BIRTHDAY

I am now part of the cool people who are 16 years old! Woopwoop!
The 22nd of Jannuary was my birthday and it was amazing in its own way!

So many people wished me a Happy Birthday in school and on Facebook, it is just unbelievable how many thought about it!
During lunch I got a note saying that there is something waiting for me in the office, so I went to the office and what was it? Balloons and flowers from my lovely first host family! It just made my day so much better and I was the happiest person on earth. Thanks to the Horaks for thinking about me on that special day - i love you.

After school I just hung out with some friends and later we went out to eat at a little restaurant.
I got a little present from my host sister Mary Kate, from my second host family and also from my friends Theresa and some more. I am so thankful for everything I got that day.

The next day I was at the Rotary Meeting and they organized a big cake for me with a lot of frosting and a little crown on it saying "Sweet Sixteen" - just amazing!
Later that day my host family and I went out to eat at an italian restaurant in town called Dodici's (what means "12" by the way). I love that restaurant so much, because the food is so yummy! Thanks a lot for that present!!

On Saturday Theresa, some more friends and I drove to Iowa City to celebrate Theresa's birthday, because she turned 16 only three days after me. We went out to eat at Olive Garden, an italian restaurant chain, and then we watched a movie. It was so much fun and we came home at like one thirty in the morning.

Thanks to everybody who made my 16th birthday so special!

Love my girls!

My own big big fancy cake!

The gift I got from the italian restaurant

A little letter from my best friend. I love her so much!

This little bracelet came all the way from a friend in Germany

Our celebration group

Describes our friendship pretty well

Birthday girls of the week!!

Orientation Meeting - Winter Retreat

On the 18th and 19th of January we had an Orientation Meeting in Indianola, a city about two hours away from Washington. It was a Meeting for all the Inbounds of 2013/14 and future Outbounds, or as we call them "Newbies", of 2014/15. There are positive and also negative aspects about it:

Starting with the bad things: It made me realize again that there are already new exchange students for next year and that the end is not far away.

The good thing was that I met so many amazing people on that weekend. I got to see my loved inbounds again and got to know a lot of new people who are now a big part of my life. I don't know what it is, but you get close with exchange students really fast and that is a very special thing.

On Saturday we had speeches all day long and later in the evening a DJ came and we danced for hours. It was so much fun, because I love dancing so much! After that some friends and I talked until two in the morning. The next day we had speeches again until noon and then the inbounds had free time while the outbounds got a presentation together with their parents.

I am so thankful for getting the chance to meet so many awesome teenagers on my exchange!

Now some pictures which pretty much describe the fun we had…

Those people tho...

Newbies ^^

All the flags of the countries the outbounds go to

This chick is going to Austria next August! Can't wait to have her over!

Proud boys (medals from the "Olympics" we had) and me in the background

Te amo Silvia! :-*

Mexican Swag

Awww

pretty much describes our group

little break from dancing

Gangsters of Iowa

What should I say...

"Ha it works!" (a little insider)

When people photo bomb you while you planned on taking a selfie

just having some fun

Duckface oohoo

My mains.
Can't wait to go on tour with them

Life is too short to learn German - good that we know it already

Best people from D6000 this year

Playing "Taboo" with foreigners is so funny

When there is this 6' 5" guy

Megan is my weirdest friend ever. I love her so much!
It's also weird that she looks so much like Nicole, who is staying at my house back home

5 MONTHS

I am late again. Sorry sorry sorry. It seems like I have all the stuff going on the 14th of the month so I never get to write the post on time. Dang it.

However! I have to say that the last month didn't go by as fast as the months before… I honestly don't know why. All I can say is that I started to socialize a lot more. I do stuff with other teens after school and that is really cool! I used to be at home a lot, not because I didn't have friends, but they just never invited me to do things, so I kinda stayed back, but now I just ask if they want to hang out. I had this one crazy dream the other night: It was about me being at my Austrian School again. Some of my American friends were with me too. I surprised all my classmates with just walking into the classroom and they started to scream because of excitement. Later in the dream my American friends had to leave to drive to the airport for their flight back home. That was the moment when I woke up and suddenly I just started crying, not because I got homesick - because I didn't want to realize that I have to leave America at one point or another. I met such amazing people here, every one of them so unique in their own way and I don't want to leave it behind! I just try not to think about it…
I am not half way yet, but soon and it scares me. It really scares me, because people say the second half goes by way faster and the first half already passed so fast.

Well, to give you an update:
Today was my first day of the 3rd Term. That means the school year is half over. My classes are Biology, Speech, US History and Spanish 1.
Biology should be pretty cool, because I already know the teacher as I had him in Kinesiology before. Speech is a good class too. The teacher is really nice and we just get to know good techniques to hold a presentation. US History is also good. Today we just talked about how less Americans know about their own country (20% of the population can't find America on the world map - the heck?!). Spanish is soso. On one side I like it, because I like learning new languages and as I know Italian a little bit, I think it's not too hard, but on the other side the system of how the teacher holds her lessons is not really what I expected it to be. We don't write down vocabs, we don't even have an exercise book and somehow I was the only one who took notes and wrote down the meanings of words. Also the teacher talks in Spanish all the time and I get it after a time, but it would be so much easier for beginners to describe things in English. Learning a new language in a foreign language is definitely not the easiest thing. At least I can say who I am, where I come from and count to ten. That makes me proud.
After school I had running practice. It's not mandatory, but it's a good preparation to get into shape for Track. There was only one other girl there today, but I enjoyed it. We run in the school and I think it's just so funny to run through the hallways. I have to say that my private practice in the fitness studio helped me a lot to stay in shape after Cross Country. I would have died today if I wouldn't have kept practicing.

Another thing going on right now is that it is time for the "Prom-consideration/asking-season" how I like to call it. People think about who they should take to prom or even ask already. I haven't been asked yet. I know I could just ask somebody, because many girls do it, but I don't know… I am more the traditional type and want the boy to ask, you know? If I ever get asked by a good looking guy (pleeeeeeease) then I want it to be a cute proposal. People say that in this case movies don't lie and that some people have really lovely ideas. I mean maybe I expect too much, but I have prom only once in my lifetime and I want it to be perfect. Also I have to find a dress. They are freaking expensive, so I think about borrowing one, but I also kinda want to keep the dress after, because it will always remind me of that special event. I want to have a strapless one, with glitter on the top and then a puffy bottom part. I guess I can only dream…

That's it for now. Oh wait! There will follow at least two more posts this month, I promise! First the inbounds have a meeting on the upcoming weekend. We get to know the new exchange students for next year and it is over night, so I will take a bunch of pictures and document everything for you guys. Also my birthday is on Wednesday so I will write a post for sure!

This time I don't have any pictures actually… So I'm just going to show you some Prom dress ideas!

I don't know what it is, but I adore those shoes!

I also like shoes with a strap, because it makes me feel safer when I walk

Sparkle shoes *-*

This is my host sister's prom dress from last year - perfection.

If this one would be strapless...

A prom dress from another girl last year

New Year

Better late than never!

I will tell you guys a little bit about my american new year's eve.
So on the 31st of December I left Washington to drive to Mt.Pleasant. Franzi and I decided to spend new year together.
After I put all my stuff in her room, we only had about an hour until her parents took us to a little party. It was more an adult "come together", but it was really really nice. The people there asked us a lot of questions and we felt like in an interview.
The state of Iowa doesn't allow fireworks without a special permission, so we didn't have fireworks for New Year what was really strange. At home our neighbors start with fireworks around 5pm and we join them at about 11 and let go fireworks until 1am or so. I can remember one New Year's eve when my friend, her mum and I went sledding from the mountain. We got up there in the evening and spend the time until the start of a new year in a little house on the mountain which served hot chocolate, beer and meals. From there we could see all over Innsbruck and had a wonderful view on all the fireworks. It was amazing! We were up there until five in the morning and then sledded down the mountain to the car.
I just love fireworks so much, because I think they look so majestic and wonderful! I really missed them this year. Also we didn't have a countdown on the TV or something like that. If I wouldn't have said that it's 11:59, nobody would have noticed. I taught the people there my "new-year-wish-ritual" and we wished each other a happy new year.
At about 1am we drove back to Franzi's house and Franzi and I were awake until 7 in the morning, taking photos and talking about life. It was good to talk about everything in our lives and laugh.

It was a unique New Year's eve for me!
I have to say that 2013 was really MY year! So much happened in those 12 months and I am very thankful for all the things. I met so many new people, not only on my exchange, I have grown so much (mentally, physically I still have short-probs) and more. I hope 2014 will be awesome too, but I don't want to force it. I have learned to just let things happen, because I noticed myself that I think too much sometimes. Also: The "New Year - New Me"- trend doesn't count for me. I think we all grow a little bit each day and you can't change yourself from one day to another only because it's new year. The "2014 - please be good" stuff is also not really mine… YOU have to make it happen. With this I wish everybody a wonderful and happy 2014, even I am late!!!

Franzi and I did the "2014" with flashlights. The rest is edited

a wonderful last sunset of 2013

Omnomnom some snacks

The more people, the more coke 

Franzi, her hostdad and I being all hyper

Just some pictures of the photo shoot we had

Wishes for half-year-exchangies

This post is especially for all the young people who are doing the same crazy thing I am doing right now.
I know that some of my friends back home are reading my blog. So I really hope you are going to read this here as well (sorry, I don't want to sound like an old grandma telling her grandchildren stories about the good old times or whatever, all I want to talk about are the mistakes I made and which you can prevent):

A lot of you will be on an airplane soon like I did a few months ago. You will find yourselves on the way into your biggest adventure in about one to three weeks (I don't know when every single one of you is leaving, but I think most of you leave in January). You guys are going on exchange too and it doesn't really matter if you are going for 11 months like me or 6. You will experience so many things that the time doesn't matter. I tell you, you will be like a magnet, trying to absorb everything you can.
All I want to tell you, when you're one of them: I know that you are super excited for your exchange, but don't forget about the important things you already have - your friends and family. I made a mistake when I had only about two weeks left. At that time I thought "I can't wait to leave. Finally out of here! Just a few days left and I can leave all this behind". Appreciate the time you have left with your friends and especially with your family. Appreciate every single and sometimes annoying thing - every conversation, every fight and every hug. You won't have it for half a year and believe me or not, you will miss it. Family is the most important thing we have in life. So enjoy the time you have left with them, okay? At the end you will only regret all of your thoughts like I do now.
And then: Have fun on your exchange! It doesn't matter where you go, it matters THAT you go! Make those six months to the best you've ever had in your life! I wish you all the best and I wish I could skype with every single one of you just to make sure that you are alright and not exploding because of being all excited :)

That may sound arrogant for some people (I don't know what some people understand wrong sometimes) and it also may sound like I know everything (what I really don't, sometimes I can be stupid like a cow), but I just want you to know that you can always contact me and talk to me, when you have problems or when something goes wrong or even when it's something awesome. I love listening to the stories of other exchange students and how they experience all the crazy things happening. So whenever you feel like talking, just message me. Sometimes it's important and helpful and I have certain people too that I call when I feel bad.

I think that's all I wanted to say for now…
HAVE THE BEST SIX MONTHS OF YOUR LIFE!!

And now you actually are one

That's a good definition for us

You will experience that - and enjoy it

That's pretty much it

Life of an exchange student

You can use this excuse for pretty much everything
Or just "sorry I am foreign"