USA-Berichte

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The first days

Hello my friends, relatives and all the others      14.08.2009

now I am in Amerika. It was a hard trip. 12 hours in a plane and you can not move. We fly over Groendland in 11880 metres high, -58c outside and up to 900 kmH.

Our trip was 15 minutes too late, because there was a kink (eine Macke) in the door where are all the bags, but they found out that only the paint was missed. (ich meine, dass nur der Lack ab war: I don' know how to say it in english).

So I flew with the Lufthansa in the Airbus A340 600  with 40 AFS stundents and all in all 300 people in the USA (the plan was full).

At the moment there are 400 AFS student in whole America from Germany.

Further more my TV was broken in the plane so I couldn' use it, but I had my Ipod and so it was ok.

It was a nice trip so I met Freddy and stefan, they sat next to me and Neele and Simone they sat behind us.

At 17.35 (LA-Time) we arrived and were picked up by AFS for the arrival camp in our committee.

 But now I am here and it is all good.
Today we will spent our time in an arrival camp (in a private house) and on Friday I will meet my new familiy. I am looking forward to it.

Here in my committee there are two more other germand students Angelika and Christian, Thohari from Indonesia, Ryosuke and Eriko from Japanese, Moji and Wendy from Thailand, Lucy from France, Aylin from Norway, Laura from Italy, Franco from Argentinia, Ksinea from Russia, Gloria from Bolivien and li qingyue from Chinese.

So you see we are really international and we are all in different families and schools. But we will see us at the meetings and Trips of AFS.

Well on Thursday we had a meeting and we talked about the USA life and rules and how it will be for us.

After this we take a bath in the pool. Yes it was really nice because we have 30-35C. At the evening we had a real American Barbecue with chicken and baked potatos (Ofenkartoffel). After this the other get fetched up from their host famiys exept me and the girls from Thailand and the girl from russia, bolivia, china and the boy from Argentinia arrived.

Today (Friday) I was shopping this the two girls from Thailand and I can say they are not so good like a german girl. They were ready after 1 hour but not I :)). And I can say it is all much bigger like in germany.

Then we had a barbecue with real american burgers and at the morning we had french toast.

Then Bruce came (my hostfather) and picked me up.

He showed me my school (it is seven miles from my house away) and now I am here.

Alex

My first evening at my families house

Now I am at my hostfamiliy.                       15.08.2009

Here I will spend my year with Marty, my hostmother, Bruce, my hostfather and Lesley, her daugther and their two dogs. They are all really nice and I am sure, that I will have a really nice year.

In two weeks my school will starts and I am really nervous of my first school day. All people her said me, that it is a little school, but it has 1800 pupil on it. :) (you see it is really little).

In the next week I have to choose my sport courses and my school lessons

At the moment I would choose swimming and ?, the third one I don't know. I won't choose American Football because all said me that it is really difficult up to unpossible to get a place in the team.

Tomorrow morning I will go out with Bruce and the dogs.

And next week I will drive with Bruce to Las Vegas for a few days.

Yes it will be an exciting year.

Lots of greetings from America

Alex

48 hours

                                                                      16.08.2009

Now I am 48 hours at my hostfamily and a lot of things have happened since then.

So I went out with Bruce and the 2 dogs yesterday for a walk. We started at 6.30 am and hiking for 2 hours, after that I drove with Marty to the supermarket and I can only remember they are so big.  It is crazy.

After this I went shopping with Bruce and now I have a new Laptop the HP HDX16 (it is a really nice thing) and a Handy for here. (it is really cheap)

It was a hard day, because seller talked 2 hours in a very fast englisch. It was hard too understand.

This morning I walked again with the dogs and Bruce for 2 hours through the mountain area.

Then we drove to the farmer market (wochenmarkt).

And now I am sitting here.

PS: it is really interesting here, if you go a mobile shop you have to check in and when it is your turn they call your first name.

And if you work for the state you get things cheaper so I had to pay for my handy only 22 Dollar instead of 72 Dollar.:)

Kennedys

So here I will write something down about the daily life.  17.08.2009

At the moment I can only say something about the weekend.

So we stand up at 6 o clock to walk with the dogs vin and mattie.

Then we walk two hours after this we have breakfast. Bruce and I sit outside and Marty sits inside with the newspaper.

Lunch is really different, because sometimes they buy something (but not often) and usually you can have bread or something from mexico.

(Here is a big mexican influence in food and buildings). At the evening we have a hot dinner and sitting outside.

At the evening everybody ssit with his laptop in the living room :).

Well, during the day I talks a lot with Bruce because both of us like talking.

Yeah and the two dogs like me a lot, they also listen to me.

I talks to Marty to, of course, and she explains me many things; I like it.

My first Trip

So yesterday (Monday) I did my first Trip.             18.08.2009

It was boring, because I had nothing to do and so I decided to walk a little bit, because the town is 7 miles away and there are noch buses here.

So I sartet to work up to the hill. It was really nice, because it was pretty quiet and I could enjoy the view. The bad side was, that I hadn't take water with me and so it was really hard, because there is no shadow and I have to walk always in the hot sun (30-32C).

But how I said it was nice and I could take some great photos (siehe Galerie).

Finally I was three ours outside and take a walk of 7-8 miles (13-14 Km).

The first meeting

                                                                                            18.08.2009

So also on Monday Bruce has taken me with to the Scouts meeting. (so was wie ähnliches wie Pfadfinder)

At the first Time I was really nervous about it, because I didn't know anybody.

And yeah it was a really strange feeling, to stand in front of 20 people and Bruce said to them: Hi guys, this is Alex, he is a exchange student from Germany and he will visit the San Dimas High School, he will be an Senior (so bezeichnet man hier die 12. Jahrgangstufe (nach der 12. Jahrgangstufe ist man hier mit der Schule fertig)). And if somebody sees him there say Hello to him and asks him he needs help. So now I know some people. I had to aswer a lot of questions and I didn't understand all ^^. (für die leute die dieses zeichen nicht kennen: ^^ das heißt so viel wie amüsiert sein lachen; und :) das ist ein grinsender Smile).

But I talked a long time to one boy (later somebody says me that he is the son of the principal) and he gaves me a lot of information.

It was a good thing of Bruce to take me with.

The second meeting

So this was my first meeting to American Teenagers.        18.08.2009

And today (Tuesday) I had my second meeting. Bruce send me a text messange to my cell phone with a name and a numer.

His name is Kevin and I should call him.

So what is the problem: so I have never seen or talked to Kevin before, but I took my cell phone and called him.

So we met us to lunch with his brother Derek.

They pick me up and we drove to a restaurant. There she invite me (sie haben mir das essen dort ausgegeben) and I must say it was the best cheesburger I have ever eaten.

After this there was a good atmosphere between us and they invite me to come to her house.  So I visted them and I must say it was a gread idea of Bruce, too.

At the beginnig I had not a good felling to call a foreign person, but it was really good to meet him. He showed me the yearsbook of the school and explained me a lot useful things.

Now I know some people who will visti the same school as I.

My school registration

Hi Leute,                                                                19.08.2009

today I went with Bruce to school to registrate and so I could see the building before school start on Monday.

It was really good, specially Matths one of the scouts, who is the son of the principal (he is on a collage now; he had left school 4 years ago) came down  and showed me the buildings and introduced me to some teachers so that I will knwo some of them.

So at first I have to say that I will be a senior, so I am in the highest class on the school.  So maybe I can make a final exam there.

I had to choose my subjects. Here you can chosse between an AP-Class (the best class and there you can get your exams for Collage, then  Honor class it is better than the normal but lower than the AP-Class and the normal class.) (but not at all subjectes) is is complicated but so you have maybe an idea of it.

So I take Chemistry Honor (there is no AP-Class), AP Physics, Environ Science (sowas ähnliches wie biologie), AP Calculus AB (Maths), Economics and English.

So I should say that it is rare that a stundent take all 3 sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Environ Science) in one year.

My parents believe it will be hard at the first time.

But if it is too hard I can change my class.

(I didn't choose PE (Sports) because it is uncool to be as an senior in it)

Well and on monday the school starts and also on monday I will think about sport teams and one woman will tell me something about it.

So at the moment I would prefer Wrestling (Ringen) in the Winter season and swimming in the spring season but at the summer season there are not so many sport teams in which I can get in because there is Football and Baseball a lot.

So we will see.

Alex

Funny thing

So dass schreibe ich jetzt mal  auf Deutsch:                         20.08.2009

An dem Tag bevor ich hier ankam, war ein paar Häuser weiter ein Bär hier und hat in einem pool gebadet.

Hier ist der Link für das Video aus den Nachrichten:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/Acrobatic-Bear-Scales-Fence-Walks-Atop-Wall-53061222.html

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, STAYS IN VEGAS

I think everybody knows this sentence and so                         23.08.2009

I must say you I can't tell anything about Las Vegas.

No it is a little joke.

Well on Thursday I drove with Bruce, my hostdad, and Franco, a exchange student from Argentinia, to Las Vegas, because Bruce hat a meeting there and he took us with to see the city.

Well on Thursday at 3.30 pm we arrived. And I must say it was a shok to go out of the car, because in Vegas were 43-46C at these moment.

You felt as you were in a sauna.

But our Hotel was really nice, we had 5 pool there and in all suites were an air conditioner (Klimaanlage).

We had a few minutes to relax then we met Bruce friends from AALAS (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science) at the chinese restaurant. It was a nice evening and I explained a few of them the german school system and all of them thought that this is better than theirs. (It was not so easy but it was a nice experience).

After this we went to the hotel.

At the next morning Bruce had his meeting and one of the AALAS members, who is not a member of this group (they were all representetives) showed us LAS VEGAS and so we went thourgh lots of Casinos, Hotels like MGM, LUXOR, NEW YORK NEW YORK, PARIS and CAESARS PALACE and the shopping miles, which are all under the hotels. Yes under the hotel are the shopping miles and the casinos and the Theatre. It is so crazy. In The hotels are all these things and restaurants.

Sometimes the hotels are connectet, so that you mustn't go outside. They have under 3 hotel, which are connectet, 8 miles shopping area.

It is unbelievably.

And I must mention, that it was a hard trip: in 2h and 30 minutes to walk about 8 miles.

After this we spend the afternoon in the pool.

At the evening we went to Freemont Street (12,5 Millionen LEDs und 540 Kilowatt Musikleistung aus 208 Lautsprechern verwandeln die Fremont Street nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit zur größten Videoshow der Welt.
Die Fremont Street (Downtown) wurde 1995 auf 500 Metern zwischen Main Street und Las Vegas Boulevard zu einer Fußgängerzone umgebaut und mit einem 30 Meter hohem Dach (16.000 m²) aus mehr als 2 Millionen Lampen ausgestattet. 2004 wurden die Lampen durch LEDs ersetzt, so dass die Bilder heller und in höherer Auflösung dargestellt werden können.) and at 10 o'clock the show started. It was so amazing. I loved it. So I took 2 lillte videos for you. You can download them in Galerie.

Bevore we enjoyed the light show, we had dinner at a buffet there.

And on this buffed were hot chili peppers. And I bet with one of the AALAS people that I will eat two of them for 10 Dollars.

And I did it, so I earnd my money in Las Vegas.

But I must say it was really hot and I had drops in my eyes and I became for a few minutes a running nose.

At the next day we went to Hoover Dam. It was really interesting and nice there and you had a great view.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover-Staudamm

But on this day there was a new experince for me> it started to rain for 15 minutes^^ :).

After this we went to the bodies, the exhibition.

Diesen Part werde ich jetzt in Deutsch erzählen weil es im englischen sehr schwer ist.

Also bei dieser Ausstellung hat man tote Chinesen ausgestellt.

Man hat den Körpern das Wasser entzogen und sie mit einer Art Silikon haltbar gemacht. Denen wurde dann die Haut abgezogen und du konntest wirklich alles sehen, die Sehnen und Muskeln, dann hat man auch einmal nur die blutgefäße des Körpers gehabt, dass heißt sie haben alle Musklen, Sehnen, alles Fleisch, das Gehirn die Knochen, die Organe entfernt und du konntest alle Blutgefäße sehen. Dann wurden die Organe auch einzeln dargestellt, auch Vergleiche zu Krebsbefallenen Organen oder Organen von Rauchern. Auch wurden alle Knochen dargestellt und das Gerhin geöffnet. Auch ein paar der Körper waren zum Teil geöffnet. Des Weiteren haben sie die Körper zum Teil durchgeschnitten und man konnte Querschnitte sehen. Oder was sehr interessant war sie hatten Embryos in verschiedenen Embrionalzuständen da. Sogar eines das 32 Wochen alt war (es ist in einem Autounfall gestorben) Auch die Geschlechtsorgane waren dargestellt.

Man kann sagen wirklich der ganze Körper und es war irre fastsinierend.

Leider durfte man keine Bilder machen aber ich habe das Buch gekauft und werde daraus mal was abfotografieren damit ihr ne Vorstellung habt.

Und ihr müsst euch immer in Erinnerung rufen, dies ist alles echt, es waren echte Menschen.

http://www.vegas.com/attractions/on_the_strip/bodies.html#

After this we went with Bruce through the City to see the City at night and to get some Pokerchips as Souvenier.

And I must say, at night the City is so beautifull. I love it. But at day it looks not really good. It is a city, which is build for the night life, gambling, drinking and sex.

Because when I went through the city you gets from all sides erotik pictures, so that you can go to a bordello and say I want to have this woman.

Finally I think, Las Vegas is a really nice town for a few day and at night and you should be 21 years old ^^ :).

My first school week

30.08.2009

Well, now I have my first school week behind me and I must say it is really interesting.

On Monday on my first school day, I was at 7 o'clock there (the school starts at 7.30) because Bruce takes me on his way to work with so I am always a little bit earlier there.

It was really nice so, because so I had enough time to find my first school room.

I was reallz escited and nervous on this day.

Then I was in my first lesson, chemistry, and on this day there was a not our real teacher due to the fact, that she had to bring her child to the kindergarden registration.

After this I had economics, physics, enviromental science, maths and englisch.

And all teachers were really nice.

On this day, it was a short day, there were only 5 minutes breaks and not the big lunch (30 minutes) and the breakfirstbreak (10) minutes so on this day I met only some guys out of the physics class, because my teacher said: HI everyone. This is Alex. He is a German exchange student and will spend the whole year here, so be nice to him and invite him to your partys. German can make really good partys.

So I talked to some of them.

Then at the second day I founded the rooms at once and I met a new guy, David, in enviromental science and I spend the breaks with him and his friends. At the third day I met Jack in economics and he is a part of the wrestling team in which I want to go, so I spent this day with the boys from the wrestling team.

Also on this day I wrote my first physics test and I got a A plus.:)

On Thursday I met the teacher for the wrestling team and he said I can come and train with them.

Also I spent my time again with the wrestling guys and after school I changed my maths class.

It is so, that they have done some things, that we hadn't done in Germany yet, so it was too difficult for me and I changed in the average one.

On Friday I met some german students in the lunch break, because they visited a friend there, the fotography teacher, and the teacher invite me to come during the lunch break and so I talked to them during lunch.

They are at the same age than I and the two boys come from Frankfurt and the girl from Munic. Well, so I talked to them a little bit.

Also on this day, I had to write a Economycs quiz and a chemistry quiz and a enviromental science quiz and a vocabulary test in englisch.

The grades I will get tomorrow.

But I can say that I have nothing right in the vocabulary test, because it is so in the book are the english words explained on english and we had to learn them, that I have done, but in the test it is so, that there is a list with the words out of the book and a other list with word who have a opposite meaning and these words are not in the book and they have to match them.

So I knew the one list but not the other and .........

But I like the school and the teacher and I am looking forward to meet them and the guys, who are all really different (out of AP physics, enviromental science and wrestling team)again.

PS: And I have lots of thick school books, but I haven't to bring them to school because each classroom has his own books for the lessons.

Birthday

30.08.2009

On my birthday we had a really nice barbecues in the evening and their oldest daughter and her housband there there with their little child. (only a few month old).

And well I only want to say: Thank you for all your greetings and that you remembered on me.

After 7 Weeks now

Hello Leute,                                                                     09.28.09

today I have the time and the energie to write again.

School:

The school is so far pretty good.

Every Friday we write vocabulary tests in english. (This is the own part which I don't like).

But my teacher is nice and he understands it to control a class and to keep everybodys attention. At the moment we read the greeks, but at the end of the week we will read about the first storys of the Briten, because with the greeks we are almost ready.

Physics is a lot of fun, too.

Sometimes we have in Physics some very funny class activities.

There we ware in groups of 5 or 6 and then we go outside  and there we have to solve problems.

For example the last one: At first we had to run over the playground with a empty bottle of water.

On the opposite side, there was a bucket (Eimer) with water and we had to fill our bottle ran back and then to will a cup in front of us.

The first time, which is ready gets 1 point, the second 2 and so on.

After this we had to solve physic problems. And again the first team got 1 point the second 2 and so on.

After 5 challenges we team with the less points gets in the next assinment 5% on his mark. So the mark is 5% better for everzbody of the team.

The second 4 and so on.

I was one time 1. and the second time 2.

Chemistry and Enviromental Science and Maths are a lot of repition.

Sometimes there is a small part new, but all in all it is a little bit boring sometimes.

Economics is sometimes fun, too.

We work strict to the book and so we have to read always chapter after chapter. But in class after a chapter we play a game (sorry I can't remember the name).

It works so:

The class is seperated in to 2 groups.

We have 5 categories and every categorie has 5 sections: 100,200,300,400 and 500 points.

More points, more difficult.

Then we can choose one section he gives us the answer and we have to formulate the specific question. It is not so easy as you believe.

Well, what can I tell more about school?

-We have on our school 3 security guards, which care about the dress code in school and that it is all quiet (no fights between pupils)

-Sometimes I visit the waterpolo games here, too. But our team is not so successfull. I wanted to try to enjoy it, because I believe I would be good player in the team, but I can't because it is too late and the school don't accept it, so I will put all my power in wrestling.

AFS:

Last weekend, we had the post arrival meeting here. There all students have to come together for the weekend and there we talked about our familys and if somebody has problems and stuff like this.

On Friday evening, we watched all togehter The Green Mile and Saturday evening we went bowling.

It was really a lot of fun the meeting and it was nice to see the other again.

Specially bowling was crazy, becaues nobody of us were very good except two guys.

Nam, a french guy, he plays sometimes at home and the best one was Tohari, a guy from indonesia. He had never played before and made on this evening 6 Strikes per game.

This weekend we went this AFS to apple picking (apfel pflücken).

Friends:

Now I have found many friends here, too and I like them.

I won't bore you with describe everybody, so I tell you just the things, that we have done and that we want to do.

One day we went after school shopping, to get for me real american clothes and I must say I like my new clothes.

And at Friday evening me met at a friends house, talked a lot, went for dinner to a mexican restaurant and after this we were in the pool outside from 10.00 pm-11.40pm. It was really nice.

Next weekend we will drive to the beach with a lot of girls.

Also we want to drive to Phantasialand in the next time and at the end of october, we will go to a good haloween party.

I believe there will be a party before, but at the moment I don't know if there will be something.

Something else:

The american TV is pretty good, the advertisement is shorter and now I can see the new television shows of Dr. House, Navy CIS and Mentalist, because they start all now.

I hope in Germany it is all fine and you are good.

I looking forward for your comments.

Alex

Christmas

Hello guys,                                                    20.12.2009

Well at first I think I have to apologize. After some of my friends have “kicked me in my ass” I realized that my last article was from the 28.09.09. I really thought I had written something new on it.

So this article will be going a little bit back in timeJ.

Homecoming: Well in the last article i wrote that we have homecoming pretty sone. I went to homecoming but alone because i didnt really now a girl well enough to ask her. So I went with my friends. We went for dinner and then to the dance. It was really fun there even if the music wasn't so good. I had a lot of fun and it was easier than to have a partner for which you are responsible :).

Halloween: 31.10.09 Halloween is a big festival here in America. I think everybody knows what it is.

Everybody has pumpkins outside with the craziest motives and especially young children dress up and go from door to door and get sweets.

So at this I bought with some friends a pumpkin at a really big field. I believe there were over 300 pumpkins and you just go around and take the one you like.

In the evening Bruce showed me how to carve it and we made a really simple and easy one.

In the evening then I hung out with my friends and at first we were just sitting around and listening to music. Later then we went trick or treating, which means collecting sweets.

We worn just masks of monster or political people rang the bell, said trick or treating and they gave us sweets. Later in the evening we went to a party and it was pretty much fun.

When we were on the way to the party some guy drove with his car along and threw eggs on us. One guy got hit and had all the egg over his clothes but some guys recognized his car and so we gave it him back;).

San Francisco: During the thanksgiving holidays I visit Santa Cruise, San Francisco and Sacramento.

On Saturday morning Bruce, Franco and I drove up to Santa Cruise. It took us the whole day because we took a street along the coast line. I just have to say it is an amazing street, you are an alone on the whole street nobody is there and the view is just so wonderful. With some music from our laptops we enjoyed the drive. Especially in the evening we had a beautiful sun set and it was just a nice atmosphere. Later in the evening then we arrived at Chris’s house. He is the brother of Marty.

In the evening Franco and I went to the movie and watched Pirate Radio. It is really a funny movie and we had lots of fun. Also the Starbucks around the corner was pretty goodJ.

At the next day we drove to a huge Aquarium. It was really huge we need 5 hours to see all. But it was really nice and I got some really nice pictures of it. They had huge water tanks there it was just nice.

In the evening Franco and I went to the “shopping mall” but there was nothing and so we went in the cinema again and there we watched the worst movie ever. It calls The men who stare at the goats.

At the next day we left Chris, he is a really nice guy and a surfer for his whole life and drove to San Francisco. During the day we visit the harbor, a famous chocolate fabric, Pier 89 and of course the famous street which goes always in slopes, like a snack down from the highest hill in the city and the Golden Gate Bridge and Cable Card.

The harbor was a really nice place and we went into a restaurant with an amazing view.

We were lucky because we found a free exhibition of fun machines like Flipper and flip books.

One machine was really fun. You had to pull weight up to the top and only Bruce, Franco and I together achieved it. I believe nobody could do it alone.

After this we went to Pier 89. It is a pier in the harbor which belongs to the sea lions because there are hundreds of sea lions and just lying in the sun.

The next stop was the crazy road down from the hill and it was just pretty funny to take the same road you see often in the movies.

In the chocolate fabric we made a stop and eat a really nice ice, after this we went to the Cable Card (Zahnradbahn) but there were so many people that we decided not to do it.

Finally we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and got some insider tips from which points we can take the best pictures. So we spent about one hour on the hill taking pictures and enjoying the sun set.

Then we drove to Sacramento, the Capitol of San Francisco. There we met Mary’s sister and her nice family, her husband and her two daughters.

The next day we started quiet and so we just visited an almond factory. At the next day we drove to the Capitol building and visited Arnolds place for ruling over California. Ant I really have to say it is a really nice building with Mamore and gold. Also it has a really nice park around it.

Later in the evening Franco and I went with the two girls of Marty’s sister and a friend of them to the cinema and saw Twilight. (I really have to say it is not a good movie, 3 hours just about love).

Then at the next day we drove back over the highway and need just 5 hours.

So we were back for Thanks giving, one of the most important celebrations. It was a really nice evening because the whole family came together and the food was just amazing. The turkey (Truthahn, nicht Türke) and all the other things it was really, really good.

Gingerbread house: My host family has the tradition to meet one time in December and to build a house out of Gingerbread, after this you “glue” sweets on it. The glue is some special thing out of sugar, butter and something else. Later this glue gets really hard but it still tastes good. But on this day I couldn’t join the celebration because I had a wrestling tournament, so I built my house 2 days later at home. It was fun and I destroyed it already to eat itJ.

Christmas: Last week we decorated our house with Christmas lights. It looks pretty nice we have some lights around the whole house but not too much. With my organization we drove to one street where they had Christmas lights all over the house all over the front yard it was crazy. They have music outside and the lights flash up to the music and they have some figures in the front yard which are taller than 2meters. Here you have to look at my pictures to understand what I mean.

School: School here is pretty much the same.  Sometimes it is boring sometimes it is goodJ. On the last day of school we had a meeting in the gym. These meetings we have always if there is something special. On these meetings some students perform by singing or dancing in front of the rest of the school. And there are some guys who are amazing good. For example one friend of mine sang a part of an opera there and his voice sounds really good for it. On this meeting I took some pictures and some videos. The pictures you can see on my homepage. The movies are too big to put them up.

After the 2 weeks of our vacations we have the big finals at the end of the year.

Here in America there is no rule that says you have to have so many tests in class during the year, but at the end of the half year and the year there is a big test and it is about all the stuff you have done in this year. I am really not happy about thisJ.

Wrestling: Up to know we had 3 wrestling tournaments. There we went as a team and fought against another team. It is always pretty fun and I am in the varsity team (Team line number 1) and fight in the weight class 152. Some of my matches I won some I loss, my record is at the moment 10:8 (10 won, 8 losses) in wrestling you score points by bringing your opponent on the ground or on his back.

If both shoulder of him touch the ground the fight is over and you won. If you bring your opponent down to the ground you get 2 points. If you hold him 5 seconds on his bag you score 3 points. If you are down and the partner controls you, but you can escape in the stands again you score 1 point. At match consist out of 3 rounds at 2 minutes. The break between the rounds is between 15 and 20 seconds. You win a fight by pin that means when you bring both shoulders on the ground, by points, if you are 15 points ahead of him or by time, after six minutes the guy with the most points wins the match. I won all my 10 matches by pin, lost 2 by bin and 6 by time.

The team and the coach are happy with me and I get better and better from match to match.

But the most important thing is that it makes fun.

Rock climbing: On the last day of school we went after school with my physics class rock climbing who wanted. It was really funny and I noticed that I haven’t done it a long time. But I was really nice to do it again.

After 7 Month

Hey guys..............................................................................25.03.10

Now I am in Amerika for 7 Month and I have only three more month here before i have to come back.

In the last time I didnt write at all at my homepage as you have noticed, so I will start with my report 3 month ago.

New Year: New Year I was at a party at one of the other exchange students. There we celebrated the whole night of course without alcohol and we even werent allowed to have fireworks because here it is so dry that it is illegal to have fireworks because it is too dangerous that we will get a bushfire because of this. It was all in all a really fun evening and then we slept over there. At the next morning we went to the Rose Parade. The Rose Parade is a parade at which big floats, build of only natural resources like wook, sand, flowers (except the engine) drive along and everybody enjoys the artwork. It was very interesting and due to the fact that we helped to build one float it was even better because we could imagine who much work in such a float is.

AFS Midyears meeting: At the third weekend of January we had a midyear orientation for one weekend in the High desert. The high desert is a huge area, everything is flat, it is hot, no plants only sand and dust and at the horizone you can see the mountains covered with snow. It is a nice place there for a few days but i couldnt imagine to life there for a long time. It is just to far away from everything. The meeting was so pretty good. We talked about our experiences we made up to now and what we want to change for the rest of the year and we also talked about coming home in 5 month. At this point some of the girls good really sad because they just enjoy there time right here and we dont want to be remembered that the time is over in a little bit.

Wrestling: The wrestling season finished at the first weekend of February. In our league we made the second place as a team and went on to the next level. But there were better teams and so we got kicked out of the tournament in our first match against an other time. To our defense I have to say that we gave them still a hard time and they had to work for their victories.

Individually I made the second place in league. A wrestling match is 6 minutes long and up to 5:20 I was winning with my points. I did then a stupid mistake and lost the fight then. It was kind of depressing but all in all it was still fun. I qualified so for the next level together with 8 other wrestlers from out team. At CIF, thats the name of the next league, we had a complet weekend of competition. 6 of us were out after the first day, (you have to loose two times to be out) and 3 of us made it to the second day. I belong to the 6 guys ;). The last 3 guys did a great job and one got 6th place and the other 2nd place out of about 40 wrestlers per weight class. The 2 guys who got second qulified for the next round and one of them took first place there. It was a really fun weekend with my teammates there. We had two campers there to hang out during the day and the night we spent in a hotel. All in all I must say it was a great decision to join wrestling and I would do it every time again.

Swimming: Now wrestling was over I had to find another sport. It didnt took long due to the fact that i already planned to be in the swim team for the spring sports. I joined the swim team directly after wrestling. I was still 3 weeks behind with practice because they started 3 weeks earlier with practice and there i was still in wrestling. So the first week was kind of hard to keep up with all the guys who are already in  the routine. But now it is fine. I am one of the fastest guys at the team and it is a really big team of about 50 people. The competitions are about 2 hours long. There are certain events in a strict order and the coach put you where she wants to have you. Between your starts you have maybe a break of 5 to 15 minutes and then you have to go again. Specially at the beginning it was really strange for me and it was really cold because it is a outside pool and if the wind blows through this area it gets pretty cold. But now it is so we have every day sunshine and about 25 to 28 C and we all get now really brown during 2 1/2 hours practice in the water.

At the moment I have to swim 50 yards butterfly, 200 IM (Lagen), 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. I hope that will change a little bit because I dont like the IM and the breast but we will see.

We alreadly qualified in the 4*50 freestyle relay for the next league. It will be an exciting season.

San Francisco: Two weeks ago Bruce, Franco and I drove up to San Francisco again for a long weekend from thursday evening to Sunday. It was again lots of fun. The weather was great and we did some parts we did the last time but this time we went over to alcatraz, one of the most famous and secure prisions in America. They closed it about 1960s because it was too expensive. It is about a half a mile away from the San Francisco coast at a small island. It was really intersetling to be there and just to walk around and see where for example Al Capone has spent some of his years. We also found another place to take great pictures of the brigde in san Francisco. We spent at this place about 2 hours just to take pictures from 5 to 7 pm because so we had the sun set and the brigde at night. It was really gorgeous.

School: School is like always. There is just one difference I changed from regular Environmental Science to AP Environmental Science because I didnt like the teacher at all and now I must say it was the right decision because now i have a teacher where it is fun to learn.

The rest of school is ok so far, sometimes boring, sometime interesting it depends on the day. At June 9th we will have our last school day for us seniors and then we will have the whole graduation zeremonie. Even I wont get a diploma that i graduated here I will go through the whole process.

Spring Break: Next week Friday our spring break starts and I am happy about this because it means that I will go to New York and Washington for a week. I hope it will be a lot of fun.

Friends: I still have all my friends, except to one guy the connection broke down but I even won more and hope it will go on for the rest of the year.

That is pretty much everything what I can tell you guys. I am perfectly fine and enjoy my year. For the people who want to know it. I will be back at the 6th of July in Germany. I will land in the afternoon in Frankfurt.

Greetings Alex