school + fun = busy

I'm back again. My last weeks were very busy! I'll tell you what I did shortly. But first of all about the weather...it has been crazy. First it snows the last weekend of May and three days later it is hot, and then we had rain and it was quite cold just some days later. No constant weather, hot and cold, sometimes even within one day.
We spent our last mandatory weekend with the exchange students at the District Conference in Banff from May 28-30. At lunchtime on Friday, we carried flags in and afterwards, we got some time to go shopping in the main street in Banff! (Shopping there is really awesome) Our duty for the evening was to stand at different food stations and sign "passports" for Rotarians. That was designed for us in order to get into contact with the Rotarians and so that they would have to talk to us in order to get all the required stamps. We then spend the night in the swimming pool/hot tub at the hotel. I shared a room with Julia and Yin-Yin and the next morning, we got our yearbooks and Michel Chickwanine, a former child soldier, talked about his life. A very impressing speech! For the afternoon, we went to the Hot Springs and spent some relaxing hours there. Dinner was formal with a dance and Sunday the whole event was already over :( The same night, Stan took me to his ranch where a very cute foal was born just the night before. I got Monday off because we went hiking with our PE class in Kananaskis. The weather was really bad; really cloudy and it was drizzling the entire time; we couldn't even see down from the top. We also had to walk through snow and I was just very thankful that I wore my hiking boots.
I finally got to speak at Rotary again. Our basketballseason was a lot of fun! We lost all our games but we improved a lot and I love all my teammates. Also riding played a big role in my life. My host mum registered me for a horseshow with xrails. Therefore, I have to practice even more and now that basketball is over I have more time to ride the schoolhorse Boomer.
On June 2nd, Julia and I went to see Marco's graduation. It was the "Walking the Stage" - the students get their diplomas and somebody tells their postsecondary plans while the band on their hat gets put from the right side to the left one. It was so great to see! My favourite part was when the grads threw their hats in the air after the group pictures. The same day, we went to watch "How to train your dragon - 3D". A few days later, I went with Marco and we saw "Marmaduke". One of the worst movies I've ever seen :D.
June 5th, I got to do some more westernriding at the ranch. I love riding through little creeks and just over the meadows, and we had lunch in the middle of the cowherd :). It's just an amazing feeling and I will miss it sooo much! The vast country of Canada..........The day after, I went to the mountains with Yin-Yin and Leila where we did a trailride. That was a neat experience but it is so slow and I think I prefer English and Western ;).
The following day, I joined my second host parents for a dinner just to spend some time together and to catch up on what we did. It was nice seeing Al, my host dad, after such a long time.
The last few weeks of school we talked about climate in Science and watched "The day after tomorrow". In Design, we had to create a package for a selected toy, which was a football for me. The first step was to get some ideas, then we had to develop sketches and build the final one with cardboard. I did farely good. In gym, we went inline skating and in Social we finished talking about globalization with some movies about diseases such as AIDS. June 10 was the last day of classes, and my last day having lunch with my friends. I can't believe I did the whole year of school in a different country in a different language. It seemed like a much shorter time. I wrote my Science Final Exam on June 15 and my Social Final Part A on June 18. I had to miss the second part for the canoetrip. And on the 29 I went to school to pick up my report card. Here are the results: English 76%, Science 86%, Social 83%, Art 91%, Design 89%, Foods 92%, PE Grade10 87%, PE Grade11 64%. And now school is already over and I miss it a lot!
The weekend from June 11 to 13 was busy with riding as well. Friday, we watched the National competition at Spruce Meadows (the competition ring in Calgary) and went to Stan's ranch for night. Julia and I practiced canoeing on the lake that's right there. We slept in a little house with Natalie, Maria and their two friends and Eva and Stan stayed in the main house. It was so sunny the next day when we helped at the branding at his ranch of his cows. In the morning, we got up early and helped with the roundup on horseback. And my job for the actual branding (everybody gets a job) was to hold the bucket where they put the testikels. Iwas so grossed out in the beginning, but after a while I could even watch the procedure. Other things they did with the cows was putting the brandsign on, giving two shots, tagging the ears. They got caught with ropes around their backlegs which the cowboys did. It was such a great Albertan experience and I was able to stand it better than I thought. For the females in the afternoon, I of course didn't have a job :D. On Sunday, we all went to Spruce Meadows again. I love hanging out there.
Also I got another oppertunity to try golfing. One of Julia's club's members took her and me to a golf course and we did 9 holes. I got 2 par3, but I also lost 2 balls in the water. I don't know if golfing is ever gonna be a sport I like. June 16, her host mum took us to a German store in Calgary called Edelweiss and I bought lots of candy! That's one thing I'm looking forward to for coming back :P. It's just way better than candy here. Three days later, my host mum took me to the zoo where we got to feed the elephants and then just went around. We had a great time and very good weather! :)
And on the next day we left for the canoe trip, but I wanna start a new entry for that...