It's already November! The time is flying by here and I realised I haven't updated my blog in quite a while. I've been really busy and I can't believe I've already been here for 2 and a half months!. Already on a forth. So this blog is just going to be a lot of random stuff. Enjoy ;)
On October second I went to Salt Lake City again. This time for a PAX meeting. In my PAX group are about twenty five exchange students from all over the world. About once a month we all come together and do a fun activity.
We had to pick up three boys from the train station. So we ended up sitting on each others laps. We were all very happy when we could stretch our legs and necks again at the entrance.
All the people in the group were so funny and outgoing! I had missed the first meeting, but they talked to me as if we were best friends.
We went in a lot of roller coasters. It was extremely busy in the park, so the queues were even a hundred yards outside the line entrance. But queuing was so much fun! We took a lot of crazy pictures and it gave us the opportunity to talk to each other and to get to know everybody.
We went in the blue roller coaster, which had two loopings; wicked, which had a very long fall; the wild mouse, which was more painful than anything else; the wooden roller-coaster and the re-entry, which was a tower where you got up a hundred meters and then suddenly fell down.
By the time it got darker, more and more creepy people started walking around: Zombies, vampires, Samarah, mutants, people with chainsaws, eaten faces, creepy eyes and lots of blood. When we were waiting in line for the haunted house, we got stalked by a few vampires. Sofia got really scared, which was hilarious.
The haunted house itself was probably the best attraction in the entire park. We had to walk through small corridors and chambers full of living, moving and screaming horror figures. Marie, Sofia and I stayed really, really close together and right behind me were the boys, who thought it was funny to grab my ankles, pull my hair and poke me constantly.
I had an awesome day!
Can't wait for the next activity!
We had to pick up three boys from the train station. So we ended up sitting on each others laps. We were all very happy when we could stretch our legs and necks again at the entrance.
All the people in the group were so funny and outgoing! I had missed the first meeting, but they talked to me as if we were best friends.
We went in a lot of roller coasters. It was extremely busy in the park, so the queues were even a hundred yards outside the line entrance. But queuing was so much fun! We took a lot of crazy pictures and it gave us the opportunity to talk to each other and to get to know everybody.
We went in the blue roller coaster, which had two loopings; wicked, which had a very long fall; the wild mouse, which was more painful than anything else; the wooden roller-coaster and the re-entry, which was a tower where you got up a hundred meters and then suddenly fell down.
By the time it got darker, more and more creepy people started walking around: Zombies, vampires, Samarah, mutants, people with chainsaws, eaten faces, creepy eyes and lots of blood. When we were waiting in line for the haunted house, we got stalked by a few vampires. Sofia got really scared, which was hilarious.
The haunted house itself was probably the best attraction in the entire park. We had to walk through small corridors and chambers full of living, moving and screaming horror figures. Marie, Sofia and I stayed really, really close together and right behind me were the boys, who thought it was funny to grab my ankles, pull my hair and poke me constantly.
I had an awesome day!
Can't wait for the next activity!
The Cross Country season is officially over. Even though I still hate running, I am really sad. My team mates we're so much fun and I actually got better at running.
Everyday after school we had practise. We go out and run usually six miles (10 kilometer) in about one hour. There were hill workouts: The 'easy' cemetery hill and the killer MC hill (even walking MC hill is exhausting and takes half an hour).
We had runs to Hyrum dam (a lake) and into the canyon.
Every Wednesday we had a 5 kilometer race. A home meet at our own course, an against meet nearby or a bigger meet.
I liked the bigger meets the most, because the bus journey takes over an hour, the school spirit is amazing and on the way back we eat dinner together.
My first race was terrible. It was my second day in Utah, so I had a very bad jet lag. For me it felt as if I was running at four a.m. in the morning. I hadn't trained and I almost fainted at the end.
My last race was my best race! It was regionals and it felt amazing! My first time was 32:14, my last one was 25:22 which is a 6:52 minute improvement!
Everyday after school we had practise. We go out and run usually six miles (10 kilometer) in about one hour. There were hill workouts: The 'easy' cemetery hill and the killer MC hill (even walking MC hill is exhausting and takes half an hour).
We had runs to Hyrum dam (a lake) and into the canyon.
Every Wednesday we had a 5 kilometer race. A home meet at our own course, an against meet nearby or a bigger meet.
I liked the bigger meets the most, because the bus journey takes over an hour, the school spirit is amazing and on the way back we eat dinner together.
My first race was terrible. It was my second day in Utah, so I had a very bad jet lag. For me it felt as if I was running at four a.m. in the morning. I hadn't trained and I almost fainted at the end.
My last race was my best race! It was regionals and it felt amazing! My first time was 32:14, my last one was 25:22 which is a 6:52 minute improvement!
State (which is comparable to an NK in the Netherlands) was the last race of the season. Only our varsity teams ran. The bus ride is a lot more fun if you don't have to run. I sat at the 'quiet' varsity bus and I heard so many fun and embarrassing stories. At the meet the weather was lovely so we played a lot of frisbee.
Because I am part of the yearbook staff, I can borrow the school camera's whenever I want.
I had no idea at what high school we were. When I was taking pictures I suddenly saw Luca (a Swiss exchange student) even though he said his team didn't qualify for state. Then he told me that we were at Highland, his high school. We walked around together for the rest of the day and had a lot of fun.
After the meet we went out for dinner with the team. The restaurant was completely full because our team has 161 members. So Karin and I sat at a table for two, which had many positive things. We got our food before the others had even ordered and we talked a lot about our host families and American customs. We were finished and had paid pretty fast, so we got some time to kill. We had given the waitress a 25% tip, so she was really nice to us. She gave me a free coffee and even offered a refill and she gave me and Karin both four free cinnamon rolls to take home.
Event hough food in American stores is more expensive, restaurants are pretty cheap.
We were at a steakhouse so I ordered BBQ chicken. I got a huge chicken breast, drowned in BBQ sauce with two sides as big as Dutch dinners: A salad and a bowl of chilli. Afterwards I got a take-home box to take my left over food home (which was almost everything).
I am going to miss XC!
Because I am part of the yearbook staff, I can borrow the school camera's whenever I want.
I had no idea at what high school we were. When I was taking pictures I suddenly saw Luca (a Swiss exchange student) even though he said his team didn't qualify for state. Then he told me that we were at Highland, his high school. We walked around together for the rest of the day and had a lot of fun.
After the meet we went out for dinner with the team. The restaurant was completely full because our team has 161 members. So Karin and I sat at a table for two, which had many positive things. We got our food before the others had even ordered and we talked a lot about our host families and American customs. We were finished and had paid pretty fast, so we got some time to kill. We had given the waitress a 25% tip, so she was really nice to us. She gave me a free coffee and even offered a refill and she gave me and Karin both four free cinnamon rolls to take home.
Event hough food in American stores is more expensive, restaurants are pretty cheap.
We were at a steakhouse so I ordered BBQ chicken. I got a huge chicken breast, drowned in BBQ sauce with two sides as big as Dutch dinners: A salad and a bowl of chilli. Afterwards I got a take-home box to take my left over food home (which was almost everything).
I am going to miss XC!
Utah has only two seasons: summer and winter. The extremely hot summer changed in one day into winter. I wasn't prepared, so I was freezing for a week. There is already snow on the mountains and the weather forecast predicts snow for next week. When it starts snowing here, it will keep on snowing till April.
I don't like going to the toilets at school for two reasons:
1) There is always a small gap between the doors and the walls and when you're sitting down you can see the people walking past.
2) Almost all of the locks are broken or gone. Some of them you can lock if you lift the door up with your foot. But I can't do that when I'm wearing heels. Because I don't want to risk falling in the toilet.
I only have a book for precalculus. For every class we get handouts. I can never find one back, because we get three per lesson. But the fun thing about them is that they got all the colours of the rainbow, same as the flyers in the hall.
They put up flyers for everything: clubs, meetings, dances.
Think of a club and they have it: Harry Potter Club, Chinese Club, Cow Judging Club and Fighting Robots club.
One of the frustrating things about the classes is the note taking. The classes are so easy that I study French and Latin during school time. But there are classes in which we look at a powerpoint the whole hour and copy every word from it. Teachers obviously never heard of giving the notes already typed and thus saving time.
I'm starting to get used to the school lunches. I almost always take fruits and vegatables from home, but on the days that the fruit is finished I buy a school lunch: pizza with milk, fruit, vegetables and a cookie. I gave up hoping that anything good will ever come from the mainline.
This week I did some very American stuff. We went to a corn maze with young womens (lds-church group)
During flex we had a lockdown. When someone comes into school with a gun we need to put out all the lights and crampe together in a corner. I'm not sure how that is supposed to protect us against bullets. I also went to a football game. There were cheerleaders and hot chocolat.
I don't like going to the toilets at school for two reasons:
1) There is always a small gap between the doors and the walls and when you're sitting down you can see the people walking past.
2) Almost all of the locks are broken or gone. Some of them you can lock if you lift the door up with your foot. But I can't do that when I'm wearing heels. Because I don't want to risk falling in the toilet.
I only have a book for precalculus. For every class we get handouts. I can never find one back, because we get three per lesson. But the fun thing about them is that they got all the colours of the rainbow, same as the flyers in the hall.
They put up flyers for everything: clubs, meetings, dances.
Think of a club and they have it: Harry Potter Club, Chinese Club, Cow Judging Club and Fighting Robots club.
One of the frustrating things about the classes is the note taking. The classes are so easy that I study French and Latin during school time. But there are classes in which we look at a powerpoint the whole hour and copy every word from it. Teachers obviously never heard of giving the notes already typed and thus saving time.
I'm starting to get used to the school lunches. I almost always take fruits and vegatables from home, but on the days that the fruit is finished I buy a school lunch: pizza with milk, fruit, vegetables and a cookie. I gave up hoping that anything good will ever come from the mainline.
This week I did some very American stuff. We went to a corn maze with young womens (lds-church group)
During flex we had a lockdown. When someone comes into school with a gun we need to put out all the lights and crampe together in a corner. I'm not sure how that is supposed to protect us against bullets. I also went to a football game. There were cheerleaders and hot chocolat.
Yesterday it was Halloween! Everyone was dressed up at school. I've seen some of the most awesome costumes ever! We had a Halloween party at young women. I was dressed as Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz. We had some pretty disgusting looking treats.
As soon as it's dark, all the children go out trick-and-treating. I didn't consider myself to be a child. So I stayed home, watched two horror movies, opened the door and ate lots and lots and lots of candy.
As soon as it's dark, all the children go out trick-and-treating. I didn't consider myself to be a child. So I stayed home, watched two horror movies, opened the door and ate lots and lots and lots of candy.
This was quite a long blog. You can be proud of yourself if you made it to the end!
Love you all
Bye
x
Love you all
Bye
x