Testing Thursday

Today was, once again, a really great day - the only thing was I went to bed way too late again (I got caught on youtube, but I will explain that in a second), so I almost fell asleep again when my alarm went off.

This morning, we had Entrepreneurship first - we met our mentor for the Dragon's Den project, and she was super nice (she won with her group when they participated), so we talked about our project ... and I really have to try harder not to take the lead automatically, especially when there are three boys with me who are all two or three years older ... but old habits are hard to break :)

Then Spanish ... we got into the room and there was a youtube video pulled up on the screen.
And when the teacher said "This has nothing to do with with Spanish, but I want you to listen to it anyway," I started to get a suspicion what it was ... and I was right.
It was the video I had watched the night before.

And that video?
I hate poetry. It confuses me. A lot. But that video was an animation of spoken word, and it is honestly the most amazing and touching piece I've ever heard. It hits exactly where it hurts the most, and last night I honestly cried at the end. I had troubles in school trying not to cry.

Even if you don't listen to/watch any of the videos I post, please, PLEASE watch this one. Please. It will be worth your time (that video has almost two million hits since the day before yesterday)

Here it is:
To This Day

It's pretty fast, so if you want to read it, here is a transcription.

My favourite parts are:
to this day
despite a loving husband
she doesn’t think she’s beautiful
[...]
and they’ll never understand
that she’s raising two kids
whose definition of beauty
begins with the word mom

and

he tried to kill himself in grade ten
when a kid who still could go home to his mom and dad
had the audacity to tell him “get over it” as if depression
is something that can be remedied
by any of the contents found in a first aid kit


And just ... it's the most amazing thing I've ever heard.

We wrote our Spanish Vocab test (10/10 :) ) and then we did stuff out of the Workbook again (we finally learned the preterit!).

During lunch, I hurried to Mr Derksen's room - I had anyway planned on telling him about that video, because we are having a poet tomorrow, but when I showed him that video, he told me "I know that one - it's already a couple of years old."
The animation though is new.
And he showed it in class, and I once again had to suppress my tears. It's just so amazing.
We spent the rest of class talking, with two other students. It was really interesting :)

I went to Mr Wishlow's room to get the flashdrive with the pictures from yesterday - he wasn't there, but the other teacher in the room handed me the card. It was one I had never seen before - pretty big.

I told her to relay a message to Mr Wishlow that I would get it back to him tomorrow.

In Math I quickly realized: I had lost my homework. My only hope was I had left them at home and not actually lost them. Problem: It was due today. (Spoiler: They are at home)
He told me I could hand it in tomorrow.

I think the test didn't go badly - I don't know, and as I mentioned yesterday, I make so many stupid mistakes. But at least I didn't struggle with any of the questions :)

I was finished halfway through the class or so (second overall) and then I ... read. What else?

Creative Writing was really great today again.
We listened to two of Shane Koyczan, the vid above and another one, and they were both so great...
And then we wrote our own spoken word poem thingies (good that I wrote that, I still have to make a good copy of mine), and it was a great lesson.

But when I headed for Journalism at the end of the day, there was a note stuck to the door, informing us that Mr Manderioli was sick so the meeting was adjourned to next Thursday.

Wow. I had re-written my first article into a 472 word piece yesterday evening and cranked out about 350 words for a second article (I couldn't make it shorter, no way!), and now apparently our deadline was shifted one week back (deadline was today)...
Well, better for me!
The only downside was that I didn't know where I could get a card reader - but when in doubt, ask Mr Derksen. (He's gonna get me one for tomorrow :) )
I took the bus for the first time this semester, even this year, home, and that was it.

So I spent my afternoon listening to the video (although afternoon is a bit of a stretch - I came home by 4 o'clock and dinner was at 5.30), reading a couple of articles at NHL.com and browsing facebook, tumblr and twitter, and then after dinner I listened to the video a bit more, because it's just so enthralling, and wrote a long overdue e-mail. (It was waiting in my inbox for more than two weeks!).
Now I only owe one more person an e-mail.

Okay, that's it, I'm gonna do my spoken word poem now!

Have a great day!
(And please listen to the video!)

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

I Believe I Can Fly

I'm so happy and elated that I might just take off!
Today has been a great day - mostly!

Okay, so I'm operating on waaay too little sleep, first off all - I just don't seem to manage to go to bed early, and I'm doing 1.5 to 2 hours of Maths a day. It's not that it's hard, it's just that it's a lot and we have to draw a lot, which takes time.

But anyway, so I woke up, wonderfully sleep-deprived - just enough so that I'm not falling-asleep-standing tired, but hui-I-might-not-be-completely-filled-up-on-sleep tired. I love that feeling, I have to admit.
But I should sneak a couple of hours in at some point, because the longer this goes on, the crankier and more exhausted I get... But at the moment everything's still fine!

First lesson: Spanish. Spanish is still super boring, because we're only doing review stuff, and only a few students had Spanish 10 last semester, so the majority has forgotten almost everything. Seriously. -_-
Second lesson: Entrepreneurship. I hate people I can't rely on. For our project we had to sell things during lunch. And I had gotten cups and straws for $10, while my other two 'co-workers' promised to get lemonade powder so that we could sell lemonade.
The thing is, I wouldn't even have had to do it, because of the ESL meeting, but I said I'll do it anyway. I had come up with the idea, and I had chipped in with the cups and everything.
And they didn't provide their end of the deal.
They got it figured out, but I have been the idiot trying to save everybody's ass often enough, so I just said "find a solution, I'll figure out how to pay my San Francisco trip", because my name had disappeared from the schoolcashonline account that is used to make any kind of payment.
It was apparently just a technical inconvenience, so I finally paid up. (Great thing nr. 1)

I helped them set the table up, and then excused myself to go to ESL.
I figured out that I already knew the new ESL teacher - our old one is on maternity leave - because I talked to her in the ESL room during lunch and she's one of the chaperones for the San Francisco trip! (GTNr 2)
She's super nice and genuinely so, while our old ESL teacher kinda gave me the feeling she wasn't taking us seriously. I hate that (and she strongly favoured the Mexican students and those in her ESL English class).
Third block: Creative Writing, and I used the free writing time to ponder the question of the school (It's like silent reading just that we're writing, and I absolutely love it).
I didn't come to a conclusion, and felt totally lost, so I resolved to asking Mr D for a bit of time after school, because he's brilliant to throw ideas around with.
We did a funny exercise: We got clay (that plastic stuff we used in kindergarten to mould stuff [Knete]) and he closed the blinds and switched off the lights, so that we were sitting in pitch black darkness (the blinds are pretty decent ones, better than usual blinds here, like the Rollos at home), and then we had to mould - a duck!
Mine got a price for general horribleness and was put up as one of the three worst ducks in the whole class, and I was crying because I was laughing so hard as Mr D was making fun of my duck. I really thought it was hilarious - and doesn't that say a lot about my growth here, because a year or two ago I would have burst into tears because I was hurt he would say such a thing? No, but art isn't my strength when I can see and bereft of my most important sense, what do you expect?

Anyway, it was an exercise to show us how our other senses are sharpened when one sense is gone.
Pretty great lesson, imo, and at the end I was like
"Mr D, do you maybe have a few minutes after school, I have a question?"
He: "Sorry, no, I have a meeting after school..."
Me: "Oh, so ... I dunno, should I come by tomorrow during lunch? Or something?"
He: "I could write you a late notice; why don't you just tell me now?"

So I reported my dilemma with the school, explained why I didn't really like the GN where I went to (teachers pretty narrow-minded [at least some of them and especially compared to Canada], teachers making me feel dumb for wanting to know more, year mates talking behind my back about me being a suck-up and a show-off [Maybe I'll make a post about that, too, I thought what he said was pretty great and would be good for me to remember], me being bored, my fear of falling back into my pattern of stressing myself ["When you got stressed, your personality changed visibly" - "Seriously? I never noticed" - "You start obsessing over details, asking questions trying to regain control over the little details where you can have control. You still ask those same questions, but you're way more relaxed"]) and we bounced a few ideas back and forth.
We settled on one option I don't want to detail here, because it's not sure whether it'll work out, but those needing to know will find an e-mail in their inbox in the near future!
So I missed almost half of my Math class, but I was feeling so much better afterwards. I hadn't even realized how much it had been weighing me down!

Math ... was pretty unremarkable, because we actually have already done that stuff; the only problem I am facing there is that we had a totally different approach, but I need to comply by the Ministry standards here.

After school, since I had some time to kill like always, I went to inquire about my final grades before we get our report cards tomorrow (technically today).
Spanish: Final Exam - 98.1%, Final Mark - 100.7%. Best mark in her two classes, I am proud to say! (I love the advantage Latin has given me)
In Japanese I didn't actually get my grade, but my teacher told me I had done "very well" and had an A overall.
I'm looking forward to the report cards tomorrow!


I'm not actually finished with my homework, because there was the most-anticipated and strongest game in the NHL at the moment on, but it's mainly drawing some stuff, and I might use it to lull me to sleep.
It's tedious, repeating all that stuff over and over again, but what can you do?

We had tacos for dinner - absolutely delicious, let me tell you!

So... that was my day.
Below follows only a bit of hockey, because I need to get rid of all these feels!

So, the match-up tonight was Blackhawks vs San Jose Sharks.
The Blackhawks have 7 wins in 9 games, and only two Shootout losses, which don't count as real losses - shootouts (SO), as I detailed in my last post (If I'm not wrong) come after overtime (OT), and as soon as it is tied and has to go to overtime, both teams get one point, and the winning team gets a second one. So the Hawks have had a start of six wins in succession and have had at least one point in every single one of their games. (People also say, they're undefeated in regulation, meaning nobody has yet defeated them during the regular 60 minutes).
The Sharks have a similar record - they started out with 7 wins in 7 games, making just as the Hawks a new franchise record, but then they got a shootout loss and, yesterday, their first regulation loss - which made the Hawks the only team so far to be undefeated in regulation and also giving them the lead in the league.
San Jose was pretty close behind, though - only one point.

I have to admit that I had given up the game after five minutes of play when the Sharks were up 2-0. Coach Q of the Blackhawks called a time-out, gathered his team and gave his goalie a moment to calm down,  and after that, the Hawks were on fire.
Rookie Brandon Saad, who had been pretty good in all the past games after replacing a guy who twisted his knee in his first or second game on the top line with Jonathan Toews (Captain) and Marián Hossa (one of the top goal scorers and second in points, just behind Patrick Kane), finally got his long-awaited first goal, and that was kinda all it took for the Hawks to light it up.
The Sharks scored to make it 1-3 only 38 seconds after Saad's goal though, and I was ready to tear my hair out. 8 seconds later? 2-3. 42 seconds later? 3-3.
With the two best teams in the league who have both had great defensive play, having 6 goals in not even 13 minutes was kinda a miracle for the announcer who went nuts.

Thankfully, the scoring abated after that. Second period? Patrick Kane scores - which was pretty lucky.
They were playing four-on-four because one of the Hawks, Jamal Mayers, had gotten a legal hit but Duncan Keith (Defenseman) wasn't pleased about it and started a fight with the player who had hit Mayer, for which he got 19 (!!) penalty minutes. The perpetrator was thought to have delivered an illegal blow and was ejected from the game until they did video review.
So Kane had the puck, was skating towards the net, when the Sharks stole it from him - only to have the captain himself fish it out from between his feet in a move of total beauty, send it to Kane and see it dumped into the net. The goalie (fun fact: He was the goal tender in the Hawks' net when they won the Stanley Cup in 2010, and one of the opposing players was Patrick Sharp's best friend, before he got traded) never stood a chance.
And later in the third period, the Sharks pulled their goalie in order to get one more skater on the ice, and Kaner recorded an empty-netter (again with an assist from Toews), so the Hawks won it comfortably 5-3 after falling behind 0-2.
Now they are the league leaders without a regulation loss and three points on their next opponent.
I'm really, really happy, although that game was killing me - I was trying to do my Math homework, and I constantly got distracted because it was so nerve-wracking!

And now I seriously need to head to bed.

Love y'all,
Julia

ASDFJKL

I'M SUPER EXCITED AND BASICALLY SCREAMING SO HAVE SOME CAPSLOCK TODAY!!!!!

So I was putting up the chairs in English class and this boy from my Biology class comes in and I've talked to him a few times, but he's mainly a friend of Spencer's. But since we're both polite and in Canada, we're like "How are you - I'm fine and you? Fine too how are your classes?" and he asks me whether I had gotten my Biology grade for the Final already.
And I'm like, no, so I think, well, Andy's gonna pick me up at five past four after he's dropped Jenna off at arts, so I go to the Biology room and meet my teacher in the hallway and we start chatting and not-quite-small-talk - it had always seemed a bit like he was just listening to me because he had to, so I tried keeping my questions and things like that brief (I told you I am sensitive in that regard), but while we waited for the Laptop to boot, he asked about my classes and I told him a bit about what I'm taking this semester (he seemed greatly amused by how excited I was about Maths, but the course is really interesting and has the potential to become demanding in a good way) and so we chatted for a bit and then he told me my grade AND IT WAS ALL I COULD DO NOT TO SCREAM AND SQUEAK AND CRY BECAUSE BASICALLY I WAS AIMING FOR 50% OR SO TO GET AN A AND I GOT FRICKING 96% AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT BECAUSE I HARDLY DID ANYTHING AND I GUESSED ON MORE THAN HALF THE QUESTIONS (going by process of elimination and then guessing between the remaining two answers) AND I HAD NO PLAN ABOUT THE SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS AND I STILL MANAGED TO GET A PRETTY HIGH MARK AND I CAN'T EVEN AND I REALLY ALMOST CRIED.

So, I'm alright again - that was just something I had to get off my chest. But seriously, I don't understand that - the test I re-took was still only 80% and I actually studied for it and I don't understand this world!

And then I spent about $30 on school supplies - we need a notebook for both Spanish and Creative Writing, and I took a pretty nice one for the latter one :)
Because we have to write in it every day, and I think it will come in handy to have a nice one.


I was talking about attending a different school when I get back to Germany, but the plans have become slightly derailed, it doesn't work out as we thought it would for the friend I was going to attend the different school together and I'm not sure I want to do it all on my own...

Then I found new friends at school!
In my Entrepreneurship class :)
They're really nice, too.

And then the San Jose Sharks lost in regulation to the Anaheim Ducks (Yes, they're called Ducks, initially The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, after the Disney movie The Mighty Ducks) which means that the Blackhawks are now leading the league (and they're playing the Sharks next, so as long as they can force overtime, they will stay on top!) and are the only team undefeated in regulation...

The only "bad" part of my day is Maths, because as much as I enjoy it, it's kinda different from how we've done things, and there is the panic creeping up on me that I will not understand that stuff...
Seriously though, I spent more than an hour on my Maths homework - pretty much 80 minutes or so, which I never had to do in Germany.
But a) it's a lot and b) I have to draw a lot, which takes time.

But my teacher already has resorted to my German teachers' favourite sentence:
"Somebody else, please" (although I embarrassed myself by saying '1 through 8'. It's '1 divided by 8' or something else which I can't remember right now, so I think it was pretty obvious that I am not a native speaker... and my German Maths teacher has answered my e-mail, detailing what of the stuff we're doing when in Germany - and the three topics marked as 'especially hard' by my English teacher we're labeled 'not needed' by my German one! :D )
Here it is - sorry the comments are in English :D

1. Function Transformations
     1. Horizontal and Vertical Translations  DAS SIND DIE

VERSCHIEBUNGEN (WIE BEI DER PARABEL),WAS WIR MIT SINUS UND COSINUS DIESES
JAHR GEMACHT HABEN

     2. Reflections and Stretches   DAS SIND DIE SPIEGELUNGEN UND

STRECKUNGEN BZW. STAUCHUNGEN

     3. Combining Transformations   ALLES ZUSAMMEN, ALSO BEI DER PARABEL

y= a(x-d)^2+e  DIESE PUNKTE SIND SEHR WICHTIG!!!

     4. Inverese of a Relation (Graphs)  UMKEHRFUNKTION KOMMT IN Q11

(hier der Graph)

     5. Inverse of a Relations (Equations)   (hier die Gleichung der

Umkehrfunktion)

     6. Ich nehme mal an, dass das genau das ist, was wir in der 9.
        Klasse gemacht haben mit Funktionen, oder sogar schon 8.

Klasse...

 2. Radical Functions
     1. Radical Functions and Transformations     WURZELFUNKTIONEN

KOMMEN IN Q11

     2. Square Root of a Function
     3. Solving Radical Equations Graphically (Exact and Approximate
        Solutions)
 3. Polynomial Functions
     1. Characteristics of Polynomial Functions    POLYNOMFUNKTIONEN,DAS

IST DIE ERWEITERUNG VON QUADRATISCHEN FUNKTIONEN AUF FUNKTIONEN MIT x^3
oder x^4 usw.  SEHR WICHTIG FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR

     2. Remainder Theorem   WICHTIG
     3. Factor Theorem   WICHTIG
     4. Equations and Graphs of Polynomial Functions  WICHTIG!!!
 4. Trigonometry and the Unit Circle
     1. Angles and Angle Measure    WINKEL AM EINHEITSKREIS UND WAS

FOLGT IST ALLES MIT SINUS UND COSINUS,WAS WIR IM 1.HALBJAHR AUCH GEMACHT
HABEN, WICHTIG!!!

     2. The Unit Circle
     3. Trigonometric Ratios
     4. Introduction to Trigonometric Equations
 5. Trigonometric Functions and Graphs
     1. Graphing Sine and Cosine Functions
     2. Transformations of Sinusoidal Functions
     3. The Tangent Function    (TANGENS-FUNKTION IST BEI UNS NICHT IM

LEHRPLAN!)

     4. Solving Trig Equations using Graphs
     5. Equations and Graphs of Trigonometric Functions (Problem and
        Equation Solving)
 6. *Trigonometric Identities*  (DIESES KAPITEL IST NICHT SO WICHTIG UND

WIRD BEI UNS AUCH NICHT BEHANDELT)

     1. *Reciprocal, Quotient, and Pzthaorean Identitities*
     2. *Sum, Difference and Double-Angle Identities*
     3. *Proving Identities*
     4. *Solving Trigonometric Equatiosn Using Identities*
 7. Exponential Functions    (DIESES KAPITEL HABEN WIR GERADE

ANGEFANGEN, IST WICHTIG FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR)

     1. Characteristics of Exponential Functions
     2. Transformation of Exponential Functions
     3. Solving Exponential Functions
 8. *Logarithmic Functions*   (LOGARITHMUS IST AUCH WICHTIG V.A. AUCH

FÜR NÄCHSTES JAHR, ES GEHT UM "DIE SUCHE NACH DEM EXPONENTEN", IST ALSO DIE
UMKEHRUNG DES POTENZIERENS, NUR SUCHT MAN JETZT NICHT DIE BASIS (DANN WÜRDE
MAN WURZELZIEHEN),SONDERN EBEN DEN EXPONENTEN)

     1. *Understanding Logarithms*    WICHTIG
     2. *Transformation of Logarithmic Functions*  NICHT SO WICHTIG FÜR

DIE 10. KLASSE

     3. *Laws of Logarithms*   WICHTIG (RECHENREGELN), STEHEN ABER IN

DER FORMELSAMMLUNG

     4. *Logarithmic and Exponential Equations*  SOLLTE MAN KAPIEREN,

KOMMT IN Q11 NOCHMAL

 9. Rational Functions
     1. Exploring Rational Functions Using Transformations   

BRUCHFUNKTIONEN (WAR IN DER 8. SCHONMAL DRAN, KOMMMT IN DER Q11 DANN
NOCHMAL)

     2. Analyzing Rational Functions     VERMUTLICH WERDEN HIER

GRENZWERTE BESPROCHEN, WAS WIR AUCH IM 2. HALBJAHR MACHEN

     3. Connecting Graphs and Rational Functions
10. Function Operation
     1. Sums and Differences of Functions       AUS MEINER SICHT IST

DIESES KAPITEL NICHT SO WICHTIG, BZW. SOLLTE EH KLAR SEIN

     2. Products and Quotients of Functions
     3. Composite Functions
11. *Permutations, Combinations and Binomial Theorem*   

NICHT WICHTIG IN DER 10., KOMMT BEI UNS IN Q12

     1. *Permutations*
     2. *Combinations*
     3. *The Binomial Theorem*

Capslock are his comments :)

Sorry for the capslock and the screaming and the length, I'm just so excited!

Love y'all,
Julia

Chelsea, Chelsea, I believe

No, don't fear, it's not another hockey post...

Okay, my school day: I almost overslept. I had woken up, switched off my alarm (I only vaguely remember that) and fallen back asleep. Luckily, my inner clock woke me about five or ten minutes later.
I had a rather weird dream anyway, but I can't remember it now...

So, I made my lunch and went to school, and almost went to Japanese - before I remembered that we had Japanese first perios yesterday, so it was Spanish's turn today ;)
We finished the movie we'd been watching - some Mexican drama about illegal immigrants, and it wasn't even so bad, but I'd missed a significant chunk yesterday, so duh. Once that was done, we started on our review booklet. I think I got the farthest, but we'll complete it tomorrow.
Then Japanese, as mentioned we finished Kamikaze girls and wrote our test, and honestly? I don't really care about that grade anymore. I'm tired of Japanese, I should have listened to myself and changed it at the beginning of the year. It was just a waste of time (Yes, you will get reflections on my courses and my choices once they're over and done with and I got my report card... maybe even already before that!)
Biology: I mentioned the test, didn't I?
Well, aside from that I was writing up my notes on the Male and Female Reproductive Systems which we have to hand in by the end of the week, and I'm taking my re-test Wednesday morning. 9 o'clock. Yay. But at least it's a fairly short quiz, so it shouldn't take me too long.

English... as always my favourite period of the day. (Although Spanish is a close runner up). Some people were rewriting a practice exam where they had failed the multiple choice (I got 20/23, which was alright) and so the rest of us had free working time.
I started out reading, but decided to finish my Biology notes. Interspersed with reading, of course. Since I had complained to Mr Derksen that we didn't do any silent reading anymore because of preparation, so when I was leaving the room, he was like "See, you were complaining about not getting time to read; today you had the whole period!"
So I laughed and said "Yeah, but I had to do Biology..."
And since he's such an awesome listener, I told him about the shock from Biology, and he just looked at me. "I'm surprised he didn't notice himself. If that happened in my class, I would notice, especially when it's a student with your marks. I usually scale my tests by your score." My first though? God, no, I don't want others to get a bad grade just because I have a fairly easy time learning! But what he was talking about was:
"When you have a bad grade, I know there's something wrong with my test." So, yeah :)
I had to go, because I thought the Hawks game started at 4.30 (it was 5.30), and I had to go to the mall for top-up for my phone, so I just said 'bye'.
And he? He said "Goodbye, darling."
Teachers here are so amazing, and so nice, and actually try to interact with their students. Like, he does it all the time. And he doesn't just listen because you talk, he listens because he wants to hear you. There's a difference, and I think that that's one reason why he has the class under control so well. (He never has to raise his voice, but he also doesn't require absolute silence. It's so relaxed in the classrooms here...)

So, anyway, Gordo and I went to the mall and the store, I got a cinnamon bun (there is little better than a warm cinnamon bun with the icing still running), and when we came back, I realized that I had hurried all for nothing.
But I had to wolf my dinner down, because I wanted to see the puck drop - it was the Blackhawks Home Opener, and they didn't disappoint. It was a fast-paced, amazing game, keeping me at the edge of my seat, and just over all so great... The Hawks won, of course. (or not so of course, but their goalie was really good. He'd been pretty inconsistent last season, but so far he's been amazing, making some incredible saves.) In the end, it was 3-2 - tight, but really good.

And since it's been some time since I last had pictures/gifs, have some!

Flyers vs Peguins - Brayden Schenn misses Sidney Crosby (x)

Patrick Kane (88) scores the first goal of the night - with an assist from Patrick Sharp (10) (x). It was a beauty shot. Seriously. Their goal celebration was ... pretty great, too:

Kaner flying through the air (x)

 Aaand:

Hockey Players :D (x)

The Blackhawks twitter loved their fans today, giving them this gem, too:

(x) Yay. The guy talking is Duncan Keith, part of the co-dependent defense pairing
Keith-Seabrook. (eg living in the same neighbourhood, having vacation houses
next to each other, having each other's teeth, always being on the ice together)
Keith had the puck from Toews, shot and Seabs's skate redirected the puck into the net.
Seriously.

Aaaaand... that's it from me. Now I spent one hour more on here than I meant to... hui. Sorry!

Shock

Once more an update out of Biology...
I just hit up JupiterGrades, the online grading system, because Mr Kruger had out up the my grade for the Nervous system test, and I got a shock. 48.5/60 ... that's pretty bad. So I went up to him and looked at my test ... 48.5/54... which is something entirely different. I asked him - and he had just entered the wrong total (the original test had been 60 points, my re-test was six points less). So I have 90% on that, which means I'm re-taking the excretory system one.
The funny thing?  I have zero mistakes in the first 49 questions, and the last five (which were all about the neuro-endocrine system) wrong. But I'm really not complaining, because I totally missed that part of the notes *wry grin*.

So, and now I'm going back to studying - The Blackhakws are playing tonight (this afternoon) at 4.30, and I need to go to the mall to get top up for my phone...

And by the way, Spanish went really well. The review booklet we were doing today was pretty good - I only have to take another look at the time...

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:

 What's that?, you might wonder.
That is the book storage at amazon.com. Amazing, isn't it?

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

Final Sprint

Yes, the Final Sprint definitely has started.
Today we had a Japanese Practice Quiz (luckily not marked, as I was really, really bad at it - I had learnt the wrong words!) and our last Bio test for this course except for the finals (and the one test I have to re-take because I missed it, and I'm gonna re-take today's quiz at the end of the term, which we can do for one test, because it was pretty bad ... 26/33, dunno where I lost the points - gonna see tomorrow, I guess... although 33 makes no sense, because I remember quite vividly that it was 34 points when I handed it in -_-), tomorrow, there is each a Spanish and a Japanese vocab test and I have to hand in my Biology Journal, of which I had no idea until today that I had to make it (I typed it up already and I just have to print it off tomorrow) and I still have to re-take the mentioned Biology exam and a Japanese vocab test. So, yeah.
Maybe I ask him whether I can substitute the days of the month for the Unit 6 Vocab test? It's about the same amount of words, so ... maybe?
Aaaand then finals start next week. Juhuu.
#nothappy

And since I am still tired and nothing else has transpired today (pretty much, it was just me reading and doing my homework and playing Rummy with Bob), I'm headed towards bed now...

G'night!

Rockets Friday

Okay, today was pretty good - I got my grade from Spanish back, for my presentation I got 40/40, with very little effort, in Japanese I got 14/14 with moderate effort, in Biology I had left my notes at home and just ended up reading and in English I ... guess what, ended up reading!
No, seriously, I had handed my essay in the day before, so I was "good to go" and simply read, as the rest of the class (except for a very few others, but I had really thought we had to hand it in yesterday!) was still working on the essays... and then we started watching Sharkshank, a movie based on a Steven King novel which I will be apparently reading - Mr Derksen recommended it to me, and we ended up talking about narrative perspectives, literary devices (how much artistic license can you take with a "non-fictionous" text?), his book and a few other things, and I really love such conversations, because they make me think, they make me re-evaluate what I thought, and that is the best thing ever.

I didn't do much else - I played Rummy and then I went to see the Rockets.
And that was pretty awesome - I mean, they were really bad, at the beginning, and the Tri-City guys were definitely hotter than the Rockets (seriously, we had a pretty good view from the third row), and they got the lead with 2-nothing, but then Kelowna caught their bearings and defeated them 6-3.
And in the first period it seemed like a pretty tame game, not a single penalty, only to have 5 minutes for fighting and twice 2 minutes for slashing and roughing respectively at the same time and I think another 2 minute penalty and a game misconduct for one of the guys, and in the third period two guys got to it at center ice and ended up getting 5 for fighting each, looking absolutely not remorseful, and one Rocket got 2 minuted because he went flying over a Tri-City's back (seriously, he left the ground and just ... flew) and one of the Rockets took up speed, aiming to check one of the Tri-Citys into the boards, but the guy evaded him and he basically checked himself into it, lying on the ground before limping off - I think he caught an edge and slammed into the boards.

And one of the Tri-City players ... I don't know what exactly happened, I think there was a fight over the puck or something like this, but he was lying on the ground on the other side of the rink, and while the game continued he didn't move except for his arms, so the game was stopped and everybody went dead silent and we just watched as the Trainer pr medical person or whatever skated onto the ice and talked to him, and then he sat up and finally stood up, skating to the bench (and it looked better than the Kelowna guy, who couldn't put any weight on his left food), and everybody started clapping and I thought that was really awesome, because it was a visitor, but everybody seemed genuinely happy that he was back on his feet...
And one of the Tri-City guys was named second star of the game (an honor for the best player) and everybody cheered for him just as much as for the third star, Kelowna's goalie (who attends my school, I think).

Yes, and that was it. The game picked up speed towards the end, and during the first intermission, the pee-wees, or however the first age group is called, played on the ice, and it was seriously cute and everybody cheered for them, too.

And we sung the American and Canadian National Anthems, because Tri-City Americans are from... make an educated guess: The US! And national Anthems are taken very seriously here.

I'm going to bed now!

Tiring Tuesday

The Title, I'm telling you, is just for decorations.
I'm not actually that tired. I was, at some point, but at the moment I am more hungry - or maybe thirsty?
I should have written "Thirsty Tuedsday"!

Well, today... Was not so bad. I got my Biology score corrected, and I'm currently now on 101.6%, and I got my Spanish test back. In Spanish, we were supposed to give a presentation, but one of our group members was ill, so we'll do it tomorrow. And I, of course, rewrote that thingy again. But I couldn't help as the imagination and creativity was striking me!

I'm seriously tempted to stay up till midnight just to open the next sac of my Advent Calendar. But ... I won't. It's nicer to be opening it in the morning!

Tomorrow there is also a Biology test and me writing an essay for English (for our exam on Friday) on the agenda; the latter due to me not having any time (or hardly any time) on Thursday - School till seven, our newspaper comes out tomorrow in a week. And I'm not there.
I need to ask Mr Manderioli to save me a copy!

So, I hug you all from Canada!

Julia

Censor This!

Hi, there!
There will probably be a more extensive post later on, as I have serious problems typing on these laptops and I am supposed to be reading stuff for Biology and write an argument about it, but I just wanted to post the link to our November edition of Censor this!
My articles (yes, I have two of them in this edition!) are right on the first page after the editor's message!

And I just got the grade on my multiple choice section of yesterday's Biology test - 105%! Yes, there were two bonus questions, and I answered them correctly. Although I have to admit that I relied heavily on reasoning for some of the questions, and not so much on actual knowledge!
So, and now I have to get back to Biology, I fear!

I'm moving

Hi guys!

As I have already mentioned, I have a huge announcement to make:

I'm moving. Changing hostfamilies.

My Coordinator will pick me up at 4:05 PM tomorrow, and she will bring me to my new hostfamily.

It just didn't work out here.
I'm constantly feeling intimidated, and we have very few things in common.
After my panic attacks in school, I have talked extensively to a a family friend from Germany, who can understand my situation, my parents, my hostfather and my coordinator, and I have felt that the best decision for me would be to move. I just cannot hit "reset" and start over. That's not in my nature. I feel like I don't hesitate to give trust, but I'm having a hard time giving a refill of that trust well. If you lose it, I can't give you more. Or it takes me a very, very long time to give more trust.

Of course there is more to this matter, but that are not things I want to discuss on my blog.
You can find my whole thoughts on the situation and what's transpired in my Journal, which is already on its way to Germany - so some of you (like Lara, Lydia, Romy, Pizza and anybody else who's interested) will get in in January, as I cannot have it opened before Christmas. I wrote what I'm getting everyone for Christmas inside there!

Anyway, tomorrow my address will change, too.
Please don't send anything to my old address!
People I know (and trust) can contact me tomorrow, but I want to talk to my new hostparents first about giving their address away.

In less than twenty hours I'll be gone.
And I'm feeling more relaxed than in a long time. I feel like I suddenly can breath again.

The worst thing though was packing my things up. I don't know how I ever want to get that all back to Germany!
It's just so much - my suitcase, the big box my parents sent me, the boy my winter shoes came in, the box my hairdrier came in and three bags, as well as my backpack!
It's just so awfully much, you know?
But enough of that,
I hope you're all fine over there!

I got my English Score - 92.3%. Which is pretty good, in my opinion!
Depending on how he counts it - if he has one part names "Tests", like my Spanish class, that counts more than my essays - then it dents my grade. If he doesn't, I'd still have ... 98 or 99%. Which is perfectly acceptable.

I realized today that one of the boys in my Spanish class actually has longer hair than me! And he has a similar shaped face... Creepy. Honestly.

At the moment I'm so afraid that Romney will win the election - he is in the lead. 23 electoral votes or almost 2 million public votes. I'm so absolutely scared. I'm hoping that everybody in the US is being out there and voting - we can't have Mitt Romney climb into office. It'd be a disaster.
I think Joss Whedon, director of the Avengers, sums it up pretty well, what would happen:

Watch that video. It's absolutely brilliant. Really.

 ETA 8:13 PM: Different source, newer statistics: Obama is in the lead! 47 electoral votes, which are important, although he is still about 2 Million popular votes behind Romney, which don't count, though.
But let's just say: Never before has a president of the US won the "throne" without winning the popular vote... Maybe Obama is the first?

ETA 8:33 PM: Obama has won. I can't describe how relieved I am. But he still lost the popular vote, as it seems right now!

ETA 8:47 PM: Obama is pulling up in regards to the popular vote, but he has won. Definitely.

 
Here is a graphic that shows tumblr tags - it'll be probably over, by the time you get there, but I want to have mentioned it.
And I'm honestly going to bed right now!

So okay, yesterday was a rather brilliant day, too.

I got on my biology test written yesterday 99%. And I didn't even prepare! Honestly, a fifth of the questions I didn't know, I guessed and/or went about in the "Ausschlussverfahren" (looking at which not to take). But well, I'm not complaining!
Then our Japanese test was postponed to today (not that I did anything for it, but well), and I have to admit: I cheated. But well, the teacher left the room, what do you expect?
(Admittance two: He was actually still in the room when I cheated)

And then Journalism... We all got a huge "well done" from Mrs Taylor, and of course she highlighted once again that I am only an ESL student...
And then we did impromptus (Stegreifreden). I didn't get to do mine, but we had topics like "Dogs are better cats than dogs", "Why Brownies are better than chips", "Women should join the miliatry" (made by a boy) and "everybody should go out there and vote" (done by our amazing captain Aislinn!).
And they were so funny! They only had 2 minutes to prepare a 2 minute speech, so it was really amazing what they did!

And we ended the lesson with a line debate:
The class is halved and then lined up on two sides of a hall, one side negative and one positive. And then we had the topic "Women are stronger than men". I was on the negative.

But we laughed so much as people of whom we knew that they had different opinions, spewed some bullshit (excuse the language please), especially on our side. Sarcasm was sometimes heavy in the air.
But it was so much fun, I can hardly describe it!

So okay, I'm sending all my love your way - and I'm gonna go to bed now soon, as I am really tired...

Julia