Gerade heute habe ich festgestellt,
in vier Monaten ist es schon wieder vorbei mit dem Austauschjahr. Das ist schon traurig aber natürlich mache ich auch das beste aus der verbleibenden Zeit.
It is just easier and a lot quicker for me to write this in english so you guys have to bear with me.
There are a view things that I want to tell you guys about.
First of all:
Christmas:
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it on hand right now but I might add some later on when I have time. My schedule is very full so it might take a little while until they are uploaded.
But I celebrated a great traditional american christmas. We got our presents on the morning of the 25th after we ate Dad's homemade cinnamon-rolls. I also had a "stocking" which is kind of the american "Nikolaus". Here in America, Santa comes and parks his sled on the roof and then slides through the chimney to the fireplace where everybody placed his stocking. He then fills it up and goes on to the next house. There are only small things in it. The big things are under the tree. The best presents I got were a xBox (which was for the whole family, not just me... and my dad and sister actually play more than I do, because I don't have a lot of time); baseball equipment and a calendar with amazing pictures. We had a super good Christmas-Ham-Dinner and it was just an unforgettable christmas. (But after all, german food is just better and I miss Mama's food sooo bad)
Then: New Years Eve:
I spent New Years Eve up in Silver Bay, where we had a hockey tournament. We did fairly well at the tournament and it lasted for four days so it was just amazing. Hanging around with the guys in the Hotel, playing cards and enjoying the pools and slides was just a ton of fun. On New Years eve we had a party and everybody had a blast. It was the loudest new year's eve party I've had.
Hockey Season:
We finished our season very well with a conference championship (Liga-Meister) but in the Playoffs we lost the first game. Overall, the hockey season was one of the most important things of my exchange year and it has given me a lot of good memories, friends and life-skills that I won't forget. I was looking forward to practice or games every day. My teammates were the most honest and nice people I've met. The season had a huge impact on making my year so great. The coaches were patient with me in the beginning of the year, when I wasn't that good yet, but I gave everything and it worked and it had regular shifts.
Now that Hockey is over, I am going to be playing Baseball, which I was looking forward to so much. When I came to america I thought it would be super boring and I never understood why people are watching and playing it. But now, that I've actually been to a professional game and played a little, I really want to play. It needs a lot of skill to do but I'm gonna give me best and hardest. It is actually sad, that we don't have baseball in Germany.
Drama:
(Theater)
I've joined the drama department of our school and it is huge. They have a lot of people coming and they are known for their good job. Up to 700 people are coming to every show and we are performing two weeks long. It takes up a lot of time. Whoever wants to be a main character can't do sports or anything else besides school (like working, drivers education or stuff like that). So only the best students who are really into it are the main characters. But I decided to rather do Hockey, Baseball and experience more than "wasting" all my time on drama. Even though the directors said I am very talented in acting and I could be a lead role. So then I am only in 6 out of 15 scenes. It still is a lot of fun. Again, I am pretty sad that we don't have such a good drama department at my school in Germany. I would immediately join it. Oh and by the way: We are going to perform the broadway-musical-version of "Beauty and the Beast". Since the director said, I'm also very good at dancing, I have to do many dances during the show. And it is a musical, so that means there is a lot of dancing.
This picture shows me and my dance-partner Ashley at drama-practice. We also competed in the school-swing dance competition, which is more acrobatic then actually dancing and we made 6th place.
I live in a suburb of Minneapolis. Minneapolis has the Mall of America, which was the biggest shopping mall on earth. But now, there is only one that's even bigger. But anyways, it is sooo huuuge. It's the second-biggest one on earth and it's just so huge you guys can't even imagine. It is probably the size of a whole village on four levels. It has millions of shops and roller coasters in the middle of it. This is a picture of the center of the mall. Everything is placed around it. The center has roller coasters, a power-tower and all sorts of things. "Welcome to the United States of America"
For your information: we have a ton of snow, it causes a lot of trouble but our average temperature is -30 degrees celsius !!!! It is so cold here!!! -30 degrees!!!
The Minneapolis area is the coldest metropolitan area in the entire world!!
So those are some fun things I experienced since the last time. I hope you guys have all a great time and if you guys want to contact me, email me: 16eandrich@lcamn.org
I wish all of you a wonderful year and hopefully you have as much fun as I do.
See you all at the end of June.
Here is a fun fact at the end:
welcome to america