Kategorie: USA Jacksonville

Today I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and Sarah drove me to school. We began our ride to the Kennedy Space Center at 7:50 a.m. and it took us 2 hours till we were there!

Everyting was really overwhelming and big 🙂 We started with a bus tour to the Apollo/Saturn V Center! We saw one of the first rockets of the world and had a very nice introduction to the KSC (Kennedy Space Center) from our bus driver. At the destination we saw two videos about the NASA and the way to the first moon landing. Then we had time to walk around by ourselves and there was an impressive rocket laying on the ground of the whole hall. We took great pictures in front of a green screen with astronaut clothes on. After that we had our lunch break outside and enjoyed the sun! 🙂

Here all rockets are build and the building is as big as 3 Empire State Buildings! 🙂

Back at the Main Visiting Point we got 3 hours to walk around by ourselves! First Annemarie, Ana and I went into the Atlantis Shuttle Center and watched a movie about the story of the first space shuttle and one moment later we stayed in front of it and could admire the Shuttle in real life.

In the Gateway we had the chance to stay in a simulator and we went on a trip to mars and that was sooo much fun!

In the impressive rocket garden we called our parents (and I called my grandma too) to show them around the visiting area and it was nive to see them again. – By the way I think it’s so crazy that we can connect from places all over the world: My mom and my cousin called us from Italy, my grandma from her city near Munich, my dad from Munich and me from the KSC! – That’s impressive! 🤗✨

In another building we saw the mars rover and other roboters and that was really interesting too see – they weren’t worn out or anything like that after their missions and that was really interesting!

In the universe theater we heard a woman talk about KSC in general and then about the next events and departures from rockets there! 🙂 🚀

At last we saw the movies in the heros and legends building which was basically the Hall of fame of astronauts from the NASA and the biggest achievements. ✨✨

We rode to the hotel and here we have a very nice room to stay!

After a short break we went again to an Outlet Mall and I got a really good seafood bowl there 🦐 🥣 ! As you can see there was a beautiful sunset, the shops weren’t crowded, the dinner was nice and I’m sooo happy!

And we got free cookies at Publixxxxxx 🍪

This day was so amazing and I saw a lot of interesting things and it all seems more like a dream than reality! ✨🤗

I woke up at 7:15, sat straight up, jumped out of bed and ran straight to the beach. I can’t describe how beautiful this sunrise was! 🌅 I think even the pictures can’t get it right but there beautiful! 🙂 I collected shells and enjoyed this moment and tried to keep this memory sooo safe in my heart! I saw 3 dolphins and many pelicans and I’m very impressed by this cool animals Florida offers.

After that we had breakfast: Pancakes & Sausages (with rosemary :))! And we sang a birthday song for Margot, she turned 12 today! Then we went to the beach and set up the place for our tent and walked near the Pier to a hotel where we rented bikes. The bikeride to the Neptune Beach was really funny and it were about 7 miles! The palms and the whole area looks so diffrent compared to Germany and the weather was so nice! I also got two books in a free library what is really cool because we don’t have as much as English books in bookstores as in America – logically :). On the halfway we had a very tasty lunch in a restaurant called ‚Sliders‘ and I shared a really good seafood plate (oysters and shrimps) with Sarah and Piper – and a corn meal that ws great two! 🦐🐚

We also saw a lot of dragonflies at the beach, I think the name is really cool for this insect! ✨

On the way back we drove a part on the beach and that was a lot of fun! And we drove our bikes next two one car where two pilots from the Blue Navy sat in! 🙂 ✈️️

We returned to the beach and watched the impressive huge airshow again. I called my dad, my sister, my mom and my grandma and I was very happy to see them all! I also spend a part of the Airshow in the ocean and there the airplanes seemed even nearer! 🙂 After it finished I stayed in the ocean with Molly and her friend Rosy and we were just jumping in the waves and diving and had a lot of fun 🤿 – we gave each other mermaid names 🧜‍♀️ After a swimm in the pool we got a last time in the water and then I said goodbye to the JAX Beach and we returned the bikes to the Hotel and drove back home. We snacked on the way really good Bretzels and Doritos – Piper drove so well! 🙂

Home I went for a walk to the river with Maisie and Moxy and then we had Steak, salad, potatos and cake as dinner which was soooo good!

A wunderful weekend is coming to an end and I’m so glad that I can experience this all here! 🙂 I packed my bag for tomorrow and even if I’m 1 1/2 week here it seems so unbelievable wonderful for me that this could be real ✨✨🌊🌊

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦

𝘔𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 3 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦! 𝘚𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺: 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦! 🙂

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 🏖

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸

First I woke up in the morning and saw the last part of the sunset from the balcony of our rented flat! Then we dressed up and Sarah made so good pancakes with their favorite pancakemix! After writing the blog from yesterday we walked to the beach (just stairs down and then 100 m :)) and built up our tent there. Then I went for a short walk with Piper to the Pier and back (the shells here are so pretty, I have to collet some tomorrow).

Margot, Molly and I colored the sand and Molly turned into the beautifulest mermaid! 🧜‍♀️

At 12 a.m. Margots birthday party started and we had some pizza 🍕! At 2 p.m. the ‚Air Show‘ began and till 4 a.m. there were airplanes all over the sky. They were from the Navy and it was so huge and impressive! I loved it and called my parents and showed them this crazy experience. It only happens once every two years here and this year it was at the beach! It was soooo cool!

Margot got her birthday cake and presents and we had a lot of good fruits! I snacked them the whole day and especially the strawberries are soooo good here! 🍓 I really love them because they taste so sweet and their from here!

I swam the first time at the other side of the Atlantic and compared to the water in Portugal and Spain it was soooo hot/ about 24°C! 🙂 Everytime I’m in the ocean it feels like I’m little Johanna and it’s so funny jump around the waves and just enjoy every moment near and in the water 🌊🌊

Until now (5.30. p.m.) my whole day was sooo great and I loved this Saturday because it just feels like summer and I’m very lucky to be here with just such a good family 🙂

Later we’ll go to the Downtown Beach Area and just walk around here at the beach! From our balcony we can see the sea and I love to be around the ocean this whole weekend ✨✨

I also saw so many animals for the first time in real life: dolphins in the morning and so many pelicans over the whole day! Here is a picture from the pelicans (even if the quality is bad) :

After a shower I fell even better and because we (all girls) forgot to take their hairbrush with them, I brushed my hair (for the first time) with a fork and it worked out way better than I thought! 🙂 – and the best part: I felt a little bit like Ariel 🧜‍♀️✨

Then we went for a walk… 🙂

And with the dark coming we ate „the best fried chicken“ from Publix with such a nice salad! Then we went again to the beach in the dark and had a lot of fun there 🙂 Now we’ll watch a movie about the US Navy ‚Blue Angels‘! We saw them today at the Airshow ✈️️

I got up as normal around 7 a.m. and made myself the breakfast I eat here and in Germany under the week (oatmeallll)! Then we went to school and first we had Algebra and it was funny for us that Pipers class had to shorten every term in maths and we often just use calculators. So there head/brain calculating is much more better than ours. After that we had Musical Theater and we were impressed how good some students performed! I can’t describe it here because that’s something you should see in real life – it is crazy how good DA students are in their art (and how the teachers find always something to improve, I mean that’s their job but for us it’s crazy!).

In the lunch breack there was the club rush where all clubs of the school stood outside and wanted to get new people for their clubs! 🙂 It was really interesting to see how other students try to make the school a even better place. Then Annemarie went to us to Thester History and I like this subject and the teacher because the script we’re reading is so interesting and meaningful. And this lesson is really relaxed! In the last lesson we had English with Mr. Barnes and I read my English book I brought there.

At home I went for a short walk with the dogs and then Piper and I began to prepare for Homecoming. It was so cool to do this together and I loved the atmosphere in the house, the excitement, the photo shooting in the house and the music we listened to in the car with the sunset on the horizon – unbelievable! I gave Piper a self-knotted bracelet as a gift because we were going to Homecoming together!

Then we arrived at the Homecoming Location, the Glassfactory. It was a big hall and the decoration was huge and beautiful and everybody looked so dressed up and good! The music wasn’t really my taste but that was okay! We danced, took pictures and found out who the Homecoming queen and king were. It was a impressive thing to experience and I liked a lot! 🙂

At 10 p.m. Abby’s mom drove us to the White Lie party from Pipers friend. It was a nice place to stay and the atmosphere was good! At a White Lie Party everyone writes a lie about themselves on white shirt/paper. I wrote „I hate hiking“ because I actually love it!

Then Abbys mom picked us up and took us to her house where Sarah waited for us and took us the house at the beach they’ve rented for the weekend. Standing on the balcony and watching the big waves of the Atlantic reminded me on Anna (she’s sailing across the Atlantic with Thor Hyerdahl) and especially how lucky I am to experience this adventure right here at such a beautiful place with so many nice people that already feel like family 🙂

What for a wunderful day! 🙂

The room where we have lunch everyday at DA (Douglas Anderson School of Arts) 🙂

What a typical American classroom look like!

The club rush

And now the homecoming pictures:

🙂 🙂 🙂 ✨✨✨✨✨

Unfortunately I didn’t sleep well this night and I still got a sore throat, cough and a running nose so I had to make a decision: Because of the next days will be so full of events and trips I wanted to stay at home and rest so I’m healthy for that all. So I texted my teachers, my family and friends that I would stay home! I slept almost the hole morning till lunch and after that again. The dogs always slept beside me and kept an eye on me the hole time 🙂 In my no-sleeping breaks I read the English book (‚See you‘) I brought with me from Germany. That is funny because I got it from a free library and Sarah told me that the Lynches were one of the families who had their own free library in their front yard in ther old house!

When everyone was getting home I felt so much better and that rest was exactly what I needed today! I was so fit again that I took the dogs on a walk to the St.Johns-River and a park again and that was really fun! 🙂 After that I took a shower and felt so much better. Piper and I went to her hairdresser and we chatted so nice. We talked about languages, France, French (his favorite city is Paris and I told them about my France exchange last year) and especially learing them 🙂 It was so interesting to talk as three for the hour and after that Pipers curles looked sooo good and she’s definitely ready for homecoming tomorrow!

At home we had such a good dinner, Sarah and I have definitely the same taste :)! JAX Jaguars are playing today in New Orleans and we’re watching that game while doing some other stuff done 🙂

I am so happy that I’m almost healthy again and that the restday was such a good decision! I’m really looking forward to tomorrow because it’s Homecoming and it’ll be sooo exciting! 🙂

The view of my window is soooo good!!!

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!