Swimming, Schedule and American Football

It's cooling off a little.

After I had written my blog entry on Tuesday, Courtney came back home (she brought her cheerleading friend Amanda) and a little later Sheila and we, the kids, went to friends of the family. They have a pool and a lot of people were already there, most of them smaller kids. We had a fun afternoon there eating hot dogs and other yummy snacks and swimming/playing in the pool. I had a lot of fun with Michaela, her friend Amanda (not the cheerleading Amanda, another one at Michaela's age) and Jacob. The kids rode on my back and we played ball games.
Yesterday, I had my appointment with the counsellor. I had to pick my classes and I got my schedule and my locker. My classes for first semester are U.S. History, CP Chemistry, Drawing, Drafting (some kind of technical drawing I believe), Pre Calculus (that's a math class) and Writing Workshop (an English writing class, my counsellor said it's an easy class but I think that's good to strengthen my English writing skills). My classes for second semester are U.S. History, CP Chemistry, Drawing, Pre Calculus, Composition (a harder English writing class) and Real Life Literature (an English reading class). That's probably going to be a lot of hard work but it's worth it because I think I picked some really good, interesting and useful classes.
My locker is upstairs and so are half of my classes in first semester. After the appointment with the counsellor we walked around the school to 'train' my daily walk through the school (from my locker to my classes, back to my locker every now and then and to the cafeteria for lunch). I have A lunch which is the first lunch, it's in the beginning of 4th hour. That's pretty sweet, Courtney had bad luck about that - she's in D lunch and so she won't get to eat her lunch until 12.15 or something. That is hard.
When we (Sheila, Courtney, Grayson and I - the other 2 kids were at school) left L'Anse Creuse High School, we went to a huge fruit market a little out of town and bought many many yummy kinds of fruit there. After that, we went to Mc Donald's for lunch. Then we went to Macomb Mall which was right opposite the Mc Donald's and there we went to DEB.
That store is just AMAZING.
While Courtney looked for homecoming dresses, I looked for shirts and shorts (I found out that I didn't really have enough compared to the other kids). They had so cute things there at such low prices!
I got 4 shirts (1 blue and very long shirt, 1 violet shirt, 1 brown shirt and 1 neat black shirt for church) and 2 pairs of shorts (1 pair of jeans shorts and 1 pair of neat white/brown/black shorts that I can also wear for church) for less than 50$! In Germany, I would have gotten like 1 pairs of jeans and 1 shirt for that money. Well, and maybe a pair of earrings.
I was very happy after that and I'm pretty sure I can wear these shirts for school because I had Sheila helping me choose them and I had told her that they're for school in advance.
In the afternoon, there was a Freshmen's football game at LCHS that Courtney cheered for so we all went there (my hostdad Doug joined us later when he came home from work). It was incredibly hot yesterday but it was still fun to watch the game. Of course, the L'Ance Creuse Lancers won (14:0)!!

Last night, we had a little thunderstorm again and I called Christian for the first time while I'm in the U.S.! I'm pretty happy at the moment already because everything's so awesome here but it made me even happier to hear his voice again and to hear that he feels good, too.
Today Courtney and I slept in and when we got up, everyone was gone (Doug was at work, Michaela and Jacob were at school and Grayson had his first day in kindergarten... Sheila went shopping I think). So we watched TV for a while and had some fruits for breakfast and a little later we went to Metro Park by bike.
The park is at Lake St. Clair which is a beautiful lake. We first had something for lunch there (we shared a hot dog and a pretzel) and then we went mini golfing. We cheated a lot but that was fun! ;)

We didn't finish the course because at some point there were so many people before us and we had to wait very long at every hole. We went back to Harrison Township and to a really cool ice-cream place (I think the name was 'Frosty Boy').
Shortly after we had arrived back home Sheila came home from her shopping. We helped her unload the car. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV, preparing salad and beans for dinner, reading and stuff like that.
I think we'll soon have dinner. Tomorrow, I'll have to get up early.

We're going up north!

Movie Night, Church and School

It's so warm here.

After I had finished my blog entry on Saturday, Sheila gave me a ride through the town and showed me everything. It is a very nice place to live. Compared to Jackson, they don't have many wooden houses here. Most of the houses are brick houses just like my host family's. There's Lake St. Clair pretty close to our house and at the lake, there's a nature and fun park called Metro Park. That is pretty cool. They also have a river close by, there are many stores and some malls a little further away, there's St. Thecla Catholic Church (the chuch we attend) and St. Thecla Catholic School (the school Jacob and Michaela attend, Grayson's kindergarten is also there) and of course there's L'Anse Creuse High School - Courtney's and my new school. There's also a huge military base in the area and sometimes you can hear the jets passing by.
When we got back home, Courtney who is kind of addicted to the movie 'High School Musical' and exspecially to the main actor Zack asked me wether I'd like to watch 'High School Musical 2' with her. We didn't get to finish the movie because we had dinner then and afterwards, we went to the Movie Night at Jacob's and Michaela's school.
The Movie Night was cool. I met a few of Courtney's friends and friends of the family and Courtney showed me the grounds of the school she had been attending until this summer. Walking around with her was really nice, she's a cool younger sister! Jacob won a huge water melon in a game and then the movie started. They showed 'Happy Feet'.
When we got back home, we finished 'Cinderella Story' in the car and then Courtney and I finished 'High School Musical 2'. Afterwards, we went to bed.
The next morning, we went to church. I felt a little lost because I'd never been in a Catholic mass before and so I just kept copying the things my family members did. During the mass, I suddenly felt kind of dizzy and as if I was going to faint. That was really weird and I had no idea where it came from. I went to the bathroom with Courtney to cool my hands, neck and face a little and after that, I felt much better. But back in church, the feeling started again and I had to go to the bathroom a second time.
After the mass, we stayed at the church a little longer because there was a coffee and doghnut meet and greet and Sheila volunteered there. After some lemonade and a doghnut I definitely felt better but after a while the feeling again came back and this time I actually felt sick. I hurried to the bathroom with Courtney but there the feeling faded away again. Sheila took us all home then and back home, I had some water and went to bed then.
After having slept for a couple of hours I felt way better and the feeling didn't come back again. I still don't really know where it came from. Maybe I didn't drink enough the day before. While I had been sleeping, my hostdad Doug had got home from his golfing trip with his father and brothers. So I met him for the first time when I came downstairs. He's very nice and he studied my photo album with interest later.
In the afternoon I made blackberry muffins with Courtney. Later, we had dinner and then Courtney and I watched TV. We watched 'High School Musical 1' on Disney Channel. After that, we went to bed.
Yesterday was the first day of school for Jacob and Michaela, so Sheila, Courtney, Grayson and I took them to St. Thecla Catholic School. I met some more friends of Courtney and the family there. After that, we went to L'Anse Creuse High School so that Courtney could find her locker and her classrooms. I don't have my schedule yet because my appointment for registration and picking my classes is on Wednesday but this way I already got to know the school a little. It's not as big as Jackson High which is awesome because I hopefully won't get lost there then.
Afterwards, we got backpacks for Courtney and me. I bought a white and grey one with purple stripes. It's pretty cool and cute.
Sheila dropped us off at home and went to a meeting. I played the guitar that Sheila's mom borrowed me for a while and then I played the piano. After a while Sheila came back and after her came a lot of visitors, two friends of Sheila with all their kids. One of them was Ashley, a very nice friend of Courtney. We had fun eating pizza, water melon, snacks and cookies and talking.
When everyone was gone, Courtney had the idea to look for homecoming dresses on the internet. Homecoming is on October 6th I think. It was fun to look for dresses with Courtney although we didn't exactly find anything so far but there were some really cute dresses. I'm not very sure what kind of dress I'd like to wear for homecoming.
Later that night, we had dinner and after Courtney and I had done the dishes, we watched TV downstairs in the basement.
Today not much has happened so far. Courtney will soon be home from cheerleading practise and then we'll all be going swimming somewhere. That sounds like fun.
Tomorrow is my appointment at LCHS. I'm very excited about that, I'll finally get my schedule!! School doesn't start until September 4th for Courtney and me. Tomorrow night there's a football game that Courtney cheers for I think. We'll all go there.

YAY everything's so cool!

Journey, Arrival and a Thunderstorm

Wow, that was a journey!

On Thursday, I had to get up at 2 am. After taking a shower and packing the last things, my parents, Jochen, Oliver, Chrissi and I went to the airport in Hamburg by car. The ride took about 2.5 hours.
At the airport we met YFU Travel Staff members (You really couldn't miss them with their bright yellow shirts.). One of them gave me my ticket, a big yellow tag with my flight information that I had to wear during the whole journey and some more flight information. Somebody actually wanted to give Chrissi a ticket, too because she was standing next to my dad who was holding one of my suitcases with the YFU tag on it ;)
Then I had to check in. It took a while because the line was long. Afterwards, I still had some time to spend with my family and Chrissi in the hall before I had to go to my gate. Finally saying goodbye was weird somehow because I still wasn't really aware of the fact that I'd be gone for 10 months. I think I'm still not. So I think saying Goodbye was much harder for my family and Chrissi than for me.

When arriving at my gate, I met a lot of other YFU students. Our plane started at 7:55 am. The flight to Frankfurt was okay but my ears hurt very bad when we landed there. In Frankfurt, we had to get to our gate immediately but when we arrived there, we still had plenty of time. So I went to Mc Donald's with Arndt to get something to eat. Shortly before boarding, I met Markus.
The flight to Washington (we took off at 12:20 pm) was very long, it took about 7.5 hours. They had three movies on board and I started all of them but put the headphones away after a few minutes because the movies were pretty boring. I spent most of the time listening to music or sleeping (and sometimes both, don't ask me how that worked).
When we finally arrived in Washington, D.C. at 3.00 pm we had to get through Customs first which means that we had to show our passports, visa and travel forms and then had to give our fingerprints and have a photo taken of us. The line was very long so that took a lot of time. Afterwards, we got our suitcases and met people form YFU Travel Staff. After a loooong time they had collected all the students that had to spend the night in Washington and then we still had to wait a long time for the car that'd take us to the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't all fit into the car so it took another long time until we were all at the hotel. I finally arrived there around 6 pm and was so very tired.
There was pizza for us but I wasn't hungry at all, so I waited until YFU Travel Staff told us the time we had to be back downstairs the next morning and called my hostfamily and my dad. I also tried to call my mom but suddenly the phone wouldn't work anymore for some reason.
Going to bed was a relief. I shared a hotel room with two other German YFU girls. The hotel was amazing and the best thing were the huuuuge beds!! Sleeping on them was very comfortable.
We had to get up quite early in the morning again because we were taken to the airport at about 5:45 am.
At the airport, we had to check-in again. Then we were taken to our gates by YFU Travel Staff members and I had to say goodbye to Markus. At the gate, we (the YFU students that went to Detroit which were pretty many) had to wait for a long time again because our flight that was scheduled at 8:55 am was late.
When I finally arrived at Detroit and went to the luggage claim area, I saw my host family. My host mom Sheila, her mom and her kids Courtney (14), Jacob (9), Michaela (7) and Grayson (5) were waiting downstairs in front of the moving stairs that I went down. They were holding a sign saying "Welcome Maria Ralle", Jacob was holding beautiful flowers and Grayson was holding balloons. Courtney was filming me coming down the stairs.
First, Sheila hugged me and then Jacob gave me the flowers and Grayson gave me the balloons. I was so happy - this was such a nice Welcome!! We went to get my luggage and then we went outside to the car. They have a huge and comfortable van with even a DVD player in it! During the ride that took about 1 hour, we watched Cinderella Story. Before arriving at my new home, we went to Red Robin for lunch. I had a great cheeseburger there and french fries.
Then we went home. The house is soooo huge! It's a white stone house with a big garage and a big garden. First, my room was shown to me. It is so beautiful! It has a pink carpet, yellow and violet walls with flowers on them, a very comfortable bed, a huge wardrobe, a sideboard, a desk, a cupboard and a bedstand. All the furniture is white.

My room is upstairs, next to Courtney's and I'm sharing a bathroom with her. There's much pink in it!
All the rooms are huge and the house has a huge basement. The whole house is air conditioned which is very good because the outside temperature is about 28 degrees celcius.
I unpacked my suitcases after a tour of the house and gave my presents to my host family. They are all so nice! I called my mom and then Sheila showed me a list of the classes I can take at school. We'll go to the school on Wednesday so I can choose my classes. Later, we had dinner (spaghetti!). During dinner, there were very dark clouds approaching outside. When we were done, a thunderstorm started. Sheila was worried and turned on the TV. Suddenly, the dark sky outside became green. I'm not kidding, it was really green! Courtney said that green sky means tornado and then, there was a tornado warning on TV. Sheila said we should all go down into the basement. Down there, we, the kids, played monopoly and Sheila and her mom continued watching the weather stuff on TV while we were all waiting for the thunderstorm to stop. It didn't became a tornado in the end but was a very bad thunderstorm. Some important highways in Detroit were flooded afterwards. Fortunately, the power didn't go off.
After the thunderstorm, we went back upstairs. Courtney and I did the dishes and afterwards, we all watched a movie together. The little kids went to bed around 9 pm and I finally fell asleep on the couch because I was so tired! Sheila woke me up later when everyone went to bed.
It was an exciting first day!
I didn't do much today so far. The power didn't work for a couple of minutes this morning and when it worked again, we had pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards, we watched TV for a while and then I took a shower. Now I'm writing this and tonight we're going to a movie night at the kids' school.

I'm having an awesome time so far! I'm so happy I have such a wonderful host family.

The last day

That's it.

My last day in Germany is over.
It was kind of strange. Almost every thought I thought had the word 'last' in it. 'This is the last time I have breakfast at my house.' 'This is the last time I turn my computer on.' 'This is my last banana bought in a German supermarket.'
Some of those thoughts were stupid of course but that's just how I felt.
I met Jana, Simon and Christopher for the last time before my departure. Like all the other Goodbyes, those were also weird. It's hard to imagine that you won't see the people you usually hang out with for the next 10 months. I guess I won't be totally aware of that until I'm inside the plane.
I packed my stuff. It was easier than I thought. All the important things fit into the suitcases and the weight of the suitcases is still okay.
Tomorrow morning will be even more strange than today was. I'll have to say Goodbye to Chrissi and to my family but on the other hand I'll be meeting some of the other YFU students at the airport. And I'll soon meet my host family for the first time.
Everything's a struggle between sadness and happiness and excitement and worries...

To all of my friends and family members in Germany, I'll miss you a lot. I'll try to email and send letters to let you know I'm fine. I'll have an awesome time in Michigan and in only 10 months, I'll be back to tell you all about it!

GOODBYE!