"It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber."-Robert Fulghum

On Monday (9.12) school was delayed two hours due to ‘bad weather conditions’. In my case it was a dumb luck, because when my dad woke me up to say that I can sleep in a little it was already quarter after seven (so I should have been already ready to leave). We started with normal schedule at 10 and every class was shorten by 15 minutes.

On Tuesday (10.12) I experienced something I wanted to experience since very first day when I arrived (or even found out that I’m going to do exchange) - SNOW DAY. Back in Poland I could never stay home because of the weather. If I were lucky enough maybe a parent would give me a ride to school but I can’t recall a single situation they didn't let me leave to school. Here it works completely different, though. A single mention on possibility of snow or snowstorm somewhere in state makes people panic, I have even heard one girl (the one who couldn't believe that we don’t celebrate 4^th of July) saying that even if school were open during bad weather her mom wouldn't let her go. And that’s why I could stay home even if everything that was happening outside was a little bit of rain.

                               

On Wednesday (11.12) regardless my best wished I had to go to school normal time. It was very educational day, as I found out that in USA women get only 6 weeks of NON PAID maternity leave after delivery (and if they decide to stay home during pregnancy they aren't paid either). It seemed so Third Worldly that I literally couldn't believe it.

I took a nap just after school, talked with my host dad a little (A LOT) and finally received a package from my parents. My supplies of tea are now the most sacrosanct thing in entire house, I need to allocate them wisely, so I can enjoy them till the next package arrives. THANK YOU GUYS!

On Thursday (12.12) on Global Diplomacy we had a guest speakers from US Coast Guard. My opinion about military is commonly known, so I was sitting quietly trying not to draw any attention which would make me speak my mind.  I also tried to make myself as neutral as possible, but it worked only by the time one of guests tried to tell us something about himself, and casually mention that when he traveled to South America he finally had a chance to shoot somebody (“like in movies!”). Oh, well.

I spent really nice evening chatting with Gabriel (from Argentina) and by dint of this conversation I'm honored to introduce you to one of many Argentinian songs I got to know. It's fascinating how their music differ from ours in many fine details. ONE DAY I'M GOING TO VISIT ARGENTINA. I literally can't wait for that day to come. 

On Friday (13.12) I’ve adopted a baby. We had finished chapter about pregnancy and delivery in Child Development I and we have started talking about newborns, so teacher made us adopt babies. First set of girls got their babies the day before and last one will get theirs on Monday, but I had the “luck” of taking kid home for a weekend.

I was stressed out, especially when I had to take Chris (my baby) to my second period class which is Global, the only class I have some difficulties with (mostly because things we talk about make me upset, but also because it’s not easy to keep up making notes from news where broadcasters try to speak as fast as possible). This time I was fortunate; teacher was on a meeting, so we had class with student teacher and atmosphere was definitely less tense. I had to leave class twice when my baby started crying, but it was rather funny than embarrassing. During this period I also learned (it is not a mistake, I used learned instead of learnt on purpose) how to distinguish between different sounds baby makes and I’m already pretty good at it.

I have a special wristband connected with my baby’s inner electronics, which works only for this baby (and this very baby answers only to this wristband). Every time I hear my baby wailing I need to move it near its belly and scan it waiting for a sound which tells me that my bracelet was recognized. Than I can start taking care of a baby (once I forgot to scan bracelet and baby didn't react to anything I've done). Baby has something computer alike inside and if I don’t scan my wristband within two minutes since infant started crying it would be registered as an neglect. If I hit a baby, this computer thing will recognize it as child abuse and save this information. After the project ends teacher will plug baby into computer and transfer all the data, grading us on the ground of the information baby provided.
Also every baby is different. I don’t mean only physical appearance- they all look almost the same, except color of skin (however my school owns only Caucasian and African American babies) and privates (they discriminate between boys and girls)- but rather the personality. My baby is calm and cries only when it needs something (he was fuzzy only once), while other girl’s baby cries almost nonstop.