Fall is the Theme!!!

Yes, it has truly become fall. The weather has changed and so have the colors. Everywhere you can see trees changing there colors and leaves are starting to fall. People are taking out their fall decorations and there are PUMPKINS everywhere!
So last Saturday I decided to join my host brother Eric to go with him to a friends house to hang out with some of his college friends. Most of whom I had already met. So I was looking forward to see what 'wild things' college kids do on a Saturday night while the parents are away for the weekend. Well let me tell you..., carving pumpkins. We had six pumpkins and there were 12 of us. So we paired up and started carving our pumpkins, of coarse being with college kids, this couldn't be done without throwing some pumpkin guts around. Considering this being my first time carving pumpkins, I did pretty good. Except for a little slip of the knife which resulted in pinning parts of the pumpkin back on with some toothpicks. After we all were finished with carving our pumpkins, we lit the candles in them and we all gave our votes as to which pumpkin was the most beautiful one. In the picture the second from the left, with the pumpkin guts coming out of its mouth, was the winner. We gathered and cleaned some of the pumpkin seeds, put some salt on them and roasted them in the oven. The rest of the evening the guys played pool in the basement and us girls had us some 'good ole' girl talk.

How do you get a young dog to swim?

The last couple of weeks I have been trying to get Buddy to swim. Josh and Eric had taken him sailing and dumped him in the water and according to the book, that is not what you should be doing. So I was afraid Buddy had gotten scared of swimming. So I took some dog treats and took him in the water and give him treats to go in deeper. But no matter what he would not go further then were he could still stand. He would even start to shiver if I kept the treat too far away from him, like he was really scarred. Last weekend it was really hot and we were all outside at the water front, so buddy would walk through the water as well. Now in that last week we had gotten company of 4 swans in the lake. And on this last Sunday they came pretty close to the house and Buddy got all worked up and excited about. He was barking at them and running back and forth in the water, and suddenly he was swimming. But then he swam back again, went in the water again and then, he just started swimming after them. The swans swam away and Buddy kept on swimming and swimming and I just went after him. He swam further and further and halfway across the lake the swans apparently had enough of this crazy dog and flew away to the next lake over. And there was Buddy in the middle of the lake not knowing what to do and where to go. I called Jenna who was kayaking and I tried to get buddy and take him to the closest shore. Rick and Eric had already taken the rowboat out and were on their way over. Buddy was pretty tired and I held on to the Kayak with buddy in my arms. When the rowboat arrived we put him in the boat and took him back to the house. And there he was sitting in the front of the boat all proud looking and still trying to see where those darn swans had gone off to!

Cell-ebration!

Last weekend I got a call from one of the biology teachers I know. She asked me if I could come in to her class on Monday and help her out. She was having a Cell-ebration. What is a cell-ebration you must be thinking? ( If you are a Biology teacher this is a great thing to do in your classes) Well the students had to make a cell out of all edible things. So the cell had to have all it's parts in it, like a Nucleus and Mitochondria and Golgi apparatus and so on. It was great fun. The teacher brought some pop (soda) and then after they were graded, they could eat their cells. Now let me tell you some of them didn't look that edible, if you know what I mean. In every class there were also three awards to be won and some of the other teachers would come in and be the judges for those. The awards were for the most attractive one, the most accurate one and the most disgusting one. The students brought in things like cake and Jello puddings with frosting and different kinds of candy and cookies to represent the different parts of the cell. Some students went all out and even used potato chips, ketchup, macaroni, cheese, tomato's etc. So you get the picture of what some of the most Disgusting ones looked like.
So this was a fun day for me and it was a great way of meeting new kids.

Homecoming Week

Last week was Homecoming week which is a real American tradition. The whole week they plan special things. Every day dress theme, like on pyjama day you could come to school in your PJ's, or dress up in Cape and Mask or as a Villain or a Super Hero. Not all students do it but some of them did dress up. So this years Homecoming theme was Super Hero and at the end of the week there is a Homecoming Football Game. There is a tailgater before the game and a parade of wagons made by each class in style with the Super Hero theme. After the Game they announce which wagon won, this year it were the Seniors with their Ninja Turtle wagon. I wonder if the Seniors always win, because I personally found that the Juniors' Spider man wagon was the best.
After the game they also announced the Homecoming King and Queen. Students vote for their King and Queen during the week. On Saturday they had the Homecoming dance and the dress code for that is formal and I think that is really cool. All the girls are dressed up in beautiful gowns and the guys in nice suits. with some of the YL JHS leaders we chaperoned at the Dance. There are also parents who chaperon, which is something that doesn't happen at a Dutch High school Dance. We served punch and helped out at what I call Baggage claim. They have a really nice system going here. all students could get a plastic bag with a number on it, to put their things in. the same number was written on their wrist. So at the end of the dance all the students came to collect their bag and we yelled out the numbers and ran to get the bags. it was great fun. Many of the girls had put their shoes in the bags and were dancing barefoot, probably because they started to hurt. so it was a fun and exciting week here in Jenison.