Week 27: Semi dance ♥

Week 27:

On Friday night, our school had semi night. I was really nervous and didn’t know if I wanted to come but I ended up buying a ticket and a dress so I decided to go.
The dance was at a building called club Italia. It was a very pretty hall with a dance floor in the middle and tables o the sides. First we had dinner. There were tables for ten people and I sat with some of my friends and a few people I didn't know. The food was great! We also got candy because the theme was Candy land!
They also rented a photo booth for us, it was so much fun! We got Accessories like hats and signs to use for the photo booth and the slips said Candy land on them.
After the DJ played music and everybody started to dance! I danced too, even though I don’t like dancing. It was so much fun though! They played more modern music than at semi in Austria. In Austria the students dance to classical music like adults do at formal dances. In Canada, everyone dances to pop music and party mixes.
There also weren't any cocktails at the Canadian semi. In Austria, sixteen year olds and older students can have alcohol, but in Canada it’s prohibited. Because there was no alcohol, a few people smuggled alcohol in shampoo bottles and little containers. The police was watching the event so drunk people were kicked out.
Semi ended at 10 o’clock, because it was on a Thursday night and we had school on Friday. I am glad that I decided to give it a chance and go to semi, otherwise I would have missed lots!

My hostsister Bianca and I

Photo booth

Week 26: hockey, hockey, hockey!

Week 26:

A Rotarian from my Rotary club invited me to his house to play hockey. He has his own little skating rink in his front yard! It is so cold right now, so many Canadians just build their own little rink. I had so much fun playing hockey! I wish I could play hockey in Austria...

My 6 year old hostbrother had a hockey game with his team and I went to watch him play in his final game on Sunday. It was so cute! For their age, the team was pretty good! They hardly fell down and skated really fast! I enjoyed spending some time with my family, I had a lot of fun. After the game, every player got a little trophy for their effort. That was so cute.
I like that Canada takes sports more seriousely than Austria. In Austria we don't have any school sports teams, jerseys or competitions. I love that every North American student has a sport he/she loves and is passionate about. I wish I had that too but sports in Austria is more like a joke than serious.

I also just found out that my mum will visit me for a week in marchbreak. I haven't seen her for more than six months and I am so excited to see her!

I can't wait to show her my new life in my new home, Canada.

Week 25: Valentine's day and the Sugar bush ♥♥♥

Week 25:

On Friday was Valentine's day and not like in Austria, Valentine's day is a big day in Canada. I have never celebrated Valentine's day before, this was so new for me! At A.N. Myer (Highschool) we had red/white day, so everyone was dressed in red and white. Me too! My hostfamily was soooo nice and gave all their kids and me chocolate, a bracelet and candy for Valentine's day. I love them so much!
At school, students could buy candybags for other students and they were handed out anonymously. I got one too!

I got this from 2 friends haha

For Valentine's day we got half a day off, so we could spend some time with friends and family.
At night I went out for dinner with my family and after that we went to the movies. It was a perfect day!

On Monday was family day so we planned on doing something together, as a family. We went to the sugarbush. It is a maple syrup farm! First we went inside to eat a real Canadian breakfast: scrambled eggs, frenchtoast and pancakes with their homemade maple syrup. It tasted amazing!

After the breakfast we went outside in the forest to a trail were there was explained how maple syrup is made and how the canadians did it hundreds of years ago. We made some maple syrup suckers in the snow and cut wood pieces and burned 2014 in. I also saw all the maple trees and the pipelines connected from tree to tree to get the maple syrup through the whole forest, passing every suitable tree back to the farm.

Canadian breakfast

Maple tree

Family ♥

how canadians used to make maple syrup

selfmade maple syrup suckers

The tree slice I cut

 It was a great week!

Week 24: Rotary Algonquin weekend! ♥❅

Week 24:

My 24th week was probably one of the most challenging and most adventurous week in my life.

On Saturday, Ieft Niagara falls to travel up north not knowing what I would experience in the next couple of days. Half of my exchange student friends and half of the Canadians who will be on exchange next year (Inbounds and Outbounds) did the trip. After 6 hours we stopped in Algonquin park, infront of a huge lake. After getting off the bus, we walked over the lake for about 20 minutes.

We slept in a house heated by a stove, boys and girls seperated. We were sleeping in sleeping bags on foam mats on the floor. After all, it wasn't that uncomfortable!

At night I went for a little swim. The camp didnt have any showers, or running water, washrooms or electricity. The only light we got came from generators or the sun and our washrooms were outhouses. We all thought, 4 days without showering werent possible to handle, so we all "showered" in a little hole in the ice of the lake. It was crazy! I needed to wash my hair so I used shampoo and needed to stick my head under water for around 30 seconds. My brain literally froze!! 

We also needed to brush our teeth standing outside with a mug filled with warer, because they didn't have any taps. It was such a great experience!

On Monday we went on a 10k hike! We walked for 7 hours with our snowshoes and had lunch in the middle of nowhere. The whole group was seperated in different people having different jobs. There were the fire builders, the planners, the navigators, the safety group and the leaders. I was a fire builder and made the fire to cook our lunch on. We cooked hot chocolate, noodle soup and grilled cheese over the open fire! During the trip it had around -30°C outside, thank god I was dressed warmly! At one point i stepped on the lake and sunk through the snow in slush. My snowsuit got wet.. the wet parts froze! But we warmed ourselves on the fire and the safety group looked after eeveryone so it was all good! :)

Every year, the group going to Algonquin writes a message to the future group coming there and puts it in a box that we call the "time capsule". My group found a sock with the signatures of many exchange students, inluding my hostbrother Gavin from my first hostfamily! I was so happy and surprised to read the messages they wrote for us!

In the last night, we had a few serious minutes for ourselves. All the students went outside, sat in the snow with only a candle, a pencil and a notebook. We were told to think about what we want to accomplish in our exchange and what we want to change. It was the perfect place to think about life and all the things I have been through. 

After that, our leader Greg Norton fired fireworks for us which made the night perfect. 

I learned so much in this weekend and I am so proud  that I found the most awesome friends! Thank you Greg, Donna, Mike and all the other leaders for making this weekend so unforgettable! It was a very unique experience.

Our group

Snowshoeing

Week 23: New Classes and a BABYSHOWER ✿♥

Week 23:

This week my second semester started. We has exams until tuesday and wednesday off. We were supposed to have tuesday and wednesday off but we had a snowday again, because it was so cold! Oh Canada...
My new classes are Science, History, Foods and French. I like my new classes. Foods is a good experience, because Austrian schools only have "serious classes" like history, sciences and languages. Here in Canada I can choose eg. dance, foods, business or tech class!

On Sunday I went to a babyshower with my hostfamily. My hostparents own an italian restaurant down in Clifotn Hill, so the party was celebrated there. I loved it! Everything looked like in movies! The decoration were ballons which said: "Yep! It's a boy!" and "Yep, it's a girl!" ! The parents dont know the gender yet, so they just bought decorations for a male baby and a female baby. We also had blue and pink cupcakes,a huge cake with babybottles and little cute decorations and very good food. We played babyparty games and just had a great time. The day before the babyshower we even went shopping for dresses! I loved it!

Babyshower Food

They had the best cupcakes! ♥