Feeling Sad

Today was the last day of our homestay, I really had a great time with my host family, they took me to a store that recreates the past and mixes it with the present, they sell toys and things that people used to have and use, it was a nice experience. Then we went to Boone and we had pizza, the pizza was delicious. My host family lent me a guitar to keep myself entertained, that was a nice gesture. In the morning before coming to Boone we had a last jamming session with the kids, they liked the chords I showed them for the Smooth Criminal song, and after the jamming session they showed me a couple of videos that they liked, Camy made some hot chocolate with some of the candy they got, they love candy a lot.

I got back to the hotel at 3 and I went to pick the things from the room, then I practiced a couple of songs on the guitar, and I watched the movie "The sixth sense" I had seen it before a long time ago but it was nice to see it again, it is a good movie, then I went to wallmart to buy some deodorant and orange juice.

Here are some of the pictures I took today.

 The place where their house is is very nice there are a lot of trees.

 Another of the views that you can get.

 This is their house it is beautiful and very comfortable.

 That's the store I was talking about, it is interesting to see how they haven't forgotten the past and even more so how they adapt it to fit their present.

 Inside the store, as you can see it was very crowded, but it's because tourist like to come and see it, the house is old and some of the things are very old too. The store was re opened 30 years ago.

 A group was playing in the place and I took a picture, the man told me I had to leave a tip right away :)

 They are the kids, next to an old post office that is still working in the present time.

 These are the mailboxes and people that live nearby come and still pick their mail here.

 Outside with my host family and two of their best friends, the only one missing is Tracy.

Well that is it, I am done, I am going to play the guitar a bit, it was sad to say good bye to them, but maybe I will see them in another occasion, I was glad to stay with them, and to eat after a long time some homemade food, it was great by the way.

Homestay

Well yesterday after the test I went to the hotel to fix the things and move them to a new room, then I went to a store to buy a couple of things that I needed, I got to the hotel like at 5:00 pm so I had a cup of coffee and stayed near the fire to relax a little bit.
Then John came to the hotel and picked me up, and he showed me around town, they have these places called General stores (if I remember correctly) they were the first stores to be in this place and you could buy basically anything you needed. The stores are still here and they haven't changed at all which makes tourists curious and makes the stores very visited. For dinner we had salmon, asparagus, and potatoes, the food was delicious, I had missed so much the taste of homemade food, The kids were at a dance so they ate pizza at school, both of them are very nice and very talented, today in the morning we played with the instruments they have. Then we went to see a soccer game Brooks had, they tied 3 to 3, it was fun to see the parents support their kids and to see the kids play with a lot of energy. The weather has been interesting, it was snowing in the morning, they call it "wimpy snow" cause it's too week to really cover the ground :)
Right now I am in the living room near the fire and relaxing, they truly have a beautiful house and a wonderful family, I am so happy to be here with them.

 This is the living room were I am writing the blog and relaxing.

 This is their dog she is very calm and friendly, she likes to be pet.

 This is their kitchen, it's really big and beautiful.

 This is the view from the dining room John told me that in occasions you can see a deer outside.

 This is their house the little dots you see are rain drops sorry I couldn't get rid of them.

 They are the kids Camy and Brooks, they are really nice and talented, they are very polite and they show a lot of interest for different things, they are great.

This is the soccer field where Brook had his game, it was snowing a bit but it didn't stop the kids from playing.

Well that is it for today, I will go outside and take some sun before it gets cloudy again. :)

Testing !!!! :)

Well today was a calm day Ron has a test today so there was just a review, I have learned new words and expressions while being here. I am a bit worried because we have to go back to the hotel today and start preparing our things since we won't have the room for the weekend, we are going to stay with our host families, and everybody was sure that we would have a room and many of my friends left their things in my room, now I have to go back and carry everything to another room, dad blast it!! but I can do that fast, so I won't worry.

 I like this Poster, most of the classes have really funny and interesting posters, I think that is great it kinda gives a new feeling to things.

This is Ron's first class they are doing the test, they are very nice kids, very polite, funny and they are very smart, some of them are using words in Spanish when they talk around me, I think that it's a nice gesture, being here has actually changed the image I had of Americans, Boone has a very strong community connection, everything is very clean and they have a huge respect for nature, they are also very slim :) I love it here and I will miss this place and the people that live here so much.

Well that is it, I will write later when I have more pictures.

Ahhhh Going crazy

Well it was an interesting day today, we went to Watauga High School and observed the classes, Ron the teacher I am working with is a really nice guy, he is very funny and very talkative. We had 3 classes then in the afternoon we had lunch and that was it, so Ron took me to Wallmart and we bought some flowers for the reception they had for us at 4. The cooking teacher prepared the food with her students, it was really good, we had fruits and vegetables and orange juice :) then after the reception Ron and Robin took us to go for a walk at Blowing Rock, and he told us about the houses and how much they are worth, it was amazing I got some good pictures of the place, the prices of the houses are amazing, the view they have is great to and the location is perfect if you want to relax. During the walk we were talking about some Southern expressions people use, it was fun, I learned expressions like "How you all doing", and "Dad blast it" or "Bless her heart". Both of them are really fun to be with and they are so nice.
We went to have dinner at a restaurant in the mountain, there was a group playing Bluegrass, they were good. I had a turkey sandwich which was good and an orange juice, Ron had a Salad and Robin and Lucky had Beans with rice.
And now I am here in the Hotel, I feel sad cause I can't find something that I am looking for, I just hope that with the power of mind I can find what I need to be better.

 This is Ron's class it is big and they have a bunch of neat things in it.

 This picture was taken from one of the windows of the hall, they have a spectacular view here.

 I liked the statue and the house was nice.

 here we are walking the place is nice and very calm.

 This is Ron and Robin they are great people we had lots of fun with them.

 Me and Ron.

 The houses are stuck to the mountain, I like the style but i don't know if I would live here.

 A house I liked very stylish.

 A house attached to the mountain :) the view is great.

 I love the phrase it was near a lake after the walk.

 With Robin and Lucky from Cambodia

This is the view from the Restaurant it was beautiful.

well gotta go I am waiting for the people to take out their clothes so I can do my laundry see you next time you all have a great day.

With a beautiful phone call to start the day

Well today was great and at the same time tiring, we went to a Homecoming event where all the ex-students come back, the day started with a parade, the topic was Rock the World and the people here had some floats decorated with flags and they played some music, some actually took the instruments with them on the floats, they also threw a lot of candy and it was so sweet to see this little girl probably 2 or 3 picking them up every time she had a chance, sooo sweeeeeet

We went to this really cool rock shop and I saw a couple of things that I would like to buy, specially because I think that I can be recognized anywhere since I am using always the same clothes :) and I am worried cause I think that I am not fashionable enough :D, it was actually an example of what power of mind is because I was thinking about getting some T-shirts and when we got to the stadium I got 2 for free, how cool is that!!!, near the stadium there were a lot of tents and they had information for the students but they also had food which was a good thing, I got up late and couldn't have breakfast, the food was great, and I saw my Host family for next weekend, they are so nice and very polite, I will have a great time with them, they asked me if I wanted to do something while I was with them and I took the liberty of asking them to take me with them on trick or treating :)

  As you can see there were a lot of people there.

Then we went back to the hotel because I had left my camera and a friend had forgotten her ticket for the game :D

The game was great a lot of people attended, even though I didn't understand the rules I had a great time, it was interesting because before the game started there was a fight, don't know about what, but it ended and people kept on watching the game, our team won!!!!! 35 to 10 the other team was smashed :)

  This was after the game ended, they played their victory song and that was it, now I am going to bed cause it is late and I have a Hiking trip tomorrow so good night.

I want to Sundance in these cloudy and cold days

Yesterday was Estonia's Read out-loud day and we got together with a lot of friends, we looked for some poems and we had to read them in our own language, it was a very nice experience, I really enjoyed listening to the different languages and the accents people have, I felt bad because I couldn't find a good poem to read a poem that could be meaningful, but this experience taught me that I should start reading more and that I should investigate more about the different artist we have.
This trip has taught me so many things and has open my eyes to a whole different perspective about life. We also went shopping yesterday and even though I am not a big fan of shopping I had a great time, I went out of the store while I waited and I took some pictures from Boone Mall.

I took this photo because I liked the way the house looked up on the hill surrounded by trees.

I love the town the place is really quiet and calm and the surroundings are beautiful.

I wanted to show in this picture the colors you can see on the mountains, they are really beautiful, unfortunately the light was not the right one.

I had heard of this book on some shows and when I saw it in the book store I knew I had to take a picture.

well that's it for today if I take more pictures then I will upload them as soon as possible :)

Got Scolded

Well it was an interesting day today, yesterday I went to sleep at 3:00 in the morning because I had to do my laundry :) so in the morning I woke up really late and I was unable to have breakfast :( and I arrived late to class 10 min late, but then the rest of the day was great I had a great time with my friends here in the US. We went shopping to Walmart and we got some ingredients to prepare sandwiches and I got a big box of beer for the rest of the week :D, oh! and well the reason of the title for this blog is because I have a very good friend who I appreciate a lot, and she scolded me for not using my punctuation marks and capital letters, so that is why I am trying to use them a bit more :D well that's it, today was a normal day, I had breakfast and I caught the bus just in time, we came and had classes, I learned new things and got some new ideas, probably the best thing of this day was that I felt really good being next to people that I love and appreciate and to keep learning from different cultures and seeing the similarities and differences that we all have.

SunDance

 well i wanted to write about this adventure i had going to new york, we got to Charlotte in the morning and we stayed there for a couple of hours, then we went to get some information on how to get to the bus station, probably one of the biggest changes in the feelings that you have about a trip are the comments people make about the places, in this occasion the woman giving us the information told us that the place where the bus station was located was a dangerous place so you can imagine how my feelings changed, when we got to the bus station the place was empty there were only chairs there and a lovely carpet (sarcasm) which made the whole place a bit sinister :) then we got on the bus, but the feeling continued finally i got some sleep and i was able to relax a bit, when we got to new york we stopped in China Town and the place was quite interesting we decided to take a cab to the hotel, which was a good idea cause i had no idea on where to go or what to do, when we got to the hotel we decided to look for Time Square

Picture taken in New york

we went on this tour around New York and it took us to China Town like 5 times in one day which was funny, we went to Ruby Tuesday to have dinner and i must say that the service there was great and the food was also really good, then the next morning we decided to take the boat and see the view which was also very nice but of course to have a good day we had to do the sun dance, and it actually worked :) we had a sunny day

Picture taken from the boat

after taking the boat trip and we decided to have some pizza it was delicious and the curious thing was that the pizza guy  had the stereotypical italian american accent which made it very funny for me

Pizza it was molto benne (don't know if that's how it is written but i don't care :) )


so after pizza.... no wait before the pizza we went to the Empire State Building to enjoy the view, buying the ticket is fast but getting there takes a long time almost an hour and a half, i wonder if walking to the 86 floor would be easier than waiting in line?? well anyway the view was great, the wind was blowing really strong so you could actually feel the building moving but it was nniiiceee... here is a picture of what you can see there.

:) Scary!!!

well and then we just walked around enjoying the city, looking at the shops and having a real good time remembering the Sun dance and how it helped the day be a bit brighter.

then we went back to Charlotte and this time we had a lot of time before the bus went back home so we decided to go to the museum and wow it was awesome it's really a neat place to learn and to share here are some pictures of fish you can see :) well you can see other things but i can't use all the pictures i have because the all have Copy Right :) (yep a really good friend of mine took the pictures because my camera died :( and she didn't have space so we shared :) )

mmmm.... well that's about it oh! P.S. cheap doesn't necessarily mean better, trust me on this one :D

Boone Trail

Today was a great day we went to this beautiful place and hiked 5 miles (a lot for someone like me) the view was amazing tall trees and leaves changing colors, beautiful waterfalls and a lot of places where to jump (I don't wall climb but i love to find places to climb and test my fear of highs and since i can't climb down i decide to jump) all of this exercise was nice, we spend a lot of time studying and making our brain work that sometimes it's just fun to forget about things and admire nature and all the things it has, i tried to look for some caterpillars since we want to enter a caterpillar competition here in Boone, :D so i am leaving a couple of photos i took i hope you enjoy them and that they help to give you an idea on where to travel.

this photo is of a tree eating a rock :D

I liked this picture, i had to jump from one stone to the other, I almost fell into the water, which was cold :)

this is a photo i liked and that i wanted to share with you.

some fungus growing on a tree on the way

and finally a place i liked just because, by the way i saw these two trees one on each side of the river and i was surprised because even though they were far from each other they were able to find themselves, unfortunately i couldn't take a picture sorry :(

Late at night

today was a great day we went country dancing and it was absolutely incredible, the whole dance is interesting and fast, it's actually a lot of exercise, I enjoyed every second I had, listening to live music and dancing gives you a whole different feeling, and the people were so nice, even though I made a lot of mistakes, but it's definitely an experience I would recommend if you are ever in Boone; people usually talked about personal space and how people in the states are sensitive about something like that, but this kind of dancing shows completely the opposite, people become more united and share much more, it was a great experience, well i have to go now it's officially 3:14 in the morning here in the states so i have to go and sleep now, i wish everybody a good night and i advise you never to let opportunities of experiencing a different culture go by  it's amazing what you can learn about people in just one dance.

October 6th, 2011

Boone is a beautiful place, the people here have been very nice and friendly, every day that goes by I feel more comfortable being here, the weather is nice, and crazy at the same time it's interesting to see how it can change so rapidly, I have been enjoying the whole trip, I met some people from another country and they have been so much fun, the only sad thing is to think that we have very short time, thinking about it makes me sad, it's like being homesick before departure, just want to let the people that I have met in this trip know, that a part of me will always be there with them and that I will always be there for them.

Police Car Kinda scary, I thought I was going to be arrested for having Malaria (joke), the difference between the cars we have in Guatemala is completely different from the ones here, also security is quite different, can you believe that I have left my computer in the Living Room of the hotel :) and nobody has taken it, I don't know if it's because the computer doesn't look that expensive or if it's because they think it might be an honesty test :D but walking on the streets has been a delight for me specially when I have very good company to walk and talk with.