3 Weeks Past Again

3 Weeks Past Again

Hey guys! I'm sorry it took me three weeks to tell you more about my experience here. Writing q blogpost takes more time then you think it takes and it have been busy times! Well here is an update from the last three weeks.

Week 1:

Monday; the 15th of September it was my birthday. It was a fun birthday and especially my host family made it fun. I am really glad that they were there to make that day a special day. The day before we went to a real american restaurant and ate some real american food. That was fun. On the day itself, Gail had bought me a birthdaycake. She also gave me a scarf and a little bag, both from Asia. Elisabetta gave me a T-shirt from Hard Rock Café Italy. It was really sweet! Here are some pictures!

 

 

 

 

I was also really glad that I could skype with my mom on my birthday. It was really good to see her. She also sent me some presents from Belgium! A lot of chocolate and some books! Thank you mama!

During Geography we were also learning baout the different cultures in the world. On Monday we learned about Buddhism and we were meditating. Here is a picture of Jacob, just because he is funny when he is meditating!

This week was also a special week because it was the week of homecoming! Homecoming is to welcome the students back to school. So, this week, every day had a special theme. Monday was Pajama day, Tuesday Twin Day, Wednesday was Superhero, Thursday Dress-Up, and Friday Brown and Gold (school colors). Here are some pictures of the days!

  

This week was a real fun week and it was fun to see everyone participate in this! I wish we would do this in Belgium!






Of course, there was also a pep rally for the game on friday! This is to get hyped for the game, because of course we want to win our homecoming game! Here are some pictures and videos!

During the week, people had to vote for a prince and princess to represent their class. During half time of the game, they then rode around in cars and a King and Queen were chosen. The Queen was Megan and the King was Jefferson! Of course, I also got some pictures of that!

 

That weekend, I had a YFU weekend. It was fun to get to know other exchange students from all over the world who are staying in Indiana this year. We stayed at the house of a host family of one of the exchange students. We want to the mall and ate something. Some of the exchange students and I went to the movies and watched "The Maze Runner". It was a good movie and I had fun! Back at the house we played some pool and watched some more movies! It was a fun weekend and I hope to see them all again soon!

 

                         
 

Week 2:

During week 2 nothing really exciting happened, honestly. It was getting up, going to school, playing soccer, and going back to bed. I had some tests and homework. We have had a lot of soccer games and we lost them every time. It is really disappointing, but it is what it is. We have a lot of players that are injured, so that plays it role too.

Week 3:

This week was a calmer week at school. At soccer, though, it was harder. We had to play the three hardest teams during this week. We lost all three of them. We kind of expected this to happen, but it still doesn't feel like fun. On thursday it was also Senior night for our Seniors. This is a special night for the girls who are graduating this year. We made the Seniors some baskets with stuff they could use in College. Our parents also made different kinds of food and it was fun to spend times with the girls!
Here is a picture of our Seniors!

On Friday Celine, Elisabetta, Ray and I went to some stores to get some presents for Emily, because Saturday was her birthday party. After the present shopping, Gail, Eli, and I had smores. SMores are biscuits with chocolate and marshmallows in between. It is so good! Here is a picture!

Saturday Gail's cousin and his wife came to visit and we decided t drive around Indianapolis a little bit. They hadn't been there for over 40 years and they wanted to see how much it had changed. There was also a Chinese festival, so we went there too.
At seven, Emily's birthday party started. It was a fun birthday party and I had fun hanging out with my friends. We ate pizza, cupcakes and smores. Her parents had decorated the room and it was really cozy.
Celine and I gave her some candy and drinks. I'm really glad I got invited!
Today, Sunday, is kind of a lazy day. I'm writing my blogpost and doing some homework.
I have to finish a work for AP language together with Carissa. We'll see how it goes. I'm nervous because it is an oral presentation and I'm afraid that I might say some words in Dutch. That'd be funny, tho!

Differences between USA and Belgium:

I thought it was a fun idea to give you guys an idea of things I noticed the most that are different from Belgium. First of all, everyone knows how to drive. It's crazy. Nobody uses public transportation while it is such a big thing in Europe. Secondly, Americans are very patriotic. I wish we'd be more like that. It is really interesting. For example, at the beginning of every first period of the day, there is a minute of silence and the pledge of Allegiance. I learned how it goes and I say it with them now. You have to lay your right hand on your heart and say:

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Also, before every soccer game (or any game really), everyone turns to the flag of the USA, with your right hand on your heart, while the national anthem plays.

Furthermore, people are so nice here! When you go in the store, the staff is like: "Hi honey, how is your day?" "Did you find everything you were looking for?" "Can I help you with something?", while in Belgium I feel like they are "Hurry up, I want to be able to go home at 6 O'clock." This is why I like people so much here. Something that really bothers me is the keyboard. It is different from the one in Belgium and I keep writing mistakes. It is soooooooo annoying.
Of course, like you might have guessed, they eat 20 times more fast food, BUT they are not all fat. To my surprise, there are actually a lot of skinny people. I miss the Belgium food, though.
Also, they play a lot of sports here and everybody is really supportive of each other. I like that all the sports are played at school. It is good for people to connect with other people and unlike in Belgium, the Freshman are friends with the Seniors and so on. I think people connect more with each other because of the sports and clubs at school. This is why I wished we would have sports at school like they do here.
It is so much fun and I made some awesome life-long friends by playing soccer here. I love my babies!
The teachers and students also talk a lot more then they do in Belgium. The principle here is the first person to greet me at school everyday. I like this very much and he knows all the students and is glad to talk to any students, so are all the other teachers. I think this is really important and I wish that in Belgium it would be more like that.
This are the biggest difference I noticed, there are probably a hundred more.

So, that was about it for the past 3 weeks.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, you are more then welcome to past a comment or send me a message!

Big kisses,