My USA-Highschool-Year in Texas

Pünktlich am 19.08.2008 um 6.00 Uhr startete mein Flieger vom Köln/Bonner- Flughafen nach München. Dieser Flug, der mein Leben verändern sollte. Das war schon ein aufregendes Gefühl, das erste Mal im Leben ganz auf sich allein gestellt zu sein und alles was man liebte, hinter sich zu lassen. Nun sollte es ins Ungewisse gehen: In ein fremdes Land, zu fremden Leute, in eine fremde Kultur, in ein neues Leben ! Ich fragte mich ob wohl alle meine Erwartungen von diesem Jahr in Erfüllung gehen würden. Schließlich entschied ich mich für dieses Auslandsjahr, um das amerikanische Leben sowie dessen Kultur kennenzulernen und um meine Englischkenntnisse zu verbessern. All diese Gedanken gingen mir durch den Kopf. Nach einer guten Stunde bin ich in München angekommen, wo ich andere Mitglieder meiner Austauschorganisation getroffen habe.
Von nun an war es leichter für mich, da ich nette, deutsche Gleichgesinnte um mich hatte, mit denen man die Aufregung teilen konnte. Außerdem bin ich von dem Zeitpunkt an, in einer Gruppe gereist. Nach etwa einer Stunde Wartezeit ist mein Überseeflug nach Chicago gestartet, der rund 10 Stunden dauern sollte. Von Langeweile keine Spur, denn ich hatte ein freundliches deutsches Mädchen neben mir, die auch ein Auslandsjahr in der Nähe von Dallas verbringen wollte, mit der ich über alles Mögliche geredet habe. Meine Schlafversuche scheiterten vor Aufregung, sodass ich nach 10 Stunden ermüdet in Chicago ankam. Nach mehreren unglücklichen Zwischenfällen stieg ich nach etwa 3 ½ Stunden in meinen Zielflug nach Dallas, wo mich meine Gastfamilie herzlich empfangen hatte.
Das war sie also, die Person, mit der ich 10 Monate meines weiteren Lebens teilen würde. Eine 71-Jährige freundliche Dame mit einem netten Lächeln im Gesicht. Schnell schloss ich meine Gastmutter und ihre Freunde in die Arme. Ich wurde mit offenen Armen in Texas empfangen und dieses Glück sollte mich weiterhin begleiten. Das Gasthaus war ein typisches amerikanisches Einfamilienhaus aus Holz. Innerhalb war alles sauber und schön eingerichtet und mein Zimmer hat mir auch gut gefallen.
Mein erster Schultag war sehr aufregend und ich wurde von allen neugierig, jedoch freundlich aufgenommen. Die Schule gefiel mir gleich gut. Es war alles super sauber und in den Schulfarben (orange, kastanienbraun) gestrichen. Da die Schule nur etwa 600 Schüler fasste, fand ich mich gleich gut zurecht und nach den ersten zwei Wochen war die Scheu der Mitschüler verschwunden. Die Lehrer waren alle freundlich und witzig. Im Gegensatz zu Deutschland ist das Verhältnis zwischen Schüler und Lehrer von viel Respekt geprägt. Schnell konnte ich mich einleben und ich fand viele Freunde. Besonders der Football machte mir Freude und bot mir die Gelegenheit Freundschaften aufzubauen und bekannt und beliebt zu werden. Als Kicker des Teams war ich echt wichtig. Nach 2 Wochen bin ich dann schon ins Varsity-Team (beste Team der Schule) aufgestiegen. Jedes Footballspiel war ein besonderes Erlebnis und die Atmosphäre mit den ganzen Zuschauern, Band und Fernsehen, war beeindruckend. Das tägliche Training war jedoch sehr hart und dreimal die Woche mussten wir auch Gewichte heben. Aber diese Teamarbeit hat uns echt zusammengeschweißt. Wir haben zusammen verloren und gewonnen und hatten eine Menge Spaß. Football war eine super geile Erfahrung!
Die Schule lief nach kurzer Eingewöhnungsphase nach zirka einem Monat rund und ich verstand alles was die Lehrer sagten. Das bestätigten auch meine guten Noten. Auch in meiner Gastfamilie kam ich gut zu Recht. Ich verstand mich gut mit meiner Gastmutter und konnte mit ihr stets über alles reden. Dieser kleine Ort “Whitesboro” (etwa 4000 Einwohner) gefiel mir auch super. Die Leute waren alle so unbeschreiblich freundlich und lebensfroh!
Nach der Schule, die bis 15:20 Uhr ging, hatte ich immer 2-3 Stunden Footballtraining, sodass ich immer erst gegen 18:30 Uhr zu Hause war. Dann war ich meistens müde und musste mich noch durch meine Hausaufgaben quälen bis ich meistens gegen Mitternacht ins Bett fallen konnte. Aber wenigstens konnte ich immer so 7 Stunden schlafen, weil ich total nah an der Schule gelebt habe. Meine Wochenenden waren immer ausgebucht. Ich ging oft mit meiner Familie essen und shoppen oder wir haben uns gemeinsam Filme angesehen. Für meine Freunde blieb leider nur wenig Zeit übrig, weil ich auch immer viele Hausaufgaben übers Wochenende hatte. Mein Alltag war sehr anstrengend. Das war ich wohl selber schuld, da ich nur die schwersten Kurse gewählt hatte und auch in Sport engagiert war. Der durchschnittliche Schüler hat kaum Hausaufgaben auf und wenn dann sind sie sehr leicht. Es kommt immer auf einen selbst an. Ich hatte die schweren Kurse gewählt, weil ich ja direkt in der Stufe zwölf in Deutschland wieder eingestiegen bin. Sonst hätte ich sehr viel selber nachholen müssen.
Auch der Wahlkampf ging nicht spurlos an mir vorbei. Ich verfolgte ihn mit Spannung und hoffte, dass Barack Obama gewinnen würde, was mir nicht viel Sympathie bei meinen “texanisch-republikanischen” Mitmenschen brachte. Wenigstens war meine Gastmutter demokratisch.
Nachdem die Footballsaison nach etwa 3 Monaten im November zu Ende war, habe ich mich direkt erkundigt, welche Sportarten ich dann ausführen konnte. Nun war die Zeit der Frühlingssportarten wie Basketball, Leichathletik, Baseball, Tennis, usw.
Ich entschied mich dazu Tennis auszuprobieren. Mein Trainer war ein verdammt strenger und zugleich lustiger Mann. Er hat mir von Anfang an klar gemacht, dass ich mich schnell entwickeln müsse, um überhaupt im Varsity Team spielen zu dürfen. Ich war Anfänger und hatte in Deutschland nur mal so zum Spaß mit Freunden gespielt. Ich stand also unter hohem Druck, aber auch diese Herausforderung konnte ich meistern. Meine Tenniskameraden waren super nett und ich baute gute Freundschaften auf. Ich spielte hauptsächlich im Doppel. Mit dem Team sind wir beinahe wöchentlich zu Turnieren gefahren und es hat super viel Spaß gemacht. Ich war vom Schulunterricht befreit, aber ich musste den Stoff selbst nachholen, da man ja wöchentlich Teste in den Kursen schrieb. Doch das war kein Problem, da die Lehrer die sportlichen Aktivitäten der Schüler gerne unterstützten. Zum Schluss der Tennissaison konnte ich sogar eine Goldmedaille mit meinem Partner Austin gewinnen!
Auch die traditionellen Feste wie Homecoming, Prom, Graduation, Thanksgiving und Weihnachten habe ich mit viel Interesse verfolgt und erlebt.

Mein Auslandsjahr war eine tolle Erfahrung und meine Erwartungen wurden komplett erfüllt. Ich habe meine Englischkenntnisse täglich verbessert und lernte eine gewisse Selbstständigkeit kennen. Außerdem habe ich eine zweite sehr nette Familie gefunden. Ich bin froh, dass ich diese Entscheidung getroffen habe und unendlich dankbar, dass mir meine Eltern dieses Jahr ermöglicht haben.

The text will come asap, but I don’t have time tomorrow, because of my going-away party.

April was a very busy month for me.  I had my last tennis tournaments and I did ok.  My team was pretty good and we won a couple of medals and trophies.  My coach’s son and daughter who play mixed together won the district and made it to the regionals. There they got 3rd place.  Due to the tennis tournaments I missed a lot of school and had to catch up during the week.  That was stressful !  Also I had to write a long report in Physics and Chemistry as a part of projects.  One Saturday I had to come to school early in the morning to take a practice Math test.  This took 3 1/2 hours.  It was hard and I was exhausted after it.  Luckily our teacher ordered pizza from Pizza Hut to eat   The test is like the AP Calculus Test I will take in 2 weeks.  It’s about the matter we have learned throughout the entire year !  Now let’s talk about something else besides school…

My sister visited me for 2 weeks.  She arrived in Dallas and we picked her up after she had traveled for at least 16 hours.  She was tired.  So we let her sleep the next day and then we went shopping in a big shopping center.  It was very much fun to meet a family member again and to speak some German although I had problems doing so.  My sister discovered the advantages of shopping here since everything is a little cheaper.  She bought some t-shirts and other clothes.  I bought 4 t-shirts and 1 pair of shorts.  I got a really good deal one some of those.  Buy 1 and get the next one free

When we were shopping, Damaris made her first experience with American food.  She bought a Cheeseburger from SONIC whereas I was eating a nice sandwich with grilled chicken on it.  I think she liked it but in the same way she thought it was a little to big and to greasy.  In this shopping Center they have a real, I don’t know how to say that in English so I am just gonna say it in German: “Fressmeile”.  About 7 Fastfood places are placed right next to each other and there is also a Starbucks.  The American Dream of shopping

After the weekend Damaris went to school with me.  I think she liked it, even if she was a little bored, because she was just observing the classes.  Everybody in school was really nice to her.

The next weekend was the highlight of Damaris time here.  We met my brother Markus.  We both hadn’t seen him for 8 months.  Damaris, I and Betty took a 2 1/2 hour trip to Grand Saline which is southeast from our house.  The area he is living in looks different then mine.  He has a lot of trees and green fields and it’s hilly.  And when I say a lot of trees, I don’t say nearly as many trees as in Germany.  Just where I live are almost no trees, so it seemed to me like a lot.  There were couple of trees.  Here in Whitesboro and the area it’s very flat and dry.  You can see land until the end of the horizon.  I also saw his nice looking school and their baseball and football field.  While driving we didn’t get bored because we had so much to talk about.   When we arrived at Betty’s house in Whitesboro in evening, everybody was glad to see a bed.  Me and Markus stayed up for a while to watch his movie “The Dark Knight”.  I thought it was ok but not as great as everybody says.  But I had also slept for while during the movie, maybe I had missed something

We left our house early next morning to head towards a suburb of Dallas (Highland Village) where Diane and John and Sam live.  We went to Sam’s soccer game and it was very good to see real soccer again. The quality was not nearly as good as in Germany.  But we all had fun watching it.  For lunch we got some burgers from Sonic.  It tasted really good.  Then we drove to John’s house and watched some Premier League soccer on TV.  John is from Britain.  After one game I, and Markus were so tired that we went to sleep for about 2 hours.  We needed that because on the same day we went to a Nickleback  concert in Dallas.  It took us a terribly long time to get to the stage, because we got stuck in the traffic.  I had the feeling everybody in Dallas was going to that one concert.  Finally at about 8 p.m. instead of 7, we arrived.  But we didn’t miss parts of Nickleback’s peformance, because another smaller band was playing before the showdown. ” Seether” is the band’s name.  I enjoyed listening to them.  At 9 p.m. Nickleback started playing and it was a nice show with nice pyro effects   The crowd was going crazy and they were way better live than in the recordings.  It was raining for a short pediod of time but nobody seemed to be bothered by that.  It was an open air concert.  Everything was over at about 11 p.m.. Then everybody tried to get out of there as fast as they could.  Soon I realized why.  The traffic was a disaster.  We didn’t get out of the parking lot for about half an hour.  Nothing moved !! It was awful !!  Then slowly the line of cars starting moving in small steps. 2 meters now, and then waiting for 5 minutes. Then another 2 meters.  After about 1 hour we finally made it out of the parking lot.  Then we entered onto the highway and the traffic was fluent.  We got home by about 1:30 a.m.  We slept long and the next day was a lot of fun.  We had lasagne for lunch which was pretty good.  Then we played Nintendo Wii.  I was unbeatable in Tennis but in Baseball and Golf Markus won…  My sister didn’t have a chance

In the afternoon we brought Markus to the workplace of his hostfather in Dallas (IBM).  Afterwards Damaris, John and I stopped at the JFKennedy memorial in downtown Dallas.  It was interesting to see where he was shot.  There was a cross on the street.  Some idiots ran on the street just to stand on the cross for a second.  We also saw the window from which the deadly shot came from.

During the week Damaris and I went to a baseball game of my school.  I think baseball is probably the most boring sport after darts, but she seemed to like it.  Unluckily our team lost the game.

I was glad to meet my sister and brother again and we had a lot of fun.  My brother didn’t grow a lot, he just got stronger.  I think he had lost weight.  I got taller and stronger and heavier since I am here.

My sister was already gone when I was inducted in the National Honor Society.  An organization with the ideals of leadership, scholarship, service and character.  All juniors (11th graders) with a grade point average over 3.0 (highest is 4.0) were invited to join.  There were about 17 inductees.  We had to say a pledge (promise) to promise loyalty to the school and organization.  The ceremony was good and after that we could eat homemade cookies.  Very good by the way.  All the inductees got an envelope that included a certificate, a membership card, and a patch to sew on the leather jacket.

This week school is not as stressful as normally because the TAKS (Texas Acknowledge something) tests are being taken by all 9-11th graders.  It’s similar to “Lernstandserhebungen” in Germany, just the Taks tests don’t affect the grade in the classes.  You just have to pass them to be able to graduate and get your diploma.  Due to these tests, a lot of classes are cancelled.  Today 2 of my classes were cancelled and I had to hang around in the cafeteria. It’s a lost time, because you can’t sleep and you also can’t do something productive.  At least I don’t have so much stress.  But in 1-2 weeks I have to take the AP Calculus and the AP Physics Test.  They will last for 4 hours and be pretty hard.  So I have to study for that…

That’s all I can think of what’s happening here.  We have some sunny and warm weather.  The Dallas Mavericks (basketball team) are doing good in the playoffs.  So everything is going fine and I have 1 more month of school to go.  Then my parents come over here for two weeks and we make some holidays         I’m looking forward to that.

Greetings,

Simi

My German family and my host family seem to be connected in some way. I come to say that, because somehow we share many many birthdays. My dad’s birthday is Rachel’s birthday (Debra’s older daughter), my grandpa’s birthday is also Betty’s birthday and Debra shares her birthday, the 17th of February, with my other grandpa.  She turned 49 and we celebrated it at our house. Her two daughters came to visit with their little children. We had a good time and enjoyed being together, except (in my point of view) for the food ^^  We had beef liver…  The last time I ate that was about 6 years ago and I’m sure I’ll take a break from it for at least another 12 years !

At the 27th of February my Birthday had come and most people remembered it, although they haven’t seen me for a long time. I got cards from Germany and many nice emails or messages.  My parents sent me a package with a t-shirt that I like and some German chocolate   John, Diane and Sam visited me for my birthday and we went out to eat in a restaurant and everybody seemed to like it.  Later we ate my birthday cake that Betty had bought for me from a bakery. It had my name on it and it wasn’t even misspelled, I was so happy   The next day I called both my grand-parents for the first time since I’m here. It was really nice to speak to them and they were happy I’m doing so good.

After my birthday the times were not so happy anymore.  Don (Betty’s brother, 60 years old) was brought to the emergency room, because he was so sick. He had immense problems to breath, walk and communicate.  The doctors diagnosed Pneumonia, an infection of the lungs. He also had fluid in his lungs.  So we visited him one day and he had trouble staying awake.  We talked to him just a little bit and he seemed to be doing ok.  1 week later he was released from the hospital. He continued to go to treatment for several days to get the fluid out of his lungs. Now he is at home but he doesn’t feel very good.  Everybody is concerned about him.

Whitesboro hosted a Tennis tournament, so our coach had to manage the whole tournament and record the results of the games and stuff.  Some off us had to help selling food or drinks but it was worth it, because we got all for free   In this tournament I played doubles with Anthony, a new partner (to try out) and we did pretty good.  The first game was a hard game against 2 boys that were at our level.The second game was terrible, we had to play against the team that won the tournament and we lost without winning any games. Those boys were really good and I’m sure have played together for along time.  It was a frustrating game.  Our last game was the game for the 3rd place. We had to play a really good team and it was a very close game. We tied at 6-6 and then finally lost 6-8.  But we played a really good game and it was a lot of fun!  So me and my partner made the fourth place in doubles in the tournament. By the way, I met another German boy at this tournament. I forgot where he was from (from Germany), but I talked to him for a while and it was nice.  Later he won the first place in boys singles.

At the beginning of March we had a regional tournament in Wichita Falls (Jo, Betty’s sister lives there). We left Whitesboro directly after school on Thursday and came back on Saturday.  We stayed in a nice hotel in Wichita Falls.  We didn’t go to school on Friday at all, but of course we were excused. The school doesn’t make a big deal about that at all, it’s just our responsibility to keep up the work.  Back to the hotel we stayed in.  It was a midsize hotel and it had some attractive features. For example it had a swimming pool, a whirlpool, a shuffle board, a small minigolf place, a gaming room, free internet ( but just one computer).  Unfortunately, coach didn’t let us swim or sit in the whirlpool, because he said it would drain our energy…  I shared a room with 3 other boys from my team. One that was one year older than me, one that was my age, and one that was 2 years younger than me. I was really lucky to be in that room, because my roommates were really cool. In the other room was a freshmen (9th grader) who is really annoying and I was just very thankful that I didn’t have to share my time with him !  He is hyper-active !

Friday morning we had to get up at six to take showers and eat breakfast to be ready to face our first match-up at 8 am..  We played a really good team (Iowa Park) and we lost 10-1. The result didn’t display the matches, cause we fought for every point but were just not quiet as good as they were. I played doubles with Austin and we lost (5-8), I believe. It was a good game. Later I played singles but I had to stop my game in the middle of the match, because Iowa Park had won their 10th game. So they won. I was ahead 5-2 when I played my single in the first set and needed just one more point to win the first set. You win the match if you win 2 sets. So I was mad, when I had to stop playing. Therefore I couldn’t officially call it my first win in a single match…  In the afternoon we played another team which was much better than the first team we played. Austin and I lost our game (8-2). We played some idiots.  They were very unfriendly and did some stupid things like trying to hit us with the ball intentionally.  The other players from the team were as dumb.  This time they let me play my single although we had already lost (10-1) again.  My opponent was pretty good but I played well, too so it turned out to be an exciting match in which I lost both sets (4-6).  Saturday we had our last game against Gainesville. Their team was not as good as the other teams we played and we played good at this day, too. We won (10-6) or (10-5) , I’m not sure.  Important is that I won my double with Austin and my first single !!  So the tournament had a good end for us.

On the first of March I had to attend a required meeting from CCI (Center for Cultural Interchange), my American partner organisation in Plano.  I and Markus had phoned and made plans to be there at the same day and time.  We were going to be bowling, eat pizza, play lasertag and video games after the meeting. But CCi had removed him from the list, because there were supposedly to many people there.  So we didn’t get to see each other.  The meeting was boring.  They wanted to be sure that you are okay and don’t have any problems.  The games afterwards were fun, because I met some other Germans.  There were not too many people there !!

Last week I was going to have a tournament on Monday, but they rescheduled (verschieben) it for Wednesday, because it was raining, and you just can’t play tennis when it’s raining.  So Wednesday I got up at 6 am. to be at school at 6:45 to leave in the school bus with the team to head to Sanger.  So we left early in the morning and I slept during the ride. I brought my pillow (Kopfkissen)   Later I woke up, because the bus stopped.  We were almost in Sanger…  Then our coach had to tell us a bad message: the tournament had been cancelled, cause of the bad weather. It was raining all day.  That solely made me mad, but then he added that we had to go to school the same day!  I was so tired and didn’t want to go to school at all.  So we rode back to school and then a friend brought me home to get my school bag. Then we went to his home and after that we finally entered school.  I was late by 15 min or so for the first period, but my teacher didn’t care, cause she knew the tournament had been cancelled.  Anyway it was a hard day and when I got home after school I just slept.  It was raining the whole damn week, that reminded me of Germany.

Every three weeks you get a report card with all your grades at our school.  This three weeks, for the first time since I’m here, I’m making straight A’s. That means all my grades are A’s , and A’s are the best grades xD  I had been very close before, and usually it was English that ruined my average (B). This class is about literature and poems and so, and everybody who knows me, knows how much I like that.  But I finally make a 90 in that class (90-100 = A).

Spring break starts tomorrow (Monday), well I have already had the weekend off, so, but Monday I would normally have to go to school.  Spring break will be for one week. A time for me to relax a little and to do some things, I never find time to do. Like for example to go shopping.  Anyhow I will try to stay in shape and lift some weights on Tuesday and Thursday, when the weight room at school is open.  During Christmas holidays I didn’t do anything, but I still remember the pain I had the first week of workout after the holidays.  It was just awful !  I’m sure I will also play some tennis with some friends if the weather is good. I may as well watch a movie.

I hope you don’t get too jealous, cause there is no reason to.  You will get 2 weeks off in just a little bit, so take it easy

Greetings,

Simi

P.S.:  Sry, I know there are not many pictures, I just haven’t taken any.

My first half of February was exhausting but still good. I attended the yearly Football Banquet at the highschool and it was (except for the poor food) fun. Dressed up like a business man I found myself sitting on a table with my football team. There were photos from the games of the season spread out all over the table. Most people brought their parents that were sitting at a separate table. Everything looked really nice. Then the program started and our head coach gave some awards to some of my friends for being good players. Later the fitness coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys (professionel football team) was holding a speech about how to become a succesful athlete and a good football team. It was very interesting to listen to him because he knew exactly what he was talking about and he could explain it in a good way to us. Later we had a break in the event to eat. They served beef, potatoe salad, beans, chicken, and something else that I don’t remember. It was awful and I think nobody else really liked it. While eating the rest of the awards were distributed and later our head coach finished the banquet by thanking everyone for coming and hoping for a succesful football year.

The 1st of February was Super Bowl day and you could tell that America was not normal. Church was shorter than normal because people wanted to get home fast to enjoy the full lenght of the super bowl or to meet with others to watch it. The roads were dead and it was very still. The Super Bowl started at 5 pm and Norma and Debra came over to our house to watch it. We ordered some pizza from Pizza Hut. The Game was very exciting and good. The Pittsburg Steelers were leading at the end of the first half and the Arizona Cardinals didn’t seem to have a chance to win, but in the second half the Cardinals had an amazing comeback and finally lost by one touchdown. So the Steelers won. Since the Cowboys were not in the Superbowl I, Debra, and Norma were cheering for the underdog, the Cardinals. Although they didn’t win, it was a fun evening and probably the highest number of commercial breaks on TV I’ll ever watch in my life. Businesses pay millions for just a few seconds of time, because the Super Bowl is the event in  TV in America with the biggest number of viewers.

I had my first Tennis game in Sanger and we played Sanger and Argyle. Sanger had 6 nice Tennis courts whereas we just have 2 bad ones…  The weather was awesome: It was very sunny but not to hot or to cold. We had no wind. Wind can be very influencing in a Tennis game. It was just a practice game and I played boys double with my friend Austin. We lost our first game pretty bad, but we won the second clearly. The rest of my team did ok, too. We headed for home in the evening and picked some food up at “Jack in the Box” (fastfood). All in all it my first game was fun and there is still a lot to get better in.

At the weekend of the first week in February I had to do some homework for Physics and I was laying on the coach in the living room doing my homework. Betty was watching TV. This was the beginning of an unbelievable mystery ! After having done about half of the problems I stopped, because I wanted to take a little break and watch a show on TV. So I took all my stuff (backpack, book, and calculator) and started walking towards my room. I had to cross the kitchen and when doing so I thought of getting out a bottle of water out of the refrigerator (Kuehlschrank) to drink when watching TV on my bed in my room. So I opened the door and I accidently dropped my book. Consequently I reached down, still having the backpack on my back, to pick the book up and then to lay it on the table that is in the kitchen. Then I got my bottle of water out and I went into my room. I layed down in my bed and I placed my physics stuff  next to me in my bed to finish it after watching the show. So I watched the show, which is by the way “Man vs Wild”. A very interesting adventure show in which an ex special soldier of the British is dropped somewhere in hard terrain (desert, jungle etc.) to let him show how to survive and find a way back to civilization. So I watched it and after that I returned doing my physics homework. Everything was just fine until I needed my calculator (Taschenrechner), which I got from school, to calculate something. It was not in my backpack and not in my bed. So I first searched on the coach were I was laying earlier, but I couldn’t find it. Then I was looking EVERYWHERE in my room and EVERYWHERE in the living room and I couldn’t find it. I was very confused. And I really looked everywhere, even under the pillows of the coach and in my closet where I keep my clothes. I couldn’t find this damned calculator. I knew it costs more than a 100 $ and that I would have to come up with that money, if I couldn’t find it. Finally after searching for 1 hour I gave up and I went to bed. The next morning I told Betty about it and she searched for it while I was in school. But she didn’t find it as well. When I came home from school I needed it for my Calculus (Mathe)  homework and so I searched for it again. I looked in the kitchen, under the refrigerator and everywhere in this house still not finding it. So I couldn’t do my calculus homework. This damned calculator drove me crazy and I couldn’t really stop thinking of it! When I was in my Calculus class the next day I told my teacher that I was missing my calculator and I asked if I could have another one, but she didn’t give me one. She said you will find it eventually. But I had already given up on it. Until then I thought that things as a matter of physical laws can’t just disappear. The mistery was solved when I came home this day from school and my hostmom told me she found it. Of course I wanted to know where. Where in the world did you find the calculator ??? I wondered, maybe outside or in the dryer or something like that ??? She said: “You won’t believe it, but I found it in the refrigerator, standing orderly right next to the mustard (Senf) in the middle shelf of the door. I couldn’t believe it. When I saw the calculator laying down on the table in front of the coach I hoped that it was still working and I checked it. And it was still working and it was still a little cold ^^  What a mystery, of course I am now wondering how on earth my calculator found it’s way inside of the refrigerator. I must have happened when I dropped my book. It must have slipped out of my backpack and I couldn’t hear it because of the noise of the book hitting the ground. I’m glad to have it back and I will keep two eyes on it in the future.

Overall I can say, that we really had good weather the last two weeks. It was sunny and the temperatures were about 20 degrees celsius. I didn’t rain a lot and I really like my first American winter! One day of last’s week the weather was a little rough. There was a possibility for tornadoes to be created in Whitesboro and the area around here but luckily it didn’t happen, although I am curious to see what a tornado looks like. There were 4 tornadoes in Oklahoma that day, but none in Texas.

Last week I had to do my project for Physics, which we have do to every 6 weeks. This time we had to build something that moves a marble for 1 minute without touching it after the beginning. I had a good idea: I wanted to build something like a balance that has magnets on each side that repel each other so that the balance would just bounce forward and backward the whole time. The marble would be placed on a board on top of the balance and couldn’t role off, because I had strings all along the edges of the board. Just like a boxing ring. Unfortunately my idea didn’t work, because the board wouldn’t just bounce forward and backwards but it would also spin and then stop after spinning half way around the mid. My teacher liked the idea very much and so I got a 95 (from 100) for it. I was very happy, because I thought I might fail since it doesn’t work. In my English class we have to write a book report every six weeks about a book you read that you have chosen. Well this time my teacher chose one for me because he thought I did so good on my book the last time and I needed something challenging. So he gave me “My name is Asher Lev”. A book about a Jewish boy that grows up in a sect having an enormous desire to do art. But his religion doesn’t allow it. Than later he paints something and he is banned for that from his religional community. Sounds boring doesn’t it. I thought the same so I did never really read it. I started it but I stopped all the time, because it was just so boring. I never finished reading this book. When we had to write the book report I was in a little panic. But I did good on it, I made a 97 !

Betty started going to a computer class in Whitesboro. She thought the first lesson was very boring. They learned how to deal with the mouse. But she will continue going to the class in hope that it won’t be that boring. This thursday I had my first tennis tournamend in Greenville. We left before the school started at 7 am in the morning. It took us about 2 hours to get to Greenville and it was worth it. We had wonderful weather with a lot of sun and there were many many students from about 8 different schools. Since there were just 8 courts at the highschool the tournament manager sent the boys to the middle school to play. I played doubles again with Austin. We won our first game 6-1 and 6-2 and we lost our second game 6-0 and 6-1. Those guys from the second game were very good. They were also from a big school and we didn’t have a chance at all. We couln’t even return their serves, cause they were so fast ! But we got better from the last game we played. After we were done with playing at 2 pm, we ate in “Taco Bell” (Mexican fastfood) and then we returned to the highschool’s tennis courts. All the girls were done except for the coaches daughter who played really well. So we had to wait for her. She came to the final and lost in a close game. So we had to wait for 5 hours. The tournament was over at 7 pm. It was a little stupid to wait so long, but we enjoyed the sun all day long. That’s why my whole face was sun burned the next day. But I was not the only one, most of the tennis players were sun burned…

Off-season is getting harder every week. Since we do less reps (repetitions) but more weight we have more time left after we finish lifting. After lifting we usually go outside to the practice football field to do some running. It really hurts because you are so tired from lifting and then you have to sprint until you die. At the moment we often run 3 rounds around the football field. We run in a fast pace the first half and the second half we run as fast as we can. After each round you get a small break to catch your breath. This week we started going out to the real football field once in a week because we use the track lines. After doing some jumping and special running drills, we do a 50 seconds run. We line up in the track lanes and run as fast as we can for 50 seconds. The goal is to cover as much distance as possible. You are expected to get further each week.

Debra’s daughters Rachel and Sarah came with their children Adelaide and Phelix to visit us on Valentine’s day. It was nice to see them and I and Phelix had a lot of fun. I was the only boy there and so Phelix (3 years old) looked up to me. He tried to act like me and things like that. I also played with him a lot and I got tired of it after a while. He is so active and never gets tired… In the evening we had a wonderful dinner. We had noodles, a shrimp soup, spinach, italian bread, and a super delicious dessert. I helped making it, a special kind of chocolate balls with a chocolate cover and a special chocolate filling. Sounds a little stupid, but they were very good.  Sarah, Rachel, Debra and the children also came over to our house on Sunday and Monday and we had a good time. The girls are wonderful cooks! Monday I didn’t have any time to play with Phelix or talk to the family because I had to do all my homework and I wrote this article. Adelaide is 6 month old and almost as tall as Phelix ^^

I received an email from my Area-Representative that I have a required meeting on either one of two days at the end of February or at the beginning of March. I phoned Markus and asked him to come with me at the same day and  it’s probably going to work out. We will go on the 1st of March and we have the meet in Plano which is South of me and North of Dallas. They will talk for 15 minutes and then we will be able to do some activities like bowling and video games. I’m sure it will be fun.

Damaris ( my sister ;-]) is going to visit me in April. She will stay with me and go to the highschool. We are going to go to a Nickelback concert in Dallas and stay in Betty’s daughter’s (Diane) house near Dallas. One weekend we will pick Markus up. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun and I hope she can have her own special experience of the American way of life. I’m looking forward to that!

Today I was off school because it’s President’s day, 16th of February          

sincerely yours,

Simi