Prom

 

This weekend I had Prom. Prom is a formal dance organized by the school at the end of the school year. At our school both Juniors and Seniors (+Date) were allowed to go. Everybody dresses up: Girls are wearing nice dresses and boys tuxedos (I rented mine and it was $180).

 

The day started for me at 10:00: I got up, picked up my tux (more expensive suit) and got ready. A couple hours later I got picked up by a friend, we picked up our prom dates and then went to a friend's house to take pictures. We were a group consisting out of 8 couples (16 people). All parents came to take pictures. After taking.. well it felt like 10000 pictures, we drove to very fancy restaurant called "Country Club", it was very expensive but also very good!

 

After dinner we finally went to Prom which was in the school gym. Firstly we had the "Grand March", which is a March where every couple is announced and is walking through the gym while family and other students are watching and taking pictures. The gym was really crowded and the standings were actually full. This took about 2 hours (there were more than 400 couples). After the March the actual dance started, the music unfortunately wasn't really good, so we left after 1 hour to a friend's house where we changed clothes and hang out until post prom.

 

Post Prom was actually the most fun part
of Prom. It started at 12:30 pm and went until 4:30 am. On the way there we had a little car crash so we arrived a little bit late. It was at NDSU, the North Dakota State University. When we finally arrived there we all were very hungry, so we first ate something,

of course... pizza! At Post Prom were a lot of different games like Bowling, Table Tennis, Pool, Bingo, Gambling and much more... we tried to do as much as possible. There were also a lot of prices like cash, gift cards, iPads, Beats Headphones etc. that you could win. In the end there was a hypnotist show which was extremely funny.

 

Afterwards we went to a friend's house again, ate breakfast, and just hang out for a bit. But at 6:30 we all decided to go home. So we went home and finally (!) went to bed. 

 

I have to say it was really one of the best nights I've had here, it was a lot of fun, and one of the most American High School experiences overall.

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More picture coming soon...

Washington D.C. Trip

Fortunately I had the opportunity to go to the US capitol Washington D.C. together with the Church of my host sisters on a mission trip. The occasion was the annually “March for Life”. We went there all the way by bus which was a 26 hour bus ride. When we finally arrived we just ate something, went to the Lincoln Memorial and then went to bed. On the next day we went sight-seeing, we went in pretty much every museum and saw every memorial: e.g. the National Archives, National Museum of National History, National Museum of Natural History, Washington Monument etc. It was all very impressive and interesting but not enough time to watch everything detailed. On the next day we went to the Cathedral which was very impressive too, the whole building was made out of marvel and it was just huge. The last day of our trip was just the March, which ended at the Capitol. And after another 26 hour ride we made it finally back to Fargo. Overall Washington D.C. was another awesome experience, it is just so different compared to the German capitol Berlin, the architecture, the people and so on…

 

Minneapolis Trip

 

 

This weekend I went together with a group of EF exchange students to Minneapolis, the biggest city in Minnesota with about 3.5 million inhabitants. The ride there was about 4 hours, therefore we left pretty early Fargo to have enough time there. We had two different targets to visit: the Mall of America, and the Premium Outlet Albertville.

On the first day we went to the Mall of America which is the second biggest Mall in the world and the biggest in the USA with more than 500 stores, it is built on 4 levels and just one of them was probably bigger than every mall I had ever seen before. The Mall has his own amusement park, mini golf course, movie theaters, and a Sea Life aquarium. You could really find every shop or store you can thing about… Unfortunately we didn’t have time enough to try some rides in the amusement park or go to the Sea Life aquarium. We had to go to our hotel to check-in. The hotel was really nice and even had a pool and a hot tub.

In the next morning we had to check-out again after breakfast, on our way back we stopped at the Premium Outlet Albertville for a few hours. It has more than 100 outlet shops like Nike, Under Armor, Adidas, Calvin Klein and much more. After spending another couple hundred dollars we decided to drive back to Fargo. Overall the weekend was a lot of fun, especially because I was able to meet so much other exchange students from this region and talk about our experiences here.

 

 

 

 

Homecoming

Homecoming

On the 20^th September it was time for homecoming which is a school celebrating graduated students coming back to their roots, their high school. Usually there it’s the date of the first conference football game and includes a spirit week, a pep-really and a dance – it’s a week full of High School Spirit. Our spirit week topics were America Monday, Thrift Shop Tuesday, Pink Wednesday, Animal Thursday and Spirit Friday (School Gear). We got out of school early on Friday for the Pep-Really where the Pep Band, the Dance Team and the Choir performed and everyone got pumped for the big game. The opponent was Red River and they wanted to destroy our Homecoming but we won 41-0 which was the first homecoming game victory in Davies history! Finally I would say that Homecoming is definitely one of the most American events you can imagine.

Am 20. September war es Zeit fuer Homecoming (Feier einer High School, dass ehemalige Schueler zurueck and die Schule kommen). Normalerweisse ist es das Datum des ersten conference Footballspiels und dazugehoert eine „spirit week“ eine „Pep-Really“ und ein „Homecoming Dance“ – einfach gesagt: es ist eine Woche voller „High School Spirit“. Unsere „Spirit Week“ Themen waren America Monday, Thrift Shop Tuesday, Pink Wednesday, Animal Thursday and Spirit Friday (School Gear). Am Freitag hatten frueher Schluss fuer die Pep-Really wo die “Pep Band“, das „Dance Team“ und der „Choir“ performte. Nach der Veranstaltung war die ganze schule ‚pumped‘ fuer das grosse Spiel. Der Gegner hiess Red River und sie wollten unser „Homecoming“ zerstoerren, wir gewannen jedoch mit 41-0, was gleichzeitig der erste Sieg in einem Homecoming Spiel in der Schulgeschichte war. Ich hatte im vorweg bereits eine Menge ueber Homecoming gehoert, doch abschliessend wuerde ich sagen, dass es definitiv eines der amerikanischten Events ist, die man sich nur vorstellen kann.

Bison Game

Bison Game

This weekend I went together with my host sister to a college football game by the North Dakota State University (NDSU) at the Fargo Dome. Before the game we went “Tailgating” which is basically getting ready and pumped for the game. People are drinking a lot of beer and eating warm soup in a small “tailgate village” in front of the stadium consisting out a lot of camper. The game was very impressive and the atmosphere was just awesome. Bison (NDSU) won the game (just like almost every game this season) with a blow-out.

Dieses Wochenende besuchte ich zusammen mit meiner Gastschwester ein College Footballspiel der North Dakota State University) im Fargo Dome. Bevor wir zum Spiel  gingen, waren wir noch “Tailgating“, was im Grunde genommen „vorglühen” fürs Spiel ist. Alle (denen es erlaubt ist) trinken eine Menge Bier und essen warme Suppe in einem kleinen „Tailgatedorf“ welches vor dem Stadium aufgebaut ist und besteht aus Campingwagen. Bison (NDSU) gewann das Spiel deutlich (so wie eigentlich jedes Spiel diese Saison). Alles in allem war die Athmosphäre sehr beeidruckend und es war ein sehr interessantes Spiel.

American Football Season 13/14

The football season war probably one of the best parts of my exchange year. It started right away one week after I arrived. We had a 10 day camp to before school started to get in shape for the season. We practiced every day for 5 hours at more than 100°. It was just insanely hot but we worked hard and it was worth it. It was the best football season in High School History. We actually won the Conference, but unfortunately we lost our first Playoff Game. The atmosphere at the games was just crazy compared to Germany, almost all students and a lot of parents came. I played mostly kicker and receiver. It was just the best thing to start the High School year and I got to know a lot of nice people.

 

 

Potato Days

Potato Days

This weekend we went to Barnesville, Minnesota to celebrate “Potato Days”. It was a fest all around the potato. They had everything made out of potatoes you can think about. There was also an old-timer competition with a lot of old cars like the German VW “Kaefer”. They also had a run, a parade and a lot more…

An diesem Wochenende besuchten wir die “Potatoe Days“ in Barnesville, Minnesota. Es war ein Fest, wo sich alles um die Kartoffe drehte und man konnte jegliche Kartoffelprodukte finden, die man sich nur vorstellen konnte. Ebenso gab es ein Old-Timer Wettbewerb mit einer Menge alten Autos, wie der deutsche VW Kaefer. Ausserdem gab es einen Lauf, eine Parade und noch eine menge mehr...

Lake

Lake

We drove to the lake a few days after my arrival. I was already used to the time and I felt how my English slowly got better. It was really hot outside, we had about 90 Degrees Fahrenheit. We stayed on a campground in a huge camper which had air condition and I was actually almost freezing inside because my host family cooled it down so much. I played golf for my first time which is a very popular sport here (I sucked!) and I drove my first cart ever…a golf cart. On the next days we did a lot of other fun stuff like jetskiing and tubing (sitting on a tube pulled behind a boat), we had a campfire and so much more…

Wir fuhren zum “Lake” ein paar Tage nach meiner Ankunft. Ich hatte mich bereits an die Zeit gewoehnt und ich fuehlte, dass mein Englisch auch langsam besser wurde. Es war extremst heiss draussen, wir hatten ueber 90 Grad Fahrenheit (30 Grad Celcius). Wir lebten auf einem Campingplatz in einem riesigem Camper welcher eine Klimaanlage, sodass ich tatsaechlich frohr, weil diese so kalt eingestellt war. Zum ersten Mal in meinem Leben spielte ich Golf und fuhr ein „golf cart“. In den naechsten Tagen machten wir noch eine menge anderer spassiger Sachen: wir fuhren Jetski und gingen Tuben (sitzen auf einem Gummiring, welcher von einem Boot gezogen wird), ausserdem hatten wir ein Lagerfeuer und taten eine Menge mehr...

My Flight

On the 7th August 2014 it was finally time to begin the adventure “USA”. After saying goodbye to my family and friends my journey started. My flight route was Hamburg-Duesseldorf-Chicago-Fargo. The first flight went over pretty fast, I was just trying to realize that I wouldn’t be back again until 10 months later and in Duesseldorf I met 3 other EF exchange students who had the same 9 hour flight to Chicago. Fortunately we could manage it to sit together in the plane. We were all in the same situation so we could just talk. And so a few hours later we finally arrived in Chicago. Here we got divided, everyone had to go to a different flight to Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska and California. Unfortunately I had to wait for 8(!!!) hours until my next flight and I was already for almost 24 hours awake. I was just fighting to stay awake thus I wouldn’t miss my next flight and then as soon as I sat in my last plane I fall asleep. 2 hours later we landed successfully in Fargo, North Dakota where my host family was already waiting for me. It was really exciting, it was the moment I had waited and prepared for, for many months but then I was just too tired to show my emotions. My host family showed me the house I’m going to live in for the next ten years and then I could finally go to bed.

Am 7. August 2014 war es also endlich so weit, es war Zeit das Abenteuer “USA” zu beginnen. Nachdem ich mich von meiner Familie und von meinen Freunden verabschiedet hatte konnte die Reise starten. Meine Flugroute war Hamburg-Duesseldorf-Fargo-Chicago. Der erste Flug verging sehr schnell, ich versuchte nur zu realisieren, dass ich nicht wieder zuerueckkommen werde fuer 10 Monate. In Duesseldorf traf ich dann 3 andere EF Austauschschueler welche den selben 9-Stunden-Flug nach Chicago hatten. Gluecklicherweise konnten wire s organisieren im Flugzeug zusammen zu sitzen. Wir waren alle in der selben Situation und konnten darueber reden. Ein paar Stunden spaeter wir kamen endlich in Chicago an. Hier trennten sich unsere Wege und jeder hatte einen anderen Weiterflug in Richtung Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska und California. Ich musste ungluecklicherweise 8 Stunden auf meinen naechsten Flug warten und ich war bereits 24 Stunden wach. I kaempfte mit mir nicht einzuschlafen, sodas ich den naechsten Flug nicht vermissen wuerde. Sobald ich dann im Flugzeug sass schlief ich ein und 2 Stunden spaeter wir landeten erfolgreich in Fargo, North Dakota wo meine gastfamilie bereits auf mich wartete. Dies war der Moment auf den ich fuer viele Monate gewartet hatte und ich war wirklich aufgeregt, aber ich war einfach zu muede um meine Emotionen zu zeigen. Meine Gastfamilie zeigte mit das Haus, in dem ich nun fuer die naechsten 10 Monate wohne und dann konnte ich endlich schlafen!

My Host Family

My Host Family

I’ve three host sisters: Brittney and Paige (twins, 16) who are both Sophmores at Davies High School (same as me) and Allyson (20) who is going to college (NDSU) and already moved out. My host parents are Greg (46) who is working for the American car brand Ford where he sells parts and Donna (42) who is working for a big truck company as an Accountant. They also have a cat called Buster and he is already 12 years old.

Ich habe 3 Gastschwestern: din Zwillinge Brittney und Paige (beide 16 Jahre), welche beide Sophmores an der selben High School wie ich bin und Allyson (20) die bereits ins College (NDSU) geht und bereits ausgezogen ist. Meine Gasteltern sind Greg (46), der fuer die amerikanische Firma Ford als Autoteilverkaeufer arbeitet und Donna (43), die als Buchhalterin fuer eine grosse LKW-Firma arbeitet. Ein weiteres Familienmitglied ist die Katze Buster, welche schon 12 Jahre alt ist.