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!

Semester Two

I honestly can't believe that Semester two starts tomorrow already ... and that Dorothea is flying home. It just seems so surreal...

I still need to clean out my binder, get rid of all the old papers...

I'm glad to be back 'home' here :D
But the parcel I was talking about? It's not the one I was waiting for. It's not for me at all.
But then again, small parcels usually take longer than big ones, for some reason. And it might be caught in customs...

So, here have a gemstone from the LA Kings twitter:

The "box" they're talking about is a glass cage also know as the penalty box where a player has to spend two minutes if he violates the rules :D


And the Oilers just lost to the San Jose Sharks in a Shootout -_- That means the Sharks are league leaders now - I'm now just hoping for a Hawks win tomorrow and a Sharks loss in regulation in the next game - then the Hawks are league leaders again! (But it's not as though that really matters - as long as the Hawks stay on top of their conference, it's the Stanley Cup final when they have to concern themselves with the Sharks - if ever ... so I'm crossing my fingers. They'll manage, I hope!)
I had a most ugly experience on tumblr today:
People tag their hate against other teams, so I was looking at the Blackhawks tag and it was really ugly. The stuff some of the 'fans' are sprouting there is beyond nice and fair. Things like "I would crash this player's flight" are a no-go, seriously, especially after the plane of a Russian team crashed and most of the players (or even all of them?) died. Marián Hossa, Hawks forward, for example wears a 37 sown onto his glove to honor his friend who died.
So I was kindly (and I was really nice) asking a few of them to remove their hate or at least not tag it anymore, and see the response I got:

Yep, isn't that a lovely reply? (The 'I know it's a bit late' is in regards to the game in question having been played yesterday)
But what was I expecting with that url?
Another guy replied something along the lines of "Don't take yourself too seriously it was only a loss you're not that important", totally missing my point (I sent exactly the same message).

From now on I'm staying away from the team tags, because it's really ugly what's going on in there. Another girl, however, replied with

Thanks I appreciate the sweet way of asking: )
Had anyone else come at me this way I would have had no problem..
It’s not that I hate the hawks.. it’s that they are my teams biggest rival ever… so you know.. it causes so much emotion…
I can’t promise I won’t tag anything but I’ll try… might get heated tomorrow night but we will see!!
Good luck to your team.. although they don’t really need any luck! Haha

And I've been messaging back and forth with her.
And one more girl was complaining about "Bandwagon fans", so fans who only came to the sport after the Hawks won the Cup, so I asked her what those fans were, and we had a nice conversation (she's the first American born in a family from Bavaria :D)

So it wasn't all bad.

Good night!

Sleepy post

I'm really tired today...
I've already been lying in bed since 6 o'clock, but then I remembered that I hadn't posted anything yet, so I stood back up...

Okay, my day:
I woke up pretty late, had Cheerios (best stuff ever), checked twitter, tumblr and facebook and then took a look at Biology, but I'm gonna read over it once again now. I think I have everything down pretty well, but it can't hurt and I'm not sure anyway.
After that... I had a small lunch, before reading over my Biology notes again - have I mentioned that I've never learned how to learn? I still just read stuff over, although I think it might be helpful to note down all the important stuff and try to condense the stuff you're actually memorizing.
Which I obviously didn't do. But it's not as though much hinges on this grade...
After that, I finally looked up Khanacademy.org, which is an absolutely fantastic site - I've been doing the Math stuff, and while it was just review, it's really good.

So if you have questions or just want to go over stuff, check it out. It's also available in German, from what I've seen, but I haven't tried it out.
https://de.khanacademy.org/
Here it is, the German part. It's totally free, and really good!

Yep, and then there was dinner and I went to bed...

And it seems like Andy and I will attend another Kelowna Rockets game on Saturday, and maybe on Thursday, too - they come back very late tomorrow night, so that would work out.
The only problem?
Saturday there's a Blackhawks game...
But I'm choosing the Rockets!

And here is a bit of trivia:
http://nicolasechs.tumblr.com/post/41831667599/hermahoganysoul-someday-itwillbeokay
It's something really amazing in Montreal, check it out!

And my parcel has arrived, but I'm gonna pick it up on Thursday, when my host family is back...
So, and I'm going to bed now, good night!

Game Day

Okay, so today I finally was halfway productive - I finally caught up on my sleep (hopefully) by sleeping almost 12 hours, I started on my Journalism article, I ordered a few more things off amazon.de to give my mom all the more reasons to send that package soon and ... I played Rommee with Bobby and with Bobbie, Jenna and Andy. And it was really very enjoyable!
In the evening, we watched Percy Jackson - a good movie, although I missed the beginning.
I don't know whether I mentioned it yesterday already, but my lazy days will be over the day after tomorrow, so I need to enjoy them as much as possible!


Babette and I will, as I probably have already mentioned, meet up in the mall on Thursday, and she will come back to my place after, so I'll probably end up showing her a game off my Gold Standards, because we plan to attend a Rockets game in the near future, and I need to show her how awesome that sport is!

That's it for today, guys, I'll be back tomorrow!

Final Friday

So, now we finally have holidays, too!
And the world didn't end - who is surprised? Nobody at my school.
And yes, I will be sure to wear flowers in my hair ;) (Anybody else know that song? About San Francisco?)
The lockout continues - have I told you about that? Well, I am making a new post about that right now, you can find it later on - I tried to put as many pictures in as possible :)

About school, though:
School was a total waste of time today:
English: Day After Tomorrow - I can't say much about it, as I was reading :)
Biology: I met Krysten at the water fountain and we walked to Biology together, only to realize that hey, there is a sheet hanging on the door proclaiming

Block 4
Biology 12 students
Go to Mr Strachan's room

So we go to Mr Strachan's room - and are the only two. Since I need to drop my things off at my locker, Krysten follows me, and we end up in front of our classroom again, because, hey, we're Block 3 and not 4! But Mr Strachan found us and sent us to his classroom, where we were still the only two people from our whole class!
Apparently everybody else had pulled an all-nighter at the grad sleepover from yesterday! We finally left the class maybe 10 minutes later, Krysten going home and I sitting in the hallway, reading. Lunch I spent reading, too, and exchanging gifts with Laura - everybody was very happy about the owls, by the way, Mom! - and then Japanese I spent ... who can guess? ... reading, correct! But seriously, I have seen the middle part of Castle in the Sky already, although I don't know where.
In Spanish we continued with our projects, and yeah...

Afternoon... nothing special. Just hanging around, enjoying the first few hours of HOLIDAYS!!!!
Oh, and Lara's package finally arrived today! I was so happy! It took exactly 12 days, which is rather good - especially since it was a surface parcel, if I'm not mistaken.

Living Nativity and IT'S THERE!!!

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

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

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

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

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

Hugs from an entirely too warm Canada,

Julia

Sankt Nikolaus

Today is/was Sankt Nikolaus day, a day celebrated in Germany in honor of Sankt Nikolaus of Myra, a Bishop in ancient Greek who helped the poor by leaving coins in shoes outside.

And believe it or not, but he has found me here, too!

When I came home from my long school day, a sack was waiting for me, filled with all kinds of German sweets - Spekulatius, Lebkuchen, Schoko-Nikolaus and a shirt!

I'm kind of missing home right now.

Even worse, I have a headache and am coughing because my throat is really ichy, and I felt nauseous and slightly dizzy in school again. My whole body hurts, and I have an inkling I might be getting a cold.
Oh how I hate this change of season! Especially since the weather here can't seem to decide which way to swing - we already had snow, but the last week it had 13 degrees plus and... my body just doesn't know what to expect!


My Biology teacher was ill today, too, so we didn't get to dissect the foetal pigs, which is a shame.

So, and seeing as my head feels like it's being split, I'm going to bed now.
Good night.

Julia

P.S: And I'm totally astonished:
My parcel is already in Vancouver!
It might even be here by Monday! (Well, hope dies last)

Missed

Noooo!
I actually failed to make my blogpost yesterday!
And yes, I do realize that for most of my readers it doesn't matter anyway, but hey, we lag 9 hours behind you!

Okay, so today we had our Spanish Presentation - it went fabuloso, if you don't mind me putting it that way.

We finished "Of Mice and Men", the movie which we have been watching for the last couple days, and we will have our quiz on Friday. I'm trying to write an essay for that since ... half past eight?, but I just can't get into the flow of it.
I'm kind of hoping that the tiredness will help me, as it as done so previously, but it just won't work.

Our Biology Test wasn't bad, either, I think. I won't say more, as we haven't yet gotten our scores, but I didn't do too bad. And honestly?
I'm slowly getting to the point where I say screw my grades. Seriously, I'm here to have fun just as much as I am here to learn, if not even more.
But that could be just the lack of sleep talking.

I really don't know why I'm having such problems with sleep - although I have read that this is a very normal part of the second (or was it third?) phase of living in a new country.
So I'm hoping it's gonna subside pretty quickly.

I'm kind of missing Sankt Nikolaus. Seriously. My package might be on the way here, but it won't arrive in Vancouver for another few days, and then it'll take some time to get here, too.

I've also been experiencing problems with my English today. Must be because of me speaking German during lunch (I met up with another International), but my vocab and ability to form sentences has been screwed since. Worst point: Spanish.
I honestly wasn't sure which language I was talking in, which made me stop in the middle of my sentence to try to realize what I was thinking.

So, I guess that's it for today.
Tomorrow we have our first part of the pig lab (dissection!!!) and I have really long school...
I'm hoping I can sleep tomorrow, but I guess I'll be learning English.

But the weekend isn't too far off!

Christmas Decorations!

Okay, so today was... not exactly lazy, but not busy either.

I did a bit of school work , learnt Japanese (although I have to do a bit more in that regard still) and started on my Christmas presents. And after dinner, we decorated the tree!

I'll see whether I can get the pictures Tanya took, so that I can show you how it looks! :)

I hope you all had a very fine 1. Advent and lit your fist candle (it's the first, isn't it? We don't do that here!)

Love you all!

P.S.: I just checked: My parcel was released by customs Canada and is now in Mississauga - it should be here some time next week! (So, not the coming week but the week after. It'll probably come while I am in Vancouver, but hey, that's so awesome!)

The last sickday

At least I hope it is!

There is a nasty stomach virus going around, but I'm feeling way better than the last few days!

The only thing I have to admit: I stopped writing my German Journal. I try to catch up sometime tomorrow, but I can't promise anything.

My parcel has left Germany! It's en route to Canada!

Yeah... That's it. I think.
Oh, right:
WHAT THE HECK, IT'S ALREADY NOVEMBER 28th?!?!?

Where has time gone to?

Love you all,
Julia

Parcel

So, second post for the day!

I'm feeling marginally better, but not yet really well.
I'm tired, but I can't sleep - I went to bed at half past seven, slept till quarter past eight, and now I can't go back to sleep anymore!
I absolutely hate it!

For dinner, there was Chili, which looked exactly and tasted almost exactly like my mum's (that was weird), and although I wasn't really feeling like eating much, I had a small bowl. And it was really good!
And I finally finished my first Journalism Essay, so I'm not in too much of a hurry right now. I will send it to my teacher tomorrow, because I won't be going to school!

The reason for this blog post:
I'll be getting another package!
I will be getting:

• Leibniz Pick-Ups
• Tennis shoes
• Dark chocolate
• Lebkuchen
• Christmas presents!!! Both for me and for giving them away!
• knitted socks
• supplies for my own Christmas presents
• Stormy (fake Fisherman's friends!)

And, guilty, bad me, has been teaching her friends German swear word... Bad, bad Julia (and since I almost wrote "bed" here, I will be going thereto!)

And in case anybody thinks I'm sitting too much in front of my computer:
I'm like really not.
But have you ever watched these comedies on TV here?
If no: Don't. Really. You're not missing anything.
It physically hurts to watch those, so I usually flee to my laptop. Not that that's saying much - I've never liked these kinds of shows.
The most annoying thing is the laughing track, I'm telling you. Do they really think the audience is too stupid to know when to laugh, or is it just so unfunny they have to highlight every "joke line"?

Plus, my back hurts. Like really a lot. I have a dent at the top of my spine, and that is ... knotted, I guess.
So I probably shouldn't be writing anything, because I can't really take responsibility for what I'm saying... But still. And I'm getting over-tired, but my mind is still racing. Has anybody yet found the "Off"-switch? I'd be really grateful! (And no, that was not an invitation for yoga/meditation/[insert relaxing practice here]

So, I love you all,

Julia

A Preparing Day

Today in school...
we were informed that we had two tests tomorrow - Spanish and Japanese.
Spanish we knew yesterday already that we would be writing a test tomorrow... But still.
And in Japanese we are going to be quizzed on our first 15 Katakana.

School is so much more healthy.
For example, many students bring refillable bottles (I guess I've told you that already, but I'm gonna write it up once more, just because it's my Dad's birthday today! Or tomorrow, from my perspective! :P) and drink water from the water fountains around school (I guess we've got about four or five of them, with two having bottle refillers, too), and it's honestly being used!
Also, only a smart part of the school population (at least so it seems to me) buys things at the Store in school, and even that food is relatively healthy and fresh (as far as I know.).
Most students just bring stuff from home and reheat that in school, if they have to.

Today I had noodles with me, for example, and they were pretty good - just noodles with butter!
And tomorrow I'm taking a sandwich (ham and cheddar and salad and mayonnaise), cottage cheese with Okanagan peaches and an orange. That should get me through the day. And it's gonna be a long day - Journalism after school, and then (hopefully) the theatre production, in which my friend Ashley takes part (she's in my Japanese class).

The thing that makes me feel most like family is the fact that Andy's teasing me. He is my hostfather, and since I ate a sandwich once in the morning, I'll never live that down, I guess! But hey, I can't say I mind!
So I learnt: You don't eat sandwiches in the mornings. You just don't. You eat a toast, pancake (like me yesterday and today) or porridge, but not a sandwich. Thanks for telling me that sooner! :D

I also won't be going to that debate trip. The topic is not quite my case, and there's the Christmas gathering of the Internationals on the same day!

And I'm hopefully getting new headphones with the next package - mine are really, really bad. These apple things HURT!

And that's it for today!
I hope you're all having a great time!

I must be so mad

... because I have decided to take part in this years NaNoWriMo - which is short for National Novel Writing Months and means I try to write 50k words in one month. I mean, it's not as though I have school and stuff like that...
Well, but I managed just fine last year (up until the release of Eragon), so I'm sure I'll be able to do so this year. And I only have to write 1,300 words a day - especially on schooldays that should be no problem, because it's rather hard to meet up with friends when you have school until a quarter past three and are home by four o'clock...

Well, I neither have time nor plot, so I think it's gonna be great!

I hope you're all fine back home - I must admit, I'm not up-to-date at all, and so I really have no idea...

I have been skypeing for about three hours today - and while it was really great to get rid of all these emotions (thanks again, lywe!), it left me quite drained.
But in order to make my panic attacks stop, I am to skype with my parents frequently - probably to prevent such an emotional chaos from building up again.
It's really not a nice feeling, being trapped in your body like that, and I absolutely abhor it. Well, once Debate is out of the way (hugely stressing for me), I should return to very fine in a matter of days.
Speaking of Debate - I'm almost finished with my two contentions (Behauptungen) and yes, I know, I said I'd have it done by Friday evening (I'm not sure I posted this here or just wrote it in my journal, but here it is: I wanted to have it done by Friday night), but of course I didn't manage to do it until the last second.
From what I've seen in the Facebook group, I'm not the only one, though, and at least I can claim I had the idea already and only had to flash it out.
Luckily, it's only a rough draft for the Rossland debate, so I still have time to dress it up nicely!

My package probably has left Richmond already, but I don't know where it is right now. I'm still hoping for an early delivery!

Have a nice time!

Sick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So yeah...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miss you all!

Julia

My week in fast forward

So, okay, here the real blog entry.
It seems as though I'm not the only one - Doro suffered the same thing, and so did half the world, it seems. But one of the girls from the forum has had hers restored already!

So, anyway. It's been a long time since I last really posted anything - almost a week!

I was a tiny bit busy, so please forgive me. I have to sit down sometime soon and work through all the photos I've shot so far, because they are getting more and more and are cluttering up my harddrive!

What happened... Let me consult my journal.

Okay, so at the moment it's really strange: When I go to sleep, it's too warm, and when I wake up it's too cold and I'm freezing... Meeh.
But that matter has resolved itself luckily enough!

I got 100% both in Japanese and in Spanish, and my Spanish grade at the moment is 104.5%. I'm not joking, seriously.
I got 193% in oral participation, because I constantly have my hand in the air. Well, I like it, and so I have a very decent chance on 100% in Spanish!

In English I'm gonna hand in my essay rewritten, cause no matter how much better I'll be, my mark will be bumped at least half a point - and I had 4 points, which is a B, and with 4.5 points, I'll have an A. I anyway have an A with 92%, but it's only the second highest grade in the class, so my slightly competitive nature (selectively competitive) has said: No way. I only have to get 2% better, cause the best grade is 93% at the moment. Shouldn't be too hard.

We're gonna write our "Unit Test" soon, though, and it's gonna be about characteristics of Short Stories, the Short stories we've read and generally everything we've done... Well, I better take a look at it soon, cause it's quite a lot!

My lunch has become kind of a mixture of Philosophy and Psychology, which I'm discussing with Lolu and Mr Derksen. Both of them are really fun!

I'm finally finished with my first Journalism article! I had already written 240 words and thought to myself: Come on, a hundred words more you'll manage. And I didn't only manage a hundred words - my essay is more than 500 words long, which I'm really proud of!

And I'm busy combating my fear of surprise situations - those of you who know me might remember my breakdown in sevenths grade in that unexpected Latin test or the breakdown in eighth grade in Bio - well, the only way to get rid of that anxiety is by doing unexpected things and being spontaneous, so I got off the bus three stations too soon on a whim.

No, honestly, I was reading and I thought I'd missed my station, so I just got off, only realizing too late that no, the bus had come from the opposite direction as usual! Well, instead of bursting into tears, I simply followed the bus where it had gone to and actually found my way home all alone from a neighbourhood I didn't recognize! As you can imagine, I was immensely proud of myself!

On Friday, there was Black and Gold day because of a Volleyball Tournament. There were a lot of people in the KSS wear, and I decided when they sell the shirts and sweaters, I'm gonna get some. Because the school wear is just awesome!

There also were free pancakes!

In English we were allowed to go to the Volleyball game, but I asked to use the computer; I checked my mails and then discussed autism and savants with Mr Derksen. Oh, and I read a bit.

In Spanish we finally learned how to conjugate verbs ending with -ar.
Those of you who have Latin: Does it seem familiar?
Example: Cantar - to sing - cantare

Yo canto                  canto
Tú cantas                canta
Él/Elle canta            cantat
Nosotros cantamos  cantamus
Ellos/Ellas cantan     cantant

Yeah, I really have an advantage!

It's raining, at the moment. Or rather, it had been raining all day yesterday. Today was half-half.
The weather really reflects my mood, I'm totally melancholic, and slightly down now that I don't have a Debate partner anymore. I hope I can get that sorted out tomorrow.

I'm planning to send something for Christmas home, but I can guarantee you that it won't arrive, as I won't be able to send it till mid November, maybe even beginning of December. And I would have had to send it now already to have it arrive on time!
But I can't do that, as I do not yet have everything I want to send along.
I think though that the wait will well be worth the result!

I'm really tired, but I can't sleep... So I'll write one or two mails, there are a few people whom I owe replies.

Oh, and my blogger stats are reappearing, seemingly randomly. The only thing that worries me slightly is this:

 a) I have 40 Pageviews over all. Look at the picture below. If you add all those clicks up, do you get 40? I don't.
b) Why are most of my viewers from the UK and Canada? The latter I can understand, the former I can't.

ETA 10:13 PM:

My Stats are back! I'm so happy right now! :D /ETA End

And I realized once again: British English is the best English in the world.
The guy behind the till at the Paintball field was from Cambridge, and he spoke just like Doctor Who! He even looked a bit like David Tennant!

The tenth Doctor. David Tennant from Doctor Who

Have a nice week!

I love and miss you all,
Julia

Jammerpost

Heute mal ein Jammerpost auf Deutsch von mir.

Ich hab Panikattacken, aber ich weiss nicht, wovor.
Im Moment wird mir allein beim Gedanken, morgen zur Schule zu gehen, schlecht.

Ich weiss aber nicht warum.
Heute morgen war noch alles in Ordnung, ich hab mein Japanisch Oral exam mit 100% bestanden und Spanisch war auch toll und dann auf einmal gegen Ende vom Lunch fang ich an zu zittern und mir wird schlecht und die Welt wird ganz blass (meine Art von "Schwindel". Mir wird nicht direkt schwindelig, oder die Welt dreht sich, sondern alles wird ganz blass) und mein Englischlehrer (den ich in der naechsten Stunde gehabt haette) fragt mich ganz besorgt: "Julia, geht es dir gut?" Ich, wahrheitsgemaess: "Nein"

Ich hab versucht, mich in den Unterricht zu setzen, hab aber ganz schwitzige Haende gekriegt. (Als ich das hier schreibe, zitter ich auch schon wieder, aber es ist nicht so schlimm)
Ich bin dann schlussendlich zum Office gegangen und hab mich von meinem Hostdad abholen lassen, bin dann mit unserem Hund an die frische Luft und hab ne Stunde geschlafen, und jetzt konnte ich zumindest was essen...
Aber ich will morgen wieder zur Schule gehen, wir haben einen Bio test und ich mag die Schule doch so gerne!
Ich mein, ich LIEBE die Schule in Kanada, die Lehrer sind so nett und alles, und ich will die Schule nicht verpassen!

Es gibt zwei Moeglichkeiten, die mir spontan einfallen, was das sein koennte:
1. Ich hab den Kulturschock. Aber den hab ich mir immer anders vorgestellt, also mit Depressionen und so...
2. Ich hab Heimweh in der komischsten Form (also echte Homesickness)

Keines von beiden ist recht toll... Oder ich hab einfach nur Angst vor Bio und Spanish morgen (Spanisch "Popquiz", also ne Ex, aber die Lehrerin hat das so gut wie angesagt mit einem energischen "hint, hint")
Naja, aber immerhin gehts mir jetzt, da ichs aufgeschrieben hab, schon mal besser.

So, back to business.

I have a few more ideas what this could be, so here a short list (I need to get that out of my system)

1. Homesickness
2. Culture Shock
3. Illness (might have caught a cold)
4. panic in the face of tests

But this stuff aside, this day was great!
I got two parcels, one from my parents with a lot of stuff like cartridges (Tintenpatronen), Post-its and some clothes, and one from Yuumei. I finally have my 1000 Words comic, and it's even signed (The first 500 orders were signed, and I didn't know whether mine was so soon!)

I did all my biology stuff and tomorrow we have a quiz, and I missed the last reviewing session because I didn't feel well, but I think I have most of that stuff down. I'll take another look at it tomorrow during lunch...

I had a nice chat with Vroni and I managed to sneak an hour of sleep into my afternoon...
What am I complaining about?
Let's see whether method no. 1 works: Forget about it.
If not then no. 2: Rationalize it down should do the trick ;)

Oh my god, I totally not up-to-date!
I didn't even know that Dirk Bach had died... It was a shock to learn of that; I found it over the fanfiktion.de forum, where a few people had written:
"Die Sache mit Dirk Bach schockt mich grade. Ich fand ihn immer so lustig!"
And I: Oh my god, what the heck are they talking about?!

But it is a shock; I'd never expected such a thing!
It shows me in the worst way possible how fast a live can end. Especially with popular persons or persons I respect my mind attaches an 'immortal' tag...