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

The House....

Here are a few pictures of the house.....

The front of the house

The dining room

Our bedroom (before we totally wrecked it by unpacking....)

The living room

Our Hosts

Luca and her mum

We got met by our host family at the train station. The girl's name was Luca and she was thirteen although she was in our year. She wasn't competing in NESDA, but she was a timekeeper. We got brought back to their house and shown to our bedroom which was cute. They also had an ADORABLE dog called Piva (means beer in Russian). 

Off to NESDA!

Okay, I know that I've skipped out a whole holiday (the one to England) and although it was AMAZING and all, I just don't have easily accessible photos unless I just steal them off Mommy's blog. And so I'm going to fast forward and try to start from now, I have a working camera. (Thank god) 

So......a while back, I got auditioned to be on the NESDA team. NESDA stands for New European Speech Debate and Acting Association and basically it's a competition for well, speech, debate and acting (and a few other things) 

During the trip to England (which you can read about on Mommy's blog eventually) I wrote my speech for my disciplines. More about that later...
So, last Thursday we set off on the train to Brussels after weeks of preperation for the NESDA tournament, being held at ISB (International School of Brussels).

Abbi and Tari

We were very lucky to get seats on the extra full train from HS to Brussels. I was also very lucky that one of my good friends got on the trip too, so we stuck together. 

Amelia on the 4th train of the day (we got off at the wrong station in Brussels so had to take a Belgian train to the right one!)