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!)

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!

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!

Bio

Yep, so today - or technically, yesterday, I wrote my Biology test, running on about 5 hours of sleep.
I know I said I would go to bed early, and I honestly did, but I just couldn't fall asleep.

Bio took me - including walking to and from the school - 35 mintues.
And for that I woke up at 7:35. Wow.

I don't know how it went, I was a bit unsure about some of the questions, but I answered everything to the best of my abilities - and there was only multiple choice, no short answer questions :D
Now I'm truly done with Semester 1!

Other than that, I lost horribly in Scrabble (I honestly don't like that game, neither in German nor in English) and then watched the Blackhawks lose in a shootout.
But at least Captain Toews scored :)
And they're still undefeated in regulation! I'm just crossing my fingers that the Sharks will lose their next game :) I'm not even sorry, I don't like them.

And then I got somehow roped into writing something again... I was just idly browsing tumblr, when suddenly WHAM!! inspiration struck. And I have already 1,700 words, and I hope I can finish that tomorrow :D

Love y'all,

Julia

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!

You Have Reached The End Of Semester One

Yep. That's it. Today was the last day of Semester One. Kinda officially.
So all that remains is that stupid re-test on Wednesday, and if I knew my final exam score right now, I would cancel it. But I don't so I won't. Not that it's gonna make any real difference... in my final mark it had an impact of somewhere along the lines of .35% or so... Why again did I believe that I had to make it up?

So, today was Japanese, and it was 20% and not 10% as he had initially told me - but I managed at the very least 50%, rather more, and I'm not complaining. I have my A for sure there.
And English... was fun. I wrote so much that my thumb started hurting where it joins my hand, but all in all it was pretty good - I wrote the same thing for my composition as for the practice exam. Not exactly the same, because no matter how much I pride myself on my good memory where it concerns spoken/written words, I can't memorize 1,150 and I didn't even try. But I think I got the gist and only changed the ending - it now simply says something like "It has changed the way I think, and if this is all that I take away from this journey [I should have written endeavour, that would have been a better word] then I am well satisfied with my achievements." Which is true. Because I think that realizing how I think and how my mind works will do me a huge favour in the future.

Mr Derksen said he's looking forward to having me in his class next semester... I think he even might have been genuine. No, he's really an awesome teacher!

And yeah... There is one fricking huge mistake I made in English: I re-wrote the first text production and forgot to cross out the first draft!
I meant to cross it out, but my mind was swirling all throughout writing and so I forgot -_- All the nice quiet of yesterday's Biology exam was gone :/
Well, can't change it now...

And it's not as though it actually matters for me...

That's it. I have decided that you will get the thoughts transcript from yesterday only if you actually know me and I can give it to you in person. Nothing against those I know only via web, but I honestly don't wanna type that stuff up...

And now I'm going back to watching Oil Change. No, it's not about cars, it's a documentary about the Edmonton Oilers that is really, really interesting :)
And I wanted to re-watch yesterday's Blackhawks game, because the Blackhawks commentators are soooooo much better than the Dallas ones!

Have all the love,

Julia

P.S.: NO SCHOOL TILL FRIDAY!!!!! (Except for the exam, but who cares?!)

P.P.S: And to anyone (silently) complaining about me being obsessed with things:
There is an article. Because Sidney Crosby "Wanted to feel a real winter again" and chose to walk in the cold. And that warranted a whole ARTICLE! Seriously, check it out. It's the Globe and Mail. (Crosby is considered the best player of the league [not by me] and the face of the NHL. And he is ridiculously good, although prone to injury)

Finals Day I

Okay, just a short post because I slept 5 hours and am really tired:
Finals went alright I guess. Once it started, I was feeling pretty relaxed, and Spanish went better than expected. I'm not so sure about Biology though... I have a thought-log about the two exams which I will type up tomorrow, just if maybe anybody's interested in what such a day looks like.

And of course I forgot the Biology notes we were supposed to hand in today. Or rather, I grabbed the wrong stack of notes...

I also didn't do anymore Japanese. I don't really care about it, and I will get an A no matter how my exam turns out, so duh.

Well, that's it.
Have a great day!

A person’s view of the world may change over time

Especially over the last four months I have become increasingly aware that my view of the world isn’t set in stone, no matter how it might feel at any given moment.

I’m not ignorant. I’m well aware that there is a world outside of my thoughts, my expectation, my comfort zone. It’s just that sometimes, this awareness is at the back of my mind. When I start out into new territory, my view of the world is narrow-minded, focused inwards. I don’t consciously avoid thinking about other possibilities, they just don’t occur to me.

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...

Shock

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

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

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

Eeeeeeendspurt!

Yay, finally, the final sprint! Two days left, and hen END OF SEMESTER ONE! (Okay, first of course finals, but ... hey :) )

Since I don't have anything better to tell you, have a (horribly detailed) run-down of my day:

So, I went to bed yesterday early for me at half past eleven, but since it was really warm in my room I had to air it for half an hour before I could sleep, which resulted in me being a) tired and b) cold in the morning (but at least I could fall asleep).
I woke at 7:35 a.m. because I hadn't yet made my lunch, lay in bed for five more minutes, got dressed and headed into the kitchen. I fixed up my cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios!), had a glass of milk and made my lunch, a simple chicken wrap (chicken from yesterday's dinner + salad & mayonnaise), which I then packed into my backpack.
I left the house at 8:40 a.m. and walked my eight minutes to school, which of course made me a bit early (but only by a tad more than 5 minutes), went to my Japanese class room, took off my shoes (we have to do that; it's a Japanese custom), unstacked the chairs into a half circle and talked to the teacher for a moment (on my test the teaching assistant had subtracted a whole point instead of half a point >.< ... no, joking, but I doubt I'm gonna do so well on the final, so I need to get my grade up now!) and then the other students started trickeling in. Especially in Japanese we always have late-runners, so we always wait a bit longer than usual.
We repeated the verbs we'd learned, learned a few new ones and reviewed how to say whether we liked things (or didn't like them). And then we grabbed clipboards and scrap-paper and 'interviewed' our classmates about their like and dislikes. I can now say I like something and write it in Kanji!
:)
We finished "Kamikaze Girls", the movie we'd been watching, and Sensei totally forgot about the exam we were supposed to write :) So we're writing it tomorrow... And I still owe him one more quiz - I guess I have to take it either Wednesday or Thursday after school (Wednesday lunch Mr Derksen and I will go over my essay, because my flow was so bad in the one I handed in - compared to my usual ones, not the rest of class (: ).
After Japanese I had Spanish (Block Order 21-43), so I went and looked over the vocab we had to learn. The test wasn't hard, and I begged off after completing it, so I don't really know how it'll turn out - and I'm cautious about predicting, because there were a few instances where I wasn't sure what to chose ... But I begged off and went to Journalism to finish my Editor's note on the Lockout article I'd written.

Since that didn't take as long as I'd expected and I had all my stuff with me, I just hung out with them (the Journalism inside-the-timetable-students were working) and read until the bell rang. Then I only shifted my reading to Mr D's room and had my lunch there.
Lolu came by (once again) and we chatted for a bit, and then Mr D and I also talked for a bit, but mostly I was reading (and trying to convince myself to learn Biology. I didn't succeed). Class started and what did we do? A spell check.

It was 25 words - we handed them in, so I don't remember all of them, but here are those I do remember (I didn't try to memorize them or anything)

broccoli, raspberry, liquefy, putrefy, separate, acquaintance, disappear, chauvinism, ukulele, seize, deceive, peninsula, commemorate, criticize, ... and I can't think of any more words. But hey, 14/25 isn't so bad :)
But anyway, I only had three mistakes - tying with three other students as best of the class. Me, as in the exchange student!

Then we went on to review the terminology we've learned this past semester and worked on worksheets about it...
And then there was Biology. We only had study time, with the laptops, and I finally started to study. Because IT'S ONLY TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL I HAVE TO WRITE THIS FINAL!!!
And I really want to prove myself. Especially since I can't pretend I don't understand enough English to do so. Failure in the exam would be failure on my part alone. And I can't have that.

I went to see Mr Kletke after Biology, because on the handout for the SF trip was a date, but no time for the parent teacher meeting. Duh. I got the time, and went home. Pretty unhurriedly, but it's not as though I had anything to do :)
And then... I read a bit, chatted a bit with Doro, and caught some snippets from "The Biggest Loser", "Dragons' Den" (you have to convince the jury to become your business partner), "The Bachelor" and the news in between studying. And yes, those programs are exactly the same as in Germany.

And now I'm slowly headed for bed...
If anybody want to see the monstrosity I have in wait for me in Biology, click this link. It's an old provincial exam.

Moving ... again

Yep, I'm moving again.
But only for the next 2 weeks (and a bit), to Tanya's parents, because Tanya, Andy, Jenna and Bob are going to Mexico. As I mentioned, I'm not going - and exam stress in full on.

I am already packed, but even if I forget anything, that wouldn't really matter, because it's maybe a ten minute drive - if even that much.
But I'll only have a ten minute walk to school, so I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit longer!

And talking about exams... I realized that I really don't have to worry. I would pass all my exams with an A if I only got 40 (Spanish & Japanese) or 60 (Biology) percent on the final exam - and I really hope to beat that!
Japanese I worry a bit, because I learnt the wrong vocab for today (I'm re-taking the test tomorrow after school), and I really don't think I can write all the words we learnt, and Biology will be a tiny bit of a hassle, too, because there's just so much and I can't find my Learning outcomes, where I have written up everything (I looked in all my drawers, but I don't know where I put that stuff), but I'm not at all worried about Spanish, 'cos that's my best subject, and English will be alright, too.

I talked to the counselor today, and she will inquire whether I'm eligible for the "Principal's Honor Roll", which is for all students with a GPA (Grade Point Average) of more than 3.7. Last term I had 3.78, but I didn't get a notice, and this term I should have (if I don't screw up my finals and the last few tests we have completely) a GPA of 4.0.

In Journalism I fought my way back up to an A, and Mr M said he was really happy with my writing (he initially told me I had a C+, but he just loves to tease me...)

And again, grades...
As I mentioned, I was feeling weird the last few days, this aching homesickness instead of a punching, just the pull homewards (after a weird dream about flying home... I did mention that, didn't I?)
Well, I woke up today at 4:11 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep, learnt the wrong vocab and a bit of Biology, and so I was already pretty tired again by the time we had English.

I was really rattled by the Biology B, because I had thought it went really great, and we watched Shawshank redemption, and I was really down.
So I told Mr Derksen that I couldn't find the book on amazon, and since he is usually pretty good in cheering me up, I mentioned that that grade had rattled me pretty badly.
And he didn't disappoint, just said: "But I realized you are much more relaxed. And if I were your parent, or your uncle, I would say If one B is what it takes you to relax, take the B." And he kinda sounded like he was proud.
So yeah, after that I felt really great, and then Mr M told me that I had an A so far, so my day was pretty good.

And now I'm just waiting to be picked up by the grandparents, so that's it... I'm not sure whether I can update tomorrow already; it'll depend on how quickly we can set up my wi-fi access :)

And since I'm pretty sure I forgot something really important, I'm gonna look again (and look at Biology, because I have that test at lunch tomorrow, and it's worth 60 marks :o)

Love y'all!

Julia

Final Sprint

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

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

G'night!

Tired Thursday

Since I am almost sixteen (three months left, so duh), I still don't know when to go to bed.
As a result I'm really tired.
Which is why I'm foregoing doing Biology and opting to go to bed right away. Today I'm really going!
I might have infected a friend with fanfiction. My bad, I'm so sorry (I told him all about it during Biology, and he stole my kindle and started reading, so I'm counting that as a win!).
School wasn't bad, in Spanish we started our final chapter, in Japanese we started out final chapter (and we're having a vocab test tomorrow!), in English I finished my second essay (it's not a masterpiece, but I knew I couldn't get better) and in Biology... we finished dissecting our pigs!
It was really gross and fascinating and revolting and awesome and I almost puked (I didn't but, it did smell horrible, the mixture of Febreeze, preservative and latex), so have some pictures! (They are under the cut, but let me tell you, they're awesome!)
But they might be somewhat revolting...
So here have some school pictures first! (because I'm pretty sure not everybody will finish this post)
One of the hallway, leading towards the gym (the gym is through the left wall, basically, but you can access it after the fire doors)

And luckily we're not in Germany - they're talking
about the gym, not the whole school.
But I anyway had to laugh the first time
I saw it! :)

So, I have a Japanese test tomorrow, a Spanish test on Monday, our regular Biology test on Monday, my Biology test I missed on Wednesday, and then the week after that, final start!
And since in the last week of January, the Provincial exams are taking place and I'm taking none, I won't even have to come to school!
So I'll probably be meeting up with Doro, who will be a single ball of nerves since she's leaving ;(
But it will be great to see her again!

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Rockets, and I'm saying good night with that!
And the pictures are under the cut!

123

First of all: Skip my introduction. I welcome you to read it, but if you want to go straight to my post, click this.

Today is, for those interested, in fact my 123rd post on this blog!
It's an awesome number, although I do hope to crack the 234, which is even more awesome. Why? Well, for one it's my birthdate, April 23rd, and two it's two prime numbers (2, 3) and the square of the first number, and both square numbers and prime numbers are something really beautiful.

Anyway...

You might have noticed, but I'm kind of remodeling my blog with a "Welcome Site", although Blogger doesn't let you do it per se, so I have to circumvent it with this little box up there.

Other changes?
Well, the labels can be found in a list at the side in alphabetical order, I have a page view statistics thing, the "About Me" page is totally new (and still being reworked, so have patience with me. I'm trying to compile a list with the post I imagine will be most read - my farewell book, my Vancouver trip with the multitude of pictures, my Christmas post, the feeling stuff), and I'm trying out a few new things.

I'm also trying to decide whether to stop posting once my exchange year is settled, or if I should continue; I guess I'll make it dependent whether or not I'll be taken by the University I have on top of my wishlist - or rather whether I'll be going abroad for my studies. If yes, I might keep posting, I'm guessing there are a few folks out there interested in studying abroad; or I might leave this blog as it is and make a new one so that future exchange students can find this here and ... not things muddled by a student.

I definitely will keep posting though, because I believe it's really great, for me at least, even if it's only me rambling. But it gives my day structure :).

Okay, about today.

Tired Ramblings

It's 3 a.m., I'm tired, my head aches, I can't breathe through my nose and my left ear feels weird. Why can't I sleep?

My room looks like a bomb detonated in it. But how can my room be tidy when my mind is utter chaos?

We have a Japanese test tomorrow, which I totally forgot about.
I don't want to. No, seriously, I'm just not feeling well.

Gah. Why do I always have these downs after having such a good time with the girls, or anybody?

Life Savers

Wow. I seriously haven't been on the computer at all today. Sure, I've been reading on my kindle (Spanish teacher ill again and the substitute didn't care), but I didn't even open Thunderbird this morning!

Okay, so I don't have to write the Biology test till after the holidays - I missed last week where they were working on the first workbooklet, and while we did have a bit of time yesterday, we were mainly talking about the new pack of notes, and then I missed today's lesson, too, because I am the only grade 11 in a grade 12 class - which means I was the only one gone when all the grade 11s had to go to the gym for a presentation.

It was pretty interesting. Life Savers want to raise awareness for suicide, and it was really good. And emotional. And everybody paid attention. And it wasn't uncool to actually care and participate. This also answers my questions, why we aren't doing such stuff in Germany: Everybody would just mock those standing up and actually doing something, so I'm guessing it's better we're not doing anything at all. Nobody would take it seriously. But students here ... they are so much more serious about such things! And it feels great to be part of such a community.

What else... My English test is way better than I thought it would be - I thought it would be okay, but okay means... 40 out of 46 - and I got 44/46!
Jep, I'm definitely satisfied with that.

I beat Bobby and Jenna at Rummy today (which is one of the reasons I wasn't on the laptop. Mum, you can be proud of me): I had, at the end 53 points minus on my hand - and still beat them 332 to 93 to ... Bobby didn't count hers. I took the whole stack of cards, right up to the last one, after we'd been playing for ... 20 rounds?
It was a lot of cards :)

And everything outside is covered in snow, we have about -6 to -2 here :) It's great. And luckily, I don't have far to school.

Have a good rest of the week! (Three days left! Then HOLIDAYS!!!!)

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 ;)

Appreciation Post

Okay, first of all: I hardly can believe it.
I have 100 days already behind me, and only 200 left - exactly one third of my year is over now.
Somehow, it feels as though I got the idea to do my exchange year just yesterday - while in fact I had it (for the first time) in seventh grade and then again in eighth. Where has time gone? Why is it flying so fast? And wasn't I just sitting in Austria, compiling my resumée for my application for YFU - and I can't tell you how glad I am to have gone with kulturLife instead. You don't hear the best of things about YFU, so even though it is cheaper, it is exactly that: cheaper. Not less expensive. I wouldn't trade my organisation here and my school and my teachers and my hostfamily for anything.

And the other thing I have to 'celebrate' is: My blog just hit the 18.000 clicks! Wow, guys, it's making me really proud that so many of you are reading this stuff! (Or just clicking on it, although I really hope it's the former rather than the latter.) Keep it coming! :D

So, what have I done on this lazy Monday?

It was rather slow-paced - except for the copious amounts of homework I have gotten from my teachers!


First of all, Japanese. I took my test, feeling not prepared at all, but I don't think it went badly. I don't know, we haven't yet gotten it back (of course not). Then he heaped the Chapter 6 Manga, the Chapter 6 Workbooklet, the Chapter 6 Exam Preparation Sheet and some more practice stuff on me. When does he think I will be able to do that? Like, our days are planned from 8 am to 10 pm, I won't have any time for schoolwork, and Saturday I will most likely catch up on my sleep and Sunday is the German Christmas Concert!

Anyway. Second lesson: Spanish: It was rather enjoyable, but I got almost even more homework than in Japanese. But at least Spanish is somewhat easier. We have at least the same writing system, and knowing Latin isn't something bad, either.

English: Mr Derksen actually was ill, but instead of starting on my homework pile I opted to read. Not that I regret it, I was like really tired, but still.

Biology: Well... we did dissect our pigs today. Foetal pigs. With the umbilical cord (Nabelschnur) still attached. And they were smelly. But I think the worst smell was the preservative (Konservierungsmittel) mixed with Latex Gloves and Febreeze. Especially the latter was horrible. And I couldn't get the Latex smell out of my hands!

But now I can say, I touched the intestine of a pig. And the umbilical cord. And the liver. And the pancreas. And the gallbladder. And the small intestine. The big intestine actually was green!

Well, I couldn't take any photos, because a) it was really gross and b) I forgot my mini-SDHC at home. So, not memory card, no photos.

Well, talking about technology: I managed to bust my kindle USB-cable. Luckily, my phone has the same charger (mini-USB, as far as I know), but it's not really dead; there just was a problem with my laptop, as it didn't want to recognize my kindle. It wouldn't even let my kindle charge, and I was in the middle of filling it with delicious new stories! :)

Well, I rebooted my laptop and now all my problems are gone. So before freaking out, reboot. It actually does help.

I also finally got all my stuff for Vancouver together.
I still have that nagging feeling that I have forgotten something, but all that's missing is my wash stuff.
I have
Skihose&-jacke
Winterstiefel
High Heels
Anzug (Hose, Shirt, Jacket)
PJs
Shirts
Jeans
Longsleeves
Chocolate!
Toque,
Skihandschuhe
Handschuhe
Block
Pencilcase
Spanishbook 
Tuch
Kindle
Ladekabel
Handy
Ipod
Ladekabel
Steckdosenadapter

(Sorry for the Denglish mix, I just copy&pasted it from my conversation with Doro!)
And I guess I'm gonna head to bed in the foreseeable future. I want to catch at least seven hours of sleep, and it is already 9:20 pm. And my alarm clock will ring at 5 am.
Juhu.
Who again thought this was a good idea?

Have a nice week!
You'll hear from me on Saturday again! (Or, if you're lucky, on Friday already, but according to my stats and the comments it doesn't matter anyway... Have I gotten so boring?)

Julia