Week 19: New Years Eve and a new family!

Week 19:

On Tuesday (31st) I met 2 of my friends in Clifton Hill to celebrate new Years eve. There was a New Years concert in a park in Clifton Hill and my friends and I decided to stay there for a few hours. We went to see Demi Lovato singing but we didn't know that she would perform at 11:30. We stayed at the concert for 5 hours, eventhough it had -15°C. My feet were frozen and I ccouldn't wait to go home. Around then o'clock we finally went to my house and my friend slept at my house. My hostfamily and us spent the last seconds of 2013 watching the countdown and the fireworks on TV.

The stage

Katie and me

On the next day I needed to leave my first hostfamily. I was a complete mess and couldn't stop crying. I just got so used to them, that it felt like I needed to leave my real family. I started to settle in my new family and loved it since the very fist day. I am living with one of my best friends from highschool now, I have 3 siblings and two wonderful parents. They went tobogganing with me and we had some lazy days together before school started.

At this point I want to thank the Dalgleish family for having me for the first months in Canada. They helped me through my hard times and were always there for me.  I can't thank them enough what they have done for me and they will always be a part of my life. I love you!

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!