three photos for today:

moon in the morning

mr. h.'s lesson: 'all quiet on the western front' (1930 film) and english-biscuit-test-eating

my host family got me an advent calendar :))

today i learned that in england, you have to be 18 to buy a scissor. even the plastic ones for children they can't sell to under-18's. where the hell am i? 

there's another parent's evening at school today, so i have to serve biscuits again - yippie! 

and this is what happens when i've got spare time, sweets, a camera and photoshop: 

my feet are ready for a cold winter in england: 

thank you mum!!!

and i learned a new expression in health and social care today: 'touchy feely' (=gschpürsch mi, fühlsch mi) hahaha and i was just sitting there laughing! another thing the english people  say sometimes these days is yolo (you only live once) and wada (we all die anyway) to justify what they are doing, and, not as common, fish (f**k it shit happens)... :D

when i was in the bus home from school i thought about what we would be having for dinner, and i thought that today i'd just love to eat rösti. gold-brown potatoes, a bit of cheese... after three months, i realise what i miss!! :D and this is already my hundredth post, thank you for still being interested.

next topic in photography: photograms. to make a photogram, we went into the darkroom, took photographic paper, put things on it, exposed it to light for about 5 seconds, then put it into the chemicals and finally into the dryer. result:

(sorry i can't scan things so i just had to take a photo)

in maths, i got my stats test back, 70 percent this time - i'm happy! :)

my rainy sunday: my host grandmother had her birthday today (what a coincidence), and she came round to celebrate with my host family and the family of my host father's brother. they have an exchange student as well, a girl from finland, i met her before at sue's place. my host mother cooked a delicious curry, with chicken and raisins, and the whole family sat together. it was cool, but a bit boring, because i don't really know the family that well, i've only seen them once before, and they didn't really talk to me... at least i could talk to the girl from finland :) and after dinner, my host sister turned on a film (twilight), so i watched it with her. now i'm doing mr. h.'s homework - a quiz called 'find the london underground station':

i've been to windsor today with ellen, to see the castle (the queen's residence)... it was very interesting, but the weather was very bristish :D in the castle, they await an important person from qatar tomorrow, so many rooms were being prepared, additional (plastic) chairs added, it looked quite funny - unfortunately, i wasn't allowed to take photos, just outside.

windsor - town

after we visited the castle, we went to london (it was on the way), ellen had to buy something at hollister. regent street was closed for any vehicles, don't know why, but it was cool :)

 regent street was closed for any vehicles, don't know why, but it was cool :)

piccadilly circus

pub games again! today: quoits.

and a beautiful sunset at four o'clock:

i wish you a wonderful weekend!!

i had a good wednesday: in health and social care, we played the game chinese whispers (telephone game) today, because according to a boy in my class, it demonstrates the barriers of communication (one of the topics we are looking at at the moment)... so, the sentence was: monkeys like bananas. sentence that came out: monkeys smell like rice. it was so funny!! in the evening, my friends and i went to wagamama to celebrate my friend lena's birthday. it was very nice :)

i'm fabricating christmas cards - i have to send them about two weeks before christmas to make sure that they arrive :D so i already started... 

to my dear family in switzerland: as i am not spending christmas with you, i don't want any presents -  and as you don't get any, this is only fair! thank you 

maths test back... oh yes!! :D

good morning :)

a sunday with very nice weather is almost over: 

coffee and cake meeting with sue 

the coffe and cake meeting took place at coffe nero's this time, because sue said it's too cold to sit in her garden today (true!!) and her living room is still messy :D

i was in maidstone again today... weirdest thing ever happened to me: i wanted to buy a monster energy drink. the till person asks for my id - 'you have to be sixteen to buy an energy drink - and our manager is in today, so he's checking on us'. okay, id card out. 'i'm from switzerland!!' - she takes a look at it - 'thank you and i am so sorry'... okay :D hahaha in switzerland you can buy beer and wine with sixteen, in england energy drinks - uuuuh!

friday! have had my stats test, it was not good, but not bad either. at lunchtime the head teacher of sixth form came to us. she said she has to tell us something very, very sad. we all were a bit scared, but then she just said that mr. h. would be ill - we thought he had an accident or something :D so we could leave school three lessons earlier than expected, and we went to starbucks. after starbucks i went to ellen's place and we watched 'zweiohrküken', it was really cool.

starbucks: my phone-addicted friends :D

christmas is arriving in t-wells - the whole shopping centre is full of christmas decoration, and  the shops play christmas songs... it's a bit too early in my opinion, but alright. :D 

card shop o.O

my maths test went better than expected today, and i had enough time... so only the stats part left on friday :) in photography we can do really cool stuff with photoshop at the moment. in english, we looked at the national anthems of our home countries - mr h. calls the swiss national anthem just the toblerone anthem and he asked me if it's about chocolate haha. 

just played mario kart on wii with my little host sister - she is really good at it and can do the hardest levels... i gave it a try and ended up as second last in one of the easiest levels hahaha :D 

and i have news about my return to switzerland! latest date to fly back is the 20th of june... when exactly i am coming back depends on the dates where my exams take place (english students have the important exams in january and in the end of the year). so, see you in (about) 219 days!

cold. dark. wet. windy. (england when i came home from school)

school was alright, first i had photography. this term we are looking at the history of photography / analog photography. and the teacher announced that we are going to london for one day, to go to some photography museums - trip takes place on a wednesday, so unfortunately i miss two of mr. h.'s lessons :D

in english, we are discussing the first world war, from the english and the german point of view. we are discussing it because it was remembrance day yesterday for the fallen soldiers and everyone is wearing poppy flower badges (sign of remembrance) these days. 

in health and social care we are still discussing communication in health and social care settings... it's interesting, but nothing we have been learning in health and social care surprised me really. (to say it in german: ich hatte irgendwie noch nicht so den aha-effekt.)

maths... the subject i am most worried about :D we have a test on wednesday about all the work we did until now in core 1, and everyone is studying - i hope i'll pass the test. statistics we were supposed to have a test tomorrow, but she moved it to friday, so that we can ask questions in the lesson tomorrow, at least. but i have to study now for wednesday. (i really ask myself why i took maths...)

i've been having a lazy sunday before school begins tomorrow - i got up late, went for my run, watched a film (the girl with the dragon tattoo, second film version), ate some of my host sisters birthday cake :D, tidied up my room (i am so proud of myself)... and now it is four o'clock and already getting dark outside - and i am hungry (heard we are having chicken today). 

i've been to maidstone with ellen today. maidstone is the county town of kent, and it's a nice little town with good shopping opportunities. some photos: 

only elderly on the bus - mean age 80+

maidstone :)

tiger - really cool shop

do you need shoes? :D

sunset in maidstone

i took coco out for a walk in the park today (i become animal-friendly haha):

my day: in the morning my social worker came by to see me (every exchange student has a social worker until he/she turns sixteen who comes to the host family's house about once a month) and she asked me if everything was fine with the family and school... it was good.

in the afternoon i went to my friend svenja's house to study for maths. we could help each other and it was nice... aand her host mum has a cardboard-robert pattionson in real human size in her living room (it was funny i always thought someone was standing there haha)...

and then i went home and had pizza for dinner :D 

just watched 'die herbstzeitlosen' on an sf-stream - made me laugh :)

as i have to go to school again soon, i wrote an essay for mr. h. this morning and i've been doing maths for the last three hours. i really not expected that i have to do much for school here, now i have to do more than at home!

now i go to town soon and meet a friend for coffee... :)  

london - during the last three days i saw many new places, some photos: 

street in soho

regent street (and me playing with shutter speed)

st. james park

sweet bear on my way to tate modern

funny art in tate modern

tate modern

cool house at the thames

camden lock :)

my first churros, in camden

london underground

covent garden market

inside the covent garden market - already christmas

hahaha - butter knives!! 

and i've been to the national gallery - hello monet, van gogh... it was really nice! 

bonfire in edenbridge yesterday was really cool. first, there was a little parade with all the schools participating, and brownies and stuff like that. then we went to a muddy field (my shoes loved it, some of the english friends showed up in their wellies, but nobody told us haha). then we were standing there for about an hour until the firework started, but at least we could eat some noodles. then, before the actual firework started, we 'burned' guy fawkes. it was weird, all those people shouting 'burn him, burn him', a bit like a public execution :D after guy fawkes, there was lance armstrong left to burn (who disappointed us? lance armstrong. shall we burn him? yeeess).

shall we burn him? yeeeeess

on our way home, we passed by a fish and chips shop - just too much!

now i'm off to london :)