School and marching band

Hey!

Today I'll write about my first experiences in school and in the marching band.
In the week before school starts I went to school to find and meet the band director to ask him if I can borrow a trombone at school. I only found his assistent, but he invited me to come to the marching band rehearsal in the afternoon. So I came back later.
When I arrived in the band hall (the room where we usually practice our music), there were already around 20 boys and girls talking to each other and waiting for the band director. I met two very nice girls who introduced me to some other students. Finally the band director arrived and I introduced myself to him. He was very nice and asked one student to give me a trombone. So I was ready to start!

We also had rehearsals at Tuesday and Wednesday in that week. First we usually practice our music and then we go outside  with our instruments to march. That was a totally new experience for me but I like to try something new and marching is really fun although it can be very very hot outside!

After being three days in the marching band, Thursday was our first performance. Therefor we had to wear kaki shorts and we got a new band shirt for this year. This is our "summer uniform", because it's too hot ouside to war the regular long uniform. We played in a large hall in school for some parents. In front of us, girls with huge flags showed their performance to our music.

After our first marching band performance

I spend the weekend with our family-friends and the other german exchange student in their country house, near Brenham. It was a great time there, relaxing in the pool and enjoying calmness of that place!
Sunday we ate in a german restaurant in a very small town (like Uttum for everyone who knows it). But anyway they had two restaurant and a high school!

The house near Brenham

Monday did school start. Now the time passes very fast! The first three days every student had to go to to his/her homeroom in the morning. Then we have to follow our regular schedule. School starts at 7:40 am and ends at 3:15 pm, but I have marching band rehearsal till 5:30. That is a long day and sometimes I have to do homework at home too.
After the first days I was always very tired when I came home, but it gets better every day.
Bellaire High School is a very large school with more than 3000 students. So in the five minutes between two classes all the long hallways are very crowded and it can be confusing and hard to find the next room!

I think the classes aren't very difficult compared to german ones, but they are in english, so I don't understand everything yet. Also all the teachers and students are new for me and I meet new students every day, but everyone I talked to was very nice!

I still love marching band, because I already know many students there and I enjoy playing with them (when I arrived at school at Monday, there were so many students everywhere and I was very happy when I saw some band-students I had seen before!). Tomorrow is the first football game, and we're going to play there. I'm very excited and I think it will be very fun!!!

I hope I have time to write about the game soon,
bye for now!

first days in texas

Hi!

The last 4 days were so exciting and great! So many things happened and I met many very nice people. Now I want to tell you something about the main events.

The day after my arrival I went to my new high school with my host mother for "registration". The first thing I noticed were all the students waiting for something. I was wondering why they were in school almost two weeks before classes start.
We got a number and saw some classrooms until our number was called. Then we had to wait for some paperwork and finally I could choose my classes.
There were four given categories: english, math, history and science. In addition to that I could choose three further classes. I chose:
english 3
math
US history
environmental systems
french 4
band
dance 1
Today I'll go to a band rehearsal to get a trombone and meet some other students from my high school - I'm very excited!

Later that day, after registration,  there was a birthday party for the other german exchange students host sister at our house. We spent the whole evening (about 4 hours) in the pool. That was great!
In the next days we went out for dinner every evening, so I tried much different food (japanese, mexican, ...) and I really liked it!

I also made a blueberry pie with my host mum, that  was fantastic!


Saturday I went to the AFS-orientation here in Houston. I met many exchange students from all over the world, we learned something about Texas and the USA and we had a little pool party after that.

Yesterday I went to "the galleria" a huge shopping center. There was an ice rink in the middle of hot Houston, that was interesting!
After that I spend the afternoon with another exchange student and we went to an indian dance show at night. I've never seen something like that before!

That was a little abstract of the last days, bye for now!

flight and arrival

Hello again!
I decided to write in english from now on, because I'm in the USA and I want to learn it.
There may be some mistakes, but I hope that's no problem because I'm still learning ...

Tody at 07:00 am I met the other AFS students at the airport in Frankfurt. We checked in together and at 10:00 am our flight to Houston started. 10 1/2 hours in the air, that was long, but not too boring for me because you had somebody to talk with and you could share your excitement with the other students.

After having showed my passport to 100 different persons in Germany and the USA I arrived in Houston at 13:30 h. My host mother was already waiting for me.
Together we drove about 45 minutes to my new home in Bellaire.
There I met my host sister and I saw our huge house, pool and garden.
I love everything here, my room (especially my large bed), the house and my very nice family!

Abschied und Vorfreude

Sooo, der Abschied rückt ganz deutlich näher! Mittlerweile bin ich  mit meinem Vater schon in Frankfurt und werde hier auch übernachten, damit mein Weg zum Flughafen morgen früh dann nicht so weit ist.

Auf dem Weg hierher habe ich mich schon von meiner Mutter verabschiedet und noch eine letzte deutsche Butterbetzel gegessen. Kurz danach folgte dann die Einstimmung auf die USA mit einem typischen "Bagel with cream cheese". 

Nach letztem Umpacken von Koffer zu Handgepäck und zurück bin ich jetzt zumindest in dieser Hinsicht bereit zum Abflug.

Nun sollte ich wohl versuchen noch etwas zu schlafen, da ich morgen früh um 7 Uhr am Flughafen sein muss. Weil ich aber seeehr aufgeregt bin und das Gefühlschaos nicht wirklich entspannend ist wird das wohl nicht so einfach...

Egal, ich werd's versuchen.

Gute Nacht!