Not really, it was a rather chill day.
We had another two poets in English today, Valerie Mason John and Adelene de la Soul, two black women for Black History Month, and they showed us some of their (uncensored - Mr D rocks!) poems.
And then they asked us to perform our poems - and Lolu recited his amazing spoken word poem, and then I volunteered to read Mundane...
Lolu's was of course better received, but I am happy enough as it is (and Lolu's poem is just breath taking, so duh.)
Math was ... boring as ever. I have permanently said goodbye to my 100%, as I simply can't do that in Math (I keep making stupid mistakes like overlooking a minus or writing -4 but instead adding for and some such sh*t). I got 89.65% (44/49) on my last test - class average was 76.31%. Seriously.
I can't complain, can I?
I got half-way through my homework while he was still explaining the topic, but once I caught on, it really wasn't hard.
And he assigned us #1-11 (usually with a-d or a-f) and "Try #14, but most of you won't manage"... and seriously?
It only didn't work out for me because I (surprise, surprise) multiplied by (-1) and forgot to turn one of the minuses into a plus. Wow.
As soon as I caught that mistake it was easy - it was just a Gleichungssystem mit zwei Variablen. An equation system with two variables. Did we do that in grade 8? Or even already in Grade 7?
Lunch I spent in Mr Derksen's room, looking at vids by his son :) With Lolu and Taylor, and it was kinda fun.
Spanish was seriously unexciting (do you see how I'm trying to find different words for boring?), and we're doing another group project. They're so tedious - I don't want to work in groups, why can't she just assign us our topic and let us all work in peace?
And Entrepreneurship... I think we've had one lesson where all five of us were present.
And I'd just like somebody to take the lead (not me, 'cause I'm the youngest and the boys are all three years or so older than me and it was their idea to begin with) and tell me what to do instead of leaving me to hang alone, doing some sh*t and then being all passive-aggressive about how I'm not doing anything.
(I was doing Math since every question of mine resembling "What can I do?" was met either with stony silence or shrugs and seriously unhelpful suggestions)
After school, Andy picked me up, we dropped our bags off at home, took Jenna and Bob with us, dropped Jenna off at arts, dropped Bobby off at her grandparents, went to the mall, got me top up for my phone account, drove home, I went for a walk and Andy had dinner and then left for some meeting of his.
And I kept him updated on the Oilers (his team) and Blackhawks game (my team).
He'd been telling about how the Oilers were gonna defeat the Hawks all day long, and it really did seem like that was going to happen - the Hawks got a five on four powerplay, only for Keith to stumble in Center Ice, lose the puck and give the Oilers a short handed goal in a seriously unfortunate row of coincidences.
But Patrick Kane answered only 62 seconds later with a Power Play goal - still on the same penalty as the Oilers had scored.
And then in the second, the Oilers managed to get another goal in and keep the Hawks from retaliating.
But fortunately, Kruger managed to pot one in and they actually kept that tie until regulation ran out, and Hoss sealed the deal in Over Time - Hawks still undefeated in regulation, 19 games into their 48 game season (they have now 39 points. Estimated for reaching the play offs is 65 points... I'm crossing my fingers!)
So yeah, that game was seriously exciting - especially since the goal by Kruger seemed like it hadn't gone in (video review from Ontario said it was a good goal, though, so yay!).
You should have heard the United Center, Chicago's stadium, erupt in cheers at the declaration the goal was good!
No wonder it's called Mad House on Madison Street, and other teams are intimidated by how loud it gets in there!
So, have a good night! (and congrats to everybody who has suffered through my inevitable hockey stuff :) )
Julia
Posts mit dem Label Gastfamilie werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Gastfamilie werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Dienstag, 26. Februar 2013
Dienstag, 19. Februar 2013
Happy Day
So, after pouring out my heart - I was of course disappointed today...
But let me start at the beginning - it was a pretty awesome day! (And this is gonna be a horribly detailed description of my day, instead of doing my Math stuff, but hey, I have a spare first thing tomorrow, so I can do that then!)
Okay, I woke up before my alarm, although I hadn't gone to bed too early - I'm really looking forward to the stress being over, which is probably after the next Math test.
I climbed out of bed, folded my pyjamas (yes, that's a thing I do now), pulled on my favourite sweater and a pair of jeans as well as some socks (because it's really cold in the mornings, but I can't go to sleep if it's too warm in my room) and made my bed, which is also something I do nowadays.
I ventured upstairs, the only one in the kitchen for a change - not that I was the first one up, that's usually Bob, but she was changing in her room - and made myself a peanut butter toast, because I totally forgot about the porridge in the fridge. Everybody else also flocked into the kitchen and had their breakfast, but I went back downstairs pretty quickly.
I brushed my teeth, packed my school bag (I have enough time in the mornings) and read a bit on my kindle, before going back upstairs to put my jacket and everything on.
And I usually try to leave the house at 8:23-ish, because I like not having to worry about the bus (that comes exactly at 8:30), but when I got upstairs, I realized that, yeah, I needed to make myself some lunch!
I'd totally forgotten about that and made my ham sandwich in record time - 90 seconds.
I got out of the door alright and was, like usually, the first one at the bus stop.
I checked my backpack for my Creative Writing Journal, because I had the nagging suspicion that it had still been lying on my desk when I left my room, and sure enough, it was nowhere to be found. But well, too late, and I anyway have twice as many entries as the rest of the class. That's a great advantage of always having to write my thoughts down.
The bus came pretty quickly after that and I boarded it, iPod on (playing Christmas songs, but I didn't have the heart to change it) sliding into my usual bench.
I propped my bag up next to me and made to get my Kindle out - and guess what was in the back pocket, too? My journal!
So I was in pretty good spirits as I read my usual twenty minutes to school, where I had Spanish first thing - block order is 21-43 - with a review test. I had totally forgotten about that, but wasn't the time to fret.
Since the door to the Spanish classroom was still locked, I headed to drop off my Math book and notebook in my locker (at literally the other end of the school) and pick up my books for Spanish, but the teacher was still nowhere in sight when I get back.
And of course, instead of looking over my notes, I read a bit more.
But she finally arrived (and the bell wasn't switched on, so we got five minutes more) and let us into the classroom.
We had to rearrange our tables from the four-table-groups, facing each other, to facing-the-front, and she distributed the test.
We got the whole 73 minutes or so that were remaining of the class - 20 minutes later, I was done with the test (8 pages or so), had looked it over twice and handed it in. I picked up the vocab sheet on my way back and filled it in, and by the time I was done, hardly half the class was done with the test.
Guess what I did?
I read.
Got a great bit of reading in, but that wasn't the reason I hurried so much. No, the reason was: Everybody around me sniffing. And once I'd become aware of people sniffeling, I couldn't not hear it. It was pure torture, and it made me go crazy after a while. So as soon as I was done with the test, I plugged my iPod back in and drowned out any other noise.
Next thing was Entrepreneurship.
I designed the logo for our company, and then ... chatted a bit with Vroni and exchanged a couple of messages with Lisa.
Great lesson, I'm telling you - and tomorrow we're having a spare, because we worked during that one lunch hour (that I got out of, remember?).
So after Entrepreneurship, I went to see Mr Wishlow because of the Rockets practice, but his room was locked and he was nowhere to be seen. What else could I do but hide out in Mr Derksen's room?
It's what I usually do, after all.
First though, I ran into Mr Manderioli and he gave me the corrected version of my article.
Mr Derksen had a meeting, but he doesn't mind me dropping my stuff off and just sitting there, so that's what I did.
At the beginning of lunch I'd almost been sick with nerves - I detailed why in my post yesterday -, but by then everything was mostly alright and I was able to eat my sandwich while - surprise, surprise - reading, until a boy whose name I didn't catch came in and we talked a bit about worlds and writing. (Building worlds, I mean)
I excused myself shortly before lunch hour ended, and headed back to Mr Wishlow's room, leaving my stuff with Mr Derksen, because that was the next block anyway.
Mr Wishlow was talking to a couple of girls, so I didn't interrupt, just waited until he's finished.
He informed me he'd answered my e-mail, and that the Rockets didn't have practice today because they got the day off (much to my relief), so we re-scheduled for Wednesday.
And just talking to him, talking about NHL teams and the speed of the game and how the TV never quite manages to get it across (it seems a lot slower) as it is in Real Life, settled me enough that I almost skipped back to the English classroom (I'm having a hard time referring to it as Creative Writing - I'm still calling it English).
I exchanged a couple of words with Mr D, before the other students started to trickle in.
Today's topic was a very interesting one for the journal entry - "Voices Inside My Head"
The first thing, of course, that springs to mind there is
But I managed to spin together two pages of fairly coherent writing, because it's a topic I've thought about a lot, and I am satisfied with what I wrote down.
We got our big project outline, too:
6 different options for our portfolio kind of thing.
Deadline April 2.
I have chosen Option #1 - Be the Creator
In this project, you are the Creator of an alternate reality, Earth-like? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Inner Space? take your pick. The project MUST include the follwing:
1. Title Page
2. Table of contents with corresponding numbers
3. A description of your alternate reality
4. An overview over the key characters/entities
5. The opening three chapters to a novel or an extended short story set in this alternate reality (2,500-5,000 words)
You may chose to include any of the following:
1. Drawing and description of key characters
2. A map
3. Notes on various apsects of the world you have created
4. Anything else you can think up (discuss with me)
THis project should be handed in as a single, completed project. Your presentation should be logical and neat
So that's what I chose, but other options included outline and first 10,000 or so words of a novel, a collection of poems, a collection of creative non-fiction (lyric essay, poetry, travel meoir, personal memoir, nature writing, feature journalism, etc), a screen play/play/movie script or something else, if it was okayed by him
I'm really excited about this project!
I've chosen to work on an alternate planet fantasy setting I had created for the NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago, and it's been kind of a pet project ever since.
But I want to work on it much more seriously this time and with much more though and I plan to explore the themes of friendship and betrayal mainly, but I'd like to try my hand at showing how other people perceive a character and how the character perceives himself...
Well, the deadline is April 2nd, as I said, and I plan to hand in the full history to my world - or at least what I have already planned out. Only problem?
It's in German.
But what can you do? It's gonna be so awesome!
Last lesson of the day was Math, and the part we had today was pretty easy, so I got all my homework for today done during the lesson, but then I got distracted talking to a girl, so I still need to catch up with my homework for Friday, technically (out of twenty-five students maybe five have it done). But as I said, I'm gonna do this in my spare tomorrow. Don't have anything better to do, anyway.
Andy picked me up after school and exchanged me for Jenna at home, because Jenna has Arts and Crafts on Mondays.
And guess what? As I left the school, it was snowing!! We had warm (relatively warm, but the weather here is close to Regensburg's weather) temperatures and all the snow was gone already, and now suddenly tiny snow flakes were whipped into my face!
It was kind of awesome.
As soon as I got into the house, even before I had shut the door behind me, Bobby was shouting at me to get downstairs, and guess what was lying in front of my door?
The package!
Freakin' finally!
My new phone is so awesome to handle, plus there is a new version of temple run which is really great, so I can hardly be happier.
And the Red Paprika Chips?
Hardly have I tasted something so delicious!
Other contents included Nimm 2 Lachgummis, a blank book for my Canadian friends, a fountain pain, some ink and a couple of photos (Tanya almost wouldn't believe me that the girl in the shot from 2004 with the blond hair was me! :o I guess I've changed a lot?)
Dinner was a stir-fry, and since then I've only been screwing around on the computer, nothing big... But I'm really tired now, so I think I'm going to bed any moment.
So anyway, that's me for today!
But let me start at the beginning - it was a pretty awesome day! (And this is gonna be a horribly detailed description of my day, instead of doing my Math stuff, but hey, I have a spare first thing tomorrow, so I can do that then!)
Okay, I woke up before my alarm, although I hadn't gone to bed too early - I'm really looking forward to the stress being over, which is probably after the next Math test.
I climbed out of bed, folded my pyjamas (yes, that's a thing I do now), pulled on my favourite sweater and a pair of jeans as well as some socks (because it's really cold in the mornings, but I can't go to sleep if it's too warm in my room) and made my bed, which is also something I do nowadays.
I ventured upstairs, the only one in the kitchen for a change - not that I was the first one up, that's usually Bob, but she was changing in her room - and made myself a peanut butter toast, because I totally forgot about the porridge in the fridge. Everybody else also flocked into the kitchen and had their breakfast, but I went back downstairs pretty quickly.
I brushed my teeth, packed my school bag (I have enough time in the mornings) and read a bit on my kindle, before going back upstairs to put my jacket and everything on.
And I usually try to leave the house at 8:23-ish, because I like not having to worry about the bus (that comes exactly at 8:30), but when I got upstairs, I realized that, yeah, I needed to make myself some lunch!
I'd totally forgotten about that and made my ham sandwich in record time - 90 seconds.
I got out of the door alright and was, like usually, the first one at the bus stop.
I checked my backpack for my Creative Writing Journal, because I had the nagging suspicion that it had still been lying on my desk when I left my room, and sure enough, it was nowhere to be found. But well, too late, and I anyway have twice as many entries as the rest of the class. That's a great advantage of always having to write my thoughts down.
The bus came pretty quickly after that and I boarded it, iPod on (playing Christmas songs, but I didn't have the heart to change it) sliding into my usual bench.
I propped my bag up next to me and made to get my Kindle out - and guess what was in the back pocket, too? My journal!
So I was in pretty good spirits as I read my usual twenty minutes to school, where I had Spanish first thing - block order is 21-43 - with a review test. I had totally forgotten about that, but wasn't the time to fret.
Since the door to the Spanish classroom was still locked, I headed to drop off my Math book and notebook in my locker (at literally the other end of the school) and pick up my books for Spanish, but the teacher was still nowhere in sight when I get back.
And of course, instead of looking over my notes, I read a bit more.
But she finally arrived (and the bell wasn't switched on, so we got five minutes more) and let us into the classroom.
We had to rearrange our tables from the four-table-groups, facing each other, to facing-the-front, and she distributed the test.
We got the whole 73 minutes or so that were remaining of the class - 20 minutes later, I was done with the test (8 pages or so), had looked it over twice and handed it in. I picked up the vocab sheet on my way back and filled it in, and by the time I was done, hardly half the class was done with the test.
Guess what I did?
I read.
Got a great bit of reading in, but that wasn't the reason I hurried so much. No, the reason was: Everybody around me sniffing. And once I'd become aware of people sniffeling, I couldn't not hear it. It was pure torture, and it made me go crazy after a while. So as soon as I was done with the test, I plugged my iPod back in and drowned out any other noise.
Next thing was Entrepreneurship.
I designed the logo for our company, and then ... chatted a bit with Vroni and exchanged a couple of messages with Lisa.
Great lesson, I'm telling you - and tomorrow we're having a spare, because we worked during that one lunch hour (that I got out of, remember?).
So after Entrepreneurship, I went to see Mr Wishlow because of the Rockets practice, but his room was locked and he was nowhere to be seen. What else could I do but hide out in Mr Derksen's room?
It's what I usually do, after all.
First though, I ran into Mr Manderioli and he gave me the corrected version of my article.
Mr Derksen had a meeting, but he doesn't mind me dropping my stuff off and just sitting there, so that's what I did.
At the beginning of lunch I'd almost been sick with nerves - I detailed why in my post yesterday -, but by then everything was mostly alright and I was able to eat my sandwich while - surprise, surprise - reading, until a boy whose name I didn't catch came in and we talked a bit about worlds and writing. (Building worlds, I mean)
I excused myself shortly before lunch hour ended, and headed back to Mr Wishlow's room, leaving my stuff with Mr Derksen, because that was the next block anyway.
Mr Wishlow was talking to a couple of girls, so I didn't interrupt, just waited until he's finished.
He informed me he'd answered my e-mail, and that the Rockets didn't have practice today because they got the day off (much to my relief), so we re-scheduled for Wednesday.
And just talking to him, talking about NHL teams and the speed of the game and how the TV never quite manages to get it across (it seems a lot slower) as it is in Real Life, settled me enough that I almost skipped back to the English classroom (I'm having a hard time referring to it as Creative Writing - I'm still calling it English).
I exchanged a couple of words with Mr D, before the other students started to trickle in.
Today's topic was a very interesting one for the journal entry - "Voices Inside My Head"
The first thing, of course, that springs to mind there is
Nine out of ten voices in my head insist that I am not insane.
The tenth is humming the title theme of Tetris.
But I managed to spin together two pages of fairly coherent writing, because it's a topic I've thought about a lot, and I am satisfied with what I wrote down.
We got our big project outline, too:
6 different options for our portfolio kind of thing.
Deadline April 2.
I have chosen Option #1 - Be the Creator
In this project, you are the Creator of an alternate reality, Earth-like? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Inner Space? take your pick. The project MUST include the follwing:
1. Title Page
2. Table of contents with corresponding numbers
3. A description of your alternate reality
4. An overview over the key characters/entities
5. The opening three chapters to a novel or an extended short story set in this alternate reality (2,500-5,000 words)
You may chose to include any of the following:
1. Drawing and description of key characters
2. A map
3. Notes on various apsects of the world you have created
4. Anything else you can think up (discuss with me)
THis project should be handed in as a single, completed project. Your presentation should be logical and neat
So that's what I chose, but other options included outline and first 10,000 or so words of a novel, a collection of poems, a collection of creative non-fiction (lyric essay, poetry, travel meoir, personal memoir, nature writing, feature journalism, etc), a screen play/play/movie script or something else, if it was okayed by him
I'm really excited about this project!
I've chosen to work on an alternate planet fantasy setting I had created for the NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago, and it's been kind of a pet project ever since.
But I want to work on it much more seriously this time and with much more though and I plan to explore the themes of friendship and betrayal mainly, but I'd like to try my hand at showing how other people perceive a character and how the character perceives himself...
Well, the deadline is April 2nd, as I said, and I plan to hand in the full history to my world - or at least what I have already planned out. Only problem?
It's in German.
But what can you do? It's gonna be so awesome!
Last lesson of the day was Math, and the part we had today was pretty easy, so I got all my homework for today done during the lesson, but then I got distracted talking to a girl, so I still need to catch up with my homework for Friday, technically (out of twenty-five students maybe five have it done). But as I said, I'm gonna do this in my spare tomorrow. Don't have anything better to do, anyway.
Andy picked me up after school and exchanged me for Jenna at home, because Jenna has Arts and Crafts on Mondays.
And guess what? As I left the school, it was snowing!! We had warm (relatively warm, but the weather here is close to Regensburg's weather) temperatures and all the snow was gone already, and now suddenly tiny snow flakes were whipped into my face!
It was kind of awesome.
As soon as I got into the house, even before I had shut the door behind me, Bobby was shouting at me to get downstairs, and guess what was lying in front of my door?
The package!
Freakin' finally!
My new phone is so awesome to handle, plus there is a new version of temple run which is really great, so I can hardly be happier.
And the Red Paprika Chips?
Hardly have I tasted something so delicious!
Other contents included Nimm 2 Lachgummis, a blank book for my Canadian friends, a fountain pain, some ink and a couple of photos (Tanya almost wouldn't believe me that the girl in the shot from 2004 with the blond hair was me! :o I guess I've changed a lot?)
Dinner was a stir-fry, and since then I've only been screwing around on the computer, nothing big... But I'm really tired now, so I think I'm going to bed any moment.
So anyway, that's me for today!
Dienstag, 12. Februar 2013
Rattled and Shaken
My week and time in general have been rather great lately - so it was of course inevitable to have that crash rather spectacularly.
It started out with way too little sleep, although I'm not even complaining about that anymore (the only downside here is that I am really tired now but in desperate need of a skyping session :/), and then Creative Writing, which was great as always.
I have realized that I lose the ability to recognize sarcasm though when I'm tired... :D
Math was rather easy, so I probably made a whole bunch of silly mistakes. Who cares? Not me today. (I hope that stays that way)
I lent my notes to the German exchange student that has transferred into our Math class right today, and we left the class ridiculously early after I was finished with my test.
During lunch I talked to Mr W, and I will talk to Rourke Chartier (and trust me it's hard to believe that he is only one year and 20 days - exactly - older than me ...), so I compiled questions in collaboration with Mr M - probably too many to ask, but there's just so much interesting stuff!
Spanish was boring as ever, but we're finally doing our group presentations - and one of our members was absent, so we were unfortunately unable to hold our own. Such a misfortune! (Please do note the sarcasm.)
Entrepreneurship... well, we've got our marketing idea, although I am rather indifferent about it. I can't really tell you anything - our competition might steal our secrets! (Ha. Ha. There are no secrets.)
After school, Andy picked me up after I talked to Mr Smith, the librarian (and OMFG, HE HAS A LAB THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE DUSTIN!!!!!!!!!! Made me miss my poor doggy all that much more), and dropped me off at the gym Marina dragged me to (she offered and I didn't wanna cancel even after I changed hostfamily, and it's a pretty nice gym - and good for me :) I gained about ten to fifteen pound, so I desperately need to go and work out again!) and guess who I saw:
Yes, exactly. Marina.
I wasn't expecting her, to say the least. In all the three months I've been to the gym relatively regularly - especially before Christmas I went every day after school - I had never once seen her. So when I enter the change rooms with a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and spy her sitting on the bench hunched over her shoes at the other end, let's just say I panicked. I didn't even really see her, only her silhouette, but that was enough for my heart beat to spike, the blood to start pounding in my carotid artery (in your neck) and my ears and for my body to react instantly by ducking into one of the cubicles for changing before she could see me and hiding out therein until I was sure the change rooms were deserted.
I might or might not have texted Andy totally rattled... (Spoiler Alert: I did)
Well, I plugged my headphones in, was unbelievably jumpy while changing and then did my best to keep my head down and ignore her in the gym.
She passed by me a couple of times while I was on the stationary bike, and I was insanely aware of her every move, so that was not a pleasant visit.
I talked to Andy about it, about how that reaction wasn't the best and I shouldn't let her over-power me so much even after three months, but well, that was exactly the reason why I wanted to change:
She induced panic in me and made me feel helpless, powerless and small.
And especially without any kind of warning I wasn't able to stand up to her.
I'm usually not at all afraid to speak my mind (although I have become way more self-conscious over the years, I can suppress these second thoughts pretty thoroughly), but in that moment I was caught completely off guard.
So now I know I can expect her, and maybe psyche myself up before hand - and I really should at least greet her nicely, because I don't want anybody to say that I am rude. (I'm usually not, just too absorbed in my head, so sorry).
And all that turmoil is making me kinda homesick - or at least makes me long for home (and yes, there is a difference :) )...
And then of course the Blackhawks went on to lose tonight's game (fortunately in a Shootout, so their Undefeated-in-Regulation-Streak continues) and the Oilers did the same (after having the lead! Urgh, that team!)
So yeah, although my day was rather good, I am a bit down now.
And tired...
So I'm waiting for my mom to skype, and then I'm going to bed.
G'night everybody!
It started out with way too little sleep, although I'm not even complaining about that anymore (the only downside here is that I am really tired now but in desperate need of a skyping session :/), and then Creative Writing, which was great as always.
I have realized that I lose the ability to recognize sarcasm though when I'm tired... :D
Math was rather easy, so I probably made a whole bunch of silly mistakes. Who cares? Not me today. (I hope that stays that way)
I lent my notes to the German exchange student that has transferred into our Math class right today, and we left the class ridiculously early after I was finished with my test.
During lunch I talked to Mr W, and I will talk to Rourke Chartier (and trust me it's hard to believe that he is only one year and 20 days - exactly - older than me ...), so I compiled questions in collaboration with Mr M - probably too many to ask, but there's just so much interesting stuff!
Spanish was boring as ever, but we're finally doing our group presentations - and one of our members was absent, so we were unfortunately unable to hold our own. Such a misfortune! (Please do note the sarcasm.)
Entrepreneurship... well, we've got our marketing idea, although I am rather indifferent about it. I can't really tell you anything - our competition might steal our secrets! (Ha. Ha. There are no secrets.)
After school, Andy picked me up after I talked to Mr Smith, the librarian (and OMFG, HE HAS A LAB THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE DUSTIN!!!!!!!!!! Made me miss my poor doggy all that much more), and dropped me off at the gym Marina dragged me to (she offered and I didn't wanna cancel even after I changed hostfamily, and it's a pretty nice gym - and good for me :) I gained about ten to fifteen pound, so I desperately need to go and work out again!) and guess who I saw:
Yes, exactly. Marina.
I wasn't expecting her, to say the least. In all the three months I've been to the gym relatively regularly - especially before Christmas I went every day after school - I had never once seen her. So when I enter the change rooms with a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and spy her sitting on the bench hunched over her shoes at the other end, let's just say I panicked. I didn't even really see her, only her silhouette, but that was enough for my heart beat to spike, the blood to start pounding in my carotid artery (in your neck) and my ears and for my body to react instantly by ducking into one of the cubicles for changing before she could see me and hiding out therein until I was sure the change rooms were deserted.
I might or might not have texted Andy totally rattled... (Spoiler Alert: I did)
Well, I plugged my headphones in, was unbelievably jumpy while changing and then did my best to keep my head down and ignore her in the gym.
She passed by me a couple of times while I was on the stationary bike, and I was insanely aware of her every move, so that was not a pleasant visit.
I talked to Andy about it, about how that reaction wasn't the best and I shouldn't let her over-power me so much even after three months, but well, that was exactly the reason why I wanted to change:
She induced panic in me and made me feel helpless, powerless and small.
And especially without any kind of warning I wasn't able to stand up to her.
I'm usually not at all afraid to speak my mind (although I have become way more self-conscious over the years, I can suppress these second thoughts pretty thoroughly), but in that moment I was caught completely off guard.
So now I know I can expect her, and maybe psyche myself up before hand - and I really should at least greet her nicely, because I don't want anybody to say that I am rude. (I'm usually not, just too absorbed in my head, so sorry).
And all that turmoil is making me kinda homesick - or at least makes me long for home (and yes, there is a difference :) )...
And then of course the Blackhawks went on to lose tonight's game (fortunately in a Shootout, so their Undefeated-in-Regulation-Streak continues) and the Oilers did the same (after having the lead! Urgh, that team!)
So yeah, although my day was rather good, I am a bit down now.
And tired...
So I'm waiting for my mom to skype, and then I'm going to bed.
G'night everybody!
Montag, 11. Februar 2013
Super Sunday!
I'm in a really good mood - and need to kill some time because my pyjamas are still in the drier :)
Actually I'm skyping with my mom, but she just got a call so I can write for a bit :D
What I didn't tell you about yesterday is that I skyped with Dorothea!
And she told me the funniest thing - she was on the plane to Vancouver and there was this dude where she immediately thought "Hockey player". She didn't recognize him and of course didn't ask him, but she said he looked suspiciously like Duncan Keith (although she wasn't sure anymore, just knew he looked "like one of your Blackhawks").
How I got to the belief that it was Duncs? Well, I knew two things: It was a flight from Kelowna to Vancouver, and it was (maybe) a Blackhawks player. And the only Blackhawk that could have any business in Kelowna? Duncan Keith, because he has family there, and the Hawks had a game in Vancouver on that same day and a day off the day before... So duh.
Enough of hockey (for that part at least) - except: the Rockets beat Everett 3-2 and the Hawks the Predators 3-0 (Crawford's first shutout since March 23, 2011!)...
But else: I slept in again - okay, I woke up at half past seven but decided it was too early and went back to sleep and dreamt I was on a ranch and riding and there was mind-control involved (don't judge, I was dreaming) and yeah, I woke up at around half past ten. Have I mentioned my dreams have been really weird the last week or so?
I had breakfast, went to do some homework (which I of course didn't, or at least not very much; but it's just so repetitive -_-), was interrupted by Bob who wanted to play some Rummy - and I really don't know why she's so obsessed with this game - and then we went to the park. We played a bit of tennis with a racquetball racket, and I was pleased to notice that I didn't forget a lot of stuff!
An acquaintance of Tanya's stopped by there with her dog, and it was so gratifying to see a big dog again and scratch a dog's fur ... I can't even describe it.
She's a children's librarian, too :D (Although Frau Gröschel is way more awesome; sorry but with her nobody can compete I am afraid!)
Tanya and I watched Bob and Jenna play on the new playground a bit, before we headed back.
While I was in the shower, Tanya made smoothies for us, and I almost didn't get anything! But it was really delicious. I've come to love smoothies!
Well, I went to dry my hair, and then it was already time to leave for Jim and Leslie's, Tanya's friends (we were over at their house after Christmas once already, and Jim was the one to give Tanya and me the tickets to the Rockets game!). Andy and Jim were watching the Edmonton Oilers - Columbus Blue Jackets game, and it was close - although the Oilers should have been able to pull out a comfortable win.
But this funny gif came out of it, just as I walked into the living room:
But seriously, look at that:
I was kinda laughing :D
And it was even better when the Oilers pulled out a win!
For dinner, there was meatloaf - and it was so freakin' delicious, I can't even!
With some mashed potatoes and peas and baby carrots *-*
After dinner, I chatted for like two hours or so (more like one and a half, but who cares?) with Dylan, their oldest son. He's studying at UBCO, and he made himself waaaaay too much of a smoothie, so he shared it with me. And it was so awesome... He put some protein powder into it, and pure, that stuff tastes exactly like Vanilla icecream, so the smoothie was a mixture of vanilla ice cream and berries (mainly blueberries and some strawberries and a couple of raspberries), and that was almost to die for. Seriously, the vanilla adds something really great to it!
So that's one thing I'm bringing home with me for sure: Smoothies. They're just so great!
Anyway, I'm really tired now and my clothes are dry, so I'm signing off and heading to bed now!
Good night!
Actually I'm skyping with my mom, but she just got a call so I can write for a bit :D
What I didn't tell you about yesterday is that I skyped with Dorothea!
And she told me the funniest thing - she was on the plane to Vancouver and there was this dude where she immediately thought "Hockey player". She didn't recognize him and of course didn't ask him, but she said he looked suspiciously like Duncan Keith (although she wasn't sure anymore, just knew he looked "like one of your Blackhawks").
How I got to the belief that it was Duncs? Well, I knew two things: It was a flight from Kelowna to Vancouver, and it was (maybe) a Blackhawks player. And the only Blackhawk that could have any business in Kelowna? Duncan Keith, because he has family there, and the Hawks had a game in Vancouver on that same day and a day off the day before... So duh.
Enough of hockey (for that part at least) - except: the Rockets beat Everett 3-2 and the Hawks the Predators 3-0 (Crawford's first shutout since March 23, 2011!)...
But else: I slept in again - okay, I woke up at half past seven but decided it was too early and went back to sleep and dreamt I was on a ranch and riding and there was mind-control involved (don't judge, I was dreaming) and yeah, I woke up at around half past ten. Have I mentioned my dreams have been really weird the last week or so?
I had breakfast, went to do some homework (which I of course didn't, or at least not very much; but it's just so repetitive -_-), was interrupted by Bob who wanted to play some Rummy - and I really don't know why she's so obsessed with this game - and then we went to the park. We played a bit of tennis with a racquetball racket, and I was pleased to notice that I didn't forget a lot of stuff!
An acquaintance of Tanya's stopped by there with her dog, and it was so gratifying to see a big dog again and scratch a dog's fur ... I can't even describe it.
She's a children's librarian, too :D (Although Frau Gröschel is way more awesome; sorry but with her nobody can compete I am afraid!)
Tanya and I watched Bob and Jenna play on the new playground a bit, before we headed back.
While I was in the shower, Tanya made smoothies for us, and I almost didn't get anything! But it was really delicious. I've come to love smoothies!
Well, I went to dry my hair, and then it was already time to leave for Jim and Leslie's, Tanya's friends (we were over at their house after Christmas once already, and Jim was the one to give Tanya and me the tickets to the Rockets game!). Andy and Jim were watching the Edmonton Oilers - Columbus Blue Jackets game, and it was close - although the Oilers should have been able to pull out a comfortable win.
But this funny gif came out of it, just as I walked into the living room:
 |
| "Well, that's one way to get out of the way" |
I was kinda laughing :D
And it was even better when the Oilers pulled out a win!
For dinner, there was meatloaf - and it was so freakin' delicious, I can't even!
With some mashed potatoes and peas and baby carrots *-*
After dinner, I chatted for like two hours or so (more like one and a half, but who cares?) with Dylan, their oldest son. He's studying at UBCO, and he made himself waaaaay too much of a smoothie, so he shared it with me. And it was so awesome... He put some protein powder into it, and pure, that stuff tastes exactly like Vanilla icecream, so the smoothie was a mixture of vanilla ice cream and berries (mainly blueberries and some strawberries and a couple of raspberries), and that was almost to die for. Seriously, the vanilla adds something really great to it!
So that's one thing I'm bringing home with me for sure: Smoothies. They're just so great!
Anyway, I'm really tired now and my clothes are dry, so I'm signing off and heading to bed now!
Good night!
Freitag, 8. Februar 2013
Friday Frenzy
... Yes, I know my titles suck.
But I dare you, come up with more than 150 titles that somehow reflect your day (and just by thinking about my day I can taste the adrenaline in my mouth... :))
It started innocently enough with an assignment in Entrepreneurship.
Spanish was boring as ever, but we have finally finished our project for the review which we will be presenting next Tuesday, most likely.
And then the nerves set in: I had to seek out Mr W, the liaison between the Rockets and KSS, and I have to admit, it was a bit exciting.
He wasn't in his room, though, but fortunately I found him in the gym!
We agreed I would come to his room during Math, since it was just a review period and he had to take pictures of the basketball Western Finals in our gym, so I went to look for Mr Murphy, my Math teacher, whom I couldn't find either.
I spent my lunch at his room though, collected some questions for Mr W with Mr M's help, and explained our Math assignment to three different girls (I like tutoring, okay?).
Mr Murphy didn't let me go right away, because we went over the homework assignment and had to hand it in for marks afterwards (and I got my quiz from yesterday back - 12/12), so when I got to Mr W's room, he wasn't there. I found him again in - guess where - the gym.
He finished up taking his photos, and then we went to his office.
And talked about hockey for 2 hours. It was awesome - he knows so much about hockey, and the players, and when he would say, really casually, "Yeah, and I just talked to Shea", I had a hard time recalling that he was talking about Shea Weber, one of the best Defensemen in the NHL, who gets $7.5 Mill a year, and when he would equally casually mention "Tyler" and motioning to a signed picture of a guy in a Rockets Jersey, it was just as hard to remember that this very guy had just signed a contract of $38.5 Mill (if I'm not mistaken) over the next ... 5 years or so.
It was super informative, and I will keep gathering more information - I'll talk to a couple of the players, and I will meet up with Mr W on Tuesday again. Unfortunately, I can't share all of that information, at least not on the web... There are a couple of things I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with, because not everything we talked about was strictly in regards to the Rockets and KSS... Let's just say that there are a lot of hockey players in Kelowna in the off-season.
So I was super excited when I got back to English, of which I had missed more than half (Mr D put me down as "skipped" I have a feeling - we got a call from KSS this evening I had missed one of my classes), and then I went and talked to Mr M about what I had learnt and how I will proceed from there. I will go over questions to ask the players on Tuesday with him, too.
I have a bunch of things to do for homework, though - I had planned on doing my Math stuff during Math, but obviously I wasn't there, and I have to write a Journal entry for English (maybe I'll write up what Mr W told me there - because nobody except for maybe Mr Derksen will read it, and then you guys when I get back home... good idea, actually), but as I mentioned, Monday is no school!! (I know you guys have holidays, but that's just plain unfair)
After school, Andy picked me up, drove us home and we had mashed potatoes, chicken and carrots.
After dinner, we went to the mall - it was a lot of walking around, but I got a regular Booster Juice Smoothie - Original Berry (Double Strawberry, Banana, Orange juice and yoghurt - delicious!), and now here I am.
And I think I'm headed off to bed now,
Good night!
Julia
But I dare you, come up with more than 150 titles that somehow reflect your day (and just by thinking about my day I can taste the adrenaline in my mouth... :))
It started innocently enough with an assignment in Entrepreneurship.
Spanish was boring as ever, but we have finally finished our project for the review which we will be presenting next Tuesday, most likely.
And then the nerves set in: I had to seek out Mr W, the liaison between the Rockets and KSS, and I have to admit, it was a bit exciting.
He wasn't in his room, though, but fortunately I found him in the gym!
We agreed I would come to his room during Math, since it was just a review period and he had to take pictures of the basketball Western Finals in our gym, so I went to look for Mr Murphy, my Math teacher, whom I couldn't find either.
I spent my lunch at his room though, collected some questions for Mr W with Mr M's help, and explained our Math assignment to three different girls (I like tutoring, okay?).
Mr Murphy didn't let me go right away, because we went over the homework assignment and had to hand it in for marks afterwards (and I got my quiz from yesterday back - 12/12), so when I got to Mr W's room, he wasn't there. I found him again in - guess where - the gym.
He finished up taking his photos, and then we went to his office.
And talked about hockey for 2 hours. It was awesome - he knows so much about hockey, and the players, and when he would say, really casually, "Yeah, and I just talked to Shea", I had a hard time recalling that he was talking about Shea Weber, one of the best Defensemen in the NHL, who gets $7.5 Mill a year, and when he would equally casually mention "Tyler" and motioning to a signed picture of a guy in a Rockets Jersey, it was just as hard to remember that this very guy had just signed a contract of $38.5 Mill (if I'm not mistaken) over the next ... 5 years or so.
It was super informative, and I will keep gathering more information - I'll talk to a couple of the players, and I will meet up with Mr W on Tuesday again. Unfortunately, I can't share all of that information, at least not on the web... There are a couple of things I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with, because not everything we talked about was strictly in regards to the Rockets and KSS... Let's just say that there are a lot of hockey players in Kelowna in the off-season.
So I was super excited when I got back to English, of which I had missed more than half (Mr D put me down as "skipped" I have a feeling - we got a call from KSS this evening I had missed one of my classes), and then I went and talked to Mr M about what I had learnt and how I will proceed from there. I will go over questions to ask the players on Tuesday with him, too.
I have a bunch of things to do for homework, though - I had planned on doing my Math stuff during Math, but obviously I wasn't there, and I have to write a Journal entry for English (maybe I'll write up what Mr W told me there - because nobody except for maybe Mr Derksen will read it, and then you guys when I get back home... good idea, actually), but as I mentioned, Monday is no school!! (I know you guys have holidays, but that's just plain unfair)
After school, Andy picked me up, drove us home and we had mashed potatoes, chicken and carrots.
After dinner, we went to the mall - it was a lot of walking around, but I got a regular Booster Juice Smoothie - Original Berry (Double Strawberry, Banana, Orange juice and yoghurt - delicious!), and now here I am.
And I think I'm headed off to bed now,
Good night!
Julia
Donnerstag, 31. Januar 2013
Semester Two
I honestly can't believe that Semester two starts tomorrow already ... and that Dorothea is flying home. It just seems so surreal...
I still need to clean out my binder, get rid of all the old papers...
I'm glad to be back 'home' here :D
But the parcel I was talking about? It's not the one I was waiting for. It's not for me at all.
But then again, small parcels usually take longer than big ones, for some reason. And it might be caught in customs...
So, here have a gemstone from the LA Kings twitter:
The "box" they're talking about is a glass cage also know as the penalty box where a player has to spend two minutes if he violates the rules :D
And the Oilers just lost to the San Jose Sharks in a Shootout -_- That means the Sharks are league leaders now - I'm now just hoping for a Hawks win tomorrow and a Sharks loss in regulation in the next game - then the Hawks are league leaders again! (But it's not as though that really matters - as long as the Hawks stay on top of their conference, it's the Stanley Cup final when they have to concern themselves with the Sharks - if ever ... so I'm crossing my fingers. They'll manage, I hope!)
I had a most ugly experience on tumblr today:
People tag their hate against other teams, so I was looking at the Blackhawks tag and it was really ugly. The stuff some of the 'fans' are sprouting there is beyond nice and fair. Things like "I would crash this player's flight" are a no-go, seriously, especially after the plane of a Russian team crashed and most of the players (or even all of them?) died. Marián Hossa, Hawks forward, for example wears a 37 sown onto his glove to honor his friend who died.
So I was kindly (and I was really nice) asking a few of them to remove their hate or at least not tag it anymore, and see the response I got:
Yep, isn't that a lovely reply? (The 'I know it's a bit late' is in regards to the game in question having been played yesterday)
But what was I expecting with that url?
Another guy replied something along the lines of "Don't take yourself too seriously it was only a loss you're not that important", totally missing my point (I sent exactly the same message).
From now on I'm staying away from the team tags, because it's really ugly what's going on in there. Another girl, however, replied with
And I've been messaging back and forth with her.
And one more girl was complaining about "Bandwagon fans", so fans who only came to the sport after the Hawks won the Cup, so I asked her what those fans were, and we had a nice conversation (she's the first American born in a family from Bavaria :D)
So it wasn't all bad.
Good night!
I still need to clean out my binder, get rid of all the old papers...
I'm glad to be back 'home' here :D
But the parcel I was talking about? It's not the one I was waiting for. It's not for me at all.
But then again, small parcels usually take longer than big ones, for some reason. And it might be caught in customs...
So, here have a gemstone from the LA Kings twitter:
The "box" they're talking about is a glass cage also know as the penalty box where a player has to spend two minutes if he violates the rules :D
And the Oilers just lost to the San Jose Sharks in a Shootout -_- That means the Sharks are league leaders now - I'm now just hoping for a Hawks win tomorrow and a Sharks loss in regulation in the next game - then the Hawks are league leaders again! (But it's not as though that really matters - as long as the Hawks stay on top of their conference, it's the Stanley Cup final when they have to concern themselves with the Sharks - if ever ... so I'm crossing my fingers. They'll manage, I hope!)
I had a most ugly experience on tumblr today:
People tag their hate against other teams, so I was looking at the Blackhawks tag and it was really ugly. The stuff some of the 'fans' are sprouting there is beyond nice and fair. Things like "I would crash this player's flight" are a no-go, seriously, especially after the plane of a Russian team crashed and most of the players (or even all of them?) died. Marián Hossa, Hawks forward, for example wears a 37 sown onto his glove to honor his friend who died.
So I was kindly (and I was really nice) asking a few of them to remove their hate or at least not tag it anymore, and see the response I got:
But what was I expecting with that url?
Another guy replied something along the lines of "Don't take yourself too seriously it was only a loss you're not that important", totally missing my point (I sent exactly the same message).
From now on I'm staying away from the team tags, because it's really ugly what's going on in there. Another girl, however, replied with
Thanks I appreciate the sweet way of asking: )
Had anyone else come at me this way I would have had no problem..
It’s not that I hate the hawks.. it’s that they are my teams biggest rival ever… so you know.. it causes so much emotion…
I can’t promise I won’t tag anything but I’ll try… might get heated tomorrow night but we will see!!
Good luck to your team.. although they don’t really need any luck! Haha
And I've been messaging back and forth with her.
And one more girl was complaining about "Bandwagon fans", so fans who only came to the sport after the Hawks won the Cup, so I asked her what those fans were, and we had a nice conversation (she's the first American born in a family from Bavaria :D)
So it wasn't all bad.
Good night!
Freitag, 18. Januar 2013
Just like home
... Yep, just like home:
I'm sitting in the living room, the TV is on (with Undercover Boss, and I think it's the same as in Germany... :) Well, with Canadian or American [I don't know; didn't pay attention] factories), I have my laptop on my stomach and am reading.
It's quite relaxing, but I'm also missing Bob and Jenna ... :)
Well, never thought I'd adapt that quickly to having siblings :D
School wasn't bad; the Japanese quiz has been delayed till Monday 'cos the Sensei wasn't happy with the exam, I wrote 50 minutes of Biology (and I don't know how it went, but there were 5 questions where I was more or less guessing; four of them contained stuff we had never talked about, the book never talked about - I'm sure about that, I read the book this morning - and that was no where to be found, but aside from that it wasn't too bad... Note that I am cautious with these predictions, because I still remember how it turned out the last time I said something went well), I proof read my English exam - 961 words, my guess was pretty good... although it was only 878 words yesterday, but I changed and clarified a few things - and did a work booklet on Shawshank Redemption, which is an amazing movie, had a photo shooting for my article about bilingualism, was ten minutes late to Spanish because of it (but Mr M gave me a note, so it was no problem) and watched La Misma Luna in Spanish... Yes, it's just like in Germany :)
But we have one final spurt towards exams left, so that's kinda different...
I haven't really done anything else, so I'm signing out for now!
I'm sitting in the living room, the TV is on (with Undercover Boss, and I think it's the same as in Germany... :) Well, with Canadian or American [I don't know; didn't pay attention] factories), I have my laptop on my stomach and am reading.
It's quite relaxing, but I'm also missing Bob and Jenna ... :)
Well, never thought I'd adapt that quickly to having siblings :D
School wasn't bad; the Japanese quiz has been delayed till Monday 'cos the Sensei wasn't happy with the exam, I wrote 50 minutes of Biology (and I don't know how it went, but there were 5 questions where I was more or less guessing; four of them contained stuff we had never talked about, the book never talked about - I'm sure about that, I read the book this morning - and that was no where to be found, but aside from that it wasn't too bad... Note that I am cautious with these predictions, because I still remember how it turned out the last time I said something went well), I proof read my English exam - 961 words, my guess was pretty good... although it was only 878 words yesterday, but I changed and clarified a few things - and did a work booklet on Shawshank Redemption, which is an amazing movie, had a photo shooting for my article about bilingualism, was ten minutes late to Spanish because of it (but Mr M gave me a note, so it was no problem) and watched La Misma Luna in Spanish... Yes, it's just like in Germany :)
But we have one final spurt towards exams left, so that's kinda different...
I haven't really done anything else, so I'm signing out for now!
Donnerstag, 17. Januar 2013
Meltdown
Okay, it's not so urgent anymore, but when I left school today, I felt like I was two minutes away from a meltdown.
Outwards signs? I get really quiet and when I speak, my voice is very controlled and even, almost monotonous. And I tend to speak very ... deliberately, but hardly able to stop.
Happened today after Journalism, when I left the building at 7 o'clock, realizing that nope, I hadn't learnt anything for Biology tomorrow, for the biggest test yet ...
At least I like Neuroscience... but in this sense it is really ironic that I should get my worst result on the topic I like best ... But hey, I can still take one retest, and if this is as anything but an A, I am going to take the test again.
I'm feeling pretty good right now, though, and I have even already started learning!
But I'm pretty good at cramming knowledge into my head. It's not ideal - far from it, actually -, but it's gotta do. Because I don't want to fail that test tomorrow.
Well, actually, I'm pretty relaxed right now. Because I still have that "Joker", that one retest at the end of the year. And since I anyway have to learn for the final, I can learn for the re-test, too, no matter what topic it'll be on.
Only problem? I can't find my study-guide answers. Solution? Answer them again!
I will actually do that, this weekend. I fully intend to, at least.
And I have made a new deal with myself: Every time I go on tumblr instead of studying, or write an e-mail instead of studying, etc. I have to do ten push-ups. By the time finals are over I will have done more than a thousand, I'm pretty sure (alone this evening I have already done 50, so duh.). But at least it's better than me eating frustration chocolate.
I really miss my hostfamily, though. Have I mentioned that? Yesterday probably.
I'm gonna enjoy my time off, though :)
Anything else...? Oh, yeah, we got that Spanish Booklet back that we had to hand in right after the holidays. I have an unbelievable 100% on it, which I don't understand, but I'm not complaining ...
For English we had to write a personal composition (or something like that, I dunno), and I basically wrote something very similar to my feelings post. Once I get that back, I might even type it up, and it's about 900 words (I had one hour of time and I wrote it with hand, but I'm gonna count tomorrow).
The topic was "A person's view of the world may change over time" and I wrote about how my exchange year as achieved exactly that.
At the end, I was almost at the verge of tears, once again not knowing why. I hate that. I really do.
Well, anyway, now I need to get back to learning :)
The re-test is only so much relaxant, I actually want to do well on the test. As I mentioned, I love the topic, and that's exactly what I want to study one day in the future...
And here have a nice picture:
That is the book storage at amazon.com. Amazing, isn't it?
Mittwoch, 16. Januar 2013
My Mistake...
Okay, first of all, I made a horrible mistake in my blog entry yesterday:
I'm of course staying with Bob and Jenna's grandparents on Tanya's side of the family.
My fault, entirely. I got it mixed up 'cos I think of them as the grandparents due to Bob and Jenna, but wanted to get across that it's on Tanya's side of the family...
Well, one thing at a time, but I fixed it already :)
Okay, today was pretty lame - Mr Derksen was gone (it's his birthday), Mr Kruger let us work on the male reproductive system study guide (which I already completed yesterday), and Spanish and Japanese were only more exercises, so nothing too great.
The Japanese quiz went well, I think, but I won't say anymore - I also thought Biology went really well, and see where that got me!
But I managed to finish my Journalism article, and I guess I'll take another look at Bio before I go to bed. I didn't write the test today, I was so rattled from moving you can't even imagine! I'm taking it on Friday (finally), but at least I am not the last one taking it. (And according to Spencer Mr Kruger likes me asking more questions... ?)
I'm missing my hostfamily, though. I mean, Sandra and Gordo are nice, no question, but I'm kinda missing Bob and Jenna and Tanya and Andy anyway... :/
Well, but I'm gonna enjoy the two weeks on my own anyway! :D
Love y'all,
Julia
I'm of course staying with Bob and Jenna's grandparents on Tanya's side of the family.
My fault, entirely. I got it mixed up 'cos I think of them as the grandparents due to Bob and Jenna, but wanted to get across that it's on Tanya's side of the family...
Well, one thing at a time, but I fixed it already :)
Okay, today was pretty lame - Mr Derksen was gone (it's his birthday), Mr Kruger let us work on the male reproductive system study guide (which I already completed yesterday), and Spanish and Japanese were only more exercises, so nothing too great.
The Japanese quiz went well, I think, but I won't say anymore - I also thought Biology went really well, and see where that got me!
But I managed to finish my Journalism article, and I guess I'll take another look at Bio before I go to bed. I didn't write the test today, I was so rattled from moving you can't even imagine! I'm taking it on Friday (finally), but at least I am not the last one taking it. (And according to Spencer Mr Kruger likes me asking more questions... ?)
I'm missing my hostfamily, though. I mean, Sandra and Gordo are nice, no question, but I'm kinda missing Bob and Jenna and Tanya and Andy anyway... :/
Well, but I'm gonna enjoy the two weeks on my own anyway! :D
Love y'all,
Julia
Dienstag, 15. Januar 2013
Moving ... again
Yep, I'm moving again.
But only for the next 2 weeks (and a bit), to Tanya's parents, because Tanya, Andy, Jenna and Bob are going to Mexico. As I mentioned, I'm not going - and exam stress in full on.
I am already packed, but even if I forget anything, that wouldn't really matter, because it's maybe a ten minute drive - if even that much.
But I'll only have a ten minute walk to school, so I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit longer!
And talking about exams... I realized that I really don't have to worry. I would pass all my exams with an A if I only got 40 (Spanish & Japanese) or 60 (Biology) percent on the final exam - and I really hope to beat that!
Japanese I worry a bit, because I learnt the wrong vocab for today (I'm re-taking the test tomorrow after school), and I really don't think I can write all the words we learnt, and Biology will be a tiny bit of a hassle, too, because there's just so much and I can't find my Learning outcomes, where I have written up everything (I looked in all my drawers, but I don't know where I put that stuff), but I'm not at all worried about Spanish, 'cos that's my best subject, and English will be alright, too.
I talked to the counselor today, and she will inquire whether I'm eligible for the "Principal's Honor Roll", which is for all students with a GPA (Grade Point Average) of more than 3.7. Last term I had 3.78, but I didn't get a notice, and this term I should have (if I don't screw up my finals and the last few tests we have completely) a GPA of 4.0.
In Journalism I fought my way back up to an A, and Mr M said he was really happy with my writing (he initially told me I had a C+, but he just loves to tease me...)
And again, grades...
As I mentioned, I was feeling weird the last few days, this aching homesickness instead of a punching, just the pull homewards (after a weird dream about flying home... I did mention that, didn't I?)
Well, I woke up today at 4:11 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep, learnt the wrong vocab and a bit of Biology, and so I was already pretty tired again by the time we had English.
I was really rattled by the Biology B, because I had thought it went really great, and we watched Shawshank redemption, and I was really down.
So I told Mr Derksen that I couldn't find the book on amazon, and since he is usually pretty good in cheering me up, I mentioned that that grade had rattled me pretty badly.
And he didn't disappoint, just said: "But I realized you are much more relaxed. And if I were your parent, or your uncle, I would say If one B is what it takes you to relax, take the B." And he kinda sounded like he was proud.
So yeah, after that I felt really great, and then Mr M told me that I had an A so far, so my day was pretty good.
And now I'm just waiting to be picked up by the grandparents, so that's it... I'm not sure whether I can update tomorrow already; it'll depend on how quickly we can set up my wi-fi access :)
And since I'm pretty sure I forgot something really important, I'm gonna look again (and look at Biology, because I have that test at lunch tomorrow, and it's worth 60 marks :o)
Love y'all!
Julia
But only for the next 2 weeks (and a bit), to Tanya's parents, because Tanya, Andy, Jenna and Bob are going to Mexico. As I mentioned, I'm not going - and exam stress in full on.
I am already packed, but even if I forget anything, that wouldn't really matter, because it's maybe a ten minute drive - if even that much.
But I'll only have a ten minute walk to school, so I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit longer!
And talking about exams... I realized that I really don't have to worry. I would pass all my exams with an A if I only got 40 (Spanish & Japanese) or 60 (Biology) percent on the final exam - and I really hope to beat that!
Japanese I worry a bit, because I learnt the wrong vocab for today (I'm re-taking the test tomorrow after school), and I really don't think I can write all the words we learnt, and Biology will be a tiny bit of a hassle, too, because there's just so much and I can't find my Learning outcomes, where I have written up everything (I looked in all my drawers, but I don't know where I put that stuff), but I'm not at all worried about Spanish, 'cos that's my best subject, and English will be alright, too.
I talked to the counselor today, and she will inquire whether I'm eligible for the "Principal's Honor Roll", which is for all students with a GPA (Grade Point Average) of more than 3.7. Last term I had 3.78, but I didn't get a notice, and this term I should have (if I don't screw up my finals and the last few tests we have completely) a GPA of 4.0.
In Journalism I fought my way back up to an A, and Mr M said he was really happy with my writing (he initially told me I had a C+, but he just loves to tease me...)
And again, grades...
As I mentioned, I was feeling weird the last few days, this aching homesickness instead of a punching, just the pull homewards (after a weird dream about flying home... I did mention that, didn't I?)
Well, I woke up today at 4:11 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep, learnt the wrong vocab and a bit of Biology, and so I was already pretty tired again by the time we had English.
I was really rattled by the Biology B, because I had thought it went really great, and we watched Shawshank redemption, and I was really down.
So I told Mr Derksen that I couldn't find the book on amazon, and since he is usually pretty good in cheering me up, I mentioned that that grade had rattled me pretty badly.
And he didn't disappoint, just said: "But I realized you are much more relaxed. And if I were your parent, or your uncle, I would say If one B is what it takes you to relax, take the B." And he kinda sounded like he was proud.
So yeah, after that I felt really great, and then Mr M told me that I had an A so far, so my day was pretty good.
And now I'm just waiting to be picked up by the grandparents, so that's it... I'm not sure whether I can update tomorrow already; it'll depend on how quickly we can set up my wi-fi access :)
And since I'm pretty sure I forgot something really important, I'm gonna look again (and look at Biology, because I have that test at lunch tomorrow, and it's worth 60 marks :o)
Love y'all!
Julia
Mittwoch, 9. Januar 2013
Weird World
Yes, definitely a weird world. I experience German-English-blindness more often this evening than ever before. Reading an article, I wasn't sure whether it was German or English - it was German, as I realized - and that's happened not the first time. I mean, I have it periodically, but I was reading a few newspapers online, and it got really confusing. Online is worse than kindle, because I haven't read anything German on my kindle. Ever.
So, today was pretty okay, except for how I almost missed my bus.
I mean, I had put my alarm clock on for 7.35 a.m. instead of 7.10 a.m. (I don't know how exactly I spend 1.5 hours every morning, but I definitely don't need that much time), only to have Tanya wake me up at 7.15 or so - I had kind of expected that, because she wouldn't let me oversleep, so I woke up slightly, called out "Alarm clock goes off at 7:30" and went back to sleep for another few precious minutes.
But then I was ready to go to early, and I just sat on the stairs, reading, and lost track of time. So by the time I left the house, the bus was right in front of our house.
I sprinted down the street and across the red light before it had fully turned white (the 'you can walk' is white and the 'stop' is read for pedestrians) and caught it just so. I'm just glad you don't have to wait long for red lights to turn white for crossing the street ;)
But I did catch it, even though I think it wasn't the best thing for my knee. :/
I finally held my Spanish presentation - and usually when I have to hold a presentation, I black out, especially if it's in English. In German it's alright, but in English I remember starting and then the end, but not what I said in between those periods. My sources have told me that I usually speak waaay too fast, but well, as I mentioned, I don't really remember much.
It was different today, though, and I am really happy about that. I believe this shows me that yes, I am growing in my year here. Not that I'm doubting it exactly, but whatever.
In English we continued writing our mock provincials, and I hit a writing gold mine. And then I had to stop because the lesson was over :/ *unimpressed*
Okay, and please read this, even though it is (slightly) about hockey.
The media today is abuzz with the news that Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke was fired. The thing is, the Leafs are really bad. I mean, even their fans don't really believe in their success anymore.
But firing Burke 10 days before the season starts might not have been the best choice - the media will focus on that, and a few players know that they played a role in this turn of events. Which is decidedly not good for a team that's anyway not good.
Anyway, what I actually wanted to write about is this tweet and the picture, because I think, and there I agree with Patrick, Brian's son, this is one of the most important things Brian has done.
What this picture is about:
So, and talking about equality and stuff like that, look what I found on tumblr:
And I know a few people who should read this very carefully. And everybody should keep it in mind, for sure. Because it's just so true.
And that was my "Wort zum Sonntag" (word of the day) even though it's still Wednesday...
And one last bit of trivia:
Why this ♥ is called a heart.
Well, I'm off writing a Journalism article about the end of the lockout - I totally forgot about that, I'm just really lucky that I know so much about the lockout that I don't have to research anything. (And want to read about how messy Tyler Seguin was in Switzerland? German article here and English article - with a healthy dose of sarcasm like "I hear that. I didn't learn to put rotten bananas in the garbage until apartment three. (I originally thought they went in the dryer.)" by the author here. But it seems as though not everything is true... Seguin denies the dryer incident but leaves everything else uncommented :D)
Love y'all!
Julia
So, today was pretty okay, except for how I almost missed my bus.
I mean, I had put my alarm clock on for 7.35 a.m. instead of 7.10 a.m. (I don't know how exactly I spend 1.5 hours every morning, but I definitely don't need that much time), only to have Tanya wake me up at 7.15 or so - I had kind of expected that, because she wouldn't let me oversleep, so I woke up slightly, called out "Alarm clock goes off at 7:30" and went back to sleep for another few precious minutes.
But then I was ready to go to early, and I just sat on the stairs, reading, and lost track of time. So by the time I left the house, the bus was right in front of our house.
I sprinted down the street and across the red light before it had fully turned white (the 'you can walk' is white and the 'stop' is read for pedestrians) and caught it just so. I'm just glad you don't have to wait long for red lights to turn white for crossing the street ;)
But I did catch it, even though I think it wasn't the best thing for my knee. :/
I finally held my Spanish presentation - and usually when I have to hold a presentation, I black out, especially if it's in English. In German it's alright, but in English I remember starting and then the end, but not what I said in between those periods. My sources have told me that I usually speak waaay too fast, but well, as I mentioned, I don't really remember much.
It was different today, though, and I am really happy about that. I believe this shows me that yes, I am growing in my year here. Not that I'm doubting it exactly, but whatever.
In English we continued writing our mock provincials, and I hit a writing gold mine. And then I had to stop because the lesson was over :/ *unimpressed*
Okay, and please read this, even though it is (slightly) about hockey.
The media today is abuzz with the news that Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke was fired. The thing is, the Leafs are really bad. I mean, even their fans don't really believe in their success anymore.
But firing Burke 10 days before the season starts might not have been the best choice - the media will focus on that, and a few players know that they played a role in this turn of events. Which is decidedly not good for a team that's anyway not good.
Anyway, what I actually wanted to write about is this tweet and the picture, because I think, and there I agree with Patrick, Brian's son, this is one of the most important things Brian has done.
 |
| Source: (x) |
Brian lost his son Brendan in 2010 in a car accident. Brendan was a strong advocate to end locker room homophobia after he came out in 2009. He was the person most closely related to the NHL through his father GM for the Maple Leafs and his brother Patrick, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers to come out as gay. (As of today, no athlete, neither former not active, has come out, although there have been anonymous interviews about how hard it is)
Patrick and Brian founded the 'You Can Play' campaign in his memory, which has the central slogan of If you can play, you can play, and various high-profile players, mostly hockey but also other sports, tell them to the camera, along with something like "I will always stand up for a teammate, no matter their sexuality" or "If a guy can help us win, then I want him on my team".
The thing that YCP wants to do is take away the edge of being the "first guy", first by showing support from straight athletes, and then bu having a group of players come out together. In 2005, one moderator (I don't know who, though) said he knew of enough players, coaches and commentators who were gay to fill two full all-star teams (and I'm guessing he was not talking about the All-Star game, although I can't be too sure...), which makes it at least 10 players and two coaches. Might not sound like much, but for a league so homophobic and without a single guy out of the closet, this is a lot - if you remember that this is a moderator we're talking about, and there sure are more guys, since I doubt that everybody would share such a thing with a moderator.
But You Can Play is keeping the videos up, and I anticipate in the long run, it will do a good job.
And yes, I think if this is what Brian Burke will be remembered for, he can be definitely be proud.
So, and talking about equality and stuff like that, look what I found on tumblr:
And that was my "Wort zum Sonntag" (word of the day) even though it's still Wednesday...
And one last bit of trivia:
Why this ♥ is called a heart.
Well, I'm off writing a Journalism article about the end of the lockout - I totally forgot about that, I'm just really lucky that I know so much about the lockout that I don't have to research anything. (And want to read about how messy Tyler Seguin was in Switzerland? German article here and English article - with a healthy dose of sarcasm like "I hear that. I didn't learn to put rotten bananas in the garbage until apartment three. (I originally thought they went in the dryer.)" by the author here. But it seems as though not everything is true... Seguin denies the dryer incident but leaves everything else uncommented :D)
Love y'all!
Julia
Sonntag, 30. Dezember 2012
On Hold?
I might just put my blog on hold until something exciting happens, because all that I did today was sleep (till 11 o'clock, I hope I have finally caught up on my sleep, but judging from how tired I am, I don't think so... or my body is using the opportunity to store the sleep), read, finally settle my debt with my hostfather (got a new phone, had to pay :) ) and yeah... that was pretty much it.
Tomorrow, New Year's Eve, I will introduce Dinner For One, as a typical German tradition, to my hostsisters and their aunt - I don't know about the majority of Germans, but at least my family and I always watch Dinner For One oder Der 100. Geburtstag der Miss Sofie when we are in Ischgl, skiing, and since it is a German clip with English text, I don't see why not. The girls probably are gonna think it's totally boring, though, but I'm willing to deal with that.
Some of the exchange students are heading to a party at Big White or at least down town, but for those of you who remember me at our first Unterstufenball it might not be a surprise that I have opted to stay at home (decided to stay at home; sorry I had to use that fancy word :)) - I started shivering, feeling nauseous and got a headache, because there were so many people I didn't know and the music was so loud, so I'm kinda looking forward to just staying at home.
Can you believe that nobody here knows our chips flavour? They've never even heard of Ungarische Art, so I need my mom to include some of those in my next parcel. I think I've mentioned already that it will come a bit sooner than expected, haven't I?
Well, have a really good night,
Julia
Tomorrow, New Year's Eve, I will introduce Dinner For One, as a typical German tradition, to my hostsisters and their aunt - I don't know about the majority of Germans, but at least my family and I always watch Dinner For One oder Der 100. Geburtstag der Miss Sofie when we are in Ischgl, skiing, and since it is a German clip with English text, I don't see why not. The girls probably are gonna think it's totally boring, though, but I'm willing to deal with that.
Some of the exchange students are heading to a party at Big White or at least down town, but for those of you who remember me at our first Unterstufenball it might not be a surprise that I have opted to stay at home (decided to stay at home; sorry I had to use that fancy word :)) - I started shivering, feeling nauseous and got a headache, because there were so many people I didn't know and the music was so loud, so I'm kinda looking forward to just staying at home.
Can you believe that nobody here knows our chips flavour? They've never even heard of Ungarische Art, so I need my mom to include some of those in my next parcel. I think I've mentioned already that it will come a bit sooner than expected, haven't I?
Well, have a really good night,
Julia
Game Day
Okay, so today I finally was halfway productive - I finally caught up on my sleep (hopefully) by sleeping almost 12 hours, I started on my Journalism article, I ordered a few more things off amazon.de to give my mom all the more reasons to send that package soon and ... I played Rommee with Bobby and with Bobbie, Jenna and Andy. And it was really very enjoyable!
In the evening, we watched Percy Jackson - a good movie, although I missed the beginning.
I don't know whether I mentioned it yesterday already, but my lazy days will be over the day after tomorrow, so I need to enjoy them as much as possible!
Babette and I will, as I probably have already mentioned, meet up in the mall on Thursday, and she will come back to my place after, so I'll probably end up showing her a game off my Gold Standards, because we plan to attend a Rockets game in the near future, and I need to show her how awesome that sport is!
That's it for today, guys, I'll be back tomorrow!
In the evening, we watched Percy Jackson - a good movie, although I missed the beginning.
I don't know whether I mentioned it yesterday already, but my lazy days will be over the day after tomorrow, so I need to enjoy them as much as possible!
Babette and I will, as I probably have already mentioned, meet up in the mall on Thursday, and she will come back to my place after, so I'll probably end up showing her a game off my Gold Standards, because we plan to attend a Rockets game in the near future, and I need to show her how awesome that sport is!
That's it for today, guys, I'll be back tomorrow!
Mittwoch, 26. Dezember 2012
Christmas post!
I know it's hard to believe, but here I am, with a Christmas story and pictures! I finally managed to write everything up, and I was once again overcome by how amazing the last few days were.
I'm sorry I had to break my promise in regards to the pictures yesterday - but here they are! :)
Have fun!
Christmas at Andy's parents house. It was really delicious, and as you can see, there were many people and waaay more food.
I had a really great time, even though I was a bit cold in church!
And I have to warn you: There is a bit about Hockey, but if you skip that, there are more pictures and I talk about today!
Jenna, me, and Bob Christmas morning.
We had agreed to stand up at eight o'clock, but in wise foresight I put my alarm for seven fifteen. Five minutes later, there was a knock at my door.
Not that I really minded, of course, because I was at least already dressed, and hey, it was Christmas - even though I might not have felt very Christmassy, church the day before had taken care of that!
So we all trudged upstairs, where the stockings were waiting for us!
Stockings are really awesome. They're like St. Nikolaus' day, just on Christmas, which is kind of.... really A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!
On the right you can see what was in my stocking - lots of sweets, peanut butter (even Santa is making fun of me!), maple syrup, more chocolate, hot chocolate, a shirt (I love it and am wearing it right now!), ball point pens, a subway gift card, shower gel & body lotion (they're really great!) and... the best of all: Two tickets to a Kelowna Rockets Hockey game!
Jenna got "Mario Party 8" and Bobby Just Dance 4 - and yesterday I danced for an hour! (Since I was jumping up and down before hand, my calves are kind of sore today...)
Here's the tree before we attacked it!
Down below there's Jenna, me and Bob, in the middle of unpacking our stockings - I can tell you, it's waaaaaaay more fun if there are people your age (or closer to your age/younger) with whom you can share your fun. It's just not the same as unpacking it with adults, who anyway know what's inside.
At eight thirty, Andy's sister and his parents came over, and there was more unpacking. Jenna gifted a few truly amazing pictures, and I was stunned - I hadn't known she was that good, and just wow. She is really great with paint and crafts!
We had brunch; an egg dish, a potato dish (I need that recipe, it was just really, really great), lots of fruit, cinnamon buns with icing, and coffee, and a great time.
In the afternoon/evening, we went to Tanya's parents' house, since we'd been to Andy's parents house the day before, and I got mittens (Olympic mittens) from the grandparents and a shirt and Lindor from Brenda, Tanya's sister, and we had another Turkey dinner - after the girls had unpacked their other presents:
Lego Hogwarts Castle and Lego Hagrid's hut.
They were really awesome - we already built Hagrid's hut and are almost finished with the castle!
Before dinner, there were of course Christmas crackers; afterwards we all had to wear the ridiculous (but fun) crowns that had been in them and played with the toys.
The Turkey Dinner was also really good, and I can say that I have honestly never seen so much food at a table that wasn't a birthday party with buffet; it just seemed like the supply of carrots, gravy, turkey, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes would not end!
We ended up playing Shangri-la afterwards, similar to the German Phase 10, and even though I came last by a huuuuuge margin, it was maybe the most fun game I've had in a while!
You wouldn't believe me how many games I have been playing lately.
I'm almost daily playing Rommee with Bobby, and then there was the Shangri-La yesterday, and ... well, more later (more on today, I mean)
These are my presents, a lot of knitted things from my mom (two awesome pairs of socks, two scarves - the girls got loops, and they LOVE them, Bobby was wearing hers today!), a knitted owl (I am an owl, school mascots are taken serious here, so Who's house? Owls' house!), black gaiters [Stulpen] and, best of all - does anybody recognize him?
The guy sitting there with my headphones? - Eleven. The eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith, from Doctor Who. Then, of course, new headphones (I was looking forward to them sooooo much, and they're just as awesome as my old ones. Could be because they are just like my old ones....). There is Kinderpunsch, children's punch, from Lara, and Christmas cookies and a mug, and more soap and my new fountain pen (although not very well recognizable) and my mittens and the wallet Bobbye made, and the bookmark Jenna made, my new jacket (also awesome and really nicely warm) and a shoulder bag, which is really handy. And of course the Calgary shirt!
Here's all the chocolate from my Stocking. I really hope I don't have to eat it all by myself, you would be able to roll me if I did!
This morning, I woke up at eight thirty, not because I couldn't sleep anymore (I couldn't really go to bed last night, so I was tired), but because ... of the Hockey game!
Germny had really ugly jerseys, black with the ugly, ugly, ugly eagle on the front, and I knew all of two guys - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, #9 for the Canadians, and Tobias Rieder for Germany. The former because he was (as far as I know, I'm not sure about the German team) the only NHLer in this game (as I said, at least on the Canadian side) and is a pretty good player for the Edmonton Oilers, of which my hostfather is a huge fan of, and the latter because of two reasons: Andy had been telling me about him, that the Oilers had drafted him but put him in the minor league (the not so good team) and that he was German, and because he is German, in the NHL (well, almost), and since he is from ... Bad Abbach! Talking about that town, best regards to Katrinle and her family! :)
Well, unsurprisingly the Canadians wiped the floor with the German's, and even though I had said I wouldn't cheer for the German's, in the end if was impossible.
I'm kind of glad to know that I still regard Germany as my home country.
The game was ... kind of disappointing. I mean, I have only seen one game in its entirety, and that was the rockets game, but in this game today there were so many passes that didn't connect, and once the Canadian gave the perfect assist on a goal... it was just really bad (for the Canadians) that it was a goal for the Germans!
So yeah. We lost 3-9, but hey, we got three goals against the Hockey Nation out there!
Afterwards, Jenna and I played Just Dance, because Bobby was at her friend's and we couldn't start the Lego without her, but she came back quickly enough and assembled Hagrid's hut.
Then we started on the castle, interrupted when we went for dinner to family friends, and even though I wasn't hungry in the least - Jenna had made Hot Dogs, and I of course couldn't say no - it was a really enjoyable time.
I talked to the older son (first year college), which was really interesting, and then the middle son (my age, tenth grade) and I had to team up for Sequence, a board game which we lost spectacularly against Andy and the other father, Jim, and Tanya and Leslie - we didn't took the rules the wrong way, which is why the former team would have won, but the latter team did in the end:
For sequence you have cards on your hand, put one down and place a playing chip according to it on a board. Aim: Have a sequence of five.
We assumed you needed two sequences of five. Andy and Jim were the first to have one sequence of five, and Tanya and Leslie the first to have two sequences of five.
Jim and Leslie gave each of us a hot chocolate mix, a mug and bath salts, which was kind of the end of Christmas and Boxing Day.
We ended the day by finishing assembling the Lego, but it's not yet completely finished.
And here, as per request, pictures of our Lego adventures. Jenna and Bobby on the floor of the playroom, with Lego all strewn over the place. There were three seperate parts of the Hogwarts castle, which is why each of us took one of the instruction booklets (you can see my part below), and as it was to be expected considering that it's 8-14 and I have a lot of expertise at building Lego houses, I was the first one finished.
So, that was today.
I hope you had an equally fine and enjoyable Christmas, and I have to say that this might well have been the best and most amazing Christmas I have every had the pleasure to celebrate.
There was lots of family, meeting nice people - Brenda's partner Shane and I bonded over Jenna's magic cube - she disassembled it and left it to me to put it back together, which was harder than I had thought - I failed, then Shane failed, and then we managed to put it together with our combined prowess of mind (and then it only took us like... ten minutes). Here's a step by step walk through - I took it apart again after we had managed it, because I wanted to try it on my own but was afraid that I wouldn't be able to put it back together, so I snapped a photo of each step, showing which part I took off in which direction. You can see it on the right!
So, have a great second Weihnachtsfeiertag, guys, for me ... I have to man up (haha) and do some school work tomorrow!
Enjoy your holidays!
I'm sorry I had to break my promise in regards to the pictures yesterday - but here they are! :)
Have fun!
I had a really great time, even though I was a bit cold in church!
And I have to warn you: There is a bit about Hockey, but if you skip that, there are more pictures and I talk about today!
We had agreed to stand up at eight o'clock, but in wise foresight I put my alarm for seven fifteen. Five minutes later, there was a knock at my door.
Not that I really minded, of course, because I was at least already dressed, and hey, it was Christmas - even though I might not have felt very Christmassy, church the day before had taken care of that!
Stockings are really awesome. They're like St. Nikolaus' day, just on Christmas, which is kind of.... really A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!
On the right you can see what was in my stocking - lots of sweets, peanut butter (even Santa is making fun of me!), maple syrup, more chocolate, hot chocolate, a shirt (I love it and am wearing it right now!), ball point pens, a subway gift card, shower gel & body lotion (they're really great!) and... the best of all: Two tickets to a Kelowna Rockets Hockey game!
Jenna got "Mario Party 8" and Bobby Just Dance 4 - and yesterday I danced for an hour! (Since I was jumping up and down before hand, my calves are kind of sore today...)
Down below there's Jenna, me and Bob, in the middle of unpacking our stockings - I can tell you, it's waaaaaaay more fun if there are people your age (or closer to your age/younger) with whom you can share your fun. It's just not the same as unpacking it with adults, who anyway know what's inside.
At eight thirty, Andy's sister and his parents came over, and there was more unpacking. Jenna gifted a few truly amazing pictures, and I was stunned - I hadn't known she was that good, and just wow. She is really great with paint and crafts!
 |
| That sweater that Andy's wearing (you can see the maple leave) is the Team Canada Olympic Jersey and their Jerseys look so much better than the German one! |
In the afternoon/evening, we went to Tanya's parents' house, since we'd been to Andy's parents house the day before, and I got mittens (Olympic mittens) from the grandparents and a shirt and Lindor from Brenda, Tanya's sister, and we had another Turkey dinner - after the girls had unpacked their other presents:
Lego Hogwarts Castle and Lego Hagrid's hut.
They were really awesome - we already built Hagrid's hut and are almost finished with the castle!
The Turkey Dinner was also really good, and I can say that I have honestly never seen so much food at a table that wasn't a birthday party with buffet; it just seemed like the supply of carrots, gravy, turkey, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes would not end!
We ended up playing Shangri-la afterwards, similar to the German Phase 10, and even though I came last by a huuuuuge margin, it was maybe the most fun game I've had in a while!
You wouldn't believe me how many games I have been playing lately.
I'm almost daily playing Rommee with Bobby, and then there was the Shangri-La yesterday, and ... well, more later (more on today, I mean)
These are my presents, a lot of knitted things from my mom (two awesome pairs of socks, two scarves - the girls got loops, and they LOVE them, Bobby was wearing hers today!), a knitted owl (I am an owl, school mascots are taken serious here, so Who's house? Owls' house!), black gaiters [Stulpen] and, best of all - does anybody recognize him?
The guy sitting there with my headphones? - Eleven. The eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith, from Doctor Who. Then, of course, new headphones (I was looking forward to them sooooo much, and they're just as awesome as my old ones. Could be because they are just like my old ones....). There is Kinderpunsch, children's punch, from Lara, and Christmas cookies and a mug, and more soap and my new fountain pen (although not very well recognizable) and my mittens and the wallet Bobbye made, and the bookmark Jenna made, my new jacket (also awesome and really nicely warm) and a shoulder bag, which is really handy. And of course the Calgary shirt!
Here's all the chocolate from my Stocking. I really hope I don't have to eat it all by myself, you would be able to roll me if I did!
This morning, I woke up at eight thirty, not because I couldn't sleep anymore (I couldn't really go to bed last night, so I was tired), but because ... of the Hockey game!
Germny had really ugly jerseys, black with the ugly, ugly, ugly eagle on the front, and I knew all of two guys - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, #9 for the Canadians, and Tobias Rieder for Germany. The former because he was (as far as I know, I'm not sure about the German team) the only NHLer in this game (as I said, at least on the Canadian side) and is a pretty good player for the Edmonton Oilers, of which my hostfather is a huge fan of, and the latter because of two reasons: Andy had been telling me about him, that the Oilers had drafted him but put him in the minor league (the not so good team) and that he was German, and because he is German, in the NHL (well, almost), and since he is from ... Bad Abbach! Talking about that town, best regards to Katrinle and her family! :)
Well, unsurprisingly the Canadians wiped the floor with the German's, and even though I had said I wouldn't cheer for the German's, in the end if was impossible.
I'm kind of glad to know that I still regard Germany as my home country.
The game was ... kind of disappointing. I mean, I have only seen one game in its entirety, and that was the rockets game, but in this game today there were so many passes that didn't connect, and once the Canadian gave the perfect assist on a goal... it was just really bad (for the Canadians) that it was a goal for the Germans!
So yeah. We lost 3-9, but hey, we got three goals against the Hockey Nation out there!
Afterwards, Jenna and I played Just Dance, because Bobby was at her friend's and we couldn't start the Lego without her, but she came back quickly enough and assembled Hagrid's hut.
Then we started on the castle, interrupted when we went for dinner to family friends, and even though I wasn't hungry in the least - Jenna had made Hot Dogs, and I of course couldn't say no - it was a really enjoyable time.
I talked to the older son (first year college), which was really interesting, and then the middle son (my age, tenth grade) and I had to team up for Sequence, a board game which we lost spectacularly against Andy and the other father, Jim, and Tanya and Leslie - we didn't took the rules the wrong way, which is why the former team would have won, but the latter team did in the end:
For sequence you have cards on your hand, put one down and place a playing chip according to it on a board. Aim: Have a sequence of five.
We assumed you needed two sequences of five. Andy and Jim were the first to have one sequence of five, and Tanya and Leslie the first to have two sequences of five.
Jim and Leslie gave each of us a hot chocolate mix, a mug and bath salts, which was kind of the end of Christmas and Boxing Day.
We ended the day by finishing assembling the Lego, but it's not yet completely finished.
I hope you had an equally fine and enjoyable Christmas, and I have to say that this might well have been the best and most amazing Christmas I have every had the pleasure to celebrate.
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| Magic Cube |
There was lots of family, meeting nice people - Brenda's partner Shane and I bonded over Jenna's magic cube - she disassembled it and left it to me to put it back together, which was harder than I had thought - I failed, then Shane failed, and then we managed to put it together with our combined prowess of mind (and then it only took us like... ten minutes). Here's a step by step walk through - I took it apart again after we had managed it, because I wanted to try it on my own but was afraid that I wouldn't be able to put it back together, so I snapped a photo of each step, showing which part I took off in which direction. You can see it on the right!
So, have a great second Weihnachtsfeiertag, guys, for me ... I have to man up (haha) and do some school work tomorrow!
Enjoy your holidays!
Dienstag, 25. Dezember 2012
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
So I was looking through my pockets today, and guess what I found - my flash drive!
So you will be getting those pictures - they are at the end of the post.
Today was a really nice day and I am finally getting into the mood of Christmas.
I had trouble sleeping - while I went to sleep at midnight after going to bed at half past eleven, I woke for the first time at three and for the second - and last - time at half past five, so I checked my mails, checked facebook and did all my Christmas-mail, and then went to watch the Canada-USSR game of 1982.
When I finally ventured upstairs, Bobby and Jenna had already unpacked their first (and only) gift of Christmas Eve, both getting dresses.
I also opened my first present: lovely earrings from Lara. Thanks honey!
I'll upload pictures tomorrow, I promise!
The rest of the morning/noon I helped Tanya prepare the Salad for dinner (Broccoli salad, and I still can't understand why anybody would eat Broccoli raw, but apparently that's a quite common salad) and then doodled a bit around, until we dressed up for Turkey dinner at Andy's parents' house and Church.
The Turkey was delicious. There was Turkey and gravy (Sosse) and peas and Brussel sprouts (Rosenkohl) and sweet potato mash with pecan nuts and mashed potatoes and coleslaw (Kohlsalat) and Broccoli salad and it was just sooooo wonderful!
Andy's mom is a wonderful cook.
Afterwards we went to Church. It's a united Church and it was really laid back, and I almost started to cry when we sung "Ihr Kinderlein kommet" in English ("Come ye faithful") and "Silent Night". I mean, I haven't been to church in ages, but it was just so reminiscent of home and Christmas during my childhood, that I finally got into the right mood.
The biggest difference between this service and the one at home? One, there was no priest. At least I don't think the guy in the suit holding the mass was a priest. And two, when we got the body of Christ (Leib Christi) we got actual bread and dunked that into juice. It tasted kinda gross, because believe me, you don't want white bread soaked with berry juice, but it was also awesome - everybody tore off their own piece of bread.
And now we're back, and I'm really tired. The sooner I get to bed, the sooner we can relieve the Christmas tree of it's crowd of presents. And trust me, there are a lot.
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| Christmas tree |
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| Presents |
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| From Bobby (sign) & Jenna, for Santa & his reindeer |
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| Decorations |
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| Stockings! |
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| More decorations |
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| Advent calender |
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| Gingerbread house (Jenna's side) |
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| Fish! In the Vancouver Aquarium! |
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| Something... I'm not quite sure what it is! |
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| Frog! |
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| Qualle |
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| More Jelly fish - they're like seriously gross |
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| Star fish |
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| More fish |
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| Me in a bubble... Kinda gross, too |
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| There is something in this picture - can you find it? [I can't] |
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| Dolphin! Isn't she adorable? |
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| More dolphin |
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| And both of the lovely dolphins in mid-flight |
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| That's me, of course. Like my mis-matched greens? |
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| Grouse Mountain. Not Gross Mountain, as I said in my E-mail to Pascaline. |
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| And here are the reindeer when they're not in Santa's employment. She's awesome, right? |
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| That's me from behind, filming for my parents! |
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| And... a water fall! |
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| And that's me, too, in my favourite sweater. I LOVE that thing! |
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| The inside of the Omnimax! |
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| The outside of the omnimax! |
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| One of the traditional thingies - remember it from the Olympics? |
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| Capilano suspension bridge |
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| Vancouver skyline |
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| Our hotel room on the last day |
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| And Frozen Yoghurt. That stuff seriously is awesome! |
And of course a HUGE THANK YOU to Dorothea, who has kindly given me the photos!
Abonnieren
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