This being my first entry I decided that you need to know a bit about me and my life - I promise it will be brief and not boring.

I was born in New York, Manhattan and lived there for 3 years until my mother, father and I moved to Switzerland Geneva where I lived until I was 8. My father passed away when I was 4 and my mother adopted my sister from St. Petersbourgh, Russia, when I was 6. She was 3 at the time. When I was 8 my mother moved us to London for 2 years. She then decided to marry a Swiss man and we moved back to Geneva where we stayed until a year and a half ago.

The parents randomly decided that we needed to move to South Africa and move we did - to Cape Town! This was very unexcpected and not appreciated by the the two children - we were leaving behind our friends, the school system we were used to, the life we were used to. It took us almost until now to adjust due to big differenes such as not being able to walk to town, or stay out until the break of dawn. We now, however, have beaches, animals (we see Zebras on the way to school in the Table Mountain reserve) and beaustiful scenery and weather.

It took me a while but I have managed to make some very good friends, not all of them at my - gasp - all girls school. Yes, an all girls school, a real nightmare for me, who am used to co-ed schools. Does anyone really know how horrible girls can be together? I do now! Catty, b****y, whiny, disrespectful, hypocritical, back-stabbing, two-faced, snobby and do not forget clickish! Despite all this I have fond memories of the time spent there with my small group of friends and it was a great opportunity to study human behaviour - quite amusing and appaling at the same time. Poeple do not realize how much having males around tames females (litterally). They do not dare act out in front of the males and let's face it - guys are a blast! They are fun, easy going and don't give a damn if you wear Gucci or Gap!

Now, you have not seen funny until you have seen girls from an all girls school around guys: they flirt like there is no tomorrow and do not seem to comprehend that men and women CAN be friends. As soon as they see a guy they start preening and giggling - wether he is young or old....

In this wild world of girls and queen bees I made a variety of friends: a shy, quiet South Korean, an intelligent and awesome girl, a goth (or very alternative), a wacky german, an even wackier Dutch-South African and a crazy out-going South African. I also made frineds with two wonderful people. One of them is from australia, her name is Ariane, and the other lives behind me at SARDA, her name is Tam. I started feeling more welcome here after having befriended them and Tam persuaded me to get a belly-button piercing recently.

At the beginning of the year I found out I have rickettsia. Rickettsia is a bacteria in your blood that can be transmitted by mosquitos or ticks and the bacteria affect your organs and can turn into cancer if not treated property. Some of the many side-effects are: feeling exhausted all the time, nausea, headaches, swollen glands, ringing in the ears, etc. Having found out that I could die from cancer in years time really motivated me; I have decided, with the help of my parents, to go on a world trip! I will be going to Seoul to visit my Korean friend that will be returning home in December, then we both go to Japan, Tokyo. I then continue on to Australia where I will stay with Ariane and have lots of fun. After that on to Amercia! L.A., minnesota, Puerto Vallata, New-york and home to Geneva. I will also be spending 3 months in Florence, Italy, to learn Italian and enjoy Italy.

Guess this was not as brief as I had expected, sorry. I will talk a bit more about my past trips in further posts.

Ta ta!