Better 3 weeks late than never..

Ok, I don't think I'm gonna be writing much because I will have so many questions to answer, so I'll just get started on them:

Picture of favorite neighborhood place: I didn't take this one myself, but here is edgbaston resevoir. However, at this time of year it is a bit more full than it is in that picture.

Last movie I saw/ next film I might: The last film I saw at the cinema was 'fighting'. The reveiws said it was boring and had a terrible plot and that the fight scenes were rubbish/ not enough. But after watching it, I think it was actually quite good. I don't know if it's because I am too easily pleased, or that the people who said that went into the film expecting 2 hours of kick ass fight scenes. I think it's that, thinking about it the title is easy to be mis-understood, whilst at the same time, stil fits with the story. The mext film I might see, is that one that is supposed to be the scariest film of this decade. Something about dragging someone to hell or something. My favorite horror film this decade has to probably be 1408, I can't really think of any, so if you think there is one better than that, tell me.

Susan Boyle: To be honest I haven;t actually heard her sing. I know there has been loads of press about her, she's always in the newspapers and stuff. I was actually surprised that People from all round the world had heard of her, so considering that there are some quite good (and also quite bad) acts this year and they haven't been praised as much as her, she must be good. But I can't really give an opinion untill I've heard her. Although, I think it is slightly unfair ona all the other acts, who probably feel like crap when everyone is bascically telling them that they have no chance.

Favorite summer time activity: hmm.. Holidaying I suppose. I can't really think of one, I just like the whole summer break.

Education system: Well, Primary school seemed fine and secondary school has been.. somewhat disapointing. Apparently, I go to quite a good school, which means there are plenty of schools worse than mine. Although I am in the highest group, there is still a wide range of abilities, that might be a problem here, that we tend to water everything down so the slowest people can keep up, I know that when you go on expoditions e.t.c. you walk at the speed of the slowest walker, so I'm not saying we should cater only for the more able ones and leave the others struggling and ultimatley lost (as my maths teacher does), just adapt things to each individual better. Like in language classes. We don't learn enough grammar or vocabulary, we just get fed endless phrases, which we should be able to remeber somehow and then regurgitate when the situation arrises. They try and make us become walking phrasebooks, exept full of phrases like 'the dog sits on the mat' 'the cat sit near the mat' and 'I would like to borrow your jumper'. Not only are these sentences never going to turn up in a conversation (excluding mental hospitals) But no-one can rember phrases like that. This is the kind of stuff they test us on: 'Hello, my name is Sam, I have brown hair, green eyes and I have a dog who is called Bob. I have 23 brothers and a sister. Can I borrow your jumper?'. Quite honestly it's embarressing when we go anywhere else abroad and there are toddlers who have learned English better than you've learned their language.

Adam Lambert: Who? Sorry, I've heard of him, but I have no idea who he (he, right?) is. Sorry.

En fin, ma question- 'est-ce que je peux emprenter votre pull?'.. My question-

What do you think of chinese remedies, you know, acupunture, herbal medicines, pressure points to releive things?

Better late than never

So as you might have noticed I didn’t post my blog on Monday, that’s because I’m crazy busy right now and I’m spending practically all my time in school studying for the final in my econ class on Monday.

So since I last posted here my phone has broken down again so it’s at the store for reparations for the third time in a month. I’m starting to get a tad bit frustrated about it now. Also my group at school finished an essay we wrote but I’m happy I got them to change the layout and much of the content because the first draft looked like it had been written by an alcoholic dyslectic person on strong medications.

Apart from bad essays, phones from hell and a coming exam a pair of the shoes I bought a month ago has started to fall apart too. To be honest it feels like nothing is going my way right now. The one good thing that happened this last week that I can remember is that my oldest sister came to visit us. I haven’t seen her for almost a year but she came down now to meet my other older sister before she has her baby, which should be born in 1-3 weeks.

Now it’s time for me to stop complaining, at least for a bit, and answer some questions.

Mine: I thought Susan was really good at her first audition but I’m not really sure what I think about her semi-final performance. And to be honest she’s gotten so much press that she’s starting to feel a bit overrated.

Chris: My favorite summer activity has to be to have picnics in the sun and just relax and hang out. I’m not that into too physical stuff.

I actually like the education system we have here in Sweden. The one thing I would change if I could would be to give more money to the education system so they could put more efforts into making it even better and to help everyone that needs it.

New question: Since I asked your opinion on Susan Boyle last week I’m gonna continue on sort of the same subject. So this week’s question is “What is your opinion on Adam Lambert”?

*sneeze!*

My spring allergies have officially kicked into high gear and have been quite annoying over the past few days. I've had to double my allergy medication dosage just to cope. I get a bad runny nose and itchy eyes. The strange part is that I never used to have this problem growing up. It's only been the last 5-7 years that it's been happening. It even happened in europe last summer! Once everything blooms it's usually okay though.

In other news, I finally got out to the observatory on Friday night. I was like a fat kid in a candy store and was very much amazed by all the fancy equipment that I will be using. I also got keys to the observatory as well as the laboratory on campus. The only downside is that the main telescope is still down because the secondary mirror got jammed and it will likely take a little while to get fixed. But, I still can use the smaller telescope to do some observing and what not.

My computer seems to be acting strange again. The wireless is intermittently working, so I need to get it repaired. Hopefully that won't get in the way of posting.

I've also gotten into the habit of biking to work/campus everyday and so far it is going quite well. It is a 8.5 km trip (one way), and takes roughly 30 min, depending on traffic. It's a nice feeling knowing that I'm getting exercise and helping the environment, as well as my wallet.

My favorite summer time activity would probably be traveling/biking.

And now... What do you think of the education system in your country? Do you think it is effective? (I'm referring to all age groups from primary to post secondary/Uni)