Farewell Party

Thursday the 29th of November 2013 was going to be a very important day.
We had to wake really early for Lisa, Tim, Katarina and me were going horse riding at Rubicon Valley Horse Treks. There we were welcomed by 2 super cute collies who followed us everywhere and a little black cat. The (brown) horses were all lined up and waiting for us. They had been race horses and afterwards trekking horses.
After our self-evaluation I got Bo, the reddest of them all and a bit smaller than the others, but still pretty fast. We were out riding for 3 hours in the sunshine (there were only us 4 and 2 instructors). I was the most experienced in the group and was allowed to trott and canter. How I missed horse riding !!!
The most difficult part was walking up and down veeery steep hills between trees and mud and separate from the group for a short time.
After 2 hours we reached the top of a hill, looking down into a big canyon. It was a fantastic sight and we also got hot chocolate and scones. Lisa could barely walk after this ride and they all had muscle ache except me.
I enjoyed the ride a lot and was allowed to bring Bo to the paddock afterwards.

 
When we finally got home at 2pm I started preparing food and games for my farewell party that evening. Ciara joins Kata and me at 3pm and they were both a very big help ! She had also made a cute cake for me. I created some serviette roses and made punch, pizza, chips, fruit sticks and cheese and crackers...
Alice, Jacinta, Theo and Claire joined us at 4pm. I had prepared a game called "Zettelralley" (notepaper ralley ?) where the group is rolling the dice and has to look for the number they are on on the board somewhere around the house and garden. Then they had to answer a question and could roll again. It was really fun and a good way to get to know the house even better.
Unfortunately it started hailing later that evening so we were eating pizza and talking in the living room. Alice and Jacinta had to leave early, but Theo stayed till 10pm and we played a German game called "Zicke Zacke Hühnerkacke", charades and spoons
(with the whole family).
After talking till 1am Ciara and Claire slept in a tent on the porch (Ciara is allergic to cat hair) and Kata on a matress
in my room.

We woke up at 10am already. Leaving my friends alone for about 20minutes I went to the orthodontist for the last time
(I didn't have to pay anything except the $55 at the beginning of the year... strange).

When I came back we discovered that the matress that was in the tent got wet because someone had left the tent door open yesterday in the rain. So we had fun with towels and the fire.
Sadly all three had to leave between 12 and 2.
So that was my farewell... will I ever see my best friends again ?

My last Exams

My next Exam I had on Monday the 26th of November 2013. So I woke up at 9 to still have a little bit of time to study before I biked to school. Still I was an hour too early there and although I knew how to use this time it only made me even more nervous!
At last I sat my 3 hour exam and could hope for the best. I feel so... FREE, now it's over. I was really scared about Maths.
After my short singing lesson I started preparing for Music.
The Tuesday started much the same and at 11.40 I went to a Tutorial of Score Reading with Mr Petch and learned how to transpose. Subsequently Ciara and I went to Riccarton Mall to cancel my Westpac account and go grocery shopping for my party. She explained me things like you should smell your pineapple... If you want to know more about her knowledge follow this link: http://carewithciara.blogspot.de/
Anyway I was babysitting Julia that evening and studied for Music and Drama.

Only 1 DAY MORE and I won't have to study anymore and all of my Exams will be over.
Drama was in the morning and we had the usual 3 hours for only 1 paper which should approximately take 1hour so I left after 90min.
In the school library I studied for Music with Han Sol, Chan Woo, Jessie, Brian, Julien, Jacinta and Natalija. But finally it was 2pm and we headed for M1. The Oral part was very hard !!! There were a few strange Music Works questions and I didn't quite finish my Score Reading paper. So it wasn't that good, but it's over now.
And never again I will have to waer school uniform! Although that makes me a little sad because that also means that the end of the year is coming fast... so I didn't change into normal clothes afterwards.
At the supermarket with Lisa I got more vegetarian cheese and pizza for my party and the seller gave me a High 5 because of my Evenstar (necklace from the Lord of the Rings) !

Kiwis are so friendly!!!

All I ask of you

So, here is the video recording of "All I ask of you" from the Phantom of the Opera, sung by Theo and me. Hope you like it. :)

SMP recital

The following saturday I planned my party and unpacked the huge parcel with presents for my host family and friends from my mum. This evening there would be the SMP recital and Mr Atlas had invited many important people. At 4pm I had another rehearsal of "All I ask of you" with Theo and Han Sol before we had the soundcheck at 5. Afterwards I hurried home only to be back at 7pm with my whole family.
It really was a great concert !!! AMAZING !
My "Vilja" was quite good although Mr Atlas was really displeased with my fast tempo... But I hated to introduce myself. Originally I also wanted to sing "Love Never Dies", but I couldn't download the backing track in time. "All I ask of you" was very nice as well and Theo was quite funny in the introduction...
I suppose we did look funny singing it.
Ciara, Theo's granny and some strangers came to me afterwards for congratulations ! I can only repeat myself: It was an absolutely fantastic concert !After this special event I only woke at 12 the next morning... oh pardon, midday... so I just started with Lunch.
I studied some Maths for an hour before we left the house at 2pm. To the ferry  it was still an hour's drive. It was a very small boat compared to what Germans would think of and I could pay with my Metro card ! Only $2.10 !!! It was quite fast though and I stood outside so I got wet as well... Julia was a bit scared because it was her first time on the ferry, but she took it well and soon we reached Lyttelton harbour. From there it was only a 10minute walk with beautiful scenery of the hills and the sea.
I saw youths jumping/swinging into sea with a rope, girls lying on a ROOF to sunbathe, BOYS with flowers wreathed into their hair... Great ! If in Christchurch I would want to live here.
Our destination was the huge house of two members of Tim and Lisa's homegroup. Its sea-side was completely in glass to enjoy the view and the had chickens and a cute dog.

After dinner I studied with Tim's help and sang "All I ask of you" for everyone afterwards, but of course it wasn't nearly as good as yesterday.
And I believe I will never find a tenor as great as Theo !!!
Back home at 8pm I went on studying the whole evening for my Maths Exam... tomorrow.

Around Wanaka and at the Spot

This tuesday I had to wake early again for the International Department was taking students that didn't write exams and me (because I didn't have exams that week) to Wanaka.
Tim gave me a ride to school. They didn't tell Julia I was going because she wouldn't have let me. I found that so cute !
It felt weird to come to school without uniform and see al the other students preparing for their exams whilst we were taking the bus to Lake Tekapo with a stop in Geraldine where I showed Katarina another geocache I had found before.
In the afternoon of the 20th of November 2012 we finally arrived at our destination. It was just beautiful ! Over the clear and bright blue water (bluer than the sky !) one could see the top of the famous Mt. Cook (New Zealand's highest mountain, called Aoraki in Maori language which means "The Cloudpiercer"), as always wrathed in clouds.

Mt Cook begind Lake Tekapo

For dinner we had hot Nachos with bean sauce (another food I had never eaten before I came to NZ, but it's great !) and straight afterwards I studied for my Maths Exam in my workbook. Being the only one here to write exams I got a few awkward looks, for all the others went reading or going outside.
However, in the evening we had a tour to the St. Johns Observatory. We saw NZ's largest telescope, watched a beautiful sunset and got to see stars although it was still light and you couldn't see any without telescope ! It was just AMAZING, the colourful dancing stars and star clusters, Mars, Oreon, the Southern Cross... and then we put our cameras on a telescope and zoomed in on the moon !
When we were back at the hostel we still didn't have enough so a few  of us went down to the lake shore with our sleeping bags and watched the bright stars till midnight. I almost fell asleep down there and didn't see any of the shooting stars...

The next morning we had 1 hour in town and whilst it was raining in Christchurch we had a lot of sun down here !
We went to the beach with rented kayaks where I started a fun water war. I knew this place, because I had been here at my south island trip. It was still great !
In the evening most of the others watched a movie, but I didn't like it so I went to study and read my book as reward after each page of exercises.
Mrs Brodie gave her baby bunny (called Fluffybum) to its new owners. What a shame, he is so cute and... fluffy !
Our group left the hostel at 9am and so the long drive to Wanaka began. A bit later we walked up to a glacier lake (more than 2h). After a short break we started back down again. Mr Smythe even raced me on the last bit ! We were pretty much the same speed. That was fun ! He wanted to take Kata, Alina and me tramping because we were the fastest (and youngest), but we won't have a lot of time left to do that now.

Aoraki, Mt. Cook

Katarina and Alina

a break of walking

To relax we watched 3 short movies about Mt. Cook, the stars and Primeval NZ at the Sir Edmund Hillary Centre. Did you for example know, that even Kiwis, Moas and many other New Zealand animals originally came from Australia ? Sad, isn't it ?
And now, here is another example of the friendliness of the Kiwi's: This evening I finished my book, "Daughters of Fire", and it was so sad that I cried a little bit. Now a woman who sat across from me simply came and hugged me.
I thought that was so cute !!!
After that I went on studying till 11pm.
On friday we all had to wake up at 6am to reach the tiny Mt. Cook village at about 9am. Once there we did a little walk to the Tasman glacier lake (biggest glacier in NZ) and went on a little boat to see (and eat) icebergs. That was cool, a bit like jetboating.

an iceberg

the glacier

In Christchurch we arrived at 4pm the same day (and found 2 caches on the way). At home Kata and I repacked for the christmas sleepover with our friends (called the "Spot") where we had a lot of fun with our secret santa and movies like "The lucky One" and "Snowwhite and the Huntsman". I went to bed at 1am and was still one of the firsts ! And the last to wake up at 9am...
That was my last journey around middle-earth although I still had a lot to do in the next days... in Christchurch and region.

Exams and for recovery to Edoras

The days of sleeping in and merely preparing stuff are over now the End of Year Exams begin.
I woke up at 7.30am that morning and because I still had 20min before I had to go to school I studied. Only a brief last minute study, what I hadn't learned in the last weeks I wouldn't get into my brain now, but it helped to calm me down a bit, feeling slightly more prepared.
Leaving my bag at the Intern. Dep. to not get into trouble I arrived at the gym at 10 to 9am where I met Ciara and my other friends. Once inside everyone was assigned a specific seat (The gym was full of desks, in orderly rows, to me it looked a bit like Hogwarts ! The organisation here is fascinating.).
The supervisors (teachers from other schools) repeated every rule (not allowed to leave in first 45minutes...) and then, finally, my Year 12 English Exam started at 9.30am. There were 3 whole hours to go but that still wasn't enough time for 3 papers ! We had to write an analysis of the 2 short stories (The Garden Party and The Doll's House, both by Kathrin Mansfield, for which we had prepared in class) and of either a movie (Lars and the Real Girl) or a novel (The Kite Runner) or a long poem (My Last Duchess). The third part was to analyse 3 items of unfamiliar text. Can you understand now why 3 hours are not enough for all that ?
After my exams I had my termly Interview with one of the International staff before I went home to be the babysitter of the day: looking after and playing with Beth Mikado, Domino and Puzzle whilst Tim is sitting with the sleeping Julia.
I really liked that !
At Sumner Beach the following day 16 international students plus Mrs Brodie and her son and 3 guides dressed up in wetsuits to go surfing.
First we had to learn how to "stand up" on the grass, quite hard ! At least it was a hot and sunny day although the sea proved to be veeery cold.
A 2h surf lesson followed where the instructors helped us getting good waves, but only 3 times I caught one on my own and surfed up to the beach on my board. The problem: When I had actually caught a wave I was so surprised that I forgot to stand up! I only got onto my knees before I was at the shore...
The time went by so fast !!!
After an hour Lunch with hot chips we got another hour to try to surf on our own. I still didn't get to stand up, but some people did and it looked like fun !
We had to head back at 2.30pm and again I enjoyed playing with the kids, climb our tree, jump on the trampoline, try a headstand...
The whole day I kept feeling the waves below me.
I have to try to surf again someday !

Upps, who is falling there ?

On Thursday the 15th of November 2012 I arrived a little late at school because it had taken me longer than expected to make myself the familiar Legolas hairstyle. Additionally I wore my green long elven-dress and Lisa's black cape because today the international end of year trip was going to visit Erewhon and climb Mt Sunday, the exact location where Edoras and the golden hall of King Theoden of the Rohirrim (the Lord of the Rings 2) was build.
Why did the students all want a picture with me ?
It took quite some time to drive out there, but at last we reached the Lakes Camp and Clearwater and our jeep entered Edoras (Rohan). I had been there before with the Mitchells, but this time we drove even further until we parked right at the bottom of the "small rocky outcrop in a valley surrounded on nearly all sides by craggy mountains, wrathed in mist and in sight of the silver streams".
So we climbed Mt Sunday and ejoyed the scenery. The only proof that the set was here was a nail in the ground and a hole where the buildings were tied to the rock to not be blown away!
Our guide gave us a few background information about where the actors were standing... (I stood at exactly the place where Eowyn looked down to see Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimly arriving.
And the whole time we carried some props, first I had Strider's sword then the huge and heavy Anduril because no one else wanted to carry them around... they also had Theoden's sword and Gimli's axe.
Our bus driver was very nice and I even taught him some elvish! We aslo found a geocache. Well, actually he showed us where it was because we had no GPS.
This beautiful afternoon ended with delicious ice cream before we got back to school at 5.
AMAZING !!! By the way, we were away with Hassle Free Tours, if anyone is interested...

 Mt. Sunday in the valley

with Strider's sword ready to fight

You shall not pass !!!

Orc attack

Anduril (Aragorn's sword) as Excalibur

Theoden's sword

Gimli's axe, so heavy !

the only nail in the ground...

in the same position as Eowyn...

And here she is. Recognize the grey Evenstar-like shape above our heads ?

I call upon thee, first light.

Doesn't our guide look just like Gimli ?

Stranger, beware !

On Friday I helped the adults building (even Julia hammered a few nails !) and then painted farewell gifts. Theo came in the evening for Tim's help with Maths and I joined them.

The same on saturday.

On sunday we started pouring the concrete which was actually quite fun. The Fort is almost finished !
Afterwards I packed a parcel, but it weighed 13.8kg without shoes or clothes so that could be a bit expensive.
Ok, a 2nd suitcase it definitely is then.

On monday the internationals went on a trip again, but this time our destination were the Sheepwash Falls
(or how were they called ?).

After a short walk through the forest we reached the cliff we were supposed to abseil down from. 35 metres with overhang !
I wasn't afraid (I had done things like that a few times already and a lot higher), but I didn't really trust their security system without the little ropes for self-abseiling and they just held the other rope loose in their fingers instead of tied to their harnis like we had learned to do it in Outdoor Education. There wasn't even a knot at the end of it !
Well, I did it like I think everyone else as well eventually, but it HURT so I didn't do it again.
Much later in the afternoon in my singing lesson I prepared for the SMP recital on saturday.