Thursdays are definitely my favorite day of the school week! So I arrived at school about five minutes before the bell rang. My host brother went off with his friends so I decided to head up to my classroom. As I rounded the corner to the stairs, I saw a huge furry creature at the end of the hall. It was half waddling, half scampering as it plowed into the doorway of the office. I couldn't tell what it was at first. It was about the size of a small corgi dog and it had all different colored fur. As it disappeared into the office I realized it was a very fat cat. I asked one of my classmates and they explained that the school had two cats that lived there. There use to be a dog too, but now it's fertilizing dandelions (if you get what I mean). I think the cats use to be strays then someone fed them and they stayed. Personally, I think a cow would look lovely in the courtyard at my old high school.

In Psychology, we talked about hippies. The guys were eager to explain what American music artists influenced the era. In gym we played volleyball. I was so ecstatic that I didn't have to play before I left my other high school because playing volleyball usually consisted of me ducking and apologizing for missing the spiring orb that was coming crashing towards my head. Well I haven't improved much, though I tried not to duck. We joined with another class so I got to sit out with some other girls for the last few minutes. They proceeded to sing at the top of their lungs any song that popped into their heads. It was hysterical when the gym teacher started dancing. The kids bring their gym clothes in every gym day. There is a lady who takes their student card and in return gives them a key for a locker to use during class. The locker room is much smaller than at my old school, with only one row of lockers and three shower sections where we change. Even though it's warmer here than NY (around 50 degrees), the school is colder. Really, I'm not kidding, I know how cold my old school can be. But they have no central heating in the school so everyone just keeps their jackets on. Some kids even wear gloves in class. I can't wait for April when it'll be much warmer. In Sociology we finished watching The Constant Gardener and started The Dead Poets Society.

After school, my host mother picked me and my host brother up and we went out for lunch in Santarem. After we went to the heart of Santarem where all the shops are. I got the rest of my school books and got to window shop. The road around the shops is made of cobblestones and there are mosaics on many of the shop walls. We stopped at my favorite shop, the Pasteleria for croissants and rolls. We also went food shopping before heading home. My history teacher let me take home and finish my test that we took on Wednesday. After translating the question on the internet, I realized I wrote some completely different answers so I have to fix that. I have a psychology test Monday. Now that I have the book, I need to start translating it. I predict lots of studying for the weekend...