Last time I wrote was about 3 weeks (?) ago I think. Not that long ago, but it wasn't about my experiences in detail. I wrote about my year in general and thought that was a nice change for a time. I hope you guys all liked it! Unfortunately though, this caused me to be behind on details for something like 6 weeks.. As you maybe have noticed in my former posts, I'm not the best at cutting it short so I didn't think it would be a good idea to go in to depth for all those 6 weeks.. (+ my memory is letting me down a little...) So I will just summarize the first few weeks briefly :)

The last time I wrote in details, was if I remember it correctly right after NYE. Well, January started.. By statistics, its the worst month of the year (suicides and stuff). It wasn't that bad, but it also wasn't awesome. After the holiday break (only 1 week!!) We had about 2,5 weeks left before our midterms. Those weeks were kind of stressful with lots and lots of homework, indoor track practice, indoor track meets and hanging out with some friends (Tess, Jared, Isaac) a few times which was fun! I also went to my first Ice Hockey (known as just ''Hockey'') game. It was a UVM game, so college level. Well, here in the US college level is really good.. People pay a fortune to go to college, but people in a sportsteam are often recruited by a college. This means that they are so good, that the college is offering them a spot on the team and a scholarship of some amount. Then Icehockey.. It is such an intense game! It goes crazy fast and the people on the ice are beating each other up all the time. It's amazing to watch! I also went to a girls game from our own school. It was fun, but the game wasn't that interesting and there weren't many people there, since girls sports aren't really appreciated.... :(
Another sports thing I did in these two weeks, was working at the concession stand of a huge wrestling tournament in school, to raise money for the field hockey teams next year. I also think it was in these two weeks, that my host family's cousin Maya, who studies at UCONN, came up. We went to another ice hockey game with here, which was funny, because it was a game at UVM, against UCONN. That weekend was lots of fun!

Then after those two weeks, our midterms begon. Midterms is at the exact middle of the year. The classes that only take one semester end then. For every class you take, you get a big project, or a two hour long exam, about all the things u should have learned in the past half year. For me, fortunately, they were all really easy and I got good grades without really worrying about it, so that was nice. The last day of the midterms, we got a call at 5:30 in the morning, saying we had a snow day! The first one of the year, which means NO school. That was really nice, because everyone was really tired. After the midterms, second semester started! New Classes! My schedule was the following (S1): A-day >> 1/2 Late arrival, 3/4 gym, 5/6 precalc, 7/8 english; B-day >> 1/2 current events, 3/4 interior design, 5/6 yearbook, 7/8 US history. Instead of gym, I'm taking photo now (kind of a challenge because i'm not creative at all...), instead of current events, jewelry (I already made 3 reals rings!!), and instead of interior design clay. Especially this last one is a lot of fun, because a lot of my friends are in that class!

I think that should have covered those weeks... (still more then I wanted it to be, but well) (Oh I forgot to tell that I went up skiing multiple times :)

After that I still can't exactly remember what happend.. haha. I think I hung out with Sam and Amber and Jess a few times? And maybe we had a big track meet, an hour away from here. Well then two weeks ago, at least I can remember that hahaha. The week itself wasn't that special. We had track practice and school every day so nothing interesting. On friday, after we went watching Ava's dance off, me, Ava and Carl went up to the mountain to go night skiing, which was lots of fun! The day after, we had our state track meet! I think it was 12:30, that we all met at the high school, and took the bus up to the military college of Norwich for the meet. It started out fun, cause there was a lot going on. It already took forever but that was okay, because we could just hangout with each other. This is what we thought till maybe 10:30 p.m. (22:30), when it wasn't even close till done. The last event eventually started at 00:30 at went on till 1:30 am. Which caused us to be back at the high school 2:50 am... Caused some really mad parents. We came in second though, so another medal to bring home :). Overall we had a lot of fun, but it just took way to long. On sunday I lay in bed, resting for most of the day, and then around 18:00 I went to Sams, for her parents annual SuperBowl party. Yes, you read it right, a PARTY for a football game. There were tons of people there, all in their patriots outfits. The superbowl is always big, but this year the New England Patriots (almost everyone here is fan of them, cause vermont doesn't have an NFL team) were playing so it was even a bigger deal. There were a few other friends of mine as well, so we hung out, Jamie watched the game, and we watched the halftime show, performed by Lady Gaga. Our final rate for it was a 7 out of 10, I think. I don't know If you guys have heard about the game but it was crazy. CRAZY. The patriots were loosing really badly the first 3 quarters. But then the last quarter, they came back gigantically, to make it a tie in the last 2(?) seconds! The first SuperBowl game that tied EVER. Then in overtime, eventually, the Patriots were the first to score so the won!!!!!!!! Another fun thing was, when Tracy picked me up and we were driving back, there were two deers on the road, really close to our house. Really cool!

The week after was, let's say, not one of my best... The first days weren't awful, but at I think wednesday? me and my host parents got in a little discussion, which I won't go in to cause that's not necessary and it's solved already, but since I hadn't talked with my parents for a good three weeks, it threw me of guard a little, so I started feeling a little homesick. (Oh track was done, so no after school practices anymore for a little while :) & :( .. ) Then on Thursday, Tess, Jenna and I, went to get a spray tan after school, for the upcoming winter ball. I was really afraid to turn out orange, but that wasn't the case at all. Most people couldn't even tell that we were a little more tanned, so it was funny to have done sometime (sorry mom and dad for not telling you ;) I asked tracy though :) ). But then the really awful thing of the week happend... after we went to costco, my spray tan was dry enough, so I took a shower, and then wanted to see how it looked with my dress and everything. So I put on my dress and It looks good, but I wanted to try my shoes with it, so I'm walking down the stairs looking for my shoes, and there they are! Just under the coats, where the shoes always are, Smokey (the cat) laying next to it. I pick my shoes up, pet smokey a while and go back upstairs. I didn't want to put on socks, because why bother for just a second? So I sit on my bed and stick my left foot in my shoe (for the ones who know them, my black shabbie boots). Mmh.. thats weird I feel something, it's probably a sock (WHY WOULD IT BE A SOCK?!!! WHY WAS I SO STUPID?). I take my foot out, lift the shoe up and stick my hand in it to take the sock out. OH MY GOD, SOMETHING IS MOVING. I take my hand out and throw my show away. And what runs out of it? A LIVING MOUSE. Well, many people probably know that I hate mise. HATE. After that they couldn't find it anymore, so I slept in Graces room... AWFUL.

The next day on friday, I went to Rachael's for a little bit after school, and the we picked Kylie up to go to the Pinkzone game at school. This is a girls basketball game and for breast cancer awareness, everyone wears pink. They do it every year and it's a whole happening! After both JV and Varsity game, I went to get some pizza with Sam and Linna, and then went home. The next day me and my family went up to the mountain to go skiing! I finally had my lesson and it was so much fun! I learned a lot so that is nice :). In the evening I went over to Amber's to prepare for winter ball. Some people go with a date, but you can also just go with friends so that's what we did! The dance was fun, but it wasn't comparable to the school parties that we have in the Netherlands.. not at all. It already ended at 11p.m. and was pretty formal, with tables and stuff. We had fun though, and after it we went to Al's French Fries, where we met u with Jess for some food and to hang out for a little! On sunday I don't think I did a lot..? Called with my parents, for the first time in three weeks and did some homework. We also watched the grammy's, what was fun! Yesterday (monday) we had another snowday! It was already announced on sunday evening, because the weather forecast said there was gonna be a huge snowstorm sunday&monday. Monday morning I took up and we already got a foot of snow! (33 centimeters). We went up to the mountain to go skiing, but the wind and snow was so hard that you couldn't see much.. Still really nice to have a day off though. Today, valentines day. It's here a lot bigger then back at home (cause everything is commercialized of course). Everyone gives each other candy and stuff and it's a whole happening. Kind of fun though!

That was the past time... and of course the post turned out way longer again, then intended, but I'm doing so many fun (and less fun ;) things here!!!) I've been here for almost 6 months now, and my parents are coming up in only 44 days!! Time goes crazy fast.... I'm not sure what I think of it.. Well I'm really going to end now and eat another valentines cupcake :)

I hope u guys all enjoyed the 5 (wow!) centimeters of snow, and had a splendid valentines day :)
See you soon and lots of love,

Pien