Thanksgiving

The weekend past was Thanksgiving. In celebration we got Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off school, which was a welcome break. Thursday was actual Thanksgiving which we spent in Kennedy with Barry’s family. We played dominos, ate a lot, slept, watched the football and ate some more! Thanksgiving started when the early American pilgrims, who had just come through some hardships, wanted to celebrate. They decided to have a feast but they didn’t have any food, so they invited the Native Indians to join them and they bought the food. That’s how it started. Now it is about gathering with friends and family, eating (mostly Turkey as well as Pumpkin and Pecan pie :D) and giving thanks/being thankful for all the things you have. It’s really a nice holiday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is Black Friday and all the stores have massive sales. I didn’t get to any because we were going to a family friends ranch. The ranch is called Texas Mountain Ranch (because on the ranch they have a mountain and they called it Texas Mountain :P). It was really fun. They have a lot of wildlife there, an outdoor fireplace, a game room, a skeet set up, a go cart and some other jeep like vehicles to drive around the ranch. My extended family on Cindy’s side also came out and it was nice to spend more time with them. Oh, and I got to meet Charlie Duke, one of the men who walked on the moon! That was really interesting :D

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044506&id=1102851832&l=54815d2fbe

10 Months!

Hey guys, I know I’ve been extremely lazy with this , but I’ve been heaps busy enjoying myself :D If is fall here and everyone is beginning to get into the festive spirit.

A couple of weeks ago it was Halloween so I got to carve pumpkins! Brock and I went and picked some out at the church downtown. We carved a little family of pumpkins. You have to cut a lid typr thing in the top of the pumpkin around the stem and from there you have to pull out all the seeds and stringy stuff from the inside. If feels really gross and its all slimy, excellent for throwing at people!
However, I actually spent Halloween weekend in Galveston, which is a small costal community a few hours away. I was there with a Rotarian and two other exchange students, so we had a good time. We had a tour of NASA, played mini gold, went to the cinema and on Halloween, had a tour of the local cemetery. I didn’t get to tgo trick or treating though, because the Rotarian we went with didn’t think it was a good idea. But I did dress up! I was the only one in our group, but I didn’t mind, it was fun :D I was a ‘mod-chick’.

This month we also had Wurstfest. Wurstfest is a festival in my town which celebrates the deep German heritage. ‘Wurstfest’ literally means ‘Sausage Fest’ and the slogan is ‘a ten day salute to the sausage’. It was interesting. Like any good festival there was a lot of food, singing, dancing and drinking. I also worked in Rotary’s booth there. Our club makes potato pancakes which I suppose are basically hash browns.

Brock’s friend from Arizona Michelle who he met on exchange in Brazil came down to visit us again. So I got a bit of time out of school to hang out and stuff. We went on some thrift store excursions and went to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. Also that week Brock and I went to three concerts, Regina Spektor in Austin on Wednesday night, Robert Earl Keen in Gruene on Thursday and then in Austin again on the Friday night we saw Monsters of Folk. Then Saturday morning we went to Waco to see the Baylor vs Uni of Texas football game. My two older brothers Zach and Dustin both went to Baylor so Cindy made us wear green and gold, the Baylor Bear’s colours, even though most of us are actually UT fans.
Thankfully we had a quiet Sunday because after all those late nights we were dead tired.

Brock’s birthday was on Saturday, so Friday night we had a surprise party for him at the house. The look on his face when he walked in was totally priceless.
On Saturday during the day I went to Fiesta Texas, a theme park in San Antonio with a couple of the other exchange students. Then in the evening we had a birthday dinner for Brock at Fogo De Chao, a Brazilian Restaurant in San Antonio before we went to the New Braunfels football game. The game was also in San Antonio at the Alamodome because my school has made it into the playoffs xD Emily, my host cousin was cheering, Brock’s best friend Nathan is on the football team and my friend Tyler is part of Blue Crew which is another team spirit type thing, they run the flags up the sidelines when our team scores and throw T-shirts and little footballs into the crowd.

So that’s what I’ve basically been up to this month! I only have school Monday and Tuesday next week because it’s Thanksgiving (more festivities! xD) and after that I only have like two weeks of school before the Christmas holidays and I’m only going back for a couple of days after that before a leave!!

PHOTOS:
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043661&id=1102851832&l=f7347b76cc

Third Family! - 7 Months

Hey guys!

Well, I’m STILL on holidays :D I now understand why Americans are so obsessed with their ‘summer holidays’ they go for bloody ever!

Before moving into my third family, I went to Austin with the Clarks to see the bats! In Austin everyday at dusk, the bats which live under the bridge fly out. Its quite extrodinary as it is the largest urban coloney of bats in North America. While we were there we also visited the State Capitol.

I’ve moved into my final family, the Williams, :) I’ve been here for a little over a week now and it’s been fairly full on but in a good way. I had SO MUCH STUFF! I hardly know where it all came from! I bought another suitcase, so I two suitcases full of stuff as well as two bags and 4 boxes! In this family I have three host brothers but only one of them is living at home, Brock who is 18 and just arrived back from exchange to Brazil. I also have my own room here, which is nice! Cindy, my host mother, had even set a little platter of cheese and fruit as well as a vase of flowers for me on my desk when I arrived! Oh, and if anyone wants my address let me know :D

Last Thursday I went with Cindy (my host mother) and Brock to an Americana/rock concert in Canyon Lake which is a tiny little community about 20 minutes out of New Braunfels. I actually enjoyed it, which I was surprised about because I generally do not enjoy Country or Americana although I’ve kind of gotten to the stage where I can listen to it without crying. I think maybe also that this band had a large rock sort of grunge influence helped.

So on the weekend I went with Brock to Pleasanton, a town about an hour and a half away. It was the Cowboy Homecoming. There were rodeo type things during the day, like bull-riding and stuff and at night bands would play and people would dance – two step! I spent two nights down there with Dalyn, who just got back from exchange in Darwin and who I had met in Australia. I stayed at her house Friday and Saturday night. The Friday night Eli Young Band was playing and because Dalyn’s mother and aunt were working backstage I got to meet them and got an autographed picture :) The following evening was a little more exciting because it was the dance. Again a country band I didn’t know was playing, but I got to meet a lot of Dalyn’s friends and family as well as the new exchange student from France who is being hosted in Pleasanton. Aaand I got to wear my cowboy boots all weekend and got some two-step practice in as well as learning a few of the spins, good fun! It was SO GOOD to be able to hang out with another Australian/Texan half-breed! She could totally understand all the little differences and actually has heard of, appreciates and knows how to dance to The Presets xD

Dalyn also came to New Braunfels and stayed Tuesday night. Nothing too exciting was happening, we just went shopping in San Marcos and San Antonio on the Wednesday after rotary. The whole family went out to the lake on the Tuesday afternoon along with one of my older brothers Zac who was living at the house again for a few days as well as Eitor, the Brazilian guy who is being hosted by the downtown rotary club.

Aside from that I’ve started going to the gym when I can as one of the members of the rotary club gave me and Caro (new German exchange student) free memberships for 6 months :D :D going to the cinemas and the river with friends. School starts up again Monday, so I set to make the most of my free time!

Photo Update :)

Hey guys,

Not much has been going on lately, just been hanging out with friends, watching movies with Sydney and visiting host grandparents.

So anyway, heres some pic-i-atures..





Oh yeah, and the new exchange student for my club arrived on the 1st :D Caroline from Germany.

6 Months

Hoooola!

So, in the past week or so some dramatic changes have been made and significant milestones reached. Firstly I coloured my hair! I am no longer a blonde, I’m now a brunette/redhead :P Secondly, I celebrated my 18^th birthday on the 21^st and the 23^rd marked 6 months of living in Texas!

I’ve actually just recovered, I suppose, from probably the worst episode of homesick I’ve had yet this year. However, getting totally spoilt on my birthday soon fixed that. Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts, they are truly appreciated, really xD

So my birthday went something like this; in the morning we went to San Marcos so I could pick out some cowgirl boots courtesy of my Rotary club :D I love them! They are black, pointed toe and mid calf and have white and lavender thread detailing with a white Texas star xD I wore them for two days straight to break them in and because they are awesome :) We then did a little running around, went to the post office to pick up some parcels xD and then went to lunch at Mamacitas, a Mexican restaurant in town where I was appropriately humiliated and forced to wear a huge sombrero while the poor staff sang me happy birthday. But we also got free desert, things called Sopaipillas (soap-a-pi-yas) which were much yummers. I then spent a good couple of hours on SKYPE talking to my parents and friends overseas before going to diner at the Gritzmill which is in Gruene (green) a town so close it basically is New Braunfels with my host family and my host mother’s parents. After that we headed over to Gruene Hall, which is like a dance/concert hall where we met up with some Rotarians and some of my school friends. When I arrived home I was greeted with cake, gifts and 50 red roses xD I don’t think I really could have asked for much else :)

The next day I had a rotary meeting where I showed off my new boots and had another cake xD

Tour, and 5 months somewhere in there!

Hey ya’ll, how have you been!?

I have been heaps busy and have done some fairly amazing stuff!

I just got back from my USA tour which was incredible 25 days around the States. I left on the 13th of June and I got to go white water rafting in Colorado, see ancient Native American mountain dwellings at Mesa Verde, stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon, VEGAS!, explore Hollywood, go to Universal Studios, swim at the beautiful San Diego beach, sleep on the bus for days at a time :P, see San Antonio :O, play in a Houston water park, buy a $13 sandwich in New Orleans, get a ‘lack-of-sleep-hangover’ in Tallahassee, wear sequined Minnie Mouse ears all day at DISNEYWORLD, managed to get a tan :( and wake up extra early to watch the sunrise at Myrtle Beach, visit the Smithsonian and celebrate the 4th of July in Washington DC, see the Statue of Liberty, John Lennon’s memorial in Central Park, go shopping on 5th Ave, get lost and eat a bagel, pretzel and pizza New York style! Ride a huge Ferris-wheel over Lake Michigan in beautiful Chicago and finally, say goodbye to 51 totally amazing friends before returning to Texas on the 10th of July.



However, between finishing school and beginning my trip I was also able to do some fairly cool stuff. I went to a professional business photo shoot with my host sister and her grandfather (who is the professional photographer). Well two photo shoots really, the first was for a new hospital in San Antonio, but all Sydney and I did really for that was stand in the midday sun for a few good hours in the Texas summer heat. It was the second shoot however that we really went for. It was at this aircraft hanger for M7 Aerospace, a company that makes private aircrafts. There was more equipment needed at this one, so Syd and I helped with setting that up and things like that. It was a really good experience. I got to see how a real photo shoot works, details that shouldn’t be overlooked and the kind of patience you need to get things just right.

A few days after that I went to Austin with a Rotarian and Perle to visit the museum of Texas history. It was really well set out and really quite interesting. That week I also volunteered at a youth service group in the town my host mother works, its about 10-20 mins from New Braunfels. The group meets weekly and just kind of provides the kids that go there with a place to be during the day. All the kids that go there are ‘at risk’ but they are fairly good kids. A unique thing about this organisation is that the kids who go there choose to be there, no one has made them go. We did some arts and crafts in the morning before going to see ‘Night at the Museum 2’ at the local cinemas and in the afternoon I taught them how we play handball, which they seemed to enjoy :)

Right now I’m in Boerne which is a town about an hour away from New Braunfels. I’m staying the week with my country co-ordinator and his family. I’m not sure we’ve got anything planned, just hanging out!

I miss you guys! Let me know what’s going on in your lives :D

4 Months

INTERNET! Oh how I love thee!

Well guys, it’s a fairly emotional time for me at the moment. In about two weeks I will be heading off on my US tour during which almost all (bar one I think) of my fellow exchange students will heading home. So if I see any of them again for a long time it will be within these three weeks. It is also my last week of school and I probably won’t be seeing some of the seniors again.. :(

So the weekend before was the last organised meeting for the exchange students in my district. The Friday afternoon we all travelled to San Antonio for a Rotary Youth Conference where we participated in a flag ceremony and got to hear some very inspiring speeches. The Conference finished up at about 8 after which we all headed to Boerne to stay at a Rotarians house for the evening. It was a really good night. We relaxed in the hot tub, swam in the pool, played pool, hung out, signed each other’s memorabilia and exchanged mementos. We hardly slept, not wanting to waste the little time we all had left together because in the morning we had to say goodbye to some of the group who were going home, there were tears :( However, the rest of us went on to San Marcos to go to one of the exchange students proms that evening. Another really amazing night which was not to be wasted sleeping. But lets not talk about the following morning :(





So this weekend passed was my high school prom which I was actually able to go to thanks to the Swine Flu scare :) It was another great night; it was also my four month marker! I don’t know how I feel about that :P I went with a guy from my Unicorn Time, the prom ritual is to go to dinner before prom and then arrive fashionable late.


Monday was a public holiday for Memorial Day, I guess it’s the equivalent of our ANZAC Day. So we made good use of the fact that we all had the day off and went to Shlitterbahn. Shlitterbahn is a water park in New Braunfels which, along with the river, is a main attraction and brings a lot of visitors in the summer apparently. Thankfully it wasn’t that busy because summer hasn’t quite started so the lines were not too long. A lot of the kids from school work there too and often complain about how annoying it is but I had fun :) Perle was able to come to making it that little bit better :D

Swine Break

On Thursday passed I went skiing with Perle and her brother Jerimie who is visiting from Belgium with some Rotarians from the Downtown club. We were at Lake LBJ in Kingsville which is about an hour’s drive from NB. This was my first time skiing and I was kind of nervous about it and didn’t really expect to be able to get up. But I surprised myself (and the others) by getting up on the first try :)

We also did some tubing which was sooo much fun! It was quite difficult though when the boat would take us around a corner the tube would just shoot out to the side making it so hard to hang on! But you had to hang on because coming off was really quite painful.

That afternoon when we got back to New Braunfels I finished up my packing, said my goodbyes and headed off to my second family. I’m now staying with Tom and Chrissy Clark and my postal address here is 425 Buffalo Springs Spur, New Braunfels, TX, 78132.

On the weekend I went hiking with them for an afternoon. I cannot remember where we went exactly but we walked along these rocks until we got to these pools of water which apparently are not usually flowing, but we have had a bit of rain lately. After that we went swimming in a neighbouring river (as you are not allowed to swim in the pools) to cool off before we headed home.

This week Perle and I are still on Swine Break :) and have been spending it on a ranch just outside of Kerrville called Roddy Tree Ranch. It’s really nice out here. We are here with Betsy Barr (My first host fathers daughter in law) two of her friends and their 7 kids (combined). So we have been passing the time swimming in the two pools, watching movies, feeding horses, playing basketball, canoeing, swimming in the river and catching up with some of the other exchange students who live near here. It has been great and because we are out of town it means I get out of being at school today and tomorrow as they have re-opened the schools earlier than they had said. We have also heard that our district will be exempt from having to extend the school year because it was the health department or something, meaning we only have three weeks left of school! :)

Possum!

We found this little fella in the backyard this afternoon!

Three Months (last Thursday)

Wow, so much is happening! I had a Rotary conference at the Mo-Ranch in Kerrville two weeks ago, Fiesta celebrations in San Antonio last week, I am spending this weekend in Dallas and I am about to move to my second family!

This week of school was supposed to be TAKS week. TAKS is a series of standardised tests that students (except seniors) throughout Texas have to take, which for me means I get the mornings off school :) However, our entire county is out of school until May 11th because of the Swine Flu. Apparently there have been three cases suspected to be Swine Flu in New Braunfels so all the schools are in quarantine and a lot of public events have also been cancelled, including rotary :P, to prevent the spread. I think this is fantastic :D but it also means that the end of the school year will be extended for another week probably which interferes with a few things.

So tomorrow I am moving into my second host family, Tom and Chrissy Clark. Tom is my YEO and I also stayed with this family during Pam and Gary’s last holiday. I’m not sure what the postal address is but I will let you know. In this family I will have younger sisters and I will be sharing a room with the oldest. Also, there is very poor internet connection as they live out of town so it will definitely be different.

As I said before, two weekends ago was the Mo-Ranch conference in Kerrville. Not all of the exchange students could make it, which was disappointing but still a good time as we (exchange students) did not have to attend most of the seminars so that gave us some free time to hang out, go swimming and canoeing down in the neighbouring river. There was also a rope swing and giant slide into the river which were good fun too :)


From last Wednesday afternoon till Sunday morning I was in San Antonio for the Fiesta celebrations. It was another Rotary activity hosted by the San Antonio West club who had a special meeting the Wednesday evening which we exchange students were guests to. That evening we were put into host families, I stayed with the four other exchange students in at the host home of Alice (France) who live in San Antonio (her host sister is a Rotex who comes to most of our activities and we are all really close to as well). The family are originally from Venezuela but have lived in Texas for some time now, however, breakfast and dinner were often meals from Latin America.

On Thursday we did a full day of sightseeing. Our first stop was the San Jose Mission then we went down to the River-walk for lunch and guided boat ride, then on to see the Alamo, The Tower of the Americas and The Texas Institute of Culture. It was a long, full but fun day.


Friday was even better! We all went to 6-Flags which is an amusement park. It was fantastic, we rode all the biggest and scariest roller-coasters, got wet on adventure river rides, took photos with cartoon characters and danced with the park mascot!

Saturday was the last day of Fiesta so we actually saw and participated in some of the celebrations happening in the streets. A number of streets are blocked off and stalls and stages are set up and people can eat, create, purchase, watch and participate in a number of activities going on. In the morning we marched in a parade carrying our flags. It was really interesting to see all the other parade participants, there were some very eye-catching costumes! After the parade we did some charity work. For two hours we stood around rubbish bins making sure the right kind of rubbish went into the right kind of bin, taking it out of one bin and putting it in another if need be :( Needless to say it wasn’t my favourite part of the day! After that we had some free time and we all just wandered around the stalls and sat by the river and relaxed before leaving for dinner. After dinner we went to the main parade, it was three hours long, but not at all boring, unfortunately we did not get to stay for the entire thing even though we were there till about 10pm.

The next morning we left for home at about 10am which sucked :( The time had gone so fast and it was the second last ‘official’ time we are all going to be together.