Extra Material for the rest of the course

inter-teen-2-2008

Guys,

Please print this material for our next class meeting.

Rick

Journal Entry # 1

Welcome to Alumni Inter Teen 2 Blog 🙂

Write a response to one of the questions discussed in class today.

Rick — Rogério Ceni

If you think the number one reason why I admire Rogério Ceni is the fact that he has scored 76 goals so far in his career? You are wrong. If you think that it is because he has been a loyal SPFC goalkeeper for the last 17 years, you are still wrong. If you think it is because the has received the award Bola de Prata 4 times and has been nominated this year to run for The World’s Best Soccer Player of the Year Award along with Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Kaka, I am sorry, you are wrong.

Obviously, all these three reasons do contribute to his being my idol, but the number one reason why I worship the guy is his life off the soccer field. In his free time, Rogério is known for helping institutions in need, not with money, but with his time. He often visits orphanages in poverty-stricken neighborhoods and spends time with them, talking to them about the importance of sports in a person’s life. This last October,for instance, Rogério participated in a party promoted at CACCC (Centro de Apoio à Criança Carente com Câncer), where he distributed presents and autographs to children, who, if not for his good will, would never have the chance of meeting a celebrity otherwise.

To me, it is not enough for a soccer player – or any other sports celebrity for that matter — to be a whiz at what they do in the field only. For the guy to become an idol, he needs to go the step further and show the world that he is as admirable outside the soccer field as well. And Rogério Ceni has certainly accomplished that feat. He is, by far, one of the most well-rounded sports celebrities I have ever come across in my entire life. Go, Rogério, Go!

Who do you admire the most?

Now that you have already shared a bit about yourself and the song you like the most, we would like to know a bit about a person you look up to. Who is the person you admire the most in life? Maybe a singer, an actor, a business person? Or maybe even you mom or dad. We would love to know who. Tell us who the person is and why you admire the person so much.

Note:

Don’t just cut and paste a biographical account of the person from a Website. We can do that on our own. Simply write YOUR own reasons for admiring the person so much.

Song Project – Rick

The song I have chosen as my contribution to our class project is Come What May from the motion picture Moulin Rouge. There is a link to a You Tube snippet of the movie, just in case you are one of the few in the world who have not watched it.

Lyrics 

Come What May

Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor

Never knew I could feel like this

Like I’ve never seen the sky before.

Want to vanish inside your kiss.

Every day I love you more and more.

 

Listen to my heart.

Can you hear it sing?

Telling me to give you everything.

Seasons may change, winter to spring

But I love you until the end of time.

 

Come what may. Come what may.

I will love you until my dying day.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place.

 Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace.

Suddenly my life doesn’t seem such a waste.

It all revolves around you.

And there’s no mountain too high, no river too wide.

Sing out this song, and I’ll be there by your side.

 

Storm clouds may gather, and stars may collide.

But I love you until the end of time.

 

Come what may. Come what may.

I will love you until my dying day.

Oh, come what may. Come what may.

I will love you, I will love you.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place.

 

Come what may. Come what may.

I will love you until my dying day.

 Explanation

Alexia was the only woman I have ever truely loved in my entire life.  We met while we were foreign students at California State University in the beginning of the 1990’s. Born in Paris to a Japanese family, Alexia went to the States to study Philosophy. Since she could only work on campus, she applied for a full-time job as an English instructor for a program for foreign students who came to visit California for the summer. Under the same constraints to find a job, I also applied to work in the same summer program.

The job required that we not only taught English in the morning but also accompanied the students in their afternoon and evening activities as local tour guides; in other words, Alexia and I ended up spending the months of June, July and August of 1992, virtually 24 hours a day together. And the more time we spent together, the more we realized how much in synch we were in life. The same goals, the same values, the same views on life. If you believe in past lives, we were definetely soul mates.

After the summer program ended, we decided to share the same apartment building right across from the university, and we lived there until the end of 1996, when both our green card applications had been denied by the American government. Unlike couples who break up for incompatibility reasons, we were being split by outside forces, just like the relationship between Christian (Ewan McGregor) and Satine (Nicole Kidman) in the movie Moulin Rouge.

Alexia wasn’t willing to give up on her life in Paris to come live with me here in Brazil, just like I wasn’t willing to restart my life in a country where I would again take the risk of not being able to get my green card. Besides, I spoke no French, and she spoke no Portuguese. Similarly, Satine didn’t see herself leaving her life as a courtesan, and Christian was aware of his financial conditions as a writer of not being able to provide Satine the glamourous life she so much wanted.

Other parallel features are the fact that I am also a writer in my free time, and Alexia’s home is Paris close to the real Moulin Rouge. Although the movie had not come out at the time the two of us parted, the day I left Alexia at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), I confessed to her that no matter what happened in our lives from that day on, I would always love her until death do us part. (“Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day”.)

I have been in several other relationships after Alexia here in Brazil, but none of them remotely compare to what we had together in the United States, hence, my not having gotten married until today. Because “seasons may change, winter to spring, but I will love her until the end of time.”

Song Project

I was thinking … the original Inter Teen 2 class project is a song, so why not use some of the project ideas in our class blog? We could start out by selecting a song that is meaningful to us somehow, and start sharing with the rest of the group (and eventually with the whole wide world) why we have picked this song in particular.

Rick

Class teacher and moderator of this blog. Hardcore São Paulino who does not own any piece of green clothing (check out the colors of this site). Addicted to Japanese music of any kind from the early 70’s to what’s playing on Japanese radios nowadays. Love singing at Karaoke boxes, both American and Brazilian songs (Japanese, only when I’m alone). Crazy about the Harry Potter series, all books read at least three times.

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