Samstag, 29. September 2012 - 6 Kommentare

Soory too late .. its kinda an update !

Finally i could bring myself to write this post. I should really apologize but i was just to busy with school, sports, friends and stuff. Also because last WE Freddy came to visit me and you know it is just difficult for me to find time where i have nothing to do and i´m not too tired. But here i am .. yeah it´s kinda late but i just can´t let you wait anymore.

I´m now since 44 days in my new home and i did  pretty well adapt. At the beginning it was kinda hard to make new friends because in the american School-system you don´t have like a class instead you can choose your own courses which means you are pretty much doing everything on your own. But you have everyday the same schedule so that makes it maybe a bit easier to get connected to others. Anyhow, after this 4 and a half weeks of school i got pretty used to how it works. My schedule is kinda though but it´s alright. I´m trying to understand as much as possible. Normally i´m understanding everything but for example in my math course the teacher is talking just that fast that i´m understanding what she says but then i have to note and understand it and that´s kinda hard. Also very negatively surprising were the amounts of homework i get everyday. But therefore no details ( it is not too exiting). Maybe i just list my everyday schedule that you can kinda imagine:

  1. Medical Terminology (just learning of some medical terms)
    1. Homeroom (Morning announcements, chilln and grilln)
  2. Chemistry (don´t know .. we just did some random stuff)
  3. Biology (right now DNA/RNA ...)
  4. LUNCH (normally lunch but i´m joining a theater class which is really fun. Every member writes his own story .. we act it out and getting help from professionals ... also improv and fun games while we are eating our lunches )
  5. History ( America in the late 1800´s early 1900´s .. kinda fun because if you do your homework or read the book pages the teachers assigns you, you know almost everything. So i do and got an A !!! I´m sooo happy .. my first good History grade (Mrs Haack, that does not mean that the teacher here is better, noway, its just an easy course i chose.) But i mean our history does anyhow differ too much from the american so doesn´t matter.)
  6. Math - Pre Calculus ( What we do ... we are powering everyday a new sub chapter the assignment two days later and every week a test on each big chapter )
    1. This the way where i always have to run and also got my first tardy.
  7. Power Systems ( Right now my easiest class because we are taking an engine apart and try to put it back together, but we are not yet finished with the info's so...)
  8. Sophmore - English ( We just finished our first novel " The great Gatsby " which was kinda hard with all the assignments and vocab and stuff but the story is very interesting - bit too much love but whatever)
  9. Soccer Training ( Since Monday )
Talking about school it is in so many ways different from ours. 
It is so much bigger. 
You ain´t got breaks like we are used to but a full lunch hour, 
school starts at 7:15 and goes until 14:38, 
everyone got a locker, 
they got police all over the building, 
they have about 5 minutes between each hour and in the last 30 second there is played some old music from the 70`s and 80`s, 
during class you have to sign out to leave the room, 
if you are not seated when the bell rings you are marked as tardy,
the cafeteria food consist mainly of nachos, burgers and french fries,
they got classes for almost everything, and much much more,
the schools are also more violent,
in math they use point instead of "komma" and "komma" instead of points (1,000,000.937)

Oh i also wanted to thank you all for your wishes and congratulations ... i´m 16 now !! 

alright i think i covered school, oh no, i don´t know why but on my school i have another German student which is kinda cool but also kinda unhelpful by improving my English. But alright .. I´m joining beside the soccer team another club called the international club. It is a club for mainly exchange students and others who are interested in nationalities (or free pizza :P). 

So soccer training is really cool, the first days were the hardest because i had no condition and because of a bad game on my second day (where i surprissily could participate) we had to run allot on the third day, means i was really messed up this week. But i got to try sloppy Jones  which are basically burgers with hacked meat sauce on it ! I also watched my first High-School Football- and Volleyball game. Both were really funny to watch because the our High-School Football has the best Fan-Curve although we lost and Volleyball was just a very good game.

Next week is Spirit Week which means everyday another topic.So but i don´t know exactly the whole week so .. Monday is movie.Character Day ... Tuesday is Old-man / Young man day ( don´t know how to call it ;)) ... and so on!! Then the coming week is home coming. I´m kinda confused what i really have to do, but whatever i think its gonna be fun, because basically it´s a huge dance ! But we´ll see. 

I really like it here and i´m really looking forward to learn more about the american food and culture. I discovered Reese´s (Chocolate with Peanut butter inside). Tomorrow we are doing some community work as the soccer team and our next game is on Tuesday. I´m also looking forward to Halloween and ... Breakfast !!

See ya guys !!

Brownie ;)

Oh, i forgot to tell you today .. i really don´t know why but today a girl ( a 12th grader girl) asked me if want to be her Prom date ... in May !

I said : "NO" .. hahaha just kidding i said "I don´t know " and i act like i don´t understand her. Was kinda embarrassing (she is in the international club). But i have enough time ... i mean ... man .. MAY ! 
Samstag, 8. September 2012 - 3 Kommentare

The Mississippi Cowboys


A bit too late but better than never.
So the last weekend before school started, i went on a spontaneously trip to Minnesota together with my brother and his host mum. Because of the "labor day" on Monday we had one more day which was really nice because so we had lots of time to do lots of very funny things.
Our trip started on Friday with packing our stuff and making sandwiches to be ready to leave at 5 am the next morning. So i slept at Freddy's to get to go earlier. But unfortunately as we already sat in the car i recognized that i forgot my camera at my home that's why i have to apologize for the few pictures i could only take. Sorry, i know i´m stupid !

So our first stop on the way to Minnesota was the devils lake (do not ask me why it is called like this ) where we took a 3 miles hike on its east-side.
(Again i have to apoligize for the pictures )
As you can see ... We had a wonderful view from up there ! It was very beautiful to watch and so much fun climbing everything. It was an amazing feeling sitting, laying or jumping in such heights. A few pictures for you folks, to understand where we went through.




It was a beauty we´ll never forget !





Enyoing the moment !!

"Devils Door" (Don´t ask me about the name !?)
Was just fun !



So hiking is not always cruel and boring, it could be a beautiful landscape, which amazes you or the right people joining you and making you laugh all the time, the nice weather or simply because you´re in a good mood that day. Just go out and try it. OK, now sorry for the flooding, but this was only half of this great day. After our hike we drove to the "legendary" Wisconsin Dells. These are some special rock formations, through which we took a boat tour. It was really impressive (especially the "Big Pancake Rock").Another flooding for the impression.

Pancakes ;) mhh







The "impressive" 5 feet Dog Jump 
So now we can say "I visited the Wisconsin Dells and it was so nice." The boat tour took about 1 and a half hour and so it was too late for the waterparc, so we went to Freddy´s Host-mum´s sister who lives in Minnesota between the twin-Bluffs where we stayed the next 2 days.

I´ll shorten it up now.

The next day, Sunday, we started with a hyperactive Boxer Lady who pulled up the bluff and down. Then after a great breakfast of pancakes & Omelet with ham and cheese, we went horse riding which ends up really boring, because we rode about 1 hour with a speed that my grandma could beat while the guide was talking like the Niagara falls. After that we went on another bluff (hill) from where we had a wonderful view into the valley.

Now comes the part of the trip to which i was reallyy looking forward to ... "The Canoe ride on the Mississippi". Fortunately the family we were staying with had friends with their own canoe which was nice for our pocketmoney. 

  
At the evening of that day we made a campfire, eating marshmallows or so called "Somemores" ( Some More´s ) and being loved by the mosquitos (didn´t matter how much i sprayed or how thick my clothes were).

"Keks-Schoko (leicht angeschmolzen von den heißen MM´s)-Marshmallows (2) -Keks

And for a good night we watched one of the best movies ever. 

The next morning (labor day) i left with a heavy heart because i fell in love with the hyperactive boxer lady,

but we had to go because the next day was our first school day. So we left directly after the breakfast to turn back 10 min later to get our luggage. ;) Then we went to THE HARDWARE STORE of the husband of FRED-MUM-SIS where we got to see his impressive model-train collection.

Then we went further to get our Hamburger-Breakfast, where i saw Amish people for the first time in my life. Was awesome. After breakfast we went on another hike this time through a valley which is normally filled with water, but because of the terrible drought this year ... not. 



So yeah, i´m done. It was a wonderful weekend with a much nature, many dogs, very good food (like always ;) ) and lots of fun !!

The last stop was a huge outlet center, but i was too tired for shopping.

Now school already started and i´m very happy with my teachers, courses and students. But i´ll tell you later about my school experiences.
Freitag, 31. August 2012 - 3 Kommentare

Day 4 to 14


So, now it should be the time to write my next post about the last 10 days.
Sorry for writing that late, but i simply didn´t know what to tell you !

But before i start i´ll thank someone, thousand times !!! Because without Christian Schlipf (mieses It-Genie ) and Federküken my Blog would look like ... Well Selfmade by Brownie ... : / ! So thanks a lot for this awesome design, the incredible new toolbar on the left and especially for your great service on every of my Questions !! Soo guys, please check out this really fresh Blog ! THANKS !

My last 14 days starting at 4 because the 4 first days i told and showed you already. ( I´ll try to make it short, because i recognized i´m writing too much at once) :

Day 4 - Good night and Good bye !

At about 4 pm we arrived at home from our big trip to the Niagara Falls. It was a really hard trip so we all were about to go right to bed, but we had to wait for my brothers Host-mum to get him for the next 10 months. I remember i slept really good this night ;)

Day 5 - Day 10 - Help to adapt !

I enjoyed this days with another student from Spain. I was an big advantage for me because i never lived alone so i could slowly adapt.

Day 8 - Choosing my classes !

At Thursday i went to school for the first time. It is soo huge ! They have about 2000 students and for not loosing the overview they splitted the secretariat into 3 offices each with 2 secretaries and one chancellor. I was really exited but i was sleepy too so i didn´t got so much of the school.
But i´ve chosen my schedule ! I had to pick the main classes ( us-history, math, English, science (at least one) -> Biology, Chemistry)  and a few others. Mainly i chose advanced classes to not get completely lost when I come back to Germany. Further i had the opportunity to chose 3 interesting classes out of (felt) 500 different. I took PE (Sports), medical  terminology (some medical stuff) and power systems (unsrew an engine). Another really cool thing, i´m a senior so i´ll properly be the youngest in my class but un exchange i´m allowed to do as if i´m about to graduate what means participation in prom ... maybe i´ll get the diploma but don´t even know. And the lunch between 11 & 12 am after that class again till 2 pm. Then Sports, but i didn´t signed in yet !
But i´m really looking forward not only to meet new people, but also for the classes and sports i´ll participate in.

Day 10 - First day alone at home !

Nonetheless it was hard to face as he was gone. I had to play football on my own (and believe me its not that funny if you have to play receiver and thrower). So i bought a basketball and running shoes to entertain me trough the vacations. Sounds hard but is sometimes really funny ;)

Day 10 - 14

Now i have a real holiday feeling. Maybe you know this, when you´re lazy, hanging on the couch in front of the TV looking weird stuff  ( or football ;)... sports in general are more watched than in Germany ... later more !!!)and too lazy to do anything. But if you have the advantage to live with a family where both work or worked as cook you can also eat against Boredom, but then you feel like fat cow and  you´ll automatically start to do some work out. Try it !! ;) BUT i have to say the food i get served is really really tasty. I´m about to eat all the time.

That´s what i maily did the last few day ... i can tell you a lot more "interesting" things but then it will get tooo long so, I hope you enjoyed reading

See you soon
Brownie ;)



Sonntag, 19. August 2012 - 7 Kommentare

Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America

Two days ago in the earliest morning in 4 am we left for going to Niagara Falls. I tried not to sleep and to see as much as i can but the landscape of Illiois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York is mostly the same like pretty much green but not much trees. So it looked really nice but everytime almost the same so i sometimes went for a little sleep. On our whole trip of just 2 days we only stoped about 6 times. So after 12 hours driving and one hour resting we arrived at Niagara City Falls.


It was very crowded so we can´t see the falls from the car, but as we went over there it was so nice to see. So what we did first was to enter the boat which is driving right into the falls and i tell you, it is an incredible felling when there is so many water around you.

Maybe you can feel with me ??
 

No you can´t ... why not ??? It was a feeling i will never forget in my live and i really advise you to go for having a look on these. It just wonderful. I have another picture ...



... were you can see both sides. The left side of this picture shows the american side of the falls and on the other side of the river (bzw.) on the right side of the picture you can see the skyscrapers of Ontario in Canada. We didn´t cross the border so i can´t tell you which side is the better one. But for me the american side was unbelievable nice to watch and if you imagine how many gallons of water pass this falls in one second you will be impressed either it is this side or the other. By the way ... The water of the niagara falls comes from all five great lakes ... Erie, Superior, Michigan, Huron and Ontario. But this are "only" 25% of all the water because if not it would be to much water and so the landscape gets destroyed.
I loved it a lot and i think i´m not gonna forget this trip anytime in my life !



So after 2 hours walking around and watching we decided to drive back to Pennsylvania for getting a cheaper place for staying the night. So we drove back the highway and took an exit to stay in a motel. But unfortunately the motel was full. So we went on the other side of the highway, to another Motel but from the company, but it was filled too and we werre like ... are you kidding me thats an Highway-Motel ... they are supposed to have rooms. So we got back on the highway and went to the next ... ( it was about 20 miles away ) Motel but also this was full so ... "WhaT ???" Then about 9 pm we finally found a Motel were we stayed the night.



The next day started at 6 am with a nice american breakfast and ended with a 9 hours drive back home :D

BUT the trip was very amazing and i really appreciate it because my host father did it for the 5th time and this time was the second time in a month. But he says he likes driving so it was really fun.

Brownie ;)
Freitag, 17. August 2012 - 3 Kommentare

My flight and the first two days in the US

So first Post from the United States.
I´m in America since Yesterday morning still together with my brother. We are living with my host family and together with another student from Spain. We´re really having a great time till now, so i´m really looking forward to living here for this year.
Today we visited my new school. It´s thousand times bigger in reality than on google or even our school in Germany.
I ate the first time in my life pancakes with peanutbutter and they were sooo good. Also the food in my family is soo good and HEALTHY.I didn´t thougt it could be so in america, but .... "yes it can".

Tomorrow we´re going on a 12 h ride to the niagara falls so we are leaving at 3 am ... that will get funny :/ and i´m really looking forward to seeing them and the 5 states we are crossing.

Oh yeah i nearly forget to tell you how the flight went. During the flight i watched about 4 movies and as we arrived we had to keep aweak for another 9 houres untill 8 pm .

So that were our first two days in America ... Tomorrow I´ll make some pictures at the niagara falls and i´m writing about next week.

So have fun and enjoy your holidays !

Brownie ;)
Mittwoch, 15. August 2012 - 2 Kommentare

Aufregung steigt, Adrenalin pumpt und der letzte Tag in Deutschland !

Noch einmal schlafen, dann sitz ich schon im Flieger nach Amerika und füll Formulare aus in denen ich bestätige kein Terrorist zu sein.
Irgendwie schon ein komisches Gefühl, zu wissen man wird die Leute die man kennt ein komplettes Jahr lang nicht mehr sehen. Daher  steigt die Anspannung innerlich stündlich an aber außerlich versucht man ganz cool zu bleiben. Natürlich wird man durch das Wissen, dass vor Ort eine supernette Gastfamilie auf einen wartet und man die Leute hier garantiert früher oder später wieder sehen wird ungemein beruhigt, trotz allem ist ein Jahr schon eine lange Zeit.
Aber dennoch freue ich mich schon mega darauf.
Vorher hatte ich noch ein kleines Gespäch mit einem Gastschüler, der zurzeit in derselben Familie, die mich jetzt auch beherbergen wollen, lebt, zwar morgen abreist aber sichtlich zufrieden mit dem Jahr klang. Anschließendgab er mir meinen Gastvater, welcher ziemlich lustig rüber kam und somit den Riesen-Respekt zumindest in einen großen Respekt minderte.
 Ich kann es mittlerweile schon kaum mehr erwarten die Familie und Amerika  kennen zu lernen. Vor allem, da meine Reise gleich mal mit einem Trip zu den Niagara-Fällen nach New York startet, was natürlich ein Must-Have-Seen für alle Amerika Besucher ist. Auf alle Fälle bin ich nun so gespannt, wie alles sein wird und da ich in den ersten Tagen noch vieles zu erledigen habe und vieles klären muss, könnte es sein, dass ich ein wenig verspätet schreiben werde, was euch wahrscheinlich gar nicht auffallen wird,da ich bisher noch keine wirkliche Regelmäßigkeit in meinen Beiträgen habe, was ich aber auch versuchen werde so schnell wie möglich zu ändern. Daher kein Stress wenn ich mich nicht mehr melde.

Also ich wünsch euch was ... macht´s gut !
Goodbye Germany ! See you soon !

Bis dann … aus Amerika …
Brownie ;)


PS.: Es könnte jedoch sein, wenn ich es schnell genug schaffe an Internet zu kommen, dass ich mich nochmal melde wie der Flug verlaufen ist. ;)
Dienstag, 7. August 2012 - 5 Kommentare

Erste Schritte in Richtung ... USA

Nur knappe 2 Wochen vor dem geplantem Abflug kam endlich die ersehnte Welle der Erleichterung die schlagartig von dem gleichen Unsicherheitsgefühl der letzten paar Wochen verfolgt wurde:


Viel Spaß beim Lesen ;-)


Vor ziemlich genau 5 Tagen saß ich neben meinem Bruder in der Bahn zurück zu unsrer Ferien-Wohnung, als meine Mutter versuchte mit irgendwelchen unverständlichen Zeichen mir etwas zu erzählen. Dazu müsst ihr wissen dass wir unsere Fahrräder dabei hatten und deshalb zu verschiedenen Eingängen die Bahn betreten hatten. Auf alle Fälle grinste sie mich an, deutete auf mich und ahmte mit ihren Armen durch die Luft schwenkend ein Flugzeug nach. Ich, der nach einer anstrengenden Bergtour mit den Gedanken ganz wo anders war versuchte irgendwie aus ihren Zeichen schlau zu werden was mir auch nach mehrmaligem Wiederholen ihrer Gesten noch nicht gelang. Also beschloss ich rüber zu gehen und zu fragen was ihre wirren  Zeichen  zu bedeuten haben.
Es stellte sich heraus die Zeichen sollten den Flieger darstellen der mich zu meiner Gastfamilie in Wisconsin tragen wird. Vielleicht könnt ihr euch vorstellen, dass diese Nachricht eine unglaubliche Freude in mir auslöste. Und so begann ich im Kopf schon zu planen wie ich am besten Kontakt aufnehmen kann und ... , als am nächsten Tag die nächste Mail der Organisation kam :
Die Gastfamilie nimmt dich doch nicht sicher dauerhaft auf sondern ist deine so genannte "Welcome Family", da sich die Familie noch nicht sicher ist ob sie dieses eine komplette Jahr schaffen.
Als ich diese Nachricht las dachte ich im ersten Moment ich gehe zwar kurz hin aber vielleicht finden sie ja dann doch keine dauerhafte Familie und ich komm wieder zurück.
Doch dann am nächsten Tag die erneute Erleichterung durch eine erneute Mail, in welcher die Organisation im Namen meiner Welcome Family fragt ob ich und mein Bruder nicht Lust hätten gemeinsam mit ihnen einen Ausflug übers Wochenende zu den Niagarafällen zu machen und somit schon am zwei Tage vor geplantem Abflug zu fliegen. Wir stimmten dankend zu. Also steht es nun fest, dass wir beide in 9 Tagen unseren 9 stündigen Flug nach Chicago antreten, wo wir gegen 12 Uhr Ortszeit ankommen werden. Nun heißt es einfach entspannen und alles auf mich zukommen lassen und die Einschränkung der Welcome Family erstmal zu vergessen.


Auf alle Fälle bin ich jetzt mega gespannt wie die beiden so sein werden, da ich zwar so ziemlich alles grundlegende über sie weiß aber halt nur vom Papier, daher ist das erste persönliche Treffen eine ziemliche Aufregung für mich. Na ja jetzt geht es ans packen und planen und die letzten Abschiede und dann geht es auch schon los .... DAS USA-ABENDTEUER ... 


Viele Grüße ... noch aus Deutschland ...
Brownie ;)