"Lets Stay Till Summer-time Ends, Together"- Luis Oliveria

Heyhey!

Firstly I must apologize about the lack of posts lately...things are getting a lil hectic!

So i have now adapted fully into a new home and new routine of things, not to say I dont miss the Ryders (first host family).

Ive been lucky enough to be able to expereience the magic of the school Prom which was held last week. I must say that Prom is nothing like the movies make it out to be, just to ease everyone's anxiety on if Prom is as big as it is made out! It was really strange to turn up to school on Friday and see that the hallways were almost completley empty! why?...So the list of reasons as follows:

• >9.00am, wake up
• >9.45am, Nail appt.
• >11.00am, Pay for nail appt.
• >11.30am, Hair appt
• >1.00pm, Pay for hair appt.
• >1.30pm, Make-up appt.
• >2.30pm, Pay for make-up appt.

So clearly the ENTIRE day needs to be taken off...Needless to say, i had a fantastic time and the atmosphere was amazing!

The limo driver, Josh and Myself. Did i mention we rolled in a H2 Stretch Hummer?!

Last weekend, which was also the day after prom, was the weekend when all the Outbounds & Inbounds get together to learn about how to give presentations and that sort of thing. Basically orientation weekend. This was an extra special weekend as some of the Inbounds leave soon and arent on the same tour as myself and an Inbound from Brazil wrote and sang a song which bought tears to everybody's eyes. The song name is actually the title of this post, and really exemplified the way exchange students have this bond that is beyond the words that describe it. So we all sat through a presentation on presentations...(?) and the guest speaker was a former Inbound from New Zealand!! where he spent his time in Rotorua. For me personally, this reminded me of home. Just the way we both talked of New Zealand made me feel so good and excited about the life after being an exchange student.

On the Saturday night we had a program that was run by rotex, which really was alot of fun! We had what was called "canadian dancing"...We danced to the song thats all about doing the cha-cha, the YMCA song and the chicken dance and lastly the infamous, Macarena! Just dancing around was more fun than I originally anticipated! So after that we had the choice of either dancing, playing a mass game of Twister, or just chilling out and talking. My competitive nature lead me to having desk-chair races down the hall way against an Inbound from Ecuador! The night was just full of atmosphere, which really made me appreciate the work Rotary does to ensure we have the best time of our lives! Then, to top the night off, we were given name tags that related us. For example, this one girl whos headed for Germany in a month or two was given the name "party-girl" as all she ever wanted to do was....party! And for some strange reason i was crowned the "ladies-man" of the group. And even to this very moment i am still trying to figure out why!

Bringing out the Aotearoa pride!

NZ to the world!

I guess i should also briefly touch on my very brief Canadian Rugby season. Overall we played 12 games over a 3 week period. We had a pretty solid season with 3 wins, 3 ties and 6 losses...yea ok maybe a little less than satisfying but it was such an honour to play with some great people. And socially it was an opportunity for me to meet more people and just play the game that i love but in a new country. Overall i had a pretty good season, scoring 32 points which was made up of 4 tries, 2 penalty kicks and 2 conversions.

The CCVI Spartans after a hard fought win!

School, the very emotive topic that it always seems to be. Im finding the range of courses avaliable is alot broader than in NZ. Im taking Marketing, which is all about trends in demographics, types of advertising and exploiting factors in a product to make it appeal to a specific target market; Personal Fitness which caters for people who want to do more than just play games in class. We very often work out in the weights room and are always working on some basis of fitness. Toady in personal fitness we combined all the classes of all the grades who take that course, and competed against one another in a 5KM or 10KM race. Things like this dont seem to happen at school back home. And again something that dosent happen back in NZ is the various ideas that happen for in-class projects. For marketing we have just completed a task where we're a vacation company and we offer packages in which we are trying to sell. We could advertise our packages in anyway we wanted, we could even scam! School here in Canada has offered me so much and i am really enjoying everyday.

Working out or posing? You tell me!

So I am soon to leave the Haverson family, as my trip (CCT) seems to be coming closer very quickly! I am scheduled to stay here until July, but that is when i get back from my trip across Canada. I am really enjoying the country life right now! and im sure ill miss it when its time for me to go back towards the centre of Guelph. Already the Haversons have done so much for me. We have been to Toronto for the day, which was so much fun! We went to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) where there was all kinds of art on display; Sculptures made from 200pairs of the same style of shoe, to bicycle parts to make a face. All kind of wierd and wonderful things.

The AGO

So i have to fly now!

I have much studying to do......YEAH RIGHT! (no, seriously, i have to study)

"Oh Canada...Our Home And Native Land"

Heyhey,

Summer is OFFICALLY on its way. How do i know? Besides knowing everything.....i have seem to be getting this thing called a "tan"...its quite funny how this happens. Anywhoo things have had a change since my last post. I have changed host families and have had a birthday which was pretty sweet (16)

So my new host family is alot different to the last family. Im now staying in the Northern end of Guelph; getting out towards the country which to my surprise im starting to enjoy..ahh the quiet life! Personally reflecting with my time with my last family i often find myself missing them and when you think about it, we only had met via email. When the time came to say goodbye and move on, it was a mix of indifferent emotions. Unfortunately im only staying with my new host family for a shortened time as my trip (CCT- Cross Canada Tour) takes a month to go from East to West and that takes away from my family time! Not to say that im super pumped for a whole month with exchange students!

Touching briefly on my birthday now- i was unfortunate to come down with a chronic case of an ear infection is both sides, which lead to almost unbearable pain, but i wasnt going to let pain stop me from having a super-fantastic day! It started with a Rotary meeting which was really funny as i had my own table with balloons! And when i thought that singing happy birthday was enough, my first host dad bought out a birthday cake! WHAT A SURPRISE THAT WAS! Other than that, the guest speakers talk quite possibly the most touching speech ive ever heard- the speaker was a Man who was completely blind and had lost bith eyes to cancer at a young age. He went on to speak about his life as a cyclist and how he is tandem cycling across Canada for cancer in kids awareness in tribute to his kids who have both survived as eye Cancer patients. So after that i went to school and had a pretty relaxed day. It was just one of those days where everything seems to go just right.

So whats going to happen in the near future for me? I have club rugby starting next week which i can not wait for- the experience of meeting people with the same passion as myself is just great! Exams soon...[ which i cannot wait for! =D ] and most importantly the CCT!

Ill try do another post before then but if i find that im too busy studying, i do apologize!

Ill also add more photos when the Internet isnt being so uncooperative...