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!