21. December 2008

Oh, I just realized that I hadn't updated my blog for quite a while.

PDC: was fuuuuuuuuun! I mean, technically we just arrived, took a pictures, ate, and then we danced for hooooooours! It was soooo much fun. Glenn wasn't that bad a dancer. We had a lot of fun, definitely. Afterwards, we went to Anna Willoughby's house with a couple of other people and ate ice cream. A perfect ending on such a fun night!

The last couple of weeks I have been busy(-ish) with exams.. All last week was dedicated to exams. Of course, people here were completely stressing out about it. I think it was nice, because we didn't have to wake up super early and just.. yeah, go to school.

Monday was history, art and science exams day. Since I don't take those classes (I mean, I take art, but not AP. And only APs have an exam), I took my Chinese exam. It took me like 20 minutes, so it was fairly easy. 

Tuesday was language exams day. I take Chinese AND French, so I chose French that day, and Chinese monday. French was pretty easy too. It was basically just fill-ins, answer questions about a text and write a mini essay. 

Wednesday: English exam.. Oh wow. That did not go well. I stayed up all night on Tuesday to write an essay, that we had to bring to the exam. I think it turned out pretty well. I hope I can get a B on that. Then the exam itself, at school.. ooh. We had some vocab word stuff (we had to know 200 words - words like vitriolic, concomitant, redolent), that I covered pretty well. I got most of them. AND THEN we had 12 quotes from the 5 books we have read this semester, that we were supposed to analyse and write about. I only remembered 2 of them, so I failed pretty much. I just hope that the essay and vocab words can save my grade.. I mean, save me so I don't fail. I don't care if I get a C. I just don't want to fail and get in trouble with AFS.

THEEEEEEEEN: MESSIAH YAY!!!! We had a concert on Thursday night. It was fun. I really, really enjoy singing it. It is sooooo beautiful. Parents, grand-parents, friends, and people like that came. It was rather crowded in McCain (at school. All the buildings have name. And some rooms. McCain is a huge chapel-auditorium). The entire chorus was standing on the stage, very crowded, singing - for 1 hour. It was quite long. Especially when we were waiting for the 4 solos in a row to be over. 

Friday morning, it was all of that over again, but for the school. It was fun again. But I was kind og sad because that was the last time I will probably ever sing the Messiah. Two girls fainted during the concert. It just gets so hot.. So people faint. It looked rather dramatic when this girl just fell forwards, a couple rows. And people just kept singing. I think they're just used to that happening.

So finally, we're on Christmas break. Steve came back from his almost 3 weeks buisness-trip to Texas and Marina & Carolina both cam back from college! The house is full again! Yay!

So the last couple of days I have just been chilling with my awesome host sisters. I sure enjoyed it so far.

Friday, after the Messiah (which was the only thing we came to school for; Christmas service), I went to Goldberg's with Carolina. Goldberg's is a bagel shop right next to school. When I was about to order, this lady came up to me, and it took me a couple of seconds before I recognized her. De Cutshaw was standing in front of me. She said hello and asked me how things were going.. Stuff like that. It was quite scary though since I haven't seen her since I got pulled out of their house. Whatever ;)

So, Christmas is coming.. Break is going to be so much fun! 

This experience just gets better every single day. It's great.

I hope y'all are doing great!

9. December 2008

AFS Christmas party!

Julio, Me, Guy, Carolin, Alessandra, Andy, Taresa & Luisa (Pedro, Oscar & Michael are missing)
PDC (only from the picture party @ Aubrey's house)

Getting a boutenniere on a jacket = not easy.

Getting a corsage on my wrist? Easier.. Haha

Me, Agnes & Glenn


Glenn, me, Aubrey & Marco being silly

All the girls (@ Aubrey's)

Me & Cammie being super cool. Allison being absolutely gorgeous (in the blue dress)

Cammie and me! Yay!

Glenn and me

I hope y'all enjoyed the pictures! I will actually write what happend another day. But it was fun, as you probably can see!

4. December 2008

I just found some picture from Hilton Head, where we went on the chorus trip in September.

I put a red ring around myself in the pictures. 

This is from when we actually sang at the church (what we came for). This is the 9th and 10th grade chorus. 

At the party of the first night. Me in the yellow thingy. 

Chilling at the beach. I the front; Catherine Smith, Bess and Sara Lynn - all from my grade.

Those were the only pictures I could find with myself in them, but if you want to see more pictures from the trip (what it looked like and what some of the students look like), you can see them at: http://westminsterhighschoolchorus.shutterfly.com/

Bye!

3. December 2008

So, since PDC is on sunday, and it is a very big deal, I want to tell you guys about it.

First of all, PDC stands for Pre-Debutante Cotillion, and is a dance they have every year in Atlanta, at different Country Clubs.
There is this tradition called "Debutante" - very southern, very old, and not really practised anymore. Only by some few, very rich people. 
Wikipedia's definition of a Debutante:
A debutante (deb or presentation ball) (from the French débutante, "female beginner") is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal presentation known as her "debut" or "coming out". Originally, it meant the young woman was eligible for marriage, and part of the purpose was to display her to eligible bachelors and their families with a view to marriage within a select upper class circle. This traditional event varies by region, but is typically referred to as a debutante ball if it is for a group of debutantes. A lone debutante might have her own "coming-out party", or she might have a party with a sister or other close relative.

A debutante ball in the United States, is used more often in the South, and some other countries. Debutantes are usually recommended by a distinguished committee or sponsored by an established member of elite society. 

So as said, a debutante is "presented" to the society in those big parties. The girls are normally 16-18, I think. 
So, since they were not really aloud to date before that (in the olden days, I am pretty sure that it isn't that way anymore) they did not know how to act or dance or stuff like that. Therefore, they have the PDCs. So that the girls that are preparing for those debutante dances, can "practise".
In the beginning, only the girls that were actually going to have those fancy Debutante parties were invited, but Westminster protested some years ago, and said that they could invite ALL girls, or no girls at all. So now, all girls get invited.
The tradition is that the girl askes the boy, since she is the one that gets invited to the PDC. Which means, that boys can not go if they don't get asked by a girl.
There is a PDC for every grade (and that includes all school. So only 4 PDC dances a year) - Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior PDC. Of course, the girl can only attend the one for her own grade (the Sophomore in my case - which is by the way pronounced soff'mor'), but a boy can get asked to all four of them.
It is only girls from the private schools of Atlanta that get invited, because the Debutante tradition a upper-class thing, and the upper-class kids mainly are attending one of the private schools. 
The thing is that a ticket is expensive - 240$ for a girl and her date. I mean, since I live in a wealthy society, it isn't a big deal for them, but it was for me.
Anyways, someone got me invited even though I had not paid this ridiculous amount of money. So GREAT! :D


Then, what actually happens:
The tradition is that the girl askes the boy in a very creative way. Most girls just bake a cake and writes "...name of boy.. PDC with ...name of girl.. ?" on it with icing. Something boring like that. Mostely it is because when one girl in the grade askes, the rest of them FREAK OUT and ask immediately the boy they want to ask before somebody else askes him. And then, they don't have the time to come up with something funny, so they just ask, and bring cookies or a cake the next day. Seriously, 80% of the girls asked within 4 days. I am not exaggerating. It really is a big deal. At least in my grade.
Also, a boy can't say no. Unless if he is out of town or doing something else that night.
So some of the more creative ways to ask would be to do it in class - writing it on the board, come to their play/sport/whatever practice and ask, something like that. I even saw a girl doing it during one of the peprallies with the cheerleader squad with big signs saying "PDC? ..and then the boys name..". That was cute!

Then, like for prom, the girls get very excited about it, so they go buy a fancy dress, get their hair and make up done by professionals, get pedi- and manicure, all that kind of stuff to look fabulous. 

The PDC itself is only 3 hours (7-10 pm), and people eat and dance.
But before that, people have picture parties. A girl invites usually 5-10 girls and their dates to their home, where they take a lot of pictures (1 million probably) and kind of "warm up" to the PDC itself. Of course, they invite the girls they hang out with. 
I was invited to a couple (hihi, people love me, they all want me to come! No, I'm just kidding, haha), but I am going to Aubrey's. She got me an invitation to the PDC, so I couldn't say no to her. That would not be nice of me. And I try to be nice. AND I like her! So how great is that?
Sometimes people have after parties. Some of them are harmless, some of them are more hardcore and include drinking (which is a BIGGGG NO-NO here. it really is something that is not accepted at all. And it is illegal - I can not break the law ; AFS rule #2). 
I am going to an after party at Anna Willoughby's house - ice cream eating and chilling. FUN!

So that is pretty much it..

Now, I wrote all of this, because I finally asked!
It was a bit late - since it is on Sunday, but Glenn knew we were going together. I just didn't do it officially.
So, Leigh Ann, Rachel and I dressed up all Christmas-ish (christmas vests with christmas ornaments, santa-hats, big red bows all that kind of stuff), went to the art department of the school and painted 11 signs with one letter each (P D C G L E N N ? -> -> [the two arrows were pointing at me]) in red and green. 
On Wednesday nights, Glenn has a'capella at Westminster, so we decided to take advantage of that. So we took 4 signs each ( only 3 for me, since I had no arrows), stood outside the windows of the Chorus room were they practise, and got someone to make him look out the window. Then Rachel started out with taking the P sign up, Leigh Ann took the D sign up, I took the C sign up, and so on, till we spelled the entire thing. All the boys were laughing and seemed to think it was funny.
Glenn came running out very happy and also surprised. He said that he didn't expect me to do something like that. He thought I just would have made some cookies - something laaaaaame, as he said.
It was very funny! We really had a lot of fun preparing it.
Rosalee took some pictures, so as soon as I get them, I'll post them. We looked ridiculous, so they are rather funny pictures.

So that was PDC info! I thought it was relevant since it is a very important thing here.
I am really excited about it. They all say it is a lot of fun.
I will tell you about it once I actually know. 

I hope y'all are doing well! 

1. December 2008

December is finally here! Yay!

And you know what? It snowed today. How perfect is that?

Actually it was only a little bit, and it didn't stay on the ground at all. But I mean, it's Georgia, snow just doesn't happen here.

We, sadly, started the day with an assembly telling us that a girl, called Monica (I didn't know her) commited suicide over the thanksgiving break. Everyone was quiet, beside the few people crying, and very respectful. There were some very nice speeches about how much they (the Westminster faculty) care about us (the students) and how we were supposed to handle all of this. Even when we were dismissed and walked out, nobody talked. I have never seen that before. 

We just had normal classes afterwards, but everyone was schoked.

Yesterday, we came back from Nebraska, after a 10-hour drive through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally Georgia. We spent the night at a hotel in St. Louis and left in the early morning. 

Anyways; thanksgiving was fun! It's mostely eating and sleeping, but I really enjoyed it.

We arrived to Nebraska on Wednesday (after a 10-hour drive to St. Louis - to get Carolina at her college, a night in St. Louis and a short trip by airplane to Omaha, NE) where Steve's dad picked us up at the airport. We drove for.. an hour I think, before we got to their farm - litterarly in the middle of nowhere, where the rest of the family was. Actually not quite "the rest". Just Steve's mom, his sister and her husband and their 3 kids from Texas.

The rest of the family stayed at Steve's other sister's house, not far from the farm.

Glenn came with us, so he and Carolina were pretty much spending all their time together - which is understandable, since he is still at Westminster and she in college, and they see each other rather.. rarely. So I chilled with Marina. Which was cool. Marina is cool! (So is Carolina!)

On thanksgiving day, we went to Steve's sister's house to celebrate it with the entire family (actually some cousins were missing.. but whatever. Almost then). We played Nintendo Wii, talked, ate, watched football, took naps, ate more, went for walks.. Stuff like that. Pretty chill, but very nice. The food was delicious! Even though I couldn't eat the turkey. I had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, bean casserole, salad, bread and a looooooot of pie!

This weekend is going to be pretty busy! 

I have a rehearsal for a concert (with the chorus) at Holy Spirit (a church) and something planned with Laurie (my new AFS liason) on Saturday.

On Sunday: first I have the concert at Holy Spirit, then I have an AFS christmas party, AND because it is PDC day, I have the picture party and THEN the PDC itself! (Credits to Aubrey for getting me a ticket!). That is a lot on one weekend.. But I'm really excited! PDC is going to be fun! 

And seeing my AFS buddies again - EVEN BETTER!!!! YAY! :D

Oh well, I hope you all enjoy christmas time!