MY HIGH SCHOOL YEAR 2006/07

Coming to the USA as an exchange student was one of the best choices of my life! I met amazing people and experienced so much I would have never dreamed of! I can only recommend to become an exchange student or aupair and visit the country you would love to see. If you have any questions about my exchange year or need help to get started on planning your trip, feel free to contact me I will be happy to help you out! :)

First Impressions – 23rd July 2006
Location(s): Norwich, Burlington, Boston  

After 9h on a plane and a 3h busride my High School Year officially begun. Since last night I am staying at a Collage in Norwich and the timechange to Germany is  hours. So far I can’t really tell much about the States since I haven’t really seen or done anything yet! The only striking thing was the automatic toiletflush at the airport, which was kind of a big surprise haha!  

First Move – 21st  August 2006
Location(s): Quad-Cities, Minneapolis, Iowa City  

After spending 2 weeks at the Language and Culture Camp in Norwich (Vermont), I finally arrived at the Quad-Cities, to be specific in Davenport (Iowa). The Quad Cities are four cities, two in Iowa (Davenport & Bettendorf) and two in Illinois (Rock Island & Moline) and are diveded by the Mississippi River. I still don’ t have a hostfamily, so I’m still living with my adviser and her family. I really need to adjust to the situation because I am charing a room with her daughter and another exchange student from Japan, on top of that there are also 3 boys living in that household. School hasn’t started for me yet and I am spending a lot of time at the river riding a bike or going to malls as there is nothing else for me to do yet; everybody else is in somekind of a camp. Last weekend we drove to a family reunion in Minnesota, close to Mnneapolis. We stopped by at the “Mall of America”, which is huuuuge! There is a theme park in the center, surrounded by 8 strip malls!  

Second Move – September 2006
 Location(s): Quad-Cities        
  
Believe it or not, I am no longer homeless, well let’s say hostfamilyless! After almost 2 months I finally found a hostfamily! Karen and Joe are living Downtown Davenport in an old warehouse. I got my own room and bathroom and riverview! So great! Karen and Joe are really nice and understanding. They help me out if I don’t understand things right away and are really patient with me, because I’m not talking fast –that’s for sure! I even got a little hostsister –a  black labrador named after the place she was born –Montana!!            


A weekend to remember – 13th-15th October 2006
Location(s): Princeton, Chicago              

I looove Chicago! It’s really stunning… when I first stepped out the trainstation I was totally overwhelmed by the appearance of the tall buildings. I mean, I was in Boston before, but still I hadn’t realized how BIG the buildings were. I was so excited to be there.. the city, the people and I was about to meet my ‘hostsister’ (21) who is studying dance at Columbia College in Chicago. I stayed with her the entire weekend –her apartment reminded me a lot of what I imagined mine to be in a couple years! There was dancestuff EVERYWHERE!! So cool!             We went shopping almost all day Saturday and watched a danceshow performed by a group from taiwan (my birthday gift J ) Really sweet! The show was awesome –really impressive choreografies, also modern dance is not quite everybody’s favorite.  


My super sweet 16 – 20th October 2006
Location(s): QC              

My birthdayparty was really really great! I had some friends over from school and we got professional make-up by a make-up artist! She styled us and gave us some advice on how to use all the beauty-‘tools’  the right way.             We also had a little fotoshooting in the loft –which was a lot of fun! Time went by so fast we couldn’t even do all of the stuff we had planned!             On top of it all Joe made an amazing candle-light dinner for us which was oh so yummy!!!  


Schooltime and Thanksgiving Break – November 2006
Location(s): Denver, Omaha, QC              

By now life has settled and I finally seem to got adjusted completely.. I think, dream and of course talk in English now on a dayly basis and –what seems to be really odd- forget about german words and grammar a lot... I just enjoy being here!! (Even though I am having a hard time really understanding that I am really in the USA)             Last weeks were tryouts for the danceteam, which was kinda weird since we had 3 days of practice and in stead of a final ‘test’ we were just all part of the team. The coach seems nice, she is one of the counselors at Central. I am not quite sure if I want to be in it.. but we will see how it goes..
                        Tonight we a thanksgiving dinner even though it is not Thanksgiving yet!! Haha, I’ve never had a Thanksgiving (as we don’t celebrate it in Germany) and this year I will have it 3 times! Tonight, next weekend and on the actual day. We will drive to Denver for the ‘real’ Thanksgiving to visit Karen’s sister and nice. Also Joe’s son (my ‘hostbrother’) will be there so I get to meet him to!               We went innertubing which was really fun for me and quite an adventure for others! ;) It did go really fast at times…but it was more fun than it was frightening.. but watching some people screaming at the top of there lungs when going downhill was a blast J  


Some Updates – December 2006              
For a couple weeks I’ve been in the pompom squad now. It’s not quite what I expected but still it’s fun, some really nice people! We practice 3x per week and will have some performances at the basketballgames starting in january. That’s the reason why I am not in the basketball team anymore (which I was for like 2 weeks…) and decided to go with soccer.
             Talking about sports – my new P.E. class started! It’s “Extreme Fitness” and the name basically says it all…! At first I doubted that I will survive that class.. but it is alright now… Do you know “Billy’s Boots Camp”?? There is a dude in a fitnessvideo drilling you to do exercises over and over and over again….We also got introduced to some of Richard Simmons videos (which was more of a joke really) and some barbie jumping up and down in front of a beach while her hair wasn’t moving at all… For each class I missed (which were quite a lot actually since I had to skip some days to go to Montana before winterbreak) I have to run 30 labs…
            By the way.. what I found really confusing about the schoolsystem was the following. What’s the point in taking a test if a) you have mutiple choice PLUS b) you are allowed to use your notes? And how exactly can a teacher evaluate the students knowledge in a “take-home test”? Geez.. ever hear about google? ;)  Haha, I get surprises everyday in school… seriously –there is not one day on which I haven’t learned anything new about America!   By the way I finally got started on my drivers licens and got my permit!!! YAY!! (note: it was the 12th of December  -in six months minus a couple days my visa was going to expire – why do I know that? I will tell you about that later….)