End of the first Trimester

Hello..

So I am really sorry that I didn't update the blog for almost a month. But again I still have a real life and so it is sometimes really hard to find time or the motivation to write something. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
 But I am back, so that's good, right? Yes, it is and I don't care what you say. 

Sooo.. What I wanted to write about today is:
• The end of my first Trimester and a resume of my classes

Let's start!

My Classes:

Child Development:

My teacher, Mrs. Nowka, is the best teacher ever. She always told us stories about her two little kids and about her career as a cop. Yes, she was a cop before she became a teacher. She was out on the road with a gun and everything. So it's pretty cool. According to Mrs. Nowka my English is "awesome". 
We learned everything about babies, children, pregnancy, birth, ...
We also had the baby project I wrote about before. It was.. fun? Well not so much, but it was definitely a good experience. We were really lucky, because we had to watch 3 birth videos. Real birth videos. They showed everything and we weren't allowed to look away!! So now I know exactly what happens.

That was my Child Development book:

English A:

I had Mrs. Ake. She is a really nice teacher and the class was good, but it was just a normal class and not a fun class. All in all I liked it. We read "The Great Gatsby" and "The Catcher in the Rye".  I don't really know what else to say. So here are pictures of the books :D

US History:

Soo.. This class was really.. Interesting? I don't know. My teacher, Mrs. McMahon, didn't seem to like German people, cause you know who is so silly and starts a second world war? Yep, ... However it was my favorite class, because we had lunch during that class and what is better than food? Okay, so we learned lots of stuff about WWII and what not. Yeah, boring stuff. I mean it's history!

Biology A:

Okay, so first of all. I didn't know that Biology was a Freshmen class, because no one told me. So I walked in the room and everything seemed normal and nice, but later I found out that everyone was in 9th grade and I was a senior. It was okay though, it was just really annoying sometimes, because they weren't really quiet or wanted to work. But whatever, I got over it. My teacher, Mr. McGregor, is great. I told you before about him and he is just fun. He is also the only one who calls me Tess sometimes. Whatever floats his boat. I don't care.
I really fell in love with the Biology book, he told us that we could work out with it. You really can, I mean.. just look at the book:

 

Exploring the World of Foods:

Great class. Really. I love it. So first we learned the basics about the kitchen and tools and all that stuff and later we cooked or baked. So my cooking group was a bit different, because we were three girls and one boy, not that that's a problem. Just the one girl didn't like the other girl. And the other girl wouldn't shut up and everyone was annoyed. So sometimes it was a bit difficult to work together as a group. I was really glad when the annoying girl wasn't there. Sorry, but it's true.
So now I have some pictures of what we cooked/baked:

Okay, so that was everything about school. I'll just show you my new schedule for the 2nd trimester. 

1. English B
2. Beginning Acting
3. Music Piano Keyboard
4. Biology B
5. Jewelry

It is amazing! :D


Next time I will tell you about Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping. Just keep commenting and maybe I will update faster? Ever thought about that? No? Well you should. Haha.

Okay, so I wish you all a wonderful day. See you later ♥

Halloween & Frankenmuth

 Hello again :)

Let's get started..

Halloween. What can I say? It is different than in Germany. It is still Halloween, but almost everyone is crazy about Halloween here. 
Okay, so I know I am 16. But somehow it is okay here for a 16-year-old teenager to go trick or treating. So I went trick or treating with my little (host)sister and her two friends. I was more like a 'bodyguard' haha.
Here is a picture of us in our costumes. Oh and I am a Butler :D

 We also made carved pumpkins. It was fun. I am not going to explain to you what it is. Here are the pictures of our pumpkins. Mine is the one with the cat :)

We also baked Halloween Cupcakes..

And now some Halloween decorations

 

Frankenmuth. Is the "german" city in Michigan. Well, actually it is a Beverian city. But it was fun there. We went to the World's largest Christmas Store. And they had of course lots of things from Germany :)

 

The German city:

They also had some food that is really from Germany. They had for example "Vanillekipferl" and they had some biscuits from "Bahlsen". Heaven *-* haha.

Lots and lots of pictures today. And I am sorry that it took me so long to update. But I have also a real life, so I think you can understand that :)

See you soon ♥

Chicagooooooooo!

Hello people :)

As you probably noticed. I have been to Chicago and it was great!

So we left the house on Friday at 8am. 4 ladies on tour, haha. My (host)dad had to stay home, so it was only me, my two (host)sisters and my (host)mum. The drive to Chicago was ca. 4 1/2 hours. We drove through Indiana, one more state I visited. Well, the highway but who cares? :D
We drove to the train station and waited for the train. Okay, so German people. The train wasn't like the metronome or something like that. It looked different.
Like this:

 Different right? Told you.

Okay, so as we reached Chicago we walked through the train station and then outside. It wasn't really warm.. Okay it was cold. We saw the Sears Tower:

Afterwards we took a taxi to the Navy Pier; the taxi driver was really nice. At the Navy Pier we went into the "Funhouse" and did the Fun Maze (may be scary for kids under 5 years). So we went in there and it was so funny. It was this Maze with all the mirrors, and it was dark with a few lights. My (host)sister freaked out. Haha. So we got through, alive.
Our second taxi driver brought us into the town, he was really quiet, but the music in his car was good. 
I will skip this part, because we just went shopping and it is not that exiting for you. But it was for me :)
When it was dinner time we went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was AMAZING. The food was so good, and the cheesecake.. Oh my good it tasted like heaven. No, seriously it was so good. And as every good tourist I took pictures of my food, haha.

 Tomato Basil Pasta:

Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore™:

 So you German people who read this. You probably don't know what S'mores are. I'll tell you.. Google it ;D

After dinner we wanted to go back to the train station. So we waved at a taxi and got into the car. Here comes the scary part. The taxi driver wanted to kill us. I am not joking. I was so scared. We drove through the tunnel or whatever that was. He stopped at a red light and when it turned green, he went from 0 to 60 or something. I was so scared. And it was like that all the time. My (host)sister sat next to me and giggled and said "It's fun<". I was just like "No, no it's not fun. We are going to die". Oh, and he also honked at actually every other driver without a reason and you couldn't breath in the car, because there was actually no air. I was so glad a we arrived at the train station and could get out of the car. 
As we were in the building waiting for the train my (host)mum told me that she was so scared, when we three already got out of the car and she wanted to pay for the taxi and she didn't got the right money out of here wallet. She said that she wanted to just give him all her money and be like "here take all my money and my credit cards, but please don't kill me", because she was so scared of him.

Okay, back to being serious. We drove with the train back to the station were we left the car and afterwards we drove to the hotel.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and there was a whole soccer team. A good-looking soccer team ;D

Later we packed our suitcases and drove to a mall and shopped more. After that we started our way back home. 
And then I saw the craziest thing ever, so we were on the highway, and in the middle of the highway. Like seriously, in the MIDDLE of the HIGHWAY. Between both lanes there was a McDonald's. On the highway!! That is just not normal. 
Here is the prove that I am not telling fairy tales.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

I think this is enough for now. Or no wait. Some more pictures of Chicago, haha.

  

The Skyline:

                                                    A real police men:

        The most expensive shoes I have ever seen (they weren't even really pretty) :

Spirit Week and Homecoming

Hello again :)

So last week we had our Spirit Week, because of Homecoming.
Okay, sooo.. The Spirit Week is the week before the Homecoming Game and Dance. We had a different theme everyday.

Monday: 

Class Color:
    
Freshmen → yellow
Sophomores → green
Juniors → red
Seniors → black

                                              Our senior shirts :)


Tuesday:
Pajamas Day (I don't have a picture, but you just wear Pajamas to school. It's actually normal for Americans, because some people come to school in Pajama pants at a normal day haha)

Wednesday:
Sports Day (You can wear basically everything from a sports team. But be careful with Michigan and Michigan State. And don't wear Ohio State)

 

Thursday:

Super Heroes Day:

Freshmen → Hulk
Sophomores → Spiderman
Juniors → Batman
Seniors → Superman

So you just wear a shirt or something from the Super Hero. Here is a picture. Haha, sorry for my face.

Friday:

Blue & White

I don't have a picture, but it's easy. You just wear blue and white clothes, because that are our school colors.


Our schedule was different on Friday, because we had the pep assembly at the end of the day. I didn't know what it was, and as they told me what it is I thought they were crazy. 
But it is really fun. 
So.. the Marching Band starts and walks through the hallways and when you hear them everyone gets out of their classroom and goes to the gym. In the gym you go to your 'section'. So I went to the senior section. And after that everyone goes basically crazy. It is so much fun. The Marching Band plays, the Pom Pom Team & the Cheerleader & the Dance Company dance. There also some games. 

We also had the Homecoming Football Game that night. It was great even though we lost. Like really bad.. But who cares? It's Homecoming!



Homecoming:

The Homecoming Dance was on Saturday. Everyone was so excited except for me (in the beginning).
As I got ready and but my dress on, I didn't even recognize me in the mirror. I looked so different, but good. We drove downtown and took photos with my friends. It was fun and everyone had a good time. Afterwards we drove to  Chinese Restaurant. The food was soooo good. Haha.
A lot of people looked at us, because we were so dressed up. But I think they knew that we are going to go to a Homecoming Dance.
When we were done with eating, we drove back to the school. I changed into my comfortable shoes, because I wore really high heels and I was really tall. 
When we went into the gym/dance floor. Everyone was already dancing, well if you can call it dancing. Most of the people were just grinding into each other. Oh well.
My friends and I had a wonderful time. The DJ was okay, but I like the German DJ's in the real clubs better.
At 11pm the dance was over. So it was actually the normal time for people in Germany to go to a club and here everything was already over. 
If you have any questions to Homecoming or the Spirit Week just ask me. I promise I'll answer ;)

Here are some picture of me and my friends:

That's it for today. A lot of pictures :D

So I hope you have a good time in your holidays, because I don't have holidays right now. 
But school began at 9.50 today, so that was really nice. 

See you ♥

Stressful weekend and an important announcement

Hello people. I am back :D

Okay, so first of all sorry again that it took me so long to write something new. My friends already complained about it. So I hope you are happy now guys. :D

Last weekend was.. terrible. Just terrible. I got the baby doll in my Child Development class. And well, I really hate babies right now. It woke me up at the middle of the night and not only once. Like four times or something. And every time I was awake for about 30 - 40 minutes to get the baby happy. The last day was the worst. First the baby cried all the time and I had to change its diaper or feed it or rock it or burp it. After the baby finally stopped crying I was able to eat breakfast. But when I wanted to shower the baby started again. I had to care for the baby for one hour. ONE HOUR! I was so frustrated, because I just wanted to take a shower. When my (host-)parents and my sisters came back from church, I went downstairs with the baby and gave it to them, because I just couldn't do it anymore.
I thought that the baby would be more quiet at that night, because it was school the next day, but no. It woke me up again at 2.40am. So I was sitting there and caring for the baby. I had to rock it for like.. 40 minutes?! I don't even know. I was so annoyed. I just wanted to throw the baby against the wall. Seriously.. I need my sleep.

Okay, so enough of the terrible baby doll project. Here is a picture if you want to see her (and me.. haha I look terrible). Oh, and by the way her name is/was Skylar. 

  

 But, I can tell you, all that was worth it. I got an A for the project! 

So I got the question if I'm going to be the Homecoming Queen. 

Well.. uhm. No. So today they announced the Homecoming Court and yeah. I don't know I still have to figure that out. Haha.

Sorry. So I will definitely don't be the Homecoming Queen.

If you have more questions. I would be really happy if you just ask. And don't forget your name :D Thank you.

Oh and now the important announcement. I got an Instagram. Here you go guys:

http://instagram.com/tessa_official#

There's nothing on right now, but there will be.. sometime :D

My trip to Detroit

Der Trip nach Detroit ist zwar schon etwas her, aber egal.. :D

Detroit:

Detroit was great. I saw a building where they filmed some scenes of 'Transformers'.
But Detroit also has sad sides. There are lots of empty buildings and homeless people..

However, I have some great pictures for you :)


General Motors:

My future cars:

Canada:

 

Oh and we had Ice Cream yesterday, from Dairy Queen.. Yummy.

 

I got one new question:

" What do you do in your free time?"

I go to the local dance studios three times a week. I dance hip hop, ballet, and pointe. I also go to a youth group in the church, it isn't as boring as you think. It's actually really cool :)

We go to church every Sunday.
 And I do something with friends, study, clean my room, watch TV, .. The stuff that everybody does :D

We're going dress shopping tomorrow for homecoming. I am really excited about that *-*

Haha okay. I think that's enough for now.

See you ♥

Still alive

Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I am still alive and everything is good. I just hadn't any time to write something on my blog. So sorry..

The last two weeks were amazing. I met lots of new people and they are all friendly and nice. It's just wonderful. I love it.

I think it's time for some questions from you guys. Here we go.


Was everyone interested in you, because you're an exchange student?

No. I had to go to the people at school and talk to them. I was hard at first, because I don't know them and I don't know how they will react. The first thing you have to learn is that you just have to be yourself and smile. Always :)


Did you find friends?

Yes, and I already love them. They are great. And I don't know. I hope you read that guys. I only know you for 2 weeks, but you are sooo great ♥


How did your host family react to you host presents? 

They were really excited and I think they really liked them. It was really cute how they reacted to the pens and ink-eraser. They don't know something like that over here. So yeah, really cute :)


How was the audition for 'The Nutcracker'?

I will be one of the Carolers and I'll be one of the Icicles. The Carolers dance on pointe and the outfits for both of the scenes are just beautiful. I am already excited :)


Homecoming:

Homecoming will be on the 11th October. It's gonna be great. I think I'll go there with a group of friends, but it would be really cool if I would have a date :D


Please send me more questions. I would really appreciate it if you would put your name at the end or something, so that I know who you are. And if you can, ask in English :D

Bye. ♥

First day of school

My first day at the High School:

I couldn't really sleep this night, but somehow I managed to get some sleep. I woke up at 6am and got ready for school. My hands were shaking and I just felt strange and nervous, but also excited. After breakfast my host mum took a picture of me. She told me that basically everyone takes a picture of their kid on the first day of school. 
Okay, I know that you want to see the picture. And if not. Well you don't have to look at it :D

 

After that my neighbor Dana and I walked to the bus stop and the bus came at 7:30am to bring us to the school. 

Okay, so.. I sat there in that yellow school bus. Like everybody knows them from those High School movies. But it really isn't that special or fancy. It is just a bus and you get to school with it. So sorry if I destroyed your dreams :D

When we arrived at the school the hallways were already crowded, but thank god that I got a private tour and found my first classroom. 

Child Development:

My teacher is Mrs. Nowka and she is really nice and different from German teachers and younger. Well okay I will start at the beginning. I went into the room and there was only one girl in it so I sat down in the third row. After a couple minutes there came more and more students. When the class starts we talked about the syllabus and the baby dolls. That we have to carry around from Friday to Monday. But only once. That's gonna be fun :D


English:

I made it to the next classroom in six minutes and lots of people in the hallway. My teacher is Mrs. Ake. She is also a younger teacher. We will read 'The Great Gatsby', but watch the movie first, so that we can get deeper into the book when we read it. She also seemed pretty nice :)


US History:

I've got Mrs. McMahon.. Well she is.. different. Her voice is like high pitched or something I don't know. And she loves to talk, because she almost talked all the time :D


Biology:

My teacher in Biology is Mr. McGregor. At first I thought he is very strict and everything, because of his tie and button-down shirt. He sat at his desk staring at his MacBook.
When the class starts, it turns out that he is really nice and he made some jokes. And I think that he likes my name, because when he called my name, he was just like 'Oh, that's a beautiful name'. :D
The bad thing about Biology is that he gave us a really heavy book. Seriously Why?
But okay I'll have to carry it around :D


Lunch:

I found two girls who are also in my 'Exploring the World of Food'-class, so I sat with them and their friends in the cafeteria. It was really nice, and a bit loud and also different. But everything worked out well :)


Exploring the World of Food:

Mrs. O'Donell is my teacher, but only for two weeks. After that we'll get our actual teacher. She just talked about what we're gonna do and all that stuff. After that we played a game and had free time. 


Group learning activities:

I really don't know what this was good for, but okay. We were put in 'small groups'. We were ca. 15 students, all seniors, and played another game and watched a video and whatever.. We had 2 1/2 hours time for that, but were ready after 1 hour. The last 1 1/2 hours we just sat in the room and did nothing..


At 2:35pm school was over and I went to the buses (yes, I found it :D). I found my bus and we drove home. 

Sooooo. That's it. That was my first day at school. If you want to know more things. Or have any questions, you can ask me. 
By the way we don't have this group thing everyday. It was just because it was the first day :D

Bye, bye ♥

Labor day weekend

Hi guys. I am back.

Soo.. on Friday we drove to Ohio and I met the family from my host family. Lots and lots of new people :D
It was really nice to get to know them :)

At the next day we drove back to Michigan. But not to Farmington, but to Coldwater. My host dad's father came with us, because he has got a boat and a big camper. 
Oh, I have to tell you that the Campground is at a lake ;D 
Okaaay. So we made boat trip, went tubing and made a campfire (and smores :D)
Here are some pictures:

 

The lake

 

Me and my host sister in the tube :)

  

Tubing :D

 

Lots of swans

  

Our campfire

Tomorrow is the 3rd September which means that it is my first school day. I am super nervous and excited. I already know some people who are at my High School, but  it's gonna be different. Very different from Germany where I know.. everybody. 

I think that I will post everything about my first school day tomorrow :)
But it can be that I get lost in school and don't come back home and won't be able to post anything. Haha, okay I hope that this won't happen :D

Here is little preview of my school day:

1st period: Parenting/Child Development
2nd period: English (American Literature)
3rd period: US History
4th period: Biology
5th period: Exploring the World of Food



See you. Hopefully tomorrow :)