Tired Thursday

So, the Blackhawks have extended their no-regulation-loss-streak to 20 out of 48 games, and I can finally go to bed - I am so tired, it is hard to believe!
Oh, and the Oilers are 3-0 after 2 periods, so I'm crossing my fingers there!

School was alright, I guess - it started with Math - and remember me complaining about the amount of work yesterday? Well, it was the homework for yesterday and today. So I didn't have any homework!
Tomorrow is review period and on Monday we have our test. But at least I am less prone to making silly mistakes with this topic!

Second block was Creative Writing. We wrote a journal entry - I am now at 27/14 and then watched Inocente - a documentary which got an Oscar, if I'm not mistaken. It's pretty good, about a homeless artist girl.

Lunch ... was spent reading, and I went to the wrong classroom afterwards - Spanish instead of Entrepreneurship.
In the latter I have tried taking more of the lead in our project - out group was a bit headless ;)
(And can you see how many dashes I am using? It's a testament of how tired I am)

Spanish was ... not too bad. I spent most of my time on facebook, as we had laptops to work on our group project, but who cares? I can do that project on the weekend.

After school we had Journalism, and Mr M just signed off my articles - I have three in the upcoming newspaper!
 We had pizza and Ginger Ale (which is the best drink ever), and it was all around a very nice time.

And then I was just dicking around on the Blackhawks page, because I had nothing better to do, and was like: What the hell, why is it already 1-0? Well, Toews scored 12 seconds into the game :) Finally! I think he went four games or so without a point!

Well, and my eyes are burning because I am so tired, so I'm signing off.

I'm thinking of you!

Julia

Seventeen

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

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

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

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


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


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

Good night!

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!)

Rockets Wednesday

So, I've got about an hour starting from now (11 p.m.) to write my blog entry and finish everything up - mother's orders (plus Andy's orders, so there's no way I can not do it).

I'm super relaxed. Even though we have two tests tomorrow and I am less than well prepared.

I woke up this morning, almost fell back asleep, pulled on my American Eagle Sweater, pulled my Canada Olympics sweater over it, was still freezing, trudged upstairs, had a bowl of cereal, sleep-walked back downstairs, somehow managed to brush my teeth and even left the house at a decent hour. I thought I was late (8:28 a.m. at the bus stop), but I was still the first one!
As always, I read on the way to school, and once there, I grabbed my Spanish books out of my locker, checked whether Mr Wishlow was there (he wasn't, so I left him a note telling him it had been suggested we take the picture of him and Chartier at the rink) and hurried to my Spanish class - the teacher doesn't like us being late, like, not at all.

Didn't matter though, I was there half a minute or so before the bell rang.
We were assigned 6 pages or so of exercises in our work book, and I powered through them because I had Math to do, which I then did. I got pretty far, I dare say!

I took my Math stuff to Entrepreneurship, too, and while the boys in our group said they would come up with a different slogan for our project (they screwed around on fb and the web instead), I was doing Math (and designed a new logo whilst doing that).

Lunch was of course ESL - it's been changed to Wednesdays now, but Ms Snuggs wasn't there, so we had a sub - Mr Kletke's sub, and he still remembered me!

I dashed out of there though as soon as I could, dropped my stuff off in Mr Derksen's room, and went to see Mr Wishlow - I had told him I would drop by near the end of lunch - but he wasn't there again. On my way out, the other teacher in his class room stopped me and said "I have a message for you from Mr Wishlow", which basically just said he would drive me to the rink and he had his camera (it's a really nice camera).

I was so excited to go and see practice I almost squeaked, but I managed to contain myself ... that wouldn't have been dignified...

So I went back to Mr Derksen's room and wrote a bit in my journal - and I'm definitely doing the feelings-analyzation compilation...
In Creative Writing we did a thing on embellishment and adjectives, although I think I didn't use enough...

In the end we listened to a Brit explaining how to start writing your novel.

Math ... I know the stuff, but I keep making stupid mistakes - in the quadratic formula (Mitternachtsformel) I write under the the square root instead of 4ac 2ac and then I wonder why it doesn't work out the way it should, or I keep messing up plus and minus in the same formula...
I so hope I can concentrate tomorrow!

After Math ended, I packed up my school bag and went to Mr Wishlow's room, and he finished up what he was doing - he has a real snake skin hanging in his classroom: "I used to bring him to school while he was alive, and when he died the lady who owned him let me have him and we dissected him in class" - Him being a nine foot Python!

We took his truck to the rink - it was snowing slightly again - and then we walked around the building once until we found an unlocked door ("I usually would take the player's entrance, but they're changing right now...") in the office door. We went through the offices (it's beautiful, let me tell you! Milk-coffee coloured walls and pictures of past Rockets Teams and the Rockets when they won the playoffs...) to the ice and watched some of the guys skate for a moment, Mr Wishlow pointing out the goalie coach (second goalie coach for the LA Kings, when they won the Stanley Cup, he was flown down to coach their goalies and then also got a day with the Cup here in Kelowna!) and the assistant coach Dan Lambert, who played 10 years in Germany, before he talked to somebody, I don't know who, and we went to the shop.

I talked for a moment with the woman there while he got somebody to unlock the press box door - and the media have the most amazing view of the rink. Like, seriously, you can see everything and it's really awesome!

We ventured back downstairs after that, and watched the players take the ice - those that had been on the ice when we'd come in had gone back to the locker room where the guys who still go to school were changing, and they went over what they would do during this practice session.

Mr Wishlow stopped Chartier and another student whose name I didn't catch before they could take the ice and made me stand between them before taking a picture - and let me tell you I felt small - and talked to a couple of guys about school related things, before we watched practice for a moment.

When the last guys had taken the ice, he took me on a tour through the locker room ... it's pretty smelly to be honest, but what do you expect? There aren't any windows, and I still remember the change rooms at the Ritmo Dancing Studio.
The locker room was almost empty. In the middle, there were a couple of boxes - they have to get on the bus early tomorrow because they play in Victoria that afternoon, so most of their stuff was already packed up.

One guy was in the physio-therapist's room, because he's out with an injury, and I was introduced to him and the physio-therapist, but I was introduced to so many people that I not sure who he was - not the player, the player was Mitchell Wheaton, I think. (Everytime I was introduced, Mr Wishlow didn't so much as mention my name, I had to do that myself, but he always remarked that I am an exchange student and that I got into hockey here, but that my knowledge was pretty good :) )

He showed me the equipment room, and then took me up to the gym (pretty impressive, with a dozen or so stationary bikes, agility stuff and weights) and when we left, we encountered Mitch again.
My worries were totally unfounded. They were all super professional, and all the people I met off the ice were super nice. They all asked me things like "Where are you from?", "Where in Germany are you from?", "How do you like Canada?" and it was super great. And the Rockets were way more mature and professional than I had dared to hope - nothing at all like the boys their age back in Germany!

Before we left the locker room,Mr Wishlow got me a couple of things:

Unfortunately not signed, but it's anyway more than I could ask for! (They sell these game pucks with the logo for $5 at the store and I got mine for free - and it's one that's been played, by somebody who has good chances of becoming an NHL star!)

We went back out and watched practice for a bit, Mr Wishlow telling me about his coaching, about the Rockets' coaching, a bit of Trivia about the WHL and the organization and the Rockets and so on, and then on the other side of the ice a white haired guy was waving at us, but Mr Wishlow didn't notice.
The man made his way around to us, and I was introduced - to one of the most influential and knowledgeable people here in Western Canada: To Rockets Owner and WHL chair man Mr Bruce Hamilton - and he was also super nice, and nice and smooth as you would expect from such an influential man.

Unfortunately, Mr Wishlow had to leave then, but I watched a bit more of the practice before Andy picked me up.

So it was a really great afternoon, just Math and Spanish, the two tests we have tomorrow, came a bit too short...
Well, I'll manage. And I'm anyway way more relaxed than I used to be, so I'll draw the last graph tomorrow during Spanish or Entrepreneurship or lunch or so - I'm off to bed now!

Good night! :)

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

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!

Scared

 No worries, no worries, nothing bad has happened - but while this might look like a hockey post at first, it is more of a feelings post (again). But not a nice essay, more just thoughts thrown around.

We See Thee Rise

Yes, as you can (maybe) deduce from the title, I have the Canadian Anthem stuck in my head.
But more on that a bit later.
And yeah, I do realize that I've been bitching about people being irresponsible twice in the last ten days or so, and now I'm almost irresponsible enough not to post anything. I was really tempted to just forget about it - but I've done that with enough things already, so I can't let this slide, too.

School was alright today - I felt like a total Zombie this morning, but it was okay, and then there was Creative Writing first thing in the morning.
I handed in my "Out of Body Experience" thingy in again, because the first one was way to short (I hadn't know it was for marks!), and then Mr D collected our Journals and let us work on our headline poems - and good thing I'm thinking of it right now, I still need a "so" and a "with" for my poem! (It's always those small words that are the most trouble...)

I got all of yesterday's homework done during the Chapter explanation in Math, and then could even start (and half-way finish) today's homework. But I'll be mainly doing that tomorrow, seeing as we don't have any school!

Lunch ... was spent at Mr Derksen's and he handed me back my journal - and he praised me for it!
I was really proud of it, but reading what I had written out loud showed me the jumps I had in my thought process. I knew they were there, but I had never realized how bad it was! All the ideas seem only half formed, before I jump onto the next thing.

Spanish was alright, too - I got an 86% on my project (which is still an A and thus Awesome, because I hardly did anything) and 100% on today's listening comprehension.
There's a review test - for marks - on Tueday, but I'm not really worried - I got 98.7% or so on my final, so duh.

In Entrepreneurship, CiCi and I are really working with those boys, and they're super nice. I'm of course (as in most of my classes, if not even all of them) the youngest, seeing as I would be in Grade 10 in Germany and my classes this year are Grade 11, Grade 12, Grade 11 and Grade 12!
I don't mind though, and I guess I might even be more mature than most of my class mates? What do I know, maybe I'm just over-analyzing myself all the time, but I believe I appear pretty grown-up already (I've been told it's easy to forget that I am only a teenager when one is talking to me).

After school we had Journalism.
The article on the Rockets and Mr W is gonna be tough, but I'll manage. Not today, though, 'cos I'm pretty tired.

Andy picked me up after school, and we ate pretty quickly after coming home (steak, I believe, and [green] asparagus [Spargel] and potatoes and had delicious Valentine's cake and strawberries) and then I went to the Rockets game (with Andy, :D while the girls and Tanya did a scavenger's hunt all over the house - I didn't realize that the tickets would fall onto Valentine's day, and all of my friends had something else planned :/ ).

It wasn't the most amazing hockey I'd ever seen, but the Rockets beat the Silvertips 4-1 - and I'm still not sure that that one goal actually was a goal. But the referees and all the officials reviewed that play for more than 10 Minutes to determine whether the puck had gone in, and then they decided, yes, it was a goal, so everything afterwards had to be 'replayed'. But since the goal was at 19:29 of the second period, they just played the last 31 seconds (and yes, they actually played those last seconds and the Rockets had a lot of shots on goal) before the third period.
And at least the powerplay clicked, although I still can't get over the fact that the Powerplay is sponsored by Jiffy Lube... kinda unfortunate choice, in my opinion, but maybe you disagree... tumblr has ruined my mind.

And since the Kelowna Rockets (Canada) were playing the Everett Silvertips, they sang (live, as always) both the American National Anthem - and like last time, the whole stadium erupted when everybody screamed "Rockets!" during it - and the Canadian National Anthem.
And now I have the Canadian National Anthem stuck in my head along side with the Rockets goal songs, one of which is a special rendition of Def Leppard's "Rocket" - this link leads directly to the part that they have taken, but I can't find the actual Rockets version - and the other one is this song, 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready For This", which they also use as a means to rile up the crowds whilst waiting for a face-off!

So, and since it's approaching one o'clock quickly here now, I'm off to bed.
Yay!

Good night!

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!

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

Mixed Thursday

Today truly was a mixed day.

But first of all, I'd like to say:
Everybody who's reading this regularly: I admire you.
My blog is so long and convoluted, I don't know how can read it every day. But unfortunately I can't keep this short, because I have to get rid of all these words, so please enjoy another day of word vomit!

I think I mentioned it here, but I was wondering a few weeks back whether mundane [alltäglich, weltlich, profan, irdisch (mundus = Welt oder so ähnlich, hatte kein Latein in mehr als einem halben Jahr - Yesssss), banal] equals boring.
I found my answer today.
It's been raining this morning, just very, very slightly (nieseln, as we in Bavaria say), for the first time in what feels like months (and probably is if you don't take the snow in consideration but recall that Kelowna is, in fact, almost in a desert), just while I was walking down the street to the bus.
And this, hurrying to the light to cross the street, this was so mundane, an action I do literally every day, that I had an epiphany (or revelation, but epiphany sounds better; stressing is on the pi), and well, it sounds probably really weird, but even though the action itself may be boring, you have to think about the odds of you walking down the street, starting with the fact that earth actually became inhabitable, that vegetation and life started to form, that humans started to evolve, that there are nothing but piles of nothingness (because the farther down you go, from limbs to cells to atoms to the sub-atomic parts, there is always so much more space than matter, that we're essentially nothingness) that can think, feel emotions, express themselves, smell, share their thoughts, relate to others, move, feel, sense.
And the chances of all this happening are so small, so infinitesimal, that no matter your action, nothing actually can be boring.
(Ideas unrepentantly stolen from our English course readings - A short history of nearly everything and Motes of Dust and the resulting essays we had to write)
So, anyway, I started the day philosophically.

Then I had to hurry to the KSS dance room, because I felt so nauseous yesterday that the dance teacher saw me sitting in the hall and told me to come to her room today because she had a few recommendations for me to read to get a grip on that stress (Feeling Good by David Burns, a book on positive thinking), and she was super nice and we talked a bit, and then I had to run to my locker, get my Spanish books and run back to the other side of the school (I'm constantly running back and forth, but at least I have two classes in the hallway where my locker is - and the other two are literally on the other side of the school), and while I was like 2 minutes late, I don't think she put it down as tardy...

Spanish is a waste of time with all this reviewing stuff. But at least I'm not the only one who thinks like this, both a friend from last semester's class and a girl from my Journalism class think the same way. We're totally bored, because we still remember all that stuff!

Our Business teacher was away today (he has the flu, so get well soon, Mr K!), and we had a substitute who I think subbed for my Japanese teacher - at least he remembered me and my goal to study Neurology!
He knows a fair bit about Entrepreneurship (made a bunch of money after giving up teaching), but we mainly chatted (our group) and I found out that I am not the only International student - there is a Chinese girl finishing her studies (in my group; she thought I was Canadian!) and a German boy in the group behind us.

I hung out with the Canadian girl in our group of three for the Dragon's Den competition, and we went to Okanagan college and spent our lunch there, talking. (And laughing at the guy wearing a penis costume for sexual awareness day)

I wasn't even late for Creative Writing, and it was awesome as ever. He told us a story about one of his students - again, but the story is really great (and not everybody was in his English class) - and I was laughing really hard. Despite (or maybe because of) knowing it already.

Math started out with a quiz. It was pretty easy, I dare say, and I finished the assignment-for-marks before everybody else (I started during the test already, although I wasn't the first to do so.)
Let me just copy paste the exchange between my teacher and me/the class from a message to Vroni:
Mein teacher: "Try finding the inverse for this function:
f(x)=x/(x+2) Try finding a solution, in the first block (also in der Parallelklasse) nobody managed."
Inverse bedeutet, du vertauscht x und y und loest das ganze nach y auf. also x=y/(y+2) oder der Graph wird einfach in der Strecke y=x gespiegelt.
Two minutes later: "Mr M, can you take a look at that?"
Mr Murphy: "... y=2x/(1-x)... And we have one correct solution. But you have an unfair advantage. Yes, the German system is about two years ahead of us, and solving functions algebraically (also sie mathematisch aufloesen) has been taken out of the curriculum." Also ich hab voll den fetten Vorteil - und das mit dem Voraus sein stimmt. In dem Grade 12 Kurs ist genau ein Thema, was wir auch in der 12. machen. Alle anderen sind 8.-11.)

I didn't finish the homework though - at least not the one we have to hand in on Tuesday, because we have a review period tomorrow, I have a weekend where I'm gonna meet up with Spencer and study Math and a free day (family day) on Monday. Plenty of time, don't you agree?

After school, it was of course Journalism time.
I finished my article on the You Can Play Project - Gay athletes. Straight allies. Teaming up for respect, which will be published in our sports edition in three weeks, and then more topics were handed out (right now it seems like I will be one of the few students actually getting two articles, just because the YCP Project has to do with sports and ... I'M GONNA WRITE AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE ROCKETS!!!!) and so I am meeting with the liason between the Rockets and KSS tomorrow.
The teacher is in charge of letting teachers know when the Rockets are out of town, making sure that the Rockets have good enough grades and stuff like that - I'm guessing a bit like what the ESL teacher is to us Internationals.
Not all Rockets are Students, of course, but I will talk to this teacher (and I have to amend, hopefully tomorrow, I don't have an appointment or anything) and ask him what his job is and how many Rockets are students and so on, and then I will talk (also probably) to some Rockets themselves, and next Thursday I will take my findings and write an article about it. I'm so excited! (Just in case you couldn't tell from the bold and cursive and capslock...)

On a related note, while the Rockets lost 5-0 yesterday in Spokane, the Hawks beat the Phoenix coyotes (and posted a wonderful video of them training yesterday... here, have some shirtless hockey players do Yoga and play soccer and football :D) 6-2 in a feast, extending their "undefeated in regulation streak" to 11 games out of 11 and giving them 20 points out of possible 22, which is league best :D
And my second favourite player is currently second best in all of the league in regards to points (8 goals, 10 assists, three behind the leader, who has 10 goals, 11 assists)...
And yeah, that's about it...
I think.
One funny thing from the NHL: last year, my second favourite Philadelphia Flyer was checked into the boards, and while he was trying to regain his balance, he slashed the wrist of the commentator (who is sitting between the benches of the two teams) and destroyed his watch! (Luckily, it was only the watch - another commentator on ice level didn't have so much luck and got a puck in the face - and kept commentating while he was bleeding rather profusely and was being tended to! He at least didn't look so ridiculous as the linesman who got a puck into his behind side in the last Hawks game :D)

Well, on Tuesday we're writing that Maths Chapter one exam (and yes, we will have had only 6 lessons by then, but nobody really complains), Wednesday is god know what, Thursday is our Spanish test (review test; I'm so bored, can't we just get a start on the Grade 11 course?!) and Friday is ... free!
So only three days of school and hopefully lots of sleep!

And talking about sleep, I'm heading to bed now.
(I had the weirdest sleep last night - I remember waking up at least five times, around two, half past three, quarter past four, half past five, quarter to six, maybe even more - glancing at the clock and falling back asleep - into the same dream where we had to make sure the apocalypse occurred [or maybe didn't? I think we had to make sure it did ocurr] so we were playing a kind of hockey against a team with polar bears and then the bad knights who wanted to stop the apocalypse, came, with ridiculous [read: scary] guns and we were all really scared and fled into the bunker which was made of glass and when I realized that I launched myself into the arms of the next person coming into the bunker - I knew the bunker was safe, but I didn't know whether everybody would make it in time, and it looked like a green house - who happened to be Marián Hossa, Blackhawks forward, and I think I might have played with the rest of the Hawks... And then I woke up for the last time, five past seven. I could have slept for ten more minutes! But my dreams are really weird as of late...)

Good night!

It's the Final Countdown

Yep, today was the last day of school (real school at least).
We did... a bit of review via Jeopardy in Japanese (although he only called it Jeopardy. Jeopardy actually is you have the answer and have to come up with the question, we had the question and had to find the answer/translate), then finished the review booklet in Spanish (wasn't so bad, but I'm gonna take another look at the foods and the subjects again...) and then there was lunch ... Mr Derksen actually wanted to go over my essays with me because of the flow, but he had another appointment, and at the end of lunch we talked about writing in general - he said my composition (6/6 and an awesome) was really great to read and was a "counseling session" :) but according to him it was really good - I have one metaphor that I used throughout the whole essay, and Doro was another "Leitfaden" ... and it wasn't even intentional! Just as the sentence "But sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind", which is a paradox he really liked, wasn't planned. I hadn't even noticed that!

After that we had regular English, and I went and talked to the counselor and switched Psychology 11 to Spanish 11 - the Psychology teacher sounded very much like my English teacher in 7th grade, and while he was an awesome man, he was a bad teacher. And I don't wanna do that, if I can do more with Spanish!
Even though I'm not sure the Spanish teacher is much better - I went to tell her that she wouldn't need to tutor me off the time table as she had said she would do, only to have her tell me that she wouldn't have been able to  that anyway. Why would she offer that in the first place then? It didn't just (kinda) piss me off and make me insecure (I always take that pretty personal, even though I know that she doesn't mind me personally, that it's not directed against me, but knowing and really being aware of something are two different things), but it also ruined my day...

In Biology, I was all alone - both Spencer and Krystin were gone, so I sat next to Spencer's friends in the row before us. And I'm so jealous of the guy I was sitting next to. He gets to see the Blackhawks in Anaheim in March!
WANT!!!
He said the price for tickets down there were only $150 for Premium Seats - in Vancouver you get really shitty seats if you're lucky for $300 to $400, and in Winnipeg? Good luck trying to get seats at all. They have a 4000 people wait list for season tickets in Winnipeg, and most of the arenas all around are sold out at the moment!

(Btw, our school news paper came out today. Here it is! I have two articles in it... although one of them is messed up: the left and the right side, or the first and the second half are switched! -_- and nobody caught it :/)

What else was today? Nothing much ... I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch (best thing ever) and caught glimpses of the Vancouver - Calgary game (Vancouver won!).

And I'm deceptively calm... I've been swinging between near freak-out/panic and utter calm all day ... and right now I'm feeling "screw it, it won't get better", so I'm like "let's just see how it turns out tomorrow."
The only thing I have to remember is read everything carefully and make sure you know what the question is asking.
Yeah, that's it.
Spanish and Biology tomorrow, so I'm signing off right now!

Have a lot of love,

Julia

EDIT: I'm actually sitting here crying because they mentioned Lukas Podolski on TV in a soccer game, and it's just like OMG that does still exist - soccer is pretty ... invisible here, but they're doing a recap of this day (at 12.13 a.m.) and it's always these little things that catch me...

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!

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

Being productive

Yes, hard to believe, but I have actually been more productive today than in the last few weeks...
I mean, I managed to not just reblog stuff in tumblr I like (although I did do that today, too) and read (which I also did; one hundred and nine thousand words of glorious and awesome), but I also did my laundry (folded it, okay), tidied up my room, did my Biology homework (so I only have to write it neatly, but all the answers are assembled; and anyway, that's my way of learning, I just answer again the questions we have to hand in ... does that even count as studying then?), finished my journalism article and started thinking about the next article.

Yes, I could have done more. I could have started on the next article (have to have it finished by Thursday at the very latest, actually Monday would be better, so I'll try to do that tomorrow), I could have gone through my blog for all the important entries I keep talking about in the link above, I could have written more of my story and I'm supposed to beta six chapters for a friend... But tomorrow is a day, too, and I'm not staying up too late today, so duh. Deal with it.

And since I don't have anything better to do:
Have some links I collected over the last few days on tumblr! :)
You might like them.

Okay, this is not actually from tumblr but rather from Dorothea, but enjoy anyway... It's a bit sad, though... And talking about Doro: Today in West Kelowna she said it was -17°C! MINUS SEVENTEEN DEGREES!!! Can you even believe it? I can't! Here a post about the rights everybody has - very interesting, and stuff I at least sometimes forget, like

• You have a right not to justify yourself to others.
• You have a right not to take responsibility for someone else’s problem.
• You have a right, sometimes, to inconvenience or disappoint others.

Pretty great post, if you ask me.

With the deadpan response underneath the post on tumblr:

I present to you: Canada ---- … is this not commonplace in other countries? Weird o_O

Things parents forget to tell their children - also a really amazing post - read it! And then this post: What would be hardest to explain to somebody from the fifties? The answer ... if you think about it like that, yes, we are crazy!

eleven used to be all bouncy and cute and adorable and now he’s becoming more and more broken and dark like nine and ten were towards their ends and that makes me nervous

I knew immediately what she was talking about, but I think the poster below nailed it: Second poster: take a minute to imagine how bizzarre this post sounds to other people Third poster:    icant                             
it just sounds like you’re really emotional about math imdone
Fourth poster: i just really love math guys


You might wonder what this is about... Well, the Doctor in Doctor Who is called just "The Doctor, so in order to refer to the different reincarnations (the actor changes every time the Doctor dies), you refer to the number of the actor playing him.
So, Nine is the ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, Ten is the tenth Doctor played by David Tennant and Eleven is the current Doctor, Matt Smith.
And they all... their personality changed over the course of the show, so I guess the concern is valid.
But just thinking about how it must sound to not-fandom-insiders... :D

And one more thing:
this
It says:

Fan: I want to be an author when I grow up. Am I insane?
Neil Gaiman: Yes. Growing up is highly overrated.
Just be an author.

And I guess we're headed for a new monthly-view record:
We already have more than half as many as in the month with the most clicks!
Okay, have a good night!

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.

  Source: (x)

 What this picture is about:

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 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

Drowning in Snow

Yes, we are.
I left the house without a toque (for those wondering, that is a toque:

(c) first and foremost to toewslake.tumblr.com,
and second to Jonathan Toews, who is in this shot :)
#NHLisback!

I think the rest of the world says hat, but we say toque here, and hat is more that thing with brims) because it was only -1 out there, and by the time I was at the bus stop (literally 45 seconds later since I didn't have to wait at the red light to cross the street) I had half an inch of snow on my head ... okay, maybe half a centimeter to a centimeter, but still.
And since Canadians apparently don't believe in clearing their streets of snow (I know I said I wouldn't compare, but heck, that's really hard here) but rather have the snow accumulate and form a thick layer, our bus was late. I don't know how late exactly, but usually we get to the school by 8:45, and today it was at least, at the very least, 9:05 - school starts at 9 a.m. sharp, and warning bell goes off five minutes before that. Nobody was surprised, though.

School was ... not bad.
We were in the library in Spanish, working on our projects, although I was more spamming Jade about the end of the lockout (my bad, I'm not even sorry), so now I'm still not finished with Spanish - it's gonna be a long night, but I love working late nights, so duh. I can still sleep tomorrow!

In Japanese we learnt the days of the week, and we'll have a quiz on that first thing tomorrow.
Biology was ... well, we had a substitute, so no test for me or Kristen, but I actually wanted to ask Mr Kruger a few things... before I can write the test, obviously. I didn't understand one of the questions, and duh.
English... well, we're still kinda analyzing poems and stories, and he reminded us that we have two and a half weeks left till finals. And it's just ... two and a half weeks. That's like nothing. And we will be writing a mock-provincial exam, a twelfth grade exam, that will count as our big exam - 20% of our final mark. :o

Yeah, and that was it ... Nothing else happened. So I'll go back to avoiding doing Spanish! :)
But I really need to get that done, no joking, and I should write my Journalism paper, too ... I'm glad I hadn't started writing, because I'm covering the lockout, and it's over now, so good for me! :)

Love you all and take care!

Procrastination

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you all soon!

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

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

Playing the Piano

I just have to share that right now - chances are, there will be another blogpost, but that doesn't mean I can wait that long to tell you that:

I finally jumped over my shadow and asked the music teachers at KSS whether I can use the piano when it is free. And they said yes! I also had a nice conversation - in German! - with one of the teachers, who is actually Chinese :) He even could say München and not Munchen or Muncen :D

So I got to play the piano. And it felt seriously wonderful - I almost cried because it was such a relief after 1 and a half month of no playing... The teacher said I could come in any time, as long as the piano is unused. I'm so freaking happy right now!

Well, what are my plans for the holidays? People keep asking me that.

Here's a lost (also makes it easier for me to keep track)

• go skiing
• meet Ashley
• finish Biology work booklets
• learn Japanese
• finish Spanish presentation
• read
• celebrate Christmas
• celebrate New Year's day
• get caught up with my Journal
• look at universities and scholarships (yes, I am seriously doing that. The counselor here are just really great, so I intend to make full use of that)
• write two Journalism articles (NHL Lockout and Bilinguality and its benefits)

Wow... that's kind of a long list... Well, I still need to do two more Christmas presents, so I'm singing out.

Family Time

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

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

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

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

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