AROUND CHRISTMAS

Hello to everybody!

How are you going? I am going very well, very excited for Christmas.

Singing carols

Did you know that I have already been to three Christmas parties? The 9th of December I went to one with my neighbor, Janet, at her Church. It was very nice, we played I game that was completely new for me: "White Elephant." We have to give the most awful presents that we have at home. The present that I got was pretty nice thought. We went caroling too. It is singing Christmas songs to people's houses. I do not sing well at all, but it was fun. Here I am leaving a picture of it.

The Exchange Students

The 14th of December I started the midterms. What are the midterms? The super scary exams that we have to take at the end of the first semester. You may not believe me, but they are difficult. I studied a lot!

The 15th, Saturday, I went to my second party! It was with all the other exchange students, at the house were Augusto (from Brazil) lives. It was so much fun, I laughed a lot with my friends. Now I can say that I have friends from Germany, Italy, Ecuador, Brazil, China, Tailand, Korea, Russia, Denmark, France, Colombia, Venezuela... and, of course, the United States! Wow! It sounds amazing, doesn't it? We are going to go ice-skating the 5th of January (probably) so I am going to see them again. They are all so nice! Here I am leaving you a picture of all of us. Enjoy it! (We are not even all of us, we are really a lot!)






What else, what else...? Well, I had such a stressful week last week! Seriously! I studied so much. However, I think I did well the midterms. I already have the marks of two of my subjects, Contemporary Literature and Honor Pre-Calculus (Math) and I had in both a 99%!

Serena, me, Bernadette, and Sarah!

On Wednesday we finished school and I was thinking: finally! I finally can sleep! Yesterday I slept twelve hours during the night, what do you think of that? Well, on Thursday do you know what I did? I went to my first sleepover! My first American sleepover! It was in Bernadette's house, one of my friends, and at first we had a party (my third) during the afternoon. It was great, I had a lot of fun with my friends. Thanks, Bernadette! Here I am leaving you a picture of my friends and me at... two in the morning! Don't we look great for that time?



The last thing... Today, Sunday, it is Saint Victoria's Day. Happy Saint, Victorias! Well, today we went to Karen and Craig's house (Karen is Don's sister) to have a Christmas dinner there before Christmas. It was very nice, I really liked them. I ate so many desserts! You know, American people make cookies and goodies for Christmas (like in the films!). I helped Lynne making them and then, of course, I helped eating them!

Prezettes at the Concert

I almost forget! Presentation Academy offered a Christmas Concert in the start of December, and I did not tell you about that. It was very awesome, moving and exciting in the same time. My sister, Meredith, has a wonderful voice. She is a Prezette, what means that she is one of the best singers at school. Here I am leaving a picture of the Prezettes at the Concert. I absolutely loved it!




Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and then it is Christmas Day. I hope that everybody has a great Christmas!

See you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!

THANKSGIVING AND THE TOWER

Hello to everybody!

Here I am again! I am sorry! Where you missing me? I had some very, very busy weeks!

Two Saturdays ago I went to watch Twilight with Riley and her mom and on Sunday I worked Open House. What is Open House? It is a day at school that we have to receive people from other schools and show them about Pres, give them a tour around the school and explain to them what we do. When the four hours of work was finished, I was feeling exhausted!

On Monday and Tuesday we had class (well, on Tuesday it was the grandparents day and we had a liturgy), but on Wednesday the Thanksgiving Break started! That day I did not do much, we had a little Thanksgiving dinner for Ellie, my oldest host-sister, because the true Thanksgiving Day, on Thursday, she had to work.

All of us at Rainforest Café

On Thursday we went to Karen's (Don's sister) house to have the Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious! I ate a lot. It is exactly like in the films, with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. And... a lot of desserts! I love desserts! Lynne made them and they were awesome!

On Friday it was Black Friday, with great sales. The mall was crowded, I went there with Riley, then I went to Riley's house to help decorate their tree. It was very pretty!

And do you know what I did last weekend? I went to Nashville! Yes, Nashville, the capital of Tennessee! Can you believe that? It is awesome! I really loved it, it was fantastic! We went there on Saturday morning, to a hotel that was so big and with a lot of gardens. Then we went shopping to a huge mall, and then we went to see the Rockettes! Yes, cabaret! Before that, we had dinner in the jungle! The Rainforest Café! Seriously, sometimes it was so real that it was scary (you have to ask Mere, I was sitting next to her and a couple of times I was jumping because of the noises the tigers made). However, I loved it so much, it was very nice. Here I am leaving a photo of it. You will like it!

My friends, Santa and I at Light Up the Tower

Finally, last weekend I did not do much, it had been such a busy week! On Sunday I went to Light Up the Tower, a kind of party that takes place at Pres (and they light up Pres’ Tower). I had fun, I was there with my friends. Then I went with my friend Morgen to the cinema to see a film for an assignment in History, Lincoln.

Now I want to share this thought with everybody: in Spain we do not have Thanksgiving, which is a pure American holiday. But… do you know what? I really found a lot of things to be thankful for:

Thank you to my host family for being here with me, sharing all those wonderful moments.

Thank you to my parents, that allowed me to live this dream and are with me even when they are four thousand miles away.

Thank you to my siblings, Victoria, Alberto, and Meredith, because they are fantastic and I would not know what to do without them.

Thank you to Pres, because it is a great school with all my friends and teachers there.

Thank you to all my family and all my friends back in Spain, because they support me with their love even if they do not realize they are doing so.

And finally thank you to the Foundations Barrié and Amancio Ortega, because they gave me the opportunity to live this amazing American year.

Thank you to all of you for making me like I am now. I wish to everybody a wonderful year full of happiness, love, and peace.

See you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!