Ah, chocolate. So delicious. I do like a lot of sweets, but out of the "candy" variety, chocolate is probably my favorite. (I say probably because there may still be more delicious foods out there, just waiting for me to try them.) Milk chocolate in particular. Dark chocolate's a bit too bitter (a lame attempt at wordplay there) and white chocolate's artificial... But milk chocolate is simply splendid. Right after winter vacation, I noticed that my parents had purchased a box of chocolate cookies, and I ate so many of them that I gained several pounds. (I still haven't been able to shed them. In fact, I gained weight again. I wouldn't care so much if it didn't mean that it makes my pants not fit so well.)

Too bad chocolate isn't really the best thing for your health. Recently we had to bring in food that we cooked to French class, as the product of a cooking project. Many of the foods were desserts, and most of those had chocolate in them. What's funny is that the very day that many of us brought in the chocolate foods, the teacher said that she'd just been to the dentist. He had not been happy with her teeth...because, apparently, she'd eaten too much chocolate.

I'm pretty sure my dentist won't be too happy either. He always tells me that I need to floss, and I realize that I really ought to...But I'm not good at it; sometimes it hurts, and it's a hassle besides. I wonder if I have cavities again? I never seem to feel any pain from them, so it always surprises me to find out that I have them when I see the dentist. Maybe it does hurt but the signals for pain haven't been reaching my brain.

I wouldn't be too surprised, because lately, I think I am somewhat of a masochist. Just the other day, in PE, I was playing soccer, and it got kind of wild. I probably could've stopped myself from falling, but instead I let myself fall to the ground. I hit the ground pretty hard, and I was asked the customary "Are you okay?" by several girls. But I actually felt better after getting bashed up, just as I enjoy feeling hungry and even having pulled muscles (if I pulled the muscle from a good run the previous day, that is, and not from being in a weird position).

Ah, but it is getting to be around time for Valentine's Day, and Singing Valentines and rose grams are going up for sale at my school. I wonder if anyone here gives chocolates for Valentine's Day? When I was in elementary school we'd give each other little Scooby Doo/Clifford/Spongebob/etc. valentine cards, with a lollipop or some other candy. But I don't recall ever seeing anyone give just chocolates for Valentine's Day, and certainly not hand-made ones in a heart-shaped container or anything like that. I guess it's either something kind of personal that you wouldn't do within sight of other people, or I've been reading too much manga and keep expecting people to behave like they're in Japan. (No White Day here, after all.)

I was reading one of the two Kaichou wa Maid-sama! side stories that comes after chapter 28, the one about Yukimura and his sister. I thought it was really a lot like a certain episode in Ouran High School Host Club, when Nekozawa isn't the princely big brother that the little sister wants. Well, Maid-sama and Ouran were both in the LaLa magazine, so I guess they would have stylistic similarities. By the way, I'm looking for good manga to read - either really funny or just something that would touch your heart, or both - preferably already finished (but not that old, at least in terms of art style, if you know what I mean). Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Labels: chocolate, cooking, day, dentist, food, gift, health, injury, kaichou wa maid-sama, maid sama, manga, masochist, ouran high school host club, pain, sweets, teeth, valentines, weight

I saw my mom reading a Chinese newspaper, a common activity of hers. There was a page featuring, France, Paris in particular, and I saw a picture of a food dish with the words "Au Chien Qui Fume" under it. I said, "Oh, it must be something like a dog who smokes." My mom read the Chinese translation and said I was right about that. She seemed a little surprised. Well, I guess learning French is doing some good at last. (I mean, I really can't read Chinese...)

Au Chien Qui Fume is the name of a restaurant in the Paris. See if you can understand anything on their website. XD I can vaguely read it...And considering that whoever is reading this right now understands English, you could probably guess at some of the words.

I recently heard that there was some regulation being passed in France saying that you couldn't smoke in restaurants anymore, I believe it was Paris in particular... So then people went outside to smoke. However, some restaurants are open late at night (bars too, I guess?) and so the smokers outside make noise. People who live upstairs above the restaurants get annoyed by it and have complained so restaurants/bars had to close at an earlier time. This made people upset, saying something along the lines of, "It's Paris! The city of lights! And now you're taking this away from us!"

You know, I've always wondered why countries where people smoke seem to have such long average lifespans. France and Japan are both countries where there are quite a few smokers and yet the average life expectancy is quite high in both countries. Perhaps other factors like diet end up outweighing it? (My parents actually question whether smoking is bad, but I don't think that is debatable. I mean, if nothing else, it makes your breath smell bad.)

Friday, being the closest day to Valentine's that we were in school (next week is a week off!), was the day Singing Valentines were going on. Just to get you up to speed if you don't have that at your school, a Singing Valentine is something that you can buy for a few dollars from the school for a friend or significant other. The recipient will be sung to by students from the school choir, as well as a card from the sender and a piece of candy. I didn't send any this year, because I really wasn't thinking about it at all, but one of my friends did send me one.

One of my teachers was sick of all the Singing Valentines. At first I was shocked by his attitude since the singers had probably practiced their songs and choreography, and anyways it's easy for me to respect those better than myself at something, but then my teacher said that during third period, there were 9 Singing Valentines. That's a lot of singing. In my period, one student got 2 Singing Valentines.

There were various groups of students, like a group of people wearing white shirts, ties, and red hats, a group of people with pink outfits and fairy wings, a group of people with plaid shirts, and a group of pizza deliverers. I liked the pizza group the best because I liked their songs. (And they were unique since they had two guys in the group...I bet those were the only two guys in the school choir. It's kind of sad how there's such a huge difference between the number of girls and guys. I wonder if it's any different in high school.)

Speaking of high school, it is really starting to loom near for me. On Thursday, I went to the high school that I will most likely be attending to listen to presentations about science, math, and language arts (since history isn't offered for freshmen, there was no presentation for that) and to get information about the electives offered at the school. My dad says the teachers there are pretty cool, like college professors. I am not sure what to think of this because I'm not that sure about what college professors are "supposed" to be like.

Anyways, the school newspaper looked pretty cool. It was pretty different from my school's newspaper, that's for sure. Does four years really make that much difference? My school's newspaper was fairly amusing - the bad advice column was great - but now it's not even there anymore because Journalism was cut from the electives (Not enough money! Not enough students! UGH!). The articles in my school's newspaper weren't all that long most of the time and some of them were just kind of unexciting, corny descriptions of school dances and rallies. But the high school's newspaper talked about actual issues, and showed the car accidents that have happened. There were also pictures of the crossing guards, which I thought was nice - they should be recognized for their work.

I wonder if I should take Journalism when I reach 11th or 12th grade? I've always worried that it would be really hard work, having to stay after school and interview people and slave away typing articles on laptops. I guess I'm just really lazy and fearful of hard work. I can't always stay this way... (As much as I'd like to retire, it's simply not that likely to happen in the near future. I'll have to get used to studying or working for long hours and dealing with more burdens over time)

Labels: au chien qui fume, chinese, choir, french, gender, group, hard work, high school, journalism, lifespan, newspaper, paris, restaurant, singing, smoking, teacher, valentines, website

My history grade went down a bit lately. The first was caused by stapling my China test in the wrong order and losing 5 points, making my perfect A become an A-, I think (you may know what I'm talking about if you've read my previous posts). So I almost forgot about that, except Mr. Blair passed back the history tests today, and he said in front of the class how he was calling out to me at the end of class back then because he was giving me the chance to fix it. I feel terrible because I wanted to get my lunch and had just run out on him, therefore ruining one of my grades.

And then it turns out I did pretty bad on my Japan project speech. I got a C, in fact. This is a major embarrassment to me and now my mother is considering signing me up for public speaking classes. I took Speech & Debate class last year in the summer and it was literal torture. I figured I would have to commit a crime or something to avoid it, but I'm reluctant (I heard there are some really scary people in jail). I was considering talking to Mr. Blair about these happenings, but then again, I brought it on myself, so I'm just wallowing in misery in the meantime. (I still have an A in history but it's not a high A like it used to be.)

Anyhow, on to some lighter news. Today is Friday the 13th, so that became part of the question for Dialing for Dollars. That's our school's game show, held every Friday. One of the counselors and the vice principal run the show. Your class can win prizes if they can answer the question asked correctly. (The classes are randomly drawn from a box and then are called via phone, so that's why it's called Dialing for Dollars) The answer turned out to be August. I had guessed it might be August (but this was a random guess, and Room B didn't get called). Still, I suspect I may have a sixth sense. Ooh.

Also, as Valentine's Day is tomorrow, but tomorrow is Saturday, we had Singing Valentines today. The days before you could've ordered SVs for a friend/someone you want to embarrass/someone you "like". You pay $3 and on Friday the people in FAME (acting, singing, dancing elective) and Dynamics (school choir) will come by in one your classes, give you a card the sender wrote plus a lollipop, and then they'll sing and dance around a chair (which you sit in, like the hot seat). It's entertaining to watch, but kind of weird to be the recipient, which I was, twice. The first was sent by one of my friends and I got a disturbing song about lips (apparently it was from the Ella Enchanted movie?). The second time, nothing was written on the card, but I suspect it was another friend, who didn't have enough time since the bell rang. They gave me a song about the letters in the word love. Both disturbing songs.

Oh well, the day's over now, and I might as well keep on living (even if it means I have to play music on purpose to fill up the dead silence). February break, here I come.

Labels: break, dialing for dollars, emotions, friday the 13th, history, school, singing, speech, valentines

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