Rotary Youth Exchange 2013/14: Missouri

At the beginning: I have a bunch of photos!!

Friday was much better. I changed my schedule for school. Now I have Sculpture & Ceramics instead of Video Productions and Contemporary Health instead of FST.
On Thursday I had an audition for the Show Choir group. It was awesome! We had to sing with a partner (not a song, only notes) and then the teacher told us what kind of voice we have. I'm a Soprano. And I did it! I'm part of the show Choir!
I start to meet people. They want to sit at my table, they talk to me when I start talking to them and they always want me to say german things. And I already got some phone numbers and tons of Facebook friends requests.
I really like Sculpture and Ceramics! We saw the sculptures of Terry Border a great artist.
I realized that students are very bored. They are on their computers all the time and don't listen. And if we have to work they don't raise their hands - no, they scream out the answer.
One guy in my English Writing class decided to call me Beca, because he thinks I look like the main character of the movie Pitch Perfect.

When all my host siblings and I came home from school we had to start packing for our weekend vacation in Owensville, MISSOURI!
It was a waterski tournament and something like a charity against Leukemia and Lymphoma. It was so much fun!
We arrived in the evening and so we didn't do much. Just talking with some friends of the family. Ah and I found a dog! It's so cute! It was just running around and I saw it and got and petted it. Mary Kate and I named him Bear-Dog, because he was so fluffy and had brown curly fur. We also found out that he only has one eye. Scary Bear-Dog!

I stood up late at Saturday. I mean late... it was 10 o'clock when my lovely host brother woke me up (Thank you Owen!). I watched the people waterskiing. They did trick skiing, kneeboarding, wake boarding and slalom waterskiing.
We just hung out at the Hippie-Hill. Being Hippie all day long, you know. We also were at the church. It was something so different! We got in the church, sang some songs and then the pastor started to talk and he was like "Well, hello everybody! Do we have some visitors today?". My host mum Lynn rose her hand and he asked us where we come from. I don't know why I didn't say I was from Austria. Later I decided it would have been better to say that, because I didn't know the lyrics of the songs and was standing there with my mouth closed and had the feeling some people were starring at me. I knew the last song so I sang it in German hahaha. Then there is something different: People drink whine when they get a piece of the altar bread. Drinking at the age of 21 but getting whine in church... Okaaaaay America - you're confusing.
In the evening there was a Band called Moon jr.. They are sooooo great! I don't know why they aren't popular. Please search them on YouTube and give them a "thumbs up". We were singing, dancing and having fun until midnight. In the afternoon Claire, Lynn, Owen, Mary Kate and I built up a big tent and it became a fun-girl-tent when Mary Kate and I went to sleep in it! It was a little bit cold in the morning (I think it was already morning when I got cold and got under my blanket) and I have a cold now - but I don't care! It was fun though!

On Saturday we had fun on the Swing Rope. You swing on it and then you let it go when you are above the water and you fall. It's really funny, but you get muscle ache. And you have to be strong to keep the rope thing in your hand. If not you hit the ground. Hahaha and that happened to me several times :) And i found a turtle!!!
We found out that Bear-Dog is actually a girl and her name is Maddie. For me she will always be Bear-Dog...

All in all things get better! I mean America is awesome, but it's still a normal life. I have some ups and some downs.
People here don't let me have much time to think about home. But in church, when we had to pray, I realized for the first time that I'm really here. I had some time to think about that and I thought about what I will miss as I am here. I will miss the birth of the first daughter of my cousin, I will miss my cousin's wedding, my sister's 30th birthday what will be a big event and my other sister's 10th birthday. I will miss the dance lessons which my friends will do to dance at the school ball. I will miss the ski-trip with my class in winter. And what I really have missed until now are the hugs of my dad and mum.
Maybe members of my family or one of my friends die. And I won't see them again. Or they have a bad accident and they won't be the same when I come back. Who knows?
As I don't have a good relation with god I started to think about my life and what I have. And I wanted to conclude peace with him. So I was like "Ok god, I know we don't have a good relation, but please take care of my friends and family. I promise I will pray more. Is this a deal?"

-You only know what you had when it's gone-