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 :)

Newest ABT Movie

Sorry it's so long, but that's the way my teacher uploaded it to youtube. For Advanced Business Technology, our assignment was to make a film between two and three minutes to go in the hall of fame all about Emmetsburg. We had to work in partners and my partner's video and mine is last.

I also helped two of my friends, Chad and Tyler, make a short advertisement for their marketing class public service video yesterday. They had to do a video on cyber bullying, raising awareness on it. 

Opening night for the play is tomorrow night and I'm so excited :) We get the day off school too cause there's been parent teacher conferences. I'll update sometime during the weekend. 

Enjoy :)

Quick Update

Just a quick update from my ipod to announce.. I made Varsity Wrestling Cheerleading :)

The results were posted today and I was super happy!

Also, on Sunday we went to the Ef Halloween party where I carved my very first pumpkin :) everyone else was carving faces so I carved a peace sign! It's so much harder then it looks.

That's all for now, will post photos soon!

Unreliable Blogging. Sorry.

Brittany, Veronika and I

Not only did I get photos of leaves, but Veronika, Natalie and I decided to be photography for the afternoon and we took some photos playing in the leaves :)


Recently all it seems like we've been doing is play practice, play practice and play practice. Last Sunday we had practice for five hours!  It's still fun but it's very time consuming. 


Last week Linda and David were in Florida from Tuesday so Veronika and I stayed at Natalie's which was really nice. Even if we had to get up early for her show choir. 


It was the end of the first quarter on Friday (like term one in New Zealand) and we will be getting all of our quarter one grades on a score sheet. So far I know that I got an A- in US History and a B- in Psychology which I was really pleased about. In psychology I'm the only junior (year 11) in a class of seniors (year 12.. the final year of school in USA) and US History is a class of only juniors but it's quite difficult.

Fun in the leaves :)

Tomorrow afternoon Veronika, Pete and I are going to a Halloween Party with other EF students. I'm wearing my play costume cause I have it and don't have to buy it, and it's a costume cause no-one wears the horrible big skirts anymore. Then tomorrow afternoon I have play practice again, which we're running through the whole show so it's probably gonna last ages.


But all is okay, next week we're performing! On Thursday morning we're doing a full rehearsal in front of the Middle School and then Friday evening is opening night! I'm so excited, it's going to be so cool.

Squirrel!

Today Veronika and I went to Wrestling Cheerleading tryouts. Wrestling Cheerleading is a type of cheerleading where you mainly sit on the side of the mat and hit it in rhythm. That's really all I know about it anyway. So the squad is made up of six girls, and there were ten girls trying out, it was so nerve wracking. We had three days to learn the school song and the dance to it but we managed to get it down. I really enjoy it! If we don't make the Varsity (best) Squad then we are automatically put on the JV (Junior Varsity) Basketball Cheerleading Squad which is more of your normal cheerleading, routines and dances standing up.


Other than that, everything's been pretty normal. It's meant to snow this week though. I'm so excited! I've never been snowed on before, eek. 

I love Natalie :D

Also, if you want me to explain anything, feel free to ask, cause to me it seems like everything is normal but it probably doesn't to you and I forget who I've explained things to and what not. I don't want you to be completely lost! I promise to update a lot more often. For those that haven't figured out how to post comments yet, you click on the title of the post, for example the bigger "Unreliable Blogging. Sorry" for this post, scroll down to the end and post a comment. From there you can make an account if you wish where you may be able to have my posts emailed to you. I'm not sure though, I've never needed my own posts sent to my email. Otherwise post anonymously, but remember to include your name!


Also, exciting news. If you google "bryant camp ef" my blog is on the first page of results! I hope that's not just for me. Yes, I get excited about little things. 


That's all.
Enjoy the Sunshine :)

Procrastination.. More to Come

You may've noticed I haven't posted for a while, the main reason for this is because I haven't taken photos of the trees yet as I'd promised. I know, very slack and I should get onto it soon before all the leaves fall off, but I'm such a procrastinator. 

On the other hand, I've just finished another ABT project. This one was our choice so I made a movie about New Zealand. You can see it bellow. I don't like hearing myself talk but I had to have heaps of voice-over to have the information cause I don't really like subtitles, just a heads up.

Also, while we're sharing videos, for Psychology a small group had to make a "Choral Reading" on a body system that we're studying. Our group had to do the Endocrine System, so we made a rap. 

This is just a short update so that you know I'm still alive and doing great but haven't had the motivation to be creative as yet.


More to come soon :)