First month

I'm really sorry that I decided to start writing a blog now. I realized that I can't keep in touch with everyone constantly. Besides, my parents were being approached more and more often and asked how I was doing, so now people get this information from the source. Additionally, it's easier for me to document this year, writing everything down eventually became exhausting. But now let's get to the actual content that you came to this page for:

On Monday, August 28th, 2017, I boarded a plane in Berlin to Frankfurt at 6:45 am and left my hometown behind. Somehow, studying abroad for a year had always been planned and eventually became a big dream. That's why I was really looking forward to this day. In advance, I wasn't nervous at all, I didn't really realize the whole thing.

After about 24 hours of flying and sitting at the airport, I arrived safely at Comox airport. My host family welcomed me there and we immediately went out to eat. My host family consists of my host father, my host mother, my host sister Desiree, and initially another guest student from Hong Kong, more on that later. Desiree is 14 years old and goes to the same school as me. The whole family is artistic and I have no idea why they have me as a guest student, I'm actually the complete opposite. But everyone is really nice and I felt comfortable from the very first second.

The next 2 days were Orientation Days. These were organized by the school district because there are around 200 international students here. Half of them feel like Germans and the other half Asians. Well, not really. There are many nationalities represented here: Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Korea, Switzerland, just to name a few. In connection with that, we also got a school tour. The school district has 3 secondary schools. I go to G. P. Vanier Secondary School in Courtenay. I was told that this school has the best sports programs. The mentioned school tour was a bit disorganized, probably because the school is currently being built and won't be finished for a while. But besides that, I got a good impression.

The rest of the week, we went on trips, got to know the surroundings, and I settled in. We went to Courtenay "Downtown", to Comox Lake, and kayaking.

On Wednesday, September 6th, 2017, school started. After being randomly placed in classes and sitting in Accounting and Comparative Cultures for 3 days, I was able to change my courses on Friday and now have 20th Century World HISTORY, ENGLISH, CHEMISTRY, and THEATER. I have these classes every day until Christmas, just in a different order, "so it doesn't get boring". Yeah right, but my classes are actually okay. Or at least the people are cool.

The volleyball season started on Thursday and since I haven't done anything in a long time, I went to this open training. The try-outs were the following week and it was determined that I'm on the Junior team (9th/10th grade). I'm actually a Senior (11th grade), but since I'm still 15, it's possible. Personally, I prefer it that way because I still need some training. Plus, the girls are really great and I'm looking forward to the season. By the way, tomorrow is my first game!

The following weekend, we went to Victoria with the family. We went shopping and played tourists. The thing is, I would love to buy up all the souvenir shops but then I realize that I live here and will be here for more than 9 months.

On Sunday, we also went to a boarding school on the way back where my host sister had an appointment. She didn't like our school from the beginning and was considering transferring, plus a friend of hers from Hong Kong goes to that boarding school and she wanted to convince her to transfer, which she eventually managed to do. We all didn't really understand her decision and were a bit overwhelmed when she finally moved out the following Tuesday. That was a shock for all of us, of course.

On that Tuesday, I also went to Hornby Island with the ISP to get another orientation. Those were 2 really cool days that we spent with various activities. It was a successful distraction.

The following week, on Tuesday, I had an appointment regarding a volunteer program. I'm very interested in continuing my activities as a gymnastics coach here because I enjoy it and I want to get my coaching certificate in Germany. The woman said they were interested, but so far no one has gotten back to me...

That was a little summary of my experiences so far. In future blog posts, I might go into more detail. Overall, I feel comfortable and settled in. I'm also doing well with English, although I sometimes lack vocabulary. The classes are mostly easy because we've already covered a lot in Germany and we're allowed to use our phones for translation (by the way, there's WiFi throughout the entire school, how awesome is that?). I haven't had any homesickness problems, not at all. In our age, it's also really easy to stay in touch.

That's it for today, have a nice day, yours Elli