5. International Day

5 International Day "Happy International Day!" Mrs. Barr said when I came to class the next morning. She was wearing the mask I made. "What's International Day?" I asked. "Each of you is going to choose a country," said Mrs. Barr. "Any country in the world. You'll spend the morning

learning about your country online. Then you'll give a short presentation to the class, as if you were the leader of that country. Doesn't that sound like fun?" "Yes!" said all the girls. "No!" said all the boys. "I think it's a great idea!" said Mr. Cooper. "The kids will learn a lot, plus they can practice their research and public-speaking skills." It sounded like a horrible idea to me. Learning? Research? Public speaking? I thought I was gonna die. Andrea was so excited, she could barely stay in her seat. "My country is going to be—" But Andrea didn't have the chance to finish her sentence. "Shhhhhh!" said Mrs. Barr. "Don't tell us the name of your country until it's time for your presentation. Let's make it a surprise."

"I love surprises!" said Andrea. "Me too!" said Emily. We walked a million hundred miles to the computer lab, where there was a computer set up for each of us. Mrs. Barr passed out pads and pencils so we could take notes about our country. Andrea got permission to use her smartphone, because she has to be a big show-off all the time. "What should we look up?" asked Ryan. "Search for interesting facts about your country," said Mrs. Barr. "Where is it located? What do the people wear? What do they eat? What language to they speak? Things like that." Everybody started looking stuff up. Well, everybody but me. I couldn't think of a country I wanted to learn about. Ryan was sitting next to me. I leaned over to see what country he chose.

"No peeking at other people's computers," said Mrs. Barr. "We want it to be a surprise when you give your presentation." I was bored. I looked up a bunch of stuff about football. Did you know that a guy with only half a foot once kicked a sixty-three-yard field goal? It's true! Go ahead, look it up if you don't believe me. "Isn't this wonderful?" Mrs. Barr said as we were all looking up stuff. "Maybe someday all the nations of the world will work together like this so people can live in peace and harmony." Everybody worked hard all the way to lunchtime. Well, everybody except me. But I learned a lot about football. After lunch, we went back to Mr. Cooper's class.

"Okay, who wants to give the first International Day presentation?" asked Mrs. Barr. "I do!" shouted Andrea, of course. "Go ahead, Andrea."

Andrea rushed up to the front of the room with her notes. She couldn't wait to show how smart she was. "I am the queen of Norway," Andrea said. "My country is in northern Europe. It's a little bigger than New Mexico. We are one of the largest seafood producers in the world." Why is everybody always talking about fish? "More than five million people live in my country," Andrea continued. "We speak Norwegian and we have twenty- nine letters in our alphabet. Our capital city is Oslo. Our national animal is the moose, and blah blah blah blah...." What a snoozefest. They shouldn't call that country Norway. They should call it Boreway! Andrea went on for a million hundred minutes. I wasn't really listening. I just wanted Andrea to keep talking until dismissal so I wouldn't have