Briefly Stopping By

So this weekend was thanksgiving and it was soooo good :)
But I will update about that in my next post.. I'm very tired tonight but just thought I'd leave you with a cute picture.. The one above is my host family and I and bellow is a project I have been working on for ABT.. Click to enlarge. We had to make a photo collage on a theme, and the teacher's getting them professionally printed on 28" by 22" photo paper!


Chat soon :)

Four Month Anniversary

Veronika and I today after church.

Today I have been in the United States for four months. Even though I have a little homework to complete, I decided this was worth a short blog update..


At the moment I'm very busy with Cheerleading practice and multiple assignments so this isn't going to be a long post at all sorry.. 

The original photo.

This week is Thanksgiving which I'm excited for. We get Thursday and Friday off school, Thanksgiving is on the Thursday, and Friday is Black Friday where shops have extremely huge sales.

A photo I edited for my ABT Project

Monday the 29th is our first wrestling meet which is exciting. But due to Thanksgiving we only have two practices before the meet! It's a double dual also, which means two people wrestle at once. This means three cheerleaders are cheering for one match which the other three cheer for the other which is a little scary because people notice if you make mistakes a lot more since there are only three people!


That's all for now because my feet are cold so I'm going to put socks on and go to sleep. The temperature has been cold in the past week, it was 18 Fahrenheit all day yesterday! 
(I'm working at putting a fahrenheit to degrees convertor on my blog for everywhere else in the world that speaks in celsius)




Update more later :)

After the Storm

My house with 7" of snow!

Just a quick update, mainly to post some photos of my weekend. The Mall of America was absolutely amazing, and on Friday / Saturday we had the first snow storm! There was snow everywhere by Saturday morning, it took us nearly an hour longer to get to the Mall from our hotel than it would've usually. 


So on Friday after school, Linda drove Veronika, Pete and I to Minnesota. It was about a 2 and a 1/2 hour drive and we grabbed Subway for supper and had a look at the outlet shops. There was a Nike store and they were selling Nike kicks for $30! I didn't buy any though cause I'm buying new shoes for cheerleading, and I'm a Converse person, I'd hate to betray my Chuck Taylors.

I couldn't resist drawing on someones car.

By the time we'd settled into our room the snow outside had built up a decent amount that there was snow on the ground. (The first time it snowed the ground was too warm so it didn't look like it snowed) It was so cool to stand outside and just let the snow fall on you, it felt kinda magical. Of course, Veronika and I couldn't wait to run outside and take photos. There's nothing like being a tourist. 

Inside the Mall of America, near the full sized Ferris Wheel!

Come Saturday morning and it had snowed nearly all night and so the roads were very slippery, and it continued to snow! We finally got to the Mall of America just before 11am but Linda had told us to be prepared to leave early because she didn't want to drive home in bad conditions, and I could totally see her point, if the wind picked up it would be so dangerous! Veronika and I knew this would mean speed shopping, we knew which shops we wanted to visit, we checked out the website before hand, with 500 shops it pays to be prepared. In the end we didn't end up leaving until after 4pm but with our speed shopping early on in the day it was plenty of time. Inside was unbelievable, there were people everywhere despite the snow outside. We'd been told there was a built in amusement park but I thought it was just a small one, so they could say they had an amusement park but this was full sized and huge! They had a ferris wheel, a mini roller coaster and other rides, Veronika and I didn't stop there though, we were too busy shopping. The drive home was long and fortunately the snow and wind died down a bit but it still took us an hour longer. 

Snowman building. 

Today it snowed a little bit this morning but it was warm the rest of the day. Linda and David told Veronika and I that the snow would be perfect to build a snowman, and pretty much before anything else could be said, Veronika and I were outside building a snowman. 


Just a side note here, with it being the first snowman I'd ever built I didn't really know what to expect. 


Building a snowman fitted well because I have to do a photo essay for ABT and so I took lots of photos of the snowman being constructed and boy is it a lot harder than they make it look on T.V. The bottom was so big we couldn't physically roll it any more because it was so heavy and I commend Veronika for lifting the second ball on top because I was struggling with the head. But it was so much fun, and before we knew it we had our very on snowman! A little under 5 feet tall and a bit of a funny shaped bum from one angle, but he's ours and he's even rocking the New Zealand Four Square National Logo :)

My first snow man, equipped with a New Zealand 4 Square Apron!

That's all for now,

Update a bit more later.

Happy Veterans Day for last week too!

I was thinking of you, Pop x

Before going to the Mall of America, some excited EF-ers.

Mall of America sign from outside, with a little snow here and there.

Pre-Four Square Apron. Our November Snowman.

November is here.

BriAna, Jenna and I in our beautiful stage make-up.

It's been a bit since I've written anything substantial on here, so I thought I'd post another big update.. And just a side note is that I went to start this last weekend, but I got sidetracked by homework and other distractions. Nevertheless, it's here now! (Finally)


Tonight is the last night of the play which is sad but it's been so much fun and I can't wait to watch it on DVD! I'll send Mum a copy for those of you in New Zealand and hopefully she'll show you. It's been a really great experience.. I can't remember if I'd explained it but there are around 60 kids in the show, not including the band or backstage lighting and sound which is astounding. The vocal teacher is amazing, he's also a football coach which is why we have a generally even amount of guys and girls in the musical. There are ten main characters and the stories based in the fifties, Elvis era, where everyone is falling in love with everyone. It's set in Emmetsburg, which is a small town naturally, which is very plain and boring because the mayor is very strict, she even has laws against "public necking" (kissing) and loud music. But everything changes when Chad (very Elvis-like) arrives in town, everything gets "All Shook Up" and all the towns people are bitten by the love and music bug. 

The EF Halloween Party. Yes I was cheap and wore my musical costume.

This week Wrestling Cheerleading practice started and it's so much fun! We have practice everyday after school (except if we have a meet that day of course) and it goes 'till 5.30 (at the earliest). We practice with the Basketball Cheerleaders firstly when we warm up, stretch and "build muscles" which is usually between forty minutes and an hour long and then we split up to learn our separate cheers. Personally, and I'm thinking it's thanks to all my years dancing, I find it super easy to learn the cheers cause they're all to a rhythm. But Wrestling Cheerleading is a bit different than normal cheerleading, instead of standing up and cheering we sit on the corner of the wrestling mat and hit the mat and cheer to different rhythms. (See example bellow, this is from 2008 and unfortunately my school isn't in it, but we'll be going here (to State, a four day wrestling competition) if our wrestlers are good enough)

Natalie and I at the last home football game of the season.

Other than that it's getting a bit cooler here, the temperature still ranges but in Celsius it's usually zero degrees in the morning going to school, at eight o'clock and it can get up to ten in the afternoon. Next weekend most of the exchange students in North East Iowa are going to the Mall of America in Minnesota, there are 500 shops and a built in amusement park! Then the weekend after that is Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving we're going to Fort Dodge again to go shopping for all the Thanksgiving sales. Football is nearly finished but our team hasn't lost a game yet! On Monday night we have a play-off game and if we win we'll be in the Semi-Finals for all of Iowa (in our school size) which is so cool! 

I'll update more soon when I think about it, 

'Till then keep smiling :)

I hope you all in New Zealand are enjoying the sun! 

E-Hawk Football :)