Hi again guys,
           
              I'm going to keep this really short and sweet. John Green really does have a way with words, it's not very often that I read a word and do not "know" it. Sure, I can infer what it means by the context it's in. I'm going to quote the excerpt a word was used in, and define it.





The Colonel laughed. I stared, stunned partly by the force of the voice emanating from the petite (but God curvy) girl and partly by the gigantic stacks of books that lined her walls. Her library filled her bookshelves and then overflowed into waist-high stacks of books everywhere, piled haphazardly against walls. If just one of them moved, I thought, the domino effect could engulf the three of us in an asphyxiating mass of literature.



asphyxiate: suffocation



"Who's the guy that's not laughing at my very funny story?" she asked.
"Oh, right. Alaska, this is Pudge. Pudge memorizes people's last words. Pudge, this is Alaska. She got her boob honked over the summer." She walked over to me with her hand extended, then made a quick move downward and at the last moment pulled down my shorts.
"Those are the biggest shorts in the state of Alabama!" "I like them baggy," I said, embarrassed, and pulled them up. They had been cool back home in Florida. "So far in our relationship, Pudge, I've seen your chicken legs entirely too often," the Colonel deadpanned. (15)



deadpan: can be compared to sarcasm; to say something amusing with a serious expression.

Hello! To finish off the first week of reading and blogging, I'm going to summarize the section we all just read. Miles began the book, with not having many friends. However, despite Miles' parents' realization of his lack of friends, they ask why he wants to goto a new school: Culver Creek. Miles has a love for last words, and explains that Francois Rabelais was a famous poet whose last words were, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." When he arrives at Culver Creek, he meets his new roommate, Chip Martin. Whose nickname is the Colonel. The Colonel explains the "rules" of the school; Weekday Warriors are the rich cool kids. The Colonel is not one of them, and advises Miles to not to go along with him.But, Miles is not. Miles is one of the others. The Colonel gives Miles the                                           nickname Pudge. Ironically, Pudge is extremely thin. It also comes to our attention that most of the students like Pudge and Miles are extremely intelligent. Pudge finds himself being accepted and is learning what that means. He's used to being quiet, and a bit of a loner, but suddenly he has friends who have his back, and give him confidence. Pudge meets Alaska, a girl who is not only beautiful and smart, but sexy. She's confident and a little bit eccentric. Smoking is also a major trend at the school. Takumi, is also a new friend of Pudge's. Pudge is experiencing friendship and life at a boarding school. Which include pranks and the unspoken rule of no snitching. Payback is returned as revenge, a lesson Pudge learns the hard way when an innocent prank turns to anger and he's duct-taped together and thrown into the lake. Alaska introduces a question asked multiples of times within the work: "How will I ever get out of this Labyrinth?" as well as leaves questions about her past for Pudge. She show's a darker side of her personality when she explains that "she smokes to die".  Pudge is exposed to teenage angst and rebelling, as well as discovers that basketball is one of the very few entertaining things there. Major themes within this section are coming of age, attraction, the mystery of life, and friendship.
Until next post,
                   Autumn