Photos Banff and Lake Louise

Glacier at Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Chateau at Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Watch the beautiful color of Lake Louise

Trees at Lake Louise

Banff

Banff Springs Hotel

at the Bow Falls

Bow River

Chipmunk

Banff and Lake Louise

My last post...one week ago. 

As usual I start with school: In PE I played American Football. Crazy sport but I liked it :). On Thursdays we go to the Fitness Center of the school and I had stiff muscles after that... Finally I finished my pop-can in Art and now I have to do a portrait of a famous person. I chose  Albert Einstein :D. Today we wrote an essay in ELA. I guess I failed because I did not know what to write about the topic. In Foods we started our new topic 'Milk products and Eggs' on Monday. We had an information meeting of 'Youth in Action'. They have a school in Kenya and they raise money for it. I have to fill out the application form until tomorrow :D. It is so stupid that you have to fill out application forms and you do not know if you can join the club or not. Maybe I also try out for photography next week. And basketball is starting in November I guess. School is getting better day by day and probably I learn every day something new about the English language :). In ELA we discussed their/there/they're, two/to/too, where/were/we're and loose/lose. One girl made a mistake about the 'he/she/it das 's' muss mit'. That makes me feeling better. And in Germany we discussed hanged/hung for a long time. And even some Canadians do not know the difference :). I forgot it - but I think a person is hanged and the picture hung on the wall. I have no mnemonic for that (Oh, I love that word). When you quote a title you have to underline it and we are writing all our essays on computers. Every student has his own account and I forgot my password so someone had to change it for me ^^. In most of the rooms we have at least one computer and all of them have internet. Our ELA teacher gave us the tip that we should use 'indeed' once in an essay :D. That makes the impression that you are totally sure what you are writing! In Art we are listening to music as well and the music is similar to German music - probably because we listen to American music :D. The school do not have a 'Vertretungsplan' and if teachers are missing someone else just appears. I take my own lunch for school and everyone is quite unhappy that we have no lunch break on Fridays but I don't care. As the school is under construction some hallways are closed. But little by little I know my ways :D. The dates on foods are different than the ones in Germany. I learned that in Foods. They have a 'best before' date which describes the day after which the food is getting worse. And for foods that they expect you to eat within 3-4 month like canned stuff they even have no dates ^^. In the changing rooms we have lockers so that you do not have to take your clothes home every time :). Many students cannot understand how I can leave my parents for one year and they ask me if I am going to go to Germany in between...

On Sunday it rained but today it is over 30 degrees *too hot*. The days are really getting shorter and it is very cold in the mornings and in the evenings! When I wear short pants for going to school I am freezing but I am really happy when I come back ;). 

And after this bunch of sentences I come to my gorgeous and amazing and overwhelming and *without words* weekend :)! We were camping in the motorhome which is very comfortable. Unfortunately, we had no water the second night. It is so great to travel without packing all the things back and forth and you can stop wherever you want to (if you have a full water tank). 

Saturday morning we spent in Banff and we visited the Banff Springs Hotel and the Bow Falls. The colour of the water is so nice :)! In the hotel they have many shops and everyone could go in there - so did we. Banff is about one hour from Calgary and the center of the Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains. At noon we drove to Lake Louise which is about 50 km from Banff. I have never seen something like that before! Very touristic and that day lots of German people, but only one hotel (called the Chateau) and a path around the lake. We had lunch inside the hotel and after that we went to the end of the lake (about 2 km). The light changed all the time and so it was really interesting and I took a lot of great photos! (I will post some next time.) On Sunday we came back and I volunteered at the 'Feed the Hungry'. I served the tables. How it worked? Here is your answer. The first setting was at 3.30pm and everyone can come to that church. There were different tables and I had table 6A with 8 seats. We served salad and the plates and when someone was finished I had to clean the seat and get a new cup for the next person. I did not have to care about getting a new guest because they brought me new ones. For the last ones they had no food left; they should change that and I felt so sorry for them! Some of them are so thankful and some just leave. On one hand it is a good event, on the other hand I guess some of them are smoking/drinking and they better should spend their money on food. 

My Rotary meeting yesterday was interesting. The speaker talked about economy and how it will ,in his opinion, develop in Canada within the next years. 

And the last days something else came to my mind: In the year of your exchange you can figure out what you really want and where your interests are. And you gain lots of experiences - good and bad ones - but however...you learn for your life. And I can see that I gain more self-confidence every single day because I have to overcome different obstacles. But doesn't THAT make me happy?! (Beside lots of other things. [Never use this word in essays - it is not specific enough.]) 

I will work on my photos now and maybe I have time to post them today. 

P.S.: Something that came to my mind; they do not use the word 'send an SMS' (even that it is English), they use 'text massaging' or just 'texting' instead. By the way - I wonder why it is aN SMS...I looked it up and try it yourself; speak the phrase and you will see that AN SMS sounds better than A SMS (probably because it is pronounced 'es-em-es' and that begins with a vocal). I got it!! :)

Tomorrow we have an AM Schedule. That means that the subjects are in the same order as on every Tuesday, but the times are like on Fridays. I guess I should post my whole timetable for you ;). I do that immediately since I am finished now! 

Take care!

Photos

My second time in Invermere

It is 8am now and in 1 hour school starts. But I get up early every morning so I have enough time to do my homework and tidy up my room. I had no homework and so lots of time is left. On Monday I changed my Math class into PE. I met my counselor Mr. Oke before school and we discussed what I can do. So we changed my Art class from period 4 into period 1 with the same teacher. We are going to play American Football in PE. I am a bit afraid 'cause I do not understand the rules^^.

Now I will start to write in chronological order:

On Thursday was Club Day. All grade 10's met in the gym (we are about 650 students) and every club had two minutes to present their work. After that you could go around and sign up for the clubs you want to join. I decided to join the Interact Club and 'Youth in Action'. I have to complete application forms and maybe you can get into the club and maybe not. I do not like this system...In ELA (That is English Language Art; there is also ESL which is English as second language) we watch the movie Rainman and yesterday one student slept - he REALLY slept :D. But our teacher was not upset at all! On Friday was our first fire alarm and I still wore my apron, everyone was relaxed and some even took their rucksacks. Our whole class lost the teacher and we had to go around the "burning" school building because we took the wrong exit I guess. Where is the sense?! I like Art; at the moment we have to draw a can to use different kinds of value and shading. Many students wear flip-flops to school - how uncomfortable! They do not know Fineliners here :D and our pencils for Art are Made in Germany!! Also lots of kitchen knifes are of Zwilling. (So that we can change the subject into 'eating' now.) Every family has got peanut butter and maple sirup - try that with pancakes and I am sure that you will like it! Everything goes into the freezer...I saw a banana in the freezer of my host parents.

On Friday after school we went to Invermere again and we watched the hockey game of my host brother. What a rough sport! On Saturday we went to Tim Hortons for having breakfast. I would call it 'Breakfast-McDonald'. I really like Bagels :). Warren left for another hockey game and Dave, Diana and I, we went for a little hike near Radium at a Canyon. After 15 minutes straight up the mountain we found the path and it was a nice walkd. Down at the river Rocky took my sock and it got a little bath...and after one and a half our we were back at the car. In the evening we had dinner at the cabin of some friends and I tried lamp - not my favorite kind of meat! On Sunday we had tomato-bacon sandwiches for breakfast = yummy. On the way back home we stopped at another Canyon and had a wonderful walk through a beautiful forest! In the evening we gave Rocky a bath and he looked really sad :(. After that he drove so crazy and ran around the whole house. Every evening he goes to bed - so cute but he looks not that happy! I forgot a thing about school: on Monday we wrote a personal response in the tech center (on the computer). In the evening I played ping-pong with a funny group of Rotarians. Yesterday was another Rotary meeting and it was soo interesting. They talked about different projects in Africa and we had another visitor of Germany. I tried to speak German with him but I guess I cannot do that anymore. I lost all the words and my grammar was just horrible. That is a horrible feeling!

The weather is still nice and the forecast for today is sunny and 29 degrees :). I have to leave for school now and I think I am ready for posting it. Yours, Bente (they pronounce it like 'Benti')

Photos of the Rockies

WorldSkills 2009

Lake Windermere

Marble Canyon

The first time in the Rocky Mountains - and I am overwhelmed!

A long and great time has passed since my last post! First to the daily routine which you could describe with the simple word "school". On Wednesday (as I already told you) the all grade 10th were at the WorldSkills Competitions. That is a big event with competitions in different kinds of trades (like hair dressing, cars, IT, construction, ...) and you can watch them. That was really interesting but it was too crowded that day because every grade 9 and 10 from every school in - at least- Calgary was there. Fortunately we could walk there and they even organized the police for us. And we had no classes that day. :) In 4 years (when you know Math you can say that it is in 2013) it is in Leipzig (when you also now Geography you can say that it is in Germany)!

In Math our teacher explained to us (a+b) * (a+b) with the so called FOIL (it means first terms, outside terms, inside terms, last terms). I doubt if the ever heard about the 'Binomische Formeln'. So we learned that and how to multiply a binomial by a trinomial and how to break brackets (sorry...which grade are we in?!!). But that is the way they do it here. All our teachers eat and drink during the lessons. A little anecdote: Our ELA teacher (I figured out that it means English Language Arts) had no motivation to teach us on Friday because we are in the third floor and it is really warm there. You have to know that every teacher has his/her own room and you just go there. So she went to Starbucks and bought a coffee. I could not believe it! [Maybe you noticed from my sentence that the weather is still nice here :)] And she talked about the differences between "there", "their" and "they're". I asked my host mum (that was still Rosemary) about this subject because I really wondered about it. She told me that lots of students have problems with that - as well as with "it's" and "its". Grade 10 students are much younger than in Germany, some of them are only 14. When I go to Rotary meetings - as I had to do today - I have to sign out at the main office and when I come b

ack I have to sign in again. It takes about 2 hours and I miss 20 minutes of Math and the whole Art-period. I had to say something on the podium again. I hate that and I always forget what I wanted to say -.- ! If you think you are mainstream when you have an 'Eastpak' you are totally wrong with that. No one here has 'Eastpak'. Last Tuesday I got my ID after I waited about 2 hours. That was horrible! but the photo does not look bad at all. I guess it is difficult to organize everything because of the 2,000 students^^. Some pupils asked me if I am from Britain :D. They say I have a British accent (which might be true) but at the same time it means that my English cannot be that bad! And I am really proud of me. When I speak I do not have to think about what I say and every day I can understand them better. Little by little I even understand the jokes (which was a really big problem at the beginning).

Thursday was my BIG DAY - the day of moving to my host family. I just started to pack my things 2 hours before my host dad picked me up but I was ready in time (I only forgot my dress and breadcrumbs for Foods). I still live near school and I have to 'climb' a mountain to go there. And it still takes me about 15 minute

s :). Many students have to take a couple of busses and it takes them about 1.5 hours. So I am a really lucky one! My new room is similar to my room at Rosemary's and there are lots of hockey posters on the walls (it is the room of Warren and he plays hockey). I like it very much. My host mum goes to an Art school and she is pretty good. Both my host dad and my host mum are very nice and I enjoy living with them. My laptop still does not work :(. But again I can use the notebook of my host parents. The keys are different (y and z are changed and all the signs have different places; but when I write on MY laptop I make lots of mistakes because I am really used to the American ones). Their puppy Rocky is sooo cute and playful! I tell you that it is annoying sometimes...but you cannot blame him. We watched a football game together but for me it is definitely stupid because I do not know and understand the rules^^.

And now I will change to my very exciting weekend: On Friday we went to the cabin of my host family. That is near Invermere at Lake Windermere 3 hours west of Calgary. The drive is really amazing - through the Rocky Mountains. I love this (nearly) untouched nature and the wildlife. We stopped at Marble Canyon for a little walk. It is so gorgeous!! (Every owner of a dog removes the excrement!) And we even saw a moose and its calf - that was the first time in my life!

The whole weekend was very relaxing. On Saturday night I had a hot spot in the whirlpool :). On Sunday night we had Smores. That is a 'sandwich' made of 2 crackers, a roasted Marschmallow and chocolate - yummy. And guess what I cooked for us...Schnitzel :D. On Monday we went back to Calgary. Wait...Monday was no school?! Oh no, Monday was Labour Day (that is like 1st May in Germany) so we had no classes ;).

Where ever you go it is "Help yourself!!" In every home you can find pops (coke, sprite, ...) and rests of foods are 'destroyed' in the sink^^. When you want to go rafting on the Elbow River you have to wear lifejackets and when you go by bike you have to were helmets - that are laws and the even control that!

My host parents play golf like mostly all people in Calgary - only I have no idea about it :D. I still have to do my laundry on my own and every morning I make my bed. The sheets are different than in Germany -> it is one blanket that can be washed and the other blanket is protecting the cold. I do not know which ones I find better...And I have to stand up with an alarm clock (never before). But that is okay. Today I was at a biiiiig 'Baumarkt'. You can buy grocery, TVs, computers, soap - everything! The cashiers put the things out of our cart and then they put it in again and we did not have to do anything! In Germany that would be wasting of money I guess. And when we left the shop they controlled whether we have the right cart :D. So do not forget your receipt! Otherwise you will get a problem.

And to school again (because I wrote the beginning yesterday but I was too tired to finish it): Explaining the German school system is very difficult. They do not have the different levels here and I cannot really explain that to someone who do not know the system. But every day I like this school system more ;). In Math it is very difficult to express what you want to say with the technical words (understanding is no problem!) and they write some things different (like * and the long division - but at the moment I keep the German way). And they have never seen 'Tintenkiller'. They were totally impressed :D!! In Foods we made cupcakes. My favorite classes at the moment are Foods and Art. In English we had the whole period (86 minutes) to go on with our books or to do other stuff; and tomorrow we are going to watch a film...that is soo boring and weird.

I think that's it for the first time and I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

More impressions

First what I did the last days: I was in downtown again and bought a Canadian SIM card. On Saturday Rosemary and I, we had a really nice walk to Sandy Beach (which is not sandy at all). That is where the last photo is made. And the weather is still good - no rain and sunshine. :)
On Saturday I went to church. I think the mass is similar to a Catholic mass (even if I never participated one)...The songs were all in English (what did you expect?). And I guess I heard something like "Vater unser" and the "Glaubensbekenntnis". And we had the Communion. And I am happy to have grape juice in Elze, I hated the wine! But I did not understand the lyrics and what the priest told. And then we had brunch at a friend of Rosemary. In the evening I met my host family (except my host father) for the first time. My mother is called Diane and she is a painter. The name of my host father is Dave and he is so nice - like all others. Warren (19 years) and Patric (I am not sure about the spelling; but I know that he is nearly 22) are my host brothers. Warren goes to a hockey school somewhere in the mountains and Patric studies outside of Calgary. So they are both not at home. But maybe they come over a weekend and they told me that I will see some hockey games (so hockey here in Canada always means ice hockey). And they have a puppy called 'Rocky'. He is very cute and playful! I can still walk to school and it is about the same distance as now.
Yesterday at school I had the first times in the noon and my first lunch break; but I forgot my lunch at home. I made a so delicious sandwich! :( But I got an apple of a friend of mine. And in school I have some problems with understanding the technical words. Fortunately, I have my electric dictionary!
And now to my observations concerning Germany-Canada: The carts (brit. trolley) only have two wheels that can turn around. That is really uncomfortable. The cashiers asked us today if we need help with taking the bags in our car (because we had lots of bags), that is so nice. :) And you only get back the notes from the cashiers, the coins come out of a machine. :D
At Rosemary's I have to do my laundry by myself but it is not too bad. And every night I make a salad for supper.
In WCHS (Western Canada High School) are lots of different cultures, most students are from Asia. And the way of teaching depends really on the teacher. In Math our teacher only stands in front of us and we have to write down what he does on his 'electrical blackboard'. I can tell you that it is really boring this way. In foods we only have an outline for each topic and we have to decide what we do in which lesson. In Arts we do lots of different drawings in each period. And in English we discuss the questions and then we can read on ourselves. We do not have to raise our hands when the teachers ask questions...But in my opinion it is an disadvantage because very shy pupils cannot say anything. When the bell rang there is an announcement which period is next so you know where you have to go (or whether there is an assembly or whether you have in your homeroom). And the teachers tell us how we have to behave when there is a lock-down (they even practice that). Another funny thing is that in every room is a telephone. :D And today our Math teacher AND our ELA teacher got a call. And then they phone. It is good because the secretaries in the office do not have to come to the room. They just call when they want to see a student. That is really designed with people in mind! Here are no electric revolving doors. You have to move them by yourself...
Tomorrow all grade 10 students go to WorldSkills. It is an international competition and we are in different trades. I will write about it when I exactly know what it is about (that means when I went there :D).
Ask me for my address (so on Thursday I definitely move to my family)!
Take care of yourselves! (I knew that you use that at the and of a letter but I didn't know exactly what it means. My electric dictionary told me that it means "Mach's gut!")