Kategorie: Johanna’s Adventures

Today Sarah drove us to DA and there we were able to experience a normal school day like our exchange partners have 5 days a week.

First Piper and I went to „Algebra“ were they studied about a topic we had already in Germany.

Then we went to the „REP Course“ were the students from the Theater Musical basically performing songs from musicals in front of the teacher and the class. It was so impressive for Laura, Aleks and me but in the end the teacher wasn’t satisfied with the performances. From our standpoint it was really hard to understand his professional critics because for us it seemed really good!

After that we had lunch breack and hung out at the lunch area in and outdoors and met also other friends from our exchange partners.

The 3st period we had „Theater History“. My class is reading ‚Cat on a hot tin roof‘ a very interesting story about a family with a big farm and who will get it when the grandfather dies. It was so interesting to sit in this lesson because the teacher was really relaxed and let us do whatever we want. But for me it was very cool to follow the lesson where they read a part of the story aloud! 🙂

In the last period we were again in the class of Mr. Barnes and finished the last part of the Halloween story in the Italian catacombs. It is funny to see how difficult this „old English“ is for us to understand because of some words in it we don’t understand.

Celias (a friend from Piper we always drive to school with) mom drove us home and there we had a little snack and rested for a little bit.

Then I wanted to take the dogs for a long walk while Piper would go to a class in the gym. The whole way to the bridge over the St. Johns-River went well and was really cool with both dogs. But was a walk without adventure: Moxy got something into her foot and I was not able to get it out alone so I called Sarah because I wouldn’t force Moxy to went the whole way back home with it! So Patrick picked us up and drove us the 2 miles home again where I met Piper again 🙂 There wasn’t something bad in Moxys foot and Patrick got it out in less than one minute 🙂

We all rested for a little bit and after that we had dinner together and I teached Margot how to play „Maumau“ what is basically the same as Uno just with other cards (I brought some with sights of Munich) 🙂

Today was a great day and I experienced what a normal day here would look like. Even if there are some differences it reminds me of my allday life in Germany! It was so cool to learn more about that today and to share that day eith my host family I’m so grateful for! 🙂

This is Mollys Halloween costume that cames today! She was so happy because it has arrived!

Housetour – where I live

My room, or exactly Margots room where I stay while I’m here 🙂

Our big kitchen

The hole living area

Our porch

The huge back yard

And what the whole house look like 🙂

I love this whole house – it feels like a home! 🙂

After waking up I ate my oatmeal with an apple and packed my lunch in! Then Patrick drove Piper and me to DA and there I met all other exchange students and Mrs. Kaindl, Mr. Costa and Mr. Barnes! With three cars we drove into the direction of St. Augustine. I sat in a car with Janna, Annemarie, Anna and Mr. Barnes drove us! We stopped at Bucc’ees and it was the hugest bus station I’ve ever seen!

Then we drove to the parking place (I’ve never seen such a big and beautiful one) and got tickets for the Fort Castillo de San Marcos. That’s a fort near to the Matanzas River and we had a beautiful view over the harbour of St.Augustine and at the horizion we saw the Atlantic. This fort was actually the first city of the United States and was very long spanish!

We spent less than one hour in the tourist street of St.Augustine and I got 2 wunderful stickers for 7 $ 🙂

Then we went to the Outlet Shopping mall and stayed there for almost 2 hours! I bougth a very pretty Columbia Fleece that looks soooo beautifulllll 🙂

When I came home I took the dogs (Maisey and Moxie) for a long walk around the neighbourhood which was pretty fun! Baby Kitty was really cute because she followed us the hole way long :)!

Then friends from the family came over for „Taco Tuesday“ and this dish was soooo tasty! The friends from the Lynches had been to Germany so we chatted a bit about it and they got two sweet children who where at our house too!

It was such cool day and it was so interesting to see the first city of the US and get to know the historical backround! I’m really looking forward to tomorrow where I go to school with Piper 🙂 I’m so happy to be in this host family because it seems like home :)! ✨📌

I woke up around 7:30 a.m. After breackfast we talked a little bit and then Patrick went to work. Sarah, Molly, Margot, Piper and I picked up Cassey and drove to an area called Guana at Pontevedra Beach where we went on a hike with friends from the family! That was Ms.Caroline the woman who babysitted the Lynches for years and her kids Jack and Gorgia. They have a really close relationship and the kids of her were so cute! Jack was running around with Margot and Molly and in the beginning his shoes looked white and in the end they were brown 🙂 Gorgia was sitting in the stroller (in the end with Molly :)). It was really fun and the nature here looks so diffrent than in Munich!There were a lot of interesting things: an old vessle of a sailing ship, many diffrent birds and a „banana spider“. And we ate cake pops, yummy!

For lunch we went to Chick-fil-A, the most popular fast food store in the US everybody likes! The chicken nuggets and the fries were very tasty! Then something really unusually happen: An employer of Chick-fil-A gave us 2 milk shakes for free and that’s very uncommon here! I just took a small zip because I was full but it was a very nice suprise!

Because I was a little tired I took a 30 min nap and then facetimend my parents and there were talking with the hole family and I was very happy to see them and tell them how glad I am to be here! I gave them a house tour and it was so cool to show them all this!

Then Patrick came home from work and took us to the Bolles School Campus where Margot and Molly had track and field lessons. It was funny to see how enormous and huge this private school was with many cool places to go there. But I’m glad that I go to my public school in Munich and get more sigths of the world than the rich people in this (I would call it so) „gated community“ because they never learn there how lucky and privileged they are and how happy/satisfied they should be!

But for me as a guest it was really nice to see the whole campus and walk around there! Molly and Margot did soooo good and the sunset was amazingly beautiful! ✨

Their logo does look like that from the school my best friend Nele is in Oregon, Baker City!

So many Olympics went to Bolles?!? And one where at the olympics in my Olympic village in Munich too!

I love the trees with the moos, it’s so special!! And look: I stood in front of a yellow school bussss!!! 🙂

The sunset was extremely beautiful and Patrick, Piper and I watched Molly and Margot practise and we played with a ball Piper found! ( I was really excitee because I took my cirst steps on a real football field)!

At home I felt a little sore throat but Sarah had made the best chicken soup and I got a „sleepy tea“ and so I’m feeling better now. And we watched the cool series Legomasters together where pros build Lego statues based on a theme and in this episode they built „Kitty palazes“ 🙂 Hopefully I’ll have a good night sleep!! 🙂

It was such a wonderful day with so many new sides of the life here and I’m so grateful that I have the chance to experience all that! 🙂

Today I stood up around 8:30 a.m. I teached Margot and Molly how to knot bracelets and they both did so well! Then I ate a proteinbar with Piper! I also prepared me a oatmeal and the size of the milk and the oat box was so huge! 🙂 After that we drove to the gym with her dad and meet Casey there. I lifted weights the first time in my life and it was so much fun 🙂 I tried out some new things and it was really interesting! I lifted 75 pounds/34 kgs for backsquat and it was such a nice atmosphere there because everyone was motivating each other!

After lunch Piper and I went for a walk with the dogs and walked around the neighbourhood! Then Molly and I knotted bracelets again. Molly made brownies that tasted very good! And after that Patrick (Pipers dad), Sarah (Pipers Mom), Molly, Piper and I drove to a paint ball place where we picked up Margot! Piper and I walked around a little and talked about huricans and alligators – it’s funny because for them it is totally normal and they got used to it and for me from Germany it seems so uncommon and dangerous! And Sarah gave me really cute flowers!! 🙂

After a nap back home Piper and I went to her friend Audrey. On the way were so many trees with moose and it seemed so fantastical to me! At her house we picked her up and went to „Whits“, an ice cream shop in the neighbourhood, and I got the smallest one of ice cream but it was sooooo huge! The portions here are soooo big and there cheaper than in Germany. But Piper is rigth – so we Germans don’t have to pay for our health care! Then we did a soap water trampoline party and as you can see in the photo – it wa sooo funny and I have to do this again.

The swimming in the pool after it was soooo cool and fun and it was so warm! 🙂 Piper and I walked back home and the hole family sit outsixe in the garden near the fire pit! After that I took a shower, had some dinner and now we’re going to watch Ted Lasso together, one of the favorite series from my host family! 🙂

It was such a nice day and it was really cool to experience the allday life weekend with Piper and my hostfamily 🙂

Today I woke up and streched and make a bit of yoga. After reading a book and knotting my bracelet a little bit, everybody woke up. Margot made a fire in the yard and I tried the tasteful grapefruits out of the yard.

Then we had a typical American Breakfast: Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon! That tastes really good!

We rode with the car to an outdoor mall (which means that the stores are not in one big mall, instead there just all big halls of one store and there stand next to each other) and searched for a homecoming dress for Piper and bougth her new soccer shoes in one really big sport market! My host family also showed me the hiking and outdoor shop REI and it was really cool in there and sooo much to see!

After that we went into the big shopping mall Cosco and I’ve never seen such a big supermarket before! You can buy literally everything there and everything is soo big! Just look at the picture where Molly has this 3 pound bags of sweets in her arms, everything is there like that 🙂 We had our lunch there and I’ve never ate one pizza slice that just fulled me as one meal because it was sooooo big!! I also got two skort (skirts for sport with shorts underneeth) for 26$! Compared to Germany that’s really cheap and when we got home I tried them on and was soooo happy that I got them and one other shorts (for 8$ for sale in the Urban Fitters) 🙂 And in the Cosco there were many samples where you could try food for free!

Then we hang out the evening with one of Pipers friends from her childhood. First we brougth her parents to a foundraising party with the theme „80es“. After that we walked through the neighborhood and to the St.Johns-River. In the picture I’m almost crying because I was laughing so hard because I’ve never got such a big pizza in my life as you can see in the picture & and I’ve never been in such a big truck like in the picture!

We drove around and that was interesting bdcause I ride my bike with friends in Germany. It was really cool because we talked a lot about how thankful we are to live our lifes and we have many characteristics in common. For example we all love to move our body and work out! So tomorrow we want to go to the gym together but now I’m pretty tired so I’m going to bed! 🙂 But it was such a cool and nice and impressive third day :)!

Here you can see how funny our evening went! Casey (name of Pipers childhood friend) just got on one spaghetti top!

My day was soooo exciting!! I woke up (first I cuddled with this sweet cat) and nobody from my family was awake so I woke them up and we eat breakfast togehter! Then we drove to DA (Douglas Anderson School) and we started our school tour in the artirum and went to so many impressive places 🙂 The theatre is soooo big and all students perfrom so well! We went to the cinematic arts studio and there we had the „code red drill“ and it was a bit scary. Afterwards we watched other students perform in the music theatre class and that were so impressive songs from musicals!

Before we had lunch we went to a concert from a part of the orchestra and it was really great! The atmosphere in the theater history class was so cool and the last period we had English with an old text about italian catacombs! 🙂

Home we ate a snack (they do have tasty vegetables here, the tomatoes are really good and the chip bags are almost 10 times bigger than in Germany ) and prepared our selfs for the football game. The clothes theme was „pink“ so we put on pink clothes and went to Wolfson Highschool and I saw my first football game and it was soooo exciting! The music, the cheerleaders, the game and so many nice people, it was overwhelming impressive and cool!

Then we ate dinner at home and now I’ll went to bed! 🙂

I stood up at 5 a.m. and said goodbye to my sister and my mom. My dad and I drove to the Munich airport. There I met my class and my two teachers. I said goodbye and my first transatlantic flight started! I watched two movies and knotted a bracelet. We arrived to late in Charlotte, so we have to take a fligth four hours later and now I’m waiting with my friends!

But i did my first step in Americaaaa!!!!

Let me introdruce you to my „America stuffy“ Bonnie, my younger sister Laura gave it to me as a gift this morning!

At some point we were so tired that we just laied on the floor of the Charlotte airport. But the flight from Charlotte to JAX went very well and I slept the whole time.

My hostfamily welcomed me soooo nice and right now I’m laying in my bed in their beautiful big house with such a friendly and familiar atmosphere. I’m really excited what the next days are gonna be like, but now I just have to sleep because I’m really tired! 🙂

Monday, 09.10.23: Today I finally started packing my suitcase for my exchange. I’m so excited that it is so soon! When I laid my clothes on the floor before dinner I found our cat Sisi afterwards sleeping on them 🙂