VANCOUVER (Island)

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Well, not really, but almost--except for those two weeks or so I have to go in Germany (or is it just one?) just for the shit and giggles...

Anyway, so right now I'm bored and not tired and my parents are already in bed, so I decided to write up what we've been doing...

Time is running together, I'm telling you, and I'm really, really, really looking forward to home, to my piano, my friends, my dog, my bed, our house...

Ten months is a stupidly long time, and I can't deny I'm glad it's over. But I will miss a lot in Canada :( (I will give you specifics once I'm back home, I promise)

Anyway, so my parents touched down close to midnight a week ago, and we'd been chatting over skype for a while.

They picked me up after school on Monday and met Mr Kletke and Ms Snuggs, two of the San Fran trip teachers and Entrepreneurship and Internationals teacher respectively, and then we left for the mall.

I got new runners (in stunning red <3 and had to pay by myself even though my parents are here -_-). We got some cinnamon buns from Cinnzeo (omg, they are the most delicious thing I've ever eaten... There is nothing more delicious than these buns, I swear) and ... yeah, went to Starbuck's.And I guess that was it...

Afterwards, we went to my host family's for dinner--beef dip--and had a nice evening at the shore (even though it was grey and almost raining). I started my endeavour to take as many pictures as possible, and as of now I am at 925--just in the last week!

Tuesday, my parents picked me up again and we said bye to Mr Murphy--who insisted I'd been a great student (thanks... I guess? I mean, all I did was not pay attention and not interrupt the lesson...) and told me I had to work in a field that would use my knowledge of Math...

Saying goodbye to Mr Manderioli was a bit tough because he's retiring and that's so sad and going into his room is so weird because it used to be decorated with his Rock History stuff and now it's bare and that's just no :(

And then we said goodbye to Mr Derksen, but I'll probably stop by his room again when I'm picking up my report card.

He told me I missed out on 'Best English 11 student' 1%. ONE Percent. >.<

So I'm runner up... because this other guy had one percent more on the Provincial than me. Sucks.

But hey, I'm glad enough as it is, considering I'm not a Native Speaker :)

He also told my parents I had to work with language later on... :)

Once we were done in school, we headed for Vancouver, and I even managed to sleep a bit (as usual... All three times driving to Vancouver I've slept on the drive for at least a couple of minutes).

The house we were at was really nice and cozy <3

The first day, we went to see the Botanical Garden of UBC, and I guess it was nice?
It was a lot of walking on trails high up between the trees and learning about different cedars and hemlocks and stuff :)

We spent a couple hours there and then my parents dropped me off at our house and went shopping... for groceries, I mean.

Of course we our first falling out that day... but what do you expect? I haven't lived with anybody that emotionally close or who could see through every one of my deceptions (even though that probably is too hard a word) for ten months, so thinking it would be totally smooth would be almost delusional :o
I am not an easy person to live with, I am sorry...

The next day, we went wool shopping for my mom in a shop that dyes it's own wool. Paradise (for her).
It took us ages to find it because Mom hadn't written the address down and neither of my parents would believe me when I said it was in there instead choosing to check out every single other entry way before ending up where I had suggested and it was correct. Big surprise there...

In the after noon, we proceeded on to Metrotown mall (Metropolis at Metrotown) in Burnaby, where we'd been with the Internationals.

I got a new hoodie and a shirt <3 from American Eagle.

We also got another couple cinnamon buns for desert. <3

Day three started with us going downtown in the morning and seeing Canada place (where the Olympics had been) and the Olympic torch and exploring a path about the history of Canada, and going back to Capilano Suspension Bridge in the after noon.

It's so beautiful there! <3

Day four meant traveling--by ferry this time.
We took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo, where we are right now.
Yesterday we couldn't do much more than unpack and (in my parents' case) go grocery shopping, but today we spent the whole day at 'Butchart Gardens', which is breathtakingly beautiful. And it made my mom happy.

Tomorrow we're driving down to Toffino, and on Tuesday we're gonna start the journey back home...

And that's it from me, there might be a couple pictures following at a later date, but rn I'm super tired (after all)

Thanks for reading <3