maandag 28 februari 2011

MOAPA VALLEY PIRATES STATE CHAMPIONS!

I am from the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, we play soccer. Soccer and field hockey. We play some more sports, but that's about it. I think there are like 2 basketball teams in the whole country. I don't know anything about basketball. I don't get basketball, it confuses me. However, I like to watch basketball. And I've been watching a lot of basketball here. And altough I don't know a lot about it, I knew our team was pretty good.

Last Friday and Saturday, our varsity boys team has been playing for State Championship. So did our Football team, but we lost.. I was pretty nervous this time, but guess what? WE BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THEM!

I went to both games and had a blast. Especially the one on Saturday was legit. The game was in the Orleans arena, Las Vegas. It was huge. Which was pretty cool, even though our little school didn't quite fill up all the chairs, and neither did the other school, since they were from a place 8 hours away (yes, that's what they do here in America. They drive.). It was pretty cool, still.

Both schools had brought their basketball teams, cheer squads, dance teams and bands. It was like a social war. We did not only share the same school colors (YEAH BLUE AND GOLD), we also happened to share the same fight song (Dutchies; a fight song is a song the band plays all the time, to which the audience is supposed to stand up, clap, sing and get all exciited. Like Wilhelmus, but a little more up-beat..). It was like Battle of the Bands. Ours won. AND SO DID OUR BASKETBALL TEAM!

You should have seen the spirit. It reminded me of that day in 2010 the Netherlands beat Brasil in the soccer world cup. It was nuts, but so much fun. I wish I could share this year with all of you. 'Cause you probably don't want to hear this and I'm going to be pretty rude about this, and don't take it personal because it doesn't go for some of you, but trust me, your life is pretty freaking boring. SO GET OFF YOUR BUT AND DO SOMETHING EXCITING! Just a little advice. I am glad I did.

I do have one way to share this experience. They are pictures but I really am too lazy to get my SD card. Maybe tomorrow. Ha.

Viva la vidaaaaaa

See ya!

donderdag 24 februari 2011

woensdag 23 februari 2011

Brian Head!

This might become a very long post, because I'm sitting right now and to be perfectly honest I seriously doubt I will ever get up again. My entire body hurts and that has a reason. For the past two days, Monday 21 and Tuesday 22, I have been at Brian Head, Utah, to snowboard.
What? Cille? Snowboarding? Yes, that's right. It was my first time on anything like ski's or snowboards. It surprised people, because I am from Europe and in Europe it's cold. I don't remember for how many times I have explained that the Netherlands is flat, and my parents are just not the right people to do something cold, intensive and slightly dangerous. So, my firsr time, at sixteen years old. It came with a lot of falling. A lot lot lot of falling. But let's start at the very beginning. *A very good place to start.*

(Now, that song will stay in my head for the rest of the day. Great.)


On Monday morning, President's Day (read; another free day in tha U S A !), we left the small town of Logandale. The drive up to Brian Head took about two to three hours. When we arrived we (fyi, 'we' is a group of 9 foreign exchange students) got out of the car and started walking to the snowboard rental place. I started feeling pretty dizzy. Altitude. We were up 10,000 feet. Now I don't know how much that is in meters but trust me, it's high. When we walked inside it started getting worse. Eventually I decided to run off to the bathroom and nearly passed out. Great start of the day. I was given some Gatorade and taken to the Ski patrol to put me on some oxygen. After about 10 or 15 minutes of breathing straight oxygen, I was free to go again. I felt great. I don't know whether it was the oxygen that did it, or the looks of the guy who gave it to me, but I felt good again. I went off and got my snowboard and boots and immediately went outside, because my lessen had already begun.
My snowboard instructor was pretty good-looking too. So was one of the guys in my group, and pretty much every other guy around. I felt lucky. Haha. Anyway, snowboarding. I sucked so bad in the beginning, you have no idea. I fell all the time, couldn't even stand up on the thing. Getting off the lift was terrible. Everything hurt and I hated everything and everyone. I am the kind of person who gets really mad when something's not going perfect. When it was lunch time I threw my board in the powder snow by the side of the piste and went inside. I considered doing skiing but didn't want to give up (read; wanted to go back to my snowboard instructor). So, brave as I was, I ate lunch, grabbed my board, and went back on the bunny hill.
Surpisingly, I got off the lift without falling. I did a whole lot without falling. Everything suddenly went how I wanted it to go. My instructor was proud of me too and I suddenly loved snowboarding. After my lessons were over, I went off the bunny hill (which wasn't really a bunny hill.. it was pretty dang scary if you ask me) a few more times and at 4.30, the lift closed and we went off to our hotel.
The hotel was a lot nicer than I expected. It had a pool, a hottub, a bar, a really fancy restaurant, and a lot of other stuff. We ordered pizza in our room, watched tv, talked a lot and had a great time. Sleeping didn't go that great. We tried, but half the people in the room had a cold and couldn't breathe through their nose, didn't like the bed or the pillows, it was too warm or too cold so the ac went on and off, and well, I didn't sleep for longer than 30 minutes straight, I kept on waking up.

So you understand that when the alarm went off the next morning, I yelled some bad words inside of my head. My body hurt and I wanted to sleep. But I got up anyway and we went back to the piste. No lesson that day, so I went off the bunny hill with the whole group, after which Caro took me on another hill.
The lift went up really high and I was really scared, because there was NOTHING to protect you. I could've easily given Caro a little push and she would have been dead. It was worth it, though. The view from up there was amazing.
We went down a few times, ate lunch, after that I did some more boarding with Ploy and Sarah (Caro had gone and joined the group of people of people who actually KNEW what they were doing. I couldn't blame her..) and I did better every time. I did some major falling still, but I did better.
At the very end of the day I managed to get off without falling once. Now it was a pretty long way so I did sit down, but on purpose! I was so proud of myself..

At 4 p.m., half an our before the lifts would stop, I was left alone and my body was totally done. My head still wanted to go go go, but my legs said no and collapsed every time I tried to stand on them. So I went inside, turned in my stuff and got changed. I bought a Starbucks coffee, and sat.

And now, everything hurts. I feel pretty sorry for myself. But everything was worth it! I love snowboarding, I love snowboarders, I love snowboards. I still hate snow. But I had a blast!

I will post some pictures in here. I'm still waiting for a lot of pictures, though, so I will post those later if they're worth posting.

Love,

Cille

dinsdag 15 februari 2011

maandag 14 februari 2011

Half of my heart

Half of my heart's got a real good imagination
Half of my heart's got you
Half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you
That half of my heart won't do

Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring
And half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything

John Mayer - Half of my heart

vrijdag 11 februari 2011

Track & Field

After soccer season was over and I didn't make the basketball team, I decided I was done for a little while. Done with 2 hours of practice every single day, done with always having to watch what I'd eat, drink, or did, and done with the competitiveness of America. Using other words; I was lazy. And oh, I've been lazy. For about three months I have been sitting on my but and last week I finally got off!

In a few weeks, the last sport season is about to start. The basketball teams and wrestlers are playing their last games/matches and conditioning for softball, baseball, and track&field have started. For a little while I've been wanting to try out for softball and I was planning on going to the conditioning to check out if I would like it. Then, however, I started thinking about how I used to play softball/baseball in P.E. pretty much every other week and how I didn't like it at ALL. Also, I remembered that I sucked at it big time. I figured the only reason that I wanted to try out for softball was to be part of a team, but all the track people claimed that track was as much as a team and that the meetings were so much fun.. And since I really, really need to get in shape before I go home, I decided just to do track.

So there I was last wednesday, on the track of our High School. I wasn't very excited at first, to be honest. Of all the things you could possibly do in track, I decided to run. Basically because.. do you see me high jumping or throwing something heavy? Nope. So there we went, we started running. After two warm-up laps we left the track and ran in the desert, where we ran up and down a hill on a sand path with annoying obnoxious rocks. The American kids did great. The exchangers? Not so. After practice, everything hurt, and when I woke up everything was even worse. Yesterday (thursday), I went again and now I hurt even more. The only thing that keeps me going is the memory of the beginning of soccer season. That hurt even more. So coming weekend I will (hopefully) work out to get ready for conditioning next Tuesday again, because I really want to do this. And I better get used to it before the temperature outside will rise to 45 or 50 degrees celcius again. 'Cause believe me, that doesn't make running any easier. Neither does the fact that I was really never made to be an athlete.. Thanks mom & dad. BUT I WILL KEEP ON FIGHTINNNNN! Go team.

maandag 7 februari 2011

When you know it's worth it

'Cil, I miss you' in my offline messages from one of my closest friends I haven't spoken to in way too long. Just those words, not any less, not any more. And that's it. That's when you know everything is worth it. Now I'm so far away, such a small thing can mean so much.. Thank you. I love you.

zondag 6 februari 2011

maandag 31 januari 2011

vrijdag 28 januari 2011

“My friends call me Keith, but you can call me John.”

-Keith Moon



Most people say he was naive and reckless. I kind of agree in a way, but I guess the world needs people like this. A legend never to be forgotten. :)

donderdag 27 januari 2011

Second semester kick-off

In America, a school year in divided into two semesters, which are both divided into two quarters. After a quarter you get your quarter grade but nothing much happens, but after the first semester, it is almost like a new year starting. You get final exams about all that you've learned that semester, you can change your whole schedule if you feel like it, and some people even graduate halfway through the year.

On one hand I was really excited to go in the second semester, change some classes and just do something different again. On the other hand, however, I'm freaking out. We're in the second half now, basketball season is almost over which means that we're almost switching to the third and last sports season and there are so many more things to do before I go home! It just seems to get so much closer, and the feelings I have about leaving are so double, I don't know haha.

Anyway, back to subject. I did some major schedule changing! I changed to a different photograpy class, dropped out of Drawing and got in Encore Choir. I changed Geoscience to Biology and got in a different Spanish 1 class. I'm starting off both blue and gold days with either mixed choir or encore choir now, which is so chill, and my second period is either photography or orchestra, which gives me some time to wake up. I love my new schedule!

The conditioning for track started this week and conditioning for Softball will start in February. I decided to try both and see what will happen. I really want to do softball so I can be on a time, but they're doing try-outs and I've heard they are actuallt cutting people, so if that doesn't work out I will just run in Track. I'm excited to finally do a sport again.

Well that was it for today, I guess. See you later!

x

zaterdag 22 januari 2011

Beethoven 2.0

The composition I tried to write for my Orchestra semester exam.. Got some talent huh? Nice try.

donderdag 20 januari 2011

What a day for a daydream

And even if time is passing me by a lot
I couldn't care less about the dues you say I got
Tomorrow I'll pay the dues for dropping my load
A pie in the face for being a sleepy bull toad

And you can be sure that if you're feeling right
A daydream will last long into the night
Tomorrow at breakfast you may prick up your ears
Or you may be daydreaming for a thousand years

What a day for a daydream

Lovin' Spoonful - Daydream



woensdag 19 januari 2011

maandag 17 januari 2011

Fourwheeler ride at Red rock!




Holidays

January 17th, 2011.. For some reason I feel there is something I have to say.. Oh, I remember. HAPPY NEW YEAR! And merry christmas, too. Don't you love my lazyness? It's so far away that I don't even really feel like writing about it anymore, but I guess I'll have to, and when I do so, I can finally move on with my blog again. So there we go.

CHRISTMAS was amazing. I had never really celebrated christmas and really, Dutch people, there is no reason to celebrate Sinterklaas anymore.
On christmas eve we had a family dinner. After that we sang Christmas carols and Linda took Caro and me for a ride through the valley. You should have seen it. Almost every single house was decorated with crazy lights and signs. I had never seen something like that before! Back home, almost every kind of outside decoration is kitch, and whatever would be considered 'super-kitch' back home, was 'boring' here. For a few weeks I believe this valley had more lights than Las Vegas.



The next morning when I woke up, I felt like a little kid. I was actually nervous! It was christmas day and I had no idea of what to expect. We went out in the living room and my stocking was completely filled up! Oh, almost forgot about it - stocking! I had my own sock with my name written on it. I thought that was something they only did in movies but I was wrong. On christmas day, 'Santa' had completely filled it with candy and gifts. We ate Cinamon Rolls for breakfast. After that, we got all the gifts from under the christmas tree and started opening them up. I got so much more than I thought I was going to get! One of the gifst I got was a scrapbooking kit. Now I have no excuses anymore, I'll have to start. I actually already did so people back home, get excited, I will actually have something to show when I get back!
After we opened our gifts, we went over to Richard and Jackie's to see what they got for Christmas. Soon after that we went back home and all the family came over. We had a big dinner (at lunch time) and after that we went over to Jackie and Richard's again to watch a movie. Here, there was no such thing as 2nd Christmas day. Too bad. Anyway, I simply had the best Christmas I've ever had! Thanks to everybody who made that happen!

Not a long time after Christmas it was already time to get ready for 2011. In the Netherlands, New Year's is huge. Everybody just goes through Christmas because they have to, it seems, but what they're really looking forward to is New Year's Eve. A lot of family, a lot of food, champagne, fireworks, and parties. It's the biggest celebration of the year. I've always loved it.

Here, however, people described New Year's Eve as 'just another day'. Didn't sound too exciting, so I wasn't as excited as I used to be. At 3 p.m., when it turned midnight in Europe, I skyped with my parents. They took the laptop outside and showed me the fireworks. I wished my neigbours a happy new year and I actually really missed being there. I knew I wasn't going to see any fireworks here.
Around 6, I went to Blake's, where we got dressed up as if we were in Europe, had alcohol-free champagne (but not in a popping bottle.. bummer.) and got ready for the Church dance. We decided we would just make it as much fun as possible.
We arrived at the Stake center and found everybody wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I felt extremely overdressed and took my heels of and refused to take my jacket of. There was music, but quiet enough to be able to understand each other as if you were having a normal conversation. There was dancing, but it was more tapping your foot

to the rhythm. There were people, but not quite enough to fill up the gym, so it was kind of awkward. And there were snacks, but those were cookies, orange juice, and milk. I'm not saying anything to make those people feel bad or anything, and I'm sure I would have had a lot of fun if I knew what I was expecting. I obviously didn't. The dance was fun, it was just nothing like new year's back home. And although I know that I am here to experience something NEW, it just made me feel a little homesick.
A little before twelve we went back to Blake's and watched Las Vegas' new years on TV. They had fireworks, it looked amazing. However, they didn't count down, so the whole 'happy new year' moment when you go up to everybody around you, hug and kiss, all the awkward moments when the grown ups come up to you, hold your head in both their hands and wish you 'all the best for the new year' and stuff, you know what I'm talking about if you're from Holland, got a little awkward, because everybody had to check their phones or clocks to see whether it was 2010 or 2011.. but I got a few good new years hugs after all and the rest of the night was fun.

And here I am, 2011.. Ever since it is 2011 the countown has started and it's freaking me out.

January 17th, 2011. Today, it's exactly six months ago since I left Amsterdam airport. Six months - read ; half a year! I can remember leaving as if it was yesterday and I can't believe it's going so fast. I have 5 months left and have a lot of blog-catching-up to do before I go back home.. So keep checking this out!

Peace, love, whatever they say. See you later aligator. I miss you all!
Cille