evelinebrunner.intoblog.ch

The second trip within two weeks came up on Tuesday morning. It was the band/choir trip organized by Peter. 92 students were excited to get on the bus towards the USA. Our destination was Portland, which is in the state of Oregon. To get there, we had to be at school by 6am, which was way too early and after we loaded all the band equipment and suitcases on the two full busses, everyone fell back asleep on the bus. The rain started about a half an hour after departure and didn’t stop to the day we arrived back in Kelowna, which was kind of disappointing, but not too grave. Around 11.30 o’clock we arrived at the border, where everyone had to get off. When they got to us three Internationals (Marlen, Nele and me), they decided that we ought to pay 6 bucks each, since we are specials . Back on the bus, which got examined while we got checked, lots of the kids realized that the orange in their lunch bag was missing; we weren’t allowed to bring any citrus fruits to Washington. After a small lunch stop and another three hours drive, we finally arrived in Seattle, where the busses took us to the IMAX theatre for a polar bear show. The huge screen and perfect resolution of the pictures made it seem very authentic and incredibly impressive. Once we arrived at our first hotel; Doubletree Suites by Hilton, they offered us a fresh baked, free cookie, which definitely cheered us up after the long bus ride. Jennifer, who does cheerleading with both Marlen and Nele, shared a room with us and joined us with everything we did so that in the end everyone thought, she’d be an exchange student as well . But the journey for that day wasn’t finished yet; now our free time began and since there was a humongous mall a two-minute-walk away from the hotel, our first shopping tour was already predicted. In the three hours of free time, we managed to get through no more than two stores! Fortunately we came back to the same hotel again in the end of the trip and we able to discover a bit more of the pretty mall than two stores.

Next morning’s wakeup call rang mercilessly at 6 am and we hurried to our first concert close to Seattle. All the three concerts we played were in Elementary schools. The first concert was in a big school, but small gym, where we played. Nevertheless it went very well and in the end the excited kids were dancing with us to the last jazz song. On our drive to Portland, we stopped at the Oregon Zoo.

 Marlen, Jen and I with wildlife

 Shortly after that, our second hotel came into view. We fell onto our beds and almost forgot that there was another mall beside the hotel. However, after a 15 minute walk, we arrived there and had to find out that the whole mall was shutting down, because they are rebuilding it. Therefore the only store open was a grocery store. For the walk not being in vain, we went in and noticed that everything was a lot cheaper than in Canada yet there aren’t any taxes either.

Portland’s Downtown was amazing! The city is big, though not overbearing; it has lots of cute stores and, what delighted me the most were the ‘Trams’, which curve around through the streets. We enjoyed the little shopping tour in the mall, which is very beautiful and bright. We also spent lunch under clear sky, which was probably the only time we got some sunshine on our skin.

The second concert came up and it was another success. Afterwards Peter the group to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where we got to see and touch lots of different things including a chemistry lab, lego exhibition… Back in the hotel we ate free soup and salad; Jen, Marlen, Nele and I had a huge laugh, after which all the chaperones joined us at our little table. All five of them were really nice and we got to know them quite well.

Our last concert was at a very kind school. They put out a huge welcoming sign and had ordered four containers with Starbucks coffee and biscuits for us. This time, because the school was so big, we played two concerts and therefore all of Peter’s bands and choirs (there are 5 of them) got to play once. The kids had lots of fun with us and we left joyfully. Now we were off to the ocean! But first there was another great stop planned: The 74 store outlet mall in Lincoln City! Everyone was already thrilled to see it from the beginning of the trip on and the three hours power shopping went by so fast. But the moment we got out the bus at the hotel, the adrenalin was up again; our hotel was right at the sea and the view was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it when we stood on our terrace and were only a few feet away from the water.

The waves were gigantic and we could smell the seawater in our rooms, which were decorated in fisherman gear and lighthouses. Every group of four had a small apartment with a kitchen, where we made breakfast on our own the next morning. We enjoyed real bread and baguette, which we bought at a little grocery store, with Nutella and salami. But first there was the evening; we had free time until 9pm, when we had to be back in the hotel. We decided to look for a nice restaurant, where we could enjoy real seafood. The 20 minute walk was very refreshing before we reached a pleasant restaurant. The food was delicious and our servant was very friendly and talkative. By the time we got home, some kids were already down at the beach trying to start a bonfire on the soaked sand. We hurried down and helped until the fire was in full swing. Everyone came down and we had a very nice evening at the beach with everyone sitting around the fire singing, talking and laughing.

I could have spent the whole night there, but then it got too late and we headed back into our rooms, where Nele prepared a girls’ spa night with masks and hot chocolate.

Saturday we started to head back home, but not before we had visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon. It is a little place, where they make awesome cheese and also fresh ice cream! Obviously not as good as in Switzerland, though We arrived back in Seattle at the same hotel at 6pm and had time once more in the Southcenter shopping mall. After an exhausting day and lots of spent money, we treated ourselves with a strawberry cheesecake slice from the famous Cheesecake Factory, which was almost like heaven!

Unfortunately all the good things have to end; same with our trip. The last day had come. First thing we did after we crossed the border, was to run to Tim Hortons for lunch. All the cars of the kids’ parents were already waiting expectantly in the back of the school, when we arrived there. Everyone tired and worn out, but happy to get some sleep at home once again.

The last time to go up to Big White had come. 15^th of April we took the bus up there for the last time. Due to the fact that it was the last day of the season, Big White made free pancakes and sausages for everyone on the top of the hill! Of course the line up was incredibly long during the whole morning until all of the gigantic batter was gone. Nevertheless we decided to join the group of hungry people in the queue.

 That’s what happens when Big White gives away free pancakes!

The sun shone for most of the day and we were able to enjoy snowboarding/skiing with warm weather, which was rather unusual for this year. During lunch break we made a quick side-trip into one of the Big White stores and bought a souvenir shirt.

We were working really hard with the concert choir recently, as our first performance was drawing near. It was a festival for small and big choirs in Kelowna and took place in a church on Wednesday morning and afternoon. Both of Peter’s choirs (Concert and Chamber) took part in the festival and we were the first group to arrive in the church, which gave us the best seats. Although our group took about a third of all the seats since we are the biggest High School Choir in the Okanagan Valley. (Kelowna, Vernon, Armstrong..) Our 75-heads choir got beaten out by number of students by an Elementary School Choir though, which includes over 140 kids, who barely fitted onto the tiny stage. All of the choirs did a great job in performing; especially the guy’s choir of KSS impressed the audience, so that it was difficult for the adjudicator to rank the different choirs. She was a very nice lady and gave every group her advices and tips to help improve. It was a successful day for us and Peter was very pleased with our performances. Now everyone got even more excited for the upcoming trip to Portland, Oregon next week!

The last quarter of my exchange began! This also means that the new term started and some of the subjects changed. Instead of food class I have Art now. My class is exceptionally small for a grade 10 class, but I really like it. My cooking partner from last semester is in it as well and due to so few students we will be able to do more interesting things than usual.

The skating coaches have organized off-ice sessions for all the HP (High Performance) skaters during the spring time. Friday afternoon was my first time to take part at the off-ice work out. It took place outside the skating rink on the soccer fields and we were about 10 skaters. The trainer is Maddi; she coaches me on the ice quite often and studied sports at University. As the other skaters have already told me from their last time, it was very hard and sweaty, but felt good. I was sore from that afternoon until the next off-ice work out, which was on Sunday morning and no less intense.

But I still had other plans for the afternoon. Hannah, the Dutch exchange student, had asked me, if I would like to watch the theatre play (A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare) in their school (KSS) since she is the stage manager of the whole play and has already told me a lot about it in advance. She was very busy with it for the last month or two and put lots of effort into it. Of course I wanted to see how it turned out and decided to go to the last show on Friday night. Nele joined me, after we spent some time at the lake with Marlen and Lena, a new exchange student from Germany, enjoying the first days of summer.

As soon as we arrived at KSS, we ran into Lena, another exchange student, but from Austria, who we met on the Edmonton trip. She was, too, going to the play and sat beside us. She wasn’t the only student we recognised in the audience from the trip. All the ~ 100 seats in the drama room were occupied and we were lucky to get three of the last tickets. Miguel was an actor in the play and did an amazing job, as he wants to become an actor later. The whole play was absolutely awesome! I have never been in such a fun theatre play before and even though the actors were speaking ‘old Shakespeare English’ I could easily follow the story and understand the jokes. The team has transformed it into a more modern and amusing play, which really made an impression on me. A big part of that were also the actors; all of them still students at KSS, but so professional that I couldn’t distinguish from famous actors. Also a huge compliment to Hannah, who has made it all work out so seamlessly!

Jennifer, Tina’s niece, who spent Thanksgiving with us, came to visit over the weekend. On Saturday, after a relaxing breakfast we headed out for the Farmer’s Market, which has just reopened after a long winter break. Peter, Tina, Christine and Jennifer came and we had a great time looking at all the different local crafts and foods.

 Free Hugs for Jennifer

After we’d finished our little shopping, Jennifer wanted to get her hair cut, so I took her to a hair dresser at the mall. For lunch we went home and enjoyed the leftovers from the previous night, when they had ordered loads from the Chinese restaurant.

Departure to Edmonton: Tuesday 10^th of April.The International Student’s Department had organized a trip for all the exchange students of Kelowna. The first 54 students, including Marlen, Nele and me, got to take part in the adventure through the Rocky Mountains to Edmonton, Alberta, which is a 12h bus drive away from Kelowna. We didn’t do that whole ride in one day, though. After everyone was on the bus at 7.30am; tired but with an awaking coffee in their hands, we had an eight-hour-drive ahead of us. The ride had several little breaks including lunch and a small waterfall sight.

The first nightly stop was in Jasper, a little village right in the Rocky Mountains. We arrived there at 6pm Alberta time; there was an one-hour time change since we crossed the boarder into another province; from British Columbia to Alberta. The first evening we dined in ‘Jasper Pizza’, where we got to know two girls from KSS, who joined us, when we had time after supper to walk around in Jasper.

 Marlen, Sidney, Nele and I

We looked in vain for any stores that were open and returned to the hotel to climb into the hot tub right away.

The next morning, after our first night in a hotel, we enjoyed the breakfast, but had to jump into the bus again for another 4 hours drive. Finally we arrived in Edmonton. The bus dropped us off at the famous and impressively full-sized West Edmonton Mall, which contains a zoo, skating rink, Water Park, Fun Park, and obviously countless stores.

 The mall’s ice rink

                Shopping in Pink and Abercrombie

In the five hours we had time to shop, all of us, especially the girls, were running from store to store to see as much as possible. Sure enough everyone fell asleep very fast that night after that tiring day, although not before we had been in the hotel’s pool.

On the next morning the hotel provided a humongous breakfast plate for everyone. On the contrary we had another two hours at the mall, where we burned all the gained calories again The most exciting part at the mall was yet to come: all of us had a ticket to either the Water or Fun Park. We chose the Water Park and never regretted it. The gigantic hall, where it was in, was decorated with blue sky, pirate ships, palms and other plants.

The beach led to a wave pool, but the biggest part was occupied by the colourful water slides. We spent all of the two hours sliding up and down the slides and in the end we thoroughly had to hurry back to the bus to not be late.

Now it was already time to head back to Kelowna once more. Something much unplanned happened on that ride, though: We got caught in a heavy snow storm and it took us about three hours longer than planned to arrive at our next destination. Banff is a charming, little village in a ski resort. Therefore it has lots of cottages and tourist shops and restaurants. Marsha, the supervisor, took us to a Chinese restaurant that evening. Most of the students liked the dishes on the traditionally round tables and the chopsticks. It was the first time here in Canada, I enjoyed very good Chinese food that resembled my mom’s, which, how I realized, I had missed. The hotel we were in the last night was by far the best, especially the pool and the delicious breakfast. Luckily the snowstorm didn’t get worse after last afternoon so we could keep the plan how it was. The bus driver dropped us off at the gondola, which took us on top of the mountain, where we walked through the snow to the top. It was perfect picture weather and a very amusing walk as well.

To my and the other Swiss student’s (Nadia) surprise, when we stopped for a little washroom break, there was a restaurant right in the hotel called Walliser Stube!

They even had a Walliser Wappen on the wall. The rest of the ride proceeded faultlessly and we arrived at Kelowna’s Orchard Park, where all the cars of the host parents were already waiting for us. We were all  sad that the trip was already over when we got off the bus and promised to meet each other again.

Easter arrives in Kelowna! On Good Friday Peter called in all the choir members for another rehearsal. He delayed it by 2 hours, though; therefore we could sleep in a bit longer as on normal school days. As a reward for those students, who showed up, our caring choir director, Mr. DeRoche brought fresh TimBits (little, delicious doughnut holes from Tim Hortons) to school and everyone was allowed to help themselves . After a soundful rehearsal, Nele joined me on my way home, where Marlen arrived as well after a few hours and we started our Easter project. We blew out the inside of six eggs using holes; one on the top and one on the bottom of the egg. With watercolours and brushes, we painted and decorated the empty eggs. Those would end up as presents for our wonderful host parents.

The next morning we used the six egg insides to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. Tina prepared some baking material in the afternoon for cookies. While I helped her mixing the batter for Monster Peanutbutter Cookies, we decided that we might as well bake some more cookies for Easter. We ended up with quite a handful of delicious cookies, which Peter was absolutely delighted about After this big baking occasion, Tina and I needed some fresh air and headed out for a little walk in the late afternoon sun, which was still very warm. We turned some rounds in the green park and had a nice talk under blue sky.

 Our little garden full of spring flowers

The next time I woke up, it was already Easter Sunday! We; Peter, Tina and I, agreed to go to the early morning service at the church and therefore had to get up earlier. The moment I stepped upstairs, the smell of fresh made pancakes blew at me and I caught sight of the wonderfully set breakfast table. Tina made the effort to write cards to everyone with little chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs. We exchanged all the little gifts, including my self-painted eggs, and enjoyed the pancakes with Strawberries and Maple Syrup. Shortly later we left for church and returned, after a pleasant Easter service with lots of singing, home again. The remaining time at home we spent watching the World’s Figure Skating Championship 2012 last group of men , before we hit the roads again for Penticton; the family Easter dinner!

This time Marina joined us and Tyler and Christine came too.

 The ‘kids’ with Grandpa

As usual; when we arrived, Uncle Jim and Auntie Joelle were at Grandma and Grandpa DeRoche’s. This time I was already very familiar with everyone and had a great time looking at old and recent photo albums. Marina and I helped Grandma out a lot in the kitchen, which she was very thankful for. After had her delicious homemade Ham, the Easter bunny sneaked in and left behind a big Easter basket full of chocolate and treats on the little table. The six hours we spent there flew by very quickly, nevertheless everyone was tired when we were back in the car, where I fell asleep.

 Tina between Peter and Uncle Gim

On Easter Monday Jordyn came to my house for baking. My dad had sent me the Carrot cake recipe that he always made for my birthday and I wanted to try it out. I had the idea to make cupcakes out of it and it turned out pretty well with lemon frosting on top! But since we had so much batter left after the first 12 cupcakes, Jordyn and I decided to make a little two-layered cake additionally. Decorating was the most amusing part and we made a great effort for it, to look adorable.

On Monday everyday life started once more and everyone dragged themselves to school. The lessons of most subjects continued unchanged, as we broke off before the holidays. For the skaters, though, that meant: ice again! Since we couldn’t get any opportunities to practise during spring break at all, the first few days were quite tough for all of us; we had to get used to the ice again.

Marlen and Nele departed on Friday morning for their most significant cheerleading competition in Vancouver. I arranged a meeting with Hannah, who is always really busy as the director of her school theatre. Just after my skating on Friday afternoon we got together to hang out in Downtown. She brought Miguel, who is her best friend, with her and we decided to eat sushi for supper.

After a little visit at the mall and lots of talking, we ought to take the last, available bus to her home for a sleepover at her house. Unfortunately we discovered that we just missed the connecting bus line and decided to walk the long way instead. Given that we had plenty to tell each other, the time ran by fast and we arrived at her house fairly quickly. After we watched a movie, we were both very tired and fell asleep in the warm bed sheets within seconds. The next morning Hannah had to get up early due to theatre rehearsals, but we didn’t leave the house before her delightful host family could put us some delicious Canadian pancakes on a plate. On the same evening there was a Dance competition running at my school; groups from all over British Columbia came to show their performances. The entire gym was sold out. They danced everything from Jazz to Street Hip Hop and several groups were thoroughly mind-blowing. Eventually all the ~ 80 dancers got on the dance floor and rocked the house.

Peter, as the director of the concert choir I am in, decided that we really needed an extra rehearsal due to lots of missed classes the last few months and the fact that our first performance was in less than three weeks. Therefore he suggested Sunday for the rehearsal meeting, since it had to be a fairly long rehearsal. As expected not all of the members of the choir showed up. In fact, it was probably less than half; nevertheless the session was a success. We made a large improvement and left early as well as satisfied after three hours rehearsing. That afternoon Nele arrived from Vancouver enthusiastically and stormed in late for choir. They really enjoyed their time there and had a successful competition too.