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Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, who reads this while it is still Thursday, November, 22. I´m sitting in the couch after a awesome day with the Playford family in the little town of Merrill, Mi. The food was incredible and kind of overwhelming. So many different to try and almost not enough space in the stomach. This week was really unusual for me. We had a different schedule in school, because it was the end of the trimester. First day was review first hour, exam first hour, review second hour, exam second hour, review third hour and the first day of the week was over. The second day was filled with the exams and reviews for third through fifth hour. It went pretty good in all the exams, but the final scores are not public yet. As well the swimming season started this week. The tryouts were monday-wednesday and the final decisions about the team are on monday. The tryouts were hard and really tiring. The schedule is tough and missing practices unexcused will result in get kicked off the team with the second violation. We have two personal off days, though. These are like excuses for absence. Tomorrow is „Black Friday“. It is an insane shopping day with sales and big discounts everywhere. Everybody tries to save as much money as possible and some go shopping from tonight 12 am or meet at 3:30 to go shopping. Another thing, that just started is Christmas season. Trees are selled and the streets start getting decorated.

After more than two weeks without the possibility to write here I use the election night to write again. The last few weeks were very busy. Homework, Studying, Reading, Homework and more Homework. The last weeks of the trimester will be insane with finishing a book, learning two chapters about World War II, having big tests in  Physiology and last but not least the four final exams for this tri in all my classes except the PE Class. I´m not really complaining about the amount of work, it just will be a big part of live until November, 21st. The three day week before Thanksgiving will be important with tryouts for the Swim and Dive Team. A big topic in the last week was the hell Sandy. We weren´t really effected by this storm, which means a lot rain and fast winds, but instead of NJ of NYC with floods and up to 60 feet /20 m water in the subway for more than 48 miles/ ca. 70 km it was nothing. All in all the weather is heading rapidly towards winter. This morning it was about 25°f/-2°C and the grass in front of the school got hoarfrost on it. The election is still going on and there is yet not a real tendency to a candidate. It´s like a election night in Germany with debates, updates of percentage points and counts of electoral votes. The magical barrier of 270 is not reached yet. Another big thing coming up soon are big decisions for the Graduation and After Grad Party. The decisions have to be done due friday/next Thursday. I didn´t think, that the school needs so long to plan everything and that the distributors of graduation clothes and things need a so long lead time. Anyway will I try to keep up with writing again.

The last week was awesome. Hailey did her Stateqalifications in the 50yds in 0:25.03 and the 100yds in 0:55.33 tuesday at Jenison High School. So she can swim at the statefinals the 50free, the 100free, the 200free relay and the 400free relay. She wasn´t, however, the only one, who qualified for the state finals. Adrianna did her 100fly in 1:00.1 and Dakota her 50free in 0:24.83 at thursday. Both are members of the Rockford Swimming and Diving Team. Thursday, as well, was Senior Night at Rockford Highschool for Girls Swimming and Diving and the Girls Volleyball Team. Unfortunately they lost versus Grand Haven. The same night, although, the Detroit Tigers eliminated the Yankees in the afterseason playoffs. They won 4 games and the last was like a punch in the face for the Yankees! Their best pitcher let Miguel Cabrera do an two point homerun and another two point homerun for the Tigers. At least they won 8:1. Friday was opening night for Flat Stanley. The show at the Civic Theater, which Andrew and Amanda take part in. It´s a great show. Saturday we went to 24hour Theater at the East Grand Rapids Highschool, which is a challenge for Writers, Directors and Actors. The writers write a play in 12 hours and the Directors and Actors have 12 hours to perform it. It was awesome! After that we went to a haunted Cornfield. It was really scary, but great performance of the actors and builders. For example there were „cornfed clown“s, who chase you or little girls, who started screaming. Yesterday night I cooked aspargus soup. It was very yummy. Just used sour cream instead of fresh cream. As well we went to the movies and saw „Perfect Pitch“. It’s such a great movie! This week will be busy with two tests and a few shows of Flat Stanley.

Homecoming was awesome! Hailey and me got driven in a Lincoln 😀 to a friend´s house for dinner and had a lot of fun. The school was decorated great in the theme of „Haunted Homecoming“ with spidernets, zombies, skelletons and coffins. Unfortunately the DJ quit 15 minutes before the dance and the „substitute“ DJ came 1.5 hours later, so the music the first 90 minutes was not really good. All in all, however, it worthed the high ticketprices  and the skipped sleep ;). Although I just knocked myself some hours ago out I had no headache and felt great. The afterparty at Adrianna´s house was nice. We watched the Disney 🙂 Movie „Spirit“ and played a bit pool. I got to bed at 3:30 am and I´m still really tired, but it was a great night. The pictures are online at : https://picasaweb.google.com/108204582564821266521/ExchangeYear201213?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiYt_DT6prcwgE . School is keeping me busy with assignments and tests and the weather is getting colder with 2°C/36°F in the morning.

{:de}I love Physiology and Anatomie, but this class is just a bunch of work in a very short time. This week and next week will be a lot to do. We have a big project in American Studies, we read a book in English called „Of Mice and Men“ . A really nice book, which deals with migrant workers. And at least we had a big tissue identification test thursday, a really big tissue test next wednesday and a article-assignment is due thursday. All in all very stressfull, but not impossible. This week, however, was awesome. The colour of the leafs is like gold and the weather was bright and only a bit cold with 37°F in the morning. The Homecoming week with all the Themedays and the Seniornight in Waterpolo. We won 15:1 vs Grand Haven. Go Rams!!! Friday was the Homecoming-Footballgame with Tailgating and so on. We won 49:7 and the first Touchdown was after a great pass in the Running after the first kickoff of the guests. INCREDIBLE!! And yesterday I got a really nice and totally fluffy blanket. Today is Homecoming day and it is like Home. 45°F, it rained the whole morning, there is coming more and there are still grey and deep clouds. By the way I had a little secret for the people, that are not on facebook with me and live not in Belmont, Rockford or Grand Rapids. I´m going to homecoming and used all the opportunities. I got a date, will do pictures, go to the dance. Some pictures are on the Album ;). And pictures from the game and the headache i got while i went down some stairs and jumped against the ceiling. I knocked myself for 1/10 out and fell down some stairs. But everything is ok and I´m cooling it with ice. A picture is online, too ;). The Homecomingpictures will I uplaod in the next days.{:}{:en}I love Physiology and Anatomie, but this class is just a bunch of work in a very short time. This week and next week will be a lot to do. We have a big project in American Studies, we read a book in English called „Of Mice and Men“ . A really nice book, which deals with migrant workers. And at least we had a big tissue identification test thursday, a really big tissue test next wednesday and a article-assignment is due thursday. All in all very stressfull, but not impossible. This week, however, was awesome. The colour of the leafs is like gold and the weather was bright and only a bit cold with 37°F in the morning. The Homecoming week with all the Themedays and the Seniornight in Waterpolo. We won 15:1 vs Grand Haven. Go Rams!!! Friday was the Homecoming-Footballgame with Tailgating and so on. We won 49:7 and the first Touchdown was after a great pass in the Running after the first kickoff of the guests. INDERCREDIBLE!! And yesterday I got a really nice and totally fluffy blanket. Today is Homecoming day and it is like Home. 45°F, it rained the whole morning, there is coming more and there are still grey and deep clouds. By the way I had a little secret for the people, that are not on facebook with me and live not in Belmont, Rockford or Grand Rapids. I´m going to homecoming and used all the opportunities. I got a date, will do pictures, go to the dance. Some pictures are on the Album ;). And pictures from the game and the headache i got while i went down some stairs and jumped against the ceiling. I knocked myself for 1/10 out and fell down some stairs. But everything is ok and I´m colling it with ice. A picture is online, too ;). The Homecomingpictures will I uplaod in the next days.{:}

Saturday was a nice day with no stress after a very short night with only 5 hours from 3.30 to 8.30. I got a bunch of Homework done and started playing guitar. Very exhausting for your wrist and you get horny skin on the fingertips. This moment I´m trying to learn Country Roads. It´s very hard to increase the speed of gripping the accords. Sunday was awesome. We went to a really nice restaurant in East Grand Rapids to celebrate Robyns birthday and to have diner before we went to the Grand Awards of all Theaters and Colleges of Grand Rapids and the area around. The presentation was great with lots of great actors, that showed parts of plays, that were performed during last year. School keeps me busy and I´m excited for homecoming on Saturday. Later more about this topic. Today was college day in the homecoming week, so we should wear something of our favourite college. GO MSU!!
This is the link to the Album with the latest pictures:https://picasaweb.google.com/108204582564821266521/ExchangeYear201213?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiYt_DT6prcwgE

This week was great! The Swimming-Sets for competitive are still a challenge and I´m sure they will be long in this status for me. But I love it! The activity wakes me up and I get in shape for the swimmingseason. American Studies is still awesome with Mr. Dekuiper as teacher. English not my favorite like all languages you have to take in school. Manufacturing Engineering is great started a few days ago with cutting of our drawings. Means telling the computer, how the cnc-machine has to cut which parts how deep and with which tool. That´s much more fun than draw things. And Physiology is just great like all Scienceclasses! Just got done with a lot of skits about all different kinds of tissues in our body. Yesterday we had a shorter day, because the Homecoming King and Queen were elected. The stage for all nominees was like a Abiparty decorated with stuff about „haunted homecoming“ like Halloweenstuff. Very nice! And there were some surprises for the Homecomingcourt, who got elected as King and Queen. Our homecomingqueen started crying for joy. Very emotional. This weekend and yesterday is and was a waterpolo tournament and I went to two games. The JV-team lost, but they played vs a Varsity-team, so it was not too bad. And our Varsity guys won 16:6 vs Grandville. GO RAMS!!! Later that night I was in the movie „Looper“ with some friends. A great movie and very insrutable like Inception or The Source Code. Why I am telling that in past tense, because it is 1.45 am in the morning and I should go to bed ;).

The system with trimesters instead of semesters have advantages and downsides. On the one hand you have more opportunities for your schedule and the ability to try more classes to figure out, which part of education you like, but on the other hand there are tests and projects in less time then in a semester-system. These characteristics of the trimester-system have a big a big influence on my workingstint and time for other stuff. Every other week a test in American Studies or Physiology and sometimes two in one week additional to homework and project assignments create a condition of constant studying and getting ready for performance reviews. Could be that this sounds a bit like school is my life, but it is not. Another option is that the teachers expect „less quality“ (attempt to describe it) in homework and I´m just a perfectionist and could pay less attention on school. This does not mean, that I should not care about school. Anyway my weeks are busy and my weekends are busy too. Sunday I was at church, I got a new phone, had a bit swimming practice with Hailey to get in shape for the swimming season, worked a bit at ROK Systems, my dads company, searched for an article about body and bodysystems and did a bunch of homework. Sounds impossible, but I did it. But if success is the result of work, it worths it certainly. In aquatics fitness I´m doing pretty good. Just started yesterday the training of the grils swimming team. Much harder then the stuff I did before, but I will getting used to it. For example : 400 yard pull (freestyle without legkicks) in 6 minutes and this 2 times or 3 times 150 yd kick (only legs freestyle with board) @ 3 minutes. Monday was another waterpologame vs Grand Haven. We won both, although the JV-Game was with 9:7 tighter then the varsity game with 13:5. A big thing is going on today night. The Presidential debate for the election 2012. Very interesting and a bit different to our debates before the big elections. Just the last minutes seen. A bit strange, how open they advertise for their own programs and how blantaly they criticise the other. We will see, how this way to the elction will be.

I had a great last week. The weather was ever about 70°F/22°C after noon every day and it never rained. Not usual in the rainiest town of Germany ;). In the school I´m very successful. On 25 Yards I´m faster with 11.9sec than some Girl-Swimming team. Just got the time on Friday. My test in American-Studies is the best with 102 of 101 points. Only possible, because I did extra credit for it and got 5 extra points. Last but not least I got a bar of Hershey´s for the „Stud of the Week“ in English. Sounds a bit self-regarding, but I´m proud. Finally the week wasn´t the whole time great. I got on Wednesday a light sinusitis, but Thursday it was surprising better. Probably sportly activity and enough sleep help a lot ;). Wednesday we beat East-Grand-Rapids in Waterpolo with 13:5 and we got 10:0 before the hometeam goaled. Go RAMS!!! The Friday-Footballgame vs West Ottawa was awesome. We won 24:14, the marchingband showed an indecredible show and the aftergame party was great. Unfortunately MSU lost vs Ohio State 16:17 today. Were some bad calls in it, but all in all it was ok. Pictures are rare, because I don´t have ever a camera with me. Try to get some more in the next days and weeks. Die Deutsche übersetzung der Seite kann jetzt auch direkt über den Link http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=en&tl=de&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=wuppersaver.de erreicht werden. Wenn man dann die Seite als Lesezeichen speichert, sollten die Übersetzungen direkt geladen werden ohne den Umweg über diese Seite.

Last week wasn´t that busy like the week before.
Only one big test in physiology and today one american-studies test about
Industrialization, Immigration from 1890-1920, Segregation and discrimination of african americans and the big monopolists during this timeperiod. Friday we were in Grand Rapids at the Art Price festival. It´s like a really big exhibition with hundreds of artists all over places in Grand Rapids. Restaurants, squares and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. You can register to vote and after 2 weeks there is a winner. One of the artists is a good friend of family friends. She had on Sunday a housconcert at theirs house. The jazz was very fun! At the weekend I had my first orientation by YFU, too. Unfortunately we had about 6°C and the huts had no isolation. Fortunately was the sleeping bag very warm. All in all it was a very nice weekend and i got to know a lot of new people from about 15 countries. And tomorrow is a good day. Two hours less school and two hours longer sleeping. And manufacturing engeneering is a lot of fun. Drawing things first and then create a way to cut them out of metal. Very challenging, but i love it.