school...

It's rainy today... but it's matching with my state of mind today. Maybe the weather influences it... who knows...
Well I'm at school now and I'm writing from the school computer. In study hall and i only have aboput 20 minutes left , but I'm so bored and done with my homework.
Weather out is really....... nasty. Seriously it wasn"t THAT bad in the morning and yesterday was pretty nice it wasn"t that sunny but humid though, and now BAAAM terrible wweather. It"s puring with rain, Tennis practice has been cancelled and also the High school track meet, which was scheduled for today had been cancelled. Everybody is tired. I"m freezing cold, tired, my contact lenses hurt and I"m not mitivated for school. At least I can go home after school.... We have a Goodwill day ay our school today that means that you can wear whatever you want (almost). sweatpants and athletic pants are not allowed though but people wear it. My maths teacher said that today to the people wearing them and that "next time she will send them to thee office". That"s so ironic it"s the last goodwillday this year (we have it every last friday in the month) and next year this teacher will be gone :P It"s pretty different because teacher here seem to change schools every couple years. And when in Austria a teacher does that it's like really unlikely. That's kinda sad I wouldn't like changing teacher that often.... well prom is tomorrow. Good luck guys the weather is terrrible :D 
Oh well and on Sunday i have the meeting at my IEC's house. I'm so excited. Will write you how it went. Will be a pretty short post probably ... AS THIS IS! Really short and really for nothing but hey I'm too bored.... Well see ya laer then when the weather is more motivating, I don't wanna live in Denmark where it's raining very often.

I love you America!!

Ok this post is really spontaneous, because today I had no Tennis practice because the varsity girls had a match, I have all my homework done AND i can't get out because it's really hot out. Well actually it's nice but I feel not like going out and being crowded of moths. They are horrible here right now. When you open the door they fall on the floor from I don't know where. Awful. But I don't want to talk about moths I just wanna tell you   what an awesome day I had although it wasn't really extraordinary--- I think good weather makes me just happy :)
School today was nice. We hardly did anything in any subject but I do't even know why.. we had a few sub's today and we had assignments everybody got done after 20 minutes. So I had plenty of time to do my homework and I only got homework in Geometry so I had plenty of freetime too. lunch was kinda weird nobody was here and I talked to the german exchange student and she told me that SHE IS HERE SINCE AUGUST AND SHE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING AT ALL IN THE USA! I was like "Whaaaaaaat?" and couldn't believe it. Still can't.

Rest of the day was pretty chilly and when I got outta school and I stepped out I was like overwhelmed in the first place. I was wearing long pants and shoes and socks and my uniform and a sweater and at school I was fine but when I stepped out I felt so hot! I looked at my ipod: 35°C. Oh nice and that at the end of April! It was so hot hardly any clouds, and no wind. It was literally that the air was still. and  the air felt heavy and hard to breathe. Everything was hot. Then changed my cloths and we're leaving to the grandmas house.... it was hot there too, but at least I wasn't in the really hot school clothes anymore.
It  was a pleasure, and I could enjoy the weather finally! At their house they have 7 little baby geese :) and they let them run outside and swim in a kids pool, it was so cute :) They're just adorable...
Suddenly my hostbrother started spraying them with water and I sat next to them---> so I got wet but only a little bit because their water hose has that awesome "Mist" function it's really cool :P But it felt good and after a while we had  a waterhose war. It ended up that everybody got soaking wet.. but it was fun and it was SO good! I was freezing and for the first time of the day I was looking for the sun ;) fortunately I had a black shirt on so it didn't took that long to dry. Then I got water from the freezer and it was frozen in the bottle. It was kinda funny so I had so lick it in the bottle. At least it was cold ;)
After i was a little bit dryer somebody had the genius idea to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream, probably the best thing on a day like today. So we went there, and I found out that I'm stll back on my back. Damn it, We went through the Drive thru. PHEW!  
when we returned the weather wasn't that hot anymore, it was absolutely the right chill temperature. That's what o did then. Lying on the warm stones outside in the sun is awesome. And THEN I saw something so American although I think it's not really famous. I saw a Monarch. butterfly! They are so pretty and so huge and so awesome and it was so amazing! For some reason I was totally freaking out about that :) When he was gone I calmed down a little bit and watched the cute geese walking around in the garden, the dog in their backs :D Totally adorable. We returend home, ate supper (BBQ chicken with grilled potatoes and asparagus I love it) .then visited several places, I went to the chocolate bar in grand Island with my hostsister, had hot chocolate which tasted like melted chocolate, went to the Gasstation, went home and now I'm already sitting in bed. It took me a few hours to finish that post.. :P but it's still nice out, kinda like in summer. I found out that i will be gone when the corn they planted to eat a few weeks ago will be ready to eat when I'm gone. Totally sucks, the cool things are going to happen when i'm gone :(
Have a meeting with all the other exchange students in the area this sunday I'm so excited, we're at my IEC's house and they have a horsefarm :)    But we're talking about going home which sucks. Really bad.I'm thinking a lot about going home recently. I have phases on which I'm looking forward to it, and phases where I dont. Like it was when i came here. I think about what I will see again and do again and have again. Just today I really wanted to have a "Mohnweckerl". Really fresh out of the oven. For german people it's clear what that is but for my foreign friends: it's a certain kind of bread, white with poppy seed on the top. You can't compare that to anything else. And to no bread in the world. Especially not in America. Excuse me but their best bread is like the cheap ones in Austria. I love bread. Oh well but there's so much I will miss when I'm back. I just wanted to say that I love you America <3 and I'm sure i will miss you so badly.
I already learned so much! And I'm also kinda afraid of going bad because I fugured some stufff out. About some people I really liked once. And now *poof* they're like ignore me. Its a pity but I think the exchange also took some of my shyness, and always want everybody to like me away. It's great. Hopefully the rest of my 2 months here are as great as today. :)

O well that should be a happy entry it got kinda depressed at the end, sorry about that... but I think you have to except that that's more often now ;)
See ya next time!!

Finally!

OK guys I finally have  time ti write that post about easter, I wanted to write weeks ago but then I had to write other posts first, the layout of Blogger is really confusing now (oh yes new should always be better but it's not) and I think I started this post already 5 times, but could not finish it SO THIS TIME I FINISH IT I GUESS! ;)

K my easter! First of all it started not really good: I found out in the week before that we have no real Easter break where you have the whole easter week of like I always have in Austria. Oh nice. That means I have school on monday Tuesday, Wednesday and almost everybody else has no school. Thanks  lot school. And I thought i's catholic. But then at Wednesday, the last day before my 6 day weekend because of Ester, my hostmum told me that we make something super exciting this weekend WE ARE GOING TO MINNESOTA AND GOING TO THE MALL OF AMERICA!!! So they picked me up right after school and then we went on the road heading towards Minnesota- next stop Minneapolis- I thought. But a 8 hour road trip in the car isn#t that nice and short as it sounds. I think the first 2 hours when we were still in Nebraska I was ok and quite   excited. I was excited too when we entered Iowa and I found out  that it looks quite similar to the area in Austria where I live. I saw so many windmills there- must be something of the state or something because I've never seen so many before. About over 50 in one place.

Iowa windmills 

But after w while it got darker and darker and we still kept on driving... an still more than 4 hours left. Oh great. I've never been a fan of driving too long, and in the dark it's even worse. So boring. I was listening to my iPod but after a while, that made me mad so I put it back and was more bored than before.
But fortunately we stopped then to get Gas. And went eating at the iHop (=International House Of Pancakes) restaurant. I've never been there but I have to say it's delicious. Their pancakes are awesome. Tasted a little bit like "Kaiserschmarrn" in Austria. After eating we kept on driving for 2 more hours and I really fought against falling asleep. Bu then we looked for a hotel where we could spend the night.
The next morning we had 2  more hours left to drive but it was sunny again and so I could stare at the landscape. When we entered Minnesota the landscape changed pretty soon. Instead on hills and trees there where lots and lots of lakes. No wonder why it's called "the land of 10 000 lakes) , it was really pretty. 

Then finally we entered Minneapolis/St. Paul (St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota did you know that? It's right next to Minneapolis that's why it's called the twin cities). We stayed at the waterpark of America (the biggest water indoor park of the USA) but we just dropped our stuff of thereand then went directly to the Mall of America. It was literally right next to where we stayed. And a big IKEA :P . So we went there and I was so excited! Of course I researched before we left and it says 520 stores there on 4 levels. Plus and Amusement park. Oh yes and they didn't disappoint me when I walked in! 4 levels, stores wherever you looked, noise, smell like coffee from starbucks, people, this really colorful and huge amusement park "Nickelodeon Universe" and just too much impact than I could imagine.   

I can't describe what  it was like without giving a whole wrong picture that's why I just insert pictures and you see for yourselves! 

 The 3 main levels of The mall- every level is like a big circle 

 Amusement park! It is soo cool :) 

 Lego store! All the statues are 100% made out of Legos 

 AAAANd again the huge amusement park which is the center of the mall 

 you see the shells? crabs are living in there 

 See? ;) 

 Sealife Minnesota - in the basement of the Mall 

 worm fishes coming outta the sand :)

 you see all the white litttle ´dots in there? that are really tiny  dwarf- seahorses <3

 Doll store with Doll- hairsalon, doll restaurant, it's crazy 

the layout of the rides is really special 

Jaa we spent 8  hours in this amazing building and we really came through everything! I bought lots of stuff because there was easter sale that measn in all the cool stores 40% or 50% ff the whole store :) ahhh I was in heaven ;) and there were all sorts of stores, a store only for socks, a store only for Flip-Flops and a Lindt chocolate   store :)
The next day we spent going on all the rides in the mall and exploring Minneapolis and in the evening we went to the Waterpark... for everybody who knows the biggest waterpark in Austria (Aquapulco) parts of it are the same. Seriously.
Ja well and when we went home we stopped in Des Moines (capital of Iowa) and went shopping :D. The mall was pretty big too but after the mall of america everything seems ridiculous ;) And we went to eat at the cheesecake factory got  red velvet cheesecake as dessert I was amazed by the awesome landscape there and then we went to a place quite at the border to Nebraska, watched a movie, and stayed at a hilton hotel for the night.
The next day was Easter Sunday and it was really fun for me because... I spent almost the whole day on the highway, getting back to Grand Island, discussing Aliens, immigrants with my hostdad and eating at a country restaurant and thinking it's the best breakfast I've ever had. :) When I got back to Grand Island I realized that this was really easter and it was the perfect weather for that...And I really got an easter basket ith my name on it, and lots of stuff in it..... and then I found out that here you don#t hide real eggs you hide plastic eggs filled with sweets. :D 

Well ok I finally made it! Wow proud of myself.   

I will give you a short report of how I'm doing here since there is only 1 month of school left and 2 months until departure :( K I really like being here I  really don't wanna leave but in the other side I can#t wait seing my family and friends again. In real.

Ok guys byye I'm going now because I don't feel motivated to write any longer! Hope you like the post though! 

:)

Well today I'm in a good mood that means that I will write another post today. But still nt about my easter trip. Not yet. Because I have to do my Religion work and the post I now make requires a bit of thinking so I can do that during I write :D
So ok since half of my time here is already over, I will make a small "halftime show" and list aaaall the things that come into my mind about America. I know that I already made one list of this kind but my goal is that this one is different ;)   Then let's not waste time and I will begin straight at the beginning!
Good first of all all the things that I've already learned here:

1. You do everything by car, even throwing things away you just drive to a special garbage can
2. you hardly walk anywhere
3. When you wear jeans and tshirt you are already considered as dressed up. Sweatpants or sports shorts are normal wear you wear when you go to the restaurant, grocery store or shopping 
4. you eat a lot of stuff only with your hands. Silverware is out ;)
5. You don't need money for the carts at the grocery stores. You just take them and can leave them n the parking lot 
6. you get free refills on beverages in every restaurant 
7. the waiters/waitresses are super friendly
8. Strangers call you sweetheart, sweetie, honey,.... 
9. the toilets are really weird 
10. you have a lot of no-touch things around here to make everything cleaner
11. everybody is scared of germs
12. hand sanitizer on every corner 
13. Everybody has an allergy, disease 
14. Tornadoes are really likely go come with a thunderstorm
15.  When a thunderstorm is coming you have interruption on the radio and on TV to announce it 
16.  you can get school free days because of snow 
17. Snow is a disaster, almost everything is closed and everything which is closed appears on the TV 
18. School ends way earlier 
19. School begins way earlier 
20. People really wanna get out of the USA 
21. It's really religious here
22. you don't only see old people in church 
23.  churches are pretty full 
24. people are not that greedy 
25. when you meet for the first time you get hugged 
26. Doing sports at school  is taken super seriously 
27. when teacher write an E or EVEN after numbers for homework that means you only have to do the even numbers like 2,4,6,8,..... 
28. School is incredibly easy for everybody in the world except Americans 
29. Nobody seems to have a pencil bag, they all own only 1 pencil 
30. you need to have a hallway pass to walk on the hallway during class
31. almost all of the rules they tell you that are super serious are not taken that seriously 
32. P.E: lessons are a joke, you hardly get any exercise 
33. Basketball is a big deal and the games are awesome, the spirit there is great
34. cheerleaders are cute, talented and loud 
35. School is longer 
36. you have study halls every day 
37.  you have the same schedule every day in the week 
38. exchange students are super smart 
39. you really have the lockers on the hallway like in the movies 
40. in some schools you are not allowed to lock them 
41. in some schools they really do that fake baby thing where you have to take care of it 
42. you can choose your classes from year to year 
43.  you have 4 quarters, and after every quarter you get a gradesheet 
44. after 2nd and 4th quarter you have final tests
45. you can use cheat sheets some times in a test -LEGALLY!
46. american teenager consider themselves dumb 
47. everybody has their own car and driving licence on their 16th birthday 
48. usually the cars of the teenager are a mess on the backseat :P 
49.  everybody is very helpful and keen on giving you a ride 
50. Sporting events are super popular 
51. Pancakes are good 
52. the iHOP place is a pancake restaurant (International House Of  Pancakes) and it's delicious 
53. Walmart is awesome ad they sell Milka there
54. you can have everything in cinnamon and Peanutbutter 
55. the bread is different but doesn't taste as good as the Austrian one 
56. Nobody believes me that Austrian bread is better, except people who tasted it before 
57. Everybody loves Austrian chocolate 
58. people are a lot more friendlier here 
59. American Idol is great 
60. Movies are better in the original language 
61. In the cinema you can get into the theater where your movie is about an hour before it starts 
62. they have a program in the theater before the movie starts 
63. you can get a free refill on popcorn 
64. there are really that typical american layout cinemas 
65. you can choose your seat in the theater when you get in and can sit anywhere 
66. the prices are much cheaper 
67. there are also some really expensive stores though 
68. other foreigners understand you better 
69. every exchange student has an accent you don't hear but all the others do 
70. EF is different to every student 
71. there are different units in everything 
72. the USA seems to be the only country in the world with those weird units 
73. normal houses have only the ground floor and a basement. 
74. everybody drives bigger cars 
75. they have dr. pepper (but it's disgusting) 
76. the people are not shy of taking pictures 
77. frozen yogurt is awesome 
78. the mall of America is really big
79. Iowa looks kinda like Austria 
80. they have a lot of wind mills in Iowa 
81. the capital of weird things- the USA 
82. Las Vegas is really awesome too ;) 
83. American big cities are different than Austrian ones 
84. every thing seems more modern 
85. weather changes are really sudden (at least in Nebraska) 
86. Nebraska is the corn field state :P 
87. Football and Baseball are really big deals 
88. there are no old castles 
89. people like to set their marshmallows on fire when you make smores (I was the only one who let t get brown and not black) 
90. being foreign gives you some advantages at school 
91. never take abc gum when somebody offers it to you 
92. they have awesome gum flavors 
93.  St Patricks day is only a day where people get drunk 
94. the laws are stricter 
95. when you are 18 you are not considered an adult 
96. American cookies are awesome 
97. Hersheys chocolate is the best chocolate you can get and it tastes like cheap chocolate in Austria :P
98. kisses and hugs is chocolate 
99. Valentines day in celebrated more 
100. Apple in very in 
101. They do have the yellow car game too 

What people learned from me :

1. Yes we are skiing in Austria 
2. Not the whole Austria is mountains 
3. we have a different german accent 
4. Austrian is not a language
5. Austria and Australia are not the same
6. We have the same Internet in Austria and in the USA 
7. Youtube is also the same 
8. We do have facebook 
9. We can buy ipods,  iphones,....
10. we do have snow in Austria 
11. we have one timezone in Austria 
12. We speak German in Austria 
13. We have no kangaroos there
14. We have euros in Austria 
15. Austria is in Europe and it's next to Italy 
16. we don't have many bears there 
17. School is more difficult in Austria- much MUCH more difficult 
18. Austria is tiny 
19. everybody learns English at school 
20. we do have to wear seat belts

ok......

K guys I really wanted to make a blog entry about my easter trip to Minnesota this weekend but so many things happened or are going on that I have to delay that. To later.
It won't be very long but I really HAVE to write that,  it's just so shocking and sad and also makes me kinda angry. 

Good this time my blog will be my thoughts about EF (the organisation I'm going on exchange).
First of all I personally really thought EF is a very good Organisation. To me it is/was this way because they treated me well, look after me, help me when I need help, are calling me every month to find out how I am and so on, they really give me lots of information and I got a lot of material to get prepared before my exchange. 

They had such a good impact on me that it didn't change a bit when I got my hostfamily so late, although I really got desperate and mad when I waited. At EF, at America, at everybody who's involved in getting a family for me. But when i finally got my family all this feelings were washed away I was so happy and kinda forgot what I've experienced so far. And my mind about EF didn't change until,, I don't really know maybe this week i think I'm still developing what to think. Well I really like my family I think it's really the perfect match for me and I really don't wanna leave but there are obviously people who would give anything to get outta here if they could without feeling like "I have to do that I payed so much!"
I just write down the things I've heard in the last few days that are really disturbing. First of all all the exchange students wh are in the USA right now. Some of them are really unhappy and I can so understand their problems I mean when yoour family is weird or rude or just the opposite of your character and just NOT MATCHING living for months with them must be hell. You have to spend every day with them and if you're not happy with them everyday is just one step closer to leaving. Nobody should spend their exchange year like that. So but what about EF do you think?  Yes they could just take the unhappy students and place the somewhere else- problem would be solved. I thought that it would work this way. When you're unhappy you call them tell them your problem and in the most cases it's really a fundamental problem that is not so easy to put up with. Especially not when you have to spend months with them. People like to escape their problems and that what I thought EF would notice. But evidently EF is not the perfect-and-good-mooded-perfect-organised-caring-lovely organisation as I thought they would be. In the last few days there are more stories coming up that EF doesn't help very much when you really don't fit in your family and really doesn't care about your wishes to change. Changing families when you're not happy is evidently not really in the mind of the EF people. They talk a lot but don't really DO anything and  don relly believe the person the most involved in the misery: the students. I've heard that people leave early just to get away. 

And talking to students who managed to change their family, you get a similar picture: a crabby, not really caring and greedy organisation. That makes me seriously think that something must be really wrong there. 

And obviously not even the people already IN the USA are noticing that is seems that also people leaving in summer think that something is not right. I've heard about stories from them that they called EF and they're been told awful things and that some of them got a family who only wanted to get a student to make money, things that are in contrast to the things everybody expects/believes,.... and also that EF sends them some advertising stuff to advertise the organisation. Lots and lots of stuff. I think that's kinda rude to use the students to make them more famous. In my opinion you should ask if you want to do that because I don't know that shines a strange light on EF.
Well but as I said before I personally didn't have problems at all, but that may be because I'm so freaking lucky to have no problems. I think when you have serious problems, you get that. That's awful nobody should be unhappy at their exchange. It should be the best time in your life like mine is.
I'm so sorry for all those people who are going through that hell on earth, if really all of that is true, EF has some serious problems.
k I'm enjoying myself (think I feel kinda depressed at the moment because of that all) and I hope in my next post I can tell you the things I did on easter.....

a little bit of this and that...

Ok people I finally made it again in here to write a blog post for you :)
Since I went to Las Vegas a few weeks passed and, like it's like in the States, I didn't spend the time sitting on my butt ;) so a few things happened. I will briefly tell you the things I can remember :D

First of all I went to Lincoln, for the wedding reception for the wedding in Las Vegas. It's kinda weird that wedding and the party are on 2 different dates but it was pretty cool though. It was on St. Patrick day so the main theme was Saint Patrick's day and since this day isn't celebrated in Austria it was pretty nice. Now I know what it's all about! Well the first explanation I got when I asked what exactly St. Patrick's  day is was "oh that's just a day where people who think that they're irish or have irish roots get drunk."  OOOKKK I thought sounds like a fun day ;)
In the end it turned out that when you don't wear green on that day people can pinch you, you see Leprechauns on the street and get shamrocks and other green stuff. In overall it's just a pretty GREEN day and make sure that you wear something green.

Ok what else did I do? Oh I was at the Karnival Kapers event at my school. I found out that that's a pretty big deal for my school and it really was! I mean i came there to help out with one of the games and when i went there what they Have there and it was so much! very many games food, bingo (there were lots of old people in this room , I wonder why only old people like Bingo :P )  and you could also get a HAIRCUT!! That's kinda weird :D But a the game where I helped out I just had to watch the kids play that game. It was called Skyball and the kids had to get balls in the holes. And every hole had certain points usw everybody knows what I mean. But the crazy thin about that was that I helped there for one and a half hour and there were so many people at this game that i didn't get a break at all! I was glad when i had finished because when i was done i noticed that I always said the same. "Good job, nice job, OMG that was awesome, very good score,..." I felt so dumb. But when I was on my way  outta the school i stopped at the basket raffle thing where you had to buy 3 tickets for 5 $ and then you could through your paper into baskets in fron of the prices they offered, and they had A LOT!  I thought " Oh I will just try it" and randomly threw my tickets into the baskets. And when i got home then i got a phonecall that i actually WON something! that was pretty amazing i hardly win ANYTHING!

Ok and the last thing I wanna share with you happened actually this weekend. So I went to the cinema with a few friends to watch "The Hunger games" finally because everybody was talking about it and about how cool it is and so on. I was so excited to finally see them really. AAAND then we finally got in (OMG the cinema tickets here are SO cheap only 7 dolllars for the ticket) and was even more excited when it started. I really loved the beginning and the other hour it's a pretty shocking and cruel story but it's so good though and it got even better and better and then BÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄM at a very good part of the movie there was a big little orange brownish- hole in the picture and I was like "Ahaa, that is probably supposed to be like that" but it got bigger and bigger really fast and then the whole picture was gone and white. And then i realized that that wasn't supposed to be like that, the film just got on fire or melted or whatever and I was like "Are you kidding me right now??" How can that happen? I found out that they have films right here and they can melt that can't happen in Austria because they use DVD's, I suppose.And  then the picture went black, a few people left for a bathroom break and the rest waited. Waited for what's going to happen now, waiting for the film to start again/to continue but for a few minutes none of them happened. And then a woman came in telling us that she's really sorry but they can't fix the film, we all have to get outta here but we can get our money back and we get a free ticket for the cinema for any movie. At least something. So we went shopping in the mall and I guess I will go again to see the movie. From the beginning but it doesn't matter this movie is great :)

Okidoki I think I will leave you again, but I'm planning to make a new post pretty soon and to list all the things  that are different here. I hope you all have a nice day I HAVE because it's os hot here like in summer, on the weekend we had over 30° C and I'm playing Tennis in this weather so I get a tan although it's hell when you play longer :D I love Nebraska when it's green btw it's so pretty......

Good see ya later then! :)