#59 Crazy American Life!!

Hello guys,

sometimes it still amazes me how different and crazy America is. I mean a couple of days ago I saw a woman with a tail at Walmart!! A tail! And then the day before yesterday I walked into one of my classes and there were two monkeys!! Real, living monkeys! I mean, how often does that happen in Germany? It was awesome because the woman that the monkeys belonged to told stories about them and one of the monkeys was so amazed by a teacher that came into the class during break that she didn't want to leave so she just called her class down into my classroom :D Just plain crazy!
It is really true that Americans love guns. In my area at least. One time I heard two people of my family talking about people banning guns and how crazy that would be. They actually believe that guns bring safety to their country and I'm not sure how I think about it. I mean, friends of mine have handguns that they carry around all the tome (Legally!) and they are shooting guns in their free time.
It could be the country life but I learned to have a more open mind towards gun and I kinda share the excitement they have even though I can't shoot them.
In our school we get a free snack and juice at the end of every day now. I don't know what they were thinking but they say it's cause some people may don't get enough food a home. To be honest, more people here are overweight and there are no students that are too skinny because they don't get enough food! But hey, I won't say no to free food :D
Oh how I will miss this life full of surprises. The strange but friendly people you meet everywhere and the endless opportunities you have. Time is still running down and it stresses me out. I still don't want to believe that I have too go way to soon. When I came here over six months ago, I was a stranger. The host family was people I don't know and I didn't belong to them. But now I am a part of them. They feel like home and family to me and I act like I am one of them. I tease with my brothers, have playful fights and arguments. I talk to my parents, tell them what's on my mind, ask for permissions to do something just like their own children do.
Yesterday someone knocked on mine and cherry's door when we were wrapping a gift for one of our sisters so we said: Don't come in? Who's there?" And the response was: Your mom. It felt so good. It felt so good! She doesn't see us as exchange students but more like one of your children.
Of course I still have my real mom in Germany and that doesn't change how much I love her and I'm still so excited to see her again soon.
In school I feel so much more independent. I mean in Germany you have the same class you spend the whole day with and here I walk from class to class alone and it doesn't even bother me. I have people I know in every class and I don't feel insecure anymore.
So now that the time is running I realize that there are millions of things on my plan that I didn't do yet and that I really want to do. The last three months will be so packed and it scares me a little. I'm still freaked out about the whole getting all my stuff home situation.
The Washington DC trip is coming up, spring break (which is only one week) and we are still planning road trips to Chicago, Michigan and other places we wanted to go before Cherry and I have to leave. I am thinking of leaving on June 18 and that means I only have three month and 8 days left. Wow.
But let's go back to happy stuff! Tomorrow we don't have school and my sisters and I are going to visit another sister of us and we will go shopping, to Panera Bread ( a restaurant I always wanted to check out) and just to have a good time. I'm really looking forward to it! I was able to manage to be an A student for the third 9 weeks. Yay!
and guys, I wanted to give you a tip if you are going to be an exchange student soon. I am writing a diary everyday and it really helps me keeping track of what I did and it will help me remember everything when I'm back to Germany. I am writing it in English so it doesn't collide with my english improvement. Also, now I am really sad that I started with it so late (end of November) because I can't remember much of the first week I was here! Everything was so new and it seems like a dream and it never happened. So make sure to write some notes about your first days, especially your feelings and everything!
That was all for now :)