31.01.15: Halftime

Hey guys,
I can't believe that already half of my exchange year is over. It goes by so fast and then again it seems so long. When people ask me "How does it feel to stay in a different country for a year?", or "How is your exchange year so far?", I never know what to answer. Even on the question "How are you?" is no easy aswer. It is just not possible to explain the things and feelings that I am experiencing here to someone that doesn't went through it. But I found this quote that actually describes an exchange year pretty good. So here is the closest answer that I can get to to how it feels like being an exchange student:

Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.
Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.
Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.
Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that boy is going to react when you see him again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.
Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.
Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.
Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.
Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world.
It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.
Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.
Exchange is falling in love with this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.
Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…
Exchange is understanding.
Exchange is unbelievable.
Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.
Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.
Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.
Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.
Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there are great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.
And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.
Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.
Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it!

27.01.15: Finally 17

Hey guys,
Sorry that I haven't posted anything lately but I just don't have much time with track practice and school.

I am finally 17 yay :D. My birthday was on a thursday so I had school and track practice that day. In my first period my friend Harimtzy brought me a cake and a present. In two periods my classes sang Happy Birthdady for me. After I came home from track practice in the morning Solveig, Barbora, the kids and I went to a restaurant. Like american tradition the staff sang for me. It was really embarrassing. 
Unfortunately when we came home I had to write an Essay for English.

 

The next day we had a Pep Ralley, but this one was bigger than the ones before. Our school won a award and as a price they built up  "Hoppsburgen" and other stuff  and they gave out free food. I don't want to know how much money they spent for this.

 

On sunday we went to the beach because we couldn't really celebrate my birthday on thursday. Even thought it's January we could lay on the beach in our bikinis. But when the clouds came out it got really cold.

Bye, Leo

09.01.15: Lakers Game

Hey guys,
This wednesday was Parks 18th birthday. In the evening he invited Barb(ora) and me to go to dinner with him, his hostdad and hostbrother. It was really nice.

On friday was Adams 11th birthday. His birthday present from Solveig were tickets for a Lakers game. So when we got home from school we imediately drove to the Staples Center in L.A.. The stadium was huge. The Los Angeles Lakers were playing against Orlando Magic. During short breaks and in the halftime break cheerleders performed their dances. The Lakers won the game 101 to 84.

I wish you all a nice weekend, 
Leo

27-28.12.14: Roadtrip along the westcoast

Hey guys,
I decided I will write my posts in english from now on, because it probably would improve my english if I stopped writing in german so much.


On Saturday we started our roadtrip along the westcoast. Because not all 8 of us did fit in Lance big truck, Adam and Solveig went with Knut in his car. The landscape in Washington is just beautiful. Most of the time we drove through forest with really big and dark green trees. Typically for Washington it was a foggy and rainy day. Most of the small towns we came through were cute but also seemed abandoned. When we came to Forks it already was really late so we decided to stay there over night. The next day the weather was just perfect, the sun was even shining, what is a wonder for the time of the year here in Washington. We were really lucky with the weather because we went to the beach that day. The beach was really pretty.

After this we went to a cliff, which was the part of the United States that is the furthest point west and north. To get there we had walk through the forest. From the cliff we had an amazing view over the pacific ocean. We even could see Canada from there. Really late that day we arrived in the town where Knut is living. It is near mount Baker, where many peole are going for skiing and snowboarding. We stayed there until the 1^st of january. 
 

On the 31^st we went skiing at mount Baker. It was a lot of fun. I wished we would have had more time but we already had to leave the next day. 


Bye, Leo