Aufbruchsstimmung!

Aufbruchsstimmung (:

Hello everyone (:

 

I need to tell you about the last week of school up to today, and I didn’t do that yet, because my internet connection as well as my adapter was lost or not available at times. So here it comes.

Monday, last week of school

Such a weird feeling to have started the last week of school, but due to lots of finals I barely studied for on the weekend all the hype around it being the last school week EVER in America kind of vanished or were not recognized. Monday I had my English final in the afternoon which was the final I was most afraid of. Mrs. Rau, my English teacher expects us to be perfect, even the exchange students. Okay, so the day was fairly normal. Our English final was in the afternoon though. Lou had hers at 5 and I had mine at 5:30 which is super late considering school end at 2:30pm. So after school we had some time to spare. We cleaned my locker, which was kind of fun and then tried if we could fit in it :D we can by the way. It was hard for me to get out again though: D which was really scary. After that we went outside and studied a bit for our test. In the test we had to talk about one poem out of 20 poems we talked about in class, which we had to draw randomly from several binders laid out on the table. We had to prepare for 20 minutes one poem and had to talk freely for 8 minutes straight in the actual room with Mrs. Rau and then after 8 minutes she told us which of the books, either Hamlet or Room Of One’s Own, we had to talk about with her for like 10 minutes. She asked us questions. Oh by the way, she recorded everything to send it to IB which was super scary. After the questions we were free to leave and Mrs. Rau told us both that we did an excellent job and that she would trade every American student for an Exchange Student any time. So, yay, Exchange students. Lou and I waited outside for her host mum to pick us up. It was super windy but super warm which felt amazingly good after the nervousness in the testing room with Mrs. Rau. Then I guy from my organization called me which was amazing, he is the guy who is one step over my coordinator and it was really nice to talk to him about everything that’s going on and he was very understanding and really tried to help me. Afterwards Lou and I got picked up and we went to her host family which is amazing! I really like them. Sophie, their daughter is about my age and is super sweet and amazing. That night I slept at Lou’s house and it wasn’t too much fun, because I had a Spanish final the next day and I hadn’t done anything yet. My Spanish final was a 6 to 8 minute speech about a topic of our choice. The speech has to be remembered by heart and we can only have a PowerPoint and a flashcard with 19 words. So I studied basically all night and still didn’t finish. The next morning I had to get up and do my presentation which was awful. I just did my presentation on Germany cause I thought they don’t know too much about Germany so they wouldn’t know if I say stuff that doesn’t make any sense.

Tuesday.

So the first two periods, TOK and Algebra flew by and then I had to get up in front of the whole Spanish class and present my 6 to 8 minute speech that I had just learned in a few minutes. I felt like it was awful but it went okay, from what my friends and my Spanish teacher told me. I should be more confident in my “Spanish skills” hahha I love Spanish but I am horrible at it! Seriously! When I talk to Alicia in Spanish she is always surprised on how well I talk but I feel like I am talking like Borat in that movie, like someone who has no clue about the language they are trying to talk in.. that’s how I feel and I never had that in either English or French.. well maybe in French a bit but I can’t remember having it in English. So it feels weird now. Okay, back to Spanish. In the end I got an A- in Spanish I think, pretty sure. So the two biggest tests off my shoulders.

 

Wednesday.

Tuesday and Wednesday I also wrote all my other exams, including Algebra which was a nightmare. I had no clue and the only thing that could safe me were the 4 pages of notes that we were allowed to have during the test (: we even got extra credit for them, isn’t that weird? They should give us extra credit if we don’t need any notes, not if we need notes. But whatever, American school system! So all my tests were done after school on Wednesday (: except I had to finish Algebra the next day, because I didn’t have enough time.

On Wednesday Kendall had her 8^th grade graduation from Middle School which is not too big of a deal but I thought it was super exciting. Since Ken was out of town as always, and Cheryl wasn’t feeling good, as almost always, Haley had to drive her. Since I was super excited I wanted to go too! So it was only the three of us. The graduation itself was pretty boring. When we came it was just all of the 8^th graders and their parents sitting in the gym on plastic chairs. Than doctor Rogien, our principal said a few boring words, we watched a slide-show off all the 8^th graders as babies and how they look now and then all the students came up one after one and got their diploma and sat down again. That was basically it. Then there were refreshments.. overall a big let-down. But whatever (: Kendall seemed to have fun with her friends. Afterwards I talked Haley into stopping at Aspen Leaf so we could get frozen Yoghurt and she did. Kendall and I went inside and had amazing frozen Yoghurt while Haley said she needed something from Albertsons just so she didn’t have to come with us which I thought was pretty rude. On the way back there was drama because Kendall wanted water and Haley didn’t stop for her to get some. Which I thought was pretty ridiculous considering it would have only taken us 5 minutes to the hotel where we had enough water for everyone but no, we had to make a big deal out of it. Whatever. I found some water in the back and the mood got better again. I thought it was weird how no one really seemed to care about Kendall’s graduation. No one took the time to go and the people that went didn’t seem too excited about it. Sad actually. Whatever at least I went, I hope she appreciated it.

 

Thursday.

I don’t remember a lot about Thursday, just basically that I finished school, all my grades were entered and everything was done. First realized it’s going home REALLY soon! Nothing really happened I think but again I might be wrong since that was like a week ago.

 

Friday.

Okay, so Friday was my last day ever at North Star Charter School. Was pretty much a tour on a carousel of sadness and happiness swirled together. On one hand it’s amazing to be out of school, summer break, traveling back to Europe! Having some last summer nights with friends, getting to pack my things and be excited for those warm summer nights in Germany with THOSE friends, getting to unpack all those memories and having my family back on my side. On the other hand my heart is aching with pain and sorrow of saying goodbye to those I got to know, appreciate and love over the last month. The people that exactly know how this feels, the people that I have memories with for a lifetime, the people I shared so much with the last few months and that I will miss more than they will ever know, the pain of saying goodbye to this other world that somehow coexists and that we struggle not to ever loose. And all of this in this tiny person! (: hahah It is weird, Let me tell you!

So we had the first two hours apparently “class” but since our teacher decided to take a trip to the Caribbean’s, we were kind of on our own and took some pictures, talked to friends and tried to suck in every moment. Afterwards we were divided into “cleaning groups”. Some had picking up gum, which was disgusting, others had to clean locker rooms full of dirty socks which was also disgusting. I was assigned on the Barbeque committee, which got cancelled because our supervisor as already mentioned flew into the Caribbean’s (: teachers decided that we could not be trusted with grilling everyone’s burgers so we got to have free time (: yay. We went inside and watched the most stupid movie I have ever seen in my whole entire life for a few minutes (: than we exchange students got super annoyed and went outside where we got our yearbooks. Yearbooks are not only a big deal in movies, let me tell you, yearbooks are amazing. Everyone writes cute things in it and especially as an exchange student this is awesome (: all the people you will miss will have a little piece in this book and as you go through it later you will always remember them (: Kind of cute. So there were about 3 hours of signing yearbooks, eating some food, crying, dancing. All that under the hot Idahoan sun, and some music, next to the grills with both the high school and the middle school outside (: It was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. After signing yearbooks and getting my yearbook signed we were all pretty sad.. and of course.. everyone who knows me knows that I am a super big baby and cry all the time (: I was crying especially hard when first Jonas and then Jesper both had to leave. They are both pretty amazing guys and let’s face it they are Scandinavian! It can’t get much better! Hahhah no I really, really like them, they are great guys and letting them go for a pretty uncertain amount of time is super scary. I hate goodbyes and those were some pretty huge ones. Not only the two guys but all the American people from my school I will probably never see again, the school itself, just the feeling of coming back tomorrow and it all being the same.. all that changed and since I like to cry, I just let it all out. It was pretty hard, and I think I made some other people cry too and I feel horrible but overall looking back, if I wouldn’t have cried it wouldn’t have been real to me. I would still think that there is a way back to that school life we had, and there just isn’t. It’s over.              And the tears are back, great.

After an emotional goodbye, Lou, Alicia, Ida and I took the bus to the mall and let our sorrow out in cinnamon rolls, clothes that don’t fit in any suitcases anymore and we just sat and talked in the food court forever. Overall it was a pretty nice time at the mall and definitely calmed me down. I will miss those times when we make everyone stare because we are laughing so loud, we color stuff with nail polish out of boredom, you guys make me spend way too much money by going into stores I should stay away from, we try on silly hats, Ida makes fun of my taste and I make fun of hers, we sit and talk about guys, we make travel plans for the future, we get excited for home, we bawl our eyes out seeing how little time is left and way more.

Saturday.

On Saturday, Laura picked me up and we drove to Ida’s house around 1pm. When we were there we walked to Subway with Ida and met Alicia (: it was super fun. The creepy subway guy that asked me out on a date to the zoo a few weeks back was there again. Okay, he wasn’t there when I got my sandwich but the casher told me, that he I talking about me all the time. Slightly creeped out! After a while of chewing on ice, which astoundingly was super fun, sharing funny stories, speaking Spanish, and laughing about Ida’s poor grammar Jesper and Greg suddenly showed up and sat with us for a while which was super sweet of them (: After like half an hour-ish the guys wanted to leave and another goodbye.. gosh they don’t seem to end anytime soon. Sigh. Tears, tears, tears, we know the story by now. (: When we were back at Ida’s we went straight to Yuxin’s house because it was one of her last days and her host family wanted to throw a surprise party for her. It was super fun! There was lots of pizza, ice cream. We had a fire outside, there was a freaking tiny, adorable, teddy-bear dog with a tiny shirt!!! And we had cupcakes, a trampoline, swings, friends, horseshoe-throwing, an international soccer smash-down, two little girls both named Grace, needless to say, we had an amazing time.
First I played dead-men with the kids on the trampoline, than we had loots of pizza, than bout an hour of watching the world’s cutest puppy in a shirt, than eating strawberry-short-cake, going into Grace’s fort!! Which was super cute, out of blankets and everything, having an epic food fight, playing volleyball, horseshoe-throwing, making a bomb out of ice and water which was super amazing fun for us all, saying goodbye to Yuxin and Lou :( walking home in the dark and running through thousands of sprinklers with Ida, all in all a pretty damn amazing day!

Haley and I slept at the house even though we aren’t supposed to because it is really close by and we didn’t really want to drive home.

 

Sunday.

The next day, we picked up Yuxin and went to the house where Haley and Yuxin went swimming and afterwards we all went to the Cheesecake-factory! So good! I loved it there! The cheesecake is amazing! I had one with fresh bananas and I looooved it! Then we went to the house and I started packing.. not too much fun. So much crap! I threw away a lot.. it’s not too easy, in Germany I could leave stuff behind cause I knew I was coming back, but here? I need to take everything I want!
We said goodbye to Yuxin cause she was flying the next morning and then went back to the hotel. Ken took me out for dinner, which was only slightly awkward to Baja Fresh cause that is his favorite fast food. Afterwards we went to the hotel and the mood was pretty bad, since Ken and Haley were going to leave in a day.

 

Monday.

So Monday morning I was supposed to take the bus from the mall to downtown with a few friends but I overslept (: So I got up later and got ready and took the next bus. Which took forever. It went in all crazy directions and stopped every minute. It was pretty annoying and I was super freaked out because I had never taken that bus but only ones that actually took me on the fastest route to downtown Boise. So after a good hour I was downtown to see the others which were Laura, Ida and Alicia, who were in not such a fantastic mood. One of the girls was a bit cranky so we tried to turn it around and failed. Lots of pictures were taken and that even though I had no time to shower in the morning. Gross.  Whatever. After a few hours we said goodbye to Laura and took the bus to Idas house to go to Brit’s pool party. That was super fun. We ate lots of watermelon and went into her super cold pool because we were melting it was so hot outside. Than another goodbye. Of course. And Alicia and I went to my house so my host parents could take us home.

 

Tuesday.

It was actually in the middle of the night at like 3 when I got woken up, because Haley and Ken got ready to run to the airport to go to my home, Europe (: 10 days on the coast of Italy, France and Spain should bring even them a nice tan! I am so jealous! I wish I could have come with them they are going to have a blast. I mean how could you not? Milan, some other Italian city, than Fraaaance and then Barcelona and Madrid! Hope they are having an amazing time even though they are going to have a major jet leg (:
The rest of the day I just kind of watched TV, lay around and went to target with Kendall. Got an ICEE! And lots of ice cream. Yum

Today.

Nothing happened. We had pizza for dinner. Lou wrote to my from the Denver Airport :( and jesper from Newark :( going to miss them. ouh and Jonas from home, Norway, which was amazing. He sounded so happy!

Miss them all already!

Kisses, Paula

 

and yes, this took forever to write, and no, no I couldn't have it written in German. 
Ignorant people!