Visitors, Basketball, Springbreak

Hey guys,

I know I did let you without any news for quite a long time, I am sorry for that. Nevertheless I've got a lot of stuff to tell you right now, just lean back and recapture the moments with me!

So at the beginning of March, Basketball-season was not quite over and we were playing for a District Championship after a long road of commitment, dedication and hard work. The opponent we were facing was - of course - Detroit Countryday, the team which later won the State Championship. However we played with all our heart and in the end we were proud what we had accomplished although we lost the game. This was ought to be my last game - at least on the basis of the real games.


At the same time we had a guest in our house - Lars, a former German exchange student, decided to pay us a visit. I really looked forward to that, and he shall not disappoint me. We really had a great time, visiting Detroit and seeing Greektown, a "Greece Part", in Detroit itself. He definitely should have stayed longer than only week, but we had to say goodbye telling to visit each other as soon as I would be back in Germany.

To my surprise one day my Basketball Coach came up to me and mentioned a traditional "Kids vs Cops" game they are having every year and he wanted me to participate. Without thinking about I said: "I'm down Coach!"
When the day came I actually realized that the game would be on TV as well, which was awesome and gave me a little bit of nervousness. However it turned out well, and all the Senior, including me, had a fun time as well as the cops.

Finally Spring Break was approaching and Easter was right around the corner too. When the time came, we drove up to Ryans mother, she basically lives in the middle of nowhere, which has the advantage of silence and a quite nice scenery ;).
We spent two days there playing games and on Easter we received some delicious candy.
Before the break started we also planned on going to Cleveland. When we arrived there, we spent the night and on the next day we started exploring the city. We saw the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Terminal Tower and the Quicken Loans Arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing their home games.
To conclude I'd say that Cleveland was worth a visit but you might not want to spend more than 1 or 2 days there.

My visit is slowly coming to an end, now everybody is talking about Prom already, which really is a big deal in America, especially for the feminine part ;).
I also feel like the weather finally decided to bring the summer back on the stage, but who knows, we are talking about Michigan, right? ;p

That's it guys. Be safe, take care and as always - stay tuned (even if it takes a little time)

All the best wishes from Michigan,
Erik

Snowcoming, AutoShow, School

Snowcoming pictures at the mall

Hey guys, I’m back with some news!

With Snowcoming we had the last real dance before Prom. And it really happened in almost the same progression like homecoming did. We started looking around for a new outfit because obviously nobody wants to wear the same to Snowcoming and homecoming. So I found a new dress shirt and tie for myself.

On Friday night we had the Snowcoming basketball game, which we lost unfortunately.


However it turned out to become a nice Saturday evening including dinner with friends and the dance after. This time I did not have a date but nevertheless it was a lot of fun. Of course you could barely see anything else but grinding on the dancefloor, but that’s the American way – and I got to admit that I really enjoy it. Furthermore this year I was voted on the Snowcoming Court which was a really nice honor and we had a little formal dance in between. All in all it was another awesome event which we don’t have in Germany and that always makes it much more special.

The other highlight I experienced was the visit of the North American International Autoshow which is one/or the biggest Auto-show in the world. David, Tom and me had a lot of fun sitting in several cars and seeing big brands like Bugatti, Porsche, Mercedes etc. It certainly was a great day and an event Detroit is known for worldwide.

School-wise everything goes well, I finished the first Semester with 5 A’s and a B+ leading to a GPA of 3.8! I will not change any classes and try to maintain my grade point average.

Last home game - Seniors

Basketball is almost over, Tuesday we had our last home game and now we will finish the regular season with 4 games on the road. I really hope we will get some more wins in before heading to Districts. I still don’t have a single clue on how I will spend my winter sports-wise since none of the offered sports appeals to me.
More good news: I currently am enjoying my mid-winter break!

I guess that’s all so far, as always stay tuned guys and take care!

Erik

Christmas, Miami Heat, New Year, Review

Hey guys, long time ago since I have been informing you the last time. First of all I want to wish you all a happy new year - have a good start! And you shall reach all your goals!

Obviously my Christmas was going to be different this year. Not only date-wise but also tradition-wise. All the children get their presents on the 25th here in America. In addition they hang their socks over the fireplace and will find different candy and other nice stuff in it come Christmas morning. The space under the tree was already pretty much filled 2 weeks before Christmas.
Christmas morning was really relaxed, we all were awake about 12 and started to unpack all our presents. Tom, Ryan and David got a lot of cool stuff for me, - making me pretty happy! I got different kind of things for basketball, some cloths, cologne, an awesome Detroit -photograph.
Other than that we had a nice overall day including an awesome dinner - ham, mashed potatoes, noodles and vegetables. It was delicious!

Right after the Christmas day I kinda had my late Christmas present. The NBA game Miami HEAT- Detroit Pistons! That was without any doubt one of the biggest highlights for me ever since I saw LeBron James who is my absolute favorite player and idol! David and me saw an awesome game with surprisingly the better end for Detroit which came away with a win! It was an unique experience for me and I was able to take some great pictures.
All in all we had a fantastic evening which I probably hardly won't ever forget because seeing my idol means a lot to me!


The next big date was the New Years Eve of course. David and me decided to spend the night with Alex, Eric and some other friends. It turned out to be better than I expected. We had a fun time, and then the new already appeared. It's just crazy how fast time passes. Now almost half of my high school year is over. As I look back I only see awesome experiences and moments. New York - Chicago - Detroit - New Orleans are the big cities I have seen so far. I'm sure there are more to come. Also I have made a lot of friends and met so many new people. Experiencing another culture and way of living is outstandingly impressive. A big thank you to my family back in Germany who made this possible as well as my host parents in the United States who are doing an awesome job. I'm just thankful for everything so far. Hopefully the second half of my year is going to be as great as the first one!

New Years Eve; David - Me - Eric - Alex

I'm pretty busy with Basketball because we are practicing everyday including Sunday. In school we are going to take our final exams in two weeks.
Weather-wise it is still awfully cold and we still have got a lot of snow outside.

I guess that's it from me right now! Take care guys and as always - stay tuned and patient. Updates will come!

Yours Erik!

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!