Sick

Gah, there I go to San Francisco, and what do I do?
Get sick.

I've been feeling all morning like I wanted to throw up (never mind that I haven't actually eaten anything I could throw up) and I've been coughing and sneezing all week.

It's the fault of the bus/train we took, because it was pretty chilly on there :(
Even though I was wearing a sweater! The A/C was just going too strong.

So, yeah. Not feeling good.

Another thing that's gotten worse are my grades:
I'm trying to find out, how much I have to do to get acceptable grades--my mom's suggestion, since I usually do way too much, and now I have the time and place to just try...
Well, and at the moment it looks like not doing the homework+not taking any notes=80%
And yeah, I'm pissed off at that grade:
I have 12/15 points, and 1.5 points I just THREW away--I know how to write the Domain and Range, but I made a mistake with the Domain: first I confused two numbers, but I caught that in my graph, but not in my Domain, and then I made an old mistake:

The thing was
y= Log₃(x+4)-2
so the vertical translation is two units down and the horizontal translation 4 units to the left.
I placed the asymptote at x=-2, which is wrong--that's the vertical translation, and the asymptote is x, so it's horizontal.
I caught that, but I didn't change the Domain:
{x|x>-2}
was what I wrote.
Correct would have been:
{x|x>-4, x € R} (And yeah, I know that's the Euro-sign, but it's the closest I can come to the 'is element of')

So, stupid.

Anyway, we did a couple of Creative Writing projects--'A moment in time" which are short scenes pasted into a book (mine will be printed in Censor This!), a monologue, and we got our next big assignment: I'm gonna write up San Francisco for my first project.
yay!
And that's... it.

You'll get the rest of the San Francisco Trip, don't worry, and I don't think it'll take long!

San Francisco Travel and Day 1

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

Just a short checkin, as a) I am on my phone, b) I'm trying posting via email for the first time, and c) after thirty hours on bus and train and bus again (okay, more like 34 hours) I'm really tired and exhausted and looking forward to a real bed.

Sleeping twisted like a pretzel is surprisingly not fun.

We took off from KSS Tuesday evening pretty much on time at 11 p.m. and arrived in Vancouver at 3 a.m., where we had breakfast at a McDonald's.

Since breakfast starts to get served at 4 a.m. at the earliest, we all had normal stuff like wraps or cheeseburgers and coffee and smoothies. All in all, it was a fun experience.

Our Amtrak bus that brought us from Vancouver to Seattle showed up at 5.30 a.m. and my seatmate from before and I grabber about the same seats again, and I even managed to sleep a couple of minutes.

Seattle is an awesome city, and we boarded the Amtrak train there at around 9 a.m..

Sleeping on the train was difficult. Jenny (my seatmate) and I spent the time talking and reading and sleeping in bursts of about 40 minutes no matter the time, and I finally managed to sleep for about an hour at around ten p.m. and again from about two to six o'clock--take all these numbers with a grain of salt, as my sense of time was completely wrecked by the bus and train ride.

The 30 hours seem in retrospect both unbelievably long and shorter than expected; when the train pulled to a stop in Emeryville, California and we got off, it was almost a surprise that we were actually there already.

I was clad in just a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, as the ac on the train was simply vicious, and within seconds I, as most others, was sweating badly.

It wasn't even nine a.m. yet and yet the sun was already super hot!

The bus ride to San Francisco was spent gawking out of the window, and never before has a one hour bus ride felt quite so short.

California and San Francisco simply are beautiful, and very interesting--the twelve lanes (six in our direction, six in the other) were only one amazing thing.

We dropped half of the students and four of our five chaperones at the Alcatraz landing off and went on to the hostel, where we unloaded the bags, freshened up and went to explore the area.

Jenny and I stuck close together, and we bought post cards and a couple of souvenirs. I also started assembling the two birthday presents I still owe two of my best friends!

Since it was so unbelievably warm, we went up to our ankles into the pleasingly cool water, before we grabbed lunch at subway ($3 for a six-inch Roasted Chicken Breast as the May special... how could I resist?) and met up with the rest of our group in front of Hard Rock Café (the only condition for exploring the area had been 'at least two people per group').

We then went on to Alcatraz ourselves--to meet the official student-teacher ratio(7-1), three of our teachers had to go again, but they said later on it was more blessing than curse.

The guided audio tour we had was awesome and super interesting, and after catching the 5.15 ferry back to SF, we checked i to the hostel (it's a 30 min walk away from the Fisher Man's Wharf area, stowed our belongings away and then Jenn and I went back to the wharf area, while others finally had their shower.

Jenn grabbed some Fish n Chips and I another Sub, and we wrote postcards/journals for a bit, before the sun set and we had to leave to be able to walk back while it was still light outside.

Once we were back, we took a shower--most everybody else was still out, so we had the room and the washroom mostly to ourselves, and then there was another meeting to let us know the plans for tomorrow.

I have already taken over 200 pictures and will probably get Jenn's, Aislinn's and (hopefully) Brienne's pictures, as they have far superior cameras.

And since my night will be over in roughly 8 hours, I'm signing off with this. Just let me tell you, California really is super sunny and warm and AWESOME!!

♥♡♥♡Love,

Julia ♡♥♡♥
☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

So this is what dying feels like

Whoever though it would be a good idea to get into hockey?
It'll be fun, they said.

I'm dying, because omg, the game is unpredictable, which you could see tonight--Blackhawks vs Minnesota, first seed vs eighth, and it was, dare I say it, pretty evenly matched.
Even though the Wild encountered some huge road blocks--their starting goal tender hurt himself during warm-ups, so they had to play their second goalie, who was pulled the last time he played (after allowing 2 goals on 4 shots against the Blackhawks back in January, I think).
But he was terrific. For his first playoff game, it was really, really good.
And Ryan Suter, also from the Wild, played unbelievable 41:08, which is the new franchise record for a playoff game.

The Wild scored on their first Shot on Goal, but Marián Hossa equalized it on the power play with a beauty pass from Kane and then both goalies were super stead-fast, blocking 26 (Crawford) and 32 (Harding). The amazing thing about Harding is that he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis last year and yet is still playing!

Late in the first Over Time (in playoff games there's so much sudden-death OT until there's a goal), Shaw rammed the Wild player with the puck into the boards, Oduya picked the puck up, sent it down the ice to Stalberg who charged ahead, didn't shoot (even though he was pretty alone up there) but passed it to Bryan Bickell, and it was not hard for Bickell to out-deke the Goalie and net the Game Winning Goal (his second OT goal in the Playoffs).
He was subsequently named first star of the game, with Hossa second and Harding the third, and the whole United Center was making its name proud--it's called the Madhouse on Madison.
It was pretty loud.

Well, anything interesting happen?

You could say so!
We got our report cards yesterday, and my lowest grade was 95% in Math and Entrepreneurship.
Right, Entrepreneurship--we had the presentation on Friday, and we didn't advance :(
Well, I'm not exactly heart-broken--I never thought our idea would even get past task one, but we apparently did rather well, but task two just wasn't to our judges liking :)
Well, they did cut down from 18 to 8 teams, so it was no great surprise that a lot of teams wouldn't make it, but one thing that is rather unfair is the way they select the teams that advance:
They have to let a certain amount of teams through in every room, so we might have been in a rather strong room.

Anyway, we still gotta work on our project, and while we did that today, somehow we got talking about age--right, I said "I'm finally legal to drink beer in Germany" or something (never mind that I don't even like beer) and then added "Now that I am 16" and Jake just looks at me--"You're sixteen?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm sixteen. Actually, I turned sixteen just last week."
And Cici is laughing and Kevin is grinning and Jake says to Kevin "She's only sixteen?!"
And Kevin's like: "Yeah, I told you she's way younger than us."

I'm pretty proud that you can't notice my age immediately, though :)

My class is writing a Pre-Calc test tomorrow, which I'll probably have to make up next Tuesday, but I really don't want to... I'm in the swing of it right now, I'd love to write it right now (no, I wouldn't, but well...)
We're writing monologues in English, which is probably gonna be fun--I'm gonna have a bit more time because I'm just now starting to write again, but it's gonna be awesome--basically, this is a monologue, so I'm not worried at all.
Perfect place for musings ;)

On Sunday, Kaieko, the exchange student from last year, and her husband were here, and they brought the girls and me Japanese sweets and were really nice!
It was great to meet them (Kaieko came here to learn English, I think).

Anything else?
I can't think of anything.
We\ll head off for the school parking lot in a bit less than an hour, because we're leaving at 11 p.m., but they said nowhere when we're supposed to be there, so I figured 40 minutes early couldn't hurt.
I'm really tired right now, stayed up way too late last night reading, and I am already packed.
It's exciting and I have the nagging feeling I missed something, but I can't think of what right now.

I have clothes and sunglasses and treats and shoes and ... maybe I should pack sunscreen?
That couldn't hurt, I guess, because it's super hot and sunny in San Francisco right now!

So yeah, and that's it from me.

I hope you have a wonderful five days, and I hope I'll have a ton of wonderful pictures for you once I get back!

Have a great time!

Julia

Birthday and Co

So, it's been a while since I last posted for real!
What's new?
Well, I've had my birthday, I finally wrote my Math test (dunno how well I did), took up conversation via email with a Hopee (special shoutout to him, because he's the reason I'm finally blogging again ... and, of course, Doro, because they both keep nagging me about posting again :) ), failed to advance to the third round in the Dragon's Den competition (not that I really mind, because ... well, :) ) and ... yeah, I think that was the short version?

So, it all started with the birthday dinner. I already blogged about that, but the next day, the next birthday dinner was there - Jenna, Bob, Tanya, Andy and I were at Tanya's parents' house, and there was delicious ... I think it was roast beef? I'm not sure, but it was soooo good...
And there was a birthday cake, but I am so sorry, it had nothing on the cake Tanya made me...

On Monday ... it was pretty uneventful, if I remember correctly. I can't remember anything happening, at least, except for how the Hawks lost to the Canucks (the Canucks, why?! They're like, arch-rivals, so... duh.)
Ooooh, never mind, there was the amazing Canada show where Jenna took part in - How Canada Came to Be it was called, it was Canadian folksongs about the history of Canada - super interesting with nice music, and of course the whole thing was topped off with the National Anthem, which ... yeah, it made me cry.
But you gotta imagine, there were about 600 people (200-300 Students in the show, and they all had parents + grandparents + siblings + other family/friends) and everybody stood up and sang Oh Canada... there is little more beautiful ("Stars and Stripes" after the Boston Tragedy was maybe better, but that was ~20,000 people singing, so I think ours was pretty decent). And like, everybody sings, not just "moves their lips". It's pretty amazing here, if you ask me.
To top the evening off, I skyped with my mother.
And guess how I spent the last couple of minutes as a fifteen year old?
Right, I was folding laundry (seriously, ask my mom). I had just washed my stuff, so it was still dryer-warm and I wanted to fold it before it got creases and the like ;)

I opened two presents that night--one envelope which contained puzzle pieces to form a wonderful picture of Regensburg with the cathedral, and one small package that needed extra explanation (a ankle band with magnets for pain, but it seems to make the pain worse at the moment?)
Morning came way too soon, and after five hours of sleep, I lugged my presents upstairs and unpacked them.

Breakfast was strawberries with whipped cream and a candle in a shout out to my last birthday (I had shown pictures of it, including the strawberries) and I opened my parents' presents.
I got a power balance wristband (they're awesome, even though I can't wear it because of my wrist braces), some perfume (my favourite kind, Puma Animagical), a new wallet (finally; I've only been wishing for one since Christmas, but Lara finally had mercy and helped me out) a crocheted cupcake, a Toews Shirsey (<3 :="" a="" and="" hawks="" hoodie="" p="">I went to school, handed out the cupcakes I had made on Monday, wrote my first Math test (made a stupid mistake -_-), was bored, wrote my second Math test (made more stupid mistakes - okay, only problem was I couldn't operate the graphing calculator :( ), came home, found Bob's presents (self-made fortune cookies & pictures) and ... answered all the birthday wishes - you guys are the best!

Wednesday was my 'actual' birthday - once I'd come home, I dicked around a bit in my room, then we had dinner (my wish! Pasta with sausage!) and then there was cake - and omg, that was delicious, I'm telling you!
Tanya had made peanut butter cake, with lots of peanut butter and some chocolate, and Jenna had made peanut butter-chocolate bars, and it was all around great.

I grabbed the rest of my dessert, relocated to the living room and watched the Hawks crush the Oilers 4-1 :D

It was great.
From Jenna I got a beautiful card, and, if I understood that correctly, she and Bob pooled to give me a special coin (it's a loonie in a Puck with the Flames logo), and while the Flames aren't one of my favourite teams, their logo is pretty.

I also got my first US$ from Andy and Tanya, and lots of chocolate. I'll be taking it to San Francisco, maybe, because there's no way I'm gonna eat it all on my own!

And, which was maybe the best, I got an amazing necklace with a terrific jade maple leaf :)
I'm wearing it on the same chain as the cross I got from my grandmother, and I just love it.

Cici, a friend from school, gave me a beautiful pendant, and an equally nice message, and all in all, my birthday was perfect.

Yesterday, Math managed to be halfway interesting, and the evening was insofar fun, as there is so much to do (Jenna guitar lessons & Bob soccer training) that everybody just grabs their own dinner, and this is so reminiscent of home, that it almost makes my heart ache.
I mean, family dinners are awesome, but I missed that easiness of just 'eat whenever you feel like it' every once in a while, that was so defining during my dancing days.
And always sitting on a table with four other people is very different, and can be taxing at times - especially with the way I am pretty tired at the moment, my senses go into overload and make my life hell :(

Today was the second Dragon's Den Competition, and I have to say: We didn't make it.
They cur from 18 to 8 teams, and ... I'm not even sad?
I didn't expect to advance to the second round; while our video was nice, we didn't put nearly enough thought and work into the rest of it, and our presentation was just cobbled together last minute, it seemed.
But the judges were nice to us, I can't say anything against that!

Since there was no point in returning to school, Cici and I caught the bus to the mall and spent three hours there.
I exchanged another $70  into US$--$68.20 for US$65, just to have some cash--and then we wandered through the mall.
I bought a couple of post stamps, because I'm participating in the 'Postkartenwichteln' in our Forum and gotta send a postcard somewhere for that, and of course I also got a postcard (and so did Cici).
And then we stopped by Aeropostale, because I desperately needed a couple of shorts, and I spent $56 for 3 pairs of trousers--a pair of Bermudas, a pair of Capris and a pair of sweatpants that were reduced from $40 to $9, and the Bermudas and Capris were a buy one get one free. (So I paid $20 for each pair, which isn't bad, imo).
Then we met up with a friend of Cici's and wandered for a bit longer, before grabbing dinner at the food court.
Cici and I took the bus home (she doesn't live so far away from me; we also take the same bus to and from school) and I managed to see the second half of the Hawks' last home game, a 3-1 win over Calgart.

But truly awesome were the Oilers--they won 6-1 over the Minnesota Wild, and had in the middle of the second period 6 goals on 14 shots on goal. It was awesome.
Hallsy n Ebs (Taylor Hall & Jordan Eberle) had both three points (1G, 2A), and everybody's favourite rookie Nail Yakupov had two (2G).
Why couldn't they play like this during the regular season? They didn't make it to the playoffs again, and this is the difference between a successful rebuild like in Chicago and an unsuccessful rebuild.

Chicago drafted two high first round picks--Toews & Kane--and then almost made it to the playoffs in their first season and managed to get to the conference finals in the next one, and they won the Stanley Cup only one year later in 2010 (Toews was drafted third overall in the 2006 entry draft but didn't sign until March 2007, and Kane was drafted first overall in the 2007 entry draft; both had their rookie season in 2007).
Ebs was drafter 22nd overall in 2009, Hallsy first overall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins first overall in 2011 (the three of them forming the 'kid line') and Nail Yakupov drafter first overall in 2012.
Yes, they are stacked with young talent, but their team is ... I dunno, too young maybe? They're missing a couple of 'real' veterans; Sam Gagner is one of the most 'veteran' players, and he's younger than Kane! (He's 24 and played with Kane in the OHL, London Knights)
But they were very 'hot n cold' this year, with a 6-0 lead over Chicago (winning, in the end, 6-5), an 8-2 win over Calgary at the beginning of April and now today's 6-1 in, but then also a lot of losses that, frankly, shouldn't have happened.
Well, lets hope they make it next year ;)

I'm kinda loosely following soccer at the moment, just in bursts from what I see on my tumblr dash and hear from other excangies, but these gifs made me laugh (even though it took me a moment to realize that yes, that's German)
This is the best.

What else is there?
Bowey and some other guy form the Prince Albert Raiders blog about their U-18s experience:
Here & here - to be honest, Morrissey, the other guy, writes a lot better than our Rocket boy, but it's super interesting to read!
They're playing the US in the finals tomorrow? Today? Something like this, but they're facing the US after defeating Finland in the Semi Finals :D

Yeah, and see there, finally a blog entry - and it was even long!

What I've gotta do this weekend includes:
Starting packing for SF, going to the International Tai Chi/Qi Gong day at the Rec Centre, writing my children's story--which was due today, but because of my wrists I got a bit more time :) and yeah... I think that's it.

I'm missing the Math exam on exponential functions in Math! Can you hear me complaining?
No? That's because I'm not! And on Monday we're getting our report cards, and Tuesday is a short day, because the grade 12 students have to present their MAPs, which is their career plans for graduation... I wish we did that stuff, but we don't :(

Well, that's it for now.

Love y'all!