Last Week Of School

Hey you all!
Last week was my last week of school before the Christmas break (*yay*) and after 16 weeks of school, it's something I really, really needed.

Wednesday was the Food Sharing Project day, which is apparently kind of like a Christmas tradition at my High School. Every class is assigned a less fortunate family, and each student brings something to fill a box for them, for example food for a turkey dinner on Christmas Day, presents for the children, or just something small to make them have a nice Christmas time. I brought a dozen eggs and some German chocolate, and I hope that our family can enjoy their Christmas break :)

Thursday we made gingerbread men in foods and decorated them with icing and sugar sprinkles. After foods I was allowed to skip English class, my hostdad picked me up and we went to the Holiday Extravaganza at my brother's school. His class was singing "12 days of Christmas", and by now I know it by heart, just as all the other Christmas songs that are played constantly on the radio.
Btw, Frosty the Snowman is my new favourite xD

On Friday was my very last day of school, and actually there isn't much difference between German and Canadian schools regarding the last day before Christmas break:
Running around looking for friends to give them presents, watching movies (Christmas version of Madagascar, Home Alone, the Polar Express...), playing games (les loups garous in French class; we haven't been doing anything else for the last two weeks... somehow, our teacher managed to combine the werewolf game with the use of past tenses).

And of course, OUR Holiday Extravaganza :D
I was so impressed by the school spirit on that day!
The whole school was kinda acting like on a concert. A lot of people were waving their phones during the performances, and cheering really loud, even if someone didn't do so well.

One of my friends was asked by the principal to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and to screw it up on purpose, as an experiment to see how students would react. So she "forgot" the words, but the whole school just started to sing the song for her.

Afterwards the principal told us that it was fake, and the reason for the experiment. He said that there's still a lot of bullying and discrimination at Canadian High Schools, and he wanted to see if this concerns Bayside as well.

Seriously, the schools here have so many programs against bullying and intolerance, but they are still concerned about the issue even though, at least compared to German schools, the kids here are so much more open and tolerant towards each other.

There's no complaining about stupid teachers (at least nothing serious... not more than complaining about too much homework etc.).
Nobody is excluded because of the clothes he wears, the things he likes, or the friends he has.
People can openly say that they like books and join the Book Club, without someone making fun of them. Also, joining the "Gay Straight Alliance" at our school doesn't automatically mean you are gay, but just that you want to do more for the rights of homosexuals and against intolerance in general.
Students with a disability are completely integrated into the school life, and I have never, ever heard anyone joking about them for sitting in a wheel chair or looking different.

I bet that in Germany, people would have at least talked about them being different from the others, but that's not the case here. These students are treated exactly like every one else, and I think I'm actually the first person right now to write about these differences, because basically, in our daily school life, they don't exist. 

Anyways, I just wanted to show you how the issue of bullying and intolerance is treated here compared to German schools, and also that the effort put into such programs can actually change something about the situation.
German schools are definitely not doing enough, or if they are doing something, it's not persistent enough. I think that a good school spirit can actually help solving the problems, but unfortunately this is something that I have only really experienced here, on a Canadian High School.

So, I hope you all have nice Christmas Holidays, I'll write again when they're over :D
Lilly

You know you're missing something...

... when you spend your evenings watching youtube videos of people baking bread O.o

I need bread. Immediatly.
Tomorrow I will check out the Global Food Store, and if they don't have it, I'm going to buy special flour at the Bulk Barn and bake it myself.

Some International Students at my school actually bring "real" bread for lunch ("real" meaning no toast, but still nothing compared to fresh bread from the bakery), but they don't know where their hostfamily buys it.
If I succeed in baking my own bread, I will bring a whole loaf to school. Everyone will be so happy *-* (an exchange student's dream).

Update - this is what I made a few days later:

It was perfect :D Well, not exactly. In fact, I forgot to put salt in the dough xD But still, I enjoyed my bread so much, especially as nobody else really liked it, so I had it ALL for myself :)

Reindeer Hunt 2014

Hello here I am again,
with lots of news:

REINDEER HUNT STARTED TODAY!
 
Some of you might be like "What? Hunting?", but this kind of hunt is actually just a game at my school :D Everybody gets a card with another person's name, and that person gets your name, too. After that you have three days to find your target, follow it, and tag it when it's not looking.
The winners' names land in a box for the next round, and the game will continue during the next three weeks until Christmas break. I think the final winner will get some money and a huge reindeer trophy or so.

Here's the link to a video that explains this year's reindeer hunt a bit more in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUQgdj1PbGQ&feature=youtu.be

If you don't know the person you're supposed to hunt, you can go to the learning commons and pay a quarter to the librarian, who will then print off your target's timetable and yearbook picture. *stalking*

The whole school is going crazy about the game, and you see people hiding under tables, in the washrooms, waiting in front of classrooms for hours, or just running from one place to the other.

I was really excited for reindeer hunt because I think it's an awesome game and it should definitely be brought to German schools. So last week during lunch I spent a huge amount of time working on strategies (like for example spinning around constantly while walking through the school, or wearing sunglasses with mirrors in the edges so you can see in both directions), and this morning I even went to school in my runners and without socks, because people told me that boots are actually the most dangerous thing to wear during the hunt (no fun, with - 4 degrees).

I got the name at the end of period 1 (I didn't know the boy) and while I was still wondering who "Evan" might be, he had already tracked me down and was like "Can I have your clip, please?"
I mean, seriously?? I had prepared myself for hours, and then, five minutes into the game, I was out! xD I didn't even get to walk out of my classroom...
I was a little disappointed by myself, so now I just started to help others catch their reindeer.

Tomorrow I might change my strategy, though, as I saw others randomly walking up to people and clip them when they're not looking, even though they're not their real targets, but it's just funny to see their faces when they think someone got them xD
I'm becoming mean :D

Lilly