Sign Out and dolphins at St Nicolas

Sign Out Day was on the 5th of December.
I biked to school (we didn't have to wear uniform anymore.
It's so much nicer than walking !) at 8.30am for Assembly.
Later we all went to the Hall and I got the sign-out sheet from Mrs Guerin. Then we had to find all of our teachers to get a signature from them.
I gave them little farewell presents/drawings and there were maaaaaaaany photos, hugs and almost-tears.

so that's me 

Mrs Renaud almost cried... and said I would be one of her best singing students ever !
Mr Hurley said I could add him on facebook now.
I got told that I got excellence for both my compositions now !!! Mr Petch was really impressed with my progress and I was so happy ! So this was the last time for me to enter Burnside High School, my second home on the other side of the world.
No, it won't be the last time. I WILL come back soon !
In the afternoon I watch Aladdin with Beth and Julia play
"A whole new world" on the piano the whole day, I wrote the last set of postcards to Germany and watched a beautiful sunset from the Ford when the church-homegroup came.Furthermore I introduced the Mitchells to the German St Nicolas tradition and made them clean their boots.
And guess what, St Nicolas really came !
I noticed that when I was woken up early by a screaming Julia running through the house to tell everyone that he had been there. It was so cute !
I had given them coloured ironing beads and lollies.

And I got a present as well ! It was packed in a huuuuuuuuuuuuge box with other boxes and newspaper inside. In the midst of all these layers I found a dream: 3 golden Hobbit coins featuring Thorin, some of the other dwarves, Gandalf and Radagast ! So happy !
Ciara came to pick me up at 8.30am and we bussed to Akaroa to swim with dolphins (we had quite a talented singing bus driver). There we had a look around the beach before we arrived at Black Cat Cruises at 11.30am and got our wetsuits.

 

Our ship started out to sea and suddenly they realised a technical problem. So we had to turn around and head back to shore whilst the other boat was already out there in the water. Why do I always have such a bad luck? I mean, it's my 3rd try to swim with dolphins and...
Anyway, luckily, they found and fixed the problem and we could turn around again. We saw some Hector dolphins and were allowed to go into the water twice, but it was so green and milky that we couldn't really see anything then so our snorkel wasn't too helpful.
Somehow I always breathed in salt water through the mask.
Though the dolphins weren't particularly playful they were still super cute and Ciara and I had a lot of fun singing all Bel Canto/Chorale songs in harmony. A dolphin actually leapt out of water when we started !
Back on shore we spend a little time in a cafe and bussed back so that we arrived at Ciara's early evening. She plaited my hair into a 5-strain-plate and I had dinner with her and her dad.
Yeah, that way my Nicolas day.

Family Lunch and Choir Dinner

What's left now is a lot of music practice, reading all through the nights, sleeping in and creating and painting farewell presents. I still had to finish so many things (for example my last violin lesson) !

But on sunday the 2nd of December I woke up at 9.30am and had my breakfast on the newly built Fort with the family before my first host sister picked me up at 11am. For Lunch I was invited to Granny&Pop's (her grandparents) where I met my first host mum Jenny, their little dog Nelly, Em's sister Sarah and the Bushes (their neighbours).
We had a BBQ and a fun garden shower, talked a lot and made group photos. I gave them little presents and the uniform they had lent me and we said goodbye.
After that exciting but sad I got a ride home at 2.30pm. By that time it was so hot I was MELTING ! Like ice in the sunshine...
Lisa called shortly after and I biked to Jelly Park for a short swim with my family. There are fabulously fast slides !!!
In the evening there was a Jam Session at our house. Unfortunately I didn't really know any of the songs in his wee book and there were only chords so I could hardly sightread
on my violin.

If anything else happened? Well, I got a little sick and lost my voice (which is the worst !) so I only had a short singing lesson and on Tuesday we had our final choir dinner at the restaurant La Porchetta. Most of the time I sat and talked with Ciara,
Claire and Maggie. This was probably the saddest farewell so far and so many people came to hug me !
Mrs. Densem even recommended a Bel Canto skyping session.
That would be the best
(although in the middle of the night for me) !

Already I miss everyone so so sooooooooooooo much !!!

with the Ferners and the Bushes

what I painted for Ciara

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.