The way home

26th and 27th of December, Friday and Saturday, mushed together

I woke up relatively early, to make sure I got everything packed. I skyped my whole family, yes relatives too. They were having their Christmas extended family gathering at my sister's apartment. I would say, that I missed that Christmas food, but luckily, Judie saved me on the 18th! 

Larry came to pick me up at 1, with her daughter and son-in-law. By then, I was completely packed, ready to go. The luggage was 3 pounds overweight, but the nice check-in ladies let it go. However nice the very end of the trip is, I dislike flying very much. I need to learn how to teleport. 

Herb and Sun came with us to the airport, where we met Al and Dan from Rotary, who came to see me off. We sat in the lounge for an hour, just talking. I was actually pretty sad to leave. But at one point, we had to say goodbye. 

  I got on the second tiniest plane I've been on, from Rochester to Toronto. I sat next to the emergency exit. It was a quick flight. The time between the transfers was long though. The Toronto airport is one of the best I've ever been to. There are Ipads with seats and chargers everywhere. Free of charge, one can play, surf the net and relax. Pretty awesome. I've made some friends too. Three Canadian people came to my table and started talking, and I kind of joined the conversation. They were two parents, on their way to a dance competition in Vienna, and their instuctor, who's and author. We chatted for some while. Canadian, always so nice!

  The 8 hour flight from Toronto to Munich was horrible. It smelled really bad, the person in front of me stole my pillow, and after I asked and he gave it back, he revenged it by leaning his chair back. While I was sleeping on the tray. On my head. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. I watched the end of The Giver (lousy movie, didn't like it), and Arthur Christmas (which is actually pretty good), but the rest of the movies were either not interesting, or I've seen them before.

  My flight from Munich was delayed by half an hour. Germans are very nice too, they were all kind and smiling. I sat in the emergency exit row too, alone by the window. Like a first class seat! My Dad would have loved it, he's really tall so he needs a lot of leg-space. I landed at 1 pm.

  Seeing my parents again was undiscribably joyful! It all seemed surreal, that we were in the same car. We were all so happy! 

My dog went crazy with joy, but the cat ran away when I wanted to pet it. We had some Hungarian bean soup, that my Dad made. It was so good! We exchanged some Christmas gifts too, as a late Christmas.

  I fell asleep at 3 pm, and I woke up at midnight. I think I was tired from not sleeping for 24 hours. 

  Being in my home country was weird. I've been away for so long, that I felt like a foreigner. I was very happy though, to see the things I was used to again.

  It was all just so good to be true! I want to thank every Rotarian, who helped me get here! You made my family so happy!

Christmas

25th of December, Thursday

A real traditional American Christmas! I got up at 8:30, and everyone came down to the livin room. We were anxious to open presents! I skyped my family in Hungary. My sister and her family was at our house, so I talked with them too. I got a package from her, from Brussels, which was a furry bracelet. My sister gives me the weirdest and funniest presents! I got a package from my parents too, full of personal gifts and candy. Lots of candy. I didn't cry this time. I got a bunch of gifts from Herb, Anne and Sun. Like an awesome bracelet, pyjama pants, a hoodie, parfume, keychain, and a stocking full of candy (I definitely left something out, because there was so much). I opened a package from Kim Masiello, full of art supplies (yay!), and I got an envelope from Al, who generously added to my bus tour savings.

  I spent the rest of the morning packing. At 4, the extended family came, and everyone was giving each other presents. I got some gift cards and candy again. We ate some Christmas food in the basement. It was very lovely. Unfortunately, I still had a lot of packing to do.

  At 10 pm, Herbie, Jackie, Dj, Sun, two of Herbie's cousins and I, we went to the cinema! Weird, the last time I went to the movie theatre on Christmas, I was 6. We watched Unbroken, a film directed by Angelina Jolie. It was very impressive, amazingly done and beautifully filmed. It's a true story about a WWII veteran Olympicon, who survived a plane crash, 1,5 months drifting in the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat, and being captured and held in a Japanese concentrational camp. The Japanese are so cruelly illustrated, that this movie is banned in Japan. It was a very powerful film, and a long one too. It was 1 am when we got back home. I finished packing by 3 am.

Christmas Eve

24th of December, Wednesday

Yay, this is the 100th blog entry!
In Hungary, this would be the first day of Christmas. We celebrate the close-family Christmas on the day and evening of the 24th. The day is spent with decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping presents and cooking Christmas dinner. Then, at 7 o'clock, everybody comes down to the living room, nicely dressed, and we have our Christmas dinner (which is usually either orange-duck or plums wrapped in turkey breast). This year, my family at home had fish for some reason. Then when we're finished, we get up, take some Christmas pictures, maybe sing a song and light up some sparkles. Then we finally give each other presents. One of the things, that I always get, is DVDs. My mom is kind of a collector. We spend the rest of the day with watching a movie I got for Christmas.
  When I was smaller, I would spend the day at my Grandma's apartment, and we'd go home late in the afternoon. I'd find, that the Christmas tree was decorated by the "angels", and "baby Jesus" placed gifts underneath it.
  This year though, I was trying to organize my catastrophicly messy room. It seems silly, but whoever would have seen the state of this room, would have agreed, that the situation is merely impossible. Nonetheless, I tried.
  At 5 o'clock, we went to church, for a 1 hour service. When we got back at 6:30, everyone got back to packing, wrapping, cooking. The big Christmas Eve dinner was chilli. It's understandable, American's don't celebrate Christmas just yet. We decided to give each other presents the next day.
  This year, I've gotten several scary, heart-jumping emails from my parents, emails full of bad news. The worst one was the news about my Grandmother's passing, the second worst, was when she got a stroke in October, and today was the third. A candle burnt down our dining room at home. Luckily, my Mom fell asleep on the couch (that's what she does, if she's too tired to go upstairs to bed), and she woke up to some strange sounds. I can't even imagine, what she felt, when she saw the flames eating on the dining room table and three other chairs. She was probably shocked, and full of adrenaline at the same time. She put out the flames with buckets of water. By the time my Dad got downstairs, there was only a puddle, and the sad remains of our living room furniture left. Must have been horrible. It all happened at 2 am, Budapest time. We skyped with my parents at 3 am. They were still up (no wonder, the adrenaline stays for a longer time), and they showed me the damage. Looks like we're starting the new year with some new furniture. I can't believe, how lucky it was, that the flames didn't spread towards the drapes, and my Mom was right there to be heroic and put the fire out.
  This will be a memorable Christmas for my family, a Christmas of firsts. First time I'm away, first time something burnt down in our house (ever), and the first Christmas without my Grandma, both for me and my Mom. I remember, whenever she gave someone a gift, she always used to say: "Strength, health and lots of love to you!". It's better for her to spend this Christmas in Heaven, than to spend it in a hospital.
  Everybody says, that Christmas is the most critical time in the exchange student's life, because the homesickness is the worst. I don't know if it's the fact, that I'm going home 2 days later, or that I skyped with my parents twice today, but I don't feel homesick at all. I'm just enjoying a regular American Christmas. Which starts tomorrow.

Beginning of the Christmas holiday

20th-23rd of December, Sat-Tue

The days before the holidays are always a blur. Not just for me, but for everybody in the world. Last minute present shopping, party planning, decorating. Plus I have to pack. Pack to go back home on Friday, and pack to move host families. This is my last week with the Parkers.
  On Saturday, me, Herb and Sun, we went to a 2 hour church Christmas choir concert rehearsal. This was my first rehearsal, for I have missed the previous ones. I didn't really feel comfortable presenting 5 new songs the next day, so I gave up the church choir. Instead, I had a sleepover at Alma's. We stayed up til 4 am between Saturday and Sunday. We watched like 4 movies, and ate pizza. My happiness was complete!
  On Monday, Herb took me and Sun to Hobby Lobby, a hobby store in Webster. We had lunch at the Dinosaur BBQ place downtown. It's a smoky half bar, half restaurant establishment, with limited lighting, cool decorations and delicious BBQ. I had a salad, but I couldn't finish it, the portions were so big. Should be used to it by now, American restaurant portion are crazy.
  In the evening, I went over to the Masiello's for a mini-dinner-party. I met Zach, Kim's son, who lives in Seattle and just came over for the holidays. He works at Microsoft. He's such a geek (and I say this in the best way possible, because I consider myself one too, although, I'm clearly an illiterate person in terms of computers compared to him), and he reminds me of my friends at home, who are also geeks. As it happened, Larry Wills and a few Masiello family members came over, and we had mac-n-cheese, salad and ham. Yummy, as usual at the Masiello house.
  My Tuesday was unproductively awesome. I can't honestly say, that I got out of bed, or changed my pyjamas. These are the best days, I'm telling you. 

Last day of school 2014 - Pyjama day

19th of December, Friday

Finally, this day has arrived. The last day before Christmas holiday. And today, one of my childhood dreams came true: I went to school in my pyjamas.

At 6:16, I got up. I would have been running late, but I just got out of bed, and walked down, in my pyjamas. (Ok, before I went to bed, I put on a pair of leggings under my pyjama pants). At school almost everybody was wearing their sleepwear. Some even got blankets, pillows and teddy bears with them. The classes, as it is usual before Christmas, were really easy. In some, we watched movies, in some, we did nothing. In Choir, I found out the cast list for Anything Goes: I made the show! Even though I'm just an ensemble, that counts as a mini-accomplishment. 1/3 of the kids didn't even make the show. So from January, rehearsals are going to start, can't wait!

  At home, I discovered new things about my laptop, which is super cool. The speakers work, thank God, and everything else seems to be fine too. Windows 8 needs some getting-used-to, but I'll be alright.

Hungarian Christmas dinner at Judie's

18th of December, Thursday

School was kind of interesting today. We watched the Grinch in Creative Writing, and we celebrated Christmas at the Select Choir and music department Christmas party. We had some chicken wings as lunch, and we gave each other presents, for Secret Santa. You basically put your name in a jar with everyone, pull out 1 name, and you have to give that person a present. I got a girl, I only know her by face, so I couldn't really give her anything cool. She got a huge mug and some spices for tea or hot cocoa. My secret Santa was Mrs. Dearstyne, our pianist. She got me some Swiss hot chocolate, a mug, a pair of socks and nail polish. Funny thing, she gave me red, white and green nail polish, which are the colors of the Hungarian flag, but she unintentionally gave them, she only thought about the holiday colors. In Advisement, I joined the book club. It's a small group of girls, who meet about once every month, and they read the same book and discuss it. However uncool this may seem for the popular kids, I find it very fun. The cast list for Anything Goes was promised for today, but I didn't see it. I'll look for it tomorrow.

  When I got home, I just lay in bed, and fell asleep. At 5:16, Anne's shout woke me up. I thought that I was late for school (again). Then she added, that Larry was here, which confused me. Why would Larry be here in the morning. Finally, I realized, that it was still in the afternoon, and we had plans to have dinner at Judie's house. When I went down, my new computer was waiting for me. But I didn't have time to play with it, we had to go.

  We arrived at 6:10, fashionably 10 minutes late, at the same time as Tracy. Judie lives in a cute house in Hilton. She has two cats, a huge Santa Claus collection, and she cooks amazing food. She challenged herself to cook a traditional Hungarian Christmas meal, and she went even beyond that. She made some amazing goulash, and stuffed cabbage, with beigli and sweet kifli, two famous Hungarian Christmas desserts. Everything was phenomenal. It was truly perfect. We had so much fun. We gave each other presents too, although I wouldn't have thought, that I'd get something, but I got a lot of gifts again. I got some homemade jam, pictures, a scarf and two cute bags. Not to mention the extra food I brought home. This dinner was absolutely perfect. Thank you  so much, for all three of you!! 

Greece Rotary Christmas

17th of December, Wednesday

In the Rotary meeting today, we celebrated Christmas, because this was the last meeting of 2014. A lot of people came, more than usually. Must have been the news about the special holiday food they were serving for this occasion (:D).
  I feel so comfortable in the club, but also very spoiled. They gave me Christmas presents, and lots of them! The boots were put on the windowsill, full of gifts (like candy, awesome hat and gloves, Rotary teddy bear, pillow, Christmas ornaments and more candy), a poem was written for me, which is super cool, and the biggest surprise was, that the club, in a matter of one week, gathered so much money, that it covers my airfare back to Budapest. When I found out, I was truly speechless (which doesn't happen to me a lot). This is so incredible, it only happens in movies, and there I was, standing in front of 55 people, almost crying, being completely overwhelmed. It was just so emotional. I can never express my and my family's gratitude with words. What the Rotary has done for me this year is beyond describable. I just feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many great people, and I mean that with all my heart! Thank you guys, for a wonderful experience and for all the support!
  I gave my Christmas presents to the members too. I made little magnet out of perler beads, in the shape and colors of the Hungarian flag, and I glued a piece of magnet on it. It wasn't much, but it was made with love.
  After the Rotary Christmas meeting, Larry took me to the place he works at, where they also had a Christmas party. We just stuck our heads in, and I was introduced to a bunch of people. I also met Larry's mom, who lives in a beautiful nursing home. I mean, I've visited many Hungarian nursing homes this summer (which are in horrible conditions, and are very depressing), but this place was just perfect. Larry's mom is a very nice, king lady. She's very tiny, but she talked a lot. We didn't stay very long, but I was glad I got to meet her.
  When I got home, I immediately skyped my parents, to tell them about what happened today, and they were very moved too. They are very grateful too.

Athena Christmas Concert

16th of December, Tuesday

Ever since we started the school year, the Athena Select Choir has been preparing for the Christmas concert. It's an annual tradition, where all the music groups in the school perform a few songs. This night, we started the gig at 6:30.
  Beforehand, we prepared ourselves, put on our gowns, makeup and hair pieces (my friends helped me with the last one). We practiced for a little while, then we gracefully, almost tripping, walked up on stage, on the risers. I was standing in the 4th row. The theatre was 3/4 packed, a lot of friends and families came. For me, that was Herb and Anne, and from the Rotary, Kim, Larry, Tracy and Mike.
  Ms. Dyer conducted the choir, many times, I would read the lyrics off of her lips, when I forgot. We started with Beethoven's Halleluja, then Betelemehemu, a Nigerian Christmas songs, Bashana Haba'a, a Hebrew song, Shepherd's Chorus and Silent night. I think it all went well. We practiced a lot. By the end, my mouth was dry and my feet in the character shoes were killing me, but I was content with our performance. I didn't get a stagefever, or anything. I wasn't anxious at all.
  Afterwards, I stayed to watch the symphonic band play. They were really good too.

CPR training

15th of December, Monday

This is the last week of school in 2014. It's supposedly a winter Spirit week in Athena, but not a lot of people dressed in white today, as the theme of the first day. 

  We had CPR training in gym class. Many firefighters came, to educate us about it. It was hands-only CPR, and we could practice it on dolls after a short briefing presentation. I've learned a lot of interesting things. In Hungary, CPR training is not obligatory for graduation. You need to get this sort of training when 

you're doing your driver's licence. So this was very new for me. I also need to mention, that probably less people die of cardiac arrest in Hungary, than in the US. I think we all know why that is.

  We wrote tall tales in Creative Writing. For quite some time now, I've been playing with the idea to be a writer, and every day, I get a sign, that I should be. The meaning of life is a long searched theory, but not all people realize, that there's an explanation is within everyone. Because everyone's leading a different life, we all have our own interpretations of it. For me, it's all about the stories. The stories we live, hear, see, tell and write. My life is all about making a better story. Funny, how much one can philosophize in Creative Writing.

  The rest of the day was nothing extra special. I skyped my best friend in Hungary, heard what's happening with my friends at home. Seems like I'm missing out a lot, but still: this year counts as a better story. 

Skating in Manhattam Square

13th of December, Saturday

I woke up at the Masiello house, with around 4 emails from my Dad. He bought me tickets to Hungary. I'm leaving on the 26th and I'm coming back on the 9th of January. 

  I helped make meatballs, we moved a TV and wrapped presents with Kim. I skyped my parents in the afternoon. I had a really fun time, pretending to he the Masiello's exchange student. They'd be great host parents.

At 5, Mike Taylor and his family picked me up. We went ice skating on the Manhattan Square open air ice rink. It's completely in downtown Rochester. I had an amazing time getting to know the Taylor family. Mike's wife is called Kim too (just like the Masiellos), and they have two sons. I skated, without falling. Afterwards, we had dinner at Wimpy's. It was a fun outing, I got home at 9 o'clock.

Callbacks and sleepover at Kim's

13th of December, Friday

I would like to thank everyone, who expressed their condolences. I've recieved so many emails from my Rotary club, it's overwhelming. I've spent my Thursday hiding in my room, then Kim Masiello took me out for a walk in the mall. I was planning on staying at home for Friday too, but Ms Dyer, the music teacher and director wrote me an email, that I got called back for the part of the mother in Anything Goes. So I had to rush in to school ( Kim took me), because there's a rule in the schooldistrict, that in order to participate in any afterschool activities ( including callbacks), the student has to be in school for at least half a day. 

  So I got my script, I memorized them, and when the time came, I played an old lady. The callbacks for me were over at 4:15, when Kim picked me up. The plan was to sleep over at their house.

We were invited over for dinner at Kim and Mike's friends' house. I had a wonderful time getting to know them. We had dinner and we watched the midseason finale of How to get away with Murder. 

We left at around 11 o'clock. 

 

My grandmother

10th of December, Wednesday

Sometimes, when the most horrible things happen to us, we feel them coming. But most times, it's just a normal, regular day. Like today.
  I didn't go to school, me and Anne, we went to a Rotary Christmas event, that the Greece Rotary Club hosted for special needs children. A cute little celebration with Santa and presents. When I got home, I shoveled the driveway for 2 hours. There was so much snow, and by the time I finished, 2 inches of snow fell on the freshly shoveled concrete.
  At 4:30, I was finally inside, with a well deserved hot cocoa, wrapped in a blanket, watching The Little Mermaid.
  I got a short email from my Mom, that my grandma has passed away. I skyped my parents right away. She died at around 11 pm, Budapest time. She had severe dementia for years. My parents and I agree, that she's in a better place now. I still feel very sad, but I'm also happy for her. If somebody deserves to go to heaven, she definitely does.
  She was nurse, and she was very proud of it. She was already retired, when I was born. I remember, when she took me home from kindergarten, she always used to say, we were gonna take the legbus (aka we're gonna walk). She used to let me watch TV and make me honey sandwiches and cocoa. She never wanted to sit down, when she came over to our house. We always had to persuade her, to sit on the couch. She used to take the trolley to the supermarket. She had 3 husbands, but the third one was her truest love. I never met him, but she used to talk about him.
  She died at the age of 85. She was the only grandparent I ever met, and I'm glad I did. She was a kind soul, and a great mom-grandma. I'm going to miss her. She deserves to be remembered as the great person she was.

Anything Goes auditions

9th of December, Tuesday

Today is my dear Emma Bergh's birthday, my South African host-sister, who was in Hungary with me, exactly a year ago. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met!

  After a Monday night of practicing on the freezing porch in a coat, a heater and two blankets, playing the piano and singing my heart out, I thought I was ready for auditions today. I was so proud of myself, for the first time ever, I could play the piano and sing simultaneously.
  At two o'clock the following day, I was faced with another problem: I didn't know if I should wear my shorter blue dress or my longer violet one. Ms. Dyer asked for era-appropriate clothing, so I chose the violet one. I kinda looked like a grandma in it. That with Anne's super uncomfortable shoes, I could pass as a 30 year old. We gathered in the APAC, everybody got a number (I was 62), and we sat down, to see the auditions. Alma decided to accompany me, and to listen to all 70 kids sing. First, those, who had to hurry sang, then all the girls practiced. We had to sing 2 songs from the musical Anything Goes. The main song (Anything Goes) was everybody's first performance. Then the boys, the soprano girls, the bass and tenor boys, and finally, the alto girls. Each group had separate songs from the play, ours, the alto girls' was "I get a kick out of you". Mrs. Dearsteyn, the pianist lined up as many people as she could on the stage, and the person singing had to come forward to the middle.
  My goal was to sing loudly. Ms. Dyer was sitting further back, so if I wanted to make an impression, I needed to be heard. I figured, with all the practice that I put in these songs, I'm bound to be on key. But as I walked up to the front of the stage, and said my name and number, the whole performing started so quickly, I didn't even think it through. I forgot all my moves, and all my internal warnings about the tricky part. I woke up around halfway through, where I decided, that even if my singing was lousy, I'd go out with a BANG!. So I tried my best, and walked back to my place, when it was over. I was just glad, that I was done with the first, more difficult song. The second one was much easier, because we had to go from the APAC to the Forum room, which is much smaller and cozier.
  The whole thing ended at 6 o'clock for me, it took 4 hours to get through both songs of every 70 kids'. Due to communication difficulties, Herb got us at 7. We took Alma home, and I finally had a chicken wrap to eat, after a day of starving.
  It's interesting, how auditions can tire one out. I know I feel like I ran 5 kilometers. I couldn't really move, once I got home.

Holiday Brunch in Victor

7th of December, Sunday

Kim and Mike Masiello picked me up at 11 o'clock, to take me to the annual Rotary Holiday Brunch, that the Victor-Farmington Rotary Club hosts. I met all the inbound exchange students, and the outbounds too, for the first time. For some reason, no one's going to Hungary from this district next year. But the kids were very nice, nonetheless.
  The country club was very fancy, and the food was good too. We sang some Christmas songs, and even Santa Claus payed us a visit. We had to tell him, where we were from, and how we say Merry Christmas in our language. As a Christmas present, we got T-Shirts with everyone's name and country printed on it. For the rest of the time, the DJ tried to get the kids to the dance floor, but he didn't have much luck with his music, other than the Makarena dance. We chatted in the meanwhile, caught up on how everybody's doing. The party was cut short for me, we went back to Greece at 3.
   Back home, I skyped my parents, and I thanked them personally for the package.
(pictures of the brunch will come later, when I get my hands on them)

Santa Claus Day

6th of December, Saturday

On the 6th of December, the children of Hungary wake up all excitedly, because Santa Claus dropped by at night, leaving candy and gifts behind on the windowsill or in the boots they put outside the door in the evening. The candy is mostly Santa Claus shaped chocolate, and (kids under 7: don't read the next sentence!), the parents are behind this conspiracy. That's one of the many reasons why Hungary is a cool country, we have 2 Christmases. (And on Christmas Eve, Baby Jesus brings the presents [also the parents really, just to clarify]).
  Today, I woke up at 10, and when I opened my door two packages waited for me. One was from Herb and Anne, the other one was from Hungary! I couldn't believe my parents sent me stuff for Santa Claus day! Christmas, I'd understand, but today! I was so happy.
   After skillfully placing Herb's and Anne's Santa Claus Day presents in their rooms (they didn't see me, they saw someone else, like a ghost or something), I came down, and we opened my package from my parents.
There were so many stuff inside. Popping candy, chocolate, spices, instant milkrice (something I joked about with my parents on Skype, how much I miss, but I didn't think they would actually send it), zizi, french dragees, Danube rocks (all three are Hungarian candies), lottery tickets (neither of them won, but they were still fun to scratch off), sweetener, letter from my parents and soup cubes with my Mom's special soup recipe, that I miss a lot. I broke down, and cried. I was so moved and overwhelmed, I couldn't hold it in. I was truly so happy and homesick. Anything that reminds me of home I love, and anything from my parents is deeply cherished.
I decided to make my Mom's soup, and we went shopping to get the ingredients. It took me around 1,5 hours in the evening to make, but it was finally done, and I didn't burn anything. Herbie and his girlfriend Jackie came over for around 30 minutes, just in time for the soup. I served it to everybody, then I tasted it myself. I started crying again a little bit too, because it was just like my Mom's. The pasta and the cheese were different, but the general taste, was very near to right. Of course, no one can perfectly replicate the soup, other than my Mom. But it was very good indeed. So good, that everyone ate it to the last drop, even Jackie, who doesn't like soup.
  Today was a very emotional Santa Claus Day. I got something from my parents, then I made something, which reminded me of them. I miss them so much. This is the hardest part of the exchange, any exchange student can tell you. The holidays season is tough to get through without the people you love most. But even though we're half the world apart, we can still make each other feel happy. That's the best thing about family.

Skating and Dance auditions

4th of December, Thursday
In Hungary, we celebrate name days. All the days in the calendar are assigned to one or two names, and the name and the day go together. This is an old tradition, in Hungary anyways. Today was my name day. I don't celebrate it personally, but some people, like my parents, do. It's customary to wish the person happy name day on that day, and sometimes they get flowers too.
  I didn't go to my school this morning. I went to school with Herb. On Tuesday, I found out, that he was taking two of his classes on a field trip to ice skate. So after a day of begging to take me too, he gave in, and this morning, at nine o'clock I was on the bus on the way to Bill Gray's Iceplex with two buses worth of 5th and 8th graders. I met a South African girl today, whom Herb was telling me a lot about. She's 17 years old, and she just her teaching practice for her diploma at Greece Christian. She was home-schooled, so she finished high school very early.
  It's funny, according to the laws of big numbers, there are 1000 people, who look just like you. I don't know how many people there are, who ARE just like me, but I found one today. Sarah and I share so many things, likes and dislikes, we barely believed us meeting was real. We hit it off right away, and the similarities just kept piling up. In the matter of 3 hours, we knew so much about each other. Other people had a hard time believing we only just met today. While we were talking and skating, we helped out the children, who were adorable. Many of them never skated before, but we got through the day without any major injuries. By 1 o'clock we were all really tired, and we went back to the school. It was a really fun field trip. Me and Sarah just kept amazing each other. We're both super tall blonds (although she's 1 inch taller), we love South Africa, we love the same TV shows, similar music, reading, books, movies, sports. I have a feeling I'm going to write a lot about this girl in the blog.
  At 2, I walked over to Athena for auditions. We're doing Anything Goes this year, for our big high school musical. Athena is one of the best schools in Rochester for drama and music education. It has a brand new preforming arts center, what I'd call a theater really. There were 63 kids. For the first hour, we went through the two songs everyone has to present on next Tuesday for the vocal auditions. Then the dance teacher arrived, and we jumped right into tap-dancing. It really surprised me how many people tap. I took lessons for 2 years, but the choreography was super difficult, and I had bad shoes. I didn't do really well, a minute long dance learned in 1 hour is not easy to present well. I'm more relying on the vocal auditions now.
  Me and Alma stayed behind from 5 to 6:30 at the school, to wait for a presentation. I skyped my parents for a little time, because I had my name day. The presentation by an MCC representative was about applying to colleges and financial aid, but we didn't learn anything useful to us, because he talked about federal grants, to which international student aren't eligible for.
  Devan took me home, I was so tired. Such a long and eventful day!

First of December

1st of December, Monday

It's unbelievable, that it's already December! The holiday season is  officially here! I skyped my parents yesterday, and they lit up the first   Advent candle. It's a tradition of ours, to light up a candle every Sunday, starting four weeks from Christmas.

  The Thanksgiving break just ended. The only thing on the students' and teachers' mind, is that in 3 weeks, we'll have a two week Christmas break! Yay!

  Anne bought me an Advent calendar! It's so nice of her, to remember about this other tradition.

  In the afternoon, me and Anne went looking for winter boots, and I found a nice pair, but I didn't buy them yet. We met Herbie, who wanted a new phone, so while he and Anne were making a deal with Best Buy, and later Sprint, I hung out in the mall. It was around 9, when we finally got home. I ordered a choir gown online, that I was actually supposed to weeks ago. I just hope it arrives before our Christmas concert.