Elvis's still alive!

As you can see; the almighty Elvis is still alive!

Well, at least he lives on as a paper figure. The picture was taken in a restaurant we went to on saturday: It was in the 50's style and they even had the original "Green River" a soda everybody drank that time. It tastes like a mix of 7up (for the Germans: It is the same as Sprite) and some lime. It also had, besides the very good burgers and the homemade (!) fries, the best milkshakes I ever had, I could have ordered a so called black cow; a mix of Root Beer (this is a very bitter soda, no alcohol ;)) and vanilla ice cream, but I wasn't that eager to experiment with different tastes ;)

So how was my week overall?! Well, I now know for the first time how exhausting five days in the american school system are with 5 days of 7 hours of school each and not enough sleep becausee of the early school bus. In school itself though I'm having really fun and my first grades have arrived too: The first multiple choice test I took, was history and I scored zero points, since I crossed the right answer, rather than blackening it out on the scantran sheet (they use a machine to check your answers and it doesn't understand crosses apparently ;)), but I scored 97 % (which is an A) on the remake of the test :) Some more grades: 100 % in morality (had the questions and the answers from the teacher already though ;)) ; 97 % in Music Theory (I just couldn't remember one word in english ...) , my math test was easy, I haven't got it back though and at last my physics test, which was very hard and I think I didn't do too good, after hearing the solutions ): ...

So how does a typical school day lokk for me: I get up at 5:45 ():):), get ready for school and put on my uniform (which is: navy blue long pants and either a andrean polo shirt untucked (that's what most people, including me, wear) or a white shirt with a tie) and lave with the bus at 6:30. The bus reaches the Merrillville Highschool at about 7:15 and we wait there for about 10-15 minutes before taking the bus to andrean, which then drives for about 10 minutes. So I reach school at about 7:40. I head to my locker to get the books for my first class and then the school starts with a prayer and your oath to the flag of the United States. I have 2 lessons before homeroom, which is supposed to be the time for announcements over the radio, but ends up to be nothing more than a 20 min break. In the 5th lesson you have lunch in the cafeteria, which you can either buy there (pretty expensive though) or bring it with you (what I do most of the time). You have another 2 classes before school ends at 2:45. Then the running starts , since you only have 5 minutes till the bus leaves and you need to get to your locker to put away some books/get the ones you need at home. At Merrillville Highschool we need to wait another 20 min for our bus (our bus driver seems to be the last one every time...) so we reach home, sweet home at about 3:50 - 4:00 PM. Normally you need to do some homework which takes another hour (or more...), so after a day of 9 - 10 h of school you are pretty exhausted then and most days end up to be nothing more than relaxing...

I do have the opportunity to practise the drums now, so maybe the days will be a bit less relaxing (for all of you that want to know what I'm trying to play at the moment: click here )


The best part of my stay here are the weekends and the evenings in the garage though. It's really fun since there's always a lot of people (on Friday there were about 12 people) and I'm learning pretty fast to play pool, I even bet Sol on Saturday and Zac on Friday (only because he scratched though when playing the 8 Ball ;)).


These pictures were taken on Friday, and Sol wasn't there (birthday party ):), but I had fun without her ;P. The people you can see in this picture are Zac (only partly ^^), Erin (the tall girl, somebody me and Sol met on the bus, and she just lives down the street, so she hangs out in the garage quite often :)) and Kat, a friend of Erin's.

On Saturday the garage was pretty empty though, only Sol, Lou, Zac, Devan (a friend of Zac (and btw also a Drummer :))) and of course myself. Zac and Devan left pretty early so we actually went to bed at about 1 already (watched a movie...).

A picture of Devan and Zac.

The End

P.S: No picture of the school, because you're not allowed to have any electonical devices, and they take it from you if you have it, so I don't want to take the chance, since you then wouldn't be able to see anymore pictures :)

About: the MSI, Parties where you don't know anybody and 5 days off of school

America is the coolest country in the world!!!

Ok, at least it's the coolest regarding "snow days" ;) I've had Thursday off, because school was canceled, Friday I didn't go to school, because my host mum thought the way there would be unsafe, then there was the weekend and Monday I'm off because it's the Martin luther king day, which makes it a total of 5 days I didn't go to school :)

My days of school I had this week were fun though, I like all of my teachers and most of the classes are really fun (english not too much (I've just never liked classical books...) and morality doesn't really interest me, though it's easy so not too bad :)) I'm also starting to know my schedule and even am starting to get along with some people quit well (though it's quite hard to get close to people over here, since you often just see them once a dy in one of your classes and maybe lunch). So my everyday life in school is going fine, but...

...you probably now want to know what I did all that time I was off?! So here it is:
On Thursday and Friday I actually just was at home and hang out with Sol, Zac and Jun Hi (even though Zac had to go to school on Friday with only a 2 hour delay (haha ;))), but still it was better than getting up at 5:45 and having to stay in school till 2:45 (that's currently the only thing I don't like about the US: having to get up early and having such a long day of school...). Of course Friday evening was again one of the famous garage "parties" (more of a hanging-out hough, not many people ;)), which I really had fun at, since I the first time played pool, which was fun. We had to go to bed pretty early though, since the next day we wanted to go: To the MSI!

So what is the MSI?! It's the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and it's really really really awesome ! You can spend days (!) in that museum, since there's so much to see, and it's so much fun, 'cause it's all "hands-on" and experiments... Me and my host family, zac, and a friend of Sol went there and had lots of lots of fun...
The coolest thing, though weren't the real, only one captured by the allies, submarine or the models of many different ships or the really awesome Omnimax theatre (even bigger than an IMAX), or the huge model train system, or..., no, it was the really awesome Navy flight simulator, where you even could "fly" on your head, which was the most fun ;) We actually stayed in the museum for about 5 hours, from the opening time till it closed, and hadn't even gone up to the third level !

After having a late lunch at a really cool fast food restaurant, that had every "fast" food you could possibly imgaine (from pasta + pizza to hamburgers + hot dogs) we went home and me and Sol left for a "Goodbye" Party; another German exchange student is leaving on Monday. The party actually was pretty nice, even if I didn't know anybody besides Sol, but there were a lot of exchange students (4 Germans, South korean + belgian) so I had fun talking to them and getting to know people, even if it was just for the 3 hours the "party" (which was actually more a "having-dinner-together" ;)). Aparrently the girl called Danielle (the one who's leaving), has to go through NY on her flight, so her trip will take about 30 (!) hours overall, which kinda sucks...(sry all parents and adults, but it does ;)).

We got home at about 10:00 and then played some more pool (which I'm getting better at ;)) and I got to meet a good friend of the Family, Bryan, who's really nice and fun (even though he had some good amount of drinks ;)).

At last a picture of Sandy and Loui, my host parents, yesterday in the garage:


The End

P.S: I've got much more pictures of the muesuem, but uploading takes pretty long, with the connection I'm using, so that's all you get :P

A new Week, more School and a new blog entry!

Even if it wasn't a whole week since the last entry I think you've waited long enough for some more information... ;)

On the weekend I had some fun with the korean exchange student from across the street, his name's Jun Hi (I hope it's spelled right, this is atleast who it's pronounced...) and he's just arrived three days before me and's a freshmen (9th grade). His host brother Zack( who's been gone on the weekend and came back in the evening of sunday) is also very nice and we are getting along quite good.

Me and Jun Hi actually exercised a lot on Friday/Saturday by shuffling a lot of Snow (there's really a lot of snow overhere..) to a hill and even cleared the driveway when doing it.



I've also but a proper Uniform on the weekend, which was 116 $, and ordered some books, which were just 40 $, but would have been more if I had ordered the physics book (I've asked the teacher about a spare book, and he's looking for one), which is at least 80 (!) $, so I actually got out quite cheap (Sol said she had paid about 450-500 $ total for books/uniforms).

Today was my 3rd day of school and I'm actually able to open my locker now ;) Also I'm starting to remember names and am getting along good with some people. I'll now just give you a little update about my classes and how they are:

• Honor Physics: I like it alot, the teacher's fun and the people in the class too, even if they're mostly Juniors (11th grade) and Seniors (12th grade)
• Music Theory: It's still so easy, but because of that it's fun, since it's really relaxed and there are only about 8 people on the class
• World History: Pretty easy, because I had most of the stuff already in Germany (currently talking about the Frechn rev. + Napoleon), but fun becauese the teacher's nice and the people are okay
• Latin 3: Not too easy (it's latin ... ;)) but I like the people (also Juniors mostly though)
• Honor Alg. 2 + trig. : not too easy, since they're about one chapter farther than we were in germany, but still no problem and a nice jteacher
• English: Nice Teacher + people, but reading shakespeare isn't particularly the most fun experience ;)
• Morality; Only class I had to do homework for, up to now so I don't like it ;) No, actually it's fun and the teacher seems ok

So I'm having a fair amount of fun overhere and really am liking my exchange so far :) Maybe there'll be no school tomorrow (or at least the busses won't drive, which means I can sleep in and my host mum takes me), since there's a lot of snow and a blizzard forecasted for tonight (though I don't see the snow falling yet).

Amother picture, this time of Jun Hi:


Hoping for a lot of snow right now ;)

The End

Weird Schedules, funny lockers and too many names...

Since apparently there are some people actually reading the stuff I'm writing (at least it seems so from the activity in the shoutbox), I decided to give everybody another update on how school went, but that's going to be it, for some time ;)

So after a too shorth night (having to get up at 5:45 because of the bus...) I today took the school bus to school and and talked to the guidance counsellor first. She askes me some Information for the school database before she got to the courses I'm taking. Just a reminder for everyone who doesn't know who the american school system really works: Every student picks 7 classes (some classes of course you have to take), which you have every day. So for now my schedule looks like this (probably staying that way too...) :

• Lesson A : Honor Physics 1 (honor Classes are, at least I think , the "harder" classes) , which I had a lesson in already and it seemed fun (especaially the teacher...)
• Lesson B: MusicTheoryComposition (was ok, but seemed very easy, which isn't necessarily bad ;))
• Lesson C: World History (just basically like history in Germany, even with a German teacher so if I would possibly not beeing understanding something she can tell me in German)
• Lesson D: Latin 3 (Didn't have it yet because of the time in the guidance counsellor office)
• Lesson E: Honor Algebra 2/Trigonometrie (same as Latin)
• Lesson F: English 10 (Just had it for about 20 min. and we watched a film so not much to say (they're reading shakespeare, though...)
• Lesson G: Morality (Religion...)
• "Lesson" H: Homeroom ( Time for announcements and just like a break...)

So now I come to the complicate Part, they have a rotating schedule so my daily schedules for a week would look like this:

Monday: A/B/H/C/D/E/F/G Tue:B/C/H/D/E/F/G/A We:C/D/H/E/F/G/A/B Thu:D/E/H/F/G/A/B/C Fri: E/F/H/G/A/B/C/D

But besides that there is more to know: lunch is in the 5th period and there are three different lunches: A/B/C were A is Go to Lunch/got to class; B: Go to Class/Lunch/Class C: Go to Class/Lunch. So if that didn't confuse you yet, here comes the most complicated thing, the Bell schedules I don't really understand them yet but maybe you do with this picture:

Another thing that I kinda got confused by, was the locker, you had to turn the wheel in a special way and I just didn't get it right, so I even almoust missed the bus, b

But overall I really liked my first school day, especially because everybody was so friendly, and introduced themselves to me, which again was very nice, but on the other side kinda bad, since I have to remember about 70 names I was told from all the kids in the different classes (There isn't such a thing as a class, which you stay together with the whole day) ;)

At last, another picture, this time of the nice garage I told you about yesterday:

Destination reached!

After I've got Internet on my Laptop just 10 minutes ago (it's encrypted and just Mrs. Oseguera has the password...) I'm now ready to give all you readers the first update on my trip :)

On my leaving day I really was excited about the whole exchange, but after having checked in and beeing rid of the suitcases excitement set down to a reasonable level. Of course my Mom cried when saying good bye to me, but hey, probably any mum would have.
My flight to the US was more or less comfortable, the plane was fine, since it had tvs at every seat in economy class, so you were able to choose from various channels (they even showed a show of House, M.D ;) ). But on the other side my seat wasn't the best, since the plane was packed with people (btw: what's with people from India travelling to the US, there were like 20 of them in just the part of the plane I was sitting in) and I didn't see any free space, I had to sit in the middle of the middle row, which always makes it uncomfortable, since you can't move your legs as freely and can't get up as easily.

After reaching Chicago I first was in a bit of a hurry since my flight had been late and I had to go through Immigration, customs, go to another terminal, go through security (just btw, it's very ridiculous to take off your shoes at security in my opinion but okay...) and find the right gate in about 1 hour, but since my next plane was 20 min late already, it worked out quite ok. After I waited for about 20 minutes at the gate, I boarded and then the real waiting began: We waited 1 hour for the start, taxied on the ground for about 20 min total, with a flight time of aprox. 15 min !!!! How can it be any more ridiculous?!? Well at least for those 15 min I had more space since the seat next to me was free... (Didn't do me too much good though, since we weren't even allowed to take off our seat belts...)

But I reached South Bend just fine and my host mom was waiting. After another one and a half hours of driving we reached her house, which is very nice and I also have a nice room:


I also met my guest sister today, she's very nice and her name's Sol( she's from south korea...)
Today I was allowed to stay at home which I did and so I took some pictures of the house (they got a really nice "party" garage), but I won't upload them today, but instead I'll show you a picture of the dog they have, his name's Kelco and he's really nice...

Tomorrow's first school day, and since I have to get up at 5:45 (school bus schedule.... ):) I'll go to bed soon....

Look Forward to my next Post, possibly with more picture of the house and the cool garage (with a pool table and a flipper...)...

Less than one Day left in Germany!

There it is, the day of departure is almoust there. Tomorrow my plane leaves Germany, and I'll at last (after so many things that had to be done) touch US ground and hopefully have a lot of fun for half a year.

Today also the excitement hit me as I realised, that from tomorrow on, I won't see my friends, parents, relatives and anybody I know here till I come back! But after awhile all the fun I'm hopefully going to have came back to my mind and my excitement came to a normal level again.

At the moment I'm packing the last stuff into my suitcases (yes plural I'm allowed to take 2 suitcases of up to 23 kg, and I'm taking about 20 kg in each (which in my opinion is too much,but my mum thinks I need to take so much things I won't need for the first 3 months anyways...)) and the rucksack I'm taking on the plane, so my new Laptop, from which I'm writing this, will be going into it just after I'm finished with this. Just to give you a little impression of the chaos in my suitcases before I repacked them some minutes ago:

So this is probably the last thing you will hear from me before I'm in the US and from then on I'll try and blog once a week about all the cool things that'll do and that'll happen to me ;)