Long time no see!

It's already a month ago that I wrote last! I'm here for almost 5 months now and I can truely say, the time flies when your having fun! This past month was the December month, and yeah, a lot has happend, but I don't want to bore you with to much details so I will try to talk about the major events!

The week after thanksgivingbreak wasn't much special. Everyone was a little bummed that the break already came to an end, but at the same time everyone was glad that the next break was coming up in only 4 (4!!??!!) weeks. The indoortrack season finally started, and eventhough I don't really enjoy the sport itself, I'm really glad I joined this team, since it isn't extremely competitive and there are a lot of good friends that I already had and also new friends on the team! Again it is everyday practise after school. On mondays and wednesdays and fridays if we don't have a meet, we go to the Essex Middle School and do some conditioning and weightlifting. On tuesdays and thursdays we only do conidtioning (a lot though), and we do this in the hallways, yes you read it right, the hallways.. of the school. Kinda strange sometimes, running in the school. We got a lot of snow this week and since the ski area was going to open the next week, we went up to the mountain to pick up our skipasses. Afterwards we drove a little bit further, to Middleburry to visit the original Ben&Jerry's Factory and get a tour! For everyone whom I haven't told it to, Ben&Jerry's is originally from Vermont.. and thats noticable in every fridge in this state...! I think on this sunday we also opened the Sinterklaas presents I was send from Holland, and I had my first indoor fieldhockey game (just for fun, and it is normal hockey on a grassfield in a hall (niet zaalhockey)).

The next week wasn't much special in school either. 5th of December ofcourse made me miss home a little more, but thinking of christmas here made me happy soon enough. In the weekend we went SKIING on saturday! It only takes 30 minutes to get up their so that is awesome. I know I'm not allowed to complain, and I won't, but let's say.. it isn't comparable to the Alps. I really have to get used to how narrow and icy the trails are, but what they say overhere: 'If you can ski in the east, you can ski everywhere!'. Let's hope that's true.. haha. On sunday the 11th, I think it was, we went to get our christmas tree! Well, I can definetly say that that is something special, and I will probably not experience it ever again, unless I move to the states. We went to a christmas tree farm, yes a actual farm for christmas trees. We paid I think not more then 20 dollars and they gave us an axe. It was a pretty big property with looong lines of christmas trees, differing in size. After a little bit of some discussions between Ava and Grace, about wichone was the prettiest and then loosing it in all the others, Carl picked one and we chopped it down ourselfs. I had a indoor fieldhockey game and afterwards we decorated the tree. That is also kinda different here.. since I'm used (and I think most dutch people) to only put lights and balls in it. Here they do use lights but instead of balls they have ornaments. It are all different figures or things often representing something. It looks kinda cool! Most families already had there christmas lights and decorations out, which is pretty fun to look at in the dark. I'm not really sure how to describe our houses style... Maybe trashcan?? We had lights on the roof, a gigantic airblown snowman, candycane lights and some kind of weird disco thing projecting lights on the outside of the house, mmh it was.. interesting.

Okay this is already turning in to a reaaaly long post, soo i'm gonna try to shorten it up a little. The next week in school was pretty bussy with lots of test and quizes and it also didn't really help that I felt sick for most of it.. I was really dizzy, bad headache, nausia and stomache eaches, so on thursday I stayed home. On Friday I had my first trackmeet, but since I was still sick, coach didn't want me to compete, which was totally fine with me, because everyone was totally stressed out... The meet took 7 hours.... And I finally got home at 10:30 p.m., kinda awfull. I can't remember much of the weekend, exept that we had this christmas party at the bucci's with a lot of people, which was fun! I didn't feel totally good again yet so when we got home around 12:00 pm. I had a really bad headache again. The next day I, ofcourse, also got a really bad cold so I stayed in bed for most of it.

The next week was the last week before christmas, with only 4 days. I still didn't feel good so I stayed home on monday again and on thursday I went to the doctor for the second time, but she still couldn't find aything. I feel a little better now, but I still have bad hadeaches everyday.. On thursday the last day of the week, not one teacher wanted to do anything so this is what I did: watch Rudolph, watch Cars, christmas party, watch Elf, christmas party. Kinda fun.

On Friday break begon!! We went skiing in the morning, which was fun because I met up with Emily and Anna, and when we got back Tracy's parents arrived to celebrate christmas with us. I left pretty soon though to hang out with Amber and Jess. The next day was christmas eve! Ava had loooot's of stress. Cookies for Santa had to be made and still some presents had to be made/ bought... We had a really nice dinner and our neighbors Miles and Nancy came over. They are really nice! We opened one present in the evening and I got my first set of pyjama's! Also this day a package from my best friend in Holland (Evi) arrived with christmas presents which totally made my day. That night Ava and I had a sleepover. The next morning Ava woke me up extremely excited because santa came! We opened the presents and I already got so much nice stuff! We had a really good breakfast and afterwards we opend the present under the christmas tree (the presents we all bought). I got so much stuff and I am so so thakfull for it! Thankyou so much family <3! Ava and I went sledding and in the evening we had even a better dinner: primerib, only one word for it: DELICIOUS.

On monday I had practise (8:00 am!!!), Amber's christmas party (I made my first gingerbread house!!) and Micheala's family (the Compo's) 'boxingday' party. A scottisch thing.. I still have no idea what it is... On tuesday practise again and in the evening Rachael and I went to the movies to see the movie 'Passengers' , well if you don't like sci-fi, dont go see it! Wednesday was the track meet and afterwards I just chilled at home, I think. Thursday I was at Amber's the whole day and in the evening we watched HSM1&2 with Sam. Friday we went skiing again. It was sooo nice because it snowed a lot over the night, and a lot of trails were open. After skiing we went for dinner to the Bucci's and then to a UVM Hockey game (= college icehockey). It was sooooo cool, so intens. I had never seen hockey before so that made it even more special.

The next day was, ofcourse, new years eve. We did some christmas returns and at 4 pm amber picked me up. Together with Jess, we went to this hotel in the neighbourhood, because this friend Haley her dad was the dj at this party there, so we were allowed to come. We were with I think 8 girls, and we just hung out in this hotelroom. We went lasertagging and played some games. Around 11:00 pm we went to the party, which was fun but not really haha. There were a lot of old people, who just watched us dance. A little strange but we still had fun. We watched the ball drop and around 00:45 Amber's parents picked us up. We got home, had some food and then watched step up. We went to bed I think around 04:00 am. The next day my family picked me up to go to this brunch party. When we got home I was really tired and ever since then (yesterday) untill now, I have kinda been laying in bed haha.I have to go to school again tomorrow already... which I'm not really used to (2 week break in Holland..), but I have something to look forward to: in 1,5 month I will be on the beach in Florida!!!!!

Okay, just as I expected, but DIDN'T want... this post ended up being endless again.. Sorry :(.

I just have a few little things to add. First of all, I would love to trade our christmas traditions to their christmas traditions, but I must say that I really did miss fireworks, oliebollen and party with friends on new years eve.. Something I wouldn't trade that soon.
The exchange agency told us that often kids get a lot more homesick around this time of the year because of the holidays. Well, maybe on christmasday and new years eve itself that was true.. But all the other days I've had soo much fun!

Okay I really think this was it, finally, haha

I want to wish you all a splended 2017, with best luck and best wishes. Let it be an even more beautiful one then this one. I for instance already know it is gonna be, because I will have had one of the best experiences of my life, but I will also get to see all of you again!

Make it a good one,

Pien