write a text that describes a country's famous sights. For example:

France is a country in Europe. Its capital is Paris. The Louvre Museum is in France, and so is the Arc de Triomphe.

We were supposed to do it in pairs (I usually do that kind of thing alone, though, seeing as my English is, frankly, better than my teacher's). The guy behind me and the guy diagonally across from me wrote theirs together. They picked Germany, and couldn't think of anything. I suggested the remains of Nazi concentration camps, but they said they'd rather not (I don't know why, as, according to my sister, they are popular tourist sites).
After ten minutes (and several jokes about sightseeing and German women), the teacher said "Ok, hand in your work". I went and got mine marked, and when I got back to my seat, they were laughing and congratulating themselves. Then they showed me their notebooks:

"Germany is a country in Europe. People speak German. The capital of Germany is Berlin. The Üghteniten is an important building in Germany."

It seems the teacher thought "Üghteniten" sounded German, too, so they got a ten.

A few days ago at recess, a friend and I were happily dancing a little piece we made up when a first year stuffed full of ego walked past and said that we should quit drugs. I picked up one of the fruits that fall from one of the trees (about half a centimeter in diameter, and very soft) and tossed it at him. Given my aiming skills, I failed miserably. My friend picked up a little rock slightly bigger than the fruit and chucked it at him full-force. It hit him beautifully, and it bounced off his head. He jumped and started to turn; my friend whirled me around and tugged me along with her so that we were casually walking away from the scene of the crime (afterwards she looked around for him and made sure he wasn't hurt; he looked fine enough, and if there was any damage at all, it was a bit of ego that flew out of him with the impact).

My sister

My sister was with me last night when I was doing my History homework. The conversation turned to handwriting; to give me a sample of hers, she wrote the following note in my agenda:

---Transcript---

Lalli:

Spider monkeys are cool, my darling squishy! And you are a kind of spider-monkey, methinks, so by transitivity you are a cool little squishy monkey, my pretty one! I send you lots of love my beloved. Hugs and kissies. Mua. XX

Izzy

---End of transcript---

My sister is 19 and is studying Mathematics. She can be quite baffling at times, which just makes me love her more. *huggles*

Sunday, time for nothing.

As some wise person or other probably said at some point, today is Sunday, "the day of lounging around and accomplishing little", aka. "the day of rest".

I was bored- er, resting- so I started poking around on Wikipedia (it's great for killing boredom. Look up things you've been curious about, or, if you can't think of anything, click random article until you get one you like and spend an afternoon learning about the British Royal Family)and read about a guy called Lalli. It seems he was a rich Finnish guy who chopped off a bishop's head with an axe. This came as a bit of a shock to me, as my family has always nicknamed me Lalli.