Third week

Sorry for being late, but finally the third week is online... Monday was pretty usual, so i start with Tuesday: Today I met Rosie after school. We went to cinema together. Unfortunately she had to do homework and wanted to be at home already at half past eight, but it was a nice evening anyway.
Wednesday: The Yoga class after school was unfortunately cancelled. So I got home earlier than I expected and began practicing with my instrument early.
Thursday: Today we made a little movie in the afternoon class. We were re-enacting a TV-Show. We had two reporters, one sports-anchor, the weather-guy and me, the anchor. Our teacher Sarah recorded the whole story with the digital camera. If my classmates let me, I’ll put the video on the Blog, but perhaps they won’t. After school I went to the salsa class for the third time. It was fun, and I decided to go out dancing tonight after my Brass Band rehearsal. It was really strange, when I got to the dance club. There was only the light of the emergency exits and music from a battery-powered cd-player. While I was looking for people from school dancing on the dance floor, a guy talked to me and immediately recognized me as a Swiss person because of my accent. It turned out, that he was a guy from Switzerland who settled down to New Zealand six years ago. He, Carlo, is also a student of Catherine, our Salsa-Teacher and felt that I was a little bit lost, because I didn’t know anybody in the bar. So I started to talk to him and he introduced me to other students from Catherine. In the end it turned out, that my home, which is 40 minutes walk from the bar, is on his way home, and that’s why Carlo could give me a lift and I didn’t have to walk. Awesome.
Friday: After school (which finished at quarter past twelve, as usual for Fridays) I went with some other students and our teacher sarah to a thai-restaurant for lunch. The food there was really delicious, and I cost only nine NZ Dollar. Comparing to Switzerland really cheap. And because they knew we’re from the Nelson English Centre they even brought us free coke. At half past one, I met our teacher Ali and other students for an op-shop and second-hand-shop tour. Op-shops are shops similar to second-hand shops, but the difference is, that people who work in an op-shop are volunteers and everything to be sold is spent from people who doesn’t need it anymore. That’s why the shirt I bought was only four dollars. And the money raised by the op-shops goes to charity. After the shopping tour I got home and baked another lemon-cake. I took it with me to the social salsa dance this evening. First I wanted to go on foot, but as my host mother Jude heard it, she thought it would be too far away and she finally drove me there. I really enjoyed this evening and met a lot of new people, all Catherine’s students. The only pity was, that I didn’t understand “BYO”, means Bring Your Own, and the other people understood that as bring your own alcohol. But Catherine told me everybody will bring something to share, and that’s why I baked the cake. But never mind, I finally got some wine from one of the others, I felt just a bit silly. After dancing, especially with my dance classmate Mayumi, I went to a Pub in Nelson, together with Carlo, and enjoyed freestyle-dancing J. After that, I was able to go home with him, as the day before.
Saturday: Today I slept in. Perhaps it’s a bit unusual for New Zealand, because I felt, that my host parents were a bit surprised by it. So I got up at half past eleven and ate something before going to the band rehearsal at quarter to one. At one o clock I first practiced my solo with the piano player and the Band rehearsal followed at half past one. Today the people from Christchurch who are going to help us out for the contest, had come, and it was really great to play with them. I found that the whole band sounded much better and so I enjoyed the practice until half past five accordingly. Our Solo Trombone told us after the practice, that he’s going to play with the Nelson Symphony Orchestra at the Nelson School of Music this evening. That’s why I only went home for dinner and then went to the City again. And what a surprise! While standing in the queue for tickets, my salsa-partner Mayumi appeared with her host mother and host brother, because her host father was one of the violin players. It was really nice to meet these people and talk to them. We finally realised that my friend and bandmate Christoph from Switzerland will be living with them. Due to the lots of people I met I found someone to take me home and again I didn’t have to walk.
Sunday: The Band rehearsal started today already at ten o’clock. And because he had to be in the City already a bit earlier, Peter Goodman, the guy who had been giving me a lift for the last rehearsals, dropped me off at the band room already at half past nine. Enough time for me to have a serious warm-up. After some practice, we ate a pot luck lunch (lunch by sharing food brought from everyone). A great choice of different things came together, and I stuffed myself. But after lunch we only had to practice marching, so it wasn’t too bad. When I got home at half past two I felt terribly tired and lying on my bed I fell asleep very soon. Then I spent Sunday evening again blogging and chatting with my mother.