new-experiences

 

Austrian meets Swede meets French-wannabe... - the title Laura gave this pic
(me, Laura, and Alex)

School was over almost two weeks ago and now I am just relaxing and enjoying summer.
But seriously, how did this go so fast?? School is already over...That was the main part of my stay and it is just scary that I only have like 3 weeks left here. Didn't this time that passed only feel like 2 months??

I am just in a great mood, there are so many things I gotta do and it is fun.

hmmm... I am wondering whether I should start with telling you about graduation and the last schooldays or if I should start with what happened lately.

Well, it might be more confusing if I start with what is happening right now, so I better start with Graduation.

Graduation was on saturday the 24th (remember the weekend that I had so much stuff to do with all the graduation parties and that? - this was the sunday of it)

Well, I had to be at the highschool early for graduation cuz I am in choir and the choir was singing at the graduation so we had to warm up. Maria picked me up at like 1 pm and we went to the highschool. Graduation was very cool. All the seniors in their robes and everyone was in a good mood.

So what happens at graduation? The people that are done with highschool get their diplomas and have then officially graduated from highschool. So there is this zeremony and they show pictures of all the graduates from when they were little and stuff. And after that the seniors go on stage one by one and get their diploma.

And the choir and band performed of course.




Well yes, Graduation was about an hour and 15 minutes long. My hostdad picked me up after that and we went home. We had some relatives at our house and grilled when I came home from graduation.

But this wasn't all I did on that sunday... Ceci had a graduation/goodbye - party at her house and she really wanted me to come so Shelby, Ceci and Maria picked me up from my house and yes. I didn't actually feel like going there that much, I was just worn out from the days before but it was fun then. I was happy I went there. We had food, fun and talked a lot. About 20 people were at the party. 

Ceci is gonna do a lot in the summer here. She is in California right now - with her hostfamily. And she and maria are going to New York for a weekend together. That sounds pretty cool =) I am just gonna stay at home, but I might go to chicago with friends.
I actually don't care about travelling in the US that much at the moment, cuz I think I can always go and see those places in the US again, but what really matters are the people I know here. Cuz I know I will never meet these people at this time in this place again. So I wanna spend as much time with them as I can .

Shelby was supposed to give me a ride home after the party but she had to leave early, so Maria's hostfamily told me they could give me a ride home, which was very very nice of them! Maria's hostdad is really cool, he likes taking pictures a lot and has many different cameras so he offered to go shoot pictures together someday.

Time is just running so fast... I can't believe it... I don't think time has ever passed that fast in my life.


The last school days before summer:

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday  (25 -28. May) were the last view school days two weeks ago.

But I have to tell you about monday first. We didn't have school on that monday cuz it was Memorial day. My hostfamily and I spent the day at the softball fields cuz my mom and dad were playing in an annual charity softball tournament. That's like every player that wants to play has to pay 10 dollars and the money is then donated to someone who really needs it.
It is fun playing softball and you do something good at the same time.

Well the softball games were in our small town and friends of us had a get-together at their house at the same time so inthe breakes between the games we went over there and had something to eat... well. I dedeided to stay at the fields  a bit longer and talk to friends of mine that were there and then just walk over to where the get-together was, cuz it really wasn't far away.

lol but as you know that my sense of direction isn't really the best I almost got lost in the small town. I was walking around with my camera bag on a hot day just looking for this house. And then I happened to meet two guys from my school... I think they were  repairing a car or something in their driveway as I was walking past their house and they saw me and started talking to me: "Hey, Johanna!" ( I didn't even know that they knew my name) .. "What are you doing here"

So we started talking and I told them that I was looking for this house and haha it was fun they were trying to help me and offered me that they can give me a ride and we could just look where the house is. I was a little bit embarrassed cuz who gets lost in this small town?? But well so I said no no I am fine =) I will just walk around and have a look. So I walked down the street and turned and luckily I saw the house then =) lol so it wasn't bad at all.

But isn't that so nice? I mean I had never really talked to these boys before and they just offered me a ride and were so helpful.

Well that day was fun =)

So about my last days of school. I was kinda sad that school was over, just because I meet so many nice people there and most of the time it is fun to go there. But I was also quite happy then, just to be done with school and that the school work would finally come to an end.

The system here in Iowa: We don't have schularbeiten (really hard exams) throughout the year, we only have final exams on our two last days of school. So you will have a final exam in every subject you have this half year. The good thing about this is that you can opt (that means that you don't have to take the finals)  out of 3 exams.

You can only opt out of 3 and you have to take the rest . So if you have a grade that is either an A or A- you can opt out! Isn't that awesome?? I loved that, I opted out of American History (that would have been so hard!!), Sociology and Intro Website Development.

I could have opted out of all my subjects only not of English III cuz I have a B+ in this.

Well yes, so I took the Photography final cuz I thought it would be nice to refresh what I've learned in this subject and it really wasn't hard. The choir final wasn't hard at all too. My choir teacher just made us listen to 6 songs and we had to write about whether we liked them or not and if they create images in our head and if yes what we see.

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So I wrote this like a week ago, but was to lazy to finish it and post it =( sorry for that.
It is the 11th of June today (thursday)

I have had a great time so far, and this weekend is simply gonna be amazing!!! I have such a lot of stuff to do! I am very excited.

But there's has been a lot of stuff going on lately too.

Laura asked me if I want to go to "The Envy Corps" Concert with her and Caitlyn, I was excited to go to a concert, and I loved it. It was great. The concert was downtown in a bar. (Yes we were even allowed to go in a bar lol, but we had to leave after the concert was over, since the drinking age in america is 21)

The Envy Corps - Rhinemaidens



in the bar

The Envy Corps - Before the Gold Rush


Laura and I

The Envy Corps - Story Problem

We went to a restaurant before going to the concert and had something to eat, it was a lot of fun =)

What I really like right now is the weather, it is so warm and just summer weather =)

Well, last saturday, we had a surprise birhtday party for my hostdad, cuz he is gonna turn 40 in july (we had it a month earlier so that it would be a real surprise)
But he still kinda knew about it, cuz some people gratulated him for turning 40 so he had an idea that there was something coming up.

It was a fun party though! We had about 50 people at our house and a lot of good food.
It was awesome=)

the Cake

(it is very common to have a lot of stuff in black when someone turns 40 , kinda like a joke that now they are halfway over the bridge, like their life is halfway over)

It was a fun party.

Well yes....

This tuesday was an awesome day as well!! I got up early in the morning (5:37!!!) so that my parents could give me a ride to Maria's house. I was at her house at about 6:40... so early. But I couldn'T have done it at any other  time  cuz I wouldn't have had a ride.

I pretty much spent all day at maria's and ceci came at about 10 am. It was fun cuz maria's (host)mum was home all day as she babysits 3 babies as a job. And maria's (host)siblings were at home too, she has 2 sisters and 1 brother. We had a fun time just hanging out and talking. Well so we decieded to go to the mall after lunch. (the mall is close to her house so we just walked there)

We spent like 3 hours at the mall, just bought some stuff and looked at clothes.
Maria's Dad picked us up at the mall at about 4:30 and we went down town to go to some places and take pictures! That was so cool! Tim took us to so many places.
We even went to a fire fighter department and we went in there and took pictures and a fire figther explained it all to us.

We also went to a hospital to look at their helicopter and look over the city on the deck where the helicopter was.

I mean isn't that fun ?? We just went to the hospital and asked whether we can have a look at their helicopter cuz we are exchange students and so they sent somebody down to take us up there and show us the helicopter.


The guy who showed us the helicopter, Maria, Sydeny (her little sister), I and Ceci


Ceci, I and Maria at some place down town close to the river.



This day was so much fun, Maria has such a great hostfamily and I love spending time with all of them. =)

Today is gonna be fun too! Niah asked me to go to a concert with her!
ERIC HUTCHINSON!!! I love his music, I have his cd, I just enjoy his music a lot. I can't believe I am actually gonna see him LIVE today!! =) I am so excited!

And there's also a lot of stuff I will do on the weekend=)
I am gonna see the broadway musical of Mamma Mia on friday, together with Ceci and Maria!

And then spend the night at Maria's house, cuz her family Maria, Ceci and I are going to the Mall of america on saturday! the mall of america is like the biggest mall in america. People told me it is just so big that if you would stop by for 2 minutes at every shop it would take you 2 days to go through the whole mall!! Well I'll see how that's gonna be.
I mean I have to buy some stuff, before going back home.

I am having a great time here, I hope you are all doing well too =) 
And sorry for writing so late. 

Love,
Johanna 

Hey everyone =)

I am doing great and had two awesome weeks! I just love being here, it is amazing.

There has been a lot of stuff going on the last few weeks, this is why I haven't had time to write a new entry, but I am trying to pack it all in one again.  ( Just to warn you ,yes, this could be a long entry again)

Hmmm... what should I start with...

Well, yesterday was the Seniors last day!! Can you imagine that they are done with highschool now? It was kinda sad for me tough cuz many of my friends are seniors and  I won't see them at school anymore now. But okay, we only have like 7 schooldays left. So it isn't that bad... And this weekend is graduation!!! I am really looking forward to that.

Seriously, why are they all done with highschool and I am stuck in school for 3 more years? urgh =) well. School is nice too but it feels like I've had enough of it for now. Good that summer holidays start soon.

Oh and I bought a new camera! I love it, it is the Canon Rebel XS and the pictures you can take with it are just amazing. It is so great to have an awesome camera and I have been running around in school, taking pictures.

I never thought I would ever say this, but school is actually fun here. I experience so many new things at school and meet great people and I don't have very hard subjects.. so yes.

(well my first victims were scott, shawn and coy who are all in my website development class, but they didn't mind that I took pictures of them, they were even nice enough to pose for me ;) )

It is just nice in Iowa now =) the sun is shining, summer is coming, school is almost over and there are lots and lots of graduation parties.

So when someone graduates from highschool, mostly everyone makes a graduation party. It is like a short stop by to wish the graduate good luck for his/her life, and there is always good food and stuff. So far I received about 30 invitations! I was very happy about receiving so many, just a good feeling to know that people like me and invite me to their parties.
And the invitiations are always very cool, like they print stuff out and everything.
So far I've been to two graduation parties, but more about that later.

some pictures I took during choir and lunch
1st : janelle and I and the girl in the background is amber lol
2nd: chad and I (and yes he is holding up his shoe lol, chad's just fun)
3rd: Maria (sorry she is kinda cut off =( ) I and Niah

Haha, shelby (my hostsister) just came into my room and commented on my shorts: "Hey, you don't even look too white." Isn't she charming? haha. She's just hilarious.

What was also fun, we had an army guy coming to school and he was our teacher for one PE (physical education) class. That was cool, like we did some circuit training (I hope I wrote that the right way) He told us some stuff about the army and we were asked whether we are interested in joining the army or receiving information about it. Well yes, that's not the only thing like at some days during lunch you can meet marines at school, they have a table and you can talk to them. 

So on the 8 of may we had our choir state large group competition. This is like a competition where the large group choirs of the state (Iowa) came together and competed. It was awesome!! What's really cool is that our choir is a good one and we got all A ratings in all the things we competed in (large group, women, men) It was such a great feeling to be up on stage and perform cool songs. We had 2 english songs and a russian song, that one was funny it took us awfully long to learn only how to say the words! But it worked really well in the end. We also had to wear robes for the performance! Yes, exactly the robes that you see in the movies haha. I loved that =)  Choir is such a cool subject, I love it.

(My choir class - they are so much fun)


One thing was also very nice about that day. You know the competition was on a friday night and so  I would have just stayed at school until it all started but during choir that day I talked to Amber who stands next to me in choir and she asked me what I was doing after school before the competition and she invited me to go home with her, have something to eat and then come back. Isn't that so nice?? I mean we don't really know each other but it was so much fun. She has her own car so we went back to her house, had something to eat, talked a lot and dressed up (you still need to wear black pants to go with the robe) and went back to school. It was so much fun with Amber. I just love it that you do not have to be best friends with someone here but they will still invite you to do stuff together and it is not like ohh I never do stuff with you, so we are not gonna do anything...

So before our performance that day, our choir teacher talked to us and everyone became really sentimental like oh this is our last choir performance with the seniors and stuff =) So the Seniors were asked to say  a few words and stuff and Laura said that she once again realized how much  everyone should appreciate choir when I told her that we don't have choir in Austria. That was so cool of her that she mentioned her.

And  my choir teacher then said: Yes, you're right (to laura) and so , this is really the first time I am picking Johanna out, but I have to say that you've been an awesome addition for our choir.

I just felt really happy at that moment =) Choir is so awesome, I met so many great people in choir and found a lot of friends, I am so glad I picked choir as a subject.

Well yes, so this was the state large group competition.

Last weekend was quite cool too!
We all went to Kansas City (in the state Kansas) to go to the graduation of my hostmum's nephew. It was so much fun! So we stayed at my hostmum's sister's house. (their house is really cool) It was fun cuz they have 3 children: Josh (18) who was the one graduating, Drew (15) and Johanna! (14). Was quite funny to meet another Johanna in America. I think this was actually the first time Johanna has ever met another Johanna. Well, my hostsis and I slept in her room and yes. It was fun to spend time with her.

So we arrived there friday night, had something to eat and pretty much went to bed after that. We got up on saturday morning and spent some time just doing nothing and then got ready to go to the graduation. Graduation is awesome! All the graduating people are wearing robes like we see them in the movies, and it is just fun! So basically you are in this huge room and the people who are graduation get their dimplomas and some give speeches and the choir sings...  it is cool 
We went back to their house after graduation and had Josh's Open house (the thing when all your friends come to give you money, and wish you good luck and so on) 
That was cool too, cuz we had lots of good food.  

We went home on sunday, and stopped by at a shopping mall, that was fun. What's also cool is that my hostfamily has a tv in their car so when we go on long road trips we can watch tv =)

Well yes, we were home at about 6 that day, and Kelcie (girl that goes to my school, senior) had her graduation party and I was invited. So my hostsis and I went over there, it was a lot of fun, they had delicious food and many other people from school were there. We even had a bonfire and made hotdogs and stuff. So all in all a pretty busy weekend, I didn't catch too much sleep.

I just enjoy all these american things, it is awesome =)

School was kinda strange today, cuz all the seniors were gone, just now I realize how many of my friends were seniors. Like at lunch, the people I sit with we normally have like 3 tables that are FULL with the people I spend time with. And today we only made it to like one table! cuz all the seniors were gone. The school seems so empty.

lunchhhhh (sorry the picture is kinda strange, the photo merging didn't work out too well)

But I am really excited for summer =) Caitlyn has a horse and she said I could come over sometime and we could ride it. And Laura and Chad asked me whether I wanna go to adventureland with them (amusement park) and well yes Maria and I are gonna spend a lot of time together too =)

Summer's gonna be awesome!!

Well, I don't want to write anymore now, I guess it is enough for one time. But there would be a lot more  =) I guess I'll save it for the next time!

(oh one more thing which might be good. So there is this function called Newsletter in here. That means you can register and receive an email everytime I post a new entry, that might be comfortable so you don't have to look in here, just look when I actually posted something.
This function is right below the kalender, it says Newsletter and then E-Mail... I guess you'll be able to figure that out if you want to =) )

Good night!
Love,
Johanna



.

Hey everyone!

So this week has been a good one so far, I can't belive that Seniors have only  9 school days left!! And the others (including me) have 14 school days left. How did it pass that fast? Normally I wouldn't be bothered by that but I actually really like school here. It is fun and I honestly don't have to study much (what I don't mind at all).

I got a 100 % on my American History test and the only time I studied for it was while riding the bus to school.
So that's alright. But I have to write a 4 pages persuasive essay about closed curciut cameras in public places for english III and that's gonna be somewhat more difficult.

 

Photography is more difficult now too, we have to write a paper on a photographer (I got Gregory Colbert, he took awesome pictures of humans and animals) and I have to get done with about 20 picture assignments.

 

lol but at least I am lucky and don't have to learn all the 44 presidents of the USA in order!! People in my american history class have to learn them all and are gonna have a test about it on monday. But my teacher told me that I don't have to do that. (I guess you can imagine that I was quite happy about that)

What's kinda funny though is that so many of my friends here are Seniors and all getting ready for college,. and I mean I am gonna go to highschool(let's call it like that)  for 3!! more years... that's so muchhhhh.
And I am  a little worried about all the stuff that I've missed, that's gonna be a lot of studying during the summer =(. Especially italian makes me worry, I wasn't too good at it before and now it's gonna be even worse.
But it's all gonna work out somehow =)

I am really looking forward to the summer holidays, Laura said she's gonna take me to some places like adventureland and others. (adventureland is an amusement part close to where I live)

Oh and I haven't told you about the delicious ice cream they have here! I would have never imagined that there would be so many different sorts of ice cream possible!!!! I don't really know how to describe it but they basically have everything and they mix ice cream with m&ms or twix or pie and they have slushes and ice shakes, it is so delicious!! and they have peanutbutter ice cream, just everything i can't really explain it all! Maybe I am able to get some pictures and upload them in here. What's also cool is that at Korner Kone (the ice cream shop in our village) some of my friends work there so it's always cool to go there and just talk to friends.

I was lucky with getting rides lately too =) Kelcie gave me a ride home yesterday and Laura gave me a ride home today. So that's nice. Kelcie lives right next door to me (but I haven't seen her around much) and she offered to give me a ride in the morning too, that would mean I could sleep till 7:15!!!  isn't that awesome? but I think I am still gonna take the bus just cuz I like riding the bus and listening to music.

I really enjoy having hostsiblings! It is so much fun joking around with my hostsis.
I will really miss them.

My hostparents are in Florida right now, they left this morning cuz my hostmum is going on a businesstrip and my hostdad went with her so they can spend a few days in florida on vacation. So now the grandparents are taking care of us, they are very nice too and they have a little puppy. I tell you this puppy has got energy!! Berkley (our golden lab) was a little confused at first but now he's having fun with Harley (the puppy).

Well so last weekend was fun too! Josh invited me over to his house on friday and we watched the end of kill bill and almost the whole spiderman (Yes I had never seen spiderman before) it was fun, I got to meet his babybrother, he is soooo cute!! He's like 2 years old and Josh is such a nice older brother! It was fun. And he then gave me a ride back home.

And saturday was a special day. Ceci and Maria invited me to go to their school's prom with them! So I went there with them, it was fun! I got up at about 8 on saturday and we went to the hairdresser's to get nice pin-ups. I just wanted the same as I had for my school's prom so that was easy. And I honestly didn't want to spend all too much money on it, cuz prom already cost me so much money.

What was really cool, after getting our hair done, we went to the mall and got a  free face make-over there! Yes , you can do that at the mall! It is totally like in the movies, you walk in this big store and there is an aisle full with cosmetic stuff and different brands, you make an appointment and you then get a free make-over. That was so much fun, and why go somewhere when you can get a professional make over for free there? All three of us really enjoyed that.

After that we went to ceci's house and just relaxed and had something to eat. Well, Maria's family then brought maria's dress to ceci's house and we dressed up and took pictures all together. (that is really typical here, parents take pictures of their kids before they go to prom)



from the left: Maria, Ceci and me =)

from the left: ceci, Maria and me

A really good idea to jump with dresses and high heels =) lol


So after taking pictures and everything we went to a restaurant for dinner, that's really a cool thing cuz you get to show off your dress. It was like an italian restaurant so we had 3 different kinds of pasta, it was delicious! After that we went to prom and stayed there till 11:30, it was nice, but I liked my prom better, just because I knew almost all the people there and that's more fun then. Ceci's and Maria's school is also a lot bigger than mine, what's not a very good thing, it was hard for them to get friends and they both don't like their school too much. (I really really like my school)

Well so at 11:30 we went home and changed into our after prom clothes. (they provided us with shirts)


I was really tired at that time, dancing and all the eating was just exhausting. But nevertheless we went to afterprom. The cool thing about their after prom was, that it was at the MALL!! yes the school seriuosly rent parts of the mall and the afterprom was there!! That was very cool, they had all kinds of stuff there like Hüpfburgen (no idea what the english word for that is) poker, karaoke, ping-pong,  a free photocabine, fake tattoos, and you could also get your hand waxed lol, I did that it was fun and I now have my hand waxed and colored red white blue.

We also got vouchers for food and ice cream. That was delicious! But seriously, I was so tired at like 1 and I didn't want to spend all my time at after prom and be so tired in the morning then. So Ceci and I decided to go home earlier, we didn't want to see the hypnotist (i had seen it at my prom) so ceci's hostdad picked us up at about 3 am and I slept over at ceci's. It was fun nevertheless.

I was back home at about 11 that day. It was nice to see my hostfamily again then cuz I hadn't seen them all weekend. And I dyed my hostmum's hair that day too, I really enjoyed that cuz of that I had time to talk with her more and yes. It was fun!

Well yes, I might go bowling tomorrow, a girl from school asked me whether I would like to andsome other friends might go too, so let's see. 


Hope you are all fine!
Love,
Johanna