Frankenmuth, Christmasstore, Soccer Banquet, Basketball, Thanksgiving

Hey guys, long time ago since my last update. I just have to admit that I am to lazy to be posting weekly. Sorry for that. In fact that it takes that long, I will at least try to make it a little more detailed - including pictures etc! So let's get started..

Beer!

beautiful architecture

First of all I want to tell you about the trip my hostfamily and me made to Frankenmuth - very interesting because it was basically founded by German settlers. We drove up there and it took us about one and a half hours.

German Flag, fall colors

I immediately recognized the plenty of German flags and other typical things you would associate with Germany (see pictures). We went to eat in a very nice all-you-can-eat restaurant and they seriously served Schnitzel! The food was outstanding and it literally reminded me so much of Germany. After our awesome lunch we walked around and took a closer look at the city. We went into several stores and I saw that they sold "Lederhosen". The weather was perfect as well and we enjoyed the trip a lot. Worth mentioning was also the visit of the huge Christmas store - I guess it was one - if not THE largest Christmas store worldwide.


The Christmas store was impressive. I had never been to a single store in a dimension like this. Just incredible!
Uncountable supplies of Christmas stuff from all over the world. My parents would probably have spend several hours in there. :)
We just got our Christmas socks and some stuff for the christmas tree which is already set up at home. I liked the Germany section a lot, where they sold typical candy, accessoires etc. This will definitely a unique memory for me and who knows I might get there another time before Christmas to buy some presents. All in all I really enjoyed the time we spent in Frankenmuth because it really had a fantastic flair and I don't regret that we went up there.


As you already know, Soccer season is over, we became champions. But now to end it officially as we go  over to Basketball season we had this Banquet.
All soccer players came together to celebrate a successful season and the coach held a speech as well as he gave away certain awards. I myself got several awards - the Academic Award for outstanding academic as well as sport results, the Coaches Award for being a big part of the team, always showing a lot of effort and being a great leader. My third award was the one for the All-District-Team which means that I was the top player in the District on my position (defensive midfield). I was very satisfied and happy with that. A great completion of the season in my opinion!

Coming with winter basketball season starts and with that my favorite sport. It always has been my dream to play american High School Basketball! We had 3 days of tryouts. I was very concerned because there were 28players for 15 spots on the team. But I kinda already was aware that this is going to be very competitive.
Nevertheless I gave everything, worked hard and was able to make the Clawson Varsity Basketball team. This week we already had a Scrimmage, which is kind of like a little pre-tournament to see where you are performance-wise.

This week we celebrated Thanksgiving and of course it was special for me because it was my first and hopefully not last ever! We had a 26 pound (!!) turkey, for 5 persons.

We were 5 persons because Grandma was here as well. The food was just awesome, I ate too much I guess, because I spend the rest of the day on the couch napping.
Other than that we went out shopping because of Black Friday at about 12 O' clock. I just bought some necessary stuff for my basketball season so nothing speical. But people really became crazy, camping in front of certain stores 1 day before just to be the first in line to get what they wanted to. A little exaggerated in my opinion, but whatever.

The christmas-tree is set up as well, because it's a tradition to do so one day after thanksgiving.

That's it from me, I hope you got a little informed what was going on the past month.
Don't forget, stay tuned guys!

Love you!
Erik

Soccer Champions and Homecoming!

Hey guys,

I've got some great news for you. We just became soccer champions! We won the league being undefeated until the end! A big shoutout to all my teammembers, thank you for making this an unforgettable soccer season. Together with out last game at home, Senior night came and we - as the leaving Seniors were announced and they gave same fact about each player as well.

Jeremy - Me - David - Alex - Tyler

And then, even more exciting, HOMECOMING weekend came. I already had my date - Josie. So on Monday everything began with the Spirit Week, starting with fake-injury-day, character day, college day, class T-shirt day and ending with blue and gold day (which was my favorite).

Seniors at the Pep Ralley!

 

As well as the Pep Ralley, there was the big football game on Friday! We had a lot of fun there and the icing on the cake was that our team actually won the game! Everybody was in a good mood and we drank a hot chocolate after because it was very cold outside.

 

On Saturday there was finally the actual dance. Everybody dressed up, the boys usually in a suit and the girls had beautiful dresses. Josie came over to my house to pick me up, we exchanged the corsages and took a couple of pictures. Our dresses matched and I really enjoyed how we looked together! After that being done we drove to the Somerset mall to meet all the other students and to take more pictures.

 

Josie - Me

 

 

Before we went to the dance we ate at a restaurant with some friends. Around 7 we arrived at the school - I was kinda nervous.

 

But as soon as we stepped onto the dancefloor, we had so much fun dancing together. The dance? - very American. It was all about grinding.

At 10 in the evening it was over - unfortunately.

 

 

That's it from those two speical events. It's getting cold in Michigan, today we will probably have the last warm day.

Basketball season is underway as well, we already had a couple of open-gyms and tryouts are going to be on the 10th of November.

 

Alright guys, I try to keep you updated.

All the best, Erik!



Quick Update

Hey guys,

actually I know that I'm very lazy and I don't post very often - well, sorry about that!
School-wise everthing is going perfect, I'm getting pretty good grades and I keep improving my English without actually noticing it. Our Soccer team is successful too, we are undefeated in the League and are heading for the League Championship, I'm excited for the playoffs too!

I'm writing this post from New Orleans, where we currently are, because of a wedding going on in the family. I really enjoy being here, we are fleeing from the cold weather in Michigan :)!
The actual wedding will be on Saturday, till this time we will keep exploring the city and its people. I love it! It's a lot different from Detroit, Chicago or New York!

In the picture, me and my hungarian brother David!

Homecoming is coming closer too, excited for that as well, I have got a wonderful date and it is going to be a lot of fun!

Allright guys, that;s it so far. Stay tuned!


Erik

PS: I will now start to add pictures regularly!

School, Sports and Activities

Hey guys, coming up with a qiuck update for you!
First week of school is over! Time passes to quick! I love the school here, the teachers are awesome, so relaxed and much more personal than in Germnay. The highschoolspirit is everywhere. Lot of people are coming to our soccer games, teachers are wearing t-shirts of their school and footballgames are big highlights as well! I get along very well with my classmates and enjoy every lesson.

Soccer season is going to be perfect. We won every league game so far and are on top! I hope we can keep that up and win the league this year!
Last weekend we have been to the Detroit Zoo and to the Arts, Beats and Eats festival. I enjoyed that a lot. Looking forward to the next weeks.

Stay tuned guys!

Sports and stuff

Hey guys, I got some good news for you! After the first days acclimating myself I experienced a lot. My hostparents took my to Detroit and showed me around in the city! I liked it a lot. In the end we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - good day!

In America there are the highschool-teams for sport, that's different than in Germany. I was able to attend some offseason conditioning for soccer before the tryouts began. It was pretty hard and exhausting Before you can do sports you have to get a physical form which is about your health and fitness!

After I got it we had tryouts. I had to cut off one day of the tryouts because we wanted to go on a trip to Chicago, I still made it into Varsity team. If not, it would be kind of sad for me.

I already mentioned that I went on a trip to Chicago on the weekend. We went there by car, it took us 6 hours to get there! We did a lot of sighseeing and it was simply amazing to see such a big city again, after I had already seen New York!

Back in Clawson, it were only a couple of days to our first game, it will be tomorrow. I will be playing defensive midfielder or center mid. I'm so excited!

Stay tuned guys! See ya!

Erik

New York and Hostfamily

Hey guys,

my exchange year just began! Our flight to Newark was pretty comfortable and safe. The hotel was awesome including a pool and a fitness center. We hadn't much time to use those things but you know it was pretty cool.

We spend two whole days in New York City where we saw the main sights like the Empire State Building, Times Square, 5th Avenue, Broadway, Statue of Liberty and so on!
They also offered us some time for shopping.

I got along well with the other exchange students and we had a great time I will never forget.

Yesterday I arrived at my hostfamily. Clawson is a nice city with a lots of things to see and to explore. Sport-facilities are right around the corner. I'm sure that this year is going to be awesome.
I try my best to keep you updated regularly.

Erik

New information, feelings etc.

Hey guys,


I just got a package from my host-family. They sent me two t-shirts, a music-mix and playing cards. I was really happy about that, the t-shirts fit perfectly, the music is awesome and I like everything a lot. A big thank you to my host-family!


In the last days a new "newsletter" from AIFS arrived. They gave some information which belong to the flight and also some general information about being an exchange student, living in another family etc. 
All in all I think AIFS did a good job in preparing us for our year abroad. If you have questions it does not take long until they give you an answer. 


There is also something about my feelings:


In the last days there is always that strange feeling overcoming me, when I drive by something I'm used to, which is familiar for me.. won't see all these people and places for one year.

I mean there are just 22 days left, then I will take my flight to Frankfurt to meet all the other exchange students from AIFS. From there we will finally go to New York before each of us will go seperated ways.

That's it so far.. I don't know whether it makes sense to write in English, because my relatives might not understand what I write. I will think about that, what about writing a translation next to the English version?

I'll see.. 

Stay tuned, 

your Erik.

Preparation Days

Hey guys,

as I have already announced, every further post will be in English, although my language is not perfect yet. I consider it a good deal to start writing in English now.

On Sunday we had our preperation meeting in Berlin Wannsee. It was pretty informative and was a lot of fun because of the other exchange students who attened the course as well. We laughed a lot and exchanged our experiences we had so far.
AIFS is a really good organization, it was no fault to decide for them. They gave a lot of essential information. The whole thing was from 10-17.

I also already know in which hotel we will be during our stay in New York.

http://embassysuites3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-jersey/embassy-suites-parsippany-PRNNJES/index.html

It looks AWESOME.

Can't wait.

Erik

Visum

Hallöchen,
gestern bin ich um 5:00 aufgestanden und hab mich auf den Weg zum meinem Termin 8:15 in der amerikanischen Botschaft gemacht. Es ging eigentlich alles unglaublich schnell und ich werde die Bestätigung für mein Visum in 5 Tagen erhalten. Außerdem habe ich mich entschieden ein Abschiedsbuch zu machen, dort können Freunde und Familie etwas reinschreiben und ich habe eine schönere Erinnerung in den USA.
You will hear from me soon. Every further post will be in English because my year is coming closer.

So let’s TELL THE WORLD W.E. ARE COMING! 

Abflugtermin

Und wieder News :)

Ich hab gestern Post von AIFS bekommen, ich werde am 31.07 nach New York fliegen und von dort, direkt zu meiner Gastfamilie nach Michigan, Clawson!!
Anbei hat AIFS zusätzlich weitere Informationen zu meiner Gastfamilie gesendet, aber ich habe ja bereits sehr regelmäßig in Kontakt zu ihnen.

Bald kommt der 3. Infobrief, bis dahin,

euer Erik!

GASTFAMILIE!

Hey Leute,

super Neuigkeiten, ich habe jetzt schon meine Gastfamilie. Das ist sehr toll und vor allem ungewöhnlich für diese Zeit. Aber ich freue mich umso mehr. Ich habe bereits Kontakt zu ihnen und sie sind sehr freundlich. :)
Außerdem bekomme ich noch einen Gastbruder, mit dem ich ebenfalls regen Kontakt habe.
Die Familie wohnt in Michigan, in der Nähe von Detroit. Ich bin so glücklich!

Bald mehr.. :)

Erik

AYA-Student-Site

Hey Leute,

nach langer Zeit mal wieder ein Post von mir! Ich bin auf der AYA-Student-Site. Dort findet man Kurzprofile von den Austauschschülern und die Gastfamilien können sich über die potenziellen Schüler informieren.

so sieht das aus:

Ich hoffe ich werde nun bald meine Gastfamilie bekommen :))

Bis bald,

Erik :)

Flugdaten

Hallo meine Lieben,

ich habe nun tatsächlich schon die Flugdaten erfahren -  31.07. - 07.08. - 21.08. - 28.08. und 05.09. 

An einem dieser Daten werde ich bereits im Flugzeug nach New York sitzen, unglaublich!

Außerdem habe ich erfahren, dass wir mit einem Airbus A-380 fliegen.

Ich freue mich!

Ein schönes Wochenende euch allen!

Erik