Seventeen

Seventeen - that is how many pages I have written for Math homework over the last four days.
Today alone it took me two hours to finish Math, after I hadn't done anything yesterday (I had done half of it during Math and Entrepreneurship yesterday and the other half today during school). It wasn't hard, it was just a lot, like seriously a lot (# 1-5, 7, 9, 10, all of which had at least a-c if not a-f), but afterwards I felt really awesome!

We went bowling today - and it was fun!
I was overall third after two games, second of all students and first of all girl with 199 after two :) Don't ask me how, I have no idea. Just luck and charm?

I wrote a really, really long letter to Lara - I got carried away a bit, and I switched the keyboard to German, so right now I'm having trouble typing!

And I have one more thing:
If you're feeling bad in any way - self-harm, eating disorder, depression - consider checking out this blog, which I found on my tumblr dash today.
It's really good, and even though I don't have any of these problems, it made me feel better instantly!


Tomorrow is a long day - and what I really have to admit is that I miss Doro. So much!
Even though I didn't see her that often, she was just there - and this assurance is just absent now :/


Anyway, I'm almost falling asleep sitting here, so I'm saying good night!

Good night!

Keyed up

I'm all weirdly keyed up - hungry but too full from dinner still, tired but my mind is running too fast, bored and not wanting to do anything.

I hate days like this. Or evenings like this.
The day wasn't even so bad, actually...

But first, I wanted to say thank you to everybody reading this blog. You guys "killed" the 4000 yesterday - now there have been more than 4000 clicks in January.
Thank you so much, this is a new record!
(The last 'high-score' was November with 3,689 clicks.)

And I would like you to know: We have reached exactly half-time. Not until I'm coming home, that isn't until another week, but until school is out. School officially ends on 06/28, and that's exactly 150 days from today.
And school officially started 09/01, which is exactly 150 days from today.

Actually, my half-time was already a few days ago, because school didn't start until the 09/04 because of a holiday (labour day) and will end already on 06/27, because the de-facto last day is only for teachers and administrators.
But who cares?

So, back to my day:
I was at Dorothea's from 9.30 to 4.30, might have converted her to hockey, just as I converted her to Sherlock (muahahah), had yummi roast pork for dinner and a pretty relaxed evening...
And then the Rockets lost against Kamloops in overtime, and the Canucks lost, too. Not that I am a Canucks fan or anything, but Vancouver? I am geographically forced to root for them over the L.A. Kings.
Although the Canucks have a longstanding rivalry with the Blackhawks... And the Kings have two players I think are pretty cool...

I also watched like two minutes of the Cariolina Hurricanes - Boston Bruins game, and what can I say? It was really disappointing. I like hockey, as I have mentioned, because of the speed, grace and fluidity. And none of this was present in that game.
Passes didn't connect en masse, there were unnecessary turn-overs, then Eric Staal, the Captain, took an unnecessary penalty, the Bruins scored and Jeff-always-smiling-Skinner engaged an opposing player in a fight. Nobody knows why, but he seemed pretty enraged. Since there were 7 seconds left in the period, they were both sent from the ice...

I'm so looking forward to the next Hawks game, although it's probably gonna kill me. I'm expecting it to be very enthralling, because I really want them to do well.

And I'm not just rooting for them because they're so good at the moment. No, I was a fan even before this lockout started, and they had two not-so-stellar seasons after winning the Stanley Cup. So. Duh.

Have a good night!

'Cause I'm halfway gone

... Okay, I'm not, but that's kind of what came to mind thinking about what to name this entry.
The line is from Lifehouse, "Halfway Gone".
And looking at Dorothea's day-count, it's a bit scary (be warned that there is a lot of feeeeeels under the cut, and a fair bit of me psycho-analyzing myself, so enter at your own risk)

Procrastination

Remember how I told you about the ton of work I had?
Well... those who know me (maybe) can guess how much I have done by to day:
Not even half of my work!
I know, I know, bad example, bad work attitude, blah, blah, but ... I started with Biology, got it almost done, and then ... couldn't do the rest.

It isn't just that I was procrastinating (which I was, I won't even deny it), but it's that my laptop didn't work. It's really weird at the moment, it just keeps freezing, for like two minutes whenever I click a link, and since I need to do a lot of research for my Spanish project, I had a lot of frozen time where my laptop simply would not react.
So I grabbed a book and ... got distracted, of course.

Well, I am resigning myself to do (as so often) everything on the last day possible. And I still have a few days before my presentation, but I am telling myself I need it by Monday. The likelyhood of me actually getting it done increases like ten-fold.

So, now for my holidays:
They were relaxing. I caught up to a lot of my sleep, although that was kind of interrupted two nights ago:
I have a major writer's block since leaving Germany. At one of my stories I am at a point where I don't know what to write next, and I simply didn't get any inspiration. Over the last few days, there was a page lying next to me, and I randomly jotted down a few lines (more often than not only one or two sentences).
But then on Thursday evening, I'm getting ready for bed at 8.30 (I was tired), when I am hit by inspiration. I was reading something, and my mind took the scenario, twisted it, and gave me about a lines DinA4 page of actual writing. Then I went on to get into bed, but I'm just starting to drift off, when more in the same setting occurs to me, so I get up and write that down, too.

So I get back to bed, but even though I am really tired, I can't fall asleep, and another burst of inspiration hits me. I don't even try to fight it, just get up and write, and ... well, see for yourself, I have four pages written like this:

It's a 20 ct piece so that you can imagine how big the page is, and I have written on it in my custom way to save paper:
going downwards on the line, then flipping the page so that the writing is upside down and then I write in the space between the writing again.

So, back and front of two sheets, and since I write on it twice, I guess I can say I have written 8 pages. Add to that the four pages I have written with single lines, and you get a pretty impressive word count (I have typed up the first two pages now and am at about 800 words. Looks good).
The best thing about this is that I also almost have an ending, or if I change it a bit, I have at least my ending planned.
Why can't I devote that much time to Journalism?
Well, the downside however was, that it was 2 o'clock by the time I was finished; I wrote for about two hours, maybe two and a half, and I had a cramp in my neck and in my hand, like always when I write too much and am too focused.
But I'm pretty proud.

What I'm also proud about is that I have been playing Rummy with Bob (and occasionally Jenna and Andy and on once Tanya, too) every day, and ... see, Mama, you can't complain. I am socialising (somewhat)!

So, there might be another post coming up, because ... if you look at Dorothea's day count you might know why, but I'll leave it at this for the moment.

See you all soon!

And by the way:
I mentioned Germany had been beaten by the US 8-nothing and by Canada 9-3, yes?
USA went on to beat Canada 5-1 (to the chagrin and outrage of the Canadians), and then won the World Junior Hockey Championship, while Canada only came 4th after a shootout against Russia, I think (they are tied, so they shoot on the goal without any defensemen).

But now good night (or good morning, depending on where in the world you are and when you're reading this)

Two nights left

Okay, seriously short post, because I hurt my wrist pushing myself off the floor just a moment ago and am typing with my left hand now.

Today was really lazy; I slept till ten (9.5h! Yay!) and then read, watched a few videos, played wii and Rommee with Bob and then wrapped my last two presents.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!
And we had the grandparents and Tanya's sister with her partner over for dinner, and it was really nice.

I had said Dorothea would give me Photos, right? She did give them to me, yesterday, but apparently I lost the flash drive in one of the Sears shop when I frantically searching for my phone. I've kinda given up any hope of finding the stick again, but I will look for it, okay?

Well, have a good night! And if you want to, you can leave what you got for Christmas in a comment - I'd be very interested!

Julia

Family Time

So, I didn't meet up with Dorothea today, but I did finish the Christmas presents for the girls - only to decide that it would be better as birthday presents, so duh.

And I have to make at least two more handcrafted things (you Germans know what I really like to make, and the Canadians I can't tell, sorry!), and I need to have them by Friday and I really don't know whether I'll manage that plus catch up with Japanese plus write a Journalism article about the Lockout (why did I volunteer for that again? No idea.) plus catch a decent amount of sleep. Well, scratch that last one, I know I won't be able to sleep.

Today I met Tanya's extended family - they're in town for a funeral, but it's a really nice crowd.
I'm just feeling right now like I had my social dose for the next months between Vancouver (88 Internationals in two buses, we didn't have much alone time - actually, none. I managed to grab two hours or so before sleeping when everybody else was already in bed, but that doesn't really count) and meeting the family today. And then again tomorrow.
I just ... need a bit time for myself? To work through everything I've learnt?
I'll hopefully be able to grab a few alone-hours on Tuesday, and I really hope this is over soon.

There is a reason why I spend time around people in carefully measured doses (and don't believe everything I'm saying the way I am saying it. I am totally melodramatic and able to cope, I just like to whine. I'm feeling only slightly overwhelmed, but I have my kindle, so it shouldn't prove to be too much of a problem.).

Well, that's it from me for today. I need to take another look at English; Spanish I'll learn during my break ;)

Vancouver

So, let's see. It was a pretty long week, and I'm still really tired (my sleep was fitful rather than restful, but let's start from the beginning).

So, 5 o'clock is an ungodly hour, I'm telling you. But, I stood up, had a toast, got my bags and left with Andy by 6:10 a.m.
Doro had saved me a seat on the bus, but unfortunately, we were split by schools - KSS and RSS (and I think all those others) on one bus, and Mount Boucherie and OKM (or something similar, don't ask me, I don't know. I only know that Doro was on a different bus than me!) on the other.
At least our bus was more comfortable than theirs!

Ms White (our coordinator) and Ana (Doro's coordinator) were each on one bus, with one hostparent accompanying them each.
The bus drive was long, but I think I even managed to sleep for an hour or so. After two and a half hours we stopped at a mall and went shopping for two hours or so, and I got a few more Christmas presents and ... toothpaste. Mine ran out.

Then we went for two and a half more hours by bus to the Vancouver Aquarium. Doro has pictures, but I fear I won't get them till tomorrow. Well, those of you in Germany will get to see my Scrapbook when school starts again. (Yes, it will take me all of my summer holidays to simply compose it, because it is like a lot. And when I say a lot, I actually mean verdammt viele. Like, something along the lines of 1000? Well, 700. But I only spent a third here, so you can do the maths. And I haven't yet been to San Francisco, so duh.)
The Jelly fish were really ugly, but we watched a dolphin and a Beluga whale show, and even though it was really cold, I enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we checked into our hotel and went to a nearby mall to get dinner and spend some more money (according to rumors, one girl spent more than $500!).
Dorothea and I shared our room with one Brazilian girl, and we went to bed at a halfway decent time.

Second day started with us going to Grouse Mountain for snow shoeing. It was a nice thing, but it's not my favourite - it was kinda boring.

Entry way to a house; native style

View from Grouse Mountain

A 'small' Christmas Tree

And the Lobby

Reading this, my mom will probably have the urge to strangle/throttle me, but this lobby is the place I left my wallet at - with more than $300 in cash and my credit card and all my papers...
Since I anyway had the feeling of having forgotten something since we left Kelowna, I patted down my pockets when we were waiting in line to get down from the mountain, I fortunately realized I had forgotten my wallet before I was back on the ground, so I hurried back and - 'lo and behold, it was at the information. All my money and everything was still there, too. Canada is such an honest country!

Afterwards, we visited the "Telus World of Science" and we even watched a movie in the round sphere thingy!

It was pretty cloudy, but at least we were inside. Unfortunately, one boy hadn't wanted to come to the snow shoeing, so by the time we had him convinced to come we were already considerably late (half an hour? A full hour? Something like that), and we were another hour late when we left Grouse Mountain, so we only had time for the movie (About polar bears, it was quite nice) and a bit of looking around - I don't believe we've  seen everything there was to see :(

That is an iglu out of milk cartons. Since the ice is melting, and there are Canadian stereotypes to uphold, right?

I spent some money at the Souvnir Shop, and after that we drove to Granville Island, which is absolutely boring.

Christmas Decorations

But at least the view was nice!

After that we had 15 minutes at the hotel, and guess what? We went to the mall.

This time, it wasn't just Doro and me, but Doro, Josy (who had joined us the day before already), Jonas (German boy from Doro's school) and me, and Doro and Josy deserted Jonas and me while they were in 'Pink' (and don't laugh, but it's a lingerie shop... and it was called Pink, so I said, Thanks, but no thanks, and while Jonas did look like he would have liked to accompany them [I'm joking, btw. I think], he stayed outside with me. And then they ditched us. Claimed they didn't see us, while in fact we were sitting right in front of the shop.). When it became clear that neither of them was anywhere in the vicinity, Jonas and I went to Qoola - Frozen Yogurt Bar and got a frozen Yogurt each until it was time to leave.

We heard about the news of the Austrian Cab Driver finding 390.000€ while we were sitting in the mall eating - and isn't that funny, because Doro was sitting with her back to the News TV and going like "Have you hear, I don't know whether he was Austrian or German, but there was this Cab driver and ..." so she told us, and I look up, over her shoulder, and on the screen it reads Austria, Cab driver finds €390,000 ($500,000) and returns everything to police. Just at the moment she was telling the story!

Well, sleep didn't come as easily that night, and I am positive I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep - I could hear girls laughing at midnight!

The next morning, we all got a dressing down; the boys' was way worse than ours. We were only reprimanded for not being in our rooms but in the boys' rooms (one of the chaperones had caught girls leaving the boys' rooms at 2:30 a.m. - seriously, what were they doing up still at that time? Even I was exhausted enough to be asleep!), but the girls had managed to destroy an elevator door, so. Well.
Ms White just said something along the lines of "We trusted you, but you abused the trust, so we will enforce the curfew rule stricter this night ..." Not that she did. I could hear girls running around at around eleven o'clock on our floor, and if I could hear them, Ms White could, too, because her room was directly opposite ours.
But, well. I think that at least all the girls stayed on the fourth floor, so maybe that was why she didn't say anything.

That day ... God, what did we do? Right, we visited the Capilano Suspension bridge, and drove by the Canucks stadium. Too bad the NHL is on lock-out (labor talks. And they're not getting anywhere, so the season might well be cancelled.). I mean, they would have been playing in Columbus on Friday anyway, so they wouldn't have been in town, but ... gah.

All their players decorated the walls

and their banners were hanging off the building.

Sorry for the bad pictures, they were taken out of the driving bus! :) And this is also where Canada beat the USA in the 2010 Winter Olympics, claiming the gold medal for the second time in 8 years. Hockey is a Canadian Sport, after all.

At Capilano, Doro played tourguide (she crashed my English video as I was "showing my parents around", saying "Und ich ruiniere jetzt hier das schöne Englische Video, indem ich Deutsch rede..." - And I'll ruin this beautiful English video by talking in German... and then proceeded to give my parents the tour, and my mom thought it was HILARIOUS, so, duh.) and we spent some more money in the tourist shop, and it was really nice. I even got a "I made it" certificate, allowing me bragging rights for the next two years.

There was a lot of tribal stuff

And the bridge itself

Looking down from the bridge

At least this time I didn't have to stifle a laugh looking at the established in - usually it's like est. in 1946  and I'm thinking, baby, we usually only write that when we have at least 18-hundred something! But Capilano suspension bridge, est. in 1889, isn't so bad!

Well, that definitely was fun, although it was raining like hell - oh, no, hell is dry and hot. It was cold and wet, and I was wearing my skiing jacket and freezing!
But it still was on this side of zero, while it has been snowing in Kelowna for the last few days (maybe my wish of White Christmas will come true?).

After the Bridge, we went to the Olympic cauldron.

View from Burrard Inlet Waterfront

The waterfront mall

Canada Place! That's where the winter Olympics took place!

wouldn't it be awesome to be living in that black box?

And here is the Olympic Cauldron!

The next stop was Stanley Park, where I already was with my old host family, but we were in a different spot this time.
It was still really foggy and damp, but well.

After that, we visited the UBC, University of British Columbia, but we actually only had a pee break.
But it's basically it's own village, looking awesome and ... omg, I seriously could imagine studying there, because it's just that amazing!
A friend of mine (I don't really know whether I can call her that, but well, acquaintance sounds so weird...) from my Journalism class was accepted there, and I guess it's not the worst choice.

That evening, we ... didn't (surprise! I know it's shocking, I'm sorry!) go to the mall, because we saw a play in a theatre called "Hotel Bethlehem".
And we were all like "Oh, no, it's gonna be so boring!" but it wasn't. They took all the Christmas/Bethlehem/Nativity-Tropes and turned them around, and it was really funny.

That evening, sleeping was even worse, and as I have mentioned, nobody obeyed the room-rule.
 Yesterday, we went Ice Skating in the morning, and I guess I wasn't so bad for maybe having been on skates a whole four times, yesterday included. The only problem I have is slowing down. And then I watched some Hockey and realized how little I actually can do.

We boarded the bus again, Dorothea was bleeding (she cut herself on her blades, and I have to admit, she was one of the better skaters, easily in the top ten, maybe even in the top five - I didn't pay that much attention to others.) and one German girl who is a figure skater had  shown us all up (she's really good, and she even showed me a few moves to slow down) and we went to ... the mall! (how'd you guess?) One girl forgot her wallet at the Frozen Yogurt place, but luckily she recovered it - the people behind the counter found it, discovered the red emergency card, called the emergency hotline, told them there was a wallet found, the emergency person called Ms White, Ms White told the girl and the girl run. Otherwise she wouldn't even have noticed it until we arrived in Chiliwack (which is pronounced "Chilwack" and not "Chili-wack", as I was told), but she got lucky.
In Chilwack, which is two and a half hours outside of Vancouver, we had a twenty minute break, which managed to become 50, because some people (I don't know who, seriously) simply can't manage to be on time, and then we had another 3 hours till we were in Kelowna again.

And I'm still tired. I couldn't sleep on the bus and had trouble falling asleep yesterday; I went to bed at 8:30 p.m., but deep sleep only came by ... 10:30? and then I woke for the first time at 5 a.m. and then 7 and finally gave up on sleep at 8, but I didn't actually leave bed until... something closer to 9?

Well, I actually had planned on doing my Christmas presents today, but between writing this and catching up with everything, I simply couldn't find the time!

And since people are always asking: The best thing about this trip? The total absence of homesickness. Like, literally, there was no homesickness at all. It was really nice!

Well, have a good rest weekend, guys, I'm leaving with the girls now!

Julia

Christmas Party

Okay, so today was the Christmas Party from International Educations..
I had a pretty good time - I met up with Babette, who was on the same plane as Doro and me from London to Kelowna, and we talked kina a lot, mainly in English.
We also talked to Doro and two of her friends and Babette's hostfather, and I can say that I really enjoyed it.

But now I have a headache - I've been lying in bed since 8 o'clock, but since Bobby has a sleepover, it was pretty loud (they were watching a movie), so I listened to a few audiobooks. And now I'm not really tired anymore - I'll listen a bit more.

Have a great weekend, guys!

Julia

Living Nativity and IT'S THERE!!!

Okay, I stayed home today - nasty cough and dizziness are no fun at all - and (hopefully) slept off my cold. I only cough sometimes now!

In the afternoon there was a surprise: My Parcel arrived!
Yay!
The gifts are already under the Christmas tree, and I can hardly wait for Christmas day!

In the evening we went to a living nativity (Krippenspiel) and it was ... nice. But I miss home... Kind of. Not really.

Bobby and Jenna beat me squarely at Rommé, and I kinda regret teaching them (no, joke of course!)
Tomorrow there is the Christmas party with the Internationals, and I will probably start packing my stuff for Vancouver.
I will leave my laptop at home, but I will take my Journal (I hope to catch up with writing, I haven't written a thing for almost two weeks now!) and I will of course take lots of pictures. Doro and I are sharing a room! (And a bed. It's two pairs a room, apparently.)

Well, that's it for now. Remember: Soak my words up! No posts from Tuesday to Friday (more likely Saturday, but that depends entirely upon how tired I am)!

Hugs from an entirely too warm Canada,

Julia

A very normal schoolday

So, Mr Derksen is still teasing me about my English - I sound so very nineteenth century with my properly enunciated words and correct grammar and big words. Thank you. I guess.

I have a killer headache - 8 hours of sleep in the last 48, that's not really optimal!

Well, next week is gonna be super busy - a Japanese quiz I have to take which I missed last week, another 'proper' Japanese quiz, a Biology quiz I missed, our Biology chapter exam, our Spanish chapter exam and our e-mail chapter exam. Oh, and on Thursday, the day after our Biology exam, we will start dissecting our pigs! :) It's also the last Thursday of Journalism (as far as I know, at least) this year, and since our newspaper comes out the week after, I will be staying late again.

Today we started decorating for Christmas!

It is the only halfway-free weekend, because December is gonna be busy!

Dorothea went skiing today! Check out her blog! 

Tomorro I'll meet Ashley at the mall and we're gonna hang out together, and sometime I really have to fit learning and making my Christmas-presents in there.

I also can't wait to start on my Advent Calendar, so I'm staying up till midnight.
Although I am pretty tired, right now... :)

Love you all!

Julia

First day of school!

Okay, so I'm officially jealous:
If I understood Doro's post correctly, she's going skiing tomorrow! And I have to go to school. That's really unfair.

Okay, so I have this wonderful song I want to share with you:

I reach out to all Merlin fans, whose show was cancelled by the BBC!

And, as I promised:
Here is Artistic Wolf Pup's version of Some Nights! :) Have fun!

Well, so I was in school again today. Honestly? I didn't miss anything. Except for dissection of a Moos's heart! That's so totally unfair.

And my English teacher - he's being so mean to me!
He said to me I'm sounding like the 19th century. Thanks. :/ (He was just joking, of course). And when I left the classroom, he shouted something along the lines of "Have a wonderful afternoon, fair Lady Julia" He is absolutely brilliant.

In Journalism I have my own two pages to design! That was something I was happy about today.

And I guess that is all.
Have a wonderful day, Germans!

Go Rockets, go go go!

My throat is raw and my eyes and head hurt, but I am thoroughly happy:
I have discovered a new favourite sport!
It's .... *trommelwirbel* Ice Hockey!

Ice Hockey is just amazing, a fast paced, brutal sport, in which the players have to shoot a puck (small, round flat object) into a small goal using sticks.

I guess you've all heard of it.
Tonight was my first Hockey game, Kelowna Rockets vs Regina Pats. And it was plain awesome.
They were constantly bullying each other into the wall, beating each other, and shooting towards the goal. Kelowna won 5-1 over three periods of 20 minutes each; the goal keeper is a KSS student.
Yes, the players mainly are students. 16 are the youngest, 22 the oldest (as far as I know, there are only 2 22-year-olds allowed on a team), and I can really see why. As I mentioned, it's really brutal.
But nobody is rolling around on the floor if they've been hit by a hockey stick in the back. Nope, it's not soccer! Rather, they go all out. If somebody seriously is hurt (like a stick to his face), the perpetrator gets a 2 minute penalty. The Rockets got such a penalty 4 times in this game, I think.

But they played really, really well.

Dorothea was sitting with the family of a friend of hers almost exactly opposite us, and while I was a tiny bit jealous in the beginning, I'm glad I didn't stay with them:
All the action (except for one fistfight) was on our side, where the Regina goal was located. Of course, they changed after 20 minutes, but the Rockets shot towards our side twice and only once to Doro's side.

And the way they were on the skates! I wouldn't doubt it if somebody told me they were more comfortable on skates than on foot, which Andy did.
It's just... they kind of seem so natural on ice, waaaaay more natural than figure skaters, for example.
And it was so abso-bloody-lutely awesome... Words are leaving me.
Talking about leaving: Before I leave, I HAVE to see another Rockets game. Because they're so great (they've had a streak of 7 wins in succession now).

Hockey is a very demanding sport: The Rockets have 80(!!!) games this season.
(And I honestly hardly can swallow because my throat is hurting so much! I mean, five goals, we screamed like hell!)

Other than that... Not very much today.
I finally "resigned" from debate, the librarian I chatted with on Tuesday (I think) gave me a wristband saying "Whose house?                      Owls' house" and... I have a lot to write over the weekend. Two Journalism articles about Christmas (yes, we are already working on the Christmas edition, and it's only three weeks off!), a persuasive essay for English (topic: A schoolday from 7 to 12 would be better than 9 to 3) and a Biology lab report. At least the latter I have already written out, I just have to make a good copy, and English I have already started.



So yeah, I'll get going then! :)

And to the comments:
I'm not actually that sad. I'm just wallowing in self-pity, believe it or not!

I'm actually pretty fine!
Love you all!

Your hockey-glowing Julia

A short weekend

Okay, so my weekend was waaay too short, I'm telling you...

Yesterday I slept pretty long, then we went to Steph's soccer game (she lost, but just barely!), during which I finished highlighting all the important stuff in my Debate and Speech booklet, and fetched Doro from Queensway Exchange afterwards.

Doro and I then proceeded to spend a whole afternoon talking, with me doing my Biology stuff (I'm almost finished, yay!) and her knitting - yes, that's right, Doro's taken up my mom's favourite sport, as she shows here, and after dinner, which was tacos (very similar to our wraps, so I volunteered to do my family's "traditional" wraps, which my mum and me had so often we couldn't see them anymore afterwards while my dad was in South Africa), we tried watching "Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)", the Guy Ritchie movie with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, but we got so bored that we watched clips from the 'Ellen' show instead.
And they were so funny, I couldn't breath and was crying because I was laughing so much!

We went to sleep by one o'clock, I guess...

And today I caught the bus with her to Queensway again, where her hostmum picked us up, dropped me off at the fitness centre (HUGE kudos to her!) and then drove Doro home.
I caught the bus one and a half hours later back to Queensway, where Andy fetched me, because I would have had to wait 30 mins at the station, which is not optimal for a lonely young lady...

The afternoon I spent learning my katakana - I guess I have them down pretty well now, but I'm definitely not looking forward to the exam tomorrow.


And my parcel arrived in Germany! I don't think I already mentioned that, but well. It did. Arrive, I mean.
It was pretty quick; I sent it only two weeks ago. Or rather, tomorrow it would be two weeks.
I just hope my mom abides by my wishes and doesn't open it before Christmas - at least in regards to my Journal.
A pro pos Journal... I really should take two hours and write up what's happened and how I feel.

I don't know whether it's homesickness, but I fell kinda empty. Could be winter depression, or pressure from school, I don't know...
Skyping at the moment only makes matters worse. I always feel down afterwards, and although I actually look forward to doing it, I can't concentrate during the session. I don't know. I feel like I felt in the first few weeks - maybe I'm fully arriving in Canada right now!

On Wednesday we get our report cards and we go curling and yeah... I'm looking forward to that. But till then I have to survive three tests... So I'd be really grateful if you crossed your fingers for me!


Well, and now I'm very tired, so I'll get my kindle and read for another 15 mins, before I go to sleep.

Have a good week, everybody!

I love you all so much!
Julia.

P.S.: If you keep that up, I might very well have a new hit count this month! This is so great!

So, und no a kurze Deifelei af bayrisch:
I komm mim Weg, wia de boaden Madln erzogn wern, ned klar. De Sochen, de si de kloane da beiden Madln assenimmt; mei Eltern hättn mi ungfähr a gonzes Joahr in mei Zimma gsteckt. Oder de Oider da boaden: Mia kemma hoam, ois is still. Wos is bassiert? De wollt an Guglakaunt hom. Fürd Meil. Muada sogt ne. Spada am seim Obend, nam Ignorieren am Disch, Dürnknallen und überhaupt ned sehr guadem Verhoitn: Sie greagt ehrer Akaunt. Des is ned nur inkonsequent, sondan a no bestärkend in ehram Verhoidn. Super. Naja, i holt mei Maul und strei hold immer wieder mui so an Satz ei, dass se mit so am Verhoidn in der großen weidn Woit ned weit kumma wird. Aber des is ned mei Aufgam de boiden afn richtgen Weg zu bringa. Und jetzt gute Nacht, i hoff es kennts des entziffern, i hob bloss a bissl Schiess vorm Gugl Übersetza!

So, and no a short Deifelei af Bavarian:
I come mim way wern wia de Boaden Madln erzogn, ned clear. De Sochen, de si de Runt since leaving takes two Madln, my parents gsteckt hättn Wed ungfähr a gonzes Joahr in my Zimma. Or de Oider Boaden as: Mia kemma hoam, ois is silent. Wos is bassiert? De want to Guglakaunt hom forD Meil. Muada SOGT ne. Spada at seim commensurate, nam Ignore at Disch Dürnknallen and even ned very guadem Verhoitn: You greagt PROFESSORS Akaunt. Ned is the only inconsistent sondan empowering in a no Ehram Verhoidn. Super. Well, I bring my mouth and coat again mui hold Sun egg to set that with so se on Verhoidn in great weidn Woit ned is Kumma far. But the is de ned my Aufgam boiden afn richtgen way to Bringa. And now good night, i hope it kennts of decipher, i just picked a bissl Shooting front Gugl Übersetza!

Please forgive me mz horrible attempts at Bavarian, I just wanted to answer to one of the lettern I received from Anna and Sophia!

A short Biological Update

So, what happened? I have no idea... Currently I'm sitting in Biology and actually I should be working on finding out axioms and determine whether they're actually true, but since I have no idea what I should look up and I've been anyway playing around with Blogger (we have a Biology 12 blog now! And our teacher wants us to play around with it a bit!), so I thought I'd give you a small update!

Basically Spencer is pretty surprised as to how many exclamation marks we use, so I guess Mr Manderioli was right after all - I'm still writing too German.

Doro and I are gonna meet in the mall tomorrow, and we'll do a bit of Biology, because I anyway have to a bit and I guess Doro had a question, and I'll buy a new Journal (I've got like, 30 pages left?) and I'm gonna get winter shoes, because it's getting pretty cold outside and my Geox can't deal with the snow.
SO, the lesson is almost over, so I'll first run my Contentions by my debate teacher and then my necxt article by my Journalism teacher.

By the way, our first newspaper has been published!

Look at it here!

Have a nice day and a nice weekend!

Bye,
Julia

Sick

Long weekend and what do I do? Get sick, of course.
Probably a viral infection, says Marina, 'cause I'm not running a fever. But I'm feeling nauseous and my throat hurts and I'm tired, so I'm lying in bed, reading, and that's basically all I've been doing today, and now I'm also drinking watered down juice to keep hydrated.
Oh, and I finally answered my mail!

I actually wanted to meet up with Dorothea, but I fear I might be contagious, and I really don't want to get her sick - she's been through this already, I don't have to burden her with this again!

I just hope I'll be fine again by Monday - I'd miss so much, a Spanish quiz, our last Biology lesson before the next quiz, Debate and English, and I really don't want that!

My laptop had problems with the graphic board driver and crashed twice, and firefox also isn't at it's top...
I already run a virus scan, but it came back emptyhanded, so I have no idea...
I'll keep an eye on it, and if it doesn't get better, I'll ask Steven for help.

I have hardly any appetite these days, only to get hunger attacks. Today it came around elven, and it sucks. It really does. But now I'm quite content - I have never realized how often I eat out of boredom!

I have exactly 59 pages of my journal left, and Lara was teasing me with some kind of book during our skyping session - I have NO IDEA what it is!
But I really need to get a new journal! Because I can't not write!
I started out with single entries, but now I'm doing it in the same style as the "Plötzlich Prinzessin" Novels - I'm just writing Date and Time.

When I get home, I'll maybe type everything up - my handwriting is really messy in places, and I am slightly confusing at times, too, but hell, it's helped me so much to simply sit down and write everything down that's bothering me...

So yeah...

I need to go and get Postcards - I actually wanted to do that today, but well, I'm bedridden, so postcards are a bit hard to get!

It's been rather rainy all week, in case anyone is interested, and the sun sets at around half past five (I think. With all these clouds it's rather hard to tell)

The package my parents send me was shipped to the east coast first, which is why I still don't have it - it arrived near Toronto and is now most likely carried by truck.

I'm looking forward to getting it, although it must be quite big, according to my parents.

I have discovered sandwiches! There is nothing better!
Here are my favourites:

1. Tuna
2. Mayonnaise and Black Forest Ham
3. Peanutbutter
4. Chicken
5. Eggsalad

I'm addicted to Peanutbutter Toasts! It's actually all I've eaten today, and while I didn't like it the first time I tried it, it gets better the more often I have it.
It's nice because it's sweet on the one hand side (honey) and salty on the other, with a flavour of nuts, and it's just so. amazing.

We read a short story by Edgar Allan Poe and, hell, he's creepy. And strange. And a bit morbid. And a master of Irony. I mean, his character Fortunato is left to die in a crypt full of dead people, lured there by his love of wine (The Cask of the Amontillado) and ... well.

I'm taking the bus after Debate now, but thankfully, there is another boy, who also takes it! So I don't have to transfer on my own!

We also had an Earthquake drill - our teacher only read out the rules and guidelines, but we actually should have gotten under our tables to cover ourselves!
Earthquakes aren't that much of a danger here, but as far as I understood it, they're expecting one near Vancouver!

My headphones, which I bought here, don't work anymore. The right one doesn't give any sound. But luckily, I still have my Apple ones, and while they're rather uncomfortable, they're waaaaaaay better than none at all!

So, well that's it from me for now, I'm going back to reading!

Miss you all!

Julia

Things

Okay, first of all I want to thank everybody who is following this blog, and especially all of you who comment. I really appreciate it, and even if I do not answer, I'm immensely happy. Answering just gets swallowed up by real life here ;)

Okay, so homesickness definitely is here since I skyped with my parents.
I'm a bit peculiar in that regard. I was perfectly fine - on a constant endorphin-high, as I called it, and of course there was a crash. My crash was 'manufactured' not only by my parents, but also by my biology test, for which I maybe could have done more. I'm a bit apprehensive of my grade now, even though I know that it won't dent my grade that much. But well, knowing and actually understanding are two pair of shoes...

At least my homesickness is not crippling in its intensity. It makes me feel a bit sad, especially when I listen to songs I associate something with.
Or I get tears in my eyes when I see a brand I know from Germany. There are quite a lot, and to get to more happy things, I will list them here (I might already have mentioned some of them in earlier posts; I am actually not quite sure...):

1. Kikkoman Soy Sauce. Not German, but we have the exact same thing in Germany.
2. Knorr.
3. Lindt. It's not even that much more expensive than in Germany, but then again, it's actually Swiss.
4. Milka
5. Rittersport
6. Kinder. Bueno is called Bueno, but the Kinder Ueberraschungsei is called Kinder Surprise.
7. Gerolsteiner. Don't even ask. It's even (well, of course it is, it's called because of that well) filled in Germany! Gerolsteiner GmbH!
8. Fleischmann's. I don't even know what it is, but it sounds definitely German.
9. Kraft with Philadelphia. Yeah, that cream cheese. (der Frischkaese)
10. A lot of Volkswagen. And you should hear them pronounce it! In the commercials they say "Volkswagen. Das    Auto", just like in Germany. 
11. Nivea

Well, I have seen veeeeery few BMW's here, but a lot of Kia's, Hyundai's and so on...

One thing: You all probably know the song YMCA, don't you?
Here there actually is a Y(oung )M(en's )C(hristian )A(ssociation). And of course one for women, too, called YWCA...

Today is Thanksgiving, but like most families, we already celebrated yesterday. There probably will be Turkey for the next week! (Just joking!)

We had Turkey and Cranberry Jelly, and Potatoes, Yams, red Beet, Melon, Carrots, Onions and Turnips, and stuffing and two kinds of dressings. The former is bread croutons with something, and the latter are not the stuff you pour over your salad, but a sidedish.
In Marina's case a Turnip mash, I think, and in Steven's case mashed potatoes with thyme. Which led me to remark that the smell reminds me of being sick, because when I was coughing, my mom would heat water and put salt, thyme and some other herbs into it. Marina thought it was really funny...

Well, I actually wanted to go to the gym today, but well... I forgot to take a look at the holiday schedules of the bus. Because of Thanksgiving, as I mentioned.
So I went to the busstation, texted with Doro and read a book, and went back home, because the bus didn't come. Well. Shit Happens.

But I need to go to the mall tomorrow, so I'll go to the gym afterwards. I need money for my debate trip.
We're having a debate in Rossland, but well... I don't have a debate partner yet, and since I barely know anyone from the group, I need to see to how I'm gonna get one. But I'm sure I'll find one.
Okay, the matter is resolved. I just got one: A boy with special needs, and he is really good at debate.  He's kind of cool, although it takes a bit to understand him - he has problems with articulation and well, I'm an exchanger, so it's hard for me to understand some stuff anyways. But honestly? I'd rather have him on my side than on my opponents!

Our topic is just really strange. It is: Be it resolved that economical bailouts are detrimental to society. Wow. An economical bailout is the government giving money to bankrupt institutions, like our government to ... Opel? Or what Schlecker would have needed.

(Meh, I just got a pimple on my elbow, probably from putting it on the table whilst typing... and did you know that whilst is rather formal and you wouldn't use it for example in a newspaper article?)

I still owe Dorothea money... Oh, and by the way, if you want to read something really good, check out her blog. It's in German:
Mein Semester in Kelowna

So, if you've read that far, congratulations. I have one more topic:

Vancouver!

It really is amazing and absolutely stunning. I already posted a pic on facebook, but I still have to resize and stuff like that for the others, so I don't know yet when I'll be able to post them.
I might just do so on flickr... Well, I don't know, but I'll let you know as soon as I do!

What else is new?
Oh yeah, I finally switched my keyboard to English, which is why I don't have any Umlaute anymore. But Firefox kept bugging me with a French keyboard, so i uninstalled the Canadian pack of keyboard layouts and used the US English, and what did Firefox do? Use the German keyboard. But luckily, I was able to resolve that with help from Steven.

Tomorrow there is a test in Japanese and one in Spanish, and I guess we'll start with our next Bio topic... I don't know yet what it will be, but I swear I'll learn more. I'm constantly feeling sick, and well, I dislike that.

But Lara sent me the first page of the stuff my class back home has been doing, and make an educated guess about their Biology topic!
It's .... Biomolecules (tadadadaaaaa!) But so far only Starch, Cellulose and Glycogen, and I may say that we've done all that far more in depths - I mean I wrote 13 pages on Biomolecules and Digestion! Just in notes!

I still need to write an article for Journalism; I actually wanted to do that today, but somehow I forgot. Well, for my other article I'm still waiting for a response, but I hope I'll be finished by the end of this week!

I also reread my Farewell book, and I carried it with me to school to fight my panic attack, so I'd like to say thank you to everybody for all those nice words!

Well, that's it from me for now, I hope you're all having a nice day!

Regards from Canada,

Julia

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