Week 25

The major event for this week was probably going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Mum and I went to this cinema type thing only it was a part of the whole spherical ceiling. It was really cool, because it felt like the seats were moving, not the display. We also went and saw all these stuffed animals. Some of the bears, especially the Alaskan brown bear, were massive. When we were in the Australian section, mum overheard a conversation between two other women talking about a song to do with a laughing bird; embarrassingly mum started singing "Kookaburra sits in the old gum-tree...". The whole museum was pretty cool. Saturday was my test for a Green belt. Although it might seem the other way round, all the little kids were kind of intimidating.
Sunday we went to the Boulder Jewish festival. It was pretty boring, the best things were the free water bottles and the various samples of drinks and ice-creams.

Week 24

This is our first week of the holidays and we're trying to get a cruise up to Alaska next week as our first major event. This week we had a cricket match on Sunday. It was a T20 which our team managed to win (amazingly). I only got to field, but I took a catch and a run out. We then caught a lift with another teammate whose daughter also came. On Monday, Dad and I went to the Atmospheric Research Center in Boulder, while Mum went for play-dates with two friends. We were all invited over to an Americans house on Tuesday. Went went for a walk, had lunch, and were entertained by Bert; a big parrot that could sometimes say hello, and loved to make cat sounds. That afternoon, Dad and I went for a round of golf! We got cramped with some other guys, a pom and a yank. It was lucky the yank was there, it made me look mediocre. I managed 1 par, and 1 birdie, and the rest > bogey.

Week 23

It's now the start of the holidays although we're staying in Colorado for about 2 weeks and then trying to fly to Seattle and catch a cruise up through Alaska. Last Wednesday and Thursday our school had two half days, which were the last days before the holidays. Wednesday was the advisory Olympics. All the Advisories (PCs) dress up in a set uniform (my advisory's was tie-dye, dad's was plaid), then we participate in heaps of different activities, like human pyramid, 3 legged race, egg toss, soccer shootout, tug o war, and the watermelon eating contest. My advisory didn't win many, but i think we got the spirit award since we had a boom-box, tent and energy bars. Even though it was really fun, it was such bad conditions. The past couple of days it had been raining and the field we were playing on was drenched. The winner of the tug o war was just the team that could find dry land. Two people had ankle injuries, one was a student called moose who broke his ankle falling in the tug o war, and the other was a teacher who was wearing flip-flops and got trodden on. It was hectic, a fire truck and an ambulance were called in. On Thursday, the last day of school, was exhibition day. It was pretty boring, but afterwards the whole school had a picnic, and I just hung around my friends for a while and went home. The rest of the week was no school, except for dad who had to go in on Friday for planning. Sunday we went to the Coal Creek festival to see what it was like. I found it to be just like an amplified market, although they provided lunch with all the free samples. Monday was memorial day, and we must have been the only people who didn't put up the US flag. They had the Bolder Boulder on as well, it's a run like the city to surf. While that went on we all went up to Chautauqua park to do the final flatiron. We're saving the best one for when we have visitors.

Week 22

This week has been really wet. All through the week it's been raining, and the precipitation in the mountains has been so much that most of the ski resorts have reopened, which is unusual. We've also been listening to the tornado warnings and sirens in our neighborhood. On Friday Mum went out with Kristy (Australian exchanger) to a tour of the governors mansion. Most of Saturday I spent finishing projects for school, like making a website and creating a casino game for Stats: Prob. On Sunday we all went for a tour of Gold Hill, an old mining town up in the mountains. We even brought the metal detector that dad bought but only found a couple of old rusty nails. Now I've got volleyball and need a Tie-dye shirt for Advisory Olympics tomorrow, despite the heavy rain.

Week 21

Just a routine week. Played some volleyball, mum went out to lunch with another new friend and dad played tennis and cricket. On Saturday night we had a barbeque with some other Aussies in the pouring rain. They decided to carefully move the $14 dollar barbie into the garage to keep it's value intact. You know dad!!! Sunday, while dad was playing cricket, I competed in the Rocky Mountain Karate Tournament. I was placed first in two events. After the long walk home we sampled the local Thai food for dinner. Only 8 school days left until Summer Break!

Week 20

Had a couple of things happen this week although not too important. Tuesday night I had another volleyball game, but the team still hasn't won a match. Wednesday I had humane society on again and that night karate. Nothing really on Thursday, but on Friday I only had a half day because of the exchange meeting that afternoon. We went into Denver and had a light lunch until exploring the state capitol, which was rather boring to me considering that I saw Australia's Parliament house last year. We got to talk to a lot of the representatives (one of which was a pom) and got to ask and answer some questions of the difference of education systems. Following the tour all the party-goers went out to a Mexican restaurant to have some dinner. I didn't think it was that good. Just after getting off the bus we found a woman laying on the grass at like 8:30. Mum was called in to help but couldn't do much. The main event however, was on Saturday. I had Karate in the morning and at about 5:30 in the arvo, us and our carers all went to the Moody Blues concert at Red Rocks. It was a spectacular view which you could see for miles and all the lights of the cities were really bright. If you asked mum or dad they'd say that the music was good too, but I didn't enjoy them very much. The other really weird thing that happened at Red Rocks was that we were sitting next to a group of people smoking dope, so I spent most of my time breathing in through my jumper sleeve. Afterwards we headed back home and got stuck in very heavy traffic trying to squeeze out of the Red Rocks parking lot. That was the first major event of the weekend, and the second one is my first American cricket game. The game was pretty poor (by our team). I was the not out batsmen at the end, with a grand total of one run, which was pretty good considering I only faced two balls, and better yet beat dad's golden duck (faced one ball and then got run out). The game wasn't very interesting either, but some American lady came down and watched. She said she didn't have anything else to do on the Weekends so she just comes and watches cricket. She was as red as a beetroot too. Other than that we've just been lazing around doing routine stuff. Today was Dad's birthday (54) and he spent it marking tests.

Week 19

Not too much happened this week but still had a couple of significant events. Had mainly usual school throughout the week with  two days off. I had Wednesday off to begin with because of the ACT's (tests for 11th graders) but still had to do Volunteer work at the humane society in the afternoon so didn't do much else. I also had Friday off because the teachers at school had training for if there was a shootout. I think dad got a few pictures with the SWAT team and the other services. Meanwhile, mum and I went shopping at the mall for clothes for the Disco on Friday night. It was so awesome because it had an actual theme that was followed; Casino Royale. There were tables set up with cards and poker chips, drinks and snacks, a photo shoot where you could pick up pictures in a keyring, a red carpet and loads of other things. Unfortunately there wasn't many people at all and it was apparently a bad night. We had a day of rest on Saturday and managed to cross off another Indian restaurant from our area and dad went to a pinball show and placed 18th, winning a prize at 16th. On Sunday we all went to our first (and probably last) baseball game. Our team got smashed and the weather was cold and the food was bad but other than that it was a good experience. The only other thing is that (apparently) Osama Bin Laden is dead and so there is much celebration accompanied by worry with this news. I've got a few pictures from Dad's shootout day.