This one is gonna hurt! I've just enrolled in a gym as well, and I start on Monday.

God help me!

Escrito por Higor às 17h40
[] [envie esta mensagem] [link]

I have just fullfilled one of my resolutions for 2008: I enrolled for a French course at Aliança Francesa, or Alliance Française. :-) I've already bought the book and everything. Classes start on February 25th.

Another thing I've started was to study English avidly. I've been reading newspapers daily and making notes of relevant vocabulary. Some of the words/expressions I've recorded in my notebook are actually not new, I'd seen them before, but I don't remember ever using them. So, besides learning new stuff, I'm also trying to activate my 'passive vocabulary'.

That's it. So far I'm being very successful in keeping my new year resolutions. But there are 'only' other 362 days in 2008...

Escrito por Higor às 17h14
[] [envie esta mensagem] [link]

(...)

"Well, when I was in fourth grade in Kabul, my father hired a woman named Ziba to help around the house. She had a sister in Iran, in Mashad, and, since Ziba was illiterate, she'd ask me to write her sister letters once in a while. And when the sister replied, I'd read her letter to Ziba. One day, I asked her if she'd like to learn to read and write. She gave me this big smile, crinkling her eyes, and said she'd like that very much. So we'd sit at the kitchen table after I was done with my own schoolwork and I'd teach her Alef-beh. I remeber looking up sometimes in the middle of homework and seeing Ziba in the kitchen, stirring meat in the pressure cooker, then sitting down with a pencil to do the alphabet homework I'd assigned to her the night before.

"Anyway, whithin a year, Ziba could read children's books. We sat in the yard and she read me the tales of Dara and Sara - slowly but correctly. She started calling me Moalem Soraya, Teacher Soraya. I know it sounds childish, but the first time Ziba wrote her own letter, I knew there was nothing else I'd ever want to be but a teacher. I was so proud of her and I felt I'd done something really worthwhile, you know?

"My father wants me to go to law school, my mother's always throwing hints about medical school, but I'm going to be a teacher. Doesn't pay much here, but it's what I want."

(...)

From The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.

Escrito por Higor às 21h06
[] [envie esta mensagem] [link]

It is tradition with me, Ci and my brother to go to the cinema on the first day of the year. It started four years ago with Cintya and me, and my brother joined three years ago. In order we've seen "National Treasure", "E Se Fosse Você", a childish movie last year whose name I've thankfully forgotten and today, probably the nicest of all, "P.S.: I Love You".

On my honeymoon last year in Buenos Aires (I can barely believe 2007 is already "last year"!), Cintya and I went to this incredible bookshop on Calle Florida called 'El Ateneo'. After walking around the shop for hours, we ended up buying two books: "La Promesa", by Harlan Coben, and "PS: I Love You", by Cecelia Ahern. I remember reading the abstract of the book and reading a bit about the author. The story was a sweet one of a woman who loses her husband untimely to brain cancer, but receives letters from him monthly, all written before his passing, of course, to help her deal with her grief. Very touching stuff! But what really made me buy the book was what I read about the author, a twenty-two-year-old girl who was the daughter of the Prime Minister of Ireland. "PS" is her first novel.

When I heard there'd be a movie about the story, chick-lit or not, one of my favorite books of 2007, maybe the favorite, I got obviously very excited, and did some research about the movie. The actress chosen to play Holly was Hillary Swank, which was a great choice. I didn't know a thing about the rest of the casting, but a great book plus Hillary Swank will get anyone interested in any film under the sun. Watching the movie today, however, just confirmed what I've always known: the book is always better.

The story of the book takes place in Ireland, where the author is from. The movie takes place in the U.S., so Holly is American. Also, for some absolutely unkown reason, Holly's parents are divorced and her father is nowhere to be found in the movie, which is, to say the least, absurd when you think of the book, where Holly's parents are key in helping her cope with her unfathomable loss. Daniel, one of the male characters, is beyond stupid in the movie, and the actor chosen to play him, a country singer called Harry Connick Jr., is this goof who you keep cheering against. The book Daniel is this great guy who helps Holly to see there's still life beyond tragedy, however unthinkable. So, my advice is you watch the movie, because it's OK, but be sure to read the book, which is at least a million times better.

Also by Cecelia Ahern I've read "Love, Rosie", and I've bought but haven't read yet "A Place Called Here". The first is really good.

"P.S.: I Love You" on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431308/

Now reading: The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.

Escrito por Higor às 23h35
[] [envie esta mensagem] [link]

2008 begins in two days, and it's always exciting to start a new year. Hope is in the air, people promise to do a whole lot of things they probably never will, people expect their lives to be better etc. I am, obviously, among these people.

2007 was a very important year in my life, one that, now in hindsight, has brought me a lot more good than bad. I got married, I went to England and France, I went to Campo Grande and Salvador, I was a good coordinator and teacher, I was a good son and brother, I read quite a bit, I made some new friends. It was not perfect, of course, and there are some things I'll have to fix now in 2008, and I will; but I'll always look back at 2007 and feel proud. It was a good year.

Despite my being satisfied with 2007, there are many things I was not able to do, for a variety of reasons, that will now be priorities in 2008. I'll make the list public here, at least most of it, because it makes it a lot easier for me to keep track of everything I've decided to do next year. This blog, by the way, will only run in 2008, and I intend to have a new one in 2009. Some of my goals for 2008:

- I'll learn (start learning) French at a school (Alliance Française, probably);

- I'll learn (start learning) to play the guitar;

- I'll go to the gym regularly and will try and take better care of my health;

- I'll keep an agenda in 2008, in hopes that I'll manage to be a lot more organized next year;

- I'll read at least two books a month (I do that, sometimes more than that, but I'll only make promises I can keep);

- I'll go to the beach with my wife whenever she wants to. I don't like going to the beach very much, but we're a couple now and I'm the driver! :-) ;

- I'll go to the cinema at least four times a month;

- I'll go out more (to bars, pubs etc.);

- I'll drink less coke and eat less crap (coke only on weekends and fast food only a couple of times a month);

- I'll study English a lot (through reading books, newspapers and magazines and also studying grammar, vocabulary etc.);

- I'll save 10% of everything I earn. (this is the most difficult thing of all!)

I guess that's it. There's a couple more, but I don't need anything to remind me of them.

I wish everybody the happiest of new years. May we all have health, peace, work, love and a bunch of great and trustworthy friends. HAPPY 2008!

Escrito por teacher-higor às 15h46
[] [envie esta mensagem] [link]