For Tuesday, the RSS Internationals got to explore indoor climbing. 15 of us headed down to the little Climbing Center with the teacher, where each of us received climbing shoes and a harness. Since we had to rappel and secure one another, paying attention to the instructor was reasonably important. In the beginning it seemed frightening, but after the first attempts, we learnt to trust each other and had fun climbing up the walls. Time ran by very fast and we would have liked to spend more time there, even with our arms starting to hurt. I certainly felt my rarely used arm wrist muscles for the next couple days.

 Climbing crew

Our work out coach from skating definitely didn’t feel any pity, when she told us on Friday that we were going to do a 6 km run that day. After an already exhausting worm up, we fired up for our run around the neighborhood, up the hill and back. The 35 minutes running were exhausting, but afterwards, when we were back at CNC again, we felt quite proud.

Christine came to visit on Saturday morning to celebrate Mother’s Day one week early since she knew, her next weekend would bring two hard-working days and she won’t have time to celebrate with Tina. She still wanted to delight her mom with something lovely; therefore I joined her with cleaning out Tina’s car. On this sunny day, we vacuumed the entire inside and sprayed down the outside of the car, which made Tina a happy mom. Since Peter was away to help his own mother, Christine showed me how to mow the lawn and I proudly mowed the half of the yard. We two were the perfect work team that day.

 1. Cleaning the car

 2. Lawnmowing

Spring is the time of all the blossoms coming out here in Kelowna with all the orchards! There are wonderful flowery cherry, apple, peaches and other trees all over the place. Tina took Marlen, Nele and me up to the big orchards on Sunday with her new, clean car. She gave us a tour around Kelowna and we ended up at a Lavender Farm on a hill. Unfortunately the lavenders aren’t in blossom yet, but we still got to take some good-smelling souvenirs with us from the little store. Slowly our stomachs started to growl and it was the ideal time for our Picnic! On a green, wide meadow, we spread out our blanket and basket. With the sun and cloudless sky over us, we enjoyed a delicious prepared picnic.

The coming week, Starbucks had half-prized Frappuccinos (smoothie) every day. Of course we had to get that treat! Thursday after school, I met up with Jordyn in the Starbucks near the skating rink and brought Marlen and Nele with me, because they wanted to meet Jordyn. The three of them got along well after the first second and we had a fun time. While we enjoyed our beverages, Miguel showed up at the same place and joined us.

A very popular activity came up this Saturday: The international student’s department organized a sailing event for us. It took place in a little sailing club near downtown at the lake.The day was perfect, but there wasn’t too much wind, which made it a very relaxing sailing afternoon on the boats.The three boats, which fitted 3-6 sailors; each with a helper, took us out for about 20 minutes, after which we switched. We really enjoyed the two hours and as my first sailing experience, I had lots of fun.

Since the day was so wonderful, Marlen, Nele and I wanted to take the bus to Downtown after sailing. Only we weren’t at the right bus stop and waited for one hour in vain, after which we realized that we have to walk one bus stop further. Eventually we arrived down at the crowded lake and laid in the park under the shadow of the trees. This day was a very special day for Marina: It was her Prom Day (= Abschlussball). The grade 12 students have waited for that day the entire school year. Some of them already prepared and bought their dresses months ago. Before all the pairs have their dinner and dance in the Delta Grand Hotel at the lake, there is a traditionally Grand March, where all the couples walk along the lake to show their pretty outfits. It always attracts lots of spectators, including us three girls and even Peter came down to marvel at his students and Marina. It was amazing to see all the girls in their dresses, but none of them topped my beautiful sister Marina in her stunning blue dress. I am already excited for my graduation

Right after the walk, I was invited for Jordyn’s 17^th Birthday party. Her friend picked me up and we drove to Jordyn’s house. There were about 15 kids already there and most of them I knew already from my skating evenings with them on the Downtown ice rink. We had a great time celebrating and playing games.

Today is Mother’s Day! Early in the morning, when Tina was out to visit her mom, Marina and I got up to bake a carrot cake for her. When we had the cake in the oven, we realized that the recipe was asking for way too much cinnamon. What a pity! It was already too late to change it and we thought maybe it could still turn out okay, but when we took the cinnamon bomb out of the oven, even the consistency wasn’t right. That was probably due to the fact that we chose a low-calorie cake for Tina’s diet and none of us has ever tried this internet recipe before. Who knows…? Anyways; curtly we decided to make a second cake! This time we used another, more trustful recipe, although more unhealthy Time was short and Peter ran to the store to get the missing ingredients. Luckily this cake turned out successfully Now we will see, if it turns out as a good dessert after supper tonight!

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.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

For the evening we decided to go downtown and dine in a Thai restaurant right at the lake. The waiter was very kind and patient with our choices. We thoroughly enjoyed the served meals and the atmosphere in the Asian restaurant. We even received a free dessert in the end. The following sleep over at Nele’s house was nice except for the workers, who climbed the roof at 8am the next morning to start ripping off the bricks with heavy machines, which, of course, shook us out of our sleeps.

After kindly asking Peter if he could take us out for a little trip and he confirmed, we three girls jumped in the back of his car and we headed out for a small adventure. Unfortunately we discovered that most of the interesting parks and viewpoints aren’t open yet due to the chill and are only going to open after spring actually began. Nevertheless that wasn’t a reason to keep us off our idea! The ride went on around the enormous Okanagan Lake to the other side, from where we could take stunning pictures of the skyline of Kelowna.

We drove even further to parts, which Peter hasn’t even been before and discovered a new camping area with plenty little apartments. Since this was new for Peter, he was delighted that we asked him for a trip .

The international student’s department organized something for us again and we were welcome to participate at curing this time. Over 50 students showed up at the biggest Curling arena in whole Canada, which is located in Kelowna. Everyone got a pair of shoes and a broom before we entered the rink. Split in groups we tried to slide the stones over the ice with help of the instructor. Although I’ve already tried curling before, in contrast to most of the others, it was different from my last time and I learnt some new interesting facts.

Later on Nadia, a Swiss exchange student asked us if we wanted to hang out with her. Therefore we walked from the curling arena to the lake and enjoyed the warm spring sun with an ice cream and lots of talking. Since she’s only been here for two months, Nadia was interested in our stories of the beginning and she made clear that she also misses the Swiss bread .

There were still nine hours to get over with before the big event that I have been waiting for a long time: The Hunger Games Premier in the movie theatre! This book had a huge boom in the last few months and due to the fact that I read it in my English class here, I was extremely excited with all the fellow fans. Miguel, my friend I’ve gone to another movie before, got some tickets for the Premier that starts at midnight, and asked us, if Marlen, Nele and I would want to come. Before confirming, however, I had to ask Peter if he would offer the sacrifice and pick us up after the movie. But since he is so kind, he accepted and I was happy to be able to be at the premier. As mentioned before, there were still plenty of hours before it started. But then the idea came to us and we took the bus to the ‘Old Spaghetti Factory’ in Town for supper. It is an awfully busy restaurant and since it is new in Kelowna everyone wants to go there. When we arrived there without reservation, they told us we will have to wait for 30 min, but we accepted given that we had too much time anyways. When we got a table for three after a while, everything was fine and we could take pleasure in the delicious food.

For the movie, we appeared two hours before opening at the gates, but we already saw from far away that the queue was incredibly long. Initially we couldn’t believe it, but we had to face it and line up in the end of the crowd. Once we were inside, after everyone stormed in to get the best seats, the fun began. Unfortunately we didn’t get the best seats and had to sit in the front of the full movie theatre, since we weren’t there early enough. Nevertheless the movie was absolutely awesome and I loved the enthusiasm of the audience! It was definitely worth it to stay up late!

 Timmie’s breakfast

Once we arrived at home we started grating the potatoes, I boiled the previous evening for our Swiss Rösti recipe. After adding the bacon and onions, the only difficult part was to turn our full-size Rösti on the pan without letting it fall apart. We kind of managed that smoothly and within a few minutes the Rösti for all five guests (Peter, Tina, Marina, Nele, Marlen) was served on the table. Especially Peter and Tina enjoyed the extraordinary meal with melted cheese on top. While everyone was concentrated on the main meal, we were preparing a cheese cake additionally. The recipe that we took from one of Peter’s old cook books, was simple and original. The response to our cuisine was that we were always welcome to cook again in the kitchen . Taking at their word, we decided to gather again in Peter and Tina’s kitchen later on that week. The rest of the cheesecake we captured to bring over to Nele’s homestay family, who we met that afternoon for a little, lovely talk.

Following an easy day up at Big White on Wednesday due to really bad weather after lunch time, Marlen, Nele and I met on Thursday. From our favourite second-hand store in town we got recommended a candle factory not far away from Rutland. Therefore we headed out with a little description to look for it. We wandered around for a bit before we found it between giant brown and grey buildings. The moment we entered it, a huge fragrant cloud encased us. We smelled the scents of a numerous variety of candles in this little chamber. Thousands of different coloured and shaped candles were stacked up and it took a moment until we got used to all the mixed scents. To actually smell the individual candles it was best to step outside for fresh air. In the end we decided on a candle with the scent called ‘Oatmeal Cookie’.

Snowboarding and Skiing on Friday was quite different. Unfortunately Nele forgot her goggles and she had to ski without them while the freezing wind was blowing around her. She could barely see something for the first few runs. Then the sky cleared a little and in the afternoon we could really enjoy the snow on the trails.

Marlen and Nele followed me home after skiing, when Peter and Tina left to go out for supper with friends. Right after we had supper on our own, we started realizing our promise with the cooking; only that this time we were going to bake. With all the flour and yeast ready, we mixed the dough for two different breads. The first one was Nele’s recipe for a whole wheat bread and the second one was a Swiss Zopf! The kneading took us fairly a long time and quite tired out our arm muscles. We put the whole wheat bread into the oven the same night and took it out merely a couple minutes before Peter and Tina returned home, thus they sampled the warm, home-made bread. Half of the bread was already gone by the time we went to bed. For that reason we intended to bake two breads. In the morning we got surprised with a white layer on the grass and flocks falling from the sky. Most people weren’t very thrilled, but when we revealed the Zopf-dough I saw that it grew at least twice from the last night, which lightened the day. The braiding was doubtless the most challenging part. The first one of the two small Zöpfe we made, we imitated the youtube video we took to aid and it turned out accurately like the one on the screen. The second one, though, we tried without help and it turned out rather unsatisfactory. Nevertheless that was okay, since it was our first time trying it on our own. The taste after we baked it, however, was as mouth-watering as the other one. Neither Peter, nor Tina could deny that their first Butterzopf in their lives was delicious Together we enjoyed an entire Saturday morning brunch with boiled eggs and Nele’s homemade ‘coffee special’. This experience truly reminded me of Sunday mornings in Switzerland!

 Breakfast at home

I started my free Sunday with puzzling in company of Tina. Both of us really like the relaxing concentration together. Dominique, her older daughter, mailed an amazing 1000-piece puzzle from their holidays in New York. Therefore Tina and I started it eagerly with the result that it ended awfully fast.

In the afternoon I asked Marina if she felt like running with me, and to my surprise she confirmed. As it was such nice weather we determined to take the bus to Downtown. We arrived at the lake and soon realized that we weren’t the only ones, who had this idea; the lakefront was quite crowded with couples, bicycles and walkers with dogs. We joined in with them at the beautiful shore and the nice atmosphere.We decided to definitely do that again during spring time, when it gets warmer and Kelowna will be even prettier.

Marina really likes being in the kitchen and bringing out fabulous meals! Often she cooks Chinese dishes, which get transformed into Japanese style dishes. I guess that quite encouraged us as well to cook Japanese food; because during that week Peter came up with the idea that we could make sushi after my upcoming competition on Sunday. Of course we were all pretty enthusiastic about that, since Peter previously promised us that he’ll teach us how to make sushi on occasion.

But first things first; as mentioned I was going to have my first competition here in Canada on this weekend, after an almost one year break from competing. The training and rehearsal on the ice during tha last two months went quite well in fact, but unfortunately none of my programs were a real success on that weekend. It was the Okanagan Regional Championship and not many skaters signed up for it, because it’s a rather small competition. All the skaters in my category (there were three of them) were Jason’s (my coach’s) skaters, indeed. Therefore I already knew all of them quite well. For my short program on Saturday Tina drove me to Armstrong, where the competition took place. The day after, for my long program, Peter accompanied me with Marlen and Nele, who wanted to watch me skate as well. I liked the atmosphere in the nice wooden building also because it wasn’t such a hectic competition. More or less everything was the same as in Switzerland at a competition, which gave me somewhat a familiar feeling.

As soon as we finished the presentation ceremony, we three girls were sitting in Peter’s car again; ready to fill our starving stomachs. The whole drive from Kelowna to Armstrong takes a good hour; therefore we stopped on the way to have lunch in Vernon. We visited an ice cream store, which had tons of different ice cream varieties (including Swiss Chocolate). But that wasn’t everything; after we chose your ice cream flavour we went on to the different toppings. (cookie dough, raspberries, caramel, chocolate chips…) All the things you chose got mixed together on a plate and then we enjoyed our own unique ice creams. All three of us girls had the pleasure of taking one . Yummiee!

Moreover, because we are so special guests, the store owner took us to the back of the store, where they store all the ingredients and he explained all different things to us. Once we arrived home the trip kept going right away; we went grocery shopping for our sushi evening. Finally at home, we started preparing all the fillings for our sushi and cooked the rice. The difficult part is to get the rice sticky, but we managed that fantastically. We could start rolling our own sushi! Marina, the chef cook in Japanese food, showed us exactly how to do it and followed by us three beginners, everything proceeded perfectly. Peter, who is almost a professional in sushi-making as well, helped us and we managed to get a lot of sushi rolls done with all kinds of different vegetables and fishes in them. We enjoyed our homemade supper all together; even Christine, the sushi lover, came over for the feast.

Due to current job action problems of the teachers here in BC, we didn’t have school from Monday to Wednesday, which of course also affects Peter as the music teacher at our school. All the teachers in BC had a walk out strike, because they aren’t satisfied with their contract situation and we even had a little student strike on Friday morning, where we stood along the road holding signs and shouting.

Of course we hope that we convinced the government and they’ll change something. After the strike we had another two days of school before spring break starts! Everyone was quite excited and the weather got warmer just in time when the spring holidays started on Friday afternoon. Therefore Marlen, Nele and I spent our first afternoon of spring break at the Okanagan Lake in Downtown Kelowna.

 We truly enjoyed the wonderful evening.

 Before the concert; Clara, Nele, Marlen

The concert was really nice; there were quite a lot of people there, even though the concert wasn’t sold out. After a tiring night we were all pretty excited to speak a few words with the singers and, of course get some pictures taken with them. They were really kind and nice to us! In the car ride all of us almost fell asleep and were happy when we arrived at home and, glad that choir wasn’t going to take place the next morning .

On Friday in my Foods class we got to cook for the first time! Of course we started with something easy; Apple Crisp (similar to an apple cake). When it turned out very well my cooking partner and I enjoyed our dessert with everyone else.

Next Tuesday was Valentine’s Day! Here in Canada they celebrate it more than in Switzerland so everyone was quite excited. The day before Marina and her friend met at our house and baked heart cookies. And then they even cooked chocolate and filled it in cute shapes. On Valentine’s Day they gave all the delicious treats to their friends and families (that me! ). In the Foods class we cooked the perfect recipe for the day: Strawberry shortcake (with lots of whipped cream that we whipped by hand!) That night at skating in Rutland we even took a ‘Valentine’s Day Picture’ of everyone, who was there.

On Wednesday there was a Career Fair tour for all the grade 10 students from our school. During our D-Block class the busses arrived (seven school busses that were full in the end) and they drove us to the exhibition. It was a good opportunity to learn about all the options the students have after High School. There were information from over 30 different universities and they showed you all the courses they offer.

Thursday morning I had to wake up earlier, because we were going to go snowshoeing today! The first surprise was that there was at least 10 cm of new snow in the garden and it was still snowing heavily. So I put on my snowboard pants and shoes and hurried to school, where all the busses arrived too late. Since we were going to the ski resort Silverstar, which is about one and a half hours away, the plans moved a bit because of the delay. But finally all 30 students arrived in Vernon and half of us went cross-country skiing and the other half snowshoeing. We got our snowshoes attached to our shoes and off we went. Our guide showed us the different techniques we could use for snowshoeing but the actual part is just normal walking. She took us to the trees and into the woods, where we had to be careful not to run into trees or fall.

The tour, which contained wandering downhill, sliding on our butts and climbing, took us about one hour even though it normally takes two. After that everyone was very exhausted, the cookies and apple ciders in the end fitted perfectly. The journey lasted a whole school day so when we arrived back at RSS we went straight back home. I got ready for skating and left the house again pretty quick. The plan was that we were going to go skating in Downtown again after my skating . So my skating friend Jordyn and I were ready to go after the session on the ice, but then we got a message that the rink was closed in downtown, because of all the new snow (it didn’t stop snowing the entire day). But minutes after we decided to go anyways and after we picked up a friend on our way we arrived there. We were about 10 people again and most of them I knew now. We decided to hang around at Starbucks and Benz Coffees and soon it was already time to go home. Even though we didn’t end up skating, it was fun .

Friday was a Pro-D Day (no school) and so we went up to Big White. We decided to exchange our boards and skies again to I skied with Marlen’s skies and she took my board. Nele rented a snowboard and so all of us were quite beginners, especially Nele, who hasn’t been standing on a snowboard before. By chance we met Miguel, a Mexican exchange student, up there and since he is a beginner as well and quite scared anyways, he decided to join us. We had lots of new snow and today (Sunday) we even cracked the 200 cm mark of snow base at Big White! It was a fun day with lots of falling from everyone, though.

The next day I went to the movie theatre with Marlen and Miguel in the evening. We watched the Woman in Black. It was the scariest movie ever! :O All three of us kept pulling something in front of our eyes so we couldn’t see. The only little sunny part of the movie was Daniel Radcliffe (the actor of Harry Potter, who played the star role in the movie).

 After the movie

But besides that we were all terrified after the movie and I was really glad that Marlen was going to have a sleepover at my house that night. We even watched the second movie of Harry Potter that night cuddled in our bed sheets. The next morning we enjoyed waffles for breakfast and after that we headed out to the mall, where we met the other girls from school.