new family - same school

Hey:). Ok, so... I'm staying with a different family now. Surprised? Me too:P. I'm fine.

I don't really know what to tell you though..: There were some family problems, which I don't want to get into. My host parents contacted my organisation and asked them to place me somewhere else, without me knowing. On Tuesday my (ex) host dad sat down with me and explained the situation. He also said, that it had nothing to do with me... just so you know;). My parents (the real, biological ones) received an email confirming it as well.  He told me I was going to move on Thursday night.. So I had two evenings to pack up everything. That part was quite horrible! Nothing fit in my suitcases anymore and I had to fill up two black bin bags with all my belongings... shouldn't have bought all those books and boots. In a way, it was quite sad to leave them, but I'm very chuffed with my new home actually. When I said goodbye to them on Thursday, I was a bit upset and they told me I should come visit some time. I did have quite a good time while staying with them, most of the time at least. Sometimes I didn't at all. But my host mum showed me a lot of different British music and TV programmes and told me about the many different parts of the country and their social statuses. My host dad showed me a different type of music than she did :P and told me a lot about England's history. So I am grateful I got to stay with them.
My area rep picked me up and drove me to my new family. They live about three roads above my area rep, with whom I stayed at the beginning of my exchange year (first few Blog posts), so I already know the area a bit. It's also even closer to school, only takes about 5-10 minutes by bus. I really miss my old bus drivers though, because now I have to get on a different number. 

When I arrived here, my new host mum and my host brother welcomed me and we had tea together (not actual tea, some people here call dinner tea). It was amazing! She cooked it herself!! I didn't have a meal like that for a while. We had meat with gravy, beans, potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. It was incredible:). 

Today, my host mum showed me how to get to training (it's called Hit Fit, I think I haven't told you) from the house. It's easy to walk. My new home isn't really far away from my old host family, I'd say about a 40-minute walk. There's only one village to go through. 

Afterwards, we went to Keynsham to do some shopping, also by foot. It's such a beautiful area! We went along the street, but to our right was a huge field with flowers and other trees, and then there was the river, Avon. We could have walked along the river, but it was too muddy. There is an enormous red chocolate factory on the way too, Cadbury chocolate. She also showed me the train station, from which I can go to Bristol, Bath or London Paddington :D. I really enjoyed shopping in Keynsham. It reminds me of Kingswood, but it's even nicer. It's a bit smaller and quite old-fashioned and has a lot of charity shops as well. Bought some stuff and had my first real pasty :).

My host brother is really lovely as well. He's twenty. He's at an Ed Sheeran concert right now, which makes me really jealous. He loves playing the guitar and is really good at it!

Tomorrow I'm going to go into town with a friend again. Next week, I've got school until Wednesday, and then the holidays start on Thursday. We've got 11 days off, in which I hopefully get to travel around a bit more..

I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures, but I'm going out with my amazing camera soon (finally got the charger) to take some pictures for you.

I hope all of you are well and enjoying autumn,

xxx Alexandra

(Oh, and by the way: I finished the Mcfly book... it's absolutely incredible! Loved it!! I'm probably going to read it again. It's actually quite hard to find good books around here, I haven't seen any book shops at all. ASDA has got a book section, but it's filled with autobiographies of people I've never heard of before and don't really want to in the future. I thought about getting J.K. Rowling's new book 'The Casual Vacancy'... or I might get some Harry Potter books in English again (it's less expensive to buy them again than to have my parents send them to me). I know it doesn't make sense, but Harry Potter somehow remind me of home and my family :P)  

Mcfly!! (and envision)

Totally forgot to tell you! Mcfly released a book:D Check it out if you'd like.
I didn't have a chance to pick it up yet, but I need to as soon as possible!! A friend from French and I want to go to their concert, but in Switzerland they're not famous at all, so I have to catch up quickly. But they're really, really lovely:). They've been around for about nine years, so there are plenty of songs I need to track down.

I love the music here in general. I'm a big fan of Gary Barlow now and hence of Take That.. And I also really want to go see Ed Sheeran live, but it's already mostly sold out this year.. and he's spending far too much time in Australia! I saw that there's a Beatles store in London, so I really want to see that too:).
All Time Low is coming here soon as well, so I really want to go see them.

I also forgot to tell you about envision. We had another assembly on Friday and there were some women advertising envision. It's some kind of programme that tries to get the schools to help improve their area. I signed some form and they're going to send me some Emails soon. I need some more things to do, so, why not. It also looks good on your CV (for university application) but I don't need/have one:P.

Okay, I'm done babbling now, see you soon
xxx Alex

drizzle

Hey. Drizzle. The weather here has been crazy. It's been getting so cold lately.. It's freezing but the people here are still wearing hot pants and tights (well, the girls do). It's been ... raining a lot. They call it drizzle here. The water doesn't just fall from the sky and falls to the ground, it just comes from everywhere. You're surrounded by water, but you would look like a chav walking around with an umbrella, so you get soaked. (I've been trying to use British words more often; hopefully they'll stick in my mind.)
At least the sky looks fab all the time:)
(I annoy everyone by stopping every 5 seconds to make photos of the weather..)

I'm getting used to being ill all the time. I've started taking Anadin on a daily basis. Oh, and I bought myself some UGG boots :D for only 55 quid.. just need to know the right people;).

I've recently went to the pub with my host parents. There was this band playing - Atomic Rays - and my host parents know them and they were being recorded for BBC1. I really liked them, they've got some amazing covers! The nightlife in England is quite rough apparently. I saw some things... but I've also been told some shocking things. My host mum told me a lot about violence and drinking around here.. There are big parts of this country that seem to be quite violent... 

My host mum made Apple Crumble this week, which was very nice. You eat it with evaporated milk, which is some kind of sweet milk in a can. Still need to get used to using canned milk.. strange!

I'm sorry, I keep on telling you about the telly here, but there's a really amazing drama about the Great Train Robbery of 1963. It's called Mrs. Biggs:

Here's a trailer. It's better than it looks though

Last Saturday, I had to go to a meeting with my organisation and the other exchange students. There's only four of us in Bristol. We met up with the organisation people in town and went over the rules again. A few weeks ago my area rep told me about a weekend trip to London, which we could attend and she said I could think about it some more and there was going to be more information when we met up next time. Well, last Saturday they told us it was sold out already, so we didn't even have a chance to go. My organisation has been quite disappointing so far. There was supposed to be a preparation camp in late August this year at the University of Birmingham. I was quite excited about it, but then they cancelled the whole thing. They just haven't been very reliable. Well, anyway: after the meetup, we went to Castle Park (only the exchange students). It's really beautiful, and the weather was absolutely perfect!!

 Last week, I started helping two of my classmates with their French. I (and most of you) know I'm not qualified at all, but it's actually more than enough around here:P. And it's quite fun to do actually. I can see, why it's so hard for British people though. French makes so much more sense in German than in English ... if that makes sense. The sentence structure are much more similar to the German one, in my opinion. Sometimes, it gets all jumbled up in my head - English, French and German (and Swiss German). Some of my British friends still laugh at me, because sometimes I say some really weird (at least weird to them) words, like: 'Uui' or 'Ah Mann' :P. It seems like my English hasn't improved at all yet. Especially my accent hasn't turned more British yet. I've met a girl here (the one I'd like to go to London with) and she's got the most amazing accent ever. She told me she grew up in Bristol, so she's got a Bristolian dialect, but I think she speaks different than the rest. She's got the best swear words, like 'bloody hell!'. Always reminds me of Ron in Harry Potter :D. She also always says 'innit?', which sounds so cool! I've tried to do it like her as well, but it doesn't sound as good:(. People here say 'Cheers' instead of 'Thank You'.. starting to do that now as well.
I joined the gym this week. It's SUCH a long process! I went once and they gave me an appointment. Then I went to that appointment and filled out all the forms. Then they gave me a date for an instruction (well, the first half) and tomorrow (Sunday), I'll have my second instruction. It's a bit pointless, but the gym is really cool. I got some kind of key and you can plug it into the machines and it helps suggests you exercises and the amount of weight you should use and how many reps.. really nice. I would of loved to go to training with someone from school... but none of them do any kind of sports.. so I had to go to the gym. Oh, and I'm still doing that kickboxing on Monday and sometimes on Wednesday. I think I'm the only girl (and the youngest person) in the club.. but it's still fun. I get to train with the main trainer all the time. I've noticed today, that I've actually got blue marks all over my shins:D. And on both sides of my hips as well - one because of training and the other one because I fell down the stairs:P. My host family was quite shocked, but it's normal for me..
The school is doing a lot of trips this year. There's one to New York City in spring of next year, but I won't go. And there's one with my French class to Paris, and I'd love to go, but I'm not sure if I will yet. They've also been talking about going to Africa, but I think that's next year :(.
I really want to do my scuba diving certificate here. My friend (the same girl again..) said, she wants to do it too and it's so much less expensive than in Switzerland. She thinks it's about 400.- pounds. All of my friends from school never have got any spare money. It's a bit depressing really. We wanted to go to the cinema this weekend to see 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower', but she didn't have enough money. Most of them say, we're going to go out and travel after christmas, because than they'd have some more money again, but I doubt it:P...

How's everyone at home doing? I've heard of a shooting (I mean with guns not with models) in Wettingen..what the hell?! It only ever gets interesting when I'm not around!

Stay safe xxx Alex