the glass is always half full and never half empty

cheesy title, innit?:P I'm past the halfway point now..:( but I still don't know when I'll be flying back.

Hey guys! Sorry I took a small break. We had half term (holiday) last week and went back to school on Monday. A few of the exchange students have left now (the ones that did a 5-month stay), and one of my German girls left.. :( 

I'm sure I'm going to see her again though.

She invited some of us to a goodbye meal... at ZA ZA BAZAAR!! Still absolutely love it!

my dessert :D (jelly beans, chocolate-covered marshmallow, some Indish sweet ball and sushi)

those ladies were there as well :) British.. what can you do?

Oh, and I went to Bath some more... It's actually about ten minutes closer to 'my' house than Bristol, but for everyone else (people from school) it's much further. The journey by bus is really beautiful though - loads of hills and really posh houses.

When I was there, I went to shakeaway . My friend told me about it. It's flippin' amazing! I strongly recommend the custard flavour, however, my friend says Daim's the best. We'll go to the one in Bristol next week and I'll let you know about that one.  

I looked it up online and saw they're expanding internationally - but in Pakistan.. :/. Nothing good ever comes to Switzerland - except for Bruno Mars! Autumn 2013!

We also went to Swinky's - a sweets shop on Park Street in Bristol. We've exchanged our tennis-subway tradition for that now :).

I'll have Red Velvet Hot Chocolate and Rocky Road over sport anyday.

Rocky Road (dark chocolate with marshmallow and peanut butter chunks and so on..)

I'm telling you about my eating habits too much, aren't I...

The other exchange student from Hanham had a gig the other night. I couldn't take many pictures as I was filming it for his family, but here you go. Was brilliant. It was organised by 'Youth for Youth' in town.

There are ponies in Willsbridge now!! :D

I signed up for the Cambridge exams in March now. I couldn't decide if I should do the Advanced or the Proficiency, so I'm doing both now.. yaay:/. I think the Advanced is about 118 and the Proficiency 124 quid.. They're quite full on, but I unfortunately can't go to any of the preparation classes because of sixth form. I'll just try my best but it is rather scary. Let me know if you've done any of them before and have any tips. Would be lovely. I've got them on the 8th, 9th, 13th and 16th of March in the International House Bristol. Reading, listening, writing and oral.

Training has been amazing! I'm now in the men's class on Mondays and women's class on Wednesday. It's called HitFit by the way, but I think it's just a very small club - very successful though. I go to the men's class regardless, I don't like such separations. There are some machos, but then I can always just kick them in the thigh ;). We did that the other week and today one of them said he couldn't get up from the toilet afterwards (as his legs were bruised), because of me :). 

I've taken soo many photos of the sky in the morning while walking to school and don't want to waste them.. they are quite nice :). The weather isn't as awesome anymore. It's just freezing now and it even was snowing a bit this morning. But nothing long-lasting.

Ben Howard won 2 BRIT Awards this week, which is great! Quoting my host brother: ,,He is pretty fucking good!". I think I found a new method to swear in my posts without actually swearing :).

I got lost again the other day. I walked home with a girl I used to walk home with, back when I lived with my old family. She walked me to the borders of Willsbridge, however, it still took me about 50 minutes:P. It's such a small town, but everything looks exactly the same - red-bricked. I actually really like getting lost now though :) since I got lost all the time in the first few weeks, I know really random corners now, but that can be useful sometimes.

I'm going to the Bristol Hippodrome this Sunday with a girl from school. We're going to see Oliver! which sounds brilliant. It better will be, we had to pay 37.50 each!! That's even rather expensive for Switzerland. There were tickets from 27.50 up to around 60 pounds, but those for 27 were absolute rubbish..

I've bought all the Inbetweeners series now - and the film. I really like it!!

 Oh, and we're going to Paris during our next holiday. My friend's dad wants her to improve her French so he's paying for all of our Eurostar journeys :D I'm not sure it's going to help with our French, but I'm certainly not complaining..!

And the guy I used to help with French.. he dropped it now:P don't know what that says about my teaching skills^^.

Have a wonderful weekend!! x

Beautiful Bath

Hiya!! Some exchange students and I visited Bath this weekend. I finally went! I've been there accidentally as I didn't get off the bus at my stop and just went from Bristol all the way to Bath in my first week here.

The snow is completely gone now, but while traveling to Bath, we could still see some snow-covered hills. 

This time, we actually got to see quite a lot, not just the bus station. 

First we went to Bath Abbey, which was founded in the 7th century. It was absolutely beautiful.

That's the square right in front of the Abbey. 

 and there's a fudge shop right there as well:)

That's Pulteney Bridge crossing Avon. It's the only bridge, except for one in Florence, which has got shops throughout it - one of the girls was quite informed;). It's a Grade 1 listed bridge.

That's the Royal Crescent, built between 1767 and1774. It's one of the greatest examples of Georgian architecture in the UK and is a Grade 1 listed building.

Here's a picture from the web, so you might see the crescent..

The Grade 1 listing means the building has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, in the UK. Grade 1: buildings of exceptional interest. 

I had never seen a grey telephone box before...

 

We also went to the Bath market:).

We then went to the Victoria Art Gallery , which was free. I loved Roger Mayne's photographs, but they're a bit too dear for me. We also planned to go to the Fashion Museum, but didn't have enough time. We'll be back!

And then we went home:). 

I really want to go back soon, it was lovely. There are quite a lot shopping opportunities in the centre, so it's perfect. I hope the picture overload and the historical facts don't bother you, I like it. 

 Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it x

first snow of the year in Willsbridge Mill

Hello. Winter has finally arrived here in Bristol! People have been waiting for snow for a long time. An older man started talking to me at the bus stop while waiting for our bus. They had the most snow here in 1963 apparently - back when he was still a bus conductor:).

It's been in the forecast for weeks, but it actually came true on Friday! It's been snowing all through last week throughout the whole country, but only now we've got snow. It was only about four inches on Friday night, but the people have gone crazy. We had school off on Friday - most school's have been closed. The bus service has been unbelievably unstable as well. My friend and I wanted to visit the Roman baths in Bath on Saturday as we didn't have tennis, but there was no way going to Bath. We'll have to reschedule it - it sounds so good! Everyone was snowed in and I couldn't get to anyone else's, so I went for a walk. I visited Willsbridge Mill, which was lovely:).

 my host mum lent me her Wellies:) (and jacket and hat.. I'm not prepared whatsoever)

It's beautiful and you could walk for miles. It's right next to the main road in Willsbridge but you can't hear anything except the stream anyway.

I might have school off tomorrow as well. They said it should snow even more tonight... but probably not.

I think I've caught a cold while walking along the stream.. But I'm watching Nanny McPhee on the telly now and my host brother just brought me some apple crumble with Custard, so I could be worse;).

Thank you for reading! x

HAPPY NEW YEAR exams

Hiya, 2013!!

I hope you all had a wonderful new year's eve! One of my British friends invited s bunch of us and we stayed at hers on new year's eve. 

                                      

In the second week of the holidays I went to Cribbs Causeway with two friends. I love it and already want to go back!! We've only seen a very small part of the whole mall. It takes about 45mins to get there by bus from Kingswood, but it's worth it:). 

It does look a bit American I reckon.. oh well.

And I had my first Nando's in the food hall. Loved it (as well)! If you don't know Nando's (there isn't one in Switzerland, as far as I know), it's a restaurant chain originating from South Africa although the food is Portuguese. It took a while for my food to arrive, so I even got a voucher for a free meal, which is always nice:D. So now I have to go again.

There was a Winter Wonderland at Cribbs Causeway during the Twelve Days of Christmas (26.12. - 6.01.) and we went ice skating. It was on a temporary ice rink, I don't think there are any permanent ones nearby. It was labelled as the biggest rink in the Southwest, but was actually really, really small. Still lovely though - there was fake snow everywhere:).

 I was a bit shaky, sorry.

I went to a piercing parlour in town with some girls from Hanham. It seems as though disinfectant isn't a thing here. They gave me some oils... I have to boil water and mix it with salt and oils. 

After the holidays, we had exams week. There generally used to be two exams per subjects a year - one in January and the second one in May/June. My school said, the students didn't care enough for the January exams and only concentrated on the summer exams, to make up for the first test. As the students mostly failed the winter exams, we only had mock exams (the grade doesn't actually count). There were only actual exams held in psychology and health and social care - and I'm taking Psychology. I had mocks in French (reading, listening and oral) and maths. For English literature I had to do two essays - one on The Handmaid's Tale and one on The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. The better one of them is going to be sent in to be marked by professional people and will count 30% of my English final grade. The mocks were fine but my psychology exam went absolutely horrible. I had absolutely no idea about the test conditions in this country. Some of my friends informed me about an hour before the exam and made me rather nervous. Before the exam, we all were lead into a room, in which we had to leave our bags and jackets and everything. We were only allowed to have our black pens with us, and only in a see-through case. Then we were allowed to go into the hall. We all had a number - I was E8. There were letters on one wall and numbers on the other and I had to find my place (like on a chess board..). Oh, and any mobiles brought into the room were sealed into plastic bags:P. I was really nervous and freezing as I couldn't bring my coat. The girls said our test conditions are crazy when I told them about them, as you can easily cheat. I think it's nicer... at least our school system trusts us a bit! And I messed up my test... it wasn't very difficult, really, just very stressful. Oh well.

Traning (Hit Fit) has been really cool lately. I'm with a different partner every week now, but all the men are nice and funny.

I went to see Life Of Pi this week with two friends at the cinema in Cabot Circus - brilliant film!

they sell Belgium waffles and Ben&Jerry's ice cream at the cinema!!:D

Oh, and here's another Ben Howard video, as the last one was blocked in some countries. That's one problem that I've never had since coming over here.. 

And here's a video which went viral this week throughout England... It's a Mcfly one again, sorry.

Ok, I'll leave you with that. x

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas is American, apparently. So... Happy Christmas!

Hiya

I hope you all had a very happy Christmas! 

I stayed in England and celebrated with my host family. On the 24th, Christmas eve, extended family came over and there was an enormous buffet made by my host brother and his uncle. I tried to help but ended up just tasting everything. While waiting for the food to be ready and my host mum to get back from work, we watched telly. We watched 'Coming of age', which is.. unusual. It's a bit too crude for me but my brother loved it..

In the evening, all the aunts and cousins and grandmothers came over. The food was brilliant :D. In the evening we watched 'Fast And Furious' because I said I've never seen it. Didn't like it either but oh well. 

On Christmas day we opened our presents in the morning. I got some really amazing music from my brother - Ben Howard and , of course, Ed Sheeran. Yup, we're both a bit obsessed - but he's definitely worse than me:P. I've never heard of Ben Howard.. well, before Jay told me about him.but he seems rather big according to his youtube views. He's incredible!! and British! We had turkey with gravy, Yorkshire puddings and potatoes. Oh, and we pulled Christmas crackers:). We don't have them at home but they're mentioned in Harry Potter, so I've heard of them. 

You get a joke, a paper crown and a toy. My toy wasn't really a toy.. I got a shoehorn:D.

I didn't know which one to show you, but that's the one I saw first:)

Ben Howard - Old Pine

On the 26th I went to a family party with my brother. I tried Scotch Egg, which is all right I guess, but I like it because it reminds me of Celebrity Juice :P. I also started catching up on 'The Inbetweeners' over the holidays. My brother told me to. So far I really like it :). A bit crude as well. 

I also started sending letters home. It was really strange - I've never had to do that before (except for the occasional postcard). I had to tell the woman at the post office how expensive the things are that I'm sending off. That kind of ruins the present though, because she wrote it on the envelope (what's inside and what it's worth):/. Oh, and I had to pay 10£ for about 6 letters..

I'm not sure what I'm doing on New Year's Eve yet. My family has to work the next day, so I won't be able to celebrate with them. I'm probably going out with some of the exchange students..

Hope you're enjoying the holidays xxx

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London

Heey. After we came back from the Harry Potter Studio, we had 3h left in London. It was very busy (Friday evening) and we didn't fully know where we were. We saw loads of lights and then tried to find the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. First we went to eat some Chinese though. We hadn't had anything the whole day except for Butterbeer...

 10£ :)

Then we went to Starbucks and then walked up to Hyde park. The Winter Wonderland is really lovely and I think it stays open until the 6th of January, so I definitely want to go again. We only had an hour and it's HUGE. We were only able to walk through the whole thing once and then we had to leave again.

There also is an ice rink, which looks very, very lovely:)

Oh, and there was a circus as well but the queue was quite long but I'd like to go some time. 

Took us about half an hour to get back to the Victoria station. It's still very confusing to me (and my friend wasn't of much help:P) as there are two Victoria coach stations - I think one's for arrival and one for departure. We went to the departure one but we couldn't find the right coach back to Bristol. We asked an employee but he didn't care, because he worked for national express. We made it on our designated coach on the last second. Turns it was on the wrong gate, it wasn't actually a megabus and the sign that said Bristol had fallen off :/. I think that's a plus for national express as well: Their buses seem to be much more commonly used.

On the way home we saw all the pretty Christmas lights :).

That's Harrods :)

That was definitely one of the best days I've spent since I've gotten here. LOVED the Studio ktour and also just spending time in London.. I'm probably going again this holiday.

I also went out for tea with some girls from school this week. We went to Za Za Bazaar near the Hippodrome in Bristol.. REALLY GOOD!

There was a buffet with food from all over the world; I finally had my sushi!!!:D. The girls even gave me some Christmas present for my 'first Christmas here':) , which was really lovely. I went to a friend's house before to watch some telly and she said she's going to take me to Bath for some sushi:D she loves it as well.

Have a lovely Christmas and thank you so much for reading 

Alex xxx