Christmas Eve

Well, with the very creative title there, it most definitely is nearly Christmas! Every single box has been ticked - school has finished, we've had our Monster Turkey youth event, I've seen the Coca-Cola ad, I've finished my advent calendar, I've done the Christmas cleaning, I've again un-creatively done the serviettes for Christmas dinner tomorrow, we have lots of presents under our tree and we've had our annual family trip to the cinema. Don't you just love traditions!
Actually I've spent most of today in a very un-festive mode, finishing off my English coursework (explore the ways in which Shakespeare portrays the character of Henry V throughout the play Henry V) but it was a job worth doing.
I am now about to go out to a party until half ten, which should be very fun!
And I am suitably excited about Christmas as is probably evident. I'm sure I shouldn't still be this excited each year, but there we go.
So, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Benj's Birthday

I have just come back from about an hour and a half of falconry, which we went to in honour of Benj's birthday! He is 14 today, which is very scary, and he absolutely loved doing the falconry. He got to tempt them down onto his hand and carry them, as well as help to train them for a bit. The guy doing it was really good, friendly and knew what he was doing, so that was ok. One of the birds rather scared me at one point though, by taking off from his hand to land on my head! It was very fun once it was there, I just hadn't expected it.
Benj also got a fish tank for his room this morning, which he is very pleased with - although personally I still have my doubts as to whether he'll remember to keep it up all the time!
He has 2 friends coming over this evening, which means I can thankfully disappear :)
I have actually been ill for the past 3 days and am still not on top, and at present am absolutely freezing, but I think I'm getting better. I hope I am, anyway, because I refuse to be ill over Christmas.
And that is all I have to say, really. I swear Benjamin cannot be 14 already, but apparently he is, so there we go!
Happy Birthday Benj.

Berlin

I got home from Berlin at about 8:30 yesterday evening, very very tired but having had a brilliant time.
I had to be up bright and early on Friday to be at school for 7:30, and from there we travelled to Luton and flew to Berlin Schonefeld with EasyJet. I get on really well with my German group so it was lovely to be going with them. We also went with the Upper Sixth, but there are only 3 of them and they knew none of us so were just as scared about that as we were! They were all lovely though, and everyone got on brilliantly, so that was good.
We visited tons of Christmas Markets; they are absolutely amazing. The atmosphere is just so friendly, and I think really special as well. Lots of nice food and nick-nack stands to look at too! We also went shopping in the actual shops - KaDeWe, largest department store in Europe, and many of thehundreds of H & Ms which seem to be in Berlin.
As well as shopping we played tourist. We visited the Reichstag, which was incredible - it's really high and there's no roof so you look out onto the sky. We also visited the Fernsehturn, or TV tower, which has a revolving restaurant in it. That was very fun!
We saw quite a few remnants of the Wall, which was more sombre, and also went to the Holocaust Memorial and a Jewish Museum. We actually found the museum quite interesting, and we didn't nearly finish all of it - I think we faffed around too much, thinking it would be boring, but there were enough hands on activities to make it interesting and informative.
My feet ached sooo much, we walked everywhere! We also took the U-Bahn quite often, which is really funny because the German people just stare at you the whole time. They didn't even look away when we looked back, it was very disconcerting!
Oh, the other very amusing part of the trip was our cinema visit - they were determined that we would go and see a film in German. So we decided to go and see Narnia, got there, watched the adverts, got to the trailers and they were all in English. Hmm. Got to the film, by which time we were all slightly hopeful that it might just be in English after all, and hooray! It was! The film was really good, I loved it. Obviously, knowing the book very well, there were some parts I wish they'd kept which they didn't, and some parts they made up which I found slightly bizarre, but on the whole it was just fantastic. I would definitely recommend it.
Our teachers were mortified though. They asked at the end of the film how come it hadn't been in German, and the attendant said, "Oh, all our films are in English at this cinema!" That I found just hilarious.
I'm actually very pleased because I'm not too tired, and I don't have any outstanding work to do. I had a brilliant time, and anyone who's considering going to Berlin, you definitely should! And visit a Weihnachtsmarkt!!

Parents' Evening

So this may be a slightly bizarre way to describe my parents' evening, but I found it really fun!
I was quite worried about some of it, and I'd never actually been to my own parents' evening before. I still think it's weird to have to go. They should at least change the name if we do!
But anyway, my first appointment was with my History teacher who is absolutely lovely and amazing, and she was really positive, so that meant I was less nervous about everything else. In her lesson yesterday we had to portray the second reign of Edward IV in different ways, randomly given out to us (namely a chart, a visual diagram, freeze frames, a poem, or a song). So my group got the song, and we made it up to the tune of Amazing Grace, and had to perform it. It was almost scary but hilarious, and so she liked me because of that! :)
My French teachers were really positive as well, which I was glad about because I've tried hard.
My English teachers, much to my surprise, told me they thought I could take it on to a higher level (i.e. uni) and expected me to receive a top-level grade. I was quite stunned!
My German was good as well, my teachers are lovely, and they said I was very enthusiastic!!
So hooray, panic diverted. And Mum wasn't too embarrassing either!

Seven Things

Well I suppose I'm going to get coerced into doing this, one way or another, so I may as well do it now!

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Get old!
2. Get married and have kids - lots!
3. Write at least one book
4. Move to France
5. Time travel
6. Meet faeries
7. Help combat poverty, as far as I can

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Walk in a straight line
2. Geography, of any sort at all
3. Stand people talking French in an English accent
4. Like my sister, write with my right hand
5. Resist chocolate
6. Live with any sort of mess
7. Stop talking!

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
Hmm...not applicable!!

Seven things I say most often:
1. You must be mad
2. I know!
3. Oui (I detect a French vibe in my answers)
4. Please/Thank you
5. Sorry
6. Hello (my brother says I say a sound similar to "hiyee" rather than hello, but there we go!)
7. Only (however many) days till Christmas!

Seven Books I love:
1. The Ordinary Princess by M.M.Kaye
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix
4. This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
5. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
6. The Narnia Chronicles by C.S.Lewis
7. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Seven Movies I would watch over and over again:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. The Little Mermaid
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. The Princess Bride
5. The Sound of Music
6. A Matter of Life and Death
7. Lord of the Rings/Star Wars - I was split

Seven people I would like to join in too:
1. Harriet
2. Benj - as if!
3. Sophie
4. Mim
5. Mark and Heidi - my list is becoming similar to Sarah's!
6. Anna
7. Abbie

Well that's taken me far longer than it ought to have done, I found it really tough! I am just far too indecisive!