Tremor de terra!

Olá a todos!
Today we experienced an interesting thing--a little mini earthquake! So that's why I decided to call this post "tremor de terra," aka earthquake. I was in english class, and all of a sudden everybody in the class started talking loud and excitedly. I hadn't felt anything and had no idea what was going on. I asked my friend who said "estava a tremer" (it was trembling/shaking, literally), and I heard "estava a dormir?" he was sleeping. oops. no, "estava a tremer!" ah, ok. So that was the exciting point of the day.
Last week on Monday we had a debate about abortion (yesterday they voted on it, and making it legal won). There were five of us for (in my case, pro-choice), and the rest of the class against. It was quite interesting--very portuguese. Lots of loud voices and very much a debate. Quite interesting....
Then Tuesday night I went to clarinet auditions for a youth orchestra that seems really really good (www.sinfónica-juvenil.com if you want to see). Heard the other clarinets and realized I didn't have a chance. But it was good practice anyway.
Friday I was supposed to have a math test, but the teacher didn't show up. So we waited around until it was time for gym. In gym, instead of playing basketball like normal, we did the cha cha cha! It was fun; I think we should do dance in gym in the US.
Then the geography teacher didn't show up either...so that was an interesting friday.
After school Anne-Lise and I helped a classmate on an english project on Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), her home country (she moved to Portugal about 3 years ago). Tomorrow a group of Hungarian students are coming to the school, so our english teacher asked us to do presentations on our home countries--I made a quick powerpoint on the US, and I'll bring my '08 t-shirt and some american money.
Friday night I had band practice. It would be awesome to play int eh youth orchestra, but the community band isn't bad, and it's nice to play clarinet.
Saturday I went with Anne-Lise, Lisa, Debora, and Cecilia (Denmark) to have a pic nic in the park. It was quite fun! Afterwards it started raining so we went into a little café where I actually drank a little cup of coffee--wow. I don't think I'll start drinking it every day, though.
Afterwards scouts, then a quiet night at home.
Saturday I went with Debora to visit a museum about the historic public transport service here in Lisbon, but it was closed. So we walked for a while looking for another museum, but didn't find it. Decided to stop at a building that has a market sunday mornings, and looked at a lot of foreign money that they were selling. There was so much! Really interesting. Not a lot of American money, though; I guess it's too boring. hehe.
After that I had another band rehearsal for about 3 hours. I think I almost got a hole through my lip. It was quite tiring.
That night we had dinner in the grandfather's house (we usually have dinner with Miguel's side of the family Sunday nights). It's nice having so much family so close.
Today is Miguelinho's birthday, so, according to tradition, we woke him up banging pan lids. Tomorrow is Catarina's birthday, and Xuxu's is on Saturday! wow! So tonight we're going to the Hard Rock Café for dinner, and then tomorrow more pan lids.
Happy almost Valentine's day! Amo-lhes! (I love you--I think that's right?!??!)--corrected by a portuguese friend: It's actually amo-vos! amo-lhes I think is I love them! oops....hehe