An Update

I have just over two months left here in Quebec. I'm a little mixed emotioned about it all, and I wasn't expecting that. I really wan to get home adn see all my friends, family and see Wellington again. But on teh other hand, I don't want to leave the life that I have created here. I made great friends, I have an amazing relationship with my host parents (that took a lot of effort to build). And time goes so fast I get a little worried I'll miss out on doing stuff or won't have as much time to do stuff that I want to. I'm sure that if I don't get to distracted by the emotions I can finish the afs year achieveing all my goals, having heaps of fun with my friends and sharing memories with my host family.

Oh and I'm sure I will have heaps of fun...I'm going to Toronto this weekend to see teh Niagara falls with afs.

An update on spring

We had an unbelievable day...28 degrees. But imagine having to spend that inside the classroom! In fact I had two of my four classes in the gymnasium for p.e. The beep test went well- 8.5. There was one guy who beat the school record and he got 16. My other p.e class we were playing volley ball/complaining about the heat and wanting to go outside. After school I went out with friends on our bikes. It sounds really geeky but it was really fun. Including finding a soccer ball in the river and nearly falling in to retrieve it.

the changing weather

Spring has finally arrived!!!

After many months hiding away form the cold, it’s warming up. In fact today its 19 degrees. After a few warm months here I go back to the new Zealand winter…which won’t be that exciting now I know what a real winter is like.

So today everyone is dressed for spring/summer. We spent our lunch time outside in the sun.
I think I’m defiantly a summer girl!

photos from new york

I took about 130 photos intotal...here are some...i have also emailed some out but if i didnt email you and you want more photos just email me and ill send them.


m%m world

simon cowell at wax museum

for those of you who have seen hitch the movie..this is the bull thats in it...you know, when the girl goes to find the man whos a real arsehole and she hits him and he uses the bulls arse for support...

this is the bronze spere that used to be in teh strium of teh world trade centers. Amazingly it survived the destruction and is now used in the memorial.

disney store

new york

central park

the park that yoko ono made after john lennon died

photos

empire state building

central park

m&m world

johnny cash at teh wax museum

My Easter in the BIg Apple

I spent my Easter weekend in New York!!! It was insanely huge and there were too many people but I loved every minute of my trip.

We caught the bus at 11pm Friday night. Its about an 11 hour bus ride to New York. It was long and uncomfortable but our guide had heaps of dvds to watch that are all filmed in New York. So by the end of the trip I had been to all the places that we see on television. We had little fun at the us border. Because we were on a big bus a little customs man got on the bus to check id but the Italians and I had to get off and answer sooo many questions. Why don’t they just straight out ask if we are terrorists?
We arrived in New York at about 11am Saturday. We had ‘free time’ to wander around and try not to get lost. I saw all of 5th avenue and all the expensive stores (including tiffany’s, lacoste, Gucci, pucci, NBA store, Walt Disney store and the Lindt store where we got free chocolates at the door (I managed to go in and out the store 3 times before they recognised me lol). I saw the Hotel Plaza (as seen in Home Alone) the Public Library (as seen in Day After Tomorrow) Central Park (as seen in too many things to list) and St Patrick’s Cathedral. We had dinner at a brewery and after headed to the Rockefeller Center. We had a 360 degree of new york 75 storeys high. Very cool. After that we headed of the the hotel (with a lot of beer that my host mum had bought for us). The hotel was very nice. We had a television in our room and when my friend Silvia saw it she was sooo happy (her host family don’t have a television plus she loves English) so we watched the television until very late.

Sunday morning I had a little talk on the phone with my family. I was so excited about being in New York I had to share it with someone. Lol. We started early Sunday because we had a lot to do. We walked through central park to the Metropolitan art museum. They had so much cool stuff (including a lot of Greek stuff that was really interesting). After that we had free time again. We went to have lunch at Grand Central (as seen in a lot of movies including Madagascar…hehehe I saw the clock that gets stuck on the giraffe’s head). After that we had a city tour with a very strange guide. She was American but could speak French (with a very funny accent and not many people could understand her, I could because I recognised her accent). We saw everything in New York (she pointed out where stars live and who parties where. Lol. We also went to Strawberry Fields; the little park that Yoko Ono made after John Lennon was killed. We saw Harlem and the dirty parts of New York too. After that the group went to have dinner at an expensive restaurant. Seeing as me and my friends had spent a fair bit of money we went to MacDonalds and mucked around in Times Square for 2 hours. That was a lot of fun. We got photos with the police and we ran into the middle of the road to get a photo with all the lights. We went to Madam Tussaud the wax museum. That was very cool. I had been when I was about 9 years old in Melbourne but so much had changed. There were a lot of new people (like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Brad Pitt with Angelina Jolie, Usher, Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez). After that we headed back to the hotel.

Monday was so much fun. We took the ferry to see the statue of liberty, we went to Wall Street, Ground Zero, China Town and Little Italy.
I promise to get photos up here soon and email out photos aswell.

birthday pics

the cute little breakfast

due to complaints about lack of a decent photo...here is the best photo of my tattoo i can get

at the party with my birthday cake. (ignore the drunk italien and smug quebecer)

i love my tui teeshirt!!! and the pretty flowers my parents got delivered in drummondville

my 18th

I had the bestest birthday i coud have asked for.
I was lucky enough to have a 40 hour birthday (because of time difference). I got heaps of cute text messages so thanks to everyone that semt them. Friday night I had a great talk on the phone with my family. Made me a little homesick though because I was having such an important day but i was so far away form everyone.

Saturday morning was so cute. When I woke up and went downstairs, i found my host dad had gone to Tim Hortons and bought 3 coffees and 3 muffins, put a candle in each muffin and had it waiting for me on the counter top. It was so sweet. My host parents gave me an amazing necklace with a stone thats supposed to prevent negative energies and a big book of personality tests. It sounds a lil geeky but the book is really cool. Its a whole lot of tests to find aptitudes, personality; and to see if you are kind, creative, adventurous etc. Then I opened my box form home. I got 18 of the coolest presents ever, including fancy jewellery, soft toys, makeup, more jewellery, a tui teeshirt and instant scratchies (which i won $5). I spent most of the afternoon at the mall because my host parents were going to negociate for a summer cottage. It was a little boring but I got to but lotto tickets and alcohol (and yet no one ided me).

Saturday night I had my birthday party. It was very cool. We had a uv light so that was funny. Everyone had a pretty good time and a good laugh at me when i accidently broke a bottle of maple syrup (it wasnt my fault, the shelf in the fridge broke and it just so happened that it was me that opened the fridge).

Sunday we went to a 'cabane a sucre'...its a little place in the woods where you go to have a real quebec experience. We had a lunch entirely made up of food cooked in maple products. It was soo good. Except I was with 2 of teh people who had been at my party and no one would have guessed we had drunk the night before, except my italien friend threw up everywhere after the 1 hour drive.

So it was a good birthday that I definatly wont forget.