Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

First of all, for those of you who don't believe in Santa I have proof he exists. The other day I went up to Grouse Mountain with my Mom and Dad and my cousin Leslie. Her son~in~law, Devin, is the wild-life manager and was taking care of Dancer and Vixen for Santa. I got to walk Dancer! It was so cool.
Right now it's Christmas Eve. I am so excited about tomorrow! I'm going to wake up, open all my presents and then my parents and I are going to go skiing at Grouse Mountain. Afterwards, we'll meet my relatives at my grandma's house for a big family dinner. I love the holidays...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

M

Rock Show!

This weekend, I got to perform with my aunt's band cub as part of the Mint Records 20th Anniversary Show at The Waldorf. I dressed up in a bear cub costume and played bongos and percussion. It was a blast! I also threw out three t-shirts to the audience as special prizes. The place was sold out and the audience was awesome. Everyone sang along with us to the songs My Chinchilla, New York City, Your Bed, and Little Star. Afterwards, I watched a crazy band called The Evaporators. The lead singer, Nardwuar The Human Serviette, dove into the crowd and played the organ while everyone held him up. It was loud, sweaty and exciting! Here are some more photos of the show, courtesy of Vancouver photographer Paul Clarke.

Rock on,
Max

Nardwuar The Human Serviette Crowd Surfs At The Waldorf

My Mom Serves "Cubcakes" To The Fans

My Aunt Lisa Singing and Her Friend Anthony Playing in the Ukulele Orchestra

Back in Vancouver and finally a new post!

Hello! I'm back in Vancouver, BC. I just realized that is has almost been three weeks since I did my last blog post. I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to post but we were on the road and the days were packed with all kind of fun things.

Since my last post in the Bahamas I have been to...

*Orlando, Florida where we went to Universal Studios and Nasa (Kennedy Space Center)

*Washington, DC where we saw the White House, many other memorials on Capital Hill and some museums too. My favourite was the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial which just opened.

*New York City, New York, where we saw Grand Central Station, The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building (which we went up), FAO Swartz as well as the biggest Toys R Us I have ever seen in Times Square, the 911 Memorial, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge which we walked across. My Mom and I also went ice skating at Rockefeller Center. It was awesome!

Now I am back in Vancouver and back in school which has been great. My new teacher, Mr. Lundell, is a really nice man and I am learning a lot. It was great to see all of my friends again and it almost feels like I never left.

I have been thinking about my friends and school back in Florida and the good times I spent there. Maybe one day I could invite my Florida friends to come and hang out with me and my Vancouver friends. I bet we would have a great time.

Thank you everybody who supported me when I was doing this blog in Miami and and I'm planning on continuing to post weekly about my new Vancouver adventures. So stay tuned.

M

Dolphins!

Right now I am in the Bahamas with my family and I am having the most amazing vacation here. Yesterday I went to a place called Dolphin Cay here at our hotel and it was so cool. Here is what happened:

First we signed up for a close up meeting with a dolphin and then we changed into wet suits and headed in for our dolphin orientation. During the orientation we learned a lot about dolphins. Here are some of the main things that I learned about dolphins:

1. Dolphins are mammals.
2. They move their tails up and down, unlike sharks who move their tails side to side.
3. Dolphins can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes but cannot breath underwater.
4. Dolphins cannot go into a full sleep because they need to be conscious to breathe so they only let one half of their brain sleep at a time!
5. The dorsal fin is as unique as a person's face.
6. They swallow fish whole.
7. Dolphins can jump as high as 20 feet out of the water.
8. They can swim up to 25 miles per hour.
9. The average age that they live to in the wild is about 17 years but they can live up to 50 years.
10. Dolphins like to have their chins tickled. I got to do this and the dolphin laughed.

The dolphin that I got to meet was named Kelly. She was 37 years old and had was a mother to 3 babies. She had been rescued after she was let out to sea during Hurricane Katrina. She was brought to the Bahamas with a bunch of other dolphins where she lives now.  Kelly was really good at jumping very high in the air. I got to give her a kiss and hold her in the water which was awesome. I got to rub her belly and tickle her under her chin and when I did when made sounds like she laughing. Kelly could also wave her dorsal fins to say hello.

We are leaving the Bahamas tomorrow to go to Orlando. We are going to Disney World! I will post again when I get back.

M.

Happy Halloween

This is me and my friend Rosa. She used to live in Canada.

I know Halloween was yesterday but we were having so much fun here in the Bahamas yesterday I didn't have any time to write. I did want to tell you about the Halloween dance at my school on Thursday which was also my very last day at Feinberg Fisher School.

My costume was a zombified cowboy! My Dad, as he does every year, helped me get my costume and did my make-up. He loves Halloween as much as I do.

We all got into our costumes after school and headed right to the cafeteria where the dance was being held. There were some great costumes and lots of dancing. It was an awesome dance. At the end of the dance I said goodbye to all of my Miami friends and I felt very sad. I hope that I can come back to Miami and see all the great friends I made again.

Another great thing that happened on Thursday is that my teacher Ms. Llorca brought in some cupcakes as a treat because I was going away. They were delicious!

What did you do for Halloween?

M.

A Fun-filled Florida Party with My Friends

This past weekend was great. Here are two reasons why:

1. On Sunday I went to a Miami Dolphins football game with my Dad. We had a great afternoon eating pizza, chicken fingers and drinking soda while we cheered on the home team. The Dolphins were winning 15 to 0 (two touchdowns and one field goal) almost the whole game until the last three minutes when bam, bam, bam we were tied 15 to 15. The game went into overtime and then the other team scored a 3 point field goal and won the game. It was a bit sad but we still had a really great time. Go Dolphins go!

2. On Saturday was the very best part of my weekend. I invited three of my friends from school over to our apartment for a pool party. We met here at 1 pm and headed into my room to play some video games. One of my friends brought over his controllers so we could all play at the same time. We had a blast!

After that we went down to the pool to swim and have jumping contests. My Dad captured one of our contests which you can see above. We were seeing who could jump the farthest. After we played some football and then we ordered pizza. I really like these three guys and I was so glad that they could come over. We had an epic time together.

I only have three more days of school left and on Thursday we are having a Halloween party and dance. I am really looking forward to it..

I should be back before with a Florida fact before then!

M

Florida Facts #7

Okay so I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I am coming home. The bad news is I am coming home. I have totally missed everyone at home and so that is why it is good news that we are coming home but now I have really started to settle in here and will be sad to leave.

My Dad's show, Charlie's Angels, was cancelled and so we should be back in Vancouver by the middle of November. Before we come home we are going on a bit of an adventure. We are going to the Bahamas, then to Orlando then to Washington DC and then to New York City. It will be very fun and interesting and I will report my adventures along the way.

But now onto this week's Florida Facts! Facts about the Florida Keys!

Last weekend I went to visit Key West in the Florida Keys. My Grandma and Grandpa (who I call Boss and Pa) came to visit us in Miami and we so we thought it was the perfect time to explore this area for a couple of days.  It is a three hour drive to reach Key West and so half way there we stopped to get some lunch. During the drive it was pouring rain and then when we got there it was pouring rain and so we were trapped inside. It rained the entire time we were there but we did get to see a few cool things. We went to the pool in the rain which was fun. We drove around and looked at the town of Key West which would have been really great to walk around if it was sunny. We took a picture at the southernmost point in the continental USA.We visited the Ernest Hemingway House and went on a tour and we learned about how Hemingway brought six-toed cats to Key West and now there are currently 42 of these special cats that live his house/museum.

Here are some other cool facts about the Florida Keys:

1.The Florida Keys are located about 24 km south of Miami and extend out toward the southwest and then west toward the Gulf of Mexico.

2. The most populated city in the Keys is Key West.

3. The first inhabitants of the Florida Keys were the Native American tribes Caruso and Tequesta.

4. Through much the their modern history the Florida Keys have been an important area for drug smuggling and illegal immigration.

5. Geologically the Florida Keys are mainly exposed parts of coral reefs.

6. The total land area of the Florida Keys is 356 km2.

7. The climate of the Florida Keys is tropical as in the southern part of the state of Florida.

8. There is a total of 42 bridges connecting the keys.

9. In 1935 the Florida Keys were struck by one of the worst hurricanes in US history.

10. One of the most famous American authors, Ernest Hemmingway, lived in Key West for 9 years. (I visited his house!).

Okay, so those are some Florida Keys facts. I will check in again soon!

M

Florida Facts #6

Hey, hi, ho! Here is the next instalment of the Florida Facts series.

Here are some facts about Florida's climate. I have been thinking about how different the climate is here than at home. A couple of weeks ago I experienced some of Florida's hard core climate. I was at Flamingo Park playing soccer with some friends when we saw some dark clouds forming. The next thing you know everyone was grabbing the nets and their bags and running in every direction for cover.  It started to rain and then pour and then we heard thunder and then we saw lightening. My Mom and I ran under a tree but then some people yelled at us to get out from under the tree because the lightening could hit it.

We ran to a covered area nearby and in the distance we saw a lightening bolt that almost looked like it hit our apartment building. I was so scared as I have never been in such a enormous storm in my life. I was super worried that we were going to be hit by lightening and thunder was so loud it made me jump.

Not long after the rain had started the ground around us began to flood. After about 45 minutes it finally stopped and we walked back to our apartment through the flooded streets. It was good to get home.

Now here are some facts about the climate here:
1. Florida's official nickname is the "sunshine state".
2. Florida is the lightening capital of the country and has injured more than 2000 people since 1959.
3. Tropical cyclones have been reported in every month in Florida except for January and March.
4. The average temperature in Florida range from 18 - 21 degrees C (65-70 ºF) in the north and in the south 23 - 25 degrees C (73-77 ºF).
5. The earliest recorded of snow or sleet was in 1774.
6. Summers in Florida tend to be long, warm and pretty humid.
7. The warmest month in Florida is July and the coldest month is January.
8. There are more tornados per square mile in Florida than in any other state.
9. The rainy season is from June through September.
10. The climate in south Florida in considered to be tropical.

Just wanted to say thanks to Theo and Beckett for the note and the drawing and to Curtis for the cool action figure that you sent me and to Sara, Griffin, Molly, Leslie for the emails and to my new teacher back in Vancouver Mr. Lundell for the math book he sent to me.

Has anyone ever been in a thunderstorm before? Were you scared?

See you soon!

M

Florida Facts #5

Sorry that we are so delayed this week, but it has been a bit exciting around here. On Tuesday, our good friend Sarolta came to visit and is staying with until Saturday. My Mom is very happy!

So, here are our 10 Florida facts, this time about the FLORIDA EVERGLADES!

We went there to visit on Sunday and we really enjoyed it. We didn't know at all what to expect but in the end it was one of the most amazing and enjoyable days that we have had in Florida. We all loved it!

Some of the highlights for me included:
-holding a real live baby alligator
-holding a live boa constrictor snake
-standing up to my knees in the Everglades
-going an island to see a small cabin where one of the presidents of the United States used to go and play poker
-getting to sit up front with the skipper, named Keith, of the airboat

Okay, now on to the Everglade facts:
1. The Everglades are made up of 10,000 different islands.
2. The Everglades are the largest area of wetlands in USA.
3. This area is home to 67 different threatened and endangered species.
4 .The Everglades have 7 different species of ferns.
5. Native Americans living in and around the river called it Pahayokee, the "grassy waters".
6. The Everglades is the only place in the world where the American alligator and crocodile co-exist in the wild.
7. The Everglades is a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve.
8. The grassy plants that are everywhere are known as sawgrass and have serrated razor edge blades that are so sharp they can cut through clothing.
9. Many animals live in the Everglades including the racoon, skunk, opossum, bobcat and white tailed deer.
10. While the Everglades is often described as a swamp or forest wetland it is actually a very slow moving freshwater river.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to Curtis, Griffin, Sara and Molly from Queen Victoria school for writing to me.

Here are some more photos of our time in the Everglades. I will post again soon!

M

The End of My Sixth Week at Feinberg Fisher

A picture of me and my Mom after school today.

It is finally Friday. Well actually this week we only had 4 days of school so it was a pretty short and easy week. On Thursday we had the day off because it was Rosh Hashanah. Do you know what this is? I didn't know until this week myself.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Years. It marks the beginning of the year of the Jewish calendar and the words literally mean "head of the year" or "first of the year" in Hebrew. There is no work done on Rosh Hashanah (or school) and one of the customs during this two day holiday is to eat apples dipped in honey to make sure that you have a sweet year ahead.

Because there is a large Jewish population here in Miami Beach they close the schools knowing that many of the kids would not come to school anyway.

The rest of the week was pretty good. I worked on my science fair project, spelling, some math pages and a small essay for my PE class. They also introduced an online reading program called "Ticket to Read". This is a fun reading program where whenever you read a passage and answer some questions about what you read you will get tickets. With these tickets you can customize your online clubhouse. I like it quite a lot.

Today after school they were selling ices (like slushes) and my Dad bought me a watermelon flavoured one. After that my Dad had to go to work and so my Mom and I went to Sushi Samba for our weekly afternoon snack.

After that we went to an art gallery where artists also had their studios. Some of the artists were in their studios working and if the door was open you were allowed to go in. We saw some really great art. Here are a few of my favourite pieces:


On Sunday we are thinking that we might go to see the Everglades. It is about 30 minutes in the car from where we are. I will give you a full report on Monday with my Florida Facts blog section about our trip.

Cheers,

M

Florida Facts #3

Hi, I'm back with my weekly Florida Fact. Today we are going to be learning about Manatees. I had never heard about this mammal before I came to Florida. Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw a Mum and a baby in the water near our apartment.

The Manatee is a fascinating creature. Well, at least I am fascinated by them.

Here are 10 top facts about the Florida Manatees.

1. The Manatee is the state mammal of Florida.

2. Manatees are a large aquatic relative to the elephant.

3. They are herbivores that eat marine and freshwater plants.

4. They are 10 to 12 feet long and weigh 1,500 to 1,800 pounds.

5. Manatees live for 50 to 60 years in the wild.

6. The largest population of Manatees is in Florida where there are about 3000 of them.

7. They are an endangered species.

8. Some of the biggest threats that face them are climate change and boat strikes.

9. They are known for their gentle and slow moving nature.

10. Manatees communicate by squealing underwater to express excitement or fear.

 A couple of weeks ago I was with my Dad and we saw these two manatees in the water and they were adorable. My Dad took a video with his phone. Here is the video:

Hope you enjoyed this Florida Fact post about the amazing Manatee.

See you soon!

M.

The Best Day of School EVER!

This morning I was totally nervous about going to school. I was feeling nervous because we were going on a field trip to the Adrienne Arsht Center to see a musical play called Rock Odyssey. To be truthful I don't really know why I was feeling nervous but I was.

My Mom told me that it was all going to be okay and that I would probably have a really great time.

She was so right. Not only was the play really awesome but so was the whole day.

The play was about a mortal who went to war and on his way back after the war his ship sank and he had a great adventure trying to return to his home. We got to sit and watch the play from the balcony and we had the best view.

When we got back to school we ate our lunch with the other 5th grade class in our classroom instead of the cafeteria and that was really fun. We got to horse around after we had eaten and it was a blast.

After we finished we only had time for 1 class which was music, with Mr. Irwin who can be very strict. Except today there was a SUBSTITUTE! Yah! This substitute not only let us eat the Tootsie Pops that Ms. Llorca (our homeroom teacher) gave us but also let us use the hour to get our weekend homework done and out of the way.

But the best part of the day was yet to come.

Well, you might not know this but, on Wednesday it was International Peace Day. Today was our school's "Give Peace a Chance Dance". It happened after school from 3pm until 5 pm. It was held in our school cafeteria. It was the very first dance that I have ever been to and it was epic! I didn't know exactly what to expect but I had a total blast. I loved the music and it turns out that I really love to dance. I noticed that a lot of the girls in my class were awesome at dancing. Some of the boys were pretty okay dancers but most of them were not. It was interesting that the girls tended to dance in a pack but the boys were like lone wolves.

I danced on my own for a bit but then towards the end a girl from my class who sits beside me, named Andrea, asked me to join the group of girls that she was dancing with. So, I got to dance with the best dancers there.

Then the next thing you know it was 5 pm and the dance was over. I am totally looking forward to Halloween as they have another dance then!

Have a great weekend!

M.

Florida Facts

My Mom and I dug up some interesting Florida Facts this time about the geography of Florida.

*We are using imperial measurements because we are in the US right now. If you need to do the conversions, here is the link.

Now, here are some good Florida geography facts:

1. Longitude: 79° 48' W to 87° 38' W and Latitude: 24° 30' N to 31° N


2. Florida is 500 miles long and 160 miles wide


3. On the west Florida is bordered by Alabama and Gulf of Mexico.


4. On the north Florida is bordered by Alabama and Georgia.


5. To the south and to the east it is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.


6. Florida is the 22nd largest of the 50 states.


7. Florida is the 3rd wettest state after Alaska and Michigan with 11, 769 square miles covered by water.


I hope that you have learned a little about the geography of where I am currently living. I will be back with some new Florida Facts soon.


xo M.

The Fastest Thing I Did This Weekend

Today was a pretty fun Sunday. See that picture above? That is a photo of me and my Dad on a Jet Ski. We were showing my Mom a bit of a trick and she managed to capture it on the camera. Pretty cool hey!

When we got back from lunch my Dad and I headed down to the Miami Beach Marina, aka MBM. This is the place where you can rent jet skis by the hour. Once we arrived we were fitted for life jackets and then we were sent to a blue jet ski. We went straight to the bay in front of our apartment to see if my Mom was on our balcony. When we first arrived she wasn't there so we did a loop of the bay.

We went around Star Island. This is a man-made island that we can see from our apartment. This is where a bunch of celebrities live, such as Gloria Estefan, Sean Combs and Shaq.

When we came back around we spotted her on our balcony and she was looking for us with the binoculars. Once she saw us she went and fetched her camera and she took a bunch of photos of us.

I liked being on the jet ski because I like going fast. When we hit the big waves though I got a bit scared and it made me feel pretty sea sick.

Just wanted to update you guys on my Sunday and I will be back here tomorrow with my weekly Florida Fact.

Happy weekend!

M.

Florida Facts

Sorry that I haven't written in a while. I have been really busy around the house and at school and I have been fighting a bad cough as well. But I am back!

I want to introduce something that I'm going to do every Monday or Tuesday here on my blog. It is going to be called Florida Facts.

Florida Facts will be a bit of interesting information about Florida and its culture. Something that I have learned in the past week about the state that I am currently living in.

This past week in school we learned about the Kennedy Space Center. It is located just east of Orlando Florida and right next to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It is about a 4 hour drive from where we are in Miami Beach but even though I get car sick I totally want to drive there and see it.  They are no longer launching any space ships from there (the last one was earlier this year, I think in April or May) they still have a tour you can take around the Nasa Space Center.

In school we talked about some of the different buildings there and what they are/were used for. One of the buildings called OFP was used for removing left-over fuel tanks from the shuttles and fixing any damage that was done to the shuttles during flights, and other maintenance stuff.

My favourite part was when we learned about was the crawler transporter. This is the the machine that transports the spacecrafts from Nasa's VAB (vehicle assembly building) building to the launch pad.

It has a top speed of 2 miles per hour and it measures 131 x 114 feet. It takes a team of nearly 30 engineers, technicians and drivers to operate it! If I get to go and see it I will take some photos and post them here.

I promise to be back in a few days with more fun things about life in Miami.

Talk soon,

M.

A Fun Labour Day Weekend

Choosing a book at Books and Books

Labour Day weekend was super fun. On Saturday we went out for sushi again, this time with my Dad! Before we went out for our sushi dinner we had the most relaxing day.  We stayed home, in our pyjamas, and I got to play some video games, do some reading  and then later we went to the pool here at our apartment.

On Sunday we spent the day at the beach. Miami Beach is really quite an interesting place. Lots of very unique looking people! I spent most of my time in the water with my scuba mask looking for shells. My Dad and I also played paddle ball in the water. The only bad thing was that I got bitten or stung by what we think might have been a jellyfish. When you are out in the ocean sometimes there are tons of them. They don't really freak me out but it doesn't feel very good to get stung by one!

On Monday morning when I woke up I was worried that I had overslept for school. I got up and went into the kitchen to check if my parents were up and then it hit me it was Labour Day and I had the day off. I went back to my room and fell asleep. I woke up later and after breakfast my Dad helped me start building a new Mega Blocks set. The set is a UNSC Falcon which is sort of like a plane with two propellors on the wings. It took two hours to build it but it was worth it. When my Dad had to go out my Mom took over helping me and we had a really good time building together.

After that I staged a huge battle with the Falcon and some of my other sets.

School was good today and I was thinking about all of the kids at my old school who were just starting back to school today.

After school my Mom took me to go shopping and we stopped in to buy a book at our favourite bookstore which is called "Books and Books".  If it was my store I would want to call it "Books, Books and More Books." I love the store because they have kids books all the way from Tin Tin to the Hunger Games.

I talked to my friend Charlie on the phone on Sunday and he recommended  the Huger Games to me. We also talked about another book that I am reading now called Hoot. We talked about it because Charlie, our Maceo and I watched it at Maceo's house a few years ago. I can't wait to start the Hunger Games which we bought today.

Bye for now.

M.

Labour Day at Last

Sushi at Samba Sushi to Celebrate the End of My Second Week of School

Right now I am just eating my dinner, but here is an overview of today. 

After school today, as you can see from the picture  above, my Mom took me to Samba Sushi to celebrate another week of school completed. We shared some green bean tempura and then a spicy, crispy tuna roll, a yellow tale roll and a piece of Ikura sushi and a piece of Tobiko sushi. It was a great way to end the school week.

In school today, the best part of the day was surprisingly... lunch! The lunch ladies were totally calm and so was the security guard. That made it pretty easy to relax. I shared some of the extra two-bite brownies my Mom packed in my lunch with the rest of my friends from class who were sitting with me at my lunch table.

After lunch we finished our math and then did some science work until it was time to go to music class. The music teacher, Mr. Irwin, gave me a brand new recorder and a recorder book so that I could practise for class. I had to write my name on the side of the recorder case and inside the book as well.

This evening I went to Flamingo Park which is a big park near our apartment. Actually, it is half way in between our apartment and my school. It has a baseball diamond, a basketball court, a big soccer field, outdoor and indoor squash courts, an outdoor swimming pool and a big playground. I went there to hang out with my friend Atman who was there for a friend's birthday.  We ran around and played, climbed on a gigantic tree, had some chips, drank some juice and had a really good time.

Now I have got a three day weekend ahead of me and a lot of fun stuff planned to do.

Hope you have something fun planned for this long weekend.

M.

Hump Day is Here

My 5th grade teacher Ms. Llorca

Today is hump day which means it is half way through the week.

School today was the best day yet. The lunch ladies in the cafeteria were pretty cool and my Mom thinks that maybe a parent complained and now they are being nicer to us all. I hope that this is true.

Another good thing about today is that we got dismissed early at 1:50 pm. This happens every Wednesday.

After school my Mom picked me up and we walked down to the Regal Cinema on Lincoln Street and we saw "Spy Kids II - All the Time in the World". I really enjoyed it. We also got to have popcorn and some orange pop.

After that we went home and got ready for Feinberg Fisher's Open House. The Open House is something that they have every year and is a chance for parents to talk to the teachers and explore the school. We walked back up to the school at 5:30 pm and headed into my classroom. My Mom sat down to fill in some forms and I went to find my friend Atman. But before I headed out my Mom took a picture of me and my teacher Ms. Llorca that you see above. She is a great teacher and I like her a lot.

Ms. Llorca gave a talk to the parents about school rules and expectations. I got to hang out with my friends and play on our PSPs.

When the meeting was over my Mom and I went for dinner at Oliver's Bistro. This is a restaurant that is close to our apartment and the first place we had lunch at after we moved in. It is the second best restaurant (to me) in Miami. I like it a lot.

Just have two more days at school until there is a three day weekend. Whoo-hoo!

I hope that tomorrow will be as good as today!

M.

A Good Weekend and a New Week

A new week is here.

This past weekend was a very good weekend. On Friday night we went out to the set and visited my Dad while he was working. It was pretty cool to see the "angels" working. One of the girls who plays Abby came over to introduce herself to us. Her real name is Rachel and she is from Melbourne, Australia and she was very nice and friendly.

We also met the guy who plays Bosley. His name is Ramon and he was really cool too.

We got to check out some of the sets and in this one room there were these two walls that flip around to make a big video screen. This set was the office where all of Charlie's Angels hang out.

On Saturday I went on a location scout with my Dad. It was supposed to be just for a couple of hours but then it ended up being almost 5 hours. We did end up stopping at Target on the way home and my Dad bought me a new Halo set. It is awesome.

On Sunday my Dad and I went to see the movie "Cowboys and Aliens" (14A, 2 hours long). I really, really, really liked it.

After the movie we came home, had a swim in the pool, had BLTs for dinner and then we all walked up to the beach around 6 pm. We had a swim in the ocean and it was really fun. Even my Mom came in the water which is very unusual. The picture above is of me at the beach last night.

More tomorrow.

M

PS I recommend the move Cowboys and Aliens.

The Weekend At Last!

Walking home from school on Friday

It is finally Friday and that means that I made it through my first week of school. Today, school-wise, it was the best day of the week. I was really nervous about going to school today but it turned out to be pretty great.

Here is how the day went:

Both my Mom and Dad were able to walk me to school because my Dad's crew call wasn't until 10:30 am.

When I got into my class we did math first followed by PE and Spanish. Yesterday Spanish class wasn't so good as everyone was speaking fluently and I didn't understand a single word that they were saying. I got a little bit upset and then the teacher came over and told me it was going to be okay and that she would move me to a different class where they speak some English as well as Spanish. Today in my new Spanish class we learned the words for the days of the week and months of the year. We also learned how to say hello...Hola!

After spanish class, we did a bit more math and then it was lunch. Lunch was better today because the lunch monitors didn't yell that much.

In the afternoon we did some reading. I read "Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School", a novel by Louis Sacher. The book is about a girl who goes to a new school and they have add and subtract LETTERS! It is really a good book.

After reading we were bombarded with quizzes. We had a science quiz and a math quiz.

We looked at the clock at it was time to go to music which is in a classroom in another part of the school with a new teacher that I hadn't met yet. I was pretty nervous because everyone said that the music teacher was very mean and strict. But then I found out for myself that actually he was strict but also really friendly and so nice. He told us "If you treat me with respect, I will treat you with respect". I think that he is the best teacher in the whole school.

Next thing you know he dismissed us to go home. My Mom was there to meet me and the weekend began.

I will post more of my adventures over the weekend. 

M.

My New Favourite After School Snack.

Jicama sticks with lime and chilli

Okay, so I am not going to be talking too much about school today. It went well except for lunch in the cafeteria. My friend Atman, who sits next to me in class, was in the lunch line-up and went to the front of the line to check what the options were for lunch.  All of a sudden Ms ? (I don't know her name but she is the lunch monitor) yelled at him for leaving the line-up and she made him cry because she said he would have to eat in the principal's office for the rest of the year because he "misbehaved". But really he didn't do anything wrong. I felt so bad for him I almost wanted to cry myself. I didn't though. 

I am very afraid of Ms. ? (mean lunch monitor lady) but my Mom says not to worry and I also talked to my Grandma and she made me feel better too.

Now onto better subjects. And I mean better. 

My new favourite after school snack is jicama with lime and chilli. If you don't know what jicama is it is an edible tuberous root. It tastes crunchy and a little sweet and juicy. My Mom says that lots of Mexican kids eat it after school as well.

My Dad just got home and so I am going to go and watch an episode of "The Office" with him before I have to go to bed.

Good night.

M.

PS. After school I got some new running shoes and went swimming in the pool and we got take-out pizza for dinner.


PPS. I ran out of time to respond to your comments from yesterday but promise to do that tomorrow.

A Better Day Than Yesterday!

Working on my math homework after school

First off I want to thank everybody who took some time to comment on my last post. I really, really appreciate it. When I was feeling a bit sad yesterday it cheered me up to read all of the comments that people left for me. So thanks.

Today was a much, much, much better day. When I woke up in the morning I was still very nervous to go back to school. I was actually really dreading it.

But when I got to school I felt better and didn't even feel too bad when I said goodbye to my Mom.

Once school started we began with some math which I sort of like. Then after math we had PE with Mr. Berrin. I like PE better than math and I like being able to be outside. The only thing is that it is boiling hot outside (and I mean boiling) and we have to run back and forth on a field which makes me totally sweat.

After PE was lunch which was better than yesterday because:

1. I knew where to sit

2. People sat with me

3. My Mom made me a sandwich with my favourite kind of spicy meat

In the afternoon we had LA (language arts) and social studies until 2:55pm and then we got to go outside for recess (which was weird because it was really just the last 10 minutes of class).

My Mom met me after school and we walked back to the apartment. I got to play some video games and then I did my math homework and reading. And after dinner I did this post.

That is all for today!

M.

First Day at School

Today was my first day at Feinberg Fisher School. It was an okay day. First of all I woke up at 7 am, got up, got dressed in my new uniform and had some breakfast (two eggs, over easy with toast).

Then my Mom and Dad took me to school. We arrived a few minutes early and I saw a friend that I met on Saturday at the orientation named Jose. I headed up to my classroom right before the teacher, Ms. Llorca, got there. I headed in and said goodbye to my parents.

I got settled in at my new desk and met some of my new classmates.

It sure is different here at my school in Miami Beach. Here are a couple of things that are very different from home:

First up in the morning you need to sing the national anthem with your right hand over your heart. Luckily I watch a lot of hockey and so I know it pretty well.

There is no recess before lunch like at home. Even at lunch you just need to eat your lunch and go right back to school. No time to run around before going back to class.

At lunchtime I lined up in the cafeteria but then realized that because I had my own lunch from home I didn't need to. Then I wasn't sure where I should sit in the cafeteria. I asked a teacher where I should sit and she told me but then I was sitting all by myself and then I felt sad. I was worried than nobody wanted to sit with me but then I realized that all of my classmates were still in the hot lunch line-up. Soon I was joined by some classmates and this made me feel much better.

After lunch we headed straight back to the classroom with no break. I was kind of weirded out by that. When we got back in I finished off some work that I had started in the morning and then we continued on to math. The actual school work didn't seem that hard to me.

The day went by very quickly and so soon the bell rang, the day was over and my Mom was there to meet me. We walked home from school and I got a chocolate milkshake on the way.

Tomorrow I still don't know what to expect but I hope that it will be a good day.

Bye for now,

M.

Sunday in Miami

A view of our Apartment Building from the Pool

Tomorrow is my first day of school. I am a little bit nervous and a little bit excited. The school that I am going to is called Feinberg Fisher and goes from Kindergarten to grade 8.

Yesterday morning, at 9 am, my Dad, Mom and I went to the school orientation. We learned a bunch of stuff about the school.

We learned that:
Even if you are only 1 minute late you need to go to the office to get a late slip
There are approximately 900 students at Feinberg Fisher
My classroom is #26
My teacher's name is Ms. Llorca

Another random fact about Feinberg Fisher is that the author Judy Blume went here for a couple of years when she was a kid and she wrote a book called "Staring Sally J. Friedman as Herself" which is loosely based on her experiences here. I had to read this for my new school and I really, really liked the book.

One thing that is very different about this school is that you have to wear a uniform. The uniform is a blue or red polo or tee-shirt with khaki coloured shorts.

Wish me luck at school tomorrow, I will let you guys know how it goes.

M