#53 Holidays, finals & Christmas

I didn't update this blog in awhile again and again I'm sorry for it. There is just so much going on right now that I totally forgot about it. The last time I told you that Thanksgiving is coming up and now its already the eighths of december. So how was my first and probably only thanks giving ever.. I loved it! There was so much good food and our grandparents came over and we had a blast. The pies were delicious and I was so full at the end of the day. In the evening, Cherry, one of my sisters and I went to a friends house to spend the night for black friday shopping. Two other friends came over and we decided to leave at 5 in the morning. And it was soo much fun! I am so glad I did it even though i was really really tired. We got lots of good deals at Walmart, Rue 21, Gamestop and other shops. At 8 am we went for breakfast to Steak 'n Shake and I ordered a sandwich and fries. Best breakfast ever :D On Sunday we had another Thanksgiving meal with the whole family from our moms side. We had to rent a building and there were so many people. Everybody brought a dish so we had lots of food and it was delicious once again.
I can't remember what I did the weeks after it but this weekend I did a lot of things. On Saturday we had chores in the morning which was two hours of carrying woods. I can tell you, my arms are so sore now! And after that the girls of us went to a lady's christmas party which was a lot of fun. In the evening I went to a bonfire of a friend. It was a huge fire and I met a lot of my friends there so of course it was really fun. On sunday after church, cherry, one of my sisters and I went with out local coordinator to a nutcracker ballet and it was my first ballet ever. Even though it was a little bit boring sometimes, I really enjoyed the new experience. When I woke up on monday (yesterday) I got ready like always and went down for devotions when my host mom told me that we had a 2 hours school delay because of fog. So I could go back to sleep for another hour after devotions but right after I fell asleep, one of my brothers came into our room and told us that school got completely canceled for the day! I was so happy. But another thing that is less happy is, that we have finals next week. And don't know how that will go but I have the feeling my grades will go down.
The last thing I want to tell you about is more exciting again... I ordered a bow and I'll probably get it sometime this week. I am soo excited because then I can finally practice on my own which is good because we have our first archery competition on saturday. That's it for now >)

bonfire

Ballet 

#52 Holiday Season, Winter wonderland & more

Hey guys I'm finally back after what feels like weeks where I didn't update.
That's because I didn't have anything exciting I could tell you about but now I thought it was time to let you know how life in Indiana is going. Sad things first, I'm sick again. And this time it hit me really bad cause I thought I was doing ok again but no yesterday I lost my voice all of sudden and now I can't even talk. And that happens so close before Thanks giving! I can't believe its that time of the year already but all the christmas decorations and the turkeys at walmart make it very clear that it's coming soon. So this week we only have school from monday to wednesday and then its thanks giving and right after it black friday! My family is going to have a turkey for thanks giving and I'm so happy I can make that experience. Also I am going black friday shopping on friday and I hope it will be a lot of fun. After we go back to school we only have two more weeks of school and then its time for christmas break!  I don't think I told you that yet but my family and I are going on a vacation but its a secret where we are going so I'm really excited for that too. As you can see in the title, we got snow on saturday and it looks really pretty here in the country even though I am still not a huge fan of it. Its just too cold. Last weekend was really fun. We played a lot of card games and I went to the movies yesterday to watch Mockingjay Part 2.. The movie is so amazing and I can't believe everything is over now.. But yeah this blog is not about my obsession over the hunger games.
One thing that was really strange, I found out that in the movie theater in America, you can get free popcorn refills. Yes, you read right. You just take your empty bucket to them and they refill it for free as many times as you want! Same thing for the drink by the way.
I don't know if that's a common thing here in the states or if i just went to a weird movie theater haha :D If you read this and you are in the united states too, let me know if its the same there.

#51 Time after time

Heyy, ich habe gerade nicht wirklich Zeit einen neuen Post zu schreiben, aber ich wollte euch nur mal kurz zeigen, was ich fuer meine Photoshop Class gemacht habe. Es sieht nicht nach viel aus, aber ich habe alles selbst zusammengestellt. Die Karten auf das Shirt und ich habe Indiana eine andere farve gegeben und ein Herz draufgetan. Also es steckt mehr Arbeit dahinter als es aussieht :D Und ich bin auch noch nicht wirklich fertig, aber seht selbst...

#50 Finding friends/Clubs/Family

My new post is about what is going on right now in my life. One thing that is on my mind quite a lot is that it is really hard for me to find friends. The problem is probably that I am not good in making friends in general and it is especially hard when you come into a new environment where everybody knows each other and already has their circle of friends. Another thing that makes it harder for me is that I have five sisters in my age group in my host family and we are doing quite a lot together so I never had the feeling that it is the most important thing for me to find friends. I don’t feel lonely when I am at home. Also I really tried to find friends but here in America, the girls are harder to befriend because they are already in their groups and they don’t need somebody new.
But I will try again. It’s not that I depend on it because I have this awesome host family and these awesome sisters and we have lots of fun all the time.
When you have as many siblings as I have then you will know what I mean. There is always something happening and it gets rarely boring.
The last thing I wanted to tell you is that Cherry and I are now in the archery club. For those who don’t know what that is – bow & arrow should explain it. We can’t go to all the meetings, only to the one on Fridays but it’s still a great opportunity and I love it soo much. We have to wake up at 6am because the practice is before school from 7am to 8am.

Fall is so pretty 

That's how you dress in Fall season in Indiana :D 

#49 Fall Break

I am back in school and I wish she time wouldn't fly by so fast. Fall break was amazing but too short at the same time. I had so much fun and I am sad it's over. So on friday we still had to wake up early because we had family devotion a 7am in the morning but after that I went back to sleep and I slept another two hours. After that I helped a little bit working I think but the truth is I can't remember what we did... The only thing I know is that in the evening we went to the pink out football game I told you about and it was really, really cold again and we lost. On Saturday we had our work day so I worked a little bit in the morning (after sleeping in till 10) and after that I helped making lunch what was a lot of fun. The best part of Saturday was going to the library and picking up movies and then watching them. The kids watched a movie upstairs and the older ones of us watched a different one downstairs. The movie was hilarious and I laughed the whole time. We also watched another movie but I fell asleep halfway through so I decided to go to bed while the others were finishing it.
Sunday was our church day and we made a stop at the gas station beforehand so I had a great start in the morning. After church, I went with three of my sisters to a gaming night at a friends house and there were so many people and we played video games and I had so much fun. I really loved hanging out with them and be able to play on a xbox again (I am missing mine so much haha).
Monday was kind of a lazy day. I didn't do much besides cleaning my room, doing my laundry and baking a cake but in the evening was Girls bible study group at our house and I really liked it. We are studying a book that helps you being a good wife later and to understand boys better.
Yeah, that was my fall break. I know it doesn't sound that interesting to you but for me it's the small things that makes me happy. Having a coup of coffee in the morning or baking together with your sisters... Its just a whole different world and I am so glad to be a part of it.
I hope you are all enjoying your time and if you are in Germany, you should be happy that you have a whole two weeks off for fall break! We are not that lucky in the United States...

#48 Starting a new life...

I'm getting out of ideas for  blog posts titles, but I thought that this one would match it pretty good.
So yeah, doing an exchange year is basically starting a new life. You have a new home, a new family, a new school, a new language, a new culture, new friends and last but not least new rules. Because when you go into a new family with a new culture, you have to learn that there are new rules too. Your life will be completely different and you will have to deal with the good sides and the bad sides. My life here is kind of a dream life. I have the best family I could wish for and I have so much fun that I can't think of somewhere else to spend my year. But of course there are also things that are different than in Germany and you can't live like you did when you were back there. You have to get used to rules that might are the complete difference than what you learned.
I think this is important to know because I know that it is hard for some of the exchange students to accept that. But anyways, the last week was busy like always and I had lots of fun. Unfortunately I forgot most of the things I did, but let me think of it.. Uh I remember :) On friday the older girls of us had a hunger games marathon.. Yes, we watched all three movies in a row and if you read the about me side on this blog, you will know that I absolutely LOVE the hunger games movies.
We finished them a little after midnight and I immediately went to bed because I was really tired..
On Saturday we couldn't sleep in because we had a work day in church and it actually should go from 9 am to 4 pm but we were done early so we left and discussed what we wanted to do instead. In the end we came up with the idea of grabbing coffee at the gas station, driving to town to look for halloween costumes and then going to the movies to watch Hotel Transylvania 2. I had soo much fun! I love the coffee from the gas station so much (its more like a type of cappuccino called pumpkin spice) and the movies was so funny. We all laughed a lot and just had a fun time.
On sunday we we didn't do much but on tuesday we went to Warsaw again and finally found a coatume for halloween. I am going to be a girls version of Robin Hood and I kind of made my costume up. I am going to wear a dress that I borrowed from one of my sisters and I bought a belt for my waist and a hood that looks like Robin Hood and I ordered a bow and arrow online.
We are going to have a halloween thing at the church that is called trunk-or-treat. That means that instead of going around houses the kids are going to the parking lot were many trucks are standing and we are giving them candy out of the trunks. After that is a halloween party for the youth group of the church and I am really excited for that.
So after I got everything for my costume, we went to eat at Panda Express and it is still my favourite fast food place in America.. I love the food so much, especially the orange chicken.
Also... Its's time for fall break guys! That means we don't have school tomorrow and on monday. I mean its only two days but I am still really excited and happy about that. So yeah, that was everything I wanted to talk with you about. I hope everything is going fine where ever you are.

#47 About everything and finally photos!

Heyy I am back because I finally put the photos on my tablet so you can see what was going on in my life the past couple of weeks. Also I forgot to tell you about our trip to the zoo so here it is:
On friday I didn't go to school as I said before because we had a family trip to a zoo in fort wayne.
It was really nice! There were a lot of animals like monkeys, sea lions, penguins, lionse etc. and there was a thing that I can't explain really well but it is kind of like the thing you use to lift you up on a mountain for skiing. There was also a giant turtle but the pictures of that are on my camera.
My favorite animal in the zoo was the red panda. It is so  cute and I love them :)

Red Panda

When we went to the frozen yogurt place for cherry's birthday, I had my first american frozen yogurt and it was delicious but it wasn't as good as the one I had in Mallorca, my mom knows what I am talking about :D

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Yesterday I had a lot of fun with my host sister because we decided to bake something and we were listening to an Ed Sheeran CD and it was just a blast! I am so happy that I have so many amazing siblings who are making everyday to a fun day for me.

I look so professional :D

And here they are: cinnamon apple sauce rolls *-*

Did you know that there are a lot of broadways in America? :D Yeah, I have my own little broadway and of course I had to take a picture in front of the broadway

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The rest of the pictures I took  when I was in a real american school bus the first time and when I went to a country store :D Enjoy

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The next picture speaks for itself....

These buses are uncomfortable :D

So the last thing I  wanted to tell you is that I now have plans for my future and even  though I still don't want to go home, I am happy that my old life is waiting for me and that I know what I want to change and that I  am still young enough to make decisions that will control my future. Maybe it will not turn out like think right now but I actually have plans for the first time  *-*

That was it for today :)