1 month, 157 pictures and a lot to tell

OK, so how do I start a monster post like this? It's been exactly a month since I last made a post and since I was on holiday during that time, a lot has happened. Let's start with the fact that I've been to the cinema twice since the last post. Once to see Dune 2 and once to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Dune 2 was pretty long but also pretty great. Visually spectacular and the story was pretty cool, even though I'd forgotten most of the first film by now. Ghostbusters, on the other hand, was rather mediocre, the film had already received pretty bad reviews, but I found it pretty entertaining. It wasn't good by any means, but it had its moments and you didn't get bored either, the end of the film, on the other hand, was a complete disaster and really not good either, but oh well, it doesn't matter. Now that we've got that out of the way, I can start with the actual story, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible, if I can manage it, of course. Before my birthday, as soon as I know, there is nothing worth telling. But as my birthday got closer, my host parents called me upstairs the evening BEFORE my birthday and we "celebrated" my birthday in advance, because there was school the next day and I didn't have much time. So there was chocolate cake (mom and dad told them that I liked it :) and as a present I got a $20 Tim Hortons gift card (that's a chain of donut shops that are really popular here in Canada). The cake was pretty good too. The next morning I woke up as a 16-year-old and at first nothing was different, I got up as usual, had breakfast (Pepsi and cake, really healthy) and then went to school. There was no singing, no decorations and no presents, so it was a relatively bizarre experience but I knew that everything nice would happen after school (and I got enough nice birthday greetings!) (in total from family, friends and the internet several dozen, if not over a hundred (long story, I'll have to tell you what happened another time, but a post of mine that mentioned my birthday became relatively popular and I received over 100 happy birthday comments 3 days before my birthday)

After school I had a whole checklist to go through. First I took the bus uptown and went to a super expensive high-end chocolate shop and bought a super high-quality 12-pack of caramels for 20 (!!) euros (if not on my birthday then when?). After that I went to the nearest video game shop and bought myself a game as a present and when the cashier found out it was my birthday they gave me a $5 gift card (so that I would come back again). After the shop I went home, rested for a bit and then went with YUma and Chema to a SUPER burger shop where I had dinner (the burger was really great) and that was the end of my 16th birthday. The weather was great over the next few days and when the next weekend and the two weeks of spring break finally arrived, the first thing I did was to go on a day trip to Vancouver, basically to celebrate my birthday. That morning I had to get up inhumanly early (6:00 a.m.) so that I could catch my ferry on time because the trip to Vancouver really takes a while. After a few hours of travel, we (me and Yuma) arrived in Vancouver and met up there straight away because he apparently had a friend in Vancouver who he went off with while I did my own thing (relatively) aimlessly. So most of the time I just walked around Vancouver on foot and explored the city (fittingly with clear, blue skies) and enjoyed the view of the skyline. After I slowly set off towards my destination, I had a small lunch snack at a Cuban street food van and then went to ScienceWorld. A place that my host parents in Vancouver recommended to me, a kind of interactive museum. The whole thing was actually quite interesting, but most of it was aimed at younger children and so not everything was really exciting for me, but all in all it was still a cool experience. After that I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Vancouver and then got back on the ferry in the evening to arrive home late in the evening, but not before I watched a really BEAUTIFUL sunset on the ferry. As far as I can remember, the next few days were more about resting. Then until the end of the vacation I went on another tour around Thetis Lake, bought a new jacket, visited various places downtown, set new high scores in the arcade and visited the castle where the X-Men movies were filmed. All in all it was pretty eventful. As the end of the vacation drew closer the main event and my big "birthday present" came closer. The 2 or 3 day ski trip to Whistler. Which was organized by the organization exclusively for exchange students. I have definitely never had so much fun skiing in my life. For the first time I had the feeling that I was keeping up with my group and was practically at the front and the ski area itself (the slopes) were really great too. All in all I had a lot of fun on the trip. The Olympic Games were also in Whistler and Vancouver so there were a few sights to see and Whistler itself was also really cool and one evening I had a really tasty burger and a milkshake. So the holidays were over and school started again today.

And that's it for my new blog post this time. Before I come back to Germany, I'll write one or two more and if not, I'll tell you all the stories in person at some point. Until next time.

Jannik