From High School Exchange to University.

If we're not Facebook friends I figured I'd let you in on a (not so little) secret - I got into University :D Woot. Yay me. 


This wasn't at all guaranteed since I was only in year 13 for 6 months (if that) so I was stressed about meeting the requirements. However I did it. I got 60 credits among four subjects and got a subject endorsement for English.. Yes that probably did confuse you. However just know that - Nicole did good. 


Needless to say I am excited about starting at AUT already. I'm studying Communication Studies (which was my subject choice at my first choice university - yay). I've chosen my classes already, not that there was much to choose as most of first year are required. But it looks like this; (I believe if you click on them they get larger)

And semester two looks like this

Yay for not having to start before 10am and not having class on Fridays. I have a feeling I'm going to love University :) 


Will update later maybe. But you know how good I am at that ;) 

Home sweet home

So I've been home for 7 months now. And no I never did get any better at blogging. That doesn't mean I died though. So I figured I'd come on and update a little since I'm still getting quite a few internet hits on this site. Thanks to everyone who's visited it!


So instead of working chronologically with my experiences (i.e continuing where I left off) I'm gonna let you know how I'm doing now. 


A lot has happened since I've been home. I'm 18 now. An adult. It's kinda scary. Now I have to be mature and grown up. I'm still working on that.


In November I finished high school. Since I got back I was pretty stressed, trying to finish year 13 in six months rather than the usual 9 - 10. But I did it. Results will be out in just over a week though so then I'll know how well I really did. I've applied for University, to study Communications at AUT starting next year, but it will depend on my results.


At the moment I'm on Summer break. I visited my wonderful family in both Palmerston North and New Plymouth around Christmas which was nice, as I hadn't seen most of them since before I left America. I got back in Auckland before New Year and have been working since. I deliver pizza at Domino's now which is really awesome. I love my job. Everyone I work with is so nice.

I went to my school ball in July. It was very different from
America, but I still had a lot of fun dressing up fancy with all
my childhood friends.

I also really want to go back to America to visit my friends. This will greatly depend if I get into university though. My wish would be to see my fellow Junior class graduate cause graduation is such a huge deal in America. However if I go to university the breaks don't align correctly. So I have major decisions to make. None of which can be made until I have my school results back. So for now I wait. Which really blows.


Since I've been back, adjusting to my life in Auckland has been hard. I never got home sick for New Zealand when I was in America, but I now that I'm home I find myself getting home sick for America. When you leave your host country, you know that you're coming back, you have a deadline. When you leave America, you don't know when you're going to be back. It could be a year, it could be ten. No one really tells you what it's going to be like when you finish your exchange. Before I left New Zealand I got tons and tons of mail from EF telling me about what to expect when I got to America, but I never got preparation about coming home. Like anything it just takes time to adjust. And adjusting is hard. You have to work at it every day. I still have to work at adjusting myself to being home, even though I've been home for 7 months. Nothing has changed since you left, but being away has changed you. 

Myself, my Dad and Nana in New Plymouth since I've been home.

That's about all for now as an update on my current situation. 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns, or if you're lucky enough to be going (or on) an exchange yourself. My email is nicolealeisha@gmail.com.

Happy travelling!

I am back.

I have finally finished my history project (a major reason why I haven't been updating my blog) so now I'm back.. 

In the next couple days I'll try to update about Prom and graduation and all the other happenings that I've been up to.. 

Here's my history project if you're interested though.. We had to create (in a group) a 10 minute documentary on the Free Speech Movement of the sixties.. A LOT of work, but I learned a lot too :)

I am terrible.

Dan, Myself, Brittany and Chad at prom

I'm still a terrible blogger.. Weird, who would've guessed.. It's nearly been a month since prom and I haven't written anything yet.. I'm sorry! I've been swamped with homework! This weekend we've had the Pops concert which is about 3 1/2 hours of music put on by the school.. I'm in concert choir, girls chorus, and two ensembles. Bellow you can see one of our songs where I have a one line solo. It was a lot of fun, last night was the first night and tonight is closing night..

The seniors are graduating next weekend and before long school will be out. Time is going so fast! 

I have my flights now and I'm leaving here on the 31st and arriving in New Zealand on the 2nd of May, but I will write more about that later when I have some time. For now I have an hour before I have to be at the concert and another page to write of a sociology paper due tomorrow with an accompanying presentation I haven't finished yet.. Last minute cramming, argh. 

But do not worry, I am still having a wonderful time and I will update you soon! I haven't forgotten about you.

Nine Months.

As I was looking at my cellphone at the date after I thought I'd better update my blog, it struck me. I have been in the United States for 9 months today. It's crazy how fast time has gone. Nine months ago I was standing in Auckland airport with Mum, Dad, Nana, Bridgette and 7 of my closest friends, excitingly awaiting the unknown. Today I watch the Seniors count down 18 school days until they have finished high school, and the rest of the school count 24 school days until summer vacation. 

April means Spring

Look at me, updating my blog in under a month.. I think it's a miracle! 


It is now April and the weather is getting better. This is good seeing as I'll be going back to winter when I return to New Zealand.

Natalie & I at NHS, see previous post

This week soccer started, yes Brittany and I are out for soccer in the community team. It's high school (grade 9 - 12) plus one middle schooler. It's mixed, so boys and girls, and Brittany and I are the only girls on the team.. Brittany had never played before and I played for a couple of years a while back so we're not the next Christiano Ronaldos, to say the least. I'm really enjoying it so far though. Because it's community soccer we don't practice nearly as much as the other sports, like we practiced for cheerleading. We practice three times a week and have games on Sunday afternoons. The first practice was on Thursday, we had one today (Sunday) and then we have one Tuesday, possibly Thursday too, and then our first two games are on Sunday which will be fun.


Apart from that, nothing else has really happened since my last post, except that I got to Skype my wonderful sister Veronika after church today for the second time since she left. That made my day :)


Just keeping it short and sweet for now,
Have a fantastic day.

Bad at blogging.

I'm very terrible at blogging. Not gonna lie, for a couple of weeks I didn't even think about blogging.


Last weekend was St Patricks Day, which is really big in Emmetsburg.. Everyone becomes Irish.. It was fun though, there was a parade and a "Miss Shamrock Pageant". Everyone was happy and the weather was pretty nice, by that I mean it wasn't in the negative Celsius.


This weekend was the last weekend for show choir, which I've been helping backstage with. It was lots of fun, think Glee, but much better choreography and not professional singers. Bellow is the introduction to one of their songs. There are 44 performers (singers and dancers) and 11 band members. The group has learned and performs five songs; Beautiful Day / I Can See Clearly Now, Love Goes On, If You Believe, Never Been Any Reason and New Divide.

My subjects this semester are all going really well, I enjoy them all and I've got either an A or an A- in them which makes me feel accomplished.. 

Dan, Myself and Brian at the NHS evening

In other news, Brittany and I have signed up for the mixed community soccer team which starts in April which will be fun.

The third weekend of April is also our prom which is coming up rapidly.

In the past month I've entered the Individual Speech contest where I competed in Districts and State.. I got a I (highest score) at Districts which meant I went to State where I got split Is (Two Is and one II), which means overall I got a I. I wrote my own speech on Organ Donation which had to be under 8 minutes, it was 7 minutes or just over.

BriAna and I at the Miss Shamrock Pageant

Tonight we had the honor society dinner which I did my individual speech for.. It went well. It was a supper recognizing students that maintained a high (3.20+) GPA (grade point average) for three consecutive semesters. I couldn't qualify because I've only been at Emmetsburg for 1.5 semesters.

Apart from the above, I don't think anything super exciting has happened in the past month.. But I will try my very hardest to blog more, even if I consider the things less exciting..


Oh, I did find out today who was chosen to be camp returnees. Unfortunately I wasn't chosen but Bryce, from New Zealand, and Camilla, from the Netherlands, were! I know they'll be great mentors. 

Myself, Natalie and Mara at the NHS Banquet

That's all for now though, if I keep trying to think of more to write I'll just continue to put this off and it won't be posted for another three weeks..


I hope you are all well :)

Happy Valentines Day

Hannah and I when we went bowling

Just a short post to hope that you all had a happy valentines day, even if I do think it's a bunch of over advertised nonsense to spend extra money on flowers, chocolate and things that are red. You shouldn't need a specific day to tell the people you love that you love them, you should do it any day and everyday.  

We had Wrestling Sectionals in the weekend and four of our five wrestlers came either 1st or 2nd so that means they are going to State Wrestling this week : )

We leave Wed at 7.30am and get back Sat / Sun depending if we make the finals. I'm excited.

Hope you're well and everything's great : )

Okoboji Wrestling Sectionals.

Aleysha and I at Sectionals :)

Today we had Wrestling Sectionals. So the Emmetsburg Varsity Wrestling team and cheerleaders went out to Okoboji for the day in hope of progressing to Districts next week and State the following week. 


The day went really well, as a team Emmetsburg got second (out of six or seven schools) which means on Tuesday we will compete in team district duals. Apparently we'll have no chance though because even though we have a few really good wrestlers, we don't have a large team and so will give points away for when we have byes. For duals every wrestlers points count towards the team points, you get a certain amount for a win and if you win before the time is up you get more. If you have no one to wrestle the other team (all wrestlers are in a certain weight bracket) then the other team gets three points for a bye. That's the basics anyway that I know.


Five of our wrestlers got either first or second in their weight class and that means they'll go on to districts next weekend to compete to go to State. 

Autumn and I at Sectionals :)

For us cheerleaders it was  a nicer day because the gym wasn't too hot (our uniforms get really hot and your bums and legs get sweaty if you cheer lots of matches in a row if it's hot). Unfortunately the refs were real weird and told us we couldn't cheer on the mats. No one had heard this "rule" before. Usually we hit the side of the mat that the wrestler is wrestling on and it's no where near as hard as the wooden floor, not only does this help our hands but it makes a much louder sound.. Not today. Today we hit the wooden floor and boy did that hurt. Trying to hit the floor as hard as I usually hit the mat sent shocks up my arm and made about 1/4th of the sound. It sucked big time. And now my hands are extra sore, usually they only hurt a little bit. Now they're gross and puffy and they have bruises and they get dry and coarse every five minutes so I'm going through lotion like crazy. Stupid refs. 

Bridgette, Mum and I

If Mum was here right now I think she'd offer to give my poor, puffy, bruised hands a massage. How do I know this? Because some days after working 10 - 12 hours she would give me a foot massage. I could really use a hand massage right now and so I find myself giving myself one while doing my history homework. 


The moral of this story? 


I didn't appreciate all the little things Mum did for me while I was home, but not having her around has really made me thankful to have such a great Mum. (Not that my host mom isn't great, but Mum really knows how to help my tired ligaments).


Also, don't hit the wooden floor hard. It hurts. 

New Month. New Post.

I suppose I should update my blog, since I said I'd update more often. Though I haven't really got anything super exciting to write about. I guess that everything just seems kinda normal, as if all of this has become normal. It's a weird feeling. I'm not bored with anything, everything's still great, but it's just kind of a weird feeling. 

Hannah and I baked cupcakes on one of our snow days. 

Last week I received my flight confirmation pack from EF which says I'm on wave two, which means I'll leave here between May 31st and June 2nd. It seems so close and my time here seems to have gone so fast. But then I remember that it's still four months away and back in New Zealand before I had left, four months was such a long time. 


I probably should have used sometime during my mid-week weekend to update, but I guess blogging has slipped my mind. And about my mid-week weekend, well it was great. Tuesday and Wednesday were both snow days because it was so cold and on Monday after noon and Tuesday we got a lot of snow! With the amount of wind we had (up to 35m/hour) it blew everywhere and created some cool looking snow drifts on the roads and on top of what would be sidewalk. 

The snow day earlier this semester was spent playing in the snow.

The roads weren't absolutely terrible, the school was more closed because of the country roads. The roads in town are generally scooped before 8am but a lot of the country roads when it's really bad don't get scooped before midday. We have to make up the days at the end of the term which I don't mind because I do quite enjoy my mid-week weekends. Hannah and I always spend a part of our snow days together, it's become somewhat of a ritual. The four we've had this semester have not been without a bit of Hannah time. The ones in January were both spent actually playing in the snow and this week we baked cupcakes and drew some pretty pictures.


School so far this semester is going well, I enjoy all of my subjects a lot and even though I have quite a bit of homework each night I've gotten really good at managing my time which is nice. 


The past week I've been sick, I have a cold, and it's gotten a lot better now but last Thursday and Friday it was quite bad. Apparently during the BCIG two day wrestling tournament the weekend earlier there was a lot of bugs going round and that's why my cheerleading coach got influenza a and b and strep, and in the past two weeks five of six cheerleaders have had a cold. It wasn't much fun and I've still got a runny nose, but I don't have a sore throat or temperature anymore which is nice. 

Hannah makes lovely cupcakes.

We have regional wrestling this Saturday in Okoboji, the following weekend we have sectionals and then the week after we have State Wrestling. By the sounds of things we will get a couple of wrestlers to State because we are a 1A school (the smallest category of school, larger schools wrestle 2A and 3A because they have more wrestlers or more funding or for some other reason are more superior than little 1A schools with under 170 people.) State wrestling goes from Tuesday the 15th to Saturday and so I will have a lot of school and homework to be catching up on! It's in Des Moines and all of the cheerleaders and wrestlers are staying down there for the week. That's about all I know right now about it, but it's the highlight of the season apparently. 


I guess that's about all right at the moment,
Enjoy your 75 (24 Celcius) Fahrenheit weather Auckland while I enjoy my 15 (-9 Celcius) Fahrenheit weather. 
Send me a little sun?
:)

New Year, New Post, Terrible Reliability

[This part's old, typed a while back but I never got round to posting it or finishing it.]


Yes, I'm very lazy and very bad at this posting on this thing. Especially during my winter break.. But winter break is coming to an end now so I'll stop being lazy and update.

Our Christmas tree

I would like to post an impersonal thank you for all the amazing Christmas and birthday cards and gifts I received. I love getting mail and each and every one made me feel so special. Thank you :)


Firstly, Christmas was very white and wonderful. On the actual weekend of Christmas Linda's family was here, her two daughters, her son, his wife and their daughter. Lee, Linda's son, arrived on Friday night, and Heather and Monica, Linda's daughters arrived early afternoon on Christmas day because the roads were very icy. We had a huge Christmas lunch / dinner and exchanged presents and played some card games. It was very nice and very relaxing.



The weekend of the New Year was like a second Christmas where David's family came round. 

Anna came home from college and is staying 'till the 10th

and David's two other daughters came up with their husbands for the weekend.

Veronika's last day of school :(

For my birthday I went out to eat with some of my friends and then they came round after and we played a few card games and had fun. It was nice. Just thought I'd add this and it makes me realize I haven't posted in over a month. Goodness.


For school we had finals and they weren't as bad as I thought they would be. They were exams, in certain classes, over topics from the whole semester and it goes on a separate grade on our report card. I didn't do as well as I liked, score wise, but I didn't do badly. 


[less old, still a while ago but thought you should know]


Side note: So I did get distracted with the post because the last few days of winter break went so fast and all of a sudden I was back at school and now I'm overloaded with homework.. But do not fear, I am still alive! I pinkie promise to write interesting things soon but right now life is jam packed.

The three of us sisters at the airport for a final photo

Veronika left on the forth of January to go home to Austria and it was extremely sad seeing her leave. She's home safe and sound now and is back at school and speaking German again. 


I started school the day after so I didn't have time to get lonely really, but the house is a lot more quiet without her here.


School this semester is going well so far, even though I am getting a lot of homework.. My subjects are English, Sociology, Computer Applications Development, Economics, U.S History plus P.E and Choir.

This weekend I have a two day wrestling tournament at BCIG so we stay at a motel Friday night, cheer Friday and Saturday. Cheerleading's going really well, but it'll all be over soon and I'll be sad.

Cheerleading, my newest favorite passion :)

I'd love to write more but I really have to get back to my homework, promise to write soon and more often.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Merry Christmas New Zealand,
and Merry Christmas for tomorrow everyone in America :)


I'm sorry for being so slack lately but I've been extremely busy with finals and the end of semester so I'll update when I get a chance, which is not right now unfortunately.. 
I just stopped by to post that I'm thinking of you.


Here's my last ABT assignment, one of my finals for school. It had to be the meaning of Christmas using stykz (a program that's much harder to use than it looks).

Whatever your interpretation of Christmas is, I hope that your day is more amazing than imaginable. 
:)

All things Wintery and Cheer-full.

Veronika and I in our cheerleading uniform

So, just to start off, Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Yesna, a past exchange student now going to college in America, came around and spent it with us and the two days off school were long awaited. Linda and David cooked a turkey and a lot of other food which was delicious and we spent the day thinking specifically about everything that we're thankful for. 


As I think I'd mentioned last week we had our first cheerleading tournament. To say the least, it was interesting. I'm not so sure about the whole manliness of wrestling because the guys wear "singlets" which are tight short bodysuits and then they grope each other inappropriately trying to throw or somewhat twist the other to the floor. I don't really understand the scoring but it looks a lot easier than football because it's one on one. As for us cheerleaders, we went alright, a lot of the cheers were out of time but we survived and hey, it was our first meet.

The past weekend we had the EF Christmas party. All the exchange students that Linda takes care of came around and brought with them a dish of food from their home country. I'll admit, I'm not a cook, and the thought of having to cook something purely New Zealand kinda scared me a bit, but nevertheless I took a stab at making a pavlova. Except these pavlovas were more like meringues because in a group situation they're much easier to share. Mum and NP Nana would be extremely proud of me because surprisingly, it didn't go flat, it didn't burn and apart from having a little too much vanilla essence in it which is practically unnoticeable I made some perfect mini pavlovas. Others seemed to like them too which made me happy. But did I think to take a photo of my master piece? Of course not.

After a concert choir performance,

wearing the gear and looking pretty professional.

Also this weekend, like every Saturday for the next couple of months, I had a wrestling tournament. This is different from a wrestling match because there are a lot more schools there and matches going on at once. We left EHS at 8:30 and got home around 8pm so it was a full day which was filled to the top of cheering. 

In the weekend we had the second concert choir performance of the year, which was our first Christmas concert, we have another in a couple of weeks. I'm not really a huge fan of Christmas songs so it went okay, but I always enjoy watching everyone dress up in their fancy outfits. It's good fun being in choir cause we get to hang out before and afterwards and the teacher is extremely good.

In other news, after finally handing in our history group project, we took a history test last week. It went extremely well and I got 93/88 (109%) which is sooo good for one of my hardest classes. I was extremely proud of myself, hence sharing on here. This, along with other good work recently, has helped me keep my grade at a solid A, overall total of 93% or above. As a side note, today, after i'd finished writing this, my group got our grade back for the project we did. Firstly Ms Strube, the teacher, warned us that most of the projects were low grades because groups didn't follow the marking schedule, so I kinda prepared myself for a B at the highest, but we got an A+! With 105% we got the second highest grade in the whole junior class, the highest having one point more than us! All that hard work definitely paid off. My group and I couldn't be more pleased.

Brittany and Veronika with our over 5 foot project

I also had a psychology test where I got 77%, or a C+ which I was proud of too. This is because I really dislike psychology and just want to pass and hurry up and get out of the class, I'm not interested and it bores me. The teacher's the same as in history so it's not only boring but hard. Though we did talk a little bit about Sociology which is offered next semester and it's meant to be completely different from Psych so I may decided to take that because we'll study other cultures which could be interesting.

My other subjects are going well too.. In Critical Thinking (an English class) which I'm writing a six page persuasive essay in at the moment, I have an A.. In ABT I have an A- because in two group projects I got a B and a B+, which is bad considering we get hardly any assignments. I mean we get big assignments but it's hard to bring your grade up cause there are no little assignments.. In Human Relations I have a solid A, it's a really easy class and all quarter I've missed two points I think, so I've got a 98%.. In Government I also have an A, which is admittedly also decently easy, even though it's a Senior only class. (Only grade 12 students can take it, and exchange students who have special privileges.)

Mara, Hannah and I after the choir Christmas concert

Unfortunately next semester ABT and Concert Choir have been scheduled at the same time and thats the only period they're both offered. After long consideration I decided to stay in Concert Choir. Not only because I enjoy it, I have friends in it who I get to hang out with when we do performances and such, but about every second day I get to use it as a study hall which is handy for me to do my other homework in, other wise I would just have one every second day opposite p.e. This way I'll have one everyday, except when we're practicing for a concert when I'll have choir everyday.

Anna and I in our cheerleading uniform.

The other subjects that I'm taking next semester are U.S History, Junior English (normal english class), American Lit 2 (more advanced than the normal one), Economics, Art, Food Fitness and P.E. Although I'm looking at changing art / food fitness to something, I just chose them to fill up a spot. Except in Art we're meant to be doing clay modeling and stuff so maybe that would be different, and I haven't taken an art class for years it could be fun. I'll see if I can find a better class if not that's how it'll stick.


Other than that, I had a home wrestling match tonight which was a lot of fun, we've definitly improved from last week! 


That's all for now, 
Chat later :)

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 :)