Christmas Markets

Although we decided that we didn't want to go anywhere for all of the Christmas holidays, we did go to Dusseldorf for two nights to visit the Christmas Markets. Unlucky for us, the weather was way to warm for snow, although there had been some snow earlier on in the week. Ashlynn and I sat in the front car of the ICE train on the way in and then, after dropping our stuff off at our hotel, we took a tram into the center to see the Christmas markets. 

Dancing...

After Secret Santa we started dancing and singing along with the playlist that Nathalie had made on her iPod. Some people (like Adelina) liked slow dancing, while others liked moving around as fast as they could....and others just weren't bothered to dance at all *cough* Nora *cough* :)

Not sure if this counts as dancing, but it's funny anyway.... 

Adelina & Emilie

Fiona and Ellie

Adelina and Ziyoda

Secret Santa

The whole party began when some of us came up with the idea that we wanted to do Secret Santa, where we each had to get a present for someone else (we picked names from a bag), and they wouldn't know who was their 'Santa.' I had Zoe and I themed her present on 'Safari'

We put all of the presents in the middle of our sitting room and Ashlynn handed them out. Below are some photos of the different presents...

 

 

Christmas Party

From L-R: Mayu, Michelle, Ellie, Amelia, Ziyoda, Hannah and Ashlynn

From L-R....Top row: Adelina, Ellie, Lizzy, Michelle, Nathalie, Zoe
Middle Row: Hannah, Amelia, Ziyoda
Bottom row: Mayu, Emilie, Fiona

On the day before the last day of school, I had a Christmas party at my house. There were fourteen girls in our house that day, which is a pretty big party. There was lots of dancing and eating and more eating and a bit more eating. In other words, we ate and we danced and we did Secret Santa, but there will be another post about that. We decided that it would be a dressy party, so no jeans and t-shirts.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Journey back....

Our train on the way home got canceled, so we had to wait for the next one that came an hour later. Luckily we found an area that we could sit in without freezing our butts off (it was pretty cold). So, we got on the train and managed to sit next to each other. Mrs. Jackson led us in some fun games that we played. 

The last one was the best, we stuck post-it notes with names on our knees (usually you stick them on your forehead, but then we would have been able to see what was written on them in the reflection). Then, we had to ask questions to find out who our person was. I was King Kong. Mrs. Jackson was Santa Claus. And with that, I wish you a very Merry Christmas Eve and a Happy Hanukkah! :)

The NESDA team

We all waited in tense anticipation, and even though all of the BSNers thought that Maaike and I should have won, we didn't, which was kind of a shame because all of the other four teams got some kind of prize except for us. (Bronze, Silver, tie for Gold and Audience's Favourite) Sarah got a second place award for her speech. *clap, clap, clap!* 

Here is the NESDA team, a great group of people who all made the experience unforgettable:

From L-R: Top row - Mr. Le Heux, Amelia, Tari, Fergus
Middle row - Abbi, Sarah, Becky, Veronica
Bottom row - Maaike, Ines, Emily, Ms. Jackson

FINALS!

At the very end of Friday, the posters for the FINALS went up. And guess what!? Maaike and I got into the FINALS for our duet acting piece!! It was just us and one other girl, Sarah Weinberg who got into the FINALS from our school.

We didn't have to get up as early on Saturday, but we made our way over to the ISB to watch the semi-FINALS for debate. Here are some photos from the FINALS:

Mr. Le Heux was judging the Oral Interp FINALS

Maaike and I starting our duet acting on the stage for the FINALS

Freeze frame at the end...

Debate FINALS

Fun with the Camera

Unlucky us, Amelia and I stayed at Luca's house up in our bedroom all of Friday night while everyone else got to go somewhere with their hosts (eg the Christmas markets in the center of Brussels). While Amelia was in the shower, I took out my camera and did some more playing around with it....Here are two of the best results.....

I love the colours in this photo and the way that the background is blurred....

Debate

Amelia was competing in Debate and Original Oratory. The Debate was hard work; she had to write two speeches, for and against Nuclear Power. (Amelia and Tari were pretty scary durning their affirmative debate. They kept doing 'points of information' and the opposing team were getting pretty scared! It was REALLY funny to see Amelia scare these guys who look like they write debates for fun!)

 And on top of that she and her debate partner had to do an impromptu debate as well. The topic for the impromptu debate was "Service to the community should be obligatory for teenagers." And Amelia and Tari were debating for that. 

The Semi-finals for Debate

Lunch Time!

After we had done our first round of disciplines, we went down to the basement to eat lunch. They have a pretty epic cafeteria, unlike our school (not that Mike's Place is bad, it's just not like this was...). They had nice pastas and yummy deserts as well as a hot food section and a interesting salad bar. 

My Disciplines

Maaike and I before our first Duet Acting

My first discipline that I would be competing in was Original Oratory. I have to say, some of the other speeches were pretty strange....The other two that I was participating in was Duet Acting and Oral Interpretation (reading a section from a book). The acting was meant to be light, so Maaike and I did a funny piece about two idiotic girls going camping. The oral interp on the other hand was meant to be serious, so I read an excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a book about 9/11. 

Maaike and I had been practicing our piece for at least a month and a half and we were pretty confident with it (unlike another one of the acting duos from our school who forgot lines while practicing that Friday!), so we were ready to perform.

The judges sat at a table to watch us and graded us on use of space, characterization and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. :)

The Theater

Unlike our school, the ISB has a proper theater, which is where we met up after ditching our stuff and had the 'Welcome in the Theater!' I'm so jealous of their theater, it was SO cool! I want one!! :)

So we got told what would be happening over the next two days as well as getting assigned a number (I was D39) and getting a water bottle. 

AMAZING theater!

Water bottle from ISB

ISB - International School of Brussels

The tournament was being held at the ISB, a preschool, an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. Oh and on top of that, they have their own 'chateau'. I mean, how many schools have their own 'chateau'? (And if you didn't know...Chateau = Castle).

So, on Friday, Amelia and I woke up at 6:45, ate breakfast and were out the door with Luca and her mum by 7:30. School was in session that day, even though we were basically taking over the top two floors of the middle school building. 

The 'Chateau' which is more like a reception building

The theater/gym on the right and the abandoned high school on the left (they were building a new one). 

Maaike, Ines, Fergus (who was the only boy on the trip) and Amelia.

We ditched our stuff at the middle school, where we ended up spending most of Friday. 

Bathroom Quotes

All over Luca's bathroom walls were quotes. Some of them were thought provoking, and some of them  were just plain silly like, "PICKLES :)" Below are some of my favourite ones