#62 You know you're from Indiana, when...

I just saw something like this on another blog and I thought it would be a great idea so I did my research and I found so many things that relate to my life :D It's awesome!!!

Oh yeah.. That's all they talk about. 4-H...

I thought its normal haha

hahaha so true :D

Delicious! Especially at cold football games

had one cancellation and at least 4 delays due to fog.. (last one just yesterday)

yeep. 

Yas! I learned it and everybody plays it.

perfect description. We can go from summer to winter in 2 hours.

#61 What it means to be an exchange student

I don't know about you guys but I am thinking about these kind of things all the time right now.
My year is ending soon (who would believe that) so I have a lot on my mind.
Today in my american studies class I wrote a little text about these thoughts. Even though I am still here and didn't go back yet, I thought it would be a good idea to post it.

It is hard to describe this feeling. People who don't know how it is to be an exchange student can't relate and others will know what you mean without any explanation.
But how can you put it in words to let your parents and friends back home know what is going on inside of you? How will they ever understand that you cry about going back to them?
My heart is torn apart an I'm divided by two countries I both call home.
Germany - where I've been born and raised. The place with all my childhood memories and people that mean the world to me.
Indiana - the state I fell in love with in such a short amount of time and the place where I met my second family that fills my heart with joy everyday.
It has become my life, my home, my everything.
How can anybody expect me to o leave that all behind? They say you can always come back but it will never be the same as it was before. You will be a visitor instead of somebody who is living there.
People have moved on, started to forget about the girl with the funny accent or the boy who rocked the soccer team.
And you will notice. And it will hurt.
It already started. The sadness that creeps up inside of you when people are making plans for the times when you are already gone. It's painful, not lying. Of course you will never lose the memories or the feeling of home but it comes with a side-effect - The constant missing of a life you will never get back.
In some ways it's like a breakup. A breakup with the person you've become during the year and who will stay behind in some parts.
You will come back to your own life, but not as a whole.
 I'm afraid that I will never get over it. But just as a real breakup, I know I will.
Only that there will always be that hole inside of you, even if it gets smaller with time, it will never disappear. You won't feel it everyday but from now to then, there will be something that brings back memories - maybe it' the flag of your state that you see in a movie or a song you used to listen to when you were away. And then the hole will start hurting again, and you will be sad. People around you won't understand and all you want to do is going back in time and hug those people that were part of your year.
Most of us don't realize what it really means to be an exchange student before we come here. We see it as a fun adventure, a short period of time compared to the rest of our lives.We all find out that we are wrong. Even if we don't expect it, we find ourselves lost in the new world, seeing it as our lives now. So it's not just an adventure you can come home from, it is a new life that you begin and that life won't just stop. So what people should know is that as exchange students, we give up parts of ourselves. We get all the amazing experiences and memories in exchange but in the end we will never get back what we have give. Change That is what we all do. We become this new person that had left parts of themselves in the new life and when we come back, we are different.
Your friends don't understand why you act so weird and what happened that you are not the same anymore. And you wonder why it feels so different to be home.
In don't know if it's just but it all feels more like a dream to me. Even when I was sitting in the airplane I still couldn't believe this was really gonna happen. And now - 7 months later that feeling hasn't disappeared. Sometimes I find myself thinking that this can't be real - but it is.
The time is running out. 3 months. That's all I have left. I try my best to make the best out of it but in someways it's like facing my death. The death of a life I love so much.
That's what we all have to go through, that's what makes us exchange students.
And it's worth it.

#60 Double Placement & Little states my opinion!

I think it's time that I talk to you guys about double placements. If you are an exchange student for 2016, you will get your host family soon and some of you guys might end up in a double placement.
I know that for some it doesn't sound very appealing but let me tell you something.
Having another exchange student from a different country in hour family can be a really good thing!
When I met Cherry, my sister from Thailand I was so happy yo have her with me.
Of course I had some doubts at the beginning too, I mean, what if she doesn't like me? Or what if they like her better than me? But mostly I was just excited to meet her.
And now, over half a year later I still have that excitement.
Cherry and I are roommates and I have somebody to talk to about everything. Somebody that is going through the same experiences and that gives me a feeling of safety.
I know that it is not like this in every case but we are getting along very well and I can trust her. I had some stuff going on and I was so glad I could talk to her about it.
I don't know how this year would have turned out if she wasn't there. She is just a part of this just like my other host siblings and I love her to death! And now I have a friend in another country!
So please, keep an open mind and think about it before you may turn down a family just because it would be a double placement. Give it a chance and there is a possibility it will make everything even better. When I told other exchange students that I have a roommate, they looked at me in pity but I love it. Before I came here I was hoping I would get my own room but really that changed.
I don't feel alone at all and when I am sad it is comforting if somebody else is next to you.
See, it is really important to keep your expectations down. Like most of us, I was dreaming of a perfect host family with a big house, my own room (maybe even with my won bathroom), nice siblings, pets that I can play with. Traveling all the time, doing exciting stuff.
I can tell you something. That is not gonna happen. You will not get the perfect host family because it doesn't exist! When you read blogs, you don't read everything about them and even the best looking host families has its issues.
So yes, my host family is not perfect. I have disagreements with my siblings and my parents, I don't like some of the rules, I have chores to do, if I like it or not but that is how it's supposed to be! You want it to be real and that is how a real family situation is like! I mean. think of your family in your home country. I bet it is not perfect and there are things you don't like, right? So try to keep down your expectations and realize that perfect doesn't exist. I love my family here and everything about it.
And I am happy that I have chores, that I have to do dishes and help in the house like everybody else because that means they see me as a part of the family and not just as an exchange student.
I wouldn't trade my host family for anything.
So now to the area. Yes. I would have loved to go to California or even Texas but I ended up in Indiana. I bet it's not high on anyone's favorites list of you guys. That's okay. It wasn't on mine either. Hey, I'm not even living in a city! You want to know how many inhabitants in my town live? Well, I don't even live in a town. I live in the middle of the country. Everything I can see from outside my house is cornfields everywhere and the long Indiana roads.
My school is small. Only 600 students and it is hard to describe it. People always ask me why I would pay so much money to come to a school like Tippy but they don't understand that I love it! Everybody knows everybody and the country life is jut my thing. So even if you don't get placed in a state like California, Arizona, Texas or Florida, your year will be just as amazing!
So yeah this is just my experience and opinion about double placements and little states.

#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 :)

#58 Winter Jam, Snow days & life itself

Heyy guys :) I'm sitting in my american studies class and we have a five minute break so I thought it would be a good time to update my blog. I didn't abandoned it, even though it might look like it. There is just so much going on in my life and I don't really have time to go on here very often.
Lately I have the routine to watch Netflix in my study hall if I don't have any open assignments or tests to learn for and I read a book in VS. No boredom anymore :D But now back to the topic. A lot happened since last time I updated. First of all: Winter Jam! You guys probably don't know what it is.. Winter Jam is ten famous christian bands that go on tour in winter. It is soo huge and you should hear the music! You might not believe it is good, cause it's christian but let me tell you there are rappers and rock music as well. It was my first concert ever and I loved it so much. When we got there, the line of people waiting was almost a mile long, I'm not even kidding. Thousands of people.
I really had a great time. The only down-side - we came home around 1 am and I had school the next day... Yesterday and the day before yesterday Cherry and I didn't have to go to school because of snow that made the country roads dangerous to drive on. Yay! We took the opportunity to play in the snow and we went sledding with Cherry. It was a first time for her cause it never snows in Thailand.
We also had a goodbye party for a former worker and friend of my host dad at our house and we were 46 people. Many of them were in my age and I hang out with some of my friends. But not only that, this whole party atmosphere was perfect! I felt like I really was a part of it and like I belonged to them. I can't describe that feeling but I just felt so good and had so much fun. There was also the baby of a friend and I got to hold her and play with her. In Germany I don't get the opportunity to see little kids very often. Soo cute! *-* I could start crying right now because I have to go back so soon. I'll miss the feeling of being a part of a group so much and all these nice people that just accept you for who you are and who don't judge you by your looks or something. We were hoping we would have a cancellation again today but then we only got a 2 hours delay. Close enough I guess. But hey, it's friday!! I really try to focus on my american school right now to stay an A-student. It is hard for me to keep my American Studies grade up though and it goes back and forth between A and B.
I can't believe that February is almost over already! Why is time flying by so fast?

This, That & Everything

4 months. That's all I have left. And to be honest, I seriously can't believe it. The time ran by so fast and it get's faster and faster every second. I try to get the most out if it but it feels like it's just rushing by. I am in the constant fear of missing out on something and that makes me nervous. I mean even though it's still hard for me to realize but this is the year of my life. And it's the only ONE year of my life. Everything that I take for granted right now will be gone soon forever. There is no going back to this life that I am living right now. I will go back to what I left behind like this never happened.

And it's not like only my american life feels like a dream, the one that I will go back to feels as unreal as this one. I don't remember how I felt before I came here. I don't remember the Leah I left behind because I created a new version of myself here and this Leah only knows this life. Everything changed, the way I look at things, the way I act around people... The culture here is so different and I learned to live with it, even better, I learned to love it. I love that you can be yourself and nobody judges you - and even if somebody judges you, you won't care because there is always somebody on your side. I don't care about other peoples opinions anymore. Playing games like Yugioh is lame, right? Guess what, here in America a lot of people play it and nobody says anything. 

My family here doesn't have Wifi, in Germany I would not have survived that but with 9 siblings and a whole new life I got to get used to not having internet. We play card games and watch movies together instead. I have so many more people I talk to here. Socializing has become way more easy for me. But I think I lost my point.. Anyways, I love it here. I made so many new experiences and I got a new home that really feels like a home. The rules I have to obey, the love my siblings give to me.  I am just really happy here and it will be so sad when I have  to  go home. I mean how are you supposed to leave a life behind when you know you will never have it back? I don't know why it was so much easier for me to leave my old life behind, probably because I knew I would come back and that it would be a great opportunity. It is a great opportunity indeed but it messes up everything.
I know that I will have to leave my friends and new  family behind and I will go back to Germany, to my old life with all these memories, inside jokes  and experiences and I will have no one who can relate to me. "Do u remember when we tried to hide from the principle- Oh wait no, I forgot you weren't there". And I have to give up this language again and everybody will talk German around me, how weird is that? High School became my school and I love it. I love how it works, even though I doubt it  gives the student the right kind of education but it feels so much better! The teacher are so nice, you can talk to them like friends and the classes are way more fun (I mean, cooking... How cool is that?) But yeah, I think about that a lot recently and it upsets me. In the moment I'm just living my everyday life. I just recovered from having a cold again and today I was SUCCESSFUL! I managed to change my third period class into creative writing even though we are already four weeks into the semester. I'm kinda proud of myself because I didn't give up. When I first talked to my guidance counselor, she said that there wasn't much she could do because you are not supposed to change classes anymore after the first week of school. But then I talked to my friend from creative writing about it and she said she would talk to her teacher. The teacher told me it was fine for her and that she would talk to my counselor. And guess what, I GOT IN! I am so happy about that. The only thing that is sad about it is that I kinda liked the teacher. He was one of the nice ones and he was always a bit funny. I wished time would start to run a little bit less fast.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

#54 Christmas vacation & more

Heyy guys! You didn’t hear from me in quite a long time and I’m sorry for that but over the holidays it was almost impossible for me to update this blog because we were busy the whole time! As I told you before, my family and I went on Christmas vacation and it was awesome!!! But first let me tell you more about my Christmas. Since I live in a big family with lots of relatives, we had three full days of Christmas. It started on Christmas Eve where we had our treasure hunt which revealed what our first destination for our trip was: The caves! In the evening we went to the grandparents where we had a big Christmas buffet and gift exchange with the big family. I got a stocking with all my favorite stuff like Reeses, peanut butter and more. I didn’t expect to get anything so I was really surprised. On Christmas day I could experience the typical American Christmas because it is tradition here to open presents in the morning which we did. Everybody was happy and it was a good time. After that we went to another gift exchange and buffet and when we drove back, I rode in the trunk of a van *-*.
On the last day of Christmas (which is only a Christmas day in Germany and not in America) we went to another side of the family.   We went bowling and had a white elephant gift exchange with Bingo, which was hilarious. This side of the family is known to be a little crazy, so I fit right in :D

One of our two christmas trees, this one is a plastic one. Many Americans don't use real ones

57 Santas are on that tree! Creppy much. It's from our grandparents

The next day we wanted to leave for our trip but I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to throw up and I found out that three of my siblings had the same thing. We still decided to leave in the morning because everybody except me was feeling good again (I also caught a cold or something). So all my siblings rode the van while I went in the car with two of my older sisters and a German exchange student from last year who came to visit. I felt horrible the whole car ride. I won’t go into too much detail about vacation now but I’ll tell you the most important things (to me anyways haha). As you could already figure out, it was a road trip and we didn’t even have certain plans only that we wanted to go down to Alabama but in the end we actually ended up in FLORIDA! I went through 5 new states this vacation (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi) and we stayed in 7 different hotels. It was so much fun! I’ve never been on a real road trip so I enjoyed it very much. The caving was one of my highlights because it wasn’t just a tour but an exploration trip where we had to crawl through the cave. It was so narrow that we had to press our tummy to the ground and try to push ourselves forward. I almost got stuck so it’s really not that easy! We also watched the new Star Wars and went to the Creation Museum. All in one I had an unforgettable Christmas.  Now I’m in school again and it is really boring in my study hall cause the Internet is down or only open for education sites. My schedule is a little different from last year; I have business law in sixth now and foods in seventh. Even though I thought business law would be the definition of boredom, it’s actually really fun and I like the teacher.
So stay tuned, I probably will upload some pictures soon. Oh, I totally forgot to mention that it was my birthday on Saturday. My family made my favorite meal for supper which is eggroles and cream cheese thingies. On Sunday we played card games for seven hours straight! You guys should check out the game Euchre which is common in the Midwest of the USA. 

Kentucky *-*

Mississippi (We walked over that 2 miles bridge)

same bridge

Such a beautiful picture (my host sister took it)

This is the cave we went through, you can see how narrow it gets and that is not even the worst part. I found the picture on the internet *click*