It's a Small World

Yesterday I had Sociology, Project, and Psychology class. I have absolutely no idea what the teacher talked about in Sociology. All I know is that she went over the homework (which I couldn't do, since I don't have the books yet). In Project we went to the computer lab an looked up information for our report. And in Psychology we talked about conforming to groups. We had a girl step out of the room and the teacher drew three lines of different heights on the board labeled A, B, C. Then she drew another line the same size as C, but told us to all say that it matched line B. The girl came back in and we all said B matched the line so she did too, even though the evidence was right in front of her. Another thing about the school, which is kind of awkward, they don't have toilet paper in the stalls in the bathrooms. They have toilet paper as you walk in the bathroom, but not in the stalls, which I think is very strange. One of the girls in my class invited me to come to her martial arts class sometime. I think that would be lots of fun to do. My family picked me up from school early and we went to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It's about the distance from South Lewis to Watertown I think. Of course we made it there very quickly because Europeans drive very very fast. My host father reached 185 km/hr on the highway which is 115 mph! In Lisbon, we ate at an Italian Restaurant. The owner was American, but he learned to cook in Italy. The ironic thing was he knew where Syracuse was and expressed how much he liked upstate NY. "There really is no place like it!" he exclaimed. Thinking about it, I had to agree. You really don't realize how much you appreciate places, people, things until you don't have them anymore. (And there really is no place exactly like northern NY). We went to the hospital after to visit a relative with a broken leg. We went to one of the shopping malls after. The mall had expensive stores like Tommy Hilfiger, Prada, and Armani. Below the clothing shops was a supermarket. Portugal has some similar brand names (like Barilla Pasta and Vitamin Water), but lots of different European ones as well. Of course being close to the ocean, their seafood selection is much better than upstate NY too. The mall had moving ramps so people could take their shopping cart right to the parking garage. To get into and out of the parking garage, you have to drive on a winding ramp that is very very narrow. If I rolled down my window, I would only have to stick my pinky finger out and I could have touched the wall. That being said, I have only seem one hummer since I've arrived. Most everyone has very small cars because the streets are so narrow and there really is no need for enormous vehicles. Some Europeans refer to American vehicles as "muscle cars" because of their huge size. On the car ride back to Santarem, the roads were packed because it was rush hour. Europeans don't believe in leaving room in any direction when they drive. All the cars were literally bumper to bumper.