OMG I have a snake!! 😀

Heeyy everyone!! Here an update again from the USA! While I’m writing this a snake is watching me and it is snowing outside! SNOW!! Jayyy!!

Last week was a pretty normal week for me. I had to make up some tests because I missed those when I was in Wichita and it was the week before thanksgiving. With Zoology we could choose an animal to take home over thanksgiving break if you wanted to. Of course I wanted to take an animal home. It is a new experience. My school in the Netherlands didn’t really have animals like Chinchillas, Snakes, Gerbils, Frogs or Turtles. I made my top 5 with 3 snakes, a gecko and the hamster. Later the teacher let me know I could take the Ball Phyton home. Of course I was happy! The snake is so cool!! You can pick this snake easily up. So you don’t hear me complaining.

I could take the snake home on Thursday after school. My hostmom picked me up then. This weekend I wasn’t home to watch the snake. But the snake doesn’t need much. When we came home I saw the snake changed skin. So now I have a part of snakeskin in my room too. The snake will be here until after Thanksgiving break. That is next week.

This weekend I went to Milwaukee for my first pack race. This is like shorttrack on a 400 meter track. We left on Friday and ate at Cafe Hollander in Milwaukee. There was a poster in Dutch and it took a while until I found out it was Dutch. The food was really good there!

The pack races began on Saturday. It was fun to do! I wore all my shorttrack gear for safety because we were with more people in the track. There were two different meets. The first one was the Gold cup (on Saturday). Here we had the distances: 800meter, 500meter, 1000 meter and 1500 meter. I got 3rd on the 800, 500 and the 1000 and 4th or 5th on the 1500 (not sure which place I had). Overall I finished 3rd and 2nd of the juniors, Hannah got 1st. After the races we could do a fun race. This was 6 laps. I did this, after 2 laps my legs were already tired so it wasn’t that much fun.
Sunday there was another meet. It was also a pack race. We were with 8 people total. We only needed to skate 3 times. The 500, 1000 and 1500 meters. I finished 5th on the 500 and 1000 and 6th on the 1500 I think. Former Olympian skater Katherine Reutter got first. She didn’t count for the medals. But I got 4th then. So I just missed a medal.

Here a video of the race Saturday. You can see me a couple of times. First time on 28 seconds. You can recognize me with my Netherlands shorttrack helmed and a Glenn Ellyn suit (black/red, GESS on legg).:

This week I have the whole week off because of Thanksgiving, which is Thursday. This is a typical day in the USA (and I think also in Canada) where people are thankful for things I think. I don’t know what exactly. But I know they celebrate it with a lot of food. We will go my hostgrandma and hostgrandpa. I think it will be fun!
Friday is black Friday. A lot of stores have sale then and of course I want to experience this. I think I will go somewhere with my hostfamily then.

I also heard today my brother is going to the World Cup shorttrack in Seoul, Korea. This is awesome!! I’m a proud sister!

Have a nice day everyone! I don’t know when my next blog will be so check my facebook for small updates! 🙂