Universal's Harry Potter Park

20th of February, Friday

Today was my sister's birthday. So I celebrated it by going to an amusement park I wanted to visit since forever: Orlando's Universal Park. Stephanie and Betty took us all the way there, for which we were really thankful for. Before we headed to Orlando though, we visited a park for manatees. Neither me or Saki have ever seen a "sea-cow" before. It was early in the morning, so it was cold. The manatees were sleeping in the river. The rain forest and the liveliness of the place was beautiful. I've never seen manatees before, but I always wanted to. We couldn't really take good pictures of them, but we did see a lot. There were some babies too. I loved how relaxed they were.
  From the manatee park, we went on to Orlando. Stephanie and Betty dropped us at the gates.
From there, we were on our own, but excited as ever. There were some problems with Saki's tickets, but it all worked out in the end.
  As we later found out, we entered from the Islands of Adventure part, and not the Universal Studios. Our first ride was on a 3D Spider-man attraction. We got 3D glasses, but it was all 4D. They took us through a story with Spider-man and several villains. We got tossed around, sprayed at with water, scared and excited. It was really fun, but it was just the beginning.
  We soon decided to head for the Harry Potter Hogsmeade village, the part we were most anxious to see.  Because it was at the end of the park, we had to walk through some pretty interesting themes, like Dr Seuss and Atlantis. But finally, we arrived to the fake snow covered little houses.
  In the magical land of Harry Potter, Hogsmeade is a little wizard village next to Hogwarts, with a lot of attractions. Such as a sweet-shops, wand-shop, restaurant (more like tavern), post-office, and a train station.
  And everything at Universal was perfect! The details, the sights, the smells, it all fit. We were anxious to try the butter-beer, a famous (non-alcoholic) drink in the wizarding world. Turns out, it's a very very sweet soda. I loved it, Saki threw it out. We couldn't stop wondering, how they achieved such a perfect replica of J. K. Rowling's creation. There were a million places to shop, people in all sorts of replica clothes were wondering about. Wearing Hogwarts themed clothes and waving wands around is completely normal in this place. There were a bunch of speakers that played the original soundtrack of the movies, making the whole experience feel more real. The employees were all dressed as wizards and elves too.
  After we drank our butter-beers, we went to Olivander's wand shop, Honeydukes, the sweatshop (with every kind of made up brands and flavors, made real), and the post office, where fake-robotic-owls hoohooed. Other than building this village, they built a smaller replica of Hogwarts, the castle/school where 80% of the Harry Potter books take place. But instead of being fully decorated, it gave home to the first Harry Potter ride we went on. It was very similar to the Spider-man ride, but this one was a 4D Harry Potter one. The amount of people who wanted to go on it was so much, I lost Saki in the crowd. It took us around 30 minutes to find each other. I had to ask several employees, to help me find her. They all told me not to worry, parents loose their children here all the time, and they always find them. (LOL).
The next attraction we went on was a crazy, dragon themed roller coaster. The seats were hanging from the tracks, and we got tossed around with such speed, my surroundings got mushed together. The ride was called the "Hungarian Horntail", the name of the dragon Harry had to defeat in the fourth book. The fact that J. K. Rowling thought of Hungary when she named the most important dragon of all the books makes me so happy.
  Because we bought tickets to both theme parks, it was time we went to Diagon Alley, the part of the Harry Potter Park, that was in Universal Studios. The two parts were divided by the Hogwarts Express, a train, that took all the schoolkids from London to the well hidden castle in the country. The train was just like in the movies and books. Instead of windows, they put TVs, and they played a recording of the British countryside and Harry Potter characters flying by, while the train really did take us from one theme park to another. When we got off, we suddenly found ourselves in England!
  It wasn't just the King's Cross train station, that looked very real, but outside, there was a double-decker bus (resembling the Knight Bus, an actually triple-decker bus from the books), a telephone booth, a British souvenir cart and building, that looked like they were taken right from London.
Of course, we wanted to find Diagon Alley, a hidden enchanted street.
   It wasn't too hard to spot because of the flow of people, but it was covered by a wall. And then, we saw the street. It was incredible. Diagon Alley, replicated to a 100% accuracy. Everything in it was just perfect! The boutiques, the houses, the Gringotts Bank in the middle of everything, with a white dragon on top (from the scene in the 7th book, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to escape by breaking through the roof with a loose guarding dragon). We went in the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, a funny shop owned by George and Fred Weasley, and we visited The Leaky Couldron, a tavern that plays a big part in Harry's life. It's basically the place where he found out about the people who where out to get him (Voldemort in the first book and Sirius Black in the third).
  I had some split pea soup and warm butterbeer (which I like better than the cold. It was almost like a hot chocolate or tea), while Saki had some fish-n-chips. Very British.
  Because it was starting to get dark, and we spent almost all our time with wondering around and looking at Harry Potter stuff, we decided to race through Universal Studios, and get on as many rides as we can. We went on a kind of lame MIB ride, where the most important thing we learned, was that we have to aim for the "single rider" lines. Even if we go separate, we get through the long lines much much faster.
  We walked through the Simpson themed part to get to the front of the park. We couldn't miss the biggest roller coaster of Universal, so even though the wait was 45 minutes, we waited. And oh, it was so worth it. When we got on it, it was right at sunset, so we saw the whole park in beautiful orange, but just for a second before we plummeted down on an almost 90 degree drop! The whole experience was over in 30 seconds, but our adrenaline levels kicked up so high, we were laughing as we got out of the seats and fixed our wind-blown hairs.
  After we got our purses from the designated lockers, where you can put your bags for the time of the ride, we hurried back to Diagon Alley, to get on the Gringotts Bank ride before the park closed. The wait wasn't very long, and there were significantly less people. All the parents with their little children went home. That last ride was pretty good too, same 4D experience.
  By that time, we were beyond exhausted. Our feet were aching from the day's walking and standing. We visited some more shops and boutiques, and we watched the white dragon blow fire out of it's mouth. At 8, when the park closed, we were ready to go home. Stephanie waited for us at the gates, where she dropped us off.
  Today was amazing. Going to this place has been a dream of mine for so long, and now I had the opportunity to go. We didn't go on many rides, and we spent 70% of our time at the Harry Potter part, but that was completely acceptable. We were happy and poor. We emptied our piggy banks on the tickets and souvenirs, but it was so worth the experience.
  Stephanie took us to St. Petersburg, we spent the night at Avary's aunt's and uncle's. We were so tired, we had to go to sleep right away. This was one very very fun day to remember, and we were sure we were going to feel our sore muscles the next morning.
  

"Cold" Florida

19th of February, Thursday

Today was one of the colder days of our stay. If you can call 40 degrees cold, coared to the -20s in Rochester.
  Saki had to do her homework, but Betty, Stephanie and me, we took a cold walk on the beach. There was no one there, and we were wearing our coats. We declared the day a resting day, when we got back in the car. Saki worked on her homework, while me and Stephanie, we went to a nearby thrift shop, just to pass the time.
  In the evening, Betty and Bill, they invited us to have dinner at Outback, an Australian themed steakhouse, neither me or Saki have ever been to. The little Japanese girl surprised us once again on the amount of food she can eat. She was very funny.
  After we got back, with stomachs full, Stephanie helped us buy our tickets for tomorrow. We decided to go to the Harry Potter Park, which is part of Orlando's Universal. I've been dreaming on going there ever since I heard it opened. Universal is divided into two parts, and we had to get tickets to both, to see the whole HP attraction. The tickets were very pricey. But we figured, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
  

New Smyrna birds and shells

18th of February, Wednesday

We woke up to a beautiful day in New Smyrna Beach, at Bill and Betty's. They're very nice and welcoming people. They love collecting shells (they have a whole room for their trophies), and they love feeding birds at the beach.
  So we hopped in the car in the morning, and drove to the beach. This is the only beach where you can drive your car. 10 miles/h is not much, but it's something. It's a beautiful, vaste open beach.
Betty and Bill took a bunch of seeds and nuts, and gave it to us to feed the pigeons and seagulls, who chilled at the beach. You could just put your hand out, and the birds would fly into your palms. Being pooped on was not a threat - at least that's what they said. Of course Saki got pooped on.
   After all the seeds and peanuts were devoured, we took a walk along the beach, looking for shells. We found quite a few. Betty and Bill knew the names of each kind, they're real experts on the subject. The weather was very nice. We were really thankful, that we were in Florida. Tom, Stephanie's husband kept us updated on the weather conditions in upstate New York ... horrible horrible cold ruled over those lands. And while we were outside in shorts, our friends at home were busy trying to remove the icicles from their nostrils.

Downtown Disney

17th of February, Tuesday

We had to leave the room by 11 am. We packed the car again, and headed to St. Petersburg, where Avary's aunt and uncle lives. We dropped her off there for a few days, while we went to New Smyrna Beach, to Stephanie's dad. New Smyrna Beach is on the other side of the state, so it took us a few hours to get to the East Coast of Florida from the West Coast.
  Stephanie let us choose one of the Orlando theme parks to go to, and we chose Universal Studios over Disney. So, to have a little bit of Disney experience, we stopped at Downtown Disney on the way, which is just like an expensive open-air mall, between the Disney theme parks.
  On the way there, a heavy rain fell down on us, that just wouldn't stop. But we were still determined to go. So freezing in the rain, we ran through all the places to see in Downtown Disney. Everything was decorated, and fun looking, but because it was raining, and it got dark quickly, not a lot of people roamed around like we did. Most of them just ran to their cars.
  I'm a huge Disney fan, thanks to my Mom. We love watching cartoons, and listening to cartoon music.  So even though it was dark, and raining, I enjoyed walking around a lot. We spent most of our time in a huge Disney shop (because we needed time to get dry and warm).
By the time we left the store, with a little pin souvenir for our Rotary jackets, the rain stopped.
We walked the same way back to the car.
  We headed towards New Smyrna Beach, and we got there a few hours later. Both me and Saki, we fell asleep in the car. We met Stephanie's dad, Bill and his wife Betty, the couple whose house we were going to stay at for a few days.

Lido Key and the famous "1905" Salad

16th of February, Monday

We spent most of our time today at Lido Key, a beautiful Sarasota beach. The water was still too cold to go in, but it was the perfect sunbathing weather. Saki was the only one, who was bored of the beach. She wanted ot go shopping.
  So at lunchtime, we went to a nearby open air plaza with a bunch of expensive little shops. We windowshopped for a little while, and then, we went to Columbia Restaurant, a famous dining place in Sarasota. It's home to the "1905" Salad, voted one of the Top 10 salads in the USA.
  Obviously, we had to try it. It's mainly lettuce, cheese, ham, olives, tomatoes, and a secret recipe dressing. The special thing about it is, that they mix it fresh right at your table. Personally, I liked it, but I still prefer my Dad's invention salad over every other salad.
 Saki had to do some homework, so we stayed at the hotel's pool for the afternoon. We spent this night at the hotel too. We had a fun dinner in the room, that consisted of leftover Mexican, strawberries and laughs at Family Feud, a hilarious American reality TV show, in which families compete against each other, and it's hosted by Steve Harvey.

Sunny Sarasota Sunday

15th of February, Sunday

Pam and her family is menonite, so we accompanied them to church on Sunday. It was nice, I liked it much better than the church in New York, but it still wasn't my thing. One visit was plenty.

  While Stephanie stayed for Sunday school to see her friends again, the rest of our little company went to a small park. We only stayed for a little bit, because the hobos living there started fighting, and we found it better to leave. 

  We spent most of the day on the beach again, but even though the weather was much better than the day before, I didn't get tanned. Maybe I put on too much sunscreen. 

  We packed our stuff together, and moved to a hotel for a couple of nights. We didn't want to weigh on Pam, who was taking auch good care of us. We settled in at Ramada.

  Me, Avary and Saki, we had dinner with Chris and Alex. It took us a while to find the restaurant, but we found it. This place called mi Pueblo makes amazing Mexican food.

  I had some chimichanga. We had lots of leftovers. After dinner, went back to the hotel.

Valentine's Day in Sarasota

14th of February, Saturday

After that horrible night, me and Avary and Stephanie had a fun time making fun of Saki. All of us woke up because of her snoring. 

  We had some great smoothies at the place Hope, the second youngest daughter of Pam works. 

  We went to a beach in Sarasota to walk around a little bit. The weather was still coldish (although my friends in New York would disagree). But we enjoyed the sight of the water and laughed at the crazy Florida people wrapped up in coats. They have no idea what cold is!

  Our next stop was Lido Key, a famous beach in Sarasota. The sand was like flour, it was so soft and white. The wind was cold though, and other than tipping your toes in, the water was cold. 

  We took some pictures of us jumping in the air. Some came out good, some were horrible but funny.

  We met Stephanie's oldest son, Chris on the beach. In the evening we had dinner with him, and Stephanie's second son, Alex joined us too. We went to this restaurant, where the staff was funny, but we were seated next to the band (wich was veeery loud), so we had a hard time talking. The air got very chilly by the evening.

  As a Valentine's Day gesture, us girls walked the boys back to their car.

Roadtrip to Florida

13th of February, Friday

Aaa! It's the 13th of February! The first of the three in 2015. Funny year, isn't it? Luckily, nothing bad happened. At night, me and Saki were sleeping on and off today, while Stephanie and Avary were driving. I won't get into details, because we spent the whole day i the car. I started a new book my friends at Athena suggested called "Hush, hush", and I finished it in one day. It was an interesting book, with a very annoying main character. But the writing was good, so I couldn't put it down.

  I loved the change in weather and nature as we travelled South. It got warmer and warmer, and suddenly the pine trees were replaced by palm trees. Those brought me so much happiness. I love palm trees!

  It was between 8 and 9 at Friday night, when we finally arrived to Stephanie's friend's, Pam's house in Sarasota, FL. It's a beautyfully designed house, with a lot of people living in it. The Stutzman's have 5 children. The smallest one is Grace, she's 11.

  We went to bed right away. I slept  with Saki in a huge bed, which was not a good idea. It was very cold in our room (even though it was significantly warmer in Florida as in New York, the nights were pretty cool.), and we both had our own individual blankets plus we shared a big one. 

  Well I lost my side of the big one very quickly. When I tried to take it back, I got kicked by Saki. So I gave up my plans on getting it back, and put my coat on me. Aside from Saki's constant snoring, I finnally went back to sleep. I woke up a couple of times because of the cold, but slowly, my blanket and coat warmed me up.

  When I was sound asleep and warm for the first time, suddenly Saki woke me up. She ripped my blanket and coat off me and put it on herself, shouting how cold she was. I got pretty angry, and pulled my stuff back, but Saki came with them, and she cuddled up to me. It was very uncomfortable, because I got 1/5 of the bed, while Saki took the rest. When I sat up to put this crazy Japanese girl back on her side of the bed, I found both her blankets on the floor, because she kicked them off in her sleep. Of course she was cold! But why bother bending down and getting them, when she can steal my warm blanket?

  Uugh! Yeah, it was a long night ...

Departure from Penn Yan

12th of February, Thursday

I was anxious to get out of school today. All I could think of, was our trip to Florida, and how not packed my suitcase was. I wasn't going to be very productive in Advisement, so I had a note to leave a little early, thus have more time to pack. Because we were taking a small car, I could bring one small suitcase and one additional bag. 

  When Tod and Brad arrived at 3 o'clock, to take me to Penn Yan, where Saki and her host family lives, I was still not ready. After a lost of quick decisions, and making a huge mess in my room, I was finally ready to go, with one suitcase, one beachbag, a pillow and a sleepingbag I borrowed from Kim Masiello. 

  It took us around an hour to get to our destination. Brad and Tod (who volunteered yesterday to take me there, very generously) dropped me off at a gas station, where Tom was waiting. He's Stephanie's husband, Saki's hotdad. The temperature outside was 1 degree Fahrenheit, which is -20 Celsius degrees. Combine that with strong winds, and you have an idea of what the weather was like in upper New York. So we threw my stuff in Tom's car, we said a quick thank you and goodbye, and everybody hurried back to their car.

  On our way to Stephanie's and Tom's house, we popped by to see Tom's mom, who's a very sweet lady. The Wilson's have a very cute dog and 4 cats. Saki was still packing when we got to their home, and Stephanie was still at work. We were ready to go after six. We picked up Avary, who is Stephanie's friend's daughter, and Saki's former host sister. 

  By 7, the four of us were packed into the little Hundai, Suitcases in the back, pillows, blankets and food with us in the front. We were ready to go.

  Of course, our readyness wasn't the only variable. The weather turned really bad. It was dark, but the wind grabbed the snow from the top of the snowpiles, temporarily blocking the driver's view. It was tricky, but we made it further south, where the weather got a little better. We were on our way to Florida!

Rotex Skii Weekend

7th of February, Saturday

Larry picked me up with a slight delay, and took me all the way to Clifton Springs, where the Rotex (some of the pat exchange students in the area) organized a skii weekend for the inbounds and the outbounds. It's always good to see my inbound friends. We only meet once a month, so it's a giant hugging session when we see ech other again. We stayed at the local YMCA, and after hours of talking, playing and catching up on stuff, we carpooled to Bristol, where the Rotex bought us skiipasses and rented equipment too.

  First of all, I love skiing! I'm pretty good at it, I've been doing it since I was 11. Since then, every year, I go to skiicamp with my school, which is one week long, and we either spend it in Austria or Italy. People told me, that compared to the Alps, Bristol will be a disappointment, but truth is, I missed skiing so much, I didn't even mind. We skiied for 6 hours, I was mostly with Jonas (from Germany), Saki (from Japan) and Guillemette (from France), because we were kind of on the same skiing level. Oh what fun it was! I think that racing down a mountain with such incredible speed, that it hurts your eyes is the most liberating feeling in the world. 

  I forgot to mention, that we were twilight skiing, from 4 pm to 10 pm. So it was pretty dark. I've never twilight skiied before, but I found it pretty, with the lights on the side of the slopes.

  I remembered how to skii right away, it's like riding a bike. Of course, it hurts like crazy. You don't realize it, untill you're done, because of all the adrenaline, but everybody gets sore muscles afterwards. 

  We got back to the YMCA at around 11 pm. Everyone was tired but happy. We talked untill half past midnight. We slep on the cement floor of the Y, which was very uncomfortable and cold. I didn't sleep well, but I was still happy, that I was  with friends, and I skiied in 2015 too.

Amerks hockey game with Rotary

23rd of January, Friday

At 6, Al and Judy picked me up, to take me to the very first hockey game of my life. I'm not a sportsy person, but live games are always so exciting. I've only been to two baseball games. I like ice hockey, so I was looking forward to the evening.
  It was held at the Blue Cross Arena, in downtown Rochester. It's a pretty big arena, and it hosts other events too. Our group was in a VIP suite (you can imagine how fancy I felt). I've never been in to a hockey game, or a VIP booth. I met a lot of hockey enthusiast Rotarians and their wives (haha, just kidding). There was food and drinks. I enjoyed watching the game a lot. The Americans ended up winning, and because all the fans in the arena were Amerks fans, the whole crowdburst into ovation when the game finished.

  I had a lot of fun! This was truly an awesome experience. I like hockey a lot more, than American football. Probably because I understand the rules more.

  Al an Judy brought me back. Thank You so much for my Rotary Club! It was a cool event!

Bella Pasta Rotary meeting

4th of February, Wednesday

The Ridgemont Country Club was closed today for renovation, so when Brad rescued me from school at 11:50, we went to a restaurant called Bella Pasta. We had some pasta lunch, and we listened to a presentation about the District Conference in Buffalo. All the inbounds will go to it, so I'll be there on the 15th to the 17th of May.
  It was nice, being in a different place for a change, but I actually miss my sandwich-and-salad-Wednesdays. This was the last meeting before the Ziti Dinner, I could feel a little tension.
  At home, I drew an illustration from Hamlet as my AP English project. I think it turned out pretty well.

Snow day, Kim's birthday, The Snow Angel

2nd of February, Monday

At 5:38, Kim came in my room, to tell me, that all the schools are closed for a snow day. So much snow fell overnight, that we could barely open the front door. I was so happy! In Hungary, you never get snow days. For one, we don't have as much snow as here, and even if we do, it melts almost immediately. So this was my first ever day, to stay home, for such an unusual reason.
  It was also Kim's birthday. We stayed home too, and did her work from the home laptop. We didn't do a lot of things though. Syd dared me, to do a snow angel outside in my pyjamas, and I did. The snow was so thick, I couldn't move my hands. Syd took a video of it, and uploaded it to Facebook. In the next few days in school, people came up to me, to tell me how funny my video was. I had to change from my pyjamas to my new fox onesie, because I was so soaked with cold water.
  In the evening, we gave our presents to Kim. I gave her a plush robe, she loves robes, so she was happy. Today was a good day too! 

Super Bowl XLIX

1st of February, Sunday

I woke up at Sarah's, and she took me home in the morning. But soon after, she picked me up again, to go to the mall. I met her funny friend Stephanie, and her little sister Jaime came with too. I bought a present for Kim (her birthday was the next day), a map of Middle Earth for myself, something I wanted for a long time, and best of all, I found a fox onesie in Rue 21 for $5!!! One of the best purchases I've ever made.
  At 5:30, the whole family went to a Super Bowl party, and of course, they took me with. It was at a friend's house, there was a huge crowd. I met a bunch of new people. I've always wanted to go to a Super Bowl party, even though I don't like American football. It's the spirit of it, that I liked. There was a bunch of food, everybody was talking, having fun. Some people watched the game too, but mostly we just hung out. Whenever there was a touchdown, everybody started shouting, and I think I wasn't the only one, who didn't know why we were shouting, we just did. For fun.
  The game was between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. This was the 49th Super Bowl. Most of the people at the party were Seahawks fans, so they were kind of disappointed, that the Patriots won 28-24. Everybody gathered around the TV in the living room for the halftime show, something everyone was interested in. Katy Perry was the main singer, and Missy Elliott tried to steal the show too. But the most interesting part was the LEFT SHARK! Internet users will mostly understand. The left shark, one of the background dancers behind Katy Perry messed up his dance so much, it was hilarious to watch. The right shark, the other background dancer knew all the moves, the left just didn't care. It was pretty funny.
  So all in all, I liked the Super Bowl and the party a lot. This is one of  the most American things I could imagine, I was glad I could experience this in this country too.
  We got home pretty late, on a Sunday morning, so I was hoping for a snow day on Monday. I wanted that snow day very very very very much!

Sleepover at Sarah's

31st of January, Saturday

We started the day with Kim, by going to Soho for breakfast. It's a cute little cafe. I had chai tea latte, and a sandwich. It was very delicious!
  In the afternoon, Syd had a huge cheerleading competition, so me and Kim, we went to Blue Cross arena (where the hockey game was, but this time, they melted the ice). The Athena parents and friends were sitting very high in the audience. Syd's team was in the same division as Fairport (the almost unbeatable enemy team). The tension was very high. Our main goal was to win this competition and be in the Elite 8 too, an extra glory for the 8 teams who scored the best. The whole arena was silent, as they announced the 3rd place winner, we knew, that Athena would either be second or first. They deserved first place, but Fairport's reputation grants them some extra points. So when they announced Fairport to be second, the Athena parents and friends burst out in ovation, because we knew, that we won. Athena defeated Fairport! There was so much happiness after the awards ceremony. Parents were crying of joy, and they went on to celebrate afterwards. I instead, went over to Sarah's house.
  In one week, I finished all 5 seasons of Merlin, an amazing BBC TV show. Only the finale was left, which I wanted to watch with Sarah, who originally got me into it. So we talked, baked some crepes, and we finally made ourselves sit down in front of the TV. Sarah warned me, that it's going to be emotional, but I didn't expect that we'd build a tissue fort around ourselves. I was crying so loudly, that Sarah;s mom came downstairs, and told us not to watch any more sad movies. So we watched "Midnight", a great Doctor Who episode with Colin Morgan, the main character of Merlin starring in it.
  And as if Doctor Who was not enough sci-fi for us, we watched Star Trek Into Darkness, one of my favorite movies.  We went to sleep at around 1, but we talked till 2. I recommend Merlin to everybody, but prepare some tissues by your side when you watch the finale, it's hard to say goodbye to a show this good.

No school, rehearsal, first hair-party

30th of January, Friday

There was no school today thankfully! Sleeping in on Fridays is a rare occasion indead. I had 2,5 hours of rehearsal in the  afternoon. We just sang, but it was nice. After that, we went to the cheerleader's hair-party. 

  It's like the pasta party for cheerleaders. They used to do the girls' hair on these events, but now it's just a small party before a competition, where the girls come together to eat, talk and watch past competitions and pictures.

  I kind of felt like an outsider. I didn't belong with the parents, I didn't belong with the cheerleaders. But I mingled as well as I could, and overall, I had fun. I met new people, and I spent time with my host family, so it was nice.

Half-day

26th of January, Monday

Today we only had school untill 10:15. I got home at 10:30, and I felt, that that's how school should be every day. It's much much easier. Today was a good day.

Because nothing really interesting happened, here's a picture of the Greenauer house!

Festa Ziti Dinner

7th of February, Sunday

We were woken up in the YMCA at 7. The breakfast people arrived 2 hours early. Everything hurt, I had sore muscles from the skiing and sleeping on the floor. Not to mention the cold. 

  Everybody left kind of early. We didn't do any real activities, just hung out and said goodbyes. Mat, the Rotex leader took me back to Greece at around 10. After a quick stop at a Dunkin', I arrived to the Diplomat House at 11:15.

  My Rotary Club's biggest and most organized event happened today: The Greece Rotary Club's Italian Festa Ziti Dinner. It's the biggest fundraiser of the year. We served pasta, sauce and meatballs to over 3300 people, in the matter of 6 hours. That's a lot of food, and a lot of work. From the moment I arrived (1 hour after it started) everyone was very busy. 

  I got an apron (with my name embroided on it, how sweet is my club?), I kicked off my shoes and I started running around too. After I said hi to everybody, I began to work at the takeout section, portioning meatballs and sauce. My next job was at the dessert table, selling cakes and cookies, followed by a bunch of different jobs. Collecting dishes, selling roses, taking out trash, helping people with information. I loved the work. So many people I knew were there, and I was helping people that I love. I was often "interrupted" by Rotarians, introducing their families, friends. Also, I was invited to speak on the microphone several times too. At 4 o'clock I had a break to have some pasta lunch, it was really good. 

  I can barely describe how busy everything was. There were so many people, and so many Rotarians, serving them. I loved doing it. We laughed a lot, and had fun with the day and the duties.

  We collected a lot of money for the Rotary. Even before it started, a lot of tickets were sold, but on the event too, with the raffle, the wine, roses. It was a successful day.

  I got home at 6:30. When I left with Helen, there were still quite some Rotarians left. When I finally got to my bed, I just fell in it, and fell asleep immediately. I was worn by the skii weekend and Ziti, but it was a good kin of tiredness. This was a very eventful, fun weekend, thank you, Rotarians!

Hanging out with Sarah

19th of January, Monday

Today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we had no school. (YAY!)
So me, and my pal/twin sister Sarah, we decided to have that hanging out day we've wanted for more than a month now. (You remember Sarah Ritson, right? I met her on the 4th of December. We were skating with Herb's school children, and we hit off so well, we kept emailing each other).
  I went over to her house, which is literally 4 minutes away from mine. I met her whole family: her parents are wonderfully nice, both of them are South African, so listening to their accent just brings joy to my heart, it reminds me of my travels in that wonderful country. Sarah has 2, very tall, very beautiful, very funny little sisters: Jaime and Lisa. We played card games, and laughed a lot about a bunch of things.
  This little family reminds me of the Diaciks too, my host family in Philadelphia, where there are 3 girls too. The eldest is around my age, and two younger sisters. I got really excited, when I heard about the possibility, that I might live with the Ritsons in the spring for a week, when the Greenauers are going on vacation.
  I went with Sarah to watch the third (and final) Hobbit movie in 3D. This was the second time I saw it, and it made an even bigger impression on me, than before. I was sobbing by the end, and I was crying in the car and at the Ritson's house too. It's amazing, what great minds can achieve, like J. R. R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson. (oh, btw, Tolkien was an Oxford alumni, all the more reason to want to go to that university).
  We played some more card games, and Sarah took me home after 9. I had a lot of fun, truly. I'm really hoping we're going to have more days like this.