November/December in CANADA!!

Finally, I have time to update my blog. It has been a long time since the last post, but I have been so busy and I know that I will need a lot of time now, because so much happened. Friday, November 6th, I was at the Glenbow Museum with Vishesh. It tells the history of Alberta. At the weekend, I went on a roadtrip with Warren's hockey team. The first game was in Rimbey, not a very attractive village...Small villages here are so different from German ones: every village has an own infrastructure (school, grocery store, ...) and the houses are all made out of wood and have flat roofs. At the icerink we had Hotdogs for dinner in the parking plot. I slept in a hotel room with Dave and Diana and the next morning we left for another game in Blackfalds. It was probably the best game they've ever played. But the weekend was successful and very nice :). I sent my christmas presents to Germany, and they arrived just 4 weeks later - another success! November 10th, our Rotary meeting was in the evening at the Military Museum; the next day was Rememberance Day. It is in rememberance of the Canadian soldiers who died in order to defend the country. At school we had a Rememberance Day assembly; they choir sang and the band played and in the end we had a silent minute. The same day, we had TWO fire drills at school - why? I don't know. On Wednesday (November 11 and the actual Rememberance Day), I had a day off and met Julia and Leila to go to the Zoo. I bought a season ticket and now I can go whenever day I want to! :) It was just $34, one entrance is $12. Friday after school, I hang out with Victoria and her friends for lunch. The RC Calgary West had their Christmas Party and they invited all the exchange students to come. Everyone did a little presentation about the christmas traditions in their home countries, that was really interesting. For dinner I had very good salmon and we danced. The party was over too fast, at least for us exchange students. 12 o'clock and we are supposed to go?! :D Vishesh (India), Vini & Marco & Ana (Brazil), John (Sweden), JP & Leila (France), Julia (Switzerland)and Yin-Yin (Taiwan) were there. What a great evening! The day after, I met Ana, Vini, Marco, John and JP at Market Mall. Ana and I went shopping without the guys and when we met again I left for another hockeygame of Warren in Strathmore. They won again! November 15th, a Sunday, I went to the Zoo with Vishesh. At the Rotary meeting on Tuesday, it was the district governor's turn. He belongs to our club and took me to Waterton. In the afternoon I met Leila, John, Marco and Julia at Chinook Mall and together we watched '2012'.

Thursday was Dave's birthday and for dinner we had beef and lobster. November 20 - 22, I took Vishesh up to the cabin of Dave & Diana in Invermere. We had a hot tub both nights. I LOVE that! Saturday morning we went to Invermere for having Brunch and then went to friends, who also have a cabin up there. After a nice little walk through their community, it was time for relaxing and so we watched 'Munich' downstairs in their basement. This weekend, the keyboard of my laptop broke :( And finally, it is coming back tomorrow - that took a long time, eh??!

I went to school for 7am in order to go to the first try-out (basketball). It was so much running, I thought I didn't do too bad and I went to the next practice on Tuesday after school, but on Wednesday it turned out, that I didn't make the team...

November 24th, I spoke at Rotary after a loooong time and I even had pictures to show them - much easier. :) John was at my meeting and our speakers talked about the Grey Cup Festival. That is like the Stanley Cup, just for Football. The final was in Calgary (they didn't make the semifinals). All the exchange students participated in the parade in downtown and I watched the game on Sunday afternoon with my family and some of their friends. Saskatchewan 27:28 Montreal. They lost in the last second because of the 13th player (it was supposed to be the fans, but they turned out to be the 14th player in the end :D). The last field goal of Montreal missed, and because of the additional player they got a 10-yard-penalty and repetition, and of course, this time, they made it and so they won, after they were behind ALL game!! It was pretty dramatic :D And I turned into a Riderfan (Saskatchewan) because of the parade; everyone was green ;). Vini stayed over at my house for the weekend and on Friday night we hung out with Augusta (Norway), Anne (Netherlands) and Vishesh. The parade was on Saturday in the morning and we had a lot of fun standing on a truck and waving to the fans. We went to the Zoo and then wanted to watch a movie, but because it was so crowded we decided to go to my house and play Pool. Marco stayed over this night as well and the next day, Vishesh, Anne and Augusta came over again. And again we played Pool. After they left, the game started. That was an exciting weekend, I can tell you!!

And then it was already December and the change to my second host family came closer. So I packed my things - how am I supposed to just take 2 suitcases home?! I have to get rid of a loooooot of stuff. o.O This week, it was Vishesh at my Rotary meeting. My last dinner was salmon, I wanted to have that!! :) My second host mum, Barb, picked me up after dinner on Wednesday, December 2nd. That was the first time, I ever met my host dad, Al, who is really nice. The house is in Mount Royal, one of the most beautiful communities with the biggest and oldest houses. Our house is quite new and not that huge. Again, I have my own bathroom and a king bed in my room. I unpacked all my bags that night and feel home. After school on Thursday, it snowed for the first time this year, I went to the train station and met Ana, Marco and Vishesh for the RC Calgary South (Ana's Club) meeting. It was very different from my meetings, but very nice ;). We spent the afternoon at her house, watching movies. Friday, I went to Marco's Rotary meeting. I went to his house and slept over. He didn't remember where is apartment is and so we went around for 1.5 hours - in the cold! It was at least -17 degrees and windy o.O For Vishesh's birthday party on Saturday, his host dad drove us there. It was a spontaneous sleep-over at Marco's house. But it worked better than I thought, without having ANYTHING! We watched movies and talked and slept over at his counselor's house. Barb picked me up after breakfast on Sunday and I helped out at the Senior's Xmas Party of our RC. On my next Rotary meeting, I had Marco and Vishesh visiting me. On Friday, Wing-Kee picked me up at my house and we left for the big hiking/snowshoeing tour at Rogers Pass. Vishesh and his daughter Victoria came, amongst another family with 3 children (two boys my age and a girl grade 6). We arrived at 10 and prepared everything for the walk. At 10.30 we left and after half an hour we came to the alpine hut. It was freezing cold and we started the fire places. The 'bedrooms' were upstairs and we prepared the beds and went to bed. I left on almost all my clothes (including my hat), because it takes long until it heats up. I slept quite good and the next morning we had fancy sandwiches for breakfast. All the kids played outside in the snow! That was a lot of fun :) In Calgary it was -30 degrees over the weekend; luckily, it was just -15 where we were. In the evening we had turkey and played games, and then went to bed. This night was much warmer. We had no electricity and just an outhouse, the drains were frozen so we couldn't put the water down, instead we put it in buckets. We melted the snow over the five in big pots for drinking water. :)

The next week, nothing special happened, except for the last day of school on Friday, December 18th. Btw, my new host family has a very cute cat named Moby!! :) I never saw a cat making as much noise...

I believe this is a good time, to start with another entry, just about the christmas time. Don't you think?!