lauracasparie.reismee.nl

02-03 tot 02-22; Trip to Michigan

I went to the gym after school on Tuesday. Hannah had a dentist appointment and a meeting afterwards, so Kerby picked me up after her appointment. We watched some tv at home and ate dinner. On Wednesday after school I packed stuff for the weekend. Hannah had to work. We left for Michigan Thursday morning. We ate ate a noodle bar on our way with the people we were going with. We arrived at the cabin at 4 o'clock. It was so cold and there was so much snow. It almost came to my knees. We unpacked some stuff and ate dinner. Hannah and I went in the sauna after that. We went sledding on Friday. We had the plan to go skiing, but nobody wanted to go with me. All the adults didn't want to go and Hannah can't ski so she needed lessons and she didn't want to do that. On Saturday we went shopping in Traverse City. A little, old city close to Lake Michigan. On Sunday we cleaned the cabin en went home. Hannah and I watched tv the whole night. We worked out on Wednesday. En went to the girls sectionals game. They lost so it was their last game of the season. I skyped with Joe in the evening. I had a really bad headache on Thursday, so I took a nap after school. Hannah had a choir concert, but I stayed home. I watched some tv. The weather was really bad on Friday. There was a blizzard and Kerby and Sabine went to Fort Wayne, so Hannah and I were at home by ourselves. We watched valentines movies all day. I went to church with my host family on Sunday. It wasn't as bad as my old church. The only thing was that I had to stand up because I was new. After church, a teacher from the college came up to me. He used to live in the Netherlands but his Dutch was really bad. And to switch from English to Dutch was pretty hard. So I spoke in English and he spoke Dutch. We went home after church and my family had a funeral, so I stayed home. Hannah had to work after that. I watched some tv with my hostparents and we ate dinner.

I had a snow day on Thursday. It was not really a snow day, because we didn't have snow. It's was just so cold outside that they canceled school. Hannah and I baked cookies. They were really gross. We watch movies in the evening. We had a 2 hour delay on Friday so we could sleep in a little. On Saturday we went to Fort Wayne to shop and get our hair cut. We met Karli and her mom at the movie theater and we watched Fifty shades of gray. We ate Thai after that and went to get frozen yoghurt. On Sunday we went to church. We made macarons after that. They were really good. The oscars were in the evening, so we watched that in the evening.

For or the people that want to know, my new adres is;

109 S Elm Street

46962

North Manchester, Indiana

letters and packages are always welcome :)

23-01 tot 02-02; first week at my new family

On Thursday I got the message that I was going to move the next day after school. So I had to pack all my stuff in half an hour after school on Friday. I said goodbye to Sarah and the little people. Ryan wasn't at home and Elizabeth had basketball practice. When I got to my new family we brought the stuff to my room. I was surprised how much stuff I actually have. Hannah, my new host sister, and Sabine, my new host, had a play on Friday and Saturday from their church. Me and Kerby, my host dad, went to the play on Friday. After the play we went home and I hung out with Hannah in my room, while it was unpacking my first suitcase.

The next morning we ate pancakes and bacon for breakfast. My new family loves to cook. Me and Hannah watched tv downstairs in the basement. Hannah and Sabine had to leave in the afternoon for the play. Me and Kerby ate a salad for dinner. Hannah has a lactose allergy and can't eat a lot of things, so all the ingredients are in different bowls so you can make your own salad. I really like that because I don't like a lot of things in salads. We watched tv in the evening. And finally something different then watching football and basketball. He dropped me of at the church after the play because the youth had an after party after the play. And they asked me too. We watched the play on tv and shaved the beard from the boy who played Jesus. The youth group is so much more fun than my old youth group. We came home after midnight.

We didn't go to church, just to youth group. There weren't a lot of people because everybody was tired and stayed home. This church is more liberal than my old church. My old church was the most conservative church here in town. After church we went to Fort Wayne to visit Hannah's baby cousin. She was born 2 weeks ago and she was so small and cute. On our way back we went to Five Guys. This is a burger restaurant. They have the best burgers and fries, but it's pretty expensive. We watched tv the whole evening. Sabine made really good brownies. It snowed really bad on Sunday, so we got a call in the evening that we had a 2 hour delay.

One of the best things about my new host family; they bring us to school and pick us up, so we don't have to ride the school bus.

Hannah and I went to the gym after school to work out. Kyler and Alex came home with us to study. They stayed for dinner and we made brownies after that. We watched some tv and they went home. Hannah and I watched some tv in the evening.

The rest of the week we just had family time after school. Hannah worked a few days so I was alone with my host parents. The Super Bowl was on Sunday and we had a few friends coming over. We had a lot of fun. There was so much snow that we had a snow day. Clara spent the night and we went out in the snow the next day. Hannah's little cousin came over and in the evening me, Hannah, Clara and Eli went to a restautant in town. Eli came home with us and we hung out for a while.

06-01 tot 20-01; second semester and a new family

2nd semester started okay. I really like all the people in my classes. Especially the classes before lunch. I switched my English and US history because I didn't like the people in my history class and I could switch my creative writing for normal English. Now I don't have to write stupid poems. We had 2 hour delays for 3 days and on Thursday and Friday we had snow days. So we stayed home, watched movies. We didn't do a lot. Rainer, Elizabeth's boyfriend came over a few times. On Monday we had a snow day again. On Tuesday we started school again. We didn't even have a 2 hour delay, so it was hard to get up.

I didn't hear anything about a new host family yet. There is one family here in town that told Carol that they want to host an exchange student one time. They have a daughter and she is in my choir and geometry class.

I talked to her in Thursday morning in choir. She told me that her family is filling out all the papers and I can move there next week. I would get my own bedroom, bathroom and basement. And her parent are super nice. They go on a ski trip and I can go with them, but it's the same date as the winter formal. And I really want to go to the winter formal too. So I don't know what to do yet.

I spent the whole weekend at the Collett's. We went shopping on Saturday. And on Sunday I went to the my new host family to meet them. I got a tour around the house and the house is amazing ! It's so clean and cute. The parents are so nice. I can't wait till I move there. I went home afterwards and I went shopping with my host family. Elizabeth needed a formal dress. I decided to go skiing, so I didn't need a dress. The next day in choir I talked a lot with Hannah. I'm so excited to move there.

On Tuesday I went to Pilates with Sarah and we got ice cream afterwards.

8-12 tot 5-01; Christmas (break) and new semester

I didn't feel very good on Monday so I went to bed after school. I woke up for dinner and went to bed again. Elizabeth slept to after she came home from basketball. We did our homework when we woke up en we stayed up late because we couldn't sleep anymore.

I still didn't feel good on Tuesday, so I slept again when I got home. This time I didn't even wake up for dinner. I woke up at 8:30, ate some ice cream because my throat hurt, took an ibuprofen and went to bed again. I didn't sleep though. Elizabeth was at school for practice and the cannonball tourney. We hung out in the evening.

The next day carol picked me up because we had to go to Laketon elementary school. The exchange students from Northfield and Manchester had to present for 6th graders about our countries. We had for different groups so we had to present the same presentation 4 times. I'm very happy that I could present with Lisan and Joe. After our presentations we went to the Subway in Manchester for a sub. Antonia and I had a US history test 5th period and we didn't study. So we had to kill some time before we went back to school. We came back to school at 1:10, so we had almost half an hour left of 5th period. So made some homework in the hallway and went to class afterwards. So we could take the test the next day. I went home after school with the bus. I had to go back to school in the evening for Christmas Fantasy rehearsal. That is a choir concert we have Sunday. I only have a pretty bad cold, so when I had to sing my duet with Kendra, it didn't sound that good. I really home my voice sounds better on Saturday and Sunday.

The test in US history with okay. I'm not worrying about that. We also had a Spanish test that went pretty well. The little people had a Christmas concert in the evening. So I had to curl Isabelle's hair. It was really cute to see all the kindergartners sing. We went to Wendy's afterwards. We did some homework when we got home and went to bed early.

Sarah and Ryan came home on Saturday. We celebrated Jackson's birthday, because his birthday was on Sunday. But I wasn't there because I had a Christmas choir concert. The next week I had finals. They went better then I expected. The week after that was Christmas break. Christmas was pretty boring. The only fun thing were all the presents. Americans don't really do much on Christmas Day. They eat dinner on Christmas Eve, go to church and unwrap Christmas presents the next morning. The rest of the day they just hang out in their pajamas.

I also had the most boring New Year's Eve ever. I was supposed to go to Toledo with Joe. But I was going to sleep at a girls house for a week, and her family doesn't have a background check. So I couldn't go. Elizabeth went to a 'party' of her boyfriend with Antonia. Sarah and Ryan went to a restaurant with old people, so I stayed home with William, Isabelle and Jackson. I just watched netflix the whole night.

We didn't do very much during Christmas break. We went to the newest hunger games movie, but most of the time I spent at home.

School started again on Monday. New semester, so that means; new, classes, new teachers, new classmates. My schedule is kind of the same. I have choir, geometry, Spanish, ceramics, English, study hall and US history. I switched my creative writing class for a normal English class, because I don't want to write poems everyday. My ceramics is like a pottery class. We make potteries on a wheel. We didn't do very much so far, but I hope I will like this class.

I decided that I want to switch host families because I don't feel comfortable at my current host family anymore. My friends in Michigan and Ohio are looking for a family there and otherwise I will move nationally. I don't know when I will move.

1-12 tot 8-12; cyber Monday and seeing my Dutches

We had a normal school week again. Elizabeth had a home game in the evening. The game started after 6 so Elizabeth and Antonia went home first. The theme for the high school bleachers was hunters apparel and hunters orange. So I wore my orange soccer shirt. The JV and varsity both won. We went home after the game. It was Cyber Monday, so a lot of webshops had a huge discount. I ordered a Christmas present for Elizabeth.

I took a nap after school on Tuesday. I was really tired. Antonia came home with us again. We made spaghetti and went to Pilates. Elizabeth couldn't go because she had a lot of homework. Normally we come 15 minutes late but we were on time today. We went grocery shopping after that for Sarah an Ryan's trip to Mexico and for Christmas. Then we went home to watch the pictures of the family photos. Sarah brought Antonia home and I showered and went to bed.

Carol picked me up in the morning to take me to school, because Ryan had to take Elizabeth earlier so she could work on a school projects and I didn't want to ride the bus. I went home after school and I watched GTST. When Elizabeth came home, we watched some tv together. We ate dinner, did our homework and went to bed. We were finally in bed early.

Elizabeth had a game again on Thursday. It was a home game. The theme for the high schoolers was Hipsters, so I wore my flannel and my glasses. JV and varsity both won, with huge differences. Sophia came to the game to so I sat with her and Eli and Jevon. After the game I went home and packed some stuff. We helped Sarah pack her suitcase for Mexico and went to bed afterwards.

The next evening was the first boys home game. It was toga night, so everybody was wearing a toga. My toga didn't stay in place to I took it of before the game even started. The JV and varsity boys both won. It was so fun to go to a boys game. They are a lot more fun than the girls games. Everybody is cheering the whole time! I went home with Carol after the game and Elizabeth had a date with her new boyfriend. Trisha was there to babysit. She is a freshman in college. We watched tv for a while and went to bed. The next day we had to clean the whole house because the grandmother and granddad were coming to babysit. Trisha and Elizabeth did some grocery shopping and I had to clean the house with the little people. Antonia came to work on a school project and after my host grandparents arrived, we had to take Elizabeth to school and went to the game. The game was at Northfield, that's where Joe and Lisan are going. So I sat with them at the game. After the game I went home with Lisan and spent the night there. The next morning we had breakfast and after that my phone stopped working. The screen wouldn't go on anymore. Joe came to Lisan to work on our presentation we have to do next Wednesday. We pooled first. The presentation is all done. After we world on our presentation I went home with Joe. He had a youth group party at his house. And I never met his new host family. So we ate dinner and they did a game with Christmas presents. We played table tennis and blackjack. My host granddad picked me up and when I got back home, Elizabeth told me that the boy she likes asked her out. So they are officially dating. And she fixed my phone! So was really happy that night.

24-11 tot 30-11; thanksgiving and family Christmas

Carol picked us up from school on Monday, because basketball practice started at 6. We still didn't had wifi when I came home, so I watched some tv and took a nap. Carol picked us up again on Tuesday. Because they had a late practice again. This time I went home with Antonia, because they had wifi and I needed to work on a school project. When they had to leave for basketball they dropped me of at my house. Sophia showed me how to download books on my iPad. So I downloaded a book at school, so I could read that at home. We finally had wifi again on Wednesday. And we had thanksgiving break. I baked a Dutch Apple pie in the evening, watched some tv and ate popcorn. On Thursday morning we had to wake up early because people were coming over for thanksgiving lunch. We made salads and mashed potatoes and a lot more stuff. Lisan, Freja and another family came over of lunch. We ate turkey, and I don't really like turkey. It's so dry ! But there were a lot of cakes and pies too. Everybody left at 6 o'clock and we left at 7 o'clock to go Black Friday shopping. We went to Fort Wayne. I really expected it to be insanely crowded. Especially in Target. But it actually wasn't that crowded. And I expected the sales to be a whole lot better. After Target we went to Dick's sporting goods and after that we went to the mall. We ate something at the mall and shopped till 1 o'clock. We were home at 2. We slept for a long time. We ate breakfast, although it was more a lunch, and took a shower. I went back to bed but E had to make herself ready for basketball practice. I watched GTST, because I didn't watch that since the beginning. I really don't want to miss anything, so I started to watch it again. I watched some tv in the evening with Elizabeth and I skyped with Wouter and Joe for a long time. That wasn't my best idea because we had to wake up really early. We left at 9 to go to Ohio for family Christmas. Sarah's family always has their family Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was almost 3 hours to Ohio. The Christmas was in a school. It was the old school of Wesley and Logan. We ate lunch, played basketball, played bingo and ate dinner. We went home with Logan and Wesley because I and I spent the night there. The rest of the family spent the night at other family. We watched some tv and a really scary movie. There were 2 friends of Wesley and Logan who came over and one spent the night. Elizabeth and I had to sleep on the couch. We ate pancakes for breakfast the next morning. We went to church with them. The church didn't look like a church at all. It was funny to see how different churches can be. We went to Kohl's after church because Logan needed new jeans. And we spent more than an hour there because they have so many things. We went no after that, ate lunch and did nothing. Logan's mom brought us to the other family and then we left to go home. We came home around 6. Elizabeth and I had a 9 o'clock soccer game that night, so we made ourselves ready. Antonia came over and Morgan picked us up. We played the Fort Wayne United team again. But we got a new goalie, so we played a lot better. We still didn't score. We got back home at 10:30 so we took showers and went to bed.

17-11 tot 23-11; No WiFi

Monday morning I read the message on Facebook about my dog. There is a big change that she has cancer, so I was kind of upset in that day. I broke when people started asking me what was wrong. When I came back home from school I went to my bed and watched movies on netflix. Antonia came to our house after basketball practice because she wanted to go to Campus Life with me and Elizabeth. I was not in the mood to do something, so I stayed at home. I helped Sarah making Mickey Mouse snacks for Jackson's class. I went to bed after that.

On Tuesday I went home after school and changed. It was so cold that day. After that I went to Elizabeth's basketball game. It was an away game. Elizabeth plays JV, but the JV won. Varsity lost. We were back home at 10:30.

It was Williams birthday on Wednesday. So we celebrated it to eat dinner together, and that was a longggg time ago, together. After that we ate chocolate birthday cake. Elizabeth told her dad that she is talking to a boy. She was really scared to do that because her dad doesn't like boys around her. He reacted really calm. So different than I expected. When Sarah came to our room later in the evening, she told us that she told Ryan about the boy, so he could think about it. That was probably the best thing she could do. The rules in America about dating are so different and parents are so overprotective. It is kind of weird, but I really appreciate the Netherlands more since I'm here.

On Thursday morning I heard of a threat that was made against a bunch of students. Somebody sent a collage with the pictures on a fake account on snapchat. Everybody was talking about it who it could be and what the person wanted to do. I really thought people were over exaggerating. The person who made that collage was just jealous of those people. During third period I heard already enough to know who it was. Because it happened in my study hall. There are not many high schoolers in my study hall and 2 of them were in the collage. One girl who was in the collage knew what the snapchat name stood for and a lot of other things. And she was the only one who had a connection with every single person. And the persons on the list were really random. After lunch she confessed that it was her. I don't know what is going to happen to her, I think she will be kicked out of school. Because school contacted snapchat, snapchat contacted the police in Indianapolis and they contacted the FBI. There were policemen al over the school. I think it is weird that people take something like this so seriously. We even made the news. You can see my school in this video and they explain a little about the threat. http://www.fortwaynehomepage.net/story/d/story/north-manchester-jr-sr-high-school-student-sends-c/41868/W9DpkWeac0iLwfK7Ujvsdw

Cali was at our house when I got home. She learned us how to knit a scarf around our arms. We ate the birthday cake leftovers. Elizabeth got out of practice early because they had a game the next day. Paige, a classmate of E, came over to work on a project and I customized my class ring. When they left, we ate dinner and half an hour before we had to leave for Pilates, somebody hit our telephone pole so we didn't had any power in the house or the farm. But Ryan had to milk the cows in half an hour so he was really stressed out. We left for Pilates and when we came back, the power was working again. The only thing that didn't work was the wifi. So E and I took a shower and went to bed because we didn't had anything else to do.

I was already done with my pajama pants we were making in Fashion and Textiles, so I brought some pants who were ripped. I fixed al my and E's pants. The wifi still didn't work when we got back home, so there was not very much to do. We watched some tv and I layed in bed for a while. E went to the basketball game. I went with Ryan and the little people. It was a home game, so everybody was sitting in 'the jungle'. That is the bleachers for the high school people. The theme was white out. So everybody was dressed in white. It was so much fun with al the cheers we did. The JV lost but varsity won. The basketball players had a dinner after that so I went home with Sarah. I went to bed right away, because I had nothing better to do and it was pretty late.

On Saturday I slept in. I went down for breakfast and I helped Sarah clean. After that I went to my bed again. I didn't feel very well. Elizabeth came home from basketball. And she wanted to take a nap so I joined her. Bailey came home with Elizabeth. But she watched tv with the little kids. I showered, when they left for their basketball game. I went with my hostparents and the Collett's to the game. Trisha, the college student, came too. JV and Varsity both won. We went to McDonald's after for dinner. We picked Bethany and Elizabeth up and went home.

On Sunday we went to church. After that we went to Fort Wayne for Williams birthday lunch. We went to the same restaurant as the first day I came here. We went home afterwards and took a nap. We could only nap for 1 hour, because we had to clean the house for the people who were coming over. Elizabeth invited the boy she was talking to for dinner and to meet her parents, and oh my gash, that was the most awkward thing I've ever seen in my life. We had to leave at 8 for our plex game. And Rainer stayed at our house for more than an hour after that. We had to play the boys that night, so we kinda failed. But it doesn't matter. We went to Wendy's after our game for a frosty. We came home at 10:45. So we showered and went to bed.

10-11 tot 17-11; Dutchie weekend

Antonia, Sophia, Freja (Lisan's double placement from Denmark) and I went on a field trip to Indianapolis with the German exchange students and their American exchange students. We had to be at school at 6:30. It was a 2 hours drive. Our first stop was at the Lucas Oil Stadium. This is the stadium where the Colts play. We got a tour trough the whole building. We went into their locker rooms, on the field and we sat in the most expensive seats in the stadium. It was such a cool experience. After our tour we went to the Indy 500 museum. This is a museum about race cars and stuff. It was really boring for me. Luckily we were there for 45 minutes. Our next stop was at the mall. We got 1 hour and 40 minutes to eat lunch and shop. So we went to Panda Express for lunch. We went to a few stores as fast as we can and we made it in time. We walked to the Indiana State Senate building. We got a tour and mennn, that was so boring. The tour lasted more than one hour. After the State Senate, we went to the War Memorial Museum. The tour guide was the best one we had all day. It was still boring, but a lot more interesting then all the another museums we went to. Our last stop was at Steak 'n Shake. We eat dinner and had a delicious shake. At 6 o'clock it was time to leave. We were back at school at 8.
Antonia and I were talking about swimming in the bus ride back home. We both don't really enjoy it. We only do it because we want to do a sport. So we decided to talk to the coaches the next morning instead of going to practice. They thought it was really unfortunate that we stopped, but they understood. We watched the remaining time of the swim practice and went to school after that. After school I went home with the bus. At 6 o'clock we went to the Collett's for dinner. When we got home Elizabeth and I picked out our clothes for the Fall Sport Awards we had on Wednesday.
On Wednesday I could finally 'sleep in' again. It was really weird to take the bus in the morning again. After lunch I went on a field trip to Wabash. There was a college fair. I saw Freja at the college fair. It was kind of pointless that I went there because I'm not going to college in the US. But some stands had candy, so I enjoyed myself. We came back before our Spanish class. I went home with the bus after school. I had to be at school in the evening for the fall sports awards. The soccer girls won the best GPA average. That means that we have the highest grades. We watches a movie my coach made with pictures and video's she took. You can watch that video here;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJhWzDSCFpQ. I got my varsity letter, scholar athlete patch and my graduation year for my letter jacket. When we got home, we saw Logan. He is here for the weekend. So we hung out in the evening.
Thursday was a normal day. Elizabeth had a team dinner after her practice and bailey came to our house. They had a game the next day and had to dress up, so she picked out some of our clothes to wear. I went to Pilates with Sarah. It was kind of awkward because my Spanish teacher was there too.
Sarah picked me up from school on Friday. We went to Michigan to pick up Julia. She lives 3 house away, so we met her somewhere. We ate McDonalds in the car for dinner. When we got home we hung out for a while. Elizabeth had a basketball game and I had a cabaret. I had to perform a song with TeriAnn and Destiny. So Julia went with me. Sarah and Ryan watched the game from Elizabeth. The next morning we started cleaning the house. Elizabeth went to basketball practice and Julia, Sarah and I picked up Joe. Sarah wanted to go to a store when we were in Kokomo to pick Joe up. When we were there, we got a text from Jan that they didn't know where wouter was. He went to the hairdresser in the morning at 9 and he wasn't pack at noon. Luckily he came home half a hour later. We went grocery shopping and ate lunch at Wendy's. At 4 o'clock we were finally complete. The Duchies were reunited. Antonia came too so she could hang out with Elizabeth. I gave everybody a tour around the farm and in the evening we went bowling. I saw Bailey at the bowling hall so I introduced her to everybody. I won both the times. And Wouter was really devastated because he lost 2 times on 3 point. When we came home we watched tv till 3 in the morning. William made breakfast the next morning. Everybody took showers and we hung out for the rest of the day. Lisan and Freja came too. It was Freja's birthday on Saturday, so they couldn't come on Saturday. Wouter and Jan left earlier because they had a 3 hour trip home. The hostmom of Lisan and Freja brought Joe home and we brought Julia home. Then we went to Taco Bell for dinner. I actually had a Plex game this night, but I wanted to take Julia home. Elizabeth called us in the car that the girls from Oakhill couldn't make it to the game, so there weren't enough players. So I was really glad I made the decision to take Julia home. This was really the best weekend after camp since I'm here. I'm really happy that I made such good friends at camp, but it's to bad that the other people live that far away. I can't wait till another Dutchie weekend or the meeting with the Dutch people when I'm back home.