What happened since I wrote the last post? A lot:
1. I joined the Bellaire Women's Lacrosse Team. Lacrosse is one of the fastest ball sports, originated from the Native Americans. Women’s lacrosse teams use netted sticks to carry, throw, and shoot a ball along a field in an effort to score goals. I like to explain it to Germans as soccer in the air. The rules and the field are similar to soccer, but you throw the small ball instead of kicking it. If you want to know more about it, just google it :D
I love my team, the girls are so nice and try to help me out as much as they can. The coach is great too, she let me join the team late and still lets me play a lot during games.
2. March is Houston Rodeo month. The Rodeo includes a huge carnival (Jahrmarkt aehnlich), a livestock show, the typical bull riding and concerts at night. All the Houston Area AFS students were invited by the International Rodeo Committee to spend a whole day there. We got to see new-born animals, we did a bunch of fun rides and ate too much unhealthy food: Fried oreos , fried cheesecake etc. (Fried things are a specialty of the Houston Rodeo, apparently they have fried beer too). Of course cowboy boots were part of our typical Texan outfits!
3. On one Saturday in February, all the band students came to school for the "UIL Solo&Ensemble Contest". I realized at the beginning of this year that American high schools are very competitive. They have competitions and grades for everything. Not only sports, but also choir, band theater etc. For this contest, students could learn one of 100 (I don't actually know how many, but A LOT) solos and perform it in front of a judge. I was pretty nervous because I was the first person to play. But apparently I did a good job, I got a 1 which is the highest possible grade.
4. Just something I noticed: I think spring break ( starts tomorrow) is the point of the year, when everybody starts thinking about the summer and next year. Maybe because 3/4 of the school year are almost over. During the last week, so many people started talking about how sad it is that I'm going back to Germany soon. And I totally agree that it'll be sad to leave everyone here, but I also think I still have 4 months... I should use the time and not think about leaving yet! And of course I'll be happy to see all the great Germans again when it actually comes to leaving:D
6. Yesterday I had a choir concert. At Bellaire (my high school) we have 7 (!!!!) choirs. That is great, but also the reason why the concert lasted over 2 hours. It was still a lot of fun and listening to the higher level choirs is awesome. It really makes you want to work hard to get to that level!
Okay this has to be enough for now. As you can see, I'm still totally happy and super busy here! I'm looking forward next week (Spring break vacation in Florida)!
Hope everyone is doing well,
Johanna
