Dear ALL:

Howdy y'all.

I will be the first to respond to Enesti's post (as I am currently on skype with her)

Hi. How are you? How's your life been? I second Nesti's need for news.

When I think about all the changes I've been through over the last two years, it kind of blows my mind. And I imagine you've all gone through just as much, and I wasn't there to see it. I knew this would happen, and I was really sad (literally in tears) about it when I moved back here. But I think I've come to terms with it: It's less scary now that it's actually happened.

I've experienced a lot since we last left: I've been to five new countries since then (and several old ones) and done all sorts of crazy things: Swam in the Dead Sea, walked around a foreign city by myself, drastically changed my wardrobe (goodbye baggy t-shirts), started listening to different music, etc.

There's probably other things that I don't notice: I talk differently (more than just the accent switch). I carry myself differently. I have a completely different image of myself. And I kind of like the new stuff.

Leaving you guys was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But I didn't really exit your lives completely. The fact that I met you guys and lived with you guys and yes, left you guys, completely changed me as a person. And the knowledge that no matter what happens over here, you guys are still over there (except Hazel, but she's out there somewhere), and will always be my friends, is so important to me.

Looking forward to what y'all write,

Best Wishes
Rose

I'm still alive

Howdy Y'all.

Hey... *leans awkwardly against table* long time no see *table falls over* Um... I mean... I... *trips over shoelace* Dang it. I uh... *tries to run for it*

Lil Rose: Just say it already!

I'M SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED IN FOREVER, OKAY!

A brief update on my life because I should really get some sleep. Enesti's orders:

-I started Year 11 this month. I know, finally.
-Tamora Pierce wrote a new book and it's awesome
-It is cold here, and it's gonna get colder.
-NEW HP MOVIE HOLY ROWLING.

Lil Rose: Really, was that so hard?

Best Wishes,
Rosie

Summer!

Howdy Y'all!

It's finally summer holidays here! Three months of doing NOTHING.
false. I'm actually going to be running around all summer and am looking forward to it! I'm taking week-long writing classes later this month, then I go visit relatives on the East Coast. Then I go to camp (and will again be offline for a whole month.) then...
wait for it...
...
...
...
I'M GOING TO ITALY! WOOOOOOOO!
And that will bring me (finally) into year 11.

I miss you all. We need to skype soon or I may explode.

Best Wishes!
Rose

SUMMER

Howdy y'all.
Well, spring lasted about 24 hours here. I'm not even joking. It snowed like six inches (15 centimetres) last weekend, and this weekend it's 70 degrees out (21 degrees celcius) I'm wearing shorts, helping my mother in the garden, and biking. I biked ten miles today. (16.1 kilometres). It felt good.
Wow. Just realized that there's a lot of conversions there.

Anyway, cool stuff is happening. The Horse Expo's at the state fairgrounds right now. That means lots of pretty horses to see and lots of expensive horse equipment that I can't afford.

Only about 7 weeks left until summer holidays!

Best Wishes,
Rose

Vroom Vroom

Howdy Y'all.
So... I've been learning to drive. Woo!
It's probably different from how y'all learned to drive. First of all, I sit on the left and drive on the right of the road.
Second of all, I'm learning to use a manual transmission (aka stick shift.)
And let me tell you, it's HARD. I've been practicing for weeks and I can't even get into gear reliably.
Anyway, that's just one thing happening in my life at the moment.
So much for Blog Blitz 2013.
Miss y'all.
Best Wishes,
Rose

Supernatural has taken over my life.

Howdy y'all.
What happened to everyone having their own greeting? No one does that anymore except maybe Nira and me.

Anyways, at lunch today, my friend and I were trying to describe Supernatural to a friend.
What we came up with was:
99.99999999% of the characters have Daddy issues (or in some cases Mommy issues. Or both.)
Think about it.

I won't provide a list of characters with parental problems here because many of those would constitute spoilers.

But seriously. My friend and I came up with like two characters sans parental problems. And they were parents themselves with screwed up children.

Best Wishes,
Rose

Sick

Howdy y'all.

I am sick right now.
The tiny chickens invaded my skull overnight on Tuesday.
At maybe the worst possible time.

This week was officially named "Hell Week" by me.
We had standardized tests on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were easy reading tests, but still important because Universities look at them and also I've gotten perfect scores on them every year since year 3 when you start taking them and I don't think I did perfectly this year, so on the official records, I get negative achievement. It's a stupid system also it was invented by a certain president who was president before this one that nobody likes.

I am also sick of the weather. It's snowy and supposed to snow more this weekend.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Since we moved here 16 years ago, it has snowed in April maybe once or twice. But "Snow in April" means a few flakes that soon turn into rain and don't accumulate.
NOT EFFING WINTER WONDERLAND.
So that pretty much sucks because I haven't seen green grass since December.

Also, Day of Silence was yesterday. I organized it for my school. Yep never doing that again except I'll probably do it next year and the year after that anyways but HOLY CRAP it was like herding cats with an extra touch of dramatic, tearful, sh*t storms.

Enough complaining. It's finally the weekend!

Best Wishes,
Rose.

Murder for a good cause

Howdy y'all.
So... I killed a mouse today.
Well, I didn't kill it. I just watched as it was lowered into a box filled with dry ice and listened until it stopped moving and then harvested its organs.
I may or may not have mentioned, but I work at the University Stem Cell Institute every Tuesday. It's an independent study for Biology. My project is that I take the hearts of a special kind of genetically modified mouse and look at them under a microscope to see if there are any stem cells.
This is a tiny contribution to a really important field of research: No one is certain that there is such a thing as Stem Cells in the adult heart. That's why a heart failure can damage you for the rest of you life: your heart can't re grow the cells that died. If heart stem cells are found, a cure for heart failure could be developed and tons of lives could be saved.
In the mean time, I will be killing mice every week and slicing up their hearts. I think I'm in favor of using mice for research, generally speaking: you can genetically modify them and they'll still live as good or better a life as any mouse, until they are painlessly killed. I think it's kind of noble of them to sacrifice their lives.
But watching a terrified mouse die is really hard.
I'm just going to knuckle down and do it. What do you girls think?
Best Wishes!
Rose

HAPPY MISHAPOCALYPSE

Sorry Not Sorry.
-Rose

Nerd Confessions #2

Howdy y'all.
Nira's last post inspired me. I think we should all follow suit and talk about nerdy things we recently got into.

My latest thing? Game of Thrones.

If you don't know, Game of Thrones is a series of books by George R. R. Martin. (What is up with high fantasy authors and having "R. R." as their middle initials?)

Anyway, the books take place in a fictional world with lots of kings and knights and castles and stuff. The story centers around a noble house called the Starks of Winterfell. Stark is their family name. Winterfell is the land they rule over. The plot sort of grows from three major places: power in the kingdom, this girl named Daenerys who is the banished princess of the kingdom, and dark, threatening creatures that live north of the Wall that separates the kingdom from the northern wilderness.
The action is both emotional, political, and physical. I like how it's very complex and nothing's black and white.
I've also been warned not to like any of the characters because they're all going to die. I guess that counts as a spoiler, but oh well. If my friends up here spoiled it for me, I guess I can spoil it for y'all.

But it's no use. I get very attached to characters. I also like it when characters die. I'm part way through the second book and I have a kill list of all the best characters.
Except one.
His name is Jon Snow. He's the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell. And I most definitely do not have a crush on him.

The thing about Game of Thrones is that even though it has an interesting plot, there's lots of gratuitous sex and violence in there for no apparent reason. It's also super sexist and pretty much always shows women in a bad light. If a woman is ugly, there is no way for her to be feminine. If she's feminine, she's either a whore or weak or both. So I feel sort of bad for enjoying these books.

Something I find interesting is the historical parallels it draws. I recently read a book about the 14th century in Europe, and it talked a lot about politics and war. One thing I learned is that the peasants always got the worst of it: taxed into oblivion, pillaged, murdered, and raped, etc. And there is plenty of rape and pillage in GoT, but very little taxing. Also, the peasants rose up against their overlords every other decade. That hasn't happened so far. The books really hold true to the myth that the only important actors in a kingdom are the great nobles.

But I highly recommend that you read these books. Just remember to think critically about them. And maybe not discuss them with children under the age of 13.

Girls, Nira has started something. What sort of stuff have you gotten into recently that you didn't expect to?

Best Wishes,
Rose.

Is is Spring Yet?

Howdy y'all.

So... It's winter here. And it's going to be winter for another few months.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Here's the thing about where I live: It's winter wonderland for the last half of December, and then it get COLD. Like, negative degrees Fahrenheit. Then it snows a buttload. Then it rains some. Then the rain freezes. Then it is actually warm for a bit and you start getting spring fever in mid February. Then it snows and freezes a bunch until late March when it starts to slowly melt. Trust me, there will be snow on the ground until April.

OK. So this whole blog post so far has been about the whether. Boring.

Here is more about my life:

-Starting Drivers Ed tomorrow (10 classes, 3 hours each class. After school. Welcome to hell, population Rose.)

-Getting braces in a few weeks (additional hellishness)

-Maybe accidentally going to the statewide poetry recitation competition (long story)

-Gonna slice some mouse hearts up and look at them under a microscope and possibly cure heart cancer but probably not. (another long story)

-Going to start watching Star Trek. Thoughts?

Best Wishes!
Rose

Numbers

Howdy Y'all.

I've been thinking about numbers a lot lately.

So have we all: CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE ON NEW LANDMARKS INVOLVING NUMBERS. (see previous few posts.)

My own numbers are a bit more stressful. That's right: Rose is obsessed with her GPA again.

Look, I'm a pretty frakking awesome student. I have 6 As and a B. But I still freak out every time my grades change, even by 1%.

 And don't you tell me to chill. It would be like telling Hermione to chill about her grades. No would would dare do that except Ron and I'm not marrying YOU!

... that escalated quickly.

Anyways, does anyone else have this problem? How do y'all deal with it?

Best Wishes,
Rose

I AM GOING TO BLOG NOW

Howdy y'all.

Sorry for not having blogged in a while.

Not much is new in my life.

I started watching Supernatural. It's an American TV show that's been around for about 8 years. I recommend it to anyone who can deal with scary things jumping out of the shadows and some mature content. WARNING: very addicting.

It's really cold today. It's currently -23 degrees Centigrade but with the wind it feels like -35. Needless to say, I do not plan on leaving the house.

It's a three day weekend because today is Martin Luther King day. (I sincerely hope y'all know who that is Down Under...)

I also pulled a meter-long clump of hair out of the shower drain yesterday. It may be time to get a hair cut. (Actually kidding. I like my hair.)

My school's spring musical this year is The Sound Of Music, which happens to be my favorite movie musical ever. I wish I could have auditioned, but my schedule is too busy. I would have made an amazing Baroness.

Best Wishes!
Rosie

The four corners of the world

Howdy y'all.

So, I just finished reading a LONG email that Zara sent me from FREAKING FRANCE. Since the email was probably over a thousand words long, she asked me to blog for her so she wouldn't have to type it all up again.

So, Zara arrived in Paris and saw all the sights: The Eiffel Tower (at night!) and Notre Dame (so jealous) and the Louvre. She was unimpressed with the Mona Lisa, and I totally know what she means. The whole painting's about as big as an unfolded newspaper.

She is now safely settled in her temporary home. Her host family is nice, and her French is improving by the minute. School is hard, but she's having an awesome time.

WE MISS YOU ZARA! (I mean, I miss you about as much as I missed you before, but you're just having cooler adventures now.)

As for me, I'm enjoying the snow. Speedy (My horse, in case you forgot) is really improving. (I'm training him for competitions.) and it's almost Winter Holidays here.

Also, over Winter Holidays, I will be traveling to CROATIA. Because why not?

Best Wishes!
Rose.

A certain long-awaited occasion

Howdy y'all!

So, I just finished watching SEASON THREE EPISODES 1 AND 2 OF MY LITTLE PONY. It was actually not as good as I had hoped. BUT STILL.

/)*(\

In other news, this is my last day of free time for a week or so. I have play rehearsal every day for hours until the 17th, which is the final performance of Under Milk Wood. (Girls, I will try to get a recording of it for y'all.)
After that, I have a week off school for conferences and Thanksgiving. Oh, America.

Best Wishes!
Rose.

Cold, Homework, and Extra Curriculars.

Howdy Y'all.

I know. I'm sorry. I've been busy!

It has been getting progressively colder up here. It snowed earlier this week. I've been breaking out the wool socks and puffy jacket. Not to mention the gloves and hats and long underwear.

I think my teachers hate me. I have loads of homework. I have very little free time. Homework is about 40% of my existence right now.

Another 40% of my existence is extra curricular activities. I am in a school production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. It's a very... unusual play. Let's say that. Girls, I will be able to get a recording of it for you guys. DON'T JUDGE ME OR MY SCHOOL. Judge Ms. G, the director/ My year 7 and 8 English teacher. She's crazy. But cool. Did I mention that it's a very unusual play? The cast calls it '50 shades of Bizarre.'

I've also got Debate and Horses. Not to mention trying to maintain a social life. Also, my school requires that we do 30 hours of community service each year. So there's that.

Life is busy.

Girls, if we don't skype soon, I will definitely go insane.
Best Wishes!
Rose

Good Morning.

Howdy y'all.

It's actually 5:30 PM...

I seem to have fallen asleep for several weeks and therefore not posted much recently. Sorry about that.

Not much happened, because I was asleep. In my dreams, I went to school a lot. That's about all.

I will try to be more active.

Best Wishes!
Rose

*crickets chirping awkwardly in background*

Howdy y'all.

So... I've sort of not blogged all week or something. Sorry 'bout that. I shall try to do better.

Not much is new with me, really. Horses. School. Friends. (And by friends, I mean Horses.)
but not really.

We watched The Coolest Girl in school the other day. (From AVPS). It was my idea.

My friend informed me that I talk about my horse like he's my boyfriend. That was a thing.

I also have to take Health for two hours a week for about fifteen weeks this year. It's a graduation requirement and apparently all the health I took down under doesn't count. @!#$%&$*@#?**!!!
Anyways, on the first day of Health, I literally had to explain to a certain unnamed idiot in the class that Asexuality does not refer to a person who can reproduce by themselves. After I did so, the teacher told me she saw a future for me in sex education. NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO OH GOD WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I walked up to a guy wearing a red T-shirt in Target the other day and asked him for help finding something. (We were there to buy a printer.) He then informed me that he actually didn't work there. It was really embarrassing.

I'm not sick anymore, but now both my parents are. It's not contagious. No idea how this happened.

Tomorrow is Spirit Week at my school. Do schools even do spirit week over there? Anyways, there's a theme for every day. Monday is Mustache Monday. Then there's Formal Tuesday, Everyone-in-your-homeroom-dresses-the-same Wednesday,  and Hat Thursday. On Friday, we have to have this Homecoming Field Day with our sister school. I'm not looking forward to it. On Friday, we all have to wear the school colours. (Note that my school does not have uniforms and most people have no idea what the f*ck our school colours are. I thought they were green blue and white because half our sports teams are called the Rapids, but apparently this year they're black and yellow, because the other half of the sports teams are called the Stars. Last year they made us wear blue green and white.)

The one thing that's going to be interesting on Friday is that last year, on Homecoming Field Day, it was my last day of school up here. So my friends sort of turned it into an All-About-Rose day. Definitely feeling the time slipping away here. I miss y'all.

Also, NEW CHAPTERS ON POTTERMORE! woo!

Best Wishes!
Rose

Ya know, the norm.

Enesti: Hey hey

E:  GUESS WHAT?????
...... come on.... guess...

Zara: My missing hair ties are climbing Mount Everest?

Rose: A giant green-striped armadillo set up camp in the assembly hall?

Nira: Little Enesti is leaving us to go yodelling around Europe?!

Hazel: The clouds are turning green?

Little Enesti: A purple mosquito the size of small dog danced the tango?

Enesti: Ahhhhh No

Zara: A microscopic, orange owl just delivered chocolate cake?

Rose: A turquoise dolphin ate my grandmother's second favourite purse?

Nira: That jellyfish shaped piece of pizza is actually wasabi flavoured?

Hazel: My plum bubblegum jumped off a cliff?

Lil E: You fell on your head and suddenly had super powers due to brain damage? 

Enesti: Oi! No

Zara: The Jade elephants in the lounge room are responsible for the abduction of the the sunshine?

Rose: All our socks have gone into revolt and are standing on the picket line?

Nira: Your silver tap-dancing mousse broke the world hot tea sipping record?

Hazel: Giant man eating plants are taking over the world?

Lil E: A DALEK EXTERMINATED YOUR PET WHALE!!!!!

Enesti: HAHAHAHAHAHA   NO

E:  THIS BLOG HAS EXISTED FOR A YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Everyone: YAY!!!!!

Enesti: Now a little reminder of the blog's past.

Zara: I've seemed to have blogged more than Nira and Hazel combined. Creating the blog's theme with the help of my gorgeous girls and taught Rose a little about Australia. Most importantly, being able to be silly with my friends and just talk with them all the time, and letting other people know about us.

Rose: I came in sometime in January (?) and have since spent a lot of time babbling on about my life. I have moved back to 'Up Here' *tear* and educated the readers about how weird 'Up Here' people are. Oh, and I posted the 200th blog post!

Nira: I introduced the blog to the little authors, I informed our readers about drop bears (Look up, stay alive) and I  have managed to blog about mainly random stuff.

Hazel: I hold the record for the longest time of not blogging. I have been able to blab on about my boring life and have been able to stay connected with my favourite girls.

Lil' Enesti: So I-
Enesti: Oi, this is me, not you. Well I got to post the 100th post. I have become much better at posting thanks to BEDOS. I have the most annoying mini me and but I love her anyway. I have generally just loved being able to see how my best friends' lives are going and share the weirdness with them and all reader.

Enesti: And a hope for the future

Zara: I hope that we can all keep telling our stories and sharing the magic of friendship with everyone.

Rose: I hope to manage more group posts with the other authors.

Nira: I really would like to blog a lot more, and actually post about stuff that is relevant to our lives.

Hazel: I wish to blog more, especially group blogs.

Enesti: Me, I wish to remember to post on my blog day and therefore encourage others to do so.

Lots of love from Zara

Best Wishes

Nira out

Peace out, Hazel

Bye.

and

HAPPY BLOGVERSARY 

What the eff is Pedagogy?

Howdy y'all.

To answer the question posed by the title, Pedagogy (pronounced ped-a-go-jee) is studying how people learn. Like big schools vs. small schools, etc. My school (often described as a 'hippie school') is kind of obsessed with what they call 'pedagogy of place' Which is like how where you learn affects how you learn. (This isn't relevant at most schools, until you realize that my school is two renovated office buildings and we have exactly zero normal-looking classrooms. Also, we have a classroom in a garden.) Anyways, the whole thing is sort of boring to me, because I think that learning takes place in your brain. But my teachers will not shut up about it. So you know what?

I've decided something.

Yeah, where you learn affects how you learn.

For example, I would learn SO much more if I was at Hogwarts.

Best Wishes!
Rose