Week 18: ❅ CANADIAN CHRISTMAS ❅

Week 18:

On Tuesday (Christmas eve) my hostdad, my hostbrother and me went to Kingston to celebrate Christmas with their relatives.
During my family was opening their presents and celebrating 'Weihnachten', I skyped them and had a chance  to talk to my whole family for a few minutes. That day I got very homesick and cried, but my hostsiblings calmed me down.. They are so caring and lovely and they will always be my siblings to me.
At night we went to a huge family party. There were around 40 people in one house and these were only relatives from my hostmum! They were all very nice and tried to talk to me and I, I had a good night!

On the 25th in the morning, we got up very early to unwrap our presents. That day I didn't feel as homesick as the day before, because we celebrate Christmas on the 24th. I got many presents from my hostfamily and had a very good time We stayed at home with over 20 relatives for the whole day. At night my hostsiblings played the guitar and sang for everyone. It was great! They are so talented!

We also stayed at my hostfamily's cottage in Kingston for 1 night and I took a nice walk on Loughborough lake with my hostfather. The whole lake was frozen and the ground was covered by a thick layer of snow. Even the trees were frozen, it looked like a Winter Wonderland!!

Me in a snowmobile outfit

Me on the lake

Loughborough lake

frozen tree

The next day we went back to Niagara Falls and I spend some days with my hostbrother and my friends from highschool.

Week 17: Myer Christmas Week and Santa!!

Week 17:

The last week at A.N. Myer was fun because there was a dressing theme for every day in the last week. On Thursday, we had Pajama day because Friday was off. I came to school in my Onesie ! :)
There were no classes all day and the teachers played movies in their classrooms or played boardgames. There also was an assembly where some students sang or played the guitar.
They even hired a Santa Claus and I took a picture with him!

On Tuesday I went to a Rotary Christmas dinner. I had some very good food and one Rotarian dressed up as Santa Claus and gave me and the other exchange student a present!

In the weekend im met my friends, went iceskating and prepared for Christmas. Because there isn't much entertainment in Niagara Falls, boys go iceskating with girls for a date. It was so much fun because I saw many friends from my school at the rink.

Janessa and me

Katie and me at the rink

Week 16: Snow and Santa Claus Parade

Week 16:

One of the best days of my exchange was Thursday, december 12th. Two Rotarians gave me the oppurtuity to watch my first hockey game ever, and it wsa just amazing. I was so excited to watch the Niagara Icedogs play against the erie otters and I even had a ticket in the first row, behind the protecting glass. The hockey players often bumped against the glass or threw the puck against it. That was sooo exciting! I definitely need to watch another hockey game soon!!
Special thanks to the Rotarians Travis and John for inviting me to the game!

I enjoyed spending some time with my hostsister Sarah Mae who was coming home for 2 weeks. A week after, my hostbrother Robb came to stay for a week too and it was great to see them, as always.
On Friday some family members came to stay over the weekend. They brought 3 little kids with them, so we looked for some activities in the weekend. We went to see the falls by night and drove by the christmas decorations in downtown Niagara Falls. A few days before, we had a beautiful snowstorm so everything was covered in snow. On Saturay I had to get  up early to go to the Santa Claus Parade. It had over -15°C outside and i needed to wear 2 T-shirts, to sweaters, two coats, furry boots and two pairs of pants outside. I was walking behind a horse carriage with a Rotary sign. The Rotarians kids sat in the carriage because they were too young to walk for an hour. Me and Rayane handed out candy for the kids watching the parade and wished them a Marry Christmas. After all, I had fun at the parade! I came houme at about 2pm, had lunch and fell asleep for nearly 5 hours!

The horses were the best :)

That was my week.
The next update will hopefully be next Saturday.

Week 15: BUFFALO aka Rotary Weekend #3

Week 15:

All week i looked forward to the next Rotary weekend, where I can meet the best friends anyone could have. These weekends are always the highlight of a month. On Friday I stayed home because a Rotarian picked me up around noon. There would have been the Holiday House Tour with all the fancy houses decorated in Christmas stuff, but I was away all weekend so I couldn't see them.

At noon me and Rayane were picked up from our houses and were driven across the border to Buffalo. First stop was the "Ralph Wilson Stadium" in Buffalo. All the exchange students and some Rotarians met there and we got a tour through the stadium. We saw the field, the seats, the fitnesscenter, the indoor training field and the gym for the football players. We even went to the lockers, where all the famous football players had all of their stuff in. Ther was a football player coming to get some of his stuff but I was too shy to ask him for a pictue. :(

Fitnesscenter

the lockers

After that we had dinner in a restaurant and finally went home to our hostfamilys. I was very lucky and stayed with some of my best friends Carole and Ana in Carole's hostfamily. They were very welcoming and so nice! Later in the evening, Carole showed us her school and we visited some friends of hers. 

On Saturday, we all went in the Buffalo City Hall. We went to the very top and could see whole Buffalo. To be honest Buffalo is not one of the most beautiful cities in North America ;)

In the afternoon we went Ice skating in the Rotary rink! It was so much fun, even though some of the exchange students had never done that before. They played Christmas songs, we met some noce new people and it was snowing. Perfect!

Carole, Marcos and me iceskating

We had a little party in the evening at a Rotarian's house. All the exchange sutdent were there and we said goodbye to the tree of us who will be leaving in a couple of weeks.

On Sunday it was time to say goodbye to some of the exchange students for more than 3 months. The whole day was very emotional and it made me sad to be seperated from my "second family" for such a long time. I can't even express how much I love these guys and I reallly can't wait to see them again. They mean the world to me. 

Week 14: Myer-friends and Montreal!

Week 14:

I felt better very fast after my friend left and tried to connect with friends, who weren't that close before. On Friday i went to a friend's house and we had a "girl's night". It was the first time that I did something like this and I enjoyed it very much. Plus this really nice girl will be my hostsister after christmas. She had 4 friends and me over and we ate some pizza, made brownies and just chatted a bit ;)

My future hostsister ♥

Girls night!!

On Saturday morning I had to get up very early, it was painful! At half past seven we headed out to Kingston to stay over the night before we finally got to Montreal. We didn't drive to Montreal in one go because the drive takes 7 hours! So we got up early again on Sunday and drove the last 3 hours until we finally arrived in the province Quebec!!!! The first thing we did was stopping at Tim Hortons. We went inside and started ordering in English and the french-canadian girl at the counter hardly understood us and gave me an XL-tea instead of a medium one and a coffee instead of a hot chocolate! It was so funny! She also forgot to charge the muffin I got but my hostdad reminded her.
When we arrived in Montreal, we did a little bit of shopping till the afternoon. I was a little bit confused, because in some shops employees talk to you in English and in other shops they talk in French. I mean, I know French quite well in theory, but hearing the Quebecois talk is so hard to understand. When I went to "American Eagle", there was an employee like always standing at the front and starting to talk in one go and sooo fast that i paniced and just said "Si!" without thinking. Here in my highschool, I have Italian Class every day so I am more used to speak Italian than French! I felt sooo embarassed ! But fortunately she didn't hear it... I hope so ! :)

Since I saw the first houses of Montréal, I fell in love with the city and I think it is (excuse me) more interesting than Niagara Falls. I just love French and I love big Cities so Montréal would have been perfect for an exchange, like I thought from the beginning. I'm a little sad that I didn't end up there like I wished I would, but Rotary did everything to find a spot for me and they are making me have a good time in Ontario so I shouldn't complain. I love Rotary and I can't say how thankful I am to be where I am today. Without them, I would have never had such a unique experience.

In the afternoon, we went to a church and listened to my hostsister singing. She attends university in Montreal and has also joined a choir when she came here.It was lovely to listen and I thought back about me being in my school quoir and honestly I miss it! They even sang a song that I sang with my quoir back in Austria.
Now I am sitting in my hostsisters appartment studying for my Italian class because I am a good girl! ;)
Even if my marks don't matter that much in my exchange, I am trying to keep my 97% in Italian class up!
Tomorrow I will be back at home going to school as always. I can't believe that living in Canada would ever be normal to me. But now it is and I can call it my second home. It makes me so proud to be a part of Rotary and Canada, life is good!

See you soon.

Week 13: hard times but I CAN FEEL AMERICAN CHRISTMAS! ♥

Week 13:

I thought that my life was perfect and everything will be alright for my whole exchange, but of course in the most perfect moment in my exchange something happened. I had made many friends in my new highschool but  it is always hard to ask people to hang out If you're a little shy as I am. But I knew that I always had my best friend Ayse by my side. Well this week, she told me that she will move back to Montreal in a week, which made me very sad because we got very close in the past weeks. At that time I felt homesick and even wanted to go home for a short time but I started to realize that I would get closer with some of my friends and maybe meet new people so I started to be optimistic. Eventhough I lost my best friend, life is not over and I need to carry on enjoying my exchange.

At this time of the year everyone prepairs themselves for Christmas. Today, my hostmum decorated 2 christmas trees in our house. They look as perfect as in a Decoration-Magazine, I swear! Also everyone does Christmas shopping so there were many people in the malls this weekend. I slept at my friends house to have a great last weekend with her and we enjoyed spending time with eachother.
It also snowed for the first time and every shop plays christmas music. I AM SO READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

Week 12: Camping IN THE COLDNESS!

Week 12:

The schoolweek was ordinary as always but the weekend was exciting again. There was an event happening called "Fathers and Kids Weekend", organized by an ex-rotarian. It's a weekend where him and all his relatives (no women) meet and spend some time together. They rent a Mennonite Scout Camp and spent their weekend there. We stayed in little bungalows and there was also a main house where we cooked and played games.

On Saturday we went for a 5 hour hike in the North. It was so beautiful, we first walked through the woods and then saw a beach not made of sand but of white stones. The water of Georgian Bay was so clear and blue, I would have loved to just jump in it!
There were also many rocks along the beach and we climed under and over them. It was a neat experience and I got the oppurtunity to see a very beautiful part of Canada.

                                     

Week 11: CN Tower (Toronto) and FOOTBALL

Week 11:

The past weekend, I went to Toronto to see the big city again and just do some shopping as always :)
It was very cold, and cold for an Austrian means usually VERY COLD. The wind was so strong that me and my friend Ayse couldn't even walk properly!

First we went to the CN-Tower, maybe the most important spot to go if you visit Toronto. It was a cool experience, but very expensive so I n my oppinion you should only do it once. For me and my friend it was over 60$ and we couldn't even go to the very top of the CN-tower. We had a great view though because the elevator was made of glass and I could see wonderful Toronto from 500 metres above. On the top half of the floor was made of glass, it was CRAZY! The outside-viewing point was closed though because the wind was so strong.

I was where the red circle is
The green one is the top

Glass floor

me on the glass floor

Crazy view from the Tower

 

After that we also went shopping in the Eaton Center, a very big shopping center, which is well known in Toronto. It was already decorated for Christmas! There were so many people in the shoppingcenter but I enjoyed the enourmus variety of different shops, cheap and expensive. 

It was so good to be in the city again and I can't wait to visit Toronto with my family back in Austria!

Eaton Center, Toronto

Ayse and me :)

I also saw my first football game! The Marauders is the football team from my school, A.N. Myer and I watchedthe seniors (Grade 11&12) play against Saint Mike's highschool. It was very cold and it even started to snow. But I loved it, because I felt like in an american movie! The cheerleaders were cheering during the game, everyone was dressed in the school-colours (Purple and White) and students painted their faces in purple. Unfortunately, our team lost nd some football players even cried. They were very upset because it was the championship (last game) and they lost. Even though i didn't get what was going on in the game, it was fun to watch. 

Myer Marauders and Saint Mike's football team

That's it really :) In 2 weeks I will visit Montréal, it will be GREAT!

Till next week!

Week 10: My first trick or treating!

Week 10:

It was the week of Halloween and my highschool A.N. Myer planned a "Halloween-theme week". On one day, the myer students were asked to wear orange and black for Halloween, there was a cake-selling in the cafeteria and a party.

On Thursday, I celebrated my first Halloween. I carved a pumpkin and dressed up for school. My costume was a doctor like at the Rotary weekend. Unlike Austria, nearly all north American students dress up for halloween in the craziest costumes I have ever seen. There was even a school-contest for the best costume at Myer!
In the evening I went trick or treating with my best canadian friend. I am sure we were the oldest kids asking for sweets. The kids we saw wher enot over 8 years old. :)
I counted my candy, I got over 160 chocolate bars, chips bags and candy! All the canadians were so friendly and even let their doors open to hear the kids shouting "Trick or Treat!" . I heard that the "Trick or Treaters" only go to houses which are decorated for Halloween, beccause that means that they will have some candy. It was fun and many people had their houses decorated! In my street, most of the kids come because of the huge houses. Many rich people live in my streets, so the kids already know that they get fancy sweets like apples covered with candy and chocolate or other self-made sweets! My hostmum counted over a hundred kids!
The whole night it was pouring like in movies, but my friend and I stayed strong and came soaking wet and tired home. We had so much fun!!

My Red-John pumpkin :)

Trick or treating with Ayse

My candy

A Halloween-cupcake !!!

My costume

Self made hospital ID