After leaving the land where they say Fish & Chips funny, we went to the land where they say Ketchup, sweater and eraser!
My first American school was Broken Arrow Elementary School in Shawnee, Kansas. We lived in the suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas, and it was as awesomely mid-western American as you can get. I loved living there! I loved no uniform, the seasons (the above photo was from an ICE STORM!), the class parties (we had one every holiday- Valentines, Halloween – you name it!) but I especially loved my friends there 🙂 A few of them feature in the below photos but not all of them. They made the four years there incredible!
This was my first Halloween in America and I went as a witch – I’m on the top left!
Kelsey was my buddy on day one and became one of my best friends!
One of my favourite things in Kansas, was horse riding! This Helen, or as sometimes refered to as, Hell on Wheels! She was a spunky horse but was a beautiful spirit. The reason I’m wearing fancy dress was that this was the Halloween horse show and we had to wear costumes! Once I even gave my horse a lighting bolt and made him wear glasses so he could be Harry Potter. That was beautiful Skip, the first horse I ever rode.
Another highlight was Girl Scouts! We always went on camps and had sleepovers. This was a particularly good one where we to Nebraska and went to this awesome Space museum.
This is another girl scout camp and one of my favourite photos with one of my favourite people, Stewart <3 <3 <3
Here is Kelsey & I at our Sixth Grade camp, Wildwood – the closest I ever got to a traditional american Summer Camp & it was awesome! Obstacle courses, bonfires, bunk beds, hay wagons and talent shows!
In Fourth Grade, we all published books with all of our written work in them and this was our ‘Book Launch’! Still have that book!
This was our Fifth Grade concert – Stewart, Kathryn, Me, Kelsey and Laura – but I can’t remember the theme but I know we loved it!
These next two photos were us getting ready to go to Wildwood, Sixth Grade camp. I especially love that I have a shot with a YELLOW SCHOOL BUS! Yes we ACTUALLY rode those and they actually have no seat belts! I love the photo above – there are three Amandas!
Soccer was another highlight of my time in Kansas, one that I have only just started playing again. Was a lot of fun, rain or shine, to play with those girls.
Finally, at the end of three years, it was time to graduate from Broken Arrow. We got special certificates and awards but the coolest thing about our graduation was making our own hats! You can see them in the photo below. Each of us braided our own ribbon to hang off it and added pictures of meaningful things about our time in Elementary School. I loved that school and the people I met there but it was time for Middle School!
Off to Hocker Grove it was! I was only there for a year because we then went to the land where-everyone-thinks-you-ride-elephants-to-school-but-really-we-rode-in-mini-buses!
But before then, I had a taste of America’s huge schools. I’d come from a 100 strong year level, now went into a 300 strong and if I’d kept going, in High School it would have been 1,000 strong!
This was on our french field trip right before I left – loveeedddddd French here and this is what started my love affair with the language and country!
And this is a photo from one of my classes- English I think!
But this is my favourite photo from Hocker, after the play we put on which included scenes that I had written for the play. This is where the theatre bug bit me! While I’m not as involved as I was, this is still a very special photo to me! It includes my favourite people from Hocker & Emma and Maggie!
Next post will be down the Bangkok Memory Lane! Hope you liked this one!
