Texas. First Impressions. First Day.
On August 8th 2009 I entered the Lone Star Stare for the first time in my life. So when I arrived at the Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport I wasn't yet there but the first impressions arrived. Even if it was just an airport, Texas was amazing. I had a Strawberry Milkshake at Starbucks and looked around, waiting for my flight to Abilene. The plane came and just another 40 minutes separated me from my texan family. When I finally arrived I had to go to the bathroom really bad but my family was right there and so I just went on to meet them.(: The first one to greet my was my new (host)sister Lyndsi (16 y. old). She is really sweet and I love her. My (host)mom Stacey (40 y. old) and my (host)dad Joe (40 y. old) are really cool people. They own a sign shop, DoubleDiamond Signs in Abilene. They live in a small texan town called Trent, with a population of 318 people, 30 miles west from Abilene. They own 4 dogs, Honey Bun, a fat Basset Hound, Cindy, i don't know what she is and two Dachshunds Bella and Buster. Whenever they picked me up, a friend of Lyndsi, Kali was with them. We drove back to Trent, and the drive was amazing. I know it was just over a highway, the car must have been like 100 but it was still awesome. All the new things to look at, everything. We arrived at the house and Lyndsi showed me around. I also was able to see my room for the first time. It is pretty cool, green, and big. But the day wasn't over yet. They loaded two of their three horses, Roxy and Scooter (3rd horse Destiny) up and drove to the near by town Merkel for Riding club play days in which Lyndsi and Kali were participating. They asked me if I wanted to, but I wanted to watch them for once. So I took my place with Stacey and Joe outside the arena and we ate crispy chicken and corn, real texan food.
After the playday when we arrived at home, my new home I went straight to bed was so happy to finally be there.
After the playday when we arrived at home, my new home I went straight to bed was so happy to finally be there.
Summer Break. End of Summer.
Since I arrived on the 8th and school starts her on the 24th, I had exactly 2 weeks and a weekend of summer break left. In those 2 weeks a lot happened. I met a lot of new people and made first friends here in Texas. My second day already, Lyndsi and her friend Alisha took me to the lake in Sweetwater, 30 minutes away from us. At that lake I had a lot of fun driving the sea-do. On my first monday in Trent, Stacey took me to the high school to meet Mrs. Priddy our principal, with how I designed my schedule. Later then Stacey took me for a tour through the school and everything was quite impressing. During these days Lyndsi had a lot going on with Cheerleading (she's team captain) and so I sometimes went with her to help the cheerleaders paint banners or I watched them cheer during mini-cheer camp. The six cheerleaders are all really cool people. On other days I went in to the shop with my host parents. Friday was a meeting for all the exchange students that already came in. Face the World, my american organization had a place at Mr. Gatti's a pizza buffet with a game room annexed, and talked to us about our stay and everything. It was boring! The day after that, on saturday, exactly a week after my arrival Stacey took Lyndsi, Rande (a friend) and me to Buffalo Gap, where a big flea market was going on. That day, I had my first visit in a WalMart too. These supermarkets are really cool. That day, Trent's other two exchange students came in. Carter from Taiwan and Richard from Germany. Both live with Rande's mom Martey who is a community representative for FTW.
The following week was the last week of summer break and a lot was going on. The first practices started in school, Cross Country and Football. On wednesday was Crack ( Christians revolving around Christ's Koolness), a community youth group lead by Stacey and Mrs. Nance, a friend of Stacey. The kids of the town meet together, eat, pray, play games and have a good time. It is going on every two weeks and I love it. However before Crack, Lyndsi and I went over to Peyton's, Lyndsi's best friend to meet her and swim in her pool. On Thursday was a meeting for all the students in school who were taking a spanish class because those classes are classes out of Roscoe High School over video conference. I had to go since I was in Spanish I, second period. After the meeting, Peyton had a pool-party going on and almost the whole teens of the town were there. We had an awesome time.
Friday, before school started Lyndsi and I went and got our hair done for 10 dollars at Texas College of Cosmetology, which was pretty cool. Sunday, the day before school started, my family went to Champions Church in Abilene. These churches are so different from luxembourgish churches, they have bathrooms, cafes and a rock band during their service. After Church, the Williams with Rande, his brother Jeremy, Carter and Richard came over for BBQ and to ride horses.
Summer break ended and everybody got ready for school.
The following week was the last week of summer break and a lot was going on. The first practices started in school, Cross Country and Football. On wednesday was Crack ( Christians revolving around Christ's Koolness), a community youth group lead by Stacey and Mrs. Nance, a friend of Stacey. The kids of the town meet together, eat, pray, play games and have a good time. It is going on every two weeks and I love it. However before Crack, Lyndsi and I went over to Peyton's, Lyndsi's best friend to meet her and swim in her pool. On Thursday was a meeting for all the students in school who were taking a spanish class because those classes are classes out of Roscoe High School over video conference. I had to go since I was in Spanish I, second period. After the meeting, Peyton had a pool-party going on and almost the whole teens of the town were there. We had an awesome time.
Friday, before school started Lyndsi and I went and got our hair done for 10 dollars at Texas College of Cosmetology, which was pretty cool. Sunday, the day before school started, my family went to Champions Church in Abilene. These churches are so different from luxembourgish churches, they have bathrooms, cafes and a rock band during their service. After Church, the Williams with Rande, his brother Jeremy, Carter and Richard came over for BBQ and to ride horses.
Summer break ended and everybody got ready for school.
First day of School (:
The first day of school, Monday August 24th 2009 was amazing. First we all, the whole school, 160 students from Pre-K to 12th met together in the cafeteria of the school. After the elementary kids left, our principal came and talked to the high schoolers, we had the Pledge of allegiance and the Texas pledge on both flags and then the cheerleaders did some small funny cheers. After that, all the different class grades went and met their class teachers. I'm in 12th grade, so i am a Senior in the graduating class of 2010. Our teacher is Mrs. Brooks, the science teacher who handed us our schedules out. My schedule is like this:
7:45 - 8:35: PE / Athletics (Coach Pack)
8:40 - 9:30: Spanish I (Mrs. Barns/Mrs. Heaps)
9:35 - 10:25: English IV / 12th grade english (Mrs. Thomas)
10:30 - 11: 20 US History (Coach Horn)
11:25 - 12:15 Chemistry (Mrs. Brooks)
LUNCH
12: 50 - 13:35 Animal and Agricultural Sciences (Mr. McCoy)
13:40 - 14:25 Theater Arts (Mrs. Thomas)
14:30 - 15:15 Astronomy (Mrs. Brooks)
Our schedule repeats every day and on the first day we went to all our classes just to talk to the teachers. At Lunch I'm sitting with all the Junior girls ( Lyndsi's grade) on the table. Lunch is fun here. A meal costs $2 and you can get seconds. They have milk, normal and chocolate to drink and on fridays we get iced or sweet tea. Their lunches are okay, sometimes the food is amazingly good but sometimes it can really suck. Their tater tots and the strawberry bananas are really good however, my absolute favorites.
After my first day in American High school, Lyndsi had to stay to prepare some Cheerleading stuff so I took the school bus to go home. The school bus is one of these yellow busses with brown seats and even if the people behave really bad in it, it was fun riding it once. Mrs. Dickerson, our driver stops in front of every house; they don't have bus stops here.
7:45 - 8:35: PE / Athletics (Coach Pack)
8:40 - 9:30: Spanish I (Mrs. Barns/Mrs. Heaps)
9:35 - 10:25: English IV / 12th grade english (Mrs. Thomas)
10:30 - 11: 20 US History (Coach Horn)
11:25 - 12:15 Chemistry (Mrs. Brooks)
LUNCH
12: 50 - 13:35 Animal and Agricultural Sciences (Mr. McCoy)
13:40 - 14:25 Theater Arts (Mrs. Thomas)
14:30 - 15:15 Astronomy (Mrs. Brooks)
Our schedule repeats every day and on the first day we went to all our classes just to talk to the teachers. At Lunch I'm sitting with all the Junior girls ( Lyndsi's grade) on the table. Lunch is fun here. A meal costs $2 and you can get seconds. They have milk, normal and chocolate to drink and on fridays we get iced or sweet tea. Their lunches are okay, sometimes the food is amazingly good but sometimes it can really suck. Their tater tots and the strawberry bananas are really good however, my absolute favorites.
After my first day in American High school, Lyndsi had to stay to prepare some Cheerleading stuff so I took the school bus to go home. The school bus is one of these yellow busses with brown seats and even if the people behave really bad in it, it was fun riding it once. Mrs. Dickerson, our driver stops in front of every house; they don't have bus stops here.
Homecoming Week
The second week of october was Homecoming week in school. Homecoming is to celebrate the first district football game of the fall season. Every day of the whole week was a different dress-up day. Monday was Hat day, Tuesday Pajama day, Wednesday Crazy day, Thursday Flashback day and Friday School Spirit day. Every day, we had to dress different to cheer up the football players for their first important game. On Wednesday was Fields of Faith in Abilene organized by FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). Our school's group participated and so Coach Pack took us to the Abilene High Football Stadium in Abilene where the other high schools out of the Big Country met together to pray and listen to different preachers, all athletes. Tuesday was the Powderpuff game at our Football field. Powderpuff was a lot of fun. The Girls (who wanted to) played Football and the Football players were cheering in the Cheerleaders uniforms. We played Juniors against Seniors and all the other girls were spilt between the teams. My team, the Senior team Bone Collectors won. I was basically on defense and it was really a lot of fun. After the game, the THS Cheerleader had their annual BlackOut Pep Rally, a Pep Rally in the dark with fluorescent clothes. It was awesome. later that night we had a bonfire at the old school and we, the Seniors had to light it. On top of the wood pile was sitting a fat Bulldog(teddy) that we burned to, because our team was about to play the Moran Bulldogs. Friday night was the night of the game. Before the game all the football players, cheerleaders and their families were introduced and then they played. Unfortunately we lost. After the game was the dance, at a parking lot in downtown Trent. The whole thing was strange but funny. (: On Saturday was the Homecoming parade in town and all the streets were decorated in school colors, blue and gold. All the football players were in the parade and a lot of Exes, Trent Alumnis came and there was a lunch in school. The cheerleaders cheered in a pep rally for all the exes and after the game for the old football teams was a charity golf tournament.
Thanksgiving. Camping.
In November was Thanksgiving break and we got out of school for 5 days. My family, the dogs and I went down to Coleman, Texas were we camped at Elk's Creek Lake. The whole trip was really funny, we went fishing, slept one night in a tent, had bonfires and went shopping to Brownwood and Coleman. The last day, Chris came down and stayed the night in our travel trailer. The only thing that was all wired about the campsite was a boy called Jeff. We don't really know but thing that he was a little bit retarded in the head. He showed up in the middle of the night in front of our trailer to show us random stuff and he wanted that Chris and Lyndsi break up so that he could date Lyndsi.
The last day tough after packing we drove down to Coleman to have breakfast and while we were discussing our stay and how annoying Jeffeffa (how we called him) was, he and his family showed up in the exact same restaurant 20 miles away.
The last day tough after packing we drove down to Coleman to have breakfast and while we were discussing our stay and how annoying Jeffeffa (how we called him) was, he and his family showed up in the exact same restaurant 20 miles away.
Basketball. Lady Gorilla Excellence.
So i played Basketball for my school in the Lady Varsity team. We had a team of 9-11 players varying over the whole season. We started practicing in early october, every day at 7 o'clock in the mornings before school started. Basketball season was awesome. We had 2 4th places in Varsity tournaments and we won quite a bit of district games. I had jersey number 13 and was playing () and well, my first ten seconds on an american basketball i committed a foul. Shouldn't be the last one though. (:
Our team was awesome and since i was a senior i got to captain several games. It was a fun season. Our slogan. An Attitude of excellence.
Our team was awesome and since i was a senior i got to captain several games. It was a fun season. Our slogan. An Attitude of excellence.
Sleepovers (:
We started her this really cool thing, so our group of foreign girls has sleepovers ever now and then and they are really a lot of fun. In our group are India from Australia, Kaja from Norway, Chantal from Germany with her host sister Lexi, my sister Lyndsi and me. The first sleepover, and the idea came up whenever we had our exchange student organization meeting about Disney and we were all really bored so we wanted to have some fun and decided to go to the mall after the meeting. The mall was super-fun and we even got stopped by the cops but that's a long story. We went in to Dillard's and looked for the most awful clothes we could find. Then we went and tried them on, took pictures and so on, you know... So this shop-lady came up to us and asked if we were okay. She kinda scared all of us and so we decided to split up, go away and meet up at the exit of the store. We did so but at the exit, we couldn't even take 2 steps and the mall cop came and asked for our IDs. We were so scared and thought we were in major trouble but fortunately Lyndsi knew what was going on and said we would go to meet our parents. The whole reason for that 'arrest': people under 18 are not allowed to be without somebody of at least 21 at the mall after 9 o'clock. Typical America. So we went to Mrs. Stephens (Kaja's mom) who was actually with us and she took us back to Trent where, in the car we decided to just stay the night at Kaja's. The night was really funny. We talked a lot until like 2 am, when we all went to the living room and all kinds crushed somewhere on the recliners and around. We started watching wife swap and later at 3 we bought The Hangover onto the TV. Somehow we made it trough the night and in the morning we where aloud to drive the family's four wheeler around the old softball field. It was a really funny weekend.
The second sleepover was at our house, but unfortunately India couldn't come. We just hang out together, watched 'Series Of Unfortune Events', and had a good time. The next day we all attended our church's service and went and ate at CiCi's Pizza All you can eat buffet. In the afternoon we went to the mall again. (:
The second sleepover was at our house, but unfortunately India couldn't come. We just hang out together, watched 'Series Of Unfortune Events', and had a good time. The next day we all attended our church's service and went and ate at CiCi's Pizza All you can eat buffet. In the afternoon we went to the mall again. (:
Softball. Play Hard. Get Dirty.
Softball was defs my favorite sport in the States. I played in our school's varsity team and was a Starter. During the whole season I played on 4 different positions, Right fielder, left fielder, second base and third base but my favorite and best position was Right Fielder. Fielding was fun, but hitting was funnier =P Just you, your bat, the enemy pitcher and the small neon yellow ball (that was ironically not soft). I normally hit singles or doubles or sometimes even a triple but once I had a grand slam and it felt awesome. That is if you hit a homerun and bring all your other teammate baserunners in. Best part of softball: sliding. It was just so much fun. I loved Softball and will totally miss it in Europe.
Day of Silence. To Break the Silence.
So today is day of silence. This day, participating students in our high school chose to be silent for a whole school day to set a point against discrimination and bullying specially against LGBT(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual), but for every other child and adult in the world, who couldn't speak up. The color is red and so Lyndsi and I took to red t-shirts and duct-taped NO H8 signs on them. We got special cards that say why we are not talking to show teachers and other people and at 2:40, the silence was broken and we met at the cafeteria to talk about the day. Pictures will be up later.
Prom. A Touch of Elegance 2010
May 1st 2010. It was Prom night. Typical american Prom night. The first thing in the morning involved driving to Abilene, sitting in s stuffy hair salon and getting our hair done into a fancy up-do. Then we headed home and got ready. I had a long purple 3 layered dress and almost 3 inch black pumps. At 4 o' clock our white stretch limousine arrived. It was just picture perfect. The perfect evening was coming up. Our group of 7 people, mainly exchange students went then all together to Little Italy and had an awesome european dinner. Prom was in a ballroom downtown abilene and it was awesome. It was just like in all the dream american movies. <3
