Mia abroad in the US 2018/19

A few weeks after school started was the Panther Kickoff. Basically this is an event where the sport teames get introduced. Together wit my hostmum I went there. It was something completely new for us both, because here High School didn´t had a Kickoff. At first the dancing group performed to the music of the marching band. It was really impressing, the danicing team of my high school is extremely good. After the Marching Band and the Dancers finished there performance, the sport teams got introduced. Actually they just run from one end of the football field to the other end, while someone calls out the names of the team captians. I know it sounds kind of boring, but I liked it. It was the first time ever that I felt the "American School Spirit". Most important: I had a lot of fun.

My fist week of school is over and I surived 😂 Last Friday (August 17) I had my first day of school. Before I started I met my Counselor and chose my classes. After that a nice girl showed me the school and helped me to get a student ID. My school really wants to guarantee our safety, that´s why everybody at school (also teachers and anyone else) need to wear his ID. Unfortunaly I came too late to my first lesson, Biology AP. That´s why my hostparents got a call after school, that I came too late to my first lesson and so I had to bring an note on monday. My second period used to be P.E., but I directly changed it to theatre after my first day.  After theatre I have Us History, what I do beacause my exchange organisation and my school want me to. It´s kind of boring because I also need to do US Government (which by the way is a senior class) and we are talking about the exact same things. Principles of health science is my last period before lunch. It´s really interesting and we´re l

Since Saturday I´m with my host family in Missouri City, Tx. Obviously I need to get used to this new conditions, but so far I´m really enjoying my time here and I really like my host family. On Sunday we went to church (my host parents are Mormon and later in the year I´ll upload an article about that). On Monday I went to my high school with my host mum for choosing my courses, but it didn´t worked, because I first needed to sign up online. Now we did it, but I still need to wait until 17th August before I´m allowed to attend to school, but school already starts at 15th August. 😑 The Monday afternoon I spend at the pool with my little host siblings. That was pretty cool and refreshing, 💦

Also the second of Orientation was super cool 🗽 In the morning we had workshops again and as conclusion we had a little game show, where the teams were playing against eachother. Unfortunaly my team (the green team 💚) didn´t won, but we were on the second place. In the afternoon we visited New York City again. At first we did a guided tour through the famous Central park and we saw a lot of places where famous series and movies were filmed (e.g. we saw the place where Blaire and Chuck get married in Gossip Girl). After that we went on the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center). The view over Manhattan was breathtaking and I took a lot of beautiful pictures. Naturally we had free time and this time we had it on the Time Square and parts of the Broadway. That was pretty cool. At the End we had Dinner in a Restaurant called Opry City Stage. I had a cheesburger (I ate my first american burger 🍔 Yummy!). It was really tasty and really much, so I didn´t had enough space f

Tuesday was my big day. I flight with more than 50 other exchange students to Newark for the Orientation Days. After everyone said goodbye to his/her parents we went to the security check. At the Gate we met the students, which already had a flight to Frankfurt. Together with the students, which sat in the same row than me, I went on to the plain. Overall we flight 8 1/2 hours, which pased by extremely slow. At the end we arrived at Newark Liberty Airport very well. But bevor we could collect our suitcases, we needed to get through the border control. On hour later everyone made his way to the border control and picked up his luggage. Then we went to our hotel in Parsipanny by a coach. The employers of AYA, the american organisation, welcome us very friendly and we get a folder with some important information and the t-shirts we were supposed to wear during the Orientation Days. Directly after the dinner we had a short meeting were we regionized that the majority of the exch

When I thought about that in the last month, I couldn´t imagine to pack up my things for a whole year. But now I did.😃 Unlike I thought I´ll do it, I didn´t wrote a list with the things I like to take with me. Because I´ll stay in Texas I almost only need war-weather clothes. So I take the clothes I want to take with and sort them in little piles. Then I packed those little piles in my suitcase and it fits. Unfortunaly my suitcase weight to much so I needed to decide which clothes I won´t need. Now I´m finished with packing my suitcase and I hope that I won´t buy too much things in New York. Otherwise I´ll need to repack my things in New York😂.

I can´t imagine that I´ll already fly in one week. With more than 30 other exchange students I´ll spend 4 days in New York.🗽 Everything starts next Tuesday. My parents will drive me to the airport in Frankfurt, where I need to say goodbye to them. I am totally excited and can´t wait to start. But there are still things I need to do until next Tuesday. Amongst other things I need to pack my suitcase and activate my sim-card for the US. The most crazy thing is, that I still can´t realize that I´ll go. Also I´m a bit sad because I won´t see the most of my friends again before I fly.😭 I hope I´ll have week with less stress and have time for relaxing.🙈

At the weekend was my "Surprise"- Goodbye Party. It was wonderful. Also my host parents talked to me at the beginning (with skype). 💙 Some of my friends had little gifts for me. For example to friends made a "When-book" for me. It feels totally strange to say goodbye to family and friends, because I still can´t realize that I´ll fly in three weeks. My Cousin backed it for me and it tasted sooooooo well 💙 Because I didn´t knew about that surprise party I´ll have a smaller one with my best friends at the beginning of my summer break (in one week). I hope it´ll be great again. 🙈

In only six weeks I´ll fly to New York City for the Orientation Days. The time has run since last year. One year ago I had my interview with AIFS and now my year will start. I´m not sure about how to feel. A part of me is extremely excited and can´t wait to start and the other part realizes that I won´t see my family and my friends for one year 😭 However I´m still happy with my decision to go to the US. I´m sure that it will be a wonderful time. Obviously I´m scared of a few things e.g. the first day of school or (I know it sounds silly) that my suitcase get lost at the airport.😂 Nevertheless I´m excited and hope to make some great experience.

After filling out my host family application AIFS send ist to AYA. In my case AIFS hat to wait until I get the cancelation of the PPP. The host families also need to fill out an application. Employers of AYA give, with help of both applications, a selection of exchange students to theri host families. It´s possible, that your application was already given to a few host familys before it reachs your final family. Sometimes it happens, that a family choose a student, but the high school can´t give a comitment wether you can attend to this high school or not. A late placement never ever means that no one wants you. often it takes a long time to check the criminal backgroung of the family or to get the commitment of the high school.💙