New Years Day!

 

The Karpluk's have a very fun tradition were they go to Pauls Lake on New years day. Almost the whole family go. We created an ice hockey rink and started skating around playing ice hockey. We also had beers around a camp fire that was on the ice (weird) and really we just enjoyed each others company! It was a very Canadian way to start the new year and I loved it!! :)

Christmas with the Karpluk's!

The Kapluk's were an amazing family to spend my first white Christmas with. As soon as I stepped through their doors I was immediately part of the family! The Karpluk's live in a city called Kamloops. It has about 85,000 people. Although to NZers that is a big city, to Canadians it is rather small. The city had a small town atmosphere and I soon found out that everybody knew everybody! I describe it as a big Alexandra. All around is brown hills and a river running through the middle. It gets cold in the winter and very hot in the summer, just like Alex.

 In the photo above is Mama Karpluk (Janice) who is sitting directly in the middle. On either side of her are Cara and Steen who are twins and recently turned 21. Then on the floor is Nicholas (23) who was kind enough to give up his room for 3 weeks and sleep in the basement! Thanks Nicholas!! Unfortunately Papa Karpluk (Lindsey) had to take the photo but he is still remembered by his Bob Marley hat and his love for sport (especially basketball)!

During my 3 weeks with The Karpluk's I watched about 11 basketball games. Managed, finally, to beat Steen in Ping Pong. Met the extended version of their family (which is huge) and learnt to play guitar and drums on band hero ( like sing star but with guitar and drums as well)!

On Christmas day they were incredibly generous and I felt like I got more presents then Nicholas did. I also had my first stocking which is the giant Canadian mitten in the above photo. I was very excited about that!

Band Hero was incredibly popular. On the really cold days  of winter we would stay inside and play rock songs to our hearts content. Once we played it for 4 hours straight. After that we had to go for a walk!! In the photo on the right is myself along with Cara and some cousins and Aunties playing and singing away. This was after New Years Day dinner!!

Ladysmith Light-up

Canada seems to go quite crazy over Christmas time with all their decorations and lights that go up. But no town is more crazy then Ladysmith. As soon as Halloween is over off goes the Halloween decorations and out come the Christmas ones! Millions of lights are put up all over the town and they have a festival called the Ladysmith Light-up, festival of lights! All of the lights down the main street are turned of until Santa turns up! Then the millions of lights are turned on and the fireworks begin.

In the photo above is Myself, Kate Scurr (left) and Kara Pearson (right). These were the 2 lovely ladys who accompanied me on the trip. We had great fun watching the fireworks and dancing to the music on the street. Hot chocolate was the favourite of the night has it was freezing!

Halloween

I apologize for not writing more often on my blog. Life in Canada is busy and I often forget to take photos.

Halloween at Queen Maragrets School was like a holiday in which everyone had to come to school. This photo is of the Kindergarten kids after they had paraded around the school in their many different outfits. There are 2 witches, 2 princesses, a cat , a police officer, Cat in the Hat, a Ladybird, Mario, a Bumblebee, a Cow Girl and a Firefighter Princess. Altogether I thought they wore a great assortment of outfits and the rest of the school thoroughly enjoyed watching them parade around! 

Even I dressed up and went as the classic Winnie the Pooh. I was not the only one with this clever idea however and there turned out to be a Big Winnie and a Minnie Winnie!! :)

In the back row is Mr Schnieder (french teacher) who wore the most humorous costume of the day. Dressed up in a Victorian Princess dress he has been the joke of the school all year!