Dear blog readers,
I've some more experiences to share with y'all. Spring break is over and I've quite some things to tell you. Even though, it's only march I spend my spring break in the hot sun. I went to spend a week with my relatives in Orlando, Florida. They've moved there from Romania almost a year ago and I love them dearly! I left from Jackson, MS on friday the 7th, which means I missed school that day :). Early in the afternoon, they already welcomed me at the airport. The two little boys were really excited to have me stay with them for a week. After lunch and settling in, we just went with the kids to the park, where my cousins played, while I talked to Anca. The next day, we all went to Seaworld! It was so much fun, because there was a lot to do. There were roller coasters, dolphins, sharks, orca's, penguins, and beautiful shows. Feeding and petting the dolphins were definitely the most fun things to do! they are so cute. The dolphin show was also very impressive and beautiful! Another show we watched was with sea lions and otters, which was hilarious, entertaining, and astonishing. The tricks those animals can perform make them look like they have a mind of their own. Other than that, we've done some simulations. While you're just watching a screen, you feel like you're actually in it ,especially with 3D glasses. In one simulations, you followed the life of a turtle crawling out of his egg and the sand, finding its way to the see, and escaping its threats on the way. Because the size of the screen, it's so realistic and you actually feel drawn into it. There were more simulations shown before you could see the pole bear and penguins. It was very entertaining. Then, we also saw a pet show with cats, dogs, pigs,... doing funny tricks. Sunday, we went to the beach and we just relaxed. I didn't swim that much, because the water was still pretty cold, but instead I got a tan and I read 'A voice in the wind', a really good book! In the evening, we went to old town, an old part of the town, where my relatives live. It has all these attractions, almost like a fair. Monday, I went to Universal Studios! I had a discount because Radu works for NBC Universal and that made a great difference. So convenient! There was so much to do in the park, because there were roller coasters, more simulations, and other attractions. I also got see impersonators of The Blues Brothers perform! I particularly liked the simulations: Despicable Me, Shrek, The Simpsons, Transformers. I also loved the roller coaster 'Rock It' which was really high and went down vertically in the beginning. You could choose a song, which you could listen to during the ride, so I chose 'I will survive'. A fitting song in my opinion :). If you can't get enough of music, there is the largest Hard Rock Cafe right next door, where I hopped in for a while in the afternoon. Later in the afternoon, I ran into my neighbors 'the Rosses' which was so cool because there were so many people there. We stayed some time together and went to see an animal show, similar to the one in Seaworld. At the end of the day I was so tired of all the walking and went to bed early to get my good night sleep for another of Universal the next day. On tuesday I went to The Island of Adventures, the other park of Universal Orlando. In this park everybody goes to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That's where I went first because it would get busier near 12pm. I had to wait half an hour for the first ride, which was in Hogwarts. So much for just a park! The castle was huge and almost the whole line that lead to the ride was in the castle! The framed photographs on the walls were moving and talking just like in the movies! At one point, you saw Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine projected in some of the rooms. Thus, the waiting wasn't that boring but rather entertaining. Afterwards, I walked around Hogsmeade, where the roofs were covered in fake snow which made it all resemble the movies a lot. I also did two other roller coasters in Harry Potter and had butter beer, a really good drink! I'm not even a Harry Potter fan, but I must say that it's the best part of the parc! The rest of the park was fun too. I did a water slide, the Hulk, Spider-man,... I walked through Suess Landing, Jurassic Parc and I had a taste of dippin' dots ice cream! The Universal City Walk, which is between the two parks and has the big Universal globe, was also a nice place to hang out a while before returning home. The next day, wednesday was a relaxing day, which I needed after two days of walking! So, we made a cheese cake, hung out at the pool and read a 'Voice In The Wind', which I highly recommend! Before bed, I watched 'Mirror Mirror', a cute movie with Anca. Thursday, we went with the kids to the science center in Orlando, after which we went to see Mihai at gymnastics before returning home. Later in the evening, I also did some shopping at Ross with Anca which turned out successful :). Friday morning, I watched Despicable Me with the boys and got my bags packed, because that afternoon I had to catch my flight back to Jackson. Before that, We went to a play ground with the boys, where they played with some other kids of a Romanian friend of Anca whom I met there. Right after we got back home, we had to go to the airport. I had such a good time with my relatives. I'm so thankful for the opportunity we had to spend time with each other in a country, we would never of thought to see each other. So, this was my trip to Orlando! My return to Belgium is coming closer and closer, for it's only two and a half moths away! It's at the same time a good feeling, but it also brings along sad feelings. Talking to my relatives in Orlando about my host family, my friends, and experiences here, made me realize how much I'm going to miss everybody! Anyways, I have to enjoy while I can :). xoxo Suzanna
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Heeey y'all!!
It's time to update again! There is happening so much and I just want to let you know what has happened this passed month ;). February, the month of Valentines day and my mom's birthday has passed by so quick that I can hardly believe it! So, Valentines day aka my mom's birthday was pretty awesome, but also hard because I had to miss my mom. Although, we facetimed in the morning, before I went to school. Since I woke at 5:45, I had enough time. Yes, I woke up really early and I went to bed at 11:45, because me and Lacey made chocolate covered strawberries the night before, which was soooo much fun! It was the first time I've ever done it and it tastes like heaven! Lacey also made strawberry muffins! This was all for breakfast the next morning! So that was definitely a lovely breakfast! We also had heart-shaped balloons and a table cloth with heart patterns. As you can read, my host family is really into Valentines day! In fact, we were each others Valentines! I got a really cute card and really pretty roses from my host dad, Brad and the prettiest tied-up boots from Lacey! Margeurite and john, lacey's parents also gave a cute card and chocolate! As you can tell, Jane Bradley was so excited, so that's why we all woke up so early. At school, I finished the painting I was working on, so I could give it as a Valentines present to my host family. I'm so glad I finished it just in time, so I could bring it back home that day. My host family totally love it, which makes me so happy because working on it was so fun. That friday, I also went to our school's senior Beauty & Beau with Emily, Julia, and Katherine. Emily and Julia are in my Visual Arts and Painting II class. Beauty and Beau is a pageant, where girls and boys get all dressed up. Especially the girls, they wear pageant dresses, get their hair, nails, spray-tan and make-up done. They basically try to look at their best just for one night. The only thing they do is walk around, while the hosts talk about their high school career and their college ambitions. There were also judges who judged their looks and their walk. Honestly, I didn't think it was that entertaining, because they don't do that much. The boys were more fun to watch though. Each one of them did something funny and it was hilarious! So my Valentines day was pretty much filled with my lovely host family, chocolate, and a fun time with some of my good friends! February, 17th, we celebrate the President's day in America, which means we had no school! Although, a lot of schools did, since they had to make up their snow days. Luckily Madison Central didn't cancel school on those 'snow' days, because the roads weren't that icy and there was barely a cm of snow, let alone an inch. Despite the fact we had a day off, I woke up at 5am because I was going to the Mississippi Beta club convention in Tupelo with my school's Beta club. Beta club is basically a club for students that have all A's. Tupelo, Mississippi is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, so I totally signed up for that field trip. Therefore, we missed school on tuesday! Even though the Beta club convention was so serious, we weren't there the whole time. Other schools took it way more serious, but we hang out a lot around Tupelo, unless someone was testing. The city was pretty, but pretty small. We saw the Elvis Presley statue and the store where he bought his first guitar at a very young age! And of course, the food was good too! For lunch and dinner on monday, we ate at stables and the grill. The grill is right next to Hilton, the hotel we were staying at. Monday evening, we had a party in the convention arena and our school danced the most and the best ;). Besides that, there were also fun talent shows that every beta club performed and just people talking about how important it's to be in Beta club. The next day we had breakfast in the Hotel, packed our bags, and went to see the talent show finals. After that we walked some more around town and had another good lunch in a park with a really cute fountain! The water that was coming out of the ground literally looked like it was in a invisible tube, it was so solid and seemed alive! We spend so much time at that fountain that some got really wet, including me and Oliver. Finally, it was almost time to head to Madison, but first we had to receive our awards and we won several contests! After the closing of the convention, we headed back home. Fast forward to saturday, February, 22nd. That was quite a busy day! First of all, I went to have brunch with Lacey at a lady's house from our church. She was hosting this missionary brunch, where missionaries who were back in the states for a couple of months. They all talked about their lives in these missionary countries and there was also a woman who had missioned in Romania for almost 7 years! I met her and I had a really good talk with her. The house, where the gathering was, is huge and sooo pretty! It's like a dream house! After this, I went home and started cooking! I had to make two Belgian dishes for a dinner with other exchange students in Clinton and we needed to bring one side dish and a dessert. I decided to make stoemp with spinach, leek, broccoli, and peas and as a desert, waffles! ;) After I worked the whole afternoon on it, it turned out really good! My host family loved the stoemp and especially the waffles! Right after I finished, Brad and I had to leave immediately, because otherwise we were going to be late. So every exchange student had food from their home country. It was a lot of fun to eat all kinds of dishes. We also started randomly talking to each other in all these different languages without knowing what we were saying. It was really funny. :) This week was pretty busy because of my english research paper. Not that it was that much work, but because after I came home from track, took a shower, had dinner, put the kids to bed, it was already 8 when I started working on it. I started on monday and worked until about 10pm every night. That's pretty late to me here, because being on track tires me a lot, so I like to go to bed early, which wasn't the case this week. Friday, I went out with Julia and Katherine again. We went to Pizza Inn, since Julia had free buffet tickets. So we could eat as much pizza, salad, and dessert as we wanted to for free! Especially the dessert was exceptional and really good! There was a chocolate chip cookie pizza, cherry jelly pizza, and some other pastry pizza! I know it sounds weird but it was really good! Afterwards, we hang out in the mall and made some awkward pictures in the photoboot! Saturday, March, 1st, Mardi Gras in Vicksburg! I went to Vicksburg with the exchange students again and we had our own float, which we decorated and later threw beats from in the parade. It's kind off like Carnaval, but not as big and not as dressed up. Mardi Gras originated from New Orleans and so it's much bigger there. It was really fun to throw beats to everyone though, because everyone was trying to catch them and it was almost a competition on whoever could catch the most. After that we went to have dinner at El Sombrero, which was good and we had a good time talking to each other! All right I'm going to bed! I'm so tired and tomorrow morning I have to wake up early, which I will do anyways. :D 'night night! |
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