First Day of SNOW!!

Just watch the video..
Haha (^_^)

.dhila is excited and is waiting for the snow day when snow is really thick and she doesn't have to go to school!.

Transcendentalism

This is the piece the I wrote for my creative writing class; on transcendentalism. I just wanna share and don't hesitate to criticize!

The rocky hills, broken twigs and shattered autumn leaves. The cold, chilly mountain breeze. Dark white clouds hanging over the sky. As I reach the top, I stood at the edge of the mountain, on a big rock, look over what’s surrounding me. Lakes that run through the hills, colored hills and mountains, green, red, orange and brown. The sun didn’t dare to shine. Memories poured into my consciousness as I open my violet book and write…

Quiet…
Leaves crackled
As the wind whispered
The trees wrapped me up
Taking me deep..deep..inside them

Thousands of years has these trees lives
Guarding the soil
Of our land
Alive, they are!
And so am I

Dear Millie
I’m here to let you know
That I’m safe and sound
Here I am
After our last hike together
Five years ago

God is looking after you, I believe…
After all of us
Never thought you’d get to see him first
Though in every sway of the trees
I could feel you

Here…
On the mountain side

I'm a Mountain Climber!

Mt Arab sounded very....middle eastern type of mountain, though it doesn't have anything to do with Arab. Why did they name it Mt Arab??
Mt Arab is located in Adirondack. It's one of those mountains that are popular for its views. In the Northern Country, there are still a wide range of trees and forest that are seriously beautiful. Just amazing. We then climbed up the mountain. It was a half hour hike. Well, for me probably more than half hour. lol. I'm kinda bad at hiking. I felt like I just wanted to fly to the top of the mountain! I was so tired. My creative writing class and Mrs Moreau's English class went there for a field trip. What we did was pretty interesting, in my opinion. Tiring too.
We'd been talking and working on transcendental writing, such as Terry Tempest Williams. It's a piece of writing, can be a poem or a story, that is based on nature and philosophy. Like the one Terry wrote, "The Country of Grasses", a beautiful piece. Transcendentalism is usually a "deep" kind of writing. People who can see themselves in nature and connects that with the existence of god.

So, in the effort of getting that "deep" feeling and thoughts, we had to hike this mountain, which I did with my fullest effort, and describe what we see on a piece of paper to turn it into a masterpiece. Tell you what? It was worth a hike! I have never seen such a beautiful scenery! The weather was chilly at the top, but everything else was just perfect!

Olivia writing her piece at the top of the mountain.

I didn't get the chance to write there, I was too busy taking pictures and eating. haha...But I'm working on it. In fact, I'm halfway through.
I just love it when I do descriptive writing!

After that, we climbed down the mountain, hopped on the bus and went to The Wild Centre! it's basically a museum on the wildlife creatures. It was fun. not very much to see, it's a small museum, but just enough to learn about the creatures in the northern country. I saw sea otters, different kinds of turtles (cute ones) and fish and bears and birds. I watched a movie on the global warming, how a long time ago, Adirondack was covered with ice. Thick ice like those in the Arctic. Now, it's still a beautiful place, so I don't think it's something to be regretted. lol. What a beutiful day!!

It was a whole day field trip. I really had fun. But I was really tired! No kidding!
But obviously, field trip is something I'm always looking forward to. This one is my first one since I've been here. I'm really thankful that I', living in a country right now. These things are rare back where I live!

Powder Puff Girls and Homecoming dance

Powder Puff Girls are not those green, orange and yellow little flying girls that save the planet, lol! They are the Juniors VS Seniors Girls Football Game last friday! Haha! It was kinda awkward, I think. But fun too. I don't like the name, though..Too girly. Well, despite the fact that a football injured me in Gym class, not that I am good at it either (Like I will ever be!) I wasn't in it. So, I just watched, which turned out to be really boring.
In this video, the girls who are in yellows are juniors, and hose in blacks are seniors. And that funny looking bear is our school mascot. The Golden Bear! Yeah!
Guess who won? The Seniors! (Not that I care.)

Anyway, after the game, we all went home. End of story.

The next day, Saturday, we prepared for the homecoming dance. Now, this is another American culture. I would say very American. After the last game of football is over, end of season, they have this dance at school. Which is called the homecoming dance. When I think about it, the name doesn't make any sense at all.
So, my friend, Lindsey, invited me and other exchange students in our area to come over to her house for the dance preparation and spend the night. And we did.
There were Lindsey, Kate, Spencer, Pat, Me, Cartoon, Pasca and Mohsina. And of course Lindsey's mum and her 3 little sister (they are very cute).
We had dinner together. Us, the foreigners cooked the dishes from our countries, and also them, the American. haha...pretty interesting. Kate made a dessert, death by chocolate! Oh, it was my favourite!
We then prepared dressing up. Lindsey lent me her dress, which I loved very much because it was blue, my favorite color, well apart from any others, and her shoes which matched the dress. Guess who did my hair?! Trudy, Lindsey's mum! She was very nice, I wasn't going to do anything with my hair, because I never do anything to it. She was great. With all these hair pins, combs, curler, hairspray, in almost half an hour or less, ta daa...! voila!
I was impressed, myself. haha..

So, we took lots of pictures and off we go to the dance. Pat drove the car (the guy in the green shirt) and we danced, basically. And that's it!! Loud musics, dresses, guys and girls and friends, whatever. We had fun. My feet hurts from all the dancing and jumping around and the high heels! aaghh! Although, I took my high heels off when I dance, but still. Apart from meeting friends and having fun with them, homecoming dance is basically just a place where you can go crazy!!
We got back almost midnight and I was exhausted! We all slept in the living room. I slept on the sofa. I didn't sleep until about 2 in the morning. We watched the Bee Movie and James Bond. I was totally dead that I wasn't really watching them.
That's it. Now I know what homecoming is. And there's gonna be a lot more dances to come! They have around 7 different dance each year. But basically, I get the idea. They really do work hard and party hard here!

Tomorrow, is field trip day!! Yeeaaayy!! We're gonna go hiking for our Nature Writing! What can be more fun than that?! Enjoy the nature and write! We're gonna spend the whole day! So, I won't study tomorrow at school. I just hope it won't be a long, high gike. My legs still hurt. I don't care. Who cares? haha..

AFS Orientation-Camp Wabasso, NY

the cute cartoon character.

Moi, et Pauline. Elle est Francaise!

Everybody's waiting for a day in the sun!! Everybody's working hard to have some fun!



The 4th and 5th of October were the best time I had since I've been here! For the second time, I met my AFS friends from other Asian countries and European. There were 18 exchange students that cheered me up. It was really fun. We all stayed for a night, playing, cooking, cleaning, taking pictures, had bonfire. I didn't want to come home. Basically, our activities were nothing special, but I just felt that it's special because I got be together with people that are in the same phase of adaptation as me, so we all feel like a family..
One of the thing that I found out was that, I was not the only one having problems here. They all do. Want to know one of my problem? Making good friends.
It's hard. Because ; first, I've been immersed in an environment where everybody have known everybody else for ages. I always felt like a stranger in the middle of nowhere. Second, this "moving class" thing really drove me crazy. I never get to know my friends that well. Just imagine that, every 45 minutes, I have to change friends! Deal with different people. Luckily, at lunch I always sit with Lindsey, her boyfriend, and the others, so I was not alone.
Seeing that as one of my biggest problem, you might and might not believe it, but it's happening. One may think it's no big deal, wait til you got immersed in a situation like mine! Fortunately, at the camp, where we really exchange experiences and stories, I was not the only one that finds it hard to make good friends! They all have the same problem. Even worse, problems with their host family!
I know I really am experiencing something kinda weird and funny, but also serious. Haha...This is a year where I have to make my own decision, handle my problems and balance my life while I am also being the minority in a small village environment, but never too small. Yeah...I know that. I feel weird, at times when I realize I am alone. That's why the orientation really helped and I just loved it! I love my friends!
Pauline, Kate, Kaja, Irene, Catherine, Pablo, Rex, Dea, Cartoon, Pasca, Gabrielle, everyone of them. I miss them soo much!!