update #14 - Hunington Beach/mid term Finals week/ Swiss Traditions

Days count: 154
It's been a while since the last update, so there's a lot to tell about. By the way, yesterday was half-time of my time here.
So, we went to Hunington beach, which is near Los Angeles, because my host mum had a cross fit competition there. We got out of school earlier, it took us like 4 hours to get there, but we stopped in Valencia to have lunch. Basically we just drove around and had dinner somewhere in Long beach I guess, after that I took care of some friends kids. The next day, we went to Hunington and cheered for my host mum at her competition. For dinner we went to Hooters. 
The next day, we headed out home, but we stopped at a mall and we went to visit my host mum's sister.


Monday after our little trip, our mid term finals week started. Monday and Tuesday we had our usual schedules, Wednesday we wrote exams in Aerobics and US History. On Thursday we I had my finals in Biology and Choir (but my teacher quit, she told us on that day, so I'll probably have another fifth period after Christmas break, I don't know yet). On the last day, I had Algebra and English. 
To be honest, I feel like the tests were easy. It's still hard, because you have a 90 minutes test in every subject and this every day twice, you have to study, because if you fail there's no way you can pass that class. 

We baked Grättimänner on Thursday, my host sisters cousine came over and we made some. Actually, the cat ate them, so we only had a few. They really liked them though.

On Sunday, we had Kingsbury Christmas, which is the Christmas party of my host dad's family. They're all firefighters, that's why it is hard to find a date where everyone is off work, that's when they celebrate it. 

We had breakfast at the house where the party was, then we got presents. Everyone got a little box with their name on it and presents from the grand parents in there. I got a lot of nice things, I have no clue how I should get all that home. 

On Monday, the IEC (=International Exchange Coordinator) of this town took some of the Exchange students on a christmas shopping trip to Bakersfield. 

Yesterday night, we made traditional American Sugar cookies. We made the dough by ourselves and then we decorated them. It is not the same as in Switzerland, because they make different kinds of cookies than we do and they decorate them way more. It's kinda like a party, because you invite friends to do it together, then you have dinner with them and stuff. 

      

I am part of the EF High School Exchange Year Ambassador Program in Switzerland. If you are interested, there's still time to sign up for an exchange year in Ireland, England or the US. http://www.efswiss.ch/de/highschool/

update #13 - christmas parade

days count: 137

Okay so this week started off pretty usual, just high school. I've had many test because I had to make up some that I missed when I was absent from school. 
On monday it was 'Cyber monday' which means every online store has everything 50% off, so I bought christmas presents and stuff. On tuesday we had our cross country banquet, which means cross country season for 2016 is definitely over & everyone got their certificate and stuff.
On wednesday we didn't do anything special, but on thursday I went to the junior high choir concert for my mixed choir final, so we had to do our concert critique. The high school choir concert is going to be the following thursday.
Friday we didn't do a lot, but yesterday I hang out with two of my friends. One of them just got her license, so we got starbucks and went to a little store in downtown Tehachapi & got stuff to make necklaces by ourselves. After that we ate pizza & went to the christmas parade, and after that to a house which was really decorated with lights, so the made a light show.
Today we went to a gender reveal party. It was really exciting and there were many good desserts, everything in blue and pink. The reveal was really cute, they had a box which they opened and the color of the balloons that flew out said if it's a girl or a boy. Actually I was dressed pink, but it's gonna be a boy.
I have one more week and then it's finals week, which means I'll probably mess up 'cause I'm not ready for that, lol.

Differences between my home country and the United States

This post is not to judge any culture, anyone or anything. I want to share my experience about how I see this country and what's the difference to where I'm from. Don't take anything personal, this is based on my experience here in general. 

#1 Cars/Public transportation:

The cars here are so much bigger than the cars in Switzerland. When I saw my host family's car here in Fresno at the airport for the first time, I was like OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS? IS THAT YOUR CAR? ITS HUGE! And they were like 'yeah, it's just a normal car'. About 95% of the people here don't use public transportation like trains and busses, they take their cars to get everywhere & tbh I understand. It's difficult & expensive to travel here. Most of the people I know have never been in a train or bus and most of them also not in an airplane. 

#2 Politics:

Okay, as we know a new president got elected & the people in Europe, especially Switzerland are not happy with Trump at all. However, many people here are happy that Trump won, and I get why but I'm not sure if he was the better choice. People in the United States have a different imagination of how the politics here should work. Honestly, I didn't really care when Trump won, because I feel like they're both stupid.

I can see why people here like Trump more, he has never been into politics, people here think that he is "just a normal person" (who has many towers made out of gold, lol) but Clinton is evil. There is a lot of gossip that doesn't reach Europe. Publissity wants Europe only to know certain things about the candidats and they reached their goals. 

#3 Food:

I'm pretty sure that all you guys think that food in the US is mostly fast food, which means fried, fat, sweet,...

That's actually true, but I know that there are people who cook fresh stuff like vegetables & things like that, where I live it's different. We have a lot of Mexican food and we heat up a lot of things in the microwave or we go out to eat.

Tbh I gained a lot of weight because of that, but the food tasts amazing. And also you get free refill for Soda and free water everywhere, and for me that makes sense. 

#4 Geography skills:

Okay, I don't want to sound mean, but Americans have a lot of trouble with geography. I feel like for most of them it's just the United states and the rest of the world is like a really really small place without civilisation and stuff. I got so many dumb questions & people still think Sweden & Switzerland are the same. "Do you guys have cars?", "Is there WiFi in Sweden" (tbh I'm not sure, not Swedish tho), "Do you have water over there?" 

Once I was looking at an America map & a girl came up to me, putted her finger on the state of Nebraska & asked me if that's Switzerland.

I think you should have your own opinion about that, I think it's pretty sad.

#5 School:

Americans have 12 years of school, Swiss people have 9. Here I'm in 11th grade and at home I gratuated after 9th grade. For me, the school here is much easier than in Switzerland, even English class is not hard. It depends what classes you take, my classes are like medium hard. Everyone picks their classes by themselves, that's what I like here, but you have different people in every period, which makes it harder to make friends. 

#6 Religion:

Many people here go to church every Sunday morning. My host family doesn't, but my host siblings go to youth group sometimes. I have many mormons in my school, where I'm from there are not many religious services.

#7 Shopping:

In my hometown, I took a train & I was in Basel after about 20 minutes, then I went shopping in the streets there. In America, there are basically almost just malls, there are only a few stores downtown. Malls are much easier because they have parking lots & since you have to drive a car to get anywhere, it's much easier in a mall & you have basically all the stores you need in one mall.

It really matters how you look, what clothes you wear and if you wear something more than once a week in school, I think that sucks.

#8 Houses/rooms:

The houses in America are really nice, but it depends where you live. There are not many apartments & if, then in really big cities like Los Angeles or Vegas. The rooms are decorated really cute & most families have their name printed on the walls. They have seasonal decoration & planners on blackboards & stuff like that. It is kinda important how your house looks like. 

The dorms are also really cute, most people have little lights over the windows & the bed matches with the colour of the rest of the room. Americans hang up all their clothes with hangers in their closet. 

Most teens have a TV with netflix in their room, some don't. 

#9 Social media:

Basically all the Americans have a smart phone or a tablet. The adults all keep in touch with other family members that live far away with facebook. There are people who are about 80 that use FB or IG.

The teens have Snapchat & they snapchat everything. Even if it's just *I had chicken for dinner*

I think it's surprising that younger kids who are about 6 have their own tablets, they have netflix oder games on it & some also have Instagram. People do not use Whatsapp, they use iMessage instead, which means 99% of the people here have an iPhone.

Americans watch a lot of TV, they mostly watch Football or Baseball games or shows on Netflix. 

There's wifi almost everywhere, in many cafe's like Starbucks or in trains you have free internet which makes it really easy to get connection if you don't have a deal with at&t or horizon or something.

#10 People:

I think Americans are way more friendly than Europeans. They are way more open and for example when you're at a train station, people come up to you and ask if you need help, they hold the doors, they say 'hi' to each other and stuff. But they forget about you, once they talk to you and on the next day they don't even say hi to you at school. They are more open but it's not like that you are friends with them from then on. In Europe that's kinda different. 

As I already said, I did not want to judge anyone, it's just my point of view and I love both countries and cultures. I recommend a visit to the United States or especially California to everyone, it is really beautiful and totally different to Europe. And I also recommend Europe to the Americans, I promise, you're gonna love it.

BTW: Don't miss my last blog update down here, it's about Thanksgiving.

update #12 Thanksgiving/Sacramento Trip

days count: 130
On saturday morning of last week, our Thanksgiving break started. Actually for me it started earlier because I didn't feel good and missed school for a few days. I went to my host siblings soccer games in Bakersfield. In the evening I was invited at my IEC's house, so we had a really nice dinner there. On sunday, I decided to visit Selina, one of my friends from home, at her host family's house in Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento. On monday morning I took a really early train, which drove to Stockton. There I switched on a bus which took me to Valley Station, Sacramento. 


The trip took really long, about 9 hours and I was by myself, so there were some pretty scary moments. 
When I finally got to Sacramento, Selina's host dad picked me up and took me to his family's house. 

<3

Most of the time, Selina and I were just chillin' & talking or watching TV shows. We walked the dogs and she cut my hair and stuff. On wednesday, we went shopping because on friday was 'black friday' which means everything is on sale because of thanksgiving. We already went on wednesday because it was already a lot cheaper and we knew that the malls would be crowded on friday. We actually bought a lot, also like christmas presents and stuff.

On thursday, it was finally Thanksgiving. We got up pretty early to get ready for the party. We drove about an hour to Yuba City, first we went to Selina's host mums family's house where we stayed for about 2 hours. We did eyeshadow by ourselves and saw how they made turkey and just the typical Thanksgiving meal. After that, we went to her host dad's fame's house. Selina teached me how to play a song on the piano and I'm actually thinking about taking piano lessons at home because I love it. We
ate Thanksgiving dinner & honestly I was really full because there was a lot of food and I tried almost everything. Especially the desert was really nice,  there was pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake, cherry cake, muffins, everything you could think of. After dinner we were playing a game called "Clue" or something, it was funny. We got home pretty late and I booked my train back to Tehachapi then because I realized that all the train connections on all the other days were horrible. 

So yesterday morning I left Sacramento, which by the way is a beautiful city, and I got to Tehachapi at about 8 PM. I got a ride to the Valley station up there at like 10:30 AM so I had to wait by myself at the train station for 2 hours and it scared the heck out of me because there were many weirdos.
When the bus finally left, I had to switch on the train to Bakersfield after 1 hour and after 5 hours in the train I had to wait for the bus to Downtown Tehachapi. My host brother picked me up there with his new car that he got yesterday and we were playing some fun games on his xbox when we got home.

Today we decorated the house for christmas and made some cookies. I'm really excited for christmas season.


Since Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, I want to thank my family back home who makes all this possible for me. I want to thank my friends here & back home for supporting me through all this and I want to thank my IEC & my host family for helping me & giving me the oppertunity to be part of them. 


I am part of the EF High School Exchange Year Student Ambassador program, so for those who are interested to do a year abroad as a foreign Exchange student in the United States, England or Ireland, it's your turn to sign up for that now to become a part of the class of 2018. Get out of your comfort zone and visit an EF information meeting in your city.  https://www.efswiss.ch/de/highschool

update #11 - Veteran's day/Six Flags

days count: 118
Last thursday, all the periods were shorter than usual, only 45 minutes. That was because we had our Veteran's day Assembly. Veteran's day is a day where the whole country thinks about all the men that fight for this nation in wars. Some soldiers came to our school and told us about their stories, some of them were really sad. I think it was really good that we had this assembly because those are really important people that we should honor.

On friday night we didn't do a lot, but on Saturday we went to a birthday party of my hostsisters friend. She turned 14 and they made a party with nachos and brownies & ice cream & stuff. We were jumping out of the window on a trampoline and talked and watched TV and just fun things. 
The highlight of the weekend was the EF six flags magic mountain trip on sunday. My IEC (=International Exchange Coordinator) picked 4 of the exchange students in Tehachapi up at about 8 and we got to Valencia at about 9:30. The other exchange students were from Denmark, Sweden & Austria. There, we met exchange students who live in Bakersfield, Lancaster, Palmdale, Santa Maria and other places in the L.A. area of California. Six flags is my favorite amusement park ever. There are only crazy & terrifying rollercoasters, which is amazing if you love this kind of rides. There are different topics like Batman. super man, avengers but also unique things. My favorite roller coaster was called X2 and you're kinda like laying on your back when you're in your seat & then they start making a count down but they just randomly start. Then your head is down and you go threw loops and yeah I don't remember 'cause I hit my head about 30 times I guess, but it was awesome. The batman ride was also really fun. 


Another ride that I liked was the free fall tower which is about 120 meters tall. You can see whole Valencia & part of the Mojave desert which takes place in Death valley, that's where I live in too.
In the park I was hanging out with Nadja, she attends my high school but her hometown is in Denmark, and a girl from Switzerland, she lives near Zurich. 
After some rides we wanted to get food but it was really expensive in the park, so we asked our IEC (=International Exchange Coordinator) if we can stop at in n out burgers on our way home, so that's what we did.

By the way, I became part of the EF High School Exchange Year Student Ambassador program, so for those who are interested to become an Exchange Student for the class of 2017/2018 it's your turn to sign up now. Visit an information meeting in your city http://www.efswiss.ch/de/highschool/

update #10 - Halloween

days count: 106
Guess what guys, I went trick-or-treat on monday!! 
It was seriously amazing! There were so many decorated houses, the streets were crowded of families that took their kids to trick-or-treat and I just loved it. I wanna celebrate it like that every year. My little host brother did it with a bunch of other kids his age and they had hilarious costumes, like skittles or elsa from "Frozen." I was dressed up as a bee and usually we did not plan to trick-or-treat because we had a party at a friends house, but then they realized that this might be the only time int the life of exchange students that we could do it so they took us to a place where many houses were decorated and it was a just insane.
This was just a mini update, sorry for that.. School's getting busy because there are only two weeks left until Thanksgiving break and next week is Veteran's day, which means no school. After Thanksgiving break there's one week until the Finals and then there's winter break already, so I'm almost done with the first half, omg can't believe it..
Today I joined the Prom organization club, I'm seriously so excited!

<3

update #9 - Las Vegas

days count: 102
The past weekend, I went to Las Vegas with my friend Selina & her host parents. Selina lives near Sacramento, in northern California. They picked me up on Thursday after school and it took us about 4 hours from my house to the strip in Vegas.

I think the past 4 days were probably the highlight of my exchange year so far, because Vegas is just an amazing city. People thought Selina & I were sisters and that was kinda funny. 
 
We lived in the house of her host dad's cousin, and it was huuuuuuge. 
We had our own room and shower and stuff and we had so much fun. On friday, we just looked at the different hotels (like Venice, Paris, New York, Rome, Stratosphere,…) so we could see the casino's, and in the evening at about 9 PM, Selina's host dad took us on the top of the Stratosphere tower, because there are roller coasters.
But before we went up there, they took us to the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.
 
The roller coasters up there were amazing

the free fall tower

the stratosphere tower

On Saturday we went shopping at the Rome mall, but before we got there we had lunch at the hard rock cafe in the New york part of the strip. We were by ourselves and it was kinda scary because there are weird people in Vegas.

 

Both of us bought so much stuff, like sweaters and jackets and stuff for the winter. The days went by really fast and I was really sad when we left. I had an amazing time and Vegas became my favorite city on earth so far. 

I'm so proud to call this girl one of my best friends

update #8 - Mount Sac

Days count: 94

Last sunday I started collecting leaves for my leaf project in biology with another foreign exchange student from Denmark. We just walked up the street in which her host family lives and everyone is in Halloween mood and I think that's amazing. People decorate their houses in the craziest ways.
Actually not much happened in this week either, but we had two important cross country meets. 
The first one was the first league final day at Independence high school in Bakersfield on Wednesday and the other one was the National competition in Los Angeles on friday. 

Mount Sac XC invite from 2015

This is the biggest XC meet in the United States of America and in the world. It is called Mount Sac and it is at a College in Los Angeles county. All the grades got separated but there were still about 200 people in one race. The course was 2.9 miles (=4.6km) long, which is pretty much. The weather was really hot, when we were running it was about 30 degrees celcius and the course had many mountains, so it was hard. 

This is the course we had to run

On Thursday I went to the movies with my host parents and my two host brothers. We watched 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. 

Today, my host parents are going to take us to an "Oktoberfest."

There are 5 more days until I'll go on the trip to Vegas and I'm so excited.

JV girls

update #7 - first quarter

Days count: 85

I'm sorry for not posting since like two weeks, but nothing's actually happening…
We got a kitten, her name is Rey and she's literally crazy. She's running around and she's loud and sometimes she's annoying but cute tho, she's sleeping on my chest and stuff. I love her, even though I hate cats. The grandparents of my host siblings got puppies, they're almost as cute as our kitten.
On the weekends we're just hanging around and watching scary movies and stuff and during the week we're obviously going to school, doing homework and studying for tests, tomorrow the first quarter is already done. 

Yesterday after practice we went to Jack in the box and Sonic's after school, we got food and drinks and after that we went "off road"because she has a truck, means we went over a dirt road, like there were holes in the floor and stuff and it was pretty scary, but fun tho.
It's getting pretty chilly here, every morning is colder than the last one and the nights are freezing. Still feeling like I'm not making any progress in my English skills *sad face*.

Okay now everyone who's trying to text me on WhatsApp, listen up:
my phone basically hates me, I can't update anything in my AppStore, that means my WhatsApp doesn't work. Everyone who has an iPhone can text me on iMessage (Messenger) for free, like you don't have to pay anything if its not an SMS, my Facebook Messenger, my Instagram, Skype or Snapchat. 
I'm really sorry, it's not working since like almost two weeks, so I'm not trying to ignore anyone or something like that, it just doesn't work, I can not get into the App. I'm trying really hard to work on it, lol I just suck haha.

The Homecoming dance was so much fun btw.


Okay I have no idea what to write because there's nothing special happening, sorry for this lame update…
I hope you guys are doing good over there, can't wait to see you again

update #6 Homecoming week

Today is my 70th day in the United states & I've been in Tehachapi for exactly 2 months. 

Last weekend I've been to a surf camp, all the exchange students from Bakersfield, Lancaster and Tehachapi could sign up for. On friday afternoon, after we got out of school, an IEC (=International Exchange Coordinator) who lives actually in Bakersfield picked us up and we spend the night at her families house because we were supposed to get up really early on the next morning when they took us to Avila Beach, CA. But on friday night we went to the big Kern County fair (kinda like Basler Herbstmäss haha) and we went on some rides and ate Churros and pizza.
On  Saturday morning, we had a 3 hour drive to the beach and this place was exactly how I expected California. Surfing is awesome. I could do it forever instead of school. Actually it's kinda hard in the beginning but it's so much fun. We saw some seals and the waves were huge. 

the kern county fair

On monday our homecoming week started. Homecoming is kinda like to welcome back the students at school, so they dress up every day ( Monday: Movie-and-chill day, Tuesday: Angels vs. Demons, Wednesday: Mathletes vs. Athletes, Thursday: Freshmen; Avengers, Sophomores; The Hunger Games, Juniors; Jurassic Park, Seniors; Harry Potter, Friday: Warrior Pride day). On friday morning there is a big parade with cars and they decorated them with the different themes that we had on thursday, so there was an Avengers car, a Hunger Games car, a Jurassic Park Jeep and a Harry Potter car.

On friday night there was a big Football Home game. Basically no one was watching the game, everyone was just hanging out with friends and talking and stuff. They figured out who homecoming king and queen is, they played music and the cheerleaders made their stunts. No one cares about the game and no one knows the rules of football, the people just cheer all the time, but the Tehachapi Warriors actually won 28 : 00 against Bakersfield North. Tomorrow is the homecoming dance and I'm so excited for it.

the jurassic park truck at the parade

update #5 - cross country meet

Days count: 60

On saturday the 10th of september, I had my first cross country meet at Independence high in Bakersfield. People from all over Kern County came to this competition. Cross country is basically "just" running (Obviously also up hill and stuff), but like for certain miles.  (1 mile = 1,6 km) Some people do 8 miles, others like me do about 2. The goal of cross country is to beat the other people in your race. There are about 30 till 70 people in one race. We have about 2 till 4 meets in one week.
My second one was at Hart park, also in Bakersfield. Our whole team messed up at that one because we were not really prepared and some people who usually run JV (junior varsity) had to run varsity and that's a longer run. I was one of the unlucky ones and I really messed up to be honest.
After our competitions we always go to in n out burgers.

Homecoming is next week and we dress up from monday due friday. I'm so excited for the first football home game and the dance. Yesterday I got my dress and today I asked one of my friends to be my date.

homecoming proposal

My homecoming dress

update #4 - Los Angeles

Days count: 46

On Thursday, September 1st was my 16. birthday & it was awesome. My host family took me & another exchange student from Switzerland to a restaurant & we had so much fun. On Friday night some of our friends came over & we ate pizza & watched movies outside. I got so many presents from my host grand parents & friends & my host parents & everyone, it was incredible.


On Saturday morning we headed out to Los Angeles to watch the soccer game LA galaxy against Columbus SC (Ohio). We won the game  2-1.

My host sister and I on our way to LA

We spended the night in an amazing hotel with whirlpool and stuff. 

On Sunday morning we went to the Universal studios. I was literally in hogwarts.  It was awesome. 

Hogwarts

We had butter beer and my host brother got the magic wand of Voldemort and the rides were amazing. We were like flying through Hogsmeade and Hogwarts and over the Quidditch field and everything & it was so much fun.  There were also other rides and a tour where they showed us their studios where they're actually filming the voice and stuff like that.  After the park we went to Hollywood City walk and had Mac and cheese for dinner. We spend the night in the Hilton universal.

I love my host siblings

Today we went to Hollywood, like the walk of fame and stuff like that. 

I freaked out when I saw this tbh

Seriousely, they have stars for everything. Winnie the Pooh, snow white, Victoria Secret Angels, Christina Aguilera etc. After that we went to different museums. 

Tomorrow I have school again, I still feel like my English is the worst but its okay. Most of the time I hang out with other exchange students, but I start making friends. People keep asking me dumb questions like: "Do you guys have cars in Sweden?" or "Do people in Sweden get sick?" Never mind, I love Americans. Cross country is getting pretty hard, we run about 2-4 miles ( 1 mile is about 1.6 km) when its like 35 degrees outside, but at least I get tanned. 
Homecoming is in 3 weeks and I'm so excited!!! And seriously I'm so happy to be here, my host family is amazing.