Important Notice

Sorry, this is still in maintenance!

Hi and welcome to my blog!

If you are a first-time visitor, or looking for the posts I consider most important ('cause I'm posting a lot), please go here or click "About Me" at the top of the page!
Otherwise just have fun!


Freitag, 28. September 2012

Dienstag, 25. September 2012

Staples

Hi there!

Today I was shopping with my card and ... it worked! I was at staples and just bought a new binder (the one Steven lent me got too small) and cue cards, and I felt so proud to type in my PIN and IT WORKED!

So, I'm not going on the fieldtrip tomorrow, although I thought I would, because I have too much to do for Debate and Speech. I've got to write a 3 min speech on the topic: Is The Family In Decline, and my contention is Separations Weaken The Family (most likely, I'm still testing)

I'm currently writing two newspaper articles on fashion (I know, me and fashion, hard to believe, but true!), one on Winter Trends and the other one on Toronto Fashion Incubator - both very interesting themes, and I'm checking back with Mr M. tomorrow whether they are okay. Hopefully I will have at least one full draft by Thursday (although I have to say that Debate takes precedence, because it's more urgent!)

Anybody who wants to know what exactly I have written, well, you have to wait for Censor This! to be published, which will be at the end of October. But I'll be sure to link to it, so do not despair!

Anybody interested in my Official German Diary, you will be glad to hear that I have already written 55 pages with an average of 3.5 pages an entry. My last entries all had more than five, and one even eleven (!) pages of writing!

I'll be sure to write everything down meticulously, so be prepared for a very boring long and interesting story!

We had our big Spanish Exam today, and while I don't know yet how I did, it was very, very easy. If I have any mistakes, they are because I didn't read the exercise!

Well, I'm going to bed now,
so good night!

Julia

Samstag, 22. September 2012

A bunch of things

So, okay, currently I'm at Dorothea's :D

So, I mentioned my biology test, right? I have 100% :D He apparently took out 3 questions afterwards (because they were answered so badly), so I have no mistakes (I think e took those three out which I really only could guess. I'm soooo lucky :P)

It really wasn't hard, though. He only wanted to know stuff we'd talked about in school, and a great deal of that we'd already done. For example Mitochondria and cytoplasm and Hydrogenbonds (Wasserstoffbrücken).

Then I caught bus number 8 from the Okanagan College to Orchard Park Mall and I have to say: going by bus is so easy here! You have to pay a Toonie ($2) and you can go for as long as you want within Kelowna and West-Kelowna. Even if you have to catch two buses: You simply get a transfer strip.

I met Dorothea at Starbucks and then we went to Aeropostals. I got a two pairs of Jeans and a poloshirt, but when I wanted to pay, it said: Declined.

Doro helped me out, but I phoned my hostdad, cause it's really bad when you're standing in the mall, wanting to go shopping and don't have any money. Well, he couldn't do anything either, so we went to a bank with a VISA sign, because the ATMs (Geldautomaten) in the mall didn't have one and you have to pay a huge fee at those ATMs. But at the bank the ATM said: Funds not available.

The answer to the question: My dad hat put the money on the internet banking account, but not onto the credit card! So I'll get my money on Monday, and I have to see whether I can get one of my hostparents to go shopping with me!

But then my phone also stopped working - funds depleted. No idea what I did, but all my $11 were gone!
Thankfully, my hostdad put new money onto my phone and booked me a new plan. It's called socialite 25 and I have unlimited texting and local calls on weekends!

After shopping, I went with Dorothea's to her home.

The house is so beautiful! And her hostfamily is sooooo nice!
It was really, really cool, and I enjoyed every minute of my sleepover here!

Doro, her hostsister Sabrina and I are gonna catch a bus at 12.50 to the mall, where we're gonna meet up with a few other Internationals and then we're gonna go through the mall and take a look at things ... I'm really looking forward to it, and maybe I can get a Sub out of it! (I just have enough money on me to do so)

I can't tell you how relaxing it was to just speak German again - although Doro and I conversed in a funny mixture of German and English with sentences like:

Es macht more Sinn.
Ich tu mich in Spanisch leichter, because ich Latein kann. (Ja, das hab ich tatsächlich so gesagt.)

Well, that's it for now!

So, have a nice rest weekend, I'm certainly enjoying mine, although I have to do a whole load of Homework tomorrow for Japanese (reading) and Spanish (writing and drawing a postcard and studying for the big exam on chapter one on Tuesday).

Best regards,
Julia

Donnerstag, 20. September 2012

Biology

Well, did I mention that we wrote a Biology test yesterday?

It was a big one, 49 multiple choice questions, and a few short answer questions...

Well, I completed the test, gave it to him, and left.

Today, we got our grades.

He: "Well, Julia, I noticed that you didn't fill out any of the questions on the back side!"
I: "What? No... There was a backside?!"

Well, I'm allowed to resit the questions tomorrow at lunch, but what the heck?!
The page was used so badly, the layout so confusing, that I didn't even get the idea that there might be a back side!

And on Saturday I will probably go to the mall! :D

Anyway, I gotta do my Japanese homework, so Bye! :D

Dienstag, 18. September 2012

A Nice Little Chat with the Police...

So, I just came back home from having a nice little chat with the police...
And no, I'm not joking. Or maybe I am?

Anyway, we've been to Tim Horton's for desert, and on a table across from us, three policemen were sitting, enjoying a doughnut. Two of them were wearing bulletproof vests, but one didn't, so I asked Marina and Steven why.
Marina said the one without probably wore his underneath his shirt, but actually I should just go up to them and ask them. So I did exactly that.

Have I mentioned how extraordinary nice everybody here is?

Me: Err, excuse me, I'm an exchange student from Germany. Can I ask you a question?
P: Of course.
Me: Why are you wearing bulletproof vests?
P: Well, since we're in North America, it's for protection. One of our colleagues had last year actually been shot at. He [points towards the black policeman across from him] and I wear our vests over our Shirts, because we're in the Okanagan valley and it can get quite hot in these vests, so we like to be able to take them off. He [points towards the second white guy] is wearing his under his shirt, so it's a bit hard to remove.

He then asked me how it was in Germany, where in Germany I was from, whether I was the Smith's first exchange student and he said he probably wouldn't allow his daughter to spend a whole year abroad.

All in all, he was sooooo nice! :D

I'm starting to believe that literally everybody is nice here!

In school today there was nothing really important - except that I was told I was writing too German, used too long sentences, too many commas, dashes, exclamation marks and parentheses.
Well, I'm sorry if I'm writing too complicated for the North Americans! Because my experience with writing fanfiction was rather the opposite - English speakers would tell me how nice my sentence structure was!
Is it my fault that a lot of people don't know how to use a comma or a semi-colon (";")?

On next Wednesday we're going to go to Camp Dunlop - I don't really know what that is, but it's an international thing, so I'm going!
And on the Halloween-weekend we're probably going to Vancouver! Yeah! :D

Well, anyway, I'm going to bed now! :D

Have a nice day!

And thank you Mom for the Biology stuff! And also a thanks to you, Linda! :D

And a general thanks to everybody who has commented on my blog so far!
I try to answer below your comment! :D

Freitag, 14. September 2012

two weeks

So, just a short, quick update from myself...

I finally got around to have my timetable completed (I have Journalism on Thursday afternoons) and ... well, we've written two tests - Spanish and Japanese, and at least with the latter I already know I did a good job.

School is great so far, I love my lessons and my teachers are really cool!
I also have at least one girl in each of my classes with whom I get along really well - only the German students in my English class are very much not to my linking - I don't get along with them very well.

I think the nicest lot is in my Debate & Speech and Journalism class - both are great fun!

Well, I actually should have written an English Essay (three paragraphs on violence and gun control in the US compared and contrasted to Canada - but I admittedly know very little about that), so instead I watched Iron Man. The next project is rewatching Iron Man 2 and, if I'm not wrong, Iron Man 3 will be released sometime next year in May...

The next movie I really want to see is the Hobbit - looking forward to that one for sure!
And Avengers 2 should come out next year, too! I just hope our cinema back home has the original language - or I have to buy/rent the movie! :D

So, I'm saying good night (biking tour tomorrow, I gotta catch some sleep!)

Good night!
Julia

P.S.: This is my first English essay! :D

Montag, 10. September 2012

Japanese bad chairs

Aaaand another post from me!

Just a short, quick update.

Today was Photo day for the Yearbook . I got called out during English, but that was no problem (We've written a Diamante, a short poem during that time. But I was finished at home!)

My Diamante:
Seconds
Short, Forgettable
Slipping, Trickling, Accumulating
Sand in the Hourglass, Fusion to Glass
Stretching, Lasting, Teaching
Meaningful, Memorable
Lifetime


The funniest lesson of the day was Japanese. Even though we've learnt quite a lot - 15! - Hiragana!

a i o u e
ka ki ko ku ke
sa shi so su se

And tomorrow we'll write a test on those fifteen!

But whilst we were learning these signs, suddenly there was a HUGE crash.
We were quite surprised - and couldn't stop laughing once we'd realised our teacher was sitting on the floor!
His chair had given out, just like that!
We laughed for at least two minutes, while his face was a study in befuddlement, until somebody got the idea to ask our teacher: "Are you all right?" - "Yeah. Yeah I am" which only sent us into further gales of laughter. I almost cried!

Here is our Japanese "Song" that we currently are singing!


Lyrics:

Zou-san, zou-san
O-hana ga nagai no ne
Sou yo, kaasan mo
Nagai no yo

Zou san, zou san
Dare ga suki na no
Ano ne kaasan ga sukina no yo

English (they don't quite match up with what she sings in the vid, but that's alright!)

Little elephant, little elephant,
You have a long long nose.
Yes sir, my mother has a long nose, too.

Little elephant, little elephant,
Who do you like best in the world?
Well, I like my mother best in the world
And I should write a paragraph on comparing three texts in English we've read...

But the best lesson by far was Debate and Speech.
'Cause while that may be extracurricular, it's not a club. It's a normal four-credit course! :o

The teacher is very nice, and I have found two more girls with whom I get along very, very well.
One of them will take me to Tim Horton's on  Wednesday at lunch! :) She also will be in my Creative Writing Class! :D

I'm really looking forward to both of that!

So, love you guys!
Have a nice day, I'm gonna take a look at my Japanese signs (English I can do tomorrow at lunch, and he said he'd give a bit of time during the lesson; I anyway have to ask him for some assistance!) and I'm gonna learn a bit of biology - there's a quiz on Wednesday... :)

So, good night! (Or good morning, depending on your time zone!)

Julia

Sonntag, 9. September 2012

On Fire!

Just a quick update from my side, nothing to worry about (at least, not yet):

I mentioned we'd been to Osoyoos yesterday, right?
Well, one of the towns we drove through, Peachland, is on fire. Literally.
It's about 100 km away from here - and there's strong wind...

We are fine though.
We've been to see some salmon, and later shopping, I took a look at my Spanish stuff and I completed the review questions for my Biology class with my knowledge of last year's biology stuff... :)
I still knew quite a lot!

So, I hope you all have a pleasant morning, I'm gonna have dinner now!

Love you!
Julia

ETA: Okay, it seems as though the fire is nearer than I thought - it's 20 km away from Doro, so about 50 km from us! :o

Samstag, 8. September 2012

Third day of school & weekend

On my second day, the classes were switched. I remembered that very well in the mornings, then talked to my yearbook teacher (it clashes with Debate, so I had to drop it) and then after lunch - I went to Biology. I should have been in English.

But since Mr. K. teaches Biology 12 in Period 3 AND 4, he didn't notice. And neither did I. I only noticed when I went into my English class and didn't recognize anyone!
Well, one girl then told me: "Du bist doch auch Deutsche, oder? Lass mal deinen Stundenplan sehen. Ich bin mir nämlich sicher, dass wir hier Media Arts 10 haben... Oh, klar, schau, du solltest jetzt in Bio sein!"
And I went rigid as realization dawned on me...

Well, I went to Mr K. to apologize, then back to Mr D to excuse my absence from my previous class, and well, I had a spare.
Mr D'd given me the homework and returned my paper from the lesson on the day before and I had a spare lesson.

My Work - the first graded thing in Canada! :D


So I went to see the counselor - again.
They recognized me, chatted with me while I was waiting and I dropped Yearbook and wanted to take up Journalism, but it doesn't show as an extracurricular curse, so Mr M. will have to sign me up by hand...

Yeah, that was it...
Well, except of course, have I mentioned I LOVE English lessons?
We have, every class, twenty minutes of silent reading time - if we aren't reading when he lets his gaze sweep around class, we get a zero! We get bad marks for not reading - I used to get bad marks for doing so! :D

Anyway, I severely dislike the girls in my Biology class. They're always writing on their phones, eating during the lesson, talking to each other and not paying attention. I'm sure they're of the kind to later complain about the teacher being unfair, although they were the ones who didn't pay attention!
I hate such people!

Today we were at Osoyoos, had a guided tour through one of the reservoirs - Photos will follow later.

Then we had a very nice lunch and we stopped by Tickleberrys, because I had mentioned I'd never had Fudge.
And I have to say: It's abso-bloodey-lutely FANTASTIC. It melts in your mouth and is sweet and very, very delicious.

Sooo: Photo time! (After the Shortcut! :D)

Love you all!
Julia


Second Day of school

So, I decided to split that stuff up - too much in one go! :D

First of all my timetable:

And it continues switching during the week, with the Monday schedule repeated on Wednesday and Friday, and the Tuesday schedule on Thursday.

My first real day of school was better by far.
We had Homeroom the first 30 mins, and ... hm. I can't say I like my homeroom.

But I jumped over my shadow that morning at the bus stop and talked to two girls, because one of them looked like she might be an International, too - she wasn't, but both of them were very, very nice, so they invited me to spend my lunch with them.

First lesson that morning was Spanish. The teacher introduced herself over a game - making us guess things about her, like her birth country (Portugal), her school, her Uni, her car, the number of children she has... She's very nice.

In Spanish is one other German boy, who lives here in my neighbourhood.

Japanese easily is the most crazy subject I have - Mr C. began his lesson my talking to us - in Japanese!
Of course, we didn't understand a single word.
Then we made standup games - Tatekudasai (I think) means stand up, Suatekudasai means please, sit down (the kudasai means please) - all without a word in English!

He proceeded to tell us - in English this time - that he had successfully proven that we have everything we need to learn a language! Because we had understood him, even though we didn't understand the language!

Well, I like Japanese.

Lunch was cool, for lack of a more appropriate word. The girls are nice (I have to remember to ask them whether I can use their names in my blog!) and Lunch was over too soon!

My spare lesson I used to talk to the counsellor - she's also so very nice! (it seems to me everybody is. Except for those in my homeroom and the girls in my Biology class!)

She looked Spanish up for me - it's full. So if nobody drops their Spanish class on Monday (that's the last time to make changes to the timetable), I can't take Spanish 11 (I have Introductory Spanish 11). I would like to, though, because I need it in Germany, and I fear I will forget almost everything in that whole semester, if I don't do it in school!

Anyway, I dropped Journalism, and if Spanish doesn't work out, I'll continue Japanese - which I would love to do, too!

In my spare lesson we put (after a lot of back and forth) Biology 12. Human Biology.
It was no use to go to that lesson anymore, because the bell rang the minute I left the counselor's office, so I simply continued on to English.

And I have to say: I abso-bloody-lutely LOVE it.
My teacher is soooo cool - he actually reminds me a bit of Captain America (I really hope he doesn't read this!). He's awesome!

Of course, I embarrassed myself immediately - I called, to get his attention, "Sir?" and he looks at me and starts laughing.
"What did you call me? Did you actually call me 'Sir'? Oh, you so have to call me that anytime, I love that!"
Well...
I didn't do it.

We went shopping that evening, and the prices here - thy honestly are crazy!
I mean, on the one hand side, $0.19 for 150 pages of lined paper, but $4 for 6 ink cartridges and $12 for post-its... o.O

I got everything I needed for around $8 - not very much, I think!

First day of school


So, sorry for the long wait  between my posts, but a) my week was pretty exciting, b) I wrote my German diary, c) my hostparents kept me so busy, d) I have school from 9 o'clock, which means leaving the house at ten past eight, to a quarter past three, which means coming home by 4 o'clock and e) I was just lazy.

But now the first week of school is over (and I'm awake at 8 o'clock on a weekend... I'm crazy...)

I had a really strange dream. I dreamt that I had flown home a week from now, because of something ... I don't know what, it could have been Lara's birthday... (I know that it has already passed...)

Well anyway, I have to admit that I still wasn't really homesick. I felt a bit lost or a bit nervous at times, but the homesickness is making itself (fortunately) scarce.


Okay, the first day was really cool, though very chaotic.
We Internationals were filtered out of all the new Grade 10s, and we got a short introduction.
Then name stickers were distributed for all the Grade 11s and 12s. My name sticker was on this list, but I was assured that it was simply a mistake.

Well, it wasn't. But more of that later.

We went into the gym (gymnasium, not to be confused with a Gymnasium in Germany; it's a place for sports) and did a few games to get accustomed to each other.

Then we were split into groups by our last names. My group didn't have my timetable, and it also wasn't to be found, so one of our Link Leaders, who were in charge of us, went with me in search of my timetable. We had it printed out, and the subjects ... well, they were a shock.

It looked like this:

Yearbook 11 - 6
Debate 11 - 16
Spanish 11 - 1
Japanese 11 - 2
English 11 - 4
ESL Cultural Studies - 20
Journalism 10 - 1
Psychology 11 - 2
Pre-Calculus 12 - 3
Creative Writing 11 - 4

(The 6, 16 and 20 mean that it's outside of the timetable)

Well, where were my Robotics and Drafting? Where was my Martial Arts? And where was my third lesson in the first semester? And why did I have Spanish and Journalism, although I had dropped the latter in favour of the former?

We then were sent to our homerooms (like our classes, just that you don't have lessons with them), and my name (make an educated guess) was ... not on the list!
So when school let out, I looked at the Grade 11 homerooms, just out of fun. And what was there in the homeroom for the R's? My name!

So okay, I was a Grade eleven. What to do now? The bus taking us to Hollywood Road was already there, and the introduction for the Grade 11s and 12s would begin any moment...

In the end, I ended up talking to my first homeroom teacher (who is still very, very nice to me) and she reassured me. Said I should go to Hollywood Road, she would tell my teacher where I was. It was no problem.

Hollywood Road had an English test - sorry, assessment - for us. It was very, very easy. My oral tester (for speaking and listening) actually said: "Well, we might as well skip this part..." We didn't.


So, I'm off watching Iron Man 2 now (because I love Tony Stark since I've seen the Avengers),
so, Good Night (or Good Morning, depending on your time zone)!

Julia

Montag, 3. September 2012

Rodeo

Sooo, I'm finally awake - well, technically I've been for half an hour... :D
The Rodeo was really, really great.

It was a fair, like the German Dult, but bigger (at least than the one in Regensburg), with a lot of a attractions, vendors and animals - pigs, alpacas, horses, cows and chicks.
I ate real homemade fries!
And we also saw some exhibitions about bees and wax, which was the theme this year.

But the best thing was the Rodeo itself.
There was the Grand Entry first - a choreography on horseback (amazing! Look at the Photos!)
Then the Bareback - the "rodeo" you think of when you hear it: Cowboys sitting on horseback, trying to stay there, while the horse jumps up and down. This was without a saddle - very, very amazing!
The next thing was the Steer Wrestling: A Cowboy would ride after the calf, jump off his horse and wrestle the calf down.
Then Saddle Bronc - The "real" Rodeo on horseback, but this time with a saddle. For some reason, more fell off here than at the bareback! :D
After that the National Anthems of Canada and of the USA were sung - that was amazing!


Team Roping was also cool: Two cowboys would catch the calf: One the horns and the other one the hindlegs.

The Tie Down Roping was after that and cool, too: One cowboy would have to catch the calf by the horns, then jump down and proceed to tie the hooves.

And the last thing was of course the Bull Riding... Great to see such a thing live!
One man had fallen off, and he was looking for the door (which opened to the inside) and he actually missed it! :o He climbed the fence, then! It was pretty exciting, 'cause of course the bulls were not amused!

Well, we came home just before midnight, so it was a pretty long evening!

Best regards,
Julia


Sonntag, 2. September 2012

Grocer's store

So, my first real day in Canada!
I said I'd be writing about the rodeo next, but I find myself having a bit of free time, so I thought I'd write up this morning.

I actually managed to go back to sleep again, but I finally woke up at 8:33 AM.
Steven cooked a lovely breakfast with omelet and bacon, and then we went to the grocer's.

I tell you, guys, it's amazing!
It's super huge and pretty ordered!

And I even got the same shampoo like I have at home!
And a new hairdrier, some toothpaste and headphones.
They were rather cheap (~10€), but Steven's taking a look at my old ones - he said he might be able to fix them!
After that, we went to the food store, and, in all honesty, this is even more crazy.

They have EVERYTHING - LINDOR, which I love so very much (you can put your flavours together by yourself! They are not in a package, but you can make your own package!), then meat (which is located on the inside, but at the walls around the store, then there was this huge aisle with Lindor chocolate, a whole rack of sweets, an aisle of drinks, an aisle of cereals (so, basically an aisle for each kind of thing) and they had like four different sorts of fresh hot chilis, and their vegetables (like salad, carrots and the like) are being spritzed - they are sprayed with water every so often.

I got to know some of the neighbours, too - two doors up, a girl a year younger than me lives, for example - and I met some of the dogs here, too. There is a Dane called Georgia, who dwarfs Dustin - her shoulder is above my hip!

We will be leaving for the rodeo in about an hour, so I have to get ready!


Tomorrow I won't have anything to do, and on Tuesday, there is the introduction at the school and the orientation for all internationals afterwards - I'm really looking forward to meeting the other girls again!

Well, that's it for now, I doubt I'll post about the rodeo today - Marina approximates 12 o'clock for our return! :o

See you!
Julia

Canada

Sooo, I finally arrived in Canada!
It's just a beautiful country, really amazing!

I don't believe I could be any happier - my host family is the best and nicest in the world, their house is really wonderful (the same goes for my room) and the dog is just cute!

Well, my flight was really alright.

The worst part was Munich - London, 'cause I was flying all alone, the two others of my organisation sitting at the other end of the airplane, and I was really nervous - every time there was the slightest tremor in the wings, my palms started sweating and I panicked.

I did see a lot of great stuff, though, although we were flying mostly over the clouds.
What I saw was the Olympia stadium, the typical London doubledecker, the Thames, people driving on the wrong side of the road, the curious picture of the sky scrapers cluttered together in a sea of single storey houses and, of course, London itself, England!

Well, when we landed, we had seventy minutes to board our next flight - and of course, we were caught in the security checks. My bags were okay, but I was wearing bandages (because of sitting for such a long time), and while they had been okay in Munich, here I had to pull them off, pull my gaiters (Stulpen) off and my shoes and they searched everything VERY thoroughly. It was a bit scary.

We caught our flight, luckily, and were delayed for 12 minutes, before we could start.

That flight was really, really relaxed, thanks to Doro, who was sitting next to me. Every five minutes (everytime they wanted to give out food) we hit slight turbulences, but that was no problem at all for me.
I spent my time reading my Farewell book (neither Doro nor I cried, we were far to elated), watching Marvel's The Avengers [in Englisch, of course], watching Sherlock with Doro together, in the end watching Charlie and the chocolate factory, writing Romy's book (which I have to update, too) and making Photos. Watch out, below there will be a gazillion of photos (well, I think it are a bit more than a dozen) below the cut! And I ripped my headphones apart.
They had been damaged for like a year, but my foot caught in them and literally tore them apart, where the plug in meets the cabel.

So, the ride was slightly bumpy, but all in all nothing compared to our flight to Kelowna.
I was sitting all alone (again) in the last row (Doro was sitting backwards in the first, facing the rear, which must have been a very funny experience.)
But first, we arrived at Vancouver International Airport with half an hour delay, so we had no more than sixty minutes for immigration. The person in support here always said: "You'll have at least four hours." ... Well, we didn't. And Doro, Babette and I would have caught the flight, because we had been in the queue before a group of Japanese students, but the other three had been behind. (One student had to catch a later flight anyway, so we were only six instead of seven, because the flight apparently had been booked out by the time she wanted to get on it!)

They needed like half the documents we had with us at the immigration, and checking in our luggage was very easy, too. Most likely because we only had to put it (with a great lot of laughter, 'cause we were sure that we would now catch our flight) on a conveyor. Then we hurried to our gate, I bought something to drink (cause Doro and I were really thirsty) and when we reached our gate, what did it read?
AC1814 13.55
Delayed to 14.10.

A few minutes later it changed to
Delayed to 14.20

So of course, we all caught the flight. Flight AC1816 to Kelowna, scheduled for 14.35, actually left and arrived before us!

We finally started with an hour's worth of delay (so: we started when we were supposed to land), and the ride was very bumpy, and we didn't see anything of Kelowna.
The ride was FUN! :D Like rollercoaster, and I was even a bit sad that it ended so soon!

The landscape was very, very brown, only broken by really big forests... Amazing!

And there are so many lakes! :o

I was shown around the house, which is beautiful, as I mentioned, then I accompanied Steven and Coco on a walk at the lake side, then there was dinner and then I already went to bed, which resulted in me being wide awake at 3.45 AM. Jet lag. Because I would be awake at home right now...

What is really strange, I think, is my lack of home sickness. I think it will still come, but I had anticipated tonight being the worst night - not at all!

Well, I have to write another diary, too, and I want to get back to bed, so I say good night to you!
... Or rather: enjoy your meal!

Best regards,
Julia

P.S.: I will post again this evening after the rodeo, if I am still awake enough.
But don't think the posts will stay this frequent!