Olof got home from Paris a little after midnight last night, and we stayed up together for another hour or so, talking and eating the licorice pipes he brought me from the duty-free shop at Arlanda. Between being busy with my mom’s visit and his trip to France, I feel as though I haven’t seen him in ages, so it was nice to have the chance to sit and catch up a little bit. It would have been nicer, of course, if it hadn’t been so late, because I had to get up at 6:30 this morning to get ready and catch the 7:45 bus to town for my class.
Today was the day for the persuasive speech, and I volunteered to go first, as I usually do (I know that I probably seem to some like a goody-two-shoes teacher’s pet, but the truth is that I just like to get it over with. Also, I feel like it’s better to set the standard myself than to have my work judged in comparison to others’ speeches.). In any case, it went well and the only negative comment by the teacher was that I talked too fast. I knew that would happen, too, because I always talk too fast in situations like that. Even when I was practicing over the weekend, I could feel the speech getting shorter every time I read it through, because I went faster and faster as I became more familiar with the text. Next up we have a ten-minute informative speech to give next Wednesday, and that one appeals to me less, but at least I have several days to think about it before I have to do any serious work.
Speaking of things school-related, Lydia’s teacher called this morning and said she wants to have a conference with Olof and me tomorrow afternoon to talk about some problems Lydia’s having. She didn’t elaborate too much, but apparently she’s having some difficulty with math. Olof got the impression that it wasn’t tremendously serious, but more the “just trying to keep on top of things” approach, so I’m not really worried. She did mention as well that she had some information about the “home language” instruction, so it will be nice to see what we can find out about that.
Poor little Tage is sick with a stuffy nose and a wheezy cough and he sounds really terrible. I’ve been giving him acetaminophen and letting him nurse as much as he wants, but other than that there doesn’t seem to be much else to do. His voice is almost gone, and he’s absolutely miserable. It’s so sad when they’re sick.