Homecoming Shopping :)

I got my dress!!

When I had gotten up, taken a shower and eaten breakfast this morning, my dad called me and we talked on the phone for a while. Then Sheila and Courtney came back from church. After Courtney had cleaned her room (I was practising the piano in the meantime) the two and I left for our shopping tour.
First, we went to Plado's Closet which is a resell store. I got a really cute pair of sunglasses there (I must have lost my other ones somewhere...). After that, we went to a Dots store next door where I bought a pair of jeans (I love them... they are so nice and skinny :) ) and a very comfortable and pretty long, greenish/blueish knitted jacket. Then, we went over to a DEB store.
We found so many cute dresses there, and I tried all of them. Some were too short, some too low cut, some just didn't look as good any more, I didn't like the design of some and the color of others - in the end, I had 3 really cute dresses to choose from. I ended up taking a georgeous purple-ish/ blackish dress... it's rather short and well, a little low cut but not too much and just soooooooo pretty! While I looked for shoes at DEB, I handed Courtney the dress. I didn't find shoes though and so I asked her to hand it back to me, and suddenly Sheila said "No!", grabbed the dress and said "Happy Birthday!"
Although it isn't my birthday yet, that'll probably be my best birthday present! :) I'm so happy!! I looooove that dress!
After DEB, we went to a huuuuge mall (even bigger than Macomb Mall). We went to so many stores there... I found jewelery that goes with my dress (a cute black/silver necklace, black/silver earrings and black wristbands), cute shoes (black and damn high... but well, I only have to wear them until we actually get to the homecoming dance, every girl takes her shoes off there anywhere - remember, Lisa and Lea? ;) ), a Michigan State shirt (tomorrow is College Sports day which starts our Spirit Week) and fake nails (they're soooo cheap over here! I'm gonna put them on for homecoming :) ). We also had yummy pretzels with cheese sauce there.
The shopping tour was a little exhausting but fun. And I'm soooo happy about my homecoming outfit! You won't see me wearing it until next weekend :P but I will show you the pieces at least (click on that image):

My Homecoming Outfit

Isn't it pretty? :)

Powderpuff Game

I still see pink sparkles on the inside of my eyelids o.O

After I had slept until 10 today, then taken a looong shower, eaten breakfast, tidied up my room, vacuumed my room and started writing in my diary, Doug, Jacob, Courtney and I went to the Powderpuff Football Game about a 20-30 minutes drive away. It is the annual girl's football game of Regina High School against Marian High School. The rules are softened... the girls who are playing have little flags attached to their pants. So when one team tries to get the ball from the other, they don't tackle each other but try to get the carrier's flag.
Watching was fun and the crowd watching the game was amazing - there were so many people there and they REALLY supported their team. Since the colors of the Regina Wildcats are pink and silver, almost everyone wore pink and silver stuff and people had painted their hair and faces pink. Some guys had even taken their shirts off and painted there whole body pink and silver. Many girls wore hair bands with cat ears on them. It was crazy, but fun.
Doug, Jake and I left early because we wanted to go to church. Later Courtney told us that Regina won. Yay! We left early during the mass as well, Jake wanted to sell popcorn after mass with the other Boy Scouts, Doug went to get Courtney and I was told to watch the boys selling their popcorn.
Back home, I sat outside with Doug and Sheila for a while. I like the conversations I have with them, exspecially the long conversations I often have with Sheila :) Today I found out that she liked the Dan Brown books "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code" as much as I did!
And what's for tomorrow?

HOMECOMING-DRESS-SHOPPING >:)))

Marching Band!

Oh happy daaaaaaaaaaaay... :)))

Man, today was definitely one of the MOST AWESOME days so far. If not the best!
Last night, I sent an email to the marching band teacher, Mr Hilton. I told him that I'm a German exchange student and interested in joining the marching band. I also told him that I unfortunately don't really play a typical marching band instrument but that I've played the piano for a couple of years. I sent that email pretty late so I didn't expect any reaction to it until Monday.
Therefore, I was pretty surprised and confused this morning when before and during my 1st hour, Chemistry, several marching band members asked me about my plans on joining the marching band - how did they know before first hour???? I still have no clue ^^... Well, however, they all seemed happy about it :) and it was so cool that they all came up to me... the first one was Keith, a guy who rides my bus and seems to be really nice. He said Mr Hilton told him I wanted to join the marching band and that Mr Hilton was going to sent tutorial passes (we have to tutorial time at the end of 1st hour, meaning you can go and talk to a teacher if you have a tutorial pass) to me and someone else from the marching band so that I could talk to him about it. Keith plays a special kind of saxophone (I didn't find the English word on LEO...) and so does Katie. Some other band members talked to me (oh, and one girl from my Precalc class who's also in my Chemistry class... I helped her with a problem she couldn't solve last night) and during the hour, two tutorial passes for Katie and me arrived.
When I walked to the band room later with Katie, we talked about Homecoming - and she invited me to go with her and the other girls from lunch :) (and I think some more people from the marching band)! That made me so happy. We'll be going to a girl named Chelsea's house first, then we'll go out for dinner and then we'll go to the dance. I'm so excited and soooooooo glad I can go with them :) They are all so nice...
Talking to Mr Hilton was easy. He seems to be a very cool teacher, straight, funny and ambitious. He told me we could get me involved into the marching band, and they can even use my piano skills - I'll be playing the synthesizer! So I won't actually march but be part of the Pit (the group of students that play instruments you can't march with, they just stand in front of the field and play). Mr Hilton gave me the current Marching Lancers calendar with important dates and rehearsals (rehearsals are usually on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 pm) and a parent handbook and told me that I had to change my schedule so that I had at least one band class (that's required for the marching band) and that I had to talk to a "band mom" (???) about getting a uniform.
On our way back to the Chemistry room, Katie told me some more things about the marching band... it's such a cool thing - and I'm involved!!
(Oh happy day... ;) )
I met the other Katie in the hallway later and told her I'd be joining the marching band, and she also seemed to be happy about it :)
During lunch, we talked a little more about that and about Homecoming again.
The Precalc test today was okay, I think I pretty much got most of it right. In my Drawing class, we're drawing people right now - 2 students model for 15 minutes and the rest of the class has to draw them. I so suck at this - I just can't draw heads!
After school, I went to see my counsellor because of the schedule change. Courtney went with me. Changing was no problem although actually schedule changes aren't possible anymore - well, my counsellor's awesome ;) I'm in Symphony Band now. Unfortunately, I had to drop my Drawing class for it... I would've preferred to drop my Drafting class instead because I don't really learn much in that class anyways (I'm way ahead of everyone else and Mr Caldwell is soooo impressed of my work although I just draw simple draftings from directions in the book all the time... I don't understand what could be hard about that) but well, that wasn't possible. So I agreed to drop my Drawing class. I mean, I still have it second semester... It still makes me a little sad because although that was a hard class, I really liked it. And the stupid thing is that I'll have to start all over again in second semester. But at the moment, the whole band thing is just way more important for me.
So on Monday, I'll have my first Symphony Band hour with Mr Hilton! And my first Marching Band rehearsal is on Tuesday. I'm so excited :)
Other than these awesome changes, I didn't do anything special today... homework, chores, cleaning my room, reading the Marching Band information, going to Kroger's with Sheila and Grayson to get something for dinner... (we got some salmon, fish sticks and 2 little packets of sushi and had that later with rice, vegetables, bread and maccaroni and cheese for dinner - yummy!) At the store next to Kroger's I got some colored paper for letters. Maybe I'll actually have time and enough motivation to write some :P
Tomorrow I might go to a big Girl's Football Game with Courtney... I don't really know yet. I want to practise the piano a lot :) (getting prepared, you know ;) ) and well, yeah, maybe write some letters. I don't know whether we're going to church tomorrow or on Sunday... I think tomorrow I'll get to try on a homecoming dress Sheila's cousin would borrow me but it probably won't fit because it's a size 4. If it doesn't fit, we'll go to the mall on Sunday so I can get my homecoming dress :) uuuh another thing to be excited about ^^

EXCITEMENNNNNNNNNNNNNT YAY!

One Month, one Day.

That's how long I've been here now...

I noticed that last night when I went to bed. I was like: September 24th... hang on...
On one hand, the time raced. I did so many things already but I feel like they all rushed past me so fast. On the other hand, I feel like I've been here for a lot longer than a month already. Because I feel so welcomed with my host family and I already got used to school so much.
It's just weird... I mean, my whole last school year went over like nothing although so many important things happened during that year. It's strange feeling so in between time now. But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only exchange student who feels like this... I mean, you do so many new things, have to get used to so many new details and a whole new everyday life, you have to speak another language the whole time and you basically don't really have a backup of your "old life" that you can use here - you don't bring your friends or your natural family. That's a lot of work for your brain, everyday, so you are often tired, go to bed early, and - rush! - another day's over.
These are just some thoughts I had. Pretty neutral thoughts, don't think I'm sad about that, I was just wondering about it.
School was good today. We got our Chemistry score for the test (99% - and the highest score in class!!! Oh my god I'm so proud...) and we got our History test back (100%). I talked to the girls during lunch, I didn't get to talk to the marching band teacher (tried to do it in the morning but I didn't have enough time), didn't get to talk to Rob but he waved at me when I breathlessly rushed into the class shortly before the bell rang (kind of stressed by the packed hallways - I had to force my way from Writing Workshop to my locker and then with my Precalc stuff all the way down to that class), talked to Sam in Drawing class (she's the girl sitting to my left) - we complained about those stupid drawing desks that never move if you want them to but always move if you DON'T want them to... Ah, we're still doing shoes, by the way.
Not much homework, well, I should have read my History chapter but since we don't have to (just wanted to do it for some more background information) I had kind of a lack of motivation... cleaned my room, played the piano (I'm actually getting kind of good again!), had dinner, did my chores... oh, and I re-painted my toe nails somewhen during the day.

Really need to get those club-joining things done... how often did I say that already??

Mondays are... tired.

And it's not only me, on Mondays you see many more people sleeping in class than usual.

Calling Christian again last night was nice :) it made me so happy.
Today, it was hard to get up - Monday! Well, it was okay though.
The Chemistry test wasn't hard, I think I did pretty good on it. Ms Potter keeps giving us candy... on holidays (every kind of holiday, even the rather unpopular ones), for answering questions right, and today because of the test. She's so funny.
My Drafting teacher, Mr Caldwell, finally noticed my accent and asked me whether I'd been born in the US or not. So I told him that I'm an exchange student.
In Precalc we start doing stuff that's new for me. It's still rather easy, our book is pretty good and Mr Curtis really knows how to explain the things you actually need to know.
I didn't talk to Rob today (he was sleeping at the end of Precalc when we all had some spare time until the bell rang) but I talked to Britney and Katie (the Sophmore Katie, I'm pretty sure the one I met at the game is a Junior) about the marching band and they told me the name of the teacher who leads it. I want to talk to him, let's see if I can get that done tomorrow morning before 1st hour. I also talked to a girl that's in my Chemistry and Precalc classes. I don't remember her name... argh.
Elvi und Albert - danke fuer die Postkarte! Ich hab mich echt gefreut :) und Sheila war total begeistert von den Bildern darauf... "That looks so nice!" ;)
Nothing special happened today... I spent the afternoon and evening doing homework, walking up to Rite Aid to get some bathroom stuff and milk, doing my chores and cleaning Courtney's and my bathroom.

And now I want some ice-cream!

Lancer Game, French Dinner and Homecoming Picnic

God job, Maria... you got hot fudge stains on your jeans.

I went to the Lancer game with Courtney and her two cheerleading friends Alexis and Amanda on Friday. Well, we lost... but the game was still okay. During halftime, the marching band played. It was AMAZING. I was so impressed by the show. Katie told me they'll have competitions soon - I'm sure they'll win a lot of prizes. Wow, they are good!
Doug and the boys came over for the second half so I sat with them because Courtney and her friends had some boys stuff going on... I didn't really get all of it. I met Katie and this other guy from my Chemistry class (... I KNEW his name... at... some point... argh) when they came back from their show and sat down at the benches. I said hi and told them how good they'd been. Oh my gosh, now I'm even more scared of trying to get into the marching band ^^... well, you can always try. I'll ask Katie about it tomorrow.
Yesterday Sheila cleaned the whole house for the quests who came last night. I helped her cleaning and did my homework and in the afternoon, we went to church. I still like that a lot. I mean, going to church... it's so different from the few services I attended back in Varel at the Schlosskirche. I definitely didn't like those, it was just boring.
After church, the guests arrived. We kids went down into the basement, had pizza and Cheetos, watched TV or - in my case - read. Upstairs, the adults had their French dinner - six courses! After every course, Courtney and I came up to clear the table for them and do the dishes (we got paid for that ;) ) and we got the chance to try some of the yummy leftover stuff. The desert was delicious! It was a nice night, everyone had fun in their own ways, I finished my book... (a really good book, "The Truth About Forever" by Sarah Dessen... I borrowed it from Courtney) The guests left around 1 am and we all went to bed.
Today, I called Christian around noon. It was our first phone conversation in English... first, that felt kind of awkward but as soon as I found my way back into fluent English, is was just as easy as talking in German :) (maybe even easier because I didn't have to change from English to German and back again). We didn't get to talk a lot though because he had to do his chores at 12, so I'm going to call him again tonight after dinner.
In the afternoon, we went to St. Thecla's homecoming picnic. It was at the little kids' school. From 3 to 4.30 pm, Courtney volunteered at the ice-cream stall. It was stressy first, then we didn't have anything to do for a couple of minutes but as soon as Sheila brought us burgers, we of course had a lot to do again so we couldn't eat them until we were done. Well, the ice-cream job is also where I got these stains on my jeans... Sheila soaked them already, it'll probably go out.
Outside there was a book flea market. Adult hard cover books were 2$, adult paperback covers 1$ - so of course I went for it! I got 6 books for 6$ which look as if they're new. It's all crime and thriller stuff... 2 John Grisham books, 2 books of a guy called Jonathan Kellerman which seem to be really good...I also found a Ken Follet book there but I already knew that one so I didn't buy it.
Well, I got to go and study for Chemistry a little (we have a test tomorrow) and finish my drawing for Drawing class (we're drawing shoes right now, it's fun... we did hand drawings before, I didn't know I could do such good hands! You can really learn a lot from Mrs Ritchie...)...
Oh, by the way... I added a new list down on the right.

Have a good Sunday night (well, most of you will be in bed already)!

Spirit Day

Go Lancers!

Yeah, today was Spirit Day. That means that if you're proud of your High School (and most kids are) you wear the school colors (L'Anse Creuse: blue and white) or school shirts (e.g. fan shirts from the basketball team, the football team and so on...). So I wore my bluest blue-jeans ;) and a white shirt, and last night I painted my nails blue and white. Today in Chemistry, all the kids who wore Spirit stuff got candy... yummy!
Okay, the last time I wrote was Monday... wow, it didn't seem that long to me! So what has happened so far this week...
Well, as I told you I got a 100% in the Precalc class. Something really funny happened because of that... umm... remember the guy who sat next to me during the Junior assemblies on the first day of school? If not, you can go to the entry of September 4th and reread that story... What I didn't notice was that he's in my Precalc class! So when we had gotten our quiz back on Monday, people started correcting it or going up to Mr Curtis to ask him questions and the people who were done correcting did problems from the book. Suddenly, the guy from the Junior assemblies came over (that's when I noticed he's in one of my classes... oops!). He asked me whether I could help him with some of the mistakes he had made on the quiz and so I explained the problems to him. The next day, before the class started, he came over again to talk to me. His English is perfect, he's not foreign or an exchange student at all ^^ and he got the typical US-name Rob. Well, that's how you can make wrong conclusions ;)
We talked again yesterday, he kind of can't believe why I'm doing an exchange year, he seemed very impressed and said "That's crazy!" over and over again :D and he asked me where my family was, I'm life "Well... in Germany?!" "What?? You're here alone, with no family?" "Umm, I have a family here, my host family..." ... ... ... "That's CRAZY!"
It was funny... and he's nice. We didn't get to talk today though.
I've also been talking to Katie more recently. She's one of the girls I sit with at lunch and she's in my Chemistry class. We did an activity in class together and talked after that... She's taking German, did I write that already? (By the way, Rob has just started German this year) I've also been talking to Heather, another girl from my Chem class, a little. She's a junior and on the swimming team.
Oh, and I finally got a list of all the clubs and activities at L'Anse Creuse. It kind of disappointed me though. The only things that might be interesting are the drama club (well, I'm already in it but it'll still take a while until they start with building the scenery and stuff like that, the stuff I'd like to participate in...), the German club (haha that would be fun... but Katie told me that that's not really a very active club, they meet every now and then but you don't have to come to the meetings and so on... well, I might try it though), the Voices staff (I'm not exactly sure what that is but Sheila and I both believe it's some kind of student newspaper) and the Broadcast and Media Club. I have to take a look at the sports list again and I want to ask Katie whether there's any instrument on the marching band that I might be able to play without having played it before (maybe some kind of drums, stuff like that...) because I think that joining the marching band would be a lot of fun. It is huge, I'd probably get to know many people in there. So, after doing these two things I'll finally make a decision on what to join. I want to DO something!! (besides school, although school's taking pretty much all my time already but I mean - all the kids here handle school AND activities ;) so why shouldn't I?)
Yesterday I went to a football game with Sheila - L'Anse Creuse against L'Anse Creuse North, Courtney cheered. The Freshmen Lancers lost badly and it was very hot outside (it's getting a lot warmer again... not sure if I like it...). Tonight's gonna be the Varsity Lancers/North game. Courtney has to sell Lancer tattoos with some other cheerleaders there, I don't know if I'll go yet.
Today we got our first grade sheet in Chemistry. I'm doing reeeeally good :)))
Tomorrow, Sheila and Doug are hosting a dinner with friends of them. They have these dinners with those people 4 times a year and everytime another couple hosts it. I think tomorrow they're doing a French dinner. We kids will go down into the basement and have a fun TV night.

And we'll be eating yummy PIZZA!!!!! :)

First YFU Orientation Meeting

Baaah I got a cold -.-

That really sucks, I'm sniffing and sneezing all the time...

Yesterday was the YFU Orientation Meeting. Before that, I went picking up Courtney with Sheila (Courtney had been babysitting the whole night) and we went to Sheila's brother who lives about a half an hour drive away. While Sheila helped him picking tomatoes out of his tomatoe garden, Courtney and I went to Kroeger across the street (I needed a huge bottle of pop and some snack to share for the YFU Meeting, so we bought some Rock and Ryde... don't know what that is but it tastes good ;) and some chocolate chip cookies). After that, we went to Subway - right next to Kroeger - for lunch. Then we returned to Sheila's brother's house where they were almost done picking tomatoes. There were hundreds of them! We put them on our truck and started our way back. When we got back home, we had to hurry and then Sheila took me to the meeting.

It was fun there, about half of the exchange students were German, almost the other half were Asians (students from Japan and Thailand) and the last few were Skandinavian. We did the typical YFU stuff: introduce ourselves, divide up into groups, do the How-Can-I-Be-A-Good-Exchange-Student, What-To-Do-When-I-Get-A-Culture-Shock and Where-To-Go-If-I-Have-Problems stuff. That was kind of difficult because we were all way too tired to do that stuff over and over again. But it was okay, we had a lot of snack breaks.

At 6pm, the host families arrived and we had a potluck dinner. The amount of food was HUGE. And the food was soooo good!! Yummy!

Doug and my siblings went back home after that, Sheila stayed for a parent meeting and I stayed for a last group meeting (How-Did-You-Like-This-Meeting-And-What-Can-We-Do-Different).

On the way back home, I had a nice conversation with Sheila. I told her that some of the kids - I didn't tell her the names, I forgot most of them anyways - actually have concerns about talking to their host parents about problems. I really can't imagine that right now because I feel that I can talk to Sheila about everything, and that's what I told her. I think she was happy about that and she also told me about some of the concerns she had before I arrived.

I really feel like I'm growing closer and closer to my "American Family" every day :) I couldn't be luckier!

Today was a hard day. School was exhausting because of the cold I have and because although I sleep much, I'm still very tired most of the time. Well, the good thing about school was that we got the Precalculus quiz back, and I got 100%! It was kind of embarassing because Mr Curtis announced in front of the whole class that I was the only one with a "perfect paper". Well, but I'm proud of myself as well ;) Right now, my nose is pretty much closed and I can't breathe properly through it and that again gives me a headache. I should go to bed early today.

Well, that's what I say every night...

Quiz/Test Season starts... Bah

That means studying a lot...

I had my first Chemistry quiz on Wednesday, on Friday I had a vocabulary quiz in my Writing Workshop class (it was pretty much a joke, we got a list of the words and had to fill them into blanks...) and a Precalculus quiz. That was also rather easy, it was exactly like the two worksheets we had done before, only with different numbers.
My plant in Drawing class is almost done but I'm glad she gave us the Monday hour additionally so I can still work on the last few details. I think it looks good and Ms Ritchie also said something positive when she walked by.
Last night, I went to the De La Salle Dance at De La Salle High School with Courtney. I met Meaghan and her friends there and Courtney met her friends (so we ended up not really seeing each other during the whole evening but that was okay). It was cool, just a casual school dance, I met many of Meaghan's friends and friends of Meaghan's friends and so on... I had a fun time. Unfortunately, I kind of lost Meaghan at some point but I hung out with a group of her friends for the rest of the time and they were all very nice and we had fun. I met this one girl, Kaitlynn (I hope I'm spelling her name right, she complained about the fact that people usually spell it wrong ^^) who reminded me incredibly strongly of Hoppi! She was so much like her...
Today I slept in. It felt SO good. Courtney and I went up to Rite Aid with Michaela and later we'll all go to the 4pm mass at St. Thecla. Tomorrow is my YFU Orientation Meeting, I'm excited about that! I think it's from 1pm to 8pm for the exchange students, and the host families will join us around 6 or 7 I believe. It's going to be fun.
I think I will try to get a list or something that tells me all the names of the clubs at L'Anse Creuse High School. I think there are a lot I don't know about and I might want to join another one besides the drama club (Mrs Ethridge still hasn't contacted me about that, they need to set up the whole play first before they can start with the scenery and publicity and stuff).

I gotta work on that... besides studying.

School, Cellphone and Area Rep

Ewww it's getting actually COLD :/

School goes on - in CP Chemistry, we had a quiz about the scientific method today. It wasn't too hard, I think I did most things right. In US History, we're talking about the West, the fight against the Native Americans and the building of the railroads and we have a test next week. In Drafting, we started drawing letters (hooow exciting...), complete easy little drawings and measuring lines (this feet and inch thing totally confuses me!). I still don't really like Writing Workshop, we're talking about nouns at the moment (didn't I do that back in elementary school?) and we have a vocabulary quiz on Friday. I like Precalculus. We're still doing things I've already done but the teacher explains fast and only the important things. He expects us to be self-dependent in our learning which is pretty cool. In Drawing, we finished our drawings, had our critique about it and today we started a new drawing (we can choose one of two plants to draw, still line drawing, still about expressing moods with lines).
During lunch, I still sit with the same girls. They are nice and really funny.
On Monday, I spent most of the day doing my Precalc homework, it was so much! Yesterday, my cellphone arrived. It is SWWWWEET (it's black ;) )! In the afternoon, my area representative came over for the first time. She is very nice and funny. First, she talked to Doug and Sheila for a while and then she talked to me in my room. She asked me how I felt, some of the typical YFU questions (what to you hope to get from this, ...) and kind of repeated the whole YFU handbook with me... briefly ;) It was nice talking to her, she is going to talk to me once a month and visit me every other month.
Ooooh and another cool thing happened - Courtney and I finally figured out which bus is ours! We went home from school by bus on Monday and have gone to school and back home by bus since then. The bus lady is very nice, she picks us up and drops us off directly in front of the house!

What a luxury ;) (come on, be jealous you poor busriders in Germany!)

Career Day, followed by the Weekend

The weekends really run as soon as school has started.

Career Day on Friday was okay. In some classes, we did some kind of tests that should tell us what kind of jobs are best for us. It didn't really tell me something new, all my results told me that I should be an engineer. Well, that's what I'm most probably gonna do anyway. In other classes, we watched little interviews with people who have a class-related job. Not that informative because those jobs were mostly those weird, special jobs you wouldn't really consider right for you.
I sat with the same girls at lunch again and talked with them a little. Friday night, Sheila, Courtney and I went to the varsity football game at L'Anse Creuse after dinner. We had missed the first half but got there right in time to see the marching band play. However, I wasn't able to recognize Britney or Katie because the band is so big!
Yesterday, we went to church for the 4 pm mass (Sheila's mom joined us) and afterwards we all went to Courtney's friend Ashley's house. Their house is so amazing, it is huge, the rooms are so neat, their kitchen is beautiful and they have a big pool and a hot tub outside.
Besides us, Ashley's friend Lauren and later Meaghan, who is a Junior like me, and her parents were there.
Ashley's mom ordered pizza and while waiting for it we had other delicious snacks (chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, cream cheese with fruit, candy, brownies, cup cakes, ...). Ashley was so funny, she wanted me to say things in German and became so excited about it. I was with the other girls all the time, we talked, listened to music and joined the women in the hot tub when it got dark outside. Meaghan is so nice! She goes to Regina High School and went to Europe this summer. She also went to Germany. She told me about these casual dances she often goes to with her friends and that they are once a month. The next is next Friday and she said I could go there with her and meet her friends. I'm so looking forward to it! She gave me her number, her cell phone number and her email adress so we can figure that out. Yay! It really was a fun evening.
Today was a pretty lazy day. Since we went to church yesterday, I could sleep in. I did my homework after I had showered, eaten breakfast, done my chores and tidied up my room and after homework, I spent most of the day reading.
Tomorrow I have to get up early again... so I got to go now.

Pack my lunch!

And School goes on

I'm tired.

The 2nd and 3rd day of school, which were yesterday and today, were good. In CP Chemistry, we finished our little game and started to prepare a lab yesterday that we did today. I'm not quite sure yet what that has to do with Chemistry because it was finding out what was in a box without opening or damaging it...
In US History, we got our HUGE and HEAVY books yesterday. Today, we summarized the most important facts about the Civil War very quickly and then we started with our current topic, the West.
In my 3rd hour, drafting, we started drafting little geometric figures we got from the teacher which means measuring them and then draw them from 3 different views. That was easy and somehow boring... and the guys sitting around me annoyed me because they wouldn't work but have stupid conversations the whole time.
When I entered the cafeteria for lunch yesterday I just stayed by the doors a little while and then went through the rows of tables and just asked 3 nice-looking girls whether they'd mind if I sit with them. They didn't. Their names are Britney (Sophmore), Katie (Sophmore) and Cassy (Junior, and I have no idea whether I'm spelling her name right) and they are all in marching band. I told him that I'm a German exchange student and we talked a little. Today, I sat with them again. I will just ask them everytime whether I can sit with them again for another week or so, I would like to sit with them all semester but I don't want to annoy them. I hope they could be possible new friends, they seem really really nice. Today, I met two more friends of them. One of them is in my Chemistry class.
Writing Workshop isn't really a class to enjoy. Sure, Ms Wolff is nice but I really don't like the majority of the kids in there (they keep disturbing the lesson so that you can't concencrate on anything) and until now the work seemed way too easy. If it doesn't get much harder soon I'll definitely consider a schedule change. Hopefully that'll still be possible then.
Pre Calculus kind of shocked me yesterday. I had brought my old Math book from Germany to the class and wanted to show it to Mr Curtis after the hour so that he could tell me whether I should rather be in AP Calculus or not but went the lesson started, I didn't understand a word of what he was talking about. It took me half of the hour to get an idea (only because he started writing equations that I understood on the board) and then I started finding out what the words he said stand for. Anyways, I decided to not show him my Math book. If I have a few troubles understanding Pre Calculus, I definitely shouldn't be in AP Calculus. The homework was surprisingly easy though and today I could very the lesson pretty well and again got easy homework. We're doing functions, something I've already done. I have to look through the book, if I have already done all of that, I might be able to change to AP Calculus anyways... oh my god, that is all so confusing.
In Drawing class, we looked at drawings yesterday because Ms Ritchie wanted to show us how artists work with lines to express emotions. Today, we started our first assignment: everyone has to draw 5 line drawings that express anger, fear, movement, happiness and one self-chosen thing. We can use different kinds of pencils, charcoal, black crayons or ink. I did my movement drawing today and almost finished my anger drawing. Sitting next to Ben is still fun, today he complained about his parents not letting him play video games all day (well...) and became very frustrated when Ms Ritchie told him all his lines looked the same and he should variate them. Poor guy!
After school yesterday I did my Chemistry and Pre Calc homework, tidied up my room, did my chores and went to Wall Mart with Sheila, her friend and Courtney to buy some more school things.
Today I've so far tidied up my room, done my chores and did my Pre Calc homework.
Tomorrow is Career Day. That means that in every class the teachers will talk about class-related career opportunities. That's going to be an easy day.
Oh, and I'll be getting a cellphone soon. Courtney had told me before that I'd need one because everyone owns one and now Sheila talked to me about that, too. She said she'd feel better if I was always reachable, exspecially when I'm somewhere on my own or with friends. So I talked to my dad about it, and he said it's okay.

Well, I guess I'm getting more and more settled!

Back to School

School Spirit.

Yesterday, Courtney and I prepared for school. So in the morning, we did a beauty session together with Sheila and Michaela - first, we made homemade facial masks and put them on and then we did our finger- and toenails. That was so much fun!
In the afternoon, Courtney, Sheila and I went to Macomb Mall again. After I had read the dress code in some school information sheets I thought that I might need some extra tops just to make sure my shirts could be considered low-cut in NOW WAY ;) and I wanted to get some summer shoes since the dress code said something about appropriate footwear and we weren't sure whether that includes flip flops.
I found everything so I have 4 new tops now in black and different shades of grey (so they go with all my shirts) and a cute pair of ballerina shoes (kind of black and grey...). I made good deals again!
Last night, I packed my backpack for school, Courtney and I both chose our Back to School outfits and then we out on another facial mask and started watching a movie. We didn't finish it though since we wanted to go to bed a little ealier.
I didn't sleep much because I was afraid I might not hear my alarm clock in the morning. It was set to 5.30 (which is insane, I know, but hey, my school day starts at 7.11!). So in the morning, I took a shower, got ready and dressed, had some cereals, then Sheila took some 1st-day-school pictures of Courtney and me (Courtney was very nervous this morning) and we left.
Surprisingly, I found everything in the school okay although today everything was totally messed up - the classes were way shorter than usual so they only took half the school day and during the other half, we were seperated into our grades - so I was with the other Juniors all the time - and did different activities. Before 1st hour, we had homeroom which we also only have on our 1st day and the lunches were different today, too.
Homeroom was okay, just getting my schedule (again??) and a few announcements. The homeroom hours were seperated by last names so I was with other students that have a last name starting with R or S.
Then I had my 1st hour, CP Chemistry with Ms Potter. She's awesome! She seems so nice and open... She started playing this name game with us but we didn't get to finish it.
My 2nd hour was US History. Mr Tatum - or, Mr "T" - is one of those typical history teachers but he's okay. There are a lot of Freshmen in this class but there are a few Juniors and Sophmores and even one Senior.
Drafting's my 3rd hour. Mr Caldwell seems to be a cool guy but he played this weird, senseless game with us checking whether 2 people in the class might have the same birthday. Actually, there were 2.
After Drafting, I usually have lunch but not today.
After (usually) lunch I go to my 4th hour which is Writing Workshop with Ms Wolff. She's a cool young lady but I don't like my classmates that much so far... Many of them seem to be this kind of kids that don't care about school at all and keep disturbing the lesson. The fact that there are so many in this class is probably because it's actually a class to improve your English writing skills and most of the students are students that failed an Enlish class last year. Well, I might wanna go to my counsellor and get me out of that class and into Composition by the end of the week... but first, I want to try this one for a few days. It might still be good, you never now.
My 5th hour is Pre Calculus. Mr Curtis seems to be a strict teacher and it sounded as if he wants to go through the topics pretty fast. Actually, I don't need to get a new calculator because mine is the recommended one! That's pretty sweet. Back to Mr Curtis... although he seems strict he's still totally fair. If someone needs help in their Pre Calc stuff, they can meet him in his room before first hour (he's already in the school by 6.30!) or o to him after hour and ask him to stay longer after school so he can help them then. He said he's always willing to do that.
My 6th hour is Drawing with Ms Ritchie. She seems serious about work and always concentrated, that's cool. I hope I'll learn a lot in that class. I sat next to this really funny Sophemore guy, his name is Ben and I borrowed his pen for a minute and then he obviously wanted to start a conversation, so he pointed up at a picture at the wall and said 'Remember painting that one with oily pastels in elementary school?' I was like... 'Nooo...' And he said 'What?? You don't remember that one? EVERYONE did that!' 'Well, I've actually never been to an US elementary school...' and so I told him that I'm a German exchange student which impressed him a lot ;) and we got into a conversation...
For the second half of the day that I spent with the other Juniors, we first had an assembly in the Large Gym where they told us something about the school policies, then we went out to the Track Field where we got some ice-cream, a student planner (it's actually a pretty cool one) and were able to sign up for clubs (I signed up for the drama club, let's see how that'll work out...). After that we had lunch (finally!!! I was starving!!!) and then another assembly in the Small Gym were they said some stuff about Homecoming and how to get involved in the preparations. Well, I might wanna get involved there, too... but first I'll check about the drama club stuff.
In the end, there was another huge assembly in the Large Gym for all the students of the school. They had some games there (one grade against another and stuff like that) and the teachers did a fashion show showing in a funny way what inappropriate and appropriate clothing for school means.
After that, I walked home with Courtney and her friend Chelsea.
I actually think I've met one of the other exchange students that are supposed to be in the school at the moment. We sat next to each other during the Junior assemblies and he sat in front of me during the big assembly and like me, he didn't seem to really know anyone. He also looked kind of foreign. But whenever I was turning over to him to start a conversation he kept looking away quickly... weird guy! I talked to Sheila about that and she said his English might not be very good and he was afraid to say something. That's probably sure.
In the afternoon, we had a snack, signed the school papers that had to be signed, did our chores and then we had dinner. After dinner, Courtney and I walked up to Rite Aid which is a supermarket. We bought some school stuff there like pens, highlighters, notebooks and binders.
Back home, I packed my lunch.
Now, I will just check my mail real quick and then I'll go to bed!

Fortunately, tomorrow will be a 'normal' school day so I can actually get used to that ;)

Up North

On Friday, we went up north.

We left around 6.30 in the morning. The ride up to the cottage the Priemers had rented - it was very close by the Lake Huron - took a couple of hours. When we finally got there, we had a few minutes to get a little settled and then we left for canoeing.

After we had arrived at the canoe rental place, a guy from there took us and two canoes to a place 6 miles up the river. There we started our canoeing tour.

I was in a canoe with Doug, Grayson and Michaela. The tour was so much fun. The nature up there is so beautiful and the water of the river was unbelievable clear. We stopped at the river bank twice to have some cheese and crackers, pop or water and to let the children play and swim. Sheila, Courtney and I went into the water only the second time. I enjoyed the trip very much.

After the canoeing tour, we got back to the cottage and went to the lake's beach across the street. While the little ones played in the sand and in the water, Courtney and I started reading and both fell asleep. It was very comfortable but unfortunately we both got sun-burned on our backs and legs.

When we came back from the beach, Doug and the little kids went to the pool of the main building of the whole cottage rental. Sheila, Courtney and I returned to our cottage. There we watched TV and Sheila and I took showers.

Later, we went out for dinner. I had a huge chef salad, it was very good. After that, we went to the house of Doug's dad. It is a beautiful house at a lake, their grandpa and his wife are very nice and they have two dogs (one of them is still a puppy!).

While the adults talked and the little kids played somewhere, Courtney and I walked around or sat by the lake or on the back veranda and talked. It was nice, I like talking to Courtney because she's such a funny person.

On our way back to the cottage that night, we stopped at an ice-cream place. I had some DELICIOUS apple pie ice-cream there!

Back at the cottage, we watched TV for a while and then went to bed.

On Saturday, we had breakfast in the main building. After that, we packed all our stuff into the car and left the cottage. We went to a hiking place. Although it was very hot, I enjoyed the hiking a lot. The nature was amazing!

We spent about 1-2 hours at that place. Then we started the ride back home.

Today Sheila, Courtney and I went to church (I think Doug went last night). This time, I felt perfectly well and I start to get used to the mass. Well, I still can't speak much more than a few of the responses they say to the priest and the Our Father but it is getting better.

I don't think we're doing something special today. Tomorrow is Labor Day, that seems to be a little like the German 'Tag der Arbeit' (is that what it's called??) and everyone has off that day. That's why we don't start school until Tuesday.

I'm so excited about that...

Tomorrow night I'm going to make my first High School lunch paket!