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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Moving, Halloween and everything in between.

The countdown is now officially begining, my time left in this amazing country is limited! And as scary as this thought is, I now have something incredibly exciting to look forward - only 8 months until Nicole is going to come and visit me! So that is very, very, very cool. I am now starting to think of all the things we can do in New Zealand with her, so I welcome any suggestions! After being away for so long, I am drawing some blanks. But, I know it will be amazing fun!

So, since I last wrote, quite a lot has happened. After thanksgiving I changed homes, and moved in with my fourth and final family, the Sobolewskis. They are all really lovely, and so far my time here has been Fantastic. To tell the truth however, it really doesn't seem like I have spent much time here recently, with Rotary events, going out with friends, ect. And then, my week long trip to Tampa Bay, Florida!

Florida was a lot of fun. I went down there with my first home mom, Laurie, and we stayed in a house she has down there. We flew out of Buffalo on Wednesday morning, at about 7am and made it to Tampa for just after lunch. We had a very relaxing week, and spent our time at the beach or the shopping mall. I loved being at the beach, because this was the first time I had swum in the ocean since I came to Canada, while  no big deal for Canadians, it's a pretty scary thought for me.
I also got to spend a weekend with my family who live down there, Kelley and George, and my cousins Sarah and Sam. It was great to see them, and we had a lot of fun. It actually made me the most homesick I have been all year, because they all reminded me of my family back home.



I got home early Friday morning, and then that weekend was Halloween! On Saturday I went to a Halloween thing with Mark, (the aussie exchange student) and his host sister, which was awesome! Then, on Sunday I went to Wonderland, the local theme park, where they were hosting 'Fear Fest' - the park is open till midnight, and it is decorated halloween theme, with haunted houses and creepy things all spread out. I went there with Kenzie (rebound), Blair (rebound), Mark, Philipp (Austrian Exchange Student), Marks host sister Ashlynn, her boyfriend Josh, and two of his roommates, Digger and Martin. The later few had all been there on Saturday.


 


So, now it's back into school routine, impossible tests and crazy teachers making an appearance as per usual. Today it is exactly 2 months till I come home...
Lots of love.
xoxox

Monday, October 11, 2010

Thanksgiving and Autumn

Firstly...
It's Autumn here, and it is absolutely beautiful. The trees here, are truly magnificent. Everywhere you look, the radient greens, yellows, oranges and reds almost seem to glow - these are colours that would make Mrs Irwin proud. I have taken these photographs over the last weekend, but they really don't do the beauty justice, because no matter how hard I try, a camera just can't capture this...








 Secondly...
It was thanksgiving this weekend!
A quintessential North American holiday, it is somewhat reminiscent of our christmas (only minus the presents), an excuse to see the family, get a few days off work/school, and to eat a lot. And, it seems that Canadians take advantage of all three.
Thanksgiving is a very big deal here, and while it is very commercialised, I know it gave me a chance to think about what I'm thankful for, by no means is this a short list!

(This is only a tiny part of the massive pile of pumpkins in the supermarket car park - it took up about 8 parks!)

The school board gave us Friday off as well as the statutory Monday, so all the kids got a four day weekend! On Sunday we drove about 1 and a half hours north, to visit Julie's sister and their family. It was a lovely day, and we had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner - Turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and Pumpkin Pie, which is a new favourite of mine!!!
I went for a walk with Monica ( my host sister, in one of the pictures), Fab (my host dad), Brian ('Host Uncle) and Kobe, the thirteen week old puppy! Most of the pictures above were taken on the walk, and it was amazing. Only a 5 minute walk from their house, in a developed area, there was a forest, which was filled with tree's., the evidence is, evident. But, trees aren't all we saw...

Thirdly...
BEAVERS! At the start of the walk we heard some rustling in the bushes, and turned to see the trees moving. Brian said they had a bit of a bear problem over the last few weeks, so he was rather worried, until we realised the trees weren't just moving, one huge branch was being dragged down to the river... Beavers!
We snuck down to the edge of the creek, and sure enough, floating around in the water were two beavers. A lot bigger than I expected, they were swimming up and down, and didn't seem particularly phased by us. About 40minutes later when we headed back we had another look, and they were still there, so I managed to get a few good photos.
They certainly made my day, and now I can cross another iconic Canadian animal off my list! 

Beaver teeth marks...

See him there?
Tadaah!

So, I have had a fantastic weekend, and eaten my fair share of pumpkin pie and pumpkin loaf! Surprisingly, no-one here has heard of Pumpkin Soup! Nicole's brother told me that it doesn't even exist, I must be lying. But seriously, not a single person has been able to confirm the existence of one of the most amazing foods ever.

So, what am I thankful for?
Amongst other things, I am so, so lucky to have..
- My wonderful family in New Zealand.
- My amazing families here in Canada.
- The friends I have, in Canada and New Zealand.
-Exchange Students! They are friends, but quite unlike any one else I know.
-Rotary, for the experience of a lifetime.


Monday, October 4, 2010

Newbies!

So, this weekend after much anticipation, we met the new inbound students!
On saturday morning we drove about 40minutes north to a town called Brampton, where we were set to meet everyone for the first time.
I know for me  it was very peculiar, going on a rotary weekend without the others - I think in the back of my mind I was still expecting to see them there.
This year there are only 9 new kids! So including me, Mark and Riley, there are 12 of us, which makes for a lot smaller group than last year. (19)

Mark - Australia
Riley - Australia
Sabrina - Denmark
Javier - Ecuador
Bruna - Brazil
Philipp - Austria
Isabella - Switzerland
Nann - Thailand
Jose - Chile
Kyohei - Japan
Heloise - France
and Me!

We did some group activities, and a whole lot of presentations about what to expect from our year (in my case, only 3 months...), the rules, and the itinerary for this year.
After all the formal stuff was over we went into the gym, and just mucked around playing basketball and frisbee. There are some pretty good basketballers in the group, and we all had fun playing. Sadly my team lost...
Riley also picked up some sweet frisbee skills - he figured out how to skim it like a stone!

The rotarians keep saying that this group is already a lot better behaved than us last year, and I can definitely see that. I am sure we weren't easy to handle, but we did have a lot of fun. Dinner time was scarily quiet, but I am sure as everyone gets more comfortable around each other and their English improves, we will get louder. Haha, the only people talking were us Oceanians, which is peculiar considering I am normally the quiet one...

We were billeted saturday night - please tell me you know what that means! Everyone I talk to has to interupt me, as they don't know what I mean by 'billeted'. I stayed at Mari-Ann Tate's house, a rotarian who has been with us all year. I was there with Nann and Sabrina, so we stayed up talking and watching movies.

Sunday morning - It was a fairly early start, and we all met at Cora's for breakfast at 8.30. There is fantastic food there, but the portions are huge. I had a Ham and Cheese Omlette, and I struggled to even eat half. Mark got the 'Banana Beast' - I have had that before with Emi, and it sure is beastly!!

So, summer is defnintely over now...
It was down to about 3 degrees this morning, and yesterday I wished that I had had gloves on! The leaves are starting to change colour, and it looks absolutely stunnning. I will have to get out and take some pictures before it is too late.

Au Reviour!
Sarah
xoxox

Monday, September 27, 2010

School....

Today is Monday, September 27th, and I write this sitting in the Corpus Christi Library, at 9.01am.


School started back in the first week of September, and this semester is actually a lot of fun!
My schedule is a lot easier (and more enjoyable) than last semester:
Period One –Spare
Period Two –Challenge and Change
Period Three –Advanced Functions
LUNCH
Period Four –Writers Craft.

Having a spare in Period One, is pretty good.Even though my Challenge and Change Class doesn’t start until 9.40 I still have to be at school by 8.45, because Julie (my host mom) drops me off on her way to work. I generally use this time to write emails, or blogs, and finish any work I hadn’t completed. Wow, this makes me sound incredibly diligent. Really, I use a lot of this time walking to Tim Hortons down the road, going up and and down the stairs to my locker or reading. Right now I am reading ‘The girl who played with fire’ by Steig Larsson. It’s a great book!

My Period Two class starts at 9.40 and finishes at 11. That is one thing I really find noticeable about the schooling here – the classes are very, very long. Each one runs for 1hour and 20minutes. Challenge and Change is a Social Studies class, looking at basic aspects of Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology. We are in a tiny classroom, and there we have to work on tables, as there aren’t enough desks in the school!

Period Three: Advanced Functions. This, my friends, is Maths. Or as they say in Canada – Math. It’s a second level math class, looking at algebra, graphs, geometry : functions. I really enjoy it! Its quite difficult, as I obviously didn’t take the first level course, so there are a few basic things that I don’t understand, but on a whole I am getting the hang of it (I hope). Like most of the classes in this school, they use blackboards. This bugs me, because the sound of chalk freaks me out a bit (a lot). It’s peculiar, about 80% of the classrooms here use blackboards, and the other 20% use smartboards! I don’t know what happened to the whiteboards…

Then, I have lunch. Lunch goes from 12.20 to 1pm. I sit with a similar group of friends to lasts semester, but it has expanded. Lunch times here are very different to lunchtimes at Howick College. The most noticeable difference is that we all eat in the cafeteria. They have a legitimate cafeteria, filled with tables, where most of the school sits and eats lunch. You can choose to bring your lunch, as I do most days, or buy it – where you can buy meals such as curry, stirfry, tortillas… it varies on a day to day basis. And then there are the standard burgers, sandwhiches, cookies, etc. No Pies :O It is impossible to buy a meat pie here.

But obviously the entire school is not going to fit into this cafeteria… which brings me to my second major difference (It now sounds like I am writing a debating speech!) – There are three lunch times.

This, I do not like. You can either have Lunch A, Lunch B, or Lunch C. Thankfully I have Lunch C, because that is from 12.20 -1. Lunch A, starts at 11, which I would find far too early! Because of these separated lunch times however, it means the chance of you getting to sit with all of your friends is slim, and this semester there are a few of my friends with different lunch times.

Also – we have no morning tea time! Whenever I mention it, it is a guarantee that at least two people will laugh, and say “do you actually drink tea?!”. At which point I sound stupid trying to explain that no, we don’t drink tea. “Then it’s just like recess, that we had when we were five?”. Yeaah, I guess so. But it’s better, cause you get it all your life!

Writers Craft, Period Four, is probably my favourite class. I sit next to Kenzie Bender, a rebound who just got back from an Exchange in Australia, so we talk a lot more than we actually do work. But, the work we do do is fun! We get to write all sorts of different pieces, and then we get to edit each others. I wish Howick College offered a class like this, because it is a lot of fun. This one class where I don’t notice the time, in fact the 1 hour and 20minutes seems to fly by every day!

Well, it is now 9.26am, and in 14minutes I have to head down to the first floor for my challenge and change class. My locker is on the third floor, and my classes are on the first, third and second floor, which makes for a lot of going up and down stairs. But surely that’s good for my legs, right?

Lots of Love,

Sarah.

P.S – As terrified as I am by this thought, I thought I should let you know that I have 3 months and 10 days left…

Friday, August 13, 2010

CROSS CANADA TOUR! :D

Hi Everybody!

I am sorry for the lapse in communication, it is summer over here, and I have been out and about a lot, saying goodbye to the Northern Hemisphere exchange students who have finished their year, catching up with school friends, and of course travelling across Canada on my month long trip!
So, while I do have a lot to talk about, I really wanted to tell you guys about the CCT (Cross Canada Tour) that I did last month – which really was one of the best months of my life. There were 3 Chaperones and 44 exchange students on the trip, from all around the world. About 15 of them were from my Rotary District over here, 7080, so it was great having some close friends on the trip with me, but there were also a lot of people I had never met, and I have definitely made some new friendships that will last a lifetime!

We started the tour in Moncton, New Brunswick, North East of where I am living. We spent about a week up in this area, and saw some amazing things. One of my favourites was the Hopewell Rocks, in the Bay of Fundy. This is where there are huge tides, up to 7m tall! I don’t know how much you know about this area, but because of the large tides, the rocks there have eroded away, and are left in some incredible formations – they are also known as the flowerpot rocks, as they look a bit like flowerpots, with a large bulbous part on top where the water hasn’t washed away the rock.

We spent a day on Prince Edward Island, which was a lot of fun – we swam in a river, went lobster fishing, and dressed up as Anne of Green Gables (as PEI is her hometown), yes, even the boys donned the green gown and plaited wigs!











From there we travelled to Quebec on the train, which was an overnight train ride… lets just say I don’t think much sleep was had, and when we arrived in Quebec City at 6am the next morning, we were a very tired bunch. But, we made the most of our time in the city and started off with a scavenger hunt around town (yes, at 6am!), which ended in us finding our way to the hostel. What none of us knew at the time, was that the day before had been St-Jean Baptiste Day, which is the provincial holiday of Quebec, and is basically an excuse for a large party. In Quebec we watched some of the FIFA football matches (there was great international rivalry!), and explored the city. I must say, it was definitely my favourite city on the Tour, and all the exchange students said it reminded them of Europe – looks like I will have to plan a trip there in the future!

We moved onto Montreal, which was another fun city, and we had another scavenger hunt to complete – I am now very familiar with the subway system in Montreal, this tour led us all over the place. We saw the Basilica, and some amazing cathedrals – Montreal really is a beautiful city.
By July 29th we were in Toronto, very close to home for me. We did all of the touristy things there, including a trip up the CN Tower, and a visit to the Niagara Falls, which really are spectacular. We did a jet boat ride up the Niagara River, which was awesome, and we visited the Hockey Hall of fame, and of course, there was some great shopping in Toronto.

We caught another early morning train on July 1st, this time Ottawa – Canada’s capital. This was an incredible experience, because July 1st is Canada day, and the major celebrations are held in Ottawa, even the queen was there – as you can see from my photos, everyone went overboard with the red and white decoration, but it was a lot of fun!

After that though, we had what has to have been the longest train ride of my life – 3 nights and days onboard without stopping. We didn’t have sleeper carriages or anything, so we slept in regular train seats, which only recline about 2 degrees, or so it felt like! Despite the lack off actual sleep and the cramped conditions, we all loved the train ride, as it gave us all a great chance to get to know each other even better, I think some of the best friendships were made during that time (and we learnt a lot of new card games).

Finally we stopped in Edmonton, and went straight to the West Edmonton Mall – the biggest mall in North America! And boy, it was big. Inside the mall there was a movie theatre, and theme park, and a water park! It was crazy how big it was. An Edmonton Rotary club had sponsored us all tickets into the water park, which was fantastic, especially since none of us had showered for three days! So we played in the water park, and looked around the mall and had a chance just to relax and hang our together.

We travelled to Jasper National park that evening and settled into our hostel there. We all kept our eyes peeled for bears and moose, but sadly none were to be found.

We travelled to the Columbia Ice fields, which are one of the largest glacier areas in the world, and we took a tour up to the actual ice fields themselves. We had a lot of travelling to get through, so we moved straight up to Banff where we stayed for the next few days.
Banff was an amazing area –
 we visited hot springs, went white water rafting and explored the town, which was quaint, but lovely. We also visited Lake Louise, which was nearby, and was absolutely stunning. A few of us took a hike up a nearby mountain to get a better view of the lake, and I am so glad I did it, I was amazing. It took us a good 5 hours to get up though, and part of it was almost rock-climbing, we had to scramble up a steep hill covered in shale and gravel.

We moved on again, this time to Calgary, where we saw the Calgary Stampede! That was awesome, and we explored the fairgrounds and watched some of the shows, including the rodeo. That was awesome to see, I had never seen anything like it, and we got to watch all kinds of events, involving horses, bulls, calves, and the chuck wagons!

July 11th, we visited the dinosaur museum, and we also watched the FIFA final – by this point the trip had been divided into supporting sides, Netherlands vs. Spain. Let’s just say there were about 20 very happy people that day!

We spent a bit more time in Edmonton, where we were billeted by families, and we got to see some more of the city. We also got to have a home cooked meal, and get some laundry done, which was awesome. My family took me and Johanna (Swedish girl I was billeted with) out to a fondue place for dinner, which was so cool! I have never had a fondue meal, so that was very exciting, and the food was amazing.

Then of course we made it out all the way to British Columbia, first stop Vancouver.
That was another amazing city, there was so much to see and do there, and we barely scratched the surface. We explored Stanley Park, biked around the city, saw an outdoor theatre production, visited the Aquarium and saw Beluga whales, and I saw my first racoon and skunk!
Salt Spring Island was our next stop, and that was beautiful. Half of us were billeted, the other half stayed in a motel. I was part of the group in a motel, which was good fun. Salt Spring reminded me a lot of Waiheke Island actually. The beaches were amazing, and there were some very fancy houses on the island. There was also a market every Saturday, which we were lucky enough to see, and we all spent a fair bit of money there, on souvenirs and little trinkets.

Last but not least, we caught the ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Victoria was another of my favourite cities. We went to China Town, had fish and chips on the water front and just spent time with our friends, getting our flags signed and preparing to say goodbye.

Sadly, the trip did end there, and there were many tears when we parted. I for one cried my eyes out at the airport; it was unbelievable how close we had all become spending just a month together.
When I started writing this, I intended to keep it short; I was aiming for just a summary, maybe a paragraph or two… apparently that didn’t happen! And this is only half of what we did, there are a lot more things that happened on our trip and places that we saw to tell you, but if I include everything, this will be about 5 pages longer! But I am sure you will hear all about it when I get back, and I have a lot of photographs to share with you all! I am sorry it has taken me this long to get this to you, and I will work on keeping you better informed on my adventures in the upcoming months. This year really has been absolutely fantastic for me so far – and believe it or not, I am past the halfway point! That certainly is daunting, though I am excited to return home and see everyone again!
Love Sarah
xox

P.S More CCT photos, and other news to come!! :)

Wow!

Hi Guys!
Wow, I just looked at my last blog entry - I had no idea it had been that long since I last posted!
I have been super busy in the last two months, so I will tell you a bit about May and June in this post, and then I will write again this week, telling you about the Cross Canada Tour, which honestly was the most amazing trip of my life! So, no suspense whatso ever...

When I last wrote, I was preparing to move to my second family. Now, I am preparing to move out of my second family, and into my third! My time spent here with Kathy, Pat, Krystine, Greg, Vanessa, Kyle and Jonathan, was absoulutely a blast! Because of the CCT I was only really here for one month, but even then, I really really enjoyed it. It was a very different experience indeed, having 5 kids in the house, and it was certainly always busy. They also have two dogs -Taz and Nikki, a cat - Cuddles, and a turtle - Mr T, along with multiple fish!

I also spoke about a rotary weekend, where we kinda 'initiated' the 7080 Outbound students. That weekend held at the Missisauga University (refered to as Erindale) was so much fun! The first thing we did was a scavenger hunt around the campus. I was paired with Kricia, my amazing Brazilian girl, and we had a fantastic time. We also placed second, thanks to the stranger we met, who helped us name 49 states of America, and Kricia's valiant muesli-bar juggling attempt.

I helped out at Lobster Fest, which is a Rotary Lobster dinner, hosted by my club in May. There were a lot of people there, and all the exchange students from Burlington, (inbounds outbounds and rebounds) helped out by selling 50/50 tickets. I was with Mille (Denmark) which was hilarious, she is a fantastic sales person ;)
I also got to eat lobster, which was cool! There was a lot left over, so we could have as much as we wanted, and while I only ate one, some people had 2,3, even 4!

Another Burlington event I attendedwas Sound of Music - a huge free music festival held in June, down by the lakeshore. That was a lot of fun, and I wasn't needed to help out there, so I just enjoyed it. I spent the first night there with Emi (outbound, France-bound on August 25th :S ) and we saw the canadian bands Mariana's Trench, and Faber Drive! I also went another night with Nicole, Eric, Jeff, Zack, and some other people from school, which was a lot of fun! We explored the rest of the grounds that night, and went on some of the rides.

And then I left on my CCT the next morning! And that, was amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G

Love you all,
xoxox

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Just a quick update:

Hi Everybody!

I have spent this afternoon packing up my clothes (which seem to have greatly multiplied) and preparing to move to my second family on Monday.
While I know I am going to miss Laurie and Terry, who I am with now, I am also very excited because my next family has 5 children! That will definitely be an experience.

This weekend I will be going to another Rotary Camp, this time along with the soon-to-be outbound students. This weekend will be more of an information session so that we can tell the Canadian students a bit about what they will be experiencing this time next year. There will be a girl from this district going to the Auckland 9920 District in August, so I am very excited for her.

Over the past month I have caught the train  into Toronto twice, with different groups of exchange students, and I have had a lot of fun. The train trip in is around an hour, so we have found all sorts of ways to entertain ourselves, and I have learnt to say some rather 'interesting' things in German and Danish.

While the weather was really beautiful last week it seems to have taken a turn for the worst this week, and the temperatures have been all single digits with a lot of rain. Apparently this is normal spring weather though, and the sunshine earlier was too good to be true. But, not long until Summer...

In summer I will be taking a Rotary trip across Canada, leaving Burlington on the 20th of June, and not returning until the 20th of July. A lot of the students from my district will be going, as will many students from other districts, so I cannot wait to meet them. I was posted the itinerary a few days ago, and it looks very full on. Some of the many exciting things we will be doing include seeing the Calgary Stampede, and being in Ottawa for Canada Day!

Thanks so much,
Sarah.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

On Being Slack...







Hello!

I am sorry that my initial plan to write once a week has completely fallen through, but I think that now a more realistic aim is once a month. I seem to be so busy, and it isn’t easy to find enough time to update my blog.

So, as per usual, a lot has been happening since I last wrote.
I now feel well and truly settled in, and this is beginning to seem like normal life now. It is weird however to think that I have been here for 3months already, as it feels like just yesterday!

So, spring has well and truly arrived in Burlington. Apparently this is very early for spring, and the weather we are having at the moment is rather unusual – it has gone up as high as 25 degrees Celsius! Of course, being a crazy New Zealander, I thought that this weather meant that the freshly melted pool would be perfect for swimming in… it turned out to be 12.5 degrees, which while not deathly cold, wasn’t ideal. Let’s just say that I haven’t been back in since. I have attached a video of my swim anyway.

But the weather really is great. The daffodils are out now, and I have been playing football (Gridiron) on the turf most lunch times at school. It’s funny, because this school doesn’t have a field like Howick does. Instead, there is an artificial football pitch, surrounded by a running track and bleachers. Full stop. I guess it is low maintenance, but there is something odd about the feeling of plastic grass underneath your feet.

So, about two weeks ago I attended the “Tim Hortons Camp”, with all of the other exchange students. We stayed there from Friday through to Sunday, and had lots of fun. We played heaps of basketball and rugby, and just hung out in general. We played pool, and messed around with the dress ups (an old favourite of mine :P ).
We also did some scheduled activities, like High-Ropes climbing, painting tiles, and star gazing (despite the noted lack of stars). It’s funny how close I feel to the other Exchange students, after only having seen some of them 3 times. These people really have become my family for this year, and I am utterly terrified just thinking about what will happen when they all leave. But – no point thinking about that now.

Then, last Friday, I had my school prom! I had been planning on wearing my black and purple Senior Honours dress, but then out of the blue, I found (and fell in love with) another dress. So, I bought and wore it. Kaley’s friend Michelle came over to do my hair and makeup, and then Megan Knights and her bf Mike picked me up. We drove to another friends house, where a group of us met, and got a limo :D. I only knew Megan before then, but I ended up making lots of new friends that night, and sat and danced with them all night.

Tomorrow night I will be temporarily moving to another host family, just for the week while Laurie is in Cuba. And then, a few days after she returns I will be going to Florida with her! So I am very excited about that, more details to follow.

Lots of Love
Heidi
xxx

Saturday, March 20, 2010

March!






Hi Everyone!

Wow, time seems to have gone by so fast, I can't believe that it has been a month since I wrote on my blog, and nearly two months that I have been in Canada! A lot has happened since I last wrote, and the snow has all melted, in fact this past week it has been up around 10 degrees Celsius!

While I do miss the snow, I can't wait for summer to come. On the last weekend of February Kirsten (the girl who will be coming to Auckland in July) invited me up to her 'cottage' to go skiing. That was heaps of fun; we ate beaver tails and Poutine, and made a snow fort. We also watched Canada win the Gold Medal Hockey Game - it was a truly Canadian weekend.

I went to a Rotary dinner for all of the clubs in Burlington, where 'Paul Harris Awards' were presented. It was a very interesting evening, and the guest speaker was Fergie Jenkins, a Canadian baseball player. While he is now retired, it was fascinating listening to him speak, and I really enjoyed it. All of the exchange students from Burlington got a photo with him, and a signed baseball. It was a great evening though, and I enjoyed speaking to the other Rotary members.

On the weekend, I went bowling with Nicole and Meaghan, some of my friends from school. That was good fun, and I didn't fail quite as miserably as last time. (Though it isn't hard to do any better than that). That afternoon Mark (Aussie) and I went over to Misaki's home, and had dinner there. She had made a Japanese Sushi dish, though it wasn't like the sushi we are used too, and Mark made Lamingtons. I took a Pavlova, which actually turned out okay, believe it or not! It was a little mushy on the inside, kinda like mouse, but it was pretty good.

Then, last Friday I went to a 'Blue Rodeo' concert with Laurie, her sister in-law, and her niece. Blue Rodeo is a Canadian band, and they sing kinda country music, kinda slow rock. It was great though, and I loved it! They sang some really nice songs, and I am going to have to get a CD of their music.

On Saturday Terry took Misaki, Mark and I to see a Hamilton Bulldogs Hockey game. The Hamilton Bulldogs are in the league below the NHL, and it was a fantastic game to see. They were tied at the end, so the game went into overtime, and then into a shootout. Apparently it is quite rare to see a shootout, so that was really exciting. That atmosphere at the game was awesome, and we had great seats, very close to the rink. It was my first Hockey game, and Misaki's too, and we all loved it! We got to have this week off school, for 'March Break'. I guess it is kinda like the

Term 1 Holiday, but this is all they get until summer... NZ has much better school holidays! I went bowling with Nicole and Jordan (friends from school), and then we went and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D, it was a pretty awesome movie, I really enjoyed it. We got to the movie early, so guess what we did... more bowling! The way I am talking, I'm sure you guys are going to think that the only thing people do in Canada is bowl! I have been more times this year than the rest of my life put together! Well, close to it anyway...

Then, on Thursday Julie (a woman from the Burlington North Rotary Club) picked me up, and took me and Misaki along with her and her daughters to see her Aunt Noelle and Uncle Raymond who live on a farm, and make their own Maple Syrup. It was quite a long car ride up there, about 370km, but it was worth every minute. I had an amazing time! It took us nearly all day Thursday to get up there, as we stopped to see several of Julie's relatives. When we got there we went out to the barn (exactly like the ones on Farmville :P. In the barn were two massive horses, the top of their backs were higher than my head! They are work horses, and Raymond uses them when he is tapping the Maple Trees. There were also 3 cats in the barn, who Raymond said don't ever come into the house, they are purely barn cats. On Friday we got up and had Maple Syrup on French Toast, before getting dressed up warmly and heading out into the bush. We took the Quad-Bike, and it was quite a way out. We headed out to the 'Sugar Shack', which is where Noelle and Raymond make boil down the sap into maple syrup. It was a small hut that they had built by hand, in the middle of the maple forest. It was very picturesque, and I loved it there. Raymond showed us how to tap the trees, and then took us for a walk around the forest, showing us the different types of maple, and which trees are the best. He has had this farm for about 11 years now, and said that he knows each tree off by heart. We got back to the sugar shack around lunch time, and Noella had made some chilli for us to have. It was really good, and warmed me right up. Then we went outside to the fire, and began to boil down some maple syrup into taffy. We then poured the Taffy onto some snow Noella had saved for us, and ate it. And, it was amazing. It tasted so, so good. We then boiled it down even more, and made it into sugar cakes, which Noella and Raymond gave us to take home. I haven’t started eating mine yet, but I am sure it will be incredible. I was really sad to leave this morning, as I had had such an incredible time. We left at about 9am this morning, and were home for around 1pm, which wasn't too bad.

School again on Monday, something I am beginning to get used too. It still feels weird going to school and not seeing my friends, but I have made lots of new friends, which is good! I have also begun to get used to the amount of homework we get given! Nearly every night we get homework, and I am very glad I will not be getting Credit for it, because I am sure my grades would not be so great. Saying that however, each test I do is better than the last.

I miss you all lots, Love Sarah. xoxox

Thursday, February 25, 2010

One Month!




Well, on Wednesay the 24th of February, I had been in Canada for exactly one month.
It's scary to think that I have been here that long, as it only feels like 2 weeks at the max.
However, I have also fallen behind on my blog(s). Which is rather pathetic, as this is only, what, my 6th entry? Anyway, I will do my best to keep up from now on.

School is good. While I do miss being able to make those personal jokes, and laugh around in class with my friendlings, I am still having fun. Everyday I meet new people, and slowly I am starting to remember everybody's name! And, as an added bonus, I didn't get lost at all this week! Although, when I was getting lost it wasn't because I didn't know where to go, it was because I didn't know where I was to begin with, as it all looked similar. Hopefully I have got the hang of it now.
One thing I notice that is really different about school here, is the classwork vs. homework. At Howick we do lots of work in class, writing paragraphs, doing quizes, answering questions, e.t.c. Here, the teacher will read to you, or get you to take notes, and then set all exercises as homework. So, I think I have had more homework these past few weeks than the entire of year 11!
We have started reading 'A Catcher in the Rye' in English, (I have finished it)
and it is actually a relatively good book! I had heard that it was very out of date and boring, but after Shukov anything is interesting - this included!

Last weekend I went skiing with Misaki, Emma and Book (an exchange student from Thailand). It was lots of fun, although the skiing was nothing compared to Cardrona; the runs were much shorter, and the queues were longer. However, it was still fun too get out and ski, and hang out with them. We also saw 'Valentine's Day', the movie together, which was fun. I thought the movie was a lot like 'Love Actually', only I prefer 'Love Actually'.

Infact, since I have been here I have been to the movies quite a bit.
Laurie, Kaley and I went to see 'Wolfman' last week, and then Laurie and I saw 'Shutter Island' last night. While I won't say too much, I didn't like Shutter Island, I felt very cheated after it, they tricked me!!

We had the Outbound Announcement Day last Saturday, where the Canadian Exchange Students find out where they are going to be next year. It was very suspenseful, and everyone was very excited. Kirsten Hentschel is going to be coming to New Zealand in July which she is very excited about, as am I. While we know she will be in Auckland for sure - somewhere between Pukekohe and the Harbour Bridge, I can't wait to find out where exactly she will be staying, hopefully near Howick, so you guys can all show her around!
After the Announcement Ceremony, many of us went bowling together. I was in a bowling lane with Mille (Denmark), Aurelien (France), Geoff (France), Dario (Switzerland), and Mark (Australia). Sadly, I was by far the worst bowler there, not getting a single strike, and filling up the scoreboard with zero after zero. It was fun though, despite my... 'interesting' score.

Anyway, sorry this is so fragmented, I am trying to catch you up on everything that has been happening, and trying to remember it at the same time!
I miss you guys,
Sarah.
xxx

Friday, February 12, 2010

Schoolio...



Hi there!
Believe it or not, as of this Wednesday, it has been 3 weeks since I left New Zealand, and as of this Saturday, 3 weeks that I have been in Canada. 1/17 of my year!!! This is unbelievable; the time seems to have gone so fast! I am being sure to keep busy, as that distracts me from all you awesome people back home. So, even since last Sunday I have been busy….
On Sunday the 7th February, the SuperBowl was played. Misaki and her host-sisters invited me over to their house to watch the game along with a couple of friends. As a New Zealand girl, I had no idea what the SuperBowl was. It came as quite a shock to me to see how worked up over it people were getting. It turns out that the SuperBowl is one of the biggest North American sporting events of the year, and is an American Football match. This year the Colts and the Saints had made it into the finals, and while everyone was sure that the Colts would win, the Saints pulled their game together, and won! However, despite watching the game, I still don’t have any idea how it is played, so if you want any more detail than that, Wikipedia it. It was really interesting watching the game, and the halftime show was awesome - The Who played, and they put on a fantastic show. After watching that, we all watched Madagascar on DVD, I am sure that every time I watch it I love it a little bit more. <3 King Julian…
Then, on Monday I had my first day at school. I had forgotten just how terrifying would be, starting at a school where I knew no-one. But, as always, it turned out that I had nothing to fear. Everyone was really nice, and I think that I will really enjoy all of my classes. School here is rather odd though, only 4 classes per semester, and the same schedule, with all 4 classes, everyday. Each class is about 1hour and 20mins, which is a long time (esp. in religion)! I have my first three classes all in a row, and then I have about 40mins off for lunch, before I go to my fourth class. School starts at 8.10 in the morning – I know, torture! However it ends at 2.20, which isn’t so bad.
I have World History first period, with Miss Ianni. She seems like a fantastic teacher, and so far I am really enjoying her class. Second period is Drama. While it is relatively fun, it is nothing compared to Howick’s drama department! I do miss all you Year11 Drama kids! Third period I have English, with Ms Sarjas. At the moment we are looking at short stories (believe it or not, I prefer Sonnets!?!), and ways in which you can interpret them. Apparently we will be moving onto a novel study of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ later in the semester, which is apparently a quintessential Canadian book. First comes Love, then comes Marriage, then comes LUNCH! Ok, so maybe just lunch on its own. They have a cafeteria where we eat, but you are allowed to leave the school grounds to eat if you want. Meaning that if you live across the road, or have a car, you can do what you want. Apparently you can buy food there, but I have been taking my own lunch – Cheese and Marmite (have to represent NZ) sandwiches. I know, shock horror, a normal lunch. Sorry guys, no cornflakes and coconut (yet). I am really enjoying my sandwiches, though it is a vague reminder of Singapore, processed cheese on white bread… Anyway, fourth period is World Religion. I started off in Mr Eves’ class, but as there were too many people in the class I have been transferred to Mr Macdonald’s class. So far all we have studied is Christianity, and Mr Macdonald is a devout Christian, making us pray from the bible before each class. Then, after school I catch the 11 bus to the Appleby station, before transferring to the 10 West, and catching that bus all the way home.
On Tuesday, Mille (a Danish Exchange Student) and her Host Father picked me up from school, and took me and Misaki back to their house. When we got there we had Ice Cream and Cookies ( =D ) for afternoon tea, before her host parents drove us into a restaurant to meet us with the Exchange Students for Kricia’s (from Brazil) 18th Birthday. We met at the Mandarin, a restaurant that has Chinese style food, as a buffet. Mille was very excited to be a part of my first ‘Mandarin Experience’ – apparently it is her favourite place to eat. We had lots of fun there, although I ate a lot – it’s surprising that I didn’t explode, and spray my organs all over the room! In the evening Misaki’s host sister Ashley picked us up, and dropped me home. The evening was heaps of fun, and I enjoyed seeing everyone again.
Since then, I have just been settling into a school routine. Corpus Christi has their ‘semi-formal’ tonight, a school dance. I didn’t hear about it until Tuesday, by which point it was too late to get tickets etc. This is quite a shame but apparently this is not their major dance; ‘Prom’ and other dances are still coming up, so I haven’t missed out entirely.
Anyway, time for dinner now (steak – om nom nom).
I miss you all,
Sarah.
xxx

Monday, February 8, 2010

Camp Wanakita!




Hi Everyone!

I have been very busy over the last week, but I have had heaps of fun!
On Saturday we got up early(ish), and drove south. We went down past Niagara Falls, and across the border America. Despite having purchased a Multi-Entry Visa, I still had to have my passport taken inside and checked, and I had to pay extra – rather infuriating. I didn’t buy too much, but I did manage to get a pair of Chucks for only $20US, which is around $30NZ! I was pretty pleased with that purchase! We had lots of fun, and I can now say that I have been to New York State!

On Sunday morning I left the house at 6.30am, and Terry drove me to Emi Johnson’s house. From there her dad took Emi, Misaki and I to Milton, where we got on the bus bound for Wanakita, along with 30 odd other students. The bus ride took around 3 hours, but before we knew it we were at Camp Wanakita. We went and set up our cabins, before going down to the lake to build our quintzees. We had to make a big mound that night, which was hard work, and we had to go back in the dark after dinner to get them finished! We also started learning to cross-country ski that day.
The next day we started to dig out the quintzees, learnt how to snowshoe, and went for a big cross country ski, across the lake!! It was so beautiful, it was very exciting, the idea of skiing on ice. Half of us slept in the quintzees that night, though I waited until Tuesday night.
On Tuesday we had to make ourselves lunch, and pack it into our bags before heading off on our snowshoe trek! It was lots of fun, and we walked through the woods for 6 hours, until we reached a tiny waterfall, that is partially frozen. The woods were incredible; it looked just like we were walking into Narnia. We also had lots of fun shaking the trees that people were standing under, and making snow fall on them. Our instructor showed us a moose carcass that he had found just a week before! He said when he found it there were wolf tracks all around it, and it had been entirely eaten, all that was left was the skull, backbone, rib cage, and the fur. Everything else had been eaten. We got to see rabbit tracks and fox tracks as well!
That night I got to sleep in the quintzee! It was made for 4 people, but we had to fit 5 girls in there, which was a bit of a squish. There was Kirstin, a Canadian outbound; Tammi, a Canadian outbound; Mickie, a German; Mille, a Danish girl and then me. We were packed in very tightly, so we all had to lie on our sides. It wasn’t at all cold, but the ground was pretty hard, and a good night’s sleep was not had.
Then on Wednesday we all packed up, and split into two groups - one group got to break down the quintzee, the other got to go Tobogganing. I chose tobogganing, which was so much fun!
After that we all got back on the bus, and began the drive back home. I still can’t believe that the weekend went by so quickly; it didn’t feel like I was there for 3 nights.
Thursday, the day after Wanakita, I went snowboarding with Misaki, Emma and Ashley. None of us had snowboarded before, so it was definitely an adventure. I had lots of fun, although I think I spent about 2/3 of the time on my butt.

I miss you all,
Sarah.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Burlington, Week One.




Well, a lot has been happening since I arrived here nearly a week ago...

I spent most of sunday unpacking my bags, and getting settled in. I hadn't actually realised how much stuff I had brought, so it took longer than I had expected to get my clothes all put away in the drawers. That afternoon I went out to the supermarket with Terry (my host-dad), to pick up a few things for dinner (or supper, as they call it here). The supermarket was pretty cool, I have to say. It was a lot bigger than New World or Foodtown, and everything was sold in larger amounts than you could normally buy in NZ. One thing I found fascinating, was that every thing there was labelled in bothe English and French! I was very confused at first, as to why a pie was called a 'pie-tarte' instead of just a 'pie'. I did figure it out eventually...
Terry's son and his family came over for dinner, so I got to met them which was lovely, and then their kids Ben (2years old) and Sarah (4months old) stayed the night.

It was nice having the kids around, and we spend Monday playing with them, and watching 'Mickey Mouse' and a Canadian kids show "Toopy and Binoo" - look it up
:P Sandra Strauss from the Burlington North Rotary Club came over in the afternoon, to see how I was doing, and also to drop off some clothes left behind by a previous exchange student, Shauna from Australia. There were mountains of sweaters and hoodies, which I am sure will be great, as it is very very cold here.

On Tuesday I had an appointment at Corpus Christi, the school will be going too. I picked my 'courses': English, History, World Religion, and Drama. I was given a tour around the school, which is three storeys high, but not as big as Howick College. It is only two/three years old, and only about 900 students go there. They have the American lockers!!!I don't actually start school until Monday 8th February,but it was nice to go in and get sorted out.

On Wednesday I got to sleep in, and then in the afternoon Laurie (my host-mum) took me around town. She showed me the swimming pool, the bus stop, and then took me to the Mapleview Mall, one of the biggest in Burlington. It was fun looking around there, as all of their stores are totally different to ours - The Body Shop was the only store I recognised!

Laurie and I drove into Hamilton on Thursday morning to get my school uniform - but when we got there we were told that they don't infact stock Corpus Christi Uniform, and the we needed to go to Oakville - on the other side of Burlington. It wasn't too far however, and I did get to see Hamilton! I was amazed at the choice all the schools have when it comes to uniform!! I could choose from a button up shirt, a formal shirt, or a long sleeved polo shirt, in black or white. There were three types of pants for girls, and a skirt/kilt to choose from (you think Howick had a short skirt...), and then three options when it came it sweaters - a striped rugby jersey was even available! I have the white polo shirt, a pair of pants, a skirt, and a plain sweater.. though it was very hard to choose!
I had 'Kraft Dinner' for lunch, which is one of Laurie's favourites. It is that Macaroni Cheese in a box kinda thing, and while it was nice, the powdered cheese was a little disturbing..
That evening, I got to go Iceskating with Emma, Ashley, Misaki and Jesse, some previous exchange students and their friends! It was lots of fun, and was in an Outdoor rink, something you would never find in New Zealand! I only fell over a few times, and didn't crash into anyone (not too hard, considering we were the only ones on the rink!).

This morning I got to attend my host club's Rotary meeting. They have a breakfast meeting, which started at 7.00, so Terry and I had to leave the house by 6.30 :S, far too early for my liking. However I did enjoy it, and I got to see Misaki (student from Japan) and Emi (soon to be going on an exchange) again, and meet a previous exchange student Connor, who had gone to Equador. I was introduced to lots of the Rotary members who I had only spoken too over email, so it was nice to be able to 'put a face to a name'.

I miss you all,
Sarah
xxx