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

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...)...

Actual Departure Date !!

As some may have noticed, the countdown on the right side of the blog suddenly went up two more days, that's because I now know the actual date I'm leaving.

My flight leaves on the 6th of January at 12:30 P.M (German Time) and I'll be landing in Chicago airport at 3 P. M (American Time), where I change planes to then fly to Southbend Airport, a much smaller regional airport on the other side of Lake Michigan. I'll land in Southbend at about 5 P.M (American time), after almoust 11 h of travelling. I really am getting quite excited at the moment, since it's not long till I leave all of my friends and my parents and start my "Adventure".

But on the other side I'm actually not getting as excited as I thought I would get, since I talked with my host family already and at least on the phone they seemed quite nice ;). I also got some new information about them, which maybe'll interest some of you:

• They don't just have the chinese (which actually is from south korea) and brazilian exchange student, also a german exchange student is there at the moment and will be leaving when I go over. I even was able to talk to her and she said the host family is very nice and I'll have fun, so I'm really looking forward to meet them :)
• They have a dog, which I think is cool, since I always wanted to have another dog after our first dog died when I was three....
• My host "mum" is actually russish-polish and my host "dad" spanish
• They do have WLAN at the house (No I didn't ask that, she told me from herself ;)), which will make it easier to blog, since I'll be able to do it from there and don't have to do it in school

Since they all seemed very nice and happy, from what I heard on the phone, I really am glad I chose to go to the US and really am lloking forward to it :)

The End

P.S: Today I got the required haircut for the private school, which is much shorter than before...
If you want to see a picture spam the shoutbox (This shoutbox needs some activity :D) and maybe I'll post one ;)

Host Family !!!

After more or less (for me less for my parents more ;)) nervous waiting for the letter telling me about the family I'll stay with, today was "the" day. I now know the name and adress of my host family and got some information about them:

• They are a hispanic couple with 5 kids (I didn't like that at first, but...), who are grown up. (that made it ok, since probably not all of them live at home anymore.)

• I won't be the only exchange student there, a brazilian student will be leaving from them soon after I come and a chinese one will be coming and'll stay there the whole time I'm there.

That's about the only Information I got, but at least I now know I'll have a place to stay at in America ;). I think it'll be a great experience living in a hispanic family and with a chinese guest "sibling".

Maybe I'll even learn some Chinese or Spanish...


The End of a rather short entry (the next one'll be longer, I promise ;))