Last Wednesday, a group of around 100 Japanese students arrived in Cambridge. There's an organization that plans and assembles host families in the region to invite in 1 to 2 Japanese students into their home. My family volunteered to take one in this time around. Currently, we have a 17 year old student named Kensuke Sawata living with us. 

Kensuke is very shy and doesn't speak much English; but I don't blame him. Being flown basically across the world to a whole new country and then staying in a strangers household would be terrifying. I know personally, I would have a lot of difficulties if I was in his position. Then there's the entire language barrier. In Japan, they do learn English as a second language, except when you're thrown into an all English environment it's definitely a challenge. Kensuke knows a few important English words and can charades a few things, but the word that he uses a lot is "Oh...Yes." Except I'm most certain that he doesn't actually know what I'm saying.

This isn't actually my family's first time hosting a Japanese student, Kensuke is our fourth. Each student that we've had in the past were all different. The first guy was super shy and didn't even try to speak. Then our third guys was so happy about everything and enjoyed his Canada experience. Most of the time they give us chop-sticks and rice paper fans and we simply try and find as many merchandise with Canadian flags and maple syrup treats.

This time, Southwood is really lucky and get to host half of the Japanese students at their school. I feel like that would so much fun to be with my friends and entertain the students. Maybe next year GCI will host the a group as well.

GCI had our second Coffee House this year. In case anyone is not familiar with the term Coffee House, it's basically just a talent show where we sell coffee. They are pretty popular at our school because we have a lot of students with amazing talents.
This Coffee House was special. All of the money raised went to three girls from my school, whom are going to Kenya this summer. And those girls just happen to be three really good friends of mine. They are traveling all the way over to Africa for three weeks to build a school. I was a little.. very jealous when they first told my about their trip. I was all upset because I really wanted to go as well. But then I realized that I can either be a bad friend and just mope around or I could be a supportive friend and help out. I chose the supportive side. I've donated money, helped with fundraising activities and a few other things and it has actually been  a lot of fun. I know that I don't get to voyage across the world, but at least I can proudly have my friends go!

Coffee Houses are usually a popular occasion, mostly because they don't happen to often in a school year. But also because you get to see a bunch of amazing music abilities that students have. Almost all of the performers are singing with a guitar or piano. Except occasionally some people might do stand up comedy or simply embarrass themselves on purpose. I wish that I could participate in a Coffee House one day, except I have no talent. My singing sounds like a dying cat, the best instrument that I could play would probably by the recorder or maybe the triangle because it seems easiest. Also I turn bright red when I'm standing in front of an audience. Even though I know I'll probably never perform, it's still a lot of fun to go and support the brave ones that go up.

My friends ended up raising a good amount of money, partly because there was a huge bake sale. I know that they will have a great time on their trip. I hope that my school continues to support other students in the school to help them make a difference in the world!

    This book has been around for awhile; it was first punished in 1954. Both my brother and my dad have read the book and they both had good words for it. The main part that they told me about was that it's interesting to see how the boys on the island form a government and stay alive. So when I was picturing that in my head, I thought that there was going to be a group of 16 to 18 year old kids on an island. And that they would all be mature and strong because of their age. But I was wrong. The ages of the boys on the island are from 6 to 12 years old. That's crazy! When I was about 10 years old I didn't know much about any government structure or most importantly any clue on how to survive on a deserted island. I've just started reading the book but I know that I am going to enjoy it.

    A lot of TV shows have made little jokes here and there about the book, except the one that I remember the most was The Simpsons parody. In that episode the school bus crashes off a bridge, the kids get stuck on island, and then they figure out how to survive. It was a pretty good episode, but I'm trying to think back to key events that they covered that will most likely happen in the original book.
I remember one of the kids eating all the food, there being a giant boar on the island, and then the kids eating the pigs. So far in the book I'm pretty sure that those events will occur. One of the characters in the book is really fat, so he'll probably get into the food. Another little kid said that he saw a beast in the night, which could possibly be the giant boar. And they have seen a few little pigs running around the island so I'm guessing that they will be the food source.

    I'm really excited to read this book, mostly because it'll give me something to do for a while. Hopefully Lord of the Flies is just as good as people say it is.

    I was walking down the street, saw a nice car, smashed the window then hot wired it, currently I'm making my way to Vegas driving 200 km/h.

    Yeah no, that's probably the complete opposite of what happened. My dad drove me down to the parking lot of the school by my house and then we switched seats. I passed my G1 written test last week so I knew all of the rules and correct signs for driving. Except, once you're actually sitting in front of the steering wheel, all that knowledge wasn't that useful. I first started off very slow (and when I say very slow I mean like a snail could of beat me in a race). It was such a weird feeling to actually be controlling the car. For like the first minute, I had the biggest smile on my face because I felt so proud. Then all of a sudden I realized that it's not just some walk in the park, I had to deal with signalling my turns, spinning the wheeling around, figuring out which pedal does what and how hard I should press it. My smile quickly faded and I was starting to get stressed out about everything. My heart was pounding so hard. I am an adrenaline junkie; I love roller coasters, high buildings, scary movies, but this was a whole new level.
   
    After a while I started to get the hang of it and began to drive in a smoother motion instead of all the stop and go actions. I even once made it to 20 km/h, but that I like warp speed for me. I do feel better about my driving, my dad and I will keep working on my skills. It's going to definitely take time for me to work my way up and learn new skills.  Slow and Steady

Any kids born in the late 90's should be familiar with some of the best shows on earth. The Family channel used to be filled with amazing TV shows that made me glued to the TV for hours. My top three favourite shows were The Weekenders, Kim Possible and Recess. I definitely watched every episode multiple times but I still kept on watching the shows. Now when I look at the Family channel it's filled with shows that just sound and look plain dump. They created these shows that have horrible storylines and are really embarrassing to watch. But when I think about, as a kid TV shows that were easy to follow and had stupid jokes were what every kid wanted. So I guess the Family channel hasn't changed that much, it's just me who has grown up.
I have recently started to go back on YouTube and search up the full episode of old TV shows.Yes they are childish, but it's good once and a while to let out the inner child of you! 

My cousin and his girlfriend have a 6 month old baby named Henri and this Easter holiday was the first time that the whole family was together with the baby. Well that's not actually true, Henri was there for Christmas but he was so tiny and slept in his bed the whole time. Now he's a bit older and bigger so everyone was passing him around and making him laugh. Henri was starting to get a little grumpy because he was hungry to my cousin took him away to feed him. After Henri finished eating the cycle continued and the baby got pasted from person to person. My dad was next in line and when he got the baby Henri, he started to play rocket ship with Henri and throw him up in the air. I should mention that my dad at that time was standing right next to the table filled with all kinds of foods. My aunt and and grandma were warning my dad that something bad might happen and my cousin explained how Henri does have a history of throwing up after he eats. So there's my dad; standing beside the food with the baby extended above his head and then... he pasted baby Henri to my grandpa.
Oh yeah, the disaster of the night was that I ate too much appetizer and wasn't hunger for the big supper.
---I bet you were expecting at different ending!---

My good friend Sam had her last day at school today before she packs up and leaves to Newfoundland. I've been to Newfoundland once before and it's truly a spectacular place. Huge rock masses overlooking the endless ocean, beautiful coves and bays surrounded by ecstatic mountains and sharp cliffs. So yes, I'm a little jealous that she gets to wake up every morning to the breathe taking sights. But still, it's Newfoundland! So far away!  It's the equivalent of about 50 Boston Marathons away, or around 4,200,000 steps to walk there. It really sucks. I started to truly get to know Sam this grade 10 year mostly because of Drama and then we started to talk more in other classes. I'm really going to miss her. There won't be anyone to quietly say 'Bless you' after each of some ones sneeze, or hear another opinion on the latest Pretty Little Liars episodes.
I hope she loves every new experience that Newfoundland throws her way and I know that she'll do awesome in life because she's such a bright and smart girl.
I don't want to say goodbye, I'd prefer to say see you soon because I hope that we bump into each other later on in life!

Here's a link to Sam's blog ---- http://samantharubia.weebly.com/index.html 

I was looking back at the previous things that I've wrote in my class and I noticed a few times that I was typing FPP instead of FFP. For some reason in my brain I thought that the word 'forum' was spelled with a "PH". I can see how I went wrong because they both make the same sound, but then all of a sudden it hit me, why does a P and a H put together make the same sound as F! It got me thinking of all the other strange spelling and grammar techniques that we use in the English language. Such as; what is with silent letters? If we don't pronounce the letter, then why do we write it? The word tsunami seems pointless to add a T, other words just put a K in front of it and then it magically becomes a new word. It must be really tough for people to switch languages to English. For me, I grew up learning English so it's implanted in my head all of the weird techniques. Also there are a few words that are spelled like they should rhyme
(just pointing out; why is there and H is rhyme?), but we pronounce them differently. Such as, Worm and Norm. Why aren't they rhyming? Another group of words that I always find odd are Thought, Through and Though. All you are doing is add or taking away one letter and now they words mean something completely opposite for one another. So my sympathy goes out to all of those poor kindergarteners and foreigners attempting to tackle the English language for the very first time!

Finally getting the courage to run into the ocean knowing that it’s going to be incredibly cold. The cool ocean breeze gives me goose bumps and chills my body before I even enter the water. My first steps into the water make me want to turn around from the pain of the icy water. I keep on walking deeper and deeper into the ocean trying to achieve my goal of swimming in the ocean. I’m standing on my tippy-toes and jumping over each wave trying to avoid submerging myself. My dad has already sprinted past me and dove beneath the water. Up ahead, a wave much bigger than all the other ones approaches me. I know it’s my time to be brave and dive under water. Just before the wave crashes against me a dive head first into the strong force of the wave. The water is brain numbingly cold and I quickly push back up to the surface. The saltiness from the ocean covers my lips and makes my taste buds tingle. The air is not chilly anymore and water isn’t so painfully cold. I jump in the waves a bit along feeling proud that I accomplished my goal. As soon as I stop moving, the water temperature feels like it plummeted 100 degrees below 0 and I race out of the water to wrap myself in a soft, warm towel.

- I took the picture from my hotel room in Myrtle Beach

It is greater than God and more evil than the devil. The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you'll die. What is it?