The first half of February
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
