Mid-Terms! :(

The Mid-terms are still not over, but it's about to an end. As any other exams, students get nervous about it, it's pretty understandable...Particulary, I was worried about the writing midterm, 2 hours and a half for an essay it's too little, I usually take more than five hours to do the essays. I need to research about it, organize my ideas and then I start writing it. I usually do the "whole process" in two or three days, I think I can do better doing this. In the mid-term my plan was to do an outline, write everything and then do the final draft. Bad plan... I changed my mind when I was already writing it because I just realize I wouldn'd have enough time. Anyway, I made it!!! I did the best I could taking in consideration the time we had!!! Now, I can just wait... nothing can be changed anymore! At least, now, everybody is relieved... happy!hahhaahahha. Tomorrow we have the listening part... I don't like listenings, they are really boring to me. Then we have to focus on midterms presentations and the next book report. Ohhh, this post is not interesting at all, it looks like I'm describing EAP schedule... but, actually, to tell about anything related to EAP is pretty much to describe its activities. I'd like to show a little bit about myself and my life but I'd rather not to do it every single post or I'll run out of ideas soon. That's it for today!!! Good luck all!!! I hope you all succeed!!! See you.

Matheusinho!!!

Hi everybody, how are you doing? I have been thinking about my blog and I just realized my posts are way too profound... if I keep doing this, when I finish ESL, ops, I mean LEAP program, I will be ready to publish my autobiography. The fact is, to write about my own life makes more sense than to write about silly and ordinary facts about everyday life. I am only 20 years old but I am sure I experienced some great moments. So, today I am going to write about my little brother, Joao Vitor. My brother is 11 years old, we live together with my parents. When he was still learning some words I had to pay much more attention about the I used to say. A few times I said bad words near him, he had never listened those words and did not know the meaning as well, but he started to repeat it. I used to tell him "don't say that", it would just make things even worse!!! My brother imitates everything I do, For example: he likes the same songs I do, the same soccer team, he dislikes the same food, speaks the way I do, same expressions, jokes... EVERYTHING. I wouldn't exagerate if I called him Matheusinho(inho in portuguese mean diminutive, like "little Matheus") he is myself 9 years and a half younger. When I wanna tease I call him "my fan", sometimes he gets angry when I do that, sometimes he uses it to get something from me. For example "Matheeeeeus, come here and play video game with your fan!!!" hahahahaahhahaha, sometimes it is hard to say no. I really miss my brother, I miss him bothering me all the time among other things, I miss him more than my friends or my parents. I had the idea of tattoing his face on my right shoulder. For now, it is just an idea, but maybe in a near future I'll be able do it, what means, to have the money and courage. Anyway, this is another part of my life, It is certainly an important chapter. See you.

My Life in U.S.

I always wanted to go to United States, It was like a dream to me. I tried a couple times but it didn't work out, finally in December of last year the dream was about to come true. I applied for a work program, a foreign exchange in which I would spend 4 months working, the 5th month to travel and enjoy the country could do whatever I wanted but work. I thought I could easily live without my family... we traveled to Miami together, they were going to Orlando, Florida while I was going to Williamsburg, Virginia. After my mom got into the plane I just realized that I had to do everything by myself, that was frightening situation. Anyway, I've gotta move on, to be sad and miss them wouldn't change the moment. When I arrived in Williamsburg, in spite of the lack of things to do, I was really enjoying it. It was winter and I had never faced such a low temperature. One of the first things I did when I get there, was to take a walk and know the neighbourhood. There was a outled near the hotel, which, by the way, was such a lousy establishment. I think the Outled was the most well attended place in Williamsburg by the brazilians, there more than 30 of us in the same hotel. In the day after my arrival I went to my "boss" office to figure out about my job, etc. He first asked me if I knew how to cook, but the thing is, that was not what I sign for!!!! In my contract said I was supposed to work as a recepcionist!!! He told I would work as a buser, and also told me it was a great job... he just convinced me. OK, no problem at all. The first 2 weeks I was still learning how to do it. So, I was not supposed to earn tips, but they gave me anyway. It was a great job, it consisted in helping the waiters; to serve water, bread, butter, to help the customers i they needed help, set up the table(before the meals and after the costumers leave), fold napkins, etc. I started to work in december and the hotel was really, really crowded. There was no time to rest, everybody was always in a hurry. Sometimes the waiters got stressed out, but it was perfect understandable. One of my goals when I decided to go to US was to have a great time. I got really disappointed with that. Williamsburg is a historical city, that was the place that one of battles for independence took place. Williamsburg was also known as a place that people go to retire. Anyway, there was absolutely nothing to do(I had the idea of calling it NOTHINGSBURG), we had only the movies and 2 pubs in the entire city besides of some private parties inside the rooms. After some time working, aproximately a month, some brazilians started to look for a second job. They just thought "In this city is hard to have a great time, so let's at least make some money!!!". That was not a bad idea at all!!! I decided to do the same. With a friend's help, I got another job, but there were some complications in it. 1) I couldn't drop the another one if I wanted, it was tied to my VISA; 2) I needed something with a flexible schedule; 3) The job was far from where we lived. In spite of all these difficulties I made it work. I'm going to describe my life, briefly, when I working in 2 places. I used to wake up 6 days a week 8 o'clock and go to my first work in the hotel riding my bike(yeah, I bought a bike there). At 4:30 when I was done, I had to ride my bike to go to the bakery(I worked as a salad guy), it used to take around 30 minutes to get there. After my shift was over at 11:30 or midnight, depending on the day, I had to get my bike again and go for another 30-minutes ride to get home. I lived doing this freaking crazy routine for over 2 months. I don't regret, to get a second job was the best thing I did in Williamsburg. I improved my English, I met some American guys, dated a girl(Kristen) and made good money. Ohhhh, I have much more to say, but I'd better stop right now. In conclusion, I definetely had a great experience, and got much more mature.

"Mi viejita"

Girls, always girls, the best thing God created!!!hummmm, I thought that loud... It would be better not to write it, they don't deserve much attention, anyway, they can become conceited, hhahahahahahahaha. This post is about girls, but to write about girls in general would be pointless, to treat them like trofeys wouldn't be a gentleman thing. I decided not to write about girls, but a girl in special, a special girl, Natalie. As I wrote in the first post, I took ESL program last spring here in UofC. Being really sinceer, when I decided to come to Calgary I had many goals; to get nice girls was among of them(of course I didn't tell that to my parents). On my first day, as any other normal guy, I started to look for interesting girls, everything done in a unconsciously way. Acting like that was something I couldn't help it, it was stronger than me!!!
hahahahahha Unfortunately I didn't find any interesting girls in my class. Later that week, a Colombian friend(Ricardo) introduced me some girls. One of them was Natalie, a beautiful, charming, Venezuelan girl, she was defintelly interesting to me!!! There are some really cute girls that are very boring or have nothing else to offer besides their beauty, but definetely not Natalie. In spite of her shyness, she was friendly and sensible. We used to spend our lunchtime together, the four of us(Elizabeth, Natalie, Ricardo and I) it was fun... I was always making fun of her, especially about her age(she is 26 years old) and telling stories, anyway, I was just being myself. Doing it I could break the ice. As soon as the time went by, we started to get closer and my interest for her only got bigger and bigger. I just realized that Naty was a girl I had to know better before making a move, she had to trust me, that was what I did. She played the tough girl for a while, but then everything worked fine and we started to date. The time we spent together was awesome, we had a lot of fun, I learned many things being with her and also learned much more about myself. Unfortunately she is leaving today, other girls will come but I'll always remember Naty as someone especial, as a friend for the whole life!

"Se que no soy muy expresiva, pero de todo corazon te digo que eres una persona super especial y lindo, disfrute muchos momentos compartiendo contigo, te ruego me disculpes lo malo y sepas que tienes una amiga venezolanita que te tiene mucho carino y cuentas conmigo. Me encanto haberte conocido, te agradesco toda la ayuda que me prestaste, todo tu apoyo, tu amistad, tu tiempo, tu carino, tu compresion, tu siempre buen humor, tu optimismo que me encanta,
positivismo,..... en fin eres unico, super especial y excelente persona..... gracias, mil gracias por todo brasileiro, teteu, muchisisisimas grascias, tienes un lindo lugar en mi corazon y mi amistad incondicional.

Por favor, escribeme para saber de ti.....

cuidate mucho, y no te olvides de mi, por favor

un abrazote caluroso

Naty"

Starting LEAP program!

Here we go... Calgary is a freaking city!!!! hahahaha. I love it!!! Fortunately I'm back, problems with my Visa almost made me stay in Brazil, but the "Brazilian way" brought me back to Calgary! Can't you understand??? Ohhh, so forget about it... I invite you all to visit me and maybe I can show you some day, all I can say it is quite intriguing and amazing!!! I'm sure say I spent the best time of my life in this city last Spring, when I was here taking ESL. Actually I didn't worked my ass off but had lots of fun. Anyway, I'm back... I just realized that LEAP is not ESL, that's good! I need a course that force me to study, otherwise it won't happen. Until now I'm really enjoying LEAP, I also feel that I can improve my writing skills with Scott. I've got a little bit desapointed with how much I got in the first essay, but at the same time I agree about the points I've gotta improve. My intention after LEAP is not to go to college here, I'm already studying in Brazil, International Relations. I'm getting LEAP to improve my english, it is not so bad, but is always necessary to improve it. In addition to that, ops, I don't need to write like that, hahahahahhahhaha, I think I'm freaking out, I just can't write in a non-formal way anymore!!! Anyway, in the future I intend to come back and take another course related to International Relations, I thinking about International Law or something related to environment, I haven't decided yet. Anyway, that's all for now, I promisse to write about something less boring next time! See you