Week 31: Time to say goodbye...

Week 31:

My 31st week was the last week i was living with my second host family. It also was the week of my host sister's birthday.

I went to the Miss Club Italia Pageant in Niagara Falls. I've never been to an event like that before and I thought it was crazy! In Austria we would never have an event like that. There were around ten girls participating, all around 16-18 years of age.
In the beginning we went to our tables with some of my family's relatives and had dinner. After that, the whole event started. All the participants came on the stage with a male partner and performed a very awkward dance. It was so funny, because every dance had a theme. For example the 80's, where all the girls wore 80's clothes and danced to "Girls just wanna have fun".
Every girl also had to do a catwalk and answer questions from the jury. The whole event took soooo long, there were slideshows and videos shown, and they even created a short documentation about all the girls. It was so funny and a bit ridiculous.

In the weekend we had a big family party for all the relatives. We celebrated in my host parents' restaurant and had a great time. My second host family has around 30 relatives on both sides so it's a quite big family. But I honestly love every single one of them. My host sisters have many cousins who are around my age, so we always have a blast at family parties. After the tree months, the whole family felt like my real family.

I want to thank the Mascia family for taking such good care of me for the past three months. They took me places, showed me how to live like a Canadian and treated me like their own daughter. My siblings became my best friends and I can't picture life without them. They integrated me and allowed me to take part in everything they did. I love them so much and can't thank them enough for what they have given me.

Thank you! ♥

Week 30: Parties and Sisters

Week 30:

That week my host sister Bianca was planning on having a sweet 16 party in a hall in Niagara Falls. I have never been to a party like that before and its honestly the most american thing I could ever imagine.

The whole process of planning the party took my sister about a month. She rented a hall for the night, a photo booth, a candy bar, hired a professional photographer, a bartender and a DJ. She also bought centerpieces for every table, matching bows for the chairs and matching napkins.It was so much effort for only one night! But it turned out to be a great party.

I also found out that the Rotary New York City Trip will be from May 9th to May 11th, so on my birthday! I obviously signed up for it, so no I will spend my birthday in NYC! I am sooo excited! In addition I payed for the America Bus Trip which will be in July for 1 month. 

My life is an adventure.

Week 29: MUM! ♥♥♥

Week 29:

March break started on Friday and my mum took a flight to Toronto to stay with me for a week.

On Saturday she came to Niagara Falls to pick me up from my host family’s house. I was so happy to see her again and to introduce her to my host family. Together, we stayed in a hotel in Clifton Hill for a few days. We went to the Falls (obviously), the Rainforest cafe and all the tourist shops. I really liked a candy shop, where candy was handmade. I even watched two employees making candy! 

At the falls

Handmade candy

I introduced her to all my host families and some Rotarians. She even came to one of my weekly Rotary meetings!

The next day we went to see Buffalo. We thought that it would be a beautiful city and good for sightseeing, but honestly it wasn't. We drove through the whole ghetto to the Galleria mall, so we saw the worst part of Buffalo. We saw a lot of poor people and very degenerated houses. After that we also drove through the downtown area and it looked prettier.

At the border

Buffalo Ghetto

On Tuesday we drove to Montreal. It was a very long drive and took us the whole day. On the next day we went to see downtown, old Montreal and just explored the city. I enjoyed staying in the French part of Canada and trying my French skills on the Quebecois. 

We also walked in the underground tunnels in Montreal! It is a good alternative to shopping outside when it is as cold as now in Montreal. In the tunnels it is very warm and the people don’t even wear coats down there. There are many shops and it even was connected to our hotel and to the subway so we didn't even have to walk outside to find our way.

Later in the week we went to Toronto. We bought tickets for the aquarium and honestly it was better than I had expected it! The aquarium is huge! There are so many types of fish and other creatures living in the sea! I got to touch a little shark and even some stingrays!!! In the end, there was a big tank full of stingrays and we were allowed to stroke them. All the stingrays were very friendly and came to the water surface to get petted! I loved it!

To be honest it was a bit hard for me to say good bye to my mum again. It’s a lot of fun to get a visit from a family member but I think it could be very hard for some exchange students to say goodbye for another few months like they did in the beginning of their exchange year. But now I am good and I will continue my exchange year like I have started it!

Clifton Hill

Week 28: The (partly) frozen Falls ❅

Week 28:

That week nothing much happened. It was still very cold so I decided to go see the falls. A Rotarian took me and my French friend to the border at Clifton hill to get our US visas and we got to see the falls too.

It was so cold, the falls were almost frozen! The water on the lower side of the falls was completely frozen and there was a thick snow and ice layer on top of the water. The trees near the falls were covered in ice because the steam went up the falls and covered them. It was crazy!

I also watched my host sister’s dance show. We went to a school and watched about 10 dance groups perform. My host sister has done dance for more than ten years so her group is very good. They did tap, hip hop, ballet etc…

I noticed that every Canadian student has a passion about something. It could either be sports,art, languages or other activities after school. I think its very impressing that every student is good at at least one kind of activity and does it very intensely. Its not like I Austria where you just do something for the fun of it, here the students have passion and enthusiasm behind something that they do for fun and people are more serious about it. I think Austria should have sh´school sports teams, jerseys and clubs too. That’s what I would love in Austrian high schools!

My host sister in her dance outfit (excuse my face)

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!